| AOC to DHS chief: Border agents shared 'images of my violent rape' in secret Facebook group Posted: 18 Jul 2019 03:02 PM PDT  Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez questioned Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan about the whereabouts of Border Patrol agents who threatened her in a secret Facebook group.
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| Cyprus detains 12 Israeli men over allegations of gang rape of British teenager Posted: 18 Jul 2019 09:58 AM PDT  Twelve Israeli tourists were remanded in custody for eight days by a court in Cyprus for the alleged gang rape of a 19-year-old British woman at a popular holiday resort on the island. The Israelis were arrested on Wednesday after the British teenager told police that she had been raped at the hotel where she was staying in the beach resort of Ayia Napa. Doctors who treated the woman said they found bruises and scratches on her body. The suspects, aged 16 to 18, were staying in the same hotel. The young men covered their faces with their t-shirts as they arrived handcuffed at the court in the nearby town of Paralimni, in the southeast of Cyprus. One broke down in tears. Some were accompanied by their parents. The hearing was held behind closed doors because some of the suspects are minors. The suspects covered their faces as they arrived at court Credit: Petros Karadjis/AP A judge accepted a request by Cypriot police to remand the men in custody for eight days while an investigation is launched into the rape allegation. They have not yet been charged with any offence. Three of the men allegedly raped the British tourist while others filmed the attack on their mobile phones, local media reports said. Ioannis Habaris, a lawyer representing four of the suspects, told The Associated Press it was unclear exactly how many of the men were implicated in the alleged rape. He said there was "some evidence" the British woman was involved in a "relationship" with one of the suspects. Tourists on a beach on the outskirts of the resort of Ayia Napa in Cyprus Credit: Amir Makar/AFP Nir Yaslovitzh, an Israeli lawyer representing three other suspects, said the 12 teenagers had arrived in Ayia Napa in three separate groups. Some were having a holiday prior to being drafted into the Israeli army for compulsory military service. He said police were trying to flush out the perpetrators among the group by arresting all 12 and having them detained. "I think it's a trick," Mr Yaslovitzh told AP. "They want to know how my clients will (react)." The Foreign Office said British authorities were "supporting a British woman who was assaulted in Cyprus and are in contact with local police". Cyprus's sandy beaches, bars and nightclubs attract around 1.3 million British tourists a year. Ayia Napa has a reputation for being a party town, with booze cruises and pub crawls.
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| Gibraltar extends detention of Iranian tanker for a month Posted: 19 Jul 2019 03:23 AM PDT  Gibraltar was granted the power on Friday to detain Iran's Grace 1 oil tanker for another month, keeping the vessel at the center of a big-power quarrel between Iran and the United States and its allies. Gibraltar said the Iranian vessel, seized by marines in a daring landing in darkness off the coast of the British territory on July 4, was suspected of smuggling oil to Syria in breach of European Union sanctions. Iran has repeatedly called for the ship's release, denies the allegation that the tanker was taking oil to Syria in violation of sanctions and says Gibraltar and Britain seized the vessel on the orders of Washington.
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| Germany honors resisters who tried to assassinate Hitler Posted: 18 Jul 2019 11:28 PM PDT  Germany is marking the 75th anniversary of the most famous plot to kill Adolf Hitler, honoring those who resisted the Nazis — who were stigmatized for decades as traitors — as pillars of the country's modern democracy amid growing concerns about the resurgence of the far-right. Chancellor Angela Merkel, who will speak Saturday at an annual swearing-in ceremony for some 400 troops before addressing a memorial event, paid tribute ahead of the anniversary to executed plot leader Col. Claus von Stauffenberg and his fellow conspirators and highlighted their importance to modern Germany. Von Stauffenberg tried to kill Hitler with a briefcase bomb on July 20, 1944, during a meeting at his headquarters in East Prussia.
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| Squeezed by sanctions, Iranians seek day jobs in Kurdish Iraq Posted: 19 Jul 2019 02:51 AM PDT  When the car pulled up to the curb in Iraq's Arbil, a half-dozen Iranian labourers swarmed around it. Squeezed by US sanctions on Tehran, they were hunting for work across the border. Mostly Kurds themselves, they have sought day jobs in construction and other menial labour in Iraq's northern Kurdish region to make up for the deteriorating economic situation at home.
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| California city set to ban gendered words like 'manhole' and 'manpower' Posted: 18 Jul 2019 12:54 PM PDT  The City Council in Berkeley, Calif., votes to remove gender-specific words from its municipal code.
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| Navy warship sunk by German sub in WWII finally located Posted: 18 Jul 2019 03:15 PM PDT  A private dive team has located the last U.S. Navy warship to be sunk by a German submarine in World War II, just a few miles (kilometers) off the coast of Maine. The sinking of the USS Eagle PE-56 on April 23, 1945, was originally blamed on a boiler explosion. The patrol boat's precise location remained a mystery — until now.
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| A prisoner was 'likely innocent' for 25 years, and prosecutors knew the whole time Posted: 18 Jul 2019 05:20 AM PDT ![A prisoner was 'likely innocent' for 25 years, and prosecutors knew the whole time]( "A prisoner was 'likely innocent' for 25 years, and prosecutors knew the whole time") Chester Hollman III, 48, was freed Monday from a state prison in Pennsylvania and a formal dismissal of the charges is expected later this month.
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| Hong Kong Protesters Who Stormed Legco Seek Asylum in Taiwan: Report Posted: 19 Jul 2019 03:27 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Dozens of Hong Kong protesters involved in the ransacking of the city's Legislative Council this month have arrived in Taiwan to seek asylum, the Apple Daily newspaper reported.About 30 protesters have already landed in Taiwan, while as many as 30 others -- and possibly more -- are planning to try soon, the Hong Kong newspaper said, citing unidentified people who assisted them.The fleeing activists were part of the group that smashed into the legislature on July 1, the paper said. The people who assisted the protesters told the paper they had been in contact with Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council, which handles the island's relations with Beijing, to seek help.The council hasn't received any formal asylum applications from Taiwan's National Immigration Agency, its deputy minister Chiu Chui-cheng said in a text message. If Taiwan receives any applications, authorities will handle them appropriately based on existing regulations and the principle of protecting human rights, Chiu added.Read more: Pain From Hong Kong Protests Spreads as Luxury Names Get HitA flight to Taiwan by Hong Kong asylum seekers would be fraught with geopolitical risk. It threatens to raise tensions between the administration of Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-Wen, a China critic who's up for re-election in January, and Chinese President Xi Jinping, who has already faced embarrassment over the global attention paid to Hong Kong's anti-government protests.Hong Kong's historic demonstrations over legislation that would allow extraditions to the mainland for the first time have resonated widely in democratically run Taiwan, which China considers a wayward province.Seeking RefugeThe Taiwan Association for Human Rights, a top local non-governmental organization, wouldn't comment on the case. "We cannot divulge any information regarding any individual case," said Secretary-General, Chiu E-ling. "If there are individuals who approach us for help, we'll interview these people and help them get in touch with government officials if that is what they wish."Earlier: China Drafting Urgent Plan to Resolve Hong Kong Chaos, SCMP SaysProtesters used a metal cart as a battering ram to break their way into the legislative building on the anniversary of Hong Kong's return from British rule, spray-painting slogans on its chamber's walls and draping a Union Jack-emblazoned colonial flag across the dais.At the time, Hong Kong's leader Carrie Lam condemned the "extreme use of violence and vandalism" and supported the police's decision to leave it undefended in the face of a small group of protesters.Emily Leung, a spokeswoman for Lam, referred queries on the report to the Hong Kong police, who declined to comment on Friday.who didn't immediately respond to a call and an email Friday for comment.(Updates with police comment in final paragraph.)\--With assistance from Ina Zhou, Kari Lindberg and Debby Wu.To contact the reporters on this story: Iain Marlow in Hong Kong at imarlow1@bloomberg.net;Adela Lin in Taipei at alin95@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Scott at bscott66@bloomberg.net, Karen LeighFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| The Navy's 6th Generation Fighter Could Put the F-35 in a Museum Posted: 19 Jul 2019 12:47 AM PDT  New much-longer range sensors and weapons, incorporating emerging iterations of AI, are expected to make warfare more disaggregated, and much less of a linear force on force type of engagement. Such a phenomenon, driven by new technology, underscores warfare reliance upon sensors and information networks. All of this, naturally, requires the expansive "embedded ISR" discussed by the paper. Network reliant warfare is of course potentially much more effective in improving targeting and reducing sensor-to-shooter time over long distances, yet it brings a significant need to organize and optimize the vast, yet crucial, flow of information.The Navy is currently analyzing air frames, targeting systems, AI-enabled sensors, new weapons and engine technologies to engineer a new 6th-Generation fighter to fly alongside the F-35 and ultimately replace the F/A-18.(This first appeared earlier in the year.)The Navy program, called Next-Generation Air Dominance, has moved beyond a purely conceptual phase and begun exploration of prototype systems and airframes as it pursues a new, carrier-launched 6th-Gen fighter to emerge in 2030 and beyond, service officials explained."Some important areas of consideration include derivative and developmental air vehicle designs, advanced engines, propulsion, weapons, mission systems, electronic warfare and other emerging technologies," Navy spokeswoman Lt. Lauren Chatmas told Warrior earlier this year.A formal Analysis of Alternatives, expected to complete this year, is weighing the advantages of leveraging nearer-term existing technologies such as new variants or upgrades to cutting edge weapons, sensors and stealth configurations - or allowing more time for leap-ahead developmental systems to emerge.
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| See the 2020 Chevy Corvette C8 Driving on the Road Undisguised Posted: 19 Jul 2019 12:37 PM PDT |
| As Iran-U.S. Tensions Rise, Hezbollah Readies for War With Israel Posted: 19 Jul 2019 01:45 AM PDT  Joseph Barrak/GettyBEIRUT—The tranquil winding roads of Lebanon's mountainous interior are far from the tense waters of the Persian Gulf where President Donald Trump says America came within 10 minutes of war with Iran a few weeks ago. And where, he said on Thursday, the U.S. shot down an Iranian drone. But if fighting ever does begin, these hills and valleys near the border with Israel will quickly be on the front lines. And according to Hezbollah commanders, that moment could be coming soon.When Trump talked of war, he meant a shooting war in the conventional sense. But for Iran and its allies, it's Trump's economic war with its suffocating sanctions that is bringing the region to the brink of armed conflict. The targets of Trump's weaponized dollar increasingly see resorting to military engagements as the only response left.Trump Is a Warmonger. His Weapon, The Dollar.Here in Lebanon, Hezbollah's commanders are close allies and clients of Iran—and they are targeted by U.S. sanctions as well. They warn that if the pressure continues these rugged hills where the Party of God fought bloody guerrilla campaigns to end 15 years of Israeli occupation in 2000 and repel an Israeli invasion in 2006 could erupt once again. And this time, they say, the combat will be far more devastating.Hezbollah's forces, battle-hardened in the Syrian civil war, have begun redeploying toward the Israeli border, not only in Lebanon, but in Syria opposite the Israeli-occupied side of the Golan Heights. Hezbollah fighters who spoke to The Daily Beast say their organization is hurting from sanctions and ready to initiate hostilities—if and when Tehran deems that necessary."The sanctions now have us preparing for dealing with the Israeli front," says "Commander Samir," a Hezbollah officer in charge of 800 fighters on Lebanon's border with Israel. He declines to use his real name because he is not authorized to speak to the media. "We will fire the first shot this time," he says.Hezbollah's military wing has changed fundamentally since its 2012 entrance into the war in Syria to prop up the Assad regime, transforming into a regional fighting force the Shia organization inspired by the Iranian revolution that the U.S. lists as a terrorist group.When Trump offers the reasons he pulled out of the nuclear deal with Iran last year, precipitating the current crisis, he cites Iran's support for militias that extend its power and influence across the region as something the U.S. intends to end—with Hezbollah the main target. But the pressure may actually be consolidating and motivating Iran's proxies.Hezbollah is still fighting in Syria while training Iranian allied militias in Iraq and Yemen. The commander says his organization and Iran have moved past their split with Palestinian allies over Syria, where they were on opposite sides of the Syrian revolution as it turned into a bloody regional proxy war, and Iran is once again providing training and support for Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.From a living room overlooking the valleys where he became a veteran, ambushing the Israeli army and melting away into the surrounding hills, Samir says the next war will be nothing like those that came before.He underscores the importance of Hezbollah's positions in the Syrian-controlled part of the Golan, giving it the ability to open a second front there against Israel, and boasts about drone capabilities and new anti-aircraft and anti-naval weapons acquired in Syria alongside a more seasoned fighting force. "Our wish before the war in Syria was to go and open a front in the Golan but [the Syrian Government] set a red line," the commander says, describing the limits the pre-war Assad regime placed on Hezbollah activity in its territory. "Now there are no red lines," he said.The commander acknowledges a new war would bring vast devastation to Israel and Lebanon, but says the sanctions crippling the Iranian economy and forcing a large reduction in Iran's financial support for Hezbollah could make this nightmare scenario real. To Target Israel, Iran's 'Suitcase' GPS Kits Turn Hezbollah Rockets Into Guided MissilesAlready, salaries for Hezbollah fighters have been halved, according to the three fighters The Daily Beast spoke with. But while they are hurting economically, they insist their organization feels strong militarily. "The Iranians have said either we all sell oil or no one does," Commander Samir says definitively, describing Hezbollah's interests in lockstep with Iran's. Like the two other fighters that spoke to The Daily Beast, he describes Hezbollah's concerns in more regional rather than domestic terms, responding to actions of U.S. allies around the Middle East rather than Israeli action on Lebanese soil. "If any missile hits Iran, it will be treated like Israel did it," says the commander,In spite of the increasing destabilization of the region since the U.S. pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal and sanctions started taking hold, the Trump administration has argued that its policy of "maximum pressure" will force Iranian acquiescence. However, according to Ahmad Moussalli, a political science professor and specialist in Islamic movements at the American University of Beirut, the financial constraints imposed by Washington are having the opposite effect. "You find this axis sees itself as fighting for its existence," says Moussalli referring to Iran and its regional allies and proxies. "So they are going to pull together and strengthen their axis," he continues, pointing to the way Hezbollah has been increasing overt political influence in Lebanon while allies in Yemen and Iraq have been taking more aggressive action. "Iran is not going to sit down, take it and destroy itself from within," Moussalli says. "And the only way for them to react is militarily; they don't have many other options." He leaves no doubt that Iran is the power determining regional responses rather than Hezbollah or any other proxy acting on its own initiative. The eruption of shelling between Israel and Gaza ahead of the Israeli election in May provided some instructive examples of changes in tactics. Commander Samir points to a threat—which was not carried out—by Islamic Jihad to fire missiles at the northern Israeli city of Haifa. The threat was a marked change from recent rhetoric by the Palestinian Islamist faction which had previously taken the public position of "quiet for quiet," a term used by the Israeli army to describe its claimed intention not to initiate armed hostility. "It was a message from us and Iran," he brags about the ability to fire at Israel from the south or the north while contending the choice to do so or not is up to Tehran. "Islamic Jihad never shoots before calling the Iranians." "Assir," a seasoned Hezbollah fighter in Syria is back in Lebanon after years of bloody tours in what's been an unending war. He takes up a nom-de-guerre because Hezbollah fighters are generally not authorized to speak to media. When we meet in Beirut, he says that like the many fighters coming back to Lebanon as Assad consolidates control over much of Syria, he is not being demobilized but rather redeployed south to the Israeli border. "People who finish their mission in Syria go to the south," Assir says, describing how his comrades and he have been given new posts since tensions started rising in the Gulf. "There are some units in Syria but a lot go back to Lebanon or to the Golan. Thousands have come back."Military success in Syria has reinforced Assir's confidence and he points to the tensions in the Strait of Hormuz as the source of the next conflict with Israel. "The commanders talk about if there is a spark in Hormuz, there could be a spark in Lebanon," recalls Assir. However, Moussalli sees the prospect for war with Israel, while it looms, probably is not imminent. He doubts that Hezbollah is eager for a war at the moment. He says currently Iran is primarily focused on responding in the Gulf area and Iraq. "Syria and Lebanon will be engaged in war once Europe or Iran completely pull out of the nuclear agreement," says Moussalli, arguing war with Israel is still a ways off. "The issue with Israel is a rather big one," he continues, referring to the costs of the 2006 war. "So yes there is pressure, there is the possibility of war but I don't think it is near," he says, believing that if sanctions are relieved the tension will be as well. But, "are they ready [for war]?" he adds referring to Hezbollah. "Yes they are."The second Lebanon War ignited in the wake of Hezbollah seizing two Isralei soldiers and killing three others in a cross border raid in July 2006 and Israel retaliating with a massive artillery and aerial bombardment of Lebanon. Hezbollah in turn fired rockets at northern Israeli cities and Israel launched a ground invasion. The result was the demolition of large swaths of Lebanon, pulverized by Israeli jets, while Israeli soldiers found themselves in an unwinnable quagmire and forced to withdraw from a country for the second time in less than a decade. By the time the shooting ended 1,200 Lebanese – mostly civilians, 45 Israeli civilians and 120 soldiers had been killed. More than a million people in Lebanon, a quarter of the population at the time, were displaced and while there are no official numbers of Hezbollah casualties, the UN estimated that 500 of the Lebanese casualties were Hezbollah fighters. Moussalli's assessment of a slower march toward the carnage of an Israeli-Lebanese conflict more devastating than past ones is echoed by "Commander Ayman," a Hezbollah officer currently based in Beirut who also oversees units fighting in Syria. "The Americans know the kind of fighters we have, so Hezbollah and Iran have been reminding the world how bad [a war] could be," notes Ayman. While confirming there is a strict red line around any attack on Iran, he maintains there is a strong desire to avoid war, suggesting the blusterous talk of imminent conflict with Israel is designed to convince the U.S. to abandon its current strategy.Israel also doesn't seem very interested in conflict over Lebanon at the moment. While Netanyahu has pursued a policy of striking Iran and Hezbollah in Syria, he has avoided another war in Lebanon. Even when Hezbollah tunnels into Israel were unmasked in January, there was no action over Lebanon. Unlike Israeli wars in Gaza, which have carried low costs to Israeli soldiers and civilians and have pushed the electorate toward Netanyahu, wars in Lebanon have had large military and civilian costs for Israel, often turning the electorate against the government.When asked if Netanyahu thought that the U.S. sanctions he has actively encouraged could ignite conflict with Hezbollah, the Prime Minister's Office officially declined to comment. The Israeli military also declined to comment on how it sees the current level of tension on its Lebanese border or if its alert level had changed since Iran started reacting to sanctions, claiming it "is too complex an issue to explain on the phone or in a statement."Meanwhile sanctions and rhetoric continue to escalate. Following the U.S. Treasury Department's announcement last Tuesday of fresh sanctions targeting Hezbollah members of the Lebanese parliament, threats of annihilation have been hurled back and forth between Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (who, not coincidentally, is fighting for reelection).In a speech last Friday marking the 13th anniversary of the 2006 war with Israel, Nasrallah gloated about expanded military capabilities and threatened that another war would "bring Israel to the brink of extinction." Netanyahu responded on Sunday by threatening to deal Lebanon and Hezbollah "a crushing military blow" if Hezbollah attacks. On Monday, European signatories to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, otherwise known as the Iran nuclear deal, gathered in Brussels to try to salvage the agreement that the US pulled out of in 2018. The Europeans hope to find enticements that will encourage Iran to stay in the deal. During his address, Nasrallah claimed that he didn't intend to start a war with Israel. Those sentiments were reiterated by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in an interview with CNN in New York on Wednesday where Zarif stated that Iran will not start a war but will defend itself. The sheer destruction a new conflict between Hezbollah and Israel would unleash on Lebanon leads Moussalli to call it a "madness war." While Hezbollah's exact intentions are unclear, the border between Israel and Lebanon was much quieter before U.S. sanctions put Iran and its allies on this collision course. Even if Hezbollah and Israel don't want to start shooting now, it increasingly seems like a decision determined by Washington's policies and how Tehran reacts. After all, according to Trump, a few weeks ago it looked like a war—one likely to stretch from the Gulf to the Mediterranean—was only 10 minutes away. 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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| 'My entire world was gone': floods devastate northern Pakistan Posted: 19 Jul 2019 03:15 AM PDT  Now only jagged rocks and a few damaged homes remain after torrential rains wreaked havoc on the picturesque mountain village in the Laswa Valley. More than 270 people have been killed in recent days across South Asia as monsoon rains deluged large swathes of the subcontinent, flooding waterways and destroying communities. "I was holding the hand of my mother trying to save her, but unfortunately I lost her hand and she was swept away by the floodwater," says Amin Butt, who was visiting his family in Kashmir.
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| 13 Philadelphia police officers to be fired following Facebook post investigation Posted: 19 Jul 2019 02:27 AM PDT  Thirteen Philadelphia police officers will be fired following an investigation into racist and offensive Facebook posts, Commissioner Richard Ross said.
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| Correction: Puerto Rico-Protests-Miranda story Posted: 19 Jul 2019 10:05 AM PDT  In a story July 17 about a New York City protest against Puerto Rico's governor, The Associated Press misidentified the status of Puerto Rico. NEW YORK (AP) — "Hamilton" creator Lin-Manuel Miranda has joined protests in New York demanding the resignation of Puerto Rico's governor. Miranda led about 200 people, many from Puerto Rico, at a rally in Manhattan's Union Square on Wednesday.
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| China Is Drafting Urgent Plan to Resolve Hong Kong Chaos, SCMP Says Posted: 18 Jul 2019 01:37 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Chinese officials in charge of Hong Kong affairs are working on an urgent strategy to solve the city's political chaos and have ruled out the use of military force, the South China Morning Post reported, citing unidentified people familiar with the discussions.They will soon present top leaders in Beijing with both an immediate plan to handle the mass protests and a longer-term strategy that could result in China overhauling its management of the former British colony, the newspaper said, without elaborating on a date.Beijing maintains that the crisis is best left for Hong Kong authorities to resolve and doesn't want to get directly involved, according to the report. Beijing has expressed public support for Chief Executive Carrie Lam throughout weeks of unrest and political gridlock, saying this week that it "firmly supports" her leadership.On Thursday, China condemned a joint motion for a resolution in the European Parliament that called on EU member states and other nations to investigate export controls "to deny China, and in particular Hong Kong, access to technologies" that could be used to violate human rights."China strongly opposes this," spokesman Lu Kang said. "China does value its relations with Europe, but maintaining a healthy relationship requires joint efforts."Lam on Monday vowed she would remain in office, after a Financial Times report said she had offered to resign but that Beijing insisted she stay and clean up "the mess she created."The Chinese officials also see Hong Kong's police force as key to maintaining stability, the newspaper said. Officers' tactics have come under fire after they used rounds of tear gas, rubber bullets, batons and pepper spray in dispersing the protests. Demonstrators have demanded an independent investigation into what they deem a use of excessive force, while opposition lawmakers have called for the resignation of security chief John Lee.Earlier: Hong Kong Police Tactics Under Fire as Legislature ResumesMainland officials want to avoid bloodshed and ensure the financial hub remains largely stable, the newspaper reported, citing the people familiar. China's approach will be to "lure the snake from its hole," according to one adviser cited by the SCMP, taking a defensive position until the opposition reveals its strategy.They're also considering whether the current environment makes it too risky for President Xi Jinping to visit another former European colony, Macau, later this year for 20th anniversary celebrations of its return to Chinese rule, the paper reported.Crowds of Hong Kong protesters have turned out in unprecedented sizes every week since mid-June. In recent gatherings, their anger has focused on China. More protests are being planned in neighborhoods across the city by demonstrators vowing to spread the word until Lam responds to their demands, including the official withdrawal of legislation that would allow extraditions to the mainland and first sparked the rallies.There are indications that Xi and his top officials are preparing for their annual summer conclave in the seaside city of Beidaihe, which this year will bear even closer watching than usual as China faces growing risks at home and abroad, including Hong Kong's unrest and an ongoing trade war with the U.S.(Updates in fourth paragraph with China foreign ministry comments)\--With assistance from Dandan Li.To contact the reporters on this story: Karen Leigh in Hong Kong at kleigh4@bloomberg.net;Dominic Lau in Hong Kong at dlau92@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Scott at bscott66@bloomberg.net, James Mayger, Iain MarlowFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Ukraine's president says he backs prisoner swap with Russia Posted: 19 Jul 2019 06:29 AM PDT  Ukraine's president on Friday outlined the details of an impending prisoner swap with Russia, saying that Kiev is willing to release a jailed Russian journalist in exchange for a Ukrainian film director. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's statement comes at the end of the week of shuttle diplomacy, with the Russian and Ukrainian human rights ombudswomen holding talks both in Moscow and in Kiev. The flurry of activity around imprisoned Russians and Ukrainians follows last week's first telephone call between Zelenskiy and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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| Five guys arrested for fighting at Five Guys burgers in Florida Posted: 19 Jul 2019 09:09 AM PDT  An appropriate number of guys were arrested when a fight broke out at a FiveGuys restaurant in Florida on Wednesday
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| Why the Air Force's F-15 EX Fighter Would Get Crushed by Russia In a War Posted: 17 Jul 2019 06:00 PM PDT  While an F-35 can carry 22,000 pounds of munitions to a ceiling of 50,000 feet and a distance of 670 miles at a top speed of Mach 1.6, the F-15EX can haul 29,500 pounds of weapons as high as 60,000 feet and as far as 1,100 miles at a top speed of Mach 2.5.The debate continues over the Pentagon's proposal to buy new F-15EX Eagle fighters from Boeing to complement Lockheed Martin-made F-35 stealth fighters.As lawmakers weigh the military's request, Air Force magazine has published an infographic comparing the two fighters.Both fighters cost roughly $80 million apiece, according to Air Force. But the similarity ends there. The F-35 is stealthier but the F-15 flies higher, farther and faster and carries more weaponry.(This first appeared in April 2019.)A Russian-made S-400 air-defense system could detect an F-35 at 20 miles, Air Force estimated. It could pick up an F-15EX 200 miles away.While an F-35 can carry 22,000 pounds of munitions to a ceiling of 50,000 feet and a distance of 670 miles at a top speed of Mach 1.6, the F-15EX can haul 29,500 pounds of weapons as high as 60,000 feet and as far as 1,100 miles at a top speed of Mach 2.5.An F-35 costs $35,000 per hour to operate. An F-15EX costs $27,000 per hour.The new Eagle's main advantage, however, is that existing F-15 squadrons quickly and cheaply can convert to the type, Air Force's John Tirpak explained."The F-15EX, USAF argues, is essentially an in-production aircraft. It has upward of 70-percent parts commonality with the F-15C and E already in USAF service and can use almost all the same ground equipment, hangars, simulators and other support gear as the Eagles now in service," according to Tirpak.
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| U.S. amphibious group patrols Arabian Sea as Iran tensions simmer Posted: 18 Jul 2019 04:14 AM PDT  At a thumbs-up sign from a sailor, a U.S. Harrier fighter jet takes off from the amphibious assault ship USS Boxer in the Arabian Sea as an oil tanker passes, a nautical mile away. The patrol is "standard" but the situation - growing tension between the United States and Iran - is not. "We want to make sure that we assure allies in the region and to ensure freedom of navigation and free flow of commerce," says Colonel Fridrik Fridrikson, commanding officer of the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit.
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| How the Ilhan Omar Marriage Smear Went From Fever Swamp to Trump Posted: 19 Jul 2019 01:43 AM PDT  Joshua Roberts/GettyWhen Donald Trump suggested on Wednesday that Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) once married her own brother in an immigration fraud scheme, he demonstrated the remarkable degree to which even the most far-off corners of the right-wing internet can launch unproven, anonymous claims into the national political discourse.The president had been asked by a reporter from the pro-Trump One America News Network about whether his administration was investigating Omar "for possibly marrying her brother." In response, Trump hinted that "somebody" in the government was looking into the matter."There's a lot of talk about the fact that she was married to her brother," Trump said. "I know nothing about it. I hear she was married to her brother."The remarks were the first Trump had ever uttered on Omar's marriage. And they represented a remarkable—if not depressing—capstone for the unproven rumor, which has gained steam in the fever swamps for three years as Omar became one of the country's most outspoken and controversial lawmakers. The claim that Omar married her own brother as a way for him to gain a green card has been embraced by a number of conservative pundits with ties to the president, including commentator Dinesh D'Souza, talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh, and One America host Jack Posobiec. On Thursday, Fox News' Tucker Carlson discussed it on his show.Omar, who didn't respond to requests for comment, has denied that her ex-husband is her brother. And for good reason. What many of the smear's promoters never reveal to their audience is both the evidence Omar has provided to disprove their conspiracies and the fact that the completely unproven idea that she married her brother is based entirely on a single, anonymous, unsourced allegation initially made on an obscure internet forum. In August 2016, as Omar was poised to defeat a longtime incumbent from the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party primary for a state legislature seat in Minnesota, an anonymous post appeared on a Somali diaspora forum called Somali Spot. A user named "AbdiJohnson," who identified himself in his bio on the site as a Trump supporter, posted a thread called "ILHAN OMAR MARRIAGE FRAUD EXPOSURE." In the thread, which has since been deleted from Somali Spot but remains online elsewhere, AbdiJohnson claimed that Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, from whom Omar was then separated, was secretly her brother. Omar had married Elmi, the anonymous poster claimed, in an attempt to make it easier for him to enter the United States."What's even more shocking is that Ahmed Nur Said Elmi is actually her brother," wrote the user, whose account on Somali Spot has since gone inactive. AbdiJohnson never provided any evidence for his claim, and searches of Somali Spot posts show that the user was notorious on the site as a troll known for making up claims to rile up the site's other members. The post was later deleted.That didn't stop the claim from getting picked up days later by Minnesota lawyer Scott Johnson, whose conservative Power Line blog became briefly famous in the 2004 election for discrediting forged documents on George W. Bush's National Guard service. In a post based on AbdiJohnson's claims, Johnson speculated that Omar, by then the winner of the state legislature primary, had married her own brother in an immigration scheme. "Let me note here that Omar's marriage to her brother, if it occurred in fact, is illegal under Minnesota law," Johnson wrote. Johnson has continued to write stories suggesting Elmi is Omar's brother, writing his latest post about Omar on Thursday. Johnson confirmed to The Daily Beast that the original claim that Omar married her brother was based on the deleted Somali Spot post. Asked to cite the most compelling evidence that Elmi is Omar's brother, Johnson said only "social-media evidence and [the] sham nature of marriage." "She has acted from the beginning like she is hiding something," Johnson wrote in an email. After the 2016 Power Line post was published, the claim that Omar had committed immigration fraud and married her brother—which was still based entirely on an anonymous forum post—began to circulate more widely in Minnesota politics. The story was kept alive by Alpha News, a conservative Minnesota politics site with ties to a Republican donor. Alpha News reporter Preya Samsundar launched a lengthy but inconclusive investigation into various social-media posts, which she claimed "suggests" Omar married her brother. It's not clear that the social-media accounts scrutinized by Samsundar and her allies, however, even belong to the right Elmi.Samsundar was hardly a neutral observer or reporter in the matter. She is now a communications staffer for the Minnesota Republican Party and didn't respond to a request for comment. Like other promoters of the smear, Samsundar had seized on social-media posts in which someone with Elmi's name refers to Omar as his "sister." But according to Somali language experts and language learning websites, "brother" and "sister" can be terms of endearment in Somali that don't necessarily constitute a familial relationship. "It is good manners in Somali culture to use the term 'brother/sister' even for cousins and strangers," anthropologist Bernhard Helander wrote in 1991. Among the biographical details known about Elmi is that he went to high school in Minnesota and has been described by Omar as a British citizen. Elmi could not be reached for comment for this piece. But while he did marry Omar in 2009, there has been absolutely no evidence produced to show he is her brother. Omar's efforts to disprove the claims have been stymied by the fact that—like earlier right-wing conspiracy theories alleging that Hillary Clinton eats children in a Washington pizzeria or murdered Democratic staffer Seth Rich—her critics never appear satisfied with her explanations. In 2018, Omar showed a reporter from the Star Tribune pictures of immigration documents from when her family entered the United States that list her siblings' names. The list did not include anyone by Elmi's name."It's really strange, right, to try to prove a negative," Omar told the paper. "If someone was asking me, do I have a brother by that name, I don't. If someone was asking… are there court documents that are false… there is no truth to that."The conspiracies around Omar's marriage have been further fueled by the lack of documents her family has because of their status as refugees from war-torn Somalia, Omar's reluctance to discuss the smear, and her own complicated marriage history—which critics have used to sow confusion about her marriage. In 2002, Omar was married in a religious ceremony to a man named Ahmed Hirsi, but the marriage was never legally ratified. In 2008, Omar separated from Hirsi after having two children with him.A year later, in 2009, Omar legally married Elmi. They separated and religiously divorced two years later, in 2011, but did not legally divorce.In 2012, Omar was reunited with Hirsi and had another child with him, but did not legally marry him. In 2014 and 2015, Omar and Hirsi filed joint tax returns together, even though she was still married to Elmi. Though the political significance of this history is confusing, it has shadowed Omar's pursuit of elected office. As she ran for a Minnesota House position in 2016, the discrepancies between her marriage dates surfaced, and Omar's campaign paid an accounting firm $1,500 to resolve the joint tax issues. Omar divorced Elmi in 2017 and married Hirsi in 2018. This June, Omar was fined $500 for improperly using the $1,500 in campaign money to resolve the tax issues, providing more fodder for critics looking to allege that there's something suspicious taking place. As Omar's profile grew after her election to the U.S. House in 2018—and after she drew national attention for her criticisms of the Israeli government—higher-profile figures on the pro-Trump internet began to focus on her marriage story. David Steinberg, a writer at conservative blog PJMedia, picked up the investigation and wrote a series of posts suggesting Elmi was Omar's brother, spreading the idea to a national audience. Even after the story went outside Minnesota, though, all of the claims continued to rest on anonymous sources. A Steinberg story scrutinizing Elmi's high-school record has been much praised on the right, for example. But his claim that Elmi and Omar have the same father rests entirely on unnamed people. In February, anti-Muslim activist Laura Loomer, incompetent conservative operative Jacob Wohl, and Ali Alexander, who would become notorious this June for claiming that Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) isn't an "American Black," traveled to Minneapolis to "investigate" whether Omar had married her brother. In between demanding that Omar sign an affidavit swearing she had never married a relative, they portrayed Minneapolis as a dangerous city and asked their fans to pay for their security. Wohl was later caught faking some death threats using a fake Twitter account. The trio, teaming up with conspiracy theorist Jack Burkman, presented their supposed evidence at the Conservative Political Action Conference in a farcical event. Unable to set up in the conference itself, they were forced to hold their big reveal in the hotel lobby, presenting "confidential" documents that were mainly already reported social-media posts. Like other implausible claims on the right-wing internet, the Omar rumor has begun to spin off into confusing, lengthy investigations incomprehensible to anyone who hasn't already read dozens of blog posts. Gateway Pundit blogger Jim Hoft, who was invited to the White House last week for Trump's social-media summit, has attempted to prove Omar entered the country illegally by publishing alleged "facial-recognition" tests that consist of green lines and boxes drawn between former various Somali politicians and Omar's family. Meanwhile, The Daily Caller and other conservative websites have become fixated on proving that Omar, who said in her divorce filing that she didn't know how to contact Elmi, actually could have contacted her then-husband—an issue that wouldn't prove in any way that he's her brother. It's not clear how Trump first became aware of the claims about Omar's marriage, but the complicated smear has been embraced this summer by a number of right-wing commentators with ties to Trump. In late June, D'Souza, whom Trump pardoned for his campaign-finance crimes, alleged that Omar had married her brother in an immigration-fraud scheme and asked "why hasn't she been indicted yet?" On Monday, Limbaugh, whom Trump regularly praises on Twitter, told his audience that Omar had married her brother in an immigration-fraud scheme."We're talking about freshman representative Ilhan Omar, who married her brother illegally to arrive in the United States," Limbaugh said. "But we're not supposed to mention that because, see, she's a minority and a woman and they have it so tough anyway."Posobiec, a former promoter of the Pizzagate conspiracy theory who has been retweeted by the president, posted an Alpha News video early Wednesday—before Trump's remarks—that showed a series of unnamed narrators claiming that Omar married her brother. As with "birther" claims that Barack Obama was born in Kenya, promoters of the Omar smear are using it to strike at the heart of Omar's status as an American citizen, even though it's about "her brother" entering the country under false pretenses. Under this impossible theory, they claim it means that Omar abused her own citizenship to get her brother admitted to the country, and will, therefore, somehow have her citizenship revoked. Trump was a natural ally for this cause, having previously served as the leading birther conspiracy theorist. But instead of trying to lay the foundation for deporting Omar on a seemingly concocted immigration crime, the president has chosen to expedite matters by suggesting she be deported for being too critical of America. Shortly after engaging on the marriage conspiracies on Wednesday, Trump basked in a chant at his rally, in which the crowd called for him to "Send her back!" to Somalia. On Thursday, he said he didn't approve of the chant. 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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| Ramush Haradinaj, Kosovo's 'Rambo' ex-PM and Serbian antagonist Posted: 19 Jul 2019 09:50 AM PDT  Ramush Haradinaj, who resigned as Kosovo's prime minister on Friday, is hailed as a hero at home -- where he is nicknamed "Rambo" -- but considered a war criminal by Belgrade, which has long sought to see him behind bars. The controversial 51-year-old, who was a wartime commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), stepped down after being summoned as a suspect by a war crimes court in the Hague. It is the second time he has resigned after being called before a war crimes court over crimes allegedly committed by the ethnic Albanian KLA separatists during the 1998-99 war.
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| 'Clearly a racist act': After biracial boy dragged by school bus, school settles lawsuit Posted: 19 Jul 2019 03:02 PM PDT !['Clearly a racist act': After biracial boy dragged by school bus, school settles lawsuit]( "'Clearly a racist act': After biracial boy dragged by school bus, school settles lawsuit") The teen's mother sued the school district in May, alleging a bus driver intentionally closed the door on her 13-year-old biracial son's backpack.
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| 'Go back to their country:' Naperville Bucky's cashier fired after questioning customers' citizenship Posted: 18 Jul 2019 10:25 AM PDT  A cashier no longer works at a Naperville gas station after a video showed him questioning Hispanic customers' citizenship.
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| Wasp spray leads to 3 deaths in West Virginia after being used as alternative meth Posted: 19 Jul 2019 08:34 AM PDT  West Virginia state police are cautioning residents against using wasp sprayas an alternative form of methamphetamine after three people purportedlyoverdosed
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| Iran's Foreign Minister Zarif: We Can't "Discount" Possibility of War Posted: 18 Jul 2019 01:01 PM PDT  On Thursday, National Interest Editor Jacob Heilbrunn interviewed Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif in New York at the Ambassador's residence on the current state of U.S.-Iran relations. The transcript has been lightly edited for readability.Jacob Heilbrunn: With the American shooting down of an Iranian drone in the Strait of Hormuz today, are we on a path of escalation?Mohammed Javad Zarif: I checked with Tehran, and we do not have any information about having lost a drone today. So, we don't know, as of now what has happened. We have the president saying that they shot a drone. We don't know whose drone it is, but we don't have that information. But we are certainly moving in the wrong direction. The fact that the United States has an increased presence in the Persian Gulf doesn't help security or stability in the area—it's a tiny body of water and you cannot have such congested traffic there without something happening.Heilbrunn: A lot of the tension is also focused on the tanker that went missing. Is Iran responsible for that?Zarif: All the information we have is that we confiscated a small tanker that was only carrying a million liters of smuggled oil products—not oil—and that happens quite often in the Persian Gulf because of heavily subsidized prices in Iran of oil products. There is a lot of smuggling from both sea and land borders and we interdict them on a regular basis. So if that is the tanker they're talking about, that is a smuggling tanker, not a shipping tanker.Heilbrunn: Another move that the Trump administration has announced is sending about five hundred more soldiers to Saudi Arabia. What is your response to that?
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| UPDATE 1-China's intelligence law looms over EU 5G safeguards -official Posted: 19 Jul 2019 04:50 AM PDT ![UPDATE 1-China's intelligence law looms over EU 5G safeguards -official]( "UPDATE 1-China's intelligence law looms over EU 5G safeguards -official") The European Union cannot ignore China's National Intelligence Law, which requires Chinese citizens to support state information-gathering, as Brussels seeks rules for super-fast mobile networks, a senior EU official said on Friday. EU governments are debating ways to protect next-generation mobile networks from any possible Chinese interference, caught between a U.S. demand they shun China's Huawei and growing Sino-European business ties.
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| Journalist reporting on immigration released from ‘inhumane’ US migrant detention centre after 15 months Posted: 19 Jul 2019 02:22 AM PDT  There were bugs, and the showers were cold. Air conditioning was not available, but the heat was turned on inexplicably.If you didn't have family in the United States to send money for food, you would go hungry.Those are just some of the conditions Manuel Duran described after he was released from a US immigration detention centre.As a journalist in Memphis, Tennessee, Mr Duran had been reporting on immigration enforcement officials and sordid conditions for more than a decade by the time they took him into custody last year.Now, he says he's experienced the neglect himself."I've seen the cruelty of the mass detention of immigrants firsthand," Mr Duran told reporters in Spanish on Wednesday, "and it is unnecessary and inhumane."Mr Duran, a native of El Salvador, had been working for the Spanish-language news outlet Memphis Noticias.After being released last week from 15 months in detention, Mr Duran, 43, decried what he called the brutal treatment of immigrants by Donald Trump's administration.Detention centres have faced severe overcrowding in the past several months, prompting outrage and calls for change.Unlike many reporters who focus on immigration, Mr Duran has lived through the detention conditions he covers.Migrants did not get enough food at any of the four facilities where Mr Duran was held, he said at the news conference on Wednesday.They had to buy rations with money sent by their families, and if they didn't have relatives in the United States, the migrants would go hungry.The holding facilities were infested with cockroaches and spiders, Mr Duran said. At Etowah County Detention Centre in Alabama, he said he had to bathe with cold water from hoses for two months.The air conditioner was being repaired for most of the spring, Mr Duran said, and the heat was turned on at one point, making it difficult to sleep."I've seen the disastrous effect of Trump's anti-immigrant policy," Mr Duran said. "I've seen working men, businessmen, who have lived their whole lives in this country and who haven't committed crimes crying and longing to reunite with their families."Mr Duran alleged that ICE had singled him out for detention because he was a journalist from El Salvador.His attorneys at the Southern Poverty Law Centre also argued in a court document that law enforcement had arrested and detained Mr Duran in an attempt to suppress his reporting critical of immigration enforcement."In the US, we are made to believe that freedom of the press is valued, but I can tell you all that under the Trump administration, this isn't true," Mr Duran said.He was released from detention on bond on 11 July while the Board of Immigration Appeals considers whether to grant him asylum because journalists face dangerous conditions in El Salvador, his attorneys said.Gracie Willis, a staff attorney at the Southern Poverty Law Centre, said Mr Duran decided to speak to reporters about his experience in detention because he considers journalism a form of advocacy."I think for him, it was important for him to speak to the press, who are his brothers and sisters in his vocation – to inform them about the things that he saw," Ms Willis said.On 3 April 2018, Mr Duran was reporting on a protest of local police helping Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) when Memphis police arrested him while they were trying to clear people from the street, according to Mr Duran's attorneys.Mr Duran was charged with disorderly conduct and obstruction of a highway, the lawyers wrote in the court document, but the charges were dropped two days later.Instead of releasing Mr Duran from jail, his attorneys said he was turned over to ICE and brought on an eight-hour bus ride to the LaSalle detention centre in Jena, Louisiana – without access to a bathroom and with his wrists, ankles and waist in shackles.Mr Duran migrated to the United States in 2006, when his television reporting in El Salvador subjected him to death threats, his attorneys wrote.He missed an immigration court hearing the next year because he was not told about it, according to his lawyers, causing a judge to issue a removal order for him.ICE on Thursday did not respond to a request for information about his case and for a response to his criticisms of the detention centres.Mauricio Calvo, the executive director of advocacy group Latino Memphis, said many other immigrants face the same conditions that Mr Duran described.Attorneys from Latino Memphis, an organisation that provides services and advocates for policies that benefit Latinos, were part of Mr Duran's legal team."This guy had a lot of support because he's a journalist and all these different things," Mr Calvo said, "but we have 500 cases at Latino Memphis, and most people cannot get the attention that Manuel did."Mr Duran is not the first foreign-born journalist to be detained by ICE.Emilio Gutiérrez Soto, a Mexican reporter, migrated to the United States in 2008 after he says soldiers broke into his home and took his identity documents.He and his son Oscar were denied asylum in 2017 and temporarily detained. Their immigration cases are ongoing.Washington Post
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| 'It's our America,' reminds Michelle Obama Posted: 19 Jul 2019 04:03 PM PDT  "What truly makes our country great is its diversity... Whether we are born here or seek refuge here, there's a place for all of us," Obama tweeted, without mentioning Trump. "We must remember it's not my America or your America. In a rare move, the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives on Tuesday rebuked Trump for "racist comments" after he said the four should "go back" to their countries of origin if they are not happy in the United States.
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| How Nicaragua’s Sandinista Revolution Was Resurrected—and Betrayed Posted: 19 Jul 2019 01:45 AM PDT  Courtesy Bill GentileBill Gentile covered the Central American wars of the 1980s that haunt the United States to this day. In the first chapter of this series he wrote about the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua. In the second, he looked at the U.S.-backed counter-revolution. Here he looks at what has become of the region, and of journalism.* * *Return Trips* * *MANAGUA, Nicaragua—Journalists follow the news. So when peace came to Central America at the beginning of the 1990s, I knew it was time for me to leave. The story there that had dominated front pages and nightly news for more than a decade dissipated almost overnight. In any case, I was ready to expand my work from Latin America and the Caribbean to more distant frontiers and Claudia, my Nicaraguan wife, was glad to escape the pressure cooker of a country mired in perpetual crisis. So we moved to Miami, a blend of developed and developing countries, where I still could cover major national and international stories, where my experience in conflict reporting and fluency in Spanish would be assets, and from where I could cover not just the region but stories far beyond.Central America's Wars of the '80s Still Haunt the U.S.It was a difficult transition. The logistics made sense, but the profession itself faced growing threats. By the end of the 1980s and especially at the beginning of the 1990s, the craft of photojournalism was contracting. Digital photography was becoming accessible to everyone; social media began to compete with the old mainstream operations, and 24/7 cable meant legacy outlets like Newsweek, my employer, became the platforms of old news before they even hit the stands.A peasant walks past a cotton plantation in western Nicaragua.Courtesy Bill GentileI moved to Philadelphia and began working for Video News International (VNI), the first company in the nation to use the new digital "prosumer" cameras to generate television content. Claudia and I separated and eventually divorced. When VNI fell apart, I turned to freelancing with video. By the year 2000 I had begun teaching as my main gig and freelancing as much as time and energy would allow.But Nicaragua never left me. And I never left Nicaragua.* * *'The World Stopped Watching'* * *White Pine Pictures is a Canadian documentary film production company whose members in 1986 produced The World Is Watching, about the coverage of the Contra War in Nicaragua by Western media. I was one of the featured journalists. In 2002, some 16 years later, White Pine contacted me to ask whether I would be willing to return to Nicaragua to film a sequel."Absolutely."I proposed we scan a handful of images from my book, Nicaragua, and publish them in the country's newspapers. We'd ask people to contact our producer in Managua if anyone recognized the people in the pictures, then we'd follow up on their stories since the Sandinista victory on July 19, 1979. A peasant man and daughter make adobe blocks for building their new home.Courtesy Bill GentileIt worked. Sandinista soldiers. Contra fighters. Peasants. Workers. Our producer's phone rang off the hook. And in the end? I found myself trying to explain how terrible those days had been, in large part because they failed to advance the Sandinistas' plan for a more equitable Nicaragua than the one they inherited from the Somoza dictatorship.'Terrible and Glorious Days' Covering the Contra War of the 1980sCalling their sequel The World Stopped Watching, the White Pine filmmakers produced a documentary explaining how the absence of international media loosens the restraints on the bad guys, who can do whatever they want because we, the international observers and watchdogs, are not around to hold them accountable. And that's exactly what has happened.At their electoral defeat in 1990, the Sandinista government accepted the process and, with no small amount of urging by former President Jimmy Carter, handed over power to a new government. It was the first time in Nicaragua's history that a sitting government peacefully handed over power as the result of a legitimate, internationally recognized election.At a news conference recognizing their landslide loss, Sandinista leaders, including ousted President Daniel Ortega, showed up with pallid, drawn faces. Most of the international press corps was stunned by the results as well.A mural of famed guerrilla fighter and liberator Augusto Cesar Sandino in the northern mountains.Courtesy Bill Gentile"El cuadro esta pintado," one high-ranking Sandinista official declared just days before the vote. "The painting is finished," he said, assuring me with blind confidence that the Sandinistas would crush the opposition. The result was a measure of how deeply the Sandinista leadership was disconnected from the people.But at a rally not long after the vote, Ortega promised his followers that, "We will rule from below." In other words, the highly organized Sandinista party would flex its muscles and get its way no matter who was president.* * *Malign Neglect* * *Anthony Quainton is Distinguished Diplomat in Residence in the School of International Service (SIS) at American University in Washington, D.C. He spent 38 years in the U.S. foreign services as a diplomat in Nicaragua, Peru, Kuwait and the Central African Republic. He also served as Coordinator of the Office for Combating Terrorism. At a recent conference, Quainton delivered a keynote speech titled, "Managua and Washington in the Early Sandinista Revolution," calling his his assignment in Nicaragua in the early 1980s "Mission Impossible."He argued that had the United States made a major and long-term commitment to the social and economic development of the region and backed off its support for corrupt regimes, "some of the problems we are now encountering might have been avoided or at least ameliorated. Unfortunately when the Sandinistas were eventually voted out of power in 1990, the United States largely lost interest in the region. We are reaping the whirlwind of that neglect in the refugee and gang crises we are now facing," he said."Opportunities to create a more stable Central America existed four decades ago," said Quainton. "They were lost. Both sides could not see beyond their ideologies. Neither could escape from its history. The Sandinistas believed that they were a vanguard party and that history had entrusted them a revolutionary mission. … They could not escape from the troubled history of Yankee intervention. We could not escape from Vietnam and the experiences of the Cold War. Bridging the historical, ideological and emotional divide between us was more than I or my colleagues could do. Try as we could, the Mission was always impossible."Quainton's argument is balanced and cogent, but it presumes there was some kind of parity in 1979 between a little country devastated by earthquakes and wars with no tradition of good governance, and a stable, global, functional democracy and superpower some 200 years old. Prior to 1979 much of the Sandinista leadership lived in La Montaña and in clandestine cells. They had little or no institutional foundation to build on. No Harvard or Oxford background to draw from. No Jefferson, Washington or Lincoln to emulate.A young woman washes clothes in Lake Managua, which borders the capital, Managua.Courtesy Bill GentileInstead, they were forced to cope with political, economic and military aggression by the single most powerful nation on the planet. To justify that action, Ronald Reagan warned a group of conservative supporters that defeat of the contras would create "a privileged sanctuary for terrorists and subversives just two days' driving time from Harlingen, Texas." He warned that "feet people" trudging north would be "swarming into our country" to escape communism.But if, as the Trump administration claims, Central Americans are now headed north in huge numbers, it's because of the complete failure to address their hopes, their needs, and their safety.* * *Rule and Ruin* * *Yet none of this justifies what Sandinista rule has become.Today, most of the original Sandinista leadership has abandoned the Ortega regime, viewing it as a betrayal of the organization's original promises to the Nicaraguan people. Daniel Ortega has been president, once again, for the past 10 years. His wife, Rosario Murillo, is vice president.Facing Down the Death Squads of NicaraguaDuring anti-government protests in the spring of 2018, Sandinista police and Sandinista-backed armed thugs killed an estimated 300 people. Media outlets are constantly harassed and shut down. Even international non-governmental organizations whose only agenda is to help the poor and underprivileged have abandoned the country because of government restrictions and intervention. Nicaragua continues to be rated as the second poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere.So where do journalists and journalism fit into all this? How do we see our role? Four decades after my first arrival in Managua, have I helped bring about positive change? Did I do any good here?I certainly hope so. I hope the images I created and published via UPI, Newsweek magazine, my Nicaragua book and other outlets, have contributed to the visual record of that time and that place in history. It's important to remember that, at the time when I was covering the region, there was no Facebook, no Google, no Instagram, no email. There was no internet! Television was limited to ABC, CBS and NBC. CNN was just beginning. Fox did not exist. So most of the world relied on a handful of magazines including Newsweek, Time and U.S. News & World Report, Life and National Geographic, for its visual explanation of the globe. Major newspapers like The New York Times and The Washington Post published only black and white pictures back then.A tiny handful of women and men, including myself, were privileged to be part of a small cadre of photojournalists entrusted with the mission of providing the world with a visual explanation of itself. And we did so sometimes despite great peril.But there is another dimension to what we do, perhaps more important than our impact on the wider world. And that is the mere act of practicing our craft defines and validates us. Like La Montaña for the guerrillas, journalism is the anvil upon which we test, forge and mold ourselves into what we aspire to be.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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| Surprise — The Future of Planned Parenthood Is Abortion Posted: 18 Jul 2019 03:30 AM PDT  Planned Parenthood's board has fired the organization's president, Leana Wen, after less than a year on the job. According to reports, Wen was dismissed because the board deemed her insufficiently dedicated to expanding Planned Parenthood's political advocacy, particularly on abortion.The news comes as a shock for a few reasons. For one thing, Wen was appointed just last fall to replace Cecile Richards, who resigned on good terms after leading the institution for twelve years.But it's surprising, too, if Wen's ouster was due to her reluctance to focus more on politics than on public health, as several reports suggest was the case. In June, after all, Planned Parenthood announced a six-figure ad campaign, "Bans Off My Body," to oppose recent state laws regulating abortion. Judging from Wen's Twitter account, she was perfectly comfortable promoting what the group frequently calls "reproductive rights."Why, then, was she forced to depart so unceremoniously, and what does her abrupt exit say about the future of Planned Parenthood?Wen's dismissal is perhaps best understood in light of the escalating national fight over abortion policy. As blue states have codified the right to abortion on demand, in many cases deeming it a "fundamental right," red states have passed limitations like heartbeat bills to protect unborn human beings earlier in pregnancy.Planned Parenthood has long sought to downplay its commitment to abortion, calling itself a health-care organization and spreading the lie that abortion is only 3 percent of its business, even as its clinics perform between one-third and half of all abortions in the U.S. annually. The group's leadership evidently believes this political moment demands more aggressive advocacy.And Wen wasn't up to the task. Considering her record thus far, she was hired for the "M.D." beside her name, and little else. She came across in interviews like a placid physician repeating rote talking points drilled into her on the drive to the studio. She consistently inserted the phrase "as a doctor" into her messaging to give the organization the gloss of medical legitimacy, and she never sounded like the polished, sure-footed political advocate Richards had.Plenty of turmoil, meanwhile, was taking place behind the scenes. "Wen had tried to refocus the organization's mission and image as a health provider offering a wide array of services, including abortions," sources told the Washington Post this week. "Those close to Wen said she was opposed by some board members and others who wanted to emphasize the organization's commitment to abortion rights."In January, Wen told BuzzFeed News she wanted to restructure the organization's goals, noting that people aren't going to Planned Parenthood to make a political statement. "What we will always be here to do is provide abortion access as part of the full spectrum of reproductive health care," Wen said. "But we also recognize that for so many of our patients we are their only source of health care."The day BuzzFeed published its profile, though, Wen backtracked. "I am always happy to do interviews, but these headlines completely misconstrue my vision for Planned Parenthood," Wen tweeted that morning. "Our core mission is providing, protecting and expanding access to abortion and reproductive health care. We will never back down from that fight."Wen's termination sheds some light on this quick reversal. It's easy to imagine that she faced internal backlash for appearing to have shied away from abortion advocacy, and that her public about-face was an effort to pacify critics within the organization.It didn't work. In February, top political staffers left Planned Parenthood, reportedly amid ongoing conflict over Wen's management style. Now that tension seems to have boiled over. Six sources told BuzzFeed this week that "significant management issues [were] part of the board's decision to oust Wen," and one "said her removal was accelerated by the intensifying battle over abortion rights, saying that she was not the right leader in this climate."Perhaps the most revealing detail from Buzzfeed's report? Two sources said Wen angered staffers by refusing to use "trans-inclusive" language, "for example saying 'people' instead of 'women' and telling staff that she believed talking about transgender issues would 'isolate people in the Midwest.'"This anecdote might well be the key to understanding what happened to Wen and where Planned Parenthood's leaders intend to go from here. Surely she wasn't fired for her recalcitrance on preferred pronouns. But with a national spotlight on the abortion debate, Planned Parenthood's leaders are ready to take off the kid gloves.Wen's firing suggests that, instead of claiming to be just a normal health-care organization, Planned Parenthood intends to capitalize on its status as an influential left-wing interest group. To do that, it must become a purveyor of the entire progressive agenda, to the point of embracing the "intersectional" language promoted by transgender activists. So the mild-mannered Wen had to go.Pro-lifers have long known what Planned Parenthood itself appears to be admitting: The group's ultimate goal is to wield its political influence within the progressive movement to continue profiting from abortion.
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| 7,800 police in Philippines punished for deadly drug raids Posted: 18 Jul 2019 05:43 AM PDT  Thousands of Philippine police officers have received administrative punishments with more than 2,000 dismissed for wrongdoings during raids where drug suspects were killed under the president's crackdown, officials said Thursday. Communications Assistant Secretary Marie Rafael Banaag told a news conference that 14,724 police were investigated for their involvement in police drug operations that led to deaths from July 2016 until last April. A tally presented by Banaag showed that 2,367 police officers have been fired, 4,100 suspended while the rest were reprimanded, demoted, had their salaries forfeited or deprived of certain privileges.
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| New Hampshire lawmaker Werner Horn: 'Owning slaves doesn't make you racist' Posted: 18 Jul 2019 09:13 PM PDT  A New Hampshire lawmaker came under fire this week for claiming American slavery was based on economics, not racism.
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| I was a military doctor. The Pentagon's plan to cut doctors will make whole system worse. Posted: 18 Jul 2019 04:00 AM PDT  As an Army physician, I earned my patients' trust by serving side-by-side with them. Now,
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| From Soup to Salmon: Slow-Cooker Recipes for a Fast and Healthy Dinner Posted: 18 Jul 2019 01:21 PM PDT |
| The U.S. Marines Might Be Souring on Amphibious Assault Ships. Here's Why. Posted: 18 Jul 2019 01:55 PM PDT  The incoming commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps is backing away from the service's longstanding requirement for 38 dedicated amphibious assault ships.The move could signal the beginning of a new approach to amphibious warfare for the world's leading marine force.New commandant Gen. David Berger is "willing to shed some key tenets of the Marines' amphibious force-planning in recent years – including the demand for 38 amphibious warships to support a two Marine Expeditionary Brigade-sized forcible entry force," Megan Eckstein reported for the U.S. Naval Institute.Force-structure assessments in 2009 and 2016 affirmed the Marines' requirement for 38 assault ships including LHA and LHD big-deck vessels and small-deck LSDs and LPDs.The Navy in 2019 was short of the 38-amphib goal. The 32 ships currently in the fleet together can carry hundreds of jump jets, tiltrotors, helicopters, ACV armored vehicles, LCU landing craft and LCAC hovercraft as well as thousands of Marines."We will no longer use a '2.0 MEB requirement' as the foundation for our arguments regarding amphibious ship building, to determine the requisite capacity of vehicles or other capabilities, or as pertains to the Maritime Prepositioning Force," Berger wrote. "We will no longer reference the 38-ship requirement memo from 2009, or the 2016 Force Structure Assessment, as the basis for our arguments and force structure justifications."A new force-structure assessment due to end in 2019 could reduce the number of traditional assault ships in the Marines require and instead include alternative vessels in the tally of ships that can support a beach assault.
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| Satellite images ‘show US military buildup in Saudi Arabia’ amid Iran tensions Posted: 18 Jul 2019 11:04 AM PDT  The United States is preparing to send hundreds of troops to Saudi Arabia where satellite images appear to show a build up of American forces on the ground. Up to 500 soldiers are to be sent to the Prince Sultan Airbase in the desert to the east of the capital Riyadh, two officials told CNN, speaking on condition of anonymity. Preparations are also reportedly underway for a large missile installation from which Patriot surface-to-air missiles can be launched to protect the base from incoming threats. The moves would likely strengthen the US' controversial relationship with Saudi Arabia, while also responding to rising tensions with Iran which escalated dramatically in recent months. After the US unilaterally withdrew from a landmark 2015 nuclear deal last year and reimposed tight sanctions, Iran announced in July that it had surpassed limits on enriched uranium imposed in the agreement. The country insists it is not trying to build nuclear weapons.A standoff has also ensued in the Gulf, with sabotage attacks on foreign tankers, blamed on Iran by the US. In the latest incident Tehran said it had seized a foreign-owned vessel suspected of being used for oil smuggling out of the country/ The Trump administration has long sought to base troops in the remote region, but the decision to send them to Saudi Arabia comes amid outrage over the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. A United Nations report concluded his death at the Saudi embassy in Istanbul was "an extrajudicial execution" sanctioned Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.The Trump administration has also been criticised for its response to the murder.Despite these issues, the US has said it is committed to helping protect Saudi Arabia from Iranian aggression, and last month said 1,000 troops were being sent to the middle east, but did not say which countries they were going to.Photographs taken by high-resolution commercial satellites, captured by satellite imagery company Planet Labs, show a deployment of US troops and support personnel who arrived at the air base in mid-June, according to Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Project at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, who has studied the new images.Pictures of the site taken in late June and early July show preparations being made for the arrival of troops, Mr Lewis told CNN."A small encampment and construction equipment appeared at the end of a runway by June 27, suggesting that improvements are already underway. The encampment to the east of the runway is typical of Air Force engineering squadrons deployed overseas," he said. The US is reportedly hoping to be able to fly stealth, fifth-generation F-22 jets and other fighter planes from the base.Commander Rebecca Rebarich, a Pentagon spokeswoman, told the New York Times there was "no official announcement" of the deployment to the Middle East but said the American military "continually works to manage our force posture in the region."Amid rising tensions between Iran and the US last month, Mr Trump said he was not seeking war with the country but warned, if pushed, the country would face "obliteration like you've never seen before".
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| End Syria hospital attacks, Russia told at UN Posted: 19 Jul 2019 08:09 AM PDT  Russia on Thursday opposed a United Nations Security Council declaration calling for an end to attacks on health facilities in Syria's Idlib region, diplomats said after the latest meeting over violence in the country's last major opposition bastion. Russian and regime aircraft have since late April ramped up deadly bombardment of the Idlib region of about three million people in northwest Syria, despite a deal to avert a massive government assault. Kuwait, Germany and Belgium asked for the hastily called closed-door session, the latest of many they have sought since May in response to worsening fighting in Syria's northwest.
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| Sen. Thom Tillis says the media should focus on the extreme views of the 'squad' Posted: 18 Jul 2019 06:44 AM PDT  North Carolina Republican Sen. Thom Tillis says Rep. Ilhan Omar's resolution that likens a boycott of Israel to that of Nazi Germany is the real problem.
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| Samantha Bee Shocked Kellyanne Conway Somehow Even ‘More Racist’ Than Trump Posted: 17 Jul 2019 08:27 PM PDT  TBSSamantha Bee didn't have time to cover all of President Trump's recent "racisms," instead choosing to zero in on his demand that four freshmen Congresswomen of color go back to the countries "from which they came." "Sadly, the only thing that should surprise anyone is that he wrote 'from which they came' to avoid ending a sentence with a preposition," the Full Frontal host joked. "Way to go, Shakespeare, now return your head to the orifice from which it came." "Of course, it wasn't long before spokes-golem Kellyanne Conway leapt to his defense by somehow sounding more racist than her boss," Bee continued before playing the clip of the White House counselor literally responding to a reporter's question with, "What's your ethnicity?" "Fun fact," Bee said, "that's also how she answers the phone." Seth Meyers Tears Into Cowardly Republicans Hiding from Racist Trump TweetsFrom there, she moved onto the resolution condemning Trump's remarks that passed the House with the support of only four Republican members. "So most House Republicans are A-OK with racism," Bee said, "which is great news if Biden is elected because at least he has a history of working with segregationists." The host spent the rest of her opening segment breaking down just how racist Trump's policies are, including his efforts to stop even legal immigration to the United States. "It's almost as if he doesn't like people from certain parts of the world or something," Bee said. "God, if only there were a word for that." For more, listen to Samantha Bee on The Last Laugh podcast below.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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| Feds: Man charged with killing 3 had been deported twice Posted: 18 Jul 2019 03:37 PM PDT  A Guatemalan man who apparently entered the U.S. illegally after being deported twice has been charged with killing an Iowa woman and her two children. Marvin Oswaldo Escobar-Orellana, 31, made an initial court appearance Thursday in Des Moines, where the judge set his bond at $3 million cash and scheduled his next hearing for July 29. Escobar-Orellana was arrested Tuesday night in the fatal shootings of 29-year-old Rossibeth Flores-Rodriguez and her two children, 11-year-old Grecia Daniela Alvarado-Flores and 5-year-old Ever Jose Mejia-Flores.
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| CORRECTED-UPDATE 1-Vietnam says Chinese vessel violated its sovereignty in South China Sea Posted: 19 Jul 2019 07:49 AM PDT ![CORRECTED-UPDATE 1-Vietnam says Chinese vessel violated its sovereignty in South China Sea]( "CORRECTED-UPDATE 1-Vietnam says Chinese vessel violated its sovereignty in South China Sea") Vietnam on Friday accused a Chinese oil survey vessel and its escorts of violating its sovereignty and demanded that China remove the ships from Vietnamese waters. Vietnam and China have for years long been embroiled in a dispute over the potentially energy-rich stretch of waters in the South China Sea.
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