| 2020 Vision: Hillary Clinton thinks Russia will back Tulsi Gabbard to help Trump stay in power Posted: 18 Oct 2019 12:11 PM PDT  "This is not some outlandish claim," Clinton said in an interview this week. "This is reality."
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| Trump actions look 'clearly' impeachable, says leading conservative legal figure Posted: 18 Oct 2019 02:01 AM PDT  Jack Goldsmith, who worked in the Justice Department under George W. Bush, says President Trump deserves to be impeached, but he's critical of how the Democrats are going about it.
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| Atomwaffen Division’s Washington State Cell Leader Stripped of Arsenal in U.S., Banned from Canada Posted: 19 Oct 2019 02:13 AM PDT  Police HandoutKaleb James Cole, the 24-year-old leader of Atomwaffen Division's Washington State Cell stripped of his firearms by a "red-flag law" late last month, was deported and banned for life from Canada earlier this year, according to court records, which also showed that he had been previously interrogated by American border agents about his extremist views.Cole, a National Socialist black metal enthusiast who goes by the alias "Khimaere," was first identified as a member of Atomwaffen Division in a 2018 ProPublica investigation. He played a key role in organizing "hate camp" trainings for the group's members at an abandoned building known as "Devil's Tower" in Skagit, Washington, and in Nevada's Death Valley. Cole also helped craft the group's eye-catching propaganda.Atomwaffen Division is an underground neo-Nazi guerrilla organization which had 23 chapters throughout the United States as of mid-2018. Since its inception in 2015, Atomwaffen members have been implicated in five homicides and several bomb plots, and are the subject of an intensifying national investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It makes common cause with other militant fascist groups like the Base and Sonnenkrieg Division in the United Kingdom, where authorities have charged a number of members with terrorism-related offenses.As The Daily Beast reported, the Seattle Police Department obtained an "Extreme Risk Protection Order" against Cole on September 26 to confiscate his concealed carry firearms permit and any firearms he owned for at least a year. That same day, SPD seized five rifles, a shotgun, three semiautomatic handguns and four lower receivers (the firing mechanism of a rifle that can be used to craft untraceable 'ghost guns') from Cole's father's house outside Arlington, in Washington State's Snohomish County.According to court records, none of the guns or the lower receivers seized from Cole were registered in Washington State's licensed firearms database."Law enforcement officials are increasingly concerned about the respondent's access to firearms and his involvement in the Atomwaffen Division, a known terrorist group," Seattle Police Sergeant Dorothy Kim wrote in a petition for an Extreme Risk Protection Order. As further evidence, Sgt. Kim cited Atomwaffen Division propaganda calling for "Race War Now," and the group's adherence to "acceleration theory," which urges actions that undermine the existing social order to "exacerbate the feeling of alienation among white supremacists and a greater impulse to engage in violence or destructive behavior."Cole's "words, actions and behavior suggest he has taken additional steps towards a plan with his ideologically motivated violence. Specifically, the coordinated camps with firearms training, overseas travel with Atomwaffen paraphernalia-flags/skull masks, threats to kill (gas the Kikes) and the possession of firearms, suggest an imminent risk to public safety if Cole is permitted to continue to purchase or possess firearms," Sergeant Kim wrote.The request to seize Cole's guns was reportedly made to Seattle Police by the FBI, which did not have enough information to file criminal charges but believed Cole posed a serious threat to public safety.Multiple law enforcement sources told The Daily Beast that Cole had been the target of an FBI investigation following his February 2018 identification by ProPublica. However, law enforcement made no contact with him until December 28, 2018, when Cole landed in Chicago's O'Hare International Airport on a flight from London. Customs and Border Protection pulled Cole aside for secondary screening. Records of that interview were included by the Seattle Police Department in their emergency risk petition last month.During the interview, Cole told CBP agents he had traveled to the Czech Republic, Poland and Ukraine with two friends from Washington State, Aidan Bruce-Umbaugh and Edie Allison Moore. The trip, Cole said, was to "see the historic architecture and museums in Eastern European countries." The three also attended a heavy metal festival while in Kyiv. The 2018 edition of Asgardsrei, a festival several National Socialist black metal bands have played in the past, was held in Kyiv from December 15-16 last year. Photographs from the concert posted to social media show an Atomwaffen Division flag brandished by individuals in the crowd. According to information obtained by The Daily Beast, Aidan Bruce-Umbaugh is a member of the Washington State cell of Atomwaffen Division, and goes by the moniker "Nythra." The drummer for Kaleb Cole's old metal band, Operblut, is listed as "Nythra" on music websites. In the CBP interview, Cole told federal agents he and Bruce-Umbaugh had been friends since grade school.Border agents searched Cole's luggage, and found a skull mask balaclava and an Atomwaffen Division flag inside his bag. When questioned about press reports tying him to Atomwaffen Division, Cole admitted to his involvement with the group and stated that he "shares a Fascist ideology, 'strong dominate the weak'." He also admitted he owned an AK-47 and multiple handguns "for his own protection."Cole's phone was also searched by border agents, who downloaded several images from the device. Amongst them are a photograph of Cole and another man wearing skull mask balaclavas in front of the gates of Auschwitz, the death camp where the Nazis murdered hundreds of thousands of Jews. Images of him posing with other Atomwaffen members, firearms, and the group's flag were also recovered from Cole's phone.According to multiple sources close to law enforcement, Cole previously attracted the interest of Canadian authorities by frequently driving across the border to British Columbia, sometimes several times a week. In late May, Cole was detained by the Canadian Border Service Agency because of press reports linking him to Atomwaffen Division, as well as "his overseas travel to Ukraine," where several right-wing extremists have traveled to fight with the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion against Russia-backed separatists.According to court records, he was held by Canadian authorities and placed into deportation proceedings due to his involvement in "an organization that may engage in terrorism," per Section 34 [1][F] of the Canadian Immigration Code. According to records prepared by the Seattle Police Department, Cole was deported in July and "barred from Canada for life."The Canadian Border Services Agency and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police both declined to comment on Cole's deportation, the Atomwaffen Division or its affiliated organizations in Canada, citing the restrictions of Canada's Privacy Act. Earlier this year, Patrik Mathews, a master corporal in the Canadian Military Reserve went AWOL after being identified as a recruiter for the Base. Mathews—who reportedly came to the attention of multiple Canadian security agencies because racist material was previously found by the Canadian Border Services Agency in his car while crossing the border with the United States—is still at large.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Asylum-seeking Mexicans are more prominent at US border Posted: 18 Oct 2019 05:46 PM PDT ![Asylum-seeking Mexicans are more prominent at US border]( "Asylum-seeking Mexicans are more prominent at US border") Lizbeth Garcia tended to her 3-year-old son outside a tent pitched on a sidewalk, their temporary home while they wait for their number to be called to claim asylum in the United States. The 33-year-old fled Mexico's western state of Michoacan a few weeks ago with her husband and five children — ages 3 to 12 — when her husband, a truck driver, couldn't pay fees that criminal gangs demanded for each trailer load. "I'd like to say it's unusual, but it's very common," Garcia said Thursday in Juarez, where asylum seekers gather to wait their turn to seek protection at a U.S. border crossing in El Paso, Texas.
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| UPDATE 1-Mexico flies 300 Indian migrants to New Delhi in 'unprecedented' mass deportation Posted: 18 Oct 2019 01:27 AM PDT ![UPDATE 1-Mexico flies 300 Indian migrants to New Delhi in 'unprecedented' mass deportation]( "UPDATE 1-Mexico flies 300 Indian migrants to New Delhi in 'unprecedented' mass deportation") MEXICO CITY/NEW DELHI Oct 17 (Reuters) - Mexico has deported over 300 Indian nationals to New Delhi, the National Migration Institute (INM) said late on Wednesday, calling it an unprecedented transatlantic deportation. The move follows a deal Mexico struck with the United States in June, vowing to significantly curb U.S.-bound migration in exchange for averting U.S. tariffs on Mexican exports. "It is unprecedented in INM's history - in either form or the number of people - for a transatlantic air transport like the one carried out on this day," INM said in a statement.
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| Israel, Russia, and the US are in a diplomatic standoff over a 26-year-old woman smuggling 9 and a half grams of marijuana Posted: 19 Oct 2019 10:54 AM PDT  Naama Issachar, 26, was sentenced to 7.5 years of prison in Moscow, and negotiating her release is part of a bigger diplomatic dispute.
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| Trump's hasty exit forced US troops to bomb their own base in 'an extreme worst-case scenario' Posted: 17 Oct 2019 05:41 PM PDT  A spokesperson for the US counter-ISIS mission said that the procedure was pre-planned, and reduced the base's military usefulness.
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| Could France and Germany Jointly Build an EU Aircraft Carrier? Posted: 18 Oct 2019 08:00 PM PDT  All in all, a European carrier will only come about in a world where Germany is willing and able to commit far more resources to defense than it currently does; and can arrive at a joint vision with France on how to use such an expensive vessel to project force abroad. That's not the world we live in yet.
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| The Latest: Syria Kurds say they will withdraw from border Posted: 19 Oct 2019 01:38 PM PDT  A senior Syrian Kurdish official says his forces will pull back from a border area in accordance with a U.S.-brokered deal after Turkey allows the evacuation of its remaining fighters and civilians from a besieged town there. Redur Khalil, a senior Syrian Democratic Forces official, said Saturday the plan for evacuation from the town of Ras al-Ayn is set for the following day, if there are no delays. Khalil said a partial evacuation happened earlier Saturday from Ras al-Ayn after much stalling and with U.S. coordination.
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| Next-Gen Dodge Challenger Coming in 2023? Don't Be So Sure, Says Dodge Posted: 18 Oct 2019 12:40 PM PDT  The number 2023 spotted on press photos has people all excited, but Dodge told C/D it doesn't mean anything.
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| High-profile cases turn spotlight on domestic violence in Russia Posted: 18 Oct 2019 07:34 PM PDT  Natalia Tunikova's partner pushed her towards the open balcony in their high-rise Moscow flat, before punching her to the floor. A Moscow court later ruled that her use of force in self-defence was not justified. Cases like Tunikova's are ever more widely reported in Russia, leading to a public outcry in a country that has no specific law on domestic violence and where feminist movements like #MeToo had little impact.
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| The Chicago teachers' strike shows how to go on offense against neoliberalism Posted: 19 Oct 2019 03:00 AM PDT  Chicago teachers led the battle against destructive reforms seven years ago – now they're showing all working people left behind by cuts how to fight'Together, the coordinated strikes have put more than 30,000 workers on the picket lines – more than 1% of the city's population.' Photograph: Xinhua/Barcroft MediaIn 2012, when Chicago teachers walked off the job in their first strike in 25 years, the cards were stacked against them, nationally and locally. Today, they're on strike again – and on the offense against austerity.Seven years ago, Rahm Emanuel had just been elected mayor and was looking to deal the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), who he saw as a barrier to privatizing the city's education system, a crushing defeat. That agenda was shared by both Republicans and Democrats across the country, with a barrage of attacks on teachers' unions, devastating budget cuts to schools and charter school networks – intended to undercut public schools and do an end run around their unions – rapidly multiplying.Yet after electing a new militant leadership in 2010 that pledged to fight not just for bread-and-butter issues like higher pay but a broad agenda of "educational justice" and opposition to austerity, Chicago teachers won that strike, inspiring educators and workers of all kinds across the country – and planting the seeds of future unrest in schools across West Virginia, Oklahoma, Arizona, Oakland, Denver and elsewhere, in the teachers' strike wave that kicked off last year.Chicago teachers are again on strike, now against the recently elected mayor, Lori Lightfoot. As in 2012, their demands are focused on burning issues in their schools and the city as a whole rather than simply wages and benefits (a strategy that has been called "bargaining for the common good"). And they're waging that fight alongside another striking union, SEIU Local 73, which represents bus aides, janitors, classroom assistants and other school staff – many of whom earn below-poverty wages.CTU's staffing demands are straightforward: a nurse, counselor, librarian and social worker in every school. The current ratio of students to counselors, nurses and social workers in Chicago public schools (CPS) far exceeds professional association recommendations. The National Association of School Psychologists recommends one psychologist for every 700 students; last year, each CPS psychologist served 1,760. For nurses, the ratio is four times what is recommended; for social workers, nearly five times. The union is also demanding enforceable caps so that classes aren't overcrowded, which CTU says is the case in nearly a quarter of all Chicago classrooms.The union is also connecting its bargaining to the city's affordable housing crisis, demanding housing assistance for both its members and its students, nearly 16,000 of whom experience homelessness. The op-ed pages of the city's newspapers have upbraided this proposal, but CTU argues that "to fully support our public schools, we must address the lack of sustainable, affordable housing in our city" – a problem faced by cities throughout the country.CTU is breaking new ground, both in the kinds of broad working-class demands it is putting forward and by striking alongside SEIU Local 73. Together, the coordinated strikes have put more than 30,000 workers on the picket lines – more than 1% of the city's population. Yesterday, a sea of CTU red and SEIU purple swarmed the city's downtown in the afternoon, with thousands on the streets for a mass march after morning school pickets.The union is up against Lightfoot, a political newcomer who won office earlier this year by campaigning as a progressive and running on an education agenda that borrowed heavily from CTU's: an elected school board rather than one appointed by the mayor, a freeze on charter expansion and major investments in public schools. But Lightfoot's progressive posturing is now running up against tens of thousands striking Chicago teachers and staff who want more than progressive rhetoric – they want hard commitments, put in writing and legally enforceable through their contract.If she continues to balk at union demands at the bargaining table, Lightfoot will probably see the goodwill she has maintained from average Chicagoans since taking office disappear. The signs don't look good for her: a Chicago Sun-Times poll conducted just before the strike shows that the public is backing the CTU over the mayor and school board. The same was true for Rahm Emanuel in 2012.Critics on the school board and in mainstream media have responded with the common refrain that Chicago is broke and can't afford such demands. But Chicago is awash in wealth – enough for Lightfoot to approve the giveaway of $1.3bn in public money to luxury real estate firm Sterling Bay for the mega-development project Lincoln Yards. CTU has long argued that the way to pay for their demands is clear: end these corporate giveaways and tax the rich.The nationwide neoliberal education reform movement was on the march when CTU struck in 2012. But after numerous corruption scandals, growing charter school unionization and strikes, and teacher walk-offs in states throughout the country, that movement is on its heels. Just as the Democratic party has been forced to at least feint left on issues like Medicare for All and free public college tuition because of Bernie Sanders's presidential campaigns, the party has been forced to back off of its most fervent support for corporate education reform.Chicago teachers led the way in the fight against these destructive reforms seven years ago. Today, they're showing educators around the country how to fight not only for themselves, but for all working people who have been left behind by budget cuts and the dismantling of the public sector.The education policy scholar Pauline Lipman once described Chicago as "the incubator, test case and model for the neoliberal urban education agenda". This week, teachers are working to make sure Chicago is where that agenda ends. * Miles Kampf-Lassin is an editor at In These Times. * Micah Uetricht is the managing editor of Jacobin and host of its podcast The Vast Majority. He is the author of Strike for America: Chicago Teachers Against Austerity and coauthor of the forthcoming Bigger Than Bernie: How We Go From the Sanders Campaign to Political Revolution in Our Lifetimes
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| Tropical Storm Nestor downgraded to cyclone as tornadoes, flooding slam Florida coast Posted: 19 Oct 2019 10:43 AM PDT  Strong winds and storm surge threatened the Florida Panhandle Saturday as Tropical Storm Nestor began to move inland along the coast.
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| Here's the Deadline Countdown for Every Trump Impeachment Subpoena Issued So Far Posted: 18 Oct 2019 11:22 AM PDT  We're updating this live as more subpoenas are issued
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| Why Did 3 U.S. Navy Submarines Surface In The Pacific In 2010? China. Posted: 19 Oct 2019 03:00 AM PDT  Submarines are useful for signaling intent.
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| Erdogan says Turkey to resume Syria offensive if truce deal falters Posted: 19 Oct 2019 03:29 AM PDT  President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday Turkey would press on with its offensive into northeastern Syria and "crush the heads of terrorists" if a deal with Washington on the withdrawal of Kurdish fighters from the area was not fully implemented. Erdogan agreed on Thursday in talks with U.S. Vice President Mike Pence a five-day pause in the offensive to allow time for the Kurdish fighters to withdraw from a "safe zone" Turkey aims to establish in northeast Syria near the Turkish border. In the last 36 hours, there have been 14 "provocative attacks" from Syria, Turkey's defense ministry said, adding it was continuing to coordinate closely with Washington on implementation of the accord.
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| Brazil prosecutors demand government plan for oil spill Posted: 18 Oct 2019 03:34 PM PDT  Brazil's public prosecutor's office requested the government be forced to activate its national plan to minimize damages caused by an oil spill contaminating the nation's northeast coast, including popular tourist beaches. It alleges the government's response has thus far been "silent, inert, inefficient and ineffective" in the face of the spreading crude. Prosecutors from the nine states whose coasts have been sullied by the sludge - whose origin remains unknown - asked the federal justice system to grant the government a 24-hour period to activate the plan and set a daily fine equivalent to nearly $250,000 for failure to comply.
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| Archaeologists have located an ancient city hidden in the Cambodian jungle. The discovery was 150 years in the making. Posted: 18 Oct 2019 08:45 AM PDT  For centuries, the ancient city of Mahendraparvata has been covered by dense trees that make it hard to observe.
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| Ousted Communist leader Zhao Ziyang is buried: family Posted: 19 Oct 2019 12:00 PM PDT  A former Chinese Communist Party leader ousted after he opposed the use of force to quell 1989 democracy protests was buried over a decade after he died, his family said, in a service ignored by state media. Zhao Ziyang, who is a revered figure among Chinese human rights defenders, is still a sensitive topic in the country, where commemorations of his death are held under tight surveillance or prevented altogether. There was no mention of his burial ceremony Friday on state media, and searching for his name on social media returned no results.
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| 7 Things To Do With Your Old Smartphone Posted: 19 Oct 2019 12:00 PM PDT |
| South Korean Students Break Into U.S. Ambassador’s Residence Posted: 18 Oct 2019 10:27 PM PDT ![South Korean Students Break Into U.S. Ambassador's Residence]( "South Korean Students Break Into U.S. Ambassador's Residence") (Bloomberg) -- A group of South Korean students broke into the residence of American ambassador Harry Harris on Friday, in a protest against Donald Trump's campaign to get the Asian nation to pay more for U.S. military support.Nineteen students, who described themselves as members of a liberal university students' group, were detained by police after staging a protest against plans to impose a bigger financial burden for the stationing of U.S. troops in the country, the Yonhap News Agency reported.The students used a ladder to climb the walls of the ambassador's residence, next to an old South Korean palace, and urged Harris to leave the country.The incident happened days before officials from the U.S. and South Korea are due to meet in Honolulu for the next round of talks on sharing defense costs.After the incident, Seoul police dispatched 80 more officers to beef up security of the envoy's home, according to Yonhap.Earlier this year, the two allies reached a one-year cost-sharing deal for maintaining about 28,500 American troops in South Korea. That deal expires at the end of 2019.The relationship between the two allies soured after Seoul abruptly announced the termination of a three-year-old pact with Japan -- another U.S. key ally -- for exchanging classified military information. That was in response to Japan's move to restrict exports of key materials for the manufacture of semiconductors to South Korea.To contact the reporters on this story: Kanga Kong in Seoul at kkong50@bloomberg.net;Jihye Lee in Seoul at jlee2352@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Shamim Adam at sadam2@bloomberg.net, Marcus Wright, Jasmine NgFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Convicted Killer Now Charged in Estranged Wife’s Cold-Case Murder: Prosecutors Posted: 18 Oct 2019 10:18 AM PDT  Virginia State Police/HandoutA Virginia man who is behind bars for killing his girlfriend has now been charged with the murder of his wife three decades ago, prosecutors announced Friday.Jose Rodriguez-Cruz, 53, was indicted by a Stafford County grand jury for the May 1989 murder of 28-year-old Marta Haydee Rodriguez. Rodriguez-Cruz is currently serving a 12-year prison sentence for the 2009 murder of his girlfriend, Pamela Butler, who was a federal worker in Washington, D.C.During a Friday press conference, Stafford County Commonwealth's Attorney Eric Olsen announced that the former military police officer, who was discharged after threatening to harm his female superior twice, has been charged with first-degree murder and the unlawful concealment of his wife's body, finally bringing a 30-year investigation to a close. Cops: NYPD Officer Ordered Hit on Estranged Husband, Boyfriend's Kid"This is the ultimate act of domestic violence and it's noteworthy that in the month of October justice is going to be delivered for Marta Rodriguez," Olson said, pointing out that October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Rodriguez was last seen on May 1, 1989, as she walked to a bus stop after leaving her job as a nurse's aide. Prosecutors allege Rodriguez-Cruz murdered his first wife shortly after she told police he had assaulted and kidnapped her—but before she could testify against him in court."If I can't have her, no one will," Rodriguez-Cruz once said, according to 2017 court documents.The 28-year-old's body was found in 1991 on an Interstate 95 median but was not positively identified until last year.Twenty years after his wife's 1989 disappearance, Rodriguez-Cruz fatally strangled Butler, an Environmental Protection Agency analyst and his girlfriend of seven months, during a heated argument before hiding her body. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in 2017, at which point he confessed to killing the 47-year-old in her basement in 2009 before slipping her body out of a first-floor window.Air Force Major Charged With Murder After Missing Wife's Remains FoundOne of Rodriguez-Cruz's friends told authorities that he once said it was "easy" to get rid of a body because "if you dig a hole deep enough, no one will find it," according to testimony at his plea hearing. As part of his plea deal, Rodriguez-Cruz told police he buried Butler in 2009 along Interstate 95—where Rodriguez was found—but her remains were never discovered. Derrick Butler, Pamela's brother, also attended Friday's news conference and told reporters he was relieved to hear news of Rodriguez-Cruz's latest charge.Authorities believe his pattern of abuse stretches beyond the death of his two former lovers. In 2017, investigators testified that the 53-year-old told his second wife he knew how to make sure a body was never found. Another woman, a security guard at a federal office, also told detectives that Rodriguez-Cruz allegedly duct-taped her wrists, held a gun to her head, and sexually assaulted her in 2004. "This man doesn't impulsively kill. He abducts women, duct-tapes them, sexually assaults them, and then holds them captive," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Glenn Kirschner said at the 2017 hearing. "Duct tape and a gun are his weapon of choice."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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| India's Nuclear Weapons Arsenal Keeps Getting Bigger and Bigger Posted: 19 Oct 2019 11:30 AM PDT  A large arsenal in a dangerous part of the world.
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| McConnell rebukes Trump administration: Syria withdrawal is a 'grave strategic mistake' Posted: 18 Oct 2019 04:55 PM PDT  The Senate majority leader never mentions President Donald Trump by name in his op-ed for the Washington Post.
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| Hondurans call for president to step down after drug verdict Posted: 19 Oct 2019 01:28 PM PDT  Opposition groups called Saturday for continuing protests to demand that Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández be removed from office after his younger brother was convicted of drug trafficking in a New York court. President Hernández insisted via Twitter that the verdict is not against the state of Honduras, saying his government has fought drug trafficking. On Saturday he attended a parade to honor the country's armed forces and posted pictures of himself on Twitter smiling alongside the U.S. chargé d'affaires to Honduras, Colleen Hoey.
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| Archaeologists discover hidden city in the jungle Posted: 18 Oct 2019 12:08 PM PDT  For centuries, the ancient city of Mahendraparvata has been buried under a dense canopy in the Cambodian jungle. It was one of the first capitals of the Khmer Empire, which controlled large swaths of Southeast Asia from the 9th to 15th centuries. Over the last 150 years, archaeologists have uncovered artifacts that they suspected came from Mahendraparvata, but they didn't have enough evidence to support the link — until now.
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| Clinton email probe finds no deliberate mishandling of classified information Posted: 18 Oct 2019 05:09 PM PDT  A U.S. State Department investigation of Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server while she was secretary of state has found no evidence of deliberate mishandling of classified information by department employees. The investigation, the results of which were released on Friday by Republican U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley's office, centered on whether Clinton, who served as the top U.S. diplomat from 2009 to 2013, jeopardized classified information by using a private email server rather than a government one.
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| One year on, migrant caravan leaves unexpected legacy Posted: 18 Oct 2019 06:25 PM PDT  A year ago, thousands of Central American men, women and children chasing the American dream arrived in Mexico in a massive caravan that has left a lasting legacy -- just not the one people generally thought it would. Fleeing chronic poverty and brutal gang violence at home, they banded together in hopes of finding safety in numbers against the dangers of the journey, including criminal gangs that regularly extort, kidnap and kill migrants. The images made an impact around the world: carrying their meager belongings on their backs, many migrants pressed small children to their chests or held them by the hand.
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| Harry Dunn's family vow to expose 'cover up' as Foreign Office admit they asked police to delay passing on information Posted: 18 Oct 2019 05:41 AM PDT  The family of Harry Dunn have said they suspect the British government of colluding with the United States to "cover up" details of his death and renewed calls for police to extradite Anne Sacoolas, the wife of a US intelligence agent accused of killing him. Radd Seiger, a spokesman for the family, said: "The search for justice has now expanded beyond simply Mrs Sacoolas' return, as important as that is. "The family is now concerned that there has been misconduct and a cover up on both sides of the Atlantic and they are intent on exposing it." The call came after Dominic Raab, the Foreign Secretary, admitted the Foreign and Commonwealth Office asked police to delay informing the family that Mrs Sacoolas had left the country. Speaking on Good Morning Britain, Mr Raab said: "I know there was a delay and we were asked our opinion by the police, and I think an official from the Foreign Office said it would be helpful to have a day or two. "I know the police delayed a bit longer, and they are responsible for that." He added: "We have done everything we can within the law to clear the path so that justice can be done for the family and we will continue to do so." Mr Raab was speaking after ITV News reported there had been a been a ten-day delay between officers learning that Mrs Sacoolas had left the country and the family being told. Dominic Raab admitted FCO officials asked police to delay telling Harry Dunn's family that Anne Sacoolas had left the country Credit: Victoria Jones/PA Charlotte Charles and Tim Dunn, Harry's parents, told the Telegraph they felt that the British government had abandoned them, saying they believe the Foreign Office "just want us to go away and forget about it all". "We don't understand why," said Mr Dunn. "Harry has died in an accident, and we feel that nobody but us wants to get justice for him." They were due to fly back from the United States on Friday after a five day trip to plead with US officials to send Mrs Sacoolas back to the UK. The trip included a surprise meeting with Donald Trump at the White House, which the family say ended after he suggested an impromptu photo-opportunity meeting with Mrs Sacoolas in the Oval Office. Anne Sacoolas left the country after she allegedly collided with his motorbike near RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire on August 27 Mr Seiger said when they said they would only meet her on UK soil, Robert O'Brien, Mr Trump's national security adviser, said she would never return to Britain. Mrs Sacoolas is alleged to have been driving her right-hand drive Volvo on the wrong side of the road when her car hit Mr Dunn, who was riding his motorbike, on August 27. She and her husband Jonathan Sacoolas, a US intelligence officer, were spirited out of Britain on a private flight from a US air base after the incident. The 42 year old mother-of-three, claimed diplomatic immunity to avoid prosecution despite not being on the official London diplomatic list. The Foreign Office confirmed however that Mrs Sacoolas and her husband, 43, were given diplomatic immunity prior to their arrival in the UK under the Vienna Convention. The immunity is extended to intelligence officers and other Americans working on military bases including RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire where the crash happened. Mr Seiger said the family did not accept that Mrs Sacoolas had diplomatic immunity and would be meeting with the chief constable of Northamptonshire police next week. The family has called on the force to charge Mrs Sacoolas and initiate extradition proceedings. Mr Seiger said he the family had told the FCO and US officials that they were prepared to "have a conversation" if there were security concerns related to Mr Sacoolas' work, but had been rebuffed. "If there is some good reason why this lady should have been recalled, the family would have been open to that discussion. But they just completely ignored us," he said.
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| Boris Johnson Furious as Parliament Refuses to Be Bounced Into Brexit Deal Posted: 19 Oct 2019 07:07 AM PDT  REUTERSLONDON—Boris Johnson was left raging on Saturday as lawmakers forced the prime minister to seek yet another Brexit delay from the European Union. The extremely rare parliamentary vote taken on a Saturday did not reject Johnson's compromise deal with the EU outright, it merely demanded more time for the deal to be examined and inserted an additional failsafe to stop Britain from slipping out of the EU without an agreed deal on Halloween.No. 10 was furious because Johnson has repeatedly promised to leave the EU by October 31, and that will now become more difficult. Brexit campaign insiders lamented the destruction of Johnson's "head of steam," and an end to the momentum created by his unlikely success in securing a deal from Europe. After another vote that went against Johnson last month, the prime minister is now legally mandated to write to the EU asking for an extension to January 31. The government formally asked for the extension Saturday night, but also sent a letter from Johnson arguing against the delay.EU Council President Donald Tusk said in a tweet that he had received the request. "I will now start consulting EU leaders on how to react," he said.Johnson is expected to bring the withdrawal legislation to the floor of the House of Commons early next week, so he may only have to wait a few days to secure victory but Labour opponents—and nervous No. 10 insiders—believe that potential support for the deal may ebb away once lawmakers get the chance to fully examine the fineprint.Just two days after Johnson was back-slapping European counterparts and clasping hands with fellow leaders, his precarious grip on power was underlined once again in a vote that went against him by 322 to 306.In response, Johnson stood up and said he would refuse to "negotiate" a further extension with the EU. He stopped short of saying he would refuse to comply with the law and send the extension letter, although he reiterated his hopes that the EU would not immediately grant an extension. "I don't think they'll be attracted by delay," he said.As lawmakers continued to debate the result, Johnson sat slumped on the frontbench shaking his head. It was a sharp contrast to his mood two days earlier. Tickled pink with the deal he had unexpectedly secured from the EU, Johnson had sought to rush back to Westminster and bounce parliament into agreeing. One of his own long-term colleagues, Sir Oliver Letwin, had other ideas. Letwin is a veteran Conservative right-winger who has been in the heart of Conservative thinking for decades. He was a member of Margaret Thatcher's Downing Street policy unit in the 1980s and entrusted by David Cameron to write the Tory manifesto in 2010.He was kicked out of the party last month by Johnson after voting to ensure there wouldn't be a No Deal Brexit. He exacted his revenge on Saturday by wrecking Johnson's chance for a victorious homecoming. 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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| Mexico deports 311 Indian nationals in 'unprecedented' move Posted: 18 Oct 2019 07:17 AM PDT  More than 300 Indian nationals who paid tens of thousands of dollars each trying to get into the United States arrived in New Delhi Friday after an "unprecedented" mass deportation by Mexico. The move, which saw those deported flown back to the capital on a charter flight, follows a deal on illegal migration struck between Mexico and US President Donald Trump in June. The only woman in the group of 311 people, Kamaljit Kaur, 34, told the Press Trust of India news agency she spent 5.3 million rupees ($74,500) for herself, her husband and her son.
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| Russia's Stealth Su-57 Is a Beast, But Can Russia Afford It? Posted: 19 Oct 2019 01:00 AM PDT  It's pretty expensive for Russia's flagging economy.
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| View Photos of the 2020 Porsche Macan Turbo Posted: 18 Oct 2019 11:29 AM PDT |
| U.K. serial killers had affair in prison, lawyer claims Posted: 19 Oct 2019 07:47 AM PDT  Notorious U.K. serial killers Rose West and Myra Hindley were lovers in prison, according to one of their former lawyers. West's ex-attorney Leo Goatley claimed his client fell for the Moors murderer in 1995 after they were both jailed in the hospital wing of Durham prison.
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| Hong Kong's leader backs police use of force as protesters plan 'illegal' march Posted: 18 Oct 2019 07:36 PM PDT ![Hong Kong's leader backs police use of force as protesters plan 'illegal' march]( "Hong Kong's leader backs police use of force as protesters plan 'illegal' march") Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam took to the airwaves on Saturday to back the use of force by police ahead of a major anti-government march planned this weekend in the Chinese-ruled city, which has been battered by months of violent protests. Following a week of relative calm, Sunday's march will test the strength of the pro-democracy movement. The trigger for unrest in Hong Kong had been a now-withdrawn proposal to allow extradition to mainland China, as well as Taiwan and Macau.
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| The Endgame in Syria Posted: 19 Oct 2019 03:30 AM PDT  "The slaughter going on in Syria is not a consequence of American presence. It's a consequence of a withdrawal and a betrayal by this president of American allies and American values." —Pete Buttigieg, October 15Mr. Mayor has a point. For 75 years, from Fulda Gap to the 38th parallel, the American soldier has been the last line of defense against violence, chaos, and oppression. From Kosovo to Anbar, he has kept a lid on cauldrons of bloodlust. Remove him, and the poison boils over.That is what happened when Congress reduced aid to South Vietnam in 1975. It is what followed U.S. withdrawal from Iraq in 2011. It is happening now in northeast Syria, and it will happen again when Americans leave Afghanistan. Our forces depart; our allies collapse; our adversaries take command.The pattern was established well before Donald Trump took office. It will persist after he departs. There is nothing so consistent as American ambivalence toward our superpower status. Most great powers covet hegemony. We hate it. The costs are too high, the demands too stressful."For every exercise of the great power's prerogative, there has been an equally strong recoiling from the use of power," wrote Robert Kagan in A Twilight Struggle (1996). "While the United States cannot escape behaving as the hegemonic great power, it is also a great power with a democratic conscience, a strong anti-imperialist streak, and an unwillingness to adopt the role of policeman anywhere for more than a brief time."Kagan was describing U.S. policy toward Nicaragua. He might as well have been talking about the Middle East.Trump is getting America out of a country we were never really in. Our presence in Syria was not enough to deter Turkey. One thousand troops do not constitute a tripwire. They are chips in a high-stakes game. Erdogan called the bluff.Our footprint was light because the last two administrations wanted it that way. That is why criticism of Trump's policy from left-wing non-interventionists and former Obama officials is ridiculous. Where were they when Assad killed hundreds of thousands of people, when he and Erdogan used migration to Europe as a weapon, when civilians were gassed, when ISIS formed, when Russia moved in? Did they think Syria was peachy keen up until Sunday, October 6? Are we really to take lectures from them on the value of forward presence?Americans have wanted out of the Greater Middle East for over a decade. Barack Obama promised to leave both Iraq and Afghanistan. He said Special Forces and drone strikes would maintain global security. It didn't work out that way. Terrorism spiked. The Arab Spring erupted. Obama was forced to intervene, leading from behind in Libya and desultorily aiding some rebel groups in Syria.Obama ended Moammar Qaddafi's regime but shied away from Bashar al-Assad's. The difference? Assad was an ally of Iran and Russia. To bring Damascus to heel would have endangered the chances of a nuclear agreement with Tehran.Obama was consistent in one respect. In Libya, Syria, and Iraq, American involvement was kept to a minimum. The results were the same in all three countries: state failure and civil war.The seeds of Trump's hasty exit from Syria were sown when the uprising began in 2011. The moment to act decisively was then. We did not. And we did not because there was no appetite, in either popular or elite circles, for another war in the Middle East. Political leadership followed public opinion.What a superpower does not do is as important as what it does do. America was content to fund a few rebels but otherwise leave Syria in the hands of others. Assad turned to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, Hezbollah, and Iran. Russia saved him from reprisal after the gas attack in 2013 and again when rebels neared Damascus in 2015.By then, Obama had been forced to intervene against the caliphate established by ISIS in eastern Syria and western Iraq. But some red lines he stuck to. In his speech announcing the counterterrorism campaign in September 2014, Obama pledged, "We will not get dragged into another ground war in Iraq." Our presence would be limited, our footprint light. Enough to defeat the terrorists, but not enough to make us targets. Or decisively affect the outcome of the Syrian war.If there is a place where America blinked, where America chose decline, where America's allies began to worry and America's retrenchment from Eurasia and pivot to East Asia began, it is Syria. We did so with open eyes and, until the last two weeks, an untroubled conscience. Not wanting to commit the resources necessary to build functioning states, we left Iraq, abandoned Libya, and turned a blind eye to Syria. Not willing to sacrifice Americans on additional fields of battle in the Long War against Islamic terrorism and the religious-political cultures that breed it, we withdrew that presence which guarantees the security of our partners.Pete Buttigieg is right to say that what is happening in Syria is a consequence of American withdrawal. But if what's happening is a betrayal of American values, it's one Americans voted for.
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| U.S. Proposed to Help North Korea Build Tourist Area: Report Posted: 19 Oct 2019 02:17 AM PDT ![U.S. Proposed to Help North Korea Build Tourist Area: Report]( "U.S. Proposed to Help North Korea Build Tourist Area: Report") (Bloomberg) -- U.S. officials proposed a long-term plan to help North Korea construct a tourist area in return for denuclearization during recent working-level talks in Stockholm, Hankook Ilbo newspaper reported.U.S. negotiators prepared plans on the development of the Kalma tourist area, the paper said, citing an unidentified senior South Korean diplomat familiar with the talks in Stockholm. The paper didn't say how North Korea reacted to the proposal.North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has been pushing to complete a resort construction in the Wonsan-Kalma coastal area. In August, Pak Pong Ju, a key member of the ruling party's politburo, visited the region to encourage workers to make the area "a scenic spot" on the east coast.The talks in Stockholm earlier in October were the first in about eight months between the U.S. and North Korea, but ended with little agreement about what was even on the table. North Korean nuclear envoy Kim Myong Gil said the U.S. arrived "empty-handed" to the meeting, a point disputed by State Department officials.To contact the reporter on this story: Kanga Kong in Seoul at kkong50@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Shamim Adam at sadam2@bloomberg.net, Jasmine NgFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Louis Vuitton x Donald Trump: the big fashion collab no one asked for Posted: 18 Oct 2019 11:53 AM PDT  Is Louis Vuitton not worried about the threat of aligning their plastic-y, tan hides with the plastic-y tan hide in chief? Donald Trump visits the Louis Vuitton Rochambeau Ranch leather workshop in Keene, Texas. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/ReutersLouis Vuitton, the most valuable luxury brand in the world and prize pony of luxury conglomerate LVMH's stables, has opened a Texas factory, AKA the Louis Vuitton Rochambeau Ranch. Vuitton promised the venture will provide 1,000 American jobs over the next five years.Yet, at a time where brands are feeling the pressure to be more political and woke than ever, is it not a gigantic faux pas to discount politics on Vuitton's part?The answer is … maybe? First off, it's salient to note that this is not the first Vuitton factory in the States. No, the company has been manufacturing its products in California for three decades (ah, rarified European luxury!). It is, however, the first factory opening to require LVMH's president, Bernard "The Wolf in a Cashmere Coat" Arnault, to painfully equivocate about his guest of honor, Donald Trump, who along with daughter Ivanka joined Arnault and LVMH's top brass for the grand opening."I am not here to judge his types of policies. I have no political role. I am a business person," Arnault said of Trump at the ribbon-cutting ceremony, as reported by the New York Times. How convenient, given that while the ceremony was unfolding, US forces were withdrawing from northern Syria, the impeachment procedure has been intensifying, and his 1,000th day in office had just passed with more and more people being concerned by his mental stability.But apart from confirming the fact that Trump cannot pronounce "Vuitton" (here's a handy how-to-pronounce guide), the photo-op raises another question: how are dedicated Vuitton fans going to feel about this?One truth universally recognized by marketers of our era is younger demographics care, more or less, about corporate responsibility. An official boycott – grabyourwallet – of brands financially related to the Trump campaign has affected the popularity of companies before. Remember the recent thing with SoulCycle and Equinox?So do the people who buy Louis Vuitton care that their bag was brought to them by two men who both recently publicly chastised teen climate activist Greta Thunberg on separate occasions? Is Louis Vuitton not worried about the reputational threat of aligning their plastic-y, tan hides with the plastic-y tan hide in chief?Maybe not in Texas where, after all, 77.5% of Johnson county, where the factory is located, voted for Trump in 2016. But according to the Hollywood Reporter, stylists who oversee the wardrobes of the likes of Justin Beiber, Katy Perry and Julia Roberts have already taken to Twitter to cry, essentially, "Big mistake". Yuge!
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| The U.S. Army And Marines Have a Plan To Take On China and Russia's Navies Posted: 19 Oct 2019 06:00 AM PDT  Dispersed attacks from land and sea.
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| Michigan Farmers Suffered a Massive Apple and Pumpkin Heist, Losing Thousands of Dollars in Produce Posted: 19 Oct 2019 12:13 PM PDT  "This was not a one man job"
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| FACT: Cuba Hosted Russian Spy Planes to Use Against America Posted: 19 Oct 2019 12:00 PM PDT  A forgotten tale of the cold war.
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