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Trump: 'George Washington would have had a hard time beating me before the plague came in'

President Trump suggested that even an opponent as formidable as the nation’s first commander in chief would have had difficulty unseating him before the coronavirus pandemic.

Three killed in Bangalore clashes over Prophet Muhammad post

Police in the southern city of Bangalore opened fire on protesters angered by the Facebook post.

Police officers set dog on black man and say ‘good boy, good boy’ as it bites his leg

A police dog in Salt Lake City was ordered to attack an African American man who was on his knees with his hands in the air.Police officers arrived at Jeffery Ryans’s house in April in Salt Lake City, Utah, after they responded to a call made by someone who said they had heard him arguing with his wife, according to the Daily Mail.

Appeals court seems wary of ordering dismissal of Flynn case

A federal appeals court in Washington appeared inclined Tuesday to let a judge decide on his own whether to grant the Justice Department's request to dismiss the criminal case against former Trump administration national security adviser Michael Flynn. Many members of the court expressed repeated skepticism at arguments from the Justice Department and Flynn's attorneys that a judge was not empowered to probe the motives behind the government's decision to abandon the prosecution of Flynn, who pleaded guilty as part of the special counsel's Russia investigation to lying to the FBI. The case will almost certainly persist for months if the court rejects Flynn's efforts to get a speedy dismissal and returns it to U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan, who refused to immediately grant the department's request to drop the prosecution.

Three people die in Scottish train derailment, carriages piled up

Three people died in a train derailment in eastern Scotland on Wednesday that left carriages overturned and piled on top of each other on a steep wooded slope, making it hard for emergency services to access the scene. Aerial footage showed one carriage detached from the rail tracks and lying on its side some distance down the slope. Another was completely overturned and had two carriages resting on it, one of which was also overturned.

Pro Poker Player Was Bound, Sexually Assaulted, ‘Lit on Fire’ After Motel Meeting

Susie Zhao, the professional poker player whose charred remains were found in a remote Michigan park in July, was allegedly bound with zip ties and sexually assaulted before she was “lit on fire until she died” after meeting with a convicted sex offender, according to new court documents. Zhao, 33, was last seen around 5:30 p.m. on July 12 by her mother, the White Lake Township Police Department previously told The Daily Beast. The next day, her “badly burned” body was discovered at around 8:05 a.m. in a parking lot near the Pontiac Lake Recreation Area, about an hour outside of Detroit. Last week, Jeffrey Bernard Morris, 60, was charged from his hospital bed with first-degree premeditated murder. Authorities discovered the convicted sex offender allegedly met Zhao in a motel room the night before her body was found. Morris, who is homeless and has a “lengthy criminal history” is currently in jail after being denied bail. A Pro Poker Player Was Found ‘Badly Burned.’ Was She Murdered Over Gambling?“This is not the end of the investigation into Susie’s death but the beginning of the pursuit of justice for her and her family,” White Lake Township Detective Chris Hild said in a press conference. “We can only hope that where we are today brings some level of comfort to the healing process.”In new court documents, first obtained by WXYZ, authorities revealed what occurred the night the pro poker player, known on the circuit as “Susie Q,” went missing. Cell phone records indicate Morris and the rising poker star first met on July 12. In an interview with police the night of his arrest on July 31, Morris admitted to picking up Zhao on Watkins Lake Road before they both checked into the Sherwood Motel at around 9:26 p.m.  Morris told investigators the pair left the motel at some point to buy some alcohol and that Zhao left the motel at around midnight and took everything with her. Cell phone records, however, show the 33-year-old’s phone didn’t leave the motel until around 5 a.m on July 13, according to the court documents. Surveillance footage near the motel and cell phone records also show Morris left the room at around 5 a.m., before driving to a secluded section of the Pontiac Lake Recreation area—where Zhao was found. Court documents say that evidence suggests Morris was at the 3,745-acre park for about seven minutes. When Zhao was found the following morning, she was identified by fingerprints and was bound with zip ties. She had been sexually assaulted with a large object before being "lit on fire until she died,” the court documents state. A spokesperson for the Oakland County Medical Examiner told The Daily Beast that Zhao’s cause of death is currently unknown, pending an autopsy and toxicology results. When authorities pulled Morris over on a warrant in Ypsilanti weeks later, investigators found several hairs and other evidence with possible bloodstains. They also found duffle bags with a fitted bed sheet that appeared to have blood on it and a wooden baseball bat that also appeared to have a bloodstain. The items were taken to Oakland County Crime Lab for testing. Authorities are now scrambling to understand the motive behind the “mysterious death” that occurred just weeks after Zhao moved back to her home state of Michigan from California on June 9. Two childhood friends of Zhao previously told The Daily Beast that the poker player bounced between several cities—including Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Florida—both for her job and because she was “a jet-setter.” According to PokerNews.com, Zhao was successful in the professional worker world, garnering several deep runs in the World Series of Poker Main Event—placing 90th in 2012 to earn $73,805. Over the course of her career, Zhao won $224,671, according to the poker database The Hendon Mob. Despite earlier speculation, authorities have said there is no evidence that Zhao’s death was connected to her gambling.“I don’t think there was ever anything else that she wanted to do. She was playing poker from a very young age,” Meredith Rogowski, a childhood friend, told The Daily Beast. “It was not a surprise. She was very bold and did whatever she wanted to do. Whenever we talked about her job, she was very nonchalant. But I do know it was exhausting to be in that world—it was long hours and some of the people she met weren’t always genuine.”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.

South Dakota Governor to get $400,000 security wall around residence

South Dakota officials said Wednesday they plan to build a security fence budgeted for $400,000 around the official governor’s residence to protect Gov. Kristi Noem.

Black N.Y. City Council Members Claim Progressive Calls to Defund Police ‘Have Overshadowed Our Fight’

In the wake of calls to address racism and police brutality, some black and Latino lawmakers in New York and New Jersey are urging their colleagues to pump the brakes on proposals to slash police department budgets.City councilwoman Vanessa Gibson, a liberal Democrat who represents a West Bronx district where over half of residents are Hispanic and 40 percent are black, said her constituents “want to see cops in the community.”“They don’t want to see excessive force. They don’t want to see cops putting their knees in our necks,” Gibson said. “But they want to be safe as they go to the store.”New York City passed a new budget last month that cut $1 billion from the police department budget and re-purposed the funds for education and social services. The decision came amid calls from activists to slash even more funding from the police budget and as the city suffers a $9 billion revenue loss due to coronavirus lockdown measures."I don't want anyone to misunderstand and think that we don't care and that we have not been working our behinds off to get to a place of equity," Gibson said in early July when the city's new budget was passed, adding that communities must not be "left behind with crime, violence, illegal guns in our communities, no programs, no activities, and no hope for a better tomorrow."Laurie Cumbo, the city council's black Democratic majority leader who represents parts of several Brooklyn neighborhoods including Bedford-Stuyvesant, compared the demands of activists to “colonization.”"These are individuals that have never been seen before, active before,” she said. “This takeover is very similar to many of the movements that we’ve seen in colonization.”Alicka Ampry-Samuel, a black councilwoman who represents Brownsville, one of Brooklyn's poorest neighborhoods, expressed concern that the new voices pushing for reform could overshadow those in her community."We have fought for police reform and more funding every single budget cycle," she said. "This debate is not new to me. What is new are the additional voices of concern added to the conversation, which at times have overshadowed our fight.”Other black and Latino council members, including Antonio Reynoso of Brooklyn, who represents the more gentrified areas of Williamsburg and Bushwick, were more open to cutting funding to the NYPD.“We have wrongly been told our whole lives that police keep us safe,” Reynoso said.In New Jersey, Mayor Ras Baraka of Newark, the state's largest city, dismissed calls to dismantle police departments as a “bourgeois liberal” solution to the problem of racism.“I think it’s kind of a knee-jerk reaction,” said the Democratic mayor, who is black.“I think there needs to be significant reforms," he continued. "To get rid of the police department — who would respond to calls for service for violence and domestic abuse?”“At the end of the day, I think that the city and the residents here need police officers in their communities,” Baraka said.

N95 respirators can be sanitized using crockpots and rice cookers, study finds

Researchers at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign say this new method can help hospital workers safely disinfect their N95 respirators.

Americans might face a long wait for the COVID economic relief Trump promised in executive order

Trump's plan to give $300 per week in unemployment benefits faces a number of legal, logistical and funding hurdles.

Salmonella in shrimp ignites a recall at Costco, Fresh Market, BJ’s Wholesale and others

The FDA found salmonella in shrimp imported by Kader Exports, causing a recall of various frozen shrimp products, including those sold under the house brands Costco, BJ’s Wholesale and Tops grocery chains.

In wake of Englewood shooting, Chicago mayor says all police officers dealing with public need body cameras

CHICAGO - Mayor Lori Lightfoot said the city shouldn't be sending police officers out on the street without body-worn cameras but defended the department's account of a shooting in the Englewood neighborhood that allegedly touched off looting and civil unrest over the weekend. On a conference call with reporters Tuesday afternoon, Lightfoot acknowledged the Chicago police officer who shot ...

'Kicked in the teeth': Devastation mounts from Midwest storm

The impact of a wind storm that tore through the Midwest continued to grow Wednesday, as widespread power outages kept businesses closed, limited communication, spoiled food and caused long lines at gas stations. It produced winds of up to 112 mph near Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and toppled trees, snapped poles, downed power lines and tore off roofs from eastern Nebraska to Indiana. “It feels like we got kicked in the teeth pretty good,” said Dale Todd, a member of Cedar Rapids' city council.

Taiwan says discussing purchase of U.S. mines, cruise missiles

Taiwan is in discussions with the United States on acquiring underwater sea mines to deter amphibious landings as well as cruise missiles for coastal defense, Taiwan's de facto ambassador to United States said on Wednesday. Speaking to the Washington's Hudson Institute think tank, Hsiao Bi-khim said Taiwan was facing "an existential survival issue," given China's territorial and sovereignty claims over the island and needed to expand its asymmetric capabilities. Hsiao said Taipei was currently working with the United States on acquiring a number of hardware capabilities, including cruise missiles that would work in conjunction with Taiwan's indigenous Hsiung Feng missile system to provide better coastal defense.

Agnes Chow: Hong Kong activist hailed as the 'real Mulan'

The 23-year-old democracy activist arrested under a new security law is a folk hero to her supporters.

Kamala Harris: How the former prosecutor who skewered Biden in the debates built her career on being first

Kamala Harris has made her political career out of being the first.When she was just 40 years old, Ms Harris – who started out as a prosecutor in Alameda County, California – was elected as the district attorney for San Francisco, making her the first woman and first person of colour to hold that position.

Teens and young adults who vape are 5 to 7 times more likely to get coronavirus, a new study found

Health experts had warned that vaping could leave lungs susceptible to severe COVID-19 infections. Now they have the data to show it.

Mother says son with autism was 'kicked out' of church by priest

Julia Vicidomini said her son, Nicholas, was instructed to leave the church after he dropped a toy.

For new book, Bob Woodward obtained 'extraordinary' letters between Trump and Kim Jong Un

Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Bob Woodward's new book about President Trump now has a name: Rage.Rage is scheduled for release on Sept. 15, and people familiar with the book's contents told CNN it goes into detail about how Trump makes decisions and his thoughts on the coronavirus pandemic, national security, and the Black Lives Matter protests.Rage will be published by Simon & Schuster, the same company behind recent tell-alls by former National Security Adviser John Bolton and the president's niece, Mary Trump. CEO Jonathan Karp told CNN Rage is "the most important book Simon & Schuster will publish this year. Every voter should read it before Nov. 3."In January, Trump announced that he sat down with Woodward for the book; he ignored earlier interview requests from Woodward when the author was working on his 2018 tome, Fear, and criticized the book after it was published. CNN reports that Woodward recorded hundreds of hours of interviews with Trump and other people close to him and the White House, and also obtained "notes, emails, diaries, calendars, and confidential documents," including 25 personal letters between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.A person familiar with the letters called them "extraordinary," and Simon & Schuster revealed that in one of them, "Kim describes the bond between the two leaders as out of a 'fantasy film.'"More stories from theweek.com The case against American truck bloat Trump's payroll tax deferral is confusing, maybe unworkable, top U.S. business group warns Trump has pretty much eliminated daily intelligence briefings. Biden has already started receiving them.

Air Force helicopter shot at from ground while flying over Virginia, crew injured

FBI investigating shot fired at UH-1N Huey flying over Virginia which injured a crew member.

Andrew Yang on Democratic National Convention: 'I kind of expected to speak'

Yang voiced his apparent disappointment in not being on the list of speakers at the upcoming Democratic National Convention.

Cop posted "Kill em all" on protest livestream, investigation finds

The CSPD police chief chose not to fire Sergeant Wrede, calling his actions "an isolated incident of an error in judgment."

1 person injured in San Francisco shooting

Police say the victim of the shooting has died. Officers are still looking for the suspected shooter.

Russia says medics to get anti-COVID shots in two weeks, rejects safety concerns

Russia said on Wednesday the first batch of its Covid-19 vaccine would be ready for some medics within two weeks and rejected as "groundless" safety concerns aired by some experts over Moscow's rapid approval of the drug. President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Russia had become the first country to grant regulatory approval to a COVID-19 vaccine, after less than two months of human testing.

Georgia high school closes 8 days after reopening, confirms 14 coronavirus cases

"We know all parents do not believe the scientific research that indicates masks are beneficial," said the district chief.

An admitted KKK leader has been sentenced to 6 years in prison after driving a truck through a crowd of protesters in June

A Virginia man who boasted to police of his Ku Klux Klan rank was sentenced to six years in prison after driving his truck into a crowd of protesters.

Fox News host baselessly claims that 'something's going to happen' to Joe Biden, forcing her colleague to walk her comment back

"I have a sense that something's going to happen before the election, and he's not even going to be on the ticket," she said.

Thunderstorms have hospitalized 52K Americans for breathing issues, study says. Why?

As global warming continues, more respiratory hospitalizations are expected.

These states require travelers to self-quarantine or present negative COVID-19 test

States are opening back up, but some still require or recommend visitors self-quarantine for two weeks. Find out where.

Israel strikes Hamas positions in Gaza over fire balloons

The Israeli military said Wednesday it carried out overnight strikes on Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip after incendiary balloons were launched across the border from the Palestinian enclave. Jets, attack helicopters and tanks struck a number of Hamas targets including "underground infrastructure and observation posts," a statement said. Fire services in southern Israel said the balloons caused 60 fires on Tuesday alone but reported no casualties.

Lithuania says Russia is using Belarus crisis to try to draw it closer into its orbit

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius said on Tuesday that Russia was trying to use a political crisis in Belarus to draw Minsk closer into its orbit by pressuring it to agree to closer integration. President Vladimir Putin said on Monday he wanted neighbouring Belarus to reactivate stalled plans for more integration with Russia after a contested election win left Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, an on-off Russian ally, on the defensive. Linkevicius, speaking to Reuters in a video call, called Russia's actions another "vector of instability" for Belarus.

Tiger King's Carole Baskin faces lawsuit from family of husband Don Lewis

The family of Don Lewis, who disappeared in 1997, file a lawsuit against his wife Carole Baskin.

'Terror crocodiles' with teeth the size of bananas once roamed North America preying on dinosaurs

"Terror crocodiles" which had teeth the size of bananas and could reach 33 feet in length once roamed North America preying on dinosaurs, according to a new study. Researchers say the Deinosuchus, which means "terror crocodile", was the largest predator in its ecosystem when it roamed the earth between 75 to 82 million years ago, outweighing the largest predatory dinosaurs which existed at the same time. The new study, published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, revisited fossil specimens of the gigantic creatures and found the Deinosuchus had teeth “the size of bananas”, capable of taking down even the very largest of dinosaurs. It also confirmed that the predators grew to as much as 33ft in length, making them nearly as long as some city buses. Researchers also found that there were at least three species of Deinosuchus, two of which lived along western America from Montana to northern Mexico.

‘This Is Reparations’: Black Lives Matter Holds Rally to Support Suspects in Recent Chicago Looting

Members of Black Lives Matter Chicago held a rally on Monday night in support of more than 100 people arrested following widespread looting and rioting in the city the night prior. Speaking at the rally outside a police station in the South Loop where organizers said the suspected looters are in custody, organizer Ariel Atkins excused the looting — which reportedly caused at least $60 million in property damage and left 13 police officers injured — calling the theft “reparations,” NBC Chicago reported.“I don’t care if someone decides to loot a Gucci or a Macy’s or a Nike store, because that makes sure that person eats,” Ariel Atkins, a BLM organizer, said. “That makes sure that person has clothes.”“That is reparations,” Atkins added. “Anything they wanted to take, they can take it because these businesses have insurance.”Hundreds of people swarmed downtown Chicago early Monday, breaking the windows of dozens of businesses and stealing anything they could, including merchandise and cash machines, after Chicago police officers shot an armed man in Englewood on Sunday. Latrell Allen, 20, had fired shots at police prompting them to return fire, striking and wounding him, police said. Allen now faces attempted murder charges after the incident. “This person fired shots at our officers,” CPD Superintendent David Brown said. “Officers returned fire and struck the individual.”Black Lives Matter organizers expressed skepticism over the shooting, showing concern that none of the officers involved had worn body cameras.“Police say a lot of things,” Atkins said.  “Even though the Department of Justice said with the consent decree they are no longer allowed to chase people, they decided they were going to chase, and they shot this young man multiple times."The unrest was sparked by a social media post urging people to descend on Chicago’s business district after the officer involved shooting. A video posted on Facebook around 6:30 p.m. falsely claimed that officers had shot and killed a 15-year-old boy, Fox News reported. “This was not an organized protest. Rather, this was an incident of pure criminality," Police Superintendent David Brown told reporters of the looting. "This was an act of violence against our police officers and against our city.”Hoping to prevent additional looting in the Central Business District, police are setting up barriers and raising bridges in downtown Chicago. Expressway exits are also closed and CTA trains and buses are running limited routes, NBC Chicago reported.

Op-Ed: If Biden wins, don't expect Trump to accept defeat and head for the exit

The only way to guarantee Trump doesn't ignore election results is a Biden win so decisive it's apparent on election night.

MBS is stamping out the final threat to his rule, bringing an end to his 3-year coup marked by power grabs, forced disappearances, and assassinations

Crown Prince Mohammed is gunning for Saad al-Jabri and Mohammed bin Nayef, but they are old friends of the US, who want answers from the kingdom.

Party with 400 people shut down during students’ first weekend back at ECU, cops say

Police say the number of parties was still a far cry from past opening weekends at East Carolina University.

Federal judge refuses to block campus sexual assault rules

A federal judge on Wednesday allowed the Education Department to move forward with new rules governing how schools and universities respond to complaints of sexual assault. The rules, which take effect Friday, expand the rights of the accused, narrow the definition of sexual harassment and reduce the scope of cases that schools are required to investigate, among other changes. In a suit challenging the rules, attorneys general from 17 states and the District of Columbia argued that the policy would block schools from investigating certain sexual abuse complaints and would discourage students from reporting assaults.

'Explosive' Lake Fire in Southern California burns 10,000 acres in just hours, forces evacuations in Los Angeles County

The Lake Fire had burned about 10,000 acres as of 8 p.m. PDT near Lake Hughes in the Angeles National Forest, about 65 miles northeast of Los Angeles.

Germany records biggest jump in new coronavirus cases since early May

Germany recorded the biggest daily increase in new coronavirus cases in more than three months, data showed on Wednesday, with the health minister warning of outbreaks in nearly all parts of the country due to holiday returnees and party-goers. The number of confirmed coronavirus cases rose by 1,226 to 218,519, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) showed. The number of coronavirus deaths remained relatively low, edging up by six to a total of 9,207.

Americans, go home: Tension at Canada-US border

Fears about spikes in US Covid-19 cases have led to some hostility between Canadians and Americans.

Lebanon parliament meets to discuss giving sweeping powers to army

Lebanon’s parliament met on Thursday to debate a state of emergency law that would grant the military sweeping powers to quell unrest following a deadly explosion in Beirut that has reignited angry anti-government protests. Exceptional powers under the law could be used to end renewed protests demanding the overthrow of a political elite widely blamed for the catastrophic explosion, a human rights group said. The August 4 blast killed at least 171 people, according to the health ministry, and destroyed an estimated 6,000 buildings in Beirut, further enraging Lebanese already struggling amid a collapsing economy and worsening coronavirus pandemic. Lebanese security forces deployed heavily in Beirut on Thursday, blocking roads to prevent protesters from reaching a conference centre on the outskirts of the capital where members of parliament met for the first time since last Tuesday’s blast. The government declared a state of emergency the day after the explosion but the measure must be endorsed by parliament to last longer than a week, according to Lebanese law monitor The Legal Agenda. The state of emergency would allow authorities to crack down on a nationwide street protest movement that re-emerged in the wake of the blast, it said.

3 charged with threatening R. Kelly accusers

Federal prosecutors announced charges Wednesday against three men accused of threatening and intimidating women who have accused R&B singer R. Kelly of abuse, including one man suspected of setting fire to a vehicle in Florida.

Long a Republican Safety Net, White Middle-Class Voters Are Slipping From Trump’s Grip

As Trump tries to appeal to middle-class voters, he may have tipped us off to his biggest threat to a second term.

Residents of Chicago Neighborhood Eject Black Lives Matter Protesters

A small group of residents from Chicago's Englewood neighborhood ejected Black Lives Matter protesters who arrived for a demonstration at a local police precinct.Several activist groups had organized a march leading to the 7th police precinct in Englewood. However, an organizer later told Fox 32 that groups decided to leave after confrontations with nearby residents left them feeling "unsafe.""If you ain’t from Englewood, get the f*** out of here!" resident Darryl Smith shouted at the protesters. Residents engaged in pushing matches with some of the protesters."They were…gonna come to Englewood, antagonizing our police, and then when they go back home to the North Side in Indiana, our police are bitter and they're beating up our little black boys," Smith told Fox. Charles McKenzie, of a community violence-prevention group called God's Gorillas, concurred, saying "We refuse to let anyone come to Englewood and tear it up."Protesters maintained that they had come to demonstrate peacefully in favor of defunding the police. Organizers from one of the protest groups, GoodKids MadCity, said that they were themselves residents of Englewood, but that others in the neighborhood did not support eliminating the police entirely.Englewood has long been plagued by gun violence, including this year as Chicago sees a spike in shootings and homicides. Chicago police recorded 440 homicides and 2,240 shooting victims in the first seven months of 2020, up from 290 homicides and 1,480 shooting victims the previous year.On Sunday, police shot and wounded a 20-year-old who allegedly fired on officers, an incident that sparked confrontations with police after rumor spread that the wounded suspect was a child. That night, what appeared to be organized looters ransacked Chicago's downtown."A lot of people saying the looting sparked from Englewood. We're not having that. It didn't spark from Englewood," Smith said. "Those [looters] are opportunists, and we're tired of Englewood getting a black eye for any and everything that happens."

Map: State-by-state breakdown of coronavirus travel restrictions

U.S. states and territories are making new rules for travelers. Find which ones across the United States have implemented travel restrictions to curb the spread of COVID-19.

School district nixes in-person learning after 400 teachers opt out

More than 400 teachers in New Jersey's Elizabeth School District have already opted out of in-person classes over health concerns.