| Yahoo News/YouGov Poll: Presidential race tightens even as most voters oppose GOP's push to replace Ginsburg before election Posted: 24 Sep 2020 09:22 AM PDT  Joe Biden's lead over Donald Trump has shrunk from 10 points two weeks ago to 5 points today, according to a new Yahoo News/YouGov poll. Yet most voters oppose the GOP's pre-election push to fill the Supreme Court vacancy created by the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Biden supporters seem more energized than Trump supporters by the issue.
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| ‘Good guys are demonized, criminals are canonised’: One of the officers in Breonna Taylor raid speaks out in fiery email Posted: 22 Sep 2020 07:02 PM PDT  A state of emergency has been declared ahead of an expected announcement from the state's attorney general
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| Investigators say they found thousands of child porn images in the home of a popular kids' YouTuber Posted: 24 Sep 2020 11:50 AM PDT  The science educator behind the popular children's YouTube channel "The Happy Scientist" has been indicted on child pornography charges.
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| GOP Sen. Cory Gardner stayed mum on meatpacking coronavirus outbreaks as he received industry donations Posted: 24 Sep 2020 02:14 PM PDT  Some of the biggest and most deadly COVID-19 outbreaks in the U.S. stemmed from the meatpacking industry. But Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) was reluctant to call for accountability, including when it came to a Colorado-based plant Gardner received donations from, Business Insider reports.Early in the pandemic, meatpacking factories' close quarters became home to massive COVID-19 outbreaks throughout the country. An outbreak at the JBS meatpacking plant in Greeley, Colorado led to at least 291 confirmed cases and six deaths — the biggest localized outbreak in the state. Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) explicitly called for an investigation at the facility, as did a JBS employee union, which called out Gardner for failing to provide promised coronavirus tests for workers. But Gardner wouldn't discuss the situation with Business Insider, and similarly avoided questions about JBS in a local radio interview.Throughout his Senate career, Gardner has been one of the top recipients of donations from JBS; He has received $24,000 from the company over the years. This election cycle, he received the second most money from JBS of any senator, as well as the second largest contribution total from the meatpacking industry as a whole. Gardner is considered one of the most vulnerable senators this fall as he faces former Gov. John Hickenlooper (D).More stories from theweek.com America needs to hear the bad news first A mild defense of Republican hypocrisy on the Supreme Court Trump is the only one being honest about the Supreme Court fight
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| Cruise lines are willing to follow 74 'best practices' to sail again, including mandating passengers wear masks and get tested 1 to 5 days before departure Posted: 23 Sep 2020 11:02 AM PDT  The Healthy Sail Panel sent the report to the CDC, who has until next Monday to comment. The plan has 74 points that allow for cruises to restart.
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| Pablo Escobar: Money hidden in wall found in drug lord's house Posted: 24 Sep 2020 05:49 AM PDT  A plastic bag with money worth $18m (£14m) is found in a wall by one of the drug lord's nephews.
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| Expect a clear outcome to the election, Biden senior adviser says Posted: 23 Sep 2020 02:25 PM PDT  Senior Biden adviser Bob Bauer says he has faith in election officials who are working hard around the country. Bauer does not expect a contested outcome.
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| ‘They cover my shrapnel wounds’: Veteran Senate candidate responds to critics using photo of her tattoos Posted: 24 Sep 2020 01:36 PM PDT  After a Republican super PAC in Texas posted a photo of Senate candidate MJ Hegar featuring her tattoos and calling her a "radical," Hegar had a quick response on Twitter: the tattoos covered shrapnel wounds she received as an Air Force helicopter pilot in Afghanistan. A pro-Cornyn Super PAC is using a photo of my tattoos to make me seem "radical."
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| Suspect in Shooting of Two Louisville Police Officers Identified Posted: 24 Sep 2020 08:34 AM PDT  The suspect accused of shooting two Louisville, Ky. police officers during protests Wednesday night has been identified by the Louisville Metro Police Department.Larynzo Johnson, 26, was arrested Wednesday and has been charged with assault of a police officer and wanton endangerment. He will be arraigned on Friday.Johnson "intentionally used a handgun to fire multiple bullets at officers" who were at the scene of protests downtown that erupted in response to the state attorney general's decision to charge only one of the police officers who fatally shot Breonna Taylor. Police said witnesses observed Johnson firing at officers before fleeing the scene, and video of the incident obtained by law enforcement showed him shooting a handgun in the direction of police. Johnson was also in possession of a handgun when he was arrested, the complaint filed in Jefferson County said.Two Louisville police officers were shot and sustained serious injuries. One of the officers was in surgery Wednesday night.Earlier on Wednesday, Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron's office announced first-degree wanton endangerment charges against one of the officers who shot into the house where Taylor, a black 26-year-old emergency medical worker, was killed on March 13. The officer was not charged with murder, and the other two officers involved in the fatal shooting were not charged.Taylor was shot eight times in her apartment as Louisville police officers executed a search warrant for two men who were known to reside there. The officers who shot her were not charged. The warrant was issued because police suspected that a man connected to a drug ring was receiving packages containing drugs at Taylor's apartment, but no drugs were found in the raid.Protesters "set fires, caused property damage and failed to disperse after being warned," according to the complaint. Demonstrators also looted several businesses and climbed on top of city vehicles, police said. Nearly 100 protesters were arrested during the protests.Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer declared a state of emergency on Tuesday "due to the potential for civil unrest" as the city braced for the grand jury decision on charges against the officers. The mayor also implemented a three-day countywide 9p.m. curfew.Protests also broke out Wednesday night in Atlanta, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C.
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| Democrats worry Feinstein can’t handle Supreme Court battle Posted: 23 Sep 2020 09:41 AM PDT  Colleagues fear the oldest senator may struggle to lead Democrats on the Judiciary Committee.
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| Low tide reveals WWII-era bomb on beach near resort town in UK Posted: 24 Sep 2020 11:11 AM PDT  The World War II era explosive was found on a beach north of Weston-Super-Mare, a popular seaside vacation town in the Bristol Channel.
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| Vietnam police bust ring selling 'recycled condoms' Posted: 24 Sep 2020 06:04 AM PDT |
| 'Alexa, I'm being pulled over': Ring announces a new camera for the car that can record police interactions Posted: 24 Sep 2020 10:34 AM PDT  Just say "Alexa, I'm being pulled over" and the camera can record the interaction and alert specified contacts.
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| Pregnant woman rescues husband from shark attack in Florida Posted: 24 Sep 2020 11:24 AM PDT  Margot Dukes-Eddy dived into the water to save her husband "without hesitation", police say.
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| In wake of Gardner's suicide, special prosecutor offers new details about events leading up to James Scurlock shooting Posted: 23 Sep 2020 03:39 PM PDT  One day before Jake Gardner fatally shot James Scurlock outside his bar in downtown Omaha, President Trump threatened to send the military to Minneapolis in response to violent clashes between police and protesters following the death of George Floyd in police custody, tweeting "when the looting starts, the shooting starts."
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| 'Send me a text': Obama calls on Americans to get in touch with thoughts on US election Posted: 24 Sep 2020 05:49 AM PDT  Former president has been campaigning for Joe Biden
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| China’s Statist System Is No Match for Free Markets Posted: 24 Sep 2020 03:30 AM PDT  Editor's Note: The following is an excerpt from the book Battlegrounds: The Fight to Defend the Free World by H. R. McMaster. Copyright © 2020 by H. R. McMaster. The book was published on September 22, 2020, by Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. Reprinted by permission. Part I of the excerpt is here.The CCP views its centralized, statist economic system as bestowing advantages, especially the ability to successfully coordinate efforts across government, business, academia, and the military. And it views America's and other nations' decentralized, free-market economic systems as rendering them unable to compete with China's centrally-directed strategies, such as Made in China 2025, OBOR, and Military-Civilian Fusion. That is why the United States and other free-market economies need to demonstrate the competitive advantages of decentralization and unconstrained entrepreneurialism while defending themselves from Chinese predation. Here, the private sector plays a vital role. Companies and academic institutions at the forefront of developing and applying new technologies must recognize that China is breaking the rules to take advantage of our open societies and free-market economies. A first step toward preserving competitive advantage is to crack down on Chinese theft of our technologies. Although there have been significant reforms in national-security reviews of foreign investments, another effective defense would be to enforce requirements that U.S. companies report investment by China-related entities, technology transfer requests, and participation in the CCP's core technology development or PLA modernization programs.There is much room for improvement in the effort to prevent China from using the open nature of the U.S. economy to promote not only its state capitalist model, but also to perfect its surveillance police state. Many universities, research labs, and companies in countries that value the rule of law and individual rights are witting or unwitting accomplices in the CCP's use of technology to repress its people and improve PLA capabilities. For dual-use technologies, the private sector should seek new partnerships with those who share commitments to free-market economies, representative government, and the rule of law. Many companies are engaged in joint ventures or partnerships that help the CCP develop technologies suited for internal security, such as surveillance, artificial intelligence, and biogenetics. Others accede to Chinese investments that give the CCP access to such technology. In one of many examples, a Massachusetts-based company provided DNA sampling equipment that helped the CCP track Uighurs in the Xinjiang region. Google has been hacked by China, used by the CCP to shut off the Chinese people's access to information, and refused to work with the U.S. Department of Defense on artificial intelligence. Companies that knowingly collaborate with CCP efforts to repress the Chinese people or to build military capabilities that might one day be used against those companies' fellow citizens should be penalized.Tougher screening for U.S., European, and Japanese capital markets would also help restrict firms' complicity in helping the CCP's authoritarian agenda. Many Chinese companies directly or indirectly involved in domestic human-rights abuses and violation of international treaties are listed on American stock exchanges. Those companies benefit from U.S. and other Western investors. There are more than 700 Chinese companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange, about 62 on the NASDAQ Composite index, and more than 500 in the poorly regulated over-the-counter market. One company that is a candidate for delisting is Hikvision, a company responsible for facial-recognition technology that identifies and monitors the movement of ethnic Uighurs. Hikvision produces surveillance cameras that line the walls of Chinese concentration camps in Xinjiang. Together with its parent company, the state-owned China Electronics Technology Group, Hikvision is on the U.S. Commerce Department Entity List (what many call "the Blacklist"). Free-market economies like ours have far more leverage than they are using because they control the vast majority of the world's capital.Defensive measures, however, are inadequate. Free and open societies need to become more competitive through reform and investments. China here has a clear advantage in the adoption of new technologies. Its centralized decision-making system, government subsidies, underwriting of risk, the relative lack of the kinds of regulations and bureaucratic hurdles typical in the United States and other democratic nations, and the lack of ethical impediments (e.g., in the areas of biogenetics and autonomous weapons) all foster fast application of technologies in the civil sector and the PLA. Although the United States and other nations should not compromise their ethics, many of the weaknesses relative to China are self-imposed. For example, the U.S. national-security institutions suffer from chronic bureaucratic inertia. The slow, inflexible nature of defense budgeting and procurement in the United States has long been studied, with little effective change. But the stakes are now too high to tolerate the lack of predictable multi-year procurement budgets, convoluted procurement systems, and deferred defense modernization. The sheer difficulty of doing business with the Department of Defense discourages the most innovative small companies from contributing to defense capabilities and makes it difficult to innovate within the life cycle of emerging technologies. The old model of multi-year research and development to design and test a capability is no longer valid. The U.S. Department of Defense and military services risk exquisite irrelevance as the PLA develops new capabilities and countermeasures that vitiate longstanding American military advantages. Reducing barriers to collaboration between the private sector and national-security and defense-related industries could release the potential of free-market innovation in this critical area.But even streamlining bureaucracy will prove insufficient to compete with the vast investments China is making in emerging dual-use technologies that will advantage its data economy and its military capabilities. That is why government and private-sector investment in technologies in the areas of artificial intelligence, robotics, augmented and virtual reality, and materials science will prove crucial for the United States to maintaining differential advantages over an increasingly capable and aggressive PLA. Defense cooperation across the Indo-Pacific region should extend to multinational development of future defense capabilities, with the ultimate goal of convincing the CCP that it cannot accomplish objectives through the use of force. Multinational cooperation in the development of space and cyberspace capabilities could also deter Chinese aggression in these contested domains. And Taiwan's defense capabilities must be sufficient to ward off China's designs for what would be a costly war with the potential of expanding across large portions of East Asia.
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| Seoul: North Korea kills S. Korean official, burns his body Posted: 23 Sep 2020 07:44 PM PDT  South Korea said Thursday that North Korean troops fatally shot a South Korean government official who may have attempted to defect and set his body on fire after finding him on a floating object near the countries' disputed sea boundary. According to Seoul, the man disappeared from a government ship that was checking on possible unauthorized fishing in an area south of the boundary on Monday, a day before he was found in North Korean waters. Later in the day, a North Korean navy boat came and opened fire at him, South Korea's Defense Ministry said.
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| Camp Lejeune Marines Warned to Stop Running in the Dark After 4 Coyote Attacks Posted: 24 Sep 2020 07:15 AM PDT  Three Marines and a sailor have been bitten by a coyote on the loose at Camp Lejeune.
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| Sweden shifts on no-lockdown strategy Posted: 23 Sep 2020 08:45 AM PDT  Sweden's state epidemiologist has said that he is now willing to recommend lockdown measures such as school closures, and strict limits to the size of gatherings - so long as they are only imposed locally and for three weeks at a time. The Public Health Agency of Sweden's new approach to local restrictions, floated first at a press conference on Tuesday, marks its biggest strategic shift since it launched its no-lockdown strategy in March. "We are thinking of fairly short restrictions, to break the spread of infection requires perhaps two to three weeks at most," Anders Tegnell told the Dagens Nyheter newspaper in an interview published on Wednesday afternoon. "We are still developing the concept, so to say, but something like that." The country's new strategy comes after its infection level fell from being far-and-away the highest of any European Union country in mid-May to being one of the lowest in Europe today. The agency now hopes to keep rates low by rapidly tackling local outbreaks as they occur. "The restrictions could be extremely local. It could be about a single workplace or city district: wherever you see a spread and think that there are restrictions that might stop it," Dr Tegnell told the newspaper.
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| Qantas put fully stocked bar carts from its retired 747s up for sale for more than $1,000, and they're already all sold out Posted: 23 Sep 2020 12:16 PM PDT  Qantas packed the bar carts full of wine, snacks, and candy, and sold them for more than $1,000 each.
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| Man who drove into California protesters used vineyard as 'tactical training camp,' officials say Posted: 23 Sep 2020 09:16 PM PDT  Benjamin Hung, 28, is accused of possessing a machete, a Glock and other weapons in his truck and driving into a crowd of racial justice protesters in Pasadena.
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| Hunter Biden allegations display media double standard: Sen. Lindsey Graham Posted: 24 Sep 2020 07:35 AM PDT  Sen. Lindsey Graham on Trump's potential Supreme Court pick and new allegations on Hunter Biden.
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| Pro-Trump activists have been planning violence ahead of Portland protests, including at one to be held this weekend Posted: 24 Sep 2020 12:39 PM PDT  Chat logs leaked to The Guardian show the activists discussing how to acquire weapons ahead of anti-racism rallies.
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| Breonna Taylor: What happened on the night of her death? Posted: 24 Sep 2020 02:23 PM PDT  The 26-year-old was killed by police in her Louisville home, sparking protests and calls for justice.
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| Trump advisor diagnosed with head cancer following leave of absence Posted: 24 Sep 2020 03:06 PM PDT  Michael Caputo has been diagnosed with metastatic head and neck cancer, spokesperson says
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| U.S.-Trained Forces Are Raping Women in Cameroon—and Rebels Are Beheading Them Posted: 24 Sep 2020 03:01 AM PDT  IKOM, Nigeria—Lucy was contemplating closing early for the day when soldiers—believed to be from the Cameroon government's notorious Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR)—stormed her shop in the northwestern Cameroon town of Bamenda at the end of August, dragged her outside, asked her to take off the shirt she was wearing, and forced her to sit on the bare ground for hours."When I asked them what I had done wrong, one of them gave me a terrible slap and began to kick me all over my body," Lucy, who sells foodstuffs close to a market in Bamenda, told The Daily Beast via telephone. "I thought the soldiers were going to kill me."On the same day Lucy was brutalized by government forces in Bamenda, about 80 other women—mostly traders at the local food market—were detained at a police station for three days, many of them beaten and wounded by soldiers who were searching for English-speaking separatists following the killing of a police officer days before."The soldiers entered the food market unannounced and began to forcefully remove everybody to the mobile police station," said Lucy, who wanted to be identified by just her first name. "They looted and destroyed shops and ordered every woman to sit on the ground. The weather was so hot and some women collapsed as a result of the heat."Slaughtered Because They Spoke EnglishScores of women have been assaulted and abused by both Cameroonian government forces and English-speaking separatists in the northwest and southwest Anglophone parts of Cameroon since violence erupted in the two regions, along the long Nigerian border, more than three years ago.Reports of sexual violence against women have grown in recent months, mostly perpetrated by BIR soldiers who've received lots of financial support from the United States in recent years. Last year, Human Rights Watch documented how two BIR soldiers raped a 22-year-old mother in the northwest and how a 23-year-old woman and a 17-year-old girl in the same home were raped in front of two children by three BIR soldiers who accused them of hiding separatists. Women have also been assaulted while fleeing from their communities."Soldiers stopped us as we were heading to the [Nigerian] border and forced us to take off our clothes," a 17-year-girl, who fled the Cameroonian town of Akwaya with her 25-year-old sister to the Ogoja refugee settlement in Nigeria, told The Daily Beast. "They began to touch our private parts and were about to rape us when they heard gunshots, which made them leave us and run away."In recent years, the Cameroonian military—including the BIR—has relied heavily on the U.S. for funding. Since 2014, America has given more than $220 million to Cameroon in security assistance—including $700,000 spent so far this year on assisting the country's military and police.Created in 2001 by the Cameroonian government to tackle armed bandits on its northern border with Chad and Nigeria and its eastern border with the Central African Republic, the BIR soon began to stray from its original mission—allegedly committing a number of human-rights atrocities including extrajudicial killing of civilians suspected to work for Boko Haram militants in northern Cameroon.The elite army unit, which is better trained and equipped than the regular Cameroonian army, is overseen by retired Israeli officers who report directly to President Paul Biya. These officers were recently accused of living extravagantly. One of them was reported to have bought properties worth about $32 million in New York and Los Angeles, and spent his holidays in luxury resorts in the Bahamas, costing $20,000 per night.But the rapid reaction force isn't the only group that has targeted women and girls in western Cameroon. Armed separatists have assaulted and murdered women amid intensifying violence and growing calls for secession of the northwest and southwest regions.In an astonishing video widely shared on social media last month, three suspected separatist fighters in the southwestern town of Muyuka were seen beating and dragging a woman whom the government later identified as Confort Tumassang, a 35-year-old mother of four. Her hands were tied behind her back and Tumassang, who was accused of collaborating with the military, could be heard in the clip begging for mercy. She was then beheaded and her body abandoned in the street. The incident, which occurred on Aug. 11, came during the same period that reports of sexual assault perpetrated by separatists on women in Anglophone communities began to grow."My 17-year-old cousin was raped by two rebels on her way to the market." Helen, a 25-year-old hairdresser in Muyuka, told The Daily Beast via telephone. "They beat her up and threatened to kill her before eventually raping her."The U.S.-Backed Military Slaughters Women and Children in CameroonRape has become one of the most common forms of violence against women in the conflict in the western Cameroon. A study last year by the Rural Women Center for Education and Development, a Cameroonian non-profit group, revealed that at least 300 school-age girls from the northwest region became pregnant after being raped by suspected separatist fighters or government soldiers, and that many victims terminated their pregnancies with unsafe or crude abortions. Following the revelation, Cameroon government officials noted that the actual number could be much higher, as many girls involved in the practice do so in hiding."It is obviously clear that rape has become a weapon of war in the conflict in western Cameroon," Eno Edet, a human rights lawyer and advocate in Cross River State—which is hosting the vast majority of Cameroonian refugees in Nigeria—told The Daily Beast. "There are dozens of Cameroonian girls in refugee settlements here in Cross River with stories of sexual assault perpetrated by separatists or government forces back in their country."Cameroon's western regions descended into conflict in 2016 when the government repressed peaceful protests by English speakers against perceived marginalization. It turned into a full war when separatists declared western Cameroon an independent nation in October 2017. Over 3,000 civilian deaths have been recorded, along with dozens of soldiers killed by separatists. More than 700,000 Anglophone Cameroonians have been displaced during the crisis, and at least 52,000 people are currently taking refuge in Nigeria.As The Daily Beast previously reported, Anglophones make up about 20 percent of Cameroon's population of 26 million. In February 1961, the United Nations organized a referendum in which English-speaking Cameroonians, then under British rule, voted to rejoin Francophone Cameroon. Both merged on Oct. 1, 1961, and inherited a constitution which recognized the country as a federation of two states with "the same status." But not long after the reunification, things began to change. Then-President Ahmadou Ahidjo, a Francophone, replaced the two federal states with six regions. He appointed federal inspectors of each region and gave them more power than locally elected politicians. Ahidjo followed up by discarding the currency used by the Anglophones. He refused to recognize Cameroon's membership of the Commonwealth, and he abolished federalism altogether through a national referendum.Incumbent President Paul Biya, also a Francophone, succeeded Ahidjo in November 1982 and began to introduce policies similar to that of his predecessor. In 1983, he split the Anglophone region into the Northwest and Southwest provinces. A year later he changed the country's official name to the Republic of Cameroon, as it was known as when it was a Francophone territory, and removed the second star from the flag that had stood as a representation of the Anglophone region.Many prominent figures in Cameroon's western region from time to time condemned the policies of the Biya administration as they affect the western region, but when the government went ahead to appoint French-speaking magistrates in Anglophone courts, many believed he had gone too far.Unfortunately, the conflict that followed has crippled social amenities and left much of the Anglophone region in ruins. But it is the frequent targeting of women and girls by major players in the war that leaves many in English-speaking communities worried."We are living in fear because women are becoming victims of rape every day," said Helen, the hairdresser in Muyuka. "The other day, it was my cousin [who was raped]. Tomorrow, it could be another innocent woman. No woman is safe here."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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| Powerful Vatican Cardinal Becciu resigns amid scandal Posted: 24 Sep 2020 11:27 AM PDT  The powerful head of the Vatican's saint-making office, Cardinal Angelo Becciu, resigned suddenly Thursday from the post and renounced his rights as a cardinal amid a financial scandal that has reportedly implicated him indirectly. The Vatican provided no details on why Pope Francis accepted Becciu's resignation in a statement late Thursday. In the one-sentence announcement, the Holy See said only that Francis had accepted Becciu's resignation as prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints "and his rights connected to the cardinalate."
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| 124 immigrant children held in 3 Phoenix hotels under Trump policy, court records show Posted: 24 Sep 2020 04:35 AM PDT  A federal judge has given the Trump administration until Sept. 28 to stop the practice of holding immigrant children in hotels for prolonged periods.
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| LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman and his billions are disrupting the Democratic Party Posted: 24 Sep 2020 10:57 AM PDT  LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman is one of the Democratic Party's most prominent donors — but what does it mean to disrupt an election?
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| Kodak Black wants out of his hellacious Kentucky prison, stat, new lawsuit says Posted: 24 Sep 2020 08:10 AM PDT  Being behind bars is certainly no fun, but for Kodak Black it's hell, a new suit claims.
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| Parents knowingly sent kids with coronavirus to school, Wisconsin officials say Posted: 24 Sep 2020 10:00 AM PDT  "A handful of irresponsible parents could be responsible for closing down entire school districts," the Washington-Ozaukee public health director said.
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| Democrats alert inspector general that GOP's Biden probe “directly implicated” Perry in corruption Posted: 24 Sep 2020 09:54 AM PDT  Republicans tried to smear Biden, but instead "succeeded in implicating former Secretary Perry in a corrupt scheme"
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| Madeleine McCann suspect to stay in jail after losing appeal to overturn rape conviction Posted: 24 Sep 2020 04:49 AM PDT  The Madeleine McCann suspect is to remain in jail after losing his appeal to overturn a rape conviction. Christian Brückner, a 43-year-old German currently in prison for drug offences, was convicted of raping a 72-year-old American woman in Praia de Luiz in 2005 - two years before Madeleine went missing in the same Portuguese village. Brückner, who was convicted of the rape in December last year, appealed the decision in the European Court of Justice (ECJ) on a legal technicality relating to his extradition back to Germany from Portugal. But the ECJ ruled that the extradition was lawful, meaning the seven year sentence for the rape conviction stands. He will remain in custody until 2027 at the latest. According to court documents, Brückner was extradited from Portugal for sexually abusing a minor in June 2017, then travelled to the Netherlands and Italy whilst still on probation after his release. He was extradited to Germany from Italy in October 2018 on a warrant for drug trafficking before being tried and convicted of rape and extortion in December last year. The ECJ case centred on whether the German authorities needed Portugal's consent to bring rape proceedings because of the 2017 extradition. Italy had agreed Brückner could be tried for rape and extortion in Germany.
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| Mysterious beaked whale smashes mammal diving record Posted: 24 Sep 2020 08:06 AM PDT  A Cuvier's beaked whale stays under water for almost four hours, leaving scientists puzzled.
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| Trump Data Guru Officially Disqualified Over ‘Shady’ Campaign Tactics Posted: 24 Sep 2020 08:01 AM PDT  LONDON—Alexander Nix, the man who was running Cambridge Analytica when it harvested the Facebook data of tens of millions of voters without their knowledge so it could be exploited by the Trump 2016 campaign, has been banned from directing any companies for seven years.The now-defunct Cambridge Analytica was a U.K. digital black-ops firm that collapsed in 2018 following revelations that it secretly collected Facebook profile information on 87 million people. The Daily Beast revealed two years ago that Team Trump used audience lists created by Cambridge Analytica to target "dark ads" on Facebook during the final months of the 2016 campaign and until Trump's inauguration.Nix gained notoriety as the face of Cambridge Analytica when he inadvertently revealed the shocking extent of its dubious operations. The company's former chief executive was secretly recorded by Britain's Channel 4 blabbing about his firm's work for Trump and effectively claiming that Cambridge Analytica was to thank for Trump becoming president.Nix said in the secret recording, "We did all the research, all the data, all the analytics, all the targeting, we ran all the digital campaign, the television campaign and our data informed all the strategy."The footage, in which he bragged about apparently illegal campaign tactics used on jobs in other parts of the world, was the beginning of his and Cambridge Analytica's swift and spectacular downfall. Nix was suspended as CEO when the tapes were broadcast in March 2018, the company collapsed in May that year. It was thereafter forced into compulsory liquidation in April 2019.Now, Nix has been slapped with a new punishment that will prevent him from directing any companies until October 2027.The British government's Insolvency Service confirmed Thursday that Nix will be "disqualified for seven years from acting as a director or directly or indirectly becoming involved, without the permission of the court, in the promotion, formation or management of a company."In the statement, the government agency condemned Nix for allowing Cambridge Analytica to carry out what it called "unethical services," which it said included "bribery or honey trap stings, voter disengagement campaigns, obtaining information to discredit political opponents and spreading information anonymously in political campaigns."Mark Bruce, the chief investigator for the Insolvency Service, said that Cambridge Analytica's parent company, SCL Elections, "repeatedly offered shady political services to potential clients over a number of years."The chief investigator went on to say in his statement: "Alexander Nix's actions did not meet the appropriate standard for a company director and his disqualification from managing limited companies for a significant amount of time is justified in the public interest."The Insolvency Service said Nix has signed the disqualification notice.Britain's punitive action against Nix comes nearly a year after the U.S. Federal Trade Commission came to a settlement with him and Aleksandr Kogan, who developed the app which allowed Cambridge Analytica to harvest the personal information of millions of Americans.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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| Putin tells Russians to obey rules as COVID-19 cases tick higher Posted: 24 Sep 2020 12:54 AM PDT  President Vladimir Putin urged Russians to stick to social distancing rules and said he wanted to avoid another strict lockdown on Thursday, when the daily tally of new COVID-19 cases was the highest in more than two months. Russia's COVID-19 response centre recorded 6,595 new infections on Thursday, the highest daily count since mid-July. Moscow had 1,050 new cases, more than any other city or region in Russia.
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| Acting DHS secretary says white supremacists are 'most persistent and lethal' threat within U.S. Posted: 23 Sep 2020 09:27 PM PDT  Acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf told senators during his confirmation hearing on Wednesday that white supremacists are the "most persistent and lethal" internal threat the United States is facing.Wolf, who has been acting head of DHS since November, said overall, the deadliest threats to the U.S. are pandemics, national disasters, and foreign adversaries, and the government "cannot ignore" anti-fascist protesters.Earlier this month, a DHS whistleblower named Brian Murphy said Wolf instructed him to stop providing intelligence assessments on the threat of Russian interference in the United States. Murphy also alleged that Acting Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Ken Cuccinelli told him to change an assessment's section on white supremacy to make "the threat appear less severe" and to add information "on the prominence of violent 'left-wing' groups." Murphy said in both cases, he did not comply.Wolf denied the accusations, calling them "patently false."More stories from theweek.com America needs to hear the bad news first A mild defense of Republican hypocrisy on the Supreme Court Trump is the only one being honest about the Supreme Court fight
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| Falling highway sign crushes passing pickup truck, kills driver, Ohio police say Posted: 24 Sep 2020 11:13 AM PDT  A dump truck with its bed raised caused the sign to tumble, police say.
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| The Pentagon is eyeing a 500-ship Navy, documents reveal Posted: 24 Sep 2020 05:30 PM PDT  The Pentagon is weighing a dramatically different fleet that relies heavily on unmanned ships and submarines.
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| Trump falls into the trap he set for Biden Posted: 23 Sep 2020 01:30 AM PDT  Some on Trump's team are bracing for a humiliating loss at next week's debate — after Trump lowered expectations for Biden by mocking his acumen for months.
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| 4 people have been charged after a Black man's body was found burning in an Iowa ditch Posted: 23 Sep 2020 03:36 AM PDT  Michael Williams' body was found burning in a ditch in Iowa on September 16. The police said race didn't seem to be a motivating factor in the death.
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| Some Democrats threaten to pack Supreme Court if Trump nominee is confirmed Posted: 24 Sep 2020 02:26 PM PDT  Fox News' Mike Emanuel reports on the battle inside the Democratic Party.
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| Navy releases documents from Cold War loss of submarine Posted: 23 Sep 2020 01:53 PM PDT  The Navy began releasing documents from the investigation into the deadliest submarine disaster in U.S. history on Wednesday, but the Navy said the documents released under a court order don't shed any new light on the cause of the sinking. The first of the documents released were 300 pages from the official inquiry into the sinking of the USS Thresher on April 10, 1963. The loss of the nuclear-powered submarine and all 129 men aboard during a test dive in the Atlantic Ocean delivered a blow to national pride during the Cold War and became the impetus for safety improvements.
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