| Seven misleading arguments against impeachment by Trump and his allies Posted: 09 Oct 2019 03:36 PM PDT  As Democrats continue their impeachment inquiry, the president and his allies keep presenting certain misleading defenses.
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| Syria Kurds say prison housing IS fighters hit by Turkey Posted: 10 Oct 2019 07:51 AM PDT  Syria's Kurds said Thursday that Turkish bombardment had hit a prison they use to house captured Islamic State group fighters, despite Ankara's pledge to do nothing to undermine the campaign against the jihadists. "The Turkish regime... targeted a section of the Jerkin prison," in the Kurdish-majority city of Qamishli in the northeast, the region's autonomous Kurdish administration said. The Kurdish authorities have repeatedly talked up the threat they say Ankara's offensive poses to the US-led campaign against the jihadists.
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| Uganda plans bill imposing death penalty for gay sex Posted: 10 Oct 2019 04:04 AM PDT ![Uganda plans bill imposing death penalty for gay sex]( "Uganda plans bill imposing death penalty for gay sex") Uganda announced plans on Thursday for a bill that would impose the death penalty on homosexuals, saying the legislation would curb a rise in unnatural sex in the east African nation. The bill - colloquially known as "Kill the Gays" in Uganda - was nullified five years ago on a technicality and the government said it plans to resurrect it within weeks. "Homosexuality is not natural to Ugandans, but there has been a massive recruitment by gay people in schools, and especially among the youth, where they are promoting the falsehood that people are born like that," Ethics and Integrity Minister Simon Lokodo told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
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| No Sports Car Icon Is As Important As The Porsche 356 Posted: 10 Oct 2019 07:16 AM PDT  "I looked around and could not find quite the car I dreamed of, so I decided to build it myself." - Ferry PorscheThe Porsche 911 is maybe the greatest sports car of all time. For more than 50 years the 911 has been defining how a sports car should drive and perform, consistently setting the benchmark for driver engagement and enjoyment. The 911 was not the first car Ferdinand Porsche created though. The true heritage of the 911, and the Porsche brand as a whole, can all be traced back to one machine. This is the Porsche 356 Pre-A. As a machine on its own, the 356 doesn't get as much recognition or attention as the legendary 911, but don't let that relative obscurity dampen its impact and legacy. With a rearward-mounted flat four-cylinder engine and humpbacked profile, the DNA of the 911 is evident. The 356 was also the starting point for many of Porsche's future traditions. The car was the first machine to wear the Carrera nameplate that adorns 911s today, and the 356 was used extensively in motorsport.In short, the 356 is in many ways the birth of what we consider a "true" sports car today. And now you have a chance to own one. Canepa is currently offering a near factory-perfect 1953 Pre-A 356 1500 Coupe. It's a numbers matching car that is fresh off of an extensive restoration that won several awards. This particular car took top honors in the Concours Restoration Group at the 2018 Porsche Parade, won the Gmund Achievement with a near perfect score of 299.8 points, and it was scored first in the Class Restored Category. This is conclusively and objectively one of the nicest Porsche 356 cars in existence.But owning this 356 would be about so much more than meticulous restoration and winning awards. You would be the steward of history and heritage. Every Porsche in this world today owes some semblance of its existence to this car. You will be the keeper of a legend so impactful that its influence will be felt for hundreds of years from now. Just as Henry Ford redefined what the automotive business could be with the Model T, It was Ferry Porsche and the 356 that launched a performance icon.Become part of that history and that lineage with this 1953 Porsche. Just make sure you treat it as the great Ferry himself envisioned, and keep driving it on public roads so that the rest of the world can bask in its glory. Related Articles: * 2017 Ford GT Sells for $1.54 Million, Proving Rising Prices * Roast Some Ponies With A 1969 Chevy Camaro SS
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| Powerful Democratic Rep. Nita Lowey of New York to retire Posted: 10 Oct 2019 12:40 PM PDT  Rep. Nita Lowey, the first woman to lead the powerful House Appropriations Committee and a 31-year veteran of Congress, announced Thursday that she will retire at the end of next year. Lowey is a longtime ally of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and is one of Capitol Hill's old-school dealmakers. "Frankly to have a job that I love so very much made this a very difficult choice," Lowey said in an interview.
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| Ready for War: Iran Is Bristling with Missiles Posted: 09 Oct 2019 09:55 PM PDT  A real threat.
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| Thousands of tarantulas are emerging from the ground in the San Francisco Bay Area, looking for mates Posted: 10 Oct 2019 10:51 AM PDT  Each year, tarantulas emerge in the Rockies and California to look for mates. A spate of warm weather in the Bay Area has extended that mating season.
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| Nation's intelligence officers are resigned to serving a president who doesn't trust them Posted: 09 Oct 2019 02:00 AM PDT  While two intelligence officers have taken the rare step of formally reporting concerns about President Trump's activities, others employed throughout the government's intelligence community are putting their heads down and hope to stay out of the political fray.
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| Evidence from ex-Dallas police officer's murder trial fuels mistrust Posted: 10 Oct 2019 02:18 PM PDT  Evidence from the trial of a former Dallas police officer convicted of killing her neighbor has fueled new questions about whether accused officers are treated differently than other suspects, including testimony that a camera in the cruiser where the officer sat after the shooting was flipped off and that her sexual text messages with her partner were deleted.
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| Europe Says It’s Ready for a Trade War If Pressured by the U.S. Posted: 10 Oct 2019 01:19 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Terms of Trade is a daily newsletter that untangles a world embroiled in trade wars. Sign up here. France's finance minister said he doesn't want the European Union to become the latest front in the global trade war, but that the bloc would hit the U.S. with sanctions if a settlement isn't reached in a long-running dispute over aircraft aid."We are all aware of the dramatic consequences of this trade war between China and the U.S. on the level of growth,'' minister Bruno Le Maire told reporters in Luxembourg on Thursday. "Do we really want to add a trade war between the U.S. and Europe to the Chinese and American trade war?''The World Trade Organization gave the U.S. the go-ahead as soon as this month to impose tariffs on about $7.5 billion of European exports annually in retaliation for illegal government aid to Airbus SE. The EU has said that it will retaliate against any Airbus-linked tariffs when the WTO rules early next year on a similar dispute over subsidies the U.S. supplied to Boeing Co.And while the EU's top trade negotiator, Cecilia Malmstrom, said she's hopeful a settlement can be reached that would avoid a tit-for-tat tariff escalation, the bloc has already published a preliminary list of U.S. goods -- from ketchup to video-game consoles -- being targeted in a $12 billion plan for retaliatory levies related to the Boeing case."I'm still in favor of a settlement,'' Le Maire said. "But the American administration must be aware that if there is not a settlement, Europe will not have any other choice but to retaliate and to put sanctions.''"It's not in the interest of Europe to enter into a trade war with the U.S. and I strongly believe too that it's not in the interest of the U.S.,'' he said.\--With assistance from Viktoria Dendrinou, Nikos Chrysoloras and Caroline Connan.To contact the reporters on this story: Maria Tadeo in Madrid at mtadeo@bloomberg.net;Stephanie Bodoni in Luxembourg at sbodoni@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Ben Sills at bsills@bloomberg.net, Richard Bravo, Nikos ChrysolorasFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Carnival passenger critically injured after falling onto lower cruise ship deck Posted: 10 Oct 2019 10:36 AM PDT ![Carnival passenger critically injured after falling onto lower cruise ship deck]( "Carnival passenger critically injured after falling onto lower cruise ship deck") A 23-year-old man aboard the Carnival Valor cruise ship this week fell off a railing and onto a lower deck, sustaining serious injuries.
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| Mainland Chinese army, police not part of Hong Kong police operations-Hong Kong govt Posted: 10 Oct 2019 04:19 AM PDT ![Mainland Chinese army, police not part of Hong Kong police operations-Hong Kong govt]( "Mainland Chinese army, police not part of Hong Kong police operations-Hong Kong govt") China's mainland army and police are not part of Hong Kong police operations, the city's government said on Thursday, responding to rumours the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and mainland police were involved in trying to quell pro-democracy unrest. "In response to rumours on the internet saying that there were members of the People's Liberation Army or mainland law enforcement agencies joining the law enforcement operations of the Hong Kong Police Force, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government today (Oct. 10) seriously clarified that the rumours are false and groundless," the government said in statement.
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| The candidates who have qualified for the next Democratic debate Posted: 09 Oct 2019 10:51 AM PDT  The Democratic National Committee announced its fifth presidential debate will be held in Georgia in November
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| Did American-Built Patriot Missiles Fail to Protect Saudi Arabia? Posted: 08 Oct 2019 11:02 PM PDT  What can this mean?
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| The US Supreme Court just sent a strong signal it wants to hear a case on transgender bathroom rights Posted: 09 Oct 2019 06:45 AM PDT  The justices believe they will eventually be asked whether it is constitutional for authorities to control which bathrooms trans people can use.
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| Florida congressman turns Trump support into recognition Posted: 09 Oct 2019 03:09 PM PDT  Long before Republican U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz was calling the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee "Captain Kangaroo," he built a reputation as an agitator who wasn't shy about calling out other lawmakers on social media or with reporters. During a news conference Tuesday, Gaetz mocked U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, a Democrat from California who is leading the impeachment probe into President Donald Trump's conversation with the Ukraine about political rival Joe Biden. "What we see in this impeachment is a kangaroo court, and Chairman Schiff is acting like a malicious Captain Kangaroo," Gaetz said, referring to the beloved children's television character who first went on air 27 years before Gaetz was born.
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| Married priests question raises fears of Church split Posted: 10 Oct 2019 12:09 AM PDT  An idea to fill empty pulpits in remote locations by allowing married men to become priests is bitterly dividing a Vatican assembly, with critics warning the emotive issue could fracture the Catholic Church. Austro-Brazilian bishop Erwin Krautler said Wednesday he estimated some two-thirds of the bishops in the region support the idea of "viri probati" (married "men of proven virtue") as candidates for priesthood. Pope Francis has suggested those at the assembly to consider the possibility of ordaining married men for remote locations, such as the Amazon or the Pacific Islands, where communities seldom have Mass due to a lack of priests.
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| China destroys dozens of Uighur cemeteries in drive to 'eradicate' cultural history of Muslims Posted: 09 Oct 2019 08:02 AM PDT  Even in death there is no respite for the Uighurs, one of the world's most persecuted minorities, according to a new investigation that has revealed China is destroying burial grounds where generations of families have been interred. Over the past two years, tombs have been smashed and human bones scattered in dozens of desecrated cemeteries in China's northwest region, research by Agence France Presse and satellite imagery analysts Earthrise Alliance has revealed. While the official explanation for the policy is urban development or the "standardisation" of old graves, overseas Uighurs say the destruction is part of the state's concerted effort to eradicate their ethnic identity and control every aspect of their lives. "This is all part of China's campaign to effectively eradicate any evidence of who we are, to effectively make us like the Han Chinese," said Salih Hudayar, who said the graveyard where his great-grandparents were buried was demolished. "That's why they're destroying all of these historical sites, these cemeteries, to disconnect us from our history, from our fathers and our ancestors," he said. Satellite images received on September 30, 2019 from CNES 2019, distributed by Airbus DS and produced by Earthrise shows a picture from April 24, 2018 (top) showing the Sulanim cemetery (C) in Hotan, Xinjiang province and the same view on August 6, 2019 (bottom) Credit: AFP An estimated one million mostly Muslim ethnic minorities have been rounded up into re-education camps in Xinjiang in the name of combatting religious extremism and separatism. Former detainees interviewed by The Telegraph have recounted horrific torture, being forced to memorise Chinese Communist Party propaganda, and to renounce Islam. Those who are free are intimidated by suffocating surveillance and restrictions, including bans on beards and veils. A further Telegraph investigation in Kashgar, Xinjiang, in June found evidence of widespread intimidation of the local population, whether inside mosques or in family homes, including reports that officials were offering "gifts" of pork, a forbidden food for Muslims. A picture from August 29, 2017 (top) showing a cemetery (C) and the same view on July 5, 2019 with no sign of the facility in Xayar, Xinjiang province Credit: AFP Beijing has long sought to control the resource-rich region of Xinjiang, where decades of government-encouraged migration of the Han – China's ethnic majority – have fuelled resentment among Uighurs. Last year, Uighur exile groups reported that the Chinese authorities were setting up "burial management centres" in a bid to exert control over the most private aspects of their lives. The latest investigation claims that the destruction of existing graveyards has been carried out with little respect for the dead – with AFP journalists discovering human bones discarded at three site and other sites where tombs were reduced to mounds of bricks. Satellite imagery analysed by AFP and Earthrise Alliance, shows that the Chinese government has, since 2014, exhumed and flattened at least 45 Uighur cemeteries - including 30 in the past two years. The Xinjiang government did not respond to a request for comment. This photo taken on September 13, 2019 shows the works of a park in a place where before there was a Uighur cemetery in Kuche in the region of Xinjiang. Credit: AFP The destruction is "not just about religious persecution," said Nurgul Sawut, who has five generations of family buried in Yengisar, southwestern Xinjiang. "It is much deeper than that," said Ms Sawut, who now lives in Australia and last visited Xinjiang in 2016 to attend her father's funeral. "If you destroy that cemetery ... you're uprooting whoever's on that land, whoever's connected to that land," she explained. China has dismissed the escalating global criticism of its treatment of Uighurs, denying there are any human rights issues in the region. This week, the United States said it would curb visas for officials over the alleged abuses and blacklisted 28 Chinese facial recognition and artificial intelligence technology firms that it accuses of being implicated in the repression of the Muslim minority. "This kind of behavior seriously violates the basic norms of international relations, interferes in China's internal affairs, and harms China's interests," said Geng Shuang, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman. "The Chinese side strongly deplores and opposes it."
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| UAW, GM negotiators meet until early morning hours, talks intensify Posted: 10 Oct 2019 09:37 AM PDT  UAW and General Motors bargainers were at it until around 3 a.m. Thursday before recessing and resuming talks midmorning.
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| Airlines ground Boeing 737s after emergency checks ordered over cracks in planes Posted: 10 Oct 2019 07:11 AM PDT  An American airline has grounded two Boeing jets after finding cracks in parts that connect the wings to the fuselage.A Brazilian airline has also grounded 11 Boeing 737s after finding evidence of "the need to replace a specific component".
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| Off the rails: Hanoi closes trackside cafes thronged by selfie-seeking tourists Posted: 09 Oct 2019 12:30 AM PDT  It's the kind of shot every Instagram connoisseur yearns for: century-old railway tracks cutting through dusty backstreets, flanked by tourists drinking beer or iced tea mere inches from the slow-moving trains. The sight has become such a draw in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi that authorities have set a weekend deadline for the removal of dozens of cafes that have cropped up, citing safety concerns. It's crazy, and completely different to anywhere I've been before," said Australian tourist Laura Metze, after a train rumbled by.
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| U.S. Takes Custody of ISIS Fighters Involved In James Foley Murder Posted: 10 Oct 2019 06:55 AM PDT  The U.S. military is moving to take several dozen ISIS fighters into custody from Kurdish prisons in northeast Syria, and already holds two British fighters involved in the murder of freelance journalist James Foley and other Western hostages of the terror group, according to U.S. officials.The Justice Department seeks to bring the two men, El Shafee Elsheikh and Alexanda Kotey, to trial in Virginia.The pair were part of a four-man cell of British fighters that included Foley's alleged killer, Mohammed Emwazi, who became known as "Jihadi John" and who was later killed in a drone strike. The cell executed at least 27 prisoners.Foley was captured by ISIS in Syria in 2012. He was beheaded in 2014 , purportedly by Emwazi, in a filmed execution that shocked the international community. Foley was the first American citizen killed by ISIS.U.S. forces are currently scrambling to find places to hold other ISIS detainees currently in U.S. custody in Syria. The Trump administration had no plan for moving the detainees when it announced a withdrawal of U.S. troops from northeastern Syria in advance of Turkey's planned invasion of the region.Officials are looking into the possibility of sending the most dangerous fighters to the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, according to NBC. The U.S. has repeatedly pressed the home countries of foreign ISIS fighters to imprison them, a plea that nearly every country has refused.President Trump announced on Monday that U.S. troops would withdraw from northeast Syria, in advance of a planned invasion of the area by Turkey. The Turkish government plans to set up a "safe zone" inside Syria to resettle Syrian refugees who fled their country's civil war, as well as to fight Kurdish groups it considers terrorist organizations.Officials are unsure of what will subsequently happen to the 12,000 ISIS fighters currently detained by Kurdish forces.
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| Romney undecided on impeachment, stands by Trump criticism Posted: 10 Oct 2019 02:03 PM PDT  Mitt Romney hasn't yet decided whether President Donald Trump should be impeached, but the Republican senator from Utah on Thursday stuck by criticism that has earned him a stream of insults from Trump on Twitter. Romney said that while he thinks some things the president has done are wrong, it doesn't necessarily mean Trump should be removed from office. Romney's comments came following an appearance at a Salt Lake City event about the increasing number of people sickened by a mysterious illness associated with vaping.
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| Arizona Official Smuggled Pregnant Women Into the U.S. and Paid Them to Give Up Their Babies: Authorities Posted: 09 Oct 2019 12:19 PM PDT  Photo Illustration by The Daily BeastAn Arizona official faces charges in two states for his alleged role in an international adoption fraud scheme that involved smuggling pregnant women into the U.S. from the Marshall Islands and then paying them to give up their babies, according to court documents.Maricopa County Assessor Paul Petersen was charged Tuesday night with 11 felony offenses, including human smuggling, the sale of a child, and communications fraud, the Utah Attorney General's Office said during a Wednesday press conference."The commercialization of children is illegal and the commoditization of children is simply evil," AG Sean D. Reyes said, adding that authorities "have no interest in interfering with adoptions that have already taken place."Catholic Charity Ends Adoptions Rather Than Place Kid With Same-Sex CouplePetersen, an adoption lawyer who is licensed in Arizona and Utah, was also hit with charges in Arizona, including conspiracy and theft, according to a Tuesday indictment filed by the state's Attorney General's Office. He was arrested in California, officials said. Prosecutors allege Petersen "recruited" and transported more than 40 pregnant women from the Republic of the Marshall Islands—a country of islands between Hawaii and the Philippines—to Utah over the last three years. Reyes said Petersen first established a connection with the Marshall Islands through The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.After the children were born, Petersen allegedly offered the women money to give their babies up to U.S. parents and allegedly charged $40,000 per adoption, according to the indictment. The elected GOP official allegedly failed to disclose the scheme to his adoptive parent clients.Maricopa County Sheriff's OfficeArizona and Utah investigators said Wednesday they believe at least 29 babies, some of whom were brought to other states to be adopted, are victims of the scheme. Reyes added Utah authorities were first alerted to the scheme after concerned hospital workers and adoption lawyers called a human trafficking tip line. On Tuesday evening, Arizona authorities executed search warrants in multiple locations and found eight pregnant women from the Marshall Islands inside a Mesa home. It is not immediately clear what connection Petersen has to the property.Body of Slain University of Utah Student Mackenzie Lueck Was Found Bound in Shallow Grave"We are thinking of the birth mothers, adoptive families and children in this case as victims," Reyes said, adding that Petersen's alleged scheme "exploited highly vulnerable groups in two countries—the birth mothers and families in the Marshall Islands and the adoptive parents here in Utah."The 32-count indictment filed in the Superior Court of Arizona alleges Petersen and his colleague, Lynwood Jennet, also organized travel for "pregnant women from the Republic of the Marshall Islands to come to Arizona for the purpose of giving a child up for adoption."Prosecutors say Petersen claimed these women as Arizona residents in order to receive medical services from the state's Medicaid system. "After the birth of the child, Paul D. Petersen and Lynwood Jennett facilitated travel for these women to leave Arizona," the indictment alleges. "In several instances the women returned directly to the [Republic of the Marshall Islands]."Paul Caneiro Charged With Murder After Allegedly Burning Down His Brother's Family MansionThe scheme also allegedly violated the 1983 compact with the Republic of the Marshall Islands that prevents the island's citizens from coming to the U.S. "for the purpose of adoption" unless they have a special visa.Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich emphasized in a press conference Wednesday that the families who fell victim to the alleged scheme are not being investigated. "These adoptions are not in jeopardy. Our focus is on the individuals who facilitated these adoptions," Brnovich said. Petersen was first appointed as Maricopa County assessor in 2013 after serving as the office's liaison to the legislature. The Republican candidate was re-elected in 2016 in an unopposed election. According to his website, the father of four has been working with adoptive parents for almost 15 years and is also an active member of the Maricopa County Republican Party and the Arizona Republican Party.Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Trump defends diplomat's wife who killed teenage Briton in crash: 'It happens' Posted: 10 Oct 2019 12:22 PM PDT  President Trump has defended the wife of a U.S. diplomat who killed a British teenager in a road accident, suggesting it is difficult to drive on the other side of the road and that "we've all done it."
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| Ukraine's Zelensky 'breaks record' for world's longest press conference Posted: 10 Oct 2019 11:57 AM PDT  Volodymyr Zelensky, a popular comedian before he was elected president of Ukraine this spring, promised to bring a fresh kind of politics to the ex-Soviet nation. Around eight hours into the marathon event, Zelensky's first major press conference since coming to power in May, a representative of the agency stood up to deliver the news. The previous record was held by Belarus strongman Alexander Lukashenko, with a press conference that lasted over seven hours, Ukrainian media reported.
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| The Marines Are Changing the Way They Do Business Posted: 10 Oct 2019 08:22 AM PDT  With possible wars looming, the Marine Corps of the future will be smaller, help defend Navy ships, and rely more on drones.
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| UPDATE 1-Migrant protesters occupy U.S.-Mexico border bridge, crossing closed Posted: 10 Oct 2019 01:10 PM PDT ![UPDATE 1-Migrant protesters occupy U.S.-Mexico border bridge, crossing closed]( "UPDATE 1-Migrant protesters occupy U.S.-Mexico border bridge, crossing closed") GATEWAY BRIDGE, U.S.-Mexico border, Oct 10 (Reuters) - M igrants seeking asylum in the United States who are camped in a dangerous Mexican border town occupied a bridge to Brownsville, Texas on Thursday, leading U.S. authorities to close the crossing, witnesses and authorities said. Hundreds of the migrants have been sleeping for weeks on the end of the bridge in Matamoros, Mexico, a city known for gang violence and for cartels that control human trafficking. Many of those living in tents or on the sidewalk in a plaza abutting the bridge are awaiting court dates for hearings in the United States weeks or months later under a U.S. policy called the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP).
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| US sends asylum seekers to Mexico’s border towns as it warns citizens of violence in region Posted: 10 Oct 2019 04:31 AM PDT  Advocates have sounded the alarm about the dangers of Remain in Mexico program as report reveals at least 340 instances of rape, kidnapping, torture and other violent attacksMigrants, mostly from Central America, wait to board a van which will take them to a processing center, in El Paso, Texas, on 16 May. Photograph: Paul Ratje/AFP/Getty ImagesThe United States has sent more than 51,000 asylum-seekers to wait in dangerous border towns in Mexico as it advises its own citizens not to travel to those regions because of the severe threat of kidnapping, murder and violent crime.Advocates have been warning about the dangers of Remain in Mexico, or Migration Protection Protocols (MPP), since the program was announced in January. But their warnings have grown louder this week after a new report by Human Rights First revealed that there were at least 340 reports of rape, kidnapping, torture and other violent attacks against people returned to Mexico while they wait for their case to be heard in US immigration court.Ursela Ojeda, a policy adviser at the Women's Refugee Commission, has visited the border multiple times to see how the policy is being implemented and said the new report was the "tip of the iceberg"."When you see people not showing up for their court hearing in Remain in Mexico, you have to wonder what happened to the people who aren't there," Ojeda said."There is no way to know why they just missed court – they could have been kidnapped, they could have been killed, they could have been put on a bus by the Mexican government and shoved to another part of the country with no way to get back."The Human Rights First report surveys gruesome incidents, such as when a three-year-old boy from Honduras and his parents were kidnapped after being returned to Nuevo Laredo. The mother said the last time she saw her husband he was lying on the ground, beaten and bleeding and told her: "Love, they're going to kill us." The kidnappers released the three-year-old and his mother, who doesn't know if her husband is alive.A Cuban asylum seeker told the group he saw a group of men stop a taxi outside a Mexican government immigration office and kidnap the four Venezuelan women and girl inside who were being sent to a shelter.Migrants, mostly from Mexico, are pictured sitting on the ground waiting near the Paso del Norte Bridge at the Mexico-US border, in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on 12 September. Photograph: Paul Ratje/AFP/Getty ImagesNuevo Laredo and Matamoros, two of the cities in the Tamaulipas state people are being returned to, are among the most dangerous in the world. The US State department issued a level 4 travel warning for the region because "violent crime, such as murder, armed robbery, carjacking, kidnapping, extortion and sexual assault is common".Speaking at the White House on Tuesday, the acting head of US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), Mark Morgan, ignored multiple questions about what the US government was doing to address the violence facing people sent back to Mexico."We're trying to overcome the message that the cartels have been putting out there that it's going to be a free ride into the United States," Morgan said. "We're now sending the message that, if you're coming here as an economic migrant, you're not going to be allowed into the United States."He celebrated the program for keeping people out of the US, where they would have been detained or released while they waited for their court date. He also said the program was stopping smugglers and improving due process – though advocates say it is doing the exact opposite.Shelters and other aid groups are overwhelmed by the migrants pouring into border towns and many are left to sleep and fend for themselves on the streets, without healthcare or work opportunities.Attorneys say it is nearly impossible to provide legal counsel. Some of the US-based attorneys who have crossed the border have received credible threats of violence and the US has not secured an agreement with Mexico to ensure US attorneys don't get arrested for practicing law in Mexico without a license.At the end of August only 34 out of 9,702 people placed into the Remain in Mexico program had legal representation – just 0.4%, according to researchers at Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (Trac).There is also little accountability for the government's claim that vulnerable people are exempt from the program on a case-by-case basis. Human Rights First said the screening process is a "farce" and advocacy groups have seen vulnerable groups, including pregnant women and LGBT people, returned.Democratic 2020 presidential candidate, Julián Castro, on Monday crossed the border with eight gay and lesbian asylum seekers from Cuba, Guatemala and Honduras and a deaf Salvadoran woman and three of her relatives."Hours after we were told LGBT and disabled asylum seekers would have their cases heard, they have been returned to Mexico," Castro said in a tweet. "By law, these migrants are supposed to be exempt from the Remain in Mexico policy – but CBP had decided to ignore their due process. Outrageous."In September, a Salvadoran woman who was eight-and-a-half months pregnant and experiencing contractions was apprehended by US border patrol, given medicine to stop contractions in a hospital, then returned to Mexico.In March, a 27-year-old with the cognitive age of a four-year-old child, was separated from the cousin and son he traveled with and sent back to Mexico. He was reunited with his mother in the US at the end of August after the Guardian reported on his case.This policy is colliding with other policies that have crippled the asylum system, including a ban on migrants seeking asylum at the border before seeking protection in another country.On Monday, the Women's Refugee Commission and other advocacy groups sent a letter urging Congress to investigate the Remain in Mexico program's "grave human rights and due process violations".Advocacy groups also filed a lawsuit against it in February. The policy was blocked in April, but an appeals court temporarily allowed it to continue while the ruling is appealed.In the court case, the union which represents 2,500 employees in the DHS agency which interviews and adjudicates asylum claims, US Customs and Immigration Services, filed a brief describing Remain in Mexico as "entirely unnecessary" because the system could handle the increase in asylum claims.
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| Delaware man attacks Walmart cashier in Florida Posted: 09 Oct 2019 06:24 AM PDT  Raw video: The man faces multiples charges after attacking the cashier without any provocation.
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| Pay freeze at the UN? Trump administration owes the United Nations $1 billion Posted: 09 Oct 2019 12:15 PM PDT  Trump brushed aside a warning from the U.N. that the organization risks being unable to pay its staff and bills if member countries don't chip in.
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| US urges shared decisions with pain patients taking opioids Posted: 10 Oct 2019 09:19 AM PDT  The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services instead urged doctors to share such decisions with patients. The agency published steps for doctors in a six-page guide and an editorial in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Drug companies promoted that use, even as evidence grew of addiction and overdose.
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| View Photos of Lunaz Classic Luxury Cars Turned into EVs Posted: 10 Oct 2019 09:30 AM PDT |
| Kashmir hotels empty or shut as tourist restrictions lifted Posted: 10 Oct 2019 07:31 AM PDT  India lifted on Thursday restrictions on tourists visiting Kashmir, but for hotels around the picturesque lake in Srinagar two months into a lockdown it was still far from business as usual. A few days later on August 5 New Delhi scrapped Indian-administered Kashmir of its semi-autonomous status, sent in tens of thousands of extra troops and imposed a lockdown. "Lifting the restrictions on tourists coming will not help until communications are restored," Vishal Sharma, general manager of the five-star Taj Vivanta hotel told AFP.
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| Gunman kills two in livestreamed attack at German synagogue Posted: 09 Oct 2019 04:21 AM PDT  BERLIN/HALLE, Germany (Reuters) - A gunman who denounced Jews opened fire outside a German synagogue on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year, and killed two people as he livestreamed his attack. Several German media outlets said the perpetrator acted alone on Wednesday in the eastern German city of Halle. Video broadcast on Amazon's gaming subsidiary Twitch showed a young man with a shaven head first reciting a short statement in broken English while sitting in a parked car.
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| Erdogan Threatens To ‘Open the Doors’ to Europe for Refugees if Criticisms Continue Posted: 10 Oct 2019 05:32 AM PDT  Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan issued a warning to the European Union during a speech to his party on Thursday, threatening to flood the continent with millions of refugees in response to international criticism of Turkey's recent military offensive in northern Syria."Hey EU, wake up. I say it again: if you try to frame our operation there as an invasion, our task is simple: we will open the doors and send 3.6 million migrants to you," Erdogan said in the speech. The public opinion over Erdogan's actions has largely been negative.On Thursday, France's foreign ministry requested the Turkish ambassador, Ismail Hakki Musa, speak in Paris about the recent attacks, according to sources. Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio also called for an immediate end to the fighting."As a government we think that the Turkish offensive initiative is unacceptable. We condemn it … because military action in the past has always led to more terrorism," he said. "We call for an immediate end to this offensive which is absolutely not acceptable given that the use of force continues to endanger the life of the Syrian people, who have already experienced tragedy in recent years."Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a statement Thursday joining his European counterparts in calling for Turkey to end its attacks against the Kurds. "Israel strongly condemns the Turkish invasion of the Kurdish areas in Syria and warns against the ethnic cleansing of the Kurds by Turkey and its proxies. Israel is prepared to extend humanitarian assistance to the gallant Kurdish people," he said.Iran, a close ally of the Syrian government, called for the Turks to halt their advance, while Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia would push for the necessity of dialogue between Turkey and Syria."During the Thursday rally, an inflammatory Erdogan defended his government's decision-making and accused other countries of being dishonest in their criticisms."They are not honest, they just make up words," he said. "We, however, create action and that is our difference."
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| Activists Can't Agree on How to Fight Climate Change. The IMF Says Just Do Something. Posted: 10 Oct 2019 12:34 PM PDT  The IMF says a carbon tax is best to fight climate change but says countries should do what works best for them — so long as they do something.
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| Dems Want to Know: Who Paid Rudy? Posted: 10 Oct 2019 05:09 PM PDT  Drew Angerer/GettyA member of the House Intelligence Committee is calling on Donald Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, to disclose information on who financed his attempts to dig up dirt on Joe Biden amid a wave of reports that the work has dovetailed into official government business. "Rudy needs to disclose his clients for the Ukraine work," said Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY). "He's up to his neck in criminals and dirty money. Was he playing the President to get himself paid? Seems there's no honor among thieves."It's unclear if Giuliani's finances have been a component of House Democratic investigations into the pressure campaign that the former New York City mayor and President Trump applied to Ukrainian leadership in order to persuade them to investigate the work Biden's son, Hunter, was doing in that country. But CNN reported that his financial dealings are under renewed scrutiny by investigators following the arrests of two clients, Soviet-born businessmen Igor Fruman and Lev Parnas, on Thursday for campaign finance violations. And Maloney's comments suggest that there is an appetite for congressional investigators to better understand the money-trail as well. In an interview with The Daily Beast this week, Giuliani steadfastly denied that he was paid for any work he did in Ukraine, saying that he helped Trump on a "pro bono" basis. He said that the costs of his travel were covered by private clients for separate work that happened to correspond with his Ukraine portfolio. Speaking specifically about an August trip he made to Madrid to urge Andriy Yermak, a top Ukrainian official, to reinvestigate the Bidens, Giuliani said that he happened to be going to the Spanish capital already for "business and vacation." Rudy's Ukraine Henchmen Made Big Donation to Pro-Trump PAC"I have law clients and I have security clients in London and Madrid," he said. "And that particular trip has not been reimbursed but about three-fourths of it would be business and one-fourth would be personal. The Trump part would be considered personal because I don't get paid for representing the president." Giuliani also said that he never charged the State Department for the work he did to meet with and talk to Ukrainian officials, including Yermak."I've done work for the State Department before and I never charged them for it," he said. "They call upon citizens all the time. I did it at least three times with [former Secretary of State] Colin Powell... I did this as a service to my government." The extent of the work Giuliani did with and for the State Department has become a central component of the ongoing impeachment drama that has roiled the Trump administration. Text messages revealed during the course of congressional investigations showed that top officials at Foggy Bottom leaned on the former mayor to get a better sense of how newly-elected Ukrainian leadership was operating. But Giuliani also played a role in feeding State highly conspiratorial, and largely discredited information aboutUkraine supposedly playing a role in the launch of the special counsel probe into 2016 election meddling and Hunter Biden's post atop a natural gas company in that country. Giuliani Says Some of the Documents State Dept IG Handed to Congress Came From HimGiuliani's private clients also appear to have gotten preferential treatment from the president. On Wednesday, Bloomberg reported that Trump pressed his then Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to encourage the Department of Justice "to drop a criminal case against an Iranian-Tukrish gold trader who was a client of Rudy Giuliani." And last week, the Associated Press reported that at the same time Giuliani was trying to persuade Ukrainian leaders to launch investigations, individuals with ties to the former mayor were "trying to install new management at the top of Ukraine's massive state gas company"—all while touting their connections to Trump and Giuliani. Giuliani called the AP article "totally false" and a "Biden-inspired hit job." "I haven't done anything in Ukraine in two years. I have never done a deal in Ukraine," he said. "I haven't even thought about a deal in Ukraine over the last two years."But government ethicists and watchdogs have said that the opaqueness around Giuliani's finances does raise alarms about whether the president's lawyer is acting in a formal diplomatic capacity or as a conduit for private interests. "Giuliani is acting as this unofficial envoy at times with the apparent backing of the State Department, so he's in this quasi-official diplomatic role representing the interests of the U.S. government," said Brendan Fischer, the director of federal and FEC reforms for the Campaign Legal Center. "But he's not subject to any of the ethics obligations that would attach to a federal government employee, most notably financial disclosure forms."Fischer noted that one particular area where Giuliani could be pressing the boundaries of the law related to whether he has provided a material benefit to the Trump re-election campaign for which he either was not reimbursed or for which a foreign actor provided the reimbursement. The matter was tricky, Fischer conceded, because Giuliani is not technically working for the re-election campaign even though there are a "number of areas where his claims of personal work intersect with the campaign."How Rudy Giuliani's Bid to Discredit Mueller Played Into Impeachment ProbeAsked directly to respond to the idea that he may have pushed the boundaries—if not outright violated—the limits of campaign finance law, Giuliani insisted that it was impossible because his work in Ukraine ended before Biden formally announced his presidential bid. "Are you kidding me, a campaign finance violation?" he responded. "It is an absolutely stupid question. Quote this, 'nobody would ask such a stupid question unless they were in the tank for Joe Biden and the Democratic Party.'"Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. 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| US official charged with leaking secrets to journalists Posted: 09 Oct 2019 04:15 PM PDT  A Defense Intelligence Agency official was arrested Wednesday and charged with leaking classified intelligence information to two journalists, including a reporter he was dating, the Justice Department said. Henry Kyle Frese, 30, was arrested by the FBI when he arrived at work at a DIA facility in Virginia. Frese, who has a top secret government security clearance, is alleged to have accessed at least five classified intelligence reports and provided top secret information about another country's weapons systems to the reporter with whom he was having a relationship.
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| Ford SEMA Custom Builds Include Wild and Off-Road-Ready Rangers Posted: 10 Oct 2019 03:31 PM PDT  An advance look at a few of the nearly 50 Fords that will be at the SEMA show in Las Vegas soon.
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| Ethiopia turns former palace, torture site into tourist draw Posted: 10 Oct 2019 10:50 AM PDT  A palace that once housed Ethiopia's emperors and also served as a torture site under the communist Derg regime is to open to the public in a controversial government tourism project. The palace compound in Addis Ababa, which Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's government has rebranded "Unity Park", was formally launched Thursday and will be open from Friday. Abiy's office said on Twitter Thursday that the project "symbolises our ability to come together".
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| 'They’re just mad we look good doing it': AOC responds to story about the price of her hairstyle Posted: 10 Oct 2019 04:30 PM PDT  "They're just mad we look good doing it," she said of conservatives, with the hair-flip emoji.
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