| 'Trey is a joke among us': Gowdy is a divisive addition to Trump's legal team Posted: 10 Oct 2019 11:08 AM PDT  The president's decision to bulk up his legal team with former Rep. Trey Gowdy amid a widening impeachment inquiry is drawing criticism from one of his high-profile supporters.
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| PHOTOS: California wildfires threaten homes in Los Angeles Posted: 11 Oct 2019 06:28 AM PDT  The Saddleridge fire flares up near a firefighter in Sylmar, Calif., Thursday, Oct. 10, 2019. (Photo: Michael Owen Baker/AP) A wildfire fueled by Santa Ana winds has closed two freeways, is threatening homes and has forced evacuations around Los Angeles. Fire officials say the Saddleridge fire had consumed more than 4,600 acres by Friday morning. It broke out after 9 p.m.
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| Trump lashes out at Fox News over impeachment poll numbers: 'Whoever their Pollster is, they suck' Posted: 10 Oct 2019 08:23 AM PDT  President Trump took to Twitter on Thursday to vent his frustration over a new Fox News poll that found a majority of Americans want to see him impeached and removed from office.
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| El Paso mass murder suspect pleads not guilty, accused of targeting Mexicans Posted: 10 Oct 2019 03:17 AM PDT  The Texas man accused of deliberately targeting Mexicans in a shooting spree that killed 22 people at an El Paso Walmart store pleaded not guilty on Thursday in his first court appearance. Patrick Crusius, 21, was indicted last month for capital murder and will face the death penalty if he is convicted, the El Paso County District Attorney Jaime Esparza said. Crusius strolled into the courtroom trailing his two lawyers.
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| Sasse Condemns Beto O’Rourke’s ‘Bigoted’ Call to Strip Churches of Tax Exempt Status Posted: 11 Oct 2019 08:57 AM PDT  Senator Ben Sasse (R., Neb.) released a statement Friday condemning Beto O'Rourke for "extreme intolerance" after O'Rourke advocated revoking tax-exempt status from churches that refuse to perform same-sex marriages."This bigoted nonsense would target a lot of sincere Christians, Jews, and Muslims," wrote Sasse. "Leaders from both parties have a duty to flatly condemn this attack on very basic American freedoms.""This extreme intolerance is un-American," Sasse went on. "The whole point of the First Amendment is that…everyone is created with dignity and we don't use government power to decide which religious beliefs are legitimate and which aren't."O'Rourke touted his LGBT rights platform at a CNN town hall event on Thursday, telling the crowd he supported removing tax-exempt status from churches, religious schools, and charities if they are against same-sex marriages."There can be no reward, no benefit, no tax break for anyone … that denies the full human rights and the full civil rights of every single one of us," O'Rourke told the audience.O'Rourke previously drew condemnation from conservatives after pledging at the third Democratic primary debate to confiscate semi-automatic rifles from their legal owners. O'Rourke is currently polling nationally at just below two percent of the Democratic vote.Meanwhile on Thursday, Senator Elizabeth Warren released her own LGBT rights platform in which she promises to provide government funding for gender transition surgeries for inmates. In addition, she pledged to incarcerate transgender inmates with prisoners of the opposite biological sex, meaning that a transgender man would be placed in a women's prison.
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| South Korea Is Working on a Stealth Fighter Posted: 10 Oct 2019 03:43 AM PDT  Be skeptical. The world's biggest economies barely can support the development and acquisition of a true radar-evading fighter. South Korea is unlikely to join that exclusive club.
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| Evidence from ex-Dallas police officer's murder trial fuels mistrust Posted: 10 Oct 2019 02:18 PM PDT  Evidence from the trial of a former Dallas police officer convicted of killing her neighbor has fueled new questions about whether accused officers are treated differently than other suspects, including testimony that a camera in the cruiser where the officer sat after the shooting was flipped off and that her sexual text messages with her partner were deleted.
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| The Latest: Second death confirmed in California wildfires Posted: 11 Oct 2019 10:32 AM PDT  Another death has been confirmed at the scene of wildfires in Southern California. Cal Fire spokeswoman Cathey Mattingly says a person was killed in a fire that swept through a mobile home park Thursday in Riverside County east of Los Angeles. In Los Angeles, a man went into cardiac arrest and died at the scene of a raging wildfire that broke out late Thursday.
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| Three dead in China bridge collapse Posted: 10 Oct 2019 08:12 PM PDT  Three people were killed and two injured in eastern China when a highway overpass collapsed and crushed cars below it, local officials said Friday. Videos posted online showed a large section of the bridge in Jiangsu province swaying before falling on top of moving vehicles on Thursday night. Other images showed crushed cars, with only their front sections or headlights visible under a huge block of grey concrete.
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| Southwest Airlines flight diverted after intoxicated passenger assaults other travelers, police say Posted: 10 Oct 2019 06:40 AM PDT  The Southwest Airlines flight from Dallas was headed to Los Angeles International Airport when it had to make an unplanned stop in Tucson, Arizona.
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| The obscure law that explains why Google backs climate deniers Posted: 10 Oct 2019 11:00 PM PDT  Company wants to curry favour with conservatives to protect its 'section 230' legal immunity * Revealed: Google made large contributions to climate change deniersEric Schmidt being interviewing on Bloomberg in 2014. Photograph: Bloomberg via Getty ImagesWhen Eric Schmidt was asked on a radio show in 2014 why Google was supporting an ultra-conservative climate-denying pressure group in Washington, the then chairman of the internet giant offered an unequivocal response: it was wrong and Google was not going to do it again."The consensus within the company was that that was some sort of mistake and so we're trying to not do that in the future," Schmidt told NPR. People who opposed or questioned climate science were making the world "a much worse place", he added, and Google "should not be aligned with such people".But five years later, Google still funds more than a dozen organisations that deny the climate crisis and oppose political action to try to solve it. Among them is the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), the group that launched the notorious Cooler Heads Coalition two decades ago, a group of conservative and libertarian pressure groups dedicated to dispelling the "myths" of global heating.The Guardian has collaborated with leading scientists and NGOs to expose, with exclusive data, investigations and analysis, the fossil fuel companies that are perpetuating the climate crisis – some of which have accelerated their extraction of coal, oil and gas even as the devastating impact on the planet and humanity was becoming clear. The investigation has involved more than 20 Guardian journalists working across the world for the past six months.The project focuses on what the companies have extracted from the ground, and the subsequent emissions they are responsible for, since 1965. The analysis, undertaken by Richard Heede at the Climate Accountability Institute, calculates how much carbon is emitted throughout the supply chain, from extraction to use by consumers. Heede said: "The fact that consumers combust the fuels to carbon dioxide, water, heat and pollutants does not absolve the fossil fuel companies from responsibility for knowingly perpetuating the carbon era and accelerating the climate crisis toward the existential threat it has now become."One aim of the project is to move the focus of debate from individual responsibilities to power structures – so our reporters also examined the financial and lobbying structures that let fossil fuel firms keep growing, and discovered which elected politicians were voting for change. Another aim of the project is to press governments and corporations to close the gap between ambitious long-term promises and lacklustre short-term action. The UN says the coming decade is crucial if the world is to avoid the most catastrophic consequences of global heating. Reining in our dependence on fossil fuels and dramatically accelerating the transition to renewable energy has never been more urgent.For Google, providing financial backing to groups such as CEI and the Cato Institute – staunch free marketeers – has nothing to do with climate science, and everything to do with its effort to curry favour with conservatives on its most pressing issue in Washington: protecting an obscure section of the US law that is worth billions of dollars to the company.The law – known as section 230 of the Communications Decency Act – was established in the 1990s, at a time when the internet was in its infancy, and helped to give rise to internet giants, from Google to Facebook, by offering legal immunity to the companies for third party comments, in effect treating them as distributors of content and not publishers.Section 230, in effect, allowed Google and Facebook to be shielded from the kinds of libel laws that can ensnare other companies, such as newspapers.The law has important advocates across the political spectrum, from Democrats who hail it as a triumph of free speech, to Republicans who say it has promoted free enterprise and innovation.But now some lawmakers, including Republicans, think it might be time to revise section 230. The senator Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, has said Google's alleged bias in favour of Democrats means it is not a neutral platform and should not be protected from liability.Google's decision to give to groups such as CEI reflects an attempt to win friends in Republican and conservative circles, and support those lawmakers on the right who are champions of section 230."I think the future of conservatism is up for grabs in the Trump era," said one person who is familiar with the company's thinking on political giving. "We are in a moment where Google has been injected in a lot of culture wars … and there is a lot of hostility in conservative circles."There is little doubt that Google has a loyal friend in CEI. In a recent letter to members of Congress, CEI and other conservative groups called for the protection of section 230, saying it had created "new venues for conservative speech", and that lawmakers who wanted to upend it were "well-meaning but mistaken".CEI has also defended Google in other realms. In a recent op-ed published in the Atlantic, a CEI senior fellow named Mario Loyola argued that the launch of a recent antitrust investigation into Google by 48 state attorneys general, led by the Texas attorney general Ken Paxton – a strong supporter of Ted Cruz – would not do anything to help the public.A CEI spokesperson, who declined to comment on questions about Google, told the Guardian: "CEI is a nonprofit organisation that advocates free-market solutions to public policy issues. CEI's research programmes and positions are developed independently by policy experts and reflect a longstanding, steadfast dedication to principles of economic liberty and limited government."When Google was asked about its support for CEI and groups like it, a company spokesperson said: "We sponsor organisations from across the political spectrum that advocate for strong technology policies. We've been extremely clear that Google's sponsorship doesn't mean that we endorse that organisation's entire agenda – we may disagree strongly on some issues."Google employees have privately spoken out about the company's support for some conservative groups. In a discussion with employees in March 2018 – a recording of which was heard by the Guardian – Adam Kovacevich, who at the time served as head of public policy at Google (he has since left the company), defended the company's alignment with some conservatives.He said he had been directed to forge the relationships after the 2016 election of Donald Trump. It reflected a view that the company was seen as too close to Hillary Clinton's campaign and other Democrats.The discussion took place after a controversy over Google's sponsorship of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), the annual meeting of conservatives, where Google hosted a party.To the consternation of many employees, its logo appeared on banners next to the NRA's. In his opening remarks on the call, Kovacevich said it was important to build relationships not only with people in power "but also the people who influence them"."It can be hard sometimes to reconcile our business interests with our stated values, and finding that balance is something our team has to navigate really on a daily basis, and it has gotten more and more complicated," Kovacevich can be heard saying in the recording.While Google staff seemed to accept Google needed to forge ties across the political spectrum, the majority of the employees on the call expressed concern that the company was too far out of step with its values. The Wall Street Journal and Wired have previously reported on the meeting.This year, Google did not sponsor CPAC. But big technology companies were frequently named – and lambasted – by conservative participants in their speeches. In one case, the rightwing provocateur James O'Keefe encouraged tech employees to secretly record colleagues in their offices in order to expose their alleged biases."We will equip you with a camera," O'Keefe said. "If they're lying, cheating, scamming, we're going to find them, make them famous internet celebrities, expose them for all the world to see."
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| Pence attempts to explain away what the world heard Trump say on White House lawn Posted: 10 Oct 2019 10:42 AM PDT  "The president said it on the lawn," replied a reporter, referencing Trump's call on the White House lawn last week for China and Ukraine to investigate the Bidens.
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| Trump EPA proposes overhaul of lead in drinking water rule, critics call plan weak Posted: 10 Oct 2019 02:17 PM PDT  The Trump administration on Thursday proposed retooling a 1991 rule on lead and cooper contamination in drinking water, but critics said the change slows by 20 years the timeline for removing aging lead service lines that could expose children to a toxin known to harm developing brains. Under the rule, community water systems would be required among other things to identify the most impacted areas to find and fix sources of lead when a sample in a home exceeds 15 parts per billion. The EPA said water systems would also have to follow new, improved sampling procedures and adjust sampling sites to better target locations with higher lead levels.
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| Gabbard Threatens to Boycott Debate, Alleges DNC ‘Rigging Election Again’ Posted: 10 Oct 2019 08:22 AM PDT  Democratic Presidential Candidate Tulsi Gabbard (D., Hawaii) announced Thursday that she is "seriously considering" a boycott of the upcoming Democratic debate on Oct. 15, alleging that "the DNC and corporate media are trying to hijack the entire election process.""They are attempting to replace the roles of voters in the early states, using polling and other arbitrary methods which are not transparent or democratic, and holding so-called debates which are not debates at all but rather commercialized reality television meant to entertain, not inform or enlighten," Gabbard said in the statement.Gabbard's campaign, which is currently polling at just over half a percentage point, has focused in recent weeks on grassroot efforts in early primary voting states."There are so many of you who I've met in Iowa and New Hampshire who have expressed to me how frustrated you are that the DNC and corporate media are essentially trying to usurp your role as voters in choosing who our Democratic nominee will be," Gabbard says in the announcement, before stating that she will announce her final decision in the coming days.Gabbard qualified for the upcoming debate but missed out on the last one this past month, after reaching the donor threshold but falling two DNC-approved polls short of clearing the public support threshold. Gabbard's campaign slammed the committee's decision-making, arguing that the standards were arbitrary and lacked transparency."It creates a lack of faith and trust in the process," Gabbard told Fox News' Tucker Carlson in August. "… Really what [the voters] see is a small group of really powerful political elites, the establishment making decisions that serve their interests and maintaining that power while the rest of us are left outside. The American people are left behind."Gabbard was the most-searched candidate after the first and second Democratic debates earlier this year.
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| Arizona Official Smuggled Pregnant Women Into the U.S. and Paid Them to Give Up Their Babies: Authorities Posted: 09 Oct 2019 12:19 PM PDT  Photo Illustration by The Daily BeastAn Arizona official faces charges in two states for his alleged role in an international adoption fraud scheme that involved smuggling pregnant women into the U.S. from the Marshall Islands and then paying them to give up their babies, according to court documents.Maricopa County Assessor Paul Petersen was charged Tuesday night with 11 felony offenses, including human smuggling, the sale of a child, and communications fraud, the Utah Attorney General's Office said during a Wednesday press conference."The commercialization of children is illegal and the commoditization of children is simply evil," AG Sean D. Reyes said, adding that authorities "have no interest in interfering with adoptions that have already taken place."Catholic Charity Ends Adoptions Rather Than Place Kid With Same-Sex CouplePetersen, an adoption lawyer who is licensed in Arizona and Utah, was also hit with charges in Arizona, including conspiracy and theft, according to a Tuesday indictment filed by the state's Attorney General's Office. He was arrested in California, officials said. Prosecutors allege Petersen "recruited" and transported more than 40 pregnant women from the Republic of the Marshall Islands—a country of islands between Hawaii and the Philippines—to Utah over the last three years. Reyes said Petersen first established a connection with the Marshall Islands through The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.After the children were born, Petersen allegedly offered the women money to give their babies up to U.S. parents and allegedly charged $40,000 per adoption, according to the indictment. The elected GOP official allegedly failed to disclose the scheme to his adoptive parent clients.Maricopa County Sheriff's OfficeArizona and Utah investigators said Wednesday they believe at least 29 babies, some of whom were brought to other states to be adopted, are victims of the scheme. Reyes added Utah authorities were first alerted to the scheme after concerned hospital workers and adoption lawyers called a human trafficking tip line. On Tuesday evening, Arizona authorities executed search warrants in multiple locations and found eight pregnant women from the Marshall Islands inside a Mesa home. It is not immediately clear what connection Petersen has to the property.Body of Slain University of Utah Student Mackenzie Lueck Was Found Bound in Shallow Grave"We are thinking of the birth mothers, adoptive families and children in this case as victims," Reyes said, adding that Petersen's alleged scheme "exploited highly vulnerable groups in two countries—the birth mothers and families in the Marshall Islands and the adoptive parents here in Utah."The 32-count indictment filed in the Superior Court of Arizona alleges Petersen and his colleague, Lynwood Jennet, also organized travel for "pregnant women from the Republic of the Marshall Islands to come to Arizona for the purpose of giving a child up for adoption."Prosecutors say Petersen claimed these women as Arizona residents in order to receive medical services from the state's Medicaid system. "After the birth of the child, Paul D. Petersen and Lynwood Jennett facilitated travel for these women to leave Arizona," the indictment alleges. "In several instances the women returned directly to the [Republic of the Marshall Islands]."Paul Caneiro Charged With Murder After Allegedly Burning Down His Brother's Family MansionThe scheme also allegedly violated the 1983 compact with the Republic of the Marshall Islands that prevents the island's citizens from coming to the U.S. "for the purpose of adoption" unless they have a special visa.Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich emphasized in a press conference Wednesday that the families who fell victim to the alleged scheme are not being investigated. "These adoptions are not in jeopardy. Our focus is on the individuals who facilitated these adoptions," Brnovich said. Petersen was first appointed as Maricopa County assessor in 2013 after serving as the office's liaison to the legislature. The Republican candidate was re-elected in 2016 in an unopposed election. According to his website, the father of four has been working with adoptive parents for almost 15 years and is also an active member of the Maricopa County Republican Party and the Arizona Republican Party.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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| View Photos of 2021 Toyota Mirai Posted: 10 Oct 2019 01:00 PM PDT |
| Uber driver not guilty in death of passenger in Denver Posted: 10 Oct 2019 04:08 PM PDT  A jury on Thursday found an Uber driver not guilty of murder in the fatal shooting of a passenger he said attacked him while driving on a freeway in Denver. Jurors sided with Michael Hancock, 31, who argued that he was defending himself against passenger Hyun (Huhn) Kim.
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| ‘I’m standing here in the middle of climate change’: How USDA fails farmers. Posted: 10 Oct 2019 06:57 PM PDT !['I'm standing here in the middle of climate change': How USDA fails farmers.]( "'I'm standing here in the middle of climate change': How USDA fails farmers.") Rick Oswald is standing on the doorstep of the white farmhouse he grew up in, but almost nothing is as it should be. "This house is 80 years old," Oswald says, stepping inside the darkened living room, which now smells faintly of mold. American farmers are reeling after extreme rains followed by a "bomb cyclone"—an explosive storm that brought high winds and severe blizzard conditions—ravaged the heartland, turning once productive fields into lakes, killing livestock and destroying grain stores.
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| The U.S. system is now officially rigged to help the super-rich, new data show Posted: 10 Oct 2019 01:30 AM PDT ![The U.S. system is now officially rigged to help the super-rich, new data show]( "The U.S. system is now officially rigged to help the super-rich, new data show") Wealth disparity just hit a couple of new milestones in America. The Census Bureau reported in late September that U.S. income inequality, as measured by the Gini Index, hit its highest level in more than 50 years. A new book by two economists at the University of California, Berkeley, offers an explanation and another jarring data point: For the first time in U.S. history, America's 400 richest families paid a lower effective tax rate last year than any other income group, including the working class.Economists Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman detail in The Triumph of Injustice that -- based on federal, state, local, corporate, and "indirect taxes" like motor vehicle licenses -- the top 400 billionaires in the U.S. paid an effective tax rate of 23 percent in 2018, down from 47 percent in 1980 and 56 percent in 1960, Christopher Ingraham reports in The Washington Post. The bottom 50 percent, meanwhile, paid an effective tax rate of 24.2 percent, as it has more or less since 1960.> This chart really drives home how the ultra-rich have successfully lobbied to rewrite the tax code to their benefit. From @gabriel_zucman's forthcoming book. https://t.co/MaYVXtobJ8 pic.twitter.com/49v8QNHuvW> > -- Christopher Ingraham (@_cingraham) October 9, 2019"The relatively small tax burden of the super-rich is the product of decades of choices made by American lawmakers, some deliberate, others the result of indecisiveness or inertia," Ingraham paraphrases. "But the tipping point came in 2017, with the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act," President Trump's biggest legislative achievement.> A recent @ITEPtweets report documented the impact of our federal tax cutting spree since 2000: Revenue has been reduced by more than $5.1 trillion with nearly 2/3 of that flowing to the richest fifth of US households https://t.co/M1zZ3nKOQz pic.twitter.com/9CUW88t7uG> > -- Meg Wiehe (@megwiehe) October 8, 2019"Saez and Zucman portray the history of American taxes as a struggle between people who want to tax the rich and those who want to protect the fortunes of the rich," dating back to the 17th century, David Leonhardt writes at The New York Times. The tax-cutters have carried the day since the 1950s, and we've discovered again that "the American economy just doesn't function very well when tax rates on the rich are low and inequality is sky high," he argued. "Which means that raising high-end taxes isn't about punishing the rich (who, by the way, will still be rich). It's about creating an economy that works better for the vast majority of Americans."
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| Rudy Giuliani was reportedly retained for 'hundreds of thousands of dollars' by an associate's firm Fraud Guarantee Posted: 11 Oct 2019 07:07 AM PDT  Giuliani was paid generously to work for indicted Ukrainian-American Lev Parnas at his firm Fraud Guarantee, The New York Times reported on Thursday.
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| Warren Calls for Imprisoning Trans Inmates with Biologically Female Inmates in New LGBTQ Rights Plan Posted: 10 Oct 2019 10:41 AM PDT  Senator Elizabeth Warren called for placing transgender prisoners in detention facilities designed for the opposite biological sex in a new LGBTQ rights plan released Thursday."I will direct the Bureau of Prisons to end the Trump Administration's dangerous policy of imprisoning transgender people in facilities based on their sex assigned at birth," Warren wrote in the plan.Under the plan, transgender inmates would be placed in detention facilities that correspond to their gender identity rather than their biological sex, and would be entitled to tax-payer funded gender transition surgeries.Both Warren and fellow candidate Joe Biden have expressed support for tax-payer funded transition surgeries before. At a September 20 Iowa LGBTQ conference, Biden said that the surgery should be covered by Obamacare.In January of this year, Warren changed her stance on government-funded transition surgeries after it emerged that she had dismissed the notion that taxpayers should fund the cosmetic procedure in a 2012 interview."I have to say, I don't think it's a good use of taxpayer dollars," she said at the time.Bill de Blasio also declared his support for tax-payer funded gender transition surgery in July during his own presidential bid. De Blasio has since dropped out of the Democratic primary field following lackluster poll results.Warren has consistently run to the left of the Democratic field on social issues since beginning her candidacy. On Wednesday she released a plan designed to combat climate change and "climate injustice," pledging to invest $1.5 trillion over a decade to stop global warming and to help minority communities allegedly disproportionately affected by the warming."Our crisis of environmental injustice is the result of decades of discrimination and environmental racism compounding in communities that have been overlooked for too long," the plan states.
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| In wake of Turkish offensive, France calls for urgent meeting of anti-Islamic State coalition Posted: 10 Oct 2019 11:28 AM PDT  French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian called for an emergency meeting of the coalition created to fight Islamic State to discuss Turkey's offensive against Kurdish militias in northern Syria. Le Drian said on France 2 television that the coalition, which includes more than 30 countries, needs to discuss a range of issues because Islamic State could take advantage of the changes on the ground to re-emerge. "It (the coalition) needs to say today what are we going do, how do you, Turkey, want to proceed and how do we ensure the security of places where fighters are held?
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| The U.K.’s Top General Says Britain Is Already At War With Russia Posted: 11 Oct 2019 05:58 AM PDT  There has been no formal declaration of war. No rockets landing on London or submarines sinking British ships. But Britain's top military commander says Britain is at "at war every day" with Russia and other nations.
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| Catholic Church called to plug priest gap with lay women Posted: 11 Oct 2019 04:37 AM PDT  Deep in the Amazonian forest, young couples looking to wed or baptise children often turn to Sister Alba, who fills in where Catholic priests cannot be found. Many Amazonian bishops present at a three-week assembly at the Vatican want the Roman Catholic Church to create official roles for them. The very suggestion that the male-centric, centuries-old church could do that has thrown traditionalists into a tizzy, and it's not a change Pope Francis is currently willing to contemplate.
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| California utility faces gripes over deliberate blackouts Posted: 11 Oct 2019 03:58 AM PDT  Even as the winds gusted dangerously as forecast, California's biggest utility faced hostility and second-guessing Thursday for shutting off electricity to millions of people to prevent its equipment from sparking wildfires. Gov. Gavin Newsom criticized Pacific Gas & Electric and ordinary customers complained about the inconveniences caused by the unprecedented blackouts that began Wednesday, with many wondering: Did PG&E go too far in its attempt to ward off more deadly fires? Could the utility have been more targeted in deciding whose electricity was turned off and when?
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| Student's emotional allegation of sexual assault by Hong Kong police sparks investigation and anger Posted: 11 Oct 2019 08:40 AM PDT  An emotional livestreamed account from a young female student alleging sexual assault at the hands of the police sparked fresh anger and new protests in Hong Kong on Friday. A video of Sonia Ng, who waived her anonymity to make the accusations during an open forum on Thursday night at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, went viral in the financial hub, prompting hundreds of office workers to stage a lunchtime rally against alleged police violence. The Hong Kong police force, currently facing an enormous trust deficit with the public, said it had immediately launched an investigation on Friday morning and had tried unsuccessfully to reach the young woman, who had not yet made a formal complaint. "The Police accord high priority to such a serious allegation and we appeal to the female to provide concrete evidence so that we can proceed with a fair fact-finding investigation," the force said in a statement on its Facebook page. Ms Ng told the packed university gathering, in the presence of Rocky Tuan, the vice-chancellor, that she had been arrested at the Prince Edward metro station, which was stormed by riot police on August 31. She claimed she was sexually assaulted at a police station before being taken to San Uk Ling, a holding centre close to the border with mainland China where the pro-democracy movement alleges arrested protesters have been abused. In an earlier testimony, which she gave anonymously at September rally, she accused a male officer of hitting her breast, reported the Hong Kong Free Press. She alleged that detained protesters had been body-searched in darkened rooms and that others had also "suffered sexual violence." The young student then removed her mask to reveal her identity, asking Mr Tuan to explicitly denounce police violence. People form a human chain during a protest in Tai Po Credit: REUTERS/Susana Vera "I am willing to be courageous and take off my mask, would you also be brave and support us?" she asked. The vice-chancellor replied that he condemned all violence, but he faced a barrage of tough questions from students about the level of support the university had provided during four months of escalating tensions with the police during pro-democracy protests. Ms Ng's claims add to the mounting public anger over heavy-handed police tactics in the city, which has seen close to 3,000 arrests, and multiple injuries on both sides, including the shooting of two teenage boys. Tony Tse, the vice-chairman of the Independent Police Complaints Council, asked people in need to come forward. "We hope that those who were treated unfairly or sexually assaulted will make complaints to us. We will follow up," he said in a radio show on Friday.
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| How This Brazilian Drag Queen Is Taking the Pop World By Storm—And Fighting for LGBTQ Rights Along the Way Posted: 10 Oct 2019 03:00 AM PDT  The Brazilian drag queen has become a pop phenom — and now she's using her platform to demand LGBTQ equality in Brazil and beyond.
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| Thousands of tarantulas are emerging from the ground in the San Francisco Bay Area, looking for mates Posted: 10 Oct 2019 10:51 AM PDT  Each year, tarantulas emerge in the Rockies and California to look for mates. A spate of warm weather in the Bay Area has extended that mating season.
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| Migrant Alleged to Have Raped Woman Immediately after Sheriff’s Office Ignored ICE Detainer and Released Him Is Arrested Posted: 10 Oct 2019 02:22 PM PDT  An undocumented Salvadoran immigrant accused of raping a woman immediately after he was released from custody by the Oklahoma County Sheriff's Office, which failed to honor an Immigration and Customs Enforcement order to detain him, was arrested by ICE agents on Wednesday, the agency has announced.Antonio Ulises Perez, 38, was released from the Oklahoma County Jail on Wednesday and went "almost immediately" to the house of the woman he is accused of raping. ICE arrested Ulises Perez later on Wednesday, the agency said in a statement.ICE filed a detainer request with the Oklahoma County Sheriff's Office on Tuesday, before Ulises Perez was released, asking that he be transferred to immigration authorities, but the Sheriff's Office refused to honor it "in direct contravention of federal immigration law," ICE said in a statement."Unfortunately, this is not an isolated event," the statement said. "A few months ago, Oklahoma County decided to no longer honor ICE detainers and began releasing criminal aliens back into the local community at the expense of law-abiding citizens.""It is unconscionable that someone who is sworn to uphold the law would find it acceptable to release an alleged rapist who is illegally present in the U.S. back into the community when there are other options available under federal immigration law," read a statement from Marc Moore, the field-office director for ICE Dallas. "Within a few hours of being released, this illegal alien was back at the home of the rape victim where he was free to re-victimize her and harm other members of the community.""Fortunately, ICE deportation officers were able to quickly locate this individual and safely take him back into custody," Moore said.
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| Turkey intensifies Syria campaign as Islamic State strikes Kurds Posted: 10 Oct 2019 11:59 PM PDT  Turkey intensified its air and artillery strikes in northeast Syria on Friday, escalating an offensive against Kurdish militia that has drawn warnings of humanitarian catastrophe and turned some Republican lawmakers against U.S. President Donald Trump. The Kurds, who recaptured swathes of northeastern Syria from Islamic State with the backing of the United States, say the Turkish assault could allow the jihadist group to re-emerge. In its first big attack since the assault began, Islamic State claimed responsibility for a deadly car bomb in Qamishli, the biggest city in the Kurdish-held area, even as the city came under heavy Turkish shelling.
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| 'I'm afraid of this president': Protester outside of Trump rally in Minneapolis Posted: 11 Oct 2019 04:47 AM PDT  President Trump supporters and protesters clashed Thursday evening over the impeachment inquiry against the president. Tens of thousands of people showed up at the Target Center in Minneapolis, with most making their way into the arena to hear the president speak. Others, just steps away outside, spoke out against Trump.
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| Russia’s Energy Diplomacy Brings Geopolitical Dividends Posted: 11 Oct 2019 02:45 AM PDT  Although Washington has long pushed its European allies to move away from Russian gas, some of its own policies have provided the Russian energy sector with a boost.
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| Pope accepts resignation of NYC bishop accused of abuse Posted: 10 Oct 2019 06:33 AM PDT  Pope Francis accepted the resignation of a New York City bishop who was accused of sexually abusing a teenage boy in the 1980s, the Vatican said Thursday. Auxiliary Bishop John Jenik denied the allegation when it was first brought to the New York City archdiocese last year. Cardinal Timothy Dolan said the archdiocese's lay review board had found the allegation to be "credible and substantiated," and he turned the case over to the Holy See for further investigation, since only the pope can decide a bishop's fate.
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| California governor slams PG&E, saying 'greed,' 'mismangement' led to widespread power cuts Posted: 10 Oct 2019 07:09 PM PDT  California Gov. Gavin Newsom criticized PG&E; for greed, mismanagement amid power cuts
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| Ethiopia turns former palace, torture site into tourist draw Posted: 10 Oct 2019 10:50 AM PDT  A palace that once housed Ethiopia's emperors and also served as a torture site under the communist Derg regime is to open to the public in a controversial government tourism project. The palace compound in Addis Ababa, which Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's government has rebranded "Unity Park", was formally launched Thursday and will be open from Friday. Abiy's office said on Twitter Thursday that the project "symbolises our ability to come together".
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| Teen Suspect Still at Large After Shooting in Colorado High School Parking Lot Posted: 10 Oct 2019 12:43 PM PDT  Police are still looking for the teenager who is accused of shooting another teen outside Sheridan High School in Colorado.
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| SDF Commander Claims Alliance With Assad ‘Could Happen’ If Kurds ‘Become Hopeless’ Following U.S. Withdrawal Posted: 11 Oct 2019 08:11 AM PDT  Mazloum Abdi, the commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces, told Bloomberg in a phone interview Thursday that, without U.S. support, the Kurds may turn to Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad to help resist recent Turkish offensives in northern Syria."If our allies do not stop this catastrophe to our people, the situation will become worse," he said. "I think an alliance with Assad could happen. If we get to this point, where we are hopeless."President Trump announced on Monday that U.S. troops would withdraw from northeast Syria, a move followed by an invasion of the area by Turkey. The Turkish government plans to set up a "safe zone" inside Syria to resettle Syrian refugees who fled their country's civil war, as well as to fight the Kurdish YPG, which it considers a terrorist organization.The SDF, which has said it has lost more than 10,000 fighters in the war against the Islamic State, warned in a statement Monday that with Turkey invading, it would be forced to divert forces from operations against ISIS in the south, destroying "all that has been achieved in terms of stability over the last years."The SDF has over 11,000 ISIS prisoners in custody. Abdi told Bloomberg that, for now, the Kurds are continuing to guard the prisoners but may not be able to continue to do so as the fight against the Turkish incursion escalates. He also said that some militia members fighting along side the Turks are former jihadists.Following several days of a Turkish offensive into northern Syria, President Trump suggested Thursday that the U.S. may use soft power tactics to halt the bloodshed."We have one of three choices: Send in thousands of troops and win Militarily, hit Turkey very hard Financially and with Sanctions, or mediate a deal between Turkey and the Kurds!" Trump tweeted.Abdi urged Trump to reconsider his withdrawal of U.S. troops from the region in the Thursday interview."I believe the only person capable of preventing this disaster is President Trump," he said.According to Reuters, Syrian deputy foreign minister Faisal Maqdad said Thursday that the Kurds were "armed groups had betrayed their country and committed crimes against it. We won't accept any dialogue or talk with those who had become hostages to foreign forces."The Syrian Kurdish YPG helped the Syrian government in the early days of the Syrian civil war, but Damascus has threatened that the Kurds must submit to state authority or risk defeat to Turkey.
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| Migrant protesters occupy U.S.-Mexico border bridge, close crossing Posted: 10 Oct 2019 09:53 AM PDT ![Migrant protesters occupy U.S.-Mexico border bridge, close crossing]( "Migrant protesters occupy U.S.-Mexico border bridge, close crossing") MATAMOROS-BROWNSVILLE BRIDGE, U.S.-Mexico border, Oct 10 (Reuters) - U .S. asylum seekers camped out in a dangerous Mexican border town occupied a bridge to Brownsville, Texas on Thursday, leading to the closure of the crossing, witnesses and authorities said. Hundreds of the migrants have been camped for weeks on the end of the bridge in Matamoros, Mexico, a city known for cartel control of people trafficking and gang violence. Many of those camped out are awaiting court dates for hearings in the United States weeks or months later under a U.S. policy called the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP).
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| ‘If you can find one’: Elizabeth Warren acclaimed for searing response to homophobic gay marriage question at debate Posted: 11 Oct 2019 02:48 AM PDT  Elizabeth Warren drew wild applause at a forum on LGBT+ issues for a deadpan response to a question about gay marriage.The Massachusetts senator was asked about religious opposition to gay rights during the televised Los Angeles event.
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| Photos of the 2019 Porsche Cayenne Turbo at Lightning Lap Posted: 11 Oct 2019 03:00 AM PDT |
| Correction: Bar Shooting story Posted: 11 Oct 2019 09:27 AM PDT  In a story Oct. 7 about a deadly shooting at a bar in Kansas City, Kansas, The Associated Press, based on police reports, misspelled the first name of one of the victims. KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — One of two suspects in the fatal shooting of four people in a Kansas bar caused a disturbance two hours earlier that brought officers to the scene, but they couldn't find him in the area, the interim police chief said Monday. Michael York said Kansas City, Kansas, police were still searching for one suspect, Hugo Villanueva-Morales, 29, in connection with the shootings at the Tequila KC bar early Sunday that also wounded another five people.
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| India Really Regrets Buying This Aircraft Carrier from Russia Posted: 09 Oct 2019 08:05 PM PDT  A total lemon?
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| Italian motorists used frozen wild boar to fake road crash Posted: 11 Oct 2019 04:54 AM PDT  A pair of Italian motorists who tried to make a compensation claim after their vehicle supposedly collided with a wild boar were rumbled when it emerged that the animal was frozen. Investigators believe the wild pig had been killed long before, was stashed in a freezer and then brought out by the two men when they staged the accident on a road in Sardinia. The men had hoped to claim compensation for the accident from the regional government of the island. Such claims are routine in rural areas of Italy, where cars often collide with boar, deer and other large wild animals. But police became suspicious when they noticed that the boar did not bear injuries compatible with a collision. A vet was summoned to inspect the carcass and discovered that the boar's internal organs were frozen. The fake accident was staged on a road near the town of Sorso in the north of Sardinia. The two men have been accused of insurance fraud and, if convicted, face a heavy fine and up to a year in prison. While the incident in Sardinia was allegedly a scam, there are many genuine cases in Italy of vehicles colliding with wild boar as the number of animals increases each year. Italy's wild boar population has doubled in a decade to around one million, according to Coldiretti, a national farmers' organisation. Decades of emigration from rural areas and the abandonment of farmland has led to an increase in forest cover – perfect habitat for the big pigs. In January, a man was killed and 10 people were injured after cars hit a group of boars crossing a motorway in the northern region of Lombardy. The three boars involved in the accident died. The animals had managed to excavate a hole beneath the fence that runs along the side of the motorway.
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| Vivid gladiator fresco discovered at Pompeii Posted: 11 Oct 2019 08:11 AM PDT  A vivid fresco depicting an armour-clad gladiator standing victorious as his wounded opponent stumbles gushing blood has been discovered in the ancient Roman city of Pompeii, Italy's culture ministry said Friday. The striking scene in gold, blue and red was uncovered in what experts think was a tavern frequented by gladiators, who fought each other, prisoners and wild animals for the public's entertainment. Gladiators were killed or shown mercy," Pompeii's director Massimo Osanna said.
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| The Royal Caribbean has named the world's next biggest ocean liner, set for China Posted: 10 Oct 2019 12:31 PM PDT  Make that five: Royal Caribbean's Oasis class, which is synonymous with some of the biggest cruise ships in the world, will officially welcome in 2021 its newest creation, the name of which was unveiled on October 10, during a keel-laying ceremony held at the Chantiers de l'Atlantique shipyard in Saint-Nazaire, France. Come 2021, the Royal Caribbean cruise line will be the proud owner of a new ocean liner, dedicated to the Chinese market. It will also be the first of the Oasis class to cruise the waters of the Asia-Pacific.
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| Trump Pressed Tillerson to Help Giuliani Client Evade Iran Sanctions: Report Posted: 10 Oct 2019 05:10 AM PDT  President Donald Trump urged then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to convince the Department of Justice to drop charges against a client of Rudy Giuliani during a meeting in the Oval Office in 2017, Bloomberg reported Thursday.Tillerson refused, saying the action would be illegal and constitute interference in an ongoing investigation. Three sources who spoke with Bloomberg on condition of anonymity said participants in the meeting were shocked at the request.The client, Reza Zarrab, is an Iranian-Turkish gold trader who was charged with evading sanctions on Iran. Zarrab had hired Giuliani and former Attorney General Michael Mukasey to represent him.Tillerson repeated his objections immediately following the meeting to then-Chief of Staff John Kelly.Zarrab's case also drew the attention of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Before Zarrab began cooperating with authorities in his case, Erdogan tried to have him released to Turkey.Giuliani affirmed that he had been speaking with U.S. officials at the time regarding a possible prisoner swap, trading Zarrab for Andrew Bunson, an American pastor who was jailed in Turkey until 2018.Zarrab eventually pleaded guilty in his case and testified against the head of international banking at Turkey's state-owned Halkbank, Mehmet Hakan Atilla. Atilla was convicted of helping Iran evade U.S. sanctions through money laundering and served 28 months in U.S. prison before returning to Turkey. Zarrab asserted that Erdogan knew of the laundering, which Erdogan has strenuously denied.Erdogan on Tuesday launched an invasion of northeast Syria to resettle Syrian refugees who fled the country's civil war, a day after Trump announced the withdrawal of American troops from the area. Trump has been accused of abandoning Kurdish allies who fought against ISIS to face Turkey's military, while Turkey deems Kurdish groups in the region terrorist organizations, citing their ties to militants within Turkey.The White House confirmed that Trump will host Erdogan later this month as part of a state visit. Trump has defended his alliance with Turkey, writing on Twitter that "Turkey is a big trading partner of the United States," and that the country is an "important" NATO member.
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