| Trump compares impeachment inquiry to a 'lynching' Posted: 22 Oct 2019 05:58 AM PDT  While fuming Tuesday morning about the House Democrats' ongoing impeachment inquiry, President Trump declared the probe a "lynching."
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| South Carolina police find remains of 5-year-old girl missing since August in landfill Posted: 22 Oct 2019 07:18 PM PDT  The Sumter Police Department on Tuesday announced the remains of Nevaeh Lashy Adams were found after a search that began in August.
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| Tree of Life anniversary: American Jews see rising anti-Semitism in alarming new survey Posted: 22 Oct 2019 09:01 PM PDT ![Tree of Life anniversary: American Jews see rising anti-Semitism in alarming new survey]( "Tree of Life anniversary: American Jews see rising anti-Semitism in alarming new survey") American Jews think anti-Semitism is growing worse. More than third have experienced it, and nearly that many say they hide their identity in public.
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| Turkey-U.S. Sparring Escalates as Bank Spurns NY Court Posted: 22 Oct 2019 03:51 PM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Turkey is snubbing U.S. demands for one of its biggest banks to face charges that it helped Iran evade sanctions amid escalating tensions fueled by Turkey's incursion into northern Syria.U.S. prosecutors charged Turkiye Halk Bankasi AS last week with enabling a sanctions-evasion scheme that helped Iran tap $20 billion in frozen foreign oil sales revenue sitting in foreign bank accounts, at a time when the U.S. was trying to maximize leverage over the country in negotiations to abandon its nuclear program.The timing of the indictment led Turkish officials to dismiss the charges as false and politically motivated. The bank and its U.S. lawyers have refused to accept a legal summons or acknowledge U.S. legal authority in the matter. At a hearing Tuesday, no lawyers or executives showed up to represent the bank. A day earlier Turkey named a former executive at the bank, who'd been convicted in the U.S., to head the Istanbul stock exchange.Tensions between Turkey and the U.S. have heightened since President Donald Trump ordered the removal of U.S. troops from northern Syria, opening the door for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to send his forces to attack Kurds in the region.The incursion spurred the U.S. to sanction Turkey with Trump writing a letter last week to Erdogan imploring him not to be a "tough guy" or a "fool." Erdogan reportedly threw the letter in the trash.Earlier, Trump threatened Turkey in a statement on Twitter.U.S. authorities had been pursuing a criminal case against the bank for at least a year, seeking to impose a massive financial penalty for its role in the scheme. But the case idled for months amid diplomatic wrangling until the charges were filed along with other sanctions last week.Read more on the charges hereFederal prosecutors with the Manhattan U.S. attorney's office have now deemed Halkbank a "fugitive," and told U.S. District Judge Richard M. Berman they may seek contempt sanctions if the bank fails to respond to renewed demands for its presence in court. Halkbank has no employees or offices in the U.S., though it does have a correspondent bank account and shares that are listed and traded as American depositary receipts in U.S. markets.The judge said he would consider the request but also said he wanted to give the bank two weeks to review the matter and reconsider its position.If Turkey's current position on the issue is any indication, it may take more than two weeks: on Monday, it named a former Halkbank executive who was convicted in a U.S. trial over the sanctions scheme as the new chief executive of the Istanbul stock exchange. The executive, Mehmet Hakan Atilla, was released from U.S. custody in July. In making the appointment, Turkish finance minister Berat Albayrak, who is also Erdogan's son-in-law, said Atilla was the victim of an "unjust conviction."(Corrects bank's name in second paragraph)To contact the reporter on this story: Christian Berthelsen in New York at cberthelsen1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net, Joe SchneiderFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Why Russia Is Angry at America's Missile Defense Systems Posted: 22 Oct 2019 04:40 AM PDT  Moscow hates THAAD and Aegis Ashore.
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| Kim orders South's buildings at resort in North be destroyed Posted: 23 Oct 2019 03:34 AM PDT  North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered the destruction of South Korean-made hotels and other tourist facilities at the North's Diamond Mountain resort, apparently because Seoul won't defy international sanctions and resume South Korean tours at the site. Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency said Wednesday that Kim had visited the resort and described its facilities as "shabby" and lacking national character.
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| Trump administration says Obamacare plan premiums to fall Posted: 22 Oct 2019 06:08 AM PDT  Monthly premiums for an average 2020 Obamacare health insurance plan will fall about 4 percent from this year, according to a report released Tuesday by the Trump administration, which has tried to dismantle the program. The Trump administration has cut back on funding for the health insurance program, which was created by President Barack Obama as part of the Affordable Care Act and is often called Obamacare, and has sought to overturn it in Congress and legal courts. Obamacare provides needs-based subsidies to help low-income people buy health insurance.
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| Lebanon's Hezbollah under rare street pressure Posted: 21 Oct 2019 05:53 PM PDT  When mass anti-government protests engulfed Lebanon, a taboo was broken as strongholds of the Shiite Hezbollah movement saw rare demonstrations criticising the party and revered leader Hassan Nasrallah. This shattered the myth of absolute acquiesence among Hezbollah's popular base, baffling even those who hail from the movement's strongholds. "No one ever expected that in any of these areas in south Lebanon we would hear a single word against Nasrallah," or Amal Movement leader Nabih Berri, said Sara, a 32-year-old activist who participated in protests in the southern city of Nabatiyeh.
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| Democrats Slow Pace on Impeachment Inquiry Posted: 22 Oct 2019 06:41 AM PDT  WASHINGTON -- House Democrats have resigned themselves to the likelihood that impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump will extend into the Christmas season, as they plan a series of public hearings intended to make the simplest and most devastating possible public case in favor of removing Trump.Democratic leaders had hoped to move as soon as Thanksgiving to wrap up a narrow inquiry focused around Trump's dealings with Ukraine, buoyed by polling data that shows that the public supports the investigation, even if voters are not yet sold on impeaching the president.But after a complicated web of damaging revelations about the president has emerged from private depositions unfolding behind closed doors, Democratic leaders have now begun plotting a full-scale -- and probably more time-consuming -- effort to lay out their case in a set of high-profile public hearings on Capitol Hill.Their goal is to convince the public -- and if they can, more Republicans -- that the president committed an impeachable offense when he demanded that Ukraine investigate his political rivals."Just the facts, baby," said Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., the chairman of the House Democratic Caucus. "If we tell that story with simplicity and repetition, the American people will understand why the president must be held accountable. If we don't, then there is great uncertainty, and in that vacuum Donald Trump may find himself escaping accountability again."Trump, increasingly embittered by the impeachment inquiry, complained Monday that Republicans were not defending him aggressively enough."Republicans have to get tougher and fight," Trump said during a rambling, hourlong question-and-answer session with reporters at a Cabinet meeting. "We have some that are great fighters, but they have to get tougher and fight, because the Democrats are trying to hurt the Republican Party for the election, which is coming up, where we're doing very well."The president belittled Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, one of the few members of his party who has signaled he may be open to impeaching Trump, underscoring how anxious the senator's defection has made him about possible cracks in support from his own party.Launching into a series of attacks on Democrats, Trump said approvingly that they were "vicious and they stick together. They don't have Mitt Romney in their midst -- they don't have people like that.""They stick together," Trump added. "You never see them break off."It was the second time in two days that he has complained about a lack of support from Republicans."When do the Do Nothing Democrats pay a price for what they are doing to our Country, & when do the Republicans finally fight back?" Trump tweeted late Sunday night.The president's allies on Capitol Hill tried Monday to ramp up their defense of the president by forcing a vote in the House to censure Rep. Adam B. Schiff, D-Calif., who is leading the impeachment inquiry as the chairman of the Intelligence Committee. The vote, which failed in the Democratic-led chamber, was a display of Republican solidarity for Trump.There are risks for Democrats in the longer timeline, which could make it more difficult for lawmakers in politically competitive districts who fear a backlash from constituents if they appear to be preoccupied with targeting Trump instead of addressing major issues such as gun safety or health care.And Democrats are all too aware that Trump has succeeded in the past in steering the subject away from allegations of misconduct on his part, as he did with the investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election conducted by special counsel Robert Mueller.This time, Democratic leaders hope to deny him the opportunity.They have issued subpoenas to a growing cast of characters, including Rudy Giuliani, Trump's private lawyer who is at the center of the Ukraine pressure campaign, and have demanded documents from Vice President Mike Pence. They have invited or compelled Trump administration officials past and present to appear at the Capitol before rolling television cameras, and cloistered them behind closed doors to extract a daily drip of testimony that backs up their case.That effort continues Tuesday when William B. Taylor Jr., the top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine, is scheduled to testify behind closed doors about text messages in which he wrote to other officials that it was "crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign." On Wednesday, investigators will question Laura Cooper, a Pentagon official, about decisions to hold up Ukraine's military aid.Several other depositions of administration officials have been delayed until next week because of events honoring Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, D-Md., who died last week, Democratic officials said.To keep Republicans on the defensive in the interim, Speaker Nancy Pelosi held a House vote last week on Trump's decision to pull back U.S. troops from Syria -- which was widely panned by lawmakers in both parties -- and will force a vote this week on measures to combat foreign election interference.On Monday, Pelosi offered the latest bit of what has become a daily, sometimes hourly, stream of information to shape the Democrats' argument, circulating a fact sheet for reporters entitled "Truth Exposed: The Shakedown, the Pressure Campaign and the Cover-up" to sum up what has been learned about the Ukraine affair so far, along with a 90-second video laying out the case for impeaching Trump.Pelosi's aides have advised lawmakers to avoid talking at length about bit players or subplots in the drama they are unspooling, emphasizing the need to return again and again to Trump's own words from a July phone call with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy of Ukraine. "Do Us a Favor," a quote from a reconstructed transcript of that call, was the title of their video.Democratic leaders have pushed lawmakers with backgrounds in law enforcement or national security to make television appearances to discuss the inquiry, including Rep. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, a former CIA analyst; Rep. Val Demings of Florida, a former police chief; and Rep. Tom Malinowski of New Jersey, a former State Department official."If we get mired in esoteric process concerns, we will lose the ability to tell a powerful story to the American people about the abuse of power that is connected to the Trump-Ukraine scandal," Jeffries said.Some Republicans, already uneasy about the allegations at the heart of the Ukraine inquiry, have grown increasingly uncomfortable with Trump's behavior, and unwilling to defend him on a range of topics, including the Syria decision and his plan -- abruptly abandoned in the face of a bipartisan outcry -- to hold the Group of 7 summit of world leaders at one of his resorts in Florida.The admission -- later recanted -- by Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, of a quid pro quo linking foreign aid to Trump's effort to pressure Ukraine to investigate his political rivals, was a worrying piece of evidence for nervous Republicans that the president and his team are woefully unprepared to confront the impeachment onslaught.Romney, a frequent Trump critic, has called the president's attempts to solicit dirt on a political rival "wrong and appalling."While there is no evidence that other Republicans are taking their cues from Romney, he is not the only member of the party to publicly express concern. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said last week that a president should never "hold up foreign aid that we had previously appropriated for a political initiative. Period." Rep. Francis Rooney, R-Fla., who announced that he will not run for reelection, declined to rule out supporting impeachment. John Kasich, the former Republican governor of Ohio, said impeachment should move forward.During his remarks at the White House, the president blasted House Democrats for pursuing impeachment, calling the effort to oust him "very bad for our country" and suggesting that dealing with the inquiry was getting in the way of more important issues."I have to fight off these lowlifes at the same time I'm negotiating these very important things," Trump said.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
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| Rudy Giuliani Admits He ‘Did Sort of Look at’ Ukrainian Oligarch Dmitry Firtash for Info Posted: 22 Oct 2019 08:05 PM PDT  Georges Schneider/AFP/GettyVictoria Toensing and Joe DiGenova, the pro-Trump lawyers representing a Ukrainian oligarch wanted by U.S. authorities on conspiracy charges, reportedly met personally with Attorney General William Barr in July—at the height of Rudy Giuliani's hunt for kompromat on Joe Biden in Ukraine. Citing three sources familiar with the meeting, The Washington Post reports that diGenova and Toensing argued against the charges facing Dmitry Firtash—who has been described by federal prosecutors as having connections to the "upper echelons" of Russian organized crime—in the meeting with Barr and other Justice Department officials. Barr is said to have refused to intercede. Firtash, who has been fighting extradition to the U.S. on bribery and corruption charges from Vienna for more than five years, had only recently hired Toensing and diGenova at the time of the reported meeting. According to Bloomberg, he paid them $1 million earlier this year to dig up dirt on Biden in a bid to get Giuliani's help with his legal woes. While Giuliani has maintained he never had anything to do with Firtash's case, Firtash reportedly bankrolled at least one piece of opposition research that Giuliani would later hold up on cable news as proof of Biden's wrongdoing: a witness statement from Viktor Shokin, Ukraine's former prosecutor general, claiming the former vice president had him fired to protect his son from a corruption investigation. Giuliani told the Post that he "did sort of look at Firtash to see if he had any relevant information" that could help with his search for damaging information about Democrats. "As far as I can tell, he didn't. I looked at maybe 20 of these oligarchs."A Justice Department spokeswoman said the Firtash case "has the support of the department leadership" and said DOJ would "continue to work closely with the Austrian Ministry of Justice to extradite Mr. Firtash." Toensing reportedly declined to comment on the Barr meeting.The Post also reports that prosecutors in Chicago who filed the bribery charges against Firtash in 2013 had previously come across two of Giuliani's recently arrested associates, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, in their case. Prosecutors there are now said to be reviewing whether there is a larger relationship between Firtash and the Soviet-born businessmen accused of campaign finance violations. Parnas and Fruman, who were reportedly enlisted by Giuliani to help find dirt on Trump's political opponents in Ukraine, are accused of making an illicit campaign donation in a bid to have the then-U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, removed. Giuliani claimed he did not know whether Firtash, Parnas, and Fruman had a relationship. "It's none of my business," he told the Post. Lawyers for Parnas and Fruman have not publicly spoken about their clients' potential ties to Firtash.Firtash reportedly hired both Toensing and diGenova this summer at the recommendation of Parnas, who is said to have worked as a translator for Toensing and diGenova in the Firtash case. A Toensing and diGenova spokesman said Firtash had "no business relationship" with Parnas or Fruman. "No money has been paid to Mr. Parnas by Mr. Firtash beyond his work as a translator for the law firm," the spokesman said.Parnas and Fruman were both arrested at a D.C. airport before they reportedly could board one-way flights to Vienna earlier this month. Giuliani told The Atlantic that he also intended on going to Vienna just one day after Parnas and Fruman were scheduled to depart the U.S.Indicted Oligarch Dmytro Firtash Praises Paul Manafort, Says Trump Has Third-Grade SmartsRead more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Black school guard fired for telling student not to call him the N-word by using it himself Posted: 22 Oct 2019 07:03 AM PDT  A security guard lost his job after 11 years for telling an unruly student to quit using the N-word by using the word himself.
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| U.S. Security Bloc to Keep China in ‘Proper Place,’ Pompeo Says Posted: 23 Oct 2019 01:24 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Terms of Trade is a daily newsletter that untangles a world embroiled in trade wars. Sign up here. U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo has said efforts to revive the Indo-Pacific security grouping known as the Quad will help the Washington contain China's rise."We've reconvened 'the Quad' -- the security talks between Japan, Australia, India and the United States that had been dormant for nine years," Pompeo said in a speech to the conservative Heritage Foundation research group on Tuesday. "This will prove very important in the efforts ahead, ensuring that China retains only its proper place in the world."His remarks came in a speech where he also said U.S. President Donald Trump "has changed the global conversation on China" and that Beijing "is a strategic competitor at best that uses coercion and corruption as its tools of statecraft."The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue involving four democracies is seen as a counter to China's growing influence in Asia as it spends billions on infrastructure, builds artificial structures in the South China Sea and expands its military power. However, some of the group's members -- particularly India -- have occasionally tried to downplay the significance of the group to avoid angering Beijing or alienating countries in Southeast Asia.Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has mocked the idea of a unified Indo-Pacific strategy as a "headline-grabbing idea" that will dissipate "like the sea foam in the Pacific or Indian Ocean.""The four countries' official position is that it targets no one," Wang said in March. "I hope they mean what they say and their action will match their rhetoric. Nowadays, stoking a new Cold War is out of sync with the times and inciting bloc confrontation will find no market."In late September, the talks were upgraded from officials to the ministerial level, with Pompeo meeting the four foreign ministers of the Quad nations, including Australia's Marise Payne, Japan's Toshimitsu Motegi and India's Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.To contact the reporter on this story: Iain Marlow in Hong Kong at imarlow1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Scott at bscott66@bloomberg.net, Daniel Ten Kate, Chris KayFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| See Photos of the New Honda Fit Posted: 22 Oct 2019 06:04 PM PDT |
| The Latest: Hong Kong government withdraws unpopular bill Posted: 23 Oct 2019 12:10 AM PDT  Hong Kong's government has formally withdrawn an unpopular extradition bill that sparked unruly protests, which morphed into a broader campaign for democratic change in the semi-autonomous Chinese city. The security chief announced in the legislature on Wednesday that the bill was being withdrawn. Hong Kong's leader had proposed amendments to extradition legislation as a way to resolve a case involving a man wanted for murder in self-ruled Taiwan, who could not be sent to face charges because there was no extradition agreement.
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| Croatian university staff join nationwide pay strike by teachers Posted: 23 Oct 2019 05:15 AM PDT ![Croatian university staff join nationwide pay strike by teachers]( "Croatian university staff join nationwide pay strike by teachers") University staff in Croatia piled pressure on the government on Wednesday as their union said it would strike in support of industrial action by primary and secondary school teachers that has been going on for nearly two weeks. Croatian teachers are demanding a wage increase of some 6% saying that the complexity of education roles is such that their salaries lag other public sector roles. "We want to show solidarity with our colleagues in primary and secondary schools and ... fight for some underpaid categories of our staff," Vilim Ribic from the Independent Science and High Education Union said.
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| US awarded ownership of seized North Korean vessel Posted: 22 Oct 2019 01:06 AM PDT  A New York court has formally handed the US ownership of a North Korean cargo ship seized for violating international sanctions, the Justice Department said. The 17,061 ton bulk carrier Wise Honest -- the first North Korean vessel seized by Washington for sanctions violations -- was caught carrying a $3 million shipment of coal in Indonesian waters last year and later handed over to US authorities. The court in the Southern District of New York ordered the vessel to be forfeited to Washington and for the Treasury Department to "dispose of" it, an order released by the Justice Department showed.
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| Almost all Republicans — especially Fox News viewers — opposed Trump's impeachment before the inquiry was opened, new poll finds Posted: 22 Oct 2019 06:53 AM PDT  In a poll before the Ukraine scandal, 98% of Republicans who said Fox News was their main news source said Trump shouldn't be impeachment and removed.
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| Iranian beauty queen pleads for asylum in the Philippines Posted: 22 Oct 2019 08:11 AM PDT  An Iranian beauty queen is seeking asylum in the Philippines, fearing for her life after Tehran demanded her extradition for a crime she claims she did not commit. Bahareh Zare Bahari, who represented Iran at the 2018 Miss Intercontinental pageant in Manila, and who has studied dental medicine in the Philippines since 2014, has been held for six days at the country's Ninoy Aquino airport after Iran slapped an Interpol Red Notice on her for alleged assault. In a series of messages, the distraught Ms Bahari told the Telegraph that the case was a "big lie," adding that she believed she was being targeted for her political activism and outspoken support of women's rights. If she was deported to Iran, "they will kill me," she said. Markk Perete, undersecretary at the Philippine department of justice, said that "the only reason she was held at the airport - and we really don't call it detention - it is really restraining her from entering the Philippine territory, is only because of that Red Notice issued against her." He added that the request had been made "presumably on account of a pending criminal case against her in Iran, and this case was filed by an Iranian national against her in relation to an assault that happened presumably here in the Philippines." Bahareh Zare Bahari, who is studying dental medicine, is an outspoken advocate for women's rights Credit: Facebook However, Mr Perete said that the Philippines was unaware of this allegation, and that an earlier accusation of commercial fraud against her had been dismissed. There were no criminal cases pending against Ms Bahari, he confirmed. "We don't have any cause for refusing her entry for violation of our laws." Ms Bahari's asylum plea is now being considered by the justice department, with the help of a lawyer. Meanwhile, the dental student is confined to Terminal 3's transit area awaiting her fate. "There is no updating, no information about the reason why [they] keep me here so long," she said. She believes her political statement at the pageant - waving a poster of Reza Pahlavi, the exiled former crown prince, and one of the foremost critics of Iran's Islamic government - made her enemies in Tehran. Mr Pahlavi's name has been invoked by some Iranian groups who have called for a return of the monarchy to deal with corruption and poor economic conditions. "I used his photo on stage to be [the] voice of my people because all news and media are ignoring my people," she said. Human Rights Watch on Tuesday called for "a fair and impartial hearing of her claim" in Manila. "It's absolutely critical the Philippines provides Bahareh Zare Bahari with support, including access to legal counsel, to compile and file her asylum application," said Phil Robertson, HRW deputy Asia director. "While waiting for the details to become clear, there should be no action under Iran's Interpol red notice, especially since under Interpol rules a red notice is null and void if the person named in the notice is found to be a refugee fleeing from the state that issued it."
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| Canadian Court Rules against Transgender Activist Jessica Yaniv in Fight with Beauticians over Waxing Posted: 22 Oct 2019 01:57 PM PDT  The British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal has ruled against Canadian transgender activist Jessica Yaniv in a case stemming from a complaint Yaniv filed against multiple female beauticians who refused to wax Yaniv's male genitalia."Self-identification does not erase physiological reality," said Jay Cameron, a lawyer for the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, which represented the beauticians. "Our clients do not offer the service requested. No woman should be compelled to touch male genitals against her will, irrespective of how the owner of the genitals identifies."The Tribunal said in its decision that Yaniv had had filed the "complaints for improper purposes," and had contradicted herself in "disingenuous" testimony. Yaniv, who is sexually attracted to women, brought 15 complaints against a number of beauticians in the Vancouver area, seeking as much as $15,000 in damages from each one."Most of the women who were the target of Yaniv's complaints work out of their own home, are of immigrant background, and have small children with them in the house during the day," the Justice Centre's report said. Yaniv also apparently accused immigrants during the trial of discrimination for refusing service on religious grounds, writing earlier this year on Facebook that "we have a lot of immigrants here who gawk, judge and aren't the cleanest of people, they're also verbally and physically abusive, that's one reason I joined a girl's gym."Yaniv is being ordered to pay $2,000 to three of the accused women, one of whom was forced out of business due to the case.In August, Yaniv was arrested for owning a taser, after brandishing it on camera during an interview about Yaniv's alleged history of predatory behavior toward children. Screen-captured messages allegedly from Yaniv highlighted intimate questions to underage girls, and legal documents showed an attempt to organize a topless pool party for such girls.
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| Silicon Valley CEOs Appear to Have Chosen Their 2020 Candidate Posted: 22 Oct 2019 01:00 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- The technology industry is looking for something different in a president in 2020. And it appears Pete Buttigieg is their candidate.While Joe Biden and Senator Elizabeth Warren are topping national polls in the contest for the Democratic Party's nomination, California's deep-pocketed Silicon Valley is donating to the 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Indiana over the former vice president by a 5-to-1 margin."Pete is a clean slate for the party in ways Biden can't be," said Cyrus Radfar, a 35-year-old technology entrepreneur and Democratic donor. "There's new life and new energy that Pete brings, especially as the base of the Democratic Party is getting younger. I think he's going to be on the national stage for a long time."Buttigieg has staged a fundraising blitz in posh Northern California communities, holding events hosted by technology executives such as Netflix Inc. Chief Executive Officer Reed Hastings, Nest Labs home-automation company co-founder Matt Rogers, and Chelsea Kohler, director of product communications at Uber Technologies Inc., among others.Were he to win, Buttigieg would not only be the youngest president, but also the first openly gay one. While he is successfully raising money, Buttigieg has struggled until recently to enter the top tier of candidates nationally.But there are signs that he could be a moderate voter's alternative to Biden. While raising money in California, Buttigieg is campaigning heavily in Iowa, and it appears both efforts are paying off. A USA Today/Suffolk University poll of likely Iowa caucus goers put Buttigieg just behind Biden and Warren for the first time. Biden had 18% support, Warren 17% and Buttigieg 13%.Millennial voters in the tech industry say they appreciate that Buttigieg's liberal policies seem grounded in reality and recognize "a cutthroat world," as Elizabeth Moran, 28, put it at a debate watch party in Silicon Valley's Sunnyvale. Moran, who works at Poshmark, a social commerce platform, said she likes Buttigieg's grasp of economics."Well-educated recognizes well-educated," Moran said, adding that Buttigieg could have come to Silicon Valley after graduating from Harvard as many Ivy League graduates do.In other words, in their eyes, Buttigieg is like them."There's a big move on the Democratic side to more heavily regulate tech, and that hasn't been part of Buttigieg's message," said Raphael Sonenshein, executive director of the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs at California State University, Los Angeles. "His message is consistent with innovation and forward-looking technology. He has not given the impression that he would threaten their interests."While he hasn't said much about competition and antitrust, Buttigieg has focused on improving regulations as opposed to breaking up big tech."We're going to need to empower the FTC to be able to intervene, including blocking or reversing mergers, in cases where there's anti-competitive behavior by tech companies," he said in a CNN town hall in April, referring to the Federal Trade Commission.Buttigieg was his high school's valedictorian and went on to Harvard, where he befriended two roommates of future Facebook Inc. CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and was one of the first 300 users on the social media platform. He was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, joined McKinsey & Co. as a consultant, and volunteered for Barack Obama's tech-savvy 2008 presidential campaign before joining the U.S. Navy Reserve and serving in Afghanistan.His relationship with Zuckerberg persisted. Zuckerberg, 35, visited South Bend in 2017 while doing research for his philanthropic organization, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and got a personal tour from Buttigieg. That relationship lasted into this year, when Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, recommended two people that Buttigieg ultimately hired for his campaign. Ben LaBolt, a spokesman for Zuckerberg and Chan, said the couple hasn't yet decided whom to support for president.The Golden StateCalifornia voters have an unusually large influence in choosing the party's nominee this cycle. The state primary next year is in March instead of its previous June slot and its donors contributed 1 of every 5 dollars raised by the party's presidential candidates in the first six months of this year, data from the Center for Responsive Politics show.Buttigieg is second only to home-state senator Kamala Harris in the percentage of his campaign money that comes from California. Harris got 45% of her donations from Californians, Buttigieg got 22%.Harris, who was the state's attorney general, raised $1 million from California lawyers, more than twice as much as any other candidate. She was also the top recipient of donations from employees of the entertainment industry. But California employees of tech companies, including giants like Facebook, Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp., backed Buttigieg more than any other candidate.Silicon Valley bundlers -- fundraisers who gather money from numerous employees of a firm -- have raised concerns about both Warren and Senator Bernie Sanders, who are relying primarily on small-dollar contributions from online donors.Warren is particularly thorny for the tech industry. She has vowed that she will not meet with big donors who want to "buy access" -- and perhaps more troubling for them, has promised to break up big technology companies. Some technology workers are contributing to Warren and Sanders, but few are writing the $2,800 checks that Buttigieg and Biden are relying on, likely because they've been quieter on the question of how to handle big tech.Buttigieg is positioning himself as a younger alternative to 76-year-old Biden. Like Biden, he has not embraced the progressive wing's Medicare for All, instead proposing government-run health care "to those who want it," without eliminating private insurance.In other areas, he hasn't taken many unique stances, but his Midwestern and military background seeps into some plans. An issue page on his campaign website is simply called "Unleash rural opportunity," and he has proposed eliminating some student debt in exchange for national service.Paul Holland, a California venture capitalist and fundraiser for Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign, said he believes a moderate has the best chance of winning. In his circles, Biden hasn't attracted the same kind of enthusiastic support that other candidates have."It's Mayor Pete and Cory Booker who are getting most of the attention," he said.Buttigieg himself drew the contrast between his candidacy and Biden's during a Marin County event."Every time we've won in our party it's been with a candidate with new ideas, who hasn't been on the scene for too long," Buttigieg said. "That's what works. Also, Americans are most likely to support the opposite of what's in the Oval Office."Among Buttigieg's donors are Ron Conway, an investor who has guided San Francisco mayors to back tech-friendly policies; Scott Belsky, the chief product officer and executive vice president at Adobe Inc.; Tony Xu, CEO of Doordash Inc.; David Marcus, the head of Facebook's Libra cryptocurrency project and Wendy Schmidt, wife of former Google CEO Eric Schmidt.Buttigieg's fundraising has been prodigious, but he's still behind in national polls. He stands at just 5% in the RealClearPolitics national average, compared with 26% for Biden. And that raises pragmatic questions about who can win the Democratic nomination."Even with his flaws, Biden is the guy who's probably going to satisfy the moderates," Holland said.To contact the reporters on this story: Bill Allison in Washington DC at ballison14@bloomberg.net;Jeffrey Taylor in San Francisco at jtaylor184@bloomberg.net;Sophie Alexander in San Francisco at salexander82@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Peter EichenbaumFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Driver dies days after pickup collided with small plane Posted: 22 Oct 2019 08:39 PM PDT  Patrick J. Schounard died from injuries he suffered when a single-engine aircraft attempting to land collided with his pickup truck in Wisconsin.
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| Mulvaney defends Trump and makes a new problematic comment Posted: 21 Oct 2019 08:19 AM PDT  For Mick Mulvaney, the hits just keep on coming. First, President Trump's acting chief of staff stirred up a tempest by acknowledging that the administration had held up aid to Ukraine in part to prod that country to investigate Democrats and the 2016 elections. Then Mulvaney went on television Sunday to defend his boss in effusive terms — and ended up making a new problematic comment.
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| TV reporter climbs on classic cars, is handed walking papers Posted: 23 Oct 2019 04:31 AM PDT ![TV reporter climbs on classic cars, is handed walking papers]( "TV reporter climbs on classic cars, is handed walking papers") Maybe the "Good Day Sacramento" reporter just thought he'd drive a little more traffic to his television station's website when he climbed on top of a classic 1950s Thunderbird convertible and struck a silly pose, putting his feet on its pristine yellow paint job. Instead, Angel Cardenas drew criticism of car-wreck proportions with his live broadcast for KMAX-TV from Sunday's Sacramento International Auto Show. It was hours before the show was to open, he added, and no one was there to keep him off the cars, many of which he reported were off-limits.
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| This 1 Invention Made Swedish Submarines Among the Best Posted: 22 Oct 2019 10:00 AM PDT  A silent, powerful new engine.
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| Making do with less: Mexican media bruised by president's austerity Posted: 23 Oct 2019 01:02 AM PDT  Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador took office in December promising to reduce public spending to free up more resources for the poor. Between January and August, Lopez Obrador's government spent 88 million pesos ($4.6 million) on advertising, just 3.6% of the sum spent in the same months of 2018 by his predecessor Enrique Pena Nieto, Public Administration Ministry (SFP) data show. The reduction in government publicity, which had accounted for 10% or more of advertising revenue for many outlets, has sparked layoffs and the suspension of projects in an industry still suffering disruption from the shift to the internet.
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| President Trump is right to keep administration members from secret tribunals: Rep. Biggs Posted: 22 Oct 2019 03:35 PM PDT  Speaker Nancy Pelosi should formalize the impeachment inquiry by a vote of the whole House, writes Rep. Andy Biggs, chairman of the Freedom Caucus
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| US far-right activists get four years in jail for attacking leftists Posted: 22 Oct 2019 11:44 AM PDT  Two members of a US far-right group were each sentenced to four years in prison on Tuesday for brawling with anti-fascist demonstrators in New York, prosecutors said. The sentencing comes as tensions between white supremacists and leftists simmer in the United States. Maxwell Hare and John Kinsman, members of the Proud Boys group, were found guilty in August by a state court of several counts of attempted assault and rioting.
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| Supreme Court Throws Out Michigan Gerrymandering Ruling in Win for GOP Posted: 21 Oct 2019 09:45 AM PDT  The Supreme Court granted the Michigan Republican party a win on Monday by throwing out a lower court ruling that required dozens of congressional and legislative districts to be redrawn due to concerns they had been gerrymandered by Republicans.The high court's 5-to-4 decision reverses a ruling by the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, which demanded the state redraw nine congressional districts and 25 state districts by August 1.Monday's decision also follows the Supreme Court's ruling in June that it would leave gerrymandering cases to state courts."Partisan gerrymandering claims present political questions beyond the reach of the federal courts," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the June decision, which dealt with district boundaries in Maryland and North Carolina.That ruling divided the court along ideological lines with Roberts serving as the swing vote.Roberts joined conservative Justices Brett Kavanaugh, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch to strike down the lower court's ruling, while liberal Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagen, and Stephen Breyer voted to preserve the lower court's finding that the districts must be redrawn.The majority in the June case cited the lack of an adequate test to determine when "political gerrymandering has gone too far."The League of Women Voters of Michigan sued the Republican-controlled state legislature last year, accusing the party of rigging districts to keep the party in power, resulting in the overturned Sixth Circuit ruling, which said Republicans infringed on voters' First and 14th Amendment rights "by diluting the weight of their votes.""The Enacted Plan gives Republicans a strong, systematic, and durable structural advantage in Michigan's elections and decidedly discriminates against Democrats," the nixed Sixth Circuit decision read. "This court joins the growing chorus of federal courts that have, in recent years, held that partisan gerrymandering is unconstitutional."Because of the Supreme Court's Monday ruling in favor of the GOP, districts will not be redrawn until 2022, when a bipartisan redistricting commission resulting from a state referendum last fall will assume the task of redrawing the boundaries.
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| Biden’s Lead in CNN Poll Widest Since April: Campaign Update Posted: 23 Oct 2019 03:50 AM PDT ![Biden's Lead in CNN Poll Widest Since April: Campaign Update]( "Biden's Lead in CNN Poll Widest Since April: Campaign Update") (Bloomberg) -- Joe Biden is rebounding, at least according to the latest CNN poll, which registered his widest lead since April among fellow Democratic White House candidates.It's an encouraging sign for the former vice president, who has been on the verge of losing his front-runner status to rival Elizabeth Warren.Biden has the support of 34% of Democratic and Democratic-leaning registered voters, with Warren second with 19% followed by Bernie Sanders with 16%. Biden's bump hasn't appeared to harm Warren or Sanders, whose support stayed steady from the last CNN poll in September.Instead, Biden has seen his support spike among moderate and conservative Democrats, 43% of whom support him now, up from 29% in the September poll. He also registered a 14 percentage-point gain among racial and ethnic minorities and a 13-point gain among voters 45 and older. The national poll, conducted Oct. 17-20, has a margin of error of plus-or-minus 5.8 percentage points.COMING UPCory Booker is scheduled to speak at the National Press Club in Washington at 1 p.m on Wednesday.Julian Castro, Beto O'Rourke and Sanders are to attend a town hall hosted by the League of United Latin American Citizens in Iowa on Thursday from 7-9 p.m. local time.Biden, Booker, Buttigieg, Castro, Harris, Amy Klobuchar, Sanders and Warren are set to attend a forum hosted by the Bipartisan Justice Center in Columbia, South Carolina, Oct. 25-27.To contact the reporter on this story: Kathleen Hunter in London at khunter9@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Elizabeth WassermanFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| View Photos of the 2020 GMC Acadia AT4 Posted: 22 Oct 2019 04:59 AM PDT |
| A top Marine Corps scout sniper managed to sneak up on his enemy completely naked except for a pair of boots Posted: 22 Oct 2019 01:51 PM PDT  The nude sniper proved that to truly disappear you don't need clothes, just that you fully embrace the "weirdest thing in the world."
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| Indian troops kill 3 senior Kashmiri militants Posted: 23 Oct 2019 03:55 AM PDT  Indian forces have killed a top militant commander and his two associates in a counterinsurgency operation in Indian-controlled Kashmir, police said Wednesday. Hamid Lelhari and his associates were killed Tuesday evening in a gunfight that erupted after Indian security forces launched a counterinsurgency operation in southern Awantipora area, said Dilbagh Singh, chief of police in Indian-controlled Kashmir. Police say Lelhari became the operations chief of Ansar Ghawzat-ul-Hind, an affiliate of the al-Qaida militant group, after Indian troops killed a top militant, Zakir Musa, last year.
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| China Wants To Destroy U.S. Aircraft Carriers in a War (It Won't Be Easy) Posted: 21 Oct 2019 08:00 PM PDT  The story starts in 2005.
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| CORRECTED-Security forces arrest 31 cartel suspects in raid on Mexico City drug labs -authorities Posted: 22 Oct 2019 12:46 PM PDT ![CORRECTED-Security forces arrest 31 cartel suspects in raid on Mexico City drug labs -authorities]( "CORRECTED-Security forces arrest 31 cartel suspects in raid on Mexico City drug labs -authorities") Security forces arrested 31 suspected cartel members on Tuesday in a raid on a warren of clandestine tunnels and alleged drug laboratories in Mexico City, authorities said. Government officials said dozens of police and security force members swooped down on buildings in the central Tepito neighborhood of Mexico City, long known for its contraband activity. Videos on Twitter purportedly of the raid showed soldiers in battle gear brandishing assault rifles alongside armored vehicles and police trucks blocking an intersection and highway before dawn.
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| 'This is a lynching, in every sense': Lindsey Graham says Trump's impeachment description 'accurate' Posted: 22 Oct 2019 09:23 PM PDT  "What does lynching mean? That a mob grabs you, they don't give you a chance to defend yourself," Lindsey Graham said.
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| Southern Niger reels after Nigeria closes borders Posted: 22 Oct 2019 08:39 PM PDT  Dan Issa (Niger) (AFP) - "Nothing crosses into Nigeria and nothing comes out. It's hermetically sealed," said Amadou Idi, sitting in a makeshift shelter to keep out of the rain, and reflecting on the downturn in his luck. Idi's job is a transiting agent -- to get goods across the border to Nigeria at the Dan Issa frontier post in southeastern Niger.
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| Seattle Public Schools Want to Teach Social Justice in Math Class. That Hurts Minorities. Posted: 22 Oct 2019 02:05 PM PDT  Seattle's public-school district has proposed a new math curriculum that would teach its students all about how math has been "appropriated" -- and how it "continues to be used to oppress and marginalize people and communities."A draft of the curriculum, which was covered in an article in Education Week, would teach students how to "explain how math and technology and/or science are connected and how technology and/or science have (sic) been and continues to be used to oppress and marginalize people and communities of color," as well as to "identify and teach others about mathematicians* of color in their various communities: schools, neighborhoods, places of worship, businesses, etc."Education Week reports:> If adopted, its ideas will be included in existing math classes as part of the district's broader effort to infuse ethnic studies into all subjects across the K-12 spectrum. Tracy Castro-Gill, Seattle's ethnic studies director, said her team hopes to have frameworks completed in all subjects by June for board approval.> > If the frameworks are approved, teachers would be expected to incorporate those ideas and questions into the math they teach beginning next fall, Castro-Gill said. No districtwide—or mandated—math/ethnic studies curriculum is planned, but groups of teachers are working with representatives of local community organizations to write instructional units for teachers to use if they wish, she said.As strange as it may sound, this proposed curriculum is not the first time that someone has argued for teaching math in this way. In fact, in 2017, an online course developed by Teach for America -- titled "Teaching Social Justice Through Secondary Mathematics" -- instructed how to teach their students how "math has been used as a dehumanizing tool." Also in 2017, a University of Illinois math-education professor detailed what she saw as some of the more racist aspects of math, claiming that "mathematics itself operates as Whiteness."I wrote columns about both of these stories that year -- and, at the time, most people likely saw them simply as examples of "fringe" beliefs, confined to only super-progressive, ultra-woke circles. With the announcement of this Seattle proposal, however, we can no longer reassure ourselves that this is the case. Now, the social-justice approach to teaching math has officially entered the mainstream (and taxpayer-funded!) arena.This concerns me, and, believe it or not, that's actually not because I despise "people and communities of color." In fact, it's quite the opposite: It's because this approach to teaching math will only end up harming the very groups it claims it champions. As The American Conservative's Rod Dreher notes:> The young people who are going to learn real math are those whose parents can afford to put them in private schools. The public school kids of all races are going to get dumber and dumber.Guess what? Minority students are far more likely to attend public school than whites. In fact, according to Private School Review, "[t]he average percent of minority students in private schools is approximately 28 percent."In other words? The minority students, the members of the very groups that this curriculum presumably aims to aid, are actually going to be learning less math than they would have without it -- because they will be spending some of that class time learning about how math's racism has hurt them. Ironically, one of the curriculum's goals is to teach students how to "critique systems of power that deny access to mathematical knowledge to people and communities of color," and yet, that's exactly what the district itself would be doing with it.The historical contributions of communities of color are important, and students should study them. A better place to study them, though, would (quite obviously) be a history class, not a mathematics one. Mathematics classes should be for mathematics lessons; this is especially important considering the fact that math is exactly where American students (of all races) struggle compared to students in other countries. In fact, according to a Pew Research study from 2017, American students ranked 38th out of 71 countries in the subject. If we want to fix this, we need to focus more on math, instead of looking for ways to teach less of it in the very classes where our students are supposed to be learning it.The bottom line is: If Seattle's school district really wants to help minority students excel in mathematics, the last thing it should be doing is proposing a math curriculum that would teach less of it in the schools that they're most likely to attend.
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| The Terror Gap: U.S. Laws Let White Supremacists Operate Like ISIS Posted: 22 Oct 2019 02:00 AM PDT  Courtesy SITEThe recent arrests of Jarrett William Smith, a former U.S. Army soldier who discussed plans to "bomb a major U.S. news network," and Conor Climo, a Las Vegas man who plotted attacks on a synagogue and LGBT bar, give an inkling of the growing threat posed by far-right terrorists in the United States.The problem of white supremacist violence is international. From the horrific attack on a mosque in Christ Church, New Zealand, to the assault on a synagogue in the German city of Halle, the movement often follows the same horrific script—live-streaming the carnage, disseminating a manifesto, comments full of tongue-in-cheek internet references—and governments are scrambling to counter this threat. Atomwaffen Division's Washington State Cell Leader Stripped of Arsenal in U.S., Banned from CanadaBut U.S. laws have a special problem, what might be called a "terror gap" between "foreign" and "domestic" terror organizations.While the arrests of Smith and Climo mark a new level of initiative by the federal government, there is still much more to be done. What allows far-right terrorist groups to thrive in the U.S. is a legal double standard that binds the hands of even the most proactive members of law enforcement.This double standard is exemplified by groups like Atomwaffen, a neo-Nazi paramilitary group with major influence in the far-right online community. A video this past May shows people with Atomwaffen patches on their arms carrying out paramilitary drills with assault rifles. They then burn the flags of Israel, the United Nations, the Gadsden "Don't Tread on Me" snake, the gay pride rainbow, Black Lives Matter, the police-supporting Thin Blue Line—designating any and all as enemies. If it weren't for the Atomwaffen branding, you'd think you were watching footage of an ISIS training camp on American soil.Now combine this militancy with a widely aimed recruitment operation. Messages on Telegram, the far-right's current online hub, recruit on behalf of Atomwaffen, directing prospects to different email addresses of region-specific chapters across the US, Europe, South America, and Australia. Minding its popularity, it's not surprising to see that Atomwaffen has inspired other neo-Nazis to launch offshoot chapters or like-minded groups across the globe, such as Feuerkrieg Division, a growing neo-Nazi organization which both Climo and Smith were associated with.Media by such groups often advocate for terrorism and praise far-right attackers, including the Halle shooter and Pittsburgh synagogue shooter Robert Bowers.This type of propaganda is a major lifeblood to the far-right community, just as it is for any extremist group or movement—no terrorist organization can grow without it. The world witnessed the power of media with the rise of ISIS, leading governments to counter propagandists with the same urgency as fighters or financiers. That is precisely why last October, a 34-year-old man named Ashraf Al Safoo was arrested for his work with Khattab Media Foundation, a prominent ISIS-linked media group that issued scores of threats and incitements against elections, public events, and other targets. Safoo himself never killed or planned to kill anyone, but the media he created helped amplify ISIS' dangerous message, making him no less guilty of aiding the group. Taking note of Safoo's story, you might ask yourself how groups like Atomwaffen or Feuerkrieg Division can run their threat propaganda machines—let alone carry out paramilitary drills with the objective of overthrowing the U.S. government—with little to no interference. The answer is simple: what they do is, for the most part, not illegal.The reason the U.S. government can arrest ISIS recruiters or media workers like Safoo and others is because the groups they support are Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs), making their activities grounds for, in the language of court documents, "conspiracy to provide material support and resources to a foreign terrorist organization." To support or be a member of an FTO in any capacity is a crime.While actual acts of domestic terrorism—killing, assaulting, harassing—are obvious crimes, being a member of domestic terrorist organizations like Atomwaffen or Feuerkrieg Division in and of itself is not, despite their blatantly stated goals to spark collapse of the U.S. through terrorism. The very phrase "domestic terrorist group" is in many ways legally meaningless. As assistant FBI Director Michael McGarrity explained before the House Homeland Security Committee in May: "A white supremacist organization is an ideology, it's a belief. But they're not designated as a terrorist organization."This lack of adequate domestic terror laws too often leaves far-right terrorist propaganda, incitement, and recruitment messages under the classification of hate speech, something protected under the First Amendment. A group like Atomwaffen, which bluntly and loudly states its goals for violence, is a perfect example of why this makes for a domestic security crisis. Noting this problem, I'd like to echo the yet small but growing voices of legislators and others seeking to end this double standard in how we protect our nation from terrorism. The world has made immense progress against ISIS online and on the ground, in no small part due to the clear-cut laws against promoting it, whether financially, militarily, through its incitement propaganda machine. That said, the U.S. legal system shouldn't have to wait until the brink of an attack—or, as it too often does, the aftermath of one—to prosecute terrorists like Climo or Smith. Membership of a group like Atomwaffen should bear all the same legal weight as ISIS, al Qaeda, or any other terrorist organization we don't flinch at pursuing. U.S. Soldier Discussed Plans to Bomb News Network, Kill Beto O'Rourke: FedsAny such list of designations should be regularly updated to address the rapidly changing landscape of groups that either form or, under pressure, dissolve only to reemerge under different names.Such laws will make it immensely clearer to these far-right organizations and the platforms hosting them that they cannot remain online.I don't embrace such measures lightly. I've been very vocal throughout my counter-terrorism career speaking out against overreaching measures by the government, whether attempting to regulating encrypted messenger services or other ill-guided policies.But the far-right community has grown dramatically in the last year, with new waves of attacks and uninterrupted online spaces that inspire them—a very similar condition to that of ISIS shortly before it established its so-called Caliphate. This is a critical moment for the U.S. government to prove if it is capable of learning from history. While terrorist legislation will not be a silver bullet to stop the threat of attacks by neo-Nazis and white supremacists, it would mark a major step in the right direction.As it's increasingly said these days, "Terrorism is terrorism." So why perpetuate the legal double standard?Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. 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| Shark tears woman's hands off in Polynesian paradise island attack Posted: 22 Oct 2019 07:15 AM PDT  A French tourist has lost both her hands in a rare shark attack in the Pacific islands of Polynesia, say emergency services. The woman was swimming during a whale-watching trip on Monday off the island of Mo'orea, a honeymoon destination in the French overseas territory, when the oceanic whitetip shark bit into her chest and arms.
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| View 2020 Nissan Titan XD Photos Posted: 21 Oct 2019 11:00 AM PDT |
| California governor wants investigation of high gas prices Posted: 22 Oct 2019 01:45 AM PDT  California's governor has asked the attorney general to investigate why the state's gas prices are so high, pointing to a new report suggesting big oil companies are "misleading and overcharging customers" by as much as $1 per gallon. The commission said California drivers paid an average of 30 cents more per gallon in 2018, with the difference getting as high as $1 per gallon in April of this year. The result is California drivers paid an additional $11.6 billion at the pump over the last five years.
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| Joe Biden's Black Sheep Son Could Wreck His Presidential Run Posted: 22 Oct 2019 09:39 AM PDT  Hunter Biden and, by extension, his father's third run for the presidency, have become enmeshed in controversy as Donald Trump's attempts to pressure Ukraine into investigating Hunter's questionable business dealings in the war-torn country are coming under attack from congressional Democrats.
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| Colorado mother accused of murdering daughter she said was terminally ill Posted: 21 Oct 2019 06:06 PM PDT  A Colorado mother who authorities said solicited donations, charitable services, and government aid for her purportedly terminally ill daughter who died in 2017 has been indicted on murder charges in the girl's death, court documents showed on Monday. Kelly Renee Turner, 41, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of her seven-year-old daughter, Olivia Gant, and with forgery, theft, child abuse and bilking Medicaid out of nearly $538,000, according to the indictment handed down in Douglas County District Court. Colorado's Office of the Public Defender, which represents Turner, has a policy not to comment on its cases outside of court.
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| Trump Isn’t Putin’s Puppet. He’s Just Unfit for Office. Posted: 22 Oct 2019 02:00 PM PDT  (Bloomberg Opinion) -- Leading Democrats have settled on a familiar thread to connect the two scandals currently engulfing the Trump administration: Russia. As House Speaker Nancy Pelosi asked President Donald Trump last week: Why do "all roads lead to Vladimir Putin"?Pelosi was referring to president's chaotic and abrupt decision to pull U.S. forces from the Syrian-Turkish border. But the specter of Russia hangs over the Ukraine scandal, too. Senior White House aides believe that Trump's conversations with the Russian president and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban helped to sour his view of Ukraine before his infamous call with that country's president last summer.Russia's sway over Trump is an old theme for Democrats, going back to Hillary Clinton's 2016 accusation that Trump was Putin's "puppet." So it's not surprising that officials from former President Barack Obama's administration are connecting Russia to the Syria and Ukraine scandals. As former CIA director John Brennan told MSNBC last week, Putin favored Trump in 2016 so "Russia would be able to have its way in Ukraine and Syria."If the point of the impeachment inquiry is to stoke the outrage of the Resistance, then there's no harm in linking Russia to Syria and Ukraine. But if the investigation is meant to convince the wider public and moderate Republicans of Trump's corruption, then the Russia argument is a loser.Start with an obvious point. The facts of the Ukraine scandal do not support a central claim of the Russia narrative. If Trump was Putin's "puppet," then the U.S. president would never have sold Ukraine anti-tank missiles in the first place. Nor would he have provided lethal military assistance to Ukraine, which his predecessor had refused.Even assuming that this lethal aid was a sop to Congress for the sake of appearances, why would the quo to such a quid be an investigation of former Vice President Joe Biden and his son? What does Putin care about Burisma? No, a more likely quo would have been a demand that Ukraine's new president begin negotiations to accept Russia's annexation of Crimea. To date, there is no evidence U.S. policy has changed in this regard.With Syria, Pelosi and other Democrats have half a point. Trump's betrayal of the Kurds who helped defeat Islamic State does benefit Russia. At the same time, there is no evidence that Trump cut the cord so abruptly because of Putin's influence. It's also worth remembering that U.S. forces in Syria in 2018 repelled an attack that included Russian mercenaries, leading to heavy Russian casualties.Furthermore, former Obama administration officials are in no position to criticize Trump's Syria policy for advancing Russian interests. Their policy did the same thing. The Obama administration failed to prevent Russia from establishing military bases in Syria in 2015, giving Putin's air force effective control of most of the country's air space. Indeed, then-Secretary of State John Kerry tried throughout 2016 to negotiate a Syria cease-fire with his Russian counterpart even as Russia was bombing the U.S.-supported Free Syrian Army.Finally, the argument that Trump's scandals are somehow the fruit of Russian espionage once again invites intelligence and law-enforcement agencies to play an unhealthy role in U.S. politics. In determining the president's fitness for office, it effectively asks that the judgment of voters and legislators be replaced with that of spies and lawmen. It requires citizens to trust a bureaucracy that has selectively disclosed state secrets. And it makes Congress a partner with agencies for which it should be providing oversight.Americans have already seen what this looks like. During the first two and a half years of the Trump presidency, most of official Washington was in a state of suspended speculation about the extent of Putin's influence over Trump. At the end of the ordeal, Special Counsel Robert Mueller did not find evidence of a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 election.Yes, he did present evidence of a president trying and failing to obstruct that investigation. He also found a campaign that was cravenly willing to use emails stolen and publicized by Russia to press its political advantage. But the conspiracy spelled out in the opposition research dossier that so intrigued the FBI in 2016 (and has been an obsession of the resistance ever since) did not turn out to be true.There is a far simpler explanation for Trump's decision-making on Ukraine and Syria: The president is a wrecking ball. He has no appreciation of America's alliances. He justifies his own abuse of power because he is convinced that his political adversaries have done worse. If he wins re-election, he will abuse his power even more. That is the case Democrats should be making — and it should be enough to persuade a majority of Americans that Trump is not fit for the office he holds.To contact the author of this story: Eli Lake at elake1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Newman at mnewman43@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Eli Lake is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering national security and foreign policy. He was the senior national security correspondent for the Daily Beast and covered national security and intelligence for the Washington Times, the New York Sun and UPI.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| An Air France flight was forced to turn back in midair when staff found an unattended cellphone that wasn't claimed by any of the passengers Posted: 22 Oct 2019 04:34 AM PDT  Air France flight 136 to Chicago from Paris landed at Ireland's Shannon Airport, where the police scanned a cellphone found on board.
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| 'I'm not giving up': Survivors of US town destroyed by fire rebuild Posted: 22 Oct 2019 08:41 PM PDT  For Kevin Lundy, a land surveyor who lost his home last year in the deadliest and most destructive fire in California history, there is no dwelling on the past. "I'm looking forward now," said the 35-year-old as he adjusted his work gloves before thrusting a metal post into the earth -- yet another small step in rebuilding all he lost in the fire that devastated the small town of Paradise in the northern California foothills. "I'll rebuild my home," Lundy told AFP on a recent sunny October afternoon as his eight-year-old son lent a hand.
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| Warren Calls on DHS to Allow Transgender Migrants Immediate Entry Into U.S. Posted: 21 Oct 2019 01:21 PM PDT  Senators Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) and Tammy Baldwin (D., Wisc.) sent a letter on Thursday to the Department of Homeland Security urging the agency to allow transgender migrants to remain in the U.S. while their asylum cases are processed, rather than being returned to Mexico in accordance with current policy.Under the recently-introduced Migrant Protection Protocols, the Trump administration requires that asylum-seekers who arrive at the southern border remain in Mexico while their claims are processed through DHS and ICE."We…call for DHS to use its discretion to release members of vulnerable populations, including transgender detainees," Warren and Baldwin wrote in a letter addressed to acting ICE Director Matthew Albence and acting DHS Secretary Kevin McAleenan and obtained by Out.com.The senators pointed to the "abuse and neglect of transgender migrants and asylum seekers at the border and in U.S. custody" in the letter, and said the administration "must" allow them entry into the U.S. to prevent such treatment.According current DHS regulations, "individuals from vulnerable populations" may request an exemption from the "Remain in Mexico" rules but transgender migrants rarely benefit from the exemption, according to Warren and Baldwin. In their letter, the pair cite a case in which a transgender asylum-seeker had a finger cut off by a drug cartel in Mexico while she waited for her exemption request to be processed.Baldwin is the first openly-gay senator in the history of the U.S., and is currently serving her second term.Warren has released a slew of progressive policy proposals in recent weeks as part of her presidential campaign. In one plan, Warren promises to detain transgender prisoners with inmates of the opposite biological sex, and laid out her support for federally-funded gender transition medical care for transgender inmates.
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