Migrant Children From Other Countries Are Being Expelled Into Mexico

U.S. border authorities have been expelling migrant children from other countries into Mexico, violating a diplomatic agreement with Mexico and testing the limits of immigration and child welfare laws.The expulsions, laid out in a sharply critical internal email from a senior Border Patrol official, have taken place under an aggressive border closure policy the Trump administration has said is necessary to prevent the coronavirus from spreading into the United States. But they conflict with the terms upon which the Mexican government agreed to help implement the order, which were that only Mexican children and others who had adult supervision could be pushed back into Mexico after attempting to cross the border.The expulsions put children from countries such as Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador at risk by sending them with no accompanying adult into a country where they have no family connections. Most appear to have been put, at least at first, into the care of Mexican child welfare authorities, who oversee shelters operated by religious organizations and other private groups.The expulsions, which appear to number more than 200 over the past eight months, reflect the haphazard nature with which many of the administration's most aggressive immigration policies have been introduced. In many cases, they have led to the shuffling of young children among U.S. government agencies and now, among the governments of countries that are not their own. For years now, the Trump administration's handling of migrant children has left members of families separated for months on end and unable to reach one another.A report to the courts earlier this month revealed that the parents of 545 such children currently in the United States, some of them separated from their families as long ago as 2017, still have not been located.Under existing diplomatic agreements and U.S. policies, children from countries other than Mexico are supposed to be put on flights operated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement to their home countries, where they can be reunited with their families.Rumors of children from other countries being expelled into Mexico have swirled among nonprofit workers advocating for child welfare in Mexico and the United States. But locating any such children has been difficult because of spotty reporting from Mexican government authorities.But an email from the U.S. Border Patrol's assistant chief, Eduardo Sanchez, obtained by The New York Times, makes it clear that such transfers have not only occurred but also that they are a clear violation of U.S. policy."Recently, we have identified several suspected instances where Single Minors (SM) from countries other than Mexico have been expelled via ports of entry rather than referred to ICE Air Operations for expulsion flights," Sanchez wrote.Referring to the federal public health statute upon which the administration's border closure policy rests, he continued, "Please note that if not corrected, these actions will place Title 42 operations in significant jeopardy and must be ceased immediately. To reiterate, under no circumstances should a SM from a country other than Mexico be knowingly expelled to Mexico."Brian Hastings, chief of the Border Patrol's Rio Grande Valley sector, acknowledged in an interview that non-Mexican children had been sent back into Mexico.Hastings said that without rapidly returning migrants under the pandemic rule, "we would have massive amounts of infections, massive amounts of commingling, and again, we would fill a hospital." He said that border agents are directed to contact the Mexican consular office each time an unaccompanied child is expelled.And Mark Morgan, acting commissioner of the Customs and Border Protection agency, acknowledged in a separate interview this week that such expulsions would violate an agreement between Mexico and the United States. "That's not part of their policy," Morgan said of Mexico.The two officials said that the expulsion policy has helped prevent the kind of overcrowding in border facilities that led to widespread criticism over the agency's care for children last year.But border agents have now been directed to exempt most children under the age of 10 from the expulsion policy and transfer them to shelters in the United States that are overseen by the U.S. Health and Human Services agency, Hastings said.The coronavirus pandemic created an opportunity for the Trump administration to enact its most stringent border restrictions yet. Thousands of children have since been rapidly expelled to their home countries after crossing the border into the United States -- a departure from years of established practices, under which children traveling without adult guardians were transferred into a U.S. government shelter system, where they were assigned to caseworkers who worked to reunite them with American sponsors while their cases for asylum were being considered in the courts.Contrary to that policy, the children expelled during the pandemic have been held only briefly in Border Patrol facilities or in hotels before being sent to their homes countries, often without any notification to their families ahead of time. Some have had to borrow cellphones when they arrive at airports to look for family members who may be willing to take them in.The latest expulsions add a new and potentially more devastating complication, creating even more confusion for families from Central America and elsewhere who may be trying to find their children.It is possible that some of the expelled children may have had family members in Mexico who were themselves waiting for entry to the United States, but Mexican authorities did not provide information about children handed off to their shelters.A Salvadoran father living in California who asked not to be named because he is in the country illegally said he first learned that his 15-year-old daughter had been expelled into Mexico in August, when he received a phone call from the Salvadoran Embassy in Ciudad Juarez."They said I had to stay calm because she was going to be OK," the father said. "I didn't know what to ask; it was just all confusing." His daughter had no family in Mexico, he said.She had been waiting in El Salvador to be approved for a visa to enter the United States under a special program for victims of sexual violence, based on what had happened to her in her home country, he said. He was not sure why she had tried to cross the U.S. border before she was approved to do so -- he assumed it was out of fears for her own safety.After lawyers intervened on the girl's behalf, arguing that her rights had been violated during the expulsion, she was allowed into the United States and is now living in a shelter in Arizona. Her father said he is waiting for permission from the U.S. government to be reunited with his daughter."I've been out of my mind," he said. "This is a really, really stressful situation. It's about your kids, you want always the best for them, but at the same time you know that you can't physically protect them or do anything right now, so that is really frustrating."Lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union are challenging the practice of expelling migrant children in federal court, arguing that it violates child welfare laws, such as the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, as well as national immigration laws, which require special protections for migrant children traveling alone."Even apart from the general illegality of Title 42, it is separately illegal under the immigration laws to expel a non-Mexican child to Mexico," said Lee Gelernt, the lead attorney in the case.The government has recently begun referring to migrant children who cross the border alone differently -- as "single minors" rather than "unaccompanied alien children" -- reinforcing the notion that while the pandemic-related border closure is in place, such children are not eligible for the legal protections that would otherwise have been available to them.According to public data, U.S. authorities have expelled more than 200,000 people since the new public health border closure took effect, but the administration would not answer questions about how many of them were children nor about how many were sent to Mexico. In December, border authorities acknowledged in federal court that at least 8,800 children have been expelled from the United States since March.Human rights organization Women's Refugee Commission, working with several other advocacy organizations, filed a public records request with Mexican authorities and received data suggesting that at least 208 Central American children had been returned to the custody of Mexican authorities between March 21 and June 5 of this year.Mexican child welfare authorities did not respond to requests for comment.Adults have also been expelled during the pandemic, in relatively large numbers, allowing some of them to quickly attempt to reenter the country.To combat repeat attempts, Hastings said, the Border Patrol has begun expulsion flights into the interior of Mexico for Mexican adults who have tried to enter the United States four or more times.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company

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A Mars-sized planet is aimlessly zooming through the Milky Way

The smallest rogue planet found to date, it wanders through the Milky Way with no parent star or gravitational siblings to keep it company.

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Former GOP conservative explains why he voted for Biden and thinks you should too

Tom Nichols, the conservative turned Biden supporter, says this is not the time to vote based on policy. Support for former Vice President Joe Biden is coming in from the most unlikely places. A conservative penned a piece for USA Today detailing why he voted for Biden this election and not President Donald Trump.

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Trump news: President limits rally to 21 minutes after crowds kept out by Covid restrictions

Follow the latest updates

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Las Vegas police charge driver after man pushed a cyclist to her death, fell out a minivan window, hit his head on a lamppost, and died at the scene

Rodrigo Cruz, 22, was the driver of the minivan involved in the two deaths, the Las Vegas police said.

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Teenager shot and killed after attacking police station in Russia in apparent echo of France attacks

A 16-year-old has been shot and killed after trying to set fire to a police station and stabbing an officer in an attack that appeared to echo those recently carried out in France. The teenage boy threw a Molotov cocktail at the police station in the town of Kukmor in the predominantly Muslim region of Tatarstan late on Thursday and stabbed a police officer who tried to detain him, Russian investigators said on Friday. Another police officer later shot the 16-year-old, who died on spot. Authorities are treating the incident as an attempted terrorist attack but would not immediately give the teenager’s motives. Tatarstan’s Interior Ministry confirmed media reports that the teenager shouted “Allahu akbar!” and threatened to kill “enemies of Allah.” Local media identified the 16-year-old as Vitaly Antipov, who was reportedly unemployed and did not attend school. The Business Online website said Mr Antipov was a stepson of a convicted terrorist who was found guilty of blowing up a section of a gas pipeline and sentenced to 14 years in prison in 2001. Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, on Friday refused to link the attack to the ongoing Islamist violence in France and called it an isolated criminal incident. Many in Russia’s Muslim community were irked by French President Emmanuel Macron’s reaction to the murder of a school teacher two weeks ago. His defence of freedom of expression including mocking religion sparked protests outside the French embassy in Moscow and triggered angry comments from Ramzan Kadyrov, leader of Russia’s Chechnya. Mr Kadyrov earlier this week claimed that Mr Macron was “100 times worse than a terrorist” for “enticing provocations. After he was dressed down by the Kremlin for meddling in Russia’s foreign policy, Mr Kadyrov insisted that he spoke in personal capacity as a Muslim who feels compelled to defend his religion.

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'Voters are fed up': will Arizona's suburbs abandon the party of Trump?

The president won narrowly in Maricopa county in 2016. Polls show his support is draining – and fellow Republicans are at riskIn the agonizing days after the 2018 election, Christine Marsh, a Democratic candidate for state senate in a traditionally Republican suburban Phoenix district, watched her opponent’s lead dwindle to a few hundred votes, with thousands of ballots left to be counted.In the end, just 267 votes separated them.Marsh lost. But the result was ominous for Republicans, in a corner of Phoenix’s ever-expanding suburbs where Barry Goldwater, the long-serving Arizona senator and conservative icon, launched his presidential campaign in 1964 from the patio of his famed hilltop estate in Paradise Valley.series linker embedIn the decades since, population growth and shifting demographics have transformed the cultural, political and economic complexion of the region.And the election of Donald Trump has exacerbated these trends across the country, perhaps nowhere more dramatically than in diverse, fast-growing metropolitan areas like Phoenix, where the coalition of affluent, white suburban voters that once cemented Republican dominance is unraveling.“We’ve seen a huge shift in my district, even in just the last two years,” said Marsh, a high school English teacher who is challenging the Republican incumbent, Kate Brophy McGee, again this year. The district, which includes the prosperous Paradise Valley and parts of north central Phoenix, is now at the center of the political battle for Arizona’s suburbs.Over the last four years, Republicans have watched their support collapse in suburbs across the country, as the president’s divisive rhetoric and incendiary behavior alienates women, college graduates and independent voters. But as Trump continues to downplay the seriousness of the coronavirus pandemic, even after more than 225,000 deaths nationwide and as cases continue to climb, his conduct is imperiling not only his own re-election campaign, but his entire party. ‘Ground zero’The depth of Trump’s problems with suburbanites is magnified in Maricopa county, one of the largest and most suburban counties in the nation, with a population of almost 4.5 million.In 2016, the suburbs helped deliver Trump’s narrow victory here. But polling shows the president has lost significant ground with these voters, threatening his prospects in a state that has voted for a Democratic presidential candidate only once since 1952.“If the president loses Arizona, it’ll be largely because he lost Maricopa county – because he lost the suburbs,” said Jeff Flake, the former Arizona senator and a conservative critic of the president who has endorsed his Democratic opponent, Joe Biden.The political dividing line in America now runs directly through suburbs like the ones around Phoenix, rare ground where Trump inspires both fierce loyalty and deep revulsion.Here, across desert sprawl of stuccoed housing developments and saguaro-scattered foothills, is “ground zero”, said Mike Noble, the chief pollster at OH Predictive Insights in Phoenix. Not only are these voters poised to deliver a referendum on Trump next week, they will also be decisive in determining control of the US Congress and the state legislature.In his analysis of precincts that voted for Trump in 2016 yet backed the Democratic Senate candidate Kyrsten Sinema two years later, the vast majority were in suburban parts of Maricopa county. Sinema, who cast herself as an “independent voice” willing to break with her party, became the first Democrat in 30 years to win a US Senate seat in the state, beating the Republican Martha McSally, who had tied her fate to the president.“The big story of the last four years is the shift of white, college-educated independents and self-identified moderates,” he said.Independents, or unaffiliated voters, make up roughly a third of Arizona’s electorate. In 2016, they broke narrowly for Trump, but this year, polling suggests these voters are swinging heavily away from the president.According to an October Monmouth poll, independent voters in Arizona favor Biden by 21 percentage points. The survey also found that most of the state’s independent voters believe McSally, who was appointed to fill the unexpired term of the late Republican senator John McCain after losing to Sinema in 2018, is too supportive of the president. She now faces an uphill battle to keep the seat, after months spent trailing her Democratic challenger, Mark Kelly.Unlike McSally, McGee – the Republican state senator who is trying to hold on to her seat in Phoenix – has carefully cultivated a reputation as a moderate, breaking with her party on legislation related to Medicare expansion and school vouchers.Yet like many Republicans running in increasingly formidable terrain, McGee faces strong national headwinds after four years of anti-Trump activism and resistance in the suburbs. Arizona’s Red for Ed movement, which led to a week-long teacher walkout in 2018, galvanized parents and students alike and helped build support for Marsh who was the 2016 state teacher of the year.This year, education, compounded by the coronavirus, is a top priority for Arizonans, and, on this issue, voters favor Democrats. A ballot measure imposing a surtax on the highest earners to increase public education funding is poised for approval, with polling showing support from a majority of Democrats and independent voters.“I really do think it’s frustration,” Marsh said. “Voters are really fed up with the lack of leadership and they realize that the only way we’re going to change anything in Arizona is by changing the balance of power.” ‘Suburban women, will you please like me?’Trump has attempted to woo back suburban voters by casting himself as the protector of a certain “suburban lifestyle dream” who would forestall an “invasion” of low-income housing and keep their neighborhoods safe from the “crime and chaos” of America’s “dysfunctional cities”.His appeals, intended to stoke the racist fears of white voters, conjures a decades-old image of suburbia that is completely detached from the racially diverse and economically prosperous communities growing around America’s biggest cities. Polling suggests the entreaties have not worked.Unlike four years ago, Trump is trailing by significant margins among white women, a group that includes independents and moderate Republicans likely to be turned off by Trump’s inflammatory speech.“Suburban women, will you please like me?” Trump pleaded at a recent rally in Pennsylvania. “Please? Please!” Lisa James, a veteran Republican strategist in Phoenix, said a public safety message had the potential to resonate with conservative suburban women, who were upset by scenes of rioting and violence that occurred alongside largely peaceful protests against racism and police brutality this summer.“These voters are concerned about the safety and security of their families and their communities,” James said. “Events like that will lead many of them right back to the Republican party.”The October Monmouth poll found that nearly 60% of Arizona voters, including a majority of voters in Maricopa county, worried “a lot” about the potential breakdown of law and order. The issue was more of a concern for voters than the coronavirus pandemic and other financial matters.However, it hasn’t reshaped their opinion of the president. The same survey found that Arizonans preferred Biden over Trump, even though they trusted Trump more to maintain law and order.Other national polls show Trump’s standing on the issue even more diminished, with voters saying Biden was better suited to handle crime and public safety. In a national Fox News survey released earlier this month, 58% of voters agreed that the way Trump talks about racial inequality and policing had lead to “an increase in acts of violence”.In 2016, Karie Barrera said, she was an independent who cast her ballot for Hillary Clinton. Four years later, the recently retired educator said she was still not enthralled by the president. But she became increasingly alarmed after the Black Lives Matter protests led to calls for making school curriculums more inclusive.“I don’t like that you’re going to mess with our real history,” Barrera said.The president has claimed that schoolchildren are being taught a “twisted web of lies” about systemic racism in America and called for a return to “patriotic education”. Barrera agrees: “You don’t rewrite our history.”Yet the very rhetoric that reassures Barrera is jeopardizing a coalition that once cemented Republican dominance in states like Arizona.“The more that Trump’s rhetoric is designed to appeal to a white, male, working-class set of voters, the more alienated these college-educated, right-leaning independents and Republicans start to feel,” said Sarah Longwell, a Republican consultant who has spent the last several years studying suburban voters. ‘This was personal’In 2016, women in Arizona narrowly favored Clinton over Trump. In the latest New York Times/Siena College poll of Arizona voters, Biden held a daunting 18-point lead among women in the state.From the outset, it was clear that many of the women Longwell convened in her focus groups didn’t like Trump: they didn’t like his tweets, his treatment of women, his conduct or his leadership style. But they took a chance on him in 2016 because they believed the alternative wasn’t any better. These were often the voters who bolted first, helping Democrats retake the House in the 2018 midterm elections.Among those who didn’t, Longwell said many have grappled with their discomfort over Trump’s behavior and their allegiance to the Republican party. She said that despite the tumult of the last four years, little moved these women – until the pandemic arrived.“Suddenly there was a shift,” she said. “Voters started talking about the stakes being too high. They were suffering personal consequences, which is very different from an abstract foreign policy issue. This was personal.”Longwell, who founded Republican Voters Against Trump, said the suburban shift away from the Republican party could be the beginning of a “meaningful political realignment” that will outlast Trump’s presidency.“It will depend who the Democrats are in the future and it will depend who the Republicans are in the future,” she said. “But these voters have no interest in a Trumpy Republican party.” ‘Adiós Trump’In 2008 and 2012, Yasser Sanchez worked to elect John McCain and Mitt Romney to the White House. But this year, for the first time in his life, the lifelong Republican is voting for a Democratic presidential nominee – and has no qualms about it.Sanchez, an immigration lawyer in Mesa, a conservative Phoenix suburb with more than half a million residents, said he was appalled by Trump’s conduct, his vilification of immigrants and his disdain for American institutions. But equally disappointing, Sanchez said, was the near-unwavering loyalty he received from Republican leaders.“The Republican party used to stand for certain principles,” he said. “Now it stands for defending whatever the president tweets that morning.”The Trump presidency has forced Sanchez to reconsider his political identity. He isn’t a Democrat, but he also doesn’t see a place for himself in the party he had supported all his life.This year, Sanchez is doing everything he can to ensure Arizona elects Biden. He hosted a voter registration drive in the parking lot of his law firm and placed an “Adiós Trump” billboard along the busy Interstate 10 in Phoenix.“For now, I’m comfortable being an independent,” he said. “Unless there’s a reckoning within the Republican party, I will not be going back.”

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Daylight-saving time ends on Sunday, November 1 — here's why we have it and why some countries and states have gotten rid of it

At 2 a.m. ET on November 1, Americans will "fall back" by moving their clocks an hour earlier to end seven months of daylight-saving time.

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'They give me the willies': scientist who vacuumed murder hornets braces for fight

Chris Looney helped dismantle the first nest of Asian giant hornets in the US. Now he’s preparing for the next stepThe eradication of the first nest of Asian giant hornets on US soil somewhat resembled a science fiction depiction of an alien landing site. A crew of government specialists in white, astronaut-like protective suits descended upon the hornet nexus to vanquish it with a futuristic-looking vacuum cleaner, to the relief of onlookers.The nest of the fearsome invasive insects, notoriously known as “murder hornets”, was found in a tree crevice near Blaine, in Washington state, via a tracking device attached to a previously captured worker hornet. The Washington state department of agriculture (WSDA) confirmed the nest had been successfully removed, with dozens of live captives taken back for inspection.“It was cold so they were docile, so between their slowness and the protective gear no one was hurt,” said Chris Looney, a WSDA entomologist who was tasked with vacuuming up the hornets.Wielding a lengthy, toxic stinger, the hornets can cause renal failure and death in people, as dozens of people in Japan have found out to their cost. One entomologist in Canada described the feeling of being stung as like “having hot tacks pushed into my flesh”.They can also squirt venom, as Looney saw first-hand when his lab workbench was sprayed by hornets as they roused themselves following capture. “I was more worried about getting permanent nerve damage in the eye from the squirted venom than being stung,” said Looney, who wore goggles for the capture. “They are pretty intimidating, even for an inch-and-a-half insect. They are big and loud and I know it would hurt very badly if I get stung. They give me the willies.”Murder hornets do not earn their moniker from killing people, however, with honeybees far more likely to be targeted. A honeybee colony can be decimated within a few hours, with the hornets decapitating their victims and feeding severed body parts to their young. This poses a gnawing concern for hobbyist beekeepers and even farmers in the US north-west, where managed honeybees are crucial for the pollination of crops such as blueberries and raspberries.Asian giant hornets were first discovered in North America last year, popping up in British Columbia, Canada, before a handful of specimens made it south of the border to Washington state. The hornets, native to east Asia, most likely arrived on the continent clinging to imported goods sent via sea or air. A close relative of the hornet has already made separate inroads into France and the UK.A key, and unnerving, question is how far they will manage to spread across America. Looney said the removal of the first nest found in the US was just a “small victory” in a battle likely to rage for several years to contain the insects. Thousands of sightings have been reported in Washington, and while many are false or mistaken, Looney said it was likely the hornets had spread, potentially establishing dozens more nests.“It’s hard to say how they will behave here compared to their native range, but the fear is that there are large apiaries of bees that could be sitting ducks, while as the hornets move south to warmer weather their colonies could grow larger,” he said. “The object of our work is to avoid finding this out.”Scientists who have modeled the potential spread of the hornets predict they will be able to extend down the west coast into California. The Rocky Mountains and drier interior of the US pose major barriers to an eastward push but environs on the east coast such as New York would be ideal homes for the murder hornets should they inadvertently be transported there.Looney said he was “troubled” by evidence that overwintering hornet queens like to bury themselves in straw and hay, commodities that are regularly shifted around the US by train or truck. A hornet queen that hitched a ride would still face challenges establishing a nest even if moved to the east coast – it could immediately be crushed underfoot, after all – but the potential pathway is there.“I’m more worried about human transportation of these hornets than I initially was,” Looney conceded.The Asian giant hornet is just the latest invasive species to make its mark on North America. Burmese pythons are now legion in southern Florida, while Asian carp are common in the Mississippi river system. In the insect world, the spotted lanternfly is a growing agricultural pest and emerald ash borers have arrived to lay waste to stands of trees.These arrivals are symptoms of the growth in international trade and tourism, while climate change is making many parts of the US more hospitable for certain invasive species. The Asian giant hornet, for example, is thought to favor the sort of elevated temperatures that the US is experiencing as the planet heats up. This could help it spread at the rate of its cousin species in France, which has been able to advance up to 78km a year. If it is not controlled, the murder hornet could fundamentally change ecosystems across the US.Still, even in a fraught year racked by a pandemic, social unrest and economic disaster, Looney said any fears of being assailed by a murder hornet should be “low on the anxiety meter”.He added: “We should be concerned about it but we will do our best until the money runs out or the battle is won or lost. If we fail, it will be unpleasant. But there are other things to be much more worried about right now.”

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Texas early voting exceeds total of all 2016 ballots cast

Texans have already cast more ballots in the presidential election than they did during all of 2016 — an unprecedented surge of early voting in a state that was once the country's most reliably Republican, but may now be drifting toward battleground status.

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Dem Rep. Tells Hunter Biden’s Business Partner He Will Defend Him against ‘Partisan Hack’ Attack

A Democratic congressman told Hunter Biden’s former business associate, Tony Bobulinski, that he will defend him from attacks calling Bobulinski a "partisan hack" over his decision to go public with claims about the Biden family's foreign business dealings.Democratic Representative Ro Khanna sent an email to Bobulinski, who has donated to Khanna in the past, wishing him well and saying he vouched for him that he has "never been a ‘partisan hack’ in our interactions and have talked about putting country over party," Fox News reported.“Tony, hope you are doing okay. I did give an on the record statement to The NY Times that I know you, you have always acted honorably with me, and you and other family members supported me,” Khanna wrote in his message. “I have told any media outlets that have asked the same thing.”The California Democrat said that he “refused to comment on the details of your allegations because I don’t have personal knowledge about that, but have said I respect your service to our country and that you have never been a ‘partisan hack’ in our interactions and have talked about putting country over party.”In a Fox News interview that was aired Tuesday, Bobulinksi accused Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden of “lying” about whether he was directly involved in his son’s foreign business dealings.The former U.S. Navy lieutenant and corporate investor was the former CEO of SinoHawk Holdings, which he said was a partnership between the CEFC China Energy conglomerate and the Biden family. He was the recipient of a May 13, 2017 email that discussed a plan to have 10 percent in their related joint venture, Oneida Holdings, “held by H for the big guy?” The “big guy” was Joe Biden, and “H” was Hunter, Bobulinski confirmed.Bobulinski said he had several meetings with the former vice president, one on May 2, 2017, according to text messages about the meeting.Bobulinski said he decided to go public with documents and information on the Bidens after Democratic congressman Adam Schiff said on television that this “smear” of Biden “comes from the Kremlin,” a claim Bobulinski called "absolutely disgusting."“I also have made it clear that I do not think you are a Russian agent,” Khanna added in his email to Bobulinski. “I will continue to make that statement to any media that asks.”“I remain appreciative for your past support and your requesting your family members to support,” Khanna said. “After the heat of the election, if you want to, I am happy to chat.”Bobulinski also said he was warned by former partner Rob Walker that going public with his claims against the Bidens would “bury all of us.”“Throughout 2015 and 2016 while Joe was still the sitting vice president of the United States, these guys had been doing extensive work around the world,” Bobulinski said in the Fox News interview, adding that “the only qualification they had was the Biden name.”

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She fell in the kitchen at her Florida home. Two weeks later, this beauty queen is gone

The night of Oct. 12 was like any other for former beauty queen Leanza Cornett, according to her roommate, Sue Roberts.

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David Perdue: Georgia senator pulls out of final debate after 'brutal' takedown by Democrat goes viral

Video of debate where Democrat Jon Ossoff calls Republican incumbent a ‘crook’ has been viewed more than 11m times on Twitter

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Tens of thousands protest in Bangladesh over French cartoons

Tens of thousands of Muslims marched in Bangladesh’s capital on Friday to protest the French president's support of secular laws allowing caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, burning effigies of him and calling for a boycott of French products. Protests were also reported across the country after Friday's weekly Muslim prayers. In Dhaka, tens of thousands of people from more than a dozen Islamist parties and groups poured into the streets near the Baitul Mokarram national mosque demanding that Bangladesh sever relations with France.

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They protested to oust their scandalous governor. Tuesday they'll vote to usher in a new era.

The election on the island follows the historic protests following the scandal that led to Gov. Ricardo Rosselló's resignation.

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Body-camera footage released of Wallace killing; family says officers were improperly trained

The footage from body-worn cameras that was taken as police responded to a call about Walter Wallace Jr. shows him emerging from a house with a knife as relatives shout at officers about his mental health condition, a lawyer for the man's family said Thursday.

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A high school newspaper has exposed how state police quoted Adolf Hitler and advocated violence in a training manual

The training manual quotes from Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf, calling for the "perpetually constant and regular employment of violence."

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A new tropical depression formed in the Caribbean. It could become Tropical Storm Eta

A new tropical depression has formed in the Caribbean, putting the 2020 hurricane season within reach of breaking a slew of meteorological records.

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Trump rally organisers fire water at crowd as supporters pass out in Texas heat

Just two days ago Trump rally left many supporters hospitalised due to freezing cold

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China destroys domes of famous mosques as cultural whitewash continues

China’s campaign to suppress Islam is accelerating as authorities remove Arab-style onion domes and decorative elements from mosques across the country. Stark changes have been observed at the main mosque in Yinchuan, capital of Ningxia province, where most of China’s Hui ethnic Muslim minority live. The bright green onion-shaped domes and golden minarets that used to soar into the sky atop Nanguan Mosque have all been pulled down. Golden Islamic-style filigree, decorative arches, and Arabic script that before adorned the mosque have also been stripped away. What remains is unrecognisable – a drab, gray, rectangular facility with “Nanguan Mosque” written in Chinese, as shown in photos posted online by Christina Scott, the UK’s deputy head of mission in China, on a recent trip. “TripAdvisor suggested the Nanguan Mosque in Yinchuan well worth a visit,” Ms Scott wrote on Twitter, along with ‘before and after’ photos. “Only this is what it looks now, after ‘renovations.’ Domes, minarets, all gone. No visitors allowed either, of course. So depressing.”

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The battle for Senate control looks more volatile than the presidential race

First Read is your briefing from "Meet the Press" and the NBC Political Unit on the day's most important political stories and why they matter.

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For transgender people in the military, much hinges on presidential election

Joe Biden has been vague about his plans for the military if he wins the election, but one specific promise he has made is to roll back the Trump administration policy that effectively bars transgender service members from serving openly in accord with their gender identity.

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Police reach breaking point amid protests, pandemic, rising crime

Amid rising crime rates, a polarizing election and the continued high-profile police killings of Black Americans, some police veterans say they can't recall a tougher time to be an officer.

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Searchers find 59 bodies in Mexico mass graves, dig for more

Search teams dug for more remains Thursday at a site in central Mexico where 59 bodies have already been found in clandestine graves over the past week in an area known as a cartel battleground. It was the largest such burial site found to date in Guanajuato, the state with the largest number of homicides in Mexico, though bigger clandestine burial sites have been excavated in other parts of the country. Especially striking about this discovery, but also a testament to the prevailing level of fear, is that the site is in the town of Salvatierra, not a desolate area out in the countryside.

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U.S. seizes Iranian missiles, slaps Iran-related sanctions on 11 entities

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Rudy Giuliani wants Twitter CEO jailed over limitations on unverified Hunter Biden story

'Maybe he’s working for the Chinese,' former mayor baselessly claims

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Show HN: Archa – Build Dependencies Graph of TypeScript Applications https://ift.tt/3jNKdRD

Show HN: Archa – Build Dependencies Graph of TypeScript Applications https://arc.patico.pro October 31, 2020 at 03:02AM

Record turnout in Texas' largest county could be crucial to flipping a usually red state

Election officials in Harris County tripled the number of early-voting sites, expanded their hours and added drive-thru voting.

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Las Vegas police charge driver after man pushed a cyclist to her death, fell out a minivan window, hit his head on a lamppost, and died at the scene

Rodrigo Cruz, 22, was the driver of the minivan involved in the two deaths, the Las Vegas police said.

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Canada border officer had concerns about interviewing Huawei CFO ahead of arrest

A Canadian border officer told a court on Wednesday he had concerns about intercepting and interviewing Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou before police arrested her on a warrant from the United States almost two years ago. Scott Kirkland was one of the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) officers to intercept Meng when she disembarked at Vancouver International Airport in December 2018. Kirkland told the court he was worried that "our examination would be argued as a delay in due process," testifying in the latest round of hearings in Meng's U.S. extradition case.

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2020 polls: Can Trump pull another 2016 upset? The data says no chance

The blue wave is coming - if you believe the polls

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Miami police officer used excessive force arresting paraplegic man, civilian panel says

Almost a year after an internal review cleared several officers of any wrongdoing during the arrest of a Black paraplegic man who was dragged out of a patrol car, a police civilian oversight board has condemned the actions of five Miami police officers who took Trayon Fussell-Dumas into custody during a traffic stop.

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The flu shot lasts for about 6 months: Here's when it starts working and why it may get less effective as time goes on

The flu shot is effective for about six months. You should get it in October so it lasts through March and covers you through flu season.

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Macron Declares ‘France Is Under Attack’ after Islamist Terrorist Kills Three Churchgoers

French President Emmanuel Macron declared Thursday that France is "under attack," hours after an Islamic terrorist wielding a knife decapitated a woman and killed two other people at a church in southern France.The attack occurred near the Basilica of Notre-Dame in Nice, a city on France’s southern coast. Two women and a man were killed. At least two of the three victims, including the woman who was reportedly decapitated, were inside the church.“It’s very clear that it is France that is under attack,” Macron said during an address outside the basilica where the attack occurred, calling the incident an "Islamist terrorist attack.”“France will not give up on our values," the French president said.Shortly after the attack, Macron boosted security around the country, increasing the number of soldiers at schools and places of worship from 3,000 to 7,000 troops.The French president also participated in a crisis meeting at the Interior Ministry on Thursday before traveling to Nice in the wake of the attack, which put France on its highest level of alert.Mayor Christian Estrosi said that the suspected knife attacker was shot by police while being detained and was taken to the hospital alive.The “terrorist” shouted “Allahu akbar,” which is Arabic for “God is great,” as police arrested him, the mayor said, adding that, “the meaning of his gesture left no doubt.”The incident was one of three attacks against France on Thursday. A Saudi man was arrested after he attacked a guard with a sharp tool at the French consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, according to Saudi state media. The guard was hospitalized and suffered minor injuries. Meanwhile, an individual in the French city of Avignon wielded a knife and threatened people passing by while shouting “Allahu akbar” until police fatally shot the suspect.Earlier this month, Samuel Paty, a 47-year-old history teacher, was beheaded in a Paris suburb by an 18-year-old Moscow-born Chechen immigrant who was angered by Paty showing caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad to his class.After Paty was killed, Macron vowed to crack down on Islamic extremism in France, promising that “the fear is now going to change sides,” and that “the Islamists cannot be allowed to sleep peacefully in our country.”

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Who is leading key Senate races less than a week from election? Here’s what polls show

With five days to go, here’s how candidates stack up in key U.S. Senate races.

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Show HN: Generating fake resumes with GPT-3 https://ift.tt/31VSIUY

Show HN: Generating fake resumes with GPT-3 https://ift.tt/35NoqVr October 31, 2020 at 04:44AM

Show HN: A message board app encompassing all topics in 1 site https://ift.tt/3jCWwQU

Show HN: A message board app encompassing all topics in 1 site https://ift.tt/37UPmVN October 31, 2020 at 04:16AM

Kyle Rittenhouse extradited to Wisconsin following terse ruling from Illinois judge accusing him of asking the court to 'ignore binding Illinois law'

Rittenhouse, charged in Wisconsin with first-degree homicide over the shooting of three people at Kenosha protests, had been fighting his extradition.

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UPS locates mysterious Tucker Carlson package presenter claims contains 'damning' material about Biden family

‘UPS will always focus first on our customers, and will never stop working to solve issues and make things right’

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Popular Thai pro-democracy figure charged over flash mob rally

One of Thailand’s most popular anti-establishment politicians has been charged for his role in an illegal flash mob protest last year, in a move that is likely to fuel the current wave of pro-democracy protests. Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, 41, a charismatic billionaire and founder of the dissolved Future Forward party, is accused of five public assembly violations linked to the rally in Bangkok's central shopping district last December, Krisadung Nutcharat, his lawyer, said on Thursday. The charges include failing to notify police of a public gathering, blocking a sky train station, using a megaphone without permission and holding a rally close to a royal residence. Four other people from his Progressive Movement Group and Move Forward Party face similar charges. All five deny any wrongdoing. Mr Thanathorn has been an outspoken advocate of the protest movement that has gripped the Thai capital, Bangkok, since June, and he recently condemned a short-lived emergency order aimed at keeping demonstrators off the streets. During last year’s elections, he and his pro-democracy Future Forward Party, proved to be enormously popular with young, first-time voters, and garnered the third-largest share of seats.

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Biden campaigns in Florida ahead of election

Joe Biden campaigned in Florida on Thursday.

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6 dead, millions powerless as Zeta roars across southern, eastern US

Zeta, now downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone, continued to lash portions of the southern and eastern U.S. Thursday with heavy rain and high winds.

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Op-Ed: The immorality of sentencing a 15-year-old to prison forever

The Supreme Court needs to state again that a child cannot be sentenced to life without parole unless a trial court determines that child is beyond rehabilitation.

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SpaceX delayed its NASA astronaut launch because a red 'nail polish' material was plugging part of its rocket engines

SpaceX's Crew-1 launch is now set for November 14 after the company checked tiny holes in its rocket engines for bright-red lacquer.

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‘That’s incorrect!’ New US citizen corrects feds who told group they can’t vote yet

Federal officials incorrectly told newly sworn-in U.S. citizens they couldn’t vote this year in Massachusetts.

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Activists call for justice after Washington D.C. man killed on scooter after police chase

D.C. police were pursuing Karon Hylton-Brown when the scooter rider was struck by a car. Protesters in Washington, D.C. have taken to the streets after a 20-year-old man on a scooter was killed after allegedly being pursued by police. Karon Hylton-Brown was reportedly riding a moped on the sidewalk one week ago without a helmet when D.C. police tried to stop him, and he didn’t stop.

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A graphic shows how pumpkin pie looks when you mess up the recipe

Our food reporter made pumpkin pie eight ways to figure out what happens when you add ingredients like condensed milk or extra eggs.

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Venezuela charges detained opposition activist with 'terrorist financing'

Venezuelan chief prosecutor Tarek Saab on Thursday announced charges against Roland Carreno, the coordinator of opposition political party Popular Will, for alleged "terrorist financing" and conspiracy to destabilize the country. Carreno had been arrested earlier this week in what opposition leader Juan Guaido, a Popular Will member, called a "forced disappearance." Venezuelan authorities did not disclose Carreno's arrest for nearly 24 hours after the party first denounced that he was apprehended by unidentified individuals.

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Politics, COVID and attacks on civil service wearing on intelligence community as election approaches

A worsening pandemic and fears about losing their protections as civil servants amid political chaos is leading many intelligence officers in the U.S. government to consider leaving their agencies, according to current and former intelligence officers who spoke to Yahoo News.

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Feds arrest leader of white supremacy group who ran 'hate camp' in Michigan

The leader of "The Base," a national white supremacist group, and one of his associates were charged in Michigan Thursday with multiple crimes.

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Asteroid samples tucked into capsule for return to Earth

A NASA spacecraft tucked more than 2 pounds of asteroid samples into a capsule for return to Earth after losing some of its precious loot because of a jammed lid, scientists said Thursday. “We’ve still got a lot of work to do” to get the samples back safely, said lead scientist Dante Lauretta of the University of Arizona. The spacecraft Osiris-Rex won't depart Bennu’s neighborhood until March at the earliest, when the asteroid and Earth are properly aligned.

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'The possibility of real-world harm is high': Experts warn of violence from QAnon around the election

Experts who study QAnon say they’ve observed an increase in calls for offline action among the movement’s followers, adding to the growing risk of postelection violence posed by a variety of extremist groups. 

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Red coating contaminates SpaceX rockets, delays crew launch

SpaceX’s second astronaut flight is off until mid-November because red lacquer dripped into tiny vent holes in two rocket engines that now must be replaced. SpaceX and NASA officials announced the discovery of the potentially damaging contamination Wednesday. The clogged holes were found after the aborted launch of a GPS satellite on Oct. 2.

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Karabakh city hit by heaviest shelling in month of fighting: official

Azerbaijan on Thursday launched its heaviest missile strikes in a month of fighting on the largest city in its Armenian-populated breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh, separatist officials said.

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