| Buttigieg, surging in Iowa, has a plan to win it all. Here it is. Posted: 21 Oct 2019 08:52 AM PDT  Reminder: There are 105 days until the Iowa caucuses and 379 days until the 2020 election. It happened to Kamala Harris during the summer. Now it's starting to happen to South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who was widely proclaimed one of the "winners" of last week's Democratic primary debate in Westerville, Ohio.
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| Harry Dunn: Government knew American suspect was leaving UK Posted: 21 Oct 2019 10:01 PM PDT  The UK government was warned by the US embassy that the suspect in the crash which killed Harry Dunn was to leave the country. Mr Dunn, 19, was killed when his motorbike collided with a car near RAF Croughton, Northants, on Aug 27. Anne Sacoolas, the wife of an American diplomat, has admitted to driving on the wrong side of the road and hitting the teenager, but she returned to the US and has refused to come back. Dominic Raab, the Foreign Secretary, told the Commons last night that the US embassy alerted them to Ms Sacoolas's "imminent" departure "unless the UK had strong objections" on Sept 13. Police were unable to arrest Ms Sacoolas as the US had not waived her diplomatic immunity. "We duly and immediately objected in clear and strong terms and we have done ever since," said Mr Raab. When the Foreign Office followed up on Sept 16, the embassy said Ms Sacoolas had returned to the US. Mr Dunn's family spokesman said the revelation "added insult to injury". Harry Dunn died in August but the driver of the car that hit him has not returned to the UK to face questioning Credit: Facebook The Foreign Secretary said the case had been raised at "every level" in the US, including with Donald Trump. In a statement, Mr Raab said: "I have already commissioned a review of the immunity arrangements of US personnel and their families at the Croughton annex I do not believe the current arrangements are right and the review will look at how we can make sure they cannot be used in this way again." Mr Raab said diplomatic immunity for Ms Sacoolas has "clearly ended". "There are no barriers to justice being done," in Harry's case he added. Harry's parents were due to meet Northamptonshire Chief Const Nick Adderley on Tuesday, but cancelled because they felt he was only able to offer condolences rather than solutions.
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| Turkey-U.S. Sparring Escalates as Bank Spurns NY Court Posted: 22 Oct 2019 03:51 PM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Turkey is snubbing U.S. demands for one of its biggest banks to face charges that it helped Iran evade sanctions amid escalating tensions fueled by Turkey's incursion into northern Syria.U.S. prosecutors charged Turkiye Halk Bankasi AS last week with enabling a sanctions-evasion scheme that helped Iran tap $20 billion in frozen foreign oil sales revenue sitting in foreign bank accounts, at a time when the U.S. was trying to maximize leverage over the country in negotiations to abandon its nuclear program.The timing of the indictment led Turkish officials to dismiss the charges as false and politically motivated. The bank and its U.S. lawyers have refused to accept a legal summons or acknowledge U.S. legal authority in the matter. At a hearing Tuesday, no lawyers or executives showed up to represent the bank. A day earlier Turkey named a former executive at the bank, who'd been convicted in the U.S., to head the Istanbul stock exchange.Tensions between Turkey and the U.S. have heightened since President Donald Trump ordered the removal of U.S. troops from northern Syria, opening the door for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to send his forces to attack Kurds in the region.The incursion spurred the U.S. to sanction Turkey with Trump writing a letter last week to Erdogan imploring him not to be a "tough guy" or a "fool." Erdogan reportedly threw the letter in the trash.Earlier, Trump threatened Turkey in a statement on Twitter.U.S. authorities had been pursuing a criminal case against the bank for at least a year, seeking to impose a massive financial penalty for its role in the scheme. But the case idled for months amid diplomatic wrangling until the charges were filed along with other sanctions last week.Read more on the charges hereFederal prosecutors with the Manhattan U.S. attorney's office have now deemed Halkbank a "fugitive," and told U.S. District Judge Richard M. Berman they may seek contempt sanctions if the bank fails to respond to renewed demands for its presence in court. Halkbank has no employees or offices in the U.S., though it does have a correspondent bank account and shares that are listed and traded as American depositary receipts in U.S. markets.The judge said he would consider the request but also said he wanted to give the bank two weeks to review the matter and reconsider its position.If Turkey's current position on the issue is any indication, it may take more than two weeks: on Monday, it named a former Halkbank executive who was convicted in a U.S. trial over the sanctions scheme as the new chief executive of the Istanbul stock exchange. The executive, Mehmet Hakan Atilla, was released from U.S. custody in July. In making the appointment, Turkish finance minister Berat Albayrak, who is also Erdogan's son-in-law, said Atilla was the victim of an "unjust conviction."(Corrects bank's name in second paragraph)To contact the reporter on this story: Christian Berthelsen in New York at cberthelsen1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net, Joe SchneiderFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| A West Point cadet and his M4 rifle have been missing for three days Posted: 21 Oct 2019 01:49 PM PDT  Officials said that the cadet, member of the class of 2021, is not believed to be a threat to the public, but could be a threat to himself.
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| US far-right activists get four years in jail for attacking leftists Posted: 22 Oct 2019 11:44 AM PDT  Two members of a US far-right group were each sentenced to four years in prison on Tuesday for brawling with anti-fascist demonstrators in New York, prosecutors said. The sentencing comes as tensions between white supremacists and leftists simmer in the United States. Maxwell Hare and John Kinsman, members of the Proud Boys group, were found guilty in August by a state court of several counts of attempted assault and rioting.
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| Trump’s Betrayal of the Kurds? U.S. Allies Will Get Over It, and Soon Posted: 22 Oct 2019 02:24 PM PDT  Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/ReutersPresident Donald J. Trump's decision to redeploy U.S. forces from the Syrian-Turkish border, if not to withdraw the majority of U.S. troops from Syria altogether, constitutes a shameful betrayal of America's Kurdish partners in the fight against ISIS and a needlessly self-inflicted wound to U.S. interests. Indeed the images of U.S. withdrawal are feeding ISIS, Iranian and Russian propaganda mills.But among the disastrous consequences of Trump's decision summoned up by his critics, one seems hyper-inflated: the notion that deserting the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) has so shaken the confidence and trust of Washington's longtime allies and partners that they will now think carefully about relying on the U.S. for their security and cooperating with the Americans.Last U.S. Base in Syria 'Is Everything Wrong With Trump's War'We don't buy it. Even the victim of America's latest perfidy – Mazloum Kobani, Commander of the SDF – recently expressed the hope (perhaps out of desperation) that the relationship with the U.S. would continue. Indeed, America's relations with its most important Middle Eastern, European, and Asian allies will survive Trump's stab in the back and almost certainly outlast his presidency.On the face of it, it's easy to understand the impact that throwing the SDF under the bus had on America's Middle Eastern allies, who understandably, in a cruel and dangerous Middle East, to worry for a living. The Israelis, who had long supported and identified with the Kurds as a minority felt particularly aggrieved, convinced America had now left the field to Iran. It is also important to bear in mind that Trump's 180 on the Kurds took place against the backdrop of his "America First" policy, his dismissive attitude toward many of America's Nato's allies, and his unwillingness to respond with force to Iran's attacks against Saudi oil installations in September (though the Saudis no doubt breathed a sigh of relief).But does Trump's Kurdish betrayal spell disaster for America's allies and rapture for their adversaries. Are we in for a major realignment because Trump has forgotten who America's friends are? Almost certainly not. And here's why. * * *THE KURDISH EXCEPTION* * *To compare America's relationship to the SDF – a newly created non- state actor – with any of Washington's traditional allies in the region or beyond is misplaced, misleading and just plain wrong. Whatever doubts South Korea or Japan have about Trump, it's not driven by his policy toward a Kurdish/Syrian militia, but rather by the way he has dealt with both allies in the face of a threat from North Korea. Going forward, both will be watching how Trump deals with them and whether he fulfills his commitments to Tokyo and Seoul, not to the Kurds.. The SDF was a valiant partner in America's campaign against ISIS. And deserting those who had sacrificed thousands of their fighters in the battle against ISIS was an abdication of moral responsibility. But both the history of America's ties with the Kurds and the future of that relationship were quite different from America's ties with its historic allies in Europe and Asia. America had a tactical marriage of convenience; there had never been a history of consistent cooperation and no domestic base of public support. The relationship was not anchored in shared values and Syria, unlike the major concentrations of wealth and power in Europe and northeast Asia, is of little strategic or geopolitical consequence for the balance of power in the Middle East.Few, if any, of America's treaty allies – not even the British or the French who were contributing to the campaign against ISIS – were prepared to assume a long-term commitment to Kurds, offer the SDF security guarantees over the territory they controlled, or accepted Kurdish aspirations for autonomy given the Turkish determination to crush it. And that's because the Kurds fate is of little matter to the US traditional allies. To assume, however, that they would draw the conclusion that Trump's betrayal of the Kurds signaled that the U.S. would not defend them in response to an external attack or willingly put them in life threatening circumstances is a real stretch even in Trumpland.* * *MISUNDERSTANDING CREDIBILITY* * *In betraying the Kurds, Trump has been almost universally scorned for putting US credibility at risk with its allies in the region and beyond. According to this theory, if America fails to confront a challenger in one place, it will confront challengers in many places because of the loss of American credibility. Like so much that passes for conventional wisdom these days, it is wrong. And because it results from bad analysis, it can lead to very bad decisions that increase the risk of America going to war to defend its reputation. A 1984 Yale University Study reviewed dozens of cases between 1900 to 1980 for signs that if a country stood down in one confrontation, it would face more threats elsewhere. There was no correlation. International relations experts who have studied the role of credibility – or what is often referred to "as reputational anxiety" – in U.S. foreign policy agree on the following propositions: First, when an adversary of the U.S. is contemplating an attack on an American ally, its decision-making calculus on the risks and rewards of aggression is not based on what America may, or may not have done, to confront challenges in other circumstances; rather, it is determined by its perception of how Washington views its stake in the outcome of the potential conflict in the circumstances it is facing and whether America has the will and capacity to defend those interests. And second, the threatened American ally will make similar calculations about whether it can count on Washington to meet its security commitments. It is preposterous to believe, for example, that because of Trump's betrayal of the Kurds, Kim Jong Un would order an attack on South Korea; Vladimir Putin would decide to attack a NATO country; President Xi Jinping would decide to seize Taiwan, or Iran's leaders would decide to launch a full-scale attack on Israel. Nor is it likely that Trump's decision will embolden these leaders to take greater risks in a situation where misjudging America's resolve could lead to serious consequences for the survival of their country and their rule. The U.S. gets stuck in a self imposed credibility trap thinking wrongly that reputations are all that matter. Studies suggest that the Russians didn't believe the US was weak because it abandoned South Vietnam and were surprised the US had stayed for so long. * * *TRUMP ISN'T FOREVER* * *America's allies are justifiably concerned about Trump's general unpredictability and erratic, mercurial, and impulsive behavior. His policies have strained America's relationships with its allies. Japan and South Korea are worried about Trump selling them down the river to placate North Korea; Israel is worried about the possibility of a rapprochement with Iran and the absence of U.S. leadership in the Middle East. And yet these countries depend on America -- they have no alternative to an American guarantee of their security, certainly not Russia, and the US withdrawal of all its forces from Syria, if and when that happens, won't change that. In fact, even as Trump withdrew U.S. forces there, he announced the additional deployment of several thousand troops, combat aircraft, and air defense systems to Saudi Arabia. That Riyadh is prepared again to host U.S. troops reflects how dependent it has become on U.S. support. And not only Saudi Arabia; this week Bahrain hosted, under U.S. auspices, a conference on maritime security with 60 countries including Saudi Arabia and Israel. The U.S. has an enormous military footprint in Qatar and Kuwait. None of the U.S. partners in the Gulf Cooperation Council lifted a finger to help the Kurds in their fight against ISIS and none made a significant contribution to the anti-Jihadist cause in either Syria or Iraq. So it is not terribly logical to argue that they would get all exercised about the U.S. ending its military support for the Kurds. America's long-time allies make decisions based on their own circumstances, the common interests they share with the U.S., the context of their relationship, and whether or not they view Washington as fulfilling specific obligations and commitments to them. In some cases, America's relations with its partners and allies go back decades and they are rooted not only in shared interests but common values as well. These relationships should not be taken for granted, but they are not easily breakable like fine China. And more than likely, even with an impulsive bull in that China shop, they'll be around much longer than Donald Trump.Donald Trump Is Perfectly Happy to Let Allah Sort 'Em OutRead 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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| Seattle Public Schools Want to Teach Social Justice in Math Class. That Hurts Minorities. Posted: 22 Oct 2019 02:05 PM PDT  Seattle's public-school district has proposed a new math curriculum that would teach its students all about how math has been "appropriated" -- and how it "continues to be used to oppress and marginalize people and communities."A draft of the curriculum, which was covered in an article in Education Week, would teach students how to "explain how math and technology and/or science are connected and how technology and/or science have (sic) been and continues to be used to oppress and marginalize people and communities of color," as well as to "identify and teach others about mathematicians* of color in their various communities: schools, neighborhoods, places of worship, businesses, etc."Education Week reports:> If adopted, its ideas will be included in existing math classes as part of the district's broader effort to infuse ethnic studies into all subjects across the K-12 spectrum. Tracy Castro-Gill, Seattle's ethnic studies director, said her team hopes to have frameworks completed in all subjects by June for board approval.> > If the frameworks are approved, teachers would be expected to incorporate those ideas and questions into the math they teach beginning next fall, Castro-Gill said. No districtwide—or mandated—math/ethnic studies curriculum is planned, but groups of teachers are working with representatives of local community organizations to write instructional units for teachers to use if they wish, she said.As strange as it may sound, this proposed curriculum is not the first time that someone has argued for teaching math in this way. In fact, in 2017, an online course developed by Teach for America -- titled "Teaching Social Justice Through Secondary Mathematics" -- instructed how to teach their students how "math has been used as a dehumanizing tool." Also in 2017, a University of Illinois math-education professor detailed what she saw as some of the more racist aspects of math, claiming that "mathematics itself operates as Whiteness."I wrote columns about both of these stories that year -- and, at the time, most people likely saw them simply as examples of "fringe" beliefs, confined to only super-progressive, ultra-woke circles. With the announcement of this Seattle proposal, however, we can no longer reassure ourselves that this is the case. Now, the social-justice approach to teaching math has officially entered the mainstream (and taxpayer-funded!) arena.This concerns me, and, believe it or not, that's actually not because I despise "people and communities of color." In fact, it's quite the opposite: It's because this approach to teaching math will only end up harming the very groups it claims it champions. As The American Conservative's Rod Dreher notes:> The young people who are going to learn real math are those whose parents can afford to put them in private schools. The public school kids of all races are going to get dumber and dumber.Guess what? Minority students are far more likely to attend public school than whites. In fact, according to Private School Review, "[t]he average percent of minority students in private schools is approximately 28 percent."In other words? The minority students, the members of the very groups that this curriculum presumably aims to aid, are actually going to be learning less math than they would have without it -- because they will be spending some of that class time learning about how math's racism has hurt them. Ironically, one of the curriculum's goals is to teach students how to "critique systems of power that deny access to mathematical knowledge to people and communities of color," and yet, that's exactly what the district itself would be doing with it.The historical contributions of communities of color are important, and students should study them. A better place to study them, though, would (quite obviously) be a history class, not a mathematics one. Mathematics classes should be for mathematics lessons; this is especially important considering the fact that math is exactly where American students (of all races) struggle compared to students in other countries. In fact, according to a Pew Research study from 2017, American students ranked 38th out of 71 countries in the subject. If we want to fix this, we need to focus more on math, instead of looking for ways to teach less of it in the very classes where our students are supposed to be learning it.The bottom line is: If Seattle's school district really wants to help minority students excel in mathematics, the last thing it should be doing is proposing a math curriculum that would teach less of it in the schools that they're most likely to attend.
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| General: Georgia soldiers died when vehicle fell from bridge Posted: 21 Oct 2019 03:35 PM PDT  Soldiers were training in darkness when their armored vehicle fell from a bridge and landed upside down in water below, killing three of those inside and injuring three others, the commanding general of Fort Stewart said Monday. Maj. Gen. Antonio Aguto struggled to hold back tears at a news conference as he read the names of the soldiers who died Sunday during a training exercise hours before dawn.
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| Canada's Trudeau keeps the wheel but prepares for left turn Posted: 22 Oct 2019 03:40 AM PDT  Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday faced the cold reality of a minority government that will likely be forced to tilt left to survive, a move that risks upsetting the business community and stoking alienation in oil-producing provinces. Trudeau, one of the world's most prominent progressive leaders, saw a sharp drop in support for his ruling Liberals across the country in an election on Monday that focused in part on two scandals that dogged the 47-year-old leader. Preliminary results showed the Liberals elected or ahead in 157 of 338 seats, a drop of 20 from where they stood going into the vote.
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| Silicon Valley CEOs Appear to Have Chosen Their 2020 Candidate Posted: 22 Oct 2019 01:00 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- The technology industry is looking for something different in a president in 2020. And it appears Pete Buttigieg is their candidate.While Joe Biden and Senator Elizabeth Warren are topping national polls in the contest for the Democratic Party's nomination, California's deep-pocketed Silicon Valley is donating to the 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Indiana over the former vice president by a 5-to-1 margin."Pete is a clean slate for the party in ways Biden can't be," said Cyrus Radfar, a 35-year-old technology entrepreneur and Democratic donor. "There's new life and new energy that Pete brings, especially as the base of the Democratic Party is getting younger. I think he's going to be on the national stage for a long time."Buttigieg has staged a fundraising blitz in posh Northern California communities, holding events hosted by technology executives such as Netflix Inc. Chief Executive Officer Reed Hastings, Nest Labs home-automation company co-founder Matt Rogers, and Chelsea Kohler, director of product communications at Uber Technologies Inc., among others.Were he to win, Buttigieg would not only be the youngest president, but also the first openly gay one. While he is successfully raising money, Buttigieg has struggled until recently to enter the top tier of candidates nationally.But there are signs that he could be a moderate voter's alternative to Biden. While raising money in California, Buttigieg is campaigning heavily in Iowa, and it appears both efforts are paying off. A USA Today/Suffolk University poll of likely Iowa caucus goers put Buttigieg just behind Biden and Warren for the first time. Biden had 18% support, Warren 17% and Buttigieg 13%.Millennial voters in the tech industry say they appreciate that Buttigieg's liberal policies seem grounded in reality and recognize "a cutthroat world," as Elizabeth Moran, 28, put it at a debate watch party in Silicon Valley's Sunnyvale. Moran, who works at Poshmark, a social commerce platform, said she likes Buttigieg's grasp of economics."Well-educated recognizes well-educated," Moran said, adding that Buttigieg could have come to Silicon Valley after graduating from Harvard as many Ivy League graduates do.In other words, in their eyes, Buttigieg is like them."There's a big move on the Democratic side to more heavily regulate tech, and that hasn't been part of Buttigieg's message," said Raphael Sonenshein, executive director of the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs at California State University, Los Angeles. "His message is consistent with innovation and forward-looking technology. He has not given the impression that he would threaten their interests."While he hasn't said much about competition and antitrust, Buttigieg has focused on improving regulations as opposed to breaking up big tech."We're going to need to empower the FTC to be able to intervene, including blocking or reversing mergers, in cases where there's anti-competitive behavior by tech companies," he said in a CNN town hall in April, referring to the Federal Trade Commission.Buttigieg was his high school's valedictorian and went on to Harvard, where he befriended two roommates of future Facebook Inc. CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and was one of the first 300 users on the social media platform. He was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, joined McKinsey & Co. as a consultant, and volunteered for Barack Obama's tech-savvy 2008 presidential campaign before joining the U.S. Navy Reserve and serving in Afghanistan.His relationship with Zuckerberg persisted. Zuckerberg, 35, visited South Bend in 2017 while doing research for his philanthropic organization, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and got a personal tour from Buttigieg. That relationship lasted into this year, when Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, recommended two people that Buttigieg ultimately hired for his campaign. Ben LaBolt, a spokesman for Zuckerberg and Chan, said the couple hasn't yet decided whom to support for president.The Golden StateCalifornia voters have an unusually large influence in choosing the party's nominee this cycle. The state primary next year is in March instead of its previous June slot and its donors contributed 1 of every 5 dollars raised by the party's presidential candidates in the first six months of this year, data from the Center for Responsive Politics show.Buttigieg is second only to home-state senator Kamala Harris in the percentage of his campaign money that comes from California. Harris got 45% of her donations from Californians, Buttigieg got 22%.Harris, who was the state's attorney general, raised $1 million from California lawyers, more than twice as much as any other candidate. She was also the top recipient of donations from employees of the entertainment industry. But California employees of tech companies, including giants like Facebook, Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp., backed Buttigieg more than any other candidate.Silicon Valley bundlers -- fundraisers who gather money from numerous employees of a firm -- have raised concerns about both Warren and Senator Bernie Sanders, who are relying primarily on small-dollar contributions from online donors.Warren is particularly thorny for the tech industry. She has vowed that she will not meet with big donors who want to "buy access" -- and perhaps more troubling for them, has promised to break up big technology companies. Some technology workers are contributing to Warren and Sanders, but few are writing the $2,800 checks that Buttigieg and Biden are relying on, likely because they've been quieter on the question of how to handle big tech.Buttigieg is positioning himself as a younger alternative to 76-year-old Biden. Like Biden, he has not embraced the progressive wing's Medicare for All, instead proposing government-run health care "to those who want it," without eliminating private insurance.In other areas, he hasn't taken many unique stances, but his Midwestern and military background seeps into some plans. An issue page on his campaign website is simply called "Unleash rural opportunity," and he has proposed eliminating some student debt in exchange for national service.Paul Holland, a California venture capitalist and fundraiser for Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign, said he believes a moderate has the best chance of winning. In his circles, Biden hasn't attracted the same kind of enthusiastic support that other candidates have."It's Mayor Pete and Cory Booker who are getting most of the attention," he said.Buttigieg himself drew the contrast between his candidacy and Biden's during a Marin County event."Every time we've won in our party it's been with a candidate with new ideas, who hasn't been on the scene for too long," Buttigieg said. "That's what works. Also, Americans are most likely to support the opposite of what's in the Oval Office."Among Buttigieg's donors are Ron Conway, an investor who has guided San Francisco mayors to back tech-friendly policies; Scott Belsky, the chief product officer and executive vice president at Adobe Inc.; Tony Xu, CEO of Doordash Inc.; David Marcus, the head of Facebook's Libra cryptocurrency project and Wendy Schmidt, wife of former Google CEO Eric Schmidt.Buttigieg's fundraising has been prodigious, but he's still behind in national polls. He stands at just 5% in the RealClearPolitics national average, compared with 26% for Biden. And that raises pragmatic questions about who can win the Democratic nomination."Even with his flaws, Biden is the guy who's probably going to satisfy the moderates," Holland said.To contact the reporters on this story: Bill Allison in Washington DC at ballison14@bloomberg.net;Jeffrey Taylor in San Francisco at jtaylor184@bloomberg.net;Sophie Alexander in San Francisco at salexander82@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Peter EichenbaumFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Newt Gingrich and Whoopi Goldberg go at it on 'The View' over Trump's 'lynching' comments Posted: 22 Oct 2019 11:19 AM PDT  Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Whoopi Goldberg go toe to toe over Trump's "lynching" comments on Twitter.
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| Brothers who allegedly left their grandma to die in a fire, but saved meth lab equipment indicted Posted: 21 Oct 2019 03:10 PM PDT ![Brothers who allegedly left their grandma to die in a fire, but saved meth lab equipment indicted]( "Brothers who allegedly left their grandma to die in a fire, but saved meth lab equipment indicted") A Steuben County grand jury two men in connection with a May fire that was reportedly caused by a meth lab and killed their grandmother.
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| View Photos of the 2020 GMC Acadia AT4 Posted: 22 Oct 2019 04:59 AM PDT |
| This Is the Robot Tank Russia Used in Syria Posted: 21 Oct 2019 03:15 AM PDT  (But it didn't fight well.)
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| Cracks in Republican dam as frustration with Trump mounts Posted: 21 Oct 2019 11:19 AM PDT  Fissures are emerging among Republican lawmakers over US President Donald Trump, who is threatened with impeachment, as his troop withdrawal from Syria and abortive push to host the G7 at his own resort cause increasing dismay. Trump's self-inflicted wounds are making it harder for some Republicans to remain quiet or unwaveringly loyal during what could be an inflection point in his presidency. Democrats are readying articles of impeachment, the catalyst being Trump's July phone call to his Ukrainian counterpart in which he urged the European ally to investigate his political rivals.
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| Japanese Emperor Naruhito ascends Chrysanthemum Throne Posted: 22 Oct 2019 06:13 AM PDT  Three booming cheers of "Banzai!" rang out Tuesday at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo as Naruhito formally declared his ascension to the Chrysanthemum Throne as the nation's 126th emperor. As a driving autumn rain briefly gave way to sunshine and 2,000 guests looked on, Naruhito pledged at an elaborate, ritual-laden ceremony to serve as a symbol of the state for his people. The enthronement ceremony is the high point of several succession rituals that began in May when Naruhito inherited the throne after the abdication of Akihito, his father.
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| Supreme Court Throws Out Michigan Gerrymandering Ruling in Win for GOP Posted: 21 Oct 2019 09:45 AM PDT  The Supreme Court granted the Michigan Republican party a win on Monday by throwing out a lower court ruling that required dozens of congressional and legislative districts to be redrawn due to concerns they had been gerrymandered by Republicans.The high court's 5-to-4 decision reverses a ruling by the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, which demanded the state redraw nine congressional districts and 25 state districts by August 1.Monday's decision also follows the Supreme Court's ruling in June that it would leave gerrymandering cases to state courts."Partisan gerrymandering claims present political questions beyond the reach of the federal courts," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the June decision, which dealt with district boundaries in Maryland and North Carolina.That ruling divided the court along ideological lines with Roberts serving as the swing vote.Roberts joined conservative Justices Brett Kavanaugh, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch to strike down the lower court's ruling, while liberal Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagen, and Stephen Breyer voted to preserve the lower court's finding that the districts must be redrawn.The majority in the June case cited the lack of an adequate test to determine when "political gerrymandering has gone too far."The League of Women Voters of Michigan sued the Republican-controlled state legislature last year, accusing the party of rigging districts to keep the party in power, resulting in the overturned Sixth Circuit ruling, which said Republicans infringed on voters' First and 14th Amendment rights "by diluting the weight of their votes.""The Enacted Plan gives Republicans a strong, systematic, and durable structural advantage in Michigan's elections and decidedly discriminates against Democrats," the nixed Sixth Circuit decision read. "This court joins the growing chorus of federal courts that have, in recent years, held that partisan gerrymandering is unconstitutional."Because of the Supreme Court's Monday ruling in favor of the GOP, districts will not be redrawn until 2022, when a bipartisan redistricting commission resulting from a state referendum last fall will assume the task of redrawing the boundaries.
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| Kim Jong Un: S.Korean facilities in Mt. Kumgang resort must be removed- KCNA Posted: 22 Oct 2019 02:31 PM PDT ![Kim Jong Un: S.Korean facilities in Mt. Kumgang resort must be removed- KCNA]( "Kim Jong Un: S.Korean facilities in Mt. Kumgang resort must be removed- KCNA") North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said South Korean facilities in the Mount Kumgang tourist resort must be removed by agreement with South Korean authorities, and rebuilt in a modern way by North Korean methods, North Korean state news agency KCNA said on Wednesday. Kim, while inspecting the tourist spot on the east coast of North Korea, said it was a "mistaken idea" for Mount Kumgang to be viewed as a symbol of North-South relations, underscoring that it is North Korean soil, and tourism there must not be under the control of South Korea.
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| Billionaire Isabel dos Santos Denies Wrongdoing at Sonangol Posted: 21 Oct 2019 01:58 PM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Isabel dos Santos, Africa's richest woman and the daughter of former Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, said she did nothing wrong when she was chairwoman of state-owned oil company Sonangol and called a probe into the transfer of millions of dollars from the Luanda-based firm "political vengeance."Angolan newspaper Novo Jornal reported on Oct. 18 that Angola's prosecuting authority started a criminal investigation into the transfer of $38 million from Sonangol authorized by dos Santos. Her successor at Sonangol, Carlos Saturnino, accused dos Santos last year of authorizing the transfer to a company in Dubai days after she was dismissed as chairwoman. Saturnino was sacked in May."To say there was a transfer order after my dismissal is simply false," dos Santos said in statement emailed on Monday. "The fight against corruption can't be used to feed an agenda of persecution or a witch hunt."Dos Santos said the fund-transfer was legal and was made while she was still in her position at Sonangol on Nov. 15, 2017, the day she was dismissed and before a new board was appointed the next day. She said payment instructions were given one or two days before her dismissal.If Angolan authorities are serious about fighting corruption they should investigate why Sonangol had about $20 billion in debt at the end of 2015, before her appointment, and how this money was "used and lost," said the 46-year-old dos Santos.Dos Santos was dismissed as head of Sonangol amid a crackdown on corruption by Joao Lourenco, who replaced her father as president in 2017. Sonangol, long the main engine of Angola's oil-focused economy, has been at the center of Lourenco's anti-graft campaign.(Adds dos Santos's comment about timing of payment instructions in fourth paragraph.)To contact the reporter on this story: Henrique Almeida in Lisbon at halmeida5@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Joao Lima at jlima1@bloomberg.net, Rene Vollgraaff, Alastair ReedFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| View 2020 Nissan Titan XD Photos Posted: 21 Oct 2019 11:00 AM PDT |
| Teenagers charged with urinating on black classmate and shouting racist abuse Posted: 21 Oct 2019 08:43 AM PDT  Two 17-year-old boys from New Jersey have been charged with harassment, lewdness and bias intimidation after allegations that they urinated on a black middle school student at a high school football game while calling her the n-word.Social media posts from at least one parent of a Lawrence High School student alleged that the boys used racist language while urinating on the girl during a Friday night game.
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| Hong Kong leader visits mosque struck by blue water-cannon dye Posted: 21 Oct 2019 11:17 AM PDT  Hong Kong's pro-Beijing leader and the city's police chief apologised Monday as they visited a mosque that was struck with blue dye from a water cannon during the latest bout of violent protests. The entrance to the Kowloon Mosque, the international hub's largest, was sprayed by a water cannon truck on Sunday, causing anger among both local Muslims and protesters. Police use the dye -- often mixed with an irritant -- as a way to identify protesters but it has frequently left streets and buildings daubed in a garish blue.
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| Democrats' 2020 race has a new shadow: Hillary Clinton Posted: 22 Oct 2019 08:06 AM PDT  Some Democrats are putting up caution signs for Hillary Clinton as she wades back into presidential politics by casting 2020 candidate Tulsi Gabbard as a "Russian asset," mocking President Donald Trump's dealings with a foreign leader and drawing counterattacks from both. Bernie Sanders, who lost the 2016 nomination to Clinton and is running again in 2020, took to Twitter with implicit criticisms of his erstwhile rival. Larry Cohen, one of Sanders' top supporters, was more conciliatory but warned in an interview that Clinton could harm the eventual 2020 nominee by weighing in against specific candidates, even a longshot like Gabbard.
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| A Tenn. county official called Pete Buttigieg a slur. It sparked calls to boycott Dollywood Posted: 22 Oct 2019 05:46 PM PDT  Following his remark, Commissioner Warren Hurst went on to say, "I'm not prejudice, but by golly a white male in this country has very few rights."
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| FEATURE-In Mexico, El Chapo’s sons add brash new chapter to crime family Posted: 22 Oct 2019 04:29 PM PDT ![FEATURE-In Mexico, El Chapo's sons add brash new chapter to crime family]( "FEATURE-In Mexico, El Chapo's sons add brash new chapter to crime family") The mug shot-style photo of Ovidio Guzman that appeared as he was apprehended oozed defiance. Chin jutting out, eyes trained on the camera, the handsome youth bore a strong resemblance to his infamous father, jailed drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman. In response to his capture in an upscale neighborhood, hundreds of heavily-armed Sinaloa Cartel henchmen, guns blazing, were pouring into Culiacan, briefly taking the modern city of about a million people near Mexico's Pacific coast hostage.
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| An Air France flight was forced to turn back in midair when staff found an unattended cellphone that wasn't claimed by any of the passengers Posted: 22 Oct 2019 04:34 AM PDT  Air France flight 136 to Chicago from Paris landed at Ireland's Shannon Airport, where the police scanned a cellphone found on board.
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| The lost river: Mexicans fight for mighty waterway taken by the US Posted: 21 Oct 2019 03:00 AM PDT  The Colorado River serves over 35 million Americans before reaching Mexico – but it is dammed at the border, leaving locals on the other side with a dry delta * This is the first story in our new series about 'environmental justice' - learn moreThe temperature is rising toward 45C (113F) as young brothers Daniel and Dilan Rodríguez skip towards a bridge over the Colorado River in the Mexican border town of San Luis Río Colorado. But there is no water flowing through the channel of one of the world's mightiest waterways. The pair run down the river bank and cheerfully splash through stagnant puddles dotted about the riverbed."We wish we had a river, so we could swim, and jump and sail my cousin's boat," said Daniel, 12. "At least we have puddles to make mud balls, that can be fun."Colonia Miguel Aleman family Dilan Rodríguez, eight, fishing in the canal that runs adjacent to the dry Colorado River at the border of Mexico and the US on 6 September 2019. Photograph: Meghan Dhaliwal/The GuardianThe Colorado originates in the Rocky mountains and traverses seven US states, watering cities and farmland, before reaching Mexico, where it is supposed to flow onwards to the Sea of Cortez.Instead, the river is dammed at the US-Mexico border, and on the other side the river channel is empty. Locals are now battling to bring it back to life. There are few more striking examples of what has come to be known as "environmental injustice" – the inequitable access to clean land, air and water, and disproportionate exposure to hazards and climate disasters. Water in particular has emerged as a flash point as global heating renders vast swaths of the planet ever drier.Today the Guardian is launching a year-long series, Our Unequal Earth, to investigate environmental inequalities and discrimination in the US and beyond. It will also reveal how the climate crisis is making things worse for activists and scientists on the ground."We've heard stories from my mum about how she used to play and swim in the Colorado River when she was little, but we've never experienced it," said Evelin Bautista, 14, who is a member of an indigenous tribe, the Cucapá, which means the River People. "I've heard that over the border, the water is so clear that they can even see the fish."Indeed, a mere 30 miles north, over the border at Gateway park in Yuma, Arizona, siblings Damien Navarro, 12, and Dariana, eight, spent the day fishing, diving and swimming in the free flowing river.David Barraga plays ball with his daughter Dariana and his stepson Damien in the Colorado River in Gateway park, Yuma, Arizona, on 7 September 2019. Photograph: Meghan Dhaliwal/The Guardian"It's so hot, we come here all the time, the kids love the water, and we often catch catfish, bass and bluegill," said their father, David Barraga. "I didn't know there's no river in Mexico. Wow, that's a shame.""At school in science we've been learning about drought, that the planet is getting hotter," said his son, Damien. "But we've never been told about the dam or the river in Mexico, maybe when we're older. It's really too bad for those kids." 'It took away part of our identity'Because the 1944 treaty did not allocate Mexico any water for the river itself, the channel is mostly dry. The loss of the river in Mexico has been devastating.Nancy Saldano, 54, an architect and activist in the Sonoran town of San Luis Río Colorado, recalls boat rides and fishing with her family during the 1980s, when the US occasionally released "extra" water to deal with heavy snow and rain that risked overwhelming its dams. Her mother, an evangelical pastor, conducted baptisms in the river until it disappeared."Taking away the river had a huge impact on us, it took away part of our identity. I felt anger, sadness and grief. My children had never seen the river flow."The disparities on both sides of the border are stark.In the US, the Colorado serves more than 35 million people, including several native tribes, seven national wildlife refuges and 11 national parks, and supports $26m tourism and recreational industries, as well as farming. California has rights to the largest quantity, with 4.4m acre-feet per year – or 29% of the total – while Utah is allocated 1.7m and Nevada 0.3m.At the Morelos dam, located between Los Algodones, Baja California, and Yuma, Arizona, the river is diverted to a complex system of irrigation canals which nourish fields of cotton, wheat, alfalfa, asparagus, watermelons and date palms in the vast surrounding desert valley. This is good for farmers – and less so for ordinary Mexicans.Following the dry riverbed south towards the Gulf of California evokes an eerie sadness. The sound of gunfire in one wide, dusty section led to a couple from San Diego hunting wild pigeons, and a bucketful of feathered corpses. A few miles west along dirt farm roads, dozens of herons, egrets and ducks were staking out a wonderfully lush wetland – though it is only an accidental byproduct created by agricultural runoff from surrounding wheat and alfalfa fields. Prolonged drought and global heatingThe Colorado basin is one of 276 watersheds that cross international borders and Mexican supporters of the binational treaty argue that it resolved longstanding diplomatic disputes and enabled the region's economic development, even if there is mostly no longer a river in the channel."We're the only place in Mexico with a secure water supply, that is a privilege," said Francisco Bernal, the International Boundary and Water Commission (Cila) representative in Mexicali.But the treaty didn't foresee prolonged drought, global heating and mounting demands. Now, water is running out, and things must change.The population of Baja California grew from 1.67 million in 1990 to 3.5 million in 2018. Most of the river water still goes to farmers. Groundwater reserves are dwindling, pollution goes unchecked, and urban neighborhoods face shortages."If agriculture was forced to be more efficient there would be enough for everyone else," said Dr Jorge Ramírez, a leading water scientist at the Autonomous University of Baja California. "We have enough water, what we lack is planning. Water is the currency here and politics always wins."Dry Colorado riverIn recent years, protests have erupted in response to allegations of corruption and poorly policed pollution standards that favor big landowners and water guzzling industries, such as a controversial US brewery under construction in the Mexicali valley. In 2020, both countries will for the first time implement rationing. Mexico must cut usage by 3%. The US must save 247m cubic metres. The plan would have been much stricter if not for record snowfall in parts of the Colorado basin last year. The reductions can only be accomplished if farmers waste less and participate in reforestation efforts.Even so, scientists are optimistic that the delta can partially recover. 'The Gabachos [Americans] should leave some water for us'In the scorched and barren delta, visitors may encounter an incongruous sight: 700 acres of flourishing native trees and shrubs in three reforestation sites.They are the product of what is called a "pulse flow".In 2014, an environmental experiment driven by not-for-profits on both sides of the border resulted in 105,392 acres-feet (130m cubic metres) of extra water being released into Mexico over two months, simulating the natural spring floods of yesteryear.The pulse flow bolstered parched wetlands and reforestation zones where native cottonwood and willow trees naturally germinated. And for a few days, for the first time in years, the river reconnected to the Sea of Cortez: fish stocks increased, dolphins returned and the number of migratory birds rocketed by 43%.restorationBut for some scientists, the community response was perhaps the most surprising and satisfying. Thousands flocked to the river as it returned, briefly, to its former glory."I grew up with my mum's stories about the river in the old days, but couldn't believe it until I saw it myself," said Ulises Monroy Saldaña, 13. "I'll never forget putting my hand in the water for the first time: it was cold, but it felt so nice because it was so hot here."Daniel Rodríguez was just seven years old, but still remembers the excitement of watching the river fill with water. "We'd come every day after school and keep jumping off the bridge until the police chased us away."His grandmother, Lupe Aderete, 53, set up portable toilets for the massive influx of visitors. "It was beautiful to see the river alive again, everyone was so happy, and I made some extra money." She added: "It's not fair, the Gabachos [Americans] should leave some water for us.Lupe Aderete at home in the neighborhood of Miguel Alemán, Baja California, on 6 September 2019. Photograph: Meghan Dhaliwal/The GuardianThe restoration site at Laguna Grande is a shady oasis of gangly cottonwood and willow trees surrounded by desert and farmland, visited by over 2,000 people last year."For most children, it's the first time they've seen a forest, and for the adults it brings back memories. Connecting to nature is emotional, and visitors cry all the time," said Gabriela González, education coordinator at the Sonora Institute which runs Laguna Grande.There's little or no chance that the river will ever flow freely again, but plans are afoot to repeat the pulse flow, this time flooding only the spots which most benefited last time. And there is hope of expanding native forests to create a green corridor with wetlands and lagoons channelling into the sea.An indigenous community, the Cucapá, has been involved in dredging efforts, paid to shovel out thick mud to create connectivity channels that are crucial to sustainable ecosystems. Patches of native salty grass and flocks of raucous brown and white pelicans at the lower part of the estuary indicate that plentiful fish were swept in by recent high tides.The next pulse flow should take place in 2021 or 2022. Regardless, this region will remain more desert than delta.At home in Miguel Alemán, a poor makeshift neighbourhood with little shade, the Rodríguez brothers ditch their school stuff, grab a plastic bucket and rush back across the parched terrain to the concrete drainage canal running parallel to the littered riverbed.They fearlessly dive into the polluted waterway, which emerges under the metal border wall, to cool down and catch some fish for dinner.To contact Nina Lakhani, the Guardian's new environmental justice reporter, e-mail nina.lakhani@theguardian.comDesign by Juweek Adolphe
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| This 1 Invention Made Swedish Submarines Among the Best Posted: 22 Oct 2019 10:00 AM PDT  A silent, powerful new engine.
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| Catholics in Haiti demand president step down Posted: 22 Oct 2019 09:48 AM PDT  Port-au-Prince (AFP) - Thousands of Catholics demanding the resignation of Haiti's president marched through the capital Tuesday, becoming the latest group to join an outcry against him. Over the past year, Haiti has sunk into political crisis amid anti-corruption protests demanding Moise's resignation. No food, no hospitals, no schools," said protester Fausta Maisonneuve, who held a rosary in her hand.
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| Trump warns U.S. 'may have to get in wars' Posted: 21 Oct 2019 11:41 AM PDT  President Donald Trump on Monday offered a confusing description of his foreign policy priorities as commander in chief — insisting that he is working to bring home American soldiers, while warning the U.S. may soon enter into new military conflicts. "If Iran does something, they'll be hit like they've never been hit before. Trump in recent days has sought to promote a temporary cease-fire agreement Vice President Mike Pence negotiated last week with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, aimed at halting the slaughter of U.S.-allied Kurdish fighters in Syria by Turkish forces.
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| California governor wants investigation of high gas prices Posted: 22 Oct 2019 01:45 AM PDT  California's governor has asked the attorney general to investigate why the state's gas prices are so high, pointing to a new report suggesting big oil companies are "misleading and overcharging customers" by as much as $1 per gallon. The commission said California drivers paid an average of 30 cents more per gallon in 2018, with the difference getting as high as $1 per gallon in April of this year. The result is California drivers paid an additional $11.6 billion at the pump over the last five years.
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| Shamima Begum appeals against loss of British citizenship but Home Office suggests plight is her 'own fault' Posted: 22 Oct 2019 08:38 AM PDT  Shamima Begum, the Isil bride, chose to go to Syria and can only blame "her own actions" if she is in danger, the Government said on Tuesday as it argued against her return to the UK. The Bethnal Green schoolgirl fled to join the terror group when she was 15 with two other friends and married a Dutch fighter with whom she had three children. As the caliphate crumbled earlier this year, she was tracked down to a refugee camp close to the Syrian border, heavily pregnant and grieving the deaths of her two older children. Her re-emergence into the public eye prompted Sajid Javid, then Home Secretary, to revoke her British citizenship to prevent her travelling home. Her newborn child died days later. On Tuesday, a legal challenge launched by Ms Begum, now aged 20, reached the Special Immigration Appeals Commission in London, as her lawyers tried to get the decision ruled unlawful. They are claiming the revocation left her stateless, exposed her to the risk of death or harm and deprived her of access to a "fair and effective" appeal. Concerns were raised that Ms Begum could be "hanged" if she was sent back to Bangladesh - where the Government alleges she has citizenship - or rendered to face trial and possible execution in Iraq by the forces currently running the al-Roj camp. She claimed the loss of her British citizenship had left her trapped in "wretched and squalid conditions" at the camp, contrary to her rights under the European Convention on Human Rights However, the Home Office rejected these claims in written submissions presented to the court and suggested Ms Begum's current plight was her own fault. The argument, prepared by Jonathan Glasson QC, said: "It is relevant that the appellant is in Syria because of her own actions; and is detained in a camp run by the (Syrian Democratic Forces) as a direct consequence of her own actions; the Secretary of State has no role in the running of that camp; and no role in the decision of the SDF to detain the appellant there. "If her appeal succeeds on this preliminary issue, she will still be in precisely the same situation." The Government claimed Ms Begum had "not presented any evidence" to show she was at risk of being deported to either Bangladesh or Iraq. A similar argument was deployed to counter the suggestion she had been denied a route of appeal, as she was said to have travelled to Syria "against Foreign Office advice, aligned with Isil and remained there in those circumstances for the next four years". "Any difficulties she faces there - including difficulties leaving the camp or appealing against the deprivation decision from outside the UK - are not the result of any actions of the Secretary of State," the written submissions continued. Ms Begum's lawyer, Tom Hickman QC, said in his own submissions that the Isil bride was not a Bangladeshi citizen as she was born in the UK and had never travelled to the country, meaning she would have to apply for dual citizenship through the Bangladeshi citizenship of her parents. The Bangladeshi government released a statement in February saying it was "deeply concerned" that Ms Begum had been "erroneously identified as a holder of dual citizenship". These claims were also dismissed by the Home Office, which argued Ms Begum held dual citizenship through her parents because her father never became a naturalised British citizen and therefore she was not required to reapply for Bangladeshi citizenship as she was under 21. It also suggested in a letter to her lawyers on October 18 that the chaos which has engulfed northern Syria since Turkey launched an offensive meant Ms Begum was "free to leave" as her camp was "likely to be unguarded". But Mr Hickman told the court on Tuesday: "As far as we are aware nothing material has changed at al-Roj, albeit that the environment there is incredibly fragile and dangerous." Mrs Justice Elisabeth Laing is expected to reserve her judgment at the end of the four-day preliminary hearing in London. It is not expected to examine the "national security" allegations against Ms Begum this week, which may include claims, first reported by The Telegraph, that she was an enforcer in Isil's morality police.
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| Taiwan Asks Hong Kong for Return of the Murder Suspect Whose Case Sparked Months of Protests Posted: 22 Oct 2019 02:21 AM PDT  Chan Tong-kai is set to be released from prison in Hong Kong on Wednesday
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| WikiLeaks founder Assange appears confused at extradition hearing Posted: 21 Oct 2019 09:58 AM PDT  WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange appeared confused at a London court hearing on Monday, struggling to recall his name and age in his first public appearance in months as he sought to fight extradition to the United States. Assange, 48, who spent seven years holed up in Ecuador's embassy before he was dragged out in April, faces 18 counts in the United States including conspiring to hack government computers and violating an espionage law.
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| Russia’s Troll Farm Is Kind of Sh*tting the Bed on Facebook Posted: 21 Oct 2019 02:04 PM PDT  Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/GettyFacebook on Monday removed nearly 200 newly discovered fake accounts linked separately to Iran and to Russia's Internet Research Agency. The takedowns demonstrate that foreign influence operations are already targeting the 2020 election, but provide evidence that Russia's notorious troll farm is struggling to regain anything close to the influence in held in 2016.The new wave of takedowns targeted separate networks of deceptive accounts created by Iran and Russia, including dozens of fake Facebook organization pages. In a press call, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said the takedowns show the company has come far since getting caught flat-footed in 2016. "The fact that we've identified them proactively should provide some confidence that our systems here are working," Zuckerberg said.The Russian accounts were far more focused on U.S. domestic issues, but in terms of sheer numbers and longevity, the Iranian effort outstripped Russia. The Iranian accounts included 21 Instagram accounts and 135 fake Facebook accounts propping up 26 phony organization pages and four Facebook groups. More than 90 of the accounts were primarily focused on U.S. readers, with the others mostly targeting Latin America. The accounts largely pushed links to Iranian propaganda on state-run news outlets, according to Facebook.As with past takedowns, the company's announcement only identified a handful of the Iranian personas. Of those, though, one stands out as eerily reminiscent of Russia's 2016 efforts—a Facebook page called "BLMnews" that purported to be a news site covering the Black Lives Matters movement. The page had a meager 45 followers, and, according to Facebook, was devoted to driving traffic to an associated website that's been operating since August 2016, according to Internet registration records.Russia's Internet Research Agency ran similar sites and Facebook pages during and after the 2016 election season, some with sizable followings. But so far the Saint Petersburg troll farm appears to have a long way to go. Of the 50 accounts banned by Facebook on Monday, all but one were on Instagram alone, with no Facebook presence at all. The Russian operation appears to be in the early stages, Facebook said. "They're still trying to build their audience, and they put significant operation security into concealing who they were," said company cybersecurity chief Nathaniel Gleicher in Monday's press call.One sign of that improved op-sec is the dearth of text on the troll's posts—perhaps a sign that Russia is seeking to avoid the linguistic giveaways that marred some of its 2016 content. According to social network analysis tool Graphika, which had inside access to Facebook's data, the accounts generally pushed screenshots of other people's tweets and memes with no commentary. "Some posts gained hundreds of likes but typically obtained orders of magnitude fewer than the American personalities they copied," reads Graphika's report on the Russian accounts. "The 'conservative' accounts in the set had a particular fondness for the conservative partisan group Turning Point USA, often sharing its memes and comments."That may be a factor in the relatively limited reach of Russia's identified personas. The 50 accounts together had a total of 246,000 followers, according to Facebook's figures. "It seems they are getting stuck at the mimicry phase of infiltration," said Clint Watts, a research fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute.As tallied by Graphika, the personas are the usual Russian mix of accounts pretending to be arch-conservatives in the heartland, and a roughly equal number pretending to be African American activists. A smattering of accounts were focused on more specific issues, like gun rights on the right or LGBTQ rights on the left.The accounts were largely devoted to sowing division, but when they directly addressed the 2020 election, they followed the IRA's 2016 playbook to the letter. The "conservative" accounts attacked liberals and heaped praise on Donald Trump, while "liberal" accounts derided the president while vocally supporting Bernie Sanders over Democratic frontrunners. Joe Biden is singled out for criticism in much the same way as Clinton in 2016.Notably, Democrat Tulsi Gabbard, a favorite of Russia's state-owned media, isn't featured at all in the posts shared by Graphika and Facebook, despite recently being labeled a "Russian asset" by Hillary Clinton.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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| Warren Steps Into Repo Turmoil, Asks Mnuchin for Answers Posted: 22 Oct 2019 07:29 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren waded into last month's turmoil in short-term funding markets, warning Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin not to use the incident as a rationale for weakening post-financial crisis regulations.Warren, a front-runner in the race to challenge Donald Trump in the 2020 U.S. presidential election, sent a letter to the Treasury on Friday. In it, she sought Mnuchin's views on what triggered the spike in rates for repurchase agreements and expressed concern about potential costs to businesses and consumers if strains persist.She also set herself up for another fight with Wall Street, citing a Reuters article reporting that large banks were using the repo-market chaos to pressure the Federal Reserve to weaken liquidity rules "they have long despised." Warren said she's concerned the Financial Stability Oversight Council, whose chair is Mnuchin, might support those efforts."These rules were designed to ensure that banks have enough cash on hand to meet their obligations in the event of another market crash," Warren said. "Banks are reporting profits at record levels, and it would be painfully ironic if unexplained chaos in a small corner of the banking market became an excuse to further loosen rules that protect the economy from these types of risks."The Treasury Department declined to comment on Warren's letter. On Oct. 16, in response to a reporter's question, Mnuchin rejected the notion that the U.S. government's heavy issuance of debt contributed to the tumult and instead blamed a corporate tax deadline for draining money from the banking system. The jump in rates on Sept. 17 "had nothing to do with our issuance, it had to do with the big tax day, that we were taking cash out of the market," he said.Banking industry complaints about regulations have gotten louder since the mid-September dislocation. JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon said Oct. 15 that the bank had the money and inclination to step in when rates surged, but liquidity rules prevented it from doing so.Regulations introduced after the 2008 crisis oblige financial institutions to hold more cash and cash-like assets as a buffer against times of stress, and systemically important banks -- JPMorgan is the largest in the U.S. -- face year-end reviews to determine how much more common equity they must carry. Analysts at JPMorgan argued this week that money-market stress is likely to get much worse despite the Fed's attempts to fix the problem.The central bank has been injecting liquidity into the funding markets since Sept. 17, when the rate on overnight general collateral repo jumped to 10% from around 2%. The Fed has also begun buying Treasury bills to add reserves back into the system. These efforts have mostly calmed repo rates."While the Federal Reserve has taken the necessary action to ensure that markets continue to function, I am alarmed that it has been required to engage in money market interventions that have not been used since the 2008 financial crisis," wrote Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts.Warren came to prominence because of her criticisms of Wall Street and calls for tougher oversight of the financial industry after the 2008 financial crisis. Her advocacy was pivotal to the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and helped lock in her election to the Senate.Warren asked that Mnuchin respond to these and other questions no later than Nov. 1:What are the underlying causes of the spike in borrowing rates for overnight repurchase agreements?Has FSOC learned why the Fed announced on Oct. 11 that overnight operations meant to keep the calm would be extended at least through January of next year?How will FSOC and Treasury use data on centrally cleared repo transactions to gain a further understanding of the market? Is further information needed to sufficiently monitor the short-term lending market?(Updates with Mnuchin comment on repo from last week in fifth paragraph.)\--With assistance from Michael Shepard, Saleha Mohsin and Anna Edgerton.To contact the reporters on this story: Emily Barrett in New York at ebarrett25@bloomberg.net;Alexandra Harris in New York at aharris48@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Benjamin Purvis at bpurvis@bloomberg.net, Nick Baker, Jenny ParisFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| China Wants To Destroy U.S. Aircraft Carriers in a War (It Won't Be Easy) Posted: 21 Oct 2019 08:00 PM PDT  The story starts in 2005.
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| US awarded ownership of seized North Korean vessel Posted: 22 Oct 2019 01:06 AM PDT  A New York court has formally handed the US ownership of a North Korean cargo ship seized for violating international sanctions, the Justice Department said. The 17,061 ton bulk carrier Wise Honest -- the first North Korean vessel seized by Washington for sanctions violations -- was caught carrying a $3 million shipment of coal in Indonesian waters last year and later handed over to US authorities. The court in the Southern District of New York ordered the vessel to be forfeited to Washington and for the Treasury Department to "dispose of" it, an order released by the Justice Department showed.
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| Connecticut College Students Charged With Violating State Law Prohibiting ‘Ridicule’ after Using Racial Slur Posted: 22 Oct 2019 07:06 AM PDT  University of Connecticut students Jarred Karal and Ryan Mucaj were arrested by campus police Monday night and charged with violating a Connecticut hate crime statute for using a racial slur in an incident captured on video.One night earlier this month, Karal and Mucaj — both described by police as white — walked with another individual through the parking lot of a student apartment complex playing "a game in which they yelled vulgar words," according to the incident report. Police allege that the two switched to saying "n*****" when they reached the parking lot, which was loud enough for two people inside to hear.The two were charged under a Connecticut State law that criminalizes ridiculing "any person or class of people on account of creed, religion, color, denomination, nationality, or race." The misdemeanor is punishable by up to 30 days in jail, a fine of $50, or both. The third individual was not charged for saying the slur.It is unclear whether the statute violates First Amendment grounds. "It is supportive of our core values to pursue accountability, through due process, for an egregious assault on our community that has caused considerable harm," UConn President Thomas C. Katsouleas said in a statement late Monday.Karal and Mucaj were released after promising to return for a scheduled court date on October 30.After the video went viral online, Campus blowback was swift. The administration, which learned of the incident October 11, faced severe criticism from students and activists. On Monday, the university's NAACP chapter published a letter to the editor in the campus newspaper lambasting the university's administration."If the university does not adequately address and handle these occurrences of racism appropriately, it will create a culture in which racism is tolerated and normalized," the NAACP letter reads. "We demand for your full assurance that you will take appropriate measures to hold the students involved in these heinous acts of racism accountable."On Monday afternoon, hundreds of students chanted "it's more than just a word" during an on-campus march and rally. During the march, Katsouleas voiced support for the students and extended an invitation to discuss the incident during his open office hours scheduled for Friday morning.UConn's president also announced a nationwide search for a chief diversity officer in a letter to students on Friday. But students and professors criticized the president for his slow and inadequate response."No stance is a stance," Conn senior Areon Mangan told the Chronicle. "Not saying anything says a lot."In its letter to the campus newspaper, the NAACP released a list of eight demands, including new student guidelines and punishments for instances of racism, a new first-year course on diversity training, and increased hiring of black administration, faculty, staff, and police officers.Democratic State Senators Mae Flexer and Gregory Haddad, both UConn alums, voiced their support for students during the Monday rally."White people can't just say they care about this with words,"Flexer said. "You can't just say you're an ally. You need to be a co-conspirator.""I'm here because I want to lift your voices up," Haddad added.
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| Blackout Round 2? Californians brace for possible outage Posted: 22 Oct 2019 04:09 PM PDT  Hundreds of thousands of Northern California residents braced for another possible power outage as the state's largest utility warned that a return of dangerous fire weather could prompt shut-offs across 16 counties. The warning from Pacific Gas & Electric about a possible blackout Wednesday prompted a feeling of resignation among residents and business owners and renewed rushes to stock up on emergency supplies. "I think it's not panic per se, just 'Eh, we gotta do this AGAIN?'" said Kim Schefer, manager of Village True Value Hardware in Santa Rosa.
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| Support for Trump's impeachment reaches new high in CNN poll, but GOP backing declines Posted: 22 Oct 2019 05:08 AM PDT ![Support for Trump's impeachment reaches new high in CNN poll, but GOP backing declines]( "Support for Trump's impeachment reaches new high in CNN poll, but GOP backing declines") Support for President Trump's impeachment and removal from office is continuing to climb, but not among Republicans.That's according to new CNN/SSRS poll released Tuesday showing support for Trump's impeachment and removal at 50 percent, a new high. This is up three points since CNN asked the question last month in the days after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) officially announced the impeachment inquiry; that September poll already saw a six point jump in impeachment support since May. Forty-three percent said they don't support impeachment in the new poll. Republican support for impeachment has cooled since the September poll, though, with only six percent of GOP respondents now in favor compared to 14 percent last month. Among Democrats, 87 percent support impeachment, while 50 percent of independents support it. Trump's approval has also risen two points since before the official impeachment inquiry was announced. This poll comes as Democrats are continuing to investigate whether Trump abused the power of the presidency to push Ukraine to launch investigations that might benefit him politically. In the poll, 49 percent said Trump used the presidency improperly to gain advantage in the 2020 presidential election, up one point since last month, while 43 percent said he didn't, up four points since last month. Among Republicans, 87 percent say Trump didn't use the presidency improperly, up from 71 percent in September.CNN's poll was conducted by speaking to a random national sample of 1,003 adults over the phone from Oct. 17-20. The margin of error is 3.7 percentage points. Read more results at CNN.
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| Wildfires threaten southern California homes, prompt evacuations Posted: 22 Oct 2019 02:23 AM PDT  California firefighters worked through the night into early Tuesday to tackle a pair of wildfires threatening people's homes. Live aerial video footage broadcast by KABC-TV showed flames raging along a ridge-line at the edge of an affluent beach-front neighborhood located between Santa Monica and Malibu about 18 miles (30 km) west of downtown Los Angeles. Initially, a mandatory evacuation was ordered for about 200 homes in the Pacific Palisades community, as ground teams and helicopters worked on putting out hot spots and carving a containment line around the fire zone's perimeter.
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| DOJ distances itself from Giuliani Posted: 21 Oct 2019 06:26 AM PDT  The Justice Department distanced itself Sunday from Rudy Giuliani, President Trump's personal lawyer, declaring that department officials would not have met with Giuliani to discuss one of his clients had they known that federal prosecutors in New York were investigating two of his associates.
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