The Daily Beast Media Bias

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Five Dead After Man Drives Into Crowd and Throws Cash in the Air

ReutersPolice in the Chinese city of Guangzhou are searching for a motive after a 22-year-old man allegedly drove his black BMW SUV into a crowd of people, killing five and injuring 13. The incident, caught on surveillance cameras, shows the man traveling at a relatively slow speed as he seemingly swerved to hit as many people as possible. He then threw paper money into the air each time he hit a person, according to the footage.The incident, which took place during rush hour in the city of 19 million people, garnered immediate outrage online, according to the BBC. Various postings on Weibo, China’s answer to Twitter, show children among the victims.
The Daily Beast     Jan 13, 2023

Biden Fails to Explain Classified Documents Found in His Home Garage

Mandel Ngan/AFP via GettyPresident Joe Biden failed to explain Thursday why documents with classified markings were stored next to his vintage Corvette in a garage at his home in Wilmington, Delaware.White House lawyers said in a statement Thursday that a “small number of Obama-Biden administration records with classified markings” were found “among personal and political papers” in storage spaces at the Wilmington home. It’s the second set of classified documents found in Biden’s possession after lawyers revealed earlier this week that staff clearing out office space at his former D.C. think tank found about 10 classified documents in November. Asked “what were you thinking?” by Fox News reporter Peter Doocy on Thursday, Biden responded, “By the ...
The Daily Beast     Jan 13, 2023

Flower Frozen in Amber for 33 Million Years Gets a New Name

science

Carola RadkeSince its classification in 1872, scientists have bestowed a special record to a flower that has been frozen in time for more than 33 million years. For over a century, it has been known as the largest-known specimen of a flower preserved entirely in amber.And now, after all that time, researchers must come to grips with a bombshell revelation: the flower has been masquerading as the wrong species. A recent re-analysis by German researchers reveals that the flower, nearly three times larger than those typically preserved in the fossil record, is the earliest-known member of the sweetleaf family—and not the tea family, as was originally presumed.The case of mistaken identity was brought to light on Jan.
The Daily Beast     Jan 13, 2023

Idaho Lawmaker Goes Beserk at School Board Meeting Over Trans Issues

politics

Caldwell School DistrictA retired Marine who survived combat in Afghanistan and Iraq, newly elected Idaho State Sen. Chris Trakel waded into a culture war skirmish over transgender students’ rights this week.The Republican ended up being shut down by a volunteer school board chair, who otherwise handles escrow for a title company.The meeting of the Caldwell School District board on Tuesday night was meant to discuss a host of possible policies concerning “gender identity and sexual orientation.” Board chair Marisela Pesina began the meeting by welcoming a spillover crowd of hundreds.
The Daily Beast     Jan 13, 2023

Acclaimed Stage, TV, Film Star Carole Cook Dies Three Days Before Birthday

David Livingston/Getty ImagesShe was known as a star of stage, TV and screen but just three days before her 99th birthday, Carole Cook took her final bow.Cook, whose career dates from the 1950s and who blossomed after she was mentored by comedy legend Lucille Ball, died of heart failure in Beverly Hills at 1:58 p.m. Wednesday at the age of 98, Cook’s husband, actor Tom Troupe, announced via an agent. The Hollywood Reporter described her as a “Lucille Ball protégé.”“With tremendous sorrow and heartache, it is on behalf of her husband, Tom Troupe, and the family who was with her at the end, that I have been asked to report that the legendary actress of stage and ...
The Daily Beast     Jan 13, 2023

How Stephen Colbert Knows George Santos Is Definitely Going to Resign

CBSOn Wednesday night, Stephen Colbert caught up on the latest developments surrounding “GOP congressman and man putting air quotes around his entire life,” George Santos.“Santos has a long history of stretching the truth by never telling it,” the Late Show host explained, by laying out a new series of legal and ethical complaints that have been made against the freshman from New York. “That’s so disappointing,” Colbert said. “I would expect more from the man who invented the automobile.”Colbert went on to suggest that the “walls appear to be closing in” on Santos after local Republican officials have begun calling on him to resign.
The Daily Beast     Jan 13, 2023

Mitch McConnell Morphs From Obstructionist to Bipartisan Dealmaker

politics

Photo Illustration by Erin O'Flynn/The Daily Beast/Getty ImagesThe string of legislative victories that President Joe Biden is touring the country and taking credit for were made possible by a dozen or more Senate Republicans joining Democrats with GOP Senate Leader Mitch McConnell’s blessings. They are the clearest manifestation of McConnell’s plan to reconfigure himself and his party post-Trump.He blames the ex-president for costing the GOP independents and moderates by making the Republican Party appear “nasty and tended toward chaos.”McConnell wants to recruit better candidates for 2024, meaning non-Trumpers, in what could be his best and last chance to regain the majority before age overtakes him.
The Daily Beast     Jan 13, 2023

George Santos Took Donation From Migrant-Smuggler

Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/GettyEmbattled Rep. George Santos took an almost certainly illegal donation from an Italian national and confessed smuggler of undocumented immigrants—who also happens to be the blood relative of some of his closest local supporters and campaign vendors.The gift from Rocco Oppedisano—expelled from the U.S. in January 2019, and who was subsequently intercepted piloting a yacht packed with unauthorized migrants and $200,000 in cash toward Florida—was just one facet of the support the freshman Republican and immigration hardliner received from the Queens-based clan that controls upscale eatery Il Bacco. Santos has been unabashed about his affection for the restaurant and his affinity for its owners, Rocco Oppedisano’s brother Joseph and niece ...
The Daily Beast     Jan 12, 2023

Ghost of Benedict Threatens Scandalous End to Pope Francis

Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/GettyVATICAN CITY—The body of Pope Benedict XVI had barely been lowered into its tomb in the crypt under St. Peter’s Basilica when wild speculation started swirling. Now that Benedict, who retired in 2013, was gone, would that pave the way for Francis to be the second pope in modern history to become a papal pensioner? But the whispers weren’t about Francis making the choice. They were about how to push him off the throne.At the center of the alleged conspiracy to oust the sitting pope is Archbishop Georg Gänswein—once known as Gorgeous George, or George Clooney of the Catholic Church, for his unpriestly good looks.
The Daily Beast     Jan 12, 2023

Putin Loses It in Taped Meeting With Russian Officials

Kremlin via ReutersAfter months of setbacks on the battlefield in Ukraine, Russia’s Vladimir Putin is apparently now left to demonstrate his toughness by getting into dust-ups with his own subordinates.The Russian leader appeared to briefly lose it on Wednesday while meeting with government officials. The breaking point came when Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov publicly corrected Putin after he complained that some enterprises had not yet secured contracts for the construction of new aircraft this year—a formidable task given that the country has been cut off from many Western imports crucial to construction.Footage from the meeting shows Manturov quickly shot back that “investment projects” were underway, but Putin cut him off to gripe that it’s “taking too ...
The Daily Beast     Jan 12, 2023

The Biden Classified Documents Story Is Why People Hate Politics

Photo Illustration by Erin O'Flynn/The Daily Beast/Getty ImagesTwo things can be true at once about this week’s revelation that classified documents were found in a locked closet at a think tank office used by President Joe Biden after his vice presidency and before his election in 2020.First, as former federal prosecutor Shan Wu argued here at The Daily Beast, the circumstances—such as we know of them so far—do seem legitimately different from those surrounding the recovery of classified documents from former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property last year.But second, the fact that this happened in early November, right before the midterms, and neither the White House nor the Department of Justice informed the public for more than ...
The Daily Beast     Jan 12, 2023

Cop Running for Mayor as Police Reformer Accused of Tasing Her Boyfriend

politics

Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/Harris County Detention CenterA police officer running to be Houston’s next mayor is facing criminal charges after allegedly using her department-issued baton and taser to attack her boyfriend, authorities said.Missouri City Police Officer Robin Williams, 32, was arrested on Tuesday for assault—continuous family violence in connection with two incidents involving her boyfriend, Germaine Taylor, over the last six months, according to a Harris County criminal complaint. The Missouri City Police Department said in a statement that Williams, who is now on paid administrative leave, was taken into custody at the police department “as a result of a criminal investigation conducted by the Harris County Precinct 7 Constable’s Office.”Williams, who launched her longshot ...
The Daily Beast     Jan 12, 2023