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  Former Vice President Joe Biden now says he supports travel bans to contain the Chinese coronavirus after all – after he previously called the China travel ban issued by President Donald Trump in late January “xenophobia.” Deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfield told CNN on April 3 that Biden “supports travel bans that are guided by medical experts, advocated by public health officials and backed by a full strategy,” adding, “Science supported this ban, therefore he did too.” Was that before or after looking at a poll that said Trump would do a better job dealing with this crisis than Biden? Asking for the potentially hundreds of thousands of American lives President Trump saved by acting decisively in the early days of this pandemic at a time Biden was hysterically complaining about “reactionary” travel restrictions. And why wasn’t Biden the first one explaining his new position on this issue? Why tell us now? And why pretend he was in favor of it all along when he never suppor...

  Senate Republicans release controversial report on Hunter Biden and Ukraine The Republican chairmen of two Senate committees released Wednesday a controversial report on possible conflicts of interest between the Bidens and Ukraine, finding that Hunter Biden’s position on the board of a Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings was “problematic” and that warnings about his role were ignored by the Obama administration. The report, which reveals little new information, follows a yearlong investigation mounted by GOP Senators Chuck Grassley of Iowa, who leads the Senate Finance Committee, and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, who helms the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affair Committee. The report does not assert that the former vice president pushed for the firing of a Ukrainian prosecutor in order to protect Burisma, a central claim made by President Trump and his allies. “What the chairmen discovered during the course of this investigation is that the Obama administration kn...

  Some residents of the twin Congolese capitals of Brazzaville and Kinshasa have long been known for their love of stylish dressing - in particular members of the Society of Ambience-Makers and Elegant People (Sape). These photographs by Tariq Zaidi reveal a whole new generation of "sapeurs". In the Democratic Republic of Congo's capital Kinshasa, the son of famous sapeur Fiston Mahata, eight-year-old Natan, represents the new generation of style. Across the River Congo in Brazzaville, 10-year-old Okili Nkoressa, middle, uses the dirt roads as his catwalk. "My favourite item of clothing is my Yves Saint Laurent suit which I am wearing today," he says. He is accompanied by veterans of the Sape scene, 52-year-old businesswoman Ntsimba Marie Jeanne, left, and 39-year-old policewoman Judith Nkoressa, right. Severin Mouyengo's father was also a sapeur. "I Sape every day. It makes me forget about everything," says the 62-year-old retired forester. "...

  The worldwide death toll from the coronavirus eclipsed 1 million on Tuesday, nine months into a crisis that has devastated the global economy, tested world leaders’ resolve, pitted science against politics and forced multitudes to change the way they live, learn and work. “It’s not just a number. It’s human beings. It’s people we love,” said Dr. Howard Markel, a professor of medical history at the University of Michigan who has advised government officials on containing pandemics and lost his 84-year-old mother to COVID-19 in February. “It’s our brothers, our sisters. It’s people we know,” he added. “And if you don’t have that human factor right in your face, it’s very easy to make it abstract.” The bleak milestone, recorded by Johns Hopkins University, is greater than the population of Jerusalem or Austin, Texas. It is 2 1/2 times the sea of humanity that was at Woodstock in 1969. It is more than four times the number killed in the 2004 earthquake and tsunami in the Indian Ocean...

  Canadian Prime Minister   Justin Trudeau  warned Friday that the current global order will be upended if leaders across the planet fail to come together to uphold human rights and tackle upcoming threats such as climate change. Trudeau delivered the grave words in a prerecorded message to the  United Nations  General Assembly. “The world is in crisis, and not just because of the last few months,” Trudeau said. “Not just because of  COVID-19 . But because of the last few decades. And because of us.” Trudeau described the COVID-19 pandemic as a “wake-up call” and argued that organizations formed in the wake of two world wars — such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank — are no longer effective because of red tape and because countries repeatedly push their own interests. “There are few consequences for countries that ignore international rules,” Trudeau said, alluding to incidents in nations such as Russia, China and Iran without specifical...

  Police officers in Buffalo, New York, are no longer required to display their names on their uniforms after a policy change designed to protect cops was put into effect, according to   WKBW   and other local news outlets.  Police officials told WKBW that several police officers have been doxxed — had their personal information shared online resulting in threats — over the last few months.  "It is extremely serious, there has been some absolutely disgusting things said about officers and their small children, and threats to their well being on websites," BPD Cpt. Jeff Rinaldo told the station.  When announcing the policy change Thursday,  Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown  told WIBV  he believed that the people responsible for doxxing police lived outside of Western New York. "What we have seen is that some of these doxxing incidents are occurring from people that are not in this city, are not in this county, are not in this region, but people in di...

    Nghe tiếng cãi vã và tiếng khóc cầu cứu của con nhà hàng xóm chiều 26-9, người dân chạy qua thì thấy người vợ nằm trên vũng máu, người chồng ngồi cạnh thất thần. Chiều 26-9, tại xóm Núi, thôn Thành Phát, xã Phước Đồng, TP Nha Trang (tỉnh Khánh Hòa) xảy ra vụ án mạng đặc biệt nghiêm trọng làm 1 người chết. Theo người dân tại xóm Núi, lúc đầu giờ chiều sau khi nghe tiếng cãi vã và tiếng khóc cầu cứu của con chị Lê Thị Kim Liên (sinh năm 1996, trú ở xóm Núi), hàng xóm chạy tới nơi thì thấy chị Liên nằm bất động trên vũng máu.  Lúc này, chồng của chị Liên là Huỳnh Xin (sinh năm 1993) thất thần ngồi trong nhà. Lúc sau, Huỳnh Xin lên xe máy chạy thẳng đến Công an xã Phước Đồng đầu thú. Tại cơ quan công an, bước đầu Huỳnh Xin khai trong lúc cãi vã đã dùng dao nhọn đâm vợ tử vong.  "Vợ chồng nó có hai con nhỏ, 1 cháu năm nay 4 tuổi, cháu còn lại 7 tuổi. Giờ mẹ thì chết, cha bị bắt, không biết hai cháu sẽ sống ra sao", một hàng xóm của nạn nhân cho biết. Căn nhà mà nạn n...

  Mỹ đau đầu vì "bom hẹn giờ" siêu lợn rừng bắn mãi không hết Mỹ đang ngồi trên “quả bom hẹn giờ” mang tên siêu lợn rừng khi số lợn rừng hoang dã tại xứ cờ hoa phá phách khủng khiếp và sinh đẻ ngày càng mạnh, theo các chuyên gia. Tiến sĩ Jack Mayer – chuyên gia  động vật  học, đã dành 40 năm nghiên cứu về lợn rừng – cho rằng, quần thể lợn rừng ở Mỹ đang tăng với số lượng “không thể giải quyết nổi, trừ khi có dịch cúm lợn xảy ra và giết chết chúng”. “Tình hình hiện tại phải nói là ‘điên rồ’. Mỹ đang ngồi trên trái bom lợn rừng chực chờ nổ. Tình trạng nóng lên toàn cầu khiến số lợn rừng con phát triển mạnh mẽ. Thức ăn cho chúng như rau củ quả, rễ cây, trái cây cũng nở rộ. Tôi phải gọi lợn rừng ở Mỹ hiện tại là siêu lợn rừng. Chúng sinh đẻ quá mạnh. Mới 3 tháng tuổi đã đẻ và chúng sinh lứa lợn mới 2 lần trong năm”, ông Jack Mayer lo ngại. Ở các bang California và Texas, chính quyền đang khuyến khích người dân vác súng vào rừng săn bắn lợn rừng như thú vui nhằm làm giảm quần ...

  Tài xế cho xe chạy nhanh băng qua đập tràn suối Tà Rua, huyện Xuân Lộc, tỉnh Đồng Nai thì xe bị dòng nước chảy xiết cuốn đi. Chính quyền xã Xuân Bắc, huyện Xuân Lộc, tỉnh Đồng Nai sáng 23-9 vừa tìm thấy chiếc ô tô trong vụ tai nạn trước đó bị nước cuốn trôi tại khu vực suối Tà Rua trên địa bàn vào chiều qua. Chiều tối 22-9, mưa lớn nhiều giờ liền khiến dòng nước tại suối Tà Rua dâng cao, chảy xiết. Lúc này, anh Trần Đức Đạt (33 tuổi, ngụ thị trấn Gia Ray, huyện Xuân Lộc) lái ô tô 4 chỗ chở theo mẹ là bà Kim Hoa (64 tuổi), đi qua suối.

  Mississippi may have a real Senate race on its hands. At least that's what the latest Tyson Group  poll  suggests. The survey has incumbent Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) up just one point on her Democratic challenger, Mike Espy, who represented Mississippi in the House from 1987 to 1993 before serving as agriculture secretary in the Clinton administration for a  time. As with all polling, there are caveats, and it's worth noting that although the Tyson Group survey was released Monday, it was conducted between Aug. 28-30. So it's tough to tell how well it reflects the current sentiment among Mississippi voters, especially since Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death will likely affect elections around the country. But it's the latest poll out of the state, and if recent fundraising is any indication, Espy does have some momentum. On Saturday, buoyed by a nationwide in Democratic donations, he raised more money in a singe day than any Mississippi candi...

  It’s like something that’s out of a terrifying movie – a wild pig population that’s growing at such a rapid pace, experts are referring to it as a “feral swine bomb” that can go off any minute. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture,  the invasive species of wild pigs  has a population of at least 6 million and is growing quickly. The wild pig population  has “expanded from 17 states to at least 39 over the last three decades” and causes an estimated $2.5 billion in damage a year, The Atlantic said. “I’ve heard it referred to as a feral swine bomb,” said Dale Nolte, manager of the National Feral Swine Damage Management Program at the USDA to The Atlantic. “They multiply so rapidly. To go from a thousand to two thousand, it’s not a big deal. But if you’ve got a million, it doesn’t take long to get to 4 [million], then 8 million.” The problem stems from the fact that most of the wild pigs are a mixture of domestic breeds and European wild boar. “The problem ...

 Japan, US troops in closer ties under 5-yr-old security laws TOKYO (Kyodo) - Japanese and U.S. defense cooperation has increased as a result of security legislation expanding the role of the Self-Defense Forces that marked five years since its enactment on Saturday. Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe legislation pushed through the in 2015, which enables Japan under certain conditions to exercise the right to collective self-defense, or to defend allies even in cases when Japan is not directly attacked. The pair of laws, enabling the Japanese SDF to fight overseas for the first time since World War II, was a landmark defense policy shift in a country that upholds a war-renouncing Constitution. Diet deliberations on the legislation sparked large protests and divided public opinion. "The Japan-US alliance has never been stronger due to the enactment of the security legislation. It sang to regional peace and stability," Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi told a press conference on Frida...

  As Tropical Storm Higos blew in from the Pacific, Stephen Stanek, a covert CIA operative, faced a decision. It was time to either cancel the operation he was running or go forward with it. The storm was barreling through the Philippines but was then projected to veer north and miss their area of operation. Stanek’s partner for the operation, a younger man named Michael Perich, had recently graduated from the Merchant Marine Academy. A football player at the academy, Perich was now at the beginning of his career in paramilitary operations and had just recently been trained as a scuba diver. Two other men were aboard their 40-foot vessel, Jamie McCormick and Daniel Meeks, both in supporting roles. Stanek, a retired Navy ordnance disposal diver, was highly experienced but had only recently attained his license to be a ship captain, according to those who knew him. The crew had spent the last several days sailing up the coast of the Philippines after departing Malaysia in what was to...