Big Time News Blog: 08/21/20

Friday, August 21, 2020

California’s raging wildfires are so big they can be seen from space, images show

367 wildfires are burning across California, including 23 that have been classified as major fires.

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Ghislaine Maxwell ‘secretly watched all day by psychologists’, her lawyers claim

Prison psychologists are secretly watching Ghislaine Maxwell for hours every day, her lawyers have claimed in court documents.Attorneys for Ms Maxwell, who is accused of grooming and abusing underage girls, say she is under constant surveillance. Her mental health is being frequently evaluated, they added.

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Sweden has recorded its highest death toll since a famine swept through the country 150 years ago

Sweden recorded 51,405 deaths from January to June — its highest recorded death toll in the first half of any year since a famine in 1869.

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Thirteen of 15-member U.N. Security Council oppose U.S. push for Iran sanctions

The United States was further isolated on Friday over its bid to reimpose international sanctions on Iran with 13 countries on the 15-member U.N. Security Council expressing their opposition, arguing that Washington's move is void given it is using a process agreed under a nuclear deal that it quit two years ago. In the 24 hours since U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he triggered a 30-day countdown to a return of U.N. sanctions on Iran, including an arms embargo, long-time allies Britain, France, Germany and Belgium as well as China, Russia, Vietnam, Niger, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, South Africa, Indonesia, Estonia and Tunisia have already written letters in opposition, seen by Reuters. The United States has accused Iran of breaching a 2015 deal with world powers that aimed to stop Tehran developing nuclear weapons in return for sanctions relief.

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It turns out Mitch McConnell will appear at the RNC after all

After some back and forth, it's been confirmed that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) will make an appearance at next week's Republican National Convention.McConnell is up for re-election in November, and his campaign spokeswoman, Katharine Cooksey, said in a statement on Thursday that he would not be part of the convention. Instead, he planned on "traveling across all corners of Kentucky next week to speak with families, workers, and job creators about their needs." A few hours later, Cooksey changed course, saying there was a "miscommunication" and McConnell will be recording a message for the convention, The Hill reports. Like the Democratic National Convention this week, the RNC will be mostly virtual. President Trump will give his address from the White House, and told Fox News host Sean Hannity on Thursday night that he wants to have more live parts than the DNC did, because otherwise the event will be "boring."More stories from theweek.com The DNC's stirring eulogy for Joe Biden Lori Loughlin sentenced to 2 months in prison for role in college admissions scandal Trump initially responds to Biden's acceptance speech with brevity and correct grammar

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'Members of the same club.' Brayden Harrington, 13, describes Joe Biden helping him with his stutter

Facing the camera and holding a piece of paper, Brayden Harrington, 13, said Biden helped him with his stutter after they met in New Hampshire.

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Tropical storm forecast to form soon, could approach Florida as Cat 1 hurricane

A tropical depression in the Atlantic may approach South Florida as a Category 1 hurricane early next week, according to the National Hurricane Center.

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Former Navy Seal who killed Osama bin Laden is banned from Delta Air Lines after not wearing mask

The former Navy Seal who shot and killed Osama bin Laden has sparked controversy online after he bragged about not wearing a face mask on a recent flight – a claim that has banned him from Delta Air Lines.Robert O’Neill, 44, a former US Navy SEAL Team Six member, tweeted an image of himself on a flight where he was seen smiling in his seat without a mask.

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Leaked USPS email tells postal workers not to reconnect or reinstall sorting machines 'that have been previously disconnected'

Just hours earlier, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said that all service changes will be paused until after Election Day.

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Mali Coup Leaders Seized Power Days After Returning From Military Training Camp in Russia

ABUJA, Nigeria—The leaders of the coup that ousted Mali’s President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita spent most of the year training in Russia before returning to boot out the democratically-elected leader at gunpoint, according to sources in the Malian military.The rebels took control of Mali’s largest military base in Kati, just outside the capital, Bamako, on Tuesday before storming Keita’s official residence, seizing the president and forcing him to resign as leader of the West African nation..Numerous media outlets, including the BBC, immediately reported that the coup was led by Malick Diaw and Sadio Camara, two army colonels who hold top positions at the Kati military base and who are reportedly very close friends. But there's something else both men have in common— they were trained by the military in Russia.Two Malian military officials told The Daily Beast that both Diaw and Camara were in Russia before they returned to Mali to stage Tuesday's coup, confirming a local media report. The two officers are said to have departed Bamako for Moscow early in the year to attend military training sponsored by the Russian armed forces, they returned a little over a week before the coup was executed.Sources in the Malian military told The Daily Beast that a number of senior officers suspect Diaw and Camara planned the coup from Russia and that both men had been in contact with others involved in the plot from their training base abroad. Rumors that some officers were contemplating a coup had begun to spread quietly in the military at the start of August, even before the two colonels returned home.“A coup of this nature is not something you plan in a matter of days,” a lieutenant in the Malian army, who previously served in Kati, told The Daily Beast on the condition of anonymity as he wasn't authorised to speak. “These two men spent a long time in Russia and within days of their return they executed a coup easily and successfully,” said the lieutenant, who did not partake in the plot. “That should tell you that they worked on this for a long time.”It’s not yet clear if Diaw and Camara sought military assistance or cover from Russia, which has intervened in the election of a number of African leaders in recent years. Some military officials aren't ruling out Russia’s direct involvement. “Maybe in terms of communication they got protection from the Russians," said the army lieutenant. "One will assume that the Russians would have been monitoring their communication lines since the officers were foreign military personnel staying in Russia."Just before midday on Tuesday, soldiers loyal to Diaw, the second highest ranked administrator at the Kati military base, took control of the camp’s armory and began to arrest their superiors. Once they took control of the base, they headed to Bamako where they arrested President Keita and Prime Minister Boubou Cisse and drove back to the base with the two men before forcing them to relinquish power.At the time of the coup, Diaw, who is believed to be in his late 30s, was the deputy chief of the Kati military base, a position he is said to have held for more than a year. His role in Tuesday’s coup is likely to earn him an influential position in the junta.Camara, the co-leader of the coup, previously headed the military academy of Kati. BBC Afrique, citing a local news outlet, reported that he was born in 1979. He was director of the Kati military academy for many years until January when he left the post to attend military training in Russia alongside Diaw. He returned to Bamako from Moscow over a week ago to begin a month-long leave period and, unknown to many, to execute a coup. “There were just a few persons who knew they were back from their trip,” a Malian army colonel, who wasn't involved in the coup, told The Daily Beast. "[It was] mostly those close to them and who plotted the coup with the two officers [that knew they had returned from Russia]."Russia has a reputation for swooping into African countries and hoping to reshape their politics for material gain; a candidate backed by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian financier indicted in the U.S. for targeting the 2016 presidential election, has emerged as the president of Madagascar; a former Russian intelligence officer is now the top security adviser to the president of the Central African Republic; and the Kremlin has been caught interfering in the domestic politics of eight African countries through social media networks traced to entities tied to Prigozhin.It's still not clear how the Malian coup plotters plan to lead the country they now rule as a military junta, or if they will be inviting any assistance from Moscow.On Wednesday, Assimi Goita, a colonel in Mali's army announced that he had taken charge of the country and declared himself the head of the junta. Goita—one of the five soldiers who announced the coup on the state broadcaster ORTM—met with senior government officials whom he urged to immediately return to work.“By making this intervention, we have put Mali first,” Goita explained to the officials, while trying to justify the forceful removal of Keita.Before the coup, he was head of a special military unit based in central Mali and had taken part in the annual Flintlock training put together by the U.S. military to help countries in the Sahel region better tackle militants.“Mali is in a sociopolitical and security crisis,” he said. “There is no more room for mistakes.”Tuesday's mutiny could turn out to be an even bigger mistake. A similar coup in 2012, which began at the same Kati army base, created nationwide disharmony and political uncertainty. That allowed extremist groups to expand their reach in the north of Mali. Despite a French military intervention, which has slowed their advancement, these jihadists groups are still active in the region and may capitalise on the current leadership crisis to extend their jihad, it remains to be seen what the Kremlin makes of that threat.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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A lawyer for a police officer charged in George Floyd's death says Floyd 'killed himself' by dying from an overdose and a heart condition

The lawyer for Thomas Lane, a former Minneapolis police officer, said the cops charged in George Floyd's death were just "doing their jobs."

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3 large corrals approved for western US wild horse roundups

The federal Bureau of Land Management has approved construction of three new corrals to hold more than 8,000 wild horses captured on federal rangeland to accelerate horse roundups slowed by a lack of space in existing holding pens. The bureau issued final decisions on environmental assessments of the plans this week for the pens in Colorado, Wyoming and Utah. The pens are the next step in plans announced last year by the administration of President Donald Trump to speed up the capture of 130,000 wild horses over 10 years at an estimated cost of $1 billion.

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Chief: Tennessee officers broke down door of innocent family

Three white Tennessee police officers have had their police powers suspended after they broke down the door of an innocent Black family early Tuesday morning. Metro Nashville Police Chief John Drake ordered a full investigation of the incident by the department's Office of Professional Accountability. “No innocent family in Nashville, anywhere, should be subjected to what the mother and her two children went through on Tuesday morning,” Drake said in a news release.

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California fires spread, fouling air and spurring evacuations

Thick smoke blanketed large areas of central and northern California on Friday as more people fled some of the biggest fires in the state's history which have raged largely uncontrolled through the week.

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Maybe Trump shouldn't have set the bar so low for Joe Biden's DNC speech

One of the biggest bits of drama in the otherwise tightly scripted Democratic National Convention was whether the new nominee, Joe Biden, would fumble his big acceptance speech with an embarrassing gaffe or a "senior moment." And why would people think that? Well, President Trump and his campaign have been predicting as much for weeks. They even spent a lot of money on an online ad this week claiming Biden is in "cognitive decline."The DNC appeared unsure, too, prefacing his speech with repeated mentions of Biden's history of stuttering — including a story about his mother threatening to assault a teacher-nun who mocked her son's stutter in class and this moving video from a young Brayden Harrington.But Biden rose to the occasion. And his speech looked even better, it was widely noted, because Trump and his allies had set such a low bar for him to clear.> No one helped Biden tonight more than Trump and his campaign, who spent the last few months setting the expectations so stupidly low by painting Biden as a bumbling idiot suffering from dementia.> > — Josh Jordan (@NumbersMuncher) August 21, 2020> Probably not an awesome idea to make the bar so low it’s “can Joe Biden talk without drooling”> > — The Calamari Comeback Kid (@TylerDinucci) August 21, 2020> Republicans set the bar so low that if Biden was able to just say his name, it'd have been a success. Instead, he gave the best speech of his entire career. The GOP will have no - and I mean *no* - strategy moving forward.> > — Brian Tyler Cohen (@briantylercohen) August 21, 2020Some people were still not impressed that Biden could read a speech without stumping, but that isn't all he did, of course.> As expected, Joe Biden cleared the absurdly low bar that Trump set for him. But he’s done a whole lot more here. He’s made a case for character and renewal, earnest hope and unity, when that is so needed. How refreshing to hear a man vow to serve those who won’t vote for him.> > — Aaron Astor (@AstorAaron) August 21, 2020Maybe the Trump team will learn the art of expectations-setting before the debates. But for now, Biden can finally say: Thanks, Trump.More stories from theweek.com The DNC's stirring eulogy for Joe Biden Lori Loughlin sentenced to 2 months in prison for role in college admissions scandal Trump initially responds to Biden's acceptance speech with brevity and correct grammar

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Minneapolis police officer Thomas Lane didn’t check George Floyd’s ‘counterfeit’ $20 note

The alleged counterfeit $20 bill used by George Floyd wasn't inspected or collected before his fatal arrest in Minneapolis, according to one of the first officers at the scene.Former police officer Thomas Lane said in newly-released audio that he didn't obtain the bill before, during or after the incident that led to Mr Floyd's death on 25 May.

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Pelosi Declines to Hold Saturday Vote on Smaller Bill to Expand Unemployment Benefits

House speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) on Thursday rejected a request by some House Democrats to vote to extend unemployment benefits through a smaller coronavirus relief package, saying it could undercut negotiations on other Democratic funding priorities. More than 100 House Democrats had urged party leaders to allow a vote on a bill on Saturday to restore the $600 weekly unemployment benefit for workers that expired in July. The speaker said she supports tying unemployment insurance payments to economic metrics like the unemployment rate, rather than having the benefits expire on arbitrary dates, but that the timing was wrong to hold a vote. "That's a very positive initiative. I have encouraged that, I have welcomed that suggestion," Pelosi said during an interview on "PBS NewsHour.""I don't think strategically it's where we should go right now, because the Republicans would like to pass something like that and say forget about it," Pelosi continued. "Forget about state and local [government funding], forget about our investments in stopping the virus, forget about other initiatives that feed the food insecure children in our country, vote by mail initiatives and the rest."“I don't think the timing is for us to do it right now, because, imagine, the Republicans could take that into the Senate, put poison pills all over it. And it's hard to vote against extending unemployment benefits,” she said. “And, again, I think, overwhelmingly, our members — who would not want to extend unemployment benefits? As I say, it's something I fully support, and the stabilization, but not necessarily in the negotiation.”Pelosi said she does not foresee any bill being passed in the coming days as Democrats and Republicans remain at odds over how to restore the benefits. Democrats have pushed for a $3.4 trillion aid package that would include the full $600 weekly benefit and federal funding to support mail-in ballots, while Republicans proposed a smaller $1 trillion package with a smaller weekly benefit.Amid the partisan fighting, President Trump signed an executive order to replace the expired $600 weekly benefit with a reduced $300 weekly payment. House Democrats had urged Pelosi to hold a vote on Saturday, as she had already called the House back into session from recess to vote that day on legislation that would block any changes to U.S. Postal Service operations ahead of the 2020 presidential election.

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Bannon's Chinese host an irritant to Communist Party

The self-exiled Chinese tycoon on whose 150-foot (45-meter) yacht President Donald Trump’s former chief strategist, Steve Bannon, was arrested is a high-profile irritant to the ruling Communist Party. Guo Wengui left China in 2014 during an anti-corruption crackdown led by President Xi Jinping that ensnared people close to Guo, including a top intelligence official. Chinese authorities have accused Guo of rape, kidnapping, bribery and other offenses.

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California's notorious 'Golden State Killer' faces sentencing

A former California police officer dubbed the "Golden State Killer" who confessed to 13 murders and dozens of rapes during the 1970s and '80s faces a life prison term when he is sentenced in Sacramento on Friday. Joseph James DeAngelo, 74, will be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole following three days of emotional hearings in which victims or their family members confronted him in open court. “What a gut punch it was that I had been brutally raped by a full-time police officer,” victim Gay Hardwick said, according to the Sacramento Bee newspaper.

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Republican senator Bill Cassidy tests positive for coronavirus

Republican senator Bill Cassidy has tested positive for Covid-19, after he was exposed to someone infected with the virus.On Thursday, Mr Cassidy’s office announced that he had become just the second senator to have contracted coronavirus, after Republican Rand Paul tested positive for Covid-19 in April, according to CNBC.

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