| London Attack by Convicted Terrorist Disrupts U.K. Campaign Posted: 30 Nov 2019 03:17 PM PST  (Bloomberg) -- The man suspected of stabbing two people to death near London Bridge had been released early from jail after a terrorism conviction, allowing an attack in the heart of the city that is disrupting the U.K.'s general election campaign two weeks before the vote.Officers shot and killed the 28-year-old attacker, who was wearing a fake suicide vest after members of the public wrestled him to the ground on London Bridge, on the edge of the city's financial district. He was tackled by passersby moments after carrying out the attack at about 2 p.m. on Friday.Boris Johnson broke away from campaigning on Friday for the Dec. 12 election to rush back to Downing Street for a security briefing on the attack. Speaking afterward, he praised the civilians who tried to stop the suspected terrorist before police arrived, and declared that "Britain will not be cowed" by the incident.On Saturday, Johnson met with police at the site of the attack and used the opportunity to criticize the U.K.'s criminal justice system, which routinely allows for jail sentences, even for criminals committing violent crimes or acts of terrorism, to be reduced."The practice of automatic early release, when you cut a sentence in half and let serious and violent offenders out, is not working," he told the BBC after his meeting with police.Click Here for the Day's Events as They HappenedThe suspect, identified by police as Usman Khan, was released from prison on parole in December 2018, the police said in a statement. Khan was one of nine people convicted in 2012 for offenses ranging from a plot to bomb the London Stock Exchange to planning a terrorist training camp. Khan originally received an indeterminate sentence, which was changed on appeal in 2013 to 16 years, the BBC reported.Johnson also praised the men who fought the attacker and pinned him to the ground on London Bridge until the police arrived. Khan began the attack while attending a conference on prisoner rehabilitation at a building called Fishmongers' Hall next to the bridge.A Polish chef grabbed an ornamental narwhal tusk off a wall and used it to confront the attacker, while another chased Khan with a fire extinguisher, Sky News reported. A third man who aided the victims and tried to fend Khan off was a convicted murderer who was close to completing his sentence, the Telegraph reported, while another man stopped his car and helped the others force Khan to release the two knives he was carrying."I want to pay tribute to the sheer bravery of the members of the public who went to deal with and put their own lives at risk," Johnson said.The first victim of the attack was identified as Jack Merritt, 25, a University of Cambridge graduate who was a coordinator of the conference that Khan attended, the BBC reported.With voters set to go to the polls on Dec. 12, the impact of such a potentially disruptive event is unclear. But the revelation that the attacker was a former convicted terrorist is likely to put pressure on the ruling Conservatives -- who traditionally view crime prevention as one of their stronger cards -- to explain why the person was allowed out of jail.Johnson also told the BBC that his government would review sentencing policies in the wake of the attack.Campaigning in the U.K.'s last election in 2017 was thrown off course by two terrorist attacks, including one in the same area of London just five days before the vote. In that incident, eight people were killed and 48 injured.In the aftermath of the 2017 attack, U.S. President Donald Trump triggered a diplomatic row when he criticized London Mayor Sadiq Khan over his response, and their spat has continued ever since. The U.S. president arrives in the U.K. next week for a NATO summit, which Johnson hopes will be a low-key visit.Trump spoke to Johnson on Saturday and expressed his condolences following the attack, White House spokesman Judd Deere said in a statement. On Friday, Johnson and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn spoke by phone and each suspended their election campaigns in the capital for the rest of the day. Johnson's team said he would also cancel his events on Saturday so he can focus on the security response.But speaking to television reporters just before a meeting of the government's 'Cobra' crisis committee on Friday evening, Johnson highlighted his election pledge to hire extra police officers.'Hunted Down'"Anybody involved in this crime and these attacks will be hunted down and will be brought to justice," he said. "This country will never be cowed or divided or intimidated by this sort of attack and our British values will prevail."After the alarm was raised on Friday lunchtime, armed police cleared cafes and shops in the London Bridge area. Officers burst into restaurants in the popular Borough Market area on the other side of the river, urging diners to leave immediately. They shouted "Out, out, out," to people at the Black and Blue bar, and ordered customers to walk away with their hands on their heads. Nearby, police shouted to pedestrians to "run."The police asked people to avoid the area. Mayor Sadiq Khan said Saturday on BBC's Radio 4 that while there will be "more high visibility police officers present in London" through the weekend "there's no reason to believe there is an increased threat" from terrorism. The bridge will remain closed for some time, he said from the site on Saturday afternoon.(Updates with Trump-Johnson phone call from 15th paragraph.)\--With assistance from Tim Ross.To contact the reporters on this story: Jessica Shankleman in London at jshankleman@bloomberg.net;Greg Ritchie in London at gritchie10@bloomberg.net;Kitty Donaldson in London at kdonaldson1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Tim Ross at tross54@bloomberg.net, James Amott, Andrew DavisFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Woman sexually assaulted outside bar ‘while bouncers watched,’ lawyer says Posted: 30 Nov 2019 07:00 AM PST  A woman is suing a bar claiming bouncers stood by and watched as she was sexually assaulted in an alley.Video footage shows a man dressed in black opening the back door of the El Hefe bar and restaurant, in Chicago, followed by another man who appears to be holding the woman by the neck as he leads her out into the alleyway.
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| China's accuses UN rights chief of 'inapppropriate' inteference Posted: 30 Nov 2019 01:13 PM PST  China on Saturday accused UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet of "inappropriate" interference in the country's affairs after she called for investigations into alleged excessive use of force by police in Hong Kong. The article contains "inappropriate comments on the situation of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region ... (and) interferes in China's internal affairs," said the Chinese mission's statement.
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| This Is America's Role in Saudi Arabia's Power Struggle Posted: 29 Nov 2019 12:00 PM PST  Did you know that Saudi-Iranian oil rivalry was shaped by American power?
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| We Aid the Growth of Chinese Tyranny to Our Eternal Shame Posted: 29 Nov 2019 03:30 AM PST  We can't say we didn't know.Reports of the repression of Muslims living in northwestern China have been leaking out for years in drips and drabs. Satellite photos picked up the construction of massive prison facilities in the Xinjiang province. The BBC was even invited into one of the "thought transformation camps," from which inmates are released a few hours a week, to see the program of patriotic re-education. Inmates were frank with the Beeb's reporters that religious activity — including prayer — was banned inside the building.Now, in the last week, a more complete picture of Beijing's repression campaign has emerged. Leaked memos have revealed some of the details of China's modernized and tech-supported religious persecution of Muslims in Xinjiang. These are the first Venona cables of our generation. They make certain what sharp observers must have guessed: China uses cutting-edge technology to identify, classify, and detain Muslims for re-education in the old-school argot of totalitarian Communism. President Xi Jinping has instructed the party members and public officials involved in this repression to show "absolutely no mercy" and make ample use of the "organs of dictatorship" to accomplish their mission.The leaked memos include lines that will be cited as exculpatory in the future — they show Xi counseling against proposals to "eradicate" Islam entirely. But the larger picture painted by the documents is one of state apparatus mobilized in the service of repression, aiming to make up for lost time in which Uighurs and Kazaks were allowed to worship, practice, and believe as they pleased. "The weapons of the people's democratic dictatorship must be wielded without any hesitation or wavering," Xi is quoted as saying.Distressingly, Xi could occasionally sound like some of the West's "New Atheists" when talking about his fellow citizens. "People who are captured by religious extremism — male or female, old or young — have their consciences destroyed," he says. They "lose their humanity and murder without blinking an eye."There really isn't any mistaking the strategy here: The ethnic balance of southern Xinjiang is to be transformed through the state-aided resettlement of Han Chinese in the region. While there are token concessions to the idea of allowing Uighurs to retain their religion, the use of Turkic languages has been discouraged. China is attempting to deprive Uighurs of their ethnolinguistic identity, the very rudiments of their nationality. These efforts have unsurprisingly inspired intermittent riots and violence in recent years, which have in turn been used to justify the expansion of the re-education camps.The most chilling aspect of this repression is the use of information technology. An incredible, Orwellian surveillance system is used to monitor the movements of Xinjiang's people. The cameras are placed prominently throughout cities such as Kashgar and surrounding towns to remind people that they are being watched. Algorithms are deployed to facilitate the classification and selection of Uighurs for the camps.It's a tyranny that we have helped to enable. China's prosperity and technological progress, generated in no small part by its ability to trade in such high volume with the United States, have empowered its government to do this. Our desire to keep trading with China obliges the president of the United States to remain silent about this barbarity.In short, the leaked documents make clear that the West desperately needs to recover its ability to privilege political and moral aims over the immediate exigencies of the market, which can tolerate even this kind of repression and in fact may operate more smoothly alongside it. The power of China's tyranny grows in parallel with our fatalism about it, and our determination to be consoled by its economic upside. But enough is enough.
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| 3 Children in Arizona Are Missing After Vehicle Is Swept Away in Creek Posted: 30 Nov 2019 07:26 AM PST  Authorities in Arizona were searching on Friday for three children after a vehicle in which nine people were riding was swept away in a flooded creek in Gila County, officials said.The Gila County Sheriff's Office responded at around 4 p.m. to a call about a vehicle with seven children and two adults that got stuck at the Tonto Creek crossing near the community of Tonto Basin, Undersheriff Mike Johnson said Friday night.Four children and one adult were rescued from a sandbar, he said. One woman was "rescued from the shore," according to a statement released by the sheriff's office.Multiple agencies, including the neighboring Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, were helping with the search.The authorities did not release the names or ages of the missing children and the people who were rescued. The authorities could not fully describe the vehicle because it was partly submerged.Tonto Creek is about 200 miles east of Phoenix.Three crossings for Tonto Creek were closed earlier in the day because of flooding, Johnson said. It was unclear Friday night whether the road was closed when the vehicle tried to cross."I think the creek was running at about 2,000 cubic feet per second when this happened," he said, adding that it's a "pretty swift current."Many roads across the state were shut down Thursday because of heavy rain and snow, with lingering effects into Friday.Johnson said the snowfall in higher elevations, coupled with rain that the storm brought to the valley, caused the creek to "run at a higher-than-normal rate.""It's not uncommon for that creek to rise during storms like this," he said.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
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| Unhappy Thanksgiving: Explosions at Texas chemical plant keep more than 50,000 out of their homes Posted: 29 Nov 2019 01:12 PM PST  More than 50,000 people in southeast Texas remain under evacuation orders on Thanksgiving after two powerful explosions at a chemical plant.
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| Security forces kill five during gunfight in northern Mexico town Posted: 30 Nov 2019 02:45 PM PST ![Security forces kill five during gunfight in northern Mexico town]( "Security forces kill five during gunfight in northern Mexico town") Mexican security forces killed at least five suspected cartel gunmen in a shootout on Saturday in a town near the U.S. border, authorities from the northern state of Coahuila said, during a moment of heightened bilateral tension over violent gangs. The Coahuila attorney general's office said in a statement that state security officials shot dead the five suspects during clashes in the small town of Villa Union, about 40 miles (65 km) southwest of the border city of Piedras Negras. Around midday, heavy gunfire began ringing out, and a convoy of armed pickup trucks could be seen moving around Villa Union, according to video clips posted by social media users.
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| U.S. Rebukes Zambia for Jailing Two Men for Homosexuality Posted: 30 Nov 2019 04:27 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. ambassador to Zambia said a high court ruling sentencing two men to 15 years in prison for homosexuality was horrifying.Ambassador Daniel Foote urged the government to reconsider laws that punish minority groups."I was personally horrified to read yesterday about the sentencing of two men, who had a consensual relationship, which hurt absolutely no one, to 15 years imprisonment," he said in an emailed statement Friday. "Decisions like this oppressive sentencing do untold damage to Zambia's international reputation by demonstrating that human rights in Zambia" are "not a universal guarantee."The constitution stipulates that the southern African nation is Christian, and laws dating back to Britain's colonial rule of the country that ended in 1964 forbid gay sex."This is the will of the Zambian people, we have to be with the people by abiding by the law," Chanda Kasolo, permanent secretary in the ministry of information, said by phone. "We respect the opinion of the American ambassador. We have to do things the way the people want."The sentencing of the men was particularly disturbing given that "government officials can steal millions of public dollars without prosecution," Foote said. He didn't give detail on which officials allegedly steal funds."Zambia takes great exception to the remarks," both on the court ruling and about government officials, Foreign Affairs Minister Joseph Malanji said in a video distributed on social-media websites. The minister will present a formal démarche to Washington by Monday, he said.Zambia is ranked 105 out of 180 countries tracked by Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index for 2018.(Updates with comment from foreign affairs ministry in final paragraph.)\--With assistance from Vernon Wessels.To contact the reporters on this story: Taonga Clifford Mitimingi in Lusaka at tmitimingi@bloomberg.net;Matthew Hill in Maputo at mhill58@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin at asguazzin@bloomberg.net, Gordon Bell, Helen RobertsonFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Germany to make anti-Semitism a specific hate crime as Jews 'no longer feel safe' Posted: 29 Nov 2019 09:02 AM PST  Germany is to tighten its laws against anti-Semitic hate crimes in the wake of last month's failed attack on a synagogue by a far-Right gunman. "I am ashamed that Jews no longer feel safe in Germany and that so many are even thinking of leaving the country," Christine Lambrecht, the justice minister, told German MPs. "We have to send a clear signal against anti-Semitism." Under the planned changes, crimes with an anti-Semitic motive will attract heavier sentences. The move comes after a synagogue in east Germany narrowly escaped becoming the scene of a massacre last month. Stephan Balliet, a German national who released a far-Right "manifesto" before the attack, failed in his attempts to break into the synagogue which was packed with 51 people marking Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar. He later turned his gun on bystanders, killing two people. While the Halle attack was the highest profile incident, it was by no means an isolated case. Just days before, a Syrian man was stopped by security guards as he tried to enter Berlin's best known synagogue armed with a knife and shouting "Allahu akbar" and "F*** Israel". Anti-Semitic crimes across Germany rose by 10 per cent to a total of 1,646 last year, but it is the figures for violence that are most alarming. Violent anti-Semitic crimes rose by 60 per cent, with 62 offences leaving 43 people injured. More than 50 people were trapped inside the synagogue while the gunman tried to gain entry Credit: Craig Stennett for the Telegraph They include the case of an Israeli man who was attacked and whipped with a belt while wearing a Jewish kippah skullcap in central Berlin in April last year. Adam Armoush, an Israeli Arab who lives in Berlin, is not Jewish but was wearing the kippah in an attempt to prove Berlin was safe for Jewish people. In the wake of that incident felix Klein, the German government's anti-Semitism commissioner, issued a warning to Jewish men not to wear skullcaps in public for their own safety. Mr Klein later retracted his warning after a public outcry. In another case in July last year, a Jewish Syrian man wearing a Star of David pendant was attacked and beaten by a group of people when he stopped to ask for a light for his cigarette in central Berlin. Anti-Semitic incidents last year also include one an attack on a Jewish restaurant in the east German city of Chemnitz. Masked men broke surrounded the entrance to the restaurant and broke the windows with stones while the owner was trapped inside. Current German laws recognise discrimination against a particular group of people as an aggravating factor in any crime that can lead to a heavier sentence. But the planned changes will explicitly name anti-Semitism for the first time. The change is part of a package introduced after the Halle synagogue attack. Other measures include laws obliging social media networks to inform the authorities of online threats and incitement to hatred. "This is an important step towards consistent punishment of anti-Semitic crimes," said Josef Schuster, head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany. "With the planned amendment to the law, the federal government is living up to its commitment to fight anti-Semitism resolutely and protect Jewish life." "Anti-Semitic offences are not just attacks on individual people of the Jewish faith, they always an attack on our values, on our constitutional state, and on our democracy as a whole," said Georg Eisenreich, the regional justice minister for Bavaria, where prosecutors recently announced they will prioritise anti-Semitic crimes.
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| The China Challenge Continues to Mount Posted: 29 Nov 2019 01:00 PM PST  This is why the West must ensure the maintenance of peace, security of borders, and world trade.
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| Ilhan Omar's Republican opponent was banned from Twitter after suggesting the congresswoman should be tried for treason and hanged Posted: 29 Nov 2019 09:00 AM PST  The Republican campaign promoted a wild conspiracy theory that Omar had illegally shared sensitive government information with Qatar and Iran.
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| Trump's antics leaving Republicans 'disgusted and exhausted', says former GOP congressman Posted: 29 Nov 2019 12:14 PM PST  A former Republican congressman said he would "probably vote to impeach" Donald Trump if he were still serving in the US House of Representatives while suggesting the president's scandals are "infuriating" current GOP House members.Charlie Dent, a frequent critic of Mr Trump who resigned from Congress last year, said he has heard from several of his former Republican colleagues who are "absolutely disgusted and exhausted by the president's behaviour".
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| 2 victims are dead and a suspect was killed by police in a London terror incident. Here's how the attack unfolded. Posted: 29 Nov 2019 06:33 PM PST  Police said they were called to London Bridge just before 2 p.m. local time on Friday afternoon for reports of a stabbing.
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| Suit claims Boy Scouts overlooked leader’s alleged abuse Posted: 30 Nov 2019 01:19 PM PST ![Suit claims Boy Scouts overlooked leader's alleged abuse]( "Suit claims Boy Scouts overlooked leader's alleged abuse") The Boy Scouts of America is facing another lawsuit in a wave of litigation over decades-old allegations of sexual abuse. The men claim they were sexually abused on scouting trips in Arkansas in 1979 and 1980, when they were between 9 and 11, by a leader who the Boy Scouts had deemed "ineligible" to volunteer with boys following accusation of sexually abuse in Georgia two years earlier. The suit claims the Boy Scouts did not report the leader to police in either state.
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| The Best Video Game the Year You Were Born Posted: 30 Nov 2019 02:00 PM PST |
| Hundreds march in Sudan capital seeking justice for martyrs Posted: 30 Nov 2019 05:56 AM PST  Hundreds of protesters marched Saturday through downtown Khartoum to demand justice for those killed in demonstrations against Sudan's now ousted autocrat Omar al-Bashir. More than 250 people were killed and hundreds injured in the months-long protests that erupted in December 2018, according to umbrella protest movement Forces of Freedom and Change. Bashir, who ruled Sudan with an iron fist for 30 years, was deposed by the army in a palace coup on April 11 after the demonstrations triggered by an acute economic crisis.
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| The Wrong Response to Gun Violence: Are Lockdown Drills a Bad Idea? Posted: 30 Nov 2019 08:00 AM PST  Are we teaching our kids to fear school?
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| Giraffes among 10 animals killed in 'tragic' Ohio safari wildlife park fire Posted: 29 Nov 2019 12:12 PM PST  Officials said ten animals were killed at the African Safari Wildlife Park in Port Clinton, Ohio, in the Thanksgiving Day fire.
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| Brother of convicted terrorist faces deportation despite US citizenship Posted: 29 Nov 2019 11:30 PM PST  Brother of man who detonated a pipe bomb in a New York subway and four relatives are fighting efforts to strip their residency status 'You can play everything by the book and they'll still get you,' said Sherin Ullah. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty ImagesA New Yorker who gained US citizenship as a child is suddenly facing deportation, along with several green card-holding members of his family, after apparent targeting by the Trump administration in what the family believes is a clear case of anti-Muslim bias.None of the individuals have a criminal record, and say the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) only raised questions about the validity of their immigration status after another relative was arrested following a terrorist incident in the city. The government's actions have alarmed advocates and led to them accusing officials of meting out unfair "collective punishment".Ahsan Ullah, 32, an electrician from Brooklyn, was placed in immigration detention in Kearny, New Jersey, on 22 October. He spent about four weeks separated from his American wife and three children before being released on bond last Tuesday pending the outcome of his case.Four of his relatives, who all hold green cards, are also fighting government efforts to strip them of their US residency status. Since Trump came into office, the number of such denaturalization and citizenship revocation cases filed by DHS has surged.Sherin and Ahsan Ullah. Photograph: Courtesy family"Citizenship is permanently conditional for many people who were not born here," said Fahd Ahmed, executive director of the advocacy group Desis Rising Up and Moving (Drum), which has been providing support to the Ullah family."At a time when we are seeing a white nationalist current in government and society that wants to depopulate communities of color from this country, these cases are an indication of how their tactics and attacks are evolving."Ahsan was born in Bangladesh and adopted by his uncle at a young age, the family said.After the uncle won a US visa through the diversity lottery program, Ahsan was granted a green card. He migrated to the US at eight years old and became a citizen several years later.Meanwhile, his uncle successfully petitioned to bring his sister, Ahsan's biological mother and four siblings to the country as permanent residents in 2011.The family assumed their future in the US was secure. They focused on going to school, building careers and starting families. Ahsan became an electrician, got married and had three children.But everything changed in December 2017, when one of Ahsan's brothers, Akayed, was arrested for detonating a homemade pipe bomb in a crowded New York City subway station. He was the only person injured, in what was seen as a botched attack.Family members both in the US and Bangladesh were questioned and none was found to have assisted the 27-year-old or to be supportive of terrorist organizations. Akayed was convicted of several terrorism offenses in 2018 and will be sentenced in February.Sherin, Ahsan's wife, 30, said that the day Akayed was arrested the rest of the family was utterly shocked to learn what he had done."For at least three, four months we were in disbelief," she said. "We didn't think [Akayed] was capable of this."From the moment of Akayed's arrest, other family members say that despite being cleared by law enforcement, they began to see consequences.Ahsan recounted receiving a letter from the bank notifying him that his personal and business banking accounts would be closed, and that the FBI put his business license on hold.Wary clients cancelled their contracts, he said. His mother and siblings would see New York police department squad cars parked regularly near their building and other places they frequented, including their mosque, which they had never remembered seeing before.Then, in April 2019, Ahsan received a letter out of the blue from US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), part of the DHS, stating that the agency planned to cancel his US citizenship on the grounds it was not lawfully obtained.In a panic, his mother and siblings applied for citizenship but soon received news that not only had their application d been denied but that the DHS intended to revoke their green cards. On 6 November, Ullah's mother and one of his sisters were detained for two days."After all this time, we [had] mentally and physically bonded with this country, and love this country so much," said Ayfa, Ahsan's 22-year-old sister, the day she was released from detention. "How can you disown a person just like that?"The family is now trying to fight the agency's orders.In paperwork issued to the family, which was reviewed by the Guardian, the DHS claims that Ahsan, his mother and siblings have no legal or biological relationship to the uncle whose original success in the green card lottery facilitated the others' settling in the US. Lawyers for the family said they are gathering the paperwork to prove their relationships.The family and their advocates said the treatment amounts to collective punishment. "This is retribution for sharing the same DNA" as someone accused of terrorism, Ahsan said in a phone call from the Hudson county correctional facility in New Jersey, just before his release from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) detention."I've been here [in the US] since I was a kid – my school is here, my college is here, my family is here, my business is here, my friends are here, my career is here," he said . "This is where my everything is."DHS declined to comment on the family's case.fundraiserWhat's happening to the Ullah family is not an isolated case. A report by the Open Society Justice Initiative in September found that the Trump administration has filed three times more civil denaturalization cases, about 30 a year – stripping Americans of their citizenship – than the average annual number pursued under the eight preceding presidents.Nearly half of all persons targeted for denaturalization in 2017 and 2018 came from "special interest" countries, a label used to identify nations with presumed links to terrorism, including Bangladesh, the report said, which amounted to a policy of "collective suspicion".Manar Waheed, senior legislative and advocacy counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union, said the data indicates that "the same communities that this administration has targeted over and over again" are being singled out.Ahsan said that while he was in detention, he missed the moment when his seven-month-old son said "Baba" for the first time."I'm just surprised by all this," Ahsan said, speaking from the detention facility before he was released on bond. "I pay my taxes, I've never done anything wrong, I try to be a model citizen, and I'm here [in detention]."The administration has threatened to deport the family members unless they can prove their relationships are what they have long claimed and had not been challenged by the authorities before.The family is hoping they can reverse the Trump administration action by submitting challenges to the USCIS appeals office, contesting their deportation orders in immigration court and, if necessary, filing civil motions in federal court.But they are dismayed by the turn of events, and very nervous.Sherin said: "You can play everything by the book and they'll still get you."
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| The Latest: Fiat Chrysler, auto union agree tentative deal Posted: 30 Nov 2019 08:09 AM PST  The United Auto Workers union says it has reached a tentative deal with Fiat Chrysler. A person briefed on the matter says the deal includes a $9,000 ratification bonus, a promise not to close any assembly factories for the next four years and a commitment to keep making vehicles at a plant in Belvidere, Illinois. Top union leaders still have to approve the deal, as do factory-level officials who are likely to gather next week to vote on it.
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| Europe becomes cocaine exporter as countries overflow with drug Posted: 30 Nov 2019 06:31 AM PST  European countries have become so saturated with cocaine that the region has now become a hub for exporting the drug to markets such as Australia, Turkey and Russia, according to new data. Record levels of production of the drug in South America and new smuggling routes opening up into the continent means that Europe is now a transit area for the export of cocaine. The phenomenon is outlined in a new Europol analysis of the drug market, and comes after Spain seized a submarine carrying cocaine from Colombia in a European first this week. New trafficking routes are also being developed through war-torn west African states. Les Fiander, one of the authors of the 2019 Drugs Market Report, said there were a number of reasons why South American production has soared in recent years. "Organised crime groups have been able to expand their production, because authorities in source countries are not able to use anymore pesticides to fight it." Spanish officials seized the submarine earlier this week Credit: LALO R. VILLAR/AFP He added that the ongoing peace process in Colombia is another factor, as the vacuum left by the Farc has been rapidly filled by coca farmers looking to make quick money. According to the report, Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain remain main entry points and distribution hubs for cocaine in the EU. Smuggling operations are becoming more sophisticated and harder to detect. The European Union's law enforcement agency's 2019 Drugs Market Report, shows that the value of the drugs trade in Europe is roughly €30 billion. Cannabis, accounting for 39% of the total market, is the most consumed illicit drug followed by cocaine at 31%. It is estimated that four million European citizens used cocaine this year. Last week's submarine was carrying three tonnes of cocaine valued at €100 million when it was detained off the north-west coast of Spain. The submarine had travelled from South America and it is believed the cocaine was destined for the British market. West and North Africa appears to be emerging as a more significant transit point for both air and maritime shipments of cocaine destined for the European and possibly other markets. The report found that heroin production, mainly in Afghanistan, is also on the rise and consequently there is likely to be a much greater availability of the drug in Europe over the coming years. The use of heroin and other opioids still accounts for the largest share of drug-related harms. The retail value of the heroin market in 2017 was estimated to be at least €7.4 billion. The report also highlighted how the illicit drug industry in Europe is increasingly contaminating river water, drinking water and wastewater. The adverse effects of leaking acidic chemicals are now more widespread and no longer an issue limited to local governments, the report found. Compounding the problem is the array of chemical substances that can be used to produce synthetic drugs, meaning that the amount abandoned and dumped often varies greatly.
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| US says will 'protect its interests' at climate conference Posted: 30 Nov 2019 09:26 AM PST  The United States will send a diplomatic team but no senior members of Donald Trump's administration to a global climate-change conference starting in Spain on Monday, according to a statement. The US, at Trump's direction, is withdrawing from the Paris climate accord, which set a goal of limiting global temperature rises to well within two degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) from pre-industrial levels.
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| Nuclear Nightmare? Russia’s Avangard Hypersonic Missile Is About to Go Operational. Posted: 29 Nov 2019 10:00 PM PST  Russia's Avangard hypersonic boost-glide missile is about to operational.
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| Who is 'Elizabeth Warren' the politician, and what has she done with the nonpartisan wonk? Posted: 30 Nov 2019 02:00 AM PST  Her own books show how Elizabeth Warren moved away from careful analysis to rhetoric, biography and boilerplate once she became a politician.
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| Commissioner James O’Neill as He Exits NYPD: ‘We’re Going to Have to Speak the Truth’ Posted: 29 Nov 2019 07:43 AM PST  Drew Angerer/GettyNo decision seems to have defined the tenure of NYPD Commissioner James O'Neill more than firing of Daniel Pantaleo, the plain clothes officer captured on video putting his arm around the neck of Eric Garner as he repeatedly pleads, "I can't breathe." Garner's death at the hands of police would become a flashpoint in the national uproar over police-community relations. For police-reform advocates, the move was portrayed as the last opportunity for justice. The city's 43rd police commissioner made a decision few NYPD leaders before him have been willing to make, firing a police officer who was absolved of a crime, but found guilty of violating department policy. To the 36,000 officers he oversees, O'Neill's decision was as an act of betrayal, that even the commissioner admitted he can understand: "If I were still a cop," O'Neill said on the day he announced Pantaleo's termination, "I would be mad at me."For O'Neill, who after 36 years in uniform was seen as a cop's cop when he took the job, it was simply the right decision as the NYPD and police around the country try to mend relationships with communities they serve."When something bad happens, you have to own it. It's important that you do," O'Neill said in an interview with The Daily Beast during his final days in office. "If we're going to build trust, we're going to have to speak the truth. It comes at a cost, but that's OK. You take this job knowing there are difficult decisions that are going to have to be made and you have to stand up for what's right."At some point on Friday, O'Neill will leave NYPD headquarters after more than three years as police commissioner. After 36 years in policing, he'll join the private sector at credit-card giant Visa as a senior vice president and global head of security.O'Neill has said he is "not particularly concerned about my legacy," but adversaries and allies who've worked closely with him believe time will prove that he leaves behind a favorable one.If Pantaleo is how O'Neill be remembered, his legacy could one day be as the architect of neighborhood policing program where officers duties include setting aside time to develop relationships with people in their communities.Councilman Donovan Richards, who as chair of the public safety committee, has clashed with the commissioner during his years at the department said O'Neill's decision on Pantaleo is "something I will always remember because that was not an easy decision to make. He had the weight of the world on his shoulders."Commissioner O'Neill is a man of integrity, a man who even through differences, has always been willing to have an open ear on those differences," Richards continued. "One thing I appreciate about him, is his willingness to hear the other side."But he quickly pivots to neighborhood policing program (also known as NCO), crediting O'Neill with redefining "what community and police should look like. He's leaving a legacy behind. He set this department on the trajectory that people will celebrate in the future. The chicken is being baked or the turkey is being baked. We still have a ways to go, but I get to see how far we have come. The NCO programs is reaching the depths of communities who feel their voices have not been heard."For Richard Aborn, who heads the Citizens Crime Commission, a nonprofit organization focusing on crime and public safety policies in the city, O'Neill understood that while the NYPD succeeded in bringing crime to historic lows, "it had been less successful in the equally critical mission of achieving a trusting relationship with communities in New York—and he set out to repair that breach.""His legacy will be neighborhood policing, a carefully calibrated realignment of policing designed to build trust and develop robust, real relationships between police officers and neighborhood residents resulting in a mutually aligned effort to maintain safe neighborhoods," Aborn said. "Once fully embedded, Neighborhood Policing will alter for the better the face of policing in NYC and Commissioner O'Neill will rightfully get the credit."Now part of all police precincts in the city including every subway station, officers in the NCO program aren't evaluated on the number of arrests they make, but on how they deal with controlling crime conditions."We are asking police officers, you're job is not just to answer 911 jobs and to do proactive policing... a big part of that is to create relationships, to maintain relationships to identify problems and be able to solve problems," O'Neill says on handicapping where community policing stands today. "Is it perfect? I don't think policing anywhere is going to be perfect. There's too many variables. There's 8.5 million people, there's 60 million visitors, there's 36,000 cops, 18,000 civilians. Who knows how many people come to work a day in New York City. We strive for perfection, but I don't think that's the nature of humanity. I don't think we're ever going to reach it."To judge the NCO program's success and long term impact, O'Neill says the department has contracted with the Rand Corporation, a non-profit think tank, on a two-year study of neighborhood policing to "make sure it's what we think it is.""Anecdotally, we are getting really positive feedback from the cops, really positive feedback from the community," he said. "I think we are in a good place, but it needs to be reinforced with some research too."That O'Neill, 62, became NYPD police commissioner was a dramatic change in fortunes that began when former Police Commissioner Bill Bratton took over as leader of the nation's largest police force under Mayor Bill de Blasio in 2014.In the months leading up to Bratton's appointment, O'Neill was weighing retirement after falling out of favor with then Commissioner Ray Kelly in 2008 when he was head of the narcotics division. O'Neill was one of three people transferred from the unit after officers were caught in a scandal for paying informants with drugs instead of cash.O'Neill would end up as head of the fugitive enforcement division, an abrupt shift to a career in which he had a fast rise up the ranks. During a banishment that lasted six years, O'Neill called Bratton in 2013 asking about jobs in the private sector. Bratton encouraged O'Neill to stick around, telling him that he had been talking with several mayoral candidates about returning to the NYPD. In January 2014, Bratton was sworn in as police commissioner under de Blasio and he hired O'Neill to join his executive staff. That summer O'Neill was installed as the NYPD's chief of patrol. And that November, O'Neill was promoted to chief of the pepartment, the NYPD's top uniformed commander. And when Bratton announced his retirement in August 2016, O'Neill was tapped by de Blasio to be the next police commissioner.Asked if he could remember the day he agreed to take this job if he could remember he wanted it, O'Neill pauses and jokes, "Are you still recording?"Then he continues, simply stating, "I knew it was going to be an opportunity to make the NYPD a better place and to make the city a better place."It's a sleepless job with the task of keeping one of the world's biggest terrorist targets safe. O'Neill learned this less that 24 hours into the job when a pressure cooker bomb exploded in Manhattan, the worst terrorist attack on the city since September 11. He would experience two more terrorist attacks during his tenure.He would also become the commissioner who earlier this year finally took the step of apologizing for the NYPD raid on Stonewall Inn on the 50th anniversary of the riots there. "What happened should not have happened," O'Neill said during an event at NYPD headquarters. "The actions taken by the NYPD were wrong, plain and simple. The actions and the laws were discriminatory and oppressive, and for that, I apologize. I vow to the LGBTQ community that this would never happen in the NYPD in 2019. We have, and we do, embrace all New Yorkers."Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum says this kind of leadership and compassion helped O'Neill "emerge as one of the toughest most forward thinking police commissioners in New York history.""Jimmy O'Neil's legacy will be that of a humble transit cop who went on to become police commissioner and faced with making with making gut wrenching personnel decisions while bringing crime down to historic levels," Wexler said. "For his decisions in the Garner, [Deborah] Danner and Stonewall cases proved he had the courage and self assurance to rule in the best interests of both the community and the department."In keeping with his keep-your-head-down, cop's cop persona, O'Neill doesn't need any ceremonial send off to mark his achievements. He's happy to leave quietly, passing the baton to NYPD Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea, who on December 1 will be officially sworn in as the new police commissioner. "I walked in alone," says O'Neill, adding, "I'm going to walk out alone."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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| Behind in polls, Taiwan president contender tells supporters to lie to pollsters Posted: 29 Nov 2019 12:32 AM PST  The main opposition contender for Taiwan's Jan. 11 presidential election said on Friday people should lie to pollsters to trick the ruling party into thinking they were going to win. Han Kuo-yu, standing on the presidential ticket for the Kuomintang party which favors close ties with China, is running a double-digit deficit in opinion polls behind President Tsai Ing-wen of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Han told reporters late on Thursday there were "many really strange polls" and even "fake polls" and people should refuse to answer calls from pollsters.
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| 'Nobody should have died': fear and anger in Minneapolis after public housing fire Posted: 30 Nov 2019 08:56 AM PST  A blaze that killed five in a 25-storey building with few sprinklers has prompted comparisons to London's Grenfell fireThe Minneapolis city councilman Abdi Warsame addresses the media outside the building. Photograph: Aaron Lavinsky/APWarsame Omar lives on the 15th floor of Minneapolis's Cedar High apartments, exactly one floor above where a fire started early on Wednesday morning. He woke to find his room full of thick black smoke. The elderly Somali man ran outside to the stairwell, where he vomited. He remembers a black substance coming out of his mouth and nose.Omar managed to escape alive, but others in the 25-floor public housing complex located in the heart of Minneapolis's Somali community did not. The fire killed five people, injured at least four more and has sparked an argument in the city about its dilapidated public housing.In a debate with echoes of Britain's Grenfell Tower fire, which killed 72 in 2017, the conversation has centered on whether the city has failed to make safe the housing it provides to its poor and vulnerable, essentially putting their lives at risk as it seeks to save money and maintain a system long underfunded by the federal government.Omar was taken to an emergency room where, he said, doctors removed black smoke from his lungs. Now, many of his belongings and clothing in his home are covered in soot, and he's worried about how what happened could affect his health."I'm not trying to complain but I need help. I need help," he told the Guardian with the help of a volunteer translator, clutching a report from this ER visit in his hand as he spoke.Investigators have not determined what caused the fire, which happened during the year's first major snow storm, though the Minneapolis fire chief, John Fruetel, said he believed it was an accident.Public attention has begun to center around what Fruetel has acknowledged could have contributed to the rapid spread of the flames: the high rise did not have sprinkler systems above the two lowest floors.City officials have said that because of the age of the building, which was constructed in 1969, it was not required by city code to have a sprinkler system – but that, some say, is exactly the problem."Nobody should have died. A small fire should not have resulted in the death of five people. Because if you're having such dense housing, there should be a sprinkler system in an apartment building. Even though that may not be required by code, that should be required because Minneapolis public housing authority has a responsibility to provide safe and secure housing to all of its residents," said Kaaha Kaahiye, a resident of public housing and organizer with Defend Glendale, an advocacy group long critical of the public housing authority (MPHA).Warsame Omar survived the Cedar High fire. Photograph: Courtesy Jared GoyetteAs first reported by Minneapolis Public Radio, the MPHA had identified the need to retrofit its older high rises with sprinkler system in its annual plan, approved in September, which also noted limiting funding and a need for "major reinvestment".MPHA did not ask for additional funds from the city for sprinkler systems in its last budget request, according to the office of the Minneapolis mayor, Jacob Frey."The federal government is the primary funder of public housing, but funds have been short for decades. With respect to local funding authority, the city of Minneapolis can only approve requests submitted by MPHA," said the mayor's spokesperson, Mychal Vlatkovich.Like many cities across the country, Minneapolis is experiencing an affordable housing crisis, with high demand for urban housing driving a surge in the development of new luxury condos.The Hennepin county commissioner, Angela Conley, whose district includes the Cedar Riverside neighborhood, where the apartments are located, pointed to what she sees as a problematic discrepancy: new buildings with high rents are required to have sprinkler systems, while older high rises, historically home to immigrants and lower-income populations, have no such requirement."So does that tell us that the lives of seniors and vulnerable people and disabled people and people who are lower income in high-rises, are their lives more expendable than people who can afford to live in more expensive, newer condos? Absolutely not. But that's the message that we get when we know that certain buildings take priority over others," Conley said.Shanta Russ, 22, kisses her daughter, Siya Freeman, four, after being allowed back up to her father's 15th floor apartment. Photograph: Aaron Lavinsky/APOn Friday, organizers with Defend Glendale met with residents and collected stories. They plan to push MPHA and the mayor to do more to help residents whose apartments were damaged, and to improve fire safety standards at other buildings."Black and black Muslims and low-income and disabled people are invisible in a city that says that [it is] anti-Trump and therefore progressive," says the group's founder, Ladan Yusuf. "It's important to know that this could happen anywhere else. And it's already happened. It happened in Grenfell in England. It's happening here because politicians and political officials have to be held accountable. It's important to know that we are one community and that we have to come together to make sure that this doesn't happen again."
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| North Korea may deploy ‘super-large’ rocket launcher soon Posted: 29 Nov 2019 08:01 AM PST  North Korea said Friday the latest test-firing of its "super-large" multiple rocket launcher was a final review of the weapon's combat application, a suggestion that the country is preparing to deploy the new weapons system soon.
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| Iraqis keep up anti-regime demos despite PM's vow to quit Posted: 30 Nov 2019 11:43 AM PST  Iraqis kept up angry anti-government protests in Baghdad and the south on Saturday to demand a broad overhaul of a system seen as corrupt and under the sway of foreign powers, a day after the premier vowed to quit. Protesters have hit the streets since early October in the largest grassroots movement Iraq has seen in decades, sparked by fury at poor public services, lack of jobs and widespread government graft. The toll spiked dramatically this week as a crackdown killed dozens in Baghdad, the Shiite shrine city of Najaf -- where another protester was killed Saturday -- and the southern hotspot of Nasiriyah.
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| Lawsuit: Alabama Sheriff 'Big John' Williams shot in parking lot 'without provocation' Posted: 30 Nov 2019 07:19 AM PST  Suspect William Chase Johnson faces murder charges. He is the son of a Montgomery County Sheriff's Office deputy.
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| Airlines are joining in on Black Friday and Cyber Monday with major flight sales — here's how you can save Posted: 29 Nov 2019 01:52 PM PST  Delta, American Airlines, Southwest, Emirates, and more have posted Black Friday and Cyber Monday flight deals. We expect more sales, too.
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| Indonesian gymnast dropped after told 'she's no longer a virgin' Posted: 29 Nov 2019 03:13 AM PST ![Indonesian gymnast dropped after told 'she's no longer a virgin']( "Indonesian gymnast dropped after told 'she's no longer a virgin'") An Indonesian female gymnast training for a major sport event has been sent home on grounds she was no longer a virgin, her family said on Friday, a claim rejected by officials who insisted it was over disciplinary issues. "The coach said my daughter always goes out late with her male friends and their interrogation showed she was no longer a virgin," her mother Ayu Kurniawati told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone from Indonesia's East Java province. Indonesia's sports ministry denied the claim on Friday, saying the dismissal was due to performance and disciplinary issues.
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| 2 K-pop stars were jailed for raping a drunk, unconscious woman in a scandal that shows the industry's dark underbelly Posted: 29 Nov 2019 03:00 AM PST  Choi Jong-hoon of FT Island was sentenced to five years and Jung Joon-young of Drug Restaurant was given six years by Seoul Central District Court.
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| Iran opposition leader compares supreme leader to shah Posted: 30 Nov 2019 05:16 AM PST  A long-detained opposition leader in Iran on Saturday compared a bloody crackdown on those protesting government-set gasoline prices rising under its supreme leader to soldiers of the shah gunning down demonstrators in an event that led to the Islamic Revolution. The comments published by a foreign website represent some of the harshest yet attributed to Mir Hossein Mousavi, a 77-year-old politician whose own disputed election loss in 2009 led to the widespread Green Movement protests that security forces also put down. Mousavi's remarks not only compare Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the toppled monarch whom Khamenei to this day refers to as a tyrant.
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