| Tulsi Gabbard is having a moment, and the party is getting nervous Posted: 30 Oct 2019 04:56 PM PDT  Is Tulsi Gabbard planning to run a third-party presidential campaign? And if she does, will it help President Trump win reelection?
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| Why Katie Hill’s resignation is so complicated Posted: 30 Oct 2019 09:56 AM PDT  Freshman congresswoman Katie Hill announced her resignation after admitting to a relationship with a campaign staffer. But leaked photos and Hill's bisexuality make this case much more complex than the average sex scandal.
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| Hedge fund billionaire fires back at Warren: 'Your vilification of the rich is misguided' Posted: 31 Oct 2019 03:38 PM PDT  Hedge fund mogul Leon Cooperman takes issue with Sen. Warren's plans for a wealth tax.
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| Convicted rapist mistakenly released from Georgia prison captured in Kentucky Posted: 31 Oct 2019 05:30 AM PDT  Tony Maycon Munoz-Mendez was serving a life sentence in Georgia when he was released "in error." Authorities captured him in Kentucky Wednesday.
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| Syria's Assad says Kurdish controlled northeast of Syria to fall eventually under state control Posted: 31 Oct 2019 12:24 PM PDT ![Syria's Assad says Kurdish controlled northeast of Syria to fall eventually under state control]( "Syria's Assad says Kurdish controlled northeast of Syria to fall eventually under state control") Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said on Thursday his country's ultimate goal was to restore state authority over Kurdish controlled areas in northeast Syria after an abrupt U.S. troop withdrawal but said this would happen gradually. In an interview with state television, Assad also said that a deal this month between Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin to drive out the Kurdish-led YPG militia from a 30 km (19 mile) "safe zone" along the border was a step that would help Damascus in that goal.
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| Police say body of British tourist missing in Cambodia found Posted: 31 Oct 2019 09:42 AM PDT  The body of a British backpacker missing for more than a week in Cambodia was found at sea Thursday about 60 miles (100 kilometers) from the island where she disappeared, officials said. The police chief for Preah Sihanouk province, Maj. Gen. Chuon Narin, said the body of 21-year-old Amelia Bambridge was discovered in the Gulf of Thailand northwest of Koh Rong, where she disappeared after attending a beach party on the night of Oct. 23. It was found near another island, Koh Chhlam, close to Cambodia's maritime border with Thailand.
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| Five hundred goats save the Ronald Reagan library from wildfires Posted: 31 Oct 2019 02:27 PM PDT  Animal team charged with eating through 13 acres of scrubland that could have fueled California's Easy fireGoats are released at the Ronald Reagan library in Simi Valley, California, during a similar crisis in 2012. Photograph: Juan Carlo/APDiligent work by a team of 500 goats has helped save the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library from wildfires that are ravaging parts of California.The library deployed the goat squadron during the spring in order to munch their way through around 13 acres of scrubland around the library that could've provided tinder-like fuel to a wildfire.This preventive action created a fire break between the library and the Easy fire, which has menaced thousands of homes in the Simi Valley near Los Angeles. More than 1,000 firefighters are tackling the blaze, which caused flames to approach the presidential library from a nearby hillside. Treasures saved include a piece of the Berlin Wall and Air Force One."We actually worked with the Ventura county fire department in May and they bring out hundreds of goats to our property," Melissa Giller, a spokeswoman for the library, told ABC. "The goats eat all of the brush around the entire property, creating a fire perimeter."The goats were sourced from a firm called 805 Goats, which oversees an army of horned contractors, including Vincent van Goat, Selena Goatmez, Goatzart and, more prosaically, Oreo. The company charges fire-threatened clients about $1,000 per acre of goat-cleared land. It plans to expand its herd to cope with a growing wildfire threat in California, fueled by the climate crisis.Goats are growing in popularity as a tool to combat wildfires across the western US, as they are viewed as cheaper and more environmentally friendly than teams of human workers using chemicals. They are also used for general weed clearance in other parts of the country, such as in New York City's Prospect Park.A heavy dependence upon goats does carry risks, however, as residents of West Boise, Idaho, found out to their cost last year when a herd of more than 100 goats rampaged through the neighborhood. The invaders caused carnage in flowerbeds and lawns before breaking a fence and it took two hours for the goats to be rounded up.
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| Just Casually Towing a Multi-Million Dollar Russian Attack Jet Posted: 01 Nov 2019 08:23 AM PDT  It doesn't even need a transport trailer.
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| AOC faces challengers on the right and the further right who cite her 'socialism' Posted: 30 Oct 2019 10:09 AM PDT  A Jamaican immigrant businesswoman from Queens and a Latino councilman from the Bronx are among 10 candidates who have filed to unseat freshman Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York.
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| Rep. Katie Hill, freshman targeted by revenge porn, resigns with a blast at Trump Posted: 31 Oct 2019 12:11 PM PDT  During her final speech on the House floor Thursday, Rep. Katie Hill apologized for actions that led to her resignation while also boasting that her last vote as a member of Congress was in favor of the impeachment inquiry into President Trump.
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| Trump Should Worry: How Iran Hopes Its Many Missiles Will Help It Win a War Posted: 31 Oct 2019 11:00 PM PDT  So many missiles.
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| Former national security adviser John Bolton scheduled to testify in impeachment inquiry Posted: 30 Oct 2019 08:25 PM PDT  Some lawmakers have indicated they would be open to subpoenaing John Bolton to compel his testimony if he does not show up on Nov. 7.
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| Islamic State vows revenge against U.S. for Baghdadi killing Posted: 31 Oct 2019 08:38 AM PDT  Islamic State confirmed on Thursday that its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed in a weekend raid by U.S. special forces in northwestern Syria, and vowed revenge against the United States. The Iraqi rose from obscurity to lead the ultra-hardline group and declare himself "caliph" of all Muslims, holding sway over huge areas of Iraq and Syria from 2014-2017 before Islamic State's control disintegrated under U.S.-led attacks. The group confirmed his death in an audio tape posted online and said a successor, identified as Abu Ibrahim al-Hashemi al-Quraishi, had been appointed.
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| View Photos of the 2020 Hyundai Palisade vs. 2020 Kia Telluride Posted: 30 Oct 2019 10:59 AM PDT |
| Bill O’Reilly: 'If Joe Biden is elected president ... he has to be impeached' Posted: 01 Nov 2019 08:19 AM PDT  Disgraced former Fox News host Bill O'Reilly shared his dream of what should happen if Joe Biden were to win the Democratic nomination and then defeat President Trump in 2020. "If Joe Biden is elected president, the day after he's sworn in, he has to be impeached," said O'Reilly.
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| The Latest: Wildfire threatens homes in Southern California Posted: 31 Oct 2019 09:38 PM PDT  Authorities have ordered evacuations for about 7,500 people as a wildfire burns on a hilltop north of Los Angeles. The fire on South Mountain near Santa Paula erupted Thursday evening and quickly grew to over 6 square miles (16 square kilometers). The fire is driven by moderate winds that continue in some mountainous areas even as they have eased elsewhere in Southern California.
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| Chasing shadows in China: Detained lawyer's wife battles on Posted: 31 Oct 2019 09:34 PM PDT  With winter approaching, Xu Yan brought some warm clothes and money for her husband to a detention centre in eastern China, though she's not even sure the arrested human rights lawyer is still being held there. Xu, 37, has travelled some 20 times from Beijing to Xuzhou in Jiangsu province in a vain struggle to get any information about Yu Wensheng after he was taken into custody last year.
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| Russian submarines power into north Atlantic in biggest manoeuvre since Cold War Posted: 30 Oct 2019 10:11 AM PDT  Norway said it has discovered 10 submarines of the Russian northern fleet heading toward the Atlantic Ocean in the biggest such operation since the Cold War. The deployment began just before Russia's foreign minister and the commander of the northern fleet visited Norway to commemorate 75th anniversary of the Soviet liberation of Kirkenes from the Nazis. Meanwhile, the recently floated Prince Vladimir submarine test-fired a Bulava ballistic missile from the White Sea near Arkhangelsk across 10 time zones to the Kamchatka peninsula across from Alaska on Wednesday. Eight nuclear and two diesel submarines left bases near Murmansk early last week, and stayed submerged as they entered the Norwegian Sea, Norway's military intelligence agency told state broadcaster NRK. That number would represent almost the entire underwater contingent of the northern fleet. Some of the submarines are aiming to pass through the Greenland-Iceland-UK gap and enter the north Atlantic, according to Oslo. Russia's newest nuclear submarine launches ballistic missile "Russia wants to say that 'this is our sea, we can do this. We are able to reach the United States'. That's what Russia wants to tell us. They want to test the West's ability to detect and handle this," the intelligence agency said. The operation comes as the UK took delivery this week of the first of nine US-made Poseidon P-8A maritime patrol planes. The aircraft are slated in 2020 to begin monitoring the growing Russian submarine activity in the Arctic, previously one of Britain's key roles in Nato. Norway operates much older P-3 Orion turboprop patrol planes. While Moscow hasn't commented on the Norwegian report, the northern fleet said on Saturday that two titanium-hulled Sierra class nuclear submarines in the Norwegian Sea were conducting dives at their maximum depths and would be testing new weapons. That was less than 24 hours after Russian and Norwegian military commanders lunched together at celebrations of the countries' Second World War alliance in Kirkenes, near Norway's Arctic border with Russia. A Russian northern fleet nuclear submarine trains in the Arctic in 2018 Credit: Lev Fedoseyev/TASS via Getty Norwegian intelligence said two submarines were guarding the entrance to the Barents Sea and another pair was located west of Bear island in the Svalbard archipelago. It claimed that the operation was designed to last two months. Russian defence analyst Alexander Golts said he couldn't remember such a "massive deployment" by the northern fleet. He noted that it followed an embarrassment at the annual Thunder exercises this month, when a Pacific fleet submarine failed to test-fire a ballistic missile, reportedly due to a launch systems failure. If accurate, the deployment of 10 submarines was a "very big and definite statement" about the growing naval capabilities of a country that has struggled to keep large numbers of such vessels at sea since the Cold War, according to Justin Bronk of The Royal United Services Institute. It also showed Russia's ability to defend the Arctic "bastion" where its ballistic missile submarines lurk, a major part of its nuclear deterrence, he said. "The ability to put lots of boats in the way of any Nato forces coming up from the north Atlantic or the North Sea, it's a big feature of Russian active defence capability," Mr Bronk said. Norway and Russia's foreign ministers pay their respects on Friday at a memorial to the Soviet soldiers who liberated Kirkenes from the Nazis Credit: Maxim Shemetov/Reuters Even as Russian submarines sailed west, foreign minister Sergei Lavrov met the king and prime minister of Norway at a memorial to Soviet soldiers in Kirkenes on Friday. After talks with his Norwegian counterpart Ine Eriksen Søreide, Mr Lavrov said Nato's increasing training activities in Norway, in which the Royal Marines have also participated, were destabilising to the northern European security. Ms Søreide expressed concern about Russian naval exercises off the coast of northern Norway in August, the largest since 1985. Defence minister Frank Bakke-Jensen told NRK that Norway was investing in its "military capability to monitor and operate in the northern territories" in response to the modernised and increasingly active Russian forces.
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| A union for 28,000 American Airlines cabin crew has told Boeing's CEO its members are scared of getting back on the 737 Max Posted: 01 Nov 2019 03:38 AM PDT  Lori Bassani, who leads the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, wrote to Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg about the 737 Max crisis.
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| Donald Trump May Be Preparing for A Standoff with Iran Over Syria Posted: 31 Oct 2019 09:41 AM PDT  It seems like Trump intends to keep U.S. forces at al-Tanf, a small desert base near the Jordanian border that is possibly important to interdicting Iran's role in Syria.
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| Goats help save Reagan library from destruction as California wildfire threatens Posted: 30 Oct 2019 02:15 PM PDT  Flames from the Easy Fire were within a few feet of the Reagan library. Goats, which graze on grass around the property, helped prevent their spread.
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| A woman in Indiana was found dead in a house filled with 140 snakes with an 8-foot-long python wrapped round her neck Posted: 01 Nov 2019 07:41 AM PDT  Laura Hurst, 36, was found dead in a house in Oxford, Indiana, owned by County Sheriff Don Munson, an avid snake collector.
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| Democrats begin to worry about Warren's electability Posted: 31 Oct 2019 05:47 AM PDT  Having pulled ahead of her rivals in Iowa, New Hampshire and many national polls, Elizabeth Warren has entered a new phase of her presidential campaign: the part where Democrats start to get second thoughts.
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| Joint Turkish and Russian patrols begin in Syrian region Posted: 01 Nov 2019 07:01 AM PDT  Turkey and Russia launched joint patrols Friday in northeastern Syria, under a deal that halted a Turkish offensive against Syrian Kurdish fighters who were forced to withdraw from the border area following Ankara's incursion. The Turkish Defense Ministry said an initial patrol covered an area 87 kilometers (54 miles) long and 10 kilometers (6 miles) deep in the al-Darbasiyah region, assisted by drones. The Russian Defense Ministry said the joint patrol included nine military vehicles, including a Russian armored personnel carrier.
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| Maskless Merkel braves severe Delhi smog Posted: 01 Nov 2019 04:35 AM PDT  German Chancellor Angela Merkel got a toxic welcome to India on Friday as Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomed her in air so polluted that authorities declared a public health emergency. Ignoring medical advice to the choking megacity's 20 million inhabitants, the pair did not wear pollution masks as they inspected troops at the presidential palace in New Delhi.
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| U.S. judge to reconsider house arrest for Giuliani associate charged in Ukraine-linked case Posted: 01 Nov 2019 04:04 AM PDT  A judge is expected on Friday to consider whether an associate of U.S. President Donald Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, should remain under house arrest while he awaits trial on charges of illegally funneling money to a pro-Trump election committee and other politicians. A lawyer for Igor Fruman, a Belarus-born businessman, is scheduled to appear before U.S. District Judge Paul Oetken in Manhattan to argue that his client should be allowed to move more freely. Fruman, who lives in Florida, is not expected to appear.
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| 11 Malware Attacks That Nearly Wrecked the Internet Posted: 31 Oct 2019 02:15 PM PDT |
| Police destroyed an innocent man's home during an arrest. But he's owed nothing, court rules Posted: 31 Oct 2019 10:51 AM PDT  A Colorado town owes an innocent man nothing, according to a court ruling, though police destroyed his home while trying to arrest a suspect
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| Russia vs. America: F-35s vs. Putin's Best Fighters (Who Wins?) Posted: 31 Oct 2019 09:30 PM PDT  Who comes out on top?
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| Boeing is facing a fresh crisis after another airline found cracks in a 737 plane, adding to a growing number of airlines grounding some of the planes Posted: 31 Oct 2019 04:18 AM PDT  Qantas found cracks in a 737NG plane that had flown fewer times than the planes the US Federal Aviation Administration had ordered to be inspected.
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| Severe Fire Conditions Lead to 'Extreme' Red Flag Warning in Los Angeles Area Posted: 30 Oct 2019 10:54 AM PDT  An "extreme" red flag warning has been declared in the Los Angeles area ahead of some of the worst conditions for a fire in the last 12 years.
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| Foreign actors must not 'impose will' on protests: top Iraq cleric Posted: 01 Nov 2019 03:26 AM PDT  Iraq's top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani warned foreign actors on Friday against interfering in anti-government protests that erupted early last month and urged political factions to avoid "infighting". "No person or group, no side with a particular view, no regional or international actor may seize the will of the Iraqi people and impose its will on them," Sistani said in his weekly sermon read by a representative in the Shiite holy city of Karbala. It comes after comments by Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday in which he urged protesters in both Iraq and Lebanon to pursue their demands through "legal frameworks".
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| Trump’s Presidency on Treacherous New Ground After House Vote Posted: 31 Oct 2019 03:59 PM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Donald Trump's presidency stands on its most treacherous ground after the House voted Thursday to approve and proceed with its impeachment inquiry.The resolution, passed on a largely party-line 232-196 vote, does not just lay out a road map for the public phase of the inquiry. It sends a clear signal that a vote to impeach Trump, and a trial in the Senate, is all but inevitable.Trump becomes just the fourth president to be subject to a formal impeachment effort. Two of them, Bill Clinton and Andrew Johnson, were impeached in the House but weren't convicted in the Senate. Richard Nixon, facing certain conviction, resigned before the House could vote to approve articles of impeachment.Trump, however, may well become the first president to be impeached and then seek re-election. That dynamic presents a novel challenge for the president, as he must work to keep the Republican Party unified not just to prevent his removal from office by the Senate but also at the hands of voters.Recent moves suggest that Trump understands the peril. After resisting entreaties to add staff to the White House, he is likely to bring on a prominent public relations professional to help with communications on the inquiry, according to people familiar with the matter. His campaign, meanwhile, paid millions of dollars for a glitzy national television ad during game seven of the World Series on Wednesday.Partisan ResolutionThe president has become deeply engaged in keeping his party in line. Over the past two weeks, Trump has met face-to-face with more than 60 House members, according to an administration official.No House Republicans voted in favor of the impeachment resolution. One former Republican and fierce Trump critic who left his party this year, Justin Amash of Michigan, voted for it.There is little sign that Trump or his White House plan to suddenly become more cooperative with the impeachment inquiry, even after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi met White House Counsel Pat Cipollone's demand for a vote to formalize it. And his re-election campaign, the coffers of which are overflowing with cash, is aggressively portraying his opponents as do-nothing politicians obsessed with his removal from office.His campaign's World Series advertisement recounted the president's accomplishments and said Democrats "would rather focus on impeachment and phony investigations, ignoring the real issues.""He's no Mr. Nice Guy, but sometimes it takes a Donald Trump to change Washington," the narrator declares.Sayegh HireWhile Trump has repeatedly dismissed the need to hire additional staff to counter the Democrats' impeachment efforts, he is likely to bring a former Treasury Department spokesman, Tony Sayegh, into the White House to assist with communications related to impeachment, according to people familiar with the matter. Sayegh's post will be temporary and he also intends to work on issues other than impeachment, the people said.Sayegh is credited in the White House for helping shepherd Trump's biggest legislative achievement to passage, the 2017 tax overhaul, and his hiring is supported by the president's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, the people said. They asked not to be identified because Sayegh's appointment hasn't been announced.Sayegh declined to comment.Before the House vote, White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said more attorneys and communications staff may "possibly" be added to the West Wing.Trump has no official events on his schedule on Thursday and spent much of the morning tweeting, his preferred channel for responding to the inquiry. He posted more than half a dozen messages ahead of the vote and claimed impeachment is damaging the U.S. economy."The Greatest Witch Hunt In American History!" he wrote as the House started voting.Weakened ArgumentPassage of the House resolution weakens a central argument for both the White House and allied Republicans: that the inquiry is illegitimate because the House hasn't held a vote to approve it. The resolution's adoption may also force Republican members to defend the substance of Trump's conduct in Ukraine, which most of them have been loath to do.And refusing to participate in the public phase of the impeachment investigation could put Trump at further disadvantage. While Democrats are expected to call a litany of witnesses with damaging accounts of the president's dealings with Ukraine, Trump would sideline lawyers and aides who might present his defense."The president has done nothing wrong, and the Democrats know it," White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham said in a statement. "The Democrats want to render a verdict without giving the administration a chance to mount a defense. That is unfair, unconstitutional, and fundamentally un-American."Trump's earlier edict to government officials purporting to prohibit them from testifying to Congress or providing records to impeachment investigators has largely been ignored after Democrats issued subpoenas compelling their cooperation. Grisham declined to say in a Fox News interview on Thursday how the White House will handle future requests for testimony and documents now that the impeachment inquiry is formal."I don't want to get into any of our strategy just yet," she said.House Democrats issued a document separate from their resolution that provides the president and his counsel the opportunity to participate in public hearings by responding to claims and requesting their own witnesses. But the White House and House Republicans have said the due-process protections are not strong enough.Trade ComplicationsAs the impeachment battle escalates in the House, Trump will also face added pressure to show his party and the public that he can still govern. The president's chief argument against impeachment is that he has secured a series of achievements for the country, especially a booming economy -- a claim that could be undercut if he becomes bogged down in the investigation and unable to deliver on more of his campaign promises.One of the biggest items on Trump's agenda is securing a preliminary trade agreement with China, a goal that was complicated by the cancellation of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Chile, where the president hoped to sign the deal with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Trump tweeted Thursday that both countries are now "working on selecting a new site" for a signing ceremony, which he said would be "announced soon."But Chinese officials have doubts that there will be a comprehensive long-term trade deal beyond the so-called "phase one" agreement.And the charged political environment surrounding impeachment could complicate the administration's push to win congressional passage of Trump's revision of the North American Free Trade Agreement, likely the only remaining chance him to secure a major legislative accomplishment ahead of the 2020 election.The presidential campaign will be dominated by impeachment. The issue may fuel Trump on the trail, where his personal grievances against his opponents are a mainstay of his political rallies. He'll get his first opportunity to road-test his message after the impeachment vote on Friday, at a rally in Tupelo, Mississippi on behalf of the state's Republican gubernatorial candidate."Every American can see this for what it is: an attempt to remove a duly-elected president for strictly political reasons by a strictly partisan, illegitimate process," Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale said in a statement. "Voters will punish Democrats who support this farce and President Trump will be easily re-elected."Perhaps, though public polling aggregated by RealClearPolitics shows majority support among voters for the House inquiry. Impeachment also helps to highlight many of Trump's characteristics that most concern swing voters -- his mercurial nature and his willingness to defy conventional expectations of presidential behavior and push the legal limits of his powers.Revelations in the impeachment probe may increasingly alienate voters in America's political middle who will decide the election. That could force Trump and his team even further toward a strategy he's already shown that he embraces: aggravating his loyalists' anger toward Washington and the president's opponents, in the hope they'll turn out in force next November -- but at the expense of expanding his support.(Updating with Sayegh declining to comment, in 13th paragraph.)\--With assistance from Jennifer Jacobs, Josh Wingrove and Mario Parker.To contact the reporter on this story: Jordan Fabian in Washington at jfabian6@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net, Justin BlumFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| UPDATE 1-Mixed martial arts star McGregor convicted of assault, fined 1,000 euros Posted: 01 Nov 2019 08:47 AM PDT ![UPDATE 1-Mixed martial arts star McGregor convicted of assault, fined 1,000 euros]( "UPDATE 1-Mixed martial arts star McGregor convicted of assault, fined 1,000 euros") Irish mixed martial arts fighter Conor McGregor was convicted on Friday of assault for punching a man who refused a shot of whiskey from him in a Dublin pub in April and was fined 1,000 euros ($1,117). McGregor's solicitor Michael Staines asked the court to give McGregor "one last chance" and said a criminal conviction could lead to a refusal of a visa to the United States and create "very severe difficulties" for McGregor's career.
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| 50 Tips for Better Interneting Posted: 31 Oct 2019 09:42 AM PDT |
| 'That's not bringing about change': Obama advises 'woke' young people not to be so judgmental Posted: 31 Oct 2019 05:11 AM PDT  "That's not bringing about change. If all you're doing is casting stones, you're probably not going to get that far," the former president said.
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| Russia's MiG-29 Fulcrum: Everything You Wanted to Know Posted: 01 Nov 2019 12:00 AM PDT  One heck of a plane.
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| A plane flying from Portugal to Scotland was mistakenly told it was flying near the North Pole when its navigation gear malfunctioned Posted: 01 Nov 2019 05:43 AM PDT  A Ryanair Boeing 737-800 was flying to Edinburgh when it experienced a number of malfunctions, including with the plane's altitude readings.
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| Measles is deadlier, and vaccines more important, than believed, new research shows Posted: 01 Nov 2019 12:31 AM PDT ![Measles is deadlier, and vaccines more important, than believed, new research shows]( "Measles is deadlier, and vaccines more important, than believed, new research shows") Two new studies show that measles can weaken a person's immune system for years, inducing "immune amnesia" that wipes the immune system's memory of how to fight off other maladies the body has already conquered. The highly contagious measles virus still kills more than 100,000 people annually, but before a vaccine was introduced in 1963, 2.6 million people died from the disease each year. The deployment of the measles vaccine didn't just slash the measles fatality rate, though; it also drastically reduced the rate of other infectious diseases, National Geographic reports."We actually saw the whole overall baseline for childhood mortality drop precipitously," says Harvard's Michael Mina, a lead author of one of the new studies, published in Science. That study, and another one published in Science Immunology, explore how the measles virus kills off an alarming amount of antibodies. The findings underscore the importance of immunizing children, the authors of both studies emphasize. A number of measles outbreaks have occurred in the U.S. in the past few years, starting in communities where parents decline to vaccinate their children.Unvaccinated children also have a higher-than-believed risk of contracting a fatal and incurable neurological disorder that can lie formant for years after a measles infection, according to new research from UCLA presented at last week's IDWeek infectious disease conference.Previously, scientists believed the risk of developing the measles complication, subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE), was about 1 in 100,000, The Washington Post reports. The new data suggests the odds are actually 1 in 1,700 for kids who contract measles before age 5 and 1 in 609 for babies infected with the virus. "This is really frightening and we need to see that everyone gets vaccinated," UCLA's James Cherry said at the conference. The average age at which SSPE become evident is 12, but the age range for diagnosis is 3 to 35.
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| Kentucky Supreme Court dismisses gay pride T-shirt case Posted: 31 Oct 2019 02:32 PM PDT ![Kentucky Supreme Court dismisses gay pride T-shirt case]( "Kentucky Supreme Court dismisses gay pride T-shirt case") The Kentucky Supreme Court has sided with a print shop owner who refused to make a gay pride T-shirt because he says it was against his religious beliefs. The state's high court dismissed the claim after two lower courts also ruled in favor of Lexington print shop Hands-On Originals. The company declined a T-shirt order from Lexington's Gay and Lesbian Services Organization for the city's 2012 Gay Pride Festival.
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| Biden stumbles over words, struggles to deliver his message to voters Posted: 31 Oct 2019 06:55 AM PDT  Joe Biden was making an impassioned case for protecting immigrants in the country illegally one recent Sunday when he abruptly stopped himself. "There's many more things, but —" he said before trailing off at a union forum. Six months into his presidential campaign, Biden is still delivering uneven performances on the debate stage and on the campaign trail in ways that can undermine his message.
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| White House Aide Tells House of Concerns Over Trump and Ukraine Posted: 31 Oct 2019 05:52 PM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- A White House aide told U.S. House impeachment investigators Thursday of his concern on multiple levels after listening in on President Donald Trump's July 25 call with the Ukrainian president, but not because he believed what he heard was illegal.Tim Morrison, a Russia and Ukraine specialist on the National Security Council, said in his prepared opening testimony Thursday that he promptly asked an NSC legal adviser to review a memo of the call because he was concerned that details of the conversation could be leaked out."I had three concerns about a potential leak," he said."First, how it would play out in Washington's polarized environment; second, how a leak would affect the bipartisan support our Ukrainian partners currently experience in Congress; and third, how it would affect the Ukrainian perceptions of the U.S.-Ukraine relationship," Morrison said in the statement.But he also told the impeachment committees in the prepared remarks, "I want to be clear, I was not concerned that anything illegal was discussed."Morrison's testimony also contributed his knowledge of other angles being explored in the impeachment inquiry.Morrison specifically identified Gordon Sondland, Trump's envoy to the European Union, as having communicated to a Ukrainian official that the U.S. military aid to that country would be released if the country investigated Burisma, an energy company linked to Hunter Biden, former Vice President Joe Biden's son.In doing so, he corroborated much of the substance of similar testimony by William Taylor, the acting ambassador to Ukraine, about what Sondland told the Ukrainian official, Andriy Yermak.Taylor had testified last week that Sondland told the Ukrainian official that security assistance money would not be forthcoming until Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy "committed to pursue the Burisma investigation."On Thursday, Morrison said, "My recollection is that Ambassador Sondland's proposal to Mr. Yermak was that it could be sufficient if the new Ukrainian prosecutor general — not President Volodymyr Zelenskiy — would commit to pursue the Burisma investigation."In his prepared testimony, Morrison also describes learning from Trump's former Russia adviser Fiona Hill "of her concerns about two Ukraine processes that were occurring: the normal interagency process led by the NSC with the typical department and agency participation and a separate process that involved chiefly the U.S. Ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland.""Dr. Hill told me that Ambassador Sondland and President Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, were trying to get President Zelenskiy to reopen Ukrainian investigations into Burisma," Morrison said in his prepared remarks."At the time, I did not know what Burisma was or what the investigation entailed," he said."After the meeting with Dr. Hill, I Googled Burisma and learned that it was a Ukrainian energy company and that Hunter Biden was on its board," he said. "I also did not understand why Ambassador Sondland would be involved in Ukraine policy, often without the involvement of our duly-appointed chief of mission, Ambassador Bill Taylor."Morrison's reported departure from his White House job has not been finalized, he told the committees, adding that he planned to leave after his testimony had been completed.He said that he did not want anyone to think there is a connection between his appearance on Thursday "and my impending departure."To contact the reporter on this story: Billy House in Washington at bhouse5@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Kevin Whitelaw at kwhitelaw@bloomberg.net, John Harney, Chelsea MesFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Warren details Medicare for All payment plan with no new taxes for middle class Posted: 01 Nov 2019 05:44 AM PDT  WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren said on Friday the Medicare for All system she backs would cost the U.S. government an extra $20.5 trillion over 10 years but would not "require raising taxes one penny" on the middle class. More moderate 2020 candidates such as Biden and South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg have said Medicare for All would be too expensive and favor a more incremental approach.
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