| New polls show impeachment support approaching the danger zone for Trump Posted: 01 Oct 2019 08:56 AM PDT  Five surveys released in the past two days show public support for Trump's impeachment is approaching a majority — and rising.
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| PHOTOS: China marks 70 years of communism with massive show of force Posted: 02 Oct 2019 06:14 AM PDT  Soldiers of People's Liberation Army (PLA) are seen in front of a sign marking the 70th founding anniversary of People's Republic of China before a military parade on its National Day in Beijing, China October 1, 2019. (Photo: Thomas Peter/Reuters) China celebrated its growing power and confidence with a big display of military hardware and goose-stepping troops in Beijing on Tuesday, overseen by President Xi Jinping who pledged peaceful development on Communist China's 70th birthday. The event is the country's most important of the year as it looks to project its assurance in the face of mounting challenges, including nearly four months of anti-government protests in Hong Kong and an economy-sapping trade war with the United States. (Reuters) See more news-related photo galleries and follow us on Yahoo News Photo Twitter and Tumblr.
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| Australian teen 'deliberately' mowed down, killed 20 kangaroos Posted: 01 Oct 2019 07:33 PM PDT  An Australian teenager has been charged over the deaths of 20 kangaroos, which he allegedly mowed down with his truck in a killing spree that lasted an hour. The dead kangaroos, including two joeys, were found littered over roads in Tura Beach, 450 kilometres (280 miles) south of Sydney, on Sunday morning. Police said Wednesday the man, 19, had been arrested and charged with animal cruelty offences on Tuesday.
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| Police Drone Finds Fugitive Who's Been Living in a Cave for 17 Years Posted: 02 Oct 2019 10:26 AM PDT  The man lived in the wilderness for the past 17 years.
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| Fast food drive-thrus: Which chains are the fastest and slowest? Posted: 02 Oct 2019 12:09 PM PDT  Time spent in fast food drive-thrus was 20 seconds slower in 2019 than the year before, a new performance study suggests.
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| 10 Fat Bears and the Machines I Think They Kinda Look Like Posted: 02 Oct 2019 06:38 AM PDT |
| UPDATE 2-Vatican financial control office director, four others suspended - report Posted: 02 Oct 2019 06:21 AM PDT ![UPDATE 2-Vatican financial control office director, four others suspended - report]( "UPDATE 2-Vatican financial control office director, four others suspended - report") Five Vatican employees, including the number two at the Vatican's Financial Information Authority (AIF) and a monsignor, have been suspended following a police raid, the Italian magazine L'Espresso reported on Tuesday. The scandal, affecting two departments at the heart of the Vatican, was the first after several years of relative calm in which reforms enacted by Pope Francis appeared to be taking root. A Vatican spokesman said he had no immediate comment on the report.
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| Hillary Clinton says evidence for impeachment inquiry is 'dramatic and irrefutable' Posted: 01 Oct 2019 09:30 AM PDT  Hillary Clinton dismissed concerns that Democrats are overreaching in their impeachment inquiry into President Trump, calling the evidence at the center of the probe "dramatic and irrefutable."
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| Tensions over Hong Kong unrest flare on US college campuses Posted: 02 Oct 2019 02:02 PM PDT  As political tensions flare back home, Hong Kong students on U.S. college campuses say they have been ostracized and in some cases threatened by fellow students from mainland China, and they suspect they are being watched from afar by Beijing. Some say they see the hand of the Chinese government working in ways that threaten academic freedom.
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| Yang Raises $10 Million in Third Quarter, Easily Outpacing Two Sitting U.S. Senators Posted: 02 Oct 2019 12:02 PM PDT  Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang raised $10 million over the last quarter, easily surpassing the $2.8 million he raised in the previous quarter, his campaign announced Wednesday.The entrepreneur's crowdfunding efforts, centered around his so-called Freedom Dividend, a universal basic income plan, matched recent rising poll numbers and outpaced both Senator Cory Booker's (D., N.J.) $6 million and Senator Michael Bennett's (D., Colo.) $2.1 million for the same period.The campaign reported that 99 percent of donations were under $200. To date, Yang has over 300,000 unique donors."This grassroots fundraising total, with $6m+ in the bank, ensures this campaign will have the funding to compete and outperform expectations through Super Tuesday and beyond," Yang campaign manager Zach Graumann told CNN.During the September Democratic debate, Yang made headlines when he announced a $120,000 giveaway to random families in an effort to promote his universal basic income proposal, which will offer $1,000 a month to every adult American in an effort to cushion job upheaval from increasing automation. In the three days after the debate, the stunt drew 450,000 entries and sparked $1 million in donations, the campaign told Politico.Yang's numbers also showed $2.4 million raised from merchandise purchases, as the candidates supporters, affectionately dubbed "Yang Gang," have swelled in numbers over recent weeks. Over the last ten days of the quarter, the campaign raised $2.3 million more than Booker raised in the same period.Yang celebrated the significant fundraising haul on Twitter."Other campaigns are plateauing or contracting while we are growing quickly. The excitement rises every day," he said. "Our rate of growth makes all things possible - including our winning the general election next year."
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| China’s new missiles could reach U.S. in 30 minutes Posted: 01 Oct 2019 04:12 AM PDT  Military planners in Washington and elsewhere will be taking note of new missile technology displayed by China, particularly a hypersonic ballistic nuclear missile believed capable of breaching all existing anti-missile shields deployed by the U.S. and its allies.
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| Shipwrecked Colombians clung to cocaine bales Posted: 01 Oct 2019 01:46 PM PDT  Three suspected drug smugglers survived in shark-infested Pacific waters by clinging for hours to floating bales of cocaine, Colombia's navy said Tuesday. The three Colombians are suspected of smuggling 1.2 tons of cocaine from Tumaco in Colombia when their boat was hit by a wave Saturday and capsized, Captain Jorge Maldonado of Colombia's Task Force Against Drug Trafficking told AFP. "The coastguard arrived and these three people were floating on a material that by its characteristics resembled drugs," said Maldonado.
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| The ocean on Saturn's moon Enceladus contains the building blocks of life, NASA data reveals Posted: 02 Oct 2019 02:07 PM PDT  NASA data revealed the most basic ingredients of life in bursts from an ocean on Saturn's moon Enceladus.
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| Man severely burned after falling into hot spring by Old Faithful in Yellowstone Posted: 01 Oct 2019 11:56 AM PDT  Walking off the boardwalks in Old Faithful is illegal, punishable by up to six months in prison and a $5,000 fine. Siemers may face criminal charges.
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| Boris Johnson to Suspend Parliament to Outline New Program Posted: 02 Oct 2019 10:46 AM PDT ![Boris Johnson to Suspend Parliament to Outline New Program]( "Boris Johnson to Suspend Parliament to Outline New Program") (Bloomberg) -- Follow @Brexit, sign up to our Brexit Bulletin, and tell us your Brexit story. U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson will suspend Parliament on Oct. 8 so that he can outline a new legislative program, two weeks after the country's highest court ruled that his previous attempt to stop parliament sitting was unlawful.But unlike that suspension, this one will only last six days, before Parliament returns Oct. 14 for a Queen's Speech. "The government will set out its plans for the NHS, schools, tackling crime, investing in infrastructure and building a strong economy," Johnson said in an emailed statement. "We will get Brexit done on Oct. 31 and continue delivering on these vital issues."Members of Parliament who want to tie Johnson's hands further on Brexit now have just three sitting days in order to do so before the suspension begins. Rebel Conservatives and opposition parties already teamed up last month to pass a law against the government's wishes compelling Johnson to seek to delay the divorce if he's unable to secure a deal acceptable to both the EU and Parliament by Oct. 19.The announcement comes just over a week after the Supreme Court declared Johnson's previous suspension -- which was supposed to last 5 weeks -- "unlawful," saying that "no justification for taking action with such an extreme effect" had been given to the court. A four- to six-day suspension is the norm before a Queen's speech, the court ruled.To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Morales in London at amorales2@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Tim Ross at tross54@bloomberg.net, Robert HuttonFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| UPDATE 5-Democrats say Trump administration used misinformation to attack U.S. diplomat Posted: 02 Oct 2019 09:21 AM PDT ![UPDATE 5-Democrats say Trump administration used misinformation to attack U.S. diplomat]( "UPDATE 5-Democrats say Trump administration used misinformation to attack U.S. diplomat") Democrats accused the Trump administration on Wednesday of using "propaganda and disinformation" to attack the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine and demanded that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo explain how the material circulated at top levels of his department. The Democrats, who are pursuing an impeachment probe of President Donald Trump, leveled the charge after State Department Inspector General Steve Linick delivered a package of documents to a hastily called hour-long briefing with staff for eight congressional committees.
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| Former NC GOP head pleads guilty to lying in bribery case Posted: 02 Oct 2019 09:15 AM PDT  The former chairman of North Carolina's Republican Party admitted Wednesday that he broke the law by lying to federal agents about his role in an alleged effort to bribe the state's top insurance regulator to help a major GOP donor. Robin Hayes, 74, pleaded guilty to making a false statement in August 2018 to FBI agents conducting the bribery investigation. Hayes, a former congressman, was initially also charged with conspiracy and bribery.
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| Fairfax County Police Officer Suspended for Turning Individual over to ICE Posted: 02 Oct 2019 06:59 AM PDT  The Fairfax County Police Department has suspended an officer for detaining and turning the driver in an accident over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Saturday in violation of the department's policy not to assist ICE with civil enforcement.The driver lacked a Virginia driver's license, so the officer who responded to the accident ran a Department of Motor Vehicles check and discovered that ICE had issued a civil violation to the individual for failing to appear for a deportation hearing, according to Fairfax County police.The officer verified the ICE warrant and contacted the ICE agent listed as the point of contact, who came to the scene of the traffic crash. The officer gave the driver a ticket for driving without a license but continued to detain the individual until the ICE agent took over custody.Fairfax County Police Chief Edwin Roessler lamented the incident and said the officer is being disciplined."This is an unfortunate issue where the officer was confused," the police chief said, according to the Washington Post. "We have trained on this issue a lot. This is the first time we've had a lapse in judgment, and the officer is being punished."The officer has been relieved of all law-enforcement duties pending an internal investigation."Our police officer violated our longstanding policy and deprived a person of their freedom, which is unacceptable," Roessler added in a statement. "Our county is one of the most diverse counties in the nation and no one should have the perception that FCPD is acting as a civil immigration agent for ICE. This matter damages our reputation and the longstanding policy that I have stated many times that our officers shall not act as immigration agents."The police department said ICE informed them that the driver was released after three hours with an ankle monitor.
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| Check Out China's New DF-17 Hypersonic Glide Vehicle: A Real Killer? Posted: 01 Oct 2019 12:19 PM PDT  Can the U.S. military match it? How capable is it?
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| 3 charged with providing drugs that killed rapper Mac Miller Posted: 02 Oct 2019 01:31 PM PDT  Three men arrested during the investigation into rapper Mac Miller's deadly overdose last year have now been charged with providing the drugs that killed him, U.S. prosecutors said Wednesday. A grand jury indictment that was unsealed in Los Angeles accuses the men of conspiring and distributing cocaine and oxycodone pills laced with fentanyl that caused Miller's death in September 2018.
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| Robots, deliverymen and 'Xi Thought' at China's 70th anniversary Posted: 01 Oct 2019 06:28 AM PDT  Delivery men, the world cup-winning women's volleyball team and a special float hailing "Xi Jinping Thought" were part of a colourful 70th anniversary celebration of Communist China's 70th anniversary Tuesday -- a stark contrast with unrest in Hong Kong. A huge fireworks show in the evening capped a day of festivities that included a pageant of more than 100,000 civilians and a massive military parade showcasing China's emergence as a global superpower. The daytime event included giant portraits of the top leaders of the People's Republic of China, including its founder Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping, the economic reformer who opened the country's doors to the world.
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| Before we put people on Mars, we should infect the planet with Earthly microbes, a group of scientists says Posted: 02 Oct 2019 09:23 AM PDT  NASA seeks to prevent interplanetary contamination when exploring space. But some scientists argue we should be infecting Mars with Earth's microbes.
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| A Virginia teacher is suing his school district after he was fired for refusing to use a trans student's pronouns, arguing that doing so would have been 'telling a lie' Posted: 02 Oct 2019 04:02 PM PDT  A teacher alleged that the school tried to force him to "express an objective biological falsehood" by urging him to use the student's male pronouns.
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| 'Poor President of Finland,' California gov. tweets after Trump's lengthy press conference Posted: 02 Oct 2019 12:08 PM PDT  California Gov. Gavin Newsom tweeted after Trump's lengthy diatribes during a press conference: "just feel bad for the poor President of Finland"
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| Warren gets ‘dramatic shift’ in support from black voters Posted: 02 Oct 2019 06:34 AM PDT  One element of Elizabeth Warren's surge in the polls is likely to strike fear in her top Democratic rivals — her rising support among African-Americans. After struggling to win over black voters in the early stages of the primary, the Massachusetts senator appears to be gaining ground with a demographic that will play a pivotal role in determining the nomination. A Quinnipiac University national poll last week showed Warren winning 19 percent of the African-American vote — a nine-point jump over the poll's August results.
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| View Photos of the Nissan IMk Concept Posted: 01 Oct 2019 10:00 AM PDT |
| U.S. Treasury sanctions chief Mandelker leaving for private sector Posted: 02 Oct 2019 09:32 AM PDT  Sigal Mandelker, the U.S. Treasury official who oversaw the Trump administration's aggressive use of sanctions as a foreign policy tool, has resigned to return to the private sector, the U.S. Treasury secretary said on Wednesday. "She is a fierce advocate for effectively leveraging our powerful economic tools to make an impact for a safer world," Mnuchin said in a statement. As undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence since June 2017, Mandelker supervised the ramping up of sanctions against Iran, mainly aimed at strangling oil exports after the United States left the 2015 landmark nuclear deal with Iran.
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| AP Explains: 'Car Wash' probe faces new challenges Posted: 01 Oct 2019 06:36 PM PDT  Brazil's top court is expected to make a ruling this week that could lead to the annulment of dozens of cases brought by the sprawling Operation Car Wash that has snared top politicians and businesspeople across Latin America. The probe, once heralded as a model of anti-corruption efforts, has been heavily criticized in Brazil following allegations that some prosecutions were politically tainted. WHAT IS OPERATION CAR WASH?
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| Woman climbs into lion enclosure and taunts animal Posted: 02 Oct 2019 01:14 AM PDT  A woman who climbed into a lion enclosure and taunted a large male lion at a zoo in New York put herself "in serious danger", the zoo has said.A video posted to Instagram shows the bemused-looking lion regarding the woman as she waves her hands and dances at it.
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| DANGER AHEAD: China's Six Carrier Navy Is Just Around the Corner Posted: 01 Oct 2019 09:22 PM PDT  Will it tilt the balance against local U.S. forces?
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| Donald Trump claims impeachment inquiry against him is a 'coup' designed to 'take away Power of the People' Posted: 02 Oct 2019 07:47 AM PDT  Donald Trump elevated his criticism of the impeachment inquiry against him, claiming the process was intended to "take away the Power of the People."
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| A New Study Provides a Clue About Why People Are Getting Sick and Dying From Vaping Posted: 02 Oct 2019 02:21 PM PDT  One prominent theory may be wrong
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| Will a wealth tax be crippled by avoidance schemes? Posted: 02 Oct 2019 02:55 AM PDT ![Will a wealth tax be crippled by avoidance schemes?]( "Will a wealth tax be crippled by avoidance schemes?") Wealth taxes are hot in American politics right now. Polling consistently finds that the idea of taxing the massive fortunes held by our richest citizens is broadly popular on a bipartisan basis. And the two most progressive candidates in the Democratic presidential primary -- Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) -- have dueling proposals to do just that.But wealth is a mercurial thing, and more difficult to measure than straight income. Critics contend that a wealth tax would be crippled by avoidance schemes the rich would cook up. As an idea, a wealth tax may fire people up. But would it actually work?I can't answer that question for you in a single column. But it's not just complicated because of the technicalities of tax evasion. It's hard for everyone to even agree on what a wealth tax "working" would mean.One of the arguments worth engaging with comes from Larry Summers, who's worked in previous Democratic administrations, and his co-author, Natasha Sarin, who point to the already-existing estate tax, which itself is a form of wealth tax. And revenue for the estate tax chronically comes it at much lower levels than you'd expect if you just ran the raw numbers on the tax rate and the amount of wealth it could hit. Summers and Sarin argue this is due to numerous evasion strategies: "questionable appraisals; valuation discounts for illiquidity and lack of control; establishment of trusts that enable division of assets among family members with substantial founder control; planning devices that give some income to charity while keeping the remainder for the donor and her beneficiaries; tax-advantaged lending schemes" to cite a few examples.As a crude intellectual exercise, they use the results of the estate tax to estimate Warren's wealth tax would only bring in one-eighth to three-eighths of the roughly $200 billion in annual revenue she calculates. They don't do this so much to claim their numbers are right, as to point out the enormous variances evasion can cause. (This same problem would also apply to Sanders' proposal, which is even more aggressive.)Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman, the economists who consulted with Warren and ran her numbers, certainly aren't unaware of this criticism. They point out that the make-up of wealth among the very rich is different than among average citizens: 80 percent of the wealth held by the top 0.1 percent is in stocks, bonds and real estate, which are actually pretty easy to measure and value. Warren has committed to keeping the definitions and language of her tax bill as clean and simple as possible, so as to avoid creating loopholes. She wants to significantly bulk up the resources available to the IRS to police tax avoidance. And Warren wants her wealth tax to apply globally, so as to cut down on efforts by the wealthy to simply move their money overseas.More broadly and ambitiously, Saez and Zucman propose ideas like a global wealth registry, built on international cooperation, to track and police wealth holdings, and to enable a more coherent international taxation regime.The underlying challenge is that dealing with tax evasion boils down to political will, influence, and discipline. Over time, either your lawmakers allow lobbyists to blow loopholes in the tax code, or they don't; either they continue giving tax authorities the resources and funding they need to crack down on avoidance, or they don't; and so on. Critics of wealth taxes such as Summers are essentially invoking a skepticism that the necessary political will can ever be mustered, while champions of wealth taxes like Warren and Sanders think these proposals can be used to muster the political will where it once was lacking.Finally, to go one more layer down, mustering the political will to impose a wealth tax inherently involves combating the political leverage and influence that mass concentrations of wealth represent. The more a wealth tax is successful, presumably, the more political force can be mustered to preserve and protect it.This gets to one other complication: Is revenue really the best measure of whether a wealth tax is working?Most everyone both in favor of and opposed to wealth taxes assumes their purpose is to raise the money that will then pay for big spending programs. But the U.S. federal government is the source of all U.S. federal currency -- it can "print" as much money as it wants. "For the federal government, taxes are not about raising revenue, taxes are about reducing consumption to prevent inflation," as economist Dean Baker recently put it. And there's a critical distinction between how much money a tax brings in and how much aggregate consumption it affects in the economy: "Do we think this additional tax bill will reduce the number of times Bill Gates or Jeff Bezos goes out to dinner," Baker asked. "Will they take fewer vacations or buy fewer cars, planes, and yachts?" The effect on consumption won't be zero, but it will be far lower than the effect of the same amount of money taken out of a broader and less wealthy group of taxpayers.Essentially, a wealth tax wouldn't really be about financing government spending or holding down inflation. It'd be about changing the structure of the economy, and ownership in particular: Are companies owned by a small number of rich shareholders, or a bigger number of rich shareholders? Do politicians need to get donations from a small number of rich people, or a larger number of less rich people? Who gets to control decision-making in the economy, and how much power do they wield?If a rich person sells one set of financial instruments and buys another somewhere else to avoid a new wealth tax, that's not necessarily a problem. If that rich person sells off a factory or a business to move their money, that presents more of a quandary. But whether that sale is good or bad depends on what happens next: Is the business ended (Along with the jobs it represents?) or does it simply change ownership? Is it sold to a more socioeconomic diverse group of owners with different prerogatives? Given the right conditions and surrounding policy changes, could it be sold to the workers themselves? Those latter results would ultimately be better for American democracy.None of this is a slam dunk argument in favor of a wealth tax. For example: Baker is also skeptical of wealth taxes, because he fears they'll encourage more people to become lawyers and accountants in the tax evasion industry, when our society could make better use of their talents elsewhere.But to decide a wealth tax's worth, these are the questions we should be asking.Want more essential commentary and analysis like this delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for The Week's "Today's best articles" newsletter here.
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| Netanyahu tries to avert indictment as he fights for political life Posted: 02 Oct 2019 01:56 AM PDT  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu began his final attempt to fend off a corruption indictment on Wednesday when his lawyers argued against looming charges that have combined with election stalemate to threaten his long hold on power. The pre-trial hearings, scheduled to be held over four days, will allow him to make his case against indictment to Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit in three graft investigations. Netanyahu, who denies any wrongdoing, faces no legal requirement to leave government if indicted, as long as he remains prime minister.
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| See Photos of the 2020 BMW 840i Gran Coupe Posted: 02 Oct 2019 09:59 AM PDT |
| US prosecutor says Honduran president took fortune in drug bribes Posted: 02 Oct 2019 05:56 PM PDT  Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez took millions of dollars in bribes from drug lords including jailed Mexican kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, a US prosecutor said Wednesday at the opening of his brother's trial. The president's brother, Juan Antonio Hernandez -- a former Honduran congressman also known as Tony -- was arrested at a Miami airport in November 2018 for conspiring to import cocaine into the United States, weapons offenses and making false statements. "The defendant was protected by the current president, who has received millions of dollars in bribes from drug traffickers like 'El Chapo' Guzman, who personally delivered one million dollars to the defendant for his brother," prosecutor Jason Richman said.
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| Police shoot Hong Kong protester at close range Posted: 01 Oct 2019 09:43 AM PDT  As China observes the 70th anniversary of Communist Party rule, a police officer in Hong Kong shot an anti-Beijing protester at close range.
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| Lawyer: Uber driver killed passenger in self-defense Posted: 01 Oct 2019 04:36 PM PDT  An Uber driver charged with first-degree murder in the death of a passenger shot the man in self-defense after he touched, punched and pulled his hair as he was speeding down an interstate, his lawyer told jurors Tuesday. In opening arguments in Michael Hancock's trial, Johnna Stuart said Hancock asked a driver who stopped to help to call 911 and then urged a dispatcher to send help to save Hyun (Huhn) Kim, 45, after shooting him on Interstate 25 in June 2018.
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| More than 132,000 Sephardi Jews apply for Spanish citizenship as deadline expires Posted: 02 Oct 2019 09:34 AM PDT  More than 132,000 Jews have applied for Spanish citizenship since the government offered residence to relatives of those expelled during the Inquisition more than 500 years ago. The deadline has now passed for Sephardi Jews - hailing from the Iberian peninsula - to claim rights to citizenship after the window for applications closed. Most have applied from South America. But in Britain the rules have created an unexpected opportunity for some members of the Jewish community to avoid the impact of Brexit by gaining a European passport. The total number of Jews applying to return is not far off the estimated 200,000 who are thought to have fled in the 1490 after facing the option of converting to Catholicism or being burned at the stake. The initiative in Spain has been coupled by a similar offer by the Portuguese government to atone for the persecution of Jews. Meanwhile in Austria last month the parliament ratified a law extending citizenship to descendants of Nazi victims who fled during and after Hitler's Third Reich. Figures from Spain's justice ministry show that by the end of August, one month before the September 30 deadline, 117 British Jews had applied for Spanish citizenship under the scheme introduced in 2015. It remains unclear how many more British Jews have applied in the final rush to meet the Spanish deadline that saw 72,000 applications flood in last month alone, more than in the previous four years combined. "Most of them were from citizens in Latin American countries, mainly Mexico, Colombia and Venezuela," Spain's justice ministry said. But more than 420 British Sephardic Jews have been granted Portuguese passports under that country's citizenship initiative, also launched in 2015. In 1492 the Catholic monarchs of Spain, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, ordered the country's approximately 200,000 Jews to convert to Christianity under the aegis of the Inquisition. Unknown thousands opted for exile, some entering Portugal, which also imposed compulsory conversion or exile by the end of the 15th century. "It was a pragmatic decision," Londoner Adam Perry told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency of his decision to apply for Portuguese citizenship, adding that it was "also a form of protest action against Brexit, with which I deeply disagree". "The Spanish government's law helps Sephardic Jews to close a circle, healing a wound that was opened more than five centuries ago," Marcelo Benveniste told The Telegraph about his decision to apply in 2015. All four of Mr Benveniste's grandparents moved to Argentina from the Greek island of Rhodes, where they had continued to speak Ladino, a language also known as Judaeo-Spanish. Spain asks Sephardic Jews wishing to gain citizenship to show that they can speak Spanish, as well as proving their hereditary connections.
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| Giuliani’s Ukraine Work Tied to Firm Whose Website Has Vanished Posted: 02 Oct 2019 07:37 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- The website of the consulting firm that forged business contacts for Rudy Giuliani in Ukraine and Russia for more than a decade vanished suddenly after his communications were subpoenaed.Giuliani was dubbed "America's Mayor" because of his New York City perch in the days after 9/11, but later he built a lucrative career in the private sector as a foreign security consultant.The genesis of many of those foreign connections was TriGlobal Strategic Ventures. The firm was set up in the U.S. in 2003 by a group of Russians and emigres from the former Soviet Union. Using the group's network, Giuliani amassed security contracts around the globe, which continued even after he became the U.S. president's unpaid lawyer last year.On Tuesday, the company's website reverted to "TGSV – Coming Soon." On Wednesday morning, after this article was published, the site was restored, though sometimes hard to reach.Giuliani's contracts, and who paid for them, are now coming under heavy scrutiny by Congress as it tries to trace his shadow diplomatic work for President Donald Trump in Ukraine. House Democrats have demanded documents and communications among Giuliani, TriGlobal and its co-founder and president, Vitaly Pruss, going back to the beginning of the Trump presidency. Pruss has played a pivotal role in connecting Giuliani to the Ukrainians who make up the backbone of the House's subpoena request.The Democrats are moving quickly with their impeachment inquiry of Trump over his request that Ukraine investigate a political rival.Another ConnectionAnother TriGlobal connection emerged on Tuesday. A member of the firm's advisory board said in an interview with Bloomberg News that he was the one who invited Giuliani to a conference in Armenia where President Vladimir Putin of Russia spoke, along with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. Giuliani had planned to speak but withdrew from the event after the public disclosure of his plans and those of the Russian president.TriGlobal's website once provided more information about that board member, Ara Abramyan. A biography in June 2016 listed him as a "very close adviser to the Russian government's inner circle including the President and the Prime Minister." The description disappeared from the site the next year.Reached by phone and asked about the TriGlobal connection, Giuliani continued to direct attention elsewhere, namely on Trump's political rival. "This is a diversion," he told Bloomberg News. "TriGlobal is totally insignificant."Giuliani's work with TriGlobal dates to at least 2005, when the firm arranged for him to meet in New York with representatives of Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works PJSC, the Russian steel producer. TriGlobal has offices in New York, London, Moscow, Kyiv, Zurich and Vienna. No one answered any of the phone numbers listed, and most weren't working.Some of Giuliani's foreign contacts were chronicled in a whistle-blower complaint that touched off the congressional inquiry. According to the complaint and a rough record of a phone conversation provided by the White House, Trump asked Ukraine's new president to dig up dirt on a leading Democrat presidential contender, former Vice President Joe Biden, and his son, Hunter, and said twice that Giuliani would follow up. Giuliani had publicly called for such an action and met with various Ukrainian prosecutors. He also peddled discredited conspiracy theories involving the origins of the Mueller probe into Russian election interference.Armenian ConferenceThe Armenian conference he was scheduled to attend was organized with the support of Russia's Ministry of Trade and Industry; the Armenian government; Rostec State Corp., Russia's main defense contractor; and the Eurasian Economic Union, which Putin started as a counterweight to the European Union.Giuliani was due to speak on a panel with Sergei Glazyev, a Kremlin adviser sanctioned by the U.S. over his role in Russia's annexation of Crimea. Giuliani spoke after Glazyev at last year's conference, but said in an interview earlier this year that he had never met him.Abramyan, an Armenian who says he spends time in Moscow, Europe and the U.S., denied that Giuliani's cancellation this year had anything to do with Putin's appearance. "We never paid him for a speech or for a visit," Abramyan said on the sidelines of the conference in Yerevan. "He agreed to come as my friend, my good friend."He declined to discuss whether anyone else paid Giuliani to attend.Abramyan said he met Giuliani decades ago when Giuliani was a federal prosecutor in New York. At the time, Abramyan asked him for an introduction to the late New York district attorney Robert Morgenthau, whose father was ambassador to the Ottoman Empire during World War I.Abramyan's Russian ties are deep. His company, JSC Soglasye, worked on the reconstruction of the Kremlin years ago.A spokesman for the Kremlin didn't reply to questions on Abramyan.Consulting WorkPruss has worked as a consultant for Transneft PJSC, Russia's state-owned oil pipeline operator, and a host of Russian companies, according to his biography on the TriGlobal website before it disappeared. He worked closely with Giuliani from 2008 to 2011, the site said. He declined to comment when approached at the conference in Yerevan.They have a more recent connection, as well. Giuliani's 2017 consulting contract in Ukraine, advising the mayor of the eastern city of Kharkiv, was paid for mostly by a local oligarch named Pavel Fuks.According to Fuks, Pruss was their connection."I've known Pruss for a long time," Fuks said in an interview earlier this year. "During the financial crisis, he proposed I buy some distressed assets in America."The House is seeking Giuliani's communications with Pruss, Fuks and Gennady Kernes, the mayor of Kharkiv, along with an extended list of current and former Ukrainian politicians and prosecutors.Another is Semyon Kislin, a Ukrainian-born entrepreneur who emigrated to the U.S. in the 1970s. Kislin was a political bundler for Giuliani's campaigns for mayor of New York in the 1990s, and Giuliani named him to the board of the city's Economic Development Corp.Kislin visited Kyiv in August and contacted Serhiy Shefir to congratulate him on his appointment as a close staffer of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, his lawyer confirmed to Bloomberg. Kislin has for years had conversations with Ukrainian officials about his investments in the country, for which he is seeking repayment.A spokesman for Zelenskiy didn't respond to requests for comment. Kislin's lawyer said he had received a request. "I believe that Mr. Kislin has no information regarding any subject that is relevant to the pending inquiry," wrote Jeffrey Dannenberg, of the New York law firm Kestenbaum, Dannenberg & Klein.The House also wants to see all of Giuliani's communications with Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, Ukrainian emigres who worked in Kyiv over the past year to dig up incriminating information on the Bidens. They're executives at an energy company that donated $325,000 last year to a pro-Trump super PAC. The donation prompted a complaint by a non-profit watch dog accusing the company and the two businessmen of violating campaign finance laws.(Updates with restored TriGlobal website.)\--With assistance from Caleb Melby and Polly Mosendz.To contact the reporters on this story: Stephanie Baker in London at stebaker@bloomberg.net;Sara Khojoyan in Yerevan at skhojoyan@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Winnie O'Kelley at wokelley@bloomberg.net, David S. JoachimFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| China's Air Force Has One Flaw It Could Never Fix (Until Now) Posted: 01 Oct 2019 08:05 PM PDT  Making quality jet engines.
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| Federal judge blocks Georgia's abortion ban, stopping 'heartbeat bill' from becoming law Posted: 02 Oct 2019 07:40 AM PDT  Preliminary injunction will stop the 'heartbeat bill' from taking effect while the case is argued in court.
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| Mouse falls from White House ceiling into man's lap Posted: 02 Oct 2019 01:19 AM PDT  Reporters got a surprise when a mouse fell from the ceiling at the White House.The rodent fell onto the lap of NBC News White House correspondent Peter Alexander yesterday morning, before eventually seeking refuge amid a tangle of wires behind a shelf.
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| Trump's foreign policy is for sale. That threatens our national security Posted: 02 Oct 2019 03:00 AM PDT  The president's efforts to govern in his own self-interest will undermine the world's faith in our commitments'Trump will use the full power of the United States to compel countries to do his dirty work.' Photograph: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty ImagesThe Ukraine scandal is not only undermining American democracy – it's damaging national security. US foreign policy increasingly looks like that of a mafia state, wielded at the behest of, and for the benefit of, one man's personal interests, and for sale to the highest bidders. This is devastating America's role in the world.Trump led an effort – along with other government officials and the president's personal lawyer – to use the power of the United States to pressure the government of Ukraine to fabricate smears about one of Trump's domestic political opponents. As the White House admitted in a transcript of Trump's 25 July call with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Trump asked Zelenskiy for a "favor" – to look into the former vice-president Joe Biden and his son – and said that the US attorney general, Bill Barr, and Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, would help.At the same time, Trump withheld military assistance to Ukraine – which is fighting a war with Russia – on a timeline that makes it clear that it was part of an attempt to use taxpayer dollars as leverage to get Ukraine to do Trump's personal bidding.> The US under Trump could be treated like a powerful autocracy – a country that must be dealt with, but not trustedThis is confirmed by the whistleblower complaint from a member of the US intelligence community, who sums it all up: "The President of the United States is using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 US election." The complaint also describes an effort by the White House to hide the president's conversation with Zelenskiy because officials knew how damning it was. And then, the White House and the Department of Justice intervened to prevent the complaint from making its way to Congress as the law requires.Many more facts are sure to follow, but the facts we already know are damning: Trump has been using the power of the presidency to extort a foreign government to help his own re-election chances. Trump's administration then tried to cover it up. And when it came out, Trump threatened the whistleblower with retaliation. All of this has fueled an impeachment inquiry.This kind of behavior, coming from the president of the United States, is shocking. But coming from Trump, it is hardly surprising.The former FBI director Robert Mueller documented in 448 pages of a Department of Justice report the extent to which Trump and his campaign worked to solicit, receive and coordinate assistance from Russia in the 2016 election, as well as the numerous attempts by Trump to obstruct that investigation.Trump refused to shed his private business interests before assuming office, meaning that as president he has faced numerous conflicts of interest. His family's financial dealings with countries ranging from China to Saudi Arabia raise suspicion about whose interests Trump is pursuing.'Now we are learning that Trump attempted to convince the Australian prime minister to help discredit the origins of the Mueller investigation.' Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty ImagesNow we are learning that Trump attempted to convince the Australian prime minister to help discredit the origins of the Mueller investigation – and the White House again recognized how explosive this was and hid the transcript of the conversation. It also appears that Barr is a lead player in conducting Trump's personal foreign policy, trying to get others, including the United Kingdom and Italy, to help discredit the Mueller investigation. That Trump and the top official in charge of enforcing US law would try to get some of America's closest allies and intelligence partners to help with Trump's own personal political agenda is deeply troubling.All of this makes clear (if it wasn't already clear) that Trump will use the full power of the United States to compel countries to do his dirty work. The reports of more hidden transcripts of presidential conversations – a practice that appears to extend at least to conversations with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and Saudi Arabia's leader, Mohammed bin Salman – raise serious questions about what other US interests Trump has sacrificed for his own gain.The possibilities for Trump to undermine US interests are endless.If allies want the United States to uphold treaties, maybe Trump will demand cash payments – not to the United States, but to Trump himself.If countries want good trade terms, maybe Trump will require them to fabricate scandals about members of Congress who are investigating him. Perhaps China will sweeten the pot of a trade deal with more trademarks for Ivanka Trump's businesses or assistance in her father's re-election campaign. In fact, there is a report that Trump may have already attempted to ask China to look into the Biden family.At their next summit, the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, could offer to use North Korea's cyber-hacking capabilities to help Trump's campaign in exchange for sanctions relief.We're through the looking glass now. America's friends are perplexed, and the damage could be incalculable. Some countries may try to placate Trump because the United States is indeed powerful and they are scared that the US mob-boss-in-chief might break their legs. But they will hate us, look for other options, and ditch us at the first opportunity.Our closest allies will reject us. No matter how important the US alliance is for these countries, the current scandal will force them to distance themselves even further from the United States. Intelligence cooperation could slow because allies know Trump is abusing those channels. No one will have faith in US commitments because they fear that Trump will sell them out for personal gain. The United States under Trump could be treated like a powerful autocracy – a country that must be dealt with, but not trusted, and always hedged against.Trump must be held to account for the sake of national security.
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