| 5 key takeaways from the whistleblower's complaint against Trump Posted: 26 Sep 2019 07:23 AM PDT  Here are the key points in the whistleblower's complaint against President Trump that was made public on Thursday morning.
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| United Airlines flight forced to make emergency landing after passenger gets stuck in bathroom Posted: 27 Sep 2019 09:25 AM PDT  A United Airlines flight was forced to make an unexpected landing on Wednesday after a passenger got stuck inside the plane's bathroom.
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| Would giving up meat really help save the planet? Posted: 26 Sep 2019 12:47 PM PDT  With the global population set to explode by 2050, some experts are saying that humans need to reduce the amount of meat they eat to save the planet. Would vegetarianism really curb climate change?
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| Three-Dozen ISIS Fighters Killed in Series of U.S. Strikes in Libya Posted: 27 Sep 2019 10:26 AM PDT  The U.S. military killed 36 ISIS militants in a series of three airstrikes in Libya over the past eight days, U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) announced Friday."This ongoing campaign against ISIS-Libya demonstrates that U.S. Africa Command persistently targets terrorist networks that seek to harm innocent Libyans," read a statement from AFRICOM's director of intelligence, Navy Rear Admiral Heidi Berg. "We will continue to pursue ISIS-Libya and other terrorists in the region, denying them safe haven to coordinate and plan operations in Libya."Seventeen ISIS members were killed in an airstrike on Thursday in southwest Libya. That strike followed a strike Tuesday near Murzuq that killed eleven jihadis, and a previous strike in the same area late last week that killed eight alleged fighters, AFRICOM said.Tuesday's airstrike "was conducted to eliminate ISIS terrorists and deny them the ability to conduct attacks on the Libyan people," said AFRICOM's director of operations, U.S. Army Major General William Gayler. "This effort demonstrates the resolve of the U.S. and our Libyan partners to deny safe havens to terrorists."None of the three strikes, which were the first such U.S. operations in Libya in over a year, appear to have caused civilian casualties, according to AFRICOM.
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| Iranian woman convicted of US sanctions violation released Posted: 26 Sep 2019 02:22 PM PDT  An Iranian woman sentenced in the United States for violating sanctions against Tehran was released and has returned home, her lawyer told AFP Thursday, following her country's unsuccessful attempt at a prisoner swap. A judge in Minneapolis sentenced Negar Ghodskani to 27 months in prison on Tuesday, but determined the time she had already spent in custody in Australia and the United States was enough to fulfill her punishment. Ghodskani "is now free in Iran with her family," her lawyer Robert Richman said in an email.
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| Robert Mugabe to be buried in home village as Zimbabwe government abandons mausoleum plans Posted: 26 Sep 2019 10:29 AM PDT  The tussle over Robert Mugabe's burial took a new twist on Thursday when the government of Zimbabwe abandoned plans to inter him at a national cemetery following pressure from his family. Mugabe will now be buried at his home village of Zvimba in accordance with his family's wishes, the government of Zimbabwe has said. "The family of the late former president R G Mugabe has expressed its desire to proceed wit his burial in Zwimba. In line with Government policy to respect the wishes of families of deceased heroes, Government is cooperating with the Mugabe family in their new position," President Emmerson Mnanagwa's office said in a statement. The family was not immediately reachable for comment, but local media said the burial would take place at a private ceremony on Saturday. Mugabe, who ruled Zimbabwe from independence in 1980 until he was overthrown in a coup in 2017, died in a Singapore hospital at the age of 95 on September 6. His state funeral on September 14 was overshadowed by a tug of war between his widow, Grace Mugabe, and Mr Mnangagwa, the former right-hand man who overthrew him two years ago. Mr Mnangagwa had insisted on burying him at Heroes' Acre, a cemetery Mugabe founded for veterans of Zimbabwe's independence war and where a plot has long been set aside for hims alongside the grave of his first wife, Sally Mugabe. But Mrs Mugabe and other members of the family said the former president had changed his mind about being buried at Heroes' Acre after the 2017 coup. They wanted to bury him alongside his mother and brothers in Zvimba, the rural district about 50 miles from Harare where he grew up. Two weeks ago the government appeared to have won when a deal was announced to build a new mausoleum for Mugabe at the highest point in Heroes Acre, rather than lay him to rest in the plot next to Sally. Mr Mnangagwa, who is attending the United Nations General Assembly in New York, is under increasing pressure at home over a spiraling economic crisis.
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| View Photos of 2020 Ford Expedition King Ranch Posted: 26 Sep 2019 09:15 AM PDT |
| The Republicans' early response to impeachment: discredit, doubt, delay Posted: 26 Sep 2019 03:57 PM PDT  The Republican response to impeachment appears focused on a three-pronged strategy: discredit the whistle-blower, cast doubt on the most explosive elements of Trump's call and slow down the Democrats' process in the House.
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| Girl, 11, diagnosed with rare cancer just a day after she started school: 'She is a very sweet girl' Posted: 26 Sep 2019 04:21 PM PDT  An 11-year-old British girl who was excited to start her first day of secondary school was diagnosed with a rare cancer just 24 hours later.
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| Saudi crown prince says journalist Jamal Khashoggi's murder 'happened under my watch' Posted: 26 Sep 2019 04:57 AM PDT  "I get all the responsibility, because it happened under my watch," Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said in an excerpted interview, though he denied direct knowledge.
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| 'Just a second, please': El Salvador president's U.N. selfie eclipses speech Posted: 26 Sep 2019 03:34 PM PDT  Before starting his first address before the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday, 38-year-old El Salvador President Nayib Bukele asked the audience to hold on a second, took out his phone, and snapped a selfie. "Believe me, many more people will see this selfie than will hear this speech," Bukele quipped before delivering his address calling on the United Nations to change with the times and for world leaders to do more to connect with their countries' youth. The former mayor of the capital, San Salvador, who took office in June, is a prolific user of social media.
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| Watergate's John Dean has a warning for Rudy Giuliani Posted: 26 Sep 2019 07:07 AM PDT  Watergate "master manipulator" John Dean, who served as White House counsel to President Richard M. Nixon, has a stark warning for Rudy Giuliani, President Trump's personal attorney.
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| Hong Kongers kick off days of rallies ahead of China's birthday Posted: 27 Sep 2019 08:04 AM PDT  Thousands of Hong Kong pro-democracy activists on Friday night kicked off what is expected to be an intense period of protests, aiming to cast a shadow over communist China's momentous anniversary celebrations. Beijing is preparing a huge military parade on Tuesday to mark 70 years since the founding of the People's Republic of China, revelling in its transformation into a global superpower. Four days of action are planned in the run-up to Tuesday with clashes almost certain after police denied permission for a march on the anniversary itself citing safety concerns.
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| The Latest: Iran says US sanctions 'more unstable than ever' Posted: 27 Sep 2019 07:36 AM PDT  Erik Hanell, who heads the Sweden-based Stena Bulk group, also says the Swedish Foreign Ministry and "various UK government departments" assisted in securing the release of the vessel that was held at the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas. The Stena Impero left Iranian territorial waters headed for Dubai where the crew would disembark and receive medical checks and be de-briefed. Iran seized the tanker July 19 in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which 20% of all oil passes.
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| The Treasury’s Housing Plan Would Pave the Way for Another Financial Crisis Posted: 27 Sep 2019 03:30 AM PDT  Treasury's plan for releasing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from their conservatorships is missing only one thing: a good reason for doing it. The dangers the two companies will create for the U.S. economy will far outweigh whatever benefits Treasury sees.Under the plan, Fannie and Freddie will be fully recapitalized — probably by allowing them to keep all or a portion of their profits and by selling shares to the public. However they are recapitalized, Treasury makes clear that they will continue to be backed by the government — a benefit for which they will be required to pay.The Treasury says the purpose of their recapitalization is to protect the taxpayers in the event that the two firms fail again. But that makes little sense. The taxpayers would not have to be protected if the companies were adequately capitalized and operated without government backing.Indeed, it should have been clear by now that government backing for private profit-seeking firms is a clear and present danger to the stability of the U.S. financial system. Government support enables companies to raise virtually unlimited debt while taking financial risks that the market would routinely deny to firms that operate without it.Nor, it seems, has Treasury considered what kind of business Fannie and Freddie will likely pursue as government-backed profit-seeking firms.When Fannie and Freddie had minimal capitalization and a free but "implicit" government guarantee, profitability was easy. Most of the housing finance market was open to them, and they could set their pricing at levels others could not match. That enabled them to drive competitors out of any portion of the market that they wanted to dominate. By the early 2000s they were acquiring and securitizing — or holding in portfolio — about 50 percent of all U.S. mortgages.They will not be able to do this under Treasury's plan. The demands for profitability from their shareholders, coupled with the cost of their government backing, is almost certain to eliminate the pricing advantages that allowed them to dominate the housing finance market before the financial crisis.Still, their government support will allow them to earn significant profits in a different way — by taking on the risks of subprime and other high-cost mortgage loans. That business would make effective use of their government backing and — at least for a while — earn the profits that their shareholders will demand.The Treasury plan warns Fannie and Freddie that they will have to earn "less than the return on other activities" when they acquire the mortgages of "low-and-moderate-income families." But this only means that they will have to earn more on the middle-class mortgages that are the heart of the housing finance market.This is an open invitation to create another financial crisis. If we learned anything from the 2008 mortgage market collapse, it is that once a government-backed entity begins to accept mortgages with low down payments and high debt-to-income ratios, the entire market begins to shift in that direction.Middle-class homebuyers, who could otherwise afford the down payments and other terms of a prime mortgage, seek out the opportunity to buy a larger home with a low or no downpayment.Only a firm with government backing could pursue this business, but it will be a plausible profit-making activity for Fannie and Freddie once they are released from the conservatorships and free to exploit their government guarantee. In the midst of the housing boom in the early 2000s, Fannie's staff noted that 37 percent of the subprime mortgages they were acquiring — ostensibly to meet the government's affordable-housing goals — were going to homebuyers above median income.The results were clearly on view in 2008, when a collapse in the home-mortgage system brought on by the prevalence of weak and risky mortgages produced a monumental financial crisis. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.Given this potential outcome, why is the Treasury proposing this plan? There is no obvious need for a government-backed profit-making firm in today's housing finance market. FHA could assume the important role of helping low- and moderate-income families buy their first home.We would all be better off if the Federal Housing Finance Agency — the GSEs' regulator and conservator — simply decided to withdraw them gradually from the market. As their conservator, FHFA has the power to do this by reducing the size of the mortgages they are permitted to buy until they are no longer significant players in housing finance. Banks and private securitizers would then easily take their place, most likely focusing solely on prime mortgages.In that case, of course, today's speculators in Fannie and Freddie stock would be the losers, but the taxpayers and the financial markets would be saved from a major future loss.Why this hasn't already happened in a conservative administration remains an enduring mystery.
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| California teen put into coma after using vape pen reportedly laced with hydrogen cyanide Posted: 27 Sep 2019 07:01 AM PDT  A California teen spent nine days in a coma after using a vape pen that was reportedly laced with hydrogen cyanide.
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| Change in the Saudi Birthplace of Islam Is Eyed Warily Worldwide Posted: 27 Sep 2019 10:00 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- The world's 1.8 billion Muslims look to one country above all others.As the birthplace of Islam, Saudi Arabia is a symbol of purity for many who direct their prayers toward Mecca wherever they are in the world.The latest in a series of liberalizing reforms attributed to the modernizing influence of Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman runs counter to that reputation for religious conservatism.As they awoke to the news on Friday that women from outside the kingdom would no longer be required to wear the flowing abaya that's been mandatory for decades, Muslims in Asia broadly welcomed the shift. But many also expressed misgivings about the overall direction of the lodestar of the Islamic world, and wondered just how far the changes would go."I view Saudi Arabia as the most sacred place for a Muslim," said Amirah Fikri, 30, an administrator in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, who called the kingdom "an example of a Muslim country in the eyes of the world."While reforms such as allowing women to drive and to travel without a guardian's approval are positive, some things "are better left unchanged," she said. The risk is of "harming the purity of Saudi when new, non-Islamic practices start to spread in the holy place."Khashoggi MurderThe Saudi bid to appeal to tourists with a relaxed dress code for foreign women and the promise of easier access to the country is aimed at diversifying the economy away from its overwhelming reliance on oil. But it also serves to present a softer image of the kingdom to the west at a time when its reputation is distinctly mixed.The crown prince was excoriated internationally over the gruesome murder in Turkey last year of columnist Jamal Khashoggi, and his prosecution of a bloody war in Yemen resulting in famine and thousands of civilian casualties prompted Germany and other countries to halt weapons sales to Saudi Arabia.At home, the kingdom's extensive use of the death penalty, torture, arbitrary detentions of rights activists and "severely restricted" freedoms are among the issues cited by Amnesty International in its overview of Saudi Arabia. "Despite limited reforms, including allowing women to drive, women faced systematic discrimination in law and practice and were inadequately protected against sexual and other violence," Amnesty says.Yet that evidence of the country's deeply conservative nature and its rigid interpretation of Islam helps to give a sense of the potential for domestic resistance to any kind of modernizing reform -- and the risks to the crown prince in pursuing change."Tourism of course will help the economy, but if it involves anything that goes against our religious beliefs then it will not be accepted," said Sultan, a 33-year-old resident of Riyadh, who only gave his first name. "Our religion is more important than anything." Foreign tourists will "import their culture" and "over time, these ethics and values will be stripped away from our conservative society."Necessary ChangeYet for many in Indonesia, the most populous Muslim country in the world, Saudi Arabia has no choice but to open up."Change is a necessity," said Nasaruddin Umar, Grand Imam of Istiqlal Mosque in Jakarta. "There will be pressure from the traditional clerics group in the country. But I see what MBS is doing as a smart move because he does so in a measured way."Didik Saputra, a 32-year-old high school teacher from Depok in West Java, one of the most conservative Muslim provinces in Indonesia, spoke while on a visit to the country's largest mosque in central Jakarta during its renovation and expansion."Saudi Arabia must accept changes without totally eliminating the old customs and practices," he said over the noise of construction workers. "I agree with MBS that Saudi Arabia must be progressive and promote modernization of Islam. That would be good as it will also improve the image of Islam in the world."Beliefs and CultureThe threat of liberalization jeopardizing Saudi Arabia's global standing among devout Muslims is a proposition dismissed by Ahmed Al-Khateeb, chairman of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage and a key adviser to the crown prince. Saudi Arabia is any case no stranger to foreign visitors, he said."We don't expect this to affect Saudi Arabia's image as the host for the Muslim world," he told Bloomberg Television in Riyadh on Thursday. "The Muslim world knows that Saudi Arabia follows rules and has beliefs and culture."Saudi Arabia has suffered far worse damage to its reputation in the recent past. It's less than two decades since the kingdom almost became an international pariah after al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, a Saudi national, claimed the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil.The country's post-World War II alliance with the U.S. survived the 9/11 attacks orchestrated by bin Laden. Donald Trump chose Saudi Arabia as the destination for his first overseas trip as president, and was quick to rally to its side after this month's attacks on Saudi oil installations widely attributed to regional rival Iran. However, that dependence on the U.S., more than Saudi Arabia's reform efforts, is regarded with suspicion by some Muslims."Saudi has lost her nobility ever since they chose to be in bed with the United States to fund extremist groups and create violent conflicts in their neighboring Arab countries," said Fatin Mohd Husni, 29, a teacher in Malaysia. "So I see these reforms as neither diminishing nor harming the purity of Saudi, because there's nothing so pure about the Saudi administration to begin with."Drawing a LineIn India, with some 200 million Muslims, men heading out of Friday prayers at the Jama Masjid adjacent to Parliament House in New Delhi welcomed Saudi Arabia's move to open up."Muslims across the world should support Saudi Arabia's decision," said Fazle Mobin Siddique, 45, secretary at the Diamond Charitable and Educational Trust in the central-Indian city of Nagpur. "This is a progressive step for Islam. Excessive restrictions on women and the moral police needed to go."For Tauqueer Khan, 40, a government consultant, Saudi Arabia's reforms are an effort to counter the stigma of being "synonymous with backwardness, extremism, radicalism and terrorism" and show the world it too can change with time."These changes up to a certain level is OK," he said. "But if they go beyond these and open up a pub with liquor, it will not acceptable at all. The Muslim world looks on Saudi as the guardian of Islam. If they go beyond a certain level, obviously, the Muslim community will not like that.''\--With assistance from Donna Abu-Nasr, Sarah Algethami and Bibhudatta Pradhan.To contact the reporters on this story: Anisah Shukry in Kuala Lumpur at ashukry2@bloomberg.net;Arys Aditya in Jakarta at aaditya5@bloomberg.net;Archana Chaudhary in New Delhi at achaudhary2@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Alan Crawford at acrawford6@bloomberg.net, Mark WilliamsFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Members of disbanded EPA air quality panel form independent group Posted: 26 Sep 2019 02:09 PM PDT  The 20 experts are scheduled to review the science on particulate matter pollution and health beginning at a two-day meeting in Virginia on Oct. 10. Dubbed the Independent Particulate Matter Review Panel, the group plans to issue a report on whether the current federal particulate matter standard is adequate, members said. Members of the independent group previously served on the EPA's Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC) Particulate Matter Review Panel, which was disbanded last October by EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler.
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| Ghosts of China's past haunt former capital Nanjing Posted: 25 Sep 2019 09:06 PM PDT  The eastern city of Nanjing contains vestiges of China's past that represent an inconvenient truth for the government today: the Chinese world has not always revolved around the Communists and Beijing. China is preparing for grand celebrations next month to mark 70 years since Mao Zedong founded the Communist government based in the northern capital. "Nanjing was the capital of short-lived dynasties in history, and regimes died away quickly," Jiang Shaojian, a Nanjing resident, told an AFP journalist.
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| TV reporter responds to stranger who kissed her during live broadcast: 'It is not OK' Posted: 27 Sep 2019 11:45 AM PDT  A Kentucky TV reporter is speaking out after a stranger kissed her during a live broadcast last Friday.
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| Bangladesh to build barbed wire fences around Rohingya camps Posted: 27 Sep 2019 02:02 AM PDT  Bangladesh is planning to install barbed-wire fencing, guard towers and cameras around Rohingya refugee camps, raising fears of prison-like conditions in the already bleak settlements. The move comes amid growing security concerns and rising impatience in Dhaka that no solution has been found to repatriate or rehouse some one million refugees who have fled from Burma's Rakhine state to the Bangladeshi port of Cox's Bazar, most during a murderous military crackdown in 2017. "There are three large camps. We'll fence the three camps with barbed wires," Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan told reporters this week. "Watch towers and CCTV cameras" would also be set up to monitor activity in the Cox's Bazar district settlements, he added, according to AFP. Tensions over the camps have increased since a repatriation bid to encourage refugees to return to Burma in August failed because of the minority's fears that they would not be allowed back to their homes and would never be granted Burmese citizenship. Life inside the Bangladeshi camps is already bleak Credit: Mohammad Ponir Hossain/Reuters The aborted attempt has heightened the possibility that a large section of the Rohingya community could be forcibly relocated in the near future to Bhasan Char, a remote, cyclone-prone silt island that only recently emerged from the sea. Dhaka has been dialing up the pressure on the Rohingya, taking steps to restrict their activities, including the blocking of 3G and 4G mobile networks, confiscating SIM cards and mobile phones, reportedly over fears that criminal gangs are involved in murder and drug smuggling. Two refugees were killed in a gun battle with Bangladeshi border guards after failing to surrender when they were caught trying to cross over from Burma early on Friday and reportedly opened fire. The guards claimed the men were carrying 70,000 methamphetamine tablets. The movement of Rohingya refugees to and from the crowded Cox's Bazar camps is already severely restricted, and families are unable to earn a livelihood and children cannot receive a higher education. Aid workers have indicated that conditions in the squalid settlements are rapidly becoming more desperate. Children in the camps have no hope of a higher education Credit: Munir Uz Zaman/AFP "As tensions inside Cox's Bazar mount, violence has become a daily occurrence and we know that there are many Rohingya refugees desperate to return to their homes," Manish Agrawal, Bangladesh director for the International Rescue Committee, told The Telegraph earlier this month. "People find it impossible to look to the future and live beyond each day; they cannot access basic services and finding work is out of the question." But Mr Agarwal added that despite the hardships, there was still "immense fear" of returning to Burma and that any repatriation must be done on a safe and voluntary basis. "This will only happen if the root causes of the crisis are addressed and the governments of Bangladesh and Myanmar work collaboratively with the international community; the Rohingya people must have a viable pathway to citizenship, have access to jobs and services and, most of all, protected from harm," he said. Last year, a United Nations fact-finding team recommended the prosecution of top Burmese military commanders on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Burma has rejected the allegations. In mid-September the team cited the lack of accountability for the perpetrators of the alleged crimes when it concluded that "that there is a serious risk that genocidal actions may occur or recur".
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| Israel's Air Force Is Armed with F-35s and F-15s (And Now Supersonic Missiles) Posted: 27 Sep 2019 05:49 AM PDT  How good are they?
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| Experts criticize White House use of sensitive computer system to store Trump transcripts Posted: 26 Sep 2019 11:29 AM PDT  The decision to move records of President Trump's calls with foreign officials to a highly sensitive and protected computer system was highly unusual and likely inappropriate, experts say.
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| The Latest: Ex-tenants say building confused them, too Posted: 27 Sep 2019 02:49 PM PDT  The former building residents testified Friday after the now-former officer, Amber Guyger, took the stand in her own defense. Guyger is charged with murder in the fatal shooting of 26-year-old Botham Jean last September.
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| Death row inmate executed for killing his wife and stepsons, raping stepdaughters Posted: 26 Sep 2019 07:57 AM PDT  A death row inmate has been executed for killing his wife and stepsons before raping his stepdaughters. Robert Sparks, 45, was given a lethal injection at 6 p.m. on Wednesday at a death chamber in Huntsville, Texas, for the 2007 murders.
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| Parents arrested in death of boy who had begged not to be returned to them Posted: 27 Sep 2019 10:49 AM PDT  The parents of a 4-year-old boy who had begged not to be returned to them have been arrested in his death.
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| U.S. offered to remove all sanctions on Iran in exchange for talks -Iran president Posted: 27 Sep 2019 05:24 AM PDT ![U.S. offered to remove all sanctions on Iran in exchange for talks -Iran president]( "U.S. offered to remove all sanctions on Iran in exchange for talks -Iran president") The United States offered to remove all sanctions on Iran in exchange for talks, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Friday upon returning to Tehran from the United Nations General Assembly in New York, according to his official website. "The German chancellor, the prime minister of England (Britain) and the president of France were in New York and all insisted that this meeting take place.
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| Texas executes man for murdering family Posted: 25 Sep 2019 05:48 PM PDT  Texas on Wednesday executed a man who murdered three family members, following a trial in which a bailiff wore a tie depicting a syringe in an apparent reference to the lethal injection procedure. Robert Sparks, 45, was pronounced dead at 6:39 pm local time (2339 GMT).
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| Russians Used Greed to ‘Capture’ NRA, Senator Alleges in New Report Posted: 27 Sep 2019 10:30 AM PDT  Pavel Ptitsin/APTies between the National Rifle Association and influential Russians were substantial and potentially lucrative enough to render the politically potent gun lobby an "asset" of Russia, according to a Senate Democrat's year-plus investigation. More than 4,000 pages of NRA records provided to Sen. Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the finance committee, documented deep connections between the beleaguered gun group and Maria Butina, who in December pleaded guilty to conspiring to act as a Russian agent without registering with the Justice Department. Wyden's report, released Friday and undertaken without the cooperation of committee Republicans, indicates that greed motivated some NRA officials to engage in the outreach.Butina also made clear to NRA officials long before their controversial Butina-facilitated December 2015 trip to Moscow that Alexander Torshin, her patron and an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was a man with mysterious pull in the Kremlin. She emailed former NRA president David Keene in January 2015 that Torshin's appointment to the Russian central bank was "the result of a 'big game' in which he has a very important role. All the details we can discuss with you only in person."Maria Butina's Boss Alexander Torshin: The Kremlin's No-Longer-Secret Weapon"During the 2016 election, Russian nationals effectively used the promise of lucrative personal business opportunities to capture the NRA and gain access to the American political system," Wyden said. Representatives for the NRA did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In addition to scrutinizing the December 2015 NRA trip, Wyden found that the NRA hosted former Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak for a three-hour tour of its headquarters in August 2015. Kislyak was a key figure in Russia's 2016 election interference before former national security adviser Mike Flynn pleaded guilty to misrepresenting his conversations with him to the FBI. An NRA calendar entry provided to Wyden suggests that NRA leaders took Kislyak hunting at the Grand National Waterfowl Hunt weeks before the Moscow trip. Wyden's report shows the NRA officials, donors, and supporters meeting with Russian officials under U.S. sanctions during the Moscow trip, something previously reported. But it also shows that Butina ensured the NRA would send sufficiently senior leaders, something necessary to enhance Torshin's prestige, by dangling opportunities for NRA luminaries to enrich themselves. While U.S. sanctions do not make meeting with foreigners under sanction illegal, U.S. nationals can't conduct business with them.Returning from Moscow further inclined the NRA to aid its Russian friend Butina, who presented herself as the head of a rare Russian gun-rights foundation. Soon after, the NRA bought Butina and Torshin memberships in a hunters' advocacy group known as Safari Club International. Later, one of the key NRA figures on the Moscow trip, Pete Brownell, confirmed to Wyden that he personally introduced Butina to Donald Trump Jr. at the NRA's 2016 annual meeting, though Brownell's counsel dismissed it as a "chance encounter." Butina would also write to NRA heavies for formal invitations to their events, something she said would help her get visas to enter the country.The NRA has attempted to distance itself from the Moscow trip after it became politically controversial. It told Wyden's office in May that any relationship "certain individuals, including NRA supporters and volunteers" had with Butina and Torshin was entirely distinct from NRA business.Yet Wyden's report shows then-NRA president Allan Cors, who backed out of the trip, contemporaneously referring to it in an email to Torshin as a chance to "represent the NRA" to influential Russians. Among those Russians were Butina's reputed moneyman, Igor Pisarsky, whom Butina presented as Putin's "campaign manager"; the sanctioned Russian deputy prime minister for the defense industry, Dmitry Rogozin; and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Documentation the NRA provided, the report notes, did not show "action to discourage or prevent its officers from using organization resources to explore business opportunities or to meet with sanctioned individuals and entities" during the trip. Cors' absence from the trip was a problem for Butina. Without a senior NRA leader to show off to the influential Russians who had agreed to meetings, Torshin could lose face. "Many powerful figures in the Kremlin are counting on Torshin to prove his American connections—a last minute important member cancellation could affect his political future," she emailed. In November, Butina turned to Brownell, the NRA's then-vice president and Cors' future successor, with an urgent plea for his attendance. Outside the NRA, Brownell runs a business that sells guns, ammunition, and firearms accessories. A Brownell spokesperson told The Daily Beast in February that Brownell took the trip "understanding that it was an NRA-related event organized with the support of the organization." His corporate compliance officer later said Brownell could meet with sanctioned Russians insofar as his trip was not business but an NRA "cultural exchange."But materials Wyden acquired cast doubt on that. Butina, in emails, told Brownell that while it was an NRA trip, "especially for you and your company I have something more." She told him that Russian gun manufacturers "are ready to meet you and talk about export and import deals." Another email, this one from Brownell, records the NRA vice president musing that he was "not interested in attending if [it is] just an NRA trip." In another email, Brownell called the "strictly diplomatic" trip a chance to "introduce our company to the governing individuals throughout Russia." Among the people the NRA met with in Russia were representatives of the Kalashnikov Concern, a weapons manufacturer under U.S. sanctions. The report states that later Brownell explored a deal with someone he met on the trip but ultimately canceled because the Russian was unable to follow proper import-export rules. Brownell recently resigned from the NRA's board, a move seen as part of the organization's recent turmoil. In April, its president Oliver North resigned after losing a power struggle to longtime NRA magnate Wayne LaPierre. The group is locked in bitter litigation with its former ad firm, which might be the least of its legal woes, considering investigations into its tax status by attorneys general in New York and the District of Columbia.A representative for Brownell did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Brownell was not the only one to whom Butina appealed with an offer unrelated to NRA business. Wyden's report corroborated a Daily Beast report that Butina told trip attendee Keene, who was also the Washington Times' opinion editor, that one of the meetings was with a Russian media oligarch who would be able to secure Keene an interview with Putin for the paper.Butina also dangled to the NRA a meeting with Putin himself, though no such meeting appears to have manifested. An email ahead of the trip from Butina's since-indicted boyfriend, the GOP consultant Paul Erickson, to Brownell promised "private meetings with the top ministers in Putin's government and private lunches in oligarch's dachas." Butina fronted money for the attendance of another trip attendee, NRA donor Jim Liberatore, for which the NRA reimbursed her with $6,000 from its president's budget. The NRA was an open door for Butina and Torshin, whose goal was to use the organization as a lever to move U.S. politics in a direction more agreeable to Russian interests. In addition to welcoming the two to the NRA's own events, the NRA aided them in attending other conservative-friendly gatherings, including the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, a staple event for politicians of both parties. Butina asked then-presidential candidate Donald Trump a question about U.S.-Russian relations at a campaign stop in Las Vegas, boasted of being a conduit for his campaign's communications to Russia, and was photographed with prominent GOP politicians like Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. Wyden stopped a step short of recommending the NRA lose its tax-exempt status, citing insufficient cooperation from the group. "A broader review of NRA's activities in recent years" from the IRS was needed to determine if the NRA's Russian connections fit within a "persistent pattern of impermissible conduct," the report concluded. "The totality of evidence uncovered during my investigation, as well as the mounting evidence of rampant self-dealing, indicate the NRA may have violated tax laws. This report lays out in significant detail that the NRA lied about the 2015 delegation trip to Moscow," Wyden said. "This was an official trip undertaken so NRA insiders could get rich—a clear violation of the principle that tax-exempt resources should not be used for personal benefit."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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| Japan's Failed Twice to Track North Korean Missiles Posted: 27 Sep 2019 05:16 AM PDT  We've got a problem.
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| Barreling toward impeachment proceedings, Pelosi offers Trump her thoughts and prayers Posted: 27 Sep 2019 06:50 AM PDT  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and President Trump took to cable news and Twitter on Friday morning as the first week of the impeachment battle came to a close in Washington.
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| Boy, 13, fatally attacked at middle school. His organs will save lives, family hopes Posted: 26 Sep 2019 07:23 PM PDT ![Boy, 13, fatally attacked at middle school. His organs will save lives, family hopes]( "Boy, 13, fatally attacked at middle school. His organs will save lives, family hopes") The student, identified as Diego by police, was pronounced clinically dead Tuesday night. His family hopes to donate his organs, police say.
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| Climate activist: Why tout development if there's no future? Posted: 26 Sep 2019 10:19 PM PDT  An Indian girl who was among the 16 young activists filing a complaint at the United Nations accusing countries of inaction on climate change has taken that step before. Ridhima Pandey, now 11, filed a petition in 2017 at India's National Green Tribunal, which oversees environmental concerns, for not taking serious enough steps to combat climate change. Pandey was among the activists including Swedish teen Greta Thunberg who criticized Germany, France, Brazil, Argentina and Turkey for failing to uphold their obligations to young people under the U.N.'s Convention on the Rights of the Child.
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| Enormous shark fin spotted off Florida coast revealed to be a hoax Posted: 26 Sep 2019 01:16 PM PDT  Beachgoers can rest easy after wildlife officials have reviewed several reported "shark sightings" and deemed them fake.
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| 'Straight-up panic': U.S. vaping crackdown sends some scrambling for their fix Posted: 26 Sep 2019 12:48 PM PDT  When Massachusetts announced a four-month ban on vaping products this week, Chris Soares was ready, having amassed more than 20 bottles of flavored, nicotine-laced vape fluid, enough to supply his daily habit well into next year.
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| Rwanda welcomes first group of African refugees from Libya Posted: 26 Sep 2019 09:13 PM PDT  A group of 66 African refugees and asylum-seekers arrived in Kigali late Thursday, the UN said, the first of what could be thousands relocated from Libya under a new programme. Earlier this month, Rwanda signed a deal with the African Union (AU) and the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR agreeing to take in African refugees and asylum-seekers stranded in Libya.
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| Aubrey O'Day claims flight attendant forced her to 'undress in front of the entire plane' Posted: 27 Sep 2019 07:47 AM PDT  'I literally had to have my breasts in a bra out in front of everyone around me in order to not get kicked off.'
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| A United Airlines Flight Was Diverted After a Passenger Got Stuck in the Bathroom Posted: 26 Sep 2019 07:46 AM PDT  The flight was originally headed to San Francisco. The fire department was able to open the jammed door.
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| Democrats have a long list of possible witnesses in Trump impeachment inquiry Posted: 27 Sep 2019 02:22 PM PDT  The list of people Democrats may seek information from regarding President Trump's attempt to obtain dirt on Joe Biden seems to grow by the minute.
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| Pakistan court gives slain model's brother life sentence Posted: 27 Sep 2019 05:59 AM PDT  A Pakistani court on Friday found the brother of a slain social media model, Qandeel Baloch, guilty of her 2016 murder and sentenced him to life in prison. Baloch, aged 26, was found strangled in her home near the city of Multan. Friday's decision by a judge in Multan acquitted four other suspects, including Qawi, whose supporters showered him with rose petals as he left the court.
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| The times an American president was impeached (and the one time it came close) Posted: 26 Sep 2019 08:48 AM PDT  Though two presidents have previously been impeached, Congress has never successfully removed a sitting president.
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