| 5 key takeaways from the Democratic debate in Ohio Posted: 15 Oct 2019 09:24 PM PDT  Warren is treated like the front-runner, a "healthy" Bernie returns to the debate stage with key endorsements in his pocket and more.
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| Yang and O'Rourke propose decriminalizing opioids, including heroin Posted: 15 Oct 2019 07:59 PM PDT  Two Democrats suggested making small amounts of heroin legal as a way to combat the drug epidemic.
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| A retired black police officer in Fort Worth, where Atatiana Jefferson was killed, says she's afraid to get stopped by her department's officers because of her race Posted: 15 Oct 2019 07:20 AM PDT  Retired officer Larhonda Young said as a "black female, former police officer," she's afraid to be stopped by Fort Worth police.
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| Buttigieg, O'Rourke clash over assault-rifle buyback plan Posted: 15 Oct 2019 07:57 PM PDT  At Tuesday night's Democratic primary debate, presidential candidates Beto O'Rourke and Pete Buttigieg escalated their disagreement over O'Rourke's proposal for mandatory buybacks of assault weapons.
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| School suspends girls, says rape-awareness note was bullying Posted: 15 Oct 2019 02:38 PM PDT  A 15-year-old girl was suspended for bullying after trying to draw attention to what she believed was an unaddressed problem of sexual assaults involving students at her high school. Aela Mansmann, a 15-year-old sophomore at Cape Elizabeth High School outside Portland, has been at odds with Cape Elizabeth Schools for a month after posting a note in a bathroom that said: "There's a rapist in our school and you know who it is." She and two other students who left similar notes were ordered suspended. The American Civil Liberties Union of Maine is taking on Mansmann's case and calling on federal court to stop her suspension.
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| Kenya opens Chinese-built railway linking Rift Valley town to Nairobi Posted: 16 Oct 2019 01:47 AM PDT ![Kenya opens Chinese-built railway linking Rift Valley town to Nairobi]( "Kenya opens Chinese-built railway linking Rift Valley town to Nairobi") Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta is due to open a new $1.5 billion Chinese rail line on Wednesday linking the capital Nairobi to the Rift Valley town of Naivasha, despite delays in establishing an industrial park there to drive freight traffic. The development of Kenya's railways has been part of China's "One Belt, One Road" initiative, a multi-billion dollar series of infrastructure projects upgrading land and maritime trade routes between China and Europe, Asia and Africa. Kenya had planned to open an industrial park in Naivasha, offering companies tax breaks for investing in manufacturing, and preferential tariffs for electricity generated in the nearby geothermal fields.
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| Alan Dershowitz Gets Rival Lawyer Booted From Epstein Victim’s Case Posted: 16 Oct 2019 11:34 AM PDT  REUTERS/Andrew InnerarityAlan Dershowitz may have lost his battle to dismiss a defamation lawsuit brought by Virginia Roberts Giuffre—who claims Jeffrey Epstein kept her as his "sex slave" and forced her to have sex with Dershowitz. But the Harvard Law professor scored his own victory: persuading a federal judge to disqualify Giuffre's attorney, David Boies, and his firm, from her case.In an opinion filed Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska said she would deny Dershowitz's motion to dismiss the case—Dershowitz claims Giuffre is lying about having sex with him and tried to extort him—but grant his motion to disqualify Boies' firm. It was a blow to Boies, who's sparred with Dershowitz for decades, and Sigrid McCawley, a partner at the firm who represents multiple victims of Epstein.In a statement, McCawley said her firm would appeal Preska's decision to remove them from Giuffre's litigation in Manhattan federal court."Today's decision rejects Alan Dershowitz's chronic capacity to make this case about anything but the facts and what he has been accused of by our client, Virginia Giuffre. The defamation case against Alan Dershowitz is going forward and he will have to face justice," McCawley, a partner at Boies Schiller Flexner LLP, said in a statement."The decision, however, to disqualify our firm, which has had the privilege of representing Virginia and advocating for her brave voice and continued call for justice, is deeply disappointing and it will be promptly appealed."Jeffrey Epstein Accuser Names Powerful Men in Alleged Sex RingThe Biggest Bombshells in Newly Unsealed Epstein DocumentsThe order comes almost a month after Giuffre's and Dershowitz's legal teams faced off during oral arguments, after which Dershowitz held a press conference and accused Giuffre and her advocates of doing "a terrible disservice" to the MeToo movement. Boies and his firm have represented Giuffre for years, including in a separate defamation suit filed against Epstein's alleged madame, Ghislaine Maxwell. (A cache of court records in that case were unsealed last summer, providing a deeper look into the sexual abuse allegations against Epstein and his powerful friends.)Dershowitz, 81, argued the 78-year-old Boies should be booted from his case based on a conflict of interest: He was briefly a client of Boies' firm and says he provided an attorney with confidential information related to his fight against Giuffre's accusations. The professor also argued Boies and his firm's attorneys would be called as witnesses in Giuffre's case.The latter argument was more significant, according to Preska's order, which noted, "Because disqualification is so clearly required under the advocate-witness rule, the Court does not reach the conflict of interest argument advanced by Dershowitz."According to the rule, an attorney cannot represent a party where the attorney will be called as a witness. "The rule differentiates between an attorney who will be called on behalf of his client and an attorney who will be called as a witness other than on behalf of his client," Preska wrote in her order."A lawyer may also not act as an advocate where 'another lawyer in the lawyer's firm is likely to be called as a witness on a significant issue other than on behalf of the client, and it is apparent that the testimony may be prejudicial to the client,'" Preska added.In her complaint, Giuffre said Dershowitz's statements that she conspired with her lawyers to extort him and Epstein's associate and client Les Wexner are false. She also referenced a secretly-recorded phone call between Dershowitz and Boies; Dershowitz says Boies declared on the call that Giuffre was "simply wrong" in her accusation, while Giuffre has said Boies' assertions were taken "out of context.""By so pleading, Giuffre made the truth of these statements … a necessary—indeed essential—part of the Complaint," Preska ruled."Dershowitz's allegation of an extortion conspiracy is no mere throwaway line," the judge added of Giuffre's complaint, which was filed in April. "Giuffre explicitly characterizes Dershowitz's 'central assertion' as the facts that Giuffre committed perjury and that she and her attorneys 'hatched a scheme to falsely accuse Dershowitz of sex trafficking as part of a criminal attempt to extort a settlement from another party.'"Giuffre must prove at trial that Boies Schiller Flexner (BSF) lawyers didn't participate in the extortion scheme Dershowitz has alleged. "Either way, BSF is immersed in the facts it pled," Preska stated."Again it is essential to follow the litigation jujitsu at work here," the judge continued. "Giuffre says Dershowitz defamed her by falsely saying she and BSF engaged in an extortion scheme; Dershowitz says he said it and it is true. Giuffre's burden is to prove it is false in the face of Dershowitz's vehement claim that it is true."According to Preska's order, new counsel for Giuffre and Dershowitz's legal team must submit a proposed discovery plan by Nov. 13.Giuffre released a statement on Wednesday following the ruling: "I am grateful for the Court's decision to deny Alan Dershowitz's shameful attempt to dismiss my defamation case against him. I will no longer be silenced. I will no longer be shamed. I will see Alan Dershowitz in a court of law," she said."But I am dismayed by the Court's decision in this case to deprive me of my counsel. For over five years, my lawyers at Boies Schiller Flexner have worked tirelessly to bring Jeffrey Epstein and his co-conspirators to justice. When it was not in vogue and not a breaking news story, my lawyers Sigrid McCawley and David Boies stood up to the muscle of the Epstein machine and its grip on the legal system. It is no surprise that Alan Dershowitz, who was part of Epstein's ecosystem of power and privilege, is attempting to manipulate the legal system in the face of the serious charges I have brought against him. The reckoning of accountability has begun and today's decision will be appealed."Dershowitz's attorney, Imran H. Ansari, said the academic is "pleased" with Preska's decision to remove Boies from the case. "Disqualification is clearly required by the advocate-witness rule and by the very allegations made by the Plaintiff in her own Complaint," Ansari said in a statement. "Professor Dershowitz will call David Boies and his colleagues at trial to prove that their client—in Boies' own words—is 'wrong… simply wrong' in accusing him. Any appeal taken of Judge Preska's decision regarding disqualification will be met with stiff opposition by Professor Dershowitz."Meanwhile, Dershowitz argued Giuffre's complaint should be dismissed because the statements he made in 2018 and 2019—calling her a "total liar" who fabricated allegations against him for money—are "substantially identical" to statements he made in 2015 and therefore barred under the statute of limitations.Yet, Preska's order states that Dershowitz "admits he took affirmative steps to republish his prior statements to defend himself and his reputation by influencing new audiences or re-influencing old audiences.""Said differently, Dershowitz went looking for trouble, and by his repeated affirmative republications, he found it."Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. 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| Republicans set to force vote formally rebuking Schiff Posted: 16 Oct 2019 10:55 AM PDT  House Republicans took steps on Wednesday to force a floor vote on a measure formally condemning Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), who is leading the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump. Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), the head of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, filed the censure resolution as "privileged," meaning the House now has to act within the next two legislative days. While Democrats will likely just move to table the symbolic measure, it represents the GOP's most aggressive offensive yet as the party tries to coalesce around a strategy to beat back Democratic impeachment efforts.
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| Sears and Kmart closing more stores in late 2019 and early 2020. Is your location closing? Posted: 14 Oct 2019 11:04 PM PDT ![Sears and Kmart closing more stores in late 2019 and early 2020. Is your location closing?]( "Sears and Kmart closing more stores in late 2019 and early 2020. Is your location closing?") More than 100 Kmart and Sears stores will close by the end of 2019 and more closures are expected to continue into early 2020.
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| Cory Booker wants $90m a year to prevent urban gun violence Posted: 16 Oct 2019 04:00 AM PDT  New bill would focus federal dollars on public health approaches to gun violence Senator Cory Booker gives a speech on gun violence at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal church, known as Mother Emanuel, in Charleston, South Carolina, in August. Photograph: Randall Hill/ReutersFor more than a decade, faith leaders from black and brown communities have come to Congress with the same request: spend more money on local strategies to prevent gun violence.Now, the New Jersey senator Cory Booker is introducing legislation that would devote $90m a year to programs that prevent urban gun violence.Booker's new grant program would focus federal dollars on helping the cities with the highest gun homicide rates, and it would prioritize funding for strategies that do not contribute to mass incarceration.series boxInstead of simply directing more federal money to local law enforcement, the new legislation would require cities to give at least half of their federal grant dollars to community organizations that provide services to high-risk people, or to a public department "that is not a law enforcement agency".Booker's bill does not include any gun control provisions: it's focused on strategies that prevent shootings by focusing on the people, not the guns."We're in a tough political climate," said Pastor Michael McBride, a California-based activist who has spent the last decade campaigning for more resources for local gun violence prevention. "This approach charts a way forward that does not bog us down in these intense debates over the second amendment or gun control."Booker's legislation is designed to fund programs that have shown success in reducing gun violence in cities such as Oakland and Richmond, California; Boston, Massachusetts; and New York City. The legislation would devote $90m a year over 10 years to evidence-based approaches to gun violence reduction.In the past decade, as they have invested public dollars into expanding community-based strategies, Oakland has seen a 44% decrease in its gun homicide rate, and nearby Richmond has seen a 67% decrease in its gun homicide rate.The decreases in Oakland, Richmond, and San Francisco have driven a 30% decrease in the overall gun homicide rate across the greater San Francisco Bay Area, even as the number of people living in poverty in the region has increased, and as property crime has spiked in some areas. The decrease in the area is much larger than in the nation overall.The successful local strategies highlighted in Booker's legislation include investing in street outreach workers or "violence interrupters", trusted community members who intervene in local gang conflicts to keep violence from spreading; funding intervention programs in hospitals to help shooting victims change their lives; and supporting "group violence intervention" strategies, such as Boston's Operation Ceasefire, that bring together law enforcement, community partners, and faith leaders to intervene with the small number of men in each city who are most likely to shoot or be shot.Booker's Break the Cycle of Violence Act is co-sponsored by the US representative Steven Horsford, a Nevada Democrat whose father was shot to death during a robbery when he was 19."These deaths are preventable," Horsford said in a statement.Mass shootings are usually the focus of America's gun control debate. But the majority of America's gun homicide victims are killed in smaller daily shootings in neighborhoods that have struggled with gun violence for decades.Black men and boys, who make up just 6% of America's overall population, represent more than 50% of the country's gun homicide victims.A 2015 Guardian investigation found that half of the country's gun homicides were concentrated in just 127 cities and towns. Experts have argued for years that American gun violence is highly concentrated, and that one of the best ways to save lives is to devote more resources into the neighborhoods with the greatest need.Black and brown activists have often felt "invisible" and "erased" from the American gun control debate, McBride said."Our communities are used as props, but never really given serious consideration on how to scale up strategies that save our lives and heal our communities," he said.The new legislation focuses resources on the majority of America's gun violence victims – and it also focuses on solutions that are less politically controversial than gun control laws, McBride said."We think Republicans, historically, have been huge supporters of these kinds of strategies, because of the role that faith communities and redemption and healing play," he said.
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| New Jersey police are looking for a possible witness to the kidnapping of a 3-year-old girl 30 days ago Posted: 16 Oct 2019 07:35 AM PDT  Five-year-old Dulce Maria Alavez disappeared from Bridgeton City Park in New Jersey on September 16.
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| UAE to launch new low-cost airline Posted: 16 Oct 2019 06:47 AM PDT  Abu Dhabi's giant Etihad Airways and Sharjah's low-cost carrier Air Arabia announced Wednesday an agreement to launch a new low-cost airline based in the United Arab Emirates capital. Etihad Airways posted a loss in 2018 for the third year running, it said earlier this year, blaming investment losses and challenging market conditions. The new Air Arabia Abu Dhabi will be launched in "due course", Tony Douglas, CEO of Etihad Aviation Group, said in a statement issued by the two Emirati carriers.
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| Romney Blames Trump Admin. for Syria Chaos: ‘This Is Not a Surprise’ Posted: 16 Oct 2019 03:10 PM PDT  Senator Mitt Romney (R., Utah) was sharply critical of the Trump administration's handling Turkey's invasion of Northern Syria during a press conference with reporters Wednesday afternoon, questioning why the president did not make "a clear agreement with Turkey as to what they would do, and what they would not do" before ordering a withdrawal of American troops from the region.> Sen. Romney on US troop withdrawal from northern Syria: > > "Turkey let us know what they were going to do. This is not a surprise. Everybody told the administration what would happen … The reality is what's happening in Syria is a result of our decision." pic.twitter.com/8sy3yhFeDq> > -- NBC News (@NBCNews) October 16, 2019"This is not a surprise. Everybody told the administration what would happen if we pulled our troops out precipitously," Romney said. "Instead, there should have been a negotiation beforehand, we should've sat down with Turkey and said, 'Alright, look: We're willing to talk to you about your concerns, let's see if we can negotiate a program here where we protect the Kurds, where we can make sure the ISIS prisoners are kept in place, and where we honor our commitments to our friends the Kurds, as well as our alliance with you, Turkey.'""At this stage, it's trying to cover ourselves as well as we can and look like we're being tough and we're putting sanctions on Turkey and so forth, but the reality is the decision was made by this administration which has led to the Turks going into Syria and wiping out our friends, the Kurds. That's what's unacceptable," Romney added.The chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on the Near East, South Asia, Central Asia, and Counterterrorism went on to say that neither he nor the subcommittee's ranking member, Senator Chris Murphy (D., Conn.) were briefed on the decision to withdraw troops ahead of time, and to voice hope that the White House would provide the subcommittee a transparent explanation of the process that led to the move.Romney and Murphy released a statement October 7 that called the Syria withdrawal "a betrayal that will have grave humanitarian and national security consequences."Turkey's invasion of Northern Syria entered its eighth day Wednesday, amid heavy fighting that has displaced over 130,000 people and attracted Russian and Syrian troops to the region.Romney's comments marked the latest twist in an often-testy relationship with Trump that has publicly soured amid disagreements over the House's impeachment inquiry and the Syria withdrawal. On Wednesday, the Club for Growth, a conservative advocacy group, released a 30-second ad which paints Romney as a "Democrat secret asset" who is "plotting to take down President Trump with impeachment."
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| Shooting kills 6 in Puerto Rico, leads to emergency meeting Posted: 15 Oct 2019 05:00 PM PDT  Puerto Rico's governor called an emergency meeting Tuesday after six people were killed in a mass shooting in a San Juan housing project and gunfire left two people dead a day earlier in the island's north. A police statement said the violence left five men and one woman dead. The brazen murders led Gov. Wanda Vázquez to convene a gathering of her security team, led by public security chief Elmer Román and justice secretary Dennise Longo Quiñones.
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| UAW, GM leaders have a deal to end strike, now workers will decide Posted: 16 Oct 2019 08:50 AM PDT  General Motors Co and the United Auto Workers union reached a tentative deal on Wednesday for a new four-year labor deal, moving closer to ending a costly month-long strike that shut down GM's most profitable factories in a test of wills over the future of U.S. auto industry jobs. Neither the UAW nor GM released details of the deal, which is subject to ratification by UAW members, a process that could last up to two weeks. A new contract is expected to include commitments by the automaker to invest billions in U.S. vehicle factories to build new generations of electric vehicles, as well as U.S. electric vehicle battery plants.
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| Pelosi said Trump had a 'meltdown' after the House overwhelmingly voted to condemn his Syria retreat Posted: 16 Oct 2019 03:40 PM PDT  Trump was apparently particularly triggered by the fact that the House overwhelmingly voted in favor of a resolution condemning his Syria retreat.
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| GM and union reach tentative deal Posted: 16 Oct 2019 10:06 AM PDT  Bargainers for General Motors and the United Auto Workers reached a tentative contract deal on Wednesday that could end a monthlong strike that brought the company's U.S. factories to a standstill.
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| You'll only get a small increase in Social Security benefits in 2020. What should you do? Posted: 16 Oct 2019 04:01 AM PDT  Social Security beneficiaries will receive a small, 1.6% increase in their monthly check starting in 2020. What should they do to cope?
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| Teenage Briton's retraction in Cyprus gang rape case was 'dictated by police' and written in poor English Posted: 16 Oct 2019 11:31 AM PDT  A British teenager who says she was gang raped by Israeli tourists in a beach resort in Cyprus told a court today that she was forced to sign a retraction by Cypriot police after they wrote it for her. During a three-hour cross-examination, the 19-year-old said the statement was in such broken English that "there is not one sentence that an English person would write. It does not make grammatical sense." "It isn't in proper English, it's in Greek English. I'm a very well-educated person, I got into university with an unconditional offer so there's no way I would write something like this. Marios (the investigating police officer) wanted me to write that I had made it all up." The teenager repeatedly offered to read out to the court the bad spelling and poor grammar that she said was in the retraction statement, but the judge presiding over the case refused to let her. The young woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, claimed in July that she was raped by up to a dozen Israeli men in a hotel room in the party resort of Ayia Napa, which draws tens of thousands of holidaymakers each summer. Ten days later she signed a retraction, which her legal team insist was made under duress after she was questioned by Cypriot police for eight hours without a lawyer. But she is on trial for "causing public mischief" by allegedly fabricating the gang rape claim, with the Israeli men threatening to sue her if she is convicted. The British teenager being led into the court in Paralimni, Cyprus Credit: AFP She told the court in Paralimni, a town a few miles from Ayia Napa, that police had promised her that she would be released and allowed to return to the UK if she signed the retraction. "The officer said he had spoken to the Israelis and he had agreed that they would go home and I would go home and that would be the end of it." But instead of being set free she found herself being arrested and taken to a prison in Nicosia, the island's capital, where she spent more than a month in a cell with other women before being bailed. Shortly after signing the statement on July 27, she had a panic attack in the police station, brought on by the PTSD that psychologists say she is suffering from as a result of the alleged gang rape. "I was really, really stressed and I was crying. I was in a state. I was 18 years old and I was suffering from PTSD. I was trapped in there. They made me sign things I didn't understand," she said. She accused one of the investigating officers, Detective Sergeant Marios Christou, of shouting at her and intimidating her. Ayia Napa and surrounding resorts are hugely popular with young holidaymakers from Britain, Europe and Israel Credit: AFP "He was not going by the law. Immediately I assumed corruption and conspiracy. I would not have put it past him at that moment to have kidnapped me or something. I can 100 per cent say that I was terrified for my life when I was in that police station." The young woman, who had come to Cyprus on a working holiday, broke down in tears after the prosecutor, Adamos Demosthenous, accused her of lying to her mother on the night she signed the retraction when she sent a message saying "calm down, I'm OK," even though she was in deep distress. The teenager said she had simply tried to avoid alarming her mother, a single parent. "I said I was OK even though I wasn't just so she would not freak out," the British woman told judge Michalis Papathanasiou. "If your child had just been raped by 12 Israelis and can't get out of bed in the morning and had a throat so swollen she could hardly breathe and was taken to a police station for eight hours after saying she would only be gone for half an hour, I can tell you, you would be worried about your child." The court heard from a British friend of the teenager, who said that on the night of the retraction she received "very alarming" text messages from the alleged rape victim. "She's been arrested and they've got her to change her statement so it looks like she lied," the woman, a psychology graduate from Yorkshire, told a mutual friend. The friend said police had also altered a statement that she gave them. "(An officer) wrote something in the statement that I didn't say. It was in reference to how much we had been drinking." The 19-year-old faces up to a year in prison if convicted. The Israelis all returned home after being released from custody. The trial was adjourned until Thursday, when the judge will decide whether to hear video evidence from a British psychologist who is currently in Ireland and who diagnosed the teenager with PTSD.
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| Latest search for Amelia Earhart plane comes up empty: NYT Posted: 15 Oct 2019 10:26 AM PDT  The latest hunt for the remains of the plane of Amelia Earhart, the famed American aviatrix who disappeared over the Pacific in 1937, has turned up nothing. The New York Times reported Tuesday that an extensive search conducted by a team led by Robert Ballard, discoverer of the wreckage of the Titanic, had not turned up any evidence of Earhart's aircraft. The National Geographic Channel, which sponsored the expedition, is to air a documentary about the search on Sunday.
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| Three US diplomats held near Russian test site where mystery blast killed five Posted: 16 Oct 2019 10:18 AM PDT  * Russian foreign ministry says trio 'obviously got lost' * August explosion caused radiation levels to surgeA Russian navy official works on the Akula nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine at the Severodvinsk site in July. The August explosion there killed at least five people. Photograph: Sergei Bobylev/TassThree American diplomats were briefly detained in Russia near the military test site where a mysterious explosion released radiation in August, several Russia state news agencies have reported.The US embassy has confirmed the incident, the Interfax news service reported, but said the three diplomats had filed the proper paperwork to travel in the area.The Russian foreign ministry said the diplomats had named a different city as their destination and had "obviously got lost".The report comes just days after the United States said the accident was caused by a nuclear reaction when Russia tried to retrieve a nuclear-powered cruise missile from the Barents Sea.The diplomats were detained on Monday on a train in the city of Severodvinsk, near where Russian authorities said they had been testing a rocket engine with a nuclear component before the accident took place.The diplomats, who have been identified by Interfax as military attaches, were later released, but could face administrative charges for traveling in a restricted military area, agencies reported.In a statement, the Russian foreign ministry confirmed that the diplomats were on an official trip and had informed the Russian defence ministry of their plans."Only, they said their intention was to visit Arkhangelsk and they ended up en route to Severodvinsk," the ministry said."They obviously got lost. We are ready to give the US embassy a map of Russia," the ministry added.The blast at the military test site in August killed at least five people and caused panic after radiation levels jumped to 16 times their normal levels in nearby Severodvinsk.Russian authorities have given little information about the accident. But a US diplomat this week said that the accident took place when Russia attempted to retrieve a nuclear-powered cruise missile called Burevestnik from the Barents Sea."The United States has determined that the explosion near Nyonoksa was the result of a nuclear reaction that occurred during the recovery of a Russian nuclear-powered cruise missile," Thomas DiNanno, the diplomat, said during a speech at the UN.Russia's plans for a nuclear-powered cruise missile that could in theory fly indefinitely were first revealed by Vladimir Putin during a speech last year. The missile is still undergoing testing, and some weapons experts doubt if it can ever be made operable.Russia's military was attempting to retrieve the missile from another failed 2017 test when the accident took place.It was not immediately clear whether the diplomats were traveling to or from Nyonoksa, the village near the military testing site, when they were detained. But train timetables would indicate they were returning from the village when they were arrested close to 6pm in Severodvinsk.Russia has maintained a shroud of secrecy around the incident, closing off waters in the White Sea to foreign ships to prevent them from collecting information about the explosion.
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| How Nazi Germany Crushed France During World War II (It Wasn't Luck) Posted: 15 Oct 2019 11:00 PM PDT  Leadership was critical.
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| Hiker Digs Up 1,000-Year-Old Iron Weapon Posted: 15 Oct 2019 07:49 AM PDT  Climate change melted away the ancient arrowhead.
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| Analysis: Trump impulsiveness a theme in impeachment, Syria Posted: 16 Oct 2019 02:34 PM PDT  The president's decision to push Ukraine to investigate a political rival prompted Democrats to launch the House impeachment inquiry, and Trump's critics equate his abrupt decision to pull U.S. troops out of northern Syria with throwing a match on a powder keg. Both actions reflect an increasingly confident Trump's inclination to listen to his gut over his foreign policy and national security advisers, a proclivity that is rattling U.S. allies and emboldening enemies.
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| Here are the winners and losers from Tuesday's Democratic debate Posted: 15 Oct 2019 09:40 PM PDT  Pete Buttigieg was ready to hit back, and those who didn't make the debate stage have an uphill battle.
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| She Saved a School From Her Armed Son, but Now She Faces Charges Posted: 15 Oct 2019 12:11 PM PDT  An Indiana woman who called the police in December and told them that her 14-year-old son had threatened to shoot up his former school will face criminal charges if prosecutors have their way.Prosecutors in Wayne County filed an affidavit Friday recommending six felony charges against the woman, Mary York, 43, in the episode, which ended when her son killed himself at David W. Dennis Intermediate School in Richmond, Indiana.The police did not release the boy's name because of his age.Prosecutors said in the affidavit that York prematurely removed her son from a mental health facility; took him off prescription medication because he had said it made him feel weird; and failed to tell the police when he fired a handgun inside their home in October 2018, according to The Richmond Palladium-Item.On Dec. 13, York called the police around 8:15 a.m. and told the dispatcher that her son had taken her boyfriend hostage at gunpoint and was threatening to shoot up Dennis Intermediate School, according to the police. The school serves grades 5 through 8.York's son was no longer a student at the school, but he had been bullied there in the past, she told the Indianapolis station WISH-TV in April.When the boy arrived at the school, he was armed with a rifle, a pistol, ammunition, two bottles filled with gasoline, rags for Molotov cocktails and a handwritten plan of action, Capt. David Bursten, an officer with the Indiana State Police, said at a news conference in April.Police officers were at the school when the boy entered the building by shooting a glass door, Bursten said.The boy shot at officers from a stairwell inside the school while Nichole Vandervort, the school's principal, monitored the situation through video security footage. Vandervort provided updates to police officers of the boy's movements, Bursten said.The boy fired his rifle six times at the officers and used the seventh and last round to take his own life. The boy had no other injuries, Bursten said.The captain said there would have been more lives lost that morning if York hadn't made the "gut-wrenching decision" to call law enforcement.York told the Indianapolis station WXIN on Monday that she did not see any warning signs and she couldn't believe that her son would do something like this."I tried everything I could to stop him," she said.The recommended charges against York are one count of dangerous control of a child for his possession of a firearm and five counts of neglecting a dependent, which are all felonies. She also faces one misdemeanor count of criminal recklessness, according to prosecutors.York did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday. It is unclear whether she has a lawyer.York told WISH-TV in April that the guns belonged to her then-boyfriend and were locked away in the house. She said her son was depressed and anxious because he was bullied at Dennis Intermediate School.He had been admitted to a mental health facility several months before the shooting, but the facility said "nothing was wrong" when it released him to her, she added."They're blaming me and my son, but they need to be blaming the school system and this medical facility that let me take him out," York said.Medical records indicate that the boy said he heard voices that commanded him to kill students who bullied him, but there were no documented incidents of the boy being bullied in school records outlined in the affidavit, The Richmond Palladium-Item reported.After investigating the incident, Bursten said there was no reason to believe the boy was targeting a specific person, and the police found that bullying was not relevant to the investigation. The boy intended to "cause maximum damage and harm," he added.David Snow, the mayor of Richmond, said at the April news conference that the community should keep talking about mental health, encouraging those with mental illness to seek help."It is so important as a community that we remove the stigma of mental health," he said, "and to make mental health resources both available and affordable."York described her son as a really caring boy who liked go-karts and swimming."I can't ever see him again now," York told WISH-TV. "I just feel like everything was not done right. I feel like there's so many people that failed him."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
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| View 2021 Genesis GV70 Spy Photos Posted: 15 Oct 2019 09:28 AM PDT |
| Nigeria town celebrates claim as 'twins capital' of world Posted: 15 Oct 2019 08:00 PM PDT  To celebrate its self-proclaimed title the town hosts an annual festival, now in its second year, that draws hundreds of sets of twins from around the country. Donning different traditional clothes and costumes, the twins -- male and female, old, young and even newborns -- sang and danced at the latest edition this weekend to the appreciation of an admiring audience.
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| Meet USS Barb: The Navy's Special World War II Submarine That Terrified Japan Posted: 15 Oct 2019 03:00 PM PDT  It sank the most Japanese vessels by tonnage.
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| Boston pension votes to fire money manager Fisher, withdrawals surge toward $1 billion Posted: 16 Oct 2019 12:48 PM PDT  The City of Boston's retirement board on Wednesday voted unanimously to end its relationship with money manager Kenneth Fisher, whose firm has lost almost $1 billion in assets after allegations he made disparaging remarks about women last week. "Boston will not invest in companies led by people who treat women like commodities.
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| Hong Kong Protesters Rage Against Corporate China's Growing Control Posted: 15 Oct 2019 03:57 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- The black-clad protesters pushing back against China's influence in Hong Kong aren't just focusing on Carrie Lam and the police. They're also targeting mainland-based brands such as Bank of China Ltd., China Mobile Ltd. and Huawei Technologies Co. with fire bombs, metal bars and spray paint.A walk down the primary route used by Hong Kong's anti-government marchers shows how big a chunk of the city China owns. Mainland-affiliated supermarkets, drugstores, hotels, Pacific Coffee stores and McDonald's outlets -- both franchises are operated by state-owned firms -- pepper the vicinity of skyscraper-lined Hennessy Road, the downtown artery connecting the Causeway Bay shopping district with government headquarters in Admiralty. Some of the businesses also occupy property owned by Chinese developers.These perceived outposts of President Xi Jinping's government expanded their operations after the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997, adding heft to Beijing's political goal of integrating the semi-autonomous territory with the motherland. Their deepening presence stokes fears among protesters that Hong Kong soon will become just another Chinese city, deprived of the autonomy former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping guaranteed until 2047."Mainland Chinese companies are forming a group of entities which can be both economically and politically influential," said Heidi Wang-Kaeding, who's done research on mainland investment in Hong Kong and now teaches international relations at Keele University in Staffordshire, England. "That's why this is shaking the local interest very much."Hong Kong police said Monday a radio-controlled improvised explosive device was detonated near a police car on Sunday evening, the first time the use of such a device has been reported during months of unrest.The use of explosives marks a significant escalation in pro-democracy protests that started out peacefully in June, with hundreds of thousands of residents marching in the streets in opposition to a bill that would have allowed extraditions to mainland China.In recent weeks, protesters have set fires near police stations, hurled makeshift petrol bombs at riot police, and bashed in glass kiosks at train stations and storefronts tied to mainland Chinese businesses.As Chinese Communist Party leaders focus on solidifying control over the rebellious city, companies taking direction from the state likely will play an even bigger role in Hong Kong's $363 billion economy. The city is sinking into a recession amid the riots, and Lam, the chief executive, may propose remedies during her annual policy address on Wednesday.In the past decade, the total amount of loans given by the Hong Kong-based unit of state-owned Bank of China in the special administrative region has more than doubled to $175 billion, and so have deposits to $257 billion.China Mobile, the world's largest wireless carrier by subscribers, is among the four operators in the city, having cemented its position since buying a local provider more than a decade ago to gain entry into the market.Mainland-based developers such as Poly Property Group Co. and China Overseas Land and Investment Ltd. successfully bid for 11% of the land for sale last year in the world's most-expensive real estate market, compared with about 5% in 2013. They bought almost 60% of residential land sold by the local government in the first six months of this year.In one high-profile deal, state-owned Poly Property and China Resources Land Ltd. successfully bid HK$12.9 billion ($1.6 billion) in June for a 9,500-square-meter parcel at Kai Tak, the former airport in the Kowloon district.Beijing-based Citic Ltd., a state-owned conglomerate, is part of a consortium that runs McDonald's outlets in the city, and unit Dah Chong Hong Holdings operates car dealerships and Food Mart stores.With forays into retail, telecommunications and property development, mainland-based companies are also altering the city's traditional business landscape. Homegrown tycoons such as Li Ka-shing and Lee Shau Kee, who built their empires by forging close ties with authorities in Beijing, may see that influence erode. Li, for instance, saw the writing on the wall some time ago and has been steadily reducing exposure to his home base.Over time, the economic balance of power will tilt more in favor of state enterprises and away from the local billionaires, said Michael Tien, a pro-Beijing member of Hong Kong's legislature and a deputy to China's National People's Congress."It will be very difficult for Hong Kong Chinese companies to fight mainland Chinese companies," he said. "They are capital-rich and powerful."But it isn't just state-owned companies that are building a bigger presence in Hong Kong. In 2015, billionaire Jack Ma's e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. agreed to buy the South China Morning Post newspaper and related assets for HK$2.06 billion. Prominent Chinese smart-phone makers such as Huawei, Lenovo, Xiaomi and electronics retailer Suning have retail stores in the city.Mainland-based companies with consumer-facing businesses have been particular targets in the latest phase of the four-month-long protests, which were sparked by opposition to a proposed law allowing extraditions to China.Bank of China branches and ATMs have been firebombed and vandalized, including this past weekend and on the Oct. 1 anniversary of Communist Party rule in the mainland. Huawei and Lenovo stores also were ransacked during the weekend at a mall in suburban Sha Tin.At least two China Mobile stores were attacked Oct. 1 and 2, and a Xiaomi outlet had anti-China graffiti spray-painted on its walls. The local unit of China Construction Bank, which has more than 50 locations, suspended service at two branches because of protest-related damage, including smashed glass doors.At least one local-run business has lost its immunity. Maxim's Caterers Ltd., which operates bakeries and some Starbucks outlets, is seeing stores vandalized after the founder's daughter called the protests "riots" and supported the Hong Kong government in comments at the U.N. Human Rights Council last month.Maxim's tried to distance itself from the comments and a spokeswoman said the group has never taken any political stance. Representatives for China Resources, Citic, the local units of Bank of China and China Construction Bank didn't respond to requests seeking comments, while a spokesperson for China Mobile said the carrier is focusing on resuming services at the damaged stores."Anything with a star on it is vulnerable," Gavin Greenwood, an analyst with A2 Global Risk, a Hong Kong-based political-risk consultancy, said of mainland-affiliated businesses. He was referring to the Chinese flag."They are extremely soft targets."(Updates with report on radio-controlled explosive from fifth paragraph.)\--With assistance from Chloe Whiteaker, Demetrios Pogkas and Alfred Liu.To contact the reporters on this story: Bruce Einhorn in Hong Kong at beinhorn1@bloomberg.net;Shirley Zhao in Hong Kong at xzhao306@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Emma O'Brien at eobrien6@bloomberg.net, Sam Nagarajan, Michael TigheFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| State Department official testifies White House wanted Rick Perry, 'amigos,' to run Ukraine policy Posted: 15 Oct 2019 10:16 PM PDT ![State Department official testifies White House wanted Rick Perry, 'amigos,' to run Ukraine policy]( "State Department official testifies White House wanted Rick Perry, 'amigos,' to run Ukraine policy") A senior State Department official told House impeachment investigators on Tuesday that in May, he was directed during a meeting organized by acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney to "lay low" when it came to Ukraine policy, as it was now being handled by Energy Secretary Rick Perry, U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, and U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine Kurt Volker, Rep. Gerald Connolly (D-Va.) told reporters.The official, George Kent, is the deputy assistant secretary responsible for Ukraine. Connolly said Kent testified that he was ordered to focus on the other countries in his portfolio because Perry, Sondland, and Volker -- who called themselves the "three amigos" -- were taking over for career diplomats on Ukraine. Kent said the meeting was held on May 23, just a few days after Marie Yovanovitch was removed from her position as ambassador to Ukraine and two months before President Trump's phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in which Trump asked him to launch an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son.Last week, Yovanovitch testified before lawmakers that Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, was behind the campaign to get her recalled. Documents the State Department inspector general sent to Congress earlier this month show that Kent first said in March that he believed Yovanovitch was the subject of a "classic disinformation campaign," The Washington Post reports, and he wanted his superiors to stand up for her.
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| The Latest: Authorities seek cause for California fuel fire Posted: 16 Oct 2019 07:51 AM PDT  Officials are trying to determine if a 4.5 magnitude earthquake triggered an explosion at a fuel storage facility in the San Francisco Bay Area that started a fire and trapped thousands in their homes for hours because of potentially unhealthy air. The earthquake struck about 15 miles (24 kilometers) southeast from the NuStar Energy fuel storage facility in the Bay Area community of Crockett 15 hours before the fire started Tuesday. Randy Sawyer, Contra Costa County's chief environmental health and hazardous materials officer, tells KQED News that quake caused malfunctions at two nearby oil refineries operated by Shell and Marathon oil.
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| Kim Jong Un rides white horse on sacred mountain, sparking policy rumors Posted: 16 Oct 2019 03:29 AM PDT  Aides to Kim Jong Un are convinced the North Korean leader is planning "a great operation," state media said on Wednesday in a report that included lavish descriptions and images of the leader riding a white horse up North Korea's most sacred mountain.
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| Sleep Soundly Outdoors by Saving on Klymit Sleeping Pads Posted: 15 Oct 2019 11:26 AM PDT |
| Mexico court lets president's pet airport go ahead Posted: 16 Oct 2019 02:01 PM PDT  A Mexican court decided Wednesday to allow construction to go ahead on a new airport pushed by the president, who is locked in a row with the business community over the project. The ruling is a victory for leftist President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who campaigned against his predecessor's "corruption-plagued" plan for a new $13-billion airport for Mexico City, and wants to replace it with a rival project. Instead of building the sleek new airport -- which would have replaced the badly overstretched existing one -- Lopez Obrador wants to keep the current airport and supplement it with another one at the site of what is currently the Santa Lucia military airbase, at a cost of $4 billion.
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| Iran's So-Called New Fighter Jet Is Most Likely a Scam (Sort Of) Posted: 15 Oct 2019 09:00 PM PDT  Or just another F-5 ripoff?
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| UPDATE 3-Russia says 'unacceptable' Turkish incursion into Syria must be temporary Posted: 15 Oct 2019 04:53 AM PDT ![UPDATE 3-Russia says 'unacceptable' Turkish incursion into Syria must be temporary]( "UPDATE 3-Russia says 'unacceptable' Turkish incursion into Syria must be temporary") ABU DHABI/MOSCOW, Oct 15 (Reuters) - Russia called Turkey's military incursion into northeast Syria "unacceptable" and said on Tuesday the operation had to be limited in time and scale, a rare broadside that suggests Moscow's patience with Ankara is wearing thin. In Russia's strongest criticism since Turkey launched its military operation last week, President Vladimir Putin's envoy for Syria indicated Moscow wanted Ankara to wrap up its offensive soon.
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| A 75-year-old cruise ship passenger jumped overboard a Carnival-owned ship between Portugal and Spain (CCL) Posted: 15 Oct 2019 11:14 AM PDT  A Costa Cruises representative said the woman "voluntarily" jumped from the balcony in her cabin on the Costa Pacifica ship.
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| Tulsi Gabbard Calls Syria ‘Regime Change War,’ Mayor Pete Buttigieg Says She’s ‘Dead Wrong’ Posted: 15 Oct 2019 06:55 PM PDT  Shannon Stapleton/ReutersIn a tense exchange, the two military veterans in the Democratic primary sparred over President Trump's decision to pull back U.S. troops in Syria. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI), who has long opposed any U.S. efforts to undermine Bashar al-Assad's brutal regime, sparred with Mayor Pete Buttigieg over how the U.S. should extract itself from the long-running conflict."Donald Trump has the blood of the Kurds on his hand, but so do many of the politicians in our country from both parties who have supported this ongoing regime change war in Syria that started in 2011, along with many in the mainstream media, who have been championing and cheerleading this regime change war," she said. Last week, Trump announced that 50 U.S. troops stationed on Syria's northern border with Turkey would be pulled deeper south into the country. After the announcement, Turkey immediately invaded, slaughtering Kurdish fighters and civilians, and horrifying the international community. The Kurds fought ISIS alongside U.S. troops, and Trump's decision to withdraw U.S. protection for them was widely viewed as a betrayal that seriously harms America's international credibility. "We need to get out, but we need to do this through a negotiated solution," Gabbard said. Buttigieg lit into Gabbard."Respectfully, Congresswoman, I think that is dead wrong," he said. "The slaughter going on in Syria is not a consequence of American presence, it is a consequence of a withdrawal and a betrayal by this president of American allies and American values. Look, I didn't think we should have gone to Iraq in the first place. I think we need to get out of Afghanistan, but it's also the case that a small number of specialized, special operations forces and intelligence capabilities were the only thing that stood between that part of Syria and what we're seeing now, which is the beginning of a genocide and the resurgence of ISIS." Gabbard pressed him on his answer, asking if he would keep the U.S. in Syria indefinitely. "You can put an end to endless war without embracing Donald Trump's policy, as you're doing," he retorted."What is an endless war if it's not a regime change war?" she replied. "What we were doing in Syria was keeping our word," he replied. The skirmish encapsulated the tension within the Democratic Party on foreign policy. But neither is wooing voters in an outsize way: Buttigieg polls at just over 5 percent of the Democratic primary vote in the RealClearPolitics polling average, while Gabbard is just under 1 percent. 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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| Mormon church opposes Utah LGBTQ 'conversion therapy' ban Posted: 16 Oct 2019 02:32 PM PDT  A proposed ban on so-called conversion therapy in Utah is in danger of being derailed after the influential Church of Jesus of Christ of Latter-day Saints came out Tuesday night in opposition, just months after it said it wouldn't stand in the way of a similar measure under consideration. State regulators crafted the rule at the request of Republican Gov. Gary Herbert, a member of the church, who in June asked for a set of rules after a similar bill died in the Legislature despite the church not taking a position. The church's statement strikes a blow to the hopes of LGBTQ advocates hoping Utah could join 18 states that have enacted laws banning or restricting the practice opposed by the American Psychological Association.
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| Ancient Cambodian city found using aerial mapping Posted: 16 Oct 2019 08:55 AM PDT  An ancient settlement, known has the 'lost city' of Cambodia, has been rediscovered by scientists using aerial mapping after remaining hidden in dense jungle for centuries. Mahendraparvata, believed to have been the first capital of the Khmer Empire, a powerful Southeast Asian state that existed during the Angkor period from the 9th to 15th centuries, had long-eluded archeologists, who knew of its existence but were unable to map it out because of the difficult terrain. Studies of the city were further hampered by landmines leftover from the Khmer Rouge, who used the location in the Phnom Kulen highlands as a last stronghold when their regime came to an end in 1979 in the Cambodian-Vietnamese War. In a new paper, published this month in the academic journal, Antiquity, an international team has revealed what they say is a definitive reconstruction of the form of the early Angkor-period capital, with the help of airborne laser scanning, a technique known as Lidar. "Despite its importance as the location of one of the Angkor period's earliest capitals, the mountainous region of Phnom Kulen has, to date, received strikingly little attention," point out the report's authors, led by Jean-Baptiste Chevance from the Archaeology and Development Foundation in the UK. Predating the more famous Angkor Wat by 350 years, the roads, temples and carvings of Mahendraparvata are still being unearthed Credit: NYTNS / Redux / eyevine Their recent efforts began in 2012 when Damian Evans of the French Institute of Asian Studies in Paris and his colleagues scanned the region with lasers from planes. It gave them an incomplete snapshot of the ruins and so they returned in 2015 to scan a larger area alongside a ground-based survey. The result was "a very full and detailed interpretation of that city," Mr Evans told the New Scientist. The city was built on a plateau, covering some 40 to 50 square kilometres, and the team found that it was laid out in a grid structure, with each square in the grid revealing traces of buildings, including temples and grand palaces. "It shows a degree of centralised control and planning," he said. "What you're seeing at Mahendraparvata.. speaks of a grand vision and a fairly elaborate plan." Experts now aim to date the structures. Mahendraparvata, does not seem to have been used as the capital for long because its mountainous location was unsustainable for inhabitants. The heart of the Khmer Empire shifted to the city of Angkor, which lay to the south on a floodplain, and became the site of the now world-famous 12th century Angkor Wat temples. It has remained a source of fascination to historians, however. "The city may not have lasted for centuries, or perhaps even decades, but the cultural and religious significance of the place has lasted right up until the present day," said Mr Evans.
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| A Florida man called the sheriff's office to report stolen marijuana. The deputy's response: 'Stop calling' Posted: 16 Oct 2019 06:49 AM PDT ![A Florida man called the sheriff's office to report stolen marijuana. The deputy's response: 'Stop calling']( "A Florida man called the sheriff's office to report stolen marijuana. The deputy's response: 'Stop calling'") The Pasco County Sheriff's Office in Florida told a man to stop calling 911 to report $20 worth of stolen weed.
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