Cuomo says state considering indoor dining in NYC, but

Despite progress in New Jersey and other parts of New York, indoor dining in New York City may not happen any time soon, Governor Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio suggested on Monday.

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Hundreds of protesters arrested by Belarusian police as 100,000 rally against Lukashenko

Tens of thousands of opposition supporters marched through the Belarusian capital of Minsk on Sunday calling for an end to strongman Alexander Lukashenko's rule, despite heavily armed police and troops blocking streets and detaining dozens of demonstrators. Protests have now entered a third week since the disputed presidential election on August 9 in which Mr Lukashenko claimed victory, while opposition rival Svetlana Tikhanovskaya said she was the true winner. An AFP journalist and local media estimated that more than 100,000 people came to Sunday's protest, equalling the scale of the rallies on previous weekends, the largest demonstrations the country has seen since independence from the USSR.

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Indiana Congressman introduces bill to ban protest 'thugs' from receiving unemployment aid

U.S. Rep. Jim Banks introduced a bill that would ban people from receiving unemployment aid if convicted of a federal offense related to protests.

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Canada statue of John A Macdonald toppled by activists in Montreal

John A Macdonald was accused of letting famine and disease decimate indigenous Canadian communities.

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Argentina says it reaches deal to avoid debt default

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Patriot Prayer no stranger to protests in Northwest

The man who was fatally shot in Portland, Oregon, as supporters of President Donald Trump skirmished with Black Lives Matter protesters was a supporter of a right-wing group called Patriot Prayer, which doesn't have a big national footprint but is well known in the Pacific Northwest. Patriot Prayer's founder, Joey Gibson, has held pro-Trump rallies repeatedly in Portland and other cities since 2016. The events have drawn counterprotesters from around the region and had heightened tensions in Portland long before Black Lives Matter demonstrators began nearly 100 days of nightly protests over the police killing of George Floyd.

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U.S. Postal Service tells Congress delivery performance has improved

The U.S. Postal Service told Congress on Monday that delivery performance has improved and returned to early July levels after it came under harsh criticism. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy in mid-July made changes that critics said were significantly delaying deliveries. In mid-July, the Postal Service said it emphasized the need to adhere to existing transportation schedules and ensure trucks run on schedule.

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Biden Condemned Violence. Why Won’t Trump?

By BY MICHELLE GOLDBERG from NYT Opinion https://ift.tt/2QNebcp

Trump Defends Kyle Rittenhouse

By BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/3lE5lfl

A Long History of Language That Incites and Demonizes

By BY PETER BAKER from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/31KRbBp

‘We Germans,’ Alexander Starritt by the Author: An Excerpt

By Unknown Author from NYT Books https://ift.tt/2ENgSIq

Unwitting Progressives for Trump

By BY BRET STEPHENS from NYT Opinion https://ift.tt/2QJ2YJY

Facebook Could Block Sharing of News Stories in Australia

By BY DAISUKE WAKABAYASHI AND MIKE ISAAC from NYT Technology https://ift.tt/32KSNdo

Frustrated by Election Boycott, Venezuela’s Leader Pardons 100 Opponents

By BY ANATOLY KURMANAEV from NYT World https://ift.tt/3hYVvCR

A Teacher and Congresswoman Confronts School Reopenings

By BY REID J. EPSTEIN from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/3jxJ29n

Trump Fans Strife as Unrest Roils the U.S.

By BY PETER BAKER AND MAGGIE HABERMAN from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2YQLyQa

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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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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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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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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Prashant Bhushan: India finds an unlikely hero in lawyer-activist

Prashant Bhushan refused to apologise to the Supreme Court and got a symbolic one-rupee fine.

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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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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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1 dead in Portland after Trump supporters, protesters clash

It wasn’t clear if the shooting was linked to fights that broke out as a caravan of about 600 vehicles was confronted by counter-demonstrators in the city’s downtown.

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Portland Shooting Amplifies Tensions in Presidential Race

By BY MIKE BAKER, THOMAS KAPLAN AND SHANE GOLDMACHER from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/32EEtTN

Covid-19 Live Updates: U.S. Cases Pass 6 Million

By Unknown Author from NYT World https://ift.tt/3gHN9hl

Norway bunker partygoers poisoned with carbon monoxide

More than 20 people were hospitalised after attending the party in the Norwegian capital Oslo.

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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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If the police officer who shot Jacob Blake can prove he feared an 'imminent risk of death or great bodily harm,' his shooting could be legally justified

An officer shot Jacob Blake while he had his back turned toward them. If they reasonably feared for their lives, it may be legally justified.

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Hundreds of protesters arrested by Belarusian police as 100,000 rally against Lukashenko

Tens of thousands of opposition supporters marched through the Belarusian capital of Minsk on Sunday calling for an end to strongman Alexander Lukashenko's rule, despite heavily armed police and troops blocking streets and detaining dozens of demonstrators. Protests have now entered a third week since the disputed presidential election on August 9 in which Mr Lukashenko claimed victory, while opposition rival Svetlana Tikhanovskaya said she was the true winner. An AFP journalist and local media estimated that more than 100,000 people came to Sunday's protest, equalling the scale of the rallies on previous weekends, the largest demonstrations the country has seen since independence from the USSR.

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State report shows hundreds test positive for COVID-19 at Florida schools in August

The Florida Department of Health accidentally released a report on COVID-19 outbreaks at schools across the state — from daycare centers to colleges — and found that nearly 900 students and staffers had tested positive during a two-week period in August as schools had just begun or readied to reopen.

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Hour by hour: Hurricane Laura raged outside my front door. I hunkered down for the night.

At night, you can't see tornadoes coming. You can't see how far the trees bend. You can't sleep because of the sounds of the storm.

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

The 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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The real threats to American law and order are Trump's craven enablers

The president railed against ‘violent anarchists, agitators and criminals’ but he surrounds himself with lawless lackeysOne week ago, Rusten Sheskey, a seven-year veteran of the Kenosha, Wisconsin, police department, fired at least seven shots at the back of a Black man named Jacob Blake as he opened his car door, leaving the 29-year-old father of five probably paralyzed from the waist down.After protests erupted, self-appointed armed militia or vigilante-type individuals rushed to Kenosha, including Kyle Rittenhouse, a white 17-year-old who traveled there and then, appearing on the streets with an AR-15 assault rifle, allegedly killed two people and wounded a third.This is pure gold for a president without a plan, a party without a platform, and a cult without a purpose other than the abject worship of Donald J Trump.To be re-elected Trump knows he has to distract the nation from the coronavirus pandemic that he has flagrantly failed to control – leaving more than 180,000 Americans dead, tens of millions jobless and at least 30 million reportedly hungry.So he’s counting on the reliable Republican dog-whistle. “Your vote,” Trump said in his speech closing the Republican convention Thursday night, “will decide whether we protect law-abiding Americans, or whether we give free rein to violent anarchists, agitators and criminals who threaten our citizens.”“We will have law and order on the streets of this country,” Vice-President Mike Pence declared the previous evening, warning “you won’t be safe in Joe Biden’s America.”Neither Trump nor Pence mentioned the real threats to law and order in America today, such as gun-toting agitators like Rittenhouse, who, perhaps not coincidentally, occupied a front-row seat at a Trump rally in Des Moines in January.Pence lamented the death of federal officer Dave Patrick Underwood, “shot and killed during the riots in Oakland, California”, earlier this year, implying he was killed by protesters. In fact, Underwood was shot and killed by an adherent of the boogaloo boys, an online extremist movement that’s trying to ignite a race war.Such groups have found encouragement in a president who sees “very fine people” supporting white supremacy.The threat also comes from conspiracy theorists like Marjorie Taylor Greene, the recently nominated Republican candidate for Georgia’s 14th congressional district and promoter of QAnon, whose adherents believe Trump is battling a cabal of “deep state” saboteurs who worship Satan and traffic children for sex. Trump has praised Greene as a “future Republican star” and claimed that QAnon followers “love our country”.And from people like Mary Ann Mendoza, a member of Trump’s campaign advisory board, who was scheduled to speak at the Republican convention until she retweeted an antisemitic rant about a supposed Jewish plan to enslave the world’s peoples and steal their land.> Since Trump promised he would hire 'the best people', 14 Trump aides, donors and advisers have been indicted or imprisonedClearly the threat also comes from hotheaded, often racist police officers who fire bullets into the backs of Black men and women or kneel on their necks so they can’t breathe. Needless to say, there was little mention at the Republican convention of Jacob Blake, and none of George Floyd or Breonna Taylor.And the threat comes from Trump’s own lackeys who have brazenly broken laws to help him attain and keep power. Since Trump promised he would only hire “the best people”, 14 Trump aides, donors and advisers have been indicted or imprisoned.Trump’s personal lawyer Rudolph W Giuliani – who ranted at the Republican convention about rioting and looting in cities with Democratic mayors – has repeatedly met with the pro-Russia Ukrainian parliamentarian Andriy Derkach, whom American intelligence has determined is “spreading claims about corruption … to undermine former Vice President Biden’s candidacy and the Democratic Party”.In addition, federal prosecutors are investigating Giuliani’s business dealings in Ukraine with two men arrested in an alleged campaign finance scheme.Trump’s new postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, who had been a major Trump campaign donor before taking over the post office, is being sued by six states and the District of Columbia for allegedly seeking to “undermine” the postal service as millions of Americans plan to vote by mail during the pandemic.Not to forget the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, who spoke to the Republican convention while on an official trip to the Middle East, in apparent violation of the Hatch Act, which prohibits officials of the executive branch other than the president and vice-president from engaging in partisan politics.You want the real threat to American law and order? It’s found in these Trump enablers and bottom-dwellers. They are the inevitable excrescence of Trump’s above-the-law, race-baiting, me-first presidency. It is from the likes of them that the rest of America is in serious need of protection.

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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

Mayor Mario Kranjac of Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, said the bill covered police presence and their overtime hours.

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Protests erupt at Portland police building, mayor's condo

Fires set outside a police union building that's a frequent site for protests in Portland, Oregon, prompted police to declare a riot early Saturday and detain several demonstrators. An accelerant was used to ignite a mattress and other debris that was laid against the door of the Portland Police Association building, police said in a statement. As officers approached to move demonstrators away from the building and extinguish the fire, objects including rocks were thrown at them, police said.

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Kate Bedingfield on Biden's plans to return to campaign trail, civil unrest's impact on race for White House

Biden deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfield joins Chris Wallace with insight on 'Fox News Sunday.'

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

The 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, Vicar of Fear and Violence

By BY CHARLES M. BLOW from NYT Opinion https://ift.tt/3bbyA4D

Jon Rahm Sinks a Big Putt to Win Playoff at the BMW Championship

By BY ASSOCIATED PRESS from NYT Sports https://ift.tt/31Iok0E

Stories of 2020: Five Lives Caught in a Year of Upheaval and Pain

By BY PETER BAKER, JOHN BRANCH, JOHN ELIGON, REID J. EPSTEIN, DAN LEVIN AND MARC STEIN from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/3gJPdVW

Mauritius oil spill: 'We want to protect our island'

Young locals are helping to prevent environmental damage after an oil leak from a ship that ran aground.

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Europe's migrant crisis: The year that changed a continent

More than a million people arrived in Europe in 2015. Five years on, we reflect on what's changed.

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The search engine boss who wants to help us all plant trees

Christian Kroll is the boss of Ecosia, which donates 80% of its profits to tree-planting projects.

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Letter from Africa: Why Kenyans are no longer cheering their constitution

It is a time of reflection 10 years after the country was promised a rebirth, writes Waihiga Mwaura.

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Belarus protest: Dozens arrested at mass rally

The country's been gripped by mass protests since the August election, widely thought to have been rigged.

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A Democratic turf war is raging — even as progressives try to elect Biden

Off-the-radar battles between moderates and progressives have broken out over health care, police reform and primary challenges.

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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 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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If the police officer who shot Jacob Blake can prove he feared an 'imminent risk of death or great bodily harm,' his shooting could be legally justified

An officer shot Jacob Blake while he had his back turned toward them. If they reasonably feared for their lives, it may be legally justified.

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Hurricane Laura was the latest storm to strengthen fast, but is rapid intensification really becoming more common?

Hurricane Laura blew up quickly as it headed for the Louisiana coast, intensifying from a tropical storm to a major hurricane in less than 24 hours. By the time it made it landfall, it was a powerful Category 4 hurricane with 150 mile-per-hour winds.The Atlantic has seen several hurricanes rapidly intensify like this in recent years. In 2018, Hurricane Michael unexpectedly jumped from Category 2 to Category 5 in the span of a day before hitting the Florida Panhandle. Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria in 2017 also met the definition of rapid intensification: an increase of at least 35 miles per hour in a 24-hour period. Based on preliminary reports from the National Hurricane Center, Laura gained 65 mph in one 24-hour period and, more impressively, added 80 mph from Aug. 25 to Aug. 27.But do all these fast-growing, powerful storms in recent years mean rapid intensification is becoming more common?With information about hurricanes coming through social media and phone apps, that’s a question hurricane scientists like myself are hearing a lot. It’s useful to consider a few things: the history of U.S. hurricanes, why the Atlantic is currently so active, and the ingredients that allow storms to strengthen so quickly. What makes storms blow up?Just as a pastry chef needs all the ingredients to successfully make a cake, storms like Laura need favorable conditions to be able to form and rapidly intensify. Three key ingredients help a hurricane rapidly intensify: * Warm ocean waters. Hurricanes draw energy from warm surface water, particularly when it’s at least 80 degrees Fahrenheit or warmer. * Ample moisture, or water content in the atmosphere, to maintain clouds. * Low vertical wind shear. This is a measure of how the wind changes speed and direction with height in the atmosphere. High wind shear will disrupt the clouds, making it hard for the storm to stay together.When all of these ingredients are present, vigorous thunderstorms can form and organize, allowing a robust eyewall to develop. Large-scale changes in ocean temperature, like the El Niño–Southern Oscillation and the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation, can also have an impact on hurricane activity.Because these ingredients change, the Atlantic hurricane season varies year to year. This year, as the seasonal forecasts created by Colorado State University and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration warned, the ingredients are favorable for an active season with more major hurricanes. A review of storms from 1981 to 2012 found that 70% of major Atlantic hurricanes – those reaching Category 3 or higher – had gone through rapid intensification. Why don’t all storms grow this quickly?Just having the right water temperature and moisture won’t ensure that storms will undergo rapid intensification or become major hurricanes. We saw that with Hurricane Marco. It swept through the Gulf of Mexico just ahead of Hurricane Laura but weakened to a tropical storm before landfall.A big difference was the wind shear. The thunderstorms powering Marco’s core struggled to stay connected to its circulation as high wind shear in the Gulf of Mexico stripped them away.When then-Tropical Storm Laura passed over Cuba into the Gulf, the high wind shear conditions had receded, leaving nothing but a favorable environment for Laura to develop catastrophic winds and a dangerous storm surge. As with ice skaters who pull their arms in during a spin to rotate faster, the thunderstorms of Laura’s eyewall pulled in the atmosphere around the storm, causing the winds to accelerate into a high-end Category 4 storm. While there are additional complexities to this process, a theoretical framework for intensification that I further developed with colleauges highlights how the location of eyewall thunderstorms relative to the storm’s maximum winds triggers rapid intensification. This theory has been supported by eyewall observations collected during “hurricane hunter” flights. So, are these events becoming more common?This is a challenging question and an active topic of research. Because rapidly intensifying hurricanes are fairly rare, there isn’t enough information yet to say if rapid intensification is happening more often. The hurricane research community has consistent, reliable observations of storm intensity only since the start of the satellite era and routine storm-penetrating “hurricane hunter” flights since the 1970s.We have seen more rapid intensification events in recent years, and some scientists have concluded that the warming climate is likely playing a role. However, we’ve also had more active hurricane seasons in those years, and more work needs to be done in this area to understand global trends, such as why hurricanes are crossing ocean basins more slowly. To try to answer this puzzle, hurricane researchers are using historical records to help refine mathematical theories and computer simulations of storms to better understand rapid intensification. The new knowledge will continue to improve forecast guidance and lead to a better understanding of how hurricanes will change in an evolving climate system.[Deep knowledge, daily. Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter.]This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.Read more: * A burning chemical plant may be just the tip of Hurricane Laura’s damage in this area of oil fields and industry * Hurricanes can cause enormous damage inland, but emergency plans focus on coastsChris Slocum receives funding from and is employed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

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

The 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'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

The "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

There 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

At 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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Prominent lawyer in Haiti is shot and killed at his home

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

The 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'

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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First confirmed case of COVID-19 reinfection is ‘not surprising,’ doctors say

Researchers in Hong Kong confirmed the first known case of coronavirus reinfection, but many doctors and public health officials say it isn't that surprising given what we know about waning immunity from other coronaviruses.

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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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‘It Was Challenging’: Bucks Return, Balancing Basketball and Activism

By BY MARC STEIN from NYT Sports https://ift.tt/31GQF7a

Coronavirus Around the World

By Unknown Author from NYT Home Page https://ift.tt/3hHLF8b

New top story on Hacker News: Why does the government let a company like Herbalife stay in business?

Why does the government let a company like Herbalife stay in business?
24 by xoxoy | <9 comments on Hacker News.

Searching for the lost dogs of the Beirut blast

Many pets ran away after a massive explosion in Beirut, leaving Leila Molana-Allen pining for a missing puppy.

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'They wanted to drown me at birth - now I'm a poet'

Kuli Kohli has always used writing as a means of escape from the prejudice she has experienced as an Asian woman with cerebral palsy.

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Begum Rokeya: The forgotten 19th Century feminist

Begum Rokeya was a writer, educationalist and reformer who tirelessly fought for women's rights.

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Algeria's lessons from The Plague in the age of coronavirus

Finding parallels between the famous novel and how Algeria is coping with coronavirus amid political upheaval.

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Migrant rescue: Dozens evacuated from overloaded Banksy ship

The Louise Michel had sought help saying it had rescued so many people it was unable to move safely.

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ICYMI: Aquarium art and crop portraits

Plus a newborn puma and pioneering women statues in our round-up of stories you may have missed this week.

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March on Washington 2020: Protesters Hope to Rekindle Spirit of 1963

By Michael Wines and Aishvarya Kavi from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2YZ5z7p

N.Y.C. Tenants Say They Were Tricked Into Appearing in R.N.C. Video

By Matthew Haag from NYT New York https://ift.tt/3gBm0MP

Amazon fires: Are they worse this year than before?

Blazes are continuing to rage in the Amazon rainforest, despite the Brazilian president's fire ban.

from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/31FfZuC

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.

from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/2EN8etf

Week in pictures: 22-28 August 2020

A selection of remarkable images taken around the world this week.

from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/2EC3ZB5

Bihar: Destroyed lives and submerged homes in flood-hit India

Homes and livelihoods have been swept away by monsoon rains in India's Bihar state.

from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/2YJnfDw

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

Citizens 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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