Watch Trump react when a reporter asks if he regrets 'all the lying you've done to the American people' over the past 3 1/2 years

President Donald Trump on Thursday dodged a reporter's question on whether he regretted lying throughout his presidency.

"After three and a half years, do you regret, at all, all the lying you've done to the American people on everything, all the dishonesties?" a reporter asked Trump. 

Trump quickly called on a different reporter for another question. 

At a press conference on Thursday, President Donald Trump quickly moved past a reporter's question on whether he regretted lying throughout his first term in office.

HuffPost White House correspondent S.V. Dáte asked Trump: "After three and a half years, do you regret, at all, all the lying you've done to the American people on everything, all the dishonesties?"
—Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 13, 2020

Trump replied: "That who has done?"

After Dáte said he was referring to the lies Trump has told, the president quickly looked for a different reporter to call upon.


The Washington Post's fact-checker found that as of July 9, the president had made over 20,000 false or misleading claims. On that day alone, he made 62 false claims, and about half of them were in a single interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity, according to The Post's analysis.

In June alone, Trump made 721 false claims, according to The Post's roundup. In the past 14 months, he made an average of 23 false claims a day, the newspaper reported.

Some of his most repeated false claims include: "We built the greatest economy in history, not only for our country, but for the world. We were No. 1, by far."

According to the fact-checker, the economy was in better shape by several important factors under Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Bill Clinton.

Did extremists in Pakistan really uproot “un-Islamic” trees?

PAKISTAN / DEBUNKED - 08/13/2020


People were circulating a series of videos online, claiming that they showed Pakistani extremists uprooting trees that they thought were “un-Islamic”. Turns out, that’s not the real story.
A video posted on Twitter on August 9 shows about a hundred people ripping out newly planted saplings in Pakistan. While the video is authentic, the caption claiming that the video shows Islamic extremists uprooting trees that they think are “un-Islamic” is totally false. The real story comes down to a rivalry between two tribes.

The video, which is just over a minute long, shows approximately one hundred people uprooting freshly-planted saplings. “Planting trees is against Islam,” reads the caption on one of the most widely circulated posts featuring this video. The author of this post, who lives in India, says the footage was filmed in Pakistan, a majority Muslim country. The post was retweeted more than 10,000 times and has so far garnered more than two million views.

Modi Ji on Earth Day started “Plant Trees” project because it has many benefits. Now Pakistan PM Imran Khan is copying Modi & started the “Tree Plantation Drive”. Look at these idiot vultures in Pakistan ripping out all the trees. They said “Planting trees is against Islam". pic.twitter.com/N4kSOKoeKK Renee Lynn (@Voice_For_India) August 9, 2020

Shortly after social media users in India first started circulating this video online, it was picked up by people in Iran and in far-right groups in France who mocked the men uprooting trees for supposedly religious reasons.




Why it’s false

On August 9, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan officially launched a vast tree-planting campaign across the country, with the aim of planting 3.5 million trees in a single day. Local officials were told to choose appropriate locations for the trees in their home regions. In Khyber, a district in northern Pakistan, local authorities designated an abandoned piece of land for the trees.




This screengrab shows the area in Khyber chosen for trees. The land is actually disputed by two tribes in the district.

That day, a group of volunteers calling themselves the “Tiger Forces” planted thousands of trees in the designated zone. But just a few hours later, hundreds of people came and ripped out the newly planted saplings.

"What happened has nothing to do with Islam or any other ideology”

Our Observer Umar Farooq lives in Khyber, Pakistan. He wasn’t an eyewitness to the incident, but he knows the region well.

What happened has nothing to do with Islam or any other ideology. The local authorities decided to plant trees on an arid strip of land that is claimed by two different local tribes, the Sipah and the Ghabi Khali. The local authorities have already negotiated with the Khali tribe and they were ok with the government about planting trees here, meanwhile the local authorities did not [do] the same with [the] Sipah tribe. However while some of the members of the Sipah tribe were ok with using this space to plant trees, others weren’t. They are the ones who came and ripped up all the newly planted trees.

That afternoon, elders from the Sipah tribe came to replant the trees. They also apologized for the younger members of their tribe, even though the damage was already done.



آج قبائیلی ضلع خیبر میں پودے لگانے کی مہم میں وہاں کے رہائشیوں نے پودے اکھاڑنے کے بعد نہ صرف معافی مانگی, پودے دوبارہ لگائے بلکہ وہاں کے مشران نے یہ بھی عہد کیا کہ وہ ١٠,٠٠٠ پودے اور بھی لگائیں گے, اور پودے لگانے کی مہم میں بڑھ چڑھ کر حصہ لیں گے-#PlantWithTigersForce pic.twitter.com/BL6h26PufE JAVED AFRIDI F club (@ILOVEJAFRIDI10) August 9, 2020
This video shows elders from the Sipah tribe replanting trees that had been ripped up.

People were shocked when they saw the images of the ripped out trees. The fake story that people had torn them up because they thought they were “non-Islamic” totally obscured the real story. After that started circulating, no one paid attention to the other video showing people from the tribe replanting trees.
Mahmood Khan, the minister in chief of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, said that local authorities had taken note of this incident and promised that they would take action against those who had uprooted the saplings. He added that at least 6,000 young trees had been torn from the earth.

The rumour that people had uprooted the trees for religious reasons first emerged on social media in India.
Citizens of the two rival nations regularly try to discredit one another on social media. And both politicians and certain media outlets regularly share fake stories or images taken out of context to discredit the other camp.


>> Read on the Observers: War of fake images erupts between India and Pakistan

Article by: Ershad ALIJANI

THE CANADA CONNECTION
A top former Saudi spy files suit, spills the beans at an awkward time for Trump

Issued on: 12/08/2020

File photo of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at a meeting with US State Secretary Mike Pompeo in Jeddah, Sept. 18, 2019. © REUTERS - POOL 

A former senior Saudi intelligence officer in exile filed a lawsuit in a US court last week accusing Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of plotting to kill him. The allegations, including using children as bargaining chips, have sparked calls for President Donald Trump, in the thick of a difficult campaign season, to intervene on moral grounds.

In September 2017, a former top Saudi intelligence officer living in exile was desperately trying to get his two children safely out of the Gulf kingdom. Picking up his iPhone, Saad Aljabri got on WhatsApp and contacted the most powerful man in his homeland, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

The WhatsApp communication between Aljabri and MBS – as the Saudi crown prince is widely known – is detailed in a lawsuit filed last week in a US court.

While the allegations have not yet been verified in court, the lawsuit makes for a jaw-dropping and yet disconcertingly familiar read.

“Tell me what you want in person,” texted MBS, according to the lawsuit, which includes a screen shot of the exchange in Arabic with an English translation.

“I hope that you will consider what I have already sent you, because this issue regarding the children is very important to me,” replied Aljabri.

Two minutes later, Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler once again urged the former intelligence official in exile to return home. “I definitely need you here,” said bin Salman.

Before Aljabri could reply, the crown prince added a terse, “24 hours!”

WhatsApp exchange in a lawsuit filed by Saad Aljabry at the US District Court for the District of Columbia © US District Cout for the District of Columbia, Case 1:20-cv-02146-TJK

A crown prince falls, a crackdown begins

Four months earlier, Aljabri, a close advisor to bin Salman’s arch rival, Prince Muhammad bin Nayef, had fled Saudi Arabia for Turkey. He was still in Turkey in June 2017, when his ex-boss, bin Nayef – a longtime former Saudi interior minister – was stripped of his latest post as the kingdom’s crown prince and replaced by MBS.

File photo taken in September 2016 of Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Nayef in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. REUTERS - Ahmed Jadallah

In his new position as crown prince, the brash, young MBS had begun a crackdown against his rivals and opponents in the kingdom. As a right-hand man of Saudi Arabia’s former interior minister, Aljabri was a key link between Saudi and Western intelligence services and privy to highly sensitive information on the kingdom’s rulers.

Bin Salman wanted him back in Saudi Arabia “where he could be killed”, the lawsuit alleges.

Days after the Whatsapp exchange with MBS granting him "24 hours", Aljabri left Turkey for Canada. But two of his eight children, Omar and Sarah, were trapped in Saudi Arabia and are still being used as “human bait” to lure their father home, according to the lawsuit.

The Saudi strategy failed to entice Aljabri back. Instead it caught the attention of US lawmakers who called on President Donald Trump to act.

US senators remind Trump of a ‘moral obligation’

Last month, four US senators on both sides of the aisle urged Trump to help secure the release of Omar, 21, and Sarah, 20, calling it a “moral obligation” to help the former Saudi intelligence official in exile.

In a letter to the White House, Republican Senator Marco Rubio and Democratic senators, Patrick Leahy, Tim Kaine and Chris Van Hollen, described Aljabri as a “highly valued partner” of US intelligence and State Department agencies “who has been credited by former CIA officials for saving thousands of American lives by discovering and preventing terrorist plots”.

The Saudi royal family is holding Sarah and Omar Aljabri as hostages. Hostage taking is never justified. For a government to use such tactics is abhorrent. They should be released immediately. https://t.co/wqr22IEX1S pic.twitter.com/VdCpp0NZxV— Sen. Patrick Leahy (@SenatorLeahy) July 9, 2020

The children’s fate also pushed their father, a 62-year-old former government official with nearly four decades of experience in the secretive world of national security and counterterrorism, to take the unusually public step of filing a civil lawsuit in a US court.

‘Tiger Squad’ on a campaign to kill

The lawsuit filed last week at US District Court for the District of Columbia alleges that bin Salman launched a state campaign to kill Aljabri that “has worked to achieve that objective over the past three years”.

Aljabri bases his claim on two US laws: the Torture Victim Protection Act, which bans extrajudicial killing; and the Alien Tort Statute, which allows victims – including non-US citizens or residents – of such illegal operations to sue in US courts.

The 170-page document details chilling but as yet unverified plots to target Aljabri. They include the arrival at a Canadian airport of a Saudi “Tiger Squad” hit team – similar to the one used to kill journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey – to target Aljabri.

The complaint also sheds light on the moves by global intelligence and law enforcement agencies to contain some of bin Salman’s human rights excesses on foreign soil. In October 2018, for instance, just weeks after Khashoggi’s brutal killing, vigilant Canadian authorities stopped and questioned Tiger Squad members who arrived separately at Ontario airport, the lawsuit claims. Most of the team were sent back home to Saudi Arabia.

Interpol snags ‘politically motivated’ warrant request

MBS, the lawsuit alleges, had warned Aljabri that he would use “legal measures as well as other measures that would be harmful to you”.

But the Saudi crown prince’s attempts to use "legal measures" were stymied at Interpol, the global law enforcement agency based in the French city of Lyon, the US court document reveals.

In a July 4, 2018 decision taken months before Khashoggi’s killing sparked an international furor, the Commission for the Control of Interpol’s Files (CCF) found Saudi Arabia’s arrest and extradition request for Aljabri was “politically motivated rather then strictly juridical”. While any person has the right to request Interpol data about them, the CCF decision on the Aljabri case was not publicly known before the lawsuit was filed last week.

‘In the business of assassinating people’

The Aljabri case once again casts a spotlight on Saudi Arabia’s human rights violations at home and against its citizens abroad.

“It’s a lawsuit containing accusations that are not yet proved, but these are serious accusations against the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, which is a very powerful country. If the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is in the business of assassinating people, it’s very important,” said Rami Khoury, a journalism professor at the American University of Beirut (AUB) and senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School, in an interview with FRANCE 24.

The crown prince's role in Khashoggi’s assassination has been a public relations nightmare for the oil-rich Gulf kingdom. While MBS has acknowledged that men working for him killed the Washington Post columnist inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, he denies involvement in the murder.

His denials are widely disbelieved. In June 2019, an investigation into Khashoggi’s killing by UN Human Rights Special Rapporteur Agnès Callamard found “credible evidence, warranting further criminal investigation”, of the involvement of top Saudi officials, including bin Salman.

The latest Aljabri allegations – which names bin Salman and several Saudi officials implicated in Khashoggi’s murder, such as Saud “Mr. Hashtag” al-Qahtani, as defendants – are strikingly similar to the slain journalist’s case.

But the Khashoggi investigations so far have been impeded by political and diplomatic challenges.

As a UN special rapporteur, Callamard works as a volunteer, not UN staffer, and her office is independent of UN institutions. The fiery French human rights lawyer has publicly criticised UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for failing to act on her investigation findings to set up a panel of criminal experts.

Meanwhile the Trump administration has been stonewalling Congressional attempts to enforce accountability for Khashoggi’s murder while a Turkish trial on the case lacks international credibility, given the weaknesses of the Turkish justice system.

‘Lost in the world of the rule of law’

Aljabri’s extraordinary recourse in a US court of law opens the gates to a level of transparency that could, depending on the court proceedings, be damning for the crown prince, some experts believe.

“The accusations against Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman will be adjudicated in a US court using the instruments of the rule of law,” said Khoury. “This is being put into the public light. If a crown prince or ruler of a country is convicted as a criminal, that’s very important.”

Khoury, like every Saudi expert, does not expect the crown prince to appear before a US court. Unlike criminal cases, civil suits pursue compensations, not prison sentences. On Friday, August 7, the US district court issued summons, or an official notice of a lawsuit given to defendants being sued. Saudi authorities have not responded so far to media organisations about the case.

It’s an unfamiliar terrain for Saudi authorities accustomed to petrodollar diplomacy, including the use of top lobby groups during crises. “The Saudis aren’t used to it, they’re totally lost in the world of the rule of law. They operate on personal relations and don’t know how to deal with this shift into the chambers of Congress and into the chambers of courts,” explained Khoury.

Kushner-Saudi way of doing business

The Saudi way of doing diplomatic business found a perfect partner in Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner, who developed a personal relationship with MBS.

“Trump and Kushner, both used to shady real estate deals, adapted quickly to Saudi Arabia’s system of patronage and clientelism: unwavering support from the Trump administration for the promise of weapons sales and other business deals,” noted Mohamad Bazzi, a New York University journalism professor, in a Guardian column.


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But the Saudis are keenly aware that in the US – unlike in their conservative country of glacial or paternalistic reforms – the winds of change can swerve abruptly.

The Aljabri case filing comes barely three months before the November US presidential election, with the Saudis bracing for a potential change in the White House. Historically, a confluence of oil and business interests makes a Republican US president a better fit for Saudi interests.

Joe Biden, the centrist, septuagenarian Democratic presidential candidate, is not expected to bring radical change if he wins the November 3 election. But unlike Trump, who protected MBS in the fallout of Khashoggi’s killing, Biden is unlikely to give the crown prince’s human rights violations a pass. “Joe Biden is more inclined to obey international law and follow public opinion and pressure from senators,” noted Khoury.

The pressure is expected to mount as Aljabri's unusual lawsuit winds its way through US court proceedings before and after the 2020 presidential election.

MBZ, the UAE strongman behind historic deal with Israel

THEY ARE GOING TO MARS THEY BUILT A NUCLEAR POWER PLANT, THEY NEED ISRAEL'S LAUNCH AND TECHNOLOGY CAPABILITIES AND THEIR SECURITY TECHNOLOGY AS THEY MOVE AWAY FROM SAUDI ARABIA'S INFLUENCE AS THEY DID IN YEMEN IN SUPPORTING THE SOUTHERN SEPARATISTS

Issued on: 13/08/2020 - 

UAE Crown Prince Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan becomes the first Gulf leader to reach a deal with Israel to normalise ties. AFP - MONEY SHARMA

Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, the first Gulf leader to strike a deal normalising relations with Israel, has long been seen as a strongman who has driven the UAE's rise to diplomatic prominence.

A trained soldier and football fan, Sheikh Mohamed has for years been the quiet power behind the throne of Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates.

In a 2009 note to US President Barack Obama leaked by WikiLeaks, former American ambassador Richard Olson said the royal -- better known as MBZ -- was "the man who runs the United Arab Emirates".

Despite a low profile, and his apparent reluctance to speak in public, his ambition has been on display in recent years as the UAE built its profile as a regional player.

The country -- a collection of emirates better known for its skyscrapers, palm-shaped islands and opulent mega attractions -- has in short order built a nuclear power program and sent a man to space.And in July it joined another elite club by sending a probe to Mars, to mark the 50th anniversary of its unification.

Named crown prince of Abu Dhabi in November 2004, Sheikh Mohamed is the third son of Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al-Nahayan -- the revered founder of the UAE.

With his brother Sheikh Khalifa the nation's president, he serves as deputy commander of the armed forces and chairman of the Executive Council of Abu Dhabi, which controls the emirate's substantial finances.

While the glitzier emirate of Dubai has had to develop its tourism and services industries to make its fortune, Abu Dhabi sits on 90 percent of UAE oil production.

Military muscle

Born in the capital on March 11, 1961, Sheikh Mohamed was sent to military school in Britain, where he graduated from the famed Sandhurst Royal Military Academy in 1979.

He rapidly rose through the ranks of the armed forces to become air force commander, deputy chief of staff and finally chief of staff in January 1993 and a year later was promoted to the rank of general.

Described by diplomats as Abu Dhabi's strongman, Sheikh Mohamed has forged links in world capitals, particularly in the West.

He is widely believed to have taken the decision to deploy boots on the ground in Yemen in 2015 as part of a Saudi-led military campaign against Iran-backed Shiite Huthi rebels.

The Yemen war marked the first protracted military campaign abroad for the UAE and the first time it had to contend with military casualties, with dozens of Emirati soldiers killed.

The coalition has been denounced for air strikes, including on markets and hospitals, that have caused heavy civilian casualties since intervening in Yemen in March 2015.

The UAE, which largely exited the conflict last year, has also been accused of running secret prisons across southern Yemen. It denies the accusations.

Tight grip

Although the crown prince does not often speak in public -- he left the November 2017 inaugural speech of the Louvre Abu Dhabi to Dubai ruler Mohammed bin Rashid -- his reach into the political sphere cannot be underestimated.

Under his leadership, Abu Dhabi has fostered trade and political ties across the region -- including, to a limited extent, with Shiite Iran -- but has sided with the US against Tehran's nuclear programme and with Saudi Arabia on its role in the mainly Sunni Arab world.

Sheikh Mohamed also took the lead on a staunch no-mercy domestic security policy.

Observers believe it was he who masterminded an unprecedented clampdown on Islamists in the UAE, with dozens handed lengthy jail terms over charges of ties to extremists.

At the same time, he crafted for the UAE a reputation of tolerance that contrasts with its conservative neighbours.

In 2017, he announced that Abu Dhabi's Grand Mosque, also known as Sheikh Zayed mosque after his father, would change names to become the "Mariam Umm Issa" (Mary, Mother of Jesus) mosque as a means to "consolidate bonds of humanity between followers of different religions".


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An avid football fan, MBZ is president of the local club in the oasis of Al-Ain, his father's hometown and the second largest city in Abu Dhabi.

He has also been spotted cycling through the capital in shorts and a helmet.

A keen hunter and a poetry enthusiast, he is married to fellow royal Sheikha Salama bint Hamdan Al-Nahyan -- the couple has four sons and five daughters.

(AFP)

SEE
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/08/dont-be-hoodwinked-by-trumps-uae-israel.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/08/backgrounder-uae-efforts-to-normalise.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/08/israel-uae-deal-how-middle-east-reacted.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/08/opinion-israel-uae-deal-means-goodbye.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/08/rashid-khalidi-israel-uae-deal-to.html

Pope Francis says COVID-19 has exposed 'broadest social ills'
ALL THE POPE HAS TO SAY TO AMERICA IS VOTE CATHOLIC AND TRUMP LOSES

The pope said COVID-19 is a disease that's exposed the "broadest social ills" that have distorted views and ignored dignity. File Photo by Siciliani/Spaziani/UPI | License Photo

Aug. 12 (UPI) -- Pope Francis said in an address Wednesday that personal and collective individualism, selfishness and indifference brought on by the coronavirus pandemic is damaging human relationships and culture.

The pontiff spoke to his General Audience during catechesis, which is religious instruction given in preparation for Christian baptisms or confirmations.

"The pandmic has made us more aware of the spread within our societies of a false, individualistic way of thinking, one that rejects human dignity and relationships, views persons as consumer goods and creates a 'throwaway' culture," Francis said.

"In contrast, faith teaches that we have been created in God's image and likeness, made for love and for the communion of life with him, with one another and with the whole of creation. Jesus tells us that true discipleship consists in following his example by spending ourselves in service of others."

COVID-19, he said, is a disease that has exposed the "broadest social ills" that have distorted the view of people and ignored dignity. He said Jesus Christ set an example of service to others.

"He confirms it by immediately restoring sight to two blind men and making them his disciples. We want to recognize the human dignity in every person, whatever his or her race may be."

The pope said faith encourages worshipers to fight indifference "in the face of violations of human dignity" in times like these.

"Faith always requires us to let ourselves be healed and to convert from our individualism, both personal and collective."

Since the start of the pandemic, Francis has urged compassion for the homeless and resistance to politicians who prioritize economies ahead of health.

PERMANENT ARMS ECONOMY

Hungary purchases $1 billion U.S.-made defense missile system

USING THIS LOGIC THE USA WOULD HAVE SOLD HITLER WEAPONS


U.S. Ambassador to Hungary Devid Cornstein, L, and Hungarian Defense Minister Tibor Benko, R, signed a declaration of intent on Wednesday in Budapest for purchase by Hungary of about $1 billion in U.S.-made, air-to-air defense missiles. Photo by EPA-EFE/MTI

Aug. 12 (UPI) -- Hungary agreed to buy missile systems valued at $1 billion from the United States, the U.S. Embassy in Budapest announced Wednesday.

U.S. Ambassador David Cornstein and Hungarian Defense Minister Tibor Benko signed declarations of intent on Wednesday. The Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles [AMRAAM], produced by Raytheon, are in use by many NATO countries.

"This purchase will provide a proven, best-in-the-world, air defense capability that will contribute to the security of Hungary and NATO," the embassy said in a statement.

At the signing ceremony, Benko said the missile system will be used as a deterrent, as well as an increase in security, with the aim of ensuring the safety of Hungarians. Cornstein added that the deal, through the U.S. State Department's Foreign Military Sales Agency, will be the biggest procurement in the history of Hungary-U.S. defense cooperation.

RELATED Political watchdog says Hungary is no longer a democracy

The AMRAAM system is a beyond-visual-range, air-to-air missile, with over 14,000 missiles produced for the U.S. Army and Navy, as well as 33 international customers.

The purchase comes as Hungary works, and spends, to modernize its military, currently comprised largely of outmoded Soviet-era equipment.

A NATO member since 1997, Hungary announced the purchase of land force equipment from Germany in July, a reported $2 billion acquisition of tanks, howitzers and other battlefield support equipment.

RELATED Hungary's Parliament grants PM Viktor Orban ability to rule by decree

"We commend the Hungarian government's strong commitment to continue modernizing Hungary's military through the acquisition of the world's most advanced mid-range air defense system, which will enhance Hungary's ability to provide collective and self-defense," the U.S. Embassy statement said. "We look forward to working with our NATO ally Hungary on this project and continuing to enhance our long-term strategic partnership."

Navajo Nation president seeks clemency for death row inmate

Aug. 12 (UPI) -- Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez has appealed to President Donald Trump to grant clemency to a death row prisoner scheduled to be executed later this month.

Lezmond Mitchell, 37, is set to die by lethal injection Aug. 26 at the U.S. Penitentiary, Terre Haute, Ind. He was sentenced to death for the 2001 murder of two Navajo people -- a woman and her granddaughter -- on reservation land.

Nez met with a U.S. pardon attorney Tuesday to advocate for a commutation for Mitchell. The Navajo Nation is against the death penalty and argues the U.S. government shouldn't be able to execute Mitchell.

"The Navajo Nation is respectfully requesting a commutation of the death sentence and the imposition of a life sentence for Mr. Mitchell," Nez and Navajo Vice President Myron Lizer said in a letter to Trump on July 31.

"This request honors our religious and traditional beliefs, the Navajo Nation's long-standing position on the death penalty for Native Americans, and our respect for the decision of the victim's family ... We need to address this issue to move forward in our trust of our federal partners and to continue to work on the importance of protecting our people."

Under the Federal Death Penalty Act, the U.S. government can't seek the death penalty for murder committed on tribal land unless said tribe allows it. The U.S. Attorney's Office in Arizona originally didn't seek the death penalty for Mitchell, but received pressure from then-Attorney General John Ashcroft to do so.

Defense attorneys Jonathan Aminoff and Celeste Bacchi said that since the Navajo Nation was against the death penalty in Mitchell's case, the federal government used a "loophole" to charge him with a lesser crime -- carjacking resulting in death. This allowed the government to seek the death penalty without tribal approval.

The defense team also accused the U.S. government of misconduct for allegedly jailing and questioning Mitchell for 25 days without providing him a lawyer and preventing Navajos from serving on his jury.

Mitchell and co-defendant Johnny Orsinger were convicted in 2003 for the deaths of Alyce Slim, 63, and her granddaughter Tiffany Lee, 9.

The two men stabbed Slim dozens of times before stealing her vehicle and driving it to another location where they stabbed and beat the girl to death and dismembered their bodies to prevent identification. Mitchell and Orsinger used the vehicle to commit a robbery and when they were caught by police, Mitchell led them to the buried bodies.

Orsinger, who was a juvenile at the time, was sentenced to life in prison.

Attorney General William Barr resumed federal executions this month after a 17-year hiatus. The Bureau of Prisons executed three men -- Daniel Lewis Lee, Wesley Ira Purkey and Dustin Lee Honken -- within a span of a week. The men sued over the government's decision to use a single-drug lethal injection protocol, saying it violated the law which requires federal executions to use the same method as the individual states where the murders were committed.

If his execution proceeds, Mitchell will be the fourth federal execution this year and the first Native American to be executed in modern U.S. history, his lawyers said.

82% of early online COVID-19 posts were rumors, conspiracy theories

Roughly 82% of coronvirus-related information online was rumors or misinformation, though some of it may proved to be true, researchers say. Photo by niekverlaan/Pixabay

Aug. 10 (UPI) -- Nearly 82% of COVID-19 information posted on news sites, global health organizations and social media platforms between late December and early April were rumors or conspiracy theories, a study published Monday by the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene found.

Misinformation and efforts to stigmatize victims of the new coronavirus, which the researchers described as an "infodemic," have collectively been linked with hundreds of deaths globally, the analysis said.

"The public should rely [on] information that has been provided by the ministry of health of their countries and international health agencies," study co-author M. Saiful Islam told UPI.

In addition, "social media users should not share an information without verifying the source," said Islam, a sociologist with the International Center for Diarrheal Disease Research in Bangladesh.

The World Health Organization coined the term "infodemics" to refer to what it calls "an overabundance of information -- some accurate and some not -- that makes it hard for people to find trustworthy sources."

For the study, researchers reviewed COVID-19 information published or posted on fact-checking websites; social media, including Facebook and Twitter; and websites for television networks and newspapers. They also reviewed the sites for the WHO and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Researchers then categorized information as rumors, stigma or conspiracy theories. They defined rumors "as unverified information" that could be deemed "true, fabricated or entirely false after verification."

RELATED Prescriptions for anti-malarial drugs rose 2,000% after Trump support

They described conspiracy theories as "explanatory beliefs about an individual or group of people working in secret to achieve malicious goals."

Stigma is a "socially constructed process through which a person ... can experience discrimination and devaluation," they said.

From late December 2019 through early April, the researchers identified 2,311 reports related to COVID-19, published in 25 languages, from 87 countries.

RELATED Google searches for malaria drug spiked after Trump, Musk endorsements

Of 2,276 reports for which the researchers obtained text ratings, 82 percent -- or 1,856 -- "were false."

Of these, 2,049, or 89%, of the reports were classified as rumors -- that might have been confirmed later to be true -- while 182, or 7.8%, were conspiracy theories, and 82, or 3.5%, were efforts to stigmatize victims of the virus, researchers said.

One such rumor -- that consuming methanol, or highly concentrated alcohol, could disinfect the body and kill the new coronavirus -- spread quickly via social media. It since has been linked with more than 800 deaths and nearly 6,000 hospitalizations across several countries, researchers said.

Similarly, in March, reports in India suggested that people there were afraid to be tested for COVID-19 over concerns that they will be ostracized by their local communities, the researchers said.

This reluctance likely stems at least in part from efforts to stigmatize -- or, in some cases, blame -- victims of the virus for its spread, they said.

Efforts to stigmatize healthcare workers treating patients with COVID-19 and people of "Asian ethnicity" as threats to community health have been linked with dozens of violent attacks worldwide, according to the researchers.

Generally, COVID-19 misinformation follows a similar pattern to that seen in other outbreaks, including HIV and Ebola, suggesting that "during public health crises, people often concentrate more on rumor and hoaxes than on science," the researchers observed.

They called on world governments and international agencies to monitor and debunk false claims and "engage with social media companies to spread correct information."

"Governments should run media surveillance to identify misinformation in real-time and correct that information with scientific evidence," Islam said.

"Since social media is the platform through which misinformation spreads so quickly, policymakers should also use this platform to spread correct information."

Bias more likely in medical journals that accept reprint fees
By
HealthDay News

There is a longstanding fear in the scientific community that pharmaceutical companies could sway the research published in medical journals by paying them for advertising, but a new study reveals that advertising might not be the problem.

"All the available literature suggests that ad revenue should be the real concern, but that's not what we found," said study author S. Scott Graham. He is an assistant professor of rhetoric at the University of Texas at Austin.

Instead, Graham and his fellow investigators observed that journals that accept reprint fees -- let companies pay them to republish their articles -- were almost three times more likely to contain articles written by authors who receive funding from the pharmaceutical industry.

Many prior studies have established that researchers who have financial conflicts of interest are more prone to writing papers that are favorable to pharmaceutical products, so a journal that publishes the work of authors with conflicts is likely to include more biased research.

Graham's team reviewed well-over 100,000 articles published in 159 medical journals to come to this conclusion.

The investigators built a machine-learning system to sift through every article to find and track disclosures stating that an author had a conflict. They then identified which journals accepted advertising revenue, fulfilled reprint contracts or were owned by a large multinational publishing firm, and analyzed whether any of these factors were associated with publishing more work from authors with industry conflicts.

Perhaps surprisingly, the researchers found that whether or not a journal accepted money for advertising did not affect the likelihood that industry-supported authors wrote their articles. They also found no association for journals owned by big publishing companies.
RELATED Racial bias persists in clinical trial recruitment



But journals that accept reprint contracts had a higher number of conflicts per article than journals that take money for advertising, Graham's team reported.

The results were published online recently in the journal PLOS ONE.

"If we're going to make sure that medical journals are publishing the best science available, we need to focus on the commercial relationships that actually have an effect," Graham said in a university news release. "The issue with reprints also suggests that academics may need to take open access publishing even more seriously."

More information

There's more about conflicts of interest in medical research at the American Medical Association.

Copyright 2020 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Three-quarters of adults with COVID-19 have heart damage after recovery

THAT DOES NOT HAPPEN WITH THE FLU OR A COLD
Even fairly young, healthy adults can experience heart damage from COVID-19, which can be fatal in older people, research suggests. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

July 27 (UPI) -- Seventy-eight percent of people diagnosed with COVID-19 showed evidence of heart damage caused by the disease weeks after they have recovered, according to a study published Monday by JAMA Cardiology.

Of 100 participants in the study, 78 had evidence of heart damage on magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, according to the researchers.


None of the 100 patients included in the analysis had experienced heart symptoms related to the new coronavirus and "were mostly healthy ... prior to their illness," the researchers said.

"The patients and ourselves were both surprised by the intensity and prevalence of these findings, and that they were still very pronounced even though the original illness had been by then already a few weeks away," study co-author Dr. Valentina Puntmann told UPI.

"We found evidence of ongoing inflammation within the heart muscle, as well as of the heart's lining in a considerable majority of patients," said Puntmann, a consultant physician, cardiologist and clinical pharmacologist at University Hospital Frankfurt in Germany.

The researchers said the MRI findings were consistent with two potentially serious heart conditions: myocarditis and pericarditis, according to the researchers.

Myocarditis is inflammation of the heart muscle, and it can reduce the heart's ability to pump, potentially causing irregular heartbeats, Puntmann said

Pericarditis causes inflammation of the protective tissues surrounding the heart and can cause pain, she said.

The 100 study participants, 45 to 53 years old, had recovered from COVID-19. Participants' underwent MRI evaluation two to three months after being diagnosed with the virus, researchers said.

Sixty percent of the participants had evidence of ongoing heart inflammation on their MRIs that was independent of preexisting conditions or the course of their COVID-19 infection, according to the researchers.

Two-thirds of the participants recovered from COVID-19 at home, and 18% never had symptoms of the virus, the researchers said. Roughly half had mild to moderate symptoms of the coronavirus, they said.

"While we do not yet have the direct evidence for [long-term] consequences yet, such as the development of heart failure, which can be directly attributed to COVID-19, it is quite possible that in a few years this burden will be enormous based on what we know from other viral conditions," Puntmann said.

Although the participants in Puntmann's study recovered from the virus, a separate analysis, also published Monday by JAMA Cardiology found evidence of infection in the hearts of 16 of 39 -- or 41% -- patients who died from the disease.

The findings were made after autopsies of the patients, who were between 78 and 89 years old.

"[COVID-19] can infect the heart and, in severe cases, the virus seems to replicate within it," study co-author Dirk Westermann, a cardiologist at University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, also in Germany, told UPI.

"We need long-term follow-up studies of COVID-19 survivors to see whether [the virus] impacts cardiac function over the long-term," he said.