| Body of woman who was missing for almost 6 years found in car submerged in NJ river Posted: 18 Jan 2020 09:05 PM PST  Vanessa Smallwood of Maple Shade, N.J., was 46 at the time of her disappearance. She was identified in a statement from New Jersey State Police.
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| Iran to send black boxes of downed Ukrainian plane to Ukraine Posted: 18 Jan 2020 06:09 AM PST  Iran said on Saturday it was sending to Ukraine the black boxes from a Ukrainian passenger plane that the Iranian military shot down this month, an accident that sparked unrest at home and added to pressure on Tehran from abroad. Iran's Tasnim news agency also reported the authorities were prepared for experts from France, Canada and the United States to examine information from the data and voice recorders of the Ukraine International Airlines plane that came down on Jan. 8. It did not say when the black boxes would be sent to Ukraine.
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| ICE ups ante in standoff with NYC: 'This is not a request' Posted: 18 Jan 2020 04:23 PM PST  Federal authorities are turning to a new tactic in the escalating conflict over New York City's so-called sanctuary policies, issuing four "immigration subpoenas" to the city for information about inmates wanted for deportation. "This is not a request — it's a demand," Henry Lucero, a senior U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official, told The Associated Press. Mayor Bill de Blasio's administration said Saturday the city would review the subpoenas.
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| Kidnapped US teen rescued by police thanks to Snapchat Posted: 17 Jan 2020 12:46 PM PST  A California teen who had been drugged and kidnapped was rescued by police this week after using Snapchat to alert her friends to her abduction. One man was arrested as he left the motel in San Jose, in northern California, where the girl was being held and two other suspects were taken into custody on Wednesday, police said in a statement.
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| China Thinks It Can Nuke American Cities. Should We Worry? Posted: 18 Jan 2020 02:00 PM PST  World War III is no joke...
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| A plane slid off the runway and more than 800 flights were canceled as winter weather hit the Midwest Posted: 18 Jan 2020 10:49 AM PST  Authorities issued alerts for areas across the Northeast as blizzard conditions were forecasted to New York and New England over the weekend.
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| The Hole in the Impeachment Case Posted: 18 Jan 2020 03:30 AM PST  Thought experiment No. 1: Suppose Bob Mueller's probe actually proves that Donald Trump is under Vladimir Putin's thumb. Fill in the rest of the blanks with your favorite corruption fantasy: The Kremlin has video of the mogul-turned-president debauching himself in a Moscow hotel; the Kremlin has a bulging file of real-estate transfers through which Trump laundered racketeering proceeds for Putin's favored mobsters and oligarchs; or Trump is recorded cutting a deal to drop Obama-era sanctions against Putin's regime if Russian spies hack Democratic accounts.Thought experiment No. 2: Adam Schiff is not a demagogue. (Remember, this is fantasy.) At the very first televised hearing, when he alleged that President Trump told Ukrainian president Zelensky, "I want you to make up dirt on my political opponent . . . lots of it," Schiff was not defrauding the public. Instead, impeachment's Inspector Clouseau can actually prove that Trump was asking a foreign government to manufacture out of whole cloth evidence that Vice President Biden and his son were cashing in on the former's political influence (as opposed to asking that Ukraine look into an arrangement so objectively sleazy that the Obama administration itself agitated over what to do about it).What do these two scenarios have in common, besides being fictional? Answer: If either of them were real, we'd already be talking about President Pence's upcoming State of the Union address.This is the point that gets lost in all the endless chatter over impeachment strategy and procedure. Everything that is happening owes to the fact that we do not have an offense sufficiently grave for invocation of the Constitution's nuclear option. If we had one, the machinations and the posturing would be unnecessary — even ridiculous.Why are we talking about how Chairman Schiff, Speaker Pelosi, and House Democrats rushed through the impeachment inquiry without making a real effort to interview key witnesses?Why was the Democrats' impeachment gambit driven by the election calendar rather than the nature of the president's offense? Why were the timing of hearings and the unreasonable limits imposed on Republicans' ability to call witnesses dictated by the frantic rush to get done before Christmas recess -- to the point that Democrats cynically vacated a subpoena they'd served on a relevant administration witness, fearing a few weeks of court battles that they might lose?Why did Democrats grope from week to week in a struggle over what to call the misconduct they accused the president of committing – campaign finance, extortion, quid pro quo, bribery? How did they end up with an amorphous "abuse of power" case? How did they conclude that an administration that goes to court rather than instantly surrendering potentially privileged information commits obstruction?Why such tedious recriminations over adoption of Senate procedures that were approved by a 100–0 vote the last time there was an impeachment trial? Why all the kvetching over whether witnesses will be called when those procedures provide for the calling of witnesses in the likely event that 51 senators — after hearing nearly two weeks of presentation and argument from both sides -- want to hear from one or two of them?Why, with Election Day only ten months away, would Speaker Pelosi stoke an impeachment vote that could be perilous for many of her members, on the insistence that Trump was such a clear and present danger she could brook no delay, but then . . . sit on the impeachment articles for a month, accomplishing nothing in the interim except to undermine the presidential bids of several Senate Democrats, who will be trapped in Washington when they should be out campaigning with Iowa's caucuses just two weeks away?None of this would have happened if there had been a truly impeachable offense.Adam Schiff is a smart guy. He did not idly dream up a "make up dirt" parody. He framed it because he knows that's the kind of misconduct you would need to prove to warrant impeachment and removal of a president. In fact, Schiff could never prove that, but he figured parody is good enough for 2020 campaign purposes — and that's what this exercise is all about.If collusion with Russia had been fact rather than farce, Trump would never have made it to an impeachment trial. He'd have had to resign, Prior to November 8, 2016, Republicans were not the ones in need of convincing that Russia was a dangerous geopolitical threat. If it had been real collusion that brought Democrats around to that conclusion, the votes to impeach and remove would have been overwhelming.And the timing would have been irrelevant. If Americans had been seized by a truly impeachable offense, it would not matter whether Election Day was two years, two months, or two weeks away. The public and the political class would not tolerate an agent of the Kremlin in the Oval Office.If there were such egregious misconduct that the public was convinced of the need to remove Trump, such that two-thirds of the Senate would ignore partisan ties and do just that, there would be no partisan stunts. Democratic leaders would have worked cooperatively with their GOP counterparts, as was done in prior impeachments. They would have told the president: "Sure, you can have your lawyers here, and call whatever witnesses you want." There would be a bipartisan sense that the president had done profound wrong. There would be a sense of history, not contest. Congressional leaders would want to be remembered as statesmen, not apparatchiks.If there were a real impeachable offense, there would be no fretting about witnesses at the trial. Senate leaders would be contemplating that, after hearing the case extensively presented by both sides, there might well be enough votes to convict without witnesses. But if there were an appetite for witnesses, witnesses would be called . . . as they were in Watergate. And just as in Watergate, if the president withheld vital evidence of appalling lawlessness, the public would not be broadly indifferent to administration stonewalling.If there were an obviously impeachable offense, the garrisons of Fort Knox could not have stopped Nancy Pelosi from personally marching impeachment articles into the Senate the second the House had adopted them -- in what would have been an overwhelming bipartisan vote (of the kind that Pelosi, not long ago, said would be imperative for a legitimate impeachment effort).The Framers expected presidents to abuse their powers from time to time. And not just presidents. Our Constitution's theory of the human condition, and thus of governance, is that power is apt to corrupt anyone. It needs to be divided, and the peer components need to be incentivized to check each other. The operating assumption is that, otherwise, one component would accumulate too much power and inevitably fall prey to the tyrannical temptation. But as Madison observed, men are not angels. Separation of powers arms us against inevitable abuse, it does not prevent abuse from happening. Abuse is a given: Congress uses lawmaking power to encroach on the other branches' prerogatives; judges legislate from the bench, presidents leverage their awesome powers for political advantage. The expectation is not that government officials will never overreach; it is that when one branch does overreach, the others will bring it into line.That is the norm: corrective action or inaction, political pressure, naming and shaming, power of the purse, and so on. We expect to criticize, inveigh, even censure. We don't leap from abuse to expulsion. We don't expect routinely to expel members of Congress or impeach presidents and judges. That is reserved for historically extraordinary wrongs.On Ukraine, nothing of consequence came of President Trump's bull-in-a-china-shop excesses. Sure, they ought to be a 2020 campaign issue. Democrats, instead, would have us exaggerate them into historically extraordinary wrongs. For that, you need gamesmanship. If there were real impeachable misconduct, there would be no time or place for games.
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| Mexico blocks hundreds of migrants from crossing border span Posted: 17 Jan 2020 09:02 PM PST  Mexican authorities closed a border entry point in southern Mexico on Saturday after thousands of Central American migrants tried to push their way across a bridge spanning the Suchiate River between Mexico and Guatemala. Honduran migrants waved their country's flag and sang the national anthem as they approached the bridge. At the height of the confrontation, Guatemalan authorities estimated 2,500 migrants were on the bridge, or attempting to get on it.
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| Sanders runs into resistance as he looks beyond Warren dispute Posted: 18 Jan 2020 07:34 PM PST  The Vermont senator is making an effort to court women voters, but some are still stewing.
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| Gulf carriers fly over Iraq, Iran after military action deters others Posted: 18 Jan 2020 11:54 PM PST  Qatar Airways, Emirates and several other Gulf airlines still fly in Iraqi and Iranian airspace and to cities in both countries, even as other international carriers have rerouted planes since the United States and Iran traded military strikes. Executives and analysts said carriers in the Gulf, a major transit stop between European and Asian destinations, have few alternative routes to choose from in an area where much of the airspace is kept clear of civilian aircraft for military use. In the latest flare up, a U.S. drone strike killed a top general in Iraq on Jan. 3 and Iran fired missiles at U.S. targets in Iraq on Jan. 8.
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| Hillary Clinton urges people to vote, fearing 4 more years of Trump: ‘Lord knows what will happen’ Posted: 17 Jan 2020 01:14 PM PST  Hillary Clinton pleaded for Democratic voters to be practical with their primary vote in the coming election this year. That's because, she argued, nothing could be worse than a second term for President Trump.
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| China and Myanmar’s Latest Sign of Improving Relations Posted: 18 Jan 2020 09:26 PM PST ![China and Myanmar's Latest Sign of Improving Relations]( "China and Myanmar's Latest Sign of Improving Relations") (Bloomberg) -- China and neighboring Myanmar agreed to expedite several projects designated as part of the pan-Eurasia Belt and Road Initiative in a sign of growing ties between both countries.The two sides inked 33 agreements as Chinese President Xi Jinping wrapped up a visit to the Myanmar capital of Naypyidaw on Saturday, where he met his counterpart Aung San Suu Kyi.They agreed to jointly develop the so-called China-Myanmar Economic Corridor between the southern Yunnan province and Mandalay. There was also a concession and shareholders agreement for the development of the multi-billion dollar special economic zone and deep-sea port in Myanmar's western Rakhine State.The two-day trip, Xi's first of the year, saw the Chinese leader also meet the commander-in-chief of Myanmar's powerful armed forces, Min Aung Hlaing. As the sole land bridge between two regional giants -- India and China -- Myanmar has the potential to tap into global supply chains at a time when western businesses have been hesitant to bankroll projects due to the ongoing Rohingya crisis.Beijing reiterated its willingness to provide support to Myanmar over the repatriation and resettlement of those displaced from Rakhine State, without mentioning the Rohingya, according to a joint statement released Saturday.That follows the statement earlier this month from Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Luo Zhaohui, who said China will support talks with Dhaka for the repatriation of some 700,000 Rohingya refugees living in camps across the border in Bangladesh.Since the mass exodus of Myanmar's ethnic Muslim population began in 2017, the nation has increasingly turned to China to fulfill its economic expansion ambitions. In the first 11 months of 2019, investment from China reached $20.9 billion, accounting for more than a quarter of foreign direct investment, according to government data.(Updates with statement in fifth paragraph)To contact the reporters on this story: Khine Lin Kyaw in Myanmar (Non BLP Loc) at kkyaw1@bloomberg.net;Philip J. Heijmans in Singapore at pheijmans1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Ruth Pollard at rpollard2@bloomberg.net, Shamim AdamFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Donald Trump stirs tensions before Virginia gun rally by saying Second Amendment is 'under attack' Posted: 17 Jan 2020 08:32 PM PST  President Trump has stirred tensions before a gun rally in Virginia - a demonstration the state governor said carried credible "threats of violence" - by claiming that Americans' Second Amendment rights are "under attack". Thousands of pro-gun activists are expected to march on Virginia's State Capitol on Monday to protest about the state's new gun controls. The rally in Richmond has provoked fears of violence and unrest. Governor Ralph Northam declared a state of emergency this week, banning guns from the site of the rally, amid concerns that the protest will be flooded with extremists, anti-government militias and white supremacists. Activists in favour of gun control have reported receiving death threats online. The FBI announced on Friday that it had arrested several members of The Base, a neo-Nazi group who were planning to attend, and seized their weapons. Authorities said the group were planning violent acts at the rally, similar to the "Unite The Right" white supremacist rally in nearby Charlottesville in 2017, in which one counter-protester was murdered. Trump told protesters that Democrats will "take your guns away" Credit: AFP/GETTY IMAGES Mr Trump said on Friday that the US Constitution was being attacked by Virginia, where lawmakers have approved three gun control bills that could be passed next week. The rules limit the purchase of handguns, stipulate new background checks, and permit local authorities to ban guns in public spaces. There are also plans by the Democrat-controlled legislative body to ban assault weapons. Gun ownership rates per country Mr Trump said on Twitter: "Your 2nd Amendment is under very serious attack in the Great Commonwealth of Virginia", referring to the amendment in the Bill of Rights that gives Americans the right to bear firearms. "That's what happens when you vote for Democrats, they will take your guns away." Shannon Watts, founder of the Moms Demand Action group that seeks tougher gun laws, said: "These extremists are afraid their guns will be taken away - we're afraid our children will be taken away." Charlottesville far-right protest Watts said that she and many members of her group and their families had been threatened online with death and rape. She said that members of her group in Virginia have had their addresses and other personal information shared online. Philip Van Cleave, leader of the pro-gun Virginia Citizens Defense League (VCDL), the rally's organisers, has rejected calls for violence while encouraging militias from across the US to provide security for his group.
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| The 25 Best PSP Games Posted: 19 Jan 2020 06:00 AM PST |
| Illegal crossings plunge as US extends policy across border Posted: 19 Jan 2020 09:24 AM PST  Adolfo Cardenas smiles faintly at the memory of traveling with his 14-year-old son from Honduras to the U.S.-Mexico border in only nine days, riding buses and paying a smuggler $6,000 to ensure passage through highway checkpoints. Father and son walked about 10 minutes in Arizona's stifling June heat before surrendering to border agents. Instead of being released with paperwork to appear in immigration court in Dallas, where Cardenas hopes to live with a cousin, they were bused more than an hour to wait in the Mexican border city of Mexicali.
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| TSA issues apology to Native American woman who had braids pulled by agent Posted: 18 Jan 2020 11:11 AM PST  Tara Houska 'humiliated' by TSA agent who 'snapped my braids like reins' during screening at Minneapolis-St Paul airportThe federal Transportation Security Administration has apologized to a Native American woman who said an agent at Minneapolis-St Paul international airport "pulled her braids" and said "giddy up!" when she took a flight from there this week."The agent said she needed to pat down my braids," tweeted Tara Houska, an indigenous rights advocate and attorney. "She pulled them behind my shoulders, laughed and said 'giddyup!' as she snapped my braids like reins. My hair is part of my spirit. I am a Native woman. I am angry, humiliated. Your 'fun' hurt."Houska, who is Ojibwe, added: "When I informed the middle-aged blonde woman who had casually used her authority to dehumanize and disrespect me, she said, 'Well it was just in fun, I'm sorry. Your hair is lovely.'"That is NOT an apology and it is NOT OK."According to the Washington Post, women of color have long experienced problems at TSA checkpoints, because natural, braided or twisted hair prompt "flags" on security devices, spurring "more invasive screenings".Bring Me The News, a Minnesota website, appeared to have been first to report Houska's experience.In a statement to the Guardian, the TSA said it had been "made aware of allegations made by a traveler about her screening experience at Minneapolis-St Paul International Airport [on] Monday morning."TSA officials investigated the incident and on Tuesday afternoon, TSA's federal security director for Minnesota, Cliff Van Leuven, spoke with the traveler. He apologized for actions and a comment that were insensitive and made by a TSA officer to the traveler during the screening experience."Van Leuven also wrote to airport staff."In the news last night and today," he said, "you've likely seen – or heard - of a TSA officer at MSP who was insensitive in screening the long braided hair of a Native American passenger Monday morning. Did it actually happen? Yes. Exactly as described? Yes."This morning, I reached out to the passenger via email. She called me back early this afternoon. I apologized for how she was treated during the screening of her braids – and we had a very pleasant conversation."She reiterated that she doesn't want the officer to get in trouble, but she is hoping we'll take the chance to continue to educate our staff about the many Native American Tribes/Bands in our state and region to better understand their culture."The airport apologized on Twitter.Houska could not immediately be reached for comment.
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| Philippine military says 5 Indonesians kidnapped by Abu Sayyaf militants Posted: 19 Jan 2020 02:55 AM PST ![Philippine military says 5 Indonesians kidnapped by Abu Sayyaf militants]( "Philippine military says 5 Indonesians kidnapped by Abu Sayyaf militants") The Philippine military on Sunday said it has launched search and rescue operations for five Indonesian fishermen kidnapped by militants belonging to the Islamic State-linked Abu Sayyaf group in Malaysian waters last week. Three were released, while the remaining five were probably brought by their captors to the southern Philippine province of Sulu, said Lieutenant General Cirilito Sobejana, chief of the military's Western Mindanao Command. Sulu is Abu Sayyaf's stronghold.
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| Iran backtracks on plan to send flight recorders to Ukraine Posted: 19 Jan 2020 01:50 AM PST  The Iranian official leading the investigation into the Ukrainian jetliner that was accidentally shot down by the Revolutionary Guard appeared to backtrack Sunday on plans to send the flight recorders abroad for analysis, a day after saying they would be sent to Kyiv. Iranian officials previously said the black boxes were damaged but are usable. Iran may be hesitant to turn over the recorders for fear that more details from the crash — including the harrowing 20 seconds between when the first and second surface-to-air missiles hit the plane — will come to light.
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| Trump threatened 25% tariffs on European cars if Britain, Germany and France didn't put Iran on notice Posted: 17 Jan 2020 11:31 AM PST  The Trump administration warned European officials in three countries that if they didn't put Iran on notice about nuclear deal violations, the US government would slap a 25% tariff on all European cars.
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| Michelin strips star from French culinary beacon Bocuse Posted: 17 Jan 2020 11:56 AM PST  Collonges-au-Mont-d'Or (France) (AFP) - Two years after the death of renowned French chef Paul Bocuse, the Michelin Guide has stripped his flagship restaurant of the coveted three-star ranking it held for half a century, prompting anger and dismay from his culinary peers. The Auberge du Pont de Collonges, near food-obsessed Lyon in southeast France, was the oldest three-starred restaurant in the world, having held the accolade since 1965. The Michelin Guide told AFP on Friday that the establishment "remained excellent but no longer at the level of three stars" and will have only two in the 2020 edition of the famous red book dubbed the "bible" of French cuisine.
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| Russia Is Worried About Britain's Astute-Class Submarines Posted: 18 Jan 2020 10:30 PM PST  The class seems to have overcome its technical and financial problems, although the lingering impact of those issues could affect not only future classes of SSNs, but also the UK's commitment to building a new class of SSBNs.
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| Trump previously said Ken Starr, who will represent him in the impeachment trial, was a 'freak,' a 'lunatic,' and a 'disaster' who might have 'something in his closet' Posted: 17 Jan 2020 10:47 AM PST  "I think Ken Starr is a lunatic, I really think that Ken Starr is a disaster," Trump told MSNBC in 1999. "I really think that Ken Starr was terrible."
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| Assessing Israel’s tactical laser breakthrough Posted: 17 Jan 2020 10:50 AM PST  Israel's timeline to field laser capabilities for its military may prove challenging. It is important to understand the technology's promise — as well as its limitations.
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| US seeks to deport Honduran mom, sick children to Guatemala Posted: 18 Jan 2020 05:20 PM PST  The U.S. government says it will deport a Honduran mother and her two sick children, both of whom are currently hospitalized, to Guatemala as soon as it can get them medically cleared to travel, according to court documents and the family's advocates. The family's advocates accuse the U.S. of disregarding the health of the children, ages 1 and 6, to push forward a plan currently being challenged in court to send planeloads of families to different countries so that they can seek asylum elsewhere. Both children have been hospitalized in recent days in South Texas' Rio Grande Valley.
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| China will increase imports from U.S. according to 'market principles': official Posted: 19 Jan 2020 12:12 AM PST  China will negotiate with American companies and increase imports of U.S. goods and products according to market principles, an official with its state planner said on Sunday. The United States has high quality supply in the fields of energy, manufactured goods, agricultural products, medical care and financial services, said Meng Wei, spokesperson for China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), at a press conference on Sunday. China will boost purchases of U.S. goods and services by $200 billion over two years in exchange for the rolling back of some tariffs under an initial trade deal between the world's two largest economies.
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| Bless Virginia for passing the Equal Rights Amendment, but blame women for taking this long Posted: 19 Jan 2020 03:00 AM PST  Women could've fought for the ERA long before now, but too many chose political ideology over enshrining protections in the U.S. Constitution.
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| Rudy Giuliani once had a real chance of becoming president – and he blew it Posted: 19 Jan 2020 12:00 AM PST  'America's mayor' led polling in the Republican primaries for almost a year in 2007. But his campaign collapsed into chaosIf things had gone a little differently, Rudy Giuliani might have been elected president in 2008.The former New York City mayor turned Donald Trump stooge led polling in the Republican primaries for almost a year, and was seen as someone who could defeat Hillary Clinton – then the presumptive Democratic nominee – in key metropolitan areas.Giuliani, still riding a wave of good feeling from his handling of the 9/11 attacks, was raising serious amounts of cash, and was the best-known of the Republican candidates. He had a very real chance of succeeding George W Bush.But Giuliani's campaign collapsed in chaotic fashion, and he became a political irrelevance – until re-emerging a decade later as Donald Trump's lawyer, mouthpiece, bungling envoy to Ukraine and a central character in the third impeachment of an American president.It's hard to imagine now, but at the end of 2006, Giuliani was the most popular politician in the country. In March 2007, after Giuliani formally announced his White House campaign, he was the early favorite to win the Republican primary contest, with 44% support nationwide. (John McCain, the eventual nominee, was second with 20%.) Giuliani maintained that lead throughout the year, and raised the most money.Armed with a campaign slogan that read like the responses to a word-association examination – "Tested. Ready. Now" – Giuliani seemed destined to represent the Republican party in the November 2008 election."When Rudy Giuliani entered the race he was seen as the frontrunner," said Capri Cafaro, a former minority leader of the Ohio senate and an adjunct professor at the American University school of public affairs. Oprah Winfrey had dubbed Giuliani "America's mayor" following the 9/11 attacks – a moniker that stuck – while Time magazine went further, naming Giuliani its person of the year for 2001 and branding him "mayor of the world".Cafaro said: "His strength predominantly came from being seen as America's mayor – in light of this being just a few years after 9/11. [He was] playing to his strengths: his strengths in national security and essentially being able to rise to the occasion as a leader."Giuliani wasn't shy of leaning into that, which led to mockery as he launched his campaign."When he decided to run for president he was being laughed at by the late-night comedians for answering every question by mentioning 9/11," said Robert Polner, who covered Giuliani's mayoralty as a reporter for Newsday, and later edited a book on Giuliani: America's Mayor, America's President?It wasn't just late-night comics poking fun. Joe Biden, then running – for the second time – to be the Democratic nominee, mused of Giuliani: "There's only three things he mentions in a sentence: a noun, a verb and 9/11." The Onion ran a piece with the headline: "Giuliani to run for president of 9/11"."He was still trying to ride his fame and convert that into primary votes," Polner said. "[But] he had no real plan as to what he would do if he was president."Giuliani was still leading the polls in the summer of 2007, six months out from the first Republican vote in Iowa. But he hit an unexpected problem, in the form of a man dressed in a chicken suit – the "Iowa Chicken" – who tirelessly followed Giuliani around in protest at him skipping the Ames straw poll, a traditional barometer of the Republican primary race.That wasn't the end of Giuliani's Iowa troubles. He decided, essentially, to skip the first state to vote and did not place much stock in second-to-vote New Hampshire. Instead Giuliani pinned his hopes on Florida.Many people saw this as a bad decision, including the Guardian's then Washington correspondent, Ewen MacAskill."History will show the unconventional, and ultimately catastrophic, strategy to be one of the biggest miscalculations in US campaign history," MacAskill wrote in 2008, as Giuliani's campaign collapsed around him. "One that has brought Giuliani's ambitions to be the 44th US president to a humiliating end."Giuliani's Florida gameplan was based on the idea that for some Republicans elsewhere, he just wasn't conservative enough. Giuliani, by this point, was on his third marriage – he has since completed his third divorce – and as mayor of New York had embraced positions that were anathema to socially conservative Republican supporters. In Florida, at least, there was a diaspora of ex-New Yorkers, and some supportive centrist primary voters.But his past might well have doomed him nationally.Cafaro said: "One of the reasons why he failed is not necessarily because he decided to focus on one or two major primaries, but because he was seen as being out of step with the values of the Republican primary voter."He said: "As someone who was pro-choice, and had been married three times, somebody who was from New York, somebody that was a little bit more lenient on some of the social issues, including civil unions for same-sex partnerships, so those things were not embraced in that primary. I think that's really what hurt him."Also stacked against Giuliani: his lack of focus. When he lost the 1989 election for New York mayor, Giuliani spent the next four years, according to Polner, "meeting with people, studying different aspects of the city, and preparing to become a politician". That period of reflection and strategizing worked – Giuliani defeated the Democrat David Dinkins in 1993 – but he failed to apply it in 2008."When he jumped in for president, it seemed more like impulse power, and he was just running on the fumes" of being mayor on 9/11, Polner said."He hadn't established a base or network of Republicans in key states, and he didn't have any well-developed positions on where he wanted to take the country or the party."People noticed. In the Iowa caucuses, on 3 January 2008, Giuliani came sixth out of seven candidates. It was no cause to panic – after all, he had all but ignored Iowa. But then came New Hampshire. Giuliani came fourth.The Florida primary, the key to Giuliani's grand plan, was on 29 January. He came a distant third. It was over. Giuliani threw in the towel the next day, and endorsed McCain."Giuliani has a history of kind of overestimating his political appeal, and also overreaching," Polner said. "He's a guy who really craves relevance and attention, and the media spotlight – and power really."Giuliani had got attention and the media spotlight, for a while, yet being America's mayor, being the mayor of the world, had counted for nought. His dream of being president had ended – but his presence at the top of US politics was far from over.
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| Iraq protests swell with youth angry at slow pace of reform Posted: 19 Jan 2020 02:48 AM PST  The youth-dominated rallies demanding an overhaul of the ruling system have rocked Shiite-majority parts of Iraq since October, but had thinned out in recent weeks amid the geopolitical storm of rising Iran-US tensions. On Sunday the anti-government protest movement was re-ignited with hundreds of angry young people descending on the main protest camp in Baghdad's Tahrir Square as well as the nearby Tayaran Square. Others burned tyres to block highways and bridges, turning back cars and leading to traffic jams across the city.
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| Taiwan Is Not Worth A War With China (For 1 Key U.S. Ally, That Is) Posted: 19 Jan 2020 01:14 AM PST  Especially for Australia.
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| Killer beer: El Chapo 701 craft lager coming soon thanks to drug lord's daughter Posted: 19 Jan 2020 07:00 AM PST  The mug shot of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, imprisoned leader of the ruthless Sinaloa Cartel, is not just for police blotters anymore.
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| The most iconic tourist attraction in 26 countries around the world Posted: 18 Jan 2020 09:32 AM PST  There's something powerful about finally seeing a famous landmark or natural wonder in person instead of on a postcard (or on Instagram).
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| Johnson Plans Muted Brexit Celebrations After Big Ben Backdown Posted: 17 Jan 2020 02:30 PM PST ![Johnson Plans Muted Brexit Celebrations After Big Ben Backdown]( "Johnson Plans Muted Brexit Celebrations After Big Ben Backdown") (Bloomberg) -- U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson backed away from crowdfunding for the ringing of Big Ben to mark the U.K.'s departure from the European Union on Jan. 31, opting instead for muted commemorations his office said would seek to "heal divisions and re-unite communities."Johnson will take his cabinet for a meeting in the north of England on the day and government buildings will be lit up, his office said in an email.The statement made no mention of ringing the bell, in a clock tower over the Houses of Parliament in London, just four days after Johnson encouraged people to give money toward it -- even though there was no plan in place.Members of the public have already given more than 225,000 pounds ($293,000) toward the 500,000-pound cost of pausing urgent repair work and installing a temporary floor and equipment to enable the bell to ring.The House of Commons authorities said they have no mechanism for accepting the money and that preparations to ring the bell would delay vital refurbishment. That intervention sparked fury from Brexiteers, who accused bureaucrats of plotting to spoil their celebrations.Johnson's office, which has spent the week trying to cover up the prime minister's blunder, appeared to accept that the bell won't ring, saying instead that a clock will be projected onto the walls of the prime minister's office in Downing Street as the country counts down to Brexit at 11 p.m on Jan. 31.To contact the reporter on this story: Thomas Penny in London at tpenny@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Tim Ross at tross54@bloomberg.net, Stuart BiggsFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Remains of fallen US soldier returned to Fort Bragg Posted: 18 Jan 2020 04:08 PM PST  The remains of a paratrooper who was killed a week ago in Afghanistan have been returned to his family in the U.S. The family of Staff Sgt. Ian McLaughlin greeted his flag-draped casket at Pope Army Airfield at Fort Bragg on Saturday, The Fayetteville Observer reported. The 29-year-old from Newport News, Virginia, was killed Jan. 11 by an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan.
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| Ten charred bodies found in vehicle in violence-plagued Mexican state Posted: 18 Jan 2020 10:08 AM PST ![Ten charred bodies found in vehicle in violence-plagued Mexican state]( "Ten charred bodies found in vehicle in violence-plagued Mexican state") Mexican prosecutors are investigating the discovery of a burned-out vehicle containing the charred bodies of 10 people in the southwestern state of Guerrero, authorities said late on Friday. Police made the grisly discovery on a country road in the municipality of Chilapa de Alvarez after locals saw the vehicle on fire and alerted authorities, state security spokesman Roberto Alvarez said in a statement published on Facebook.
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| Police robots keep malfunctioning, with mishaps ranging from running over a toddler's foot to ignoring people in distress Posted: 19 Jan 2020 06:07 AM PST  As companies have begun to experiment with security robots, the robots have repeatedly hit obstacles — or, in some cases, fallen into them.
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| Trump's newest Russia adviser 'escorted from White House' amid security investigation Posted: 19 Jan 2020 07:53 AM PST  Donald Trump's latest Russia expert has reportedly been escorted from the White House amid claims of a security-related investigation.Andrew Peek has been placed on administrative leave pending the inquiry, Axios reported.
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| Austria's 'ghetto' language classes stir segregation fears Posted: 17 Jan 2020 06:38 PM PST  Every morning Abulrahman leaves his normal primary school lessons in Vienna and joins about 20 other children for three hours to learn to read, write and speak German. Despite conservative Chancellor Sebastian Kurz's new coalition partners, the Greens, having expressed concerns about the controversial policy, it looks set to continue. Kurz has pledged to maintain his anti-immigration reforms -- with junior partner, the Greens, conceding -- including the special classes, which the government argues allow children with weak German skills to learn at their own pace without holding others back.
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| Neighbors speak out after young mom found dead in Long Island home Posted: 17 Jan 2020 01:59 PM PST  Neighbors on Long Island are still stunned over the murder of nursing student, Kelly Owen, 27.
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| Rep. Ilhan Omar Says ‘We Must Stop Detaining’ Illegal Immigrants Posted: 19 Jan 2020 02:26 AM PST  "This should never be the case," she wrote. "The cruelty of our immigration system becomes clearer every day. We must stop detaining immigrants and start giving them pathways to citizenship."
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| Joe Biden says 'you can keep' your private insurance 'if your employer doesn't take it away from you' Posted: 17 Jan 2020 11:35 AM PST  Former Vice President Joe Biden is still promising "If you like your insurance, you can keep it" — with a twist.In his endorsement interview with The New York Times published Friday, Biden is asked about that phrase both he and former President Barack Obama have said in the past. And after accepting that he actually did say it, Biden promised that "if you like your plan, you can keep it," provided "your employer doesn't take it away from you."While the ObamaCare mantra of keeping the insurance you like ended up not exactly being true, Biden still modified it in a July 2019 primary debate to say under his presidency, "If you like your health care plan, your employer-based plan, you can keep it. If in fact you have private insurance, you can keep it." There's video proof of Biden saying that but, when confronted with it in his Times interview, Biden replied with "I didn't say that, by the way."The interview moved on, and Biden was asked about how if there was a public health insurance option, employers may stop offering insurance altogether.> The new Biden pitch: 'If you like your private insurance, you can keep it, assuming your employer doesn't take it away from you' pic.twitter.com/65Xtvw2gNr> > — Andrew Perez (@andrewperezdc) January 17, 2020That all devolved into what Biden saying something that would look perfect on a campaign coffee mug as long as it fits: "If you like your plan, you can keep it, assuming — I should add the obvious — if your employer doesn't take it away from you. Okay?"More stories from theweek.com Mindhunter just got Netflixed Trump is getting the band back together The Patriots only have one option
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| Harvey Weinstein Defense Knocked White Women Off Jury, D.A. Says Posted: 17 Jan 2020 11:36 AM PST ![Harvey Weinstein Defense Knocked White Women Off Jury, D.A. Says]( "Harvey Weinstein Defense Knocked White Women Off Jury, D.A. Says") (Bloomberg) -- The jury for Harvey Weinstein's New York rape trial has been selected and is made up of seven men and five women, with Friday's selection of three white men bringing fierce objections from prosecutors who said the defense had intentionally kept white women off the case.Friday also brought further questioning of jurors that highlighted an important element of Weinstein's defense -- that any sexual relations with the fallen movie mogul were consensual.During arguments outside the hearing of potential jurors, prosecutor Joan Illuzzi repeatedly blasted Weinstein's lawyers as coming up with what she called "pretextual" reasons to exclude what she said was "every white woman" from the panel with their peremptory challenges. The defense has said white women would identify with the two alleged victims in the case, as well as with the four women whom prosecutors will call as witnesses to show a pattern of "prior bad acts."Each side in the case has 20 such challenges it can use to strike people from the jury without giving a reason. But New York State Supreme Court Justice James Burke told the lawyers they had to show they weren't motivated by bias and didn't exhibit a pattern of discrimination, by race, gender or any other category protected under New York law.In the end, three African-American women, two white women, six white men and an African-American man were selected.Read More: Judge Warns Jurors That Trial Isn't a Referendum on Me TooEarlier, defense attorney Arthur Aidala said one young woman should be excluded because she was from an upper-middle-class background and lacked the life experience to understand testimony about events that occurred before she was born, or to assess the truthfulness of the female witnesses. He also excluded a Latina model with an acting background who he said would likely identify with the Weinstein witnesses."The modeling photos, they're staged," he told Burke. "It's exactly the same. She was a beauty queen, and she said she was an actress who didn't make it. Who knows how she's going to hold that against Mr. Weinstein, who was the person who was doing the selecting? I believe that's a race-neutral reason."More than 80 women have accused Weinstein, 67, of sexual harassment or assault, many saying he used his power over their careers to abuse them. The New York criminal case against him, in which he is charged with rape and predatory sexual assault, involves two women.Burke asked Aidala to answer the prosecution's argument that the defense had used its peremptory challenges to strike "all white women" from the jury. Aidala noted that the defense had selected black women."So you discriminate equally against everybody?" the judge asked in jest."I try," Aidala said with a smile.Read More: Weinstein's Dream Jury Is Conservative, Traditional, SkepticalNonetheless, Burke disagreed with Illuzzi's argument that the defense had worked to keep white women off the panel.Prosecutors and defense lawyers, together with Burke, have spent the past two weeks narrowing the field of prospective jurors from about 500 Manhattanites summoned last week, finally bringing them in for questioning in groups of 20.Aidala saved a particularly pointed question for his last of the group that started the day on Friday, signaling an element of the defense."Who here thinks that someone could have consensual sexual relations with someone at work to get ahead at work?" he asked the group of 20 seated in the jury box.At least 10, mostly men, raised their hands.In addition to the jury, an African-American woman, a Latina and a white man were selected on Friday as the three alternates in case any of the 12 can't continue to serve. Burke has set Wednesday for the start of opening arguments.Weinstein is alleged to have raped a woman in a Manhattan hotel room in 2013 and performed a forcible sex act on another in 2006 in his apartment in the city.The case is People v. Weinstein, 450293/2018, New York State Supreme Court (Manhattan).To contact the reporter on this story: Patricia Hurtado in Federal Court in Manhattan at pathurtado@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net, Peter Jeffrey, Steve StrothFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| AP Photos: Taal volcano emits ash, threatening more eruption Posted: 17 Jan 2020 09:38 PM PST  The Taal volcano near the Philippine capital emitted more ash clouds on Saturday, posing the threat of another eruption. The ash and steam explosions have gotten weaker after seven days of eruption. The volcano in Batangas province, about 65 kilometers (40 miles) south of the capital, Manila, has remained at alert level 4, the second-highest warning, indicating a hazardous explosive eruption is possible in hours or days.
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| UK's Johnson, France's Macron reiterate commitment to Iran nuclear deal Posted: 19 Jan 2020 06:07 AM PST  British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and French President Emmanuel Macron reiterated their commitment on Sunday to the Iran nuclear deal and agreed a long-term framework was needed, Downing Street said on Sunday. "On Iran, the leaders reiterated their commitment to the JCPoA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) and also acknowledged the need to define a long-term framework to prevent Iran acquiring a nuclear weapon," a Downing Street spokeswoman said in a statement after the two met on the sidelines of a Libya summit in Berlin.
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| A Blow to the Head Makes an Instant Hero in India Posted: 19 Jan 2020 09:15 AM PST  NEW DELHI -- Under a highway bridge in New Delhi, where a large protest had shut down several lanes of traffic, a coterie of veteran dissidents took turns speaking: men with shaggy beards, singers strumming guitars, social activists so impassioned that spit flew from their wet lips.But a jolt of electricity passed through the crowd when a slight woman -- younger, smaller and more vulnerable looking than anyone else -- stepped up to the mic.She carried no notes. She wore a bandage on her forehead. Her arm was in a cast."Many people ask me whether I'm scared," she began. "And I tell them: How can I be scared?"People nodded their heads, seeming to follow her words carefully.She wasn't frightened of Amit Shah, the home minister, she said, or Narendra Modi, the domineering prime minister who has sent India down a Hindu nationalist path."Even if you beat us, we won't step back," she thundered. "Long live the revolution!"The crowd roared.The biggest and most energized protests India has witnessed in a generation are sweeping the country, and one young woman has been thrust to the fore: Aishe Ghosh.Earlier this month, while leading a peaceful demonstration on her university campus, Ghosh was attacked by Hindu nationalist goons. After they cracked her in the head with an iron bar and thrashed her body, images of her blood-smeared face were instantly beamed nationwide.But it was the photograph made two days later that etched her into the Indian psyche: It showed Ghosh, 25, staring straight into the camera, her head wrapped in a doughnut of white medical tape, her hair wild and her eyes radiating a resolve that seemed indestructible."Every protest has a face," said Vidit Panchal, a young doctor who traveled across India this week to meet her.Ghosh is that face.The product of politically active parents from West Bengal, Ghosh was a talented painting student before entering university to study politics. Last fall she was elected president of the student body at one of India's liveliest and most prestigious schools, Jawaharlal Nehru University, a bastion of anti-Modi dissent.Even in the weeks before she was attacked by the gang of Modi's supporters, Ghosh was marching in protests, coordinating strikes and recruiting followers -- in essence, galvanizing the resistance. Now, she is being invited everywhere to speak.To be a student leader in India, it's a thrilling time."Professors have been writing mails to us saying that you should be going to the protests, because protests teach you more than I can teach you in the four walls of the classroom," Ghosh said, clearly excited by all this. "We have politicized so many people. It gives me so much pride."Ever since modern India was envisioned, a fundamental question has been how Hindu-oriented should it be, given that the population, about 80% Hindu, has long hosted a dizzying array of different cultures, including a Muslim minority that today, at 200 million people, would on its own be one of the largest Muslim nations in the world. Modi has taken a clear position, pushing a slate of divisive Hindu nationalist policies that play quite well with a large segment of society but have deeply worried minorities and progressives."A Germany in the making," Ghosh calls it.Since Modi's reelection in May, his government has plowed ahead with a contentious citizenship review in northeastern India widely seen as a test run for a nationwide attempt to identify and marginalize Muslim families. In August he summarily deleted the statehood of Kashmir, which had been India's only Muslim-majority state.These moves raised some eyebrows, especially in rival Pakistan, which also claims Kashmir.But the issue that sent millions of Indians over the edge was Modi's new citizenship law, which creates a special path to Indian citizenship for migrants from all major South Asian religions bar one: Islam.Modi has insisted that the law is intended to protect persecuted migrants from neighboring countries, but many Indians see it as blatantly anti-Muslim and discriminatory. As soon at it passed in December, universities across the country exploded in protest.Jawaharlal Nehru University, in central New Delhi, where Ghosh is working on a master's degree on climate change, has been one of India's most reliable incubators of dissent. It's a big leafy campus, known for its liberal arts programs, and on a recent day professors and students mingled in a sun-dappled courtyard between hulking brick buildings painted with images of Mandela, Gandhi and Guevara.These days, Ghosh has trouble making it across campus because she is stopped so often."Are you OK?" one young woman asked."You have amazing energy and stamina," said another."Please don't get beaten up again!" a friend laughed.It was a chilly day under a thick gray sky, and Ghosh, in bare sleeves with an anaconda-size scarf cinched around her neck and a permanent smile on her face, was hard to miss.She seems to have natural political skills. She lets people finish before she starts talking; she speaks well in public; and she constantly absorbs digs, like body shaming."Some people are like: You don't look like a president, because you are so thin," she said. "So I ask them: How much do I need to weigh to look like a president?"For a long time, Hindu extremists have hated this school, and Jan. 5, the shock troops arrived.That evening, Ghosh was speaking at a protest against a fee increase at her university.Witnesses said the attackers were a mix of students and outsiders from pro-Modi groups that targeted liberal leaders at the university and those who had been vocal about their opposition to Modi's Hindu nationalist policies. A Hindu extremist group later admitted to participating in the melee, saying it had armed followers in self-defense.The attackers carried iron bars, pipes and sledgehammers, and they knocked Ghosh to the ground and kept hitting her and hitting her."I thought I was going to die," she said.There's a grim, new joke in India: There may be freedom of speech, but there's no freedom after speech.After speaking out about her beating, Ghosh became the victim of a vicious disinformation campaign. Hindu extremists spread fake pictures of her, showing her cast on the other arm and saying she was lying. They even said that she had smashed her own head with an iron bar.Police officials then accused her and other leftist students of instigating the violence, which she denies."I don't care if they name me in 70 cases," she said. "I'm not quitting."Ghosh grew up in Durgapur, near Kolkata, a hotbed for India's communists. Her father works as an operations manager at a thermal plant and has joined many labor strikes. Her mother is a housewife.She has one younger sister, and during teatime, the Ghosh family sat in their two bedroom apartment and dissected politics.An old college friend, Yashvi Pandit, laughed about when she first met Ghosh, seven years ago. "She would be going on and on about this joint secretary appointment or that," she recalled, "and we were all like: Why do you care?""And now look: She's gotten a blue tick!"(Ghosh recently received a coveted blue check, or tick, on Twitter next to her name, signifying that she is a person of interest who has been verified as genuine.)Ghosh has not seen her parents since she was attacked, even though they wanted to visit. She has barely spent time with her boyfriend (another student activist) either. She is in the middle of a moment -- and she seems well aware of it."With all that's going on," she said as she hurried off to another protest, "I'm busy."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| Cut off from family, unable to travel: how US sanctions punish Iranian Americans Posted: 19 Jan 2020 03:00 AM PST  As penalties create hardship for Iran's residents, Iranians in US also suffer consequences: 'The sanctions are still chasing me'Following the US assassination of a top Iranian general earlier this month and Iranian airstrikes against US military bases in Iraq, Donald Trump once again imposed biting sanctions against the regime in Tehran. To Iranian Americans, many of whom have lived under sanctions in Iran or have family members there suffering through economic hardship, the fresh round of penalties is a painful reminder of the collateral consequences of escalating conflict.Iranian Americans across the United States told the Guardian about their worries for their family members and friends affected by US sanctions. And they spoke of the ways the policies affect their own lives, work and communities in the US. "I was raised under sanctions my entire life," said Nazanin Asadi, 34, who left Iran for California in 2014 and now works as a law clerk in Orange county. "After moving to the US permanently, I can't believe the sanctions and these laws are still chasing me … I don't want my community to suffer."The threats of a full-blown war following Trump's 3 January order to kill Gen Qassem Suleimani caused anxiety among some Persian communities in the US, especially for Iranian families who have been torn apart by Trump's travel ban. Trump backed away from additional strikes, but his administration implemented a fresh wave of sanctions, targeting senior Iranian officials and the country's textile, construction, manufacturing and other sectors.The US has imposed sanctions for decades, targeting Iran's energy sector and a range of exports of goods and services. Trump had already expanded sanctions against Iran in 2018 with his withdrawal from the nuclear deal signed under Barack Obama.Under sanctions law, people are forced to apply for specific licenses when they seek to be exempted from prohibited transactions, and even for allowed activities, there are complicated reporting requirements. In practice that means hundreds of thousands of Iranian Americans with family and financial ties to Iran can face a complex set of burdens and hurdles in their lives, jobs and education."These sanctions are supposed to be targeting the government of Iran and certain individuals, but end up targeting the average person and your own citizens," said Mehrnoush Yazdanyar, a California attorney who helps Iranian Americans navigate sanctions. "You're sanctioning your own legal permanent residents, and in doing so, you're alienating them." 'It is a daily stress'Yazdanyar's law offices in southern California, a region home to the largest Iranian population outside of Iran, have assisted thousands of clients in sanctions-related matters over the years. Families often can't send money back and forth, creating significant hurdles for Iranian Americans who want to support their parents or families in Iran who want to help their loved ones pursue their education or other dreams in America.While the regulations are supposed to allow some financial transactions through third parties, many attempting to navigate the process can end up in legal trouble or with closed or frozen bank accounts, she said.Asadi, who grew up in Iran, was accepted to the University of Southern California law school and moved here with dreams of becoming a judge. But with the sanctions blocking her parents from offering her financial support, she had to pay her own way through her education, working multiple jobs while studying."I couldn't afford my life, I couldn't pay my expenses," she said. "It was too much pressure emotionally and financially."She scraped by and managed to graduate, and she now works with Yazdanyar helping people dealing with sanctions. But when Asadi wants to help her own parents in Iran, who are disabled, she has no way to offer them funds, pay for their medications or even buy them gifts: "We cannot support each other."That feeling of guilt is even worse when there's a threat of war, Asadi added: "I'm paying taxes to the government who purchases military equipment to bomb my parents in Iran … If war happens, what should I do?"Pirouz Kavehpour, a University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), engineering professor, who is also Iranian American, said he had repeatedly seen his Iranian students lose access to their bank accounts due to sanctions, derailing their research and education."It's a daily stress … We're international. We're already on thin ice. If you don't perform well, you will be sent back," he said. "You're a kid here and you need to live off fast food … and then you're told by a random guy in a bank field office: 'Don't even think about getting the money.'"With a large wave of Iranian Americans arriving in the US after the 1979 revolution, some are also now inheriting family businesses or properties back in Iran from relatives who have died, but it is often a nightmare process to attempt and recoup the assets, said Erich Ferrari, a Washington DC-based attorney who handles sanctions cases.Even those who try to do everything right, reporting the transactions and getting proper licenses, can end up facing investigations by the US government, he said. Law enforcement monitors money transfers, and in some cases Iranian Americans have found the FBI at their doors asking questions: "There's always a threat looming."Ferrari said he had seen family relationships fall apart in the process, adding: "They are trying to do something that is beneficial to the US, and divest themselves from Iran and bring their money here." Research and charity work thwarted: 'How does the US benefit?'In addition to the recent wave of Iranian students who have been denied visas at the last minute, under sanctions law, faculty members are also barred from traveling to Iran for research or other work without approval from the US treasury department."I've been invited many times to give a talk in Iran … but we are not allowed," said Kavehpour, the UCLA professor. He noted that Iran could benefit from working with UCLA experts on autism research, but that it would be impossible to set up any collaboration.Aysan Rangchian, a 28-year-old Iranian PhD student at UCLA, said Iranian students often don't even apply for conferences anywhere outside of the US for fear of consequences. Iranian students can also struggle to get grants and funding: "This is making the US less appealing for international students."Last year, Iranian researchers faced criminal prosecution when they attempted to do stem-cell research in the US. As a result of that process, potentially groundbreaking science will not go forward here, said Yazdanyar: "How did the United States benefit from this?"Yazdanyar has also represented a not-for-profit organization that helps orphaned children across the world, including in Iran. Even when the group received a specific license to send aid to Iran, financial institutions in third countries have declined to assist with the transfer due to concerns about sanctions. That means humanitarian aid has been delayed and blocked, she said.During floods in Iran last year, it was painful that the sanctions blocked Iranian Americans from being able to offer basic donations, said Assal Rad, a research fellow with the National Iranian American Council, who lives in Orange county. She said that while the impact of sanctions on Iranian Americans paled in comparison with what Iranian citizens suffer, the rules added to this "constant feeling that your identity is under attack"."Whether sanctions, the travel ban, or your loyalty being questioned … it's really isolating," she said, adding of sanctions: "It's an ineffective policy that is also harming Americans themselves."
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| Syria refugees bring new tastes and traditions to Kurdish Iraq Posted: 18 Jan 2020 06:37 PM PST  At first, no one in the Iraqi Kurdish capital Arbil would drink the bitter coffee at Syrian refugee Abdussamad Abdulqadir's cafe. Since conflict broke out in Syria in 2011, many ethnic Kurds living in the country's northeast fled across the border to Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region. When Abdulqadir fled his northeast Syrian hometown of Qamishli six years ago, he settled in Arbil and opened a cafe in its bustling market.
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