| UPDATE 3-Senior Democrat says next step underway in Trump impeachment probe Posted: 24 Nov 2019 06:32 AM PST  Democratic U.S. lawmakers have begun the next step in the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump - writing a report on their findings - but still could take more testimony and hold additional hearings, the chairman of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee said on Sunday. Representative Adam Schiff, whose committee is leading the inquiry that threatens Trump's presidency, said the panel has started work on the report after two weeks of public hearings with testimony from current and former U.S. officials. The panel has held five public hearings and has no more scheduled.
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| Ex-CIA Officer Sentenced to 19 Years in Chinese Espionage Conspiracy Posted: 23 Nov 2019 07:29 AM PST  ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- A former CIA officer was sentenced Friday to 19 years in prison for conspiring to deliver classified information to China in a case that touched on the mysterious unraveling of the agency's informant network in China but did little to solve it.The former officer, Jerry Chun Shing Lee, 55, pleaded guilty in May to conspiring with Chinese intelligence agents starting in 2010, after he left the agency. Prosecutors detailed a long financial paper trail that they said showed that Lee received more than $840,000 for his work.Lee, an Army veteran, worked for the CIA from 1994 to 2007, including in China. After he resigned, he formed a tobacco company in Hong Kong with an associate who had ties to the Chinese intelligence community. Lee then began meeting with agents from China's Ministry of State Security, who assigned him tasks he admitted to taking on and offered to "take care of him for life."While working in Hong Kong in 2010, Lee reapplied for employment with the CIA but misled U.S. officials repeatedly in interviews about his dealings with Chinese intelligence officers and the source of his income.Around the time Lee began speaking to Chinese agents, the CIA was rocked by major setbacks in China as its once-robust espionage network there began to fall apart. Between 2010 and 2012, dozens of CIA informants in China disappeared, either jailed or killed, embroiling the agency in an internal debate about how Chinese intelligence officers had identified the informants. Many within the agency came to believe that a mole had exposed U.S. informants, and Lee became a main suspect.But FBI agents who investigated whether he was the culprit passed on an opportunity to arrest him in the United States in 2013, allowing him to travel back to Hong Kong even after finding classified information in his luggage. FBI agents had also covertly entered a hotel room Lee occupied in 2012, finding handwritten notes detailing the names and numbers of at least eight CIA sources that he had handled in his capacity as a case officer.The investigators apparently decided that by continuing to quietly monitor Lee, they might glean more clues about the disappearing CIA informants in China. But even after his arrest in 2018 on the same charge the CIA was prepared to bring in 2013, they were unable to determine whether Lee was involved in the disclosures to Chinese intelligence operatives.Because of Lee's plea agreement, in which he admitted to one count of possessing information classified as secret -- a lower level than top secret -- prosecutors asked for a relatively lighter sentence of roughly 22 to 27 years, rather than life in prison.But prosecutors argued that even if Lee never turned over information to Chinese intelligence officers, the fact that he shared his knowledge of U.S. intelligence work with Chinese agents alone could have a chilling effect on the CIA's source-building efforts."It makes it difficult to recruit people in the future if they know the CIA isn't protecting their people," said Adam L. Small, a federal prosecutor in Northern Virginia, where Lee was charged. "These are people who put their names and lives in his hands."The sentence for Lee is the latest in a string of recent cases in which U.S. intelligence workers have been handed lengthy prison terms for espionage connected to China. In announcing Lee's sentence, Judge T.S. Ellis III said that a hefty sentence was necessary to deter others from jeopardizing U.S. intelligence.In May, another CIA case officer, Kevin Patrick Mallory was sentenced to 20 years in prison for selling classified documents to a Chinese intelligence officer for $25,000. Ellis, who presided over that case as well, decided that a life sentence for Mallory was excessively harsh even though prosecutors showed he successfully transmitted secret information.In September, Ron Rockwell Hansen, a former Defense Intelligence Agency officer, received 10 years in prison for attempting to pass along defense secrets.Lee's lawyers argued that the largely circumstantial case against him was considerably weaker than others in which defendants were charged with espionage, and that speculating that the unexplained payments he received were compensation for information that harmed CIA operations was "a bridge too far."Although Lee pleaded guilty to conspiring with Chinese agents, lawyers on both sides conceded that there was no direct evidence that Lee ever provided any of the classified information in his possession to the Chinese government. The CIA has not shown that the sources listed in Lee's notes faced retribution or harm, Lee's lawyers said."What the government is describing is their worst possible nightmare," said Nina J. Ginsberg, one of Lee's lawyers.In announcing the sentence, Ellis said he was not convinced that Lee's interactions with Chinese intelligence officers were benign, and that it is common in espionage cases to never fully uncover the extent of illicit dealings.While he acknowledged that Lee, a naturalized citizen born in Hong Kong, had done a great deal with his life as an American -- four years in the Army, a 13-year career with the CIA -- Ellis appeared unmoved."That gets erased," he said, "when you betray your country."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
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| Iran vows to punish 'mercenaries' behind street violence Posted: 24 Nov 2019 02:32 AM PST  Iran will severely punish "mercenaries" arrested over a wave of street violence that erupted after a sharp hike in fuel prices, a Revolutionary Guards commander warned Sunday. The Islamic republic says it has restored calm after the unrest that broke out on November 15, hours after the surprise announcement that petrol prices would go up by as much as 200 percent. Citing law enforcement officials, Fars news agency said Sunday that 180 ringleaders had been arrested over the protests that saw highways blocked, banks and police stations set alight and shops looted.
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| Duterte Fires Vice President from Post on Anti-Drug Body Posted: 24 Nov 2019 04:54 AM PST ![Duterte Fires Vice President from Post on Anti-Drug Body]( "Duterte Fires Vice President from Post on Anti-Drug Body") (Bloomberg) -- Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has fired Vice President Leni Robredo from a government body against illegal drugs, less than three weeks after appointing her to help run it.Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea confirmed Duterte's decision, which was first reported by CNN Philippines.Robredo, who was elected separately from the president and heads the opposition Liberal Party, accepted Duterte's appointment to co-chair the Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs on Nov. 6. Duterte's decision to fire Robredo came days after saying that he couldn't trust the vice president because she was from the opposition.The 74-year old Philippine leader, who's been criticized for a drug war that has killed thousands of people, dared Robredo last month to run his campaign after the vice president urged a review of the program.Since accepting the post, Robredo has called for the rehabilitation of drug users instead of going after them through police operations that have killed thousands of suspects. She has also met with officials from the U.S. and the United Nations to discuss best practices in solving the country's illegal drug problem.Robredo has also asked a Philippine government drug enforcement agency for data including a list of high-value targets, a request that Duterte's camp has rejected.Robredo was housing secretary at the start of Duterte's six-year term in June 2016 but left before the end of that year, after she was told not to attend cabinet meetings.\--With assistance from Andreo Calonzo.To contact the reporter on this story: Clarissa Batino in Manila at cbatino@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Shamim Adam at sadam2@bloomberg.net, Karen Leigh, Sara MarleyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Pilot Walks Away Uninjured After Plane Gets Caught Upside Down in Power Lines Posted: 24 Nov 2019 10:27 AM PST  The power line was deactivated and the 65-year-old pilot was freed from the plane
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| South Korea and America Do Not Share the Same Interests Posted: 24 Nov 2019 02:15 AM PST  A big problem.
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| Medical experts say China is falsifying organ donation data, after it was accused of harvesting body parts from Uighur Muslims in prison camps Posted: 24 Nov 2019 02:10 AM PST  Researchers say Chinese organ donation data conforms almost perfectly to a mathematical formula, which strongly suggests the data was faked.
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| Elizabeth Warren Has Finally Found a 2020 Dem to Attack in Michael Bloomberg Posted: 24 Nov 2019 11:46 AM PST  Photo Illustration by Kristen Hazzard/The Daily Beast/Photos Getty/Photo by Bauzen/GC ImagesElizabeth Warren, who has spent much of the election staying clear of directly attacking political opponents while railing against systematic corruption, faces a new reality: a 77-year-old rich guy worth $54 billion has bulldozed into the Democratic primary. And Bernie Sanders, whose crusade against the billionaire class has become as ubiquitous as the finger wave that accompanies it, now has another reason to chomp at the bit. Enter: Michael Bloomberg, the latest billionaire to declare he is running for the Democratic nomination in 2020. In announcing his bid on Sunday, the former New York City mayor said he is running to "defeat Donald Trump and rebuild America." In a statement and accompanying video, he said, "we cannot afford four more years of President Trump's reckless and unethical actions. He represents an existential threat to our country and our values. If he wins another term in office, we may never recover from the damage."Former NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg Formally Files for 2020 Presidential RunAllies of Warren and Sanders allies don't think Bloomberg, a New Yorker by way of Medford, Massachusetts, will have the chance to take on fellow New Yorker, Donald Trump. In fact, they view the billionaire's entrance into the party's primary as a political gift. "This may be one of the most important things that happened to her campaign," said Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, which is supporting Warren. "Bloomberg's entrance centers the conversation to the core themes that have been instrumental to Elizabeth Warren's rise," he said, including "the systemic corruption of our democracy by billionaires.""The more the campaign is grounded and centered in those issues, the more likely it is that Elizabeth Warren will win."Reached by The Daily Beast, a Bloomberg aide texted it is "not a surprise" when asked about jabs from Warren and Sanders escalating with his arrival into the field. A Sanders aide flagged their campaign's recent statement on Bloomberg's candidacy, while a spokesperson for Warren's campaign passed along her relevant remarks from a recent event.Bloomberg's video is just one part of a $34 million ad buy, according to Advertising Analytics' latest estimate of campaign spending shared with The Daily Beast. On Thursday, he officially filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission. His aides have said he plans to take no campaign donations and will work for $1 a year if he's elected, adding Bloomberg "cannot be bought." Bloomberg's bid comes less than three months before voters begin selecting candidates in the first caucus and primary states. Warren and Sanders, who are statistically tied for the second place spot in national polling averages, will now have not one, but two, billionaires vying for the party's nomination, including California mega-donor Tom Steyer. Sanders and Warren sit roughly 10 points behind Joe Biden in national averages. And Bloomberg's bid is viewed, largely, as a show of force against the former vice president, who has struggled with fundraising and momentum despite remaining relatively even in polling averages throughout the contest. Eyeing those factors, several Democratic strategists who have already started grumbling about Bloomberg said his candidacy throws a potential wrench into Biden's campaign, The Daily Beast previously reported. It could also complicate the path for South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who has skyrocketed ahead in several surveys in Iowa in New Hampshire, strategists said. Biden Allies Have Already Started Grumbling About BloombergMultiple Democratic operatives and activists supportive of Warren and Sanders agreed that for their candidates, it's a different story entirely."There are a lot of things you can say about Bloomberg," Matt Bruenig, founder of the progressive People's Policy Project, told The Daily Beast. "Not only is he a billionaire, but he's a Wall Street billionaire, so you get that angle. If they stay to script, they'll have more things to say."Warren and Sanders each have robust small-dollar fundraising operations and have spent much of their campaigns fighting against claims of corruption around the country. Warren has focused on what she calls systemic corruption and challenging corporate power, saying the "government is working great for billionaires" but not for every day Americans. Sanders has fine-tuned his "rigged political system" messaging left over from 2016, where he mounted a strong grassroots challenge to Hillary Clinton by criticizing wealthy donors and occasionally calling out billionaires by name. Amazon's CEO Jeff Bezos, who reportedly asked Bloomberg about a potential run, is a favorite target of Sanders this cycle. Over the past few days, Sanders has doubled down on his message for the one percent, saying he's "disgusted" that Bloomberg or other billionaires believe they can buy election results. His misgivings about "the billionaires" have been as consistent in his second presidential bid as it was in his first. "I'm disgusted by the idea that Michael Bloomberg or any other billionaire thinks they can circumvent the political process and spend tens of millions of dollars to buy our elections," Sanders wrote in a statement. "It's just the latest example of a rigged political system that we are going to change when we're in the White House. If you can't build grassroots support for your candidacy, you have no business running for president. The American people are sick and tired of the power of billionaires, and I suspect they won't react well to someone trying to buy an election."The move comes after Sanders' campaign launched a new Facebook ad featuring the 78-year-old senator looking at the camera and addressing supporters, while name-dropping the billionaire directly. "Please make a contribution to help us say to Michael Bloomberg and the entire billionaire class: 'sorry you're not going to buy this election."Warren, who became a progressive champion of working class families in 2008 for fighting against big banks during the financial crisis, hasn't been shy about clapping back against attacks from the uber-rich, either, going hard against well-heeled figures like billionaire hedge-fund manager Leon Cooperman and Goldman Sachs senior chairman Lloyd Blankfein. On Saturday, while campaigning in New Hampshire, Warren told reporters "elections should not be for sale, not to billionaires, not to corporate executives," when asked about Bloomberg's potential run before his official announcement.Warren's comments are consistent with her campaign's messaging strategy that's evolved through her nine-and-a-half-month-long bid. Her campaign's website now features promotional coffee mugs emblazoned with "BILLIONAIRES TEARS" and an online calculator that helps "confused billionaires" see exactly how much they would pay in taxes under her campaign's wealth tax plan, which would start on individuals with a net worth starting at $50 million."WOW — YOU'VE GOT A LOT OF MONEY!" the calculator spits out when a user clicks on the name Michael Bloomberg. The message continues: "You'd pay $3.079 billion next year under Elizabeth's wealth tax. This amount, which you likely won't even feel, will help us invest in education from birth through college and help finance health care for everyone. Good news - you'll still be extraordinarily rich!" While Sanders and Warren's end goals are strikingly similar, stylistically, there are other contrasts between how the two New England senators distinguish their messages against the mega-rich. Some strategists noted that Warren tends to address corruption in broader terms on the campaign trail, but does not necessarily criticize wealthy individuals for making a lot of money. Instead, she asks them to simply do a little extra to pay their fair share. Sanders tends to go for the jugular, some said, calling it flat-out exploitation. In September, Sanders mused about the idea that "Billionaires should not exist," going a step further than the Vermont independent's usual stump speech. "It seems like Bernie has been much more willing to say it is exploitation," Bruing said.In contrast, Bloomberg is one of the Democratic Party's biggest donors. He has donated $112 million to Independence USA, his own super PAC, since 2012. And he has already started spending heavily on TV. Between Nov. 25 and Dec. 3, he has spent $34 million for ad time in 29 states, including several general election battlegrounds: Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Arizona, and Colorado, among others. For now, he omitted several early contests: Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina. Bloomberg is expected to largely skip over those states, where both Warren and Sanders have already campaigned heavily and invested significant resources. He is also unlikely to qualify for the remaining debates under the Democratic National Committee's rules that stipulate individual donor requirements.A recent Morning Consult poll found that only four percent of Democratic voters would choose Bloomberg as their first pick. In that survey, Sanders was 20 percent of respondents' first choice, while Warren was 18 percent. Biden is on the top, with 31 percent of respondents preferring him as their number one, which some progressives see as an opportunity with Bloomberg's name in the hat."He'll cannibalize support from other white male candidates … who want more corporate talking points, namely Biden and Buttigieg," Green said. Still, other Democrats aren't as certain, arguing that yet another billionaire for multiple candidates to attack could make it harder for voters to see Warren and Sanders as the leading progressives, and might warm to others if they choose to criticize him in a similar fashion."The Bloomberg thing will be good for Buttigieg and Biden," said Matt Stoller, a Hill veteran who now studies the influence of power. "It will give them the chance to blur the lines between Warren and Bernie." 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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| The man behind China’s detention of 1 million Muslims Posted: 24 Nov 2019 10:50 AM PST  After bloody race riots rocked China's far west a decade ago, the ruling Communist Party turned to a rare figure in their ranks to restore order: a Han Chinese official fluent in Uighur, the language of the local Turkic Muslim minority. Now, newly revealed, confidential documents show that the official, Zhu Hailun, played a key role in planning and executing a campaign that has swept up a million or more Uighurs into detention camps. Published in 2017, the documents were signed by Zhu, as then-head of the powerful Political and Legal Affairs Commission of the Communist Party in the Xinjiang region.
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| New documents show contact between Giuliani and Pompeo Posted: 23 Nov 2019 07:26 AM PST  Documents released Friday show President Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani was in contact with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in the months before the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine was recalled.
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| John Bolton re-opens Twitter account, says White House withheld his access Posted: 23 Nov 2019 08:34 AM PST  Former National Security Advisor John Bolton returned to Twitter, alleging the White House withheld his access "out of fear of what I may say?"
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| She Texted About Dinner While Driving. Then a Pedestrian Was Dead. Posted: 23 Nov 2019 07:17 AM PST  FREEHOLD, N.J. -- One woman was out for a walk and a taste of fresh air during a break from her job as a scientist at a New Jersey fragrance manufacturer. She and her husband had been trying to get pregnant, and brief bouts of exercise, away from the laboratory's smells and fumes, were part of that plan.A second woman was behind the wheel of a black Mercedes-Benz, headed to work as chief executive of a nonprofit in a city that had once lauded her as civic leader of the year for her extensive work with troubled youth.Their lives collided with devastating speed in the coastal town of Keansburg just before 8:20 on a Wednesday morning, leaving the woman out for a walk fatally injured and the driver facing a charge of vehicular homicide, accused of texting while driving.On Friday, a jury found the driver, Alexandra Mansonet, guilty of vehicular homicide in a case that was believed to be the first time a New Jersey jury was asked to apply a 2012 law that places texting while driving on par with drunken driving.The case has focused attention on the nationwide crisis of distracted driving, as well as how rare and difficult prosecutions can be."It's a relatively new issue," said Kara Macek, a spokeswoman for the national Governors Highway Safety Association. "In fatal crashes, it's much more difficult to obtain evidence that a driver was distracted."Mansonet's car had plowed into the back of a Toyota Corolla not far from her home, just past a bridge that crosses over a creek that spills into the nearby bay and the Atlantic Ocean beyond. The Corolla then hit the woman who had been out for a walk, sending her flying into the air.Mansonet, 50, testified that she had looked down to turn on a rear-window defogger just before the Sept. 28, 2016, crash. "I looked up and the car was right in front of me," she said.She faces up to 10 years in prison when she is sentenced.When the foreman of the jury, which had deliberated for 2 1/2 days, read the one-word verdict, "guilty," Mansonet placed her left hand to her face and breathed deeply while family members behind her wept. She cried as she exited the courtroom.Her lawyer, Steven Altman, noted how commonplace texting while driving has become. "It's going to be very difficult for her to deal with the fact that at sentencing she could be incarcerated for something we are all guilty of doing on a daily basis," he said.The pedestrian, Yuwen Wang, died days after the collision at a hospital that is next to the courthouse in New Brunswick where she and her husband, Steven Qiu, had said their vows six years earlier. The couple had celebrated their anniversary the night before the crash.Qiu said he and his family were comforted by the verdict. "I'm really grateful," he said, adding, "I hope more people could realize the consequences of texting while driving."His wife's final words to him came in the form of a cheerful but mundane farewell. "Have a good day," Qiu recalled her saying.The text at the heart of the trial was equally ordinary in a culture where streams of shorthand cellphone messages have become ingrained in modern life. "Cuban, American or Mexican. Pick one," Mansonet's former sister-in-law had texted to ask about her preference for dinner choices, the assistant prosecutor, Christopher Decker, said in court.Where and when Mansonet read the text, and when she began to tap out a reply, became central to the trial in Monmouth County Superior Court in Freehold. The prosecutor argued that the unsent text -- the letters "m" and "e" -- were the start of a response about her dinner choice.Mansonet willingly turned her phone over to the police after the crash, Altman said before the verdict. Had she been using her phone to text at the time of the crash, Altman said, "all she had to do was delete it."Mansonet, in testimony, conceded that she had typed the letters "m" and "e" but said she did not remember when. "I thought, 'I'm going to call her up because I don't know if I want Mexican,'" she testified.Wang, 39, was originally from Taiwan and had recently earned her Ph.D. in New Jersey, her husband said. She is among the increasing number of pedestrians killed annually; last year, the nationwide pedestrian death toll of 6,283 approached a three-decade high.New York, in 2001, became the first state to outlaw driver cellphone use.Five years later, the deaths of two scientists in Utah in a texting-related crash helped fuel a nationwide push for stricter laws.Today, 47 states and Washington, D.C., ban text messaging for all drivers. Of the three states without an all-driver texting ban, two prohibit novice drivers from texting and one restricts bus drivers from sending texts.Approximately 10% of the fatal crashes in the country between 2013 and 2017 involved distracted driving, according to data collected by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Of these crashes, about 14% were linked to the use of a cellphone. In 2017, for example, at least 401 of the 2,935 distracted-driving traffic fatalities were tied to cellphone usage.Still, it is difficult to pinpoint the precise number of prosecutions related to fatal crashes and distracted driving.Last year, there were 73 drivers nationwide involved in fatal crashes who were identified as distracted and were charged with crimes unrelated to traffic violations, according to a National Safety Council analysis of data provided by the traffic safety administration.New Jersey state law was amended in 2012 to add the use of hand-held devices to the list of behaviors that may be interpreted as criminally "reckless" and could constitute vehicular homicide.But the Monmouth County case is thought to be the only one of a handful of texting-linked vehicular-homicide charges since then to reach trial, according to two past presidents of the Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers of New Jersey. Some drivers originally charged with vehicular homicide pleaded guilty to less serious offenses; one woman died before her case reached trial.One female juror declined to talk about the verdict or the closed-door discussions as she left court."This is a tragedy in every respect," Monmouth County's prosecutor, Christopher Gramiccioni, said. "Texting while driving puts drivers and pedestrians in grave danger, and we are hopeful that the jury's verdict will reinforce the public's awareness of this risk."Mansonet, the executive director of the Jewish Renaissance Foundation in Perth Amboy, declined an offer to plead guilty to a charge that would have required a sentence of three to five years in prison, Altman, her lawyer, said.Proving the crime of reckless vehicular homicide can be especially difficult without an admission by a driver, passengers who witness phone use, or video evidence, several lawyers and safety experts said. It is also common for there to be other factors, such as speed or intoxication, that contribute to the accident and are easier to prove."There are challenges to figuring out whether distraction is the root cause of the crash," said Maureen Vogel, a spokeswoman for the National Safety Council, a roadway safety organization.Regardless of Friday's verdict, the publicity generated by the Monmouth County trial has provided a crucial warning to every driver with a cellphone, said Mitchell Ansell, a criminal defense lawyer with 30 years of experience in southern New Jersey."A lot of people are watching this," Ansell said, "and I think it's designed to send a message: You are responsible when you are on the road."For Qiu, who met his wife in Beijing and endured a five-year long-distance relationship as the couple secured green cards, the courtroom testimony was too excruciating to sit through most days.But the renewed focus on the dangers of texting while driving was a small victory, he said in an interview as the jury deliberated."In some sense, my wife's death does become more meaningful," Qiu said. "I have to take some comfort from that."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
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| In America's Next Serious War, It's Aircraft Carriers Won't Go Unscathed Posted: 23 Nov 2019 04:00 PM PST  It's time to adapt.
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| China to Raise Penalties on IP Theft in Trade War Compromise Posted: 24 Nov 2019 03:21 PM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Terms of Trade is a daily newsletter that untangles a world embroiled in trade wars. Sign up here. China said it will raise penalties on violations of intellectual property rights in an attempt to address one of the sticking points in trade talks with the U.S.The country will also look into lowering the thresholds for criminal punishments for those who steal IP, according to guidelines issued by the government on Sunday. It didn't elaborate on what such moves might entail.The U.S. wants China to commit to cracking down on IP theft and stop forcing U.S. companies to hand over their commercial secrets as a condition of doing business there. China said it's aiming to reduce frequent IP violations by 2022 and plans to make it easier for victims of transgressions to receive compensation.The two countries are working toward a partial trade deal and leaving the more controversial issues for later discussions. China's chief trade negotiator spoke last week about its plans for reforming state enterprises, opening up the financial sector and enforcing intellectual property rights -- issues at the core of U.S. demands for change in China's economic system.How and Why the U.S. Says China Steals Technology: QuickTake"Strengthening IPR protection is the most important content of improving the IPR protection system and also the biggest incentive to boost China's economic competitiveness," according to the guidelines. Local governments will be required to implement the strengthening of IP rights, it said.In May, the U.S. added Huawei Technologies Co. to what's known as the entity list in an effort to block U.S. companies from selling components to China's largest technology company. Huawei is accused of being a threat to America's national security, and has denied those claims.Trump, Xi Talk Past Each Other on Need for Win-Win Trade DealLast week, Chinese President Xi Jinping said his nation wants to work toward a phase-one trade agreement with the U.S. that's based in part on "equality." That's a guiding principle that President Donald Trump just hours later said he doesn't share."This can't be like an even deal, because we're starting off on the floor and you're already at the ceiling. So we have to have a much better deal," Trump said in an interview Friday on Fox News.Negotiators from both countries have been talking regularly, trying to bridge the remaining differences on issues including Chinese pledges to buy American farm products, protect intellectual-property rights and open its economy further to foreign companies. They have struggled to agree on exactly what tariffs each side would roll back as part of the agreement's initial step.(Adds background information)To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Li Liu in Beijing at lliu255@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Shamim Adam at sadam2@bloomberg.net, Matthew G. MillerFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| IS-linked Philippine militant behind suicide attacks killed Posted: 23 Nov 2019 12:19 AM PST  Philippine troops have killed a "high-value" but little-known Filipino militant who acted as a key link of the Islamic State group to local jihadists and helped set up a series of deadly suicide attacks in the south that have alarmed the region, military officials said Saturday. Talha Jumsah, who used the nom de guerre Abu Talha, was killed Friday morning in a clash with troops in the jungles off Patikul town in Sulu province, which has been rocked by three deadly suicide bombings this year, including the first suicide attack known to have been staged by a Filipino militant.
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| Adam Schiff: Trump’s ‘Death Penalty’ Threat Was One Reason We Didn’t Have Whistleblower Testify Posted: 24 Nov 2019 07:41 AM PST  House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) said on Sunday that one reason the whistleblower at the heart of the impeachment inquiry hasn't been called by the House to testify is that President Donald Trump called the person a spy and threatened the whistleblower with the "death penalty."With the Intel Committee wrapping up its public impeachment hearings last week, Meet the Press anchor Chuck Todd asked Schiff on Sunday whether Schiff was going to be the House manager for impeachment. "That's up to the speaker," Schiff answered, adding that he didn't want to get ahead of the process as they haven't filed articles of impeachment yet.After Schiff said that the facts surrounding whether the president sought foreign interference in an election are not even being contested by Republicans, Todd then wondered aloud about Schiff's position on having the whistleblower come forward."I know where you are with the whistleblower and the leaf that you don't need to hear from the whistleblower anymore," the NBC News host stated. "You did pledge that the Intelligence Committee would hear from the whistleblower in some form or another? Are you going to fulfill that pledge?"Pelosi, Schiff Prep for GOP Impeachment 'Stunts' and Attempts to Out the WhistleblowerEarlier this month, when the Republicans requested that the whistleblower be included among the impeachment witnesses called to testify, Schiff argued that the person's testimony would be "redundant and unnecessary." The whistleblower's attorney further informed the GOP that his client would only answer questions in writing."We had a deep interest in having them testify," Schiff told Todd. "Two things happened. One we were able to prove it with witnesses that had first-hand information and second the president and his allies effectively put that whistleblower's life in danger.""The president said the whistleblower and others should be treated as a traitor and a spy and we ought to use the penalty and that's the death penalty," the California lawmaker continued. "So here's the thing, Chuck, we don't need the whistleblower's second-hand evidence. It would only serve to endanger this person and gratify the president's desire for retribution and that is not a good enough reason to bring in the whistleblower."In late September, after the whistleblower's complaint was made public, the president told a group at a private event that the whistleblower was "close to a spy" and wanted to know who gave the information to the whistleblower."You know what we used to do in the old days when we were smart with spies and treason, right?" Trump added. "We used to handle it a little differently than we do now."Trump has also repeatedly asked if Schiff should be arrested for treason, claiming the chairman "illegally made up a FAKE & terrible statement" when he read a "parody" of Trump's July 25 phone call with the Ukrainian president. Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| 'She leaves him. He kills her.' Thousands in Belgium march to demand end to violence against women Posted: 24 Nov 2019 11:41 AM PST  Thousands of people protested in Brussels on Sunday against violence targeting women, placing pairs of women's shoes painted red outside a court to symbolize victims of femicide. Singing and chanting, protesters carried banners reading "She leaves him, he kills her", "A dress is not a 'Yes'" and "My body, my choice, my consent", a day after thousands also marched in France against domestic violence. Police said about 10,000 people attended the protest, which took place on the eve of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.
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| Hiroshima survivors tell pope of attack 'hell' Posted: 24 Nov 2019 02:47 AM PST  Survivors of the nuclear attack on Hiroshima told Pope Francis on Sunday of the "scene of hell" after the bombing, as the pontiff hit out against the use of the weapons. The pope began his four-day trip to Japan with stops in Nagasaki and Hiroshima, where he paid tribute to those affected by the two bombs dropped by US forces in 1945 at the end of World War II. In Hiroshima, Francis met several survivors of the attack, who echoed his calls for the world never to forget the atrocity of the bombings.
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| ‘Culture will be eroded’: climate crisis threatens to flood Harriet Tubman park Posted: 22 Nov 2019 11:00 PM PST  Heritage sites associated with abolitionist, including Underground Railroad park, projected to be inundated at high tide by 2050Douglas walks to the rear entrance of New Revived United Methodist church in Taylor's Island, Maryland. Decades ago, the church sat in front of forest, now visible open water and marsh come right to the back side of the historic church. Photograph: Greg Kahn/The GuardianOn the flat, marshy stretches of Maryland's eastern shore, not a huge amount has changed since Harriet Tubman escaped from slavery here 170 years ago. Rivers and streams lace a wedge of land dotted with wood-board churches and small towns. Crabs and oysters are plucked from the adjacent Chesapeake Bay.The climate crisis is set, however, to completely transform low-lying Dorchester county, threatening to submerge some of the key heritage associated with Tubman, the celebrated abolitionist whose daring missions helped free scores of slaves from bondage in her homeland.If planet-warming emissions aren't radically scaled back then swaths of the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad national historical park, only established in 2013, will be inundated at high tide by 2050, according to projections by University of Maryland scientists.A $22m (£17m) Tubman visitor centre, completed in 2017, is set to be severely menaced by the rising waters, the analysis finds, along with several churches connected to Tubman and Joseph Stewart's canal, where timber was transported from a business that had enslaved her father.Harriet Tubman Guardian Graphic | Source: Horn Point Lab at the University of Maryland"Dorchester county is a poster child as to what the rest of the world can expect with flooding," said Peter Goodwin, president of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science.The county doesn't rise more than 1.5 metres (5ft) above sea level and is exposed on three sides to the bay, which can act as a funnel to push storms on to the land. The seas could swell by as much as 60cm by 2050, a situation compounded by the fact the land is sinking, a hangover caused by the retreat of ice sheets from the last ice age.Visitors look at a mural of Harriet Tubman called Take My Hand, painted by Michael Rosato, at the Harriet Tubman Museum and Educational Center. Photograph: Greg Kahn/The Guardian"It's worrying," Goodwin said. "The county is beautiful but it's going to look very different. If we can get ahead of things and plan for the future then you can help define what the shoreline will look like. The problem is if you don't do that then people are going to drift away and the culture will be eroded."The situation is causing alarm among those who have highlighted Tubman's legacy. "These landscapes are rapidly vanishing because of climate change," said Kasi Lemmons, director of Harriet, a new film based on Tubman's life. "Losing landmarks such as these underscores the need to protect and preserve the land and our national history for the generations to come."The Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad visitor centre, on the edge of Blackwater national wildlife refuge, which is threatened by sea level rise in Church Creek, Maryland. Photograph: Greg Kahn/The GuardianProximity to water for communication, transportation and food has long been intrinsic to Dorchester county but flooding is increasingly chipping away at the routines of day-to-day life. High-tide water lapped in residents' front yards and is now reaching porches. Carelessly parked cars can end up sodden. School buses struggle to get down roads that are in constant repair. The storms are getting fiercer, as the water and atmosphere warms.The encroaching tides now also imperil the cultural touchstones of Tubman's life.The former slave was born in Dorchester county in 1822 and despite suffering a severe head injury managed to escape to Philadelphia as a young woman. She then helped guide more than 70 enslaved people north to freedom via a network of safe houses and routes known as the Underground Railroad.Several locations on the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Byway, a driving loop of important Tubman sites, are already being eroded, according to Tubman's biographer Kate Clifford Larson.Pastor Darlene Dixon of the New Revived United Methodist church in Taylor's Island. Photograph: Greg Kahn/The Guardian"We're not going to have those landscapes to tell those amazing stories if something doesn't happen quickly," Larson said. "In the 20 years I've been to these sites I've seen them start to disappear because of the water seeping in."Some of the roads become impassable and you have to wait out until the water recedes. And some of the precious, really precious, African-American historical and cultural sites are at the most danger right now because they are in the lowest-lying areas."Larson frets about where the resources will come to protect places such as the New Revived Methodist church in Smithville, in the heart of Tubman's former community that often has a waterlogged graveyard. "They are going to need to move the graves and that costs a lot of money," she said. "It's frightening how quickly these sites are becoming threatened."The Rev Darlene Dixon has only been the pastor of the New Revived for five months but has already experienced being temporarily cut off from her church by a storm that pushed 15cm of water on to the roads and on to the cemetery."People are concerned, and naturally I am, too," Dixon said. "The biggest part of their angst the unknown – which storm, which high tide will cause major damage." Dixon said a seawall may have to be erected to protect the church but that may not stop the surrounding community, already one of the poorest in Maryland, crumbling away as the flooding intensifies.The Joseph Stewart canal is a seven-mile waterway dug by hand by free and enslaved blacks between 1810 and 1832 as a way to ship timber and other agricultural products to ships in the bay. Photograph: Greg Kahn/The Guardian"People here have big hearts but there are not many people left in the community because they want to make a living. There's the fear of the water too," she said. "We are seeing change occur before our eyes."The National Park Service, which oversees the Tubman park, is putting together an assessment of the threats it faces. Deanna Mitchell, the park superintendent, said she reassures tourists that the visitor centre has been built on a relatively elevated piece of land with sea-level rise in mind."It's a beautiful facility and the landscape is beautiful, too," she said. "Every time I go to work I'm immediately in a mode of reflection. I see that with visitors, too."I'm optimistic that we can address whatever comes our way if people can come together on this. We are nine miles away from Chesapeake Bay, which gives us a sort of buffer. But that's not a cure-all. There's no way to deny that there's sea-level rise."appeal
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| JFK files: CIA spy in Cuba ‘befriended’ Castro, Che; played key role amid nuclear-war fears Posted: 23 Nov 2019 10:34 AM PST  Fifty-six years after John F. Kennedy's murder, unsealed government files detail dangerous intrigues about Cuba. This CIA spy was deeply involved.
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| Bloomberg News: We won’t investigate Mike during presidential campaign Posted: 24 Nov 2019 10:02 AM PST ![Bloomberg News: We won't investigate Mike during presidential campaign]( "Bloomberg News: We won't investigate Mike during presidential campaign") The top editor says the company also won't investigate its owner's Democratic rivals.
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| Police fire tear gas as groups clash in Lebanon capital Posted: 24 Nov 2019 02:57 PM PST  Security forces fired tear gas amid confrontations in central Beirut that went into Monday morning between Hezbollah supporters and demonstrators protesting against Lebanon's political elite. The confrontations began after dozens of supporters of the Iran-backed militant group arrived on scooters and attacked the protesters with clubs and metal rods, chanting pro-Hezbollah slogans.
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| Charges of Ukrainian Meddling? A Russian Operation, U.S. Intelligence Says Posted: 24 Nov 2019 06:45 AM PST  WASHINGTON -- Republicans have sought for weeks amid the impeachment inquiry to shift attention to President Donald Trump's demands that Ukraine investigate any 2016 election meddling, defending it as a legitimate concern while Democrats accuse Trump of pursuing fringe theories for his benefit.The Republican defense of Trump became central to the impeachment proceedings when Fiona Hill, a respected Russia scholar and former senior White House official, added a harsh critique during testimony Thursday. She told some of Trump's fiercest defenders in Congress that they were repeating "a fictional narrative" -- and that it likely came from a disinformation campaign by Russian security services, which themselves propagated it.In a briefing that closely aligned with Hill's testimony, U.S. intelligence officials informed senators and their aides in recent weeks that Russia had engaged in a yearslong campaign to essentially frame Ukraine as responsible for Moscow's own hacking of the 2016 election, according to three U.S. officials. The briefing came as Republicans stepped up their defenses of Trump in the Ukraine affair.The revelations demonstrate Russia's persistence in trying to sow discord among its adversaries -- and show that the Kremlin apparently succeeded, as unfounded claims about Ukrainian interference seeped into Republican talking points. U.S. intelligence agencies believe Moscow is likely to redouble its efforts as the 2020 presidential campaign intensifies. The classified briefing for senators also focused on Russia's evolving influence tactics, including its growing ability to better disguise operations.Russia has engaged in a "long pattern of deflection" to pin blame for its malevolent acts on other countries, Hill said, not least Ukraine, a former Soviet republic. Since Ukraine won independence in 1991, Russia has tried to reassert influence there, meddling in its politics, maligning pro-Western leaders and accusing Ukrainian critics of Moscow of fascist leanings."The Russians have a particular vested interest in putting Ukraine, Ukrainian leaders in a very bad light," she told lawmakers.But the campaign by Russian intelligence in recent years has been even more complex as Moscow tries not only to undermine the government in Kyiv but also to use a disinformation campaign there to influence the U.S. political debate.The accusations of a Ukrainian influence campaign center on actions by a handful of Ukrainians who openly criticized or sought to damage Trump's candidacy in 2016. They were scattershot efforts that were far from a replica of Moscow's interference, when President Vladimir Putin ordered military and intelligence operatives to mount a broad campaign to sabotage the U.S. election. Russians in 2016 conducted covert operations to hack Democratic computers and to use social media to exploit divisions among Americans.This time, Russian intelligence operatives deployed a network of agents to blame Ukraine for its 2016 interference. Starting at least in 2017, operatives peddled a mixture of now-debunked conspiracy theories along with established facts to leave an impression that the government in Kyiv, not Moscow, was responsible for the hackings of Democrats and its other interference efforts in 2016, senior intelligence officials said.Russian intelligence officers conveyed the information to prominent Russians and Ukrainians who then used a range of intermediaries, like oligarchs, businessmen and their associates, to pass the material to U.S. political figures and even some journalists, who were likely unaware of its origin, officials said.That muddy brew worked its way into U.S. information ecosystems, sloshing around until parts of it reached Trump, who has also spoken with Putin about allegations of Ukrainian interference. Trump also brought up the assertions of Ukrainian meddling in his July 25 call with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy of Ukraine, which is at the heart of the impeachment inquiry into whether he abused his power by asking for a public commitment to investigations he stood to gain from personally.Trump referred elliptically to allegations that Ukraine meddled in the 2016 election and brought up a related conspiracy theory. Asking Zelenskiy to "do us a favor," Trump added, "I would like you to find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine."Russia's operation to blame Ukraine has become more relevant as Republicans have tried to focus public debate during the impeachment inquiry on any Ukrainian role in the 2016 campaign, U.S. officials said.Republicans have denounced any suggestion that their concerns about Ukrainian meddling are without merit or that they are ignoring Russia's broader interference. "Not a single Republican member of this committee said Russia did not meddle in the 2016 elections," Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., said Thursday.Indeed, Stefanik and her Republican colleagues on the Democratic-led House Intelligence Committee, which is conducting the impeachment hearing, have also steered clear of the fringe notion that Trump mentioned to Zelenskiy, which is pushed by Russian intelligence: the so-called CrowdStrike server conspiracy theory, which falsely suggests Ukraine, not Russia, was behind the breach of Democratic operatives' servers.Trump repeated the baseless claim Friday in an interview with "Fox & Friends," laying out the narrative and doubling down after a host gently pressed him on whether he was sure of one aspect of the debunked theory, that the FBI gave a Democratic server to what Trump had inaccurately described as a Ukrainian-owned company."That is what the word is," Trump replied.Some Republicans have also focused on Hunter Biden, raising questions about whether his hiring by Ukrainian energy company Burisma was corrupt. Burisma hired Biden while his father, former Vice President Joe Biden, a potential rival of Trump's in the 2020 election, was leading the Obama administration's Ukraine policy. On the July 25 call, Trump also demanded Zelenskiy investigate Burisma and Hunter Biden.Moscow has long used its intelligence agencies and propaganda machine to muddy the waters of public debate, casting doubts over established facts. In her testimony, Hill noted Russia's pattern of trying to blame other countries for its own actions, like the attempted poisoning last year of a former Russian intelligence officer or the downing of a passenger jet over Ukraine in 2014. Moscow's goal is to cast doubt on established facts, said current and former officials."The strategy is simply to create the impression that it is not really possible to know who was really behind it," said Laura Rosenberger, director of the Alliance for Defending Democracy, which tracks Russian disinformation efforts.Although U.S. intelligence agencies have made no formal classified assessment about the Russian disinformation campaign against Ukraine, officials at several of the agencies have broadly agreed for some time that Russian intelligence services have embraced tactics to shift responsibility for the 2016 interference campaign away from themselves, officials said.Russia has relentlessly tried to deflect attention since the allegations of its interference campaign in the 2016 election first surfaced, one official said.Putin began publicly pushing false theories of Ukrainian interference in the early months of 2017 to deflect responsibility from Russia, said Sen. Angus King, I-Maine and a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, who declined to answer questions about the briefing."These people are pros at this," said King, who caucuses with the Democrats. "The Soviet Union used disinformation for 70 years. This is nothing new. Vladimir Putin is a former KGB agent. He is trained in deception. This is his stock and trade, and he is doing it well."During a news conference in February 2017, Putin accused the Ukrainian government of supporting Hillary Clinton during the previous U.S. election and funding her candidacy with friendly oligarchs.It is not clear when U.S. intelligence agencies learned about Moscow's campaign or when precisely it began.Russian intelligence officers aimed part of their operation at prompting Ukrainian authorities to investigate the allegations that people in Ukraine tried to tamper with the 2016 U.S. election and to shut down inquiries into corruption by pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine, according to a former official.One target was the leak of a secret ledger disclosed by a Ukrainian law enforcement agency that appeared to show that Paul Manafort, Trump's onetime campaign chairman, had taken illicit payments from Ukrainian politicians who were close to Moscow. He was forced to step down from the Trump campaign after the ledger became public in August 2016, and the Russians have since been eager to cast doubt on its authenticity, the former official said.Intelligence officials believe that one of the people the Kremlin relied on to spread disinformation about Ukrainian interference was Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch who had ties to Manafort. After his ouster from the campaign, Manafort told his former deputy later in 2016 that Ukrainians, not Russians, stole Democratic emails. Deripaska has broadly denied any role in election meddling."There is a long history of Russians putting out fake information," said Marc Polymeropoulos, a former senior CIA official. "Now they are trying to put out theories that they think are damaging to the United States."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
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| America grapples with 'ghost guns' amid epidemic of violence Posted: 23 Nov 2019 05:18 PM PST  After his mother dropped him off at school, Nathan Berhow pulled a .45-caliber pistol out of his backpack, opened fire and killed two classmates, all using a weapon he'd assembled at home. Such guns are sometimes called "ghost guns" -- unregulated, easy to put together and almost impossible to trace because they have no serial number. The parts are readily available online, with no need for a background check.
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| Schiff on why Dems didn’t call the Ukraine whistleblower to testify Posted: 24 Nov 2019 10:51 AM PST  Despite two weeks of impeachment hearings, which amassed a dozen witnesses and over 30 hours of testimony, there was one person the public and Democratic-led House of Representatives did not get to hear from: the anonymous whistleblower who sparked the impeachment inquiry into President Trump.
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| These 4th graders do their best to honor the flag, struggle to understand impeachment Posted: 24 Nov 2019 09:21 AM PST  At this school in Indiana, 4th grade students are charged with carefully taking down the U.S. flag and folding it every afternoon.
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| Is Butternut Squash Good for You? Posted: 23 Nov 2019 03:02 AM PST  Farmers market stands and supermarket produce aisles are piled high this time of year with winter squashes of all sorts, including butternut squash. This oddly shaped vegetable—with its long neck...
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| Tolerance towards LGBT+ people seen rising globally Posted: 24 Nov 2019 04:01 PM PST ![Tolerance towards LGBT+ people seen rising globally]( "Tolerance towards LGBT+ people seen rising globally") LGBT+ people have seen a rise in tolerance in almost every region of the world over the last decade, according to an index released on Monday. Iceland was named as the most tolerant country towards LGBT+ people in a survey of 167 countries by British think-tank the Legatum Institute, while central Asian country Tajikistan was in last place. "It is encouraging to see that our 2019 Prosperity Index shows a rise in tolerance towards the LGBT community globally over the past decade," Shaun Flanagan of the institute's Centre for Metrics told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
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| Pro-democracy candidates advance in key Hong Kong elections Posted: 23 Nov 2019 03:41 PM PST  Pro-democracy candidates won nearly half of the seats in Hong Kong's local elections, according to partial returns Monday, as voters sent a clear signal of support for the anti-government protests that rocked the Chinese territory for more than five months. A record 71% of the city's 4.1 million registered voters cast ballots Sunday, well exceeding the 47% turnout in the same election four years ago, election officials said. Among the winners were former student leaders and a candidate who replaced prominent activist Joshua Wong, the only person barred from running in the election.
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| Lev Parnas Says He Has Info on Devin Nunes’ Role in Trump’s Ukraine Dirt-Digging Mission Posted: 22 Nov 2019 06:25 PM PST  Pool/GettyLev Parnas, the Soviet-born businessman whose involvement in helping the president's personal attorney seek out kompromat on Joe Biden in Ukraine is at the center of an impeachment inquiry, is reportedly prepared to testify to Congress about Rep. Devin Nunes meeting with a Ukrainian official as part of the same dirt-digging mission. Nunes, the top-ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, has been a staunch defender of President Trump throughout impeachment hearings. But Joseph A. Bondy, an attorney representing Parnas, has said his client has information about Nunes himself being directly involved in at least some aspects of the political pressure campaign for which Trump is under scrutiny, according to CNN. The news comes after The Daily Beast broke the news earlier this week that Parnas helped Nunes arrange meetings in Europe late last year to investigate the origins of the Russia probe. Parnas has said he also helped connect Nunes to Ukrainians who could provide information on Biden and Democrats in Ukraine. According to Bondy, Parnas said he was informed by Ukraine's former top prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, that he met with Nunes in December, CNN reports. Shokin is the same Ukrainian official whose claims of wrongdoing by Joe Biden have been touted as proof by Rudy Giuliani and other Trump allies that the president was right to ask Ukrainian authorities to pursue an investigation into Biden, his potential political rival in the 2020 election. Shokin, who has claimed he was forced out as Ukraine's prosecutor general by then-Vice President Biden in 2016 as part of a corrupt cover-up, was widely seen by other Western governments as hindering anti-corruption efforts in the country prior to his dismissal. Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| 'Why did you kill my son?': mass shooting leaves Fresno's Hmong community shattered Posted: 23 Nov 2019 10:00 PM PST  Four people died last weekend after gunmen fired into a backyard where friends had gathered to watch football. The victims were all HmongA memorial for shooting victim Kou Xiong in front of his home where he was shot in Fresno, California. Photograph: Larry Valenzuela/APWithin a year of moving to Fresno, California, Xy Lee had developed a close community of Hmong performers, a globally recognized singing career, and a plan to build his own studio.On Sunday, it all ended in an instant.Assailants armed with semiautomatic handguns fired into the backyard where the 23-year-old Lee and dozens of friends were watching a football game – turning a quintessential American pastime into a distinctly American horror in seconds. Xy and three other men died: 38-year-old Kou Xiong, 31-year-old Phia Vang and 40-year-old Kalaxang Thao. Six other people were injured. All of the victims were members of the Central Valley's Hmong community, a tight-knit group of families who came to California as refugees fleeing war, tragedy and violence in south-east Asia. Xy's family first arrived in Long Beach when he was 14, but relocated to Fresno last year, in part because Xy was traveling so much to the city to perform."He's pure-hearted. He's innocent. Why did you kill my son?" Xy's father Xai Pao Lee said on Thursday, speaking through a translator. Xy's mother and two siblings clutched tissues and large printed photos of Xy performing. They said they hadn't slept in days and were struggling to accept that he was gone.The wife and daughter of shooting victim Kou Xiong stand during the candle light vigil in his honor outside their home in Fresno, California. Photograph: Larry Valenzuela/APAuthorities have released few details on the investigation and the search for the killers. Survivors were unable to identify the suspects. Police said early on they believed there were possibly two gunmen. They've claimed the shooting was "targeted", but have also said it's unclear if the suspects knew the victims. The Fresno police chief, Andrew Hall, announced the formation of an "Asian gang taskforce", but also said there was no evidence gang ties played a role in the shooting, The families have insisted their loved ones had no connections to gangs. 'We escaped war. Now we see this here'The tragedy has brought national attention to Hmong Americans, and the vibrant Hmong community in Fresno, the Central Valley city 200 miles north of Los Angeles.The US armed more than 40,000 people, mostly Hmong, to fight in Laos during the war in the 1970s. It began resettling Hmong people in 1975, with a major wave reaching the US in the 1980s. Ultimately, 90% of Hmong refugees ended up in the US, including in California, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Many people in the community are still struggling with trauma from the war. "People on the outside don't understand. Our elders are still suffering from some level of PTSD from the Vietnam war," said Blong Xiong, a 50-year-old former Fresno councilmember, who came to the US as a refugee from Laos when he was five. "A lot of these families escaped the war, were shot at, saw people die in front of them. Now, we're seeing it happen in this country."There are now an estimated 300,000 Hmong Americans, with roughly 34,000 living in Fresno, home to the second largest Hmong community in the country.Vong Mouanoutoua, a local councilman in Clovis, a neighboring city, said Hmong families were drawn to the Central Valley for farming jobs and more affordable housing."Our culture is one in which there is a lot of connectivity," said Mouanoutoua, explaining that that there are 18 clans among Hmong people, represented by the shared surnames. "The teaching is, you and I had one mom and one dad some time ago, maybe 4,000 generations ago, but we are one."Neej Xiong, the uncle of shooting victim Kour Xiong, prays in front of a memorial during a candlelight vigil. Photograph: Larry Valenzuela/APThere is a special bond within the clans, even if people aren't related by blood, he said. So when the news broke that people were shot in a "mass casualty" incident at a time when many families gather to celebrate the Hmong new year, panic quickly spread and people posted on Facebook trying to figure out what happened."I couldn't believe this had happened," said Nou Xiong, a reporter for the local Hmong TV Network, which broadcasts in Fresno and has viewers across the US and in Hmong communities in France, Canada, Australia, Thailand, Vietnam and Laos.She soon learned the story was worse than she initially thought: The attack took place at her cousin's home, and 10 people had been shot. 'I miss him so much'On Wednesday night, three days after the massacre, dozens of relatives, friends and community members had gathered at the scene of the shooting – the home of Kou Xiong, one of the four victims. The vigils had become a nightly ritual this week, with people lighting candles under an altar with photos of Kou and his wife next to a bowl of rice, some sobbing as they shared a few words.The home and backyard looked nothing like a crime scene, and the family welcomed everyone inside for dinner, insisting two reporters eat their homemade dishes – beef with ginger and onion, boiled pork, mushrooms and lots of jasmine rice. In the living room, men sat around a table drinking beers. A photo from the Ban Vinai refugee camp in Thailand hung on the wall.Kou was a chef at a local sushi restaurant, who loved to host guests at his home. Children were in the house during the attack, but none were injured."He was hard working. He wanted me to help him open his own sushi restaurant," said his uncle, Neejkhov Xiong. "Now, I don't know."Neejkhov said Kou's five-year-old daughter understood that her father was gone but was struggling to process, saying things like: '"He left without saying goodbye.'"During the vigil, the young girl ran around the house handing out water bottles and at one point asked a reporter if she could send a message to her father: "Tell him I love him so much … I miss him so much."Photo collage Xy Lee was one of four people killed in a shooting in Fresno, California.Kalaxang Thao, another victim, worked at an Asian grocery store. His wife is due to have their third child in January, said his cousin, Leng Thao. Thao's family had moved to California "in pursuit of the American dream", the cousin said.Phia Vang was also a musician and worked at a local lab, earning an income that supported his five younger siblings and parents, his father told the Fresno Bee, adding he didn't know how the family would survive.The siblings of Xy Lee said fans across the globe had been reaching out. His recent music video, a ballad, now has millions of views."Friends were always asking him to sing, and he never said no," said Kou Lee, his 31-year-old brother. Xy had taught himself to play guitar and sing when he was eight-years-old and gained popularity in the last several years, Kou said. "Everybody fell in love with him when he sings.""It was a natural gift that he had, true God-given talent," added Kaonor Lee, his 21-year-old sister. Xy planned to open a studio in Fresno so that he could support other songwriters and musicians, the sister said.Xai, the father, said he didn't want retribution for his son's killer, but he wanted the person found and brought to justice – so he could ask him why he did it. 'The Hmong people are very resilient'As the families begin to prepare for funerals, many in the Hmong community are desperate to know who was responsible – and what the motive possibly could have been. No one seems to have answers.Pao Yang, the director of the Fresno Center, a not-for-profit working with the victims' families, said the comments from the Fresno police chief had been upsetting: "The community is coming together. There are so many good deeds … This is not an Asian gang."Still, the lack of information has left people terrified, said Nou Xiong, the reporter: "If people have a backyard, is someone just gonna walk in and shoot?"Xy Lee's siblings, Kou and Kaonor, and parents, Xai Pao Lee and Chong Xiong. Photograph: Sam Levin/The GuardianKatie Moua, a 25-year-old Hmong organizer in Fresno, said some youth were trying to reassure their parents and grandparents that they weren't in danger, and that she was worried they were returning to a time when Hmong families felt unsafe or uncomfortable in these neighborhoods."We've worked so hard to be free. We've worked so hard to feel pride in our identity and our city," she said. "I hope people can still find a way to continue to live how they were living and … find things to celebrate this season."Leng Thao, the cousin of one of the victims, said the community would find a way forward: "The Hmong people are very resilient. This tragedy has not weakened us, but actually strengthened us … and reinforced those bonds."Standing in the cold outside the home where his son Kou was killed, Cha Lee Xiong struggled to find the words to thank the community."I'm hoping this mass killing will be the last one," he said, adding that he wanted to send a message to people outside of the Hmong community: "If it happens to your family, I will be there to support you."
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| Turkey's Erdogan to visit Qatar Monday Posted: 24 Nov 2019 10:34 AM PST  Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will visit Qatar on Monday for discussions on Middle East issues, as the two countries have grown closer since the Saudi-led blockade of the small Gulf state. "The means to further deepen the cooperation between Turkey and Qatar in all areas will be addressed and views on regional and international issues will be exchanged during the talks," the Turkish presidency said in a statement. It said Erdogan would attend the fifth meeting of the Turkey-Qatar Supreme Strategic Committee at the invitation of Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani.
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| 515,000 pounds of pork product without food safety inspection recalled after anonymous tip Posted: 23 Nov 2019 06:43 AM PST  These items were produced by Morris Meat Packing, which operates in Maywood, Illinois, between 25 November 2017 and 9 November 2019.
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| Why Does Taiwan Need M-1 Abrams Tanks? Posted: 22 Nov 2019 06:00 PM PST  Is this just a total waste of money or a powerful weapon to stop China if they invade?
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| Thanksgiving weather: Snow, wind could snarl travel in central, eastern USA as 55M clog roads, airports Posted: 23 Nov 2019 09:09 AM PST ![Thanksgiving weather: Snow, wind could snarl travel in central, eastern USA as 55M clog roads, airports]( "Thanksgiving weather: Snow, wind could snarl travel in central, eastern USA as 55M clog roads, airports") Wintry conditions are expected not only to delay travelers on icy, crowded Interstates, but also disrupt air travel with strong, gusty winds at key airports.
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| Harvard-Yale football game grinds to halt as hundreds of students storm field to protest climate change Posted: 24 Nov 2019 04:02 AM PST  A high-profile college football match between Harvard and Yale was interrupted for more than an hour after hundreds of students stormed the field to demand the two elite institutions stop investing in fossil fuels.Students and alumni from Harvard and Yale disrupted the American football match in New Haven, Connecticut, at half-time to demand the universities take more action to tackle climate change.
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| UPDATE 3-Italy grants access to Spanish migrant rescue ship Posted: 24 Nov 2019 07:30 AM PST ![UPDATE 3-Italy grants access to Spanish migrant rescue ship]( "UPDATE 3-Italy grants access to Spanish migrant rescue ship") I talian authorities have agreed to grant the Open Arms ship access to a port to disembark 62 African migrants it has been carrying since Wednesday, the founder of the Spanish rescue mission said on Sunday. Oscar Camps said the vessel is set to dock at the southern Italian port of Taranto on Tuesday afternoon, although the eventual destination may change. Italy initially refused entry for the group of 73 African migrants which the Open Arms crew plucked out of a packed rubber dinghy drifting about 50 miles off Libya, suggesting that the vessel should instead put them ashore at Tripoli.
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| Utah woman charged after appearing topless in front of stepchildren Posted: 23 Nov 2019 08:07 AM PST  A Utah woman could be forced to register as a sex offender after appearing topless in front of her stepchildren in her home.
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| A Split Decision From Congress Will Leave Voters With Final Say on Trump Posted: 24 Nov 2019 08:56 AM PST  WASHINGTON -- When it was all over and the witnesses had testified and the speeches were done, President Donald Trump pronounced himself satisfied with the show. "We had a tremendous week with the hoax," he declared on Friday as he addressed a room of collegiate athletes. "That's really worked out incredibly well."Trump began the day with a 53-minute phone call to Fox & Friends in which he repeated a familiar list of accusations and falsehoods, which he amplified again on Saturday with a string of Twitter posts. Indeed, even after two weeks of hearings that presented compelling evidence against him, Trump was acting as if nothing had changed. In a way, it had not.Everyone is playing their assigned role in a drama where the ending seems known in advance as the House of Representatives heads toward a likely party-line vote to impeach the president, followed by a Senate trial that will not convict him.But if the outcome of the showdown on Capitol Hill at the moment appears foreordained, the ultimate verdict still is not. Unlike Presidents Richard Nixon or Bill Clinton, Trump faces an election after his impeachment battle, meaning that the voters will serve as the court of appeals rendering their own final judgment on whether he has committed high crimes and misdemeanors.As a result, now that the House Intelligence Committee has laid out the evidence against Trump, the debate that will now play out on Capitol Hill will be aimed not at swaying lawmakers firmly embedded in their partisan corners, but at framing the issue in ways that will resonate with the public. The next few weeks could be critical in setting the parameters for a campaign that will decide if Trump is fit for office."The impeachment jury is actually the smaller universe of voters in our country who are persuadable, swing voters who have avoided the tribalism plaguing most of our citizenry these days," said former Rep. Chris Curbelo, R-Fla. "Their verdict will be issued next fall."While scholars and lawyers have argued the finer points of Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution, the main players in the drama have been studying poll numbers and fundraising totals. Every day during the hearings, Trump's campaign and various organs of the Republican and Democratic parties blasted out emails and videos aimed at that jury beyond the Beltway.Members of the Intelligence Committee tweeted out their interpretations of the day's events to their followers from the hearing room dais, even as witnesses were still testifying. Impeachment was the first question asked at Wednesday night's Democratic presidential debate, which began barely an hour after that day's marathon hearing wrapped up.Both sides were fixated on the case study of Rep. Elise Stefanik, a Republican from New York who vaulted to fame among conservatives and infamy among liberals for her fierce defense of Trump. After her Democratic opponent in next year's election reported raising $1 million from Trump critics outraged by Stefanik's performance, conservatives who once were suspicious of her moderate credentials rallied to her side and she was given prized slots on Fox News."We just raised 250k in 15 MINUTES," Stefanik wrote on Twitter just hours after impeachment hearings concluded on Thursday. "THANK YOU! help us get to 500k TONIGHT."In five days of public hearings over two weeks, the committee heard from 12 witnesses, all of them current or former administration officials and most with years if not decades of public service under presidents of both parties. With an average of 12 million Americans watching each day, the testimony laid out in meticulous detail an effort by Trump and his lieutenants to pressure Ukraine into helping him tear down his domestic political rivals.Lawmakers were told that Trump wanted Ukraine to announce that it would investigate former Vice President Joe Biden as well as a debunked conspiracy theory about Ukraine helping Democrats in the 2016 presidential election, the latter a figment of disinformation propagated by Russia, according to U.S. intelligence agencies. Trump clearly conditioned a coveted White House invitation for Ukraine's president on his demand for the investigations and several witnesses said it was obvious he held back $391 million in American aid as leverage as well.Republicans poked holes in the testimony, making clear that none of the witnesses had actually heard Trump explicitly tie the security aid to the investigations, and they complained vociferously about the process, assailing it as tilted against the president. Some Republicans conceded that Trump did in fact do what he was accused of doing but maintained that it was not impeachable.Whatever the hearings revealed about Trump's conduct in office, they seemed to only reinforce just how polarized the country has become. No lawmakers declared that the evidence had changed their minds in either direction and judging by polls most Americans seemed to find only validation for the viewpoint they had when the hearings began.Indeed, listening to Republicans and Democrats, or their friendlier media, would give the impression of two radically different sets of hearings, one that presented damning, incontrovertible evidence that the president abused his power or one that revealed that the whole proceeding was a partisan sham.While polls before the hearings showed that 49% favored impeachment versus 47% who opposed it, a survey by Yahoo News and YouGov at the end of the hearings found support for impeachment at 48% and opposition at 45%. Other polls may eventually show movement but, at first blush, the drama of hearing the evidence presented out loud by real witnesses with evident credibility did not noticeably shift the overall dynamics.Democrats and Republicans alike privately agreed that it looked unlikely that even a single Republican would vote for impeachment when it reaches the House floor. In the Senate, Republican strategists said they believed they might lose two senators -- Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska -- while Democratic strategists said they also might lose two -- Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona."We've just had this partisan divide ever since the Clinton years," said former Rep. Barbara Comstock, R-Va. "Whether it was Supreme Court nominations or this, it's just become a team sport, shirts and skins, no matter what the issues are."Steve Elmendorf, the top aide to the House Democratic leader when Clinton was impeached, agreed that lawmakers appear locked into their positions. "Except," he cautioned, "we are in the Trump show, where anything can happen. Two months ago, we did not think he was going to be impeached over a phone call we knew little about."Among the wild cards that could still change the dynamics might be testimony by some of the key witnesses who so far have refused to talk, including John Bolton, the former national security adviser who opposed the pressure campaign and is waiting for a court ruling on whether he should appear.Trump has long argued that an impeachment battle would help him politically by galvanizing his base against the elites trying to invalidate the 2016 election. While he has refused to provide testimony or documents to the House, arguing that the process is rigged against him, he is taking his case instead to evening rallies in sports arenas filled with supporters.Trump and his allies took heart from a Marquette University Law School poll showing him with small leads against each of the Democratic front-runners among voters in Wisconsin, one of the most critical battleground states for 2020. That poll, taken during the first week of hearings, showed that support for impeachment in the state had slipped by four percentage points to 40%.Speaker Nancy Pelosi was initially wary of pursuing impeachment unless it was likely to be bipartisan, recalling what happened to Clinton, who was impeached on a largely party-line vote in the House and acquitted in the Senate. House Republicans back then thought voters would reward them for pursuing impeachment of a president who lied under oath about a sexual affair with a former White House intern but instead it was Democrats who picked up seats in the 1998 midterm elections as the inquiry was underway.With that in mind, today's Democratic presidential candidates, while supporting impeachment, are treading lightly around it on the campaign trail, where voters generally do not bring it up. Instead, they emphasize issues like health care, gun control and income inequality, reflecting a fear about how impeachment will play come next fall.But Comstock, who was a Republican staff aide investigating Clinton during his presidency, said the conclusions drawn from the electoral consequences of his impeachment were too narrow. "I do think both sides have maybe learned the wrong lesson," she said.While Republicans lost the midterm elections, they won the White House back in 2000 when Clinton's handpicked successor, Al Gore, fell short in the Electoral College despite running on a record of peace and prosperity.Eventually, Comstock said, the public tires of scandal and seeks to move on. Trump may win acquittal in the Senate, but that does not mean the public will be as forgiving."While they're now trying to make the best of it with fundraising and saying this is going to help us, that fatigue" may set in, she said. "There are people who just want a normal presidency."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
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| Over 1,000 LGBTQ members hold pride parade in New Delhi Posted: 24 Nov 2019 04:12 AM PST  More than 1,000 members of the LGBTQ community and their supporters marched through New Delhi on Sunday to celebrate India's sexual diversity, which they said is progressing but still has a long way to go to become a more accepting place for them. Carrying rainbow flags, balloons and placards and dancing to the beat of drums, they demanded self-identification in any gender for legal recognition rather than first registering as a transgender and then providing proof of surgery to authorities, as suggested by a government bill.
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| Duque opens Colombia talks following protests: official Posted: 24 Nov 2019 02:05 PM PST  President Ivan Duque, the target of unprecedented anti-government protests in Colombia, on Sunday opened a national dialogue aimed at assuaging popular anger. Duque, a conservative who is deeply unpopular 18 months after his election, "initiated the social dialogue" with mayors and other officials at 3:00 pm (2100 GMT), the presidency said in a statement. The president had proposed the talks on Friday in response to nationwide protests a day earlier that descended into violence, leaving three dead.
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| Texas AG Joins Fight to Keep 9-Month-Old Tinslee Lee on Life Support Posted: 23 Nov 2019 06:40 AM PST  Courtesy Texas Right to LifeTexas Attorney General Ken Paxton has taken an extraordinary measure to try to save the life of 9-month-old Tinslee Lewis, who suffers from congenital heart disease, who risks being taken off life support by the Cook Children's Medical Center in Ft. Worth. Paxton filed a "friend-of-the-court" brief Friday in an 11th-hour attempt to stop the hospital, which planned to legally end the baby's life on Nov. 22 by stopping treatment under a Texas Law called the 10-Day Rule. Under the current 10-Day Rule legislation, adopted by a handful of states, a hospital can overrule a family's wish to keep a patient on life support if the hospital's ethics committee agrees. The family then has 10 days to find a provider willing to take the patient. If they fail, treatment can be withdrawn. The attorney general has argued that the 10-day provision is unconstitutional and that it violates patients' rights to due process. "One of the core principles provided by the United States Constitution is that no person should be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law," Paxton wrote in his brief. "This unconstitutional statute infringes on patients' right to life and does not allow patients and their families sufficient notice and the opportunity to be heard before physicians override the rights of their patients. Patients must be heard and justly represented when determining their own medical treatment, especially when the decision to end treatment could end their life."The Cook Children's Hospital informed Lewis' mother on Oct. 31 that they would take her baby, who is sedated but conscious, off life support on Nov. 10 against her wishes unless she could find a new hospital. She was unsuccessful in that endeavor. Lawyers were then able to get Cook Children's hospital to agree to extend the scheduled death of the baby until Nov. 22, which was extended to Dec. 4 after Paxton's intervention Friday. According to the the Texas Right to Life group, the hospital offered the child's mother Trinity Lewis "no physical health reason for their decision to seize Tinslee's ventilator" but instead cited "quality of life" issues for the baby's uncertain future. Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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