| Election Commission chair hints that Trump asking foreign countries for help against Biden violates law Posted: 03 Oct 2019 12:39 PM PDT  FEC chair Ellen Weintraub posted a reminder about U.S. election law following Trump's latest requests to foreign nations.
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| ACLU challenges deportation of man to El Salvador Posted: 03 Oct 2019 01:49 PM PDT  The American Civil Liberties Union is demanding that the federal government return a Salvadoran man to the United States after he was deported despite a court order allowing him to remain here. In its brief filed Wednesday, the ACLU of New Hampshire said that José Daniel Guerra-Castañeda was deported last month by U.S. Immigration and Enforcement to El Salvador and is in a crowded jail there. A federal judge in Boston ruled last month that Guerra-Castañeda could remain in the United States to fight deportation efforts over an alleged murder he committed in El Salvador.
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| India-Pakistan Nuclear War Could Destroy the Ozone Layer and Kill Millions Posted: 04 Oct 2019 12:34 AM PDT  Soot particles may also deplete between 30 to 50 percent of the ozone layer, allowing more of the sun's radiation to penetrate the atmosphere, causing increased sunburns and rates of cancer. Oh, and that is just the beginning.
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| The History of “Nine-O-Nine”, the B-17 Bomber that Crashed Posted: 03 Oct 2019 02:28 PM PDT  The bomber involved in Tuesday's fatal crash in Connecticut never made it to war, but served as a search and rescue plane and water bomber.
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| South African attacks on foreigners shame the continent, says Buhari Posted: 04 Oct 2019 05:59 AM PDT  Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said on Friday that a wave of deadly violence against Nigerians and other foreign nationals in South Africa last month was an embarrassment to the continent. "The recent acts of xenophobic attacks on our compatriots and other Africans in South Africa are shocking to me, Nigerians and indeed Africa.
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| Ethiopia's largest ethnic group marks thanksgiving festival Posted: 05 Oct 2019 12:01 AM PDT  Members of Ethiopia's largest ethnic group chanted and waved flags as they gathered for the first time to celebrate their thanksgiving festival in the capital -- a city that prominent members of the group claim belongs to them. The annual Irreecha festival of the Oromo people marks the end of the rainy season and the start of the harvest season. It is traditionally held in the city of Bishoftu, located in the Oromia region some 50 kilometres (30 miles) southeast of the capital, Addis Ababa.
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| How far will Dems go in reversing marijuana policy? Legalization, clemency — even reparations — are on the table. Posted: 04 Oct 2019 02:01 AM PDT  Most Democrats competing in the 2020 primary have come out for the legalization of marijuana, regulating and taxing it like tobacco or alcohol. A few have gone further, pushing for clemency — and even reparations — for those with past convictions for nonviolent drug offenses.
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| Lou Dobbs Stands By as Joe diGenova Trashes His Colleague Chris Wallace Posted: 04 Oct 2019 12:53 PM PDT  Days after Fox News anchor Chris Wallace dropped a scoop that two frequent Fox guests—husband-wife lawyer team Joe diGenova and Victoria Toensing—worked "off the books" with Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani to dig up Ukrainian dirt on Joe Biden, the two attorneys roasted Wallace during a Fox Business Network appearance—and Trump-boosting host Lou Dobbs largely stood by.Appearing on Thursday night's broadcast of Lou Dobbs Tonight, the pro-Trump lawyers were asked about the Wallace report as well as the recent revelation that conservative columnist and Hannity regular John Solomon—who is at the center of the Ukraine-Biden mess—emailed them a completed copy of one of his Ukraine stories hours before it was published.Toensing, meanwhile, defended the email, claiming he was just sending them the entire draft for fact-checking purposes because that's what good journalists do. She also claimed that Solomon is being attacked "relentlessly" because he's getting "deep into the cases" surrounding Ukraine, something diGenova and Dobbs agreed on."Those attacks, it seems, multiplying as this impeachment inquiry gets hotter and hotter," Dobbs added before pivoting to Wallace's story, stating he wanted to "get this out of the way."Noting that he'd spoken to the Fox News anchor beforehand, Dobbs asked diGenova to respond to the report that the pair were working with Giuliani on Ukraine-Biden and only Trump knew about the plan."First of all, I don't know what 'off the books' means," diGenova insisted. "Chris did not explain it when he made his statement about us and it was clearly designed as a smear to make it sound like we were doing something improper or unethical."The frequent Dobbs guest went on to say that "this may come as a shock to" Wallace but the pair are lawyers and they've represented people all over the world, adding that they were once asked by Giuliani to possibly represent Ukrainian whistleblowers but that was the extent of any arrangement."We never went to the Ukraine," he exclaimed. "We never represented anybody. But somebody lied to Chris Wallace and said that we did and we told the president all about it, which is absolutely false."Toensing, for her part, jumped in to state that Wallace had called the pair and talked to them about it and that she went "off the record" with him, something Dobbs softly noted Wallace had told him about. "I dealt with journalists for so many years," she continued. "I always, when I'm explaining something, say this is off the record. If they want something particular they come back. Chris never did that. He never said I am going to accuse you of a crime and violating attorney-client privilege. If he had said that I certainly would have given him a statement."Dobbs, meanwhile, plainly noted that he appreciated that they had given their statement, adding: "Chris Wallace, I'm sure he appreciates it as well.""A particular coincidence of off-the-record and lost opportunities for denials," Dobbs said with a smile. "And a smear job? Eh, nobody is going to try to smear you guys. You are too bright and too effective. I don't believe that for a minute." Within a day of the release of Wallace's bombshell, Fox News appeared to quietly forget about its own scoop, discussing it only a few times on the air Monday and downplaying it on the network's website. This came in the wake of the New York Times' Ken Vogel claiming he first broke the diGenova-Toensing angle in May and Giuliani and diGenova offering forceful denials to Wallace's scoop. Wallace, through a Fox News spokesperson, has said he stands by his reporting.Interestingly, during a Friday morning appearance on Fox News' America's Newsroom, Wallace wasn't asked about his story nor offered a chance to rebut diGenova's and Toensing's fiery attacks on him.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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| The Latest: Woman gets 10 years in prison in son’s death Posted: 03 Oct 2019 11:22 AM PDT  A Phoenix woman who says her 2-year-old son fatally shot her 9-year-old son with a handgun that she left on a bed was sentenced to 10 years in prison for her role in the 2017 killing. The sentence given Thursday to Wendy Lavarnia in the death of her son, Landen, marked the most lenient punishment available under the terms of her guilty pleas to manslaughter and attempted child abuse. A Phoenix woman who says her 2-year-old son fatally shot her 9-year-old son with a handgun that she left on a bed faces sentencing for her role in the 2017 killing.
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| Elizabeth Warren campaign staffer fired for unspecified 'inappropriate behavior' Posted: 04 Oct 2019 03:02 PM PDT  The campaign launched an investigation into the allegations over the past two weeks, which resulted in the staffer's termination.
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| A ‘Limited’ Nuclear War Quickly Could Kill 90 Million People Posted: 03 Oct 2019 01:00 PM PDT  That's the startling conclusion that a team of researchers at Princeton University reached when they simulated an exchange of small-yield "tactical" nuclear weapons between the United States and Russia.
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| Ruth Bader Ginsburg says people will see this period in American history as 'an aberration' Posted: 05 Oct 2019 05:14 AM PDT  US Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has said people will look back at this period of American politics as "an aberration".The 86-year-old judge made the comment during an event at Amherst College, Massachusetts, according to The Boston Globe.
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| Thousands protest mask ban in Hong Kong as city's leader toughens stance Posted: 04 Oct 2019 07:05 AM PDT  Thousands of defiant masked protesters streamed into Hong's streets Friday after the city's embattled leader invoked rarely used emergency powers to ban masks at rallies in a hardening of the government's stance after four months of antigovernment demonstrations.
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| UPDATE 1-Grenade attack in Kashmir injures 10 amid India clampdown Posted: 05 Oct 2019 12:24 AM PDT ![UPDATE 1-Grenade attack in Kashmir injures 10 amid India clampdown]( "UPDATE 1-Grenade attack in Kashmir injures 10 amid India clampdown") A grenade attack on Saturday in Kashmir's southern city of Anantnag injured 10 people, including a traffic policeman and a journalist, police said on Twitter, blaming "terrorists". Many people in Kashmir have been seething since India stripped its portion of the Muslim-majority region of autonomy on Aug. 5, shutting off phone networks and imposing curfew-like restrictions in some areas to dampen discontent. Some of those curbs have been slowly relaxed, but mobile and internet communications in the Kashmir valley are largely still blocked.
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| Violence reaches a once peaceful Hong Kong suburb Posted: 04 Oct 2019 05:41 PM PDT  In one peaceful community previously untouched by the months of unrest that have shaken Hong Kong, it was an unexpected sight: the methodical ransacking of the local subway station over a three-hour period. Clashes raged in multiple locations throughout the former British colony on Friday night after Hong Kong's leader invoked colonial-era emergency powers to ban pro-democracy protesters wearing face masks. Police used tear gas to disperse protesters who had taken over roads, vandalised subway stations, set street fires and trashed pro-China businesses -- testing again the capacity of the city's law enforcement, who many accuse of using excessive force.
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| Saudi Arabia and Iran Make Quiet Openings to Head Off War Posted: 05 Oct 2019 06:49 AM PDT  After years of growing hostility and competition for influence, Saudi Arabia and Iran have taken steps toward indirect talks to try to reduce the tensions that have brought the Middle East to the brink of war, according to officials from several countries involved in the efforts.Even the prospect of such talks represents a remarkable turnaround, coming only a few weeks after a coordinated attack on Saudi oil installations led to bellicose threats in the Persian Gulf. Any reconciliation between Saudi Arabia and Iran could have far-reaching consequences for conflicts across the region.It was President Donald Trump's refusal to retaliate against Iran for the Sept. 14 attack, analysts say, that set off unintended consequences, prompting Saudi Arabia to seek its own solution to the conflict. That solution, in turn, could subvert Trump's effort to build an Arab alliance to isolate Iran.In recent weeks, officials of Iraq and Pakistan said, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman asked the leaders of those two countries to speak with their Iranian counterparts about de-escalation.Iran welcomed the gestures, stating privately and publicly that it was open to talks with Saudi Arabia.In a statement to The New York Times on Friday, the Saudi government acknowledged that Iraq and Pakistan had offered to mediate talks between the two countries but denied that Crown Prince Mohammed had taken the initiative."Efforts at de-escalation must emanate from the party that began the escalation and launched attacks, not the kingdom," the statement said.Distrust between the two Middle Eastern powers remains intense, and the prospect of high-level direct talks anytime soon appears remote. But even a slight warming could echo far outside their respective borders, where their rivalry fuels political divides from Lebanon to Yemen.Iran has long wanted to wrest the Saudis from their alliance with Iran's archenemies, Israel and the United States, who are waging a "maximum pressure" campaign against Iran to try to force it to restrict its nuclear program and stop backing militias in the region.Iran's receptiveness for contact with the Saudis contrasts with its chilly tone toward the United States. Last week, Iran's president, Hassan Rouhani, dodged an opportunity to speak directly with Trump while both were attending the United Nations General Assembly in New York. The new overtures between Saudi Arabia and Iran began in the aftermath of last month's drone and cruise missile strikes on two Saudi oil facilities, which Saudi Arabia and the United States accused Iran of orchestrating.Despite tough threats by the Trump administration, the president declined to order a military response. The demurral raised questions for the Saudis about the U.S. commitment to Saudi security, which has underpinned the strategic layout of the Persian Gulf for decades.Prime Minister Imran Khan of Pakistan met with Crown Prince Mohammed, the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, in Jiddah last month. Days later, while Khan was at the General Assembly, he told reporters that the crown prince had asked him to talk to Iran.Crown Prince Mohammed told Khan, "I want to avoid war," according to a senior Pakistani official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters. "He asked the prime minister to get involved."Khan then spoke with Rouhani on the sidelines of the General Assembly.The Iraqi prime minister, Adel Abdul Mahdi, visited Saudi Arabia a few days after Khan did.A senior Iraqi official said that Crown Prince Mohammed asked Abdul Mahdi to mediate with Iran and that Iraq had suggested Baghdad as the venue for a potential meeting."There is a big response from Saudi Arabia and from Iran and even from Yemen," Abdul Mahdi told journalists in Iraq after his return from the kingdom. "And I think that these endeavors will have a good effect."Iran endorsed the idea."Iran is open to starting a dialogue with Saudi Arabia and other countries in the region," Ali Larijani, the speaker of Iran's Parliament, told Al Jazeera in an interview broadcast Tuesday. "An Iranian-Saudi dialogue," he added, "could solve many of the region's security and political problems."While they explore back-channel possibilities, both sides have continued to stake out staunchly opposing public positions.The Saudi foreign minister, Adel al-Jubeir, wrote on Twitter on Tuesday that Saudi Arabia had not asked anyone to send messages to Iran. Instead, he wrote, other countries he did not identify had offered to serve as intermediaries."We informed them that the truce needs to come from the side that is escalating and spreading chaos through aggressive acts in the region," al-Jubeir wrote.On Wednesday, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif of Iran said that his country would "definitely greet Saudi Arabia with open arms" -- but only if it prioritized friendly relations with neighbors over purchasing weapons from the United States.Iran has long sought to pull Saudi Arabia away from the United States and Israel. But it was the lack of a U.S. military response to the strikes on Saudi oil facilities that appeared to have created an opening."There are cracks in the armor suggesting Saudi Arabia is interested in exploring a new relationship with Iran," said Philip Gordon, a former White House coordinator for the Middle East. "The worst outcome for the Saudis is to move to a confrontation with Iran expecting the U.S. to support them and find out they won't."He added: "This administration has shown it's not really ready to take on Iran."Top officials from Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, Saudi allies who could suffer if open conflict broke out, have spoken publicly of the need for diplomacy to reduce tensions and have made their own efforts to reach out to Iran. The Emirates has held direct maritime security talks with Iran and has pulled back from the war in Yemen, where it is allied with the Saudis in a battle against the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels.If Saudi Arabia joins Kuwait and the Emirates in reaching out to Iran, it could undermine the Trump administration's effort to build an international coalition to ostracize and pressure the Iranians."The anti-Iran alliance is not just faltering, it's crumbling," Martin Indyk, the executive vice president of Brookings Institution and a former senior diplomat, said Thursday on Twitter. "MBZ has struck his deal with Iran; MBS is not far behind," he said, referring to the Emirati crown prince, Mohammed bin Zayed, or MBZ, and the Saudi crown prince, known as MBS.He also noted that Trump's most hawkish anti-Iran adviser, John Bolton, had left the administration, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel is fighting for his political life, and Trump has shown a willingness to talk directly to the Iranians.For the Saudis, even indirect talks with Iran would mark a significant departure from Crown Prince Mohammed's approach to his prime regional rival since his father, King Salman, ascended to the Saudi throne in 2015.He has cast Iran as the root of the Middle East's problems and argued that political and theological differences make negotiations impossible. He has compared Iran's Supreme Leader to Hitler and threatened to instigate violence inside Iran's borders."We are a primary target for the Iranian regime," Crown Prince Mohammed said in 2017. "We won't wait for the battle to be in Saudi Arabia. Instead, we'll work so that the battle is for them in Iran."His antipathy toward Iran gave him common cause with Israel and the Trump administration. The Saudis have pitched themselves as the United States' greatest ally against Iran, proposing they carry out joint operations to weaken it and possibly bring about regime change, according to former U.S. officials.But the crown prince may now be more willing to explore a possible accommodation."We have reached the peak of Saudi-Iran tensions, and both sides have concluded this balance of fear is detrimental to their interests," said Saeed Shariati, a political analyst in Tehran.For now, the rift appears wide, and possibly unbridgeable. The Saudis criticize Iran for backing militias in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen, where the kingdom has been mired in a disastrous war against the Houthis for four years.The Houthis claimed responsibility for the attacks on Saudi oil facilities that seem to have helped prompt the diplomatic initiatives, but many Western experts believed that the Houthis could not have carried out the attacks unassisted.Al-Jubeir said Tuesday that Iran needed to stop its ballistic missile program, refrain from interfering in Arab states and "act like a normal country, and not like a rogue who sponsors terrorism."For its part, Iran has called on Saudi Arabia to freeze its multibillion dollar arms purchases from the United States, stop its intervention in Yemen, and end discrimination against the Shiite Muslim minority inside Saudi Arabia, a Sunni Muslim-led absolute monarchy.At the General Assembly last week, Iran's president, Rouhani, aimed part of his speech directly at Arab countries in the Persian Gulf."It's the Islamic Republic of Iran who is your neighbor," he said. "At the day of an event, you and us will be alone. We are each other's neighbors not, America."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
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| Border Agent Harasses Journalist at U.S. Customs—Again Posted: 04 Oct 2019 03:53 PM PDT  REUTERSA U.S. Customs and Border Protection official reportedly refused to allow a reporter through customs on Thursday unless he answered the repeated question "You write propaganda, right?" in the affirmative, at least the third such incident involving harassment of a journalist by a passport official this year.Ben Watson, a news editor at Defense One, was returning to the United States from a reporting assignment in Denmark when a USCBP official, after asking whether Watson was carrying any undeclared foods, inquired into his profession. When Watson responded that he worked in journalism, the official began repeatedly badgering him into "admitting" that he writes propaganda, Watson wrote of his experience."So you write propaganda, right?" Watson recalled the official asking, a question posed at least four times before the passport officer returned Watson's passport and allowed him to enter the country.Watson, who covers national security and homeland security, eventually told the official that the closest he came to writing propaganda was during his time as a public affairs officer for the U.S. Army. The official was, apparently, unamused. Watson finally told the officer that he wrote propaganda, "for the purposes of expediting this conversation," before being asked the question one more time."I've honestly never had a human attempt to provoke me like this before in my life," Watson told his colleagues after the incident. "This behavior is totally normal now, I guess?"In response to questions from The Daily Beast about the incident, a CBP spokesperson said that the agency is aware of Watson's allegations and is investigating the incident."We hold our employees accountable to our core values of vigilance, integrity and service to country, and do not tolerate inappropriate comments or behavior by our employees," the spokesperson said, adding that travelers have the right to ask to speak with a supervisor to address concerns they have.Harassment of non-citizen reporters on visas by USCBP officials calling them "fake news" has been a persistent issue within the agency. In February, BuzzFeed News reporter David Mack, an Australian citizen, received a personal apology from then-USCBP Assistant Commissioner for Public Affairs Andrew Meehan, after Mack was interrogated at John F. Kennedy International Airport for ten minutes about the outlet's coverage of Michael Cohen and the special counsel investigation into President Donald Trump."The immigration agent at JFK just saw that I work for BuzzFeed and just grilled me for 10 minutes about the Cohen story, which was fun given he gets to decide whether to let me back into the country," Mack tweeted at the time. (Disclosure: Mack is a personal friend of this reporter.)British journalist James Dyer, who writes about pop culture, tweeted in August that he was harassed as "fake news" by a USCBP official upon arriving at Los Angeles International Airport. "He wanted to know if I'd ever worked for CNN or MSNBC or other outlets that are 'spreading lies to the American people,'" Dyer said at the time, adding that he was only let go "after I said that I was just here to write about Star Wars, and would keep the fake news about that to a bare minimum."After Watson shared his story on Friday, TIME Washington Correspondent Vera Bergengruen shared a similar story."This has happened to me coming back into the country too, last year," Bergengruen said. "A pretty aggressive questioning about who I worked for and 'fake news.'"After Dyer's experience, a USCBP spokesperson told The Daily Beast that "unappropriated comments or behavior are not tolerated, and do not reflect our values of vigilance, integrity and professionalism."After the incident with Mack in February, USCBP said that the officer's comments "do not reflect CBP's commitment to integrity and professionalism of its workforce," and vowed to immediately review the event."I hope—I can only hope that you treat this incident as incidental," said Meehan. "It does not reflect the agency, and certainly not the professionalism that its officers strive to maintain."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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| Baltimore prosecutor wants 790 'tainted' convictions erased Posted: 04 Oct 2019 01:16 PM PDT  Baltimore's top prosecutor has begun asking judges to throw out nearly 800 convictions that she said were tainted by officers linked to a corruption scandal. The Baltimore Sun reported Friday that State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby's review found 790 criminal cases handled by 25 city officers whom she says she has reason to distrust. Mosby updated the number of officers being scrutinized on Friday, saying it could fluctuate as her office investigates.
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| National Taco Day 2019: Where to get free tacos, $1 tacos and deals Friday Posted: 04 Oct 2019 10:24 AM PDT  Oct. 4 is National Taco Day, and chains are marking the taco lovers' fiesta with free tacos or specials, including Del Taco, Taco Bell and Taco John's.
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| Sunk U.S. Battleships During the Gulf War? Saddam Could Have Pulled It Off. Posted: 05 Oct 2019 01:34 AM PDT  A difficult task.
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| The Oldest Building In Your State Says A Lot About Its History Posted: 04 Oct 2019 09:00 AM PDT |
| Erdogan Signals Imminent Turkey Incursion of Northeast Syria Posted: 05 Oct 2019 03:30 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Turkey is ready to start a military operation in northern Syria to claim areas from American-backed Kurdish forces and may act "as soon as today or tomorrow," President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday."We have made our preparations, completed our operation plans," Erdogan said at an AK Party meeting in Kizilcahamam in Ankara Province. "We have given the necessary orders." The operation in the east of the Euphrates river in northern Syria "will be carried out on land and air," he said.Erdogan has vowed to create a buffer zone inside Syria by pushing back Kurdish militia and settling Syrian refugees in the country's north. Turkey suspects that the U.S. is backing Kurdish aspirations for self-rule in Syria and is prepared to use military force to prevent what it perceives as an attempt to redraw the region's map.Turkey wants to act quickly before winter conditions make it difficult for tanks to operate in muddy terrain, leaving little room for a last-minute settlement with the U.S.Erdogan has repeatedly called on the U.S. to join forces in expanding a previously negotiated security zone in Syria -- designed to be off-limits to American-backed Kurdish YPG forces -- while threatening an incursion if he didn't get his way by the end of last month.The YPG, which played a leading role in the defeat of Islamic State, has been at the heart of Turkey-U.S. tensions. Turkey sees the fighters as a critical threat given their link to the separatist PKK, an autonomy-seeking Kurdish group. It's considered a terrorist organization by the U.S. and the European Union.Erdogan wants to resettle some of the more than 3.6 million Syrians who fled their country's civil war in the buffer area to alleviate the burden on Turkey's economy and defuse social tensions over hosting the world's largest refugee population.To contact the reporter on this story: Cagan Koc in Istanbul at ckoc2@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Onur Ant at oant@bloomberg.net, ;Lin Noueihed at lnoueihed@bloomberg.net, Andre Janse van Vuuren, James AmottFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Teacher suspended for Confederate flag message Posted: 04 Oct 2019 08:45 PM PDT  "Think of it like a white trash 'Save the Date' card," the message said
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| ‘To disrupt the world’: Rudy Giuliani gives bizarre Fox News interview before posting angry 4.54am tweet Posted: 05 Oct 2019 06:51 AM PDT  Donald Trump's personal lawyer said his mission was "to disrupt the world" as he attempted to defend his involvement in the Ukraine scandal.Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani made the claim while being questioned about his role in pushing for an investigation into the US president's political rival, Joe Biden.
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| Iraq Set to Join China’s Belt and Road Project amid Violent Anti-Government Unrest Posted: 04 Oct 2019 11:03 AM PDT  Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi announced during a state visit to Beijing on Sept. 23 that Iraq will sign on to China's "Belt and Road" international infrastructure project, according to the Asia Times."Iraq has gone through war and civil strife and is grateful to China for its valuable support," Mahdi said during a visit with Chinese President Xi Jinping. According to Chinese state news agency Xinhua, trade between the two countries recently exceeded $30 billion."China would like, from a new starting point together with Iraq, to push forward the China-Iraq strategic partnership," Xi stated. He said the two countries would collaborate on oil and infrastructure projects. Iraq is China's second biggest oil supplier, while Beijing has become Baghdad's biggest trade partner over the last few years.The news comes in the midst of a turbulent time for Iraq, where violent anti-government protests have resulted in over 40 deaths and internet access being cut throughout much of the country.The protests organically emerged after thousands, mostly young men, took to the streets to demand jobs, improved utilities such as electricity and water, and an uprooting of corruption in the oil-rich countryIn a televised address to the nation Friday, Mahdi urged the nation to "return life to normal" and "respect the law," and told the people their demands would be recognized."We will not make empty promises . . . or promise what we cannot achieve," Mahdi said.
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| Jury convicts man in killing of Chicago boy lured into alley Posted: 03 Oct 2019 08:37 PM PDT  Prosecutors contended that Dwright Boone-Doty and fellow gang member Corey Morgan planned the November 2015 killing of Tyshawn Lee before Boone-Doty took a gun Morgan gave him and shot the boy. The Cook County jury that found Boone-Doty guilty deliberated for a little more than two hours after a long day of closing arguments. A separate jury will decide Morgan's fate, and the judge ordered those jurors sequestered for the night after they didn't reach a verdict.
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| Arrested Minn. girl, 13, faces juvenile assault charge Posted: 04 Oct 2019 04:15 PM PDT  A Minnesota girl whose arrest sparked an angry backlash on social media is facing an assault allegation in juvenile court.
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| Russia's New Submarines Are Dangerous. But How Would They Be Used in War? Posted: 03 Oct 2019 11:33 PM PDT  Where the Russian navy is all but abandoning the production of new aircraft carriers, cruisers and other "blue-water" surface warships, it has recommitted to sustaining a large fleet of big, long-range submarines. Why?
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| EU rejects UK's request for weekend talks as Johnson insists on no Brexit delay Posted: 04 Oct 2019 05:18 PM PDT  The European Commission said that Johnson's new Brexit proposals do not provide any basis for finalising a separation agreement, according to Sky News. Talks on Johnson's plan to replace the Irish backstop will not take place over the weekend, EU Commission spokeswoman Natasha Bertaud was quoted as saying by Sky.
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| Iran says it will release Russian journalist accused of espionage Posted: 04 Oct 2019 09:22 AM PDT  Iran agreed to release a Russian journalist detained on suspicion of spying for Israel, in a rare concession that defused a potentially damaging diplomatic rift with its key ally. The announcement came just hours after Russia's foreign ministry on Friday summoned the Iranian ambassador in Moscow to account for the arrest of Yulia Yuzik, who was seized from her Tehran hotel room by members of the Revolutionary Guards Corps earlier this week. Iran has been accused by several Western governments of systematically detaining foreign dual nationals and charging them with espionage to use as leverage in diplomatic disputes. It is rare for a citizen of Russia, a close ally, to be detained. Iran denies following a policy of diplomatic hostage taking, saying that all detainees are facing legitimate criminal investigations. Ms Yuzik, a specialist on the North Caucasus who has written for dozens of Russian and Western publications, arrived in Iran on Sunday but immediately ran into trouble when her passport was confiscated at the airport. "She was there for several days without documents. Then men came to her hotel, kicked in the door and took her away," her former husband Boris Voitsekhovsky told the Telegraph. In a brief call with her mother on Thursday evening, she said she was being held in a prison cell and was due to appear in court on charges of working with Israeli intelligence on Saturday. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been held in Iran since 2016. Credit: The Free Nazanin campaign Mr Voitsekhovsky said Ms Yuzik, 34, spent several months working in Iran in 2017, and had returned this week on a "private trip" to see local journalists she had met while there. He said he was unaware of any reason to believe she was under suspicion in Iran. Iran's foreign ministry told Russian news agencies late on Friday that Ms Yuzhik had been detained for questioning and would be released "shortly", but did not give further details. Jason Rezaian, a former Tehran bureau chief of the Washington post who spent a year and a half in Iranian detention after being accused of espionage in 2014, wrote on Twitter: "that's what they said about me and so many others." The rapid response to Russia's complaints contrasts with the long-running disputes over several dual nationals from Western countries. They include Nazanin Zaghari Ratcliffe, the mother of one from Hampstead who has been held on espionage charges since 2016 and whose case has become a matter of fierce diplomatic contention between Iran and Britain. "Will be released soon".. that's what they said about me and so many others. https://t.co/tDuAZs9ASn— Jason Rezaian (@jrezaian) October 4, 2019 Richard Ratcliffe, Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe's husband, said Ms Yuzik's detention appeared to fit the same pattern as that of his wife. "More and more people are being taken, including from countries with ostensibly good relations with Iran. It is a clear escalation in an increasingly overt tactic of hostage diplomacy," he said. "State hostage taking is an issue that needs to be on the table at the United Nations Security Council. It really does need to be something that the great powers are sitting down and working out. This is getting out of control." In a separate case, Iran on Friday accused France of "unacceptable interference in its domestic affairs" after diplomats sought access to Fariba Adelkhah, a French-Iranian academic who has been held since summer. Ms Adelkhah, 60, is a research director at the Centre for International Studies and Research at Sciences Po University in Paris who specializes in Shiia Islam. She was arrested by Revolutionary Guard Corps personnel in June or July. France said on Thursday that it had "repeatedly" sought consular access to Ms Adelkhah and called on Iran to show "transparency" in her case. Iran does not recognise dual citizenship and rejects requests for consular access to dual nationals. Russia is an ally of Iran and the two countries' militaries have fought side-by side to prop-up Bashar Assad's regime in Syria. But they are at odds on a number of issues including delineation of oil resources in the Caspian Sea. Vladimir Putin signed a law ratifying a 2018 convention dividing the sea between the five Caspian littoral states on Monday. Iran's parliament has so far refused to ratify it, amid public criticism that it surrenders a large chunk of territory.
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| Theranos founder accused of bilking lawyers in civil case Posted: 04 Oct 2019 03:02 PM PDT  The founder of scandalized blood-testing startup Theranos is now being accused of skipping out on bills owed to the lawyers defending her against fraud charges in a civil lawsuit. Elizabeth Holmes, who ran Theranos until its 2018 collapse, hasn't paid her Palo Alto, California, attorney John Dwyer and his colleagues for the past year, according to documents filed Monday in Phoenix federal court. The documents cited Holmes "current financial situation" without elaborating.
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| Devil In the Red Hat: What the Bridgeport Diocese Abuse Report Can’t Say Posted: 04 Oct 2019 03:30 AM PDT  Besides being the bishop of Bridgeport, Conn., and then cardinal archbishop of New York, the Reverend Edward Egan was a monster. Now that he is safely dead, this can be said. And much more. In the Diocese of Bridgeport he was preceded by other monsters, Bishop Walter Curtis and Bishop Lawrence J. Shehan. This was known as a kind of folk wisdom in the diocese and patched together from the years of stomach-turning testimonies and news items. But now, at least some of the truth is documented extensively in a report by a judge and law firm commissioned by the Bridgeport diocese itself.Those three abovementioned men reigned, between 1953 and 2000, over a diocese in which over 70 priests abused nearly 300 children in various ways. The response of these three men to this reality evolved. One bishop would simply instruct subordinates to handle abusive priests and then not look too much into it. Some shredded and destroyed incriminating documents. Egan perfected the art of legal stonewalling. The report largely vindicates the approach of Egan's two successors, Archbishop William Lori (now of Baltimore) and the current bishop, Frank Caggiano. Both implemented recommended practices, and the incidence of abuse declined.The report goes into the consequences of abuse for the victims. Their damaged relationship to the Church, their struggles with depression, and self-harm. A sample quote: "Sir, I do not know what to do or how to handle this. I have carried this with me for many years. . . . With the court case . . . coming to light, I went through the whole painful memories again and again. . . . I have not been able to have sexual relations with my wife for almost a year now. I feel so dirty and ugly inside. . . . Please help me. What should I do?" That quote is captioned: "Adult survivor practicing in another Christian denomination, relating how 35 years earlier, as an eighth-grader, he visited a Catholic parish in the diocese to explore Catholicism, only to be abused by the very priest from whom he sought an introduction to the faith." It also outlines continuing problems for non-offending priests, in terms of lowered morale.The report is admirably blunt. Reassignment of priests known to have abused children began under Bishop Sheehan. Bishop Curtis did not remove abusive priests from service and was "undisguisedly indifferent" to child sexual abuse. Egan "took a dismissive, uncaring, and at times threatening attitude toward survivors and survivors' advocates." He adopted a "scorched earth litigation strategy" and held a "belief that his principal obligation was to protect the assets of the diocese and to safeguard against what he described as "scandalous" media reports. The report does note that there had been an evolution in our society's attitudes toward the sexual abuse of children over the period covered but that one constant remained, a conviction that "sexual abuse of children is morally wrong and deeply injurious."Most of the abuse happened in the 1960s and '70s. It was committed by just less than 5 percent of priests in the diocese. A few handfuls of priests committed nearly half of the abusive acts that are known and documented. "Of the known incidents of abuse, 61 percent were perpetrated by 10 frequent-offender priests. In the quarter century of litigation that has resulted from the abuse crisis, those 10 priests' predatory conduct also accounts for 81% of the approximately $56,000,000 in the settlements paid by the diocese in the many lawsuits brought by survivors."For all the work that the compilers of the report have done, it is that last fact that is most unsatisfying, for a reason I'll come to in a minute. The report treats child abuse as a phenomenon, and the response of the negligent and wicked bishops almost entirely as a problem of management. Rule breakers and criminals, enabled by lax enforcement and defensiveness.The problem is that it doesn't actually add up. The top-line numbers are shocking — nearly 300 children abused. The length of time over which their abusers had a free pass from their ecclesiastical superiors ran nearly half a century. But if ten priests committed the majority of offenses, why did bishops ignore and cover them up at such a great cost? Why did roughly 1,500 other priests who served with the offending 4 percent have to suffer their company, the reputation they created for the priesthood, and the damage they caused the Church?It is on this point that the report is curiously deaf. The report used the word "seminary" only a handful of times, mostly to describe instances of misconduct. A "culture" fewer times than that, in the context of building a better one that protects children.What was the screening process for admitting candidates to seminary? How was sexual misbehavior of priests with adult women and men handled? What was the larger moral culture of the Catholic clergy like in those days? None of these questions are touched, and they may in fact be beyond the competence of outside lawyers to adjudicate.Attributing Egan's behavior to a desire to protect Church assets and from scandal is simply not sufficient to explain his behavior. The report takes at face value reasoning he gave himself in a letter to the Vatican:> It is obvious that there can be no canonical process either for the removal of a diocesan priest from his priestly duties or for the removal of a priest from his parish when there is serious reason to believe that the priest in question is guilty of the sexual violation of children, and especially when he has confessed such a violation to the bishop or a delegate of the bishop. For the bishop who would countenance such a process would be opening the way to the gravest of evils, among them the financial ruin of the diocese which he is to serve.Of course, the opposite is also true. Tolerating the evil also opens up the diocese to the gravest of evils. Financial ruin, yes, but also the ruination of the Church's reputation, and of the souls entrusted to it.Still, the rationale is odd. Egan's own brother cardinals may care about the bottom line when considering appointments to the curia in Rome or to the real big chair in Rome. But Egan was never very well liked. And no American during his career could possibly expect to become pope. Ultimately, the property never belonged to Egan personally. If the number of offending priests was less than 1 in 20, if the worst of the worst were just ten in all, why tolerate them?I can only speculate that Egan and his predecessors wanted to protect something even more dear to them than property. Perhaps their own secrets were embedded into a network of moral blackmail. The report is unsatisfying because the phenomenon of clergy sexual abuse and its tolerance by bishops can't be treated separately from the larger moral culture of the clergy. It can't be separated from other tolerated phenomena: alcoholism, sexual impropriety with parishioners and other priests, financial wrongdoing, a general "bachelor" culture of laxity and indulgence. It can't be separated from pride, gossip, wrath, and envy. It can't be separated from loneliness, boredom, and spiritual aridity. In the case of priests it can't be separated from right belief and worship, either. The report says that Egan feared scandal and financial setbacks for the corporate body of which he was merely a manager. The report cannot say the other truth, that he plainly did not fear the judgment and wrath of God.
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| WKD: Russia Is Giving Its Su-57s Anti-Ship Missiles To Fight The U.S. Navy Posted: 05 Oct 2019 02:00 AM PDT  The Navy has its hands full.
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| Tucker Carlson turns on Trump for asking Ukraine to investigate Biden: ‘There’s no way to spin this’ Posted: 05 Oct 2019 07:24 AM PDT  Fox News host Tucker Carlson criticized President Trump for encouraging Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden in a rare break from his devoted support for the president.
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| Jodi Arias' murder conviction could be overturned because of prosecutor misconduct claims Posted: 04 Oct 2019 01:03 PM PDT ![Jodi Arias' murder conviction could be overturned because of prosecutor misconduct claims]( "Jodi Arias' murder conviction could be overturned because of prosecutor misconduct claims") The Arizona Court of Appeals will consider how allegations of misconduct against prosecutor Juan Martinez could overturn Jodi Arias' conviction.
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| 'He tried to have his cake and eat it': how Trump's Ukraine envoy lost his big gamble Posted: 03 Oct 2019 12:06 PM PDT  Before abruptly resigning Kurt Volker gambled that acting as a go-between for Rudy Giuliani could secure military aid for KyivKurt Volker, a former special envoy to Ukraine, arrives for a closed-door interview with House of Representatives investigators, at the Capitol in Washington on Thursday. Photograph: J Scott Applewhite/APWhen Kurt Volker agreed to work for the Trump administration in 2017, he told colleagues he hoped to navigate the president's mercurial nature and his evident attachment to Vladimir Putin, and still pursue a traditional US policy of upholding Ukrainian independence and pushing back against Moscow.Many were sceptical and predicted a clash between the two approaches, but even they did not expect the spectacular collision of the past few weeks.In the end Volker, as special envoy on Ukraine, did not collide with Donald Trump ideologically, but found himself at the wrong end of the president's personal agenda.Volker resigned last week and now finds himself giving testimony to Congress as the first witness in the rapidly evolving impeachment scandal. By agreeing to set up a meeting between Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, and an Ukrainian presidential aide, he thought he could stop Trump cutting off ties with the new government of Volodymyr Zelenskiy and keep US military aid flowing,It was a calculated gambit, but it did not come off. Volker is now fighting to defend his reputation against the impression – enthusiastically conveyed by Giuliani – that Volker was an integral part of Trump's parallel policy, which centered on digging for compromising material on former vice-president Joe Biden and his son Hunter."He really tried to have his cake and eat it, thinking he could operate inside the administration with one foot outside, that would give him some flexibility. But those two things were incompatible," a former official said.A dapper, mild-mannered former ambassador to Nato, Volker's role as special envoy was unpaid and part time. He remained head of the McCain Institute for International Leadership at Arizona State University. The name alone would have normally been enough for Trump to veto his appointment. The institute is named after the late Arizona senator, John McCain, a traditional Republican foreign policy hawk who Trump despised, even after his death from cancer.However, Volker was hired by former secretary of state Rex Tillerson at a time when Tillerson still had some autonomy and the appointment appears to have gone below Trump's personal radar."Volker was honestly trying to see if he could help move things along in terms of peace negotiations to get the Russians to move on Ukraine," said Angela Stent, a former national intelligence officer for Russia and Eurasia, now at Georgetown University, who has known Volker for many years. "He never signed a never-Trump letter, because I think precisely he didn't want to be the position where if somebody needed his expertise, he couldn't give it."Obviously, I'm sure he would never have believed at the beginning that it would have involved brokering meetings for the president's personal lawyer with individuals in Ukraine."Steven Pifer, a former ambassador to Ukraine, said: "Giuliani playing on the sidelines made the job much more difficult, with two policies, one in the US national interest, and the other aimed at promoting Trump's re-election prospects."Further complicating the picture, Volker had remained a senior international adviser to a Washington lobbying group, BGR. BGR and the McCain Institute had financial ties to Raytheon Co, which makes the Javelin anti-tank missile that the US supplied to Ukraine. BGR has said he had recused himself from any issues related to the company's work on Ukraine.Ultimately it was not conflict of interest questions that brought Volker down, but the incompatibility of seeking to pursue conventional Republican foreign policy in the midst of the chaos of the Trump administration, where at least two policies were being pursued on Ukraine."You had Kurt Volker going everywhere saying we have to be tough on Russia and help the Ukrainians, and the president saying we should have nothing to do with the Ukrainians [because] they are so corrupt," a European diplomat in Washington said. "This is a bigger issue. There are traditional diplomats who are considering the role of their country in a traditional way, and the higher levels of the administration that are not really engaged.
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| Hong Kong protesters defy mask ban as city grinds to halt Posted: 05 Oct 2019 06:49 AM PDT  Masked pro-democracy protesters marched through Hong Kong in defiance of a ban on face coverings as much of the city ground to a halt on Saturday, with the subway suspended and many shops shuttered following another night of violence. Thousands of protesters staged unsanctioned marches and flashmob protests at multiple locations, a day after the city's leader outlawed face coverings at protests, invoking colonial-era emergency powers not used for half a century. The latest acts of resistance came after a night of widespread chaos as hardcore protesters trashed dozens of subway stations, vandalised shops, set fires and blocked roads.
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| NOT REAL NEWS: A look at what didn't happen this week Posted: 04 Oct 2019 12:14 PM PDT  None of these is legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. CLAIM: So-called "climate change" is mostly driven by factors unrelated to human activity, NASA scientists say. THE FACTS: Articles circulating online in early October wrongly suggest that NASA has rejected human responsibility for climate change and, instead, attributed the phenomenon to variations in Earth's axis and tilt.
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| NYC Murder Rampage: Homeless Man Kills Four Others With Pipe Posted: 05 Oct 2019 04:29 AM PDT  Shannon Stapleton/ReutersNew York City police say four apparently homeless men were killed in Manhattan by an assailant wielding a three-foot long metal pipe thought to be from a construction site. The attacks were carried out while the victims were asleep.A fifth person was hospitalized with critical injuries, according to the New York Times, quoting NYPD spokesman Lt. Thomas Antonetti. Speaking at a press conference Saturday morning, Deputy Chief Inspector Michael Baldassano said a 24-year-old male "person of interest," who is also homeless, is in custody. He said the attacks appeared to be "random" rather than motivated by race or age. The police have not yet released the names of the victims, or the suspect, who the New York Post reports had 14 past arrests, including an assault charge from earlier this year. The attacker, who was wearing black pants and a black jacket, was apprehended with a metal pipe suspected to be the weapon used in the attacks.Baldassano asked the public to call in if they had seen a man fitting this description in the days before the deadly attacks, or if anyone had witnessed similar attacks on homeless people in recent weeks. The first deadly attack took place around 1:40 a.m. in Manhattan's Chinatown after first responders were called to a scene with a victim with "severe trauma to the head." Police were then called to a scene on the Lower East Side for a victim with a similar head injury, and found two additional victims down the block and a third victim across the street. One of those men survived his assault but is in critical condition at New York-Presbyterian Lower Manhattan Hospital.This story is developing. Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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