| PHOTOS: Fire breaks out in busy market in Lagos, Nigeria Posted: 05 Nov 2019 10:42 AM PST  Balogun Market, where the fires erupted, is one of Nigeria's largest textile markets. The Balogun market sprawls across many blocks on Lagos Island. Fires and other disasters are frequent on Lagos Island where the Balogun market is located.
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| Rudy Allies Are Spreading Dirt About Bannon Behind the Scenes Posted: 05 Nov 2019 02:25 AM PST  Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/GettyAllies of President Donald Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani are circulating opposition research on Steve Bannon after the former White House strategist questioned Giuliani's work for the president and suggested he should be replaced.In a memo sent unsolicited to The Daily Beast last week, one of those Giuliani allies, a former aide on his 2008 presidential campaign, laid out a series of attacks on Bannon under a header describing him as "THE LATEST FOX IN THE TRUMP HOUSE." It recounted his exit from the White House, his subsequent ouster from Breitbart News, his past criticism of the Trump family, and his affiliation with a controversial Chinese billionaire—with whom the memo suggests Bannon may have a suspect financial relationship."Although Steve Bannon has been parading himself over at Fox News as an ally of President Trump, in reality he has been hitting the president's personal lawyer—the only man standing between the president and Democrats in Congress bloodthirsty for impeachment," the memo states.Bannon Teams Up With Chinese Group That Thinks Trump Will Bring on End-TimesThat memo was sent on the condition of anonymity. But The Daily Beast has since learned that another person involved in crafting and circulating the Bannon attacks is Jennifer Kerns, a conservative pundit and political strategist who was previously a spokesperson for the California Republican Party and the successful 2008 ballot initiative banning gay marriage in the state.The full extent of the anti-Bannon campaign was not immediately clear, but The Daily Beast confirmed that the memo was sent to producers at Fox News last week.Neither Bannon nor Giuliani responded to requests for comment on the memo. The effort comes at a perilous time for President Donald Trump and his allies as Democrats move forward with a House impeachment inquiry and it shows that elements of Trumpworld are preoccupied by internal disputes even as the president is on the verge of being impeached.Sources say the memo was sent without the former New York mayor's knowledge or approval, and multiple plugged-in Trumpworld operatives described the memo as a bizarre and thoroughly unproductive bit of internal squabbling. Two of those sources speculated that Kerns and her fellow Giuliani backer were attempting to ingratiate themselves with Giuliani with an ostentatious public defense.The memo was put together after recent comments from Bannon, in which he questioned Giuliani's erratic and occasionally bizarre statements to the press. "Rudy Giuliani, whom we all admire, and many of us love, looks like he may have gotten over his skis on some of this situation in Ukraine," Bannon said in a mid-October interview. "I think the president's going to have to rethink his legal team."Bannon aimed another barb at Giuliani days later on a new radio show he hosts with Jason Miller, a former senior Trump campaign aide, and Raheem Kassam, a former editor at Breitbart, which Bannon led prior to and immediately after his White House tenure. "We can't do the Rudy thing anymore," Bannon declared on a recent episode of the show, titled War Room. "Too many Ukrainian names, too many moving pieces."Rudy Had a Secret Meeting With Zelensky's Rival, TooKerns and the fellow Giuliani ally took it upon themselves to counter that criticism with a withering broadside against Bannon. "I was responding to the news cycle that Mr. Bannon himself created by speaking with The New York Times for a report on Sunday in which he attacked the president's impeachment strategy, what he viewed as the White House's lack of urgency in dealing with the impeachment inquiry, and the president's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani," Kerns said in an emailed statement. "I felt it was inappropriate for a former adviser to the president to be utilizing such a public, left-leaning forum to air his grievances.""I haven't seen Bannon nor his team attack the president's strategy nor Rudy Giuliani since my notes circulated," Kerns added, "so perhaps the point was taken."The memo, however, is rife with speculation and innuendo, frequently attributing its attacks on Bannon simply to "sources." It accuses Bannon of attempted self-aggrandizement and financial enrichment."Bannon has been out of favor for the last 18 months," the memo says. "Is he looking for a job [and] re-entry into the lucrative [2020] election cycle?"It's not the memo's only allegation regarding Bannon's financial dealings. It cites "two reliable sources" to claim that Bannon has traveled to China seeking financing for a new conservative television network (Bannon recently teamed up with a prominent Chinese dissident group to produce a film critical of the Chinese government). It also accuses Bannon of having "betrayed Trump" by giving interviews to Michael Wolff, the author whose book on the early days of the Trump presidency drew major ire from the White House. The book recounted Bannon's characterization of the infamous Trump Tower meeting between a pair of Russian lawyers and, among others, Donald Trump Jr. and Jared Kushner as "treasonous." The book, Fire and Fury, was widely criticized for a host of factual inaccuracies, but Bannon never denied the reporting on that comment.Bannon's War Room co-hosts don't escape criticism either. The memo recounts details of Miller's ugly custody battle with A.J. Delgado, a former Trump campaign aide who gave birth to Miller's child in 2017. And it goes after Kassam over his departures from Breitbart and the conservative publication Human Events—"some sources say he was forced out of both," the memo claims, offering no additional evidence—and even notes, oddly, that he is "a non-U.S. Citizen who has taken a vested interest in Impeachment."Kassam brushed off the criticism in a text message. "I feel sorry for Mayor Giuliani that he has a bunch of Never-Trumper stans running around using his name to get attention," he wrote. In her statement, Kerns said Kassam "harassed [her] in a profanity-laden text tirade" after she sent the memo to a number of Fox producers. "Any member of our party should be able to defend the president, the president's strategy, the hard work of those in the White House, and the president's personal lawyer without facing profane attack."Kassam denied any such "tirade," but said he was "delighted as ever to take incoming for the MAGA movement against friends of [former Fox host] Megyn Kelly." "Now," he added, "if they'll excuse me I have a war room to run."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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| Ohio woman killed in attack by her Great Dane dogs, coroner official says Posted: 05 Nov 2019 02:35 AM PST  A Waynesville, Ohio woman's husband reported finding her body mauled by the family's two Great Dane dogs.
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| View Photos of the 2020 Nissan Altima AWD and 2020 Subaru Legacy Posted: 05 Nov 2019 10:58 AM PST |
| 2 inmates escape California jail through hole in ceiling Posted: 05 Nov 2019 01:24 PM PST  Officials say two inmates accused of murder escaped a California jail over the weekend through a hole they made in a bathroom ceiling that's in a blind spot from the guards.
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| Greece rescues tourist floating in Aegean Sea for two days Posted: 05 Nov 2019 06:06 AM PST  Greece has rescued a 47-year old woman floating in a rubber dinghy in the Aegean Sea for nearly two days, coastguard officials said on Tuesday. The woman, holidaying on a sailboat near the Greek island of Folegandros, boarded an inflatable boat around midday on Nov. 1 to get supplies. Seven coastguard vessels, three private boats, a plane, and a helicopter were involved in the search operation.
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| US navy prepares allies to 'protect navigation' in Gulf Posted: 05 Nov 2019 12:16 PM PST  The United States is training Gulf allies to "protect navigation" in the region's troubled waterways, as Washington seeks to build an alliance of friendly nations to contain Iran. The US' three-week-long International Maritime Exercise (IMX) that began on October 21 comes after a number of commercial vessels were attacked in the Gulf from May, ratcheting up regional tensions. Washington and other Western powers blamed the incidents on Iran, but Tehran has denied any involvement.
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| "B-52s for Israel": One Really Bad Idea Posted: 04 Nov 2019 05:30 PM PST  Foreign governments still see the United States as responsible for the damage done by their weapons of war, even when they're sold to third parties.
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| Ringbrothers Shoots For The Moon With A 1969 Chevy Camaro Named Valkyrja Posted: 05 Nov 2019 09:30 AM PST  This is one crazy SEMA build. When Ringbrothers calls a project car their "most ambitious to date," it's time to sit up and take notice. Actually, any Ringbrothers build is reason to take notice, but this customized 1969 Chevrolet Camaro called Valkyrja is especially interesting.Providing a stout 890-horsepower is a 416ci Wegner Motorsports LS3 with a 2.9-liter Whipple supercharger bolted up. Channeling all that to the John's Industries 9-inch rear axle is a Bowler six-speed Tremec which has been customized to handle the potent output. Of course, with that kind of extreme force the suspension and chassis had to be upgraded, with Detroit Speed Engineering addressing both.As if that isn't intimidating enough, this build pushes things even further. A custom BASF paint mix named TOTOPKG Green gives this car a unique look. Many of the body and interior components are made of carbon fiber, like the hood, roof, side mirrors, grille surround, front splitter, and rear valance. Custom HRE wheels help bring the whole exterior together.Making a simple yet impactful statement under the hood of this Chevrolet are red valve and supercharger covers next to black components. An aggressive snarl comes from the Flowmaster Stainless Steel Super 44 Series exhaust, with both tailpipes protruding from the rear fascia.To create this monstrous restomod Chevy Camaro, Ringbrothers used cutting-edge CAD design, 3D scanning, and other technologies. Custom parts were created using 3D printing and CNC machining, resulting in a beautifully complex machine."We try and top ourselves every year, and this build was no different," said Mike Ring, co-owner of Ringbrothers. Of course, many of the components used for this build are available for purchase, like the shift knob, door handles, and window cranks. While you might not be able to afford a car like Valkyrja, you can at least give yours some upgraded touches.Valkyrja is the Old Nose spelling for Valkyrie, the mythological women who selected which fallen soldiers on the battlefield were worthy of being transported to Valhalla. It was the Belgian owner of this car who chose the name, and he will take delivery after the 2019 SEMA Show. More SEMA 2019 * ProCharger's SEMA Dodge Challenger Stolen, Taken On Police-Pursued Joyride * 2019 Mopar Lowliner Concept Is A SEMA Show Stopper
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| How Cannibal Ants Escaped from a Nuclear Bunker Posted: 04 Nov 2019 01:03 PM PST  We'd see that movie.
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| Some US troops guarding oil fields in Syria are reportedly still waiting for military orders — including when and how they could attack the enemy Posted: 05 Nov 2019 06:51 AM PST  The confusion wrought from the abrupt military repositioning also comes shortly after artillery rounds landed near US troops.
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| A metal bar fell off a big rig and sliced through a car traveling on a California freeway Posted: 04 Nov 2019 07:00 AM PST  The California Highway Patrol says a metal bar impaled a person through the leg after it fell off a big rig on the freeway.
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| Fox News Host Steve Hilton Accuses Colleague Marie Harf of ‘Covering Up the Corruption’ of Bidens Posted: 04 Nov 2019 10:57 AM PST  Daytime talk show Outnumbered became extremely tense, heated, and personal on Monday when Fox News host Steve Hilton accused Fox contributor and former State Department spokesperson Marie Harf of engaging in a cover-up of former Vice President Joe Biden's "corruption" in Ukraine.Moments after House committees released transcripts of the closed-door testimony of two impeachment witnesses, Hilton—who served as the lone male co-host of the Fox News female-centric panel show—went full "Deep State" conspiracy theorist, insisting that the intelligence bureaucracy is "protecting Joe Biden."Embracing Trumpworld's narrative that Biden pushed for a Ukrainian prosecutor to be ousted in order to disappear charges against the company his son worked for, Hilton baselessly alleged that Biden and former Secretary of State John Kerry were both involved in corruption."The only real corruption allegation is against Joe Biden," Hilton declared. "He supervised Ukraine policy, supervised billions of dollars of aid that went from the U.S. Taxpayer to Ukraine. Much of that went to a gas company paying his son. How much money did Joe Biden channel to his son's business?"He went on to accuse Kerry of "channeling money to Ukraine," calling on Ukraine to look into the former senator. And then Hilton finished his rant by claiming that Kerry's former aide used a position at Burisma to funnel more money to U.S. lawmakers in an effort to shape foreign policy—an accusation that prompted Harf to jump in."There's no evidence that anything you said [is true], I worked at the State Department then," Harf exclaimed."Well you're covering up the corruption, too. You defend it," Hilton fired back, causing Harf, now a Democratic strategist, to shout: "Are you kidding me?!""I am on this couch with you covering the news," she added. "Please don't accuse me of covering something up.""You are," insisted Hilton, who hosts Fox's The Next Revolution. "Because you are saying there's no evidence I've just given you."As Harf once again pushed back, saying she was there at the time and there was "no evidence," Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner interjected to toss the broadcast to live coverage of remarks by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA).Later on in the show, the two would continue their debate, with Hilton wondering how much Ukrainian aid during the Obama years "ended up in the bank account of Burisma" while Harf reiterated that there was no evidence of wrongdoing and he was just "making insinuations."Fox News did not immediately respond to a request for comment on a Fox host accusing a colleague of corruption.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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| U.S. border patrol officer kills suspected undocumented immigrant Posted: 04 Nov 2019 11:20 PM PST  The Customs and Border Protection officers were investigating in an area close to the border between the United States and Mexico, which is when they encountered the suspect and chased him on foot, the New Mexican state police said in a statement posted online. "At some point during the chase, the suspect fired a weapon at the two border patrol agents," officials said. New Mexico State Police are investigating the case.
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| AP Explains: Iran's nuclear facility deep inside a mountain Posted: 05 Nov 2019 10:15 AM PST  Iran's Fordo nuclear facility sits deep inside a mountain, with just one structure visible from space. Western intelligence officials have worried about the site since 2008, when satellite images caught work at the site just outside of the Shiite holy city of Qom, some 120 kilometers (75 miles) southwest of Iran's capital, Tehran. Israel and the U.S. worried that the size of the facility, its hardened position and its air defenses signaled that it could be used for military activities — such as potentially enriching uranium for a nuclear weapon.
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| Chevy and Carhartt Go to Work on 2021 Silverado HD Special Edition Posted: 04 Nov 2019 01:29 PM PST  Two Detroit companies that make hard work look good, Chevrolet and work-clothing maker Carhartt, reveal a ruggedly handsome Silverado pickup that you can buy next fall.
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| The Trump Organization reportedly can't get anyone to fill retail space in its Chicago hotel Posted: 05 Nov 2019 02:28 PM PST ![The Trump Organization reportedly can't get anyone to fill retail space in its Chicago hotel]( "The Trump Organization reportedly can't get anyone to fill retail space in its Chicago hotel") Any takers?Apparently not for the Trump Organization, which can't seem to find anyone to fill the street-level retail space at the Trump International Hotel & Tower Chicago, The Washington Post reports.The hotel has reportedly been struggling on several fronts during Trump's presidency, with profits reportedly falling 89 percent between 2015 and 2018, but the vacant space is a stark reminder. The Post obtained documents the company filed with Cook County tax assessors showing how difficult it's been to fill the void, which is reportedly equivalent to the size of two Whole Foods stores.A firm hired by the Trump Organization to find tenants told the county it had reached out to 81 potential businesses across various industries, but no one said yes, the documents revealed.The Trump Organization had previously argued that the hotel's struggles were related to crime in Chicago, but that's probably not the case since the hotel's competitors have actually seen increases in room revenue. The Post reports that the company's lawyers told the county that they believed the hotel is "suffering from unfair political backlash" as a result of Trump's presidency. Read more at The Washington Post.
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| Adam Schiff, a Trump Punching Bag, Takes His Case to a Bigger Ring Posted: 04 Nov 2019 05:01 AM PST  LOS ANGELES -- The crowd was buzzing with Hollywood types -- actress Patricia Arquette, producer Norman Lear -- at a private film screening on Sunset Boulevard one recent Sunday afternoon. But here in liberal America, the biggest celebrity in the room was not someone who makes a living in what people call "the industry."It was Rep. Adam Schiff, the straight-laced former federal prosecutor who was on the brink of prosecuting his biggest defendant yet: President Donald Trump.These are heady but perilous days for Schiff, the inscrutable and slightly nerdy chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, who is leading the impeachment inquiry into Trump. Adored by the left, reviled by the right, he has become a Rorschach test for U.S. politics. Depending on one's point of view, he is either going to save the republic or destroy it.Here in his home district, at the screening of "The Great Hack," a film about misinformation in the 2016 election, Lear introduced Schiff as a "current American hero." As the audience leapt to its feet in a standing ovation, the congressman emerged from backstage in standard Washington uniform -- navy blazer, white shirt, light blue tie -- his manner as inoffensive as his attire."We thank them for their patriotism," Schiff said somberly, praising whistleblowers, including the anonymous one whose complaint against Trump prompted the impeachment inquiry, "and we hope others will follow their courageous example."Now Schiff, 59, is poised to take a much bigger stage as his inquiry moves from a secure office suite in a Capitol Hill basement into nationally televised public hearings. He will make the case against Trump to a divided nation, in what amounts to an epic courtroom drama meant to unveil evidence of the president's pressure campaign to enlist Ukraine to smear his political rivals -- a moment that is bound to be must-watch TV.At home in his district, which stretches from West Hollywood to Pasadena and north to the San Gabriel Mountains, Schiff is well acquainted with the celebrity lifestyle.He lives with his wife, Eve (yes, Adam and Eve), and their two children in suburban Maryland, but they also have an apartment in Burbank, home to Walt Disney Studios. He favors vegan Chinese food and drives an Audi whose license plate frame bears a line from the movie "The Big Lebowski" ("I don't roll on Shabbos"), from which he can quote at length. He has dabbled at screenwriting, once drafting a script that featured a prosecutor as the hero. He tried stand-up comedy, too, during a fundraiser at the Improv in Hollywood."He did a whole riff on being a nihilist," said one of his best friends, former congressman Steve Israel, who joined him onstage. "Basically, we got told to stick to our day jobs."But if Schiff has a sense of humor (his friends insist he does have a dry one), he rarely shows it in Washington, where he has carefully cultivated his image as the stylistic and substantive opposite of Trump: calm, measured, reserved and brainy.He makes no secret of his disdain for the president, who refers to him as "Little Pencil Neck" or "Shifty Schiff" when he is not replacing the congressman's surname with a similar-sounding expletive. In an interview, Schiff called Trump a "grave risk to our democracy" who is conducting an "amoral presidency" and has debased his office with "infantile" insults."What comes through in the president's comments and his tweets and his outrage and his anger toward me in particular is, this president feels he has a God-given right to abuse his office in any way he sees fit," Schiff said.Trump and his allies, sensing the threat posed by Schiff's inquiry and divided over how to defend the president against damning testimony, have united in trying to undermine the congressman's credibility. They sought unsuccessfully to have the House censure him and have accused him of running a "Soviet-style impeachment inquiry."On Saturday, Trump proclaimed him "a corrupt politician" on Twitter and claimed that if Schiff "is allowed to release transcripts of the Never Trumpers & others that are & were interviewed, he will change the words that were said to suit the Dems purposes."Republicans who work side by side with him on the Intelligence Committee contend that he has changed as his star has risen alongside Trump's. A figure they once saw as a serious and studious policy wonk they now describe in viscerally negative terms, as a liar and a hypocrite who will stop at nothing to oust a duly elected president.Schiff has an "absolute maniacal focus on Donald Trump" said one committee Republican, Rep. Michael Turner of Ohio, who accused Schiff of routinely lying to the press and the public about what happened in private interviews and conducting the inquiry's initial hearings out of public view so he and other Democrats could distort the findings.And Schiff has let the publicity go to his head, Turner said: "Schiff finds the media intoxicating. And he is pretty much willing to do whatever it takes to get to the top of the media cycle."Schiff has made some missteps. His dramatized description of the president's phone call with the leader of Ukraine drew attacks from the president and Republican lawmakers, who said he was fabricating evidence -- and surprised even a close friend, Alice Hill, who knows the congressman from their days as young prosecutors in Los Angeles."I was a bit surprised because he is reserved and not prone to overstatement, very careful with his words, very careful with the facts and keeping to the facts," she said, adding, "It felt out of character."And Schiff's assertion that he had not had any contact with the whistleblower who incited the inquiry drew a "false" rating from The Washington Post; the whistleblower had approached his panel for guidance before filing his complaint. Schiff conceded he "should have been much more clear" about that.Democrats, who are united behind Schiff, counter that the attacks are opportunistic; Republicans, they said, are attacking Schiff over process because they cannot defend the president on the merits of his behavior.There is little room for error as Schiff pushes the inquiry forward in the coming months. His performance could determine not only Trump's future but also his own. Schiff is a close ally of Speaker Nancy Pelosi and viewed by some as her possible successor. At a recent news conference, Pelosi -- not ordinarily one to cede control -- took the rare step of sitting with reporters to watch admiringly as the congressman spoke."He's a full package," Pelosi said in an interview, praising Schiff as "always gracious, always lovely." She added, "He knows his purpose, and his purpose is not to engage in that silliness that the president is engaged in."A lawyer educated at Stanford University and Harvard Law School, Schiff tried his first big case three decades ago when, as a young federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, he secured the conviction of an FBI agent who was seduced by a Soviet spy and traded secrets for gold and cash. In 1996, he won a seat in the California Senate; in 2000, he was elected to the House by beating a Republican who had been a manager in the impeachment of President Bill Clinton.In Washington, Schiff joined the Blue Dogs, a group of conservative Democrats, and made a name for himself as a national security expert. He joined the Intelligence Committee in 2008 -- drawn to it, Israel said, because he viewed it as "a quiet place for bipartisanship."His breakout moment came in 2014, when the Republican-led House established a committee to investigate attacks on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya. Schiff had argued that Democrats should not participate in what he viewed as a partisan exercise, but Pelosi put him on the committee.But it was the election of Trump that elevated Schiff's profile and made him a sought-after speaker and fundraiser in Democratic circles. As the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee last term, when Republicans still had the majority, he vigorously investigated Russian election interference and questions around whether the Trump campaign had conspired with hostile foreign actors, becoming the most recognizable public face explaining the biggest story in Washington on national TV. When Democrats won the majority in the House, he helped Pelosi draft an investigative strategy.Schiff was a late convert to the impeachment push; like Pelosi, he held back until revelations about Ukraine emerged. For the last five weeks, he has spent much of his time in a secure room four floors below the Capitol, overseeing the closed-door questioning of witnesses. He opens each witness interview and sometimes steps in to conduct questioning himself."The American people have a right to know -- they have a need to know -- how deep this misconduct goes," he said, adding, "There's no hiding the president's hand in any of this."These days, Schiff has tried to tightly control his public profile. He goes on television less than he used to and zips wordlessly through the Capitol, trailed by a phalanx of aides and a scrum of journalists, smiling wanly as they pepper him with questions.It has all given him "a new appreciation" of the struggles his celebrity constituents face in maintaining their privacy, he said. And he is well aware that, out there in the rest of the U.S., he has become a polarizing figure."I feel I've become kind of a human focus group," he said during a panel discussion after the screening here. "People will stop me in the airport in close succession. One will come up to me and say, 'Are you Adam Schiff? I just want to shake your hand -- you're my hero,' immediately to be followed by someone else who says, 'Why are you destroying our democracy?' "The congressman paused and concluded that both couldn't be right "because last time I checked, I'm the same person."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
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| Republicans break with Trump and Rand on whistleblower unmasking Posted: 05 Nov 2019 10:47 AM PST  Standing next to President Trump on Monday night, Sen. Rand Paul called for the media to unmask the Ukraine whistleblower and was cheered by rallygoers in Kentucky.
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| Apple will donate $2.5 billion to fight 'unsustainable' California housing crisis Posted: 04 Nov 2019 09:31 AM PST  Apple CEO Tim Cook says the company's donation is meant to help first-time home buyers, expand housing, and combat homelessness in Silicon Valley.
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| A Chinese pilot was suspended over a viral photo of a woman posing and flashing a V-sign in his cockpit during a flight Posted: 05 Nov 2019 07:31 AM PST  The unidentified woman is seen sitting in the captain's seat with drinks in front of her on an Air Guilin flight in January this year.
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| India says supports FTA talks with EU after refusing to join China-led accord Posted: 05 Nov 2019 05:07 AM PST ![India says supports FTA talks with EU after refusing to join China-led accord]( "India says supports FTA talks with EU after refusing to join China-led accord") India should hold talks with the European Union for a free trade agreement, the government said on Tuesday, a day after it refused to join a China-backed regional trade pact for fear of a flood of cheap Chinese imports. Trade Minister Piyush Goyal said sectors such as gems, textiles and agriculture have pushed for a trade pact with the EU. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has also called for talks to restart to finalise an agreement.
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| Ponzi schemer 'King Perry' pleads guilty; had lived lavishly Posted: 05 Nov 2019 12:49 PM PST  The fraudster called himself "King Perry," and for a while he lived like royalty. Perry Santillo masterminded a long-running investment scam that collected more than $115 million from 1,000 investors around the country, using some of the proceeds to fund a lavish lifestyle of cars, casino junkets and houses in multiple states, according to federal securities regulators. At one point, Santillo threw himself a party at a Las Vegas club and had a song written for the occasion — the lyrics of which boasted that "King Perry" wears a "$10,000 suit everywhere he rides," the Securities and Exchange Commission said in a complaint.
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| The U.S. Army’s Megabase in South Korea is a ‘Fat Target’ for North Korea Posted: 04 Nov 2019 11:57 AM PST  A multi-billion-dollar plan to move thousands of U.S. troops farther from the Korean demilitarized zone in order to get them out of firing range of North Korean artillery appears to have failed. At the same time that the Americans are moving onto their new base, the North Koreans have been testing a longer-range rocket that can hit the facility.
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| It’s Kentucky Teachers Versus the GOP in Governor’s Race Posted: 04 Nov 2019 07:37 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Last year, thousands of Kentucky teachers staged a walkout and rallied against proposed cuts to their retirement benefits by Republican Governor Matt Bevin and the state's GOP-led legislature. In Tuesday's gubernatorial election, they're getting the chance to fight Bevin head on.The tight race between Bevin and Democratic Attorney General Andy Beshear could have big implications in a state with one of the worst-funded public employee retirement systems in the U.S. Kentucky's efforts to rein in a $45 billion pension burden have been complicated by constitutional limits on cuts to benefits and lawmakers' resistance to raising taxes -- tensions that are playing out in statehouses across the country.Bevin, who was elected in 2015, earned the teachers' ire by trying to move them from a traditional pension to a 401(k)-style plan and for criticizing the walkout. He has the support of President Donald Trump, who's tweeted his endorsement and is holding a rally in Lexington Monday night. Beshear says he wants to maintain workers' pensions and favors using revenue from new taxes on gambling and medical marijuana to shore up the system.Teachers have helped lead the charge against Bevin, donning the "Red for Ed" shirts that have become synonymous with teacher strikes across the country and knocking on doors after school. "We're absolutely backing Andy Beshear - the guy who has fought with us and not the guy who has fought us," said Jeni Bolander, a high school teacher who was among those who protested last year.What's at StakeState officials in Kentucky underfunded the pension system for years, leaving a plan for non-hazardous duty employees just 13% funded in 2018, according to its financial report. The state has spent years grappling with the large-and-growing costs: In 2013, the state moved new state workers into a cash-balance plan, which combines elements of traditional pensions and 401(k) plans and determines the value of benefits based on individual accounts, according to the system.But teachers, argues Adam Koenig, a Republican state lawmaker, haven't had to withstand any changes. "They're the only ones that have not taken a haircut," he said.In 2018, Bevin's administration passed a law that would move new teachers into a hybrid plan, which was later ruled unconstitutional because it violated legislative procedures. Beshear, as attorney general, fought the law in court. The teacher's pension is about 57.7% funded, according to its financial report.While moving the teachers into a hybrid plan would likely have cost the state more money in the first decade of implementation, over 20 years, it would have saved the state a total of $65 million per year, according to an independent actuarial analysis legislation."We are one downturn away from literally being hand-to-mouth on our worst-funded plans," said Jerry Miller, a Republican state lawmakerFuture BattlesBeshear has said he wants to use gambling-tax revenue to boost the pension system for teachers and first responders, saying this will include legalizing casinos, sports betting, and capitalizing on fantasy sports.It will "reduce the likelihood that counties must resort to raising local taxes on Kentuckians because of Governor Bevin's failure to create new streams of revenue," he said in a proposal.Efforts to legalize gaming have faltered in the state legislature, said Miller, who introduced a bill to legalize casino gaming last year. He said social conservatives in the legislature tend not to support gaming.Bevin has been quick to remind voters about how he fully funded pension contributions during his tenure, and he has pledged to "move forward to complete the fix of this system.""I think everyone understands now," said Beau Barnes, general counsel for the teachers' pension. "This is an important issue for the commonwealth -- there needs to be full funding for these pension funds."Passing pension legislation wasn't always easy for Bevin, despite his party holding a majority in the state's legislature. A measure providing some agencies the option to exit the state's retirement system was held up in a months-long legislative fight and was only passed in a special legislative session after Bevin vetoed an early version of the bill.And if Beshear won, the GOP would still control the legislature, setting up even more tense fights over pensions."No matter who ends up winning the governor's race, we're still going to have a fight on our hands," Bolander, the teacher, said in a telephone interview.To contact the reporters on this story: Fola Akinnibi in New York at fakinnibi1@bloomberg.net;Amanda Albright in New York at aalbright4@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Elizabeth Campbell at ecampbell14@bloomberg.net, Michael B. Marois, William SelwayFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Billionaires Only? Warren Errs in Saying Whom Her Health Plan Would Tax Posted: 04 Nov 2019 07:21 AM PST  WASHINGTON -- When Sen. Elizabeth Warren laid out her plan for "Medicare for All" Friday, she said she would raise taxes on the top 1% of households to help pay for it. The middle class, she said, would not pay "one penny" more.On Saturday night, Warren presented an even narrower description of who would face higher taxes under her plan. She told reporters that billionaires would be the only people to see their taxes go up -- a misstatement of what she had proposed a day earlier."It doesn't raise taxes on anybody but billionaires," Warren told reporters in Dubuque, Iowa, when asked what income bracket she defined as "middle class." She added, "And you know what? The billionaires can afford it."Anyone with under $1 billion in net worth, she said, "is not paying a penny more." Asked again how she defined middle class, she repeated the assertion. "Understand this," she said. "This is no increase in taxes for anyone except billionaires. Period. Done."But that is not what she proposed Friday. Warren's plan for Medicare for All, which calls for $20.5 trillion in new federal spending over a decade, would be financed through a mix of sources, including taxes on businesses and $3 trillion in total from two proposals to tax wealthy Americans.One of those measures would steepen her proposed wealth tax on net worth above $1 billion. But the other -- accounting for $2 trillion of the $3 trillion total -- would go far beyond billionaires. For the top 1% of households, Warren would increase taxes on investment gains. She would put in place a new system in which capital gains are taxed annually instead of when investments are sold, and she would raise the tax rate on capital gains to be the same as on ordinary income like wages.Asked about Warren's comments, a spokeswoman for her campaign acknowledged that taxes would increase for the top 1%, but said Warren had been referring to her wealth tax proposal when she said taxes would increase only for billionaires.The campaign of former Vice President Joe Biden, one of Warren's top rivals, quickly criticized her over the comments."The American people have to be able to trust whoever our party nominates to take on Donald Trump to be straight with them about health care," Kate Bedingfield, a deputy campaign manager for Biden, said in a statement late Saturday night. "Sen. Warren said tonight that her single-payer plan won't raise taxes on anyone but billionaires, but that's simply not true."Bedingfield argued that two other taxes proposed by Warren would also affect a broader population than just billionaires: a tax on employers that is similar to what they are currently spending on their employees' health care, and a tax on financial transactions like stock trades.The issue of Medicare for All has been a major and escalating point of tension between Warren and Biden and a central fault line in the Democratic presidential primary. Biden supports adding a public health insurance option that people can purchase and building on the Affordable Care Act. He has cast Warren's more expansive plan as costly and unrealistic, telling reporters in Des Moines on Saturday that "getting that plan through even a Democratic Congress would be difficult."Warren's proposal to increase taxes on investment gains did not precisely describe how she would define the top 1% of households. In 2017, the top 1% of tax returns had income above roughly $515,000, according to the Internal Revenue Service -- about 1.4 million tax returns in total. Earlier this year, Forbes said there were 607 billionaires in the United States.The other measure to tax wealthy Americans that Warren put forward Friday would increase her proposed wealth tax on net worth above $1 billion to 6% annually, from 3%. (Her wealth tax also includes a 2% tax on net worth over $50 million, but that remains unchanged from what she proposed in January.)On Sunday, speaking to reporters in Davenport, Iowa, Warren offered a broader description of who would face higher taxes under her proposal. "We ask the big corporations and the top 1%," she said, "to pay a little more."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
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| E Jean Carroll's lawsuit against Trump is a victory for sexual assault survivors Posted: 05 Nov 2019 03:00 AM PST  The columnist's defamation case defies the history of a legal system being used to silence women'Carroll's lawsuit proceeds from the assumption that women, including women who accuse powerful men of sexual violence, are entitled to all the same legal protections men are.' Photograph: Craig Ruttle/APE Jean Carroll, the Elle advice columnist who in June accused Donald Trump of raping her in a department store dressing room in the mid-90s, filed a lawsuit on Monday in a New York court. She is suing the US president for defamation.After Carroll detailed the rape in an excerpt from her memoir, What Do We Need Men For?, that was published in New York Magazine, Trump did what he usually does: he went after her character. He denied the rape and also made assertions that were easily disproven, including that he had never met Carroll. In fact they had met: her memoir, as well as the magazine excerpt, included a photograph of them together at a party in the 80s. He said she was "totally lying" and that he would not have raped her, because she wasn't his type. He invented strange motives for her statement and seemed to implicitly threaten her when he said that there should be grave consequences for her decision to come forward. "Shame on those who make up false stories of assault to try to get publicity for themselves, or sell a book or carry out a political agenda. It's a disgrace and people should pay dearly for such false accusations."Those statements disparaging Carroll's character will now be the subject of a court battle, as the judge determines whether they meet the legal standard for defamation – which, for statements made about public figures like Carroll, means that they would need to be both untrue and made with malice. It is difficult to prove a speaker's state of mind, but malice seems to be one of the only possible motivators for Trump's statements about Carroll – why else would he comment on her appearance, for example, saying "she's not my type"? After the lawsuit was announced on Monday, the White House press secretary said: "I guess since the book didn't make any money she's trying to get paid another way. … The lawsuit is frivolous and the story is a fraud, just like the author." Such a vitriolic statement by one of Trump's representatives could probably be called defamatory, too.Carroll told friends about the alleged assault at the time, and at least two of them have gone on the record to corroborate her account. But for decades, she didn't come forward publicly. In her complaint and elsewhere, Carroll says that she considered making her story public during the 2016 election cycle but worried that being credibly accused of rape would make Trump more popular, not less, with a base that expressed sexist contempt for Hillary Clinton and fawning admiration for Trump's performative crudeness and pantomime of macho virility. She may have been right about that. Carroll also says that she didn't go to the police when the rape occurred because she was worried that the consequences to her own life would be greater than those for Trump's. She was probably right about that, too.The legal system has historically not been kind to survivors of sexual violence. Evidence suggests that police do not take sexual assault as seriously as they do other violent crimes. And accusers, now but especially at the time when Carroll says the rape occurred, can be subjected to humiliating interviews, crude speculation about their own sex lives, and character assassinations from defense attorneys. That's in the criminal justice system. Civil law is often not much better. In fact, when defamation suits arise in the case of sexual assault accusations, it is usually the perpetrator who sues the accuser, saying that she is lying and seeking money from her – not the other way around. (Full disclosure: Carroll and I are represented by the same lawyer, Roberta Kaplan.)Carroll's suit takes a different approach. Defying a long history of the legal system being used to silence women, Carroll's lawsuit proceeds from the assumption that women, including women who accuse powerful men of sexual violence, are entitled to all the same legal protections men are. "I am filing this on behalf of every woman who has ever been harassed, assaulted, silenced, or spoken up only to be shamed, fired, ridiculed and belittled," Carroll said in a statement. "It's for every woman who can't speak up because she'll lose the job she needs to support her three kids." The forms of retaliation that Carroll faced when she came forward with her allegation – being mocked, dismissed, smeared, ignored, threatened, and professionally sidelined – aren't uncommon. They happen to every woman who comes forward about her sexual abuse. But just because these kinds of retaliation are normal doesn't mean that they're acceptable – and it doesn't mean that they're legal, either. * Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist
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| Over 11,000 scientists around the world declare a 'climate emergency' Posted: 05 Nov 2019 01:33 PM PST ![Over 11,000 scientists around the world declare a 'climate emergency']( "Over 11,000 scientists around the world declare a 'climate emergency'") "Scientists have a moral obligation to warn humanity of any great threat....From the data we have, it is clear we are facing a climate emergency."
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| Afghan chief executive slams president's 'wishlist' peace plan Posted: 05 Nov 2019 06:47 AM PST  Afghanistan's Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah dismissed Tuesday a new peace proposal by his election rival President Ashraf Ghani as an unrealistic "wishlist", and again questioned the validity of thousands of votes from recent polls. US President Donald Trump in September ended year-long talks with the Taliban amid ongoing insurgent violence, leaving Afghans wondering what comes next in the gruelling conflict. Ghani's team last month released a seven-point proposal meant to build on those talks and bring an end to Afghanistan's 18-year-old war with the Taliban.
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| Brexit prompts N. Ireland electoral pacts that could shake DUP grip Posted: 05 Nov 2019 07:17 AM PST ![Brexit prompts N. Ireland electoral pacts that could shake DUP grip]( "Brexit prompts N. Ireland electoral pacts that could shake DUP grip") Division among Northern Ireland's pro-British and pro-Irish parties over Brexit has prompted tactical electoral moves that put at risk some of the seats that had given the province's Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) the balance of power in London. The DUP, a mainly Protestant party that fervently favours continued British rule of Northern Ireland, used its 10 seats in parliament in London to help keep Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Conservatives in power with a minority government.
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| Germany's Merkel: Discontent doesn't bring 'right to hatred' Posted: 05 Nov 2019 06:17 AM PST  Chancellor Angela Merkel says that disillusionment and discontent with the German government don't give people any "right to hatred," an allusion to a far-right party's strong recent election performance in eastern Germany. Alternative for Germany, or AfD, has polled over 20% and finished second in state elections in Saxony, Brandenburg and Thuringia in the past two months. Asked about those election performances, Merkel acknowledged in an interview with Der Spiegel magazine published Tuesday that some people and regions in eastern Germany haven't had it easy.
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| John Demjanjuk: The incredible story of US autoworker accused of being Nazi death camp criminal Ivan the Terrible Posted: 05 Nov 2019 09:03 AM PST  In the tight-knit Ukrainian community of Cleveland, John Demjanjuk was known as a church-going family man.He worked hard at the city's Ford motor plant for more than 20 years and had three children. He was quiet, it was said, but friendly.
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| New Research Suggests the Universe May Be a Giant Loop Posted: 05 Nov 2019 11:15 AM PST  New research suggests our universe may actually be a closed loop instead of a never-ending expanse, but the theory has drawn criticism from other cosmologists.
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| Mali’s president says existence of his country at risk after deadly jihadist attack Posted: 05 Nov 2019 05:25 AM PST  Mali's president has warned the very existence of his country is at risk after an attack by Islamic State militants killed at least 49 soldiers. President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta has declared three days of mourning after the attack last Friday on an army base in Indelimane, in the northeast of the country. Fighters overran the base, killed the troops and posed in videos afterwards with looted heavy weaponry and military vehicles. "The stability and existence of our country are at stake, our only response must be national unity … around our national army," Mr Keïta said on national television on Monday night. The Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) claimed the massacre and another IED explosion which killed a French soldier on Saturday. While Islamic State (Isil) has been largely defeated in the Middle East, the group's cousin in the Sahel, a vast arid region running underneath the Sahara, is going from strength to strength. In recent weeks Mali has suffered repeated attacks on its military. Last month, jihadists allied to al-Qaeda killed at least 40 troops near the border with Burkina Faso. Mali's conflict began in late 2012 when jihadists and ethnic-Tuareg separatists, heavily armed with weapons from Libya's civil war, surged out of the Sahara desert and took over the northern half of the country. France, the former colonial power, intervened in early 2013. With the help of around 2,000 Chadian troops, French forces drove the fighters out of northern towns like Timbuktu. The UN launched a mission with over 10,000 blue helmets and France has permanently stationed some 4,500 troops across the Sahel. But international troops have not been able to stop the insecurity spreading. Jihadist groups and ethnic militias have proliferated and fighting has spread into Mali's populous central regions and into neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger. Many security analysts fear the violence could spread south into countries like Ivory Coast, Togo and Benin. Both the UN and France are deeply unpopular among Malians who see them as incapable of protecting them. In the address, Mr Keïta reaffirmed his support for the international forces saying that they were "more [necessary] than ever".
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| Far-right leader and Washington officers face civil rights lawsuit over violent incident Posted: 04 Nov 2019 11:00 PM PST  State officers collaborated with Patriot Prayer members and leader Joey Gibson in illegal arrest of man on college campus, suit allegesRightwing group Patriot Prayer leader Joey Gibson speaks during a rally in support of free speech in Berkeley, California, in April 2017. Photograph: Marcio Jose Sanchez/APFar-right leader Joey Gibson, several current and former associates and three Washington state patrol (WSP) police officers are facing a civil rights lawsuit over a violent confrontation at Evergreen State College on 15 June 2017.Gibson is the leader of the rightwing activist group Patriot Prayer and the suit is one of a proliferating set of legal efforts associated with Gibson's activities in Oregon and Washington throughout the Trump era.The violent incident, which was captured on several videos made by Gibson associates, took place during a rally staged by Patriot Prayer in support of Professor Bret Weinstein, who was at the center of national controversy over his opposition to a day of absence for white staff and students at the college.The suit has been brought by Washington state civil rights lawyer Larry Hildes on behalf of his client, Joseph Robinson. It alleges WSP officers collaborated with Patriot Prayer members in the illegal arrest and detention of Robinson at the College.In a phone conversation, Hildes said that the aim of the suit was to "get the state patrol reined in" and to encourage policy changes. In relation to Patriot Prayer, Hildes said: "I want to shut them down.""I want them out of business," Hildes said of the far-right protest group. "I want them out of existence as an entity."Patriot Prayer's incursion on to the campus on a rainy afternoon was counter-protested by anti-fascist activists, students and staff. Over a number of hours, Patriot Prayer and anti-fascists exchanged blows and pepper spray. Gibson and others were covered in silly string by antifascists, and Gibson at one point sustained a facial wound.A large number of WSP riot police struggled to contain the melee.The suit focuses on one incident in which it alleges WSP and rightwing demonstrators collaborated in violating Robinson's civil rights when he was allegedly grabbed by Patriot Prayers members at the direction of Gibson, and then handed to the police, who arrested him "without asking any questions".Video of the incident shot by Gibson-aligned videographer Robert Zerfing shows Robinson being dragged by the neck with a bandana he had been wearing as a mask. After Robinson was arrested, he was jailed and charged with disorderly conduct. A criminal case was pursued against him for 11 months before being dropped by the Thurston county prosecutor.Hildes's complaint alleges that WSP's posture effectively "authorized Patriot Prayer" to make arrests.The suit is one of many arising from Gibson's street protests, and his conflicts with leftists in Washington and Oregon.Contacted by phone, Gibson said he had not previously heard about the suit. Asked generally about the range of legal actions and prosecutions against him, Gibson said: "They're just trying to silence me. We've just got to push through."A WSP spokesman said via email that "it would be unfair to all concerned to comment on until resolved in court".Gibson and other associates are also defendants in a suit brought by Cider Riot, a Portland cidery popular with the city's radical left that was the center of a violent brawl in May this year, after Gibson and his associates made their way there, some armed with bricks, batons and chemical weapons.The cidery's owner, Abram Goldman-Armstrong, is seeking $1m from Gibson and his co-defendants.
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| AP FACT CHECK: Trump's wildfire tweets not grounded in facts Posted: 05 Nov 2019 02:11 PM PST  President Donald Trump is scorching the facts about California's wildfires. The president in recent tweets blamed California and Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom for the fires because of state forest management practices and said California's fires were too expensive and worse than in other states. The bulk of California's forests are also federally managed, and other parts of the U.S. are burning even more.
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| A blackface scandal rocked Virginia. Now, Democrats may still win full control of government Posted: 04 Nov 2019 11:50 AM PST  After Ralph Northam's blackface scandal and Justin Fairfax's sexual assault allegations, Virginia Democrats were in chaos. Now they may win the state.
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| Chicago Public Schools to plug new budget hole with one-time measures Posted: 05 Nov 2019 03:10 PM PST ![Chicago Public Schools to plug new budget hole with one-time measures]( "Chicago Public Schools to plug new budget hole with one-time measures") The Chicago Public Schools (CPS) said on Tuesday it would use $134 million in one-time revenue and savings to cover additional spending in its current budget partly because of a tentative contract agreement with its teachers union that ended an 11-day strike. Blake Yocom, an analyst at S&P Global Ratings, which rates CPS BB-minus with a positive outlook, said that while the one-time measures should close the fiscal 2020 budget gap, CPS could face future challenges.
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| By 2025, China Could Have TWO Stealth Bombers Posted: 05 Nov 2019 12:00 AM PST  A report from the DIA sheds light on Chinese military developments.
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| NYC ships homeless people across the country, new report claims Posted: 05 Nov 2019 08:52 AM PST  More than 12,000 homeless people in New York City were sent to live across the country in 32 states and Puerto Rico as part of a "special one-time assistance program," according to a new report.
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| View Photos of the 2021 Polestar 1 Posted: 05 Nov 2019 12:01 AM PST |
| Fifteen-year-old boy handed life sentence for murder of Dublin schoolgirl Posted: 05 Nov 2019 11:18 AM PST  A Court in Dublin has handed down a life sentence to one teenage boy and a 15-year term to another teenage boy for the murder of a 14-year-old girl in May 2018. The body of Ana Kriegel was found in a disused farmhouse in a village to the west of Dublin on May 17, 2018 following an extensive search. Her mother had reported her missing three days previously. She was naked apart from the socks on her feet and a ligature made from distinctive blue builder's tape which was found wrapped around her neck. There were various items of clothing strewn around the room. Test results revealed that Ana had been the victim of an aggravated sexual assault and a vicious assault. The police quickly arrested two boys, then aged 13. In the first case of its kind in the Republic of Ireland, the two boys, who cannot be named for legal reasons because they are both minors, were tried in the Central Criminal Court in Dublin. Boy A and Boy B as they were known, both denied murder. Patric and Geraldine Kriegel, the parents of schoolgirl Ana Kriegel, speak to the media outside Dublin's Central Criminal Court Credit: Niall Carson/PA Wire The trial, which started in April 2019, heard that the two boys gave varying accounts of their own and each other's movements the day of the murder. However, forensic experts presented DNA and other evidence connecting both boys to the murder scene. CCTV footage also showed both boys accompanying the young girl to the farmhouse. The court also heard that Ana, who was born in Russia on February 18, 2004 and adopted by Geraldine and Patric Kriegél two and a half years later, had been subjected to an ongoing campaign of intimidation and bullying at school. The jury of eight men and four woman delivered a unanimous guilty verdict on June 18 after six days of deliberations. Earlier today, Justice Paul McDermott sentenced Boy A, 15, to life in detention, but that his case is to be reviewed after 12 years. Boy A had been found guilty of sexual assault as well as the physical assault that caused Ana's death. Boy B, also 15, was sentenced to 15 years for the murder of Ana, although the judge ordered that his case be reviewed after eight years. Mr Justice McDermott said both sentences had to be proportionate to the severity of the crime. He noted that neither boy was suffering from a mental illness, although in mitigation he took into account their young age and potential for rehabilitation.
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| The Latest: Graham dismisses impeachment probe developments Posted: 05 Nov 2019 04:04 PM PST  Sen. Lindsey Graham told reporters Tuesday he doesn't plan to read the transcripts Democrats are releasing from the impeachment investigation, despite demanding that they be made public. The South Carolina Republican is also downplaying revised testimony from Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, about the Trump administration's pressure on Ukraine.
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