| Trump acknowledges bringing up Joe Biden in phone call with Ukraine president Posted: 22 Sep 2019 02:10 PM PDT  Lawmakers call for more details on a claim that Donald Trump pressured Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky into investigating Joe Biden.
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| The Amex Business Platinum perks are so good it makes me want to start my own company Posted: 21 Sep 2019 11:17 AM PDT  BGR has partnered with The Points Guy for our coverage of credit card products. BGR and The Points Guy may receive a commission from card issuers.Please note: the offers mentioned below are subject to change at any time and some may no longer be available.One of our favorite rewards credit cards for ordinary consumers is The Platinum Card® from American Express, which combines a big up-front welcome offer of 60,000 points (after using the card to spend $5,000 in your first three months) with a ton of luxe perks. The benefits range from an airline fee credit of up to $200 to American Express Concierge travel service, and much more. Business owners, meanwhile, fear not. The Business Platinum® Card from American Express is a companion version of the charge card tailored to the needs of business people, and it not only has a similarly impressive lineup of benefits.You've also got until December 4, 2019, to take advantage of a limited-time, increased welcome bonus of up to 100,000 Membership Rewards points.Who needs this card: If you rack up frequent travel expenses over the course of your business operations, or even if you simply charge thousands of dollars a month in business expenses to a charge card, it's hard to argue the Amex Business Platinum doesn't deserve a spot in your wallet.Why you should sign up for one right now: The current welcome points offer means if you can put $25,000 in charges on this card in your first three months of card ownership (and before December 4), the 100,000 Membership Rewards points bonus can be yours. Yes, that's a big outlay in order to get the welcome reward, but since this is a business card we're talking about that's not an unreasonable amount of expense to put on a charge card.Moreover, based on the most recent monthly valuations from The Points Guy, 100,000 Membership Rewards points are worth $2,000 in travel, which makes this card's bonus an extremely lucrative one and potentially worth the high spending levels. We should also add -- you'll earn the welcome points in two tiers.Spent $10,000 on qualifying purchases in the first 3 months of card membership, and you'll earn 50,000 Membership Rewards points. Once you put another $15,000 on this card (for qualifying purchases) after that initial $10,000 -- and, again, still before the first three months are up -- then you'll earn an additional 50,000 points.If you read our previous post outlining the slew of lucrative benefits available to Amex Platinum cardmembers, you're already familiar with many of the benefits of the Amex Business Platinum. Both cards share perks like: * Up to $200 airline fee credit each year * Access to Centurion Lounges and Delta Sky Clubs (when flying Delta) * Access to other lounges in the American Express Global Lounge Collection * Gold elite status with Hilton Honors and Gold elite status with Marriott Bonvoy * Upgrade with Points to request an airline ticket upgrade on select airlines * 5 points per dollar spent on flights and prepaid hotels (both must be booked through Amex Travel on the Business Platinum)However, here are some of the benefits you get that are exclusive to the business version of the Platinum card: * 10 free Gogo inflight Wi-Fi passes each year * 1.5x points on purchases of $5,000 or more (up to 1 million additional points per year) * A complimentary year of Platinum Global Access with WeWork (enrollment must be done by December 31, 2019) * Up to $200 in annual statement credits for Dell technology purchases, split into a $100 credit for January through June and another $100 credit for July through December The final wordWhile this card does come with a $595 annual fee that can seem hefty at the outset, if you take advantage of the $200 airline fee credit and the annual up to $200 Dell credit, you'll effectively pay a net of only $195 a year for the card. This card proves its worth and then some for any businessperson engaged in regular travel. From lounge access at almost any airport in the world to elite status at Hilton and Marriott hotels, plus helping you get onto the internet while in the air during flights, this card has tons of benefits (not to mention that welcome bonus that's higher than ever) just waiting for you to take advantage of.
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| Mike Pence takes eight-vehicle motorcade across island where cars have been banned for a century Posted: 22 Sep 2019 08:00 AM PDT  For more than a century, motorised vehicles have been banned from Mackinac Island in Michigan - giving the former Revolutionary War battle site a unique charm and turning it into a tourist haven.The ban is so strictly enforced that when President Gerald Ford visited in 1975, he and first lady Betty Ford travelled by horse-drawn carriage.
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| Surprising Facts You Didn't Know About Rhinos Posted: 22 Sep 2019 06:00 AM PDT |
| Tropical Storm Karen Has Already Drowned the Internet in Memes Saying the Storm 'Wants to Speak to a Manager' Posted: 22 Sep 2019 10:57 AM PDT  "The hurricane being named Karen is like a gift to the internet"
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| Rohingya 'bandit' couple killed in Bangladesh gunfight Posted: 22 Sep 2019 03:16 AM PDT  A Rohingya couple was shot dead during a gunfight in a border town camp hours after they were detained by Bangladesh police, officials said Sunday, the latest killings amid growing tensions between the refugees and authorities. Police in Teknaf town said the refugee couple -- Dil Mohammad, 32, and his 26-year-old wife Jaheda Begum -- were members of a Rohingya "bandit group". Authorities claim the gang killed a local ruling party official, Omar Faruk, in a refugee settlement in southeastern Bangladesh last month.
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| How Trump could lose the popular vote again – and hold the White House Posted: 21 Sep 2019 10:00 PM PDT  Hillary Clinton won a majority but lost the presidency in the electoral college. A close election could bring a repeatDonald Trump waves to supporters as he arrives for a campaign rally in Rio Rancho, New Mexico. Photograph: Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty ImagesSome defeats never lose their sting. In Washington this week, Hillary Clinton summed up her bid for the White House in 2016."You can run the best campaign. You can have the best plans. You can get the nomination. You can win the popular vote. And you can lose the electoral college and therefore the election."Clinton beat Donald Trump in the popular vote by nearly 3 million ballots yet lost the electoral college – the body of people who represent states and actually get to choose the president – by 304 votes to 227. A black swan event never to be repeated? No. In 2020, it could easily happen again.A study from the University of Texas at Austin found that the electoral college is much more likely than previously thought to elect the candidate who loses the popular vote. In close elections, researchers argues, such "inversions" are normal, not exceptional.In a race decided by less than 2% (2.6m votes), the study found, the probability of an inversion is 32%. In a race decided by less than 1% (1.3m votes), the probability is 45%."It's almost a coin flip," said Michael Geruso, an assistant economics professor.Some critics of Trump have never quite accepted him as the legitimate president, pointing out that he does not represent the will of the majority. After his uniquely divisive first term, a repeat could trigger a furious backlash.> The Republicans do a really determined job of winning power with fewer voters> > Senator Sheldon WhitehouseIn 48 presidential elections since 1824 there have been four inversions: in 1876, 1888, 2000 and 2016. All four favoured Republicans, although the researchers argue there have been periods when it was more likely a Democrat would win by inversion."We wanted to understand, were these statistically likely events or were they flukes?" Geruso said. "And in some sense it was just shocking to us that no one had asked and answered that question yet."Geruso and his colleagues found that all the most common election models used by political scientists led to a very similar result for the probability of inversion."There's lots of questions where different models would give different answers but, on the question of how likely is an electoral inversion in a close race, we don't need to agree or decide on what the perfect model of elections is. They all give the same answer."Clinton ran up huge margins in states such as California, Illinois and New York. Agonisingly, her loss of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin by a combined 77,000 votes cost her the electoral college.Some analysts doubt Trump could get so lucky again. But Geruso said he has a decent chance of catching lightning in a bottle once more."It's really easy to look at the 2016 election and for people to feel like that was an extraordinary election, an extraordinary political moment, it was unusual in a lot of ways. And that may all be true but it turns out that's not why the 2016 election ended in a mismatch between the electoral college and national popular vote. It ended in an inversion because that election was close and close elections, we show, just have a relatively high probability of ending in an inversion."It is less about Trump's appeal to certain constituencies than simple geography and maths."Don't be tempted into thinking that the reason that 2020 might be an inversion is because Donald Trump is running in that race. Inversions are going to keep happening in close races for as long as we have the electoral college because they have been happening."According to Geruso, two major reasons are often cited for inversions. When Clinton won New York and California she did so by big margins, but when she lost states such as Florida or Ohio she did so narrowly. Thus there was an imbalance in the aggregate vote tallies.Secondly, since a state's number of electoral college votes is determined by how many senators and representatives it has, and every state has two senators, small states have greater representation in the college relative to population size. Each senator in California represents nearly 20 million people. Each senator in Wyoming represents 290,000. The current alignment favours Republicans, although there are exceptions such as the District of Columbia.The researchers found a 77% probability that, if an inversion occurs, it will be a Democratic popular vote majority and a Republican electoral college win. 'Second-grade soccer'Several Democratic candidates for president, including Senator Elizabeth Warren and Mayor Pete Buttigieg, have called for the college to be abolished. The party, however, is wrestling with how to exploit it as ruthlessly as Republicans do.Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, appearing on Real Time with Bill Maher, said: "The Republicans do a really determined job of winning power with fewer voters and we don't take on that infrastructure and we don't take on that strategy. We're too happy fighting the fight of the minute. It's second-grade soccer, chasing the ball, and they are planning ahead."> The electoral college actually undermines democracy> > LaTosha BrownSome observers fear the electoral college encourages voter suppression. Republican efforts to use voter ID laws to limit registration in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin will be closely scrutinised.Stanley Greenberg, a Democratic pollster and strategist and author of new book RIP GOP, said: "If there is a close national election, Republicans will resort to things they have done demonstrably well over the last decade of trying to suppress the vote."There's no doubt that the Wisconsin case in 2016 was produced not by low turnout among African Americans but pushing them off the voter rolls with new voter ID laws, and so there was a sharp drop in eligible voters and people were prevented legally from voting. So obviously the most important thing is to make sure we did not have a close election."While southern states such as Mississippi, Louisiana and Georgia have the highest proportions of African Americans in the country, those who vote for the Democrat are effectively ignored by the electoral college.Hillary Clinton delivers her concession speech, in the New Yorker hotel. Photograph: REX/ShutterstockLaTosha Brown, co-founder of Black Voters Matter, said: "They never have any influence on picking the president because of winner takes all. It gives the impression everyone in the south is conservative."In these states it's based on a systemic history of racism. What I'm seeing is people of colour don't fundamentally believe they're living in a democracy. Why don't you have proportional representation? What possible justification is there for winner takes all? The electoral college actually undermines democracy."Few expect Trump to win the popular vote. But in a chilling warning for Democrats, the New York Times suggested he could win the electoral college again, because mostly white working class rust belt states remain at the centre of the electoral map."A strategy rooted in racial polarization could at once energize parts of the president's base and rebuild support among wavering white working-class voters," Nate Cohn wrote. "Many of these voters backed Mr Trump in the first place in part because of his views on hot-button issues, including on immigration and race."Bill Whalen, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution think tank at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, noted that George W Bush lost the popular vote in 2000 but won it in 2004 after improving in Texas and post-9/11 New York.For Trump, he said, "it's a tight squeeze. There's not much margin for error. But he could do it again, like he did in 2016, without the popular vote."So expect Trump derangement syndrome to get even worse."
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| World leaders feel the heat in upcoming climate summit Posted: 22 Sep 2019 12:51 PM PDT  Only those with new, specific and bold plans can command the podium and the ever-warming world's attention, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said. As if to underscore the seriousness of the problem, the U.N.'s World Meteorological Organization released a science report Sunday showing that in the last several years, warming, sea level rise and carbon pollution have all accelerated. Brazil's, Poland's and Saudi Arabia's proposals for dealing with climate change fell short, so they're not on Monday's summit schedule.
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| Egypt's hardline president el-Sissi faces calls to quit in rare protests Posted: 21 Sep 2019 04:23 AM PDT  Rare anti-government protests broke out in Egypt over the weekend calling on President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi to step down - in the first major protests against his rule since he took power in 2014. In the capital, Cairo, dozens of protesters gathered on Friday night near Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the 2011 pro-democracy uprising that toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak. Demonstrators chanted slogans echoing the Arab Spring uprisings that briefly defied dictatorships across the region. Police responded with teargas. The Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights said security forces reportedly rounded up at least four dozen people in Cairo and elsewhere in the country in a move that was condemned by Human Rights Watch. The protesters took to the streets following calls to mobilise by a self-exiled businessman, Muhammad Ali, who accused corruption by the military and government in a series of online posts that went viral online. Small groups of protesters gather in central Cairo shouting anti-government slogans in Cairo, Egypt September 21, 2019. Credit: Reuters Mr Ali alleged his contracting business had witnessed the large scale misuse of public funds in the building of luxurious hotels, presidential palaces and a tomb for the President's mother, who died in 2014. The allegations came as economic reforms and austerity have squeezed Egypt's lower and middle classes badly. In a rambling speech on Tuesday, Mr el-Sissi angrily dismissed the allegations as "sheer lies." He portrayed Mr Ali's videos as an attempt to weaken Egypt and undermine the public's trust in the military. Police vehicles are seen in central Cairo as protesters gather shouting anti-government slogans in Cairo Credit: Reuters Mr el-Sissi, a former army general, has overseen an unprecedented political crackdown, silencing critics and jailing thousands. He came to power after the military ousted an elected but divisive Islamist president in 2013, amid mass protests against his one-year-rule. He promised to continue building new presidential residences despite the claims. "I am building a new country," he said, warning Egyptians against protesting or repeating the 2011 uprising. Egypt's 2011 revolutionaries reflect as Sisi consolidates power On Friday night, security forces speedily dispersed the scattered protests, which came directly after a soccer game between al-Ahly, Egypt's biggest team, and its archrival Zamalek. No casualties were reported. The willingness of the protesters to defy police and laws that all but ban public protests is being regarded as a potential turning point against the President's rule, however small. "This is a very important development because this was the first such protest against the rule of el-Sissi," said political scientist Mustafa Kamel el-Sayed of Cairo University. "The small demonstrations demolished the wall of fear installed by el-Sissi and that could lead to more protests in the future."
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| Woman convicted in texting suicide case denied parole Posted: 21 Sep 2019 02:53 PM PDT  The Massachusetts woman convicted of encouraging her boyfriend to kill himself via text messages has been denied early release.
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| Could a Tax on Stock Trades Pay Off the Nation’s Student Debt? Posted: 20 Sep 2019 07:30 PM PDT  The 2020 Democratic candidates all have a plan to eliminate student debt.
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| 105 people injured as a pair of strong earthquakes rattle Albania Posted: 21 Sep 2019 10:13 AM PDT  Cars were crushed by bricks falling from buildings in Albania's capital Tirana, as the country was struck by a pair of strong earthquakes on Saturday.According to the Ministry of Health, at least 68 people were injured, but some reports say there are as many as 105 people injured. The majority of injuries occurred in Durres and Tirana. There have been no reported deaths.The Saturday afternoon earthquake was followed by more than 100 aftershocks, authorities report. It also damaged about 600 homes and temporarily cut power and water facilities in Tirana and Durres.According to the United State Geological Survey (USGS), the first earthquake struck at 4:04 p.m., on Saturday near Durres, about 18 miles (29 km) to the west of Tirana.A second earthquake struck just 11 minutes later a short distance away. Shake Map of the larger 5.6 earthquake in Albania on Saturday, September 21, courtesy of the USGS. The first and larger earthquake was reported as a magnitude 5.6 on the Richter Scale, which is Albania's strongest earthquake in 30 years. The second was measured to be slightly weaker at 5.1.Buildings were damaged in the town of Durres which is close to the epicenter.> A university building in Tirana pic.twitter.com/J5UVYyrJOh> > -- Fatjona Mejdini (@FatjonaMejdini) September 21, 2019> Durres albania earthquake pic.twitter.com/BWPIWvErk1> > -- Alice Taylor (@The_Balkanista) September 21, 2019
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| Israel cuts power in parts of West Bank over debts Posted: 22 Sep 2019 12:19 PM PDT  Israel's national electricity company said Sunday it was cutting power to parts of the occupied West Bank due to outstanding payments amounting to nearly $483 million. The Israel Electric Corporation said it was owed 1.7 billion shekels in debts from the main Palestinian power distributor for the West Bank, which is based in east Jerusalem. From Monday, the company "will reduce the current in some areas of the West Bank" because of the debts, it said in a statement.
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| Iranian maritime official says UK tanker Stena Impero to be released soon: Fars news Posted: 22 Sep 2019 04:56 AM PDT  Stena Impero, the British-flagged tanker detained by Iran on July 19, will be released soon, an Iranian maritime official said on Sunday, according to the semi-official Fars news agency. The Stena Impero was detained by Iran's Revolutionary Guards in the Strait of Hormuz waterway for alleged marine violations, two weeks after Britain seized an Iranian tanker off Gibraltar. "After the issuing of the ruling for the end of detention of the English tanker Stena Impero this vessel will soon, and after the passing of 65 days, begin its movement from the port of Bandar Abbas toward international waters," said Allahmorad Afifipour, the head of the Ports and Maritime Organisation of Iran in Hormozgan Province.
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| Pelosi Warns of ‘Grave New Chapter’ Over Trump’s Ukraine Call Posted: 22 Sep 2019 11:01 AM PDT ![Pelosi Warns of 'Grave New Chapter' Over Trump's Ukraine Call]( "Pelosi Warns of 'Grave New Chapter' Over Trump's Ukraine Call") (Bloomberg) -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi signaled her readiness to take stronger action against President Donald Trump over a phone call with Ukraine's president, now the subject of scrutiny after the administration refused to release a whistle-blower's complaint."If the administration persists in blocking this whistle-blower from disclosing to Congress a serious possible breach of constitutional duties by the President, they will be entering a grave new chapter of lawlessness which will take us into a whole new stage of investigation," Pelosi said Sunday in a letter to colleagues.Pelosi didn't mention impeachment, although a key House lawmaker -- Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff of California -- suggested Trump's actions "may very well have crossed the Rubicon" warranting further action.Pelosi and Democratic leaders have resisted calls to start proceedings, fearing it would harm candidates seeking re-election in Republican-leaning areas. There also is little prospect that any effort would succeed in the Republican-controlled Senate, which would hold the trial after any House action.Schiff, who two months ago wasn't ready to back impeachment, said Sunday reports that Trump in the July 25 call asked President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to reopen an investigation into a company tied to Joe Biden's son could lead to congressional action.'Profound Violation'If the call involved criminality or gaining leverage at odds with U.S. interests, he said on CNN's "State of the Union," then it would be "the most profound violation of the presidential oath of office," He added: "It may be that we do have to move forward with that extraordinary remedy."Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who has supported impeachment, in a tweet said Democrats were being weak on Trump, noting the "bigger national scandal" is the party's refusal to take action.Schiff's committee on Thursday is set to hear from acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire about the whistle-blower's complaint. Maguire is also expected to meet with the Senate Intelligence Committee.Release Report"We expect him to obey the law and turn over the whistle-blower's full complaint," Pelosi said. "We also expect that he will establish a path for the whistle-blower to speak directly to the House and Senate Intelligence Committees as required by law."The speaker said the independent inspector general for the intelligence community, who received the complaint, deemed it of "urgent concern, and credible." She said the administration's blocking its release is illegal."We must be sure that the President and his Administration are always conducting our national security and foreign policy in the best interest of the American people, not the President's personal or political interest," Pelosi said.Schiff said that impeachment may be "the only remedy that is only co-equal to the evil" of Trump trying to "browbeat" a foreign leader into doing something illicit.To contact the reporter on this story: Hailey Waller in New York at hwaller@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: James Ludden at jludden@bloomberg.net, Steve Geimann, Tony CzuczkaFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Face transplant recipient's donor face failing Posted: 22 Sep 2019 01:49 PM PDT  A woman who was severely burned in Vermont is hoping for a second face transplant after doctors recently found tissue damage that likely will lead to the loss of her donor face.
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| Florida school resource officer who arrested two kids, ages 6 and 8, is under investigation Posted: 22 Sep 2019 11:26 AM PDT ![Florida school resource officer who arrested two kids, ages 6 and 8, is under investigation]( "Florida school resource officer who arrested two kids, ages 6 and 8, is under investigation") An Orlando school resource officer is facing an investigation after he arrested a 6-year-old and an 8-year-old on misdemeanor charges.
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| Israel's Arab party throws its support to Benny Gantz in bid to oust Netanyahu Posted: 22 Sep 2019 11:27 AM PDT  Benjamin Netanyahu's grip on power slipped further last night after Israel's Arab minority party threw its support behind his rival Benny Gantz, virtually guaranteeing that Mr Gantz will get the first chance to form a government. The decision by the Joint List, which mainly represents Israel's 2 million Palestinian citizens, is the first time since 1992 that an Arab party has endorsed a Jewish candidate like Mr Gantz to be prime minister. Ayman Odeh, the Joint List leader, said he was backing Mr Gantz to bring an end to Mr Netanyahu's 13 years in power. "This will be the most significant step toward helping create the majority needed to prevent another term for Mr. Netanyahu. And it should be the end of his political career," Mr Odeh said in a New York Times op-ed. Mr Netanyahu's Likud party put out a furious statement in response. "As we warned, the Arab parties that oppose Israel as a Jewish and democratic State and glorify terrorists recommended Gantz for prime minister," the party said. The support of the Joint List means that Israel's president, Reuven Rivlin, will almost certainly allow Mr Gantz the first chance to form a coalition government. It will be the first time since 2009 that anyone other than Mr Netanyahu has been given the task. Letters from Jerusalem RHS But that does not mean Mr Gantz, a former army general, will necessarily succeed in cobbling together a majority. He says he hopes to form a national unity government with Likud but only if Mr Netanyahu, who is facing criminal corruption charges, agrees to resign. Mr Netanyahu is refusing to budge and so far his Likud ministers are remaining loyal to him. If Mr Gantz is unable to form a government within 42 days then Mr Netanyahu will get another chance to take up the task. If neither man is successful, Israel could be plunged into an unprecedented third election in a year. There were reports last night that both Mr Gantz's Blue & White and Mr Netanyahu's Likud were maneuvering to be allowed to go second in forming a government because they believed the first chance was a poison chalice likely to end in failure. The Israeli president said meanwhile that he hoped the two parties could find a way to bridge their differences and come together in a unity government. "A stable government cannot be a government without both of the two largest parties," Mr Rivlin said. The leaders of the Joint List at the president's office Credit: Menahem Kahana/Pool via AP While the Joint List is backing Mr Gantz to be prime minister, the party will not actually join a potential Gantz government nor adds its 13 seats towards his majority. Avigdor Lieberman, the leader of a secular nationalist party which holds the balance between pro-Netanyahu and anti-Netanyahu parties in parliament, said he was not backing Mr Gantz or Mr Netanyahu at this stage. Mr Lieberman, who has a history of incendiary rhetoric towards Palestinians, said he could not support Mr Gantz if the Arabs were supporting him. "They're enemies. Wherever they sit we'll be on the other side." That leaves Mr Gantz with a perilously narrow path to forming a majority government without joining forces with Likud.
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| Chasten Buttigieg goes from opening act to fundraising star Posted: 22 Sep 2019 03:57 AM PDT  Pete Buttigieg's husband is now headlining fundraisers solo, helping power the mayor's 2020 campaign as he focuses on Iowa and New Hampshire.
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| How 1 Mistake Cost Hitler Victory During World War II Posted: 20 Sep 2019 10:00 PM PDT  What if the German Army had actually been ready to fight?
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| Youth leaders at UN demand bold climate change action Posted: 21 Sep 2019 10:23 AM PDT  Fresh off the climate strike that took hundreds of thousands of young people out of classrooms and into the streets globally, youth leaders gathered at the United Nations Saturday to demand radical moves to fight climate change. "We showed that we are united and that we, young people, are unstoppable," Swedish 16-year-old activist Greta Thunberg, who started the climate strike movement with her lone protest in front of her country's parliament about a year and a half ago. More than 700 mostly young activists attended the first of its kind Youth Climate Summit, according to Luis Alfonso de Alba, the U.N. special climate summit envoy.
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| Tunisia ex-president Ben Ali buried in Medina: witnesses Posted: 21 Sep 2019 08:19 AM PDT  Tunisia's former president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was buried in the Muslim holy city of Medina on Saturday, an AFP photographer said, after he died in exile in Saudi Arabia. Ben Ali, who died Thursday in the city of Jeddah, was laid to rest at Al-Baqi cemetery next to the Prophet Mohammed's mosque -- a place of great reverence for Muslims. Some of Ben Ali's family were to receive condolences on Sunday in an upmarket suburb of Tunis, according to a small notice published in Tunisia's La Presse newspaper.
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| Chinese journalists will have to pass a government test on Marxism and President Xi Jinping to be granted press passes Posted: 22 Sep 2019 01:38 PM PDT  'Pilot tests' will be issued to Chinese journalists starting next month via an app to test their loyalty to President Xi Jinping to get press passes.
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| Julian Castro, other Democrats criticize Ben Carson after reported comments on transgender people Posted: 20 Sep 2019 07:16 PM PDT  The HUD secretary reportedly made the derogatory comments earlier this week while in California as part of the administration's spotlight on homelessness.
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| Iran issues 'battlefield' warning as US deploys troops Posted: 21 Sep 2019 07:59 AM PDT  Any country that attacks Iran will become the "main battlefield", the Revolutionary Guards warned Saturday after Washington ordered reinforcements to the Gulf following attacks on Saudi oil installations it blames on Tehran. Tensions escalated between arch-foes Iran and the United States after last weekend's attacks on Saudi energy giant Aramco's Abqaiq processing plant and Khurais oilfield halved the kingdom's oil output. Yemen's Huthi rebels have claimed responsibility for the strikes but the US says it has concluded the attacks involved cruise missiles from Iran and amounted to "an act of war".
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| 'Everything Was Broken.' The Photographer Who Captured the Most Haunting Photographs of Dorian and Its Aftermath Posted: 20 Sep 2019 06:09 PM PDT  'I've covered hurricanes in the Caribbean the last fourteen years... but nothing compared to this one'
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| U.S. Navy and Marine Corps Want Small Ships to Land Troops in a War Posted: 21 Sep 2019 12:57 AM PDT  The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps are considering acquiring small transport ships in order to complement existing large amphibious vessels and give the fleet more ways of landing troops during a major war.
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| From IS camp, Syrian family returns home to a hostile city Posted: 22 Sep 2019 12:17 AM PDT  After two years on the run with the Islamic State group, Um Mahmoud just wanted to return home. When she finally made it to Raqqa with her daughters and grandchildren, she found her home partially burned but livable. The 53-year-old seamstress had returned from al-Hol camp, where 73,000 people, most of them families of IS militants, have been kept since the territorial defeat of the group in March.
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| Flooding downpours, locally severe storms to threaten parched southwestern US this week Posted: 22 Sep 2019 03:05 AM PDT  An increase in downpours across the southwestern United States early this week will be beneficial for the ongoing drought but could pose the risk for flash flooding.Drought conditions have grown considerably across the Southwest over the past few months due to a lackluster monsoon season. While Arizona was free of drought during the middle of June, over 85 percent of the state has succumbed to moderate to severe drought, according to the latest outlook by the U.S. Drought Monitor.While the upcoming rainfall will go a long way in helping to ease the dry conditions, AccuWeather meteorologists are concerned the rain may trigger flash flooding and debris flows in the arid terrain. Arizona looks to be the main target for widespread showers and thunderstorms, as well as flash flooding concerns from Monday into Tuesday, with lesser impacts on surrounding areas, according to AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist and western U.S. blogger Brian Thompson.A potent storm system in the upper levels of the atmosphere will dive southward across the West into Tuesday. At the same time, tropical moisture will surge northward from the eastern Pacific Ocean.These two factors will combine to generate the widespread downpours.An AccuWeather Local StormMax™ of 6 inches is forecast in Arizona during this event."While the rainfall is needed, if the rain comes in bursts from heavier thunderstorms, flash flooding will be a big concern, especially in mountainous and urban areas like Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona," Thompson said.People should avoid dry stream beds, known as arroyos, which may suddenly fill with a torrent of water.The Arizona Department of Transportation was alerting motorists of the heavy rain threat on Twitter, reminding them to inspect windshield wipers and slow down when the rain starts.Motorists will also need to be on the lookout for flooded roadways. Remember to turn around and find a safer, alternate route when high water is encountered."Aside from the heavy rain, flooding rain and mudslide threat, strong thunderstorms will be a possibility as well," Thompson said.The strongest thunderstorms can contain large hail and damaging winds, with Monday likely posing the highest threat for these hazards."The threat for at least spotty showers and thunderstorms will probably linger into Wednesday and Thursday," Thompson said.The rainfall should douse active blazes across the region and substantially lower the risk of new wildfire ignition.However, it will be a different story on the northwestern side of the storm system, where warm, dry winds will heighten the fire danger in Northern California from Monday to Wednesday."We're now heading into prime wildfire season across California, so staying on guard is important," Thompson said.By the end of the week, the fire danger will likely decrease in Northern California as a significant, winterlike storm is expected to target the West.This new storm has the potential to bring a significant reduction in temperatures and unleash a large amount of early season snow in the northern Rockies.
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| China's Pacific influence grows as it signs up new friend in Solomon Islands Posted: 21 Sep 2019 03:09 AM PDT  China and former Taiwan ally the Solomon Islands established diplomatic ties on Saturday in a sign of Beijing's growing influence in the Pacific that has angered Washington, with a top Chinese diplomat saying the time was almost up for the rest of Taiwan's friends. In a setback for self-ruled and democratic Taiwan, which China claims as a province with no right to state-to-state ties, Beijing this week won over two previous Taiwanese allies in the Pacific - the Solomon Islands and Kiribati.
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| Pelosi warns White House over whistleblower complaint Posted: 22 Sep 2019 08:55 AM PDT  She wrote that President Donald Trump would enter "a grave new chapter of lawlessness" if he succeeded in blocking Congress.
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| The US government warns people against using conditioner after a nuclear explosion. It could trap radiation in your hair. Posted: 22 Sep 2019 12:55 PM PDT  Shampoo can be a life-saving tool in the case of a nuclear blast, but conditioner could become a dangerous agent in the wake of an explosion.
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| Damascus says second drone downed in 48 hours over south Syria Posted: 21 Sep 2019 12:03 PM PDT  A drone was shot down on Saturday in Quneitra province in southern Syria, the second such incident in 48 hours, state media said. Authorities "dismantled a drone" after it was shot down on the edge of Jabal al-Sheikh in the Quneitra countryside, southwest of Damascus, state news agency SANA reported. The Israeli army's Arabic-language spokesman said the drone did not come from his country and was likely Iranian.
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| In 1988, Iran and America Went to War at Sea Posted: 20 Sep 2019 09:00 PM PDT  Let's just say this: half of Iran's Navy was sent to the bottom of the sea.
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| Are We Overestimating How Much Trees Will Help Fight Climate Change? Posted: 22 Sep 2019 02:21 AM PDT  Collart Hervé/GettyThis story is part of Covering Climate Now, a global collaboration of more than 220 news outlets to strengthen coverage of the climate story.By Jan Ellen Spiegel BOB MARRA navigated his way to the back of a dusty barn in Hamden, Connecticut, belonging to the state's Agricultural Experiment Station. There, past piles of empty beehives, on a wall of metal shelves, were stacks of wooden disks — all that remains of 39 trees taken down in 2014 from Great Mountain Forest in the northwest corner of the state.These cross-sections of tree trunks, known as stem disks — or more informally as cookies — are telling a potentially worrisome tale about the ability of forests to be critical hedges against accelerating climate change. As anyone following the fires burning in the Amazon rainforest knows by now, trees play an important role in helping to offset global warming by storing carbon from atmospheric carbon dioxide — a major contributor to rising temperatures — in their wood, leaves, and roots. The worldwide level of CO2 is currently averaging more than 400 parts per million — the highest amount by far in the last 800,000 years.But Marra, a forest pathologist at the Experiment Station with a Ph.D. in plant pathology from Cornell University, has documented from studying his fallen trees that internal decay has the capacity to significantly reduce the amount of carbon stored within.His research, published in Environmental Research Letters late last year and funded by the National Science Foundation, focused on a technique to see inside trees — a kind of scan known as tomography (the "T" in CAT scan.) This particular tomography was developed for use by arborists to detect decay in urban and suburban trees, mainly for safety purposes. Marra, however, may be the first to deploy it for measuring carbon content and loss associated with internal decay. Where there is decay there is less carbon, he explains, and where there is a cavity, there is no carbon at all."What we're suggesting is that internal decay in trees has just not been properly accounted for," says Marra.While the first round of his research was a proof of concept that necessitated the destruction of 39 trees to show that tomography is accurate, his ultimate goal is a nondestructive technique to enable better assessments of carbon sequestration than those done annually by the U.S. Forest Service. Under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, ratified in 1994, governments are required to report annual estimates of carbon holdings in all their managed lands. The most recent Forest Service figures show that U.S. forests offset about 14 percent of the nation's carbon emissions each year.The Forest Service estimates that carbon makes up 48 to 50 percent of a tree's biomass, so ones with decay will be less dense and therefore hold less carbon. But Marra contends that the visual signs monitored by the Forest Service, such as canopy and tree size, along with conspicuous problems such as lesions or cankers, don't accurately reflect internal decay — a tree that looks healthy may have decay and one that appears problematic may be fine inside.In addition, he says, foresters typically use a mallet to hammer a tree to register a sound that might indicate it's hollow. "You know that there may be a hollow, but you don't know how big the hollow is," Marra says. As a result, he believes the government's baseline data used to estimate carbon storage are not accurate."There are a lot of ways to improve our estimates of carbon being stored above ground in forests, and this decay component could certainly prove to be important," says Andrew Reinmann, an ecologist and biogeochemist with the City University of New York's Advanced Science Research Center. But, he added, "We haven't really had the technology to explore this before — it's still a little bit of an unknown."* * *MARRA USED a two-stage system for his research: sonic tomography, which sends sound waves through the tree, followed by electrical resistance tomography, which transmits an electric current. Both processes are necessary to fine-tune each other's readings.The system, which costs about $25,000 and fits in a backpack, is cheap and small by scientific equipment standards. Each reading takes no more than a few minutes and computerized visual renderings of the results appear instantly.Marra experimented with three northern hardwoods — sugar maple, yellow birch, and American beech — and included more than two dozen of each, along with some control trees with no decay. The researchers analyzed the lower bole — the first two meters or so — of each tree, which is the oldest part and closest to the soil, where most decay-causing fungi would come from.A dozen or so nails were tapped in a circle around the trunk and connected by cables to the tomograph; a sonic hammer then activated the system to get sound-wave measurements.For the electric resistance tomography, a second set of nails was hammered between the first, and electrodes — plus and minus — were attached to each.The various nail areas were painted in different colors to enable the computer renderings to be aligned later with photographs of the cookies after the trees were cut down.The cookies, about 4 inches thick and which Marra called "the truth," were only taken from where the measurements were made — the areas with the paint markings.He analyzed 105 cookies from the 39 trees taken down. In the 11 cases where tomography found no decay, the cookies revealed only one small cavity. In the 32 cases where incipient, or early, decay was detected, the cookies showed one additional cavity. The cookies confirmed the tomography results in 36 cases where active decay was found, though eight small cavities were also detected. Tomography correctly identified cavities in the remaining 26 cookies, meaning that it missed a total of 10 cavities among the 105 cookies."One thing to sort of mitigate against this failure, if you want to call it that — these were very small cavities," Marra says of the ones the tomography missed. "So they would have very little impact on a carbon budget."Then came the time-consuming process of measuring the actual amount of carbon in each tree. After air-drying the cookies for a year, the wood from 500 drilled holes was sent to a gas chromatography lab at the University of Massachusetts to determine the carbon levels.The tomography and lab results were then combined to calculate how much carbon was stored in the lower boles and to contrast that with the levels if the trees had been solid wood. Those calculations took until 2017 to complete."You're looking at anywhere from a 19 percent to a 34 percent carbon loss" for an actively decaying tree among those studied, Marra says. "But any place there's a cavity you've lost all of your carbon."* * *THE UPSHOT of his five years of research, says Marra, is that accurate tomographic readings are possible in just a few minutes. "And what our tomography tells us is the carbon content," he says.At the same time, Marra is aware that tomography is not a practical substitute for the Forest Service's carbon estimate system — which itself is a clunky and labor-intensive slog. But it could provide a valuable way to augment those estimates."Those are very, very impressive results,'' says Kevin Griffin, a tree physiologist at Columbia University and its Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. "They obviously have obtained a lot of precision in the techniques.""The results are important," he adds, "but whether internal tree decay is the single most burning question? Probably not. There's probably bigger fish to fry before we get there."Among them, he says are forest growth rates and overall tree health and age, as well as the impact of harvesting and other kinds of losses, including disease.A tree's architecture and height could also play large roles in carbon sequestration, says Reinmann of the City University of New York's Advanced Science Research Center, as could the makeup of the forest landscape. His own research, for instance, found trees grow faster and have more biomass at the edge of fragmented forest."I think they're making a good point that we're probably over-estimating" carbon storage levels, says Aaron Weiskittel, director of the University of Maine's Center for Research on Sustainable Forests.Even so, Weiskittel and others — including Marra — say the research needs to be scaled up to many more tree types and full forests. For his part, Marra would like to sample forests randomly with many more trees and controlling for factors including species, age, and soil characteristics.The goal, he says, is to develop a methodology for generating data to provide better carbon estimates for more than three tree types in one small part of the country."We need to use tomography to refine models so we're more accurately assessing the role that forests are playing as sequesterers or climate change mitigators," Marra says. "We don't want to be over-estimating the roles that they play."Jan Ellen Spiegel is a freelance writer and editor based in Connecticut. Her work appears regularly in numerous local and national publications, including The Connecticut Mirror, InsideClimate News, Yale Climate Connections, and The New York Times.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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| Indonesian investigators determine 737 MAX design flaw and oversight lapses in Lion Air crash - WSJ Posted: 22 Sep 2019 03:31 PM PDT ![Indonesian investigators determine 737 MAX design flaw and oversight lapses in Lion Air crash - WSJ]( "Indonesian investigators determine 737 MAX design flaw and oversight lapses in Lion Air crash - WSJ") Indonesian investigators have found that design and oversight lapses played a key role in the fatal crash of a Boeing Co's 737 MAX jet in October, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday. The draft conclusions, which is expected to be the first formal government finding that the design and U.S. regulatory approval were flawed, also identifies a string of pilot errors and maintenance mistakes as causal factors of the Lion Air crash, killing all 189 aboard, WSJ said. A Boeing spokesman did not comment on the WSJ report but said the plane maker continues to offer support to the investigating authorities as they complete the report.
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| Enter the Arena, Democrats. Teddy Roosevelt Was Right. Posted: 22 Sep 2019 06:00 AM PDT ![Enter the Arena, Democrats. Teddy Roosevelt Was Right.]( "Enter the Arena, Democrats. Teddy Roosevelt Was Right.") (Bloomberg Opinion) -- In April 1910, former president Theodore Roosevelt spoke before a large audience in Paris. "The poorest way to face life," he said, "is with a sneer."These days, too many Democrats are sneering — not only at President Donald Trump, but also at one another. From the left, many progressives are describing former Vice President Joe Biden as out of touch, old, too conservative, maybe even a bit racist. From the center, many Democrats are describing Senator Elizabeth Warren as unelectable, unlikable, unrealistic, disconnected from the values and beliefs of ordinary Americans.That's a shame for many reasons, but one in particular is that it threatens to put Democrats in a position akin to that of Trump-era Republicans. A recurring question, mostly faced by Republicans in the age of Trump, is whether to work for a party nominee or an elected official with whom they have intense disagreements. Over the last two years, many Republicans have declined to join the Trump administration, others have been criticized for doing so, and some have been, and now are, torn about whether to resign. No Democrat is saying "Never Biden" or "Never Warren," at least not yet. But many have said contemptuous things about Biden, Warren and other contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination that could signal reluctance to serve in the wrong kind of Democratic administration.Roosevelt had the best response to that impulse on that April day in Paris, and lurid though his language may have been, the sentiment remains as fresh as ever:It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.Roosevelt was deploring "a cynical habit of thought and speech, a readiness to criticize work which the critic himself never tries to perform." Speaking before an audience at the Sorbonne, one of the world's great universities, Roosevelt singled out for opprobrium "the man of learning, the man of lettered leisure." Those of learning and leisure might be tenured professors in Paris or New Haven, or writers for prestigious magazines in London or New York.Roosevelt was making a plea for stronger forms of commitment and engagement. As he knew, those who struggle to do the deeds often know incalculably more than those who do not, because of that very struggle. As he also knew, people who sneer often have no idea what they are talking about, even when they speak or write with elegance and panache.Those who accept Roosevelt's plea can of course have diverse views about particular politicians and about whether it is appropriate to support or work for them. But it is reasonable to take his argument to support a kind of rebuttable but firm presumption: If you can, enter the arena. Don't sneer.With respect to today's Democrats, the implication is straightforward. Suppose, for example, that you are on the left and that you are unenthusiastic, or worse, about Biden. If he is the Democratic nominee, you should support him and work on his behalf. And if he is elected, and if you are lucky enough to have a chance to work in some capacity for his administration, you should be inclined to say yes. The point holds for public service more generally.I was fortunate enough to spend nearly four years in President Barack Obama's administration (and to have had part-time positions for most of remaining four). I learned that if you are in the arena, you can achieve far more in a good month than you can in a decade outside it.You will certainly get frustrated; your face will be "marred by dust and sweat." Things won't always go your way. Many days aren't a lot of fun. Still, you should be inclined to say yes. You should do that even if you anticipate that you will disagree, on important occasions, with your boss.Let's give Roosevelt the last word:"It is war-worn Hotspur, spent with hard fighting, he of the many errors and the valiant end, over whose memory we love to linger, not over the memory of the young lord who 'but for the vile guns would have been a soldier.'"To contact the author of this story: Cass R. Sunstein at csunstein1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Jonathan Landman at jlandman4@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Cass R. Sunstein is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is the author of "The Cost-Benefit Revolution" and a co-author of "Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth and Happiness."For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Weather radar picks up mysterious shadow across three states ‘caused by huge dragonfly swarm’ Posted: 22 Sep 2019 03:04 AM PDT  An enormous mystery cloud has baffled US meteorologists this week who spotted the shape stretching over parts of Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania, but saw no rainfall.The National Weather Service spotted the "conundrum", and suggested it could be a swarm of "bugs", however the altitude was so high, they were initially sceptical such a massive number of creatures could be flying so high.
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| Cory Booker will exit presidential race if $1.7m not raised by end of month Posted: 21 Sep 2019 08:55 AM PDT  * 'Without a fundraising surge we do not see a path forward' * Booker insists announcement not a stunt to swell coffersCory Booker said: 'I want people to see where we are and understand that we have a pathway to victory, but I can't walk it alone.' Photograph: José Luis Magaña/APCory Booker could be the next Democrat to drop out of the race for the presidential nomination.In a "now-or-never" memo to supporters and staff, campaign manager Addisu Demissie said Booker need to raise $1.7m by the end of the month or he would have to drop out of the race."Without a fundraising surge to close out this quarter, we do not see a legitimate long-term path forward," Demissie wrote in the memo, published online on Saturday morning. "The next 10 days will determine whether Cory Booker can stay in this race."Booker, who is in Iowa this weekend, tweeted: "It's an unusual move for a campaign like ours to be this transparent, but there can be no courage without vulnerability. I want people to see where we are and understand that we have a pathway to victory, but I can't walk it alone."He insisted the release of the memo was not a "stunt" aimed at boosting fundraising."This is a real, unvarnished look under the hood of our campaign at a level of transparency unprecedented in presidential politics," he wrote.> It would be a shame if that diversity was not reflected in the candidates who end up competing for the nomination> > Addisu DemissieBill de Blasio exited the Democratic race on Friday. Booker has consistently polled better than the New York mayor and made the field of 10 candidates for the debate in Houston last week, which also qualifies him for the debate stage in October.But despite working assiduously to place operatives, win endorsements and meet voters in Iowa and New Hampshire, key early voting states, he has not been able to keep pace with the leading group in the sprawling field.Former vice-president Joe Biden, Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren and Vermont senator Bernie Sanders are the top three, clear in most polls of Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and California senator Kamala Harris.In the realclearpolitics.com average of polls, Booker also trails tech entrepreneur Andrew Yang and former Texas congressman Beto O'Rourke.In the memo, Demissie wrote: "If our campaign is not in a financial position to grow, he's not going to continue to consume resources and attention that can be used to focus on beating Donald Trump, which needs to be everyone's first priority."Booker might not be in this race for much longer – the same is true for other important voices in the field."The Minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar trails Booker, followed by Hawaii representative Tulsi Gabbard, billionaire Tom Steyer, former HUD secretary Julián Castro and Colorado senator Michael Bennet. Other candidates score even lower.In a conference call with reporters on Saturday, Demissie said there was a "dissonance" between Booker's standing in national polls and his support on the ground in early states. The campaign manager argued that the majority of Democratic voters have not made up their minds and expect that many of the 19 candidates still running will be on the ballot in February."People like Cory Booker, they want him in this race," he said, pushing back on a question about why the candidate has not gained traction."The point that we're trying to make very clearly is the final field that is going to be offered to the Democratic party come February, March and April and beyond is being determined right now here in September," he said.Booker is one of two African American senators in the race and part of the most diverse primary field in history. The candidates who have led the field are all white."It would be a shame if that diversity was not reflected in the candidates who end up competing for the nomination once people actually start voting come next spring," Demissie said.Demissie was adamant the campaign's "transparency and honesty" would prove that Democratic voters want Booker to stay in the race. But he conceded that if the campaign falls short of its goal, Booker will end his campaign.On Saturday, Booker and other Democrats were in Iowa for the Polk County Steak Fry."If you're all in for me," the senator tweeted, "I can't thank you enough. But if you haven't settled on a candidate [and] still think my voice belongs in this race, if you believe the Democratic field should include someone like me, I want you to understand the field may narrow [and] pay attention to this too."
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| How GM's profit sharing offer to UAW workers missed the mark Posted: 22 Sep 2019 07:57 AM PDT  GM and the UAW are in day 7 of the strike. They continue to negotiate. One area where the union says GM fell flat is with its profit sharing offer.
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| Sri Lanka orders fresh probe into Easter suicide bombings Posted: 22 Sep 2019 01:51 AM PDT  A fresh inquiry into the Easter suicide bombings that hit Sri Lanka killing at least 258 people was ordered by president Maithripala Sirisena on Sunday, after concerns from the Catholic Church that current probes are not independent. The government has blamed a local jihadi group, the National Thowheeth Jama'ath (NTJ) for the April 21 attacks on three churches and three luxury hotels, while the Islamic State group also claimed responsibility. Sirisena said the commission has wide judicial powers to gather evidence on those responsible for the bombings, and to probe security and intelligence lapses.
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