Columbiana

James Clyburn: Trump doesn't plan to 'give up the office'

Rep. James Clyburn defended his recent comments saying President Trump "thinks that the American people will be duped by him, like the people of Germany was duped by Adolf Hitler."

Tucker: ‘Probably Illegal’ for Biden to Only Consider a Black Woman VP

Fox News star Tucker Carlson—currently facing outrage from network colleagues over his racist rhetoric—upped the ante on Monday night, claiming it was “probably illegal” for presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden to prioritize Black women in his running-mate search, while calling those candidates unqualified. Carlson, whose former head writer was recently outed as an outspoken racist, kicked off Monday night’s broadcast of his hit primetime show by singling out the women of color whom Biden is reportedly considering as the vice-presidential nominee.“We’ve taken a closer look at three potential candidates. All of them are said to be on Joe Biden’s shortlist for the job,” Carlson declared, referencing a previous inflammatory segment. “They are Stacey Abrams, Karen Bass, and Kamala Harris. Now, in a normal year, no mainstream candidate would consider any of these people. All of them would be disqualified without debate.”The far-right Fox host first described Rep. Bass (D-CA) as a “lunatic Fidel Castro acolyte” and an armed revolutionary, referring to her past praise of the Cuban dictator and work for a young leftist group during the 1970s. After calling Abrams, a former Georgia state representative and gubernatorial candidate, “delusional” and accusing her of writing “bad porn novels,” Carlson took aim at Sen. Harris (D-CA).“Kamala Harris, meanwhile, is so transparently transactional that even Democratic primary voters who have a strong stomach found her repulsive,” he exclaimed. “Pretty much no one who knows Kamala Harris likes her.”Claiming the three women did not represent a “blue ribbon group,” Carlson then grumbled over the Biden campaign’s apparent prioritization of a woman of color to fill out the ticket.“For what could very well be the most important job on Earth, Biden has decided to hire exclusively on the basis of qualities that are both immutable and completely irrelevant—race and gender,” Carlson huffed. “And that’s it. But wait a second, you ask, isn’t that insulting? Isn’t it wrong? Isn’t it probably illegal?”“Yes, it is all three of those things,” he continued. “But no one’s pushing back against it so Biden is doing it.”Carlson then tore into another Black woman whom Biden is reportedly considering, former National Security Adviser Susan Rice. Describing her remarks in the immediate aftermath of the Benghazi terror attacks as “hateful” and “heinous,” the Fox host accused Rice of committing a “moral crime” by initially blaming the embassy attack on an anti-Islamic video.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.

Iran has been covering up its coronavirus death toll, according to BBC investigation which says the true figure is almost 3 times higher

Both coronavirus deaths and cases are significantly higher than Iran is publicly reporting, according to government figures seen by the BBC.

Kids getting caught in crossfire as US gun violence surges

July in Chicago ended as it began: Mourning the death of a child whose only mistake was venturing outside to play when someone armed with a gun came to the neighborhood hunting for an enemy. On Monday, two days after his department released statistics that revealed the month had been one of the deadliest in the history of the city, Police Superintendent David Brown repeated what has become a grim ritual of recounting the death of a child. This time, the story was about Janari Ricks.

Illinois officials call to abolish history classes in the state until an 'alternative' is set up to highlight underrepresented groups

Illinois Democratic State Representative LaShawn K. Ford is demanding the history of minority groups to be taught in state schools.

Splash Mountain log flume ride sinks at Disney World's Magic Kingdom

Walt Disney World's Splash Mountain hit rough waters Sunday as Twitter users posted video of a submerged log flume ride they were in moments earlier.

Around the world, countries thought to have contained the coronavirus face new waves of infection

Fresh outbreaks from Australia to Spain underscore the relentlessness of the coronavirus as infections top 18 million worldwide.

Diesel truck soot likely sparked major California wildfire

A California wildfire raging through dry brush and timber east of Los Angeles, forcing thousands of people from their homes, was likely sparked by burning soot from the exhaust of a diesel truck, investigators said on Monday. The blaze, dubbed the Apple Fire, has scorched more than 26,000 acres (10,500 hectares) since erupting last Friday in the Riverside County community of Cherry Valley, about 70 miles (120 km) east of Los Angeles, and was only 5% contained as of Monday, fire officials said. The fire posed an immediate threat to some 2,400 homes, prompting mandatory weekend evacuations of some 7,800 residents, said Fernando Herrera, a Riverside County Fire Department captain and spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CalFire).

Homeland Security official reassigned after intelligence reports on journalists covering protests

A US intelligence official with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been reassigned following revelations that his office compiled "intelligence reports" on journalists and analysed communications between protesters amid ongoing demonstrations in Portland, Oregon.Brian Murphy was removed from his post following a report in The Washington Post revealing that the DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis sent open source intelligence reports to federal law enforcement agencies containing information from two reporters who had published leaked unclassified government documents while covering Black Lives Matter protests.

Bill Gates: What Joe Biden should do on his first day in office to stop the coronavirus, if he is elected

"You really have to view the pandemic as a problem that you're willing to talk about," Bill Gates said.

Nancy Pelosi Tears Into Dr. Birx: ‘I Don’t Have Confidence’ in Her

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) didn’t mince words on Sunday morning, declaring that she has no “confidence” in White House coronavirus response coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx, whom she blamed for President Donald Trump peddling coronavirus disinformation.Last week, during a closed-door meeting with White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, Politico reported that the speaker tore into Birx. “Deborah Birx is the worst. Wow, what horrible hands you’re in,” she reportedly exclaimed.Pelosi also accused Birx of “spreading disinformation” while simultaneously praising top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci—who has found himself in Team Trump’s crosshairs of late—as a “hero.”Asked whether her reported comments were accurate, Pelosi doubled down on her Birx criticism during an appearance on ABC’s This Week.“I think the president has been spreading disinformation about the virus and she is his appointee so, I don’t have confidence there, no,” the House leader huffed.At the end of a contentious CNN interview that included host Dana Bash pressing her on why the administration’s coronavirus response “failed so badly,” Birx was asked to react to Pelosi’s harsh remarks.“I have tremendous respect for the speaker,” Birx deflected. “And I have tremendous respect for her long dedication to the American people.”The White House coronavirus task force member then turned her attention to The New York Times, which recently published a deep-dive into the administration’s “failure” in containing the pandemic and reported that Birx was only giving good news to Trump.“And I think it was unfortunate that The New York Times wrote this article without speaking to me. I could have brought forth the data,” she complained, defending her record. “I provide data every single day with an analysis. The day that they are talking about that I was ‘Pollyannish.’”“It said there was improvement in the New York metro, but ongoing cases in Boston and Chicago, a new outbreak in Houston and full logarithmic spread, and new concerning outbreaks in Baltimore, New Haven, and Washington, D.C,” she continued. “This was not a Pollyannish view. I have never been called Pollyannish or non-scientific or non-data-driven. And I will stake my 40-year career on those fundamental principles of utilizing data to really implement better programs to save more lives.”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.

Marines ID all 9 people killed in sea-tank sinking

The Marine Corps has identified all nine people killed when a Marine landing craft sank in the water off the Southern California coast.

'Pioneer Woman' Ree Drummond talks stretchy 'pandemic pants,' shares Instant Pot recipe

"They’re black yoga pants ... and I have not worn anything, but black yoga pants since" mid-March says "The Pioneer Woman" host Ree Drummond.

Two sisters who hadn't seen each other in more than 50 years were reunited by coronavirus

One long-lost sister was being treated for her COVID-19 infection at a rehab center while the other worked as a medical aide.

She got the virus. Then she was fired. Some sick workers left in cold by employers.

McDonald's and Marriott franchises are among hundreds of businesses that have illegally denied paid sick leave during the pandemic, records show.

Hurricane Isaias lashes Carolinas amid warnings of life-threatening surges

Heavy rains and winds batter coastal areas, as officials warn of "life-threatening storm surges".

Israeli aircraft hit Syria after squad tried to bomb border fence, military says

Israeli aircraft attacked targets in Syria on Monday, the military said, describing the strikes as retaliation for an attempted bombing of the border fence by an enemy squad. Tensions have risen along Israel's northern front since a fighter with the Iranian-backed Lebanese movement Hezbollah was killed in an apparent Israeli air strike in Syria two weeks ago. Monday's strikes hit Syrian observation posts, intelligence collection systems, anti-aircraft batteries and command-and-control bases, an Israeli military statement said.

REVIEW: The Jeep Gladiator pickup truck is a monster off road, but might be too beastly for its own good on the highway

The Jeep Gladiator is the Jeep of all pickup trucks, rugged and ready for off-roading. But highway cruising is a completely different story.

Joe Biden says he's certain he has been arrested

Has Biden spent in prison? The Federalist's Mollie Hemingway explains.

Navarro Throws Another White House Health Expert Under Bus Over Hydroxy

White House trade adviser Peter Navarro publicly bashed yet another White House public health expert on Monday while touting an unproven anti-malarial drug, saying he took “exception” to coronavirus testing czar Brett Giroir dismissing hydroxychloroquine as an effective coronavirus treatment.Days after CNN cut short a Navarro interview after he kept repeating the racist phrase “China virus,” the network invited him on for yet another contentious segment that featured the combative Trump aide disseminating coronavirus disinformation.Navarro, who has been an outspoken proponent of hydroxychloroquine and has repeatedly attacked top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci for warning about the drug’s lack of efficacy, doubled down on his embrace of the drug while taking aim at Giroir.“One of the president’s chief advisers on the coronavirus pandemic, Adm. Giroir, he said given five studies now that have found the drug hydroxychloroquine—that there’s no proof that it helps with COVID-19 patients,” host Jim Sciutto noted. “I just wonder, given your past public support for it, is it time for the administration to focus on proven treatments for COVID rather than one that has not been proven?”Navarro—who recently groused that the government is “sitting on millions of doses” of the drug—shot back that he takes “exception to Giroir’s analysis, adding that the HHS official “hasn’t looked at the data” within the past two weeks.“It’s his job to look at data,” Sciutto interjected.After demanding that CNN bring on a couple of doctors who claim the drug is beneficial for COVID-19 patients—CNN had actually interviewed one of them hours earlier—Navarro brushed off the large number of experts criticizing hydroxychloroquine.“My view of this now is doctors' opinions are a dime a dozen and some doctors say it doesn’t work,” he exclaimed. “You’ve got some doctors who say it does.”The CNN host, meanwhile, retorted that this isn’t a “both sides thing,” prompting Navarro to insist that is exactly what it is.“No, it is a both sides. It is—it is both sides,” he declared.Sciutto went on to note that several high-quality double-blinded clinical trials show that there is no benefit to the drug and that the FDA has revoked emergency use of hydroxychloroquine due to concerns over potentially deadly side effects.“This hasn’t passed muster so why all the focus on that drug,” the CNN anchor wondered aloud. “Why not focus on things that work like remdesivir?”Undeterred, Navarro claimed that there is now a study that shows hydroxychloroquine “works better” than remdesivir—even though White House coronavirus coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx said just last week that randomized trials have shown the anti-viral drug has no efficacy as a treatment. She also reiterated that there appears to be no benefit to hydroxychloroquine.Team Trump has suddenly rallied back around the controversial malaria drug after a fringe doctor—who believes that demon sperm causes female medical problems and “alien DNA” is being used in medication—proclaimed it a coronavirus “cure” in a viral video last week. Despite that doctor’s bizarre past claims, President Donald Trump has called her “spectacular,” “very respected,” and an “important voice.”Chris Wallace Confronts Trump Campaign Spox Jason Miller: Admit ‘You’re Losing’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.

‘You can’t do that’: Trump refuses to discuss coronavirus death rate and says US beating rest of world on cases

Donald Trump has maintained that the US is beating the rest of the world on the coronavirus death rate, even as thousands of Americans are still dying every week.Mr Trump’s analysis, which he advanced during a discussion with Axios interviewer Jonathan Swan, is based on deaths as a proportion of cases but ignores deaths per capita — a measure that puts the US among the worst countries in the world.

Florida man arrested, charged with murder after fatally shooting Burger King worker over drive-thru delay, police say

A Florida man fatally shot a Burger King employee over a long drive-thru line, according to the Orange County Sheriff's Office.

John Hume, who worked to end N. Ireland violence, dies at 83

John Hume, the visionary politician who won a Nobel Peace Prize for fashioning the agreement that ended violence in his native Northern Ireland, has died at 83, his family said Monday. The Catholic leader of the moderate Social Democratic and Labour Party, Hume was seen as the principal architect of Northern Ireland's 1998 peace agreement. “I want to see Ireland as an example to men and women everywhere of what can be achieved by living for ideals, rather than fighting for them, and by viewing each and every person as worthy of respect and honor,” he said in 1998.

Marine AAV Hit Rough Seas, Rapidly Took on Water Before Sinking

The Marines and sailor were assigned to Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 4th Marines.

Deadly Isaias strikes with hurricane force, leaving widespread damage and over 675,000 in the dark

Isaias just needed a day to collect itself.After narrowly missing Florida over the weekend, the looming Isaias threat proved destructive after the storm strengthened into a hurricane and crashed onto the coast of North Carolina with widespread impacts.By 8 p.m. Monday, the storm had restrengthened into a hurricane, just in time for the ninth-named storm of the busy 2020 season to strike the town of Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina, with direct landfall at 11:10 p.m., local time. At the time of its hurricane status upgrade, Isaias was whipping the coast as a Category 1 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 85 mph.At least one death in North Carolina has been blamed on the impacts of the former hurricane as a spawned tornado in the town of Windsor struck a mobile home park. Gov. Roy Cooper confirmed the fatality on Tuesday morning, noting that a number of others from the mobile park were injured and missing as well."It is with heavy hearts that we acknowledge and confirm information that has been posted in several public Facebook postings about a tornado that touched down in the Morning Road area of Windsor earlier this morning," the Bertie County Government shared on Facebook. "We are asking that our community allow us time to gather and properly verify more information from the various law enforcement agencies and first responders still working to secure the area."A search and rescue team will be combing through the damaged area on Tuesday as at least three others are still missing.Hurricane-force wind gusts were reported as the eye wall came ashore Monday night, with the highest gust reported over land coming from Oak Island, North Carolina. Frying Pan Shoals, located off the Atlantic coast and sitting at an elevation about 80 feet above the ocean surface, recorded a 93 mph wind gust as Isaias moved overhead. The approach of the intense storm spawned the formation of a tornado that touched down on Bald Head Island in North Carolina. In central Virginia, the Courtland Volunteer Fire Department reported a possible tornado touchdown shortly after 4:30 a.m. as they urged residents to stay off roads and reported that Route 58 is closed in both directions.Numerous other tornado warnings were issued across eastern North Carolina and southeastern Virginia as rain bands from Isaias spiraled inland from the Atlantic Ocean throughout the late night.The strong winds knocked down trees throughout North Carolina and Virginia, spreading widespread debris and leaving 677,095 residents without power as of 8:30 a.m., Tuesday morning, according to PowerOutage.us. In Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina, the town where Isaias made direct landfall, the hurricane triggered multiple home fires due to widespread flooding and electrical issues that ensued through the night. According to the Horry County Fire Rescue, the fires began at 11:40 p.m., shortly after Isaias made landfall.Mayor Debbie Smith told WECT News that four separate fires were burning on Driftwood Drive and on East 4th Street. She added that flooding reached three feet in some portions of the community.> At approximately 11:40 p.m., there were reports of multiple structure fires in the area of Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina. > > Horry County Fire Rescue is providing multiple units to help in response.HCFR pic.twitter.com/L6cqjO6j9T> > -- Horry SC Fire Rescue (@hcfirerescue) August 4, 2020Up the coast in Beaufort County, where popular vacation spot Hilton Head is located, photos shared on social media by the North Carolina Department of Transportation South Coast showed washed out roads from extensive flooding. Previously, the Sheriff's Office had asked all residents to stay inside and refrain from driving on Monday. Flooding concerns and damage from the heavy winds preceded the hurricane's arrival, as floodwaters trapped cars in Ocean Isle Beach and strong winds damaged several buildings in nearby Southport.In Virginia, tornado warnings had spread throughout Virginia Beach, Suffolk, Surry, south Norfolk, James City, York County and Gloucester County on Tuesday morning. According to 13 News Now, storm damage has been reported in the Suffolk area as fallen trees litter the road.> Damage on Culloden St. in Suffolk > > Down wires, siding and trees. > > Neighbors say they heard what sounded like a train and swirling wind around 3a.m.@WAVY_News pic.twitter.com/ZDMkU29uQR> > -- Kiahnna Patterson (@KPattersonWAVY) August 4, 2020As Isaias moved its way up the East Coast, its intensity weakened slightly and was designated a tropical storm again in the National Hurricane Center's (NHC) 3 a.m. update. According to the NHC as of 5 a.m., the storm was whipping with maximum sustained winds of 70 mph and moving towards the northeast at 28 mph.Over Monday, Gov. Cooper urged people on Twitter to heed the state warnings in order to stay safe from not only the hurricane but also the coronavirus pandemic."It's essential to listen to local officials and follow evacuation orders when they are issued," Cooper said. "During the pandemic, your home has been the safest place, but that may change as Isaias arrives. The most important thing is to get out of harm's way if you are told to evacuate." The center of Isaias is evident on radar with rain associated with the storm reaching far inland on Monday, Aug. 3, 2020. (AccuWeather) In its Monday advisory, the NHC issued a hurricane warning from South Santee River, South Carolina, to Surf City, North Carolina. The storm was moving north-northeast at 16 mph. As the day progressed into the night, the storm continued to speed up its northward progression, tracking towards the mid-Atlantic at over 20 mph.> TROPICAL UPDATE: At 2pm EDT, NOAA's GOES16 is watching the clouds and lightning of TropicalStormIsaias. @NHC_Atlantic still expects it to become a hurricane before landfall tonight. TropicalStorm, StormSurge, and Hurricane Warnings are all in effect. https://t.co/VTAp4gGkHs pic.twitter.com/Lj2zAalhrT> > -- NOAA Satellites - Public Affairs (@NOAASatellitePA) August 3, 2020On Ocracoke Island in North Carolina, evacuation mandates were issued on Friday. Officials in Hyde County, the area that was hit particularly hard by Hurricane Dorian last year, ordered residents to evacuate on Saturday.Mandatory evacuations were enacted for nearby Hatteras Island in Dare County as well. The national parks in the area, the Cape Hatteras National Seashore and the Wright Brothers National Memorial, were both closed on Monday ahead of the storm's impacts.Isaias has been deemed a 1 on the AccuWeather RealImpact™ Scale for Hurricanes due to the projected flooding downpours and damaging winds.To prepare for those potential floods, cities throughout the East Coast have offered free sandbags to residents. In Charleston, South Carolina, a limit of 10 bags per car was applied to residents.> Families are getting ready for Isaias in Charleston SC. > > Three sand bagging locations are open until 4pm. Officials want people to bring your own shovel, wear a face mask and gloves. > > • 2150 Milford Street > • 1122 Dills Bluff Road > • 360 Fishburne Street@accuweather pic.twitter.com/599pkaKxQi> > -- Bill Wadell (@BillWadell) August 3, 2020On Monday morning, Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg issued an emergency ordinance to close certain streets for flooding safety precautions and to set curfews if needed."An AccuWeather Local StormMax™ of 10 inches is possible, especially in the higher terrain. This amount of rainfall can lead to flash flooding across the region," AccuWeather Meteorologist Maura Kelly said. "In addition to the rain, storm surge of 3-6 feet expected to the east of where Isaias makes landfall, in particular over the Outer Banks, could cause coastal flooding."Preparation efforts have extended far beyond the Southeast coast as well, as officials in Baltimore made sandbags available, encouraged residents to move their cars off the street and requested for homeowners to clear storm drains to help with the water runoff. Tropical storm warnings extended as far north as Boston on Monday, with tropical storm watches in effect through the central Maine coast. (AccuWeather) In New Jersey, coastal towns and cities have begun preparing for the wind and rain impacts which will arrive on Tuesday. Boaters in the Garden State, along with boaters from New York and Connecticut, were urged by the Coast Guard to prepare for possible high surf, heavy wind and coastal flooding.A tropical storm warning was also enacted for New York City, which could endure its second storm of the season following Tropical Storm Fay in early July. According to AccuWeather Meteorologist Brandon Buckingham, this would mark the first time since 1985 that the state endured two named storms so close in the same season. Projections on Monday showed that Isaias could pass within 30 miles of New York City after Fay came within 15 miles of the Big Apple in July.AccuWeather founder and CEO Joel N. Myers said Isaias could cause between $2 billion and $3 billion in damage and economic loss as the storm charges up the Eastern Seaboard.CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE ACCUWEATHER APPProjections for Isaias have fluctuated in recent days as the storm weakened to a tropical storm on Saturday afternoon near the coast of Florida. However, in the days prior, its impacts were certainly felt through the Bahamas and Puerto Rico.The National Guard rescued at least 35 people who were swept away in floodwaters in Puerto Rico, harkening memories of Hurricane Maria in 2017.At least two deaths were blamed on Isaias' impacts in the Dominican Republic, Reuters reported. Civil Defense officials said 53-year-old Chiche Peguero was killed by a high-voltage power line that fell in Río San Juan. On Thursday, a 5-year-old boy was also killed after a tree crushed his home, according to elCaribe, a local news organization.There were no fatalities from Isaias in the Bahamas, a much-appreciated relief for the island that is still recovering from Dorian last summer. However, heavy flooding and 70-mph winds did leave most of the island's residents, many of whom are also without power, a lot to clean up. Adrian Gibson, a local government official, posted on Facebook and noted the extensive damage suffered by farmers and the severe hit some crops took from Isaias.AccuWeather users can track Isaias from home using our local hurricane tracker pages that provide detailed information about a specific location. Click on the city name to track how Isaias will impact each place as it churns northward: Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; Hilton Head, South Carolina; Virginia Beach, Virginia; Ocean City, New Jersey; New York City; and Boston, Massachusetts.Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.

Judge rejects Trump restrictions on coronavirus sick leave for employees

A U.S. judge on Monday voided parts of a Trump administration rule that restricted paid sick leave and emergency family leave for potentially millions of workers affected by the coronavirus. Ruling in a case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James, U.S. District Judge Paul Oetken in Manhattan said the Department of Labor overstepped its authority in denying eligibility for benefits to several groups of workers. The rule was adopted in April to implement the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, which made as many as 61 million employees eligible for up to two weeks of paid sick leave and 12 weeks of mostly paid emergency family leave.

Federal judge calls for privacy protections after her son was killed and her husband was shot by 'madman'

Judge Esther Salas' family was targeted by an "anti-feminist" killer posing as a FedEx delivery driver, police say.

Shoprite: Africa's biggest supermarket considers pulling out of Nigeria

Shoprite is the latest high-profile South African retailer to struggle in the Nigerian market.

Emeritus Pope Benedict, 93, 'extremely frail' after visiting dying brother

Former Pope Benedict XVI became seriously ill after visiting his sick brother in Germany in June and is "extremely frail", according to a report in the German Passauer Neue Presse newspaper on Monday. Benedict, 93, is suffering from erysipelas of the face, a virus that causes a rash and episodes of severe pain, the newspaper reported, citing the former pontiff's biographer, Peter Seewald. "According to Seewald, the Pope emeritus is now extremely frail," the report said. "His thinking and his memory are quick, but his voice is hardly audible at the moment." Mr Seewald reportedly visited Benedict in Rome on Saturday to present him with his biography. "At the meeting the emeritus Pope, despite his illness, was optimistic and declared that if his strength increased again he would possibly take up his pen again," the paper said. Benedict visited his sick brother, Georg, in Germany in June, marking his first trip out of Italy since his shock resignation in 2013. Georg Ratzinger died two weeks later, aged 96.

The Maryland county where Barron Trump attends school ordered private schools to stay closed until October, but the governor overrode the decision

In rejecting the Montgomery County order, Gov. Larry Hogan said it was "overly broad and inconsistent with the powers" of the county health officer.

Court hears horrific details of how 'Doomsday Mom' Lori Vallow's children were discovered

Idaho Police have shared shocking details of unearthing the remains of ‘Doomsday Mom’ Lori Vallow Daybell’s two children, who had been missing for months prior to their discovery.Rexburg Police Detective Ray Hermosillo gave the chilling testimony in a preliminary hearing to determine if there is enough evidence to hold her husband Chad Daybell for trial.

Panama proposes flying Haitian migrants home after clash

The government of Panama said Monday it has proposed giving some Haitian migrants flights back to their homeland after frustrations boiled over at the remote camps where they are stuck. The camps in Panama’s southern Darien province also house some Cuban and African migrants, but about 80% of the 2,000 migrants there are from Haiti. Public Safety Minister Juan Pino said Monday he offered improved medical services or repatriation flights to the migrants, who want to travel overland to the U.S. border but cannot do so because of coronavirus restrictions.

Rep. Raúl Grijalva tests positive for COVID-19, is symptom-free

Rep. Raúl Grijalva has tested positive for COVID-19 after days in D.C. that included a hearing with Rep. Louie Gohmert, who also tested positive.

U.S. judge orders election boards to extend count of absentee ballots in New York state primary

According to the ruling by Judge Analisa Torres of Federal District Court in Manhattan, the absentee ballots are to be counted "without regard to whether such ballots are postmarked by June 23." Carolyn Maloney, the Democratic Party incumbent, got 40.29% of votes previously counted, while challenger Suraj Patel received 38.43%.

Which NYPD officers have most complaints against them?

The repeal of a controversial law means previously secret allegations of misconduct have now been made publicIn New York, thousands of police discipline records that were kept secret are now public thanks to a change in the law. A statute known as 50-a meant the public could not know about complaints made against police officers or the outcomes of those complaints but, after the mass anti-racism protests sparked by the police killing of George Floyd in May, activists in New York successfully pushed for the law to be repealed.Soon after the law changed, the news organization ProPublica asked New York’s Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB) to see this information. The result is a publicly available database of active-duty officers in New York City with at least one allegation against them that has been substantiated by the CCRB. Almost 4,000 officers are included in the database, representing 11% of the 36,000 officers in the NYPD.Shown above are the 10 New York City police officers with the most allegations against them.Often, there is a clear pattern in the allegations made against these officers. Take Daniel Sbarra for instance, a lieutenant in the Organized Crime Investigation Division. Of the 69 allegations against Sbarra where race and ethnicity data for the complainants was recorded, 58 of the civilians were Black and 11 were Hispanic. Most were men. The allegations include offensive language, abuse of authority and use of force. Of the allegations made against Sbarra, 16 have been substantiated. The lieutenant who currently works in Brooklyn North has also been involved in at least 12 lawsuits that have cost the city over $1.5m in settlements.Although it receives thousands of complaints each year, the CCRB is unable to substantiate most of them. Often, they have to rely on NYPD officers to cooperate in the investigations (for example, to hand over body-cam footage) and, despite a legal obligation to do so, the department often fails to comply.Speaking to ProPublica, the former CCRB investigator Dan Bodah said: “I exonerated tons of cases that involved awful conduct that fell within the guidelines. It’s kind of haunting. The law and policy gives cops a lot of discretion.” Out of 3,000 allegations of misuse of force in 2018, just 73 were substantiated.The earnings shown here, which are collected by the Legal Aid Society using New York City Open Data, are from 2018 and include salary as well as overtime and other benefits. It’s important to include those other earnings, since New York police officers often make a huge amount of money in overtime.Take this year’s budget, for example. In 2020, the NYPD had a budget of $5,921,060,664 (that’s $5.9bn), but an additional $5.3bn was spent on overtime, pensions and fringe benefits. That means that the city spends almost $21,000 per minute on the NYPD.

Ningaloo Reef: Woman injured by humpback whale at Australian tourist spot

The woman is in a "serious but stable condition" after being hit by the whale during a group swim.

Portland Police Declare Unlawful Assembly Outside Precinct

Outside a precinct, police say protesters threw glass bottles and directed lasers at officers.

Trump Attacks Dr. Birx in an Attempt to Keep a Loyal Soldier in Line

President Donald Trump attacked Dr. Deborah Birx for the first time on Monday after the White House coronavirus task force coordinator said she believed the virus had entered a “new phase” and that counties with significant community spread should not reopen schools in the fall.Birx’s comments came on CNN just two days after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) criticized her in a meeting with administration officials, calling her “the worst.” One Democratic aide said Pelosi was referencing Birx’s apparent deference to the president’s inaccurate statements about the virus, including that ingesting bleach should be studied as a possible cure. “She’s not a straight shooter,” the aide said. “She sat there during the bleach [comment]. She just sat there!”Nancy Pelosi Tears Into Dr. Birx: ‘I Don’t Have Confidence’ in HerBy Sunday, Birx had done precisely what Pelosi accused her of sidestepping—something Hill Democrats took as affirmation of the Speaker’s decision to go after her. She challenged several White House talking points, which appeared to infuriate the president.“In order to counter Nancy, Deborah took the bait & hit us,” Trump tweeted. “Pathetic!”The president’s reaction on Monday morning came as an early-in-the-week annoyance to some in the West Wing and others close to Trump, who interpreted his angry tweeting more as an impulsive attempt to keep her in line, and less so due to any personal grudge. Two advisers noted that this was yet another instance of President Trump trampling over his lieutenants’ crafted messaging strategy—which included attacking Pelosi for attacking Birx—and that in such cases, given how frequent they are, staff has limited recourse beyond ignoring their boss.By Monday afternoon, that is precisely what several top Trump aides decided to do, opting to look past the president’s own comment, and simply continue knocking Pelosi.Nevertheless, Trump’s denunciation of Birx didn’t just highlight his willingness to undermine his own coronavirus task force coordinator in an effort to push forward his agenda to reopen the nation’s economy and schools. The exchange also underscored how shaky the administration’s policy rationales have been on critical pandemic-related matters. Spokespersons for the White House and the coronavirus task force did not respond to repeated requests for comment.Trump’s Top COVID Adviser: Deaths Will Soon Start to RiseBirx’s comments marked a significant departure from the White House’s public stance on school reopenings. She pointed to the Center for Disease Control’s school guidelines during her comments, saying she agreed with the agency’s recommendations that schools should conduct virtual learning under certain circumstances. Those guidelines, though, only call for the consideration of virtual learning. Birx said that if there is “high case load and active community spread … we’re asking people to distance learn at this moment.”In her interview Birx said the U.S. was experiencing a “new phase” of the virus—a point Pence and others have resisted communicating or confirming as President Trump has pushed his allies to reopen the American economy. Birx said a slew of states across the country are experiencing new outbreaks and that case counts have steadily increased since Memorial Day weekend. “What we are seeing today is different from March and April. It is extraordinarily widespread" in both urban and rural areas, she told CNN’s Dana Bash.The synopsis was the rare case of an administration official publicly painting a less-than-rosy picture about the virus’ spread. And it raises questions about how Pence specifically will respond. The VP has been loyal to Trump throughout the pandemic. But he has also praised Birx for months as one of the administration’s guiding forces in its coronavirus response.Since last month, Pence has echoed the president in pushing state leaders to reopen their economies as well as their schools, according to recordings of his calls with the nation’s governors previously obtained by The Daily Beast. He’s often been joined on these calls by Birx and CDC Director Robert Redfield, as well as other leading coronavirus task force officials, who have provided governors with readouts of the latest data, trends, testing initiatives, as well as the federal government’s recommendations on reopening. Since May, task force officials have in large part stayed on message with the president, pressing governors to consider implementing phased reopenings and pushing for school reopenings. During one phone call with governors on July 7, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos told participants that schools should reopen even if there is some risk because “risk is embedded in everything we do” from “learning to ride a bike, to the risk of getting in a space capsule and getting shot off in a rocket into space.”In recent days Birx has taken a more aggressive approach in her debriefings, insisting that states experiencing significant upticks in positivity rates—more than 5 percent—implement strict new measures to contain the virus. On the call with governors last week, she said communities should enforce strict “100 percent mask mandates,” limit indoor gatherings, including dining, and close bars. Even before then, Birx warned state leaders that the upward tick in case counts in the South and Southwest could affect mortality rates. Since then, Birx has worked with a small group of officials to collect and analyze case counts, death rates and hospitalizations, and to coordinate with state officials on their virus responses. Over the last several weeks she has traveled across the country to states with increasing positivity rates and community spread in an effort to encourage local officials to enact stricter containment measures. Behind the scenes, Trump has fumed about the public outcry over the increasing number of positive cases throughout the country. The president has insisted repeatedly (and in contradiction with logic) that the uptick has been tied to an increase in testing. And he has launched public attacks on Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, who has been more openly pessimistic about the state of the pandemic fight. Birx had, for months, avoided such treatment. While Fauci became a lightning rod for censure and scorn from the president and his allies, Birx gained a reputation within Trumpworld not only as a talented doctor, but as a much savvier political player.“She is not some [MAGA] loyalist, but she knows how to play the game,” said one former senior Trump administration official. “And the president instinctively respects that.”For months, the president’s private remarks about Birx have generally been charitable, with Trump often emphasizing how much she will back him up about what great a job he and his team supposedly have done. During an Oval Office news conference in late April, when a Yahoo News reporter asked a question—based on misread data—about coronavirus testing, Trump mocked the journalist in front of the news cameras, saying, “Are you going to apologize, Yahoo?” and, “That’s why you’re Yahoo and nobody knows who the hell you are.” Dr. Birx, who was also seated in the Oval office that day, had corrected the reporter’s numbers, which led to the Yahoo News staffer later issuing a mea culpa on Twitter.In the weeks that followed, Trump continued to savor the moment, bringing it up repeatedly to those close to him, according to a person with direct knowledge of the comments. “The president saw this as something that showed how much of a team player [Dr. Birx] is, and that she wouldn’t put up with lies from the press,” this source said. “He greatly appreciated how she put [that reporter] in his place.”Still, by Monday morning, none of this mattered, at least not enough to spare her getting pilloried by @realDonaldTrump. -with reporting by Sam SteinRead more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. 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