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No, Now Is Not the Time for Another Russia Reset
Until Moscow is willing to do its part, Washington should avoid pointless dialogue and instead push back firmly against Vladimir Putin’s aggression.

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Putin Announces Russia Has Approved a Coronavirus Vaccine and That His Daughter Has Been Given a Shot
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Tuesday that his country has become the first to approve a coronavirus vaccine, and that his own daughter has received the shot. The vaccine is in production and millions of people, including teachers and front line health-care workers, will be given the shot beginning this month, he claimed. China has already authorized one vaccine for use in its military, ahead of definitive data that it is safe and effective. The Russian vaccine was reportedly given to the scientists who developed it as well as 50 members of the Russian military and a handful of other volunteers. Putin made the announcement during a televised video conference call with government ministers, saying: “This morning, for the first time in the world, a vaccine against the new coronavirus was registered,” adding that his daughter was among those to be inoculated. Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

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Hong Kong arrest of media tycoon Jimmy Lai sparks international condemnation
Hong Kong's arrest of local media mogul Jimmy Lai Chee-ying sparked a round of international condemnation, with Washington, Brussels and others calling the move the latest example of the government's use of a new national security law to silence political dissents."I'm deeply troubled by reports of the arrest of [Lai] under Hong Kong's draconian National Security Law," Pompeo said in a Twitter post. "Further proof that the [Chinese Communist Party] has eviscerated Hong Kong's freedoms and eroded the rights of its people."Britain, the European Union and the United Nations also expressed concern over the police move just over a month into the implementation of the new law that has a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.British Prime Minister Boris Johnson called the arrest a pretext to silence opposition."We are deeply concerned by the arrest of Jimmy Lai and six other individuals in Hong Kong," a spokesman for Johnson said.He added: "Freedom of the press is explicitly guaranteed in the Sino-British Joint Declaration and the Basic Law and is supposed to be protected under Article 4 of the national security law."This is further evidence that the national security law is being used as a pretext to silence opposition. The Hong Kong authorities must uphold the rights and freedoms of its people."Lai and six others - including his two sons and some of Apple Daily's management team - were arrested Monday for alleged collusion with foreign forces in the most high profile police operation under the national security law recently imposed by Beijing.Police also raided the newspaper's offices, spending several hours combing through the premises for unspecified documents, a move that was widely condemned by journalists' associations in Hong Kong.In another operation that began late afternoon, police also arrested three other activists, including Agnes Chow Ting, a close associate of former student leader Joshua Wong Chi-fung, on suspicion of collusion with foreign or external forces to endanger national security, sources told the Post.Hong Kong police raid Apple Daily office in Hong Kong, China in this still picture taken from a social media video on Monday. Photo: Apple Daily via Reuters alt=Hong Kong police raid Apple Daily office in Hong Kong, China in this still picture taken from a social media video on Monday. Photo: Apple Daily via ReutersFreelance ITV News journalist, Wilson Li, was among the other two arrested. Li was formerly a member of Scholarism, the student activists' group formed by Joshua Wong.He was arrested along with activist Andy Li, according to ITV.An ITV News spokesperson said: "We can confirm that Wilson Li works for ITV News in a freelance capacity. We are concerned to hear of his arrest and are urgently seeking clarification of the circumstances."European Commission spokesman Peter Stano said the arrests of Lai, his family members and other individuals, and the raid on the offices of Apple Daily, "further stoke fears that the National Security Law is being used to stifle freedom of expression and of the media in Hong Kong"."The European Union recalls that the respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms is a central element of the Basic Law and the 'one country, two systems' principle," Stano said.In addition, media freedom and pluralism are "pillars of democracy" as they are "essential components of open and free society', he said. "It is essential that the existing rights and freedoms of Hong Kong residents are fully protected, including freedom of speech, of the press and of publication, as well as freedom of association and of assembly."The UN human rights office voiced deep concern on Monday at Lai's arrest under the new security law."We urge the authorities to review these cases to ensure that the arrests do not impinge on the exercise of rights protected by the international human rights law and Hong Kong's Basic Law," Jeremy Laurence, spokesman for the office of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet told Reuters."We repeat our calls for the authorities to monitor and review the operation of the security law and to amend it if necessary to ensure there is no scope for its misuse to restrict human rights guaranteed by international law and the Basic Law of Hong Kong," Laurence added.Republican US senator Marco Rubio, known for writing and supporting legislation that calls for the sanctioning of officials deemed to be responsible for undermining Hong Kong's autonomy, including the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, also weighed in on Lai's arrest."As more arrests are expected, the free world must respond quickly as well as provide safe harbor to at-risk Hong Kongers," Rubio said in a retweet of a post about the situation by US-based Samuel Chu of the Hong Kong Democracy Council.Chu is one of six people now sought by Hong Kong police on suspicion of breaking the new national security law.This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2020 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved. Copyright (c) 2020. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

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Yahoo! Sports - News, Scores, Standings, Rumors, Fantasy Games

Coaches make their case to play, but will it matter?
Jim Harbaugh and other coaches pleaded for a college football season that appears on the brink of cancellation. Will university presidents listen, or is it too late?

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Rory McIlroy hits out at Brooks Koepka ‘mind games’ at US PGA Championship
Major or no major, Rory McIlroy believes there is a line you do not cross, regardless of your ambition in any given week. The Northern Irishman re-emphasised his belief on Sunday night by calling out Brooks Koepka for disrespectful “mind games” against Dustin Johnson before the final round of the 102nd USPGA Championship. Koepka was on the first hole at Harding Park and trying to become the first player to win three strokeplay Wanamaker Trophies when McIlroy made his comments. After his 68 to close on two under, McIlroy was asked what he thought about Koepka’s sideswipe at his Ryder Cup team-mate the previous evening, saying that “he’s only won one”. Koepka also implied that Johnson had found the second major the hardest to win. “I was watching the golf last night and heard the [Koepka] interview and was just sort of taken aback a little bit by what he said and whether he was trying to play mind games or not – if he’s trying to play mind games, he’s trying to do it to the wrong person,” McIlroy said. “It’s a very different mentality to bring to golf that I don’t think a lot of golfers have. Just different. I try to respect everyone out here. Everyone is a great player. If you’ve won a major, you’re a hell of a player.” Then McIlroy delivered his own biting barb towards Koepka. “It’s sort of hard to knock a guy that’s got 21 wins on the PGA Tour, which is three times as many as Brooks,” McIlroy said. Koepka has a burgeoning reputation as an elite golfer willing to put down his peers. Apart from his many jibes at Bryson DeChambeau, Koepka was dismissive last year when asked if he felt there was a rivalry between him and McIlroy. “I’ve been out here for, what, five years – Rory hasn’t won a major since I’ve been on the PGA Tour,” Koepka said. ”So I just don’t view it as a rivalry.” McIlroy shrugged it off at the time, but was known privately to be unimpressed. In some ways McIlroy’s attitude towards Koepka’s irreverence is curious seeing as he, himself, declared that the European golfers such as Tommy Fleetwood and Francesco Molinari were wrong to skip the early PGA Tour restart events following lockdown and stated they should be there “if they cared about their careers”. Except McIlroy did not name anyone directly and climbed down from those comments recently. There is plainly a distaste of Koepka’s discourtesy. As it was, it was another quote in McIlroy’s post-major press conference on Sunday night that will make the eyebrows rise the most in some quarters. Monday is the six-year anniversary of the 31-year-old’s last major win – the 2014 US PGA win. He was quizzed by an Irish journalist “why you find it’s difficult to hang around for 54, 63 holes in recent seasons compared to say earlier in your career?” McIlroy replied: “Maybe I’m just not as good as I used to be. I don’t know.” The world No 3 was being prickly and does not truly believe that. “I feel like the golf that I’ve played in the majors has been sort of similar to the golf I’ve played outside of them, and I’ve won some big events and played well and had a good season last year,” McIlroy said. “I can’t really put my finger on it. I go out there and try my best every single day. Some days I play better than others, and I just have to keep going and keep persisting and see if you can do better the next time.” It was a legitimate query on the reporter’s behalf. Something is plainly missing when it comes to the majors for McIlroy, seeing as he won four by the age of 25 and all too often it is slow starts and/or sloppy errors at crucial times. This was a satisfactory end to his San Francisco quest, but a finishing time before the leaders had even teed-off obviously fell far short of what he expects. For now, McIlroy is simply trying to rediscover the consistency that saw him chalk up seven successive PGA Tour top-fives before the coronavirus hooter sounded. In his six events since the resumption, McIlroy has not recorded a single top-10 finish and only one top 20. “This was one of the tougher tests that we’ve faced since coming back, together with the Memorial a few weeks ago,” he said. “I’ve sort of gauged those two events as the barometer of where my game is, and I’m going to pretty much finish in the same spot around 30th. There’s been enough good stuff in there, I’m just making a few too many mistakes. Try to clean that up going forward.”

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Commentary: Big Ten's swift turnabout shows schools will always put amateurism first
The college football season is in serious peril because of the COVID-19 pandemic. But what spurred the Big Ten to push for the season to be canceled?

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Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines

Opposition Candidate Leaves Belarus Amid Crackdown
(Bloomberg) -- Opposition candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya fled Belarus as police cracked down on protesters across the country for the second night following Sunday’s elections in which President Alexander Lukashenko claimed a landslide election victory.“I thought this campaign had hardened me a lot and given me enough strength to withstand anything. But probably I’m still that weak woman I was at the start,” she said in an emotional video posted on YouTube from Lithuania, where she had joined her children.“God forbid you face the choice that I did, so people, take care of yourselves. No life is worth what’s happening now. Children are the most important thing in our lives,” she said.Tikhanovskaya, who said alternative counts showed she won the vote, left Belarus after she filed an official challenge to the election results at the Central Election Commission Monday. Before leaving, she had been detained for as long as seven hours, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius told LRT radio Tuesday.Her departure came during another night of violent clashes between protesters and riot police. In Minsk, people blocked parts of the street with cars and cheered from the sidewalks. One man died when an explosive detonated in his hand at a barricade at about 11 p.m. local time, according to the Interior Ministry. Lukashenko vowed to crush the demonstrations, which he said were instigated from abroad.U.S. and European leaders spoke out Monday after authorities used water cannons and flash grenades to confront crowds the night before. There was “unacceptable state violence against peaceful protesters,” European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said in a statement. Poland urged the bloc to call an emergency summit on the crisis, while Germany said Belarus failed to meet minimum election standards.Yields on Belarus debt due in 2031 rose for a fourth straight session, adding 7 basis points to 7%, the highest this month.Opposition groups united behind Tikhanovskaya, a 37-year-old former teacher, when other challengers were either jailed or kept off the ballot, leading to unprecedented protests against Lukashenko’s rule even before the vote. The stay-at-home mother, who ran after her husband Sergei, a political blogger, was detained and barred from the race, has called the crackdown “unacceptable.” Her election ally Maria Kalesnikava said the opposition was ready for long-term protest.“Svetlana had no choice” but to leave the country with several of her staff detained, campaign ally Olga Kovalkova told the Tut.By online news channel.Veronika Tsepkalo, another opposition leader and Tikhanovskaya ally, left Belarus fearing arrest this week and is in Russia, the RIA Novosti news agency reported.Opposition activists called for a general strike Tuesday. On Monday, Tikhanovskaya called on authorities to negotiate a transfer of power.Her departure isn’t likely to halt the campaign against Lukashenko, said Joerg Forbrig, director for Central and Eastern Europe at the Berlin-based German Marshall Fund of the United States.“The government is hoping that by removing such a symbolic opposition figure from the country, this will take the pressure off,” he said. “But it won’t have an impact because the protests aren’t led or organized by her.”The Belarusian president dismissed the opposition as “sheep” who were being directed from abroad, including from neighboring Poland, the U.K. and the Czech Republic, state news service Belta reported. Protesters are “setting fire to the ground beneath their feet. We can’t allow that,” he said. He blamed foreign powers for disrupting Internet access, which has been restricted in Minsk and other cities since Sunday.While the crisis increases Moscow’s bargaining power over Lukashenko, the Kremlin is also anxious to preserve the Belarusian regime, said Andrey Kortunov, director of the Kremlin-founded Russian International Affairs Council.“Russia will try to wring some concessions out of him but it will also provide all necessary support to Lukashenko,” Kortunov said.The U.S. and EU have imposed and removed sanctions against the former Soviet collective farm boss who sought to crush public dissent during elections since coming to power 26 years ago. Lukashenko started to make overtures to the U.S. and EU last year as the Kremlin increased pressure on him to integrate with Russia and hosted Pompeo in February, the highest-ranking U.S. official to travel to the country in more than 25 years.“The United States is deeply concerned about the conduct of the August 9 presidential election in Belarus, which was not free and fair,” Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said in a statement. “We strongly condemn ongoing violence against protesters and the detention of opposition supporters.”President Donald Trump questioned the “intimidation of opposition candidates” and urged the government to “respect the right to peaceably assemble,” White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said at an earlier briefing.Russia, China and Turkey congratulated Lukashenko, 65, on his victory.(Corrects first name of opposition leader in tenth paragraph.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

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French privacy watchdog opens preliminary investigation into TikTok
France's data privacy watchdog CNIL said on Tuesday that it has opened a preliminary investigation into Chinese-owned video-sharing app TikTok after it received a complaint. TikTok, owned by China's ByteDance, is already under investigation over privacy concerns by U.S., European Union and Dutch authorities. "A complaint about TikTok was received in May. This complaint is now under investigation," a CNIL spokesman said, confirming a Bloomberg report.

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Reflecting on Marston's' (LON:MARS) Share Price Returns Over The Last Five Years
Marston's PLC (LON:MARS) shareholders will doubtless be very grateful to see the share price up 45% in the last...

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Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines

Exclusive: Joe Biden and Democrats unveil details of DNC convention including nightly themes, ways to watch
'Uniting America' will be the DNC convention's theme. Speakers include former Ohio Gov. John Kasich, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.

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Mauritius oil spill: Fears vessel may 'break in two' as cracks appear
The MV Wakashio, which ran aground on a coral reef on 25 July, is now leaking oil off the island.

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Indian temple reports huge coronavirus outbreak as cases surge

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