| NATO ally expels undercover Russian spy Posted: 16 Nov 2019 01:11 PM PST  In a rare move, NATO ally Bulgaria has expelled an undercover spy affiliated with the Russian military intelligence service, according to a Western intelligence source.
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| Trump impeachment narrative gathers steam as diplomats fill in details Posted: 16 Nov 2019 02:00 AM PST  The first week of public testimony in the impeachment inquiry of President Trump shed new light on the administration's efforts to procure a Ukrainian investigation of former Vice President Joe Biden.
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| Massachusetts man arrested after son, 5, allegedly takes heroin to school and brags it makes him feel like Spider-Man Posted: 17 Nov 2019 03:31 PM PST  A father is facing drug possession charges after his son, 5, allegedly took heroin to school and said tasting it made him feel like Spider-Man.
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| Nuclear missile bunker: yours for less than $400k Posted: 16 Nov 2019 10:03 AM PST  Decommissioned nuclear silo accessed 40ft staircase leading underground was once home to US's largest intercontinental ballistic missile ever deployedAll this can be yours for $395,000. Photograph: Casey James with Luxe Realty PhotographyOne local newspaper described the sales listing, with calculated understatement, as a "mid-century fixer-upper": an underground bunker built to withstand a nuclear attack, and to house the fire power to retaliate.The decommissioned nuclear silo in southern Arizona was once home to the Titan II, the largest intercontinental ballistic missile deployed by the US Air Force.The inside of the decommissioned Titan nuclear missile silo in southern Arizona. Photograph: Casey James with Luxe Realty PhotographyThe silo's owner, Rick Ellis, told the Arizona Daily Star newspaper that he was selling the property because he's "bored".Ellis said he originally bought the silo to turn into a commercial data storage center because it is shielded from electromagnetic pulses that can scramble electronics, but his plans were waylaid by the economic recession. So far, he said he has rejected serious offers from a buyer who wanted to turn it into a greenhouse for medical marijuana and another who planned to use it as a porn studio.The threshold to tour the property is much higher than for a typical open house. Interested buyers must prove they have the money to cover the $395,000 cost and sign a liability waiver before descending a 40ft staircase into the bunker to tour the property.An aerial view of the nuclear missile silo. Photograph: Casey James with Luxe Realty Photography"Private yet not too remote," says the listing for the property, which includes more than 12 acres of desert.There are 18 decommissioned nuclear silos which surround Tucson and were operational from June 1963 into the 1980s. They were on alert to launch, or respond, to nuclear attacks with the Titan II missiles, which carried warheads with nine megatons of explosive power – the equivalent to a yield 600 times that of "Little Boy", the bomb dropped over Hiroshima.When the bunkers were decommissioned, the government demolished them, filled them with rubble and sealed the entrances with concrete.Another view of the nuclear missile silo. Photograph: Casey James with Luxe Realty PhotographyEllis took on a major excavation after purchasing the property, which still includes some original equipment such as floor-to-ceiling springs which isolated each level of the basement from seismic shocks and signs revealing the bunker's designated smoking area.Premier Media Group created a 3D tour of the bunker which showcases pools of stagnant water and the 6,000lb blast door which can be closed with one hand.For those who can't provide the paperwork necessary to tour the property, realtors Grant Hampton and Kori Ward recommend a visit to the nearby Titan Missile Museum in Sahuarita, Arizona, which is inside a decommissioned silo.
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| Here's why Europe has mostly ditched wealth taxes over the last 25 years — even as Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders seek them for the US Posted: 17 Nov 2019 07:45 AM PST  Europe's wealth taxes were poorly designed, easy to avoid and not a significant driver of government revenue, experts say.
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| Leading Muslim groups to challenge India holy site court ruling Posted: 17 Nov 2019 09:25 AM PST  Two leading Muslim groups said Sunday they will file petitions in India's top court challenging its decision to award Hindus control of a bitterly disputed holy site that has sparked deadly inter-religious violence. The Supreme Court ruled on November 9 that the holy site in Ayodhya, where Hindu mobs destroyed a 460-year-old mosque in 1992, must be managed by a trust to oversee the construction of a Hindu temple. A separate piece of land in Ayodhya would be given over to a Muslim group to build a "prominent" new mosque.
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| Minneapolis Police Admit to Discovering 1,500 Untested Rape Kits, Spanning Over 30 Years, Found in Storage Posted: 17 Nov 2019 09:09 AM PST  "We had failure in terms of the auditing process of those kits"
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| The War That Made India a 'Great Power' (And Hurt Pakistan to This Day) Posted: 17 Nov 2019 10:00 AM PST  The 1971 India-Pakistan War.
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| Crowd honors tree as Havana celebrates 500th anniversary Posted: 16 Nov 2019 02:10 PM PST  Hundreds of people in Cuba's capital stood in line to kiss, touch or walk around a towering silk floss tree Saturday in a nod to tradition as they celebrate Havana's 500th anniversary this weekend. The event comes as Cuba deals with an ailing economy and increasingly tense relations with the U.S., concerns that were briefly cast aside as residents prepared for a gala event Saturday night featuring fireworks, music and international dignitaries. "Havana grows, lives, sings, dances and dreams," said Félix Julio Alfonso, a professor who spoke before granting the public access to the revered silk floss tree.
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| Chuck Todd Confronts GOP Senator: You Blame ‘Everybody’ but Trump on Ukraine Scandal Posted: 17 Nov 2019 09:25 AM PST  A month after their explosive confrontation over impeachment and Ukraine, Meet the Press anchor Chuck Todd and Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) were back at it on Sunday when Todd pointedly told Johnson that he seemed to "blame this on everybody" but President Trump.Johnson, who has previously said it made him "wince" when U.S. Ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland said President Trump would release military aid to Ukraine when Ukraine moved to "get to the bottom of what happened in 2016," told Todd that he understood why Trump wanted an investigation."What I also know is when I sprung that on President Trump in my August 31st phone call," Johnson said on Meet the Press, "he completely denied there was any kind of arrangement—Ukraine had to do something before he released that funding."GOP Sen. Ron Johnson Loses It on 'Meet the Press': I Do Not Trust the FBI or CIAJohnson went on to further claim that during that late-August call with Trump, the president was "already leaning towards providing that funding on August 31" before grousing about the delay being made public."My guess is that if this never would have been exposed, that funding would have been restored and our relationship with Ukraine would have been far better than it is today," the Republican senator declared."Again, you seem to blame this on everybody but the president," Todd snapped back, prompting Johnson to retort: "I'm not blaming everybody else!" "You are! You are blaming everybody else for the reason why we're in this situation other than the president," the NBC anchor exclaimed. "Isn't the president's own behavior, which raised all of these yellow and red flags, isn't that why we're here?"The Wisconsin senator said he was "sympathetic" to Trump because he "has been tormented" since right after he was elected, causing him to take aim at the impeachment inquiry whistleblower's lawyer for tweeting about a "coup" days after Trump's inauguration.Todd, however, noted that while Johnson was fuming over early calls for Trump's impeachment, the Republican lawmaker himself was pushing for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's impeachment days BEFORE the 2016 election."Understand, that is before an election," Johnson responded, defending his 2016 remarks. "I am trying to hammer out the political difference before an election. By the way, I completely agree with that. We had been investigating the whole Hillary Clinton email scandal, the exoneration of her, you know, that was not an investigation to really dig out the truth."Chuck Todd Tells GOP Senator: 'Don't Gaslight Us' on Ukraine-BidenRead 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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| Hong Kong protesters with bows, arrows battle police for control of university, dozens arrested Posted: 17 Nov 2019 04:36 PM PST  Hong Kong students shot arrows at police firing tear gas as escalating violence paralyzed the semi-autonomous Chinese territory's educational system.
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| Child abuse victims should have right to sue paedophiles caught with images of them, children charities say Posted: 17 Nov 2019 01:30 PM PST  Child abuse victims should be given new rights to sue paedophiles caught viewing or sharing indecent images of them, children charities have said. The Children's Charities' Coalition on Internet Safety (CCCIS) called for the initiative arguing it would act as a deterrent for offenders, who now know they are unlikely to go do jail, as it could mean potentially losing their homes and pensions if caught with abuse material. The CCCIS, which represents charities such as the NSPCC and Barnardo's, said those convicted of indecent images should also face a new automatic surcharge to fund the treatment and therapy costs of victims of abuse. The call comes as police have previously said they are struggling to cope with the now more than 5,000 arrests being made for indecent images every year. Police chiefs have argued that some paedophiles caught with indecent images could be dealt with by conditional cautions to lighten the caseload. John Carr OBE, Secretary of the CCCIS, said : "If you assume these offenders are rational, they must know that the chances of them being caught, convicted and sent to jail are very close to zero. "But if they knew that if they were caught their house, their car, their pension, their assets could be at risk as they are obliged to pay compensation to the victims, that would act as a major deterrent. "Why should the taxpayer pick up the entire bill (for victim treatment) if the guys who are responsible can fund it? We've got the phrase 'the polluter pays' - here we want the abuser to pay." Victims of child abuse can currently sue their abusers through the civil courts, however their rights regarding people caught with images or recordings of their abuse are far less clear. The CCCIS, said that explosion in abuse images being shared on the internet was causing long-lasting trauma to victims whose abuse had been recorded. Last year the US-based watchdog, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, said it received reports of 18 million images worldwide being shared across major tech platforms, including 16 million just from Facebook. The CCCIS also argued an automatic surcharge should be levied on the growing numbers of people caught with images, on top of the current victim surcharge, which would fund care for victims. Currently all people convicted in UK courts pay a victim surcharge of up to £181, the proceeds of which are dispersed among various victims' charities. Mr Carr added: "The victims of sexual abuse are completely clear and know that those images are circulating on the internet and being downloaded. Some of these young people will have that pain and burden the rest of their lives. "That is a huge source of stress and anxiety for them, and so the who business of downloading needs to be discouraged and stopped."
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| Italy battered by rain, Venice braces for another 'tough day' Posted: 17 Nov 2019 02:20 AM PST ![Italy battered by rain, Venice braces for another 'tough day']( "Italy battered by rain, Venice braces for another 'tough day'") Several Italian cities were on high alert on Sunday after heavy rain overnight, including Venice where residents and tourists were braced for another exceptional high tide. Authorities in Florence and Pisa were also closely monitoring the Arno river, whose water levels rose rapidly in the night due to heavy rain. The mayor of Venice, Luigi Brugnaro, said on Saturday that the city was preparing for another "tough day".
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| First African-American FBI agent finally gets recognition Posted: 16 Nov 2019 12:28 AM PST  There are no known photographs of James Wormley Jones, but there is a record of his hiring
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| Elephant dies in captivity after killing villagers Posted: 17 Nov 2019 10:33 AM PST  An elephant named after Osama bin Laden, the late al-Qaida leader, has died in captivity after he was captured following a massive hunt in northeastern India, officials said Sunday.
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| Why Russian Fighter Jets Are Threatening NATO In The Baltics Posted: 16 Nov 2019 12:05 PM PST  A Russian Su-27 recent intercepted an American F-15C.
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| GOP woman gets outsized role at impeachment hearing Posted: 15 Nov 2019 05:28 PM PST |
| Racist, anti-Semitic incidents prompt Syracuse to halt fraternity activities; Alpha Chi Rho suspended Posted: 17 Nov 2019 12:50 PM PST  Syracuse suspended a fraternity and halted social activities at all of them for the semester after a series of racist and anti-Semitic incidents.
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| Forgotten Genocide: How a Quarter of Europe’s Roma Were Murdered by the Nazis, then Erased From History Posted: 17 Nov 2019 02:18 AM PST  LONDON—It's impossible to fathom the scale of the depravity. An eyewitness account by a Holocaust survivor—unearthed for a new exhibition in London—describes the conditions in the "gypsy" section of Auschwitz as even more inhumane than the rest of the appalling facility."The conditions were worse than in the other camps," wrote eyewitness Hermann Langbein in 1945. "The route between the huts was ankle deep in mud and dirt. The gypsies were still wearing the clothes that they had been given upon arrival… footwear was missing… The latrines were built in such a way that they were practically unusable for the gypsy children. The infirmary was a pathetic sight."The Holocaust Didn't End with the Liberation of Auschwitz and the Nazi Death CampsThe report by Langbein, also a survivor of the Spanish Civil War, is just one of the sickening contemporary accounts highlighted in the exhibition Forgotten Victims: The Nazi Genocide of the Roma and Sinti at London's Wiener Holocaust Library (to March 11, 2020).Over 90 percent of the Roma held at Auschwitz did not survive the war.In total, it is estimated that up to half a million Roma and Sinti, the name taken by the nomadic people based in Germany, died during the Holocaust. Accurate estimates are impossible but that may have been a quarter of Europe's Roma and Sinti population.The plight of these people, commonly known as gypsies at the time, was overshadowed by the scale of the genocide perpetrated against Europe's Jewish community, but the Romani suffering was not simply eclipsed; it was systematically erased in the post-war period. Romani survivors did not qualify for restitution; the mass murder of the Roma was largely ignored at the Nuremberg trials; Germany did not formally recognize that there had been a Romani genocide until 1982.Like homeless and gay victims of the Holocaust, the Roma and Sinti people were primarily categorized by the Nazi killing machine as criminals or "asocials." For the tiny minority who survived, this meant they struggled to apply for compensation for their treatment in the same way as Jewish survivors.Despite the German authorities' failure to recognize this as another strand of genocide, there was plenty of evidence that the Nazis were applying similar twisted pseudo-science to portray the Roma and Jews as lesser people.The exhibition highlights the work of a man named Dr Robert Ritter, who was responsible for running the Racial Hygiene and Demographic Biology Research Unit from 1936. In 1941, he was promoted and also became head of the Criminal Biology Unit. Much of his work focused on trying to prove that the Romani people were racially inferior using a vast array of nonsensical and unscientific methods.He supported the sterilization of Roma women and expressed his concern about preventing intermarriage with other Germans. He was also personally responsible for identifying Roma and Sinti communities in Germany and Austria which were then raided by Nazis units who transported thousands to the camps.Ritter was never brought to trial. His racist project had obviously been influential among senior Nazi officials, however. In 1938, the head of the SS Heinrich Himmler wrote: "Experience gained in combating the gypsy nuisance, and knowledge derived from race-biological research, have shown that the proper method of attacking the Gypsy problem seems to be to treat it as a matter of race."It's utterly extraordinary that it took the German government until the 1980s to officially take Himmler's word for it: the mass execution of the Roma and Sinti people was a racially motivated genocide.It wasn't just within Germany; the Roma and Sinti people were largely left out of the picture when the world united to condemn the horrors of the Holocaust."There was no reckoning, no recognition," said Barbara Warnock, curator at the Wiener Holocaust Library. "At the Nuremberg war crimes trials, crimes against Roma weren't part of the indictments. There are some documents that were entered at Nuremberg that are to do with persecution against Jews that happen to mention persecution against Roma too but it wasn't something that was being particularly focused on or investigated even though people were aware of it. There's never been that big moment of acknowledgement."Warnock told The Daily Beast that there has been a historic and continued marginalization of Roma communities in Europe. "The failure to acknowledge the extent of persecution and suffering probably hasn't been helpful," she said.Documents that tell the typically depressing story of Hans Brann, a Roma survivor of Auschwitz, have been located by the Wiener Holocaust Library. He was one of just a couple of thousand Roma who entered Auschwitz and left alive.According to a police letter, the response to his restitution claim was to order a police inspector to investigate his claim, and prove that he was a criminal, not a racial victim. Not all of the documentation survives, but he must have been turned down because six years later Brann made the same claim of restitution. He had waited more than a decade for any recognition of the torment he had suffered.For the Roma people in Europe, the wait goes on. Recent years have seen crackdowns on communities in Italy, France and Hungary."Reflect upon the situation in Europe today," said Warnock. "A massive amount of prejudice and discrimination continues." 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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| French interior minister blames protest violence on 'thugs' Posted: 17 Nov 2019 02:29 AM PST  French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner blamed "thugs" and "bullies" on Sunday for the violence that hit demonstrations the previous day marking marked the first anniversary of the anti-government "yellow vest" protests. "Yesterday, what we saw were few (legitimate) demonstrators but thugs, bullies and morons," Castaner told Europe 1 radio when asked about the violence in Paris on Saturday. Demonstrators torched cars and pelted police with stones and bottles and police fired tear gas and water cannon during the rallies to mark a year since the birth of the anti-government yellow vest movement.
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| Three family murder-suicides within ten days shock Turkey as the country faces record unemployment Posted: 17 Nov 2019 09:31 AM PST  The deaths of three separate families within ten days have shocked Turkey as the country struggles with mass unemployment and a financial crisis. On Friday, authorities confirmed that a family of three had been found dead in their home in the central Istanbul district of Bakırköy, poisoned by cyanide. Police had entered the house after neighbours complained of a chemical smell. Bülent Kerimoğlu, the local mayor, said that the father, a jeweller, had financial troubles, and had poisoned himself, his wife, and his six-year-old child. It follows two similar stories involving cyanide. Earlier in the month, police discovered the bodies of a family of four, including a nine year-old daughter and a five year-old son, in their home in the southern city of Antalya. According to reports in local media the father, Selim Şimşek, left a note explaining he had been unemployed for nine months, adding: "I apologise to everyone, but there is nothing I can to any more. We are ending our lives." On Nov 5, four siblings aged between 38 and 50 killed themselves in their shared flat in Fatih, a conservative district in Istanbul, after leaving a note taped on their door reading: "Beware of cyanide. Call the police, do not enter." Turkish lira crisis sends shock waves on markets as defiant Erdogan prepares for more 'economic attacks' They were reportedly unable to pay their debts. Turkish media has discussed the incidents at length even though conversations about suicide are usually taboo in the predominantly Muslim county. The opposition Republican People's Party has said the suicides are the human cost of the country's slow recovery from its economic crisis last year, during which the lira plunged 30 per cent in value. Fuat Oktay, Turkey's vice president, said there was not enough evidence to link the suicides to unemployment, and pro-government media warned about the risk of news reports fuelling copycat incidents. Unemployment is still near record levels, and according to official statistics published last week, the rate rose to 14 per cent for August, or 4.5 million Turks, with youth unemployment at 27 per cent. Şeyfettin Gürsel, the head of Bahçeşehir University's Centre for Economic and Social Research Centre, describes the current rate of unemployment as "a real threat to the stability of Turkish society." This is the first time Turkey has faced such a sustained period of high unemployment.
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| There have been more mass shootings than days in 2019 Posted: 17 Nov 2019 12:03 AM PST  There have been more than 365 mass shootings so far in 2019
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| Officer in Louisiana won't face charges in 94 mph fatal crash Posted: 17 Nov 2019 08:53 AM PST  A Louisiana police officer who crashed a speeding car while off duty in 2017 will face no criminal charges in the death of a child.
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| US businesswoman says 'heartbroken' by Britain's Johnson Posted: 17 Nov 2019 06:21 AM PST  A US businesswoman at the centre of controversy over whether Boris Johnson showed her inappropriate favouritism amid an alleged affair said Sunday she had been left "heartbroken" and "humiliated" by the British prime minister. Jennifer Arcuri, who is accused of getting privileged access to foreign trade jaunts and grants when Johnson was previously London mayor, told Britain's ITV he was treating her like "some fleeting one-night stand". The technology entrepreneur said the British premier, now campaigning for re-election, had rebuffed her requests "for advice" after the scandal erupted in September and "hung up" on her.
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| Russia providing mood music for House impeachment drama Posted: 17 Nov 2019 06:15 AM PST  As has so often been the case since President Donald Trump took office, Moscow provides the mood music for the unfolding political drama. "With you, Mr. President, all roads lead to Putin," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi declared last week, and not for the first time. The impeachment investigation is centered on allegations that Trump tried to pressure Ukraine's new leader over the summer to dig up dirt on Trump political rival Joe Biden, holding up U.S. military aid to the Eastern European nation as leverage.
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| Pope Francis compared rhetoric from anti-gay politicians to Hitler speeches Posted: 16 Nov 2019 01:07 PM PST  Pope Francis compared anti-gay comments made by politicians to speeches made by Adolf Hitler in a speech on Friday in which he denounced homophobia.
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| Indian Muslims to pursue review of Hindu temple site ruling Posted: 17 Nov 2019 03:17 AM PST ![Indian Muslims to pursue review of Hindu temple site ruling]( "Indian Muslims to pursue review of Hindu temple site ruling") An Indian Muslim group said on Sunday it would file a petition in the Supreme Court asking for a review of a ruling that awarded a disputed site in Uttar Pradesh to Hindus, allowing them to build a temple there. India's Supreme Court ruled on Nov. 9 that a 2.77 acre (1.1 hectare) plot of land should be awarded to Hindus, who believe it is the birthplace of Lord Ram, a physical incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu. "There are apparent errors in the Supreme Court judgment, and we felt that it would be prudent to file a review petition," Syed Qasim Ilyas, a member of the group, told a press briefing.
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| Palestinian militant groups come to blows over Israel diplomacy Posted: 16 Nov 2019 08:10 AM PST  Tensions between Gaza's two largest Palestinian militant groups have spilled into the open as Islamic Jihad supporters angrily accused Hamas of not coming to their aid in this week's fighting with Israel. Islamic Jihad, a smaller militant group backed by Iran, fired more than 400 rockets into Israel this week in retaliation for Israel's assassination of one of their senior leaders. But Hamas, the dominant force in Gaza, stayed out of the fighting. Senior Hamas officials were accosted by Islamic Jihad supporters when they tried to visit a mourning tent for Baha Abu al-Ata, the assassinated Jihad commander. Some Jihad supporters threw stones at the Hamas leaders' cars. The clashes, which were broken up by Hamas policemen, were a rare public show of the fractures between the two groups. An Israeli missile launched from the Iron Dome defence missile system, designed to intercept and destroy incoming short-range rockets and artillery shells Credit: AFP Hamas did belatedly fire fire two rockets into Israel early on Saturday morning, the Israeli military said. Both rockets were shot down by Israel's Iron Dome missile system and Israeli warplanes struck Hamas targets in response. An Israeli official said it was not clear yet who gave the order for the rockets but it may have been a face-saving gesture as Hamas tried to fend off allegations that it had stood by and left Islamic Jihad to fight alone. Islamic Jihad usually cooperates with Hamas but also sometimes tries to outflank the larger group and present itself as the true armed resistance to Israel by firing rockets. That impetuousness has at times been a source of frustration for Hamas, which has been engaged in quiet indirect negotiations with Israel for more than year. About | Hamas The two mortal enemies have held stop-start talks towards a deal in which Israel loosens its 12-year blockade of the Strip, in return for Hamas halting rocket fire and keeping the border quiet. But Israeli officials say those understandings have been interrupted several times recently by al-Ata's rocket fire from Gaza, including an attack that sent thousands fleeing from a music festival this summer. Israel's military described al-Ata as an obstacle to "different diplomatic arrangements", a coded way of referring to an understanding with Hamas. Palestinian pupils hold a commemorative picture of their late classmate Moaz Abu Malhous at his school in Deir al-Balah town in central Gaza Strip, on November 16, 2019, two days after he was reportedly killed in an Israeli strike. Credit: AFP Which is why early on Tuesday morning Israel fired a missile into his home in the Shajaiyah neighbourhood of Gaza City, killing al-Ata and his wife. In the fighting that followed Israel focused its fire on Islamic Jihad and tried to avoid striking Hamas. A total of 34 people, of whom 18 were militants, were killed in Gaza. Eight civilians, including five children were killed in one Israeli strike. Israeli said it was targeting an Islamic Jihad commander but acknowledged Friday it may have been a case of faulty intelligence.
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| The Leonids meteor shower will send bright green shooting stars across the sky this weekend, early next week. Here's how to see them. Posted: 15 Nov 2019 10:21 PM PST  Sometimes the Leonids treat skywatchers to meteor storms, with thousands of shooting stars each hour. They glow green as their metals ignite.
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| Artificial Intelligence Can Now Predict When Lightning Will Strike Posted: 17 Nov 2019 06:58 AM PST  So, hopefully we can get out of the way before it's too late.
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| Chinese soldiers leave Hong Kong barracks in rare clean-up cameo Posted: 16 Nov 2019 06:53 AM PST  Soldiers from the Chinese People's Liberation Army briefly left their Hong Kong barracks on Saturday to help the clean-up after a week of disruption caused by pro-democracy protests, a rare and highly symbolic troop movement unsolicited by the city's embattled government. The action saw scores of soldiers from the garrison, which is confined to the barracks under Hong Kong's mini-constitution, with crewcuts and identical gym kits conduct a lightning-quick removal of bricks and debris near their base. Confirming the brief deployment on Weibo, China's Twitter-like social media platform, the PLA said it acted to open a debris-strewn road outside their Kowloon Tong barracks to traffic, winning "applause from residents" in the process.
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| Why Did a Russian Soldier Shoot Eight of His Comrades in Siberia? Posted: 16 Nov 2019 09:30 PM PST  Could it have been a hazing issue? Something more?
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| Report: Prosecutor used daughter as bait to catch molester Posted: 17 Nov 2019 11:39 AM PST  A Northern California prosecutor used his 13-year-old daughter to lure a man back to the spot where she said he had molested her, so the man's incriminating actions could be recorded on video, according to a newspaper report Sunday. The suspect has been arrested but the Santa Clara County prosecutor is under scrutiny for possibly endangering his child, the Mercury News reported, citing police reports and sources familiar with the case. Ali Mohammad Lajmiri, 76, of San Jose is charged with lewd and lascivious acts with a child under 14 and false imprisonment.
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| Epstein jail guards were offered plea deal: Sources Posted: 16 Nov 2019 07:43 AM PST  Federal prosecutors offered a plea deal to two correctional officers responsible for guarding Jeffrey Epstein on the night that he died, but the officers have declined the offer, sources told the Associated Press.
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| Gordon Sondland, who flaunted Trump access, may offer first-hand account of Trump's Ukraine aims Posted: 17 Nov 2019 09:17 AM PST  Gordon Sondland flaunted an ability to dial Trump's phone number at will. Now, his relationship with the president puts both in a precarious position.
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| UPDATE 1-Belarus threatens to pull out of Russia integration deal over subsidy row Posted: 17 Nov 2019 02:45 AM PST ![UPDATE 1-Belarus threatens to pull out of Russia integration deal over subsidy row]( "UPDATE 1-Belarus threatens to pull out of Russia integration deal over subsidy row") Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko on Sunday threatened to pull out of signing an integration deal with Russia next month if Moscow failed to resolve their dispute over energy subsidies. Russia has propped up its traditional ally with loans and subsidies to keep Belarus in its political orbit but now plans to phase these out to lessen the burden on its economy. Belarus previously said that it stands to lose hundreds of millions of dollars a year from changes to Russian tax policy and has tried to negotiate compensation.
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| Private zoo owner in Crimea pleads for public to take 30 of his bears so he won't have to euthanise them Posted: 17 Nov 2019 06:21 AM PST  The owner of a struggling safari park in Crimea is giving more than thirty bears to save them from euthanasia. Oleg Zubkov, the owner of the Taigan Lion Park near Simferopol, said he is seeking new homes for the animals because he can no longer afford to feed them. It comes after inspectors ordered the safari park, which is famous for its large collection of lions, found violations of veterinary regulations and ordered it closed for three months. Speaking on his Youtube channel, "the Lion Man," Mr Zubkov said he could not afford to feed and look after the animals without the revenue from ticket sales and was left with no choice but to find them new homes or put them down. "Twelve lions and tigers will be moved to other zoos shortly, and a final decision will be made about… shooting 30 bears from the park," he says in the video. "I've forced into these extreme measures because there are no other options left," he said. Oleg Zubkov with BBC television presenter Simon Reeve Credit: Jonathan Young Mr Zubkov said he had already fed several dozen of his Vietnamese pigs to the lions and tigers in a bid to cut costs, and that he had informed regional veterinary authorities about his decision to cull his bears. Valery Ivanov, the head of the state veterinary committee in Crimea, told Interfax no documents related to the killing of animals had been received. The Taigan Safari Park, which is home to 2,500 animals, was opened in 2012. Mr Zubkov also runs a second zoo, called Skazka, in Yalta. Both have been the subject of numerous complaints about the conditions in which the animals are kept, according to local officials. Last year Taigan was at the centre of a small scandal after one of the lions bit a 46 year old female tourist posing for photographs with the animal. Mr Zubkov's career has not passed without controversy Credit: Media Drum World / Alamy Stock Photo Mr Zubkov insists that his bears live in better conditions than in many other zoos in Russia, and that the biting incident was the only one of its kind. He has complained that authorities have been trying to shut him down ever since Russia annexed the Black Sea peninsular after Vladimir Putin annexed it from Ukraine in 2014. Mr Zubkov was an enthusiastic supporter the annexation at the time, and even featured in Russian television reports promising that his "fighting lions" would maintain order during the controversial referendum on "reunification" with Russia. In the months afterwards he made an unsuccessful bid to enter local politics and even tried to call Vladimir Putin during his annual phone-in show to invite him to the safari park. But by 2015 he had begun to complain that he and his zoo had become the target of a campaign of harassment by local officials apparently determined to put him out of business.
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| This Man Thwarted America’s First Impeachment Posted: 17 Nov 2019 02:15 AM PST  Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily BeastFed up with a president who compared himself to Jesus, who proposed hanging two political rivals, and then scoffed "I don't care about my dignity," the Republican-dominated House of Representatives approved an impeachment resolution, 126 to 47. The year was 1868.But when it came time to vote to convict in the Senate, Edmund G. Ross of Kansas—a fellow Republican, veteran of the Union army, and anti-slavery publisher—cast the decisive "not guilty" vote that kept President Andrew Johnson in office.The vote on June 6, 1868 set off a national uproar. Overnight, Ross became America's most hated man. Millions cursed him for signing "the death warrant of his country's liberty." A hometown newspaper blasted this "poor, pitiful, shriveled wretch, with a soul so small that a little pelf would outweigh all things else that dignify or ennoble manhood." Ross endured death threats and subsequently lost his Senate seat at the next election.But over the course of a century, Ross and his vote became an American legend—so much so that John F. Kennedy featured him in Profiles in Courage. By the late 20th century, Ross was portrayed as a politician whose motives were pure, his influence outsized, his suffering Christ-like. Schoolchildren learned that Ross sacrificed his career and his partisan standing with his Radical Republican friends to uphold truth, justice, and the Constitution's separation of powers.So what were Edmund G. Ross's real motives? And did impeachment really hinge on his shoulders alone? Well, the history is messy. It's worth remembering today how disunited the United States were in 1868. Slavery had so wrenched the country apart, that 750,000 Americans died fighting over whether to stay together. Shortly after the Union won that terrible Civil War in 1865, John Wilkes Booth murdered Abraham Lincoln, depriving America of the one leader who might have healed the nation.The Mystery of Lincoln's AssassinAs Lincoln's successor, Johnson was an unknown, non-slaveholding Southern Democrat suddenly leading a Republican administration. Even before Lincoln's assassination, rivals sneered that this illiterate "Reb"—a mere tailor by trade—was a drunk: a supposedly steadying shot of liquor, or three, he took before entering the Senate on Inauguration Day 1865, made him ramble. As president, he stumbled politically, repeatedly, aggressively defending policies Radical Republicans found too merciful.Still, Johnson was sloppy, not sinister. He tried re-integrating 11 states back into the Union with Lincoln-esque "malice toward none." But facing vengeful Radical Republicans who dominated Congress, the Tennessee outsider president lacked Lincoln's war-winning credibility. The tensions between the angry congressional leaders seeking to punish the South and the awkward president trying to heal the nation ultimately centered on the president's executive power to hire and fire. In 1867, the Radical Republicans passed the Tenure of Office Act, overriding President Johnson's veto. That law prevented the president from firing members of his own Cabinet without Senate approval. Correctly dismissing the law as unconstitutional, Johnson fired one of his harshest critics, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, a Radical Republican ally. Furious, the congressional Radical Republicans rammed through impeachment proceedings.On Feb. 24, 1868, the House of Representatives impeached Johnson. Nine of the 11 counts accused Johnson of violating the Tenure of Office Act.The vote then headed to the Senate, where Republicans needed a two-thirds supermajority to convict Johnson and remove him from office. At that time, Republicans controlled more than two-thirds of the seats. With no pretense of nonpartisanship, a mass lobbying effort bullied any wavering senators to stick to the party line.While six Republican Senators publicly refused to support the impeachment, a seventh, Edmund Ross, stayed silent. The Radical Republicans simply assumed that Ross, Kansas's junior senator, would vote with them. Born in Ohio in 1826, Ross trained as a printer because his father deemed him too frail to farm. Arriving in Topeka via covered wagon in 1856, Ross was an abolitionist who led the "Free State" movement opposing the institution of slavery in Kansas.After fighting his way up to major during the Civil War, Ross started editing the Kansas Tribune. In 1866, the abuse heaped on Ross's friend, Senator Jim Lane—a Republican who occasionally supported Johnson—turned deadly. Lane shot himself. Another wartime buddy, Governor Samuel Crawford, appointed Ross to be a loyal partisan.Ross followed orders, initially. But as impeachment loomed, Ross feared that the Radicals were setting a dangerous precedent. Impeachment wasn't a partisan pistol targeting presidents some dislike, he cautioned, but a punishment of last resort to penalize crimes we all abhor."For the first time in the history of the government, the President of the United States was at the bar of the Senate," Ross later wrote. Removing him "would have practically revolutionized our splendid political fabric into a partisan Congressional autocracy. A political tragedy was imminent."The Republicans' biased trial of Johnson further alienated Ross. Still "opposed to Mr. Johnson" but playing juror not partisan, Ross insisted: "He shall have as fair a trial as an accused man ever had on this earth." Ross ultimately found the "foundations of the Impeachment… too slender," and voted to not impeach—leaving the Republicans shy of their super-majority by one single vote.The skewering of Ross began. Many who tried wooing him before the vote now trashed him. Thugs tried to kidnap him. Investigators threatened political disgrace. Gossips claimed Johnson's supporters established a $150,000 slush fund to woo him and unleashed an 18-year-old sculptress, Vinnie Ream, to seduce him. Nasty articles sneered that this married father of seven "took his pleasures, not by the quart as drunkards do, but rather by the Ream."Still, Ross concluded: "THAT ESSENTIAL INGREDIENT OF JUDICIAL FAIRNESS WAS NOT SHOWN TO MR. JOHNSON... It was an ill-disguised and malevolent partisan prosecution." Championing the separation of powers, the senator defended the "dignity" of the "Chief Magistrate" and the presidency's "Constitutional rank as a co-ordinate department of the Government."Ross later wrote: "I almost literally looked down into my open grave. Friendships, position, fortune, everything that makes life desirable to an ambitious man were about to be swept away by the breath of my mouth, perhaps forever." Still, as he announced his dissent on the Senate floor, he thought: "Millions of men cursing me today will bless me tomorrow for having saved the country from the greatest peril through which it has ever passed, though none but God can ever know the struggle it had cost me."Actually, Ross was one of "seven martyrs," Republicans who opposed removing Johnson from office. At least four other senators would have voted to acquit—but didn't have to, thanks to Ross. Still, this rookie's surprising vote on May 16, 1868, doomed the impeachment, making him the lightning rod. Three days later, Navy Secretary Gideon Welles observed: "Ross is abused most."Senators froze Ross out in the halls. Kansas Supreme Court Justice L.D. Bailey telegrammed Ross: "the rope with which Judas Iscariot hanged himself is lost, but Jim Lane's pistol is at your service." Calling him a "coward," a "sneak," the Leavenworth Conservative proclaimed: "He is dead—dead to honor, dead to liberty, dead to Kansas."One night at dinner, while reading an encouraging letter from his wife, who was at home in Kansas, Ross started sobbing.Still, behind his high-minded statements defending the separation of powers, Ross was as patronage-driven as any politician. With the vice presidency vacant since Johnson succeeded Lincoln, the greedy, corrupt president pro tempore of the Senate, Benjamin Wade, was set to succeed Johnson. A Wade presidency would have boosted Ross's rival, Kansas's senior Senator Samuel Pomeroy. And while there was no evidence Ross was bribed to vote to save Johnson, by June 6 of the same year, Ross demanded that the president he saved now serve him—by appointing his buddy as Southern superintendent of Indian affairs. President Johnson agreed to this —and to future demands too.Edmund Ross did what politicians do. The regularized corruption of daily politics involves backscratching. While Ross and his six fellow martyrs failed to get re-elected, Democrats did well overall in the 1870 elections. Ross returned to publishing. From 1885 to 1889, he governed the New Mexico territory as an honest reformer.Ross shouldn't be demonized or deified. He showed judge-like impartiality in what the Constitution conceives of as a "trial." He demonstrated courage amid soul-crushing abuse. And he understood that impeachment should not be a losing partisan's first instinct but the statesman's last resort: that it should never mean "I hate the president," only "the president committed a crime." Impeachment makes sense, Ross said, "only in the gravest emergencies and for causes so clearly manifest as to preclude the possibility of partisan divisions or partisan judgments thereon." Buy on Amazon, $7.5Buy on Amazon, $29.95Read 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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| Motorola's iconic Razr flip phone was one of my favorite cellphones ever— but I wouldn't buy the new one Posted: 17 Nov 2019 05:45 AM PST  Motorola's Razr foldable phone is an exciting throwback, but its high price and somewhat lacking specs can make it a tough sell.
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| Huge Czech protest marking Velvet Revolution demands PM quit Posted: 16 Nov 2019 08:29 AM PST  More than 200,000 Czechs flooded central Prague on Saturday to mark 30 years since the Velvet Revolution toppled communism in then-Czechoslovakia, with protesters demanding that billionaire Prime Minister Andrej Babis quit over allegations of graft. Some demonstrators waved flags or brandished banners calling for Babis to step down and chanted "shame!" and "resign!". Czech police tweeted there were "more than 200,000 people while others are still coming" to the protest at Letna park in central Prague.
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| China's H-20 Stealth Bomber: The One Weapon America Won't Be Able to Beat? Posted: 16 Nov 2019 06:00 AM PST  Or just a myth?
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| Sheriff calls deadly shooting at Airbnb rental a ‘bloodbath’ Posted: 16 Nov 2019 06:03 AM PST  Authorities in the San Francisco Bay Area are calling a shooting that left five dead during a Halloween party at an Airbnb rental a "bloodbath," where several partygoers were armed and some showed up looking for trouble. Contra Costa Sheriff David Livingston said Friday that he knows residents in the plush San Francisco suburb of Orinda are on edge after the massive party on Oct. 31 and wanted to provide an update, although he could not yet say what sparked the shooting and who shot whom. Livingston said there is a wealth of evidence to process, including casings that littered the floors and countertops of the four-bedroom home with vaulted ceilings that hosted roughly 100 people that night.
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| A Black Hole Threw a Star Out of the Milky Way Galaxy Posted: 16 Nov 2019 07:02 AM PST  There are fastballs, and then there are cosmic fastballs. Now it seems that the strongest arm in our galaxy might belong to a supermassive black hole that lives smack in the middle of the Milky Way.Astronomers recently discovered a star whizzing out of the center of our galaxy at the seriously blinding speed of 4 million mph. The star, which goes by the typically inscrutable name S5-HVS1, is currently about 29,000 light-years from Earth, streaking through the Grus, or Crane, constellation in the southern sky. It is headed for the darkest, loneliest depths of intergalactic space.The runaway star was spotted by an international team of astronomers led by Ting Li of the Carnegie Observatories. They were using a telescope in Australia for a study known as the Southern Stellar Stream Spectroscopic Survey -- the S5. The star is about twice as massive as our own sun and ten times more luminous, according to Li.Drawing on data from the European Space Agency's Gaia spacecraft, which has charted the positions and motions of some 1.3 billion stars in the Milky Way, the astronomers traced the streaking star back to the galactic center. That is the home of a black hole known as Sagittarius A*, a gravitational monster with the mass of 4 million suns.The astronomers hypothesize that the runaway star was once part of a double-star system that came too close to the black hole. One of the pair fell in, and the other was sling-shotted away at hyperspeed. The process, a three-body gravitational dance, was first predicted by Jack Hills, a theorist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, in 1988.The dance with S5-HVS1 unfolded about 5 million years ago, according to Li and her team, which included Sergey Koposov of Carnegie Mellon University, lead author of a paper describing the results published Tuesday in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.The astronomers estimate that in about 100 million years the star will have exited the Milky Way entirely. It is yet another example of nature's ability to mix things up -- tossing comets from faraway stars into our solar system, and flinging ice, rock and who knows what else between the planets on asteroids.Out there, drifting among the other galaxies of the Local Group, far from the crowded circumstances of its birth, the star called S5-HVS1 will exhaust its thermonuclear fuel in about 2 billion years, blow up and die, alone. Like some people going off to college, say, some stars leave home and never come back.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
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| Barr Attacks Trump Opponents, Democrats in Fiery Speech Posted: 15 Nov 2019 07:08 PM PST ![Barr Attacks Trump Opponents, Democrats in Fiery Speech]( "Barr Attacks Trump Opponents, Democrats in Fiery Speech") (Bloomberg) -- Attorney General William Barr fired a broadside against critics of Donald Trump -- and congressional Democrats in particular -- while defending the president's actions.In a fiery speech Friday before the conservative Federalist Society on Friday, Barr said Trump's opponents are using every tool they can to intentionally sabotage his administration."Immediately after President Trump won election, opponents inaugurated what they called the Resistance," Barr said. "They essentially see themselves as engaged in a war, to cripple by any means necessary, a duly elected government."The attorney general defended Trump on multiple fronts, and castigated Democrats in Congress over their investigations, multiple subpoenas, as well as court rulings against the administration."The sheer volume of what we see today – the pursuit of scores of parallel investigations through an avalanche of subpoenas – is plainly designed to incapacitate the executive branch and, indeed, is touted as such," Barr said. "While the president has certainly thrown out the traditional Beltway playbook and punctilio, he was upfront about what he was going to do and the people decided they wanted him to serve as president."While Barr's speech came as House Democrats were holding their first public hearings in an impeachment inquiry against Trump for what they argue are abuses of power and obstruction of Congress, Barr didn't mention impeachment in his speech.The thrust of his address, which was punctuated by frequent applause, was to promote the idea of a robust executive branch and a strong president, and he argued that constitutional separation of powers has been eroded -- especially in recent years. And the attacks on Trump, he suggested, could weaken the government itself."One of the ironies of today is that those who oppose this president constantly accuse this administration of shredding constitutional norms and waging a war on the rule of law," he said. "Of course there is no substance to these claims.""In waging a scorched earth, no-holds-barred war of resistance against this administration, it is the left that has engaged in the systematic shredding of norms and undermining the rule of law," Barr said.To contact the reporter on this story: Chris Strohm in Washington at cstrohm1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Bill Faries at wfaries@bloomberg.net, John Harney, Shamim AdamFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Russia says it will return captured naval ships to Ukraine on Monday Posted: 17 Nov 2019 01:10 AM PST  Russia will return three captured naval ships to Ukraine on Monday and is moving them to a handover location agreed with Kiev, Crimea's border guard service was cited as saying by Russian news agencies on Sunday. A Reuters reporter in Crimea, which Russian annexed from Ukraine in 2014, earlier on Sunday saw coastguard boats pulling the three vessels through the Kerch Strait toward the Black Sea where they could potentially be handed over to Ukraine. Ukraine has been pushing for their return as a good will gesture from Moscow ahead of a possible four-way peace summit on eastern Ukraine next month.
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