| Freshman Congresswoman Resigns amid Allegations of Affair with Staffer Posted: 28 Oct 2019 05:00 AM PDT  Freshman Representative Katie Hill (D., Calif.) resigned on Sunday after allegations she engaged in inappropriate sexual relationships with a male congressional staffer and a female campaign staffer.The House Ethics Committee opened an investigation into Hill last week after the conservative blog Redstate reported that she has carried on romantic relationships with both a female and a male subordinate. Hill has admitted to carrying on a consensual relationship with her female staffer but denies any romantic involvement with the male staffer."I know that even a consensual relationship with a subordinate is inappropriate, but I still allowed it to happen despite my better judgment," Hill wrote in a letter of resignation she posted on her Twitter account.The move came ten days after Redstate published explicit photos of Hill with the female campaign staffer. Additional explicit photos were posted by the British tabloid The Daily Mail.Hill and her husband Kenny Heslep are currently going through an acrimonious divorce and Hill has maintained that he provided the nude photos to Redstate in order to harm her career."I am saddened that the deeply personal matter of my divorce has been brought into public view," Hill wrote in her letter, "even the false allegations of a relationship with my congressional staffer, which I have publicly denied, and I am fully and proactively cooperating with the Ethics Committee."Representative Matt Gaetz (R., Fla.), a colleague of Hill's on the House Armed Service Committee, had previously defended the congresswoman."The only person who seems to have a gripe is @RepKatieHill's soon-to-be ex," Gaetz wrote on Twitter on October 24. "Who among us would look perfect if every ex leaked every photo/text?""I serve on Armed Services with Katie and while we frequently disagree on substance, she is always well-prepared, focused and thoughtful," Gaetz continued.
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| Manhunt launched for teenager in ‘extreme danger’ abducted from bedroom Posted: 28 Oct 2019 02:52 AM PDT  A manhunt has been launched to find a 14-year-old girl in "extreme danger" who is believed to have been abducted from her bedroom by a 33-year-old man, US authorities said.An amber alert has been issued to find Isabel Shae Hicks and her suspected abductor Bruce William Lynch Jr.
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| Judge to allow portion of Nick Sandmann lawsuit against Washington Post to continue Posted: 28 Oct 2019 01:42 PM PDT ![Judge to allow portion of Nick Sandmann lawsuit against Washington Post to continue]( "Judge to allow portion of Nick Sandmann lawsuit against Washington Post to continue") A federal judge is allowing a portion of Covington Catholic student Nathan Sandmann's lawsuit against the Washington Post to continue.
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| Feds: Brothers with alleged Hezbollah ties are 'dangerous' Posted: 28 Oct 2019 03:41 PM PDT ![Feds: Brothers with alleged Hezbollah ties are 'dangerous']( "Feds: Brothers with alleged Hezbollah ties are 'dangerous'") Federal prosecutors say two brothers charged with conspiring to export drone parts and technology from the U.S. to Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia in Lebanon are "dangerous" and should remain in custody while they await trial, according to a court document filed Monday. Usama and Issam Hamade are charged with conspiracy to violate U.S. export laws. Usama Hamade is also charged with smuggling.
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| NRA leadership thought its own TV channel was airing 'distasteful and racist' content Posted: 28 Oct 2019 11:22 AM PDT  "One particularly damaging segment featured children's cartoon characters adorned in Ku Klux Klan hoods," the court filing stated.
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| Over 40 skulls found in den of Mexico cartel suspects Posted: 28 Oct 2019 12:04 PM PDT  Police found more than 40 skulls, dozens of bones and a fetus in a glass jar next to an altar in the den of suspected drug traffickers in Mexico City during a raid this week, authorities said on Sunday.
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| Nearly 200,000 people have fled their homes in California's Sonoma County as the Kincade Fire continues to grow Posted: 28 Oct 2019 09:37 AM PDT  The Kincade Fire in California's Sonoma County has burned 66,200 acres. PG&E; told regulators that a broken jumper cable may have started the blaze.
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| ‘Very frightened puppies’: Trump unveils a historic terrorist raid the Trump way Posted: 27 Oct 2019 03:42 PM PDT  President Donald Trump's announcement on Sunday that the Islamic State mastermind Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi "died like a dog" in an overnight U.S. military operation proved that even the most consequential moments of his presidency can be swept up in his unpolished governing style. From the moment Trump lit up his Twitter feed Saturday night to warn that "Something very big has just happened!," the unveiling of Baghdadi's death bore the hallmarks of his presidency. The suspenseful tweet ensured that all eyes were on Trump when he outlined the major national security accomplishment in grisly detail — repeatedly invoking the same phrases he's used to humiliate political opponents at campaign rallies to recount the final moments of the world's most notorious terrorist.
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| Angry at criticism, Philippines' Duterte dares vice president to take over law enforcement Posted: 28 Oct 2019 04:08 AM PDT ![Angry at criticism, Philippines' Duterte dares vice president to take over law enforcement]( "Angry at criticism, Philippines' Duterte dares vice president to take over law enforcement") Philippine leader Rodrigo Duterte on Monday lashed out at Vice President Leni Robredo for criticising his war on drugs, and offered to put her in charge of law enforcement. The president has a frosty relationship with opposition leader Robredo, who was elected separately from Duterte, whose drugs crackdown has killed thousands, stirring global alarm, although polls show strong domestic support for the campaign. It was not immediately clear if Duterte's offer was meant sarcastically, although he said he would send a letter to Robredo, a former human rights lawyer.
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| View Photos of FCA's New Vehicle Simulator Posted: 28 Oct 2019 02:52 PM PDT |
| Impeachment: DOJ appeals order to release secret evidence gathered by Robert Mueller in Russia investigation Posted: 28 Oct 2019 01:08 PM PDT  The Department of Justice says it shouldn't turn evidence over to a House committee contemplating Trump's impeachment because it wouldn't be kept confidential.
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| Ivan Milat, who killed backpackers, dies in Australia prison Posted: 27 Oct 2019 07:33 PM PDT  Ivan Milat, whose grisly serial killings of seven European and Australian backpackers horrified Australia in the early '90s, died in a Sydney prison on Sunday, ending hopes of a deathbed confession to more unsolved slayings. Milat died in Long Bay Prison where authorities sent him from a hospital last week to ensure he ended his days behind bars, officials said. Milat was convicted of murder in the deaths of three German, two British, and two Australian backpackers after giving them rides while they were hitchhiking.
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| Argentina’s President-Elect Picks Mexico For First Trip Abroad Posted: 28 Oct 2019 08:03 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Argentina's president-elect Alberto Fernandez will go to Mexico in his first trip abroad, signaling an interest in aligning himself with like-minded leftist leaders in Latin America such as Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.Fernandez is set to travel to meet the Mexican president next week, according to a person with knowledge of the decision. The exact dates of the trip have yet to be confirmed, the person said, declining to be named because he is not authorized to speak publicly.AMLO, as the Mexican president is known, said during his daily press conference that he will speak to Fernandez on the phone Monday but stopped short of confirming the encounter, just saying the meeting "is very likely."After winning Argentina's presidential election on Sunday, Fernandez wasted no time in touting the old guard of Latin America's leftist leaders. He congratulated Evo Morales for winning a contested fourth term in Bolivia and called for the liberation of Brazil's former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a hero for the Latin American left, from prison, drawing the disapproval of current leader Jair Bolsonaro.The trip to Mexico to meet AMLO is another step suggesting Fernandez will change Argentina's foreign policy after four years of the pro-business administration of Mauricio Macri.Fernandez didn't mention Venezuela in his speech which has been a major regional issue due to the huge flow of migrants leaving the country due to the severe economic crisis. Macri was a strong critic of President Nicolas Maduro.Fernandez takes office on Dec. 10.(Update with AMLO comment in 3rd paragraph.)\--With assistance from Lorena Rios.To contact the reporter on this story: Jorgelina do Rosario in Buenos Aires at jdorosario@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Juan Pablo Spinetto at jspinetto@bloomberg.net, Daniel CancelFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| US police sergeant told to 'tone down the gayness' wins $20m in damages Posted: 28 Oct 2019 09:20 AM PDT  Keith Wildhaber, who was allegedly passed over for promotion 23 times, wins discrimination lawsuit against St Louis county policeSergeant Keith Wildhaber. Jurors in St Louis county court also heard that a police captain had called Wildhaber 'fruity'. Photograph: Cristina M Fletes/APA gay Missouri police sergeant has been awarded nearly $20m in damages after he was told if he wanted to be promoted he should "tone down the gayness".Keith Wildhaber, a sergeant with St Louis county police, filed a lawsuit against the department in 2017, after allegedly being passed over for promotion 23 times. Jurors in St Louis county court also heard that a police captain had called Wildhaber "fruity"."I was sickened by it," Wildhaber told the court last week, according to the St Louis Post-Dispatch."I think I said: 'I can't believe we are having this conversation in 2014.' It was devastating to hear."Wildhaber said he was told to "tone down the gayness" by John Saracino, a former St Louis county police board of commissioners member. Saracino has denied it.Donna Woodland, a witness in the trial, supported Wildhaber's complaint, the Post-Dispatch reported. Woodland testified that she had heard the St Louis county police captain Guy Means say Wildhaber was "way too out there with his gayness and he needed to tone it down if he wanted a white shirt [be promoted]".She also recalled Means saying: "You know about him, right? He's fruity."The jury awarded Wildhaber $1.9m in actual damages and $10m in punitive damages on the discrimination allegation, according to the Post-Dispatch. It also found Wildhaber had been the victim of retaliation after filing his lawsuit, adding $999,000 in actual damages and $7m in punitive damages for that charge."We wanted to send a message," the jury foreman, who was not named, told reporters. "If you discriminate you are going to pay a big price … You can't defend the indefensible."The St Louis county executive, Sam Page, said in a statement he would appoint new members to the police board."Our police department must be a place where every community member and every officer is respected and treated with dignity. Employment decisions in the department must be made on merit and who is best for the job," Page said."The time for leadership changes has come and change must start at the top."
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| Kamala Harris Argues Racism, Sexism Jeopardize Her Electability Posted: 28 Oct 2019 09:47 AM PDT  Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris described electability as the "elephant in the room" of her campaign and pondered whether America is ready for a woman of color to be commander in chief."Essentially, is America ready for a woman and a woman of color to be president of the United States?" Harris said in an interview with Axios on HBO. "There is a lack of ability or a difficulty in imagining that someone whom we have never seen can do a job that has been done 45 times by someone who is not that person."The same conversation happened when Barack Obama ran for president, the California senator added.Harris has been especially vocal about both racial justice and women's rights during her 2020 campaign. During this month's debate, she accused the debate moderators and fellow contenders for the Democratic nomination of failing to adequately prioritize the discussion of abortion rights. The former California attorney general also made headlines during the first Democratic debate in June when she called out former vice president Joe Biden for remarks he made praising two segregationist senators."It was hurtful to hear you talk about the reputations of two United States senators who built their reputations and careers on the segregation of race in this country," Harris said from the debate stage."It was not only that, but you also worked with them to oppose busing," she continued. "There was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools and she was bused to school every day. That little girl was me."Biden made the offending remarks several weeks earlier when he reminisced about bygone days when politics was characterized by a higher level of civility, citing his ability to get along with two segregationist senators despite their differences as an example."At least there was some civility. We got things done. We didn't agree on much of anything," Biden said. "But today you look at the other side and you're the enemy."Harris is currently polling in fifth place behind former vice president Joe Biden, Senator Elizabeth Warren, Senator Bernie Sanders, and South Bend, Indiana mayor Pete Buttigieg.
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| Anomalies in Trump situation room photo spark online conspiracy theories it was staged Posted: 28 Oct 2019 06:26 AM PDT  In 2011, 10 years after the terrorist attacks in New York which destroyed the twin towers of the World Trade Centre, the architect of the hijackings, Osama bin Laden, was killed by US special forces in a raid in Pakistan.The US Navy Seals carrying out the raid relayed live footage to the White House, and a photograph of president Barack Obama alongside his national security team witnessing the operation was used on the front pages of newspapers around the world.
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| Chicago teachers strike continues after talks fail to break impasse Posted: 28 Oct 2019 12:15 AM PDT  Classes were canceled for about 300,000 students in Chicago for an eighth day on Monday as the teachers' union and public school district failed over the weekend to resolve a deadlock in contract talks over class sizes, support staff levels and pay. Each side blamed the other for the impasse in the third-largest U.S. school district, where the strike began on Oct. 17, and the union, which represents the city's 25,000 teachers, has been without a contract since July 1. The strike is the latest in a wave of work stoppages in U.S. school districts in which demands for school resources have superseded calls for higher salaries and benefits.
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| Romania, Hungary recruit in Asia to fill labour shortage Posted: 27 Oct 2019 08:11 PM PDT  Sporting yellow safety helmets, about 30 men are busy at work on a construction site south of Bucharest, exchanging a few words in Vietnamese. Faced with a growing labour shortage which threatens their economies, Romania and Hungary are courting Asian workers, going against Hungarian nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban's anti-immigration rhetoric. "My friend, my friend," a Romanian worker says to his Vietnamese colleague in English at the Bucharest construction site, trying to break the language barrier.
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| Northern California double-whammy: Amid blackouts, massive fire forces nearly 200,000 to flee homes Posted: 27 Oct 2019 07:42 PM PDT  Nearly 200,000 people in Northern California are under mandatory evacuation orders as the wind whips up, making the Kincade Fire even more dangerous.
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| More severely obese kids should get surgery, MD group says Posted: 28 Oct 2019 06:11 AM PDT  The guidance issued Sunday by the American Academy of Pediatrics is based on a review of medical evidence, including several studies showing that surgery in teens can result in marked weight loss lasting at least several years, with few complications. In many cases, related health problems including diabetes and high blood pressure vanished after surgery. While most of those studies involved teens, one included children younger than 12 and found no ill effects on growth, the policy says.
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| New York Doesn’t Need a Smoking Gun to Win the Exxon Climate Trial Posted: 28 Oct 2019 01:00 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- The trial of New York's $1.6 billion securities-fraud lawsuit against Exxon Mobil begins its second week Monday, after a series of witnesses failed to provide any concrete evidence that the oil giant knowingly misled shareholders about its climate change accounting.Testimony by investors and employees did show a potential lack of clarity as to the difference between two measures of climate costs used by the energy giant. One is a public "proxy cost" for the impact of climate-change regulations on future energy demand, and the other a greenhouse gas (GHG) cost used internally to decide how to spend on new projects like drilling and oil sands.The "proxy cost," New York claims, made it look to investors like Exxon had a more sober view of sinking demand and tougher regulations than was actually applied internally.And under New York law, how things look to shareholders—rather than what Exxon intended—may be what decides the case.Last week, witnesses were confronted with dozens of internal emails and reports about the two accounting gauges, as well as the company's communications with shareholders. Those shareholders had demanded as far back as 2013 to know how Exxon was calculating the cost of climate change. New York has argued that Exxon intentionally misled investors by publicizing a "sham" proxy cost, tricking the market and thus inflating the company's stock price. Exxon contends that the two costs are used for different purposes, and that New York is conflating them to show a discrepancy where there is none."We're not trying to trick ourselves with our own internal documents," Robert Bailes, Exxon's former greenhouse gas manager, testified on Friday. Indeed, none of the documents discussed at trial so far appeared to show an intentional scheme like the one New York Attorney General Letitia James alleges. Read More: How Exxon's Climate Change Trial Became a Battle Over NumbersTo be sure, the state is far from resting its case and the court has yet to hear from several witnesses, including former Exxon Chief Executive Officer Rex Tillerson. It's also possible that New York could unveil some heretofore unseen email or document that provides evidence of a smoking gun. The attorney general, however, doesn't need one.James sued under New York's Martin Act, which empowers officials to target a wide range of corporate behavior that may negatively impact shareholders. While New York claims Exxon intentionally misled shareholders, under this securities law it doesn't have to prove intent to win."This is precisely why New York is pursuing Exxon under the Martin Act," said James Fanto, a professor at Brooklyn Law School. "New York could prevail if it showed that Exxon's disclosure had a kind of fraudulent effect in misleading shareholders.""The dispute is in how that was portrayed to the investors."New York Supreme Court Justice Barry Ostrager, who is presiding over the nonjury trial in lower Manhattan, alluded to this Wednesday when he asked the lawyers if confusion among Exxon's shareholders was enough to trigger a Martin Act violation."Would you agree that if the disclosures that Exxon made confused investors with respect to the utilization of these two different costs, then there would be a Martin Act violation?" the judge asked Exxon's lawyer Theodore Wells."No, your Honor," Wells responded. "I would state that under the law that there's a difference between somebody being confused and a statement being misleading. I think you have to look at it in context. I think the concepts are different."Kevin Wallace, a lawyer for the attorney general, rejected Wells' premise, arguing that the case turns on what Exxon disclosed to the public "and what the investors understood.""There's no dispute on the grounds about the existence of the two systems," Wallace said. "The dispute is in how that was portrayed to the investors."The state's first witness, activist investor Natasha Lamb, testified that she wrote to Exxon in 2013 on behalf of clients who were concerned that climate change posed a financial risk to the company.She sought a shareholder resolution demanding the company disclose how it was managing those risks, according to a copy of the letter, displayed on large screens in the courtroom.Exxon ultimately agreed to issue a report on the matter in 2014, which Lamb, a managing partner at Arjuna Capital LLC, testified wasn't an accurate representation of the financial threats facing the fossil fuel company. Lamb, who helped make Exxon's proxy cost public, said she didn't know at the time that Exxon used a different measure, the GHG cost, internally."My understanding is they were being used interchangeably," Lamb testified of the two accounting measures.But under cross-examination by Exxon attorney Justin Anderson, she was asked whether anyone at the company had told her that the public and internal numbers were interchangeable. "No one said that sentence, no," Lamb responded, adding "I don't know how I would understand it in any other way.""The dispute is in how that was portrayed to the investors."Ostrager expressed some skepticism about New York's use of Lamb, a frequent Exxon critic, to begin its case on behalf of shareholders, briefly interrupting her testimony to ask her, "why didn't you just sell your Exxon shares and buy Apple stock?"But the judge's displeasure was not necessarily to Exxon's advantage. Much of the testimony—both Lamb's and that of earlier witnesses—wasn't required for New York to prove Exxon violated state law, Ostrager said. At one point, Ostrager appeared to lose his patience with another lawyer for the state, Jonathan Zweig, as he questioned Exxon executive Guy Powell, a greenhouse gas manager, about alleged discrepancies in the company's proxy costs."Mr. Zweig, before we go through anymore of this agonizing, repetitious questioning about the documents that are not being disputed; the chronology of which are not in dispute: What is it exactly that you are trying to elicit from this witness?" the judge asked. "This is a Martin Act case. Intent is not an element of the Martin Act case."To contact the author of this story: Erik Larson in New York at elarson4@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: David Rovella at drovella@bloomberg.netFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Former Boston College student charged in suicide death of boyfriend, echoing Michelle Carter case Posted: 28 Oct 2019 03:08 PM PDT  A former Boston College student was charged in connection with the suicide death of her boyfriend, drawing comparisons to the Michelle Carter case.
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| Flight attendant alleges pilots watched a livestream of the plane's bathroom Posted: 27 Oct 2019 08:41 AM PDT  A flight attendant is suing Southwest Airlines after she reported a disturbing discovery she made in a plane's cockpit. A lawsuit filed by Renee Steinaker alleges that she was working on a flight between Pittsburgh and Phoenix when she entered the cockpit and noticed an iPad mounted on the plane's windshield, displaying what appeared to be live footage of the plane's bathroom.
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| The CIA got key information for the raid on al-Baghdadi's ISIS compound after a wife of the leader and a courier were arrested Posted: 27 Oct 2019 12:49 PM PDT  The agency worked with Iraqi and Kurdish intelligence officials to narrow down the leader's exact location and place local spies.
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| China's Very Own B-2 Bomber? Meet the H-20 Stealth Bomber Posted: 27 Oct 2019 01:00 AM PDT  Coming in the 2020s?
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| U.S. military envisions broad defense of Syrian oilfields Posted: 28 Oct 2019 03:46 PM PDT ![U.S. military envisions broad defense of Syrian oilfields]( "U.S. military envisions broad defense of Syrian oilfields") The United States will repel any attempt to take Syria's oil fields away from U.S.-backed Syrian militia with "overwhelming force," whether the opponent is Islamic State or even forces backed by Russia or Syria, the Pentagon said on Monday. The U.S. military announced last week it was reinforcing its position in Syria with additional assets, including mechanized forces, to prevent oilfields from being taken over by remnants of the Islamic State militant group or others. U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper offered some of his most detailed remarks to date about the mission at a news briefing on Monday.
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| Sinkhole swallows half of Pittsburgh bus during rush hour Posted: 28 Oct 2019 07:50 AM PDT  A bus has fallen into a sinkhole in downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, after ground gave way beneath the vehicle as it waited at a traffic light during rush hour.Video and pictures of the scene show the bus with its rear end in the ground where the road cracked and fell, and the front of the vehicle several feet off the ground.
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| Bankrupt Electricity Provider Says It May Have Sparked Latest Northern California Fire Posted: 28 Oct 2019 12:53 PM PDT  California electricity provider Pacific Gas & Electric Co. said on Monday that its equipment may have sparked two fires in the San Fransisco Bay area over the weekend.The fires destroyed a tennis club and forced the evacuation of Lafayette, a town about 22 miles east of San Fransisco. According to PG&E, which filed for bankruptcy in January, firefighters believe one fire started after contact between a communication line and a power line belonging to the company.A PG&E worker found a fallen telephone pole and transformer at the scene of the second fire, and the company is looking into the possibility that the transformer ignited the blaze.PG&E equipment has been blamed for five of the ten most destructive fires in California since 2015. This includes the Camp Fire of November 2018, which destroyed the town of Paradise and killed 85 people, the deadliest wildfire in California history.Meanwhile, PG&E said on Thursday that a transmission tower in Sonoma County in northern California malfunctioned minutes before a fire broke out in the area that has led to the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people.The Kincaid Fire, as it is now known, began around 9:30 p.m. six minutes after a transmission tower malfunctioned near Kincade Road and Burned Mountain Road in Sonoma County. The cause of the fire is still officially under investigation.PG&E has enacted power cuts to 965,000 homes and businesses in California, with 2.5 million people affected, in order to prevent faulty equipment from sparking fires in the state's dry and windy fall weather. However, while low-voltage power lines were shut off in Sonoma County due to high risk of fire, transmission lines with a higher voltage were left on."Those transmission lines were not deenergized because forecast weather conditions, particularly wind speeds, did not trigger the PSPS [Public Safety Power Shutoff] protocol," the utility said in a statement on Thursday.Almost 200,000 people have been evacuated from the region in the wake of the fire, which now covers roughly 80 square miles, almost twice the size of the city of San Francisco.California Governor Gavin Newsom spoke at an evacuation center in the city of Petaluma in Sonoma County on Sunday, promising to address the situation quickly."There is a plan to get out of this. This is not the new normal," Newsom said. "This is not a 10-year process to deal with this. That will not be the case… [PG&E] will be held to account to do something radically different."
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| South Dakota asks court to let execution proceed Posted: 28 Oct 2019 02:57 PM PDT  The state of South Dakota asked a judge Monday to reject an inmate's objection to the lethal drug scheduled for use in his execution. Charles Russell Rhines is scheduled to die next week for the 1992 fatal stabbing of a 22-year-old doughnut shop worker during a robbery. Rhines moved last week to block the execution by arguing that pentobarbital, commonly used to euthanize animals, doesn't act quickly enough.
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| Prosecutors want black judge who criticized incarceration rates of African Americans removed Posted: 27 Oct 2019 01:49 PM PDT  Iberia Parish judge Lori Landry has questioned the large number of black Louisianans incarcerated by the district attorney's office
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| Refugees poured into my state. Here’s how it changed me. Posted: 28 Oct 2019 04:05 AM PDT  Muslim immigrants have helped revive, and change, a former mill town. Here's a look at the deepening bonds between Lewiston's natives and newcomers.
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| U.S. Spies Say Turkish-Backed Militias Are Killing Civilians As They Clear Kurdish Areas in Syria Posted: 28 Oct 2019 02:24 PM PDT  Officials fears the groups could be using American-made weapons to conduct potential war crimes
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| Britain's World War II Experience Inspired The U.S. Military's "Mother Of All Bombs" Posted: 27 Oct 2019 11:58 PM PDT  The biggest, non-nuclear weapon in the U.S. arsenal.
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| Cambodian police search for British woman, 21, missing from beach Posted: 28 Oct 2019 12:20 AM PDT  Cambodian authorities and volunteer divers were searching on Monday for a 21-year-old British woman who has been missing for five days from its southwestern coast popular with backpackers. Amelia Bambridge was last seen on Thursday leaving a party on Koh Rong island in the province of Preah Sihanouk, said its governor Kouch Chamroeun, who led the search that included eight volunteer divers. Chamroeun said Bambridge's bag containing her belongings, including a mobile phone and a watch, was found on a rock near the water's edge.
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| John Conyers Jr., 26-Term Congressman Hit by Scandal, Dies Posted: 28 Oct 2019 10:04 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- John Conyers Jr., a Democrat who was serving his 26th term in the U.S. House when he resigned from Congress after allegations that he sexually harassed employees, has died at age 90.Conyers' death at his home in Detroit on Oct. 27 was confirmed by a family spokeswoman, the Washington Post reported. No cause of death of given.The representative from Michigan's 13th district entered the U.S. House in 1965. During his tenure, he introduced legislation on civil liberties, voting rights and violence against women while advancing the causes of black Americans by co-founding the Congressional Black Caucus in 1969.Conyers was the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee and the longest-serving member of the House when, in November 2017, several former staff members accused him of inappropriate sexual behavior. Conyers denied any wrongdoing but announced his retirement several weeks later. He acknowledged agreeing to a $27,000 settlement in 2015 with a former aide who said she was fired because she rejected his sexual advances.Complicated Legacy"My legacy can't be compromised or diminished in any way by what we are going through now," he said in an interview with a Detroit radio station. "This, too, shall pass. My legacy will continue through my children."He endorsed his son, John Conyers III, to succeed him. Rashida Tlaib ultimately won the seat, becoming one of the first Muslim-American women in Congress.Tlaib called Conyers "our congressman forever" who "never once wavered in fighting for jobs, justice and peace." House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement that the Detroit community and Congress mourn the loss of a civil-rights champion and public servant."Chairman Conyers' life was lived in service to achieving true equality in America," Pelosi said. "His leadership made a difference in the lives of countless Americans."Conyers, who handily won re-election contests over the decades, initiated the measure that created the national holiday celebrating Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday and employed civil-rights icon Rosa Parks for 23 years.For more than a decade, he pushed the U.S. National Health Care Act, which would provide taxpayer-funded treatment for all citizens free of charge. His vision for universal health care, similar to that of the U.K.'s National Health Service, went beyond President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act, which Conyers saw as a platform to build toward a full single-payer health system.'Never Wavered'The Conyers bill's supporters, such as Nobel laureate Paul Krugman, said it would save more than $200 billion a year."I've been a champion of justice for the oppressed and the disenfranchised," Conyers said in a letter to colleagues when he left office in December 2017. "I never wavered in my commitment to justice and democracy."Conyers was known to snub opponents, refusing to debate them in election campaigns, and criticized his party when he disagreed with policies it advocated.Supporting Jesse Jackson's presidential candidacy in 1984, he said the Democratic Party had "become stale and lifeless" with an "allegiance to a corporate order that owes little loyalty to national goals." He called for a protest march on the White House after Obama cut a deal with the Republicans to raise the U.S. debt ceiling in 2011.Nixon's EnemyConyers was on the "enemies list" that President Richard Nixon's administration compiled to target political opponents through tax audits and other methods in the early 1970s. The Michigan representative was later on the Judiciary Committee for the 1974 hearings on the Watergate impeachment process. Nixon resigned before he could be impeached.Among other issues that Conyers spoke out against included Lyndon Johnson's escalation of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War; the Republican push to impeach President Bill Clinton over the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal; and the Republican drive to ban abortions in the District of Columbia in 2012.John Conyers Jr. was born May 16, 1929, in Detroit. He was the oldest son of Lucille Simpson and John Conyers, who worked at the Chrysler plant.During the Korean War, he served in the National Guard and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers before attending Wayne State University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in 1957.He then became a legislative assistant to John Dingell, the Michigan representative, for two years. Conyers became a partner in the law firm Conyers, Bell & Townsend and was appointed by President John F. Kennedy to promote racial tolerance in the legal profession.Medicare LegislationAs a congressman, Conyers co-sponsored President Johnson's Medicare legislation and the 1965 Voting Rights Bill. As chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, he oversaw the Justice Department and the federal courts, and dealt with civil-rights and consumer-protection issues. He sponsored the Violence Against Women Act of 1994 and introduced the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to improve the voting system after the presidential election in 2000 needed a recount to determine a winner.Conyers also wrote a 2006 report, "The Constitution in Crisis," that outlined attempts by George W. Bush's administration to manipulate intelligence to justify the invasion of Iraq in 2003. He recommended censuring Bush.He and his wife, Monica, had two sons: John III and Carl. In 2010, Monica Conyers was sentenced to 37 months in prison for accepting bribes while she was serving on the Detroit City Council.(Updates with comments from Pelosi, Tlaib from seventh paragraph.)\--With assistance from Mark Niquette.To contact the reporter on this story: David Henry in Frankfurt at sgittelson@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Crayton Harrison at tharrison5@bloomberg.net, Jodi Schneider, Ros KrasnyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| De Blasio Ordered Top NYPD Officers to Drive Son to Yale Posted: 28 Oct 2019 08:07 AM PDT  New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio ordered members of his NYPD security detail to drive his son to Yale University and back multiple times, the New York Daily News reported Monday.Former members of the Executive Protection Unit with direct knowledge of the matter said detectives from the unit ferried de Blasio's son Dante to Yale several times during his freshman year. Dante decided in his sophomore year that he would rather ride the train to the university, and officers would pick him up upon his return to Penn Station."If you were told to bring him home from Yale, that's what we did," one former unit member said."If the commanding officer of the 75 (precinct) said, 'move my kid to college,' do you really think that wouldn't kill his career?" another former member commented. "But because it's the mayor, everyone just does it."The reports come after city officials admitted in August that Executive Protection Unit officers helped move de Blasio's daughter Chiara out of her apartment to the mayor's residence while on duty."Members of the family's detail were standing by and offered to help," the mayor's press secretary Freddi Goldstein insisted at the time. "Their involvement was strictly voluntary."The NYC Department of Investigation is probing the current incident but has so far refused to elaborate on the details."DOI is aware of the matter and declines further comment," a DOI spokesperson told the Daily News.De Blasio ended his presidential campaign earlier this year after consistently underperforming in polling. An August survey found the mayor had a lower approval rating than President Trump in deep-blue New York City.New York City's largest police union slammed de Blasio when he announced the end of his presidential bid."This campaign proved that it doesn't really matter whether Mayor Bill de Blasio is speaking to empty rooms in Iowa or spinning his wheels in a Park Slope gym. What matters to New Yorkers is that he isn't doing his job," union head Patrick J. Lynch said in a statement.
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| Zimbabwean girl, 11, says she poked crocodile's eyes to save friend's life Posted: 28 Oct 2019 09:01 AM PDT  A girl aged 11 claimed she jumped on the back of a crocodile and gouged its eyes as it was trying to eat her friend near their homes in north-western Zimbabwe . Rebecca Munkombwe, a schoolgirl in Hwange town, 200 miles northwest of Bulawyo, rushed to a stream at the sound of screams. Her friend, Latoya Muwani, nine, was struggling to stay afloat as the crocodile latched its jaws around her. Rebecca jumped on to the creature and dug her fingers deep into its eyes, she told Bulwayo's Sunday News. The crocodile loosened its grip on Latoya and slipped away under the water, allowing Rebecca to drag her friend - who only suffered minor injuries - to the bank. "We had just left the water when we heard Latoya, who was left alone swimming near the deep zone, screaming that something was biting her," Rebecca said. "I jumped on top of the crocodile and started beating it with my hands before using my fingers to poke its eyes until it released her. Once she was free, I swam with her to the bank where the other children pulled her out of the water." She feared the crocodile would return to attack as they clambered to safety, but it was not seen again. Latoya was admitted to nearby St Patrick's Hospital. Fortune Muwani, Latoya's father, described his daughter's survival as "miraculous", adding: "I was at work when I learnt that my daughter had been attacked by a crocodile while swimming. "For a moment I thought of the worst before I learnt that she had survived after being saved by Rebecca. How she managed to do that I don't know but am grateful to God. Latoya is recovering well here at St Patrick's and we expect her to be discharged soon." Steve Chisose, a local councillor, said attacks were on the rise because problems with water supplies were driving more people to use unprotected, crocodile-infested streams. "We have challenges accessing water which forces women and children to use unprotected sources such as these crocodile-infested streams. The women are usually accompanied by their children who get naughty and end up swimming," he said. He appealed to Zimbabwe's Parks and Wildlife Management Authority to remove crocodiles from local rivers. "They cause serious harm or death," he added.
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| Texas police officer shot his own son, thinking he was a home intruder, police say Posted: 28 Oct 2019 11:47 AM PDT ![Texas police officer shot his own son, thinking he was a home intruder, police say]( "Texas police officer shot his own son, thinking he was a home intruder, police say") The incident occurred Saturday evening when the off-duty Dallas police officer returned home and thought someone might be inside, DeSoto police said.
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| Poll finds over 80% in Japan back female emperor Posted: 27 Oct 2019 10:07 PM PDT  The vast majority of Japanese voters back allowing women to inherit the Chrysanthemum Throne, a new polls shows, as the royal family struggles with a dearth of male heirs. The survey, conducted in the wake of last week's enthronement proclamation ceremony for Emperor Naruhito, found 81.9 percent favour Japan having a woman take the throne, with 13.5 percent opposed. The Kyodo News agency poll, carried out over the weekend, comes as there is renewed debate about succession in the royal family, with inheritance of the throne limited by law to male members of the imperial line.
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| Trump news – live: President booed at World Series as Democrats demand to know why Congress was not briefed on al-Baghdadi raid Posted: 28 Oct 2019 01:15 AM PDT  Donald Trump was roundly booed as he attended Game 5 of baseball's World Series in DC on Sunday, with fans of the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros chanting "Lock him up!" as "Veterans for Impeachment" signs were held aloft by spectators, prompting the president to leave the stadium early.On Saturday, Mr Trump had triumphantly announced the death of Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in a US-led raid that saw him cornered in a dead-end tunnel in Syria, the president assuring the world the terrorist had died "crying and screaming".
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| Did Israeli Stealth F-35s Do the Unthinkable: Fly Over Iran? Posted: 26 Oct 2019 11:00 PM PDT  Is that really possible?
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| Iowa woman dies after gender-reveal-party explosion Posted: 27 Oct 2019 11:20 AM PDT  An Iowa woman died after an explosion at a gender reveal party created debris that hit her. The Marion County Sheriff's office says that the explosion happened at a home in central Iowa around 4 p.m. on Saturday during a party to announce the gender of a baby a couple is expecting.
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| Postcards from a poisoned coast: Vietnam's people-smuggling heartland Posted: 28 Oct 2019 09:07 AM PDT  The countryside in the Vietnamese provinces of Nghe An and Ha Tinh is dotted with billboards for labor export companies advertising jobs or study overseas. Many are feared to be Vietnamese from Nghe An and Ha Tinh, rice-growing areas in the northern-central part of the country. Poor job prospects, encouragement by authorities, smuggling gangs, environmental disaster and government pressure on Catholics are all local factors behind the wave of migrants.
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| Bernie Sanders won key endorsements from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib by defending them when few others would Posted: 28 Oct 2019 02:07 PM PDT  The key endorsements were motivated by personal loyalty and a mutually beneficial political relationship between the lawmakers.
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