‘I Was a Little Scared’: Inside America’s Reopening Schools

By BY ADAM WREN AND DAN LEVIN from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2F0aLk7

Sri Lanka Vote Hands Rajapaksa Family a Bigger Slice of Control

By BY MARIA ABI-HABIB from NYT World https://ift.tt/2DDdCin

Small-business owners are wary as a relief programs nears its end.

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Workers at Philadelphia Museum of Art Vote to Join Union

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Trump, Facing Headwinds in Ohio, Talks Up Economy in Campaign Swing

By BY MAGGIE HABERMAN from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/3kjWcYS

As Jobs Report Looms, Trump and Congress Remain Split Over Stimulus Plan

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A Promising Life Is Cut Short, Becoming a Symbol of Lebanon’s Heartache

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Coronavirus Briefing: What Happened Today

By BY LARA TAKENAGA AND JONATHAN WOLFE from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/3gAC2aL

The World Can Still Be Destroyed in a Flash

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Elizabeth Warren on Child Care in a Pandemic

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'Most believe that it was an accident': Pentagon chief contradicts Trump on Beirut explosion

Less than 24 hours after President Trump said some “great generals” told him they thought that yesterday’s massive explosion in Beirut was an “attack” involving “a bomb of some kind,” Defense Secretary Mark Esper seemed less than convinced by that explanation.

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Tourist damages 200-year-old sculpture during photo op

Surveillance footage shows the man sit on the sculpture for a photo op before noticing the damage and awkwardly leaving the scene.

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Fox News Host Sandra Smith Grills Kellyanne Conway on Trump’s COVID ‘Misinformation’

On Wednesday, Facebook finally took the long overdue step of removing a piece of Trump campaign content from its platform that pushed misinformation about COVID-19. That didn’t stop Kellyanne Conway from trying to defend it Thursday morning on Fox News. The claim in question came during the president’s appearance on Fox & Friends that morning, where he falsely stated, “If you look at children, children are almost—and I would almost say definitely—but almost immune from this disease.” “Of course there is a debate happening about whether Facebook and Twitter should be arbiters of truth and decide what is fact and fiction,” Fox host Sandra Smith began, before sharing the actual facts about confirmed coronavirus cases in children. According to the CDC, she told Conway, children under the age of 18 now make up 7.4% of total cases in the United States. “So kids are getting this disease, Kellyanne,” she said. “Yes, they are and thankfully most never make it to a hospital and very few have died,” Conway replied, hastening to add, “and every death is a tragedy.” As she tried to pivot to glimmers of good news about the spread of the virus overall, Smith brought her back to the issue at hand.“I want to stick to children though,” the host said. “Because the debate right now is over the spread of misinformation by the president about children being ‘nearly immune.’” Smith cited remarks from the Republican governor of Mississippi, who has just instituted a state-wide mask mandate, as further evidence that kids are transmitting the virus in large numbers before asking, “Is it helpful for the president to tell parents that children are ‘nearly immune’ from this and then have it factually spreading from child to child in places like Mississippi where they’ve opened the doors to their schools?” Seth Meyers Brutally Mocks Trump’s Kindergarten Coronavirus Death ChartInstead of defending Trump’s claim, all Conway could do in response was try to highlight other instances when the president didn’t spread misinformation about children’s susceptibility. “So I think the president is making clear that overall the average age of those who pass away from coronavirus is still about 78,” she said, a separate fact that does not mean children are “nearly immune.” After Conway attempted yet another pivot to attack Joe Biden, Smith again brought her back to Trump and his lies about the virus. “I get that Kellyanne and that’s another conversation,” the host said. “But the point is that the president said in that interview on Fox & Friends yesterday morning said it’s going to ‘go away, like things go away’ and that is something many people are taking issue with.” She quoted the White House’s own health expert Dr. Anthony Fauci, who said, “I do not believe that it will disappear because it’s such a highly transmissible virus.” “So is the president listening to the advice of the health experts that he has at his side?” Smith asked.“Yes he is, and they should be listening to him as well,” Conway replied ominously before accusing those experts of saying things on TV that they didn’t express in classified task force meetings.Conway had plenty to say after that about Twitter and Facebook, but she could not defend Trump’s claim that COVID-19 will magically disappear. Kellyanne Conway Loses It Over Mary Trump Book on Fox NewsRead 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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Ed Rollins: Don’t think Nevada will win battle for mail-in voting

Ed Rollins, former Reagan campaign manager, weighs in on the Trump campaign suing Nevada over mail-in voting on ‘America’s Newsroom.’

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Passenger on Alaska cruise tests positive for COVID-19, prompting quarantine, canceled sailings

Passengers are quarantining on the ship until Alaska "deems it safe for them to return home" after one passenger tested positive for COVID-19.

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China sentences 3rd Canadian to death on drug charges

China has sentenced a third Canadian citizen to death on drug charges amid a steep decline in relations between the two countries. The Guangzhou Municipal Intermediate Court announced Xu Weihong’s penalty on Thursday and said an alleged accomplice, Wen Guanxiong, had been given a life sentence. Death sentences are automatically referred to China’s highest court for review.

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Tensions flare, trucks burn in Chile´s Araucania region

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2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate was impounded in Beirut's port after it was seized from an abandoned ship in 2014, years before the explosion

The cargo of an abandoned ship, the MV Rhosus, was behind the cataclysmic blast at Beirut's port on Tuesday, state media in Lebanon said.

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Seattle City Council Won’t Slash Police Budget, but OKs Cop Layoffs

A majority of Seattle’s City Council on Wednesday voted down a proposal to slash the police department’s remaining 2020 budget by 50 percent. But the council did pass a slew of other defunding efforts, including ones that would cut 100 officers from the agency this year through layoffs and attrition.The vote by the budget committee—which came one day after the city’s mayor and police chief held a press conference to criticize the proposal—signaled some progress for Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality advocates who’ve pushed to defund departments across the U.S. and reallocate funds to community services, including housing and youth programs.The budget-cut plan, proposed by council member Kshama Sawant, would have cut $54 million from the Seattle PD immediately through layoffs and reallocated it to programs, including $34 million for affordable housing. Sawant was the only member to vote in favor of the proposal, while another council member abstained and the remaining seven voted against it.While the council’s budget committee voted on a variety of amendments related to police funding, activists marched from a King County juvenile detention facility to City Hall. One reporter on scene captured demonstrators chanting, “Bad boys. Bad boys. Whatcha gonna do? Whatcha gonna do when we defund you?”Shootings Rise in Big Cities Along With Calls to Defund the PoliceSeattle’s vote comes on the heels of other local governments, including the Washington D.C. Council, passing legislation to dismantle or cut the budgets of police departments. In late June, the Minneapolis City Council unanimously approved a proposal to disband the city’s police department—and replace it with a new Department of Community Safety and Violence Prevention—following the death of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man who was killed May 25 by a Minneapolis cop who kneeled on his neck during an arrest.Minneapolis’ charter commission voted 10-5 against the city council’s proposal on Wednesday, saying they needed more time to review it. The decision meant voters won't get to decide on the amendment on a November ballot. The Seattle council’s budget committee unanimously passed a series of amendments, including adding $4 million to the Human Services Department for a community safety initiative which would be an “alternative to traditional policing.” The funding for that effort would come from a loan authorized by separate legislation.They also voted to cut $886,000 from the Seattle PD and reallocate it to a proposal that would add $10 million for community-led organizations “to increase public safety.” (The remaining $9.1 million would come from interfund loan to be addressed in separate legislation.) The cuts approved included $36,000 from the police department’s remaining 2020 budget for implicit bias training; $50,000 from SPD’s 2020 travel budget; and $800,000 from the department’s recruitment and retention activities. > Protesters gathering near the youth jail for today’s march to City Hall. Saw a handful of bike cops on my way over, though they seem to be around the block now. pic.twitter.com/8vf6r3EW9W> > — Heidi Groover (@heidigroover) August 5, 2020The committee also unanimously approved a “consent package” which includes ordering the police chief to eliminate the mounted unit and public affairs unit, each of which has four officers; lay off five members of the community outreach unit; lay off two members of the 29-officer SWAT team; and let go of 30 officers through attrition. All told, the council approved a reduction of 54 officers from the department.This package also included $50,000 in funding to contract with a community-based organization to create a non-police 911 response system.On Monday, KOMO News revealed the proposal to slash the Seattle Police Department’s budget by 50 percent appeared to be “losing steam” among the nine council members. The remainder of the Seattle PD’s unspent budget is an estimated $188 million, the outlet reported.Council member Sawant slammed her colleagues in an interview with the TV outlet and on Twitter, where she claimed Democrats on the budget committee “ganged up against our movement’s proposals to Defund the police...”> To see Democratic Party politicians in their real role, watch today's Seattle City Council Budget Committe, where they ganged up against our movement's proposals to Defund the police by at least 50%, fund community programs, and increase significant funds for affordable housing.> > — Kshama Sawant (@cmkshama) August 4, 2020“I’m not surprised,” Sawant told KOMO News, “but it’s quite interesting to see how council members are now displaying how they actually stand and I hope members of the public are watching.”Last month, protesters targeted the homes of two council members who supported reducing the police budget but wouldn’t commit to slashing it by 50 percent, the Seattle Times reported. The demonstrations allegedly included making noise outside one councilor’s home at night and leaving notes on his door warning, “Don’t be racist trash.”In June, another group visited Mayor Jenny Durkan’s residence, which was tagged with spray paint, according to the Times. Durkan asked the council to probe Sawant for taking part in that protest but council president Lorena González declined. Meanwhile, Police Chief Carmen Best said her neighbors had to stop a “large group of aggressive protestors” from trespassing at her home on Saturday. One of the demonstrators, Nicole Gitaka, told King 5, a local news station: “All we were doing was walking and they met us with guns, I don’t know who the aggressor is at that point, but I don't think it’s us.”> Crowd gathers across from the site for the new youth jail for a march and rally pertaining to the city council’s vote today on defunding the SPD seattleprotest seattleprotests pic.twitter.com/MuTzTIU74h> > — Elizabeth Turnbull (@LizTurnbull5) August 5, 2020This summer, Seattle police swept through an autonomous protest zone known as the Capitol Hill Organized Protest Area (CHOP) with blast balls and pepper spray, arresting at least two dozen people after Durkan issued an executive order to clear the area.Previously called the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ), the six-block stretch near downtown was occupied by demonstrators in the wake of Floyd’s death and Black Lives Matter protests. But the site also brought multiple shootings, including the fatal shooting of a 16-year-old boy, and injuries to both cops and protesters. One Tacoma man was charged with arson for torching the police department's East Precinct building during the CHOP protest.Last week, the head of Seattle’s police union warned defunding cops would bring higher crime rates and make CHOP or CHAZ “look like child’s play.”Was Seattle’s Notorious Protest Zone Doomed by Recent Shootings?On Tuesday, Durkan and Best held a press conference to ask council members to hold off on deep cuts to the police budget until 2021.Durkan said the city shouldn’t make “hasty decisions” when it comes to defunding the police department. “We should make right decisions,” Durkan told reporters. “That doesn’t mean slow; it just means thoughtful.”“The chief and I, again, we are absolutely committed, committed to reimagining how policing works in the city, to having a better community-based response, to have a public health and harm reduction based response,” Durkan added. “But we also know that policing is complicated and that sometimes you do need a police officer to respond.”For her part, Best said “there are some good approaches” in the council’s proposals and that “some of the ideas SPD already had and has raised before.”“But what is problematic is these are approaches without any clarity on how they will become reality. What is the plan? “ Best asked. “The push from Council and some of our community is to do these large-scale changes in 2020 with no practical plan for community safety. And I believe wholeheartedly that is completely reckless.“Council has directed me to lay off 70 or more officers basically overnight,” the chief added. “And I cannot do that in good faith knowing there are no systems in place to bridge the gap.”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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Chicago rapper FBG Duck killed in brazen daytime shopping attack

The attack was committed in the Gold Coast luxury shopping district by four gunmen in two vehicles.

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A Uighur man recorded life inside a high-security Chinese internment camp. Here's what he said it was like.

Mergan Ghappar smuggled a cell phone into a detention camp, and was able to talk to his family and film footage inside. He has since disappeared.

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California prosecutors asked the NFL to remove its PSA about the police killing of Stephon Clark, arguing it 'misrepresents the facts'

Stephon Clark, an unarmed 22-year-old Black man was shot eight times by two Sacramento police officers in March 2018.

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Teen ‘mastermind’ accused of crippling Twitter hack is linked to deadly home robbery

A Florida teenager who is accused of participating in last month’s Twitter bitcoin scam, which saw several of the world’s highest-profile accounts hacked, has reportedly been linked to an attempted robbery that ended in a lethal shooting.An investigation by the Tampa Bay Times has found that 17-year-old Graham Ivan Clark, who is credited by police as one of the “masterminds” of the scam, has also been named in the case of a burglary seven months ago that saw one teenager killed and another wounded.

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