BBC NEWS: July 2020

Friday 31 July 2020

Harris talks ambition in women of color after personal attacks during Biden's VP search - CNN

Harris talks ambition in women of color after personal attacks during Biden's VP search CNN
New poll: Majority of Democrats want Biden to pick a Black woman for vice president AOL
Deleted Biden video sets off a crisis at Voice of America POLITICO
Joe Biden’s ‘simpatico’ trap The Washington Post
Joe Biden should pick Karen Bass, not Kamala Harris, as VP Sacramento Bee
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Trump campaign temporarily pauses ad spending to review its messaging - The Washington Post

Trump campaign temporarily pauses ad spending to review its messaging The Washington Post
Fox's Perino says Biden won't pick Susan Rice because of fire from right | TheHill The Hill
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Wisconsin Republicans 'stand ready' to kill mask requirement - ABC News

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Week in pictures: 25 July-31 July 2020

A selection of powerful news photographs taken around the world this week.

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Why a new generation of Thais are protesting against the government

A new political divide in Thailand has emerged between the country's youth and its older generation.

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US election 2020: The war hero who could be Biden's running mate

Senator Tammy Duckworth is an Iraq war veteran and the first Thai-American woman elected to Congress.

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India coronavirus: Gold rush as pandemic roils country's economy

As Covid-19 worsens the economic slump, Indians are returning to a trusted asset: gold.

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Phyllis Omido: The woman who won $12m fighting lead battery poisoners

Kenyan activist Phyllis Omido has been ignored, harassed and arrested, but she never gave up.

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Belarus: The mother challenging an authoritarian president

Political novice Svetlana Tikhanovskaya rallies protesters in a battle with Alexander Lukashenko.

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Biden's running mate announcement pushed back, likely will not come next week

Former Vice President Biden previously said he would announce his running mate the first week of August. It looks like that date may be pushed back.

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Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos had to be told to unmute his microphone to answer a question during the big tech antitrust hearing

"Mr. Bezos, I believe you're on mute," one lawmaker told Bezos as the pandemic forced all four CEOs to dial into the inquiry virtually.

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EU sanctions Russian intelligence, North Korean and Chinese firms over alleged cyberattacks

The European Union on Thursday imposed travel and financial sanctions on a department of Russia’s military intelligence service and on firms from North Korea and China over their suspected participation in major cyberattacks across the world. In its first ever sanctions related to cybercrime, the EU targeted the department for special technologies of the Russian military intelligence service, known as Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, it said in a statement. The bloc accused the Russian service of having carried out two cyberattacks in June 2017, which hit several companies in Europe resulting in large financial losses. The service is also accused of two cyberattacks against Ukraine’s power grid in 2015 and 2016. Four individuals working for the Russian military intelligence service were also sanctioned for allegedly participating in an attempted cyberattack against the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in the Netherlands in April 2018. North Korean company Chosun Expo was also sanctioned on suspicion of having supported the Lazarus Group, which is deemed responsible for a series of major attacks worldwide, including an $81 million (£61.74 million) heist against Bangladesh Bank’s account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in 2016, the world’s biggest cyber fraud. The company is also allegedly linked to an attack against Hollywood film studio Sony Pictures to prevent the release of a satirical movie about North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in 2014. The U.S. Treasury last year imposed sanctions on the Lazarus Group and two other North Korean hacking groups for their alleged participation in the attacks on Sony Pictures and the central bank of Bangladesh, among others. It said North Korea’s main intelligence service was behind the hacking groups. North Korea has denied any involvement in cyberattacks. The EU sanctions also hit Chinese firm Haitai Technology Development, which is accused of having supported cyberattacks - known as Operation Cloud Hopper - aimed at stealing commercially sensitive data from multinationals across the world. Two Chinese individuals allegedly involved in the attacks were also sanctioned. Sanctions include travel bans and asset freezes. EU individuals, companies and other entities are forbidden from making funds available to those blacklisted. China’s diplomatic mission to the European Union said in a statement early on Friday that China “is a staunch defender of network security and one of the biggest victims of hacker attacks.” China wants global cyberspace security to be maintained through “dialogue and cooperation” and not by unilateral sanctions, the statement added.

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Trump floats delaying the election, but he can't do that

While states have the authority to delay their primary elections, only Congress can change the date of the presidential election.

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NYPD Perfected Chilling Arrests Way Before Feds in Portland

It looked like one of the videos circulating from Portland, Oregon: Police officers surrounded a young woman and dragged her, kicking, into an unmarked van. But the footage, captured on Tuesday, wasn’t the feds. It was the New York City Police Department.Nikki Stone, an 18-year-old activist, was a well-known figure at recent racial justice protests, and at Occupy City Hall, a since-disbanded local protest camp geared at cutting police funding. A homeless transgender woman, she previously told Gothamist that the protest encampment was one of the first places she felt safe from police. That ended when plainclothes police pulled Stone into an unmarked vehicle. Her arrest wasn’t part of a federal insurgency but routine practice by NYPD, especially when used against the homeless and people of color, critics say. But now it was turned against an activist during protests specifically targeted at racism and police brutality.‘It’s Spooky Right Now’: Inside the Creepy Federal Crackdown on Portland Protesters“This is standard operating procedure for the warrant squad, as far as I know,” Eugene O’Donnell, a former NYPD officer, Brooklyn prosecutor, and current professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, told The Daily Beast. He was referring to an NYPD division that seeks people with open warrants. “They would seek to make an arrest as quickly and as unobtrusively as possible. Therefore they use unmarked vehicles routinely.”The NYPD, which did not return a request for comment on Wednesday, announced that Stone had been arrested on charges of criminal mischief and vandalism. Specifically, she was accused of spray-painting graffiti and painting on four police cameras around the site of the former Occupy City Hall protest encampment. The department confirmed that the warrant squad was behind the arrest.Jennvine Wong, a staff attorney at the Legal Aid Society’s Cop Accountability Project, said the aggressive arrest seemed out of step with the allegations against Stone.“It seems to me that they should be prioritizing more serious cases than criminal mischief and graffiti,” she told The Daily Beast.That said, arrests by plainclothes officers in unmarked cars—no matter their unit—are a fairly well-known phenomenon in New York City’s public defender circles, she said. “We have all had clients who had that experience,” Wong said. “It is something that is a well-known part of our practice. It may not happen every other day or every other week, but it is common enough to practitioners in the public defense world that they are familiar with these tactics. They know it happens and they have had more than one client it’s happened to.”Footage of Stone’s aggressive arrest drew national attention for its similarities to arrests by federal agents in Portland, who stormed the city in an initiative cheered by President Donald Trump. Those agents have led a weeks-long campaign against local unrest, arresting some demonstrators in unmarked vans and widely deploying less-lethal weapons against the crowds. Trump recently announced the deployment of federal agents to more cities, but State Senator Zellnor Myrie, who represents parts of Brooklyn, said his constituents were used to such incidents.“The video is incredibly disturbing and understandably inflames passions for those of us who want to see public safety done in a way that is compassionate,” Myrie told The Daily Beast. “But this is not uncommon. What happened was unfortunate and tragic, and because it was captured on video, more people will be able to witness it, but in Black and brown communities, this is the type of treatment that we have been crying out about for decades. This is the type of treatment, the rough handling, the lack of notice, the disrespect, the use of force, all these things have plagued the communities I represent.”Homeless people have also long been subject to arrest in unmarked NYPD vans, as Vice reported in 2015. A homeless man told the outlet NYPD sometimes entered homeless shelters late at night, seeking people with open warrants, and packed them into waiting vans with little notice. "You’re asking, ‘What’s going on?’ Then they crush you into the vans like sardines. And it’s a freezer in there,” he said.Myrie noted that marginalized communities also face raids from federal forces like immigration agencies—some of which were deployed against protesters in Portland. Brooklyn’s Sunset Park neighborhood, which he represents, has seen Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids on restaurants accused of hiring undocumented people. In nearby Gravesend, Brooklyn, plainclothes ICE agents shot a 26-year-old man in the face while attempting to arrest his mother’s boyfriend in February.Arrests like Stone’s are “not new. There are a lot of open questions about the warrant squad’s practices,” Myrie said, noting that NYPD claims it uses unmarked vans for safety reasons.In a crowd of protesters who already distrust police, however, the arrest could have an additional chilling effect, compelling activists to be even more on the lookout for law enforcement. Myrie noted a recent history of NYPD crackdowns at protests, where officers have deployed pepper spray, cuffed journalists, and driven SUVs into crowds. “You can’t expect the public to give you the benefit of the doubt when we see the type of aggressive environment and behavior that we believe is unwarranted,” he said.The specter of arrest in an unmarked van only makes matters worse.In a moment when “this president has sent unmarked vehicles and unidentified law enforcement officials into people’s protests, this warrants a very serious investigation and discussion,” Myrie said.Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

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Are Pap smears 'obsolete'? There's a better option for cervical cancer screening, American Cancer Society says

The American Cancer Society released new guidelines on cervical cancer screenings Thursday, recommending that people with a cervix start testing at age 25.

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A key federal appeals court will reexamine case on Michael Flynn's guilty plea

The full panel of judges' decision to review Flynn's case could result in a reversal of a three-judge panel's decision to dismiss the case last month.

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Israel says it arrested Hamas militant who fled strip by sea

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Venezuela supreme court approves extradition request to Italy for ex-oil czar

Venezuela's supreme court said on Friday it had approved a request to Italy for the extradition of Rafael Ramirez, a once powerful oil minister and former head of state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela, on corruption charges. Authorities opened a probe into Ramirez over alleged graft in late 2017 and sought an Interpol red alert for him in early 2018, shortly after he left his later post as Venezuela's United Nations ambassador and began publicly criticizing President Nicolas Maduro's handling of the economy, which remains in freefall.

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Portland protests: Trump's homeland security chief says federal police will stay – for now

Federal police forces will remain in Portland until Trump administration officials determine the Oregon governor, a Democrat, has a plan that is working to quell protests and violence there, says Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf."Law enforcement officers that have been there over the past 60 days will remain there in Portland until we are assured that the plan that has been put in place by the governor and Oregon State Police will be effective night after night," Mr Wolf told Fox News on Friday morning.

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DC releases police footage from 2018 deaths of 3 Black men

Under pressure from the D.C. Council, Washington's Metropolitan Police Department on Friday released long-sought body camera and security footage from the 2018 deaths of three young Black men in 2018. The release was compelled by an emergency police reform bill that Mayor Muriel Bowser criticized as rushed. “The council has determined that this is the statute, that’s the law of the land and we’re going to abide by it,” said MPD Chief Peter Newsham.

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Top Trump immigration enforcer announces retirement as election nears

U.S. President Donald Trump's top immigration enforcement official on Friday announced he will retire from the agency, a staffing shakeup in a key policy area for Trump as he faces re-election in November. Matthew Albence, acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), said in a statement that his plan to retire had been prolonged by the coronavirus pandemic. The pandemic has created challenges for ICE operations both in the field and in immigration detention centers, where nearly 4,000 immigrants have tested positive for the disease.

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New top story on Hacker News: Jared Kushner’s Testing Plan “Went Poof into Thin Air”

Jared Kushner’s Testing Plan “Went Poof into Thin Air”
8 by jmount | 1 comments on Hacker News.

New top story on Hacker News: WordSafety: Check a name for unwanted meanings in foreign languages

WordSafety: Check a name for unwanted meanings in foreign languages
5 by cel1ne | 0 comments on Hacker News.

Thursday 30 July 2020

McConnell Calls for Stimulus Compromise, Doubles Down on Liability Red Line - Newsweek

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After Floyd's killing, law enforcement wages PR battle on social media - NBC News

After Floyd's killing, law enforcement wages PR battle on social media NBC News

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Trump pushes to reopen schools, says closures will probably cause 'more death' - CNBC

Trump pushes to reopen schools, says closures will probably cause 'more death' CNBCView Full Coverage on Google News

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What you need to know about eye protection and COVID-19 - ABC News

What you need to know about eye protection and COVID-19 ABC News
Fauci suggests goggles, eye shield for better protection against coronavirus Fox News
Anthony Fauci said eye coverings might eventually be recommended in US - Business Insider Business Insider
Fauci urges Americans to wear goggles for added COVID-19 protection New York Post
Fauci says eye protection can help prevent spread of coronavirus | TheHill The Hill
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Covid-19: Why Hong Kong's 'third wave' is a warning

Until recently, the city was seen as a poster child in its handling of the pandemic. What went wrong?

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What exactly is a 'Karen' and where did the meme come from?

To many the Karen meme - and its male equivalent Ken - sums up a specific type of white privilege.

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The 'real' threat to Russia’s former doping mastermind

The ex-mastermind of Russian sports doping, Grigory Rodchenkov, now only appears in disguise. Matt Majendie explains why.

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Bollywood's 'warts and all' biopic on 'human computer'

Bollywood actress Vidya Balan plays Shakuntala Devi who dazzled the world with her skill with numbers.

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The middle-css Pakistani students fighting for a homeland dream

Shahdad Mumtaz died for his beliefs. Could a missing student end up waging war on the Pakistani state?

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NBA Players, Coaches and Referees Kneel in Solidarity as Unprecedented Bubble Season Begins

(LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla.) — Players and coaches from the New Orleans Pelicans and Utah Jazz knelt alongside one another before the first game of the NBA restart on Thursday night, an unprecedented image for the league in unprecedented times.

The coaches — New Orleans’ Alvin Gentry and Utah’s Quin Snyder — were next to one another, their arms locked together. Some players raised a fist as the final notes of “The Star-Spangled Banner” were played, the first of what is expected to be many silent statements calling for racial justice and equality following the deaths of, among others, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd in recent months.

Even the game referees took a knee during the pregame scene, which occurred with the teams lined up along the sideline nearest where “Black Lives Matter” was painted onto the court. The Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Clippers were expected to also take some sort of action before the second game of the re-opening night doubleheader later Thursday.

“It’s so important at this point for us to be unified and be able to peacefully protest many of the critical things that are going on in the country right now,” Snyder said.

The NBA has a rule going back to the early 1980s that players must stand for the national anthem. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, anticipating that players would kneel during these games at Walt Disney World, has made clear that he supports peaceful protests.

Many players warmed up wearing shirts that said “Black Lives Matter.” Thursday also marked the debut of new jerseys bearing messages that many players chose to have added, such as “Equality” and “Peace.”

The NBA season was suspended when Rudy Gobert of the Jazz tested positive for the coronavirus and became the first player in the league with such a diagnosis. Gobert was diagnosed on March 11; two days later, Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman, was fatally shot when police officers burst into her Louisville, Kentucky apartment using a no-knock warrant during a narcotics investigation. The warrant was in connection with a suspect who did not live there and no drugs were found.

Then on May 25, Floyd died after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed a knee into the Black man’s neck for nearly eight minutes. That happened on a street, with the images — and sounds of the man saying he couldn’t breathe, then crying out for his mother — all captured on a cell phone video.

NBA players have used their platforms — both in the bubble and on social media — to demand equality, to demand justice for Taylor. Coaches have also said it is incumbent on them to demand change and educate themselves and others. And the pregame actions by the Jazz and the Pelicans were just the start of what is expected to be a constant during the remainder of this season.

“It’s taken a very long time to get this momentum going,” San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich said in a video that aired pregame, a project organized by both the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association. “And it cannot be lost.”

Gentry said he appreciated the accidental symmetry that came from the first games of the restarted season coming only hours after the funeral for U.S. Rep. John Lewis, who died July 17 at the age of 80.

Lewis spent most of his life championing civil rights and equality and was the youngest speaker at the 1963 March on Washington — the one where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech. Gentry said he believes this movement, like the one Lewis helped spark six decades ago, will endure.

“If you talk to some of the younger generation, I think this is here to stay. I really do,” Gentry said. “I have a 20-year-old son and a 22-year-old son, and I know that they feel like this is the most opportune time for us to try to have change in this country.”

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Ellen DeGeneres Apologizes to Staff Members as WarnerMedia Investigates Show

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Iran says fires missiles from underground in Gulf war games

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they launched ballistic missiles from "the depths of the Earth" on Wednesday during the last day of military exercises near sensitive Gulf waters. The launches came a day after the Guards struck a mock-up of a US aircraft carrier with volleys of missiles near the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping lane for a fifth of world oil output. The Iranian manoeuvres were staged amid heightened tensions between Iran and its decades-old arch enemy the United States.

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Minnesota police make arrest in 34-year cold case using DNA, genetic testing

“My mom loved to help people,” her daughter Gina Haggard wrote in a statement read by police.

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Rudy Giuliani interviewed Dr. Stella Immanuel — doctor who previously preached about alien DNA — on his radio show calling her his 'hero'

Giuliani also said he's gotten the medication for four of his friends because "it's hard to get hydroxychloroquine."

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What Pullout? Feds Gas Moms in Fresh Portland Crackdown

PORTLAND—With roughly two-dozen federal officers in riot gear marching towards her, Demetria Hester linked arms with two other mothers in yellow shirts. “Hands up!” she chanted. “Don’t shoot!” responded the crowd, warily watching a line of federal agents coming towards them from behind a cloud of tear gas and smoke from munition fire. Though the number of protesters in downtown Portland had dwindled to about 100 shortly after midnight Thursday, the number of federal agents out on the streets was larger than ever. Hours after Oregon Governor Kate Brown announced the gradual removal of federal law enforcement officers from Portland, more than 200 of those officers were clashing with protesters outside the federal courthouse, using tear gas to clear the surrounding streets.Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf and President Donald Trump had disputed the governor’s announcement, the former tweeting that federal officers would “remain in Portland until the violent activity toward our federal facilities ends.” And if the scene in Portland early Thursday morning was any indication, the unrest there isn’t close to finished.The line of federal agents, holding shields and riot shotguns, shoved a wall of protesters back from the front of the courthouse. Then came the tear gas, lobbed into the crowd by U.S. Marshals and officers with the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol. ‘It’s Spooky Right Now’: Inside the Creepy Federal Crackdown on Portland ProtestersProtesters frantically dodged the flying thick metal canisters and backed away from the rising smoke. With her hands still in the air, Hester pulled down a respirator mask over her mouth. “Hands up!” she kept chanting through her mask, and then slid on a pair of goggles. “Don’t shoot!” came the crowd’s reply, muffled by the sting of tear gas and the sound of jostled bodies. After tackling and arresting a protester, federal officers continued throwing tear gas into the crowd to clear the area. Her bloodshot eyes tearing up, Hester backed away from the heavy volley of teargas and munitions, coughing into her respirator. “We weren’t doing anything wrong,” she told The Daily Beast between coughs. “We were just peacefully protesting.” Indeed, before officers closed in, Hester and the other demonstrators standing in front of the courthouse had been peacefully chanting. “George Floyd.” “Breonna Taylor.” “Black Lives Matter.” Earlier in the night, however, a small number of protesters had become violent: shining lasers at officer’s faces and chucking fireworks at the federal courthouse. Now it appeared police officers were targeting specific people for arrest, and tear gassing anyone else in the way. Another demonstrator dressed in yellow—the designated color of the so-called “Wall of Moms,” a group of mothers focused on defending Black lives from police brutality—offered Hester a moist towelette to rub across her stinging eyes. Though Hester came out Wednesday night to protest police brutality alongside other yellow-shirted moms, the 45-year-old mother of two and grandmother of three has been active in the Black Lives Matter movement since May 2017. It was then Hester was assaulted by convicted killer Jeremy Christian the day before he killed two men on a Portland commuter train following a racist tirade. In her testimony, Hester said she interrupted Christian as he was screaming about minorities, after which he hit her in the face with a bottle, badly bruising her right eye. The next day, Christian directed another racist tirade at a small group of young girls, and fatally stabbed two men who interfered. The trial ended late last month with a sentence of life in prison without parole. “It was really after that trial that I started coming down here,” Hester said of the protest site, where a final burst of intense clashes were coming to an end. Hester and a few other mothers asked me where my car was and insisted on walking me there, because “that’s what moms do.” Hester, alongside several other Black activist mothers, has helped take charge of the Wall of Moms alongside a group called Moms United for Black Lives after the former’s original founder was accused of “anti-blackness.”Amid the chaos on the street, Hester recounted the day she was attacked by Christian, when she approached an officer with the Portland Police Bureau and pointed her attacker out. Christian was not arrested.“That white supremacist got special treatment from the police. That’s not acceptable,” she said, pausing to spit out the taste of tear gas. “And that’s what we’re here fighting for today.” So even if the feds did pull out of her city, it was hard to imagine activists like Hester would be satisfied.“It won’t make a difference if they leave or stay,” Hester said, referring to the federal officers. “It all comes down to white privilege in this country.” Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

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New research suggests COVID-19 can spread via aerosol transmission -- and might affect tall people more

A new survey has found more evidence to suggest that people can become infected with COVID-19 through aerosol transmission, which could be prevented by wearing a mask. Carried out by data scientists in the UK, Norway, and the US, the study is one of the first to investigate which personal and work-related factors can lead to COVID-19 transmission. After surveying 2,000 people in the UK and US, the researchers found that the data from both countries suggests that aerosol transmission of the virus -- via microdroplets which are so small that they remain suspended in the air for several hours -- is very likely.

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Chicago Deputy Police Chief Shoots Himself, Latest in Long History of Suicides at the Department

The Chicago Police Department's new deputy chief of criminal networks was found dead on Tuesday from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, the latest in a history of suicides at the department.Dion Boyd, 57, was sworn into his new post on July 15 after 30-years on the force. Superintendent David Brown urged officers to keep an eye out for colleagues who could be in distress."Let's always remember to take care of ourselves and each other," Brown said at a press conference.The national suicide rate among police officers is about 18 per 100,000 as of 2017, however the rate in Chicago is 60 percent higher."One of the shocking statistics for me was that cops kill themselves at a higher rate than bad guys kill the police. And when you put it in those numbers, you realize that there’s a real problem," Phil Cline, executive director of the Chicago Police Memorial Foundation, told WBBM radio. “And it’s not something the just sprung up in the last year or so. It’s been a problem for a while."Boyd's body was found at the department's Homan Square facility, a secretive site that houses the anti-gang and bomb and arson squads. Various abuses allegedly occurred at the site, including reports of excessive force used in interrogations uncovered by The Guardian in 2016.Chicago police are currently attempting to clamp down on shootings that have plagued the city since Memorial Day weekend.While shootings typically rise in the city throughout the summer months, this year has seen a particularly sharp uptick. Chicago has recorded about 2,000 shooting victims so far this year, compared to roughly 1,400 over the same period in 2019.The seasonal rise seems to have been exacerbated by the impact of coronavirus lockdowns on inner city neighborhoods, as well as anti-police sentiment stemming from the George Floyd protests roiling the U.S.

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'Umbrella Man' who broke windows in initial George Floyd protests a white supremacist, police say

The man, police said, “wanted to sow discord and racial unrest by breaking out the windows." His identity has not been released.

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Former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain has died after being hospitalized with the coronavirus

Cain tested positive for the novel coronavirus 11 days after attending President Donald Trump's campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

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Trump says coronavirus stimulus checks, direct payments may be more than $1,200

The amount the president put on the table is even higher than that proposed by Republicans and Democrats.

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British Airways is auctioning millions of dollars worth of lounge art in a hasty attempt to raise cash – see the extravagant collection

The entire collection was valued by auction house Sotheby's at around $1.7 million but one piece auctioned so far fetched more than that by itself.

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New top story on Hacker News: Panasonic aims to boost energy density in Tesla batteries by 20%

Panasonic aims to boost energy density in Tesla batteries by 20%
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New top story on Hacker News: Five Buck Fatigue

Five Buck Fatigue
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Wednesday 29 July 2020

The Tanned Man Has a Green Monster

By BY CHARLES M. BLOW from NYT Opinion https://ift.tt/3168Wts

Ashley Judd Can Sue Harvey Weinstein for Sexual Harassment, Court Rules

By BY NEIL VIGDOR from NYT Business https://ift.tt/2DfpBCo

One in Three Children Have Unacceptably High Lead Levels, Study Says

By BY RICK GLADSTONE from NYT World https://ift.tt/2BGK4jb

Lawmakers, United in Their Ire, Lash Out at Big Tech’s Leaders

By BY CECILIA KANG AND DAVID MCCABE from NYT Technology https://ift.tt/2DfEeFN

As Trump Undercuts Aid Talks, White House Says Extra Jobless Benefits Will Lapse

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AG Barr Calls Black Lives Matter Protests in Portland ‘an Assault’ on U.S. Government in Testy Hearing

In his first appearance ever before the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, Attorney General William Barr declined to say that political concerns weren’t animating the Trump administration’s use of federal troops to crack down on Black Lives Matter demonstrators.Asked by Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) if he’d discussed the politics of the crackdown with Trump or anyone in his inner circle, Barr didn’t specifically mention the Department of Justice operations but confirmed that the election “comes up” in his conversations with the president. “I’m a member of the Cabinet,” said Barr, “and there’s an election going on.”Pressed further by Nadler on the topic, Barr demurred: “I’m not going to get into my discussions with the president.” Bully Boy Bill Barr is America’s Ultimate Chaos AgentAs well, Barr indicated he views protesters in Portland, Oregon, not as demonstrators demanding Black liberation or defending themselves from an unwanted federal intrusion but as insurrectionists.“What unfolds nightly around the courthouse cannot reasonably be called a protest,” Barr said in his highly anticipated testimony. “It is, by any objective measure, an assault on the government of the United States.”Later, in response to GOP questioning, Barr thundered “is that OK?” in outlining demonstrators’ alleged offenses against federal officers. “I reject the idea that the Department has flooded anywhere and attempted to suppress demonstrators… We are at the courthouse defending the courthouse, we’re not out there looking for trouble.” Barr’s rhetoric represented the latest escalation by the Trump administration in demonizing the protests, which are part of what has become the largest sustained movement in American history. A Monday statement from the U.S. Marshals, a component of the Justice Department, called elements within the protesters “violent extremists,” a term typically used by the U.S. government to describe domestic terrorists, though a Marshals spokesperson said the reference was unintentional. “In the wake of George Floyd’s death, violent rioters and anarchists have hijacked legitimate protests to wreak senseless havoc and destruction on innocent victims,” Barr contended. Democrats fumed through the hearing on what they saw as Barr’s hypocrisy on that count. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) asked Barr whether he was aware of the pro-Trump protests in Michigan targeting Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, which featured heavily armed demonstrators. Barr said no. “You are aware of certain kinds of protesters, but in Michigan when protesters carried guns and Confederate flags and called for the governor of Michigan to be shot and lynched, somehow you are not aware of that, somehow you didn’t know about it, so you didn’t send federal agents in to do to the president’s supporters what you did to the president’s protesters,” charged Jayapal. The testimony from Barr, which has been more than a year in the making, has been hotly anticipated by Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill as an opportunity to litigate a number of his actions as Trump’s attorney general. Over the past year, Barr has overseen a reduction in the desired sentence and then the commutation of Trump ally Roger Stone’s conviction; the withdrawal of the criminal case against another Trump ally, Michael Flynn; the tear-gassing of Black Lives Matter protesters in D.C.’s Lafayette Park; an effort to oust the New York federal attorney handling sensitive investigations into Trumpworld; the transference of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort from prison to home confinement; and the deployment of armed, militarized federal agents against protesters in Portland over the objections of local and state elected officials. The growing portfolio of outrages that Barr has assembled has been overwhelming for House Democrats, some of whom have embraced the idea that the only remaining avenue for holding the attorney general—who has already been held in contempt of Congress—to account is to impeach him. But getting Barr on the House Judiciary witness stand, which was originally set for March and then later postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak, is widely seen as the first step in whatever House Democrats decide to do next.In his opening statement, Nadler previewed the crux of Democrats’ case by arguing that Barr has been Trump’s fixer. “Your tenure,” Nadler told Barr, “is marked by a persistent war against the department’s professional core in an apparent effort to secure favors for the president.”Barr shot back that he was trying “to reestablish the rule of law.”Trump Administration Plots Crackdown by Feds in Cities NationwideThe attorney general’s handling of nationwide protests proved the focus of the hearing from the beginning. Federal agents, including the Marshals and others from the Department of Homeland Security, cited vandalism against the Mark O. Hatfield Courthouse in Portland as a justification for their persistent presence. Barr, in his opening statement, called such vandalism the work of “hundreds of rioters.” Yet the federal response has generated the majority of the violence at the protests, which has included shooting protesters in the head with rubber bullets; breaking the hand of an unarmed Navy veteran; frequent pepper-spray dousings and tear-gassings; and street arrests without probable cause by minimally identified federal agents driving unmarked vans. Barr equivocated on whether federal agents can arrest protesters without probable cause, saying they could “not strictly” arrest someone because they were proximate to someone they believed was violent. But he demurred about whether such a thing represented an actual arrest, saying “that would require an intensive review” into each circumstance. It remains unknown exactly how many people in Portland have been arrested by federal agents during the July deployments. At one point, late in the hearing, Barr called pepper spray a “very important nonlethal tool” against “rioters” and added, “When people resist law enforcement, they’re not peaceful.”“There is no precedent for the Department of Justice actively seeking out conflict with American citizens, under such flimsy pretext, or for such petty purposes,” said Nadler. He said Barr “aided and abetted the worst failings of the president.”Elected officials, from Oregon’s governor to both its U.S. senators to the Portland mayor, have denounced the federal presence as a provocative escalation of violence. Barr and acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf have vowed to remain until the protests are quelled. ‘Shaking in Their Boots’: Trump Wanted a Portland-Style Offensive in ChicagoLast week, Barr justified a coming “surge” in federal law enforcement to Chicago, Albuquerque, and other cities—expected to last through the November election—by citing the Black Lives Matter protests as a source of public disrespect toward police. Black Lives Matter activists and their allies in Chicago are seeking an injunction against the use of Portland-style federal violence. After acknowledging “it is understandable” for Black Americans to distrust police, Barr said it was “an oversimplification” to view “some deep-seated racism generally infecting our police departments.” Defunding police is “grossly irresponsible,” he said, portraying crime as a “massively greater” threat to Black lives than police. Nadler countercharged: “At your direction, Department officials have downplayed the effects of systemic racism and abandoned the victims of police brutality; refused to hold abusive police departments accountable for their actions; and expressed open hostility to the Black Lives Matter movement.”But later in the hearing, Democrats also pressed Barr over his handling of criminal prosecutions stemming from Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL) repeatedly asked Barr why Stone appeared to get special exceptions for leniency based on his age and conduct. “Can you think of any other cases where the defendant threatened to kill a witness, threatened a judge... where the DOJ claimed those were mere technicalities?” asked Deutch. “Can you think of even one?” Barr raised his voice in response, asserting the judge agreed with his analysis, though the witness in question, Randy Credico, did say he felt threatened by Stone. Democrats also tried to nail down definitive answers from Barr on a number of other subjects, such as whether he believed increased voting-by-mail increased the risk of voter fraud as Trump has alleged. Barr said it did. Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-LA) also raised concerns Trump would move the date of the election or even reject the results, given Trump’s arguments about absentee voting and the possibility that final results won’t be known for some time after Election Day. Barr tersely responded, “if the results are clear, I would leave office.” GOP Senators Will Say This Much: Trump Photo Op Wasn’t a Good LookBarr also seemed to dismiss the convictions and guilty pleas reached by Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, saying that the Justice Department would not prosecute “some esoteric, made-up crime, but [rather] a meat-and-potatoes crime.”On Tuesday, Barr—who wrote in his prepared opening statement that he is not “the President’s factotum”—received a warm reception from Republicans, for whom the attorney general has become a hero. The top House Judiciary Republican, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), said last month the attorney general was doing “the Lord’s work.” “Spying. That’s why they’re after you, Mr. Attorney General,” Jordan said on Tuesday, before proceeding to portray the Black Lives Matter protests as violent through an extensive video that showed no police-induced violence. A day before Barr’s hearing, a D.C. National Guard officer present at the Lafayette Park protest on June 1 told a different House committee that “the use of force against demonstrators in the clearing operation was an unnecessary escalation of the use of force.” Barr has denied accounts placing him in command responsibility for suppressing the protest. But the officer, West Point graduate and Iraq veteran Adam DeMarco, recounted Barr conferring with the Park Police shortly before they advanced to clear protesters from the square for Trump’s photo op. “From my observation, those demonstrators—our fellow American citizens—were engaged in the peaceful expression of their First Amendment rights,” DeMarco told the House natural-resources committee on Monday. “Yet they were subjected to an unprovoked escalation and excessive use of force.”Barr, questioned by Jayapal, dismissed his comments. “I don’t remember DeMarco as being involved in any decision-making,” he said, implying DeMarco was not credible since he “ran as a Democratic candidate in Maryland.” Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

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Trump Jr suspended by Twitter for posting 'misleading and potentially harmful information' about coronavirus

Donald Trump Jr has been suspended by Twitter for posting "misleading and potentially harmful information" about coronavirus.The president also shared the same tweet. On his account, the post no longer appears, and has been replaced with a message indicating that it is "no longer available", but he still appears to be able to tweet.

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The feds say they won't leave Portland until the violence stops. Privately, they concede they're fueling that violence.

The top federal prosector in Oregon, U.S. Attorney Billy Williams, said Monday that the federal agents aggressively policing protesters in Portland would remain in the city until the "attacks on federal property and personnel" cease. Oregon officials say the presence and shock-and-awe tactics of the federal agents are the main fuel for those attacks, and federal law enforcement officials privately concede they have a point, Oregon Public Broadcasting reports.The nightly protests against racism and police violence in downtown Portland had dwindled to about 100 people before President Trump sent in federal agents over the July 4 weekend. The protests grew again after U.S. Marshals, ostensibly there to protect Portland's federal courthouse, shot 26-year-old protester Donavan La Bella in the head, fracturing his skull, and they exploded after news broke that anonymous militarized federal agents were detaining people on the street in unmarked vans. Thousands now gather nightly in Portland, and similar protests have been reinvigorated in other cities."Anytime you shoot someone in the face and beat them with a baton, it's going to be criticized," one federal law enforcement official told OBP. "That's not a controversial statement." Another told OBP, "Crowds were very small and the incident with La Bella." Still, a spokesman for the U.S. Marshals confirmed Monday that about 100 new deputies have been lined up for deployment in Portland, either to bolster the current force or replace exhausted officers.The harsh crackdown and vilification of protesters in Portland may end up helping Trump politically, "but as a policing tactic, it has failed to suppress the protests," The Washington Post notes. "The escalation has been followed by larger, better-equipped, and more-aggressive crowds, and — as the new reinforcements showed — it exhausted federal resources before it exhausted the protesters.""Every time we go out into this, we get better at it," Gregory McKelvey, a community organizer in Portland, tells the Post. "When a flash bang first goes off in front of you, you run. But when you realize that one went off right in front of you and nothing happened to you, you're less likely to run the next time." In a bit of circular logic, law enforcement officials say they need even more people on the ground in Portland "to counter those increasingly sophisticated tactics" employed by protesters, OPB reports.More stories from theweek.com Trump: 'Nobody likes me' American Federation of Teachers supports strikes if schools don't reopen safely Even mild coronavirus cases can cause lasting cardiovascular damage, study shows

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'Put your mask on!': Lawmakers erupt after Jim Jordan throws a temper tantrum during the big tech hearing

Lawmakers slammed Rep. Jim Jordan at the antitrust hearing after he interrupted a colleague accusing him of raising "fringe conspiracy theories."

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2 arrested for attacking senator during Wisconsin protests

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Minneapolis 'Umbrella Man' who smashed windows during George Floyd protests was a white supremacist trying to incite riots, police say

Looting and rioting in the wake of his actions in Minneapolis caused about $500 million in damages and two deaths, the Star Tribune reported.

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Alabama Republican celebrates KKK member's birthday as state remembers civil rights hero John Lewis

A Republican senator in Alabama celebrated a Ku Klux Klan (KKK) member’s birthday at the same time hundreds were honouring the life of civil rights hero John Lewis.State Representative Will Dismukes took part in an event marking the KKK grand wizard and former Confederate Army General, Nathan Bedford Forrest, as Alabama honoured the late Georgia Democrat this weekend.

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Trump COVID Task Force to Guvs: Make Masks Mandatory Before You Fall Into Red Zone

As states in the South and Southwest grapple with how to control the spread of the coronavirus, officials on President Donald Trump’s coronavirus task force cautioned the nation’s governors Tuesday that a new set of states is beginning to experience an uptick in positive cases and recommended that local leaders implement mask mandates and close bars to contain the outbreaks.Dr. Deborah Birx, the coordinator for the task force, said the positivity rate in states such as Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, and Colorado was increasing and warned they should quickly take action before they fall into what she described as the “red COVID zones” category. Birx defined the red zones as those states with more than 100 coronavirus cases per 100,000 people and more than a 10 percent test positivity rate.“By the time you see hospitalizations, your community spread is so wide that you’ve flipped into a red state incredibly quickly,” Birx said, according to a recording of the call obtained by The Daily Beast. “By the time you see it, up to 80 or 90 percent of your county already has more than 10 percent positivity rate.”The warnings from Birx and other task force officials come as the administration is pushing states across the country to reopen schools, a point Vice President Mike Pence reiterated on the call. Pence said the task force would support whatever decision state leaders make but that the team was beginning to see evidence that “encouraging masks,” closing bars, and limiting indoor gatherings were slowing the spread in some of the hot spot states. Birx was more explicit with her advice, saying that the “100 percent mask mandates” played a significant role in containing the virus in those states.Trump in the past has resisted mask wearing and said in a Fox News interview this month that he would not impose a national mask mandate. On Monday, Trump retweeted a video shared by his son Donald Trump Jr. that featured a doctor saying masks were unnecessary. Twitter restricted Donald Trump Jr.’s account and removed the video from the platform.Trump Pushes Fake COVID Cure From Fringe Doctors, Banned by FacebookDr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top vaccine official, was also on the call with governors and said states should adhere to Birx’s recommendations even if it wasn’t politically expedient to do so. “You may be reluctant to do that because the general population is saying, ‘Wait a minute, we’re not that bad,’” Fauci said, referring to the advice of implementing mask mandates and restricting large gatherings of people. “You are worse than you think you are because where you are now is going to be reflected and what you are going to see… weeks from now. I know it may sound intrusive but it really isn’t.”Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

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Meghan Markle compromised privacy of five friends in legal document, court hears

The Duchess of Sussex was accused of compromising the privacy of her own friends by supplying their names in a legal document that she wants to remain secret, the High Court heard on Wednesday. The duchess "freely" and "without being compelled" disclosed the identities of five friends whose privacy she now fears will be breached. Meghan gave the names in a confidential document to Associated Newspapers, the publisher of The Mail on Sunday, who she is suing for breach of privacy and copyright over its publication of a handwritten letter to her father, Thomas Markle. In legal submissions, the duchess has warned that being forced to identify the friends "is an unacceptable price to pay" in pursuit of her legal claim. She is arguing that naming them would breach their privacy under the European Convention on Human Rights, while the newspaper argues that they must be disclosed as a key principle of "open justice". At one stage in Wednesday's court proceedings, Meghan's barrister accidentally let slip the surname of one of the friends his client is seeking to keep anonymous. Mr Justice Warby, the judge, suggested such an error was "bound to happen" before immediately ordering that the name should not be reported. It also emerged that only one of the friends – Friend B, an American citizen who says she approached People magazine of her own accord – has given a witness statement. A barrister for the newspaper group said the statement "has been shown to be unsatisfactory", but did not go into any further detail. It was disclosed that the duchess agreed to pay in full £67,888 in costs to Associated Newspapers after the publisher successfully argued that elements of her case be struck out. The costs are just a fraction of a multi-million legal bill expected should the case go to a full trial next year.

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My wife was detained, released, and disappeared again in China. Here's my message on behalf of my people, the Uighurs.

The author, Mamutjan Abdurehim, is a Uighur father from Xinjiang — the Chinese region synonymous with surveillance, detentions, and forced labor.

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Great white shark kills woman in rare attack in Maine, authorities say

Maine has recorded only one shark attack since 1837, researchers say.

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Australia's fires 'killed or harmed three billion animals'

The recent bushfires were "one of the worst wildlife disasters in modern history", conservationists say.

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When Black Lives Matter protests turn violent, Donald Trump gets just what he wants

Civil rights and Democratic leaders must do what they can to end the chaos in the streets. This is not the time to give ammunition to Trump and the GOP.

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Fact check: Hurricane Hanna did not collapse border wall in Texas

A viral video falsely claims Hurricane Hanna was responsible for knocking down a border wall in southeast Texas.

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New top story on Hacker News: Sirum (YC W15 Nonprofit) is hiring developers to save medicine to save lives

Sirum (YC W15 Nonprofit) is hiring developers to save medicine to save lives
1 by akircher | 0 comments on Hacker News.

New top story on Hacker News: Tech CEOs Invoke the American Dream to Obscure the Nightmare They Created

Tech CEOs Invoke the American Dream to Obscure the Nightmare They Created
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New top story on Hacker News: The Stutterer's Song: Remembering Bill Withers

The Stutterer's Song: Remembering Bill Withers
13 by samclemens | 1 comments on Hacker News.

NASA announces astronauts for second SpaceX Crew Dragon flight to International Space Station

NASA announced on Tuesday the astronauts who will fly aboard the SpaceX Crew-2 mission to the International Space Station next spring.

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Tuesday 28 July 2020

Spain quarantine rules: The businesses fearing for their futures

Spain's struggling tourist businesses say the UK's new quarantine rules may drive them off the edge.

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Saudi Hajj coronavirus curbs mean 'no work, no salary, nothing'

Covid-19 has hit the annual Hajj and with no international pilgrims, many firms both in Saudi and abroad are suffering.

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Seattle Mayor Says U.S. Agents Have Demobilized and Left the City

SEATTLE — Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan said Tuesday she had received confirmation that U.S. agents had left the area after being sent to Seattle last week to protect federal buildings amid lingering unrest over the police killing of George Floyd.

Durkan, Gov. Jay Inslee and other local leaders said in a joint news release that the Department of Homeland Security’s Border Patrol Tactical Unit had demobilized. Durkan, Inslee and others had expressed concerns over the deployment of federal forces to Washington state without consulting or seeking consent from local officials.

On Friday they sent a letter to U.S. Attorney Brian Moran, the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. department of Homeland Security seeking clarification on the intended scope of the action. Officials did not say why the federal agents decided to leave.

“This demobilization means Washingtonians no longer have to worry about the White House’s aim to provoke confrontation and undermine peaceful protests,” Inslee said.

Durkan called the president’s actions “to target and ‘dominate’ Democratic cities through the use of federal forces” chilling.

“It has increased violence in Portland, Seattle and other cities across the country, which was what the president intended,” the mayor said. “We will continue to heed this moment in history and to work with the community to make systemic and generational changes to make Seattle more just.”

The agents arrived Thursday after businesses in Seattle were vandalized in the downtown area and in the nearby Capitol Hill neighborhood. Last month, protesters set up an occupied protest zone that stretched for several blocks in the neighborhood. That lasted for about two weeks until authorities returned in force and cleared it on July 1.

Protesters over the weekend remained near a Seattle police precinct in that area. Police later declared it a riot and made arrests but the police chief said she hadn’t seen any U.S. agents.

Federal agents sent to Portland have been using tear gas, pepper balls and stun grenades on people outside a federal courthouse who have been protesting their presence and police brutality. Protesters have tried to tear down a fence erected to protect the building, set fires and hurled fireworks and other objects at the building and at agents.

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler and City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty on Monday asked Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf for a meeting to discuss a cease-fire and their desire for the removal of the extra federal agents.

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‘Nobody Likes Me,’ Trump Complains, Renewing Defense of Dubious Science

By BY MICHAEL CROWLEY from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2X8PVW2

Corrections: July 29, 2020

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The Director Gina Prince-Bythewood Has Always Had Game

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177 Questions to Inspire Writing, Discussion, Debate and Reflection

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Andrea Bocelli, who had COVID, says lockdown humiliated him

Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli, who recovered from COVID and whose moving Easter performance sought to raise hopes during the pandemic, is striking a different public note, saying Italy’s lockdown made him feel “humiliated and offended” by depriving him of his freedom. Bocelli spoke at a panel Monday in a Senate conference room, where he was introduced by right-wing opposition leader Matteo Salvini, who has railed against the government’s stringent measures to combat the coronavirus outbreak. At the time, Bocelli said that when he learned on March 10 that he had tested positive, just as the nation was going into lockdown, “I jumped into the pool, I felt well” and had only a slight fever.

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The World's Largest Fusion Reactor Finally Begins Assembly

The 23,000-ton ITER tokamak has been brewing for decades. Now it's go time.

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Trump news: President gets defensive over plummeting polls as Pence, Pelosi, Biden and others pay respects to John Lewis

Asked at a coronavirus briefing about mounting criticism over the federal government’s response to the pandemic and his plunging polls, Donald Trump noted that he created the Space Force, telling a reporter: “What we’ve done has never been done.”A round of polls over the weekend show his Democratic rival Joe Biden ahead in three key battle ground states that the president won in 2016.

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