| Hunter Biden's work in Ukraine is a problem, but not just for Democrats Posted: 30 Sep 2019 02:10 PM PDT  The former vice president's son sat on the board of directors of the Ukrainian gas company Burisma Holdings. Does that matter?
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| Lebanese prime minister paid $16 million to South African bikini model over Seychelles 'affair' Posted: 01 Oct 2019 10:39 AM PDT  Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri gave a South African bikini model nearly $16 million US dollars after meeting her on holiday, it emerged on Monday, as Lebanon faces violent protests over a burgeoning economic crisis. Candice van der Merwe met Mr Hariri at a private resort in the Seychelles in 2013 when she was 20. The married father-of-three, who is Lebanon's most powerful Sunni politician, was 43. When asked why Mr Hariri gave her the money, she responded that they had begun a romantic relationship. "I have also been told I have a very engaging personality," she said, in court documents obtained by The New York Times. The gift would have remained secret were it not for South African tax authorities, who froze Ms van der Merwe's assets, asking her to explain the change in her fortunes. She filed suit against them for $65 million in damages, alleging that the hold on her accounts forced her to sell the property she had bought with Mr Hariri's gift, while the related publicity severed her connection with the Prime Minister. Candice van der Merwe said she had an "engaging personality", according to court documents The court records filed as a result put the details into the public domain. As Mr Hariri gave Ms van der Merwe the money between his two terms as Prime Minister, while not in office, he does not appear to have broken any Lebanese or South African laws. There are no allegations that the money was linked to public funds, and Mr Hariri, whose personal wealth was estimated at $1.5bn US by Forbes magazine in 2018, is clearly wealthy enough to have sent the transactions from his private accounts. Staff at Hariri-owned English-language newspaper The Daily Star say they have not been paid their salaries in nearly four months. Several have left as a result, leaving the publication severely understaffed. The news of Mr Hariri's gift came as Moody's credit rating agency announced it has placed Lebanon's already low credit rating "under review for a downgrade." On Sunday protests against the failing economy and inadequate infrastructure turned violent in the capital Beirut, as protesters blocked roads and set fire to tires. Mr Hariri has not responded to the reports.
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| This brewery in Maine gifts its employees with a free trip to Belgium on their 5 year work anniversary Posted: 01 Oct 2019 12:37 PM PDT  Allagash Brewing Company was voted Best Place to Work in Maine for 7 years running according to Outside Magazine — and has the best work perks.
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| A 30-year-old man was gored by a bison at a Utah state park, then brought his 22-year-old date there and she was gored too Posted: 01 Oct 2019 03:17 PM PDT  Kyler Bourgeous says he probably won't return to the same park again, because he has "this weird feeling that the bison there really don't like me."
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| Arizona boy dead after man attempted exorcism to get 'demon' out of him, officials say Posted: 01 Oct 2019 01:00 PM PDT ![Arizona boy dead after man attempted exorcism to get 'demon' out of him, officials say]( "Arizona boy dead after man attempted exorcism to get 'demon' out of him, officials say") Pablo Martinez told police and the FBI that within the last week, he had noticed that "his son … had a demon inside of him."
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| UPDATE 2-Saudi Arabia has sent messages to Iran's president - Iran gov't Posted: 30 Sep 2019 03:35 AM PDT ![UPDATE 2-Saudi Arabia has sent messages to Iran's president - Iran gov't]( "UPDATE 2-Saudi Arabia has sent messages to Iran's president - Iran gov't") Saudi Arabia has sent messages to Iran's president through the leaders of other countries, an Iranian government spokesman said on Monday, at a time of heightened tensions between the regional rivals. "Messages from the Saudis were presented to (Iran's President) Hassan Rouhani from the leaders of some countries," spokesman Ali Rabiei said, according to the semi-official ILNA news agency. Saudi Arabia's crown prince warned in an interview broadcast on Sunday that oil prices could spike to "unimaginably high numbers" if the world doesn't come together to deter Iran, but said he preferred a political solution to a military one.
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| '2020 Vision' Monday: Kate McKinnon is running again on 'SNL' — this time as Elizabeth Warren. How the new season's cast could shape the primary Posted: 30 Sep 2019 12:26 PM PDT  "Saturday Night Live" returned this weekend for its 45th season, renewing a tradition of lampooning presidents (and would-be presidents) that stretches back to the show's earliest days.
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| Trump's 'Civil War' threat is 'beyond repugnant,' says GOP Rep. Kinzinger Posted: 30 Sep 2019 06:57 AM PDT  Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., an Air Force veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, criticized the president for quoting an evangelical pastor who warned that a "Civil War like fracture" would occur if Trump is removed from office.
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| Meghan Markle stuns in Banana Republic trench dress while on royal tour Posted: 01 Oct 2019 07:52 AM PDT  Meghan Markle stepped out solo Tuesday morning on the second to last day of the royals' South African tour.
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| 10 Home Prep Tips Before Going on Vacation Posted: 01 Oct 2019 03:28 PM PDT |
| North Korea Plans to Wage War from Secret Underground Air Bases Posted: 01 Oct 2019 12:00 PM PDT  How would they pull it off?
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| Prosecutors urge judge to reject ‘fishing expedition’ by Flynn’s defense Posted: 01 Oct 2019 11:06 AM PDT  Federal prosecutors are denouncing as a "fishing expedition" a demand by Michael Flynn's new defense attorneys for nearly 50 categories of information that they contend will undercut the felony false-statement charge the former national security adviser pleaded guilty to nearly two years ago. In a filing Tuesday, government lawyers urged U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan to proceed with Flynn's long-delayed sentencing and reject the move by Flynn's defense counsel to delve into a wide range of allegations against former special counsel Robert Mueller's office and the FBI. Prosecutors argued that the slew of records Flynn's defense is demanding is largely irrelevant to the task before the judge of fashioning a sentence for the crime Flynn admitted to under oath in federal court in December 2017.
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| CBS News poll: Majority of Americans, Democrats approve impeachment inquiry Posted: 30 Sep 2019 12:33 PM PDT  More than half of Americans — and an overwhelming number of Democrats — say they approve of the fact that Congress has opened an impeachment inquiry into President Trump. But as the inquiry begins, there is no national consensus on how to assess the president's actions.
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| Japan says Nigerian died of starvation after immigration hunger strike Posted: 01 Oct 2019 03:20 AM PDT  Japanese immigration authorities said Tuesday a Nigerian man who died in detention in June starved to death while on hunger strike, in the first officially acknowledged case of its kind. "An autopsy has found the man died of starvation," an official at the Immigration Services Agency told AFP. The man in his forties, whose name has been withheld, died on June 24 after falling unconscious at Omura Immigration Center and being taken to a hospital in southern Japan.
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| Ukraine agrees to election in separatist-controlled east Posted: 01 Oct 2019 02:16 PM PDT  Ukraine on Tuesday signed much-anticipated accords with separatists from the country's east, Russia and European monitors that agree a local election can be held in separatist-controlled territory, paving the way for peace talks with Moscow. The signing at a meeting in the Belarusian capital of Minsk was largely seen as the new Ukrainian government taking a major step toward resolving the prolonged armed conflict in eastern Ukraine that has killed more than 13,000 people and displaced more than 1 million since 2014. Ukrainian nationalists protested the development, with hundreds gathering on Kyiv's Maidan, the square that symbolizes Ukraine's resistance to Russian influence.
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| Russians drinking less, living longer, WHO says Posted: 01 Oct 2019 02:27 AM PDT ![Russians drinking less, living longer, WHO says]( "Russians drinking less, living longer, WHO says") Russia remains a nation of heavy drinkers, but alcohol consumption has fallen 43 percent from 2003 to 2016, a key factor in the country's rapid rise in life expectancy, the World Health Organisation said on Tuesday. Russians consume the equivalent of 11-12 litres worth of pure ethanol a year, among the world's highest consumption levels, but the reduction since 2003 has substantially reduced mortality, the WHO said in a report.
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| 'Get over it': Hillary Clinton says voters need to focus on getting Trump out of the White House, and not the allegations of Joe Biden's controversial interactions with women Posted: 30 Sep 2019 10:24 PM PDT  "We can pick apart anybody," Hillary Clinton said to PEOPLE magazine. "I mean, that's a great spectator sport."
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| China’s new missiles could reach U.S. in 30 minutes Posted: 01 Oct 2019 04:12 AM PDT  Military planners in Washington and elsewhere will be taking note of new missile technology displayed by China, particularly a hypersonic ballistic nuclear missile believed capable of breaching all existing anti-missile shields deployed by the U.S. and its allies.
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| Fresh clashes in Indonesia as protesters adopt 'Hong Kong-style' tactics in fight for rights Posted: 30 Sep 2019 08:42 PM PDT  Indonesian police fired tear gas in central Jakarta on Monday after a new round of protests against controversial legal reforms descended into running street battles. Several thousand students and activists had gathered near the parliament to rally against a new law which they say will undermine anti-corruption efforts, and a draconian draft penal code that would outlaw sex outside of marriage as well as severely curbing civil liberties and freedom of speech. Some 20,000 police and military personnel were deployed to the capital to maintain security but chaos ensued when cars were trapped and a subway was closed as officers used tear gas to disperse the crowds. Last week saw some of the biggest rallies since 1998 when student protests fuelled unrest that led to the fall of former President Suharto, and Indonesian students have increasingly begun to adopt the tactics of Hong Kong's pro-democracy demonstrators in their cry for greater rights. Do not give up. Hongkongers will stand with you. Fight for justice and freedom together. Be safe and careful. indonesiaStandwithindonesiahttps://t.co/AM3f2QqnhV— Freehk���� (@Carmen_wu_elf) September 28, 2019 Ahead of major nationwide protests, a video of "Tips from Hong Kong" translated into Bahasa, and which explains how to deal with tear gas and riot police, went viral, reported Reuters. Other posts shared translated advice on what equipment to bring to protests. Indonesia also appears to have embraced Hong Kong's use of social media to help coordinate its leaderless movement. Hashtags, including ReformasiDikorupsi (reformcorrupted), and LogistikAksi (logisticalaction) have been used, alongside a Twitter account that tracks the protests, @AksiLangsung (direct action), to crowdsource for medical help and supplies, and amplify the movement's message. Indonesian journalist Veby Mega Indah is treated by medics after she is struck in the face by a projectile fired by the Hong Kong police Credit: Local Press HK/Reuters Hong Kong protesters, now in their 18th week of demonstrations against Beijing's rule, have sent messages of support and advice through social media, creating their own StandWithIndonesia hashtag. "Do not give up. Hongkongers will stand with you. Fight for justice and freedom together," urged one Hong Kong Twitter account. Another warned: "Plz brace for state propaganda!," while one advised using English to attract international attention. As videos of Indonesian riot police deploying tear gas began to flood Twitter, Hong Kongers, now experienced with crowd control measures, condemned the use of force. "The insanity can become infectious..be safe Indonesian friends," said one supporter, @RaptorBuzz. Indonesian riot police clash with protesters in Medan, northern Sumatra Credit: Antara Foto/Reuters "With smart phones and social media, information spreads like wildfire -- so it's no surprise the Indonesian students are taking tips from the Hong Kong demonstrators," said Phil Roberson, deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch. "Just as governments share worst practices like what rights abusing laws to pass and how to suppress freedom of expression and peaceful public assembly, now protesters are sharing lessons learned on how to respond to government repression," he said. "The question now is whether the Hong Kong or Indonesia authorities will further escalate their conflicts with protesters, or seek compromises by finally paying attention to people's grievances and demands for official accountability for abuses." On Sunday, as violent clashes gripped Hong Kong, the two mass movements witnessed a grim crossover when Veby Mega Indah, an Indonesian journalist, was badly injured after being struck in the face by a projectile fired at the media by a Hong Kong police officer. Dear friends in Indonesia, I'm a Hong Kong citizen. Hongkongers have protests against an unwanted bill in HK in recent 3 months. The situation is very similar to yours, so I'm very worry about the incident in your country...HidupMahasiwaReformasiDikorupsipic.twitter.com/cfsBH8SX9D— Moira ��101 CCP's 70th Anniversary Celebration (@Moira_Ooops) September 27, 2019 The journalist now plans to file a criminal complaint the Commissioner of Police and the officer who fired either a bean bag or rubber bullet at close range. Indonesia faces its own reckoning with allegations of excessive police force. Last week close to 300 people, mainly students, were injured. On Monday, Detik.com reported that 37 students were treated in hospital for tear gas inhalation, while @AksiLangsung posted several appeals in real time for oxygen, water and medication. Joko Widodo, the Indonesian president, has promised an investigation into the deaths last week of two students in Sulawesi – one by blunt-force injuries to the head and another by a live bullet. The police deny that any live rounds were fired. A Hong Kong protester throws back a tear gas canister at the police Credit: Andolu Agency via Getty Protesters have vowed to continue until their demands are met. Mr Widodo has offered to meet student leaders, but he must tread a careful line between their reformist agenda and hardline, conservative Islamic groups who have previously whipped up crowds that crippled the nation's capital. As with Hong Kong's opposition to a now withdrawn extradition bill, the latest Indonesian protests have been anchored in objections to a controversial draft law, but have morphed into a wider push for democratic reform. Indonesian students have been angered by plans for a draconian new penal code that would heavily infringe on civil liberties, including a ban on extramarital sex but also curbs on political beliefs and an expansion of already harsh blasphemy laws. A student holds an Indonesian flag at a rally outside the parliament Credit: Getty Images/Oscar Siagian But their list of seven demands – which emulates Hong Kong's "five demands, not one less" motto – are also aimed at demilitarising the restive Papua region, and tackling the widespread forest fires in Sumatra and Borneo that are causing toxic haze across Southeast Asia. Students also oppose a new law governing the country's anti-graft agency, which many believe would undermine its powers. The similarities in protest movements have raised the question of whether Indonesia is having its own "Hong Kong moment." "In both cases, the students can see that the political elite has struck deals that reflect given political interests but they don't find their own interests represented," said Rainer Heufers, Executive Director of the Centre for Indonesian Policy Studies in Jakarta. "In Hong Kong, the students fear a law that exposes them to the autocratic governance system of China. In Indonesia, they fear laws that enforce an outdated, paternalistic morality and that reduce the accountability of the political elite." es."
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| R Kelly complains about not being able to see more than one girlfriend at a time in jail Posted: 01 Oct 2019 01:38 AM PDT  R Kelly has apparently included not being able to see more than one girlfriend at a time as one of the reasons he should be granted bail.According to the Chicago Tribune, Kelly's lawyers have asked the judge in the singer's New York federal case to reconsider after he was refused bail in July.
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| The Latest: San Francisco disputes NRA victory declaration Posted: 01 Oct 2019 04:02 PM PDT ![The Latest: San Francisco disputes NRA victory declaration]( "The Latest: San Francisco disputes NRA victory declaration") San Francisco Mayor London Breed told department heads in a Sept. 23 memo that the resolution does not direct the city to investigate ties between its contractors and the NRA. The NRA seized upon her memo Tuesday as evidence that the mayor is backing down and said the memo was a "clear concession" in response to its lawsuit over the resolution.
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| Egypt gets back looted gold coffin displayed in New York Posted: 01 Oct 2019 07:37 AM PDT  Egypt exhibited on Tuesday the golden coffin of an ancient Egyptian priest that was returned by New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art following the discovery that it had been looted and illegally sold. The coffin had been buried in Egypt for 2,000 years before it was stolen from the country's Minya region in the aftermath of the 2011 uprising that toppled veteran leader Hosni Mubarak. Officials say it was smuggled through several countries by an international trafficking ring before being sold to an unwitting Metropolitan Museum two years ago for $4 million.
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| Ukraine Peace Talks Get Breakthrough as Kyiv Accepts Compromise Posted: 01 Oct 2019 12:09 PM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Talks to end the five-year conflict in eastern Ukraine produced the first major breakthrough since a lapsed 2015 peace accord, paving the way for an international summit to cement progress.Negotiators meeting Tuesday in the Belarusian capital of Minsk agreed on a schedule under which elections will be held in the breakaway regions and a new law will be passed granting them special status. The plan was proposed by Frank-Walter Steinmeier when he was Germany's foreign minister and is known as the Steinmeier formula.The agreement comes as new President Volodymyr Zelenskiy targets better relations with Russia. He reiterated Tuesday that Ukraine wants a cease-fire, a withdrawal of Russian-backed fighters and control of its border back before ballots are cast."If we want elections under Ukrainian law, we understand the border should be ours," Zelenskiy told a news conference in Kyiv. Elections can't be held if "any troops" remain in the disputed regions, he said.Ukraine and Russia, one-time allies, have been at loggerheads since protesters in Kyiv ousted Kremlin-backed leader Viktor Yanukovych in 2014. Russia went on to annex Crimea and foment the conflict in Ukraine's Donbas region, which has killed more than 13,000 people.The hostilities have triggered U.S. and European Union sanctions against Russia, rekindling Cold War rivalries."The Steinmeier formula itself carries no threat or betrayal," Oleksiy Haran, a politics professor at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, said by phone. "The Ukrainian position is that security requirements are fulfilled before elections and that elections are conducted freely. So the question is: will Ukraine go back on these points, which would be very bad, or will it insist on them?"Signs of a detente between Moscow and Kyiv were on display last month in a mass exchange of prisoners, including 24 Ukrainian sailors detained last year in a naval clash with Russia.'No Capitulation'But Zelenskiy has said special status for Donbas won't include changes to Ukraine's constitution, which lays out goals for membership of the EU and NATO. The Kremlin opposes its neighbor's plans for Western integration, which sparked tensions between the two former allies back in 2013.Special-status legislation will be drafted by parliament in "close cooperation and consultation with society," Zelenskiy said. "No red lines will be crossed in the new law. That's why there will be no capitulation."The next step could be negotiations involving the leaders of Germany and France alongside Zelenskiy and Russian President Vladimir Putin -- the so-called Normandy format for talks.Tuesday's development opens the way to such a meeting and steps toward a peaceful resolution of the conflict, according to Alexei Chesnakov, a former Kremlin official who continues to consult for the Russian authorities on Ukraine. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said "the door is open" to further progress in the implementation of the 2015 Minsk peace accord."Today, the final obstacles have been removed to holding a summit of the Normandy four," Zelenskiy said. "We'll know the date in the very near future."(Updates with Russian, German reaction in penultimate paragraph.)\--With assistance from Patrick Donahue and Henry Meyer.To contact the reporters on this story: Aliaksandr Kudrytski in Minsk, Belarus at akudrytski@bloomberg.net;Volodymyr Verbyany in Kyiv at vverbyany1@bloomberg.net;Kateryna Choursina in Kyiv at kchoursina@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Andrea Dudik at adudik@bloomberg.net, Andrew LangleyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| ‘We’ve been taken hostage’: African migrants stranded in Mexico after Trump's crackdown Posted: 30 Sep 2019 12:00 AM PDT  Hundreds of migrants from Africa are stuck in Tapachula because of Mexico's willingness to bow to Trump and stem the flow of migrants African migrants protest outside the Siglo XXI migrants detention center, demanding Mexican authorities to speed up visas that would enable them to cross Mexico to the US. Photograph: Isaac Guzman/AFP/Getty ImagesNeh knew she was taking a risk when she got involved with English-language activists in mostly-Francophone Cameroon.She had no way of know that her decision would eventually force her to flee her country, fly halfway across the world and then set out on a 4,000-mile trek through dense jungle and across seven borders – only to leave her stranded in southern Mexico, where her hopes of finding safety in the US were blocked by the Mexican government's efforts to placate Donald Trump's anti-migrant rage."It is just too much," sobbed Neh,at a protest camp set up by migrants from across Africa outside the main immigration offices in the sweltering southern city of Tapachula. "We thought our suffering was almost over. And now we're stuck here, treated like the lowest citizens on earth."Not that long ago, Neh worked as a microfinance officer and lived with her husband and three children in a small town in the West of Cameroon. Earlier this year, she joined a group campaigning for anglophone independence. She insists her activism was peaceful and that she never supported rebel groups, but amid spiralling violence, she was arrested, beaten, and raped by soldiers. One night, an officer took her from her cell and told her to start running. She imagined she was about to die – but instead she ran into the arms of her husband who had paid a bribe for her freedom.Hustled into hiding, Neh was then put on a plane to Quito where she joined the growing number of migrants from around the world using Ecuador as the jumping off point for the passage north. mapThe harrowing journey requires crossing the the lawless jungles of Darien Gap between Colombia and Panama, where migrants risk wild animals, raging rivers and predatory robbers .For seven days, the 37-year-old hauled herself up and down mountain slopes, hanging on tree roots. Crossing a river, she was almost swept away by the current; an insect bite paralyzed her arm. And each day, her group passed the bloated and half-eaten corpses of others who had died on the same trail.The next stage of her odyssey was more straightforward. With the help of bribes and official paperwork, Neh travelled by bus across Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala. She began to dream of a new life in the US, reunited with the three children she had left behind.And then, in Mexico, everything ground to an halt. She joined hundreds of migrants from Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola, Eritrea, Mauritania, and a smattering of other African countries who are stuck in Tapachula because of Mexico's willingness to bow to Trump and stem the flow of migrants.Until recently, African migrants were waved through Mexico by immigration officials who had no interest in stopping them. Photograph: Isaac Guzman/AFP/Getty ImagesTrump's main target has always Central Americans who account for most of the migrant flow through Mexico. But the crackdown has caught up travelers from all around the world.Their situation has only been exacerbated by US policies. Earlier this month the US supreme court ruled that the US authorities could deny asylum to anybody who passed through another country to get there.Meanwhile, US officials have pressured Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador to accept asylum seekers from third countries, even though they are among the most dangerous countries in the world. "We have been taken hostage. We want our freedom," said José Pelé Messa, a TV presenter who fled the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2010 – first for Angola, and then Brazil, which he had left earlier this year when the security situation there made life untenable.Around him, the inhabitants of the protest camp were gearing up for another day of boredom, under the watchful eye of a group of National Guard officers in riot gear.Railings were draped with blankets and clothes sodden in the previous night's downpour. Migrants – grouped by nationality or language – pored over documents in Spanish that they couldn't read or scanned their phones for news from home. A pregnant woman prepared soup on a small wooden burner outside her tent. A couple of toddlers were using discarded plastic bottles as drums.Pelé gestured at the desultory scene: "I took my children through the jungle for this? I'm a corpse. I just haven't started rotting yet."Until recently, African migrants were waved through Mexico by immigration officials who had no interest in stopping them.But after Trump's threat of trade tariffs in May, Mexico's government scrambled to clamp down: flooding the south of the country with law enforcement, and stepping up cooperation with the US policy of sending asylum seekers back into northern Mexico while their cases are processed.For migrants from countries in Africa, who are much harder to repatriate, it has meant being kept in limbo. Photograph: Isaac Guzman/AFP/Getty ImagesFor Central Americans trying to get through southern Mexico the crackdown has brought more raids, record numbers of deportations, and greater vulnerability to criminal attacks as they are pushed into less visible routes.For migrants from countries in Africa, who are much harder to repatriate, it has meant being kept in limbo.Previously, Mexican immigration authorities had typically issued African migrants with documents ordering them to sort out their status or leave the country within 21 days. Now these documents, which had previously served as de facto transit visas, order them to leave by the southern border. "Mexico is using us as an instrument of politics to please Donald Trump," said Serge, 21, who also fled the conflict in Cameroon. "This is creating a lot of anger among us."Frustration in the camp has bubbled over several times, leading to some scuffles with the authorities. This weekend a small group of desperate Africa temporarily blocked a car carrying Filippo Grandi, the head of UNHCR who was visiting Tapachula. One pregnant woman threw herself in front of the car's wheels crying and pleading for help.Migrants are particularly angered by the perception that they are being coerced into applying for asylum in Mexico – where few feel safe and almost none want to stay."Mexico is playing games with us," said a 36-year-old engineer from Eritrea who identified himself as Mr Testahiwet. "This is the way to get to America and we want to go to America. Mexico is the wrong place to ask for asylum."Some are so desperate they have begun looking for ways to get through Mexico undetected – though their skin colour and their lack of Spanish makes this hard to do.One recent dawn, at a major crossing point on the Suchiate river, not far from Tapachula, around 10 Cameroonians clambered onto a raft made of huge inner tubes and headed towards the Guatemalan side. The migrants sat in a glum and nervous silence as they were punted across, and then piled into cars with blackened windows, presumably driven by people smugglers who had promised to get them through Mexico by another route.Back at the camp, Kelly, another English-speaking refugee from Cameroon, said she hadn't been able to speak to her children for weeks. Back home, she had been a physics teacher, but she fled her job and her home when the rebels enforced a school boycott on pain of death."You leave when you can't take it anymore. You start running, and you keep running until you can stop," she said. "We are not looking for greener pastures – we are looking for safety."
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| Elizabeth Warren’s Native American Problem Isn’t Going Away Posted: 30 Sep 2019 02:52 PM PDT  'I have listened and I have learned," said Elizabeth Warren at a forum of Native American voters in Iowa last month. "Like anyone who's being honest with themselves, I know that I have made mistakes. I am sorry for the harm I have caused." Did any reporter ask her what harm, specifically, she'd caused, or what, specifically, she'd learned? Did any reporter ask her if her "mistakes" were ones anyone could have made, or ones she believed any of her peers, either at Harvard or in the Senate, had also made?No, they did not.I suppose people think that the controversy over Warren's past claims of Native American ancestry has been put to bed, with Warren rising in the polls because she has plans for everything, including for Native Americans. But in fact, the controversy has not been put to bed, and it shouldn't be. It points to Elizabeth Warren's ambitions and lack of integrity, and forces us to ponder whether the rules really apply to those who would make them.The media have certainly done their best to help Warren in putting the controversy to bed, though. The Boston Globe -- in a story that briefly acknowledged that Warren's "political enemies have long pushed a narrative that her unsubstantiated claims of Native American heritage turbocharged her legal career" -- gave ample space to her own much-more-charitable version of events. Her reporter-defenders have pointed out that until a certain time in her life, she declined to participate in affirmative-action programs, though even they have had to admit that the crucial leaps in her academic career — her landing a job at the University of Pennsylvania and then moving on to Harvard — occurred after she began listing herself as a racial minority. The year before Harvard Law School hired her — and trumpeted her as the first woman of color so hired — it had been subject to major, headline-grabbing protests for giving tenure to four white men.Of course, Warren could have been deluding herself as well. She claims that her belief in her Cherokee heritage came from longstanding family lore. But the fact that she participated in the now-cringe-inducing Pow Wow Chow cookbook and plagiarized her recipes from a French cookbook suggests a certain awareness that she was perpetrating a racial fraud. And then there is the fact that Cherokee Indian is not so much a "socially constructed" racial category as a specific, legally defined identity: You are a Cherokee when the Cherokee nation recognizes you as a member on its rolls. Surely someone who identified as a Native American academically and socially in the way Warren once claimed she did would have sought such official status. But she didn't.Warren has repeatedly claimed over the years that her parents' marriage was rejected by racist grandparents because of her mother's Cherokee ancestry. But Cherokee genealogist Twila Barnes has said there's simply no evidence of Cherokee genealogy in Warren's family. Warren's mother was not some racial outcast, but the popular daughter of a prominent local family. And there's no evidence of the romantic elopement, or racist animus on the part of her paternal grandfather, Grant Herring, who regularly played golf with Carnal Wheeling, a recognized Cherokee.The media haven't really known how to handle this story. Like a Geiger counter in a North Korean nuclear-weapons lab, the reaction of the "smart set" on Twitter was wildly disconcerting when Elizabeth Warren announced the results of her spectacularly ill-conceived DNA test earlier this year. At first, the trace amounts of Native American heritage were held up as proof against Donald Trump's attacks. Then, as geneticists and common sense intervened in the discussion, it became obvious that Warren's Native American roots were negligible.As the social-climbing Warren begins to gain over actual socialist Bernie Sanders, I expect the Sandernistas to unload on the contradictions between the upwardly mobile Left's hatred of cultural appropriation and the changing racial identity and falsified family history of its darling Warren. If she survives that and wins the nomination, she'll face a general election in which the same basic problem remains.I predict that should she make it that far, everyone will just try to change the subject.
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| Eurasian Showdown: Are China's or Russia's Infantry Fighting Vehicles Superior? Posted: 30 Sep 2019 12:00 PM PDT  We rank these bad boys.
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| A 72-year-old Dallas man fatally shot a burglar, then went back to sleep, police say Posted: 30 Sep 2019 07:46 AM PDT ![A 72-year-old Dallas man fatally shot a burglar, then went back to sleep, police say]( "A 72-year-old Dallas man fatally shot a burglar, then went back to sleep, police say") A 72-year-old Dallas man fatally shot a suspected burglar outside his home, authorities said, and went back to sleep before calling police.
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| Outcry as Pakistan appoints new envoy to UN Posted: 01 Oct 2019 03:00 AM PDT  A decision by Pakistan to appoint a former diplomat as its ambassador to the United Nations has sparked criticism over his alleged involvement in a domestic violence dispute in 2002. Munir Akram "has been appointed as Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the United Nations in New York, in place of Dr. Maleeha Lodhi," the country's ministry of foreign affairs said in a statement late Monday. Akram served a previous stint in the post from 2002 to 2008.
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| Ukrainian orphan accused of being an adult found with another family in Indiana Posted: 01 Oct 2019 07:56 AM PDT  Following the controversy and mixed accounts surrounding Natalia, a Ukrainian orphan at the center of an adoption scandal, she has reportedly been living with a family in the same state where she was left by a family who moved to Canada.
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| View Photos of the 2020 BMW X5 M and X6 M Posted: 01 Oct 2019 03:01 PM PDT |
| 'King of dad jokes': Colorado man goes viral after taking over his town's community center sign Posted: 01 Oct 2019 10:06 AM PDT  It takes confidence to call yourself "the king" of anything — but when it comes to dad jokes, Vince Rozmiarek makes a pretty strong case for himself.
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| Judge upholds voter ID, strikes parts of 2017 voting law Posted: 01 Oct 2019 01:24 PM PDT  An Iowa judge has upheld voter ID as allowable under the Iowa Constitution but struck down as unconstitutional portions of a 2017 voting reform law challenged by a Hispanic civil rights group and an Iowa State University student. The law signed by former Gov. Terry Branstad requires voters to show certain forms of identification when voting at the polls, provide an identification number on absentee ballot applications and allows county auditors to reject ballots if they believe signatures don't appear to match a voter signature on record. The League of United Latin American Citizens of Iowa and ISU student Taylor Blair sued Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate in May 2018 challenging the law as unconstitutional saying it could lead to voter suppression and disenfranchise voters, especially Latinos who vote absentee in large numbers.
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| Thai Opposition Says Attorney General to Drop Case Facing Leader Posted: 30 Sep 2019 11:04 PM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Thailand's opposition Future Forward Party said the country's attorney general decided against indicting its leader Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit on computer crimes charges.The attorney general passed the recommendation to the police, and if they concur, the case will be dropped, Worawit Nitiborrirak, a lawyer for Future Forward, said in a telephone interview Tuesday in Bangkok.The Office of the Attorney General didn't pick up several phone calls seeking to confirm the decision.Tycoon-turned-politician Thanathorn and two other Future Forward members faced prosecution under Thailand's Computer Crimes Act for allegedly spreading false information, accusations they denied.Read more: Thailand's Opposition Leader Warns of Protests Against MilitaryThanathorn is a staunch critic of military influence in Thai politics and an advocate for major reforms, putting him in conflict with the country's powerful generals.His pledge to restore full democracy propelled Future Forward to about 18% of votes in the March general election, the first since a coup in 2014.Thanathorn is suspended from parliament over a media shareholding case, and faces potential imprisonment over a sedition charge. He's denied any wrongdoing.To contact the reporter on this story: Siraphob Thanthong-Knight in Bangkok at rthanthongkn@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Sunil Jagtiani at sjagtiani@bloomberg.net, Yumi TesoFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| What the Next Democratic President Has in Store for Us, with or without Congress Posted: 01 Oct 2019 08:14 AM PDT  The betting market PredictIt gives the Democrats about a 60 percent chance of capturing the presidency next year. Their odds of winning the Senate are only about one in three, however — meaning that in the event of a Trump loss, conservatives could feel the relief of sweet, sweet gridlock as Congress simply refuses to pass Medicare for All and zillion-dollar handouts to college grads.But there is good reason to temper your optimism about such a scenario: Congress has handed over to the executive branch a frighteningly broad ability to make laws by itself. The campaign has given us some previews of this — Kamala Harris wants to go after guns and Elizabeth Warren would target fracking, whether Congress likes it or not — though the candidates have mostly been focused on their biggest and most expensive pieces of proposed legislation.Last week, however, the liberal American Prospect rolled out a series of articles proposing a meaty "Day One Agenda" for the next Democrat in charge of the White House. This president could roll back Trump's deregulatory efforts, bring backed stalled Obama initiatives, and launch government giveaways and major assaults on business, all without the legislative branch's help. Read it and weep.Think it would take a vote in Congress to cancel "almost all" student debt? Think again, says Marcia Brown. Citing a forthcoming law-review article by Luke Herrine, Brown notes a provision of federal law giving the Department of Education the authority to "compromise, waive, or release" claims against student borrowers. While other actors in the executive branch (the attorney general and the Office of Management and Budget) might have to sign off, the department could in theory use this authority to simply stop collecting student debt.Think Trump got us out of Obama's Clean Power Plan for good? You shouldn't, Ben Adler says. The next president could take us back down that path. And since carbon emissions are far lower today than anyone expected — thanks to fracking and other technological improvements — the next president could "go further and increase the rule's ambition."Think the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is a done deal, so long as Democrats don't have enough votes in Congress to undermine it? Nope, writes Victor Fleischer. The IRS can't repeal the law, but it can aggressively reinterpret many of its provisions, not to mention provisions in the rest of our enormous tax code, in ways that affect the taxation of huge sums of money.There's lots more: A Democratic president could go after drug companies by threatening to let generics manufacturers make patented drugs, create "postal banking" by executive fiat, bring back aggressive antitrust enforcement against the biggest and most successful companies, and make pot "effectively legal."Okay, that last one I'm fine with. But how do we stop the rest?One way would have been for Republicans to rein in the executive branch in the two years they controlled Congress, albeit without a filibuster-proof margin in the Senate, but that didn't happen. Another would be to hold the White House, or at least luck into a moderate Democrat not eager to test the limits of executive power. Once a Democratic president actually starts trying this stuff, though, the issue will fall to the courts. (There's yet another article about that!)The easiest way to argue against an abuse of executive power is to say that the relevant statute passed by Congress doesn't actually authorize it. Though courts have typically given executive agencies broad deference when it comes to interpreting laws, many conservative judges have shown signs that they want to reverse this trend. Some of the actions outlined above do fall well within the discretion Congress has handed over to the executive branch, but the more aggressive ones go far beyond anything Congress anticipated when passing the laws in question.In some situations, such as when the president simply refuses to enforce a law, it can also be argued that the president is violating the Constitution's command that he "take care" to faithfully execute the laws. But there's very little precedent for such cases, and it can be difficult to find someone harmed by the action with standing to sue, or to distinguish a failure to "take care" from normal discretion regarding how laws are executed.Then there's the big kahuna: The "nondelegation doctrine," which holds that Congress can't delegate its constitutional lawmaking authority to the president, at least not when it comes to key policy decisions as opposed to filling in minor details. This doctrine has sat dormant for decades, but the Supreme Court's conservatives are interested in reviving it. The question is how far they would be willing to take it, and to what degree they would treat new expansions of executive power differently from old ones.In an opinion this year, liberal justice Elena Kagan remarked that if the conservatives on the Court were right and the delegation of power at issue in the case was unconstitutional, then "most of Government" would be unconstitutional. (The conservatives lost the case 5–3, but Brett Kavanaugh recused himself, and Samuel Alito voted with the liberals despite wanting to reconsider the nondelegation doctrine in a different case, presumably one where Kavanaugh could create a five-conservative majority.) Kagan's fears are music to my ears, but I bet at least one conservative justice flakes before they are anywhere close to realized, not least because the conservative dissent to the opinion in which she voiced them takes pains to specify that even under the nondelegation doctrine, Congress may, for example, "authorize executive-branch officials to fill in even a large number of details."Still, conservatives could find themselves relying on the judicial branch a whole lot in the years ahead. In the event that a liberal Democrat takes the White House and pushes executive power past the limit, we could be saying "but Gorsuch and Kavanaugh!" for far longer than anyone thought.
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| San Francisco tour guide charged with carrying U.S. secrets to China Posted: 01 Oct 2019 05:49 AM PDT  Xuehua Peng, also known as Edward Peng, was arrested on Friday in the San Francisco suburb of Hayward, California, and was denied bail during an initial court appearance by a U.S. magistrate judge that same day, federal prosecutors said at a Monday morning news conference. "The conduct charged in this case alleges a combination of age-old spycraft and modern technology," U.S. Attorney David Anderson said.
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| Firms in Cuba running afoul of US banking squeeze Posted: 30 Sep 2019 06:23 PM PDT  The bank used by a Swiss NGO operating in Cuba has refused to handle any more transfers to Havana over fears of US sanctions, a concern replicated across the international financial system when dealing with the communist-run island. "We don't know what to do," said Luisa Sanchez, coordinator of MediCuba, an NGO operating in Cuba since 1992 providing HIV, cancer and pediatric assistance. "On August 27, our bank called our accountant to inform him that from September 1, there would be no more transfers to Cuba," Sanchez told AFP in Havana.
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| 10 dead in 26 hours: Ohio coroner again raises alarm about drug overdose surge Posted: 30 Sep 2019 01:04 PM PDT ![10 dead in 26 hours: Ohio coroner again raises alarm about drug overdose surge]( "10 dead in 26 hours: Ohio coroner again raises alarm about drug overdose surge") An Ohio county coroner alerted residents that 10 people had died of drug overdoses in just 26 hours calling it "an unusual number" of deaths.
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| ‘You go to the mat’: Zuckerberg vows to fight Warren’s Facebook breakup bid Posted: 01 Oct 2019 07:53 AM PDT  Mark Zuckerberg pledged to "go to the mat" to fend off Elizabeth Warren's plan to break up Facebook in an audio recording leaked Tuesday, foreshadowing a major fight between her would-be administration and the Silicon Valley giant. The mogul and Facebook CEO predicted during an open meeting with employees in July that the social media company would best a Warren administration in court if the 2020 presidential hopeful follows through on her pledge to unleash antitrust enforcers against the company. "If she gets elected president, then I would bet that we will have a legal challenge, and I would bet that we will win the legal challenge," Zuckerberg said, according to a recording obtained by The Verge.
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| Killer with rare condition facing 'one of most gruesome executions' in US history Posted: 01 Oct 2019 11:46 AM PDT  A killer due to be executed in Missouri could get a last minute reprieve because of a rare condition that would cause him a "gruesome" death.Russell "Rusty" Bucklew was due to be put to death by lethal injection on Tuesday evening for crimes including murder, kidnapping and rape.
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