| What Hunter Biden did on the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma Posted: 18 Oct 2019 06:33 AM PDT ![What Hunter Biden did on the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma]( "What Hunter Biden did on the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma") During his time on the board of one of Ukraine's largest natural gas companies, Hunter Biden, the son of former U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden, was regarded as a helpful non-executive director with a powerful name, according to people familiar with Biden's role at the company. Biden's role at Burisma Holdings Ltd has come under intense scrutiny following unsupported accusations by U.S. President Donald Trump that Joe Biden improperly tried to help his son's business interests in Ukraine. Interviews with more than a dozen people, including executives and former prosecutors in Ukraine, paint a picture of a director who provided advice on legal issues, corporate finance and strategy during a five-year term on the board, which ended in April of this year.
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| Japan PM visits storm-hit areas; royal parade may be delayed Posted: 17 Oct 2019 02:13 AM PDT  Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday visited northern towns devasted by the deadly typhoon and promised residents his government's support for their speedy recovery. Abe told reporters during the visit that he is considering postponing a royal parade scheduled for Tuesday to celebrate Emperor Naruhito's enthronement as the government needs to tackle the disaster. "I'm determined to provide ample support for the reconstruction of your daily life.
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| Mayor Pete Buttigieg Drops Fundraiser Tied to Laquan McDonald Coverup Posted: 18 Oct 2019 09:10 AM PDT  REUTERSMayor Pete Buttigieg's presidential campaign announced Friday that the co-host of a controversial campaign fundraiser was dropping out amid sharp public criticism over the role he played in delaying the release of a video of an infamous 2014 shooting death of a black teenage boy.The would-be co-host, Steve Patton, is a former Chicago city attorney who pushed to withhold video depicting the death of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald until after a contentious mayoral runoff election, more than a year after a judge had ordered the video to be released. Patton already donated $5,600 to Buttigieg in June—a donation that the South Bend mayor's campaign said it would be returning. "Transparency and justice for Laquan McDonald is more important than a campaign contribution," Chris Meagher, the Buttigieg campaign's national press secretary, told The Daily Beast. "We are returning the money he contributed to the campaign and the money he has collected. He is no longer a co-host for the event and will not be attending."Patton's role in the Friday fundraiser, first reported by the Associated Press, prompted sharp criticism of Buttigieg, including from the Rev. Jesse Jackson, the city's most prominent civil rights leader, who called on the Democratic nominee to "adjust his schedule."Buttigieg's campaign had initially declined to comment on the story, directing the Associated Press to his "Douglass Plan" to end systemic racism.Buttigieg, who is struggling in the polls among black voters, has had difficulty trying to reconcile his sweeping proposals for deconstructing structural racism with his record as the mayor, where he fired the city's first black police chief and has conceded that he has failed in diversifying the city's law enforcement. South Bend's police department is 90 percent white while the city itself is 27 percent black.In June, Buttigieg left the campaign trail following the shooting death of a black man, Eric Logan, by a white police officer. At a town hall discussing the shooting, Buttigieg was heckled by angry South Bend residents who demanded that he focus on the city's problems with racism in its police force rather than his run for the White House."I just want you to know that we're not running from this," Buttigieg said at the time. "Of course I'm upset. A man died in this city at the hands of one of the people in charge of protecting the city."Other president campaigns were quick to jump on Patton's participation in the fundraiser as evidence of misplaced priorities. Rob Flaherty, digital director for Buttigieg rival Beto O'Rourke, tweeted that it was "good to see that despite The Pete Pivot, he's remaining consistent on some things."According to Federal Election Commission filings, Patton donated $2,700 to O'Rourke's 2018 campaign for the U.S. Senate.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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| New ICE Program Exposes Hundreds of Fraudulent ‘Family Units’ Trying to Cross The Border Posted: 18 Oct 2019 05:41 AM PDT  U.S. immigration authorities have discovered hundreds of instances at the border of "family unit fraud," or unrelated individuals posing as families, over the last six months thanks to a new investigative initiative.Authorities exposed 238 fraudulent families presenting 329 false documents, according to the results of an investigation run by Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations unit in El Paso, Texas, the results of which were announced Thursday.More than 350 of those individuals are facing federal prosecution for crimes including human smuggling, making false statements, conspiracy, and illegal re-entry after removal. Authorities have referred 19 children to U.S. Health and Human Services as a result of this investigation. Another 50 migrants fraudulently claimed to be unaccompanied minors."Some of the most disturbing cases identified involve transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) and individuals who are increasingly exploiting innocent children to further their criminal activity," ICE said in a statement.In some cases, criminal organizations made deals with the children's biological parents to transfer children as young as 4 months old to the U.S. and pose as a family unit either for human smuggling purposes or to fraudulently obtain immigration benefits, ICE said."These are examples of the dark side of this humanitarian crisis that our Border Patrol and HSI agents are working tirelessly to identify," said El Paso Sector Interim Chief Gloria Chavez. "We will pursue the highest of judicial consequences for those who commit fraud and exploit innocent children."The Trump administration has attempted to end the "catch and release" policy for migrant family units, which provides migrant families an expedited release into the U.S. as their asylum cases are being processed.Then–acting Homeland Security secretary Kevin McAleenan said last month that the vast majority of migrant families who enter the country illegally will no longer be eligible for "catch and release" due to the implementation of stricter policies. One such policy, the Migrant Protection Protocols, requires that migrants wait in Mexico while their asylum claims are being adjudicated.
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| Rep. Nunes tries to use Steele dossier to defend Trump during closed-door hearing Posted: 18 Oct 2019 12:18 PM PDT  During a closed-door impeachment meeting on Capitol Hill, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) brought up a topic that surprised some attendees: the Steele dossier. The context, according to three sources familiar with the episode, was his effort to explain why President Trump might be "upset" about Ukraine.
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| House GOP Leader Praises Mark Zuckerberg for Political Ads Policy Posted: 18 Oct 2019 09:26 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Facebook Inc. chief executive Mark Zuckerberg's decision not to ban political ads that Democrats say are inaccurate drew praise from the top Republican in the House of Representatives Friday.Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican, said he appreciated Zuckerberg's comments on Thursday that policing political speech would be undemocratic."The idea of banning speech you might not like is nonsense, but sadly the mindset is creeping into places like college campuses and our presidential campaign platforms," McCarthy told reporters. "Yesterday was a heartwarming reminder that free expression is the best business model in the world."In recent weeks, the presidential campaigns of Democrats Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren have called on Facebook to remove ads from President Donald Trump's campaign that include claims with no evidence. Facebook has declined to do so, raising the larger question of whether such ads on social media should be regulated."I don't think most people want to live in a world where you can only post things that tech companies judge to be 100% true," Zuckerberg said Thursday at Georgetown University in Washington. "People should be able to see for themselves what politicians are saying.""In a democracy, I believe people should decide what's credible, not tech companies," Zuckerberg said.\--With assistance from Emily Wilkins.To contact the reporter on this story: Erik Wasson in Washington at ewasson@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Joe Sobczyk at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net, Anna Edgerton, Laurie AsséoFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| One year on, migrant caravan leaves unexpected legacy Posted: 18 Oct 2019 06:25 PM PDT  A year ago, thousands of Central American men, women and children chasing the American dream arrived in Mexico in a massive caravan that has left a lasting legacy -- just not the one people generally thought it would. Fleeing chronic poverty and brutal gang violence at home, they banded together in hopes of finding safety in numbers against the dangers of the journey, including criminal gangs that regularly extort, kidnap and kill migrants. The images made an impact around the world: carrying their meager belongings on their backs, many migrants pressed small children to their chests or held them by the hand.
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| Romney speculates Turkey called Trump's bluff: 'Are we so weak and inept?' Posted: 17 Oct 2019 03:20 PM PDT  The Utah senator delivers an impassioned speech on the Senate floor that accuses the president of betraying American values.
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| Moms Demand Action founder says advocacy group is not anti-gun Posted: 17 Oct 2019 07:08 PM PDT  Moms Demand Action founder Shannon Watts spoke with CBS News' Major Garrett for this week's episode of "The Takeout"
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| Atatiana Jefferson's death highlights a long history of police violence in Fort Worth, and the community says it's time for a 'reckoning' Posted: 18 Oct 2019 08:07 AM PDT  Atatiana Jefferson was shot and killed by Fort Worth police officer Aaron Dean. Her death was the sixth fatal police shooting in the city since June.
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| Maldives investigates activist group for 'slandering Islam' Posted: 17 Oct 2019 08:39 PM PDT ![Maldives investigates activist group for 'slandering Islam']( "Maldives investigates activist group for 'slandering Islam'") The head of a Maldivian activist group said Thursday police contacted her as part of an investigation into a report published by her organization that has been accused of slandering Islam. The Maldives government ordered the Maldivian Democracy Network to suspend its activities a week ago because of its 2016 report on religious radicalization in the Indian Ocean archipelago. The group's executive director, Shahinda Ismail said the report has been on the group's website for three years.
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| Clinton email probe finds no deliberate mishandling of classified information Posted: 18 Oct 2019 05:09 PM PDT  A U.S. State Department investigation of Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server while she was secretary of state has found no evidence of deliberate mishandling of classified information by department employees. The investigation, the results of which were released on Friday by Republican U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley's office, centered on whether Clinton, who served as the top U.S. diplomat from 2009 to 2013, jeopardized classified information by using a private email server rather than a government one.
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| Joe Biden digs at Elizabeth Warren after debate: Polls don't show 'anybody else as a frontrunner' Posted: 17 Oct 2019 02:23 PM PDT  "You know, I haven't seen any polling showing that nationally, on average, that anybody else is a front-runner," Joe Biden said.
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| Clever-Approved Travel Gear That Looks Good and Works Even Better Posted: 18 Oct 2019 12:34 PM PDT |
| Macron Says U.K. Shouldn’t Get New Delay If Johnson Loses Vote Posted: 18 Oct 2019 07:59 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- French President Emmanuel Macron heaped pressure on the British Parliament to back Boris Johnson's Brexit deal, saying the U.K.'s departure from the European Union shouldn't be delayed a moment longer.With Parliament due to vote on the revised agreement on Saturday, Macron's remarks echoed the message Johnson himself has been sending to reticent MPs: it's now or never. "I don't think a new extension should be granted," Macron told reporters after a summit of EU leaders in Brussels, where the deal had been rubber stamped. "The Oct. 31 deadline must be met."Macron's stance increases the risk that the U.K. will crash out of the EU without a deal on Oct. 31. But the reality is more nuanced, according to EU diplomats who doubt the bloc will ever throw the U.K. off a cliff without a safety net. The pound dipped on the comments, and then recovered.Selling the DealAfter sealing a revised deal with the EU on Thursday, Johnson is spending Friday frantically talking to politicians from his own and other parties as he tries to rustle up a majority. The prime minister needs to add 61 votes to the tally his predecessor Theresa May managed when her version of the Brexit deal was defeated for a third and final time in March.The new agreement differs from May's agreement because only Northern Ireland rather than the whole U.K. will continue to apply the EU's customs rules. That's upset the province's Democratic Unionist Party whose MPs say they won't back Johnson's deal on Saturday.If Johnson loses the vote, he's obliged by law to request from the EU another extension by the end of the day. But any postponement must be approved unanimously by the EU's 27 leaders so Macron would have a veto.EU officials were expecting such an intervention by Macron, who made similar noises before approving a Brexit delay in April, but they said that it's very unlikely that he or any other leader would prevent another one, particularly if the U.K. was headed for a general election. While the bloc is just as keen to get Britain's departure over the line as Johnson, it considers a no-deal exit in two weeks a far worse prospect than another postponement.Envoys from the 27 remaining countries and the European Commission are due to meet on Sunday to discuss next steps should Johnson's deal fall.The French have consistently taken a hard line in Brexit negotiations and Macron argues that the tight deadline he insisted on the last time the process was extended helped force Johnson into concessions. Several EU governments privately now regret delaying Brexit from April until October, acknowledging that it took the pressure of the U.K. to pass a deal."I was alone and I don't think I was wrong," Macron said, referring to the decision six months ago.Other leaders were more circumspect on the issue, with Leo Varadkar, the prime minister of Ireland, which stands to be affected most by a no-deal Brexit, saying a delay isn't guaranteed and Luxembourg premier Xavier Bettel insisting the ball was now in the U.K. Parliament's court."We have done our job," he said. "There's a plan A, but there's no plan B."(Updates with context throughout.)\--With assistance from Stephanie Bodoni.To contact the reporters on this story: Helene Fouquet in Paris at hfouquet1@bloomberg.net;Ian Wishart in Brussels at iwishart@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Ben Sills at bsills@bloomberg.netFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| 'We were not impressed’: Harry Dunn’s parents on their bizarre day with Trump Posted: 18 Oct 2019 11:00 PM PDT  Charlotte Charles and Tim Dunn talk about their whirlwind White House trip, with Anne Sacoolas, the woman who killed their son, in the next roomWhen the grieving parents of British teenager Harry Dunn arrived in New York earlier this week, their fight for justice for their dead son quickly became a whirlwind of interviews. Their press tour took a strange turn on Tuesday, however, when family adviser Radd Seiger received an unexpected invitation to Washington DC."Radd, who's been looking after us, has a phone call from the White House saying: 'Could you please come to the White House as soon as possible?'" Tim Dunn, Harry's father, said."We got on a train, and away we went."It was the start of a bizarre trip to visit Donald Trump that plunged the grieving Dunns briefly into the weird world of White House politics, as the US president and his team appeared keen on pulling a reality TV-style stunt on them – by brokering a meeting in front of the press with the woman who killed their child.Dunn, 19, was killed this August in a head-on collision between his motorcycle and a car traveling on the wrong side of the road. The alleged driver of that car, Anne Sacoolas, is the wife of a US intelligence officer; she claimed diplomatic immunity and subsequently fled back to the US.Dunn's parents want Sacoolas to return to the UK and cooperate with investigators. They hoped their trip to the US would bring attention to his tragic death, as media coverage in the US has been overshadowed by the impeachment inquiry."He was very, very special, big-hearted boy," said his mother, Charlotte Charles, saying he had many friends and a keen "instinct to know when you needed an extra hug"."It was very hard to get mad with him," she said, even when "you felt like you needed to sometimes – especially when he left his room in such a mess".Tim Dunn described him as an "accomplished" motorbike rider who would chat with his parents after a long workday, before going out for a ride.When Dunn's family accepted the White House invitation, they were neither informed it was a meeting with Trump nor that Sacoolas would be there in the next room – let alone that Trump would thrice urge them to meet with her, they said."It wasn't actually until we were halfway there, I think, that we realized it was a senior official," Charles recalled. "We just went with it. We didn't really have any time to think about it."A banner near the site where Harry Dunn died. Photograph: Paul Howard/REX/ShutterstockOn the train, they talked about what might be in store for them at the White House."We took it to the most bizarre situation that could have happened – which actually ended up playing out," Charles said. "We were very glad that we had discussed that it would be a possibility, although we actually didn't think for one second that we would be placed in that position."When Dunn's parents and Seiger arrived at the White House that evening, they spent 40 minutes going through security checks and waiting around."It seemed, looking back now, that they were trying to stop Radd from getting in. Even when we got into the White House, they were trying little tricks to separate us," Tim Dunn said.Charles said Seiger 's identification was extensively scrutinized and, at one point, he was taken to a separate room."Probably, they thought they could soften us up to actually go through with the plan they had put together," Charles said of the seeming attempts at separating them from Seiger.When they were ultimately brought into the Oval Office, Trump was standing there to greet them.He "was welcoming", inviting them to sit on the sofas."He shook our hands and they were firm handshakes – not some limp ones that you do get sometimes," Charles said."He said: 'I recognize you off the TV,' he shook my hand," Tim Dunn said.There was a photographer with two cameras and about eight other people in the room. One of those people was Robert O'Brien, Trump's national security adviser, Dunn's parents said.A few minutes into the meeting, Trump said: "We have her here in the White House" – referring to Sacoolas.They refused to meet her, holding to their position that they would sit down with Sacoolas, but not on US soil and only with lawyers and other mediators present."Radd said to the president: 'No, Mr President, our terms are we meet in the UK,'" Tim Dunn said. "And that's when Mr O'Brien said: 'She is never going back to the UK.'"He was quite abrupt and sharp with his tone."Trump put his hand up "to make [O'Brien] calm down", Tim Dunn said."He was just very aggressive with his nature of speak[ing], made himself look as big and tall as he possibly could, sat straight bolt upright and forward," Charles said of O'Brien.Charles said she then spoke to Trump for about five minutes."He didn't attempt to interrupt me, he held my eye contact … kept very calm," she said.Trump unsuccessfully tried two more times to get Dunn's family to meet with Sacoolas, they claimed."It was quite obvious we were going around in circles," Charles said.The White House said in an email when the family declined to meet with Sacoolas, "no one asked again" and that "no one in that room was aggressive. It was a quiet and respectful meeting."As they were leaving, Trump extended his hand to her."I took it very tightly and just said to him: 'Please, please try to understand … I'm sure if it was your son you'd be doing the same,'" Charles recalled. "And he agreed with me and said 'absolutely, I would be', and he said that 'maybe I'll now try and push to have this looked at from a different angle'."We don't know what to think about that," she reflected. "We came out feeling that we'd gotten our story through and to have him say that meant something at the time, but unless he carries it through and sticks to his word, then we're going to gain nothing from that, are we?"And while Trump is a former reality television host, Charles said his suggestion that they meet with Sacoolas didn't come across as him attempting a made-for-TV moment.> For all we know, she might have been watching us on a TV camera in the other room. We have absolutely no idea> > Charlotte Charles"It felt genuine at the time, although we were not impressed with the fact that obviously, we had it sprung on us that she was there," she said. "For all we know, she might have been watching us on a TV camera in the other room. We have absolutely no idea.""The president met with members of the Dunn family to personally offer his condolences for the loss of their son," the White House said in a statement about the controversial meeting. "His intent was to do all he could to comfort the victims of a tragic accident. This was at the request of Prime Minister Boris Johnson."Sacoolas' lawyer, Amy Jeffress, said in a statement: "Anne is devastated by this tragic accident. No loss compares to the death of a child and Anne extends her deepest sympathy to Harry Dunn's family."But after the whirlwind week the Dunns themselves are simply stunned."We are bemused by all of it," Tim Dunn said of their time in the US. "We still can't believe how the story is moving on. We come to the USA just to try and get our story across and then within two days, we're in the White House."For us," he continued, "from the UK, from a small town, it's just hard for us to really comprehend and get an angle on it."They nonetheless comprehend the impact he had on their family and community during his too-short life and tell stories of their son's generosity of spirit.One recent Remembrance Day, Dunn had arrived home only to find out that those selling poppies had already been to their home."He actually got back on his motorbike and went and found the people who were selling these poppies and put money in the box as a donation," Charles said. "He didn't have to do that."The children in their town, who grew accustomed to seeing Dunn wave at them from his motorbike without fail, have also felt his loss."Those children, we've had messages from their parents saying that they're even missing Harry," she said. "They'd wait for his motorbike to come up the road, and it doesn't come."
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| Murderer who triggered Hong Kong protests will go to Taiwan: pastor Posted: 18 Oct 2019 12:05 PM PDT  A man who inadvertently triggered Hong Kong's huge protests after he murdered his girlfriend in Taiwan has agreed to return to the island to face justice, a clergyman who has visited him in prison said on Friday. Chan Tong-kai, 20, is wanted in Taiwan for the murder of his pregnant girlfriend during a holiday the two Hong Kongers took there in February last year. The case triggered an ill-fated proposal by Hong Kong's pro-Beijing government to ram through a sweeping extradition bill which would have allowed the city to extradite suspects to any territory, including the authoritarian mainland.
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| Convicted Killer Now Charged in Estranged Wife’s Cold-Case Murder: Prosecutors Posted: 18 Oct 2019 10:18 AM PDT  Virginia State Police/HandoutA Virginia man who is behind bars for killing his girlfriend has now been charged with the murder of his wife three decades ago, prosecutors announced Friday.Jose Rodriguez-Cruz, 53, was indicted by a Stafford County grand jury for the May 1989 murder of 28-year-old Marta Haydee Rodriguez. Rodriguez-Cruz is currently serving a 12-year prison sentence for the 2009 murder of his girlfriend, Pamela Butler, who was a federal worker in Washington, D.C.During a Friday press conference, Stafford County Commonwealth's Attorney Eric Olsen announced that the former military police officer, who was discharged after threatening to harm his female superior twice, has been charged with first-degree murder and the unlawful concealment of his wife's body, finally bringing a 30-year investigation to a close. Cops: NYPD Officer Ordered Hit on Estranged Husband, Boyfriend's Kid"This is the ultimate act of domestic violence and it's noteworthy that in the month of October justice is going to be delivered for Marta Rodriguez," Olson said, pointing out that October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Rodriguez was last seen on May 1, 1989, as she walked to a bus stop after leaving her job as a nurse's aide. Prosecutors allege Rodriguez-Cruz murdered his first wife shortly after she told police he had assaulted and kidnapped her—but before she could testify against him in court."If I can't have her, no one will," Rodriguez-Cruz once said, according to 2017 court documents.The 28-year-old's body was found in 1991 on an Interstate 95 median but was not positively identified until last year.Twenty years after his wife's 1989 disappearance, Rodriguez-Cruz fatally strangled Butler, an Environmental Protection Agency analyst and his girlfriend of seven months, during a heated argument before hiding her body. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in 2017, at which point he confessed to killing the 47-year-old in her basement in 2009 before slipping her body out of a first-floor window.Air Force Major Charged With Murder After Missing Wife's Remains FoundOne of Rodriguez-Cruz's friends told authorities that he once said it was "easy" to get rid of a body because "if you dig a hole deep enough, no one will find it," according to testimony at his plea hearing. As part of his plea deal, Rodriguez-Cruz told police he buried Butler in 2009 along Interstate 95—where Rodriguez was found—but her remains were never discovered. Derrick Butler, Pamela's brother, also attended Friday's news conference and told reporters he was relieved to hear news of Rodriguez-Cruz's latest charge.Authorities believe his pattern of abuse stretches beyond the death of his two former lovers. In 2017, investigators testified that the 53-year-old told his second wife he knew how to make sure a body was never found. Another woman, a security guard at a federal office, also told detectives that Rodriguez-Cruz allegedly duct-taped her wrists, held a gun to her head, and sexually assaulted her in 2004. "This man doesn't impulsively kill. He abducts women, duct-tapes them, sexually assaults them, and then holds them captive," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Glenn Kirschner said at the 2017 hearing. "Duct tape and a gun are his weapon of choice."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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| Plans pushed back to explode 2 cranes in New Orleans Posted: 18 Oct 2019 01:15 PM PDT  Plans have been pushed back a day to bring down two giant, unstable construction cranes in a series of controlled explosions before they can topple onto historic New Orleans buildings, the city's fire chief said Friday, noting the risky work involved in placing explosive on the towers. Making it happen, putting people back in danger," McConnell said. Light, intermittent rain and winds were complicating efforts Friday as workers in buckets suspended from another crane worked to prepare the site, McConnell said.
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| Russia's Putin revokes Geneva convention protocol on war crimes victims Posted: 17 Oct 2019 10:23 AM PDT  Russian President Vladimir Putin has revoked an additional protocol to the Geneva Conventions related to the protection of victims of international armed conflicts, a Russian parliamentary website cites a letter from him as saying. The Additional Protocol I to the 1949 Geneva Convention was ratified by the Soviet Union's Supreme Council, or parliament, in 1989. Putin's letter, dated Oct. 16 and addressed to the speaker of lower house of parliament on the "recall of the statement made at the ratification", said an international commission, set up in order to investigate war crimes against civilians, "has effectively failed to carry out its functions since 1991".
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| View 2020 Chevrolet Corvette vs. Porsche 718 Cayman Cargo Comparison Photos Posted: 17 Oct 2019 07:26 AM PDT |
| A day without teachers: 32,000+ educators in Chicago went on strike. Here's what happened Posted: 17 Oct 2019 10:29 PM PDT  Chicago Public Schools teachers went on strike Thursday morning, seeking smaller class sizes, more support staff and a pay raise.
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| Meet the Nanchang Q-5: China's Nuclear Bomber Posted: 18 Oct 2019 07:36 AM PDT  Beijing's got deterrence.
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| EU Says U.K. Team Agreed to Draft Deal, Despite DUP : Brexit Update Posted: 17 Oct 2019 02:45 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Sign up to our Brexit Bulletin, follow us @Brexit and subscribe to our podcast.The European Union and U.K. reached a historic Brexit deal, paving the way for Britain's departure from the European Union after three years of negotiations. The pound rallied and U.K. stocks turned higher.Any agreement still has to be ratified in the U.K. Parliament, where Johnson lacks a majority. Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party, which had earlier refused to back a deal, is yet to comment. Its support will be crucial if Johnson is to get a deal through Westminster.Will U.K. Parliament Back a Boris Johnson Brexit? We Do the MathFollow the latest developments here as they happen throughout the day. All times are CET.Key Developments:EU and U.K. reach agreement to put Brexit within Johnson's graspDUP issues statement saying it can't back the deal "as things stand"Boris Johnson spoke to Jean-Claude Juncker by phoneBrexit debate at EU summit due to start 3:30 p.m. CETEU's Tusk and Juncker plan press conference for 7 p.m. to announce outcome of summit Brexit talksAngela Merkel: ready for emergency summit if neededEU: U.K. Team Agreed to Draft, Despite DUP (10:41 a.m.)EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier informed the bloc's 27 remaining governments on Wednesday that the legal text of a deal was almost completed, but not fully finalized, according to the EU official who was briefing journalists.Barnier also told the 27 governments that the issue of "consent" -- how Northern Irish politicians would operate any veto over the new customs system -- had been resolved in the negotiating room.The U.K. government's representatives had signed up to the consent plan, Barnier said, according to the official. That suggests Johnson's team had agreed to the contentious veto proposal, even if the DUP still had reservations.EU: Summit May Be Last Chance for Deal (10:15 a.m.)If there is no deal on Thursday, finalizing the ratification of any agreement by the deadline of Oct. 31 may be impossible, a senior EU official told journalists in Brussels. That is a hint that this week's summit is the last chance to avoid the dilemma between an extension that Johnson says he is determined to avoid -- and a no-deal Brexit.The official confirmed that so far, the bloc's 27 remaining member states have not received a draft legal text of a divorce accord from negotiators. EU leaders will give Johnson the chance to address them at the beginning of the summit. He will need to decide if he wants to take up the offer.The official said the bloc's 27 governments have been patient and "zen" with the process, but as much as they trust the Commission, they won't sign an international treaty without having the chance to read the text and assess it first.Johnson and Juncker Discuss State of Play (10 a.m.)Johnson spoke to European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker by phone. The U.K. didn't release details of their discussion but a commission spokeswoman said "every hour and minute counts" in the run up to the summit.Grieve: Don't Rush Deal Through Parliament (9:30 a.m.)Former U.K. Attorney General Dominic Grieve, who was expelled from the Parliamentary Conservative Party for opposing Johnson's Brexit strategy, warned the prime minister against trying to rush any deal through the House of Commons on Saturday."At the moment I haven't even seen the text of it," Grieve told Sky News. He warned Johnson against trying to avoid parliament scrutinizing the detail of the deal. "We may be getting to a better conclusion but if they start to rush it again we will end up in a mess and I'm not prepared to let that happen."Merkel: Emergency Summit May Be Needed (9:15 a.m.)German Chancellor Angela Merkel said there had been "significant movement" in Brexit talks in recent days, and applauded Johnson's "readiness to negotiate" with concrete proposals. But a deal is not yet done, she said."We're on a better path than we were, but – let me say this morning very clearly – we're not there yet," Merkel told lawmakers in Germany's Bundestag early Thursday. She declined to predict how the two-day gathering of EU leaders in Brussels would end – and suggested an extra summit could be held to push a Brexit deal through, "if necessary."Merkel said it must remain "crystal clear" that no hard border can be erected between the Irish Republic and the U.K.: "We won't allow violence to flare up with a hard border on the island of Ireland."Pound Falls as Deal Still in Doubt (9:08 a.m.)The pound slumped in early morning trading in London as the DUP issued their statement rejecting the deal, falling 0.5% to $1.2773. The currency has been whipsawed with every headline this week and touched a five-month high Wednesday on optimism the Brexit talks may be headed for a late-night resolution.U.K. Says Problems Need Fixing in Brussels (8:42 a.m.)Privately, British officials sounded cautious about the chances of a deal. One official said hurdles still existed, and needed to be resolved in the negotiating room in Brussels.That contradicts the suggestion that a draft deal had been all-but written by Wednesday night, when EU officials were hopeful that an agreement was close.Minister: U.K. Hopes for Deal But Work Remains (8:20 a.m.)U.K. Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick said efforts are continuing to find a breakthrough after the DUP said it is unable to support Boris Johnson's latest proposals for a deal."We remain cautiously optimistic that a deal can be struck, though there's clearly a lot of work to be done," Jenrick told Sky News. "The commitment of the prime minister is absolute. The prime minister, his cabinet and his team are going to continue working as hard as they can."Talks will continue with the DUP and in Brussels "to see whether there's a way through," Jenrick said.DUP Says No to Draft Plan for Deal (7:49 a.m.)The chances of a swift Brexit deal received another blow early Thursday. Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party, which helps prop up Boris Johnson's minority Conservative government in London, said "as things stand" it will not back the draft agreement. As ever, the key hurdle is how to resolve the future arrangements for the Irish border.DUP leader Arlene Foster identified three key sticking points preventing her signing up. These were: proposed arrangements for dealing with customs checks on goods crossing the the U.K.-Irish border; the mechanism for giving Northern Irish politicians a veto over those arrangements; and a lack of clarity on how to institute sales tax in the region."We have been involved in ongoing discussions with the Government," Foster said in a joint statement with her colleague Nigel Dodds. "As things stand, we could not support what is being suggested."The DUP's backing is seen as crucial to Johnson's willingness to sign up to an agreement. He needs the party's votes in Parliament to maximize his chances of getting a deal ratified in the House of Commons. The DUP said it would continue to work with Johnson to seek an agreement.Earlier:A Brexit Deal Is So Close But It Could All Still Go Belly Up\--With assistance from Patrick Donahue.To contact the reporters on this story: Nikos Chrysoloras in Brussels at nchrysoloras@bloomberg.net;Thomas Penny in London at tpenny@bloomberg.net;Tim Ross in Brussels at tross54@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Flavia Krause-Jackson at fjackson@bloomberg.net, Richard BravoFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Trump's hasty exit forced US troops to bomb their own base in 'an extreme worst-case scenario' Posted: 17 Oct 2019 05:41 PM PDT  A spokesperson for the US counter-ISIS mission said that the procedure was pre-planned, and reduced the base's military usefulness.
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| Volvo launches very first fully electric vehicle: the XC40 Recharge Posted: 17 Oct 2019 08:13 AM PDT  Volvo has officially launched its very first EV line and its very first EV: The XC40 small SUV is the first member of the Recharge family. To add to the firsts surrounding this launch, the XC40 small SUV is also the first of the brand equipped with an Android-powered infotainment system -- it's better late than never. This premiere has been coupled with an announcement by the company about their plans to launch a fully electric car every year "with the rest hybrids." Recharge will be the name encapsulating all the brand's electrified vehicles.
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| Serial Bank Robber Who Wrote Book About Prison Time With Bernie Madoff Faces Fifth Robbery Charge Posted: 17 Oct 2019 02:15 PM PDT  Multnomah County Detention CenterRalph Griffith, a serial bank robber who penned a self-published book about his time in prison with Bernie Madoff, appeared in federal court Wednesday to face his fifth bank robbery charge.Griffith spent his 68th birthday at the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse, where he was ordered to remain in jail pending his trial for an alleged armed robbery of a Milwaukie Wells Fargo Bank in July, The Oregonian first reported.The career criminal, who describes himself as the founder and executive producer of XAK Media Group, was released from California prison in August 2017 after spending time behind bars for three San Francisco bank robberies in 2003. He was also previously convicted of a bank robbery in 1985.Billionaire David Koch, Who Reshaped American Politics and Paved the Way for Trump, Has DiedShortly after his 2017 prison release, Griffith wrote a self-published book, The Real Bernie Madoff: Our 7 Years Together in Prison, about his time behind bars at a North Carolina federal prison with the former financier, who was convicted of running one of the biggest Ponzi schemes in history."I lived with the man," Griffith said in a YouTube video about the book. "After about seven years I got a pretty good understanding about what Bernie Maddoff was up to."The 68-year-old has also written fictional accounts of his life of crime, including a four-paragraph story called "The Proper Way to Rob a Bank" and another involving a character "who inadvertently robs a bank and a star is born."On Wednesday, prosecutors argued that his stories about his misdeeds prove he is still a danger to the community. Griffith's defense lawyer, Mark Ahlemeyer, insisted his client's books are protected under the First Amendment. Ahlemeyer declined to comment about the allegations to The Daily Beast on Wednesday, citing the "active criminal case." On July 26, authorities allege Griffith walked up to a Wells Fargo teller at around 10:30 a.m. wearing sunglasses, a black wig, a white surgical mask under his chin, and clear gloves. Court records show Griffith rested what authorities believed to be a black handgun on the counter before pointing it at the teller and saying, "Give me the money and no one will get hurt."Stephanie Madoff Mack Talks Mark Madoff's Suicide, Bernie Madoff & MoreAfter the teller handed him a stack of cash with a GPS tracker hidden inside, a second bank employee walked over—and Griffith allegedly demanded money from her as well."You too, sweetie," he said, according to a federal affidavit obtained by The Oregonian, before stuffing the cash into a grocery bag. Griffith allegedly threw away the two GPS devices and left. One tracker was later located in some bushes with a ripped $20 bill attached, and the second was found in the middle of the street. Surveillance video caught Griffith fleeing the scene in a blue Nissan Sentra.On Tuesday, Griffith was allegedly on his way to rob another bank when he got into a minor accident, prosecutors allege. While searching the car, authorities found multiple medical masks, wigs, and black sunglasses in the front passenger seat."It is my belief that Griffith was on his way to conduct another bank robbery at the time of his traffic accident and arrest,'' FBI agent Zachary Clark reportedly wrote in the affidavit. Griffith is currently being held at the Multnomah County Detention Center. He is expected to be back in court on Oct. 24. 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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| Asylum-seeking Mexicans are more prominent at US border Posted: 18 Oct 2019 05:46 PM PDT ![Asylum-seeking Mexicans are more prominent at US border]( "Asylum-seeking Mexicans are more prominent at US border") Lizbeth Garcia tended to her 3-year-old son outside a tent pitched on a sidewalk, their temporary home while they wait for their number to be called to claim asylum in the United States. The 33-year-old fled Mexico's western state of Michoacan a few weeks ago with her husband and five children — ages 3 to 12 — when her husband, a truck driver, couldn't pay fees that criminal gangs demanded for each trailer load. "I'd like to say it's unusual, but it's very common," Garcia said Thursday in Juarez, where asylum seekers gather to wait their turn to seek protection at a U.S. border crossing in El Paso, Texas.
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| Mexico flies 300 Indian migrants to New Delhi in mass deportation Posted: 17 Oct 2019 02:32 PM PDT  Mexico has deported more than 300 Indian nationals to New Delhi, the National Migration Institute said late on Wednesday, in what it described as an unprecedented transatlantic deportation.
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| Explainer: Democrats Warren and Sanders want wealth tax; economists explain how it works Posted: 17 Oct 2019 11:28 AM PDT  According to Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman, the University of California at Berkeley economists who developed that estimate, that is in part because the wealthiest American families declare only a small portion of their actual economic gains in any given year as income, while leaving the rest invested in stocks and other assets, to grow in value. Saez has been involved in a series of what are considered groundbreaking studies of U.S. income, inequality and economic mobility that involved both developing techniques to impute income based on holdings of wealth, and extensive access to U.S. Internal Revenue Service records. "The greatest injustice of the U.S. tax system today is its regressivity at the very top: billionaires in the top 400 pay less (relative to their true economic incomes) than the middle class," the economists wrote in a September paper https://brook.gs/2OWp9wx.
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| Tension mounts in Canada as election nears Posted: 18 Oct 2019 12:03 PM PDT  With just three days left before Canada votes in a hotly contested election, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Conservative rival Andrew Scheer on Friday ratcheted up the mudslinging, as both seek to avoid ending up with a minority government. Policy announcements gave way to calls to vote strategically on Monday -- for Trudeau's Liberals, that means staying in power and preventing a rollback of his progressive policies. Conservatives countered with attack ads accusing Trudeau's camp of seeking to legalize hard drugs and raise taxes.
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| U.S. Air Force F-35s Are Knocking on Russia’s Back Door Posted: 17 Oct 2019 10:30 PM PDT  The U.S. Air Force has stood up a fighter squadron to operate F-35A Lightning II stealth fighters in Alaska. It might not be long before F-35s join Alaska-based F-22s in intercepting Russian bombers and other warplanes that frequently probe American defenses.
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| Long-extinct Tasmanian tigers spotted at least eight times, officials say Posted: 18 Oct 2019 10:23 AM PDT  Between 2016 to 2019, the report notes seven sightings of the Tasmanian tiger. It "had black stripes on the back side of the body."
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| Mystery traders 'made $1.8bn from stock bet' placed hours before Trump tweeted talks with China were ‘back on track’ Posted: 18 Oct 2019 01:16 PM PDT  */Unknown actors may have made billions from the turmoil Donald Trump has created in the markets through erratic tweets, shoot-from-the-hip foreign policy, and the trade war with China, according to a new report.
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| Mexicans Outraged After Cornered Son of ‘El Chapo’ Released Posted: 18 Oct 2019 03:28 PM PDT ![Mexicans Outraged After Cornered Son of 'El Chapo' Released]( "Mexicans Outraged After Cornered Son of 'El Chapo' Released") (Bloomberg) -- The decision by Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's security cabinet to release the captured son of the world's most notorious drug lord left him struggling to contain the damage amid public outrage.AMLO, as the president is known, said the government took the decision after Mexican forces were overpowered Thursday as they attempted to take in Ovidio Guzman Lopez, son of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman. The son is said to have taken over some criminal operations from his father. The confrontation, which left eight dead, occurred in Culiacan, the capital of the western state of Sinaloa.His public security minister, Alfonso Durazo, admitted that the operation to capture Guzman Lopez was a failure. Reporters peppered him with questions at a news conference in Culiacan, asking if he would resign. Durazo deflected, suggesting that he could do so if the moment arrives when he decides he no longer can contribute to securing peace in the nation."The government clearly looks bad after this," Daniel Kerner, an analyst at Eurasia Group, wrote in a research report. "It clearly failed to plan and anticipate the response that going after the son of one of the most notable drug leaders in Mexico would generate given the cartel's influence in the city. As such, it looks like it had no strategy and no coordination."The incident presents the biggest security challenge yet to Lopez Obrador, who was elected on promises to stop years of violence and has maintained an approval rate of more than 60% in polls despite a stagnant economy. Homicides are on pace to break last year's record, according to data through August, rising more than 3% to exceed 23,000.Cartel members on Thursday turned Culiacan into a war zone after Mexican authorities surrounded Guzman Lopez at a house where he was taking refuge. Homemade tanks complete with machine guns rumbling through the streets, stopping traffic and firing repeatedly. The city was littered with burning vehicles as residents posted videos on Twitter of gunfire and chaos. Plumes of black smoke rose over buildings.How AMLO's Plans to Transform Mexico Ran Into Reality: QuickTake"This decision was taken to protect citizens," Lopez Obrador said at his morning news conference Friday in the southern state of Oaxaca. "You can't put out fire with fire. That's the difference between our strategy and what previous governments have done. We don't want deaths, we don't want war."'Pandora's Box'Responding to the violence in Culiacan by letting Guzman Lopez go free sends a dangerous message to drug cartels that the Mexican government can be cowed by terrorist-like attacks against civilians, said Alejandro Schtulmann, who heads Mexico City-based political consultancy Empra. It's also embarrassing because the Sinaloa cartel's firepower has been diminished in recent years and pales in comparison to that of other ascendant groups like the Jalisco New Generation.Now, other groups when facing an arrest may "resort to the same methods," he said. "This may have opened the Pandora's box in the context of fighting organized crime in Mexico."The case rips open an old wound for Mexico, where El Chapo twice escaped from prison before he was recaptured and finally extradited and convicted in the U.S. It comes in a week when more than a dozen police were killed in an ambush in the deadliest attack on law enforcement since Lopez Obrador took office last December. At least 15 more people were killed in another shootout with the military in the nation's south.Lopez Obrador said that the suspect had an arrest warrant and an extradition request. His father was sent to the U.S. in early 2017 just as President Donald Trump was taking office.The son's release was immediately decried across Mexican media, with one of the nation's largest newspapers, Reforma, running a headline saying "Little Chapo Subdues the Fourth Transformation," referring to the nickname that Lopez Obrador has given to his government.AMLO Lays Out Broad Plan for Addressing Violence in MexicoMexico has fought a decades-long war against drug gangs, in part because it serves as a connector between cocaine-producing nations in South America and consumers in the U.S.AMLO's strategy focuses on deployment of tens of thousands of members from a new National Guard force to the most violent parts of the country, as well as education and subsidies for youth. But the phrase he has used to summarize his philosophy, "hugs, not shots," has been criticized by political rivals and many security analysts as naive and Pollyannish.The release of Guzman Lopez "sends a message of weakness to the blackmail of narcos," said Veronica Ortiz, a lawyer and co-host on Mexico's nonpartisan Congress channel. "It's particularly serious for the military, because their own supreme commander is weakening them. For citizens, we're left unprotected against criminals."\--With assistance from Nacha Cattan.To contact the reporters on this story: Eric Martin in Mexico City at emartin21@bloomberg.net;Lorena Rios in Mexico City at lriost@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Juan Pablo Spinetto at jspinetto@bloomberg.net, Carlos Manuel Rodriguez, Ethan BronnerFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Kim Kardashian urges clemency for Oklahoma death row inmate Posted: 17 Oct 2019 03:20 PM PDT  Kim Kardashian West has joined a chorus of voices calling for clemency for a black man on Oklahoma's death row who has exhausted his appeals, arguing that a racist juror tainted the outcome of his 2002 trial. Julius Jones was convicted of murder for the 1999 slaying of 45-year-old Paul Howell, who was fatally shot in the driveway of his parents' home in Edmond, Oklahoma. Jones filed a clemency petition with the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board on Tuesday, asking that his death sentence to be commuted to time served.
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| Washington Group Fighting Affirmative Action Used Proud Boys As Guards Posted: 17 Oct 2019 03:16 PM PDT  John Rudoff/GettyAn anti-affirmative action campaign used members of the Proud Boys for security—and is now claiming it didn't realize its protection team was an organization labeled a hate group.On Nov. 5, voters in Washington state are set to decide on the future of Referendum 88, a measure that would allow affirmative action hiring in public jobs. The measure has support from civil rights groups like the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), but faces opposition from a state veterans group and the organization Washington Asians for Equality, which claims the measure would lead to preferential treatment for some groups. This summer, some of those opponents partnered with a more notorious organization: the Proud Boys, who featured the signature drive in a recently surfaced propaganda video.The Proud Boys—designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center—prioritizes street fights and has extensive connections to more explicit white supremacist organizations. But unlike many other extremist groups, the Proud Boys frequently cozy up to the more mainstream right. Their current leader, Enrique Tarrio, is a Florida director of Latinos for Trump, despite marching in 2017's deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.Republicans Are Adopting the Proud BoysIn the August video, a Washington Proud Boy claims Referendum 88 backers solicited the Proud Boys' help in delivering signatures to the secretary of state's office.The group "gave us a call asking for security to help take the signatures for Referendum 88 down to the capitol building," he says in the video, which referendum supporters like the group Washington Fairness surfaced this week.The video goes on to show the group riding in a truck with the signatures and speaking into walkie-talkies for reasons that are not immediately apparent. The clip concludes with an advertisement for gas masks, which the Proud Boy says he used during a summer brawl with anti-fascists in Portland, Oregon.Reject Ref. 88, the organization that allegedly hired the Proud Boys, disavowed knowledge of them."The Referendum 88 petition drive worked with many volunteers during the signature gathering phase," organizer Linda Yang said in an email. "We didn't know the association of these individuals you refer to, nor did they tell us. The Reject Ref.88/I-1000 campaign welcomes people from all walks of life who believe in equality for all, regardless of race. Those who don't believe in that principle—be they on the far left or the far right—are not welcome in this campaign."But as the Seattle Stranger noted, Yang even appeared in the Proud Boys' video, explaining her opposition to Referendum 88. In the video, she gives different account of her group coming to work with the Proud Boys. After trying and failing to hire a security company to help deliver referendum signatures, "I got a call saying 'hey there's a group, they're willing to help,'" she said in the video. "I said 'we'll take it.'"Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Prince William and wife Kate leave Pakistan, day after aborted flight Posted: 18 Oct 2019 12:39 AM PDT |
| High-profile cases turn spotlight on domestic violence in Russia Posted: 18 Oct 2019 07:34 PM PDT  Natalia Tunikova's partner pushed her towards the open balcony in their high-rise Moscow flat, before punching her to the floor. A Moscow court later ruled that her use of force in self-defence was not justified. Cases like Tunikova's are ever more widely reported in Russia, leading to a public outcry in a country that has no specific law on domestic violence and where feminist movements like #MeToo had little impact.
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| See This Plane? It Was Suppose to Turn Aircraft Carriers into Scrap Metal Posted: 18 Oct 2019 01:23 AM PDT  As in make them obsolete--but the carrier remains. Here is what happened.
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| Plane collides with pickup truck while landing, pilot killed Posted: 18 Oct 2019 04:07 PM PDT  Witnesses reported the airplane was at an altitude of just 5 feet as it crossed a county road near the airstrip and struck a pickup truck.
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| Income Inequality Has Soared While Taxes Have Become Dramatically Less Progressive . . . or Not Posted: 18 Oct 2019 11:00 AM PDT  The truth gets its boots on pretty quickly in the Internet age. On October 6, the New York Times ran a piece broadcasting the striking claims made by the economists Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman in the new book The Triumph of Injustice. Just a couple of weeks later, it's clear that these claims are built atop a foundation of often questionable and sometimes indefensible assumptions.Per Saez and Zucman, while the rich have been pulling in more and more of the nation's income — grabbing about a fifth of it now, double what they got a few decades back — they're paying lower and lower tax rates. Indeed, in 2018, the richest 400 Americans paid the lowest overall tax rate (including state, local, and federal taxes) of any income group. While the very richest Americans in 1950 paid two-thirds of their income in taxes, in 2018 it was down below a quarter; even the full top 0.1 percent barely pay more than the bottom 90 percent these days. It's not that much of an exaggeration to say we have a flat tax system, not a progressive one.The debunkings came from everywhere: a Twitter thread by Journal of Public Economics editor Wojtek Kopczuk, an article by the economic historian Phil Magness, an academic response from the economist David Splinter, a report from the Republican side of the Senate's Joint Economic Committee (JEC), a traditional book review in Le Grand Continent, and more.Let's take the two claims, rising inequality and rich people paying low tax rates, in turn. Both of these problems are probably overstated, in the latter case quite dramatically, in Saez and Zucman's numbers. And I say "probably" only because no one writing about these trends should pretend that even the best estimates are much more than guesswork, and necessarily so, because the data here are spotty and there are legitimate disagreements over what should even count as income and tax payments.The alleged rise of income inequality was recently the focus of some congressional hearings about the government's plan to start reporting more data on the topic, as well as an extensive but readable summary of the academic literature from the JEC Republicans. You might think this would be an easy question to answer, whether the rich are pulling away from the rest of us, because the IRS can tell you how much income people report to the government. But — I hope you're sitting down — not all income is reported to the government. And that's only the first big obstacle to measuring inequality accurately.We know from the "national accounts," the data we use to monitor overall economic activity, approximately how much money goes unreported overall. But to account for the missing money while measuring inequality, we need to know how much unreported income goes specifically to the rich versus the poor, and that is hard to do. Splinter, for example, argues that Saez and Zucman use a method that gives too much of this income to the rich; Splinter's own approach relies on data from IRS audits and gives more of it to folks down the income scale.If your eyes are glazing over, I have bad news: As the JEC report details, this is only the first of many technical decisions researchers must make that affect the results. Should we worry about income inequality before or after taxes are taken out? Should we include governmental transfers as income? Should we analyze married couples together or separately, bearing in mind the decline of marriage in recent decades, especially among the poor? How to handle corporate profits that are retained rather than given out to shareholders? How to handle stocks that have grown in value but have not been sold?The JEC report provides a remarkable buffet of options to anyone wanting to find a study to cite in favor of a preferred narrative, with the general pattern being that Saez and Zucman's work is on the high end. By all accounts, pre-tax income has become more concentrated at the top, though this trend is more dramatic in some estimates than others. But the share of post-tax income going to the top 1 percent may have risen only from 7.2 to 8.5 percent from 1979 to 2015.If it's hard to tell how much money people make, it's even harder to calculate their total tax rates, which requires you to know not only their income but also their payments to several levels of government. Once again the IRS is very helpful when it comes to what's reported to the federal government, but then you also have to estimate how much money people across the income spectrum spend on state income taxes, sales and property taxes, etc. It's no easy task.And here too, beyond problems with the basic data, there are arguments over what to include. A big one — a way that The Triumph of Injustice departs even from its authors' own previous work — has to do with the tax on corporate profits. Since corporations are just legal entities, they don't really pay these taxes; people do. And there's a lot of debate over how much of this tax burden falls on corporate shareholders, as opposed to other folks, including workers and customers, who tend to be less wealthy and might benefit if the government didn't take this money. Faced with this conundrum, the right-leaning Tax Foundation will point to studies showing "that labor bears between 50 and 100 percent of the burden of the corporate income tax," while the left-leaning Tax Policy Center assigns 60 percent of the burden to shareholders, 20 percent to capital in general (because the corporate tax has spillover effects for other forms of capital), and 20 percent to labor.Saez and Zucman's approach? To assume the entire corporate tax falls on shareholders, and to make this clear only after their number-crunching has been reported as fact in the national media. As the economist Tyler Cowen put it in a scathing post, "no Western fiscal authority I have heard of thinks of tax incidence in these terms." And as this animation from Kopczuk shows, this new assumption largely explains a big change in the trend for rich people's taxes even relative to Saez and Zucman's own approach in a recent paper with Thomas Piketty:> So why is sky falling in the S-Z book? Recall this animation. There are just two changes of relevance here. One is corporate tax incidence. This is what turns very mild decline in progressivity into rapid drop. The other somewhat important one is treatment of capital gains pic.twitter.com/vOQchHMGAY> > -- Wojtek Kopczuk (@wwwojtekk) October 15, 2019There are other points too at which anyone making a chart like this needs to make decisions about what to include as taxes, and for whom. For instance, what are we to make of "refundable" income-tax credits that are paid even to people with no income-tax liability to offset? Should we treat those as offsetting the other taxes that people pay, which after all is one of their purposes? Or should we just classify them as outright transfers, not part of the tax system at all? Unsurprisingly, Saez and Zucman do not include them, because they would boost income and thereby reduce taxes as a percentage of income for the poor.As with inequality, we can point to other sources of data on tax progressivity to show that Saez and Zucman are an outlier. Splinter's response illustrates this, and so does this from Jason Furman, who headed the Obama administration's Council of Economic Advisers:> The standard data shows that the tax system is overall progressive. This chart combines CBO estimates for federal taxes with ITEP estimates for state & local taxes. Federal income taxes highly progressive, when you add in payroll/state/local/etc. is still progressive but less so. pic.twitter.com/WTOgm58Fyo> > -- Jason Furman (@jasonfurman) October 7, 2019At every step of the way, Saez and Zucman made decisions that skewed the income distribution toward the top and the tax burden away from it. You can have a reasonable debate about the best way to analyze these data and what they say about our tax policies. But it does no one any favors to treat these estimates as established fact, the way the New York Times did.
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| Mitch McConnell warns Republicans in private meeting that Trump's impeachment trial could start as soon as November Posted: 17 Oct 2019 07:09 AM PDT  McConnell explained how the impeachment process would work during a private weekly lunch meeting with GOP lawmakers.
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| Netanyahu's Latest Call for Unity Government Is Quickly Rejected Posted: 17 Oct 2019 07:37 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Benjamin Netanyahu's main rival turned down the Israeli prime minister's renewed call to set aside political differences and join a national unity governmentNetanyahu has until late next week to form a ruling coalition or risk the country's president handing the mandate to former military chief Benny Gantz. Short of a majority in parliament, the premier's efforts to coax Gantz's Blue and White bloc, the largest in the legislature, into a power-sharing agreement have so far failed."All of Israel's citizens look around and see how the Middle East is changing for the worse in front of our eyes," Netanyahu said Thursday in a tweet. "Those who need to know, know that the security challenges are growing, and they are not waiting for us."The prime minister didn't specify the threats facing Israel. But his statement follows the decision by President Donald Trump to withdraw U.S. troops from northern Syria as he seeks to end America's presence in long-running Middle Eastern conflicts.The U-turn has boosted Israel's main regional foe, Iran, which is a key supporter of the government in Damascus, and stoked speculation in Israel over the future reliability of the country's superpower patron.Gantz quickly rejected Netanyahu's offer."I received a proposal today that one must refuse,'' Gantz said in a tweet. "We will wait for the President's mandate and begin serious negotiations for the establishment of a liberal unity government that will lead to change and restore hope to the citizens of Israel."\--With assistance from Ivan Levingston.To contact the reporter on this story: Yaacov Benmeleh in Tel Aviv at ybenmeleh@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Alaa Shahine at asalha@bloomberg.net, Mark Williams, Paul AbelskyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| A woman sues San Antonio after a police officer pulled out her tampon in public Posted: 17 Oct 2019 04:52 PM PDT  The city of San Antonio will vote this week on a proposed settlement that would award a woman $205,000, after she accused a police officer of inappropriately searching her and pulling out her tampon in public.
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| Jane Fonda returns to civil disobedience for climate change Posted: 18 Oct 2019 01:40 PM PDT  Inspired by the climate activism of a Swedish teenager, Jane Fonda said Friday that she is returning to civil disobedience nearly a half-century after she was last arrested at a protest. Now 81, Fonda said she plans to get arrested every Friday to advocate for urgent reduction in the use of fossil fuels. Getting arrested in 2019, poses some entirely new challenges, Fonda told The Associated Press in an interview.
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