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CDC criticizes White House medical adviser's discredited mask claim

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is criticizing a White House coronavirus adviser for spreading misinformation about facial coverings, in a potential escalation of the feud between the administration and public health officials within the federal government.

Rudy’s ‘Russian Agent’ Pal Booted from Facebook for U.S. Election Interference

Facebook has suspended the account of Ukrainian politician—and alleged Russian agent—Andrii Derkach for election interference activity.The member of Ukraine’s parliament has been working with President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani to gather allegations against former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter.In a statement, a Facebook spokesperson told The Daily Beast, “We removed this account and this Page for violating our policy against the use of our platform by people engaged in election-focused influence operations.”Derkach was sanctioned by the Treasury Department in September for allegedly acting as an agent of Russian intelligence and being “directly or indirectly engaged in, sponsored, concealed, or otherwise been complicit in foreign interference in an attempt to undermine the upcoming 2020 U.S. presidential election.”Rudy: Only ‘50/50’ Chance I Worked With a ‘Russian Spy’ to Dig Dirt on Bidens and UkraineThrough his “Nabu Leaks” website, Derkach began spreading leaked recordings of conversations between Vice President Biden and former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko discussing a $1 billion loan to Ukraine and the need to fire an allegedly corrupt former prosecutor. Derkach and a number of Republican politicians have spread unsubstantiated allegations that Biden’s internationally backed pressure on Ukraine to fire its prosecutor general was part of a corruption scheme involving Burisma, a Ukrainian gas company where Biden's son, Hunter, sat on the board.Giuliani has come under increasing scrutiny for his relationship with Derkach, as revelations swirl about the U.S. intelligence community’s concerns that Russian spies may have tried to use the former mayor of New York as a conduit to launder disinformation from Moscow.Giuliani’s relationship with Derkach blossomed as he traveled around Ukraine in search of dirt on Biden’s son. Giuliani interviewed Derkach for a video series about his Hunter Biden conspiracy theories and recently told The Daily Beast, “The chance that Derkach is a Russian spy is no better than 50/50.”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.

Bloomberg Gun Control Group Pours $4.4 Million into Battleground States in Final Weeks

Everytown for Gun Safety, the gun-control advocacy group founded by former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, is spending $4.4 million on ads in six battleground states in the final weeks of the presidential election campaign, Politico reported on Monday.The group is spending a total of $60 million on ads in 2020 election races. In Texas, Everytown is running $2 million worth of ads attacking Republican candidates in the state's 22nd and 24th congressional districts over their support for gun rights. Another $1.4 million has been devoted to flipping state legislatures in Texas, Arizona, North Carolina, Iowa, and Minnesota, while $1 million is focused on voter mobilization efforts in Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Arizona, North Carolina, and Texas.Some of the ads attempt to connect the coronavirus pandemic with casualties of gun violence."Deaths from Covid-19 and gun violence are on the rise, but Republicans in the North Carolina state legislature have failed to take the action required to keep us safe," one digital ad reads."At the onset of the pandemic, "everyone asked, ‘was the political zeitgeist scrambled?’ And we asked ourselves the same question," Everytown president John Feinblatt told Politico. "Our polling showed us, when you couple the dual carnage of Covid and gun violence to legislative failure to address both emergencies, it's particularly potent."Gun sales have surged across the U.S. during the coronavirus pandemic. The FBI has conducted record numbers of background checks, with 2.7 million in March at the start of the pandemic and 3.9 million in June, after widespread demonstrations and riots broke out in various cities.

U.S. Postal carrier charged with stealing Miami-Dade mail-in ballot, debit cards

A U.S. Postal Service carrier has been arrested on charges of stealing one Miami-Dade County mail-in ballot that was sent to a Miami Beach resident earlier this month, federal authorities said Monday.

GOP senator who mocked Kamala Harris once asked Black supporter about Perdue chicken and Herman Cain

Republican Sen. David Perdue is not part of the family who owns Perdue Farms

Dr. Birx reportedly asked Pence to remove COVID-19 adviser pushing 'junk science'

Dr. Deborah Birx has reportedly been trying to get controversial adviser Dr. Scott Atlas removed from the White House coronavirus task force.A new report in The Washington Post describes the "discord on the coronavirus task force" that has reportedly "worsened" ever since the arrival of Atlas, a neuroradiologist who has no background in epidemiology. Atlas has reportedly "succeeded in largely sidelining" other doctors on the White House coronavirus task force, has challenged analysis from Birx and others with what experts have dismissed as "junk science," and is seen by colleagues as "ill-informed, manipulative and at times dishonest."Birx, who serves as the task force's response coordinator, recently confronted Vice President Mike Pence about Atlas, telling his office he should be removed from the task force and that she "does not trust" him nor does she believe "he is giving Trump sound advice," the Post also reports. Her effort was evidently unsuccessful, and Pence reportedly "did not take sides" in the conflict.The report also describes how Atlas has baselessly claimed to the task force that the United States is close to achieving herd immunity, an idea scientists have rejected, and that all coronavirus restrictions should be lifted. This, the Post says, led Birx and Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, to demand he produce data to support his claims during a "fierce debate." Atlas over the weekend also falsely claimed that masks don't work in fighting COVID-19, leading Twitter to remove the post."These days, the task force is dormant relative to its robust activity earlier in the pandemic," the Post writes. "Fauci, Birx, Surgeon General Jerome Adams and other members have confided in others that they are dispirited." Read more at The Washington Post. More stories from theweek.com Will Kansas go blue? What happened to third party candidates? If Roe falls

Black officers break from unions over Trump endorsements

Police unions have largely supported President Trump’s reelection, amid mass demonstrations over police brutality and accusations of systemic racism. But a number of Black law enforcement officers are speaking out, saying their concerns over entering the 2020 political fray were ignored.

Shanghai zoo fatal bear attack: Visitors see worker being killed

The fatal attack in Shanghai Wild Animal Park's "wild beast area" is under investigation.

Submarine murderer Peter Madsen surrounded by armed officers after escaping Danish prison

Danish submarine killer Peter Madsen has been seized by police on a street in central Copenhagen, after an audacious jail-break on Tuesday morning. The 49-year-old escaped before 10am, and was on the loose for more than two hours, although he only made it about 500m from prison before he was surrounded by police. "The arrest operation on Nyvej is over, and an arrested person has been driven away from the scene," police in Copenhagen said on Twitter shortly after 1pm. They said they would give further details at a press conference this afternoon. According to the BT tabloid, the killer took a hostage in the prison who he threatened with a pistol-like object, who was reported to have been a psychologist. He was then seized less than a kilometre from the prison by a squad of specialist armed police officers, after a long stand-off during which he reportedly claimed to be carrying a bomb. He has now been driven back to the prison by police.

The week in polls: Trump roars back in Florida, Biden gains in Georgia

In the Senate, a poll found Doug Jones may not be doomed after all. And another found Lindsey Graham's race may not be as tight as believed.

A preschooler who spotted a missing endangered lemur gets a lifetime pass to the San Francisco Zoo

The 5-year-old, James Trinh, was walking out of school on Thursday when he spotted the elderly and endangered lemur on the loose.

Kentucky AG Cameron: I Faced ‘Beyond the Pale’ Racial Attacks After Breonna Taylor Case

Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron had always found the Left to be intolerant of black conservatives, but the spate of character assassination attempts he has faced recently have gone “beyond the pale.”In a recent interview with National Review, Cameron, the first African-American to ever be independently elected to statewide office in the Bluegrass State, detailed the experience of  being on the receiving end of a firestorm of criticism over his investigation into the police shooting of 26-year-old Breonna Taylor. Much of the backlash has centered on his own identity as a black man.Perhaps most notable was rapper Megan Thee Stallion’s Saturday Night Live performance earlier this month in which she played a clip of activist Tamika Mallory calling Cameron “no different than the sellout Negroes that sold our people into slavery.”The 34-year-old attorney general, in just under a year of being in office, has found himself at the center of one of the nation’s most contentious cases of a fatal encounter between police and black Americans.Louisville police fatally shot Taylor during a botched drug raid in March. Officers were executing a search warrant shortly before 1 a.m. on March 13 when they used a battering ram to enter Taylor’s home. The officers claim they knocked and announced themselves to no response, but Taylor's boyfriend Kenneth Walker says he did not hear police identify themselves. Walked fired a shot when the door opened. He said he believed someone was breaking in.Walker’s shot hit Sargeant Jonathan Mattingly in the thigh, police said, leading Mattingly and Detectives Myles Cosgrove and Brett Hankison to fire 32 rounds in response, striking Taylor six times in her hallway, where she stood next to Walker. Outrage, which had been brewing in the months since the fatal incident, boiled over last month when the grand jury decided, on the recommendation of the attorney general’s office, to indict Hankison for wanton endangerment for firing into the empty apartment next to Taylor’s. None of the officers involved were charged in Taylor’s death. Cameron’s office made the recommendation after spending thousands of hours examining evidence in the case from mid May up until just days before the grand-jury presentation began last month.In public remarks about the investigation following the grand-jury decision September 23, Cameron called Taylor’s death a tragedy, but said his job was to investigate the facts of the case. After combing through ballistics evidence, 911 calls, police-radio traffic, and interviews, Cameron found that there was no wrongdoing on the part of Cosgrove and Mattingly, who were justified in returning fire.“The decision before my office as a special prosecutor in this case, was not to decide the loss of Miss Taylor's life was a tragedy. The answer to that question is unequivocally yes,” he said.“I deeply care about the value and sanctity of human life deserves protection. And in this case, a human life was lost. We cannot forget that,” he said. “My job as the special prosecutor in this case was to put emotions aside and investigate the facts to determine if criminal violations of state law resulted in the loss of Miss Taylor's life.”The facts, he said, are that Cosgrove and Mattingly returned fire after being fired upon and were justified in doing so."Sometimes the criminal law is inadequate to respond to or address a tragedy,” he told National Review.“Frankly that, in my judgment, is the case here. But that doesn’t exclude my responsibility to make sure that we stand up for truth and justice in this office, and make sure that the facts lead us to conclusions," he said.Cameron said he recognizes that in his role, and with all public service positions, most decisions will be met with criticism, but some of that criticism has been “beyond the pale,” he said. MSNBC host Joy Reid said on her show last month after the grand-jury decision that Cameron's identity as a black man came second to his party affiliation and criticized him for having done "nothing but give a speech.""You have to always look at [political] party," she said. "Party is the religion now in America, especially for Republicans. Don’t look at the fact that this guy is black. That does not mean anything. He is a Republican, through and through."On Reid's show, Alicia Garza, an original founder of the Black Lives Matter movement, was similarly critical, comparing Cameron to the segregation-era politician Bull Connor who fought against civil rights for blacks."I think what I saw this morning was a Bull Connor speech in 2020. And . . . unfortunately, it was being given by a black prosecutor," Garza said.Cameron said he hopes the harsh backlash he has received will shine a light on the hypocrisy of the Left.“What I hope people are seeing in this process is that a lot of those folks who preach tolerance are really being exposed for their intolerant views,” he said. “There are really a lot of intolerant people here to black folks who might have different philosophical views or don't subscribe to a liberal orthodoxy.”Cameron is a lifelong conservative, having been raised by two conservative parents in the former frontier town of Elizabethtown, Ky. Growing up, he worked in the coffee shop that his dad owned, and his mother taught at a community college. “My parents are conservatives. Owning a small business lent itself to that viewpoint. Our connection to faith and church and that background sort of lent itself in our views to the Republican Party and our views on smaller government,” he said. “It wasn’t until I got to undergrad that I realized that not everybody held those views.”Cameron studied at the University of Louisville, where he played football and later earned his law degree, in 2011. He was the recipient of one of ten McConnell scholarships, a competitive academic prize at the university, beginning an influential mentor-mentee relationship with Senator Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.).Cameron went on to intern in McConnell's Senate office and then clerked for a federal judge who had also previously worked for the Senate majority leader. McConnell hired Cameron as general counsel in 2015. In that role, Cameron helped McConnell identify and promote conservative judges to the federal bench and helped to shepherd through the nomination of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch. It was McConnell who encouraged Cameron to run for attorney general.Cameron thanked his mentor shortly after winning the AG race against Democratic competitor Greg Stumbo, becoming the first Republican elected to the office since 1944.He said the senator “changed the trajectory of my life” by recommending that he run for the role. “I’m proud to call him a friend, I’m proud to call him a mentor,” Cameron said.Speaking to The Hill  last year, McConnell said there are “a lot of similarities” between him and his protégé.“Neither of us when we started out were well connected and had to start from scratch. But he’s earned this opportunity and he deserves the credit,” McConnell said. “All you could credit me with was observing the real talent.”McConnell has supported Cameron’s work in the Taylor case, saying last month that he had “conducted exactly the kind of thorough, impartial investigation that justice demands.” “I have full confidence in the attorney general’s painstaking pursuit of facts and justice,” he said.But not everyone has been so kind.The Megan Thee Stallion stunt, which Cameron called “pretty disgusting,” was just one in a series of racial attacks on the attorney general. “There are folks that had already made a determination about how they want to see this case play out and when that didn’t happen, they’ve responded in a way that is not very civil in my judgment,” he said, saying the SNL incident was “just another demonstration of that.”“It’s not uncommon for folks to make wild accusations about black conservatives,” he said. “This isn’t the first time it happened to me, and it certainly won’t be the last.”Last year during the AG race, it was clear that race would play a role of outsized importance when the Lexington-Herald Leader published a cartoon depicting Cameron latching onto the coattails of a Ku Klux Klan robe worn by President Trump. > This is what the @HeraldLeader —a “tolerant,” left-leaning newspaper—thinks about black folks who dare to be Republican. You’re a racist following the KKK unless you hate @realDonaldTrump. Let’s make history on November 5th and show we don’t take orders from the elites anymore. pic.twitter.com/gjnCT4eOsg> > -- Daniel Cameron (@DanielCameronAG) October 27, 2019Cameron blasted the cartoon then as evidence of liberal intolerance of “the idea of folks that look like me who happen to be Republican.”He told National Review that “there’s a long list of black conservatives who have been disparaged just because of the political philosophy that we have.”“I hope it exposes the intolerance of the Left and how they don't respond in civil public conversation or discourse. The way they respond is to hurl insults at black conservatives, and it's disappointing,” he said.“I wake up every day and my skin is black and I’m fully aware of that," he added. "But my responsibility as the attorney general is to be the attorney general of all of Kentucky. I ran on the idea that this office needs to be about the rule of law, and our responsibility to enforce the rule of law, regardless of the outcomes or the consequences to me whether personally or politically that is my responsibility.”In a speech at the Republican National Convention in August, Cameron called out Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden for his disparaging remarks about the black community, including black Republicans."I think often about my ancestors who struggled for freedom," he said. "And as I think of those giants and their broad shoulders, I also think about Joe Biden, who says, if you aren't voting for me, 'you ain't black.' Who argued that Republicans would put us 'back in chains.' Who says there is no 'diversity' of thought in the black community?""Mr. Vice President, look at me, I am black. We are not all the same, sir. I am not in chains. My mind is my own. And you can't tell me how to vote because of the color of my skin," he added. Cameron recognizes that, as someone who holds public office, he is opening himself up to criticism and said he supports civil discourse and peaceful protests. In July, more than 100 people gathered on Cameron's front lawn to demand the officers involved in Taylor's death be charged. Police arrested 87 protesters including Leslie Redmond, the president of the NAACP’s Minneapolis chapter; Houston Texans wide receiver Kenny Stills; and Porsha Williams, a member of the cast of The Real Housewives of Atlanta.Jefferson County attorney Mike O’Connell ultimately dropped the felony charges against the protesters.“Peaceful protest has been a part of our history,” Cameron told National Review. “But when we see these violent elements try to hijack peaceful protests and we’ve seen some of the looting and vandalism and burning of American cities, I mean that is disheartening.”He believes it will take an effort from leaders on both sides to denounce that sort of conduct and “let people know that that’s outside the bounds of what is normal and appropriate.”“I am always optimistic about the future of this country and always know that cooler heads will prevail,” he said.

Michigan Republican fundraised at DeVos family home while trying to downplay financial ties

John James bought ads to distance himself from Betsy DeVos as super PAC funded by family poured millions into race

Woman rescued in Zion National Park is 'getting her strength back'

"She was unable to take more than a step or two without collapsing," the woman's daughter said. "She told me she was so dehydrated she couldn't open her mouth."

6 Russians charged over most 'destructive series of computer attacks ever attributed to a single group'

The Department of Justice has announced charges against six Russian intelligence officers in connection with a series of majorly "disruptive and destructive" cyberattacks.The DOJ on Monday said that a federal grand jury had indicted six Russian computer hackers, officers of the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU), for their role in a series of "computer intrusions and attacks" conducted from 2015 through 2019 "for the strategic benefit of Russia." This allegedly included malware attacks against Ukraine's electric power grid, as well as efforts to disrupt France's 2017 elections and the 2018 Winter Olympics.Officials also said the defendants were responsible for "destructive malware attacks that infected computers worldwide" and led to nearly $1 billion in losses.The alleged hackers, The Washington Post notes, are a part of the same intelligence agency previously charged over interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, although the indictment unsealed on Monday didn't include charges related to U.S. election interference. NBC News' Kevin Collier wrote that "naming six officers (allegedly) responsible for election meddling and destruction two weeks before the election seems a pretty clear sign." The Post reports that "officials said the announcement was not timed to the current political schedule," however. Johns Hopkins University professor Thomas Rid also described the indictment as an "incredible document," which suggests intelligence communities "must have stunning visibility into Russian military intelligence operations if today's disclosures are considered dispensable."Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers in a statement on Monday said "no country has weaponized its cyber capabilities as maliciously or irresponsibly as Russia, wantonly causing unprecedented damage to pursue small tactical advantages and to satisfy fits of spite," saying the defendants were charged over the "most disruptive and destructive series of computer attacks ever attributed to a single group" and adding, "No nation will recapture greatness while behaving in this way."More stories from theweek.com Will Kansas go blue? What happened to third party candidates? If Roe falls

3 billion people could struggle to get a COVID-19 vaccine because the world doesn't have enough fridges to store it

Large parts of Asia, Latin America, and Africa lack sufficient cold storage facilities to keep a potential COVID-19 vaccine.

Florida company warns employees they might lose jobs if Trump doesn’t win

Boss has given hundreds of thousands to Republican political causes

Lopez Obrador criticizes DEA role in Mexico after ex-army chief's arrest

Mexico's president has criticized the historic role played by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in his country, days after a former Mexican army chief was arrested in Los Angeles on drug charges at the behest of the DEA. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador described Thursday's arrest of ex-Defense Minister Salvador Cienfuegos as evidence of rampant corruption in past governments. Speaking in the southern state of Oaxaca on Saturday, Lopez Obrador said the DEA had dealt for years with Cienfuegos and Genaro Garcia Luna, Mexico's security minister from 2006 to 2012, who has also been charged in the United States with drug-trafficking offenses.

Fact check: True claim about Harris failing bar exam on first try and Barrett's law school rank

A post compares the early career qualifications of Judge Amy Coney Barrett and Sen. Kamala Harris. We rate this claim true.

France closes Paris mosque in clampdown over teacher's beheading

French authorities said Tuesday they would close a Paris mosque as part of a clampdown on radical Islam that has yielded over a dozen arrests following the beheading of a teacher who had shown his pupils a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed. The mosque in a densely-populated suburb northeast of Paris had disseminated a video on its Facebook page days before Friday's gruesome murder, railing against teacher Samuel Paty's choice of material for a class discussion on freedom of expression, said a source close to the investigation. The interior ministry said the mosque in Pantin, which has some 1,500 worshippers, would be shut on Wednesday night for six months. Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, who vowed Monday there would be "not a minute's respite for enemies of the Republic", had asked regional authorities to carry out the mosque closure. And on Monday, police launched a series of raids targeting Islamist networks. Paty, 47, was attacked on his way home from the junior high school where he taught in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine,25 miles northwest of Paris. A photo of the teacher and a message confessing to his murder was found on the mobile phone of his killer, 18-year-old Chechen Abdullakh Anzorov, who also posted images of the decapitated body on Twitter.

Ron Johnson Asks FBI to Clarify Whether It Possesses ‘Material from Hunter Biden’s Laptop’

Senator Ron Johnson (R., Wis.) has sent a letter to FBI director Christopher Wray asking him to clarify whether the agency possesses documents from the laptop of Hunter Biden, Fox News reported on Sunday.The request comes after the New York Post revealed various emails written by or sent to Hunter Biden, who from 2014 to 2019 served on the board of Ukrainian natural-gas firm Burisma Holdings. In an email sent in 2015, a senior Burisma adviser thanks the vice president's son for providing the "opportunity" to meet with Joe Biden.The Post stated that the documents were found on a computer deposited at a Delaware repair shop. The the store owner turned over the computer to the FBI in December 2019, but made a copy of the documents on a separate hard drive.Johnson, the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, stated in his letter that a whistleblower had contacted the committee on September 24, 2020, claiming that he had turned over a computer belonging to Hunter Biden to the FBI. Johnson wrote that staffers immediately asked the FBI to confirm some details in the whistleblower's claim, however the FBI responded that they could not confirm or deny the information.It was not immediately clear if the whistleblower who contacted the Senate Intelligence Committee is the Delaware shop owner mentioned by the Post."I have a responsibility to validate and verify the contents of any information produced to my committee," Johnson wrote. "The committee must know if it receives information that could be fraudulent or not accurate."The senator added, "The committee must know whether the FBI has assessed the validity of materials the whistleblower has provided, and what, if any, actions the FBI has taken since obtaining this information." Johnson asked the FBI to confirm if it does "possess material from Hunter Biden's laptop."Senator Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa), another member of the Intelligence Committee, also weighed in on the email controversy on Sunday.> It appears the FBI had contents of hunter Bidens laptop since at least December 2019. What did they do to verify the info & take action? why has it taken so long to learn about it? If vp Biden lied about his interactions w hunters foreign business partners, Americans deserve 2kno> > -- ChuckGrassley (@ChuckGrassley) October 18, 2020"It appears the FBI had contents of hunter Biden's laptop since at least December 2019," Grassley wrote on Twitter. "What did they do to verify the info [and] take action? Why has it taken so long to learn about it?"Neither Hunter Biden nor the Joe Biden campaign have denied the veracity of the emails and documents uncovered by the Post. An attorney for Hunter Biden told the Washington Post that he was "certain" that a meeting between the Burisma adviser and Joe Biden "never happened."

Sen. Schumer, McConnell spar over COVID relief bill

Schumer is not impressed with McConnell’s latest proposal. The Senate minority leader, Charles Schumer, believes Republicans and Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell are the reason an agreement on a COVID-19 relief hasn’t been made. On a call with reporters on Sunday, The Hill reports that Schumer says Senate Republicans are the “No. 1 reason there’s no agreement,” and they “won’t even go along with what Trump is willing” to get done.

Supreme Court justices chastise Vermont on the limits of police power in 'deer jacking' case

Vermont's high court ruled that game wardens had a legal right to wander around the land of a homeowner suspected of illegally hunting deer at night.

Trump reportedly invited a waiter into a top secret intelligence briefing room to order a milkshake

Look, sometimes a man just needs a malted milkshake. Admittedly, there are less opportune moments to indulge in such a craving — say, when you're in a highly classified briefing about Afghanistan with your country's senior defense and intelligence officials.Nevertheless, President Trump reportedly brought such a huddle to a halt a few months after he took office in 2017, Politico reports. "Does anyone want a malt?" the commander-in-chief supposedly asked the top-ranking officials who'd assembled for the briefing at his New Jersey golf club, including the head of the CIA's Special Activities Center, "a little known unit" that is "responsible for operations that include clandestine or covert operations with which the U.S. government does not want to be overtly associated," Spec Ops Magazine explains.Trump urged, "We have the best malts, you have to try them," before inviting a waiter into the code-word-secure briefing room to satisfy his sweet tooth. "The malt episode ... became legendary inside the CIA, said three former officials," Politico writes, explaining that "it was seen as an early harbinger of Trump's disinterest in intelligence, which would later be borne out by the new president's notorious resistance to reading his classified daily briefing." (That is to say, pictures were added to the briefings to help keep him engaged).Still, this is a man who has flexed the power of the nation's highest office to … install a button on his desk in the Oval Office that summons a butler to bring him a Diet Coke. The briefings can wait! To paraphrase a queen of France who was similarly burdened with the trivialities of running a country when there were sweets to consume, let them drink milkshakes.More stories from theweek.com Will Kansas go blue? What happened to third party candidates? If Roe falls

Visiting an airport lounge during the pandemic felt safe to me but it wasn't the same without the buffet

Though the experience wasn't quite as luxurious as before, our reporter was impressed by the safety measures at a lounge in London's Gatwick Airport.

Official ballot box set ablaze with burning newspaper, Los Angeles firefighters say

Firefighters had to cut the drop box open with a chainsaw to retrieve the ballots inside.

Killer dubbed ‘Black Widow’ gets prison release 30 years after hit on estranged husband

Barbara Kogan organised killing to secure life insurance payout

'Smoke coming from everywhere': Cameron Peak, Calwood fires continue to rage in Colorado

Colorado crews scrambled to gain ground against two blazes as this year's historic wildfire season imparted more heartbreak and hardships on the West.

Taiwan and Chinese diplomats injured in fight in high-end Fiji hotel

Taiwan and China have become embroiled in a diplomatic spat on the Pacific island of Fiji, after government officials from both sides were allegedly injured during a fight at an event in a high-end hotel to mark Taiwan’s National Day. The incident occurred amid growing tensions between Beijing and Taipei over Taiwan’s global status, and as both sides vie for diplomatic and economic influence in the strategic Indo-Pacific region. Taiwan’s foreign ministry said on Monday that it had asked the Fijian police to investigate the October 8 incident. The fight resulted in a Taiwanese diplomat being sent to hospital after trying to prevent two Chinese embassy officials from entering the venue to photograph people who were attending. The Chinese Communist Party claims Taiwan - a democratic island of 24 million which it has never ruled - as its own territory. It tries to undermine Taiwan internationally and strongly objects to Taipei having independent ties with any other nations. Taiwan, a strong US ally, has formal relations with four countries in the region, although not with Fiji. According to the Taiwanese foreign ministry, two Chinese diplomats stormed into a celebration marking Taiwan’s national day to “harass” their guests.

Chief: Indiana police recruit fired for ties to neo-Nazis

A police recruit in Indiana was fired less than 24 hours after the department was notified that the officer had been involved in a neo-Nazi online chat forum.

Journalists Share Deceptively Edited Clip of GOP Michigan Senate Candidate John James’ Answer on Health Care

A number of prominent journalists shared a deceptively edited video that purported to show Republican Michigan Senate candidate John James fumbling his response to a question about protecting patients with pre-existing health conditions."I don't see a full health care plan on your website. What do you want to replace it with?" anchor Devin Scillian of Detroit's Local 4 News asked James during an interview on Sunday."So here's the thing. I'm not a politician," James begins his response, at which point the video ends.During the rest of his answer that was not included in the clip, James goes on to outline his vision for health care and the proposals he believes could replace the Affordable Care Act."Health care is unaffordable for too many Americans, and I believe that by increasing competition, increasing choice, increasing quality of care, lowering costs, I think we can do that with some of the ways I proposed," James said.The Michigan Republican said he proposes "broadening the risk pools across state lines," as well as reforming the tort and regulatory hurdles that raise costs and allowing business association health plans "so people can make their own choice.""Those are the types of things through a legislative requirement that must protect preexisting conditions," James said.The video was put out by Michigan Democrats and subsequently shared by several prominent journalists and others with large Twitter followings.CNN White House correspondent John Harwood shared the video, as did Emily Singer and Oliver Willis of the American Independent and veteran broadcast journalist Soledad O'Brien. Several former government officials and entertainment personalities also shared the video along with Democratic Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer's communications director and incumbent Gary Peters, James's opponent in the Senate race.The Michigan Senate race is now considered a toss up between James and Peters, according to RealClearPolitics.James has been advocating for replacing Obamacare since his first unsuccessful run for Senate in Michigan three years ago.In November 2017, James called the Affordable Care Act a "monstrosity" and declared Washington needs "someone who will go and work their tail off" to repeal and replace it.“Our failure to repeal and replace Obamacare is the surest sign that we need new conservative leadership in Washington,” James said at the time.

Unmasked man in Washington grocery store speaks out after video goes viral

In the viral video, an employee confronts Scott, who said his medical condition prevents him from wearing a mask.

Steve Bannon predicts Trump will run for president in 2024 if he loses to Biden

Former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon predicted that if President Trump loses re-election in 2020, he'll run again in 2024. "I'll make this prediction right now: If for any reason the election is stolen from, or in some sort of way Joe Biden is declared the winner, Trump will announce he's going to run for re-election in 2024," Bannon told The Australian. "You're not going to see the end of Donald Trump."Trump, notably, will be 78 in 2024.Bannon, who also served as Trump's 2016 campaign CEO, previously envisioned Trump's re-election while speaking at an Oct. 10 forum with the Young Republican Federation of Virginia, Salon notes. "At 10 o'clock or 11 o'clock … on Nov. 3, Donald J. Trump is going to walk into the Oval Office, and he may hit a tweet before he goes in there … and he's going to sit there, having won Ohio, and being up in Pennsylvania and Florida, and he's going to say, 'Hey, game's over,'" Bannon said. He explained, "the elites are traumatized. They do not want to go stand in line and vote. That, ladies and gentlemen, is a game-changer."Biden remains ahead in the polls, but his own aides have cautioned their team not to get too cocky. "The very searing truth is that Donald Trump can still win this race, and every indication we have shows that this thing is going to come down to the wire," Biden's campaign manager, Jen O'Malley Dillon, wrote in a memo to supporters.On Friday night, Trump joked that if he loses the election, "I'm not going to feel so good. Maybe I'll have to leave the country, I don't know."More stories from theweek.com Will Kansas go blue? What happened to third party candidates? If Roe falls

A Texas woman in her 30s died of COVID-19 earlier this year while waiting for her plane to take off

The woman reportedly had trouble breathing and required supplemental oxygen before she died while her plane was on the tarmac in Arizona.

An idle Venezuelan tanker with millions of gallons of oil is creating panic in Trinidad

More than 20 months after a Venezuelan oil tanker carrying nearly 55 million gallons of crude oil was abandoned off the country’s northern coast following tightened U.S. sanctions, inspectors from neighboring Trinidad and Tobago will finally get a chance to see for themselves if the idle vessel’s cargo could lead to a major ecological disaster off the Caribbean coast of South America.

Aeroflot Airlines crew members suspected of helping smuggle $50 million worth of stolen iPads, iPhones, and more into Russia

The US State Department has revoked 113 visas of Aeroflot employees in connection to the smuggling allegations.

As the Arctic's attractions mount, Greenland is a security black hole

On a windy August afternoon in 2017, Akitsinnguaq Ina Olsen was relaxing in the old harbour of Nuuk, Greenland's capital, when a Chinese icebreaker sailed unannounced into the Arctic island's territorial waters. The Chinese ship was one of a growing number of unexpected arrivals in Arctic waters as shrinking sea ice has fast-tracked a race among global powers for control over resources and waterways. Both China and Russia have been making increasingly assertive moves in the region, and after the U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last year said now is "America's moment to stand up as an Arctic nation and for the Arctic's future," military activity is stepping up.

US pitches Greece on a frigate co-production deal

American shipbuilder Onex, based in Greece, could help construct new frigates for the Hellenic Navy.

Egypt says another trove of ancient coffins found in Saqqara

Egyptian archaeologists have unearthed another trove of ancient coffins in a vast necropolis south of Cairo, authorities said Monday. The Tourism and Antiquities Ministry said in a statement that archaeologists found the collection of colorful, sealed sarcophagi buried more than 2,500 years ago at the Saqqara necropolis. Mostafa Waziri, secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said more than 80 coffins were found.

Maskless White People Are Fueling a Massive New Coronavirus Surge in Mississippi

Wayne Moak isn’t sure who first brought the coronavirus into the congregation at Clear Branch Baptist Church in rural Wesson, Mississippi, but when it got there in late September, “it spread fast,” he told The Daily Beast.Within weeks, more than two dozen members of the congregation were sick, including Moak, his wife, son, and all three other staff members, he recalled.Of course, this was exactly the scenario he’d been hoping to avoid when the church decided, in the early days of the pandemic, to set up his pulpit on the bed of a 20-foot trailer and conduct parking lot services. But that arrangement was short-lived. By June, with businesses around the state reopening and midday temperatures cracking 90 degrees, the decision to go toward air conditioning was met with little controversy.Videos of these services, posted weekly to Facebook, show parishioners in the first few rows singing shoulder to shoulder. Masks were not required, and few people, including Moak, appeared to take it upon themselves to wear them.“Look, I’m one of those who wears mine the least I can… The way things were, it wasn’t something we thought was necessary,” he told The Daily Beast.The coronavirus raged through Mississippi’s cities and its poorer, predominantly Black counties this summer, eventually pushing the state to the highest rate of per-capita infections and deaths in the country. But Moak said that in Wesson, which is in predominantly white Lincoln County, “we weren’t seeing it so much.”That equilibrium has shifted dramatically in the last month. The same week that Clear Branch had its outbreak, at least 24 students and teachers at the local public school, Wesson Attendance Center, tested positive. By mid-October, more than 150 students and teachers would end up in quarantine. A few minutes down the road in Brookhaven, a similar scenario played out, as outbreaks in the elementary and high schools there sent more than 100 students and teachers into quarantine.“It’s just in our community right now. I wish I could see where it’s coming from, but I don’t have that magic wand,” Moak said.But health experts think they do know: white people who refuse to wear masks.After two months of steady declines, a second coronavirus wave is rising in Mississippi. On Friday, the state recorded 1,322 new infections, its highest single-day number since August. But the face of the pandemic in the state has shifted dramatically in that time. Mississippi, once a case study for how the coronavirus disproportionately sickens Black people in this country, is seeing its second wave driven by white Mississippians in rural parts of the state. The reason, according to Dr. Thomas Dobbs, the top health officer in Mississippi, is simple: Rural white communities aren’t taking the necessary precautions to avoid spreading the virus.“We have had really pretty good uptake by a lot of folks in the Black community with masking and social distancing,” Dobbs said on a call with reporters last week. “… And I just want to say that I think big parts of the white community, especially in areas that maybe weren’t as hard-affected [this summer], have not been as compliant or engaged actively with social distancing and masking. And I think that does make a difference.”On Oct. 9, deaths among white Mississippians surpassed those of Black Mississippians for the first time since the Mississippi State Department of Health publicly made racial data available in June. And the trend is likely to get worse. Between Sept. 16 and Oct. 14, new coronavirus infections among white Mississippians rose 26.8 percent, more than double the 12.6 percent rate of increase among Black Mississippians. As of Monday, the number of white and Black Mississippians diagnosed with the coronavirus was almost equal. In early July, the number of Black Mississippians with the virus had been double that of whites.Despite rising case numbers, on Sept. 30, Tate Reeves became the first U.S. governor to let his statewide mask mandate expire. Reeves’ office declined a request for comment from The Daily Beast, but on Monday the governor announced he would be signing an executive order partially reinstating the mask mandate in nine counties where he said “spread was most rapid.”“Here in Mississippi we’ve seen this movie before. We know what can happen if we allow this to get out of control. So we want to be proactive to prevent that from happening,” Reeves said.Still, the limited scope of the mandate means it’s likely to have some blind spots, especially because one of the mandate’s triggers is a high number of cases, and many of the smaller counties where cases are rising rapidly can’t meet that threshold. Lincoln County, which includes Wesson and Brookhaven and which has seen cases rise 13 percent in two weeks—the fifth highest increase in the state—was not on the new mask-mandate list. Nor was Benton County, another rural area where cases have risen 15 percent in the last two weeks.Epidemiologists point out that increased cases among white Mississippians are still likely to spell disaster for Black residents, who tend to be at higher risk of complications from the virus.“The only job the virus has is to keep spreading because that’s the way it remains alive. And as long as people who have it aren’t complying [with risk reduction], it will keep spreading,” said William Schaffner, a professor of preventive medicine and infectious disease at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville. “And that will ultimately hurt people of color because they have had the worst outcomes.”“You know, this virus knows no political affiliation. It has no religious affiliation. If it’s in one group, the way it survives is by spreading to the next group.”The virus may not have a political affiliation, but the people who are deciding whether to follow public health guidelines do. And in Mississippi, white residents are more than five times as likely to be Republican as Black residents. Of the five counties where rates of new coronavirus infections are highest right now—Itawamba, Neshoba, Claiborne, Chickasaw, and Benton—all but Claiborne are predominantly white and rural and voted for President Trump in 2016.“Identifying as a Republican is less about party identification than ideological identification,” said James M. Thomas, a professor of sociology at the University of Mississippi in Oxford. “And even after all this, people are still looking at Trump and saying, ‘That’s my guy.’ So when he does something, like making fun of Biden for wearing the biggest mask ever, or taking off his mask on that balcony right after he’s back from the hospital and still contagious, that’s a big statement to his supporters about masks.’”On Sunday morning, Thomas said he drove his family to pick pumpkins at Cedar Hill Farm, just outside Hernando, a predominantly white and conservative suburb of Memphis, Tennessee. Thomas and his family, which is mixed race, wore masks. But the crowd was predominantly white and so few of them were wearing masks, Thomas said, that “we felt like we were making a political statement, going out in public with a mask on.”“And I’m sure people looking at us, an interracial couple, saw us taking a politicized position,” Thomas said. Photos from Cedar Hill this weekend, obtained by The Daily Beast, back up his observation.Cedar Hill doesn’t have a mask mandate, though DeSoto County—which includes it—will as of Wednesday, thanks to the governor’s order. But perhaps no Mississippian has been as publicly hostile toward mask-wearing as the farm’s owner Robert Foster, a conservative firebrand who unsuccessfully challenged Reeves for the Republican gubernatorial nomination last year. On Facebook and Twitter, Foster has labeled Reeves “Tyrant Tate” for imposing a mask mandate and has tried, also unsuccessfully, to get the hashtag MaskOffMS to trend, writing that Reeves and Dobbs are “bullying every school child in the state with their senseless mandates,” a reference to Reeves’ decision to keep a mask mandate in place in Mississippi schools.Despite the mask mandate’s limited scope, Reeves sounded almost apologetic announcing it Monday.“As I’ve said many times throughout 2020, we have to avoid using the heavy hand of government, unless it is absolutely necessary. We should always be as limited as possible while never ignoring the risk of inaction,” Reeves said. “... But we saw this strategy work during the summer wave.”The rise in cases in white communities that may have thought themselves safe from the virus is likely not confined to Mississippi’s borders. On Saturday, the under-10 Baseball Players Association team for Lincoln, Copiah, and Lawrence counties traveled an hour and a half to a seven-team tournament in Vidalia, Louisiana. Video provided to The Daily Beast shows nearly a hundred players and spectators, many clustered together talking. All appear white and none appear to be wearing a mask.“We do a lot of tournaments and it’s the same thing, little to zero taking precautions,” said one parent at the tournament who asked The Daily Beast to withhold her name because her opinion was so unpopular in her community.“[It’s] reckless,” she said. The Baseball Players Association did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this story.Topher Brown, a resident of Brookhaven who owns the sanitation company that disinfected Clear Branch after its outbreak, said demand has surged recently, estimating that calls were up as much as 25 percent since August. Unfortunately, Brown said, the vast majority of these calls come only after a business has had an outbreak.“It seems like people don’t really understand the severity of it until it hits home,” Brown said, noting that even when he shows up after an outbreak, “you don’t always see a lot of masks.”His company, Sanitation Plus, also sprayed down Wesson Attendance Center, the public school that had its outbreak at the same time Clear Branch did. Although masks are required inside Mississippi schools, they aren’t outside of buildings. Video from Friday night’s football game against Amite County High shows almost exclusively white families on the bleachers and no masks.“There’s no real reason why we can’t continue to do virtual learning during outbreaks, but schools around here carry on like it’s not a real thing—or a big deal,” the mother said.Wesson Attendance Center did not respond to a request for comment for this story.As for Clear Branch, services are moving back to the parking lot for the rest of October. But the weather’s getting colder, and while no decisions have been made, Moak admits that odds are good they’ll have to return indoors soon.In terms of necessity, what he’s less sure about is whether they’ll ask parishioners to put on masks.“The decision is based on where your people are, and if they’re not comfortable, then they’re not comfortable. You can’t really make them,” Moak told The Daily Beast.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.

ExxonMobil responds to Trump claiming he could phone company and ask for $25m

US president says he could raise a billion dollars for his election campaign through bribery ‘if he wanted to’

U.N weapons embargo on Iran lifts after 13 years

A 13-year-old United Nations embargo on Iran that blocked the nation from buying and selling weapons expired on Sunday, despite U.S. protests, The Associated Press reports. Iran's foreign affairs minister, Javad Zarif, called the occasion a "momentous day for the international community … in defiance of the U.S. regime's effort." The U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency claimed last year that if the embargo was allowed to expire, as was in keeping with the five-year timetable described by the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, then Iran would potentially attempt to purchase fighter jets, anti-aircraft missiles, and tanks from Russia, or other arms from China. Iran has insisted it has no plans for a "buying spree," and some experts say the country is "more likely to purchase small numbers of advanced weapons systems," The Guardian reports.More stories from theweek.com Will Kansas go blue? What happened to third party candidates? If Roe falls

Flooding, landslides plague Vietnam as new tropical storms forms near the Philippines

Parts of Vietnam are still reeling from an onslaught of tropical systems in recent weeks that have worsened ongoing flooding in the country. Now, AccuWeather meteorologists say another storm may target the country after bringing flooding rainfall and gusty winds to the Philippines. At least 102 people have been killed in total by the recent flooding and landslides, while more than 90,000 have been forced to evacuate their homes, The Guardian reports. On Sunday, rescue operations were underway as multiple landslides buried a military barracks in Vietnam's central province of Quang Tri, according to the BBC. At least 11 bodies have been recovered so far. Search and rescue efforts were even paused for a time on Sunday as heavy rain returned to the area and increased the risk for additional landslides. Flooded villages are seen in Quang Tri province, Vietnam, October 13, 2020. Ho Cau/VNA via REUTERS. Thousands of hectares of ponds and land used for agriculture have been destroyed and hundreds of thousands of cattle and poultry have been swept away in the floodwaters. Hue, a city located in the province to the south of Quang Tri, has reported 2,264 mm (89.13 inches) of rainfall since the beginning of October. The city typically reports 757 mm (29.80 inches) of rain for the month. Footage from AFP showed just how high floodwaters had reached in Hue with water entering houses and disrupting other normal everyday activities. The central Vietnam city is closing in on a monthly rainfall total near what is normally reported in an entire year: 2,798 mm (110.20 inches) of rain. CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE ACCUWEATHER APP Rounds of downpours are forecast to continue across northern and central Vietnam into the middle of the week. Then, a drier air mass is expected to approach on a southward journey from China. This break in the onslaught of rain may be short-lived for the flood-ravaged region. AccuWeather forecasters are monitoring a newly-formed tropical storm that could follow a path toward Vietnam this week. A satellite view of the new tropical storm to the east of the Philippines on Tuesday, local time. (CIRA/RAMMB) A tropical depression formed to the east of the central Philippines on Monday, local time, and strengthened to a tropical storm as it drew closer to the country on Tuesday. The tropical storm is designated as Saudel by the Japan Meteorological Agency. The storm is known as Pepito in the Philippines. "The storm is expected to cross Luzon Tuesday night, local time," stated AccuWeather Lead International Meteorologist Jason Nicholls. He added that the heaviest rainfall is expected across northern Luzon and the higher terrain, where 200-400 mm (8-16 inches) of rain is expected. This is also where the AccuWeather Local StormMax™ of 24 inches (600 mm) is most likely to occur. Widespread rainfall totals of 50-100 mm (2-4 inches) are in the forecast for the rest of the northern Philippines. The storm will deliver gusty winds as it passes over the island of Luzon. "The strongest winds will occur across the northeastern and northern coasts of Luzon, as well as the higher terrain across the Interior of Luzon," stated Nicholls. "Winds will gust between 60 and 100 km/h (40 and 60 mph) with an AccuWeather Local StormMax™ of 150 km/h (90 mph)." This can lead to damage to weaker structures, downed power lines and tree damage. This strengthening process will slow down into Wednesday as the storm moves over the northern Philippines. However, once the system emerges over the South China Sea, it will return to an environment conducive for additional strengthening. As warm water and low wind shear allow the storm to gain strength through the end of the week, it may follow a track toward Indochina, one that was also forged by Linfa and other disorganized tropical features in recent weeks. This would bring yet another round of torrential rainfall to parts of Vietnam by the weekend. However, a shift in the track far enough to the north or south could allow the heaviest rainfall to miss the hardest-hit areas in Vietnam. Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.

Cruise ship rescues 24 people from boat off Florida coast

A Carnival Cruise Line ship rescued two dozen people, including two children, from a sinking boat 37 miles off the Florida coast, the cruise line reported Saturday.

'They're amateurs': Feds say plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer was dangerous, poorly planned

U.S. Magistrate Judge Sally Berens agreed the government had probable cause to charge the six defendants, despite objections by defense lawyers.

Top infectious-disease expert says 'the next 6 to 12 weeks are going to be the darkest of the entire pandemic'

Dr. Michael Osterholm predicted that by the holidays, the US "will see numbers much, much larger than even the 67,000 to 75,000 cases."

China tells U.S. companies that they are welcome in its market

China welcomes U.S. companies to actively participate in its market and will strive to create a fair and just environment, the industry ministry said on Monday, citing a meeting it held with firms such as Qualcomm Inc and General Motors. Xiao Yaqing, China's Minister of Industry and Information Technology, made the comments during a video meeting held with a delegation sent by the US-China Business Council, the ministry said in a statement published on is website. Executives from the headquarters of companies like General Motors and Qualcomm attended the meeting, alongside the heads of the US-China Business Council, the statement said, adding that Xiao had also commented on how there were good market prospects in areas like 5G technology and new energy vehicles.

'A moving current': Thai protesters adopt Hong Kong tactics

Umbrellas as shields, secure chat groups and hand signals as warnings of a pending police crackdown -- Thailand's pro-democracy protesters have taken inspiration and lessons from their counterparts in Hong Kong.