Special News: October 2020

Saturday, 31 October 2020

Match of the Day: Alan Shearer and Danny Murphy on how Diogo Jota & Xherdan Shaqiri helped Liverpool beat West Ham

Match of the Day pundits Alan Shearer and Danny Murphy analyse the impact of Liverpool's substitutes Diogo Jota and Xherdan Shaqiri during their 2-1 win over West Ham.

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Fact check: There is no Sen. Rob Donaldson, so posts of his speech about Barrett are fake

A post on new Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett originated as a hypothetical. It took off, with many people assuming it was from a real senator.

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2020 election results: Why Americans probably won’t find out who won on 3 November

'There is no chance that we will know on election night the full vote total in Michigan'

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Daylight-saving time ends on Sunday, November 1 — here's why we have it and why some countries and states have gotten rid of it

At 2 a.m. ET on November 1, Americans will "fall back" by moving their clocks an hour earlier to end seven months of daylight-saving time.

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'They give me the willies': scientist who vacuumed murder hornets braces for fight

Chris Looney helped dismantle the first nest of Asian giant hornets in the US. Now he’s preparing for the next stepThe eradication of the first nest of Asian giant hornets on US soil somewhat resembled a science fiction depiction of an alien landing site. A crew of government specialists in white, astronaut-like protective suits descended upon the hornet nexus to vanquish it with a futuristic-looking vacuum cleaner, to the relief of onlookers.The nest of the fearsome invasive insects, notoriously known as “murder hornets”, was found in a tree crevice near Blaine, in Washington state, via a tracking device attached to a previously captured worker hornet. The Washington state department of agriculture (WSDA) confirmed the nest had been successfully removed, with dozens of live captives taken back for inspection.“It was cold so they were docile, so between their slowness and the protective gear no one was hurt,” said Chris Looney, a WSDA entomologist who was tasked with vacuuming up the hornets.Wielding a lengthy, toxic stinger, the hornets can cause renal failure and death in people, as dozens of people in Japan have found out to their cost. One entomologist in Canada described the feeling of being stung as like “having hot tacks pushed into my flesh”.They can also squirt venom, as Looney saw first-hand when his lab workbench was sprayed by hornets as they roused themselves following capture. “I was more worried about getting permanent nerve damage in the eye from the squirted venom than being stung,” said Looney, who wore goggles for the capture. “They are pretty intimidating, even for an inch-and-a-half insect. They are big and loud and I know it would hurt very badly if I get stung. They give me the willies.”Murder hornets do not earn their moniker from killing people, however, with honeybees far more likely to be targeted. A honeybee colony can be decimated within a few hours, with the hornets decapitating their victims and feeding severed body parts to their young. This poses a gnawing concern for hobbyist beekeepers and even farmers in the US north-west, where managed honeybees are crucial for the pollination of crops such as blueberries and raspberries.Asian giant hornets were first discovered in North America last year, popping up in British Columbia, Canada, before a handful of specimens made it south of the border to Washington state. The hornets, native to east Asia, most likely arrived on the continent clinging to imported goods sent via sea or air. A close relative of the hornet has already made separate inroads into France and the UK.A key, and unnerving, question is how far they will manage to spread across America. Looney said the removal of the first nest found in the US was just a “small victory” in a battle likely to rage for several years to contain the insects. Thousands of sightings have been reported in Washington, and while many are false or mistaken, Looney said it was likely the hornets had spread, potentially establishing dozens more nests.“It’s hard to say how they will behave here compared to their native range, but the fear is that there are large apiaries of bees that could be sitting ducks, while as the hornets move south to warmer weather their colonies could grow larger,” he said. “The object of our work is to avoid finding this out.”Scientists who have modeled the potential spread of the hornets predict they will be able to extend down the west coast into California. The Rocky Mountains and drier interior of the US pose major barriers to an eastward push but environs on the east coast such as New York would be ideal homes for the murder hornets should they inadvertently be transported there.Looney said he was “troubled” by evidence that overwintering hornet queens like to bury themselves in straw and hay, commodities that are regularly shifted around the US by train or truck. A hornet queen that hitched a ride would still face challenges establishing a nest even if moved to the east coast – it could immediately be crushed underfoot, after all – but the potential pathway is there.“I’m more worried about human transportation of these hornets than I initially was,” Looney conceded.The Asian giant hornet is just the latest invasive species to make its mark on North America. Burmese pythons are now legion in southern Florida, while Asian carp are common in the Mississippi river system. In the insect world, the spotted lanternfly is a growing agricultural pest and emerald ash borers have arrived to lay waste to stands of trees.These arrivals are symptoms of the growth in international trade and tourism, while climate change is making many parts of the US more hospitable for certain invasive species. The Asian giant hornet, for example, is thought to favor the sort of elevated temperatures that the US is experiencing as the planet heats up. This could help it spread at the rate of its cousin species in France, which has been able to advance up to 78km a year. If it is not controlled, the murder hornet could fundamentally change ecosystems across the US.Still, even in a fraught year racked by a pandemic, social unrest and economic disaster, Looney said any fears of being assailed by a murder hornet should be “low on the anxiety meter”.He added: “We should be concerned about it but we will do our best until the money runs out or the battle is won or lost. If we fail, it will be unpleasant. But there are other things to be much more worried about right now.”

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Typhoon Goni: Philippines hit by year's most powerful storm

Torrential rain and "catastrophic violent winds" are expected on the main island of Luzon on Sunday.

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US salutes Greece, Turkey earthquake diplomacy

The United States on Friday hailed diplomacy between uneasy neighbors Greece and Turkey following a major earthquake and said it was ready to assist the NATO allies.

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Kyle Rittenhouse extradited to Wisconsin following terse ruling from Illinois judge accusing him of asking the court to 'ignore binding Illinois law'

Rittenhouse, charged in Wisconsin with first-degree homicide over the shooting of three people at Kenosha protests, had been fighting his extradition.

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Body-camera footage released of Wallace killing; family says officers were improperly trained

The footage from body-worn cameras that was taken as police responded to a call about Walter Wallace Jr. shows him emerging from a house with a knife as relatives shout at officers about his mental health condition, a lawyer for the man's family said Thursday.

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Turkey farmers in limbo as people scale back Thanksgiving plans

Millions of Americans are expected to have scaled-down Thanksgiving celebrations amid the pandemic, heeding official warnings against travel and large indoor gatherings.

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Dozens of undelivered ballots found at Miami-Dade post office with mail backlog

Special agents with the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General discovered 48 pieces of election mail sitting in a post office in South Miami-Dade County on Friday, the office announced Saturday morning. Forty-two of them were ballots that had not yet been delivered to voters, officials said, while the other six had already been filled out and were brought to the Miami-Dade supervisor of elections Friday night.

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Biden Team Cancels Texas Event After Highway ‘Ambush’ by MAGA Cavalry

Joe Biden’s presidential campaign canceled a Friday event in Austin, Texas, after harassment from a pro-Trump contingent.Texas has emerged as a battleground state in Tuesday’s presidential election, with polls showing the typically Republican stronghold now only marginally favoring President Donald Trump. The Biden campaign scheduled a Friday event in the state, in a bid to drum up last-minute support. But when the Biden campaign bus drove to Austin, it was greeted by a blockade of pro-Trump demonstrators, leading to what one Texas House representative described as an escalation “well beyond safe limits.”The cancelation comes amid national anxiety about voter intimidation, a tactic the Trump campaign has implicitly endorsed.Historian Dr. Eric Cervini was driving to help with the Biden campaign stop when he filmed a line of pickup trucks along the highway, many of them flying Trump flags. The drivers were “waiting to ambush the Biden/Harris campaign bus as it traveled from San Antonio to Austin,” Cervini tweeted.“These Trump supporters, many of whom were armed, surrounded the bus on the interstate and attempted to drive it off the road,” he alleged. “They outnumbered police 50-1, and they ended up hitting a staffer’s car.”A Biden campaign staffer told The Daily Beast that Trump supporters surrounded the bus on the highway and slowed down in front of it, attempting to stop it or run it off the road. The official sent a picture taken on the bus, showing Trump trucks surrounding the front of the vehicle. Staffers on the bus called police, who helped the bus reach its destination.Video from the highway shows trucks surrounding the bus, at one point colliding with an SUV.> This is a traffic violation and attempted homicide. Why hasn’t anyone been arrested? pic.twitter.com/QnfF4vXMQn> > — haunting student debt owners (@mcbyrne) October 31, 2020> I flew down to Texas to help with the Biden/Harris bus tour, intended to drum up enthusiasm at polling locations. Instead, I ended up spending the afternoon calling 911. 1/ pic.twitter.com/gKAjv7gv85> > — Dr. Eric Cervini (@ericcervini) October 31, 2020Footage from a CBS affiliate in Austin shows Trump supporters with signs and bullhorns surrounding the bus when it parked, with one person screaming that Biden was a communist.Rep. Sheryl Cole, a Democrat representing nearby Pflugerville in Texas’s House, announced that a Biden event in her city had been canceled due to the harassment.“This is a 1st for me - but we just cancelled a joint event in Pflugerville w/ @JoeBiden campaign,@AustinYoungDems, & more, due to security reasons,” she tweeted. “Unfortunately, Pro-Trump Protestors have escalated well beyond safe limits. Sorry to all who looked forward to this fun event.”The Biden campaign’s Texas communications director, Tariq Thowfeek, said holding the event would have placed Biden staffers and supporters at risk. “Rather than engage in productive conversation about the drastically different visions that Joe Biden and Donald Trump have for our country, Trump supporters in Texas today instead decided to put our staff, surrogates, supporters, and others in harm’s way,” Thowfeek told The Daily Beat.“Our supporters will continue to organize their communities for Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and Democrats up and down the ballot, and to the Texans who disrupted our events today: We’ll see you on November 3rd.”The Trump campaign—and often Trump himself—has encouraged in-person conflict around the polls. Trump used the first presidential debate to urge supporters to act as “poll watchers,” a call that sparked concerns of voter intimidation. His son, Donald Trump Jr., made an explicit call-out regarding the Biden campaign’s Texas outreach efforts.In a video ahead of a Friday event by Biden’s running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris, Trump Jr. encouraged his father’s supporters to show up at Harris’s event.Trump’s Crew of Far-Right Vigilante Poll Watchers Is Coming“Hey Laredo, Don Jr. here,” he said. “I heard you had an awesome turnout for the Trump Train. It’d be great if you guys would all get together, head down to McAllen and give Kamala Harris a nice Trump Train welcome. Get out there, have some fun, enjoy it. Don’t forget to vote and bring all of your friends. Let’s show them how strong Texas still is as Trump country. Get out there, guys.”Some Trump supporters appeared to heed the call. At least one Facebook event with more than 700 responses, viewed by The Daily Beast, encouraged Trump fans to attend a Harris event in Fort Worth, Texas on Friday and “give Kamala Harris a big Texas welcome..... TRUMP STYLE!” The event was listed as canceled ahead of time, although its organizers acknowledged that some people might still try to attend, “and that's your right.”Trump supporters have previously been accused of intimidation this election. In Beverly Hills, California this week, an Australian television personality filmed participants at a pro-Trump rally shouting at her and threatening her in her car. A man brandishing a Trump flag at her appeared to photograph her and take down her license plate number.“We’ve got you now,” the man shouted. “You’re going to vote for Trump whether you like it or not, you’ve got no choice.”When Biden spoke at a Minnesota event on Friday, the same day as his campaign was ambushed in Austin, Trump supporters in a caravan of vehicles reportedly surrounded the venue honking their horns and chanting.During early voting in the swing state of Virginia late last month, a caravan of Trump supporters drove to the Democratic-leaning Fairfax County and surrounded people in an early voting line, shouting at them on loudspeakers“We had a couple poll observers there that had to actually escort voters in because we saw people that would get to the edge of the parking lot, and see this giant group of Trumpers yelling and screaming,” the executive director of the Fairfax County Democratic Committee told The Daily Beast at the time.‘Daily Show’s’ Jordan Klepper Hits One Last ‘Eerily Quiet’ Trump RallyRead more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

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Orthodox priest in 'critical condition' after shooting in Lyon, France

French police locked down parts of Lyon on Saturday as they searched for gunmen who shot an Orthadox priest with a sorn-off shotgun before fleeing. The priest, who has Greek nationality, was closing his church when the attack happened and is now in a serious condition. The interior ministry warned people to "avoid the area" where the attack took place. A police source said the priest was of Greek nationality, and had been able to tell emergency services as they arrived that he had not recognised his assailant. The motivation for the attack was not known last night, but the shooting came in the wake of several grisly Islamist attacks on French soil and a growing tension between France and the Muslim world. Emmanuel Macron, the French president, lashed out at Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, slamming Turkey's "bellicose" stance towards Nato allies. Mr Macron said that France's wish was now that things "calm down" but for this to happen, it is essential that the "Turkish president respects France, respects the European Union, respects its values, does not tell lies and does not utter insults," Macron said.

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Christians Worldwide Mark International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church

Millions of Christians worldwide will unite on Sunday, Nov. 1 to join the global Body of Christ for the 2020 International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted (IDOP).

from CBNNews.com https://ift.tt/2TFVbhN Worldwide Mark International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church

Christians Worldwide Mark International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church

New top story on Hacker News: China's Draft 'Personal Information Protection Law' (Full Translation)

China's Draft 'Personal Information Protection Law' (Full Translation)
12 by detaro | 1 comments on Hacker News.

New top story on Hacker News: Nat Slipstreaming

Nat Slipstreaming
25 by todsacerdoti | 4 comments on Hacker News.

New top story on Hacker News: Ropes, an Alternative to Strings [pdf]

Ropes, an Alternative to Strings [pdf]
20 by pmoriarty | 3 comments on Hacker News.

New top story on Hacker News: Goodbye, Native Apps

Goodbye, Native Apps
36 by delvin0 | 29 comments on Hacker News.

Stanford Study Seeks to Quantify Infections Stemming From Trump Rallies

By BY SHERYL GAY STOLBERG from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/35Pg9QV

Senator Kelly Loeffler of Georgia, facing opponents from both parties, embraces Trumpism.

By BY RICHARD FAUSSET from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/3jH3O61

Police in North Carolina use a chemical spray to disperse a get-out-the-vote rally.

By BY MICHAEL LEVENSON from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/323ZGY2

George Shultz Speaks Out for Renewing U.S. Leadership Overseas

By BY PETER BAKER from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/3ecdy7r

Friday, 30 October 2020

“Over 1,000 people died today”: Don Jr. falsely claims that COVID-19 deaths are “almost nothing”

Deaths rose to 1,040 on Thursday as the number of new COVID-19 cases hit the highest number on record

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Judge grants Meghan Markle's request to postpone lawsuit against tabloid

A British judge on Thursday granted a request by the Duchess of Sussex to postpone the trial of her invasion of privacy lawsuit against the publisher of a British newspaper that published portions of a private letter she wrote to her father.

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There's even more evidence premature birth rates are dropping during the pandemic

Research indicates that fewer preemies are being born during COVID-19. Doctors say this could lead to a better understanding about premature births.

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New top story on Hacker News: New nuclear plant at Sizewell set for green light

New nuclear plant at Sizewell set for green light
30 by Reedx | 3 comments on Hacker News.

New top story on Hacker News: How to Deal with Extreme Physical Pain

How to Deal with Extreme Physical Pain
57 by LyalinDotCom | 10 comments on Hacker News.

New top story on Hacker News: Generating bingo cards with clojure.spec, Clojure/test.check, RDD and TDD

Generating bingo cards with clojure.spec, Clojure/test.check, RDD and TDD
7 by diggan | 0 comments on Hacker News.

FOX NEWS: More fallout from Tony Bobulinski interview with Tucker Carlson

More fallout from Tony Bobulinski interview with Tucker Carlson

Mainstream media coverage minimal as Hunter Biden allegations unfold; Mike Emanuel reports.

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FOX NEWS: Fraudster attempts to register dead Americans as Dem voters in Florida

Fraudster attempts to register dead Americans as Dem voters in Florida

At least 50 new voter applications were sent to the Broward county elections office – and many of the voters had recently died.

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FOX NEWS: Texas unlikely to turn blue in 2020 election, Rep. Thornberry says

Texas unlikely to turn blue in 2020 election, Rep. Thornberry says

Texas is unlikely to turn blue despite a close race between President Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden in the key state, retiring Rep. Mac Thornberry said in an exclusive interview with Fox News correspondent Jennifer Griffin on Friday.

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FOX NEWS: Collins locked in tight battle for Senate reelection in Maine

Collins locked in tight battle for Senate reelection in Maine

Polling shows GOP incumbent in statistical tie with Dem challenger; Molly Line has the latest on 'Special Report'

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FOX NEWS: If polls can be trusted, what do they say about Trump's chances?

If polls can be trusted, what do they say about Trump's chances?

'Special Report' All-Star panel discusses contrast between Trump rally enthusiasm, poll numbers

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FOX NEWS: Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp quarantining after COVID exposure despite negative test result

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp quarantining after COVID exposure despite negative test result

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp’s office announced that he will be placing himself in quarantine after becoming exposed to the coronavirus, despite a negative test result Friday.

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FOX NEWS: Top two pro-Trump super PACs make final $20 million ad push

Top two pro-Trump super PACs make final $20 million ad push

The two leading super PACs that are supporting President Trump's re-election bid are teaming up to shell out $20 million to run ads on TV and digital in seven crucial general election battleground in the closing stretch leading up to Election Day on Tuesday.

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FOX NEWS: Joe Biden appears to call pro-Trump protesters 'ugly' at Minnesota rally

Joe Biden appears to call pro-Trump protesters 'ugly' at Minnesota rally

Joe Biden criticizes pro-Trump protesters at rally in St. Paul, Minnesota

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FOX NEWS: Facebook manually limited New York Post Hunter Biden story: Report

Facebook manually limited New York Post Hunter Biden story: Report

Facebook fact-checkers manually flagged and restricted distribution of the New York Post's Hunter Biden story, documents obtained by The Guardian show.

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FOX NEWS: Which candidate is running the most impactful campaign ads?

Which candidate is running the most impactful campaign ads?

Pollster Frank Luntz breaks own the most effective commercials of the campaign season on 'Special Report'

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Voters suing Minnesota over a mask mandate are asking the Supreme Court to intervene.

By BY JACEY FORTIN from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2JeAC9Y

Time Running Short, Trump and Biden Return to Northern Battlegrounds

By BY THOMAS KAPLAN AND ANNIE KARNI from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/3eeng93

Woman Who Mailed Threat to Susan Collins Gets 30 Months in Prison

By BY JOHN ISMAY from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/31XgW0Z

¿Quién ganará Florida, Biden o Trump? Esto dicen las encuestas

By BY GIOVANNI RUSSONELLO from NYT en Español https://ift.tt/2JnWsbi

Political Satire Isn’t Dead. It’s Been Turned Into Horror Stories.

By BY ANNALEE NEWITZ from NYT Opinion https://ift.tt/3jGKgP9

Glimmers of Hope for a Winter With Tropical Travel

By BY CATHERINE PORTER from NYT World https://ift.tt/2HN23qM

Five Great Things Biden Has Already Done

By David Brooks from NYT Opinion https://ift.tt/34CtOLD

Thursday, 29 October 2020

US Election 2020: Trump and Biden duel in critical state of Florida

Democrat Biden's lead over the US president is narrower in must-win states, with Florida a key prize.

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Erdogan vows legal response to Charlie Hebdo cartoon showing him lifting skirt of veiled woman

Anger at France deepened in Muslim-majority countries on Wednesday over a Charlie Hebdo cartoon showing Turkey’s president drinking beer while lifting the skirt of a woman wearing a hijab to reveal her naked buttocks. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the president, described the cartoonists as “scoundrels” and accused the West of wanting to “relaunch the Crusades”. His office also vowed to take unspecified "legal and diplomatic actions" through the Turkish legal system. His row with France erupted after President Emmanuel Macron ordered a crackdown on Islamists this month, following the beheading of a teacher who showed his class Charlie Hebdo cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. Protesters in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu shouted: “Down with France. It insulted our prophet.”

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Lev Parnas associate David Correia pleads guilty to fraud and lying

Correia and Parnas faced charges of campaign finance fraud and of duping investors in a company called "Fraud Guarantee" out of more than $2 million.

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Ice Cube explains why he blew off Zoom call with Kamala Harris: ‘I want to get things done’

Ice Cube has been adamant that Democrats told him to hold off until after the election before making demands for his “Contract With Black America.” The NWA rapper and actor recently revealed to Fox Soul’s Cocktails with Queens, that features Claudia Jordan, Vivica A. Fox, LisaRaye McCoy, and Syleena Johnson, that he turned down a request by the California senator to be a part of a Zoom call.

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A graphic shows how pumpkin pie looks when you mess up the recipe

Our food reporter made pumpkin pie eight ways to figure out what happens when you add ingredients like condensed milk or extra eggs.

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Trump and Biden to both campaign in battleground state Florida

President Trump and Democratic rival Joe Biden will both rally supporters on Thursday in the critical battleground state of Florida.

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Lindsey Graham Is Being Boosted by a Tea Party Group That Has Always Hated Him

It’s no secret that Sen. Lindsey Graham is in the fight of his political life in the closing days of his campaign to win reelection to the U.S. Senate.“I’m getting overwhelmed,” Graham begged on-air with Fox News’ Sean Hannity last month, as his Democratic rival Jaime Harrison brought in a record-shattering $57 million in donations to unseat him. “Help me—they’re killing me money-wise. Help me.”But with ersatz ally President Donald Trump nowhere to be seen, a group that once despised Graham—and whose most prominent members have spent months propping up bizarre conspiracy theories, posting wildly racist content on social media, and undermining confidence public health guidelines in the midst of the pandemic—are coming to the rescue.The question is, does Graham want their help?“This is not a time for us to be squabbling over differences of opinion,” Pressley Stutts, chair of the Greenville Tea Party, said at an event on Wednesday afternoon, before introducing nearly a dozen grassroots conservative leaders “to stand tall” with Graham.“Sen. Graham is in the race of his life,” said Stutts, introducing conservative activists who lambasted Harrison—or “Harris,” as several of them called him—for being a “Marxist-Leninist” who would impose socialism on South Carolina.Sam Manley, a conservative podcaster, put the stakes of the race directly: “If you ever vote your way into socialism, you’ll have to shoot your way out.”This ringing endorsement for Graham’s re-election—which included Michael LaPierre, who tried to primary Graham this year—amounts to a cease-fire between the Palmetto State’s most well-known elected official and a coterie of some of his most dedicated trolls. During the Tea Party wave in 2010, Graham—once seen as one of the most mainstream members of the Republican Party—became one of the movement’s most loathed “RINOs,” or Republicans In Name Only. Leaders of the state’s Tea Party chapters attempted to recruit then-Gov. Mark Sanford to primary Graham after he voted to confirm Justice Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court, and one speaker at a Greenville Tea Party rally that year made accused Graham of “trying to sell out your own countrymen” to avoid being outed.For his part, Graham once relished his battles with the state’s most conservative activists, calling the inter-party skirmishes “more fun than any time I’ve been in politics,” but with polls showing Graham in a statistical dead heat with Harrison, the senator is scrambling to resolve those well-documented problems with voters who have largely moved from the Tea Party to Team MAGA—even though the group’s brand of politics couldn’t be less in sync with Graham’s own.Stutts, the group’s chair, is a longtime critic of vaccinations, and has publicly discouraged people from wearing face masks during the coronavirus pandemic and spread the conspiracy theory that billionaire Bill Gates is working to reduce the human population.Why Hasn’t Trump Come to Lindsey Graham’s Rescue?Stutts has even claimed in an April interview that a potential vaccine for COVID-19 could possibly “contain a microchip” for the government to track its citizens.“Even if it doesn’t contain a microchip, I could foresee the day, because right now you have to show your ID or your passport and here in South Carolina, we have to get that real ID just to fly commercially,” Stutts said on a conservative YouTube vlog at the time. “And I can see the point where they're going to say, okay, show me your vaccination papers next.”At one Greenville Tea Party event in 2018, Stutts even hosted a talk with Jennifer Smith, who described herself as a “naturopath,” who referenced the baseless theory that vaccines cause autism and said that she did not get her newborn son vaccinated for Hepatitus B because he was “not a promiscuous homosexual” or an IV drug user.Among the group’s other featured speakers at recent events include John Guandolo, the leader of a Dallas-based anti-Muslim group who was forced last year to pay $600,000 in a civil lawsuit for assaulting a county sheriff after the man confronted him about passing around hate literature at a meeting of the National Sheriffs’ Association.The group has also held protests against social distancing rules in South Carolina, which Graham has said are critical to stopping the spread of the virus, despite rising rates of infection in the state.“Tired of putting up with an onerous and inept government?” the group posted on Facebook in September. “Join us September 15th and let your voice be heard, too. Our legislators need to know that we've had enough! Show up. Stand up. Speak up! It's your family that has been negatively affected… ThugArmy mount up!!”Greenville Tea Party members and business partners have made even more extreme claims. Dan Harvell, a taxpayer advocate who spoke at Wednesday’s event and said that he was supporting Graham for the sake of “the traditional American values that we will have for our children,” has posted memes claiming that Sen. Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for vice president, slept her way to becoming San Francisco’s district attorney, and has called former first lady Michelle Obama a “race-baiter.”The Graham campaign did not respond to a request for comment about whether he disavowed the support of the Greenville Tea Party and its members, and neither did the group. But state Democrats called the dynamic of Graham playing along with a group he once despised the latest in a long arc of allowances the senator has made under Trump.“This is yet another demonstration of the extreme lengths Sen. Graham is going to in order to save his flailing campaign,” said Manuel Bonder, coordinated campaign spokesperson for the South Carolina Democratic Party. “Instead of scrambling to consolidate his support amongst fringe conspiracy theorists who know he is a hypocrite, Sen. Graham should focus on leading South Carolina through this crisis and delivering the relief working families and businesses desperately need.”Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

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‘White racist cops got my own dad’: Walter Wallace’s young son speaks out

An investigation has been opened into the police shooting of Walter Wallace who died in Philadelphia on Monday afternoon

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About That ‘Uncoverable’ Biden Story

Journalists claim they can’t cover the New York Post’s Hunter Biden email scoop because the underlying evidence has yet to been verified. Also, they won’t look for any verifying evidence because there isn’t enough evidence.It’s quite the conundrum.Because other than the now-corroborated emails, the laptop, the on-the-record source who was a CEO of a Biden corporation, a trove of text messages and documents, and a lack of denials, the Hunter Biden email story reminds me of the “Russian collusion” story. Surely it deserves a modicum of scrutiny and follow-up.Anyone who watched Tony Bobulinski’s interview on Tucker Carlson’s show this week -- apparently it pulled over 5 million viewers -- was confronted with a seemingly credible character. Bobulinski says he met with Joe Biden in 2017, and that the former vice president was intimately involved in the family business. Maybe someone will ask the candidate about this. Because Biden, widely seen as the frontrunner, has on numerous occasions emphatically denied any knowledge of what Hunter was doing. So even if he didn’t benefit from his son’s leveraging of the family name to strike deals with Chinese Communist energy interests, it is still newsworthy.Bobulinski alleges that during a meeting with Joe Biden’s brother, he asked how the former vice president gets away with this sort of thing: “I remember looking at Jim Biden and saying how are you guys getting away with this? Aren’t you concerned? He looked at me, and he laughed a little bit, and said ‘plausible deniability.’”Perhaps my favorite part of yesterday’s interview, though, was learning that Adam Schiff’s ugly and mendacious habit of smearing anyone he disagrees with as a Russian asset is what allegedly helped spur Bobulinski, a former U.S. Navy lieutenant, to come forward.Hunter’s ex-business partner, in fact, confronted Rob Walker, a Biden “family representative” about it.“If [Schiff] doesn’t come out, on record, I am providing the facts,” Bobulinski said in a recording.“Ah, Tony, you’re just going to bury all of us, man,” responded Walker, which sounds odd coming from someone charged with representing a supposedly completely innocent venture.To put all of this context as a journalistic matter, the week before the Post broke the Hunter Biden story, every major news network was reporting on surreptitiously taped conversation in which the First Lady was grousing about Christmas decorations.Indeed, these are just allegations. Some of them more compelling than others. We still know very little, for example, about potentially damaging emails that purport to show Biden helping his son while he was vice president — namely, by meeting with a Burisma energy executive on behalf of Hunter at the White House.In a strange way, the lack of coverage has perpetuated the story, not only through the Streisand effect, but because suppressing it -- the New York Post’s Twitter account is still frozen -- allows the imagination to run wild. While no conservative pundit has penned 8,000 words of Chait-style crackpottery pondering whether Joe has been Chinese asset since the 1980s, some have certainly jumped the gun.Does it matter? Yesterday, a number of journalists were retweeting an Axios interview in which Senator Ted Cruz, asked about the “Hunter Biden stuff,” said the story won’t move a single vote. Perhaps that’s true. It’s also irrelevant. The journalist’s job is to provide transparency, not to worry about elections or be society’s hall monitor.It is certain -- and, boy, am I sick of framing coverage in this way, but what can you do? -- that if a credible witness and former business partner of one of Donald Trump Jr.’s companies came forward to offer specific accusations and evidence that the president was profiting off of business dealings his shady son was striking with authoritarians, teams of investigative journalists would be descending on every tangential character as if they were a defunct Chinese bank account.And the assertion made by many reporters that journalistic ethics prohibit them from even mentioning these allegations is a new and concocted standard. There are thousands of allegations against Republicans reported without verification. Not one outlet had a problem referring to the recent Atlantic piece citing unnamed sources who claimed Trump belittled soldiers, even though the story came from one writer at a partisan outlet. Allegations by whistleblowers are covered all the time, whether they have been fully vetted or not. Major outlets were eager to amplify not only the uncorroborated accusations of Christine Blasey Ford, but a host of other very obviously dubious claims about Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearing.But much of the reticence about investigating the Hunter Biden story is in reaction to the fallout from the Hillary Clinton email scandal. No matter what evidence emerged, political media were never going to repeat 2016. One assumes even good reporters don’t want to be perceived as tipping the election (which speaks to the poor health of journalism).Lest we forget, as with this Biden story, the Clinton email scandal was newsworthy. There was, after all, an open FBI investigation into the frontrunning presidential candidate of the United States because of her reckless and potentially criminal behavior. It was Hillary who initially set up a secret server to circumvent transparency, likely to hide favor-trading related to her foundation, and sent unsecured classified documents through that illegal server, although she almost surely knew it threatened national security. As the New York Times reported at the time, the chance that her correspondences were being captured by foreign powers was extremely high. It was Hillary’s staff that destroyed evidence related to that server -- or as James Comey noted in his testimony, they “cleaned their devices in such a way as to preclude complete forensic recovery.” Any government employees conducting themselves in a similar manner would have been sent to jail.I’m not in the habit of defending Comey, but he saved Clinton by letting her and her staff slide on richly deserved charges. The letter Comey sent to Congress informing them that the bureau had found a cache of new evidence relating to a criminal investigation was Clinton’s fault, not his. It was her top aide and confidant Huma Abedin who failed to inform the FBI about her laptop. And it was Abedin’s then-husband who used that computer to court teenage girls. Comey had an ethical obligation to inform Congress when he was apprised that new evidence had been found -- as he had promised to do under oath during his testimony. If he didn’t, and the story leaked, as it surely would have, the perception would have been that he was attempting to cover up the potential wrongdoing of one of the candidates.Or, in other words, he would have been doing exactly what most of the political media are engaged in right now.

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Trevor Noah laughs at Trump attacking Kamala Harris. The Late Show's Jon Batiste wrote a song about her.

Trevor Noah had a good laugh on Tuesday's Daily Show about a Florida man who stole a bulldozer from an Arby's and tore up Joe Biden lawn signs in people's yards, followed by a good-natured lecture on how politics has taken over our lives. "Meanwhile, President Trump, the Florida Man in chief, is holding coronavirus giveaways all across the Midwest -- and he clearly is getting tired of attacking Joe Biden because now he's putting effort into getting Kamala Harris," he said. Trump's attacks on the Democratic vice presidential nominee are outlandish, mendacious, and a little revealing."I love that a 'female socialist' president is Trump's worst nightmare," Noah said. "Because now I can just picture him waking up in a cold sweat and Melania just being like, 'Oh no, honey, was it the female socialist president again?' I'm just kidding, Melania and Trump don't share a bedroom." He also found it amusing that Trump is criticizing Harris' laugh, or anything else about her. "My man, you look like you were built by the same company who made the Tower of Pisa," Noah said. "I'm surprised people don't pose in front of you as well."At The Late Show, musical director Jon Batiste went the other direction and created a whole song about Harris, his MVP, "most vice presidential."The Late Show also mocked Jared Kushner's comments on Black people not wanting success. You can watch that below. More stories from theweek.com How to make an election crisis 64 things President Trump has said about women Republicans are on the verge of a spectacular upside-down achievement

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Citing a burden on minority voters, US judge overrules Texas governor's exemption for masks at polls

The judge said Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's exemption for masks at polling sites put a "discriminatory burden on Black and Latino voters.”

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SpaceX delayed its NASA astronaut launch because a red 'nail polish' material was plugging part of its rocket engines

SpaceX's Crew-1 launch is now set for November 14 after the company checked tiny holes in its rocket engines for bright-red lacquer.

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US election polls tracker: who is leading in swing states, Trump or Biden?

With the presidential election just days away, the Guardian is tracking the latest polling in eight states that could decide the electiondefault Joe Biden is leading Donald Trump in the national polls for the presidential election.But that doesn’t guarantee the Democratic candidate victory. Hillary Clinton also had a clear lead over Trump in the polls for almost the entire 2016 campaign. She ended up losing in the electoral college.Because the presidential voting system assigns each state a number of electoral college votes, which go to the state’s victor regardless of the margin of victory (with the exception of Nebraska and Maine), a handful of swing states will probably decide the election and be targeted heavily by campaigners.Each day, the Guardian’s poll tracker takes a rolling 14-day average of the polls in eight swing states.In order to track how the race is developing in the areas that could decide the election, six of the eight states we focused on were those that flipped to Trump in 2016 after backing Barack Obama in 2012. Arizona and North Carolina were also added due to what they might tell us about a shifting electoral landscape – they could emerge as vital new swing states this year.We must caution that the polls – particularly some swing state polls – severely undercounted Trump supporters in 2016. We are not certain, despite assurances, that they they have corrected this. Additionally, they may be over-counting Democratic support (more people may say they will vote for Biden than actually turn out).We present the latest polls with those caveats in mind.default The national pollsThe latest polling average puts Biden ahead of Trump nationally.While the national poll tracker is a poor indicator of how the crucial swing states will sway the election, a strong polling lead across the country can point to how the race will develop.Each day, the Guardian’s national poll tracker takes a 14-day average of national voting intention polls.default On Tuesday 3 November 2020, Americans will vote for their next president, with a choice between Donald Trump, the Republican incumbent, or his Democratic challenger, Joe Biden.default MethodologyThe Guardian poll tracker tracks the latest polls in eight crucial swing states. For Biden to win, he needs to reclaim some of these swing states.The Guardian is collating polls in each of these states, as well as another set of national polls. Polls are assessed for their reliability by looking at factors such as their sample size.Our polling average is a 14-day rolling average: on any day, we collate any polls published in the last 14 days and take a mean average of their results.If any company has conducted multiple polls in the last 14 days, we average out their polling results in order to give them just one entry. After this standardization process, we take a mean average of these daily entries to present the polling average. * This article was amended on 28 October 2020 to clarify that Maine and Nebraska are alone in assigning their electoral college votes in proportion to the popular vote.

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