| Jared Kushner says 'yes,' the US coronavirus death toll of 170,000 is a 'success story,' doubling down on comments from April Posted: 17 Aug 2020 04:25 PM PDT  When asked by CNN's Wolf Blitzer if 170,000 coronavirus deaths in the US are a "success story," Jared Kushner immediately responded "Yes."
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| TV networks are reportedly afraid of giving the RNC too much airtime, so they cut the DNC's time short too Posted: 18 Aug 2020 02:22 PM PDT  Major broadcasters only offered the Democratic National Convention an hour of airtime for a different reason than they usually do, The Daily Beast reports.Most presidential election years, TV networks limit the parties' conventions' airtime to an hour, saying viewers would lose interest if they were longer. But this year, they told Democrats they could only have an hour of airtime because they feared giving Republicans more time than that, multiple sources told The Daily Beast.Democratic officials recently met with broadcast executives to discuss their plans for airing this year's DNC. "The executives stressed that they could not broadcast two hours each night in part because they then would have to give the same airtime to [President] Trump," The Daily Beast writes. "We don't know what that content is going to be," one executive reportedly told the Democrats.At the time of the meetings, Democrats were able to show executives exactly who would be speaking each night at their virtual convention. Meanwhile the Republican National Convention schedule is still up in the air, at least publicly.Regardless of the time limit, the first night of this year's DNC had a far lower viewership than 2016's. About 26 million people tuned in last election, while just 18.7 million did Monday night, according to Nielsen.More stories from theweek.com Bill Clinton is getting sidelined at the DNC Notre Dame's president insisted in-person classes were 'worth the risk.' A week into the semester, they're shutting down. Bernie Sanders reportedly wanted Harris to be Biden's running mate, even over Elizabeth Warren
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| Former CIA officer charged with giving China classified info Posted: 17 Aug 2020 01:33 PM PDT |
| Two tropical waves in the Atlantic are headed west and might turn into depressions Posted: 18 Aug 2020 03:47 AM PDT  Two tropical waves are making their way west across the Atlantic, and the National Hurricane Center said they both have a chance of strengthening into a tropical depression later this week.
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| De Blasio’s Wife Employs Six Undisclosed Taxpayer-Funded Staffers: Report Posted: 18 Aug 2020 07:19 AM PDT  New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio's wife, Chirlane McCray, employs at least six staffers whose salaries are paid by taxpayers but are not listed on her official staff roster.The city's first lady's office officially includes eight staffers who all together receive a collective $1.1 million in salaries, The City reported. However, McCray's staff numbered a total of 15 people for much of this year, but the recent departure of a staff member brought the total down to 14 people.The unlisted staffers include several who make six-figure salaries, including communications advisor Felicia Lee, whose $140,000 salary is paid by New York City's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, and director of policy Grace Choi, who makes $130,000 paid by the city's Department of Social Services. A social media manager whose salary is paid by the city's Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications, as well as two other low-level staffers paid by the mayor's office, were also not listed on McCray's official staff roster. A second speechwriter was also put on a different payroll.Additionally, McCray in February hired a videographer with a $70,000 salary that was paid by the Department of Health. The videographer filmed her "Baking with the First Lady" clip that was posted in April as the pandemic ripped through New York City and residents observed stay at home orders.McCray, who has said she is considering running for Brooklyn borough president, is a highly involved volunteer for New York City and is not paid by the government. She runs the ThriveNYC program, which works to enhance mental health services for New Yorkers.The news of McCray's undisclosed staffers comes as her husband's administration prepares to lay off 22,000 city workers in October due to the fiscal crisis in the city caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
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| Clyburn highlights Biden's experience with loss in Democratic convention speech Posted: 17 Aug 2020 07:44 PM PDT  The nation needs a president who sees 'unifying people as a requirement of the job,' James Clyburn says at Democratic convention.
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| Mike Bloomberg gives $60m to help Democrats in November as former campaign aides turn against him Posted: 18 Aug 2020 07:49 AM PDT  Former New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg is planning to spend around $60m (£45.5m) to help strengthen the Democratic House Majority in November, as his former aides have called for him to be pulled from speaking at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) this week.The investment, that was announced on Monday, will match the amount Bloomberg spent in midterm elections in 2018, that helped the Democrats flip control of the House away from Republicans, according to the Washington Post.
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| Designer Deluged With Orders for Michelle Obama’s ‘VOTE’ Necklace Posted: 17 Aug 2020 09:48 PM PDT  When Michelle Obama's stylist called Chari Cuthbert a few weeks ago to order a custom necklace with charms spelling out the word VOTE, the designer was overjoyed."But we had no idea where she was going to wear it," Cuthbert told The Daily Beast. "We just knew that she wanted it."Michelle Obama Writes the Five-Word Epitaph for Trump's Presidency: 'It Is What It Is'It wasn't until Monday afternoon that Cuthbert learned that the former first lady was wearing the $430 ByChari gold chain—a literal statement necklace—for her Democratic National Convention speech."There was a snippet from her DNC speech on CNN and my mom sent it to me," Cuthbert said. "I couldn't believe it. Out of respect, I didn't post it or anything, because I didn't want to take advantage."Hours later, as Cuthbert watched the convention, her phone began blowing up. People were tagging her on social media and calling to ask if Obama was sporting one of her creations."It was surreal," she said. "I sat at my desk and cried.""Michelle Obama! If you talk about your ideal dinner guest, she is it for me. And to see her wearing my necklace, it's insane," the designer said, choking up.Cuthbert said her company—which consists of five female employees—had seen what she humbly called "a significant uptick in sales" in the hour after the speech."My finance guy just texted me a bunch of exclamation points, so I assume that's a good thing," she said. "He said, I'm so happy for you, this is everything you've worked for."Cuthbert, 36, was born in Miami to Jamaican parents. In 2012, the self-taught artist quit her office job and moved to Hawaii with $100 to start her business. Four years later, she relocated to Los Angeles.That was 2016. Cuthbert said she usually avoided mixing politics and business but decided to make a VOTE necklace and post it on the ByChari Instagram page.Cuthbert is not sure if Obama or her stylist saw it then or just came up with the idea for a VOTE necklace on their own this time around. What they certainly didn't know was that Cuthbert had a plan to use the VOTE necklace to promote political activism and was in the process of making a bunch of them to give to celebrities to wear ahead of the election."I'm wearing mine right now," she said.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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| Roger Stone drops appeals of felony convictions Posted: 17 Aug 2020 10:53 PM PDT  President Donald Trump had already commuted Stone's sentence.
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| Lebanese customs chief arrested over Beirut blast Posted: 17 Aug 2020 07:04 AM PDT  The head of Lebanon's customs authority was formally arrested on Monday after being questioned over the massive explosion in Beirut earlier this month, the state-run National News Agency reported. The investigation is focused on why nearly 3,000 tons of explosive ammonium nitrate was being stored at the city's port. More than 70,000 workers are believed to be unemployed due to the explosions, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Monday, on top of 220,000 people estimated to have lost their jobs as a result of the financial crisis that began last October last year and those left jobless by the COVID-19 pandemic.
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| Pelosi: Democrats willing to cut COVID-19 bill in half to get a deal Posted: 18 Aug 2020 02:41 PM PDT  U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Tuesday that Congressional Democrats are willing to cut their COVID-19 relief bill in half to get an agreement on new legislation with the White House and Republicans.
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| California wildfires plagued by fire tornado, record-shattering heat wave, wild lightning strikes Posted: 17 Aug 2020 12:35 AM PDT  California is grappling with triple-digit temperatures, a freak lightning storm in the Bay Area, and high winds, all of which are contributing to wildfires breaking out throughout the state and, on Saturday, at least one rare fire tornado in Lassen County, north of Lake Tahoe. The National Weather Service in Reno issued a first-ever fire tornado warning on Saturday, Dawn Johnson, a meteorologist at the Reno station, said Sunday.A fire tornado is a "rare phenomenon" formed when strong winds, extreme heat, and rough terrain combine, fueled by gas from burning vegetation, Ben Gelber, a longtime meteorologist in Ohio, told The New York Times. "It's so unusual, it's a little difficult to wrap our heads around. Of course, the towering clouds created by fires, we've all seen that. But the tornadic feature or multiple fire whirls, that's just incredible." Johnson said the NWS plans to investigate the fire tornado sightings as soon as it's safe. "In this case, there's a massive wildfire burning in the same location, so the logistics are a lot more complicated."The San Francisco Bay Area experienced nonstop lightning strikes Sunday, fueled by moisture from a tropical storm offshore. The lightning ignited spot fires in remote areas of Northern California and fueled wildfires being battled outside Los Angeles. The Lake Fire in Angeles National Forest, which has burned nearly 28 square miles, was 12 percent contained by Sunday, and the smaller fire near the L.A. suburb of Azusa was just 3 percent contained. The fire in Lassen County, with the fire tornado, was just 5 percent contained as of Sunday.Much of California reached at least 100 degrees over the weekend, including Oakland for the first time in August, prompting rolling blackouts to prevent widespread power failures. Sacramento hit 112 degrees on Sunday, and the southwestern desert town of Needles recorded 123 degree heat on Saturday. Death Valley, the lowest and hottest place in the U.S., recorded a high of 130 degrees on Sunday, one of the hottest temperatures ever recorded on Earth — possibly the highest, The Washington Post reports, given doubts about the accuracy of century-old measurements.More stories from theweek.com John Boehner would 'rather set himself on fire' than get involved in the 2020 election Daughter of coronavirus victim speaks at DNC: 'His only pre-existing condition was trusting Donald Trump' Kamala Harris' Secret Service code name reportedly reflects her groundbreaking nomination
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| Virginia state senator faces felony charges after protesters topple Confederate statue Posted: 18 Aug 2020 09:19 AM PDT  Sen. Louise Lucas is among six others charged in the June incident.
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| China threatens to retaliate against the UK for hosting 'anti-China forces' after Boris Johnson welcomed a pro-democracy activist who fled Hong Kong to escape arrest Posted: 18 Aug 2020 04:35 AM PDT  China's ambassador to the UK Liu Xiaoming said Boris Johnson's government would "severely harm" ties with Beijing if it hosted activist Sunny Cheung.
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| Gun Safety Issues Helped Democrats Flip Virginia's General Assembly in 2019. Is Texas Next? Posted: 18 Aug 2020 10:50 AM PDT  'The pandemic has exacerbated this crisis'
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| Paul Manafort was 'a grave counterintelligence threat,' Republican-led Senate panel finds Posted: 18 Aug 2020 03:21 PM PDT  The GOP-led Senate Intelligence Committee released a 996-page report that delivered "irrefutable evidence of Russian meddling" in the 2016 campaign.
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| Savannah Chrisley reveals she's set to undergo 3rd endometriosis surgery Posted: 17 Aug 2020 06:48 PM PDT  "I'm insanely self conscious and just feel like my body has given up on me," Chrisley said.
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| A same-sex infuencer couple are running a 'donor sperm giveaway' on Instagram, and people don't know how to feel Posted: 17 Aug 2020 09:10 AM PDT  Wives Allie and Sam are giving their followers the chance to win "1 vial of donor sperm (of your choice)," with free shipping included.
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| Putin tells Merkel external intervention in Belarus would be unacceptable Posted: 18 Aug 2020 03:26 AM PDT  Russian President Vladimir Putin told German Chancellor Angela Merkel that any attempts to interfere in the domestic affairs of Belarus would be unacceptable, the Kremlin said on Tuesday. Any such attempts would lead to an escalation of the political crisis in Belarus, Putin told Merkel in a phone call, the Kremlin said in a statement. Alexander Lukashenko, the leader of Belarus, on Tuesday awarded medals "for impeccable service" to law enforcement officials who have helped him crack down on protesters who have been demanding he step down for the last 10 days.
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| Notre Dame's president insisted in-person classes were 'worth the risk.' A week into the semester, they're shutting down. Posted: 18 Aug 2020 03:55 PM PDT  The University of Notre Dame has canceled all its classes amid an outbreak of coronavirus just a week after students returned to class.In-person classes will be shut down for the next two weeks, and possibly for the rest of the semester, the university's President Rev. John Jenkins announced Tuesday. The abrupt change came after 80 students tested positive for COVID-19, and after Jenkins wrote an op-ed in May insisting it was "worth the risk" to bring them all back in the first place.Before classes restarted Aug. 10 at the South Bend, Indiana, school, all of its 12,000 students were tested for COVID-19. Just 33 of them tested positive. But as of Monday, another 418 were tested for coronavirus, and 80 tested positive, with many of the new cases linked to an off-campus party. The school kept testing students with coronavirus symptoms, and of the 927 who were tested through the end of Monday, 147 had tested positive.That led Jenkins to shut down classes temporarily with the hopes "that we can get back to in-person instruction." But if the outbreak doesn't clear up in two weeks, students will have to go home and learn remotely for the rest of the semester. That possibility will mark a defeat for Jenkins, who insisted in his New York Times op-ed that students would be returning to campus in the fall. "The good of educating students and continuing vital research is very much worth the remaining risk" of the coronavirus pandemic, Jenkins wrote, a belief he stuck by even though the pandemic worsened in Indiana after the article was published.More stories from theweek.com Bill Clinton is getting sidelined at the DNC Bernie Sanders reportedly wanted Harris to be Biden's running mate, even over Elizabeth Warren Kamala Harris' Secret Service code name reportedly reflects her groundbreaking nomination
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| Swarm of earthquakes in Mexico shakes parts of Southern California, Arizona, USGS says Posted: 17 Aug 2020 10:54 AM PDT  At least seven earthquakes have hit Baja California in 24 hours.
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| NYC mayor to move 13,000 homeless out of Manhattan hotels after residents' complaints Posted: 18 Aug 2020 09:17 AM PDT  Thousands of homeless in New York who had been given rooms at vacant hotels during the coronavirus outbreak are to be moved following complaints from residents. Bill de Blasio, the city's mayor, launched a program which saw the government pay 139 empty hotels to house some 13,000 homeless for $175 (£132) per person per night, to avoid Covid-19 outbreaks in overcrowded homeless shelters. However, local residents of Manhattan's Chelsea and the Upper West Side neighbourhoods say the decision has made streets more dangerous, complaining that intoxicated men are congregating on the street without masks, using drugs in public and getting into violent disputes. Others have reported incidents of assault and public exposure. "We see people inebriated, there are registered sex offenders," Alison Morpurgo, a member of the group Upper West Siders for Safer Streets, told NBC New York. "Sometimes I go running in the morning and I'll see needles on the ground," said the mother-of-three.
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| Kasich makes the Republican case for voting for Biden Posted: 17 Aug 2020 07:59 PM PDT  Former Ohio Republican Gov. John Kasich delivered an endorsement of Democrat Joe Biden for president during the first night of the Democratic National Convention on Monday.
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| Democrats backtrack and remove demand to end fossil fuel tax breaks from platform Posted: 18 Aug 2020 03:30 PM PDT  In the midst of the convention, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) has dropped from its party platform a demand for no more oil and gas subsidies and tax breaks, Huffington Post reported on Tuesday.The statement - "Democrats support eliminating tax breaks and subsidies for fossil fuels, and will fight to defend and extend tax incentives for energy efficiency and clean energy" - originally appeared as an amendment to party demands last month and was approved, the report said.
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| Pelosi calls on House to return to vote on bill that would stop changes at Postal Service Posted: 17 Aug 2020 09:28 AM PDT  Democrats decried changes at the Postal Service that could "potentially impair the rights of eligible Americans to cast their votes through the mail."
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| Falklands or Malvinas? Posted: 18 Aug 2020 03:30 AM PDT  On August 4, Argentina, the world's biggest deadbeat, announced that it had reached a deal with its creditors on its $65 billion worth of defaulted debt. The next day, the United Nations Decolonization Committee — the C24 — unanimously passed a resolution urging the United Kingdom and Argentina to resolve their differences over the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands. Or, are they the Malvinas?For 187 years, the United Kingdom has controlled the Falkland Islands, a small archipelago off the coast of Argentina populated by 3,480 Falklanders. Argentina claims that the Falklands are part of Argentina and, in fact, are not even the Falklands, but the Malvinas. These claims have resulted in the U.K. and Argentina coming to blows. In 1982, the Argentines met their match in the person of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. The Iron Lady was in no mood to be pushed around by Argentina. After being challenged by Argentina, she sent part of the British fleet down to the Falklands for a ten-week undeclared war that resulted in 900 casualties. In the end, the Falklands remained the Falklands.With the swearing in of President Alberto Fernandez on December 10, 2019, it became clear that Argentina would once again attempt to seize control of the territory. Indeed, Fernandez formally established the National Council of Affairs Relating to the Malvinas, South Georgia, South Sandwich Islands and the surrounding maritime spaces on July 28. Its goal: to establish territorial control of the Falkland Islands for Argentina, once and for all.Just what advantages do the Falkland Islands provide Argentina? Admittedly, since the "war," the Islands' small population diversified its economy away from its traditional (and unsatisfactory) dependence on sheep farming and British subsidies into fishing, thanks to a massive expansion in the Islands' fishing rights in 1986. Fishing now makes up between 50-60 percent of total GDP, and a tourism industry has developed. Nevertheless, the Falklands still rely on communications and supplies from neighboring nations to survive, and its annual GDP is only about $370 million. That said, Britain maintains a strong military presence on the archipelago and has recently declared that its new "multi-role combat aircraft," the Typhoon, will be employed there for defensive purposes in the near future.So, it seems that Argentina is entangling itself in a fight against a superior military power over a territory that provides little economic value. This, however, is a superficial reading of reality. While patriotic, populist sentiments in Buenos Aires flare up from time to time as a distraction from Argentina's domestic economic problems, that is only part of the current story. The crux of the recent Argentine challenge is found beneath the surface of the sea.Oil exploration and the discovery of hydrocarbon reserves around the Falkland Islands have accelerated considerably since 2012. Oil companies from Britain and Argentina are now vying intensely for hydrocarbon control. In 2015, an Argentine judge ordered the seizure of goods and assets worth $156,432,000 belonging to British multinationals drilling in the Falkland Islands, claiming it an "unlawful assertion of jurisdiction over the Falkland Islands' continental shelf." In 2019, the Argentine government issued a stern warning to British drilling companies Rockhopper PLC and Premier Oil over drilling on the shelf, claiming that they were violating international law. The formation of the National Council of Affairs Relating to the Malvinas, South Georgia, South Sandwich Islands and the surrounding maritime spaces is a clear reassertion by Argentina that the hydrocarbons and minerals of the Falkland Islands belong to Argentina in its own right.How should the conflicting claims over sovereignty and property rights be settled? Years ago, after the U.K–Argentina dust-up, Sir Alan Walters — Mrs. Thatcher's economic guru — and I developed a transparent market solution that bestowed voting rights upon the settlers of the Falkland Islands. This plan was delivered to Mrs. Thatcher by Sir Alan. We advocated a binding referendum in which qualified Falklanders would vote on whether to uphold the status quo (British rule) or to agree to an Argentine take-over. If the required super-majority of Falklanders (say, 80 percent) voted in favor of Argentine rule, the United Kingdom would peacefully transfer administration of the islands to the Argentine government. It's time for our proposal to be resurrected.Unlike the 2013 referendum, when Falklanders voted 1,513 to 3 in favor of remaining a U.K. overseas territory, the Walters-Hanke referendum would require compensation from Argentina to the Falklanders — who are English speakers and British by custom, institutions, and loyalties — should they choose to transfer sovereignty over their lands and resources to Argentina. The referendum would be designed so that Argentina would offer a cash incentive if the islanders voted in favor of Argentina's rule. Prior to the referendum, Argentina would deposit an amount (say, $20,000,000) in escrow in Swiss accounts for every person who can prove their Falkland Islands citizenship.If 80 percent of the Falklanders agreed to Argentine citizenship, Argentine sovereignty, and a name change from the Falklands to the Malvinas, the funds in escrow would be transferred directly to each Falklander. Since the archipelago has a population of roughly 3,480, the total escrowed amount would be $69.6 billion.The best way for the United Kingdom and Argentina to bury the hatchet about the Falklands is to embrace a market-based referendum in which the Falklanders themselves decide their own destiny.
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| Missouri judge finds GOP redistricting measure misleading Posted: 17 Aug 2020 11:05 AM PDT |
| Poland's health minister resigns after virus response criticised Posted: 18 Aug 2020 06:30 AM PDT  Poland's Health Minister Lukasz Szumowski said on Tuesday he was resigning from his post, the second resignation in two days from the ministry, which has faced growing criticism for its handling of the coronavirus crisis. Szumowski's approach in the early stages of the pandemic made him Poland's most trusted politician in April, but his image has been dented by scandals surrounding the purchase of ventilators and masks. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki later on Tuesday said that he would announce the new health minister's name by the end of the week.
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| Officials made false statements about dropping charges against Jussie Smollett, special prosecutor says Posted: 17 Aug 2020 12:57 PM PDT  A special prosecutor has concluded there were "substantial abuses of discretion" in the Jussie Smollett case and that officials involved made false or misleading statements to the public. Special prosecutor Dan Webb on Monday detailed the findings of his investigation into how the Cook County state's attorney's office handled the case against the Empire actor, and the probe did not conclude that officials broke the law, The New York Times reports. However, Webb's investigation established "abuses of discretion and operational failures" in the case.Smollett in 2019 said he had been the victim of a hate crime and that two men attacked him in Chicago while yelling racist and homophobic slurs, only for police to charge Smollett and accuse him of orchestrating the attack. Later, all of the charges against Smollett were unexpectedly dropped, and amid questions about what led to this outcome, a special prosecutor was appointed to look into the case. Webb says that he spoke with many Cook County officials who were "shocked" by the decision to drop the charges, BuzzFeed News reports.Additionally, the report says that the state's attorney's office "breached its obligations of honesty and transparency" by making false or misleading public statements. For example, the report says that even though Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx claimed that she stopped communicating with Smollet's sister, actress Jurnee Smollett, after being made aware that Smollett was the subject of an investigation, she actually "continued communicating" with her for several more days. Webb also said that a statement from the office about other cases having similar outcomes as Smollett's was misleading.In February, Smollett was once again indicted by a grand jury for allegedly lying to the police. He continues to maintain his innocence. The Cook County state's attorney's office in a statement said that it "categorically rejects" the allegation that it made false statements about the case. More stories from theweek.com Bill Clinton is getting sidelined at the DNC Andrew Cuomo criticized for writing mid-pandemic book about his response to the pandemic John Boehner would 'rather set himself on fire' than get involved in the 2020 election
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| Hikers horrified as teen slips, plunges off rocks in South Dakota, officials say Posted: 17 Aug 2020 12:12 PM PDT  Video shows hikers screaming as the teen tumbles from Falling Rock.
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| A man broke into an aquatic center in Arizona, got trapped in a water slide support pipe, and died before rescuers could get to him Posted: 18 Aug 2020 09:24 AM PDT  A 31-year-old man identified by the Scottsdale Police Department as Ryan Kelly died at Eldorado Aquatic and Fitness Center on Monday.
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| World's largest naval exercise sparks more friction between US and China Posted: 17 Aug 2020 03:14 AM PDT  The world's largest naval exercise begins off the coast of Hawaii on Monday as diplomatic tensions escalate between the US and its allies and China over Beijing's territorial ambitions in the Indo-Pacific region. Several countries participating in the joint exercises, billed by the US navy as strengthening alliances to "ensure a free and open Indo-Pacific" have raised concerns about China's attempts to assert its control over critical trade routes and waterways. They include Australia, Japan, the Philippines and India. The coronavirus pandemic has forced the biennial Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) event, hosted by the US Pacific Fleet, to scale down from 25 to 11 nations, about 20 ships and 5,300 personnel, and its drills, which will now only be conducted at sea, have been whittled down from the usual five weeks to two. However, the exercises have riled Beijing, which was not invited to participate, despite taking part in 2014 and 2016. China was disinvited in 2018 by the Trump administration which accused it of militarising disputed areas of the South China Sea.
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| Notre Dame reports record spike in Covid-19 cases as universities bring students back amid pandemic Posted: 18 Aug 2020 10:19 AM PDT  The University of Notre Dame has reported a record spike in Covid-19 cases as students began returning to the Indiana campus for fall classes despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.It was the largest single-day spike in cases reported by the university: On Tuesday, Notre Dame confirmed at least 147 Covid-19 cases on its campus, after just 58 cases were reported the day earlier.
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| Right-wing militia pulls out of event with New Mexico Republicans, citing 'blatantly racist' remarks from some speakers Posted: 17 Aug 2020 08:42 PM PDT  The New Mexico Civil Guard, whose founder is a neo-Confederate with a swastika tattoo, said it does not want to
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| Airlines and airports to push for COVID-19 testing instead of quarantines Posted: 18 Aug 2020 06:22 AM PDT  Airlines and airports will ask a U.N.-led task force meeting on Tuesday to recommend that countries accept a negative COVID-19 test within 48 hours of travel as an alternative to quarantine for travelers.
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| Bill Clinton is getting sidelined at the DNC Posted: 18 Aug 2020 07:41 AM PDT  Former President Bill Clinton is getting a chance to speak during the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday, although the virtual, pre-recorded address will last less than five minutes and will come well-before the 10 p.m. primetime hour. That's a sign, some observers think, that the Democratic Party is ready to move on from the former leader.> I'd have vastly preferred that he didn't speak at all, but Bill Clinton is clearly getting ushered into the wings—he's getting less than five minutes to speak tonight, and it's not going to be during the hour the networks are carrying. https://t.co/1ibFEzhmz8> > — Angus Johnston (@studentactivism) August 18, 2020Back in 2012, Clinton stole the show at the DNC with a 48-minute speech that left his allotted time in the dust. Some even credited the speech with making a better case for former President Barack Obama's re-election than Obama himself did. But those days are gone, even though Clinton reportedly remains personally engaged with the current state of politics.Clinton is 74 now and is reportedly taking great precautions during the coronavirus pandemic because of some health concerns, so lengthy speeches might be out of the question, either way, but Democrats told The New York Times he's simply no longer a focus for a party that has shifted to the left of how he governed between 1993 and 2001. Additionally, the MeToo movement has brought multiple allegations of harassment and assault against Clinton back to the forefront."It's been 25 years since he was president," said Patti Solis Doyle, a former aide to Hillary Clinton and her first campaign in 2008. "He ran much more as a conservative; he governed much more as a conservative. The party now has moved further to the left than it ever has been. I think his time as a politician has passed." Read more at The New York Times.More stories from theweek.com Notre Dame's president insisted in-person classes were 'worth the risk.' A week into the semester, they're shutting down. Bernie Sanders reportedly wanted Harris to be Biden's running mate, even over Elizabeth Warren Kamala Harris' Secret Service code name reportedly reflects her groundbreaking nomination
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| The Trump-Administration Reforms Obama’s Misguided Methane-Emissions Rule Posted: 18 Aug 2020 03:30 AM PDT  Let the hysteria begin. The Trump administration has finalized a reform of the federal rules on emissions of methane, the major component of natural gas, from oil and gas production. The existing rules were implemented by the Obama administration in 2016, justified largely as a means of addressing anthropogenic climate change. That justification is deeply dubious, but any relaxation of such regulations is unacceptable to an environmental Left ideologically opposed to fossil fuels. And so an inexorable avalanche of criticism and litigation from the usual suspects is upon us, all of which will ignore several central truths.First: Neither the Obama rule nor the proposed reform would have any detectable effect on temperatures or climate phenomena over the remainder of this century. (Climate projections beyond 2100 are not to be taken seriously.) Total U.S. methane emissions in 2018 (635 million metric tons in CO2 equivalents) were 9.5 percent of all U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions, and about 1.2 percent of global greenhouse-gas emissions. Suppose that U.S. methane emissions were to be eliminated completely. If we apply the EPA climate model, which is based on assumptions that exaggerate the effects of reduced emissions, global temperatures would be about 0.012° Celsius lower than otherwise would be the case by the year 2100. If we apply assumptions more consistent with the modern peer-reviewed literature, that predicted effect becomes even smaller — about 0.005° Celsius. If a complete elimination of methane emissions would have a such a trivial effect, the effect of the Obama rule would be even less significant.The rule's effect on sea levels and other climate parameters similarly would be undetectable. As temperatures rise, driven by some combination of natural and anthropogenic causes, most climate models predict ancillary effects on sea levels, cyclones, and other phenomena; the commonly asserted seriousness of those effects ("existential threat!") is not supported by the evidence. The Obama administration claimed that the rule would reduce annual methane emissions by 11 million metric tons, or about 1.7 percent of annual U.S. methane emissions, by 2025 — again, a number too small to have an effect on climate phenomena. In short, the rule cannot satisfy any plausible cost/benefit analysis; the justification used by its backers — that it would be an effective way of addressing anthropogenic climate change — is inconsistent with basic climate science.Second: The Obama rule and the Trump reform apply only to U.S. oil and gas production and transport systems, which account for about 28 percent of U.S. methane emissions and about 2.6 percent of U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions. They do not apply to U.S. agriculture, which account for 40 percent of U.S. methane emissions and 3.8 percent of U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions.Agricultural methane emissions stem from enteric fermentation by livestock, manure management, rice production, composting, field burning of field residues, and other processes. The Trump reform recognizes the obvious: Even apart from the near-zero effect on the climate of methane emissions whatever their source, agricultural emissions are larger than those from fossil-fuel operations. But it would be much more difficult to reduce agricultural emissions; doing so would drive up the industry's costs significantly, and thus the prices that Americans pay for food. The costs to fossil-fuel operations of the Obama methane rule by contrast are hidden in a long supply chain comprising exploration, production, gathering and transport (including transport of crude oil and refined products from overseas), refining, distribution, imports, and so on, while the adverse price effects can be blamed on the evil oil companies.All this helps to explain the refusal of one Congress after another to target methane emissions — or greenhouse-gas emissions more generally — through legislation. Political support for such policies is nonexistent outside the environmental Left, which is why the Obama administration resorted to executive-branch regulation to enact them.Third: The Obama rule largely overlapped with the existing regulation of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted as a result of fossil-fuel companies' operations. VOCs contribute to the formation of ground-level ozone, a problem very different from the climate-change rationale used to justify the methane rule. Regulations directed at the reduction of VOC emissions have the natural ancillary effect of reducing methane emissions as well, a reality recognized by the Obama administration itself. For the reasons already discussed, these ancillary effects are so small as to be irrelevant in terms of climate phenomena, and the Trump administration is not proposing a relaxation of the regulations reducing VOC emissions in any event.Note that only about a quarter of U.S. VOC emissions result from industrial and other economic activities; about 70 percent are from biological ("biogenic") sources. Most of the emissions from economic activities result from "other industrial processes," defined by the EPA as "chemical production, petroleum refining, metals production, and processes other than fuel combustion." Between 1990 and 2014, the most recent period for which the EPA has reported data, non-biological VOC emissions have declined 47 percent, and VOC emissions from "other industrial processes" have declined about 26 percent. This is largely consistent with the 18 percent decline in U.S. methane emissions from 1990 to 2018. The correlation means that the Obama methane rule was redundant, imposing costs on fossil-fuel production without providing any benefits.Why is it that methane emissions from fossil-fuel operations have declined about 23 percent since 1990, despite an increase in oil production of 49 percent, and an increase in gas production of 72 percent? Notwithstanding the assertions of the environmental Left, a reduction in methane emissions furthers the industry's interests, because methane is valuable; from the viewpoint of a profit-seeking fossil-fuel producer, sales are vastly preferable to losses through emissions. The interests of the private sector and environmental protection are far more consistent than commonly asserted, a reality that no one should be allowed to obscure.
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| These states require travelers to self-quarantine or present negative COVID-19 test Posted: 18 Aug 2020 02:30 PM PDT  States are opening back up, but some still require or recommend visitors self-quarantine for two weeks. Find out where.
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| Ex-admissions worker used student IDs to steal $84K in aid at TN college, feds say Posted: 17 Aug 2020 04:03 PM PDT  A student's missing refund check led investigators to 32-year-old Renauld Clayton, who worked in the admissions office at Tennessee State University.
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| An 82-year-old Texas man waited more than a week for his heart medication to arrive, thanks to USPS delays Posted: 17 Aug 2020 02:01 PM PDT  Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has agreed to testify next week before the House Oversight Committee about his cost-cutting measures at the USPS.
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| South African farmers protest attacks Posted: 18 Aug 2020 12:27 PM PDT  Hundreds of farmers on tractors, excavators, harvesters, trucks or horses took to the streets of the small South African town of Mookgophong on Tuesday, protesting what they said was a spike in attacks on farms.
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| Reopen schools and let parents decide how to educate their children in the COVID pandemic Posted: 17 Aug 2020 08:55 AM PDT  Children can be harmed by lack of education, nutrition and mental health care. We cannot ignore the casualties of all other conditions to contain COVID.
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| Andrew Cuomo undercuts Democrats' message on coronavirus Posted: 17 Aug 2020 07:26 PM PDT  New York Governor Andrew Cuomo spoke during the first night of the 2020 Democratic National Convention Monday. As was expected, he attacked President Trump's abysmal performance on containing the coronavirus pandemic. Our "current federal government is dysfunctional and incompetent," he said, correctly.Unfortunately, Cuomo is perhaps the single least credible person in the entire country to make this criticism. As I have outlined in detail previously, Cuomo frittered away weeks bickering with New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio while the virus was spreading like wildfire in the New York City metro area, only locking down his state after it was too late. And as we have since learned, his decision to force nursing homes to accept COVID-19 cases almost certainly caused thousands and thousands more infections and deaths.Though New York has since largely gotten the outbreak under control, Cuomo's initial performance was a world-historical catastrophe. His state has the second-highest rate of COVID-19 fatalities of any in the country (just behind New Jersey, which was essentially part of the same outbreak). If it were its own country New York would have by far the highest death rate in the world. In a sense, Governor Cuomo was right to say, "government matters and leadership matters." His record is an object lesson in what happens when that job is done poorly.More stories from theweek.com Bill Clinton is getting sidelined at the DNC Notre Dame's president insisted in-person classes were 'worth the risk.' A week into the semester, they're shutting down. Bernie Sanders reportedly wanted Harris to be Biden's running mate, even over Elizabeth Warren
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| Car-sized asteroid just made the closest fly-by of Earth on record Posted: 18 Aug 2020 02:16 PM PDT  Astronomers didn't even know about the asteroid until after it had already crossed our path.
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| Japan voices concerns over Chinese activity around disputed islands: NHK Posted: 18 Aug 2020 04:38 AM PDT  Japanese Defence Minister Taro Kono told China's ambassador to Japan, Kong Xuanyou, his country should refrain from activities around disputed East China Sea islands that are controlled by Tokyo but claimed by Beijing, public broadcaster NHK reported. Kono expressed strong concern over China's actions in a 40-minute meeting at the defence ministry, NHK said, after Japan last month accused Chinese government ships of repeated intrusions into its territorial waters around the islands.
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| 'You can't fix stupid' — Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro rips Kodak executives Posted: 17 Aug 2020 08:00 AM PDT  "What happened at Kodak was probably the dumbest decisions made by executives in corporate history," Navarro said.
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