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HONOLULU (AP) — If you’re homeless and looking for temporary shelter in Hawaii’s capital, expect a visit from a robotic police dog that will scan your eye to make sure you don’t have a fever.

That’s just one of the ways public safety agencies are starting to use Spot, the best-known of a new commercial category of robots that trot around with animal-like agility.

The handful of police officials experimenting with the four-legged machines say they’re just another tool, like existing drones and simple wheeled robots, to keep emergency responders out of harm’s way as they scout for dangers. But privacy watchdogs — the human kind — warn that police are secretly rushing to buy the robots without setting safeguards against aggressive, invasive or dehumanizing uses.

In Honolulu, the police department spent about $150,000 in federal pandemic relief money to buy their Spot from robotics firm Boston Dynamics for use at a government-run tent city near the airport.

“Because these people are houseless it’s considered OK to do that,” said Jongwook Kim, legal director at the American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii. “At some point it will come out again for some different use after the pandemic is over.”

Acting Lt. Joseph O’Neal of the Honolulu Police Department’s community outreach unit defended the robot’s use in a media demonstration earlier this year. He said it has protected officers, shelter staff and residents by scanning body temperatures between meal times at a shelter where homeless people could quarantine and get tested for COVID-19. The robot is also used to remotely interview individuals who have tested positive.

“We have not had a single person out there that said, ‘That’s scary, that’s worrisome,’” O’Neal said. “We don’t just walk around and arbitrarily scan people.”

https://apnews.com/article/robotic-police-dogs-e32e371e8776b8565f1a0f6491e55c29

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Desperate farmers and landowners in California are resorting to bizarre, pseudoscientific practices as fierce drought ravages through the state and parts of the western United States.

In a Wednesday report for The New York Times, California-based journalist Livia Albeck-Ripka recalled that she first heard about the practice of water-divining when she was in Australia.

When Australia most recently suffered from a drought that shrunk aquifers, dried up rivers and threw cities in distress over looming water shortage, farmers, she recollected, began to resort to the practice.

Now, as a scorching heatwave blazes through the West Coast up to Canada, farmers in the Golden State suffer from similar woes that turned some Australian farmers toward the so-called “water diviners” and “water witches.”

With little to no rain the over the past week for majority of the basin, the drought has continued to become more extreme. pic.twitter.com/Jer5MiXhL0

— NWS MBRFC (@NWSMBRFC) July 23, 2021

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/21/us/ca-water-witches.html

https://www.drought.gov/states/california

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Gov. DeSantis mocks CDC’s mask guidance in Utah speech as Florida COVID-19 cases surge

One of the Republican Party’s most prominent rising stars is mocking new government recommendations calling for more widespread use of masks to blunt a coronavirus surge.

“Did you not get the CDC’s memo?” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis joked Wednesday before an almost entirely unmasked audience of activists and lawmakers crammed into an indoor hotel ballroom in Salt Lake City. “I don’t see you guys complying.”
Florida mayors defy DeSantis with mask, vaccine mandates

From Texas to South Dakota, Republican leaders responded with hostility and defiance to updated masking guidance from public health officials, who advise that even fully vaccinated people return to wearing masks indoors if they live in areas with high rates of virus transmission. The backlash reopened the culture war over pandemic restrictions just as efforts to persuade unvaccinated Americans to get shots appeared to be making headway.

Egged on by former President Donald Trump, the response reflects deep resistance among many GOP voters to restrictions aimed at containing a virus they feel poses minimal personal threat. The party is also tapping into growing frustration and confusion over ever-shifting rules and guidance.

https://www.wfla.com/community/health/coronavirus/gov-desantis-mocks-cdcs-mask-guidance-in-utah-speech-as-florida-covid-19-cases-surge/

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>https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-28/cuomo-notches-win-after-doj-drops-nursing-home-probe
>https://www.foxnews.com/media/journalist-doj-declining-covid-nursing-home-probe
Corrupt as shit. This is why "republicans officials are charged with more crimes." Like no shit, the democrats literally drop investigations if it could get another democrat in trouble

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Biden sells europe to Putin - Nord Stream 2
https://next.gazeta.pl/next/7,151003,27353696,usa-kongresmani-krytykuja-j-bidena-za-nord-stream-2-geopolityczne.html

Let's talk about something important /news/

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>A Black Capitol Police officer who testified on Tuesday before the House select committee investigating the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection on Capitol Hill is responding to right-wing critics questioning his integrity.
>But, it turns out Dunn has very little in common with your average cop. Dunn is an angry left-wing political activist whose social media feeds are full of praise, not coincidentally, for Nancy Pelosi,” Carlson said, referring to a Twitter post Dunn wrote, in which he opined: “Racism is so American, that when you protest it, people think you are protesting America!” His tweet was posted in July 2019 on the day after former President Donald Trump verbally attacked Democratic Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar at a North Carolina rally, where he whipped his supporters into chants of “Send her back!”
>Dunn, who was verbally attacked yet didn’t suffer serious physical assault during the insurrection, asked if that would make him more reliable. He said that dealing with comments like Carlson’s was “more than frustrating.”
Groid cop kills white Air Force vet in cold blood? Crickets.
Chauvin uses a legal restraint technique on George Floyd not knowing Floyd is overdosing on fentanyl? Riots, hysteria, burn down the system, make whitey pay!

https://news.yahoo.com/capitol-officer-harry-dunn-responds-142621087.html

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The swat attack was perpetrated after the victim refused to give up his Twitter handle.
>In April 2020, a 60 year-old man was the victim of a swatting attack: where perpetrators phone US police forces with bogus information, hoping to incite an armed response at their victim's location. After surrendering to the police surrounding his home, Mark Herring suffered a heart attack and died shortly thereafter.

>Now a new report by WKRN News 2 (thanks also to GamingBible) has shed light on the circumstances of this incident, and the petty reasons behind it. Mr Herring had been targeted by minors because of his Twitter handle of @Tennessee, which was considered a valuable handle. He was apparently one of many being targeted in this fashion.

>Herring's family explained the incident to News 2's Alex Denis. Mr Herring's son said it began when "The neighbours called and said 'There's police everywhere, and they think a man has killed a woman and he's on your property, you gotta take cover.'"

>"He went out the house with a gun, because he heard someone was on his property" says Corinna Fitch, Mr Herring's daughter. "He sees all these cops around him, and they ask if he is Mark Herring, 'put your hands up', so he tosses the gun away from him to show he's not a threat, and [put his] hands up."
https://www.pcgamer.com/a-60-year-old-man-died-of-a-heart-attack-after-being-swatted-over-his-twitter-handle/

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Mississippi mother Jennifer Booth was surprised when her 9-year-old daughter, Lydia, came home from school and told her that she was not allowed to wear her “Jesus Loves Me” face mask anymore.

Thinking her daughter’s teacher might simply have been having a bad day, Booth sent Lydia back to school with her mask. Again, the third grader was told she was not allowed to wear the mask at school.

“The principal calls me and she’s like, ‘We’re going to have to have Lydia swap her mask out,'” Booth recounts, adding that the principal said it was against school policy “to have religious symbols or gestures on her mask.” But upon inspecting the school handbook with the principal, Booth says, the only policy the principal could point to referred to “drug culture, profanity, [and] obscenities.”

Booth continued to contact leaders of the Simpson County School District asking for an explanation and was eventually sent the district’s COVID-19 policy. But after a little investigation, Booth discovered that the policy she received had been modified less than an hour before it was emailed to her to include language barring students from wearing masks expressing religious views.

Booth has filed a lawsuit against the school district with Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian legal organization.

https://adfmedia.org/press-release/ms-public-school-prohibits-3rd-grade-student-wearing-jesus-loves-me-face-mask


https://www.dailysignal.com/2021/07/26/mom-files-lawsuit-after-teacher-tells-third-grader-she-cant-wear-jesus-loves-me-mask/

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A third dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine can "strongly" boost protection against the Delta variant -- beyond the protection afforded by the standard two doses, suggests new data released by Pfizer on Wednesday.

The data posted online, which are expected to be discussed in a company earnings call on Wednesday morning, suggest that antibody levels against the Delta variant in people ages 18 to 55 who receive a third dose of vaccine are greater than five-fold than following a second dose.

Among people ages 65 to 85, the Pfizer data suggest that antibody levels against the Delta variant after receiving a third dose of vaccine are greater than 11-fold than following a second dose.

There's "estimated potential for up to 100-fold increase in Delta neutralization post-dose three compared to pre-dose three," researchers wrote in the Pfizer data slides.

The data have not yet been peer-reviewed or published.

The data also show that antibody levels are much higher after a third dose than a second dose against the original coronavirus variant and the Beta variant, first identified in South Africa.


https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/pfizer-claims-3rd-dose-strongly-boosts-protection-against-delta-variant-1.5526101

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https://news.yahoo.com/nfl-star-ex-brought-knife-034017235.html

A month after organizing a rally that led to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, Ali Alexander and his organization Stop The Steal finally got around to blaming eight people for the day’s violence.

In a report titled “agitators,” the group uploaded pictures of seven men and one woman it accused of being infiltrators who lured unsuspecting “patriots” into the Capitol. Those supposed outsiders were missing from an FBI database, the report claimed.

But, in fact, the woman pictured is not off the FBI’s radar; the agency has released wanted posters with her face. And far from being a mysterious entity, she is a public figure—Candace Williams, ex-wife of NFL star Terrell Suggs, The Daily Beast has learned.

A pro-Trump vlogger, Williams marched on the Capitol with a large, double-bladed knife, which she brandished outside the Capitol during a conflict with other demonstrators. Though she remains a Donald Trump supporter, she said the suspicious treatment she received from some of her comrades has turned her off MAGA-type Trumpists.

Williams has not been accused of a crime, and does not appear to have entered the Capitol. Still, her appearance outside the building with a large knife caught the attention of the FBI, internet sleuths, and Trump supporters—the latter of which looked for reasons to accuse Williams of being an anti-fascist agitator.

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The push to drain China’s influence from the U.S. economy has reached America’s farm country, as congressional lawmakers from both parties are looking at measures to crack down on foreign purchases of prime agricultural real estate.

House lawmakers recently advanced legislation to that effect, warning that China’s presence in the American food system poses a national security risk. And key Senate lawmakers have already shown interest in efforts to keep American farms in American hands.

The debate over farm ownership comes amid broader efforts by Congress and the Biden administration to curb the nation’s economic reliance on China, especially in key industries like food, semiconductors and minerals deemed crucial to the supply chain. The call for tighter limits on who owns America’s farms has come from a wide range of political leaders, from former Vice President Mike Pence to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), after gaining momentum seeded in farm states.

“America cannot allow China to control our food supply,” Pence said Wednesday during a speech at the conservative Heritage Foundation, urging President Joe Biden and Congress to “end all farm subsidies for land owned by foreign nationals.”

Chinese firms have expanded their presence in American agriculture over the last decade by snapping up farmland and purchasing major agribusinesses, like pork processing giant Smithfield Foods. By the start of 2020, Chinese owners controlled about 192,000 agricultural acres in the U.S., worth $1.9 billion, including land used for farming, ranching and forestry, according to the Agriculture Department.

Still, that’s less than farmland owned by people from other nations like Canada and European countries, which account for millions of acres each. It’s also a small percentage of the nearly 900 million acres of total American farmland.

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/07/19/china-buying-us-farms-foreign-purchase-499893

https://fox59.com/news/texas-gunman-stoned-to-death-after-shooting-into-crowd-killing-1-and-injuring-3/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tyS-eubxxw

FORT WORTH, Texas — A gunman was stoned to death by a group of people after he shot and killed one person and injured three others, according to a report by FOX 7 Austin.

According to the report, the incident occurred around 1 a.m. on Monday in Fort Worth where a “small gathering” was happening in someone’s backyard.

Police believe the shooter became upset with a person during the gathering and returned with a gun, shooting at least one person non-fatally.

Police say the shooter was then chased by several party-goers which promoted the shooter to fire into the pursuing crowd. In response to being fired upon, police say the pursuing mob began to pelt the gunman with landscaping stones and bricks.

The gunman was repeatedly stoned by the pursing crowd, police said, but still managed to fire his weapon several times striking at least two more people. One of the individuals struck by the gunfire died from their injuries.

The gunman was killed at the scene after being repeatedly struck with stones and bricks by the party-goers.

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A German presenter has apologised after being caught smearing mud on her clothes moments before appearing on television from a town ravaged by last week's historic floods.

Susanna Ohlen, 39, said she acted after feeling "ashamed" of reporting from the town in her clean clothes.

The broadcaster RTL said she had been suspended for breaching its standards after the video went viral.

In a statement, Ms Ohlen said she had made a "serious mistake".

She had been reporting from Bad Münstereifel in North Rhine-Westphalia, where record rainfall destroyed homes and left dozens dead last week.

Ms Ohlen said she had been helping aid efforts in the days before filming for RTL's Good Morning Germany programme on Monday.

But before going on air, she felt "ashamed to stand in front of the camera in clean clothes", she said.

Without thinking, she said, "I smeared mud on my clothes".

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Speaking at a rally in Toronto on July 17, former parliamentarians and rights activists voiced support for Falun Gong adherents amid the ongoing persecution of the spiritual practice launched by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) 22 years ago.

Over 500 Falun Gong adherents participated in a parade through the city’s downtown to commemorate the victims of the largest human rights abuse in China. At least 500 people registered online for the parade, but roughly 700-800 people showed up, said Jeffery Jiang, one of the organizers.

At the rally in Queen’s Park, former Conservative MP Wladyslaw Lizon called on Canada, the United States, and Europe to help those who “demand rights and change in the communist system” as in the past they helped people living in the Soviet Union.

“This gives hope, and it should give hope to all of us and to those that are here today, persecuted by this terrible communist government in China,” Lizon said.

“We should remind not only the communist government of China of their crimes, [but] remind them that the times to answer for those crimes is coming.”

Falun Gong is a spiritual practice that includes meditation exercises and teachings based on the tenets of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. Also called Falun Dafa, the practice was introduced in 1992 in China, where it gained widespread popularity due to its benefits to people’s mental and physical well-being. By 1999, it had attracted 70-100 million adherents, according to Chinese government estimates.

CCP leader Jiang Zemin perceived that popularity as a threat to the regime’s rule. On July 20, 1999, Jiang launched an unprecedented campaign and brutal oppression aimed at eradicating the practice.



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A suspect, who allegedy boasted with pals about gang-raping a 13-year-old Austrian schoolgirl who died in the attack, has been arrested.

The teenager's lifeless body was dumped beside a road next to a tree after allegedly being raped by the four men.

Austrian police say all four were immigrants from Afghanistan and arrested three, with an international manhunt carried out searching for the fourth. The suspect has now been arrested in London.

Schoolgirl Leonie, 13, from the city of Wiener Neustadt near Austria's capital Vienna, was reported missing by her parents Melanie P, 40, and Hannes W, 39.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9844273/Afghan-wanted-connection-13-year-old-Austrian-girls-gang-rape-murder-arrested-London.html