Sen. Graham just said on CNN, Trump called him after his McCain eulogy on the senate floor, and said "you did right by your friend"

Important to view DeSantis’ “monkey” comment in proper context. Last November he was featured at an event with Milo, Ann Coulter, Katie Hopkins and David Horowitz.

I wonder if the conservatives who are (rightfully) demanding that elected Democrats reject Louis Farrakhan feel the same way about Republican Members of Congress attending an event with anti-Semites like Gavin McInnes and Milo Yiannopoulos.

A code violation handed to French women's tennis player Alize Cornet for taking off her shirt on court at the US Open has sparked outrage, given that male players are able to change shirts on court.

An extreme heat policy - offering female players a 10-minute break before the deciding third sets can be played - was implemented on medical advice at the New York tournament after temperatures reached up to 38C.

Returning to court following the break in her match against Swede Johanna Larsson, Cornet realised her shirt was on back to front and quickly turned it around.

The switch took a matter of seconds and Cornet was wearing a sports bra underneath.

But the world No.31 was immediately hit with a code violation by the chair umpire for her actions.

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/tennis/alize-cornet-handed-violation-for-changing-shirt-on-court-at-us-open-20180829-p500i2.html?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=nc&eid=socialn%3Atwi-13omn1677-edtrl-other%3Annn-17%2F02%2F2014-edtrs_socialshare-all-nnn-nnn-vars-o%26sa%3DD%26usg%3DALhdy28zsr6qiq

Despite an international agreement, U.S. health authorities still have not received H7N9 avian flu specimens from their Chinese counterparts.

For over a year, the Chinese government has withheld lab samples of a rapidly evolving influenza virus from the United States — specimens needed to develop vaccines and treatments, according to federal health officials.

Despite persistent requests from government officials and research institutions, China has not provided samples of the dangerous virus, a type of bird flu called H7N9. In the past, such exchanges have been mostly routine under rules established by the World Health Organization.

Now, as the United States and China spar over trade, some scientists worry that the vital exchange of medical supplies and information could slow, hampering preparedness for the next biological threat.

The scenario is “unlike shortages in aluminum and soybeans,” said Dr. Michael Callahan, an infectious disease specialist at Harvard Medical School.

“Jeopardizing U.S. access to foreign pathogens and therapies to counter them undermines our nation’s ability to protect against infections which can spread globally within days.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/27/health/china-flu-virus-samples.html

(CNN)The beating of a 33-year-old man by five Mesa, Arizona, police officers was justified, according to the results of an investigation released Monday.

The findings from the Scottsdale Police Department come three months after Mesa police officers punched and kneed Robert Johnson as he stood in the hallway of an apartment complex on May 23. The encounter was captured on surveillance video.

The Mesa Police Department, about 20 miles east of Phoenix, asked the Scottsdale Police Department to conduct an independent criminal investigation of its officers. Scottsdale officials said they "thoroughly reviewed eight On Body Camera videos which consisted of just over two hours of footage as well as the apartment complex surveillance video."

Based on their investigation, Scottsdale investigators determined "no criminal charges are warranted against the involved officers as the use of force was legally authorized and justified under Arizona State Law." Scottsdale officials also said the Maricopa County Attorney's Office agrees with their findings.

Benjamin Taylor, an attorney for Johnson, maintains that the beating was not justified.

"The video flatly contradicts the self-serving accounts of the police officers involved," Taylor said. "The use of government violence against cooperating citizens, who have committed no crime and who pose no threat, is a crime without justification or legal authorization."

Taylor also said that he will seek justice "before a civil jury."

https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/28/us/mesa-arizona-police-no-charges/index.html

The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee flew to London to gather intel on Christopher Steele, the former British intelligence officer who compiled the dossier alleging Trump-campaign ties with Russia. But MI5, MI6, and GCHQ didn’t seem interested.

Earlier this month, as all eyes were on the courtroom dramas unfolding in Virginia—where President Trump’s campaign chairman was just convicted on bank and tax fraud charges—and in New York, where the president’s longtime personal lawyer pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations and implicated Trump in a crime, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee was in London, seeking out new information about former British intelligence officer and Trump-Russia dossier author Christopher Steele.

According to two people familiar with his trip across the pond who requested anonymity to discuss the chairman’s travels, Devin Nunes, a California Republican, was investigating, among other things, Steele’s own service record and whether British authorities had known about his repeated contact with a U.S. Justice Department official named Bruce Ohr. To that end, Nunes requested meetings with the heads of three different British agencies—MI5, MI6, and the Government Communications Headquarters. (Steele was an MI6 agent until a decade ago, and GCHQ, the U.K.’s equivalent of the National Security Agency, was the first foreign intelligence agency to pick up contacts between Trump associates and Russian agents in 2015, according to The Guardian.)

A U.K. security official, speaking on background, said “it is normal for UK intelligence agencies to have meetings with the chairman and members of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.” But those meetings did not pan out—Nunes came away meeting only with the U.K.’s deputy national security adviser, Madeleine Alessandri. The people familiar with his trip told me that officials at MI6, MI5, and GCHQ were wary of entertaining Nunes out of fear that he was “trying to stir up a controversy.” Spokespeople for Alessandri and Nunes did not return requests for comment, nor did the press offices for MI5 and MI6. GCHQ declined to comment.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/08/devin-nuness-curious-trip-to-london/568699/