| Thanks to Trump, the U.S. hasn't admitted a single refugee since September Posted: 01 Nov 2019 05:10 PM PDT  October was the first full month in at least 18 years in which the United States did not admit any refugees.
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| Assistant scoutmaster charged with sexually abusing boy, 12 Posted: 02 Nov 2019 11:41 AM PDT  An assistant scoutmaster on Long Island has been charged with sexually abusing a 12-year-old boy at several Boy Scouts of America retreats and meetings. Nassau County police arrested 26-year-old Jonathan Spohrer at his home in North Bellmore on Thursday after an extensive investigation, the department said. Police said Spohrer abused the boy during Boy Scouts retreats at several locations in New York state from January through November of 2018.
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| Michael Bennett Slams Warren’s Medicare for All Plan: The ‘New Numbers are Simply Not Believable’ Posted: 01 Nov 2019 11:32 AM PDT  Democratic senator and long shot presidential candidate Michael Bennet panned the new details of Senator Elizabeth Warren's Medicare for All plan on Friday, arguing that the cost estimates she provided simply won't cover the services her plan promises."Voters are sick and tired of politicians promising them things that they know they can't deliver," the Colorado senator said in a statement. "Warren's new numbers are simply not believable and have been contradicted by experts. Regardless of whether it's $21 trillion or $31 trillion, this isn't going to happen, and the American people need health care."Warren on Friday released the cost estimate of her plan, which increases federal spending by $21 trillion over the next ten years, a significant increase that is nevertheless cheaper than the $31 trillion increase attributed to Bernie Sanders' Medicare for All plan.The plan does not directly tax the middle class but does levy $9 trillion in additional taxes on employers over the next decade. The Massachusetts lawmaker argues that the employer tax would simply replace the cost employers currently incur to provide employee health insurance plans.Former Vice President Joe Biden, another 2020 contender, said the plan's nearly $9 trillion tax on employers would end up hitting middle class workers hardest as employers would simply pass them along to rank-and-file employees."The mathematical gymnastics in this plan are all geared towards hiding a simple truth from voters: it's impossible to pay for Medicare for All without middle-class tax increases," Biden's deputy communications director Kate Bedingfield said.Former Maryland congressman John Delaney, another long shot Democratic 2020 candidate, dismissed the plan as well, saying Warren's "numbers don't add up," but the "public options" plans more moderate Democrats have proposed are not enough."A 'public option' is a government run insurance company that does not go nearly far enough in addressing the inequality in our healthcare system," Delaney said in a pair of tweets on the issue. "We need universal healthcare; most developed nations have universal healthcare. But Medicare4all is a bad plan, BetterCare works."
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| ‘Not our mission’: private fire crews protect the insured, not the public Posted: 03 Nov 2019 03:00 AM PST  Agencies hired to protect assets look like first responders but, if a fire puts them in danger, they can become a liabilityFirefighters work to defend homes from an approaching wildfire in Sonoma, California. Photograph: Jim Urquhart/ReutersThe engines, big and small, came from all over the country to fight the Kincade fire in the Sonoma county wine region of California. There were trucks from Nevada, South Dakota, Colorado – and from the wildfire protection unit of home insurer AIG.As fires have increasingly encroached on development in California's wildlands in recent years, communities are grappling with a new paradigm of risk. If the fire creates an existential crisis for people living in high-risk areas, it also creates one for the companies that insure their homes.Insurers of houses, timber and agriculture have contracted with private firefighting agencies for decades. But now, thanks to longer, more devastating fire seasons, the business is booming.While some wealthy communities and individuals have contracted their own private firefighting services to defend mansions on hilltops from flying embers, the majority of these agencies work on behalf of insurance companies. And as fire risk extends to more homes in California's flammable brushland and forest, these crews are becoming a fixture in middle class neighborhoods. It is something of a return to a pre-American civil war model of pay-for-play firefighting, before the government employed first responders.Firefighters protect a Pacific Palisades area home in Los Angeles from the flames of a wildfire. Photograph: Christian Monterrosa/Associated Press"Any policyholder that would like to have wildfire services, all they need to do is shop from more than a dozen insurers out there that have these services," said David Torgerson, president of Wildfire Defense Systems, a private firefighting firm. "It's not a special policy. It's not something that's exclusive. It's something that the insurance industry has found brings value."Insured losses for the 2018 California wildfire season topped $12bn. Insurance companies are looking for any way to reduce payouts in the future, whether by raising rates, dropping coverage, or putting new risk mitigation measures into place – including, in some cases, these kinds of private fire crews.The services they provide focus primarily on fire prevention mitigation – cutting back vegetation, creating clear defensible space around structures and providing consultations on other home hardening work. As in the Kincade fire, private crews also sometimes access mandatory evacuation zones during active wildfires to protect valuable assets while the embers are flying – a move that makes some government firefighters and local authorities uneasy."Generally speaking, from our perspective, we have found that private fire crews are not first responders," said Carroll Wills, communications director for California Professional Firefighters.Firefighters watch from a home in the Pacific Palisades area as a helicopter drops water on a wildfire. Photograph: Christian Monterrosa/Associated PressPrivate fire crews travel into evacuation zones in trucks equipped with water tanks and hoses and retardant, looking nearly identical to their government counterparts – though their sole task is to protect specific insured homes.Torgerson, president of Wildfire Defense Systems, noted that while his teams are capable of fighting fires, "that's not our mission in this case"."Our task with the insurance industry is more so to prepare the homes and secure them, prior to and after the fire, and contribute to the survivability," he said."Our [wildfire protection unit] teams are not private firefighters," said Matt Gallagher, a spokesman for AIG – yet they station engines with full tanks in evacuation zones during wildfires that can turn dangerous within seconds.Lawmakers grew concerned that civilians would see these private engines and get a false sense of security about remaining in evacuation zones. Government firefighters voiced complaints about rolling onto a scene, believing the area to be fully evacuated, only to find private fire crews who had not alerted incident command.In the 2018 Woolsey fire, Kim Kardashian famously hired private firefighters to save her $50m Calabasas mansion – a crew that, said Wills, never told anyone of their plans. "That's just incredibly dangerous," Wills said. A helicopter drops water on a brush fire during the Woolsey Fire in Malibu, California. Photograph: Ringo HW Chiu/Associated PressPrior to the 2018 fire season, California lawmakers passed a bill requiring private crews to alert public incident command and obtain permission before entering an evacuation zone. The law codified a best-practice guideline put in place in 2008. Torgerson, who founded his company that same year, said his company has always followed these directives, and will continue to do so now that the law is in effect."We've responded to more than 650 wildfires since 2008, and more than 97% of the time, we've been granted access to the evacuation zones to conduct these insurance missions," he said. "We've coordinated with hundreds of incident command teams."Torgerson said he does not know why his crews were not permitted 3% of the time."We're fully qualified under state and federal certification and training processes," he said. "We are the same resources that the federal government hires."But their mission is fundamentally different. Government firefighters are tasked with saving life, first and foremost, so if the fires turn and the private crews require rescue, "they are a liability", Wills said."We understand that when people see these massive fires, there's a tendency to say, 'Well, more is better'," Wills said. "From our perspective, more really isn't better. The more that we need is more fully trained and battle-tested, front-line firefighters and emergency responders."
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| Hollow building becomes center of Iraq's uprising Posted: 02 Nov 2019 12:41 PM PDT  The skeleton of a high-rise building overlooking Baghdad's central Tahrir Square known as the Turkish Restaurant has become a temporary home and a bustling center for protesters staging demonstrations against Iraq's ruling elites. Dressed in combat trousers and wearing an Iraqi flag as a cape, the 35-year-old is the leader of the group, made up of 20-odd young men who occupy a corner of the building's base. Groups of young men have occupied all 18 floors of the building, with its cramped unlit narrow staircases.
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| Despite break in winds, Maria Fire north of Los Angeles becomes fast-moving blaze, prompting evacuations Posted: 01 Nov 2019 09:50 AM PDT  Despite a break in the Santa Ana winds, the Maria Fire exploded overnight north of Los Angeles, prompting evacuations.
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| 23 ISIS wives start repatriation case in Netherlands Posted: 01 Nov 2019 11:13 AM PDT  Lawyers for 23 women who joined the Islamic State group from the Netherlands asked a judge on Friday to order the Netherlands to repatriate them and their 56 young children from camps in Syria. The women and children were living in "deplorable conditions" in the al-Hol camp in northern Syria, lawyer Andre Seebregts said in court.
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| As Trump investigation circles back to Ukraine and Manafort, another whistleblower walks the streets, famous but out of a job Posted: 03 Nov 2019 06:55 AM PST  Serhiy Leshchenko kicked off the probe that put Trump's campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, in jail. Now, as Ukraine becomes even more central to the impeachment investigation, Leshchenko has been vindicated — but is still a target of Rudy Giuliani.
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| New Mexico man gets life for killing family as teen Posted: 01 Nov 2019 05:18 PM PDT  A man convicted of fatally shooting his parents and three siblings in New Mexico as a 15-year-old was sentenced Friday to life in prison with the possibility of parole in a case that has tested the limits of mental treatment for juvenile offenders. Judge Alisa Hart sentenced 22-year-old Nehemiah Griego after his attorney sought a sentence that would have let him continue treatment while on probation.
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| Biden Says Warren’s Medicare for All Plan Would Require $9 Trillion Middle-Class Tax Hike Posted: 01 Nov 2019 10:45 AM PDT  Presidential candidate Joe Biden took a shot at the Medicare for All white paper released Friday by rival 2020 contender Senator Elizabeth Warren, saying her plan would require a nearly $9 trillion middle-class tax hike."For months, Elizabeth Warren has refused to say if her health care plan would raise taxes on the middle class, and now we know why: because it does," Biden's deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfield said. "Senator Warren would place a new tax of nearly $9 trillion that will fall on American workers."Warren on Friday released the results of her campaign's numbers crunching on Medicare for All, which does not raise taxes on the middle class through an increase in income tax, but does include an almost $9 trillion tax on employers. The Massachusetts Democrat argues that the tax would simply replace the costs employers currently incur for their workers' health insurance — but Biden warned that cost will ultimately be passed along to rank-and-file employees."There's no two ways about it, we cannot defeat Donald Trump with double talk on health care — especially not about the impact and cost of a proposal to completely dismantle our health care system and eliminate employer-sponsored and all other private health insurance," Bedingfield added.Biden has repeatedly criticized Warren's Medicare for All plan, which she claims would require $21 trillion in additional spending over ten years, which is significantly less than the cost projections for Senator Bernie Sanders' similar plan. The former vice president instead favors expanding the existing Affordable Care Act, the Obama administration's signature legislative accomplishment, so that all Americans would be eligible to sign up."My plan costs a lot," Biden said from the Democratic debate stage in September. "But it doesn't cost $30 trillion. That's twice the entire federal budget before it exists now. How will we pay for it? I want to hear. [Warren] has not said how she'll pay for it, and [Sanders] only gets about half way there. I lay out how I can pay for it and how I can get it done and why it's better."
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| What Is Daylight Saving Time? Posted: 03 Nov 2019 06:00 AM PST  Times they are a changin'.
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| Teachers strike taught Chicago's new mayor tough lessons -analysts Posted: 01 Nov 2019 12:27 PM PDT  Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot made strategic errors in the first major fight of her tenure, an 11-day teachers' strike, but may have learned lessons that will prove useful as she confronts immense city budget challenges, political observers said. Lightfoot, 57, was elected in convincing fashion to become Chicago's first black woman mayor in April, when she vaulted to victory on promises to dismantle the city's corrupt political machine and reform the city's school district.
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| Goodbye, Beto O'Rourke. What a sad end to a pointless campaign Posted: 03 Nov 2019 07:00 AM PST  There was no reason for Beto O'Rourke to run for president. But he was convinced we needed him'After the initial burst of publicity, Beto fizzled quickly.' Photograph: Larry W Smith/EPAWhen Bernie Sanders was first asked about Beto O'Rourke entering the presidential race, his reply was dismissive: "Free country, anybody can run." But others thought O'Rourke was a powerful new rival. The New York Times said that Sanders' "stronghold on the party's progressive wing has weakened" because he was now "outflanked on the left by rising stars" like O'Rourke. O'Rourke debuted with a splash: a long, flattering profile in Vanity Fair in which O'Rourke—to his later regret—said "Man, I'm just born to be in it."He was not, as it turned out, born to be in it.After the initial burst of publicity, Beto fizzled quickly. His poll numbers never got out of single digits, and at first he didn't seem to know what he stood for or why he stood for it. Eventually, he hit upon a signature issue: gun control. But his provocative rhetoric—"Hell yeah, we're going to take your AR-15"—seemed to backfire entirely, and he was accused of "hurting the cause" and even "single-handedly dooming a gun control bill." He continued to lack a following outside of Texas, a place where he could not even win a statewide election against the Senate's most reviled member. Perhaps the only person who ever truly thought Beto O'Rourke was likely to be president was Beto O'Rourke.What, if anything, can we take from the brief, underwhelming presidential run of Robert Francis O'Rourke? First, media hype does not a candidacy make. Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post declared in March that "Beto fundraising number[s] suggests Bernie now officially yesterday's news, faces stiff competition for youth vote." Indeed, Beto initially hauled in an impressive amount. But things change quickly in politics; remember that Rudy Guiliani and Jeb Bush were both once Republican Party frontrunners. Horse race pundits like to issue declarations and prophecies, but are just speculating. Political media is in constant need of new stories to tell, so we get a lot of "Could Candidate X Be The Next Big Thing?" coverage. The sensible thing to do is ignore most of this. Beto-mania was never likely to grip the country.We might also learn quite a simple lesson, namely that if you're going to run for president, it helps to have a good reason for it. A reason beyond being "born to be in it," that is. The Vanity Fair profile in which Beto debuted his national run was full of personal details about his life, such as his reading habits and his love of punk rock, but he didn't say much about what he wanted to do as president, beyond having the United States "lead the world." He also voiced uncertainty about being "against" things, saying he preferred to be "for" things, which is fine if you specify the things you're for, but also a worrying sign that you're insufficiently outraged by injustice. You'd think even Beto could have said he was against that, but he wouldn't even go so far as to say he was a progressive, saying he "[didn't] know" and was "not big on labels."Beto's campaign suffered from the same defect as Hillary Clinton's. Insider accounts confirmed that Clinton could never really find a clear reason why she was in the race to begin with, and didn't have any kind of clear agenda in mind. It was mostly that she just wanted to be president, and felt like the sort of person who ought to be president. Like Pete Buttigieg, who talked about having the right "alignment of attributes" for the job—for him, an Ivy League education, military service, and small town heartland authenticity—both Clinton and O'Rourke emphasized their personal traits over their political ideas. But people want substance: they need to know what you plan to do for their lives, not just why you're a cool person with the kind of haircut that the president might have in a movie.Beto's run always seemed like an ego trip. His family did not seem nearly as enthusiastic as he was about it, and his young son promised to "cry every day" if O'Rourke went through with it. He got into trouble for casually joking about putting the burden of parenting on his wife as he criss-crossed Texas campaigning for the Senate. But fame and power are alluring, and O'Rourke was one of dozens of politicians lured into the 2020 race by the promise of a national profile and a shot at the highest office. A slew of nondescript white men, including John Delaney, Michael Bennet, Tim Ryan, Seth Moulton, and John Hickenlooper, were delusional enough to think they might stand a chance. They might not have been that irrational, though: even in failing, they succeed in making themselves more well-known and possibly even more influential.They'll all go eventually, though. With no original ideas, no movements behind them, they have nothing to offer the electorate, and the electorate knows it. Beto O'Rourke should never have run for president, but he couldn't stop himself, because some men are just convinced they're born for it. * Nathan Robinson is the editor of Current Affairs and a Guardian US columnist
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| This time, Southern California was prepared for wildfires. Here's how countless homes were saved Posted: 02 Nov 2019 09:47 AM PDT  The winds roared again but Los Angeles and other Southern California cities were prepared as firefighters saved thousands of homes.
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| Who Wore It Better? 10 Names Shared by Automakers Posted: 02 Nov 2019 05:20 AM PDT |
| Vietnam 'strongly condemns' human trafficking after UK truck tragedy Posted: 01 Nov 2019 10:14 PM PDT  Vietnam said Saturday that it "strongly condemns" human trafficking, after British police confirmed 39 people found dead in a truck last week are believed to be Vietnamese. Most of the victims are thought to come from central Vietnam, where easy-to-find brokers help to arrange trips to Europe -- often via Russia -- for migrants hoping to earn money overseas. The extreme risks of the journeys were laid bare after eight women and 31 men were found dead in a refrigerated container in Essex, east of London, on October 23.
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| Pete Buttigieg rising in polls as Democrats battle for edge in historically important Iowa rally Posted: 02 Nov 2019 07:58 AM PDT  Democrats continued to drive a wedge between moderates and progressives at a major rally in Des Moines, Iowa as Pete Buttigieg emerged as an unlikely second-place contender in the race for the state's support.The Liberty and Justice Celebration Dinner is the biggest campaign event in an early voting primary state – and one that has helped turn the tables for candidates of the past.
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| El Salvador expels Venezuelan diplomats from the country Posted: 03 Nov 2019 01:21 AM PST ![El Salvador expels Venezuelan diplomats from the country]( "El Salvador expels Venezuelan diplomats from the country") El Salvador said on Saturday it had ordered Venezuela's diplomats to leave the Central American country within 48 hours, arguing that the decision was in line with its position that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is illegitimate. In a statement, the government said President Nayib Bukele recognized opposition leader Juan Guaido as Venezuela's interim president until free elections were held in the South American country. El Salvador will receive a new Venezuela diplomatic corps, named by Guaido, the government added.
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| The Most Cringe-Worthy 90s Internet Guides That We Can't Stop Watching Posted: 02 Nov 2019 09:00 AM PDT |
| Activist Greta Thunberg joins L.A. protest of oil drilling Posted: 01 Nov 2019 02:33 PM PDT  Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swedish girl who accused international leaders of standing idly by as global warming threatens to destroy the planet in a speech shared around the world, is joining young activists in Los Angeles for a protest aimed at getting California out of the oil-drilling business.
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| Over 1,500 California fires in the last 6 years — including the deadliest ever — were caused by one company: PG&E. Here’s what it could have done, but didn’t. Posted: 03 Nov 2019 06:52 AM PST  Regular blackouts are PG&E;'s new strategy to avoid starting fires. A writer called it "the most detested, and detestable, corporation in California."
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| A 9,000-barrel leak in the Keystone pipeline in North Dakota spilled enough crude oil to fill half an Olympic-sized swimming pool Posted: 02 Nov 2019 11:00 AM PDT  The second large oil spill from the Keystone pipeline in two years provoked outrage because TC Energy told activists that spills were unlikely.
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| Chicago teen charged in suspected gang shooting that injured girl who was trick-or-treating Posted: 02 Nov 2019 09:34 AM PDT  A 7-year-old girl was trick-or-treating in Chicago when she was hit by a stray bullet. A teenager has now been charged.
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| The U.S. Military is Sending Thousands of Troops and Even B-1 Bombers into Saudi Arabia (To Counter Iran) Posted: 03 Nov 2019 01:30 AM PDT  And that is just for starters.
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| Iran says cooperation plan sent to Gulf neighbours Posted: 02 Nov 2019 10:08 AM PDT  Iran said Saturday it has sent Iraq and Arab states of the Gulf the text of its security and cooperation project first unveiled by President Hassan Rouhani at the UN in September. Rouhani "sent the full text (of the initiative) to the heads" of the Gulf Cooperation Council and Iraq and "asked for their cooperation in processing and implementing it", the foreign ministry said. The GCC is a six-nation bloc that groups Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Oman.
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| Andrew Yang's campaign has gone 'mainstream' Posted: 02 Nov 2019 10:09 AM PDT ![Andrew Yang's campaign has gone 'mainstream']( "Andrew Yang's campaign has gone 'mainstream'") While some Democratic presidential candidates are cutting back on their campaigns, entrepreneur Andrew Yang is going all in, Politico reports.Yang, who as recently as April had fewer than 20 staff members on his campaign's payroll, now has 73 people running the show. "It's been like a startup but this startup has gone mainstream, about to go public, if you want to keep using the analogy," said Zach Graumann, Yang's campaign manager. "And frankly and I tell the team, 'we're just getting started.'"There's some big names now involved with the campaign, as well, lending more credence to Graumann's words. Devine, Mulvey, and Longabaugh -- a media consulting firm which worked for the 2016 campaign for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) but opted not to join forces again for 2020 over "differences in a creative vision" -- has shifted its services to the Yang campaign because he's "offering the most progressive ideas" among the Democratic candidates. They also don't think he's a flash in the pan."We wouldn't have signed on with somebody we didn't think was a serious candidate," Mark Longabaugh said. "Yang has a good deal of momentum and there's a great deal of grassroots enthusiasm for his candidacy and that's what's driven it this far." Yang still faces numerous hurdles to really get back in the running, but the campaign surely thinks it's possible. Read more at Politico.
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| For Vietnam's 'Box People,' a Treacherous Journey Posted: 01 Nov 2019 12:20 PM PDT  LONDON -- Vietnamese smugglers call it the "CO2" route: a poorly ventilated, oxygen-deficient trip across the English Channel in shipping containers or trailers piled high with pallets of merchandise, the last leg of a perilous, 6,000-mile trek across Asia and into Western Europe.Compared to the other path -- the "VIP route," with its brief hotel stay and seat in a truck driver's cab -- the trip in a stuffy container can be brutal for what some Vietnamese refer to as "box people," successors to the "boat people" who left after the Vietnam War ended in 1975.Vietnamese migrants often wait for months in roadside camps in northern France before being sneaked into a truck trailer. Snakeheads, as the smugglers are known, beat men and sexually assault women, aid groups, lawyers and the migrants themselves say. People cocoon themselves in aluminum bags and endure hours in refrigerated units to reduce the risk of detection.That journey proved fatal last week for 39 people, many of them believed to be Vietnamese, who were found dead in a refrigerated truck container in southeastern England.As dangerous as the last leg of the migrant journey to Britain often is, those petrifying hours in a trailer are sometimes only a sliver of months if not years of harsh treatment -- first at the hands of organized trafficking gangs, and then under imperious bosses at nail salons and cannabis factories in Britain.But still they come, an estimated 18,000 Vietnamese paying smugglers for the journey to Europe every year at prices between 8,000 and 40,000 pounds, around $10,000 to $50,000.In Britain, where Brexit has discouraged the flow of labor from Eastern Europe, migrants see a country thirsty for low-wage workers, paying easily five times what they could earn at home and free of the onerous identity checks that make other European countries inhospitable.Vietnamese smugglers, for the most part, get their clients across to France and the Netherlands, where other gangs, often Kurdish and Albanian, or, as in the recent case, apparently Irish or Northern Irish, finish the job.Many come from Ha Tinh and Nghe An, two impoverished provinces in north-central Vietnam, and leave for Britain with their eyes wide open to the risks, analysts say. Having watched their neighbors suddenly refurbish their homes with pricier materials, or buy better cars, they crave the same sense of security for their family, whatever it might cost them.But when Britain fails to deliver on that promise, migrants can end up in a dreadful limbo, kept from seeking help by the country's harsh immigration system and living in the grip of a shadowy system of traffickers and the employers who rely on them."I always encourage them, 'Stay at home,'" the Rev. Simon Thang Duc Nguyen, the parish priest at a Catholic church in East London attended by many migrant parishioners, said this week. "Even though you are poor, you have your life. Here, you have money, but you lose your life."Not all the 20,000 to 35,000 undocumented Vietnamese migrants estimated to be living in Britain have horror stories to tell. Many migrants, some experts say, put up with the travails of working in Britain for the real chance of a payday."My research has shown stories of migrants are not all about exploitation and not all about being trafficked," said Tamsin Barber, a lecturer at Oxford Brookes University. "People are usually coming here agreeing to take high risks to work illegally and potentially earn large amounts of money in the cannabis trade."But more vulnerable Vietnamese are also being trafficked to Britain, with the authorities receiving five times as many referrals last year as in 2012.Once family and friends have scraped together enough money, the odyssey may begin with a trip to China to pick up forged travel documents. That is how many of the dozens of people who died in the truck began their journey, said Anthony Dang Huu Nam, a Catholic priest serving a church in the town of Yen Thanh, where he said dozens of the victims were from.On the way from China to Russia to Western Europe, one of the most punishing stretches is the walk through Belarusian forests to the Polish border. In a 2017 French survey of Vietnamese migrants, a man identified as Anh, 24, told researchers that he and five other men, led by a smuggler, were repeatedly arrested in Belarus, only to be released at the Russian border to try again. When they finally succeeded, they were met by a truck waiting on the Polish side."We were cold," the survey quoted him as saying. "We didn't eat anything for two days. We drank water from melted snow."Other routes, choreographed down to the minute, land migrants in European airports with recycled visas and travel documents, according to "Precarious Journeys," a recent report from ECPAT, an anti-child-trafficking organization, and other groups. As a precaution, smugglers in Vietnam often tell people to arrive at airport check-in desks 10 minutes before they close, for instance, so agents do not have enough time to inspect paperwork.The trip can take months, even years. Nguyen Dinh Luong, 20, one of the migrants believed to have died last week, wanted to go to France to find work and support his siblings, seven of them in all, his father, Nguyen Dinh Gia, said. But in Russia, he overstayed his tourist visa and was confined to his house for six months. Then he moved to Ukraine and France, where he found a job as a waiter, before deciding to go to Britain for work in a nail salon.Trips are frequently interrupted when migrants are detained or run out of money. Some migrants are forced to work along the way, in garment factories in Russia or in restaurants across Europe. Some women sell sex, researchers say.Smugglers often keep people in the dark about where they are as a way of exerting total control. In a 2017 case, 16 Vietnamese people picked up by the Ukrainian authorities in Odessa thought they were in France.When migrants disobey their smugglers, the blowback can be fierce."They cannot be discovered by the police, so they have to keep the discipline," said Nguyen, the priest in London. "If you do not behave, you can be punished by beatings, or for women be abused sexually."And once they arrive in Britain, they are often in for a rude awakening. Sulaiha Ali, a human rights lawyer, said migrants were sometimes promised legitimate work in a restaurant or on a construction site, only to be forced to work as "gardeners" in a house converted into illegal cannabis growing operations. Locked inside the house for days at a time and often living 15 to a room, workers face the risk of fire from tampered electrical wiring and health problems from noxious chemicals.In the nail salons where many Vietnamese find work, salon bosses can control every aspect of workers' lives, a power that can breed exploitation, though researchers said some bosses also become migrants' surrogate parents, cooking for them and providing a place to stay.When the police raid places housing migrants, they can often ignore signs of forced work or human trafficking and send migrants into deportation proceedings instead, migrant advocates say. "The emphasis, as soon as it's established someone doesn't have any identification documents, is not trying to establish whether they've been exploited," Ali said. "It's on, 'Can we justify detention? Can we get them removed back to their countries?'"That threat of deportation, whatever someone's circumstances, is a cudgel for trafficking gangs to keep migrants under their sway."There's a serious distrust of authorities, a lot of the time because traffickers have embedded that in victims' minds: 'You don't have official documents,' or, 'You're going to be deported or imprisoned,'" said Firoza Saiyed, a human rights lawyer. "It's another thing that makes disclosure really difficult."Older Vietnamese migrants in Britain, many of whom arrived after the Vietnam War, are separated by a wide cultural gulf from the newer arrivals, but they have still proved to be a crucial support, ever more so in the last week.Nguyen, who left Vietnam in 1984, said he had been fielding calls from families in Vietnam, wanting to know if he could tell them whether their children were in the trailer."The mother, the father, all called me in tears," he said. "I couldn't bear hearing the words. You have to borrow a lot of money for this journey, and now you had hoped your daughter, your son can be successful, and that you can have some money to pay the debt. Now, it's hopeless -- nothing."He went on, "Nothing is OK, as long as they are arrested or in prison. It's OK, they survived. But now they lost two things. They lost hope and they lost their lives. Nothing."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
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| Anti-immigrant rhetoric may put health of U.S. Latinos at risk Posted: 01 Nov 2019 01:44 PM PDT ![Anti-immigrant rhetoric may put health of U.S. Latinos at risk]( "Anti-immigrant rhetoric may put health of U.S. Latinos at risk") In a survey of patients who showed up at three urban California emergency departments, researchers found that half of Latino citizens and legal residents as well as three quarters of undocumented immigrants feel unsafe because of comments made by the administration. One quarter of undocumented immigrants said they were so frightened they delayed going to the emergency room for days, according to the report published in PLoS ONE. "Statements coming from the administration and the President really do have significant effects on Latino populations," said the study's lead author, Dr. Richard Rodriguez, a professor of emergency medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and a physician at San Francisco General Hospital.
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| California wildfires: Climate change driving ‘horror and the terror’ of devastating blazes, say scientists Posted: 02 Nov 2019 09:52 AM PDT  The words from California's former governor could barely have been more stark."I said it was the new normal a few years ago,'' said Jerry Brown. "This is serious, but this is only the beginning. This is only a taste of the horror and the terror that will occur in decades."
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| University of Texas fraternity closes over hazing claims Posted: 01 Nov 2019 01:39 PM PDT  The University of Texas chapter of the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity has been shut down following a university investigation into hazing allegations, the third such accusation the chapter has faced in eight years. The investigation revealed that during the 2018-19 school year fraternity pledges were shot with air soft guns and forced to eat spicy soup made with ghost peppers and cat food. The probe found that pledges competed in relay races where they ran back and forth between the chapter house and a nearby apartment building while chugging milk mixed with hand soap, laundry detergent or vinaigrette.
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| Airbnb bans 'party houses' after 5 die in Halloween party shooting at home rental Posted: 03 Nov 2019 07:28 AM PST  CEO Brian Chesky said Airbnb Inc. is banning "party houses" after five people were killed in a shooting at a Halloween party in Orinda, California.
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| Experts on Trump's conduct: 'Plainly an abuse of power, plainly impeachable' Posted: 01 Nov 2019 09:00 PM PDT  Republicans may argue Trump's actions were not impeachable – but scholars say it's a solid example of a high crimeDonald Trump at the White House in Washington DC this week. Photograph: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPAWas what he did really so bad? And even if it was bad – was it truly impeachable?As Democrats hit the gas on impeachment this week, Donald Trump exhorted Republicans to defend him on the substance of his actions in the Ukraine scandal, instead of sniping about the process."Rupublicans [sic]," Trump tweeted "go with Substance and close it out!"Trump's misconduct, critics say, includes using the power of the presidency to solicit foreign intervention in the 2020 US election, by trying to force Ukraine to help conduct a political hit on Joe Biden.Trump denies all wrongdoing and most of his defenders do too. But there is a (slightly) subtler version of Trump defense that Republicans are trying out which says that while Trump's conduct has not been irreproachable, neither has it been impeachable.The argument, according to constitutional experts and historians of impeachment, is not a strong one. In fact, Trump's conduct, according to analysts interviewed by the Guardian, hews more closely than any previous conduct by any other president to what scholars conceive as a concrete example of impeachable behavior.Frank O Bowman III, author of High Crimes and Misdemeanors: A History of Impeachment for the Age of Trump and a professor at the University of Missouri school of law, said that Trump's having extorted actions with no legitimate US national purpose from a foreign country that is "literally at risk of losing its political and territorial independence" without US support was impeachable."It's plainly an abuse of power, and it's plainly impeachable," Bowman said."I think these are quite clearly, precisely the type of high crimes and misdemeanors that the founders not only feared but actually discussed at the constitutional convention," said Jeffrey A Engel, co-author of Impeachment: An American History and director of the center for presidential history at Southern Methodist University."The high crime is the trade – give me dirt on Joe Biden and his son, and I'll give you in return military aid and help with your economy – I think that is certainly impeachable," said Corey Brettschneider, author of The Oath and the Office: A Guide to the Constitution for Future Presidents and a professor of constitutional law at Brown University. Many are finding defending Trump difficult at the moment. Republican lawmakers spent Thursday fleeing reporters trying to ask the question, "Do you think it's OK for the president to pressure foreign governments to interfere in our elections?". One lawmaker even headbutted a camera rather than reply.The reason Trump's alleged conduct is plainly impeachable, historians say, has to do with US impeachment precedent and with what the authors of the US constitution meant when they provisioned impeachment for "high crimes and misdemeanors"."If we look at history both British and American – and it's important to look at British history, because our Framers were of course rebel Englishmen and they adopted the phrase 'high crimes and misdemeanors' in full recognition of the fact that that was a parliamentary term of art, and that therefore they were adopting to some degree, by reference, previous usages of that term – all of that leads to really the inescapable conclusion that one of the grounds for impeachment has always been abuse of power," said Bowman.While Trump and his defenders reject the allegation that he has any divided loyalties, critics have pointed out that his actions in office, including his withholding of military aid from Ukraine, have advanced Russian interests – and his own personal interests, when it comes to soliciting election assistance.The founders drafted the impeachment clause specifically with problematic foreign loyalties in mind, Engel said."Having just gone through the process of a divisive revolution, where it was literally neighbor against neighbor and sometimes even brother against brother split over loyalty," Engel said, "there was a great deal of concern about just simply making sure that the people who were in charge generally had America's best interests at heart. Because people had so many friends over the course of their lives that did not – or at least that chose France or that chose Britain."In an Oval Office interview on Thursday, Trump compared his conduct favorably with the last two presidents to face impeachment proceedings, Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton."Everybody knows I did nothing wrong," Trump told the Washington Examiner. "Bill Clinton did things wrong; Richard Nixon did things wrong. I won't go back to [Andrew] Johnson because that was a little before my time. But they did things wrong. I did nothing wrong."Trump's analysis of his own behavior does not stand up to scrutiny, scholars said."Obviously the degree of severity is almost immeasurably different," said Bowman. "With respect to Clinton, yes you had a violation of law, in the sense of his having committed perjury, but he committed perjury in order to conceal a private, consensual sexual affair. Now that's discreditable, it's also criminal – he got disbarred as a result of doing it."But in terms of the interests of the nation, not even remotely comparable."In this case, Trump is literally holding the independence of another country hostage to his own political interests. Not only is that contemptible, and in many ways more contemptible than what Nixon did, but I think it's also true, and we've heard a lot of testimony about this over the past couple of weeks, that what he was doing is endangering an American policy objective, the whole framework of containment of Russian expansionism, the bedrock of our policy in eastern Europe for the last 70 years."It's far worse, in that regard, I think, than what Nixon did."Engel said the "Nixon case is very instructive" in judging the integrity of Trump's defensive wall in the Republican members of Congress."The Republicans by and large backed Nixon right up until the moment they didn't," Engel said. "Which is to say, when new information came out, in his case specifically the smoking gun tape, that nobody in good conscience could refute, his support eroded literally overnight."And I think we will see potentially a similar dynamic, at least that dynamic is set up, that there's no particular reason at this moment that Republicans feel a need to break with their party."But history suggests that they may at some point open the newspaper and realize they have no choice but to switch sides."
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| Trump's Naval Dream Seems Sunk: America Can't Afford a 355 Ship Navy Posted: 02 Nov 2019 12:30 PM PDT  Like a Christmas wish list, the Navy wants a fleet of 355 ships. It just can't afford it.
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| Distressing photos show glaciers that are disappearing or on the brink of collapse around the world Posted: 01 Nov 2019 01:27 PM PDT  The future of glaciers around the world is shaky. Here are photos showing some of the glaciers that might not be around for much longer.
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| One in 5 children live below the poverty line: Here are the states with the highest number of kids dependent on free lunches Posted: 01 Nov 2019 12:50 PM PDT  More than 30 million kids around around the country rely on free or reduced price lunches, but some states need more help than others.
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| Readers write: A gun owner’s experience with the NRA, and more Posted: 01 Nov 2019 11:00 PM PDT  Assault rifles, bump stocks, the Second Amendment, and more: Readers discuss their opinions on the NRA and the state of gun ownership in America.
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| Brazil police arrest man said to be one of world's most prolific human traffickers Posted: 01 Nov 2019 03:22 PM PDT ![Brazil police arrest man said to be one of world's most prolific human traffickers]( "Brazil police arrest man said to be one of world's most prolific human traffickers") Brazilian federal police said they have arrested Saifullah Al-Mamun, born in Bangladesh and considered by authorities one of the world's most prolific human traffickers. In an operation conducted on Thursday after collaboration with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Brazilian police arrested members of a group allegedly implicated in a large scheme of smuggling people into the United States. Several arrests were made in Sao Paulo, where Al-Mamun was living, and in three other Brazilian cities.
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| NSA adviser Timothy Morrison testified on the Donald Trump impeachment inquiry. Here are 4 takeaways Posted: 01 Nov 2019 10:32 AM PDT  The National Security Council official testified corroborated Ambassador William Taylor's description of quid pro quo in his Oct. 23 testimony.
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| Guard linked to beating had been subject of complaints Posted: 02 Nov 2019 12:49 PM PDT ![Guard linked to beating had been subject of complaints]( "Guard linked to beating had been subject of complaints") A guard accused in a lawsuit of beating a female inmate so severely she was left paralyzed had previously been accused of trading cigarettes for sex, insubordination, harassing inmates and other actions at a Florida prison, according to a news report. Despite the long history of accusations, the Lowell Correctional Institution in Ocala never fired Keith Turner and he had been promoted to lieutenant a few years ago, The Miami Herald reported . Cheryl Weimar said in a lawsuit that she was nearly beaten to death by four guards in August at the prison.
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