| New release of Stephen Miller emails show him pushing link of immigrants to crime Posted: 25 Nov 2019 04:02 PM PST  Newly released emails between Stephen Miller and Breitbart News seem to offer new evidence of Miller's well-established hard-line views that would eventually shape the Trump administration's immigration policies. The piece published by the Southern Poverty Law Center Monday focuses on Miller's apparent fixation on and promotion of a widely debunked narrative about immigrants and violent crime.
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| Then and now: Swiss glacier photos show impact of global warming Posted: 26 Nov 2019 10:58 AM PST  A collection of images — showing photos of modern-day mountain landscapes next to archive shots of the same scenes decades earlier — reveals the dramatic change.
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| Couple convicted of grisly 1980s murders get surprise release from prison before being deported Posted: 26 Nov 2019 02:04 PM PST  A couple convicted of a brutal double murder in 1985 have won their release from prison, and will now be handed over to immigration authorities for deportation.Jens Soering and Elizabeth Haysom were convicted in the brutal murders of Haysom's parents, in an attack that rocked Virginia at a time when sensational crime wasn't the norm for major news coverage.
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| At least 8 dead, 300 injured after 6.4-magnitude earthquake strikes Albania Posted: 26 Nov 2019 05:27 AM PST  The U.S. Geological Survey said the magnitude-6.4 earthquake was centered 19 miles northwest of Tirana, the capital city of Albania.
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| Billion-Dollar Art Heist: Thieves Use Fire, Axes to Plunder Dresden’s Green Vault Palace Posted: 25 Nov 2019 06:09 AM PST  Axe-wielding thieves appear to have pulled off the biggest art heist in decades after they broke into one of Europe's largest collections of treasures and made off with glittering objects valued at as much as $1 billion.The daring robbery happened in the early hours of Monday in the German city of Dresden. Burglars forced entry to the Green Vault—housed in a former royal palace called the Residenzschloss—which has been the home of a historic collection of diamonds and other jewels for centuries.Surveillance video released by German authorities showed the intruders using an axe to smash glass display cases to make off with hundreds of priceless artifacts in what police are calling the largest art heist since the Second World War.The thieves—who reportedly escaped the scene in an Audi A6 and are now on the run—reportedly started a fire in the early hours of Monday that led to a power failure at the palace, disarming the elaborate network of security alarms. German media has reported the thieves then twisted back iron grill bars on a ground-floor window to gain access to the treasury's historic collection.Michael Kretschmer, the leader of Saxony—which has Dresden as its capital city—expressed his devastation at the historic heist. The minister said: "The treasures one can find there... have been collected by the people of Saxony over many centuries and are hard-won treasures... You cannot understand the history of our country, or the free state of Saxony without the Green Vault and the state art collections of Saxony."The Green Vault has been an international tourist destination since 1724, when it first opened to the public, according to The Guardian. It was heavily damaged during the Second World War during Winston Churchill's controversial bombing campaign that destroyed the city of Dresden. The vault was successfully restored and there was a grand reopening in 2006.Saxony state authorities have not given any details of what's been taken from the vault or who they think might have been capable of carrying out the audacious raid. "We have not identified a perpetrator and nor have we yet made any arrests," police spokesman Marko Laske said.By good fortune, one of the collection's best known treasures—the 41-carat Dresden "Green Diamond"—is currently on loan to New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art, so wasn't there to be taken.However, it houses thousands of other treasures, including a 648-carat sapphire that was a royal gift from Russian tsar Peter the Great; a golden coffee service made in 1701; and a 25-inch figure of a Moor encrusted with precious emeralds and other jewels.Dozens of police cars are at the scene and the Green Vault is shut as the world's media awaits further details of the theft.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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| Hong Kong college campus searched, just one protester found Posted: 26 Nov 2019 01:09 AM PST  Officials at a Hong Kong university where police and protesters clashed violently a week ago said Tuesday they had searched the entire campus and found just one remaining holdout in a sign the campus siege may be near an end. Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) emerged as the epicentre of the territory's increasingly violent protest movement when clashes broke out on November 17 between police and protesters armed with bows, arrows and Molotov cocktails. "We have swept through the whole campus systematically and we found one protester in the student union building," the university's vice president Wai Ping-kong told reporters.
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| 'Bring it on': Elon Musk accepts Ford's challenge for a Cybertruck tug-of-war rematch Posted: 26 Nov 2019 08:47 AM PST  A Ford executive on Monday challenged Tesla to an 'apples to apples' rematch, implying the first challenge may not have been completely fair.
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| World's best sushi restaurant dropped from Michelin Guide after refusing to serve public Posted: 26 Nov 2019 12:22 PM PST  The world's best sushi restaurant seats just ten people and is famously housed in a Tokyo metro station. But despite its cult following, the famously exclusive restaurant has lost its listing in the Michelin Guide, not because the quality of the food has dropped, but because it is no longer open to the general public. Sukiyabashi Jiro, run by the renowned nonagenarian Japanese chef Jiro Ono, has been recognised with three Michelin stars each year since the culinary guide launched a Tokyo edition in 2007. But this year's Tokyo edition of the Michelin Guide declined to include it within its pages, saying it is "out of their scope" because of its decision to only offer reservations VIPs and return customers. "We recognise Sukiyabashi Jiro does not accept reservations from the general public, which makes it out of our scope," said a spokeswoman for the Michelin Guide after the decision was announced on Tuesday. She added that "it was not true to say the restaurant lost stars but it is not subject to coverage in our guide," rather that the guide's "policy is to introduce restaurants where everybody can go to eat." Jiro Ono's restaurant has become a cult classic With former diners including US president Barack Obama, Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe and a host of Hollywood celebrities, booking a table has never been easy. But now prospective diners must be regular customers, be part of an elite network or book through the concierge of a luxury hotel - as well as stomach the 40,000 yen (£285) price tag for the chef's selection menu. Sukiyabashi Jiro said it was "currently experiencing difficulties in accepting reservations" and apologised for "any inconvenience to our valued customers" in a statement on its website. It added: "Unfortunately, as our restaurant can only seat up to 10 guests at a time, this situation is likely to continue." The restaurant opened in 1965 but has gathered a cult following in recent years, particularly since the release of a 2011 documentary "Jiro Dreams of Sushi", which follows the life of its star chef and owner. Barack Obama arrived in a motorcade when he dined at Sukiyabashi Jiro Credit: KAZUHIRO NOGI/AFP via Getty Images The documentary followed Ono, who is considered something of a national treasure in Japan, as he performs his meticulous sushi preparation ritual. The rice at the restaurant is crafted to fit the diner's mouth, with Ono examining customer's hands and faces to work out what size portion is appropriate for them. Diners are asked not to wear strong perfume or take photographs of the food. Ono has also faced criticism for his previous comments about women - particularly his suggestion that women make inferior sushi chefs because their menstrual cycles affect their sense of taste. Despite being in his 90s, he continues to serve sushi with the help of his eldest son Yoshikazu. A second branch run by Ono's younger son remains open to the public and has retained its two stars.
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| Trump supporters say God chose him to be president Posted: 25 Nov 2019 02:16 PM PST  Energy Secretary Rick Perry and former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley see God's hand in picking Donald Trump as president.
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| Founder of U.S. private jet firm tied to Venezuelan VP pleads guilty to sanctions evasion Posted: 26 Nov 2019 03:00 PM PST  Victor Mones Coro, founder of Florida-based American Charter Services (ACS), had been charged in March by federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York, along with El Aissami, for violating Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act sanctions imposed by the United States in 2017.
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| Verdict nears for priests accused of abuse in Argentina Posted: 24 Nov 2019 09:11 PM PST  Pope Francis' homeland faces a complicated week of reckoning with the sex abuse scandal that has plagued the Roman Catholic church. Judges were scheduled to rule Monday in the case of two priests who face up to 50 years in prison for alleged sexual abuse of deaf children at a Catholic-run school — a sister institution to a school that suffered a similar scandal in Italy. Meanwhile, a bishop once close to the pope announced he would arrive back in the country Tuesday to respond to prosecutor's allegations of sex abuse.
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| Veteran, 88, saves girl from 'vicious' pit bull by hitting it with Christmas decoration Posted: 26 Nov 2019 07:17 AM PST  Leonard Miller's instincts kicked in, and he didn't hesitate to help the girl. After the attack, the dog's owner has the option to surrender the dog.
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| Pompeo Suggests Ukraine Hacking Conspiracy Is Legit Question Posted: 26 Nov 2019 09:02 AM PST  SAUL LOEBSecretary of State Mike Pompeo suggested in a Tuesday press conference that a conspiracy theory that Ukraine and not Russia hacked the Democratic National Committee in 2016 is a legitimate line of inquiry. Asked if the U.S. and Ukraine should investigate whether "Ukraine and not Russia hacked the DNC," Pompeo, who previously served as CIA director, replied: "Anytime there is information that indicates that any country has messed with American elections, we not only have a right but a duty to make sure we chase that down." The CIA, shortly before Pompeo took office, concluded along with other U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia hacked the DNC server and stole internal emails during the 2016 election. "I can assure you that there were many countries that were actively engaged in trying to undermine American democracy, our rule of law, the fundamental understandings we have here in the United States, and you should know we were diligently, diligently working to make sure we addressed each of them with every tool of American power that we had," Pompeo continued. "To protect our elections, America should leave no stone unturned, so whatever nation it is that we have information that so much as suggests that there might have been interference, or an effort to interfere in our elections, we have an obligation to make sure that the American people get to go to the ballot box, cast their ballots in a way that is un-impacted by these malevolent actors trying to undermine our western democratic values."Last week, Fiona Hill, the former National Security Council director for Russia, testified before the impeachment inquiry that Ukranian election interference in 2016 was "a fictional narrative that has been perpetrated and propagated by the Russian security services themselves." In President Trump's fateful July 25 call with Ukranian President Volodomyr Zelensky, Trump asked Zelensky for the "favor" of the Ukranians investigating the theory ahead of a potential White House meeting. Pompeo was on that call. As well, after Trump suggested in a tweet that he would be open to Pompeo testifying before that inquiry, Pompeo said Tuesday in response: "When the time is right, all good things happen."The Conspiracy Theory So Far Out There Even Trump's Biggest Defenders Are Walking Away From ItRead 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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| YIKES: Please Don't Give Israel B-52 Bombers Posted: 25 Nov 2019 06:00 PM PST  Foreign governments will hold the United States accountable for Israel's actions with American weaponry.
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| SCOTUS Denies Petition to Hear National Review v. Mann Posted: 25 Nov 2019 07:24 AM PST  The Supreme Court announced Monday morning that it will not hear Competitive Enterprise Institute and National Review v. Michael E. Mann, a case with dire freedom-of-speech implications for National Review and all American media outlets that publish commentary on contentious public-policy debates.Mann, a Penn State climatologist famous for the "hockey stick" global-warming graph, was targeted by CEI's Rand Simberg in a 2012 blog post. Simberg criticized the methods Mann used to collect data for the study, in which Mann attempted to chart the earth's temperature over the past 1,000 years and found a sharp uptick in global temperatures in the 20th century.In 2010, Penn State investigated Mann for alleged data manipulation and university-ethics violations in regards to the study, but Mann was eventually cleared of any wrongdoing. Taking an opportunity to criticize both the scientist's methodology and Penn State's administration, Simberg drew a metaphor in his column between Mann's case and the infamous Jerry Sandusky coverup, a comparison that then-syndicated columnist Mark Steyn referenced in a National Review column.Writing in dissent, Justice Alito argued that the high court has an interest in taking up the case because it would help establish free speech standards around one of the most hotly debated issues of the time, climate change."Climate change has staked a place at the very center of this Nation's public discourse. Politicians, journalists, academics, and ordinary Americans discuss and debate various aspects of climate change daily — its causes, extent, urgency, consequences, and the appropriate policies for addressing it," Alito wrote. "The core purpose of the constitutional protection of freedom of expression is to ensure that all opinions on such issues have a chance to be heard and considered. I do not suggest that speech that touches on an important and controversial issue is always immune from challenge under state defamation law, and I express no opinion on whether the speech at issue in this case is or is not entitled to First Amendment protection. But the standard to be applied in a case like this is immensely important."Mann subsequently filed defamation lawsuits against all parties involved, alleging that the leveled accusations of scientific and data molestation were false statements of fact, rather than opinion.In 2016, the D.C. Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Mann over the defendants, who argued on First Amendment grounds that the 2012 post represented "a subjective opinion about a matter of scientific or political controversy" and that "the evidence of record is that it actually has been proved to be false by four separate investigations." The court also turned down a defense under the Anti-SLAPP Act, which intends to stop lawsuits aimed at silencing advocates on public issues.Appeals of the decision, most recently in March, have also gone Mann's way. The stakes are high. A decision in favor of Mann would set a precedent for political rhetoric moving forward: Parties could potentially sue public adversaries and rely on juries to settle differences of policy opinion.In May, the defendants, joined by the Cato Institute, the Individual Rights Foundation, and the Reason Foundation, filed the petition the Supreme Court denied today. "In holding to the contrary, the decision below declares open season on all manner of speech offering analysis, interpretation and conjecture premised on reported fact, as the circumstances of this case illustrate," they contend.
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| More than 14,000 sheep fall into Black Sea after ship capsizes; thousands of animals feared drowned Posted: 25 Nov 2019 08:00 AM PST  The Queen Hind's crewmembers — 20 Syrian nationals and one Lebanese individual — were all saved, along with 32 sheep swimming by the ship.
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| French citizen kidnapped Sunday in central Mexico Posted: 25 Nov 2019 09:56 AM PST  A French citizen and a Mexican national were kidnapped on Sunday while visiting a national park in central Mexico, according to the French Embassy in Mexico City.
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| Federal prosecutors looking into Giuliani's donations to Trump fund and business dealings, reports say Posted: 26 Nov 2019 09:15 AM PST  Federal prosecutors are reportedly looking into Rudy Giuliani's donations to a pro-Trump super PAC while "exploring a wide range of potential crimes" involving two of his associates who were previously charged with campaign finance violations.Donald Trump's personal attorney was previously reported to be working with Soviet-born businessmen Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman to uncover dirt on one of the president's possible 2020 opponents, Joe Biden, meeting with Ukrainian officials and claiming to have documents exposing corruption on the part of the former vice president.
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| Spain refloats submarine intercepted with suspected cocaine on board Posted: 26 Nov 2019 09:35 AM PST ![Spain refloats submarine intercepted with suspected cocaine on board]( "Spain refloats submarine intercepted with suspected cocaine on board") Spanish police on Tuesday refloated a submarine that was intercepted with a cargo suspected to be about 3,500 kg (3.85 tons) of cocaine, a security source told Reuters. Investigators believe that the crew had attempted to sink the submarine and the drugs it had on board. It was later transported to a port in Cangas, in Pontevedra province.
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| Sri Lanka airports on alert after top cop flees Posted: 26 Nov 2019 01:03 AM PST ![Sri Lanka airports on alert after top cop flees]( "Sri Lanka airports on alert after top cop flees") The Sri Lankan government has put airports on alert to stop police detectives leaving without permission after a top officer who had reportedly received death threats fled the island, police said Tuesday. The alleged threats against inspector Nishantha Silva came after the November 16 election of Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who was also under investigation by him. Police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera said the names of 704 Criminal Investigation Division (CID) officers had been sent to immigration authorities.
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| British man and wife rescued from Islamic State militants in the Philippines after being held for two months Posted: 25 Nov 2019 12:09 AM PST  A British man and a Filipino woman have been rescued from kidnappers in the Philippines by the country's special forces troops, two months after they were abducted from a beach resort. Husband and wife Allan and Wilma Hyrons were rescued after Filipino troops attacked their captors, members of the militant bandit Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG), on the island of Jolo in the country's southern Sulu province on Monday morning local time. The soldiers, including those from the Philippines Marine Corps, had been battling ASG members for three days in the town of Penang in an attempt to retrieve Mr and Mrs Hyrons and other kidnap victims. Early on Monday, after a ten-minute gunfight the bandits abandoned the couple, allowing them to escape. Later on Monday lieutenant general Cirilito Sobejana told AFP that although the couple had been rescued, troops would continue to pursue their kidnappers. "The two [hostages] were left behind, they [ASG bandits] could not bring them anymore, so they scampered away to different directions," he said. "But our hot pursuit continues, our troops are still there on the ground." Allan and Wilma Hyrons speak with Maj. Gen. Corleto Vinluan after the rescue Credit: Armed Forces of the Philippines, Task Force Sulu On 4 October Mr and Mrs Hyrons - who lived in the town of Tukuran where they owned a college - were kidnapped from a beach resort on Mindanao island, in the Zamboanga del Norte province. The Philippine military said that the couple were not hurt in the gunfight, and that no ransom was paid to their captors. British foreign secretary Dominic Raab said: "I am pleased to confirm that both Alan and Wilma Hyrons are safe and well, and being looked after by the Philippine authorities. "We worked closely with the government of the Philippines on Alan and Wilma's case over the last two months. I am very grateful for their tremendous efforts. We are in particular grateful to their armed forces for their courage throughout a difficult operation which resulted in Alan and Wilma's release. "Foreign office officials have been in close contact with Alan and Wilma's family throughout this ordeal. We request their privacy during this emotional time." ASG is listed as a terrorist organisation by the Philippines and the US, and has links to the Islamic State group. The group, believed to have around 400 members, is known for beheadings and kidnappings. It was forged in the 1980s among Muslim separatists in the south of the southeast Asian country. Before Monday's rescue, Philippine troops had made inroads into suppressing the group, as part of military efforts that have reduced the amount of abductions taking place in the country in recent years. On Sunday, in a battle in a different area of Sulu province to the region the rescue took place in, five ASG militants were killed. In May Dutch national Ewold Horn was reportedly murdered by kidnappers on Jolo island. The Philippine military said that Horn, who was 59, was shot when his captors fled from attacking troops.
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| New Chinese stealth fighter coming as soon as 2025 Posted: 26 Nov 2019 07:10 AM PST  The new Chinese stealth fighter could be flying through Asian skies as soon as 2025. In October 2018, Chinese media announced that the People's Liberation Army Air Force would publicly unveil its new H-20 stealth bomber during a parade celebrating the air arm's 70th anniversary in 2019.
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| Giuliani Represented Venezuelan Tycoon Accused of Connections to Chavez Regime Posted: 26 Nov 2019 09:12 AM PST  President Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani represented a wealthy Venezuelan businessman in a Justice Department investigation into alleged money laundering in Florida, the Washington Post reported on Monday.Alejandro Betancourt López was reportedly an uncharged co-conspirator in a case in which a group of Venezuelan businessmen, including Betancourt's cousin, tried to steal money from Venezuela's state-owned oil company and launder about $1.2 billion of those funds through real estate purchases in Florida. Giuliani represented Betancourt earlier this year during the DOJ investigation into the case, in which he argued Betancourt should not be made to face criminal charges.Giuliani also stayed at Betancourt's estate south of Madrid, Spain in August while simultaneously working to unearth corruption connected to Ukrainian officials and former vice president Joe Biden, at the behest of President Trump. While in Spain he met with top Ukrainian official Andriy Yermak to discuss details of the investigation into Biden that Trump wanted Ukraine to pursue.Betancourt, who was educated at Suffolk University, cofounded a power company called Derwick Associates. That company was alleged to have paid bribes to strongman Hugo Chavez's regime in order to build power plants for the country, according to the Wall Street Journal.In response to the Post's story, Giuliani denied wrongdoing."This is attorney client privilege so I will withstand whatever malicious lies or spin you put on it," Giuliani told the Post via text.John Sale, an attorney of Betancourt and a friend of Giuliani from law school, declined to comment on the relationship between his client and the former mayor.Giuliani's businesses and several of his associates are currently under federal scrutiny in a wide-ranging investigation. One concern of the investigation is whether Giuliani acted as an unregistered agent for a foreign power or foreign nationals. When asked about the allegation that he acted as an unregistered foreign lobbyist, Giuliani told the Journal that whenever his foreign clients asked for assistance navigating the Trump administration, he passed them on to registered lobbyists.
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| The 20 Best Gifts for The Mandalorian-Watching, Lightsaber-Toting Star Wars Fans Posted: 25 Nov 2019 02:36 PM PST |
| Guards charged over Epstein's suicide get trial date Posted: 25 Nov 2019 10:54 AM PST  Two correctional officers accused of covering up their failure to check on financier Jeffrey Epstein before he hanged himself will face an April 20 trial date. U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres scheduled the trial for Tova Noel and Michael Thomas at a hearing in Manhattan federal court on Monday. Epstein's suicide on Aug. 10, at age 66, came a little over a month after the well-connected money manager was arrested and charged with trafficking dozens of underage girls as young as 14 from at least 2002 to 2005.
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| Military Fact: World War II Changed Bombers and Fighters Forever Posted: 25 Nov 2019 07:00 PM PST  It put every theory to the test. Most didn't stack up.
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| 'Never allow escapes': Second leak reveals how China runs Uighur detention camps Posted: 25 Nov 2019 04:09 AM PST  A second leak of secret Chinese Communist Party (CCP) documents has revealed details of how over one million detainees in China are indoctrinated, controlled and punished in a huge network of internment camps. The papers, dated to 2017 and leaked to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), have been dubbed The China Cables and feature instructions to "never allow escapes" from the camps. The venues, which in 2018 Beijing claimed did not exist then said were education centres, are populated mainly by Muslim members of ethnic minorities who have not been charged with crimes. The leak came a week after a different trove of CCP documents related to China's Muslim crackdown was revealed. Both caches provide evidence that the CCP is orchestrating a widespread campaign of brainwashing and human rights abuse against Muslims, mainly in the country's vast western Xinjiang province. The ICIJ said the documents it acquired marked the "first leak of a classified Chinese government document revealing the inner workings of the camps, the severity of conditions behind the fences, and the dehumanising instructions regulating inmates' mundane daily routines." Some of the newly-revealed documents are from an internment camp instruction manual issued by Xinjiang security authorities. One order in them is for staff to "strictly manage door locks and keys – dormitory doors, corridors doors and floor doors must be double locked, and must be locked immediately after being opened and closed." According to Beijing the venues were set up as part of a crackdown on separatist terrorism stemming from Xinjiang, which is home to around 11 million members of the mainly Muslim Uighur ethnic group. Internees undergo indoctrination to denounce religion and show loyalty to the CCP and Chinese President Xi Jinping. Escapees have reported torture and rape occurring in the camps. The documents showed how internees were regularly tested on subjects including mandarin language skills, and only allowed to leave once they gained satisfactory scores. Scores were linked to "rewards, punishments and family visits", and staff were told to "evaluate and resolve students' ideological problems and abnormal emotions at all times." They were also required to "promote the repentance and confession of the students for them to understand deeply the illegal, criminal and dangerous nature of their past behaviour." Chinese officials failing to strictly follow internment camp guidelines have faced severe consequences. The documents leaked to the New York Times showed that 12,000 officials were investigating for not implementing the rules with enough vigour. Wang Yongzhi, an official in charge of the crackdown in an area of Xinjiang called Yarkand, was investigated and disappeared from public view after quietly releasing 7,000 inmates from the system. His grovelling confession, likely given under duress, was distributed as a warning to other officials. He 'confessed': "I undercut, acted selectively and made my own adjustments, believing that rounding up so many people would knowingly fan conflict and deepen resentment... without approval and initiative, I broke the rules." Details about how internees, who can be sent to camps for behaviour such as using non-approved messaging apps or collecting money for mosques, were isolated from loved ones were also revealed. It was decreed that they were allowed a phone call with family "at least once a week", but they "may not contact the outside world apart from during prescribed activities." Adrian Zenz, senior fellow in China studies at Washington DC's Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, said of the newly-leaked papers: "It really shows that from the onset, the Chinese government had a plan for how to secure the vocational training centres, how to lock in the 'students' into their dorms, how to keep them there for at least one year." When asked about The China Cables on Monday Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said: "Some media's conspiracy to slander China's terrorist effort won't succeed. Our most powerful counterattack is to maintain solidarity among ethnic groups and a peaceful society." The documents feature a section named "Strict secrecy", which included the order: "It is necessary to strengthen the staff's awareness of staying secret."
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| Is Bolivia turning into a rightwing military dictatorship? Posted: 26 Nov 2019 03:42 AM PST  Events in Bolivia – including the killing of indigenous protesters – contain echoes from Bolivia's past dictatorshipsIndian massacres have returned to Bolivia. There is a history — a blood feud, to be precise — behind this tragedy. The self-declared "presidency" of Jeanine Áñez has revived the old oligarchy's race hatred and the barbaric practice of Indian killing, the collective punishment of the nation's Indigenous majority for daring to defy a centuries-old racial order of apartheid and oppression. Since the ousting of Bolivia's first Indigenous president Evo Morales, security forces have carried out at least two massacres of Indigenous people protesting the military coup.Only two weeks since seizing state power, the evidence is clear: this is a rightwing, military dictatorship. The telltale sign for a country like Bolivia is the outright Indian killing.On November 15, the army opened fire on a peaceful demonstration in Cochabamba, killing eight and wounding dozens more. On November 16, a day after the Cochabamba massacre, Áñez issued a decree exempting the police and military from criminal responsibility in operations for "the restoration of order and public stability." A carte blanche to kill at will, security forces have obliged the directive with increasing cruelty.Last Tuesday, teargas and bullets rained down on a blockade at the Senkata gas plant in El Alto. Eight were killed, and dozens injured. And this was just the first week of Áñez's presidency.Two days later in La Paz, from behind armored vehicles, security forces showered a funeral procession with teargas and rubber bullets. The coffins of victims from the Senkata massacre fell to the ground as people scattered in panic, adding further humiliation to already grief-stricken families and communities.The official death toll since the protests began is estimated to be more than 30, with dozens missing, more than 700 injured, and nearly a thousand arrests. Bolivia's Indigenous majority are the primary targets of this racist, state-sanctioned violence.The last time there was Indian killing of this magnitude by the state, Bolivia's current opposition leader, Carlos Mesa, was vice president. In 2003, more than 60 Indigenous Aymara people were killed during the "Gas War." President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada's plan to sell oil and gas exports through a consortium of multinational corporations to the United States — continuing a centuries-long tradition of pillaging the nation's resources for outside interests — led to a popular uprising demanding the nationalization Bolivia's hydrocarbons, forcing the president's resignation."I can't accept killing as a response to popular pressure," Mesa said in 2003 after the massacres. But he appears to have had a change of heart.After losing to Evo Morales during the October 20 presidential elections this year, Mesa was the first to recognize Áñez's coup presidency, while remaining silent about her authoritarian actions, her alignment with Christian far-right such as the millionaire Luis Fernando Camacho, and the massacres of Indigenous people taking part in popular protesters. Others find lessons in the rightwing-orchestrated chaos and liberal acquiescence."Behind every moderate liberal, you find a fascist," Bolivia's ousted vice president Álvaro Garcia Linera remarked about Mesa and his ilk in a recent interview.There are also echoes from Bolivia's past dictatorships, showing Áñez derives her authority not from popular power but at the end of a rifle barrel. In contrast to the Indigenous president she deposed, she wasn't elected, and there was no civilian coronation for her presidency. The Plurinational Legislative Assembly, which normally appoints the president, like they did with Evo Morales thrice before, was nearly absent. Instead, a military general placed the presidential sash on Áñez.The last time a general placed a sash on a president after a military coup was in 1980. That year, General Luis García Meza achieved a military dictatorship by assassinating the socialist leader Marcelo Quiroga Santa Cruz and massacring dozens of Indigenous miners.The desire to overthrow Evo Morales and the Indigenous social movements that brought him to power has existed for years. The first coup attempt happened in 2008, when the Media Luna, which is composed of the four opposition-dominated regions in the East where most of the European-descended population is concentrated, tried to secede from the country. The racist separatist movement emerged amidst the drafting of a new constitution, which recognized Bolivia as a Plurinational state with the equal status of Indigenous peoples and control over natural resources. The region erupted into open rebellion, attempting to divide the country into two states: a wealthy one dominated by descendants of Europeans home to a large oil and gas industry and agribusiness and one with a poor Indigenous majority. The rightwing protests against resource nationalism and ending apartheid took 20 Indigenous lives.The United States' role in fomenting the racial divisions is without question.The most recent wave of anti-Indian violence is made to look like self-defense. The interior minister Arturo Murillo, appointed by Áñez, wants to prosecute and imprison Evo Morales for terrorism and sedition for allegedly ordering the blockading of Bolivian cities. But testimony from survivors of the Senkata massacre tells a different story. During an Inter-American Commission on Human Rights hearing held on Sunday in La Paz, the sister of one of the men killed by security forces said it is Jeanine Añez, Carlos Mesa, Luis Fernando Camacho, and Arturo Murillo who belong in prison. Her brother was gunned down while walking to work, she testified.Justice for the dead and wounded is still an open question.Although the legislative body approved new elections, the decision comes with serious compromises and little promise of diminishing Áñez's grip on power. In short, the outlook of "free and fair elections" is slim under the current oversight of an authoritarian government that massacres Indigenous people with impunity, imprisons social movement leaders, and charges anyone opposed to it with sedition or terrorism.Indeed, a brutal dictatorship reigns.For 14 years, Bolivian Indigenous movements broke the spell of invulnerability surrounding colonial oligarchy and the European-descended elite — and they still pose a significant challenge. An Indigenous president was proof that humble people of the earth could rule. This is their unforgivable sin. * Nick Estes is a citizen of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe. He is an Assistant Professor in the American Studies Department at the University of New Mexico and is the co-founder of The Red Nation, an Indigenous resistance organization
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| 10 Secret Santa gifts under $30 that won't get thrown away Posted: 25 Nov 2019 10:19 AM PST  Is your Secret Santa situation seriously stumping you? Our product experts are here to help. These are our picks for best Secret Santa gifts under $30.
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| Trump impeachment: White House review reveals ‘embarrassing’ conversations in effort to justify president’s actions Posted: 25 Nov 2019 06:55 AM PST  Donald Trump's right-hand man asked White House officials if there were legal grounds to withhold military aid from Ukraine in the month after the president had made the decision - according to an internal investigation uncovered by US media.The withholding of $391m of aid - and whether the move was used to pressure Ukrainian officials into launching an investigation into Mr Trump's political rival Joe Biden - has become the centrepiece of the impeachment investigation against the president.
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| Jury hears 911 call from night engaged doctors were killed in penthouse Posted: 25 Nov 2019 10:09 PM PST  Jury in the murder trial of Bampumim Teixeira hears a 911 call from the night Dr. Richard Field and Dr. Lina Bolaños were killed in their penthouse
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| U.S. Supreme Court turns away murder case highlighted in 'Serial' podcast Posted: 25 Nov 2019 06:58 AM PST  The justices turned away an appeal by Adnan Syed, 39, who has been serving a life sentence since 2000 after being convicted in the strangling death of high school classmate Hae Min Lee. Maryland's highest court in March ruled out a new trial for Syed despite his attorney's failure to properly defend him. Prosecutors said Syed killed the 17-year-old Lee in 1999 in the parking lot of a Best Buy store shortly after school, and then buried her body in a shallow grave later that evening.
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| Free Tuition Will Bleed Colleges Dry Posted: 26 Nov 2019 06:00 AM PST  (Bloomberg Opinion) -- At last week's Democratic primary debate, the issue of free college became a sticking point. Free tuition at state universities has long been one of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders's flagship proposals. But critics such as South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg say that it's a giveaway to the rich.In one sense, Buttigieg is right; high-income families tend to pay much more tuition than their low-income counterparts. But most plans for free public college count on replacing the lost tuition revenue with increased government spending, funded by tax revenue. Since the tax system is progressive, the wealthy and upper-middle class would end up paying most of the bill. The net effect mostly would be a wash -- basically just a transfer of money from well-off people who don't send their kids to college to those who do.But free college comes with a much bigger risk that is rarely acknowledged by its proponents. If governments don't shell out the money to replace the lost tuition dollars, universities could end up starved of funds.Almost all public universities now receive much of their funding from state governments. In some cases these are controlled by leaders who doubt the value of universities, and are occasionally downright hostile. For example, former Wisconsin Republican Governor Scott Walker cut public funding to the University of Wisconsin system.Cuts like these may partly be driven by ideology. In recent years, Republican opinions of colleges have taken a sharp negative turn:But opposition to higher education spending can be based on economics as well as ideology. Raising taxes can be politically dicey, especially where rates are already high and there are worries about driving business elsewhere. In states that are inclined to spend a lot, there's often a great deal of political pressure to use revenue for other purposes like social spending and K-12 education.Then there's the business cycle. Most states reduced spending on universities during the Great Recession and the vast majority didn't restore it to its former levels after the recession ended. Sanders's own state of Vermont decreased higher education spending per student 16% between 2008 and 2018.If even Vermont's government won't pony up the cash, who will? Those on the socialist left seem to believe that the federal government will step in, but this seems overly optimistic given decades of cuts to every major spending item except health care. As soon as a Republican administration or Congress gets into power, federal education spending would be under threat.Some might argue that the very existence of tuition at state schools might be driving governments to shift costs onto students, since they know tuition money can replace lost tax dollars. But even places that have much cheaper college tuition, such as Australia, France, the U.K. and Canada, have seen university funding cuts or pressure for cuts in recent years. In Ontario, decreases in tuition have been matched with reductions in student aid.So it's highly likely that free tuition would force U.S. universities into an era of painful austerity. How would they respond? They would almost certainly accelerate the shift from classroom instruction by tenure-track faculty to low-paid adjunct faculty, lecturers and graduate students:Student services would also likely take a hit. Conservatives are already salivating at the chance to cut budgets for diversity programs. Academic departments would likely shrink, with humanities and social science taking the biggest hits because of their inability to fall back on research grants or consulting gigs.And some universities would simply shut. In recent years, college closures have come mostly in the for-profit sector, but private colleges have also suffered some pain: An inability to charge tuition could extend this unhappy trend to lower-ranked state schools, which probably are a lower priority for state governments, have less administrative fat to trim and have fewer alumni donations.Economically, starving the U.S. university system of funding would be a terrible move. Universities are the best tool the country has for revitalizing flagging regions. Their research sustains U.S. technological and industrial leadership. They remain one of the few truly effective, world-beating institutions that the U.S. has left. And like it or not, America's university system has been built on the back of upper-middle-class tuition dollars.Although free-college crusaders might imagine a never-ending wave of socialist political victories providing a shower of government money for colleges that ends the need for tuition, the rest of the country should look on this fantasy with a jaundiced eye. Instead of smashing the funding model of the nation's most functional and important liberal institution, the U.S. should simply focus on improving access and affordability for poor and minority students. Universalism is good in many cases, but this isn't one of them.To contact the author of this story: Noah Smith at nsmith150@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: James Greiff at jgreiff@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Noah Smith is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He was an assistant professor of finance at Stony Brook University, and he blogs at Noahpinion.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Saudi detains nine academics, writers in new crackdown Posted: 25 Nov 2019 12:30 PM PST  Saudi Arabia has detained at least nine academics, writers and activists, campaigners said Monday, the latest in a series of crackdowns on intellectuals over the past two years. The detention of liberals -- in the midst of a much-hyped liberalisation drive -- underscores what observers call increasing repression and authoritarianism under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's de facto rule as he consolidates his grip on power. In a sweeping crackdown that began on November 16, authorities raided the homes of nine journalists, bloggers and activists across multiple cities -- including Riyadh, Jeddah and Hail -- and seized their laptops and mobiles, rights group ALQST said.
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| Could the U.S. Navy Have Destroyed Japan With Battleships? Posted: 26 Nov 2019 10:00 AM PST  At the end of World War II, the Navy had a problem of too many battleships—and an unusual solution.
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| Bombogenesis: 'Unprecedented' bomb cyclone to blast Northwest Posted: 26 Nov 2019 12:29 PM PST  A rare West Coast "bomb cyclone" is forecast to sweep into southern Oregon and northern California later Tuesday and into Wednesday.
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| 29 of the Most Beautiful Streets in the World Posted: 26 Nov 2019 05:00 AM PST |
| Sarah Huckabee Sanders to New York Times: 'I don’t like being called a liar' Posted: 25 Nov 2019 07:11 AM PST  Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the former White House press secretary who admitted to Robert Mueller that she lied to reporters, told the New York Times: "I don't like being called a liar." At a White House briefing on 10 May 2017, Sanders told reporters "countless members of the FBI" had told her they had lost confidence in James Comey, the FBI director fired by Trump shortly before.
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| Freed film-maker Sentsov tells Europe: beware of Russia Posted: 26 Nov 2019 05:27 AM PST  Oleg Sentsov, who was arrested in Crimea after Russia annexed the Ukrainian territory in 2014, was awarded the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought last year while he was still in jail. Russia and Mr Putin will absolutely cheat you. A Russian military court sentenced Sentsov to 20 years in a maximum security prison in 2015 after finding him guilty of setting fire to two offices in Crimea, including one belonging to Russia's ruling political party.
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| A gun is fired on US school grounds twice a week, database reveals Posted: 26 Nov 2019 03:02 PM PST  More than once a month in the past year, gunfire has turned deadly, gun control advocates findPolice officers take part in active shooter response training exercise at Fountain middle school in Fountain, Colorado, in June 2017. Photograph: Dougal Brownlie/APA gun is fired on a school campus in America nearly twice a week. Suicide, homicides, a police shooting, attacks on students by other students: more than once a month this past year, gunfire on American school and university campuses has turned deadly, according to a database of school gunfire incidents compiled by advocates.In the latest in a series of brutal shootings in California, and 11-year-old boy and a 16-year-old boy were shot to death in the parking lot of an elementary school in Union City, California, in the early hours of Saturday morning. Police had no immediate motive for the shooting, but said that a suspect or suspects had fired into the van the boys were sitting in multiple times.Schools are one of the safest places for kids in the United States, and shootings in and around schools represent only a tiny fraction of the violence that children face here on a daily basis. But even the small amount of gun violence that occurs at American schools adds up.Since the Columbine shooting in 1999, at least 233,000 kids across 243 schools have been exposed to gun violence during school hours, a Washington Post investigation found.Experts are quick to put that number in context. Researchers found that nearly 1,300 American children aged 17 and younger die from gunshot wounds each year, and they are more likely to be killed in homes or neighborhoods than at school.Domestic violence is particularly deadly. In San Diego, a domestic violence mass shooting claimed the lives of three young boys and their mother, all shot to death by the boys' father on 16 November, according to police. The fourth brother, nine-year-old Ezekiel Valdivia, died on Saturday afternoon, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.That single domestic violence shooting was deadlier than any of the school shooting attacks in the United States so far in 2019, according to tallies compiled by the Washington Post and the New York Times."Gunfire on school grounds is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to how gun violence affects children and teenagers," said Ruhi Bengali, a senior associate at Everytown for Gun Safety, the country's largest gun control advocacy organization.But tracking gun violence on school grounds, as Everytown has done since after the 2012 Sandy Hook elementary school shooting, does provide a window into the many ways gun violence burdens young people, even in places that are "inherently meant to be safe spaces for learning", Bengali said.Everytown's analysis found that 20% of all gunfire on school grounds comes from unintentional shootings, but that even these "actually resulted in a fair number of injuries. Gun suicides, with no intent to harm anyone else, represented 12% of all incidents," she said.As with other kinds of gun violence in America, students of color, and black students in particular, were disproportionately affected.Black students make up only 15% of the school population for K-12 schools, yet represented 24% of student victims in instances of gunfire on school grounds, she said.For the students affected by ongoing gun violence in and around their schools, local officials can offer additional counselors, but little evidence of national change on gun laws: Republican lawmakers have blocked any substantive gun control laws for the past quarter-century.In Union City, where the two kids were killed in the elementary school parking lot, students are out of school this week for the Thanksgiving holiday, but will have "district and community mental health providers available" when they return to school, spokesman John Mattos said.Not far away, students at Carl Munck elementary school in Oakland have also had additional counselors available to them. The president of the school's Parent Teacher Association, Misty Smith Walton, was shot to death outside her Oakland apartment earlier this month.Her death wasn't a school shooting. But that didn't mean it does not affect the school."She was always looking to improve her sons' classes and their school, always there to do whatever was needed in the front office, on the yard or anywhere else on campus," the superintendent said in a statement, calling her death a "horrific crime".
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