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Oct 22, 2019
(Bloomberg) -- Turkey is snubbing U.S. demands for one of its biggest banks to face charges that it helped Iran evade sanctions amid escalating tensions fueled by Turkey's incursion into northern Syria.U.S. prosecutors charged Turkiye Halk Bankasi AS last week with enabling a sanctions-evasion scheme that helped Iran tap $20 billion in frozen foreign oil sales revenue sitting in foreign bank accounts, at a time when the U.S. was trying to maximize leverage over the country in negotiations to abandon its nuclear program.The timing of the indictment led Turkish officials to dismiss the charges as false and politically motivated. The bank and its U.S. lawyers have refused to accept a legal summons or acknowledge U.S. legal authority in the matter. At a hearing Tuesday, no lawyers or executives showed up to represent the bank. A day earlier Turkey named a former executive at the bank, who'd been convicted in the U.S., to head the Istanbul stock exchange.Tensions between Turkey and the U.S. have heightened since President Donald Trump ordered the removal of U.S. troops from northern Syria, opening the door for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to send his forces to attack Kurds in the region.The incursion spurred the U.S. to sanction Turkey with Trump writing a letter last week to Erdogan imploring him not to be a "tough guy" or a "fool." Erdogan reportedly threw the letter in the trash.Earlier, Trump threatened Turkey in a statement on Twitter.U.S. authorities had been pursuing a criminal case against the bank for a
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Oct 22, 2019
Researchers found that Skeleton 125 was over the age of 46 years old and shorter than the average medieval man. He was around 5'2" or 5'3".
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Oct 22, 2019
Striking Chicago teachers are preparing for an extended walkout and trying to increase public pressure on Mayor Lori Lightfoot, with a downtown march set for Wednesday around the time the first-term mayor is set to deliver a key speech to the City Council. Chicago Public Schools officials announced that classes would be canceled for a fifth day on Wednesday as negotiators continued talks behind closed doors on Tuesday. Leadership of the Chicago Teachers Union, though, are already looking ahead to Thursday.
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Oct 22, 2019
Seattle's public-school district has proposed a new math curriculum that would teach its students all about how math has been "appropriated" -- and how it "continues to be used to oppress and marginalize people and communities."A draft of the curriculum, which was covered in an article in Education Week, would teach students how to "explain how math and technology and/or science are connected and how technology and/or science have (sic) been and continues to be used to oppress and marginalize people and communities of color," as well as to "identify and teach others about mathematicians* of color in their various communities: schools, neighborhoods, places of worship, businesses, etc."Education Week reports: If adopted, its ideas will be included in existing math classes as part of the district's broader effort to infuse ethnic studies into all subjects across the K-12 spectrum. Tracy Castro-Gill, Seattle's ethnic studies director, said her team hopes to have frameworks completed in all subjects by June for board approval. If the frameworks are approved, teachers would be expected to incorporate those ideas and questions into the math they teach beginning next fall, Castro-Gill said. No districtwide—or mandated—math/ethnic studies curriculum is planned, but groups of teachers are working with representatives of local community organizations to write instructional units for teachers to use if they wish, she said.As strange as it may sound, this pr
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Oct 22, 2019
In a Tweet Tuesday, Trump had compared the House impeachment inquiry into his dealings with Ukraine to "a lynching," essentially likening the horrors of a deadly and racist chapter in U.S. history to a process laid out in the Constitution.
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Oct 22, 2019
California and New York City sued the U.S. Postal Service on Tuesday to stop tens of thousands of cigarette packages from being mailed from foreign countries to U.S. residents, saying the smugglers are engaging in tax evasion while postal workers look the other way. The lawsuit in Brooklyn federal court blames the Postal Service for deliveries from Vietnam, China, Israel and other countries, saying the failure to enforce a federal law aimed at banning cigarette mail deliveries costs California an average of $19 million annually in tax revenues and New York City and state over $21 million each year.
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Oct 22, 2019
President Trump's insistence that there is a missing DNC server despite all evidence to the contrary could lead to his impeachment.
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Oct 22, 2019
A man charged with attempted murder in a church shooting attacked his public defender during a jailhouse meeting, sending the man to intensive care with severe head injuries and no memory of the beating, according to documents released Tuesday. Dale Holloway, 37, of Manchester, assaulted public defender Michael Davidow on Monday morning at the Valley Street jail in Manchester, New Hampshire, the documents said. In this case, the officer heard a knock and turned to see Holloway standing up and Davidow seated at the table, with his hands over his face and blood dripping onto the floor.
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Oct 22, 2019
Russia and Turkey agreed on Tuesday to ensure Kurdish forces withdraw from areas close to Syria's border with Turkey and to launch joint patrols, in a deal hailed as "historic" by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. After marathon talks in Russia's southern city of Sochi, Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin announced the deal just hours ahead of a deadline for Turkey to restart its assault on Syrian Kurdish forces.
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Oct 22, 2019
California's largest utility says it could shut off power to 500,000 people this week as wildfires again threaten to bring havoc to 15 counties.
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Oct 22, 2019
The acting U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, William Taylor, testified on Tuesday that he was told the delivery of military aid to Ukraine was contingent on Ukraine promising to investigate corruption allegations against former vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter, according to the Washington Post.Taylor had previously sent a message to Gordon Sondland, ambassador to the EU, on September 9, writing: "As I said on the phone, I think it's crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign.""During that phone call, Ambassador Sondland told me that President Trump had told him that he wants [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky to state publicly that Ukraine will investigate Burisma and alleged Ukrainian interference in the 2016 election," Taylor told House impeachment investigators. Hunter Biden was a former board member of Burisma, a Ukrainian natural-gas company, while his father was vice president."Ambassador Sondland also told me that he now recognized that he had made a mistake by earlier telling the Ukrainian officials to whom he spoke that a White House meeting with President Zelensky was dependent on a public announcement of investigations — in fact, Ambassador Sondland said, ‘everything' was dependent on such an announcement, including security assistance,'" Taylor continued."He said that President Trump wanted President Zelensky ‘in a public box' by making a public statement about ordering such investigations.""It was just the
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Oct 22, 2019
"We've not had any conversations on that subject," McConnell told reporters about the transcript of the call between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Trump. Democrats are using the call to bolster their impeachment inquiry into Trump, claiming the president abused his power when he pressured Zelensky to investigate political rival Joe Biden.
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Oct 22, 2019
A fresh round of intra-Afghan peace talks will be held in China next week, Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen said Tuesday, raising hopes for renewed negotiations, even as violence surges in Afghanistan's 18-year war. The talks planned for Oct. 28 and 29 will be the first meeting between Taliban and prominent Afghans from Kabul since a July round of talks held in Doha, the capital of the Middle Eastern State of Qatar, where the Taliban maintain a political office. On Monday, the U.S. State Department said its peace envoy, Zalmay Khalilzad, started a fresh round of talks with European, NATO and U.N. allies about ending the war.
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Oct 22, 2019
Donald Trump reportedly told a room of his top aides that he is in charge of the Hatch Act, when warned by his chief of staff that bringing his cabinet members to a campaign rally could violate ethics rules.The comment, reported in a new Wall Street Journal article, illustrates the degree to which Mr Trump believes his administration does not have to worry about the rule, which was passed a century ago with the intention of warding off political activity by government employees.
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Oct 22, 2019
Two members of a US far-right group were each sentenced to four years in prison on Tuesday for brawling with anti-fascist demonstrators in New York, prosecutors said. The sentencing comes as tensions between white supremacists and leftists simmer in the United States. Maxwell Hare and John Kinsman, members of the Proud Boys group, were found guilty in August by a state court of several counts of attempted assault and rioting.
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Oct 22, 2019
A new study found that the asteroid impact that led the dinosaurs to go extinct also caused rapid ocean acidification, which killed most sea life.
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Oct 22, 2019
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Whoopi Goldberg go toe to toe over Trump's "lynching" comments on Twitter.
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Oct 22, 2019
SOCHI, Russia/ANKARA, Oct 22 (Reuters) - Turkey and Russia agreed on Tuesday to remove the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia to beyond 30 km (19 miles) from the Turkish border, after which their troops will jointly patrol a narrower strip of land in a "safe zone" Ankara has long sought in northern Syria. Beginning at noon (0900 GMT) on Wednesday, Russian military police and Syrian border guards will move in to facilitate the removal of YPG members and weapons to beyond the zone in a mission that should take about six days, according to the deal. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov hailed the deal as one that would end the bloodshed in the region, while Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey had no designs on Syrian territory as it continued to push the YPG south.
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Oct 22, 2019
A silent, powerful new engine.
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Oct 22, 2019
Port-au-Prince (AFP) - Thousands of Catholics demanding the resignation of Haiti's president marched through the capital Tuesday, becoming the latest group to join an outcry against him. Over the past year, Haiti has sunk into political crisis amid anti-corruption protests demanding Moise's resignation. No food, no hospitals, no schools," said protester Fausta Maisonneuve, who held a rosary in her hand.
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Oct 22, 2019
A new mailer sent by the Democratic Party's House campaign arm directly ties some of the party's most vulnerable members to the impeachment proceedings of Donald Trump, creating the potential for political potholes for those members down the road. The mailer, which was obtained by The Daily Beast, pleads with donors to contribute to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee to help support so called "Frontliner" members who hail from key swing districts. "House Democrats are courageously standing up for our democracy, our national security, and the Constitution by launching an impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump," reads the mailer. "As I write to you, every single member of the leadership and a majority of the House have stepped forward for our nation. The courage of these leaders and of our newly elected Frontliners should be an inspiration to all of us. We cannot let them down." House Democrats Plan an Impeachment BlitzAs far as fundraising solicitations go, the DCCC mailer is not particularly provocative. Indeed, dozens of congressional Democrats have sent similar fundraising appeals based on the impeachment inquiry since Speaker Nancy Pelosi made it official on Sept. 24.But in trying to gin up donations off of the impeachment proceedings, the campaign committee has taken a notable gamble. The frontline members in the party are precisely the ones most publicly skittish about pursuing Trump's impeachment—arguing, often, that it is a solemn responsibility or
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Oct 22, 2019
Erin Scott/ReutersPresident Donald Trump's shocking comparison of the ongoing impeachment inquiry against him to a "lynching" provoked widespread condemnation from congressional members of both parties on Monday—with the notable exception of Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, who told reporters on Capitol Hill that the investigation into Trump is "a lynching in every sense.""I think it's pretty well accurate—this is a shame, this is a joke," Graham told a gaggle of reporters on Monday morning. "This is a lynching in every sense. This is un-American. I've never seen a situation in my lifetime as a lawyer where somebody's accused of a major misconduct who cannot confront the accusers, call witnesses on their behalf, and have the discussion in the light of day so the public can judge."Trump's Monday morning tweet—in which he encouraged Republicans to "remember what they are witnessing here - a lynching"—is the latest escalation in the president's increasingly hyperbolic reactions to the impeachment inquiry, which he has called a "coup," a "scam" and, of course, a "witch hunt."Later on Monday, Graham doubled down on the comparison, calling the impeachment inquiry "literally a political lynching," and accusing reporters of holding Republicans to a higher standard than Democrats.Unlike Graham, most Republicans said the president's word, which is strongly associated with the extrajudicial murder of black people in the Jim Crow South, was going too far. Sen. John Thune (R-
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Oct 22, 2019
Senator Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) on Tuesday endorsed President Trump's characterization of the Democrat-led impeachment inquiry as a "lynching.""All Republicans must remember what they are witnessing here - a lynching," Trump wrote on Twitter. "But we will WIN!"The comments prompted immediate criticism from Democrats."That is one word that no president ought to apply to himself," House Majority Whip Tim Clyburn (D., S.C.) said in an interview on CNN.However, Graham stood by Trump's comments."This is a lynching in every sense. This is un-American," Graham said in response. "I've never seen a situation in my lifetime as a lawyer where somebody is accused of a major misconduct who cannot confront the accuser, call witnesses on her behalf and have the discussion in the light of day so the public can judge."Democrats leading the impeachment inquiry are investigating whether Trump withheld military aid from Ukraine to pressure the country to investigate corruption allegations against former vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter.Graham was asked if he could understand the offense taken by African-Americans at Trump's invocation of a historic racial injustice."Yes, African Americans have [been] lynched. Other people have been lynched throughout history," Graham responded. "What does lynching mean? That a mob grabs you, they don't give you a chance to defend yourself, they don't tell you what happened to you, they just destroy you. That's exactly what's happening in the United
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Oct 22, 2019
Right-wing talker and Fox News host Mark Levin hilariously claimed this week that President Donald Trump, who is currently embroiled in an impeachment inquiry for allegedly pressuring a foreign leader to dig up dirt on a political rival, hasn't even had a "hint of scandal" during his time in the White House.During a recent broadcast of his Blaze TV show, Levin—who also hosts a Fox News weekend program—took aim at Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) over the former GOP presidential nominee ramping up his criticism of Trump as the Ukraine scandal has deepened. With it recently being revealed that Romney had a clandestine Twitter account used for criticizing Trump's behavior, among other things, Levin took the opportunity to claim that Romney "known nothing about" the personal lives and behavior of former President Barack Obama or ex-Vice President Joe Biden "outside of what we've been told.""And they kept the [John] Kennedy stuff hidden for decades, they kept the [Lyndon] Johnson stuff hidden for decades, they kept the FDR stuff hidden for decades, and his affairs and so forth," the conservative commentator added, implying that Obama/Biden had skeletons in their closets.Levin proceeded to go on a largely confusing rant in which he said he wanted to question Romney about the Founding Fathers' sexual affairs and whether he thought it was right for Franklin Roosevelt to team up with Russia during World War II."What do you think about that, Willard?" Levin grumbled. "I can go through history, one case after another, about
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Oct 22, 2019
If you think you can't get your driver's license, these rats did.
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Oct 22, 2019
Two Iraqi members of Iraqi security forces were killed and three wounded in a major attack on Iraqi oil fields on Tuesday.
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Oct 22, 2019
(Bloomberg) -- Northern Irish loyalists vowed to resist what they see as the economic reunification of Ireland implicit in Boris Johnson's Brexit deal, warning of civil disobedience on the streets of Belfast that risks tipping over into violence.In London on Tuesday, Parliament will vote on the general principles of Johnson's accord with the European Union, which binds Northern Ireland tightly to the bloc to avoid the need for a hard border on the island of Ireland after Brexit."You are going to have an organic explosion of anger" if Johnson's deal is passed, Jamie Bryson, who has emerged as a de-facto spokesman for loyalists, said in an interview. "We are going to have a difficult position to prevent loyalists taking to the streets and we would hope that would be peaceful. But you are asking people to go along with surrendering their country -- it is not going to happen. It's a very fluid situation and it wouldn't take much to spark it off."The Democratic Unionist Party is opposed to the deal, suggesting it weakens Northern Ireland's place in the union. The U.K. effectively split Ireland in 1921 to placate a largely Protestant, unionist majority in the north in the face of increasingly demands from the Catholic-dominated south for independence from Britain."If this goes ahead we are into an economic United Ireland, the whole basis of the Union is gone, it's weakened," Bryson said. "It is going to have to be resisted."Still, other forces in unionism cautioned against inflaming the situation. The Orange Order, which celebrates Northern Ireland's place in the U.K., said it's not the time for widespread protest which could paralyze the region, Reuters reported."There is a feelin
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Oct 22, 2019
Shamima Begum, the Isil bride, chose to go to Syria and can only blame "her own actions" if she is in danger, the Government said on Tuesday as it argued against her return to the UK. The Bethnal Green schoolgirl fled to join the terror group when she was 15 with two other friends and married a Dutch fighter with whom she had three children. As the caliphate crumbled earlier this year, she was tracked down to a refugee camp close to the Syrian border, heavily pregnant and grieving the deaths of her two older children. Her re-emergence into the public eye prompted Sajid Javid, then Home Secretary, to revoke her British citizenship to prevent her travelling home. Her newborn child died days later. On Tuesday, a legal challenge launched by Ms Begum, now aged 20, reached the Special Immigration Appeals Commission in London, as her lawyers tried to get the decision ruled unlawful. They are claiming the revocation left her stateless, exposed her to the risk of death or harm and deprived her of access to a "fair and effective" appeal. Concerns were raised that Ms Begum could be "hanged" if she was sent back to Bangladesh - where the Government alleges she has citizenship - or rendered to face trial and possible execution in Iraq by the forces currently running the al-Roj camp. She claimed the loss of her British citizenship had left her trapped in "wretched and squalid conditions" at the camp, contrary to her rights unde
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Oct 22, 2019
Pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine said on Tuesday they had sentenced a journalist to 15 years in prison after a court found him guilty of spying on behalf of Ukraine's SBU intelligence service. Stanislav Aseyev, 30, disappeared in Ukraine's Donetsk region in June 2017 where he was working under a pen name for the Ukrainian service of U.S.-government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), among other outlets. A statement issued by the Prosecutor General's office in the self-proclaimed People's Republic of Donetsk said on Tuesday Aseyev had gathered military intelligence about the separatists and produced material showing them in a negative light.
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Oct 22, 2019
President Trump wants more than just a nuclear agreement from North Korea.Trump spent more than an hour during a Monday Cabinet meeting spinning on everything from how he "captured" ISIS to how he doesn't believe in part of the Constitution. But buried in those talks was another, lesser discussed implication: That Trump is working on a trade deal with North Korea.After railing about health care at the end of the Monday remarks, Trump snuck in an unexpected mention of international trade deals. "These trade deals are incredible," Trump said. "Whether it's North Korea, South Korea -- probably, something is going to be happening with North Korea too," he continued, and then added some more vague claims: "There's some very interesting information on North Korea. A lot of things are going on. And that's going to be a major rebuild at a certain point."Trump's North Korea suggestions were obviously light on the details, and after mentioning the "rebuild," he moved on to talk South Korea and China. So it's unclear if a deal is really in the works, or if Trump was just stumbling through the region on his way to discuss South Korea.
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Oct 22, 2019
The crowd hurled potatoes that thudded on the sides of the hulking U.S. armored vehicles. "What happened to Americans?" one man shouted in English up at the sole U.S. soldier visible on the back of a vehicle. It was yet another indignity in a U.S. withdrawal that has been carried out over the past two weeks with more haste and violence than expected — and which may now be partially reversed.
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Oct 22, 2019
Some Democrats are putting up caution signs for Hillary Clinton as she wades back into presidential politics by casting 2020 candidate Tulsi Gabbard as a "Russian asset," mocking President Donald Trump's dealings with a foreign leader and drawing counterattacks from both. Bernie Sanders, who lost the 2016 nomination to Clinton and is running again in 2020, took to Twitter with implicit criticisms of his erstwhile rival. Larry Cohen, one of Sanders' top supporters, was more conciliatory but warned in an interview that Clinton could harm the eventual 2020 nominee by weighing in against specific candidates, even a longshot like Gabbard.
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Oct 22, 2019
After shutting the door on a 2020 run again and again, might former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton still have it ever so slightly open?A new report from The New York Times describing how some Democrats are "daydreaming" about another candidate making an unlikely late entrance into the race includes the detail that Clinton, in recent weeks, has been saying that if she "thought [she] could win," she "would consider entering the primary," although she's "skeptical there would be an opening." Still, Clinton is reportedly being encouraged to enter the race, and the report details how she has "concerns" about Democrats' current 2020 field, worried about the "durability" of former Vice President Joe Biden's campaign and the "liberal politics" of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), being "unsure of who else can emerge to take on" Trump. This report comes days after the endless 2020 speculation surrounding Clinton ramped up when she took a shot at Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) by on a podcast suggesting Russians are "grooming" her to run as a third party candidate. Gabbard hit back by challenging Clinton to "join the race directly." Clinton, who recently tweeted at President Trump that he shouldn't "tempt me" to get into the race, would consider a run if Biden "drops out or is badly weakened," the Times reports, citing Democrats close to her. Clinton isn't the only name being floated to possibly make a late entrance, with former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg also reportedly telling allies he'd run if he saw an opening, and with former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) also reportedly being u
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Oct 22, 2019
The Trump Administration's revised final fuel economy standards for U.S. vehicles should be released by the end of the year, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency chief Andrew Wheeler said on Tuesday. Wheeler said the final proposal will not be look "exactly like" the original one announced in August 2018 to freeze fuel efficiency standards at 2020 levels through 2026. Work is continuing on revisions to the vehicle efficiency and emissions standards, which are overseen by EPA and the Department of Transportation, he said.
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Oct 22, 2019
Hillary Clinton has told people privately that she would consider joining the 2020 Democratic primary, but only if she thought she could win.The private conversations were aired publicly in a new report from The New York Times, which spoke with several people involved with Democratic politics, many of whom are concerned that the current crop of candidates is less than ideal.
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Oct 22, 2019
(Bloomberg) -- U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren waded into last month's turmoil in short-term funding markets, warning Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin not to use the incident as a rationale for weakening post-financial crisis regulations.Warren, a front-runner in the race to challenge Donald Trump in the 2020 U.S. presidential election, sent a letter to the Treasury on Friday. In it, she sought Mnuchin's views on what triggered the spike in rates for repurchase agreements and expressed concern about potential costs to businesses and consumers if strains persist.She also set herself up for another fight with Wall Street, citing a Reuters article reporting that large banks were using the repo-market chaos to pressure the Federal Reserve to weaken liquidity rules "they have long despised." Warren said she's concerned the Financial Stability Oversight Council, whose chair is Mnuchin, might support those efforts."These rules were designed to ensure that banks have enough cash on hand to meet their obligations in the event of another market crash," Warren said. "Banks are reporting profits at record levels, and it would be painfully ironic if unexplained chaos in a small corner of the banking market became an excuse to further loosen rules that protect the economy from these types of risks."The Treasury Department declined to comment on Warren's letter. On Oct. 16, in response to a reporter's question, Mnuchin rejected the notion that the U.S. government's heavy issuance of debt contributed to the tumult and instead blamed a c
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Oct 22, 2019
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi disseminated a "fact sheet" on Monday outlining how President Trump, in her words, "betrayed his oath of office, betrayed our national security and betrayed the integrity of our elections for his own personal political gain" in his dealings with the Ukrainian government.
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Oct 22, 2019
A French tourist has lost both her hands in a rare shark attack in the Pacific islands of Polynesia, say emergency services. The woman was swimming during a whale-watching trip on Monday off the island of Mo'orea, a honeymoon destination in the French overseas territory, when the oceanic whitetip shark bit into her chest and arms.
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Oct 22, 2019
University of Connecticut students Jarred Karal and Ryan Mucaj were arrested by campus police Monday night and charged with violating a Connecticut hate crime statute for using a racial slur in an incident captured on video.One night earlier this month, Karal and Mucaj — both described by police as white — walked with another individual through the parking lot of a student apartment complex playing "a game in which they yelled vulgar words," according to the incident report. Police allege that the two switched to saying "n*****" when they reached the parking lot, which was loud enough for two people inside to hear.The two were charged under a Connecticut State law that criminalizes ridiculing "any person or class of people on account of creed, religion, color, denomination, nationality, or race." The misdemeanor is punishable by up to 30 days in jail, a fine of $50, or both. The third individual was not charged for saying the slur.It is unclear whether the statute violates First Amendment grounds. "It is supportive of our core values to pursue accountability, through due process, for an egregious assault on our community that has caused considerable harm," UConn President Thomas C. Katsouleas said in a statement late Monday.Karal and Mucaj were released after promising to return for a scheduled court date on October 30.After the video went viral online, Campus blowback was swift. The administration,
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Oct 22, 2019
It's sad that instead of doing something useful with her post-political career, Clinton has decided to lob ludicrous accusations at younger Democrats‘Even though Gabbard may be a flawed messenger, the message itself is correct: we no longer need to hear what Hillary Clinton thinks about anything.' Photograph: Richard Drew/APHillary Clinton has kept a relatively low profile since her embarrassing 2016 election defeat, popping up only occasionally to make out-of-touch elitist comments that confirm why she lost. So it was somewhat surprising to hear her weigh in on the 2020 Democratic primary with a truly bizarre comment about (of all people) Tulsi Gabbard.Clinton accused the Hawaii congresswoman of being groomed by outside forces, saying: "I think they've got their eye on somebody who is currently in the Democratic primary and are grooming her to be the third-party candidate … She's the favorite of the Russians." There is some dispute about whether Clinton meant it was the Russians or Republicans who were pushing a third-party Gabbard candidacy, but a Clinton spokesman asked about the comments replied "if the nesting doll fits", clearly implying it was dastardly Russians.Gabbard immediately hit back hard, calling Clinton (accurately) "the queen of warmongers, embodiment of corruption, and personification of the rot that has sickened the Democratic party for so long". While hosts of The View backed up Clinton, calling Gabbard a "useful idiot", others such as the Vermont senator Bernie Sanders and South Bend's mayo
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Oct 22, 2019
(Bloomberg) -- The European Commission will consider ending a 12-year corruption and judiciary monitoring mechanism for Bulgaria, though it slammed neighboring Romania for a lack of progress in fighting graft.The two countries have been under EU scrutiny since joining the bloc in 2007 amid concerns over the rule of law. Neither has been granted membership of the EU's passport-free Schengen area.Bulgaria has achieved "sufficient" progress over judiciary and graft-fight commitments made at the time of its accession to the EU, the Commission said Tuesday. Even so, dozens of investigations over two years into high-ranking politicians have yet to bring about meaningful convictions. The Commission will take a final decision on ending the monitoring mechanism after consulting member states and the European parliament.The country -- the EU's poorest -- still ranks worst among the bloc's members in Transparency International's latest Corruption Perceptions Index."Bulgaria will need to continue working consistently on translating the commitments reflected in this report into concrete legislation and on continued implementation," the Commission said. "Bulgaria will need to monitor the continued implementation of the reform with a newly-established post-monitoring council."The report comes at a time when Bulgaria is picking a new prosecutor general in a procedure criticized by non-governmental organizations for the lack of competition. The commission noted the commitment by the government to put in place procedures concerning the accountability of the top prosecutor, it said.Romania -- which is fourth in the corruption index, ahead of Hungary and Greece -- was criticized for controversial c
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Oct 22, 2019
Chris the sheep, who was rescued in 2015, set the record for the world's heaviest fleece sheared from a sheep, carrying 90 pounds of wool at the time.
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Oct 22, 2019
(Bloomberg) -- Six years after Croatia joined the European Union, the Balkan nation is getting a green light from the European Commission to join the bloc's passport-free Schengen area.Croatia has continued to fulfill all of Schengen criteria, the Commission said in a statement in Brussels on Tuesday. The European Council would still need to sign off on Croatia's accession. It's the latest country to join the EU."I commend Croatia for its efforts and perseverance to meet all the necessary conditions to join Schengen," President Jean-Claude Juncker said in a statement. "This is why I trust the member states will take the right steps for Croatia to become a full Schengen member soon."Fellow EU nations Romania and Bulgaria, which joined the bloc in 2007, are still waiting to join the world's largest multinational free-travel zone.(Updates with comments from Juncker from third paragraph.)To contact the reporter on this story: Jasmina Kuzmanovic in Zagreb at jkuzmanovic@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Andrea Dudik at adudik@bloomberg.net, ;Ben Sills at bsills@bloomberg.net, ;Nikos Chrysoloras at nchrysoloras@bloomberg.net, Michael WinfreyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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Oct 22, 2019
"All Republicans must remember what they are witnessing here - a lynching," Trump wrote in a Tuesday tweet.
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Oct 22, 2019
A video posted online shows a man wearing a "Make America Great Again" hat circling the crowd and then unleashing a torrent of spray from a canister.
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Oct 22, 2019
Three booming cheers of "Banzai!" rang out Tuesday at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo as Naruhito formally declared his ascension to the Chrysanthemum Throne as the nation's 126th emperor. As a driving autumn rain briefly gave way to sunshine and 2,000 guests looked on, Naruhito pledged at an elaborate, ritual-laden ceremony to serve as a symbol of the state for his people. The enthronement ceremony is the high point of several succession rituals that began in May when Naruhito inherited the throne after the abdication of Akihito, his father.
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Oct 22, 2019
Monthly premiums for an average 2020 Obamacare health insurance plan will fall about 4 percent from this year, according to a report released Tuesday by the Trump administration, which has tried to dismantle the program. The Trump administration has cut back on funding for the health insurance program, which was created by President Barack Obama as part of the Affordable Care Act and is often called Obamacare, and has sought to overturn it in Congress and legal courts. Obamacare provides needs-based subsidies to help low-income people buy health insurance.
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Oct 22, 2019
Rioting broke out in parts of Bolivia among opponents of President Evo Morales after electoral authorities announced that a resumed vote count after a day-long delay put the leader close to avoiding a runoff in his bid for a fourth term. Morales' opponents accused officials of trying to help the president avoid a runoff battle in which he could lose to a unified opposition. A U.S. State Department accused Bolivian authorities of trying to subvert the vote, and an observer mission from the Organization of American States expressed concerns about the counting process.
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Oct 22, 2019
Kurdish politician Hevrin Khalaf spent the final months of her life building a political party that she hoped would help shape Syria's future, drawing the attention of U.S. officials who said it would have a say in what happened once the war ended. To her colleagues in the Future Syria Party and Kurdish communities in Syria's northeast more broadly, her killing became a symbol of betrayal by the United States. As recently as Oct. 3, State Department officials reassured her at a meeting that Washington would safeguard northern Syria from a threatened Turkish assault by mediating between Kurdish-led forces and Ankara, according to a colleague who was present.
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Oct 22, 2019
British police plan to travel to the U.S. to interview an American diplomat's wife involved in a crash that killed a British teenager. Northamptonshire Police Chief Nick Adderley said Tuesday that officers will travel as soon as their visas are arranged. "Lawyers have clearly stated that the suspect wants to be personally interviewed by officers from Northamptonshire Police in order for them to see her and the devastation this has caused her and her family," Adderley told a press conference.
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Oct 22, 2019
Japanese Emperor Naruhito and his wife, Masako, are hosting a palace banquet for some 400 guests including foreign royals and dignitaries following his enthronement ceremony. Naruhito changed into a formal tailcoat decorated with medals, while Masako wore a long white dress and a tiara. Earlier Tuesday, Naruhito, dressed in a traditional costume, proclaimed himself as Japan's 126th emperor at the Imperial Palace, months after he succeeded the Chrysanthemum Throne in May after his father abdicated.
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Oct 22, 2019
AFrench tourist has lost both her hands in a rare shark attack in the Pacific islands of Polynesia, say emergency services. The 35-year-old woman was swimming during a whale-watching trip on Monday off the island of Mo'orea - a honeymoon destination in the French overseas territory - when the oceanic whitetip shark bit into her chest and arms. "Luckily for her, there were two nurses on the scene who could deliver first aid," firefighter Jean-Jacques Riveta told AFP. "When we got to the hotel jetty, she was conscious but in a critical condition. She had lost a lot of blood and both her hands had been cut off at the forearm," along with part of her chest, he said. She was airlifted to the nearby island of Tahiti, some 11 miles northeast. Her condition is reportedly stable. The conservationist and oceanographic researcher Jacques Cousteau described the oceanic whitetip as "the most dangerous of all sharks", notorious for picking off survivors of shipwrecks or downed aircraft. However, attacks near land are uncommon as it prefers off-shore, deep-ocean areas and rarely approaches the coast. The French tourist was attacked by an oceanic whitetip Credit: Jacek Dybowski/Mercury Press Experts said the sharks, dubbed locally "parata", are known to follow dolphin pods. Pierrick Seybald, president of the Ma'O shark protection foundation and local whale-watching guide, said they can be approached as long as "you always keep eye contact with the shark and adopt appropriate body language with gui
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Oct 22, 2019
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D., Calif.) chastised House Republicans on Monday night for retaliating against his efforts to impeach President Trump rather than assisting in the process."It will be said of House Republicans, When they found they lacked the courage to confront the most dangerous and unethical president in American history, They consoled themselves by attacking those who did," he wrote on Twitter.On Monday, the House rejected along party lines a resolution, originally introduced by Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Biggs (R., Ariz.), that called for Schiff's resignation and accused him of "egregiously false and fabricated retelling" of President Trump's July 25 phone call. The censure resolution also accused Schiff of making "a mockery of the impeachment process, one of this chamber's most solemn constitutional duties."Biggs was joined by Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.), Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R., La.), and conference Chairwoman Liz Cheney (R., Wyo.) in sponsoring the bill. Following the vote, McCarthy accused Democrats of electing "to put politics over truth." JUST NOW ? 185 Republicans voted to move forward to condemn and censure Chairman Adam Schiff. Democrats instead chose to put politics over the truth. Shame on them. pic.twitter.com/7yPyQ96UXX -- Kevin McCarthy (@GOPLeader) October 21, 2019House Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued her own statement following the vote, calling Schiff "a great American patriot" for his pursuit of impeachment,."Wh
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Oct 22, 2019
This mom's 'ghost baby' baby monitor mix-up has us all laughing. Maritza Elizabeth's post on Facebook has gone viral.
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Oct 22, 2019
China on Tuesday issued major Chinese and international soybean crushers with tariff-free quota to import soybeans from the United States, according to three people briefed on a government meeting to discuss the issue. The quota to import U.S. soybeans was issued to state-owned crushers, privately owned crushers and major international trading houses with crushing plants in China, said two of the people. A total of 10 million tonnes was issued at the meeting, which was hosted by the state planner, said one of the sources.
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Oct 22, 2019
US troops were set to redeploy on the Iraq-Syria border, but Iraq said the US didn't get permission.
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Oct 22, 2019
Air France flight 136 to Chicago from Paris landed at Ireland's Shannon Airport, where the police scanned a cellphone found on board.
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Oct 22, 2019
The Detroit Metro Airport joins Pittsburgh and Tampa in allowing non-flyers to go through the security checkpoints.
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Oct 22, 2019
Syrian President Bashar al Assad on Tuesday denounced Turkey's leader as a thief for attacking the northeast of his country and reiterated a pledge to retake all areas lost to Damascus in years of civil war, state media reported. Assad made the remarks as he made a rare visit to a frontline of Syria's conflict, touring an area in war-torn northwestern Idlib province close to the last major bastion of Turkey-backed rebel forces. Assad was seen surrounded by army commanders and soldiers in the town of Hobeit, which the army took in August as part of a Russian-led offensive to capture Idlib and its surroundings."Erdogan is a thief and is now stealing our land," state media quoted Assad as saying, referring to Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan.
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Oct 22, 2019
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hung onto power on Tuesday, after a tight election reduced his Liberal government to a minority, a result that will likely push his agenda to the left while alienating energy producing provinces. Trudeau, one of the world's most prominent progressive politicians, struggled with domestic scandals that dented his popularity among Canadians and led to a drop in the Liberal vote across the country on Monday. The party also trailed the main opposition Conservatives in the popular vote by just over a percentage point.
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Oct 22, 2019
Warren, a Massachusetts senator, is scheduled to visit with striking Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) teachers in the morning, according to her campaign. About 300,000 students have been out of school since Thursday when the system's 25,000 teachers went on strike. Late on Monday, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot called for the union to end the strike and make a deal with the Chicago Public Schools (CPS).
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Oct 22, 2019
Warren, a Massachusetts senator and former teacher, joined a crowd of hundreds of teachers and parents outside an elementary school to back the Chicago teachers' demands for more resources, and promised to boost funding for U.S. public schools if elected president in 2020.
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Oct 22, 2019
U.S. Democratic presidential contender Elizabeth Warren rallied with striking Chicago teachers on Tuesday, expressing support for the union's demands before the country's third-largest school system canceled classes for a fifth day. Warren, a U.S. senator from Massachusetts and former teacher, joined a crowd of hundreds of teachers and parents outside an elementary school to back the Chicago teachers' demands for more resources, and promised to boost funding for U.S. public schools if elected president in 2020.
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Oct 22, 2019
Defeating jihadists in Idlib is the key to ending Syria's eight-year-old civil war, President Bashar al-Assad said Tuesday on his first visit to the embattled northwestern region since 2011. "The battle of Idlib is the basis for resolving chaos and terrorism in all other areas of Syria," Assad's office quoted him as telling troops in the frontline town of Al-Hbeit.
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Oct 22, 2019
President Donald Trump seems to think a Democratic impeachment inquiry may not pose a threat — a view some around him consider dangerously complacent.
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Oct 22, 2019
In a long, televised Cabinet meeting Monday, President Trump tried to defend himself from criticism of his aborted decision to host next year's G7 summit at his own golf resort outside Miami, though "of course it wouldn't be a Trump meeting if it didn't go off on some rambling tangent about his rally crowd size," Stephen Colbert said on Monday's Late Show. But "Trump's not the only one defending his right to blow off the Constitution." So is acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, iffily.Mulvaney told Fox News Sunday that Trump still thinks he's in the "hospitality business," Colbert said. "But admitting that the president still thinks he's running a for-profit business isn't even Mulvaney's biggest gaffe of that interview." He backed up a bit to explain how, in Trump's eyes, Mulvaney messed up. "Throughout this impeachment inquiry, the company line from the administration has been there was no 'quid pro quo' between Trump and Ukraine," Colbert said. "First of all, you don't need 'quid pro quo,' it's super illegal anyway. And second, yeah, 'quid pro quo,' and on Thursday, Mulvaney admitted it.""Admitting the thing that Trump is being impeached for turned out to be slightly problematic," so on Fox News Sunday, Mulvaney "unveiled his bulletproof defense: He never actually said 'quid pro quo,'" Colbert said. "He does realize you don't have to say the crime to be guilty of the crime, right? To be convicted of homicide, you don't have to stab somebody while saying, 'Murder, murder, murder, murder.'"Yeah, Trump probably reversed course on the G7 because "it is a bad idea to commit an impeachable offense when you're already being impeached," Seth Meyers said on Late Nigh
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Oct 22, 2019
Police in Thailand are investigating the death of a German woman after arresting a German man for allegedly dumping her body into a canal. Thailand's Immigration Police Commissioner Lt. Col. Sompong Chingduang said Tuesday that the dead woman, 77-year-old Margund Schaefer, co-owned a bar in the resort town of Pattaya with Richard Stanislaus and shared a house with him and his Thai girlfriend. The police began their investigation of the case at the request of German authorities after Schaefer's relatives reported losing contact with her.
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Oct 22, 2019
The world is "shocked" that White House trade adviser Peter Navarro made up a fictitious anti-China economist in his books, China's Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday, adding that it is absurd and dangerous to make policy based on lies. The Chronicle of Higher Education reported last week that Navarro invented and quoted an economist named Ron Vara. It said that according to Tessa Morris-Suzuki, an emeritus professor at Australian National University, Vara's name had appeared a dozen times in six of Navarro's nonfiction books but no such person could be found.
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Oct 22, 2019
California firefighters worked through the night into early Tuesday to tackle a pair of wildfires threatening people's homes. Live aerial video footage broadcast by KABC-TV showed flames raging along a ridge-line at the edge of an affluent beach-front neighborhood located between Santa Monica and Malibu about 18 miles (30 km) west of downtown Los Angeles. Initially, a mandatory evacuation was ordered for about 200 homes in the Pacific Palisades community, as ground teams and helicopters worked on putting out hot spots and carving a containment line around the fire zone's perimeter.
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Oct 22, 2019
Chan Tong-kai is set to be released from prison in Hong Kong on Wednesday
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Oct 22, 2019
Courtesy SITEThe recent arrests of Jarrett William Smith, a former U.S. Army soldier who discussed plans to "bomb a major U.S. news network," and Conor Climo, a Las Vegas man who plotted attacks on a synagogue and LGBT bar, give an inkling of the growing threat posed by far-right terrorists in the United States.The problem of white supremacist violence is international. From the horrific attack on a mosque in Christ Church, New Zealand, to the assault on a synagogue in the German city of Halle, the movement often follows the same horrific script—live-streaming the carnage, disseminating a manifesto, comments full of tongue-in-cheek internet references—and governments are scrambling to counter this threat. Atomwaffen Division's Washington State Cell Leader Stripped of Arsenal in U.S., Banned from CanadaBut U.S. laws have a special problem, what might be called a "terror gap" between "foreign" and "domestic" terror organizations.While the arrests of Smith and Climo mark a new level of initiative by the federal government, there is still much more to be done. What allows far-right terrorist groups to thrive in the U.S. is a legal double standard that binds the hands of even the most proactive members of law enforcement.This double standard is exemplified by groups like Atomwaffen, a neo-Nazi paramilitary group with major influence in the far-right online community. A video this past May shows people with Atomwaffen patches on their arms carrying out paramilitary drills with assault rifles. They then burn the flags o
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Oct 22, 2019
Photo Illustration by Kristen Hazzard/The Daily Beast/Photos Getty/ReutersHONG KONG—Yellow shop, blue shop, red shop, black shop?That isn't the first line in a modern nursery rhyme. Rather, it outlines an act of resistance that the people of Hong Kong participate in every day.Recognizing that the path to true self-governance is one that will take years, if not longer, Hongkongers are adopting small-scale actions so that the protest movement does not stall. Medical professionals have daily strikes during daylight hours. In the evenings, people meet at certain public squares or in shopping mall atriums so they have a constant, regular presence. At night, some yell out protest slogans through their apartment windows. Hong Kong Imposes Face Mask Ban, Inflaming ProtestersStreet-level actions don't have the seven-figure turnout like months ago, and are often more scattered throughout the city. There's worry that Carrie Lam, Hong Kong's chief executive, will invoke emergency powers and cancel the upcoming district elections, where pro-democracy candidates are expected to grab many new seats. So, Hongkongers have shifted tactics, and are, for now, voting with their wallets.For the past few weeks, lists of businesses have been circulating in Hong Kong, each name carrying a color code that defines the stance of its proprietors and general outlook regarding the ongoing protests that have evolved into a movement to shake off the Chinese Communist Party's influence in the city's affairs.Shops and brands that are "y
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Oct 22, 2019
U.S. forces that crossed into Iraq as part of a pull-out from Syria do not have permission to stay and can only be there in transit, the Iraqi military said on Tuesday. The Iraqi statement contradicts the Pentagon's announcement that all of the nearly 1,000 troops withdrawing from northern Syria are expected to move to western Iraq to continue the campaign against Islamic State militants and "to help defend Iraq". A senior U.S. defence official later clarified that the situation was still fluid and plans could change.
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Oct 22, 2019
BAGHDAD/PRINCE SULTAN AIR BASE, Saudi Arabia, Oct 22 (Reuters) - U .S. forces that crossed into Iraq as part of a pull-out from Syria do not have permission to stay and can only be there in transit, the Iraqi military said on Tuesday. U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said, however, that Washington aimed eventually to bring the troops withdrawing from Syria back to the United States.
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Oct 22, 2019
The European Council president said on Tuesday that London's request for an extension of its deadline for divorce from the EU should be taken seriously, and the bloc's other members would never take a decision that forces Britain out with no deal. Donald Tusk told the European Parliament that he was discussing Prime Minister Boris Johnson's request for a Brexit delay beyond Oct. 31 with the leaders of the other 27 member states and would make a decision "in the coming days". "I have no doubt that we should treat the British request for an extension in all seriousness," he told lawmakers in the Strasbourg assembly of the European Union parliament.
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Oct 22, 2019
A New York court has formally handed the US ownership of a North Korean cargo ship seized for violating international sanctions, the Justice Department said. The 17,061 ton bulk carrier Wise Honest -- the first North Korean vessel seized by Washington for sanctions violations -- was caught carrying a $3 million shipment of coal in Indonesian waters last year and later handed over to US authorities. The court in the Southern District of New York ordered the vessel to be forfeited to Washington and for the Treasury Department to "dispose of" it, an order released by the Justice Department showed.
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Oct 22, 2019
(Bloomberg) -- The technology industry is looking for something different in a president in 2020. And it appears Pete Buttigieg is their candidate.While Joe Biden and Senator Elizabeth Warren are topping national polls in the contest for the Democratic Party's nomination, California's deep-pocketed Silicon Valley is donating to the 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Indiana over the former vice president by a 5-to-1 margin."Pete is a clean slate for the party in ways Biden can't be," said Cyrus Radfar, a 35-year-old technology entrepreneur and Democratic donor. "There's new life and new energy that Pete brings, especially as the base of the Democratic Party is getting younger. I think he's going to be on the national stage for a long time."Buttigieg has staged a fundraising blitz in posh Northern California communities, holding events hosted by technology executives such as Netflix Inc. Chief Executive Officer Reed Hastings, Nest Labs home-automation company co-founder Matt Rogers, and Chelsea Kohler, director of product communications at Uber Technologies Inc., among others.Were he to win, Buttigieg would not only be the youngest president, but also the first openly gay one. While he is successfully raising money, Buttigieg has struggled until recently to enter the top tier of candidates nationally.But there are signs that he could be a moderate voter's alternative to Biden. While raising money in California, Buttigieg is campaigning heavily in Iowa, and it appears both efforts are paying off. A USA Tod
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Oct 22, 2019
A convoy of five American cargo ships made a simulated run through hostile waters in September 2019 during a sprawling, short-notice test of the U.S. fleet's ability to ship people and cargo during a major war. The simulated, World War II-style convoy underscored the importance of sealift to U.S. war plans, as well as the shortage of naval escorts that has incited a minor panic among military planners.
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Oct 22, 2019
(Bloomberg) -- As Hong Kong's historic protests become increasingly violent, mainland Chinese living in the city are becoming increasingly fearful.Min, who moved to Hong Kong from the mainland in 1995 and now runs his own hedge fund, said the startling escalation in mayhem prompted him to tell his children not to speak Mandarin in public for fear they'll get beaten up in the Cantonese-speaking city.Before going out for dinner, Min checks his phone for news on which city streets are blocked due to mass marches or violent clashes. He stopped flying on the city's flagship carrier, Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd., where some staff took part in protests and others were fired after investigations into depleted oxygen tanks. With battles between police and black-clad mobs becoming pervasive, Min said he's considered moving his business to Shanghai and his family to Canada."They have no moral bottom line as to what they'll do to achieve their goals," Min, who asked that his full name not be used for fear of retribution, said of the protesters. "Fingers crossed, I believe the police can crush this."The strife ripping through Hong Kong -- with police officers and protesters in hand-to-hand combat, subway stations set ablaze and an improvised explosive device detonated near a police car -- looks very different to the city's mainland-born residents. More than 1 million mainlanders, including many professionals, have migrated across the border since China regained control of the former British colony in 1997, helping swell i
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Oct 22, 2019
Brexit is 9 days away.(Bloomberg) -- Sign up here to get the Brexit Bulletin in your inbox every weekday.Today in Brexit: Boris Johnson vowed the U.K. would leave the European Union on Oct. 31. A vote in Parliament today may determine whether he can keep his promise.What's happening? Prime Minister Boris Johnson is giving Parliament only a few days to debate the most important change to Britain's constitution in almost 50 years. His government, thwarted again on Monday in its plan to put Johnson's Brexit deal to a straight vote in the House of Commons, will instead today begin a rapid attempt to pass key implementing legislation in time to leave the EU on Oct. 31. By the end of this evening the Commons is scheduled to have voted several times on aspects of the prime minister's plan, giving a clear indication of how the final stages of this lengthy divorce might play out. There are opportunities for Johnson, as well as major potential pitfalls. Bloomberg's Tim Ross and Robert Hutton have the full timetable and details here.The choreography will see a legislative process, which often takes weeks to play out, compressed into three days of debate. Here's how the government sees things unfolding.It probably won't be that simple. Lawmakers only got to see the 110 pages of the legislation, known as the Withdrawal Agreement Bill, on Monday evening. It comes with 125 pages of explanatory notes. As Hutton noted last night, there is more to scrutinize than simply reading the documents.There are two moments to watch today: The first vote, known as the Second Reading, s
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Oct 22, 2019
(Bloomberg) -- Najib Razak engaged in a "planned, premeditated criminal breach of trust case" that ran over many years, prosecutors said in the first of two trials investigating Malaysia's former prime minister's involvement in the corruption scandal that has enveloped troubled state fund 1MDB.This case, which will soon draw to a close, hinges on whether he knew the $10 million deposited in his accounts came from a former unit of 1MDB, with his lawyers arguing there's no link between the funds and decisions he took as the country's leader.Najib's defense said prosecutors haven't shown evidence that he had a "corrupt intent" to take the 42 million ringgit ($10 million) found in his personal account, which was allegedly siphoned from SRC International Sdn., a former 1MDB unit. The lawyers also argued there was no link between the sum and Najib's decisions related to SRC, which they said would mean the funds don't constitute a bribe.Prosecutors argued that it's "incredible" for Najib to say he wasn't aware of the sum sent to his personal accounts since he made no police reports and didn't sue the bank for wrongful deposit.That Najib later issued checks from those accounts showed he knew the money was there, prosecutors said, adding "such an assumption can only be made by the accused if he knew that funds were being pumped into his account unless of course the accused believed that the money in his personal account grew on trees."Key TestBoth sides read out their case submissions on Tuesday. The judge will decide on N
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Oct 22, 2019
California firefighters are wrestling with the Palisades Fire burning in a Los Angeles hillside and threatening multimillion-dollar homes.
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Oct 22, 2019
Less than two weeks after blacking out much of Northern California, the state's largest utility is warning that dangerous fire weather could prompt it to shut off power to about a half-million people. Pacific Gas & Electric began notifying customers Monday that it could begin precautionary shutoffs to parts of 16 counties as early as Wednesday, mostly in the Sierra foothills and to the north of the San Francisco Bay Area. Any blackouts would last at least 48 hours, the utility said.
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Oct 22, 2019
U.S. lawmakers conducting an impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump will hear on Tuesday from the top U.S. official in Ukraine, who once said it was "crazy" to withhold military aid for the country for domestic political reasons. William Taylor, a former Army officer and career U.S. diplomat now leading the U.S. embassy in Kiev, will be the latest in a series of current and former officials to meet behind closed doors with the Democratic-led House of Representatives Foreign Affairs, Intelligence and Oversight Committees in the month since the probe began.
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Oct 22, 2019
The UK government was warned by the US embassy that the suspect in the crash which killed Harry Dunn was to leave the country. Mr Dunn, 19, was killed when his motorbike collided with a car near RAF Croughton, Northants, on Aug 27. Anne Sacoolas, the wife of an American diplomat, has admitted to driving on the wrong side of the road and hitting the teenager, but she returned to the US and has refused to come back. Dominic Raab, the Foreign Secretary, told the Commons last night that the US embassy alerted them to Ms Sacoolas's "imminent" departure "unless the UK had strong objections" on Sept 13. Police were unable to arrest Ms Sacoolas as the US had not waived her diplomatic immunity. "We duly and immediately objected in clear and strong terms and we have done ever since," said Mr Raab. When the Foreign Office followed up on Sept 16, the embassy said Ms Sacoolas had returned to the US. Mr Dunn's family spokesman said the revelation "added insult to injury". Harry Dunn died in August but the driver of the car that hit him has not returned to the UK to face questioning Credit: Facebook The Foreign Secretary said the case had been raised at "every level" in the US, including with Donald Trump. In a statement, Mr Raab said: "I have already commissioned a review of the immunity arrangements of US personnel and their families at the Croughton annex I do not believe the current arrangements are right and the review will look at how we can make sure they cannot be used in this way again." Mr Raab said diplomatic immunity for
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Oct 22, 2019
(Bloomberg) -- Japan completed the months-long coronation of Emperor Naruhito in an elaborate ceremony in Tokyo, as assembled global royalty and political leaders looked on.Clad in layers of intricately patterned silk, Naruhito and his consort, Empress Masako, assumed their seats in a ritual that began at the Imperial Palace in central Tokyo at 1 p.m. Tuesday. The emperor and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe were expected to both give speeches at the ceremony, at which about 180 countries will be represented.The ceremony, steeped in centuries of tradition, includes the presentation of the sacred sword and jewel that are part of the imperial regalia, which has been passed through generations of monarchs who have ascended the Chrysanthemum Throne. A parade through the capital in an open-topped limousine set for Tuesday has been put off until Nov. 10 out of respect for the victims of a typhoon earlier in October, which has killed at least 78 people and caused billions of dollars in damage.Naruhito and Masako will host the first in a series of formal banquets at the palace on Tuesday evening, where traditional court music and dance will be performed. Abe will also host a banquet at a hotel the following day.Naruhito, 59, is by the Imperial Household Agency's count, Japan's 126th emperor. His grandfather Hirohito, was the last emperor designated by tradition to be a living god. After Japan's defeat in 1945, the U.S. kept Hirohito on the throne to build unity, but made the position of emperor one for a mortal who had n
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Oct 22, 2019
The United States was awarded ownership of a North Korean cargo ship that was seized for violating international sanctions, the US Justice Department said. The Wise Honest -- the first North Korean vessel to be seized by the US for sanctions violation -- was caught carrying a $3 million shipment of coal in Indonesian waters last year and later handed over to the US. The latest ruling by the Southern District of New York finalises the US government's seizure of the North Korean vessel and ends its use in a "criminal scheme", the Justice Department said in a statement.
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Oct 22, 2019
NBCSeth Meyers had a lot of news to catch up on when he returned from vacation on Monday. And much of it had to do with the Trump administration's failed attempts to clean up its multiple calamities on the Sunday shows over the weekend. The Late Night host began with Trump's "acting" Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, who went on Fox News Sunday to explain why the president announced that he would be holding the G7 conference at his Miami Doral resort in Florida and then reversed his decision after loud protests from both sides of the political aisle. It's Not Just Ronan Farrow: NBC News Killed My Rape-Allegation Story TooStephen Colbert Mocks Mitt Romney's ‘Embarrassing' Secret Twitter Account"He was honestly surprised at the level of pushback," Mulvaney said, adding, "At the end of the day, you know, he still considers himself to be in the hospitality business." "OK, first of all, he's not in the hospitality business, he's the president," Meyers said. "And second, Trump was never in the hospitality business. Hospitality is when you show warmth and compassion to guests and strangers. Trump was in the ruthless-real-estate-asshole-who-stands-like-a-baboon-on-his-hind-legs business." Later, Meyers turned to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who appeared on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos and repeatedly refused to acknowledge Mulvaney's confession that there had, in fact, been a "quid pro quo" with Ukraine. "You could see his brain short-circuit in real time," Meyers said before playing the now
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Oct 22, 2019
NBCSeth Meyers had a lot of news to catch up on when he returned from vacation on Monday. And much of it had to do with the Trump administration's failed attempts to clean up its multiple calamities on the Sunday shows over the weekend. The Late Night host began with Trump's "acting" Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, who went on Fox News Sunday to explain why the president announced that he would be holding the G7 conference at his Miami Doral resort in Florida and then reversed his decision after loud protests from both sides of the political aisle. It's Not Just Ronan Farrow: NBC News Killed My Rape-Allegation Story TooStephen Colbert Mocks Mitt Romney's ‘Embarrassing' Secret Twitter Account"He was honestly surprised at the level of pushback," Mulvaney said, adding, "At the end of the day, you know, he still considers himself to be in the hospitality business." "OK, first of all, he's not in the hospitality business, he's the president," Meyers said. "And second, Trump was never in the hospitality business. Hospitality is when you show warmth and compassion to guests and strangers. Trump was in the ruthless-real-estate-asshole-who-stands-like-a-baboon-on-his-hind-legs business." Later, Meyers turned to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who appeared on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos and repeatedly refused to acknowledge Mulvaney's confession that there had, in fact, been a "quid pro quo" with Ukraine. "You could see his brain short-circuit in real time," Meyers said before playing the now
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Oct 21, 2019
In a poll before the Ukraine scandal, 98% of Republicans who said Fox News was their main news source said Trump shouldn't be impeachment and removed.
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Oct 21, 2019
Fox NewsDuring his Fox News primetime interview with close friend and confidant Sean Hannity on Monday night, President Trump took aim at his 2016 presidential election foe, calling Hillary Clinton "crazy" and "sick" for suggesting Russians were "grooming" Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) for a third-party presidential bid.Clinton sparked a multi-day controversy last week when she said on a podcast that Gabbard is a "favorite of the Russians" and that former Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein is a "Russian asset," suggesting they could both be involved in helping Russia tilt the election for Trump. Clinton did not offer any proof at the time to back up her claims. Gabbard quickly hit back on Twitter, labeling Clinton the "queen of warmongers" while asserting the former secretary of state's attacks were part of a "concerted campaign" to sully Gabbard's reputation.Having defended both Stein and Gabbard earlier in the day while speaking to reporters at a Cabinet meeting, insisting "there's something wrong" and "sick" with Clinton, Trump picked right up on that theme during his Hannity interview.Complaining about former Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report on Russian election interference, the president quickly pivoted to complaints about Clinton's attacks on Gabbard and Stein."Just like she did with Tulsi Gabbard," Trump grumbled. "Just like she did with Jill Stein. She said, ‘Jill Stein is a Russian asset.'"Claiming he didn't know either Stein or
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Oct 21, 2019
South Korea's President Moon Jae-in said Seoul would increase military spending and urged the North to return to dialogue in a budget speech Tuesday that could infuriate Pyongyang with nuclear talks gridlocked. Contact between North and South Korea stalled after the collapse of a February summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump in Hanoi. Since then Pyongyang has excoriated its neighbour over joint military drills with the US, and the acquisition of American fighter jets.
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Oct 21, 2019
The story starts in 2005.
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Oct 21, 2019
Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/HandoutThe inter-family standoff over the funeral for Atatiana Jefferson—a black Texas woman fatally shot inside her own home by a white police officer—came to an end Monday after a judge announced the funeral will take place on Thursday and placed a gag order on members of the family from discussing how the dispute was resolved.The 28-year-old was killed on Oct. 12 by former Fort Worth Police Officer Aaron Dean, 35, who shot her through a window after failing to announce himself while performing a welfare check at her home.Her Saturday funeral, which was to feature prominent civil-rights activists at a local megachurch, was cancelled hours before it was set to begin by Dallas County Judge Brenda Hull Thompson amid the family's legal battle over the arrangements.Marquis Jefferson, the 28-year-old's father, was granted a temporary restraining order Friday to stop the burial, after arguing that he would suffer "immediate and irreparable injury" if his daughter's aunt, Venitta Boda, continued with the service planning without his participation and input. "He's the father of the deceased," Walter L. Irvin, his lawyer, said on Friday. "They would not let Mr. Jefferson participate in burial arrangements. That's why we had to seek an injunction."Atatiana Jefferson's Funeral Canceled Amid Family FeudThompson ruled that the father has the authority to make arrangements for his daughter's funeral, according to court records. On Monday, Dallas County
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Oct 21, 2019
President bemoans disunity among his party as he faces criticism from a handful of membersDonald Trump speaks during a cabinet meeting on Monday. Photograph: Yuri Gripas/Pool/EPADonald Trump on Monday demanded Republicans "get tougher and fight" against an intensifying impeachment inquiry that has strained their allegiance to the president.In a meandering, hour-long back-and-forth with reporters a White House cabinet meeting earlier on Monday, Trump said Democrats were "vicious" in their pursuit of uncovering his alleged wrongdoing but that they "stick together", an insinuation that his party was not as united."The Republicans have to get tougher and fight," Trump said. "We have some that are great fighters, but they have to get tougher and fight, because the Democrats are trying to hurt the Republican party before the election."He added: "They don't have Mitt Romney in their midst. They don't have people like that. They stick together."Trump continues to hold his party captive, and few Republicans have indicated that they are open to efforts to remove him from office. But the chorus of critics, led by Senator Mitt Romney of Utah, is growing louder as public polling shows a sharp uptick in support for the Democrats' impeachment inquiry.Ahead of the meeting, the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, distributed a "fact sheet" that accused Trump of a "stunning abuse" of presidential power that unfolded in three acts that she headlined the "shakedown", the "pressure campaign" and the "cover up". As Dem
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Oct 21, 2019
A family dispute that delayed the services for a woman killed at her home by a police officer in Fort Worth, Texas, has been resolved with a rescheduled funeral.
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Oct 21, 2019
Fox NewsSen. Rand Paul (R-KY) took aim at several unnamed Republican senators on Monday night, telling Fox News' Tucker Carlson that many of his GOP colleagues are more loyal to the so-called "Deep State" than to the president while criticizing Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) for not doing more to investigate Democrats.Noting at the top of his primetime Fox News broadcast that Graham promised to use his chairmanship of the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee to get to the bottom of the Russia investigation, Carlson groused that the South Carolina lawmaker hadn't made any progress exposing the "bureaucratic coup" against President Donald Trump."So far, Graham's tenure has been defined by total inaction," Carlson grumbled. "He has subpoenaed neither [former Deputy FBI Director Andrew] McCabe nor [ex-Deputy Attorney General Rod] Rosenstein, nor has he launched an investigation. Now his inaction extends to the Ukraine saga."Paul, meanwhile, claimed that he has urged Graham both publicly and privately to open up investigations and bring in people such as former CIA Director John Brennan and former British counterintelligence officer Christopher Steele to testify about the origins of the Russia probe."So everything the Democrats have accused President Trump of doing, you know, investigating a political rival with a foreign country, all those same questions should be asked of the Democrats," Paul exclaimed. "Did they do that to Trump?"Carlson wanted to know why Graham hasn't moved on opening a Senate investigation
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