| Ukraine's President Zelensky said he didn't feel pressured by Trump. Here's why that's bogus. Posted: 23 Nov 2019 05:57 AM PST  The US government's assistance to Ukraine is vital as it contends with an ongoing conflict with pro-Russian separatists in the Donbas region.
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| Ex-CIA Officer Sentenced to 19 Years in Chinese Espionage Conspiracy Posted: 23 Nov 2019 07:29 AM PST  ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- A former CIA officer was sentenced Friday to 19 years in prison for conspiring to deliver classified information to China in a case that touched on the mysterious unraveling of the agency's informant network in China but did little to solve it.The former officer, Jerry Chun Shing Lee, 55, pleaded guilty in May to conspiring with Chinese intelligence agents starting in 2010, after he left the agency. Prosecutors detailed a long financial paper trail that they said showed that Lee received more than $840,000 for his work.Lee, an Army veteran, worked for the CIA from 1994 to 2007, including in China. After he resigned, he formed a tobacco company in Hong Kong with an associate who had ties to the Chinese intelligence community. Lee then began meeting with agents from China's Ministry of State Security, who assigned him tasks he admitted to taking on and offered to "take care of him for life."While working in Hong Kong in 2010, Lee reapplied for employment with the CIA but misled U.S. officials repeatedly in interviews about his dealings with Chinese intelligence officers and the source of his income.Around the time Lee began speaking to Chinese agents, the CIA was rocked by major setbacks in China as its once-robust espionage network there began to fall apart. Between 2010 and 2012, dozens of CIA informants in China disappeared, either jailed or killed, embroiling the agency in an internal debate about how Chinese intelligence officers had identified the informants. Many within the agency came to believe that a mole had exposed U.S. informants, and Lee became a main suspect.But FBI agents who investigated whether he was the culprit passed on an opportunity to arrest him in the United States in 2013, allowing him to travel back to Hong Kong even after finding classified information in his luggage. FBI agents had also covertly entered a hotel room Lee occupied in 2012, finding handwritten notes detailing the names and numbers of at least eight CIA sources that he had handled in his capacity as a case officer.The investigators apparently decided that by continuing to quietly monitor Lee, they might glean more clues about the disappearing CIA informants in China. But even after his arrest in 2018 on the same charge the CIA was prepared to bring in 2013, they were unable to determine whether Lee was involved in the disclosures to Chinese intelligence operatives.Because of Lee's plea agreement, in which he admitted to one count of possessing information classified as secret -- a lower level than top secret -- prosecutors asked for a relatively lighter sentence of roughly 22 to 27 years, rather than life in prison.But prosecutors argued that even if Lee never turned over information to Chinese intelligence officers, the fact that he shared his knowledge of U.S. intelligence work with Chinese agents alone could have a chilling effect on the CIA's source-building efforts."It makes it difficult to recruit people in the future if they know the CIA isn't protecting their people," said Adam L. Small, a federal prosecutor in Northern Virginia, where Lee was charged. "These are people who put their names and lives in his hands."The sentence for Lee is the latest in a string of recent cases in which U.S. intelligence workers have been handed lengthy prison terms for espionage connected to China. In announcing Lee's sentence, Judge T.S. Ellis III said that a hefty sentence was necessary to deter others from jeopardizing U.S. intelligence.In May, another CIA case officer, Kevin Patrick Mallory was sentenced to 20 years in prison for selling classified documents to a Chinese intelligence officer for $25,000. Ellis, who presided over that case as well, decided that a life sentence for Mallory was excessively harsh even though prosecutors showed he successfully transmitted secret information.In September, Ron Rockwell Hansen, a former Defense Intelligence Agency officer, received 10 years in prison for attempting to pass along defense secrets.Lee's lawyers argued that the largely circumstantial case against him was considerably weaker than others in which defendants were charged with espionage, and that speculating that the unexplained payments he received were compensation for information that harmed CIA operations was "a bridge too far."Although Lee pleaded guilty to conspiring with Chinese agents, lawyers on both sides conceded that there was no direct evidence that Lee ever provided any of the classified information in his possession to the Chinese government. The CIA has not shown that the sources listed in Lee's notes faced retribution or harm, Lee's lawyers said."What the government is describing is their worst possible nightmare," said Nina J. Ginsberg, one of Lee's lawyers.In announcing the sentence, Ellis said he was not convinced that Lee's interactions with Chinese intelligence officers were benign, and that it is common in espionage cases to never fully uncover the extent of illicit dealings.While he acknowledged that Lee, a naturalized citizen born in Hong Kong, had done a great deal with his life as an American -- four years in the Army, a 13-year career with the CIA -- Ellis appeared unmoved."That gets erased," he said, "when you betray your country."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
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| Leaked documents show operations of prison camps in China's Xinjiang Posted: 24 Nov 2019 02:41 PM PST  Leaked documents released on Sunday detailed how China controls everything from the frequency of haircuts to when the doors are locked in the mass detention camps of its Xinjiang region. The documents, obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and published by 17 media outlets worldwide, show the strict protocols governing life in the network of camps in the far-western region, which rights groups and outside experts say house more than one million Uighurs and other mostly Muslim minorities. The latest leak consists of a list of guidelines Xinjiang's security chief approved in 2017 for running the detention camps, along with intelligence briefings that show how police use data collection and artificial intelligence to select residents for detention.
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| Pilot Walks Away Uninjured After Plane Gets Caught Upside Down in Power Lines Posted: 24 Nov 2019 10:27 AM PST  The power line was deactivated and the 65-year-old pilot was freed from the plane
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| Duterte Fires Vice President from Post on Anti-Drug Body Posted: 24 Nov 2019 04:54 AM PST ![Duterte Fires Vice President from Post on Anti-Drug Body]( "Duterte Fires Vice President from Post on Anti-Drug Body") (Bloomberg) -- Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has fired Vice President Leni Robredo from a government body against illegal drugs, less than three weeks after appointing her to help run it.Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea confirmed Duterte's decision, which was first reported by CNN Philippines.Robredo, who was elected separately from the president and heads the opposition Liberal Party, accepted Duterte's appointment to co-chair the Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs on Nov. 6. Duterte's decision to fire Robredo came days after saying that he couldn't trust the vice president because she was from the opposition.The 74-year old Philippine leader, who's been criticized for a drug war that has killed thousands of people, dared Robredo last month to run his campaign after the vice president urged a review of the program.Since accepting the post, Robredo has called for the rehabilitation of drug users instead of going after them through police operations that have killed thousands of suspects. She has also met with officials from the U.S. and the United Nations to discuss best practices in solving the country's illegal drug problem.Robredo has also asked a Philippine government drug enforcement agency for data including a list of high-value targets, a request that Duterte's camp has rejected.Robredo was housing secretary at the start of Duterte's six-year term in June 2016 but left before the end of that year, after she was told not to attend cabinet meetings.\--With assistance from Andreo Calonzo.To contact the reporter on this story: Clarissa Batino in Manila at cbatino@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Shamim Adam at sadam2@bloomberg.net, Karen Leigh, Sara MarleyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| New documents show contact between Giuliani and Pompeo Posted: 23 Nov 2019 07:26 AM PST  Documents released Friday show President Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani was in contact with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in the months before the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine was recalled.
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| South Korea and America Do Not Share the Same Interests Posted: 24 Nov 2019 02:15 AM PST  A big problem.
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| Elizabeth Warren Has Finally Found a 2020 Dem to Attack in Michael Bloomberg Posted: 24 Nov 2019 11:46 AM PST  Photo Illustration by Kristen Hazzard/The Daily Beast/Photos Getty/Photo by Bauzen/GC ImagesElizabeth Warren, who has spent much of the election staying clear of directly attacking political opponents while railing against systematic corruption, faces a new reality: a 77-year-old rich guy worth $54 billion has bulldozed into the Democratic primary. And Bernie Sanders, whose crusade against the billionaire class has become as ubiquitous as the finger wave that accompanies it, now has another reason to chomp at the bit. Enter: Michael Bloomberg, the latest billionaire to declare he is running for the Democratic nomination in 2020. In announcing his bid on Sunday, the former New York City mayor said he is running to "defeat Donald Trump and rebuild America." In a statement and accompanying video, he said, "we cannot afford four more years of President Trump's reckless and unethical actions. He represents an existential threat to our country and our values. If he wins another term in office, we may never recover from the damage."Former NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg Formally Files for 2020 Presidential RunAllies of Warren and Sanders allies don't think Bloomberg, a New Yorker by way of Medford, Massachusetts, will have the chance to take on fellow New Yorker, Donald Trump. In fact, they view the billionaire's entrance into the party's primary as a political gift. "This may be one of the most important things that happened to her campaign," said Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, which is supporting Warren. "Bloomberg's entrance centers the conversation to the core themes that have been instrumental to Elizabeth Warren's rise," he said, including "the systemic corruption of our democracy by billionaires.""The more the campaign is grounded and centered in those issues, the more likely it is that Elizabeth Warren will win."Reached by The Daily Beast, a Bloomberg aide texted it is "not a surprise" when asked about jabs from Warren and Sanders escalating with his arrival into the field. A Sanders aide flagged their campaign's recent statement on Bloomberg's candidacy, while a spokesperson for Warren's campaign passed along her relevant remarks from a recent event.Bloomberg's video is just one part of a $34 million ad buy, according to Advertising Analytics' latest estimate of campaign spending shared with The Daily Beast. On Thursday, he officially filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission. His aides have said he plans to take no campaign donations and will work for $1 a year if he's elected, adding Bloomberg "cannot be bought." Bloomberg's bid comes less than three months before voters begin selecting candidates in the first caucus and primary states. Warren and Sanders, who are statistically tied for the second place spot in national polling averages, will now have not one, but two, billionaires vying for the party's nomination, including California mega-donor Tom Steyer. Sanders and Warren sit roughly 10 points behind Joe Biden in national averages. And Bloomberg's bid is viewed, largely, as a show of force against the former vice president, who has struggled with fundraising and momentum despite remaining relatively even in polling averages throughout the contest. Eyeing those factors, several Democratic strategists who have already started grumbling about Bloomberg said his candidacy throws a potential wrench into Biden's campaign, The Daily Beast previously reported. It could also complicate the path for South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who has skyrocketed ahead in several surveys in Iowa in New Hampshire, strategists said. Biden Allies Have Already Started Grumbling About BloombergMultiple Democratic operatives and activists supportive of Warren and Sanders agreed that for their candidates, it's a different story entirely."There are a lot of things you can say about Bloomberg," Matt Bruenig, founder of the progressive People's Policy Project, told The Daily Beast. "Not only is he a billionaire, but he's a Wall Street billionaire, so you get that angle. If they stay to script, they'll have more things to say."Warren and Sanders each have robust small-dollar fundraising operations and have spent much of their campaigns fighting against claims of corruption around the country. Warren has focused on what she calls systemic corruption and challenging corporate power, saying the "government is working great for billionaires" but not for every day Americans. Sanders has fine-tuned his "rigged political system" messaging left over from 2016, where he mounted a strong grassroots challenge to Hillary Clinton by criticizing wealthy donors and occasionally calling out billionaires by name. Amazon's CEO Jeff Bezos, who reportedly asked Bloomberg about a potential run, is a favorite target of Sanders this cycle. Over the past few days, Sanders has doubled down on his message for the one percent, saying he's "disgusted" that Bloomberg or other billionaires believe they can buy election results. His misgivings about "the billionaires" have been as consistent in his second presidential bid as it was in his first. "I'm disgusted by the idea that Michael Bloomberg or any other billionaire thinks they can circumvent the political process and spend tens of millions of dollars to buy our elections," Sanders wrote in a statement. "It's just the latest example of a rigged political system that we are going to change when we're in the White House. If you can't build grassroots support for your candidacy, you have no business running for president. The American people are sick and tired of the power of billionaires, and I suspect they won't react well to someone trying to buy an election."The move comes after Sanders' campaign launched a new Facebook ad featuring the 78-year-old senator looking at the camera and addressing supporters, while name-dropping the billionaire directly. "Please make a contribution to help us say to Michael Bloomberg and the entire billionaire class: 'sorry you're not going to buy this election."Warren, who became a progressive champion of working class families in 2008 for fighting against big banks during the financial crisis, hasn't been shy about clapping back against attacks from the uber-rich, either, going hard against well-heeled figures like billionaire hedge-fund manager Leon Cooperman and Goldman Sachs senior chairman Lloyd Blankfein. On Saturday, while campaigning in New Hampshire, Warren told reporters "elections should not be for sale, not to billionaires, not to corporate executives," when asked about Bloomberg's potential run before his official announcement.Warren's comments are consistent with her campaign's messaging strategy that's evolved through her nine-and-a-half-month-long bid. Her campaign's website now features promotional coffee mugs emblazoned with "BILLIONAIRES TEARS" and an online calculator that helps "confused billionaires" see exactly how much they would pay in taxes under her campaign's wealth tax plan, which would start on individuals with a net worth starting at $50 million."WOW — YOU'VE GOT A LOT OF MONEY!" the calculator spits out when a user clicks on the name Michael Bloomberg. The message continues: "You'd pay $3.079 billion next year under Elizabeth's wealth tax. This amount, which you likely won't even feel, will help us invest in education from birth through college and help finance health care for everyone. Good news - you'll still be extraordinarily rich!" While Sanders and Warren's end goals are strikingly similar, stylistically, there are other contrasts between how the two New England senators distinguish their messages against the mega-rich. Some strategists noted that Warren tends to address corruption in broader terms on the campaign trail, but does not necessarily criticize wealthy individuals for making a lot of money. Instead, she asks them to simply do a little extra to pay their fair share. Sanders tends to go for the jugular, some said, calling it flat-out exploitation. In September, Sanders mused about the idea that "Billionaires should not exist," going a step further than the Vermont independent's usual stump speech. "It seems like Bernie has been much more willing to say it is exploitation," Bruing said.In contrast, Bloomberg is one of the Democratic Party's biggest donors. He has donated $112 million to Independence USA, his own super PAC, since 2012. And he has already started spending heavily on TV. Between Nov. 25 and Dec. 3, he has spent $34 million for ad time in 29 states, including several general election battlegrounds: Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Arizona, and Colorado, among others. For now, he omitted several early contests: Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina. Bloomberg is expected to largely skip over those states, where both Warren and Sanders have already campaigned heavily and invested significant resources. He is also unlikely to qualify for the remaining debates under the Democratic National Committee's rules that stipulate individual donor requirements.A recent Morning Consult poll found that only four percent of Democratic voters would choose Bloomberg as their first pick. In that survey, Sanders was 20 percent of respondents' first choice, while Warren was 18 percent. Biden is on the top, with 31 percent of respondents preferring him as their number one, which some progressives see as an opportunity with Bloomberg's name in the hat."He'll cannibalize support from other white male candidates … who want more corporate talking points, namely Biden and Buttigieg," Green said. Still, other Democrats aren't as certain, arguing that yet another billionaire for multiple candidates to attack could make it harder for voters to see Warren and Sanders as the leading progressives, and might warm to others if they choose to criticize him in a similar fashion."The Bloomberg thing will be good for Buttigieg and Biden," said Matt Stoller, a Hill veteran who now studies the influence of power. "It will give them the chance to blur the lines between Warren and Bernie." 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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| Iran vows to punish 'mercenaries' behind street violence Posted: 24 Nov 2019 02:32 AM PST  Iran will severely punish "mercenaries" arrested over a wave of street violence that erupted after a sharp hike in fuel prices, a Revolutionary Guards commander warned Sunday. The Islamic republic says it has restored calm after the unrest that broke out on November 15, hours after the surprise announcement that petrol prices would go up by as much as 200 percent. Citing law enforcement officials, Fars news agency said Sunday that 180 ringleaders had been arrested over the protests that saw highways blocked, banks and police stations set alight and shops looted.
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| John Bolton re-opens Twitter account, says White House withheld his access Posted: 23 Nov 2019 08:34 AM PST  Former National Security Advisor John Bolton returned to Twitter, alleging the White House withheld his access "out of fear of what I may say?"
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| IS-linked Philippine militant behind suicide attacks killed Posted: 23 Nov 2019 12:19 AM PST  Philippine troops have killed a "high-value" but little-known Filipino militant who acted as a key link of the Islamic State group to local jihadists and helped set up a series of deadly suicide attacks in the south that have alarmed the region, military officials said Saturday. Talha Jumsah, who used the nom de guerre Abu Talha, was killed Friday morning in a clash with troops in the jungles off Patikul town in Sulu province, which has been rocked by three deadly suicide bombings this year, including the first suicide attack known to have been staged by a Filipino militant.
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| She Texted About Dinner While Driving. Then a Pedestrian Was Dead. Posted: 23 Nov 2019 07:17 AM PST  FREEHOLD, N.J. -- One woman was out for a walk and a taste of fresh air during a break from her job as a scientist at a New Jersey fragrance manufacturer. She and her husband had been trying to get pregnant, and brief bouts of exercise, away from the laboratory's smells and fumes, were part of that plan.A second woman was behind the wheel of a black Mercedes-Benz, headed to work as chief executive of a nonprofit in a city that had once lauded her as civic leader of the year for her extensive work with troubled youth.Their lives collided with devastating speed in the coastal town of Keansburg just before 8:20 on a Wednesday morning, leaving the woman out for a walk fatally injured and the driver facing a charge of vehicular homicide, accused of texting while driving.On Friday, a jury found the driver, Alexandra Mansonet, guilty of vehicular homicide in a case that was believed to be the first time a New Jersey jury was asked to apply a 2012 law that places texting while driving on par with drunken driving.The case has focused attention on the nationwide crisis of distracted driving, as well as how rare and difficult prosecutions can be."It's a relatively new issue," said Kara Macek, a spokeswoman for the national Governors Highway Safety Association. "In fatal crashes, it's much more difficult to obtain evidence that a driver was distracted."Mansonet's car had plowed into the back of a Toyota Corolla not far from her home, just past a bridge that crosses over a creek that spills into the nearby bay and the Atlantic Ocean beyond. The Corolla then hit the woman who had been out for a walk, sending her flying into the air.Mansonet, 50, testified that she had looked down to turn on a rear-window defogger just before the Sept. 28, 2016, crash. "I looked up and the car was right in front of me," she said.She faces up to 10 years in prison when she is sentenced.When the foreman of the jury, which had deliberated for 2 1/2 days, read the one-word verdict, "guilty," Mansonet placed her left hand to her face and breathed deeply while family members behind her wept. She cried as she exited the courtroom.Her lawyer, Steven Altman, noted how commonplace texting while driving has become. "It's going to be very difficult for her to deal with the fact that at sentencing she could be incarcerated for something we are all guilty of doing on a daily basis," he said.The pedestrian, Yuwen Wang, died days after the collision at a hospital that is next to the courthouse in New Brunswick where she and her husband, Steven Qiu, had said their vows six years earlier. The couple had celebrated their anniversary the night before the crash.Qiu said he and his family were comforted by the verdict. "I'm really grateful," he said, adding, "I hope more people could realize the consequences of texting while driving."His wife's final words to him came in the form of a cheerful but mundane farewell. "Have a good day," Qiu recalled her saying.The text at the heart of the trial was equally ordinary in a culture where streams of shorthand cellphone messages have become ingrained in modern life. "Cuban, American or Mexican. Pick one," Mansonet's former sister-in-law had texted to ask about her preference for dinner choices, the assistant prosecutor, Christopher Decker, said in court.Where and when Mansonet read the text, and when she began to tap out a reply, became central to the trial in Monmouth County Superior Court in Freehold. The prosecutor argued that the unsent text -- the letters "m" and "e" -- were the start of a response about her dinner choice.Mansonet willingly turned her phone over to the police after the crash, Altman said before the verdict. Had she been using her phone to text at the time of the crash, Altman said, "all she had to do was delete it."Mansonet, in testimony, conceded that she had typed the letters "m" and "e" but said she did not remember when. "I thought, 'I'm going to call her up because I don't know if I want Mexican,'" she testified.Wang, 39, was originally from Taiwan and had recently earned her Ph.D. in New Jersey, her husband said. She is among the increasing number of pedestrians killed annually; last year, the nationwide pedestrian death toll of 6,283 approached a three-decade high.New York, in 2001, became the first state to outlaw driver cellphone use.Five years later, the deaths of two scientists in Utah in a texting-related crash helped fuel a nationwide push for stricter laws.Today, 47 states and Washington, D.C., ban text messaging for all drivers. Of the three states without an all-driver texting ban, two prohibit novice drivers from texting and one restricts bus drivers from sending texts.Approximately 10% of the fatal crashes in the country between 2013 and 2017 involved distracted driving, according to data collected by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Of these crashes, about 14% were linked to the use of a cellphone. In 2017, for example, at least 401 of the 2,935 distracted-driving traffic fatalities were tied to cellphone usage.Still, it is difficult to pinpoint the precise number of prosecutions related to fatal crashes and distracted driving.Last year, there were 73 drivers nationwide involved in fatal crashes who were identified as distracted and were charged with crimes unrelated to traffic violations, according to a National Safety Council analysis of data provided by the traffic safety administration.New Jersey state law was amended in 2012 to add the use of hand-held devices to the list of behaviors that may be interpreted as criminally "reckless" and could constitute vehicular homicide.But the Monmouth County case is thought to be the only one of a handful of texting-linked vehicular-homicide charges since then to reach trial, according to two past presidents of the Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers of New Jersey. Some drivers originally charged with vehicular homicide pleaded guilty to less serious offenses; one woman died before her case reached trial.One female juror declined to talk about the verdict or the closed-door discussions as she left court."This is a tragedy in every respect," Monmouth County's prosecutor, Christopher Gramiccioni, said. "Texting while driving puts drivers and pedestrians in grave danger, and we are hopeful that the jury's verdict will reinforce the public's awareness of this risk."Mansonet, the executive director of the Jewish Renaissance Foundation in Perth Amboy, declined an offer to plead guilty to a charge that would have required a sentence of three to five years in prison, Altman, her lawyer, said.Proving the crime of reckless vehicular homicide can be especially difficult without an admission by a driver, passengers who witness phone use, or video evidence, several lawyers and safety experts said. It is also common for there to be other factors, such as speed or intoxication, that contribute to the accident and are easier to prove."There are challenges to figuring out whether distraction is the root cause of the crash," said Maureen Vogel, a spokeswoman for the National Safety Council, a roadway safety organization.Regardless of Friday's verdict, the publicity generated by the Monmouth County trial has provided a crucial warning to every driver with a cellphone, said Mitchell Ansell, a criminal defense lawyer with 30 years of experience in southern New Jersey."A lot of people are watching this," Ansell said, "and I think it's designed to send a message: You are responsible when you are on the road."For Qiu, who met his wife in Beijing and endured a five-year long-distance relationship as the couple secured green cards, the courtroom testimony was too excruciating to sit through most days.But the renewed focus on the dangers of texting while driving was a small victory, he said in an interview as the jury deliberated."In some sense, my wife's death does become more meaningful," Qiu said. "I have to take some comfort from that."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
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| China to Raise Penalties on IP Theft in Trade War Compromise Posted: 24 Nov 2019 03:21 PM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Terms of Trade is a daily newsletter that untangles a world embroiled in trade wars. Sign up here. China said it will raise penalties on violations of intellectual property rights in an attempt to address one of the sticking points in trade talks with the U.S.The country will also look into lowering the thresholds for criminal punishments for those who steal IP, according to guidelines issued by the government on Sunday. It didn't elaborate on what such moves might entail.The U.S. wants China to commit to cracking down on IP theft and stop forcing U.S. companies to hand over their commercial secrets as a condition of doing business there. China said it's aiming to reduce frequent IP violations by 2022 and plans to make it easier for victims of transgressions to receive compensation.The two countries are working toward a partial trade deal and leaving the more controversial issues for later discussions. China's chief trade negotiator spoke last week about its plans for reforming state enterprises, opening up the financial sector and enforcing intellectual property rights -- issues at the core of U.S. demands for change in China's economic system.How and Why the U.S. Says China Steals Technology: QuickTake"Strengthening IPR protection is the most important content of improving the IPR protection system and also the biggest incentive to boost China's economic competitiveness," according to the guidelines. Local governments will be required to implement the strengthening of IP rights, it said.In May, the U.S. added Huawei Technologies Co. to what's known as the entity list in an effort to block U.S. companies from selling components to China's largest technology company. Huawei is accused of being a threat to America's national security, and has denied those claims.Trump, Xi Talk Past Each Other on Need for Win-Win Trade DealLast week, Chinese President Xi Jinping said his nation wants to work toward a phase-one trade agreement with the U.S. that's based in part on "equality." That's a guiding principle that President Donald Trump just hours later said he doesn't share."This can't be like an even deal, because we're starting off on the floor and you're already at the ceiling. So we have to have a much better deal," Trump said in an interview Friday on Fox News.Negotiators from both countries have been talking regularly, trying to bridge the remaining differences on issues including Chinese pledges to buy American farm products, protect intellectual-property rights and open its economy further to foreign companies. They have struggled to agree on exactly what tariffs each side would roll back as part of the agreement's initial step.(Adds background information)To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Li Liu in Beijing at lliu255@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Shamim Adam at sadam2@bloomberg.net, Matthew G. MillerFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| ‘Culture will be eroded’: climate crisis threatens to flood Harriet Tubman park Posted: 22 Nov 2019 11:00 PM PST  Heritage sites associated with abolitionist, including Underground Railroad park, projected to be inundated at high tide by 2050Douglas walks to the rear entrance of New Revived United Methodist church in Taylor's Island, Maryland. Decades ago, the church sat in front of forest, now visible open water and marsh come right to the back side of the historic church. Photograph: Greg Kahn/The GuardianOn the flat, marshy stretches of Maryland's eastern shore, not a huge amount has changed since Harriet Tubman escaped from slavery here 170 years ago. Rivers and streams lace a wedge of land dotted with wood-board churches and small towns. Crabs and oysters are plucked from the adjacent Chesapeake Bay.The climate crisis is set, however, to completely transform low-lying Dorchester county, threatening to submerge some of the key heritage associated with Tubman, the celebrated abolitionist whose daring missions helped free scores of slaves from bondage in her homeland.If planet-warming emissions aren't radically scaled back then swaths of the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad national historical park, only established in 2013, will be inundated at high tide by 2050, according to projections by University of Maryland scientists.A $22m (£17m) Tubman visitor centre, completed in 2017, is set to be severely menaced by the rising waters, the analysis finds, along with several churches connected to Tubman and Joseph Stewart's canal, where timber was transported from a business that had enslaved her father.Harriet Tubman Guardian Graphic | Source: Horn Point Lab at the University of Maryland"Dorchester county is a poster child as to what the rest of the world can expect with flooding," said Peter Goodwin, president of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science.The county doesn't rise more than 1.5 metres (5ft) above sea level and is exposed on three sides to the bay, which can act as a funnel to push storms on to the land. The seas could swell by as much as 60cm by 2050, a situation compounded by the fact the land is sinking, a hangover caused by the retreat of ice sheets from the last ice age.Visitors look at a mural of Harriet Tubman called Take My Hand, painted by Michael Rosato, at the Harriet Tubman Museum and Educational Center. Photograph: Greg Kahn/The Guardian"It's worrying," Goodwin said. "The county is beautiful but it's going to look very different. If we can get ahead of things and plan for the future then you can help define what the shoreline will look like. The problem is if you don't do that then people are going to drift away and the culture will be eroded."The situation is causing alarm among those who have highlighted Tubman's legacy. "These landscapes are rapidly vanishing because of climate change," said Kasi Lemmons, director of Harriet, a new film based on Tubman's life. "Losing landmarks such as these underscores the need to protect and preserve the land and our national history for the generations to come."The Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad visitor centre, on the edge of Blackwater national wildlife refuge, which is threatened by sea level rise in Church Creek, Maryland. Photograph: Greg Kahn/The GuardianProximity to water for communication, transportation and food has long been intrinsic to Dorchester county but flooding is increasingly chipping away at the routines of day-to-day life. High-tide water lapped in residents' front yards and is now reaching porches. Carelessly parked cars can end up sodden. School buses struggle to get down roads that are in constant repair. The storms are getting fiercer, as the water and atmosphere warms.The encroaching tides now also imperil the cultural touchstones of Tubman's life.The former slave was born in Dorchester county in 1822 and despite suffering a severe head injury managed to escape to Philadelphia as a young woman. She then helped guide more than 70 enslaved people north to freedom via a network of safe houses and routes known as the Underground Railroad.Several locations on the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Byway, a driving loop of important Tubman sites, are already being eroded, according to Tubman's biographer Kate Clifford Larson.Pastor Darlene Dixon of the New Revived United Methodist church in Taylor's Island. Photograph: Greg Kahn/The Guardian"We're not going to have those landscapes to tell those amazing stories if something doesn't happen quickly," Larson said. "In the 20 years I've been to these sites I've seen them start to disappear because of the water seeping in."Some of the roads become impassable and you have to wait out until the water recedes. And some of the precious, really precious, African-American historical and cultural sites are at the most danger right now because they are in the lowest-lying areas."Larson frets about where the resources will come to protect places such as the New Revived Methodist church in Smithville, in the heart of Tubman's former community that often has a waterlogged graveyard. "They are going to need to move the graves and that costs a lot of money," she said. "It's frightening how quickly these sites are becoming threatened."The Rev Darlene Dixon has only been the pastor of the New Revived for five months but has already experienced being temporarily cut off from her church by a storm that pushed 15cm of water on to the roads and on to the cemetery."People are concerned, and naturally I am, too," Dixon said. "The biggest part of their angst the unknown – which storm, which high tide will cause major damage." Dixon said a seawall may have to be erected to protect the church but that may not stop the surrounding community, already one of the poorest in Maryland, crumbling away as the flooding intensifies.The Joseph Stewart canal is a seven-mile waterway dug by hand by free and enslaved blacks between 1810 and 1832 as a way to ship timber and other agricultural products to ships in the bay. Photograph: Greg Kahn/The Guardian"People here have big hearts but there are not many people left in the community because they want to make a living. There's the fear of the water too," she said. "We are seeing change occur before our eyes."The National Park Service, which oversees the Tubman park, is putting together an assessment of the threats it faces. Deanna Mitchell, the park superintendent, said she reassures tourists that the visitor centre has been built on a relatively elevated piece of land with sea-level rise in mind."It's a beautiful facility and the landscape is beautiful, too," she said. "Every time I go to work I'm immediately in a mode of reflection. I see that with visitors, too."I'm optimistic that we can address whatever comes our way if people can come together on this. We are nine miles away from Chesapeake Bay, which gives us a sort of buffer. But that's not a cure-all. There's no way to deny that there's sea-level rise."appeal
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| In America's Next Serious War, It's Aircraft Carriers Won't Go Unscathed Posted: 23 Nov 2019 04:00 PM PST  It's time to adapt.
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| White House Press Secretary Suggests 'Advanced Age' Kept John Bolton From Accessing His Twitter Account Posted: 23 Nov 2019 11:04 AM PST  Bolton tweeted that his Twitter account was blocked by the White House
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| Utah woman charged after appearing topless in front of stepchildren Posted: 23 Nov 2019 08:07 AM PST  A Utah woman could be forced to register as a sex offender after appearing topless in front of her stepchildren in her home.
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| Pro-democracy candidates advance in key Hong Kong elections Posted: 23 Nov 2019 03:41 PM PST  Pro-democracy candidates won nearly half of the seats in Hong Kong's local elections, according to partial returns Monday, as voters sent a clear signal of support for the anti-government protests that rocked the Chinese territory for more than five months. A record 71% of the city's 4.1 million registered voters cast ballots Sunday, well exceeding the 47% turnout in the same election four years ago, election officials said. Among the winners were former student leaders and a candidate who replaced prominent activist Joshua Wong, the only person barred from running in the election.
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| Chinese woman convicted of trespassing at Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort faces up to 6 years in prison Posted: 24 Nov 2019 03:20 PM PST  A Chinese woman convicted of trespassing at President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in March is expected to receive a prison sentence on Monday.
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| The First Glimpse into Horowitz’s FISA-Abuse Report Posted: 23 Nov 2019 03:30 AM PST  Is this the tip of a scandalous iceberg? Or is it a signal that Inspector General Michael Horowitz's much anticipated report on investigative irregularities in the Trump-Russia probe will be much ado about nothing much?A low-ranking FBI lawyer altered a document that was somehow related to the Obama Justice Department's application to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) for a national-security surveillance warrant. The application, approved by the FISC in October 2016, targeted former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page — an American citizen, former naval intelligence officer, and apparent FBI cooperating witness — as a clandestine agent of Russia. Apparently, the document tampering made at least one of the application's factual assertions seem more damning than it actually was.The FBI attorney, who has not been identified, is also said to have falsified an email in an effort to provide back-up support for the fabricated claim. The lawyer, who was reportedly pushed out of the Bureau when the tampering incident came to light, was interviewed in Horowitz's inquiry and is said to be a subject of the related criminal investigation being conducted by Connecticut U.S. attorney John Durham.The news was broken on Thursday night by CNN. That in itself is noteworthy. The FBI's former deputy director Andrew McCabe is a CNN contributor, and the Bureau's former general counsel James Baker is a frequent CNN guest. The IG's probe has scrutinized the conduct of both. CNN commentators also include other former federal law-enforcement officials, who have ties to the Bureau and to some of the former officials under scrutiny. CNN's news story about the evidence tampering is sourced to "several people briefed on the matter," who were not identified. The IG report is scheduled to be released on December 9, and witnesses have recently been permitted to review a draft of it under tight restrictions.The 'Premise' of the Investigation CNN adds that some of the witnesses interviewed expect the IG's report will "find mistakes in the FBI's handling of the FISA process, but that those mistakes do not undermine the premise for the FBI's investigation." The network describes that premise as the conclusion "that Russia interfered in the 2016 election."Of course, that only relates half the story — the uncontroversial half. The FBI's full premise was that the Trump campaign was complicit in Russia's election interference.What is in issue is whether there were adequate grounds for suspicion of a Trump–Russia criminal conspiracy — enough to justify the FBI and the Justice Department in taking the fraught step of investigating the incumbent administration's political opposition during a presidential campaign, exploiting such powerful counterintelligence measures as FISA warrants, the deployment of informants, and collaboration with foreign intelligence services against Americans who worked on the Trump campaign — the kinds of investigative techniques reserved for hostile foreign powers and terrorist organizations.If the narrative taking shape is that there may have been some abuses but it doesn't change the fact that Russia meddled in the election, that misses the point. The questions are: What was the FBI's evidence — which it represented as verified information in the warrant application — that the Trump campaign was in a cyberespionage conspiracy with the Kremlin? What evidence led the Bureau and the Justice Department to allege that Carter Page — who as late as spring 2016 was apparently cooperating in a federal prosecution of Russian spies — was a willful agent of the Putin regime engaged in clandestine activities against his own country?At the Washington Examiner, Daniel Chaitin and Jerry Dunleavy have a comprehensive report on what is currently known about the alleged document alteration by the FBI attorney. I would just add some relevant details about the lead-up to the FISA surveillance, which are more thoroughly outlined in my recent book, Ball of Collusion.FBI–DOJ Tensions in Lead-up to FISA Application Based on public reporting and the texts between then–FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, we know that in the weeks before the FISA warrant was issued, there was tension between the FBI, which was pushing for the warrant, and at least one skeptical Justice Department official.Strzok was the top Bureau counterintelligence investigator on both the Trump-Russia and Clinton emails cases. He was eventually fired after the emergence of his thousands of text messages with Lisa Page, with whom he was romantically involved. Ms. Page, a former FBI lawyer, was counsel to deputy director McCabe. (She is not related to Carter Page.) The texts demonstrated not only a stunning degree of anti-Trump bias, but also indications that the FBI's upper hierarchy conceived the Trump-Russia investigation as an "insurance policy" out of concern over the longshot possibility that Trump would be elected president.Although Strzok would later disclaim participation in the Carter Page surveillance application, the texts show he was heavily involved — a fact the FBI and Justice Department attempted to conceal. On October 11, 2016, he told Ms. Page he was "currently fighting with Stu for this FISA" — a reference to Stuart Evans, a lawyer in DOJ's National Security Division. When the FBI first grudgingly disclosed the Strzok–Page texts, the words "Stu for this FISA" were blacked out.Subsequent communications, including Ms. Page's texts to McCabe, indicate that the "holdup" on Justice Department approval of the warrant application related to Evans's "continuing concerns" about "possible bias of the chs." The term "chs" is Bureau-speak for "confidential human source" — a reference to Christopher Steele. He, of course, is the former British spy who, along with his Fusion GPS confederates, authored the infamous Steele dossier — a collection of faux intelligence reports, sensational and lurid, that were produced for the Clinton campaign and the DNC. The dossier alleged that Donald Trump was conspiring with the Kremlin to steal the 2016 election, using Carter Page (whom Trump had never actually met) as a key go-between. The FBI and DOJ used the Steele-dossier allegations as part of the probable cause showing for the FISA warrants.Evans was obviously worried that the FBI's proposed warrant application would not supply the court with a forthright rendition of Steele's biases. Lisa Page indicated to McCabe that this worry was being addressed by "a robust explanation."This was a reference to the laborious footnote that eventually made its way into the warrant application. The footnote omitted the facts that Steele's work was being sponsored by Trump's opponent in the campaign; that Steele had expressed desperation to defeat Trump; that Steele's reporting had not, in fact, been verified; and that Steele had already been found to be wrong about basic facts (reporting, for example, that a hub of the purported Trump–Russia conspiracy was the Russian consulate in Miami — which did not exist). The warrant application, moreover, ended up including absurd representations that Steele was not providing his anti-Trump allegations to the press — notwithstanding the media blitz that Steele and Fusion had commenced in mid-September, one resulting article from which was actually relied on as evidence in the warrant application, even as it provided grist for the Clinton campaign's "Putin puppet" attack on Trump.I should stress that the unidentified FBI attorney who is the subject of the new document tampering allegation does not appear to be Ms. Page (who was operating at a higher level). The unidentified attorney is said to have altered the information and to have provided the falsified supporting email during talks with the Justice Department about the factual basis for the warrant application.To obtain a FISA warrant for an American target, the government must convince the court that the target is knowingly engaged in clandestine activities on behalf of a foreign power, and that the activities involve or may involve a violation of federal criminal law. Even though the Justice Department and FBI four times made such claims under oath about Page (in the original October 2016 warrant and three subsequent 90-day renewals), he has never been charged with a crime.Questions the IG Report Should Answer Press stories, based on unnamed sources who've seen a draft of the IG's magnum opus, indicate that Horowitz will conclude that the FBI attorney's document tampering did not affect the overall validity of the warrant application.I presume this means it was not make-or-break on the issue of probable cause. Under federal jurisprudence, false information does not necessarily invalidate a warrant. Instead, the warrant is deemed valid if, were the false information stripped out, the remaining information would still have been sufficient to establish probable cause.It should go without saying by now that what's being reported is but a fraction of the problematic information provided to the FISC. I would briefly rehearse four points:1\. The Steele-dossier claims formed a substantial basis for the warrant application. McCabe has assessed that there would not have been probable cause without them; others have indicated that it was a 50–50 proposition, at best. It is impossible for us to make a judgment about this without knowing the totality of the non-dossier information.2\. What we do know is not reassuring. While much has been made of the Steele dossier's blatant unreliability, not enough attention has been paid to another matter on which the FBI and DOJ relied: the attempts by Russian spies to recruit Page as an asset between 2008 and 2013.The government made much of this in the warrant application. Downplayed, however, were the facts that Page cooperated with the government in the prosecution of the spies; that the Justice Department used Page's information in its arrest complaint; that Page submitted to numerous interviews by the federal investigators, including as late as spring 2016, when (according to Page) he was being prepared to testify as a government witness, which testimony became unnecessary when the spy pled guilty; and that the Russian spies against whom he cooperated regarded him as an "idiot" in communications intercepted by the feds.Did the FBI tell the FISC everything it should have been told about the spy case? If so, what made the FBI believe that Russia, with its highly competent intelligence services supposedly in a high-stakes conspiracy with Trump, would trust as a key conspirator a man who (a) the Kremlin believed was incompetent and (b) had helped the U.S. prosecute the Kremlin's operatives?3\. The FBI's many interviews with Page are highly relevant. So is the fact that, while the FBI was pushing for the warrant, Page — in reaction to the Steele-generated negative publicity against him — fired off a letter to FBI director James Comey, pleading to meet with agents in order to assuage any concerns they might have about his contacts with Russians.As I've pointed out a number of times, federal law requires agents seeking an eavesdropping warrant to explain to the court why less intrusive alternative investigative techniques would not be adequate to obtain the information they claim to need. Why did the FBI and DOJ believe they needed an eavesdropping warrant enabling them to monitor all of Page's communications (and to review prior stored texts, emails, and phone messages), if Page was more than willing to submit to an interview — under circumstances where there was a long history of such interviews, and where the government had found Page's information sufficiently credible to rely onit in an arrest complaint (and to prepare him to testify as a government witness, Page says)?What did the FBI and DOJ tell the court about why interviewing Page would not adequately serve their purposes?4\. Much of the information offered as probable cause involved Russia's history of anti-American operations and its cyber-meddling in the 2016 election. These matters are not in dispute, but they do not mean that Carter Page and the Trump campaign were complicit as clandestine agents of the Putin regime.This last point brings us back to the question raised earlier: Are the investigators and their media allies laying the groundwork to argue that, because Russia did interfere in the 2016 campaign, any "mistakes" in using FISA or other investigative tactics do not detract from the overall validity of the investigation?If evidence tampering by a low-ranking FBI lawyer ended up making no difference to the validity of the Carter Page FISA warrants, that is hardly the stuff of scandal. It would be small-scale misconduct of the kind that unavoidably happens from time to time, and that the government has handled appropriately — by forcing the culprit out of the FBI and referring him to U.S. attorney Durham for possible prosecution.On the other hand, if the Horowitz report is going to take the tack that, because Russia did in fact meddle in the 2016 campaign, any investigative overreach amounts merely to regrettable but understandable overzealousness, that would be a very big deal — and not in a good way.The question is not whether Russia meddled. On four separate occasions, the FBI and the Justice Department solemnly told the FISC there were grounds to believe that Carter Page and others in the Trump campaign, potentially including Donald Trump himself, were complicit in a criminal conspiracy with the Kremlin. The question is: What was their compelling basis for making that explosive representation, which breached the American norm against government intrusion in our political process?
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| Why Does Taiwan Need M-1 Abrams Tanks? Posted: 22 Nov 2019 06:00 PM PST  Is this just a total waste of money or a powerful weapon to stop China if they invade?
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| Katie Hill: rightwing media attack women because ‘they’re easier targets’ Posted: 24 Nov 2019 11:58 AM PST  Congresswoman who resigned amid claims of relationship with staffer says Marie Yovanovitch and Fiona Hill also bulliedDemocratic congresswoman Katie Hill answers questions from reporters at the US Capitol on 31 October. Photograph: Win McNamee/Getty ImagesThe former California congresswoman Katie Hill, who resigned in October after the publication of nude photographs and allegations of an affair with a member of her congressional staff, said on Sunday rightwing media outlets attacked women because "they're easier targets" for bullying.In an interview on CNN's Reliable Sources, the Democrat said bullying affects women across the US, whether they are teen girls or power-players such as the former Ukraine ambassador Marie Yovanovitch and ex-national security council official Fiona Hill.embedYovanovitch and Hill, both naturalized US citizens, testified in the congressional impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump. As with other witnesses, Trump supporters in the media questioned their loyalty to the US."As a public figure," Hill said, "you're used to attacks, right? But when it gets to the level of these threats and feeling like you're not seen as a person anymore … the dehumanization is something that I think people can't really understand unless you have been there."And that's exactly what the rightwing media does and that they're doing to these witnesses. And look what they're doing to Fiona Hill and what they did to Ambassador Yovanovitch."And I think that you see it in particular with women, because … that is what the right likes to do, right? They're easier targets. And there are true threats to safety."Hill has accused her ex-husband of leaking the photographs which contributed to her downfall, in what some have described as a "revenge porn" scandal.Conservative media outlets released the images and a House ethics committee investigation was launched. Hill admitted an affair with a campaign worker, but denied claims of an intimate relationship with a member of her congressional staff.Hill told CNN she wanted to remain in the public sphere, saying: "I think what the rightwing media and those who attacked me wanted was for me to be silenced."And I think something that we see on attacks against women, not just high-profile women but women across the board, is that these kinds of attacks are meant to silence you, demean you and show that you do not have power."So, for me, it was really important to show that that's not going to work. And I have to own up to my responsibility in this, but I think coming forward and saying I'm going to continue to be a voice for people who believed in me and what this whole fight is about is something that I believe in."Of Trump, she added: "Right now, we have a criminal in the White House. We have Republicans on Capitol Hill who are doing everything that they can to defend him …even when it means that they're sacrificing their own integrity and are lying to the American people non-stop.
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| Hiroshima survivors tell pope of attack 'hell' Posted: 24 Nov 2019 02:47 AM PST  Survivors of the nuclear attack on Hiroshima told Pope Francis on Sunday of the "scene of hell" after the bombing, as the pontiff hit out against the use of the weapons. The pope began his four-day trip to Japan with stops in Nagasaki and Hiroshima, where he paid tribute to those affected by the two bombs dropped by US forces in 1945 at the end of World War II. In Hiroshima, Francis met several survivors of the attack, who echoed his calls for the world never to forget the atrocity of the bombings.
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| Tolerance towards LGBT+ people seen rising globally Posted: 24 Nov 2019 04:01 PM PST ![Tolerance towards LGBT+ people seen rising globally]( "Tolerance towards LGBT+ people seen rising globally") LGBT+ people have seen a rise in tolerance in almost every region of the world over the last decade, according to an index released on Monday. Iceland was named as the most tolerant country towards LGBT+ people in a survey of 167 countries by British think-tank the Legatum Institute, while central Asian country Tajikistan was in last place. "It is encouraging to see that our 2019 Prosperity Index shows a rise in tolerance towards the LGBT community globally over the past decade," Shaun Flanagan of the institute's Centre for Metrics told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
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| Bloomberg News: We won’t investigate Mike during presidential campaign Posted: 24 Nov 2019 10:02 AM PST ![Bloomberg News: We won't investigate Mike during presidential campaign]( "Bloomberg News: We won't investigate Mike during presidential campaign") The top editor says the company also won't investigate its owner's Democratic rivals.
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| Hong Kong’s Democracy Forces Rebuke China With Huge Election Win Posted: 24 Nov 2019 04:19 PM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Hong Kong residents handed an overwhelming victory to pro-democracy candidates in a vote for district councils on Sunday, a stunning repudiation of the city's Beijing-backed government after months of increasingly violent protests seeking meaningful elections.The candidates took at least 278 seats of the 452 up for grabs, according to the South China Morning Post. The vote saw record turnout of 71%, with more than 2.94 million people voting -- roughly double the previous high in 2015.The vote came at a time of unprecedented political polarization in the city, with divisions hardening as the protests become more disruptive and the government refuses to compromise. While the district councils are considered the lowest rung of Hong Kong's government, the results show widespread support for the protesters' goals of an independent inquiry into police abuses and the ability to nominate and elect the city's leader, including one who would stand up to Beijing.Pro-Democracy Candidates Take Early Lead: Hong Kong Update"The high turnout rate did benefit the pro-democracy camp," said pro-democracy candidate Kelvin Lam, who won after standing in for activist Joshua Wong, who was banned by the government from participating. "The result is like a referendum of the current administration, like a confidence vote."The vote shows dissatisfaction with Chief Executive Carrie Lam's government following months of protests triggered by legislation allowing extraditions to mainland China, which has since been withdrawn. Unhappiness with the administration rose to 80% from just 40% a year ago -- well before the unrest began -- according to surveys by the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute. Lam's popularity has fallen to record lows as the protests evolved into a wider pushback against Beijing's grip. Hong Kong "is at the precipice" and could fall off if authorities don't heed the message of the vote, said Steve Tsang, the director of the China Institute at London's School of Oriental and African Studies and the author of several books on Hong Kong."An overwhelming majority of voters have sent a clear signal: they want their Hong Kong back," Tsang said. "It's now time for the government in Hong Kong to hear what people have said and use this electoral result and the way this election has happened as a basis to work for a political solution."The vote has been closely watched around the world, particularly as U.S. lawmakers look to support the protesters while President Donald Trump seeks to finalize a phase one trade deal with China. Trump on Friday declined to say whether he would sign a bill that passed Congress with near-unanimous support, saying he supports both the demonstrators and Chinese President Xi Jinping.Elizabeth Warren, a leading Democratic candidate for president, said the vote sent a "powerful message that they want to keep their democracy -- and Beijing must respect that."Among the early winners were Civil Human Rights Front organizer Jimmy Sham, who was previously hospitalized after he was attacked by hammer-wielding thugs. Starry Lee, chairwoman of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, the city's largest pro-Beijing party, won her re-election even though many other pro-establishment figures lost.The district councilors have few real powers, mostly advising the chief executive on matters like fixing up parks and organizing community activities. But they help appoint 117 of the 1,200 electors who select the chief executive, which would give pro-democracy forces more choice over candidates who must still be approved by Beijing.The election unfolded peacefully despite concerns it could be delayed or disrupted by violence following unrest in the leadup, with voters facing unusually long lines at polling stations across the city. Its elections have typically been plagued by low voter turnout and aren't hugely competitive, compared with those for the Hong Kong's more powerful Legislative Council."I came out to vote because of the current situation in society now," said Ken Lam, 19, a student and first-time voter. "The government is ignoring voices in the public. Policy-making lacks transparency in every aspect."\--With assistance from Aaron Mc Nicholas, Josie Wong and Shelly Banjo.To contact the reporters on this story: Julia Fioretti in Hong Kong at jfioretti4@bloomberg.net;Iain Marlow in Hong Kong at imarlow1@bloomberg.net;Fion Li in Hong Kong at fli59@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Daniel Ten Kate at dtenkate@bloomberg.net, Linus ChuaFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Report: Review details effort to justify Ukraine decision Posted: 24 Nov 2019 03:05 PM PST  The White House undertook a confidential review of documents that revealed extensive efforts to generate an after-the-fact justification for President Donald Trump's decision to hold up military aid to Ukraine, the Washington Post reported Sunday. The Post, citing three people familiar with the records, said the research was conducted by the White House Counsel's Office. Among the hundreds of documents found were email exchanges between acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and White House budget officials seeking to provide an explanation for the withholding of nearly $400 million in security assistance.
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| JFK files: CIA spy in Cuba ‘befriended’ Castro, Che; played key role amid nuclear-war fears Posted: 23 Nov 2019 10:34 AM PST  Fifty-six years after John F. Kennedy's murder, unsealed government files detail dangerous intrigues about Cuba. This CIA spy was deeply involved.
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| Japan's quake, tsunami, nuclear disaster: What happened in 2011 Posted: 24 Nov 2019 11:16 AM PST  Pope Francis will meet in Japan with victims of the enormous earthquake and tsunami of 2011 that triggered the Fukushima nuclear meltdown -- sometimes referred to as the "triple disaster". At 2:46 pm (0546 GMT) of March 11, 2011, a 9.0-magnitude underwater quake struck the Pacific seabed roughly 130 kilometres (80 miles) east of Japan's Miyagi prefecture.
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| Is Butternut Squash Good for You? Posted: 23 Nov 2019 03:02 AM PST  Farmers market stands and supermarket produce aisles are piled high this time of year with winter squashes of all sorts, including butternut squash. This oddly shaped vegetable—with its long neck...
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| 515,000 pounds of pork product without food safety inspection recalled after anonymous tip Posted: 23 Nov 2019 06:43 AM PST  These items were produced by Morris Meat Packing, which operates in Maywood, Illinois, between 25 November 2017 and 9 November 2019.
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| America grapples with 'ghost guns' amid epidemic of violence Posted: 23 Nov 2019 05:18 PM PST  After his mother dropped him off at school, Nathan Berhow pulled a .45-caliber pistol out of his backpack, opened fire and killed two classmates, all using a weapon he'd assembled at home. Such guns are sometimes called "ghost guns" -- unregulated, easy to put together and almost impossible to trace because they have no serial number. The parts are readily available online, with no need for a background check.
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| SoftBank to go ahead with WeWork stock tender offer this week Posted: 24 Nov 2019 02:01 PM PST ![SoftBank to go ahead with WeWork stock tender offer this week]( "SoftBank to go ahead with WeWork stock tender offer this week") NEW YORK/BANGALORE, Nov 24 (Reuters) - SoftBank Group Corp will this week launch a previously agreed tender offer for as much as $3 billion of WeWork shares, including up to $970 million owned by the office sharing company's cofounder Adam Neumann, two people familiar with the matter said. The tender offer to the founders, investors and employees owning stock was expected to launch earlier this month but was delayed after SoftBank sought technical revisions to the offer documents, according to the sources. Last Thursday, Bloomberg reported that executives at SoftBank, the giant Japanese technology investment company, had been looking for a way to reduce the size of the offer, including limiting the amount paid to Neumann.
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| Kellyanne Conway Struggles to Defend Trump's DNC Server Conspiracy Theory on ‘Face the Nation’ Posted: 24 Nov 2019 09:54 AM PST  "Are you sure they did that? Are you sure they gave it to Ukraine?" Fox & Friends host Steve Doocy asked on Friday after Donald Trump ranted for several minutes about a conspiracy theory that a Ukrainian-based company helped the Democratic National Committee frame Russia for interference in the 2016 election. "Well, that is what the word is," the president replied. On Sunday morning, it was up to White House counsel Kellyanne Conway to defend that baseless claim and she more or less came up empty-handed. "The president gave an extended interview on Fox on Friday, and he said once again that they, meaning Ukraine, have the server from the Democratic National Committee," Margaret Brennan told Conway on Face the Nation. "Fiona Hill, the Russia expert formerly of the Trump White House, said this is something that's propagated by Russian security services- services. It's false narrative." George Conway Blasts GOP's 'Incoherent' Hearing Performance in MSNBC DebutWith that, the host presented an excerpt from a 60 Minutes report airing Sunday night in which John Demers, the Justice Department official in charge of investigating the 2016 election, completely debunks the idea that anyone besides the Russians is responsible for "hacking and dumping" DNC emails. "Well, our indictment spells out what it is—the evidence that we have has shown, which is it was the Russians who were behind the hacking and dumping of the Democratic campaign in 2016," Demers said. "We could prove it beyond a reasonable doubt." Then came this question from Brennan: "Why doesn't the president believe his own Justice Department and intelligence experts?" "But the president has said he accepts that," Conway answered, misleadingly, before undercutting her own point. "But also, there are plenty of ways to interfere in elections." She then proceeded to deflect by saying, "if we're doing this, we're back to Mueller and we've already spent two and a half years and thirty five million taxpayer dollars for a Mueller report that was produced in March. It was a big bomb." Instead of answering Brennan's direct questions about Trump's preferred conspiracy theory, Conway began warning that the "mainstream media" could "interfere in the 2020 election the way they tried in the 2016 election." "She's going to win. He has zero percent chance of winning," Conway said, repeating the conventional wisdom in 2016. "That's a different kind of interference, and that's dangerous, too." She could not ultimately explain or defend why the president refusing to take his own Justice Department and intelligence officials at their word. Meghan McCain Explains Why Kellyanne Conway Will Never Betray TrumpRead 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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| These 4th graders do their best to honor the flag, struggle to understand impeachment Posted: 24 Nov 2019 09:21 AM PST  At this school in Indiana, 4th grade students are charged with carefully taking down the U.S. flag and folding it every afternoon.
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| Over 1,000 LGBTQ members hold pride parade in New Delhi Posted: 24 Nov 2019 04:12 AM PST  More than 1,000 members of the LGBTQ community and their supporters marched through New Delhi on Sunday to celebrate India's sexual diversity, which they said is progressing but still has a long way to go to become a more accepting place for them. Carrying rainbow flags, balloons and placards and dancing to the beat of drums, they demanded self-identification in any gender for legal recognition rather than first registering as a transgender and then providing proof of surgery to authorities, as suggested by a government bill.
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| South Africa Outlook Cut to Negative by S&P Amid Fiscal Woes Posted: 22 Nov 2019 11:27 PM PST ![South Africa Outlook Cut to Negative by S&P Amid Fiscal Woes]( "South Africa Outlook Cut to Negative by S&P Amid Fiscal Woes") (Bloomberg) -- Explore what's moving the global economy in the new season of the Stephanomics podcast. Subscribe via Apple Podcast, Spotify or Pocket Cast.South Africa could fall deeper into junk territory after S&P Global Ratings cut the outlook on its assessment of the nation's debt to negative, citing slow growth, the upwardly revised fiscal deficit and a growing debt burden."We could lower the ratings if we were to observe continued fiscal deterioration," S&P said in a statement. It left unchanged South Africa's rating of BB, which is two steps below investment grade.South Africa's finances are deteriorating due to billions of dollars in bailouts for unprofitable power producer Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. Gross government debt is set to surge to 80.9% of gross domestic product by fiscal 2028 unless urgent action is taken, the National Treasury said last month. The trajectory is almost 20 percentage points higher than forecast in the February budget and shows no sign of stabilizing.Sixteen of 22 economists surveyed by Bloomberg predicted the move. Another cut means it would take South Africa even longer to regain its investment-grade status at S&P, the first major ratings firm to cut the nation to junk in 2017 after former President Jacob Zuma replaced the finance minister in a late-night cabinet shake-up. The nation is now led by Cyril Ramaphosa."The government fully recognizes S&P's assessment of the challenges and opportunities which the country faces in the immediate to long-term and remains committed to placing public finances on a sustainable path while aiming for inclusive economic growth," the National Treasury said in an emailed statement on Saturday. "The government reiterates that the growth in the public sector wage bill needs to be addressed in order to reduce the debt burden."Moody's lowered the outlook on its investment-grade rating to negative less than three weeks ago, effectively giving the nation three months to get its finances in order. A Moody's downgrade would force South Africa out of the FTSE World Government Bond Index, which could prompt a selloff and outflows of as much as $15 billion, according to Bank of New York Mellon Corp. It will also raise borrowing costs and make it even more difficult for the government to finance the budget.Here's what analysts had to say:Daniel Tenengauzer, head of markets strategy at BNY Mellon in New York:"I don't think it makes a big difference," Tenengauzer said. "The only thing that could move the rand from here would be an actual downgrade.""It's important to keep in mind that Moody's clearly is the more critical because it could trigger the WGBI exit. Having said that, if the spread between S&P and Moody's widens too much, that obviously should push Moody's in that direction as well."Razia Khan, chief economist for Africa and the Middle East at Standard Chartered Bank Plc in London:The market impact "should be negligible," because it was so widely expected, she said. At the same time, though, "it does provide important political cover to both the Ramaphosa administration, and to the Treasury in particular, to pursue faster fiscal and structural reform."Brendan McKenna, a currency strategist at Wells Fargo in New York:S&P's decision "probably doesn't impact the currency all that much just given S&P's credit rating is already non-investment grade," he said. There's a small risk, though, that it influences Moody's Investors Service to downgrade the nation as well.(Updates with comment from National Treasury in fifth paragraph)\--With assistance from Andres Guerra Luz, Carolina Wilson and Amogelang Mbatha.To contact the reporters on this story: Prinesha Naidoo in Johannesburg at pnaidoo7@bloomberg.net;Justin Villamil in Mexico City at jvillamil18@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Rene Vollgraaff at rvollgraaff@bloomberg.net, Ana Monteiro, Alec D.B. McCabeFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Developing Storms Might Disrupt Your Thanksgiving Travel Plans This Year Posted: 24 Nov 2019 01:32 PM PST  Here's what you need to know about the most disruptive storms coming this holiday week
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| Venetians protest over flooding, cruise ships Posted: 24 Nov 2019 05:09 PM PST  Thousands of Venetians took to the streets of the Renaissance city on Sunday to vent anger over frequent flooding and the impact of giant cruise ships. Braving heavy rain, between 2,000 and 3,000 people answered the call of environmental groups and a collective opposed to the boats. Critics say the waves cruise ships create are eroding the foundations of the lagoon city.
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| Schiff on why Dems didn’t call the Ukraine whistleblower to testify Posted: 24 Nov 2019 10:51 AM PST  Despite two weeks of impeachment hearings, which amassed a dozen witnesses and over 30 hours of testimony, there was one person the public and Democratic-led House of Representatives did not get to hear from: the anonymous whistleblower who sparked the impeachment inquiry into President Trump.
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| China attacks U.S. at G20 as the world's biggest source of instability Posted: 23 Nov 2019 03:32 AM PST  The United States is the world's biggest source of instability and its politicians are going around the world baselessly smearing China, the Chinese government's top diplomat said on Saturday in a stinging attack at a G20 meeting in Japan. Relations between the world's two largest economies have nose-dived amid a bitter trade war - which they are trying to resolve - and arguments over human rights, Hong Kong and U.S. support for Chinese-claimed Taiwan. Meeting Dutch Foreign Minister Stef Blok on the sidelines of a G20 foreign ministers meeting in the Japanese city of Nagoya, Chinese State Councillor Wang Yi did not hold back in his criticism of the United States.
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| A Split Decision From Congress Will Leave Voters With Final Say on Trump Posted: 24 Nov 2019 08:56 AM PST  WASHINGTON -- When it was all over and the witnesses had testified and the speeches were done, President Donald Trump pronounced himself satisfied with the show. "We had a tremendous week with the hoax," he declared on Friday as he addressed a room of collegiate athletes. "That's really worked out incredibly well."Trump began the day with a 53-minute phone call to Fox & Friends in which he repeated a familiar list of accusations and falsehoods, which he amplified again on Saturday with a string of Twitter posts. Indeed, even after two weeks of hearings that presented compelling evidence against him, Trump was acting as if nothing had changed. In a way, it had not.Everyone is playing their assigned role in a drama where the ending seems known in advance as the House of Representatives heads toward a likely party-line vote to impeach the president, followed by a Senate trial that will not convict him.But if the outcome of the showdown on Capitol Hill at the moment appears foreordained, the ultimate verdict still is not. Unlike Presidents Richard Nixon or Bill Clinton, Trump faces an election after his impeachment battle, meaning that the voters will serve as the court of appeals rendering their own final judgment on whether he has committed high crimes and misdemeanors.As a result, now that the House Intelligence Committee has laid out the evidence against Trump, the debate that will now play out on Capitol Hill will be aimed not at swaying lawmakers firmly embedded in their partisan corners, but at framing the issue in ways that will resonate with the public. The next few weeks could be critical in setting the parameters for a campaign that will decide if Trump is fit for office."The impeachment jury is actually the smaller universe of voters in our country who are persuadable, swing voters who have avoided the tribalism plaguing most of our citizenry these days," said former Rep. Chris Curbelo, R-Fla. "Their verdict will be issued next fall."While scholars and lawyers have argued the finer points of Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution, the main players in the drama have been studying poll numbers and fundraising totals. Every day during the hearings, Trump's campaign and various organs of the Republican and Democratic parties blasted out emails and videos aimed at that jury beyond the Beltway.Members of the Intelligence Committee tweeted out their interpretations of the day's events to their followers from the hearing room dais, even as witnesses were still testifying. Impeachment was the first question asked at Wednesday night's Democratic presidential debate, which began barely an hour after that day's marathon hearing wrapped up.Both sides were fixated on the case study of Rep. Elise Stefanik, a Republican from New York who vaulted to fame among conservatives and infamy among liberals for her fierce defense of Trump. After her Democratic opponent in next year's election reported raising $1 million from Trump critics outraged by Stefanik's performance, conservatives who once were suspicious of her moderate credentials rallied to her side and she was given prized slots on Fox News."We just raised 250k in 15 MINUTES," Stefanik wrote on Twitter just hours after impeachment hearings concluded on Thursday. "THANK YOU! help us get to 500k TONIGHT."In five days of public hearings over two weeks, the committee heard from 12 witnesses, all of them current or former administration officials and most with years if not decades of public service under presidents of both parties. With an average of 12 million Americans watching each day, the testimony laid out in meticulous detail an effort by Trump and his lieutenants to pressure Ukraine into helping him tear down his domestic political rivals.Lawmakers were told that Trump wanted Ukraine to announce that it would investigate former Vice President Joe Biden as well as a debunked conspiracy theory about Ukraine helping Democrats in the 2016 presidential election, the latter a figment of disinformation propagated by Russia, according to U.S. intelligence agencies. Trump clearly conditioned a coveted White House invitation for Ukraine's president on his demand for the investigations and several witnesses said it was obvious he held back $391 million in American aid as leverage as well.Republicans poked holes in the testimony, making clear that none of the witnesses had actually heard Trump explicitly tie the security aid to the investigations, and they complained vociferously about the process, assailing it as tilted against the president. Some Republicans conceded that Trump did in fact do what he was accused of doing but maintained that it was not impeachable.Whatever the hearings revealed about Trump's conduct in office, they seemed to only reinforce just how polarized the country has become. No lawmakers declared that the evidence had changed their minds in either direction and judging by polls most Americans seemed to find only validation for the viewpoint they had when the hearings began.Indeed, listening to Republicans and Democrats, or their friendlier media, would give the impression of two radically different sets of hearings, one that presented damning, incontrovertible evidence that the president abused his power or one that revealed that the whole proceeding was a partisan sham.While polls before the hearings showed that 49% favored impeachment versus 47% who opposed it, a survey by Yahoo News and YouGov at the end of the hearings found support for impeachment at 48% and opposition at 45%. Other polls may eventually show movement but, at first blush, the drama of hearing the evidence presented out loud by real witnesses with evident credibility did not noticeably shift the overall dynamics.Democrats and Republicans alike privately agreed that it looked unlikely that even a single Republican would vote for impeachment when it reaches the House floor. In the Senate, Republican strategists said they believed they might lose two senators -- Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska -- while Democratic strategists said they also might lose two -- Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona."We've just had this partisan divide ever since the Clinton years," said former Rep. Barbara Comstock, R-Va. "Whether it was Supreme Court nominations or this, it's just become a team sport, shirts and skins, no matter what the issues are."Steve Elmendorf, the top aide to the House Democratic leader when Clinton was impeached, agreed that lawmakers appear locked into their positions. "Except," he cautioned, "we are in the Trump show, where anything can happen. Two months ago, we did not think he was going to be impeached over a phone call we knew little about."Among the wild cards that could still change the dynamics might be testimony by some of the key witnesses who so far have refused to talk, including John Bolton, the former national security adviser who opposed the pressure campaign and is waiting for a court ruling on whether he should appear.Trump has long argued that an impeachment battle would help him politically by galvanizing his base against the elites trying to invalidate the 2016 election. While he has refused to provide testimony or documents to the House, arguing that the process is rigged against him, he is taking his case instead to evening rallies in sports arenas filled with supporters.Trump and his allies took heart from a Marquette University Law School poll showing him with small leads against each of the Democratic front-runners among voters in Wisconsin, one of the most critical battleground states for 2020. That poll, taken during the first week of hearings, showed that support for impeachment in the state had slipped by four percentage points to 40%.Speaker Nancy Pelosi was initially wary of pursuing impeachment unless it was likely to be bipartisan, recalling what happened to Clinton, who was impeached on a largely party-line vote in the House and acquitted in the Senate. House Republicans back then thought voters would reward them for pursuing impeachment of a president who lied under oath about a sexual affair with a former White House intern but instead it was Democrats who picked up seats in the 1998 midterm elections as the inquiry was underway.With that in mind, today's Democratic presidential candidates, while supporting impeachment, are treading lightly around it on the campaign trail, where voters generally do not bring it up. Instead, they emphasize issues like health care, gun control and income inequality, reflecting a fear about how impeachment will play come next fall.But Comstock, who was a Republican staff aide investigating Clinton during his presidency, said the conclusions drawn from the electoral consequences of his impeachment were too narrow. "I do think both sides have maybe learned the wrong lesson," she said.While Republicans lost the midterm elections, they won the White House back in 2000 when Clinton's handpicked successor, Al Gore, fell short in the Electoral College despite running on a record of peace and prosperity.Eventually, Comstock said, the public tires of scandal and seeks to move on. Trump may win acquittal in the Senate, but that does not mean the public will be as forgiving."While they're now trying to make the best of it with fundraising and saying this is going to help us, that fatigue" may set in, she said. "There are people who just want a normal presidency."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
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