| Aides claim Trump the true 'whistleblower' in Ukraine scandal Posted: 29 Sep 2019 04:17 PM PDT  Top aides to Donald Trump sought Sunday to turn the tables on Democrats pushing for his impeachment, insisting the president was the true "whistleblower" in urging Ukraine to investigate the son of rival Joe Biden for corruption. Trump's Republican allies have closed ranks as he battles the deepest crisis of his presidency, flatly denying he abused his power and seeking to discredit the anonymous whistleblower who exposed the scandal.
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| 'Alarming' rise in far-Right weapons seizures prompts Germany to beef up police powers Posted: 29 Sep 2019 06:25 AM PDT  The German government says it will respond to an "alarming" rise in weapons seizures during raids on far-Right extremists by handing police more powers to fight radicalism. Close to 1,100 weapons were confiscated in the course of investigations into Right-wing crime in 2018, marking a 61 per cent rise on the previous year when 676 weapons were found, new statistics show. Horst Seehofer, the interior minister, said the figures represent an "alarming increase" but also show that "our investigations are having an impact and authorities are keeping a close eye on the scene." Mr Seehofer, a member of the conservative Christian Social Union party, said police capabilities would be beefed up in response. "I am determined to strengthen the security services both in personnel and in structure and to give them the necessary legal tools to cope with this threat," he stated. A veteran law-and-order man, Mr Seehofer has previously faced criticism from civil liberties groups for introducing sweeping police powers in his native Bavaria which included abolishing time limits on police detentions. The weapons listed as being seized during raids last year included hand guns, rifles and knives, as well as pepper spray, fireworks and "dangerous tools". No detailed breakdown of the numbers of each type of weapon has yet been released. German police have in the past faced criticism for using a loose definition of what constitutes a weapon. Raids on the radical Left in recent years have led to confiscations of bricks and household implements as police sought to up political pressure on Berlin's militant squatter scene. Matthias Quent, an extremism expert at the Institute for Democracy and Civil Society, told ARD that the new figures showed the far-Right are "massively arming themselves". "Their aim is to intimidate society and drive out ethnic minorities. Parts of the scene even want a civil war," Mr Quent said. Coming just months after the murder of a politician from Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats by a suspected far-right fanatic, the news adds to concern about rising militancy. Walter Lübcke, mayor of Kassel, was shot at point blank range outside his house in June. Weeks later police arrested Stephan Ernst, a man with a long history of involvement in the neo-Nazi scene. In the course of investigations, police found 46 guns at Mr Ernst's home and place of work. While it is still unclear how many of the weapons were held legally, investigators have reportedly told the home affairs committee that they were "hidden professionally".
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| Saudi King’s Bodyguard Is Killed in ‘Personal Dispute’ Posted: 28 Sep 2019 11:54 PM PDT ![Saudi King's Bodyguard Is Killed in 'Personal Dispute']( "Saudi King's Bodyguard Is Killed in 'Personal Dispute'") (Bloomberg) -- A prominent bodyguard of Saudi King Salman was killed following a personal dispute, state-run media reported.Major General Abdulaziz Al Faghem died of gunshot wounds in hospital after a friend shot him at Al Shatti district of the Red Sea city of Jeddah, the state-run Saudi Press Agency reported on Sunday, citing the spokesman of the Mecca region police. The incident took place at a mutual friend's house, he said.The assailant, who also wounded the mutual friend and a Filipino worker, was killed by security forces after refusing to surrender, the spokesman said. Five security personnel were also wounded, he said.Al Faghem, who had often been seen pictured with King Salman and the late King Abdullah, was widely described as "the kings' walking stick." His name was trending on Twitter in Saudi Arabia on Sunday.To contact the reporters on this story: Fahad Alzahrani in Dubai at falzahrani1@bloomberg.net;Nadeem Hamid in Washington at nhamid3@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Chua Baizhen at bchua14@bloomberg.net, Alaa ShahineFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Thousands rally in Moscow to demand release of jailed protesters Posted: 29 Sep 2019 03:33 AM PDT  More than 20,000 Russians took to the streets of Moscow on Sunday to demand the release of protesters jailed over the summer in what opponents of the Kremlin say is a campaign to stifle dissent. The protesters were arrested at rallies that flared in July when opposition politicians were barred from a local election. Allegations of police brutality and what many Muscovites saw as harsh jail sentences have sparked an unusual public outcry.
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| 'A great cop': NYPD Officer Brian Mulkeen killed in the Bronx, possibly with his own gun Posted: 29 Sep 2019 12:55 PM PDT !['A great cop': NYPD Officer Brian Mulkeen killed in the Bronx, possibly with his own gun]( "'A great cop': NYPD Officer Brian Mulkeen killed in the Bronx, possibly with his own gun") Officer Brian Mulkeen was fatally shot, possibly with his own gun, in the Bronx during a struggle with an armed assailant, police said.
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| Meghan Markle Privately Visited a Memorial to Murdered 19-Year-Old South African Student Uyinene Mrwetyana Posted: 28 Sep 2019 12:01 PM PDT  Her death launched a wave of outrage and protests
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| Family sues Best Buy after the death of a 75-year-old woman who police say was bludgeoned and set on fire by a man delivering her washing machine Posted: 27 Sep 2019 06:11 PM PDT  Evelyn Udell's family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Best Buy and two delivery contractors.
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| Harvard president compares fundraising changes to abolition of slavery Posted: 29 Sep 2019 01:32 PM PDT  * Larry Bacow apologises for remark about 13th amendment * Colleges should not try to 'own' wealthy alumniThe Widener Library in Harvard Yard at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Photograph: Charles Krupa/APThe president of Harvard University has apologized for likening the 13th amendment to the US constitution – which abolished slavery – to changes in how colleges raise funds.On Tuesday, the Boston Globe reported, Larry Bacow suggested that as the 13th amendment outlawed slavery, wealthy alumni could no longer be "owned" by their alma maters.The comment came during a meeting of "hundreds" of fundraising and alumni relations staffers, in a discussion of a fundraising campaign that encourages graduates to donate money to schools to which they might not have ties.If individual schools try to "own" well-heeled alumni, Barcow was reported to have said, that could place schools which produce civil servants, for example, at a disadvantage."I regret that these comments caused offense," Bacow wrote in an internal email which Harvard provided to the Guardian. "That certainly was not my intent."He added: "People, appropriately, have high expectations for their leaders and their choice of language. In fact, you have high expectations for me as your president. I promise to learn from this experience."Harvard did not comment further.Some staffers felt Bacow's analogy was "tone deaf"."This was not an appropriate comparison," one told the Globe.According to the Washington Post, Harvard has a "history with slavery" and attempts to atone have included the installation of a plaque in honor of four people who were enslaved there in the 1700s. In 2017, Harvard hosted a symposium that examined the relationship between slavery and higher-education institutions.Bacow's comments come on the heels of controversy over the college's acceptance of donations from the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who killed himself in jail earlier this year.Harvard accepted some $9m prior to Epstein's 2008 guilty plea to prostitution charges in Florida. The institution rejected a donation after his conviction. The politically connected financier did not attend Harvard.Earlier this month, Bacow wrote in an email to students and faculty that Epstein's behavior was "repulsive and reprehensible" and "raises significant questions about how institutions like ours review and vet donors".Bacow said $186,000 from Epstein's donations remained and would be distributed to organizations that help human victims of sexual assault and human trafficking.
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| Biden Campaign Demands TV News Execs Stop Booking Giuliani Posted: 29 Sep 2019 12:09 PM PDT  Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/ReutersJoe Biden's presidential campaign made an extraordinary request to executives of top news channels on Sunday, asking them to no longer book Donald Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, on their programs. In a letter addressed to the heads of the major news and cable networks, as well as top news anchors, two top Biden campaign advisers make the case that by peddling routine falsehoods about the work of Biden and his son Hunter in Ukraine, Giuliani's presence on the airwaves is editorially untenable. "We are writing today with grave concern that you continue to book Rudy Giuliani on your air to spread false, debunked conspiracy theories on behalf of Donald Trump. While you often fact check his statements in real time during your discussions, that is no longer enough. By giving him your air time, you are allowing him to introduce increasingly unhinged, unfounded and desperate lies into the national conversation," the letter from top aides Anita Dunn and Kate Bedingfield reads."We write to demand that in service to the facts, you no longer book Rudy Giuliani, a surrogate for Donald Trump who has demonstrated that he will knowingly and willingly lie in order to advance his own narrative," the letter continues.The Biden campaign letter goes on to note that "Giuliani is not a public official, and holds no public office that would entitle him to opine on the nation's airwaves." And it demands that if the former mayor is put on the airwaves, "an equivalent amount of time" be given "to a surrogate for the Biden campaign."In a text response to The Daily Beast, Giuliani said the Biden letter "sounds like the usual left wing censorship. Everything I say is supported by such as today, affidavits and statements. They are the ones who have covered up pay for play for at least 5 years." In a tweet, Trump 2020 campaign manager Brad Parscale quipped, "Can we request the removal of Democrats on TV that push hoaxes? Wait, but then who would do the interviews?"Political campaigns have complained about bookings since the advent of politically-oriented television news. But rarely, if ever, has one campaign made an affirmative demand that a top aide to a rival candidate no longer be given a platform. Trump-Supporting Lawyers diGenova and Toensing Teamed Up With Giuliani to Dig Up Ukraine Dirt on Biden: ReportBut Giuliani has pushed the bounds in ways few guests have before. The former New York City mayor and presidential candidate has been a repeat guest in recent days on numerous networks, during which he has peddled debunked-arguments about Hunter Biden's work in Ukraine and Joe Biden's efforts to remove a prosecutor in that country. During the course of those appearances, Giuliani has ignored that the prosecutor was facing pressure from much of the global community to resign and that the case against Hunter Biden—who was serving on the board of the Ukrainian gas company Burisma—was dormant during the time Joe Biden demanded that the prosecutor step down.From there, Giuliani's appearances have delved into the conspiratorial, so much so that Trump's former top homeland security adviser, Tom Bossert, admonished him during his own news hit on Sunday. According to a Biden campaign source, the letter was sent to all of the major network heads including NBC President Noah Oppenheim, CBS News President Susan Zirinsky and CNN President Jeff Zucker, along with hosts like CNN's Jake Tapper, NBC's Chuck Todd and Fox News' Chris Wallace. While some Democrats have reveled in Giuliani's news tour, noting that he has managed to implicate several top State Department officials in his scheme to pressure Ukraine leadership to dig up dirt on Hunter Biden, the Biden campaign clearly does not share that schadenfreude.Pompeo Grapples for Ways to Outlast Hurricane Rudy"Your obligation is to provide the American people with an informed, fact-based and responsible coverage and debate of critical issues," their letter reads. "Rudy Giuliani has made very clear that his only obligation is to protect Donald Trump, and that he will willingly lie to do so. While you have been aggressive in pushing back on him in real time, it is well known that the dedicated liar always has the advantage, pushing out outlandish falsehoods and disinformation in the knowledge that it is hard for the corrections to catch up."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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| Hong Kong crisis threatens to spoil China's 70th party Posted: 29 Sep 2019 01:36 AM PDT  China's tightly choreographed 70th birthday bash next week risks being upstaged by pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, which offer a starkly different take on the strength and power of the Communist Party being feted in Beijing. As President Xi Jinping gets ready to preside over a huge military parade and gala event on Tuesday, the former British colony is in tumult over the erosion of its special freedoms by Beijing. Hong Kong has been rocked by the worst political unrest since its handover to China in 1997, with another round of clashes between protesters and riot police on Saturday and Sunday.
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| Ivory Coast Leader Wants New Generation to Take Over Posted: 29 Sep 2019 02:32 AM PDT ![Ivory Coast Leader Wants New Generation to Take Over]( "Ivory Coast Leader Wants New Generation to Take Over") (Bloomberg) -- Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara is in favor of "handing over to the new generation" in next year's presidential polls, but did not rule out running in the election.The 78-year-old, who has just over a year left of his second term in office, was addressing reporters in his hometown of Dimbokro after a four-day visit to the surrounding region.Ouattara addressed plans to amend the constitution to include an age limit for presidential hopefuls, saying "it's part of the evolution of our country," 75% of the population is aged under 30 and "we can't remain indifferent." But he also said "don't interpret this as me not being a candidate."His fiercest political rivals include Henri Konan Bedie , 85, who broke away from the ruling coalition last year after Ouattara claimed a new constitution adopted in 2016 allows him to seek a third mandate if he wishes.Another, Laurent Gbagbo, 74, was acquitted by the International Criminal Court on charges of crimes against humanity committed after a disputed vote in 2010, but prosecutors are appealing the ruling.(Corrects spelling of Dimbokro in second paragraph.)To contact the reporter on this story: Leanne de Bassompierre in Abidjan at ldebassompie@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Andre Janse van Vuuren at ajansevanvuu@bloomberg.net, Jacqueline Mackenzie, Keith CampbellFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| U.S. and Nazi Soldiers Joined Forces for One World War II Battle Posted: 28 Sep 2019 03:33 PM PDT  A strange time.
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| Countries that make weapons of war foment migration but refuse refugees, Pope Francis says Posted: 29 Sep 2019 04:31 AM PDT  Pope Francis on Sunday scolded countries that produce weapons for wars fought elsewhere and then refuse to take in refugees fleeing the very same conflicts. The 82-year-old Argentine pope, whose parents were of Italian immigrant stock, has made the defense of migrants and refugees a plank of his pontificate and he has often clashed over immigration policy with U.S. President Donald Trump and populist anti-immigrant politicians in Europe. Francis has also criticized the arms trade repeatedly and his sermon for 40,000 people in St. Peter's Square on Sunday linked the issues of war and migration as the Roman Catholic Church marked its World Day of Migrants and Refugees.
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| Mitch McConnell's mastery Posted: 29 Sep 2019 03:35 AM PDT ![Mitch McConnell's mastery]( "Mitch McConnell's mastery") The Kentucky Republican could go down as one of the most influential Senate majority leaders in history. Why? Here's everything you need to know:What is McConnell's strength? As the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell controls the calendar for the upper chamber, giving him the ability to block legislation by simply refusing to schedule a vote. The Kentucky Republican has combined that authority -- and intricate understanding of Senate rules and procedure -- with ruthless partisanship to ensure that Republican-backed legislation and nominees are fast-tracked while all Democratic priorities are blocked. Democrats complain that McConnell has turned the Senate into a "legislative graveyard" by not allowing bills passed by the House of Representatives to even be considered on the Senate floor. During the Trump presidency, McConnell has focused on confirming judges to reshape the country through the courts. So far, the Senate has confirmed more than 150 lifetime judges appointed by President Trump. Conservative legal activist Leonard Leo of the Federalist Society says McConnell's impact on the courts will be felt for decades to come, describing him as "the most consequential majority leader, certainly, in modern history."How did he get his start? McConnell began his political career in the GOP's once influential liberal wing. As a college student, he wrote an op-ed against segregationist politics, arguing that a "strict interpretation" of the Constitution was "inherently evil" if it was used to deny basic civil rights. He even came out in favor of "truly effective campaign finance reform." In 1977, he won election as judge-executive for Jefferson County, which encompasses Louisville, campaigning in favor of collective bargaining rights for public workers, and for abortion rights. Although not personally charismatic, McConnell showed fundraising savvy and keen political instincts. For his 1984 Senate run, he hired high-profile Republican political consultant Roger Ailes, the future founder of Fox News. Ailes created a devastatingly effective ad depicting bloodhounds searching for Democratic incumbent Walter "Dee" Huddleston, exaggerating his record of missed Senate votes. McConnell won the election by 5,000 votes, about 1 percent of the total, becoming the first Republican elected statewide since 1968.What does he believe in? The Republican Party and winning elections. As the GOP moved right under President Ronald Reagan, so did McConnell. Political scientists tracking McConnell's career have found that he has become more conservative with every session of Congress. His earlier support for campaign spending caps was transformed into fierce opposition to campaign finance reform, and he won the gratitude of many senators by taking the heat for blocking bills to rein in spending on elections. McConnell embraced his villain status. When pundits labeled him "Darth Vader" for opposing the McCain-Feingold reform bill in the early 2000s, he started carrying a toy lightsaber. McConnell admitted that he never would have won his first race for Senate "if there had been a limit on the amount of money I could raise and spend."Why is he so effective? During his 34-year career in the Senate, McConnell has learned to work the rules to his and his party's advantage, both in the majority and out of it. When McConnell took over leadership of the Senate Republicans in 2007, he quickly proved to be a cunning minority leader. Huddling with his shell-shocked GOP caucus in the aftermath of President Obama's overwhelming victory in 2008, McConnell argued for a strategy of near-total obstruction to dim enthusiasm for Obama, who had campaigned as the man who could transcend Washington's partisan divide. McConnell used the filibuster -- a tactic to block action -- to impede or slow-walk almost everything Democrats tried to achieve. During the 2013-14 term, Democrats called 252 cloture votes, which are motions used to prevent or end filibusters -- double the previous record.Did McConnell's strategy work? Arguably, yes. Disgusted by Washington's gridlock and disappointed in Obama, voters punished the Democrats in power, handing the GOP the House in 2010 and the Senate in 2014. Meanwhile, McConnell blocked as many of Obama's judicial appointments as possible. When Obama left office, he'd been unable to fill 88 district- and 17 circuit-court seat vacancies -- plus the biggest vacancy of all. After Justice Antonin Scalia died in February 2016, McConnell infamously refused to hold a vote for Obama's Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, holding the seat open for 10 months for the next president to fill. That vacancy proved critical in convincing many reluctant Republicans to support Donald Trump in a close election. With Trump in office, McConnell abolished the filibuster for Supreme Court nominations, allowing Republicans to confirm Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh with slim majorities. Although initially skeptical of Trump, he has long since made his peace with the president. "To expect Republican elected officials not to try to achieve as much as they possibly can out of pique over presidential behavior," he says, "is nonsense."How he wins elections Despite being the longest-serving Republican Senate leader, Mitch McConnell has never been beloved either in his home state or by conservatives. Activists on the Right have always been suspicious of McConnell's transactional nature and angered by his willingness to cut limited deals with Democrats to keep the government running. He was even booed at the 2016 Republican National Convention. McConnell's 36 percent approval rating in Kentucky makes him one of the most unpopular senators in the country, and this year he is likely to face a well-funded challenge from Democrat Amy McGrath, a former Marine fighter pilot. But McConnell has built up a massive campaign war chest, raising $10.6 million so far, more than any Republican senator -- money he's almost certain to pour into negative ads. Kentucky insiders have seen this play out before. McConnell has never lost any of the nine elections he's run in. "All those polls you see now where he has a low approval rating? That's because he doesn't have a warm-and-fuzzy personality," says veteran Kentucky political reporter Al Cross. "In those polls he's running against himself. When you match him up against somebody, he's pretty good at driving them down to his level."
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| Two people killed after Mexico theme park crash Posted: 29 Sep 2019 01:09 PM PDT  At least two people have died after a speeding roller coaster car flipped over midride at a Mexican amusement park. When the last car on the ride derailed at La Feria theme park, two men 18 and 21 years old died from head injuries and other wounds, according to officials.
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| Every Angle of the 2020 Jeep Gladiator Rubicon Posted: 29 Sep 2019 04:14 PM PDT |
| Whistleblower reaches agreement to testify, will appear 'very soon,' Rep. Adam Schiff says Posted: 29 Sep 2019 01:42 PM PDT  The whistleblower who filed an anonymous complaint about President Donald Trump asking Ukraine to investigate a political rival has reached an agreement to testify before Congress.
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| Princeton graduate got 30 years to life for murdering father after his allowance was cut Posted: 28 Sep 2019 08:12 AM PDT  Shelley Gilbert asked the judge for "as light a sentence as possible" so her son could receive treatment for a variety of his mental health struggles.
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| French police break up yellow vest protest with tear gas Posted: 28 Sep 2019 02:05 PM PDT  French police repeatedly used tear gas and water cannons to break up a protest Saturday by nearly a 1,000 yellow vest demonstrators in the southwest city of Toulouse. Police there said four officers were slightly injured and nine demonstrators arrested for offences including throwing projectiles. A police statement in Toulouse said officers made five arrests after being targeted by missiles thrown by some of the protesters.
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| EU Set to Resume Expansion Push With Balkan Accession Talks Posted: 29 Sep 2019 02:49 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- The European Union will probably authorize the start of formal accession negotiations with Albania and North Macedonia next month, betting that the prospect of membership in the club will help further anchor the continent's troubled Balkan region to the West."In light of the progress achieved on reforms," EU ministers meeting in Luxembourg on Oct. 15 will decide to "to open accession negotiations" with the governments in Tirana and Skopje, according to a draft of their communique circulated on Friday and seen by Bloomberg. While the wording could still change, a previous draft, also seen by Bloomberg, didn't include the recommendation to begin talks.A similar push to open accession negotiations faltered in June, as countries such as France, the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark resisted. Western EU governments are exasperated by the failure of some eastern nations that joined the bloc from 2004 to uphold the rule of law and fight corruption. They are thus wary of admitting new members to the world's largest trading club, where people, goods and services can move freely.Countries including Poland, Hungary and Romania -- among the largest recipients of EU structural funds and agricultural aid -- are at loggerheads with the European Commission over their democratic standards, and the bloc's executive arm has so far failed to force them to fall in line. In its June communique on enlargement, the EU said that admission of new members should take into account the bloc's "capacity to integrate" them.Even though accession negotiations last for years -- or even decades, as in the case of Turkey -- and their conclusion isn't guaranteed, the launch of the process is a victory for the government of North Macedonia. It had invested most of its political capital in a deal with Greece to change the former Yugoslav republic's constitutional name, hoping that this would pave the way for EU membership.The new Greek government has said it disagrees with the deal struck between North Macedonia and its predecessor, but won't seek to annul it due to the need to preserve continuity in international agreements. Still, the wording in the draft communique seen by Bloomberg, which "strongly welcomes the historic Prespa Agreement," could trigger a backlash in Athens, as most of the governing party's voters oppose the pact.To contact the reporter on this story: Nikos Chrysoloras in Brussels at nchrysoloras@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Chad Thomas at cthomas16@bloomberg.net, Keith Campbell, Bruce StanleyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Man charged with terrorism after driving SUV through Woodfield Mall Posted: 29 Sep 2019 01:05 PM PDT  A 22-year-old Palatine man was charged with terrorism early Sunday morning after plowing his SUV through Woodfield Mall in a bizarre-and still unexplained-incident more than a week ago.
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| Surprise! A U.S. F-22 Stealth Raptor 'Flew Under' Iran's F-4 Fighter Posted: 28 Sep 2019 05:43 AM PDT  Never had a chance.
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| Moroccan king ill, forced to miss Chirac funeral service Posted: 29 Sep 2019 12:07 PM PDT  Doctors have advised Morocco's King Mohammed VI to rest for several days to recover from a viral lung infection that forced him to miss a remembrance ceremony in Paris for France's late president Jacques Chirac, the palace said on Sunday. In a rare statement on the health of the 56-year-old monarch, who last year underwent heart surgery, the palace said Mohammed had been unable to attend the commemoration event for Chirac, who died last week aged 86. Chirac served as French president from 1995 to 2005.
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| Protesters take to streets in Mexico to demand safe and legal abortions Posted: 29 Sep 2019 03:33 AM PDT  Mexican activists took to the streets in large cities to demand safe and legal abortions, many wearing green bandannas that have become a symbol with the abortion rights movement in Latin America.
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| Native American 2020 candidate aims to raise awareness of indigenous peoples Posted: 28 Sep 2019 11:00 PM PDT  Mark Charles knows his bid is a long shot but hopes to shed light on the historic abuse of Native Americans and other ethnicitiesMark Charles speaks on 20 August 2019 in Sioux City, Iowa. Photograph: Stephen Maturen/Getty ImagesIn a video launching his presidential campaign, Mark Charles, hair tied in a tsiiyéeł, a Native American hair knot, introduces himself in the Navajo language."Yá' át' ééh. Mark Charles yinishyé," Charles says."Tsin bikee dine'é nishłí. Dóó tó'aheedlíinii bá shíshchíín. Tsin bikee' dine'é dashicheii. Dóó tódích' íi' nii dashinálí."Roughly translated, Charles is explaining that his father was Navajo and his mother Dutch American. What doesn't need explaining is that if Charles were elected in November 2020, he would become the first Native American president of the United States.It's an extremely long-shot bid. But Charles is also aiming to use his campaign to raise awareness of the historic, and continuing, abuse of Native Americans and other ethnicities, hopefully resulting in an improved constitution that he believes would better reflect the modern-day US."Do we want to be a nation where we the people actually means all the people?" Charles says."Because if we do, then we have some foundational level work to do."Native American people living on reservations, Charles says, have always been overlooked by politicians. The territory of the Navajo Nation covers 27,000 square miles alone – enough to make it the 48th largest state in the US. Despite that, Charles says, the territory of 350,000 people is rarely visited by politicians running for president.Charles is determined to change that with his campaign. He held his first campaign event on the Navajo Nation, at a chapter house – a communal meeting place – near Fort Defiance, north-east Arizona. His second event was at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and another at the Denver Indian Center."Almost every state I go to I want my first contact to be with the indigenous nations, the indigenous peoples of that state," Charles said."I really want to connect with them again because I'm coming on to their land to campaign and I want them to know me and to understand who I am and, and why, why I'm there."Charles believes he is the best person to lead the country as a whole, but he is also running with some ideas that would specifically help Native Americans, African Americans and other people of color. On the stump he talks a lot about creating a "common memory" – educating people on the atrocities committed in the past and the challenges different races face.Independent presidential candidate Mark Charles speaks on 20 August 2019 in Sioux City, Iowa. Photograph: Stephen Maturen/Getty ImagesAt the center of Charles's platform is the establishment of a "truth and conciliation commission", which would work towards creating that memory. His idea is modeled on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission set up in South Africa, after the end of apartheid."I don't call ours truth and reconciliation because reconciliation implies a previous harmony, and if you know our history you know that's not true."In South Africa the Truth and Reconciliation committee hearings, which allowed both victims and perpetrators to explain their experiences, were broadcast live, in what has been described as the "gold standard" for how a divided society might deal with a violent past. Charles believes his committee could eventually lead to an at least partial rewriting of the US constitution.Charles said he had the idea for "that type of conversation years ago"."But I did not know the best way to bring that proposal to the nation. And after observing several presidential campaigns, I realized every four years we have a dialogue about who we are and where we're going: our presidential campaign cycle."So I felt like this is an important enough of a proposal that it actually could very well be the center of a presidential campaign. So one of my motivations in running for president is to raise this issue of truth and conciliation to the national level."Charles grew up in New Mexico, and went to university in California, before spending 11 years living in the Navajo Nation, which is spread across Arizona, Utah and New Mexico.Three of those years were spent on a remote sheep camp, where Charles and his young family lived in a one-room hogan, a traditional Navajo house, which had a dirt floor, no running water, no electricity and was six miles from the nearest paved road.Charles isn't the first Native American to run for the White House. Russell Means, an activist from the Lakota tribe who died in 2012, ran for the Libertarian party nomination ahead of the 1988 election, but came second to the Texas congressman Ron Paul.In 2018 there was a breakthrough for Native American women in particular, when Sharice Davids, from Kansas, and Deb Haaland, from New Mexico, became the first Native American women to be elected to Congress. Both Davids and Haaland are Democrats. Charles says he has voted for both Democrats and Republicans in the past, but believes his best chance for office is to eschew both parties."I don't want people to think that becauseI'm running as an independent I'm not a serious candidate," Charles said. He believes he would not clinch the Democratic or Republican nomination – aside from anything else, he isn't a member of either party – but he plans to be on the ballot in all 50 states, and is committed to running all the way through to November."If our country does not begin creating this common memory, and does not make a decision on whether we want to be a place where we the people means all the people," Charles said, "We're going to continue to face these deep racial divides that we've had in our country since its founding."
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| It's unclear if Republican senators would be able to stall an impeachment trial Posted: 28 Sep 2019 09:49 AM PDT ![It's unclear if Republican senators would be able to stall an impeachment trial]( "It's unclear if Republican senators would be able to stall an impeachment trial") A potential Senate impeachment trial is a long way away, but there is already some speculation that, if the House does wind up voting to impeach President Trump after launching an inquiry, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) could deploy some stall tactics, Politico reports.McConnell has said in the past that the Senate would have "no choice" to hold a trial if Trump were ever impeached, but not everyone is convinced. For starters, there is some disagreement over whether the Senate is required by the Constitution to hold a trail if a president is impeached. "The Senate makes the decision," Don Ritchie, a retired Senate historian, said. Others have argued that the law is actually not ambiguous, and that it would require a lot more work for the Republicans to try to prevent a trial rather than to defeat a conviction.> This is wrong. The rules allowed the Senate to not act on Garland (they also allowed any senator to force a vote in relation to that decision). The rules do not allow Senate to ignore impeachment. That would require new rules. New rules require a vote. https://t.co/ZddV6B7Ej8> > -- James Wallner (@jiwallner) September 28, 2019But, if McConnell does have the power to delay a trial, some observers point to how he handled former President Barack Obama's nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court. McConnell stalled the vote because elections were coming up and the senator felt the next president should appoint the new justice. The timeframe could be somewhat similar in the case of impeachment, Politico reports."You're going to start hearing that argument and much more loudly, because we're not too far away from the moment when voters start voting," Michael Steel, a longtime GOP operative and aide to former House Speaker John Boehner, said. "You've got to make the case why it matters and why it rises to the level of removing an elected president of the United States from the White House." Read more at Politico.
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| A 72-year-old Dallas man fatally shot a burglar, then went back to sleep, police say Posted: 29 Sep 2019 03:50 PM PDT ![A 72-year-old Dallas man fatally shot a burglar, then went back to sleep, police say]( "A 72-year-old Dallas man fatally shot a burglar, then went back to sleep, police say") A 72-year-old Dallas man fatally shot a suspected burglar outside his home, authorities said, and went back to sleep before calling police.
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| The 50 most miserable cities in America Posted: 28 Sep 2019 07:00 AM PDT  Based on US census data, we've ranked the most miserable cities across the country. Here are the 50 most miserable.
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| Like many Americans, my divorce destroyed my mental health and nearly drove me to suicide Posted: 29 Sep 2019 05:38 AM PDT ![Like many Americans, my divorce destroyed my mental health and nearly drove me to suicide]( "Like many Americans, my divorce destroyed my mental health and nearly drove me to suicide") During my long divorce, I was pressed by a fear: If the relationship with my husband could dissolve, what about the relationship with my children?
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| Could Africa Be the Next Financial Frontier? Posted: 29 Sep 2019 12:14 PM PDT  The Demoratic Republic of Congo is ready to capitalize on the opportunities created by the U.S.-China trade war.
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| Bus veers into opposite lane in China, 36 killed Posted: 28 Sep 2019 07:11 PM PDT ![Bus veers into opposite lane in China, 36 killed]( "Bus veers into opposite lane in China, 36 killed") BEIJING/SHANGHAI, Sept 29 (Reuters) - A bus veered into the opposite lane in China on Saturday morning, hitting a truck and killing 36 people, according to an official police notice. The bus, which was driving north, broke through a barrier dividing two lanes on a motorway and crashed into a truck carrying 3 people moving in the opposite direction, said police from the city of Yixing in Jiangsu province.
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| New Democratic polls: Tight race in Nevada, but Biden still strong in South Carolina Posted: 29 Sep 2019 07:33 AM PDT ![New Democratic polls: Tight race in Nevada, but Biden still strong in South Carolina]( "New Democratic polls: Tight race in Nevada, but Biden still strong in South Carolina") Black voters continue to propel Biden to a commanding lead in the first-in-the-south primary state.
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| Tesla and Elon Musk's Tweet Violated Labor Laws Protecting Unions, Judge Rules Posted: 29 Sep 2019 01:44 PM PDT  Judge Amita Tracy ordered the company to cease and desist a litany of actions
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| Cash-Strapped Booker Says Could Drop White House Bid by Tuesday Posted: 29 Sep 2019 11:10 AM PDT ![Cash-Strapped Booker Says Could Drop White House Bid by Tuesday]( "Cash-Strapped Booker Says Could Drop White House Bid by Tuesday") (Bloomberg) -- Cory Booker said he could end his presidential campaign by Tuesday unless he is able to reach his goal of $1.7 million in donations within the next 36 hours.Speaking on CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday, the New Jersey senator said that despite an "avalanche of support," his campaign needed "some more help" from contributors. His campaign website shows he's about $150,000 short of the amount he targeted on Sept. 21 to have a viable path to victory.Although he has languished at 2% or 3% in most polls and is struggling in fund raising, Booker has qualified for the October debate of Democratic presidential candidates. In the CNN interview, Booker said he has also met the threshold of 165,000 unique donors required to participate in the November debate.Booker also rose to the defense of the Democratic front-runner Joe Biden, saying the accusations from President Donald Trump that the former vice president acted improperly to benefit his son Hunter's business interests in Ukraine are unfounded."I wouldn't be running if I didn't think I should be president, not him," Booker said of Biden, with whom he has clashed on the campaign trail and at debates.Yet the allegations from Trump "should in no way affect the vice president in his pursuit of the nomination," he said. "This can in no way besmirch his character, his honor and his incredible service to this country over decades."Instead, Booker said the focus should be on the actions of Trump and his family, and said he would tighten the rules if elected president."I'm watching what's going on with the Trump family right now and Trump properties, and I just find that deeply offensive to just any kind of independent sense of what's honorable, ethical, not to mention consistent with the emoluments clause," he said, referring to a clause in the Constitution that forbids accepting payments from foreign governments. "I just don't think children of president and vice presidents during an administration should be out there doing that."To contact the reporter on this story: Hailey Waller in New York at hwaller@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: James Ludden at jludden@bloomberg.net, Max Berley, Mark NiquetteFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Trailblazing Texas deputy who was first local Sikh officer 'ruthlessly' killed during traffic stop Posted: 28 Sep 2019 12:07 PM PDT  Deputy Sandeep Dhaliwal, the county's first Sikh officer, was killed Friday during a traffic stop near Houston. Police have arrested Robert Solis.
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| Iran's iconic anti-US murals make way for a new generation of artwork Posted: 29 Sep 2019 12:16 PM PDT  Famous murals celebrating Iran's Islamic revolution daubed on walls of the former US embassy in Tehran have been erased to make way for new paintings to be unveiled on the fortieth anniversary of the hostage crisis. Three workers were on Sunday afternoon seen removing the original artwork with a sandblaster against the wall of Taleqani avenue, bordering the south side of what was once dubbed a US "spy nest" in central Tehran. On November 4, 1979, less than nine months after Iran's last shah was toppled, pro-revolution students took Americans hostage at the embassy to protest the ex-shah's admission to hospital in the US.
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| 'We know they aren't feeding': fears for polar bears over shrinking Arctic ice Posted: 28 Sep 2019 11:00 PM PDT  Expert Steven Amstrup says 'the longer the sea ice is gone from the productive zone the tougher it is on the bears'This year's annual minimum of the Arctic sea ice tied with the second-lowest extent on record. Photograph: Chase Dekker/Getty ImagesThe loss of Arctic ice from glaciers, polar land and sea is declining faster than many scientists expected, as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) report on oceans and the cryosphere said this week.That's bad news for polar bear populations, a top expert involved in field studies on the endangered animals has told the Guardian.This year's annual minimum of the Arctic sea ice tied with the second-lowest extent on record, a mere 1.6m sq miles, and badly affected polar bear populations that live and hunt on the north slope of Alaska, plus those that live on the ice floes in the Bering Sea."Now the ice has gone way offshore we know that the bears aren't feeding, and the bears that are forced on to land don't find much to eat. The longer the sea ice is gone from the productive zone the tougher it is on the bears," said Polar Bears International's Steven Amstrup.In 2015, the group reported that the polar bear population in the Beaufort Sea had declined by 40% over the previous decade. "We can only anticipate that those declines have continued," Amstrup said.The loss of sea ice this year was so pronounced early in the season that tagging crews from the US Geological Survey (USGS) concluded that the sea ice offshore in the western arctic was too thin and unstable to be able to conduct their studies – the first time the team have pulled their studies because of safety issues.That's a far cry from the two decades to 2010 when Amstrup did two two-month field studies a year. In recent years, the spring season has also been severely hampered by open water, fog and bad weather.This year, the trends were repeated. Amstrup said: "The ice in the spring … was really tough this year. What ice was there was thin and rough this year. That's part of progressive trend that we've seen over several years."The circumstances of global heating in the Arctic region, from record heatwaves in Alaska to the loss of more than 60bn tons of ice from Greenland's ice cap during a five-day heatwave this summer, including the biggest loss in a 24-hour period since records began.For both polar bear populations, the circumstances are grim. Those that live on shore aren't finding much to eat, says Amstrup, and those that live permanently on the pack ice don't appear to be feeding much either."They're having a long fast in the summer and there's a limit to how long that fast can last. We're already seeing indications in terms of poorer cub survival in the Beaufort Sea. An adult bear has a lot of body mass, and maybe can get through a long summer fast, but young bears don't have the body mass or hunting skills to survive," he said.But because 2019 did not set a record in terms of sea-ice loss, Amstrup stressed, we should not be fooled into thinking that, short of an extreme event, circumstances have stabilized or improved.Amstrup said funding cutbacks and the fact that biologists cannot get out and study the bears means it may never be able to collect the necessary data to assess "just how bad this year was".Instead, Amstrup says this bad ice year and record warm summer are symbols of what the future will bring. Bad years like this will be increasingly frequent and the bad years will be increasingly worse – as long as we allow CO2 levels to continue to rise."We know that as greenhouse gas concentrations continue to rise it's going to be warmer and we're going to have less and less sea ice until polar bears disappear," he said.
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| 'I couldn't give up': How I got through college as a homeless student sleeping in my car Posted: 29 Sep 2019 11:33 AM PDT  I wonder how many college students are like me, normal on the outside but actually fighting for their life. For those students, here's how I coped.
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| Why the U.S. Air Force Wants to Combine Drones and Missiles Posted: 29 Sep 2019 04:09 AM PDT  The future is now.
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| UPDATE 4-Fire at Saudi high-speed train station injures at least five Posted: 29 Sep 2019 04:53 AM PDT ![UPDATE 4-Fire at Saudi high-speed train station injures at least five]( "UPDATE 4-Fire at Saudi high-speed train station injures at least five") A fire broke out in the Haramain high-speed rail station in Saudi Arabia's coastal city of Jeddah, injuring at least five people, authorities said on Sunday. The fire, which caused plumes of black smoke to rise from the roof of the station after fire erupted at 12:35 p.m. (0935 GMT), was brought under control about 12 hours later, the civil defence service said. The 450-km (280-mile) Haramain Railway linking the two holiest cities in Islam, Mecca and Medina, with the Red Sea city of Jeddah, was opened in 2018 and cost 6.7 billion euros ($7.3 billion).
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| U.S. Marines Say a Moment's Confusion Caused the Fatal 2018 Air Collision Posted: 29 Sep 2019 02:09 PM PDT  The report also described the squadron as having "a command climate of general unprofessionalism and misconduct."
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| How a sommelier fell victim to the homelessness crisis in California Posted: 29 Sep 2019 03:38 AM PDT  Opus One, Château Lynch-Bages or Petrus. The crimson ribbons of fine wine trickled delicately into his customers' bulbous crystal glasses.Mark-Steven Holys had a knack for recommending the right bottle, for expertly carving the chateaubriand steaks and pheasant and for remembering the dietary quirks of a clientele that included many of California's boldfaced names.
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| How about a Bipartisan Treaty against the Criminalization of Elections? Posted: 28 Sep 2019 03:30 AM PDT  Back home in the Bronx is where I first heard the old saw about the Irishman who, coming upon a donnybrook at the local pub, asks a bystander: "Is this a private fight or can anybody join?"I was a much younger fellow then. The prospect becomes less alluring with age, so I have some trepidation stepping in between two old friends, Andrew Napolitano and Joe DiGenova. Through intermediary hosts, the pair -- Napolitano a former New Jersey Superior Court jurist and law professor, DiGenova a former United States Attorney for the District of Columbia and prominent defense lawyer -- brawled this week on Fox News (where I, like they, contribute regularly).I'm going to steer clear of the pugnacious to-ing and fro-ing. Let's consider the intriguing legal issue that ignited it.Judge Napolitano argues that the July 25 conversation between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky contains the makings of a campaign-finance crime. He highlights Trump's request for Ukraine's help in investigating then–vice president Joe Biden. In 2016, Biden pressured Kyiv to drop a corruption investigation of Burisma, a natural gas company that paid Biden's son, Hunter, big bucks to sit on its board.Biden, of course, is one of the favorites for the Democratic presidential nomination. Napolitano reasons that the information Trump sought from Ukraine would be a form of "opposition research" that could be seen as an in-kind donation to Trump's reelection campaign, which should be deemed illegal because the law prohibits foreign contributions and attempts to acquire them. (Napolitano also raised the "arguable" possibility of a bribery offense, on the theory that Trump was withholding defense aid as a corrupt quid pro quo to get the Biden information. But he emphasized the foreign contribution issue. That is his stronger argument, and I am focusing on it, given that the Trump-Zelensky transcript does not support a quid pro quo demand; plus bribery, in any event, raises the same "thing of value" proof problems addressed below.)DiGenova strongly disagrees. Though there wasn't much time to elaborate, he is clearly relying on the lack of past campaign-law prosecutions on similar facts. DiGenova is also voicing the prudent conservative hostility to campaign-finance laws: Any expansion of criminal liability would necessarily restrict political speech, the core of First Amendment liberty.I'm with DiGenova on this, but it's a closer question than he suggests. Napolitano's construction of the campaign laws, while not wholly implausible, is purely academic. It ignores real-world concerns about free speech and the prosecutor's burden to prove intent.Most of the commentary on this has been very politicized (surprise!). For dyed-in-the-wool anti-Trumpers, no technicality is too trifling to be a felony. For the Trump base, it's all a witch hunt. In light of this, the most helpful source we can turn to is the Mueller Report. (File in: Sentences I'd Have Bet My Life I'd Never Write.)Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team overflowed with partisan Democrats, and their report could have been entitled "Roadmap to Impeachment." While they faced complications (that I've addressed) in making a case against the president, the prosecutors were not inhibited when it came to other subjects of the investigation. They'd have loved to nail Donald Trump Jr. But the only thing they had was the notorious Trump Tower Meeting of June 2016, when Don Jr. orchestrated a meeting with a Kremlin-tied lawyer (Natalya Veselnitskaya) in an effort to obtain Russian dirt to be used against Hillary Clinton. Veselnitskaya supplied information, but it was a dud.The campaign-finance offense that Napolitano urges be charged against President Trump appears to be the same one Mueller considered charging against Don Jr. The Mueller team's analysis (Vol. 1, pp. 186-187) is thus on point. And it is frustratingly ambiguous -- as befits the constitutionally dubious campaign-finance laws.Two offense elements proved to be stumbling blocks for the prosecutors. The first is the question whether opposition research is a "thing of value" under federal law. Mueller's team assumed that, in theory, it might be (the Napolitano view), but that to interpret it as such would break new ground and raise troubling First Amendment issues (the DiGenova position).The second problem was the intent element. As I've observed before, regulatory crimes are not innately wrong (in contrast to, say, murder or robbery). They are illegal only because we choose to make them illegal (for you Latinists out there, they are malum prohibitum). Because the conduct is not wrong in itself (malum in se), the law requires a higher degree of malevolent intent before it can be criminalized. Prosecutors must prove willfulness, which very nearly reverses the adage that "ignorance of the law is no excuse." The defendant must be shown to have known that his intentional conduct was illegal -- not merely unsavory but actually prohibited by law. The Mueller team concluded that they could not have hoped to prove willfulness beyond a reasonable doubt.So, while there might be some conceivable scenario in which acquiring information from a foreign source for use in a campaign could be a federal crime, it is highly unlikely -- so unlikely that some Type A prosecutors wisely decided that the huzzahs they'd have gotten for indicting the president's son were outweighed by the humiliation they'd endure when the case inevitably got thrown out of court.The Mueller report is also worth considering because the campaign-finance charge the prosecutors rejected is stronger than would be any similar charge against President Trump arising out of the Zelensky call. That, no doubt, is why the Justice Department summarily declined prosecution.To hear the media-Democrat complex tell it, DOJ declined because it is beholden to the president and Attorney General Barr is acting as Trump's lawyer, not the government's chief prosecutor. No one who actually took five minutes to read the relevant section of the Mueller Report would see it that way. Moreover, the fact that the president is president complicates matters not only politically but legally.Trump detractors hyper-focus on the president's request that President Zelensky provide Attorney General Barr with any information Ukraine might have about Biden twisting arms to quash an investigation involving his son's cashing in on dad's influence. I say "hyper-focus" because there was a lot more to it than that. Long before the conversation came around to the Biden topic, the "favor" that Trump asked for was Zelensky's assistance in Barr's ongoing investigation of the genesis of the Trump-Russia investigation.No matter how much Democrats seek to discredit that probe and the AG overseeing it, it is a legitimate investigation conducted by the United States Department of Justice, which has prosecutors assigned and grand jury subpoena power. It is examining questionable Justice Department and FBI conduct. It is considering whether irregularities rise to the level of crimes. It will be essential to Congress's consideration of whether laws need to be enacted or modified to insulate our election campaigns from politicized use of the government's counterintelligence and law-enforcement powers.I mention all this because it is a commonplace for the government to seek assistance from foreign counterparts for ongoing federal investigations.Indeed, as Marc Thiessen pointed out this week in an important Washington Post column, Democratic senators pressured Ukraine to cooperate with the Mueller probe -- notwithstanding the obvious potential electoral ramifications and the specter of "foreign interference in our democracy." These requests for assistance often occur at the head-of-state level. When I was a federal prosecutor in the mid-nineties, for example, the FBI and Justice Department asked President Clinton to intervene with Saudi authorities to assist the investigation of Iranian complicity in the Khobar Towers bombing.There is nothing wrong with our government's requesting the assistance of foreign governments that have access to witnesses and evidence relevant to an ongoing Justice Department investigation. The president is the democratically elected, constitutionally empowered chief executive: There is nothing his subordinates may properly do that he may not do himself (it is his power that they exercise). And the president is never conflicted out of executive branch business due to his political interests. There is no legal or ethical requirement that the Justice Department be denied potentially probative evidence because obtaining it might affect the president's political fortunes.There was no impropriety in President Trump's asking Ukraine's president to assist the Justice Department's investigation of Russiagate's origins. Okay, you say, but what does that have to do with Biden?Well, Biden was the Obama administration's point man in dealing with Kyiv after Viktor Yanukovych fled in 2014. That course of dealing came to include Obama administration agencies leaning on Ukraine to assist the FBI in the investigation of Paul Manafort, Trump's campaign chairman. So, Biden's interaction with Ukraine is germane: The fact that he had sufficient influence to coerce the firing of a prosecutor; the fact that, while Biden was strongly influencing international economic aid for Kyiv, a significant Ukrainian energy company thought it expedient to bring Biden's son onto its board and compensate him lavishly -- although Hunter Biden had no experience in the industry.That aside, I do not understand why there has not been more public discussion of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in light of the instances of Hunter Biden conveniently cashing in with foreign firms while his dad was shaping American policy toward those firm's governments. As we saw with the collusion caper, it does not take much evidence of any crime for the FBI and the Justice Department to open an investigation and scorch the earth in conducting it. And if it would have been legit for the Justice Department to open an FCPA investigation of one or both of the Bidens, then it was appropriate for President Trump to ask President Zelensky to help the Justice Department determine if an FCPA crime took place – even if doing so could have affected the 2020 fortunes of Biden and Trump.Don't get me wrong: I am not rooting for Joe Biden or his son to be subjected to investigation and prosecution. I agree with Attorney General Barr that there has been too much politicization of law enforcement and intelligence. In the absence of a concrete, patent, and serious violation of the criminal law, I want the Justice Department and the FBI out of politics – which would be better for them and for politics. If you think there is an indecorous heavy-handedness to the way Donald Trump and Joe Biden conduct foreign policy, that's fine – go vote against them on Election Day. We don't need creative prosecutors deciding elections by testing the boundaries of abstruse statutes.Neither, however, do I believe in unilateral disarmament. There is at least as much basis for opening an FCPA investigation against the Bidens as for opening campaign-finance investigations against the Trumps. If I had my druthers, all of this nonsense would end. But as I detailed earlier this week, we have one candidate for the presidency -- a once-serious legal scholar and practitioner -- who publicly and straight-faced says Trump's call with Zelensky could rate the death penalty. As we saw in the late 1990s, when Bill Clinton got to experience the independent-counsel statute up close and personal, maybe it takes Democrats being hoisted on their own petard before we finally say: This has to stop.
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| US Department of Justice supports Indianapolis Archdiocese in firing of gay teacher Posted: 28 Sep 2019 08:46 AM PDT  The U.S. Justice Department filed a statement saying the First Amendment protects the right of the Archdiocese to apply Catholic doctrine.
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| Clashes Intensify With Petrol Bombs and Fires: Hong Kong Update Posted: 29 Sep 2019 05:00 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Hong Kong police used a water cannon, rubber bullets and tear gas on protesters who set a train station entrance on fire and hurled petrol bombs as they tried to march on the government offices in the city center.Demonstrators marched without permission on Sunday after an approved rally the day before. Chief Executive Carrie Lam on Thursday took responsibility for the "entire unrest" that has rocked the city since June in a bid to calm tensions. Even largely peaceful gatherings have descended into chaos in recent weeks as smaller groups of hard-core protesters battled with police.Key Developments:Protesters and police clashed in one of the most violent days in about 17 weeks of unrestTens of thousands gathered for a rally to mark the fifth anniversary of the pro-democracy Occupy movementThe government said it will "take forward constitutional development" in response to demands for political reform and implementing universal suffrageJoshua Wong, a prominent leader of the Occupy Movement, announced that he'll run in the city's district council elections in NovemberHere's the latest (all times local):Stations closed (6:30 p.m.)MTR Corp., operator of the city's rail network, said Wan Chai, Admiralty, Causeway Bay and Tin Hau stations were closed because of public activities. Train services in Tsuen Wan, Island and South Island lines have also been adjusted, it said.Fires started (6 p.m.)An entrance to Wan Chai train station was ablaze and fires were started in other areas as the main march was dispersed by police who fired repeated rounds of rubber bullets and tear gas. Emergency workers were treating a number of injured people in the streets, with at least one laying unconscious.Water cannon, arrests (5 p.m.)Police used a water cannon to spray a blue-dyed liquid at protesters and made numerous arrests, as activists set up barricades across Gloucester Road, a major traffic artery through the city.March goes on (4:30 p.m.)Protesters pushed ahead with their march as police blocked roads and fired repeated rounds of tear gas. The Wan Chai train station, closed because of the demonstrations, was vandalized by a small group. Fire alarms rang out and explosions could be heard after activists set objects alight and smashed glass panes.Police fire tear gas (2:20 p.m.)Riot police fired multiple rounds of tear gas at demonstrators in Causeway Bay after standoffs and clashes, as a helicopter hovered overhead. The protesters were due to march to the government offices in Admiralty, without applying for permission.At least two people were arrested. The weekend's protests come as China prepares to celebrate 70 years of Communist Party rule on Oct. 1.Pro-China rally (11:15 a.m.)Hundreds of demonstrators waved China flags and shouted pro-Beijing slogans as they rallied on the waterfront in the shopping district of Tsim Sha Tsui.Across the harbor on Hong Kong island, some businesses and malls shut and others said they would close early in anticipation of a march planned for later in the day.Sogo said its store in Causeway Bay wouldn't open Sunday out of concern for the safety of customers and staff. In the same district, the World Trade Centre was closed and Hysan Place posted a notice saying it would shut down at 1 p.m.'Rubbish rhetoric' (Sunday 11 a.m.)Claudia Mo, a lawmaker who has been active in the protest movement, dismissed the government's statement that it wants to move toward introducing universal suffrage."This is just one of the many, many propaganda tricks by the government of Carrie Lam. They pretend that they're taking a step towards universal suffrage but they aren't," she said. "It's just rubbish rhetoric."There can't be real freedom in Hong Kong politics because Beijing has the right to screen out any candidates it dislikes, Mo said.Stop and search operations (10:30 p.m.)Police conducted stop-and-search operations at various places across the city, challenging people on foot and on public transportation. Police stopped buses entering the Cross Harbour Tunnel and also carried out searches in Causeway Bay and Wan Chai, where passengers were forced off buses to be checked.Government responds (9 p.m.)The government said that universal suffrage for "selection of the chief executive and electing all members of the Legislative Council is enshrined as an ultimate aim in the Basic Law." In response to demands for political reform, the government will move forward in line with the Basic law and China's interpretation of it, it said in a statement."To achieve this aim, the community needs to engage in dialogues, premised on the legal basis and under a peaceful atmosphere with mutual trust, with a view to narrowing differences and attaining a consensus agreeable to all sides," it said.Water cannon deployed (8:45 p.m.)Police deployed a water cannon, shooting blue dye, and fired tear gas after clashes with protesters. A group of people hurled bricks at officers and blocked off roads, police said in a statement.Protesters praised (8 p.m.)Organizers of the rally and speakers at the event praised the protest movement and the people's solidarity in opposing Lam's extradition bill.Joshua Wong, a prominent leader of the Occupy Movement, said the demonstrations had put Hong Kong in the international spotlight and was the reason the U.S. is considering passing a human rights act to monitor the level of autonomy in the city. He said there was no turning back for the movement.Civil Human Rights Front, the organizer of the rally, said in a statement that five years after the Umbrella Movement fought for universal suffrage, nothing has been achieved and protest leaders have been jailed. This year, a new generation of activists inspired almost one third of the city's population to take to the streets and force Lam into withdrawing the bill. Still, the protesters must continue to fight for their five demands, it said.Rally starts (7 p.m.)Thousands of people packed Tamar Park in Admiralty to mark the fifth year since the Occupy protests that were centered in the area. The protesters sang, waved their mobile phones and shone lasers as they waited for the guest speakers.Protesters took over roads leading to the venue and police said they used "minimum force" to disperse some who had charged at officers' cordons.Red alert at government building (6:40 p.m.)The Legislative Council Secretariat issued a red alert, requiring everybody at the lawmakers' building in Admiralty to evacuate for safety reasons.Riot police guard stations (6:30 p.m.)Some access points into train stations near the site of Saturday's rally were shut, and rail operator MTR Corp. said service could be disrupted, as riot police stood guard outside exits to the facilities.Thousands of people poured into the area for the rally to commemorate the Occupy protest and massed at Tamar Park in Admiralty.Lennon Wall link (4 p.m.)Protesters created so-called Lennon Walls in Victoria Park in attempt to link them through the district of Wan Chai to Admiralty, where the Occupy protest was staged in 2014.In Admiralty, people plastered walls with posters of Mao Zedong, saying "Revolution is no crime, to rebel is justified" -- a popular slogan used by Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution. China's President Xi Jinping's image covered the floor in some areas.Wong to stand in elections (Saturday 11:30 a.m.)Joshua Wong announced that he'll run in the city's district council elections in November. He told a press conference in Hong Kong on Saturday that if the government disqualifies him from taking part, it will face more protests and international pressure.Xi approved bill withdrawal: SCMP (7 a.m.)Hong Kong's Lam asked Chinese President Xi Jinping for approval before withdrawing her controversial extradition bill, the South China Morning Post reported, citing unidentified people.Lam said at the time that it was her decision to withdraw the proposed law to try to break the political deadlock and enter into some form of dialogue with the public, and that China respected her reasons for doing so, the Post reported. The plan was sent to Xi's office for approval before it was announced on Sept. 4, the newspaper cited a person close to the government as saying.Restore rule of law: lawyers (Saturday 7 a.m.)A group of 339 local lawyers called on the government and the people of Hong Kong to uphold and protect the rule of law in a full-page advertisement published in Sing Tao newspaper on Saturday.The lawyers, who didn't provide names but listing their identity numbers, condemned all violence and called for respect for people's safety, rights and freedoms, and for public property. They said Hong Kong must restore its place as a "shining beacon in the region for safety, personal freedoms and economic opportunity for persons of all backgrounds."They said the statement was issued in their personal capacities.\--With assistance from Melissa Cheok and Shawna Kwan.To contact the reporters on this story: Natalie Lung in Hong Kong at flung6@bloomberg.net;Aaron Mc Nicholas in Hong Kong at amcnicholas2@bloomberg.net;Manuel Baigorri in Hong Kong at mbaigorri@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Scott at bscott66@bloomberg.net, Stanley JamesFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Man yelling over Puerto Rican flag shirt convicted of hate crimes Posted: 28 Sep 2019 11:56 AM PDT  A Chicago man who was seen last year in a viral video berating a woman in a city park for wearing a T-shirt with the Puerto Rican flag was convicted this week of two felony hate crime charges.
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