| Rep. Justin Amash turned on Trump. Will his Michigan district follow him — or turn on him? Posted: 17 Nov 2019 03:00 AM PST  If you want to understand how impeachment is being seen by actual Americans, there may be no better place to go than Grand Rapids, Mich. In part that's because the area around Grand Rapids, comprising Michigan's Third Congressional District, is one of only about two dozen districts in the nation to vote for Barack Obama and for Donald Trump.
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| PHOTOS: Hong Kong police storm university held by protesters Posted: 18 Nov 2019 11:26 AM PST  Police breached a Hong Kong university campus held by protesters early Monday after an all-night siege that included firing repeated barrages of tear gas and water cannons. Anti-government protesters have barricaded themselves inside Hong Kong Polytechnic University for days.
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| PHOTOS: Deadly shooting at California football party Posted: 18 Nov 2019 05:09 AM PST  Four people were killed and six more wounded when "unknown suspects" sneaked into a backyard filled with people at a party in central California and fired into the crowd, police said.
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| Dreaming of traveling to Australia? Qantas offers $100 flights — but you have to book fast Posted: 18 Nov 2019 11:55 AM PST  Qantas has $100 flights to Australia from Los Angeles, San Francisco, Dallas/Fort Worth and Chicago, but seats and dates are limited.
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| UPDATE 2-Saudi-led coalition says Yemen's Houthis seize ship in Red Sea Posted: 18 Nov 2019 09:34 AM PST ![UPDATE 2-Saudi-led coalition says Yemen's Houthis seize ship in Red Sea]( "UPDATE 2-Saudi-led coalition says Yemen's Houthis seize ship in Red Sea") The Saudi-led coalition fighting the Iran-aligned Houthi movement in Yemen said on Monday the Houthis had seized a vessel towing a South Korean drilling rig at the southern end of the Red Sea. Coalition spokesman Colonel Turki al-Malki said in a statement carried by Saudi state media that the vessel was seized late on Sunday by armed Houthis. Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, a senior Houthi official later told Reuters the group's forces had seized a "suspect vessel" in the Red Sea and that the crew were being treated well.
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| Ukraine ex-president named witness in power abuse probe Posted: 18 Nov 2019 09:35 AM PST  Ukraine's former president Petro Poroshenko has been designated a witness in a criminal investigation related to the nomination of judges, the state investigation bureau said on Monday. Poroshenko has been embroiled in a number of investigations since leaving office in May. "His status is that of a witness," a spokeswoman for the state investigation bureau, which handles high-profile cases, told AFP.
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| Spanish court says wanted Venezuelan spy still missing Posted: 18 Nov 2019 07:15 AM PST  A Spanish National Court official confirmed Monday that a former Venezuelan spymaster accused of attempting to "flood" the United States with drugs remains missing since an order for his arrest pending extradition was issued this month. The official said the order for Maj. Gen. Hugo Carvajal's arrest in Madrid was issued Nov. 8, after the court reversed an earlier ruling that rejected the U.S. extradition request for allegedly being politically motivated. Carvajal was for over a decade the eyes and ears in the military of late Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.
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| China's H-20 and JH-XX Stealth Bombers: Beijing's Very Own Deadly B-2 Bombers? Posted: 18 Nov 2019 01:49 AM PST  What role will they have? Should America be worried?
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| Christine Blasey Ford makes rare public remarks, a year after Kavanaugh ordeal Posted: 18 Nov 2019 06:25 AM PST  Professor who accused Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault says 'I did not feel courageous. I was simply doing my duty as a citizen'Dr Christine Blasey Ford accepting an award from the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California in Beverly Hills on Sunday night. Photograph: Alberto E Rodríguez/Getty ImagesChristine Blasey Ford, who accused supreme court justice Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault, made a rare public appearance on Sunday night."When I came forward last September," she said, accepting an award from the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California in Beverly Hills, "I did not feel courageous. I was simply doing my duty as a citizen."embed"I understood that not everyone would welcome my information, and I was prepared for a variety of outcomes, including being dismissed."Blasey Ford, a professor of psychology at Palo Alto University in California, came forward in September 2018, as Kavanaugh's nomination was before the Senate.In testimony before the Senate judiciary committee, she alleged that he assaulted her at a party in suburban Maryland in 1982, pinning her down, groping her, trying to remove her clothing and putting his hand over her mouth when she screamed.Kavanaugh angrily denied the allegation – and similar claims against him – and was confirmed as Donald Trump's second supreme court pick.His ascent, after that of Neil Gorsuch, tipped the ideological balance of the highest court in favour of conservative justices.Kavanaugh also appeared in public last week, addressing an event on Friday in Washington and staged by the Federalist Society, the rightwing group which has played an influential role in Trump's supreme court picks."I signed up for what I knew would be an ugly process," he said. But he said he had expected his confirmation to be "maybe not that ugly".Kavanaugh was confirmed by just two votes, the narrowest margin for a supreme court justice since 1881.His appearance at Union Station in Washington was greeted by protests, including women dressed up as characters from The Handmaid's Tale television series.Last year, lawyers for Ford said her life had been "turned upside down" and she had effectively gone into hiding, such was the vitriol directed her way after her testimony in the Senate.Ford "received a stunning amount of support from her community and from fellow citizens across our country", the lawyers said in a letter to Senate judiciary committee chairman, Chuck Grassley."At the same time, however, her worst fears have materialized. She has been the target of vicious harassment and even death threats. As a result of these kind of threats, her family was forced to relocate out of their home. Her email has been hacked, and she has been impersonated online."At the Beverly Hills event on Sunday, Blasey Ford accepted the Roger Baldwin Courage Award, named for the founder of the ACLU. When coming forward, she said, she had "simply thought that it was my duty as a citizen and that anyone in my position would do the same thing".
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| Fox News Host Hits Trump for Attacking Chris Wallace: You’re ‘Not Entitled to Praise’ Posted: 18 Nov 2019 03:51 PM PST  Fox NewsFox News aired a rare bit of "Common Sense" on Monday afternoon when host Neil Cavuto ended his show with a strong defense of his colleague Chris Wallace, who earned the wrath of President Trump for daring to challenge House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA).Trump tweeted on Sunday that Scalise "blew the nasty & obnoxious Chris Wallace (will never be his father, Mike!) away on Chris's lowest rated (unless I'm on) morning show," adding, "This kind of dumb and unfair interview would never have happened in the @FoxNews past." Zooming out, Cavuto asked his viewers, "What makes something 'fake news?'" before explaining that the president "doesn't distinguish" between false reporting and journalism that reflects poorly on him. "Now we can debate whether any crime was committed here," Cavuto said, "but Chris challenged Scalise concluding the witnesses that testified last week didn't see a crime committed here. That was his view of what they said, but that was not what they said." He went on to say it "was a pity" Trump didn't keep watching Fox News Sunday to see Wallace "just as aggressively going after" Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT). Speaking directly to Trump, Cavuto said, "Now while it's understandable not to like what you hear, Mr. President, it is not understandable to tune out what you would very much like to hear." He futilely urged Trump to watch "the things you might like and, yes, the things you might not like." While Trump is "entitled" to his opinion, Cavuto said journalists "aren't entitled to praise" him unconditionally—as he has come to expect from Fox's primetime hosts. "We're obligated to question you and always be fair to you," he said. "We will. Even if it risks inviting your wrath." Trevor Noah Slams Fox News: They Think Viewers Are 'Too Dumb' to Follow ImpeachmentRead 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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| Iraqi Spy Chief: ISIS Regrouping and Plotting Mass Prison Breaks Posted: 18 Nov 2019 09:24 AM PST  Head of Iraqi military intelligence Lt. Gen. Saad al-Allaq said in a Monday interview with CNN that ISIS is regrouping and planning new attacks as well as prison breaks.According to al-Allaq, top ISIS leaders have fled north from Syria into Turkey, where they are currently trying to reestablish the organization."Some of its important leadership fled north, I mean in the direction of neighboring countries and into border areas like Gazientep [in southern Turkey]," said al-Allaq. "They have secretly crossed into these areas from the Syrian-Turkish border -- top leaders who have money. They crossed with the help of smugglers by paying [a] large amount of money and have secretly entered Turkish territory."Al-Allaq said that the ISIS supporters who managed to flee into Turkey "play a key role in the recruitment of fighters and terrorists."In comments to CNN, spokesmen for the Turkish government said they were looking into al-Allaq's allegations. Turkey has arrested a sister, wife, and other family members of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the self-styled "Caliph" of ISIS, who was killed by U.S. special forces in October. The country has also detained 42 people accused of carrying out wire transfers for ISIS.Turkey's recent invasion of northeast Syria sparked fears among U.S. lawmakers that ISIS members held in Kurdish detention facilities would be set free in the ensuing fighting. President Trump has made clear his backing for Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, although he has threatened to impose sanctions against Turkey if the country acted in ways Trump considered "off-limits."Trump ally Senator Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) has said the withdrawal of American troops from the region in advance of Turkey's invasion was a "disaster in the making" that "ensures ISIS comeback."
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| TikTok is reportedly considering a rebrand in the US to shed its Chinese roots Posted: 18 Nov 2019 04:31 AM PST  ByteDance, the company which owns short-form video app TikTok, has recently come under fire due to the fact that it is headquartered in China.
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| Buttigieg campaign criticized for using stock photo of Kenyan woman to promote plan to address US racism Posted: 18 Nov 2019 02:21 PM PST  A Buttigieg campaign spokesman apologized for the use of the photo "and for the confusion it created," adding that the use of stock photos is "standard practice."
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| U.S. backs Israel on settlements, angering Palestinians and clouding peace process Posted: 18 Nov 2019 11:04 AM PST  The United States on Monday effectively backed Israel's right to build Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank by abandoning its four-decade-old position that they were "inconsistent with international law," a stance that may make Israeli-Palestinian peace even more elusive. The announcement by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was a victory for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is struggling to remain in power after two inconclusive Israeli elections this year, and a defeat for the Palestinians. Pompeo said U.S. statements about the settlements on the West Bank, which Israel captured in 1967, had been inconsistent, saying Democratic President Jimmy Carter found they were not consistent with international law and Republican President Ronald Reagan said he did not view them as inherently illegal.
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| Iran exceeds authorised heavy water reserves: IAEA Posted: 18 Nov 2019 03:04 PM PST  The UN's nuclear watchdog said Monday that Iran's stock of heavy water for reactors has surpassed the limit set under its agreement with world powers. The International Atomic Energy Agency said in a statement that Iran's heavy water production plant was in operation and that its stock of heavy water reserves was 131.5 tonnes, above the 130-tonne limit.
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| 2 dead as French bridge collapse sends vehicles into river Posted: 18 Nov 2019 07:27 AM PST  A 15-year-old girl and a truck driver died Monday when a road bridge collapsed in rural southwest France, dumping several vehicles into a river and prompting nationwide questions about bridge safety. Bystanders were able to rescue the girl's mother after her car fell into the Tarn River near the village of Mirepoix-sur-Tarn, regional prosecutor Dominique Alzeari told reporters. Several hours later, Mirepoix-sur-Tarn Mayor Eric Oget said on BFM television that a truck driver whose vehicle fell into the river was also found dead, and rescuers were working to extract his body.
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| Has the U.S. Army Created Its Ultimate Weapon? Posted: 18 Nov 2019 02:05 AM PST  Armed Army robot vehicles conducted reconnaissance, called for indirect fire and then, when directed by human decision-makers, attacked and destroyed enemy targets in a recent experiment designed to assess the technical maturity and readiness of autonomous ground drones.
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| Rudy Giuliani's son has a White House job where he doesn't seem to do much Posted: 18 Nov 2019 10:15 AM PST ![Rudy Giuliani's son has a White House job where he doesn't seem to do much]( "Rudy Giuliani's son has a White House job where he doesn't seem to do much") Rudy Giuliani's unflinching love for President Trump didn't come out of nowhere.Sure, Trump and his lawyer have a lot of shared history thanks to their reputations as some of most well-known and New Yorkiest New Yorkers of all time. But Giuliani's staunchest affinity for Trump comes from how the president brings Giuliani and his son Andrew Giuliani together, Giuliani tells The Atlantic.The 31-year-old Andrew Giuliani has a White House job as an associate director in the Office of Public Liaison, with current and former White House officials telling The Atlantic he coordinates events with athletes. Yet "sports-team visits are more special-occasion than scheduling staple in the business of government," especially with teams often rejecting meetings with Trump, The Atlantic writes. That's led White House officials to say it's clear Andrew Giuliani got a "nepotism job" thanks to his father's name, with one saying "he's just having a nice time" and not exactly working hard.But Rudy Giuliani says that's just not the case. This "wasn't the usual 'hire my kid' situation," Giuliani said, because even though his son has "known the president since he was a baby ... they also had a relationship independent of me." That relationship came into play when Andrew Giuliani was a teenager and Rudy Giuliani was going through a divorce with Andrew's mother Donna. Andrew Giuliani "credits Trump with helping him navigate" his father's divorce and "particularly with helping him repair his relationship with Rudy," two former White House officials tell The Atlantic -- and Rudy Giuliani said he agrees.Andrew Giuliani didn't return a request for comment. Read more at The Atlantic.More stories from theweek.com The potential lie that could actually destroy Trump The coming death of just about every rock legend How China can win a trade war in 1 move
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| Ghislaine Maxwell is at the center of the Epstein controversy, but she's in hiding Posted: 18 Nov 2019 12:19 PM PST  The British socialite friend of Prince Andrew is accused of recruiting girls for the disgraced financier's sex trafficking ring Ghislaine Maxwell is accused of recruiting girls for Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking ring. Photograph: Patrick McMullan via Getty ImagesPrince Andrew's recent interview about his relationship with the alleged child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein has sparked many questions but one stands out: what happened to Ghislaine Maxwell, the British socialite friend of the prince who is accused of procuring victims for the disgraced financier.The Duke of York admitted ties to Maxwell and Epstein during the bombshell BBC Newsnight interview – while adamantly denying wrongdoing and expressing regret for continued association with Epstein.Andrew said he met Epstein through Maxwell, the daughter of late media baron Robert Maxwell. Maxwell has vehemently denied allegations of wrongdoing but her current whereabouts are unknown, with media reports placing sightings of her in various cities in the US and Europe.Epstein killed himself in a Manhattan jail in August, following his arrest on federal sex trafficking charges.At the center of this controversy is Epstein's accuser Virginia Giuffre, who claims Maxwell recruited her to work as his masseuse when she was 15 years old. Giuffre has alleged that a sexual encounter took place with Andrew around 2001, when she was 17.Giuffre claims Epstein flew her to London on his private jet. After dining with the prince and dancing with him at the Tramp nightclub, she claims, they had a sexual encounter in Maxwell's Belgravia house.Prince Andrew stands with Virginia Giuffre while Ghislaine Maxwell smiles in the background. Photograph: REX/ShutterstockA photo of Andrew posing with his hand around the teen Giuffre was purportedly taken at Maxwell's home – she is seen smiling in the background. Andrew said in the Newsnight interview he last had contact with Maxwell earlier this year, before Epstein's arrest.Multiple women in addition to Giuffre have alleged Maxwell enabled Epstein's sex trafficking ring, either recruiting them directly or planning visits to his homes.Yet Maxwell's fate remains an almost complete mystery. She has not been charged. And while she presently faces civil litigation, the likelihood of a court appearance is unknown. Her last public appearance seems to have been at a Los Angeles fast-food restaurant in August, though doubts have been raised about the veracity of that sighting.Multiple attorneys listed for Maxwell did not immediately respond to requests for comment.Federal authorities have said the investigation into Epstein's sex trafficking is ongoing. But, officially, their comment is general and does not relate specifically to Maxwell or anyone else.Legal opinions about whether Andrew could face legal trouble in the US are split and Maxwell's potential role in any legal move against the prince is unclear – though she would probably be vital to such a ploy.Mitchell Garabedian, the Boston lawyer who exposed Catholic clergy sex abuse, said in an email attorneys would want to locate Maxwell in the US, as courts here would have legal power to get her to testify. "Certainly, given Ms Maxwell's central role in the Epstein matter, what Ms Maxwell has to say as a witness about Prince Andrew's involvement will greatly affect the opinions of countless others whether connected to law enforcement or otherwise," Garabedian wrote.Asked whether this meant Andrew was exposed to US legal liability, Garabedian said, "It depends on the facts."Paul Shechtman, a veteran criminal law attorney who teaches criminal procedure at Columbia University Law School, said that while pursuing a case against Maxwell probably appeals to the federal prosecutors who arrested Epstein, targeting Andrew might not."Everything points to the fact that she is a serious subject of the southern district [of New York]'s investigation and at the same time, and for a variety of reasons, I don't think he is," Shechtman said.Authorities would have to prove Andrew knew someone was underage, Shechtman said, and "as a general matter, having sexual relations with someone who's underage is a state crime and not a federal crime."I think his exposure for a federal prosecution is quite small indeed," he said, adding. "I think he can continue to be a prince."Rebecca Roiphe, a professor of law at New York Law School and former assistant district attorney in Manhattan, said Andrew's links to Maxwell meant he was caught up in the scandal, regardless of his links to Epstein. But that did not necessarily mean he would face charges."The mere fact that Prince Andrew was friends with Maxwell and she was allegedly involved in Epstein's conduct does not itself prove Prince Andrew's involvement," she said in an email. "But it certainly raises questions that will affect publicity and in this particular case publicity is, on its own, quite powerful."Certainly Andrew's Newsnight interview was a blow in the global courtroom of public opinion. But amid the fallout from such a catastrophic PR blunder, another uncomfortable fact emerged. With Epstein dead and Maxwell missing, Andrew has become the most public face of an ongoing investigation."Of course, if it's proved that Andrew was involved with Maxwell and Epstein in the alleged criminal acts then he could face criminal liability," Roiphe continued."Prosecutors are eager to hold someone responsible for Epstein's alleged crimes. Maxwell is an obvious choice now that Epstein is dead but she is unavailable, which may mean that Prince Andrew is high on their list."Meanwhile, Epstein's estate is facing numerous lawsuits from women who say he sexually abused them, many while they were underage. On Monday, a new lawsuit was filed by a woman identified as Jane Doe 15, who alleged that Epstein assaulted her at his New Mexico ranch when she was 15."Jane Doe was only 15 years old when Jeffrey Epstein preyed upon her, trafficked her and sexually abused her," said the accuser's lawyer, Gloria Allred, at a news conference. "She wants to speak her truth and encourage other underage victims of Jeffrey Epstein who have not yet asserted their legal rights."
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| Trump prepares to seize private land in Texas for border wall: Report Posted: 17 Nov 2019 10:33 AM PST  The Trump administration is preparing to submit court filings as soon as next week as a necessary step toward seizing private land in Texas for its wall on the border with Mexico, NBC reported on Thursday.
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| Chick-fil-A to End Donations to Christian Charities after LGBT Backlash Posted: 18 Nov 2019 09:05 AM PST  Chick-fil-A said Monday that it has stopped donations to several Christian organizations after receiving backlash from LGBT rights activists over the last several weeks.The U.S. fast food chain said that as it expands, it will no longer donate to the Salvation Army, the Paul Anderson Youth Home, and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, which opposes same-sex marriage. The company's charity, the Chick-fil-A Foundation, has donated millions of dollars to the two organizations."We made multi-year commitments to both organizations and we fulfilled those obligations in 2018," a representative for Chick-fil-A said, saying the chain will now focus its charitable donations on "education, homelessness and hunger."The franchise, famous for closing on Sunday, plans to donate a total of close to $9 million to charity include a $25,000 to a local food bank for each new restaurant the company opens."There's no question we know that, as we go into new markets, we need to be clear about who we are," Chick-fil-A President and Chief Operating Officer Tim Tassopoulos told Bisnow. "There are lots of articles and newscasts about Chick-fil-A, and we thought we needed to be clear about our message."Chick-fil-A has a long history of being on the receiving end of criticism from LGBT rights groups. In March, the San Antonio City Council took steps to effectively ban Chick-fil-A from San Antonio's airport after the company donated $2 million to the Christian charities it no longer supports."When there is a tension, we want to make sure we're being clear. We think this is going to be helpful," Tassopoulos said of the company's decision to pull its support from the charities. "It's just the right thing to do: to be clear, caring, and supportive and do it in the community."Correction: A previous version of this article stated incorrectly that Chick-fil-A includes Bible verses on its paper cups.
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| Hong Kong police officer hit by arrow in clashes with protesters Posted: 17 Nov 2019 03:03 AM PST  A Hong Kong police officer was hit in the leg by an arrow Sunday as authorities used tear gas and water cannons to try to drive back protesters occupying a university campus and blocking a major road tunnel under the city's harbor. Police said the arrow struck a media liaison officer and he was taken to a hospital. Photos on the department's Facebook page show the arrow sticking out of the back of the officer's lower leg through his pants. The protesters held their ground for most of the day, as water cannon trucks drove over bricks and nails strewn by protesters to spray them at close range. They began retreating into Hong Kong Polytechnic University near sunset, fearing they would be trapped as police fired tear gas volleys and approached from the opposite direction. The use of bows and arrows, along with a gasoline bombs launched with catapults, threatened to escalate the violence in the more than five-month-long anti-government movement. Protesters are trying to keep the pressure on Hong Kong leaders, who have rejected most of their demands. The protests were sparked by proposed legislation that would have allowed the extradition of criminal suspects to the mainland. Activists saw it as an erosion of Hong Kong's autonomy under the "one country, two systems" formula implemented in 1997, when Britain returned the territory to China. The officer was taken to hospital Credit: REX The bill has been withdrawn, but the protests have expanded into a wider resistance movement against what is perceived as the growing control of Hong Kong by Communist China, along with calls for full democracy for the territory. Sunday's daytime faceoff came after a pitched battle at night in which the two sides exchanged tear gas and gasoline bombs that left fires blazing in the street. Many protesters retreated inside the Polytechnic campus, where they have barricaded entrances and set up narrow access control points. A large group of people arrived in the morning to try to clean up the road but were warned away by protesters. Riot police shot several volleys of tear gas at the protesters, who sheltered behind a wall of umbrellas and threw gasoline bombs into nearby bushes and trees, setting them on fire. The water cannons arrived in the early afternoon, one using blue-dyed water to drench the protesters. Protesters have largely retreated from occupations of several major campuses they held last week, except for the contingent at Polytechnic. That group is also blocking access to one of the three main road tunnels that link Hong Kong Island with the rest of the city. Another group threw bricks in the street to blocked a main thoroughfare in the Mongkok district, as police fired tear gas to try to disperse them. The disruption to Nathan Road may have been an attempt to distract police during the standoff at Polytechnic. Opposition lawmakers criticized the Chinese military for joining a cleanup to remove debris from streets near Hong Kong Baptist University on Saturday. Dozens of Chinese troops, dressed in black shorts and olive drab T-shirts, ran out in loose formation and picked up paving stones, rocks and other obstacles that had cluttered the street The military is allowed to help maintain public order, but only at the request of the Hong Kong government. The government said that it had not requested the military's assistance, describing it as a voluntary community activity. The Education Bureau announced that classes from kindergarten to high school would be suspended again on Monday because of safety concerns. Classes have been canceled since Thursday, after the bureau came under criticism for not doing so earlier.
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| Mexico, Uruguay and Caribbean Community reject use of force in Venezuela -statement Posted: 18 Nov 2019 10:26 AM PST ![Mexico, Uruguay and Caribbean Community reject use of force in Venezuela -statement]( "Mexico, Uruguay and Caribbean Community reject use of force in Venezuela -statement") Mexico, Uruguay and representatives of the Caribbean Community on Monday rejected the use of force and human rights violations in Venezuela, urging a peaceful and democratic solution to solve the crisis in the troubled South American nation. The group issued the statement after Venezuela's opposition staged nationwide protests against Nicolas Maduro on Saturday and called for a new wave of demonstrations to revive stalled efforts to topple the deeply unpopular ruling Socialist Party.
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| Avalanche hits Indian army post in Himalayas, 6 killed Posted: 18 Nov 2019 08:18 AM PST  An avalanche hit an Indian army post Monday on a Himalayan glacier in the disputed Kashmir region, killing four soldiers and their two civilian porters, the army said. Rescuers pulled six soldiers and two porters from the snow, said army spokesman Lt. Col. Abhinav Navneet. The group was on patrol near the post when the area was hit by the avalanche, Navneet said.
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| Back in 2017, Russian Nuclear Submarines Fired Torpedoes at Each Other Posted: 17 Nov 2019 01:11 AM PST  It was a drill--and thank god for that.
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| Trump aide curbed access to Ukraine call, fearing fallout Posted: 16 Nov 2019 06:44 PM PST  A top US official restricted access to the summary of Donald Trump's Ukraine call that triggered an impeachment probe, fearing it would damage the president, testimony released Saturday showed. White House Ukraine expert Timothy Morrison told House investigators he knew immediately how sensitive the call was when he heard Trump press Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate former US vice president Joe Biden.
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| Rodney Reed's mother says the 'truth will and shall set him free' after her son was granted a stay of execution Posted: 18 Nov 2019 09:40 AM PST  Rodney Reed has spent 20 years in prison for the 1996 murder of a 19-year-old woman named Stacey Stites.
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| Jodie Chesney's killer jailed for life as judge laments criminals 'carving up areas' of London Posted: 18 Nov 2019 08:07 AM PST  Two drug dealing teenagers have been jailed for life for the "callous and casual" murder of girl scout Jodie Chesney, who was stabbed to death in an east London park. County lines dealer Svenson Ong-a-Kwie, 19, and his 17-year-old apprentice, Arron Isaacs had been looking to take revenge on rivals when they killed Jodie by mistake, the Old Bailey heard. The popular 17-year-old student had been relaxing with friends in Amy's Park in Harold Hill, east London, on the evening of March 1 when two shadowy figures emerged from the dark and one knifed her in the back. She screamed and collapsed in the arms of her boyfriend, Eddie Coyle, 18, as her attackers made off in a fellow drug dealer's car. Days later, they were arrested together as they fled from the rear of a house connected with the youth. The defendants denied Jodie's murder, each blaming the other for inflicting the fatal wound. But prosecutor Crispin Aylett QC told jurors that both were responsible for the killing, amid incidents of "casual violence" in the drug-dealing world. The jury deliberated for less than six hours to find them guilty last week of Jodie's murder. Jodie Chesney Judge Wendy Joseph QC handed Ong-a-Kwie a life sentence with a minimum of 26 years. She sentenced Isaacs to be detained at Her Majesty's Pleasure for at least 18 years. She said that Jodie's death led to a "world of anguish" for her family, which came amid "tit for tat" incidents. Jodie was the victim of "callous, casual and irresponsible violence" which had shocked the community "to the core", she said. On the evidence, she found Ong-a-Kwie was the stabber and the 17-year-old his "enthusiastic supporter". Isaacs was initially shielded by anonymity, but now he can be named after the judge lifted reporting restrictions. In doing so, she said: "What is important is that a blameless girl is dead at the hands of those engaged in and those that associate with drug dealing on the streets which Jodie and other blameless young people must live. "This death has brought great unease in the community. Those suffering, which spreads much further than Jodie's friends and family, need and have a right to known and understand how this has come about." The judge lamented the impact of criminals that had "carved up areas of the capital of this country". She added: "The dangers this brings to decent law-abiding members of the public is graphically spelled out in this case." The court heard moving tributes to Jodie and the "ripple effect" her murder had among friends, family and the wider community. Mr Coyle has been left with post-traumatic stress from witnessing her murder. Svenson Ong-a-Kwie was a county lines drug dealer Credit: PA He said: "Jodie was funny, silly, she always made fun of me and she had a bright future ahead of her. She was full of energy and was always out doing something. We had been going out for three months. "I've never lost anyone before and for the first funeral I've gone to to be my own girlfriend's is incredibly hard. I loved her." Jodie's father, Peter Chesney, who gave up a job in the City, said: "I have lost the most precious human being I will ever know. I have no idea how I'm going to continue my life or come to terms with the loss." Her sister, Lucy, said: "Jodie will be greatly missed and the people who caused such tragedy to a whole family should hang their head in shame. You have ripped away a bright future that was destined to make a change to many lives." The court heard that Ong-a-Kwie had convictions for possessing and supplying drugs. He admitted being in breach of a six-week suspended sentence for handling stolen jewellery dating back to October last year. Isaacs had previous convictions for possessing a screwdriver, actual bodily harm, possession of cannabis as well as aggravated vehicle-taking.
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| Head of Vatican financial regulator leaves job weeks after police raids Posted: 18 Nov 2019 03:50 AM PST  The Vatican said on Monday the head of its financial regulator would leave, weeks after unprecedented police raids on his organization and another key arm of the Catholic Church's bureaucracy. Rene Bruelhart, a 47-year-old Swiss lawyer, told Reuters he had resigned from the top job at the Financial Information Authority (AIF), but did not go into further detail. Vatican police entered the offices of the AIF and of the Secretariat of State - the administrative heart of the Catholic Church - on Oct. 1, as part of an investigation into an investment the Secretariat hade made in London real estate.
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| 'People aren't stupid': de Blasio slams Bloomberg's 'stop-and-frisk' apology Posted: 18 Nov 2019 12:27 PM PST  Former NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg apologized for the controversial "stop-and-frisk" policy, but Bill de Blasio says he had six years to say sorry.
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| Mexican president defends indigenous pensions plan Posted: 18 Nov 2019 09:57 AM PST ![Mexican president defends indigenous pensions plan]( "Mexican president defends indigenous pensions plan") Mexico's president on Monday defended a plan to provide pensions to indigenous people starting at age 65, compared with 68 for other Mexicans. Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who was elected last year after campaigning to help marginalized people, said those who question the idea should visit poor indigenous communities to see how residents live. "It is painful that a senior in the city, age 65, is better preserved than an indigenous person of 65 because they work, they eat poorly, they have to walk for kilometers and they suffer greatly," López Obrador said.
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| Trump impeachment news: President considers testifying over Ukraine scandal, as Supreme Court puts hold on release of his tax returns Posted: 18 Nov 2019 10:40 AM PST  Donald Trump has said he is "strongly considering" taking up House speaker Nancy Pelosi's invitation for him to testify to the impeachment inquiry and "speak all the truth he wants", a welcome also extended by Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, who said the president should give his side of the story on Ukraine rather than grumble about the proceedings on Twitter.The White House has meanwhile scrambled to deny speculation the Mr Trump's sudden visit to a Maryland hospital on Saturday for a medical check-up was initiated in response to a more serious health complaint.
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| Riot police use water cannons to disperse Georgia protesters Posted: 18 Nov 2019 07:29 AM PST  Riot police in Georgia used water cannons on Monday to disperse anti-government protesters who have taken to the streets after the ruling party backtracked on promised electoral reforms. Hundreds of riot police in body armour and helmets sprayed water to break up a crowd of several hundred protesters outside the parliament building in the capital Tbilisi. Police also cleared protesters away from the city's main thoroughfare, Rustaveli Avenue, where they have blocked traffic since the last week.
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| National Transgender Group Sees Exodus of Workers in Clashes With Leaders Posted: 17 Nov 2019 09:06 AM PST  A well-known national transgender policy group finds itself having to rebuild after a mass exodus of staff members amid discontent over its leadership, claims of retaliation for labor organizing and concerns about minority hiring and outreach.The group, the National Center for Transgender Equality, has lost about two-thirds of its staff in just weeks, Mara Keisling, the group's executive director, said on Friday night.At least eight staff members resigned as a result of frustrations with the organization and a failed attempt to oust the executive and deputy executive directors. Those former staff members explained their reasons for leaving in an open letter published Friday by Out magazine.Tensions at the center have been building for years, according to the letter."Over the last decade, it's been abundantly clear that members of the executive team hold an inconsistent and irreconcilable view of how to make the organization itself a strong social justice movement," the letter said.The letter also said that the organization had employed a record high of 23 employees at the beginning of the year but is now down to just seven. Staff members from the policy, communications and outreach and education departments were among those who left.Union organizing, which began last year, stalled after staff members and the executive team were unable to agree on terms.On Friday, an unfair labor practice charge was filed against the center "for discharging all employees in the bargaining unit, in retaliation against the staff asking for voluntary recognition of their union," the Nonprofit Professional Employees Union, which had been working to organize staff members, said in a statement.The union added that "NCTE management used textbook union-busting tactics to draw out the process and never recognized the union."In August, staff members walked out in protest over the firing of a survey outreach coordinator who is black and Nicaraguan, as well as to push for better workplace conditions, according to the website NewNowNext.com, which covers lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues.About a month later, staff members called for the resignation of Keisling and the group's deputy executive director, Lisa Mottet. At a staff meeting on Nov. 1, according to Keisling, the two women, with the support of the group's board members, announced they would not resign and presented a plan for the organization's "next chapter" as well as a severance offer for those who felt they needed to leave."Anybody who decided that this chapter isn't for them, we wanted them to be able to have the stability to make that decision," said Keisling, who admitted that the organization had faltered on some issues raised by employees."You do the best you can, and then you learn, and then you do better, and you learn, and you do better," she said, adding that the group had brought in outside experts to "fix where we've fallen short."Keisling also denied that the group had retaliated against staff members who were union organizers."We could not have expressed in a more heartfelt way that we are pro-union," she said, calling the unfair labor charge "baseless."But former staff members, as described in their open letter, saw the decision to keep a leadership team they viewed as problematic and offer a buyout instead as sending an "unmistakable" message: That "all of the work and experience we bring to the organization was, in their view, dispensable, while an inconsistent and problematic leadership was not.""Each one of us relished the opportunity to do our work, but we simply could not honestly speak for the equality of others from a stubbornly unequal workplace that has continually disappointed its staff, its donors, and the community it seeks to represent," the letter said.The organization is gearing up for a critical year as it tackles the 2020 presidential election as well as its 2020 Transgender Survey.Keisling said she and her team were grateful for all the former staff members but that now "it's time to rebuild.""It's time to get back to the work that trans people really, desperately, need us to do," she said.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
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| FCC chairman Pai backs public auction to free up spectrum in C-band for 5G Posted: 18 Nov 2019 09:17 AM PST  Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai said on Monday he backs a public auction to free up spectrum in a key band currently used for delivering video content for next-generation 5G wireless networks, an announcement that sent a major satellite company's shares down 40%. The C-band is a block of spectrum used by satellite company customers to deliver video and radio programming to 120 million U.S. households and is seen as the most likely short-term source of available spectrum for 5G use. Experts believe the C-band spectrum can be divided to maintain existing service and deliver 5G service.
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| Here's how FedEx will fly giant panda Bei Bei to China via its 'Panda Express' Posted: 18 Nov 2019 08:08 AM PST  A FedEx plane will soon take a 15-plus hour flight from the U.S. to China. Its cargo: one giant panda, supplies and plenty of snacks.
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| Texas A&M marks 20 years since bonfire collapse killed 12 Posted: 18 Nov 2019 11:05 AM PST  More than 1,000 people attended a memorial Monday to honor the 12 people who died when a tower of logs collapsed at Texas A&M University 20 years ago. The Bonfire Remembrance Ceremony was dedicated to the 11 university students and one former student who died on Nov. 18, 1999, when a 40-foot bonfire structure holding about 5,000 logs collapsed while under construction. Janice Kerlee, whose son was killed in the collapse, called the 12 who died "extraordinary young people" as she spoke during the memorial.
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| Democratic candidates reject Obama’s warning of going too far left Posted: 17 Nov 2019 07:53 AM PST  'I'm not tearing down the system,' Bernie Sanders says in response to former president's messageFormer president Barack Obama: 'The average American doesn't think we have to completely tear down the system and remake it.' Photograph: Michael Sohn/APDemocratic 2020 presidential candidates have rejected criticism from former president Barack Obama, after he warned the field of White House hopefuls not to veer too far to the left because it would alienate voters.Though Obama did not mention anyone by name, the message he delivered before a room of Democratic donors in Washington on Friday was a clear word of caution about the candidacies of Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, who are seen as two of the top-tier candidates in the crowded field.Sanders and Warren have called for massive structural changes and policies that would dramatically alter the role of government in Americans' lives. The centrist wing of the party has warned for months that a far-left nominee could alienate moderate Republicans and independent voters needed to oust Donald Trump."The average American doesn't think we have to completely tear down the system and remake it. And I think it's important for us not to lose sight of that," Obama said.Addressing Obama's comments over the weekend, Sanders told a forum in Long Beach: "I'm not tearing down the system.""When I talk about health care being a human right and ending the embarrassment of America being the only major country on earth that does not guarantee healthcare for every man, woman and child, that's not tearing down the system," he said, according to the New York Times. "That's doing what we should have done 30 years ago."New Jersey senator and 2020 candidate Cory Booker called for Democrats to "stop tearing each other down" and to instead back the wide field of contenders in the race to win the Democratic presidential nomination ahead of the 2020 election."What we're doing right now, creating these dynamics within the Democratic party, we've got to be careful," Booker told reporters in Long Beach. "Because whoever is the nominee, we have one shot to make Donald Trump a one-term president. And so I'm not interested in delineating left or right or criticizing other folks."He added: "Let's stop tearing each other down, let's stop drawing artificial lines. I'm tired in this election of hearing some people say, 'Well if this person gets elected, I can't support them,' and then other people say, 'If this person gets elected, I can't support them.' Are you kidding me?"> Last night at CADem19 I was asked about what I think voters are really looking for in this election. > > My answer? I think Americans want solutions forged in courageous empathy and results they can see in their own communities—not partisan bickering or political ultimatums. pic.twitter.com/dpNNXSEf6W> > — Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) November 17, 2019Julián Castro, a 2020 Democratic candidate who served as housing secretary under Obama, said while he takes what the former president says seriously, he also believes any of the 2020 Democratic candidates would be better than Trump. "Their vision for the future of the country is much better and will be more popular than Donald Trump's."Obama has largely refrained from publicly opining on the Democratic primary, which has exposed a growing rift between an ascendant progressive wing of the party and old-guard centrists like his former vice president, Joe Biden.But on Friday he said he felt compelled to weigh in because some of the loudest and most strident voices, particularly on social media, aren't representative of where most in the party are at. Immigration and health care are two issues he cited as cases where Democratic candidates are out of sync with public sentiment."There are a lot of persuadable voters and there are a lot of Democrats out there who just want to see things make sense. They just don't want to see crazy stuff. They want to see things a little more fair, they want to see things a little more just. And how we approach that I think will be important," Obama said."Even as we push the envelope and we are bold in our vision, we also have to be rooted in reality and the fact that voters, including the Democratic voters and certainly persuadable independents or even moderate Republicans, are not driven by the same views that are reflected on certain, you know, left-leaning Twitter feeds," Obama said.Obama delivered his remarks at a gathering of the Democracy Alliance, a group of wealthy Democrats who raise large sums for the party. He was interviewed by Stacey Abrams, a rising star in the party who narrowly lost the Georgia governors race last year.He also sought also to ease jittery Democrats who have been wringing their hands over the size of the sprawling field, which some worry will lead to a prolonged contest that will leave the eventual nominee with limited time to prepare for the general election."I just have to remind you that I had a very robust primary," Obama said. "Not only did I win ultimately a remarkably tough and lengthy primary process with Hillary Clinton, but people forget that even before that we had a big field of really serious, accomplished people."Associated Press contributed to this report
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| Warren Calls Out Blackstone for ‘Shameless’ Profits From Housing Posted: 18 Nov 2019 12:56 PM PST ![Warren Calls Out Blackstone for 'Shameless' Profits From Housing]( "Warren Calls Out Blackstone for 'Shameless' Profits From Housing") (Bloomberg) -- Elizabeth Warren called out Blackstone Group Inc. for its real estate practices as she laid out her tenants' rights plan, accusing the company of "shamelessly" profiting from the 2008 housing crisis.Her criticism on Monday was the latest instance of the Democratic 2020 presidential candidate singling out Wall Street companies and investors by name for actions she says contribute to inequality.In a Medium post where she laid out proposals to strengthen tenants' rights, Warren assailed Blackstone for going on a "shopping spree" in the wake of the 2008 crisis and buying apartments and single-family homes that had been foreclosed. She also took aim at Colony Capital Inc. and Cerberus Capital Management."Some of the same Wall Street firms that tanked the dream of home ownership for millions of American families are now the country's biggest landlords -- profiting off the destruction they caused," Warren wrote in her post.Blackstone noted that in fact it began purchasing homes through a now-independent company it founded, Invitation Homes, in 2012, after the housing crisis that began in 2008 had abated. The company said vacant homes were dragging down property values for surrounding homes, and Blackstone's purchases and billion-dollar investments in renovations boosted local economies and employment. The firm was spending $150 million a week buying single-family homes."Though we are only a tiny percentage of the housing market, we are proud of our investments, which are helping address the housing shortage by adding high-quality, professionally managed rental housing, while contributing to local economies and creating jobs -- all on behalf of our investors, which include retirement systems for millions of teachers, nurses, firefighters and other pensioners," said Jen Friedman, senior vice president for global public affairs at Blackstone.Blackstone is one of the world's largest real-estate investors, and has about $554 billion in total assets under management. The business is so profitable it has made both founder Stephen Schwarzman and president Jonathan Gray, who oversaw Blackstone's massive real estate growth, billionaires several times over.Warren has singled out some of the largest U.S. corporations, including Facebook Inc., Exxon Mobil Corp., Walmart Inc., and Wells Fargo & Co., as she campaigns for the Democratic nomination by championing working- and middle-class families. The Massachusetts senator promised to break up big corporations, crack down on their political influence and enforce strict regulations on Wall Street.She has also engaged in fights with such Wall Street figures as Lloyd Blankfein and Leon Cooperman.Warren's latest attack comes in a policy proposal to withhold federal funding from corporate landlords with a history of "harassing" tenants. Corporate landlords would be required to publicly disclose data like median rent, the number of tenants they've evicted and building code violations, as well as the names of any individuals with an ownership interest of 25% or more.Warren also pointed to Blackstone's $5.3 billion deal to buy New York's Stuyvesant Town, an 80-acre Manhattan development with more than 11,000 apartments. Under the terms of the deal, about 5,000 of those apartments would remain "affordable" for 20 years, according to an announcement by New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio.Warren has proposed spending $500 billion to build about 3 million housing units in the U.S., and also said her administration would provide a nationwide right-to-counsel and establish a federal grant program aimed at benefiting low-income tenants facing eviction. She said she'd create a federal Tenant Protection Bureau, modeled after the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a key component of the 2010 Wall Street overhaul legislation that she advocated.(Updates with details on Blackstone's housing purchases in fifth paragraph.)To contact the reporters on this story: Misyrlena Egkolfopoulou in Washington at megkolfopoul@bloomberg.net;Heather Perlberg in Washington at hperlberg@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, ;Sam Mamudi at smamudi@bloomberg.net, Gregory MottFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Lebanon’s Protests Divide Hezbollah. Will It Strike Back? Posted: 18 Nov 2019 01:53 AM PST  Marwan Naamani/APBEIRUT—He has fought Israel since the 1990s and killed many fighters in Syria's civil war, but the increasing difficulty of working-class life in Lebanon and a popular revolt against the country's leaders has forced Abu Hussein to reevaluate his decades-long service to Hezbollah. The group whose name translates as "the Party of God" has been branded a terrorist organization by the United States since the 1980s. Backed by Iran, it is more powerful than Lebanon's military and holds a political veto on state policies. The Trump White House has made Hezbollah a prime target in its "Maximum Pressure" campaign against Iran, which seeks to squeeze the Islamic Republic economically until it signs a new, Trump-approved deal covering not only nukes, but ending Iran's support for militias like Hezbollah. Sanctions have targeted the party's members in Lebanon's parliament and a Lebanese bank accused of involvement managing Hezbollah accounts. Lebanon's Wild 'WhatsApp' Revolution Challenges Hezbollah and the Old ElitesBut the U.S. efforts have only added pressure to Lebanon's economic crisis. And Iran has many ways to fight back."Iran sees Lebanon as an important arena in the duel with Washington and will not sacrifice its prize horse Hezbollah no matter the cost," says Raghida Dergham, founder of the Beirut Institute, an independent think tank. The cost to the country of an effort to crush the uprising could be enormous, and some Hezbollah fighters want no part of it.* * *ABU HUSSEIN* * *I have met Abu Hussein several times over the last four years, but this conversation in the southern suburbs of Beirut is like none we've had before. Regardless of how grim the fighting had been in Syria, when he came back home Abu Hussein was always unwaveringly loyal and ideologically committed to the party. (He uses a pseudonym here because Hezbollah fighters are barred from speaking to Western media.) Now he is frustrated with Hezbollah's response to the widespread discontent in the streets by masses of people fed up with corruption, austerity and the high cost of living. After years fighting abroad as the commander of a rapid response unit that numbered as many as 200 fighters, it is domestic rather than regional issues that pushed him to abandon the movement.Hezbollah first built its strength and reputation fighting the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon. "Am I a member of Hezbollah against the Israelis? Yes I am," says the weathered officer. "Am I member of Hezbollah when it's against the people in the streets? No!" Two months ago, as Israel and Lebanon stood on the brink of war after an exchange of cross-border fire, Abu Hussein was part of redeployment from Syria, leading patrols and reconnaissance missions on Lebanon's southern border with Israel. But then, last month, working- and middle-class people from across Lebanon took to the streets condemning a ruling political class still lingering since the 1975-1990 civil war and enriching itself as the country's economy collapsed. Rather than the traditional hurling of blame across the sectarian divide of Lebanon's confessional political system, this time Christians, Druze, Shia and Sunni Muslims condemned the failures of their own leaders, and for Abu Hussein, something changed. Now he says he refuses to go back to Syria, has not gone on patrol in the south since the protests started, and won't be mobilized in Beirut. "The protesters' demands are 100 percent legitimate and they have no other choice to get their demands met," he says of a movement that calls for an end to the sectarian system that Hezbollah relies on to leverage power. He contends that a growing number of his comrades in arms support the demonstrations and roadblocks where people chant "all of them means all of them."It's a rebuke to all of the country's political leaders: Sunni Prime Minister Saad Hariri, Maronite Christian President Michel Aoun, Shia Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri, the powerful Druze leader Walid Joumblatt—and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah."Hezbollah made a major mistake; they thought they were too big for Lebanon," says Abu Hussein of a movement focused on expanding regional military influence while its Shia working class base endured some of the worst of the country's economic pain. "They never thought people would rebel against them with this force and now they feel the heat."For Hezbollah, a movement inspired by the Iranian revolution and loyal to the Islamic Republic, this loss of confidence is a problem its military successes can't solve. In southern cities like Nabatieh and in Bekaa valley towns where Hezbollah competes with Parliamentary Speaker Nabih Berri's Amal movement for Shia support, demonstrators have cursed both Berri and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Young people from the low-income Shia-majority Beirut suburb of Dahieh have joined the protests in the capital center around Martyrs' Square. "There were the kids of Hezbollah MPs telling their fathers that the people's demands should be heard," says the commander, emphatically describing the mood among Hezbollah's core constituents. He is careful to keep Nasrallah above reproach, blaming those around him and his tenuous ally, Berri, who went from warlord to parliamentary speaker in 1992 and has held the position ever since.But Abu Hussein does not mince words about Nasrallah's response to the uprising. In a televised addresses broadcast across the country on Oct. 25, Nasrallah tried at first to dismiss the protests as a hostile foreign plot while claiming he would not accept the government or president's resignation. Three days after the government collapsed, on Nov. 1, he went on air again, this time to begrudgingly accept the reality of the Hariri led cabinet resignation. He tried to distance himself from his previous comments about the protests being a Western and Israeli plot and called for dialogue. Unable to to appear in public because of the threat of Israeli assassination, the long serving secretary general always makes his televised addresses from an undisclosed location."Hezbollah can say what it wants," the commander tells me, annoyed by the allegations of foreign interference. He says he knows many people who have been joining the protests and that the demonstrators are changing people's minds. "Every time they reach a point they feel they are in trouble with their own people, they blame someone else," he adds. "They are in trouble and don't know what to do."* * *PARADIGM SHIFT* * *The clanging of pots and pans echoing nightly off apartment buildings across Beirut has become the latest sound of discontent ringing out here, a month into the country's popular revolt. Lebanon's economic crisis continues to deepen, with banks restricting withdrawals and transfers abroad while the gap between the official and street-traded exchange rate of the Lebanese lira, which is pegged to the U.S. dollar, grows wider. As protests and political stagnation add to the economic crisis, faith in the established parties continues to dissipate, even among core supporters.This erosion is not unique to Hezbollah but rather seems to be happening across the establishment's political divide, threatening the future of all parties, whether allied to Iran and Syria or the West and the Gulf. It is discontent with a system of proxy politics that exploits sectarian divides while ignoring the basic needs of people that is threatening to upend politics and power in Lebanon. The Master Terrorist Behind America's Blood Feud With Iran"There is a paradigm shift in the way people are thinking. People have been able to move away from the traditional parties that they have been attached to and there is a general dislike of party partisanship," says Ahmad Mousalli, a political science professor and specialist in Islamic movements at the American University of Beirut. "Most of the people on the ground these days have not been through the civil war in Lebanon, but they have known nothing but these corrupt cronies," he continues.At the same time, the parties have continued to fight over which of their traditional blocks will dominate in the new government, each claiming to carry the street's anti-corruption, economic reformist goals and demands for a secular civil democracy. "They are trying to ride the wave in one way or another," says Mousalli before adding, "I don't think the population at large want this anymore." Mousalli notes that this trend has impacted Hezbollah, but argues that the intense ideological conviction of its members, especially its fighters, puts it in better shape than other established parties in a political system where loyalty is usually based on patronage. While Abu Hussein says he is among an increasing number of fighters leaving the organization, Abu Abdullah, who also declines to use his name because of Hezbollah's restrictions on its fighters talking to the media, is unwavering in his support. He fought Israel in 2006, then bolstered the Assad regime in Syria's civil war, and now he trains fighters. Describing Hezbollah units across the country as on "full alert," he says they are looking out for American or Israeli acts of destabilization through the protests. Abu Abdullah also knows people from Dahieh going to the protests and hears about discontent with Hezbollah along with the rest of the political class, but he has listened to Nasrallah's accusations and is convinced that the protests are the result of foreign agitation. "The Israelis and Americans feel they can enter through these protests and we aren't going to let them," he says decisively.In 2008, Hezbollah fighters took over the streets in Beirut in a display of their military dominance and effective control of the country, but Abu Abdullah states univocally that Hezbollah has no intention of doing that at the moment. Mousalli concurs, saying that any military action against Lebanon's people would likely only create bigger problems for Hezbollah, exacerbating internal divisions and alienating its base. Still, Abu Abdullah contends Hezbollah will not allow the collapse of a sectarian system that it uses to secure its interests while avoiding the international isolation for Lebanon that would come from a party the U.S. has long labeled a terrorist organization officially running the country. It's a position he's willing to kill for and he says he's ready to do whatever his commanders deem necessary."If I get an order and a fatwa to shoot the people," he says, "then yes, I'll shoot my brother."For Abu Hussein, there is no order or religious decree that could make him turn on his people and he would sooner abandon his post than help Hezbollah use its might against its own. For Hezbollah, concerns that the number of Abu Husseins is growing in its ranks may be one reason its reaction, so far, has remained political.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. 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| Bangladesh organises onion airlift as prices hit record high Posted: 18 Nov 2019 05:30 AM PST  South Asia's onion crisis has widened, with Bangladesh airlifting supplies of the vegetable and the prime minister claiming prices are so high she has stopped eating them. The spike in Bangladesh has put a staple ingredient for much South Asian food out of reach of the country's poor and follows a similar price hike in India. Prices in Bangladesh rocketed after India banned exports to conserve its own stocks after they were hit first by drought and then by heavy monsoon rains. As prices reached record levels, Bangladesh's largest opposition party blamed the government for the hike and on Monday called for nationwide protests. The humble bulb is so important to daily cooking in South Asia that shortages have a history of political fallout and a reputation for even toppling governments. One kilo of the vegetable in Bangladesh usually costs 30 taka (27p) but soared to up to 260 taka (£2.37) after India's export ban was imposed. Hours-long queues have formed to purchase the staple of South Asian cuisine Credit: AFP India has seen its own spike in prices after a sharp fall in production and the issue has become a political headache for Delhi. India has already released its national buffer stocks and imposed measures to stop onion hoarding. Hasan Jahid Tusher, deputy press secretary for Bangladesh's prime minister Sheikh Hasina, told AFP onions were being imported by air freight, and that "prime minister said she has stopped using onion in dishes". None of the dishes at the PM's residence in Dhaka on Saturday contained onions, he added. Media in Bangladesh reported onion consignments arrived at a major port in Chittagong city on Sunday after the government imported stocks from Myanmar, Turkey, China and Egypt. The increasing prices have pushed onions off restaurant and domestic menus, with Bangladeshis having to adjust their cooking and tastebuds. "Onion has become an essential part of the taste buds of the people of this region, including Bangladesh," a restaurateur called Shafiqul Islam told bdnews24. "A food can be eatable, but not much delicious without onion. Onion is a must for fish and meat recipes, biriyani and many other dishes." The state run Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) has attracted long queues waiting for subsidised onions. "Even if I have to stand another two hours, I will do that. I can save some 250 taka by buying one kilo of TCB onion. I am standing here because I have to save money," said Ratan, an English teacher. "I am 41 years old. I have never seen onion prices ever crossing beyond 120 taka." Drought badly hit India's first onion harvest in the spring, while unusually heavy monsoon rains hit the second harvest. The fluctuating price of onions is widely used as an everyday measure of inflation and a sudden inability for the poor to buy them can quickly focus concern over wider economic problems. Indira Ghandi came to power in 1980 citing soaring onion prices as a metaphor for economic failures of the government. The issue dominated state elections in 1998 and again became a political crisis in 2010. India last week said it was importing 100,000 tons of onions in a bid to curb rising prices. Pakistan has meanwhile seen its own vegetable inflation, with a spike in tomato prices. A government finance adviser came in for widespread mockery after he insisted tomatoes were to be found for 17 rupees (8p) per kg. The price is more than 10 times that.
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