| Anomalies in Trump situation room photo spark online conspiracy theories it was staged Posted: 28 Oct 2019 06:26 AM PDT  In 2011, 10 years after the terrorist attacks in New York which destroyed the twin towers of the World Trade Centre, the architect of the hijackings, Osama bin Laden, was killed by US special forces in a raid in Pakistan.The US Navy Seals carrying out the raid relayed live footage to the White House, and a photograph of president Barack Obama alongside his national security team witnessing the operation was used on the front pages of newspapers around the world.
|
| Orthodox Ethiopians criticise PM Abiy over deadly clashes Posted: 27 Oct 2019 03:58 AM PDT  Ethiopia's influential Orthodox church on Sunday criticised Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's response to ethnic and religious clashes that left nearly 70 dead, saying he was failing to protect its members. Violence erupted in the capital Addis Ababa and the outlying Oromia region on Wednesday after a prominent activist accused security forces of trying to orchestrate an attack against him -- a claim police officials denied. It quickly morphed into clashes and a police official said Friday that 67 people had died in Oromia.
|
| With raging fires, high winds and blackouts, California is living a disaster movie. Is this the 'new normal'? Posted: 28 Oct 2019 07:20 AM PDT  Californians have come to expect the fall fires. The power outages are a new — and unwelcome — twist to a reality that's playing out like a bad movie.
|
| Eating yogurt and a high-fiber diet could lower the risk of lung cancer Posted: 28 Oct 2019 07:10 AM PDT  New research has found that eating a diet which includes yogurt and is rich in fiber could help reduce the risk of lung cancer. Carried out by researchers from Vanderbilt University Medical Center, USA, along with Seoul National University, South Korea, the new study looked at more than 1.4 million adults who took part in studies in the United States, Europe and Asia. The findings, published in JAMA Oncology, showed that both fiber and yogurt intake appeared to reduce the risk of lung cancer.
|
| Kentucky gov's race stirs clash over casino suicide claims Posted: 27 Oct 2019 02:36 PM PDT  Entering the final days of Kentucky's bitter race for governor, Republican incumbent Matt Bevin exposed himself to a new attack by flatly denying his recorded claim that suicides happen nightly in casinos. Telling a debate audience Saturday night that the truth matters, Bevin challenged his opponent to produce a tape proving his denial wrong. Democrat Andy Beshear offered up the audiotape Sunday.
|
| Argentina’s President-Elect Picks Mexico For First Trip Abroad Posted: 28 Oct 2019 08:03 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Argentina's president-elect Alberto Fernandez will go to Mexico in his first trip abroad, signaling an interest in aligning himself with like-minded leftist leaders in Latin America such as Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.Fernandez is set to travel to meet the Mexican president next week, according to a person with knowledge of the decision. The exact dates of the trip have yet to be confirmed, the person said, declining to be named because he is not authorized to speak publicly.AMLO, as the Mexican president is known, said during his daily press conference that he will speak to Fernandez on the phone Monday but stopped short of confirming the encounter, just saying the meeting "is very likely."After winning Argentina's presidential election on Sunday, Fernandez wasted no time in touting the old guard of Latin America's leftist leaders. He congratulated Evo Morales for winning a contested fourth term in Bolivia and called for the liberation of Brazil's former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a hero for the Latin American left, from prison, drawing the disapproval of current leader Jair Bolsonaro.The trip to Mexico to meet AMLO is another step suggesting Fernandez will change Argentina's foreign policy after four years of the pro-business administration of Mauricio Macri.Fernandez didn't mention Venezuela in his speech which has been a major regional issue due to the huge flow of migrants leaving the country due to the severe economic crisis. Macri was a strong critic of President Nicolas Maduro.Fernandez takes office on Dec. 10.(Update with AMLO comment in 3rd paragraph.)\--With assistance from Lorena Rios.To contact the reporter on this story: Jorgelina do Rosario in Buenos Aires at jdorosario@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Juan Pablo Spinetto at jspinetto@bloomberg.net, Daniel CancelFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
|
| South Korea Is Still Having Big Problems With Corruption Posted: 27 Oct 2019 09:00 AM PDT  A bad day for the Moon administration.
|
| Manhunt launched for teenager in ‘extreme danger’ abducted from bedroom Posted: 28 Oct 2019 02:52 AM PDT  A manhunt has been launched to find a 14-year-old girl in "extreme danger" who is believed to have been abducted from her bedroom by a 33-year-old man, US authorities said.An amber alert has been issued to find Isabel Shae Hicks and her suspected abductor Bruce William Lynch Jr.
|
| The President’s Best Ukraine Defense: Not an Impeachable Offense Posted: 27 Oct 2019 03:30 AM PDT  Editor's Note: This is the second of a two-column series this weekend, dealing with recent developments in the impeachment inquiry House Democrats are conducting in connection with President Trump's dealings with the government of Ukraine.Yesterday, in part one of this two-part series, I reiterated my argument that it has been a strategic error for President Trump and his supporters to claim that there was no quid pro quo in his administration's dealings with the government of Ukraine. That is not just because quid pro quo terms are a staple of negotiations between sovereigns; nor is it just because the evidence is strong that President Trump did pressure Ukraine by seeking investigative assistance in exchange for what Ukraine's president sought -- the release of $400 million in foreign aid and an Oval Office visit.The "no quid pro quo" claim is misguided because it is largely irrelevant to an impeachment inquiry. As explained in part one, we are not here talking about a criminal court prosecution in which a prosecutor must prove a crime beyond a reasonable doubt. If a majority of the Democratic-controlled House was satisfied (or at least said they were satisfied) that an egregious abuse of power occurred, they could vote an article of impeachment even if a corrupt quid pro quo could not be proved to criminal-law specifications.More important, the president's camp should stick with and relentlessly argue his best point: The president's actions in conducting Ukrainian relations do not establish an impeachable offense under the circumstances. Let's consider the relevant issues.1\. No harm, no foul. The president's hold on defense aid was temporary, and Ukraine got all of it. The Zelensky government did not have to commence or assist any investigations to get it. The delay caused no material harm.It is certainly fair to contend that, in the absence of some vital, emergent American interest, a president should not put a hold on aid to a friendly and strategically significant nation that Congress has directed in legislation and the president himself has signed into law. The Constitution, however, gives the president sweeping foreign-affairs authority, so Trump would arguably have had the power to decline to deliver the aid altogether. This, by contrast, was merely a temporary delay that was of no consequence to Ukraine's defense. If we were talking about any other president, some criticism would be in order. To portray what happened as an impeachable offense is just the next stage in a tireless political campaign. It trivializes impeachment.2\. The Democrats and Ukraine. It is precious indeed to hear Democrats complain that Ukraine was imperiled by the hold on defense aid. President Obama refused to provide Ukraine with any lethal defense aid after Russia began attacking it and seizing territory in 2014. President Trump has been providing it and has imposed tough sanctions on Russia. The Democrats sudden obsession over Ukraine's well-being, like their newfound angst over the geopolitical challenge posed by Russia, is political posturing.3\. Assistance to U.S. investigations. Most of the assistance the president sought from Ukraine was unobjectionable. It is common for presidents to ask their foreign counterparts to assist Justice Department investigations. House Democrats will not acknowledge this because they seek to delegitimize the Barr/Durham probe as a Trump 2020 campaign initiative; but it is not.To be sure, it is irregular for a president to seek a foreign government's investigative assistance absent a request from the attorney general. Reportedly, AG Barr did not ask the president to intercede with Ukraine. Though not unlawful, it was unwise for the president to do so unilaterally. With Democrats already disparaging the Barr/Durham investigation (soon, it may even achieve "witch hunt" status), the president has just given them more ammunition to argue that the probe is politicized. This makes the prosecutors' job more difficult -- Barr and Durham will need to have strong evidence to overcome the inevitable claims that any case they bring is based on presidential pressure, not proof. Nevertheless, there is nothing illegal or improper in principle about a president's asking another country to assist an ongoing U.S. investigation.4\. Investigating Vice President Biden's influence over Ukraine. It was not improper for Trump to seek information about Joe Biden's squeezing of Kyiv to fire the prosecutor. That could plainly be relevant to the Barr/Durham investigation. Though we do not know, we assume that prosecutors are examining whether Obama-administration agencies pressured Ukrainian authorities to investigate Paul Manafort, Trump's former campaign chairman. If so, Biden's capacity to extort Kyiv into firing a prosecutor would be probative of the Obama administration's influence over Ukrainian law enforcement. That kind of evidence is routinely admitted in conspiracy prosecutions.5\. Investigating Hunter Biden and Burisma corruption. More problematic is the president's pressure for a Ukrainian investigation of potential corruption in Hunter Biden's relationship with Burisma, and in Joe Biden's motive to push for the prosecutor's firing.There is no known Justice Department corruption investigation of the Bidens. Since the president was apparently not requesting assistance in an ongoing U.S. investigation, it is reasonable to deduce that he was primarily hoping for information -- and, potentially, a Ukrainian prosecution -- that might help his 2020 campaign in the event the Democrats nominate Biden to run against him.There would be little U.S. national interest in asking another country to investigate one of that country's own companies for violations of its own laws. Generally speaking, moreover, we expect the United States government to protect American citizens from potentially aggressive or arbitrary treatment by foreign governments. Like Paul Manafort, Hunter and Joe Biden are our citizens -- even if their political rivals, in their zeal, seem to forget such things from time to time. That is why it was so wrong for President Trump to suggest that Communist China should also investigate the Bidens -- even allowing that China would have no motive to do so, that China does not take marching orders from U.S. presidents, and that the president's foolish remark may have been tongue-in-cheek.All that said, the president does have a legitimate interest in policing corruption, particularly potential U.S. government corruption, in countries to which we provide significant aid. On that score, it is fair to point out (as I have done myself) that Trump supporters' depiction of the president as a scourge of global corruption is not very convincing. He is known to overlook far worse corruption than Ukraine's in seeking warmer relations with despicable regimes -- Russia, China, North Korea, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia spring to mind.Nevertheless, the president campaigned on the need for the United States to stop bearing the financial burden of other countries' security challenges, particularly Europe's. Since he is predisposed against this kind of foreign aid, it is logical for him to demand some policing of corruption in the countries getting it. You may think his position on this is shortsighted, but being wrong on policy is not an abuse of power. If you think his anticorruption stance was just a pretext for hurting Biden, you may be right, but it's not a baseless pretext.In any event, it is not like President Trump concocted the Biden self-dealing scenario out of whole cloth. There is plenty of evidence to support corruption suspicions that should be explored by our government. (Note that Obama supporters are wont to say that there was no impropriety in the administration's prodding of Ukraine to investigate Manafort because there was plenty of corruption evidence.) Moreover, it is not clear that Ukraine will actually renew investigative interest in Burisma, much less that the Bidens will be affected.Bottom line: It was inappropriate for the president to point the Ukrainians specifically and explicitly at the Bidens. A more polished president would simply have said, "We want you to root out corruption, no matter how high up it goes, even in our own government" -- the Ukrainians would have gotten the point and there would be nothing to criticize. Trump went about it crudely. Commendable? Of course not. A valid reason to vote against him in 2020? Surely. But it's not impeachable.6\. The Shadow State Department. Democrats and many Republicans share former ambassador Bill Taylor's concerns about President Trump's use of nongovernment officials as emissaries. In Ukraine, specifically, the concerns center on Rudy Giuliani, the president's private lawyer (and many years ago, my boss -- and someone for whom I have respect and affection). These concerns are also shared by many Trump-administration officials, and not just because it diminishes their roles.A so-called shadow State Department can cause disruption, especially if the emissary is wearing two hats, as Rudy was: 1) a private lawyer helping the president and his campaign; and 2) designee of the president for dealing with top Ukrainian officials. Such arrangements can undermine government officials as they attempt to carry out what they understand to be administration policy. Taylor's testimony, for example, describes the government's regular foreign-policy channel (the National Security Council, State and Defense Departments, etc.) pursuing the standing U.S. agenda for Kyiv (security, economic stability, anti-corruption), while simultaneously, the "irregular" channel focused on assistance in investigations pertaining to the 2016 election and the Bidens.Yet it is simply a fact that presidents occasionally deploy influential nongovernment officials as their envoys. Far from being a uniformly bad practice, it can further American interests in the cloak-and-dagger realm foreign relations can often be. It is also a fact that the Obama administration colluded with elements of the bureaucracy -- particularly the law-enforcement, intelligence, and diplomatic agencies -- to undermine Trump's campaign and presidency. The president has contributed to the toxicity, but let's not pretend that the progressive governing establishment's insubordinate machinations have not occurred. If President Trump believes the unaccountable federal bureaucracy works against him because it thinks it knows better, that is not merely a figment of his admittedly active imagination.While there is no legal bar to the president's using trusted outside advisers as envoys, it is obviously fair to ask whether the Giuliani deployment has done more harm than good.Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, two Giuliani associates who helped Rudy research the activities of the Bidens in Ukraine, are now under indictment. That case (brought by the Trump Justice Department in the Southern District of New York) includes a successful scheme to persuade the president to remove Marie Yovanovitch, the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. Parnas and Fruman are alleged to have made illegal campaign contributions to acquire political influence, and then to have used that influence to push for Ambassador Yovanovitch's removal -- including by inducing then–Representative Pete Sessions (R., Texas) to write the president a letter urging that the ambassador be fired for exhibiting anti-Trump bias. (I note that Yovanovitch vigorously denies that she was "disloyal" to the president, and she reasons that those who campaigned against her stood to be financially damaged by American anti-corruption efforts in Ukraine.) Parnas and Fruman were allegedly acting at the urging of a Ukrainian government official, who has been identified in press reporting as Yuriy Lutsenko. He is a former Ukrainian prosecutor who is said to have given Giuliani extensive information about the Bidens. (Lutsenko reportedly says the Bidens did not break any Ukrainian laws -- which is noteworthy even if it is far from an endorsement of their influence peddling.)Constitutionally, a president does not need to have a reason to remove an ambassador. Congress, however, is entitled to examine the president's conduct of diplomacy. Democrats are using their impeachment inquiry to explore whether Yovanovitch was reassigned because she was an obstacle to the president's push -- with Giuliani's encouragement -- for Ukraine to investigate the Bidens.This is a mess that neither the president nor the country needed. After all, Mueller's two-year investigation, as well as the pending Justice Department inspector-general and Barr/Durham probes, to some extent all involve collusion with foreign powers in connection with political campaigns. It is fair game for the Trump campaign to explore whether the Bidens cashed in overseas on Vice President Biden's political influence; and if Giuliani, as the president's private lawyer, found any evidence of possible U.S. law violations, those would appropriately be referred to the Justice Department. But to entangle that effort in the U.S. government's foreign relations with Ukraine was inappropriate -- particularly when the president is attacking Biden for being insensitive to patent conflicts of interest.Nonetheless, it is overwrought to portray bad judgment in these circumstances as an impeachable offense. The Bidens' behavior is highly questionable. The Obama administration liberally enlisted foreign powers in the politicized investigation of Trump, while the Clinton campaign colluded with foreign powers to tar Trump. As president, Trump ultimately stood down from his hold on Ukrainian aid. Kyiv made no commitment to investigate the Bidens and, prudently, wants to stay out of U.S. politics.Given the lack of actual harm and the indecorous behavior on all sides, this is not an episode over which a national consensus would support the president's removal. It is inconceivable that two-thirds of the Senate would ever oust Trump over his actions in Ukraine, so House Democrats are clearly pursuing impeachment for 2020 campaign purposes. They are titillating their base at the cost of exacerbating the deep divide in our nation. And they will not be able to govern under the new standards they are forging.7\. President Trump's fitness. We do not have a platonic ideal of presidential fitness. The constitutional qualifications are minimal, and when the people elect a person, that person is presumptively fit because the sovereign has spoken. After that, we make fitness judgments based on job performance: The president is deemed too unfit to serve if he commits high crimes and misdemeanors so egregious that the House files articles of impeachment and a supermajority of the Senate votes to convict and remove.Democrats and other Trump detractors are determined to reverse this norm. They have never accepted the voters' election of Trump. They are not seeking to deduce unfitness from impeachable offenses. They predetermined the unfitness finding and have spent three years looking for some misstep -- any misstep -- that might pass the laugh test as an impeachable offense. If that approach became our new normal, it would be much more harmful to the country than anything President Trump -- under the watchful eye of a hostilely aggressive Congress and a media that has shaken off its eight-year Obama-era snooze -- may do.8\. The 2016 precedent. Finally, President Trump's offense here was, at most, to leverage his power to advance his political ambitions -- in a manner that was minor, temporary, and without effect. It does not hold a candle to what Democrats did in 2016, when the incumbent administration placed the intelligence and law-enforcement apparatus of the government in the service of the Democrats' agenda to win the election and, failing that, to suffocate Donald Trump's administration -- an enterprise that energetically exploited the Obama administration's conduct of foreign relations. Tellingly, Democrats oppose any investigation of that scheme, let alone accountability or impeachment for any participant.The president and his supporters are wont to say that the Democrats' exploitation of presidential powers for partisan political purposes is the worst abuse of power since Watergate. If it is proved, it may well be -- we'll have to see what the Justice Department's investigations establish. For myself, though, I don't see how one can condemn what happened in 2016, yet not see any problem whatsoever with President Trump's handling of Ukraine -- even with the caveat that to portray the Ukraine excesses as grist for impeachment is overkill.That caveat is the president's best foot forward in opposing impeachment. It is also the best reason for Democrats to stand down. Ukraine seems like an effective campaign issue for them, especially if Joe Biden is not the nominee. As the basis for putting the country through an impeachment crisis, though, it is likely to explode on them.
|
| Beijing's new $63 bln mega-airport begins international flights Posted: 26 Oct 2019 06:44 PM PDT ![Beijing's new $63 bln mega-airport begins international flights]( "Beijing's new $63 bln mega-airport begins international flights") Beijing's new $63 billion Daxing airport began its first scheduled international flights on Sunday as it ramped up operations to help relieve pressure on the city's existing Capital airport. Shaped like a phoenix - though to some observers it is more reminiscent of a starfish - the airport was designed by famed Iraqi-born architect Zaha Hadid, and formally opened in late September ahead of the Oct. 1 celebrations of the 70th anniversary of the People's Republic of China. China Southern Airlines and China Eastern Airlines will be the main domestic carriers at Daxing, though Air China will provide a small number of flights too.
|
| Flight attendant alleges pilots watched a livestream of the plane's bathroom Posted: 27 Oct 2019 08:41 AM PDT  A flight attendant is suing Southwest Airlines after she reported a disturbing discovery she made in a plane's cockpit. A lawsuit filed by Renee Steinaker alleges that she was working on a flight between Pittsburgh and Phoenix when she entered the cockpit and noticed an iPad mounted on the plane's windshield, displaying what appeared to be live footage of the plane's bathroom.
|
| Man charged with 39 counts of manslaughter after bodies found in back of truck Posted: 26 Oct 2019 11:07 AM PDT  Maurice Robinson, of Northern Ireland, was charged with 39 counts of manslaughter related to the bodies found in the back of a truck in England
|
| Tanzania backsliding on freedoms under Magufuli: Amnesty, HRW Posted: 27 Oct 2019 05:28 PM PDT  President John Magufuli has presided over a crackdown on media and civil society in Tanzania that has seriously undermined democratic freedoms as the country approaches elections, global rights groups said Monday. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Tanzania was backsliding under Magufuli, whose administration has been accused of jailing journalists, kidnapping activists and assaulting political opponents. Magufuli's rule, which enters its fifth year next month, has been marked by an attack on free speech previously unseen in Tanzania, critics say, unravelling progress made by a country once rosily viewed in the region.
|
| California's wind-driven blaze spurs massive evacuations Posted: 27 Oct 2019 08:32 AM PDT  Authorities in Northern California ordered 180,000 residents to flee their homes Sunday as historic winds fueled a wildfire in the wine country, while electricity was shut off for millions of people in an effort to prevent more fires. The fear that the winds could blow embers and spread fire across a major highway prompted authorities to expand evacuation orders that covered parts of Santa Rosa, a city of 175,000 that was devastated by a wildfire two years ago. The latest evacuation orders after Pacific Gas & Electric shut off power to 2.3 million people across 38 counties starting Saturday evening.
|
| Raise Taxes on the Middle Class Before It's Too Late Posted: 28 Oct 2019 04:00 AM PDT  (Bloomberg Opinion) -- Elizabeth Warren "has a plan for that." Except, that is, for financing Medicare for All.The Democratic presidential candidate has been taking heat for refusing to say whether she would raise taxes on the middle class to pay for her health-care ambitions. But we don't have to wait to know the bottom line: Overall, the middle class will have to pay more. Indeed, even without any of the new programs Warren or her Democratic rivals would put in place, the broad middle class — households that aren't in poverty but that also aren't in, say, the top 1 or 2 percent — will likely be on the hook for a higher tax bill. To see why, let's look at some budget projections. As currently configured, spending on Social Security and major health programs — Medicare, Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program and Obamacare insurance subsidies — will total $2.3 trillion in 2019, or 10.2% of gross domestic product. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projects that in 2049, this combined spending will grow to 15.5% of U.S. GDP. Interest payments on the national debt are also expected to increase over the next 30 years. Meanwhile, all other federal spending — on the military and national defense, education, transportation, research, international affairs, the federal statistical system, the FBI, space exploration, safety net programs and more — is projected to decrease as a share of national output.Overall, federal spending is expected to increase substantially, from 20.8% of GDP this year to 28.2% in 2049. Under the current tax code, revenue will grow much more slowly, rising by 3.2% of national output. The 2019 deficit is $984 billion, or about 4.7 percent of GDP. The deficit will double over the next three decades, growing to 8.7% of annual output.To address this situation, federal revenue could be kept constant, and spending could be cut. Yet spending on all programs other than Social Security and health (and on interest payments) is already set to decline. And to keep the deficit where it is today, spending on these entitlements would have to be cut by one-third from the level projected under current law. Americans will likely not tolerate such vast reductions in their old-age retirement and medical benefits, and politicians, reluctant to reduce their generosity by even modest amounts, won't be eager to take a cleaver to them. President Donald Trump and his Democratic rivals have pledged not to cut Medicare and Social Security spending.To keep the deficit stable without cutting either program, the U.S. could try to reduce the social safety net. The problem is Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program are expected to grow by less than 1% of GDP over this period, and the remaining safety-net spending is projected to shrink. There isn't enough money here to solve the problem. And it would be a moral outrage to try to balance the budget on the backs of the poor. Any solution to the fiscal challenge should make the safety net's role in providing economic security and opportunity to those who need it most a top priority.Another possibility would be to keep taxes where they are for the broad middle class, and attempt to get the needed revenue from the very rich. But there isn't enough money here either. Revenue would have to increase by around $2.7 trillion in 2049 to keep the deficit at its 2019 share of GDP. To see the scale of what is needed, consider that Warren's economic advisers estimated that her wealth tax would have brought in less than one-tenth that amount in 2019. And as I noted in a recent column, their estimates are quite rosy. Even a full repeal of the Trump tax cuts — which I wouldn't support — would increase revenue by less than $300 billion per year.The final option would be to allow the deficit to continue to grow. While this idea is popular in some circles — for example, so-called modern monetary theory — it is not a real solution. Over the next several decades, the national debt cannot grow at its projected rate without risking slowing economic output, decreasing national income relative to what the U.S. produces, increasing borrowing costs, potentially heightening inflation expectations, and risking at least a marginal loss of confidence in international markets. So all this leaves raising taxes on the broad middle class to fill the gap.This would not be outside historical experience. Since 1965, federal revenue as a share of annual economic output has fluctuated between 14.6% and 20%, and has averaged 17.4%. In 2018, revenue was 16.5% of GDP. Federal revenue has room to grow.To be clear, I am not arguing against spending cuts. The best way to deal with U.S. budget problems is to rely heavily on slimming down Social Security and Medicare. These reductions should be designed to cut benefits the most for well-off seniors, and to increase competition and quality while bringing down health-care prices. It's hard to see how even significant cuts could avoid the need to collect more revenue from the broad middle class. (Exactly how to collect that revenue is contentious, and a subject for another column.)Which brings us back to Senator Warren. Add in her plans, and the burden would grow considerably.Sure, Warren may come up with Medicare for All financing that claims not to raise taxes on the middle class. Regardless of the fuzzy math she might offer for that specific program, her voracious agenda of government expansion — universal child care, cancellation of student loan debt, free public college and universal health care, just to take a few — is going to cost some serious money. Middle-class households: Take note.To contact the author of this story: Michael R. Strain at mstrain4@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Katy Roberts at kroberts29@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Michael R. Strain is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is director of economic policy studies and resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. He is the editor of "The U.S. Labor Market: Questions and Challenges for Public Policy."For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
|
| Japan: A Future Nuclear Weapons Superpower? Posted: 26 Oct 2019 04:00 PM PDT  A geopolitical earthquake.
|
| Trey Gowdy: ‘No idea’ about joining Trump legal team Posted: 27 Oct 2019 09:25 AM PDT  Former Rep. Trey Gowdy on Sunday said he has "no idea" if he would ever join President Donald Trump's legal team, despite Trump saying the South Carolina Republican would be free to do so next year. In an appearance on CBS on Sunday, Gowdy cast doubt on whether he would ever represent the president. Gowdy, who left Congress in January, said he was legally restricted in communicating with Congress on behalf of a client for a year.
|
| Angry at criticism, Philippines' Duterte dares vice president to take over law enforcement Posted: 28 Oct 2019 04:08 AM PDT ![Angry at criticism, Philippines' Duterte dares vice president to take over law enforcement]( "Angry at criticism, Philippines' Duterte dares vice president to take over law enforcement") Philippine leader Rodrigo Duterte on Monday lashed out at Vice President Leni Robredo for criticising his war on drugs, and offered to put her in charge of law enforcement. The president has a frosty relationship with opposition leader Robredo, who was elected separately from Duterte, whose drugs crackdown has killed thousands, stirring global alarm, although polls show strong domestic support for the campaign. It was not immediately clear if Duterte's offer was meant sarcastically, although he said he would send a letter to Robredo, a former human rights lawyer.
|
| De Blasio Ordered Top NYPD Officers to Drive Son to Yale Posted: 28 Oct 2019 08:07 AM PDT  New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio ordered members of his NYPD security detail to drive his son to Yale University and back multiple times, the New York Daily News reported Monday.Former members of the Executive Protection Unit with direct knowledge of the matter said detectives from the unit ferried de Blasio's son Dante to Yale several times during his freshman year. Dante decided in his sophomore year that he would rather ride the train to the university, and officers would pick him up upon his return to Penn Station."If you were told to bring him home from Yale, that's what we did," one former unit member said."If the commanding officer of the 75 (precinct) said, 'move my kid to college,' do you really think that wouldn't kill his career?" another former member commented. "But because it's the mayor, everyone just does it."The reports come after city officials admitted in August that Executive Protection Unit officers helped move de Blasio's daughter Chiara out of her apartment to the mayor's residence while on duty."Members of the family's detail were standing by and offered to help," the mayor's press secretary Freddi Goldstein insisted at the time. "Their involvement was strictly voluntary."The NYC Department of Investigation is probing the current incident but has so far refused to elaborate on the details."DOI is aware of the matter and declines further comment," a DOI spokesperson told the Daily News.De Blasio ended his presidential campaign earlier this year after consistently underperforming in polling. An August survey found the mayor had a lower approval rating than President Trump in deep-blue New York City.New York City's largest police union slammed de Blasio when he announced the end of his presidential bid."This campaign proved that it doesn't really matter whether Mayor Bill de Blasio is speaking to empty rooms in Iowa or spinning his wheels in a Park Slope gym. What matters to New Yorkers is that he isn't doing his job," union head Patrick J. Lynch said in a statement.
|
| 'Swing Set Susan' charged with impersonating a police officer after threatening to arrest Hispanic teens Posted: 28 Oct 2019 07:09 AM PDT  Video of a white woman threatening to arrest a group of Hispanic teens at a park in Texas has been viewed more than 5 million times.
|
| $5 million drug haul as Rohingya detained in Bangladesh Posted: 28 Oct 2019 06:09 AM PDT  Bangladesh police arrested a Rohingya man with $5 million of methamphetamine pills in their biggest narcotics haul this year, officials said Monday. Special police staged a raid on a beach in the Cox's Bazar district on the border with Myanmar on Sunday following a tip that a trawler carrying the drugs would land there, a spokesman said. The spokesman said 800,000 pills were found in sacks in the trawler and one Rohingya suspect was detained while several others escaped.
|
| Fire-ravaged forests get help from pine cone collectors Posted: 27 Oct 2019 08:52 PM PDT  With snow ready to fall, the scramble was on to collect as many ponderosa pine cones as possible. The cones being gathered in the Jemez Mountains of northern New Mexico represent the fruits of a bumper crop. Similar work is ongoing in Colorado, South Dakota and other places in the U.S. West.
|
| Every person alive today descended from a woman who lived in modern-day Botswana about 200,000 years ago, a new study finds Posted: 28 Oct 2019 09:00 AM PDT  Modern humans emerged in Africa around 200,000 years ago. Now, a research team has figured out where on the continent our ancestors originated.
|
| Inside the ‘Potentially Historic’ Wind Event Bearing Down on California Posted: 26 Oct 2019 01:27 PM PDT  JOSH EDELSONMiles above the Grand Basin, configurations of cool, high-pressure air have pushed dangerous gusts towards the California coast, triggering red flag weather warnings, mass power shutoffs, several wildfires, and thousands of evacuations from San Francisco to San Diego. This state is used to wind—the most infamous have names: Diablo in the north, Santa Ana in the south. But the National Weather Service in San Francisco has already hailed the force and duration of this weekend's event, predicted to last until Monday, as "potentially historic." "It's important to understand just how severe this weekend's event is going to be," said Dr. Craig Smith, a fire scientist at Jupiter Intelligence and former employee of embattled utility company, PG&E.; "It's certainly going to be the strongest offshore wind event of the season...The models we're seeing now [are] already showing that this event is going to be about as strong as the Oct. 8, 2017 event that led to the northern California firestorm."The weekend gales come on the heels of two other major wind events. Earlier this week, utility companies Pacific Gas & Electric, San Diego Gas & Electric, and SoCal Edison initiated a series of power shut offs across California for a strong gust beginning Wednesday night into Thursday, impacting roughly 218,000 people. Two weeks before that, PG&E; staged its largest and most controversial outage this fire season, cutting power to nearly 740,000 customers in 35 counties. The latest winds outdo those in scale—the intense speeds are not confined to high ridges, like the sparsely populated areas of the North Bay and the Sierra Foothills, but will mix down to the urban centers, where vastly more people live. Thursday, PG&E;, which services some 16 million people in California, announced it might shut off nearly its entire northern grid this weekend. As of Saturday morning, some 940,000 residents lost power from PG&E; alone. The outages have become a source a profound ambivalence in California, with some calling de-energization a necessary precaution against wildfire, as others—facing food spoilage, accessibility issues, and even evacuation—see it as a safety measure designed primarily for the utilities themselves. "I basically stay clear of any political or corporate bs but this pg&e; outage crap is pretty ridiculous considering both of the main power lines that go to our house are not only going thru a tree but are also completely flush with the trees bark and rubbing, [sic]" an apparent PG&E; customer named Meagan JoAnn wrote on Facebook, alongside pictures of the lines. "I would love to know who has 'checked our lines for safety before turning the power back on?!' They have been like this for years. Recently they came and butchered the crap out of the tree but the lines are still rubbing. Here goes another outage potentially followed by another this weekend. Good thing I love my home cause I'm not a fan of this state and it's public utilities companies!"The state-wide skepticism stems from a bankruptcy filing earlier this year by PG&E;, after investigators found the utility liable for the series of fires that devastated California in 2017. The finding put PG&E; at the center of several class action and negligence lawsuits over the disasters, including the notorious Camp fire, which leveled the town of Paradise, killing 85 people and destroying 19,000 structures—the most damaging fire in California history. Their bankruptcy filing, the largest of its kind, left residents fuzzy on whether the utilities acted out of concern for public safety or private greed. California Gov. Gavin Newsom has taken a strong stance against the utilities, openly criticizing the shutoffs and infrastructure failures that rendered them necessary. Thursday, Newsom wrote an open letter to the leadership of all three utilities, claiming the outages "undermined efforts to coordinate with first responders to protect public safety during these events." This week, he launched a program to mitigate the effects of power shutoffs, appropriating $75 million to fund local and state government investments in back-up generators, fuel storage and other emergency measures in public facilities."It's more than just climate change. It's about the failure of capitalism to address climate change," Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a press conference Thursday morning. "It's about decades of mismanagement. It's a story about greed."As wildfires erupt across California, fingers are already pointing to PG&E.; On Wednesday night, a blaze started in the small, northern city of Geyserville, so-called for a nexus of hot springs, steam vents, and fumaroles tucked below its nearby mountains. The fire tore across Sonoma County, scorching more than 25,000 acres of forest and vineyards, forcing evacuations for 50,000 people. The next morning, PG&E; filed a report with the California Public Utilities Commission admitting a transmission tower had malfunctioned the night before. Despite shutting off power to the area that afternoon, a few towers remained active. The company noticed the failure near Kincaid Road at 9:20 p.m. The fire–since dubbed the "Kincaid Fire"–started at 9:27. The utilities have maintained that all outages are a necessary safety measure. "For us, power safety shutoffs––it's a last resort," said Robert Iezza, Communications Manager at SDG&E.; "We take into account a variety of factors: fire conditions, weather conditions, wildfire activity, availability of resources and reports from emergency responders." "No single factor drives a Public Safety Power Shutoff, as each situation is unique," a PG&E; spokesperson told The Daily Beast in an email. "PG&E; carefully reviews a combination of many criteria when determining if power should be turned off for safety." But they have had widespread impact on essential workforces, like farmers. Elaine Trevino, president of the Almond Alliance, based in Modesto, told West Farm Press that at least five almond hullers were held up by the outages, without generators or any working machines. In a state nearly synonymous with almond milk, the outage bodes poorly: "For almonds," Trevino said, "the backup is going to cause a delay in harvests."Most essential services, like hospitals or fire stations are equipped with emergency measures for blackouts like these. Jan Emerson-Shey of the California Hospital Association said she didn't expect any disruption to care. "We are well prepared," she said, "and when we had the last outages a few weeks ago, there were no serious consequences. Some people delayed elective procedures, but generally speaking, all the hospitals came through that outage just fine."Scott McLean, a spokesperson for CalFIRE, the state's Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, called the outages inconvenient, but affirmed that there would be no break in service. "We're as inconvenienced as everybody," he said. "It is what it is." 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.
|
| Trump Gets No Respite From Impeachment Probe After U.S. Raid Posted: 28 Oct 2019 05:58 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump scored one of the biggest successes of his presidency with the killing of an Islamic State leader, yet the battlefield victory isn't likely to blunt the momentum of Democrats moving closer to impeaching him.The inquiry led by three House committees resumes Monday with another slate of witnesses, even as the country absorbs Trump's dramatic announcement of the death of Islamic State commander Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who was cornered in a tunnel by U.S. forces.History suggests Trump may enjoy a boost in public support after the raid, but it will likely be short-lived. That gives Democrats little incentive to slow down an impeachment inquiry, especially after testimony last week bolstered their main line of investigation into whether the president pressured the government of Ukraine for his personal political benefit."We will be doing public hearings, and I think we'll being doing them soon" Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff, a California Democrat, said Sunday on ABC's "This Week" program.Lawmakers and officials familiar with committee plans say the aim has been to wrap up the impeachment probe by the end of the year. But with a long list of potential witnesses, House adjournments and holidays ahead, there are rising doubts that timetable can be met, even if White House roadblocks aren't successful.Representative Gerald Connolly, a member of the Oversight and Reform Committee conducting the inquiry with the Intelligence and Foreign Affairs panels, said last week he hasn't been told of any official deadline to wrap up the inquiry, but getting it done by the end of the year would be "very challenging.""I don't know if we can make that," the Virginia Democrat said. "I would favor acceleration of the process of the evidence we have now, most of which is in the public domain."Schiff said Sunday he would give a precise timeline for beginning public hearings, which are all but certain to lead to drafting of articles of impeachment."In part we're struggling with the White House's continuing efforts to obstruct our investigation, to obstruct witnesses coming in," Schiff said.If the House votes to impeach Trump, it will be up to the Republican-led Senate to decide whether to remove him from office.Republicans on Sunday continued to argue, as Trump has, that the impeachment inquiry is politically motivated and is taking attention away from more important work Congress should be doing. Several cited the raid in which Baghdadi was killed.Baghdadi's death "reinforces the fact that while Democrats are obsessed with 'striking while the iron is hot' and rushing towards a partisan impeachment, President Trump is working tirelessly to solve the real problems facing the American people," said Ohio Representative Jim Jordan, the ranking Republican on the Oversight panel.But Republican Representative Mark Meadows of North Carolina, a top congressional ally of Trump who also is on the Oversight Committee, acknowledged that such arguments won't slow down the impeachment inquiry."Today's strike against terrorism will be applauded, but I doubt it will deter Democrats from racing forward with their partisan attacks," Meadows said.Democrats said the president's success or failure and other legislative business have no bearing on their investigation.Pressing Ahead"Foreign policy debacles, like the abandonment of the Kurds, or military successes, like this operation, are presumably irrelevant to the question of whether President Trump has committed high crimes and misdemeanors," said Democratic Representative Jamie Raskin, a member of the Oversight Committee.Part of the Democratic strategy in the inquiry is to build public support for impeaching Trump, a step that will deepen the divides in the country. The president can't count on a lasting boost from the death of Bahgdadi.Then-President Barack Obama's approval rating before the May 2, 2011 operation that killed Sept. 11 mastermind Osama bin Laden was 44%, according to Gallup data. It rose to 51% in week after the raid, but by the next month it had slipped to 46% and continued falling through the summer, as Obama dealt with a still sluggish economy and a fight with House Republicans over the budget and federal debt ceiling. It hit 40% by the end of August. By comparison, Trump's approval rating in the most recent Gallup survey was 39%.The schedule for this week of closed-door hearings so far includes testimony Thursday from Timothy Morrison, a special assistant to the president. On Sunday, an attorney for Charles Kupperman, a former deputy national security adviser, sent a letter to the three House committees saying that he would defy a subpoena to testify Monday. Kupperman is asking a federal court to resolve the "irreconcilable demands" he faces in deciding whether to comply with a congressional subpoena for his testimony or instructions from the White House that he not appear.Contempt ThreatSchiff, Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel and acting Oversight Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney wrote in a letter to Kupperman's attorneys on Saturday that they expect the former aide to show up. If he doesn't, they wrote, "his absence will constitute evidence that may be used against him in a contempt proceeding."The Democrats' inquiry focused over the past month almost entirely on the question of whether Trump and a handful of close advisers put pressure on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to conduct investigations of his political rivals, including by holding up U.S. military assistance. But Democrats have other potential avenues they could pursue. The inquiry has already taken several turns and could do so again.Although the Ukraine matter is in the forefront now, a federal judge on Friday ordered the Justice Department to give the Judiciary Committee grand-jury materials from former Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report on Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election. Democrats sought those materials when they were investigating whether Trump obstructed the probe.The ruling handed Democrats another major victory that may be more important. U.S. District Court Judge Beryl Howell rejected Republicans' central challenge to the impeachment investigation -- that Congress's inquiry is invalid because the full House hasn't authorized it with a floor vote.(Updates with Kupperman defying subpoena in 19th paragraph.)\--With assistance from Erik Wasson.To contact the reporter on this story: Billy House in Washington at bhouse5@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Joe Sobczyk at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net, Anna EdgertonFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
|
| ‘Many’ dead as Myanmar military sinks boats carrying kidnapped troops: Arakan Army Posted: 27 Oct 2019 04:37 AM PDT !['Many' dead as Myanmar military sinks boats carrying kidnapped troops: Arakan Army]( "'Many' dead as Myanmar military sinks boats carrying kidnapped troops: Arakan Army") Myanmar's army sunk several boats carrying dozens of soldiers and police officers taken hostage by rebels in the restive western Rakhine state, the Arakan Army said on Sunday, adding that many had died. The ethnic armed group abducted more than 50 people, most of them members of the security forces, a day earlier in the latest escalation of violence in the region where it has been fighting government troops for months. The AA, which is demanding greater autonomy for Rakhine state, said troops opened fire on three vessels where the group were being held in Rathedaung township, sinking two and damaging one.
|
| Storms to unleash snow, cold across the Midwest this week Posted: 27 Oct 2019 10:39 AM PDT  The storm system bringing heavy snow to parts of the Rocky Mountains this weekend will be the first of a pair of storms to travel across the Plains and Midwest.
|
| Prosecutors want black judge who criticized incarceration rates of African Americans removed Posted: 27 Oct 2019 01:49 PM PDT  Iberia Parish judge Lori Landry has questioned the large number of black Louisianans incarcerated by the district attorney's office
|
| Romania, Hungary recruit in Asia to fill labour shortage Posted: 27 Oct 2019 08:11 PM PDT  Sporting yellow safety helmets, about 30 men are busy at work on a construction site south of Bucharest, exchanging a few words in Vietnamese. Faced with a growing labour shortage which threatens their economies, Romania and Hungary are courting Asian workers, going against Hungarian nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban's anti-immigration rhetoric. "My friend, my friend," a Romanian worker says to his Vietnamese colleague in English at the Bucharest construction site, trying to break the language barrier.
|
| Democratic Rep. Katie Hill resigns amid ethics probe Posted: 27 Oct 2019 05:08 PM PDT  Freshman Rep. Katie Hill, a rising Democratic star in the House, announced her resignation Sunday amid an ethics probe, saying explicit private photos of her with a campaign staffer had been "weaponized" by her abusive husband and political operatives. The House ethics committee also launched an investigation into whether Hill had an inappropriate relationship with an aide in her congressional office. Hill has denied that.
|
| Sinkhole swallows half of Pittsburgh bus during rush hour Posted: 28 Oct 2019 07:50 AM PDT  A bus has fallen into a sinkhole in downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, after ground gave way beneath the vehicle as it waited at a traffic light during rush hour.Video and pictures of the scene show the bus with its rear end in the ground where the road cracked and fell, and the front of the vehicle several feet off the ground.
|
| California Declares State of Emergency as Wildfires Spread Posted: 28 Oct 2019 05:51 AM PDT  California governor Gavin Newsom announced a state of emergency on Sunday as a wildfire in Sonoma County north of San Fransisco forced the evacuation of thousands of people."We are deploying every resource available, and are coordinating with numerous agencies as we continue to respond to these fires," Newsom said in his declaration.Approximately 180,000 people were evacuated from the vicinity of the Kincade fire in Sonoma County, bringing traffic on highways to a near standstill.Utility company PG&E Corp., which is currently bankrupt, has shut off power to approximately 965,000 homes and businesses, or about 2.5 million people, across the state in order to avoid sparking more fires. The company's faulty equipment has been blamed for past wildfire outbreaks."We recognize the hardship of not having power," said Andrew M. Vesey, president of Pacific Gas & Electric Co., the main subsidiary of PG&E. "We are working hard with all our partners to ensure the most vulnerable customers are being cared for."California is the tech capital of the country, with companies like Apple and Facebook headquartered in Silicon Valley south of San Francisco. However, the main utility company in the state lags behind in technological methods to track and reduce the safety risks posed by fires.Under California law, utility companies are liable for damages if their equipment sparks wildfires even in the absence of negligence. Fires thus present a serious financial risk to the companies, which PG&E has decided to aggressively combat by means of mass power outages.PG&E provides electricity to about 16 million, or one in 20 Americans.Newsom has lashed out at the company, saying that PG&E's "greed and mismanagement over the course of decades" created a situation that "no state in the 21st century should experience."Meanwhile, dry weather and high winds threatened to create conditions for even more fires.
|
| After a Week Off the Grid, Sondland Surfaces on Capitol Hill To Review Testimony Posted: 28 Oct 2019 08:50 AM PDT  Mark Wilson / GettyU.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland returned to Capitol Hill Monday to review the transcript of his testimony to the House impeachment investigators earlier this month, according to two sources familiar with his schedule. Sondland told lawmakers that President Donald Trump assigned his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani to carry out Ukraine policy for the U.S. Sondland reportedly said he was not aware that Ukraine policy was in part focused on working with Kiev officials to investigate 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son, Hunter.The ambassador's presence on the Hill Monday came as a surprise to individuals who work alongside the ambassador overseas. Sondland's whereabouts have been a bit of a mystery, according to three individuals familiar with his work throughout the European Union.Last week he skipped a teleconference with other European ambassadors. Two sources said he missed the call because he was traveling. One other person familiar with Sondland's schedule told The Daily Beast he was still on the job but would not elaborate about the ambassador's travel. Three sources said he has been out of the Brussels office for more than a week.The State Department did not respond to repeated requests for comment.Ambassador Sondland Throws Trump Under the BusMeanwhile, lawmakers are considering bringing Sondland back in for questioning following last week's deposition by William Taylor, America's top diplomat to Ukraine. According to a copy of his remarks, Taylor said Trump told Sondland Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had to say something in public and "clear things up" about investigating Hunter Biden's work in the country.Lawmakers said that Taylor's account puts the onus on Sondland to come back and clear up inconsistencies or gaps in his initial testimony, during which he frequently said he didn't recall certain events. "Generally, it might be a good idea for Mr. Sondland to want to come back," said Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) after hearing from Taylor, whose appearance last Tuesday most clearly established the quid-pro-quo regarding U.S. security aid and Ukrainian investigation of the Bidens that Trump is denying he sought. "Obviously you could call everyone back, but I think Mr. Sondland has some more explaining to do," added Connolly. Top lawmakers involved in the impeachment inquiry have generally avoided talking about whether Sondland should return for testimony, preferring to focus on the other witnesses who are lined up for depositions in the coming days. A spokesperson for House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) declined to comment on whether Sondland would be asked to come back. But Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY), who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee that is helping to lead the inquiry, did not rule out the possibility last week."I think it's too early to comment until we've seen everything, until everybody's testified," Engel told The Daily Beast. "But I wouldn't be reluctant to call someone back if we felt we needed clarification."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.
|
| Drunk driving could start to end as soon as 2024, government says Posted: 26 Oct 2019 05:08 PM PDT  A few U.S. senators are looking to add alcohol-detection equipment to vehicles. Senators Tom Udall (D–New Mexico) and Rick Scott (R–Florida) have introduced legislation that would mandate that all new passenger vehicles come with passive and unobtrusive alcohol detection systems by 2024. Their Reduce Impaired Driving for Everyone (RIDE) Act of 2019 is intended to "promote the research and development of advanced alcohol detection software and will require the implementation of such technology in new motor vehicles." Rep. Debbie Dingell (D–Michigan) has introduced similar legislation in the House of Representatives. Their goal is to have technology in every car that will prevent the car from being started if the driver's BAC is over the legal limit of 0.08.
|
| Chicago teachers strike continues after talks fail to break impasse Posted: 28 Oct 2019 12:15 AM PDT  Classes were canceled for about 300,000 students in Chicago for an eighth day on Monday as the teachers' union and public school district failed over the weekend to resolve a deadlock in contract talks over class sizes, support staff levels and pay. Each side blamed the other for the impasse in the third-largest U.S. school district, where the strike began on Oct. 17, and the union, which represents the city's 25,000 teachers, has been without a contract since July 1. The strike is the latest in a wave of work stoppages in U.S. school districts in which demands for school resources have superseded calls for higher salaries and benefits.
|
| Texas police officer shot his own son, thinking he was a home intruder, police say Posted: 28 Oct 2019 08:37 AM PDT ![Texas police officer shot his own son, thinking he was a home intruder, police say]( "Texas police officer shot his own son, thinking he was a home intruder, police say") The incident occurred Saturday evening when the off-duty Dallas police officer returned home and thought someone might be inside, DeSoto police said.
|
| Dread builds in Vietnam over fate of missing UK migrants Posted: 26 Oct 2019 11:49 PM PDT  Dread mounted across Vietnam on Sunday as relatives of migrants feared to be among 39 people found dead in a truck in Britain revealed new heart-wrenching details of their last contact with their loved ones. The driver of the refrigerated trailer discovered in an industrial park on Wednesday has been charged with 39 counts of manslaughter and people trafficking in a case that has shocked Britain and cast light on the extreme dangers facing illegal migrants seeking better lives in Europe. The 31 men and eight women were initially believed to be Chinese, but several Vietnamese families have now come forward with fears their relatives are among the dead.
|
| Libya coast guard intercepts dozens of Europe-bound migrants Posted: 28 Oct 2019 04:05 AM PDT  Libya's coast guard said Monday it intercepted dozens of Europe-bound migrants off the country's Mediterranean coast the previous day. A rubber boat with 53 African migrants, including 14 women and two children, was stopped off Libya's western town of Abu-Kemmash, about 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) from Tunisia, said the coast guard spokesman, Ayoub Gassim. Libya has emerged as a major transit point for migrants fleeing war and poverty to Europe.
|
| Democrats' religion conundrum Posted: 27 Oct 2019 04:00 AM PDT ![Democrats' religion conundrum]( "Democrats' religion conundrum") Do the Democrats have a religion problem?The question may seem peculiar. According to a Pew survey of religious affiliation by party, there are plenty of Democratic voters who are religious. While the majority of religiously unaffiliated voters (54 percent) do identify as Democrats, so do a plurality of self-identified Catholic voters (44 percent versus 37 percent for the GOP), and Orthodox Christian voters (44 percent vs. 34 percent). Democrats also claim an overwhelming majority of historically black Protestant denominations, as well as 40 percent of mainline Protestants, and a majority of voters from non-Christian religious traditions like Buddhism (69 percent), Islam (62 percent) and Hinduism (61 percent). Republicans dominate only amongst Evangelical Protestants (56 percent) and Mormons (70 percent).Moreover, plenty of Democrats live lives marked by serious commitment to religion. Fifty-five percent profess absolute certainty in their belief in God; 47 percent say religion is very important to their life; 50 percent pray at least daily. Even such Protestant-oriented practices as regular reading of scripture are far from uncommon among Democrats: Twenty-nine percent read scripture at least weekly vs. 43 percent of Republicans. And religious commitment doesn't necessarily translate into endorsement of traditional views on sexuality and gender, the most hot-button subjects around which our verbal and legal wars of religion are being fought. For example, among the 54 percent of Christians who believe that homosexuality should be accepted rather than discouraged, nearly 60 percent pray daily and 35 percent attend religious services at least once a week.Democrats, in other words, seem to be reasonably successful at winning the support of a substantial minority of Christian voters, while winning large majorities among unaffiliated and non-Christian religious voters, which are growing rapidly as a percentage of the electorate. Republicans, by contrast, are increasingly identified with a particular strain within American religion -- a phenomenon that has been accentuated by the Trump administration's bond with white evangelical voters -- and to be repelling those who dissent from this identity. Who's got the problem here?But look below the surface and some problems are indeed evident -- and those problems are manifesting themselves on the campaign trail already.While Democrats still win plenty of Christian votes, religiously committed white Christians are a steadily shrinking portion of their coalition, with correspondingly less clout. And that's a practical problem because the Democrats' advantage with unaffiliated and non-Christian voters has a greater impact in some states than others. In California, unaffiliated and non-Christian voters are 36 percent of the electorate vs. Evangelical Protestants at 20 percent. But in Ohio, they are only 26 percent of the electorate vs. 29 percent Evangelical Protestants -- and if the Democrats want to win the Electoral College, to say nothing of the Senate, they need to win in places that look more like Ohio than California. As so often, a demographic advantage turns out to also be a geographic disadvantage.And religious polarization, like the racial polarization among working-class voters with which it substantially overlaps, frustrates some central Democratic ambitions. Historically, the core mission of the Democratic Party was advancing broad-based economic solidarity, enacting government programs and fostering non-governmental organizations that spread the benefits of prosperity widely and gave ordinary people more power over their own lives and over the country's direction. That mission is much harder to achieve when cultural division gets in the way of solidarity.But cultural division may indeed be getting in the way. Why did Beto O'Rourke, for example, feel the impulse to call for revoking the tax-exempt status of religiously-affiliated organizations that oppose same-sex marriage? There are not a few such organizations that play important roles in civil society -- running schools, health-care facilities, adoption agencies, and so forth -- that do oppose same-sex marriage. They want to be able to continue to play their historic role while being faithful to their traditional view of human sexuality. But as same-sex marriage gets more and more unexceptionable, this determination on their part gets more and more counter-cultural, and their call for protection are perceived, rightly, as a demand for a religious license fo discriminate.That's why an increasingly vocal portion of the Democratic coalition responds positively to rhetoric of O'Rourke's sort, framed as anti-discrimination. But from the perspective of those on the other side of the ideological divide, what's being called for is an attack on religion. After all, these institutions largely just want to be able to continue to operate as they have done historically. Why are people who don't profess to adhere to their religion's beliefs allowed to force them to change, either by abandoning their beliefs or withdrawing from society?This is a genuinely difficult conundrum for those aware of the problem. One often-proposed way to square the circle is to hold fast to liberal views but to use more religious language to defend them -- to speak, in other words, from the religious left. Plenty of Democrats do this, in fact -- Pete Buttigieg did so eloquently at the same town hall where O'Rourke took his controversial stand, talking about how marriage to his husband brought him to a deeper understanding of Christian service, subordinating the self to the needs of another. Is that the model that other Democrats should follow, as commentators like Frank Bruni have suggested?Perhaps, but I'm not so sure it will help. It's not obviously a big improvement to move from "religion is benighted and wrong," to "actually, I'm religious and so I can tell you that your particular religious views are benighted and wrong." Inasmuch as we share a spiritual vocabulary, religious language can be used to call us to live up to our professed ideals. It's much harder to use such language against churches themselves as institutions.What's required is not just the language of faith but the language of respect, even of profound differences, differences which, from the liberal as well as the conservative perspective, are fundamental and basically moral. It means, ultimately, seeking a truce on at least some fronts in the culture war. Unfortunately, it's neither easy nor obvious how to do that without devaluing causes that liberals take very seriously indeed.On the other hand, one doesn't have to seek a truce on the other side's terms -- and if a truce is viewed as sincere, it can change political perceptions even if it is rejected. The political goal, after all, is to get a hearing from voters who may view Democrats as culturally hostile even as they might be receptive to other parts of the Democratic agenda, without making any other members of the Democratic coalition feel like second-class citizens. That goal might be achieved even without a truce in the culture war, if those voters come to conclude that it is conservatives who are prolonging a fight unnecessarily.And religious institutions have changed before under the pressure of political necessity -- including in America. The LDS church, for example, officially renounced plural marriage in 1890 because they knew Utah would not be granted statehood unless they did. Their acceptance of black Mormons into the priesthood in 1978 took place against the backdrop of rapidly changing attitudes toward race in America. Five years later, Bob Jones University vs. United States established that the IRS could discriminate against religiously-affiliated institutions that themselves discriminated on the basis of race -- and today Bob Jones University permits the inter-racial relationships that it previously banned.Conservatives may believe that today's religious conflicts are of a different character, but that question will be answered in the fullness of time. If Democrats truly believe that time is on their side, that should make extending an olive branch easier rather than harder.Want more essential commentary and analysis like this delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for The Week's "Today's best articles" newsletter here.
|
| China's DF-100 Anti-Ship Missiles Are Ready To Sink the U.S. Navy Posted: 26 Oct 2019 10:00 PM PDT  Set to kill America's aircraft carriers.
|
| An 11-year-old girl in Zimbabwe jumped on top of a crocodile and gouged its eyes out when it attacked her 9-year-old friend Posted: 28 Oct 2019 09:32 AM PDT  Rebecca Munkombwe jumped on top of the croc and gouged its eyes out, which caused it to lose its grip on Latoya, who escaped with just minor injuries.
|
| Schiff Warns of Building Obstruction Case: Impeachment Update Posted: 28 Oct 2019 07:28 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- A former deputy national security adviser will not comply with a subpoena to testify on Monday morning to the three House committees leading the impeachment probe against President Donald Trump -- despite being threatened with potential contempt of Congress if he does not. Charles Kupperman, a former aide to then-national security head John Bolton, missed his scheduled testimony Monday. Here are the latest developments:Schiff Warns of Building Obstruction Case (10:25 a.m.)House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said the failure of witnesses to comply with subpoenas would build "a very powerful case for obstruction," which could be its own article of impeachment. Schiff said he has confidence that other witnesses besides Kupperman will still show up despite White House directives to resist congressional subpoenas. Timothy Morrison, a current special assistant to the president, is scheduled for Thursday. Schiff said that if Kupperman had something to say that was helpful to Trump the White House would let him testify. The "inference" is that his testimony would be "incriminating," he said.Witness Will Defy Subpoena Pending Court Ruling (8:20 a.m.)Charles Kupperman, a key witness in the Trump impeachment inquiry is asking a judge to decide whether he must testify to Congress.Trump's former deputy national security adviser, Kupperman has been advised by his attorney not to appear before the House impeachment inquiry until a federal judge weighs in."We want to assure your clients, again, that it is not Dr. Kupperman who contests your clients' claim that the subpoena is 'lawful'," Kupperman's attorney Charles Cooper wrote in a letter dated Sunday to House Intelligence Committee senior investigative counsel Daniel Noble."It is President Trump, and every President before him for at least the last half century, who have asserted testimonial immunity for their closest confidential advisors," Cook said.Kupperman had been expected to appear Monday. He has long been associated with John Bolton, Trump's national security adviser who was forced out last month. Bolton, according to witnesses, strongly opposed Rudy Giuliani's activities on behalf of Trump in Ukraine.Kupperman said in a complaint filed Friday that he faces "irreconcilable commands" -- a subpoena from House Democrats requiring him to cooperate and an order from the White House not to testify.The chairmen of the three committees responded Saturday with a letter to Kupperman's legal team stating that lawsuit, "lacking legal merit and apparently coordinated with the White House -- is an obvious and desperate tactic by the President to delay and obstruct the lawful constitutional functions of Congress and conceal evidence about his conduct from the impeachment inquiry.""The deposition will begin on time and, should your client defy the subpoena, his absence will constitute evidence that may be used against him in a contempt proceeding," stated the letter from Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff, Foreign Affairs Chairman Eliot Engel, and Oversight and Reform Acting Chair Carolyn Maloney.But in the response Sunday, Cook wrote: "If your clients' position on the merits of this issue is correct, it will prevail in court, and Dr. Kupperman, I assure you again, will comply with the Courts judgment."Key EventsSenate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham, a Republican, called the impeachment investigation "illegitimate" and introduced a resolution calling on the House to vote to start a formal inquiry before proceeding any further. It also asks Democrats to let Trump call witnesses on his behalf and allow minority Republicans to issue subpoenas in the inquiry.Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Secretary of State Michael Pompeo has serious questions to answer in the impeachment inquiry and said "maybe he's complicit" in Trump's efforts to get Ukraine to probe Joe Biden and his son.Philip Reeker, the State Department's top diplomat for Europe, testified on Saturday at a rare House weekend hearing. Timothy Morrison, a special assistant to the president, has been scheduled for Thursday.To contact the reporters on this story: Billy House in Washington at bhouse5@bloomberg.net;Erik Wasson in Washington at ewasson@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Joe Sobczyk at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net, Elizabeth Wasserman, Anna EdgertonFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
|
| India's firecracker hub hit by anti-pollution drive Posted: 27 Oct 2019 09:30 AM PDT  With thousands of workers painstakingly handmaking vast volumes of firecrackers, Sivakasi in southern India is usually at full tilt before Diwali. In addition to gifts, elaborate feasts and family get-togethers, the Hindu mega-festival of lights, which falls this weekend, has in recent years also meant setting off firecrackers -- millions of them. Just before Diwali last year, India's top court ruled only "green crackers" that emit fewer pollutants could be used.
|
| Firefighters struggle against massive, wind-whipped California wildfire Posted: 27 Oct 2019 11:18 AM PDT  Crews lost ground on Sunday against a wind-driven wildfire that has blackened a wide swath of California's picturesque wine country and driven 180,000 people from their homes as they hoped for a break in the hot, dry weather. About 3,000 people were battling the Kinkade Fire, the worst of more than a dozen major blazes that have damaged or destroyed nearly 400 structures, and prompted Governor Gavin Newsom to declare a statewide emergency. Newsom said its containment had "slipped" to about half of an earlier estimate of 10 percent, with more than 50,000 acres (20,230 hectares) burned, as nearly 90-mph (145-kph) gusts whipped flames toward communities as far south as northern Santa Rosa.
|
| Pregnant Shawn Johnson squeezes into Olympics leotard at 40 weeks, reveals who baby looks like Posted: 27 Oct 2019 12:31 PM PDT  Shawn Johnson, who is expecting a baby any day now, squeezed into her Olympic leotard. The couple invited fans to "see" what the child will look like.
|
| ‘Complete Control’: Boston College Student Told Boyfriend to Kill Himself ‘Thousands of Times,’ DA Says Posted: 28 Oct 2019 09:05 AM PDT  Boston Globe via GettyA former Boston College student was indicted on charges of involuntary manslaughter over her boyfriend's suicide, Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins announced at a Monday press conference.Inyoung You, a 21-year-old South Korean student, was indicted by a grand jury on Oct. 18 in the death of her boyfriend Alexander Urtula, 22, who killed himself on the day of his graduation from Boston College, said Rollins.You's indictment is reminiscent of the headline-grabbing case of Michelle Carter, who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in 2017 over the death of her boyfriend, 18-year-old Conrad Roy III. Carter is serving a 15-month sentence after it was revealed that she pushed Roy to end his life over text message and repeatedly chastised him when he hesitated."The time is right and you are ready... just do it babe," Carter reportedly wrote in one message.The district attorney said Monday that You's case is distinct in that she waged "a complete and utter attack on this man's will and conscience and psyche," telling him to kill himself "thousands of times" over their 18-month relationship.On May 20, Urtula's family was in town from New Jersey to watch him walk across the stage during his graduation from Boston College. He never made it. "What appeared to be a self-inflicted horrific tragedy ended up being a lot more than that" when authorities began looking through his cellphone, said Richard Sullivan, superintendent of the Transit Police Department.The ensuing investigation revealed that You was "physically, verbally, and psychologically abusive" to Urtula and was tracking his location on her phone the morning of his death, Rollins said. School officials said Urtula, a biology major, was a gifted student from Cedar Grove, New Jersey. He was working as a researcher at a New York hospital after completing his coursework the previous December, said Joy Moore, the interim vice president of student affairs, when she announced Urtula's death."While today is a day for celebration, we ask you to take a moment to remember Alexander, his family, and friends in your prayers during this most difficult time," Moore said in May.Speaking at the press conference on Monday, Rollins said that You "made demands and threats with the understanding that she had complete control" over Urtula. She "in fact was present when" he killed himself, the district attorney added.The indictment alleges that You's behavior "was wanton and reckless" and that she "created life-threatening conditions" for Urtula.In domestic abuse, said Rollins, "a perpetrator is not limited by the gender or the gender of their partner."You left for South Korea after Urtula's death."There are any number of ways that we can try to extradite her back from Korea," said the district attorney. "We are fully fluent in the ways we can get her back if she doesn't want to do so voluntarily. We are cautiously optimistic that she will return on her own."If you or a loved one are struggling with suicidal thoughts, please reach out to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
|
No comments:
Post a Comment