| Kushner named Trump’s border-wall czar — along with practically everything else in government Posted: 26 Nov 2019 02:33 PM PST  President Trump has recently tasked his son-in-law — whose to-do list already includes brokering peace in the Middle East, leading U.S. trade policy, reorganizing the entire U.S. government and reforming the criminal justice system — with overseeing the construction of his border wall ahead of the 2020 election.
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| Utah banning ‘conversion therapy’ with Mormon church backing Posted: 27 Nov 2019 07:58 AM PST  Utah is on its way to becoming the 19th state to ban the discredited practice of conversion therapy in January after state officials formed a proposal that has the support of the influential Church of a Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Republican Gov. Gary Herbert announced Tuesday night that church leaders back a regulatory rule his office helped craft after legislative efforts for a ban on the therapy failed earlier this year. The faith known widely as the Mormon church opposed a previous version of the rule because it wanted assurances that church leaders and members who are therapists would be allowed to provide spiritual counseling for parishioners or families — which were included in the latest conversion therapy ban plan.
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| TSA officers find high-capacity gun magazines hidden in an infant toy at Orlando airport Posted: 27 Nov 2019 11:10 AM PST  TSA revealed officers discovered two high capacity magazines in an infant's toy at the Orlando International Airport.
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| NGO accuses North Korea of institutionalised child sex abuse Posted: 27 Nov 2019 02:50 AM PST ![NGO accuses North Korea of institutionalised child sex abuse]( "NGO accuses North Korea of institutionalised child sex abuse") North Korean children are "constantly in danger" of sexual abuse and resulting social stigma without any chance to seek legal protection, a Seoul-based rights group said on Wednesday. Activists with PSCORE, or People for Successful Corean Reunification, interviewed more than 200 young male and female North Koreans who had fled to settle in the affluent, democratic South for a study on child abuse at home, at school and in state facilities such as prison camps and orphanages. In a 195-page report, "Inescapable Violence: Child Abuse within North Korea", the group described sexual abuse as "institutionalised and widely accepted as a normal part of life".
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| An Air Canada Boeing 787 flying across the Atlantic was forced to turn back after its windshield cracked Posted: 26 Nov 2019 07:27 AM PST  Air Canada Flight 857 was due to fly from London to Toronto but instead landed in Ireland after the crack in the 787-8 windshield was noticed.
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| Hong Kong police plan to enter ransacked campus on Thursday Posted: 27 Nov 2019 03:58 AM PST  Hong Kong police plan to send officers on Thursday morning into the ransacked remains of a university campus where authorities faced off for days with barricaded pro-democracy protesters, an official said Wednesday. Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) was the epicentre of the territory's increasingly violent protest movement when clashes broke out on November 17 between police and protesters armed with bows and arrows as well as Molotov cocktails. The stand-off then settled into a tense stalemate during which hundreds fled the campus -- some attempting to get out through sewer lines or shimmying down ropes onto waiting motorbikes -- leaving a dwindling core of holdouts surrounded by police cordons.
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| Russia says it showed nuclear missile system to U.S. inspectors Posted: 27 Nov 2019 08:43 AM PST  Russia's Ministry of Defense said on Tuesday it had shown the country's new Avangard nuclear missile system to U.S. inspectors for the first time, a development that Moscow said showed a key arms control treaty was still effective.
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| Gillum sets sights on denying Trump victory in Florida in 2020 Posted: 26 Nov 2019 12:53 PM PST  Andrew Gillum says he knows why President Trump left his lifelong home of New York to take up residence in Florida and doubts his "antics" for reelection will work.
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| AOC Raised More for Reelection Campaign Last Quarter Than All Other House Dems, Including Pelosi Posted: 27 Nov 2019 08:02 AM PST  Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) raised more funds for her reelection campaign than all other Democrats in the House, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi, according to federal elections commission data.Ocasio-Cortez raked in $1.42 million between July 1 and September 30, outstripping Adam Schiff (D., Calif.), who raised $1.26 million over the same period, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.), who raised $1.26 million, the New York Post first reported. All three are up for reelection in 2020."This is very rare, unique," political consultant George Arzt told the Post. "I can't recall anyone raising this much money during the first year in office."Contributions under $200 comprised most of the donations to Ocasio-Cortez, at $1.1 million in total contributions. Several Republican challengers are competing to oust the freshman congresswoman in her district, which comprises parts of Queens and the Bronx, but none of those challengers has so far matched her fundraising abilities.Arzt emphasized that Ocasio-Cortez "is a celebrity who gained attention from people across the country, and many on the left support her."While she outstripped Pelosi in fundraising over the summer, Pelosi has raised more funds than Ocasio-Cortez overall since January. The Nancy Pelosi Victory Fund, which helps other Democrats besides Pelosi, has raised over $11 million since the beginning of the year.The freshman New York congresswoman has already established herself as a fundraising powerhouse. In July, Politico reported that she hasn't been hurt by relying on small donations, instead channeling her star power in the progressive community to solicit contributions."There used to be a single path to fundraising success in DC — cultivating industry lobbyists," Jeff Hauser, the executive director of the Revolving Door Project, told Politico. "That path still exists, but it's not as lucrative as becoming a national icon for aggressively populist performance in office.
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| One False Move By Israel or Iran Will Lead to War Posted: 26 Nov 2019 07:14 AM PST  Over the last two years, Israel has warned about Iran's entrenchment in Syria. But Iran has continued its role in Syria, and it continues to threaten Israel and transfer precision guidance to Hezbollah for converting its rockets.
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| Texas inmate freed while innocence claims investigated Posted: 26 Nov 2019 09:11 AM PST  A Houston man serving a life sentence for a 2010 fatal stabbing was freed on bond Tuesday while authorities reinvestigate his case, including new DNA evidence that his lawyers say exonerates him. Lydell Grant has been in prison for seven years for the killing of 28-year-old Aaron Scheerhoorn outside of a Houston club. Grant was convicted in 2012.
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| Woman kept husband’s body in freezer for up to 11 years Posted: 27 Nov 2019 04:49 AM PST  The body of a man was found in the freezer of a deceased woman's home and may have been kept there for over a decade, police say.The remains of both individuals were found during a welfare check on a 75-year old woman who had not been seen in about two weeks by a building maintenance worker.
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| ‘She slipped': Grandfather speaks on 1-year-old’s fatal fall from Royal Caribbean cruise ship Posted: 26 Nov 2019 06:54 AM PST  "I didn't realize there wasn't any glass until the absolutely that it was too late," Salvatore Anello told CBS news in a story that aired Tuesday.
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| PREVIEW-Bronx man, battling own legal woes, brings gun rights case to U.S. Supreme Court Posted: 27 Nov 2019 03:01 AM PST ![PREVIEW-Bronx man, battling own legal woes, brings gun rights case to U.S. Supreme Court]( "PREVIEW-Bronx man, battling own legal woes, brings gun rights case to U.S. Supreme Court") Two weeks before Efrain Alvarez and his attorneys asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear their challenge to a New York City regulation that limited where licensed handgun owners could transport their weapons, police officers showed up at his Bronx apartment and took away all his firearms. From two imposing steel vaults in the back bedroom, they confiscated around 45 firearms, including five handguns.
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| Saudi crown prince visits UAE amid push to end Yemen war Posted: 27 Nov 2019 08:25 AM PST  Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman visited the United Arab Emirates Wednesday, as efforts to end the nearly five-year war in Yemen gain momentum. Riyadh and Abu Dhabi are close allies and key members of a military coalition backing the government in Yemen against the Iran-aligned Huthi rebels.
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| Obama's candidate for 2020: None of the above Posted: 26 Nov 2019 12:01 PM PST  What Obama seems to be looking for, and failing to find, is someone like him: new but comforting; more consensus-minded than combative; inspirational but not ideological.
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| Alabama Supreme Court upholds Confederate monument protections Posted: 27 Nov 2019 12:00 PM PST  The Alabama Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that the majority-black city of Birmingham cannot remove or alter a towering Confederate monument in a city park.
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| Yazidi still hears brothers before IS kills them in Iraq Posted: 26 Nov 2019 04:11 PM PST  A survivor of the mass slaughter of the Yazidi minority in Iraq five years ago told the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday that he still hears his brothers and nephews calling his name before they were killed by Islamic State extremists — and he hears the screams of his wife and three daughters when the militants kidnapped them. Kachi spoke at a council meeting on activities of the U.N. investigative team promoting accountability for crimes committed by the Islamic State extremist group in Iraq.
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| Government Watchdog Found an Additional 1,300 Migrant Children Might Have Been Separated From Their Parents Due to 'Widespread Errors' in System Posted: 27 Nov 2019 02:42 PM PST  An additional 1,300 children might have been separated from their parents by the U.S. government, but were not properly tracked due to "widespread errors"
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| 24-Cylinder Monster Truck Big Rig Sells for $12 Million Posted: 26 Nov 2019 03:15 PM PST  "Thor24" brought in big numbers this past weekend.
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| 20 of the World's Most Stunning Public Staircases Posted: 27 Nov 2019 05:00 AM PST |
| UPDATE 1-Iran says hundreds of banks were torched in "vast" unrest plot Posted: 27 Nov 2019 02:23 AM PST ![UPDATE 1-Iran says hundreds of banks were torched in "vast" unrest plot]( "UPDATE 1-Iran says hundreds of banks were torched in \"vast\" unrest plot") Iran's top leader on Wednesday denounced an outbreak of deadly unrest as a "very dangerous conspiracy" as authorities reported about 731 banks and 140 government sites had been torched in the disturbances. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the protests amounted to a plot that Iranians had defeated, referring to the worst anti-government unrest in Iran since authorities put down demonstrations against election fraud in 2009. "A deep, vast and very dangerous conspiracy that a lot of money had been spent on ... was destroyed by the people," Khamenei said in a meeting with members of the paramilitary Basij force which took part in the crackdown against protests, according to his official website.
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| One of Supreme Court's most important abortion cases has just begun Posted: 26 Nov 2019 12:21 AM PST  A 63-page opening brief was filed late Monday night by the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) in the case
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| Trump will ‘absolutely’ designate Mexican cartels like CJNG as terrorists. Will it help? Posted: 27 Nov 2019 02:25 PM PST  President Donald Trump will "absolutely" designate Mexican cartels as terrorists, which could fray already strained U.S.-Mexico relations.
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| Police cited 55 people for eating on San Francisco trains. Only nine were white Posted: 26 Nov 2019 02:15 PM PST  New data renews concerns about racial profiling, just weeks after viral video showed police detaining a black man who was eating a sandwichPassengers wait for a Bart train to depart the Fruitvale station in Oakland, California. Photograph: Ben Margot/APPolice officers for the San Francisco Bay Area commuter train system disproportionately target black riders with citations for eating and drinking, according to new data, renewing concerns about racial profiling.The Bay Area Rapid Transit (Bart) data was released following a viral video showing police handcuffing a 31-year-old black man who was cited for eating a breakfast sandwich on his way to work. The new records show that more than 81% of people stopped for eating and drinking on Bart since 2014 were people of color, and that the vast majority of them were black.Stops for eating and drinking on trains or platforms are infrequent within Bart, the train system that runs between San Francisco, Oakland and surrounding suburbs. Of 55 people cited for this offense over the last five years, 33 were black passengers, representing 60% of the citations. Nine of the stops were white passengers, seven were listed as Hispanic, five were categorized as "other" and one was unknown, according to the data, which was obtained by the San Francisco Examiner.Only 10% of Bart's total riders are black. Ridership data, collected last year, showed that 35% of overall riders are white, 32% are Asian/Pacific Islander and 17% are Latino.Bart spokeswoman Alicia Trost said in an email that the data shows citations are "very rare" and are "handed out at stations across the system".She said: "When an officer witnesses someone eating, they remind the rider that eating is not allowed and if the rider puts the food away no citation is necessary. It is a rare occurrence to need to issue a citation after reminding the rider not to eat."John Burris, a civil rights lawyer representing Steve Foster, the man stopped in the recent video, said Tuesday that the data was not surprising and was evidence of racial profiling. "This is a form of biased policing, and it's very harmful to African Americans. Other people eat sandwiches all the time, and they don't get stopped."The 15-minute video that received national attention showed a white Bart police officer stopping Foster at the station in Pleasant Hill, north-east of Oakland. The footage showed the officer holding on to Foster's backpack and telling him he was not free to go until he identified himself and that he was resisting arrest. Backup officers arrived, and Foster was handcuffed and taken away in front of morning commuters.The citation he received required him to pay a $250 fine or do 48 hours of community service."It was so insulting to him and disturbing," said Burris. "He was humiliated in front of all the people on Bart."The video sparked protests and widespread criticism, and Bart leaders eventually apologized and promised to investigate. Bob Powers, Bart's general manager, said at the time he was "disappointed how the situation unfolded".A citation or arrest for a minor infraction like eating can escalate to a significantly more serious conflict, said Cat Brooks, the co-founder of the Anti Police-Terror Project in Oakland."Eating a sandwich is certainly not a reason to throw yet another black body into the criminal justice system," she said. "We have to hold these cops accountable for racial profiling."Bart police have long faced scrutiny for brutality and racial profiling, in particular following the 2009 killing of Oscar Grant, an unarmed 22-year-old shot dead on the Fruitvale station platform. There have since been a number of other killings and allegations of abuse by Bart police.Bart should not be citing anyone for eating in the first place, Brooks said.Burris said there should be better training to prevent biased policing, and that it was wrong to handcuff riders for eating.Trost, the Bart spokeswoman, said all officers receive training in "fair and impartial policing, bias-based policing … and de-escalation".The Bart controversy comes as the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) in New York is facing intense backlash over a number of viral videos of police, including the arrest of a food vendor selling churros, and an incident in which officers pulled guns on a teenager accused of fare evasion. * This article was amended on 27 November 2019 to correct a mathematical error.
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| Back to the Future: China is Putting Hypersonic Missiles on a 1950s Bomber Posted: 26 Nov 2019 03:00 PM PST  Chinese H-6Ks—a knockoff of the 1950s Soviet Tu-16 bomber—are getting an upgrade.
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| First bodies of UK truck victims arrive in Vietnam Posted: 27 Nov 2019 12:34 AM PST  The first remains of the 39 people found dead in a truck in Britain last month arrived in Vietnam Wednesday where they were met by huge crowds of sobbing relatives who have been waiting weeks for their return. Sixteen bodies were flown from London to Hanoi, where they were quickly shuttled in ambulances to their hometowns in central Vietnam. Hundreds of people filled the compound of a church in rural Dien Chau district in central Nghe An province to greet two returned bodies, many carrying white flowers to offer the families of the dead.
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| Dubai court reduces sentence for editor who killed his wife Posted: 27 Nov 2019 12:21 AM PST  A British newspaper editor convicted of killing his wife with a hammer had his sentence reduced by Dubai's Court of Appeal on Wednesday. The court ordered that former Gulf News editor Francis Matthew must serve a seven-year sentence for manslaughter in the 2017 killing of his wife, Jane. Matthew had received as much as a 15-year sentence for the killing.
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| US weather forecast: Powerful storms to bring heavy snow and high winds, causing Thanksgiving travel chaos Posted: 26 Nov 2019 10:36 AM PST  Millions of Americans are bracing for two "powerful" storms expected to dump heavy blankets of snow and force road closures and flight delays as families prepare for a busy week of travel during the Thanksgiving holiday.A snowy weather system could linger through the rest of the week and into the weekend as it moves east, potentially bringing snow to New England and delivering a wintry coast-to-coast blow to the holiday weekend.
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| ‘Anti-Islam’ Europe Is No Place for Azerbaijan, President Says Posted: 27 Nov 2019 03:32 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- President Ilham Aliyev said Azerbaijan won't seek closer integration with Europe, which he accused of discriminating against Muslims and undermining his country's traditional values."Where shall we integrate?" Aliyev said in a rare public criticism of the West in a speech to university students and teachers in the capital, Baku, on Tuesday. "Shall we integrate with those who are saying 'Stop Islam'? Shall we integrate to a place where there's no difference being made between men and women? We definitely shall not."Aliyev's remarks mark a departure from the national security strategy he approved in 2007, which said energy-rich Azerbaijan targets membership in European and Euro-Atlantic alliances. The majority Muslim but secular nation of 10 million people sandwiched between Iran and Russia forged close political and economic ties with the U.S. and the European Union after declaring independence from the former Soviet Union in 1991.The president's speech "was his acknowledgment of the failure of secularism and western values in Azerbaijan," prominent Azeri journalist Khadija Ismayil wrote on Facebook. Ismayil, who's known for investigative reports into Aliyev's undeclared family businesses, was sentenced to prison in 2015 and freed the following year after international criticism of her detention and trial.Energy PartnerThe U.S. helped Azerbaijan build oil and gas pipelines westward bypassing Russia. The EU regards Azerbaijan as a strategic energy partner and began talks in 2017 on a new framework agreement with Baku.While Aliyev and his late father Heydar, who ruled Azerbaijan for 10 years before his death in 2003, refused to join Russian-led military and economic blocs, U.S. and EU criticism of the poor state of democracy and human rights in Azerbaijan have strained relations. Aliyev won a landslide to secure a fourth term and extend his rule for seven years in 2018 elections seen as flawed by Western observers and boycotted by opposition parties.The president is "quite sincere" in his opposition to European integration because "Europe means democracy, free elections, rule of law, universal human rights and social welfare," Altay Goyushov, an opposition politician who heads the Baku Research Institute, a think tank in the city, wrote on Facebook."Aliyev wants to see a medieval monarchy in Azerbaijan," he said.To contact the reporter on this story: Zulfugar Agayev in Baku at zagayev@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Torrey Clark at tclark8@bloomberg.net, Tony HalpinFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| UPDATE 4-Protester emerges to urge Hong Kong police not to enter university Posted: 26 Nov 2019 10:30 PM PST ![UPDATE 4-Protester emerges to urge Hong Kong police not to enter university]( "UPDATE 4-Protester emerges to urge Hong Kong police not to enter university") Hong Kong police said they would enter Polytechnic University on Thursday after a two-week siege drove most protesters out, but just before midnight, a masked man emerged and asked them to halt their plan. Earlier in the day, District Commander Ho Yun-sing said police planned to enter the campus to "process dangerous items and collect evidence" and that any remaining protesters would be given medical treatment. The university on Kowloon peninsula was turned into a battleground in mid-November, when protesters barricaded themselves in and clashed with riot police in a hail of petrol bombs, water cannon and tear gas.
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| Pompeo Suggests Ukraine Hacking Conspiracy Is Legit Question Posted: 26 Nov 2019 09:02 AM PST  SAUL LOEBSecretary of State Mike Pompeo suggested in a Tuesday press conference that a conspiracy theory that Ukraine and not Russia hacked the Democratic National Committee in 2016 is a legitimate line of inquiry. Asked if the U.S. and Ukraine should investigate whether "Ukraine and not Russia hacked the DNC," Pompeo, who previously served as CIA director, replied: "Anytime there is information that indicates that any country has messed with American elections, we not only have a right but a duty to make sure we chase that down." The CIA, shortly before Pompeo took office, concluded along with other U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia hacked the DNC server and stole internal emails during the 2016 election. "I can assure you that there were many countries that were actively engaged in trying to undermine American democracy, our rule of law, the fundamental understandings we have here in the United States, and you should know we were diligently, diligently working to make sure we addressed each of them with every tool of American power that we had," Pompeo continued. "To protect our elections, America should leave no stone unturned, so whatever nation it is that we have information that so much as suggests that there might have been interference, or an effort to interfere in our elections, we have an obligation to make sure that the American people get to go to the ballot box, cast their ballots in a way that is un-impacted by these malevolent actors trying to undermine our western democratic values."Last week, Fiona Hill, the former National Security Council director for Russia, testified before the impeachment inquiry that Ukranian election interference in 2016 was "a fictional narrative that has been perpetrated and propagated by the Russian security services themselves." In President Trump's fateful July 25 call with Ukranian President Volodomyr Zelensky, Trump asked Zelensky for the "favor" of the Ukranians investigating the theory ahead of a potential White House meeting. Pompeo was on that call. As well, after Trump suggested in a tweet that he would be open to Pompeo testifying before that inquiry, Pompeo said Tuesday in response: "When the time is right, all good things happen."The Conspiracy Theory So Far Out There Even Trump's Biggest Defenders Are Walking Away From ItRead more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| How Devin Nunes lawsuit threat undermines Donald Trump's impeachment defense Posted: 26 Nov 2019 06:31 AM PST ![How Devin Nunes lawsuit threat undermines Donald Trump's impeachment defense]( "How Devin Nunes lawsuit threat undermines Donald Trump's impeachment defense") He's not going to win, and in the long run, he may end up hurting the very man he's trying to protect.
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| China's H-20 Stealth Bomber Could Be the U.S. Military's Worst Nightmare Posted: 25 Nov 2019 07:30 PM PST  Be on notice.
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| The son of a deputy from a neighboring county has been charged with the murder of Alabama Sheriff 'Big John' Williams Posted: 26 Nov 2019 05:25 AM PST  William Chase Johnson, the suspect in the killing of Alabama Sheriff "Big John" Williams, is the son of a sheriff's deputy in a neighboring county.
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| Freed UK hostage and wife say chained, threatened in Philippines Posted: 26 Nov 2019 02:11 AM PST  A British man and his wife rescued this week from Islamist captors in the Philippines' south say they were chained and threatened with beheading if they didn't deliver a ransom. The couple, shaken but unharmed, told their nearly two-month ordeal to reporters after escaping during a firefight Monday between Philippine troops and the Islamic State-linked Abu Sayyaf group. The husband, named by British authorities as Alan Hyrons, painted a "very humiliating and degrading" life in captivity, with little to eat in a haze of constant fear.
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| 7 Amazing Facts About the Speedy Cheetah Posted: 27 Nov 2019 09:45 AM PST |
| China media releases court footage showing alleged spy confessing to fraud Posted: 27 Nov 2019 04:25 PM PST ![China media releases court footage showing alleged spy confessing to fraud]( "China media releases court footage showing alleged spy confessing to fraud") Chinese state media has released trial footage it says proves a Chinese defector seeking asylum in Australia is a convicted criminal with a history of fraud. Australian media reports said the defector, named Wang Liqiang, has provided Australian intelligence with details about Chinese political interference in Hong Kong and Australia, and Beijing's plans to disrupt presidential elections in the self-ruled island of Taiwan next year. Chinese police, however, claimed Wang was an unemployed man from the southeastern province of Fujian who had been found guilty of fraud in 2016.
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| Gabbard Continues to Slam Clinton for Russian ‘Grooming’ Remarks Posted: 27 Nov 2019 05:25 AM PST  Representative Tulsi Gabbard (D., Hawaii) continued to lash out at Hillary Clinton on Tuesday following the former presidential candidate's insinuation that Gabbard's presidential policy platform was based on advancing Russian interests."I think they've got their eye on someone who's currently in the Democratic primary and are grooming her to be the third-party candidate," Clinton said on the Campaign HQ podcast in October. According to Clinton, Gabbard was "the favorite of the Russians. They have a bunch of sites and bots and other ways of supporting her so far."When asked about the comments, Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill seemed to confirm that she had been referring to the Russians, when he said, "If the nesting doll fits." But Clinton later backtracked and insisted she was referring to Republicans, not the Russians, as "grooming" Gabbard.Speaking on Tuesday with stand-up comedian Joe Rogan on "The Joe Rogan Experience," Gabbard and the host both criticized Clinton for her comments."When you look at the media establishment pushing a lot of the same narrative and a lot of the same message, then you can see how someone gets away with calling a sitting member of Congress, a candidate for president, a soldier actively serving in the National Guard, veteran of two Middle East deployments, basically a traitor of the country that I love and that I'm willing to lay my life down for," Gabbard told Rogan. "And to get away with it without any evidence or basis whatsoever."When Rogan asked how Clinton was able to make her accusation without any evidence to support it, Gabbard blamed the "power of the Clinton machine" and "the power of the political establishment" for allowing Clinton's accusation to go unchecked.Gabbard is currently polling at below 2 percent of the national Democratic primary vote, according to RealClearPolitics. The congresswoman raised considerable controversy by meeting with Syrian dictator Bashar al Assad in 2017.
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| Revealed: Buttigieg 2020 campaign took money from top Kavanaugh lawyers Posted: 27 Nov 2019 05:34 AM PST  Campaign admits mistake in accepting thousands of dollars from Alexandra Walsh and Beth Wilkinson, who represented nomineePete Buttigieg's campaign said it would return the money to the lawyers who represented Brett Kavanaugh. Photograph: Christopher Aluka Berry/ReutersPete Buttigieg's 2020 campaign is returning thousands of dollars in donations from two top Washington lawyers who represented Brett Kavanaugh in his controversial confirmation hearing, saying it will not accept funds from people who helped secure the justice's seat on the supreme court.Buttigieg's campaign received $7,200 from Alexandra Walsh – $3,150 of which had already been returned because it exceeded limits – and attended a fundraiser in July that was co-hosted by the Washington lawyer. Buttigieg also received $2,800 from Beth Wilkinson, Walsh's law partner, who also represented Kavanaugh.When asked by the Guardian about the donations, the campaign said it had overlooked the lawyers' role in the Kavanaugh confirmation and had made a mistake in accepting the donations.It said: "With nearly 700,000 donors, a contribution we would otherwise refuse sometimes gets through. We believe the women who have courageously spoken out about Brett Kavanaugh's assault and misconduct, and we thank the Guardian for bringing this contribution to our attention."A spokesperson added: "[Kavanaugh] should have never been put on the supreme court and this campaign will not accept donations from those who played a role in making that happen. Accordingly, we will be returning this contribution and others from this firm."Walsh and Wilkinson are frequent donors to Democratic causes. During this 2020 election cycle, Wilkinson has donated $1,000 to the California senator Kamala Harris's campaign and $2,800 to the Colorado senator Michael Bennet's campaign. Wilkinson also gave $2,800 to the New York senator Kirsten Gillibrand, who has since dropped out of the race and has been an outspoken critic of Kavanaugh.The Washington law firm Wilkinson Walsh Eskovitz represented the then nominee for the supreme court after Christine Blasey Ford accused him of sexually assaulting her when both were high school students in suburban Maryland. Walsh and Wilkinson led the charge defending Kavanaugh, even as more accusations of sexual misconduct were unearthed, and painted the judge as the victim of an "outrageous" campaign.In one case, Wilkinson questioned why women who accused Kavanaugh of assault had not immediately gone to the police to report alleged assaults, instead of members of Congress, and insisted that Kavanaugh treated women with dignity and respect.The judge has denied all of the allegations against him.In another case, Walsh sought to downplay comments that were made in Kavanaugh's high school yearbook. When the New York Times reported that Kavanaugh was listed as a member of the "Renate Alumni" – a reference to a classmate from a neighbouring Catholic girls' school that appeared to insinuate sexual conquest – Walsh was quoted in a statement as saying that Kavanaugh had been friends with Renate in high school and had "admired her very much". She also stated that the two had once shared a "brief kiss goodnight".When asked about the reference, Renate Dolphin told the New York Times that the insinuation in Kavanaugh's yearbook was "hurtful and simply untrue". She also denied Walsh's assertion that she and Kavanaugh had ever kissed.Walsh did not respond to a request for comment about the Buttigieg campaign's decision to reject her donations. Wilkinson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.The Harris and Bennet campaigns did not return a request for comment on the donations they received from Wilkinson. Gillibrand's office also did not return a request for comment.The Buttigieg campaign has been a vocal critic of Kavanaugh and has said that, if elected, he would choose a supreme court justice similar to Ruth Bader Ginsberg, who shared his "progressive values".
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| House Judiciary Democrats Reveal Their Impeachment Plans Posted: 26 Nov 2019 02:57 PM PST  Chip Somodevilla/GettyAfter months on the sidelines, the House Judiciary Committee will return to the spotlight next week to bring the impeachment process over the finish line. Judiciary Democrats are rested, ready, and determined to keep the proceedings "as dull as possible," according to one staffer for a committee Democrat. Coming on the heels of dramatic hearings in the House Intelligence Committee, there's an emerging sense that Judiciary's own hearings, which begin on Dec. 4 and are seen as a requirement of the impeachment process, aren't meant to set off fireworks but to check boxes.The strategy has been devised with the character of the Judiciary panel, which has a history of partisan sniping and no shortage of firebrands, in mind.Democrats glance at the roster of committee Republicans—which includes hard-core Trump loyalists like Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and Jim Jordan (R-OH)—and see the possibility for proceedings to go entirely off the rails. Indeed, many on the committee still feel burned by their last big oversight hearing in September, during which former Trump campaign chief Corey Lewandowski and his GOP sympathizers effectively turned the panel into a circus.To that end, the Democratic staffer told The Daily Beast, party leaders have described the committee's goal in open hearings as facilitating an "academic discussion" of impeachment. The committee's first hearing will not feature any high-profile witnesses but a panel of legal experts who will explain "the application of the constitutional framework of high crimes and misdemeanors," in the words of a Democratic committee aide speaking to reporters Tuesday. The witnesses for the hearing, the aide added, will be "some of the most extremely eminent legal authorities, who will talk about the nature of impeachment, high crimes and misdemeanors, and applying that constitutional law to the facts and the evidence that exist."This phase, like much else with Democrats' impeachment inquiry, will likely be brief. While party leaders have refused to commit to any kind of timeline, it's expected that Judiciary's "academic" explorations of impeachment will pave the way for formal consideration of articles of impeachment, which could reach the full House floor for a vote by year's end. "There's an understanding that leadership would like for the process to go as quickly as possible through that committee," another House Democratic aide put it, "because it is crazy."But these Judiciary Democrats—a group that includes some of the president's most high-profile critics and some of the party's sharpest communicators—have spent the last two months biding their time and anxiously waiting for their moment to return to the impeachment fray.When the Ukraine allegations emerged in September, House Democratic leadership decided to give the Intelligence Committee and its chairman, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), the lead on investigating the extent of Trumpworld's effort to pressure the Ukrainian government to investigate his political rivals. The Impeachment Hearings Didn't Hear From the Seven Most Important WitnessesThat move was widely seen on Capitol Hill as Speaker Nancy Pelosi hitting the reset button on an impeachment process that had struggled to gain traction in Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler's committee amid stonewalling from the White House and some high-profile hearing busts, like Lewandowski's appearance.Judiciary's long-established role as the sole committee with the authority to draw up articles of impeachment made a role in the process inevitable; however, there had been lingering questions on Capitol Hill as to how much work the panel would actually do.The inquiry's brisk timeline, and the nature of the Judiciary's newly scheduled hearing, have led some Hill Democrats to the conclusion that there is little significant work left for the panel to do beyond write up the actual articles of impeachment. And Schiff's Intelligence Committee will be providing the roadmap for that project: It is expected to send a detailed report with findings of the Ukraine investigation to Nadler when lawmakers return to Capitol Hill after the Thanksgiving holiday. But factors outside leadership's control—such as the courts—might complicate that plan to get it all over with as soon as possible. On Monday, a federal judge ordered former White House counsel Don McGahn to comply with a congressional subpoena, ruling that Trump has no standing to issue a blanket ban on his aides testifying.Why Testimony From Don McGahn Would Doom TrumpMcGahn is a central figure in former special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation—which had been the focus of Judiciary's oversight efforts for most of the year—and could be called in for potentially explosive testimony if appeals courts uphold the judge's order.Some of Judiciary's Democratic members, already suffering from an acute case of fear of missing out, are itching to question McGahn if that instant-blockbuster of an opportunity arises. But speaking to reporters on Tuesday, a Judiciary aide declined to say whether Democrats would draw out the impeachment inquiry in order to accommodate possible testimony from the president's former top lawyer.There is trepidation among some Democrats—remembering how the Mueller and Lewandowski hearings panned out—over the wisdom of chasing McGahn at this stage of an inquiry that has so far gone smoothly for Democrats. "It'll take entirely too long," said a Democratic aide, "and risk the political support Democrats have."Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Trump's education secretary to expand rights for students accused of sexual assault Posted: 26 Nov 2019 10:25 AM PST  Donald Trump's education secretary will narrow the government's scope of what is considered sexual harassment and expand rights for students accused of sexual assault in a new series of rules for universities.Betsy DeVos was reportedly preparing to release the final regulations of her new policies for college campuses before the New Year, which critics say will make it more difficult to combat sexual assault at universities nationwide.
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| Man wanted in Utah 'extreme stalking' arrested in Hawaii Posted: 26 Nov 2019 12:01 PM PST  U.S. prosecutors have arrested a Hawaii man they accuse of sending hundreds of unwanted service providers and others to a Utah home, including plumbers and prostitutes. Loren Okamura was arrested Friday in Hawaii following his indictment last month on charges of cyberstalking, interstate threats and transporting people for prostitution, court documents show. Okamura, 44, targeted a father and her adult daughter, sending the woman threatening messages and posting her picture and address online, authorities said.
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| An 'unprecedented' bomb cyclone will bring 100-mph winds to the West Coast Posted: 27 Nov 2019 03:22 AM PST  A rare West Coast "bomb cyclone" is forecast to sweep into southern Oregon and northern California later Tuesday and into Wednesday.
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