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

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

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

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

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The Less Impossible Israeli-Palestinian Peace

By BY ROGER COHEN from NYT Opinion https://ift.tt/3jTqktX

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Stuck in the Suburbs

Trump doesn’t understand that even the people who live there don’t like them.

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Leicester Muslims mark second Eid of extended lockdown

Leicester's religious leaders and council urge people to pray and celebrate the festival at home.

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Coronavirus: Tracking new outbreaks in the sewers

Around 15,000 new cases of the disease have been reported in Spain in the past week.

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India Atkinson: TikTok disability educator goes viral

India Atkinson's videos address misconceptions about a condition that left her without fingers on one hand.

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Coronavirus symptoms: What are they and how long should I self-isolate?

The BBC’s Laura Foster explains how you can recognise the symptoms of coronavirus.

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Week in pictures: 25 July-31 July 2020

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

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

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

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UK puts lockdown-easing on hold as virus spread accelerates

Prime Minister Boris Johnson put some planned measures to ease the U.K.'s lockdown on hold Friday, just hours before they were due to take effect, saying the number of new coronavirus cases in the country is on the rise for the first time since May. Under the new restrictions, people from different households in Greater Manchester, England’s second largest metropolitan area, have been asked to not meet indoors.

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For Biden's running mate, the safest pick might be the safe bet

First Read is your briefing from "Meet the Press" and the NBC Political Unit on the day's most important political stories and why they matter.

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

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

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Russian jet fighter buzzes two U.S. spy planes over Black Sea

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

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

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Killer of Rafiki, Uganda's rare silverback mountain gorilla, jailed

The Ugandan hunter said that he had killed the animal in self defence when he was attacked.

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Alan Dershowitz calls Jeffrey Epstein accuser Virginia Roberts Giuffre a 'serial liar' while once again denying he ever had sex with her

Virginia Giuffre claims that Dershowitz, a Harvard Law professor, had sex with her when she was underage in Jeffrey Epstein's residences.

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Poll puts Biden over Trump in 6 swing states

Former Vice President Joe Biden is still looking good in key swing states across the country.In May, a poll from the British consulting firm Redfield & Wilton Strategies put Biden ahead of President Trump in six states Trump won in 2016: Arizona, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Redfield & Wilton Strategies' July poll shows Biden still has a lead in all of those states, and even widened it in three of them.While Biden had a 4 percent lead over Trump in Arizona, a 2-point lead in Florida, and an 8-point lead in Michigan in May, he has an 8, 7, and 12 percent lead, respectively, in those states as of July. Biden maintained his 10-point lead in Wisconsin over the past two months. Meanwhile Biden lost traction in North Carolina, where he had a 45-43 lead over Trump in May but has a 43-42 lead as of July, and Pennsylvania, where his margin fell from 48-39 to 48-41.Redfield & Wilton surveyed anywhere from 742 to 1,121 registered voters in each of the states, with larger populations corresponding to larger sample sizes. The polls were conducted from July 19-24.More stories from theweek.com The White House reportedly scrapped a national testing plan because the virus was mostly hitting blue states Josh Hawley's good idea to stop modern slavery New Lincoln Project video imagines what it's like to wake up from a coma in 2020

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Dr. Fauci and Rep. Jordan have a tense exchange over limiting protests because of the coronavirus

During the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis on Friday, Rep. Jim Jordan pressed Dr. Anthony Fauci about limiting protests to reduce the spread of the coronavirus.

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

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

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Family of Black college student killed by white police officer draws support from Jay-Z, Rihanna and Amy Schumer in bid to reopen case

College football standout Danroy "DJ" Henry Jr., 20, was shot and killed by a white police officer outside a New York bar on Oct. 17, 2010, as he drove away from a disturbance he was not involved in. Nearly 10 years later, celebrities join the victim’s family to demand that the case be reopened.

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Letters to the Editor: Portland protesters, it's time to stop. You're playing into Trump's hands

God forbid President Trump gets another four years in office because of average voters' disgust with violent protests.

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

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

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Coronavirus: 'Chancellor must protect' jobs of those shielding

Charities are calling on the chancellor to protect the jobs of workers who have been shielding.

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Coronavirus in Wales: Up to 30 can meet outdoors from Monday

Children under 11 will no longer have to keep 2m from one another or from adults.

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Bafta TV Awards: Stars prepare for virtual ceremony

There is no red carpet at this year's virtual ceremony - unless the stars unfurl one in their homes.

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Universal Credit 'failing millions of people', say peers

Lords blame the design of the benefit payment for "soaring rent arrears and use of food banks".

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Prison launches take-away meal deliveries

Brixton prison is taking orders for take-aways from its professional-standard training restaurant.

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Kylie and Kendall Jenner endorsed 'knock-off' Apple products on Instagram

They promoted AirPods clones, whose design may be in breach of Apple's intellectual property rights.

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

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

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CNN host says Trump loyalist owes broadcaster an apology over video played at Barr hearing

CNN host Jake Tapper has demanded that Republican congressman Jim Jordan apologise for playing an edited video that misleadingly showed reporters describe the George Floyd protests as “peaceful”.On Tuesday, attorney general William Barr took part in his first congressional hearing since he took the role, and faced questions on topics including his response to the protests and the subsequent deployment of federal law enforcement agents to cities such as Portland, Oregon.

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China bars protest leaders from running in upcoming Hong Kong elections

The move is seen as a further sign of Beijing's tightening hold on the city after the passage of a controversial security law.

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Trump Dismisses Russian Support for Taliban, Citing U.S. Tactics during Cold War

President Trump said Tuesday that he has never discussed with Russian President Vladimir Putin the intelligence indicating that Russia paid Taliban fighters to kill U.S. troops despite several phone calls between the two heads of state since the intelligence was made known.“I have never discussed it with him,” Trump said in an interview with "Axios on HBO."Asked why he did not confront Putin over the alarming revelation, Trump responded, “That was a phone call to discuss other things, and frankly that’s an issue that many people said was fake news.”Trump also cited previous U.S. tactics during the Cold War, when the U.S. provided support to Afghan soldiers fighting the Soviet Union, in an effort to downplay the Kremlin's intervention in Afghanistan."Well we supplied weapons when they were fighting Russia too. You know, when they were fighting with the Taliban in Afghanistan," Trump said. "I'm just saying we did that too."Trump has reportedly spoken to Putin at least eight times, including on Thursday, since reports broke last month that U.S. intelligence found that at least one American soldier, as well as a number of Afghan civilians, died as a result of secret bounty payments that Russia paid to Taliban militants in Afghanistan to target American forces.Intelligence about the alleged bounty offerings by Russia to Taliban fighters was reportedly included in the president's daily written intelligence briefing in February, but the White House claims Trump was not verbally briefed on the matter until the New York Times's June 26 report on the issue. The Times reported that some bounties as high as $100,000 were paid for each U.S. or allied troop killed.Several American service-members died as a result of monetary rewards that a Russian military intelligence unit offered to terrorist militants to target U.S. and allied forces in Afghanistan, the Washington Post said in a similar report.The intelligence community is, however, split over the reliability of the reports on Russian bounty payments. The National Security Agency strongly dissented from the assessment by the CIA and other intelligence agencies alleging the bounty scheme.The U.S. has long accused Russia of supporting the Taliban with weapons and other aid but has never accused Moscow of soliciting Taliban members with bounties to kill U.S. forces and allies. The Kremlin and Taliban have both denied the reports.

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

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

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CDC: Hundreds sick, 1 dead in nationwide Salmonella outbreak linked to chicks, ducklings

One person has died and nearly 1,000 have been sickened, the CDC says. Every state except Hawaii and Rhode Island has now reported at least one case.

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'Last Supper' artwork of feasting Netanyahu irks Israeli leader

A statue in a Tel Aviv square of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu enjoying a "Last Supper" feast added new bite on Wednesday to mounting protests against his handling of the coronavirus crisis. Netanyahu, whose popularity has plunged in opinion polls amid 21.5% unemployment, said his depiction in a mock tableau of Jesus's final meal before his crucifixion, was tantamount to a death threat. In the installation, Netanyahu sits alone at a grand 10-metre (33 ft) long table, with two candelabras, grabbing at a huge cake resembling an Israeli flag.

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US hits Poland, others in Europe over Holocaust claims

The United States is criticizing a number of eastern and central European nations, including Poland, for failing to compensate Holocaust victims and their families and communities for property seized during Nazi occupation in World War II as the numbers of survivors dwindles due to age. In a report issued Wednesday, the State Department called out Bosnia, Belarus, Ukraine and particularly Poland for not having acted on restitution claims. Croatia, Latvia and Russia were also taken to task in the report, which is likely to draw angry responses from the governments identified.

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Spoiler alert? Kamala Harris outed as Biden's VP pick -- maybe

Joe Biden's vice presidential pick has been one of Washington's best kept secrets but a supposedly accidental news publication and Biden's own teasingly displayed notes are raising expectations that the winner is Kamala Harris. Speculation over the choice of VP is a parlor game played every four years in Washington, but this time the stakes are unusually high. Biden would be 78 on taking office -- the oldest US president ever -- and he has hinted that he might not seek a second term, making his deputy the prime candidate to take on the party's nomination.

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

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

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

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

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Police chief explains decision to back out of Democrat convention security

West Allis Police Department Chief Patrick Mitchell joins 'Fox & Friends' after backing out of a DNC security agreement over a ban on law enforcement's use of chemical irritants during protests.

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Israel says it arrested Hamas militant who fled strip by sea

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Umbrella Man: Minneapolis police link suspect to white supremacists

The man was pictured smashing the windows of an AutoZone store in the city during protests.

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Trump attended a fundraiser in Texas without a mask on the day the US hit 150,000 coronavirus deaths

Trump was expected to attend the fundraiser with GOP Rep. Louie Gohmert, but the congressman tested positive for the coronavirus.

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Coronavirus: 'Chancellor must protect' jobs of those shielding

Charities are calling on the chancellor to protect the jobs of workers who have been shielding.

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The sweet smell of success: How Bulgaria took the lead in lavender

Lavender is used for cosmetics, fragrances and even, with the help of bees, to make honey.

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Atlanta Mourns John Lewis and Ponders Carrying on With ‘Good Trouble’

By BY RICK ROJAS AND RICHARD FAUSSET from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/3hJlqxu

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Unmasked and Unhinged

The consequences of Rep. Gohmert’s refusal to protect his body and mind.

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Nasa Mars 2020: First aircraft to fly on another planet

Ingenuity is a 1.8kg (4lb) helicopter that will ride to Mars attached to the belly of Nasa's Perseverance.

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Black pupils face trebled exclusion rate in some areas

An analysis shows black pupils are more likely to be excluded than their peers in most council areas.

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Coronavirus: UK lockdown solidarity 'starting to fray'

The public are being consulted on how to avoid new community divisions opening up in the months ahead.

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'I recorded fraudsters stealing my money'

Criminals are exploiting the coronavirus pandemic for gain, according to one leading investigator.

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India and China race to build along a disputed frontier

The rival nuclear powers are trying to out-build each other along their disputed Himalayan border.

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

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

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The 11-carrier US Navy is mocking Iran as 'experts' at making a dummy aircraft carrier to shoot at

The US Navy posted a photo on social media ridiculing Iran after it fired missiles on a mock-up of a US flattop on Wednesday.

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Tahlequah, the grief-stricken orca who carried her dead daughter with her for 17 days, is pregnant again

The pregnancy is an exciting chance for Tahlequah, whose community is struggling to survive, scientists told The Seattle Times.

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Postcard helps Van Gogh family reveal exact spot where artist painted hours before his death

An art expert has pinpointed the exact spot where Vincent van Gogh was painting just hours before he shot himself, museum officials announced on Tuesday at a ceremony commemorating the 130th anniversary of his suicide. The picture, Tree Roots, was identified as the Dutch post-impressionist painter’s last work a few years ago. Now, an early postcard has made it possible to locate the scene it depicts in Auvers-sur-Oise, a village north of Paris. Willem van Gogh, the great-grandson of the artist’s brother Theo, and Emilie Gordenker, director of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, unveiled a plaque at the spot, which will soon be opened to the public. It is a short walk from the Auberge Ravoux, the former inn where Van Gogh spent his last 70 days before dying in his garret room on 29 July 1890.

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Hundreds to quarantine after COVID-19 case linked to Florida high school graduation ceremony

Nearly 300 students and at least 30 staff members were at the ceremony. Each student was allowed to bring up to two guests.

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NASA just picked astronaut Megan McArthur, whose husband launched aboard SpaceX's Crew Dragon, to pilot the spaceship in spring

Astronaut Megan McArthur watched her husband, Bob Behnken, launch aboard the Crew Dragon spaceship. Next year, she'll do the same.

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Escape to North Korea: Defector at heart of COVID-19 case fled sex abuse investigation

Last week, a 24-year-old defector returned to North Korea the way he left in 2017, authorities say, but with a coronavirus pandemic raging in the background this time, his illicit trip drew far more attention. Facing a sexual assault investigation, Kim evaded high-tech South Korean border control systems by crawling through a drain pipe and swimming across the Han River to the North on July 19, the South Korean military has said. Kim's story as a defector begins and, so far, ends in the city of Kaesong, a North Korean border town that hosted a now-shuttered inter-Korean factory park and liaison office.

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

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

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2 arrested for attacking senator during Wisconsin protests

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Florida, Texas report record increases in COVID-19 deaths for second day in a row

Florida had 217 fatalities in the last 24 hours and Texas had at least 302 with some counties yet to report. Florida also reported 9,446 new cases, bringing its total infections to over 451,000, the second highest in the country behind California. Florida's total death toll rose to 6,457, eighth highest in the nation, according to a Reuters tally.

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

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

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US announces withdrawal of 12,000 troops from 'delinquent' Germany

The US has announced it is to withdraw nearly 12,000 troops from Germany, in a move Donald Trump said was intended to punish the “delinquent” Nato member for not spending enough on defence. The US president had declared his intention last month to cut by about a third the 36,000-strong US troop contingent in Germany, faulting its ally for failing to meet the alliance’s spending target and accusing it of taking advantage of America on trade. Of the troops leaving - a mix of Army and Air Force units - some 5,400 will be relocated to Italy and elsewhere in Europe, while 6,400 forces will be returned to the US and will in time redeploy to the continent. As part of the shakeup, which is estimated to cost billions of dollars, the US’s European Command headquarters and Special Operations Command Europe will also be moved from Stuttgart to Belgium. Germany's Defense Ministry refused to comment on the moves, saying the plans needed to be discussed internally first. Mark Esper, US Defence Secretary, cast the decision as a way to “enhance deterrence against Russia” and strengthen Nato.

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UK car production slumps to lowest level since 1954

The SMMT trade group warns Brexit tariffs could deepen woes for a sector already in crisis.

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Offices could relocate to suburbs, survey suggests

Commercial property firms say there could be a high street revival as businesses exit city centres.

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How to ace a video interview

A job coach offers eight tips for performing your best during a video interview.

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Coronavirus: Hong Kong implements strict measures amid new cases

Dining in restaurants will be banned and only two people from different households can meet.

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Bringing Mars back to Earth

An audacious mission to bring rock samples from Mars back to Earth is about to begin - find our more with our illustrated guide

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AG Barr: DOJ had been drawn into 'political maelstrom'; department used as 'political weapon'

The hearing, billed as an oversight of the Justice Department, will touch on a long list of grievances, including federal deployments to Portland.

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Escape to North Korea: Defector at heart of COVID-19 case fled sex abuse investigation

Last week, a 24-year-old defector returned to North Korea the way he left in 2017, authorities say, but with a coronavirus pandemic raging in the background this time, his illicit trip drew far more attention. Facing a sexual assault investigation, Kim evaded high-tech South Korean border control systems by crawling through a drain pipe and swimming across the Han River to the North on July 19, the South Korean military has said. Kim's story as a defector begins and, so far, ends in the city of Kaesong, a North Korean border town that hosted a now-shuttered inter-Korean factory park and liaison office.

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Disney World tightens its park rules to ban masks with valves, holes, or mesh on them

Disney World updated its mask policies as coronavirus cases spike in the state of Florida.

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Andrea Bocelli, who had COVID, says lockdown humiliated him

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

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

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

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Trump economic adviser Larry Kudlow wears mask at press conference, says it's necessary to reopen economy

The White House now seems to believe masks are necessary to restart the economy.While he was previously reluctant to endorse masks, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow wore one on Monday for a press conference even though it was held outside and he stayed far from reporters. Kudlow said he'd been "emphasizing" masks over the past few weeks, saying America wouldn't "keep the economy open" or "get kids back to school" without following guidelines like wearing masks and social distancing.Kudlow reluctantly told Trump supporters to wear a mask at the president's campaign rally last month, but cited surging case numbers and reporters wearing masks around him as reasons to fully embrace them now. Still, Kudlow seemed to have trouble wearing his mask correctly as it kept slipping off his nose.> WH Advisor Larry Kudlow wore a mask today while talking to reporters. Asked why he finally decided to wear one, the 72 year old said seeing reporters wearing masks influenced his decision & he is now encouraging masks as a way to help economy recover. ⁦@CBSNews⁩ pic.twitter.com/LyLYLcFvYH> > — Paula Reid (@PaulaReidCBS) July 27, 2020President Trump was seen in public wearing a mask for the first time earlier this month, and tweeted his first picture of himself wearing a mask last week, calling it "patriotic" to do so.More stories from theweek.com The Lincoln Project savagely reminds America of everything it has lost due to 'Trump's virus' Why Trump's invasion of Portland is textbook fascism 2020 Emmy nominations reveal the other side of the streaming revolution

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Ghislaine Maxwell: Lawyers fight to keep evidence secret ahead of trial

Lawyers for Ghislaine Maxwell are trying to stop her accusers from posting evidence online ahead of her trail, according to a proposed protective order submitted to a judge on Monday.The British socialite’s legal team wants to prevent prosecutors working for women who claim she recruited them for convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein from releasing any information, including “nude, partially nude or otherwise sexualised images, videos or other depictions of individuals”.

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Hundreds jam airport as evacuations from Vietnam's Danang begin

The airport in the central Vietnamese tourism hotspot of Danang was packed on Monday after three residents tested positive for the coronavirus and the evacuation of 80,000 people began. The Southeast Asian country is back on high alert after authorities on Saturday confirmed the first community infections since April, and another three cases on Sunday, all in or around Danang. A further 11 cases linked to a Danang hospital were reported late on Monday.

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The birth of a militia: how an armed group polices Black Lives Matter protests

In Utah, members of a militia claim their presence deters protesters from becoming violent and destroying the stateThe Utah Citizens’ Alarm is only a month old, and yet it already boasts 15,000-plus members.The citizen militia’s recruits wear military fatigues and carry assault rifles. Their short-term goal, they say, is to act as a physical presence of intimidation to deter protesters from becoming violent and destroying the state of Utah. Their long-term goal: to arm and prepare the state of Utah against underground movements they believe will incite civil war.The group was conceived in reaction to a Black Lives Matter protest against police brutality organized by different groups in Provo, Utah, on 29 June. That day, a white protester pulled out a gun and shot another white man, who was not protesting but driving his vehicle into the protest route. Two shots were fired, and one hit the driver in the arm. Protesters claim the shooting was in self-defence because the driver was hitting marchers; the police found this claim to be unsubstantiated.When Casey Robertson, 47, watched a video of the incident, he felt outraged that this could happen in his “little town of Provo”. He posted on his Facebook page and a local yard sale page that “protesters descended on downtown Provo and terrorized citizens and SHOTS WERE FIRED.” He explained that Insurgence, one of the organizing group, was planning another protest for the next night and he rallied “concerned citizens” to come together, armed and ready to do their part in protecting downtown businesses.This was a call to arms. Utah Citizens’ Alarm was born.“I was like, ‘We need to stand together as citizens and go down there and show these people that we’re not going to allow violence, and that we are not going to allow these anarchist violent groups to tear down Provo,” Robertson told the Guardian. “It’s not going to happen without a fight.’”Utah Citizens’ Alarm has since organized regular military-style trainings for its members. Robertson says he has been tipped off “by secret sources within the government and law enforcement” that underground organizations like antifa are being funded by Isis, and are using groups like BLM to wreak havoc in the community to destroy American cities and ideals. Even if none of these theories stand up to scrutiny, he is dead set on not letting it happen.Robertson was born and raised in Provo. His dad was a Provo police officer and his mother a police dispatcher. He has voted both sides of the political aisle – he voted for Clinton and Obama, although he now considers himself a conservative. To him, this is not about politics, but good and evil, and he is ready to die for this cause.“My biggest fear, probably, is my children being brought up and having to grow up in a country that has completely lost its freedom, and that is under attack, and that is turning into this cesspool of violence and chaos,” he said. “Our enemy is now within, and that’s really scary to me.”This already has a chilling effect on protests: organizers have begun cancelling protests out of fear of Utah Citizens’ Alarm coming and escalating the already heated emotions. So far, militia members remain unchallenged, using their second amendment rights to openly bear arms in public throughout the state. ‘We are here to protect the community’That same Black Lives Matter protest that inspired Robertson’s fear was originally planned as a pro-police event in downtown Provo. John Sullivan, 26, the founder of Insurgence USA, a group for racial justice and police reform, organized a counter-protest alongside several other organizers. Protesters were to meet at the Provo police station at 6.30pm that night.Sullivan, one of the few black men organizing for racial justice in Utah, is not from Provo but Sandy, a suburb of Salt Lake City. Provo is a hyper-religious Latter-day Saint college town located 45 miles south of Salt Lake City. The city is made up of about 110,000 people, 88% white, 16.6% Hispanic, and less than 1% black. Local quirks include a strong second amendment culture, strong self-reliant groups, end of world preppers, a booming music scene and a charming Center Street that has at least three ice cream parlors and only recently got its first coffee shop, as the predominant demography does not drink coffee for religious purposes.The Black Lives Matter protesters started to march. They yelled “Whose streets? Our streets!” at drivers and lingered in front of cars, some of which started plowing through the crowd, claiming protesters had surrounded them and would not let them leave. (Videos show this was not the case.)Brian DeLong, a philosophy student at Utah Valley University, was grabbing a coffee when he saw protesters pass by. He joined in the march. At the intersection of University Avenue and Center Street, he was hit by a silver Excursion going southbound and immediately heard two gunshots, one after the other. DeLong bounced off the car and realized about five other people had also been hit. The driver frantically drove off.Nine minutes later, an ambulance appeared on the scene. The police did not come, and only appeared in full riot gear at 9.40pm when protesters made it back to the front of the police station.Drivers driving into protesters resulting in people shooting guns is becoming more frequent. On July 25, an Austin motorist drove into a crowd and fatally shot a protester. On the same night, another driver drove into protesters in Aurora, Colorado – except it was a protester who took out his gun and ended up shooting two fellow protesters.After the Provo protest, a policeman told Josianne Petit, 34, a criminal defense paralegal and founder of Mama & Papa Panthers, an organization dedicated to helping parents of all races in raising black children, that the police were inside watching the whole protest on Facebook Live. She said: “I felt fundamentally betrayed. I had worked with Provo PD extensively prior to that protest and I thought I had a good working relationship with them, but to hear the complete disregard they had for the lives of protesters was alarming to me, but also devastating.”Sullivan, the organizer, was not prepared for what transpired, nor did he know that anyone had a gun on his side of the protest. He created another Facebook event to hold a protest two days later in response.On that day, the two sides stood facing each other. The protesters carried posters; the Utah Citizens’ Alarm carried assault rifles. The protesters wore black; the paramilitia wore American flags. Both groups wore masks. On the west side, it was to protect themselves from the coronavirus. On the east side, masks were a protection from unwanted media attention.One young man carrying an assault rifle and two magazines of ammunition, with his face completely covered, pointed at the protesters and said: “What they have done is straight out of the communist manifesto … they say that your political beliefs are now your identity and, if somebody’s against your identity, they can justify whatever they do against you because they’re now repressing you for not agreeing with you.”He added: “Not everybody over there but the more extremists will agree with that. Black Lives Matter, as an organization, receives money from people who want to see violence happen.”Another young man walked over and said: “They hate America. They say they want to change America, that’s un-American.”The BLM protesters were authorized to march in the street. Utah Citizens’ Alarm was permitted to march on the sidewalks, guarding the storefronts from the protesters. About 250 policemen were brought in, as well as at least four snipers who stood on the roof of the Nu Skin building, a ten-storey building next to the Mormon temple.One police officer from Springville, a town just south of Provo, said he trusted 99.9% of the men and women with the guns, and said: “Those men and women would be the first people to take a bullet for any of the protesters there.”At the end of the march, Utah Citizens’ Alarm members came to the megaphone and repeated the Springville police officer’s line: “We are here to protect the community. We would be the first to take a bullet for each and every one of you.”Josey Gardner, 25, a protester and EMT studying English at BYU, asked: “Whose bullets are they protecting us from? They are the only ones with guns.” A chilling effect on free speechUtah Citizens’ Alarm is now organized into a pseudo-militia under the guidance of ex-military and ex-law enforcement on their newly formed board of advisers. They want Utah to be fully prepared for the “civil war” instigated by underground, militant forces.The group trains tirelessly. When on site, members are advised to move in groups of three and no less, because they have been told by informants on the inside that antifa attacks single out the strongest members in vulnerable situations. They have escape plans at every site, and promote a firm obedience to the local police, including when asked by them not to come to a protest.(Provo police chief Rich Ferguson made a statement that the Provo police have no relationship with the Utah Citizens’ Alarm, which Sergeant Nisha King, head of the Provo police department’s public information team, verified. )Meanwhile, militia members have now been to almost every protest on the Wasatch Front. They come to protests throughout the state with anywhere between 30 to 1,000 members in full uniform (sometimes homemade, sometimes military-grade), some in bulletproof vests, and openly carrying ARs. They silently stand in the background and observe, always on guard believing they may be called upon to act quickly if something goes wrong.A protest in Taylorsville was cancelled because too many protesters felt the risk was not worth being there. Robertson took this as a win.Jason Stevens, of Utah’s American Civil Liberties Union, stressed the importance of the historical context in what happened in the civil rights movement of the 1960s when armed groups, militias, local chapters of the Ku Klux Klan, white citizens councils, organizations both official and unofficial took it upon themselves to defend what they saw as their rights and property with violent and systemic intimidation and threats to African Americans and others in those areas.“I am not saying that is what is happening here. But with context, if you are a protester and you see groups like this showing up at your protest, that’s got to be in the back of your mind, this history of intimidation and threats.”Outside of Utah, these threats are present and real for protesters. In Omak, Washington, small civilian militias are forming to threaten protesters. In New Mexico, there is another civilian militia group that call themselves the New Mexico Civil Guard reacting to rioting and looting.In Portland, the threats to free speech and the right to protest are coming from the federal government, which has deployed unidentified agents to quell protests by forcibly grabbing protesters and taking them away in unidentified vehicles.BLM-adjacent groups held a “Stop Kidnapping Protesters” event in Salt Lake City on 22 July, in reference to what took place in Portland. Robertson and his team came in full garb and made a live video. Robertson said: “That’s the name of the protest – ‘Stop kidnapping protesters’. My boy over here translated it as ‘stop arresting criminals’. The awesome thing is these people that are out creating chaos and committing crimes, they are being watched. Law enforcement finally started to go around and pick them up and arrest them. I am all for it.”Additionally, lines between the second and first amendment are complicated, especially as open-carry laws in Utah make it legal for groups of heavily armed individuals to gather in places where the first amendment is being honored, such as protests.“If the right to bear arms is overriding the right to free speech, that may be cause for concern,” said Dr RonNell Andersen Jones, a law professor at the University of Utah. “Our constitutional doctrine hasn’t yet had the chance to really tussle with the question of what the presence of guns does to a free speech event. Short of more overt threats of violence, we usually protect protesters with guns in the same ways we protect protesters without them. But if the express goal of the armed individuals is to intimidate people who might otherwise share their views, that’s especially troubling.”In response to Utah Citizens’ Alarm, Utah protesters are now arming themselves. John Sullivan of Insurgence USA held his first armed protest on 22 July at the Utah state capitol, carrying an AR-15 and a magazine of ammo. He is encouraging Insurgence USA protesters to purchase guns so they can protect themselves if there is violence.“Basically, nobody in our group owns a gun except for me; nobody was planning on ever shooting anyone. So the fact that I bought a bulletproof vest and more magazines and our people are buying guns should say a lot. It shouldn’t be that way.”Petit, who also organizes alongside BLM and Insurgence USA, has recruited ex-military to train and arm her protesters, because she feels the threat is real as long as Utah Citizens’ Alarm is showing up.“The only way forward is to make sure we are prepared, because at this point the options the only options available to us are when things go crazy we lie down and die, or we fight back.“And I’m sorry, I’m not lying down for anybody.”

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40 infected with coronavirus after Alabama church revival

Services were shut down by Friday after it was learned that one of the members who attended had tested positive for the virus, a church official says.

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William Barr testimony: AG slams 'demonization of police' and insists Trump ‘has not attempted to interfere’ in criminal cases

Attorney General William Barr testified in a congressional hearing today, titled the “Oversight of the Department of Justice”, in front of the Democrat-led House Judiciary Committee. The hearing started off rocky, though, after Chairman Jerry Nadler was involved in a car crash on the way to the hearing.Mr Barr's appearance on Capitol Hill was in first in front of the House Judiciary Committee despite multiple attempts by the Democrats to get the attorney general to testify before them.

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