| Audio: Trump seeks identity of person who leaked information to whistleblower Posted: 26 Sep 2019 01:51 PM PDT  President Trump likened the person who leaked information to a federal whistleblower to a spy.
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| Georgia sheriff's office employee fired after racist rant at McDonald's Posted: 26 Sep 2019 12:07 PM PDT  A Georgia sheriff's office employee has been fired after he was caught on video telling a teenager to "speak English" at a local McDonald's.
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| Grieving mother shares heartbreaking tribute to children on 'first day of school' Posted: 26 Sep 2019 10:47 AM PDT  A distraught mother took to Facebook earlier this month to share a touching tribute to her children, all three of whom were killed by a drunk driver.
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| Pelosi, taking on a president, meets feminists' desire for a superhero Posted: 26 Sep 2019 01:01 PM PDT  Women who study women agree that this week marks a moment.
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| Michigan school bus driver fired after kicking kids off bus for sharing bag of chips: Officials Posted: 26 Sep 2019 08:20 AM PDT  A Michigan school bus driver and bus aide have both been fired after they forced "several" students to exit the bus early, officials say.
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| Ex-casino employee to seek parole chance in Vegas killing Posted: 26 Sep 2019 11:01 AM PDT  A former Las Vegas Strip casino card dealer intends to seek a chance at parole when he's sentenced for killing a resort executive and wounding a co-worker at a company picnic in 2018, a defense lawyer said Thursday. Anthony Wrobel decided it was in his best interest to plead guilty before trial to murder in the shooting death of Venetian casino executive Mia Banks and attempted murder for wounding co-worker Hector Rodriguez, court-appointed defense attorney Joseph Abood said. The plea agreement by the 44-year-old Wrobel says he could face up to life behind bars without the possibility of parole.
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| A United Airlines Flight Was Diverted After a Passenger Got Stuck in the Bathroom Posted: 26 Sep 2019 07:46 AM PDT  The flight was originally headed to San Francisco. The fire department was able to open the jammed door.
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| Rudy’s Big Plan to Defend Trump on Ukraine: Play the George Soros Card Posted: 26 Sep 2019 02:12 AM PDT  HERBERT NEUBAUER/GettyDonald Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani's bizarre media tour defending President Trump's efforts to pressure the president of Ukraine into investigating Joe Biden has focused on a seemingly unrelated target: billionaire Democratic financier and Republican bogeyman George Soros. In several rambling cable news appearances, Giuliani has claimed that Soros—who conservative conspiracy theorists have long blamed for everything from the Barack Obama presidency to actor Jussie Smollett's faking of a hate crime—is somehow involved in a wide-ranging, anti-Trump scheme in Ukraine. Like many Soros-related claims, this one is, well, flimsy. Indeed, Guiliani's argument appears to rest almost entirely on innuendos, a single op-ed in The Hill, and his vague claims about unnamed "people" in Ukraine.Russia's Election Hackers Are Back—and Targeting George SorosGiuliani's allegations center on a "Soros NGO" that manufactured evidence against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and a former FBI agent who Giuliani claims is on Soros's payroll."George Soros has a not-for-profit called AntAC," Giuliani said in a CNN appearance last Thursday. "AntAC is the one that developed all of the dirty information that ended up being a false document that was created in order to incriminate Manafort."In a Monday appearance on Fox Business, Giuliani claimed that "Soros's NGO was involved in this whole thing." On Tuesday, he told Fox News host Laura Ingraham that Biden was somehow involved in an effort to save a Soros-run organization in Ukraine from prosecution. "That organization was run by George Soros, who then hired the crooked FBI agent, who is now working for George Soros," Giuliani said. Soros, who is one of the Democratic Party's largest givers, has long been targeted by right-wing activists, who often paint him as a global, political puppetmaster—a charge that critics contend reeks of anti-Semitism. Few figures, indeed, are more often portrayed as a boogeyman by Republican politicians. Guliani's vague, nefarious accusations about Soros, have been echoed by Trump allies and the Trump campaign as well. In fact, the line has become so central to the messaging war against the Bidens that Giuliani often offers it up without being prompted. "Oh, and Soros—Soros!—is very important here," Giuliani said in a Monday interview, one of several with The Daily Beast in the last few days in which he discussed the progressive donor. "Don't forget that."* * *Considering the gravity with which Giuliani discusses Soros, one would think that there is ample evidence that something untoward has taken place. And yet, the allegations rest largely on a March 2019 op-ed in The Hill written by opinion writer John Solomon, who became a star on the right for his willingness to push attacks on Special Counsel Robert Mueller. In his March story, Solomon declared that the U.S. embassy in Ukraine "pressed Ukraine to drop [a] probe of George Soros group during 2016 election." The op-ed centers on Anticorruption Action Centre (AntAC), a Ukrainian anti-corruption group that has received funding from Soros's Open Society Foundation. Contrary to Giuliani's description of it as "Soros-run," though, AntAC has also received funding from the governments of the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, and the European Union. Soros doesn't control AntAC's activities. It is instead operated by Ukrainian activists. In 2016, AntAC was under investigation by Ukrainian prosecutors for the alleged misuse of $4.4 million in aid, in what appears to have been a politically motivated pursuit from the investigators meant to punish the good-governance group. Even U.S. State Department sources in Solomon's own op-ed said the prosecution was believed to be just "retribution" for AntAC's anti-corruption work. In a letter sent to Ukrainian prosecutors, a State Department official in Ukraine said the United States had "no concerns" about the money. "We have accounted for every single foreign assistance dollar provided within the framework of this project," the State official continued. Smollett Conspiracy Theories Target George SorosNevertheless, Giuliani has accused the group, without any evidence, of falsifying the "Black Ledger" that listed millions in undisclosed payments to Manafort and setting the stage for his prosecution. But that document has never been disproven, as a story from The Intercept investigating Giuliani's claims found, and AntAC wasn't involved in its creation. The unfounded implication in both Giuliani's interviews and Solomon's opinion story is that the Obama administration's diplomats were either running interference for AntAC in exchange for an effort to take down Manafort, or were somehow just working generally on Soros' behalf. In a response published in The Hill and on its own website, AntAC co-founder Daria Kaleniuk pointed out a number of inconsistencies and omissions in Solomon's op-ed, alleging that he had confused key dates supposedly at the center of the opinion piece. Kaleniuk also claimed that Solomon's supposed key source, a former prosecutor, was using The Hill to retaliate against her group for its anti-corruption efforts. In an email to The Daily Beast, Kaleniuk described Giuliani's claims about her group as "bizarre allegations." Soros spokesman Michael Vachon also denied Giuliani's claims."Short answer is no, Soros was not somehow involved in cooking up charges against Trump in Ukraine," Vachon wrote in an email.Giuliani also alleges in his cable news appearances that Soros has offered a large payout to a former FBI agent who was involved in the Manafort investigation, supposedly via AntAC. "The FBI agent is now working for George Soros, making hundreds of thousands of dollars," Giuliani said in his Tuesday appearance on Fox News. That appears to be a reference to former FBI supervisor Karen Greenaway, who was part of the FBI's International Corruption Unit and the Manafort investigation. Greenaway has appeared at some anti-corruption events with AntAC staff. And her appearance is used in Solomon's article to suggest some nefarious connection between the group, Greenaway, and Soros. Greenaway retired from the FBI in February, and agreed to later join AntAC's board alongside prominent figures like "End of History" political scientist Francis Fukuyama and the former head of the EU's anti-fraud office. That appears to be where Giuliani is getting the idea that Greenaway is making "hundreds of thousands" of dollars from Soros, since the board is mentioned in Solomon's op-ed. But membership of the AntAC board is, alas, an unpaid position. Asked for proof of his claim that Greenaway is receiving large amounts of money from Soros, either through AntAC or another group, Giuliani referred only to vague sources in Ukraine. "That is what I was told by several people in Ukraine," Giuliani told The Daily Beast, adding later, "If it gets investigated we will find out." Giuliani declined to offer any more evidence of his claims against Greenaway, and accused The Daily Beast of trying to impede his "investigation" into Biden. "It seems to me your intent here is not to cover the inherent apparent corruption in the way this was done but to find any contradictions or create them," Giuliani wrote in a text message. Greenaway couldn't be reached for comment.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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| Cuban-American sues American Airlines, Latam Airlines for 'trafficking' in Havana airport. Posted: 25 Sep 2019 03:22 PM PDT  A Miami-based law firm filed a lawsuit on Wednesday on behalf of a Cuban-American who claims to be the rightful owner of Havana's international airport against American Airlines and the Latam Airlines Group for "trafficking" in the property he says the Cuban government stole. The case is one of a slew filed in U.S. courts since the Trump administration in May implemented a long-dormant and controversial law allowing U.S. citizens to sue foreign firms and Cuban entities over their use of properties expropriated after Cuba's 1959 revolution. In the lawsuit filed on Wednesday, law firm Rivero Mestre argues that Cuba's main airport, in Havana, was expropriated from the father of Jose Ramon Lopez Regueiro in 1959.
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| How Pakistan Has Won the War in Afghanistan (America Lost) Posted: 24 Sep 2019 09:15 PM PDT  Could it be?
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| Off-duty officer won't be charged in deadly Costco shooting Posted: 25 Sep 2019 04:36 PM PDT  An off-duty Los Angeles police officer will not be charged for fatally shooting a mentally ill man who had attacked him and his young son from behind in a California Costco, prosecutors said Wednesday. In announcing a grand jury's findings, Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin said Officer Salvador Sanchez believed he had been shot in the head and a shooter was on the loose when he and his son were knocked to the ground in the unprovoked assault. Hestrin said his office would not bring its own charges against Sanchez in the wake of the grand jury decision.
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| Chinese relatives marry, divorce 23 times in scheme Posted: 25 Sep 2019 07:35 AM PDT  Eleven Chinese relatives married and divorced each other 23 times within a month to receive apartments given out by the state, Chinese media reported.
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| 'Historic' September blizzard, bitter cold to wallop northern Rockies this weekend Posted: 25 Sep 2019 11:13 AM PDT !['Historic' September blizzard, bitter cold to wallop northern Rockies this weekend]( "'Historic' September blizzard, bitter cold to wallop northern Rockies this weekend") Heavy snow – up to 3 feet in some areas – and temperatures in the 20s and 30s will bring an early taste of winter to Montana, Idaho and Wyoming.
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| Why Mitch McConnell Could Be Key In the Trump Impeachment Battle Posted: 26 Sep 2019 01:28 PM PDT  Don't look for Mitch McConnell himself to join the sprint to impeaching President Donald Trump, Republicans inside and without his orbit said
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| American Farmers Are Main Winners from U.S.-Japan Trade Agreement Posted: 25 Sep 2019 10:42 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Terms of Trade is a daily newsletter that untangles a world embroiled in trade wars. Sign up here. U.S. farmers -- reeling from trade wars, low commodity prices and bad weather -- are set to be the main winners from President Donald Trump's initial accord with Japan.Under a trade agreement announced by Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Wednesday, the Asian country will lower or reduce tariffs on some $7.2 billion of American-grown farming products, according to the U.S. Trade Representative's office.Japan will reduce tariffs in stages on U.S. farm goods, such as beef and pork, USTR said in a statement Wednesday. The country will eliminate tariffs on $1.3 billion of U.S. agriculture products, including almonds, blueberries, sweet corn and sorghum, it said. It will also eliminate duties on commodities like ethanol, cheese and whey, frozen poultry and oranges, USTR said.American farmers, a key part of Trump's rural base, have found themselves in the cross-hairs as the president scrutinizes trade agreements. China slapped retaliatory tariffs on U.S.-grown agricultural products, including soybeans, in the more than year-long trade fight between Washington and Beijing. The administration has responded by announcing $28 billion in aid to farmers.At a news conference on Wednesday, Trump called the pact a "huge victory" for American agriculture."These are really big dollars for our farmers and for our ranchers," Trump said.Missing from the list of farm products is rice. Japan is a key export market for U.S. rice farmers, who have been under pressure after the Asian nation signed trade agreements with other countries including the revised 11-member Trans-Pacific Partnership.Japan is required to import 682,000 tons of rice under World Trade Organization commitments, with the U.S. typically making up about half of that amount, according to USA Rice. Since Japan signed the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, there's been more competition from Australian producers, the industry group said.USTR said that out of $14.1 billion in U.S. food and agricultural products exported to Japan in 2018, $5.2 billion already didn't have duties. It characterized this plan as the "first-stage" of the initial tariff agreement and said that more than 90% of U.S. food and agricultural exports to Japan will either be duty free or receive preferential treatment once it's implemented.To contact the reporter on this story: Mario Parker in Chicago at mparker22@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: James Attwood at jattwood3@bloomberg.net, Sarah McGregorFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Woman says she contracted deadly flesh-eating bacteria after getting a manicure at a nail salon: 'I'm just lucky to be alive' Posted: 26 Sep 2019 07:45 AM PDT  A woman in Tennessee said she contracted a rare, but deadly bacterial infection and nearly lost her hand after getting a manicure at a nail salon.
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| U.S. sanctions firm it says provides jet fuel to Russia in Syria Posted: 26 Sep 2019 07:30 AM PDT ![U.S. sanctions firm it says provides jet fuel to Russia in Syria]( "U.S. sanctions firm it says provides jet fuel to Russia in Syria") The United States on Thursday imposed sanctions on a firm it said was participating in a scheme to avoid U.S. sanctions while helping provide jet fuel to Russian forces in Syria. The U.S. Treasury Department said the newly sanctioned firm, Maritime Assistance LLC, was operating as a front company for OJSC Sovfracht, a company the United States had previously sanctioned in relation to operations in Ukraine. The Treasury also targeted three individuals it said were tied to Sovfracht, freezing any assets they may hold in the United States and barring Americans from dealing with them.
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| China Is Building Supersonic Drones to Spy on Navy Aircraft Carriers Posted: 26 Sep 2019 12:03 AM PDT  Report: The DR-8 reconnaissance drone has a role in assessing the strike impact of China's "aircraft carrier killer," the DF-21D anti-ship ballistic missile, and the DF-26 ballistic missile.
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| Correction: Liberty University-Falwell story Posted: 26 Sep 2019 12:41 PM PDT  In a story Sept. 25 about Liberty University, The Associated Press, relying on information from the school's accreditor, reported erroneously that the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges sent a letter asking for more information about recent news reports about Jerry Falwell Jr. A spokeswoman for the commission says that no letter has been sent but that the news reports are under review. RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — The accrediting body that oversees Liberty University is reviewing recent news reports that have questioned President Jerry Falwell Jr.'s leadership style and personal business interests, a spokeswoman told The Associated Press.
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| Iranian woman convicted of US sanctions violation released Posted: 26 Sep 2019 02:22 PM PDT  An Iranian woman sentenced in the United States for violating sanctions against Tehran was released and has returned home, her lawyer told AFP Thursday, following her country's unsuccessful attempt at a prisoner swap. A judge in Minneapolis sentenced Negar Ghodskani to 27 months in prison on Tuesday, but determined the time she had already spent in custody in Australia and the United States was enough to fulfill her punishment. Ghodskani "is now free in Iran with her family," her lawyer Robert Richman said in an email.
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| Boeing, FAA should fix 737 Max's automated systems so they don't confuse pilots, NTSB says Posted: 26 Sep 2019 01:16 PM PDT  The NTSB says the FAA should require Boeing to redesign its system in a way that is more intuitive, so pilots can take corrective action quickly.
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| 'OK' hand gesture, 'Bowlcut' added to civil rights group's online database of hate symbols Posted: 26 Sep 2019 07:10 AM PDT  The "OK" hand gesture, a mass killer's bowl-style haircut and an anthropomorphic moon wearing sunglasses are among 36 new entries in a Jewish civil rights group's online database of hate symbols used by white supremacists and other far-right extremists.
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| U.S. Ambassador Roped Into Rudy’s Quest to Smear Biden Posted: 24 Sep 2019 06:07 PM PDT  Alex WongRudy Giuliani's contacts with officials at the State Department as part of his controversial efforts to dig up dirt on Joe Biden in Ukraine are more extensive than have been publicly reported. And they raise additional questions about the degree to which senior officials throughout the Trump administration were involved in—or privy to—attempts by the president to muddy a top potential political opponent. Over the course of the past year, Giuliani has participated in a far-flung campaign by Trump allies to unearth damaging information about Biden and his son Hunter. As part of that effort, Giuliani pressed the Ukrainian government to investigate so-far unfounded allegations of corruption in the country involving the Bidens. At the time, Hunter Biden was accused of using his father's political standing to secure lucrative business opportunities abroad. Ukraine's prosecutor general would subsequently say he had no evidence of any wrongdoing.This summer, Giuliani briefed U.S. diplomats, including special representative for Ukraine Kurt Volker, on his work in Ukraine and his efforts to convince the administration of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate the Bidens. But Giuliani confirmed to The Daily Beast that he also briefed another diplomat: U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland. President Trump's lawyer said that he briefed both Volker (who he referred to as the "main one" in terms of his State contacts) and Sondland on multiple conference calls earlier this year about his progress in pursuing a Ukraine investigation.It wasn't exactly an unknown topic for Sondland. The ambassador was also closely involved with the Trump phone call to Zelensky in which Trump repeatedly pressured the Ukrainian president to investigate the Bidens. "I spoke with both of them before and after this conversation," Sondland told Ukraine's state-run news agency after the phone call. "The conversation was very successful. They found a common language immediately." The two leaders discussed Ukraine's civil war, energy security, and "the rule of law," Sondland said in July. That same day, Zelensky met with both Sondland and Volker to discuss Ukraine's war with pro-Russian rebels. It was a particularly poignant topic at the time; the U.S. was holding back on nearly $400 million worth of equipment promised to Kyiv to deter Moscow and her allies.Not Just Ukraine: Rudy and Bannon Try a Whole New Way to Slime BidenWhile Giuliani has said publicly that his overtures to the Ukrainians were brokered in part by the State Department, the specifics of his contacts with Foggy Bottom have remained opaque—including what, if anything, Secretary Mike Pompeo knew about the Ukraine work. According to two sources inside the department, U.S. diplomats, including Sondland and Volker, were aware of the details Giuliani's work in Ukraine on Biden as early as this spring. Those sources said senior officials at the department were read in on Giuliani's calls with Volker and Sondland."I've spoken to Kurt Volker the most about this, but have been on conference calls with [Sondland],." Giuliani said. Giuliani also claimed that he had not been asked to be put in touch with Sondland, but one day unexpectedly found himself "on a conference call with him" to discuss the Ukraine efforts.They weren't the only senior members of the Trump administration brought into the president's efforts to use a foreign government to squeeze a political foe. According to the Washington Post, Trump ordered Mick Mulvaney, his acting chief of staff and director of the Office of Management and Budget, to hit pause on hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid for Ukraine—just days before a now-infamous July phone call between Trump and Zelensky. Mulvaney's OMB deputies then directed officials Departments of Defense and State not to distribute the military aid. Giuliani's work on Ukraine began months earlier. The Trump attorney's work, done with the president's explicit blessing, involved chasing leads on possible origins of the Mueller investigation. It eventually led to his attempts to dig up dirt on the Biden family. This was all happening as Trump was preparing to head into a presidential election year, with Trump and his advisers viewing Biden, the 2020 Democratic frontrunner, as a prominent political enemy.Giuliani was planning to travel to Ukraine in May to look into allegations of corruption involving the Bidens there. The trip was pulled. But the president's lawyer met up with Andrei Yermak, a close adviser to Zelensky, in Spain last month. It was before that meeting that Giuliani said the department reached out to him and requested that he take a call with Yermak. And after the meeting, Giuliani told The Daily Beast he briefed Volker and Sondland.While Volker is known in diplomatic circles as the U.S. special representative for Ukraine, Ambassador Sondland has—until recently—maintained a lower-profile. The founder and chairman of Provenance Hotels, Sondland appeared to be uncomfortable with his status as a Trump supporter during the 2016 campaign. Sondland appeared on a list of bundlers for Trump distributed by the RNC in July 2016 and was listed as a co-host of a Seattle fundraiser for the Trump campaign. When the Seattle Times reported Sondland's participation in the fundaiser he and wife , said that Trump's treatment of the family of a Muslim Gold Star family, they were backing out of the event. Trump's "constantly evolving positions diverge from their personal beliefs and values on so many levels" that the couple could no longer support him, according to a spokesperson.But as The Intercept subsequently reported, Sondland appeared to have a change of heart after Trump won the election. The hotel magnate donated a million dollars to the Trump inaugural committee using limited liability corporations which masked his name from the list of Trump contributors. The move prompted a Federal Election Commission complaint from campaign finance watchdog, the Campaign Legal Center, but Sondland's relationship with the Trump administration wasn't harmed by his apparent discomfort—Trump nominated him for U.S. ambassador to the European Union in May 2018. Sondland attended Zelenskiy's presidential inauguration as part of the U.S. delegation in May 2019 shortly after Giuliani announced he was canceling plans to visit the country in pursuit of dirt on the Biden family. Sondland is known inside the State Department as key to helping the administration promote better U.S.-Ukraine trade relations. Together with U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell, Sondland has spoken out against the Nordstream 2 pipeline project, saying it undermines Ukraine's sovereignty by bypassing the country and cutting off its ability to export natural gas to Europe. In an op-ed Grenell, Sondland and U.S. Ambassador to Denmark Carla Sands said the pipeline would "bring more than just Russian gas." "Russian leverage and influence will also flow under the Baltic Sea and into Europe, and the pipeline will enable Moscow to further undermine Ukrainian sovereignty and stability," the op-ed said.Ukraine Likely to Reopen Probe of Hunter Biden Firm: SourcesThe State Department did not respond to a request for comment for this story and did not provide details about whether it had reached out to Giuliani to take a call with Yermak. But it appears the State Department and other Trump administration officials were well on their way to establishing a connection with the Zelensky team. By the time of Giuliani's debriefings this August, leading Zelensky ally Ivan Bakanov had already visited Washington twice—once in April and once following Zelensky's inauguration. Bakanov, who now heads the country's security service, met with members of Congress, including Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH), one of the leaders of the Ukraine caucus, and officials inside the administration, including Fiona Hill, then who at the time was served as the top White House advisor for Russia. Bakanov also met George Kent, the Deputy Assistant Secretary in the European and Eurasian Bureau at the State Department.Volker and Sondland had also visited Kyiv twice—once in May and the other time coming on the heels of Trump's July 25 phone call with Zelensky. They went to Ukraine with Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) and Energy Secretary Rick Perry and briefed the White House on their visit just days later. Sondland and Volker met with Zelensky July 26 to express "unwavering support for Ukraine's democracy", according to a U.S. embassy tweet.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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| Woman who rescued kitten on busy road surprised to learn it is not a kitten at all Posted: 26 Sep 2019 11:21 AM PDT  A Tennessee woman who believed she was rescuing a lost kitten was surprised when she found out the creature was actually a baby bobcat.
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| View Photos of the 2020 Nissan Titan Posted: 26 Sep 2019 08:15 AM PDT |
| Emaciated elephant forced to perform during religious festival in Sri Lanka has died Posted: 25 Sep 2019 09:14 AM PDT  A sickly elephant whose photos went viral in August after she was forced to walk in a Sri Lanka festival, despite her skeletal frame, died on Tuesday.
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| Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Next Big Effort: Tackling Poverty Posted: 25 Sep 2019 04:51 AM PDT  WASHINGTON -- For a House freshman and political neophyte, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York has proved to be remarkably adept at shaping the debate on her Democratic Party's left flank, boosting the visibility of single-payer health care through her support of "Medicare for All" and elevating climate change with her Green New Deal.On Wednesday, Ocasio-Cortez hopes to do for the nation's poor what she has done with health care and climate politics with the unveiling of an ambitious anti-poverty package that, among other things, would cap annual rent increases, ensure full access to social welfare programs for people with convictions and unauthorized immigrants, pressure federal contractors to offer better wages and benefits, and update official poverty measurements by taking into account geographic cost-of-living variations and access to health insurance, child care, and "new necessities" such as internet access."I think this really starts to approach, head-on, economic injustice in America," Ocasio-Cortez said. "We are at our richest point that we've ever been, but we've also been our most unequal."She added, "It's something that we have to talk about."Since defeating Rep. Joe Crowley, a senior member of the Democratic leadership, during the 2018 primaries, Ocasio-Cortez, 29, has used her social media following -- 4 million followers on Instagram and more than 5 million on Twitter -- and strong ties to the party's progressive wing to shift the party leftward. Her Green New Deal would move the nation's energy economy rapidly away from fossil fuels, with vague promises of guaranteed job security. Medicare for All would replace all private insurance with one government-run health care system like Britain's or Canada's.Such ideas would have once been dismissed as fringe initiatives on the far left, but many members of Congress and Democratic presidential candidates have rushed to embrace them, seeking the approval of Ocasio-Cortez and her supporters."She's a lightning rod," said Dianne Enriquez, a director at the Center for Popular Democracy, a liberal advocacy group. "I think the boldness, the ability to be innovative, the willingness to go out on a limb for what she believes is right is really what makes her an ideal champion for a lot of the issues that have gone largely ignored at the federal level."Establishment Democrats have worried that Ocasio-Cortez has moved the conversation too far to the left too fast, becoming the policy face of the party and jeopardizing the political futures of more moderate members elected last year in Republican-leaning districts.But in recent weeks, Ocasio-Cortez has pushed out her chief of staff, who had picked fights with moderate Democrats, and moved her combative communications director to her campaign. Unlike the Green New Deal, which is a gauzy congressional resolution, her anti-poverty initiative, "A Just Society," is six fully formed bills, written in legislative language -- another sign of serious legislative intent.She had good reason to make overtures to fellow House Democrats, who had grown weary of her staff's antagonism. Matt Bennett, the executive vice president of Third Way, a centrist Democratic organization, said Ocasio-Cortez is "vastly more influential" than most freshman House members.But, he added: "Legislating is an inherently group activity. The question is, if she wants to move this legislation, or any that she's sponsoring, can she attract co-sponsors and votes? We'll see if she has the ability to do that as well."As the Green New Deal looked to Franklin D. Roosevelt's signature initiative, "A Just Society" echoes Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society."With the Green New Deal, we weren't just talking about climate change; we're talking about the systems that got us to climate change," Ocasio-Cortez said. "We're addressing root causes.""And similarly," she added, "with our Just Society package, we're not simply addressing poverty or wages. We're addressing some of the basic structural reasons that are resulting in those outcomes."Nearly 40 million people in the United States live in poverty. Even middle-class workers face a shortage of affordable housing and stagnant wages. The problems are worse for people of color, including immigrants, and people who were formerly incarcerated. The Trump administration's response has been to tighten access to some federally funded low-income programs.The bills in Ocasio-Cortez's package seek to change the federal response. She conceded that because Democrats do not control the Senate or the White House, her intention is to lay "down a vision for when we take back both of those bodies."The Recognizing Real Poverty Act requires the secretary of health and human services, in collaboration with the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, to work with the National Academy of Sciences to change the poverty line, adjusting for family size and geographic differences in the cost of goods and services. The poverty threshold would be raised to account for health insurance costs, work expenses, child care, and consideration of new necessities such as internet access.Poverty has been "a taboo word in our politics for so long," Ocasio-Cortez said. Even if they are officially above the poverty line, there are "people who are living a quality of life on par" with the impoverished, she added, "but you wouldn't see that based on our numbers because we choose not to measure it."Enriquez said housing has not been a central topic of the Democratic presidential debates, even though several contenders have released full-fledged affordable housing plans. She said she hopes that Ocasio-Cortez can help elevate the issue with one of the bills in her package, the Place to Prosper Act, which would provide tenant protections and regulate corporate landlords.That bill would cap rent increases at 3% a year and restrict the reasons that landlords could evict tenants. For instance, tenants could be evicted only if they have not paid rent for two or more consecutive months or have wrecked a property, or if the landlord needs a unit to house an immediate relative. The bill would prohibit discrimination because of the source of a tenant's income and would provide funding for tenant legal representatives.The act would also mandate that landlords keep rental units in good repair. It would allocate $10 billion for fiscal years 2020 through 2029 for removing toxins.Housing in America "is a crisis," she said, "and it's not one that we are discussing enough at the level that we need to be discussing it."Two other bills, The Embrace Act and The Mercy in Re-Entry Act, would outlaw the denial of any federal benefit because of immigration status or a past criminal conviction.The Uplift Our Workers Act would create a "worker-friendliness score" for federal contractors which would consider, for example, whether the contractor offers paid overtime for those who work more than 40 hours per week, or provides predictable scheduling, paid sick leave and paid parental and family leave.None of this will be enacted in the foreseeable future."No one questions her ability to raise awareness around an issue," Bennett said, "just because she wields her social media and mainstream media platforms very effectively. But that's not the same as getting votes on a bill."Ocasio-Cortez acknowledged the package's ambitions. "I don't think there's any shortage of obstacles that we have ahead of us, but I don't think that we not do things just because they're hard," she said. "In fact, sometimes the hard things to do are the most worthwhile."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
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| Army sergeant faces charges in fatal West Point accident Posted: 26 Sep 2019 06:45 AM PDT ![Army sergeant faces charges in fatal West Point accident]( "Army sergeant faces charges in fatal West Point accident") A staff sergeant is facing charges in a rollover accident that killed a U.S. Military Academy cadet during training exercises this summer, Army officials confirmed Thursday. Staff Sgt. Ladonies P. Strong was charged Sept. 13 with multiple violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, including involuntary manslaughter, negligent homicide and reckless operation of a vehicle. The sergeant, assigned to Fort Benning in Georgia, also was charged with prevention of authorized seizure of property and two specifications of dereliction of duty, according to a release from the Army.
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| The defense secretary praised the crew of an attack submarine that hasn't been on a mission since 2015 Posted: 25 Sep 2019 02:12 PM PDT  Defense Secretary Mark Esper visited the nuclear-powered attack sub USS Boise on Wednesday, calling it an "accomplished warship."
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| Khashoggi murder 'happened under my watch,' Saudi crown prince tells PBS Posted: 25 Sep 2019 10:39 PM PDT  Saudi Arabia's crown prince said he bears responsibility for the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi last year by Saudi operatives "because it happened under my watch," according to a PBS documentary to be broadcast next week. It is the first time that Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom's de facto ruler, has publicly indicated personal accountability for the killing inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul by operatives seen as close to him. The CIA and some Western governments have said they believe he ordered it, but Saudi officials say he had no role.
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| Pakistan overturns man's blasphemy conviction after 17 years on death row Posted: 26 Sep 2019 07:22 AM PDT  A man sentenced to death in 2002 for blasphemy and who spent 17 years awaiting execution has had his conviction overturned by Pakistan's Supreme Court, his lawyer told AFP on Thursday. Wajih-ul-Hassan, a Muslim, also spent a year in jail before his conviction. Blasphemy is a hugely sensitive issue in Pakistan, where even unproven allegations of insulting Islam can lead to assassinations and lynchings.
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| How Trump’s obsession with Clinton’s emails could come back to bite him now he has his own server issues Posted: 26 Sep 2019 12:12 PM PDT  Donald Trump has made sure that nobody who even remotely follows his actions has been able to forget the scandal of Hillary Clinton using a private server to store emails.The president has repeatedly abused the former secretary of state since facing Clinton during the 2016 election campaign, with Trump supporters still chanting "lock her up" at rallies held by Trump close to three years into his presidency.
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| Tesla squad car almost runs out of battery during a high-speed police pursuit Posted: 26 Sep 2019 08:11 AM PDT  A Tesla Model S is being piloted by police in the San Francisco-area. One of the cars almost ran out of battery power during a high speed chase.
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| Death row inmate executed for killing his wife and stepsons, raping stepdaughters Posted: 26 Sep 2019 07:57 AM PDT  A death row inmate has been executed for killing his wife and stepsons before raping his stepdaughters. Robert Sparks, 45, was given a lethal injection at 6 p.m. on Wednesday at a death chamber in Huntsville, Texas, for the 2007 murders.
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| Enormous shark fin spotted off Florida coast revealed to be a hoax Posted: 26 Sep 2019 01:16 PM PDT  Beachgoers can rest easy after wildlife officials have reviewed several reported "shark sightings" and deemed them fake.
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| Zimbabwe drama around Mugabe's burial place continues Posted: 26 Sep 2019 10:28 AM PDT  Zimbabwe's former president Robert Mugabe now will be buried at his rural home, a government spokesman said Thursday, the latest twist in the drama around the ex-strongman's final resting place. Tensions have been evident between the family and President Emmerson Mnangagwa, a once-trusted deputy who helped oust Mugabe from power in late 2017 as thousands cheered in the streets of the capital, Harare. The burial location of one of Africa's longest serving leaders has been a source of mystery and contention since Mugabe's death earlier this month at age 95 in Singapore.
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| Lockheed to begin supplying F-16 wings from Indian plant in 2020 Posted: 26 Sep 2019 07:44 AM PDT  Lockheed Martin will begin supplying wings for its F-16 combat jets from a facility in southern India from next year, a senior executive said on Thursday. Lockheed is bidding for a contract, estimated at more than $15 billion, to supply the Indian Air Force with 114 combat planes and has offered to shift its F-16 production line from the United States to India. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government is pushing a Make-in-India programme under which it wants global firms, including in the defence sector, to set up manufacturing centres in India to build a domestic industrial base and create jobs.
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| 'Jesus Christ! I thought we'd get four': Pensioner cruise drug smugglers sentenced to eight years in Portuguese prison Posted: 26 Sep 2019 07:31 AM PDT  A British pensioner whispered "Jesus Christ! I wasn't expecting more than four" to his wife in court yesterday/THURS as they were jailed for eight years each for smuggling £1 million pounds of cocaine on a luxury Caribbean cruise. Three judges convicted ex-chef Roger Clarke, 72, and his former secretary wife Sue, 71, of drugs trafficking after a one-day trial at Lisbon's main criminal court. They were told they will serve their sentences in Portugal instead of being sent back to Britain as a state prosecutor had requested. Lead judge Margarida Alves told the couple: "We are totally convinced you knew the contents of these four cases. You did what you did not because you are drug consumers but because you wanted to make an easy profit." Mr Clarke held hands with his wife as they learnt their fate through a translator before blurting out in shock at the length of his sentence. As he left court in handcuffs with a police escort he told a reporter: "Someone should come to see me. I would like to tell the real story." The elderly couple were arrested on board cruise liner Marco Polo when it docked in Lisbon on December 4 2018 after Portuguese police acting on a tip-off from Britain's National Crime Agency discovered nine kilos of cocaine hidden inside the lining of four suitcases Roger had been handed on the sunshine island of St Lucia. They protested their innocence last Tuesday as they went on trial after nine months in separate remand prisons in the Portuguese capital. The former Bromley, Kent-born chef told the court he had no idea the cases had drugs inside and was taking them back to the UK for a friend called Lee who had promised to pay him £800 and bragged he could sell them for a massive profit at Harrods. Roger and Sue Clarke arrive at the court in Lisbon Credit: RAFAEL MARCHANTE/ REUTERS He said UK-based Jamaican businessman 'Lee' and another associate called Dee, who he named in court as George Wilmot, had asked him to help negotiate the import of exotic fruit during Caribbean cruise stopovers and he brought the suitcases back for them as a sideline. State prosecutor Manuela Brito rubbished his court claim he had been "betrayed" by people he trusted and insisted the Brits were drug mules who used the four cruises they took to South America in two years as a front for their crimes. And she questioned how they could pay for the cruises costing around £18,000 when they survived on a joint monthly pension of £1150 they had to pay £445 in rent from. Mr Clarke, who said after his arrest Lee paid for the last trip but at trial claimed they had paid through "savings from hard work," gave a cabin steward one of the old suitcases the couple boarded the Marco Polo with at the start of their cruise in Tilbury, Essex, and gifted the other two to the unidentified man he claimed handed him the new holdalls Mrs Clarke admitted during their trial she had been with her husband when they took two of the four cases containing the drugs onto their cruise ship, but insisted she only knew her husband's business associates socially and never accompanied him when he negotiated fruit sales. Mr Clarke confirmed in court they had both served prison sentences in Norway after being convicted in 2010 for trafficking 240 kilos of cannabis resin, claiming he had done a first drugs run to clear debts and was made to do more with his wife as cover after being threatened with violence by gangster paymasters if he stopped. Police pictures show the suit cases being taken apart to show the hidden Cocaine Credit: JA/SF Roger, who was born Roger Button but changed his surname to Clarke after finishing his prison sentence, was jailed for nearly five year and Sue for three years nine months. The expat couple lied to friends in Guardamar del Segura near Alicante where they lived and were the life and soul of local bars and members of a golf club, by telling they had served time in prison for cigarette smuggling. They were warned ahead of last Tuesday's trial they faced up to 12 years in jail. The crime they were convicted of carries a prison sentence of four to 12 years in Portugal. The lead judge told the court as she announced the verdict and sentence today/yesterday (THURS) Mr Clarke's claims about helping his mystery business associates with their fruit and suitcase business "didn't deserve any credibility." She added: "Any person involved in importing fruit would do their business directly instead of going through friends on cruise ships. "It's not credible either that they would carry four cases for someone and throw away their existing cases with the justification they they've got no room in their cabin." Insisting their age and life experience should have made them suspicious about the idea of bringing holdalls back to Europe for someone else, especially as convicted drugs smugglers, she added: "This court is convinced the accused did what they did consciously and of their own free will and knew what they were carrying." Roger, dressed in a blue jumper, blue shirt and black trousers, shook his head in disbelief as he realised he was not departing court a free man, leaving one hand on his wife's lap as he raised the other to his forehead. His wife, wearing a white shirt with blue stripes and black trousers, clasped his hand tightly but made no comment. They were led away from Lisbon's Campus de Justica with a police escort and driven away to the same prisons where they have spent the last nine months - Roger to EP Lisboa which another Brit who was in jail with him has describe as the "worst" prison in Europe and Sue to nearby Tires Women's Prison. Their defence lawyer Susana Paisana said she was planning to appeal. Roger and Sue Clarke at court for the final day of their trial Credit: Solarpix.com Portuguese police insisted during their trial the couple had not cooperated by giving them the information they needed to identify the criminals paying them to do drugs runs. It is not known if British police or other crimefighting agencies have managed to identify the men Mr Clarke pointed the finger at. Although the street value of the nine kilos of cocaine the couple were caught with was initially put at £2 million, experts later valued it at around half that. Portuguese prosecutors say they believe the Clarkes were making between £18,000 and £26,500 plus exes per cruise they took so they could smuggle drugs into Europe. Britain's NCA said they believed the couple were planning to offload the cocaine in Portugal but Policia Judiciaria inspector Carla Nunes told their trial she thought the final destination was the UK. The police chief accused the Clarkes in a damning pre-trial report of being drug mules who used their world cruises as a cover for their criminal activities. Mr Clarke fought back tears as he told the court before the judges retired to consider their verdict last week: ""We have lost everything now since we have been in custody. "They have stopped our pensions, my family has sold our car to raise money for our lawyers, we have lost all our possessions. We have nothing."
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| 2020 Vision Wednesday: Trump says impeachment will be 'a positive for me in the election.' Will it? Posted: 25 Sep 2019 08:44 AM PDT  There are many things that can derail a political career. Being found in bed with "a dead girl or a live boy" (in the immortal phrasing of Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards) is one. Impeachment is usually considered another. Yet there was President Trump on Tuesday, telling reporters at the United Nations that impeachment will be "a positive for me in the election."
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| In Syria, a vast underground hideout housed rebel base Posted: 26 Sep 2019 02:56 AM PDT  Tunnels run for hundreds of metres, connecting caves strewn with mattresses that formed what the Syrian army and its Russian allies say was a vast rebel underground network. The road leading to the entrance of the tunnels in Lataminah in northwestern Syria is lined with the charred shells of cars and armoured vehicles. According to the Russian army, which organised a press tour of the site for dozens of journalists, the network of caves dug into a rocky outcrop could shelter up to 5,000 people.
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| 3 of the Oldest Weapons in the Pentagon’s Inventory Posted: 26 Sep 2019 08:00 AM PDT  If it ain't broke, why fix it?
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| Details emerge on Mama June Shannon's court appearance after crack cocaine arrest Posted: 25 Sep 2019 10:43 AM PDT  Mama June Shannon, who is reportedly estranged from her children, and her boyfriend are facing felony charges.
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| View Audi RS Q3 and RS Q3 Sportback Photos Posted: 26 Sep 2019 08:35 AM PDT |
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