| Navy upholds sentencing of Navy SEAL for posing with corpse Posted: 30 Oct 2019 03:54 AM PDT  The U.S. chief of naval operations on Tuesday denied a request for clemency and upheld a military jury's sentence that will reduce the rank of a decorated Navy SEAL convicted of posing with a dead Islamic State captive in Iraq in 2017. Adm. Mike Gilday made the decision after carefully reviewing the trial transcripts and the clemency request by the lawyers of Edward Gallagher, said Cmdr. Nate Christensen, spokesman for Gilday, in a statement. Gallagher's lawyer, Timothy Parlatore, said they are disappointed in the ruling that will cost Gallagher up to $200,000 in retirement funds because of his loss of rank from a chief petty officer to a 1st class petty officer.
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| The Royal Navy May Not Be the Most Dangerous, But It Can Kill Billions Posted: 29 Oct 2019 11:30 PM PDT  One reason: nuclear weapons.
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| US helicopter raid reported in Syria after trove of Baghdadi intelligence taken Posted: 29 Oct 2019 06:53 AM PDT  The US is believed to have carried out fresh raids on suspected senior Islamic State members in Syria overnight, as officials assessed a treasure trove of intelligence gathered from Isil leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's final hideout. Helicopters reported to be from the US-led coalition flew late on Monday night into al-Shuyukh village south of Jarablus, around three miles from a raid the previous day that killed Isil's spokesman Abu Hassan al-Muhajir. Donald Trump, the US president, tweeted on Tuesday that Baghdadi's "number one replacement" had been killed. He did not name who that was, but it is thought he was referring to Muhajir. Analysts do not agree that Muhajir would have been Baghdadi's natural successor. Just confirmed that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's number one replacement has been terminated by American troops. Most likely would have taken the top spot - Now he is also Dead!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 29, 2019 A spokesman for the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which is believed to have jointly conducted the mission, said there had been a "successful raid targeting and arresting senior Isil members" on Monday night without elaborating. Local sources reported that the mission lasted no more than 20 minutes and no clashes were heard. "An Iraqi family had moved there in recent times," Aghiad al-Kheder, co-founder of anti-Isil activist group Sound and Picture, told the Telegraph. "We think two men were taken away by the helicopters." The men's identity, or relationship to Baghdadi, was not immediately known. "We think it's related to the Baghdadi raid," said Mr Kheder, whose group has sources on the ground in the area. "For sure US found important documents and maybe in the next few days we will see many operations like this." Pentagon officials told the Washington Post that the documents and other information gathered during the raid on the compound in Barisha in Idlib province close to the Turkish border would prove useful in hunting down remaining senior Isil figures. The officials said two men were also captured alive in the raid who they hoped could provide intelligence about the group. Evidence was growing that Isil had an established smuggling ring, taking senior members from Deir Ezzor in eastern Syria and Qaim in western Iraqi to Idlib. The last moments of Islamic State leader Kurdish spies cultivated a source inside Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's inner circle who was able to steal the Islamic State leader's underwear for DNA sampling and provide a detailed layout of his compound ahead of the US raid, the SDF commander said. Mazloum Kobani Abdi, the head of the SDF, told NBC his intelligence officers had turned one of Baghdadi's security advisors who was able to give critical information about the jihadist leader's house and the tunnels beneath it. The source took a pair of Baghdadi's underwear and a blood sample to help US forces confirm who was hiding in the compound. The source was at the site on the night of the raid and was whisked out by US commandos. Polat Can, a senior adviser to the SDF, revealed more detailed information about the group's role in finding Baghdadi. "Since 15 May, we have been working together with the CIA," said Polat Can, a senior adviser to the SDF. He said their surveillance tracked the 48-year-old reclusive leader moving to the village of Barisha in northern Idlib from northern Deir Ezzor in April. Iraqi officials confirmed to the Telegraph that they had arrested members of Baghdadi's inner circle who were part of the ring and gave up the leader's location. It is thought fighters with the Islamist group Hurras al-Din, an al-Qaeda-aligned group which is usually hostile to Isil, were also facilitating senior Isil leaders' movement through rebel-held Idlib. Baghdadi was discovered at the house of one Hurras al-Din commander, Abu Mohamed al-Halabi, who was killed in the raid. Mustafa Bali, SDF's spokesman, said that Muhajir, described as Baghdadi's right-hand man, was believed to have been in the area in order to facilitate Baghdadi's movements in Idlib and possibly on to Turkey. Muhajir was targeted in the village of Ain al-Baydah near Turkish-administered Jarablus with the help of SDF intelligence. Local sources said Muhajir had been travelling in a convoy made up of an oil tanker and a car. The SDF has questioned how Ankara was not aware of the presence of Baghdadi and other senior leaders so close to areas in Syria under its control.
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| In a Kurdish prison, former IS fighters never see the sun Posted: 29 Oct 2019 10:29 AM PDT  Just months ago, the most hardcore among them were still bent on defending the last sliver of the Islamic State group's "caliphate" in Baghouz, Syria. AFP correspondents obtained exclusive access to the site in Hasakeh province. IS fighters were accused of carrying out beheadings, mass executions, rapes, abductions and ethnic cleansing in territory they held across swaths of Iraq and Syria.
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| California Governor Accepted Donations from Utility Company He Now Excoriates for ‘Greed’ Posted: 30 Oct 2019 06:14 AM PDT  California governor, Democrat Gavin Newsom, has accepted large donations from Pacific Gas & Electric Co., a utility company he now excoriates for "greed" and "mismanagement."PG&E has faced widespread criticism for implementing blackouts for millions of customers to avoid sparking wildfires in the midst of California's dry and windy fall weather."I have a message for PG&E," Newsom wrote on Twitter on Friday. "Your years and years of greed. Years and years of mismanagement. Years and years of putting shareholders over people. Are OVER."Newsom and allies accepted $208,400 from the utility during his 2018 gubernatorial campaign, according to local affiliate ABC10. Of that total, $150,000 went to a political spending group called "Citizens Supporting Gavin Newsom for Governor 2018," while the rest went to directly to Newsom's campaign.PG&E filed for bankruptcy in January 2019. Faulty PG&E electricity equipment has been blamed for sparking several wildfires in the past decade.California has consistently shut down proposals to clear dead trees from forests and to trim trees near power lines state wide, creating conditions for a rash of wildfire outbreaks in recent years.The Kincaid Fire currently burning in Sonoma County in the northern part of the state has forced the evacuation of roughly 200,000 people. The fire is twice the size of the city of San Fransisco.Newsom declared a state of emergency on Sunday in response to the Kincaid Fire and several other wildfires throughout the state. He again threatened PG&E in a statement on the situation."There is a plan to get out of this. This is not the new normal," Newsom said on Sunday at an evacuation center in northern California. "This is not a 10-year process to deal with this. That will not be the case… [PG&E] will be held to account to do something radically different
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| Meghan McCain Spars With Cory Booker Over Civility: Beto Was ‘Very Nasty’ to Me! Posted: 30 Oct 2019 09:39 AM PDT  During a Wednesday interview with Democratic presidential candidate Cory Booker, The View's Meghan McCain did what she apparently does best: Make the conversation about herself and, in this case, her personal beef with a presidential hopeful.After applauding Booker for saying Medicare for All is unrealistic, the conservative View co-host took issue with the New Jersey senator's support for mandatory gun buybacks. This then prompted McCain to lump Booker in with former Texas Rep. Beto O'Rourke, who has made buybacks a central focus of his campaign."When I heard you and Beto say that, to me, that's like a left-wing fever dream," McCain said. "And I want to know how you think you and Beto are going to go to red states and go to my brother's house and get his AR-15s because, let me tell you, he's not giving it back."Booker, meanwhile, asserted he is not nearly where O'Rourke is when it comes to gun buybacks, causing McCain to reply: "Good! Because he's crazy!""We should watch the way we talk about each other," Booker shot back. "Seriously, we can't tear the character of people down. We have different beliefs."McCain, however, invoked her ongoing feud with the one-time Texas Senate candidate, complaining that O'Rourke "has no problem doing it to me.""He was very nasty to me about this," the ex-Fox News star lamented.Last month, reacting to McCain's overt warning that gun buybacks would lead to "a lot of violence" from gun owners, O'Rourke said "that kind of language and rhetoric is not helpful" and it could become "self-fulfilling" and give permission to violence."You and I both know that just because somebody does something to us, doesn't mean we show the same thing back to them," Booker responded to McCain, garnering audience applause."I'm not running for president, with all due respect," McCain snapped back. "And the way he talks about me inciting violence on this, I take very seriously and I speak for a lot of red state Americans whether he likes it or you like it or not, there's a lot of Republicans you have to win over."The New Jersey lawmaker reacted by telling McCain that her voice was one he respected before noting that "what we say about other people says more about us than it does about them."Booker would then go on to relay an anecdote from the campaign trail in which he defused a voter's call for violence against President Trump. McCain, meanwhile, brushed it aside and went back to pressing Booker on his buyback proposal and how he's going to take her brother's guns.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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| Russian Defense Ministry: Trump’s al-Baghdadi victory lap is nothing but ‘propaganda’ Posted: 28 Oct 2019 11:43 AM PDT  At the White House Sunday morning, President Trump profusely thanked Russia for its alleged involvement in the killing of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, but Russia has disputed his claims.
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| 'The Wild West': Questions surround Trump legal team payments Posted: 29 Oct 2019 02:00 AM PDT  Until now, Trump's legal arrangements have been in a gray area of regulation. But now, critics are trying to change that.
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| Mexican soldiers told Chapo's son to call to stop attacks Posted: 30 Oct 2019 09:19 AM PDT  Mexican security forces had a son of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzmán outside a house on his knees against a wall before they were forced to back off and let him go as his gunmen shot up the western city of Culiacan. Defense Secretary Luis Cresencio Sandoval on Wednesday showed video of the failed operation to arrest Ovidio Guzmán López on Oct. 17 — an incident that embarrassed the administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Security forces ultimately withdrew to avoid more bloodshed.
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| Convicted rapist freed from life sentence by mistake Posted: 29 Oct 2019 07:00 AM PDT  A convicted rapist serving a life sentence was released from prison in error.US marshals are on the trail of Tony Maycon Munoz-Mendez, who was wrongly let out of Rogers state prison in Reidsville, Georgia, on 25 October.
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| Malaysia says trade spat with India over palm oil will not be prolonged Posted: 30 Oct 2019 03:33 AM PDT |
| Meet the LRASM: The U.S. Navy's Powerful New Missile Posted: 28 Oct 2019 01:00 PM PDT  It's a killer.
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| The Obama Foundation Has Just Unveiled a New Set of Renderings of the Presidential Center Posted: 29 Oct 2019 11:53 AM PDT  Tod Williams and Billie Tsien respond to previous criticism of the project with their latest designs
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| A Record Wave of Lone Child Migrants, Born of Desperation Posted: 30 Oct 2019 05:21 AM PDT  TENOSIQUE, Mexico -- The United States has detained more children trying to cross the nation's southwest border on their own over the last year than during any other period on record, surpassing the surge of unaccompanied minors that set off a crisis during the Obama administration, according to new figures released Tuesday.U.S. immigration authorities apprehended 76,020 minors, most of them from Central America, traveling without their parents in the fiscal year that ended in September -- 52% more than during the last fiscal year, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.Mexico is experiencing the same surge. Under pressure from the Trump administration, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador stepped up immigration enforcement and detained about 40,500 underage migrants traveling north without their parents in the same period -- pushing the total number of these children taken into custody in the region to more than 115,000.In interviews, nearly two dozen children who were heading toward the United States said they knew the trip was dangerous -- and that if they were caught they could end up in overcrowded, dirty facilities on both sides of the border, without adequate food, water or health care. But they took their chances anyway, looking to escape dead-end poverty, violence and a lack of opportunities to study or work, despite President Donald Trump's aggressive efforts to block immigration through the southwest border."These are numbers that no immigration system in the world can handle, not even in this country," Mark Morgan, the acting commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, told reporters. "And each month during the fiscal year, the numbers increased. You saw them. We all saw them."The young migrants came alongside a historic wave of families traveling together, also largely from Central America. They travel by foot, hitch rides or climb onto trains, carrying only what they can fit in tattered backpacks, and face a staggering array of threats, from thieves and rapists to hunger, loneliness and death.Marvel, a 16-year-old Honduran boy, said he had been on the road for weeks when, somewhere in Guatemala, he came upon a cluster of roadside graves: the final resting place of other migrants who had died on their journey north. He was alone and far from home. Fear crawled up his spine. But he thought of the gang threats he faced -- and he pressed on."Quitting was not an option," Marvel said, giving only his first name for fear of gang retribution. "You wipe your tears and carry on."For the young migrants, the risks at home outweigh the potential dangers of the road. Most are teenage boys, though girls and children also attempt the trip. For Marvel, the decision to leave came when a gang in his hometown, Olancho, told him that if he did not join their ranks, they'd kill him and his family. There was no doubt they were serious, Marvel said. Gang members had already murdered his older brother.His parents encouraged him to leave, Marvel said. "We can't bear losing another son," they told him. "You have to go."He left home in the spring, with $40 in his pocket and no plan except to find work in a safer place.As for most underage migrants traveling without their parents, his trip north has been a feat of improvisation and courage. He walked and hitchhiked through Honduras and Guatemala. He slept in churches, under trees or wherever he found himself when night fell.Along the way, he gathered crucial bits of information from fellow migrants: the best route to take, locations of shelters up ahead, places to avoid, where to forage for food.As huge numbers of young migrants from Central America began arriving at the United States' southern border in 2014, the Obama administration scrambled to house them until they could be released to sponsors -- adults who applied to care for them. The shelter system grew dramatically as a result.The Trump administration experienced similar backups at the border just a few years later -- this time because of new, more stringent policies that made the sponsors themselves, who are often undocumented, vulnerable to immigration authorities. This discouraged people from coming forward, leaving thousands of children to languish in the system.The Trump administration has also sought to deter migration by separating thousands of children from their relatives, again driving up the number of children in federally contracted shelters.On the road, while trying to avoid detention, fear and hunger are constant companions for many young migrants.With little or no money in their pockets, they relied on strangers for snacks or meals. They pawed through garbage and scanned drifts of debris on the roadside, hoping to spot an edible morsel.Wilson, a 17-year-old Honduran, said he had feasted on rotten mangos discarded by street vendors."I used to drink water from potholes when I was too thirsty," interjected Mario Leonel, 16, who left home in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, several weeks ago without notifying his parents. "That is the hardest part of it all: the hunger."When he arrived at the shelter in Tenosique, a small Mexican town near the Guatemala border, he called his parents in Honduras, who burst into tears and pleaded for him to return. He said no. He was tired of all the violence in his country, and wanted to get asylum in the United States.After Marvel slipped across the Guatemala-Mexico border in May, he found room at a shelter in Tenosique, which serves as a transit point for many migrants. He quickly made new friends among other teenage migrants who had made it this far, mainly from Honduras, but also from Guatemala and El Salvador.On a recent afternoon, several of them gathered in a two-story building that had been reserved for minors, its walls painted with colorful animal murals. The boys cracked jokes, roughhoused and argued about who was the cutest girl in the shelter.Outside, Dulce, a 16-year-old transgender migrant from Guatemala, sat alone on train tracks pining for a boy she had met at the shelter. He had left without explanation and she was lovesick."I just can't get him out of my mind," she said.She left her hometown four months earlier to escape abuse from her family and strangers, including a sexual assault by gang members when she was 12. She made it as far as central Mexico before being detained and deported. Five days after returning home, she set off again."I left because I had nothing there and no one to protect me," she said. "At least here I am safe."Though the United States remains the destination of choice for most unaccompanied minors, an increasing number are setting their sights no farther than Mexico, advocates and migrants say.Sometimes they have no choice: Mexico's increased enforcement measures have made it more difficult for migrants to make it to the border with the United States. And even if they reach the United States, recent policies have drastically lowered the possibilities of getting asylum.In Mexico, when unaccompanied minors are detained, the law mandates that they be released right away into the custody of the national child protection agency, which finds them accommodation in shelters designed for children.But migrants' advocates say the government has been holding children in the nation's overcrowded detention centers for far too long, and that some children are quickly funneled into the deportation process rather than being given a fair chance to seek asylum or some other form of relief."No child should ever be held at a detention center," said Elba Coria, a migration expert from the Clinic for Refugees at the Ibero-American University in Mexico City. "But while international standards consider children's detention as an exceptional measure, amid Mexico's migration chaos, it is the rule."Neither Marvel nor any of his new friends in the Tenosique shelter had been detained by the authorities. All had managed to cross into Mexico from Guatemala and had applied for asylum in Mexico after talking through their options with the shelter staff.They now plan to remain in Mexico and look for work and study opportunities -- even if they haven't abandoned hope of making it to the United States."It is every Honduran's boy dream to get to the United States, where there is more money and kids are able to go to school," said Jose Angel, 17. He was born with a disability that left him unable to use his arms and left his hometown because his grandmother could no longer take care of him.He was hopeful he could apply for asylum in the United States despite Trump's many efforts to severely lower the number of people granted asylum. "It is scary, but you have to take a chance," he said.On a recent morning, Alan, a 17-year-old Guatemalan migrant, sat on the sidewalk outside a migrant shelter in the city of Palenque, in southern Mexico. He had just crossed the border and was exhausted. Mexican immigration officials had stopped a bus he was on, but he managed to escape into the countryside and hide.Alan planned to take a nap, shower and have a meal before trying illegally to board a freight train known as The Beast. It runs from Mexico's border with Guatemala to its border with the United States and, for decades, migrants have clung to it to speed through much of Mexico.His hope was to make it to the U.S. border and petition for asylum. He was undeterred by Trump's recent efforts to restrict asylum claims or curb immigration."One way or another, I have to make it to the other side where there are skyscrapers and life is better," he said.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
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| Six Syrian soldiers killed as regime army and Turkish military clash for first time since offensive Posted: 29 Oct 2019 06:21 AM PDT  At least six Syrian regime fighters were killed as heavy clashes broke out Tuesday between the army and Turkish forces for the first time since Ankara attacked northeastern Syria three weeks ago, a war monitor said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said artillery and machine-gun fire was exchanged near Assadiya, south of the border town of Ras al-Ain. "Heavy fighting erupted for the first time between the Syrian and Turkish armies," the Britain-based monitoring group said. The Turkish military and its Syrian proxies attacked Kurdish forces in northeastern Syria on October 9 with the aim of creating a roughly 30-kilometre (20-mile) deep buffer zone. "Turkish artillery fire killed five regime forces in battles on the edge of the village of Assadiya," Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the Observatory, told AFP. Turkey and Syria border He added that the pro-Ankara fighters being used by Turkey as the main ground force for the invasion executed a government soldier they had captured. Kurdish forces earlier this month agreed to withdraw from a 120-kilometre (75 mile) long, Arab-majority segment of the 440-kilometre (275-mile) border zone, although clashes have been reported since. Turkey subsequently reached a deal with the Syrian government's main backer Russia for Kurdish forces to pull back from the entire border area. Left in the lurch by a US troop withdrawal from the border area, Kurdish forces turned to the government for protection. Damascus forces rushed north and are now expected to deploy along much of the border zone but a 10-kilometre-deep strip was to be jointly patrolled by Russian and Turkish troops, starting from Tuesday.
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| Correction: Puerto Rico-Cruise Ship Death story Posted: 29 Oct 2019 12:09 PM PDT  In a story Oct. 28 about charges brought in a cruise ship death, The Associated Press reported erroneously that a child who died was 2 and the man's niece. SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — A man who police say dropped his young granddaughter from the 11th floor of a cruise ship docked in Puerto Rico in July has been accused of negligent homicide.
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| North Carolina's congressional map is illegal Republican gerrymander, court rules Posted: 28 Oct 2019 07:07 PM PDT  The decision was a victory for Democrats, who have struggled to gain a foothold in both the state legislature and North Carolina's 13 U.S. congressional districts, in part because of how Republicans drew the electoral lines. The ruling seems likely to ensure that the state's 2020 congressional elections will take place under a new map, dealing a blow to Republicans' hopes of recapturing the U.S. House of Representatives after Democrats swept to power in that chamber last year.
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| Global leaders, tycoons flock to Saudi 'Davos in desert' Posted: 29 Oct 2019 10:37 AM PDT  Saudi Arabia drew top finance moguls and political leaders to its Davos-style investment summit Tuesday, in stark contrast to last year when outrage over critic Jamal Khashoggi's murder sparked a mass boycott. Organisers say 300 speakers from over 30 countries, including American officials and heads of global banks and sovereign wealth funds, were attending the three-day Future Investment Initiative (FII), nicknamed "Davos in the desert". A strong turnout at the event, aimed at projecting the insular kingdom as a dynamic investment destination, would help repair de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's global image that was tainted by journalist Khashoggi's gruesome killing last October.
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| Iranian beauty queen stuck at Philippine airport for nearly 2 weeks fears death if deported Posted: 29 Oct 2019 09:42 AM PDT  Bahareh Zare Bahari continues to await her fate at the Manila international airport after arriving nearly two weeks ago from Dubai.
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| 2020 Toyota Land Cruiser Heritage Edition Is Even More Capable and Luxurious Posted: 29 Oct 2019 06:00 PM PDT |
| A California couple who was forced to evacuate their home and winery share what it's really like to endure the wildfires engulfing the state Posted: 30 Oct 2019 06:53 AM PDT  California's Sonoma wine country dealt with destructive wildfires in 2017. Here's how one winery is dealing with 2019's Kincade Fire.
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| America's B-21 Stealth Bomber vs. China's H-20 Stealth Bomber (Who Flies First?) Posted: 28 Oct 2019 11:01 PM PDT  The first B-21 stealth bomber is in production for the U.S. Air Force. But the high-tech new bomber isn't alone. Photos have emerged depicting a scale model of China's own, in-development stealth bomber.
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| Trump impeachment: Democrats respond to Republican attacks by unveiling new procedures for inquiry Posted: 29 Oct 2019 02:28 PM PDT  House Democrats unveiled new procedures for the impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump Tuesday, responding to Republican demands for due process by setting out rules for future public hearings delving into whether Trump should be removed from office.The resolution backed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., hands the lead role to the House Intelligence Committee and its chairman, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who would have broad latitude to organize extended questioning of potential public witnesses. Two other committees who have so far participated in the closed-door investigation into Trump's dealings with Ukraine - Foreign Affairs, and Oversight and Reform - would not be permitted to directly participate in the open proceedings under the legislation.
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| Biden's communion denial highlights faith-politics conflict Posted: 29 Oct 2019 04:04 PM PDT  A Roman Catholic priest's denial of communion to Joe Biden in South Carolina on Sunday illustrates the fine line presidential candidates must walk as they talk about their faiths: balancing religious values with a campaign that asks them to choose a side in polarizing moral debates. The awkward moment for Biden came during a weekend campaign swing through South Carolina, a pivotal firewall in his hopes to claim the Democratic presidential nomination. The former vice president on Sunday visited St. Anthony Catholic Church in Florence, a midsize city in the state's largely rural northeast.
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| Senior adviser Jared Kushner: Time in White House spent 'cleaning up the messes' left by Biden Posted: 29 Oct 2019 04:28 PM PDT  Jared Kushner, senior adviser and son-in-law to President Trump, responded to former Vice President Joe Biden's claim that he was unqualified to serve in the White House in a recent interview, telling an Israeli journalist that he's spent his time in the administration addressing problems of Biden's making.
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| Bangladesh opposition stalwart jailed for threatening PM Posted: 29 Oct 2019 05:49 PM PDT  A Bangladesh opposition stalwart was jailed in absentia for three years Wednesday for threatening the prime minister in what his party said was another example of government critics being muzzled. Thousands of opposition activists have been arrested under the rule of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who has tightened her grip on power since being re-elected in December. Giasuddin Quader Chowdhury, a vice-chairman of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), was found guilty of making statements "conducive to public mischief" and "criminal conspiracy", the court said.
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| Teen who stole endangered lemur from California zoo sentenced to 3 months in prison Posted: 29 Oct 2019 07:07 AM PDT  Newport Beach resident Aquinas Kaspar, 19, was sentenced to three months in federal prison for stealing the endangered animal last year.
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| Bosnian Serb ex-soldier jailed for 20 years for burning Muslim civilians Posted: 30 Oct 2019 07:59 AM PDT ![Bosnian Serb ex-soldier jailed for 20 years for burning Muslim civilians]( "Bosnian Serb ex-soldier jailed for 20 years for burning Muslim civilians") A Bosnian court jailed a former Bosnian Serb soldier for 20 years on Wednesday for setting ablaze 57 Muslim Bosniaks, of whom 26 including a two-day-old baby died, near the eastern town of Visegrad early in Bosnia's 1992-95 war. Radomir Susnjar, 64, known as Lalco, was also found guilty of robbery and illegal detention of civilians, the court said. The group of Muslim Bosniaks had been seized after an attack on the village of Koritnik and locked in a house that was set ablaze with an accelerant and explosives while Susnjar and other Bosnian Serb Army members shot at it to prevent anyone fleeing.
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| Photos from space show the Kincade Fire's spread across California wine country Posted: 30 Oct 2019 08:19 AM PDT  Satellites in space observed the Kincade Fire burning through dry vegetation. Infrared images show scorched land.
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| The Internet Wouldn't Be the Same Without These 11 Women Posted: 29 Oct 2019 12:54 PM PDT |
| Democrats accused Republicans of trying to trick an impeachment witness into naming the whistleblower Posted: 30 Oct 2019 04:50 AM PDT  In a closed-door deposition, Republicans questioned Lt. Col. Vindman on whom he had discussed trump's Ukraine call with, alarming Democrats.
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| South African police arrest foreigners protesting at UN site Posted: 30 Oct 2019 07:06 AM PDT  Police in the South African city of Cape Town used water cannons Wednesday while dispersing and arresting hundreds of foreigners, including children, who have camped for weeks outside the U.N. refugee agency's office. Some of the refugees and asylum-seekers told local media they are seeking to be relocated outside the country after a wave of deadly attacks on foreigners in South African cities earlier this year. Police said earlier efforts by the U.N. refugee agency and others to resolve the situation amicably "yielded no positive result." Police said officers were executing an Oct. 18 court order after a landlord applied to evict the 300 or so people who had been camping in the downtown arcade in a protest.
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| This Is What It Would Take for Iran to Destroy an F-35 Posted: 29 Oct 2019 11:00 PM PDT  A lot, that's what.
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| Texas police officer shot his own son, thinking he was a home intruder, police say Posted: 29 Oct 2019 05:49 AM PDT  The incident occurred Saturday evening when the off-duty Dallas police officer returned home and thought someone might be inside, DeSoto police said.
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| He was undocumented. Now he's exposing detention center abuse Posted: 29 Oct 2019 02:49 PM PDT  Tom Wong, a UC San Diego professor, has surveyed 600 asylum seekers and says the president's policy is 'sending people to die'Tom Wong, a UC San Diego professor, is uncovering the abuse immigrants face in overcrowded detention facilities. Photograph: Erik Jepsen/UC San Diego PublicationsTom K Wong's world shattered at age 16 in 1998 when his parents told him he was undocumented. The Riverside, California, teenager thought his life was over.Now 37, Wong is one of the prominent scholars in the US on immigration, most recently uncovering abuses inside detention centers in his latest University of California, San Diego research. The political science professor, whose family migrated from Hong Kong when he was two and overstayed their visas, released groundbreaking research on Tuesday on asylum seekers, exposing violence and suffering at the border as the Trump administration is escalating its crackdown on migrants.Wong surveyed more than 600 asylum seekers affected by Donald Trump's controversial "remain in Mexico" policy, which has forced tens of thousands to return to Mexico while their cases advance. Roughly, 85% reported that immigration detention facilities failed to provide adequate food and water and that they were unable to sleep due to overcrowding, cold temperatures and other conditions. Only 20% reported being able to take care of basic hygiene, such as showering and brushing their teeth.More than half said they faced verbal abuse inside detention, with some saying they also suffered physical abuse. Roughly 25% also had their property seized when taken into detention, including important documents and cash that was not returned to them, he said.A majority said they were forced to return to Mexico without any further investigation of the violence they might face there, which Wong said was a direct violation of the policy.While waiting in Mexico, one out of four said they were threatened with physical violence, and more said they ended up homeless.Asked about Wong's research, a spokesperson for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) said the agency "provides safe, humane, clean, professionally run and appropriate conditions of confinement" and access to legal and translation services. A spokesperson for Customs and Border Protection, which also detains migrants, said it "takes allegations of mistreatment of individuals in our facilities seriously" and that employees found to violate standards "will be held accountable".Wong talked with the Guardian about his non-traditional academic career, the crisis at the border, and how he uses his PhD to fight back. The conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.Can you tell me what it was like to discover you were undocumented?My parents told me I couldn't go with my high school basketball team to Canada. Then they told me I couldn't get a driver's license. I couldn't get a job. And there was just a cascade of no, no, no. And finally my parents said it's not because we don't want you to do these things, it's because you can't. All my hopes and dreams about growing up were literally shattered in a single moment. And it was during a time when there wasn't the undocumented youth movement, so I wasn't able to find other students.I grew up in a predominantly Latino neighborhood, and before I found out I was undocumented, California was becoming a ground zero for this emerging anti-immigrant movement. I remember there were policy debates with the white kids on one side, the brown kids on the other, and me feeling like I had little understanding. But everything that was being said negatively toward my Latino classmates actually applied more directly to me.How did you overcome this and become an academic?I barely graduated high school after learning I was undocumented, because at the time I thought, what's the point? But I got married when I was 19 and I was able to adjust my immigration status. I paid for a summer politics class, and I thought if this professor can make a living teaching, maybe I can do the same.It took me years to realize I bring a different perspective to the study of immigration, politics and policy, that my history is my comparative advantage. It's a perspective that helps me ask questions that others don't. It took me a while to talk about my experience of being undocumented, because my parents' immigration status was still tenuous. But they're fine now, and I'm able to speak out.What has been most shocking to you about your findings on what happens to asylum seekers?Some findings were simultaneously shocking, but also very expected since we've heard anecdotal reports. There were over 200 incidents of verbal abuse, dozens of instances of physical abuse and even property being taken away. I heard of someone losing their life savings.The findings about language access also really stuck out. Individuals are getting instructions about critically important steps in languages that they don't speak: often Central American asylum speakers who speak an indigenous language by default are given instructions in Spanish. In San Diego, there are a lot of different languages – Asian Indians seeking asylum who speak Hindi were given instructions in English or Spanish. I find it hard to believe that we as a country can't find a Hindi speaker. This is a basic due process tenet.What do we now know about the conditions people face when they are forced to return to Mexico?So many have experienced or been threatened with physical violence while waiting. Despite the handshake agreement between the United States and Mexico that Mexico is responsible for the humanitarian needs of these asylum seekers being returned, we are putting people in harm's way by returning them to Mexico.What do you think is most important for the public to understand about the impact of Trump's policies on asylum seekers right now?This administration wants to see net zero refugee admissions, which we are getting close to. This is a core part of the agenda. It's not just in disregard of international and domestic law, but it's in disregard of the fact that so many of the asylum seekers who are being turned away are seeking protection from persecution. It's an agenda that is blind to the experiences of these families. The inevitable result is that people will be sent to circumstances where they will likely die.What do you hope is the impact of your work and your findings?I used to believe in facts swaying public opinion. But I fear we are in a political moment where the ability to select which facts to consider true is making the work we do less important. Now it may be very difficult to move public opinion when opinions are formed on such a visceral level.But facts still matter. The truth still matters, because what is happening now is the administration is often acting first, and then the courts are litigating later. So even if the public is less and less swayed by the facts on the ground, judges still are.Were there moments in your career where you found academia unwelcoming?It can be strange having lived through something and then hearing about that subject through the perspective of somebody who studies the topic, but doesn't have that personal connection. But I do quantitative work, and at the end of the day, the data speak much louder than my own personal background.What's the hardest part of doing academic work that is relevant to urgent policy matters?A lot of academics are just scared about being wrong and being publicly wrong. But I believe in the importance of the work, and that means I need to be confident that I can stand by it. A few years ago I thought my bar was peer review in an academic journal. Now I understand my bar to be that as well as, "Can this pass muster with a federal judge or can this withstand a deposition from attorneys for the Department of Justice?"What effect does the work have on you personally?It's often miserable. It's difficult to hear. It's difficult to interact with people, to see women and little kids who are the ages of my own children in shelters in Mexico, not knowing what's going on. It is difficult to not internalize it. But I believe in the work. If it's not me, I'm afraid there won't be others who step up. Because it'll be too easy for those others who want to step up to then step out after really understanding how difficult it is to have these conversations.How do you think we can get out of this crisis moment?We have to know our immigration policy past. Every generation gets to decide for itself, whether it embraces diversity through our immigration system or pushes it away by closing our golden door. We are defining for this generation how we are answering the question of what it means to be a nation of immigrants. And we have done that historically. And in some periods in our history, we have closed our doors to immigrants, and in other periods we have opened them again. This is cyclical. It is difficult to live through, but this has been a cyclical part of our immigration policy past.Every four years we as a country get to collectively answer whether or not we still believe in this idea that we are a nation of immigrants. In 2020, we will get to vote.
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| London police detain jailed former Mexican governor's wife; faces extradition trial Posted: 29 Oct 2019 11:05 AM PDT  Police in London on Tuesday detained Karime Macias, the wife of a disgraced former Mexican state governor who is serving a 9-year jail sentence for money laundering and links to organized crime, a spokesman for Mexico's attorney general's office said. Macias will now face an extradition trial in Britain, the spokesman said. A judge in the Gulf Coast state of Veracruz, where Macias' husband Javier Duarte governed from 2010 to 2016, issued a warrant for her arrest in 2018 for the alleged misuse of over 112 million pesos ($5.9 million) in funds from a social welfare program.
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| CNN Anchor Brianna Keilar Scorches New Colleague Sean Duffy’s ‘Anti-Immigrant Bigotry’ Towards Vindman Posted: 29 Oct 2019 11:57 AM PDT  Hours after new CNN political commentator Sean Duffy questioned the loyalty of National Security Council official Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, CNN anchor Brianna Keilar took aim at her colleague by calling out his "anti-immigrant bigotry" while mocking him over his reality-TV past.Piggybacking on talking points that had been pushed by other right-wing pundits, Duffy, a former Republican congressman, suggested on Tuesday morning that Vindman—a Ukrainian-American immigrant who is testifying that he reported concerns about President Donald Trump's infamous July call to the Ukrainian president—was more loyal to Ukraine than to America."It seems very clear that [Vindman] is incredibly concerned about Ukrainian defense," Duffy said during Tuesday's broadcast of CNN's New Day. "I don't know about his concern [for] American policy, but his main mission was to make sure the Ukraine got those weapons. I understand it: We all have an affinity to our homeland where we came from."Duffy went on to note that Vindman, who is the NSC's top Ukraine expert, "speaks Ukrainian" while reiterating that the Iraq War veteran has "an affinity" for Ukraine and "wants to make sure they're safe and free." His comments echoed those of Fox News hosts Laura Ingraham and Brian Kilmeade, fellow Trump-boosting cable-news stars.Cable-News Trumpkins Use Same Exact Talking Point: Vindman Has Dual LoyaltyIn response, during her own broadcast, Keilar did not hold back."No one who knows what they're talking about would call that espionage," she stated. "It is literally Vindman's job to talk to Ukrainians. And the prevailing view on U.S. foreign policy is the money going to Ukraine is a counterbalance to Russia, a U.S. foe. It's pretty easy stuff, but not for former Republican Congressman and CNN contributor Sean Duffy."Keilar then dunked on Duffy by contrasting his resumé with Vindman's."That is some anti-immigrant bigotry and it's an odd questioning of patriotism coming from Sean Duffy, the guy who spent part of his 20s on MTV's The Real World and Real World/Road Rules Challenge while Alexander Vindman spent his on foreign deployments, including one to Iraq where he earned a Purple Heart after being injured by a roadside bomb."Duffy, for his part, attempted to walk back his on-air comments on Twitter on Tuesday, stating that Vindman is "an American war hero" while claiming that his larger point is "that Mr. Vindman is an unelected advisor, he gives ADVICE. President Trump sets the policy."Duffy has made quite an impression during his short tenure with CNN. In his first two appearances for the network last week, he was chastised on-air for pushing the president's debunked conspiracy theory that suggests Ukraine was actually behind the hack of the DNC servers. During another segment, fellow CNN contributor and Republican ex-congressman Charlie Dent pointed out that unlike Duffy, "my nose is not a heat-seeking missile for the president's backside."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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| Supreme Court and Citizens United led Trump, Giuliani & friends into the Ukraine swamp Posted: 30 Oct 2019 05:48 AM PDT  Ukraine-gate illustrates precisely how independent expenditures can corrupt. Trump, Giuliani, Fruman and Parnas show how it's done. All in one month.
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| Activist Thunberg declines climate prize, urges more action Posted: 30 Oct 2019 03:38 AM PDT  Two fellow climate activists spoke on Thunberg's behalf at an award ceremony Tuesday in Stockholm for the regional inter-parliamentary Nordic Council's prizes, reading a statement thanking the group for the honor. Thunberg, 16, is currently in California.
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| Banned from visiting by Israel? There's an app for that Posted: 30 Oct 2019 07:23 AM PDT  After two openly critical US congresswomen were banned by Israel from visiting the Palestinian territories, developers are using technology to bring the territories to them and the wider world. Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, two leftwing Democrats who have previously voiced support for a boycott of Israel over its treatment of the Palestinians, planned a visit in August that would have taken them to the Palestinian territories.
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