Sioux tribe rejects governor's request to remove checkpoints

"I absolutely agree that we need to work together during this time of crisis, however you continuing to interfere in our efforts to do what science and facts dictate seriously undermine our ability to protect everyone on the reservation," Chairman Harold Frazier said in a statement.

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FOX NEWS: Melinda Gates says White House response to COVID-19 is 'costing lives'

Melinda Gates says White House response to COVID-19 is 'costing lives'



Melinda Gates is not mincing words regarding the Trump administration's response to the coronavirus pandemic -- which as of Monday has killed more than 80,000 Americans.

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Meet the Ohio health expert who has a fan club — and Republicans trying to stop her

Some Buckeyes are not comfortable being told by a "woman in power" to quarantine, one expert said.

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A big question for both parties: How do you stage a convention in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic?

Figuring out how to stage the nation’s largest and most important political gatherings will be tricky in the COVID-19 era. And while officials in both parties say they’re still planning for in-person conventions, pulling that off will be a lot easier said than done. 

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Russian hackers accessed emails from Merkel's constituency office: Der Spiegel

Russia's GRU military intelligence service appears to have got hold of many emails from Chancellor Angela Merkel's constituency office in a 2015 hack attack on Germany's parliament, Der Spiegel magazine reported on Friday, without citing its sources. A spokesman for the German government had no immediate comment. Der Spiegel said federal criminal police and the federal cyber agency had been able to partially reconstruct the attack and found that two email inboxes from Merkel's office had been targeted.

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Was the coronavirus made in a Wuhan lab? Here's what the genetic evidence shows

Despite President Trump's statements that the coronavirus was released from a laboratory in Wuhan, scientist say the evidence points to a natural origin.

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Almost 12,000 meatpacking and food plant workers have reportedly contracted COVID-19. At least 48 have died.

The infections and deaths are spread across roughly two farms and 189 meat and processed food factories.

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US accuses China, Russia of coordinating on virus conspiracies

The United States on Friday accused China and Russia of stepping up cooperation to spread false narratives over the coronavirus pandemic, saying Beijing was increasingly adopting techniques honed by Moscow. "Even before the COVID-19 crisis we assessed a certain level of coordination between Russia and the PRC in the realm of propaganda," said Lea Gabrielle, coordinator of the State Department's Global Engagement Center, which tracks foreign propaganda. The Global Engagement Center earlier said thousands of Russian-linked social media accounts were spreading conspiracies about the pandemic, including charging that the virus first detected last year in the Chinese metropolis of Wuhan was created by the United States.

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New Car Incentives Offered for Healthcare Workers During the Pandemic

Automakers and dealerships across the nation are offering healthcare workers special discounts on car purchases during the coronavirus pandemic. The discount programs might take an extra $500 or ...

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Coronavirus: WHO warns 190,000 could die in Africa in one year

Covid-19 could linger for years and "smoulder in transmission hot spots", the WHO warns.

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Off-duty officer body slams Walmart shopper irate over face mask rule

The officer used a “takedown measure” to gain control of the woman because of “other threat factors in the store,” a police official said.

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Trump calls Ahmaud Arbery killing 'very disturbing' but says he trusts Georgia justice

President Trump said he had watched the video of Ahmaud Arbery being shot and found it “heartbreaking,” but he has confidence in the Georgia legal system.

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China 'shocked' by U.S. reversal on U.N. coronavirus action: diplomat

China and the United States both supported a draft United Nations Security Council resolution confronting the coronavirus pandemic on Thursday and it was "shocking and regretful" that Washington changed its mind on Friday, a Chinese diplomat said. A U.S. diplomat refuted the Chinese comment, saying there was no U.S. agreement on the text. For more than six weeks the 15-member council has been trying to agree on a text that ultimately aims to back a March 23 call by U.N. chief Antonio Guterres for a ceasefire in global conflicts so the world can focus on the pandemic.

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‘Not a Bonafide Counterintelligence Investigation’: Barr Slams Comey’s Handling of Flynn Probe

Attorney General Bill Barr explained that the FBI did not conduct “a bonafide counterintelligence investigation” in the case that led former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn to plead guilty to federal investigators in 2017.Barr, speaking in an exclusive interview with CBS News after the Justice Department dropped its case against Flynn on Thursday, said that his review of the case found Bureau investigators laid “a perjury trap” for Flynn in a January 2017 White House interview.“They didn’t warn him, the way that would usually be required by the Department, they bypassed the Justice Department, they bypassed the protocols at the White House, and so forth,” Barr stated. “These were things that persuaded me that there was not a legitimate counterintelligence investigation.”Former FBI director James Comey admitted in a December 2018 interview that he “sent” the agents to interview Flynn, adding that it was “something I probably wouldn’t have done or maybe gotten away with in a more organized administration.”In its Thursday court filing, the Justice Department explained that it was “not persuaded” that Flynn’s interview, which led to his guilty plea for lying to FBI agents Peter Strzok and Joe Pientka, had proper predication and was materially relevant.Comey tweeted his disappointment, following the decision, saying "the DOJ has lost its way."> The DOJ has lost its way. But, career people: please stay because America needs you. The country is hungry for honest, competent leadership.> > -- James Comey (@Comey) May 7, 2020Barr pointed to recently-released information that showed the FBI moved to close its surveillance of Flynn after finding “no derogatory information” about the retired general’s contacts with Russians, only for Strzok to keep the case open, leading to the eventual interview.“They were closing the investigation, in December [2016], they started that process and on January 4, they were closing it. When they heard about the phone call, which the FBI had the transcripts to — there was no question as to what was discussed, the FBI knew exactly what was discussed — and General Flynn, being the former director of the DIA, said to them, ‘you listen to everything, you know what was said,’” Barr explained.“So there’s no mystery about the call, but they initially tried some theories of how could open another investigation, which didn’t fly, and then they found out that they had not technically closed the earlier investigation, and they kept it open for the expressed purpose of trying to catch — lay a perjury trap — for General Flynn,” he added. A different filing released last week showed handwritten notes from an FBI official that questioned if the goal of Flynn’s White House interview was “to get him to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired.”Barr also did not comment on whether those that sought to entrap Flynn would face criminal charges, pointing to U.S. Attorney John Durham’s probe into the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation and saying his team was “in the middle” of “looking at the whole pattern of conduct.”“I’m going to wait until all the evidence is [in], and I get their recommendations as to what they found and how serious it is. But, if we were to find wrongdoing, in the sense of any criminal act, obviously we would follow through on that,” Barr said. “But again, just because something may even stink to high heaven, and appear to everyone to be bad, we still have to apply the right standard and be convinced that there is a violation of a criminal statute and that we can prove it beyond a reasonable doubt. The same standard applies to everybody.”

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‘Truly Disturbing’: Third NY Child Dies From Rare Syndrome Linked to COVID-19

Three New York children have died from pediatric multi-symptom inflammatory syndrome tied to COVID-19 since the pandemic began, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Saturday.A 7-year-old boy from Westchester County died late last week, the county confirmed on Friday. A 5-year-old boy died earlier in the week from the same syndrome at Mount Sinai Kravis Children’s Hospital in New York City. Cuomo did not give any details about the third New York child on Saturday.“We still have a lot to learn about this virus and every day is another eye-opening situation,” he said, adding that the emergence of the illness was “truly disturbing.”The childhood ailment has affected at least 73 children in New York state and authorities are now looking for other potential cases across the country. Cases have also been reported in Washington, D.C., California, Delaware, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Washington state and New Jersey, where a 4-year-old died with symptoms last month. Is the Key to Beating COVID-19 in Survivors’ Blood?It had been previously been thought that children were less likely to suffer any serious complications from the coronavirus. “We’re not so sure that is the fact anymore,” Cuomo said. Children affected with the COVID-19 virus can become ill with symptoms “similar to the Kawasaki disease or toxic shock-like syndrome that literally causes inflammation in their blood vessels,” he said. It’s possible the syndrome has been “going on for weeks” and hasn’t been diagnosed, he added.New York is working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to develop national criteria for identifying and responding to the illness.Dr. Dial Hewlett, from the Westchester County Department of Health, said at Cuomo’s news conference on Friday that the disease has been most common in households where parents or grandparents tested positive for COVID-19 but the children did not show symptoms initially before becoming seriously ill. “We must emphasize that based on what we know thus far, it appears to be a very rare condition,” Hewlett said.Affected children have had COVID-19 antibodies or have tested positive for COVID-19 but didn’t show typical COVID-19 symptoms, Cuomo said.“This is very serious,” County Executive George Latimer said at the Friday news conference. “The disease can be fatal, and we want to make sure everyone in Westchester County is aware to be on the lookout for symptoms that may lead to this.”The symptoms include a prolonged fever of more than five days and difficulty in feeding for infants or drinking fluids in older children. Severe abdominal pain, diarrhea, or vomiting and a change in skin color—either becoming pale and patchy or blue—is also common in most young patients. Children also exhibit trouble breathing or a racing heart beat in addition to mood changes, lethargy and confusion. Cuomo urged parents to seek medical attention if their children exhibits any symptoms whether they are living in a house with COVID-19 patients or not. “So this is every parent’s nightmare, right?” Cuomo said. “That your child may actually be affected by this virus. But it’s something we have to consider seriously now.”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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Coronavirus pandemic may have started in October, says UK-French study

The Covid-19 pandemic may have started as early as October, according to a new joint study of its genetic make-up by researchers at University College London and the University of Reunion Island. The pathogen wreaking havoc on the world, known scientifically as SARS-CoV-2, is thought to have made the jump from its initial host to humans at some point between October 6 and December 11. The findings – based on analysis of more than 7,000 genome sequence assemblies collected from around the world since January – will be published in a forthcoming edition of scientific journal Infection Genetics and Evolution. Researchers studied the evolution of the mutations since they jumped to humans in order to work back their molecular clocks to a common starting point. Separately, Chinese government information, seen previously by the South China Morning Post, suggests one of the first patients to emerge was a 55-year-old resident of Hubei province on November 17. "Patient zero" has not yet been confirmed.

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Indian migrant deaths: 16 sleeping workers run over by train

The workers fell asleep on the tracks while trying to make their way home during India's lockdown.

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Putin pays a somber tribute to WWII dead as Russian coronavirus cases skyrocket

Cancellation of the ceremony was the second blow to Putin, who was forced to call off a referendum extending his time in power.

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Reopened restaurant tells workers: Don't wear face masks — or don't work

Restaurant workers in a reopened Dallas eatery say they are being asked to weigh their safety against their jobs.

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A person was struck and killed by a Southwest plane as it landed on the runway at Austin international airport

Austin-Bergstrom International Airport said it was "aware of an individual that was struck and killed on runway 17-R by a landing aircraft."

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Gavin Newsom endorses Joe Biden for president during high-dollar fundraiser

Gavin Newsom endorses Joe Biden for president

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Despite lockdown, no letup in Chicago's murder rate

The streets of Chicago may be largely empty as residents hunker down from coronavirus but some of the city's most deprived neighborhoods are still echoing to the sound of deadly gunfire and raucous partying. While significant falls in crime have been one of the few positive side effects of lockdowns in much of the United States and elsewhere, they have barely made a dent in the homicide rate in Chicago, a city that has long recorded the most murders in the country. Chicago police say 56 murders were committed in April despite statewide stay-at-home orders -- only a fraction lower than the 61 for the same month in 2019 -- while last weekend, the first of the new month, four people were killed and 46 others shot and wounded.

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Court halts ban on mass gatherings at Kentucky churches

A federal court halted the Kentucky governor's temporary ban on mass gatherings from applying to in-person religious services, clearing the way for Sunday church services. U.S. District Judge Gregory F. Van Tatenhove on Friday issued a temporary restraining order enjoining Gov. Andy Beshear's administration from enforcing the ban on mass gatherings at “any in-person religious service which adheres to applicable social distancing and hygiene guidelines.”

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Immigrant in ICE custody dies after testing positive for COVID-19

At least 788 immigrants in ICE custody have tested positive for coronavirus across the country.

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Barr says it was 'an easy decision' to drop case against Michael Flynn

Attorney General William Barr on Thursday defended the Justice Department's decision to drop the Michael Flynn case, claiming this "sends the message that there is one standard of justice in this country."In December 2017, Flynn, President Trump's first national security adviser, pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Earlier this year, Flynn's new attorneys asked to have his guilty plea withdrawn, claiming he was pressured into it by the FBI. On Thursday, federal prosecutors filed a motion saying they had determined the FBI's interview of Flynn was "untethered to, and unjustified by, the FBI's counterintelligence investigation."During an interview with CBS News' Catherine Herridge, Barr said the Justice Department had been investigating Flynn's accusation of misconduct by the government, and after finding additional material, he agreed the case should be dismissed. It was "an easy decision" to file the motion, Barr said, and claimed he was not influenced by Trump's numerous tweets about Flynn and never discussed the matter with him.Herridge asked about Flynn admitting in court that his "false statements and omissions impeded and otherwise had a material impact" on the FBI's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. On the question of materiality, Barr responded, "we feel really that a crime cannot be established here because because there was not, in our view, a legitimate investigation going on." There was "nothing wrong" with Flynn's contacts with Kislyak, he said, calling one conversation "laudable."Barr served as attorney general from 1991 to 1993 during the George H.W. Bush administration, and he told Herridge he felt he needed to step back into the role because the country was feeling as if "there were two standards of justice in this country." The Flynn case, he continued, "sends the message that there is one standard of justice in this country. And that's the way it will be. It doesn't matter what political party you're in, or, you know, whether you're rich or poor. We will follow the same standard for everybody."More stories from theweek.com 7 scathing cartoons about America's rush to reopen The U.S. reportedly didn't take up a January offer that would have led to the production of 1.7 million masks per week Outed CIA agent Valerie Plame is running for Congress, and her launch video looks like a spy movie trailer

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White father, son charged with murder in Ahmaud Arbery case

The white father and son stood quietly Friday as the judge read murder and aggravated assault charges against them in the fatal shooting of a black man who was running through their Georgia neighborhood. It was a moment that many in Ahmaud Arbery’s community had waited more than two months for, as a series of prosecutors declined to bring charges against the men. Earlier in the day — on what would have been Arbery’s 26th birthday — a boisterous crowd of several hundred people, most wearing masks to protect against the coronavirus, gathered outside the Glynn County courthouse for about 90 minutes and sang “Happy Birthday” in his honor.

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Rep. Jim Jordan reacts to DOJ dropping case against Flynn: Good day for America and AG Barr

House Intel transcripts show top Obama officials had no ‘empirical evidence’ of Trump-Russia collusion; reaction and analysis from Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan.

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Gypsy moth: US has another bug to worry about after ‘murder hornets’

Washington governor Jay Inslee has issued an emergency warning about a possible infestation of gypsy moths, just days after scientists revealed dangerous Asian hornets had been spotted in the state.Both Asian gypsy moths and Asian-European hybrid gypsy moths pose a threat to Washington, according to the governor.

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People are speaking out in support of Costco after customers threatened to boycott the warehouse chain for requiring shoppers to wear masks

"I totally support your mask policy," a comment on Costco's Facebook said. "It is small minded individuals who don't understand the reason for it."

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Rosenstein ‘Scope’ Memo Confirms Baselessness of Trump–Russia Probe

Finally, three years coming, the Justice Department is showing a little more leg on the Rosenstein “scope” memo -- the directive by which then–deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein defined the parameters of the investigation he’d appointed Special Counsel Robert Mueller to conduct.Of course, the games never end in the Trump–Russia probe, so there’s a hitch. The scope memo remains partially, tantalizingly redacted. Disclosure is limited to Rosenstein’s purported grounds for investigating four members of the Trump presidential campaign: Carter Page, Paul Manafort, George Papadopoulos, and Michael Flynn. But six lines of text, which appear to describe a fifth person, and the supposed basis for investigating that person, remain blacked out.Does this redacted section refer to President Trump? We do not know.We do know that the FBI had opened a criminal investigation of Trump, based on the untenable theory that a president’s firing of the FBI director could amount to obstruction of justice. The last 200 pages of the special counsel’s voluminous report, moreover, demonstrate that the cabal of activist Democrats that Robert Mueller recruited to conduct the investigation tried like hell to make an obstruction case on Trump. But was that aspect of the special counsel’s enterprise licensed by Rosenstein’s scope memo? For some reason, we’re not being told.The scope memo is dated August 2, 2017. It is worth rehearsing why it was necessary.Rosenstein appointed Mueller on May 17, 2017. In doing so, as I explained repeatedly at the time, he failed to comply with federal regulations. The appointment of a special counsel is proper only if there is a factual basis to support a criminal investigation that the Justice Department is too conflicted to conduct. The Russia investigation was not a criminal investigation; it was a counterintelligence investigation. The latter focuses on the activities of foreign powers for information-gathering purposes, not on criminal activity for prosecution purposes.On Trump–Russia, there was no factual basis for a criminal investigation, which is why Rosenstein did not attempt to articulate one in his directive appointing Mueller. Therefore, the question of whether there was a conflict requiring the appointment of a prosecutor from outside DOJ should never have been reached. Even if it had been reached, there was no conflict, which is why the FBI and DOJ had been conducting the Russia investigation for nearly a year before Mueller’s appointment. In any event, because the FBI’s counterintelligence mission is not prosecutor work, it normally does not need a DOJ prosecutor, much less an outside prosecutor.That the initial appointment directive was wholly inadequate is not surprising. In that Week That Was, Rosenstein was evidently an emotional wreck.On May 9, President Trump fired FBI director James Comey, publicly relying on a memo Rosenstein wrote and foolishly assumed he’d reap bipartisan praise over -- he had, after all, scalded Comey over the mishandling of the Hillary Clinton emails caper. To his shock and dismay, Rosenstein was vilified. Though Democrats had no real use for Comey (they blamed him for Clinton’s defeat), by May 2017 they found it expedient to frame Comey’s firing as the height of the president’s “collusion” with Russia -- impeding the FBI’s effort to examine the fever dream of Trump-campaign complicity with the Kremlin. Indeed, the bureau’s then–acting director, Andrew McCabe, leapt at the Comey firing as a rationale for opening an obstruction case on Trump.Rosenstein agitated over being made the fall guy. In his hand-wringing over how to restore his reputation as a scrupulous nonpartisan (i.e., a nominally Republican bureaucrat admired by Democrats), he broached the possibilities of invoking the 25th Amendment to remove a mentally unfit president from office and of covertly recording the president in the Oval Office (if Trump ranted, recordings might convince the cabinet that he was unstable). Realizing that these were lunatic notions, Rosenstein finally settled on naming Mueller, a Beltway eminence, to be a special counsel. The appointment was made on May 17, with Rosenstein’s assurances to congressional Democrats that Mueller would have virtually boundless authority.But the problem remained: There was no factual basis to believe that the Trump campaign, or anyone associated with it, had engaged in a conspiracy with the Kremlin to interfere with the 2016 campaign by cyberespionage or any other criminal activity.The failure of Rosenstein’s order appointing Mueller to specify a proper foundation for a criminal probe was not just a public-perception problem for the Justice Department: It portended legal challenges. If Mueller charged anyone, as it appeared he was poised to do to Manafort (for tax and other crimes unrelated to Trump and Russia), the defense would surely claim that Mueller’s appointment was illegitimate.To paper over this deficiency, Rosenstein issued the scope memo. Up until yesterday, we had been permitted to see only the Manafort-related passages (because, as just adumbrated, they became an issue in Mueller’s prosecution of Manafort). But as I noted at the time, even that glimpse of the memo provided insight into the travesty that was the Mueller appointment, and the Trump–Russia probe itself.The unredacted Manafort section authorized Mueller to investigate whether Manafort “committed a crime by colluding with Russian-government officials with respect to the Russian government’s efforts to interfere with the 2016 election.” Where to begin? First, as we noted more times than I can count, collusion is not a crime. Second, not surprisingly, Rosenstein articulated no factual basis to believe Manafort had “colluded” with Russia. Third, that’s obviously because the “basis” for this allegation was the bogus “Steele dossier.” Fourth, by the time Mueller was appointed, the FBI and the Justice Department well knew that the dossier was Clinton-campaign-sponsored propaganda. FBI agents had not only failed to corroborate its triple-hearsay claims; they also knew that Steele had major credibility problems, and they had interviewed a key Steele “sub-source” who scoffed at his claims as nonsense.Of course, Rosenstein wouldn’t have wanted to bring those inconvenient details up. At the time of the scope memo, he’d only recently authorized the final application for a FISA surveillance warrant against Carter Page -- which relied on the Steele dossier, notwithstanding what the FBI and DOJ already knew about its deep flaws.Speaking of Page, recall that he was never charged with a crime despite the FBI and DOJ’s four representations, under oath to the FISA court, that he was a clandestine agent of Russia working in a “conspiracy of cooperation” between the Trump campaign and Putin’s regime. Yet the now-unredacted portions of the scope memo show that Rosenstein authorized Mueller to investigate Page for “colluding” with Russia. Naturally, the memo does not elaborate on the “basis” for this allegation. Like the “basis” for the FISA warrants, it relied heavily on the Steele dossier.The unredacted scope memo similarly reveals George Papadopoulos as a Mueller prosecution target, over the unsupported allegation that he may have committed the nonexistent crime of “colluding with Russian government officials.” Mueller was authorized to pursue this claim even though we now know the FBI and DOJ knew it was untrue. Because the FBI had used confidential informants to attempt to entrap Papadopoulos into admitting that he and Trump’s campaign were in cahoots with the Kremlin, investigators knew he had vigorously denied it. They also knew that their main tip on Papadopoulos (Alexander Downer, an Australian diplomat with longstanding ties to the Clintons) had not actually claimed that Papadopoulos said the campaign was conspiring with the Russians. In fact, Papadopoulos had not even mentioned DNC emails, the publication of which had “suggested” to the diplomat that there might kinda, sorta be some Trump-campaign wrongdoing involved.And then there is General Flynn. Regarding the Trump–Russia probe, the scope memo shows Rosenstein directed Mueller to investigate whether Flynn committed a crime “by engaging in conversations with Russian government officials during the period of the Trump transition.” Of course, the Justice Department and the FBI already knew there were no such crimes because they had recordings of these communications, between Flynn and Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak.Flynn had not made any commitments to Russia about lifting sanctions, and even if he had done so, it would not have been a crime. The only theory on which these communications were conceivably criminal would have called for application of the Logan Act. As we’ve noted many times, this late-18th-century provision, which purports to criminalize freelance diplomacy by unauthorized officials, is unconstitutional. That is why the Justice Department has not even tried to invoke it since 1852, and why, in the Logan Act’s 221 years on the books, no one has ever been convicted of violating it.Mueller was also authorized to probe whether Flynn had made false statements to FBI agents who questioned him about his Kislyak conversations. By the time of the scope memo, the FBI and DOJ knew that (a) the questioning of Flynn had not been based on any properly predicated investigation; (b) the FBI had willfully violated protocols to conduct an ambush interview, which they would not have been permitted to do had they sought permission from the Justice Department and the White House; (c) the agents who interviewed Flynn did not believe he had lied; and (d) the bureau improperly edited the report of Flynn’s interview. Mueller’s staff nevertheless eventually succeeded in pressuring Flynn to plead guilty to a false-statements charge. It has since been reported, however, that (a) they pressured him to plead by threatening to prosecute his son, (b) Mueller’s commitment not to prosecute Flynn’s son was withheld from the court, in violation of federal law, and (c) prosecutors concealed from Flynn’s defense significant exculpatory evidence while misrepresenting how the interview report was generated.It is worth noting that Rosenstein authorized Mueller to investigate other crimes -- e.g., irregularities regarding payments Manafort received from Ukraine, and whether Papadopoulos and Flynn should have registered with the Justice Department as foreign agents due to work they’d allegedly done for, respectively, Israel and Turkey. Putting aside whether there was a sufficient factual basis for these allegations (over which only Manafort was eventually prosecuted), they had nothing to do with the Trump–Russia probe. That is, there was no conceivable conflict warranting appointment of a special counsel, no reason why the Justice Department could not have investigated these matters in the normal course of business.Mueller, to the contrary, was appointed only because an investigation of President Trump and his campaign could have presented a conflict for the Trump Justice Department. Whether it did depended, of course, on whether there was a real reason to conduct a criminal probe of President Trump, despite the fact that the FBI’s former director, James Comey, told Trump multiple times that he was not under investigation.From the looks of things, then–deputy AG Rosenstein not only had nothing when he appointed a special counsel; he further had abundant reason to know he had nothing. “Democrats are saying mean things about me” is not a legally cognizable basis for naming a prosecutor from outside DOJ. Did Rosenstein have more than that? It doesn’t look that way . . . but maybe all the good stuff is under those six lines that, for some reason, we’re still not allowed to see.

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Neighbor of father and son arrested in Ahmaud Arbery killing is also under investigation

The ongoing investigation of the fatal shooting in Brunswick, Georgia, will also look at a neighbor of suspects Gregory and Travis McMichael who recorded video of the incident, authorities said.

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1996 Court Doc Shows Reade Told Then-Husband about ‘Sexual Harassment’ in Biden’s Office

Newly discovered court documents show that in 1996, Tara Reade told her ex-husband that she was sexually harassed “in U.S. Senator Joe Biden’s office.”Reade’s then-husband Theodore Dronen filed the declaration, which was obtained by the San Louis Obispo Tribune, while contesting a restraining order that Reade had filed against him after he filed for divorce. Dronen explains that Reade told him “on several occasions” about “a problem that she was having at work regarding sexual harassment, in U.S. Senator Joe Biden’s office.”“It was obvious that this event had a very traumatic effect on (Reade), and that she is still sensitive and effected by it today,” Dronen explains, saying that the alleged incident and others described in the document “color [Reade’s] perception and judgment” with respect to the restraining order.Reade’s lawyer, Douglas Wigdor, said the document “is further support that Ms. Reade was sexually assaulted and sexually harassed by then Senator Joe Biden,” although Dronen does not mention that Reade told him it was Biden that had sexually harassed her.Reade’s former neighbor has come forward to state on the record that Reade told her Biden had assaulted her in 1995, two years after the alleged assault occurred. Reade has also identified a woman, who called into a 1993 clip from CNN’s Larry King Live to discuss “problems” her daughter had had with a U.S. senator, as her mother.Dronen also said that Reade had said she “eventually struck a deal with the chief of staff of the Senator’s office and left her position.” Joe Biden’s campaign responded to the new revelation by providing a comment from Ted Kaufman, Biden’s chief of staff in 1993, who denied that Reade ever approached him.“I have consistently said what is the truth here — that she never came to me,” Kaufman said. “I do not remember her, and had she come to me in any of these circumstances, I would remember her. But I do not, because she did not.”Reade, appearing in an exclusive interview with Megyn Kelly, called for Biden to drop out of the 2020 race. “I want to say, you were there, Joe Biden. Please, step forward and be held accountable. You should not be running on character for the president of the United States,” Reade stated.

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Indian migrant deaths: 16 sleeping workers run over by train

The workers fell asleep on the tracks while trying to make their way home during India's lockdown.

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CNN legal analysts say Barr dropping the Flynn case shows 'the fix was in.' Barr says winners write history.

The Justice Department announced Thursday that it is dropping its criminal case against President Trump's first national security adviser Michael Flynn. Flynn twice admitted in court he lied to the FBI about his conversations with Russia's U.S. ambassador, and then cooperated in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. It was an unusual move by the Justice Department, and CNN's legal and political analysts smelled a rat."Attorney General [William] Barr is already being accused of creating a special justice system just for President Trump's friends," and this will only feed that perception, CNN's Jake Tapper suggested. Political correspondent Sara Murray agreed, noting that the prosecutor in the case, Brandon Van Grack, withdrew right before the Justice Department submitted its filing, just like when Barr intervened to request a reduced sentence for Roger Stone.National security correspondent Jim Sciutto laid out several reason why the substance of Flynn's admitted lie was a big deal, and chief legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin was appalled. "It is one of the most incredible legal documents I have read, and certainly something that I never expected to see from the United States Department of Justice," Toobin said. "The idea that the Justice Department would invent an argument -- an argument that the judge in this case has already rejected -- and say that's a basis for dropping a case where a defendant admitted his guilt shows that this is a case where the fix was in."Barr told CBS News' Cathrine Herridge on Thursday that dropping Flynn's case actually "sends the message that there is one standard of justice in this country." Herridge told Barr he would take flak for this, asking: "When history looks back on this decision, how do you think it will be written?" Barr laughed: "Well, history's written by the winners. So it largely depends on who's writing the history." Watch below. More stories from theweek.com Trump says he couldn't have exposed WWII vets to COVID-19 because the wind was blowing the wrong way Trump cryptically tells reporters 'a lot of things' might happen soon following call with Putin Trump reportedly got 'lava level mad' over potential exposure to coronavirus

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88,300 truck drivers lost their jobs in April, and it's the biggest trucking job loss on record

The April jobs report revealed that the US lost a record 20.5 million jobs. Truck drivers saw record losses, too.

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Democrats press Trump for answers on foiled Venezuela raid

Three Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee are demanding answers from the Trump administration about how much it knew about an attempted raid to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, an operation they said potentially violated U.S. law and ran counter to American support for negotiations to end the South American country's political standoff. In a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Attorney General William Barr and Richard Grenell, the acting director of national intelligence, the lawmakers led by Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut expressed “alarm” about the raid led by a former Green Beret and which has resulted in the detention in Venezuela of two American citizens.

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Seattle to close 20 miles of streets for good

The move is intended to get people out of the their cars and on their feet.

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Kuwait imposes 20-day 'total curfew' from May 10 to curb coronavirus

Kuwait will enact a "total curfew" from 4pm (1300 GMT) on Sunday through to May 30 to help to curb the spread of the new coronavirus, its cabinet said in a statement on Friday. During the curfew, public sectors will work remotely and private sector activities, excluding vital ones, will be suspended, the statement said. Essential sectors like health, security, electricity, oil and municipal services, as well as private sector companies providing vital services like maintenance will be exempt from the curfew, interior minister Anas al-Saleh said in a televised news conference later on Friday.

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Sarah Palin visits Dallas salon that stayed open amid lockdown

Palin's visit came a day after Shelley Luther was sentenced to 7 days in jail for refusing to close her business during stay-at-home orders.

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Venezuela orders arrest of 3 in US for role in failed plot

Venezuela’s chief prosecutor ordered the arrest Friday of a former Green Beret and two opposition figures living in the United States for their purported role in a botched operation aimed at removing Nicolás Maduro from power. Tarek William Saab said Venezuela will seek the capture of Jordan Goudreau, a military veteran who has claimed responsibility for the attack, as well as Juan José Rendón and Sergio Vergara, two U.S.-based advisers to opposition leader Juan Guaidó.

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DNA samples lead to arrest in 1987 murder of 17-year-old Ohio girl: 'Great to see justice'

Using DNA to track down 67-year-old James E. Zastawnik, police made an arrest in the 1987 murder of an Ohio girl.

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Woman heartbroken by Smithfield Foods' response to grandfather's death from coronavirus

“I want you to know he died in the hospital alone, isolated, and scared,” she wrote in an Instagram message to Smithfield Foods.

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Should Schiff step down from House Intelligence Committee after release of Russia docs?

Democrat Rep. Adam Schiff is reportedly in 'panic mode' as House transcripts appear to contradict claims on collusion evidence in the Russia probe; Fox News contributor Lisa Boothe and former D.C. Democrat Party Chair Scott Bolden debate.

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U.N. triples coronavirus appeal to $6.7 billion to help poor countries

The United Nations on Thursday more than tripled its appeal to help vulnerable countries combat the spread and destabilizing effects of the coronavirus pandemic, asking for $6.7 billion to help 63 states mainly in Africa and Latin America. While the United States and Europe are in the grip of the outbreak, U.N. aid chief Mark Lowcock warned that the virus was not expected to peak in the world's poorest countries until some point over the next three to six months. The new coronavirus, which causes the respiratory illness COVID-19, has infected some 3.7 million people globally and more than 263,000 have died, according to a Reuters tally.

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Reopened restaurant tells workers: Don't wear face masks — or don't work

Restaurant workers in a reopened Dallas eatery say they are being asked to weigh their safety against their jobs.

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Michael Flynn Confessed. Justice Department Now Says It Doesn’t Care.

It may not be a pardon. But the Justice Department has dropped charges against Donald Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.Retired Army Lt. Gen. Flynn, an important figure in the war on terror who gave Trump’s 2016 run military validation, will avoid prison time after the Justice Department provided a deliverance on Thursday that Flynn had long sought. It is also the second redemption that Trump has provided the general, who served as his first national security adviser for less than a month. “The Government has determined, pursuant to the Principles of Federal Prosecution and based on an extensive review and careful consideration of the circumstances, that continued prosecution of this case would not serve the interests of justice,” wrote Timothy Shea, the interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia and a former senior aide to Attorney General William Barr. Shortly before the filing, lead prosecutor Brandon Von Grack abruptly withdrew from the case.The Justice Department filing, in essence, portrays Flynn as the victim of an FBI frame-up job, and his lies to the FBI as legally marginal. Shea wrote that Flynn’s lies needed to have been “not simply false, but ‘materially’ false with respect to a matter under investigation.” Later in the filing, Shea referred to those lies as “gaps in [Flynn’s] memory,” rather than deliberate falsehoods Flynn conceded. “Even if he told the truth, Mr. Flynn’s statements could not have conceivably ‘influenced’ an investigation that had neither a legitimate counterintelligence nor criminal purpose,” Shea wrote.It was an astonishing turnaround since 2018, when a federal judge said to Flynn in a sentencing hearing, “arguably, you sold your country out.” That judge, Emmet Sullivan, could still decide to reject Shea’s filing and continue with Flynn’ sentencing. Michael Bromwich, a former federal prosecutor and Justice Department inspector general, tweeted that the extraordinary move represented “a pardon by another name” and called it a “black day in DOJ history.”Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said the decision to drop charges was “outrageous” and revealed “a politicized and thoroughly corrupt Department of Justice.” Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) added, “If Barr’s Justice Department will drop charges against someone who twice pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI and who the White House publicly fired for lying to the vice president, there’s nothing it won’t do, no investigation it won’t taint.”Neither Flynn nor his attorney, Sidney Powell, responded immediately to requests for comment.Speaking to reports on Thursday afternoon, Trump said he had no prior knowledge of the Justice Department’s decision. “He was an innocent man,” Trump said, of Flynn. “Now in my book he’s an even greater warrior.”The dropped charges follow a years-long groundswell from Trump’s base, and particularly Fox News, to clear Flynn. His advocates claim that Flynn was set up by the same disreputable FBI figures who they believe persecuted Trump over phantom collusion with Russia.Flynn’s guilty plea, in December, 2017, has been no obstacle to the narrative, particularly since Flynn sought afterwards, unsuccessfully, to withdraw his plea. His sentencing, initially set for February, had also been delayed.Last month, agitation for a Flynn pardon intensified after documents emerged from two of Trump’s most hated ex-FBI figures, counterintelligence official Peter Strzok and attorney Lisa Page, discussing Flynn’s fateful January 2017 interview with the FBI. Page asked when and how to “slip it in” to Flynn that lying to an FBI agent is a crime, something that Flynn’s advocates believed showed the general being railroaded from the start. But veteran FBI agents and prosecutors have pointed out that the FBI is not legally obligated to inform an interview subject that lying to them is illegal. “Michael Flynn was very familiar with the FBI,” said Stephanie Douglas, a former executive assistant director of the FBI’s National Security Branch. “He would certainly have been aware of his obligation to provide candid and truthful information. His claim he was tricked and manipulated doesn’t sound valid to me.” Shea, in his Thursday court filing, suggested the FBI officials were “fishing for falsehoods merely to manufacture jurisdiction over any statement.” In Shea’s view, Flynn’s lies were less germane to the prosecution than the FBI “lack[ing] sufficient basis to sustain its initial counterintelligence investigation,” and its pre-interview position that it ought to close the investigation before speaking with the then national security adviser.Former FBI deputy head Andrew McCabe said on Thursday that the suggestion there was no reason to interview Flynn was “patently false, and ignores the considerable national security risk his contacts raised.” He said Flynn’s lies added to the FBI’s concerns about his relationship with Russia. “Today’s move... is pure politics designed to please the president,” he added.U.S. Attorney Jeff Jensen, who was appointed by Barr to review Flynn’s and other high-profile cases, said on Thursday that he concluded “the proper and just course” was to dismiss the case. “I briefed Attorney General Barr on my findings, advised him on these conclusions, and he agreed,” he said.The FBI Didn’t Frame Michael Flynn. That’s Just Trump’s Excuse for a Prospective Pardon.While serving as national security adviser, Flynn misled FBI interviewers about conversations he had with the then-Russian ambassador, Sergei Kislyak. In one of those late 2016 conversations, according to court filings, Flynn asked the Russians to avoid escalatory actions in response to sanctions and diplomatic expulsions then President Barack Obama enacted as reprisal for Russian electoral interference. Shea, in his filing, called Flynn’s Kislyak calls “entirely appropriate on their face.”The national security adviser’s lies prompted the holdover attorney general, Sally Yates, to warn the White House that Flynn had given the Russians leverage to blackmail him. But it would take weeks before Trump fired Flynn over “an eroding level of trust” concerning misleading Vice President Mike Pence on the Kislyak contacts. By May, Trump was said to have regretted dismissing the general.  Flynn in 2017 agreed to cooperate with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. The general avoided charges for taking $530,000 in unregistered money from interests connected to the Turkish government—something he only declared with the Justice Department after his downfall as national security adviser. During a sentencing hearing in 2018, a federal judge castigated Flynn for disgracing the uniform Flynn wore for three decades. “Arguably, you sold your country out,” Judge Emmet Sullivan said. Two years earlier, on stage at the Republican national convention, Flynn had led a chant of “lock her up” about Hillary Clinton. Protesters outside Flynn’s courtroom did not let the general forget it. Trump’s enduring bond with Flynn is a testament to the importance of the role the general played in 2016.A host of national security officials, many aligned with the Republican Party, rejected Trump in 2016 as unfit to be president owing to his nativism, his penchant for brutality and his benign view of dictators like Russia’s Vladimir Putin. Flynn was the exception. And the general was an exceptional figure. As the intelligence chief for the Joint Special Operations Command during the mid-2000s, Flynn is one of a select few people who can be said to have personally prosecuted the most sensitive missions of the war on terror. Michael Flynn Putting Mueller Deal at Risk in ‘Dangerous’ New TrialIt was a pivotal credential in another way. Flynn emerged from the war on terror endorsing Trump’s view that the security apparatus, abetted by hidebound liberals and cowardly conservatives, had neutered the war on terror by refusing to see it was a civilizational conflict with Islam. “Islam is a political ideology” that “hides behind this notion of being a religion,” Flynn told the Islamophobic group ACT for America shortly after the 2016 convention. His hostility to Islam informed his sanguine view of Russia, which both Flynn and Trump saw as naturally aligned with the U.S. against what they called “Radical Islamic Terror.”It also meant that Trump and Flynn shared a common bureaucratic enemy. James Clapper, then the director of national intelligence, was a lead architect of an intelligence assessment finding Russia intervened in the election on Trump’s behalf. In 2014, Clapper fired Flynn as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency. It was deeply embittering. Just four years earlier, Flynn had been hailed as an innovator after claiming U.S. military intelligence had misunderstood the Afghanistan war. While Flynn portrayed himself as a martyr, victimized by the ‘Deep State’ for daring to warn about radical Islam, Clapper and other intelligence leaders had fallen out with Flynn over what they considered an incompetent management style and an iffy relationship with the truth. Reportedly, Flynn believed Iran was involved in the 2012 assault on a CIA compound in Benghazi that killed four Americans, and claimed incorrectly that Iran was responsible for more American deaths than al-Qaeda. Aides referred to such untruths as “Flynn facts.” Flynn facts did not disturb Trump. They validated his instincts on national security. Trump rewarded Flynn by making him national security adviser, one of the most important positions in the U.S. security apparatus. It was the first time Trump redeemed Flynn. Thursday’s dropped charges represent the second. 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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Trucker charged in serial killings faces scrutiny across US

Investigators from multiple states were looking Thursday into whether a long-haul trucker from Iowa who's implicated in three women's slayings in the 1990s could be responsible for other unsolved homicides. Officers arrested Clark Perry Baldwin, 58, in Waterloo on Wednesday after new DNA evidence allegedly tied him to three women whose bodies were dumped in Wyoming and Tennessee. Detectives with the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation are “looking at any connections” that Baldwin may have to other cold cases, special agent Mike Krapfl said.

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As world shelters, scientists raise alarm on another threat: An active hurricane season

The season officially begins June 1, but some meteorologists who have been tracking ocean and atmospheric dynamics over the past few months say conditions are ripe for storms.

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Israeli Supreme Court: Netanyahu may form government

Israel's Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may form a new government while under indictment for corruption charges, clearing the way for him and his rival-turned-uneasy ally to join together in a controversial power-sharing deal. Netanyahu and his rival-turned-partner, Benny Gantz, said they expected their coalition to be sworn into office next week. After battling to three inconclusive elections over the past year, Netanyahu and Gantz, a former military chief, announced their “emergency” government last month, saying they would put aside their rivalry to steer the country through the coronavirus crisis.

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Venezuela: Two US citizens arrested after beach invasion aimed at capturing Nicolas Maduro, says regime

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on Monday that authorities have captured 13 "terrorists", including two US citizens he described as mercenaries, over allegations that they were involved in a failed plot to invade the country and oust him. In a state television address, Maduro showed what he said were the passports and other identification cards of Airan Berry and Luke Denman, who he described as employees of Silvercorp, a Florida-based company whose owner has claimed responsibility for the invasion attempt. Venezuelan authorities said on Monday that they arrested another eight accused "mercenaries" in a coastal town and showed images on state TV of several unidentified men handcuffed and lying prone in a street. The Venezuelan government said that more than 25,000 troops have been mobilised to hunt for other rebels operating in the country. Diosdado Cabello, the vice-president of the ruling party, posted on his Twitter account a video of a Venezuelan identified as Josnars Adolfo Baduel, who was also detained, and claimed that two US citizens were among those arrested. Mr Baduel is shown responding to a security official who asks him about the Americans captured. Venezuelan state television broadcast the video but did not identify the Americans. But Jordan Goudreau, a Florida-based former Green Beret, said he was working with the two men in a mission launched early Sunday to "liberate" Venezuela.

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