Dem Rep. Tells Hunter Biden’s Business Partner He Will Defend Him against ‘Partisan Hack’ Attack

A Democratic congressman told Hunter Biden’s former business associate, Tony Bobulinski, that he will defend him from attacks calling Bobulinski a "partisan hack" over his decision to go public with claims about the Biden family's foreign business dealings.Democratic Representative Ro Khanna sent an email to Bobulinski, who has donated to Khanna in the past, wishing him well and saying he vouched for him that he has "never been a ‘partisan hack’ in our interactions and have talked about putting country over party," Fox News reported.“Tony, hope you are doing okay. I did give an on the record statement to The NY Times that I know you, you have always acted honorably with me, and you and other family members supported me,” Khanna wrote in his message. “I have told any media outlets that have asked the same thing.”The California Democrat said that he “refused to comment on the details of your allegations because I don’t have personal knowledge about that, but have said I respect your service to our country and that you have never been a ‘partisan hack’ in our interactions and have talked about putting country over party.”In a Fox News interview that was aired Tuesday, Bobulinksi accused Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden of “lying” about whether he was directly involved in his son’s foreign business dealings.The former U.S. Navy lieutenant and corporate investor was the former CEO of SinoHawk Holdings, which he said was a partnership between the CEFC China Energy conglomerate and the Biden family. He was the recipient of a May 13, 2017 email that discussed a plan to have 10 percent in their related joint venture, Oneida Holdings, “held by H for the big guy?” The “big guy” was Joe Biden, and “H” was Hunter, Bobulinski confirmed.Bobulinski said he had several meetings with the former vice president, one on May 2, 2017, according to text messages about the meeting.Bobulinski said he decided to go public with documents and information on the Bidens after Democratic congressman Adam Schiff said on television that this “smear” of Biden “comes from the Kremlin,” a claim Bobulinski called "absolutely disgusting."“I also have made it clear that I do not think you are a Russian agent,” Khanna added in his email to Bobulinski. “I will continue to make that statement to any media that asks.”“I remain appreciative for your past support and your requesting your family members to support,” Khanna said. “After the heat of the election, if you want to, I am happy to chat.”Bobulinski also said he was warned by former partner Rob Walker that going public with his claims against the Bidens would “bury all of us.”“Throughout 2015 and 2016 while Joe was still the sitting vice president of the United States, these guys had been doing extensive work around the world,” Bobulinski said in the Fox News interview, adding that “the only qualification they had was the Biden name.”

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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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Tensions between left and right-wing protesters in Vancouver, Washington, after a Black man was shot dead by police officers in a drugs bust

Kevin E. Peterson Jr, 21, produced a handgun and was shot dead by deputies, said Clark County Sheriff's Office.

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Pennsylvania's small-town Trump defectors: Rare — but possibly decisive

Analysis: In one of the most hotly contested 2020 battlegrounds, some Democrats worry that Trump will win. But it wouldn't take many Trump crossover votes to tip the state to Biden.

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Coronavirus surges are helping flip swing states back for Biden, analysis suggests

The trend mirrors national polling, which shows the president behind by about 8 points

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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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COVID-19 means US Air Force bombers flying around the world are operating in a 'degraded' environment

The ongoing pandemic "means that we can't always stick to the same timelines, the same procedures," Air Force Lt. Col. Michael Middents told Insider.

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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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SBA presses big businesses to justify aid, sparking uproar

The questions posed by the SBA have rattled banks, which issued the loans and would be responsible for delivering the questionnaires to the agency.

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A high school newspaper has exposed how state police quoted Adolf Hitler and advocated violence in a training manual

The training manual quotes from Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf, calling for the "perpetually constant and regular employment of violence."

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The Battlegrounds Within Battlegrounds

By BY KEITH COLLINS, TRIP GABRIEL AND STEPHANIE SAUL from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2TJBvJP

Celebrities lend Biden a hand in turning out the vote in Philadelphia.

By BY NICK CORASANITI from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/3jPB3US

Stanford Study Seeks to Quantify Infections Stemming From Trump Rallies

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

Robot Bores: AI-powered awkward first date

Two chatbots meet and put the world to rights online in battle to see who is most human-like.

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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

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).

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Covid-19: Austria and Portugal announce restrictions

A number of European countries are enforcing new measures as cases continue to rise.

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Oleksandr Usyk beats Derek Chisora on points in stylish display

Oleksandr Usyk earns a unanimous points win over Derek Chisora at Wembley Arena to underline his credentials at heavyweight.

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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 Election 2020: Biden and Trump in last weekend dash round swing states

Joe Biden is in Michigan while Donald Trump arrives in Pennsylvania, both key to the White House race.

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Covid-19: Austria and Portugal announce restrictions

A number of European countries are enforcing new measures as cases continue to rise.

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For transgender people in the military, much hinges on presidential election

Joe Biden has been vague about his plans for the military if he wins the election, but one specific promise he has made is to roll back the Trump administration policy that effectively bars transgender service members from serving openly in accord with their gender identity.

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Police reach breaking point amid protests, pandemic, rising crime

Amid rising crime rates, a polarizing election and the continued high-profile police killings of Black Americans, some police veterans say they can't recall a tougher time to be an officer.

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Macron Declares ‘France Is Under Attack’ after Islamist Terrorist Kills Three Churchgoers

French President Emmanuel Macron declared Thursday that France is "under attack," hours after an Islamic terrorist wielding a knife decapitated a woman and killed two other people at a church in southern France.The attack occurred near the Basilica of Notre-Dame in Nice, a city on France’s southern coast. Two women and a man were killed. At least two of the three victims, including the woman who was reportedly decapitated, were inside the church.“It’s very clear that it is France that is under attack,” Macron said during an address outside the basilica where the attack occurred, calling the incident an "Islamist terrorist attack.”“France will not give up on our values," the French president said.Shortly after the attack, Macron boosted security around the country, increasing the number of soldiers at schools and places of worship from 3,000 to 7,000 troops.The French president also participated in a crisis meeting at the Interior Ministry on Thursday before traveling to Nice in the wake of the attack, which put France on its highest level of alert.Mayor Christian Estrosi said that the suspected knife attacker was shot by police while being detained and was taken to the hospital alive.The “terrorist” shouted “Allahu akbar,” which is Arabic for “God is great,” as police arrested him, the mayor said, adding that, “the meaning of his gesture left no doubt.”The incident was one of three attacks against France on Thursday. A Saudi man was arrested after he attacked a guard with a sharp tool at the French consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, according to Saudi state media. The guard was hospitalized and suffered minor injuries. Meanwhile, an individual in the French city of Avignon wielded a knife and threatened people passing by while shouting “Allahu akbar” until police fatally shot the suspect.Earlier this month, Samuel Paty, a 47-year-old history teacher, was beheaded in a Paris suburb by an 18-year-old Moscow-born Chechen immigrant who was angered by Paty showing caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad to his class.After Paty was killed, Macron vowed to crack down on Islamic extremism in France, promising that “the fear is now going to change sides,” and that “the Islamists cannot be allowed to sleep peacefully in our country.”

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Who is leading key Senate races less than a week from election? Here’s what polls show

With five days to go, here’s how candidates stack up in key U.S. Senate races.

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How to Take On the Tech Barons

By BY THE EDITORIAL BOARD from NYT Opinion https://ift.tt/3ednnlm

A judge orders the Postal Service to take ‘extraordinary measures’ to deliver ballots on time in 22 districts.

By BY LUKE BROADWATER AND HAILEY FUCHS from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2HQCHbo

N.E.H. Funds Restoration of Statues Toppled During Protests

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Trump, in Minnesota, lashes out at Democrats for limiting crowd sizes.

By BY ANNIE KARNI from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/3mEgxIy

Nursing Homes, Racked by the Virus, Face a New Crisis: Isolation

By BY JACK HEALY, DANIELLE IVORY AND SERGE F. KOVALESKI from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2TCEnIb

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

The Papers: 'National lockdown looms' and Stiles tributes

Several of Saturday's papers lead with reports that nationwide restrictions will be introduced.

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Championship leaders Reading beaten at Coventry

Leaders Reading fall to their first Championship defeat of the season as Coventry pick up their first league win in seven attempts.

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Wilson beats Trump to clinch Championship League title

Kyren Wilson claims his first title on English soil after defeating world number one Judd Trump 3-1 in the final of the Championship League in Milton Keynes.

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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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UPS locates mysterious Tucker Carlson package presenter claims contains 'damning' material about Biden family

‘UPS will always focus first on our customers, and will never stop working to solve issues and make things right’

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FBI Investigating Hunter Biden for Money Laundering: Report

The FBI opened an investigation into Hunter Biden and associates in 2019 on suspicion of money laundering, a Justice Department official told Sinclair Broadcasting.The criminal investigation is ongoing, the DOJ official said.The revelation comes after Tony Bobulinski, a former business partner of Hunter Biden, came forward with a trove of documents regarding the Biden family's dealings with now-defunct Chinese energy firm CEFC. While Joe Biden has denied that he has ever spoken with Hunter regarding the latter's overseas business dealings, Bobulinski claims the former vice president is lying.> EXCLUSIVE: Tony Bobulinski tells @WeAreSinclair he was questioned by six @FBI agents, with counsel present, for five hours on October 23, listing him as a "material witness" in an ongoing investigation focused on Hunter Biden and his associates. His cell phones were examined. pic.twitter.com/5lPzRTREJN> > -- James Rosen (@JamesRosenTV) October 29, 2020Additionally, Bobulinski told Sinclair that he was interviewed by FBI agents for five hours last Friday and was listed as a "material witness" for the agency.The interview "was a very cooperative deep dive into all the facts across that time period" during which Bobulinski conducted business with members of the Biden family, Bobulinski said.The New York Post reported earlier this month that it was given materials purportedly from Hunter Biden’s laptop. While a subsequent Fox News report revealed that Hunter Biden’s laptop was subpoenaed by the FBI in connection with a money laundering investigation, the Thursday report by Sinclair marks the first confirmation that Hunter Biden himself is the subject of an ongoing criminal probe.The Biden campaign has not denied the veracity of any of the materials revealed by the Post or Bobulinski. However, the campaign has stated that "Joe Biden has never even considered being involved in business with his family, nor in any overseas business whatsoever."

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US sells oil seized from Iran to Venezuela for $40 million

The United States said Thursday that it had sold Iranian oil seized on its way to Venezuela for more than $40 million.

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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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Popular Thai pro-democracy figure charged over flash mob rally

One of Thailand’s most popular anti-establishment politicians has been charged for his role in an illegal flash mob protest last year, in a move that is likely to fuel the current wave of pro-democracy protests. Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, 41, a charismatic billionaire and founder of the dissolved Future Forward party, is accused of five public assembly violations linked to the rally in Bangkok's central shopping district last December, Krisadung Nutcharat, his lawyer, said on Thursday. The charges include failing to notify police of a public gathering, blocking a sky train station, using a megaphone without permission and holding a rally close to a royal residence. Four other people from his Progressive Movement Group and Move Forward Party face similar charges. All five deny any wrongdoing. Mr Thanathorn has been an outspoken advocate of the protest movement that has gripped the Thai capital, Bangkok, since June, and he recently condemned a short-lived emergency order aimed at keeping demonstrators off the streets. During last year’s elections, he and his pro-democracy Future Forward Party, proved to be enormously popular with young, first-time voters, and garnered the third-largest share of seats.

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Record turnout in Texas' largest county could be crucial to flipping a usually red state

Election officials in Harris County tripled the number of early-voting sites, expanded their hours and added drive-thru voting.

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‘I’m getting my money!’ Florida shopper denied refund returns with a crowbar, cops say

A Florida shopper wouldn’t take no for an answer, and things got a little out of hand.

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Gov. Ron DeSantis had trouble voting because someone had falsely submitted a change of address under his name

Anthony Guevara, 20, was charged with altering a voter registration without consent and unauthorized access of a computer, in connection to the case.

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Op-Ed: The immorality of sentencing a 15-year-old to prison forever

The Supreme Court needs to state again that a child cannot be sentenced to life without parole unless a trial court determines that child is beyond rehabilitation.

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White House coronavirus adviser Dr Birx boycotting Covid task force over misinformation

Dr Birx has travelled to 40 states in a personal bid to advise officials on Covid

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Five Great Things Biden Has Already Done

By BY DAVID BROOKS from NYT Opinion https://ift.tt/34CtOLD

Trump’s Hard-Line Immigration Policies Go Before Voters

By BY ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/34COUcW

Trump and Biden Converge in Florida, an Elusive Prize Still Up for Grabs

By BY KATIE GLUECK AND PATRICIA MAZZEI from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/3jOnh57

A Californian is battling both influenza and Covid-19 in an early case of ‘co-infection.’

By BY JOHN ISMAY from NYT World https://ift.tt/3e7alFW

Appeals court rules Minnesota must segregate ballots received after 8 p.m. on Election Day.

By BY NICK CORASANITI from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/31TWhed

Getting too many texts? Blame the election

Every election campaign uses more sophisticated tech, but the text message still cuts through.

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The Papers: Labour in 'crisis' as Corbyn suspended

The papers cover the fallout from Jeremy Corbyn's suspension from Labour over an anti-Semitism report.

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France attack: Attacker arrived from Tunisia days ago

Three people were stabbed to death in Nice in what France says was an "Islamist terrorist attack".

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For Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google business is booming

Latest sales and profit figures from America's big tech companies exceed Wall Street expectations.

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Teenager dies after Wandsworth double stabbing

Two teenage boys were found with knife injuries following a fight in Wandsworth, south London.

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Scarlett Johansson marries Colin Jost in 'intimate' ceremony

The actor and fiancé Colin Jost announced their wedding through the US charity Meals on Wheels.

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The Papers: Labour in 'crisis' as Corbyn suspended

The papers cover the fallout from Jeremy Corbyn's suspension from Labour over an anti-Semitism report.

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Greenwald resigns from The Intercept over Biden article

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Glenn Greenwald said Thursday he had resigned from The Intercept after the US investigative media outlet refused to publish his article critical of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.

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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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Major train derailment forces schools and businesses to evacuate in Texas community

A video shows the train derailing in front of drivers on a Texas highway.

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USPS admits delivery times are plummeting, says there's no "constitutional right" to timely delivery

USPS data shows that less than 70% of first-class mail arrived on time on Wednesday — and only 42% in Philadelphia

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Walmart is removing guns and ammo from shelves and display cases in all stores as a precaution amid 'civil unrest'

Guns and ammo will no longer be on display at Walmart but still be available for purchase upon request in stores where they are sold.

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'Safer than your local grocery store': How the Pentagon kept the virus at bay as the White House struggled

The contrast between the chaos the pandemic has wreaked on the White House and the limited impact it has had on the health of the 25,000-strong Pentagon workforce, which has rigorously followed CDC guidelines, could not be more pronounced.

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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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Supreme Court issues flurry of last-minute election orders

Wisconsin, no. That’s how the Supreme Court has answered questions in recent days about an extended timeline for receiving and counting ballots in those states. At first blush, the difference in the outcomes at the Supreme Court seems odd because the high court typically takes up issues to harmonize the rules across the country. A big asterisk: These cases are being dealt with on an emergency basis in which the court issues orders that either block or keep in place a lower-court ruling.

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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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Trump retakes Iowa, gains in Florida in last Quinnipiac poll before election

President Trump has received a dose of good polling news days ahead of the election — but it may not be enough to turn the tide.In polls wrapping just a week before Election Day, Democratic nominee Joe Biden has posted no new gains in the swing states of Florida, Iowa, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, a Quinnipiac University survey out Thursday reveals. Meanwhile Trump's support has grown in Florida, Iowa, and Pennsylvania — and enough so in Florida and Iowa to be well in contention of winning.In Florida, Biden has 46 percent to Trump's 42 percent, the poll of likely voters showed. That's a 6-point loss for Biden and a 2-point gain for Trump from Quinnipiac's poll earlier this month, in which Biden posted a massive 11-point lead. Biden also lost 4 points in Iowa as Trump gained 2, enough to give the incumbent a narrow 47-46 lead. Biden meanwhile maintains a solid 51-44 point lead in Pennsylvania and a 48-43 lead in Ohio, where Trump slid 4 points since earlier this month.Analysts say a loss in Florida for Trump will likely cost him the whole election, but Biden has enough support in the Midwest to override a Florida slump. A CNN poll out late Wednesday — its last before election day — gives Biden a 12-point lead over Trump nationally, also a gain of 4 points for Trump from CNN's previous poll.Quinnipiac surveyed between 1,186 to 1,324 likely voters from Oct. 23–27 in each of the states, with margins of error between 2.7 and 2.9 percentage points.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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Hackers breach Trump campaign website, threaten to release 'evidence' of crimes

The Trump campaign's website was briefly hacked late Tuesday, with the culprits posting a typo-riddled message on the site threatening to release "evidence" of the president's "criminal involvement" in a supposed scheme to sway next week's election. The hackers, whose identity was not immediately known, only managed to crack into the Trump website's "about" page. The rest of the website ...

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