>DOUGH
>What if I told you there was no dayshift
What religion did Abraham practice?
Queen
>Abrahamic religion?
Any of those would start at the point Abraham decided not to kill his son.
Was it some Baal nonsense that drove him there in the first place?
>She's the Hunter of Predators.
Who's that?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tophet
Tophet is a term originating in the Hebrew Bible. It was a location in Jerusalem in the Gehinnom, where worshippers engaged in a ritual involving "passing a child through the fire", most likely child sacrifice. Traditionally, the sacrifices have been ascribed to a god named Moloch. The Bible condemns and forbids these sacrifices, and the tophet is eventually destroyed by king Josiah, although mentions by the prophets Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Isaiah suggest that the practices associated with the tophet may have persisted.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gehenna
In the reign of Josiah a call came from Jeremiah to destroy the shrines in Topheth and to end the practice Jeremiah 7:31–32, 32:35. It is recorded that Josiah destroyed the shrine of Molech on Topheth to prevent anyone sacrificing children there in 2 Kings 23:10. Despite Josiah's ending of the practice, Jeremiah also included a prophecy that Jerusalem itself would be made like Gehenna and Topheth (19:2–6, 19:11–14).
>worshippers engaged in a ritual involving "passing a child through the fire", most likely child sacrifice
When Aung San Suu Kyi returned to Burma in 1988, the long-time military leader of Burma and head of the ruling party, General Ne Win, stepped down. Mass demonstrations for democracy followed that event on 8 August 1988 (8–8–88, a day seen as auspicious), which were violently suppressed in what came to be known as the 8888 Uprising. On 26 August 1988, she addressed half a million people at a mass rally in front of the Shwedagon Pagoda in the capital, calling for a democratic government. However, in September 1988, a new military junta took power.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8888_Uprising
given the topic, I consider this flak
https://apnews.com/article/entertainment-europe-business-arts-and-entertainment-hungary-13df00895c8b8d6cb86fc8f2f7c67c10
Hungary: Writers, bookstores brace for ban on LGBT content
BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Some bookstores in Hungary placed notices at their entrances this week telling customers that they sell “non-traditional content.” The signs went up in response to a new law that prohibits “depicting or promoting” homosexuality and gender transitions in material accessible to children.
While some writers, publishers and booksellers say the law curtails free thought and expression in Hungary, the country’s second-largest bookstore chain, Lira Konyv, posted the advisory notices to be safe. The new prohibition took effect last week, but the government has not issued official guidance on how or to whom it will be applied and enforced.
“The word ‘depicts’ is so general that it could include anything. It could apply to Shakespeare’s sonnets or Sappho’s poems, because those depict homosexuality,” Krisztian Nyary, the creative director for Lira Konyv, said of the legislation passed by Hungary’s parliament last month.
The law, which also prohibits LGBT content in school education programs, has many in Hungary’s literary community puzzled, if not on edge, unsure if they would face prosecution if minors end up with books that contain plots, characters or information discussing sexual orientation or gender identity.
Hungary’s populist government insists that the law, part of a broader statute that also increases criminal penalties for pedophilia and creates a searchable database of sex offenders, is necessary to protect children.
But critics, including high-ranking European Union officials, say the measure conflates LGBT people with pedophiles and is another example of Hungarian government policies and rhetoric that marginalize individuals who identity as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer.
Last week, a government office in the capital of Budapest announced it had fined Lira Konyv $830 for failing to clearly label a children’s book that depicts families headed by same-sex parents.
The office said the bookstore broke consumer protection rules by failing to indicate that the book contained “content which deviates from the norm.”
The fine, Nyary said, set a precedent for further potential sanctions against publishers and booksellers. With the threat of further penalties looming, all of Lira Konyv’s roughly 90 bookstores will now carry customer warnings that read, “This store sells books with non-traditional content.”
Noemi Kiss, the author of several novellas that address contemporary social problems and feature some characters that are not straight or whose gender identity does not match the one they were assigned at birth, said she supports parts of the law that are intended to stop pedophilia and to protect children from pornographic content.
But she called making literature off-limits based on whether it contains LGBT themes “absurd” and “a limitation of freedom of opinion and expression.”
“Based on what will writers be categorized? If (an author) writes a gay story, will they be completely discredited, or shall we completely rewrite all of world literature?” Kiss said.
The EU’s executive commission launched two legal actions against Hungary on Thursday over the new law and in response to earlier labeling requirements for children’s books that “display patterns of behavior that differ from traditional gender roles” — though authorities did not make clear what non-traditional gender roles entail.
“Hungary restricts the freedom of expression of authors and book publishers, and discriminates on grounds of sexual orientation in an unjustified way,” the European Commission said in a statement, adding that the government had not provided “any justification as to why exposure of children to LGBTIQ content would be detrimental to their well-being.”
Along with outlawing LGBT content for children, the law also prohibits depicting “sexuality for its own sake” to young audiences - a proscription that Nyary said could arguably apply to the majority of titles Lira Konyv sells.
“If someone wanted to, they could report three-quarters of world literature based on this definition,” he said.
Hungary’s government did not respond to a request for comment.
Nyary says he is compiling an anthology of classic literature that contain LGBT themes. The collection of stories, poetry and plays will include writings by Homer, Shakespeare and Sappho, among others — and will come marked with an 18+ sticker to indicate only adults should read it.
“We want to show what this law prohibits young people from accessing,” Nyary said.
Mark Mezei, a novelist in Budapest who has published a book featuring a lesbian relationship, says that while he believes established authors will not practice self-censorship, the new law could “knock the pen out of the hands” of young wordsmiths and stunt a new generation of Hungarian writers.
“If they find that they are facing huge resistance to their early work, it can certainly set them back in the creative process or even push them away from their calling,” he said.
Mezei said he is likely to simply ignore the law, insisting that authors must “create and live autonomously.”
“I think interfering in people’s private lives is one of the attributes of a governing power. But the really good works are born one way or another,” he said. “They’ll be on the shelves of libraries when the current powers are just a footnote in the pages of history books.”
https://apnews.com/article/europe-health-environment-and-nature-floods-9796ab4c2458604ff15203ef630b43f6
Europe floods: Death toll over 100 as rescues continue
At least 100 people have died in devastating floods across parts of western Germany and Belgium, officials said Friday, as rescue operations and the search for hundreds still unaccounted for continued.
Authorities in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate said 50 people had died there, including at least nine residents of an assisted living facility for people with disabilities. In neighboring North Rhine-Westphalia state officials put the death toll at 43, but warned that the figure could rise further.
Rescuers were rushing Friday to help people trapped in their homes in the town of Erftstadt, southwest of Cologne. Regional authorities said several people had died after their houses collapsed due to subsidence, and aerial pictures showed what appeared to be a massive sinkhole.
“We managed to get 50 people out of their houses last night,” said Frank Rock, the head of the county administration. “We know of 15 people who still need to be rescued.”
Speaking to German broadcaster n-tv, Rock said that authorities had no precise number yet for how many had died.
“One has to assume that under the circumstances some people didn’t manage to escape,” he said.
Authorities said late Thursday that about 1,300 people in Germany were still listed missing, but cautioned that the high figure could be due to duplication of data and difficulties reaching people because of disrupted roads and phone connections.
In a provisional tally, the Belgian death toll rose to 12, with 5 people still missing, local authorities and media report early Friday.
The flash floods this week followed days of heavy rainfall which turned streams and streets into raging torrents that swept away cars and caused houses to collapse across the region.
Chancellor Angela Merkel and U.S. President Joe Biden expressed their sorrow over the loss of life during a news conference at the White House late Thursday.
The long-time German leader, who was on a farewell trip to Washington, said she feared that “the full extent of this tragedy will only be seen in the coming days.”
The governor of North Rhine-Westphalia state, Armin Laschet, has called an emergency Cabinet meeting Friday. The 60-year-old’s handling of the flood disaster is widely seen as a test for his ambitions to succeed Merkel as chancellor in Germany’s national election on Sept. 26.
Officials have warned such disasters could become more common due to climate change.
Malu Dreyer, the governor of neighboring Rhineland-Palatinate state, said the disaster showed the need to speed up efforts to curb global warming.
“We’ve experienced droughts, heavy rain and flooding events several years in a row, including in our state,” she told the Funke media group. “Climate chance isn’t abstract anymore. We are experiencing it up close and painfully.”
She accused the Laschet and Merkel’s center-right Union bloc of hindering efforts to achieve greater greenhouse gas reductions in Germany, Europe’s biggest economy and a major emitter of planet-warming gases.
Thousands of people remain homeless after their houses were destroyed or deemed at-risk by authorities, including several villages around the Steinbach reservoir that experts say could collapse under the weight of the floods.
The German army has deployed 900 soldiers to help with the rescue and clear-up efforts.
Across the border in Belgium, most of the drowned were found around Liege, where the rains hit hardest. Skies were largely overcast in eastern Belgium, with hopes rising that the worst of the calamity was over.
In the southern Dutch province of Limburg, troops piled sandbags to strengthen a 1.1 kilometer (0.7 miles) stretch of dike along the Maas river and police helped evacuate some low-lying neighborhoods.
Caretaker Prime Minister Mark Rutte said Thursday night that the government was officially declaring flood-hit regions a disaster area, meaning businesses and residents are eligible for compensation for damage.
Dutch King Willem-Alexander visited the region Thursday night and called the scenes “heart-breaking.”
Meanwhile, sustained rainfall in Switzerland has caused several rivers and lakes to break their banks. Public broadcaster SRF reported that a flash flood swept away cars, flooded basements and destroyed small bridges in the northern villages of Schleitheim und Beggingen late Thursday.
Why would you flood a bunch of tunnels?
People don't do well under water.
https://apnews.com/article/canada-health-government-and-politics-coronavirus-pandemic-cbefe8ecea4416a1a203cfcaef015d11
Canadian government rejects virus shots in US border tunnel
DETROIT (AP) — The Canadian government has rejected a creative plan to have Ontario residents line up inside a U.S. border tunnel to tap into a surplus of COVID-19 vaccine held by Michigan, a mayor said.
A white stripe was painted inside the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel in the Detroit River. Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens proposed that Canadians would stand along the border while health care workers jab them.
“We’re not trying to send a man to the moon here. We’re using the infrastructure to accomplish a shared goal,” Dilkens told the Detroit Free Press. “This is a sensible, reasonable alternative to vaccines heading to the landfill.”
Motor vehicle travel between the countries is prohibited during the pandemic except for commercial truck traffic and workers deemed essential. Dilkens said partnering with Michigan, which has a vaccine surplus, would reduce the waiting time for Canadians who need a second shot.
But the Canada Border Services Agency told Dilkens that the tunnel clinic could disrupt travel and carry “significant security implications.”
Separately, Public Health Agency of Canada warned there could be trouble if the person giving the shot reached across the tunnel’s white line into Canada.
“A vaccine cannot be imported into Canadian space without the express consent of Health Canada,” said Kathy Thompson, executive vice president at the agency.
More than 500,000 vaccine doses held by Michigan are set to expire by early August, said Lynn Sutfin, spokeswoman at the state health department.
“It’s dead,” Dilkens said of his plan. “Our government will not let this happen.”
https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-europe-health-government-and-politics-coronavirus-pandemic-105efe9f913055d7b60cd2c1fd5e8adb
Freedom or folly? UK’s end to mandatory masks sows confusion
LONDON (AP) — For many, it’s a common courtesy or a sensible precaution. For others, it’s an imposition, a daily irritation.
The face mask — a highly charged source of debate, confusion and anger around the world during the coronavirus pandemic — is now dividing people as the crisis eases.
Britain is bracing for acrimony on Monday, when the government lifts a legal requirement to wear face coverings in most indoor settings, including shops, trains, buses and subways. Donning a mask in many places will stop being an order and become a request.
Already, people are split about how to respond.
“I’m glad,” said London café owner Hatice Kucuk. “I don’t think they really help much.”
But Lucy Heath, a filmmaker, said she would prefer to see masks remain mandatory on the subway and in supermarkets.
“I just think vulnerable people will feel that they don’t want to venture out,” she said.
The end of many pandemic restrictions next week — once touted in British newspapers as “freedom day” — comes as the U.K. faces soaring coronavirus cases and rising deaths, despite an inoculation program that has given two-thirds of adults both doses of vaccine.
This week Britain recorded more than 40,000 cases in one day for the first time in six months. Globally, the World Health Organization says cases and deaths are climbing after a period of decline, spurred by the more contagious delta variant. Last week there were nearly 3 million new infections and more than 55,000 lives lost around the world.
Against that backdrop, British politicians’ talk of freedom has been replaced with words of caution.
“This pandemic is not over,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson said this week. “We cannot simply revert instantly from Monday the 19th of July to life as it was before COVID.”
So while people no longer have to wear masks, they’re being told that they should.
The government says it “expects and recommends” masks to be worn by workers and customers in crowded, enclosed spaces such as shops. London’s mayor says masks will continue to be required on the city’s public transit system, and the National Health Service will insist on them in hospitals. And while the rules are changing in England, masks will still be mandatory in Scotland and Wales, which make their own health regulations.
Opposition politicians and some doctors have urged the government not to remove the mask mandate, while businesses and unions worry the change from mandatory to optional is a recipe for chaos.
“It is a real mess,” said Paddy Lillis, general secretary of retail workers union USDAW. “Protection for retail workers through wearing face coverings and maintaining social distancing in busy public areas like shops should be backed up by the law.”
The prime minister has appealed to Britons’ common sense. “I generally urge everyone to keep thinking of others and to consider the risks,” Johnson said.
https://apnews.com/article/entertainment-europe-media-crime-shootings-4ebed8b64d0a78948cf844889f54e9fc
Dutch crime reporter de Vries dies after Amsterdam shooting
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Peter R. de Vries, a renowned Dutch journalist who fearlessly reported on the violent underworld of the Netherlands and campaigned to breathe new life into cold cases, has died at age 64 after being shot in a brazen attack last week, his family said Thursday.
“Peter fought to the end, but was unable to win the battle,” the family said in a statement sent to Dutch media.
While the motive for de Vries’ shooting remains unknown, the July 6 attack on an Amsterdam street had the hallmarks of the gangland hits taking place with increasing regularity in the Dutch underworld the journalist covered.
Two suspects have been detained. Dutch police said the suspected shooter is a 21-year-old Dutchman, and a 35-year-old Polish man living in the Netherlands is accused of driving the getaway car. They were arrested not long after de Vries was wounded.
De Vries rose rapidly from a young cub reporter to become the Netherlands’ best-known journalist. He was a pillar of support for families of slain or missing children, a campaigner against injustice and a thorn in the side of gangsters.
“Peter has lived by his conviction: ‘On bended knee is no way to be free,’” the family statement said. “We are unbelievably proud of him and at the same time inconsolable.”
De Vries had been fighting for his life in an Amsterdam hospital since the attack. The statement said he died surrounded by loved ones and requested privacy for de Vries’ family and partner “to process his death in peace.” Funeral arrangements were not immediately announced.
The shooting happened after de Vries made one of his regular appearances on a current affairs television show. He had recently been an adviser and confidant for a witness in the trial of the alleged leader and other members of a crime gang that police described as an “oiled killing machine.”.
The suspected gangland leader, Ridouan Taghi, was extradited to the Netherlands from Dubai in 2019. He remains jailed while standing trial along with 16 other suspects.
Caretaker Prime Minister Mark Rutte led the tributes to de Vries in the Netherlands.
“Peter R. de Vries was always dedicated, tenacious, afraid of nothing and no one. Always seeking the truth and standing up for justice,” Rutte said in a tweet. “And that makes it all the more dramatic that he himself has now become the victim of a great injustice.”
Dutch King Willem Alexander last week called the shooting of de Vries “an attack on journalism, the cornerstone of our constitutional state and therefore also an attack on the rule of law.”
The slaying also struck a chord elsewhere in Europe, where murders of reporters are rare. The killings of journalists in Slovakia and Malta in recent years have raised concerns about reporters’ safety in developed, democratic societies.
In a tweet, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said she was “deeply saddened by the news of Peter R. de Vries’ passing. I want to express my condolences to his family and loved ones.”
She added: “Investigative journalists are vital to our democracies. We must do everything we can to protect them.”
De Vries won an International Emmy in 2008 for a television show he made about the disappearance of U.S. teenager Natalee Holloway while she was on holiday in the Dutch Caribbean island of Aruba in 2005.
In 2018, while acting as a spokesman for the family of an 11-year-old boy who was abused and killed in 1998, de Vries appealed for tips about the whereabouts of a suspect identified in a DNA probe.
“I can’t live with the idea that he won’t be arrested,” de Vries said when appealing for help at a televised press conference. “I won’t rest until it happens.”
The suspect was arrested a few weeks later in Spain and convicted last year in the death of the boy, Nicky Verstappen.
De Vries’ comment about the suspect in Nicky’s slaying summed up the tenacity that was a cornerstone of a career that saw him report on some of the Netherlands’ most notorious crimes, including the 1983 kidnapping of beer magnate Freddy Heineken.
Acting on a tip, de Vries tracked down one of the kidnappers in Paraguay in 1994.
He befriended another of the kidnappers, Cor van Hout, who was later gunned down in Amsterdam. Another of the kidnappers, Willem Holleeder, who was van Hout’s brother-in-law, was convicted in 2019 of inciting the killings of van Hout and four other people. Holleeder was sentenced to life imprisonment.
De Vries also was known for tenaciously campaigning to find the truth behind the 1994 slaying of a 23-year-old woman, Christel Ambrosius. Two men from the town where she was killed were convicted in 1995 and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment, but de Vries refused to believe they were guilty.
They were acquitted in 2002, and in 2008, another man was convicted of Ambrosius’ killing.
Justice Minister Ferd Grapperhaus issued a statement calling de Vries “a brave man who lived without compromise. He would not allow himself to be intimidated by criminals.”
Grapperhaus said he “tracked down injustice throughout his life. By doing so he made an enormous contribution to our democratic state. He was part of its foundation.”
https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-government-and-politics-haiti-42975e871627d635ae3e6d7fdac83f1a
Biden: US will protect Haiti embassy, won’t send troops
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden said Thursday that the U.S. will bolster security at its embassy in Haiti following last week’s assassination of that country’s president, but sending American troops to stabilize the country was “not on the agenda.”
Haiti’s interim government last week asked the U.S. and the United Nations to deploy troops to protect key infrastructure following President Jovenel Moïse’s assassination. Biden signaled he was not open to the request, which comes as he is drawing down U.S. forces in Afghanistan this summer.
“We’re only sending American Marines to our embassy,” Biden said. “The idea of sending American forces to Haiti is not on the agenda,” he added.
Mathias Pierre, Haiti’s elections minister, told The Associated Press Thursday that he believes the request for U.S. troops is relevant given what he called a “fragile situation” and the need to create a secure environment for elections scheduled to happen in 120 days.
He also said Biden’s comment that sending U.S. troops was “not on the agenda” still leaves the option open.
”This is not a closed door. The evolution of the situation will determine the outcome,” Pierre said. “In the meantime, the government is doing everything we can to stabilize the country, return to a normal environment and organize elections while trying to come to a political agreement with most political parties.”
The request for U.S. intervention recalled the tumult following Haiti’s last presidential assassination, in 1915, when an angry mob dragged President Vilbrun Guillaume Sam out of the French Embassy and beat him to death. In response, President Woodrow Wilson sent Marines into Haiti, justifying an American military occupation — which lasted nearly two decades — as a way to avert anarchy.
Biden addressed the situation in Haiti during a joint press conference at the White House with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-government-and-politics-arts-and-entertainment-election-2020-6313a41893e409c00eb621d6f7ab9d06
Trump opines on coup while rejecting fears about his actions
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Donald Trump insisted Thursday that he wouldn’t have used the military to illegally seize control of the government after his election loss. But he suggested that if he had tried to carry out a coup, it wouldn’t have been with his top military adviser.
In a lengthy statement, Trump responded to revelations in a new book detailing fears from Gen. Mark Milley that the outgoing president would stage a coup during his final weeks in office. Trump said he’s “not into coups” and “never threatened, or spoke about, to anyone, a coup of our Government.” At the same time, Trump said that “if I was going to do a coup, one of the last people I would want to do it with is” Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The mere mention of a coup was a stunning remark from a former president, especially one who left office under the cloud of a violent insurrection he helped incite at the U.S. Capitol in January in an effort to impede the peaceful transfer of power to Democrat Joe Biden. Since then, the FBI has warned of a rapidly growing threat of homegrown violent extremism.
Despite such concerns, Trump is maintaining his grip on the Republican Party. He was meeting on Thursday with House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy and has stepped up his public schedule, holding a series of rallies for his supporters across the country in which he continues to spread the lie that last year’s election was stolen from him.
His comment about a coup was in response to new reporting from “I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump’s Catastrophic Final Year” by Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post reporters Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker. The book reports that Milley was shaken by Trump’s refusal to concede in the weeks after the election.
According to early excerpts published by CNN and the Post on Wednesday ahead of its release, Milley was so concerned that Trump or his allies might try to use the military to remain in power that he and other top officials strategized about how they might block him — even hatching a plan to resign, one by one.
Milley also reportedly compared Trump’s rhetoric to Adolf Hitler’s during his rise to power.
“This is a Reichstag moment,” Milley reportedly told aides. “The gospel of the Führer.”
Milley’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But Milley has previously spoken out against drawing the military into election politics, especially after coming under fire for joining Trump on a walk through Lafayette Square for a photo op at a church shortly after the square had been violently cleared of protesters.
Trump, in the statement, mocked Milley’s response to that moment, saying it helped him realize that his top military adviser was “certainly not the type of person I would be talking ‘coup’ with.”
The book is one of a long list being released in the coming weeks examining the chaotic final days of the Trump administration, the Jan. 6 insurrection and the outgoing president’s refusal to accept the election’s outcome. Trump sat for hours of interviews with many of the authors, but has issued a flurry of statements in recent days disputing their reporting and criticizing former staff for participating.
There is no evidence that supports Trump’s claims that the election was somehow “stolen” from him. State election officials, Trump’s own attorney general and numerous judges, including many appointed by Trump, have rejected allegations of massive fraud. Trump’s own Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency called the 2020 election “the most secure in American history.”
Trump remains a dominant force in Republican politics, as demonstrated by McCarthy’s visit on Thursday to the former president’s summer home in Bedminster, New Jersey.
Trump and McCarthy were expected to spend their meeting discussing upcoming special elections, Republicans’ record fundraising hauls and Democrats they see as vulnerable in the 2022 midterm elections, according to a person familiar with the agenda who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe a private meeting. McCarthy previously met with Trump in January at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida.
Meanwhile, Republicans who are eyeing White House bids of their own aren’t crossing Trump, who remains popular with many GOP voters.
GOP Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, a potential 2024 presidential contender, said “no comment,” when asked if he thought Trump’s statement was appropriate for a former president. A member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and an Army veteran of two combat tours in Iraq, Cotton declined to comment again when asked if he wanted to criticize Trump’s remark.
“I think he has the right to say what he wants to say,” said Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, when asked if he was comfortable with a former president even hypothetically entertaining the idea of a coup.
“You know, Donald Trump speaks for himself and he always has,” said Cruz, another potential White House candidate in 2024.
>https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-government-and-politics-arts-and-entertainment-election-2020-6313a41893e409c00eb621d6f7ab9d06
By JILL COLVIN
https://twitter.com/colvinj
https://www.wsj.com/articles/inside-donald-trumps-last-days-in-the-white-house-and-plans-for-a-comeback-11625759920
Inside Donald Trump’s Last Days in the White House and Plans for a Comeback
The president’s effort to overturn the election alienated much of his inner circle, but solidified his dominance of the GOP. Now he’s planning his return.
By https://twitter.com/MichaelCBender
On the morning of Nov. 7, 2020, the Saturday after the presidential election, President Donald Trump had just approached the tee box at the seventh hole of his golf course in Sterling, Va., when an aide’s phone rang with news from Jared Kushner: All of the major media outlets, including Fox News, were about to call the presidential election for Democrat Joe Biden.
Mr. Trump had tweeted on the way to the course that he’d won “BY A LOT!” But he displayed none of that all-caps energy as he pressed the phone to his ear. Wearing a dark pullover and slacks with white golf shoes and a matching MAGA cap, Mr. Trump calmly listened to his son-in-law as he strolled across the manicured grass under a clear blue sky. He hung up, nonchalantly handed the phone back to an aide and finished the final 12 holes, as more than a dozen golf carts filled with government aides and Secret Service agents trailed behind him.
When Mr. Trump finally pulled up to the clubhouse in his customized cart—complete with a presidential seal stitched into the seat—club members cheered him on the back patio. “Don’t worry,” Mr. Trump told them. “It’s not over yet.”
But the election was, in fact, over. What wasn’t finished was the term he’d won four years earlier, and on Nov. 7, one of the most pressing questions for staffers was how to fill his calendar. “Let’s do all the things we didn’t get to do because of all of the distractions, and have fun,” Hope Hicks, a longtime Trump aide, said to the president’s team gathered inside campaign headquarters in Arlington, Va.
Mr. Trump had won far more votes than his team projected, with surprising support from Black and Hispanic men. He was immediately the runaway favorite for the party’s 2024 nomination, and Ms. Hicks was expressing that vibe with her suggestion for a jaunty curtain call. But around the table in a glass-encased conference room, the eldest Trump sons channeled their father’s reaction. “What you’re talking about isn’t even an option,” responded Donald Trump, Jr., who had called into the meeting. “It’s a nonstarter,” Eric Trump added.
good morning digits
https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-business-health-europe-coronavirus-pandemic-21fe2acde1b05ca11889636b99e8716b
Biden bids Merkel farewell: Friends, with disagreements
Welcoming Angela Merkel to the White House for a final time, President Joe Biden renewed his concerns to the German chancellor Thursday about a major, nearly complete Russia-to-Germany gas pipeline but said they agreed Russia must not be allowed to use energy as a weapon.
The two discussed — though made no apparent headway — on differences over the Nord Stream 2 pipeline during a largely friendly farewell visit for Merkel as she nears the end of a political career that has spanned four American presidencies.
“On a personal note, I must tell you I will miss seeing you at our summits,” Biden said as he stood by Merkel, the second-longest serving chancellor in Germany’s history, at a late afternoon White House press conference. “I truly will.”
Merkel, who had a famously difficult relationship with former President Donald Trump, showed her ease and familiarity with Biden, who has long been a fixture in international politics, repeatedly referring to him as “Dear Joe.”
Asked to compare her relationship with Biden to hers with Trump, Merkel remained diplomatic, saying only that it was in any German chancellor’s interest to “work with every American president.” She added with a smile, “Today was a very friendly exchange.”
But their personal warmth notwithstanding, the U.S.-German relationship is entering new territory as Merkel, who is not seeking another term in September elections, nears her departure from office. There are concerns on both sides about how the two nations will negotiate growing disagreements.
The United States has long argued that the Nord Stream 2 project will threaten European energy security by increasing the continent’s reliance on Russian gas and allowing Russia to exert political pressure on vulnerable Eastern and Central European nations, particularly Ukraine. But Biden recently waived sanctions against German entities involved in the project, a move that angered many in Congress.
Sen. Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican, in a letter to Biden on Thursday ahead of the leaders’ meeting raised concerns that the pipeline is already having an economic impact on U.S. ally Ukraine. Rubio said Gazprom, the company that operates Nord Stream 2, “has already started to reduce its use of pipelines in Ukraine” as the new gas pipeline nears completion.
Merkel sought to downplay the differences, and to stress that the pipeline was in addition to — not meant to displace — Ukrainian pipelines.
“Our idea is and remains that Ukraine remains a transit country for natural gas, that Ukraine just as any other country in the world has a right to territorial sovereignty,” Merkel said. She added that Germany stood ready to react to Moscow “should Russia not respect this right of Ukraine that it has as a transit country.”
Merkel also raised concerns about COVID-19 travel restrictions that prevent most Europeans from traveling to the U.S.
Biden said he had brought in the head of his coronavirus task force to discuss the issue and that he expected to be able to offer a more definitive answer “within the next seven days” about when the restrictions might be eased.
Merkel started her day with a working breakfast with Vice President Kamala Harris, and Harris’ office said the two had a “very candid discussion.”
Back home in Germany, Merkel’s country and neighboring Belgium dealt with the aftermath of heavy flooding that left more than 60 people dead and dozens missing.
“My sympathy goes to the relatives and of the dead and missing,” she said.
Officials in Washington and elsewhere are wondering what course Germany might take after the September vote.
Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union is leading in polls, but the environmentalist Greens and the center-left Social Democrats are also vying to lead a future government. While the three parties differ in many policy areas, all are committed to a strong trans-Atlantic relationship.
Germany has strong trade ties with China but has also been critical of Beijing’s human rights record. Merkel is keen to avoid a situation in which Germany, or the European Union, might be forced to choose sides between China and the United States.
Merkel has insisted on the need to cooperate with China on global issues such as climate change and the coronavirus pandemic, even while then-President Trump was accusing Beijing of having started it the pandemic.
Still, Merkel stressed in her comments to reporters that she wants Germany and the European Union to coordinate their policy toward China with Washington, including on issues such as labor rights, trade and cybersecurity.
“I believe that the foundations of our dealings with China should be based on the common values” of the U.S. and Germany, she said.
The humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders urged Biden to lean on Merkel to drop her opposition to proposals for suspending vaccine patents. Merkel, a trained scientist, has argued that lifting the patents wouldn’t be effective and could harm future research and development efforts.
A group of Democratic lawmakers called on Germany to drop its “blockade” of a COVID-19-related waiver of intellectual property rights under global trade rules. Such a waiver, the lawmakers argued, would help scale production of effective vaccines around the world.
The Biden administration has expressed support for the waiver being discussed at the World Trade Organization, but White House officials did not anticipate differences being resolved during Merkel’s visit.
While there are points of tension, Biden seemed eager to offer Merkel a proper farewell.
He hosted Merkel and her husband, as well as an array of lawmakers and administration officials, current and past, at the White House for a dinner Thursday evening. The guest list included Secretary of State Antony Blinken, as well as two of his predecessors — Hillary Clinton and Colin Powell.
The Republican Senate and House leaders, Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy, were also in attendance along with other top U.S. and German officials. The menu featured crispy sea bass and black pepper tagliatelle.
Earlier Thursday, Harris hosted Merkel for breakfast at her residence on the grounds of the U.S. Naval Observatory, commending her for her “extraordinary career.” Merkel in turn noted the historic nature of the Harris vice presidency.
“I can only say that I’m delighted, too, for this opportunity here to meet the first madam vice president of the United States of America,” Merkel said before the two leaders stepped into a residence to talk over a breakfast of Gruyère soufflé, seasonal fruit and charcuterie.
Also Thursday, Merkel received an honorary doctorate, her 18th, from Johns Hopkins University and spoke at the university’s School of Advanced International Studies.
Is Gisele a dude?
the name is Wolf Dragon you bigot
https://apnews.com/article/business-science-environment-and-nature-race-and-ethnicity-racial-injustice-a34e50fee7dfd335564728f0170dae02
Worries over racism, waterways inspire push to rename fish
Minnesota state Sen. Foung Hawj was never a fan of the “Asian carp” label commonly applied to four imported fish species that are wreaking havoc in the U.S. heartland, infesting numerous rivers and bearing down on the Great Lakes.
But the last straw came when an Asian business delegation arriving at the Minneapolis airport encountered a sign reading “Kill Asian Carp.” It was a well-intentioned plea to prevent spread of the invasive fish. But the message was off-putting to the visitors.
https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-world-news-health-science-coronavirus-pandemic-c0c594f9060f676c0ea48c2d1c69daec
WHO chief says it was ‘premature’ to rule out COVID lab leak
The head of the World Health Organization acknowledged it was premature to rule out a potential link between the COVID-19 pandemic and a laboratory leak, and he said Thursday he is asking China to be more transparent as scientists search for the origins of the coronavirus.
In a rare departure from his usual deference to powerful member countries, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said getting access to raw data had been a challenge for the international team that traveled to China earlier this year to investigate the source of COVID-19. The first human cases were identified in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
Tedros told reporters that the U.N. health agency based in Geneva is “asking actually China to be transparent, open and cooperate, especially on the information, raw data that we asked for at the early days of the pandemic.”
He said there had been a “premature push” to rule out the theory that the virus might have escaped from a Chinese government lab in Wuhan - undermining WHO’s own March report, which concluded that a laboratory leak was “extremely unlikely.”
https://apnews.com/article/technology-business-china-b18a0f7b87042d42266ea9aef96debba
China announces on-site Didi cybersecurity investigation
China’s cyber-watchdog on Friday announced an on-site cybersecurity investigation of ride-hailing service Didi, stepping up scrutiny after earlier criticism of its handling of customer information caused the company’s New York-traded shares to tumble.
The on-site inspection comes two weeks after the regulator said it would probe the ride-hailing company over concerns about national security and data security. That came days after Didi raised $4.4 billion and went public on the New York Stock Exchange.
According to a statement released Friday by the Cybersecurity Administration of China, other Chinese government departments involved in the on-site investigation include the Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of Natural Resources, Ministry of Transport, State Taxation Administration and the State Administration of Market Regulation.
The Cyberspace Administration of China gave no other details.
Didi was earlier was ordered to stop signing up new customers while it overhauled its collection and handling of information about its users.
The ruling Communist Party is tightening control over China’s booming technology industries and information about its public and economy, which it sees as a sensitive strategic asset.