| What's causing record rates of STDs? Posted: 14 Oct 2019 08:25 AM PDT  After decades of decline, rates of certain STDs have spiked to record levels, according to the CDC. What's causing the increase?
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| Syria regime steps in to halt Turkish assault on Kurds Posted: 14 Oct 2019 08:54 AM PDT  The Syrian regime sent troops towards the Turkish border Monday to contain Ankara's deadly offensive against the Kurds, stepping in for US forces due to begin a controversial withdrawal. The Syrian army has maintained a presence in the Kurdish-controlled cities of Qamishli and Hasakeh in Syria's northeast since the start of the war, and deployed a limited number of troops around the key city of Manbij in 2018 at the request of Kurdish forces to shield the area from a feared Turkish assault.
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| British paedophile who operated in Malaysia, Cambodia found dead in prison Posted: 14 Oct 2019 05:29 AM PDT  One of Britain's most prolific child sex offenders, Richard Huckle, has died three years into a life sentence for abusing Malaysian and Cambodian children, Britain's Ministry of Justice said on Monday, with media saying he had been stabbed to death. Huckle, 33, who abused children and babies during a nine year period, was sentenced to life in prison in 2016 after pleading guilty to 71 offences. Dubbed the country's worst paedophile by Britain's media, he was found stabbed to death in prison on Sunday after being attacked with a makeshift knife, the BBC reported.
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| The Latest: Report: Syrian troops enter town of Manbij Posted: 14 Oct 2019 10:37 AM PDT  Syrian state media says government forces have entered the northern Kurdish-held town of Manbij, hours after Turkey-backed opposition fighters announced that they are advancing on the city. Monday's move was expected, coming a day after Syrian Kurdish militias struck an alliance with government forces to help fend off the Turkish offensive. Manbij houses U.S. troops, and an American official says troops are still in the flashpoint city, preparing to leave.
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| 'It's got to stop': Superintendent condemns teacher's racist rant in school parking lot Posted: 14 Oct 2019 09:23 AM PDT  A teacher at Drexel Hill Middle School in Pennsylvania has been placed on administrative leave after she used racial slurs in a viral Facebook video.
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| Anthony Scaramucci is desperately trying to recruit Mitt Romney for a 2020 run Posted: 14 Oct 2019 08:33 AM PDT ![Anthony Scaramucci is desperately trying to recruit Mitt Romney for a 2020 run]( "Anthony Scaramucci is desperately trying to recruit Mitt Romney for a 2020 run") Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) is running for president again -- at least in Anthony Scaramucci's dreams.The famously short-lived White House communications director has since turned on the president who appointed him, and has publicly said he's trying to knock President Trump off the 2020 ticket. Now, it seems Scaramucci has decided on his dream candidate, and has launched a website and line of T-shirts to persuade him to run.Scaramucci started making his support for Romney known earlier this month, tweeting a poll that showed the 2012 GOP nominee beating the presumptive 2020 nominee in a hypothetical primary. He then revealed last week he'd launched Mitt2020.org, and on Sunday night, showed off that the site was offering "commit to Mitt" campaign T-shirts. They are being sold at $20.20 each to "test demand," and so far Scaramucci has seen an "overwhelming" response, he told ABC News.> You may be proud of your "Where's Hunter?" T-shirt...but we're really proud of ours...You see, we know where Mitt is...he's listening, he's hearing, he's seeing, he's reading and he's coming.... https://t.co/sCUTWW6IHA committomitt mitt2020 @MittRomney MittRomney pic.twitter.com/gpgTdL33UY> > -- Anthony Scaramucci (@Scaramucci) October 12, 2019While Romney hasn't even hinted at granting Scaramucci's wishes, the "Mitt Happens" shirt is sure to be a collector's item in a few years.
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| Meet the Massive Ordnance Penetrator: The Air Force's Newest Bunker Buster Bomb Posted: 13 Oct 2019 07:00 PM PDT  Huge and very powerful.
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| California becomes first US state to ban fur products Posted: 14 Oct 2019 04:38 AM PDT  California has become the first US state to ban the sale and manufacture of new fur products.On Saturday, California's governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill into law to prohibit residents from making or selling items such as clothing, shoes or handbags made of fur.
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| Subway System to Shut Down at 10 p.m. Monday: Hong Kong Update Posted: 13 Oct 2019 05:59 PM PDT ![Subway System to Shut Down at 10 p.m. Monday: Hong Kong Update]( "Subway System to Shut Down at 10 p.m. Monday: Hong Kong Update") (Bloomberg) -- A Hong Kong police officer was hospitalized after being attacked as protests spread to 18 districts in the latest weekend of unrest.Sunday's clashes follow a night of sporadic violence and come as some demonstrators debate online on whether to soften their tactics to avoid alienating more moderate supporters. Saturday's march was called in protest against the government invoking emergency laws, including banning masks at public gatherings. The unrest erupted on June 9 in opposition to Chief Executive Carrie Lam's now-withdrawn legislation that would've allowed extraditions to mainland China have since expanded into a push for greater democracy. Last week, tens of thousands of people flooded Hong Kong's streets after Lam banned protesters from wearing masks in her latest effort to rein in the unrest.Here's the latest (all times local):Subway to close at 10 p.m. on Monday (5:00 a.m.)Due to "serious vandalism," the city's rail operator MTR Corp. said on Monday all main subway lines, MTR buses and light rail would shut down early at 10 p.m. The Airport Express route was not affected, the company said, adding that it made the decision after reviewing ongoing repairs and conducting a "joint risk assessment" with the government.Officer hospitalized (5:30 p.m.)An officer was hospitalized with a neck wound after being slashed with a "sharp-edged" object at Kwun Tong train station, police said. Two people were arrested at the scene, according to a police statement.Officers fired tear gas to disperse crowds of masked people who damaged property in the districts of Shatin and Tsuen Wan, police said.MTR shuts stations (5:15 p.m.)MTR Corp., the city's rail operator, closed down stops on four lines because of "an escalation of the situation at stations," it said. The Kwun Tong, Shatin Wai, City One, Tsuen Wan and Tsuen Wan West stations were shut, MTR said in a statement on its website.Police confront protesters (3 p.m.)Riot police confronted black-clad protesters trying to barricade a road in Mong Kok, while demonstrators blocked a road in Tuen Mun and littered train tracks with rubbish in Shatin. Activists planned 18 district "blossom" events Sunday, with pop-up protests territory-wide.Restaurants closed (Sunday 9 a.m.)Protests have take their toll on Hong Kong's restaurant industry, with about 100 restaurants having to shut down because of the months-long unrest in the city, Financial Secretary Paul Chan said in a blog post Sunday.Around 2,000 employees have been affected as a result of the closures, Chan said in the Chinese-language post, citing the catering industry. He didn't provide further details. Some retailers have also had to reduce the number of stores or cut back on staff, and several recent local events have had to be canceled for security reasons, Chan said.Lady Liberty (8 a.m.)A group of people assembled a makeshift statue of Lady Liberty overnight on top of the city's iconic Lion Rock mountain in Kowloon. The three-meter (about 9.5 feet) figure wearing the protesters' familiar helmet, goggles and masks, was originally created to represent a woman who was wearing a helmeted and masked figure.Police disperse crowd (10:30 p.m.)Police dispersed a crowd of people outside Mong Kok police station who had surrounded the building, thrown rocks at it and aimed lasers at officers. "Minimum force" was used to clear the crowd after several warnings for them to leave the area, according to a police statement.Offices set on fire (5 p.m.)A group of people set fire to the government offices in Cheung Sha Wan after breaking the security gate and entering the building, police said in a statement. Earlier, protesters gathered in Sham Shui Po, Prince Edward and Mong Kok. Railings were removed from roads, traffic was paralyzed in the area and some shops were vandalized, according to police.Officers issued a warning for people to leave the area immediately and said they would soon begin to disperse the crowds.Anti-emergency law march (3 pm.)Scattered bands of masked demonstrators marched from Tsim Sha Tsui in Kowloon to Sham Shui Po in protest against the decision by Lam to invoke an emergency law for the first time in more than half a century to ban face masks at public gatherings. Police stood by watchfully as the largely peaceful procession passed.Earlier police reported petrol bombs were thrown inside the Kowloon Tong train station, causing serious damage. No one was injured, they said.Wong disappointed by Apple (2 p.m.)Prominent activist Joshua Wong said in a letter to Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook that he was "deeply disappointed with Apple's decision to ban" an app that was used by "lots" of Hong Kong people, according to a tweet by Wong reproduced part of his letter.He said he believed Apple was informed by Hong Kong police that the app was "being used maliciously to target individual officers for violence and to victimize individuals and property where no police are present."Apple CEO Defends Pulling Hong Kong App, Echoing Police ViewWong said "we use the real-time info from HKmap not with the intention to inflict personal harm on anyone but to protect ourselves from harm."Police reshuffle (7:30 a.m.)Hong Kong police will appoint Frank Kwok, formerly with the elite special duties unit known as the Flying Tigers, as operations chief in a bid to better handle the protests, the South China Morning Post reported, citing an unidentified senior police official.Kwok will soon swap posts with Assistant Police Commissioner Terence Mak, who is currently in charge of operations, the newspaper reported. Kwok is New Territories North regional commander. Mak was originally being groomed as a future police chief, the Post reported. Commissioner Stephen Lo is expected to retire in a month and a successor has not yet been named. His departure was announced about a year ago.Rent cuts (Saturday 6 a.m.)MTR Corp., the city's railway operator, Airport Authority Hong Kong and some property developers have offered to reduce rents to retailers affected by protests, the South China Morning Post reported, citing Financial Secretary Paul Chan.Chan has also appealed to private landlords to follow suit, the report said. Hysan Development Co. and Swire Properties Ltd. have confirmed rent cuts so far, the paper said, without saying where it got the information.Mask ban arrests climb to 90 (4:55 p.m.)Hong Kong police said they had arrested a total of 90 people as of Wednesday on suspicion of violating the mask ban. That's up from 77 a day earlier.Lam's decision to implement the ban under a colonial-era emergency ordinance that hadn't been invoked in more than half a century sparked a destructive series of protests. The measure carries a possible sentence of as long as one year in jail.Police to probe assault claims (3:12 p.m.)Hong Kong police pledged to investigate a protester's allegation that she was sexually assaulted by officers, after she dramatically shared her story at a university event.The woman, Sonia Ng, said she was assaulted in a dark body-search room at a detention center near the mainland Chinese border on Aug. 31 and wasn't the only one who "suffered sexual violence." Ng removed the face mask she was wearing in front of a crowd of more than 1,000 people and challenged university administrators present to take a stand against police violence.(An earlier version corrected the name of a town in "Police confront protesters" subhead)To contact the reporters on this story: Cathy Chan in Hong Kong at kchan14@bloomberg.net;Aaron Mc Nicholas in Hong Kong at amcnicholas2@bloomberg.net;Alfred Liu in Hong Kong at aliu226@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Shamim Adam at sadam2@bloomberg.net, Stanley JamesFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| China Built a Flying Saucer Posted: 14 Oct 2019 06:55 AM PDT  The UFO is still on the ground—for now.
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| Joe Biden's son Hunter announces resignation from Chinese firm amid impeachment row Posted: 13 Oct 2019 07:28 AM PDT  Joe Biden's son Hunter has announced that he is stepping down from the board of a Chinese-backed private equity company and will stop working for foreign-owned firms if his father is elected president in 2020. Hunter Biden, 49, has found himself dragged into the spotlight amid attempts to impeach Donald Trump. He was on the board of a Ukrainian gas company which was being investigated by the authorities, and Mr Trump asked Ukraine's president to look for evidence of wrongdoing by Joe Biden. That call – requesting foreign assistance to damage a political rival – sparked the impeachment inquiry. On Sunday Hunter Biden announced he was leaving his current role on the board of BHR (Shanghai) Equity Investment Fund Management Company, which was set up in 2013 to invest Chinese capital outside China. George Mesires, Hunter Biden's lawyer, said he will resign at the end of the month from the management company of a private equity fund that's backed by Chinese state-owned entities. He also reiterated that he never discussed his business activities with his father. Hunter Biden, whose business activities have come under intense scrutiny "Hunter always understood that his father would be guided, entirely and unequivocally, by established US policy, regardless of its effects on Hunter's professional interests," the statement said. "He never anticipated the barrage of false charges against both him and his father by the President of the United States." Mr Trump and his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani have repeatedly claimed, without providing evidence, that Hunter Biden made millions of dollars from China while his father was vice president. They have also made unsubstantiated claims that Joe Biden used his position to help end an investigation in 2016 into the owner of Burisma, one of the country's largest private gas companies, where Hunter Biden sat on the board. Burisma's owner had been under investigation for alleged money laundering and abuse of power. The allegations predated Hunter Biden's joining the board in April 2014. He stepped down earlier this year. The Bidens firmly deny any wrongdoing. Earlier this month, Mr Trump raised eyebrows by publicly called on China to investigate the Bidens. A spokesman for China's foreign ministry rejected that notion, saying it wouldn't interfere in the internal affairs of other countries. "Under a Biden Administration, Hunter will readily comply with any and all guidelines or standards a President Biden may issue to address purported conflicts of interest, or the appearance of such conflicts, including any restrictions related to overseas business interests," the statement said. "He will continue to keep his father personally uninvolved in his business affairs." Hunter Biden's pledge to avoid foreign work if his father wins the White House sets him apart from Mr Trump's children, who have continued working with foreign business partners from Dubai to Indonesia and India while his father sits in the White House. Donald Trump Jr and his brother Eric have taken over the running of the Trump Organization while their father is in the White House, and have continued to do business globally After Mr Trump won the presidency in 2016, he handed the running of the Trump Organization to his sons, Don Jr. and Eric, and said they wouldn't do any new overseas deals. But they have continued to push the Trump Organization's existing foreign deals, including visits to promote luxury resorts in Indonesia, condo sales in India and an expansion of their golf resort in Scotland. The Trump sons have joined in on the attacks, accusing Hunter Biden of using his family name for personal gain while his father was vice president. "At the VERY LEAST, there's an appearance of impropriety," Don Jr. tweeted. And at a rally in Minneapolis this week, Eric Trump attacked Hunter Biden, whipping up the crowd with chants of "Lock him up," a replay of his father's familiar campaign stump speech targeting Hillary Clinton in 2016. Joe Biden has defended his son and vowed to make him a visible part of his campaign. "He's a fine man. He's been through hell," he said. "I'm also confident the American people know me, and they know my son."
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| Special Report: The hunt for Asia's El Chapo Posted: 14 Oct 2019 04:59 AM PDT  He is Asia's most-wanted man. Tse Chi Lop, a Canadian national born in China, is suspected of leading a vast multinational drug trafficking syndicate formed out of an alliance of five of Asia's triad groups, according to law enforcement officials. The syndicate, law enforcers believe, is funneling tonnes of methamphetamine, heroin and ketamine to at least a dozen countries from Japan in North Asia to New Zealand in the South Pacific.
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| View Photos of Our Sports Sedan Battle Between the Dodge Charger and Kia Stinger GT Posted: 14 Oct 2019 04:59 AM PDT |
| Tulsi Gabbard says she will attend Tuesday Dem debate after considering a protest Posted: 14 Oct 2019 07:28 AM PDT  Tulsi Gabbard said last week she was considering a boycott because she thinks the DNC and media are trying to "hijack the election."
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| Pope Francis's main bodyguard resigns over a leak Posted: 14 Oct 2019 07:52 AM PDT  Domenico Giani, the Vatican's longtime security chief and Pope Francis's main bodyguard, resigned on Monday over a leak of information from an investigation into alleged financial wrongdoing in the Vatican.
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| Mobile phones back in Indian Kashmir, but internet still down Posted: 14 Oct 2019 01:08 AM PDT  Mobile phone networks were restored in Indian Kashmir on Monday after a 72-day blackout, authorities said, but the internet remains off-limits to the region's seven million-plus people. India cut access to mobile networks in the restive Kashmir Valley in early August citing security concerns as it scrapped the region's semi-autonomous status and imposed a lockdown. The easing on Monday covers around four million post-paid mobile phone contracts, but only for calls and text messages.
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| Police: No evidence of shooting after Florida mall lockdown Posted: 13 Oct 2019 06:54 PM PDT  Reports of possible shots at an upscale Florida mall sent panicked people running and triggered a lockdown for several hours Sunday, but a SWAT team's search found no evidence of any shooting and police issued an all-clear after nightfall. One person was injured, apparently leaving the mall in Boca Raton, police said. Boca Raton Police Chief Dan Alexander said Sunday evening that authorities conducted a sweeping search but found no evidence to confirm the initial reports.
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| This New Submarine Could Be a Real Killer (And No, Its Not American) Posted: 13 Oct 2019 12:00 AM PDT  Their first new submarine in a decade from France.
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| US officials are considering pulling nuclear weapons from Turkey, effectively severing the US-Turkey alliance Posted: 14 Oct 2019 08:45 AM PDT  The US-Turkey relationship has soured over the past several years, but the US still stores as many as 50 B61 gravity bombs at Inçirlik Air Base.
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| Police officer stabbed in the neck in latest Hong Kong clashes Posted: 13 Oct 2019 09:14 AM PDT  A Hong Kong police officer was stabbed in the neck on Sunday in one of the worst acts of violence against the authorities during the 19th straight weekend of civil unrest in the global financial hub. Graphic footage emerged of the policeman being stabbed in the neck from behind with a sharp object as his team retreated towards Kwun Tong metro station. The police confirmed that two people had been arrested at the scene and the officer had been transferred to hospital "in a conscious state" and was stable. A police source said that the officer had sustained a 3cm cut to his neck, and while it was still hard to confirm the extent of his injuries, that the attack was "one of the worst" when seen "in terms of malice, in terms of an attempt to kill the officer." Flash mob-style protests had initially peacefully in multiple locations with small groups of a few hundred people chanting "Free Hong Kong" slogans but soon developed into chaotic clashes with the riot police as more radical black-clad activists trashed shops and erected barricades on busy roads. Anti-government protesters in Tai Po, Hong Kong Credit: Ammar Awad/Reuters Dozens were reportedly injured, numerous arrests were made and tear gas was deployed to disperse protesters, although the police said "minimum force" was used. As night fell, about 20 Molotov cocktails were thrown at a police station in Mongkok in Kowloon. Earlier in the day, protesters played a game of cat-and-mouse with riot officers in Mongkok's busy shopping district – blocking roads with metal railings and bamboo sticks, only to disappear into a warren of side streets when police vans arrived to clear the way. The Telegraph witnessed at least two rough arrests and an injured officer on the ground on the main thoroughfare of Nathan Road. One bystander claimed that a young man had been detained simply for being alone in the wrong place at the wrong time. Crowds of residents surrounded the police, hurling insults and accusing them of being "mafia," jeering as the vans pulled away and giving officers the finger. Video footage of an officer being floored by a protester's flying kick during another attempted arrest in the area went viral. Elsewhere, the ongoing anti-government protests, which began in opposition to a controversial extradition bill but have now widened into an appeal for universal suffrage and greater democracy, played out more peacefully. Alan Fung, 62, is taking part in a 48-hour sit-in outside the main police station on Hong Kong island Credit: Michael Zhang On Saturday night, pro-democracy demonstrators performed the exhausting feat of hauling a four-metre statue called "Lady Liberty" to the top of the Lion Rock, a 495-metre peak overlooking Kowloon's skyscrapers. The statue, which has become one of the many symbols of the movement, was left watching over the city wearing a gas mask, protective goggles and a helmet, proclaiming the slogan "Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times". Meanwhile, as younger protesters tried to taunt and out-run the police, the older generation were staging their own rebellion. About 100 "silver hair" protesters gathered for a 48-hour sit-in outside the main police headquarters in Wan Chai on Hong Kong island this weekend, chanting anti-government slogans and making protest banners. A masked old man took out a black marker pen and wrote insults against the police on the barriers surrounding the station before running away giggling. About 100 older Hong Kong citizens are staging a "silver hair" rally this weekend Credit: Michael Zhang The group's presence was a sign of the city's continuing widespread anger over the government's handling of the worst political crisis in decades. Although the summer's mass rallies have largely been led by the young, support for their pro-democracy demands crosses generations. "We want to say we are the silver haired coming together. We are old but we want to support the younger people. We can't go to the frontlines but we are in the back to support them," said Mr Yip, 73, who had come with his 70-year-old wife and two small picnic stools. "I support democracy, I hate the government now." Alan Fung, 62, was one of about a dozen pensioners who had braved the humidity as they huddled through the night under a bridge next to the station. He admitted that he had not got much sleep but said he wanted to camp outside to "protect the young people" and prevent more clashes in the area with the police. "We don't want it to be dangerous for them again," he said. "If we are noisy the government will see that it's not just the young people who support the campaign but we are too."
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| Son of sheriff who called immigrants ‘drunks’ at White House event arrested for public intoxication Posted: 14 Oct 2019 05:04 AM PDT  The son of a Texas sheriff who used a White House press conference to describe immigrant offenders as "drunks" likely to repeatedly break the law has been arrested for public intoxication.Sergei Waybourn, 24, faces a count of indecent exposure as well as public drunkenness just days after his father, Tarrant County Sheriff Bill Waybourn, was criticised for the comments.
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| Deadly Los Angeles wildfire burns with subdued fury after change in weather Posted: 13 Oct 2019 09:45 AM PDT  Firefighters have tightened their grip on a deadly Los Angeles wildfire burning with subdued fury on Sunday after extremely dry desert winds that had stoked the flames gave way to moister, gentler breezes blowing in from the Pacific. The so-called Saddleridge fire, which erupted Thursday night and raced across the northern edge of L.A.'s San Fernando Valley, had scorched nearly 8,000 acres (3,237 hectares) by Sunday but was mostly confined to foothills and canyons away from populated areas, fire officials said. As of Sunday morning, firefighters had managed to carve containment lines around 41% of the fire's perimeter, more than double the containment level reported a day earlier as authorities lifted all remaining evacuation notices.
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| A Florida dog went missing. 12 years later, she reunited with her owner in Pittsburgh Posted: 14 Oct 2019 09:16 AM PDT ![A Florida dog went missing. 12 years later, she reunited with her owner in Pittsburgh]( "A Florida dog went missing. 12 years later, she reunited with her owner in Pittsburgh") It took 12 years for Katheryn Strang to be reunited with Dutchess, her fox terrier. But the moment arrived over 1,100 miles from Strang's home.
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| Mattis: Trump's troop pullout will lead to 'disarray' in Syria and Isis resurgence Posted: 13 Oct 2019 06:44 AM PDT  * Ex-defense secretary calls resurgence of Isis 'a given' * Kurds say 785 Isis affiliates escape camp after Turkish shellingJames Mattis declined the opportunity to directly criticise his former boss, Donald Trump. Photograph: Leah Millis/ReutersThe former defense secretary James Mattis has said Donald Trump's abrupt withdrawal of US troops from the Syria-Turkey border has increased the chances of a resurgence of Islamic State. But the retired general passed up an opportunity to directly criticise the president."If we don't keep the pressure on," Mattis told NBC's Meet the Press, "then Isis will resurge. It's absolutely a given that they will come back."After Mattis's remarks were released, the Kurdish-led administration in northern Syria said 785 foreign individuals affiliated with Isis had escaped the camp where they were being held, following heavy Turkish shelling.Trump announced the US withdrawal on Monday after a call with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The surprise announcement prompted widespread accusations of a betrayal of Kurds allied to the US in war-torn Syria. Turkey, which regards some Kurdish groups as terrorists, swiftly attacked. The president also said Erdoğan would visit the White House.Trump faced stringent attacks from both sides of the aisle. In Washington on Saturday night he held his ground, telling the conservative Values Voter Summit he was "an island of one"."We have to bring our great heroes, our great soldiers, we have to bring them home," he insisted. "It's time. It's time."> If we don't keep the pressure on, then Isis will resurge. It's absolutely a given that they will come back> > James MattisOn Sunday morning, Trump warmed to his theme. The president said it was "very smart not to be involved in the intense fighting along the Turkish border, for a change", amid a stream of tweets that included a startling statement: "Others may want to come in and fight for one side or the other. Let them!"In more measured tones, defense secretary Mike Esper told CBS' Face the Nation "it's a very terrible situation over there" but insisted roughly 1,000 US troops would be evacuated in a "deliberate withdrawal".US forces are not yet out of harm's way. The Washington Post reported that Turkish forces which shelled an area where US special forces troops remained on Friday had known for months they were there.Brett McGurk, the former US envoy to the global coalition against Isis who resigned over Trump's attempts to withdraw from Syria, told the Post: "Turkey wants us off the entire border region to a depth of 30km [20 miles]. Based on all the facts available, these were warning fires on a known location, not inadvertent rounds."Turkey is facing threats of US sanctions – reiterated by Trump in his speech on Saturday night – unless it calls off the incursion. Two of its Nato allies, Germany and France, have said they are halting weapons exports and the Arab League has denounced the operation.But airstrikes and shelling continue in Kurdish areas and harrowing scenes among panicked and grieving refugees are being reported worldwide. More than 130,000 people have been displaced from rural areas around Tel Abyad and Ras al Ain as a result of the fighting, the United Nations said. Turkish forces and their Syrian allies seized large parts of the town of Suluk, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Sunday, the fifth day of the offensive.On Saturday, CNN reported that earlier this week Gen Mazloum Kobani Abdi, head of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, told a senior US diplomat: "You have given up on us. You are leaving us to be slaughtered."Also on Saturday, another SDF commander told a press conference: "The protection of Isis prisons will not remain our priority. The defence of our soil will be prioritised if [the] Turkish military continues its attacks."On Sunday, the Kurds said some Isis prisoners had escaped. In an apparent reference to Turkish-backed Syrian insurgents, the Kurds said mercenaries attacked a camp where Isis "elements" attacked guards and opened the gates."The brutal military assault led by Turkey and its mercenaries is now taking place near a camp in Ain Issa, where there are thousands from families of Isis," the Kurds said, adding "some were able to escape after bombardments that targeted" the camp.Mattis discussed the threat of an Isis resurgence on NBC's Meet the Press with Chuck Todd, in an interview to be broadcast in full on Sunday."It's in a situation of disarray right now," he said in excerpts released by the broadcaster. "Obviously, the Kurds are adapting to the Turkish attacks. And we'll have to see if they're able to maintain the fight against Isis. It's going to have an impact. The question is, how much?"Asked if the US would regret Trump's decision, Mattis said: "We have got to keep the pressure on Isis so they don't recover."We may want a war over. We may even declare it over. You can pull your troops out as President Obama learned the hard way out of Iraq, but the 'enemy gets the vote', we say in the military. And in this case, if we don't keep the pressure on, then Isis will resurge. It's absolutely a given that they will come back."Trump said this week any militant prisoners escaping from camps guarded by Kurds "will be escaping to Europe". He also said the Kurds "didn't help us in the second world war, they didn't help us in Normandy, for example".Mattis's apparent disinclination to directly criticise the president, even as Syria spirals into ever worse chaos as a result of US actions, is in keeping with his approach since resigning in December 2018.The retired US Marine Corps general has said he has a "duty of silence" regarding the president he served. That commitment has held despite Mattis having resigned, like McGurk, in response to an earlier attempt by Trump to pull US troops from Syria and in protest at his treatment of America's allies.In September, Mattis published a memoir, Call Sign Chaos. The book skirted his service to Trump, focusing instead on his career in the US armed forces.
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| U.S. Gets Final OK to Hit EU With $7.5 Billion Airbus Sanction Posted: 14 Oct 2019 02:49 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- The World Trade Organization on Monday formally authorized the U.S. to impose tariffs on about $7.5 billion worth of European exports annually in retaliation for illegal government aid to Airbus SE.Members approved this month's arbitration award -- the largest in the trade organization's history -- at a special meeting of the dispute settlement body at the WTO's headquarters in Geneva. The development marks the final procedural hurdle before the U.S. can retaliate against European goods, which it plans to do on Oct. 18.The EU made a last-ditch appeal to the U.S. over the weekend to thwart the tariffs, seeking a negotiated settlement that would avoid the economic harm a tit-for-tat escalation would cause both parties. European Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom told her U.S. counterpart, Robert Lighthizer, that his tariff plan would compel the EU to apply countermeasures in a parallel lawsuit over aid the U.S. provided to Boeing Co."I strongly believe that imposing additional tariffs in the two aircraft cases is not a solution," Malmstrom said in an Oct. 11 letter to Lighthizer seen by Bloomberg News. "It would only inflict damage on businesses and put at risk jobs on both sides of the Atlantic, harm global trade and the broader aviation industry at a sensitive time."'Short-Sighted'U.S. Ambassador to the WTO Dennis Shea said at Monday's meeting in Geneva that the Trump administration's preference is to "find a negotiated outcome with the EU that ends all WTO-inconsistent subsidies," according to a copy of his remarks obtained by Bloomberg. Malmstrom said last month that the EU had reached out to the U.S. with a "detailed proposal," but that the U.S. wasn't willing to negotiate.The EU said that it would be "short-sighted" for the U.S. to impose retaliatory tariffs on European goods and urged the U.S. to find a "fair and balanced solution" to the dispute, according to a statement delivered by Paolo Garzotti, the EU's deputy head of delegation to the WTO."Both the EU and the US have been found at fault by the WTO dispute settlement system," Garzotti said. "In the parallel Boeing case, the EU will in some months equally be granted right to impose additional countermeasures. The mutual imposition of countermeasures, however, would only harm global trade and the broader aviation industry."The EU has already published a preliminary list of U.S. goods -- from ketchup to video-game consoles -- it will target in a $12 billion plan for retaliatory levies related to the Boeing case. The WTO will issue an arbitration award next year. The office of the U.S. Trade Representative previously said it would impose a 10% tariff on large civil aircraft from France, Germany, Spain and the U.K. The U.S. will also slap 25% levies on a range of other items including Irish and Scotch whiskeys, wine, olives and cheese, as well as certain pork products, butter and yogurt from various European nations.(Updates with U.S. comment in the fifth paragraph.)\--With assistance from Jonathan Stearns.To contact the reporter on this story: Bryce Baschuk in Geneva at bbaschuk2@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Murray at brmurray@bloomberg.net, Richard Bravo, Chris ReiterFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Japan storm victims felt worst was over, then floods came Posted: 14 Oct 2019 07:04 AM PDT  After the worst of Typhoon Hagibis passed over this town north of Tokyo, Kazuo Saito made sure there was no water outside his house and went to bed. The storm, which made landfall in the Tokyo region late Saturday, had dumped record amounts of rain that caused rivers to overflow their banks, some of them damaged. It turned many neighborhoods in Kawagoe into swamps.
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| Iran alleges foreign government behind 'treacherous' ship attack Posted: 14 Oct 2019 09:00 AM PDT  Iran said Monday a foreign government was behind what it alleges was a "treacherous" attack on a tanker off Saudi Arabia last week, as it released pictures of its damaged hull. Tehran says the Iranian-flagged Sabiti oil tanker was hit by two separate explosions off the Red Sea port of Jeddah on Friday. It is the first Iranian ship to have been targeted since a spate of attacks on vessels in the Gulf that Washington blamed on Tehran.
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| Family of a missing Utah tech executive has called off search after body found Posted: 14 Oct 2019 06:28 AM PDT  The family of a missing Utah tech executive has called off a search for her after police reported that a body was found inside a parked car in the San Francisco Bay Area.
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| CNN’s Anti-Religious Town Hall Posted: 14 Oct 2019 08:41 AM PDT  LGBT activists gathered last week for CNN's "Equality" town hall with the Democratic presidential candidates. The advocates present were, in the words of Human Rights Campaign President Alphonso David, the "tip of the spear in our fight for full equality."The "spear" metaphor grew more apt as the night went on.Religious freedom was the second-most-popular whipping post. The candidates talked about the concept with palpable derision, as if religion — save Islam, which they predictably if incoherently exempted — were a ruse used to cement old prejudices. No one actually believes those folksy things about God, heaven, and hell, right? Never considered was the notion that people hold earnest religious beliefs that in turn inform their views on sexual morality.The town hall was also evidence that the LGBTQ movement has grown more jaded and contemptuous, even as it has achieved more and more of its ostensible aims. If conciliation was ever the preferred tone, it is no longer. Instead, it is now increasingly unashamed and vituperative scorn.How would Elizabeth Warren, for instance, respond to someone on the campaign trail who said that they believed in the traditional definition of marriage? "Well, I'm gonna assume it's a guy who said that," she said. That elicited a laugh from the audience, men being the only acceptable punchline to the humorless scolds in the crowd. She continued, "I'm gonna say then just marry one woman. I'm cool with that." Then, after a pause: "If you can find one."(Social science notwithstanding on that last jab.)Beto O'Rourke piled on further, affirming his belief that "freedom of religion is a fundamental right, but it should not be used to discriminate."You are, in other words, "free" to practice your religion, so long as you practice it in a manner that Beto O'Rourke — the skateboard-wielding ex-congressman who posts videos of his dental visits on social media — sees fit. Some animals are more equal than others: O'Rourke will be happy to "discriminate" against your church if it happens to hold an unpopular position on sexual ethics. He literally said so seconds later, when asked by Don Lemon if religious institutions should "lose their tax-exempt status if they oppose same sex marriage." O'Rourke's response:> There can be no reward, no benefit, no tax break for anyone, any institution, any organization in America that denies the full human rights and the full civil rights of every single one of us. And so as president, we are going to make that a priority and we are going to stop those who are infringing upon the human rights of our fellow Americans.What "human right" are religious organizations "infringing upon" when they "oppose" same-sex marriage? Do people have a "civil right" to have their sexual preferences validated by private religious organizations? Is there a "human right" to have your particular sexual union baptized by religious traditions with centuries of contravening theological directives?Pete Buttigieg took this same tack, insisting that "the right to religious freedom ends where religion is being used as an excuse to harm other people." Which of course depends entirely on what Buttigieg means by "harm." There is certainly "harm," for instance, in mutilating the genitals of a young girl — a more ecumenical venture than progressives care to admit — but does a baker's refusal to bake a cake that violates his religious convictions "harm other people"? What if a church refuses to host a ceremony that offends its moral precepts? Does "religious freedom end" when someone refuses to grant moral approbation to someone else's choices and behavior?Indeed, that was the Freudian subtext of the entire town hall. "Equality?" That has, even on activists' own terms, been long achieved. Notice, Alphonso David didn't simply want "equality" — whatever that means — but "full equality": your approval. Not simply your toleration, but your moral assent and your unhesitating affirmation. It's not enough to live and let live. You will, in Erick Erickson's words, "be made to care."First, we were told that good sense held that we ought to allow two consenting adults to do as they wished in the privacy of their own bedroom. Fair enough — what business is it of ours? Next came civil unions. Fine. Then, marriage was redefined at a federal level on the basis of specious legal reasoning. Next, religious florists, bakers, and caterers were asked to violate their consciences and dragged before the courts if they declined. And now, at long last, the public exercise of religious faith, and the very belief itself, the very notion that one has rights to "oppose" practices that violate their private conscience, are under siege.All of which, we were told, would "never happen." As the town hall put on display, it's not for want of trying.
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| More than a dozen police killed in ambush in violent Mexican state Posted: 14 Oct 2019 09:27 AM PDT ![More than a dozen police killed in ambush in violent Mexican state]( "More than a dozen police killed in ambush in violent Mexican state") More than a dozen police have been shot dead in an ambush in the western Mexican state of Michoacan, authorities said on Monday, in one of the bloodiest attacks on security forces since President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador took office in December. The ministry for public security said on Twitter it would use all means at its disposal to catch those responsible for the attack in the municipality of Aguililla in Michoacan, a state that has long been convulsed by turf wars between drug cartels. The federal public security ministry said 14 police were killed, though its state counterpart in Michoacan said 13 officers were confirmed dead, and three injured.
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| Disney World retesting Skyliner after malfunction grounds cable cars, reports say Posted: 13 Oct 2019 10:54 AM PDT  Disney World's Skyliner system is back up and running, but without passengers, as the park begins testing the system before reopening to guests.
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| Trump has delivered what Russia wants in Syria — at zero cost — and 'Putin likely can't believe his luck' Posted: 14 Oct 2019 03:53 AM PDT  Vladimir Putin "didn't even have to try to make it happen," a NATO official told us. "Small wonder he'd interfere on Trump's side in an election."
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| Canadian Snowbird plane crashes during Atlanta air show Posted: 13 Oct 2019 12:54 PM PDT  The remaining festivities associated with the annual air show were cancelled following the crash
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| Some states honoring indigenous people instead of Columbus Posted: 14 Oct 2019 05:05 AM PDT  A handful of states are celebrating their first Indigenous Peoples Day on Monday as part of a trend to move away from a day honoring Christopher Columbus. From Minnesota to Vermont, at least five states and Washington, D.C., have done away with Columbus Day celebrations in deference to Native Americans, though the federal Columbus Day remains in place. Since 1992, Native American advocates have pressed states to change Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples Day over concerns that Columbus helped launched centuries of genocide against indigenous populations in the Americas.
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| In 1986, a Russian Submarine with 27 Nuclear Missiles Sank (And Exploded) Posted: 13 Oct 2019 12:00 PM PDT  "Seawater combined with missile fuel to produce heat and toxic gases. Despite a crewman venting the tube, an explosion erupted in the silo, ejecting the missile and its warheads into the sea."
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| Boris Johnson Uses Queen’s Speech to Set Out General Election Platform Posted: 14 Oct 2019 04:39 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Sign up to our Brexit Bulletin, follow us @Brexit and subscribe to our podcast.Boris Johnson set out his ambitions for governing Britain with an outline plan for what he will do if he wins the general election that's expected to be triggered within weeks.The British prime minister promised a focus on domestic issues if he can "get Brexit done," as he used the pomp and ceremony of a speech to Parliament by Queen Elizabeth II to announce 26 draft government bills.Without a majority in the House of Commons, Johnson has little chance of seeing his plans turned into law. With that in mind, he is seeking an early general election -- and Monday's policy package is likely to form the skeleton of his manifesto for that campaign.Seven of the proposals related to Brexit, but everything hangs on the first one: The European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill, which would allow the U.K. to leave the EU with a deal -- if one is agreed.In the event that Johnson and the EU can reach an accord before the end of the month, Johnson will try to rush that bill through Parliament. If not, he may try to take Britain out of the bloc without a deal, or he might be forced to delay the divorce.The issue for Johnson is that he is so far short of a majority he cannot pass any controversial legislation without an election, which the opposition parties won't let him hold until he delays Brexit or agrees a deal with the EU.In that context, the speech, delivered to both Houses of Parliament by Queen Elizabeth II on her throne in the House of Lords, was a preview of the ground on which Johnson would like to fight that election: Health, crime and education."People are tired of stasis, gridlock and waiting for change," Johnson wrote in an introduction to the Queen's speech. "They don't want to wait for their streets to be safer. They don't want to wait for their schools to have the funding they need."There were other measures to deal with Brexit, covering agriculture, fisheries, trade and immigration. A financial services bill aims to maintain the U.K.'s status as an investment center.Measures affecting business included:a Medicines and Medical Devices Bill, to simplify trials and prescribinga pension bill to make it easier for savers to keep track of different pots of moneyMoves to give government more powers to scrutinize takeovers of companies with national security linksa crackdown on child abuse online, putting a duty of care on technology companiesThe speech also contained lines clearly intended as voter-friendly talking points in an election:a law to let servers in restaurants keep all their tipsa nationwide roll-out of gigabit broadbandan Animal Welfare Bill, banning the use of wild animals in circusesAnother promise seeks to give Johnson's Conservatives an answer to the opposition Labour Party's eye-catching plan to take railways back into public ownership. The government will review how the trains work, with a pledge to simplify ticket structures and a new industry structure, Johnson's office said in a briefing.The rest of the week will see debate on these measures in Parliament, but the political focus will be on Johnson's talks with the EU, and a summit of EU leaders starting on Thursday. The government wants Parliament to sit on Saturday, the first weekend sitting since the Falklands War in 1982, to discuss the outcome of that meeting.The pageantry of the Queen's Speech began at 10 a.m., when the Yeomen of the Guard, the royal bodyguards known as "Beefeaters," searched the cellars of Parliament. The tradition dates back to 1605, when Guy Fawkes attempted to blow up Parliament, and King James I with it.The Queen then traveled in a gilded coach from Buckingham Palace to the Houses of Parliament, escorted by the Household Cavalry. As the Queen arrived, the Union Flag of the U.K. was lowered and her Royal Standard raised over Parliament.At 11:30 a.m., Sarah Clarke, the Queen's representative to Parliament -- generally known by her official title of Black Rod -- marched to the House of Commons, the lower, elected, chamber. She summoned politicians to hear the Queen, who was waiting in the House of Lords, the upper, unelected chamber. The door of the Commons was slammed in her face.This ritual symbolizes the independence of the Commons from the Crown: no British monarch has entered the lower house since 1642, when King Charles I tried to arrest five members in the run-up to a civil war that ended with his execution in 1649.To contact the reporters on this story: Robert Hutton in London at rhutton1@bloomberg.net;Kitty Donaldson in London at kdonaldson1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Tim Ross at tross54@bloomberg.net, Thomas Penny, Andrew AtkinsonFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| US trio win Nobel Economics Prize for work on poverty Posted: 14 Oct 2019 07:54 AM PDT  A trio of Americans on Monday won the Nobel Economics Prize for their work in the fight against poverty, including Esther Duflo, the youngest-ever economics laureate and only the second woman to win the prize. Duflo -- a 46-year-old French-American professor who has served as an advisor to ex-US president Barack Obama -- shared the Nobel with her husband, Indian-born Abhijit Banerjee of the US, and American Michael Kremer "for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty," the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said. "This year's laureates have introduced a new approach to obtaining reliable answers about the best ways to fight global poverty," the jury said.
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| Police are 'deadnaming' transgender murder victims — here's what that means, and why it makes tracking crimes so much more difficult Posted: 14 Oct 2019 06:55 AM PDT  Deadnaming victims — or referring to a victim by their birth name rather than their chosen name — makes it difficult to know the actual number of transgender murder victims.
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| Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez faces backlash over haircut Posted: 14 Oct 2019 09:46 AM PDT  This week, the Washington Times published a story saying that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., had spent $80 on a haircut and $180 on color at a Washington, D.C., salon, a choice the newspaper presented as hypocritical, given she "regularly rails against the rich and complains about the cost of living inside the Beltway."
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| UPDATE 1-Scientists endorse mass civil disobedience to force climate action Posted: 13 Oct 2019 04:53 AM PDT ![UPDATE 1-Scientists endorse mass civil disobedience to force climate action]( "UPDATE 1-Scientists endorse mass civil disobedience to force climate action") In a joint declaration, climate scientists, physicists, biologists, engineers and others from at least 20 countries broke with the caution traditionally associated with academia to side with peaceful protesters courting arrest from Amsterdam to Melbourne. Wearing white laboratory coats to symbolise their research credentials, a group of about 20 of the signatories gathered on Saturday to read out the text outside London's century-old Science Museum in the city's upmarket Kensington district. "We believe that the continued governmental inaction over the climate and ecological crisis now justifies peaceful and non-violent protest and direct action, even if this goes beyond the bounds of the current law," said Emily Grossman, a science broadcaster with a PhD in molecular biology.
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| British Isil 'matchmaker' feared to have escaped after mass prisoner breakout Posted: 13 Oct 2019 04:36 AM PDT  Northern Syria was collapsing into chaos last night as hundreds of Islamic State (Isil) family members escaped from prison and Kurdish forces prepared to surrender key cities to the Assad regime after the US announced it was evacuating all troops from the area. A notorious British Isil female recruiter was feared to be among nearly 800 wives and children of jihadist fighters who burst out of a Kurdish camp in the biggest prison break since Turkey launched its offensive last week. The US also said it was pulling out all 1,000 of its soldiers in northern Syria, an abrupt reversal of policy that came just days after the Trump administration insisted it was only moving a few dozen commandos. In a stark sign of how quickly US influence in Syria has collapsed, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) last night appeared to have brokered a deal with Russia and the Assad regime to hand over control of two key cities. Smoke rises from a Turkish bombardment in northeast Syria on Sunday, seen from the Turkish side of the border Credit: ERDEM SAHIN/EPA-EFE/REX The SDF agreed to surrender Kobani and Manbij to Syrian government forces in a bid to shield them from Turkish attack, according to Kurdish and Syrian media. Both areas have immense symbolism for the Kurds, who lost hundreds of men while fighting Isil for control of them. "The betrayal process is officially completed," an SDF official said of the US withdrawal. News of the US retreat sparked panic across northern Syria as civilians, who believed their towns might be spared from Turkish onslaught by the presence of American forces, started fleeing their homes. At least 200,000 people have been displaced so far, aid groups said, and the number is likely to rise. At least 26 civilians were reportedly killed on Sunday as a Turkish airstrike hit a convoy and Turkish-backed Syrian rebels were accused of killing a prominent female Kurdish politician and several other unarmed people. The rebels denied the allegations. Kurdish authorities said early on Sunday around 785 women and children escaped from a camp in Ain Issa when it came under attack from Turkish shelling. Isil inmates "attacked the camp guard and opened the gates" while Kurdish forces were under fire, authorities said. Turkey - Syria map Tooba Gondal, 25, and her two children, may have been among those who fled and her whereabouts were unknown last night. Ms Gondal traveled to Syria to join Isil in 2015 and has been accused of grooming other young British women, including Shamima Begum, to follow her. The Telegraph understands at least three other British women, and reportedly three British orphans, were held in Ain Issa camp before the break-out. The SDF warned the West the breakout may be the first of many and that the resurgent jihadists "will come knocking on your doors" if the Turkish offensive is not stopped. Mark Esper, the US defence secretary, said he and Donald Trump had decided to withdraw all 1,000 US troops from northern Syria because the Turks "likely intend to expand their attack further south than originally planned". "We have American forces likely caught between two opposing advancing armies and it's a very untenable situation," he said. Tooba Gondal is pictured before leaving for Syria While Mr Trump said last week he was removing around 50 US commandos from a 120km section of the Turkey-Syria border, hundreds of others American soldiers remained near Kurdish key cities like Kobani and Qamishli. The complete US retreat is likely to remove any remaining obstacles to Turkey mounting a full-scale assault on those cities, prompting civilians to start packing their belongings into cars and trucks and flee south. While US officials insisted America was opposed to the Turkish invasion, Mr Trump struck a laissez-faire note in a series of Sunday morning tweets. "The Kurds and Turkey have been fighting for many years," he noted. "Others may want to come in and fight for one side or the other. Let them!" Read more | Syria crisis The US has yet to slap any sanctions on Turkey for the assault, despite White House warnings that it would target the Turkish economy if the offensive led to a humanitarian crisis or disrupted anti-Isil operations. Both outcomes have already happened. Operations against Isil appeared to have come to a complete halt last night as US forces prepared to evacuate and all available Kurdish forces were directed to the fight against Turkey. Mr Esper said the US understood that the SDF was "looking to cut a deal if you will with the Syrians and the Russians". Sources said Mazloum Kobani, the top SDF commander, met with Russian officers to broker the agreement. Turkey would likely welcome a deal that reasserts Damascus' authority over northeast Syria, as that would fatally undermine Kurdish aspirations for an independent political region of their own. As the area plunged into chaos civilian casualties mounted during the bloodiest day of the offensive so far. Several civilians were killed by a Turkish airstrike on a convoy, including at least one unidentified journalist. The SDF said Turkish-backed rebel fighters intercepted a car carrying Hevrin Khalaf, a Kurdish political leader with the Future Syria Party, and shot her to death along with her driver and an aide on Saturday. Very smart not to be involved in the intense fighting along the Turkish Border, for a change. Those that mistakenly got us into the Middle East Wars are still pushing to fight. They have no idea what a bad decision they have made. Why are they not asking for a Declaration of War?— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 13, 2019 Video footage showed her black SUV riddled with bullet holes while Arabic-speaking Syrian fighters cheered. Turkey has said such fighters, known as the National Army, would be at the forefront of anti-Isil operations once the Kurds were defeated. But analysts said the group, which includes some jihadist sympathisers, was unlikely to be an effective counter-terrorism force. "They do what they are told to by Turkey but they do it very poorly," said Elizabeth Tsurkov, a fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. At least 60 civilians have been killed in northern Syria and 18 civilians have died from Kurdish shelling in southern Turkey since last Wednesday, according to the Syrian Observatory. France and Germany both announced they were halting arms sales to Turkey but the UK did not match their announcements. Britain approved military export licenses worth £583m to Turkey in 2017, including licenses for attack aircraft and helicopters. France is expected to propose an EU-wide arms embargo against Turkey on Monday, a Western diplomat said. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkey's president, has signalled he plans to press ahead with the attack despite widespread Western criticism.
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| Pope's bodyguard resigns over new financial leaks scandal Posted: 14 Oct 2019 08:26 AM PDT  The Vatican's latest leaks scandal claimed its first victim Monday, as Pope Francis' chief bodyguard resigned over the leak of a Vatican police flyer identifying five employees who were suspended as part of a financial investigation. The Vatican said its police chief, 57-year-old Domenico Giani, bore no responsibility for the leaked flyer but resigned to avoid disrupting the investigation and "out of love for the church and faithfulness" to the pope. Giani, a 20-year veteran of the Vatican's security services, has stood by Francis' side and jogged alongside his popemobile during hundreds of public appearances and foreign trips.
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| Can The U.S. Army's Latest Air Defense System Handle 21st Century Warfare? Posted: 13 Oct 2019 01:37 PM PDT  A demonstration might give us hints.
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| Hong Kong Police Officer Slashed in Neck as Violence Continues Posted: 13 Oct 2019 10:45 PM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- A Hong Kong police officer was slashed in the neck by a protester as clashes continued following an escalation of violence earlier this month in demonstrations that began in June.Demonstrators spread out across 18 districts on Sunday in scattered, pop-up protests to pressure the government to meet their remaining demands, including the right to choose and elect their own leaders. Police said the officer suffered a neck wound after being attacked with a "sharp-edged" object in a subway station. On Monday, police said the officer remained in hospital but was in stable condition.Due to "serious vandalism," the city's rail operator MTR Corp. said on Monday all main subway lines, MTR buses and light rail would shut down early at 10 p.m. The Airport Express route was not affected, the company said, adding that it made the decision after reviewing ongoing repairs and conducting a "joint risk assessment" with the government.Overall the disruption wasn't as bad as earlier this month, when the subway system was completely shut down due to widespread violence after leader Carrie Lam invoked emergency powers last used more than half a century ago to impose a ban face masks. Prior to this weekend, some activists had urged others to scale back the vandalism that has shut shops, banks and train stations over concerns it could sap support for the movement.Several events later this week could add fuel to the protests: Lam is due to give her annual economic-policy address, and U.S. lawmakers in the House of Representatives may vote on a bill that would require annual reviews of Hong Kong's special trading status and potentially sanction some Chinese officials. Protesters plan to hold a rally in support of the bill in Central starting at 7 p.m. on Monday."The protesters and the people in Hong Kong certainly would like to have more international attention, would like to secure international sympathy," Joseph Cheng, a retired political science professor and pro-democracy activist, said Sunday. "The concern obviously is that violent activities may lose international support. There is a definite awareness."Protesters are also concerned that violence may give the government an excuse to delay local elections next month, particularly as demonstrators are still enjoying popular support. Lam's approval rating has been stuck near record lows for months.U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday appeared to endorse the notion that the protests were waning in a meeting in Washington with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He. The two sides agreed to "phase one" of a trade deal that reduced tensions between the world's biggest economies, even as thorny issues remain."We discussed Hong Kong and I think great progress has been made by China in Hong Kong," Trump said. "And I've been watching and I actually told the vice premier it really has toned down a lot from the initial days of a number of months ago when I saw a lot of people, and I see far fewer now."The issue jumped into the forefront of debate in the U.S. over the past week after the general manager of the Houston Rockets basketball team tweeted support for the anti-Beijing protesters. The tweet was quickly deleted, but it triggered a backlash from Chinese companies and fans, leading to an exhibition game on Thursday in Shanghai not being aired or streamed in China.While he didn't refer directly to Hong Kong, China President Xi Jinping told Nepal Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli that those attempting to split China will be crushed, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Sunday. Xi said any external force backing the split of China will be considered as delusional by the Chinese people, the report said.The ongoing unrest was sparked by the Hong Kong government's plan to introduce now-withdrawn legislation that would've allowed extradition to mainland China. Protester demands have since broadened to include an independent commission of inquiry into police brutality and greater democracy. Lam's use of the emergency law raised the ire of protesters and paralyzed large parts of the city.About 100 restaurants have closed because of the unrest, Financial Secretary Paul Chan said in a blog post Sunday. Around 2,000 employees have been affected as a result of the closures, Chan said, citing the catering industry.Since protests erupted on China's National Day on Oct. 1, police have arrested about 500 people, including 77 for violating the mask ban, and fired almost 2,000 rounds of tear gas. Dozens of people have have been injured, including two teenage protesters who were shot during fights with police.Lam has refused to rule out further emergency measures, or even requesting Chinese military intervention to halt the unrest. "If the situation becomes so bad, then no option should be ruled out, if we want Hong Kong to at least have another chance," she told reporters Tuesday.(Updates with police officer's condition in second paragrah)\--With assistance from Stanley James and Iain Marlow.To contact the reporters on this story: Aaron Mc Nicholas in Hong Kong at amcnicholas2@bloomberg.net;Eric Lam in Hong Kong at elam87@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Scott at bscott66@bloomberg.net, Daniel Ten KateFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| A woman got her arm cut off by a propeller on a plane that her husband was preparing to fly Posted: 14 Oct 2019 08:20 AM PDT  The couple got out of the plane to make sure it's wheels were clear before taxiing to the runway, when her arm came into contact with the propeller.
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| Up to 35 dead as Typhoon Hagibis slams Japan Posted: 13 Oct 2019 01:25 PM PDT  Tens of thousands of rescuers worked through the pre-dawn hours Monday to reach people trapped by landslides and floods in Japan caused by a powerful typhoon that has killed up to 35, officials and local media said. Typhoon Hagibis moved away from land on Sunday morning, but while it largely spared the capital, it left a trail of destruction in surrounding regions. More than 100,000 rescuers -- including 31,000 troops -- clawed through debris overnight Sunday to Monday to reach people trapped after torrential rain caused landslides and filled rivers until they burst their banks.
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| $20,000 worth of ride props were reportedly stolen from Walt Disney World Posted: 13 Oct 2019 10:03 AM PDT  The Orlando Sentinel reported on Thursday that the items were taken from a shed behind Test Track in Epcot.
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| Malaysia to study impact of India's planned trade action Posted: 13 Oct 2019 07:13 PM PDT ![Malaysia to study impact of India's planned trade action]( "Malaysia to study impact of India's planned trade action") Malaysia's Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said his government will monitor the trade situation with India, which is reported to be considering trade curbs on the Southeast Asian nation over his criticism of actions in Kashmir, news wire Bernama reported. Government and industry sources told Reuters last week that New Delhi is looking for ways to limit palm oil imports and other goods from Malaysia, in retaliation for Mahathir's speech at the United Nations in September when he said India had "invaded and occupied" Jammu and Kashmir. Malaysia had said it did not receive "anything official" from India.
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