| Lincoln Project targets 3 deep red states with million-dollar ad buy as election map ‘turning against’ Trump Posted: 31 Oct 2020 03:31 PM PDT  With just three days left until the election, President Trump's enemies are seeing new opportunities in staunchly red states.
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| ‘You change police culture, you change American culture’: Police officers choose sides on killing of Walter Wallace Jr. Posted: 31 Oct 2020 08:10 AM PDT  This week's fatal police shooting of Walter Wallace Jr. has again raised questions about the effectiveness of police procedures when engaging individuals with mental health issues. Officers, like the public at large, have varying opinions.
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| North Carolina pastor steps down from job after a woman accused him of peeing on her during a Delta flight, reports say Posted: 01 Nov 2020 10:19 AM PST  According to The Charlotte Observer, Daniel Chalmers stepped down from his "non-pastor" position at Catch the Fire Raleigh-Durham.
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| A hangman's noose displayed in a polling station in Missouri covered up following complaints of voter intimidation towards Black voters Posted: 01 Nov 2020 05:55 AM PST  The noose was part of a display in a historical exhibit marking the last legal execution by hanging in Missouri in 1937.
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| Super typhoon Goni slams into Philippines, at least 7 dead Posted: 01 Nov 2020 06:01 AM PST  "There are so many people who are really in vulnerable areas," said Ricardo Jalad, who heads the government's disaster-response agency.
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| White House coronavirus adviser Atlas apologizes for Russian TV interview Posted: 01 Nov 2020 12:06 PM PST  White House coronavirus adviser Scott Atlas apologized on Sunday for giving an interview to Russia's Kremlin-backed television station RT, saying he was unaware the outlet was a registered foreign agent in the United States. Atlas, a neuroradiologist and member of the White House coronavirus task force, appeared on the channel on Saturday and criticized coronavirus lockdowns measures, calling them an "epic failure" at stopping the virus' spread. "I recently did an interview with RT and was unaware they are a registered foreign agent," Atlas wrote on Twitter.
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| Lawyer: Wisconsin cop can't be fired for future shooting Posted: 31 Oct 2020 09:25 AM PDT  An attorney for a Wisconsin police officer who has fatally shot three people since 2015 says his client shouldn't be disciplined or fired simply because city officials are worried he might do it again. Wauwatosa Officer Joseph Mensah, who is Black, has been cleared of any criminal wrongdoing in all three cases. Former federal prosecutor Steven Biskupic issued a report in early October saying Mensah should be fired because the risk that he would kill a fourth person and expose the city to liability was too great.
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| Greg Gutfeld: What the 2020 election means for everyone Posted: 31 Oct 2020 07:38 PM PDT  Greg Gutfeld covers the final push to election day.
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| Chile elite say facing 'uncertain' future after vote Posted: 31 Oct 2020 07:02 PM PDT  In Santiago's well-heeled suburbs, Chile's elite say they are facing uncertainty after the rest of the country voted to ditch the dictatorship-era constitution that has served them well for decades.
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| Government agencies paying thousands to become 'Diversity Champions' for gay-rights charity Posted: 31 Oct 2020 06:04 AM PDT  Government agencies and public bodies are paying hundreds of thousands of pounds a year to become 'Diversity Champions' for a charity with controversial views on transgender rights. Roughly 250 Government departments and public bodies, including police forces, local councils and NHS trusts, pay thousands each year to be members of the programme run by Stonewall. The amount that each organisation pays is shrouded in secrecy, but the base rate is £2,500 and can vary depending on the size of the organisation, suggesting that the taxpayer is footing a bill of at least £600,000. A recent Freedom of Information (FOI) request to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) shows it is paying the charity £6,000 a year for two subscriptions – one for their staff in England and one in Wales. A separate FOI request to the Scottish Government shows it paid £9,144 to the charity in 2019, including £7,200 for membership. As part of the programme, organisations are given training on inclusion and instructed to implement controversial policies such transgender people being able to choose which toilets and changing rooms to use. The CPS is currently facing a judicial review over its membership, which campaigners say renders it "institutionally biased". It is said the legal challenge could have "huge implications" for other public bodies. On Saturday evening, critics claimed signing up to policies set by a group which is lobbying to change the law on gender issues, calls into question the ability of public bodies to remain impartial. The list of members on Stonewall's website includes approximately 250 taxpayer-funded institutions, an analysis by The Telegraph has found, including GCHQ, MI5, the Ministry of Defence, the Cabinet Office, the Department for Education and the Ministry of Justice. The list also contains 57 local authorities, 47 emergency service providers, including almost 30 police forces, and more than 50 NHS organisations. Stonewall's accounts show it made £3.26 million in fees last year, up from £2.76 million the year before, a large part of which comes from the Diversity Champions programme, but also includes payments from schools for becoming 'Education Champions' and for event speakers. On their own websites many organisations hail themselves as Diversity Champions without mentioning they pay a subscription fee for the title. For example, the Department for Work and Pensions notes: "Stonewall acknowledges DWP as a Diversity Champion in recognition of our work to promote supportive work environments for our lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) colleagues" – but does not disclose any payments. Stonewall says membership allows organisations to have access to their research and expertise as well as networking opportunities. One teenage girl, supported by the Safe Schools Alliance UK (SSA),has applied for a judicial review of the CPS membership of the Diversity Champions programme. The CPS has responded saying membership of the Diversity Champions programme has no bearing on its role as a prosecuting authority, and a judge is set to decide whether there is a case to answer in the coming weeks. Tracy Shaw, a spokesperson for the SSA, said there was a duty on public bodies to remain impartial, objective and balanced and that could be compromised by membership of a lobby group. She said: "How can you be impartial when you are part of a champion programme which compels you to do certain things and behave in a certain way that contravenes women and girls rights to safe spaces?" Nancy Kelley, chief executive of Stonewall said: "All employers, including public authorities, have a legal duty to reduce inequalities and ensure lesbian, gay, bi and trans people are free from discrimination at work. "Our industry-leading Diversity Champions programme supports organisations to make their workplaces more inclusive of LGBT people. This work is absolutely vital as more than a third of LGBT staff (35 per cent) hide who they are at work, while one in five (18 per cent) have been the target of bullying because they're LGBT. "The programme covers everything from policy and procedure, to staff networks and monitoring, to culture and well-being to help organisation create truly inclusive workplaces." A CPS spokesman said: "Our status as a Stonewall champion plays no part in our decision making. It is to show that the CPS is an employer that welcomes and respects our LGBT+ staff."
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| US public-health experts say they're staying home this Thanksgiving — but some will still gather with family Posted: 01 Nov 2020 06:02 AM PST  Experts won't be traveling to see extended family for Thanksgiving this year, as coronavirus infections hit record highs in the US.
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| Pregnant New Jersey woman killed by shooter who waited outside her home, baby survives Posted: 01 Nov 2020 08:02 AM PST  The unidentified 31-year-old woman delivered a healthy child before dying, according to local reports.
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| Taiwan celebrates equality, coronavirus success in Asia's largest Pride march Posted: 31 Oct 2020 02:24 AM PDT  More than 130,000 people, many wearing rainbow masks, marched through Taipei on Saturday to celebrate LGBTQ+ equality and the island's success in fighting coronavirus, in one of the largest Pride marches globally this year. "Taiwan has done a fantastic job at both equality and pandemic control," said Chen Wei-chun, a 32-year-old bank employee who joined the march with a rainbow mask on. Taiwan has recorded just 555 COVID-19 infections and seven deaths, the majority of cases imported, thanks to early and effective response.
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| Kamala Makes High Stakes Wager for Team Biden in Texas Posted: 30 Oct 2020 09:16 PM PDT  When Hillary Clinton made a last-minute visit to Arizona in the final week before the 2016 presidential election, fretful Democrats worried—justifiably, it turned out—that the nominee's political adventurism could come at a high cost.Four years later, the Biden campaign is meeting Clinton's high-stakes red-state wager and raising her by the second-biggest prize in the Electoral College.In the surest sign yet that Texas is in genuine play this election cycle, the Biden campaign dispatched Sen. Kamala Harris of California, the vice presidential nominee, to a three-city tour of the Lone Star State on Friday, the last day of early voting in the state."It's good to be in Texas," Harris told supporters in Houston, her third appearance in a trip that also included the suburb-rich Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex and the border city of McAllen, where the rising Latino population has made Hidalgo County one of the fastest growing in the country. "They've done a great job in terms of early voting and so we just want to remind people what's at stake and that their votes really matter. Lots of important issues, and they have the power to determine the outcome of this race."For state Democrats who have been desperate for the national party to share in their enthusiasm that this year is finally the year that the "demographics is destiny" chant becomes reality, Harris' tour presages a future where the state is embraced as a potential swing state instead of dismissed as a Republican California. Or, as youth activist Clarissa Conde said before introducing Harris at an event near McAllen, "a more resilient and compassionate Texas, a more equal and equitable Texas."Even in a campaign as rich as former Vice President Joe Biden's, time is the most valuable commodity in the final week of a presidential campaign, particularly the hours devoted to in-person appearances across the nation's second-largest state by population. While the late-coming investment in Texas—once polls showed a neck-and-neck race, the Biden campaign started buying millions in airtime in major Texas media markets—does force the cash-strapped Trump campaign to allocate precious resources in a state that should be a fait accompli, Harris told reporters that the visits are, just as importantly, in recognition of the hard-working party members who have rarely gotten thanks from national Democrats."There are people here who matter, people here who are working hard, people who love their country and we need to be here and be responsive to them," Harris told reporters on the tarmac in McAllen after her first appearance in Forth Worth. "That's why we are here—because there are a lot of important people in South Texas."Harris' remarks in the state were not always particularly Texas-centric, unusual for get-out-the-vote events in a state with as pervasive a brand. Beyond speaking in front of a Lone Star Flag the size of a parking lot in each stop, Harris' comments in her trio of appearances were standard stump-speech material—more geared for general base-boosting than winning over Texans at the last minute—although she did nod to the state's unique demographic profile.Biden Campaign Can't Resist Making a Last-Minute Play for Texas, Georgia "When this administration has orphaned 545 children because of a policy that has been about separating children from their parents at the border, everything is at stake," Harris told voters in McAllen. "When we are looking at the fact that 200,000 of our front-line workers have been DREAMers who were promised DACA protection, everything is at stake. Everything is at stake when we need to create a pathway toward citizenship."Part of the campaign's strategy may be rooted in the fact that the Biden campaign is, by necessity, winging its Texas strategy to a certain degree—when no Democrat has won the state's electoral votes since Jimmy Carter, there's not exactly a playbook for turning out blue voters in Texas.The campaign's manager, Jen O'Malley Dillon—who herself waged one of the highest profile political battles in modern Texas history when she managed Beto O'Rourke's campaign for U.S. Senate two years ago—said as much in a call with high-dollar donors last week"Texas is a place that is a little bit harder for us to monitor because we've never actually had to before, in a presidential race," O'Malley Dillon said in a state-of-the-race call with top campaign donors last week, a recording of which was obtained by The Daily Beast. "We're still trying to work through that, but we are seeing massive turnout in Texas… and I would say, continuing to focus on the lower-propensity voters to make sure that they're trying to vote early to give us a more efficient bucket of people to go to for election day is job No. 1."If early voting numbers are any indication, the gambit has potential to pay off. With four days until Election Day, Texas already surpassed its 2016 turnout, reporting 9,009,850 votes already cast on Friday morning. Granted, some of that is rooted in expanded interest in mail-in voting due to the pandemic, as well as the state's explosive population growth—Texas' estimated population has grown by more than 7 percent in just four years—and the fact that the state has a famously low turnout rate.But that kind of growth has hidden benefits for Democrats. The state's decade-long pitch as a tax haven for corporate headquarters has brought in hundreds of thousands of people from more liberal, higher-tax states, and those voters don't check their politics at the state line.The excitement for those demographic changes to result in electoral changes is palpable."I can't wait for Texas to be the deciding state in this presidential election," said Tina Knowles—businesswoman, fashion designer and mother of Texas native Beyoncé—before introducing Harris in Houston. "Y'all know if we win Texas, it's game over."That dynamic has borne out in urban and suburban counties, particularly in Harris County, a.k.a. Houston, where the 1.4 million ballots cast this cycle have already broken historical turnout records. Considering that political scientists with an eye on Texas have said that turnout would need to exceed at least 1.5 million in Harris County for a statewide Biden victory to enter the realm of possibility, that's a very good sign for the former vice president's campaign—and makes his running mate's trip at least worth the price of jet fuel."We're putting a lot of resources into Texas," Harris told reporters upon landing in Houston. "Texas has so much at stake in this election and they deserve to be heard, they deserve to be engaged by us because we intend to earn every vote. We're not gonna tell anybody they're supposed to vote for us—we want to earn those votes."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 admin funds plasma company based in owner's condo Posted: 01 Nov 2020 05:13 AM PST  When the Trump administration gave a well-connected Republican donor seed money to test a possible COVID-19-fighting blood plasma technology, it noted the company's "manufacturing facilities" in Charleston, South Carolina. Plasma Technologies LLC is indeed based in the stately waterfront city. Instead, the company exists within the luxury condo of its majority owner, Eugene Zurlo.
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| The son of Lev Parnas offers one more Trump tell-all Posted: 01 Nov 2020 05:57 AM PST  As a law student, Aaron Parnas says, he witnessed many of his father's encounters with President Trump and his inner circle.
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| Meng Wanzhou: Questions over Huawei executive’s arrest as legal battle continues Posted: 31 Oct 2020 05:21 AM PDT  More details emerge as a legal battle over the extradition of Meng Wanzhou continues in Canada.
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| Priest shot outside French church, suspect arrested Posted: 31 Oct 2020 02:56 PM PDT  An attacker armed with a sawn-off shotgun seriously wounded a Greek Orthodox priest in a shooting outside a church in the French city of Lyon on Saturday, with the country still reeling from a deadly church attack days before.
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| Scientists capture two murder hornet queens after destroying nest Posted: 01 Nov 2020 07:29 AM PST  The team also uncovered the radio tag that led them to the nest in the first place — which appeared to have been chewed off.
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| An activist's dreams 'were about to come true.' Then, a horrific accident cut her life short. Posted: 01 Nov 2020 01:30 AM PST  "Our mission is to make sure this doesn't happen again," the husband of Esther Nakajjigo told NBC News in an exclusive interview.
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| Greece says Turkey encroaching on continental shelf with new hydrocarbon search Posted: 01 Nov 2020 03:43 AM PST |
| Vernon Jones responds to criticism of Black men supporting Trump Posted: 31 Oct 2020 04:59 AM PDT  Democratic State Rep. and Black Voices for Trump advisory board member Vernon Jones reacts to Black support for Trump on 'Fox & Friends Weekend.'
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| Election win by Georgia's governing party triggers protests Posted: 01 Nov 2020 06:54 AM PST  Georgia's ruling party won the ex-Soviet nation's highly contested parliamentary election, according to preliminary results announced Sunday that the opposition refused to recognize as valid and used to call for protests, saying they were manipulated. With more than 99% of ballots counted, the Georgian Dream party had received 48.1% of the vote in Saturday's election, according to the website of Georgia's Central Election Commission. The biggest opposition alliance, led by the United National Movement party, got 27.1%.
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| Coronavirus: ‘Twindemic’ fears as California patient simultaneously tests positive for Covid-19 and flu Posted: 31 Oct 2020 11:32 AM PDT  The US reported almost 100,000 new Covid-19 cases in a day on Friday
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| The Biden campaign cancelled events in Texas after a convoy of trucks flying Trump flags surrounded their bus and ran into a person's car, officials say Posted: 31 Oct 2020 08:17 PM PDT  Videos shared on Twitter showed vehicles surrounding the bus. In one clip, a pickup truck with a Trump flag appears to drive into a smaller car.
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| How the controversial Nile dam might fix Sudan's floods Posted: 31 Oct 2020 06:03 PM PDT  Egypt and Ethiopia are at loggerheads over the mega dam, with Sudan literally stuck in the middle.
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| Kyle Rittenhouse admitted he 'ended a man's life' and 'shot two white kids' in Kenosha shootings, but claimed self defense, police said Posted: 31 Oct 2020 12:38 PM PDT  In a police report obtained by Insider, the 17-year-old told police he "shot two white kids" and "ended a man's life" when he turned himself in.
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| ‘Was Jesus a Wizard?’ Is Actually a Serious Scholarly Question Posted: 01 Nov 2020 01:57 AM PST  It's Halloween weekend, when scary but sexy becomes a universally acceptable dress code. Though trick-or-treating may be off the table because of the pandemic, sexy devils, witches, and wizards are still on the sartorial menu. Though the Satanic undertones of Halloween might seem a world away from the pristine piety of Christianity there's a case to be made that the most famous magician of all time is not Harry Potter or Gandalf, but Jesus Christ himself.To us modern readers, who often first encounter Jesus stories in incense-scented churches or the hushed tones of a Bible study, the Son of God's biography and abilities might seem uniquely special. But there were a number of people in the ancient world who could perform what we might describe as miracles, magic, or wonders. A number of Roman historians tell us that the Emperor Vespasian could cure blindness, restore a "withered hand," and even assisted in a case involving a damaged leg (all things Jesus is supposed to have done). Both the mathematician Pythagoras and the Emperor Augustus were said to have healed "pestilences." And a competitor of the Apostle Peter, a man known as Simon Magus, could apparently fly. Many of these narratives sound more like the Elvis sightings that adorn the pages of the "newspapers" at the grocery store checkout than reliable accounts of historical events.Then of course there is the resurrection, the most important supernatural event in the Christian Bible. Some theologians argue that the resurrection is a unique event that distinguishes Jesus from other human beings who were either temporarily brought back to life (like Lazarus) or were taken up into heaven alive. While we don't actually know if ancient audiences cared about the permanency of the resurrection they were impressed when people could raise the dead. It's something of which the philosopher Empedocles was apparently capable and a wandering healer called Apollonius of Tyana could also bring the deceased back to life.This isn't to say that all of these men were wizards, but rather that the ability to heal, break the laws of physics, or cheat death wasn't confined to early Christians. Most interesting of all, no one, not even monotheists like the early Christians, disputed that members of rival groups could do these sorts of things. They just claimed that their own methods and sources of power were superior. In the Gospels, Jesus' rivals accuse him of being possessed by a demon and use this to explain how he performs exorcisms. There are also mentions of people unaffiliated with Jesus casting out demons in his name. Apparently, you didn't have to be baptized or a follower of Jesus to utilize his power.In 1978, Columbia historian Morton Smith published Jesus the Magician in which he argued that Jesus was one of many ancient magicians and that his ministry is best understood as wonderworking. He argued that while healing the sick, exorcizing demons, turning water into wine, multiplying bread, and walking on water read to us as signs of Jesus's divine nature, in his own time he sounded like a magician. If you transplanted Jesus to Hogwarts, it seems, he wouldn't even stand out.There are even examples of early Christian artwork that seem to confirm this theory. Stone reliefs on ancient Christian sarcophagi and the walls of the catacombs beneath Rome regularly show Jesus (and sometimes Peter) healing people while holding or even pointing with something that looks very much like a wand. In actual fact, he's holding a staff and even though we might also associate that with Tolkien's wizards, it was more likely a way of connecting Jesus to the biblical prophet Moses.Even if the artistic evidence doesn't hold up it's clear that there were those outside of Christianity who also viewed Jesus as a magician. Celsus, a Roman philosopher and critic of Christianity, said that Jesus was a magician who had learned his trade in Egypt. Dr. Shaily Patel, a professor of early Christianity at Virginia Tech and specialist in ancient magic, told the Daily Beast that Christians spent a lot of time defending themselves against these claims. Origen, the third century head of a kind of Christian university in Alexandria, "spilled a lot of ink talking about how Jesus' wondrous deeds weren't magic because they were aimed at things like moral reformation and salvation instead of the sorts of parlor trickery displayed by marketplace sorcerers."It's likely, Patel added, that both Celsus and Origen are stereotyping magicians in their comments about Jesus but the questions about the founder of Christianity arise from the fact that there were other accomplished ancient wonderworkers who did the same kinds of things. In this case calling someone a "magician," Patel went on to explain, is about delegitimization. It's a way of slandering someone by associating them with something negative.As David Frankfurter has argued in his recent Guide to the Study of Ancient Magic, the problem with these conversations about magic is that they usually start with an assumption about what magic actually is. That definition, in turn, is a scholarly reconstructing that relies upon centuries of accumulating biases and assumptions. Patel pointed out that magic wasn't always considered a bad thing or even something that the uneducated rabble did. She told me that when the Platonist philosopher Apuleius of Madura was put on trial for "evil acts of magic" he argued, among other things, that magic is no different from philosophy. In fact, in the ancient world, distinguishing magic, medicine, and religion from one another is not always easy. The supernatural is mixed up in everything from ancient physics, to philosophy, health care, and even banking. When an ancient elite writer describes one person as a philosopher and another as a magician they are often writing those differences into existence.All of which is to say that perhaps Jesus deserves a place alongside all the Halloween costumes of today, be they tasteful or of Tiger King and Karen. After all, and even when socially distanced, who wouldn't want a guest who can turn tap water into alcohol and multiply the snack options?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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| Despite closed border and pandemic, desperate Venezuelans return to Colombia Posted: 01 Nov 2020 06:09 AM PST  Dodging army border patrols, fording rivers and braving low Andean temperatures, thousands of Venezuelan migrants are making arduous journeys into Colombia in search of a better life, despite the COVID-19 pandemic. Colombia, which slammed its border shut in March to protect against the spread of the coronavirus, has long been the top destination for migrants fleeing economic and social collapse in neighboring Venezuela. At the beginning of the pandemic, Venezuelan migrants flocked homeward, unable to find work when Colombia entered a strict lockdown.
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| Coronavirus updates: COVID restrictions and lockdowns rise in US and Europe, as Trump's rallies are blamed for cases Posted: 31 Oct 2020 01:09 PM PDT  A surge in COVID-19 cases is underway in the U.S. and abroad, leading to a new round of virus-related rules in some areas. Latest COVID news.
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| Moldova election headed for runoff in Russia-West tug of war Posted: 01 Nov 2020 01:02 PM PST  Moldova's pro-Moscow President Igor Dodon won the most votes in Sunday's presidential election, according to partial results, but looks set to face his longtime pro-Western rival Maia Sandu in a second round later this month.
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| Virus Hospitalizations Are Up in New York City. But This Time, It's Different. Posted: 31 Oct 2020 07:10 AM PDT  NEW YORK -- At one New York City hospital, coronavirus patients began arriving a few weeks ago from Brooklyn neighborhoods and nearby suburbs that have seen a resurgence of the virus.But in contrast to March and April -- when so many seriously ill New Yorkers flooded into the hospital, Mount Sinai, that a field hospital was erected nearby in Central Park -- patients were showing up in smaller numbers and were often less sick. After treatment, they were going home."There is a much lower recent mortality rate," said Dr. David Reich, president of the hospital, despite the fact that the number of people being treated for COVID-19 had grown from the single digits in August to 56 on a given day last week.As virus cases surge nationwide, hospitals around the country, particularly in rural areas of the Midwest, are seeing their largest uptick yet of critically ill patients. Some have begun to fill to capacity -- an autumn wave of the pandemic that appears to get worse each day.In New York City, hospitalizations have been slowly but steadily rising, eliciting painful memories of the surge of infections in the spring that killed more than 20,000 people. But the terrifying inundation of patients that overwhelmed hospitals then has yet to materialize again in New York City, even as cases rise.Broad acceptance of face masks and social distancing has helped curb the spread of the virus, public health experts said. Fewer cases means fewer patients, allowing hospitals to better care for those who do come through the door.And while there is no cure for COVID-19, doctors, nurses and other medical personnel in New York City have used their experiences during the spring surge to make significant improvements in hospital care.Across the city's public and private hospitals, patients with an illness serious enough to need treatment are given a diagnosis and cared for more quickly, spend less time on average in the hospital, and are less likely to end up on mechanical ventilation, doctors and hospital executives said.Fewer are dying: 139 people in the four weeks ending last Saturday. On the worst day during the spring, New York City recorded over 800 confirmed and probable deaths.That trend has been mirrored in other parts of the country and world, as studies have begun to show lower death rates."You would expect there would be a lot more in the way of hospitalizations and deaths and, happily, there are not," said Dr. Mitchell Katz, head of New York City's public hospital system. He noted that at the peak in April the city's public hospital system had more than 900 critically ill COVID-19 patients on ventilators. On a recent day there were nine."How can I call that a second wave?"Public health officials and epidemiologists had expected a resurgence of the virus in New York as the weather cooled, but many believed its effect would likely be less devastating than in the spring. Now, about 460 people are hospitalized in the city with COVID-19 -- near the highest levels seen since late June. That is nowhere near the peak in April, when the virus patient count on one day was more than 12,000.For now, patients who have been admitted tend to be doing better.Lorenzo Paladino, an emergency room doctor at SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, recalled how during the spring, some patients were "dying at the door" as they entered the emergency department or going into cardiac arrest while in the ambulance bay.Now, he said, patients tended to arrive in better shape.One reason might be that patients are not waiting to go to the hospital, as they were encouraged to do by health authorities at the height of the pandemic in New York, when crowding was an issue and seemingly milder cases were turned away.There are other factors, too. Nursing home patients today make up a smaller share of new cases, Katz said. And there are some indications that people being infected now tend to be younger on average than those in the spring, making them more likely to recover.Once hospitalized, patients are faring better because doctors have a better idea of how to treat them, such as using dexamethasone, a steroid.An NYU Langone Health study of more than 4,500 patients treated at its hospitals for COVID-19 from March to June found that outcomes began improving over time, even in the early months of the pandemic. At Mount Sinai, the mortality rate has similarly improved.After a summer of low numbers, the tide of cases began to rise. By early October, Gov. Andrew Cuomo had ordered localized shutdowns of schools and businesses in parts of Brooklyn, Queens and the city's northern suburbs.New hospital admissions began to rise, too, nearly doubling from their low point in September to about 120 a day across New York state, according to state health officials. A large part of the increase came from the communities with the sharpest rise in cases.But as of Sunday, fewer people were hospitalized in New York City than in the rest of the state, a reverse of the situation in the spring.The new cases have not been evenly distributed among hospitals. Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx has recorded only a slight rise in its coronavirus patient population. On Oct. 21, 32 people were hospitalized there, up from 30 two weeks earlier and 22 in early August.But in some parts of Brooklyn, the ambulance sirens -- after falling silent these past few months -- seem to have returned. Maimonides Medical Center, near the epicenter of an outbreak in south Brooklyn, was treating 57 patients with COVID-19 in mid-October. In late summer, there were typically about a dozen virus patients there.Mount Sinai, on Manhattan's Upper East Side, has also seen a sharp jump in patients, mostly from Brooklyn and the northern suburbs of Rockland and Orange counties, areas experiencing localized outbreaks. "It's busy but very stable," Reich said.Doctors and public health experts expressed confidence that treatments that emerged earlier in the year had prepared hospitals to better help patients, while underscoring that social distancing and mask-wearing remained critical."It's unlikely that New York City will experience again what it experienced in April and May," said Dr. Eric Toner, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.Out of 461 patients hospitalized Tuesday in the city, 122 were being treated in intensive care units, according to state data. On the worst days in April, more than 3,100 patients were in the ICU.Katz said he believed that a lower percentage of people with COVID-19 needed hospitalization now than in the spring. But he cautioned that it was hard to say for sure because testing was so limited then, and mild and moderate cases were far more likely to go undocumented.On April 7, the city saw its largest death toll -- 815 confirmed and probable deaths -- along with 6,045 cases and more than 11,000 hospitalizations. On Oct. 21, the most recent date for which city data is complete, the city recorded four deaths and 591 cases. On that day, 454 people were hospitalized.Katz listed a range of improvements that had helped patients at public hospitals, including a better understanding of when to put someone on a ventilator and improved use of blood thinners. Doctors have also seen the importance of turning COVID-19 patients onto their stomachs, a technique known as proning that helps distribute oxygen throughout the lungs.Similar developments have taken place at private facilities. At NYU Langone Health hospitals, for example, the length of stay for most virus patients has been declining, fewer were being treated in the ICU, and fewer were dying."Quite frankly, there were things that were tried early on in the pandemic that we weren't sure whether they were beneficial," Dr. Fritz Francois, chief medical officer at Langone, said. In some cases, he added, they "might have caused harm."For example, in the earliest days of the pandemic, hospitals in New York City tended to intubate patients early. Now, if possible, they avoid intubation, in which a mechanical ventilator breathes for a patient who is deeply sedated. Instead, doctors first attempt to give patients oxygen by less invasive means.Hospitals are also better prepared to rapidly assess patients from the start; get reliable virus test results in as little as two hours; and make better-informed decisions about whether people need to be admitted, taken to the ICU or provided some sort of oxygen support.So far, doctors and nurses have been helped by the small number of cases, allowing them to focus more attention on each patient.Like many health care workers, Dr. Ben McVane, who works in the emergency room at Elmhurst Hospital Center in Queens, had spent months bracing for the return of virus cases. More recently, some doctors have also begun to worry about flu season, and what simultaneous infections from both the flu and the coronavirus could do to patients.In recent weeks, McVane said, there had been a small but noticeable uptick of COVID-19 patients at Elmhurst.For the time being, he said, the increase of patients was manageable, even if it did bring to mind the dark days of the spring, when the hospital was one of the hardest hit in New York."For now, it's more foreboding about what comes next," he said.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| A top Trump coronavirus advisor made an appearance on a Russian propaganda outlet saying lockdown policies are 'killing people' Posted: 01 Nov 2020 09:03 AM PST  "The lockdowns will go down as an epic failure of public policy," Atlas said. "The argument is undeniable. The lockdowns are killing people."
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| Federal wildland firefighters say they're burned out after years of low pay, little job stability Posted: 31 Oct 2020 03:00 AM PDT  As record fire years continue, USFS "forestry technicians" push for better working conditions.
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| Illinois officers who fatally shot a Black teen left him to bleed out on the ground for 8 minutes without treatment, his mother alleges in a lawsuit Posted: 01 Nov 2020 02:47 PM PST  The lawsuit filed by Marcellis Stinnette's mother says Waukegan, Illinois officers involved in the fatal shooting of her son had "no probable cause."
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| US election poll: One in five believe Covid-19 is a ‘depopulation plan orchestrated by UN’ amid disturbing rise in conspiracy theories Posted: 31 Oct 2020 06:17 AM PDT  Exclusive: Only half of people questioned in US poll said that they would take a Covid-19 vaccine
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| Brazilians protest mandatory COVID-19 immunization, Chinese vaccine Posted: 01 Nov 2020 02:23 PM PST  More than 300 Brazilians gathered on São Paulo's main commercial thoroughfare on Sunday to protest state Governor João Doria's support for mandatory COVID-19 immunization and testing the potential vaccine developed by China's Sinovac . Doria has previously spoken in favor of making immunizations mandatory, once vaccines are available, sparking a spat with President Jair Bolsonaro who vows it will be voluntary. The Supreme Court's chief justice has said the court will ultimately decide on the issue.
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| 'You are a Black man at all times.' 3 generations tell of their family's hopes and fears in the Trump era Posted: 01 Nov 2020 06:00 AM PST  Three generations of a Las Vegas family tell how it feels to be a Black man in America in a season of protest.
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| 'Crossroads of the climate crisis': swing state Arizona grapples with deadly heat Posted: 01 Nov 2020 12:00 AM PDT  Maricopa county is home to America's hottest city, where deaths from the heat are weighing on voters' mindsEven now, Ivan Moore can't think why his father didn't didn't tell anyone that the air conditioning in their house was busted. "I honestly don't know what was going through his mind," he said.That week three years ago, temperatures in Phoenix, Arizona were forecasted to top 115F (46C). Moore, his wife and two children went to the mountains for a camping trip, and his dad Gene, stayed behind. A few days later, Gene died.The air conditioning had been blowing hot air. "He'd opened a window but it was too hot," Moore said. "My dad's heart basically gave out on him."Phoenix – America's hottest city – is getting hotter and hotter, and Moore's father is one of the hundreds of Arizonans who have succumbed to the desert heat in recent years.In August this year, Maricopa county, which encompasses Phoenix, recorded 1,000 Covid-19 deaths. That same month, the county was investigating more than 260 heat-related deaths.This summer, temperatures here stayed above 90F (32C), even at night, for 28 days straight, with the scorching weather in July and August breaking records. It was so hot and dry that towering saguaro cactuses that dot the landscape began to topple over and die.At the same time, wildfires across the western US this year cast a foreboding orange glow over the region and clouded Phoenix communities, already breathing some of the highest concentrations of toxic pollution in the nation, with even more smoke."I grew up in the desert, in the heat," Moore said. "But I think about what it's going to be like in another five years, in 10 years."The thought has been weighing on him – and many other Arizonans – as they cast their ballots ahead of next week's elections. Even amid a global pandemic, and the economic catastrophe it has triggered, polls find that Americans increasingly cite the climate emergency as a major concern. That's especially true in regions like Maricopa, where the crisis is already having deadly effects.Once a stronghold of western conservatism, Maricopa county has been slowly undergoing a political transformation – and has become one of the fiercely contested election battlegrounds in the nation.Asked to choose between a Democratic presidential candidate, Joe Biden, who recognizes global heating as an emergency, and a Republican, Donald Trump, who has called it a "hoax", a growing number of voters in the Valley of the Sun say they are seeking leadership that will address climate and help their desert home survive an increasingly precarious future. 'The crossroads of the climate crisis'"We are a desert community," said Laura Jimena Dent, the executive director of the Arizona-based environmental justice non-profit Chispa. "We are literally at the crossroads of the climate crisis."Since 1865, the temperatures in Maricopa have risen by nearly 2C. And since the 1950s, the water level in the region's well has dropped by 125ft. Even in a politically divided swing state, that's hard for anyone to ignore. A recent survey found that nearly three-quarters of Arizonans "agree" or "strongly agree" that the federal government "needs to do more to combat climate change".Even after the coronavirus pandemic hit this year, when researchers at Yale university conducted an annual survey of voters across the country, climate change went up on a list of voter priorities.> For the first time in American history, climate change has reached the very top echelons of voting issues> > Anthony Leiserowitz, Yale University"You see that reflected in how much political leaders – especially Democrats – have been talking about climate change this election," said Anthony Leiserowitz, an expert on public opinion of climate change at Yale University.Whereas liberal Democrats ranked climate change as their second most important issue out of 30, moderate Democrats rank it 8th, and moderate Republicans rank it somewhere in the middle.But in the US, and in Maricopa county, most voters agree climate change is happening, and they want lawmakers to do something about it. "For the first time in American history, climate change has reached the very top echelons of voting issues," Leiserowitz said.Indeed, just a few weeks ago, Americans heard Trump and Biden respond to the first question about the climate crisis at a presidential debate in 20 years. While Trump flatly refused to acknowledge that climate change was fueling wildfires across the west, Biden touted a $2tn plan to invest in green infrastructure, emphasizing the "millions of good-paying jobs" that his climate proposals could create.Responding to the wildfires ripping across California in a speech earlier this summer, Biden also cast the climate crisis as a threat to the safety and security of America's suburbs, flipping an attack the president has leveled against him to appeal to voters in regions like Maricopa – a sprawling suburban oasis in the desert."If you give a climate arsonist four more years in the White House, why would anyone be surprised if we have more of America ablaze?" he asked.Similarly, in a heated debate between the state's US Senate candidates, the incumbent Republican Martha McSally, who serves on the Senate energy and natural resources committee and is a close ally of the president, acknowledged "the climate is changing", but derided any "heavy-handed approach" to addressing it.Meanwhile, the Democrat Mark Kelly, a former astronaut, mused about how fragile the planet looks from low-Earth orbit. "There is no planet B," he said. "We have to do a better job taking care of this planet."The stark contrast between the parties' stances can help explain why voters in Maricopa have been increasingly repelled by the Republicans, said Josh Ulibarri, a Democratic pollster based in Phoenix.Conservatives here have been slowly leaving a Republican party that has grown increasingly extreme and rightwing. "Climate is part of that," Ulibarri said.Fifteen years ago, Arizona was one of the first states to develop a climate action plan, and climate change – at least in this region – was a bipartisan issue. John McCain, the state's late senior senator, was one of the few Republican lawmakers in Washington DC to support climate change legislation. But as national and local politics became more polarized, Republican politicians moved right.series linker embedAs a result, "college-educated voters and women voters have moved away from Republicans because they don't believe in science", Ulibarri said.Many independents recoiled, as well.Moore falls in that category. "Normally I go through, and I don't care if candidates are Republicans or Democrats – I do my research on whose viewpoints I agree with," he said. "But right now, the GOP – not Republicans but the party itself – has gone too far, too far right. They've been ridiculous with the choices they're making – the party needs a reset."Among other things, "we need our leaders figuring out: how do we live in a world that's going to get even hotter?" he added. This year, he picked Democrats up and down the ballot.Ultimately, Republicans' resistance to acknowledging and addressing climate change will hurt them politically, said Jeff Flake, a former Arizona senator. "I do think over time it really makes it difficult to attract, particularly, the younger generation, millennials, Gen Xers, and whoever else, when we don't have rational policies on climate change," said Flake, a Republican who has been critical of Trump's politics.With so much else going on, he said that while he doesn't see climate change playing a big role in this election, he imagines it will be hard to ignore in future ones. 'We're building the political power'Like many areas of the country, in Maricopa, poor neighborhoods and neighborhoods where Latino and Black families live are worst affected by both the heat and the bad air. Across the US, young voters and Latino voters are especially likely to prioritize climate action, polling shows."Latinos are more convinced climate change is real and that it's human caused, more worried about it, and more supportive of action than any other voting bloc," said Leiserowitz of Yale.In Maricopa, where about one third of the county's 4.5 million residents identify as Latino, environmental justice activists are at the forefront of efforts to galvanize voters to elect environmentally minded candidates."Our focus is on getting young people, Latino people, people of color across our state who have traditionally been less engaged in the political process," Dent said. "We are making calls, we are sending mail and digital ads, text messages and handwritten postcards."Translating concern about climate change into votes has proved challenging in the past, but as the region grows hotter, and more polluted, "we're building the political power", she said.The county earned an "F" rating this year from the American Lung Association. The cars and trucks that congest the city's sprawling highways have made Phoenix the seventh-most ozone-polluted metropolitan area in the country. Here, the heat speeds up production of the toxic ozone particles, which can damage the lungs and lead to serious, even deadly respiratory issues."For a decade, we in our communities have been raising our voices about these issues," said Blanca Abarca, 54, a community activist.Abarca lives in a largely Latino neighborhood in south Phoenix located downwind of an industrial dump the EPA has found is leeching "low levels" of toxic compounds and heavy metals including arsenic, barium, mercury, and nickel. She, her husband and their teenage daughter have MacGyvered their whole house to cope with the heat.They rely on a swamp cooler, ventilators on their roof and ceiling, and the trees they planted all around their house. They've got an AC unit - but they hardly use it. The high electricity bills could send them into debt."I tell people who can vote to do it for the community – to elect leaders who are going to better this great country, and for the future of our children," she said while on a break from gardening at Spaces of Opportunity, a community farm in south Phoenix where she and many others in the neighborhood come for a respite from heat.To be clear, she added, that is not how she would characterize the current president.Her efforts – and those of other progressive Latino activists – have been paying off. Young Latino voters have been casting ballots in record numbers in recent years, helping elect Democratic lawmakers in local and statewide elections.In 2019, the Democrat Kate Gallego was elected mayor of Phoenix – in part thanks to a wave of young, progressive Latino voters. Gallego has a bachelor's degree in environmental science."I grew up with asthma. And as you spend time wheezing by the track, it gives you an opportunity to reflect on air quality," she said. Since taking office, Gallego has focused on developing better public transportation infrastructure to reduce the number of vehicles on the road. She's also overseeing the development of a network of "cool corridors" – to ensure that no resident is more than five minutes from water and shade.In another sign of progress, Arizona utility regulators this week approved a plan to transition to 100% carbon-free energy sources – such as solar and nuclear energy – by 2050. Two Republicans on the utilities board voted with a Democrat to get the measure passed.In the desert, "we just have to take climate change very seriously", Gallego said."And, you know, I have a father who fancies himself a political consultant," she added. "And he told me if I can just do something about the summer heat, I will definitely be re-elected."
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| New Orleans Police Officers Ambushed in French Quarter Posted: 31 Oct 2020 06:09 AM PDT  A passenger in a pedicab ambushed two New Orleans Police officers in the French Quarter on Friday, shooting one officer in the face and injuring another, the city's police superintendent said. The officers had no contact with the suspect before he opened fire on their vehicle while they were on patrol Friday afternoon, according to Superintendent Shaun Ferguson."They were just crossing through intersections going in different directions," he said. "This is a dark day for our officers, so I ask that you keep our officers and their families in your prayers."One officer, who has been on the force for four years, was struck by a bullet in the left cheek, just below the eye. The bullet is lodged in his skull and he is in serious but stable condition."He was able to walk into the hospital holding his cheek," Ferguson said. The other officer, a 16-year-veteran, had minor abrasions to his arm from shards of glass. The suspected gunman was taken into custody and, as he appeared to be "under some sort of medical condition," he was taken to a hospital to be evaluated, Ferguson said.He was not injured by police, Ferguson said. A gun was recovered at the scene and the suspect was wearing a holster, he said.Ferguson thanked a citizen that helped treat the wounded officer."A retired Army veteran with medical experience was working in a nearby store and helped with the medical treatment of our officers until fellow officers arrived at the scene," he said."We also want to commend the citizens who pointed out the individual as officers were responding to this call," he added.
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| Iowa farmers split between voting President Trump and Joe Biden Posted: 31 Oct 2020 02:12 PM PDT  It's a tight race in the key battleground state of Iowa between President Trump and Joe Biden.
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| Hardline politicians ramp up rhetoric after French church killings Posted: 01 Nov 2020 07:54 AM PST  "We are now the hostages of Charlie Hebdo, we are now the hostages of the jihadists," said French sociologist François Héran.
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| A man who killed a teen babysitter after she thwarted his attempt to steal a truck has been arrested Posted: 01 Nov 2020 12:58 PM PST  The babysitter, who was reportedly trying to prevent the man from stealing a truck, was discovered dead by the mother of the child she was caring for.
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| Off-duty state trooper returning from a Halloween party in a Star Wars Stormtrooper costume stops drink-drive suspect driving the wrong way Posted: 01 Nov 2020 09:49 AM PST  Britta Foesch, who is with Nevada Highway Patrol, spotted the vehicle trying to enter the I-15 and going in the wrong direction.
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| Israel's 'Prince of Torah' confronts coronavirus Posted: 31 Oct 2020 09:20 PM PDT  As Israel entered coronavirus lockdown in March, a video emerged showing one of the world's most powerful rabbis, flanked by his grandson, professing ignorance about Covid-19 and insisting religious schools remain open.
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