| Top House Armed Services Republican: Trump's Ukraine call was 'inappropriate' but not impeachable Posted: 10 Nov 2019 08:57 AM PST  Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, said President Trump's call with Ukraine's president was "inappropriate" — but it did not warrant his impeachment.
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| Greta Thunberg shuts down heckler at climate rally Posted: 08 Nov 2019 12:40 PM PST  "I think if you want to speak with me personally, maybe you can do it later," the 16-year-old Swedish activist said to a woman who tried to interrupt her speech in Charlotte, N.C., on Friday.
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| U.S. seen as 'exporter of white supremacist ideology,' says counterterrorism official Posted: 08 Nov 2019 03:24 PM PST  After an upsurge in racially motivated attacks around the world, other countries are beginning to regard the United States as an exporter of white supremacism, a senior U.S. counterterrorism official said Friday.
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| Attack Near Canadian Mine in Burkina Faso Kills 38 People Posted: 08 Nov 2019 03:15 PM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Scores of people are still missing after Wednesday's attack near a Canadian-owned mine in Burkina Faso in which 38 people were killed, the worst such incident in the West African nation struggling to contain an Islamist insurgency.The death toll was 38, Defense Minister Cherif Moumouna Sy said Friday following a visit to the region. A further 63 people were injured, with the most severely wounded brought to the capital, Ouagadougou, Sy told Radiodiffusion Television du Burkina. Government spokesman Remy Fulgance Dandjinou said about 40 people remained unaccounted for."Our troops are on the ground because we also have some elements that are missing, some mine workers that we are looking for," Sy said.Unidentified gunmen attacked a convoy under military escort transporting workers of Canadian gold miner Semafo Inc. about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the company's Boungou mine in the eastern Est region. While the mine was unaffected, operations were suspended out of respect for the victims, Semafo said.Read more: Canadian Miner Targeted in Burkina Faso Attack; 38 KilledThe attack comes as several West African countries are battling Islamist insurgents who are increasingly disrupting business and forcing governments to abandon large swathes of territory. The raids have spread from Sahel countries such as Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso toward the borders with coastal nations, including Ghana and Ivory Coast.West African leaders expressed solidarity with Burkina Faso and President Roch Marc Christian Kabore following the attack. "No country is spared from terrorism," Senegal President Macky Sall said during a stopover in Ouagadougou following a meeting with the West African regional bloc in Niger's capital Niamey on Friday. "This time it was workers going to their office who were attacked."Semafo's stock fell 4.9% in Toronto on Thursday and extended its decline by 4.8% on Friday. Shares in Australia's Perenti Global dropped 12% after the Perth-based mining contractor said 19 members of its workforce were killed in the incident. The Perth-based mining-service provider also suspended operations.(Adds Senegal president's comment in 7th paragraph.)\--With assistance from Katarina Hoije.To contact the reporter on this story: Simon Gongo in Ouagadougou at sgongo@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Andre Janse van Vuuren at ajansevanvuu@bloomberg.net, Hilton Shone, Jacqueline MackenzieFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Indian court rules in favor of Hindus in dispute at heart of tension Posted: 09 Nov 2019 01:44 AM PST  The ruling paves the way for the building of a Hindu temple at a site where a mosque once stood
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| The B-21 Stealth Bomber is Almost Here (And It Will Be Glorious) Posted: 08 Nov 2019 01:10 PM PST  Stealth technology is being pursued by a determined U.S. Air Force.
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| Erdogan says Turkey will not leave Syria until other countries pull out region Posted: 08 Nov 2019 04:41 PM PST  Turkey will not leave Syria until other countries pull out, President Tayyip Erdogan was quoted as saying on Friday, and Ankara will continue its cross-border offensive against Kurdish fighters until every one of them has left the region.
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| 2020 Honda Civic Si, Updated, Is Even More Fun for the Money Posted: 09 Nov 2019 03:10 PM PST |
| Intelligence community unveils plans for disclosing foreign electoral interference; promises no 'partisan politics' Posted: 08 Nov 2019 01:21 PM PST  New guidelines are designed to enable the prompt disclosure of information about threats.
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| Greta Thunberg: Huge mural of climate activist appears in San Francisco to 'change hearts and minds' Posted: 09 Nov 2019 07:42 AM PST  A huge mural of teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg has appeared in central San Francisco.The enormous eight-storey painting will tower over residents and visitors near Union Square in the heart of the city's downtown.
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| US-born IS bride appeals again to come home from Syria Posted: 09 Nov 2019 02:43 PM PST  A US-born woman who says she regrets having joined the Islamic State group has appealed again to come home from the refugee camp where she lives with her small son in Syria. The government is refusing to let Hoda Muthana return to the US, arguing that she is not an American citizen. In an interview with NBC News published Saturday, Muthana said she "regrets every single thing" done by IS, which she joined in 2014 after embracing extremist ideology while living with her family in Alabama.
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| Russian Historian Accused of Murdering His Student After Being Found Drunk in River With Bag of Severed Limbs Posted: 09 Nov 2019 04:39 PM PST  Denis Sinyakov/AFP/GettyA well-known Russian military historian and professor at St. Petersburg State University was found in a river in the center of the city early Saturday morning drunkenly trying to dispose of a woman's severed arms, according to Russian media reports. Police reportedly soon found the woman's decapitated head and body, along with a bloody saw, in his apartment, and divers are said to have found her legs in black plastic bags at the bottom of the Moyka River. The alleged historian-turned-murderer, identified by Russia's Interfax news agency as 63-year-old Oleg Sokolov, has already confessed to the killing, according to his lawyer, Alexander Pochuyev. "If such a heinous crime, which my client has confessed to, did take place, it was committed under the influence of strong factors, possibly pathological intoxication or temporary insanity," Pochuyev was quoted as saying by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Pochuyev added "the verdict has not been passed yet, and until that moment a person is forbidden to be considered guilty" under Russia's Criminal Code.Sokolov has reportedly entered a plea bargain for the gruesome murder of the 24-year-old victim, tentatively identified by law enforcement sources as Anastasia Eshchenko, one of his students and his co-author on research projects about the French military rule of Napoleon Bonaparte. Police have not yet confirmed a motive, but several local media reports suggest Sokolov and Eshchenko had a closer relationship than that of a teacher and student. Interfax cited sources saying the two lived together. Sokolov is said to have told detectives during his interrogation that he purchased a saw to get rid of Eshchenko's body and drank booze during the dismemberment because he "repeatedly felt sick." He also reportedly said he planned to commit suicide afterwards wearing the uniform of Napoleon. Sokolov is considered one of Russia's leading experts on Napoleonic wars, and is well-known for reenacting moments of Napoleonic history. He was awarded France's Legion d'Honneur in 2003. Sokolov was also a member of France's Institute of Social Science, Economics and Politics, but he had been stripped of his position on its scientific committee Saturday, the society said in a statement."We could never imagine that he could commit such an odious act," as an academic of such high standing, the ISSEP said. The battle re-enactor was also initially listed as a member of the Russian Military Historical Society, but by Saturday evening the organization insisted it had no ties to him. Russian state media reports that Sokolov is detained in a hospital and is being treated for hypothermia.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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| Case of the stolen lemur: man who took animal from US zoo wanted a monkey Posted: 09 Nov 2019 10:00 PM PST  This week the FBI released more details of the investigation into the brief 2018 abduction of Isaac, a 33-year-old ring-tailed lemurA ring-tailed lemur. Photograph: Dmitry Feoktistov/TassWhen it comes to lemurs, Isaac is known for being an easygoing guy. He's 33, and mostly enjoys a typical lemur life: resting, eating, exploring, and napping in the sun. He's the oldest ring-tailed lemur in North America and has lived at the same address since 2000.That's why, when Isaac turned up missing in July last year, the keepers at the Santa Ana Zoo were alarmed. "All the animals at the zoo have specialized diets and care requirements," explained Ethan Fisher, the executive director of zoo. "It was especially precarious for him, as a senior animal."Isaac turned up later that day in front of a Newport Beach hotel with a note: "This belongs to the Santa Ana Zoo. It was taken last night. Please bring it to police."In May, authorities announced they had a suspect: 19-year old Aquinas Kasbar. And this week, the FBI released more details of the investigation.Investigators determined Kasbar had used bolt-cutters to make a hole in the metal enclosure Isaac shared with five other endangered ring-tailed lemurs and a handful of monkeys, allowing several animals escape in the process.Kasbar, they said, had been in search of a monkey but none of them would go with him – so he ended up with the happy-go-lucky Isaac.Isaac could have been harmed by the small plastic tote he was captive in, especially when lemurs are used to standing on two legs, the FBI said. But fortunately he made it through his lemur-napping relatively unscathed. "The zoo vets checked him and there weren't any lasting issues," said Fisher. "But any time an animal is taken, there could be real harm."Kasbar bragged to his bail agent about stealing a lemur from the zoo, even showing off selfies on his phone of himself with the lemur, according to the FBI.Stealing an endangered animal is a federal crime. Kasbar pleaded guilty and last month was sentenced to three months in prison. He was also ordered to pay $8,486 in restitution to the zoo.Around the globe, zoo theft is a continuing and pernicious problem. In 2015 alone, 25 members of the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria reported thefts. In one case, thieves in France stole 79 tortoises in one heist. In 2017, a four-year-old white rhino was killed and poachers partially sawed off its horn – the first time a rhino poaching happened at a western zoo.The ring-tailed lemur is native to Madagascar and is on a list of the 25 most endangered primates, according to court documents. Ring-tailed lemurs are endangered, in part, because of the illegal pet trade. "Lemurs are suffering from habitat loss and climate change and other threats," said Fisher.Lemurs enjoy the afternoon sun, and they'll often assume a yoga-like pose sitting on a rock or the ground, with their hands upturned on their knees. They also have something called stink fights, where males grab the end of their long, striped tail, rub it in a scent gland, and wave stinky tails at each other.To any would-be animal thieves, Fisher said: "Stealing from a zoo is definitely not a good idea. There's so many reasons not to do that, but the animals that we have at the zoo are extremely cared for. They're animals the community has grown to love and appreciate."
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| Manafort's former son-in-law sentenced for multiple scams Posted: 10 Nov 2019 08:24 AM PST  Paul Manafort's former son-in-law has been sentenced in Los Angeles to nine years in prison for pulling a series of schemes totaling more than $13 million, including one that bilked $3 million from actor Dustin Hoffman. U.S. District Judge Andre Birotte Jr. ordered Jeffrey Yohai to pay $6.7 million in restitution on Friday for the schemes, some of which were carried out while he was released on bond for similar crimes. Prosecutors said Yohai persuaded Hoffman and his son Jacob to invest in a real estate project, but he used their money for personal expenses and to pay debts.
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| Mexico massacre unites Mormon sects, even their exiles Posted: 10 Nov 2019 04:27 AM PST  The 35-year-old Seattle homemaker had spent much of her life trying to keep away from her parents' self-described fundamentalist branch of the Mormon faith and Colonia LeBaron - her polygamist father's Mexico community where some of the massacre victims were from. "The massacre has simply allowed me to support and love family," said Bostwick, a convert to Christianity, whose mother was 15 when she gave birth to her, and who was later adopted by her U.S. grandparents. The Nov. 4 killings have traumatized northern Mexico's breakaway Mormon communities.
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| 'Gender Reveal' Celebration in Texas Led to a Plane Crash Posted: 09 Nov 2019 09:48 AM PST  In recent years, expectant parents have gone to extreme lengths to create splashy, Instagrammable moments to announce the sex of their child. Some of the celebrations, however, have ended in calamity: a 45,000-acre forest fire, a flaming car, a deadly explosion.And now, a plane crash could be added to that list, according to a preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board filed this week.A crop-dusting plane that dumped hundreds of gallons of pink water over a field in Turkey, Texas, about 300 miles northwest of Dallas, crashed to the ground in early September, according to safety board documents. No major injuries were reported.The pilot, Raj Horan, had been "conducting a gender reveal flight for a friend" when, after releasing about 350 gallons of water, the single-seat plane "got too slow" and stalled, records show.A passenger, identified as Jennifer Harrell, sustained minor injuries, according to the incident report. The aircraft, which struck the ground and flipped on its back, sustained substantial damage.Attempts to reach Harrell and Horan on Friday were not successful.The pilot told investigators there were "no preimpact mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airplane."Cultural researchers have traced the origins of the so-called gender reveal party to the late 2000s. But those early attempts feel almost quaint by today's standards.Despite the possibility of attracting backlash for reinforcing gender stereotypes and schadenfreude should things go wrong, some couples have felt that confetti or cake sprinkles are not flashy enough to deliver their messages.Last month, an Iowa couple trying to create a device that could shoot colored powder into the air inadvertently built a pipe bomb that killed one of their guests. A day later, authorities in the state investigated another explosion of a store-bought "gender reveal kit," according to The Associated Press.On Australia's Gold Coast, a black car was rigged to spew thick clouds of blue smoke. But after drifting slowly and spinning its wheels on the road, the car burst into flames. (The driver managed to escape.)And in 2018, a man shot a rifle at a target containing a highly explosive chemical mixed with colorful powder packets that were intended to create a pink or blue cloud. The resulting explosion, however, sparked a massive fire that took firefighters a week to extinguish and burned more than 45,000 acres in Arizona.The man who shot the rifle, a Customs and Border Protection agent, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor violation of U.S. Forest Service regulations and agreed to pay $220,000 in restitution.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
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| In the 1950s, America Almost Built Huge Nuclear Bunkers for Ever City Posted: 09 Nov 2019 10:00 AM PST  Would the fall out shelters have worked?
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| Julian Castro – the sole Latino candidate – lags in Latino support as Democratic primaries loom Posted: 09 Nov 2019 08:10 AM PST  Julian Castro has struggled with name recognition in a crowded field. Latino voters may be looking for a candidate who can beat Donald Trump.
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| Saudi Arabia: U.S. companies return to the kingdom Posted: 10 Nov 2019 03:55 AM PST ![Saudi Arabia: U.S. companies return to the kingdom]( "Saudi Arabia: U.S. companies return to the kingdom") The smartest insight and analysis, from all perspectives, rounded up from around the web:The Saudi conference nicknamed "Davos in the Desert" returned last week -- and so did many of the Wall Street A-listers who boycotted it a year ago, said Mohamad Bazzi at The Guardian. Executives and political leaders shunned last year's lavish investment summit in Riyadh, "which took place only weeks after" Saudi agents murdered the journalist Jamal Khashoggi. But their return to the Future Investment Initiative this year signals that "Saudi Arabia is open for business, and U.S. firms don't want to miss out." Executives from JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Blackstone, and SoftBank, as well as Steve Mnuchin, the U.S. treasury secretary, and Jared Kushner, President Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser, were among the 300 speakers from 30 countries. The big draw was the planned initial public offering of a small piece of the world's most profitable company, Saudi Aramco, "the state-owned oil monopoly" that finally got the green light to launch from Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman."The IPO is a cornerstone of Prince Mohammed's Vision 2030 plan to make the Saudi economy ready for the post-oil era," said Matthew Martin at Bloomberg, but the $2 trillion valuation the prince originally wanted for Aramco has already been knocked down to between $1.6 trillion and $1.8 trillion. Many investment bank analysts think it's worth substantially less. Aramco has to "contend with the strengthening movement against climate change" and automakers' accelerating shift away from the internal combustion engine. So far, MBS has had trouble delivering on his promise to "wean the kingdom off oil," said Varsha Koduvayur at CNN. Human rights abuses "have marred Saudi Arabia's image and heightened reputational risks for investors." The issues go well beyond Khashoggi. "Foreign direct investment to Saudi Arabia cratered after the crown prince's so-called anti-corruption roundup in 2017," when he imprisoned many of the country's most prominent business figures in the Ritz-Carlton in Riyadh and made them sign away big chunks of their wealth. All the "glitz and glamour" of this conference at the very same hotel won't make investors forget that.The major tech firms did stay away, said Theodore Schleifer at Vox. But the snubs from the industry mainly show "just how sensitive tech leaders are to media crises." Ultimately, a few CEOs not showing up for a conference matters less "than the fact that Silicon Valley companies like SAP and Amazon Web Services continue to expand in Saudi Arabia." This would have been the perfect time for the world to hold the Saudis to account, said David Andelman at NBCNews. The kingdom desperately "needs deep pockets to fund Aramco's future," but no one was willing to question "the conduct -- past or present -- of the crown prince." The U.S. will "keep looking the other way" as long as the kingdom maintains its 2017 pledge to pay $350 billion for American arms over 10 years. "Call it a quid pro quo, or simply business as usual." Once again, the Saudis have been able to use their vast oil wealth to buy critical friendships, starting with Donald Trump's.More stories from theweek.com The return of honor politics 5 brutal cartoons about Trump's environmental assault Someone made a font out of gerrymandered congressional districts
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| Protesters in Chile set fire to university, loot church Posted: 08 Nov 2019 06:10 PM PST  Demonstrators in Chile set a university building ablaze and ransacked a church Friday at the close of an otherwise peaceful rally marking three weeks of unprecedented protests against social and economic inequality. Protesters clashed with police who had set up barricades to protect private Pedro de Valdivia University, and shortly thereafter the wooden roof of its 100-year-old administration building began to burn, witnesses said. Nearby, hooded protesters looted the church of La Asuncion, which was built in 1876, dragging furniture outside and setting it alight.
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| Jeffrey Epstein death memes and conspiracy theories are everywhere. This is why they're so popular. Posted: 09 Nov 2019 10:49 AM PST  The theory that Jeffrey Epstein was murdered is widespread and pervasive. Its popularity illustrates our growing distrust in public institutions.
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| Meet the U.S. soldier whose portrait hangs over Checkpoint Charlie Posted: 08 Nov 2019 11:37 PM PST  When he saw himself immortalized above the well-known crossing point, he was "shocked"
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| Oklahoma woman imprisoned in failure-to-protect case is free Posted: 08 Nov 2019 10:36 AM PST  An Oklahoma woman whose sentence for failing to report her boyfriend's abuse of her children was far harsher than his for the abuse itself wiped away tears and hugged family and friends Friday as she was released after 15 years. Tondalao Hall, 35, left a women's prison in McLoud, Oklahoma, after serving about 13 more years behind bars than her boyfriend, who pleaded guilty in 2006 but was released on probation with credit for time served. "Blessed to be with my family, I just want to be with my family," Hall said as she walked away from the Mabel Bassett Correctional Center on the eastern edge of Oklahoma City.
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| French IS suspects want to go home, and 'go on with my life' Posted: 10 Nov 2019 04:30 AM PST ![French IS suspects want to go home, and 'go on with my life']( "French IS suspects want to go home, and 'go on with my life'") Three French women who escaped from a camp for suspected jihadists in northern Syria say they want to go home and face whatever legal action France requires over their alleged links to the Islamic State (IS) militant group. The three, interviewed in Syria's Suluk town, controlled by Syrian rebels backed by Turkey, said they had fled during the chaos of Turkey's incursion into Syria last month and turned themselves over to Turkish forces in hopes of returning home. The women, who declined to give their names, suggested they were prepared to go France for the sake of their children, adding that conditions in the camp in Ain Issa, run by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), had been very hard.
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| Generation Z taunts old-timers with 'OK boomer' jibe Posted: 09 Nov 2019 08:35 AM PST  Call it an eye-roll from the "snowflakes" to the old-timers they blame for climate change and student debt. "OK boomer" is the new rallying cry for Generation Z, and the meme-friendly putdown is suddenly everywhere.
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| India's Nuclear Arsenal Keeps Growing, And That's Bad News For Pakistan and China Posted: 10 Nov 2019 02:30 AM PST  India could be approaching 200 warheads.
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| Trump impeachment: whistleblower will not testify in public, Democrats say Posted: 10 Nov 2019 08:34 AM PST  * Battle for national opinion begins ahead of Wednesday hearings * Ex-national security adviser John Bolton signs book deal * How Trump's hardball tactics put the constitution in perilDonald Trump in Atlanta on Friday. Photograph: Evan Vucci/APThe whistleblower who sparked the impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump will not testify in public, House intelligence chair Adam Schiff said."The committee ... will not facilitate efforts by President Trump and his allies in Congress to threaten, intimidate and retaliate against the whistleblower who courageously raised the initial alarm," Schiff said in a letter to ranking Republican Devin Nunes released on Saturday night.The impeachment inquiry concerns Trump's attempts to have Ukraine investigate his political rivals, in return for nearly $400m in military aid and a White House visit for President Vlodymyr Zelinskiy.The whistleblower, an unidentified intelligence official, raised concern about a 25 July phone call between Trump and Zelinskiy in which the US president raised the notion of his counterpart doing the US "a favour". The incomplete White House memo about the 25 July call remains a key point of contention. Trump said on Saturday he would soon release details of another call with the Ukrainian leader.House committees led by Schiff have so far heard testimony in private. Transcripts released this week were mostly damaging to the White House, bringing acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney firmly into the spotlight over his apparent role in offering the quid pro quo.> This is a very simple, straightforward act: the president broke the law> > Jackie SpeierMulvaney and other key aides have refused to testify, defying congressional subpoenas and raising fears of a constitutional crisis. On Friday night, Mulvaney asked to join a lawsuit filed by a more junior aide which asks a judge to decide whether he should testify. The move that could put the chief of staff at odds with the president he serves.Public hearings are scheduled to begin on Wednesday.In his own letter on Saturday, Nunes criticised Schiff's handling of the impeachment inquiry and set out the witnesses Republicans would like to question.Among them were the whistleblower, whom the president and his allies have demanded be identified contrary to federal law; Hunter Biden, the son of former vice-president Joe Biden who is accused without evidence of corruption in Ukraine; Alexandra Chalupa, a Ukrainian-American former Democratic National Committee staffer; and Nellie Ohr, a former contractor for the political intelligence firm Fusion GPS, which commissioned the famous Steele dossier on Russian election interference and links between Trump and Moscow.The move indicated a key Republican tactic: to steer argument towards supposed wrongdoing regarding Ukraine involving Trump's enemies, not the president.Schiff countered, saying the inquiry and his committee would "not serve as vehicles" for "sham investigations into the Bidens or debunked conspiracies about 2016 US election interference that President Trump pressed Ukraine to conduct for his personal political benefit".Public hearings will bring the inquiry on to the national stage, opening a vital front in the battle for public opinion as an election year looms. Successive polls have shown slim majorities backing Trump's impeachment and removal.As Democrats hold the House, it seems likely it will vote for impeachment. As Republicans hold the Senate, it seems very unlikely Trump will be convicted and removed.On Sunday members of key House committees set out the parties' positions on why Trump is being impeached, cases they must now take to the American people.On CBS's Face the Nation, Eric Swalwell, a California Democrat on the intelligence committee, said: "We have evidence of an extortion scheme using taxpayer dollars to ask a foreign government to investigate the president's opponent."On ABC's This Week, Jackie Speier, also a California Democrat and a member of the intelligence panel, boiled it down further: "This is a very simple, straightforward act: the president broke the law."For the Republicans, House armed services committee ranking member Mac Thornberry told ABC of Trump's behaviour: "I believe it was inappropriate, I do not believe it was impeachable."Thornberry also repeated a common charge from Republicans, that Democrats running the impeachment inquiry are doing so on a partisan basis."There has to be a fair way to arbitrate," he said, "to decide who the witnesses are. We have had none of that so far."Democrats have countered that they are following rules laid down by Republicans when they investigated Hillary Clinton over the Benghazi attack of September 2012.Two Republican senators insisted Trump had done nothing wrong.On CNN's State of the Union, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin said Trump had not sought the quid pro quo."I've never heard the president say, 'I want to dig up dirt on a potential 2020 opponent,'" Johnson said. "What I've always heard the president consistently concerned about is 'what happened in 2016. How did this false narrative with Russian collusion with my campaign occur? Why was I strapped with the special counsel?' It's a very human desire."On NBC's Meet the Press, the libertarian Kentucky senator Rand Paul indicated that Trump did seek a quid pro quo, and said doing so was not wrong."I think it's a big mistake for anybody to argue 'Quid pro quo, he didn't have quid pro quo,'" Paul said. "And I know that's what the administration's arguing. I wouldn't make that argument."I would make the argument that every politician in Washington, other than me, virtually, is trying to manipulate Ukraine to their purposes."
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| Hospital Identifies Source of Infections That Killed 3 Infants Posted: 09 Nov 2019 07:07 AM PST  The infants at the Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, Pennsylvania, neonatal intensive care unit were tiny, with some born 27 weeks premature.In July, some started to get ill. One by one, the number of sick babies climbed to eight. Between August and September, bacterial infections claimed the lives of three of them.At a news conference last month, officials at the hospital, which is about 150 miles northwest of Philadelphia, said they were at a loss about the source of the infections.But Friday, the hospital announced that it had found the root cause: the process it used to prepare donor breast milk."Our infection control team has traced the bacteria to the equipment used in measuring donor breast milk, which helps premature infants with their nutritional needs," Dr. Edward Hartle, executive vice president and chief medical officer at Geisinger, said in a statement."We would like to extend our sincere apologies to the families who have been affected by this incident," he said, adding that the hospital knows "that the public holds us to the highest standards."The bacteria, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, likes moist environments and grows in water but only presents a danger to extremely fragile patients, such as underdeveloped babies who already have a compromised immune system.Of the five surviving infants who got sick, one has been discharged, and the others remain hospitalized.The hospital, with the help of the Pennsylvania Department of Health, used DNA testing to determine the cause of the infections, Hartle said.The hospital said it changed the breast milk preparation procedure Sept. 30 to "single-use equipment to measure and administer donor breast milk.""We have had no new cases of infants becoming ill from pseudomonas in the NICU since making this change," Hartle said, emphasizing that "the donor breast milk at Geisinger is safe, and we are certain the milk itself was not the cause of the exposure."The hospital, which was already diverting care of some premature babies to other local hospitals while it investigated the infections, said that it was continuing to divert mothers "delivering at less than 32 weeks and babies born prematurely at less than 32 weeks" while it consulted with health authorities about resuming normal operations.At least one of the families whose child died has filed a lawsuit against the hospital. Matt Casey, a lawyer representing two out of the three families whose infants died, said the hospital's statement "raises more questions than it answers.""They haven't told these families anything about the details of when they knew about this and what they did about it prior to their babies being admitted to that NICU," he said.Abel Cepeda was born to Casey's clients, Zuleyka Rodriguez and Luis David Cepeda, of Hazle Township, Pennsylvania, on Sept. 24. He died Sept. 30, the same day that the breast milk process was changed."His parents were told that they didn't know why he died," Casey said.A day before the October news conference in which the infections were announced, the parents got a call telling them the cause of their baby's death was a bacterial infection, he said."We are going to get wholly to the bottom of who knew what, when," he said.The hospital declined to comment on the lawsuit.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
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| Outrage as Sri Lanka president pardons killer of Swedish teen Posted: 09 Nov 2019 10:32 PM PST  Sri Lanka's president has pardoned a death-row prisoner who murdered a Swedish teenager just a week before he leaves office, officials said Sunday, in a move that sparked national outrage. Convicted killer Jude Jayamaha, from a wealthy, high-profile family, walked out of Welikada prison Saturday following the highly unusual amnesty granted by President Maithripala Sirisena. Sirisena, who is stepping down after Saturday's presidential election at which he is not a candidate, announced last month he was considering a request to grant Jayamaha a pardon.
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| Michael Bloomberg’s late entry into the 2020 race is based on a widespread fear among Democrats that Joe Biden’s campaign is in a ‘dire’ place Posted: 09 Nov 2019 05:10 AM PST  Bloomberg's expected entrance into the 2020 race is a clear sign that the billionaire thinks Joe Biden's campaign is on the rocks.
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| New York City wrestles with surge of violent police clashes Posted: 10 Nov 2019 08:56 AM PST  A surge in violent police clashes has left a trail of bodies across New York City, stoking tensions between officers and critics who say they have been too quick to use deadly force. Since mid-October, New York Police Department officers have shot five people, killing four of them — a torrent that left department veterans struggling to recall another time there were so many on-duty shootings in the city in such a short span. Two days later, police killed a man in Brooklyn after they say he slammed an officer's head with a chair.
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| UPDATE 2-United States "very actively" asking N.Korea to return to talks - S.Korea Posted: 10 Nov 2019 12:13 AM PST ![UPDATE 2-United States "very actively" asking N.Korea to return to talks - S.Korea]( "UPDATE 2-United States \"very actively\" asking N.Korea to return to talks - S.Korea") The United States is "very actively" trying to persuade North Korea to come back to negotiations, South Korea's national security adviser said on Sunday, as a year-end North Korean deadline for U.S. flexibility approaches. South Korea was taking North Korea's deadline "very seriously", the adviser, Chung Eui-yong, told reporters, at a time when efforts to improve inter-Korean relations have stalled.
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| 'Beautiful boys': Victims in Mexico ambush remembered at funerals Posted: 08 Nov 2019 10:57 PM PST  Relatives gathered Thursday to remember the women and children killed in an ambush earlier this week in Mexico.
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| What's Behind Socialism's New Appeal Among Americans? Posted: 09 Nov 2019 12:08 AM PST  Multiple forms of socialism, from hard Stalinism to European redistribution, continue to fail.
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| Mulvaney asks to join lawsuit over complying with House subpoenas Posted: 09 Nov 2019 10:17 PM PST  The acting chief of staff wants to join a lawsuit that asks a court to decide whether to comply with a House subpoena or obey a White House order
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| 9 Ingenious Smuggling Machines That Beat the Berlin Wall Posted: 09 Nov 2019 06:00 AM PST |
| U.S. seeks to charge asylum seekers for immigration Posted: 09 Nov 2019 09:25 AM PST  The Trump administration rolled out a proposal Friday to hike application fees for immigrants seeking to remain in the U.S. including a first-ever charge for those seeking refuge. It's the administration's latest move to restrict pathways for obtaining asylum and immigration benefits like U.S. citizenship.
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| Thousands hold vigils as Hong Kong student's death triggers outrage Posted: 08 Nov 2019 10:32 AM PST  Thousands of Hong Kongers held vigils Friday night for a student who died from a fall during recent protester clashes with police, triggering fresh outrage from the pro-democracy movement and renewed violence. Although the precise chain of events leading to 22-year-old Alex Chow's fall last weekend is unclear and disputed, his death Friday morning was the first student fatality during five months of demonstrations. Protesters have made alleged police brutality one of their movement's rallying cries and have seized on the death.
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| Cruel jokes about the old are everywhere. When will we face our ageism epidemic? Posted: 09 Nov 2019 11:00 PM PST  We tolerate mockery of the elderly that we'd never allow if it targeted another group. But we'll all be old one day'It's not only in the sphere of comedy that the old are discussed in ways that would never be tolerated by (or about) another group.' Photograph: NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty ImagesWatching Saturday Night Live over the past few seasons, I've noticed the increasing number and frequency of jokes about old people: the feebleness of the aging brain, the repulsiveness of the elderly body, particularly the elderly female body.Partly because no one, it seems, is ever "called out" for ageism – I can't think of one public figure who has been "cancelled" for mocking the aged – I persuaded myself that, as an older person, I was being hypersensitive. But then, this past weekend, on the Weekend Update segment, the cast member Micheal Che told a series of jokes about a report that a Chinese woman in her 60s had given birth. The labor, Che noted, had involved an unusual amount of "friction" and (I may be slightly misquoting here) the delivery had been like "removing a penny from a wad of chewing gum". Moreover, he added, the new mother could nurse simply by leaning over the crib. The audience laughed. I winced. My husband said: "Ouch."I tried to think of another demographic – Asians? African Americans? Women? Members of the LGBT community? – who would have been the object of humor quite so cruel, so barbed, so personal. But it's not only in the sphere of comedy, and on network TV, that the old are discussed in ways that would never be tolerated by (or about) another group.This summer, the New York Times ran a piece by Ann Bauer titled Do Old People Have a Different Smell? After renting her house to an elderly couple, Ms Bauer returned to find that her home had an odd scent, "strange and cloyingly human". A Google search provided Ms Bauer with conflicting results. One biologist at the Monell Chemical Research Center found that an increased concentration of an unsaturated aldehyde produced, in the old, "a distinctive grassy, waxy or fatty odor". This confirmed what a Japanese study had found in 2001. Apparently the Japanese "have a name for older person odor – kareishu – and it has a definitely negative association". These conclusions were disputed by an organic chemist, also at the Monell, who was himself jokingly accused of being biased, because he was old.The results of these studies interested me less than the fact that they were carried out out at all – and, I assume, funded. Are there studies in progress designed to determine if black people smell funny, or if one can identify a gender nonconforming person by an educated sniff?Ageism is more than a joke. Age discrimination in the work place is difficult to prove, to prosecute and to rectify than any other sort of employment bias. That elderly person greeting you at the door of Target or checking out your groceries at the supermarket may well have once held – and been fired from – a very different job.> Imagine how you might feel, in some as yet unimaginable future, to be told, simply because you have survived, to have a terrible dayIt's unsurprising that animosity toward the elderly has been profitably commodified. Again according to the New York Times, the phrase "OK Boomer" is "Generations Z's ... retort to the problem of older people who just don't get it." OK Boomer now appears on phone cases, stickers, pins, and sweatshirts and on a range of products that say, "OK boomer, have a terrible day." "'If they do take it personally'," according to one 17-year-old quoted in the piece, "'it just further proves that they take everything we do as offensive.'" And yet one wonders if the public would be quite so amused by a logo that said: "OK Jews, have a terrible day." Given the losses and infirmities that so often accompany age, don't the elderly have enough bad days without being told to have more?The accepted explanation and justification for all this is that the old have ruined things for the young: we're responsible for climate change, for income inequality, for the cascading series of financial crises, for the prohibitive cost of higher education. Fair enough, I suppose, though it does seem unjust to direct one's anger at the average middle-class senior citizen struggling to survive on social security rather than raging at, let's say, the Koch brothers the Sacklers, the big banks, and the fossil-fuel lobbyists who have effectively dismantled the EPA. OK, Morgan Stanley, have a terrible day.In any case, I think that the animosity toward the old is less economic than existential, less political than primal, less about student debt than about fear of one's own ageing. No one particularly wants to get old, however preferable it is to the alternative: an early death. What's striking is that the prejudice against the elderly is the only bigotry directed at the inevitable future of the bigot. Few misogynists, I imagine, fear that they eventually will turn into women, nor do racists worry that the passing decades will radically alter their ethnicity and the color of their skin. But the young will get old, if they're lucky. Meanwhile they might consider the fact that ageing is challenging enough without one's being mocked and derided for having experienced a natural process that no medical or cosmetic intervention can ultimately prevent.I'm not suggesting more "calling out", more cancellations. We have enough of that already. So perhaps the answer is more consciousness, more compassion, a more empathic imagination. Believe it or not, the old still have a sense of humor, even about the ageing process. But cruelty is something else. Imagine how your grandpa would feel surrounded by scientists eager to determine if he had an unpleasant odor, or how your grandmother would like hearing her flesh compared to a wad of chewing gum. Then imagine how you might feel, in some as yet unimaginable future, to be told, simply because you have survived, to have a terrible day.
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| Cyclone kills at least 14 in India, Bangladesh Posted: 10 Nov 2019 04:52 AM PST  A strong cyclone lashed northeastern India and Bangladesh on Sunday, killing several people in both countries after more than 2 million moved to shelters across Bangladesh's vast coastal region, officials and news reports said. Cyclone Bulbul left at least seven people dead in India's West Bengal state, where the storm first made landfall at around midnight Saturday, the Press Trust of India news agency reported. The storm then made its way to neighboring Bangladesh, where seven people were killed, according to the United News of Bangladesh news agency.
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| UAE calls for Iran talks with world powers, region Posted: 09 Nov 2019 10:30 PM PST ![UAE calls for Iran talks with world powers, region]( "UAE calls for Iran talks with world powers, region") Iran should come to the negotiating table with world powers and Gulf countries to seek a new deal that would deescalate regional tensions and revive its economy, a senior United Arab Emirates official said on Sunday. Tensions in the Gulf have risen since attacks on oil tankers in a vital global shipping lane this summer, including off the UAE coast, and a major assault on energy facilities in Saudi Arabia. Washington has blamed Iran, which has denied being behind the attacks on global energy infrastructure.
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| Mexican Mormons accuse local government of 'complicity' in massacre of nine relatives Posted: 08 Nov 2019 12:48 PM PST  A member of the Mormon family murdered in Mexico has accused the local authorities of complicity in the killings, mocking their claims that they took 10 hours to arrive on the scene because they didn't have enough petrol. Julian LeBaron, who has urged Mexico's president to accept US offers for help in investigating Monday's massacre, said he had no faith in the local authorities. "The governments of Sonora and Chihuahua states are complicit in this murder," he said. "I do not believe that the authorities will be able to secure justice. They are corrupted down to their bone marrow. They told us they couldn't get to us because they didn't have enough petrol – it's that level of stupidity." Mexico has for decades wrestled with corruption. Wealthy drug cartels will bribe poorly-paid local officials to turn a blind eye to their activities, enabling the cartels to traffic drugs and murder with impunity. A mourner at the funeral of Dawna Langford on Thursday Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Mexico's president, has sent a team to investigate, but few are confident of any arrests. Adrian LeBaron, whose daughter Rhonita, 31, and four of her children died in the massacre, further said he did not believe the government's suggestion that the Mormon cars were mistaken for the vehicles of cartel members. Three adult women and six children died in the hail of 200 bullets. Seven other youngsters – the oldest aged 14, the youngest a seven-month-old baby – survived, and Mr LeBaron said the children had told him they could not have been mistaken as drug cartel members. One of the women came out of her car with her hands raised, Mr LeBaron said he had been told. Mexican police protecting the Mormon community in the Sonora-Chihuahua borderlands He also told CNN's Spanish affiliate that the family had been threatened recently by the organised crime groups operating in the area. "We are from one of the most productive families in the area," he said, speculating that the cartels wanted to "send a message". "This was not an accident. This was not an error," he said. Mr LeBaron said he had received menacing telephone calls warning them not to be "nosy" in cartel affairs. "A few months ago there was an incident where some petrol was stolen. They get upset when you buy your own petrol, because they think it's their own domain, and they made some threats. "We got some calls, warning us not to be gossips, saying that they wouldn't bother us. And then they gunned down three families."
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| Meet the Man Responsible for Today’s Middle East Mayhem Posted: 09 Nov 2019 12:02 AM PST  "Lieutenant Muhammad Sharif Al-Faruqi, may very well be one of the greatest impostors in the history of international relations."
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| Roman Catholic Priests Will Not Break Confession to Report Child Abuse, U.K. Inquiry Told Posted: 09 Nov 2019 05:56 AM PST  The Roman Catholic Church says it would reject any recommendation that would require priests to break confession to report child sexual abuse.
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| Father of Atatiana Jefferson dies of heart attack, family spokesperson says Posted: 10 Nov 2019 04:14 AM PST  The father of Atatiana Jefferson, the black woman who was fatally shot by a Fort Worth police officer, died of a heart attack, a spokesperson said.
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| GOP Unveils Wild Wishlist of Impeachment Witnesses Including Hunter Biden and the Whistleblower Posted: 09 Nov 2019 07:08 AM PST  Jonathan Ernst/ReutersRepublicans on House Intelligence Committee unveiled their wishlist for impeachment witnesses on Saturday rolling out a group that appears to be more about pushing far-right conspiracy theory talking points than actually investigating Donald Trump's interactions with Ukraine. The list, which Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee handling the impeachment are only required to take as a suggestion, appears to be aimed at reviving old Fox News storylines from the Robert Mueller investigation, including allegations that the Ukrainian government interfered in the 2016 election. For example, Republicans want to call Nellie Ohr, whose job at opposition research firm Fusion GPS and marriage to a Justice Department official made her the subject of fevered speculation on the right during the Mueller investigation. Republicans claim that interviewing Ohr buttresses their claims that Trump's request for the Ukrainian government to investigate the United States' 2016 presidential was legitimate and not an effort to dig up dirt on Democrats."Given President Trump's documented belief that the Ukrainian government meddled in the 2016 election to oppose his candidacy, which forms the basis for a reasonable desire for Ukraine to investigate the circumstances surrounding the election and any potential Ukrainian involvement, Ms. Ohr is a prime fact witness who can assist Congress and the American public in better understanding the facts and circumstances surrounding Ukrainian involvement in the 2016 election," the letter reads.Inside the Republican Plan to Deep-Six the Trump Impeachment HearingsThe witness list is the latest GOP move to bolster Trump ahead of the first public impeachment hearing on Nov. 13. Earlier this week, Republicans moved famously combative Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) to the intelligence committee this week in an apparent effort to boost Trump's impeachment defense on the committee.Other witnesses Republicans want to call include former Democratic National Committee staffer Alexandra Chalupa, who figures prominently in right-wing conspiracy theories about Ukrainian interference in the 2016 election. Chalupa has denied collecting opposition research for the DNC. Republicans also want to interview Hunter Biden, former Vice President Joe Biden's son. Trump's attempt to pressure the Ukrainian government to investigate the younger Biden's seat on the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma have played a key role in the Democrats' investigation into Trump and Ukraine. But Republicans say that interviewing Biden and former Burisma board member Devon Archer will help them understand "Ukraine's pervasive corruption"—a talking point popular with Russian President Vladimir Putin."Mr. Biden's firsthand experiences with Burisma can assist the American public in understanding the nature and extent of Ukraine's pervasive corruption, information that bears directly on President Trump's longstanding and deeply-held skepticism of the country," the letter reads.Republicans also want to interview the anonymous whistleblower whose complaint about Trump's phone call with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky led to the investigation. Additionally, Republicans want anyone involved in the drafting of the whistleblower complaint to be called, alluding to right-wing claims that the whistleblower complaint was orchestrated by anti-Trump forces."It is imperative that the American people hear definitively how the whistleblower developed his or her information, and who else the whistleblower may have fed the information he or she had gathered and how that treatment of classified information may have led to the false narrative being perpetrated by the Democrats during this process," the letter reads. While Democrats have said they'll only consider Republican witness requests, Republican Ranking Member Devin Nunes, of California, claimed in the letter that refusing to request the witnesses Republicans want would mean denying Trump "fundamental fairness.""Your failure to fulfill Minority witness requests shall constitute evidence of your denial of fundamental fairness and due process," Nunes wrote.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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| The Vietnamese victims of UK truck tragedy Posted: 09 Nov 2019 02:44 AM PST  British police on Friday confirmed the names of the 39 victims, who are all Vietnamese nationals, found dead in a refrigerated truck in southeast England last month. After Tiep dropped out of high school, he told his family he wanted to work overseas instead of becoming a fisherman in his coastal home province. On October 21, two days before the truck was found, he wrote to his family asking them to get $13,000 to pay to smugglers for his trip to the UK, the last they heard from him.
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