| On an upswing, the Pete Buttigieg show rolls through New Hampshire Posted: 17 Nov 2019 06:36 AM PST  Pete Buttigieg traveled more than 100 miles through the Granite State on a bus emblazoned with his name and packed with over a dozen journalists. It's a spectacle that hasn't been seen in recent presidential races, but it's part of a freewheeling strategy has helped bring Buttigieg from relative obscurity to the top of the Democratic primary field.
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| Chicago gang leader accused of attempting to help Islamic State Posted: 16 Nov 2019 09:22 AM PST  A purported street gang leader from Chicago who allegedly became radicalized in prison faces federal charges accusing him of seeking to provide money to Islamic State militants in Syria, according to a complaint unsealed Friday in U.S. District Court in Chicago.
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| Rogue elephant dies in captivity after killing villagers Posted: 17 Nov 2019 02:05 AM PST  A rogue elephant named after the late Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has died in captivity after he was captured following a massive hunt in northeastern India, officials said Sunday. The male animal -- nicknamed "Laden" -- was tracked for days by forestry officers and tranquilised on Monday after a deadly October rampage killed five villagers in Goalpara, in the northeastern state of Assam. It was moved to Assam's Orang National Park where officials planned to teach it to patrol wildlife parks and sanctuaries in the state, but said it died early Sunday.
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| Chile police stopped rescue workers helping dying protester: human rights watchdog Posted: 16 Nov 2019 04:45 PM PST  Chile's independent human rights watchdog said on Saturday it would file a formal complaint for murder against police officers who allegedly prevented paramedics from attending a heart attack victim amid a protest Friday. Security forces firing tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons made it impossible for rescue workers to properly treat the victim, Chile's publicly-funded National Institute for Human Rights said. Twenty-nine year old Abel Acuna died shortly after at a nearby Santiago hospital.
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| Why Russian Fighter Jets Are Threatening NATO In The Baltics Posted: 16 Nov 2019 12:05 PM PST  A Russian Su-27 recent intercepted an American F-15C.
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| Trump impeachment narrative gathers steam as diplomats fill in details Posted: 16 Nov 2019 02:00 AM PST  The first week of public testimony in the impeachment inquiry of President Trump shed new light on the administration's efforts to procure a Ukrainian investigation of former Vice President Joe Biden.
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| 'Funny, loyal, light of our lives': Santa Clarita mourns victims of Saugus school shooting Posted: 16 Nov 2019 10:10 AM PST  The community of Santa Clarita is remembering Dominic Blackwell and Gracie Muehlberger, two students killed in the Saugus High School shooting.
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| ‘We Must Be As Harsh as Them’: Leaked Docs Reveal China’s Mass Incarceration of Muslims: NYT Posted: 16 Nov 2019 10:21 AM PST  HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP via GettyHundreds of internal Chinese government documents obtained by The New York Times reveals striking new details about the execution of the country's mass detention of ethnic minorities over the past three years in the Xinjiang region.The rare leak of documents, described in the newspaper's bombshell report as "one of the most significant leaks of government papers from inside China's ruling Communist Party in decades," details how Chinese authorities have contained as many as one million Uighurs, Kazakhs and other predominately Muslim minorities into internment camps and prisons.The camps, which began in 2016, were described as China's answer to fighting Islamic extremism.While the party has pushed back on international criticism of the camps by describing them as "job-training centers," the documents show the coercive nature of the camps that top government officials knew tore families apart, fueled ethnic tensions and hurt economic growth. Cannibalism, Torture and Death: Inside China's Genocidal Re-Education Camps"Children saw their parents taken away, students wondered who would pay their tuition and crops could not be planted or harvested for lack of manpower," the report states. "Yet officials were directed to tell people who complained to be grateful for the Communist Party's help and stay quiet."According to the documents, President Xi Jinping first laid the groundwork for the camps in a series of April 2014 speeches to party officials and during a trip to Xinjiang. The trip came just weeks after Uighur militants reportedly killed 31 people, and stabbed more than 150, at a train station in Kunming. "The methods that our comrades have at hand are too primitive," Xi said during one talk in Urumqi, according to the report. "None of these weapons is any answer for their big machete blades, ax heads and cold steel weapons."He added: "We must be as harsh as them and show absolutely no mercy."While Xi called for an all-out "struggle against terrorism, infiltration and separatism" using the "organs of dictatorship" after the train attack, the documents do not indicate he directly ordered the detention centers. But his harsh rhetoric combined with terrorist attacks abroad fueled the toxic beliefs that minority communities could be eradicated, The New York Times notes. In one example, the 2017 London Bridge attacks spurred party officials to condemn Britain's policy of by putting "human rights above security," and prompted Xi to urge leaders in Xinjiang to respond to extremism like America's "war on terror" campaign. "In recent years, Xinjiang has grown very quickly and the standard of living has consistently risen, but even so ethnic separatism and terrorist violence have still been on the rise," Xi said in a speech to party officials, according to The New York Times. "This goes to show that economic development does not automatically bring lasting order and security."Trump Blames China's Xi Jinping for Sabotaging the Kim Jong Un SummitThe rise of the camps, the newspaper reported, didn't until until August 2016, when Chen Quanguo was promoted from the party secretary of the Tibet Autonomous Region to governor of Xinjiang. The new leader was eager to "remobilize" Xi's goals for increasing security and rapidly expanded the region's internment camps. Chen also distributed Xi's speeches to justify his aggressive approach, and even told officials to "round up everyone who should be rounded up.""The struggle against terror and to safeguard stability is a protracted war, and also a war of offense," Chen said in an October 2017 speech to the regional leadership, according to the leaked papers.Soon after, authorities started to arrest anyone who displayed "symptoms" of radicalism or anti-party views, without any judicial rationale or explanation, the Times reported.Party leaders even displayed dozens of signs to highlight such behaviors to other Chinese citizens, some including common Uighurs practices like wearing long beards, giving up smoking or drinking, studying Arabic or praying outside mosques. Woman Sent to Labor Camp in China's Latest Abuse OutrageTo justify the discriminatory practices, authorities cited ongoing terrorism attacks abroad and the possibility of such attacks in China. Whenever local officials expressed doubts about the camps they believed would hurt economic growth, the documents reveal Chen would have them fired or jailed.In one instance, one county leader ordered the release of 7,000 camp inmates, writing in a 15-page confession he believe the crackdown harmed ethnic relations. After the release, Chen had the leader detained, stripped of power, and prosecuted. According to the Times, the documents indicated that about 900,000 people have been put into these camps, a number previously unknown due to the campaign's secrecy. Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Why serial killers kill Posted: 16 Nov 2019 03:55 AM PST ![Why serial killers kill]( "Why serial killers kill") There have been 220,000 unsolved murders in the U.S. since 1980. Are serial killers to blame? Here's everything you need to know:How many serial killers are there? Since 1900, there have been 3,000 identified American serial killers who've collectively killed nearly 10,000 people, says Dr. Michael Aamodt, who oversees the Radford University/Florida Gulf Coast University Serial Killer Database. The FBI defines a serial killer as someone who kills two or more people in separate events. About 32 percent of these killers, Aamodt says, did so for enjoyment (thrills, lust, and power); 30 percent for financial reward; 18 percent in anger; 6.3 percent to advance a criminal enterprise; and fewer than 1 percent because a cult put them up to it. Their favorite murder weapon was a gun (42 percent), although 6 percent preferred poison and 2 percent axes. About 52 percent were white, 40 percent black, and 6.7 percent Hispanic. Men outnumber women by a factor of 10. Samuel Little, a transient former boxer and career criminal serving time for two murders, was recently identified by the FBI as the most prolific serial killer in U.S. history, after he confessed to 93 killings between 1970 and 2005.What makes a serial killer? Probably a combination of genetics and experience. Research shows that certain genes can predispose people to violence. (One gene, particularly, the so-called warrior gene, is present in about 30 percent of the population and has been linked to increased aggression.) Many serial killers also experienced childhood trauma or early separation from their mothers. As a consequence of that trauma or separation, scientists believe, they learned to suppress empathy or suffered damage to the areas of the brain that control emotional impulses. Serial killers often are loners who fear all relationships and seek to control, to destroy other people to eliminate the possibility of another humiliating rejection. Prolific arsonist Robert Dale Segee, who is believed to have killed 168 and injured hundreds more by setting a fire at a Connecticut circus in 1944, grew up with a dad who punished him by holding his fingers over a candle flame. Jeffrey Dahmer, who killed, dismembered, and partially ate 17 boys and young men beginning in 1978, said he did so "not because I hated them, but to keep them with me." Gerald Stano, who killed at least 22 women beginning in the 1970s, compared killing people to "stepping on a cockroach." Little said he got sexual pleasure from strangling women with his bare hands, and that by taking their lives, he came to "own" them.What role does society play? The teeming, impersonal nature of the modern world is fertile soil for creating serial killers, experts say. Five hundred years ago, the average citizen lived in a small community, traveled rarely if at all, and might have come into contact with 100 "strangers" over the course of his lifetime. By comparison, modern urban dwellers live amid "a sea of strangers," providing the consistent, impersonal interactions and anonymity that are almost preconditions for serial killing. Those who've studied serial killers believe that many are at least partly motivated by the attention and fame that mass media can provide mass murderers. As Dennis Rader, the self-proclaimed "BTK killer" ("Bind them, torture them, kill them"), put it in a letter to a TV station, "How many people do I have to kill before I get a name in the paper or some national attention?" He murdered 10 people during the 1970s and '80s in Kansas.How do they choose targets? Serial killers often prey on the most marginalized members of society. Little, for one, managed to evade detection for so long by preying on prostitutes, drug addicts, and homeless women. As he told New York Times reporter Jillian Lauren, "I never killed no senators or governors or fancy New York journalists. Nothing like that. I killed you, it'd be all over the news the next day. I stayed in the ghettos." Earlier this year, Bruce McArthur pleaded guilty to murdering eight men in Toronto's Gay Village -- many of them immigrants from South Asia or the Middle East who were not "out" to their families. Generally speaking, the majority of victims of serial killers are women (51.4 percent). African-American victims are over-represented (24 percent) relative to their proportion of the U.S. population (13 percent).How many are active? Data suggest that American serial killing peaked in the 1980s and has declined since then. The FBI says only 1 percent of murders today are committed by serial killers, and that it's harder for them to go undetected, because of DNA evidence, public cameras, stricter parole laws, and the use of databases. But Michael Arntfield, a retired police detective and author of a dozen books on serial killing, contends that the number of repeat killers active today is more likely between 3,000 and 4,000. He notes that the police "solve rate" for murders dropped from 91 percent in 1965 to only 61.6 percent in 2017, partly because mass killers are more sophisticated. Thomas Hargrove, who has created the nation's largest database of killings, also puts the number of active serial killers at greater than 2,000. "There are more than 222,000 unsolved murders since 1980," he said. "I'll say almost every major American city has multiple serial killers and multiple uncaught serial killers."The century of mass killings Many factors are credited with the growth in the number of serial killers during the 20th century. Some have cited the creation of the interstate highway system, which gave predators greater mobility and a vulnerable pool of victims -- hitchhikers. Historian Peter Vronsky says the growth of cities and surge in suburbs "led to a lot of transience, a lot of mobility, a lot of broken families, which is where many of these people came from." But Vronsky also says the savagery of World Wars I and II might have contributed as well. He says there was a bump in active serial killers in the years immediately after the First World War and an even greater one after the Second. The wars, he said, were "far more vicious and primitive than we have been able to acknowledge." Vronsky believes traumatized soldiers who had been desensitized to taking lives either became killers themselves or had a hand in raising them.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?
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| S. African asylum-seekers held on trespassing charges Posted: 16 Nov 2019 07:48 AM PST  South African police detained more than 180 foreign nationals for storming the UN refugee agency in Pretoria, where they had been staging a sit-in protest, police said Saturday. Hundreds of asylum-seekers started camping in front of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on October 8, asking to be relocated to another country after a spate of xenophobic violence in September. Protesters broke into the UNHCR premises on Thursday after they were informed of a court order giving them three days to vacate the site.
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| French interior minister blames protest violence on 'thugs' Posted: 17 Nov 2019 02:29 AM PST  French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner blamed "thugs" and "bullies" on Sunday for the violence that hit demonstrations the previous day marking marked the first anniversary of the anti-government "yellow vest" protests. "Yesterday, what we saw were few (legitimate) demonstrators but thugs, bullies and morons," Castaner told Europe 1 radio when asked about the violence in Paris on Saturday. Demonstrators torched cars and pelted police with stones and bottles and police fired tear gas and water cannon during the rallies to mark a year since the birth of the anti-government yellow vest movement.
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| No More Air: How An Entire Chinese Submarine Crew Died a Tragic Death in 2003 Posted: 16 Nov 2019 08:00 AM PST  A cruel death.
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| A federal judge ruled that New Jersey-born, ISIS-bride Hoda Muthana is not a US citizen Posted: 15 Nov 2019 01:15 PM PST  Hoda Muthana's father was a Yemeni diplomat at the time of her birth, which raised the question of whether or not she gained US citizenship at birth.
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| Stephen Miller is no outlier. White supremacy rules the Republican party Posted: 16 Nov 2019 03:17 AM PST  Republican voters made Trump the white-supremacist-in-chief. That's why a resignation from Miller wouldn't change much'It is time for Democrats to face and name the ugly truth: the Grand Old Party is a party steeped in white supremacy.' Photograph: Tom Brenner/ReutersThis week, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) published a bombshell article revealing troubling emails that White House senior policy advisor Stephen Miller sent to editors at Breitbart News, the far-right media outlet previously led by Steve Bannon.The emails, which were leaked by former Breitbart editor Katie McHugh and predate Miller's period in the White House, show Miller's obsession with immigration and his seemingly successful attempts to get Breitbart editors to write anti-immigration stories, some of which were based on openly white nationalist sources like American Renaissance and V-Dare.The widespread public outrage in response to the revelations is understandable. Miller is the longest serving senior advisor to President Trump who is not related to the president, and is believed to be the architect of the White House's draconian anti-immigration policies, which doesn't just target "illegal immigration" but also aims to return to the country to the infamously racist immigration policy of the early 20th century.In its response to the leak, the White House tried to discredit the source, SPLC, which has had some internal and external problems recently, but is overall a very reliable authority on the US far right (full disclaimer: I regularly collaborate with the SPLC). One White House spokesperson went full "alternative facts" by accusing SPLC of antisemitism, because Miller is Jewish. By doing so, the White House displayed a complete lack of understanding about what antisemitism is, which is no surprise, given that Trump considers himself "the least antisemitic person you've ever seen".The Democratic responses were predictable and swift as well. Of all the 2020 candidates, Julian Castro went the furthest in condemning Miller – he called him a "neo-Nazi" – but all agreed that he should resign from the White House.But would Miller's resignation change anything? While Miller might be behind the concrete policies that harm immigrants, he is not the main white supremacist in the White House. And Trump can easily find someone else to do Miller's work, particularly now that almost the whole Republican party has fallen in line with their president.It also externalizes white supremacy, as if it lives in the margins. But it has been hiding in plain sight within the Republican Party for decades. Miller wrote the emails to Breitbart when he was still an aide to Senator Jeff Sessions, who has been a consistent voice of white supremacy in Congress since 1997. And the Alabama Senator was not alone in Congress either. Representative Steve King has been the most open and unapologetic voice for the cause since 2003. Others, like representatives Louie Gohmert, Paul Gosar, Tom Tancredo and Dana Rohrabacher, might not be as open in their support, but they all encourage white nationalism to varying degrees.But white supremacy in the Republican party is not limited to just these individual congressmen and women. It runs much deeper than them. White supremacy was at the core of the "Southern Strategy", dating back to the unsuccessful 1964 presidential campaign of Barry Goldwater, which was formative for the future conservative movement. Perfected by President Richard Nixon, with the help of speechwriter Pat Buchanan, dog whistles to white supremacy have been at the heart of virtually every Republican campaign since the 1970s.Talking of Buchanan, more than 25 years ago he gave his now famous "culture war" speech at the 1992 Republican convention. While the term has become mainly linked to the religious right, Buchanan is at least as much a white supremacist as a Christian fundamentalist. In many ways, he is the intellectual father of the Trump administration, personifying Mike Pence and Donald Trump in one.This is why calling for Stephen Miller's resignation wouldn't change much. Neither Miller nor Bannon "made" Trump the white-supremacist-in-chief. And Trump is not the only problem either, as Joe Biden seems to believe. He won the Republican primaries, and presidential elections, not despite white supremacy but because of it.In short, it is time for Democrats to face and name the ugly truth: the Grand Old Party is a party steeped in white supremacy. It is the basis of its electoral support and this will not change in the near future. By focusing on the most brazen examples, like Stephen Miller, Democrats strengthen the misguided belief that the Republican party is a good party with some bad apples. Ultimately, this will help the Republicans more than the Democrats. * Cas Mudde is a Guardian US columnist and the Stanley Wade Shelton UGAF Professor in the School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Georgia
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| Sheriff calls deadly shooting at Airbnb rental a ‘bloodbath’ Posted: 16 Nov 2019 06:03 AM PST  Authorities in the San Francisco Bay Area are calling a shooting that left five dead during a Halloween party at an Airbnb rental a "bloodbath," where several partygoers were armed and some showed up looking for trouble. Contra Costa Sheriff David Livingston said Friday that he knows residents in the plush San Francisco suburb of Orinda are on edge after the massive party on Oct. 31 and wanted to provide an update, although he could not yet say what sparked the shooting and who shot whom. Livingston said there is a wealth of evidence to process, including casings that littered the floors and countertops of the four-bedroom home with vaulted ceilings that hosted roughly 100 people that night.
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| Sanders and Warren want to tax the rich. Here’s why their plans could work. Posted: 16 Nov 2019 03:33 AM PST ![Sanders and Warren want to tax the rich. Here's why their plans could work.]( "Sanders and Warren want to tax the rich. Here's why their plans could work.") Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders have been facing charges that the proposals won't work. Critics of the Warren (D-Mass.) and Sanders (I-Vt.) plans say it's too hard to figure out how much wealth there is in the U.S., and they point out that wealth taxes failed in Europe. It didn't work in Europe, so why will it work here?
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| Private zoo owner in Crimea pleads for public to take 30 of his bears so he won't have to euthanise them Posted: 17 Nov 2019 06:21 AM PST  The owner of a struggling safari park in Crimea is giving more than thirty bears to save them from euthanasia. Oleg Zubkov, the owner of the Taigan Lion Park near Simferopol, said he is seeking new homes for the animals because he can no longer afford to feed them. It comes after inspectors ordered the safari park, which is famous for its large collection of lions, found violations of veterinary regulations and ordered it closed for three months. Speaking on his Youtube channel, "the Lion Man," Mr Zubkov said he could not afford to feed and look after the animals without the revenue from ticket sales and was left with no choice but to find them new homes or put them down. "Twelve lions and tigers will be moved to other zoos shortly, and a final decision will be made about… shooting 30 bears from the park," he says in the video. "I've forced into these extreme measures because there are no other options left," he said. Oleg Zubkov with BBC television presenter Simon Reeve Credit: Jonathan Young Mr Zubkov said he had already fed several dozen of his Vietnamese pigs to the lions and tigers in a bid to cut costs, and that he had informed regional veterinary authorities about his decision to cull his bears. Valery Ivanov, the head of the state veterinary committee in Crimea, told Interfax no documents related to the killing of animals had been received. The Taigan Safari Park, which is home to 2,500 animals, was opened in 2012. Mr Zubkov also runs a second zoo, called Skazka, in Yalta. Both have been the subject of numerous complaints about the conditions in which the animals are kept, according to local officials. Last year Taigan was at the centre of a small scandal after one of the lions bit a 46 year old female tourist posing for photographs with the animal. Mr Zubkov's career has not passed without controversy Credit: Media Drum World / Alamy Stock Photo Mr Zubkov insists that his bears live in better conditions than in many other zoos in Russia, and that the biting incident was the only one of its kind. He has complained that authorities have been trying to shut him down ever since Russia annexed the Black Sea peninsular after Vladimir Putin annexed it from Ukraine in 2014. Mr Zubkov was an enthusiastic supporter the annexation at the time, and even featured in Russian television reports promising that his "fighting lions" would maintain order during the controversial referendum on "reunification" with Russia. In the months afterwards he made an unsuccessful bid to enter local politics and even tried to call Vladimir Putin during his annual phone-in show to invite him to the safari park. But by 2015 he had begun to complain that he and his zoo had become the target of a campaign of harassment by local officials apparently determined to put him out of business.
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| Australia intel chair blocked from China after criticising Beijing Posted: 15 Nov 2019 08:43 PM PST  Australia's parliamentary intelligence committee head, who has previously criticised Beijing, said he had been blocked from entering China due to his "frankness about the Chinese Communist Party". Andrew Hastie warned several months ago that the world's approach to containing China's rise resembles the "catastrophic failure" to prevent the advance of Nazi Germany. Hastie, along with fellow government politician James Paterson, had planned to travel to China for a study tour next month but both have been banned from entering the country.
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| ‘You can’t impeach somebody just because you don’t like them’: Michigan, swing voters and the impeachment Posted: 17 Nov 2019 03:00 AM PST  Yahoo News speaks with voters from the battleground state of Michigan to hear their thoughts on the impeachment hearings and on the election that's just one year away. With Michigan a home to swing voters, who stands a chance at winning this crucial state?
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| Russia says it will return captured naval ships to Ukraine on Monday Posted: 17 Nov 2019 01:10 AM PST  Russia will return three captured naval ships to Ukraine on Monday and is moving them to a handover location agreed with Kiev, Crimea's border guard service was cited as saying by Russian news agencies on Sunday. A Reuters reporter in Crimea, which Russian annexed from Ukraine in 2014, earlier on Sunday saw coastguard boats pulling the three vessels through the Kerch Strait toward the Black Sea where they could potentially be handed over to Ukraine. Ukraine has been pushing for their return as a good will gesture from Moscow ahead of a possible four-way peace summit on eastern Ukraine next month.
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| Why Did a Russian Soldier Shoot Eight of His Comrades in Siberia? Posted: 16 Nov 2019 09:30 PM PST  Could it have been a hazing issue? Something more?
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| The Latest: Diplomat describes Trump ‘investigations’ call Posted: 15 Nov 2019 03:33 PM PST  President Donald Trump was talking so loudly that Ambassador Gordon Sondland had to hold the phone from his ear, which allowed others at a restaurant in Kyiv to overhear a conversation about "investigations" that's now part of the impeachment inquiry. Investigators were interviewing David Holmes, the political counselor at the U.S. embassy in Kyiv, Friday in the impeachment inquiry.
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| Disabled Woman’s Boyfriend Told Police He Lured Her to Nevada Desert and Suffocated Her Posted: 15 Nov 2019 07:58 PM PST  Bethel Park PoliceA Maryland man who may have been leading a double life has confessed to kidnapping his disabled girlfriend, luring her into the Nevada desert, tying her to a signpost and suffocating her with duct tape, police said Friday.He allegedly then pretended to be the victim on Facebook, sending her family messages to cover up her disappearance until friends reported her missing earlier this week.Jaime Rae Feden, 33, suffered from a rare congenital condition called VATER syndrome and stood just over 4 feet tall. Authorities said the Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, woman was sweet-natured and trusting.Too trusting."She was a very loving type of a person and I think she was taken advantage of by someone who was a predator," Bethel Park Police Chief Timothy O'Connor told reporters.For several years, Feden had a tumultuous relationship with John Chapman, 39, who allegedly asked her to come with him to Las Vegas in September to look at property.Once there, he convinced her to go with him to the desert for a photo shoot. According to a criminal complaint obtained by WPXI, he used zip ties to bind her to a signpost, and covered her mouth and nose with duct tape, leaving her unable to breathe.He claims he then untied her, stripped off her clothes and left her in the desert, police said.A body was found there in October and while the remains have not yet been identified, police said they bear the characteristics of Feden's medical condition.Meanwhile, Feden's friends and family were becoming increasingly concerned about her. Although an uncle was getting messages from her through Facebook, whoever was sending them was answering questions incorrectly; police say Chapman was behind them.On Thursday, police put out a missing-persons bulletin for Feden. When Chapman showed up at her home, police began questioning him—and he allegedly confessed.According to WTAE, police found Feden's cellphone, along with the duct tape and zip ties, inside the house.Chapman's stepmother told WPXI that the family was stunned by the allegations, in part because he appeared to be happily married to a woman in Maryland.She said relatives knew that he traveled to Las Vegas this fall, but he said it was for a business trip. They also knew of Feden, but said they thought she was just a close friend."What a horribly sad tragedy," the stepmom, Pamela Chapman, told the TV station. "It doesn't seem like it's real."As a handcuffed Chapman was marched past reporters on Friday, he declined to answer shouted questions. It was unclear if he has retained an attorney.O'Connor said Chapman has not been charged with homicide—and that if he is, those charges would come from Nevada, where the slaying allegedly took place. So far, he is facing several other charges, including kidnapping. 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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| There have been more mass shootings than days in 2019 Posted: 17 Nov 2019 12:03 AM PST  There have been more than 365 mass shootings so far in 2019
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| 14 of the Best-Designed Hotel Restaurants in the U.S. Posted: 15 Nov 2019 10:44 AM PST |
| Hong Kong police warn of 'live fire' if they face deadly weapons from protesters Posted: 17 Nov 2019 09:09 AM PST  Hong Kong police Monday warned for the first time that they may use "live rounds" after pro-democracy protesters fired arrows and threw petrol bombs at officers at a beseiged university campus, as the crisis engulfing the city veered deeper into danger. Protests have tremored through the global financial hub since June, with many in the city of 7.5 million people venting fury at eroding freedoms under Chinese rule. Three protesters have been shot by armed police in the unrelenting months of protests.
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| Here's everything we know about Mina Chang, who rapidly rose from a self-described singer to a State Department official with a dubious résumé Posted: 16 Nov 2019 01:39 PM PST  A closer look at her history reveals the Trump official may have misrepresented her work history and educational background.
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| UPDATE 1-Belarus threatens to pull out of Russia integration deal over subsidy row Posted: 17 Nov 2019 02:45 AM PST ![UPDATE 1-Belarus threatens to pull out of Russia integration deal over subsidy row]( "UPDATE 1-Belarus threatens to pull out of Russia integration deal over subsidy row") Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko on Sunday threatened to pull out of signing an integration deal with Russia next month if Moscow failed to resolve their dispute over energy subsidies. Russia has propped up its traditional ally with loans and subsidies to keep Belarus in its political orbit but now plans to phase these out to lessen the burden on its economy. Belarus previously said that it stands to lose hundreds of millions of dollars a year from changes to Russian tax policy and has tried to negotiate compensation.
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| China's H-20 Stealth Bomber: The One Weapon America Won't Be Able to Beat? Posted: 16 Nov 2019 06:00 AM PST  Or just a myth?
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| Democrat Edwards wins reelection in conservative Louisiana Posted: 16 Nov 2019 10:59 PM PST  Deep in the heart of the conservative South, Louisiana's voters reelected Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards to a second term, shocking Republicans who had hoped to reclaim the seat on the strength of President Donald Trump's popularity. With his focus on bipartisan, state-specific issues, the moderate Edwards cobbled together enough cross-party support Saturday to defeat Republican businessman Eddie Rispone, getting about 51% of the vote. Trump fought to return the seat to the GOP, but his intense interest in the race not only motivated conservative Republicans, but also powered a surge in anti-Trump and black voter turnout that helped boost Edwards over the finish line.
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| ‘No discipline. No plan. No strategy.’: Sen. Kamala Harris campaign in meltdown Posted: 15 Nov 2019 12:47 PM PST  As Sen. Kamala Harris crisscrosses the country trying to revive her sputtering presidential bid, aides at her fast-shrinking headquarters are deep into the finger-pointing stages. And much of the blame is being placed on campaign manager Juan Rodriguez.
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| Forgotten Genocide: How a Quarter of Europe’s Roma Were Murdered by the Nazis, then Erased From History Posted: 17 Nov 2019 02:18 AM PST  LONDON—It's impossible to fathom the scale of the depravity. An eyewitness account by a Holocaust survivor—unearthed for a new exhibition in London—describes the conditions in the "gypsy" section of Auschwitz as even more inhumane than the rest of the appalling facility."The conditions were worse than in the other camps," wrote eyewitness Hermann Langbein in 1945. "The route between the huts was ankle deep in mud and dirt. The gypsies were still wearing the clothes that they had been given upon arrival… footwear was missing… The latrines were built in such a way that they were practically unusable for the gypsy children. The infirmary was a pathetic sight."The Holocaust Didn't End with the Liberation of Auschwitz and the Nazi Death CampsThe report by Langbein, also a survivor of the Spanish Civil War, is just one of the sickening contemporary accounts highlighted in the exhibition Forgotten Victims: The Nazi Genocide of the Roma and Sinti at London's Wiener Holocaust Library (to March 11, 2020).Over 90 percent of the Roma held at Auschwitz did not survive the war.In total, it is estimated that up to half a million Roma and Sinti, the name taken by the nomadic people based in Germany, died during the Holocaust. Accurate estimates are impossible but that may have been a quarter of Europe's Roma and Sinti population.The plight of these people, commonly known as gypsies at the time, was overshadowed by the scale of the genocide perpetrated against Europe's Jewish community, but the Romani suffering was not simply eclipsed; it was systematically erased in the post-war period. Romani survivors did not qualify for restitution; the mass murder of the Roma was largely ignored at the Nuremberg trials; Germany did not formally recognize that there had been a Romani genocide until 1982.Like homeless and gay victims of the Holocaust, the Roma and Sinti people were primarily categorized by the Nazi killing machine as criminals or "asocials." For the tiny minority who survived, this meant they struggled to apply for compensation for their treatment in the same way as Jewish survivors.Despite the German authorities' failure to recognize this as another strand of genocide, there was plenty of evidence that the Nazis were applying similar twisted pseudo-science to portray the Roma and Jews as lesser people.The exhibition highlights the work of a man named Dr Robert Ritter, who was responsible for running the Racial Hygiene and Demographic Biology Research Unit from 1936. In 1941, he was promoted and also became head of the Criminal Biology Unit. Much of his work focused on trying to prove that the Romani people were racially inferior using a vast array of nonsensical and unscientific methods.He supported the sterilization of Roma women and expressed his concern about preventing intermarriage with other Germans. He was also personally responsible for identifying Roma and Sinti communities in Germany and Austria which were then raided by Nazis units who transported thousands to the camps.Ritter was never brought to trial. His racist project had obviously been influential among senior Nazi officials, however. In 1938, the head of the SS Heinrich Himmler wrote: "Experience gained in combating the gypsy nuisance, and knowledge derived from race-biological research, have shown that the proper method of attacking the Gypsy problem seems to be to treat it as a matter of race."It's utterly extraordinary that it took the German government until the 1980s to officially take Himmler's word for it: the mass execution of the Roma and Sinti people was a racially motivated genocide.It wasn't just within Germany; the Roma and Sinti people were largely left out of the picture when the world united to condemn the horrors of the Holocaust."There was no reckoning, no recognition," said Barbara Warnock, curator at the Wiener Holocaust Library. "At the Nuremberg war crimes trials, crimes against Roma weren't part of the indictments. There are some documents that were entered at Nuremberg that are to do with persecution against Jews that happen to mention persecution against Roma too but it wasn't something that was being particularly focused on or investigated even though people were aware of it. There's never been that big moment of acknowledgement."Warnock told The Daily Beast that there has been a historic and continued marginalization of Roma communities in Europe. "The failure to acknowledge the extent of persecution and suffering probably hasn't been helpful," she said.Documents that tell the typically depressing story of Hans Brann, a Roma survivor of Auschwitz, have been located by the Wiener Holocaust Library. He was one of just a couple of thousand Roma who entered Auschwitz and left alive.According to a police letter, the response to his restitution claim was to order a police inspector to investigate his claim, and prove that he was a criminal, not a racial victim. Not all of the documentation survives, but he must have been turned down because six years later Brann made the same claim of restitution. He had waited more than a decade for any recognition of the torment he had suffered.For the Roma people in Europe, the wait goes on. Recent years have seen crackdowns on communities in Italy, France and Hungary."Reflect upon the situation in Europe today," said Warnock. "A massive amount of prejudice and discrimination continues." Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| 3 judges drunkenly fight at an Indiana White Castle, leaving 2 shot. Now, they're suspended Posted: 15 Nov 2019 03:07 PM PST  Judges Bradley Jacobs, Andrew Adams and Sabrina Bell have been suspended without pay for being involved in a fight at an Indiana White Castle in May.
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| First African-American FBI agent finally gets recognition Posted: 16 Nov 2019 12:28 AM PST  There are no known photographs of James Wormley Jones, but there is a record of his hiring
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| U.N. warns Bolivia crisis could 'spin out of control' as death toll mounts Posted: 16 Nov 2019 07:12 AM PST  The United Nations warned on Saturday violence in Bolivia could "spin out of control" following recent skirmishes between security forces and coca farmers loyal to ousted President Evo Morales that have left nine dead. Morales resigned under pressure from Bolivia's police and military last Sunday after evidence of vote rigging tainted his Oct. 20 election victory. The leftist and charismatic former coca farmer has since called his ouster a right-wing "coup" and decried growing allegations of repression by security forces under interim President and former conservative lawmaker Jeanine Anez.
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| Back in 2017, Russian Nuclear Submarines Fired Torpedoes at Each Other Posted: 17 Nov 2019 01:11 AM PST  It was a drill--and thank god for that.
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| Iran’s top leader warns ‘thugs’ as protests reach 100 cities Posted: 16 Nov 2019 09:27 PM PST  Iran's supreme leader on Sunday cautiously backed the government's decision to raise gasoline prices by 50% after days of widespread protests, calling those who attacked public property during demonstrations "thugs" and signaling that a potential crackdown loomed. The government shut down internet access across the nation of 80 million people to staunch demonstrations that took place in a reported 100 cities and towns.
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| US, China negotiators hold 'constructive' call on trade deal: ministry Posted: 16 Nov 2019 07:23 PM PST  Top Chinese and US trade negotiators held "constructive" discussions over the phone on a preliminary trade deal between the two countries, China's commerce ministry announced in a statement on Sunday. The long-running trade war between Washington and Beijing has weighed on the global economy and spooked markets, with the two sides imposing punitive tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars in two-way trade. US President Trump announced a "phase one" trade deal last month which has yet to be signed.
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| Prince Andrew: I Didn’t Have Sex With Virginia Roberts Giuffre. I Was Eating Pizza. Posted: 16 Nov 2019 04:43 PM PST  Screenshot/BBCNewsnight/TwitterPrince Andrew says he is prepared to give evidence about his friendship with late accused child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein under oath, and claimed to have no recollection of the notorious photograph of him with his arm around the waist of alleged Epstein victim Virginia Roberts Giuffre being taken.Inside Jeffrey Epstein's Creepy Parties With Prince AndrewTo support his latter claim, Andrew told the BBC's Newsnight program on Saturday that the "traveling clothes" he was wearing in the picture were not clothes he would wear in London. The claim is demonstrably false, as there are images of him leaving London nightclub Chinawhite in July 2000, wearing almost the exact same outfit.Giuffre has accused Prince Andrew of having sex with her on three occasions when she was being trafficked by Epstein, an allegation he has denied. Andrew also insisted he couldn't have had sex with Roberts on the night she claimed, as he was at a chain pizza restaurant, Pizza Express, in suburban Woking with his daughters. He said the pizza party was at about 4 p.m. or 5 p.m. and then he was at home.He sought to discredit Roberts' account of dancing with him at Tramp nightclub, in which she described him as sweating profusely, by claiming that he was suffering from a post-combat condition that meant he didn't sweat. He went on to dispute Giuffre's claim that he bought her a drink, saying he "didn't know where the bar was" in Tramp, despite admitting having been there several times."I don't believe it's a picture of me in London because... when I go out in London, I wear a suit and a tie. That's what I would describe as my traveling clothes if I'm going overseas. I've got plenty of photographs of me dressed in that sort of kit but not there," Andrew said.He repeatedly questioned the authenticity of the photograph of him and Giuffre: "I'm afraid to say that I don't believe that photograph was taken in the way that has been suggested."He repeatedly said he had "no memory" of the photograph being taken.At one stage he said: "I can't, we can't be certain as to whether or not that's my hand on her left side."Andrew gave a bewildering array of other reasons to support his claim that the picture was fake, including saying he had never been upstairs in Ghislaine Maxwell's London home, and that Epstein never carried a camera (in fact, Giuffre claims the photo was taken on her camera). "Nobody can prove whether or not that photograph has been doctored, but I don't recollect that photograph ever being taken."Andrew flatly denied having sex with Giuffre, saying: "Without putting too fine a point on it, if you're a man it is a positive act to have sex with somebody. You have to take some sort of positive action and so therefore if you try to forget, it's very difficult to try and forget a positive action and I do not remember anything. I can't.""I've wracked my brain and thinking oh… when the first allegations, when the allegations came out originally I went, 'Well that's a bit strange, I don't remember this,' and then I've been through it and through it and through it over and over and over again, and no, nothing. It just never happened."Interviewer Emily Maitlis also asked if Andrew believed rumors that Epstein had not in fact committed suicide.In response, Andrew appeared to show more than just a passing familiarity with the work of celebrity pathologist-for-hire, Dr. Michael Baden, who was hired by Epstein's brother to observe the official autopsy.Jeffrey Epstein Camp Sent Pathologist Michael Baden to Watch Over His AutopsyAndrew replied: "I'm not one to be able to answer that question. I believe that centers around something to do with a bone in his neck, so whether or not if you commit suicide that bone breaks or something. But I'm afraid to say I'm not an expert, I have to take what the coroner says and he has ruled that it was suicide."Baden claimed that a collection of neck fractures in Epstein's hyoid bone and thyroid cartilage were "extremely unusual in suicidal hangings and could occur much more commonly in homicidal strangulation."In fact, numerous studies show that hyoid and thyroid fractures are not rare in suicidal hangings, especially as people age.Emily Maitlis questions Prince Andrew on 'Newsnight'Screenshot/BBCNewsnight/TwitterMaitlis pressed Andrew about the circumstances in which a photograph was taken of himself and Jeffrey Epstein walking in Central Park, after Epstein had been convicted of a child sex offense. Andrew said he had been staying with Epstein with the express purpose of breaking off his friendship with Epstein because of his child sex conviction. He said that he had decided to break off the friendship in person because he believed it was the "honorable" thing to do. "I felt that doing it over the telephone was the chicken's way of doing it. I had to go and see him and talk to him," Andrew said.Asked why he stayed at the home of a "convicted sex offender," Andrew said: "It was a convenient place to stay. I mean I've gone through this in my mind so many times. At the end of the day, with a benefit of all the hindsight that one can have, it was definitely the wrong thing to do. But at the time, I felt it was the honorable and right thing to do, and I admit fully that my judgement was probably colored by my tendency to be too honorable but that's just the way it is."Asked about the steady procession of young girls coming and going, Andrew said: "I wasn't a party to any of that. I never saw them. I mean you have to understand that his house, I described it more as almost as a railway station if you know what I mean in the sense that there were people coming in and out of that house all the time. What they were doing and why they were there I had nothing to do with. So I'm afraid I can't make any comment on that because I really don't know."Andrew repeatedly denied ever noticing there was anything amiss in Epstein's behavior, despite, as he said, being a patron of British child protection charity the NSPCC.Andrew admitted that he had stayed with Epstein on his private island and flown on his private jet, and also confirmed that he invited Epstein to a party at Buckingham Palace, a shooting weekend at the Queen's country estate, and to his daughter's birthday party.Andrew said he was invited because he was the boyfriend of his old friend, Ghislaine Maxwell.Andrew said he did not regret his friendship with Epstein, saying, "the people that I met and the opportunities that I was given to learn either by him or because of him were actually very useful."Maitlis later asked again if he regretted ever befriending Epstein, saying: "Do I regret the fact that he has quite obviously conducted himself in a manner unbecoming? Yes.""Unbecoming?" Maitlis asked in disbelief: "He was a sex offender!"Andrew said: "I'm sorry, I'm being polite, I mean in the sense that he was a sex offender. But no, was I right in having him as a friend? At the time, bearing in mind this was some years before he was accused of being a sex offender. I don't think there was anything wrong then. The problem was the fact that once he had been convicted… I stayed with him and that's the bit that, as it were, I kick myself for on a daily basis, because it was not something that was becoming of a member of the royal family and we try and uphold the highest standards and practices and I let the side down, simple as that."Maitlis asked Andrew if he would "be willing to testify or give a statement under oath if you were asked."Andrew replied: "Well I'm like everybody else and I will have to take all the legal advice that there was before I was to do that sort of thing. But if push came to shove and the legal advice was to do so, then I would be duty bound to do so."Maitlis concluded by offering Andrew the opportunity to say "anything you feel has been left unsaid that you would like to say now?""No, I don't think so," drawled Andrew. " I think you've probably dragged out most of what is required."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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| South Carolina teen gets life in prison for deadly elementary school shooting Posted: 15 Nov 2019 10:14 AM PST  Jesse Osborne, the teenager responsible for a shooting at a South Carolina elementary school in 2016, was sentenced to life in prison.
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