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Trump mocks Fox News host Laura Ingraham for wearing mask to his rally - Business Insider - Business Insider

"I can't recognize you. Is that a mask? No way. Are you wearing a mask? I've never seen her in a mask," Trump said to Ingraham in Michigan.

President Donald Trump mocked the Fox News host Laura Ingraham, one of his most influential media boosters, for wearing a face mask at his Friday campaign rally in Waterford Township, Michigan.  During an off-script portion of his speech, the president mentioned that Ingraham was at the rally and looked around to point her out to the crowd. But Trump quickly pounced on Ingraham when he saw that she had donned a face mask.  "I can't recognize you. Is that a mask? No way. Are you wearing a mask? I've never seen her in a mask," Trump said. "Look at you. Oh, she's being very politically correct. Whoa. Whoa." Trump has regularly criticized mask-wearing, despite scientific evidence proving it an effective way to curb COVID-19 transmission, and has mocked others for wearing face masks. The president routinely makes fun of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden for wearing a mask, even after Trump, the first lady, and several campaign and White House staffers contracted the virus.  Trump has also repeatedly spread false claims and misinformation about the virus, including that American doctors are fabricating COVID-19 deaths, scientists have developed "miracle cures" for the virus, and the pandemic is "rounding the turn." "If you get it, you're going to get better," Trump told his supporters at Friday's rally. "And then you're going to be immune, and it's a whole thing, and it goes away." —The American Independent (@AmerIndependent) October 30, 2020 Meanwhile, the US is grappling with the worst coronavirus outbreak in the world. On Friday, the national caseload crossed 9 million, and more than 229,000 people have died of the disease, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Loading Something is loading.

Officials say Trump admin secretly pushing herd immunity COVID-19 strategy: report - Business Insider - Business Insider

"Herd immunity is not a strategy or a solution. It is surrender to a preventable virus," Marc Lipsitch, an epidemiologist said.

Three officials in President Donald Trump's White House said the administration, despite publicly denying it, is actually pushing for a herd immunity strategy to the COVID-19 pandemic, although it could kill thousands of Americans unnecessarily, The Daily Beast reported.  Three senior health officials told The Daily Beast that the administration is taking the step to push that strategy into policy despite public health experts and doctors warning that the strategy would result in many more people getting sick and dying.  Public health officials have repeatedly said that a herd immunity approach would be dangerous and potentially catastrophic.  "This is simply wrong," Marc Lipsitch, an epidemiologist at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, said on Twitter on Monday. "Herd immunity is not a strategy or a solution. It is surrender to a preventable virus." One source told The Daily Beast that while the administration has been careful not to use the term "herd immunity," their policy efforts focused on the idea that vulnerable Americans should be protected while everyone else is able to get exposed and potentially infected.  Earlier this summer, Dr. Scott Atlas, a neuroradiologist and a top pandemic adviser reportedly pushed for a strategy similar to what was initially implement in Sweden before a vaccine was available. Herd immunity is when a population has enough people who are immune to a virus that it slows the rate of transmission. One way of achieving this is through vaccines. A large percentage of the population would need to be immune before this could be achieved.  So far close to 9 million Americans have been infected and over 227,000 have died from COVID-19, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.  Atlas has since claimed that herd immunity was not an approach that the White House was considering. "As we have specifically stated many times on the record and in print, we emphatically deny that the White House, the President, the Administration, or anyone advising the President has pursued or advocated for any strategy of achieving herd immunity by letting the coronavirus infection spread through the community," Atlas told The Daily Beast in a statement. "That has never been advised to the President nor has it ever been part of any policy of the President." Loading Something is loading.

Putin rejects Donald Trump's criticism of Biden family business - Business Insider - Business Insider

Putin was responding to comments made by President Trump during televised debates with Democratic challenger Joe Biden.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday that he saw nothing criminal in Hunter Biden's past business ties with Ukraine or Russia, marking out his disagreement with one of Donald Trump's attack lines in the US presidential election. Putin was responding to comments made by Trump during televised debates with Democratic challenger Joe Biden ahead of the Nov. 3 election. Trump, who is trailing in opinion polls, has used the debates to make accusations that Biden and his son Hunter engaged in unethical practices in Ukraine. No evidence has been verified to support the allegations, and Joe Biden has called them false and discredited. Putin, who has praised Trump in the past for saying he wanted better ties with Moscow, has said Russia will work with any U.S. leader, while noting what he called Joe Biden's "sharp anti-Russian rhetoric". Putin appeared less friendly towards Trump in remarks broadcast by Russian state TV on Sunday. In what may be seen by some analysts as an attempt to try to curry favour with the Biden camp, he took the time to knock down what he made clear he regarded as false allegations from Trump about the Bidens. "Yes, in Ukraine he (Hunter Biden) had or maybe still has a business, I don't know. It doesn't concern us. It concerns the Americans and the Ukrainians," said Putin. "But well yes he had at least one company, which he practically headed up, and judging from everything he made good money. I don't see anything criminal about this, at least we don't know anything about this (being criminal)." Putin also reacted with visible irritation when asked about comments Trump has made concerning Putin's ties to the former mayor of Moscow, and to an alleged payment made to Hunter Biden by the ex-mayor's widow. Putin said he knew nothing about the existence of any commercial relationship between Hunter and the woman. Joe Biden says the accusation about his son is not true. US intelligence agencies concluded that Russia tried to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election to tilt the contest in Trump's favour, an allegation Moscow has denied. Russia has also dismissed accusations by U.S. intelligence agencies of trying to interfere with this year's election too.

Samsung's billionaire chairman died on Sunday. He once counted Warren Buffett as a shareholder | Markets - Business Insider

Samsung's billionaire chairman died on Sunday. He once counted Warren Buffett as a shareholder

AP Images; Steve Marcus/Reuters

• Samsung's chairman, Lee Kun-hee, died on Sunday at age 78.
• The boss of the South Korean conglomerate once counted Warren Buffett as a shareholder.
• Buffett, a billionaire investor and the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, made "hundreds of millions" from a rare overseas bet on Samsung, he revealed in a CNBC interview in 2018.
• "It was a big, strong, good company," he said.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

'Borat' star meets Donald Trump Jr., visits White House in deleted scene - Business Insider - Business Insider

President Donald Trump also makes an appearance in a deleted scene from the new movie posted on the Twitter account for the titular character.

Deleted scenes from the new "Borat" movie show the titular character's daughter met with Donald Trump Jr. and visited the White House. The Bulgarian actress Maria Bakalova, who played Tutar in the film, is seen alongside the One America News Network journalist Chanel Rion touring the White House grounds and entering the press room. "No need for security checks or COVID tests," Borat, a fictional Kazakh journalist played by the actor Sacha Baron Cohen, narrates in a video. "They boring." The clip was posted to the character's Twitter account on Friday, hours after the movie's release.  The new footage also features a scene in which Tutar introduces herself to Trump Jr. at an event. "I'm a little bit nervous, but I'm really excited to meet you," she says. In another clip, Trump Jr. appears beside his girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle, and President Donald Trump, with Tutar in the audience.  The movie sequel, titled "Borat Subsequent Moviefilm," had already made headlines earlier this week because of a cameo from Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani. In the scene, the former New York City mayor meets with Tutar in a hotel room for an apparent news interview. The moment escalates when Borat storms into the suite after Giuliani appears to put his hand in his pants. Giuliani later said he was just "tucking in my shirt." —Borat (@BoratSagdiyev) October 23, 2020

2022 GMC Hummer EV revealed: photos, features, and specs - Business Insider - Business Insider

GMC just showed off its new electric pickup that'll take on Tesla's Cybertruck, Rivian's R1T, and Ford's battery-powered F-150.

General Motors shut down the Hummer brand back in 2010, but now the nameplate — which calls to mind excessively large, gas-gulping, CO2-spewing SUVs — is back for an unexpected second go.  GMC unveiled the long-awaited Hummer EV on Tuesday — and although the new Hummer is large as ever, it doesn't guzzle fuel or emit greenhouse gases like its ancestors. The Hummer EV — an electric pickup set to compete with upcoming zero-emission trucks from Rivian, Tesla, Ford, Lordstown, and Nikola — was supposed to debut back in May, but the pandemic delayed those plans. Now GMC has revealed all the details, pricing, and trim levels for the Hummer EV.  Reservations are now open for the "Edition 1" version, which will be the first model available and carries a starting MSRP of $112,595. That truck comes with a huge assortment of interesting features, and boasts the lineup's most powerful drivetrain, a tri-motor setup that GMC says puts out 1,000 horsepower.  GMC said it will roll out three additional trim levels over the next few years, including a base-level, dual-motor truck that will hit the market in 2024 with a starting price tag of $80,000. Here's everything else you need to know about GMC's new electric pickup:

Early votes in Texas surpass all the statewide ballots cast for Trump in 2016 - Business Insider - Business Insider

A Texas victory is not a preference for President Donald Trump's reelection campaign — it's a necessity.

Early voting in Texas started only a week ago, but the Lone Star State already leads the US in turnout.  In fact, more Texans have now cast their ballots for the upcoming presidential election than the total number of people in the state who voted for then-Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump in 2016. That's about 4.7 million people who have voted ahead of Election Day, according to the US Elections Project, just over the 4.68 million votes previously cast for Trump, who won the state by 9 percentage points in 2016. This figure contributes to an immense wave of voter enthusiasm sweeping across the country, which is on track to shatter records for early turnout. With two weeks left until November 3, at least 35 million people so far have voted by mail or in person, according to data collected by the US Elections Project. That number represents nearly a quarter of the total votes counted in the 2016 presidential election. Similar to Texas, early voters in key battleground states such as Florida, Wisconsin, and Michigan have also exceeded 20% of their total 2016 turnout. Democrats hope these strides will translate into an election win for presidential nominee Joe Biden, and initial evidence is leaning in their favor. A closer look at the numbers in states that provide party-registration information shows that about 53% of early votes have been cast by registered Democrats compared with 25% by registered Republicans, according to the US Elections Project. Texas possesses 38 electoral votes and has voted for a Republican president in 11 of the past 12 elections. If Texas went to Biden in November, the presidential race would effectively be over. Decision Desk HQ, an election-forecasting company, ran 140,605 simulations where Trump emerged victorious — he won Texas in 99% of those scenarios. So a Texas victory is not a preference for the Trump campaign — it's a necessity. Recent polling by Morning Consult between October 2 and 11 showed Trump leading Biden in Texas by just 2 percentage points — well within the margin of error. According to DDHQ, Trump has a 61.3% chance of winning the state. Originally, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott scheduled early voting to begin on October 19, but he signed off on letting it start on October 13 to accommodate public-safety standards amid the coronavirus pandemic. Early voting ends on October 30. Yet Abbott, along with other Republicans who voiced concerns of voter fraud, successfully resisted a push by Democratic state leaders to expand Texas' strict eligibility requirements for mail-in voting. A federal appeals court also blocked the Democrats' effort in September. The governor also issued an order that limits every Texas county to only one ballot drop box. A judge recently overrode that order, but drop-box availability continues to be a hotly contested issue in Texas. Because of the ongoing legal saga, the Harris County District Clerk said the county had no plans to reopen the 11 closed drop boxes and would continue to follow the governor's order. Houston, the most populous city in Texas and the fourth-largest city in the US, is in Harris County — meaning about 2.3 million people rely on a single drop box. Still, despite court rulings that may stymie easy voting, Texas is on pace for a record turnout in the 2020 election.

Boris Johnson to force Manchester into tier 3 coronavirus lockdown - Business Insider - Business Insider

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to hold a press conference Tuesday to confirm the new restrictions placed on Manchester.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set to force Greater Manchester into England's highest tier of coronavirus restrictions after the UK government failed to come to an agreement with local leaders about the size of financial support required for the area. Mayor Andy Burnham and other Greater Manchester representatives had initially demanded £75 million in support, which they later reduced to £65 million, but were offered £60 million by the government. Johnson's government then withdrew its offer, the BBC reported, meaning it is now set to follow through on its threat to impose the restrictions on the city region. UK Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick on Tuesday said in a statement: "I'm disappointed that, despite recognizing the gravity of the situation, the mayor [of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham,] has been unwilling to take the action that is required to get the spread of the virus under control in Greater Manchester and reach an agreement with the government. "I have therefore advised the prime minister that these discussions have concluded without an agreement." Johnson was expected to hold a press conference later Tuesday to confirm the new restrictions set to be imposed on Manchester. They are set to be in place for at least 28 days.  Speaking in his own press conference in Manchester this afternoon, a visibly-angry Burnham said the financial support he asked Johnson's government for but was denied "wasn't about what we wanted, it was about what we needed" and said: "It's just get what we give you and that is unacceptable in a pandemic and a national crisis." He said he needed more money from Westminster to prevent people in Greater Manchester from falling into poverty, telling reporters: "What we've seen today is a deliberate act of leveling down... Are they playing poker with peoples' lives during a pandemic? Is that what this is about?" "I've fought with everything I've got for the people on the lowest incomes in the city region," Burnham said. —BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) October 20, 2020 The new rules for Manchester mean people there are barred from meeting members of other households indoors. All pubs not serving substantial meals, betting shops, casinos, bingo halls, adult gaming centers, and soft-play areas will be forced to closed. Schools will remain open, however. Manchester joins nearby Liverpool and Lancashire in the UK's most serious tier of local lockdown restrictions, with the northwest of England continuing to one of the worst affected regions in the country for new cases of the coronavirus and hospitalizations. Loading Something is loading.

US officials suggest Trump admin cover-up after mysterious illness: NYT - Business Insider - Business Insider

Since 2016, US diplomats in Cuba and China have reported hearing strange sounds that resulted in health consequences like balance and vision problems.

US spies and diplomats are accusing the Trump administration of refusing to properly investigate a mysterious illness that has affected officials in Cuba, China, and Russia, and some are suggesting a cover-up, The New York Times reported on Monday. In 2016, US and Canadian diplomats in Cuba started hearing strange sounds and later reported symptoms like nerve damage and headaches. Doctors said they were caused by mild traumatic brain injuries. In 2018, several US officials in Guangzhou, China, also said they heard mysterious sounds and had similar symptoms. They were diagnosed with brain injuries. The Times reported on Monday that some senior CIA officers who visited foreign stations, including in Moscow, experienced similar symptoms but that the agency is not convinced an attack took place. The cause of the illnesses is unclear, but studies have pointed to microwave radiation as the main suspect. According to The Times, some government scientists think a psychological illness could be the cause. Guangzhou, China, in December 2005. MIKE CLARKE/AFP via Getty Images 'They have hung us out to dry' The Times reported that the State Department had treated the cases in Cuba and China differently. The newspaper said the department did not consistently assess the Chinese cases, ignored medical diagnoses from outside experts, and "withheld basic information from Congress." After reports about US personnel falling sick in Cuba, the Trump administration took action against the country, withdrawing embassy staff members and expelling Cuban diplomats from the US. In 2017, President Donald Trump also said that "Cuba is responsible." The administration announced an independent review of the "unexplained medical conditions," though Cuba denied involvement with the illnesses. But the administration took a softer approach with China, The Times said. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo first said that the cases were "very similar and entirely consistent" with the Cuba cases, and some employees were evacuated. But the State Department later described the events as "health incidents," and no investigation was opened. Six US officials told The Times that the department realized that it could not take the same route with the Chinese cases as it did with Cuba without crippling the US's diplomatic and economic relationships with China. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Gabriel Kuchta/Getty Images Citing interviews with more than 30 government officials, lawyers, and doctors, The Times reported that the American personnel affected in China "have spent more than two years fighting to obtain the same benefits given to the victims in Cuba and others attacked by foreign powers." They said this fight had resulted in retaliation from the government that may have harmed their careers forever. Mark Lenzi, a State Department employee who experienced symptoms like memory loss after being in Guangzhou, told The Times that he had filed a disability-discrimination lawsuit against the department. "This is a deliberate, high-level cover-up," he said. "They have hung us out to dry." Some lawmakers are pushing the State Department to release a study into the cases that it got in August from the National Academies of Sciences, according to The Times. More reports from Moscow A former senior CIA officer this week said he believed he was the victim of a similar attack in Moscow in December 2017. Marc Polymeropoulos, who helped run clandestine operations in Russia and Europe, told The Times that he experienced nausea and vertigo in his hotel room and that it resulted in continuing migraines and ultimately forced him to retire. Polymeropoulos also told GQ the CIA did not give him and other affected officers the medical care they needed. "It's incumbent on them to provide the medical help we require, which does not include telling us that we're all making it up," he said. "I want the agency to treat this as a combat injury." He said another CIA colleague who was with him in Moscow also became sick and lost his hearing in one ear. Polymeropoulous also told GQ that a private doctor had diagnosed him with nerve damage but that the agency said it wasn't necessary to refer him to a hospital. He said the CIA needed to investigate the cases, adding that the leadership "has not done right by us." "The agency is going to have to answer for this," he said. CIA representatives told GQ in a statement: "The Agency's top priority is the health and well-being of our officers followed very closely by collecting on hard targets, including Russia, and providing that intelligence to policymakers. Suggestions otherwise in your story are simply not true." Many point to Russia The Times reported that some of the CIA's senior Russia analysts, some officials at the State Department, some outside scientists, and some of the victims think Russia is most likely responsible. Russia has denied involvement. CIA Director Gina Haspel. Reuters Two US officials told The Times that CIA Director Gina Haspel knew that Russia had a motive to harm US operatives but was not convinced that the attacks had taken place or that Russia could be responsible. Polymeropoulos blamed Russia in his interview with GQ. And Lenzi told The Times that senior officials "know exactly which country" was responsible and that it was not Cuba or China but another country "which the secretary of state and president do not want to confront."

Ex-intel officials suspect Russian involvement in Hunter Biden stories - Business Insider - Business Insider

The former intel officials wrote they believed the arrival of emails to the New York Post, which they dubbed a "laptop op," was a cause for suspicion.

Dozens of former intelligence officials signed a public statement Monday expressing doubts about the authenticity of the Hunter Biden emails published by the New York Post. In the letter, first reported by Politico, more than 50 former intelligence officers said they believed the emails purportedly belonging to Biden, the son of the Democratic presidential nominee, Joe Biden, had "all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation." "We want to emphasize that we do not know if the emails, provided to the New York Post by President Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, are genuine or not and that we do not have evidence of Russian involvement — just that our experience makes us deeply suspicious that the Russian government played a significant role in this case," they wrote in the statement. The first of multiple articles from the Post about the emails, headlined "BIDEN'S SECRET E-MAILS," suggested that Joe Biden used the power of his position as vice president years ago to help his son Hunter, who sat on the board of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma. Business Insider's Sonam Sheth wrote about the Biden allegations, saying "there is no evidence that these claims hold merit, and they've been debunked by intelligence assessments, news reports, congressional investigations, and witness testimony." Sheth also identified several "red flags" with the initial Post report and spoke with former spies who said the incident had exposed the president's lawyer Giuliani as vulnerable to Russian disinformation. A major point of skepticism about the Post stories was their sourcing: The tabloid came into possession of contents from a laptop hard drive that purportedly belonged to Hunter Biden after Giuliani delivered a copy of the hard drive to the outlet. A laptop containing the hard drive was said to have been left at a repair shop, and the shop's owner, a Trump supporter, gave material from the computer to Giuliani. The FBI is now investigating whether the emails were part of a foreign intelligence operation, following a Washington Post report that Giuliani was targeted by Russian intelligence. The former intel officials wrote they believe the arrival of the contents, which they dubbed a "laptop op," to the tabloid was a cause for suspicion, "as the publication of the emails are clearly designed to discredit" the elder Biden. "Such an operation would be consistent with some of the key methods Russia has used in its now multi-year operation to interfere in our democracy — the hacking (via cyber operations) and the dumping of accurate information or the distribution of inaccurate or misinformation," they said. "It is high time that Russia stops interfering in our democracy," the letter concluded. The dozens of former intelligence officials aren't the only ones to have been skeptical — some journalists at the New York Post also expressed doubts in publishing the emails' contents. The New York Times reported that at least two writers refused to put their bylines on the story, including one who was mostly responsible for writing it, two Post employees told The Times. A reporter for the Post told New York magazine that they thought the stories were "very flimsy." Another journalist said the reporting on the stories was "not something that meets my journalistic standards," adding that the initial Post article "should not have been published."