A prominent statistic cited by those concerned about election fraud — that millions of ballots have supposedly gone missing over the last several years — is misleading and exaggerated, the top election official in Washington state said in an interview. “Not everyone chooses to return a ballot,” said Kim Wyman, Washington's secretary of state. As part of his ongoing effort to undermine confidence in the legitimacy of the presidential election, President Trump has referenced conservative media reports that millions of mail-in ballots routinely disappear.
The UK, France, and Germany this week pledged to sanction Russia over the August 20 poisoning of Alexei Navalny, a vocal critic of President Vladimir Putin. The sanctions will target "individuals deemed responsible" and "an entity involved in the Novichok program," France and Germany said. It will likely have no effect in Moscow.
CNN has found another controversial event Amy Coney Barrett didn't inform the Senate about. After her nomination to the Supreme Court, the Senate asked Barrett to list every talk she had given, as well as provide a transcript of the event. But she failed to mention speaking at two events held by right-to-life student groups at the University of Notre Dame, CNN reports.
A senior executive for Chinese communications giant Huawei Technologies has been denied access to most of the documents her lawyers hoped to use to help prevent her extradition to the United States. Canada arrested Meng Wanzhou, the daughter of Huawei's founder and the company's chief financial officer, at Vancouver's airport in late 2018. It says Meng, 48, committed fraud by misleading the HSBC bank about the company's business dealings in Iran.
That has less to do with what Biden has done than with what he has managed to avoid, namely terrifying an already-addled nation with the sense of a West Wing in utter disarray, unwilling to answer simple questions about when the president first learned that he was sick or what the White House Medical Unit is doing to keep others in the building safe. At the moment, Biden is teaching a master class on letting your opponent's candidacy self-destruct,” tweeted David Wasserman of the Cook Political Report, which analyzes congressional races.
One of the Democratic Party's most senior figures has openly criticised the UK's system for approving a Covid-19 vaccine, suggesting that the process for ensuring its safety is not as rigorous as that followed in America. Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic speaker of the House of Representatives - one half of the US Congress - made the unexpected comment during a press conference on Friday. She said that people must be “very careful” about the UK drive to approve a vaccine, suggesting that America's Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had a tougher criteria for screening any vaccine than its equivalent in Britain.
Two British men charged with helping the Islamic State group carry out executions and ransom negotiations for Western hostages pleaded not guilty Friday in a federal court. El Shafee Elsheikh and Alexanda Kotey are identified by authorities as two of four men who were dubbed “the Beatles” by hostages, who took note of their British accents. They were indicted this week in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, on charges including hostage-taking resulting in death and providing material support to terrorists.
Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said Friday during a candidate forum that Black Americans are safe in the state as long as they're conservative. The Republican senator also said he believes in some elements of police reform such as mandating the use of body cameras and de-escalation trainings but sympathized with police officers. Sen. Lindsey Graham said on Friday night young people of color are safe in South Carolina — but only if they are not liberal.
"Right now I'm medication free. I'm not taking any medications as of, you know, probably eight hours ago," Trump said in the interview. He added that he was tested again for the virus but did not disclose the result.
Malaysia's maritime authorities said on Saturday they had detained 60 Chinese nationals and six Chinese-registered fishing vessels they said were trespassing into the Southeast Asian country's waters. Malaysia reported 89 intrusions by Chinese coastguard and navy ships between 2016 and 2019, amid escalating tensions between the United States and China over Beijing's claims to most of the resource-rich South China Sea, which is also a major trade route. The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) said the fishing vessels and crew were detained in an operation off the coast of the southern state of Johor on Friday.
China said it dispatched ships and planes to track the U.S. guided-missile destroyer John S. McCain as it passed near Chinese-held islands in the South China Sea. The People's Liberation Army accused the U.S. warship of trespassing into Chinese territorial waters on Friday near the Paracel Islands — called Xisha by China — during the latest freedom of navigation missions by the U.S. Navy aimed at defying China's vast claims in the strategic waterway. Spokesperson for the PLA's Southern Theater Command Col. Zhang Nandong said Beijing demanded the U.S. end such actions, calling them “blatant navigation hegemony and military provocation” that “seriously violated China's sovereignty and security interests, and gravely jeopardized peace and stability in the South China Sea.”
Elected officials in Massachusetts are demanding an investigation after a Black man was stopped Tuesday by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents while on a run in Boston. Bena Apreala, 29, told WBUR he was running a few miles from his home when two SUVs with tinted windows approached him. At least three men, who Apreala said were white, did not identify themselves as law enforcement, but Apreala noticed an ICE badge, according to WBUR.
A Fox News Media representative told Business Insider that Hill was never paid to appear. Fox News has said it has "no intention of booking" a frequent guest after he tweeted a misogynistic attack on Kamala Harris during the vice-presidential debate, The Daily Beast reported. During Harris' debate with Vice President Mike Pence, Hill wrote: "Kamala Harris comes off as such an insufferable lying bitch.
President Donald Trump hoped to travel to Florida this weekend for his first rally since announcing he had contracted COVID-19 a week ago. Instead, the president found himself addressing about a dozen law enforcement officials in Miami-Dade County by speakerphone Friday, as his team worked to pull together a visit to Florida for next week. “I look forward to seeing you personally,” Trump told the group, gathered on the second floor of a Hialeah police equipment retail outlet to announce an endorsement by the Florida Police Chiefs Association.
The Trump administration on Friday encouraged U.S. schools and colleges to rethink their ties to the Confucius Institute, a program that brings Chinese language classes to America but, according to federal officials, also invites a “malign influence” from China. In letters to universities and state education officials, the State Department and Education Department said the program gives China a foothold on U.S. soil and poses a threat to free speech. Schools are being advised to examine the program's activities and “take action to safeguard your educational environments.
Among their missions was to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer from her vacation home, blow up a bridge, storm the state Capitol and target police, court records show. It was early 2020 when the civil war plot landed on the FBI's radar.
As tumultuous as the three months since the reopening have been, however, public health officials and Disney World's unions say there have been no coronavirus outbreaks among workers or guests. So far, Disney's wide-ranging safety measures appear to be working. We have no issues or concerns with the major theme parks at this point,” said Dr. Raul Pino, director of the Florida Department of Health in Orange County, which includes Disney World.
Six years ago, Colorado Democrats failed to convince enough voters to reject Cory Gardner's bid for the U.S. Senate. Now Gardner, 46, is poised to be one of the votes that places President Donald Trump's nominee Amy Coney Barrett on the Supreme Court just before the election. Gardner has long been considered both one of the nimblest Republican politicians and also one of the most vulnerable.
The Bugatti Chiron Pur Sport is the lightened version of the regular Chiron. It shaves 110 pounds off of the normal Chiron's weight with the use of magnesium wheels and titanium exhaust tips. Only 60 Pur Sports will be made for the worldwide market, each priced starting at $3.6 million.
Philippine forces on Saturday captured a suspected Indonesian would-be suicide bomber who the army believes was involved in a “very imminent” plot to attack a southern town, officials said. Army troops and police arrested Rezky Fantasya Rullie with two Filipino women, who were suspected to be the wives of Abu Sayyaf militants, in a house in southern Jolo town in Sulu province where they found an explosive vest and bomb components, the military's Western Mindanao Command said. The military also announced that Rullie's husband Andi Baso, who is wanted in the Philippines and Indonesia for his alleged involvement in bomb attacks, had been killed in an Aug. 29 clash near Sulu's Patikul town.
A meter reader was attacked by a dog while on duty, which gave her such a strong fear of dogs she couldn't work anymore and fainted at the sight of them, she told the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries. Linda Jordan, 52, of Cathlamet, collected workers' compensation benefits for the next several years for the “dog phobia” she sustained, according to the department. A dog bit Jordan while she was working as a meter reader for the Pacific County Public Utility District in March 2007, according to L&I. She filed an injury claim, which was closed “and then reopened in 2014 when her doctor said she fainted whenever she saw dogs and could not return to work,” the release said.
With coronavirus running through his body in competition with a heavy steroidal dose, President Trump is frustrated that a country where over 210,000 people have died from the virus seems disinterested in the “hoax” of Russiagate. Trump spent part of his week demanding the latest version of his Russia counter-narrative—that the intelligence officials teamed up with Democrats to invent Russian collusion in 2016—be used to prosecute his political enemies. “I say, 'Bill [Barr], we have plenty [of evidence], we don't need any more,” Trump told Maria Bartiromo on Thursday.
Doctor and philanthropist Priscilla Chan said she's proud of how her husband, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, has handled all the challenges that the company has been facing, including fielding criticism ahead of the 2020 presidential election. Facebook has been hit with widespread backlash recently over how political disinformation and conspiracy theories, such as QAnon, spread on the platform. "I am proud of how he's been handling all of this, and I know he is doing his hardest, and I wish others could see that," Chan said in an interview Friday with the "Today" Show.
As Texas flashes signs that November's election could wind up the closest in decades, Republican John Cornyn and Democrat MJ Hegar clashed over the response to the cornavirus pandemic and the confirmation of a Supreme Court justice Friday night in the only scheduled debate of their U.S. Senate race. Cornyn, who has been in the Senate since 2002 and is seeking a fourth term, faces an unusual fight in fast-changing Texas, where shifting suburbs and a booming population have increased the chances of Democrats unseating him. Hegar, an Air Force veteran who narrowly lost a U.S. House race in 2018, is an underdog in a state where Democrats haven't won statewide in 25 years.
Hawaii is going to start providing an alternative to its mandatory quarantine rule next week, but don't pack your swimsuit without knowing the details. Does Hawaii actually want tourists? "I want people to come if they are fully prepared to test, know that they are healthy and are prepared to wear a mask," Lt. Gov. Josh Green, who has taken a leading role in developing the program, told USA TODAY.
“Staggered term limits would ensure that electoral winners shaped the Supreme Court, not the Grim Reaper.”
“Term limits undermine the primary function of the judiciary: preventing political majorities from trampling on others’ rights.”
“It would be one important way we could deescalate the stakes of American politics, and protect the system from total breakdown.”
“It would depoliticize the court and judicial selection, and thus promote the rule of law.”
“There are also transition problems...at some point the complications become more trouble than they’re worth.”