Special News: November 2020

When armed men broke into their farm in Free State province on Wednesday night, Mark Regal and his wife were already on high alert. Just the day before, their neighbour and fellow farmer Eddie Hills had died in hospital, a week after being stabbed in a robbery in which his father was tied up and shot. Aware that they too could lose more than just their property, Mrs Regal returned fire and killed one of the intruders, police said. But Mr Regal, 50, was overpowered and killed, the seventh farmer to be murdered in the province in six weeks. The spate of killings has inflamed racial tensions in South Africa, with the Free State's white farming community accusing the ANC-ruled government of doing little to help. Trouble first flared with last month's grisly murder of farm mechanic, Brendin Horner, 21, whose body was found tied by a noose to a fence near his cottage. When two suspects appeared in court a week later in the tiny town of Senekal, a white mob stormed the building, attempting to avenge Mr Horner's death on the spot.

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Cuomo threatens Trump with legal action over vaccine distribution plan

NEW YORK — Gov. Andrew Cuomo repeated his threat to sue the Trump administration as he invoked Martin Luther King, Jr. during Sunday remarks about the COVID outbreak at historic Riverside Church in Manhattan. "The Rev. Dr. King, who spoke in this magnificent church, said of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health is the most shocking and the most inhumane because it often results in ...

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Costco will deliver a 12-month long private flight membership to your email — if you pay $17,500

Costco's digital gift card offerings feature Build-A-Bear Workshop tickets, Xbox memberships — and the $17,499.99 "private aviation membership."

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The U.S. Cardinal Crusading Against the Catholic President-Elect

ROME—When then-candidate John F. Kennedy gave his landmark stump speech to the Houston Ministers Conference in September 1960, he stressed that he was “not the Catholic candidate for president.” He insisted instead, “I am the Democratic Party’s candidate for president who happens also to be a Catholic. I do not speak for my church on public matters—and the church does not speak for me.”The Plot to Bring Down Pope FrancisTwo months later, JFK was elected the first Catholic president of the United States amid fears that his presidency would be guided by the Vatican and Pope John XXIII and warnings that he might compromise the separation of church and state—none of which happened. Sixty years later, Joe Biden is the second Catholic ever to win the presidency, and this time the criticism isn't from outside the Catholic Church, but from within, with conservative American Cardinal Raymond Burke leading the charge, painting Biden as an anti-Catholic not fit to lead.In the months leading up to the election, Burke was on a campaign of his own, stumping for the thrice-married incumbent President Trump while pleading that Biden is “not a Catholic in good standing” over his views on abortion and birth control. Burke said Biden should not receive communion at Catholic mass and should not tout his faith. “I don’t understand why Catholics who are involved in politics can’t get this straight in their heads, but they should,” Burke told the Catholic Action for Faith and Family association, for which Burke is a spiritual adviser, in an interview that was run by the popular conservative Catholic website Lifesite. “If someone says, ‘I’m a devout Catholic,’ and at the same time is promoting abortion, it gives the impression to others that it’s acceptable for Catholics to be in favor of abortion. And of course, it’s absolutely not acceptable. Never has been. Never will be.”Biden is not Burke’s only target. He has also condemned Pope Francis for his recent remarks on extending civil rights to same-sex couples. Burke, whose office did not respond to multiple requests for comments, accused Francis last month of inciting “error and confusion with words that do not correspond to the constant teachings of the Church,” when the pope commented in a documentary that he supported legal rights for gays. “To speak of a homosexual union, in the same sense as the conjugal union of the married, is misleading, because there can be no such union.”The pope did not respond directly to Burke’s criticism of himself or the president-elect, but he did call Biden Friday to congratulate him. In a readout of the call, which was confirmed by the Holy See press office, the Biden-Harris transition team said Biden “thanked His Holiness for extending blessings and congratulations and noted his appreciation for His Holiness' leadership in promoting peace, reconciliation, and the common bonds of humanity around the world.” The two then discussed shared interests including “caring for the marginalized and the poor, addressing the crisis of climate change, and welcoming and integrating immigrants and refugees into our communities.”The difference between the pope’s reaction to Trump and Biden could not be more stark with the pope and Trump clashing on a number of occasions. In February 2016, Francis said anyone who wants to build walls is “not Christian” when asked about the southern border wall between the U.S. and Mexico. Francis also criticized Trump’s decision to pull the U.S. out of the Paris climate accord and expressed concern over when Trump undid President Obama’s move to restore trade and travel with Cuba.Steven Millies, associate professor of Public Theology and director of The Bernardin Center, Catholic Theological Union, has studied Catholicism in the American political spectrum for 30 years. He points to other up-and-coming Catholics in the Democratic Party including Julián Castro, Ted Lieu, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as beacons of light. He says the Biden presidency provides a moment of “opportunity to promote the diversity of Catholic social teaching rather than seeing it through the preeminent, singular lens of abortion.”To be clear, Francis is not an advocate of abortion, and it may be this issue that divides the two if Biden takes decisive action to protect women’s reproductive rights, though it is already clear that Francis has more tolerance for Biden than Catholics like Burke.Millies says today’s church under Pope Francis is not the same as it was under Pope John XXIII when the first Catholic president was sworn in six decades ago. “The Catholic Church today is very different from the one to which JFK belonged,” he says. “The church is more diverse, but it is also shrinking rapidly. And, increasingly, the Catholic Church is a body at war with itself. Biden is a different sort of Catholic for this moment.” In short, Biden is a Pope Francis kind of Catholic.Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

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Moldova election could see shift away from Moscow and first female president taking power

Moldovans on Sunday voted in a presidential election that will determine whether the ex-Soviet nation remains allied with Russia or seeks closer ties with the European Union. Exit polls put centre-right, pro-EU candidate Maia Sandu in the lead after she won a surprise victory in the first round vote two weeks ago, forcing Kremlin-backed incumbent Igor Dodon into a run-off. Moscow has been vocal in its support for Mr Dodon, with Russian President Vladimir Putin making a personal appeal to Moldovans last month to return the leader for a second term. The Russian intelligence service has meanwhile accused the US of preparing for a “revolution” in Moldova and backing protests in the event of a Mr Dodon win. The vote comes amid unrest in what Russia traditionally considers its field of influence, with mass demonstrations in Belarus against the Kremlin-allied dictator Alexander Lukashenko, and popular protests bringing down the leadership of Kyrgyzstan. But analysts say the economy and corruption are more likely to influence Moldovan voters’ decisions than geopolitical concerns. Moldova, already one of the poorest countries in Europe, has seen its economy battered by the coronavirus pandemic, following a number of political crises and corruption scandals. Reports of voter fraud have tainted previous elections in the country of 3.5 million, wedged between Romania and Ukraine, and drawn tens of thousands out onto the streets to protest. Ms Sandu, an ex-prime minister who would be Moldova’s first female president, has raised the spectre of fraud again in this election. A former economist for the World Bank, Ms Sandu wants the country to join the European Union and has promised to defend Moldova’s interests against Russia. She is popular among the many Moldovans who have left the country to work abroad, whose support gave her the edge over Mr Dodon in the first round of voting. Mr Dodon and his rival have traded insults throughout the campaign, with the president accusing Ms Sandu of being “hysterical”, and the challenger in turn calling him a “great thief”. They ran against each other in 2016, with Mr Dodon winning in a second round.

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New top story on Hacker News: SpaceX Crew-1 [video]

SpaceX Crew-1 [video]
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New top story on Hacker News: Reflections on my first completed application in OCaml

Reflections on my first completed application in OCaml
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Ex-Obama official suggests Biden should pack as much as he can into executive orders

Former President Barack Obama's chiefs of staff want President-elect Joe Biden to embrace his executive authority once he's in office, NPR reports.Denis McDonough who served in the role during Obama's second term told NPR that President Trump "has demonstrated ... an enormous amount of leeway for the president to institute executive action on things like immigration and energy and climate policy" and "there's no reason" the president-elect "should not use the authority that's available to him."Meanwhile, Obama's first chief of staff, Rahm Emmanuel, argued Biden, despite his fondness for working across the aisle in Congress, should fit as much of his agenda as he can into his executive orders because "the fewer things you have to clog up the legislative pipeline with allows you to concentrate your political capital in that legislative front."Should Biden heed this advice, which seems likely at least when it comes to certain issues, it would dash the already tenuous hopes of those who want the president-elect to initiate a scaling back of the office. Read more at NPR.More stories from theweek.com 7 scathingly funny cartoons about Trump's refusal to concede Trump is reportedly 'very aware' he lost the election but is putting up a fight as 'theater' Texas senator suggests it's too soon to declare Biden the winner because Puerto Rico is still counting votes

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Covid: Dr Fauci urges Americans to keep the faith but warns 200,000 more could die in next four months alone

On Friday, the US experienced a record 177,000 new daily cases, the fourth straight day it set an all-time record

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SpaceX, NASA set for first operational astronaut mission to space

SpaceX's newly designed Crew Dragon capsule, which the crew has dubbed Resilience, was set for liftoff atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 7:27 p.m. Eastern time (0027 GMT on Monday) from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Mission personnel left the launchpad, and the crew access arm - the walkway between the launch tower and rocket - retracted, setting the stage for the spacecraft's launch escape system to be armed and mission teams to start loading the Falcon 9 rocket with fuel. An air leak caused an unexpected drop in capsule pressure less than two hours before launch, NASA officials said.

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Navajo Nation orders new three-week stay-at-home lockdown

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An interactive tool will let you calculate the chance that someone at your Thanksgiving dinner may have COVID-19

Your chance of encountering someone sick varies based on your location in the US and the size of a gathering. This tool calculates that risk.

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Al-Qaida's No. 2, Accused in U.S. Embassy Attacks, Is Secretly Killed in Iran

WASHINGTON -- Al-Qaida's second-highest leader, accused of being one of the masterminds of the deadly 1998 attacks on U.S. embassies in Africa, was killed in Iran three months ago, intelligence officials have confirmed.Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, who went by the nom de guerre Abu Muhammad al-Masri, was gunned down on the streets of Tehran by two assassins on a motorcycle on Aug. 7, the anniversary of the embassy attacks. He was killed along with his daughter, Miriam, the widow of Osama bin Laden's son Hamza bin Laden.The attack was carried out by Israeli operatives at the behest of the United States, according to four of the officials. It is unclear what role if any was played by the United States, which had been tracking the movements of al-Masri and other Qaida operatives in Iran for years.Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York TimesThe killing occurred in such a netherworld of geopolitical intrigue and counterterrorism spycraft that al-Masri's death had been rumored but never confirmed until now. For reasons that are still obscure, al-Qaida has not announced the death of one of its top leaders, Iranian officials covered it up, and no country has publicly claimed responsibility for it.Al-Masri, who was about 58, was one of al-Qaida's founding leaders and was thought to be first in line to lead the organization after its current leader, Ayman al-Zawahri.Long featured on the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorist list, he had been indicted in the United States for crimes related to the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, which killed 224 people and wounded hundreds. The FBI offered a $10 million reward for information leading to his capture, and as of Friday, his picture was still on the Most Wanted list.That he had been living in Iran was surprising, given that Iran and al-Qaida are bitter enemies. Iran, a Shiite Muslim theocracy, and al-Qaida, a Sunni Muslim jihadi group, have fought each other on the battlefields of Iraq and other places.American intelligence officials say that al-Masri had been in Iran's "custody" since 2003, but that he had been living freely in the Pasdaran district of Tehran, an upscale suburb, since at least 2015.Around 9 on a warm summer night, he was driving his white Renault L90 sedan with his daughter near his home when two gunmen on a motorcycle drew up beside him. Five shots were fired from a pistol fitted with a silencer. Four bullets entered the car through the driver's side and a fifth hit a nearby car.As news of the shooting broke, Iran's official news media identified the victims as Habib Daoud, a Lebanese history professor, and his 27-year-old daughter Maryam. The Lebanese news channel MTV and social media accounts affiliated with Iran's Revolutionary Guard reported that Daoud was a member of Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militant organization in Lebanon.It seemed plausible.The killing came amid a summer of frequent explosions in Iran, mounting tensions with the United States, days after an enormous explosion in the port of Beirut and a week before the U.N. Security Council was to consider extending an arms embargo against Iran. There was speculation that the killing may have been a Western provocation intended to elicit a violent Iranian reaction in advance of the Security Council vote.And the targeted killing by two gunmen on a motorcycle fit the modus operandi of previous Israeli assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists. That Israel would kill an official of Hezbollah, which is committed to fighting Israel, also seemed to make sense, except for the fact that Israel had been consciously avoiding killing Hezbollah operatives so as not to provoke a war.In fact, there was no Habib Daoud.Several Lebanese with close ties to Iran said they had not heard of him or his killing. A search of Lebanese news media found no reports of a Lebanese history professor killed in Iran last summer. And an education researcher with access to lists of all history professors in the country said there was no record of a Habib Daoud.One of the intelligence officials said that Habib Daoud was an alias Iranian officials gave al-Masri and the history teaching job was a cover story. In October, the former leader of Egypt's Islamic Jihad, Nabil Naeem, who called al-Masri a longtime friend, told the Saudi news channel Al-Arabiya the same thing.Iran may have had good reason for wanting to hide the fact that it was harboring an avowed enemy, but it was less clear why Iranian officials would have taken in the Qaida leader to begin with.Some terrorism experts suggested that keeping Qaida officials in Tehran might provide some insurance that the group would not conduct operations inside Iran. American counterterrorism officials believe Iran may have allowed them to stay to run operations against the United States, a common adversary.It would not be the first time that Iran had joined forces with Sunni militants, having supported Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Taliban."Iran uses sectarianism as a cudgel when it suits the regime, but is also willing to overlook the Sunni-Shia divide when it suits Iranian interests," said Colin P. Clarke, a counterterrorism analyst at the Soufan Center.Iran has consistently denied housing the Qaida officials. In 2018, the Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi said that because of Iran's long, porous border with Afghanistan, some Qaida members had entered Iran, but they had been detained and returned to their home countries.However, Western intelligence officials said the Qaida leaders had been kept under house arrest by the Iranian government, which then made at least two deals with al-Qaida to free some of them in 2011 and 2015.Although al-Qaida has been overshadowed in recent years by the rise of the Islamic State, it remains resilient and has active affiliates around the globe, a U.N. counterterrorism report issued in July concluded.Iranian officials did not respond to a request for comment for this article. Spokesmen for the Israeli prime minister's office and the Trump administration's National Security Council declined to comment.Al-Masri was a longtime member of al-Qaida's highly secretive management council, along with Saif al-Adl, who was also held in Iran at one point. The pair, along with Hamza bin Laden, who was being groomed to take over the organization, were part of a group of senior Qaida leaders who sought refuge in Iran after the 9/11 attacks on the United States forced them to flee Afghanistan.According to a highly classified document produced by the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center in 2008, al-Masri was the "most experienced and capable operational planner not in U.S. or allied custody." The document described him as the "former chief of training" who "worked closely" with al-Adl.In Iran, al-Masri mentored Hamza bin Laden, according to terrorism experts. Hamza bin Laden later married al-Masri's daughter, Miriam."The marriage of Hamza bin Ladin was not the only dynastic connection Abu Muhammad forged in captivity," Ali Soufan, a former FBI agent and Qaida expert, wrote in a 2019 article for West Point's Combating Terrorism Center.Another of al-Masri's daughters married Abu al-Khayr al-Masri, no relation, a member of the management council. He was allowed to leave Iran in 2015 and was killed by a U.S. drone strike in Syria in 2017. At the time, he was the second-ranking Qaida official after Zawahri.Hamza and other members of the bin Laden family were freed by Iran in 2011 in exchange for an Iranian diplomat abducted in Pakistan. Last year, the White House said Hamza bin Laden had been killed in a counterterrorism operation in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region.Abu Muhammad al-Masri was born in Al Rarbiya district of northern Egypt in 1963. In his youth, according to affidavits filed in lawsuits in the United States, he was a professional soccer player in Egypt's top league. After the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, he joined the jihadi movement that was coalescing to assist the Afghan forces.After the Soviets withdrew 10 years later, Egypt refused to allow al-Masri to return. He remained in Afghanistan where he eventually joined bin Laden in the group that was later to become the founding nucleus of al-Qaida. He was listed by the group as the seventh of its 170 founders.In the early 1990s, he traveled with bin Laden to Khartoum, Sudan, where he began forming military cells. He also went to Somalia to help the militia loyal to Somali warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid. There he trained Somali guerrillas in the use of shoulder-borne rocket launchers against helicopters, training they used in the 1993 battle of Mogadishu to shoot down a pair of U.S. helicopters in what is now known as the Black Hawk Down attack."When al-Qaida began to carry out terrorist activities in the late 1990s, al-Masri was one of the three of bin Laden's closest associates, serving as head of the organization's operations section," said Yoram Schweitzer, head of the Terrorism Project of the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv. "He brought with him know-how and determination and since then was involved in a large part of the organization's operations, with an emphasis on Africa."Shortly after the Mogadishu battle, bin Laden put al-Masri in charge of planning operations against U.S. targets in Africa. Plotting a dramatic, ambitious operation that, like the 9/11 attacks, would command international attention, they decided to attack two relatively well-defended targets in separate countries simultaneously.Shortly after 10:30 a.m. on Aug. 7, 1998, two trucks packed with explosives pulled up in front of the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The blasts incinerated people nearby, blew walls off buildings and shattered glass for blocks around.In 2000, al-Masri became one of the nine members of al-Qaida's governing council and headed the organization's military training.He also continued to oversee Africa operations, according to a former Israeli Intelligence official, and ordered the attack in Mombasa, Kenya, in 2002 that killed 13 Kenyans and three Israeli tourists.By 2003, al-Masri was among several Qaida leaders who fled to Iran which, although hostile to the group, seemed out of American reach."They believed the United States would find it very difficult to act against them there," Schweitzer said. "Also because they believed that the chances of the Iranian regime doing an exchange deal with the Americans that would include their heads were very slim."Al-Masri was one of the few high-ranking members of the organization to survive the American hunt for the perpetrators of 9/11 and other attacks. When he and other Qaida leaders fled to Iran, they were initially kept under house arrest.In 2015, Iran announced a deal with al-Qaida in which it released five of the organization's leaders, including al-Masri, in exchange for an Iranian diplomat who had been abducted in Yemen.Abdullah's footprints faded away, but according to one of the intelligence officials, he continued to live in Tehran, under the protection of the Revolutionary Guards and later the Ministry of Intelligence and Security. He was allowed to travel abroad and did, mainly to Afghanistan, Pakistan and Syria.Some American analysts said al-Masri's death would sever connections between one of the last original Qaida leaders and the current generation of Islamist militants, who have grown up after bin Laden's 2011 death."If true, this further cuts links between old-school al-Qaida and the modern jihad," said Nicholas J. Rasmussen, a former director of the National Counterterrorism Center. "It just further contributes to the fragmentation and decentralization of the al-Qaida movement."--TIMELINE1963Abu Muhammad al-Masri was born in northern Egypt, and grew up to play soccer in Egypt's top professional league. After the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, he joined the jihad movement there.1980sAfter the Soviets withdrew, Egypt refused to allow al-Masri to return. He remained in Afghanistan, and eventually joined Osama bin Laden in a group that was later to become the nucleus of al-Qaida.EARLY 1990sAl-Masri traveled with bin Laden to Khartoum, Sudan, where he began forming military cells. He also went to Somalia, where he helped train the fighters who fought U.S. troops in a battle popularly known as the Black Hawk Down attack.1998Al-Masri was one of the masterminds of the deadly attacks on U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.2000Al-Masri became one of the nine members of al-Qaida's governing council and was put in charge of the organization's military training activities.2002While overseeing African operations, he issued orders for the attacks in Mombasa, Kenya, that killed 15 people, according to a former Israeli Intelligence official.2003After the 9/11 attacks, al-Masri was among several Qaida leaders who fled to Iran. They were initially held under house arrest.2015Iran and al-Qaida announced a deal in which Iran released five of the organization's leaders, including al-Masri, from prison in exchange for an Iranian diplomat who had been abducted in Yemen.2020Al-Masri was secretly assassinated in Tehran at the behest of the U.S., officials said. But no one -- Iran, al-Qaida, the U.S. or Israel -- publicly acknowledged the killing.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company

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Shepherd Bushiri: Preacher flees South Africa ahead of fraud trial

The self-styled prophet says he skipped bail and left South Africa because he had received death threats.

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Washington state governor imposes sweeping restrictions amid COVID-19 surge

The restrictions, most of which will take effect Monday at 11:59 p.m. and last for one month, come as the average daily tally for cases has doubled in the past two weeks, Inslee told a news conference. The spike in cases "...means, unfortunately, the time has come to reinstate restrictions on activities statewide to preserve the public's well-being and to save lives," Inslee said. Indoor gatherings will be prohibited outside one's household and outdoor gatherings will be limited to five people.

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Huge India oil well fire extinguished after five months

A massive oil well fire that raged for more than five months in northeast India has finally been extinguished, officials said Sunday.

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Secret intelligence exists that ‘would cast Trump in very negative light’, warns ex-FBI chief

‘It’s almost incomprehensible to me that he would want that information out,’ says Andrew McCabe

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Top Biden aide says U.S. government must approve transition this week

U.S. President-elect Joe Biden's incoming chief of staff on Sunday said the federal government needs to sign off on transition team efforts this week so that Biden's team can receive national security briefings and address COVID-19. "What we really want to see this week ... is the General Services Administration issue that ascertainment," Ron Klain said on NBC News' "Meet the Press." Trump's tweet acknowledging Biden's win - before later saying he did not concede - had no bearing on the actuality of the election, Klain added.

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Boris Johnson is in self-isolation after a British parliament member he spent 35 minutes with tested positive for COVID-19, reports say

Johnson and Conservative MP Lee Anderson attended a 35-minute last week and were photographed standing side by side, unmasked.

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GOP captures second Democratic US House seat in California

Republican Young Kim defeated U.S. Rep. Gil Cisneros on Friday in a Southern California district, the second GOP candidate to snatch a Democratic-held seat in the state this year. The contest in the 39th Congressional District anchored in Orange County was a rematch from 2018, when Cisneros was one of seven Democrats who claimed GOP-held California districts that year. Kim overcame President Donald Trump’s poor performance in heavily Democratic California, where he got only one-third of the votes.

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New top story on Hacker News: The Treehouse Is De-Plaformed

The Treehouse Is De-Plaformed
13 by chrissnell | 2 comments on Hacker News.

New top story on Hacker News: Bay Area applicants flood program that pays them $10k to leave California

Bay Area applicants flood program that pays them $10k to leave California
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New top story on Hacker News: Show HN: 15FPS to 60FPS, new GPU real-time flow-based method

Show HN: 15FPS to 60FPS, new GPU real-time flow-based method
24 by hzwer | 1 comments on Hacker News.

Saturday, 14 November 2020

A local news anchor in Milwaukee was suspended after he asked why 2020 took Alex Trebek but not Mitch McConnell

"2020 takes Alex Trebek but leaves Mitch McConnell?" Perry, who anchors the 5 and 10 p.m. newscasts wrote. "Just end already."

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Coronavirus concerns may have kept Trump from meeting newly-elected GOP lawmakers in person at White House

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) set up a visit to the White House for newly-elected Republican lawmakers Friday evening, but they didn't get a chance to meet President Trump in person, Politico reports.The president did reportedly send his regards to the newcomers, but the fact that he stayed out of the spotlight raised some eyebrows.> Weird @playbookplus note: "LAST NIGHT, MCCARTHY took the newly elected Republicans to the White House...INTERESTING TO NOTE: President DONALD TRUMP did not come down to meet the group. He did send his well wishes."> > -- Meridith McGraw (@meridithmcgraw) November 14, 2020As it turns out, further reporting revealed Trump probably wasn't standing anyone up, but, in a bit of twist, likely stayed away because the group hadn't been tested for COVID-19 prior to their arrival. > UPDATE to Playbook: MCCARTHY himself didn't go to the W.H. w the new freshmen Republicans -- but his team organized, attended. POTUS didn't go down to say hi, and that could be because the group of newly elected GOP lawmakers was not tested for Covid @ WH, per several sources.> > -- Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) November 14, 2020More stories from theweek.com 7 scathingly funny cartoons about Trump's refusal to concede Trump is reportedly 'very aware' he lost the election but is putting up a fight as 'theater' Texas senator suggests it's too soon to declare Biden the winner because Puerto Rico is still counting votes

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Thousands of Georgians rally in Tbilisi to protest election results

Thousands of protesters rallied in the Georgian capital Tbilisi on Saturday to back opposition calls for a re-run of the Oct. 31 parliamentary election they say was rigged. According to official results, the ruling Georgian Dream party won 48.23% of the vote, with the largest opposition party, the United National Movement (UNM), taking 27.18%. Eight opposition parties including the UNM have said they would boycott parliament.

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Report: Trump asked about plan to subvert Electoral College

President Trump asked his aides about a plan to subvert the Electoral College, the New York Times reported on Thursday.

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New Alabama senator struggles with basic WWII history and says US fought ‘socialism and communism’

It’s not his only recent gaffe about history

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It just got harder for immigrants: the U.S. naturalization test is about to change

U.S. legal permanent residents who apply for citizenship through naturalization on or after Dec. 1, 2020, will face a more challenging test — in which immigrants must prove they can read, write and speak basic English, and have essential knowledge of U.S. history and government.

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Trump trade adviser says White House is 'moving forward under the assumption there will be a 2nd Trump term'

White House Trade Adviser Peter Navarro sees no reality in the very real election of President-elect Joe Biden.In a Friday interview with Fox Business, Navarro once again relayed President Trump and his supporters' refusal to accept the results of last week's election. "We're moving forward here at the White House under the assumption that there will be a second Trump term," Navarro said. He then outlined how the Trump campaign and the White House "seek verifiable ballots" and "an investigation into what are growing numbers of allegations of fraud" in the election, and declared anyone who believes Biden won to be operating under "an immaculate deception."> White House Trade Adviser Peter Navarro: “We’re moving forward here at the White House under the assumption that there will be a second Trump term ... We have, what appears in some sense to be, an immaculate deception." > > (FWIW, there will not be a second Trump term.) pic.twitter.com/qiVfAyZ5G9> > — The Recount (@therecount) November 13, 2020Biden has secured the electoral votes — and then some — he needed to win the 2020 election. His win margin in critical swing states Trump hopes to overturn is far wider than recounts have overturned in the past, and not a single election official across the U.S. found evidence of widespread voter fraud the Trump campaign is alleging.More stories from theweek.com 7 scathingly funny cartoons about Trump's refusal to concede Trump is reportedly 'very aware' he lost the election but is putting up a fight as 'theater' Texas senator suggests it's too soon to declare Biden the winner because Puerto Rico is still counting votes

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In pictures: Diwali celebrations around the world

The festival of light is celebrated with candles and fireworks by Hindus, Sikhs and Jains worldwide.

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New top story on Hacker News: Ask HN: What underestimated technologies will dominate within 5 years?

Ask HN: What underestimated technologies will dominate within 5 years?
9 by panabee | 1 comments on Hacker News.
This chart[1] from anandtech.com plots the impressive performance trajectory of Apple silicon over several years. Of course, no technology is guaranteed to continue improving forever. The sustained performance gains reflect Apple's tremendous dedication and investment in the endeavor. After the A11 chip, though, it became clear there was a non-zero probability that Apple could one day meet or surpass Intel. Which begs the question: what underestimated technologies exist today that could overtake incumbent technologies within 5 years? Put another way: what technologies are in the A11 stage and not yet widely recognized for its potential? [1] https://ift.tt/38Wwir1

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9 by pcbro141 | 2 comments on Hacker News.

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Rep.-elect Marjorie Taylor Greene, supporter of QAnon, denounces House mask requirement

Amid a raging coronavirus pandemic, the incoming Republican freshman said she “proudly told my freshman class that masks are oppressive.”

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Stepmoms say Kamala Harris's embrace of her blended family on the national stage was a long-awaited moment

Stepmothers, who have long been discriminated against, were happy to see Harris' share her family in the spotlight.

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4-year-old boy in Texas loses mom and dad to Covid

"Just this morning he told me that he wishes he had his mom back and he just wanted her back," Raiden Gonzalez's grandmother said. "I just told him that they're now angels watching over us."

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The Wolverine Watchmen plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Whitmer also included a plan to burn down the state Capitol building, officials say

According to the Michigan Attorney General's Office, the group had also considered storming the Capitol to "take hostages" and "execute tyrants."

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Another man charged in 'Sweetie Pie's' murder-for-hire case

James Timothy Norman, who has already been charged, is the uncle of the person killed and both appeared on the show "Welcome to Sweetie Pie's."

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Fauci said the US has 'no appetite' for lockdowns but mask wearing and distancing could be enough, the day after a Biden advisor called for a weeks-long lockdown

Dr. Anthony Fauci told "Good Morning America" that taking steps like mask wearing and social distancing means that a lockdown might not be needed.

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California governor went to party, violated own virus rules

For months, Gov. Gavin Newsom has pleaded with Californians to resist the temptation to socialize with friends and relatives outside their household. Newsom acknowledged Friday he attended a birthday party with a dozen friends on Nov. 6 at the posh French Laundry restaurant in wine country north of San Francisco. Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a professor of public policy communication at the University of Southern California, noted people across the state have been canceling birthday parties, funerals and other important events to abide by the rules.

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