| O'Rourke drops out of 2020 presidential race Posted: 01 Nov 2019 02:50 PM PDT  The former representative from Texas calls it quits on his 2020 presidential bid.
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| Missing New Hampshire couple found buried on Texas beach, sheriff's office says Posted: 02 Nov 2019 02:24 PM PDT  Missing New Hampshire couple James and Elaine Bulter were found dead, buried on a beach in Kleberg County, Texas in an ongoing homicide investigation.
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| Georgia ex-policeman sentenced to 12 years in prison in shooting of unarmed black man Posted: 01 Nov 2019 01:44 PM PDT ![Georgia ex-policeman sentenced to 12 years in prison in shooting of unarmed black man]( "Georgia ex-policeman sentenced to 12 years in prison in shooting of unarmed black man") A former Georgia police officer was sentenced on Friday to 12 years in prison after his conviction in the fatal shooting of an unarmed black man outside an Atlanta apartment in March 2015. Robert "Chip" Olsen, a 57-year-old white man, was convicted last month of aggravated assault and violating his oath of office but found not guilty of murder in the killing of 26-year-old Anthony Hill. Before the sentencing, members of Hill's family urged Dekalb County Superior Court Judge LaTisha Dear Jackson to sentence Olsen to the maximum penalty of 30 years behind bars.
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| The Latest: Hong Kong protesters vandalize Xinhua office Posted: 02 Nov 2019 03:58 AM PDT  Protesters have vandalized the Hong Kong office of China's official Xinhua News Agency for the first time during the months-long anti-government demonstrations, smashing windows and doors. Local media showed scenes of the aftermath that included a fire in the lobby of the Xinhua office in Hong Kong's Wan Chai district, with shattered windows and graffiti sprawled over the wall. Protesters have been targeting Chinese banks and businesses perceived to be linked to mainland China as anger builds up against Beijing, which the protesters accuse of infringing on the freedoms guaranteed when Britain returned Hong Kong to China in 1997.
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| California wildfires: Climate change driving ‘horror and the terror’ of devastating blazes, say scientists Posted: 02 Nov 2019 09:52 AM PDT  The words from California's former governor could barely have been more stark."I said it was the new normal a few years ago,'' said Jerry Brown. "This is serious, but this is only the beginning. This is only a taste of the horror and the terror that will occur in decades."
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| For Vietnam's 'Box People,' a Treacherous Journey Posted: 01 Nov 2019 12:20 PM PDT  LONDON -- Vietnamese smugglers call it the "CO2" route: a poorly ventilated, oxygen-deficient trip across the English Channel in shipping containers or trailers piled high with pallets of merchandise, the last leg of a perilous, 6,000-mile trek across Asia and into Western Europe.Compared to the other path -- the "VIP route," with its brief hotel stay and seat in a truck driver's cab -- the trip in a stuffy container can be brutal for what some Vietnamese refer to as "box people," successors to the "boat people" who left after the Vietnam War ended in 1975.Vietnamese migrants often wait for months in roadside camps in northern France before being sneaked into a truck trailer. Snakeheads, as the smugglers are known, beat men and sexually assault women, aid groups, lawyers and the migrants themselves say. People cocoon themselves in aluminum bags and endure hours in refrigerated units to reduce the risk of detection.That journey proved fatal last week for 39 people, many of them believed to be Vietnamese, who were found dead in a refrigerated truck container in southeastern England.As dangerous as the last leg of the migrant journey to Britain often is, those petrifying hours in a trailer are sometimes only a sliver of months if not years of harsh treatment -- first at the hands of organized trafficking gangs, and then under imperious bosses at nail salons and cannabis factories in Britain.But still they come, an estimated 18,000 Vietnamese paying smugglers for the journey to Europe every year at prices between 8,000 and 40,000 pounds, around $10,000 to $50,000.In Britain, where Brexit has discouraged the flow of labor from Eastern Europe, migrants see a country thirsty for low-wage workers, paying easily five times what they could earn at home and free of the onerous identity checks that make other European countries inhospitable.Vietnamese smugglers, for the most part, get their clients across to France and the Netherlands, where other gangs, often Kurdish and Albanian, or, as in the recent case, apparently Irish or Northern Irish, finish the job.Many come from Ha Tinh and Nghe An, two impoverished provinces in north-central Vietnam, and leave for Britain with their eyes wide open to the risks, analysts say. Having watched their neighbors suddenly refurbish their homes with pricier materials, or buy better cars, they crave the same sense of security for their family, whatever it might cost them.But when Britain fails to deliver on that promise, migrants can end up in a dreadful limbo, kept from seeking help by the country's harsh immigration system and living in the grip of a shadowy system of traffickers and the employers who rely on them."I always encourage them, 'Stay at home,'" the Rev. Simon Thang Duc Nguyen, the parish priest at a Catholic church in East London attended by many migrant parishioners, said this week. "Even though you are poor, you have your life. Here, you have money, but you lose your life."Not all the 20,000 to 35,000 undocumented Vietnamese migrants estimated to be living in Britain have horror stories to tell. Many migrants, some experts say, put up with the travails of working in Britain for the real chance of a payday."My research has shown stories of migrants are not all about exploitation and not all about being trafficked," said Tamsin Barber, a lecturer at Oxford Brookes University. "People are usually coming here agreeing to take high risks to work illegally and potentially earn large amounts of money in the cannabis trade."But more vulnerable Vietnamese are also being trafficked to Britain, with the authorities receiving five times as many referrals last year as in 2012.Once family and friends have scraped together enough money, the odyssey may begin with a trip to China to pick up forged travel documents. That is how many of the dozens of people who died in the truck began their journey, said Anthony Dang Huu Nam, a Catholic priest serving a church in the town of Yen Thanh, where he said dozens of the victims were from.On the way from China to Russia to Western Europe, one of the most punishing stretches is the walk through Belarusian forests to the Polish border. In a 2017 French survey of Vietnamese migrants, a man identified as Anh, 24, told researchers that he and five other men, led by a smuggler, were repeatedly arrested in Belarus, only to be released at the Russian border to try again. When they finally succeeded, they were met by a truck waiting on the Polish side."We were cold," the survey quoted him as saying. "We didn't eat anything for two days. We drank water from melted snow."Other routes, choreographed down to the minute, land migrants in European airports with recycled visas and travel documents, according to "Precarious Journeys," a recent report from ECPAT, an anti-child-trafficking organization, and other groups. As a precaution, smugglers in Vietnam often tell people to arrive at airport check-in desks 10 minutes before they close, for instance, so agents do not have enough time to inspect paperwork.The trip can take months, even years. Nguyen Dinh Luong, 20, one of the migrants believed to have died last week, wanted to go to France to find work and support his siblings, seven of them in all, his father, Nguyen Dinh Gia, said. But in Russia, he overstayed his tourist visa and was confined to his house for six months. Then he moved to Ukraine and France, where he found a job as a waiter, before deciding to go to Britain for work in a nail salon.Trips are frequently interrupted when migrants are detained or run out of money. Some migrants are forced to work along the way, in garment factories in Russia or in restaurants across Europe. Some women sell sex, researchers say.Smugglers often keep people in the dark about where they are as a way of exerting total control. In a 2017 case, 16 Vietnamese people picked up by the Ukrainian authorities in Odessa thought they were in France.When migrants disobey their smugglers, the blowback can be fierce."They cannot be discovered by the police, so they have to keep the discipline," said Nguyen, the priest in London. "If you do not behave, you can be punished by beatings, or for women be abused sexually."And once they arrive in Britain, they are often in for a rude awakening. Sulaiha Ali, a human rights lawyer, said migrants were sometimes promised legitimate work in a restaurant or on a construction site, only to be forced to work as "gardeners" in a house converted into illegal cannabis growing operations. Locked inside the house for days at a time and often living 15 to a room, workers face the risk of fire from tampered electrical wiring and health problems from noxious chemicals.In the nail salons where many Vietnamese find work, salon bosses can control every aspect of workers' lives, a power that can breed exploitation, though researchers said some bosses also become migrants' surrogate parents, cooking for them and providing a place to stay.When the police raid places housing migrants, they can often ignore signs of forced work or human trafficking and send migrants into deportation proceedings instead, migrant advocates say. "The emphasis, as soon as it's established someone doesn't have any identification documents, is not trying to establish whether they've been exploited," Ali said. "It's on, 'Can we justify detention? Can we get them removed back to their countries?'"That threat of deportation, whatever someone's circumstances, is a cudgel for trafficking gangs to keep migrants under their sway."There's a serious distrust of authorities, a lot of the time because traffickers have embedded that in victims' minds: 'You don't have official documents,' or, 'You're going to be deported or imprisoned,'" said Firoza Saiyed, a human rights lawyer. "It's another thing that makes disclosure really difficult."Older Vietnamese migrants in Britain, many of whom arrived after the Vietnam War, are separated by a wide cultural gulf from the newer arrivals, but they have still proved to be a crucial support, ever more so in the last week.Nguyen, who left Vietnam in 1984, said he had been fielding calls from families in Vietnam, wanting to know if he could tell them whether their children were in the trailer."The mother, the father, all called me in tears," he said. "I couldn't bear hearing the words. You have to borrow a lot of money for this journey, and now you had hoped your daughter, your son can be successful, and that you can have some money to pay the debt. Now, it's hopeless -- nothing."He went on, "Nothing is OK, as long as they are arrested or in prison. It's OK, they survived. But now they lost two things. They lost hope and they lost their lives. Nothing."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
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| Maskless Merkel braves severe Delhi smog Posted: 01 Nov 2019 12:38 AM PDT  German Chancellor Angela Merkel got a toxic welcome to India on Friday as Prime Minister Narendra Modi treated her to a military parade in New Delhi's severely polluted air. Ignoring medical advice to the choking megacity's 20 million inhabitants, Merkel and Modi reviewed a guard of honour at the presidential palace without pollution masks. The European Union's longest-serving leader is due to step down in 2021.
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| Greta Thunberg says meeting with Trump 'would be a waste of time' Posted: 01 Nov 2019 07:58 AM PDT  The Swedish teenage climate activist says she wouldn't want to meet with the president even if given the opportunity.
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| Andrew Yang's campaign has gone 'mainstream' Posted: 02 Nov 2019 10:09 AM PDT ![Andrew Yang's campaign has gone 'mainstream']( "Andrew Yang's campaign has gone 'mainstream'") While some Democratic presidential candidates are cutting back on their campaigns, entrepreneur Andrew Yang is going all in, Politico reports.Yang, who as recently as April, had fewer than 20 staff members on his campaign's payroll, now has 73 people running the show. "It's been like a startup but this startup has gone mainstream, about to go public, if you want to keep using the analogy," said Zach Graumann, Yang's campaign manager. "And frankly and I tell the team, 'we're just getting started.'" There's some big names now involved with the campaign, as well, lending more credence to Graumann's words. Devine, Mulvey, and Longabaugh -- a media consulting firm which worked for the 2016 campaign for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) but opted to not to join forces again for 2020 over "differences in a creative vision" -- has shifted its services to the Yang campaign because he's "offering the most progressive ideas" among the Democratic candidates. They also don't think he's a flash in the pan. "We wouldn't have signed on with somebody we didn't think was a serious candidate," Mark Longabaugh said. "Yang has a good deal of momentum and there's a great deal of grassroots enthusiasm for his candidacy and that's what's driven it this far." Yang still faces numerous hurdles to really get back in the running, but the campaign surely think it's possible. Read more at Politico.
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| Nicaragua court convicts ex-student in New York killing Posted: 01 Nov 2019 09:29 PM PDT  A Nicaraguan court on Friday convicted a dual U.S.-Nicaraguan citizen of killing a nursing student in New York state after an unusual trial that saw many witnesses testifying by long-distance video conference. Broome County District Attorney Steve Cornwell confirmed Orlando Tercero's conviction in a tweet. The 23-year-old former Binghamton University student was found guilty of the March 2018 killing 22-year-old Haley Anderson.
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| My Hospital Was Bombed by Putin and Assad. Why Won’t America Hear Our Cries? Posted: 01 Nov 2019 02:10 AM PDT  National GeographicOn Oct. 13, The New York Times published a story that proved that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's Russian allies deliberately bombed four hospitals in opposition-held Idlib province in May. Indiscriminate or intentional targeting of hospitals and medical facilities is a war crime, and both culprits have always denied the charges. In reality, Assad has targeted hospitals and other civilian structures from the start of the war, and Russia has done the same since it entered the war in 2015. The Times investigation is important because it is apparently the first to present substantive proof of this specific war crime. The newspaper's conclusions are based on comprehensive evidence from many sources, including thousands of Russian Air Force radio recordings of pilots and ground control officers. There are videos documenting the bombing of three of the four hospitals, and recordings of the Russian pilots confirming their strikes. There are testimonies of witnesses and survivors, and flight logs from the spotters who keep watch on the sky in order to warn civilians of impending attacks.I know what it's like to experience such an attack, having lived through many of them during the six years I worked as a pediatrician at the Cave, an underground hospital in East Al Ghouta. On September 28, 2015, Russian warplanes bombed the Cave, killing three male nurses and injuring two female nurses, including my friend Samaher. Samaher suffered terrible memory loss for about a year, but she continued working at the hospital despite the trauma she carried with her. When I became manager of the Cave in 2016, I did everything I could to shore up the infrastructure above and below ground so it could withstand bombings. I worked on evacuation plans to ensure the safety of patients and staff. We all knew another attack could come at any time. And the attacks multiplied in frequency and brutality as Assad and Russia closed in on Al Ghouta. During our final month in the Cave, we were hit five or six times by barrel bombs. It can't be said often enough: Assad and Russia are malign actors that cannot be trusted. When they agreed to help the Kurdish-led SDF in northeastern Syria, it wasn't about protecting a vulnerable ethnic group. It was about positioning themselves in a regional conflict that has international ramifications that go beyond the Kurdish issue. The Syrian and Russian governments didn't protect the Kurds in the past, and they won't protect them once the current fight is over. Assad has never been a friend to Syria's Kurds, who are the country's largest ethnic minority. All Syrians—Arabs, Christians, Kurds—have suffered under Assad's regime. I have many Kurdish friends who took part in the 2011 demonstrations in Al Ghouta, one of the first and most important areas to speak out for freedom and democracy. We were all trapped there when the government laid siege to the area in 2013. When Russian troops marched into Al Ghouta in 2018, we were displaced. The list of Assad's war crimes is long. With the help of his allies Russia and Iran, he has committed these atrocities out in the open while the world looked on. Half of Syria's population has been displaced. In the five-year siege of Al Ghouta, civilians were deliberately starved, deprived of medicine, and repeatedly bombed. Then there are the multiple chemical attacks on opposition territories. I was in East Al Ghouta in August 2013 when rockets loaded with sarin gas were dropped while people slept. I never imagined that one day the government would use chemical weapons to kill civilians. When that happened, I realized they wanted to kill everybody in Al Ghouta—and anyone in Syria who wanted freedom. All told, close to one million people have been killed and about half a million are detained in prisons where they are tortured and murdered. Two-thirds of the country is destroyed. Dr. Amani Ballour amongst the rubble in SyriaNational GeographicWhat concerns me now is the safety of the Syrian Arab and Kurdish citizens in the north, especially the women and children who always pay the highest price in wars. So far, some 160,000 people have been displaced, many of whom were already refugees from other parts of Syria. With winter coming, the situation is even more urgent. Every winter, refugee camps in the north are flooded with water and mud, and tents become uninhabitable. The camps in the northwest were already overcrowded and miserable and are hardly equipped to take in more homeless, traumatized civilians.It is not too late for the free world to act, for Western nations to show that they believe what they say about human rights. An entire generation of Syrian children—2.6 million—have had no education whatsoever because of the war. They deserve schools in safe places, where they can learn without fear. Women in refugee camps often have no idea about their rights and they are frequently exploited to work for barely any pay. They deserve better. Right now, the international community could direct resources to help the hundreds of thousands of displaced Syrians who will soon be freezing. There is plenty of empty land in the northwest of Syria, where nongovernment organizations could build houses for people needing shelter. But in no way should those houses be considered anything but temporary. Because it is long past time for Syrians to be able to return to their own homes. For nearly nine years, the international community has let down the Syrian people. It has focused on solving the consequences of the crimes, instead of dealing with the culprits, Assad and his allies. It is not impossible to get Assad out of Syria, to hold him to account for his crimes against humanity. If we can get rid of Assad and free Syria of all foreign interference, then Syrians can begin new lives. We who are exiles and refugees can come home and join our fellow citizens in building a free, united, democratic Syria that includes all the Syrian people without discrimination.Dr. Amani Ballour is a Syrian pediatrician, activist and founder of the nonprofit foundation Al Amal. She worked for six years at the Cave, a secret underground hospital in East Al Ghouta that is the subject of the new documentary The Cave.Read 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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| Texas woman says mother's gynecologist used his sperm to conceive her after submitting DNA to Ancestry.com Posted: 01 Nov 2019 01:23 PM PDT  A woman in Texas has filed a lawsuit against a Colorado gynecologist accusing him of using his own sperm to artificially inseminate women without their consent.
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| Finally, some good news for California: Infamous Diablo and Santa Ana winds will die down soon Posted: 01 Nov 2019 08:54 AM PDT  Santa Ana and Diablo winds, the pattern responsible for frequent and strong wind events in California, are forecast to end soon.
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| China Thinks a Nuclear Submarine Can Sink Half of An Aircraft Carrier Battle Group Posted: 01 Nov 2019 04:00 PM PDT  Beijing is trying to find out how to sink U.S. aircraft carriers. France might know how to stop them.
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| Iran says cooperation plan sent to Gulf neighbours Posted: 02 Nov 2019 10:08 AM PDT  Iran said Saturday it has sent Iraq and Arab states of the Gulf the text of its security and cooperation project first unveiled by President Hassan Rouhani at the UN in September. Rouhani "sent the full text (of the initiative) to the heads" of the Gulf Cooperation Council and Iraq and "asked for their cooperation in processing and implementing it", the foreign ministry said. The GCC is a six-nation bloc that groups Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Oman.
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| A New ISIS Recording Names al-Baghdadi's Successor. Here's What to Know About the New Leader Posted: 01 Nov 2019 07:43 AM PDT  On Thursday, ISIS named Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi as its new "caliph" after Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed during a U.S. operation.
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| Who Wore It Better? 10 Names Shared by Automakers Posted: 02 Nov 2019 05:20 AM PDT |
| Hollow building becomes center of Iraq's uprising Posted: 02 Nov 2019 12:41 PM PDT  The skeleton of a high-rise building overlooking Baghdad's central Tahrir Square known as the Turkish Restaurant has become a temporary home and a bustling center for protesters staging demonstrations against Iraq's ruling elites. Dressed in combat trousers and wearing an Iraqi flag as a cape, the 35-year-old is the leader of the group, made up of 20-odd young men who occupy a corner of the building's base. Groups of young men have occupied all 18 floors of the building, with its cramped unlit narrow staircases.
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| British teenager was suffering from PTSD when she withdrew Cyprus gang rape claim, court hears Posted: 01 Nov 2019 11:26 AM PDT  A British teenager accused of lying about being gang raped in Cyprus may have retracted her claims because she was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, her lawyer said at a hearing on Friday. The woman, 19, is charged with public mischief for allegedly inventing the attack at an Ayia Napa hotel on July 17. She maintains she was raped by up to a dozen Israeli tourists, but pressured by Cypriot police to make a retraction statement 10 days later. Prosecutors say the teenager willingly wrote and signed the document. On Friday, chartered consultant psychologist Dr Christine Tizzard gave evidence by videolink from Portsmouth Crown Court. Speaking after the hearing in Larnaca, lawyer Michael Polak, director of the group Justice Abroad - which is assisting the teenager - said she was diagnosed as having underlying PTSD, which was reignited by the alleged attack. Lawyer Michael Polak of Justice Abroad is supporting the teengaer Credit: KATIA CHRISTODOULOU/EPA-EFE/REX "We were pleased with the evidence from Dr Tizzard, which confirms what we have been saying," he said. "She explained in simple words to the court the ways in which PTSD affects someone who is put in a difficult situation... Their fight or flight reflex would kick in and they would do anything to get out of that situation... "We look forward to the rest of the evidence, which we say supports the teenager's case that she was put under enormous pressure to sign the retraction statement." The case was adjourned following the psychologist's evidence and a date for forensic linguist Dr Andrea Nini to give evidence is expected to be set on Monday. He is expected to say it was "highly unlikely" that the retraction statement was written by a native English speaker, supporting the teenager's case that it was dictated to her by a Cypriot police officer. The incident allegedly took place in the resort town of Ayia Napa Credit: Amir MAKAR / AFP Her lawyers want Judge Michalis Papathanasiou to rule the statement is inadmissible as evidence. The teenager was a week into a working holiday before she was due to start university when she alleged she was raped by the group of young Israeli men, but was then herself accused of making it up. She spent more than a month in prison before she was granted bail at the end of August, but cannot leave the island, having surrendered her passport. She could face up to a year in jail and a 1,700 euro (£1,500) fine if she is found guilty. The 12 Israelis arrested over the alleged attack returned home after they were released. The teenager's family have set up a crowdfunding page asking for money for legal costs, which has raised more than £40,000.
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| This time, Southern California was prepared for wildfires. Here's how countless homes were saved Posted: 02 Nov 2019 09:47 AM PDT  The winds roared again but Los Angeles and other Southern California cities were prepared as firefighters saved thousands of homes.
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| Ken Cuccinelli Calls Debbie Wasserman Schultz a Witch: She ‘Got on Her Broom and Left’ Posted: 01 Nov 2019 08:37 AM PDT  A day after a contentious congressional hearing in which he was accused by Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) of pushing a "heinous white supremacist ideology," acting U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Ken Cuccinelli essentially called the congresswoman a witch.Appearing on Fox & Friends on Friday morning, Cuccinelli brushed off questions about whether he's still being considered to head up the Department of Homeland Security by saying he will keep doing his current job "in the face of some people who would rather we are not as successful.""Are you referring to Debbie Wasserman Schultz by chance," co-host Ainsley Earhardt asked, prompting Cuccinelli to say she was "among them."The hosts went on to play a video clip from Thursday's contentious hearing in which the Florida lawmaker claimed the Cuccinelli and President Donald Trump were pursuing a white supremacist policy by denying public benefits to legal immigrants, including children."That's one of those things that politicians can say things because they are protected," co-host Steve Doocy remarked. "However, you are—as somebody who is serving in the public interests—you have to give facts."Cuccinelli insisted that while he was under oath, Wasserman Schultz was "literally protected to lie," citing the speech and debate clause in the Constitution. He then asserted that she only came into the hearing to make a speech before making his witch allusion."She wasn't at much of the committee hearing," he said. "She came in, laid on her smears on both me and the president, all completely false. And then wasn't there much longer, got on her broom and left. It was a fly-by for her and to get a little sound bite."The hosts, meanwhile, rather than push back on Cuccinelli's not-so-veiled sexist insult of a female lawmaker, instead expressed sympathy for the Trump immigration chief."She didn't want you to interrupt her," Earhardt declared. "And I guess the rules prevent you from doing but she is smearing your reputation and character and saying something you don't feel like it is true. You have to defend yourself."Following Cuccinelli's Fox & Friends remarks, Wasserman Schultz took to Twitter to respond, calling out the Trump official for trying to "silence outspoken women who speak truth to power."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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| Low-Yield Nuclear Weapons Won’t End the World Posted: 01 Nov 2019 05:00 PM PDT  A recent video by Princeton University's Program on Science and Global Security, Plan A, suggests that the use of one low-yield non-strategic nuclear weapon, in a NATO-Russia conflict, would lead to the large scale use of strategic nuclear weapons and the death of more than 90 million people. While the video's makers deserve credit for its production quality and very ominous background music, the scenario they offer, while always possible, is highly unlikely.
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| Trump says US knows who Islamic State's new leader is Posted: 01 Nov 2019 11:16 AM PDT  President Donald Trump said Friday that the United States knows who the Islamic State group's new leader is, as the United States vowed to keep "unrelenting" pressure on the extremists. Islamic State on Thursday confirmed Baghdadi's death and named his replacement as Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Quraishi.
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| Hezbollah TV channel says Twitter accounts suspended Posted: 02 Nov 2019 12:59 PM PDT  The television station of Lebanon's powerful Shiite movement Hezbollah protested Saturday that most of its Twitter accounts had been suspended. Al-Manar accused the US-based social media platform of giving in to "political pressures". "There is no place on Twitter for illegal terrorist organisations and violent extremist groups," a Twitter spokesperson told AFP.
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| Police officer retires after far-right group ties revealed Posted: 01 Nov 2019 07:48 AM PDT ![Police officer retires after far-right group ties revealed]( "Police officer retires after far-right group ties revealed") A Connecticut police officer has retired after a civil rights organization raised concerns about his membership in a far-right group known for engaging in violent clashes at political rallies, a town official said Friday. Officer Kevin P. Wilcox retired from the East Hampton Police Department on Oct. 22, according to Town Manager David Cox. Wilcox had been an East Hampton police officer since 1999.
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| Iraq’s Top Cleric Warns Iran to Stay Out Posted: 01 Nov 2019 11:00 PM PDT  (Bloomberg Opinion) -- To understand what Iraq's Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani is saying, you have to translate him twice: first from Arabic to English, then from politesse to plain-speak. In the first translation, a key passage from his Friday sermon in the holy city of Karbala went like this: "No person or group, no side with a particular view, no regional or international actor may seize the will of the Iraqi people and impose its will on them."The second translation: "Back off, Khamenei!"That is how it would have sounded to Sistani's audience in Karbala, where it was read out for the ailing octogenarian by an aide; in the streets of Baghdad and other Iraqi cities, where a bloody crackdown on largely peaceful protesters has taken more than 200 lives; in the Iraqi parliament, where lawmakers are negotiating a response to the demonstrations; and in Tehran, where Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has been struggling to respond to the rising anti-Iran sentiment that undergirds uprisings in Iraq and Lebanon.Khamenei has unleashed Iran's proxies in the streets — Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Shiite militias in Iraq — to intimidate the protesters. He has also dispatched his chief enforcer, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps commander Qassem Soleimani, to the Iraqi parliament, to rally Shiite parties behind the feckless Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi.But if anything, these responses will only fan the anger in the streets against Iranian interference in Iraqi and Lebanese politics. Not even Khamenei, who is practiced in the art of ignoring popular resentment, can have failed to notice the anti-Iran slogans echoing through Iraqi cities. Nor will it have escaped his attention that the loudest chanting comes from Iraqi Shiites, a community he expects to favor his Islamic Republic. The Supreme Leader's anxiety was palpable in his tweets on Thursday, when he tried to blame Tehran's usual suspects — "the U.S., the Zionist regime, some Western countries, and the money of some reactionary countries" — for the protests.Sistani's sermon was a riposte, designed to set Khamenei right. Although born in Iran, he is no fan of Khamenei and other hardliners in Tehran, preferring the likes of President Hassan Rouhani.Iraq's Grand Ayatollah has been in a quandary over the protests. Every Iraqi government since 2005 has had his personal imprimatur: His word has united factions among the Shiite majority. Prime Minister Abdul-Mahdi, too, has his blessing. As such, Sistani is complicit in the corruption and ineptitude that have brought the Iraqis into the streets.His early pronouncements on the protests vacillated between bromides against corruption and calls on the protesters to abjure violence. But as the demonstrations have persisted, Sistani has grown progressively more critical of the government, blaming it for the violence.His Friday sermon puts him squarely on the protesters' side. In addition to interfering Iranians, the leaders who have long benefited from his validation came under attack. As the politicians in Baghdad struggle to devise a response that will satisfy angry Iraqis, the so-called sage of Najaf warned that Iraqis have a right to a "referendum on the constitution" to change how they are governed. By invoking the prospect of a referendum, Sistani may have given the protesters a new focus for their energies, and Iraqi politicians a way to break the toxic pattern of inconclusive elections and compromise prime ministers. Much will depend on the reaction of another cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr, who has also taken the protesters' side — even joining them in the streets — and has called for Abdul-Mahdi's removal.Sadr, frequently described as a firebrand, has little in common with the preternaturally placid Sistani. But the prospect of the protests being led by one and backed by the other is certain to rattle turbaned heads in Tehran. And if Sistani and Sadr were to throw their combined weight behind demands for a referendum — and who knows, maybe even inspire emulation by the Lebanese — that might be the stuff of Khamenei's nightmares.To contact the author of this story: Bobby Ghosh at aghosh73@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: James Gibney at jgibney5@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Bobby Ghosh is a columnist and member of the Bloomberg Opinion editorial board. He writes on foreign affairs, with a special focus on the Middle East and the wider Islamic world.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Bad news for Boeing: Company says more 737 NGs found to have wing cracks Posted: 01 Nov 2019 04:36 PM PDT  The FAA ordered the inspections in 737 NG's that have flown many thousands of flghts
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| Distressing photos show glaciers that are disappearing or on the brink of collapse around the world Posted: 01 Nov 2019 01:27 PM PDT  The future of glaciers around the world is shaky. Here are photos showing some of the glaciers that might not be around for much longer.
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| ‘Shut Up About Politics’ Singer John Rich Shows Up on Fox News to Talk About Politics Posted: 02 Nov 2019 02:31 AM PDT  Months after teaming up with the hosts of Fox News midday gabfest The Five to record an extremely lame hit song titled "Shut Up About Politics," country artist John Rich appeared on Fox News to—without a shred of irony—talk about politics.Sitting down Friday with The Daily Briefing host Dana Perino—a Five host featured on the song—Rich was immediately asked to weigh in on former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's recent appearance on The Daily Show. Noting that Clinton took part in a skit in which she told a scary ghost story about losing the 2016 election despite having three million more votes than Donald Trump, Perino added that Clinton and the show "thought that was funny" but not for the same reason Rich might think it's funny.The singer, however, focused instead on how scary he found Clinton's physical appearance."That actually freaked me out a little bit," he declared. "I'm kind of envious of her because if you think about all the money she saves every Halloween, she doesn't have to get a costume."While an on-air graphic blared "Country Star John Rich Talks Politics W/Dana," again without a glint of self-awareness, Rich continued to express how physically frightened he was of the former secretary of state."Well her policies were scary and then when you put her out in the dark with a flashlight and the whole thing you go—that's how I kind of envision how that would have worked out," he added.They would go on to talk about politics and Clinton for a bit longer before moving on to how much fans love their collaborative song.That song, co-written by Fox News political pundit Greg Gutfeld, features the following lyrical refrain:Shut up about politicsAin't nothin' but a big pile of dirty tricksI'm tired of all the fighting and the pitchin' fitsSo shut up about politics.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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| Donald Trump's 'Take the Oil' Strategy in Syria Is a Mistake Posted: 01 Nov 2019 06:20 AM PDT  "A prominent and longstanding theme in the ideology and propaganda of terrorist groups rooted in the Arab Muslim world—including al-Qaeda and ISIS—is that the United States and the West are out to plunder the resources of Muslims. Such groups violently oppose U.S. troops in Muslim countries partly because they are seen as furthering the plundering mission."
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| This very good girl was sworn into an Illinois state's attorney's office to provide support for sexual assault victims Posted: 01 Nov 2019 06:56 AM PDT  Hatty, a 2-year-old black Labrador retriever, was brought into the Cook County State's Attorney's Office in Chicago to work as a comfort dog.
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| For the Best Three-Row Mid-Size Crossovers and SUVs, See These Full Rankings! Posted: 01 Nov 2019 03:21 PM PDT |
| New execution date set for Georgia inmate Posted: 01 Nov 2019 03:04 PM PDT  Georgia officials set a new execution date Friday for a death row inmate two days after he was granted a temporary reprieve because of a legal technicality. Ray Jefferson Cromartie, 52, is scheduled to die by lethal injection Nov. 13 at the state prison in Jackson. Georgia Corrections Commissioner Timothy Ward set the execution for the first date of a seven-day window ordered Friday by a Superior Court judge in Thomas County.
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| Brazil police arrest man said to be one of world's most prolific human traffickers Posted: 01 Nov 2019 03:22 PM PDT ![Brazil police arrest man said to be one of world's most prolific human traffickers]( "Brazil police arrest man said to be one of world's most prolific human traffickers") Brazilian federal police said they have arrested Saifullah Al-Mamun, born in Bangladesh and considered by authorities one of the world's most prolific human traffickers. In an operation conducted on Thursday after collaboration with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Brazilian police arrested members of a group allegedly implicated in a large scheme of smuggling people into the United States. Several arrests were made in Sao Paulo, where Al-Mamun was living, and in three other Brazilian cities.
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| PG&E and Southern California Edison have turned off power to minimize fires. It hasn't worked. What will? Posted: 01 Nov 2019 10:59 AM PDT  Pacific Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison have cut off power to minimize wildfire risk. Yet the wildfires haven't stopped. What now?
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| Iran unveils new anti-US murals at former embassy Posted: 02 Nov 2019 04:58 AM PDT  Iran on Saturday unveiled new anti-American murals on the walls of the former US embassy as Tehran prepares to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the storming of what it labels the "den of spies". The new murals -- mainly painted in white, red and blue, the colours of the US flag -- were unveiled by Major General Hossein Salami, the head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, at the former mission turned museum. A third showed the American Global Hawk drone that was shot down by Iran in June over the Strait of Hormuz, with bats flying out of it.
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| The chosen bun: Decade-old burger's decay livestreamed in Iceland Posted: 31 Oct 2019 07:08 PM PDT  A decade after McDonald's shut down in Iceland, thousands of online users follow the live slow decay of the last order -- a seemingly indestructible burger with a side of fries protected in a glass case like a precious gem. The American chain closed its only three branches in Iceland during the subarctic island's financial crisis in 2009, making it one of the only Western countries without a McDonald's. On October 31 of that year, just before the restaurant's closure, Hjortur Smarason bought a menu for conservation.
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| To Shake Up Trump, Kim Jong Un Gets All Mystical—Then Launches Missiles Posted: 02 Nov 2019 02:09 AM PDT  Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/Korean Central News Agency/APFrom sacred Mount Paektu, the Korean peninsula's highest peak on the North's border with China, to the 10,000 spire-like pinnacles of Mount Kumgang just above the line with South Korea, Kim Jong Un has cast himself of late as the bold, fearless, iconic leader literally daring to ascend the highest peaks in pursuit of power over the divided country.There's nothing remotely subtle about the campaign that has pictured him on a white stallion riding through the early snows of another frigid winter on Mt. Paektu or striding up the slopes of Kumgang.It's all about projecting the image of a hero in a campaign of intimidation aimed at both the U.S. and South Korea in a climactic drive to get President Donald Trump and the South's President Moon Jae-in to yield at last to his demands. North Koreans Think Trump Admin Talks Are 'Sickening.' So Should You.And now Kim had added some very important missile tests to his message. In a sequence that clearly had been pre-scripted as the second act after those daring ascents, North Korean gunners test-fired what the North's Academy of Defense Science proudly described as "super-large multiple rocket launchers."Kim, having already appeared as a fit if somewhat portly outdoorsman, did not have to be standing by to press the button. While that image of the brave warrior dominated the state media, the academy reported "the perfection of the continuous fire system" as "verified through the test-fire to totally destroy with super-power the group target of the enemy and designated target area by surprise strike of the weapon system of super-large multiple rocket launchers."The ferocity of the test, at least as claimed, carried one especially disturbing message. That kind of firepower isn't for use against American or Japanese soil, but could devastate America's largest overseas base at Camp Humphreys, 40 miles south of Seoul, 60 miles below the Demilitarized Zone between the two Koreas.The base, no doubt shielded by all manner of sensors, missiles and other wizardry, has got to be a sitting duck for the North's increasingly advanced weaponry. Most of America's 28,500 troops in Korea, plus families and civilian employees, are now there after the closure of U.S. bases below the DMZ and withdrawal of the central headquarters for U.S. Forces Korea from the historic Yongsan base in Seoul. Nearby Osan Air Base is headquarters for the Seventh Air Force, also an easy target."Megabase in Korea's Danger Zone," is the cover story in this week's Army Times magazine. The North Koreans "said they've been developing these weapons to be able to strike a 'fat target,'" David Maxwell, senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, who spent years in Korea as an army officer, is quoted as saying. "We assume that the 'fat target' is Camp Humphreys as well as Osan Air Base."Even as U.S. forces were moving into Humphreys, writes Kyle Rempfer, "North Korea has developed large caliber rockets and ballistic missiles as well as a nuclear capability" within range of the expanded 3,500-acre base. "North Korea's 300-millimeter multiple rocket launchers and new KN-23 short-range ballistic missiles both have an advertised capability to reach Camp Humphreys."Not-to-worry is, nonetheless, the soothing message from Moon and his aides. Echoing Trump's earlier expressions of non-concern about the North's short-range missile tests, South Korea's national security adviser, Chung Eui-yong, said the latest shots, the 12th this year but the first in a month, were not "very grave threats." In fact, he argued, "our missile defense and intercept capabilities" are "absolutely superior."With two months to go before the end-of-year "deadline" set by the North for the U.S. to propose a new deal, however, the testing assumes seriously intimidating overtones. At the top of the North's demands are an end to sanctions and a "peace declaration"– but no real end to its nuclear program, long since sanctified in the North's constitution.As for Moon, Kim has come up with a bargaining tool that demonstrates the futility of any deal with North Korea. He's demanding South Korea demolish or remove an entire tourist resort at the foot of Mount Kumgang, aka Diamond Mountain, heaping scorn on what was once the most visible showcase for promoting North-South rapprochement.North Korea's state media is dressing up the demand with images of Kim, sporty in a white shirt tailored to fit his contours, appearing to conquer Kumgang on foot just as he rode up the slopes of Paektu on a white horse. Whether he got to the top of Paektu on the horse as claimed, the imagery from Kumgang leaves no doubt he trudged only far enough for a photo-op that provided the setting for his message to Moon.Packing 290 pounds on his rotund five-foot seven-inch frame, Kim was not at all fit for the hike. Missing are photographs showing him at the majestic Kuryong waterfall, which tumbles 84 meters down granite cliffs. Only four kilometers up the trail, it's the destination for just about everyone else who's been there.Also further up the trail, a special wooden bench, lovingly painted and repainted a sparkling dark blue, is said to be exactly where Kim Il Sung sat to gaze on Mount Kumgang, some of whose many pinnacles are often lost in the clouds far above. A low-lying chain link fence keeps disrespectful tourists from sitting where the late "Great Leader" once sat. No doubt Kim Jong Un would love to plant his ample posterior on granddad's bench, but he got nowhere near it.Rather than at the falls or on the bench, Kim is seen with imagery selected and edited to give an impression of an indomitable figure conquering the mountain. Shots show him with a stout walking stick standing on a footbridge, smiling with aides in a clearing, edging by large boulders, his coyly smiling wife, Ri Sol Ju, close behind. Viewers don't need to know all these photos were staged where the trail begins.The scenic setting provides the backdrop for a shocking message to South Korea—and the U.S, too. In a devastating setback to South Korea's efforts at reconciliation, Kim declared the facilities built by South Korea's largest construction firm, Hyundai Engineering and Construction, were "ugly" and "unpleasant" to look at. North Korea has demanded South Korea set a date in writing for removal or demolition of all of them, including 10 hotels, sports and entertainment facilities, a duty-free shopping center and dozens of individual structures to accommodate tour groups.Kim's denunciation of the facilities at Kumgang, which also include an 18-hole golf course and a hot springs spa, is a calculated rebuff to President Moon, who still fantasizes about reopening the resort to South Koreans. Seoul has barred them from going there ever since a South Korean woman was shot and killed by a North Korean soldier in July 2008 while wandering outside the tourist area to gaze at the sunrise. Another problem is how to get around sanctions blocking commercial transactions with the North.It was as though Kim wanted to portray himself as a daring sportsman, a larger-than-life character afraid of nothing before getting down to the serious business of dissing the South as punishment for Moon's failure to stand up to U.S demands for the North to give up its nuclear program.As for the U.S., Kim's heroics provided the window-dressing for a series of intimidating messages for his friend President Trump. After the North's state media put out photos showing Kim as a virile figure fit to climb any mountain, subordinates came out almost daily with threats against the U.S. for dithering on a deal."The Korean peninsula is at a critical crossroads," said the country's second ranking leader, Choe Ryong-hae, at a confab of the so-called non-aligned movement in Azerbaijan. The choice was "either moving towards durable peace along with the trend of detente, or facing again a touch-and-go crisis."That warning came after another top leader, Kim Yong Chol, resurgent after having been reported in May to have been executed for the failure of the Trump-Kim summit in Hanoi, said Trump had better not count on his friendship with Kim to keep the North from testing nukes and missiles."The U.S. is seriously mistaken if it has the idea of exploiting the close personal relations" between Trump and Kim, said Kim Yong Chol, vice chairman of the Workers' Party Central Committee, in a statement carried by Pyongyang's official news agency. The U.S., he said, is now "more desperately resorting to the hostile policy" toward North Korea. Those stern words, coming right after Kim's shows on Kumgang and Paektu, left the South Koreans with no convincing response.South Korea's unification ministry called for "creative solutions" to the entire problem of dismantling the resort complex and keeping Kim happy. North Korea turned a cold shoulder to the South's suggestions for "individual" tours that might avoid sanctions.Kim's current observations from the bottom of Kumgang were meant to show how South Koreans desecrated this scenic wonderland when they opened it to tourism in deals made by South Korea's Kim Dae-jung, the country's president from 1998 to 2003."Mt. Kumgang is our land of blood," Kim Jong Un is quoted as saying. "We have our own sovereignty and dignity on the cliffs and trees." Those hideous South-made structures, he said, were "severely damaging the landscape" and "neglecting the management of cultural tourism."While Trump Shrugs, North Korea's Building Better MissilesRead 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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| The Afghanistan Withdrawal Will Make Syria’s Seem Orderly Posted: 01 Nov 2019 05:13 AM PDT  Trump is right to recognize that Americans are tired of "endless wars." But withdrawing from Afghanistan without a workable solution will mean the country will fall to the Taliban all over again.
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| House Intel Chair Schiff says impeachment transcripts could come next week Posted: 01 Nov 2019 04:52 PM PDT  Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said Friday that the panels investigating impeachment could begin releasing transcripts of closed-door witness depositions early next week, part of an effort to move the investigation into public view and allow Americans to evaluate the evidence against President Trump.
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