| John Bolton, warrior in White House, goes out swinging Posted: 10 Sep 2019 01:13 PM PDT  Donald Trump stunned Washington once again Tuesday with a tweet saying he had fired John Bolton, his national security adviser who has pushed US foreign policy to the right for decades. Bolton, who lasted 17 months at the helm of national security policy in Trump's turbulent White House, has always been a Washington fighter, more willing than virtually any other senior US official to deploy military force -- and waging his battle deep within the bureaucracy.
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| Satellite images show US-pursued Iran tanker still off Syria Posted: 10 Sep 2019 08:33 AM PDT  New satellite photos obtained Tuesday show an Iranian oil tanker pursued by the U.S. remains off the coast of Syria. The images from Planet Labs obtained by The Associated Press have the Adrian Darya-1 still near the port city of Tartus. The Adrian Darya 1, formerly known as the Grace 1, was carrying 2.1 million barrels of Iranian crude oil worth some $130 million.
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| 10-year-old girl films mom driving drunk, police say Posted: 10 Sep 2019 09:30 AM PDT ![10-year-old girl films mom driving drunk, police say]( "10-year-old girl films mom driving drunk, police say") The girl showed Glendale police officers video in which three children under the age of 15 could be heard yelling at her mother to stop.
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| NRA Sues San Francisco over ‘Domestic Terrorist Organization’ Label Posted: 10 Sep 2019 05:19 AM PDT  The National Rifle Association filed suit Monday against the city of San Francisco in response to city's board of supervisors labeling the gun-rights group a "domestic terrorist organization."The suit — filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California against the city and county of San Francisco, as well as the board of supervisors — claims the city violated the gun lobby's first amendment rights by seeking to prevent any individuals or entities associated with it from doing business in San Francisco."This lawsuit comes with a message to those who attack the NRA: we will never stop fighting for our law-abiding members and their constitutional freedoms," NRA CEO and executive vice president Wayne LaPierre said in a statement shared with the Washington Post.The board of supervisors passed a resolution last week in response to the country's "epidemic of gun violence," that accuses the NRA of using "its considerable wealth and organization strength to promote gun ownership and incite gun owners to acts of violence."The resolution also declares the board's desire to "limit those entities who do business with the City and County of San Francisco from doing business with this domestic terrorist organization."It was drafted in the immediate aftermath of the mass shooting at the Gilroy Garlic Festival in July in which a lone gunman killed three festival-goers and injured 17 others. Three mass shootings — in El Paso, Texas; Dayton, Ohio; and, most recently, Odessa and Midland, Texas — have occurred since then.The San Francisco city attorney's office responded to the NRA's suit by suggesting the group focus its resources on preventing gun violence rather than retaliating against the city."The American people would be better served if the NRA stopped trying to get weapons of war into our communities and instead actually did something about gun safety," John Coté, a spokesman for the San Francisco City Attorney's Office, told the Associated Press. "Common-sense safety measures like universal background checks, an assault weapons ban, and restricting high-capacity magazines would be a good start."
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| South Africa’s Malema Presents Himself to Police Over Gun Probe Posted: 10 Sep 2019 04:48 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- South African opposition leader Julius Malema presented himself to the police's special investigative unit over allegations that he illegally fired a weapon.Malema arrived at the offices of the so-called Hawks in the capital, Pretoria, on Tuesday. His party, the Economic Freedom Fighters, said Monday the unit would issue a warning statement to Malema. The 38-year-old was filmed allegedly shooting a rifle into the air during the party's five-year anniversary celebrations in the southern town of East London last year.Malema told reporters the Hawks informed him further investigations are being conducted on the incident after a prosecutor refused to move on the evidence presented before him. Known for his abrasive politics, Malema heads the country's third-biggest opposition party and often portrays himself as a defender of the poor."Someone, somewhere is sitting and making stupid decisions and not applying the law," he said. "What is happening here is that they are using us as a diversion."His appearance before the Hawks came a day after the Daily Maverick, a Johannesburg-based news website, alleged that Malema was a beneficiary of funds embezzled from failed VBS Mutual Bank and used the money to finance his political aspirations and lavish lifestyle, including the purchase of Gucci apparel and other luxury items.EFF spokesman Mbuyiseni Ndlozi said he couldn't immediately comment when contacted on Tuesday. The party has previously said there's no proof its officials did anything wrong."The allegations on VBS are a fabrication and unfounded," Malema said. "Louis Vuitton and Gucci, I have worn it before. I don't buy it with VBS money."He said he won't take any action against the Daily Maverick.Read more on EFF and VBS Mutual BankMalema established the EFF in July 2013 after he was expelled from the ruling African National Congress. His party won 11% of the national vote in May 8 elections.(Updates with Malema's comments starting in fourth paragraph.)\--With assistance from Amogelang Mbatha.To contact the reporter on this story: Nkululeko Ncana in Johannesburg at nncana@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Paul Richardson at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net, Rene Vollgraaff, Pauline BaxFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders would stand to benefit from the most from Andrew Yang dropping out of the 2020 presidential race Posted: 10 Sep 2019 11:31 AM PDT  If Andrew Yang's candidacy doesn't end up staying viable through the first few primary contests, his sizable base of supporters will be up for grabs.
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| Family trapped atop waterfall send SOS message in plastic bottle and someone finds it Posted: 10 Sep 2019 02:04 AM PDT  It was a desperate act of hope by a father fearing he had brought his family into mortal peril.When Curtis Whitson found himself, his partner and his 13-year-old son trapped atop an isolated 40-foot waterfall in California, his only solution for possible escape was a plan he did not dare dream could really work.
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| Lebanon Shiites mark Ashura in show of anti-Israel defiance Posted: 10 Sep 2019 06:24 AM PDT  Anti-Israeli chants rang through the streets of a Hezbollah bastion in the Lebanese capital on Tuesday as thousands of black-clad Shiites commemorated the seventh-century killing of Prophet Mohammed's grandson. "We have taught Israel that our people are not weak," the men cried, beating their chests in unison, during an Ashura commemoration marking the killing of Imam Hussein in battle by Caliph Yazid's forces. This year's ceremony comes shortly after a series of confrontations between Hezbollah and Israel, including an exchange of cross-border fire at the start of the month.
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| 'The View' co-hosts trash Trump's children: 'They're not good people' Posted: 10 Sep 2019 12:20 PM PDT  Meghan McCain, Joy Behar and Abby Huntsman had a candid discussion about the power and influence of Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr.
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| Archbishop of Canterbury apologizes for massacre in India Posted: 10 Sep 2019 08:02 AM PDT  The archbishop of Canterbury said Tuesday he regrets a massacre by British colonial forces of hundreds of Indians participating in a peaceful demonstration for independence 100 years ago. Archbishop Justin Welby spoke at a memorial for victims of the attack in northwest India. The massacre took place at Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar on April 13, 1919, when the British Indian Army opened fire at a crowd demonstrating for independence, killing more than 300 and injuring 1,200.
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| Texas Inmate Mark Soliz Executed for 2010 Killing Posted: 10 Sep 2019 01:27 AM PDT  Fort Worth Star-Telegram/GettyA Texas death-row inmate convicted of murdering a 61-year-old woman during a robbery in 2010 was executed on Tuesday night, becoming the state's sixth execution this year. Mark Soliz, 37, died by lethal injection despite claims by his lawyers that he suffered from fetal alcohol spectrum disorder and therefore should be spared from execution. Soliz was the 15th prisoner put to death this year. Despite his hopes for a reprieve from the death penalty, Soliz reportedly did not file a last-minute appeal with the Supreme Court. According to The Huntsville Item, Soliz was apologetic to the family of his victim—Nancy Weatherly—in his final statement."I want to apologize for the grief and the pain that I caused y'all," Soliz reportedly said to the two members of the Weatherly family who attended the execution. "I've been considering changing my life, it took me 27 years to do so. I don't know if me passing will bring y'all comfort for the pain and suffering I caused y'all. I'm at peace."Soliz and his lawyers went through the appeals process for years, with the most recent denial reportedly coming last week. His lawyers had cited a decision two weeks ago by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which stayed the execution of Dexter Johnson based on new standards for evaluating mental disability."They're almost identical," Soliz's lawyer, Seth Kretzer, said of the two cases."It's simply not right to execute the mentally disabled," Kretzer said, adding that he knows they may not prevail. "Hope is a very dangerous thing to have in prison. We've used every legal tool we can to fight this and now we just have to wait."Gary Ray Bowles, 'I-95' Serial Killer Who Preyed on Gay Men, Executed in FloridaUnder the old medical standards, Soliz's IQ of more than 70 meant he did not qualify as mentally disabled. But under new criteria, Soliz's lawyers say his diagnosis of fetal alcohol syndrome should qualify him as mentally disabled and ultimately save him from a lethal dose of pentobarbital. "Because Mr. Soliz suffers from fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, he should be categorically exempted from the death penalty under the eighth amendment to the United States constitution," his lawyers argued in court documents."[Fetal alcohol syndrome] is the functional equivalent of the conditions already recognized as disqualifying exemptions to the death penalty such as intellectual disability."Soliz's mother was a prostitute who drank and huffed glue during her pregnancy. He scored 75 on his last IQ test, which falls within the 70-84 range considered borderline intellectual functioning, according to an evaluation paid for by his lawyers and reported in the Austin Chronicle. Greg Westfall, who represented Soliz during his 2012 trial, said that in a different jurisdiction, his client would have received a life sentence."Johnson County has a huge evangelical presence and a large amount of people who believe in the death penalty," he said, adding, "and there's racial overtones to the case. He's a Hispanic who killed a white grandmother."Soliz's deadly crime spree began in June 22, 2010, when he and co-defendant Jose Ramos stole several guns. The pair went on to steal from several stores and killed a man in one of the robberies, making a widow of his eight-months pregnant wife. (Ramos pleaded guilty and was given a life sentence for the slaying.)On June 29, 2010, Weatherly, a grandmother and engineer at an aerospace company in Godley, Texas, heard her doorbell ring around 10:30 a.m. and opened her front door to find Soliz pointing a Hi-Point 9 mm semiautomatic handgun in her face.Soliz brought her inside and began to search the house for valuables. When she asked him not to take her deceased mother's jewelry box, he told her she would join her mother shortly and shot her in the back of the head. John William King, Racist Who Dragged James Byrd Jr. to Death, Executed in TexasJohnson County Assistant District Attorney Martin Strahan told a local paper last week that Soliz deserved death. "He was a very dangerous person who would hurt other people if there was ever any chance he might be let loose, which is why we decided to go with the death penalty option," Strahan said. Fort Worth Detective Danny Paine called Soliz "the most dangerous person he had ever come in contact with during his law enforcement career."During the trial, Soliz scratched his gang name, "Kilo," into the defense table and managed to memorize the mailing address of a potential female member of the jury and wrote her a romantic letter that was intercepted according to the Celburne Times Review. Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| View Photos of the Hyundai 45 Concept Posted: 10 Sep 2019 12:00 AM PDT |
| Gun Sales Jump 15.5 Percent in August as Dems Renew Push for Regulations Posted: 10 Sep 2019 10:48 AM PDT  Background checks for gun sales, concealed-carry permits, and security spiked in August as congressional Democrats renewed their push for expanded gun control in the wake of several mass shootings.The National Instant Criminal Background Check System recorded a 15.5 percent uptick in background checks last month, according to the National Shooting Sports Foundation.The jump in gun sales appears to have been spurred by a desire to secure self-protection amid an epidemic of mass shootings in the U.S., before Congress potentially approves stricter gun-control measures such as an assault-weapons ban, universal background checks, or limits on ammunition.The NSSF also pointed out that some states saw a particularly steep jump in background checks last month, with Alabama's NSSF-adjusted number jumping over 100 percent from August of last year, and Minnesota's number increasing 68.9 percent.Gun sales also spiked in August of last year, just before the midterm congressional elections, and even more starkly in August 2016, before the last presidential election.House speaker Nancy Pelosi warned Monday that there will be "hell to pay" if the Republican-controlled Senate fails to pass a universal-background-check bill, which would require checks for private gun sales, including purchases made over the Internet and at gun shows. The bill has already passed the House."We are not taking no for an answer. We are not going away," she said."It is totally up to them, and it is on their shoulders. They can't escape that responsibility," Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer added.Renewed enthusiasm for gun-control measures comes after two back-to-back shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio killed 32 and left the nation shaken last month.
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| Kamala Harris apologizes for her response to slur after backlash from disability community Posted: 09 Sep 2019 02:30 PM PDT  After a supporter used an offensive term to talk about the president at her event, Kamala Harris laughed and said "Well said."
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| Couple faces 'theft charges' after $120,000 bank error Posted: 10 Sep 2019 04:30 AM PDT 
The reports say that Robert and Tiffany Williams, from Montoursville, had reportedly had $120,000 deposited into their BB&T account in May after a mistake at the bank. The couple allegedly spent most of the money on items ranging from an SUV to a race car, local media said quoting Pennsylvania State police. After reportedly failing to answer calls from the bank, they are now reportedly facing felony theft charges.
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| Freed in prisoner swap, Ukraine's Sentsov warns: Don't trust Russia Posted: 10 Sep 2019 10:09 AM PDT  Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov on Tuesday warned against trusting Russian President Vladimir Putin, after Moscow freed him from jail in a historic prisoner swap with Kiev this weekend. Dressed casually in a polo shirt and jeans, the 43-year-old seemed calm and composed at his first news conference since flying to Kiev on Saturday along with 34 other Ukrainian prisoners. "As far as Russia's wishes for peace go, a wolf can put on a lamb's clothing, but his teeth don't disappear.
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| Trump launches furious yet confused attack on rival's affair with 'flaming dancer' after promoting QAnon conspiracy theorist Posted: 09 Sep 2019 06:32 AM PDT  Donald Trump has attacked a Republican 2020 rival over an extramarital affair during an early morning Twitter rant in which he also promoted a QAnon conspiracy theorist."When the former Governor of the Great State of South Carolina, @MarkSanford, was reported missing, only to then say he was away hiking on the Appalachian Trail, then was found in Argentina with his Flaming Dancer friend, it sounded like his political career was over," Mr Trump tweeted on Monday.
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| North Korea carried out super-large multiple rocket launcher test on Tuesday: KCNA Posted: 10 Sep 2019 02:16 PM PDT  North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw the testing of a super-large multiple rocket launcher on Tuesday, North Korean state media KCNA said on Wednesday. North Korea fired a new round of short-range projectiles on Tuesday, South Korean officials said, only hours after it signaled a new willingness to resume stalled denuclearization talks with the United States in late September. Kim, who had guided the testing of the same multiple rocket launcher before, said its capabilities have been "finally verified in terms of combat operation," and what remains to be done with the rocket launcher is a "running fire test," KCNA said, without elaborating on what the test would entail.
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| Former FEMA Official Arrested on Bribery, Fraud Charges Relating to Puerto Rico Power Restoration Posted: 10 Sep 2019 01:42 PM PDT  A former Federal Emergency Management Agency official has been arrested on charges that she took bribes from the president of a company that received $1.8 billion from the federal government to repair Puerto Rico's power grid after it was decimated by Hurricane Maria.Federal authorities said they arrested former FEMA deputy administrator Ahsha Tribble and the former president of Cobra Acquisitions, Donald K. Ellison, on Tuesday, accusing them of conspiring to defraud the federal government. Also arrested was Jovanda Patterson, who worked under Tribble at FEMA and was later hired by Cobra."They took advantage of one of the most vulnerable moments in the history of Puerto Rico to enrich themselves," said the U.S. attorney for Puerto Rico, Rosa Emilia Rodríguez-Vélez.A federal investigation found that Tribble and Ellison had cultivated a "close personal relationship" and that Ellison had multiplied Tribble's slew of perks in exchange for her influence in securing Cobra's government contracts. The gifts included a helicopter tour over Puerto Rico, a New York apartment, plane tickets, and hotel stays.In one instance, Tribble threatened in February of last year to withhold FEMA aid from the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority if it did not hire Cobra to repair damage from an explosion, despite officials' at the public utility saying they could get the work done for a lower price.
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| Malnourished 13-year-old boy weighing 65 pounds escapes from Ohio home; parents charged Posted: 10 Sep 2019 03:18 PM PDT ![Malnourished 13-year-old boy weighing 65 pounds escapes from Ohio home; parents charged]( "Malnourished 13-year-old boy weighing 65 pounds escapes from Ohio home; parents charged") The 13-year-old boy had a very strict vegan diet that basically consisted of almonds, bananas and grapes, Crawford County Prosecutor Matt Crall said.
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| Bolton's rootin', tootin' exit: Today's Toon Posted: 10 Sep 2019 01:34 PM PDT  Want to keep up with USA TODAY's editorial cartoons? Bookmark this page. We'll update it frequently.
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| Aussie veterans hand over details of Viet Cong dead Posted: 10 Sep 2019 01:58 AM PDT  Australian Vietnam War veterans on Tuesday handed over information to help their former enemies locate the bodies of some of the 200,000 North Vietnamese and Viet Cong soldiers still classed as missing in action. At a ceremony with Vietnamese officials, a small team of Australian veterans shared a database including map references showing where 3,800 Vietnamese are believed to be buried after fights with Australian and New Zealand forces. "Basically it was the right thing to do," said team leader Bob Hall, a Vietnam veteran and researcher at the University of New South Wales who led the project.
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| Netanyahu vows to begin annexing West Bank settlements Posted: 10 Sep 2019 01:25 PM PDT  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Tuesday to annex the heart of the West Bank if he wins re-election next week, a move that could inflame the Middle East and extinguish any remaining Palestinian hope of establishing a separate state. Arab leaders angrily condemned Netanyahu's remarks, and a U.N. spokesman warned the step would be "devastating" to the prospects for a two-state solution. Netanyahu said he would extend Israeli sovereignty over the Jordan Valley — an area seen as the breadbasket of any Palestinian state — shortly after forming a new government and would move later to annex other Jewish settlements.
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| Ukraine president meets tycoon Kolomoisky amid concerns over their business ties Posted: 10 Sep 2019 12:36 PM PDT  Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy met business tycoon Ihor Kolomoisky on Tuesday, the president's office said, the first reported meeting since Zelenskiy's inauguration in May between the two men who had long-standing business ties. The president's relationship with Kolomoisky, one of the richest businessman in Ukraine, has been under heavy scrutiny since the start of Zelenskiy's election campaign, amid fears that the tycoon may be wielding influence behind the scenes.
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| 489 illegal immigrants with detainers released in North Carolina: report Posted: 10 Sep 2019 04:30 AM PDT  A new report claims 489 illegal immigrants with detainers were released across North Carolina over the past 10 months. Judge Andrew Napolitano reacts.
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| Moscow's Elections Show Putin Is Losing the War at Home Posted: 10 Sep 2019 01:25 PM PDT  President Vladimir Putin picked fights abroad to distract the Russian people. He's finally running out of distractions.
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| Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Sergey Brin, and Marissa Mayer reportedly attended an elite private dinner with Jeffrey Epstein just 2 years after he served a prison sentence for soliciting sex from a 14-year-old girl (AMZN, GOOGL, TSLA, MSFT) Posted: 10 Sep 2019 07:52 AM PDT  The private dinners, known informally as the "billionaires' dinners," are held by the New York literary agent John Brockman.
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| Woman, 73, charged with killing her 82-year-old neighbor with brick at a home for seniors Posted: 10 Sep 2019 08:49 AM PDT  Chun Yong Oh is charged with first and second degree murder for the death of Hwa Cha Pak, her neighbor at a home for senior citizens in Maryland.
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| Gun violence is a health crisis, not a political football. It's time to act: Cardiologist Posted: 10 Sep 2019 04:00 AM PDT ![Gun violence is a health crisis, not a political football. It's time to act: Cardiologist]( "Gun violence is a health crisis, not a political football. It's time to act: Cardiologist") This is an epidemic that calls for many responses, from new laws to more research. We can save lives while respecting responsible gun owners' rights.
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| Relatives, officials attend mass for Mugabe in Singapore Posted: 10 Sep 2019 04:39 AM PDT  Relatives and government officials attended a mass for Zimbabwe's ex-president Robert Mugabe in Singapore on Tuesday after arriving in the country where he died to collect his body. Mugabe, a guerrilla leader who swept to power after Zimbabwe's independence from Britain and went on to rule for 37 years until he was ousted in 2017, died on Friday, aged 95. Family members and officials arrived in Singapore, where he was treated for several months before dying, early Tuesday on a chartered flight.
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| Chinese State-Run Paper Singles Out Navarro for Trade ‘Lies’ Posted: 09 Sep 2019 07:38 PM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Terms of Trade is a daily newsletter that untangles a world embroiled in trade wars. Sign up here. The Chinese Communist Party's flagship newspaper took aim at one of Washington's most prominent China hawks, calling recent comments by Peter Navarro unconstructive "lies" that hinder the progress of trade talks.Navarro, an adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump, repeated accusations he's previously termed China's "seven deadly sins" during a Sunday interview with Yahoo Finance -- including alleged cyberattacks, forced technology transfers and currency manipulation. He also said China is taking on the "full burden" of U.S. tariffs on its products."All these preposterous comments are not constructive at all, and go against the larger direction of the two sides taking real action to create favorable conditions for the negotiations," Beijing's state-run People's Daily wrote in a commentary Tuesday. Navarro intended to "throw cold water on international markets," it said.Those "irresponsible" comments should stop, and the U.S. should show "sincerity" and "action" to create condition for the negotiations, the paper said.China and the U.S. will hold face-to-face trade negotiations in Washington in the coming weeks, after a deterioration in relations last month left global investors reeling amid increasing evidence the conflict is harming both nations. The U.S. Agriculture Department's undersecretary for trade, Ted McKinney, also used provocative language on Monday, calling Chinese President Xi Jinping a "communist zealot.""It is important for both China and the United States to grasp the opportunity of stabilizing bilateral trade and economic ties," the People's Daily commentary said, adding that the two countries should work together in the direction set by their leaders.To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Miao Han in Beijing at mhan22@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Jeffrey Black at jblack25@bloomberg.net, Sharon Chen, Karen LeighFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Michelle Malkin on who's funding illegal immigration Posted: 09 Sep 2019 01:16 PM PDT  Michelle Malkin investigates the funding of illegal immigration in her book 'Open Borders Inc.'
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| Hong Kong tells US to stay out; students form protest chains Posted: 09 Sep 2019 06:17 AM PDT  Thousands of students formed human chains outside schools across Hong Kong on Monday to show solidarity after violent weekend clashes between police and activists seeking democratic reforms in the semiautonomous Chinese territory. The silent protest came as the Hong Kong government condemned the "illegal behavior of radical protesters" and warned the U.S. to stay out of its affairs. Thousands of demonstrators held a peaceful march Sunday to the U.S. Consulate to seek Washington's support, but violence erupted hours later in a business and retail district as protesters vandalized subway stations, set fires and blocked traffic, prompting police to fire tear gas.
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| Cheerleader accused of killing newborn told her dad 'I tried to cremate the baby' Posted: 09 Sep 2019 01:04 PM PDT  Skylar Richardson is charged with aggravated murder and involuntary manslaughter. She's accused of deliberately killing her baby and burying her.
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| See Photos of the New 2020 Audi RS7 Sportback Posted: 09 Sep 2019 03:01 PM PDT |
| Migrant rescue captain who defied Italy says actions 'were justified' Posted: 10 Sep 2019 01:59 PM PDT  The German captain of rescue vessel Sea-Watch 3, Carola Rackete, who was temporarily arrested in Italy for docking without permission so she could let rescued migrants land, said Tuesday her "actions were justified". Rackete, 31, was arrested on June 29 and held for several days after the Sea-Watch 3 hit an Italian police speedboat while entering the port of Lampedusa island despite a ban from entering Italy's waters. "I am still under investigation by the Italian authorities but am I worried?
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| Tulsi Gabbard: The Rest of Democratic Primary Field Has Embraced ‘Open Borders’ Posted: 10 Sep 2019 09:08 AM PDT  Representative Tulsi Gabbard (D., Hawaii) derided her fellow Democratic presidential candidates during a recent interview for embracing permissive immigration policies, accusing them of support for "open borders."Asked if she believes "open borders" is a fair descriptor of the positions embraced by her Democratic primary opponents, Gabbard told YouTube host Dave Rubin that it was an accurate label and dismissed the oft-repeated Democratic rejoinder that conservatives use the phrase to tar their political adversaries."I don't support open borders. Without secure borders, we don't really have a country," she said. "And while some of the other Democratic candidates will say 'well, open borders that's a conservative argument and that's not really what's being advocated for' — if you look at the practical implications of some of the things they're advocating for, it is essentially open borders."Long-shot presidential contender Julian Castro, the former secretary of housing and urban development under President Obama, managed to pull the Democratic primary field leftward on immigration during the campaign's first debate, by asking those on stage to commit to decriminalizing illegal border crossings. All ten candidates on stage, with the notable exception of Beto O'Rourke, endorsed Castro's plan, as did eight out of the ten candidates who took the stage the following night.Gabbard — who failed to qualify for the third Democratic primary debate, scheduled for Thursday night — has grown increasingly vocal in her opposition to the Democratic establishment.Appearing on Fox News's Tucker Carlson Tonight last month, Gabbard slammed the Democratic National Committee, charging that there is a lack of transparency in the process that determines who makes the debate stage."I think the bigger problem is that the whole process really lacks transparency," Gabbard said. "People deserve having that transparency because ultimately it's the people who will decide who our Democratic nominee will be."The Army veteran went on to suggest that the lack of transparency furthers the perception that a group of connected political elites effectively chooses the president by winnowing the field absent voter input."Really what they see is a small group of really powerful political elites, the establishment making decisions that serve their interests and maintaining that power while the rest of us are left outside. The American people are left behind," she said.
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| China’s Ambassador to South Africa Attacks Trump Over Trade Posted: 10 Sep 2019 09:04 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Terms of Trade is a daily newsletter that untangles a world embroiled in trade wars. Sign up here. Lin Songtian, China's ambassador to South Africa, took out a half-page advertisement in a key local newspaper to attack the stance of the U.S. and President Donald Trump on global trade.In a paid-for editorial in Business Day, South Africa's biggest financial newspaper, Lin said bullying by the U.S. will drive the world into a "severe recession" and accused Trump of capriciousness."The Chinese culture emphasizes that 'gentlemen keep their words.' Honoring the promises and commitments is the basic ethical code and requirement for state leaders and businessmen," he said in the advert titled 'Voice of China.' His comments were also published in the Star newspaper."The president of the U.S. runs his country according to his own will, dictates the world through Twitter and changes his position overnight," Lin said.The column, part of a drive by Beijing to have its ambassadors speak out globally, reflects the deteriorating relationship between the world's two biggest economies. The Chinese Communist Party's flagship newspaper on Tuesday accused Trump adviser Peter Navarro of lying. A day earlier, Ted McKinney, the U.S. Agriculture Department's top trade official, called Chinese President Xi Jinping a "communist zealot."The U.S. embassy in South Africa declined to comment.Tit-for-tat import tariffs imposed by the U.S. and China are roiling world markets and upending global trade patterns."The U.S. insisting on escalating the trade frictions with China will harm the common interests of all people around the world and no one can escape," Lin said. "The U.S. clings to the winner takes all law of the jungle."Actions by the U.S. are harming its own economy as China's technological companies will need to establish new supply chains and its agricultural goods importers are already finding other sources of crops such as soybeans, which are being acquired from Brazil, he said. Trump is damaging his reputation and that of his country, he added."Even God doesn't know what he will do tomorrow," Lin said. "Such a U.S. model of democracy has become the laughing stock of all people around the world."(Adds soybean buying in ninth paragraph)To contact the reporter on this story: Antony Sguazzin in Johannesburg at asguazzin@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: John McCorry at jmccorry@bloomberg.net, Pauline Bax, Gordon BellFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| California wildfire victims lawyer calls PG&E plan 'totally unacceptable' Posted: 10 Sep 2019 08:01 AM PDT  San Francisco-based PG&E unveiled on Monday a proposed plan to exit bankruptcy that included payments capped at $8.4 billion for wildfire claims. The plan forces fire victims and government entities to seek compensation from the same fund, which will dilute payouts for everyone, said Cecily Dumas, a BakerHostetler lawyer who represents the official committee of tort claimants in PG&E's bankruptcy. State investigators have blamed PG&E transmission lines with causing wildfires in 2017 and 2018 including the Camp Fire that killed 85 people.
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| Were These 8 Women Murdered by a Serial Killer-Pimp—or the Cops? Posted: 09 Sep 2019 01:45 AM PDT  ShowtimeIn small towns like Jennings, Louisiana, everybody knows everybody. So when, over the course of four-and-a-half years (2005-2009), eight women were killed, their bodies dumped in canals or on the sides of roads, and it turned out that they all ran with the same crowd, it was hard to imagine that the crimes were unrelated. Certainly the police felt that way, since after considerable investigative work, Sheriff Ricky Edwards declared that the atrocities were the work of a single serial killer.Murder in the Bayou, however, isn't nearly as confident about that supposition. Directed by Matthew Galkin, produced by Joshua Levine, and based on Ethan Brown's 2016 book Murder in the Bayou: Who Killed the Women Known as the Jeff Davis 8?, Showtime's new five-part true-crime series (premiering Sept. 13) is a peek into the tangled bonds and socioeconomic divides of Jennings, located in Jefferson Davis Parish, where train tracks separate the north side "haves" from the south side "have-nots." It's from that latter region that the victims, who came to be known as the Jeff Davis 8, hailed, although that wasn't the only thing that bound them to one another. They all came from fractured homes. They were all crack addicts. They all apparently sold their bodies for money or drugs.And, crucially, they all knew Frankie Richard.The Satanic Sex Cult Leader Who Loved Animal Sacrifices, Orgies, and Murder'No One Saw a Thing': When a Small Midwest Town Banded Together to Kill the 'Town Bully'A local pimp, dope-pusher and former strip-club proprietor, Richard was a notorious lout who shared intimate ties with the deceased. Thus, few were surprised when he and daughter Hannah Richard—with whom he regularly smoked crack, like more than one Jennings dad did—were briefly arrested for the slaying of third victim Kristen Gary Lopez. To relatives of Lopez and the other slain women, Richard was an obvious suspect, especially given his predilection for violence; according to investigative journalist Brown, he even had a trio of "hands-on men" who did his dirty work for him. Regardless, as Murder in the Bayou lays out, the charges against Richard didn't stick, and he was quickly back on the street, free to continue his wayward ways. And in a newly recorded interview, the bushy-bearded, chain-smoking Richard proclaims his innocence, admitting that he enjoyed partying with the women but cared about them too much to have ever caused them harm.The bodies, meanwhile, kept piling up, and Sheriff Edwards continued to make little headway in a case that soon attracted national media attention. The problem, at least at first, was that most of the victims were found in states of such extreme decomposition that forensic evidence was all but absent, and the cause of death was hard to discern. Furthermore, though the women were all acquaintances, and some had feared for their safety shortly before their demise, no concrete reason for their murders could be deduced. As a result, Sheriff Edwards, and the local press, fell back on blaming their "high-risk lifestyles" for their fates—a tactic compounded by Edwards' initial decision to refer to the fiend as a "serial dumper," thereby implying that the wrong-side-of-the-tracks girls were disposable.The Jeff Davis 8's drugging-and-prostituting proclivities certainly put them in the crosshairs of lethal forces. Friends, family members and reporters Scott Lewis and Brown, however, contend that biases against Jennings' poorer residents both clouded public perception and undercut urgency to find the culprit(s). More damning still, Brown's look into the murders exposed a thicket of crisscrossing paths and allegiances between the victims, Richard, and law enforcement. Chief investigator Warren Gary, for example, purchased a truck from an incarcerated Richard associate that may have been used in Lopez's slaying, and then sold it for profit. Jailor Danny Barry, who knew many of the oft-incarcerated women thanks to his position, was known to pick up working girls, get them high, and then enjoy time with them in his home's plastic-encased sex dungeon (alongside his wife, no less). And parish warden Terrie Guillory had long-standing relationships with many of the victims, sometimes of a carnal nature, and may have known about first victim Loretta Chaisson's death before her body was found.Facts are few but hearsay is plentiful in Murder in the Bayou, which casts intense doubt on the official version of events, and suspicion on Richard and his cop pals, through voluminous eyewitness accounts and speculation. The effect is simultaneously intriguing and frustrating, since it makes one think that something deeply fishy was going on in Jennings, and yet leaves one wondering if all these ideas are just fanciful conspiracy theories designed to fill a vacuum created by a dearth of concrete answers. Like so many of its true-crime brethren, Galkin and Levine's series is spellbound by not only the unknown, but by the possibility that, because of the particular circumstances of these homicides, the truth may be fundamentally unknowable. ShowtimeMurder in the Bayou is guided by the question of whether the Jeff Davis 8 fell prey to one man or multiple, interrelated perpetrators (who may have simply been copycatting each other, since decomposition did a great job of destroying evidence). Equally as beguiling as that mystery is director Galkin's evocation of his rural Louisiana milieu. Though he employs the usual array of talking-head chats with principal players, Galkin embellishes his material with shadowy, off-center close-ups of hands and objects, panoramas of Jennings' dilapidated and well-to-do homes, and cinematographic plunges into backwater locales. Just as a few early shots featuring Christian wall ornamentation convey, silently, the community's religious foundations, the director's haunting, expressionistic flourishes amplify the series' atmosphere of unnerving menace, suggesting the corrosive underbelly of this superficially quiet enclave."There's no closure, no peace," says Evelyn Daniels, the grief-stricken mother of second victim Ernestine Daniels. As genre aficionados know, that lack of resolution isn't uncommon in stories such as this. Nonetheless, Murder in the Bayou comes across not as a retread but, instead, as another stark example of the elusiveness of justice in a world riddled with vice, immorality, inequality and incompetence. With striking aesthetics that augment its keen investigative storytelling, it's a defiant plea against indifference.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. 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