| Lindsey Graham says Trump's 'shameless' abandonment of Kurds will revive ISIS terrorists Posted: 09 Oct 2019 10:12 AM PDT  Sen. Lindsey Graham, one of President Trump's strongest allies, on Wednesday said Kurdish fighters in Syria had been "shamelessly abandoned by the Trump Administration" in its sudden decision to pull U.S. troops from northern Syria.
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| Gunman kills two in livestreamed attack at German synagogue Posted: 09 Oct 2019 04:21 AM PDT  BERLIN/HALLE, Germany (Reuters) - A gunman who denounced Jews opened fire outside a German synagogue on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year, and killed two people as he livestreamed his attack. Several German media outlets said the perpetrator acted alone on Wednesday in the eastern German city of Halle. Video broadcast on Amazon's gaming subsidiary Twitch showed a young man with a shaven head first reciting a short statement in broken English while sitting in a parked car.
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| No Sports Car Icon Is As Important As The Porsche 356 Posted: 10 Oct 2019 07:16 AM PDT  "I looked around and could not find quite the car I dreamed of, so I decided to build it myself." - Ferry PorscheThe Porsche 911 is maybe the greatest sports car of all time. For more than 50 years the 911 has been defining how a sports car should drive and perform, consistently setting the benchmark for driver engagement and enjoyment. The 911 was not the first car Ferdinand Porsche created though. The true heritage of the 911, and the Porsche brand as a whole, can all be traced back to one machine. This is the Porsche 356 Pre-A. As a machine on its own, the 356 doesn't get as much recognition or attention as the legendary 911, but don't let that relative obscurity dampen its impact and legacy. With a rearward-mounted flat four-cylinder engine and humpbacked profile, the DNA of the 911 is evident. The 356 was also the starting point for many of Porsche's future traditions. The car was the first machine to wear the Carrera nameplate that adorns 911s today, and the 356 was used extensively in motorsport.In short, the 356 is in many ways the birth of what we consider a "true" sports car today. And now you have a chance to own one. Canepa is currently offering a near factory-perfect 1953 Pre-A 356 1500 Coupe. It's a numbers matching car that is fresh off of an extensive restoration that won several awards. This particular car took top honors in the Concours Restoration Group at the 2018 Porsche Parade, won the Gmund Achievement with a near perfect score of 299.8 points, and it was scored first in the Class Restored Category. This is conclusively and objectively one of the nicest Porsche 356 cars in existence.But owning this 356 would be about so much more than meticulous restoration and winning awards. You would be the steward of history and heritage. Every Porsche in this world today owes some semblance of its existence to this car. You will be the keeper of a legend so impactful that its influence will be felt for hundreds of years from now. Just as Henry Ford redefined what the automotive business could be with the Model T, It was Ferry Porsche and the 356 that launched a performance icon.Become part of that history and that lineage with this 1953 Porsche. Just make sure you treat it as the great Ferry himself envisioned, and keep driving it on public roads so that the rest of the world can bask in its glory. Related Articles: * 2017 Ford GT Sells for $1.54 Million, Proving Rising Prices * Roast Some Ponies With A 1969 Chevy Camaro SS
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| Warren jumps ahead of Biden in latest 2020 polls Posted: 09 Oct 2019 01:11 PM PDT  Elizabeth Warren is leading the crowded pack of candidates vying for the 2020 Democratic primary nomination for the first time, according to new results from polling aggregation website RealClearPolitics, which averages poll data from across the US. The numbers released on Wednesday show the progressive Massachusetts senator polling at 26.6 per cent, with former Vice President Joe Biden slightly behind her at 26.4 per cent.The latest numbers follow Tuesday's Quinnipiac University poll, which found Ms Warren capturing 29 per cent of Democrat and Democrat-leaning independent voters. Mr Biden followed at 26 per cent, and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders trailed on 16 per cent. No other candidates topped 4 per cent in that poll.
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| Outrage in Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo over Handke's Nobel win Posted: 10 Oct 2019 01:05 PM PDT  Austrian writer Peter Handke's Nobel literature prize win on Thursday sparked outrage in Albania, Bosnia and Kosovo, where he is widely seen as an admirer of late Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic. In the 1990s, Handke emerged as a vocal defender of the Serbs during the bloody collapse of the former Yugoslavia, even comparing them to Jews under the Nazis, a remark he later retracted. "Never thought would feel to vomit because of a Nobel Prize," Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama wrote on Twitter.
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| Ready for War: Iran Is Bristling with Missiles Posted: 09 Oct 2019 09:55 PM PDT  A real threat.
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| Thousands of tarantulas are emerging from the ground in the San Francisco Bay Area, looking for mates Posted: 10 Oct 2019 10:51 AM PDT  Each year, tarantulas emerge in the Rockies and California to look for mates. A spate of warm weather in the Bay Area has extended that mating season.
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| Trump dismisses concerns about leaving Kurds at the mercy of Turkey Posted: 09 Oct 2019 02:57 PM PDT  President Trump was unconcerned about what is widely characterized as a betrayal of the Kurdish fighters who bore the brunt of the battle against ISIS.
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| Ford SEMA Custom Builds Include Wild and Off-Road-Ready Rangers Posted: 10 Oct 2019 03:31 PM PDT  An advance look at a few of the nearly 50 Fords that will be at the SEMA show in Las Vegas soon.
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| Migrant protesters occupy U.S.-Mexico border bridge, close crossing Posted: 10 Oct 2019 09:53 AM PDT ![Migrant protesters occupy U.S.-Mexico border bridge, close crossing]( "Migrant protesters occupy U.S.-Mexico border bridge, close crossing") MATAMOROS-BROWNSVILLE BRIDGE, U.S.-Mexico border, Oct 10 (Reuters) - U .S. asylum seekers camped out in a dangerous Mexican border town occupied a bridge to Brownsville, Texas on Thursday, leading to the closure of the crossing, witnesses and authorities said. Hundreds of the migrants have been camped for weeks on the end of the bridge in Matamoros, Mexico, a city known for cartel control of people trafficking and gang violence. Many of those camped out are awaiting court dates for hearings in the United States weeks or months later under a U.S. policy called the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP).
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| Evidence from ex-Dallas police officer's murder trial fuels mistrust Posted: 10 Oct 2019 02:18 PM PDT  Evidence from the trial of a former Dallas police officer convicted of killing her neighbor has fueled new questions about whether accused officers are treated differently than other suspects, including testimony that a camera in the cruiser where the officer sat after the shooting was flipped off and that her sexual text messages with her partner were deleted.
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| US urges shared decisions with pain patients taking opioids Posted: 10 Oct 2019 09:19 AM PDT  The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services instead urged doctors to share such decisions with patients. The agency published steps for doctors in a six-page guide and an editorial in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Drug companies promoted that use, even as evidence grew of addiction and overdose.
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| The candidates who have qualified for the next Democratic debate Posted: 09 Oct 2019 10:51 AM PDT  The Democratic National Committee announced its fifth presidential debate will be held in Georgia in November
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| Apple Backtracks, Removes Hong Kong Police App In Response to Chinese Pressure Posted: 10 Oct 2019 06:12 AM PDT  Apple on Thursday withdrew an app that enabled protesters to track police movements after heavy backlash from Chinese and Hong Kong authorities.The app, HKmap.live, represented clusters of police with the emoji of a dog, an insult that has been shouted at Hong Kong police during the ongoing protests in the city.Officials in Hong Kong told the company the app was being used to attack police. On Wednesday the Chinese Communist Party newspaper People's Daily published an editorial attacking Apple for aiding "rioters" in the city."Letting poisonous software have its way is a betrayal of the Chinese people's feelings," the editorial stated.Apple released a statement saying Hong Kong authorities have verified that the app has been used to "threaten public safety," and that criminals have also been using it to avoid police."I think the [Communist Party] concludes from this that intimidation, harassment and pressure work for most people, in most places," Human Rights Watch China researcher Maya Wang said in comments to the Times.Most of Apple's products are assembled in China, and the nation represents the company's third-largest market after the U.S. and Europe.China-U.S. relations have soured in recent days following various conflicts between the Chinese government and American officials and entities.On Wednesday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced visa restrictions on Chinese officials believed to have taken part in the repression of China's Uighur Muslim minority. Pompeo's announcement came after the Commerce Department imposed an export blacklist on several Chinese firms implicated in surveillance and detention of Uighurs.Meanwhile, the NBA recently found itself embroiled in a scandal after Congress members accused it of kowtowing to China's repressive policies regarding pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.
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| Get the Look of the Commune Principals' Apartments Posted: 10 Oct 2019 05:00 AM PDT |
| Did American-Built Patriot Missiles Fail to Protect Saudi Arabia? Posted: 08 Oct 2019 11:02 PM PDT  What can this mean?
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| Ex-Trump lawyer used Comic Sans font in a impeachment inquiry letter. The internet had thoughts Posted: 10 Oct 2019 08:40 AM PDT  Comic Sans, the whimsical, chalkboard-like typeface, has been divisive for years. And now, it's in the middle of the Trump impeachment inquiry.
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| China destroys dozens of Uighur cemeteries in drive to 'eradicate' cultural history of Muslims Posted: 09 Oct 2019 08:02 AM PDT  Even in death there is no respite for the Uighurs, one of the world's most persecuted minorities, according to a new investigation that has revealed China is destroying burial grounds where generations of families have been interred. Over the past two years, tombs have been smashed and human bones scattered in dozens of desecrated cemeteries in China's northwest region, research by Agence France Presse and satellite imagery analysts Earthrise Alliance has revealed. While the official explanation for the policy is urban development or the "standardisation" of old graves, overseas Uighurs say the destruction is part of the state's concerted effort to eradicate their ethnic identity and control every aspect of their lives. "This is all part of China's campaign to effectively eradicate any evidence of who we are, to effectively make us like the Han Chinese," said Salih Hudayar, who said the graveyard where his great-grandparents were buried was demolished. "That's why they're destroying all of these historical sites, these cemeteries, to disconnect us from our history, from our fathers and our ancestors," he said. Satellite images received on September 30, 2019 from CNES 2019, distributed by Airbus DS and produced by Earthrise shows a picture from April 24, 2018 (top) showing the Sulanim cemetery (C) in Hotan, Xinjiang province and the same view on August 6, 2019 (bottom) Credit: AFP An estimated one million mostly Muslim ethnic minorities have been rounded up into re-education camps in Xinjiang in the name of combatting religious extremism and separatism. Former detainees interviewed by The Telegraph have recounted horrific torture, being forced to memorise Chinese Communist Party propaganda, and to renounce Islam. Those who are free are intimidated by suffocating surveillance and restrictions, including bans on beards and veils. A further Telegraph investigation in Kashgar, Xinjiang, in June found evidence of widespread intimidation of the local population, whether inside mosques or in family homes, including reports that officials were offering "gifts" of pork, a forbidden food for Muslims. A picture from August 29, 2017 (top) showing a cemetery (C) and the same view on July 5, 2019 with no sign of the facility in Xayar, Xinjiang province Credit: AFP Beijing has long sought to control the resource-rich region of Xinjiang, where decades of government-encouraged migration of the Han – China's ethnic majority – have fuelled resentment among Uighurs. Last year, Uighur exile groups reported that the Chinese authorities were setting up "burial management centres" in a bid to exert control over the most private aspects of their lives. The latest investigation claims that the destruction of existing graveyards has been carried out with little respect for the dead – with AFP journalists discovering human bones discarded at three site and other sites where tombs were reduced to mounds of bricks. Satellite imagery analysed by AFP and Earthrise Alliance, shows that the Chinese government has, since 2014, exhumed and flattened at least 45 Uighur cemeteries - including 30 in the past two years. The Xinjiang government did not respond to a request for comment. This photo taken on September 13, 2019 shows the works of a park in a place where before there was a Uighur cemetery in Kuche in the region of Xinjiang. Credit: AFP The destruction is "not just about religious persecution," said Nurgul Sawut, who has five generations of family buried in Yengisar, southwestern Xinjiang. "It is much deeper than that," said Ms Sawut, who now lives in Australia and last visited Xinjiang in 2016 to attend her father's funeral. "If you destroy that cemetery ... you're uprooting whoever's on that land, whoever's connected to that land," she explained. China has dismissed the escalating global criticism of its treatment of Uighurs, denying there are any human rights issues in the region. This week, the United States said it would curb visas for officials over the alleged abuses and blacklisted 28 Chinese facial recognition and artificial intelligence technology firms that it accuses of being implicated in the repression of the Muslim minority. "This kind of behavior seriously violates the basic norms of international relations, interferes in China's internal affairs, and harms China's interests," said Geng Shuang, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman. "The Chinese side strongly deplores and opposes it."
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| Off the rails: Hanoi closes trackside cafes thronged by selfie-seeking tourists Posted: 09 Oct 2019 12:30 AM PDT  It's the kind of shot every Instagram connoisseur yearns for: century-old railway tracks cutting through dusty backstreets, flanked by tourists drinking beer or iced tea mere inches from the slow-moving trains. The sight has become such a draw in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi that authorities have set a weekend deadline for the removal of dozens of cafes that have cropped up, citing safety concerns. It's crazy, and completely different to anywhere I've been before," said Australian tourist Laura Metze, after a train rumbled by.
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| Married priests question raises fears of Church split Posted: 10 Oct 2019 03:42 AM PDT  An idea to fill empty pulpits in remote locations by allowing married men to become priests is bitterly dividing a Vatican assembly, with critics warning the emotive issue could fracture the Catholic Church. The hot-button topic of whether an exception can be made to the centuries-old custom of celibacy in places where there is a shortage of priests has dominated the start of the three-week "synod" on the Pan-Amazonian region. Austro-Brazilian bishop Erwin Krautler said Wednesday he estimated some two-thirds of the bishops in the region support the idea of "viri probati" (married "men of proven virtue") as candidates for priesthood.
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| Powerful Democratic Rep. Nita Lowey of New York to retire Posted: 10 Oct 2019 12:40 PM PDT  Rep. Nita Lowey, the first woman to lead the powerful House Appropriations Committee and a 31-year veteran of Congress, announced Thursday that she will retire at the end of next year. Lowey is a longtime ally of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and is one of Capitol Hill's old-school dealmakers. "Frankly to have a job that I love so very much made this a very difficult choice," Lowey said in an interview.
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| Will the US supreme court protect gay and trans people's rights at work? Posted: 10 Oct 2019 04:00 AM PDT  The most conservative court in the US in decades will decide whether to extend workplace protections to LGBTQ peopleDemonstrators in favour of LGBT rights rally outside the US supreme court on 8 October 2019, as the court holds oral arguments in three cases dealing with workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation. Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty ImagesIt is said that William Brennan, the great US supreme court justice, liked to greet his incoming law clerks with a bracingly simple definition of constitutional doctrine: five votes. "You can't do anything around here," Brennan would say, wiggling the fingers of his hand, "without five votes".Five votes. Five votes will presumably frame the court's ruling in a trio of crucial employment-discrimination cases that were argued before the justices on Tuesday. All three cases focus on the scope of protections provided by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars workplace discrimination "because of … sex". Does such a bar prevent discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation? That is the question raised by the first two cases, Bostock v Clayton and Altitude Express v Zarda, while the third, Harris Funeral Homes v EEOC, asks whether Title VII's bar also covers discrimination against transgender people.In its landmark ruling in Obergefell v Hodges (2015), the court recognized a right to gay marriage, but that was a different supreme court. Justice Anthony Kennedy, who long served as the swing vote in a closely divided court, wrote the majority opinion in Obergefell. Kennedy has since been replaced by Brett Kavanaugh, and whatever else one might think of the court's junior-most justice, he will undeniably move the court firmly to the right. Indeed, this supreme court is the most conservative that the US has seen since the early years of FDR's presidency, when a hidebound supreme court aggressively struck down New Deal laws designed to alleviate the economic suffering of millions.That same hidebound spirit was put richly on display yesterday when Justice Samuel Alito observed during arguments that were the court to extend Title VII protections to gay people, it would be "acting exactly like a legislature". Such a move, Alito fretted, would "change the meaning of what Congress understood sex to be". The argument is less wrong than it is tiresome. Scanning the intent of a Congress is a notoriously unreliable guide to statutory interpretation and one that conservatives generally abjure. Should Congress object to the court's extending the Civil Right Act's protections to LGBTQ people, it could always act to curtail the court's reading.More to the point, Alito's observation is less an explanation than a rhetorical ploy. Every law student solemnly learns that interpreting the law is the province of the courts while making law is the precinct of legislature – only then to learn that the distinction is utterly unstable and largely incoherent. Conservative jurists call results they like – for example, that the second amendment protects a personal right to gun ownership – interpretations. Results they don't like – extending basic workplace rights to gay and transgender persons – are acts of lawmaking, a usurpation of proper judicial function.Granted: it is not a foregone conclusion that the court's conservative bloc will refuse to extend the protections of the Civil Rights Act to LGBTQ people. Hopeful was Justice Neil Gorsuch's observation that sex, the operative term in Title VII, appeared to be a "contributing cause" in the firing of transgender petitioners. Less encouraging was his observation that an extension of protections might cause "massive social upheaval" – with the understanding that triggering such upheaval should be left to Congress and not the court.So safe money counts five votes refusing to extend workplace protections to millions of LGBTQ people. That Gorsuch appears to be the swing vote here is all the more regrettable. Justice Gorsuch, of course, is not to blame for his position on the court. That falls to Mitch McConnell, who cynically stole a seat that rightfully belonged to Merrick Garland. McConnell's constitutional coup d'état will leave all the decisions of this five-person bloc smacking of illegitimacy. Particularly those with Gorsuch's stamp.
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| Airlines ground Boeing 737s after emergency checks ordered over cracks in planes Posted: 10 Oct 2019 07:11 AM PDT  An American airline has grounded two Boeing jets after finding cracks in parts that connect the wings to the fuselage.A Brazilian airline has also grounded 11 Boeing 737s after finding evidence of "the need to replace a specific component".
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| Carnival passenger critically injured after falling onto lower cruise ship deck Posted: 10 Oct 2019 10:36 AM PDT ![Carnival passenger critically injured after falling onto lower cruise ship deck]( "Carnival passenger critically injured after falling onto lower cruise ship deck") A 23-year-old man aboard the Carnival Valor cruise ship this week fell off a railing and onto a lower deck, sustaining serious injuries.
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| The Marines Are Changing the Way They Do Business Posted: 10 Oct 2019 08:22 AM PDT  With possible wars looming, the Marine Corps of the future will be smaller, help defend Navy ships, and rely more on drones.
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| UPDATE 2-GM CEO Barra takes role in talks to end UAW strike Posted: 10 Oct 2019 12:09 PM PDT ![UPDATE 2-GM CEO Barra takes role in talks to end UAW strike]( "UPDATE 2-GM CEO Barra takes role in talks to end UAW strike") General Motors Chief Executive Mary Barra met with senior United Auto Workers officials to discuss the No. 1 U.S. automaker's most recent proposal to end a more than three-week-old strike that has cost it over $1 billion, a union spokesman said on Thursday. Barra met with UAW President Gary Jones and senior union negotiator Terry Dittes on Wednesday at a time when GM had not yet received a formal response to a new offer made on Monday morning, sources briefed on the matter said. GM declined to comment on the meeting, but said progress was being made in the talks.
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| Ukraine's Zelensky 'breaks record' for world's longest press conference Posted: 10 Oct 2019 11:57 AM PDT  Volodymyr Zelensky, a popular comedian before he was elected president of Ukraine this spring, promised to bring a fresh kind of politics to the ex-Soviet nation. Around eight hours into the marathon event, Zelensky's first major press conference since coming to power in May, a representative of the agency stood up to deliver the news. The previous record was held by Belarus strongman Alexander Lukashenko, with a press conference that lasted over seven hours, Ukrainian media reported.
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| Turkey begins offensive against Kurdish fighters in Syria Posted: 09 Oct 2019 06:33 PM PDT  Turkey launched airstrikes, fired artillery and began a ground offensive against Kurdish fighters in northern Syria on Wednesday after U.S. troops pulled back from the area, paving the way for an assault on forces that have long been allied with the United States. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the start of the campaign, which followed the abrupt decision Sunday by U.S. President Donald Trump to essentially abandon the Syrian Kurdish fighters, leaving them vulnerable to a Turkish offensive that was widely condemned around the world. It also marked a stark change in rhetoric by Trump, who during a press conference in New York last year vowed to stand by the Kurds, who have been America's only allies in Syria fighting the Islamic State group .
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| Trump defends diplomat's wife who killed teenage Briton in crash: 'It happens' Posted: 10 Oct 2019 12:22 PM PDT  President Trump has defended the wife of a U.S. diplomat who killed a British teenager in a road accident, suggesting it is difficult to drive on the other side of the road and that "we've all done it."
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| US sends asylum seekers to Mexico’s border towns as it warns citizens of violence in region Posted: 10 Oct 2019 04:31 AM PDT  Advocates have sounded the alarm about the dangers of Remain in Mexico program as report reveals at least 340 instances of rape, kidnapping, torture and other violent attacksMigrants, mostly from Central America, wait to board a van which will take them to a processing center, in El Paso, Texas, on 16 May. Photograph: Paul Ratje/AFP/Getty ImagesThe United States has sent more than 51,000 asylum-seekers to wait in dangerous border towns in Mexico as it advises its own citizens not to travel to those regions because of the severe threat of kidnapping, murder and violent crime.Advocates have been warning about the dangers of Remain in Mexico, or Migration Protection Protocols (MPP), since the program was announced in January. But their warnings have grown louder this week after a new report by Human Rights First revealed that there were at least 340 reports of rape, kidnapping, torture and other violent attacks against people returned to Mexico while they wait for their case to be heard in US immigration court.Ursela Ojeda, a policy adviser at the Women's Refugee Commission, has visited the border multiple times to see how the policy is being implemented and said the new report was the "tip of the iceberg"."When you see people not showing up for their court hearing in Remain in Mexico, you have to wonder what happened to the people who aren't there," Ojeda said."There is no way to know why they just missed court – they could have been kidnapped, they could have been killed, they could have been put on a bus by the Mexican government and shoved to another part of the country with no way to get back."The Human Rights First report surveys gruesome incidents, such as when a three-year-old boy from Honduras and his parents were kidnapped after being returned to Nuevo Laredo. The mother said the last time she saw her husband he was lying on the ground, beaten and bleeding and told her: "Love, they're going to kill us." The kidnappers released the three-year-old and his mother, who doesn't know if her husband is alive.A Cuban asylum seeker told the group he saw a group of men stop a taxi outside a Mexican government immigration office and kidnap the four Venezuelan women and girl inside who were being sent to a shelter.Migrants, mostly from Mexico, are pictured sitting on the ground waiting near the Paso del Norte Bridge at the Mexico-US border, in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on 12 September. Photograph: Paul Ratje/AFP/Getty ImagesNuevo Laredo and Matamoros, two of the cities in the Tamaulipas state people are being returned to, are among the most dangerous in the world. The US State department issued a level 4 travel warning for the region because "violent crime, such as murder, armed robbery, carjacking, kidnapping, extortion and sexual assault is common".Speaking at the White House on Tuesday, the acting head of US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), Mark Morgan, ignored multiple questions about what the US government was doing to address the violence facing people sent back to Mexico."We're trying to overcome the message that the cartels have been putting out there that it's going to be a free ride into the United States," Morgan said. "We're now sending the message that, if you're coming here as an economic migrant, you're not going to be allowed into the United States."He celebrated the program for keeping people out of the US, where they would have been detained or released while they waited for their court date. He also said the program was stopping smugglers and improving due process – though advocates say it is doing the exact opposite.Shelters and other aid groups are overwhelmed by the migrants pouring into border towns and many are left to sleep and fend for themselves on the streets, without healthcare or work opportunities.Attorneys say it is nearly impossible to provide legal counsel. Some of the US-based attorneys who have crossed the border have received credible threats of violence and the US has not secured an agreement with Mexico to ensure US attorneys don't get arrested for practicing law in Mexico without a license.At the end of August only 34 out of 9,702 people placed into the Remain in Mexico program had legal representation – just 0.4%, according to researchers at Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (Trac).There is also little accountability for the government's claim that vulnerable people are exempt from the program on a case-by-case basis. Human Rights First said the screening process is a "farce" and advocacy groups have seen vulnerable groups, including pregnant women and LGBT people, returned.Democratic 2020 presidential candidate, Julián Castro, on Monday crossed the border with eight gay and lesbian asylum seekers from Cuba, Guatemala and Honduras and a deaf Salvadoran woman and three of her relatives."Hours after we were told LGBT and disabled asylum seekers would have their cases heard, they have been returned to Mexico," Castro said in a tweet. "By law, these migrants are supposed to be exempt from the Remain in Mexico policy – but CBP had decided to ignore their due process. Outrageous."In September, a Salvadoran woman who was eight-and-a-half months pregnant and experiencing contractions was apprehended by US border patrol, given medicine to stop contractions in a hospital, then returned to Mexico.In March, a 27-year-old with the cognitive age of a four-year-old child, was separated from the cousin and son he traveled with and sent back to Mexico. He was reunited with his mother in the US at the end of August after the Guardian reported on his case.This policy is colliding with other policies that have crippled the asylum system, including a ban on migrants seeking asylum at the border before seeking protection in another country.On Monday, the Women's Refugee Commission and other advocacy groups sent a letter urging Congress to investigate the Remain in Mexico program's "grave human rights and due process violations".Advocacy groups also filed a lawsuit against it in February. The policy was blocked in April, but an appeals court temporarily allowed it to continue while the ruling is appealed.In the court case, the union which represents 2,500 employees in the DHS agency which interviews and adjudicates asylum claims, US Customs and Immigration Services, filed a brief describing Remain in Mexico as "entirely unnecessary" because the system could handle the increase in asylum claims.
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| Europe Says It’s Ready for a Trade War If Pressured by the U.S. Posted: 10 Oct 2019 01:19 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Terms of Trade is a daily newsletter that untangles a world embroiled in trade wars. Sign up here. France's finance minister said he doesn't want the European Union to become the latest front in the global trade war, but that the bloc would hit the U.S. with sanctions if a settlement isn't reached in a long-running dispute over aircraft aid."We are all aware of the dramatic consequences of this trade war between China and the U.S. on the level of growth,'' minister Bruno Le Maire told reporters in Luxembourg on Thursday. "Do we really want to add a trade war between the U.S. and Europe to the Chinese and American trade war?''The World Trade Organization gave the U.S. the go-ahead as soon as this month to impose tariffs on about $7.5 billion of European exports annually in retaliation for illegal government aid to Airbus SE. The EU has said that it will retaliate against any Airbus-linked tariffs when the WTO rules early next year on a similar dispute over subsidies the U.S. supplied to Boeing Co.And while the EU's top trade negotiator, Cecilia Malmstrom, said she's hopeful a settlement can be reached that would avoid a tit-for-tat tariff escalation, the bloc has already published a preliminary list of U.S. goods -- from ketchup to video-game consoles -- being targeted in a $12 billion plan for retaliatory levies related to the Boeing case."I'm still in favor of a settlement,'' Le Maire said. "But the American administration must be aware that if there is not a settlement, Europe will not have any other choice but to retaliate and to put sanctions.''"It's not in the interest of Europe to enter into a trade war with the U.S. and I strongly believe too that it's not in the interest of the U.S.,'' he said.\--With assistance from Viktoria Dendrinou, Nikos Chrysoloras and Caroline Connan.To contact the reporters on this story: Maria Tadeo in Madrid at mtadeo@bloomberg.net;Stephanie Bodoni in Luxembourg at sbodoni@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Ben Sills at bsills@bloomberg.net, Richard Bravo, Nikos ChrysolorasFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Activists Can't Agree on How to Fight Climate Change. The IMF Says Just Do Something. Posted: 10 Oct 2019 12:34 PM PDT  The IMF says a carbon tax is best to fight climate change but says countries should do what works best for them — so long as they do something.
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| Southern California Edison considers cutting power to roughly 174K SoCal customers amid wildfire threat Posted: 09 Oct 2019 11:28 PM PDT  Southern California Edison says it may need to cut power to roughly 174,000 customers across Southern California because of potential wildfire danger.
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| Fox News poll: 51 percent favor Trump's impeachment and removal from office Posted: 09 Oct 2019 04:18 PM PDT  In the latest poll by Trump's formerly favored network, 51% think Trump should be impeached and removed from office.
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| Man gets 100 years in prison for killing, dismembering woman Posted: 10 Oct 2019 02:23 PM PDT  Jared Chance, 30, had turned down a plea deal that would have made him eligible for parole after 31 years. Ashley Young's torso was found in December in the basement of Chance's Grand Rapids rental home. Chance and Young knew each other and were last seen together at a Grand Rapids bar in late November.
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| U.S. Takes Custody of ISIS Fighters Involved In James Foley Murder Posted: 10 Oct 2019 06:55 AM PDT  The U.S. military is moving to take several dozen ISIS fighters into custody from Kurdish prisons in northeast Syria, and already holds two British fighters involved in the murder of freelance journalist James Foley and other Western hostages of the terror group, according to U.S. officials.The Justice Department seeks to bring the two men, El Shafee Elsheikh and Alexanda Kotey, to trial in Virginia.The pair were part of a four-man cell of British fighters that included Foley's alleged killer, Mohammed Emwazi, who became known as "Jihadi John" and who was later killed in a drone strike. The cell executed at least 27 prisoners.Foley was captured by ISIS in Syria in 2012. He was beheaded in 2014 , purportedly by Emwazi, in a filmed execution that shocked the international community. Foley was the first American citizen killed by ISIS.U.S. forces are currently scrambling to find places to hold other ISIS detainees currently in U.S. custody in Syria. The Trump administration had no plan for moving the detainees when it announced a withdrawal of U.S. troops from northeastern Syria in advance of Turkey's planned invasion of the region.Officials are looking into the possibility of sending the most dangerous fighters to the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, according to NBC. The U.S. has repeatedly pressed the home countries of foreign ISIS fighters to imprison them, a plea that nearly every country has refused.President Trump announced on Monday that U.S. troops would withdraw from northeast Syria, in advance of a planned invasion of the area by Turkey. The Turkish government plans to set up a "safe zone" inside Syria to resettle Syrian refugees who fled their country's civil war, as well as to fight Kurdish groups it considers terrorist organizations.Officials are unsure of what will subsequently happen to the 12,000 ISIS fighters currently detained by Kurdish forces.
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| BANG: Iran’s New Guided-Rocket System is Bad News for Israel, Saudis Posted: 08 Oct 2019 10:05 PM PDT  Iran has unveiled a kit that appears to convert unguided surface-to-surface rockets into guided weapons. The Middle East should be worried.
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| Kashmir hotels empty or shut as tourist restrictions lifted Posted: 10 Oct 2019 07:31 AM PDT  India lifted on Thursday restrictions on tourists visiting Kashmir, but for hotels around the picturesque lake in Srinagar two months into a lockdown it was still far from business as usual. A few days later on August 5 New Delhi scrapped Indian-administered Kashmir of its semi-autonomous status, sent in tens of thousands of extra troops and imposed a lockdown. "Lifting the restrictions on tourists coming will not help until communications are restored," Vishal Sharma, general manager of the five-star Taj Vivanta hotel told AFP.
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| ICE reportedly gave an asylum-seeker at a detention center ibuprofen after he was shot in the head Posted: 10 Oct 2019 11:08 AM PDT  A Guatemalan asylum-seeker who was shot in the head and tortured was given just ibuprofen to treat his pain while detained at an ICE.
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| White House denies report China's Liu He plans to leave Washington on Thursday: CNBC Posted: 09 Oct 2019 05:34 PM PDT  "We are not aware of a change in the Vice Premier's travel plans at this time," a White House spokesman told CNBC. When asked if a breakthrough can be expected in the China talks this week, the official told CNBC that U.S. President Donald Trump has not yet made up his mind.
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| 2020 Toyota Hybrids and EVs Get 10-Year, 150,000-Mile Battery Warranty Posted: 10 Oct 2019 01:00 PM PDT  Eight 2020 models get the longer coverage including Prius and other hybrids, Prius Prime plug-in, even the Mirai fuel-cell vehicle.
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