Big Time News Blog: 06/15/20

Monday, June 15, 2020

Tanker truck explodes into a ball of fire on Chinese highway, killing 19 people

Nineteen people were killed and more than 170 injured when a tanker truck exploded on a highway in eastern China, local authorities said. The force of the blast on Saturday afternoon caused nearby homes and factories to collapse, and sent huge clouds of black smoke billowing into the air as flames engulfed several cars. Dramatic video footage of the accident in the eastern province of Zhejiang showed a ball of fire shooting into the air as people screamed. In one clip, a large piece of debris is seen flying into the air before crashing onto nearby buildings. Another video showed the remains of the tanker and several truck tyres smashed into a building, which had been reduced to rubble. Local authorities said the truck was loaded with liquefied gas. State news agency Xinhua reported Sunday that there was a second blast when the truck fell onto a workshop near the expressway after the first explosion. Emergency responders were still conducting search and rescue operations, it added. Deadly road accidents are common in China, where traffic regulations are often flouted or not enforced. Last year, at least 36 people died and 36 others were hurt in eastern China when a packed coach with a flat tyre collided with a truck.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2UJ5672

Beijing puts fresh curbs to stop spread of coronavirus out of Chinese capital

Beijing authorities imposed more restrictions to stop the spread of a fresh outbreak of coronavirus in the Chinese capital to other provinces, banning outbound travel of high-risk people and suspending some transportation services out of the city.

from Reuters: World News https://ift.tt/3hya1l6

India's election-bound Bihar state records nearly double national jobless rate

India's eastern Bihar state, one of the country's largest and poorest states, posted a steep rise in unemployment in the year ended June 2019 to record nearly double the national jobless rate, only months out from elections.

from Reuters: World News https://ift.tt/2MZ8KFp

Australia's most populous state doubles public transport capacity as coronavirus curbs ease

Australia's most populous state said on Tuesday it would nearly double its public transport capacity starting July 1, allowing more locals to avoid driving as it continues to ease curbs designed to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

from Reuters: World News https://ift.tt/37EujET

China reports 40 new coronavirus cases in mainland, 27 in Beijing

Mainland China reported 40 new confirmed coronavirus cases for June 15, down from 49 a day earlier, the National Health Authority said on Monday.

from Reuters: World News https://ift.tt/2N1DvK2

Mexico's coronavirus infections surpass 150,000, deaths over 17,500

Mexico passed the grim milestone of 150,000 total confirmed coronavirus cases on Monday, as the health ministry reported 3,427 new infections along with 439 additional fatalities.

from Reuters: World News https://ift.tt/3hvGloD

El desencuentro en Central Park que sacudió a Estados Unidos

By BY SARAH MASLIN NIR from NYT en Español https://ift.tt/3ftXMEk

Cup Foods, a Minneapolis Corner Store Forever Tied to the Death of George Floyd

By BY NICHOLAS BOGEL-BURROUGHS AND JACK HEALY from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/3e67lJ3

Congress Steps Up Pressure as Trump Administration Evades Bailout Oversight

By BY EMILY COCHRANE AND ALAN RAPPEPORT from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2Y99MW5

Supreme Court Expansion of Transgender Rights Undercuts Trump Restrictions

By BY MARGOT SANGER-KATZ AND ERICA L. GREEN from NYT The Upshot https://ift.tt/37A3d1u

Pride Goeth, or Is It Gone?

By BY LISA LERER from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2YEOFda

'Black Lives Matter' banner removed at U.S. embassy in South Korea after Trump displeased: sources

A large “Black Lives Matter” banner draped on the outside of the U.S. embassy in Seoul was removed on Monday after President Donald Trump expressed his displeasure about it, two people familiar with the matter said. The banner was hung on the front of the mission building on Saturday as the embassy tweeted a message in support of the anti-racism campaign across the United States and worldwide in response to the killing last month of George Floyd, an African American, in Minneapolis police custody. The banner was seen as a rare show of open support for the Black Lives Matter movement by a Trump appointee.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2zDhHkU

At least 7 Minneapolis cops have quit since George Floyd's death

Officials didn't specify if the departures are specifically due to Floyd's death, but the decisions to leave were made recently.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2Y1qu9x

Trump Aides Know His Polls Are Terrible—And Tell Him Otherwise

This past week, Donald Trump’s campaign did what one senior aide on the president’s 2020 team described to The Daily Beast as the “dumbest thing I’ve read in a long time.”In a cease-and-desist letter dated June 9, 2020, the president’s re-election staff demanded that CNN retract and apologize for a recently released poll that had presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden leading Trump by 14 points. The letter, which the cable news network immediately laughed off, heavily cited the work of Trump pollster John McLaughlin, whose company alleged that CNN had somehow engaged in a “defamatory” act of “misinformation” and deliberately “skewed” data in an attempt to depress the president’s supporters. The legal threat quickly became a punchline in political media and even in some sectors of Trump’s own political operation. In one respect, it was just the latest effort by the president’s aides to attempt to satisfy the boss’ appetite for retribution. But it also revealed an element of the Trump political operation that has increasingly demanded time, money, and attention—mainly, the task of convincing Trump that the electoral landscape and polling deficits he faces aren’t as dire as he’s been hearing. “This helps keep the president from flying into a rage as much as he otherwise would,” said a White House official who’s been in the room for these types of sessions.On June 4, for instance, the president convened multiple meetings at the White House with top officials in his administration and from his campaign, including his son-in-law and White House aide Jared Kushner and campaign manager Brad Parscale, to have a series of discussions about strategy and communications. According to a person familiar with one of those gatherings, Trump sounded impressed that the support among his conservative base had remained solid in the presented data given recent media coverage and the maelstrom of crises he’d been facing.At one point, members of the president’s team began briefing him on the campaign’s own private polling, much of which did not look favorable. They sought to reassure the president by telling him that their numbers showed a large “enthusiasm gap” between Trump and Biden voters, and that much of the public polling wasn’t to be trusted, according to two sources familiar with the meeting. In particular, they argued that public polls skew in favor of the Democratic Party at this time because polling firms were polling registered voters and not “likely voters.” In the characterization of one source close to the president, a chunk of the re-election team focuses on proving to the president that his “dumpster-fire numbers” aren’t as bad as they seem, or reinforcing Trump’s conviction that pollsters get it wrong “all the time.”Trump World Thrilled That Their Terrible Poll Numbers Aren’t Worse But not everyone on Team Trump is buying the spin. In fact, efforts to pacify the president about the polls and his campaign’s position ahead of November have been undercut from within, with several key advisers making personal entreaties to Trump in the past few weeks to try to convince him that he should not brush off the numbers, even unpleasant ones that comes from news organizations such as CNN. “I have told the president that the numbers are real and that I believe he can and will win, but that right now it looks bad,” said a Republican who recently spoke to Trump. “He said, ‘Come on, don’t you know that’s all fake?’ But in a lot of these internal numbers [that I’ve seen], we’re way down right now.”“Something needs to change,” the Trump ally added.This person wasn’t the only one sounding the alarm over the past month. Two other sources who’ve spoken to the president lately—one of whom is a senior administration official—said that when the topic of polls came up they advised Trump that the surveys on swing states and key demographics seemed bleak. Both said they were concerned the president wasn’t taking them as seriously as they had wished. Outside the campaign, a belief has grown that the Pollyannaish advisers surrounding the president—and who are feeding him news that won’t puncture his feel-good bubble—are doing a disservice to both their clients and their professions. “There are a few pollsters who are bought and paid for, and they will tell you [the client] what you want to hear,” Frank Luntz, a famed-GOP pollster and Trump-skeptical conservative, said, without naming names. “There are pollsters [for whom] if the check is big enough, the lie will be big enough.”“I don’t envy those who have to tell Donald Trump what he doesn’t want to hear,” Luntz continued. “I’ve met him several times, I’ve met Biden several times. I would rather present bad [polling] information to Biden than Donald Trump. Presenting bad information or tough information to Joe Biden, you’ll break his heart, if you present tough information to Donald Trump, he breaks your arm.”GOP Stimulus Plan Is a Trillion-Dollar Trump Re-Election FundBut some Trump confidants are more willing to take the chance of harm than others. Late last month, David Bossie and Corey Lewandowski, two prominent informal advisers to the president, visited the White House to warn Trump that his electoral prospects were deteriorating in certain states crucial to securing a second term in office. Lewandowski, who also serves as a senior adviser to Trump 2020, has often second-guessed official campaign strategy, while whispering in the president’s ear that his current aides are failing him.The Trump campaign counters that the surveys that have shown him trailing Biden do not account for the economic turn around that they believe is taking place, which the president and his allies have dubbed the “Great American Comeback.” The campaign has also argued that their own secret polls give Trump the edge over a “defined” Joe Biden—a descriptor that is both unscientific and a concession that the campaign has so far failed to effectively define its opponent with just a few months left before election night.When The Daily Beast reached out for comment on this story on Friday, the Trump campaign’s communications director Tim Murtaugh wrote back: “2016 proved that public polling is routinely wrong about President Trump, otherwise Hillary Clinton would be in the Oval Office right now. Our internal data consistently shows the President running strongly against a defined Joe Biden in all the states we track. And we know the President’s supporters are more enthusiastic than Biden’s. Trump supporters would run through a brick wall to vote for the President. Nobody is running through a brick wall for Joe Biden.”But Trump’s approval rating on his handling of the coronavirus fallout has itself dipped dramatically in recent weeks. And there is no evidence that the pandemic is truly fading. And on top of that, Republican senators facing competitive reelection fights this year have been far less sanguine in their rhetoric on the economic fallout, suggesting they’ve opted for empathy rather than triumphalism. It’s not an enviable position, Luntz concedes. But it’s not yet fatal either. “It’s not doomsday. We are too early in the election process. We never anticipated we would be where we are [today, even] two days ago,” Luntz stressed, citing the economic implosion, the coronavirus pandemic that has a U.S. death toll upwards of 100,000, and the mass protests following the police killing of George Floyd. “The changes in racial awareness and opinion is the story of a generation and we got all three of them happening at the same time. Nobody knows what’s going to happen in November. Nobody knows what’s going to happen next Friday. Everybody would be wise to just keep quiet.”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.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/3d2Y1Ew

Argentine bishop resumes work as Vatican abuse probe wraps

An Argentine bishop close to Pope Francis has gone back to work at the Holy See’s financial administration office while under investigation in his native Argentina and at the Vatican for alleged sexual abuse. The Vatican spokesman, Matteo Bruni, confirmed Bishop Gustavo Zanchetta had resumed work at the APSA patrimony office but said it in no way interferes with the investigations. The developments came as Francis on Monday named a new No. 2 at the office, an Italian layman and auditor, Fabio Gasperini.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2zAdpKZ

A picture and its story: Black personal trainer carries suspected far-right protester to safety

Protests have erupted across British cities and around the world after George Floyd died in police custody in Minneapolis on May 25.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2ADQVt5

Woman apologizes after viral confrontation with resident

She called cops on Filipino man for creating "Black Lives Matter" sign in front of his own home in wealthy San Francisco neighborhood, drawing slew of backlash online.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/3hvXsXd

Trudeau says in talks to extend Canada-US border closure

Ottawa and Washington are in talks to extend the closure of the Canada-US border, as concerns persist over the spread of the new coronavirus, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Monday. "It is clear that there is broad consensus across the provinces that we need to continue to keep our current border measures in place," Trudeau said after consulting with provincial leaders. The world's longest international frontier -- at 8,900 kilometres (5,500 miles) -- was closed to all non-essential travellers on both sides on March 21 in response to the coronavirus crisis.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2N39mtI

LA business wrongfully accused after many confuse SoCal salon with Lisa Alexander's skincare company

"I'm not LAFACE Products. My business is in LA," My LA Face business owner speaks out after many confuse her SoCal beauty salon with Lisa Alexander's skincare company after Alexander was seen in a viral video confronting a San Francisco man for stenciling BLM on his property.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/30GL1lH

Big Time News Blog