This is default featured post 1 title

Go to Blogger edit html and find these sentences.Now replace these sentences with your own descriptions.

This is default featured post 2 title

Go to Blogger edit html and find these sentences.Now replace these sentences with your own descriptions.

This is default featured post 3 title

Go to Blogger edit html and find these sentences.Now replace these sentences with your own descriptions.

This is default featured post 4 title

Go to Blogger edit html and find these sentences.Now replace these sentences with your own descriptions.

This is default featured post 5 title

Go to Blogger edit html and find these sentences.Now replace these sentences with your own descriptions.

Selasa, 30 Juni 2020

Syed Ali Geelani: Kashmir leader quits Hurriyat Conference

Syed Ali Geelani: Kashmir leader quits Hurriyat ConferenceSyed Ali Geelani has been heading political opposition to Indian rule in Kashmir for decades.




from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2ZmD9mP

Gunmen raided Pakistan's largest stock exchange, killing at least 3 people before police shot them dead, officials say

Gunmen raided Pakistan's largest stock exchange, killing at least 3 people before police shot them dead, officials sayThe raid took place on Monday at the Pakistan Stock Exchange in the city of Karachi. It is not yet clear who is responsible.




from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2NE36sO

Coming Soon: Russian Bombers (Now Armed with Hypersonic Missiles?)

Coming Soon: Russian Bombers (Now Armed with Hypersonic Missiles?)Hypersonic missiles have been seen as a potential game changer, with some in the U.S. military warning that there is really no defense against the missiles due to their speed.




from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2ZpJzBK

More Chinese regions brace for floods as storms shift east

More Chinese regions brace for floods as storms shift eastTorrential rain is set to hit China's eastern coastal regions this week after overwhelming large parts of the southwest, inundating villages and tourist spots and displacing more than 700,000 people, state weather forecasters said on Monday. Nearly 14 million people in 26 different provinces had been affected by storms and floods by Friday, with 744,000 evacuated, the China Daily reported, citing the Ministry for Emergency Management. Much of the damage has hit southwestern regions like Guangxi and Sichuan, and the municipality of Chongqing on the upper reaches of the Yangtze river last week experienced its worst floods since 1940.




from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/3eJK9kf

122 children killed in Philippines drugs war: NGOs

122 children killed in Philippines drugs war: NGOsAt least 122 children have been killed in the Philippines' war on drugs -- often deliberately, two non-governmental organisations said Monday, urging the UN to take action. The NGOs fear that the true figure is way higher, they said in a report, as the United Nations Human Rights Council prepares to assess the situation in the Philippines. President Rodrigo Duterte's hardline anti-drugs campaign has come under fire from rights activists who say police are encouraged to use lethal force on drug suspects and thousands have been killed since 2016.




from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/3ihvIpI

Betelgeuse: Nearby 'supernova' star's dimming explained

Betelgeuse: Nearby 'supernova' star's dimming explainedAstronomers say big cool patches on the Betelgeuse star likely drove its surprise dimming last year.




from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2NBdy4e

Sen. Grassley said Fox News failed Trump with second-term agenda question, isn't working to get him re-elected

Sen. Grassley said Fox News failed Trump with second-term agenda question, isn't working to get him re-electedSenator Chuck Grassley took particular issue with Fox News host Sean Hannity.




from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/3g7VKKi

The Texas Medical Center scrubbed data showing ICU beds at full capacity as the state's coronavirus cases spike

The Texas Medical Center scrubbed data showing ICU beds at full capacity as the state's coronavirus cases spikeThe medical center had no empty ICU beds by Thursday. Its ICU capacity is usually between 70% and 80% of its total stock.




from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/3g7RmLb

La familia que perdiĆ³ cinco integrantes a causa del coronavirus quiere que sepas esto


By BY TRACEY TULLY from NYT en EspaƱol https://ift.tt/2ZtldXO

This file was published in error


By Unknown Author from NYT Theater https://ift.tt/3eOXJTE

Can’t Request an Absentee Ballot Online? This Group Wants to Help


By BY NICK CORASANITI from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2ZpP0AH

Swift Charges Against Atlanta Officers Met With Relief and Skepticism


By BY RICHARD FAUSSET from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2ZqbdhX

U.S. Calls for Indefinite Arms Embargo of Iran, but Finds No Takers


By BY RICHARD PƉREZ-PEƑA, LARA JAKES AND FARNAZ FASSIHI from NYT World https://ift.tt/3gbCY4L

Coronavirus Briefing: What Happened Today


By BY JONATHAN WOLFE AND LARA TAKENAGA from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/3gaVp9N

Pence Raised Nearly $500,000 From Donors to Pay Mueller Legal Defense


By BY KENNETH P. VOGEL AND BEN PROTESS from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2YNWAGs

$1 Billion Is Shifted From N.Y.P.D. in a Budget That Pleases No One


By BY DANA RUBINSTEIN AND JEFFERY C. MAYS from NYT New York https://ift.tt/3gqe41B

Cedarville University Trustees Resign as Board Reinstates President after Investigation

After the Cedarville University board of trustees voted to reinstate its president two board members resigned, citing concerns about an investigation into the president's hiring and firing of a faculty member.

from CBNNews.com https://ift.tt/38eJ1CV

Fox News Breaking News Alert

Fox News Breaking News Alert

EXCLUSIVE: DHS deploys special federal unit to protect monuments over July 4 weekend amid vandalism fears

06/30/20 4:09 PM

Senin, 29 Juni 2020

New York City mayor plans to cut $1bn from police budget

New York City mayor plans to cut $1bn from police budgetNew York City mayor Bill de Blasio has proposed cutting $1bn (£814m) from the police force’s $6bn (£4.48bn) yearly budget, amid calls for reform.Mr de Blasio announced the plan during his daily City Hall press briefing on Monday, and said the proposed budget would help reform the New York City Police Department (NYPD).




from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2NGUzFq

Israel orders evangelical Christian media network God TV to take channel off air

Israel orders evangelical Christian media network God TV to take channel off air“The channel does not appeal to the Christian population in Israel, but rather to the Jews,” Israel's broadcasting regulator said in a statement.




from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2YM3EmV

China to impose visa restrictions on U.S. individuals over Hong Kong

China to impose visa restrictions on U.S. individuals over Hong KongBeijing said on Monday it will impose visa restrictions on U.S. individuals with "egregious conduct" on Hong Kong-related issues, mirroring U.S. sanctions against unnamed Chinese officials deemed responsible for curbing freedoms in the city. The announcement comes as the top decision-making body of China's parliament deliberates a draft national security law for Hong Kong that pro-democracy activists in the city fear will be used to eliminate dissent and tighten Beijing's control. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian, who announced the new sanctions during a press briefing in response to a question about Washington's new visa restrictions, did not specify which U.S. individuals have been targeted.




from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/3dIDyWb

The coronavirus is devastating communities of color. The Trump administration's top doctor blames 'structural racism' and shares his plans to take action.

The coronavirus is devastating communities of color. The Trump administration's top doctor blames 'structural racism' and shares his plans to take action.Dr. Jerome Adams is preparing two calls to action — one on high blood pressure, the other on maternal mortality — to address racial health inequality.




from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/3eX2Hhj

Systemic changes must go beyond just policing. Human and social services need reform, too.

Systemic changes must go beyond just policing. Human and social services need reform, too.Institutional racism is not found just in the police — it’s woven into schools, mental health clinics and housing providers.




from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2YHRrPZ

Huntsman at risk of shocking defeat in Utah

Huntsman at risk of shocking defeat in UtahAfter a decade away from Utah politics and a weeks-long fight with the coronavirus, the former governor is locked in a tight race for his old job.




from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2NCYOlq

Greta Thunberg accused German Chancellor Angela Merkel of lining up to take a selfie with her just to 'look good'

Greta Thunberg accused German Chancellor Angela Merkel of lining up to take a selfie with her just to 'look good'Thunberg castigated Angela Merkel and other world leaders at the UN summit as stealing her dreams, but they still craved an Instagram moment with her.




from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2CQm5OH

‘It’s More Than a Seat at the Table’


By BY JENNIFER MEDINA from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/3ioBZjI

A White Gatekeeper of Southern Food Faces Calls to Resign


By BY KIM SEVERSON from NYT Food https://ift.tt/2NJradC

Remote School Is a Nightmare. Few in Power Care.


By BY MICHELLE GOLDBERG from NYT Opinion https://ift.tt/2NFsmij

In Texas, Voting Reflects Partisan Split Over How to Deal With Virus


By BY J. DAVID GOODMAN from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2NHHmMI

Coronavirus Briefing: What Happened Today


By BY JONATHAN WOLFE AND LARA TAKENAGA from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/3dLG6CS

‘Our Luck May Have Run Out’: California’s Case Count Explodes


By BY SHAWN HUBLER AND THOMAS FULLER from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/3ePoVl6

Three Hikers Are Missing on Mount Rainier


By BY SANDRA E. GARCIA from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2YKijir

Facebook targets 'false news' amid growing pressure from advertisers

Facebook's boss in Northern Europe says a new media literacy campaign is not about "financial considerations".

from BBC News - Technology https://ift.tt/3geG08b

Minggu, 28 Juni 2020

Child poverty: Boris Johnson's claims fact-checked

The prime minister has made four claims on poverty, do the figures support them?

from BBC News - Home https://ift.tt/3ibcK4d

For Biden VP, Black Democrats are torn between Harris and Warren

For Biden VP, Black Democrats are torn between Harris and WarrenThe California senator represents the diversity and generational transition activists want, but polls suggest Black Democratic voters may prefer Warren.




from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/3i7TQem

Critics question `less lethal' force used during protests

Critics question `less lethal' force used during protestsWhen a participant at a rally in Austin to protest police brutality threw a rock at a line of officers in the Texas capital, officers responded by firing beanbag rounds — ammunition that law enforcement deems “less lethal” than bullets. A beanbag cracked 20-year-old Justin Howell's skull and, according to his family, damaged his brain. Adding to the pain, police admit the Texas State University student wasn't the intended target.




from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/388sQXS

Mississippi moves to strip Confederate emblem from state flag

Mississippi moves to strip Confederate emblem from state flagThe southern state of Mississippi is the last in the US to feature the emblem on its flag.




from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2NDoqyI

'I pray it will finally be over': Golden State Killer survivors hope guilty plea brings justice

'I pray it will finally be over': Golden State Killer survivors hope guilty plea brings justiceForty years later, suspect Joseph DeAngelo is expected to take a deal that would see him sentenced to life in prisonJennifer Carole sleeps with a small baseball bat nearby, keeps bells on her door and has taken multiple self-defense classes.Gay Hardwick never feels safe alone, and can’t sleep with an open window.Both women’s lives were forever changed by the Golden State Killer, a rapist and murderer who haunted the state for more than 40 years. He murdered Carole’s father and stepmother in bed in their southern California home and sexually assaulted and terrorized Hardwick when she was 24.In 2018, California authorities said they had identified Joseph DeAngelo, a former police officer, as the suspect in at least 13 murders and more than 50 rapes attributed to the Golden State Killer between 1974 and 1986.Authorities have told some of the survivors that the 74-year-old DeAngelo will plead guilty on Monday – a deal that would see him sentenced to life in prison and would spare the state a costly trial. The Sacramento county district attorney’s office would confirm only that a hearing is scheduled.DeAngelo was arrested in 2018 after law enforcement compared DNA from the crimes committed in the 1970s and 80s to that of users on the open-source genealogy website GEDMatch.Law enforcement had spent decades trying to solve the crimes, which spanned 11 counties, but the case gained renewed attention in 2016 when the Sacramento DA announced the creation of a task force to identify the killer, who has also been called the East Area Rapist and the Original Night Stalker, and the FBI put up a reward of $50,000 for information leading to his capture.The scope of the crimes, and long unidentified perpetrator, drew particular interest from the true crime community and spawned dedicated discussion boards. I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, a bestselling book about the true crime writer Michelle McNamara’s search for the Golden State Killer, brought wide attention to the case when it was released months before DeAngelo’s arrest.DeAngelo is a US navy veteran of the Vietnam war and father of three and had worked as a police officer in communities near where the crimes took place. He was fired from his job at the Auburn police department in 1979 after being arrested for allegedly shoplifting dog repellant and a hammer from a Pay ’n Save store. DeAngelo worked at a Save Mart distribution center from 1989 until 2017, the Sacramento Bee reported, and in 2018 was reportedly living with his daughter and grandchild on a quiet street in a suburb of Sacramento.It was there he was arrested, in one of the communities the Golden State Killer had terrorized years earlier.For many survivors, DeAngelo’s plea comes with mixed emotions as well as a fear that he could opt out of the agreement at the last moment.“It’s a difficult place to be in, to know that at any time he could change his mind and that he is highly manipulative. I won’t believe anything until it is written in ink and approved,” Hardwick said.Hardwick was 24 in 1978 when a man broke into the home she shared with her now husband, woke the couple up at gunpoint and sexually assaulted her. They survived and did their best to move forward, selling the home they felt unable to live in. But Hardwick suffered for years from undiagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder and the attack had long-lasting impacts on her career and emotional state and took decades to work through.“I’m hoping and praying it is going to be finally over for all of us. Once and for all [I’ll] know that he is in a place where he is never going to leave.”The statute of limitations for rape convictions expired three years after the attack on the Hardwicks, but she said she considers the plea an opportunity for justice.Carole wanted DeAngelo “to have to face a courtroom and the evidence”, but she thinks the plea deal is the right thing to do as it will save the state millions of dollars and spare his daughters from further pain. That DeAngelo is pleading guilty as US police face a reckoning over systemic racism and violence is particularly salient for Carole.“We’ve got a dirty cop that had skills he acquired as a police officer and used to terrorize, rape and murder,” Carole said.Carole’s father, Lyman Smith, and his wife, Charlene, were bludgeoned to death in their Ventura home in 1980 when Carole was just 18. Her 12-year-old brother discovered the bodies. The family didn’t learn the crime was the work of a serial killer for 20 years, and it was only after DeAngelo’s capture that Carole realized the extent to which the murders had affected her life.“I’m going to be really happy to have this be done. I’m tired of him having any real estate in my head,” Carole said. But, she added, “you can’t get your people back. You can’t get your sense of safety back. He stole something from everyone in California that endured his terrorism.”As Monday’s hearing approaches, Kris Pedretti goes back and forth about attending. Pedretti became the Golden State Killer’s 10th victim when she was sexually assaulted in her home at the age of 15.“This is my one opportunity to hear this person who attacked me admit guilt,” she said.Pedretti’s attacker crept into her home days before Christmas in 1976, sneaking up on her as she played piano and threatening her with a knife before sexually assaulting her. It left Pedretti with post-traumatic stress, but in recent years she has found comfort through therapy and a Facebook group she created where sexual assault survivors can share their stories. Born out of a horrific crime she suffered at the hands of someone who sought to terrorize her community, Pedretti said the group has been healing.“We share our stories. We share what books have been helping us. I am finally at a place in this journey where I can see some sunlight because I can use what I learned.”




from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2YERig7

New Yorkers who travel to Florida, Texas, and other states with high COVID-19 infection rates will lose paid sick leave benefits

New Yorkers who travel to Florida, Texas, and other states with high COVID-19 infection rates will lose paid sick leave benefitsAlabama, Arizona, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, Nevada, South Carolina, Utah, and Texas all currently have positive test rates higher than 10%.




from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2CJnlD6

Satellite images show buildup on disputed India-China border

Satellite images show buildup on disputed India-China borderConstruction activity appeared underway on both the Indian and Chinese sides of a contested border high in the Karakoram mountains a week after a deadly clash in the area left 20 Indian soldiers dead, satellite images showed. The images released this week by Maxar, a Colorado-based satellite imagery company, show new construction activity along the Galwan River Valley, even as Chinese and Indian diplomats said military commanders had agreed to disengage from a standoff there. China has said that India first changed the status quo last August when it split the state of Jammu and Kashmir into two federal territories — the territory of Jammu and Kashmir and the territory of Ladakh, parts of which are contested by China.




from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/31otvmu

Coronavirus updates: New US cases hit single-day record; as heat rises in places like Florida and Mexico, so do infections

Coronavirus updates: New US cases hit single-day record; as heat rises in places like Florida and Mexico, so do infectionsThe U.S. hit a single-day record. Texas, Florida closing bars amid surge in cases. The Trump administration is considering new approach to testing.




from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/3dwOKox

76 coronavirus cases have been linked to one Michigan bar

76 coronavirus cases have been linked to one Michigan barHealth officials urged anyone who visited the establishment between June 12 and June 20 to self-quarantine for 14 days.




from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/3eGL3Op

Trump news: President praises ‘great people’ shouting ‘white power’ as Pelosi brands his alleged inaction over Russia-Taliban reports ‘as bad as it gets’

Trump news: President praises ā€˜great peopleā€™ shouting ā€˜white powerā€™ as Pelosi brands his alleged inaction over Russia-Taliban reports ā€˜as bad as it getsā€™Donald Trump has praised “great people” in footage he shared of furious protesters clashing over his presidency outside a Florida retirement home, in which one apparent supporter repeatedly shouts “white power” from a golf buggy.The only black Republican senator Tim Scott urged him to remove the “indefensible” footage, which he later did. The White House claimed he did not hear the racist chant.




from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/389BLbi

"India's George Floyds": Father-son death in police custody sparks outrage



from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2NAURxO

Pakistan army says Indian spy drone shot down in Kashmir



from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2NFJVi4

Trump visits private golf course as US battles rapid surge in coronavirus cases

Trump visits private golf course as US battles rapid surge in coronavirus casesUS president heads to Virginia a day after saying he’d stay in Washington DC to ‘make sure law and order is enforced’ amid ongoing anti-racism protests * Coronavirus in the US – follow live updatesDonald Trump visited one of his own private golf courses in Virginia on Saturday as America continued to see fallout from a rapid surge in coronavirus cases. The trip came a day after the US president said he would stay in Washington DC to “make sure law and order is enforced” amid ongoing anti-racism protests.The president has been frequently criticized for the scale of his golfing habit while in office. CNN – which tallies his golfing activities – said the visit to the Trump National course in Loudon county, just outside Washington DC, was the 271st of his presidency – putting him at an average of golfing once every 4.6 days since he’s been in office. His predecessor, Barack Obama, golfed 333 rounds over the two terms of his presidency, according to NBC.The visit comes as the number of confirmed new coronavirus cases per day in the US hit an all-time high of 40,000, according to figures released by Johns Hopkins on Friday. Many states are now seeing spikes in the virus with Texas, Florida and Arizona especially badly hit after they reopened their economies – a policy they are now pausing or reversing.Trump has been roundly criticized for a failure to lead during the coronavirus that has seen America become by far the worst hit country in the world. Critics in particular point to his failure to wear a mask, holding campaign rallies in coronavirus hot spots and touting baseless conspiracy theories about cures, such as using bleach.On Friday night Trump tweeted that he was cancelling a weekend trip to his Bedminster, New Jersey golf course because of the protests which have rocked the capital, including taking down statues of confederate figures.“I was going to go to Bedminster, New Jersey, this weekend, but wanted to stay in Washington, D.C. to make sure LAW & ORDER is enforced. The arsonists, anarchists, looters, and agitators have been largely stopped,” he tweeted.Trump’s latest visit to the golf course put him in the way of some opposition. According to a White House pool media report: “A small group of protesters at the entrance to the club held signs that included, ‘Trump Makes Me Sick’ and ‘Dump Trump’. A woman walking a small white dog nearby also gave the motorcade a middle finger salute.”It is not yet known if Trump actually played a round of golf. But a photographer captured the president wearing a white polo shirt and a red cap, which is among his common golfing attire.




from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/3i687Ix

Hong Kongers march in silent protest against national security laws

Hong Kongers march in silent protest against national security lawsThe proposed national security laws were discussed by the National People's Congress Standing Committee on Sunday in Beijing at a three-day meeting.




from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/31mJYYe

POLITICO Playbook: Trump appears to praise a guy yelling 'White power' - Politico

Mississippi Lawmakers Vote to Remove Rebel Emblem From Flag

Mississippi lawmakers voted Sunday to surrender the Confederate battle emblem from their state flag, triggering raucous applause and cheers more than a century after white supremacist legislators adopted the design a generation after the South lost the Civil War.

from CBNNews.com https://ift.tt/3ifc6Ts

Sabtu, 27 Juni 2020

China rebuts Canadian criticism over detention of two men

China rebuts Canadian criticism over detention of two menChina lashed out at Canada on Saturday over criticism about Chinese prosecution of two Canadians, saying the matter is based on evidence and urging Ottawa to cease "megaphone diplomacy." Chinese prosecutors this month charged Canadians Michael Kovrig, a former diplomat, and Michael Spavor, a businessman, for suspected espionage. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called on Beijing to cease the "arbitrary detention," and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also called for their release.




from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2AeD0cU

Protesters resist clearing of Seattle protest zone

Protesters resist clearing of Seattle protest zoneCrews arrived with heavy equipment Friday at Seattle's "occupied" protest zone, apparently ready to dismantle barriers set up by protesters, but halted work when demonstrators resisted by lying on top of some of the makeshift structures. (June 26)




from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/3dEPacs

Gunmen wound Mexico City police chief; 3 dead

Gunmen wound Mexico City police chief; 3 deadA high-sided construction truck and a white SUV pulled into the path of Mexico City's police chief just as dawn was breaking Friday on the capital’s most iconic boulevard and assailants opened fire with .50-caliber sniper rifles and grenades on his armored vehicle. The cinematic ambush involving two-dozen gunmen left chief Omar GarcĆ­a Harfuch wounded with three bullet impacts and shrapnel. The high-powered armament and brazenness of the attack suggested the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and hours after the attack, GarcĆ­a blamed them via Twitter from the hospital.




from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2A7iYRn

Coronavirus: Florida and Texas reverse reopening as infections surge

Coronavirus: Florida and Texas reverse reopening as infections surgeFlorida and Texas reverse moves to reopen business as total cases across the US surpass 2.5 million.




from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/3dEQL1Z

The US still does a wretched job of teaching Black history. An expert in African American history education explains how to fix it.

The US still does a wretched job of teaching Black history. An expert in African American history education explains how to fix it.An expert in African American history education, LaGarrett King, breaks down the school system's flaws and explains how to teach Black history better.




from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/3dI2WuW

Southern states report record coronavirus surges

Southern states report record coronavirus surgesThe U.S. has also seen a record number of cases nationwide, according to the latest figures released.




from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/3i2WuSR

Coronavirus food fear: Government launches investigation after meatpacking outbreaks

Coronavirus food fear: Government launches investigation afterĀ meatpacking outbreaksGovernment scientists have asked the Food Standards Agency (FSA) to investigate whether food could harbour coronavirus following major outbreaks in meatpacking plants. Four food processing factories in England and Wales have suffered clusters of disease, with 469 workers testing positive for the virus so far. Across the world, staff at meat packing plants have been disproportionately impacted by disease, with cold, crowded and noisy working conditions which force people to shout, thought to be to blame. Now it has emerged that government scientists have asked the FSA to check whether the virus could get into food. So far the risk has been assessed as low, but experts say they are continuing to monitor the situation. A government source said: “We have actually asked the Food Standards Agency to look at this a few times, about the risk in meat and other produce, and their assessment is that the risk is very low for transmission on meat. “But we’ll keep asking them to look as new evidence comes up.” In the US, as many as 25,000 meat and poultry workers have tested positive for Covid-19, and at least 93 have died. This week Kirklees council confirmed that 165 employees of a meat processing plant in West Yorkshire had contracted the virus and Public Health Wales reported 200 coronavirus cases at a meat processing plant on Anglesey. There have also been 34 cases linked to Merthyr Tydfil and 70 to Wrexham. Dr Michael Head, Senior Research Fellow in Global Health at the University of Southampton, said: “Whilst refrigeration may be a contributory factor to the spread of the virus, the key factors are likely to be the number of people close together in indoor conditions. “Some of these factories have onsite or nearby accommodation where there are several people in each dormitory, they may be transported on a bus to the site of work, and they will be indoors together all day.”




from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/3i74G4n

A Major GOP Nightmare Moves a Step Closer to Reality

A Major GOP Nightmare Moves a Step Closer to RealityLegislation to make the District of Columbia a state is poised to pass the House on Friday, a major advance from the last time the measure came before Congress 27 years ago and 40 percent of Democrats joined with all but one Republican to defeat D.C. statehood. After decades of benign neglect, the movement to make D.C. the 51st state has gained new life with Black Lives Matter and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s heightened profile. President Trump’s efforts to use federal force to dominate streets around the White House exposed the subservient status of a city that must answer to Congress for how it spends money while its 706,000 residents are without full voting representation in the House or Senate. Republicans appear unmoved by pleas for equality. Republican Sen. Tom Cotton took to the Senate floor to denounce the Democrats’ move in a racially tinged speech depicting D.C. as an elitist conclave of the “deep state” and Mayor Bowser as someone who could not be trusted to keep the city and its statues safe. “Yes, Wyoming is smaller than Washington by population,” he tweeted, “but it has three times as many workers in mining, logging, and construction, and 10 times as many workers in manufacturing. In other words, Wyoming is a well-rounded working-class state."Opinion: I Fixed Tom Cotton’s Op-EdThe bill to rename D.C. “Washington, Douglass Commonwealth” is going nowhere in Mitch McConnell’s Senate. But if the Democrats win the White House and flip the Senate, statehood becomes imaginable, since statehood requires only a vote of Congress. “Trump says Republicans would have to be stupid to support D.C. statehood and that’s what the battle is about these days, maybe that’s what it’s always been about,” says Michael Brown, D.C.’s non-voting “shadow senator.” Actually, Trump said Republicans would have to be “very, very stupid” to support statehood for D.C. because it would add two Democratic senators, which McConnell would never let happen. “But it’s about more than McConnell,” Brown told the Daily Beast. “We can’t get one Republican (in the Senate), and there are still six (Senate) Democrats who are not on the bill.” In the modern Senate, 60 votes are needed to overcome a filibuster and proceed to a vote on legislation of any significance. The exception is judges, where Republicans exercised what is known as the “nuclear option” to confirm two Supreme Court judges and 200 lower court lifetime judges with a simple majority. Democratic leader Harry Reid opened this dangerous door by striking the filibuster for Executive Branch confirmations that McConnell was blocking. Several Democrats who ran for president, including Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, and Pete Buttigieg, favor doing away with the filibuster if Democrats win the Senate. Otherwise, they argue, McConnell (or his successor, should he happen to lose his own race) will obstruct everything Democrats try to do.  The District of Columbia has a population of 706,000, more than Wyoming and Vermont, and D.C. residents pay more in total federal income tax than 22 states. It has long been a sore point that fighting in every war and contributing blood and treasure is not enough to gain more than a symbolic vote in Congress. D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, who has served almost 30 years, has a vote in committee but not on the House floor, and if her committee vote breaks a tie, it doesn’t count. Even that small measure of democratic largesse was taken away by Republicans when they gained control of the House in 1994 and again in 2010. Democrats restored Norton’s limited right to vote when they won the House in 2006 and 2018, and since then Norton has been on a roll when it comes to statehood. She has 226 co-sponsors for the bill, including the No. 2 Democrat in the House, Steny Hoyer from Maryland, who opposed statehood until now. Speaking before the Rules committee Wednesday, Norton explained how the legislation before her colleagues was personal to her own history. “My great-grandfather, Richard Holmes, who escaped as a slave from a Virginia plantation, made it as far as D.C., a walk to freedom but not to equal citizenship,” she said. “For three generations my family has been denied the rights other Americans take for granted.” Opponents of statehood argue that the Founding Fathers didn’t want the District to be a state, but our vaunted forebears also didn’t want women to vote, or Black people to vote, so that argument seems lame. “Whether you’re a textualist or an originalist, I don’t believe the Founding Fathers had any more reason to deny representation to people who pay federal taxes, serve in war and do everything a citizen should—than they would have wanted my neighbor down the hall to have a closet full of AK-47s,” says Ellen Goldstein, who served until recently as a neighborhood advisory commissioner for the Sheridan-Kalorama neighborhood, home to the Obamas, the Kushners, and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. “You can unearth the minds of the Founding Fathers to justify anything,” Goldstein told the Daily Beast. “As somebody who has lived here for 50 years, I believe the only reason we’re not a state is because of race.” Race has a lot to do with it, says Brown, a former political consultant whose unpaid position’s main perk is identifying as a senator. The Constitution grants Congress jurisdiction over the District in “all cases whatsoever,” which allowed some committee chairmen of the House and Senate Committees on the District of Columbia to run the city like a plantation. In his recent book Class of 1974, John Lawrence recounts how John McMillan, a South Carolina Democrat and a segregationist, sent a truckload of watermelons to the office of appointed Mayor Walter Washington to let him know how little he thought of the budget Washington submitted in 1967 for the committee’s review. The District couldn’t even elect its own mayor until after Home Rule passed Congress in 1973. For a long time, D.C. pridefully called itself “Chocolate City,” acknowledging its majority Black population. No state has ever come into the union with a majority minority population, says Brown. In 1993, the last time Congress voted on statehood, the city was 56 percent Black, a factor in the outcome despite President Bill Clinton’s advocacy for statehood. During his final weeks in office, Bill Clinton had the newly authorized D.C. license plate with the slogan “taxation without representation” affixed to the presidential limousine. His successor, President George W. Bush, had the plate removed. It wasn’t until after President Obama won re-election in 2012 that he ordered the controversial plate installed on all presidential vehicles. In 2011, the District’s Black population fell below 50 percent for the first time in over 50 years. According to 2017 Census Bureau data, the African-American population is 47.1 percent. Unlike the Clinton-era vote, when Democrats were divided on the political merits of D.C. statehood, a newly awakened Democratic leadership is rallying around the cry for equal rights. “It’s beyond statehood,” says Goldstein, citing congressional meddling in District policies on marijuana legalization, gun regulation, and funding for abortion. “If we decide to do it, they take it away. They take our money and tell us how to spend it.”  Goldstein doubts the House vote will change anything, but in her thinking, modern America cannot continue to deny D.C. is a state any more than Macy’s Department store in the movie classic Miracle on 34th Street could deny Kris Kringle was Santa when bags of letters addressed to him were delivered by the Post Office. Using the same reasoning, Goldstein notes that when she shops online on Amazon and scrolls down, D.C. is a state: “If the Post Office thinks you’re Santa, you’re Santa. And if Amazon thinks we’re a state, then by golly, we’re a state.”Until a miracle happens on Capitol Hill, that will have to do.  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.




from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/386ZsAZ

Share

Twitter Delicious Facebook Digg Stumbleupon Favorites More