Global News: November 2020

President Donald Trump's election defeat marks the end of a hardline pressure policy designed to oust Venezuela's leftist president Nicolas Maduro, and the arrival of Joe Biden in the White House in January could pave the way for a political solution to the crisis in that country.

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A Seattle hiker was brought 'back from the dead' by doctors after his heart stopped for 45 minutes

Michael Knapinski was airlifted to a Seattle hospital after he was found unconscious in a freezing river basin on the edge of Mount Ranier.

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Navajo Nation orders new three-week stay-at-home lockdown

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Al-Qaida's No. 2, Accused in U.S. Embassy Attacks, Is Secretly Killed in Iran

WASHINGTON -- Al-Qaida's second-highest leader, accused of being one of the masterminds of the deadly 1998 attacks on U.S. embassies in Africa, was killed in Iran three months ago, intelligence officials have confirmed.Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, who went by the nom de guerre Abu Muhammad al-Masri, was gunned down on the streets of Tehran by two assassins on a motorcycle on Aug. 7, the anniversary of the embassy attacks. He was killed along with his daughter, Miriam, the widow of Osama bin Laden's son Hamza bin Laden.The attack was carried out by Israeli operatives at the behest of the United States, according to four of the officials. It is unclear what role if any was played by the United States, which had been tracking the movements of al-Masri and other Qaida operatives in Iran for years.Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York TimesThe killing occurred in such a netherworld of geopolitical intrigue and counterterrorism spycraft that al-Masri's death had been rumored but never confirmed until now. For reasons that are still obscure, al-Qaida has not announced the death of one of its top leaders, Iranian officials covered it up, and no country has publicly claimed responsibility for it.Al-Masri, who was about 58, was one of al-Qaida's founding leaders and was thought to be first in line to lead the organization after its current leader, Ayman al-Zawahri.Long featured on the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorist list, he had been indicted in the United States for crimes related to the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, which killed 224 people and wounded hundreds. The FBI offered a $10 million reward for information leading to his capture, and as of Friday, his picture was still on the Most Wanted list.That he had been living in Iran was surprising, given that Iran and al-Qaida are bitter enemies. Iran, a Shiite Muslim theocracy, and al-Qaida, a Sunni Muslim jihadi group, have fought each other on the battlefields of Iraq and other places.American intelligence officials say that al-Masri had been in Iran's "custody" since 2003, but that he had been living freely in the Pasdaran district of Tehran, an upscale suburb, since at least 2015.Around 9 on a warm summer night, he was driving his white Renault L90 sedan with his daughter near his home when two gunmen on a motorcycle drew up beside him. Five shots were fired from a pistol fitted with a silencer. Four bullets entered the car through the driver's side and a fifth hit a nearby car.As news of the shooting broke, Iran's official news media identified the victims as Habib Daoud, a Lebanese history professor, and his 27-year-old daughter Maryam. The Lebanese news channel MTV and social media accounts affiliated with Iran's Revolutionary Guard reported that Daoud was a member of Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militant organization in Lebanon.It seemed plausible.The killing came amid a summer of frequent explosions in Iran, mounting tensions with the United States, days after an enormous explosion in the port of Beirut and a week before the U.N. Security Council was to consider extending an arms embargo against Iran. There was speculation that the killing may have been a Western provocation intended to elicit a violent Iranian reaction in advance of the Security Council vote.And the targeted killing by two gunmen on a motorcycle fit the modus operandi of previous Israeli assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists. That Israel would kill an official of Hezbollah, which is committed to fighting Israel, also seemed to make sense, except for the fact that Israel had been consciously avoiding killing Hezbollah operatives so as not to provoke a war.In fact, there was no Habib Daoud.Several Lebanese with close ties to Iran said they had not heard of him or his killing. A search of Lebanese news media found no reports of a Lebanese history professor killed in Iran last summer. And an education researcher with access to lists of all history professors in the country said there was no record of a Habib Daoud.One of the intelligence officials said that Habib Daoud was an alias Iranian officials gave al-Masri and the history teaching job was a cover story. In October, the former leader of Egypt's Islamic Jihad, Nabil Naeem, who called al-Masri a longtime friend, told the Saudi news channel Al-Arabiya the same thing.Iran may have had good reason for wanting to hide the fact that it was harboring an avowed enemy, but it was less clear why Iranian officials would have taken in the Qaida leader to begin with.Some terrorism experts suggested that keeping Qaida officials in Tehran might provide some insurance that the group would not conduct operations inside Iran. American counterterrorism officials believe Iran may have allowed them to stay to run operations against the United States, a common adversary.It would not be the first time that Iran had joined forces with Sunni militants, having supported Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Taliban."Iran uses sectarianism as a cudgel when it suits the regime, but is also willing to overlook the Sunni-Shia divide when it suits Iranian interests," said Colin P. Clarke, a counterterrorism analyst at the Soufan Center.Iran has consistently denied housing the Qaida officials. In 2018, the Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi said that because of Iran's long, porous border with Afghanistan, some Qaida members had entered Iran, but they had been detained and returned to their home countries.However, Western intelligence officials said the Qaida leaders had been kept under house arrest by the Iranian government, which then made at least two deals with al-Qaida to free some of them in 2011 and 2015.Although al-Qaida has been overshadowed in recent years by the rise of the Islamic State, it remains resilient and has active affiliates around the globe, a U.N. counterterrorism report issued in July concluded.Iranian officials did not respond to a request for comment for this article. Spokesmen for the Israeli prime minister's office and the Trump administration's National Security Council declined to comment.Al-Masri was a longtime member of al-Qaida's highly secretive management council, along with Saif al-Adl, who was also held in Iran at one point. The pair, along with Hamza bin Laden, who was being groomed to take over the organization, were part of a group of senior Qaida leaders who sought refuge in Iran after the 9/11 attacks on the United States forced them to flee Afghanistan.According to a highly classified document produced by the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center in 2008, al-Masri was the "most experienced and capable operational planner not in U.S. or allied custody." The document described him as the "former chief of training" who "worked closely" with al-Adl.In Iran, al-Masri mentored Hamza bin Laden, according to terrorism experts. Hamza bin Laden later married al-Masri's daughter, Miriam."The marriage of Hamza bin Ladin was not the only dynastic connection Abu Muhammad forged in captivity," Ali Soufan, a former FBI agent and Qaida expert, wrote in a 2019 article for West Point's Combating Terrorism Center.Another of al-Masri's daughters married Abu al-Khayr al-Masri, no relation, a member of the management council. He was allowed to leave Iran in 2015 and was killed by a U.S. drone strike in Syria in 2017. At the time, he was the second-ranking Qaida official after Zawahri.Hamza and other members of the bin Laden family were freed by Iran in 2011 in exchange for an Iranian diplomat abducted in Pakistan. Last year, the White House said Hamza bin Laden had been killed in a counterterrorism operation in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region.Abu Muhammad al-Masri was born in Al Rarbiya district of northern Egypt in 1963. In his youth, according to affidavits filed in lawsuits in the United States, he was a professional soccer player in Egypt's top league. After the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, he joined the jihadi movement that was coalescing to assist the Afghan forces.After the Soviets withdrew 10 years later, Egypt refused to allow al-Masri to return. He remained in Afghanistan where he eventually joined bin Laden in the group that was later to become the founding nucleus of al-Qaida. He was listed by the group as the seventh of its 170 founders.In the early 1990s, he traveled with bin Laden to Khartoum, Sudan, where he began forming military cells. He also went to Somalia to help the militia loyal to Somali warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid. There he trained Somali guerrillas in the use of shoulder-borne rocket launchers against helicopters, training they used in the 1993 battle of Mogadishu to shoot down a pair of U.S. helicopters in what is now known as the Black Hawk Down attack."When al-Qaida began to carry out terrorist activities in the late 1990s, al-Masri was one of the three of bin Laden's closest associates, serving as head of the organization's operations section," said Yoram Schweitzer, head of the Terrorism Project of the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv. "He brought with him know-how and determination and since then was involved in a large part of the organization's operations, with an emphasis on Africa."Shortly after the Mogadishu battle, bin Laden put al-Masri in charge of planning operations against U.S. targets in Africa. Plotting a dramatic, ambitious operation that, like the 9/11 attacks, would command international attention, they decided to attack two relatively well-defended targets in separate countries simultaneously.Shortly after 10:30 a.m. on Aug. 7, 1998, two trucks packed with explosives pulled up in front of the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The blasts incinerated people nearby, blew walls off buildings and shattered glass for blocks around.In 2000, al-Masri became one of the nine members of al-Qaida's governing council and headed the organization's military training.He also continued to oversee Africa operations, according to a former Israeli Intelligence official, and ordered the attack in Mombasa, Kenya, in 2002 that killed 13 Kenyans and three Israeli tourists.By 2003, al-Masri was among several Qaida leaders who fled to Iran which, although hostile to the group, seemed out of American reach."They believed the United States would find it very difficult to act against them there," Schweitzer said. "Also because they believed that the chances of the Iranian regime doing an exchange deal with the Americans that would include their heads were very slim."Al-Masri was one of the few high-ranking members of the organization to survive the American hunt for the perpetrators of 9/11 and other attacks. When he and other Qaida leaders fled to Iran, they were initially kept under house arrest.In 2015, Iran announced a deal with al-Qaida in which it released five of the organization's leaders, including al-Masri, in exchange for an Iranian diplomat who had been abducted in Yemen.Abdullah's footprints faded away, but according to one of the intelligence officials, he continued to live in Tehran, under the protection of the Revolutionary Guards and later the Ministry of Intelligence and Security. He was allowed to travel abroad and did, mainly to Afghanistan, Pakistan and Syria.Some American analysts said al-Masri's death would sever connections between one of the last original Qaida leaders and the current generation of Islamist militants, who have grown up after bin Laden's 2011 death."If true, this further cuts links between old-school al-Qaida and the modern jihad," said Nicholas J. Rasmussen, a former director of the National Counterterrorism Center. "It just further contributes to the fragmentation and decentralization of the al-Qaida movement."--TIMELINE1963Abu Muhammad al-Masri was born in northern Egypt, and grew up to play soccer in Egypt's top professional league. After the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, he joined the jihad movement there.1980sAfter the Soviets withdrew, Egypt refused to allow al-Masri to return. He remained in Afghanistan, and eventually joined Osama bin Laden in a group that was later to become the nucleus of al-Qaida.EARLY 1990sAl-Masri traveled with bin Laden to Khartoum, Sudan, where he began forming military cells. He also went to Somalia, where he helped train the fighters who fought U.S. troops in a battle popularly known as the Black Hawk Down attack.1998Al-Masri was one of the masterminds of the deadly attacks on U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.2000Al-Masri became one of the nine members of al-Qaida's governing council and was put in charge of the organization's military training activities.2002While overseeing African operations, he issued orders for the attacks in Mombasa, Kenya, that killed 15 people, according to a former Israeli Intelligence official.2003After the 9/11 attacks, al-Masri was among several Qaida leaders who fled to Iran. They were initially held under house arrest.2015Iran and al-Qaida announced a deal in which Iran released five of the organization's leaders, including al-Masri, from prison in exchange for an Iranian diplomat who had been abducted in Yemen.2020Al-Masri was secretly assassinated in Tehran at the behest of the U.S., officials said. But no one -- Iran, al-Qaida, the U.S. or Israel -- publicly acknowledged the killing.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company

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Boris Johnson is in self-isolation after a British parliament member he spent 35 minutes with tested positive for COVID-19, reports say

Johnson and Conservative MP Lee Anderson attended a 35-minute last week and were photographed standing side by side, unmasked.

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Egypt discovers ancient trove of intact sarcophagi near Cairo

Egypt announced on Saturday the discovery of an ancient treasure trove of more than a 100 intact sarcophagi, the largest such find this year. The sealed wooden coffins, unveiled on site amid fanfare, belonged to top officials of the Late Period and the Ptolemaic period of ancient Egypt. They were found in three burial shafts at depths of 12 metres (40 feet) in the sweeping Saqqara necropolis south of Cairo. Archaeologists opened one coffin to reveal a mummy wrapped in a burial shroud adorned with brightly coloured hieroglyphic pictorials.

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Column: The Georgia Senate runoffs could make all the difference. But is electing a Democrat possible?

As money comes pouring in from Hollywood, Silicon Valley and Wall Street, and election ads saturate the state, will will there be a backlash from Georgia voters?

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India celebrates Diwali amid pandemic, pollution fears

More than a billion Indians celebrated Diwali on Saturday amid twin concerns of a resurgence in coronavirus infections and rising air pollution that is enveloping the country’s north in a cloud of thick toxic smog. Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, is typically celebrated by socializing and exchanging gifts with friends and family, and lighting oil lamps or candles to symbolize a victory of light over darkness. Fireworks are also a major part of the celebrations.

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Vamco hits Vietnam as Philippines death toll rises to 67

Storm Vamco barrelled into Vietnam on Sunday, damaging buildings and injuring at least five people, as the death toll in the Philippines climbed to 67.

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Thousands join 'MAGA March' in Washington as Donald Trump does drive-by

Supporters of Donald Trump poured into the streets of Washington on Saturday to back his unfounded claims of election fraud. Several thousand people filled Freedom Plaza, near the White House, for a rally at which very few wore masks. Chants of "Four more years" and "USA, USA " echoed through the centre of the capital where many shops were boarded up, and roads blocked off by police amid a heavy security presence. As he left the White House, for his golf course in Virginia, Mr Trump's convoy did a circuit of the plaza. His limousine was greeted by screams, chants, Trump flags, and people punching the air and running alongside. Through a window the president smiled, waved and gave a thumbs up.

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Elon Musk says he's positive for COVID-19, and NASA won't let him attend SpaceX's astronaut launch on Sunday

Musk's positive tests couldn't have come at a worse time: SpaceX is set to launch four NASA astronauts into orbit for its Crew-1 mission on Sunday.

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Biden's beach hideaway has political sun shining on Rehoboth

This resort town known for Atlantic waves that are sometimes surfable, fresh-cut French fries and a 1-mile wooden boardwalk that dates to the 1870s has long prided itself on being the “Nation's Summer Capital.” President-elect Joe Biden owns a $2.7 million, Delaware North Shores home with a swimming pool that overlooks Cape Henlopen State Park, is blocks from the ocean and a short drive from downtown Rehoboth Beach. Biden spent time in Rehoboth Beach after the Democratic National Convention and made his first trip back this weekend as president-elect.

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Worker found dead at Concord tire store, man charged with murder after standoff

A SWAT team was on scene for nearly four hours.

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Huge India oil well fire extinguished after five months

A massive oil well fire that raged for more than five months in northeast India has finally been extinguished, officials said Sunday.

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Poor start again costs McIlroy chance for major glory

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Walmart to sell most of Japan's Seiyu to KKR and Rakuten

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Australia moves entire summer schedule to one state due to COVID-19

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Australia's Qantas celebrates subdued 100th birthday, looks to post-COVID future

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Simon Property and Taubman revise terms of merger deal

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End of lockdown did little for incomes of UK's hardest-hit: study

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SpaceX, NASA set for first operational astronaut mission to space

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Saturday, November 14, 2020

Secret intelligence exists that ‘would cast Trump in very negative light’, warns ex-FBI chief

‘It’s almost incomprehensible to me that he would want that information out,’ says Andrew McCabe

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Hurricane watches and warnings issued for stronger Tropical Storm Iota, in record season

Tropical Storm Iota, which formed in the central Caribbean Sea on Friday and marking the 30th named storm in a record-breaking hurricane season., is forecast to turn into a hurricane before approaching Central America next week. Central America is already reeling from Eta hitting Nicaragua as a Category 4 hurricane last week.

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Shotguns, dragons, and Doctor Who: The Blockchain Game Alliance's Game Demo Day

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Social media platform Parler gets backing from Mercer family: WSJ

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Price analysis 11/13: BTC, ETH, XRP, LINK, BCH, LTC, BNB, DOT, ADA, BSV

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Australia hopes Asia-Pacific trade deal will improve ties with China: report

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Egypt discovers ancient trove of intact sarcophagi near Cairo

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9 easy Thanksgiving side dishes Michelin-starred chefs swear by

Insider asked Michelin-starred chefs to share their favorite Thanksgiving side dishes, plus their tips so you can easily re-create them.

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4-year-old boy in Texas loses mom and dad to Covid

"Just this morning he told me that he wishes he had his mom back and he just wanted her back," Raiden Gonzalez's grandmother said. "I just told him that they're now angels watching over us."

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Coronavirus concerns may have kept Trump from meeting newly-elected GOP lawmakers in person at White House

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) set up a visit to the White House for newly-elected Republican lawmakers Friday evening, but they didn't get a chance to meet President Trump in person, Politico reports.The president did reportedly send his regards to the newcomers, but the fact that he stayed out of the spotlight raised some eyebrows.> Weird @playbookplus note: "LAST NIGHT, MCCARTHY took the newly elected Republicans to the White House...INTERESTING TO NOTE: President DONALD TRUMP did not come down to meet the group. He did send his well wishes."> > -- Meridith McGraw (@meridithmcgraw) November 14, 2020As it turns out, further reporting revealed Trump probably wasn't standing anyone up, but, in a bit of twist, likely stayed away because the group hadn't been tested for COVID-19 prior to their arrival. > UPDATE to Playbook: MCCARTHY himself didn't go to the W.H. w the new freshmen Republicans -- but his team organized, attended. POTUS didn't go down to say hi, and that could be because the group of newly elected GOP lawmakers was not tested for Covid @ WH, per several sources.> > -- Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) November 14, 2020More stories from theweek.com 7 scathingly funny cartoons about Trump's refusal to concede Trump is reportedly 'very aware' he lost the election but is putting up a fight as 'theater' Texas senator suggests it's too soon to declare Biden the winner because Puerto Rico is still counting votes

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Trump Election Challenges Hamstrung by Hapless Witnesses

Donald Trump’s last-ditch campaign legal efforts have centered on witnesses who allege that they witnessed voter fraud and other suspicious activity in battleground states across the country. White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany has brandished stacks of papers detailing what she said were hundreds of affidavits from allegedly aggrieved voters or poll-watchers in TV appearances, and the MAGA faithful have seized on the allegations as proof that Trump secretly won the election.But when those claims actually reach a judge, the allegations collapse in often spectacular fashion—putting one more roadblock in Trump’s attempts to wrestle the election away from President-elect Joe Biden.The latest bruising response to Trump’s voter witnesses came Friday in a state court order from Michigan. The Trump campaign had asked Chief Judge Timothy M. Kenny to block the certification of Michigan’s votes, citing a number of witnesses who alleged seeing suspicious things happening with the ballot count, mostly at Detroit’s TCF Center.But when Kenny actually saw the witness claims, he wasn’t impressed. In his Friday opinion, Kenny rejected the Trump campaign’s request, describing one witness affidavit as “rife with speculation and guess-work about sinister motives.”Instead of alleging voter fraud, Kenny said, many of the accusations made by witnesses in fact described routine vote-counting procedures. Had the Republican challengers only attended an optional walk-through training of the site, according to Kenny, they would not have been so alarmed.“There is no evidentiary basis to attribute any evil activity by virtue of the city using a rental truck with out-of-state license plates,” Kenny wrote in response to one complaint.Kenny also rejected claims of voting irregularities made by Melissa Carone, an IT contractor for Dominion Voting Systems, whose voting machines have figured into vote-theft conspiracy theories about the election that have been boosted by Trump. Carone has made appearances across right-wing media as a sort of star witness for the Trump campaign propping up the “rigged” election narrative, but Kenny decided that her allegations didn’t match any other witness statements.Experts: Trump’s New Michigan Lawsuit Is Recycled Junk“The allegations simply are not credible,” Kenny wrote.Carone has run into similar problems on her tour of pro-Trump media. In a Thursday appearance on Fox Business host Lou Dobbs’s show, Carone told an odd story about pollworkers not receiving enough meals that left even Dobbs baffled.The Trump campaign didn’t respond to a request for comment.Trump campaign witnesses have also run into trouble in Arizona. On Thursday, the campaign took bogus allegations about Sharpie pens being used to invalidate votes to court in Maricopa County. Once again, their alleged voter fraud witnesses failed to make the campaign’s case.The Sharpie conspiracy theory—dubbed “Sharpiegate” by Trump allies—centers on the idea that poll workers deliberately gave Republican voters Sharpies to render their ballots uncountable. But Sharpie use wouldn’t invalidate ballots, according to election officials across the state.Instead, many of the witnesses cited by Trump lawyers in Maricopa County were only alleging after the fact that they may have seen something suspicious—even if they couldn’t exactly say what that thing was. Some, for example, complained about poll workers who pressed various buttons, but they were unable to prove that there was anything nefarious in the button-pressing.The Maricopa Superior Court judge also removed various Trump campaign accusations, gathered via internet forum, from the record, questioning whether soliciting “evidence” on the internet could reliably bring in credible claims. Making matters worse, a Trump campaign lawyer eventually conceded that the campaign was not alleging fraud, instead pointing out “good faith errors.”On Friday, the judge dismissed the Arizona case, since Biden had built up such a lead that the ruling wouldn’t affect whether Biden or Trump won the state.Even outside of courtrooms, Trump’s supposed voter fraud witnesses have failed to back up their claims. U.S. Postal Service mail carrier Richard Hopkins briefly became a star on the right in the aftermath of the election, after he alleged that postal workers in Pennsylvania were backdating ballots to meet the Nov. 3 deadline. Hopkins’ claims were championed by conservative operative James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas group, and Hopkins raised more than $100,000 on GoFundMe.In an interview with postal investigators, though, Hopkins recanted his claims. While he later claimed in an interview with O’Keefe that he felt misled by the investigators, audio released of the interview released by Project Veritas confirmed that Hopkins had recanted at least some of his voter fraud allegations.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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California governor went to party, violated own virus rules

For months, Gov. Gavin Newsom has pleaded with Californians to resist the temptation to socialize with friends and relatives outside their household. Newsom acknowledged Friday he attended a birthday party with a dozen friends on Nov. 6 at the posh French Laundry restaurant in wine country north of San Francisco. Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a professor of public policy communication at the University of Southern California, noted people across the state have been canceling birthday parties, funerals and other important events to abide by the rules.

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Fauci said the US has 'no appetite' for lockdowns but mask wearing and distancing could be enough, the day after a Biden advisor called for a weeks-long lockdown

Dr. Anthony Fauci told "Good Morning America" that taking steps like mask wearing and social distancing means that a lockdown might not be needed.

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Chris Wallace: Republican-controlled Senate would give Biden excuse to pushback on progressives

‘Fox News Sunday’ anchor Chris Wallace lays out the stakes of the upcoming Senate runoffs in Georgia.

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Trump election lawsuit in Arizona's Maricopa County dismissed, outcome wouldn't have affected races

By Friday morning, the Trump team had filed a motion acknowledging the outcome of the lawsuit would have no impact on Arizona’s presidential results

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Second-placed Ancer, Im and Smith carry nations' hopes at Masters

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Privacy should be at the core of CBDCs, says Boston Fed research director

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Etherisc to offer blockchain-based crop insurance to Kenyan farmers

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Australian PM postpones PNG trip as political crisis grips Pacific nation

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Argentina escalates border security after tip about explosives

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Keep dreaming! Options data suggests $560 Ethereum price won’t happen

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Argentina´s Chubut Province strikes debt deal with creditors

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Law Decoded: Of AML and appointees, Nov. 6–13

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Friday, November 13, 2020

The Moneyist: My father wants to deed his kids his home before Prop 19 takes effect. I suggested a life estate instead — he said I’m ungrateful

‘California passed Proposition 19, which will in part require that inherited homes that are not used as principal residences, such as second homes or rentals, be reassessed at market value when transferred.'

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The Moneyist: My fiancé and I have 3 kids each. My stepson, 16, ‘forgot’ his Christmas gift last year. Should I get him nothing this year?

‘I spent the last 2 years trying very hard to be kind to him, and to always greet him and include him regardless of his attitude. But recently, I just no longer care about his approval.’

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Earthquake in Great Smoky Mountains felt up to 16 miles away, geologists say

People in Tennessee and North Carolina reported feeling the quake.

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‘There’s a war on organizing, collective bargaining, unions and workers’: Biden wants to undo Trump executive orders on federal workers

Federal unions challenged three Trump administration orders in particular.

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Pennsylvania officials ask judge to toss Trump lawsuit over election results

Officials in the election battleground state of Pennsylvania on Thursday asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit brought by U.S. President Donald Trump's campaign seeking to prevent the state from certifying its results in the vote for president. In court filings in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, lawyers for the Pennsylvania secretary of state and seven of the state's counties said the case made vague and unsupported allegations "on the basis of repeatedly-rejected legal theories and no evidence." "This Court should see this lawsuit for what it is: a transparent and premeditated attack on our electoral system that broadly seeks to disenfranchise all Pennsylvania voters who legally cast ballots in this election," four of the counties said in a court filing.

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The Moneyist: My wife pushed me into buying a home because she provided two-thirds of the down payment. Now I’m stuck in a house I hate

‘We are now expecting our first child, which just adds to our financial responsibilities. I know I sound like an ass. Please help me see the light.’

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One of Biden's top coronavirus advisors calls for focused restrictions based on disease spread instead of a nationwide lockdown

"So we've got to follow science, but we've got to also be more precise than we were in the spring," Dr. Vivek Murthy said on Friday.

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Harvard admissions didn’t discriminate against Asian-Americans, appeals court finds

Affirmative action narrowly survived in the Supreme Court last time around, but that was before the Trump administration appointed three justices

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Trump walks away from Covid briefing refusing to take questions about the election

They were his first public remarks in nearly a week

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Fellow Governor Blasts Kristi Noem for Letting COVID Run Rampant

In the wake of a superspreader motorcycle rally and other nearly maskless mass gatherings such as a buffalo roundup, South Dakota has itself become a superspreader.And at a press conference this week, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz held South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem partly responsible for a COVID-19 surge in his state that is now forcing him to impose new restrictions. He pointedly cited this summer’s Sturgis motorcycle rally.“Absolutely unnecessary,” Walz said of the rally.Walz added that the largely maskless 200,000 who attended the rally in August had then spread the virus to Minnesota and across the nation. He observed that Noem continues to dismiss even the idea of a mask mandate. (He imposed one in July.)Walz may not have known about another big South Dakota event. After Sturgis, Noem had proceeded to host the Governor’s Buffalo Roundup at Custer State Park on Sept. 25. That largely maskless crowd of 20,000—up 1,000 from last year—began lining up hours before the event, standing less than the recommended 6 feet apart. They continued to largely ignore social distancing after they were admitted to a roped-off area. They crowded shoulder to shoulder at the perimeter’s edge to watch horseback riders herd 1,450 buffalo into a fenced-in section of Custer State Park. They looked on as the buffalo were examined and vaccinated, since herd immunity does not work even for herds.Noem once again proved to be a model of what not to do as she stepped before the crowd without a mask. She hugged a number of maskless officials before taking to the podium to say a few words.Also maskless, Walter Panzirer of the Helmsley Charitable Trust spoke of the interpretive visitor center his non-profit is building near the buffalo corral. The foundation was founded by Leona Helmsley, the hotelier and felon known as “the Queen of Mean.” She was famous for having evicted her son’s widow from a family-owned house the day after the funeral. She once remarked to a maid that “taxes are for the little people.” The IRS took a different position and she spent 16 months in federal prison.But there is no denying that the foundation bearing her name has done considerable good, especially in outlying areas with inadequate medical care. Panzirer nonetheless should have perceived some irony in what he said to a crowd that was largely ignoring the recommended precautions in a pandemic.“We believe in rural health care,” he said.The statement became no less jarring as he went on to say that the interpretive center would contribute to public health by encouraging people to get out and enjoy nature. He gestured to the surrounding hills, a vast, deserted expanse that made it only more nonsensically reckless for so many people to gather so close together. He could have made an immediate and cost-free contribution to public health simply by putting on a mask and telling everyone else to do the same while establishing social distancing.Noem could have done so that very day for the whole state, thereby preventing thousands of infections. She instead let the virus spike in South Dakota to where it is becoming a spreader state. She has repeated baseless doubts about the efficacy of masks and continued to demonstrate the destructive power of a bad example.RNC Speaker Kristi Noem Is a Master of COVID DelusionOn Saturday, Noem demonstrated that her nonfeasance in the face of a pandemic was not the result of an inability to take decisive action. She and her family joined the bidding at the buffalo auction that follows the round-up. The Noems are said by a person involved in the auction to have acquired five. One or two were females, a mix that would allow the Noems to start their very own herd.As the virus continued to spike, Noem was perpetually out of state, assisting the Trump campaign in herding his followers. She described her state as an example for the whole nation, even the world, to follow in addressing the pandemic.“I appreciate that President Trump gave me the flexibility to do the right thing in our state,” she told ABC News. “He let me do my job.”She began an online campaign to raise funds to support Trump’s effort to contest the election. Never remind that the money went directly into her own election coffers. She no longer immediately said she was not interested when people asked if she is contemplating a presidential run in 2024.The virus spiked ever higher in South Dakota, trading off with North Dakota over which had the nation’s highest per capita rate of new cases and deaths. Both states border Minnesota, but Walz placed particular blame on Noem when he announced on Monday that the rising number of new cases in his state was forcing him to impose a variety of new measures, including a reduction in the capacity of restaurants and in size of gatherings of whatever kind, to 50, and then down to 25.He made it known he was offended by the political roadshow Noem undertook while her state’s COVID-19 cases spiked.“And this one’s a little bit personal because the governor of South Dakota has taken to traveling to other states and criticizing others—now at a time when that state’s hospital capacity is overwhelmed,” Walz said.A Noem spokesman insisted that Walz had it wrong, that South Dakota hospitals are only 66 percent full. The spokesman also offered an interpretation of remarks U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams made on Tuesday while visiting a mass testing site at the National Guard Armory in Pierre, South Dakota.“I’d also point you to the surgeon general’s comments yesterday that South Dakota shouldn’t have a mask mandate,” the spokesman said.That is not quite what Adams said. He devoted almost the entirety of his remarks to the necessity of wearing a mask, stating states should do “whatever it takes,” noting that studies show mandates work.And here is what Adams did say about South Dakota and masks:“You don’t have a mask mandate here. But what I would say to people of South Dakota is you really shouldn’t need a mandate to do the right thing for your community, your family, and your friends.”He was not saying South Dakota should not have a mask mandate, only that it should not need one. He could not have been clearer when he described the COVID-19 situation in South Dakota without a mandate.“Out of control,” he said.No wonder Noem did not meet with Adams. Her spokesman said she was busy with the budget. That was in keeping with her unwillingness to sacrifice business for lives. On Wednesday, she continued to make her priorities clear with a tweet in all caps.“GREAT NEWS!She then solved the mystery of what it could possibly be in a state reporting 1,202 new COVID-19 cases that day.“South Dakota’s Sales & Use tax receipts are 8% higher than a year ago.”Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet 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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