13-year-old killed in ATV crash in Fresno County identified

The 13-year-old boy who was killed in an ATV accident in Fresno County has been identified as Raul Meza.

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  • Trump allies to Michigan judge: Force Gov. Whitmer to overturn Biden's win, give state to president

    The allegations, provided without credible evidence of widespread fraud or misconduct, have been rebuffed in courts in other states.

  • Body of missing Instagram influencer Alexis Sharkey found on Texas road

    There were no visible wounds to the body and a cause of death hadn't yet been determined for the 26-year-old, police said.

  • China gave COVID-19 vaccine candidate to North Korea's Kim: U.S. analyst

    China has provided North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his family with an experimental coronavirus vaccine, a U.S. analyst said on Tuesday, citing two unidentified Japanese intelligence sources. Harry Kazianis, a North Korea expert at the Center for the National Interest think tank in Washington, said the Kims and several senior North Korean officials had been vaccinated.

  • Belarus forces detain more than 100 at rallies

    Thousands of protesters met at various locations, mostly in remote residential areas of the capital, and marched through the streets demanding the resignation of President Alexander Lukashenko, a witness said. Police did not immediately answer calls seeking comment. Belarus has been in crisis since a presidential election in August that the opposition says was rigged, something Lukashenko, who has been in power for 26 years, denies.

  • Huge Puerto Rico radio telescope, already damaged, collapses

    A huge, already damaged radio telescope in Puerto Rico that has played a key role in astronomical discoveries for more than half a century completely collapsed on Tuesday. The telescope's 900-ton receiver platform fell onto the reflector dish more than 400 feet below. The U.S. National Science Foundation had earlier announced that the Arecibo Observatory would be closed.

  • More than 100 civilians dead in 'gruesome' Nigeria attack blamed on Islamic jihadists

    A weekend attack on farm workers in northeast Nigeria blamed on jihadists left at least 110 dead, the UN humanitarian coordinator in the country said on Sunday, the deadliest attack on civilians this year. The attack, in a state gripped by a jihadist insurgency for more than 10 years, took place the same day as long-delayed local elections in the state. "I am outraged and horrified by the gruesome attack against civilians carried out by non-state armed groups in villages near Borno State capital Maiduguri," Edward Kallon said in a statement. "At least 110 civilians were ruthlessly killed and many others were wounded in this attack," he added. Some locals blamed the attack on Boko Haram fighters, but Bulama Bukarti, an analyst with the Tony Blair Institute, said rival group the IS-affiliated Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) were more active in the area. "ISWAP is the likely culprit," he tweeted. Kallon, in his statement, said: "The incident is the most violent direct attack against innocent civilians this year. "I call for the perpetrators of this heinous and senseless act to be brought to justice," he added. The violence centred on the village of Koshobe near the Borno state capital Maiduguri, with assailants targeting farm workers harvesting rice fields. One pro-government anti-jihadist militia said the assailants tied up the labourers and slit their throats. Kallon said the assailants - "armed men on motorcycles" - also targeted other communities in the area. "Rural communities in Borno State are facing untold hardships," he added, calling for more to be done to protect them and to head off what he said was a looming food crisis there. Borno Governor Babaganan Umara Zulum attended the burial Sunday in the nearby village of Zabarmari of 43 bodies recovered on Saturday, saying the toll could rise after search operations resumed. The victims included dozens of labourers from Sokoto state in northwestern Nigeria, roughly 1,000 kilometres (600 miles) away, who had travelled to the northeast to find work, it said. Six were wounded in the attack and eight remained missing as of Saturday. Kallon, citing "reports that several women may have been kidnapped", called for their immediate release. Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari condemned the attack on Saturday, saying: "The entire country has been wounded by these senseless killings." Neither the president's statement nor Sunday's from the UN mentioned either Boko Haram or rival group ISWAP by name. But both groups have been active in Borno State, their attacks having forced the postponement of locations in Borno State, which finally took place Saturday.

  • Georgia Secretary of State Investigating Voter Registration Group Run by Warnock

    The New Georgia Project, a voter registration group formerly led by Georgia Democratic Senate candidate Raphael Warnock, is under investigation for allegedly sending ballot applications to non-residents, the Georgia secretary of state said Monday.Warnock was CEO of the group, which was originally founded by failed gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, until February. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced the group, and three others, are under investigation for improper registration activities.While Raffensperger, a Republican who has been vocal in debunking President Trump’s claims of election fraud, said that he has not seen signs of widespread, systemic fraud, there is evidence of "third-party groups working to register people in other states to vote here in Georgia."Raffensperger said the New Georgia Project "sent voter registration applications to New York City," in a potential violation of state law."Voting in Georgia when you are not a resident of Georgia is a felony," Raffensperger said. "These third-party groups have a responsibility to not encourage illegal voting. If they do so, they will be held responsible."Warnock served as CEO of the group, which describes itself as a “nonpartisan effort to register and civically engage Georgians” from 2017 until February 21, 2020, according to the Washington Free Beacon. He has said he organized voter mobilization drives for the New Georgia Project, including an effort to register 80,000 new minority voters in 2014.The group says it has registered "nearly 400,000 people from underrepresented communities to vote in Georgia.”Warnock, who is competing against incumbent senator Kelly Loeffler (R., Ga.) in a runoff race that could decide party control of the Senate, had called past voter fraud probes against the group “alarmist.”In 2014, the secretary of state's office conducted an investigation into the New Georgia Project after contractors working for the group were accused of forging voter registration applications. The case was referred to law enforcement three years later, though no charges were ever brought.Warnock claimed in 2017 that "using the word voter fraud is alarmist, and it was totally unnecessary." He argued that the New Georgia Project had "excellent internal controls and that we have followed the law," as evidenced by the lack of charges brought against the group.Three other voter registration groups are also under investigation, Raffensperger said, including America Votes, which allegedly sent "absentee ballot applications to people at addresses where they have not lived since 1994."Vote Forward allegedly registered a dead Alabama voter in Georgia while Operation New Voter Registration Georgia is accused of recommending college students temporarily change their residency for the purpose of voting in the state.

  • 'I don't see any way around it': Former Navy SEAL McRaven says retaliation for assassination of top Iranian nuclear scientist all but certain

    "The Iranians are going to be in a position where they have to retaliate. I don't see any way around it," retired Adm. William McRaven said.

  • GOP Sen. Josh Hawley tries to explain how Democrats are both 'Marxists' and 'corporatists'

    Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) suggested Monday that he might oppose President-elect Joe Biden's nomination of Janet Yellen as Treasury secretary because Biden's Cabinet picks are "a bunch of corporate liberals and warmongers." Over the summer, The Bulwark's Tim Miller pointed out, Hawley told Fox News host Tucker Carlson that the Democratic Party "in thrall" to "the Marxist left.""Hawley could have ignored the criticism — after all, it’s not like his target audience is going to complain that he attacked the Democrats in two mutually exclusive ways," Jonathan Chait noted at New York. But Hawley, "a prep school kid with degrees from Stanford and Yale" who "still craves the respect of elites," evidently "felt compelled to show that he is not just a glib demagogue mouthing slogans." So this is how he reconciled his contradictory accusations:> Let me explain this to you. Corporate liberals are woke capitalists. The corporatists love critical race theory and all the other warmed-over Marxist garbage. They sell out working Americans and sneer at them at the same time. That’s the New Left https://t.co/pOrG5NdXsq> > — Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) November 30, 2020If that doesn't make much sense to you, get in line. Some critics pointed out that Hawley's policies and fat donations from corporate interests aren't all that helpful to "working Americans," while others delighted in the word-salad incoherence of his explanation:> Tell us more about the corporate liberal Marxist capitalist critical-race-theorist socialist Wall Street leftist corporatist antifa fascist communists> > — Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) December 1, 2020> This is the kind of answer on an exam in high school where the teacher would say quit using a bunch of words you read or heard somewhere without putting anything together in a paragraph that makes sense.> > — Matthew Dowd (@matthewjdowd) November 30, 2020"Big corporations do not like Marxists who want to discredit and destroy the system," and "Marxists do not support uses of the American military," Chait summarized. But "the most precious line Hawley's lecture to Miller is 'Let me explain this to you.' As if any fool can see the obvious congruity of his two attacks on Biden. Only the elites can't spot the obvious. Just ask any regular hardworking Missouri farmer, and he'll explain that neoliberal corporate warlords are working hand in glove with Marxists to use critical race theory in order to advance Janet Yellen's candidacy for Treasury secretary."More stories from theweek.com Americans are choosing death over deprivation Our parents warned us the internet would break our brains. It broke theirs instead. How camp explains Trump

  • China refuses to apologise to Australia for fake soldier image

    The retort came after Canberra demanded an apology over a fake image of a soldier killing a child.

  • Switzerland halves new infections without national lockdown as pubs and restaurants stay open

    Switzerland is emerging as a model for how the coronavirus can be contained without a national lockdown, after daily new infections halved since the start of November despite pubs, restaurants, gyms and sports remaining open in much of the country. The figures were hailed as a triumph for the “Swiss special way” by Swiss government doctors last week, and will be seen as evidence that regional tiers can work in the UK. Rather than ordering a general lockdown, Switzerland allowed regions to decide their own measures and only the worst-hit imposed tough restrictions. But critics have charged that the success came at too high a price, after the country experienced some of the highest death rates in Europe. Switzerland has been described as the “new Sweden” after it refused to follow the UK and other countries into a second lockdown this month. The Swiss government imposed only minimal restrictions at a national level, including a limit of ten on private gatherings, an 11pm curfew for restaurants and the compulsory use of facemasks in crowded areas.

  • Trump shares posts asking ‘why bother voting for Republicans?’ ahead of key vote that could decide Senate

    President launches attacks on his own party despite two decisive Senate races in Georgia next month

  • Nike, Coca-Cola, Apple among Companies Lobbying against Uyghur Forced Labor Bill

    Multinational corporations including Nike and Coca-Cola are lobbying to water down legislation that would ban products made with forced labor in China's Xinjiang province, the New York Times reported on Sunday.China has attempted to cement state power over millions of Muslim citizens in Xinjiang, mostly Uyghur Muslims along with Kazakhs and other minorities. The ruling Communist Party has placed Uyghurs in so-called reeducation camps that attempt to erase their attachment to Islam, and has also embarked on a campaign of forced sterilization of Uyghur women.Numerous global supply chains are based in Xinjiang, including for cotton and coal, and China has employed forced Uyghur labor for various factories. The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which passed the House 406-3 in September and is currently under consideration in the Senate, would ban imports of good from Xinjiang unless U.S. customs officials could verify that the goods were not produced using forced labor.However, multinational companies are lobbying against the legislation, saying that while they do not support use of forced labor, the bill could have a detrimental impact on their supply chains. Along with Nike and Coca-Cola, tech giant Apple is also pushing to weaken some restrictions, the Washington Post reported last week.Coca-Cola "strictly prohibits any type of forced labor in our supply chain" and employs third-party auditors to enforce the policy, the company said in a statement to the Times. Nike said it "did not lobby against" the legislation but had "constructive discussions" with congressional aides on keeping its supply chain free of forced labor.Pro-business groups including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce have also joined the lobbying efforts.A report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute in March of this year concluded that at least 80,000 Uyghurs have been sent away from their homes to labor in factories in other parts of China.

  • California governor warns new stay-at-home order likely as COVID-19 hospitalizations rise

    California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) warned on Monday that if the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations continues to quickly rise, projections show the state's intensive care units could reach capacity by mid-December.Because of the risk of overwhelming parts of the state's health care system, Newsom said, he may soon have to impose a "more dramatic" and "arguably drastic" stay-at-home order for certain areas, so California can get its coronavirus numbers back down. The state, he said, will not "just sit back" and plans to "improve upon our existing efforts."There are 7,733 ICU beds in California, and 75 percent of them are now occupied. Newsom said 1,812 of the ICU beds are filled by coronavirus patients, the Los Angeles Times reports. As of Sunday, there were 7,787 coronavirus patients hospitalized in California, an increase of about 89 percent from two weeks ago. Over the last week, California has averaged 13,937 new cases per day, nearly a 75 percent increase from two weeks ago. More than 19,100 Californians have died from the coronavirus.Los Angeles County has placed new capacity limits at stores and banned most gatherings of people not from the same household, and this had to be done because "we are at the most difficult moment in the pandemic," L.A. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said. "We don't really have any choice but to use all the tools at hand to stop the surge. Until there is a vaccine, each of us needs to protect all of those around us — both those we know and those we don't. The virus is running rampant through almost every part of our county."More stories from theweek.com Americans are choosing death over deprivation GOP Sen. Josh Hawley tries to explain how Democrats are both 'Marxists' and 'corporatists' Our parents warned us the internet would break our brains. It broke theirs instead.

  • Air strike kills IRGC commander at Iraq-Syria border - Iraqi officials

    An air strike killed a commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards at the Iraq-Syria border sometime between Saturday and Sunday, Iraqi security and local militia officials said on Monday. The vehicle was carrying weapons across the Iraqi border and was hit after it had entered Syrian territory, two Iraqi security officials separately said. The incident came just days after Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was assassinated in Tehran in a killing that Iran has blamed on Israel.

  • I was an election monitor in Afghanistan. Trump's fraud claims follow a corrupt playbook.

    The 2014 Afghan presidential election involved accusations of fraud, recounts, and threats of violence. Eventually there was peace. Sound familiar?

  • Children can only have puberty blockers if they understand they're irreversible, High Court rules

    Trans children should not receive controversial puberty blockers unless they understand the risks, according to a landmark High Court ruling, as judges warn that most teenagers cannot give their consent. The ruling means that children who wish to undergo gender reassignment can now only legally consent to taking puberty blockers if they are able to understand the “long-term risks and consequences of the administration of” the drugs. The case had been brought against Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust, which runs the UK’s only gender identity development service (GIDS) for children, by Keira Bell, a 23-year-old woman who began taking puberty blockers when she was 16 before “detransitioning”. She said the clinic should have challenged her more over her decision to transition to a male as a teenager. The legal challenge was also brought by a woman who can only legally be identified as ‘Mrs A’, the mother of a 15-year-old autistic girl who is currently on the waiting list for treatment. At a hearing in October, their lawyers said children going through puberty are “not capable of properly understanding the nature and effects of hormone blockers”. They argued that there is “a very high likelihood” that children who start taking hormone blockers will later begin taking cross-sex hormones, which they say cause “irreversible changes” and that the NHS Trust offers "fairytale" promises to children because they are unable to give their consent to the sex-change process. However in the judgement handed down on Tuesday, Dame Victoria Sharp, sitting with Lord Justice Lewis and Mrs Justice Lieven, said that children under 16 needed to understand “the immediate and long-term consequences of the treatment” to be able to consent to the use of puberty blockers. The judges said in their ruling: “It is highly unlikely that a child aged 13 or under would be competent to give consent to the administration of puberty blockers. “It is doubtful that a child aged 14 or 15 could understand and weigh the long-term risks and consequences of the administration of puberty blockers.” They added: “In respect of young persons aged 16 and over, the legal position is that there is a presumption that they have the ability to consent to medical treatment. “Given the long-term consequences of the clinical interventions at issue in this case, and given that the treatment is as yet innovative and experimental, we recognise that clinicians may well regard these as cases where the authorisation of the court should be sought prior to commencing the clinical treatment.” During the High Court hearing in October, the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust - as well as University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Leeds Teaching Hospital NHS Trust, to which Tavistock refers children and young people experiencing gender dysphoria - argued that taking puberty blockers and later cross-sex hormones were entirely separate stages of treatment. But, in its ruling, the High Court said: "It is said therefore the child needs only to understand the implications of taking puberty blockers alone ... in our view this does not reflect the reality. "The evidence shows that the vast majority of children who take puberty blockers move on to take cross-sex hormones." The court added that both treatments were "two stages of one clinical pathway and once on that pathway it is extremely rare for a child to get off it". Speaking outside the Royal Courts of Justice after the ruling, Keira Bell said she was "delighted" with the High Court's ruling, adding that “common sense has prevailed”. "This judgment is not political,” she said, “it's about protecting vulnerable children." A statement was also read on behalf of her fellow claimant, Mrs A, which said: "I'm relieved to hear the court have understood and agreed with our concerns about... treating children and young people with puberty blockers." Their solicitor Paul Conrathe said the ruling was "an historic judgment that protects children who suffer from gender dysphoria". He added: "Ultimately this case was decided on the facts that were known by the Tavistock. "Ironically - and as matter of serious concern - despite its international reputation for mental health work, this judgment powerfully shows that a culture of unreality has become embedded in the Tavistock. "This may have led to hundreds of children receiving this experimental treatment without their properly informed consent." In response, a spokesperson for the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust said: “The Trust is disappointed by today’s judgment and we understand that the outcome is likely to cause anxiety for patients and their families. “Our first duty is to our patients, particularly those currently receiving hormone blocking treatment and we are working with our partners, University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, to provide support for patients concerned about the impact on their care. “The Trust is seeking permission to appeal the judgment, and in the meantime, confirms its ongoing support for the review commissioned by NHS England being led by Dr Hilary Cass. “We will update our statement once we know the outcome of today’s further court proceedings.” Lui Asquith, from the trans children's charity Mermaids, said the ruling was a "devastating blow for trans young people across the country”. “We believe very strongly that every young person has the right to make their own decisions about their body and that should not differ because somebody is trans. "The court today has decided to treat trans young people differently to every other child in the country. "We believe that we're entering a new era of discrimination, frankly. We see day in, day out at Mermaids the positive impact hormone blockers can have on some trans young people - in all honesty, they can save lives. "They allow some young people to be able to go outside, engage in society, go to school, and we're now in a position whereby those young people are not necessarily going to be able to access it. "We're entering a new era of experimentation, that experiment being what happens to trans young people who need hormone blockers who can't get them."

  • Leaked documents reveal China severely underreported coronavirus cases as the pandemic spread

    Documents leaked to CNN show that the real tally of coronavirus cases was significantly higher than public figures suggested.

  • Protest staged over murder of French businessman in Mexico

    A few hundred people marched in central Mexico City on Monday to protest the killing of a French businessman and his Mexican colleague over the weekend, the latest violent crime to inflame concerns about security in the country. Lormand and Orozco were reported missing on Friday and their bodies found by a dirt road in a southern district of the capital on Saturday, Mexico City prosecutors said. Polanco resident Israel Reyes said he was deeply saddened by the killing and shocked that such a crime had occurred in an area generally deemed to be among the safest in the city.

  • Biden's favorability rating jumped 6 points since the election, is already higher than Trump ever hit

    President-elect Joe Biden has seen a 6 percentage point jump in his favorability rating since the Nov. 3 election, with 55 percent of U.S. adults viewing him favorably, Gallup reported Monday. President Trump, whose Gallup favorability rating peaked at 49 percent in April, lost 3 points since Election Day, now clocking in at 42 percent. This is Biden's highest Gallup rating since February 2019, before he entered the presidential race. His jump in favorability was fueled by a 6-point bump among Republicans, to 12 percent, and a 7-point jump among independents, to 55 percent.> Biden's Favorability Rises to 55%, Trump's Dips to 42%, per @Gallup : https://t.co/xkyxen3TAs pic.twitter.com/0CyaXOnidW> > — John McCormick (@McCormickJohn) November 30, 2020Trump's post-election slump was also powered by a 6-point drop among Republicans, to 89 percent. Biden's jump in popularity is pretty normal for presidents-elect. "Since 2000, the winning presidential candidate's favorability ratings have increased slightly after the election," Gallup explained. "Additionally, since 2000, the winner's postelection favorability reached the majority level in every election except 2016, when Trump was the most personally unpopular presidential candidate in Gallup polling history."Trump's 2020 dip is less normal; Republican candidates Mitt Romney and John McCain saw their favorability ratings jump 4 points and 14 points, respectively, after losing to President Barack Obama. Hillary Clinton's rating was unchanged after the 2016 election.Gallup also found that Americans view the Democratic Party and Republican Party with roughly the same level of favor — 45 percent like Democrats, 43 percent approve of the GOP — though among independents, 41 percent view Democrats favorably and 33 percent see Republicans in a positive light.Gallup conducted its survey Nov. 5-19 among a random sample of 1,018 adults from all 50 states and the District of Columbia, and the margin of sampling error is ± 4 percentage points.More stories from theweek.com Americans are choosing death over deprivation GOP Sen. Josh Hawley tries to explain how Democrats are both 'Marxists' and 'corporatists' Our parents warned us the internet would break our brains. It broke theirs instead.