| Charges of Ukrainian Meddling? A Russian Operation, U.S. Intelligence Says Posted: 24 Nov 2019 06:45 AM PST  WASHINGTON -- Republicans have sought for weeks amid the impeachment inquiry to shift attention to President Donald Trump's demands that Ukraine investigate any 2016 election meddling, defending it as a legitimate concern while Democrats accuse Trump of pursuing fringe theories for his benefit.The Republican defense of Trump became central to the impeachment proceedings when Fiona Hill, a respected Russia scholar and former senior White House official, added a harsh critique during testimony Thursday. She told some of Trump's fiercest defenders in Congress that they were repeating "a fictional narrative" -- and that it likely came from a disinformation campaign by Russian security services, which themselves propagated it.In a briefing that closely aligned with Hill's testimony, U.S. intelligence officials informed senators and their aides in recent weeks that Russia had engaged in a yearslong campaign to essentially frame Ukraine as responsible for Moscow's own hacking of the 2016 election, according to three U.S. officials. The briefing came as Republicans stepped up their defenses of Trump in the Ukraine affair.The revelations demonstrate Russia's persistence in trying to sow discord among its adversaries -- and show that the Kremlin apparently succeeded, as unfounded claims about Ukrainian interference seeped into Republican talking points. U.S. intelligence agencies believe Moscow is likely to redouble its efforts as the 2020 presidential campaign intensifies. The classified briefing for senators also focused on Russia's evolving influence tactics, including its growing ability to better disguise operations.Russia has engaged in a "long pattern of deflection" to pin blame for its malevolent acts on other countries, Hill said, not least Ukraine, a former Soviet republic. Since Ukraine won independence in 1991, Russia has tried to reassert influence there, meddling in its politics, maligning pro-Western leaders and accusing Ukrainian critics of Moscow of fascist leanings."The Russians have a particular vested interest in putting Ukraine, Ukrainian leaders in a very bad light," she told lawmakers.But the campaign by Russian intelligence in recent years has been even more complex as Moscow tries not only to undermine the government in Kyiv but also to use a disinformation campaign there to influence the U.S. political debate.The accusations of a Ukrainian influence campaign center on actions by a handful of Ukrainians who openly criticized or sought to damage Trump's candidacy in 2016. They were scattershot efforts that were far from a replica of Moscow's interference, when President Vladimir Putin ordered military and intelligence operatives to mount a broad campaign to sabotage the U.S. election. Russians in 2016 conducted covert operations to hack Democratic computers and to use social media to exploit divisions among Americans.This time, Russian intelligence operatives deployed a network of agents to blame Ukraine for its 2016 interference. Starting at least in 2017, operatives peddled a mixture of now-debunked conspiracy theories along with established facts to leave an impression that the government in Kyiv, not Moscow, was responsible for the hackings of Democrats and its other interference efforts in 2016, senior intelligence officials said.Russian intelligence officers conveyed the information to prominent Russians and Ukrainians who then used a range of intermediaries, like oligarchs, businessmen and their associates, to pass the material to U.S. political figures and even some journalists, who were likely unaware of its origin, officials said.That muddy brew worked its way into U.S. information ecosystems, sloshing around until parts of it reached Trump, who has also spoken with Putin about allegations of Ukrainian interference. Trump also brought up the assertions of Ukrainian meddling in his July 25 call with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy of Ukraine, which is at the heart of the impeachment inquiry into whether he abused his power by asking for a public commitment to investigations he stood to gain from personally.Trump referred elliptically to allegations that Ukraine meddled in the 2016 election and brought up a related conspiracy theory. Asking Zelenskiy to "do us a favor," Trump added, "I would like you to find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine."Russia's operation to blame Ukraine has become more relevant as Republicans have tried to focus public debate during the impeachment inquiry on any Ukrainian role in the 2016 campaign, U.S. officials said.Republicans have denounced any suggestion that their concerns about Ukrainian meddling are without merit or that they are ignoring Russia's broader interference. "Not a single Republican member of this committee said Russia did not meddle in the 2016 elections," Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., said Thursday.Indeed, Stefanik and her Republican colleagues on the Democratic-led House Intelligence Committee, which is conducting the impeachment hearing, have also steered clear of the fringe notion that Trump mentioned to Zelenskiy, which is pushed by Russian intelligence: the so-called CrowdStrike server conspiracy theory, which falsely suggests Ukraine, not Russia, was behind the breach of Democratic operatives' servers.Trump repeated the baseless claim Friday in an interview with "Fox & Friends," laying out the narrative and doubling down after a host gently pressed him on whether he was sure of one aspect of the debunked theory, that the FBI gave a Democratic server to what Trump had inaccurately described as a Ukrainian-owned company."That is what the word is," Trump replied.Some Republicans have also focused on Hunter Biden, raising questions about whether his hiring by Ukrainian energy company Burisma was corrupt. Burisma hired Biden while his father, former Vice President Joe Biden, a potential rival of Trump's in the 2020 election, was leading the Obama administration's Ukraine policy. On the July 25 call, Trump also demanded Zelenskiy investigate Burisma and Hunter Biden.Moscow has long used its intelligence agencies and propaganda machine to muddy the waters of public debate, casting doubts over established facts. In her testimony, Hill noted Russia's pattern of trying to blame other countries for its own actions, like the attempted poisoning last year of a former Russian intelligence officer or the downing of a passenger jet over Ukraine in 2014. Moscow's goal is to cast doubt on established facts, said current and former officials."The strategy is simply to create the impression that it is not really possible to know who was really behind it," said Laura Rosenberger, director of the Alliance for Defending Democracy, which tracks Russian disinformation efforts.Although U.S. intelligence agencies have made no formal classified assessment about the Russian disinformation campaign against Ukraine, officials at several of the agencies have broadly agreed for some time that Russian intelligence services have embraced tactics to shift responsibility for the 2016 interference campaign away from themselves, officials said.Russia has relentlessly tried to deflect attention since the allegations of its interference campaign in the 2016 election first surfaced, one official said.Putin began publicly pushing false theories of Ukrainian interference in the early months of 2017 to deflect responsibility from Russia, said Sen. Angus King, I-Maine and a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, who declined to answer questions about the briefing."These people are pros at this," said King, who caucuses with the Democrats. "The Soviet Union used disinformation for 70 years. This is nothing new. Vladimir Putin is a former KGB agent. He is trained in deception. This is his stock and trade, and he is doing it well."During a news conference in February 2017, Putin accused the Ukrainian government of supporting Hillary Clinton during the previous U.S. election and funding her candidacy with friendly oligarchs.It is not clear when U.S. intelligence agencies learned about Moscow's campaign or when precisely it began.Russian intelligence officers aimed part of their operation at prompting Ukrainian authorities to investigate the allegations that people in Ukraine tried to tamper with the 2016 U.S. election and to shut down inquiries into corruption by pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine, according to a former official.One target was the leak of a secret ledger disclosed by a Ukrainian law enforcement agency that appeared to show that Paul Manafort, Trump's onetime campaign chairman, had taken illicit payments from Ukrainian politicians who were close to Moscow. He was forced to step down from the Trump campaign after the ledger became public in August 2016, and the Russians have since been eager to cast doubt on its authenticity, the former official said.Intelligence officials believe that one of the people the Kremlin relied on to spread disinformation about Ukrainian interference was Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch who had ties to Manafort. After his ouster from the campaign, Manafort told his former deputy later in 2016 that Ukrainians, not Russians, stole Democratic emails. Deripaska has broadly denied any role in election meddling."There is a long history of Russians putting out fake information," said Marc Polymeropoulos, a former senior CIA official. "Now they are trying to put out theories that they think are damaging to the United States."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
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| Alaska man attempted to smuggle $400K of heroin, meth inside rancid goat intestines, authorities say Posted: 24 Nov 2019 07:25 PM PST ![Alaska man attempted to smuggle $400K of heroin, meth inside rancid goat intestines, authorities say]( "Alaska man attempted to smuggle $400K of heroin, meth inside rancid goat intestines, authorities say") An Alaska man is accused of smuggling drugs hidden inside spoiled goat intestines stored in his checked luggage for a flight out of Anchorage.
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| Pilot Walks Away Uninjured After Plane Gets Caught Upside Down in Power Lines Posted: 24 Nov 2019 10:32 AM PST  The power line was deactivated and the 65-year-old pilot was freed from the plane
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| 'Never allow escapes': Second leak reveals how China runs Uighur detention camps Posted: 25 Nov 2019 04:09 AM PST  A second leak of secret Chinese Communist Party (CCP) documents has revealed details of how over one million detainees in China are indoctrinated, controlled and punished in a huge network of internment camps. The papers, dated to 2017 and leaked to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), have been dubbed The China Cables and feature instructions to "never allow escapes" from the camps. The venues, which in 2018 Beijing claimed did not exist then said were education centres, are populated mainly by Muslim members of ethnic minorities who have not been charged with crimes. The leak came a week after a different trove of CCP documents related to China's Muslim crackdown was revealed. Both caches provide evidence that the CCP is orchestrating a widespread campaign of brainwashing and human rights abuse against Muslims, mainly in the country's vast western Xinjiang province. The ICIJ said the documents it acquired marked the "first leak of a classified Chinese government document revealing the inner workings of the camps, the severity of conditions behind the fences, and the dehumanising instructions regulating inmates' mundane daily routines." Some of the newly-revealed documents are from an internment camp instruction manual issued by Xinjiang security authorities. One order in them is for staff to "strictly manage door locks and keys – dormitory doors, corridors doors and floor doors must be double locked, and must be locked immediately after being opened and closed." According to Beijing the venues were set up as part of a crackdown on separatist terrorism stemming from Xinjiang, which is home to around 11 million members of the mainly Muslim Uighur ethnic group. Internees undergo indoctrination to denounce religion and show loyalty to the CCP and Chinese President Xi Jinping. Escapees have reported torture and rape occurring in the camps. The documents showed how internees were regularly tested on subjects including mandarin language skills, and only allowed to leave once they gained satisfactory scores. Scores were linked to "rewards, punishments and family visits", and staff were told to "evaluate and resolve students' ideological problems and abnormal emotions at all times." They were also required to "promote the repentance and confession of the students for them to understand deeply the illegal, criminal and dangerous nature of their past behaviour." Chinese officials failing to strictly follow internment camp guidelines have faced severe consequences. The documents leaked to the New York Times showed that 12,000 officials were investigating for not implementing the rules with enough vigour. Wang Yongzhi, an official in charge of the crackdown in an area of Xinjiang called Yarkand, was investigated and disappeared from public view after quietly releasing 7,000 inmates from the system. His grovelling confession, likely given under duress, was distributed as a warning to other officials. He 'confessed': "I undercut, acted selectively and made my own adjustments, believing that rounding up so many people would knowingly fan conflict and deepen resentment... without approval and initiative, I broke the rules." Details about how internees, who can be sent to camps for behaviour such as using non-approved messaging apps or collecting money for mosques, were isolated from loved ones were also revealed. It was decreed that they were allowed a phone call with family "at least once a week", but they "may not contact the outside world apart from during prescribed activities." Adrian Zenz, senior fellow in China studies at Washington DC's Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, said of the newly-leaked papers: "It really shows that from the onset, the Chinese government had a plan for how to secure the vocational training centres, how to lock in the 'students' into their dorms, how to keep them there for at least one year." When asked about The China Cables on Monday Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said: "Some media's conspiracy to slander China's terrorist effort won't succeed. Our most powerful counterattack is to maintain solidarity among ethnic groups and a peaceful society." The documents feature a section named "Strict secrecy", which included the order: "It is necessary to strengthen the staff's awareness of staying secret."
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| Egyptian Coptic rights activist faces 'terror' charges Posted: 25 Nov 2019 06:34 AM PST  An Egyptian Coptic rights activist is facing charges of joining a "terror" group and spreading misinformation, his lawyer confirmed Monday, amid a renewed crackdown on dissidents in the country. Ramy Kamel was arrested from his Cairo home early Saturday by seven plainclothes police officers, a member of his defence team, Atef Nazmy, told AFP. The prosecution has alleged Kamel joined a "terror" group, received foreign funding and broadcast false information.
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| Sarah Huckabee Sanders eyes run for governor of Arkansas in 2022 Posted: 25 Nov 2019 04:42 AM PST  Sarah Huckabee Sanders is following the traditional route for former press secretaries after leaving the White House as President Trump's chief spokesperson. But she's also getting reacquainted with her home state of Arkansas and laying the groundwork for a potential governor's race in three years.
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| The 30 Best New York City Landmarks to Visit Posted: 25 Nov 2019 05:00 AM PST |
| Doomsday: India's Missile Defense Could Make Nuclear War With Pakistan More Likely Posted: 23 Nov 2019 12:00 PM PST  Pakistan will not take kindly to seeing its nuclear deterrent undermined.
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| Briton, Filipino hostages safe after troops clash with Islamist rebels Posted: 24 Nov 2019 09:33 PM PST ![Briton, Filipino hostages safe after troops clash with Islamist rebels]( "Briton, Filipino hostages safe after troops clash with Islamist rebels") Soldiers in the southern Philippines rescued a British man and a Filipino woman from members of an Islamist militant group, the army said on Monday, after their captors fled during a military operation. The couple, Allan and Wilma Hyrons, were abducted at gunpoint on Oct. 4 from the resort they ran in a neighbouring province and were now being looked after at a military camp. The kidnappers were members of Abu Sayyaf, a group that operates in the Sulu archipelago and has extremist factions loyal to Islamic State, and linked to at least five suicide bombings in the region in the past 16 months.
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| Nunes Defiant as Giuliani Associate Connects Him With Biden Dirt Posted: 24 Nov 2019 08:19 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Representative Devin Nunes lashed out at the media on Sunday as he faced criticism -- and a potential ethics probe -- for his alleged role in helping President Donald Trump dig up dirt on political rival Joe Biden."It's not okay to work with someone who's been indicted, to build a media narrative to try to dirty up the people who are doing the work on behalf of the American people," the California Republican said via telephone on "Sunday Morning Futures" on Fox News.Lev Parnas, who worked with Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani to push claims of Democratic corruption in Ukraine, is prepared to testify under oath that Nunes -- one of Trump's loudest defenders in Congress -- participated in meetings in Europe focused on Biden, the Ukrainian-born American's lawyer told CNN on Friday."Mr. Parnas learned from former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Victor Shokin that Nunes had met with Shokin in Vienna last December," attorney Joseph Bondy told CNN. The Daily Beast reported similar allegations about Nunes, ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, citing Ed MacMahon, another Parnas attorney.Representative Adam Smith, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said on MSNBC on Saturday that it was "quite likely" Nunes could face an inquiry over the allegations. Representative Jackie Speier, a California Democrat on the intelligence panel, made a similar comment on Twitter.Nunes' alleged conduct would be a matter for the House Ethics Committee, Representative Adam Schiff, chairman of the House intelligence panel, said Sunday on CNN."If he was on a taxpayer-funded CODEL, and I say 'if,' seeking dirt on a potential Democratic candidate for president, Joe Biden, that will be an ethics matter," Schiff said on "State of the Union, using the term for a congressional delegation. "That's not before our committee."Giuliani associates Parnas and Igor Fruman were indicted in October on charges of using foreign money to make illegal campaign contributions.Bondy tweeted at Schiff on Saturday, urging him to hear testimony from Parnas. "It's non-hearsay," Bondy said. Schiff said Sunday his committee has subpoenaed documents from Parnas and has had "discussions with the Southern District of New York in terms of Mr. Nunes' conduct," referring to one federal court in New York.Nunes said he planned to sue CNN and the Daily Beast. "I will win in court. They'll have to show how they worked with somebody who's been indicted," he said on Fox.The lawmaker has a history of litigation, having earlier this year sued the McClatchy newspaper chain for what he termed "character assassination" contained in a Fresno Bee article on a winery he partly owns, and social media site Twitter for allowing its users to insult him.To contact the reporters on this story: Ros Krasny in Washington at rkrasny1@bloomberg.net;Hailey Waller in New York at hwaller@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: James Ludden at jludden@bloomberg.net, Steve GeimannFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Police look for suspects after 2 boys fatally shot outside California elementary school Posted: 25 Nov 2019 09:13 AM PST  Two boys sitting in a van in a parking lot of a Northern California elementary school were fatally shot early Saturday, police say.
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| Thanksgiving Travel Could Be Disrupted by Rain and Snow Across the U.S. Here’s What to Know Posted: 24 Nov 2019 01:32 PM PST  Here's what you need to know about the most disruptive storms coming this holiday week
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| Recent developments surrounding the South China Sea Posted: 24 Nov 2019 10:45 PM PST  A Philippine lawmaker has raised concerns over the possibility of China shutting off power in the country due to its partial ownership of the national electric company.
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| Hiroshima survivors tell pope of attack 'hell' Posted: 24 Nov 2019 02:47 AM PST  Survivors of the nuclear attack on Hiroshima told Pope Francis on Sunday of the "scene of hell" after the bombing, as the pontiff hit out against the use of the weapons. The pope began his four-day trip to Japan with stops in Nagasaki and Hiroshima, where he paid tribute to those affected by the two bombs dropped by US forces in 1945 at the end of World War II. In Hiroshima, Francis met several survivors of the attack, who echoed his calls for the world never to forget the atrocity of the bombings.
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| Bolivian government vows to jail Evo Morales for rest of his life for ‘terrorism’ Posted: 24 Nov 2019 08:42 AM PST  Bolivia's interim government has vowed to jail former leader Evo Morales for life for "terrorism", according to reports.Interior minister Arturo Murillo of Bolivia's right-wing interim government claims Mr Morales incited anti-government protests which he claims amount to terrorism, according to The Guardian.
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| SCOTUS Denies Petition to Hear National Review v. Mann Posted: 25 Nov 2019 07:24 AM PST  The Supreme Court announced Monday morning that it will not hear Competitive Enterprise Institute and National Review v. Michael E. Mann, a case with dire freedom-of-speech implications for National Review and all American media outlets that publish commentary on contentious public-policy debates.Mann, a Penn State climatologist famous for the "hockey stick" global-warming graph, was targeted by CEI's Rand Simberg in a 2012 blog post. Simberg criticized the methods Mann used to collect data for the study, in which Mann attempted to chart the earth's temperature over the past 1,000 years and found a sharp uptick in global temperatures in the 20th century.In 2010, Penn State investigated Mann for alleged data manipulation and university-ethics violations in regards to the study, but Mann was eventually cleared of any wrongdoing. Taking an opportunity to criticize both the scientist's methodology and Penn State's administration, Simberg drew a metaphor in his column between Mann's case and the infamous Jerry Sandusky coverup, a comparison that then-syndicated columnist Mark Steyn referenced in a National Review column.Writing in dissent, Justice Alito argued that the high court has an interest in taking up the case because it would help establish free speech standards around one of the most hotly debated issues of the time, climate change."Climate change has staked a place at the very center of this Nation's public discourse. Politicians, journalists, academics, and ordinary Americans discuss and debate various aspects of climate change daily — its causes, extent, urgency, consequences, and the appropriate policies for addressing it," Alito wrote. "The core purpose of the constitutional protection of freedom of expression is to ensure that all opinions on such issues have a chance to be heard and considered. I do not suggest that speech that touches on an important and controversial issue is always immune from challenge under state defamation law, and I express no opinion on whether the speech at issue in this case is or is not entitled to First Amendment protection. But the standard to be applied in a case like this is immensely important."Mann subsequently filed defamation lawsuits against all parties involved, alleging that the leveled accusations of scientific and data molestation were false statements of fact, rather than opinion.In 2016, the D.C. Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Mann over the defendants, who argued on First Amendment grounds that the 2012 post represented "a subjective opinion about a matter of scientific or political controversy" and that "the evidence of record is that it actually has been proved to be false by four separate investigations." The court also turned down a defense under the Anti-SLAPP Act, which intends to stop lawsuits aimed at silencing advocates on public issues.Appeals of the decision, most recently in March, have also gone Mann's way. The stakes are high. A decision in favor of Mann would set a precedent for political rhetoric moving forward: Parties could potentially sue public adversaries and rely on juries to settle differences of policy opinion.In May, the defendants, joined by the Cato Institute, the Individual Rights Foundation, and the Reason Foundation, filed the petition the Supreme Court granted today. "In holding to the contrary, the decision below declares open season on all manner of speech offering analysis, interpretation and conjecture premised on reported fact, as the circumstances of this case illustrate," they contend.
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| Can't Get an F-35? Could Pakistan's JF-17 Be the Next Great Fighter Jet? Posted: 23 Nov 2019 01:00 PM PST  It's a capable jet.
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| U.S.-based chip-tech group moving to Switzerland over trade curb fears Posted: 25 Nov 2019 03:06 AM PST  SAN FRANCISCO/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S.-based foundation overseeing promising semiconductor technology developed with Pentagon support will soon move to Switzerland after several of the group's foreign members raised concerns about potential U.S. trade curbs. The nonprofit RISC-V Foundation (pronounced risk-five) wants to ensure that universities, governments and companies outside the United States can help develop its open-source technology, its Chief Executive Calista Redmond said in an interview with Reuters. "From around the world, we've heard that 'If the incorporation was not in the U.S., we would be a lot more comfortable'," she said.
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| Why Giuliani Eyed 2 Ukrainian Oligarchs for Help in Digging Dirt Posted: 25 Nov 2019 05:14 AM PST  VIENNA -- They were two Ukrainian oligarchs with American legal problems. One had been indicted on federal bribery charges. The other was embroiled in a vast banking scandal and was reported to be under investigation by the FBI.And they had one more thing in common: Both had been singled out by Rudy Giuliani and pressed to assist in his wide-ranging hunt for information damaging to one of President Donald Trump's leading political rivals, former Vice President Joe Biden.That effort culminated in the July 25 phone call between the U.S. and Ukrainian presidents that has taken Trump to the brink of impeachment and inexorably brought Giuliani's Ukrainian shadow campaign into the light.In public hearings over the past two weeks, U.S. diplomats and national-security officials have laid out in detail how Trump, at the instigation and with the help of Giuliani, conditioned nearly $400 million in direly needed military aid on Ukraine's announcing investigations into Biden and his son, as well as a debunked conspiracy theory that Ukraine, not Russia, interfered in the 2016 presidential election.But interviews with the two Ukrainian oligarchs -- Dmitry Firtash and Ihor Kolomoisky -- as well as with several other people with knowledge of Giuliani's dealings, point to a new dimension in his exertions on behalf of his client, Trump. Taken together, they depict a strategy clearly aimed at leveraging information from politically powerful but legally vulnerable foreign citizens.In the case of Firtash, an energy tycoon with deep ties to the Kremlin who is facing extradition to the United States on bribery and racketeering charges, one of Giuliani's associates has described offering the oligarch help with his Justice Department problems -- if Firtash hired two lawyers who were close to Trump and were already working with Giuliani on his dirt-digging mission. Firtash said the offer was made in late June when he met with Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, both Soviet-born businessmen involved in Giuliani's Ukraine pursuit.Parnas' lawyer, Joseph A. Bondy, confirmed that account and added that his client had met with Firtash at Giuliani's direction and encouraged the oligarch to help in the hunt for compromising information "as part of any potential resolution to his extradition matter."Firtash's relationship to the Trump-allied lawyers -- Victoria Toensing and Joseph diGenova -- has led to intense speculation that he is, at least indirectly, helping to finance Giuliani's campaign. But until now he has stayed silent, and many of the details of how and why he came to hire the lawyers have remained murky.In the interview, Firtash said he had no information about the Bidens and had not financed the search for it. "Without my will and desire," he said, "I was sucked into this internal U.S. fight." But to help his legal case, he said, he had paid his new lawyers $1.2 million to date, with a portion set aside as something of a referral fee for Parnas.And in late August, Toensing and diGenova did as promised: They went to the Justice Department and pleaded Firtash's case with the attorney general, William Barr.In an interview, Giuliani acknowledged that he had sought information helpful to Trump from a member of Firtash's original legal team. But, Giuliani said, "the only thing he could give me was what I already had, hearsay." Asked if he had then directed his associates to meet with Firtash, Giuliani initially said, "I don't think I can comment," but later said, "I did not tell Parnas to do anything with Firtash."He added, though, that there would be nothing improper about seeking information about the Bidens from the oligarchs. "Where do you think you get information about crime?" he said.But Chuck Rosenberg, a legal expert and a United States attorney under President George W. Bush, said the "solicitation of information, under these circumstances, and to discredit the president's political opponent, is at best "crass and ethically suspect."He added: "And it is even worse if Mr. Giuliani, either directly or through emissaries acting on his behalf, intimated that pending criminal cases can be 'fixed' at the Justice Department. The president's lawyer seems to be trading on the president's supervisory authority over the Justice Department, and that is deeply disturbing."Bondy, the lawyer for Parnas -- who was arrested with Fruman last month on campaign finance-related charges and has signaled a willingness to cooperate with impeachment investigators -- said in a statement that all of his client's actions had been directed by Giuliani."Mr. Parnas reasonably believed Giuliani's directions reflected the interests and wishes of the president, given Parnas having witnessed and in several instances overheard Mr. Giuliani speaking with the president," the lawyer said. Parnas, he added, "is remorseful for involving himself and Mr. Firtash in the president's self-interested political plot."A Conduit to UkraineBy the time Giuliani turned his attention to Kolomoisky and Firtash, he had been working for months to turn up damaging information about Biden and his son Hunter, who joined the board of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma while his father was vice president.Giuliani spoke with Ukrainian officials like Viktor Shokin, the former prosecutor general who suggested, falsely, that Biden had had him fired for looking into Burisma, as well as with Shokin's successor, Yuriy Lutsenko. And he enlisted Toensing and diGenova, trusted colleagues since their days together in the Reagan Justice Department, to help interview and potentially represent anyone willing to come forward with dirt. Parnas acted as translator and fixer, crisscrossing the Atlantic with stops at the Manhattan cigar bar that was Giuliani's hangout, a strip club in Kyiv and even a Hanukkah reception at the White House.The campaign seemed to be paying off, with the Ukrainian president, Petro Poroshenko, poised to announce the investigations Giuliani sought, when the political situation changed. On April 21, Poroshenko was unseated by Volodymyr Zelenskiy, a comedian and political novice, sending Giuliani scrambling to establish a conduit. Two days later, Parnas and Fruman flew to Tel Aviv to meet with Kolomoisky, who was seen as Zelenskiy's patron.Kolomoisky, a banking and media tycoon who is one of Ukraine's richest men, is also known for financing mercenary troops battling Russian-supported separatists in eastern Ukraine. Earlier in April, The Daily Beast had reported, citing unnamed sources, that the FBI was investigating him for possible money-laundering in connection with problems at a bank he had owned. He is also entangled in a civil lawsuit in Delaware.Giuliani's assessment, according to Parnas' lawyer, was that those legal problems made Kolomoisky vulnerable to pressure.But the meeting did not go according to plan. In an interview, Kolomoisky said the two men came "under the made-up pretext of dealing liquefied natural gas," but as soon as it became clear that what they really wanted was a meeting between Giuliani and Zelenskiy, he abruptly sent them on their way. The exchange, he said, went like this:"I say, 'Did you see a sign on the door that says, 'Meetings with Zelenskiy arranged here'?"They said, 'No.'"I said, 'Well then, you've ended up in the wrong place.' "Kolomoisky, who has denied wrongdoing in the bank case, said he had not been contacted by the FBI; a bureau spokesman declined to say whether the oligarch was under investigation.After the Kolomoisky meeting's unsuccessful end, Giuliani tweeted about the Daily Beast article and gave an interview to a Ukrainian journalist. Zelenskiy, he warned, "must cleanse himself from hangers-on from his past and from criminal oligarchs -- Ihor Kolomoisky and others."Kolomoisky offered a warning of his own, predicting in the Ukrainian press that "a big scandal may break out, and not only in Ukraine, but in the United States. That is, it may turn out to be a clear conspiracy against Biden."Help to Fight an ExtraditionThe pair fared better with Firtash.For several years, Firtash's most visible lawyer had been Lanny Davis, a well-connected Democrat who also represented Trump's fixer-turned-antagonist, Michael Cohen. In a television appearance in March, Giuliani had attacked Davis for taking money from the oligarch, citing federal prosecutors' contention that he was tied to a top Russian mobster -- a charge Firtash has denied.Now, however, Giuliani wanted Firtash's help. After being largely rebuffed by a member of the oligarch's legal team in early June, he hit upon another approach, according to Parnas' lawyer: persuading Firtash to hire more amenable counsel.There was a brief discussion about Giuliani's taking on that role himself, but Giuliani said he decided against it. According to Parnas' lawyer, that is when Giuliani charged Parnas with persuading the oligarch to replace Davis with Toensing and diGenova. The men secured the June meeting with Firtash in Vienna after a mutual acquaintance, whom Firtash declined to name, vouched for them.In the interview, Firtash said it had been clear to him that the two emissaries were working for Giuliani. The oligarch, a major player in the Ukrainian gas market, said Parnas and Fruman initially pitched him on a deal to sell American liquefied natural gas to Ukraine, via a terminal in Poland. While the deal didn't make sense financially, he said, he entertained it for a time, even paying for the men's travel expenses, because they had something else to offer."They said, 'We may help you, we are offering to you good lawyers in D.C. who might represent you and deliver this message to the U.S. D.O.J.," Firtash recalled, referring to the Justice Department.The oligarch had been arrested in Vienna in 2014, at the U.S. authorities' request, after his indictment on charges of bribing Indian officials for permission to mine titanium for Boeing. Firtash, who denies the charges, was free on bail but an Austrian court had cleared the way for his extradition to the United States.In hopes of blocking that order, Firtash and his Vienna lawyers had filed records showing that a key piece of evidence -- a document known as "Exhibit A" that was said to lay out the bribery scheme -- had been prepared not by Firtash's firm, but by the global consultancy McKinsey & Co. But Firtash's legal team had been unable to persuade federal prosecutors to withdraw it. McKinsey has denied recommending "bribery or other illegal acts."Toensing and diGenova, the Giuliani emissaries told him, "are in a position to insist to correct the record and call back Exhibit A as evidence," Firtash recalled.He hired the lawyers, he said, on a four-month contract for a singular task -- to arrange a meeting with the attorney general and persuade him to withdraw Exhibit A. He said their contract was for $300,000 a month, including Parnas' referral fee. A person with direct knowledge of the arrangement said Parnas' total share was $200,000; Toensing declined to discuss the payment but has said previously that it was for case-related translation.There was one more piece to Parnas' play. "Per Giuliani's instructions," Parnas' lawyer said, his client "informed Mr. Firtash that Toensing and diGenova were interested in collecting information on the Bidens." (It was the former vice president who had pushed the Ukrainian government to eliminate middleman gas brokers like Firtash and diversify the country's supply away from Russia.)While Firtash declined to say whether anyone linked to the dirt-digging efforts had asked him for information, he was adamant that he had not provided any. Doing so might have helped Giuliani, he said, but it would not have helped him with his legal problems."I can tell you only one thing," he said. "I do not have any information, I did not collect any information, I didn't finance anyone who would collect that information, and it would be a big mistake from my side if I decided to be involved in such a fight."At any rate, Toensing and diGenova soon delivered for Firtash, arranging the meeting with Barr. But by the time they met, in mid-August, the ground had shifted: The whistleblower's complaint laying out Trump's phone call with Zelenskiy, and Giuliani's activities in Ukraine, had been forwarded to the Justice Department and described in detail to Barr. What's more, concerns about intervening in the Firtash case had been raised by some inside the Justice Department, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.The department declined to comment, but Firtash said the attorney general ultimately told the lawyers to "go back to Chicago," where the case had initially been brought, and deal with prosecutors there.Firtash continues, however, to have faith in Toensing and diGenova's ability to work the Justice Department angle. Their contract was just extended at least through year's end.Documents LeakedIf Firtash had nothing to offer, Giuliani still got some results.After Toensing and diGenova came on board, confidential documents from Firtash's case file began to find their way into articles by John Solomon, a conservative reporter whom Giuliani has acknowledged using to advance his claims about the Bidens. Solomon is also a client of Toensing.One article, citing internal memos circulated among Firtash's lawyers, disclosed that the office of the special counsel, Robert Mueller, had offered a deal to Firtash if he could help with their investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Giuliani, who as a former federal prosecutor was aware that such discussions are hardly unusual, took the story a step further. In an appearance on Fox News, he alleged that the offer to Firtash amounted to an attempt to suborn perjury, but said the oligarch had refused to "lie to get out of the case" against him.Then, after the meeting with Barr, Solomon posted a sworn affidavit from Shokin, the former Ukrainian prosecutor, repeating his contention that Biden had pressed for his firing to short-circuit his investigations.Giuliani was soon waving the affidavit around on television, without explaining that it had been taken by a member of Firtash's legal team to support his case.Firtash said he had not authorized the document's release and hoped his lawyers had not either. He said the affidavit had been filed confidentially with the Austrian court because it also included the former prosecutor's statement that Biden had been instrumental in blocking Firtash's return to political life in Ukraine -- an assertion that Firtash believes speaks to the political nature of the case against him.Toensing and diGenova declined to say whether they had played a role in leaking the documents, but Mark Corallo, a spokesman for their law firm, said that the pair "took the Firtash case for only one reason: They believe that Mr. Firtash is innocent of the charges brought against him."When Parnas and Fruman were arrested, they were at Dulles International Airport awaiting a flight to Vienna, where they had arranged to have Fox News host Sean Hannity interview Shokin. Giuliani was planning to join them the next day, he said in an interview.A bemused Kolomoisky has watched the events unfold from Ukraine, where he returned after Zelenskiy's victory. Initially he didn't believe that Parnas was all that connected, he said, but after Giuliani started going after him, "I was able to connect A to B."He said he had since made peace with Parnas and had spoken to him several times, including the night before he was detained. In their conversations, he said, Parnas made no secret that he was helping Firtash with his legal case. And while Kolomoisky insisted that neither Parnas nor Fruman had mentioned his own legal travails, he added:"Had they, I would have said: 'Let's watch Firtash and train on Firtash. When Firtash comes back here, and everything is OK, I will be your next client.' "This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
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| 'You don't want to be hot in November': When have recent caucus winners surged in Iowa? Posted: 25 Nov 2019 07:35 AM PST  As Pete Buttigieg leaps atop the new Iowa Poll and a quartet appears to pull away, do low-polling candidates have a chance? Iowa caucus history says yes.
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| Vintage illustrations as Thanksgiving greetings Posted: 25 Nov 2019 07:07 AM PST ![Vintage illustrations as Thanksgiving greetings]( "Vintage illustrations as Thanksgiving greetings") Here's a look at some vintage Thanksgiving postcards, greeting cards and illustrations from the turn of the century to 1923. They don't make them like that any more!
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| Condolences pour in after shooting death of Alabama sheriff Posted: 23 Nov 2019 10:25 PM PST  Gov. Kay Ivey tweeted that Lowndes County Sheriff John Williams had been "tragically killed" in the line of duty and that she offered her prayers and sympathy to his family and the county sheriff's department. Williams is the fifth Alabama law enforcement officer to die from gunfire in the line of duty, and the sixth overall, in 2019, according to a statement from state Attorney General Steve Marshall.
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| China says defector to Australia is 'unemployed' fugitive Posted: 24 Nov 2019 07:18 PM PST  China sought late Saturday to discredit a man identified as a Chinese spy who defected to Australia with a trove of intelligence on Beijing's political interference operations in Hong Kong and overseas, accusing him of being an unemployed fraudster and fugitive. The Shanghai police statement came hours after a bombshell Australian media report recounting how Wang Liqiang had given Canberra's counter-espionage agency the identities of China's senior military intelligence officers in Hong Kong.
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| Number of Chinese Visitors to Taiwan Plunges by Most Since 2008 Posted: 25 Nov 2019 04:31 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- China's ban on individual travel to Taiwan has led to a sharp drop in Chinese visitors in the past two months.The number of mainlanders traveling to Taiwan plunged by 52.5% year-on-year in October, according to data from its Tourism Bureau. This followed a big dip in September. October's monthly drop was the biggest since Taiwan relaxed rules in 2008 to let Chinese tourists visit, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.As a result of the falling number of Chinese tourists, Taiwan's total visitor arrivals last month fell 2.15% from the same period the previous year, according to the tourism bureau. Visitor growth in the first 10 months slowed to 9.05%, or 9.73 million arrivals.China imposed a travel ban on individual travelers to Taiwan with effect from Aug. 1, although Chinese nationals are still allowed to visit in tour groups. The move came as Beijing attempted to isolate Taiwan and Tsai Ing-wen, its independence-leaning president.Read More:Taiwan Set for First Drop in Tourists Since 2003 After China BanChina Imposes Taiwan Travel Ban in Warning Shot to PresidentTo contact the reporter on this story: Chinmei Sung in Taipei at csung4@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Samson Ellis at sellis29@bloomberg.net, Magdalene FungFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| 5 Things the 2020 Democrats Aren’t Telling You About Medicare for All Posted: 25 Nov 2019 02:08 AM PST  There are some real-life hurdles to Sanders' and Warren's big plans.
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| This Is How The Philippines Will Help America Patrol The South China Sea Posted: 24 Nov 2019 08:30 PM PST  By buying P-3 surveillance planes.
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| Greenhouse gases surge to record in 2018, exceeding 10-yr average rate: U.N. Posted: 25 Nov 2019 02:00 AM PST ![Greenhouse gases surge to record in 2018, exceeding 10-yr average rate: U.N.]( "Greenhouse gases surge to record in 2018, exceeding 10-yr average rate: U.N.") Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere hit a new record in 2018, rising faster than the average rise of the last decade and cementing increasingly damaging weather patterns, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Monday. The U.N. agency's Greenhouse Gas Bulletin is one of a series of studies to be published ahead of a U.N. climate change summit being held in Madrid next week, and is expected to guide discussions there. It measures the atmospheric concentration of the gases responsible for global warming, rather than emissions.
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| Former incarcerated student: Society owes men and women in prison chance to return whole Posted: 24 Nov 2019 12:04 PM PST  PBS documentary shows how higher education helped me remove the shackles of incarceration. College degrees in prison can do the same for others.
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| Fox News host calls out GOP senator for debunked conspiracy theory Posted: 24 Nov 2019 11:53 AM PST  Fox News host Chris Wallace pushed back against Louisiana GOP Sen. John Kennedy, who echoed a debunked conspiracy theory promoted by President Trump that suggests Ukraine interfered in the 2016 presidential election on behalf of Hillary Clinton.
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| These 4th graders do their best to honor the flag, struggle to understand impeachment Posted: 25 Nov 2019 08:33 AM PST  At this school in Indiana, 4th grade students are charged with carefully taking down the U.S. flag and folding it every afternoon.
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| Over 1,000 LGBTQ members hold pride parade in New Delhi Posted: 24 Nov 2019 04:12 AM PST  More than 1,000 members of the LGBTQ community and their supporters marched through New Delhi on Sunday to celebrate India's sexual diversity, which they said is progressing but still has a long way to go to become a more accepting place for them. Carrying rainbow flags, balloons and placards and dancing to the beat of drums, they demanded self-identification in any gender for legal recognition rather than first registering as a transgender and then providing proof of surgery to authorities, as suggested by a government bill.
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| Iran rejects US order to pay $180 mn over reporter's jailing Posted: 25 Nov 2019 01:34 AM PST  Iran on Monday rejected a US court order for Tehran to pay $180 million in damages to a Washington Post reporter for jailing him on espionage charges. Jason Rezaian spent 544 days in an Iranian prison before he was released in January 2016 in exchange for seven Iranians held in the United States. On Friday, a US district court judge ordered damages be paid to Rezaian and his family in compensation for pain and suffering as well as economic losses.
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| Canada's new foreign minister says he pressed China on detainees Posted: 23 Nov 2019 05:51 PM PST  Canadian Foreign Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne, who has been in the job for four days, said on Saturday he had pressed his Chinese counterpart about the case of two Canadian citizens jailed in Beijing. China says the two men are being held on state secrets charges. Champagne, named to his post in a cabinet shuffle on Wednesday, said he had raised the matter when he met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi for almost an hour on the sidelines of a Group of 20 meeting in Nagoya, Japan.
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| US election 2020: Could former Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick save the day for moderate Democrats? Posted: 24 Nov 2019 08:34 AM PST  Deval Patrick's term as governor of Massachusetts did not get off to the best of starts in February 2007. With the state facing a $1 billion deficit and department heads told to trim budgets by 10 per cent, he chose to upgrade his official car from a Ford Crown Victoria to a Cadillac DeVille. This did not go down well and a few wags still call him "Cadillac Patrick". It is the sort of niggle which could come to haunt Mr Patrick, 62, as he enters the race for the Democratic nomination. But against that is his record as governor of Massachusetts, which impressed voters sufficiently to give him a second term. Democrat candidates "He was a terrific governor of Massachusetts," said Setti Warren, the executive director of the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy and former mayor of Newton, a town 10 miles west of Boston. "He took Massachusetts out of recession. He increased investment in education and transportation. He made the state a leader in renewable energy and created an environment which allowed life sciences to flourish." Mr Patrick's decision to enter the race, albeit belatedly, is evidence of the alarm among Democratic moderates that they will be swept away by the Elizabeth Warren juggernaut. Joe Biden's faltering campaign has triggered gossip that Hillary Clinton could throw her hat into the ring along with billionaire philanthropist and former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg. Mr Patrick offers a compelling backstory. He was raised by a single mother on the crime-plagued South Side of Chicago. Through diligence and intelligence, he gained entry to both Harvard and Harvard Law School. As a lawyer, he served as US Assistant Attorney General in Bill Clinton's administration and also in the private sector – working for Bain Capital, the private equity firm co-founded by Mitt Romney. Healthcare is the main issue for Democrat and independents - but migration tops Republicans' concerns Given the party's leftward drift, his association with a company synonymous with the man who ran against Barack Obama in the 2012 election, will do him few favours. Doubts over his candidacy remain among Democrats like former Congressman Barney Frank. "He was a perfectly able and competent governor, but there was nothing extraordinary about him. "I have a problem with people like him and Mike Bloomberg saying they are coming in to save the Democratic party." Steve Jarding, a veteran Democrat strategist, believes he has entered the race too late. "Deval Patrick does not have a lot of time left. How many times will he get to New Hampshire, Iowa, Nevada and South Carolina? "Time is your friend until it becomes your enemy. He has some smart people around him and he has been a successful governor and these smart people will tell him that this is too late."
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| Here Come Tokyo's Marines: This Ship Could Be the Key to Japan’s New Amphibious Capability Posted: 24 Nov 2019 10:30 PM PST  A Japanese shipbuilder is pitching a new amphibious assault ship that could transport the Japanese military's new Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade marine force and its MV-22 tiltrotors.
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| Rescued circus tigers to arrive in Florida after 18-month ordeal in Guatemala Posted: 25 Nov 2019 04:00 AM PST  Rescuers say they endured threats from armed Guatemalan mob after rescuing six lions and 15 tigers from circusesThree male tigers – Kimba, Max and Simba – will be airlifted to Miami and taken by road to Big Cat Rescue. Photograph: John Thys/AFP/Getty ImagesThree former circus tigers will arrive at a sanctuary in Florida on Monday, at the conclusion of a harrowing 18-month recovery operation that saw their rescuers exposed to repeated intimidation and threats from an armed Guatemalan mob.Workers for the California-based Animal Defenders International say they endured the harassment after rescuing six lions and 15 tigers from circuses in the Central American country following a 2017 law banning live performances by animals.In one of the worst incidents, they said an armed group invaded a transitional rescue center the charity had set up on private land designated by the government, stealing fences, gates and workers' possessions and attempting to take the animals back.The ADI team said it locked itself inside the facility until police and government officials arrived, then hastened efforts to relocate all the animals to a more secure temporary rescue center closer to Guatemala City's La Aurora airport in September, protected by its own armed guards."It was very unnerving and fractious," said Tim Phillips, the group's vice-president, who believes the landowner was trying to cash in on the enforced presence of the animals on his property. "We've rescued more than 150 animals in Bolivia, Peru and Colombia and never come across this kind of behavior."The reptile park we were allocated to seemed to have its eyes on milking US charities and donors for funds and effectively setting up a mini-zoo. Later, they were openly campaigning with the circuses who were trying to disrupt the rescue and overturn the ban."We find that once we show an interest in the animals the perception is that there must be lots of money to be made. Also, these animals are worth more dead than alive, for their bones, teeth and skins, or to be sold as pets. Internationally, animal trafficking is behind only drugs, arms and human trafficking."On Monday, three male tigers – Kimba, aged two and a half, and nine-year-olds Max and Simba – will be airlifted to Miami and taken by road to Big Cat Rescue, a 67-acre preserve in Tampa that houses more than 60 exotic animals. The remaining lions and tigers are being prepared to fly to ADI's recently opened 455-acre grassland sanctuary in South Africa before Christmas.Phillips said getting some of the circuses to release the animals had also been an ordeal, despite the support of the Guatemalan government, army and animal welfare division.One circus, he said, surrendered nine tigers and two lions but retained six tigers the group eventually rescued from a circus wagon parked in a scrapyard. During the original handover, Phillips said the ADI team was harassed by circus workers who stole their tools, while one circus employee tried to distract them by exposing himself.On another occasion, rescuers had to stop a circus worker beating a tiger with a metal bar as he was trying to move the animal between cages."The tiger had been in a cage all his life, he was terrified," Phillips said. "This circus guy comes up and goes mad, shouting at the tiger, lashing out and hitting it with the bar, leaving it with a bleeding leg and mouth. It could have been worse but it highlighted the brutality in these places."Once rescued, the animals received specialized veterinary care."Two tigers we rescued had seizures, they're so incredibly inbred," Phillips said. "Three of the animals needed dental surgery."Guatemala is among the most recent countries to adopt laws banning live animals in circus performances, according to ADI, which lists 46 countries and 32 of the 50 states of the US with prohibitions.In October, California's governor, Gavin Newsom, signed a bill banning most animals from circus performances while also making it the first state to outlaw the manufacture and sale of new fur products.In May, Arizona congressmen Raúl Grijalva and David Schweikert introduced a bill for the traveling exotic animal and public safety protection act, which would impose the first federal restrictions on the use of wild animals and update what Grijalva sees as "antiquated" animal welfare laws.The bill is endorsed by numerous animal advocacy groups including ADI.
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| When a Woman Called 911 for Pepperoni Pizza, a Dispatcher Recognized a Call for Help Posted: 24 Nov 2019 08:47 AM PST  A woman had called for help because a man had allegedly struck her mother
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| Kellyanne Conway Struggles to Defend Trump's DNC Server Conspiracy Theory on ‘Face the Nation’ Posted: 25 Nov 2019 06:13 AM PST  "Are you sure they did that? Are you sure they gave it to Ukraine?" Fox & Friends host Steve Doocy asked on Friday after Donald Trump ranted for several minutes about a conspiracy theory that a Ukrainian-based company helped the Democratic National Committee frame Russia for interference in the 2016 election. "Well, that is what the word is," the president replied. On Sunday morning, it was up to White House counsel Kellyanne Conway to defend that baseless claim and she more or less came up empty-handed. "The president gave an extended interview on Fox on Friday, and he said once again that they, meaning Ukraine, have the server from the Democratic National Committee," Margaret Brennan told Conway on Face the Nation. "Fiona Hill, the Russia expert formerly of the Trump White House, said this is something that's propagated by Russian security services- services. It's false narrative." George Conway Blasts GOP's 'Incoherent' Hearing Performance in MSNBC DebutWith that, the host presented an excerpt from a 60 Minutes report airing Sunday night in which John Demers, the Justice Department official in charge of investigating the 2016 election, completely debunks the idea that anyone besides the Russians is responsible for "hacking and dumping" DNC emails. "Well, our indictment spells out what it is—the evidence that we have has shown, which is it was the Russians who were behind the hacking and dumping of the Democratic campaign in 2016," Demers said. "We could prove it beyond a reasonable doubt." Then came this question from Brennan: "Why doesn't the president believe his own Justice Department and intelligence experts?" "But the president has said he accepts that," Conway answered, misleadingly, before undercutting her own point. "But also, there are plenty of ways to interfere in elections." She then proceeded to deflect by saying, "if we're doing this, we're back to Mueller and we've already spent two and a half years and thirty five million taxpayer dollars for a Mueller report that was produced in March. It was a big bomb." Instead of answering Brennan's direct questions about Trump's preferred conspiracy theory, Conway began warning that the "mainstream media" could "interfere in the 2020 election the way they tried in the 2016 election." "She's going to win. He has zero percent chance of winning," Conway said, repeating the conventional wisdom in 2016. "That's a different kind of interference, and that's dangerous, too." She could not ultimately explain or defend why the president refusing to take his own Justice Department and intelligence officials at their word. Meghan McCain Explains Why Kellyanne Conway Will Never Betray TrumpRead 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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| People are vaping a deadly substance along with THC. Why isn't vitamin E acetate illegal? Posted: 25 Nov 2019 07:40 AM PST  Vitamin E acetate is sometimes used to dilute THC oil in vape cartridges to make it go further. The substance can be deadly, but it's not banned everywhere.
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| Bloomberg News will not investigate Michael Bloomberg during his presidential bid Posted: 25 Nov 2019 07:51 AM PST  Bloomberg News said on Sunday it will not investigate its founder, former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, after he launched his candidacy for the Democratic primaries, continuing a policy of limiting coverage of its top executive.
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| Japanese boxer formerly on death row attends pope’s Mass Posted: 25 Nov 2019 01:45 AM PST  A former Japanese professional boxer who spent 48 years in prison for murders he says he did not commit was among some 50,000 people greeting Pope Francis as he entered Tokyo Dome stadium to celebrate Mass on Monday. Iwao Hakamada, who converted to Catholicism during his decades on death row, was invited to the Mass and was there with his sister, organizers said. Francis decreed the death penalty "inadmissible" last year, in a change to the Catholic teachings called Catechism.
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| More secrets of China's Xinjiang camps leaked to foreign media Posted: 24 Nov 2019 09:32 PM PST  Classified Chinese government documents made public by an international group of journalists describe the repressive inner workings of detention camps in Xinjiang, in a second rare leak in days of secret files concerning the troubled western region. The publication on Sunday of the documents by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) follows a New York Times report on Nov. 16 based on a cache of secret papers revealing details of China's clamp-down on ethnic Uighurs and other Muslims in the region. United Nations experts and activists say at least 1 million Uighurs and members of other largely Muslim minority groups have been detained in camps in Xinjiang.
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| Showdown looms over Syria chemical weapons probe Posted: 24 Nov 2019 07:30 PM PST  Russia and the West are braced for a fresh showdown at the world's chemical weapons watchdog this week over a new team that will name culprits for attacks in Syria for the first time. The investigators' first report identifying perpetrators is expected early next year, and tensions are already rising at the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). Moscow is threatening to block next year's budget for the OPCW at the annual meeting in The Hague if it includes funding for the new team, which could effectively shut down the watchdog.
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| This Is Why The Fed Must Keep Cutting Interest Rates Posted: 24 Nov 2019 07:15 AM PST  Or else America could be in for a world of pain.
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| It’s Time for Term Limits on the Supreme Court Posted: 24 Nov 2019 03:33 PM PST  Murmurs of concern swept through Washington, D.C., Friday night as news broke that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a four-time cancer survivor, was back in the hospital.Luckily, doctors said it was only because of chills and fever, and she went home Sunday. But Ginsburg's health remains a topic of discussion in D.C. She missed a day of oral argument last week owing to stomach pain, less than three months after completing treatment for her fourth bout with cancer. She missed two weeks of oral argument earlier this year because of lung cancer surgery, and then in August endured three weeks of radiation treatment for pancreatic cancer.Liberals live in a state of semi-panic that Ginsburg will leave the court and give President Trump the chance to name a third Supreme Court justice and put a conservative stamp on the body for a generation. Any Senate confirmation battle would be the mother of all political brawls, easily eclipsing the one last year surrounding Brett Kavanaugh.It's time to end the unseemly position that the anachronism of life tenure for Supreme Court justices has put the country in. It's a good thing that modern medicine is extending the lives of everyone, including Supreme Court justices. But the time has come to remove the incentives that make justices serve until they drop dead or are gaga. It's time to put term limits on the Supreme Court.Our Founding Fathers granted life tenure to Supreme Court justices to ensure their independence. But that's a relic of a day when the average life expectancy was 38. Today, it is more than twice that.Now, Supreme Court justices can spend two generations on the bench. And, so long as they avoid impeachment, only they can decide when it's time to leave. Judges today usually retire only when they can ensure a philosophically compatible successor. This can result in judges staying past their "sell by" date either physically or mentally. Examples in the past 50 years include Justices William O. Douglas and Thurgood Marshall.Life tenure "is undemocratic by nature," Gabe Roth, the executive director of the reform group Fix the Court, told The Atlantic magazine in 2015. "It sounds more like an oligarchy or a feudal system."Fix the Court has come up with a bipartisan proposal for 18-year term limits for the Supreme Court. A vacancy would come up every two years, meaning that every president would have at least two appointments in each term.The proposal could be enacted without amending the Constitution. Article III, Section 1 states that "Judges, both of the supreme and inferior Courts, shall hold their Offices during good Behavior." This has been interpreted to mean that Supreme Court justices have a life tenure. But the Constitution is silent on what is meant by "Offices." Nothing is said about judges remaining at their original posts for life.So the Fix the Court plan would preserve the Constitution's guarantee of tenure during "good Behavior" by having departing Supreme Court justices serve on one of the nation's eleven appeals courts.Naturally, some younger justices would opt out of continued judicial service and return to the private sector. For them ethics regulations would have to be crafted to protect against conflicts of interest. Retired judges might be barred from working for corporations or other entities that were a part of any case they had heard while they were on the Supreme Court.As with the existing term limit for the president and the idea of term limits for Congress, the notion of pumping fresh judicial blood into the current system is popular with the public. A 2018 Morning Consult poll found that 61 percent of registered voters favored Supreme Court term limits (67 percent of Democrats and 58 percent of Republicans).Chief Justice John Roberts (appointed by George W. Bush) and Justice Stephen Breyer (appointed by Bill Clinton) have both indicated support for the idea. In a 1983 memo written when he served in the Reagan White House, Roberts wrote: "Setting a term of, say, 15 years would ensure that federal judges would not lose all touch with reality through decades of ivory tower existence."Sadly, one hoped-for benefit of an 18-year nonrenewable Supreme Court term might not materialize in practice. In theory, an orderly changing of the guard on the Supreme Court should turn down the temperature of our current heated confirmation battles. The stakes, the theory goes, wouldn't be as great if every senator knew that the justice they were voting on could serve a maximum of 18 years.But the real reason confirmations are such brutal battles is that the Supreme Court plays too large a role in our society, as more and more issues fall under the scope of the Court. As the conservative Federalist Society recently noted:> The abundance of judges who do not view themselves as limited by constitutional or statutory text also drives the politicization of the confirmation process. By adding to the content of laws, they are acting as politicians rather than judges, and should expect a political selection process to match.Returning our courts to their proper place in our constitutional framework is a tall order, and not one to be solved by abandoning life tenure for Supreme Court justices. But the idea is a sensible step, enjoys support from both conservative and liberal legal scholars, and just might give Congress the opportunity to prove to the American people that it's still capable of bipartisan action.
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| The 5G Threat for Weather Satellites Is Only Growing Posted: 25 Nov 2019 06:41 AM PST  5G providers trespassing weather satellites frequencies could be devastating news for accurate weather prediction.
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| Trump impeachment: Giuliani plays down Parnas link and repeats 'insurance' claim Posted: 23 Nov 2019 02:14 PM PST  * Lawyer: Soviet-born go-betweens 'weren't James Bond' * New revelations pitch Nunes into impeachment drama * Impeach: Neal Katyal makes strong case against TrumpRudy Giuliani insisted the two Soviet-born Americans who form a link between Trump and Ukraine 'didn't have personal communications with the president'. Photograph: Charles Krupa/APTwo Soviet-born Americans who form a key link between Donald Trump and Ukraine "weren't James Bond", the president's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, said on Saturday, insisting the men "didn't have personal communications with the president" during a time period under intense scrutiny in the impeachment inquiry.Giuliani also repeated a remark made to the Guardian earlier this month, that he is not worried about Trump throwing him under the bus as an impeachment vote and Senate trial loom, because he has "insurance".Some observers have treated such remarks as potential veiled threats to Trump, to flip and tell House investigators everything he knows. Others, including Giuliani's own lawyer, have insisted the former New York mayor is joking.Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman played key roles earlier this year as Giuliani tried – at the president's direction – to get Ukraine to investigate both Democratic presidential contender Joe Biden and his son and a discredited conspiracy theory about supposed Ukrainian interference in the 2016 US election.Nearly $400m in military aid was held up with a White House meeting for the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, also dangled as bait. That quid pro quo, confirmed in public testimony by Trump appointee Gordon Sondland, lies at the heart of what Democrats say is an abuse of power that merits Trump's impeachment and removal from office.> I discovered a pattern of corruption that the Washington press has been covering up for three or four years> > Rudy GiulianiParnas and Fruman were arrested last month on a four-count indictment that includes charges of conspiracy, making false statements to the Federal Election Commission and falsification of records. Both pleaded not guilty.Parnas has indicated a willingness to cooperate with Congress. On Friday, CNN reported that a lawyer for Parnas said his client was willing to testify about meetings between Devin Nunes, the top Republican on the House intelligence committee conducting the impeachment inquiry, and a former Ukrainian prosecutor general in Vienna in 2018, allegedly to discuss digging up dirt on Biden.The same evening, newly released state department documents showed Parnas and Fruman's involvement in contacts between Giuliani and the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, in the months before the US ambassador to Ukraine was abruptly recalled, an event under scrutiny by the House panel.The documents were released to the group American Oversight in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. They showed that Pompeo talked to Giuliani on 26 March and 29 March. Last week, former ambassador Marie Yovanovitch told House investigators she felt "kneecapped" by a "smear campaign" Giuliani led against her. She was withdrawn from Ukraine in May.The documents also included a report that appeared with Trump hotel stationery and seemed to summarize a 23 January interview with former Ukrainian prosecutor general Viktor Shokin at which Giuliani, Parnas and Fruman were present.The CNN report about Nunes' trip to Europe quoted the attorney Joseph A Bondy as saying Parnas was told by Shokin that he met the California Republican in Vienna last December. Nunes responded by telling the far-right Breitbart News website he would sue CNN and the Daily Beast, which reported on the same subject.A second state department memo released on Friday appeared to summarize an interview with Yuri Lutsenko, another former prosecutor general of Ukraine, conducted in the presence of Giuliani, Parnas and Fruman. Lutsenko was quoted as raising questions about compensation Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden, received from the Ukrainian energy company Burisma.There is no evidence either Hunter Biden or his father committed any wrongdoing related to Ukraine.Speaking to Fox News on Saturday, Giuliani was asked about Parnas and Fruman."So they helped me find people," he said, "and as I've said, they did a good job, but they weren't investigators, and they weren't James Bond, and they didn't have personal communications with the president."Giuliani admitted introducing the men to Trump at a Hanukkah party in December 2018 – the subject of another CNN report – but said there was no extended conversation."They took a one-minute picture," he said. "They walked away."CNN cited sources as saying Parnas said "the big guy", meaning Trump, had "talked about tasking him and Fruman with what Parnas described as 'a secret mission' to pressure the Ukrainian government to investigate" the Bidens.Giuliani himself is being investigated by federal prosecutors in New York, over whether he failed to register as a foreign agent. On Fox News, the former mayor was asked if he was concerned about being indicted."Do you think I'm afraid?" he said. "Do you think I get afraid? I did the right thing. I represented my client in a very, very effective way. I was so effective that I discovered a pattern of corruption that the Washington press has been covering up for three or four years."Giuliani has defied attempts to compel him to turn over documentation relevant to the impeachment inquiry. He has also appeared dramatically in public testimony, described as being involved in a political "drug deal" and as "a hand grenade that was going to blow everyone up".On Saturday he released a dramatic letter to the South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham, a key Trump ally, in which he claimed witnesses damaging to House Democrats' case against Trump were being kept from coming to the US from Ukraine.Giuliani told Fox he continues to have a good relationship with Trump, to whom he talks "early and often". He also said he had seen it written that Trump was intending to throw him under the bus."When they say that, I say he isn't, but I have insurance," Giuliani said.That was a repeat of a remark made to the Guardian, prompting his own lawyer to interject: "He's joking."Later on Saturday, Giuliani returned to the subject on Twitter, writing that his remark was "sarcastic [and] relates to the files in my safe about the Biden Family's [four-] decade monetizing of his office. If I disappear, it will appear immediately".
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| This California town has the slowest internet in the U.S. Posted: 24 Nov 2019 01:21 AM PST  Less than 100 miles from the country's tech hub in San Francisco, rural residents lag far behind on internet access.
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| Mother of slain man sues Cleveland mayor, police chief Posted: 24 Nov 2019 10:21 PM PST  Questions about whether an Ohio mayor intervened on behalf of his grandson in the hours after a fatal shooting have prompted the victim's mother to file a wrongful death lawsuit against the mayor and the city's police chief. Andrea Parra sued Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson and Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams earlier this month in state court. The lawsuit said the two suspects in the slaying of 30-year-old Antonio Parra this summer were members of a gang connected to Jackson's 22-year-old grandson, Frank Q. Jackson.
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