| Rudy Giuliani refuses to comply with House Democrats' subpoena Posted: 15 Oct 2019 02:19 PM PDT  President Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani informed House Democrats on Tuesday that he will not comply with a subpoena for documents they sent him as part of the ongoing impeachment inquiry.
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| What's causing record rates of STDs? Posted: 14 Oct 2019 08:25 AM PDT  After decades of decline, rates of certain STDs have spiked to record levels, according to the CDC. What's causing the increase?
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| Nigerian police rescue 67 from 'inhuman' conditions at Islamic 'school' Posted: 14 Oct 2019 01:37 PM PDT  The raid in Katsina, the northwestern home state of President Muhammadu Buhari, came less than a month after about 300 men and boys were freed from another supposed Islamic school in neighboring Kaduna state where they were allegedly tortured and sexually abused. "In the course of investigation, sixty-seven persons from the ages of 7 to 40 years were found shackled with chains," Katsina police spokesman Sanusi Buba said in a statement.
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| The Latest: Fire department: LA blaze began under power line Posted: 14 Oct 2019 04:44 PM PDT  Fire officials say a destructive fire that broke out on the edge of Los Angeles began beneath a high-voltage transmission tower. Capt. Erik Scott told The Associated Press on Monday that Los Angeles Fire Department arson investigators have only determined the origin of the fire, not its cause. The location was at the base of power lines owned by Southern California Edison.
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| 'Gaetz-crasher': Here's why a Republican lawmaker was barred from closed-door testimony Posted: 14 Oct 2019 01:38 PM PDT  When Republican congressman Matt Gaetz tried to attend an impeachment inquiry deposition Monday morning in the U.S. Capitol, he ran smack into the often arcane and confusing rules of Congress. Here's why he wasn't allowed to attend.
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| Woman will spend 60 years in prison for first-degree murder of boyfriend Posted: 15 Oct 2019 06:46 AM PDT  A woman who poured gasoline on the couch where her sleeping boyfriend lay and then shut the door after seeing him jump up and yell "hot, hot" will spend 60 years in prison for first-degree murder.
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| UPDATE 4-Texas policeman faces murder charges after killing black woman in her home Posted: 14 Oct 2019 11:29 AM PDT ![UPDATE 4-Texas policeman faces murder charges after killing black woman in her home]( "UPDATE 4-Texas policeman faces murder charges after killing black woman in her home") A white Fort Worth, Texas, police officer was jailed on murder charges on Monday in the fatal shooting of a 28-year-old black woman who was babysitting inside her home, the police department said. Atatiana Jefferson was killed on Saturday at about 2:30 a.m. when officer Aaron Dean fired a single shot through a window into her home as she cared for her 8-year-old nephew. Dean was responding to a call from a concerned neighbor who said Jefferson's door was open.
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| Boris Johnson is reportedly very close to agreeing a Brexit deal with the EU Posted: 15 Oct 2019 08:13 AM PDT  EU sources told Bloomberg that a deal could be concluded as early as Tuesday, with the UK set to agree a new compromise deal.
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| Jeep Gladiator Gets Even More Rugged as a Military-Spec Vehicle Posted: 15 Oct 2019 01:08 PM PDT  Jeep and AM General could re-enlist with the U.S. Army as soon as next year.
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| India blocks SMS services in Kashmir after trucker killed Posted: 15 Oct 2019 07:53 AM PDT  Text messaging services were blocked in Indian Kashmir just hours after being restored when a truck driver was killed by suspected militants and his vehicle set ablaze, authorities said Tuesday. Separately, Indian officials said a 24-year-old woman died in the latest exchange of artillery fire with Pakistan over their de-facto border dividing the blood-soaked Himalayan region.
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| The Latest: Erdogan rejects call for ceasefire in Syria Posted: 15 Oct 2019 02:51 PM PDT  Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says he rejects a call from U.S. President Donald Trump to declare a ceasefire and halt Turkey's military offensive in northeastern Syria. Turkey's leader also told a group of journalists Tuesday that he is not concerned about the presence of Syrian government troops moving into the city of Manbij, but does not want Syrian Kurdish fighters to remain.
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| Florida girl, 1, dies in hot car, the 50th death of 2019, according to one national tracker Posted: 15 Oct 2019 11:45 AM PDT  The death of a 1-year-old Florida girl Monday marked the 50th case of a child dying in a hot car this year, according to KidsandCars.org.
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| The U.S. Military Has a Lot of Firepower in the Middle East to Deter Iran Posted: 15 Oct 2019 06:21 AM PDT  In response to Iran's actions, the U.S. has deployed 14,000 additional troops to the region since May. In addition to the most recent deployments, as Esper noted, this includes airborne early warning aircraft squadrons, maritime patrol aircraft squadrons, B-52 bombers, an amphibious transport dock, unmanned aircraft, engineering personnel, and the Lincoln Carrier Strike Group (CSG).
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| What's at stake for each of the 12 Democrats in Tuesday's debate Posted: 15 Oct 2019 10:00 AM PDT  A plurality of Americans now say they believe Trump's accusations are hurting Biden's prospects of becoming the Democratic nominee. Biden's job Tuesday night is to prove them wrong. For Pete Buttigieg, it's all about Iowa. For Bernie Sanders, his campaign hopes the debate will mark his triumphant return to the trail.
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| Interactive Map Shows Exactly How Much Car Emissions Have Grown Where You Live Posted: 15 Oct 2019 06:25 AM PDT  New York Times map shows the best and worst places in the U.S. for emissions from vehicles.
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| France warns of 'endless soap opera' on EU membership talks with Balkans Posted: 15 Oct 2019 02:42 AM PDT ![France warns of 'endless soap opera' on EU membership talks with Balkans]( "France warns of 'endless soap opera' on EU membership talks with Balkans") France stuck to its hardline position against European Union membership talks for North Macedonia and Albania on Tuesday, warning it could not approve negotiations until the bloc reformed the "endless soap opera" of admitting new members. Europe ministers, making a third attempt since June 2018 to approve membership talks for the Balkan hopefuls, are set to discuss in Luxembourg opening a path for Skopje and Tirana, with broad EU support and backing from the United States.
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| Booze run from behind bars: Inmates escape from Texas federal prison, return with whiskey Posted: 15 Oct 2019 08:11 AM PDT  The men left the prison grounds and cut through a neighboring ranch before getting caught by authorities.
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| Court Ruling Extends Vote Protest of Philippine Marcos’ Son Posted: 15 Oct 2019 02:50 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- The Philippines' top court on Tuesday decided to release the initial results of the vice-presidential vote recount, which the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos' son said will delay his chance to assume the post.Former Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said he is "frustrated" by the court's decision not to resolve his election protest against Vice President Leni Robredo victory in the 2016 polls. Robredo is already halfway through her six-year term.The court instead decided to make public the result of the recount covering three provinces that will serve as basis for any further action on Marcos' challenge. It also asked the two camps to comment on Marcos' plea to nullify votes in three other provinces due to supposed irregularities in the 2016 elections."The proper vice president -- myself -- is being robbed of years of service," Marcos said in a televised interview. President Rodrigo Duterte, who has faced questions on his health, has repeatedly said Marcos is his preferred successor if he had to leave office before his single term expires in 2022.Robredo, leader of the opposition party, said she welcomes the court decision, as she urged the court to already junk Marcos' protest. "The mere fact that this has been dragging on for so long only provides Marcos a platform for his lies," she said in a separate televised briefing.(Updates with comments from Marcos and Robredo from fourth paragraph.)To contact the reporter on this story: Andreo Calonzo in Manila at acalonzo1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Cecilia Yap at cyap19@bloomberg.net, Muneeza NaqviFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| China inflation surges as pork prices soar Posted: 14 Oct 2019 09:48 PM PDT  China's consumer inflation accelerated at its fastest pace in almost six years in September as African swine fever sent pork prices soaring nearly 70 percent, official data showed Tuesday. Authorities have gone as far as tapping the nation's pork reserve to control prices of the staple meat, as the swine fever crisis could become a political and economic liability for the state. The consumer price index (CPI) -- a key gauge of retail inflation -- hit 3.0 percent last month, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said, up from 2.8 percent in August and the highest since since November 2013.
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| Russia seeks to cement its role as power broker in Syria Posted: 15 Oct 2019 03:01 PM PDT  Russia moved to fill the void left by the United States in northern Syria on Tuesday, deploying troops to keep apart advancing Syrian government forces and Turkish troops. At the same time, tensions grew within NATO as Turkey defied growing condemnation of its invasion from its Western allies. Now in its seventh day, Turkey's offensive against Kurdish fighters has caused tens of thousands to flee their homes, has upended alliances and is re-drawing the map of northern Syria for yet another time in the 8-year-old war.
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| All of the Google Pixel and Home Products on Sale Now Posted: 15 Oct 2019 12:39 PM PDT |
| Dutch police discover family locked away for years in isolated farmhouse Posted: 15 Oct 2019 08:46 AM PDT  Dutch police acting on a tip-off discovered six young adult siblings who had apparently spent years locked away in a secret room in an isolated farmhouse "waiting for the end of time," local broadcasters reported on Tuesday.
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| FBI officials were 'rattled' and 'blindsided' by Trump's call for Ukraine to manufacture dirt on Joe Biden Posted: 14 Oct 2019 05:37 PM PDT  Officials were stunned not just by the nature of Trump's actions but also by his brazenness, which came months after the FBI closed the Russia probe.
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| Saudi Arabia: We are undergoing an unprecedented transformation Posted: 14 Oct 2019 02:30 PM PDT  Jamal Khashoggi's death was an aberration that should not define us as a nation, writes Fahad Nazer, spokesperson for the Saudi Embassy.
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| Michigan judge blocks flavored vape ban as Juul faces wrongful death lawsuit Posted: 15 Oct 2019 01:00 PM PDT  Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer had ordered the state ban in September, declaring that teenagers' use of e-cigarettes, known as vaping, was a public health emergency. Judge Cynthia Diane Stephens of the Michigan Court of Common Claims said that vaping was a public health concern, but agreed with the retailers that there was likely no basis for the governor to use her emergency powers. Whitmer's office had no immediate comment.
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| We found 85,000 cops who’ve been investigated for misconduct. Now you can read their records. Posted: 14 Oct 2019 05:25 PM PDT  USA TODAY is leading a national effort to obtain and publish disciplinary and misconduct records for thousands of police officers.
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| North Korea's Spy Submarines Have Performed Some Wild Missions—But This One Ended In Disaster Posted: 15 Oct 2019 11:06 AM PDT  A mechanical meltdown?
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| Amazon Pledges $1 Million More in Heated Seattle Elections Posted: 15 Oct 2019 11:36 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Amazon.com Inc. is reaching into its deep pockets in an effort to make Seattle more business-friendly, pledging an additional $1 million to a corporate-backed group ahead of next month's contentious city council elections.The contribution disclosed on Tuesday brings Amazon's donations this election cycle to the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce's Civic Alliance for a Sound Economy (CASE) to $1.45 million, and likely cements the company's status as the biggest spender in its hometown's elections. The splurge marks a dramatic change for the e-commerce giant, which largely avoided city politics for most of its 25 years, even as it grew into Seattle's largest employer and contributed to a boom that brought about rapidly rising housing costs, snarled traffic and a homelessness crisis."We are contributing to this election because we care deeply about the future of Seattle," Amazon spokesman Aaron Toso said in an emailed statement. "We believe it is critical that our hometown has a city council that is focused on pragmatic solutions to our shared challenges in transportation, homelessness, climate change and public safety."Amazon's relationship with city hall was a focus of heated debate last year around a proposed tax on large businesses to fund services for the homeless. The city council passed -- and then, under pressure from a business-backed repeal effort, rescinded -- the so-called head tax after Amazon paused construction planning on a piece of its corporate campus and threatened to back out of a lease for a major downtown skyscraper. Amazon would later confirm its intent to sublease that building anyway.Seven of Seattle's nine city council seats are up for election this year.Socialist councilmember Kshama Sawant, who sought to link Amazon to the tax and has made calls to tax the company a fixture of her reelection campaign, faces a competitive race in the Nov. 5 general election. Egan Orion, a community leader from Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood, is backed by CASE and individual contributions from more than a dozen Amazon executives.Amazon's latest commitment makes the company the biggest spender so far this election cycle, according to CASE, topping the $855,000 spent by a group affiliated with the Service Employees International Union. mazon this year has also hosted and sponsored city council candidate forums, and contributed $400,000 to a campaign to defeat a ballot measure that would cut Washington state car-tab taxes at the expense of transportation projects.To contact the reporter on this story: Matt Day in Seattle at mday63@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Jillian Ward at jward56@bloomberg.net, Molly Schuetz, Robin AjelloFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| GOP endorsement eludes indicted California congressman Posted: 14 Oct 2019 11:22 PM PDT  In a sign of a turbulent campaign to come, indicted U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter failed to win the endorsement Monday of his local Republican Party after arguing that he is the best candidate for the job despite his approaching federal trial. Hunter faced significant odds of winning the two-third support he needed for the nod from the San Diego Republican Party, with several other GOP candidates dividing the vote, including former Rep. Darrell Issa. "I've got this seat," Hunter said, with three other candidates seated beside him.
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| When Cops Create Their Own Risk, Innocent People Die for Their Mistakes Posted: 14 Oct 2019 01:21 PM PDT  The video is puzzling and shocking. After receiving a call to a non-emergency number requesting that police check on a neighbor's house that had its doors open and its lights on, police approach silently. They look into an open door and into a brightly lit room, but they don't say anything. They then creep around the house, moving from light to dark. They use a flashlight. They keep moving around the edges of the house.Suddenly, in a mere moment, one of them spots movement in a window. The officer yells for the shadowy figure to put up her hands and then immediately fires a shot. Atatiana Jefferson was dead. She was 28 years old. According to her family's lawyer, she was playing video games with her young nephew when they heard "rustling" outside and "saw flashlights." There was a gun in the house, but there's no indication (yet) that she was holding it in her hand.But what if she was? Does a homeowner not have a right to investigate someone lurking on her property? Can she not arm herself at 2:30 a.m. when she hears a strange sound in the darkness?I've been looking closely at the police-shooting issue for many years, and I'm noticing a trend in many of the worst and most controversial shootings. The police make mistakes that heighten their own sense of danger, and then they "resolve" their own error by opening fire.The examples are easy to find. The worst and most recent is that of Dallas officer Amber Guyger, who made the dreadful mistake of entering the wrong house and then immediately dealt with the perceived "threat" by shooting the innocent man inside.But Guyger is hardly the only offender. Who can forget the terrible shooting of Philando Castile, gunned down as he tried to comply with conflicting commands from an obviously panicked officer — the officer told Castile to hand over his license and proof of insurance, but also to not reach for his gun. He shot Castile to death even as Castile was calmly telling him that he wasn't reaching for his gun.Then there's the extraordinarily gut-wrenching video of a cop killing Daniel Shaver as he sobbed and begged for his life. The officer's instructions were utterly incomprehensible. He told Shaver to not put his hands down for any reason. He also told him to crawl down the hall..No one should forget Andrew Scott. Police seeking a suspect showed up at the wrong house (without a warrant), did not turn on their lights, did not identify themselves as police, and pounded violently on the door late at night. When Scott answered his own door with a firearm in his hand, he was instantly shot dead.It wasn't until the tragic death of Willie McCoy that the trend truly became obvious. McCoy was sleeping in his car, blocking a drive-through window, with a gun in his lap. When he began to move, cops clustered around his car started screaming at him so loudly that the transcript of the video has to explain that the shouts weren't gunshots. Then, within three seconds, the officers riddled him with bullets. They startled him awake, and then killed him.In response, I wrote this:> When we evaluate police shootings, we wrongly tend to limit our analysis to the very instant of the shooting itself. The question of a cop's reasonable fear at that instant is allowed to trump all other concerns, and becomes the deciding factor at trial. I would argue, however, that officers act unreasonably when they don't give a citizen a reasonable chance to live — and giving a citizen a reasonable chance to live involves properly handling the situation so no weapon need be fired.Would Atatiana Jefferson still be alive if the cops had parked in front of her house and clearly identified themselves by shouting into the open door? Would they still be alive had they not lurked around a person's home without permission -- exactly like a person who was trespassing, perhaps with malign intent?There is absolutely no question that police have a difficult job. There is no question that even routine encounters and wellness checks can — on rare occasions — escalate to deadly violence. But there is also no question that time and again police have enhanced the risk to the public through their own mistakes. Poor tactics can yield terrible results, and police should not be able to use the "split-second decision" defense when they created the crisis.There is no greater violation of liberty than the loss of your own life in your own home at the hands of misguided, panicky, or poorly trained agents of the state. Absent compelling evidence not yet revealed to the public, it appears that the man who killed Atatiana Jefferson committed a criminal act. He deserves to face criminal justice.
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| 7 Indigenous Pioneers You Need to Know Posted: 14 Oct 2019 11:19 AM PDT |
| Assad troops enter north-east Syria after Russia-backed deal with Kurds Posted: 14 Oct 2019 10:20 AM PDT  Bashar al-Assad's forces swept into cities across northeast Syria for the first time in seven years on Monday after the West's former Kurdish allies agreed to a Russian-brokered deal to try to hold off a Turkish attack. The Syrian regime's black-and-red flag went up across the region as Russia seized on Donald Trump's abandonment of the Kurds to restore Assad's rule over swathes of territory he has not controlled since 2012. Assad's troops clashed with Turkish-backed Syrian rebels outside Manbij, a key city on the Turkey-Syria border where US forces are evacuating on Mr Trump's orders. Western officials are watching closely to see if the skirmishes escalate into a direct confrontation between Turkey and the Syrian regime, or whether Russia can broker another deal to keep the two countries from clashing. Several European countries joined France and Germany in halting arms sales to Turkey, as the EU put out a joint statement condemning the offensive. A Syrian regime soldier waves the national flag a street on the western entrance of the town of Tal Tamr in the countryside of Syria's northeastern Hasakeh province on October 14, 2019 Credit: AFP Fears were also rising over an Islamic State (Isil) resurgence as it emerged that US forces had failed to secure dozens of the most hardened jihadist fighters, and Isil prisoners once again rioted against their Kurdish guards. Mr Trump suggested the Kurds were deliberately freeing Isil prisoners in a bid to get the West's attention, a talking point that has been repeatedly used by Turkey's government to discredit its Kurdish enemies. Assad's re-entry into northeastern Syria marks a dramatic redrawing of the lines of control in the war-torn country and likely signals the beginning of the end of seven years of Kurdish autonomy in the area. Regime fighters began entering the provinces of Hasakah and Raqqa and were moving quickly to consolidate their control over long swathes of the Turkish-Syrian border with the permission of Kurdish troops. The exact details of the agreement between Damascus and the Kurds remains unclear. Kurdish authorities insisted that they would maintain their political autonomy and that the deal was focused solely on military issues. Syrian regime forces are pictured as they patrol a street on the western entrance of the town of Tal Tamr in the countryside of Syria's northeastern Hasakeh province on October 14, 2019 Credit: AFP But other reports suggested that the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the Western-backed Kurdish units who led the fight against Isil, would be folded into Assad's army and that northeast Syria would come back under direct rule from Damascus. The immediate focus of the newly-aligned SDF and Assad regime is to repel Turkish-backed rebels from seizing control of Manbij, a border city west of the Euphrates River which is currently in Kurdish hands. The Syrian rebels, known as the National Army, said Monday night they had launched an operation to "liberate Manbij and its surroundings from the terrorist gangs". The National Army claimed to have engaged Assad's forces and captured a tank in a first round of fighting. The battle for Manbij will pose a test for Turkey, which must decide whether to back its Syrian rebel allies with airstrikes at the risk of sparking a confrontation with the Syrian regime. Turkey - Syria map Russia is believed to be relaying messages between the two sides to try to avert conflict. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the Turkish president, said he was determined to put the city under the control "our Arabic brothers" in the National Army. But while Turkish warplanes thundered overhead there were no reports they were striking Assad's forces in support of the rebels. US forces have been ordered to evacuate northern Syria but many troops remained caught up in the chaos as different armed groups maneuvered and the roads remained clogged with refugees. Sen. Lindsey Graham Credit: AP The situation in northeast Syria collapsed into disorder so quickly that US special forces did not have time to carry out a plan to seize around 60 of the top Isil fighters in Kurdish custody, according to the New York Times. US commandos had planned to take the prisoners from the Kurds and move them to Iraq but were unable to reach a key road in time. It is not known if any British fighters were among the 60 men on the US list. America has already taken custody of Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh, the two surviving members of the "Beatles" group of alleged British executioners. The report appeared to drastically undercut Mr Trump's claim that "the US has the worst of the Isil prisoners". Mr Trump also said the "Kurds may be releasing some [Isil prisoners] to get us involved" in trying to stop Turkey's offensive. Mr Erdoğan and other Turkish officials have made the same claim repeatedly in recent days. The Turkish military released a video which it claimed showed its commandos entering a Kurdish prison only to find that the guards had released all the inmates. But Kurdish officials suggested the video was staged at an empty facility never used as a prison. SDF guards at a prison were wounded during a riot by Isil prisoners at Ain Issa, according to Kurdish media. The Isil suspects still in Kurdish custody are panicked at the prospect they could be handed over to the Assad regime, which has a long history of torturing detainees.
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| Confessions of a cannabis farmer: The Vietnamese getting Brits high Posted: 14 Oct 2019 08:42 PM PDT  Holed up alone in a suburban British house thousands of miles from home, cannabis farmer Cuong Nguyen spent months carefully nurturing his plants, one of thousands of Vietnamese migrants working in the UK's multi-billion dollar weed industry. "All I ever wanted was to make money... whether it was legal or illegal," Cuong, who is now back in Vietnam, tells AFP. It was criminal career steered by the Vietnamese gangsters behind the UK's huge marijuana trade -- which researchers value at around 2.6 billion pounds ($3.2 billion) a year.
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| UPDATE 1-U.S. concerned about some Hong Kong protest tactics, heavier China hand -Pentagon Posted: 15 Oct 2019 11:40 AM PDT ![UPDATE 1-U.S. concerned about some Hong Kong protest tactics, heavier China hand -Pentagon]( "UPDATE 1-U.S. concerned about some Hong Kong protest tactics, heavier China hand -Pentagon") The senior U.S. defense official for Asia said on Tuesday that the United States has some concerns about some of the tactics used by demonstrators in Hong Kong but was also concerned about the heavier hand Beijing and Hong Kong authorities have used against protests in the territory. Randall Schriver, the assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs, said the United States was "100 percent" behind those in Hong Kong who were speaking out for respect for fundamental rights guaranteed in the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration. "But I think in general, we are concerned about the heavier hand that Beijing has taken and the Hong Kong authorities have taken with what we regard as legitimate activities on the part of the people of Hong Kong," Schriver added.
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| Marianne Williamson isn't on the debate stage but reminded people she's still running Posted: 15 Oct 2019 05:39 PM PDT  "No, they're not the only Democratic candidates for President of the United States," she tweeted as the debate started.
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| Here's who will be onstage for tonight's Democratic debate hosted by CNN and The New York Times, what time it'll start, and how to watch Posted: 15 Oct 2019 07:25 AM PDT  The debate, which will feature 12 candidates all debating on one stage, will be hosted at Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio.
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| Not guilty plea from man accused in church wedding shooting Posted: 15 Oct 2019 02:41 PM PDT  A man accused of storming into a New Hampshire church over the weekend and shooting a clergyman and a bride during a wedding pleaded not guilty Tuesday. Dale Holloway, 37, of Manchester, is accused of attempted murder, assault and other charges in connection with the Saturday shooting at the New England Pentecostal Ministries in Pelham. Assistant Attorney General Benjamin Agati said authorities believe Holloway acted alone and that they were investigating whether it was connected to an earlier shooting.
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| California Mandates Free Abortion at Public Colleges Posted: 15 Oct 2019 03:30 AM PDT  Democratic governor Gavin Newsom has signed legislation making California the first state in the country to require public colleges and universities to provide medical-abortion pills to students at campus health centers.S.B. 24, or the College Student Right to Access Act, will compel all 34 University of California and California State University campuses to make the RU-486 chemical-abortion pill available through campus health centers by 2023, in theory at no cost to students. Last fall, then-governor Jerry Brown refused to sign the legislation, using talking points similar to those that pro-life groups such as Students for Life of America used when lobbying against the bill."According to a study sponsored by supporters of this legislation, the average distance to abortion providers in campus communities varies from five to seven miles, not an unreasonable distance," Brown said in a statement at the time. "Because the services required by this bill are widely available off-campus, this bill is not necessary."Evidently, Newsom disagreed. "As other states and the federal government go backward, restricting reproductive freedom, in California we are moving forward, expanding access and reaffirming a woman's right to choose," he said in a statement after signing the bill late last week. "We're removing barriers to reproductive health, increasing access on college campuses and using technology to modernize how patients interact with providers."According to the bill, RU-486 will be provided to students by health-care workers at health centers on California campuses. But the drug in question — Mifeprex, the most common drug used in chemical abortions before about ten weeks' gestation — typically is administered at a clinic before the pregnant woman is sent home to expel the developing embryo, a fairly risky process.This past April, the Food and Drug Administration updated the adverse effects of Mifeprex to note that as of 2018, "there were reports of 24 deaths of women associated with Mifeprex since the product was approved in September 2000, including two cases of ectopic pregnancy resulting in death; and several cases of severe systemic infection (also called sepsis), including some that were fatal."Official documentation on the use of Mifeprex shows that there have been close to 4,200 women who reported adverse effects from the drug, including infections, follow-up surgery, hospitalization, and other complications. Opponents of the legislation in California lobbied against the bill in part because they argued that college-age women in particular need close supervision and will be put at risk by having abortion drugs made available without proper surveillance to ensure their health and safety.Judging from estimates provided by proponents of S.B. 24, it is likely that somewhere between 15 and 75 young women each month will require surgery after RU-486 fails. Opponents of the bill say it's unlikely that campus health centers will be adequately prepared to handle such emergencies. Many who lobbied against the bill also noted that the legislation's provisions will probably require violating the conscience rights of California's health-care professionals, who easily could be forced to facilitate medical abortions, because S.B. 24 provides no protections for anyone with religious or moral objections to the procedure.Over the summer, California's Department of Finance articulated its objections to the legislation, noting that the Commission on the Status of Women and Girls "does not have the technical expertise nor existing capacity to develop and administer a program of this size, scope, or content."According to its report, enacting the new policy would cost University of California–system schools somewhere between $4.6 million and $7.8 million to initiate, with additional ongoing costs of $2.2 million to $3.3 million beginning in 2023 to operate the program. The report didn't estimate the costs to the California State University system but noted that the CSU had said students' out-of-pocket costs for RU-486 and related lab work likely would be about $500 because the state hasn't allocated enough to actually cover the cost.S.B. 24 will allocate $200,000 each to University of California and California State University health centers "to pay for the cost, both direct and indirect, of medication abortion readiness," including updated training, new equipment, telemedicine services, and facility upgrades. Pro-abortion group JustCARE reports that private donors including the Women's Foundation of California and Tara Health Foundation raised $10,290,000 in private money to fund the new policy. Opponents of the legislation note that if the funding is insufficient to account for actual costs of implementing the program on all 34 campuses, the rest of the costs will fall to students.This year has featured a number of controversial changes to state abortion policies across the country, as several states attempted to limit abortion earlier in pregnancy and a handful of others officially legalized abortion through all nine months of pregnancy. California state senator Connie Leyva, sponsor of S.B. 24, has said she hopes that her legislation will be the beginning of a broader campaign to make chemical-abortion drugs available on campuses across the country — a new frontier in the fight over abortion policy.
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| Putin’s Syria Gambit Delivers Again as Trump Sidelines U.S. Posted: 15 Oct 2019 05:56 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- The Turkish troops who poured into Syria to battle Kurdish fighters abandoned by the U.S. may have inadvertently handed Russian President Vladimir Putin a strategic victory in the Middle East.Less than a week after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ordered the intervention, Russia underlined its dominance in the region by warning of the limits of its patience with the operation. The Kremlin's message came after President Donald Trump imposed sanctions on Turkey that left many in Congress unimpressed following his withdrawal of the last 1,000 U.S. troops from territory held by the Kurds for seven years during the Syrian war."We have always called on Turkey to exercise restraint and considered any military operation in Syria unacceptable," Putin's special envoy for Syria, Alexander Lavrentiev, said Tuesday in Abu Dhabi, where the Russian president was meeting with United Arab Emirates leaders. "Security along the Turkish-Syrian border must be ensured by deploying government troops."Putin has seized on the crisis to maneuver Syrian government forces into Kurdish-held territory, a major step in his efforts to restore President Bashar al-Assad's control over all of the country after Russia's military intervention tipped the war in his favor. The Kurdish-led authority in northeast Syria announced Sunday that it had struck a deal with Damascus and Moscow for the Syrian army to protect the northern border with Turkey after the U.S. pullout.The agreement gives the Kremlin undisputed leadership in shaping Syria's future, bolstering Putin's image in the Middle East, where he's already forged a partnership with Iran, created an oil alliance with Saudi Arabia and built close ties with Egypt's strongman President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi. Putin has also wooed Erdogan, who defied U.S. opposition to buy Russia's advanced S-400 air-defense system, and they have coordinated efforts to try to resolve the Syrian war despite tensions over the Kurds.Putin traveled to the U.A.E. from Saudi Arabia, where he made his first visit since 2007, reinforcing the Kremlin's efforts to exploit waning U.S. influence in the Middle East under Trump and his predecessor Barack Obama.'Searing Perceptions'"The split screen of Trump's shambolic withdrawal from Syria and Putin's" visit to the region "is searing perceptions of a new balance of power in the world," Brett McGurk, the former lead envoy for the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State, said on Twitter. He resigned in protest in December after Trump first announced a Syria pullout.Syrian government troops took full control of the key frontier city of Manbij and surrounding towns following the U.S. departure, the Russian Defense Ministry said Tuesday in an emailed statement. Russian military police are patrolling the northeast border of Manbij province along the line of contact between Syrian and Turkish forces, it said.The U.S. has "abandoned partners, undermining others' trust," said Tom Tugendhat, a U.K. lawmaker from the ruling Conservative party and chairman of parliament's foreign affairs committee. Russia "is a key ally of both sides and wins either way," he said on Twitter.Russia won't permit any armed clashes between Turkish and Syrian forces, Lavrentiev told reporters."Putin has forced his allies and rivals to accept that he has essentially become the architect of the political and military balances in the Syrian conflict," Ayham Kamel, head of Middle East and North East research at Eurasia Group, said by email.Trump sought to regain the initiative on Monday by holding phone talks with Kurdish military commander Mazloum Abdi and Erdogan in the presence of Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who has pushed for "crippling" sanctions on Turkey. The U.S. president assured Abdi he would do "everything possible" to stop the Turkish incursion, Graham said on Twitter.Ankara says the offensive, which has provoked a wave of international condemnation, is necessary to push back Kurdish fighters it describes as terrorists linked to separatists inside Turkey.But Putin on Friday warned that the operation risked triggering a resurgent threat from Islamic State, with thousands of jihadists detained by the Kurds potentially able to escape. "This is a real threat to all of us," he told regional counterparts in Turkmenistan. The Kurds said Sunday that nearly 800 inmates affiliated with Islamic State had escaped from a detention center after Turkish shelling.The Turkish attack and U.S. pullback presented a perfect opportunity to achieve Russian goals in Syria and restore central control over the oil-rich northeast, according to Elena Suponina, a Moscow-based Middle East expert."Russia has always wanted the government to recover control of as much territory as possible," she said.(Updates with Syrian forces take Manbij in third paragraph.)\--With assistance from Selcan Hacaoglu and Ilya Arkhipov.To contact the reporters on this story: Henry Meyer in Moscow at hmeyer4@bloomberg.net;Andrey Biryukov in Moscow at abiryukov5@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Gregory L. White at gwhite64@bloomberg.net, Tony Halpin, Paul AbelskyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| This church in Pennsylvania holds a ceremony to bless guns Posted: 15 Oct 2019 04:19 AM PDT  Dozens of couples carrying assault rifles took part in a blessing of their weapons at a church in Newfoundland, Pennsylvania. Members of the World Peace and Unification Sanctuary, an unofficial sect of the Christian Unification movement, were invited to "show their willingness to defend their families, communities and nation". The weapons are meant to represent the "rod of iron" referenced in the biblical Book of Revelation, which was used to control God's enemies. The semi-automatic rifles are similar to the weapon used to kill 17 people in the shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida in February 2018. The church believes that the Florida shooting could have been prevented if the teachers were armed. Members carry guns while some wear crowns, often made of bullets Credit: Spencer Platt/Getty In the aftermath of the tragedy the debate over gun control raged across America, with shocked students calling for immediate action on gun control. Despite this, the US's largest gun lobby, the National Rifle Association (NRA) has hindered attempts to restrict the accessibility of firearms, using its financial and political clout. Weapons are not loaded and the guns are secured with zip ties to stop them firing Credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Now, two decades on from the 1999 Columbine school shooting, it is easier to purchase assault rifles after a temporary ban under the Bush administration expired.
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| Mexican president confirms Pemex union boss under investigation Posted: 15 Oct 2019 10:15 AM PDT  The veteran leader of Mexico's powerful oil workers' union faces formal accusations of wrongdoing, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Tuesday, slowly turning up pressure on the labor boss to step aside. Earlier this year, sources said the attorney general's office had accused Pemex union chief Carlos Romero Deschamps and several relatives of illicit enrichment and money laundering, charges he has consistently denied. "Complaints have been presented to the attorney general's office," Lopez Obrador told a regular news conference.
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| Otters nearly drown large pet dog in group attack Posted: 15 Oct 2019 12:46 AM PDT  A pet dog has nearly drowned after reportedly being attacked by a group of otters.The alleged attack happened in Alaska, when Kenny Brewer went out for an evening walk with his wife, Kira, and their dog, Ruby – a 50lb husky mix.
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| Funeral prank by deceased grandfather leaves mourners laughing Posted: 14 Oct 2019 12:39 PM PDT  A funeral prank that had a deceased grandfather talking from beyond the grave left mourners laughing.
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