| House Democrats face question: Impeach Pence, or make him president? Posted: 31 Oct 2019 02:00 AM PDT  If the House approves impeachment, and if the Senate votes to remove Trump, Pence would become president. Would he make a better president?
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| China pushes higher 'moral quality' for its citizens Posted: 30 Oct 2019 04:16 AM PDT  From budgeting for rural weddings to dressing appropriately and avoiding online porn, China's Communist Party has issued new guidelines to improve the "moral quality" of its citizens. Officials have released several sets of guidelines this week alongside a secretive conclave of high-ranking officials in Beijing which discusses the country's future direction. Public institutions like libraries and youth centres must carry out "targeted moral education" to improve people's ideological awareness and moral standards, according to the rules.
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| Chicago teachers strike continues into 11th day over one last demand: Make up strike days Posted: 31 Oct 2019 04:47 AM PDT  The Chicago Teachers Union voted to accept a tentative agreement with Mayor Lori Lightfoot. But the mayor says she won't pay teachers for striking.
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| G.M. Union Members Return to Work, but Worries Are Far From Over Posted: 31 Oct 2019 03:48 AM PDT  GM autoworkers returned to work with a new contract after their longest nationwide strike in nearly 50 years. Here's where they stand now.
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| Denmark Snubs Trump With Approval of Russian Gas Pipe to Europe Posted: 30 Oct 2019 11:14 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- In a major boost for Russia's effort to tighten its grip over natural gas supplies to western Europe, Denmark said it will allow the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline to pass through its territory.The decision removes the last important hurdle for the $11 billion project, which is slated for commissioning by the end of this year and bolster gas flows from Siberia into Germany. The link has drawn the threat of sanctions from the U.S., which wants Europe to buy its liquefied natural gas. It risks reigniting a feud between Donald Trump and Danish lawmakers that erupted in the summer after the U.S. president's offer to buy Greenland.Russian President Vladimir Putin welcomed the pipeline decision. "Denmark showed itself to be a responsible participant in international relations, defending its interests and sovereignty and the interests of its main partners in Europe," he told a briefing in Budapest, where he was on a visit.The green light gives Gazprom PJSC, Russia's gas export champion and already Europe's biggest supplier, yet another route to one of the world's most liquid gas markets. While Trump has accused Russia of using its natural gas as a political weapon, it's ultimately a commercial deal over which Washington has little influence, according to Raffaello Pantucci, Director of Security Studies at the Royal United Services Institute in London."It's frankly too far advanced," Pantucci said. "Who are they going to sanction?"The approval also gives Russia more clout in ongoing talks with Ukraine on a new gas transit deal, increasing the risk of a disruption from Jan. 1. Uncertainty about whether those two nations can agree on time has been weighing on forward prices in Europe and sending incentives for traders to stockpile gas as a cushion against disruption."If Gazprom are confident in Nord Stream 2's imminent completion, it may encourage a tougher negotiating stance on any new Ukrainian transit deal," said John Twomey, a gas analyst at BloombergNEF in London. "If anything, the risks of a disruption on Jan. 1 have gone up as a result of this."The pipeline has divided EU governments, with nations led by Poland concerned about the bloc's increasing dependence on Russian gas."It is not too late to stop NS2," an official at the U.S. embassy in Germany said. "There are clear negative energy security and geopolitical implications for Europe from Putin's pipeline. The U.S. government agrees with the European Parliament, the U.S. House and nearly 20 European countries in our opposition to NS2."Russia, Ukraine, Europe Pledge New Gas Deal by Year-EndDenmark said on Wednesday it will allow the pipeline to pass southeast of the island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea. The company behind the pipeline submitted the route plan in April. Denmark had been conducting a security and environmental review of the project.Trump had objected to the link, instead urging the European Union to diversify the sources of its energy and dilute Putin's economic influence over the region. U.S. officials have also warned that project partners are at an elevated risk of U.S. sanctions.The approval is another snub of Trump by the Nordic country after it ruled out his proposal to buy Greenland this summer. The president responded by canceling a state visit to Denmark.The Danish approval covers 147 kilometers (91 miles) of the project. Nord Stream 2 said in its statement that it has already completed 87%, or 2,100 kilometers, of the pipeline in Russian, Finnish and Swedish waters as well as most of the German part. Dan Jorgensen, Denmark's minister for climate, energy and utilities, declined to comment on Wednesday.Nord Stream 2 said it will continue its "constructive cooperation with the Danish authorities to complete the pipeline."Six WeeksGazprom CEO Alexey Miller said that the pipeline is expected to be completed on time by the end of the year. "The remaining 147 kilometers -- that's five weeks of work," Miller told reporters in Budapest.A statement from the company highlighted some uncertainties in that timetable. Nord Stream 2 said Wednesday the actual start of the construction depends on a number of legal, technical and environmental factors, which will "take a few weeks" and the project aims for completion "in the coming months."Gazprom can't use the permit for the next four weeks when all involved parties have leeway to make a complaint under Danish law. Those issues left analysts anticipating some delay beyond Jan. 1 for the completion of the link."It's unlikely that Nord Stream 2 is online in time for Jan. 1, so Ukrainian transit disruption risks remains," said Twomey.While Gazprom owns the pipeline, half the financing of the 8 billion-euro capital cost comes from five European companies: Uniper SE and Wintershall of Germany, OMV AG of Austria, Engie SA of France and Royal Dutch Shell Plc.Dutch gas for the first quarter declined to the lowest since at least 2017 as the region is oversupplied with the fuel, storage sites across Europe are full, and LNG imports surge.(Updates with Putin comment in third paragraph.)\--With assistance from Dina Khrennikova, Vanessa Dezem and Ilya Arkhipov.To contact the reporters on this story: Morten Buttler in Copenhagen at mbuttler@bloomberg.net;William Wilkes in Frankfurt at wwilkes1@bloomberg.net;Anna Shiryaevskaya in London at ashiryaevska@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Christian Wienberg at cwienberg@bloomberg.net, ;Tasneem Hanfi Brögger at tbrogger@bloomberg.net, ;Nick Rigillo at nrigillo@bloomberg.net, Gregory L. White, Reed LandbergFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Exclusive: How Lebanon's Hariri defied Hezbollah Posted: 30 Oct 2019 12:34 PM PDT  After hitting a dead end in efforts to defuse the crisis sweeping Lebanon, Saad al-Hariri informed a top Hezbollah official on Monday he had no choice but to quit as prime minister in defiance of the powerful Shi'ite group. The decision by the Sunni leader shocked Hussein al-Khalil, political advisor to Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, who advised him against giving in to protesters who wanted to see his coalition government toppled. The meeting described to Reuters by four senior sources from outside Hariri's Future Party captures a critical moment in the crisis that has swept Lebanon for the last two weeks as Hariri yielded to the massive street protests against the ruling elite.
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| Elizabeth Warren’s Untenable Plans Posted: 30 Oct 2019 07:05 AM PDT  If you've been having trouble finding someone to walk your dog, don't worry. Any day now, Elizabeth Warren will announce "a plan for that." It will undoubtedly be comprehensive, detailed, and replete with subsidies for lower- and middle-class dog walkers and underserved breeds. It will cost tens of billions of dollars and will receive widespread positive notice from the media. However, to judge by her other recent plans, the one thing it won't include is any discussion of how she plans to pay for it.The Massachusetts senator has challenged and possibly overtaken former vice president Joe Biden as the front-runner for the Democratic nomination, largely based on having a plan for the government to tackle every problem facing this country, no matter how big or how small, from issues with military housing to Puerto Rican debt to climate change.The price tag for this massive expansion of government is enormous. Much of the attention in recent weeks has been focused on Warren's embrace of Medicare for All, which she refuses to admit would require an increase in middle-class taxes. Even Vermont senator Bernie Sanders has conceded that such proposals, which would cost $30–40 trillion over 10 years, cannot be financed without tax hikes. Warren's refusal to address this obvious fact makes her look less like a would-be policy wonk and more like a typical politician.But even setting aside Medicare for All, Warren's plans are likely to dump oceans of red ink onto our growing national debt. Her non-health-care spending proposals already total some $7.5 trillion per year over the next 10 years. Although these are not quite Bernie levels of government largesse, her proposals would still require nearly double our current levels of spending.To pay for all this, Warren proposes a variety of tax hikes, mostly designed to hit corporations or high-earners: higher payroll taxes for those earning more than $250,000 per year; a 7 percent profits tax on companies earning more than $100 million; a 60 percent lobbying tax on firms that spend a million or more on lobbying, and so forth. But the biggest chunk of money would come from Warren's proposed "wealth tax," a 2 to 3 percent levy on net worth above $50 million. Warren estimates that this wealth tax will pull in more than $2.75 trillion over ten years. It won't.First, there is the slight problem that a wealth tax is probably unconstitutional. Of course, constitutional constraints are quaint notions in the Age of Trump. Regardless, it is worth noting that the Constitution permits the federal government to impose only "direct taxes," such as a property tax. That's why it required a constitutional amendment to enact the federal income tax. Many constitutional scholars warn that a wealth tax is neither a direct tax nor income tax.Even if Warren can find a way around the constitutional guardrails -- perhaps by something such as a retrospective wealth tax in which you wait until a taxpayer sells assets or passes away -- a wealth tax is unlikely to raise anywhere near the amount of money she predicts.Simply look at Europe's experiments with wealth taxes. At one time, a dozen European countries imposed wealth taxes. Today, all but three have abandoned those levies. Among those repealing their wealth tax are the Scandinavian social democracies that Warren admires, Denmark, Finland, and Sweden. Norway retains a wealth tax but has significantly reduced it in recent years. Additional countries abandoning the tax include Austria, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. Other countries, such as Great Britain, have considered wealth taxes and rejected them.They did so because wealth taxes are administratively complex and difficult to enforce. Also, they significantly reduce investment, entrepreneurship, and, ultimately, economic growth. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, European wealth taxes raised, on average, only about 0.2 percent of GDP in revenues. By comparison, the U.S. federal income tax raises 8 percent of GDP.Two groups, however, would benefit substantially from a wealth tax. The tax would be a full-employment opportunity for the tax-preparation industry and for lawyers. After all, we would now have to determine fair market value for everything from homes and vehicles to artwork and jewelry to family pension rights and intellectual property. The other big winner would be lobbyists, who could be expected to descend on Washington en masse seeking exemptions and exceptions for their clients. If you think the tax code is a mess today, just wait until D.C. is done with Warren's plan.There is an old Yiddish proverb that goes "Mann tracht, un Gott Lacht," or "Man plans, and God laughs." It is all well and good that Senator Warren has a plan for everything. But until she actually figures out how to pay for everything without crippling our economy, such plans really don't add up.
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| Tulsi Gabbard says she wants to defeat the 'Bush-Clinton doctrine' on foreign policy Posted: 30 Oct 2019 02:38 PM PDT  "Those who follow the Bush-Clinton doctrine believe the only way to interact with other nations is by bombing them or starving them with draconian sanctions," Gabbard wrote.
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| London's Gatwick airport is testing out new technology to board passengers by individual seat, which could be faster and avoid long lines Posted: 30 Oct 2019 03:41 AM PDT  The major UK airport is running a two-month trial on some EasyJet flights. It uses screens to call single seat numbers, for maximum efficiency.
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| 2 women have been criminally charged over their partners' suicides. Why do men escape the same blame? Posted: 30 Oct 2019 12:46 PM PDT  Experts told Insider they could not recall a similar instance of a man being charged with manslaughter in connection with his partner's suicide.
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| Trump impeachment: Official says she was repeatedly urged to oust Ukraine ambassador by Republican lobbyist Posted: 30 Oct 2019 10:42 AM PDT  A US government official has reportedly told politicians leading the impeachment hearings against Donald Trump that she was urged by a Republican-linked lobbyist to remove the US ambassador to Ukraine from her post, as the president's allies launched a smear campaign against her.Catherine Croft, a Ukraine expert who worked at the US State Department, said she was repeatedly contacted by lobbyist Robert Livingston about ousting Marie Yovanovitch, according to prepared remarks obtained by NPR.
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| Special Report: In a working-class Hong Kong neighborhood, the protests hit home Posted: 30 Oct 2019 05:05 AM PDT  From the top of Lion Rock, all of Hong Kong reveals itself: the sprawl of the Kowloon Peninsula directly below, the iconic Star Ferry plying the waters of Victoria Harbor, the moneyed heights of Hong Kong island beyond. In the shadow of the revered mountain rise huge monoliths, drab concrete tower blocks far removed from the glittering glass highrises of Hong Kong island's steroidal skyline. Here, in a neighborhood of public housing estates called Wong Tai Sin, seemingly endless stacks of aging windows heave with drying laundry and hum with air conditioners sweating droplets onto the pavement below.
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| Georgia Supreme Court temporarily halts man's execution Posted: 30 Oct 2019 01:29 PM PDT  With about eight hours to spare before a man convicted of killing a convenience store clerk was to be put to death Wednesday, Georgia's highest court stepped in and temporarily halted the execution. Ray Jefferson Cromartie, 52, was to receive a lethal injection at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the state prison in Jackson. Cromartie was convicted of malice murder and sentenced to death for the April 1994 killing of 50-year-old Richard Slysz in Thomasville, just inside Georgia's southern border.
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| Tucker Carlson and Guest Blame Diversity and ‘Woke’ Culture for California Fires Posted: 30 Oct 2019 04:17 AM PDT  Fox NewsFox News host Tucker Carlson and his guest, conservative YouTube personality Dave Rubin, both insisted Tuesday night that the wildfires burning across California are due largely to progressive ideology, "woke" culture, and diversity in hiring.During Tuesday's broadcast of Tucker Carlson Tonight, Carlson welcomed on Rubin, a political commentator and podcaster, to discuss the issues surrounding the large fires engulfing the state, including those related to the electrical grid and firefighting methods."PG&E; strikes me as almost a metaphor for the destruction of the state," Carlson said about the state's power company. "Here's the utility which doesn't really know anything about its own infrastructure but knows everything about the race of its employees. How did we get there?"After noting that he lives near one of the fires in the Los Angeles area, Rubin immediately took aim at liberal politics as the main reason the wildfires have grown so large and dangerous."The problem right now is that everything, EVERYTHING, from academia to public utilities to politics, everything that goes woke, that buys into this ridiculous progressive ideology that cares about what contractors are LGBT or how many black firemen we have or white this or Asian that, everything that goes that road eventually breaks down," he declared.As Carlson nodded and said "that's true," Rubin continued, complaining that this isn't how "freedom is supposed to operate.""What is supposed to happen—imagine if your house was on fire," he added. "Would you care what the public utility or what the fire company, what contractor they brought in, what gender or sexuality or any of those things he or she was? It's just absolutely ridiculous."The Fox News host continued to agree with Rubin, who went on to tie PG&E;'s preemptive blackouts to a lack of "libertarian or conservative-minded people in California to fight what the progressives are doing to the state.""If you can't keep the lights on and you can't keep the place from burning down, you've reached the point where there is no kind of lying about it anymore," Carlson concluded. "It's falling apart. It's a disaster. It's not civilized anymore."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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| Michelle Obama says white Americans 'still running' from black neighbors Posted: 30 Oct 2019 07:12 AM PDT  Former first lady reflects on her experience of white flight in Chicago and says 'when we moved in, white families moved out'Michelle Obama said: 'I want to remind white folks that y'all were running from us. And you're still running.' Photograph: Scott Olson/Getty ImagesMichelle Obama has said that white Americans are "still running" from their non-white fellow citizens during a summit in which she detailed how her own experience of white flight unfolded during her upbringing on Chicago's South Side."We were doing everything we were supposed to do – and better," the former first lady told attendees at the third annual Obama Foundation Summit, reported the Chicago Sun-Times as she talked about her childhood. "But when we moved in, white families moved out.""I want to remind white folks that y'all were running from us. And you're still running," she also said, reportedly making a comparison between white flight and what immigrant families experience when they settle in US neighborhoods.At the meeting, Michelle Obama reportedly touted the benefits of building the Obama Presidential Center on 19.3 acres in historic Jackson Park on Chicago's South Side. She said the project would feature a museum, library, gym, and forum."Barack and I wouldn't bring some crap up in our neighborhood," she reportedly said. She pointed out that she hails from the area by birth and that her husband Barack comes from South Side by choice.During his speech at the forum, Barack Obama said: "We joke about it a little bit, like this is the mothership."While they hope the center could anchor a potential economic revival in the area, there have been setbacks.Opponents of the project are pursuing a federal court appeal after losing a lawsuit. Federal authorities must also review the project, as Jackson Park is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In December, this review will have already spanned two years. It remains unclear when the review will end, according to the newspaper.
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| Why the Tories are cruising toward a big win in Britain Posted: 31 Oct 2019 02:50 AM PDT ![Why the Tories are cruising toward a big win in Britain]( "Why the Tories are cruising toward a big win in Britain") The polling is clear. Over the more than three years since they voted to leave the European Union, British voters have come to regret their choice. Polls consistently show a several-point margin in favor of Remain, only one in three voters will endorse the proposition that getting Brexit over with is better than further delay, and two thirds believe that a no-deal Brexit should require another referendum.So why are Boris Johnson's Tories, running on a clearer stance for Brexit than ever before, currently projected to win a decisive victory in the December election?The simplest answer is: the opposition is divided. But that answer obscures more than it reveals, because it presumes that the question of Brexit is as dominant among the opposition as it is among the Tories. And the division of the opposition itself proves that this is not the case. On the contrary: Brexit is a truly existential question for a far larger fraction of Leave voters than it is of Remain voters, and that has had and continues to have material electoral consequences.Consider the largest opposition party. Labour under Jeremy Corbin has trended in an overwhelmingly left-wing direction, not only on economic matters but also on immigration and foreign policy. A "no enemies on the left" approach has even seen extremist illiberal and anti-Semitic elements gain a greater foothold within the party. But on Brexit, Corbyn has taken a somewhat ambiguous stance, reflecting the fact that while a majority of Labourites voted Remain, a not insignificant number had always been skeptical of an economic arrangement that gave financial interests greater influence at both the national and European levels of government.That combination of stridency and straddle hasn't played well in electoral terms, and has opened space for two other parties to establish themselves as alternatives: the Liberal Democrats, a longstanding centrist liberal party that has positioned itself as the unequivocal party of Remain, and the Brexit Party, a newly-minted political faction founded by Nigel Farage, the former leader of the U.K. Independence Party. At one point this past summer, both parties looked capable of surpassing the Tories, and possibly Labour as well.Since Boris Johnson took the premiership, though, the picture has changed dramatically. The Brexit party has fallen back to 10-12 percent in the polls, while the Tories have surged to the mid-to-high 30s. Moreover, Farage has intimated that he might cooperate with the Tories strategically, targeting constituencies where left-wing Leave voters are concentrated to pull them away from Labour, while staying away from seats that would be contested between the Remain-oriented Liberal Democrats and the Leave-oriented Tories.How could such a strategy work if Brexit is only getting less-popular with time? The answer comes down to intensity and cohesion.If Tory Remain voters -- of which there were many -- cared more about stopping Brexit than they did about the fate of their party, they would defect to the Liberal Democrats, badly damaging the Tories' chances of winning a majority. Similarly, if Labour Remain voters felt that Brexit was the most important issue, they would either have pushed Corbyn to a more decisive Remain stance, or would be working strategically with the Liberal Democrats in the way that the Brexit Party may work with the Tories. And the Liberal Democrats would be doing the same.But while Brexit may be a politically-defining event for the liberal center, for the left this is their first chance at power since the 1970s -- not something to be traded away lightly for the sake of free trade with Germany or even stability in Ireland. Even for liberal centrists, the choice between Corbyn and Johnson may be a tough one. For the right, meanwhile, the party as a whole seems to have come to realize that while the hard Leave voters are a minority in the country, they hold the balance of power within the Tory coalition. If they are not given the wheel, the coach isn't going anywhere.Now they have the wheel, and a Leave coalition looks likely to triumph decisively, in spite of all regrets.What happens then? The opposition could continue to come up with explanations for why the result doesn't truly reflect the will of the people -- blaming the electoral system, for instance (though in current polling the Tory-plus-Brexit coalition outpolls Labour-plus-Lib-Dems by an average of five points, suggesting even proportional representation would give victory to the Brexiteers). But they would be wiser to focus on the future. No longer dependent on the votes of Irish Unionists, nor needing to cater to the concerns of the Scottish Nationalists, a big Tory majority could govern from the center of England rather than Britain.The biggest post-Brexit challenge may not be how to get Britain back into Europe, but how to hold Britain itself together.Want more essential commentary and analysis like this delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for The Week's "Today's best articles" newsletter here.
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| Chris Christie Among Lawyers Making $15 Million in 1MDB Pact Posted: 31 Oct 2019 09:10 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- The biggest recovery ever from an American anti-corruption crackdown is proving lucrative for former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.A major deal struck by the U.S. for fugitive financier Jho Low to give up almost $1 billion in assets allegedly stolen from a Malaysian investment fund comes with a provision to pay his lawyers. As part of the 1MDB settlement, the Justice Department allowed for $15 million to be paid to a group advising Jho Low, including the law firm Christie set up after two terms as New Jersey's governor.Those proceeds will come from Jho Low's stake in EMI Music Publishing, which has grown to about $415 million. That investment ballooned after he initially put in a little more than $100 million stolen from 1MDB, according to prosecutors. The two sides agreed to the provision to allow the lawyers to extract fees from Low, whose assets and accounts have been seized or monitored by authorities across the world."We were pleased to help negotiate this historic resolution in order to preserve the tremendous value of assets involved," Christie said in a statement after the Justice Department announced the settlement agreement on Wednesday. It still needs approval from a federal judge.Christie, who ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016 before dropping out and endorsing Donald Trump, set up his own law firm last year, the Christie Law Firm LLC. The other firms that will receive proceeds of the 1MDB deal for legal expenses are Kobre & Kim LLP and Lowenstein Sandler LLP.The agreement comes even before the criminal charges against Low have been resolved. In the settlement, the Justice Department cautioned that the released funds should be used only for the Low family's legal fees and costs related to the lawsuits, and can't be routed back to Low or his family.The cases were resolved in a "collaborative and fair way that includes payment of our legal fees," said Robin Rathmell, a lawyer at Kobre & Kim.(Updates with lawyer's comment in last paragraph.)To contact the reporter on this story: Sridhar Natarajan in New York at snatarajan15@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Michael J. Moore at mmoore55@bloomberg.net, Daniel Taub, David S. JoachimFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Play To Win A Dodge Challenger Hellcat Redeye With Horsepower Challenge Posted: 31 Oct 2019 08:29 AM PDT  Take your shot to win one potent Mopar.The Dodge Horsepower Challenge: 5 Weeks. 5 Questions. 5 Challengers. As a thank you to Dodge customers and enthusiasts for reaching the 500 million horsepower goal early, the automaker has launched Brotherhood of Muscle With Horsepower Challenge. The first challenge starts on November 5th and ending on November 11th, and five new owners will compete to take home a special-edition TorRed Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye.Every Tuesday, Dodge.com will post a horsepower-inspired question in multiple choice form. The first weekly "Dodge Horsepower Challenge" will be announced by professional wrestler Bill Goldberg for challengers to win one sweet Challenger. Each Tuesday, Goldberg will announce the question starting at 8 a.m. ET, and the question will remain through Monday until 11:59 p.m. The answer to the week's question can be found on Dodge.com (following Tuesday) a week after its release at 8 a.m.The challenge offers one clue per day, and this comes in the form of hidden hashtags within an image. The clues will be posted in Dodge's Twitter and Instagram social channels to help with the week's question. You must answer one of the weekly multiple choice questions correctly to be eligible to win the Challenger."At Dodge, we know that no matter how much horsepower you have, a little more can't hurt. So we're giving all our loyal fans an opportunity to get one of our highest horsepower Challenger models for free," said Tim Kuniskis, Global Head of Alfa Romeo and Head of Passenger Cars – Dodge, SRT, Chrysler and FIAT, FCA – North America. "Unfortunately, there isn't really any such thing as free horsepower, so these five lucky Dodge fans will have to earn their way in by answering a horsepower question. Ok, the questions are ridiculously difficult, but it is a free Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye, and we'll help you along the way." For official rules, visit Dodge.com.Source: FCA North America Read More... * It's Haunting How Much This 275K 2010 Callway Corvette Is Listed For * eBay Find: Jet Powered Batmobile Is A Treat, Not A Trick
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| U.S. Navy Beware! Russian Submarines Surge Into the Atlantic Posted: 31 Oct 2019 12:24 AM PDT  The Russian navy in mid-October 2019 sortied eight submarines in the country's biggest undersea exercise since the Cold War.
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| Death sentence confirmed against four men in Morocco backpacker murders Posted: 31 Oct 2019 03:25 AM PDT ![Death sentence confirmed against four men in Morocco backpacker murders]( "Death sentence confirmed against four men in Morocco backpacker murders") A Moroccan appeals court upheld, late on Wednesday, death sentences against three Moroccan men for murdering two Scandinavian women in the Atlas mountains last December. A fourth man was also handed capital punishment after he was sentenced to life in prison by an anti-terrorism court on July 18. The other three were handed death sentences at the time.
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| Auburn tree poisoner fails to appear in court for hearing Posted: 30 Oct 2019 01:48 PM PDT  The University of Alabama fan convicted of poisoning Auburn University's oak trees failed to attend a hearing Wednesday on why he hasn't paid court-ordered restitution. The Opelika-Auburn news reports Harvey Updyke, a retired Texas state trooper who lives in Louisiana, didn't show up for a hearing before Lee County Circuit Judge Jacob Walker. The judge also gave prosecutors a month to review a letter from Updyke's doctor saying the 71-year-old man wasn't well enough to travel to Opelika for court.
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| Putin faces Syria money crunch after U.S. keeps control of oil fields Posted: 30 Oct 2019 11:16 AM PDT  Russian President Vladimir Putin is facing an unwelcome new financial challenge in Syria after the U.S. pullback enabled his ally Bashar Assad to reclaim the biggest chunk of territory in the country still outside his control.
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| California fires: new blazes as dangerous winds fan the flames Posted: 30 Oct 2019 07:21 PM PDT  Firefighters in California struggled to contain a new fast-moving blaze on Wednesday that threatened thousands of homes and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, as rare "extreme" red flag warnings were issued for much of the Los Angeles region. The so-called Easy Fire in the Simi Valley northwest of Los Angeles erupted around 6:00 am, forcing the evacuation of the library and nearby homes as it spread to more than 1,500 acres (526 hectares), officials said. "The fire outflanked us very rapidly, pushed by those 40 to 50 mile-per-hour winds," Ventura County Fire Assistant Chief Chad Cook told reporters.
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| Harry Dunn: Police interview diplomat’s wife who fled under diplomatic immunity as family demands chief constable quit Posted: 31 Oct 2019 06:08 AM PDT  British police have conducted an interview with the wife of an American diplomat suspected of involvement in a crash that killed Harry Dunn.Northamptonshire Police passed details of their interview with Anne Sacoolas, 42, to the Crown Prosecution Service, it is understood.
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| India Farmers Plan Nationwide Protest Against 16-Nation Trade Deal Posted: 31 Oct 2019 05:50 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Terms of Trade is a daily newsletter that untangles a world embroiled in trade wars. Sign up here. India's farmers' organizations have planned a nationwide protest on Nov. 4 to demand that the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi keep agriculture out of a 16-nation trade agreement currently being negotiated in Thailand.The All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee, an umbrella organization of about 250 farmers unions from across the country, said that they will burn effigies depicting the China-backed Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership or RCEP, to mark their protest and warn the government.Indian farmers won't be able to compete should the country agree to cut duties for agricultural and dairy products in the proposed trade pact, said V.M. Singh, a convener of the the farmers' group. Imports of dairy and agricultural products including wheat, cotton and oil seeds would affect the livelihood of millions of Indian farmers, he said.The government should defer signing of the agreement and hold consultations with farmers, state governments and other stake holders before taking a final decision, said Singh. "We have to stop RCEP," he said.It is not clear yet what terms India will agree to in order to join what could become the world's largest trade deal. The final stage of negotiations have begun in Bangkok and Indian trade minister Piyush Goyal will travel for the ministerial meeting there on Nov. 1. The nations are seeking to conclude the negotiations by November end.To contact the reporter on this story: Bibhudatta Pradhan in New Delhi at bpradhan@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Ruth Pollard at rpollard2@bloomberg.net, Muneeza Naqvi, Abhay SinghFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| NYC Medical Examiner Dismisses Epstein ‘Homicide’ Claim by Dr. Michael Baden Posted: 30 Oct 2019 12:28 PM PDT  Robyn Beck/ReutersNew York City's chief medical examiner pushed back hard Wednesday against a celebrity pathologist-for-hire's conspiracy-stirring claim that Jeffrey Epstein's autopsy was more consistent with homicide than suicide."The original medical investigation was thorough and complete. There is no reason for a second medical investigation by our office," said Dr. Barbara Sampson.Sampson determined Epstein died by suicide from hanging in his jail cell in August, while he was awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.Epstein's lawyers and family have refused to accept her finding, and the disgraced financier's brother hired Dr. Michael Baden—erstwhile host of HBO's Autopsy—to do his own investigation.Jeffrey Epstein's Death Ruled Suicide by Hanging: New York City Medical ExaminerDuring an appearance Wednesday morning on Fox News, where he is a contributor, Baden said his own review isn't complete but nonetheless suggested that suicide isn't the cause of death.He claimed a collection of neck fractures in Epstein's hyoid bone and thyroid cartilage "are extremely unusual in suicidal hangings and could occur much more commonly in homicidal strangulation.""I've not seen in 50 years where that occurred in a suicidal hanging case," Baden said.Although more common in homicidal strangulation cases, some studies have found that hyoid and thyroid fractures are not rare in suicidal hangings.A 2000 study in Australia found fractures in nearly half the 40 suicide cases it examined and said they were even more common in older victims and men; in fact, 15 percent had fractures of both the hyoid and the thyroid. And a 2010 study out of Thailand found such fractures in 25 percent of the confirmed suicides it reviewed.After His Suicide Watch Ended, Jeffrey Epstein Was Left to Look After HimselfBaden, who observed the autopsy performed by Sampson, served briefly as the city's chief medical examiner before being fired in 1979 by then-Mayor Ed Koch in response to a complaint that he told doctors during a guest-speaking event that Gov. Nelson Rockefeller had died during sexual intercourse.Three years later, he was dismissed as chief deputy medical examiner by Suffolk County, New York, over a magazine article about ways to kill that wouldn't show up in an autopsy; he protested that he was misquoted.In the '70s, Baden helped Congress investigate the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.—he concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald and James Earl Ray, respectively, were the killers—but became famous for serving as a private pathologist in high-profile cases like the Aaron Hernandez suicide, the O.J. Simpson murder trial, and the Jayson Williams shooting. He also served as a defense witness in the Phil Spector murder trial, where he reportedly testified that he had no conflict of interest in the case even though his wife was heading Spector's legal team.Baden isn't the only one skeptical about the official account of Epstein's death at the high-security federal lockup in Manhattan, which is currently the subject of a Justice Department probe.Spencer Kuvin, a lawyer representing victims of Epstein, said serious questions remain, including the whereabouts of the guards assigned to monitor him, why the cameras outside his cell apparently didn't work, and why he was taken off suicide watch."It all makes no sense. Until they come out with the evidence, I don't believe anything they're telling us," Kuvin said. "Exactly what happened I can't tell you, but I certainly don't believe the story they're trying to feed everyone."Sigrid McCawley, an attorney at Boies Schiller Flexner, the law firm representing some of Epstein's victims, said the ongoing Justice Department probe "limits what can and should be said at this time.""But as the public has come to to understand the horrifying scope and scale of the international sex trafficking system he operated for decades with impunity, what really matters for the brave survivors who are seeking justice is how he lived, not how he died," she said. "That is how the man should be judged."Kuvin said his clients are "more interested in seeing co-conspirators prosecuted" than in delving into Epstein autopsy theories."The justice system failed. They either allowed him to take his own life or someone got in there and killed him," Kuvin told The Daily Beast. "Either way, it's a failure of the Justice Department… [which] has failed them repeatedly over the last 13 years. This was just one more time."If you or a loved one are struggling with suicidal thoughts, please reach out to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet 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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| Former </>Time Editor Wants Hate-Speech Laws, Thinks Trump ‘Might’ Violate Them, and Misses the Irony Posted: 30 Oct 2019 02:11 PM PDT  A former Time editor claimed that the United States needs a law banning hate speech, and that President Donald Trump "might be in violation of it" if there were one -- because, apparently, he doesn't notice the irony of holding both of these views at once.In a Tuesday tweet promoting his Washington Post piece, titled "Why America needs a hate speech law," Richard Stengel stated:> My @WashingtonPost piece on why the very broadness of the First Amendment suggests we should have a hate speech law. And if we did, why the President might be in violation of it. https://t.co/3ybv3kC69f> > -- Richard Stengel (@stengel) October 29, 2019In the piece, Stengel writes that "many nations have passed laws to curb the incitement of racial and religious hatred" in the wake of World War II:> These laws started out as protections against the kinds of anti-Semitic bigotry that gave rise to the Holocaust. We call them hate speech laws, but there's no agreed-upon definition of what hate speech actually is. In general, hate speech is speech that attacks and insults people on the basis of race, religion, ethnic origin and sexual orientation."I'm all for protecting 'thought that we hate,' but not speech that incites hate," he continues. "It undermines the very values of a fair marketplace of ideas that the First Amendment is designed to protect."It's interesting how Stengel actually does acknowledge the fact that "there's no agreed-upon definition of what hate speech actually is," and yet he still wants laws banning it. This makes absolutely no sense. After all, when he calls for laws to ban "hate speech," he is, inherently, giving the government the power to decide what would and would not qualify -- the exact same government that is led by Donald Trump, and that is full of people who support him.In other words: Stengel somehow trusts that the government will have the same view of "hate speech" as he does, and then, in the same thought, seems to acknowledge that there's actually no way that many of them would. Unless he thinks that the president and his congressional supporters would actually pass a law that they'd be in violation of, his argument for "hate speech" laws winds up being a pretty great argument against them.It's ironic, but it's not new: More often than not, it's the uber-progressives arguing for laws against "hate speech" -- despite the fact that they're often the same people who are also arguing that Donald Trump and Republicans are constantly spewing it. Maybe it's just me, but if I thought that the leader of my government was, you know, literally Hitler or whatever, the last thing that I'd want would be to give that person and their supporters control over my speech.Yes, the First Amendment gives us the right to be "offensive" with our speech. Given the fact that a new thing seems to be declared "racist" or "sexist" every day, I'm certainly glad that we do have this protection. After all, it would only take there being a few too many of the "super woke" in our government for a phrase like "you guys" to become a criminal offense.The truth is, though, the right to be "offensive" (however you define that subjective term, anyway) is not even the most important role that our First Amendment plays. No, what's most important is that it protects our right to speak out against the government when we see fit -- without having to worry about its retaliation. Like it or not, the only way to ensure that we retain this important check on government power is to never (ever) give its leaders a vehicle take it away.
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| CIA-backed Afghan units carry out illegal killings, other abuse - group Posted: 30 Oct 2019 08:30 PM PDT ![CIA-backed Afghan units carry out illegal killings, other abuse - group]( "CIA-backed Afghan units carry out illegal killings, other abuse - group") Afghan security units backed by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) have carried out extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances, indiscriminate air strikes and other rights abuses and should be disbanded, a rights group said on Thursday. Human Rights Watch said it investigated 14 cases in which CIA-backed Afghan counterinsurgency forces committed serious abuses in Afghanistan between late 2017 and mid-2019. "They are illustrative of a larger pattern of serious laws-of-war violations — some amounting to war crimes — that extends to all provinces in Afghanistan where these paramilitary forces operate with impunity," the group said in a report.
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| Islamic State group announces successor to al-Baghdadi Posted: 31 Oct 2019 09:37 AM PDT  The Islamic State group declared a new leader Thursday after it confirmed the death of its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi days earlier in a U.S raid in Syria. In its audio release by the IS central media arm, al-Furqan Foundation, a new spokesman for IS identifies the successor as Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi — tracing his lineage, like al-Baghdadi, to the Prophet Muhammad's Quraysh tribe. The speaker in the audio also confirmed the death of Abu Hassan al-Muhajir, a close aide of al-Baghdadi and a spokesman for the group since 2016.
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| Greta Thunberg declines environmental prize: 'Climate movement does not need any more awards' Posted: 30 Oct 2019 12:06 PM PDT  Greta Thunberg declined an environmental award worth $52,000 from the Nordic Council. She said she wants leaders to listen to science, not prizes.
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| Why are California's wildfires different this year? Posted: 30 Oct 2019 02:40 PM PDT  Destructive wildfires have ripped through California, threatening homes and famous landmarks, and forcing power outages that have plunged millions into darkness. Everything from climate change to corporate negligence has been blamed for the chaos, which has seen hundreds of thousands evacuated, and hundreds of structures destroyed. The 20 worst California wildfires on record all destroyed over 500 structures, or burned 140,000 acres, according to state agency Cal Fire.
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| More than 1,000 homeless people died in Los Angeles county last year Posted: 30 Oct 2019 01:20 PM PDT  The county's public health department has reported 1,047 deaths for last year, a number that has increased steadily since 2013A woman pushes a cart full of her belongings past tents near Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles. Photograph: Frederic J Brown/AFP/Getty ImagesMore than 1,000 homeless people died in Los Angeles county in 2018, double the number of deaths from six years ago. The increase is a stark illustration of the region's severe housing crisis, advocates said.The LA county public health department reported this week that 1,047 homeless people died last year, a number that has steadily increased every year since 2013, when 536 people died. The leading causes of death were coronary heart disease, which accounted for 22% of deaths, followed by alcohol and drug overdose at 21%, transportation-related injuries at 9%, homicides at 6% and suicides at 5%.The data sheds light on a worsening public health emergency in the county, where officials estimate there are now 59,000 people homeless, including more than 44,000 people who are living unsheltered – in cars, tents, or makeshift quarters. The report also follows a string of high-profile attacks against homeless people in the area, including the killing of Darrell Fields, a beloved musician who was burned to death in his tent on Skid Row."We've got three people a day dying on the streets," said Adam Rice, an organizer with Los Angeles Community Action Network (LA Can), a group that had worked closely with Fields. "It is a complete failure of leadership. Darrell didn't need to die. None of these people needed to die. The reason this is happening is because there's not proper housing."Darrell Fields, 62, was a homeless man in Los Angeles known as Mr Guitar. He was killed in August when his tent was set ablaze. Photograph: Los Angeles Community Action NetworkSoaring rents and a major shortage of affordable housing have pushed people out of their homes in the area, with more than half of unsheltered adults in a recent count saying they were experiencing homelessness for the first time. The county estimated that there are now 8,800 homeless families."It brings an overwhelming sadness when you think about precious human beings dying in our streets when it can be avoided," said the Rev Andy Bales, CEO of Union Rescue Mission (URM), which runs a shelter at Skid Row, at the epicenter of the crisis in downtown LA.The county's analysis also found that the mortality rate among homeless people has also jumped: "Put simply, being homeless in LA county is becoming increasingly deadly," the agency wrote.The increase in overdoses represented the largest jump in terms of causes of death, the report found. In addition, the mortality rate among white homeless people has decreased while the rate of deaths for black and Latino residents has increased, the county said. Overall, African Americans are four times more likely to experience homelessness in LA county than other groups.Of the transportation-related deaths, which include vehicle and train collisions, 82% of victims were pedestrians and cyclists.The county and local clinics have increasingly sent healthcare workers to encampments to try to serve people on the streets. More than 21,000 homeless people were also placed in housing last year, an increase from 2017, officials reported early this year.The health department report this week recommended more direct outreach to homeless people, the creation of a "death review team" to study the subject and more traffic safety measures near encampments.Bales predicted that medical visits were not enough to reverse the deadly trends: "What we need most is for everyone to be immediately under a roof and protected from the elements. Until that happens, the death rates will continue to grow … and more and more people will be devastated by homelessness."The crisis demanded a more urgent response, he added: "How much evidence do we need to gather before we decide not to let another human being die on the street?"LA's homeless crisis has recently received national attention, with the Trump administration suggesting it could pursue some kind of law enforcement crackdown, drawing skepticism from some local organizations. Advocates have criticized efforts to further criminalize people living on the streets and have argued that the government needs to put more funding to housing and shelter."It's really a travesty when you think about it. How many deaths could've been prevented?" said Kourtney Milligan, a 29-year-old homeless woman, who has lived on Skid Row. "The resources that they say are out there are so hard to find."
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| KGB Judged ‘Comrade V.V. Putin’ a Disciplined, Conscientious Spy Posted: 31 Oct 2019 03:46 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin was "prompt, disciplined and conscientious" as a spy in the KGB, according to a declassified profile from the Soviet Union's feared security service."Comrade V.V. Putin constantly improves his ideological and political standards," according to the document exhibited at the Central State Archive for Historical-Political Documents of St. Petersburg, the Russian leader's home city. "He's actively engaged in party education work."The profile, which is also on show at a Moscow exhibition of "outstanding figures" of modern Russian history, describes Putin as "morally upstanding" and enjoying "well-deserved authority among colleagues," noting that he won a judo championship in 1978.Putin joined the KGB in 1975 after graduating from the law faculty of Leningrad State University, located in what's now St. Petersburg, and served as a spy for more than 15 years until the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991. Putin asked to become a KGB officer even before he finished school, according to his Kremlin biography, which cites him saying his view of the organization "was based on idealistic stories I heard about intelligence."He served in Dresden in East Germany from 1985 until 1990, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel during a largely undistinguished stint, and was awarded a bronze medal for service to the National People's Army of the German Democratic Republic. He headed the Federal Security Service, the main successor agency of the KGB, in 1998-1999 before President Boris Yeltsin made him prime minister and named Putin as his chosen successor. Putin was elected president in 2000.The KGB's appraisal of Putin, which appears to be from the late 1970s or early 1980s, was absolutely standard and showed that he hadn't stood out or achieved anything in particular, according to Alexei Kondaurov, a former KGB general. "Usually we wrote 'morally upstanding' when there was nothing else to say," he said.Still, there's been "colossal" public interest in the document, shown as part of commemorations of the archive's 90th anniversary, said Olga Bobrova, deputy head of the institution.To contact the reporters on this story: Irina Reznik in Moscow at ireznik@bloomberg.net;Henry Meyer in Moscow at hmeyer4@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Gregory L. White at gwhite64@bloomberg.net, Tony Halpin, Paul AbelskyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| 8 Hero Dogs That We Don't Deserve Posted: 29 Oct 2019 02:51 PM PDT |
| House Democrats are just trying to invalidate the 2016 election of President Donald Trump Posted: 30 Oct 2019 01:48 PM PDT  Speaker Nancy Pelosi is subverting rule of law, write former acting U.S. Attorney General Matt Whitaker and Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry.
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| Searchers look for man seen on YouTube falling on Mount Fuji Posted: 30 Oct 2019 05:23 AM PDT  Japanese police said they found a body on Mount Fuji on Wednesday and are verifying whether it is that of a man who was seen falling down a snow-covered slope while livestreaming his climb up the mountain on YouTube. The video, titled "Let's Go to Snowy Mt. Fuji," shows a man who identifies himself as TEDZU panting. The snow-covered path becomes narrower as he walks along a cliffside fence.
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| Authorities Identify ‘Fly Creek Jane Doe’ Through DNA and Now the Real Questions Start Posted: 31 Oct 2019 06:13 AM PDT  On a chilly February Sunday in 1980, a father and son panning for gold along Fly Creek in Clark County, Washington, kicked up the remains of a human skeleton that appeared to have been buried in a shallow grave. They called the authorities who came to collect the skull and what bones hadn't been dragged away by animals, and were able to use the remains to construct a facial reconstruction that produced a picture of a teenage girl. Detectives were able to deduce that she died from a cause that did not seem natural. Calls for information, searches through missing persons reports, and detective work turned up nothing. No one seemed to miss the teen, dubbed the 'Fly Creek Jane Doe,' and, for the last 40 years, that is as far as the case went–until now.This summer Clark County detectives decided to post a DNA sample from the old remains to the Virginia-based Parabon NanoLabs, a public genealogy database that has had recent success closing old cold cases. The lab found a tie to a distant cousin of a teen named Sandra "Sandy" Renee Morden who said she was last seen in 1977–three years before her skeletal remains were found. Courtesy of Clark County SheriffThe Oregonian then dug up an old birthday announcement that was tied to the case. On April 29, 1977, in the classified section of the paper, a tiny ad appeared that said: "Sandra Renee Morden, Happy 15th Birthday. Love Always—Mom." Such published greetings were a common way to mark a birthday or anniversary in the era before Facebook and other social media. Morden's parents were divorced, according to the DNA-linked cousin, who does not want to be named and who provided Clark County cold-case detective Lindsay Schultz with the only clues the teen's life. Schultz told the Oregonian that Morden was a "latchkey kid" who was mostly "unsupervised." There is no indication that the parents filed a missing persons report, and, as Schultz says, "We didn't have [the National Crime Information Center] at that time." The detective says Morden's parents came from the San Francisco area and settled in Portland. They split up in the early 1970s, and did not communicate with each other. The girl's mother, identified as Kathryn Irene Morden, apparently lost custody and the cousin said Sandy most often stayed with her father, identified as Andrew Bain Morden, a Marine Corps veteran who fought in the Korean War. Schultz says she likely fell through the cracks when one parent thought the other had her. She last attended Wilson High School in Portland. Schultz told the Oregonian that the father likely thought she was with her mother. He had left her alone for an extended period of time and when he came back, she was gone, so he assumed she had gone to her mother's home. "We don't know for certain," Schultz says. "We know that's what family members believe."Both parents are dead, so there is no way to confirm what either of them knew. Schultz told the Oregonian that it is the birthday greeting that bothers him most. It was posted around the time the extended family says she disappeared. "Was it just a mom who loved her daughter–or did her mom know something and put it out there for that reason?" Schultz said. "It's one of those two, right? You ponder it. You look at it and you think, 'What does it mean?'"Now detectives are looking for the missing puzzle pieces. They are calling on anyone who might have any information about Morden, her parents, or how she might have died to contact the Clark County Medical Examiner's Office or Clark County Sheriff's Office Cold Case Tip Line.Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet 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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| Sen. Kamala Harris to slash staff, restructure campaign as she hemorrhages cash Posted: 30 Oct 2019 02:39 PM PDT  Kamala Harris is dramatically restructuring her campaign by redeploying staffers to Iowa and laying off dozens of aides at her Baltimore headquarters, according to campaign sources and a memo obtained by Politico Wednesday, as she struggles to resuscitate her beleaguered presidential bid.
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