| Christine Ford—the professor who has accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of a sexual assault in 1982—is willing to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee, her lawyer said. Attorney Debra Katz also told NBC’s Today show Monday morning that her client considers Kavanaugh’s alleged attack to have been a case of attempted rape. Asked if Ford would be willing to testify before the committee, Katz said: “She is. She’s willing to do whatever it takes to get her story forth.” Asked if Ford considered the alleged attack as attempted rape, she said: “She does. She clearly considers this an attempted rape. She believes that if it were not for the severe intoxication of Brett Kavanaugh, she would’ve been raped.” The lawyer also denied that coming forward with the allegations was politically motivated, saying: “She was quite reluctant to come forward, and she was in fact outed after she had made the decision not to come forward.” View this cheat in a browser to see this embedded tweet. |
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| Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh fired back Monday against the accusations of sexual assault leveled by Christine Blasey Ford, which gained steam Sunday when Ford came forward publicly in an interview with The Washington Post. “This is a completely false allegation. I have never done anything like what the accuser describes—to her or to anyone,” Kavanaugh said in the statement, which was announced by the White House and tweeted by ABC News correspondent Karen Travers. “Because this never happened, I had no idea who was making this accusation until she identified herself yesterday,” Kavanaugh added. “I am willing to talk to the Senate Judiciary Committee in any way the Committee deems appropriate to refute this false allegation, from 36 years ago, and defend my integrity.” Kavanaugh has hired powerhouse D.C. attorney Beth Wilkinson to represent him in the matter, according to a Monday report from CNN. Ford—who, in a letter submitted in July to Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA) that was later passed on to Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), accused Kavanaugh of pinning her down, groping her, and covering her mouth to keep her from screaming while he attempted to rape her at a high-school party in 1982—also said Monday that she would be willing to testify in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee. |
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| Police in North Carolina believe they have found the body of a 1-year-old boy who was swept away by floodwaters in the wake of Hurricane Florence, the boy’s mother told The Daily Beast on Monday. Kaiden Lee-Welch was in a car with his mom, Dazia Lee, on Sunday evening when the vehicle was swept off the road in the extreme storm surges. “They found my baby boy,” Lee said on the phone, just seconds after hearing from the sheriff’s office. “He didn’t make it.” Moments before the call, Lee had texted: “I want the world to know that I will not stop until we find him.” Investigators said there were barricades on the road but that Lee drove around them, according to the sheriff's office, and tried to go through the flooded section. “Her vehicle left the roadway and came to rest among a group of trees,” Union County Sheriff’s Department officials said. “She managed to free herself and Kaiden, who was in a car seat, but lost her grip on him in the rushing water.” The Associated Press reported that 18 have died in the wake of the storm, and officials urged residents on Monday to not drive through standing or rushing water. “This is an epic storm that is still continuing because the rivers are rising... Some areas have not seen the worse flooding yet,” North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said in a press conference. “We know that raging rivers are still out there and more lives can be claimed.” |
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| British diver and Thai cave rescuer Vernon Unsworth reportedly filed suit against Elon Musk Monday, alleging that Musk libeled and slandered him when he called Unsworth a “pedo guy” and a “child rapist” in recent months. CNBC reports that the lawsuit is the culmination of months of heated debate between Unsworth and the Tesla CEO, which first began when Tesla sent a submarine to aid in the rescue of 12 boys from a cave in Thailand this July. Tesla’s offer was rejected, and Unsworth—an experienced diver who came to Thailand to help with the rescue—was quoted by CNN saying that it “had absolutely no chance of working.” Musk fired back on Twitter, writing that “We will make one (video) of the mini-sub/pod going all the way to Cave 5 no problem. Sorry pedo guy, you really did ask for it.” The tweet has since been deleted. In later emails to Buzzfeed News, Musk claimed that Unsworth was a “child rapist” who moved to Thailand to take a child bride. Unsworth has categorically denied all of Musk’s claims, and there is no evidence to suggest that any of them are true. Unsworth is now seeking more than $75,000 in damages, The Blast reports. “Elon Musk falsely accused Vern Unsworth of being guilty of heinous crimes,” Unsworth’s attorney told The Blast. “Musk’s influence and wealth cannot convert his lies into truth or protect him from accountability for his wrongdoing in a court of law.” |
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| The day I finally bought myself an extra-long Lightning cable was the day I became a better person. Not only is this 6ft. Anker cable double the length of the one you get when you purchase an iPhone, it’s also more than half the price of a cord of the same length, at around $10. Invest in a charging cable that includes reinforced internal wiring and promises to “withstand over 12,000 bends” so there’s no more dealing with a split coating and fraying wires from watching your friends’ Instagram stories on the couch in your pajamas. I keep the 6ft version next to my bed so I can move around without worrying about yanking the plug out of the wall. For the couch, I upgraded to the 10ft cable so I can hide it behind the couch without it getting jumbling up at my feet or caught in the pass of a vacuum. Scouted is here to surface products that you might like. Follow us on Flipboard. Please note that if you buy something featured in one of our posts, The Daily Beast may collect a share of sales. |
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| A stash of secret documents obtained by the Associated Press is said to show that Julian Assange sought a Russian visa in 2010. The report claims the WikiLeaks founder—who has been holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London since 2012—was “discreetly seeking” a Russian visa the same year that he was accused of sexual assault in Sweden. Hillary Clinton has previously denounced Assange as a “tool of Russian intelligence” for his role in Donald Trump’s victory after WikiLeaks published Clinton campaign emails which were stolen by Russian spies; then-CIA Director Mike Pompeo declared in 2017 that WikiLeaks was a “hostile intelligence service” aided by Russia. In the leaked letter to the Russian consulate, believed to have been written in November, Assange gives permission for a friend to drop off and collect his passport “in order to get a visa.” Neither Assange’s representatives nor the Russian embassy in London commented on the leak. |
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| At least one member of President Trump’s team believes that Christine Blasey Ford, who has accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her in high school, should be given the chance to speak publicly. “This woman should not be ignored and should not be insulted. She should be heard,” Kellyanne Conway told Fox News on Monday. “She should testify under oath.” Ford, now 51, told the Washington Post that she feared for her life during the alleged encounter in the 1980s. Kavanaugh has “unequivocally” and repeatedly denied the allegations since they surfaced last week. |
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| Sean Penn appeared in a rare interview with the Today show Monday to talk about his new Hulu show, The First, and to criticize the #MeToo movement. Penn praised the strong female characters featured on the show with his co-star, Natascha McElhone, but shot down the idea the characters were inspired by the #MeToo movement. “I think it’s influenced by the things that are developing in terms of the empowerment of women who’ve been acknowledging each other and being acknowledged by men,” he said. “This is a movement that was largely shouldered by a kind of receptacle of the salacious.” He went on to insist that “the spirit of much of what has been the #MeToo movement is to divide men and women.” “I don’t want it to be a trend, and I’m very suspicious of a movement that gets glommed on to in great stridency and rage and without nuance,” Penn continued. “And even when people try to discuss it in a nuanced way, the nuance itself is attacked.” McElhone disagreed with the actor’s sentiments, but tried to understand his point of view, saying, “Of course it’s terrific that they’ve put a spotlight on it. But now, it’s we need to go to the places where this is happening behind closed doors, and it’s not exposed and those voices aren’t being heard.” |
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| The Health and Human Services inspector general’s office found that thousands of foster kids may have been prescribed “powerful psychiatric drugs” without proper treatment plans or follow-up medical care. According to the Associated Press, an IG report released Monday states that approximately one in three foster care children in a sample of states were given drugs—including medications for “attention deficit disorder, anxiety, PTSD, depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia”—when they may not have needed them. Other kids may not be receiving drugs that they do need, according to the report. In one case, a 6-year-old boy diagnosed with learning disorders, outbursts, and a “hair-pulling disorder” was put on four different psychiatric drugs, and investigators found no evidence that he’d been put on a treatment plan. After a proper review, one drug was taken away, one drug dosage reduced, and two medications were replaced. According to the report, foster children are also “much more likely” to get powerful drugs than children in general. “These children are at greater risk of not getting the medications they need, but equally important, they are at risk of getting powerful medications that they do not need,” assistant inspector general Ann Maxwell said. |
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| Actress Asia Argento has threatened fellow #MeToo figurehead Rose McGowan with legal action if she doesn’t retract claims she made about Argento’s alleged sexual relationship with a minor. In a lengthy statement published in August, McGowan claimed Argento had admitted to receiving unsolicited nude photos of actor Jimmy Bennett since he was 12. Argento called out McGowan for the claim last week, but went a step further Monday morning when she threatened a lawsuit. “Dear @RoseMcGowan. It is with genuine regret that I am giving you 24 hours to retract and apologise for the horrendous lies made against me in your statement of August 27th,” wrote Argento. “If you fail to address this libel I will have no option other than to take immediate legal action.” Argento was one of the first to speak out against movie mogul Harvey Weinstein’s sexual misconduct. |
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