| 'Portland is being watched very closely': Trump stokes tension over far right rally Posted: 17 Aug 2019 01:17 PM PDT  * President links leftwing 'antifa' groups to terror * Portland mayor: 'Frankly, it's not helpful'Rightwing groups rally in Portland, Oregon. Photograph: Karen Ducey/Getty ImagesAs Portland prepared for what was likely to be one of the biggest political demonstrations of the summer, which authorities expected would lead to violence, Donald Trump threw into the mix a characteristically explosive tweet."Major consideration is being given to naming ANTIFA an 'ORGANIZATION OF TERROR'," the president wrote from his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey on Saturday morning. "Portland is being watched very closely. Hopefully the Mayor will be able to properly do his job!""Antifa" is a collective term for a loose affiliation of anti-fascist groups. Such counter-protesters have clashed with far-right activists in the Oregon city throughout the Trump era, some wearing "black bloc" attire and face masks.Texas Republican Ted Cruz has proposed a Senate resolution which would designate antifa a domestic terrorist group. The resolution says Rose City Antifa, a prominent Portland group, "explicitly rejects the authority of law enforcement officers in the United States".Speaking to CNN, Portland mayor Ted Wheeler said of Trump's tweet: "Frankly, it's not helpful. This is a potentially dangerous and volatile situation, and adding to that noise doesn't do anything to support or help the efforts that are going on here in Portland."On Friday, longtime rightwing leader and rally organizer Joey Gibson turned himself in to city authorities. Outside the Multnomah County Justice Center, he told reporters, and his supporters via Facebook, his arrest warrant was "without a doubt an assault on the first amendment"."I have never been violent," he said.A booking photo shows Patriot Prayer leader Joey Gibson. Photograph: Multnomah County Sheriff's Office/APThe 35-year-old is one of six men associated with rightwing rallies in the city to be arrested or charged since 7 August, relating to a violent incident on 1 May at Cider Riot, a bar favored by the left.Video shows men who have attended Gibson's Patriot Prayer rallies, and who arrived at the bar in his company, exchanging pepper spray with bar patrons, striking people with batons and fighting.Gibson claimed the charges were "completely political. This is Ted Wheeler doing everything he can because he's been caught." He accused Wheeler, a Democrat, of "coordinating with" and "protecting" anti-fascist demonstrators, a refrain in his speeches since 2017.Gibson's attorney, Multnomah county Republican chair James Buchal, said the charges were "part and parcel of the dishonest campaign by Portland leaders to blame out-of-town demonstrators for violence that began and persists because antifa wants to shut down any rightwing demonstrations in Portland".Asked via email if he thought the charges were timed in relation to the planned Saturday rally, Buchal answered: "Yes."Gibson was bailed out of Multnomah county jail overnight. On Saturday, as around 500 people gathered for the "End Domestic Terrorism" rally in a riverside park, he was in attendance, waving an oversized American flag.From 9.30am, a growing counter-protest featured Buddhist and Jewish prayers, speeches and music.Ed Mondaine, of the Portland chapter of the National Association fore the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), addressed the crowd, saying: "It's time to stand up and annihilate bigotry."He called upon white allies to help with "fighting white nationalism" in "one of the whitest cities in America", and concluded by leading a civil rights song, Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around.At around 10am a small group of protesters from the rightwing group Portland's Liberation made their way through the area of the counter-protest, without incident.Gibson has organized protests in Portland under the banner of the organization he founded, Patriot Prayer. Several have become violent.Critics have pointed to the presence at times of members of white nationalist groups like Identity Evropa and the PDX Stormers. But above all the events have been characterized by the presence of the Proud Boys, a "western chauvinist" group.Saturday was no exception. The main promoter of the rally, Joe Biggs, is a Proud Boy, a combat veteran and a sometime presenter on the Infowars conspiracy channel.Biggs has issued a series of threats to "antifa" in recent weeks, leading up to an event framed by the right as a response to the conservative writer Andy Ngo being milkshaked – having a drink poured over him – and punched at a rally on 29 June.On Friday, city authorities fortified the waterfront area where attendees and counter-protesters were expected to face off. The Portland Bureau of Transportation brought in concrete barriers.Portland Police Bureau (PPB) spokeswoman Lt Tina Jones said the event was likely to be "beyond the resources" of her department, even though all leave had been cancelled. PPB issued a list of partner agencies, including police departments statewide, state police, the FBI and various municipal authorities.Counter-protesters debate with alt-right groups at Tom McCall Waterfront Park. Photograph: Karen Ducey/Getty ImagesAt 11am, a large group of rightwing protesters, mostly in Proud Boys colors, marched west across Morrison Bridge and into the waterfront area, led by Biggs and group chair Enrique Tarrio.Police closed the main street parallel to the Willamette river and enforced a gap about the size of a city block between the marchers and the counter-protest. When they arrived in the park, the Proud Boys knelt in prayer and sang the US anthem.They spent just over half an hour on the city's west side. The atmosphere was occasionally tense. Six counter-protesters who managed to enter the enclosure were engaged by some Proud Boys in heated discussion. Some rightwing live-streamers arriving late were briefly mistaken for counter-protesters.Just after 11.30am, the marchers started back over Hawthorne Bridge, traveling east. It had been closed to traffic. "They opened the bridge just for us," Tarrio said through a bullhorn.Visible insignia included that of a "patriot movement" group, the Three Percenters, and American Guard, who the Anti-Defamation League calls "hardcore white supremacists".After crossing the river, the crowd milled around in the parking lot of a fire and rescue installation, under the I-5 freeway.
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| Mom aims head-on at a tanker to kill herself, sons. When truck dodges, she doubles back Posted: 17 Aug 2019 02:25 PM PDT  Police say a Gainesville, Florida, mom of two young boys told a friend she was going to kill herself and her sons by crashing her car with everyone inside.
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| Epstein's last days were spent emptying vending machines with his lawyers in a private meeting room, avoiding suicide watch, and paying other inmates' commissaries Posted: 17 Aug 2019 10:00 AM PDT  Before he died of suicide by hanging, The New York Times reports Epstein used his wealth to try and manipulate his circumstances in federal custody.
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| Mexico to deport U.S. citizen suspected of supporting 'violent jihad' Posted: 16 Aug 2019 12:15 PM PDT ![Mexico to deport U.S. citizen suspected of supporting 'violent jihad']( "Mexico to deport U.S. citizen suspected of supporting 'violent jihad'") Mexican authorities arrested a U.S. citizen suspected of supporting militant Islamists in an example of Mexico's security cooperation with the United States even as the two neighbors grapple with sharp disagreements over trade and migration. The unidentified American man sought by Interpol was under investigation for supporting terrorist groups and will be deported to the United States later on Friday, the Mexico's attorney general's office said in a statement. The man was detained at a migrants office near Mexico's border with Guatemala in the town of Huehuetan with the help of officials from Mexico's National Migration Institute.
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| Kamala Harris at church: ‘This is where we go when the times test our faith’ Posted: 18 Aug 2019 06:02 AM PDT  In an era in which religion and politics have frequently been used to create division and dissention, the pastor of a historic church is instead trying to utilize them for higher purposes.
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| The 25 Best Zombie Video Games Posted: 18 Aug 2019 06:00 AM PDT |
| Suspected online dope-dealer back in Israel after extradition Posted: 18 Aug 2019 06:29 AM PDT  A man accused of operating a large drug-dealing ring on a popular messaging app appeared in an Israeli court Sunday after his extradition from Ukraine, where he had previously sought to escape. Amos Dov Silver, an Israeli-American, was taken to court in Rishon Lezion near Tel Aviv after his arrival from Ukraine, police said. Authorities in Ukraine said Saturday they had captured Silver a day after he escaped from the airport while he was being extradited.
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| Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s plane 'bounced' before catching fire, FAA accident report says Posted: 16 Aug 2019 08:03 PM PDT  Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s plane 'bounced' as part of a hard landing, according to a Federal Aviation Administration accident report.
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| Trump administration says transgender workers aren't protected by civil rights, Supreme Court filing reveals Posted: 17 Aug 2019 07:22 AM PDT  Donald Trump's administration has told the Supreme Court that transgender workers are not protected by federal civil rights law and can be fired because of their gender.The US government is arguing workers should only be protected from discrimination based on their "biological sex", court filings have revealed.A Supreme Court ruling in favour of the administration's position would set a legal precedent, marking a major setback for LGBTQ rights since the Obama administration.The court filing relates to an upcoming court case involving transgender funeral home worker Aimee Stephens, who was fired from her job after telling her employer about her transition."In 1964, the ordinary public meaning of 'sex' was biological sex. It did not encompass transgender status," the document filed on Friday reads.The 1964 Civil Rights Act states employers cannot discriminate based on sex, race, colour, religion, and national origin. "Title VII [of the act] does not prohibit discrimination against transgender persons based on their transgender status," the filing argues. "It simply does not speak to discrimination because of an individual's gender identity or a disconnect between an individual's gender identity and the individual's sex."Under Barack Obama, the Justice Department decreed that Title VII did protect transgender workers. This meant Court of Appeals judges sided with Stephens in 2018.But former attorney general Jeff Sessions reversed the government's stance after Mr Trump took office in 2017.The Trump administration has since banned transgender people from joining the US military, reversing an Obama-era policy that allowed them to openly serve.The ban, which puts 14,700 jobs at risk, was formally upheld by the Supreme Court earlier this year.Mr Trump has previously claimed to be "perhaps the most pro-LGBT presidential nominee in the history of the Republican Party".The Supreme Court will hear Stephens's case on 8 October. It is one of three cases concerning LGBTQ workers rights expected to come before the court in the autumn.
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| 3-year-old girl found alone in boat, man’s body discovered nearby, Texas cops say Posted: 16 Aug 2019 11:55 AM PDT  Texas authorities found a man's body after searching for a missing father whose little girl was found sleeping alone in a boat on Lake Granbury on Friday.
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| Police Release Body Cam Video of Controversial Shooting Death of Colorado Springs Man Posted: 16 Aug 2019 10:36 AM PDT  Body camera video from officers involved in the controversial fatal shooting of a black Colorado Springs man was released to the public on Thursday.
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| Epstein died by suicide using his jail bed sheet while his guards slept, according to report Posted: 17 Aug 2019 09:47 AM PDT  While in federal custody at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, Jeffrey Epstein used his jail bed sheet to commit suicide.
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| Heavy downpours wreak havoc in Istanbul, flooding historic Grand Bazaar Posted: 17 Aug 2019 07:42 AM PDT  Strong rains in Istanbul on Saturday flooded several neighbourhoods, as well as the Grand Bazaar, while officials said one person was found dead in the city. Rain started early in the day in parts of Istanbul and picked up pace around noon. Footage from parts of the Grand Bazaar showed shopkeepers, ankle-deep in water, clearing the water out of their stores and the halls.
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| Jihadi Jack: Isis fighter stripped of British citizenship by Home Office Posted: 17 Aug 2019 05:00 PM PDT  The Isis fighter known as Jihadi Jack has been stripped of his British citizenship, prompting a diplomatic row between the UK and Canada, it has been reported. Muslim convert Jack Letts, 24, who had held dual UK and Canadian citizenship, declared he was an "enemy of Britain" after travelling from Oxfordshire to Syria at the age of 18 to join the terror group. He has begged to be allowed to return to the UK, insisting he had "no intention" of killing Britons, after he was captured by Kurdish forces in 2017. The Home Office has now stripped Letts of British citizenship, meaning he is the responsibility of the Canadian government, The Mail on Sunday said. It was reportedly one of the last actions of Theresa May's administration. Isil Rise and fall of a caliphate The decision is understood to have angered officials in Ottawa, prompting fears of a row between Canadian PM Justin Trudeau and Boris Johnson when they meet at the G7 summit in France next weekend. Letts, who travelled to the Middle East in 2014, is now among more than 120 dual nationals who have been stripped of their British citizenship since 2016, including Isis bride Shamima Begum. Ms Begum was one of three girls from Bethnal Green, east London, who left the UK aged just 15 in February 2015 and travelled to Syria to join Islamic State. It was thought Ms Begum may have a claim in Bangladesh because of her family background, something Bangladeshi officials denied. The move can only be made against people with two passports, because international law prevents the Government from making anyone "stateless". John Letts and Sally Lane, the parents of a Muslim convert dubbed Jihadi Jack Credit: PA It will come as a blow to Lett's parents, Sally Lane and John Letts, who were found guilty at the Old Bailey in June of funding terrorism and given 12-month sentences suspended for 15 months. In an interview after their conviction, they said: "Jack is still a British citizen and we have pleaded with the Government to help us to bring him to safety, even if that meant that he might be prosecuted in the UK." A Home Office spokesman said: "This power is one way we can counter the terrorist threat posed by some of the most dangerous individuals and keep our country safe." In an interview with ITV earlier this year, Letts said he felt British and that he wanted to return to the UK, but admitted he did not think that would be likely. "I'm not going to say I'm innocent. I'm not innocent. I deserve what comes to me. But I just want it to be... appropriate... not just haphazard, freestyle punishment in Syria," he told the broadcaster. Struggling with obsessive compulsive disorder and Tourette's when he was at school, Jack converted to Islam at the age of 16. He used to attend the Bengali mosque in Cowley Road, Oxford, before he came into contact with men with a more radical ideology. Jack has previously admitted he was at one time prepared to carry out a suicide attack, telling the BBC: "I used to want to at one point, believe it or not. Not a vest. I wanted to do it in a car. I said if there's a chance, I will do it." He also said in the interview, which took place in October last year but was not broadcast until after his parents' trial had ended, that he realised he had been "an enemy of Britain" but added that he had made "a big mistake".
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| Arrests precede major demonstrations in Portland, Oregon Posted: 16 Aug 2019 02:50 PM PDT  Authorities arrested the leader of a right-wing group on the eve of a rally that's expected to draw people from around the U.S. to Portland, Oregon, on Saturday, prompting Patriot Prayer's Joey Gibson to urge his followers to "show up one hundred-fold" in response. Self-described anti-fascists have vowed to confront the right-wing groups at the downtown rally and the arrests of Gibson and five other right-wing supporters appeared to be intended to send a signal from police to organizers to remain peaceful or stay away. In a video he livestreamed on Facebook, Gibson accused the police of playing politics by arresting him and other right-wing members but not the masked demonstrators who beat up conservative blogger Andy Ngo at a June 29 rally.
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| Netanyahu dismisses Hezbollah warning Posted: 17 Aug 2019 11:24 AM PDT  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday he was "unimpressed" by a speech from Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah in which the Lebanese Shiite leader warned of his movement's military strength. Nasrallah spoke in a TV broadcast Friday marking the anniversary of a 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel. Nasrallah said that the 2006 war had helped Hezbollah develop "a military system to defend our villages, towns and cities".
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| This Teenager Escaped Repression in West Africa. ICE Claimed He Was an Adult, and Jailed Him Anyway. Posted: 18 Aug 2019 02:03 AM PDT  Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/GettyThis story also appears at Documented, a non-profit news site devoted solely to covering New York City's immigrants and the policies that affect their lives. Subscribe to their newsletter here. From the moment Mahmoud* was detained at the border, he told federal authorities he was 17 years old. He told them at the Border Patrol station. He told them at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement adult detention facility where he was held in Port Isabel, Texas. "They asked me for documents that prove I'm 17 years old and I provided all those documents," he told Judge Frank Pimentel in the Port Isabel, Texas immigration court. "I'm assuming the government must have some basis for concluding that he is older than that," Pimentel responded. The attorney for Immigration and Customs Enforcement told the judge the birth year they had would make Mahmoud 25 years old. "I'm sure [ICE deportation officers] would have looked into that already," the ICE attorney said. ICE spent the next four months fighting to keep him in adult detention. Two years later, Mahmoud can hardly speak about the experience. "It was hard for me in there," he said. In detention, he could barely sleep and often woke up crying. "He wasn't able to be his young self in detention," said Carina Patritti, an attorney at the Legal Aid Society who has represented Mahmoud. "He had to grow up quickly."Mahmoud says he gave ICE and CBP agents a copy of his birth certificate immediately after he was detained at the border. He fled his home country in West Africa at age 17 after the government targeted him due to his political participation. He quickly gathered some documents and clothing and flew to Brazil. From there, he traveled up to the US-Mexico border and crossed with a group of men from his country. Border Patrol agents found the group and arrested them. In the station, the agents put Mahmoud in a room with a French-speaking translator on speakerphone, he said. The agents asked Mahmoud about his age. He presented them with a copy of his birth certificate and a few other documents and spent the night at the station."They continued to ask me. I told them again, I am 17," he said in an interview. Eventually they hurried him into a van and drove him to the Port Isabel Detention Center, a detention facility for adults. Mahmoud says he told ICE and CBP agents repeatedly that he was 17 years old throughout his detention. Under the Flores settlement, a lawsuit from 1997, the U.S. government is only allowed to detain people under the age of 18 for 20 days, and only in facilities with higher standards of care than adult immigration detention centers. Mahmoud was held for about four months in a privately run facility for adults. Asylum seekers often flee in haste, grabbing what documents or valuables they can find before pushing towards the U.S.. Federal agents scrutinize their documents to spot fakes and catch people trying to game the system. Various branches of the Department of Homeland Security have entire units dedicated to detecting fraudulent documents. This scrutiny is partially due to the fact that minors are allotted more chances to file for asylum and have more freedoms in captivity. "Since 1997, there have been numerous developments affecting DHS's and ORR's age determinations, but there remains no real procedure by which conflicting evidence regarding age may be weighed by a neutral and detached decision maker," said Carlos Holguín, general counsel at the Center for Human Rights & Constitutional Law, the civil-rights legal organization that brought the Flores case to court. Federal policy dictates that if a "reasonable person" would conclude that an immigrant detained by ICE is an adult, despite their claims to be a minor, then the government will "treat the person as an adult for all purposes."ICE didn't respond to a request for comment. In a court hearing, Mahmoud said that while traveling with a group of migrants through Panama, they had been stopped by border agents. "They were taking all the minors, keeping them and asking them questions," he told Judge Pimentel, so he'd said that he was 25. "All right, well again, I don't know anything about that. What we have to do now is to schedule your case for a hearing," Pimentel responded. In a later hearing, the judge pushed back against ICE's claims about Mahmoud's age. "I respect the fact that [ICE agents are] making immediate type decisions and don't always have the information at hand at the time. But the court is not going to base its determination of the respondents age on how the respondent looks to the court," Pimentel said. He asked the ICE attorney to produce evidence to support their claim that Mahmoud was older than he said he was. The ICE attorney said that they reached out to the government of his home country—which Mahmoud was fleeing—to verify his birth certificate was genuine. They hadn't received a response yet, but the Department of Homeland Security's position on his age remained that Mahmoud "is not a juvenile and we would like to proceed as such," the attorney said. Judge Pimentel asked the ICE attorney for more evidence to support their claim about his age and postponed the hearing for about two weeks. Mahmoud was silent during the exchange.The judge later added, "At some point, if I don't get any answer, then we'll be here until the summertime when at your claim, you turn 18, and then it won't be an issue anymore." Denise Slavin, a retired immigration judge, explained that immigration judges—who are employees of the Department of Justice, rather than part of the independent judicial branch of the government—don't have jurisdiction over where detainees are held. "They can tell them what court their case will be in but not where they're held," she said.After the hearing, ICE agents took Mahmoud to get a dental examination to prove his age. The exam showed he was likely 16 to 22 years old, according to the court recordings. ICE released him to the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which oversees unaccompanied minors, about four months after he entered the Texas facility. Mahmoud was transferred to a facility in Chicago where he was finally able to call his father. There, he saw a counselor three times per week and was able to go outside. "I had no one in detention," he said. Mahmoud was released from ORR custody and was allowed to move in with his cousin in the Bronx. His case was transferred to the New York City immigration court, where he was able to find a lawyer, and together they're fighting for his asylum claim. He is enrolled at a high school in the Bronx for 10th grade and wants to go to college to become an accountant. "The only thing that makes me happy is to think about my opportunity to study here," he said. "No one can stop me to study here, not like in my country."Sometimes thoughts of his journey and imprisonment creep back into his mind. But he doesn't talk about his experiences with any of his friends or at home; he just tries to forget. *This story uses a pseudonym to protect the subject's identity. 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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| 2020 Vision: Trump gets surprise Log Cabin Republicans endorsement Posted: 16 Aug 2019 11:23 AM PDT  During the 2016 election the conservative LGBT organization declined to endorse him for president.
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| Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib Partnered with Vicious Anti-Semites to Plan Their Trip to Israel Posted: 16 Aug 2019 02:04 PM PDT  To the extent that I care at all about Israel blocking entry to two U.S. congresswomen who partner with anti-Semites who seek its destruction, I agree with critics who argue that Bibi Netanyahu should not appear to bow to Donald Trump's tweeted demands and that blocking Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar from visiting Israel handed them a short-term propaganda victory. But that's not the most important part of the story.The most important element of the story is the fact that two American congresswomen shunned a bipartisan congressional delegation to Israel to go on an independent trip to Israel sponsored by vicious anti-Semites. Another important element of the story is that, as of today, the mainstream media have whitewashed Omar and Tlaib's vile associations.Writing yesterday, the Washington Post said that "Omar and Tlaib's trip to Jerusalem and the West Bank was planned by Miftah, a nonprofit organization headed by Palestinian lawmaker and longtime peace negotiator Hanan Ashrawi." The New York Times described it as an organization "headed by a longtime Palestinian lawmaker." In its editorial, the New York Times editorial board identified it as a group "that promotes 'global awareness and knowledge of Palestinian realities.'"This is a whitewash. Thanks to a Twitter thread from the Washington Examiner's Seth Mandel -- who pointed to multiple additional sources -- I started looking at the articles and views published on the Miftah website, and it was like peeling an onion of evil. There was layer upon layer of vile anti-Semitism.First, the group actually published blood libel, posting an article that accused "the Jews [of using] the blood of Christians in the Jewish Passover." When pro-Israel bloggers condemned the article, Miftah first claimed that the attacks against the piece were part of a "smear campaign" and minimized the reference to blood libel as merely "briefly addressed."It was just a light sprinkling of blood libel. Move along, nothing to see here.The organization later issued a more complete apology, but we've barely gotten started with this vile group. It's also published an American neo-Nazi treatise called "Who Rules America: The Alien Grip on Our News and Entertainment Media Must Be Broken" (archived here).As Vox's Jane Coaston explained, "the original source was National Vanguard, a neo-Nazi group founded in 2005 in Charlottesville by members of the National Alliance." The National Alliance "was for a time the best financed and best organized white nationalist group in America." And to give you a sense of its ideology, here are two paragraphs from the treatise:> The Jew-controlled entertainment media have taken the lead in persuading a whole generation that homosexuality is a normal and acceptable way of life; that there is nothing at all wrong with White women dating or marrying Black men, or with White men marrying Asian women; that all races are inherently equal in ability and character -- except that the character of the White race is suspect because of a history of oppressing other races; and that any effort by Whites at racial self-preservation is reprehensible.> > We must oppose the further spreading of this poison among our people, and we must break the power of those who are spreading it. It would be intolerable for such power to be in the hands of any alien minority, with values and interests different from our own. But to permit the Jews, with their 3,000-year history of nation-wrecking, from ancient Egypt to Russia, to hold such power over us is tantamount to race suicide. Indeed, the fact that so many White Americans today are so filled with a sense of racial guilt and self-hatred that they actively seek the death of their own race is a deliberate consequence of Jewish media control.I look forward to hearing apologists argue that these statements are merely critiques of "Israeli policies."But that's not all, not by a long shot. The group celebrates terrorists, including an evil woman who helped murder 13 Israeli children. In an article titled "Let Us Honor Our Own," a Miftah contributor describes Dalal Al Mughrabi as "a Palestinian fighter who was killed during a military operation against Israel in 1978" and as one of the Palestinian people's "national heroes."The so-called "military operation" is more widely known as the "Coastal Road Massacre," a bus hijacking that resulted in the deaths of 38 Israeli civilians, including 13 children.Al Mughrabi is hardly the only terrorist Miftah celebrates. It described female suicide bomber Wafa Idrees as the "the beginning of a string of Palestinian women dedicated to sacrificing their lives for the cause." It singles out for recognition Hanadi Jaradat, a woman who blew herself up in a restaurant, killing 21 people (including four children).The founder of Miftah herself, Ms. Ashrawi, excused jihadist violence by telling an interviewer that "you cannot somehow adopt the language of either the international community or the occupier by describing anybody who resists as terrorist."And of course Miftah published an article asking whether Israel was a proper homeland for the Jewish people:> Under the heading "Is Israel the Only Possible Homeland for Jews?", this article questioning the appropriateness of Israel as the location of a Jewish homeland was posted by Miftah, one of the sponsors of the proposed Tlaib/Omar visit to Israel:https://t.co/KX1PwrZGy1 pic.twitter.com/eMPOfhopYQ> > -- Jeryl Bier (@JerylBier) August 16, 2019I can keep going, but the evidence above should be sufficient to establish the truth. It would and should be a national scandal if GOP congressmen intended to partner with white nationalists during a visit overseas. It should be a national scandal that members of the American government intended to partner with vicious anti-Semites on their own propaganda tour.After its thunderous denunciations of Bibi Netanyahu and Donald Trump, will pundits, editorial boards, and reporters take a look at the scandal hiding in plain sight? Will they hold Tlaib and Omar accountable for their vile associations? Now is a good time to demonstrate their commitment to reporting on the full context of international disputes and exposing one of the world's oldest hatreds. We shall see how they respond.
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| 4.2 magnitude earthquake rattles Kansas; other states possibly affected Posted: 16 Aug 2019 09:55 AM PDT  A 4.2 magnitude earthquake shook portions of Kansas on Friday morning, the U.S. Geological Survey said. The center of the quake was roughly 3 miles from Hutchinson.
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| Cal Fire said Tubbs Fire wasn’t caused by PG&E. Victims win the right to sue utility anyway Posted: 16 Aug 2019 05:00 PM PDT  Victims of the deadly Tubbs Fire in 2017 won the right to pursue lawsuits against PG&E; Corp. on Friday in spite of state investigators' declaration that the utility wasn't to blame for the fire.
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| Iran says U.S. move on north Syria safe zone is "provocative" Posted: 18 Aug 2019 07:20 AM PDT ![Iran says U.S. move on north Syria safe zone is "provocative"]( "Iran says U.S. move on north Syria safe zone is \"provocative\"") A U.S. agreement to set up a safe zone in northern Syria, a close ally of Iran, is "provocative and worrisome", the Iranian foreign ministry was reported to have said by the semi-official Fars news agency. The United States and Turkey last week agreed to set up a joint operations center for a proposed zone along Syria's northeast border.
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| Florida man uses front-end loader to dump dirt on car his girlfriend drove, cops say Posted: 16 Aug 2019 01:54 PM PDT  Beware boyfriends in front-end loaders.
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| Claims: Migrant children molested in US-funded foster care Posted: 16 Aug 2019 02:49 PM PDT  This story is part of an ongoing joint investigation between The Associated Press and the PBS series FRONTLINE on the treatment of migrant children, which includes an upcoming film. The boy, now 8, went into a U.S.-funded foster home for migrant children in New York. The foster care programs are aimed at providing migrant children with care while authorities work to connect them with parents, relatives or other sponsors.
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| 'Nightmare' as Egypt aided China to detain Uighurs Posted: 17 Aug 2019 10:04 PM PDT  Abdulmalik Abdulaziz, an Uighur student, was arrested and handcuffed by Egyptian police and when they removed his blindfold he was surprised to see Chinese officials questioning him in custody. "They never said their names or mentioned who they were exactly," said Abdulaziz, 27, who spoke to AFP helping to uncover new details of the 2017 arrests of over 90 Uighurs from the mostly Muslim Turkic minority. Abdulaziz, like most swept up in the three-day crackdown in the first week of July 2017, was an Islamic theology student at Al-Azhar, the Sunni Muslim world's most prestigious educational institution.
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| Epstein allowed to buy small women’s underwear in jail, records reveal Posted: 18 Aug 2019 07:14 AM PDT  Convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was allowed to buy small women's underwear while serving a jail sentence for soliciting a minor for prostitution, official records have revealed.Mr Epstein, a wealthy financier with links to the higher ranks of US society, hung himself in his cell in Manhattan after he was arrested last month and pleaded not guilty to federal charges of sex trafficking involving dozens of underage girls as young as 14.Before his arrest on 6 July 2018, Mr Epstein served another 13 months in custody in Florida in 2008-2009 after a state court found him guilty of soliciting a minor for prostitution.But during that jail term, he was allowed to purchase female underwear that would not fit an average adult woman, the Miami Herald revealed after examining records obtained from the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office.During his time in custody in Florida between 30 June 2008 and 22 July 2009, Mr Epstein benefited from a generous work-release programme that allowed him to walk out of prison for up to 16 hours per day for six or seven days a week. Some records even began to refer to him as a "client" rather than an inmate.Mr Epstein's death has caused outrage and prompted an investigation into the circumstances that allowed him to escape justice and apparently take his own life.Attorney general William Barr said there were "serious irregularities" within the Metropolitan Correctional Centre in New York City, where Epstein was awaiting trial.Reports have indicated that standard protocol was not met in the jail.An autopsy concluded that the cause of his death was suicide.Two guards have been put on administrative leave after it was determined that they had fallen asleep and had falsified records in a log to indicate they had been checking on the disgraced financier every 30 minutes, as was required.Falsified entries such as those could constitute a federal crime.
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| 11 Rice Recipes To Make For Your Kids Tonight Posted: 16 Aug 2019 01:31 PM PDT |
| The Bogus Story That Launched a ‘Collusion’ Probe Posted: 17 Aug 2019 03:30 AM PDT  Editor's note: Andrew C. McCarthy's new book is Ball of Collusion: The Plot to Rig an Election and Destroy a Presidency. This is the fourth in a series of excerpts; the first can be read here, the second here, and the third here.The George Papadopoulos Origin Story has never added up. It has been portrayed as the Big Bang, the Magic Moment that started the FBI's investigation of "collusion" -- a suspected election-theft conspiracy between Donald Trump's campaign and Vladimir Putin's regime. But if the young energy-sector analyst had actually emerged in early 2016 as the key to proving Trump–Russia espionage, you would think the FBI might have gotten around to interviewing him before January 27, 2017 — i.e., a week after President Trump had been inaugurated, and six months after the Bureau formally opened its "Crossfire Hurricane" probe.You would probably also think Papadopoulos, Suspect One in The Great Cyber Espionage Attack on Our Democracy, might have rated a tad more than the whopping 14-day jail sentence a federal judge eventually imposed on him. You might even suppose that he'd have been charged with some seditious felony involving clandestine operations against his own country, instead of . . . yes . . . fibbing to the FBI about the date of a meeting.That, however, does not scratch the surface. We are to believe that what led to the opening of the FBI's Trump–Russia investigation, and what therefore is the plinth of the collusion narrative, is a breakfast meeting at a London hotel on April 26, 2016, between Papadopoulos and Joseph Mifsud, a Maltese academic we are supposed to take for a clandestine Russian agent. We are to take Papadopoulos's word for it that Mifsud claimed Russia possessed "dirt" on Hillary Clinton in the form of "thousands" of "emails of Clinton." We are further to believe that "the professor" elaborated that, in order to help Donald Trump's candidacy, the Kremlin would release these "emails of Clinton" at a time chosen to do maximum damage to the Democratic nominee's campaign.The story is based on no credible evidence. If it were ever presented to a jury, it would be laughed out of court.The Papadopoulos "collusion" claims (without collusion charges) are alleged in the Mueller report, which essentially repeats the grandiose "Statement of the Offense" that the special counsel included with the comparatively minor false-statement charge to which Papadopoulos pled guilty. Carefully parsed, this narrative stops short of alleging that the Trump adviser actually collaborated with a Russian agent. Rather, it claims that Papadopoulos engaged in a lot of twaddle with Mifsud, who he had reason to suspect might be a Russian agent. The pair brainstormed endlessly about potential high-level Trump-campaign meetings with the Putin regime, including [insert heavy breathing here] between Trump and Putin themselves. Papadopoulos then exaggerated these meanderings in emails to Trump-campaign superiors he was hot to impress.It is virtually certain that Mifsud was not a Russian agent. Whether he was an asset for any intelligence service, we cannot say with certainty at this point. But we can say that he had close contacts of significance with British intelligence, and with other Western governments.As Lee Smith relates, Mifsud has also long been associated with Claire Smith, a prominent British diplomat who served for years on Britain's Joint Intelligence Committee, which answers directly to the prime minister. Ms. Smith was also a member of the United Kingdom's Security Vetting Appeals Panel, which reviews denials of security clearances to government employees. During her career in the British foreign service, Smith worked with Mifsud at three different academic institutions: the London Academy of Diplomacy (which trained diplomats and government officials, some of them sponsored by the U.K.'s Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the British Council, or by their own governments), the University of Stirling, in Scotland, and Link Campus University in Rome, where Mifsud first met Papadopoulos. The campus is a well-known draw for diplomats and intelligence officials — the CIA holds conferences there, the FBI holds agent-training sessions there, and former U.S. intelligence officials teach there.In Rome on March 14, Papadopoulos met Joseph Mifsud. Twice Papadopoulos's age, the Maltese professor gravitated to his fellow Link University lecturers and professors, who, as Lee Smith notes, "include senior Western diplomats and intelligence officials from a number of NATO countries, especially Italy and the United Kingdom." Mifsud also taught at the University of Stirling and the London Academy of Diplomacy. That is to say, if Mifsud had actually been a Russian agent, he was situated to be one of the most successful in history.Not likely.Mifsud was a shameless self-promoter (at least until Russiagate notoriety sent him underground). He traveled frequently, including to Russia, where he participated in academic conferences and claimed acquaintance with regime officials — though how well he actually knows anyone of significance is unclear. In sum, Mifsud is the aging academic version of Papadopoulos. Thierry Pastor, a French political analyst who (with a Swiss-German lawyer named Stephan Roh) co-wrote a book about l'affaire Papadopoulos, made this observation about Mifsud's brag that he knew Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov: "Yes, he met Lavrov. He met him once or twice in a large group. He knows Lavrov, but Lavrov doesn't know Joseph. [Mifsud's] contacts in Russia are with academics."Nevertheless, the Trump–Russia narrative holds that Mifsud actually is a well-placed Russian agent who became interested in Papadopoulos upon discovering that he was a key (yup . . .) Trump adviser. According to this story, Mifsud introduced the younger man to a woman presented as Vladimir Putin's niece. The professor also hooked Papadopoulos up with Ivan Timofeev, whom prosecutors pregnantly described as "the Russian MFA connection" (as in the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs — Lavrov's office) when they eventually charged Papadopoulos with making false statements. Timofeev and Papadopoulos had fevered discussions about setting up a Putin–Trump meeting in Russia. Finally, at their April 26 breakfast in London, Mifsud let slip that Russia had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton in the form of "thousands" of "emails of Clinton" — which, the narrative holds, must have been a reference to the DNC emails that Russian intelligence hacked and WikiLeaks disseminated during the Democratic party's convention in July.The story is bogus through and through. There is no proof that Mifsud is a Russian agent — Mueller never alleged such a thing, either when Papadopoulos was charged or in the special counsel's final report, which concluded that there was no Trump–Russia conspiracy. The woman in question was not Putin's niece; she was eventually identified as Olga Polonskaya, the 32-year-old manager of a St. Petersburg wine company, who (the Mueller report suggests, based on a "Baby, thank you" email) may have been romantically involved with Mifsud. Timofeev is actually a young academic researcher who runs a Russian think tank, the Russian International Affairs Council. The RIAC has some sort of tie to the MFA, but no discernible connections to Russian intelligence. Like Mifsud, Timofeev is an academic; he was in an even less likely position to schedule a meeting for Putin than Papadopoulos was to do so for Trump. The hypothetical Putin–Trump summit was an inchoate idea that senior Trump officials shot down even as Papadopoulos and Timofeev were dreaming it up.What about those "emails of Clinton"? Other than the word of Papadopoulos, a convicted liar and palpably unreliable raconteur, there is no evidence — none — that Mifsud told him about emails. The professor never showed him any emails. And in his February 2017 FBI interview, Mifsud denied saying anything to Papadopoulos about Clinton-related emails in the possession of the Kremlin. Of course, Mifsud could be lying. But there is no evidence that he would have been in a position to know the inner workings of Russian intelligence operations.It is not enough to say that Mueller never charged Mifsud with lying to the FBI. In Mueller's report, when prosecutors have evidence that Mifsud gave inaccurate information, they say so. For example, they allege that Mifsud "falsely" recounted the last time he had seen Papadopoulos. But Mueller never alleges that Mifsud's denial of knowledge about Russia's possession of emails is false. And if we learned anything from Mueller's investigation, it is that he knows how to make a false-statements case.In any event, Mifsud's supposed comment about Clinton's emails obviously made little impression on Papadopoulos. The day after he met the professor, Papadopoulos sent two emails to high-ranking Trump-campaign officials about his meeting with Mifsud. In neither did he mention emails. Papadopoulos instead focused on the possibility — far-fetched, but apparently real to Papadopoulos — that Mifsud could help arrange a meeting between Trump and Putin. Prior to being interviewed by the FBI in January 2017, Papadopoulos never reported anything about Russia's having emails — neither to his Trump-campaign superiors, to whom he was constantly reporting on his conversations with Mifsud, nor to Alexander Downer, the Australian diplomat whose conversation with Papadopoulos was the proximate cause for the formal opening of the FBI probe.It was only when he was interviewed by the FBI in late January 2017, nine months after his conversation with Mifsud, that Papadopoulos is alleged to have claimed that Mifsud said the Russians had "thousands" of "emails of Clinton." There is no known recording of this FBI interview, so there is no way of knowing whether (a) Papadopoulos volunteered this claim that Mifsud mentioned emails or (b) the email claim was suggested to Papadopoulos by his interrogators' questions. We have no way of knowing if Papadopoulos is telling the truth (and therefore hid the possibility of damaging Clinton emails from his Trump-campaign superiors for no fathomable reason) or if he was telling the FBI agents what he thought they wanted to hear (which is what he often did when reporting to the Trump campaign).Is the Mifsud–Papadopoulos connection a case of Western intelligence agencies entrapping the Trump campaign by first using an "asset" (Mifsud) to plant a damning "Russia helping Trump" story with Papadopoulos, and later using another "asset" (Stefan Halper) to try to get Papadopoulos to repeat that story so that "collusion" could be proved?At this point, we don't know. Here is what we do know: The United States government has never charged Joseph Mifsud. It has never accused him of being an agent of Russia. It took no steps to arrest him despite opportunities to do so. In fact, the FBI interviewed Mifsud and, when he denied Papadopoulos's claim that he had told the young Trump adviser that Russia had Hillary emails, the Bureau let him go. Special Counsel Mueller never alleged that Mifsud's denial was a false statement.That's a pretty a curious way to treat the "Russian agent" who was the rationale for the incumbent administration's use of foreign counterintelligence powers to investigate the presidential campaign of its political opposition, no?
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| Hong Kong Protests Show Little Sign of Flagging as Large Crowds Rally for Democracy Posted: 18 Aug 2019 01:33 AM PDT  Thousands defy a police order and march on the city's administrative district
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| Plane crashes into a house in Dutchess County, police report Posted: 17 Aug 2019 05:22 PM PDT  The FAA reports the Cessna 303 crashed into a house on South Smith Road near Poughkeepsie.
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| Argentina detains businessman at center of Mexican corruption scandal Posted: 16 Aug 2019 08:40 PM PDT ![Argentina detains businessman at center of Mexican corruption scandal]( "Argentina detains businessman at center of Mexican corruption scandal") Argentine authorities and Interpol detained on Friday a businessman who was at the center of a Mexican corruption scandal in 2004 that hurt the reputation of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who at the time was Mexico City's mayor and is now the nation's president. The detained Argentine businessman Carlos Ahumada was filmed in 2004 giving bundles of money to Lopez Obrador's main ally in the City Council, Rene Bejarano. Support for Lopez Obrador at the time was battered by the graft scandal.
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| Shooting near Alabama campus kills 2, injures 3 Posted: 16 Aug 2019 11:46 AM PDT  A shooting on the edge of an Alabama college campus killed a student and another man and wounded three others. Gunfire broke out Thursday night near Alabama State University in Montgomery. President Quinton T. Ross told a news conference Friday the shooting occurred at a business near the school.
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| Iran's Zarif wishes Kuwait's ruler 'speedy' recovery Posted: 18 Aug 2019 06:03 AM PDT  Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Sunday wished Kuwait's 90-year-old Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad Al-Sabah a "speedy recovery" after holding "good talks" with the Gulf state's officials. Sheikh Sabah, who ascended to power in January 2006, was seen in public last week during Muslim prayers and appeared in good health. There has been no word on the emir's health in official media or Kuwaiti newspapers, though it is commonly made public if he is admitted to hospital or travels abroad for treatment.
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| Trump supporters say he 'would probably lose voters...if he goes too far' on gun control Posted: 18 Aug 2019 08:15 AM PDT  The president's supporters in New Hampshire respond to proposals for new gun control legislation on "This Week."
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| They Crowdfunded for Their Dead ‘Baby Boy.’ Cops Say It Was This Doll. Posted: 16 Aug 2019 11:11 AM PDT  via GofundmeKaycee and Geoffrey Lang's baby registry had everything, right down to giraffe mittens and a dino onesie. She posted a tease on Facebook asking "Any guesses on baby Lang's gender? We will be announcing in a few weeks." A friend in their small Pennsylvania town threw a shower full of gifts and games. Grandpa James gave groceries. Great-Grandma Prudence contributed $265. Friends came with an Aldi gift card, diapers, and cash to celebrate the imminent arrival. Two months later, Kaycee announced baby Easton Walt Lang had arrived at 3:11 am on July 3 at Conemaugh Memorial Hospital in Johnstown. A Facebook page had photos from the couple of a newborn wrapped in a blanket.But that joy quickly turned to heartbreak: The couple announced little Easton died a few hours later from fluid in his lungs and a low heart rate. Friends again came to their aid, coming together to pay for a personalized urn and cremation at a local funeral home. "Easton's parents were blessed with just a little over 5 hours before he went to his heavenly home at 8:20 am. Easton experienced holding hands and hugs and kisses with his mommy and daddy and being told uncountable number of 'I love yous,'" read the obituary that ran in Johnstown's Tribune-Democrat on July 12. Don't cry just yet: Pennsylvania prosecutors say Easton Walt Lang did not exist. The real-life people who say they gave birth to him, Kaycee, 23, and Geoffrey, 27, are now facing charges in two counties, as prosecutors said Thursday that an investigation showed they not only feigned giving birth to "Easton" to scam friends, family, and their community, but also faked the phony newborn's death to keep the gifts and money pouring in. That included a GoFundMe page created by a friend of the family's who was one of the 15 people who donated a combined $550 to the page after the news of his "death." A reporter with Pittsburgh's WTAE ABC affiliate captured images of Facebook posts from the couple, from an account that appears to have been shut down.According to a criminal complaint filed by the Pennsylvania State Police, people began to suspect something was amiss shortly after the faux funeral. On July 19, friend Cynthia Dilascio reported to police in Johnstown that she suspected Kaycee and Geoffrey had lied about Easton's existence, the affidavit states. She told authorities that she hadn't seen Kaycee since the baby shower. The police checked both the Cambria County Coroner's Office and the Somerset County Coroner's Office for records of the newborn. Neither had ever heard of an Easton Lang. Investigators checked Conemaugh Memorial Hospital and Conemaugh Memorial OB/GYN, but said there was no record of the child or his purported mother. Both Geoffrey and Kaycee were interviewed by the police on Aug 5. The father said he was not present at the baby's birth, but that the newborn's heart rate had dropped below 55 bpm and there was fluid on his lungs. Kaycee told the investigators that the baby had respiratory distress syndrome, the documents state. The next day, police issued a search warrant for the Langs' home. When officers looked through the house, they found a "life-like newborn baby doll" that was shown in the pictures on social media, and an urn with "Easton Walt Lang" etched into it. The funeral home where the couple said they bought the container for their child's remains also had no records of the newborn's existence, police documents show.A GoFundMe spokesperson confirmed the account for the couple has been shut down. "This campaign received 15 donations totaling $550," a statement from the crowdfunding site reads. "This type of behavior is not tolerated on GoFundMe. We will fully cooperate with law enforcement officials during their investigation and we will issue full refunds to all donors."The couple is facing misdemeanor theft charges. They are scheduled to appear in court in October. 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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| Shell workers in Pennsylvania say they were told to either attend a recent Trump event, or not get paid Posted: 17 Aug 2019 09:10 AM PDT  Workers at a new Shell plant in Pennsylvania were told they had to attend a speech by President Donald Trump in order to get paid.
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| Thousands Begin Dispersing After Rainy Rally: Hong Kong Update Posted: 18 Aug 2019 07:52 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Tens of thousands of Hong Kong protesters defied a torrential downpour and gathered in centrally located Victoria Park for the weekend's major rally, after two nights of demonstrations ended peacefully and without police firing tear gas.Sunday's rally was organized by the Civil Human Rights Front, which said more than 1.7 million people turned out. That would make it one of the biggest demonstrations yet. The police, which confined demonstrators to the park, didn't provide a crowd estimate. The protests began on June 9 over a bill that would allow extraditions to mainland China but have morphed into broader criticism of Chinese rule over the financial hub.Thousands of pro- and anti-government supporters came out on Saturday in rival demonstrations that expressed support for Chief Executive Carrie Lam's administration on one side, and criticized her and police actions in another. China urged Hong Kong to punish demonstrators who break the law, after they massed at the city's international airport and forced its closure last week.There is a growing list of demands made by various groups and directed at the government to address. One rally on Saturday called for curbs on visitors from China, while a planned gathering that was later canceled wanted to highlight the impact of tear gas used by police on animals.Key Developments:Tens of thousands gather peacefully for rainy afternoon rally in central Victoria Park and began dispersing by early evening. The Civil Human Rights Front put attendance at 1.7 Hong Kong Financial Secretary Paul Chan warned city should brace for an "economic typhoon" due to social unrest and the U.S.-China trade war.Here's the latest (all times local):Crowds Begin Leaving (Sunday 6.22 p.m.)As the rain poured down through the afternoon, people stood sentry under a sea of umbrellas. By early evening, Victoria Park thinned out as thousands of people began dispersing. Crowds at the Times Square shopping center waited peacefully to reach Causeway Bay metro station. Neither organizers nor police had given an estimate of the demonstration's turnout.'Race against time' (Sunday 4.45 p.m.)One protester in Sunday's Victoria Park rally, 73-year-old retiree Tan Shu Huay, said protesters were mindful of trying to prevent violence but time was running out for Hong Kong people to fight for their rights."We're using peaceful and rational marches to curb police violence. The most important thing now is to get democracy," Tan said. "As long as we're not at the 50-year mark of one country, two systems, Hong Kongers are racing against time to fight for and preserve our freedoms even after 2047.""I hope our friends in mainland China will be inspired by us and understand the importance of democracy and human rights, and come to fight and enjoy these freedoms together," he said.Rain, what rain? (Sunday 4 p.m.)Protesters in Victoria Park ignored the driving rain and dark skies as they took cover in a multicolored shield of umbrellas. People exited the venue and made their way toward the train station in line with organizers' requests to make space for throngs waiting to get into the rally.Economic Typhoon Signal 3 raised (Sunday)Hong Kong should brace for an "economic typhoon" because of social unrest and the U.S.-China trade war, Financial Secretary Paul Chan said in a blog post Sunday. He likened current economic conditions to a Signal 3 cyclone warning and said that the city could suffer a direct hit.Park rally (Sunday 1.30 p.m.)People poured into Victoria Park in Causeway Bay in orderly queues snaking around the site hours before the rally was scheduled to start at 3 p.m. Organizers said they would try to ensure the gathering went off peacefully and that the park wasn't overcrowded."We will be totally peaceful today but it depends on how the police react," said Bonnie Leung, a vice convener of the Civil Human Rights Front. "Police have imposed a lot of unnecessary conditions, so we don't have a march but we have a large number of people which cannot be contained in this Victoria Park. Our legislators will lead the crowd to hopefully peacefully leave the park so that more people can come inside."'Return to Reason' (Sunday 11 a.m.)Hong Kong's Chief Secretary for Administration Matthew Cheung said violence must stop immediately to solve problems facing the city. While protesters say their "extreme actions" are to strive for a better future, the situation needs to "return to reason" before steps that can be taken to achieve that, he said."Destruction is easy and construction is difficult," Cheung said in a blog post on Sunday. Violent acts during protests "have seriously affected and damaged the lives of the people, disrupted social order, impacted the rule of law in Hong Kong and the moral bottom line, and hit Hong Kong's international image."An Early Night (Saturday 8 p.m)Protesters dispersed after some clashes with police, and the day ended without the use of tear gas for the first time in weeks.Eggs and laser beams (Saturday 7 p.m.)Hong Kong police said a "large group of protesters" who surrounded its station in Mong Kok posed a threat to its officers at the scene. Some demonstrators were seen aiming laser beams at the police officers, and pelting eggs at the station.Police in riot gear cleared the area around the station of protesters.Pro-China rally (Saturday 5 p.m.)Tens of thousands joined a pro-government rally in Tamar Park, Admiralty, filling the space adjacent to the central government offices. "Support the motherland, support one country two systems; anti-violence, save Hong Kong," they chanted. Organizers estimated the crowd size at 476,000, while the police said it was around 108,000, broadcasters reported.China calls for punishment (Saturday 4.30 p.m.)Protesters who have broken laws must be punished accordingly, You Wenze, spokesman for China's National People's Congress Foreign Affairs Committee, said in an interview with state TV Saturday. Some protesters have challenged the one-China principle, You said."There's no majesty in laws if breaking laws can go unpunished," said You, whose committee is a panel of China's legislature that crafted the Basic Law of Hong Kong -- its mini constitution.Pro-China crowd in Sydney (Saturday 2:30 p.m.)Demonstrations are taking place in hubs across the world this weekend, including San Francisco's Embarcadero Plaza to London's Trafalgar Square and cities in Canada, Australia, Germany and Taiwan.In Sydney, hundreds of China supporters draped in the red national flag protested against "selfish" Hong Kong demonstrators. They marched down Sydney's George Street in the central business district, chanting "One China" and "We support Hong Kong police.""We support Hong Kong, this is why we are here," said Jonah Zhu, who hails from the Chinese city of Guangzhou and is studying teaching in Sydney. Protesters "are destroying the Hong Kong economy, they're trying to block the airport, they are being selfish."Kowloon rally (Saturday 3.30 p.m.)Thousands set off from a park in west Kowloon, extended the list of demands to include a call for a limit to the number of tourists from mainland China."Although we do not forget the five demands of the Hong Kong people themselves, the main demand of this rally would be to set a capped number on mainland Chinese tourists," said Timothy Lee, a community officer in Kowloon who organized the march. "We call upon the police to remain restrained and calm at all times."Teachers on the streets (Saturday 11.30 a.m.)Thousands of teachers gathered in Chater Garden in pelting rain and an amber rainstorm warning from Hong Kong Observatory. The educators marched to Government House, Lam's official residence, as the weather cleared. They tied white ribbons to the railings around the residence and then moved on to make way for arriving protesters.At least 22,000 people took part in the demonstration, Hong Kong Professional Teachers' Union president Fung Wai-wah said, while police estimated that there were 8,300 protesters in the march at its peak.\--With assistance from Justin Chin, Natalie Lung and Sybilla Gross.To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Karen Leigh in Hong Kong at kleigh4@bloomberg.net;Shawna Kwan in Hong Kong at wkwan35@bloomberg.net;Aaron Mc Nicholas in Hong Kong at amcnicholas2@bloomberg.net;Jinshan Hong in Hong Kong at jhong214@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Scott at bscott66@bloomberg.net, ;Shamim Adam at sadam2@bloomberg.net, Stanley JamesFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Priest who appeared in The Exorcist accused of 'grooming and sexually abusing' student at Jesuit school Posted: 16 Aug 2019 05:15 PM PDT  A priest who appeared in The Exorcist has been accused of allegedly grooming and sexually abusing a student at the Jesuit high school where he taught.William O'Malley, who plays Father Dyer in the 1973 horror film, is one of several people named in a lawsuit filed as part of the Child Victims Act, which enables New Yorkers who were allegedly abused as children to file civil cases with no time or age limit for one year.According to court papers obtained by The Independent, O'Malley allegedly "used his position as a priest" to "groom and to sexually abuse" a student at McQuaid Jesuit High School. The plaintiff, who has remained anonymous, was approximately 17 years old when the alleged abuse occurred, the lawsuit claims.It also alleges that O'Malley, now 87, sexually abused the student "multiple times" from approximately 1985 to 1986.The Diocese of Rochester and McQuaid Jesuit High School are both named among several defendants in the suit. O'Malley's name appears among numerous others in the complaint.McQuaid told The Independent in a statement that it expects to receive claims as the Child Victims Act goes into effect."It is our sincere hope that this will be a time of healing for our brothers," the school said in a statement, although it declined to comment on specific claims.One of the lawyers listed on the lawsuit confirmed that the priest named in the complaint was the same as the one whose name appears in the credits of the horror film.He appeared in the news in 2012 after reportedly being dismissed from his teaching role at Fordham Prep, another Jesuit school, for his "abrasive" teaching style, the New York Post reported at the time.Hundreds of sexual abuse lawsuits have been filed in New York courts after the one-year window set by the Child Victims Act opened on Wednesday.
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| Russia says no plans to install new missiles unless U.S. deploys them Posted: 18 Aug 2019 01:44 AM PDT ![Russia says no plans to install new missiles unless U.S. deploys them]( "Russia says no plans to install new missiles unless U.S. deploys them") Russia will not deploy new missiles as long as the United States shows similar restraint in Europe and Asia, Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu said on Sunday, after Washington's withdrawal from a Soviet-era arms pact. The United States formally left the Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty with Russia earlier this month after accusing Moscow of violating the treaty and deploying one banned type of missile, allegations the Kremlin denies. Russia has also pulled out of the deal, but Shoigu said it had no plans to deploy new missiles.
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| A Wisconsin college student was arrested after tearing up a classmate's swastika sign Posted: 16 Aug 2019 11:52 AM PDT  University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee junior Grae Hosmanek was participating in an event organized by Students Supporting Israel when she was arrested.
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| Steel mill sorry for spill that killed fish, closed beaches Posted: 17 Aug 2019 11:43 AM PDT  A steel company apologized for a spill of cyanide and ammonia that led to a fish kill and prompted the closure of beaches along Lake Michigan. The National Park Service closed the Portage Lakefront and Riverwalk beach areas at Indiana Dunes National Park and waters out to 300 feet (91 meters).
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| Barbados police say no signs of an intruder in house where British woman found dead Posted: 16 Aug 2019 11:18 AM PDT  Police in Barbados have said there was no sign of any intruder at a home where a British woman was found dead with serious burns. Natalie Crichlow, 44, from London, was on the island to visit her disabled brother. She was found dead on July 28, and her family said an intruder had entered the house and set her alight in her bed. On Friday police in Barbados said there was no sign of an intruder, and there was no flammable liquid found on her clothes. Tyrone Griffith, chief commissioner for Barbados police, said that the fire which killed her began in the kitchen. A post mortem showed she died from an infection, following serious burns. Natalie Crichlow, who was in Barbados to look after her disabled brother The Luton-born make-up artist, a mother of three, was found in the garden. "This matter is being treated as an unnatural death, and intense investigations are ongoing," said Mr Griffith. "At this stage there is nothing to indicate that there was an intruder at the premise." A man who once lived at the house has been interviewed, but Mr Griffith said that he had no involvement in her death. Ms Crichlow's niece said she was concerned that police were not treating the investigation as a murder inquiry.
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| 7 Skyscrapers Leading the Way to a Green Future Posted: 17 Aug 2019 01:18 PM PDT |
| 'A new Hawaiian Renaissance': how a telescope protest became a movement Posted: 16 Aug 2019 10:30 PM PDT  Demonstrators opposed to the building of a telescope on Mauna Kea, the state's highest peak, have forged a communityThe actor Jason Momoa exchanges a traditional greeting with an elder while visiting protesters last month. Photograph: Hollyn Johnson/APOn Hawaii's Big Island, a protest against a $1.4bn observatory on Mauna Kea, a mountain considered sacred by many Native Hawaiians, is entering a second month. In that time, the protest site has swelled from a few hundred to several thousands, attracted celebrity visitors, and built a community of Native Hawaiians who see it as a pivotal moment.The protest site sits at an elevation of 6,632ft, where the cold wind whips across hardened lava fields. But amid this inhospitable environment, weeks of demonstration have given rise to a sense of permanence.The site stretches across a two-lane highway, where trucks flying a Native Hawaiian flag and the upside-down state flag line both sides of the road. A "Kūpuna tent", where the elders of the community gather, is strategically placed to block an access road up the mountain in order to stop construction vehicles from reaching the summit.New arrivals are encouraged to sign in at an orientation station. There is a tented cafeteria providing free meals, and a community-run medic station, daycare and school. Along the barren roadside, tropical flowers have been casually stuck in traffic cones. People pound taro, a Hawaiian crop, in the traditional way on wooden boards to make poi, a local dish.The protest stems from controversy over the fate of Mauna Kea, the tallest peak in Hawaii and the proposed site of an enormous observatory known as the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT). The summit, 13,796ft above sea level, is said to be an ideal location to look into deep space. TMT is expected to capture images 'that look back to the beginning of the universe. Protesters, who call themselves kia'i, or "protectors", argue the construction will further desecrate Mauna Kea, which is already home to about a dozen telescopes.The sun sets behind telescopes at the summit of Mauna Kea in Hawaii. Photograph: Caleb Jones/APKealoha Pisciotta, one of the protest leaders and a spokesperson for Mauna Kea Anaina Hou, a Native Hawaiian group, says the movement is "pushing back on corporate culture" through Hawaiian concepts of "Kapu Aloha", which emphasizes compassionate responses, especially towards opponents, and "Aloha ʻĀina", a saying that translates to "love of the land"."We are just joining the world's indigenous movements," Pisciotta says. "We need Kapu Aloha ... to bring back the balance from the insanity and destruction of our earth."Pisciotta said that the protesters were showing the world a way "to really live differently" while protecting the land."For Native Hawaiians, there is a question of our right to self-determination as defined by international law, but I think it's so much bigger than that," said Pisciotta. "It's about us learning to live and be interdependent." Why are the protests happening?Protesters continue their vigil, on 19 July. Photograph: Bruce Asato/APHawaiians consider Mauna Kea sacred for numerous reasons. The mountain is known as the home to Wākea, the sky god, who partnered with Papahānaumoku, the earth goddess. Protesters hope to protect and help restore the native ecosystem on Mauna Kea.But the protests are also part of a legacy for Native Hawaiians that goes back to 1893, when the Hawaiian Kingdom was overthrown. Hawaiians lost their land as well as their culture, as the latter was suppressed through law and religion. It wasn't until the 1970s, during a period of cultural flourishing known as the Hawaiian Renaissance, that the Hawaiian language was allowed to be spoken in school and that the hula was revived.The period was defined by its own resistance movement, as activists focused on stopping the US military from using Kahoʻolawe, one of the eight main Hawaiian Islands, as a target for bombing practice. After more than a decade of peaceful protests and occupations of the island, the US government ended the live-fire training in the 1990s.Some see the latest protest action as a new Hawaiian Renaissance. Days are punctuated by the blowing of the conch shell to announce ceremonies that include chanting, hula, and hoʻokupu (offerings). Several celebrities with Hawaii ties have travelled here to participate, including Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Jason Momoa, and Jack Johnson.Hawaii's governor, David Ige, right, watches a performance during a visit to the ninth day of protests against the Thirty Meter Telescope, on 23 July. Photograph: Jamm Aquino/AP"The atmosphere here is incredible. We're all here protecting our ʻāina [land]", said Kamuela Park, a protester at the site. He added that it had been "awesome to see people from all spectrums coming here in support".Peaceful demonstrators have faced one major confrontation with police. Three days into the protest, 38 kūpuna (revered elders) were arrested for blocking the road that leads to the construction site. That same day, Hawaii's governor, David Ige, signed an emergency proclamation giving law enforcement more control over the area and allowed them to bring in National Guard troops. Images of the elderly being arrested quickly spread, garnering sympathy for the movement and attracting more people to the site. What comes next?Demonstrators block a road at the base of Hawaii's tallest mountain, on 15 July. Photograph: Caleb Jones/APNegotiations between government officials and protesters have slowed since the arrests. On 30 July, the governor rescinded his emergency proclamation. He also extended the window during which construction could begin from 60 days to two years, meaning the protesters would theoretically need to block the road until September 2021."I want to assure everyone that we are committed. Our law enforcement officers will remain at the site to ensure the safety of all of those involved," said Ige at a press conference. "We continue to seek and find a peaceful solution to move this project forward."While tensions may have eased, protesters have said they will stay until they stop TMT from being built. Demonstrators proved their endurance in early August as many of them stayed at the protest site while two consecutive storms passed by the islands.Pisciotta, who used to work at the Mauna Kea observatories as a telescope systems specialist, says the movement has been especially "huge" for young people."Some of the elders, they lived through the time it was prohibited to speak the language," she says. Now younger Hawaiians grow up speaking it in school and with strong cultural affiliations. Hawaiian youth who are camping out are helping to organize donations, teaching some of the courses at the community-led school, and spreading the word on social media."In our philosophy, the land and the people are one," said Pisciotta, about Aloha ʻĀina. "So it was a rallying point for the renaissance and now this is a kind of new renaissance."
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