Monday, 31 August 2020

The alt-right group Patriot Prayer, associated with a man killed in the Portland protests, has a history of provoking left-wing groups: 'This was just a matter of time'

The alt-right group Patriot Prayer, associated with a man killed in the Portland protests, has a history of provoking left-wing groups: 'This was just a matter of time'An Anti-Defamation League researcher fears that Aaron Danielson's killing will spur more bloodshed between right- and left-wing groups.




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Worth the wait: Yellowstone’s Giantess Geyser erupts for first time in six years

Worth the wait: Yellowstone’s Giantess Geyser erupts for first time in six yearsGiantess is one of the biggest geysers in the national park, and typically explodes between twice and six times a year In these troubled times there comes a point where we all need to let off steam.For this huge geyser in Yellowstone park, the moment was now and the eruption was spectacular, after a six-year wait.But, for the rest of us, watching this natural phenomenon is strangely meditative and beautifully distracting from much of the bad news around, despite the violent geothermal forces propelling it.Giantess Geyser spouted for the first time in more than six years in Yellowstone National Park, which straddles part of Wyoming and a little of Montana, on 25 August, according to the US National Park Service (NPS).“She” has more typically erupted between twice and six times a year in the past, according to the NPS website, and blasts a spout up to 200ft high.“The surrounding area may shake from underground steam explosions just before the initial water and/or steam eruptions,” the NPS website adds.Giantess is one of the biggest geysers in the park, alongside phenomena such as the super-tall Steamboat geyser, the largest active geyser in the world, and the park’s most famous, Old Faithful, renowned for its punctual regularity as it soars from the ground about 20 times a day.Colorful hot spring features in the park include the blue-hued Morning Glory Pool and the psychedelic Grand Prismatic spring, as well as whiffy, sulfurous bubblers and roiling natural pots of scalding hot water fizzing out of the rocks.The features are among more than 10,000 hot springs and geysers in the park, a Unesco world heritage site.




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Trump's Kenosha visit highlights his reelection message: Only Trump will keep you safe

Trump's Kenosha visit highlights his reelection message: Only Trump will keep you safeWith protests continuing to rage in Kenosha, Wis., over the Aug. 23 police shooting of African-American Jacob Blake, President Trump will travel there Tuesday on a visit to the key swing state that will echo his “law and order” campaign message.




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Soldier who made ‘vile’ Holocaust joke to 3 million TikTok followers punished, Army says

Soldier who made ‘vile’ Holocaust joke to 3 million TikTok followers punished, Army says“He wrote: ‘For legal reasons this is a joke.’ ... Would he look into the eyes of Survivors liberated by @USArmy and tell them this?” the Auschwitz Memorial Museum said in a tweet.




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Ethiopia seeks US clarification on reported aid cut over dam



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'Hero' St. Louis police officer dies after being shot in the head

'Hero' St. Louis police officer dies after being shot in the headA St. Louis police officer died Sunday after being shot in the head by a gunman, authorities said.




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Will my child be sent home for cough, runny nose? What to know about day care guidelines during COVID-19

Will my child be sent home for cough, runny nose? What to know about day care guidelines during COVID-19With flu, cold and allergy season around the corner, experts say a runny nose or cough is almost inevitable at daycare facilities.




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Trump defends supporters accused in deadly clashes

The US president suggests right-wing activists in Wisconsin and Oregon acted in self-defence.

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Child Trust Funds: Teenagers get first chance to access cash

Savings pots could now be worth more than £1,000 but many teenagers are unaware they exist.

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The 1980s 'super recession': When unemployment topped 3m - and kept rising

As the UK copes with being in a recession, how does it compare with the recession in the 1980s?

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Rohingya crisis: Growing up in the world's largest refugee camp

Nayeem, 3, is one of 20,000 children born every year in the camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh.

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Meet Senegal's first female professional surfer

Khadjou Sambe, 25, defied social expectations to ride the Atlantic waves.

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Why this black drive-in cinema is a big hit

Drive-ins are booming, of course. But this one is also responding to the other big story of the year.

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Still ill with coronavirus six months later: 'I have no idea how to get better'

For some people Covid just will not go away – one woman’s Instagram diary of her long-haul illness.

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George Ezra opens up about OCD struggle

The musician says he is plagued by intrusive thoughts, and has suffered from OCD "my whole life".

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Hundreds of migrants still dying in Med five years since 2015

Five years on from the migrant crisis of 2015 hundreds are still dying in the Mediterranean.

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Rival powers jockey for the lead in hypersonic aircraft

The US, China and Russia are pouring money into aircraft that can fly at five times the speed of sound.

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Coronavirus: How teachers are feeling as schools return

Four teachers share their experiences of the pandemic as they prepare to welcome pupils back to school.

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The traditional crafts in danger of dying out

Who was the last British deckle-maker? Who makes withy pots? And what is an orrery?

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Sunday, 30 August 2020

Trump resumes campaign rallies and utters the unthinkable: 'If Biden wins...'

Trump resumes campaign rallies and utters the unthinkable: 'If Biden wins...'One night after accepting the Republican nomination, Donald Trump resumed campaigning for reelection as though the coronavirus pandemic was a thing of the past, rallying hundreds of supporters at New Hampshire airport hangar.




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U.S. military identifies two soldiers killed in Black Hawk training crash



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Fact check: Biden tax plan would raise rates for those who make more than $400K, corporations

Fact check: Biden tax plan would raise rates for those who make more than $400K, corporationsThe claim that families who make $75,000 would see their tax rate double under the Democratic nominee's plan is false.




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Report: New York tenants were not aware they would be featured at the Republican National Convention

Report: New York tenants were not aware they would be featured at the Republican National ConventionThe tenants were interviewed by a HUD official, they said. The RNC was criticized for blurring the lines between the government and partisan politics.




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Trump to visit Wisconsin city on Tuesday where police shot Black man in the back

Trump to visit Wisconsin city on Tuesday where police shot Black man in the backU.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday will visit Kenosha, Wisconsin, the city that has seen unrest since a white police officer shot a Black man in the back, a White House official told reporters on Saturday. Trump will meet law enforcement officials and assess damage in the city where the officer shot Jacob Blake, who is paralyzed from the waist down and remains in hospital, the official said. A 17-year-old boy is being held by authorities in Kenosha on suspicion of shooting three people who were protesting the shooting of Blake.




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SpaceX may attempt 3 rocket launches on Sunday

SpaceX may attempt 3 rocket launches on SundaySpaceX, Elon Musk's aerospace company, has scheduled two back-to-back Falcon 9 launches in Florida, just nine hours apart.




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A teen activist in New Jersey received a $2,500 bill to pay for police presence at a Black Lives Matter protest she organized

A teen activist in New Jersey received a $2,500 bill to pay for police presence at a Black Lives Matter protest she organizedMayor Mario Kranjac of Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, said the bill covered police presence and their overtime hours.




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Saturday, 29 August 2020

Man booked in slaying of 3, including Fort Hood soldier



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Does Kyle Rittenhouse Have a Self-Defense Claim?

Does Kyle Rittenhouse Have a Self-Defense Claim?Kenosha, a city of 100,000 in Wisconsin’s southeastern corner, now confronts the question of when lethal force is justified in two different cases. One, the shooting of Jacob Blake by a police officer, I addressed yesterday. The other is the case of Kyle Rittenhouse, who is alleged to have killed two people and injured one during the civil unrest this week, and who has been charged with first-degree intentional homicide, reckless homicide, and other offenses.Rittenhouse is a 17-year-old from Antioch, Ill., about a half hour’s drive from Kenosha. Inexplicably, this underage police cadet from out of state wound up on the streets after curfew in a place where a riot was likely imminent, doing interviews with journalists and openly carrying an AR-15–style rifle.There can be no question that Rittenhouse and whatever adults were in charge of him made idiotic decisions. Minors should not stand guard at riots play-acting at being cops. But even people who knowingly put themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time are allowed to defend themselves against attack when they get there. So the biggest legal question is: Did Rittenhouse defend himself against attack with an appropriate amount of force, or were the people he shot the ones acting in self-defense by trying to disarm him?The very beginning of the situation is not on video that I am aware, but the complaint against Rittenhouse contains some key details from Richard McGinnis, a Daily Caller reporter who was interviewing Rittenhouse at the time:> McGinnis said that as they were walking south another armed male who appeared to be in his 30s joined them and said he was there to protect the defendant. McGinnis stated that before the defendant reached the parking lot and ran across it, the defendant had moved from the middle of Sheridan Road to the sidewalk and that is when McGinnis saw a male ([Joseph] Rosenbaum) initially try to engage the defendant. McGinnis stated that as the defendant was walking Rosenbaum was trying to get closer to the defendant. When Rosenbaum advanced, the defendant did a “juke” move and started running. McGinnis stated that there were other people that were moving very quickly. McGinnis stated that they were moving towards the defendant. McGinnis said that according to what he saw the defendant was trying to evade these individuals.After that, much of the situation was recorded, and the New York Times has done an excellent job of stitching the videos together. This Twitter thread from a co-author of the piece nicely explains the events and (for those willing to watch graphic footage) provides the key clips:> A teenager faces charges in shootings that left 2 people dead in Kenosha, WI. The @nytimes Visual Investigations team reviewed hours of livestreams to track 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse’s movements during and leading up to the shootings. [THREAD] https://t.co/FRCYlS5wgH> > -- Christiaan Triebert (@trbrtc) August 27, 2020 The first video starts with people already chasing Rittenhouse, one of whom throws something at him. One person even fires a handgun in the air — and another, Rosenbaum, charges at Rittenhouse, who shoots him. After that, there are more shots from an unknown source, and Rittenhouse calls a friend on his phone and leaves.But again he’s pursued, with some protesters urging others to join in, and this time he falls down. Several people move in on him, and he takes shots at three, hitting two. One is holding a handgun and survives a shot to the arm; the other has a skateboard and dies. Again there are additional mysterious gunshots after the fact.Obviously, a big unanswered question right now is how this all really got started. But as we wait for that information, let’s take a gander at the Wisconsin laws at issue.There are two extremes here: justifiable use of deadly force and first-degree intentional homicide. So let’s see what the law says about those two situations, bearing in mind that other charges can apply if Rittenhouse’s behavior fell in between them. (There are plenty of options: Rittenhouse is charged with reckless homicide for the first fatal shooting, first-degree intentional homicide for the second, and attempted first-degree intentional homicide for the nonfatal one, in addition to charges for reckless endangerment and bearing a dangerous weapon as a minor.)Quite typically for a U.S. state, Wisconsin allows civilian use of deadly force when one “reasonably believes that such force is necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm.” One major issue, then, will be whether Rittenhouse reasonably thought that the folks engaging with him meant to inflict serious injury, not just disarm him.But what if Rittenhouse provoked the confrontation to begin with? That’s bad for a claim of self-defense, but it doesn’t preclude one. Here’s another excerpt from the Wisconsin statute books:> (a) A person who engages in unlawful conduct of a type likely to provoke others to attack him or her and thereby does provoke an attack is not entitled to claim the privilege of self-defense against such attack, except when the attack which ensues is of a type causing the person engaging in the unlawful conduct to reasonably believe that he or she is in imminent danger of death or great bodily harm. In such a case, the person engaging in the unlawful conduct is privileged to act in self-defense, but the person is not privileged to resort to the use of force intended or likely to cause death to the person's assailant unless the person reasonably believes he or she has exhausted every other reasonable means to escape from or otherwise avoid death or great bodily harm at the hands of his or her assailant.> > (b) The privilege lost by provocation may be regained if the actor in good faith withdraws from the fight and gives adequate notice thereof to his or her assailant.> > (c) A person who provokes an attack, whether by lawful or unlawful conduct, with intent to use such an attack as an excuse to cause death or great bodily harm to his or her assailant is not entitled to claim the privilege of self-defense.So, even if Rittenhouse bears some responsibility for the initial conflict, he can still argue that he did everything he could to escape the situation and withdraw from the fight. Both shooting incidents began with him running away.Moving to the other extreme, to prove first-degree intentional homicide, prosecutors will have to show that Rittenhouse “cause[d] the death of another human being with intent to kill that person” and will have to disprove the existence of any “mitigating circumstances” the defense asserts. If the prosecution fails at the latter task, the offense is knocked down to the second degree.Mitigating circumstances include “adequate provocation,” meaning the victim did something “sufficient to cause complete lack of self-control in an ordinarily constituted person”; “unnecessary defensive force,” meaning Rittenhouse “believed he . . . was in imminent danger of death or great bodily harm and that the force used was necessary to defend [himself],” even though the belief was unreasonable; and “prevention of felony,” meaning he believed his actions were necessary to stop the “commission of a felony,” even though the belief was unreasonable. In other words, even if Rittenhouse unreasonably thought his actions were necessary, he can get the charge downgraded, though in that case he’ll still have committed a very serious offense.Rittenhouse is already a hero to some and a supervillain to others; in that sense, he is the Bernie Goetz of 2020. The highest charge against him strikes me as a stretch, but beyond that I don’t have any bold opinions yet. The outcome for each shooting will depend on whether Rittenhouse reasonably feared for his life, which in turn might depend on broader context we lack thus far — and even if all three shootings were justified, there are still firearms and reckless-endangerment charges for him to contend with.Where the f*** were this kid’s parents?




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CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta fears attendees of Trump's RNC speech will get COVID-19 and 'may even die'

CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta fears attendees of Trump's RNC speech will get COVID-19 and 'may even die'CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta couldn't be more exasperated by President Trump's decision to speak before a packed crowd at the Republican National Convention, fearing some attendees could die from COVID-19 as a result.Trump on Thursday delivered his acceptance speech at the RNC before a crowd of about 1,500 people who weren't practicing social distancing and few of whom were wearing masks, a fact Gupta sounded the alarm about on Friday morning, expressing deep frustration that such an event took place during the coronavirus pandemic."The history books will be written about this chapter in our lives at some point, and it will show events like that and say that in the middle of a pandemic ... at a time when there were more than 5 million infected, we started having events like that again," Gupta said. "It's really frustrating. It's mind-boggling."Gupta went on to say that this demonstrates that some people still haven't "learned" how dangerous COVID-19 is, and he raised concerns about the coronavirus spread the event may lead to."There will be people who became infected as a result of that event last night," Gupta said. "And there will be people who will spread it, and possibly require hospitalization, may even die as a result of that event last night."CNN's Jim Acosta reports that a senior White House official dismissed concerns about the crowd at the event by declaring, "Everybody is going to catch this thing eventually." But Gupta pushed back against that flippant comment, noting that what COVID-19 "does to the body" long term still isn't clear and warning, "You don't want this virus." > "There will be people who became infected as a result of that event last night, and there'll be people who will spread it and possibly require hospitalization, may even die," @drsanjaygupta says about the large crowd that wasn't socially distanced for Trump's RNC speech. pic.twitter.com/BIU3JBTV0W> > -- CNN (@CNN) August 28, 2020More stories from theweek.com Trump's RNC polling bounce more about 'subtraction on the Biden side,' pollster suggests 5 more scathingly funny cartoons about the Republican National Convention Many uninsured coronavirus patients reportedly don't qualify for Trump's coverage program because of other illnesses




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Six US Air Force B-52 bombers make symbolic sweep over all NATO members

Six US Air Force B-52 bombers make symbolic sweep over all NATO membersThe one-off mission, titled "Allied Sky," is meant to signal the alliance's unity and improve interoperability, say U.S. military officials.




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Australia open to talks over where NZ mosque shooter serves life sentence

Australia open to talks over where NZ mosque shooter serves life sentenceAustralia's prime minister said on Friday he was open to discussions over whether Australian mass killer Brenton Tarrant, jailed for life without parole this week for the New Zealand mosque shootings, should serve his sentence in his home country. Scott Morrison told broadcaster Channel Seven he had not received a formal request from New Zealand for such a transfer, although New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters suggested it after Tarrant was sentenced on Thursday. "We'll have an open discussion and look at the issues around this," Morrison said, adding that the views of the affected families would need to be considered first.




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Dramatic last-second launch abort grounds spy satellite

Dramatic last-second launch abort grounds spy satelliteThe "hot-fire abort" derailed plans for three launches in just two days from Florida's Space Coast.




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Fact check: Jacob Blake did not 'brandish' knife, get gun before Kenosha police shooting

Fact check: Jacob Blake did not 'brandish' knife, get gun before Kenosha police shootingThere was no gun involved. Police did find a knife in the SUV, but authorities haven’t said if Blake held it at some point.




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Riot in Sweden after anti-Muslim Danish leader banned

Riot in Sweden after anti-Muslim Danish leader bannedAt least 10 people were arrested, and several police officers injured, in violence which broke out in southern Sweden after an anti-Muslim Danish politician was blocked from attending a Koran-burning rally, police said Saturday.




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Louisiana avoided Laura's 'wall of water'? Not so, says forecaster

Louisiana avoided Laura's 'wall of water'? Not so, says forecasterThe highest surge hit about 15 miles east of where Laura was forecast to make landfall but it "wobbled" at the last moment. Most U.S. media played up a nine-foot surge recorded by a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration observation station near Cameron, Louisiana, and the NHC was criticized for perhaps raising too much alarm.




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Elon Musk confirmed a Russian national tried to bribe a Tesla employee with $1 million in a bungled ransomware attack

Elon Musk confirmed a Russian national tried to bribe a Tesla employee with $1 million in a bungled ransomware attackThe DOJ accused a Russian national of offering $1 million to an employee to install malware. Elon Musk confirmed the employee worked for Tesla.




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McConnell inexplicably claims that Democrats want to tell Americans 'how many hamburgers you can eat'

McConnell inexplicably claims that Democrats want to tell Americans 'how many hamburgers you can eat'Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) asked Americans to "support Republican Senate candidates across the country and re-elect my friend, President Donald Trump" during the Republican National Convention on Thursday night — including making an ominous (and false) threat that Democrats are prepared to take away your hamburgers if you don't.McConnell has been a bit of a reluctant ally — and even occasional foe — of the president's, even initially announcing he had no plans to talk at the convention before walking the statement back. But speaking from the verdant fields of Kentucky, McConnell stressed the importance of the election for conservative voters. Democrats "want to tell you when you can go to work, when your kid can go to school," McConnell claimed. "They want to tax your job out of existence, and then send you a government check for unemployment."He added that Democrats "want to tell you what kind of car you can drive, what sources of information are credible, and even how many hamburgers you can eat."> 'They want to tell you what kind of car you can drive, what sources of information are credible, and even how many hamburgers you can eat' — Rep. Mitch McConnell thinks he knows what Democrats are all about RNC2020 pic.twitter.com/8FVJvi032X> > — NowThis (@nowthisnews) August 28, 2020While it's not true that Democrats are seeking to regulate hamburgers, CNN's Daniel Dale noted that the claim "may, or may not, be an exaggerated reference to Sen. Kamala Harris's musings about dietary guidelines, which are not mandates."Either way, McConnell's intention was clear: "With two more liberal senators, we cannot undo the damage [Democrats have] done," he said.More stories from theweek.com Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman dies at 43 5 more scathingly funny cartoons about the Republican National Convention Sleepy Donald closes out the RNC




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Iranian man sentenced to nine years in prison for beheading daughter while she slept in 'honour killing'

Iranian man sentenced to nine years in prison for beheading daughter while she slept in 'honour killing'An Iranian has been sentenced to nine years in jail for beheading his teenaged daughter in her sleep, local media reported Friday, adding that the mother wants him executed. The so-called "honour" killing of 14-year-old Romina Ashrafi on May 21 sparked widespread outrage, with media condemning "institutionalised violence" in the Islamic republic. Media said Romina was decapitated at the family home in the village of Talesh in the northern province of Gilan. "Despite the judicial authorities' insistence on a 'special handling' of the case, the verdict has terrified me and my family," Rana Dashti, the mother, told ILNA news agency. "I don't want my husband to return to our village ever again," she said, calling for the verdict to be reviewed and changed to "execution". Having lived with the man for 15 years, Dashti said she now fears for the life of the rest of her family. Ebtekar newspaper said at the time of Romina's killing that Iran's "eye for an eye" retributive justice does not apply to a father who kills his child, for which the customary sentence is jail time and fines. Iran's President Hassan Rouhani has "expressed his regrets" following the girl's killing and called for the speedy passing of several anti-violence bills. Romina had reportedly run away after the father refused to give permission for her to marry a man 15 years her senior. But she was detained by authorities and taken home, despite having pleaded with a judge that she feared for her life if returned. The man she wanted to marry, Bahman Khavari, was sentenced to two years in prison, local media said, without specifying the charge. The legal age of marriage for women in Iran is 13.




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Coronavirus: Life chances at risk if pupils don't return to school, Williamson says

The education secretary has written an open letter to parents insisting that schools are safe.

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One in four BHS stores remain vacant four years after collapse

Department store chain closed its last stores in 2016 but finding new uses is a lengthy process.

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Friday, 28 August 2020

TikTok’s rivals in India struggle to cash in on its ban - TechCrunch

TikTok’s rivals in India struggle to cash in on its ban  TechCrunch

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Apple removes Fortnite developer Epic from App Store

The move is the latest in a row between Apple and Fortnite creator Epic over in-app payments.

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Cloud gaming: Are game streaming services bad for the planet?

Remote streaming services may be the future but could cause a sharp rise in emissions, a study shows.

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Trump’s Voter Fraud ‘Proof’ Turned Out to Be the Real Fraud

Trump’s Voter Fraud ‘Proof’ Turned Out to Be the Real FraudCitizens throughout the nation are counting on using mail ballots to vote in November without placing their lives at risk. President Donald Trump is determined to prevent them from doing so, if they live in heavily Democratic metropolitan areas, that is. Trump claims that allowing widespread mail balloting is an invitation to massive and systematic fraud, saying: “What they're doing is using COVID to steal an election. They're using COVID to defraud the American people.” But when a judge ordered Trump’s campaign to come up with evidence for the president’s fraud claims, the campaign produced absolutely nothing. Still, there’s ample evidence that if Trump gets his way, hundreds of thousands of duly registered voters will not be able to vote, or will have their ballots go uncounted—more than enough to sway the outcome of a close election.On June 29, the Trump campaign filed a lawsuit demanding the voiding of the efforts of Pennsylvania’s state officials to facilitate mail voting during the pandemic, pursuant to a recently enacted law. Among other things, Pennsylvania is allowing the use of ballot drop boxes, so voters can avoid returning ballots through the mails. In light of revelations that Trump’s recently installed Postmaster General (and fundraiser), Louis DeJoy, deliberately engineered new inefficiencies and delays at the Postal Service (particularly in Philadelphia), the need for drop boxes is even more clear. But that’s only made the Trump campaign more determined to prevent their use.  Al Gore: If Trump Refuses to Concede, the Military Would Run Him OutAccording to the Trump campaign’s complaint, Pennsylvania voting officials “have sacrificed the sanctity of in-person voting at the altar of unmonitored and unsecured mail-in voting and have exponentially enhanced the threat that fraudulent or otherwise ineligible ballots will be cast and counted in the upcoming General Election.” Trump’s complaint uses the word “fraud” no fewer than 51 times. Given the centrality of Trump’s fraud claims, on Aug. 13 the Pittsburgh federal judge hearing the case, Nicholas Ranjan (a Trump appointee), ordered the campaign to provide any and all evidence supporting its allegations “concerning potential or actual fraud or voter misconduct,” including “from the use of drop boxes, absentee ballots, or vote-by-mail.” When the Daily Beast asked the Trump campaign for a copy of the materials it produced, the campaign declined to share one. It later became clear why, when the campaign’s interrogatory responses were disclosed. The filings contained virtually no evidence of mail-in or drop-box ballot fraud, let alone fraud of a nature and scale remotely sufficient to change the outcome of a statewide election. Instead, the document contained a grab bag of examples of campaign irregularities, errors and misconduct, many taken from newspaper articles, and none substantiating the massive mail voting fraud claims the campaign made in its complaint. Indeed, the campaign was reduced to making the absurd contention that it does “not need to demonstrate any evidence of fraud to prove” its case, even though the campaign’s complaint was laced with, and grounded on, claims of a grave risk of fraud. Of course, it’s nothing new for Trump and his associates to make claims without evidence. Apart from the president’s now regular rants about “rigging” the upcoming election, Attorney General William Barr has repeatedly contended that “if you have wholesale mail-in voting, it substantially increases the risk of fraud." Barr has even joined Trump in asserting that foreign nations are poised to engage in massive counterfeiting of mail in ballots to sway the outcome of the election. But when asked if he had any evidence whatsoever to support his claims, Barr has repeatedly admitted, most recently before Congress, that he has none, and instead is relying entirely on what he calls "common sense.” A senior official of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence recently contradicted Barr, stating that the intelligence community has no evidence that foreign powers intend to manipulate mail-in ballots. In fact, as election experts have demonstrated, Barr’s claim that mail ballots are a likely source for massive, systematic fraud—let alone a foreign power’s scheme to sway an election—is entirely contrary to common sense. A database maintained by the conservative Heritage Foundation indicates that, over a period of nine years, there were all of 15 cases of voter fraud in the five states that employ universal mail-in voting; furthermore, as election expert Rick Hasen has explained, it would likely require thousands of counterfeit or otherwise fraudulent ballots to sway the outcome of a state’s election, something that would be virtually impossible to carry off.  A senior FBI official similarly recently stated that “[i]t's extraordinarily difficult to change a federal election outcome through [coordinated] fraud alone.”Trump lost a round when the Pennsylvania federal court case was temporarily stayed by the judge hearing it in favor of allowing the Pennsylvania law issues in the case to first be addressed by state courts; but it will likely be revised.  In the meantime, the Trump campaign can be expected to continue to peddle its bogus fraud claims in every court in which it can be heard. But there is now no doubt that the Trump challenges to mail voting are grounded on phantom, and indeed, fantastically fraudulent, claims of fraud. But there’s nothing speculative about the consequences of allowing Trump to get away with his scheme to suppress and limit mail voting. If Trump succeeds, thousands of eligible voters will be prevented from casting their votes, or will complete ballots that are not counted. The Washington Post reported that more than 534,000 mail ballots went uncounted during the recent primaries, many in battleground states, including because signatures were rejected or ballots were received past the deadlines. The vast majority of these ballots were cast by duly registered citizens who had every right to vote. At the end of the day, of course, the Trump campaign has no actual interest in preventing voter fraud; rather, the president wants to make it even more difficult for people who reasonably fear going to crowded polling places in heavily Democratic metropolitan areas from effectively voting by mail, and thereby from voting at all. That is a classic voter disenfranchisement scheme, and it is directly at odds with the principles of democracy.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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