| For Bill Taylor, first impeachment witness, 'everything's easy after Vietnam' Posted: 12 Nov 2019 02:00 AM PST  Most Americans came to know Taylor on Oct. 3, when Democrats released text messages that showed him calling it "crazy to withhold security assistance [to Ukraine] for help with a political campaign."
|
| Turkey says it captured ‘important’ IS figure in Syria Posted: 13 Nov 2019 12:33 AM PST  Turkey's interior minister said Wednesday that his country's forces have captured an "important" figure within the Islamic State group, in Syria. Suleyman Soylu said the suspect is still being interrogated but did not identify the person or provide further details. "We recently captured an important man within the (IS) in Syria.
|
| Tulsi Gabbard's lawyers sent a letter to Hillary Clinton demanding she retract Russia comments Posted: 12 Nov 2019 04:19 PM PST  Tulsi Gabbard's lawyers want Hillary Clinton to make her retraction at a press conference and on social media.
|
| Venezuela ex-intel chief missing in Spain ahead of US extradition: police Posted: 13 Nov 2019 01:46 AM PST  Venezuela's former military intelligence chief has gone missing in Spain just days after a court approved a request for his extradition to the United States on drug trafficking charges, police said Wednesday. "They are currently looking for him," said a spokeswoman for Spain's national police, referring to General Hugo Armando Carvajal. Judicial sources said police had gone to his house in Madrid after Friday's court decision but could not find him.
|
| China's Submarines Can Now Launch a Nuclear War Against America Posted: 12 Nov 2019 10:00 AM PST  A missile test last November made the point quite clear.
|
| Uganda protests police killing of two nationals in Rwanda Posted: 12 Nov 2019 11:50 AM PST ![Uganda protests police killing of two nationals in Rwanda]( "Uganda protests police killing of two nationals in Rwanda") Uganda on Tuesday protested to Rwanda over the killing of two of its nationals by Rwandan security personnel and demanded that they be punished in a further sign of fraying relations between the neighboring states. The two Ugandans were shot dead early on Sunday after being intercepted by Rwandan police while smuggling goods over the nearby border with Uganda, a Rwandan police statement said. In a statement, the Ugandan government accused Rwanda's security personnel of reckless behavior.
|
| Ethiopia to Charge Dozens Over Coordinated Killings of Officials Posted: 13 Nov 2019 07:22 AM PST ![Ethiopia to Charge Dozens Over Coordinated Killings of Officials]( "Ethiopia to Charge Dozens Over Coordinated Killings of Officials") (Bloomberg) -- Ethiopian authorities will charge dozens of people over the coordinated killings of state officials in June that Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed labeled a coup attempt.The planned prosecutions mark the conclusion of a four-month investigation into the most serious attack on Ethiopia's leadership since military rule ended in 1987. Many of those who face charges were members of "the government structure," Attorney General Berhanu Tsegaye said Wednesday on the ruling-party linked Fana Broadcasting Corp.Berhanu's office will charge 45 people in the northern city of Bahir Dar, capital of the Amhara region, and 13 in the federal capital Addis Ababa over the June killings, he said.Assailants killed the head of the army, the president of the Amhara region and at least four other state officials in the assaults on June 22.The bodyguard of slain former army Chief of Staff Se'are Mekonnen, Colonel Tigabu Mesafint, received orders from retired Brigadier-General Aseminew Tsige to kill Se'are in Addis Ababa after killings of officials in Bahir Dar, according to Berhanu. Aseminew was killed in a firefight with government forces in Amhara in June, while Tigabu was apprehended.To contact the reporter on this story: Nizar Manek in Nairobi at nmanek2@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Gordon Bell at gbell16@bloomberg.net, Paul Richardson, Hilton ShoneFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
|
| Man charged in Caribbean hotel worker's death skips hearing Posted: 11 Nov 2019 09:45 AM PST  A Connecticut man charged in the death of a hotel worker he says attacked his family in Anguilla has declined to return to the British Caribbean territory for the latest pretrial hearing, a spokesman said Monday. Scott Hapgood, of Darien, is worried about his safety in light of death threats, and Anguilla officials have not provided assurances that he would be allowed to return home on bond after the hearing, family spokesman Jamie Diaferia said. Anguilla officials rejected an offer for Hapgood to appear by video link for Monday's hearing, Diaferia said.
|
| 2020 Subaru Outback vs. 2019 Honda Passport in Photos Posted: 13 Nov 2019 04:59 AM PST |
| Is Nikki Haley auditioning to replace Pence on Trump's 2020 ticket? Posted: 12 Nov 2019 08:34 AM PST  Less than three months ago, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations tried to tamp down speculation that she might replace the vice president on Trump's 2020 ticket. But multiple political observers say her new book tour is doubling as an audition for the role.
|
| Ten Reasons Why Impeachment Is Illegitimate Posted: 12 Nov 2019 03:30 AM PST  "coup has started. First of many steps. rebellion. impeachment will follow ultimately. lawyers https://twitter.com/jaketapper/status/826255624610729985 …""coup has started. As one falls, two more will take their place. rebellion impeachment"2017 Tweets from Mark Zaid, current attorney for the "whistleblower"There are at least ten reasons why the Democratic impeachment "inquiry" is a euphemism for an ongoing coup attempt.1) Impeachment 24/7. The impeachment "inquiry," supposedly prompted by the president's Ukrainian call, is simply the most recent in a long series of "coups" that sought to overturn the 2016 election and thus preclude a 2020 reelection bid. The pattern gives away the game.Usually the serial futile attempts to abort the Trump presidency — with the exception of the Mueller Dream-Team debacle — were each characterized by about a month of media-driven hysteria. We remember the voting machines fraud hoax, the initial 2017 impeachment effort, the attempt to warp the Electoral College voting, the Logan Act, the Emoluments Clause, the 25th Amendment, the McCabe-Rosenstein faux coup, and various Michael Avenatti–Stormy Daniels–Michael Cohen psychodramas.Ukraine then is not unique, but simply another mini-coup attempt that follows the last failed coup and will presage another coup to take its place when it too fails to remove Trump.All of these efforts reflect a desperate effort both to reverse the 2016 election and to preclude a 2020 reelection effort, and, barring that, to drive down the Trump polls to the point of making him delegitimized. A week after Trump was elected, the Wall Street Journal reported that intelligence agencies were withholding information from their president. "Anonymous," in a September 5, 2018, New York Times op-ed, bragged of an ongoing "resistance" of high-ranking government officials seeking to stonewall Trump. As soon as Trump was inaugurated, Washington lawyer and former Obama official Rosa Brooks was publicly raising the possibility of a military coup to remove him. Retired admiral William McRaven recently called for Trump to be gone — "the sooner, the better."Mark Zaid, the lawyer for the whistleblower, in his arrogance, long ago at least told the truth when he chose the words "coup" and "rebellion" to characterize left-wing efforts to remove Trump. He admitted that the coups would fail (given their lack of legality), but that they would still be followed by successive efforts. In a sane world, with this "bombshell" disclosure, the entire whistleblower caper would now simply vanish.2) Whistleblowers Who Are Not Whistleblowers. The "whistleblower" who prompted this most recent iteration of attempted Trump removal is no whistleblower by any common definition of the noun (i.e., "an individual who, without authorization, reveals private or classified information about an organization usually related to wrongdoing or misconduct. Whistleblowers generally state that such actions are motivated by a commitment to the public interest." -- Encyclopaedia Britannica). He has no incriminating documents, no information at all. He does not even have firsthand evidence of wrongdoing, much less proof of suspect conduct within intelligence agencies that alone would prompt a legitimate appeal to the Office of the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community.Instead, the whistleblower relied on secondhand water-cooler gossip about an illegally leaked presidential call. Even his mangled version of the call did not match that of official transcribers. He was not disinterested but had a long history of partisanship in general, and concerning Ukraine in particular. He was a protégé of many of Trump's most adamant opponents, including Susan Rice, John Brennan, and Joe Biden. He did not follow protocol by going first to the inspector general but instead caucused with the staff of Adam Schiff's impeachment inquiry. Neither the whistleblower nor his doppelganger Lieutenant Colonel Vindman, who both professed strong pro-Ukrainian sympathies during their past tenures associated with the Obama administration, were bothered by the activities of the Bidens or by the Obama decision to stop arms deliveries to Ukraine. Their outrage, in other words, was not about Ukraine but over Trump.It is highly unlikely that there are any plans to call the whistleblower or recall Vindman in person before any committee, because their usefulness as instigators of "impeachment" has already passed, and they are now both rank liabilities. Their inconsistencies and past partisan affiliations only offer vulnerabilities.3) First-term impeachment. The Clinton and Nixon inquiries were directed at second-term presidencies in which there were no more electoral remedies for alleged wrongdoing. In contrast, Trump is up for election in less than a year. Impeachment then seems a partisan exercise in either circumventing a referendum election or in damaging a president seeking reelection.4) No Special Counsel Finding. In the past, special counsels have found felonious presidential behavior, such as cited in Leon Jaworski's and Ken Starr's investigations.In contrast, special counsel Robert Mueller spent 22 months and $35 million, and yet his largely partisan law and investigative team found no collusion and no actionable presidential obstruction of that non-crime. We are not just proceeding with impeachment without a special counsel's finding of wrongdoing, but after a special counsel's finding of no actionable wrongdoing.5) No Bipartisanship. There was broad bipartisan support for the Nixon impeachment inquiry and even some for the Clinton impeachment. There is none at all for the Schiff impeachment effort, given its overtly partisan nature.6) Impeachment without High Crimes or Misdemeanors. There is no proof of any actual Trump crime.No longer is Nancy Pelosi describing the whistleblower as central to the impeachment inquiry. Asking a corrupt foreign head of state to look into past corruption is pro forma. That Joe Biden is now a candidate for president and Trump's potential rival does not ensure him exemption from his possible wrongdoing in the past as vice president when his son used the Biden name for lucrative advantage in leveraging Ukrainian money for assumed preferential Obama-administration treatment.In other words, it is certainly not a crime for a president to adopt his own foreign policy to fit particular countries nor to request of a foreign government seeking U.S. aid, with a long history of corruption, to ensure that it has not in the past colluded with prior U.S. officials in suspicious activity. A president can appoint or fire any ambassador he chooses, all the more so when one has a known record of partisanship. It is not a crime to disagree with House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff that White House officials must testify when he so summons them.The irony is that while the House politicizes impeachment, the IG of the Justice Department, Michael Horowitz, and lifelong civil servant and federal attorney John Durham are likely to show concrete evidence that the now-exempt Obama administration used the powers of the FBI, CIA, and DOJ, unethically if not illegally, to attempt to destroy the candidacy, transition, and presidency of Donald Trump — still the current object of yet another political coup.7) Thought Crimes? Even if there were ever a quid, there is no quo: Unlike the case of the Obama administration, the Trump administration did supply arms to Ukraine, and the Ukrainians apparently did not reinvestigate the Bidens. As a matter of general policy, Trump has been far harder on Russia and far more concretely supportive of Ukraine than was the Obama administration. That stubborn fact is ipso facto evidence that if there was any quid pro quo, it was more likely a matter of Biden rather than Trump pressuring the Ukrainians, given the actual quite different results: Again, the Trump administration armed the Ukrainians; Obama and his administration did not. Thought crimes are still not impeachable offenses.8) Different Standards of Justice. There is now no standard of equality under the law. Instead, we are entering the jurisprudence of junta politics. If an alleged quid pro quo is an impeachable offense, should Vice President Joe Biden have been impeached or indicted for clearly leveraging the firing of a Ukrainian prosecutor for dubious reasons by threats of withholding U.S. aid?Should Barack Obama have been investigated for getting caught on a hot mic offering to be flexible after his reelection on missile defense if Vladimir Putin would give him some space? In fact, Russia did not embarrass Obama during the subsequent 2012 successful Obama reelection effort, and Obama did shelve joint Eastern European missile-defense plans.So there is no consistency in presidential audits. Would the Obama administration have welcomed or even tolerated congressional requests to turn over all its emails, private phone conversations, and memos concerning covert meetings of U.S. and Iranian officials that surrounded the nocturnal transfer of $400 million in cash for the release of American hostages — with much of such money ending up in the hands of Hezbollah terrorists? Would the Obama administration have complied with requests for texts and transcripts surrounding its decisions to halt Eastern European missile defense?9) The Schiff Factor. Representative Adam Schiff is now de facto chief impeachment prosecutor. He has repeatedly lied about the certainty of impending Mueller indictments or bombshells. He flat-out lied that he and his staff had no prior contact with the whistleblower. He made up a version of the Trump call that did not represent the actual transcript, and when called out, he begged off by claiming he was offering a "parody." He has an unsavory reputation as a chronic selective leaker of classified information in the House Intelligence Committee. For weeks he has not allowed Republican members of his House Intelligence Committee to have the same freedom to call and cross-examine witnesses as was extended to the then-minority Democrats during the committee's 2016–07 investigation of FISA, unmasking, and surveillance abuses.Tradition and protocol argue that the proper place for impeachment inquiries and investigations is the House Judiciary Committee. Schiff successfully hijacked that committee's historic role for two reasons: 1) His reputation as a brawling hyperpartisan meant that he would turn the investigation into a proverbial witch hunt and wet the lunatic beak of the progressive base; and 2) he has the ability so far as intelligence chair selectively to block rapid dissemination of transcripts of cross-examinations of witnesses and to use secrecy to massage the conduct of the committee and to selectively release information to the media.10) Precedent. The indiscriminate efforts to remove Trump over the past three years, when coupled with the latest impeachment gambit, have now set a precedent in which the out party can use impeachment as a tool to embarrass, threaten, leverage, or seek to remove a sitting president for political purposes to reverse an election.At best, we have turned a uniquely constitutional republic into a European parliamentary system in which heads of states can be removed from power without national elections. At worst, we are now a rank banana republic in which coups are an accepted model of political opposition.The next Democratic president should be prepared, in his first term, for the real chance of facing the same, and apparently now institutionalized, tactics used against Trump.We are witnessing constitutional government dissipating before our very eyes.
|
| 'Words matter': Trump accused of fuelling attacks on Hispanics as violent hate crimes hit 16-year high Posted: 12 Nov 2019 05:45 PM PST  Violent hate crimes have climbed to a 16-year year high in the US, with a surge in attacks on Hispanics, according to FBI data.Reports of hate crimes dipped slightly in 2018 from an alarming increase the previous year, but violence rose as attacks increasingly targeting people instead of property.
|
| Widow sues boat owner in fire off California that killed 34 Posted: 11 Nov 2019 04:41 PM PST  The widow of a passenger who died in a fiery dive boat disaster that killed 34 people in the waters off California sued the vessel's owners Monday. Christine Dignam, whose husband, Justin Dignam, died when the Conception caught fire Sept. 2 off the Santa Barbara coast, claimed that the boat was unsafe. The vessel didn't have adequate smoke detectors or firefighting equipment, it lacked enough emergency exits, and a required night watch was not on duty when the flames broke out in the middle of the night, according to the wrongful-death lawsuit filed in federal court in Los Angeles.
|
| Sweden detains Iranian on suspicion of murder in Iran in 1988 Posted: 13 Nov 2019 07:07 AM PST ![Sweden detains Iranian on suspicion of murder in Iran in 1988]( "Sweden detains Iranian on suspicion of murder in Iran in 1988") A 58-year-old Iranian citizen has been arrested in Sweden on suspicion of murder in Iran in 1988, prosecutors said on Wednesday, and national news agency TT said the case involved killings of political prisoners. Human rights groups say the Islamic Republic executed thousands of political detainees in the late 1980s.
|
| F-35s Belong in a Museum: Europe Has Some Wild 6th-Generation Fighter Dreams Posted: 12 Nov 2019 03:53 AM PST  But will they ever leave the drawing board?
|
| Woman who spoke at Epstein's bail hearing sues his estate Posted: 12 Nov 2019 02:13 PM PST  A woman who confronted Jeffrey Epstein at a July bail hearing to tell a judge he touched her inappropriately when she was 16 sued his estate Tuesday, alleging he had subjected her to sex trafficking as part of his attacks on young women and girls. Lawyers for Annie Farmer filed the lawsuit in Manhattan federal court, along with a lawsuit on behalf of her sister, Maria Farmer, and Teresa Helm, an Ohio woman. A lawyer for Epstein's estate did not return a message seeking comment.
|
| German air force rejects delivery of two Airbus planes Posted: 13 Nov 2019 07:08 AM PST  Germany's air force said Wednesday it had refused delivery of two Airbus A400M transport planes over technical faults, saying bolts holding the propellers on some already operational aircraft were loose. Repeated technical problems have dogged the A400M programme, a turboprop transport aircraft developed jointly for Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Spain and Turkey.
|
| What is quid pro quo and does it matter? Posted: 13 Nov 2019 08:01 AM PST  Much of the talk about the impeachment inquiry against President Trump has centered around whether there was a quid pro quo in his dealings with Ukraine. What's the meaning of this old Latin phrase and how important is it in the case against the president?
|
| Army Deploys to Lebanon Streets as Plea to Protesters Backfires Posted: 13 Nov 2019 03:53 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- The Lebanese army deployed heavily across the country and banks and schools remained shut for a second day as protesters incensed by a call to go home began to converge on the presidential palace.Life in much of Lebanon ground to a halt a day after President Michel Aoun told anti-government demonstrators to disperse or else they'd risk the country's stability. The appeal provoked a new surge of nationwide unrest in which one man was killed, with major roads closed on Wednesday.Baabda Palace, the presidential residence in a mountain town on the outskirts of Beirut, is the latest focal point of the protests convulsing Lebanon since last month. While the president plays a largely ceremonial role, Aoun is becoming a target of rage since he's calling the shots as the country endures its third week without a prime minister."The system is broken and the credibility is gone," Mohieddine Kronfol, Franklin Templeton's Dubai-based chief investment officer for Middle Eastern and North African fixed income, said in a Bloomberg Television interview with Tracy Alloway and Yousef Gamal El-Din.Lebanon, one of the world's most indebted nations, has been without a government since Saad Hariri resigned as premier in the face of the uprising, which is demanding the removal of politicians accused of pillaging public coffers.It's one of the most serious crises for the country since the end of the 1975-1990 civil war. The government's Eurobonds are the world's worst performers in emerging markets this quarter despite a package of emergency measures rolled out in October. Its five-year credit-default swaps, a measure of the cost of insuring sovereign debt against default, are hovering near a record high.After appearing to lose momentum, demonstrations took an angrier turn after Aoun's remarks as people burned tires and closed major roads. Outraged protesters stepped up demands for Aoun to resign too. Some called him "the squatter in the palace," while others chanted "they are all a bunch of thieves."Speaking in a televised interview from the presidential palace, Aoun said a new government would have to resemble the lineup brought down by popular protest late last month and those who couldn't live with the political realities should leave.'Such Negativity'"I ask the Lebanese not to behave with such negativity, especially as this can lead to counter-negative behavior and, consequently, a confrontation," Aoun said. "If they continue this way, even if we don't give them a slap, the country will die."As the interview ended, thousands of people descended onto the streets across Lebanon, setting fires, pitching tents and renewing their demands for change. One protester loyal to Druze leader Walid Jumblatt was shot as soldiers tried to reopen a thoroughfare south of Beirut. He later died.The army said one of its personnel shot the man during a confrontation with protesters and the shooter has been detained. In a video posted online, Jumblatt told his supporters to remain calm and maintain trust in state institutions.Aoun said formal consultations to name a new prime minister would begin Thursday or Friday but could be delayed while politicians hammer out the shape of the next cabinet.Demonstrators are calling for a government of experts that's able to steer Lebanon through a financial crisis that has put pressure on its decades-old peg currency peg. Aoun rejected that demand, saying experts should be represented alongside the political parties that dominate the elected parliament. That includes the Free Patriotic Movement led by his son-in-law, Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, who's been a particular target of public insults.Lebanon is facing its day of reckoning after years of mismanagement and excess spending. Traders and businesses are complaining about a low supply of dollars needed to pay for imports and warning of an imminent shortage of goods.Financial CrunchLocal lenders have tightened restrictions on the movement of capital by banning transfers abroad and setting limits on withdrawals to avoid a run on the banks. Central bank Governor Riad Salameh said he'd asked bankers to ease those restrictions.The government has few options. Already cut off from international markets, it delayed a Eurobond deal of up to $3 billion with the central bank and local lenders. Last week, Moody's Investors Service downgraded Lebanon deeper into junk for a second time this year.Aoun confirmed reports that while efforts were under way to push Hariri back to the premiership, he was, so far, hesitant to return. The president asked protesters to go home and allow him and the future government to carry out the reforms required, a demand that appears to have."We want a government that is appropriate and can fight corruption and have the courage to do so and devise an economic plan as well as prepare the country to move towards a civil society," Aoun said.\--With assistance from Netty Ismail.To contact the reporters on this story: Dana Khraiche in Beirut at dkhraiche@bloomberg.net;Lin Noueihed in Beirut at lnoueihed@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Lin Noueihed at lnoueihed@bloomberg.net, Paul Abelsky, Michael GunnFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
|
| Chinese, other students flee Hong Kong as violence worsens Posted: 13 Nov 2019 02:59 AM PST  University students from mainland China and Taiwan are fleeing Hong Kong, while those from three Scandinavian countries have been moved or urged to leave as college campuses become the latest battleground in the city's 5-month-long anti-government unrest. Marine police used a boat Wednesday to help a group of mainland students leave the Chinese University of Hong Kong, which remained barricaded by demonstrators after violent clashes with police on Tuesday.
|
| Atlanta college student Alexis Crawford was choked to death, dumped in park, police say Posted: 13 Nov 2019 06:18 AM PST  Authorities say Alexis Crawford and her roommate Jordyn Jones had a physical altercation and Jones' boyfriend intervened and choked Crawford to death.
|
| Italian ship attacked by pirates in Mexico, two crew hurt Posted: 12 Nov 2019 03:45 PM PST ![Italian ship attacked by pirates in Mexico, two crew hurt]( "Italian ship attacked by pirates in Mexico, two crew hurt") Pirates attacked an Italy-flagged offshore supply vessel in the southern Gulf of Mexico, injuring two crew members, the Mexican Navy said on Tuesday, in the latest outbreak of robbery and piracy to hit oil platforms and infrastructure in the area. Owned by Italian offshore contractor Micoperi, the boat is a supply vessel for Mexico's oil industry. Micoperi and the Italian embassy in Mexico did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
|
| The US is being hit by a frigid, early cold snap that has killed at least 6 people and could break 100 temperature records Posted: 13 Nov 2019 03:50 AM PST  The National Weather Service said the unseasonal cold air, which spread from Kansas to Minnesota to Kentucky to New York, has brought an early winter.
|
| Japan scraps cherry blossom party amid Abe cronyism criticism Posted: 13 Nov 2019 01:23 AM PST  The Japanese government said Wednesday it would scrap next year's annual cherry blossom party after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe came under fire amid claims he invited too many of his own supporters. The publicly funded event has taken place in a Tokyo park since 1952 to honour people for their achievements, with the great and the good of Japanese political life mingling under the world-famous cherry blossom trees. In a surprise announcement, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters that the government had "listened to various opinions" and as a result decided to shelve next year's party.
|
| Douglas MacArthur Is One of America's Most Famous Generals. He's Also the Most Overrated Posted: 11 Nov 2019 12:03 PM PST  He might be one of President Trump's favorite generals, but as Hampton Sides writes, Douglas MacArthur was far from a military genius.
|
| Bolivia: Jeanine Añez claims presidency after ousting of Evo Morales Posted: 12 Nov 2019 06:15 PM PST  * Ex-president's party refuses to recognise senator's claim * Morales says army told him of $50,000 price on his headThe Bolivian senator Jeanine Añez has declared herself the country's interim president after the resignation of Evo Morales, even though lawmakers from his party boycotted the legislative session where she assumed office.Añez, 52, took temporary control of the Senate late on Tuesday. "I will take the measures necessary to pacify the country," she said, swearing on a bible to loud cheers and applause. The move is expected to pave the way for fresh elections.Morales's Movement Towards Socialism called the session illegal and its legislators refused to take part. Nearby hundreds of Morales supporters marched against Añez assuming the role. "She's declared herself president without having a quorum in the parliament," Julio Chipana told the Guardian. "She doesn't represent us."Morales, who resigned under pressure from police and the army after a fiercely disputed election, has flown into exile in Mexico, leaving a confused power vacuum behind in Bolivia. Speaking at a hastily organised press conference on the tarmac, the former president thanked Mexico for "saving my life" and repeated his accusation that his rivals had forced him out in a coup.He said that before his resignation on Sunday a member of the army had showed him messages putting a $50,000 price on his head."I thought we had finished with the discrimination and the humiliation, but new groups have emerged that have no respect for life, let alone for the fatherland," Morales said. "It's another lesson to learn."Morales, 60, was greeted with a handshake, a hug and a pat on the cheek from Mexico's foreign minister, Marcelo Ebrard, after the flight in a Mexican army plane from the Bolivian city of Cochabamba.He defended his time in government and said that if he were guilty any crime, it was to be indigenous and "anti-imperalist".Morales was accompanied by his former vice-president, Álvaro García Linera, who has been his closest political collaborator since before he became Bolivia's first indigenous president in modern times."García Linera and I have always been committed to the idea that peace can only come with social justice," Morales said. "This coup is not going to change our ideology."Though he promised that this was not the end of his political career, the Bolivian leader gave no indication of his immediate plans.Morales left behind a country close to chaos as supporters and opponents clashed on the streets, amid reports of fresh looting, vandalism and arson after the October election, which the Organisation of American States found to have been rigged in his favour.On Tuesday much of Bolivia's main city, La Paz, was like a ghost town after police warned inhabitants to stay indoors. Roadblocks were thrown up across the city as the political uncertainty continued and residents feared more violent clashes.The country remained in political limbo as senators and deputies loyal to the former leader appeared to refuse to endorse the new interim president, deputy senate leader Jeanine Áñez."The people who have been in all these protests want us to call presidential elections which are not fraudulent, which are trustworthy," Áñez, a political opponent of Morales, told journalists in the national assembly building.Shirley Franco, an opposition member of parliament, said: "What Bolivians want in this moment of crisis is certainty and we, the maximum authorities in this country, must work to re-establish democracy."Manning a makeshift barricade a few blocks away, anti-Morales protester Danella Ormachea, 29, said: "We want this to end. We need a new interim president to call new elections so there is democracy and our vote is respected. That's all we ask."Martín Cornejo Choque, a rural leader in La Paz province, denied there had been voter fraud."Before the election, the right said if Evo Morales wins we won't recognise it. The opposition just don't want to recognise the votes of the rural areas," he said.Cornejo, who led dozens of communities to La Paz's San Francisco square in support of Morales, said Morales had transformed life for rural Bolivians."Before when there were rightwing, neoliberal presidents they never cared about the peasant farmer. We lived in extreme poverty," said Cornejo. "Our roads were not paved, we didn't even have bridges but today, thanks to this government, all the peasant communities have development."Morales's sudden departure was a dramatic fall for the former coca growers' union leader who swept to power 14 years ago in a historic election.He went on to win two more landslide victories and lifted millions out of poverty, but Morales's popularity began to wane in 2016, when he ignored a referendum in which voters said he could not run for a fourth term.Mass protests broke out after last month's election following an unexplained 24-hour halt in the voting which fuelled accusations of electoral fraud.Áñez denied that Morales had been the victim of a coup, saying: "What happened in Bolivia was the verification of monumental fraud. A coup d'etat is when there are soldiers in the streets."Neighbouring countries' responses to the ousting of Morales have reflected the ideological divisions of a continent where populism on the right and the left has been on the rise once again.Those backing Morales included Venezuela's embattled leader Nicolás Maduro, Nicaragua's seemingly eternal president Daniel Ortega, and Cuba's Miguel Díaz-Canel.This camp also includes Brazil's former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who blamed it on Latin America's "economic elite", and Argentina's president-elect, Alberto Fernández, who said it returned the region to "the bad days of the 70s".Brazil's current far-right leader, Jair Bolsonaro, has been the loudest voice against Morales. "The left uses the word 'coup' a lot when it loses, right?" he told O Globo.Other regional leaders have avoided the subject – most notably Chile's conservative president, Sebastián Piñera, who is clinging to power in the face of a wave of social unrest. His government issued a statement calling for a peaceful and democratic solution. Similar statements have come out of Peru and Colombia.Beyond the region, Donald Trump said that Morales's resignation "preserves democracy", while in the UK the opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn condemned the "coup against the Bolivian people".Oliver Stuenkel, an international relations professor at Fundação Getúlio Vargas University in São Paulo, said that describing what happened in Bolivia as a coup did not necessarily imply that Morales had respected democratic norms."In fact, non-democratic governments are often overthrown through non-democratic means, precisely because they cannot easily be voted out of office," he tweeted.Meanwhile, Mexico's very public offer of asylum – which was made before Morales had even asked for it – has prompted some critics of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to accuse him of seeking a distraction from the country's own security crisis.On Tuesday, Ebrard insisted it fell squarely within a long tradition in which Mexico has provided safety for persecuted political leaders, from Leon Trotsky to activists who fled Argentina and Chile during the military dictatorships of the 70s and 80s."This is a tradition we should be proud of and continue," Ebrard said on Tuesday.
|
| North Korea issues warning over US-South Korea drills Posted: 13 Nov 2019 05:00 AM PST  North Korea's supreme decision-making body lashed out Wednesday at planned U.S.-South Korean military drills and warned that the United States will face a "bigger threat and harsh suffering" if it ignores North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's end-of-year deadline to salvage nuclear talks. In a statement carried by state media, an unidentified spokesperson for the North's State Affairs Commission said the drills would violate agreements between Kim and President Donald Trump on improving bilateral relations and compel North Korea to raise its war readiness. The statement is North Korea's latest expression of displeasure over the military drills and slow pace of nuclear negotiations with Washington.
|
| Fox News Host: ‘If You Love Something, Do You Let Someone Pee on It?’ Posted: 12 Nov 2019 04:11 PM PST  Fox NewsDuring a Tuesday afternoon Fox News discussion on the San Francisco district attorney vowing not to prosecute quality of life crimes amid a growing homelessness issue in the city, Fox News host Jesse Watters turned to his colleagues to ask a very serious question. "If you love something, do you let someone pee on it?"Over the past few months, Fox News has devoted countless segments to depicting Democratic-led cities like Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles as "liberal wastelands" full of homeless drug-addicted "zombies." Much of the coverage has focused on public urination and defecation. Tuesday's broadcast of Fox News' roundtable show The Five gave us yet another one of these segments.Noting that Chesa Boudin was recently elected district attorney of San Francisco by promising to pursue criminal justice reform and not prosecute minor public decency crimes, liberal co-host Juan Williams expressed sympathy for the homeless, who are often the targets of vagrancy laws."We all know how to find a bathroom," Williams said. "But if you are homeless, where are you supposed to go to the bathroom? You are not homeless by choice.""Yes, you are! Some of them are," fellow co-host Greg Gutfeld chimed in.Watters then called on San Francisco residents to form their own version of the Tea Party—but instead call it the Pee Party."Every day when the D.A. walks into his office, there needs to be a bunch of patriots just peeing on the sidewalk in front of him," Watters exclaimed. "Until he's forced to arrest them! They will be like the Samuel Adamses of public urination."Turning to Williams and telling him "to be normal for a second," the conservative host continued with his rant."If you love something, do you let someone pee on it?" Watters wondered aloud. "Of course you don't! You protect that something you love from someone peeing on something, OK?""What?" Williams replied, clearly taken aback.The one-time Bill O'Reilly protege then insisted that "you obviously let someone pee on" something you hate.Pointing out that Boudin's parents are anti-war radicals who were sent to prison, Watters claimed Boudin "really hates the city" and is trying to "destroy" it."His parents were domestic terrorists, they got locked up, and he was raised by domestic terrorists," he concluded. "It makes perfect sense. And now his job is to destroy an American city. He is a socialist, he wants to run everybody out of San Francisco and rebuild it as a socialist utopia. That is what is going on."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.
|
| Mexico makes arrests in last week's massacre of 3 women, 6 children Posted: 11 Nov 2019 02:36 PM PST  Mexico has made an unspecified number of arrests in last week's massacre of three women and six children of dual U.S-Mexican nationality in the north of the country, Security Minister Alfonso Durazo said on Monday. "There have been arrests, but it's not up to us to give information," Durazo told reporters in Mexico City.
|
| Supreme Court weighs whether Mexican family can sue in US Posted: 12 Nov 2019 12:22 PM PST  The Supreme Court's left-leaning justices on Tuesday appeared willing to allow a lawsuit filed by the parents of a Mexican teenager shot over the border by an American agent, but the case will depend on whether they can persuade a conservative colleague to join them. The high court heard arguments in a 2010 case where Border Patrol Agent Jesus Mesa Jr. fired into Mexico, striking and killing Sergio Adrian Hernandez Guereca. Mesa rode up on a bicycle, took Sergio's friend into custody, then fired across the border, killing Sergio with a gunshot wound to the face.
|
| Chinese land deal in Solomon's Guadalcanal disrupts access to WWII site Posted: 11 Nov 2019 10:49 PM PST  Tour operators and the Japanese ambassador to the Solomons say it appears to be a case of a lack of understanding of the significance of the Alligator Creek site by the new owner. The issue has stirred up debate in the Solomons concerning its new relationship with China, which was formalized in September following the Pacific island nation's decision to sever its diplomatic ties with Taiwan in favor of Beijing.
|
| Trump Considered Firing Intelligence Community IG after He Reported Whistleblower Complaint to Congress: Report Posted: 12 Nov 2019 03:03 PM PST  President Trump considered firing Intelligence Community inspector general Michael Atkinson after Atkinson reported the whistleblower complaint that touched off the House's presidential-impeachment inquiry to Congress, according to the New York Times.According to the report, Trump originally discussed firing Atkinson in September, at about the time the whistleblower complaint became public. Sources cited by the Times said that Trump has continued to bring up the possibility of firing Atkinson, and that he considers the IG to be disloyal.Two people familiar with the matter said they thought Trump was just venting frustration by bringing up the subject. The White House and Atkinson's office declined to comment on the matter.Democrats are currently conducting an impeachment inquiry centered on allegations that Trump withheld military aid from Ukraine to pressure the country to investigate corruption allegations involving Hunter Biden, the son of Democratic presidential contender Joe Biden. The whistleblower complaint conveyed concerns over the content of a July 25 phone conversation between Trump and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, as well as measures taken by the Trump administration to restrict access to the transcript of the call.Trump made the transcript public one day before the whistleblower complaint was revealed to Congress. The transcript showed that Trump repeatedly urged Zelensky to investigate Biden over the course of the call.Atkinson has come under fire from Trump during the impeachment inquiry."The Whistleblower's lawyer is a big Democrat. The Whistleblower has ties to one of my DEMOCRAT OPPONENTS," Trump wrote on Twitter on October 9. "Why does the ICIG allow this scam to continue?"
|
| Submarines: These Five Are the Best to Ever Join the 'Silent Service' Posted: 12 Nov 2019 11:00 AM PST  What would you choose?
|
| Inside Hezbollah: How Lebanon protests are breaking ‘fear barrier’ Posted: 12 Nov 2019 08:55 AM PST ![Inside Hezbollah: How Lebanon protests are breaking 'fear barrier']( "Inside Hezbollah: How Lebanon protests are breaking 'fear barrier'") Hezbollah amassed great power even as its fighters died in Syria. But the bold uprising in Lebanon has brought quiet Shiite grumblings into the open.
|
| Do-it-yourself temple waits to move into Indian holy site Posted: 11 Nov 2019 09:43 PM PST  Huge slabs of pink Rajasthan stone, carved pillars and bricks from across India are already waiting to form a Hindu temple to be built on the site of a demolished mosque at the centre of decades of deadly turbulence. Enough stone to build a small mountain was waiting at a complex in the holy city of Ayodhya years before the country's Supreme Court ruled on Saturday that the site should be handed over to Hindus to build a new temple. A mosque stood on the site for almost five centuries until it was demolished by Hindu zealots in 1992, sparking riots across the country in which 2,000 people, mainly Muslims, died.
|
| Don't miss Sunday's shooting stars: The Leonid meteor shower will be visible across the night sky Posted: 12 Nov 2019 11:51 AM PST  Look up Sunday night, and you may see the Leonid meteor showers, which come from the constellation Leo the Lion.
|
| Bushfires Illuminate the Price of Burning Coal Posted: 11 Nov 2019 02:29 PM PST ![Bushfires Illuminate the Price of Burning Coal]( "Bushfires Illuminate the Price of Burning Coal") (Bloomberg Opinion) -- You could smell the approach of Sydney's bushfires two weeks away.Leaving my home for work last month at a time when California's fires were at their most intense, the sandalwood odor of burning eucalyptus was heavy on the air. Looking north from Bloomberg's office to the far side of Sydney Harbour, the normally sparkling blue water was a barely discernible smudge. That was mostly not wildfire, but a dozen deliberate hazard-reduction burns under way across the metropolitan area in a last-ditch attempt to eliminate flammable plant litter and undergrowth before conditions worsened.Tuesday will prove a test of how effective that has been. Sydney's entire metropolitan area and a swathe of country in the Hunter Valley to the north and Illawarra to the south will face catastrophic fire danger, the highest risk rating in New South Wales state, thanks to strong winds combined with temperatures up to 37 degrees centigrade. Already, three are dead and 150 homes have been destroyed by fires elsewhere in New South Wales and Queensland state to the north.Prime Minister Scott Morrison has been determined not to link the disasters to the country's fractious climate and energy debate. Asked what his response would be to a couple who'd had to flee their homes and wanted to know what he was doing about climate change, he deflected."I'll give the same answer I gave yesterday, and that is I'm focused on the needs of the people in this room today," Morrison told reporters at a bushfire evacuation center. Gladys Berejiklian, the premier of New South Wales, had the same response: "We have time on our hands to talk about those other issues," she said.This practiced reply — an Australian equivalent to the "thoughts and prayers" mouthed by American politicians after gun-violence episodes — may be hard to maintain given the area at greatest risk.The Hunter Valley is the world's largest export basin for thermal coal used in power stations. The Illawarra escarpment contains Australia's oldest mines for coking coal used in steelmaking. This region was built on coal, which overtook iron ore to become the country's most valuable export last year. Electoral seats in the Hunter, one of the few parts of Australia where coal is a major employer, swung heavily toward Morrison's government in the country's May election.Australia's climate debate is fraught, but it would be a whole lot more fraught if the country faced up to the scale of its responsibility. The country, with a population little larger than 25 million, likes to think of itself as a minor player on the global stage. "Australia is responsible for just 1.3% of global emissions," Morrison told the United Nations General Assembly last month.That argument is only tenable if you exclude the country's exports from the equation. Australia is the world's largest fossil fuels exporter after Russia and Saudi Arabia. The coal and natural gas the government expects to be shipped in 2024 will produce about 1.2 billion tons of carbon dioxide when burned, a larger emissions total than any nation except China, the U.S., India, Russia and Japan.The exclusion of exports is, to be sure, standard in international carbon budgeting, which typically counts only emissions within a country's borders toward its total. But even Australia's ability for doublethink may be challenged by the sight of a government that's aggressively trying to revive coal exports touring mining regions devastated by bushfires — events that will become more frequent and devastating as a result of climate change.Neither the government nor the Labor opposition would countenance interfering with the export trade. Indeed, all the movement is in the opposite direction. Just last month, the Berejiklian government introduced a bill to ensure that the agency granting planning approval to new mining and petroleum projects couldn't consider overseas greenhouse impacts as part of its environmental assessments. Climate change impacts could make existing homes uninsurable and temperature increases above 2 degrees centigrade may push some areas "beyond affordability or indeed habitability," Insurance Australia Group Ltd. warned this year. As many as one in 20 homes could be rendered uninsurable by 2100 from natural disaster risk, according to a report by Australian Broadcasting Corp. last month.Australians should understand what is happening. Government rhetoric isn't just words, and its effects aren't just theoretical. A mass transfer of wealth is under way. For the sake of the small sum that comes into government coffers as mining royalties and taxes, politicians are doing everything to support activities that push more carbon into the atmosphere.The consequence will ultimately be borne by local households, who will see rising costs for insurance and fire-resistant renovation, falling property values as fire-prone lands extend their reach, and ultimately the threat of destruction and even death when the inferno comes.To contact the author of this story: David Fickling at dfickling@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Matthew Brooker at mbrooker1@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.David Fickling is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering commodities, as well as industrial and consumer companies. He has been a reporter for Bloomberg News, Dow Jones, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times and the Guardian.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
|
| Supreme Court lets Sandy Hook shooting lawsuit go forward Posted: 12 Nov 2019 10:23 AM PST  The Supreme Court said Tuesday that a survivor and relatives of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting can pursue their lawsuit against the maker of the rifle used to kill 26 people. The justices rejected an appeal from Remington Arms, which argued it should be shielded by a 2005 federal law preventing most lawsuits against firearms manufacturers when their products are used in crimes. The case is being watched by gun control advocates, gun rights supporters and gun manufacturers across the country because it has the potential to provide a roadmap for victims of other mass shootings to circumvent the federal law and sue the makers of firearms.
|
| Pilot receives $300K in wrongful arrest Posted: 12 Nov 2019 11:20 AM PST  An airline pilot who was arrested after being seen naked in his hotel room overlooking Denver International Airport has been awarded a $300,000 wrongful arrest settlement from the city.
|
| Guaido backers enter Venezuela embassy in Brasilia, sparking standoff Posted: 13 Nov 2019 05:59 AM PST ![Guaido backers enter Venezuela embassy in Brasilia, sparking standoff]( "Guaido backers enter Venezuela embassy in Brasilia, sparking standoff") Supporters of Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido gained access to the country's embassy in Brasilia on Wednesday morning, leading to a standoff with backers of leftist President Nicolas Maduro, according to diplomatic representatives. The confrontation threatened to create a diplomatic crisis just as the BRICS summit of major emerging economies kicked off in the Brazilian capital. The embassy standoff highlights stark differences between Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who has recognized Guaido as Venezuela's leader, and Maduro's Chinese and Russian allies, who are meeting with Bolsonaro this week.
|
| Nunes Ties Impeachment Effort to Dems’ Russian Collusion Allegations: ‘We’re Supposed to Take These People at Face Value?’ Posted: 13 Nov 2019 08:32 AM PST  As the first public impeachment hearing began Wednesday, Representative Devin Nunes said Democrats' new quid pro quo accusations against President Trump should not be taken at "face value" given that the party's previous allegations that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia have been discredited."After the spectacular implosion of their Russia hoax … in which they spent years denouncing any Republican whoever shook hands with a Russian, on July 25th they turned on a dime and now claim the real malfeasance is Republican's dealings with Ukraine," Nunes, the ranking Republican on the Intelligence Committee, said in his opening statement."Now we're supposed to take these people at face value when they trot out a new batch of allegations," Nunes added.The first public hearing will feature testimony from George Kent, a top State Department official in charge of Ukraine, and William Taylor, the top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine.Democrats began the impeachment inquiry last month with a series of closed-door hearings after a member of the intelligence community filed a whistleblower report expressing concern about Trump's July 25 phone call with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky. During the call, Trump asked Zelensky to investigate allegations that Joe Biden used his position as vice president to help a Ukrainian gas company avoid a corruption probe, soon after Biden's son Hunter was appointed to the board.Days before filing the report, the whistleblower contacted a House Intelligence Committee staff member, who shared the whistleblower's concerns with Democratic committee chairman Adam Schiff.Schiff previously denied the committee had received early information about the whistleblower's concerns, saying, "We have not spoken directly with the whistleblower," adding that he and his staff "would like to."In his opening statement, Nunes demanded answers to what he said are three "crucial" questions, first, the full extent of Democrats' prior coordination with the whistleblower; second, the full extent of Ukraine's alleged election meddling against the Trump campaign; and third, the details surrounding Hunter Biden's position at the Ukrainian gas company, Burisma Holdings, and whether his position influenced the Obama administration."The main performance — the Russia hoax — has ended, and you've been cast in the low-rent Ukrainian sequel," the California Republican told Wednesday's witnesses.
|
| Court rules against warrantless searches of phones, laptops Posted: 12 Nov 2019 08:10 PM PST  A federal court in Boston has ruled that warrantless U.S. government searches of the phones and laptops of international travelers at airports and other U.S. ports of entry violate the Fourth Amendment. Tuesday's ruling in U.S. District Court came in a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation on behalf of 11 travelers whose smartphones and laptops were searched without individualized suspicion at U.S. ports of entry. ACLU attorney Esha Bhandari said the ruling strengthens the Fourth Amendment protections of international travelers who enter the United States every year.
|
| Trump's 1st investigation of the FBI's Russia probe is in the final review stage Posted: 13 Nov 2019 12:46 AM PST ![Trump's 1st investigation of the FBI's Russia probe is in the final review stage]( "Trump's 1st investigation of the FBI's Russia probe is in the final review stage") Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz appears to be nearing the release of his findings on the origins of the FBI's Russia investigation. Horowitz told Congress last month that his final report was being reviewed, he did not anticipate a lengthy review process, and he expects to release his report with minimal redactions.In recent days, Horowitz has invited some of the dozens of witnesses his team interviewed and their lawyers to review their testimony over the next two weeks, The Associated Press and The Washington Post report. The witnesses will be able to suggest revisions to the portions of the report that concern their testimony. Horowitz provided a draft of his report to Attorney General William Barr in September, and Barr and other Justice Department officials have been working to clear legal and classification hurdles to the report's release.Horowitz's review covers the early stages of what later became Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election and any role the Trump campaign played. It is one of three investigations of the Russia probe that Trump's Justice Department launched. Barr has been very actively involved in the investigation he assigned to U.S. Attorney John Durham, who is now reportedly considering unknown criminal charges.Trump and his allies are hoping that the investigations will cast doubt on the legitimacy of the origins of the Russia investigations, which, under Mueller, led to criminal convictions of Trump's former campaign chairman and vice chairman, national security adviser, and other campaign aides. If Horowitz's investigation does not come out next week, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) tweeted Tuesday, "I will be very disappointed & left to wonder WHAT THE GAME IS?? Is someone at FBI or DOJ tying IGs hands??"More stories from theweek.com The coming death of just about every rock legend The president has already confessed to his crimes Why are 2020 Democrats so weird?
|
| 51 children injured in chemical attack at China kindergarten Posted: 11 Nov 2019 11:54 PM PST  More than 50 people, mostly children, were injured by a man who broke into a kindergarten in southwest China and sprayed them with corrosive liquid, local authorities said Tuesday. The suspect, a 23-year-old surnamed Kong, entered the kindergarten by climbing a wall before spraying victims with sodium hydroxide, said local authorities in Kaiyuan city, Yunnan province. The attack took place on Monday at 3:35 pm (0735 GMT), authorities said on their Twitter-like Weibo account.
|
No comments:
Post a Comment