| PHOTOS: Elijah Cummings's political timeline of the civil rights champion Posted: 17 Oct 2019 10:47 AM PDT  Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings, a sharecropper's son who rose to become a civil rights champion, died Thursday of complications from long-standing health problems. He was 68.
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| Biden's most loyal supporters are starting to look elsewhere, according to a new Insider poll Posted: 17 Oct 2019 08:30 AM PDT  Former Vice President Joe Biden has been steadily losing support since he announced his 2020 presidential bid last April.
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| China detains 2 US citizens who ran teaching program Posted: 17 Oct 2019 06:37 AM PDT  China said Thursday it detained two U.S. citizens on suspicion of organizing others to illegally cross the border, amid sharpening tensions between the sides over trade, technology and other sensitive issues. Police in the eastern province of Jiangsu arrested Alyssa Petersen and Jacob Harlan on Sept. 27 and Sept. 29, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said. "The department handling the case has informed the U.S. Consulate General in Shanghai in a timely manner, arranged U.S. diplomats to conduct consular visits and protected the legitimate rights and interests of the two," Geng said at a regular press briefing.
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| Former concentration camp guard, 93, goes on trial in Germany Posted: 17 Oct 2019 11:50 AM PDT  A 93-year-old former concentration camp guard arrived in court in a wheelchair on Thursday, in what could be one of Germany's last trials of Nazi war crimes. Bruno D., whose surname cannot be given for legal reasons, is accused of being an accessory to 5,230 murders in the final months of World War Two.
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| Romney Demands Answers from White House on Syria Decision: ‘American Honor Has Already Been Tarnished’ Posted: 17 Oct 2019 01:45 PM PDT  A day after he called President Trump's handling of Turkey's invasion of northern Syria "unacceptable," Senator Mitt Romney (R., Utah) gave a speech on the Senate floor Thursday afternoon demanding answers from the administration, and proposing that public hearings be held by the Senate to look into what he called "a blood stain in the annals of American history."Romney's speech came several hours after Vice President Mike Pence announced that a ceasefire agreement had been reached with Turkey to end the nine-day conflict."The ceasefire does not change the fact that America has abandoned an ally," Romney said. "Adding insult to dishonor, the administration speaks cavalierly, even flippantly, even as our ally has suffered death and casualty. Their homes have been burned, and their families have been torn apart. . . . This is a matter of American honor and promise. So too, is the principle that we stand by our allies, that we do not abandon our friends. The decision to abandon the Kurds violates one of our most sacred duties. It strikes at American honor."Romney went on to voice concerns over how Trump's initial decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria has negatively impacted America's influence in the region."Iranian and Russian interests in the Middle East have been advanced by our decision. At a time when we are applying maximum pressure on Iran, by giving them a stronger hand in Syria, we've actually weakened that pressure. Russia's objective to play a greater role in the Middle East has also been greatly enhanced. The Kurds, out of desperation, have now aligned with Assad. So America is diminished, Russia, Iran, and Assad are strengthened," he said.The Utah senator also reiterated his displeasure with being left out of the decision-making process, despite serving on the Senate's Foreign Relations Committee, and despite hosting a hearing with his subcommittee on the Syria situation only a few weeks ago.The speech closed with Romney's dismissing arguments that the U.S. was right to have pulled out troops, and shouldn't have been in Syria in the first place."Once you jump in the ocean to save a drowning soul, you don't turn around with the excuse that you didn't have to jump in in the first place. It is a matter of commitment," Romney said."Are we incapable of understanding and shaping complex situations? Russia seems to have figured it out. Are we less adept than they? And are our principles to be jettisoned when we find things get messy? . . . Assuming for the sake of understanding that 'getting out of endless wars' was the logic for the decision, why would we take action so precipitously? Why would we not warn our ally the Kurds of what we were about to do? Why would we not give them time to also withdraw, or give them time to dig in to defend themselves? Clearly the Turks had a heads up, because they were able to start bombing within mere hours. I simply don't understand why the administration did not explain in advance to Erdogan that it is unacceptable for Turkey to attack an American ally."
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| Mystery as plane carrying Russian arms smugglers crashes in Congo Posted: 16 Oct 2019 12:43 PM PDT  The Democratic Republic of Congo has one of the world's worst aviation safety records, so reports that an aircraft had tumbled into a remote forest last week caused few international ripples. Since then, however, a deepening mystery over the nature of the cargo and the identity of those on board has left the Congolese government facing awkward questions. The fate of the stricken plane, a mysterious Antonov-72 so far only identified by its former registration number, EK-72903, may also provide a glimpse into the murkier side of Russia's attempts to reassert its influence in Africa. The details remain scant. Last Thursday, the plane crashed 59 minutes after taking off from the eastern city of Goma bound for the capital Kinshasa. None of the eight people on board survived, officials said. The passengers were identified as the personal chauffeur of Felix Tshisekedi, Congo's president, and three of his bodyguards. An armoured vehicle used by the president was also on board. A more troubling disclosure followed when two of the four-strong crew were identified. Vitaly Shumkov and Vladimir Sadovnichy, the plane's pilots, were not only Russian nationals, they both appeared to have a background in gun running. The plane, too, has a murky past. EK-72903 was once owned by an Armenian company whose proprietor has been linked to arms smuggling elsewhere in Africa. Whether the crew were somehow furthering Kremlin interests remains unknown. However, there is no secret that Russia hopes to regain the influence the Soviet Union once wielded in Africa by wooing its leaders with arms sales, private security and "political technologists" adept at winning elections. Such attempts have often been linked to Yevgeny Prigozhin, a close associate of Vladimir Putin who has been accused of masterminding attempts to interfere in the 2016 US presidential election. Mr Prigozhin allegedly had Congo in his sights after Russia announced in May that it was sending a team of army specialists to the country. Some Russia media outlets speculated that Mr Prigozhin, was on board the plane ahead of a meeting with President Tshisekedi. That is almost certainly untrue. Slumming it on an Antonov is generally not Mr Progozhin's style. "He wouldn't get into a plane like that," a Congolese government official said. "This gentleman is an oligarch and if he travels then he travels on his own plane." The official said that while Mr Prigozhin had not been scheduled to meet President Tshisekedi, other Russian government representatives had requested a meeting to discuss the upcoming summit. It is unclear if any were on board. At least two people described as being "of eastern European origin" were also on the plane. They have not yet been identified, adding to the intrigue surrounding the flight. For the moment, whoever else was on board the plane remains unknown. With some sources saying there may have been 11 people rather than eight on board, UN officials were attempting to identify the remains of the dead — some of whom had been hastily buried — last night. Even that might not put an end to the intrigue of what happened aboard EK-72903. Congo rarely gives up its mysteries. In 1961, a plane departing the country with then UN secretary general Dag Hammarskjöld on board crashed. Three inquiries failed to determined the cause of the crash and Hammarskjöld's death remains a mystery to this day.
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| South Korea’s Moon Sees Approval Rating Hit New Low Amid Scandal Posted: 17 Oct 2019 07:09 PM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- The approval rating for South Korean President Moon Jae-in hit a record low in a poll released just days after he issued a public apology for the resignation of a scandal-tainted minister who was a close political ally.The support rate for Moon's government was at 39%, according to data released Friday by Gallup Korea, which conducts regular tracking polls. The resignation of Cho Kuk -- a former justice minister who resigned just five weeks after taking the job -- added to Moon's woes that include a tepid economy, a trade war with Japan, and North Korea snubbing his overtures for talks.The approval rating slipped from 43% a week ago, with 53% of respondents saying they disapproved of the Moon government, Gallup said. Major reasons cited by the public for faulting Moon included economic mismanagement and his personnel appointments.Moon's appointment of Cho on Sept. 9 touched a nerve with many as they questioned why a person whose family was being probed for financial irregularities should lead the ministry conducting the investigation. Protests also spread to university campuses with students angered about reports that Cho may have used his influence to help his daughter win admission to a prestigious college.Moon came to office in 2017 with an approval rate above 80% with calls to increase employment and cut into income inequality. But he has presided over an economy forecast to expand this year at the weakest pace in a decade. Exports -- a key pillar of the Korean economy -- have fallen for ten straight months, and hurt corporate investment and hiring.To contact the reporter on this story: Jihye Lee in Seoul at jlee2352@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Scott at bscott66@bloomberg.net, Jon Herskovitz, Peter PaeFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Contractor claims video shows structural flaws prior to Hard Rock Hotel collapse Posted: 16 Oct 2019 07:57 PM PDT  A contractor posted a video arguing it showed structural problems inside the Hard Rock Hotel construction site two days before its deadly collapse.
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| Putin signals Russia's return to Africa with summit Posted: 16 Oct 2019 07:08 PM PDT  President Vladimir Putin hosts dozens of African leaders next week as Russia seeks to reassert its influence on the continent and beyond. The heads of some 35 African countries are expected for the first Africa-Russia Summit in the Black Sea resort of Sochi next Wednesday and Thursday. For Putin, the summit is a chance to revive Soviet-era relationships and build new alliances, bolstering Moscow's global clout in the face of confrontation with the West.
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| View Photos of the 2020 Subaru Crosstrek Posted: 17 Oct 2019 10:00 AM PDT |
| Former top Navy SEAL who oversaw the Osama bin Laden raid says the US is 'under attack from the president' Posted: 17 Oct 2019 02:25 PM PDT  The retired Navy SEAL William McRaven said a retired general told him, "'I don't like the Democrats, but Trump is destroying the Republic!'"
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| Chicago's top cop found lying in car; requests investigation Posted: 17 Oct 2019 04:26 PM PDT  Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson asked the city's police department to conduct an internal investigation on himself Thursday after he was found lying down in a car. Police department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement that Johnson indicated he parked his car after feeling lightheaded. "There were no charges of intoxication, no information of intoxication as far as I know," Guglielmi said.
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| Cartel gunmen terrorize Mexican city, free El Chapo's son Posted: 17 Oct 2019 05:01 PM PDT  Heavily armed fighters surrounded security forces in a Mexican city on Thursday and made them free one of drug lord Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman's sons, after his capture triggered gunbattles and a prison break that sent civilians scurrying for cover. Security Minister Alfonso Durazo said a patrol by National Guard militarized police first came under attack from within a house in the city of Culiacan, 1,235 km (770 miles) northwest of Mexico City. After entering the house, they found four men, including Ovidio Guzman, who is accused of drug trafficking in the United States.
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| Trevor Noah Exposes Eric and Don Jr.’s Hunter Biden Nepotism Hypocrisy Posted: 16 Oct 2019 06:33 PM PDT  Comedy CentralWith Hunter Biden's foreign business dealings in the news, Trevor Noah turned his attention to the issue of nepotism Wednesday night. "The truth is, your name could be a big reason that you get a leg up in life," The Daily Show host began. "With that said," he added, "you can't deny, it's not a good look that a Ukrainian company hired Hunter Biden just months after Joe Biden became the Obama administration's point man on Ukraine. Because it looks very much like he got this business because of his father's position." "And I understand why a lot of people would complain about that," he continued. "What I don't understand is why these people are complaining about that." With that, he cut to a clip of Donald Trump Jr. accusing Hunter Biden of trading on his name and Eric Trump arguing that he and his brother are exempt from criticism because they do not sit on any corporate boards. "First of all, I'm not surprised nobody has put Beavis and Forehead on any corporate boards," Noah said. "I don't even think they're allowed on diving boards." But more importantly, the host said, "If there was ever an example of people who got opportunities because of their names, it's these two." For instance, if Donald Trump Jr. was not Donald Trump's son, Noah asked why anyone would be paying him $50,000 to make a speech. "To share his expertise on bad beards?" Jimmy Kimmel Goes Off on Lara Trump: A 'Heartless Imbecile With Lip Injections'"Also, if Trump's sons are actually concerned, like truly concerned, about children of politicians doing business overseas," Noah added, "then can someone please explain to me why they have been doing this?" He then allowed various news reports to lay out the details of continued foreign projects currently being carried out by Eric and Don Jr. on behalf of the Trump Organization. "Yeah, that's right, even with their dad in office, the Trumps are still growing their business in places like India, Philippines, Indonesia, Uruguay," Noah said. "They're all over the world. It's like The Amazing Race with no running and no chins." But "at least Donald and Eric are one step removed from the Trump presidency," Noah said before turning his attention to Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, who have official roles in the White House and yet still have entanglements with businesses that benefit from foreign money. "Now let's be clear," Noah concluded. "I'm not defending Hunter Biden. I don't know him. I don't know about his business. I'm just saying that the last people who should be talking about the blurred lines of family names and political influence are the people currently running their home office from the White House." Trevor Noah Roasts Joe Biden Over Bad Debate Answer on Son HunterRead 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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| Ancient Cambodian city found using aerial mapping Posted: 16 Oct 2019 08:55 AM PDT  An ancient settlement, known has the 'lost city' of Cambodia, has been rediscovered by scientists using aerial mapping after remaining hidden in dense jungle for centuries. Mahendraparvata, believed to have been the first capital of the Khmer Empire, a powerful Southeast Asian state that existed during the Angkor period from the 9th to 15th centuries, had long-eluded archeologists, who knew of its existence but were unable to map it out because of the difficult terrain. Studies of the city were further hampered by landmines leftover from the Khmer Rouge, who used the location in the Phnom Kulen highlands as a last stronghold when their regime came to an end in 1979 in the Cambodian-Vietnamese War. In a new paper, published this month in the academic journal, Antiquity, an international team has revealed what they say is a definitive reconstruction of the form of the early Angkor-period capital, with the help of airborne laser scanning, a technique known as Lidar. "Despite its importance as the location of one of the Angkor period's earliest capitals, the mountainous region of Phnom Kulen has, to date, received strikingly little attention," point out the report's authors, led by Jean-Baptiste Chevance from the Archaeology and Development Foundation in the UK. Predating the more famous Angkor Wat by 350 years, the roads, temples and carvings of Mahendraparvata are still being unearthed Credit: NYTNS / Redux / eyevine Their recent efforts began in 2012 when Damian Evans of the French Institute of Asian Studies in Paris and his colleagues scanned the region with lasers from planes. It gave them an incomplete snapshot of the ruins and so they returned in 2015 to scan a larger area alongside a ground-based survey. The result was "a very full and detailed interpretation of that city," Mr Evans told the New Scientist. The city was built on a plateau, covering some 40 to 50 square kilometres, and the team found that it was laid out in a grid structure, with each square in the grid revealing traces of buildings, including temples and grand palaces. "It shows a degree of centralised control and planning," he said. "What you're seeing at Mahendraparvata.. speaks of a grand vision and a fairly elaborate plan." Experts now aim to date the structures. Mahendraparvata, does not seem to have been used as the capital for long because its mountainous location was unsustainable for inhabitants. The heart of the Khmer Empire shifted to the city of Angkor, which lay to the south on a floodplain, and became the site of the now world-famous 12th century Angkor Wat temples. It has remained a source of fascination to historians, however. "The city may not have lasted for centuries, or perhaps even decades, but the cultural and religious significance of the place has lasted right up until the present day," said Mr Evans.
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| How a British family got entangled in a US immigration nightmare after a wrong turn led to nearly 2 weeks in ICE detention Posted: 16 Oct 2019 07:06 PM PDT  The Connors' story shows how just one unintentional violation of US immigration law can land a family in weeks of detention in an unfamiliar country.
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| A woman sues San Antonio after a police officer pulled out her tampon in public Posted: 17 Oct 2019 04:52 PM PDT  The city of San Antonio will vote this week on a proposed settlement that would award a woman $205,000, after she accused a police officer of inappropriately searching her and pulling out her tampon in public.
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| Doing it for the 'gram? Royal Caribbean says no to that, bans guest from ever sailing again Posted: 17 Oct 2019 02:44 PM PDT ![Doing it for the 'gram? Royal Caribbean says no to that, bans guest from ever sailing again]( "Doing it for the 'gram? Royal Caribbean says no to that, bans guest from ever sailing again") Doing it for the 'gram? Royal Caribbean Cruises doesn't seem to think that's a good idea, particularly when it's dangerous.
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| Porsche's 718 Cayman Fits More Cargo Than the 2020 Chevrolet Corvette Posted: 17 Oct 2019 06:45 AM PDT  The new mid-engined Corvette holds one less carry-on suitcase, but it has space for two sets of golf clubs.
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| Trump says they ‘weren’t ready for it’ Posted: 16 Oct 2019 10:41 AM PDT  President Trump says that at British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's request, he met with the family of a British teen killed by a U.S. diplomat.
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| Chicago principal who watched boy's forced ejection retires Posted: 17 Oct 2019 04:20 PM PDT ![Chicago principal who watched boy's forced ejection retires]( "Chicago principal who watched boy's forced ejection retires") A Chicago elementary school principal who looked on as a security guard physically forced a fourth-grader out of the building on a cold day has retired. Cynthia Miller retired from her job at Fiske Elementary School on Friday. In a letter to parents, she wrote that leaving wasn't easy but was the right thing to do, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
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| Why Mexico Is Cooperating with Us on Immigration Posted: 17 Oct 2019 12:42 PM PDT  One of the reasons border apprehensions have dropped from their alarming peak in May is that Mexico has been pretty aggressive in stopping third-country nationals from traversing its territory on their way north to make bogus asylum claims so they can be released into the U.S.But why has Mexico been willing to work with us like this? It's especially curious because in the past, Mexico was not at all eager to help us limit illegal immigration, a pattern we might have expected to intensify with last year's election as president of left-wing populist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (commonly known as AMLO, pronounced as a word rather than initials).No doubt President Trump's tariff threats had some effect. Three-quarters of Mexico's exports go to the U.S., and despite increased integration of our economies over the past couple of decades, they still need us a lot more than we need them. Also, Trump's mercurial temperament clearly has the Mexicans worried that he could do something rash (similar to Iran's fears about Reagan if the hostages weren't released before he was inaugurated).But it's unlikely that these things would be enough to move a sometimes touchy nationalist like AMLO. Rather, I think a big part of the explanation is that the current flow of illegals is mainly made up of foreigners, not Mexicans. Earlier waves of mass infiltration across our southern border consisted mainly of Mexicans, and while Mexico quickly took back its people who had been nabbed by the Border Patrol, it did little if anything to reduce the flow. They did establish a police-like unit of the country's immigration agency called Grupo Beta, which worked on Mexico's northern border (opposite our southern border), but its remit was to help potential illegals with water and first aid and protect them from criminals.But the current flow is very different. Yes, there are still a significant number of Mexicans sneaking across the border, but fewer than there used to be. Mexico's economy has grown and developed to a point where fewer people see the need to emigrate. Also, there just aren't that many able-bodied, working-aged people left in rural areas of Mexico, which is now about as urbanized as the U.S.The current illegal flow, by contrast, is mainly non-Mexican, mostly from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador (the "northern triangle" countries of Central America), but with growing numbers from Haiti, Cuba, various African countries, and even the Middle East. There had always been a small number of what the Border Patrol calls OTMs (Other Than Mexicans), but they now constitute the majority of the flow.When the first caravan to catch the world's attention passed through Mexican towns on its way north in spring 2018, it was often welcomed with mariachi bands, offers of food and water, and even medical checkups. But as more caravans arrived, plus many migrants in smaller groups, all drawn by loopholes in American law that facilitated their release into the U.S., the welcome started to wear out. As the Washington Post wrote this spring:> But six months and several caravans later, much of that welcome has dried up. Most media have left. And the people of Mapastepec, and other places that have been overwhelmed, are showing their fatigue with the growing stream of migrants.> > "People . . . previously opened their doors to these migrants, but they do not have much extra money here," said Roberto Sarabia, 56, who works at a small grocery store. "What little they could give, they've already given."Exhaustion has turned to resentment. As the Central American illegals started piling up in Tijuana, preparing to cross to San Diego, local residents last November staged a protest; the NPR report offered a sense of the mood:> Demonstrators held signs reading "No illegals," "No to the invasion" and "Mexico First." Many wore the country's red, white and green national soccer jersey and vigorously waved Mexican flags. The crowd often slipped into chants of "Ti-jua-na!" and "Me-xi-co!" They sang the national anthem several times.Tijuana's mayor at the time, who was in political hot water generally (he subsequently lost his bid for reelection), rushed to try to take advantage of the situation by sporting a "Make Tijuana Great Again" red baseball cap.> Con ustedes el alcalde de Tijuana, Juan Manuel Gastélum, capaz de decir "que me perdonen las organizaciones defensoras de DH, pero los derechos humanos son para humanos derechos" … CaravanaMigrante pic.twitter.com/DkSuKeFBaF> > — Risco (@jrisco) November 16, 2018And it's not just Tijuana. The El Paso Times recently wrote about the newly developed Cuban community across the river in Juarez. Many Cuban illegals are giving up on their U.S. asylum gambit and deciding to settle down in Juarez (proving they were really economic migrants all along). And it's creating resentment. As a burrito seller said of the Cubans, "They don't get along with Mexican people. They get in a little group by themselves. A lot of people don't like them here." And a business consultant complained, "There are people who are coming looking for a handout, who want us to help them, when they could also look for work."The flow of illegals passing through Mexico to make bogus asylum claims in the U.S. has grown so large that some of them aren't bothering to head all the way to the border and are applying for asylum in Mexico instead. The number of asylum applications submitted to Mexico's refugee agency (COMAR) more than tripled in the first eight months of this year compared to the same period in 2018. The asylum burden seems to have gotten so bad that the refugee agency has removed the helpful video it used to host on its website explaining how to apply.And over the weekend, a large group of illegal aliens from Africa, the Caribbean, and Central America tried to set out on another caravan in southern Mexico, but were stopped by police and the National Guard (a new paramilitary force established by AMLO specifically for border control). Most telling was this bit of video from a Mexican news outlet, showing the commander of a National Guard platoon addressing his men before confronting the latest caravan. He starts his pep talk by saying, "No one will come to trample our country, our land!"> "Nadie va a venir a pisotear nuestro país, nuestra tierra", son las palabras de un comandante de pelotón de la GuardiaNacional durante la redada de hoy contra migrantes haitianos y africanos.> > �� @Chechetc corresponsal de @WRADIOMexico pic.twitter.com/9YexXMqMsF> > — Salvador Zaragoza A. (@SalvadorZA) October 13, 2019None of this is to say that our border has been fully secured, or that we don't need to plug the loopholes that sparked this flow in the first place, or that interior measures such as E-Verify, workplace enforcement, and curbing sanctuary cities are no longer needed. And it's entirely possible that if Mexico hits a serious economic road bump in the future, a new Mexican-illegal surge will take place, and the political calculus will be very different.But for now, the United States and Mexico have a confluence of interests in stopping the flow of third-country "asylum-seekers" heading for the American border. Mexicans love their country, as they should, and they're tired of foreigners using it as a doormat.
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| Washington Group Fighting Affirmative Action Used Proud Boys As Guards Posted: 17 Oct 2019 03:16 PM PDT  John Rudoff/GettyAn anti-affirmative action campaign used members of the Proud Boys for security—and is now claiming it didn't realize its protection team was an organization labeled a hate group.On Nov. 5, voters in Washington state are set to decide on the future of Referendum 88, a measure that would allow affirmative action hiring in public jobs. The measure has support from civil rights groups like the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), but faces opposition from a state veterans group and the organization Washington Asians for Equality, which claims the measure would lead to preferential treatment for some groups. This summer, some of those opponents partnered with a more notorious organization: the Proud Boys, who featured the signature drive in a recently surfaced propaganda video.The Proud Boys—designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center—prioritizes street fights and has extensive connections to more explicit white supremacist organizations. But unlike many other extremist groups, the Proud Boys frequently cozy up to the more mainstream right. Their current leader, Enrique Tarrio, is a Florida director of Latinos for Trump, despite marching in 2017's deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.Republicans Are Adopting the Proud BoysIn the August video, a Washington Proud Boy claims Referendum 88 backers solicited the Proud Boys' help in delivering signatures to the secretary of state's office.The group "gave us a call asking for security to help take the signatures for Referendum 88 down to the capitol building," he says in the video, which referendum supporters like the group Washington Fairness surfaced this week.The video goes on to show the group riding in a truck with the signatures and speaking into walkie-talkies for reasons that are not immediately apparent. The clip concludes with an advertisement for gas masks, which the Proud Boy says he used during a summer brawl with anti-fascists in Portland, Oregon.Reject Ref. 88, the organization that allegedly hired the Proud Boys, disavowed knowledge of them."The Referendum 88 petition drive worked with many volunteers during the signature gathering phase," organizer Linda Yang said in an email. "We didn't know the association of these individuals you refer to, nor did they tell us. The Reject Ref.88/I-1000 campaign welcomes people from all walks of life who believe in equality for all, regardless of race. Those who don't believe in that principle—be they on the far left or the far right—are not welcome in this campaign."But as the Seattle Stranger noted, Yang even appeared in the Proud Boys' video, explaining her opposition to Referendum 88. In the video, she gives different account of her group coming to work with the Proud Boys. After trying and failing to hire a security company to help deliver referendum signatures, "I got a call saying 'hey there's a group, they're willing to help,'" she said in the video. "I said 'we'll take it.'"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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| Thirty years after devastating quake, is San Francisco ready for the next? Posted: 16 Oct 2019 10:00 PM PDT  The 6.9-magnitude Loma Prieta quake killed 63 in 1989. Decades later, the Bay Area is still plagued by structural threats and flammable fuelsIn a 17 October 1989 photo, a California highway patrol officer checks the damage to cars that fell when the upper deck of the Bay Bridge collapsed onto the lower deck after the Loma Prieta earthquake in San Francisco. Photograph: George Nikitin/APOn the afternoon of 17 October 1989, a 6.9-magnitude earthquake rocked the San Francisco Bay Area, killing 63 people and causing $13bn in damages as it toppled a chunk of the Bay Bridge, colapsed a section of freeway in Oakland, and crumbled thousands of buildings from San Francisco to Santa Cruz.Thirty years later, California will launch an earthquake early warning app, the first to cover the whole state, developed by UC Berkeley and the California Office of Emergency Services. The decades since the Loma Prieta quake have been remarkably quiet – yet it's not a matter of if, but when, the next large earthquake will rattle the Bay Area, and the consequences will undoubtedly be severe.There are multiple faults to worry about in the Bay: the infamous San Andreas is a system, with branches that run up the San Francisco peninsula, along the East Bay foothills through Oakland and Berkeley and further inland through Dublin and Walnut Creek.Just this week, a 4.5-magnitude quake with an epicenter in the Pleasant Hill area shook the region.An antenna to send data stands on a rise above an earthquake monitoring well, right, powered by a solar electric panel, lower left, as scientists from the US Geological Survey set up an earthquake monitoring station on the San Andreas fault. Photograph: Reed Saxon/APIn the case of a major earthquake, experts are particularly worried that "ground failures" will cause widespread structural damage in many parts of the region built on landfill and sand. The California Geological Survey's most recent map of earthquake hazards shows huge swaths of the inner Bay Area are in "liquefaction zones", meaning that during a major earthquake, the ground could be shaken so violently that it would very temporarily soften into jelly. "People love to ask the question: is X place prepared for X disaster? Is California prepared for the next earthquake? The answer to that question, 99.99% of the time, is no," said Dr Samantha Montano, assistant professor of emergency management and disaster science at the University of Nebraska Omaha. "The way we think about preparedness is really kind of weird. When we talk about it day to day: do you have an emergency kit, yes or no? Just because you have that doesn't mean you're prepared for an earthquake – there's a lot more going into that."For any community facing a potential wide-scale disaster, the preparation is twofold: mitigating risk and preparing for the inevitable management of the emergency.While newer, stricter building codes put in place after Loma Prieta have required more quake-resilient construction, thousands of buildings in the Bay Area were built using old, shaky standards. Oakland passed an ordinance in 2019 requiring owners of vulnerable apartments to retrofit their structures. In San Francisco, where retrofits were due to be completed in 2018, about three-quarters of susceptible units have been quake-prepped.Politicians in Berkeley cited earthquake risk as one motivator for moving to ban natural gas hook-ups in new buildings earlier this year.Officials and others evacuate a man, Erick Carlson, from the Cypress section of Highway 17, now called Interstate 880, in Oakland, California, following the Loma Prieta earthquake. Photograph: Michael Macor/The Oakland Tribune/AP"We have basically allowed ourselves to pump a toxic flammable greenhouse gas producing an expensive liquid into our homes across earthquake fault lines," the Berkeley city councilmember Kate Harrison said at the time. "It will seem crazy in 100 years. We can see that this is a dangerous situation."The East Bay had perhaps a little taste of that danger earlier this week: following the mid-sized East Bay quake, two of the area's five refineries shut down due to the "upset" and their built-up gasses flared.Later, on Tuesday, a NuStar energy fuel storage facility suffered an explosion and large fire, leading many to speculate the earthquake had triggered the accident. A spokesperson could not confirm the cause of the explosion, which some in the area said felt like yet another earthquake."We want local governments to really be taking the lead and making sure not only that there's a plan for the city's government but also that they're integrating the plans with communities and businesses – particularly businesses like refineries, where there could be an added hazards," said Montano.> BREAKING : WOW! You can see the tank's top being blown off during this giant explosion at a NuStar refinery in Contra Costa County. According to fire officials, 3 large tanks of ethanol are burning. @kron4news https://t.co/b1zIju9159 pic.twitter.com/IYy6NNcRhP> > — Amy Larson (@AmyLarson25) October 15, 2019Environmental justice activists in the East Bay city of Richmond cite this kind of risk in the bigger quakes to come."When the Hayward fault shifts, and we have that earthquake, the reality is, large portions of the Chevron refinery are built on landfill," said Andrés Soto, an organizer with Communities for a Better Environment in Richmond. "And despite the best assurances from Chevron about how they've secured their refinery in the event of an earthquake, nature seems to have a way of conquering man-made structures."A transition away from the fossil fuels that in turn contribute to several other impending California environmental disasters could help make the Bay Area more resilient when the big one inevitably hits.
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| Joe Biden digs at Elizabeth Warren after debate: Polls don't show 'anybody else as a frontrunner' Posted: 17 Oct 2019 02:23 PM PDT  "You know, I haven't seen any polling showing that nationally, on average, that anybody else is a front-runner," Joe Biden said.
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| See Photos of the Volvo XC40 Recharge Electric SUV Posted: 16 Oct 2019 09:45 AM PDT |
| HK lawmakers dragged from chamber as leader heckled for second day Posted: 16 Oct 2019 08:42 PM PDT  Pro-democracy lawmakers were dragged out of Hong Kong's legislature by security guards on Thursday after they heckled the city's pro-Beijing leader for a second day running, the latest outburst of political rancour in the strife-torn city. Chief executive Carrie Lam has faced an outpouring of anger from her opponents since the legislature opened its doors for a new session on Wednesday, three months after the building was trashed by masked protesters. Lam was unable to give a State of the Union-style policy speech on Wednesday after pro-democracy lawmakers, who form a minority on the pro-Beijing-stacked legislature, repeatedly interrupted her.
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| Nancy Pelosi took a photo that Trump tweeted to accuse her of having a 'meltdown' and made it her cover photo Posted: 17 Oct 2019 02:42 PM PDT  The photo was taken at a meeting after the House voted to condemn the US withdrawal from Syria. Pelosi also said the president had a "meltdown."
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| Explainer: Democrats Warren and Sanders want wealth tax; economists explain how it works Posted: 17 Oct 2019 11:28 AM PDT  According to Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman, the University of California at Berkeley economists who developed that estimate, that is in part because the wealthiest American families declare only a small portion of their actual economic gains in any given year as income, while leaving the rest invested in stocks and other assets, to grow in value. Saez has been involved in a series of what are considered groundbreaking studies of U.S. income, inequality and economic mobility that involved both developing techniques to impute income based on holdings of wealth, and extensive access to U.S. Internal Revenue Service records. "The greatest injustice of the U.S. tax system today is its regressivity at the very top: billionaires in the top 400 pay less (relative to their true economic incomes) than the middle class," the economists wrote in a September paper https://brook.gs/2OWp9wx.
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| Border Patrol's growing presence at hospitals creates fear Posted: 17 Oct 2019 01:58 PM PDT  An armed Border Patrol agent roamed the hallways of an emergency room in Miami on a recent day as nurses wheeled stretchers and medical carts through the hospital and families waited for physicians to treat their loved ones. The agent in the olive-green uniform freely stepped in and out of the room where a woman was taken by ambulance after throwing up and fainting while being detained on an immigration violation, according to advocates who witnessed the scene. The presence of immigration authorities is becoming increasingly common at health care facilities around the country, and hospitals are struggling with where to draw the line to protect patients' rights amid rising immigration enforcement in the Trump administration.
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| A homeless man was sentenced to 15 years after pleading guilty to cocaine possession — but it turned out to just be powdered milk Posted: 16 Oct 2019 08:18 AM PDT  Cody Gregg, 29, had his case in Oklahoma City dismissed on Friday, days after pleading guilty to possession of cocaine with intent to distribute.
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| Mexico Throws $900 Million at Labor to Entice Democrats on USMCA Posted: 17 Oct 2019 12:30 PM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is pledging close to $1 billion to implement a law to improve labor conditions that U.S. Democrats say is key to passing a stalled North American trade accord.Mexico's Finance Ministry will ask lawmakers to boost the budget that was already presented to congress by $69 million for next year, Lopez Obrador stated in a letter he sent to U.S. Representative Richard Neal, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. He promised another $830 million over the following three years to fund the labor overhaul.The expensive pledges seem to be working, as both the White House and House Democrats are becoming increasingly upbeat about the stalled U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, known as USMCA. But AMLO's steep austerity measures for most of his other ministries amid a stagnant economy present a challenge to his carrying out those promises.Neal said he was very pleased with Mexico's demonstration of good faith, and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer separately told a Bloomberg Government audience on Thursday that Democrats are "working hard to get to yes." House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday she's "optimistic" about finishing work on the accord, although "we are not there yet."AMLO, as Lopez Obrador is known, also said he'd tell the relevant authorities to carry out a "frontal attack" against labor impunity.To contact the reporter on this story: Nacha Cattan in Mexico City at ncattan@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Juan Pablo Spinetto at jspinetto@bloomberg.net, Robert JamesonFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Dior Apologizes for Showing China Map without Taiwan in Meeting with Chinese College Students Posted: 17 Oct 2019 08:38 AM PDT  Luxury brand Christian Dior apologized on Thursday for showing students a map of China that didn't include Taiwan in a closed-door recruiting session at Zhejiang Gongshang University in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou."Dior first extends our deep apologies for the incorrect statement and misrepresentation made by a Dior staff member at a campus presentation," read a statement by Dior on Weibo, a Chinese social-media platform similar to Twitter. "Dior always respects and upholds the One China policy, strictly safeguards China's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and treasures the feelings of the Chinese people."In a video, later posted online, of the question-and-answer session that followed the presentation, a female student asks why Taiwan, which the Chinese government considers a part of China, wasn't included on the map of China shown by Dior representatives. One representative answered that the map was too small, to which the student replied that the map did include the island of Hainan south of China, which is similar in size to Taiwan. Another representative interjected that Taiwan, Hong Kong, and mainland China together form "Great China."The company's apology to China drew condemnation from Taiwanese officials."@Dior's apology to the PRC government is a mistake," Taiwanese foreign minister Joseph Wu shot back on Twitter. "Its employee was correct in showing the Chinese map without Taiwan."The controversy comes after the NBA was accused of buckling to Chinese censorship in a similar spat earlier this month.On October 4, Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey tweeted, "Fight for Freedom. Stand with Hong Kong." The Chinese Basketball Association immediately moved to cut all ties with the Rockets, and Chinese streaming service Tencent announced that it would not show any Rockets games for the coming year. Morey subsequently released a statement apologizing to Chinese fans, and the NBA publicly condemned Morey for his tweet supporting the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. The NBA faced widespread condemnation from U.S. elected officials, who blasted what they called its weak response to China's demands.
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| Turkey's Air Force Has Stealth Fighter Dreams Posted: 16 Oct 2019 10:30 PM PDT  No F-35s or Su-57s? Could Turkey just build their own? What about China?
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| Record-smashing bomb cyclone or 'explosive cyclogenesis' wreaks havoc in the Northeast Posted: 17 Oct 2019 12:29 PM PDT  An 'explosive cyclogenesis' or bomb cyclone hit the Northeast, causing widespread power outages in Massachusetts, Maine, Connecticut, New Hampshire.
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| Elijah Cummings 'signed subpoenas from his hospital bed' for Trump impeachment before his death Posted: 17 Oct 2019 09:24 AM PDT  Elijah Cummings was kept busy to the very end of his life leading an investigation into Donald Trump before passing away at the age of 68 on Wednesday, his aides have said.The chairman of the House Oversight Committee was signing subpoenas from his hospital bed, one aide told the New York Times.
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| Israel envoy demands probe after effigy of Jewish tycoon left at Ukraine synagogue Posted: 17 Oct 2019 07:08 AM PDT  The Israeli ambassador to Ukraine asked police on Thursday to find and punish people who left a red paint-spattered effigy of tycoon Ihor Kolomoisky, who holds a Ukrainian Jewish community leadership post, on the steps of the main synagogue in Kiev. Kolomoisky, one of Ukraine's richest men, is in the public eye over his business ties to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who came to fame as the star of TV show on a channel Kolomoisky owns. Kolomoisky is president of the United Jewish Community of Ukraine, one of several Jewish community bodies in the country.
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| APNewsBreak: Skeleton unearthed beneath California peak Posted: 16 Oct 2019 07:25 PM PDT  The climbers were closing in on the top of California's second-highest peak when they came upon the grisly discovery of what looked like a bone buried in a boulder field. Tyler Hofer and his climbing partner moved rocks aside and discovered an entire skeleton. The discovery a week ago beneath Mount Williamson unearthed a mystery: Who was the unfortunate hiker?
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| 35 foreigners dead in Saudi bus crash Posted: 17 Oct 2019 09:49 AM PDT  Thirty-five foreigners were killed and four others injured when a bus collided with another heavy vehicle near the Islamic holy city of Medina, Saudi state media said on Thursday. The accident on Wednesday evening involved the collision of "a private chartered bus... with a heavy vehicle" near the western city, a spokesman for Medina police said, according to the official Saudi Press Agency. This year, some 2.5 million faithful travelled to Saudi Arabia from across the world in August to take part in the annual hajj pilgrimage -- one of the five pillars of Islam.
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| Actress Felicity Huffman won't serve her full 14-day prison sentence Posted: 16 Oct 2019 02:46 PM PDT  The former "Desperate Housewives" star, who reported for her 14-day prison sentence on Oct. 15, will reportedly serve only 13 days behind bars. People magazine cited the Federal Bureau of Prisons' inmate locator when reporting the news. She'll be released on Oct. 27.
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| Peek Inside Eero Saarinen’s Iconic General Motors Technical Center Posted: 17 Oct 2019 08:22 AM PDT |
| RIP Stealth? In 1999, a U.S. F-117 Stealth Fighter Was Hit By a Missile Posted: 16 Oct 2019 08:00 PM PDT  Sorry, but stealth is not perfect. Here is what happened.
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| Mexican Asylum Seekers Are Facing Long Waits at the U.S. Border. Advocates Say That's Illegal Posted: 16 Oct 2019 10:08 AM PDT  A new 'metering' practice is particularly dangerous for Mexican asylum seekers
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| US troops bombed their own anti-ISIS headquarters as Turkey-backed fighters closed in during Trump's hasty retreat Posted: 16 Oct 2019 03:00 PM PDT  After Turkish forces fired on US positions on Friday, Turkish-backed forces advanced on the anti-ISIS base in Syria.
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| Rudy Giuliani’s Twitter Feed Is a Boomer Conspiracy-Theory Sh*tshow Posted: 17 Oct 2019 02:29 AM PDT  Photo Illustration by Kristen Hazzard/The Daily Beast/GettyWhen Rudy Giuliani logs into Twitter, he's presented with a world where the recent California power outages were staged by military operatives rooting out cannibal-pedophiles deep in their underground bunkers. It's a place where President Donald Trump only betrayed the Kurds because they were running black sites for a global deep-state cabal; where former Trump Russia adviser Fiona Hill ran an anti-Trump spy ring out of the White House; where former Hillary Clinton campaign chair John Podesta eats children; and where the pope is about to seize world power, and maybe already has. It is the worst that the right-wing internet fever swamp has to offer, and it is all right there, waiting for Giuliani to consume. With the president's personal lawyer now in hot water for helping to orchestrate an apparent pressure campaign to get the Ukrainian leadership to launch investigations beneficial to Trump's domestic political needs, the question being routinely asked is what compelled him to act in these ways. To answer that question, it's worth examining the dozen of hardcore conspiracy theory accounts that populate Giuliani's Twitter timeline. Giuliani, after all, has become a fairly regular user of the platform, having posted to it more than 1,000 times and routinely favoriting content during the course of any given day. But he only follows 224 people (as of Wednesday). A good chunk of those follows are conventional Trumpworld figures, including the president himself (Trump was Giuliani's earliest follow), Judicial Watch chief Tom Fitton, opinion writer John Solomon, and former Trump adviser Sebastian Gorka.But many of those 224 dabble in far darker realms of the far-right conspiracy theory internet than the usual rantings of a Fox News primetime broadcast. For instance, Giuliani follows writer Ella Cruz—the author of an Amazon self-published book called Ring of the Cabal: The Secret Government of The Royal Papal Banking Cabal, which alleges that the New World Order will soon impose the "mark of the beast" on all humanity. In August, Cruz tweeted at Giuliani, warning him that Hillary Clinton murdered pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein. Though Giuliani doesn't often RT or even like the content produced by the people he follows his taste for conspiracy theories does occasionally shine through, such as in August, when he quote-tweeted conspiracy theorist Matt Couch, a prolific promoter of the baseless idea that former Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich was murdered by Hillary Clinton. Couch has become so vocal in his attacks on the Rich family that Rich's brother filed a defamation suit against him. Giuliani promoted a tweet from Couch questioning the police narrative about Rich's 2016 murder, and later told The Daily Beast there are "legitimate questions" about the investigation. Giuliani follows a number of accounts that promote the QAnon conspiracy, which alleges that Trump is engaged in a secret war against cannibal-pedophiles in the Democratic Party, Hollywood, and Wall Street. Nearly 5 percent of the accounts that Giuliani follows have explicit QAnon references permanently on their Twitter pages, either in the form of pinned tweets, Twitter names, bios, or header images. Many more of them frequently tweet and retweet QAnon messages from popular promoters of the conspiracy theory. Several accounts Giuliani follows recently retweeted a video, shot in a dimly lit, anonymous living room, starring a man claiming that Navy SEALs and Marines had recently rescued "2,100 children from California Underground bases." There is no evidence that this is actually true. Other accounts that Giuliani follows are prone to promoting a wild potpourri of various conspiracy theory claims. Among them are that Barack Obama is engineering the Trump impeachment process to install Michelle Obama in the White House, or that Hillary Clinton plans to kill off each Democratic presidential candidate so she can become president herself. Others allege that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg secretly died months ago, but that her death is being covered up. Taken together, the accounts circle around a few popular right-wing targets: the Clintons, the Obamas, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN). Several accounts Giuliani follows recently claimed, without any proof, that Omar had donned a disguise to take part in a gathering of left-wing antifascist activists. Another promoted a long-discredited idea that a photograph proves Omar attended a terrorist training camp (in fact, the picture was taken years before Omar was even born).Many of the accounts Giuliani follows have just a few hundred or thousand followers, raising questions about how he became aware of them in the first place. But Giuliani also follows some of Twitter's leading right-wing conspiracy theorists. Giuliani follows SGT Report, a sort of clearing house for anti-vaccine activists and other conspiracy theorists that has more than 500,000 subscribers on YouTube.The degree to which Rudy's Twitter consumption informs his world view is inherently unknowable. Giuliani hasn't favorited any of tweets from the conspiracy theory accounts. Reached for comment, he declined to say why so many obscure conspiracy theory Twitter accounts make up the relatively small number of total accounts that he follows on Twitter."Never saw any of that," Giuliani wrote in a text message.But there is some anecdotal evidence that Giuliani has embraced or, at a minimum, begun to echo the world that he has built for himself on that platform and it is not just because of his penchant for promoting conspiracy theories about billionaire George Soros and former Vice President Joe Biden. Earlier this month, Giuliani appeared on an internet TV radio show hosted by Bill Mitchell, a diehard Trump fan who has frequently promoted QAnon online. Asked ahead of the interview why he was going on the show, given Mitchell's QAnon connection, Giuliani asked for proof that Mitchell supports QAnon. After The Daily Beast sent Giuliani one article proving Mitchell's support for QAnon, the former prosecutor stopped responding to text messages.Giuliani's own Twitter use has accelerated since he took on a starring role in Trump's Ukraine scandal, according to social media analytics site SocialBlade. In October 2018, Giuliani had 29 average monthly tweets. A year later, he averages 132 tweets a month, according to SocialBlade.Many of the fringe accounts Giuliani follows have rallied to his defense as the Ukraine investigation heats up and echo his most conspiratorial insinuations about the Biden family. One account Giuliani follows, for example, regularly urges him and Trump to sue Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) over impeachment. Several of the conspiracy theorist Twitter users that Giuliani follows have, in turn, cited their social media connection to the former New York City mayor as a way of burnishing their credibility. "It's an honor that he follows me," Couch, the Seth Rich conspiracy theorist, told The Daily Beast.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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| UPDATE 4-Hong Kong assembly in chaos; attack on democracy leader a 'chilling signal' Posted: 16 Oct 2019 08:03 PM PDT ![UPDATE 4-Hong Kong assembly in chaos; attack on democracy leader a 'chilling signal']( "UPDATE 4-Hong Kong assembly in chaos; attack on democracy leader a 'chilling signal'") Hong Kong's parliament descended into chaos on Thursday, with lawmakers dragged out by security guards for heckling leader Carrie Lam as they demanded an inquiry into a brutal attack on a prominent human rights activist ahead of a major rally. The knife and hammer attack on Jimmy Sham, which left him bloodied and lying in the street on Wednesday night, was designed to intimidate protesters and incite violence ahead of Sunday's march, pro-democracy lawmaker Claudia Mo told reporters. "This very vicious attack took place practically on the eve of the call for yet another massive protest in Hong Kong on Sunday.
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| The Latest: GM workers to begin contract voting on Saturday Posted: 17 Oct 2019 03:22 PM PDT  The 49,000 General Motors workers who have been on the picket line since Sept. 16 will begin voting on a tentative four-year contract on Saturday. Factory-level officials from the United Auto Workers union voted to recommend the agreement to members at a daylong meeting in Detroit Thursday. On Wednesday, the company and the UAW reached a deal that would give workers a mix of pay raises, lump sum payments and an $11,000 signing bonus.
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