| Judge sets new sentencing date for Michael Flynn Posted: 10 Sep 2019 01:59 PM PDT  A lawyer for Michael Flynn accused federal prosecutors of misconduct on Tuesday as a judge scheduled a December sentencing hearing for President Donald Trump's former national security adviser. The arguments from Flynn attorney Sidney Powell were the latest in a series of aggressive attacks on the foundations of special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation.
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| After breaking glass ceiling in Israel, Druze woman aims for equality Posted: 09 Sep 2019 08:39 PM PDT  "We are proud of you," a voice cries out from the audience of women who came to hear the candidate's political platform in her village of Daliyat al-Karmel, set in the hills of northern Israel. The 35-year-old became the first Druze woman to be elected to Israel's parliament in April, but new polls were called shortly afterwards and she is hoping to win re-election in the September 17 vote. Mreeh is part of the centrist Blue and White alliance led by ex-military chief Benny Gantz, the main rival to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing Likud party.
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| Emails Show McCabe Scrambling to Handle Stories About Hillary Probe Posted: 09 Sep 2019 07:33 AM PDT  Alex Wong/GettyFor months, a huge question has hovered over Washington's legal community: Would the Justice Department charge former acting FBI director Andrew McCabe with a crime? In the wake of a New York Times report that his lawyers met with the deputy attorney general about the DOJ's investigation of McCabe, many suspect charges could be coming. And the D.C. U.S. Attorney's Office has scrutinized allegations that McCabe was not candid with FBI investigators about his role in a news story concerning the FBI's probe into the Clinton Foundation. Now, emails reviewed by The Daily Beast cast additional light on the circumstances that preceded McCabe's firing from the FBI. They show that one FBI official felt the need to clarify to then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein that the FBI's internal investigation into McCabe's behavior wasn't being slow-walked. And they show that former director of national intelligence James Clapper urged FBI Director Chris Wray to shield McCabe from being fired. They also show that in the weeks before the 2016 presidential election, McCabe shared more information about his media contacts with then-FBI Director James Comey than was previously known. McCabe has sued the Justice Department over his firing. The issues these emails shed light on—whether he deserved to be fired and whether the FBI handled the decision correctly—are sure to be front and center if the lawsuit goes to trial. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a government watchdog group, obtained the emails through FOIA litigation and shared them with The Daily Beast. They are also available in the FBI's FOIA vault. CREW's litigation is ongoing. Some of the emails in the tranche cast light on the FBI's scramble to deal with media coverage in the final days of the 2016 presidential campaign. On Oct. 21, 2016, McCabe sent Comey an email with the subject line "Updates." Copied on the email were James Rybicki, who was then Comey's chief of staff, and David Bowdich, who was then associate deputy director of the FBI. McCabe opened with an update on a cyberattack. He then turned to the subject of media. "In the more bad news category, Mike K informed me that Devlin Barrett at WSJ is putting together an article claiming I had a conflict of interest on MYR as a result of Jill's campaign connections to Gov. McCaulife [sic]," McCabe wrote, referring to then-Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe. "I will work with mike to provide some basic facts to push back. And, as always, will keep you advised. I am incredibly sorry for adding to the drama on this." "Mike K" referred to Mike Kortan, then the FBI's public affairs chief. "MYR" referred to Midyear, the FBI's nickname for its investigation of Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server when she was secretary of state. "Outstanding," Comey replied to McCabe. "Don't sweat it."Two days later, McCabe updated Comey and Rybicki on his participation in the then-forthcoming Wall Street Journal story. "Not too much in the update," he wrote. "The only additional notable news is that Mike K and I spent a good part of the day trying to shape the WSJ story on my alleged conflict," he wrote. "Looks like they may try to release it on line tonight. The reporter also called Jill for a comment, so we are working that as well."The Justice Department Inspector General did not mention the emails in his damning report on McCabe, which focused on his role in a second Wall Street Journal story. The report alleged that McCabe lacked candor when he told FBI investigators about how the Journal obtained information about the Bureau's internal deliberations for that second story. One issue has been whether McCabe told Comey about his participation in that story; McCabe has said he did, but Comey has said he has no recollection of McCabe making the disclosure to him. McCabe's lawyers, meanwhile, argue that the Inspector General's report is seriously flawed. Scrutiny of McCabe's work at the FBI grew over the following two years, with congressional Republicans and the president calling for McCabe to be fired and punished. But McCabe also had defenders. Clapper—who has also become a target of the president—sent a handwritten letter to FBI Director Chris Wray on Feb. 25, 2018, praising McCabe and calling for Wray to intercede on his behalf. That letter is in the tranche of documents CREW obtained. In it, Clapper called the criticism of McCabe "completely unjustified and profoundly unfair." "We often appeared as witnesses together at Congressional hearings, where, as you also know, 'bonds' with fellow witnesses can quickly form," he wrote. "I came to know and rely on Andy as steady, straightforward, candid, forthright, and honest." He also praised McCabe for his "sharp intellect, insightful wisdom, unwavering commitment to the mission, self-effacing humility, staunch devotion to the men and women of the Bureau, and, importantly, his impeccable integrity." "I would hope you will consider my observations, which I know are shared uniformly by virtually everyone who knows Andy, and will use your influential voice to insure he is able to complete his career and retire after his 21 years of distinguished service to the Bureau and this nation," Clapper concluded. Clapper's letter came as the FBI's Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) was scrutinizing McCabe. The Inspector General had referred his case to OPR so they could make a recommendation to the Attorney General on how to handle it. In an email sent on March 5, 2018, Candice Will—then the head of the OPR office—updated Bowdich on her team's review of the McCabe investigation. That note includes a line that seems to hint at outside pressure to speed it up."I sent the DAG [Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein] a short email advising that FBI OPR had received the referral from the OIG, we are actively working it, we anticipate providing a proposed action to the subject this week, we will make the file available to the subject—all in accordance with standard procedures—for him to prepare a written response," she wrote. "In doing so, I let the Dept know that we are doing what should be done, not slow walking—we are following established procedures."Bowdich responded by noting that the Bureau would face criticism regardless of how it handled the decision on McCabe. "Thanks Candice, as you know we will be second guessed by some every step of the way however this ends up," he wrote. "As long as we follow the regular process we are where we should be on this issue."It is unclear why Will felt the need to clarify to Rosenstein that her office was "not slow walking" the McCabe review. An FBI spokesperson declined to comment for this story, as did a spokesperson for McCabe. On March 19, 2018, just hours before McCabe would have been eligible to retire and receive his pension, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced his firing. The move horrified his allies, but cheered critics of the Russia probe. And Trump's personal lawyer at the time, John Dowd, praised the move and said Mueller's investigation should be shut down next. The timing of McCabe's firing—and the question of whether Trump's allies pushed for it to be expedited—has become a major point of contention. The emails suggest there may be more to all these pieces of the McCabe story than currently known—and that civil litigation or a criminal trial could generate much more information. 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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| South Africa’s Malema Presents Himself to Police Over Gun Probe Posted: 10 Sep 2019 04:48 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- South African opposition leader Julius Malema presented himself to the police's special investigative unit over allegations that he illegally fired a weapon.Malema arrived at the offices of the so-called Hawks in the capital, Pretoria, on Tuesday. His party, the Economic Freedom Fighters, said Monday the unit would issue a warning statement to Malema. The 38-year-old was filmed allegedly shooting a rifle into the air during the party's five-year anniversary celebrations in the southern town of East London last year.Malema told reporters the Hawks informed him further investigations are being conducted on the incident after a prosecutor refused to move on the evidence presented before him. Known for his abrasive politics, Malema heads the country's third-biggest opposition party and often portrays himself as a defender of the poor."Someone, somewhere is sitting and making stupid decisions and not applying the law," he said. "What is happening here is that they are using us as a diversion."His appearance before the Hawks came a day after the Daily Maverick, a Johannesburg-based news website, alleged that Malema was a beneficiary of funds embezzled from failed VBS Mutual Bank and used the money to finance his political aspirations and lavish lifestyle, including the purchase of Gucci apparel and other luxury items.EFF spokesman Mbuyiseni Ndlozi said he couldn't immediately comment when contacted on Tuesday. The party has previously said there's no proof its officials did anything wrong."The allegations on VBS are a fabrication and unfounded," Malema said. "Louis Vuitton and Gucci, I have worn it before. I don't buy it with VBS money."He said he won't take any action against the Daily Maverick.Read more on EFF and VBS Mutual BankMalema established the EFF in July 2013 after he was expelled from the ruling African National Congress. His party won 11% of the national vote in May 8 elections.(Updates with Malema's comments starting in fourth paragraph.)\--With assistance from Amogelang Mbatha.To contact the reporter on this story: Nkululeko Ncana in Johannesburg at nncana@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Paul Richardson at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net, Rene Vollgraaff, Pauline BaxFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Volkswagen Showed a Glimpse of the ID Electric SUV That's Coming to the U.S. Posted: 10 Sep 2019 03:55 AM PDT  This compact crossover will go on sale in America starting in 2020 and will eventually be built in the States, too.
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| North Korea carried out super-large multiple rocket launcher test on Tuesday: KCNA Posted: 10 Sep 2019 02:16 PM PDT  North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw the testing of a super-large multiple rocket launcher on Tuesday, North Korean state media KCNA said on Wednesday. North Korea fired a new round of short-range projectiles on Tuesday, South Korean officials said, only hours after it signaled a new willingness to resume stalled denuclearization talks with the United States in late September. Kim, who had guided the testing of the same multiple rocket launcher before, said its capabilities have been "finally verified in terms of combat operation," and what remains to be done with the rocket launcher is a "running fire test," KCNA said, without elaborating on what the test would entail.
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| CIA slams CNN, rejects report on Russian spy extraction Posted: 10 Sep 2019 07:22 AM PDT  CNN reported that the CIA pulled a source from Russia in 2017, in part out of concern that the Trump administration had mishandled classified intelligence; chief intelligence correspondent Catherine Herridge reports from Washington.
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| Kamala Harris apologizes for her response to slur after backlash from disability community Posted: 09 Sep 2019 02:30 PM PDT  After a supporter used an offensive term to talk about the president at her event, Kamala Harris laughed and said "Well said."
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| Prosecutor: Chinese woman lied to get into Mar-a-Lago Posted: 10 Sep 2019 04:06 PM PDT  A Chinese businesswoman knew an event she planned to attend at President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago club had been canceled, but she still wanted to get onto the property and lied to Secret Service agents repeatedly to make that happen, a federal prosecutor told jurors during closing arguments Tuesday. Assistant U.S. Attorney Rolando Garcia told the 10-woman, two-man jury that Yujing Zhang was told by her trip's organizer almost two weeks before she left Shanghai in March that the planned Chinese-American friendship event had been canceled and she demanded her $20,000 be refunded, showing she understood. Then when Zhang, 33, arrived at the club, she falsely told a Secret Service agent she was there to use the pool, leading resort management to believe she was the daughter of a member and admit her, Garcia said.
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| Democratic candidate Andrew Yang 'peeling off' Trump supporters with $1,000 universal income pledge Posted: 09 Sep 2019 08:16 AM PDT  For supporters of Donald Trump now disillusioned with his actions an improbable figure is emerging on the Left. Andrew Yang, a candidate for the Democrat presidential nomination in 2020, has received increasing support from disenfranchised working class voters in key "rust belt" states like Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan. The radical central tenet of Mr Yang's platform is the "Freedom Dividend" which would provide a universal basic income of $1,000 a month to every American adult, much of it funded by taxing large businesses like Amazon, Google and Facebook. "I'm peeling off Trump supporters," Mr Yang told The Telegraph in an interview ahead of the next Democrat debate. "There were many people who voted for Donald Trump because they believed his solutions, but his solutions were garbage and nonsense. "They're attracted to me because I'm talking about the same problems. I'm running to solve problems that got Trump elected. It means, if I'm the Democrat nominee, we will win, and most Democrats want a nominee who's going to win." Andrew Yang has pledged an annual universal basic income Credit: REUTERS/Gretchen Ertl People who voted for Mr Trump in 2016 have increasingly been turning up at Mr Yang's rallies, replacing their MAGA hats with ones that say "MATH" - which stands for "Make America Think Harder" - "Yang Gang". According to polls Mr Yang, along with Bernie Sanders, is the the only Democrat who more than 10 per cent of Trump supporters say they would consider voting for. Like the president he is not averse to mixing it. Mr Yang recently called Mr Trump "fat" and a "slob" and asked: "What could Donald Trump possibly be better than me at? An eating contest?" His crossover appeal is also shown by his standing in Fox News polls, which have him higher than other surveys. In a recent one he ranked fifth behind only Joe Biden, Mr Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris. As the massive Democrat field was cut in half to 10 candidates for the next debate on September 12 Mr Yang qualified with ease. More than 200,000 people have donated to his campaign. The former technology entrepreneur also has the endorsement of Elon Musk. Mr Yang paints an apocalyptic picture of the future - something along the lines of Terminator or The Hunger Games - unless action is taken to alleviate the inevitable rise of robots. He said: "We're going to lose to automation and AI (artificial intelligence) 20 to 40 per cent of American jobs in 10 to 20 years. This is essentially a consensus. Democratic 2020 US presidential candidates pose together before a debate Credit: REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/File Photo You can see it happening right now. "People who understand technology know my concerns around automation are coming true as we speak. They see it in real time." His answer is the safety net of a universal basic Income for all citizens. To fund it, Mr Yang proposes a 10 per cent value-added tax on business transactions. That would raise about $800 billion of the estimated annual $2 trillion cost, hitting the massive low-tax paying technology companies harder than most. "Companies like Amazon pay very little, or in some cases no, federal income taxes. The technology companies will pay much more into the system," he said. According to some estimates spreading the money around would end up growing the US economy by $2.5 trillion by 2025. Mr Yang rejected the assertion that many people might spend their $1,000 a moth on drink or drugs. He said experiments in Finland and Alaska showed they were much more likely to spend it on groceries. And the amount wasn't enough for people to give up work.
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| Lebanon Shiites mark Ashura in show of anti-Israel defiance Posted: 10 Sep 2019 06:24 AM PDT  Anti-Israeli chants rang through the streets of a Hezbollah bastion in the Lebanese capital on Tuesday as thousands of black-clad Shiites commemorated the seventh-century killing of Prophet Mohammed's grandson. "We have taught Israel that our people are not weak," the men cried, beating their chests in unison, during an Ashura commemoration marking the killing of Imam Hussein in battle by Caliph Yazid's forces. This year's ceremony comes shortly after a series of confrontations between Hezbollah and Israel, including an exchange of cross-border fire at the start of the month.
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| McConnell Said No to Money for Miners, Yes to Russian-Backed Plant Posted: 10 Sep 2019 01:25 AM PDT  Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/GettySenate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell last month blocked a measure that would have used Treasury Department funds marked for Appalachian development to help pay for coal miners' health care and pensions in his home state of Kentucky. But just a few months earlier, McConnell successfully steered near-identical Treasury funds for Appalachia to bankroll a Kentucky aluminum plant connected to an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Democrats on Capitol Hill have raised concerns for months about McConnell's connection to the aluminum plant. It's one of several reasons why McConnell's political opponents have tried to stick him with the nickname "Moscow Mitch." But what's gone largely unnoticed as the sobriquet has become a social media trending topic is how McConnell worked to keep money out of coal miners' hands—even as he maneuvered to steer federal funds to the Russian-linked plant.The scrutiny started in January, when McConnell voted to lift sanctions on Rusal, a Russian aluminum company formerly headed by Putin ally Oleg Deripaska, despite several of his Republican colleagues defecting and voting no. Rusal's de-listing caused an uproar among Democrats on Capitol Hill who viewed the deal the Treasury Department put together with Rusal as too lenient. Dems Move to Block Trump From Lifting Sanctions on Russian Oligarch Oleg DeripaskaThen, in April, the focus turned to McConnell. Just weeks after the Treasury Department announced the official de-listing of Rusal, the company announced a $200 million investment in the Braidy Industries aluminum plant in the northeastern part of Kentucky. Democrats raised questions about how much McConnell knew about Rusal's investment plan before he voted for sanctions relief. Rusal is the only outside investor in the plant. In a statement to The Daily Beast, a Braidy Industries spokesperson said the company has never lobbied members of Congress on sanctions issues and began working with law firm Akin Gump in May 2019 for "general government relations representation." The spokesperson also said no employee or director of the company has ever spoken to McConnell about Rusal.But McConnell's connection to the Rusal-Braidy aluminum plant is deeper than previously understood. At the same time Rusal was lobbying the Trump administration to get off the U.S. sanctions list, McConnell was advocating for federal funds to be diverted to help with construction of the Braidy plant in Kentucky. Since 2016 the federal government has given states in Appalachia millions of dollars from the Treasury Department to help clean up and reform abandoned coal mining land, and to assist in economic and community development in those areas. McConnell and other Kentucky lawmakers, including Rep. Harold Rogers (R-KY), have advocated that the state continue to receive that federal funding given the impact of coal companies' bankruptcies. Two companies, EastPark Industrial and Ashland Alliance, applied for $7 million from the pot of federal money from the Kentucky state government in November 2017 for general sewer and road repair on 204 acres of land. The application also included infrastructure improvements.In October 2018, McConnell, Rogers, and Kentucky officials announced that EastPark and Ashland would get $4 million. Then, in March 2019, the applicants confirmed that the $4 million would not go to funding general repairs but would instead go prepping for construction on the aluminum plant."Ashland Alliance and EastPark will only be applying the $4 million to the Braidy Site preparation," wrote Ashland Alliance president Tim Gibbs in an email from March 2019 reviewed by The Daily Beast. "The $4 million in AML funds will enable Braidy to complete the $14 million total investment to stabilize the site for high precision manufacturing."It is not clear when talks between Braidy Industries and Rusal began, but two sources with direct knowledge of the $4 million payout said McConnell went to bat for the applicants during the internal review process and was instrumental in helping them secure the federal funding.As site cleanup for the aluminum plant began, McConnell blocked a bill sponsored by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) that would have doled out federal money to help fund miners' pensions. Every year the Treasury Department collects fees from coal companies based on how much coal they produce in their plants. Those fees are then doled out to the Department of the Interior in part for the purpose of cleaning up land that houses abandoned mines and for economic development and restoration of coal communities suffering from energy company bankruptcies. Manchin wanted to take the excess money from that fund and use it to secure coal miner pensions and health care plans. McConnell blocked the measure, claiming he wanted a more permanent fix to multiemployer pensions. "There are amendments that benefit Americans and West Virginians that are being blocked by one person: Mitch McConnell," Manchin said in a statement at the time. "He is the sole person that is blocking a vote on my amendment to… secure coal miners' health care and pensions, even though it has bipartisan support and would better the lives of every West Virginian, Kentuckian and American."Making matters even more contentious was the fact that the majority leader helped steer $4 million in very similar federal funding for the Braidy aluminum plant construction. The $4 million came out of a $90 million allocation from the Treasury Department to the Department of the Interior to help three Appalachian states cope with the impact of a declining coal industry. The Department of the Interior did not respond to a request for comment.In a statement, McConnell's office defended his decisions."Leader McConnell has long been and will continue to be a strong supporter of Kentucky coal miners and their families. He has met with numerous Kentucky miners about important issues including the challenges facing their pension plan," a spokesperson said. "Sen. McConnell is concerned about the challenges facing a number of multiemployer pension plans, including UMWA's pension, and he believes it is best addressed through a broader bipartisan and bicameral pension reform effort." But some coal miners in Kentucky are threatening to throw their support behind McConnell's main 2020 opponent, Amy McGrath, if the majority leader fails to pass legislation that would help secure their pensions. Thousands of miners in Kentucky rely on the monthly $600 check to pay the bills and to buy groceries for their families. "We're not ever going to quit until they give us what we've earned. We're not going to quit until we get it," said Dwayne Thompson, a 72-year-old former Peabody Energy coal miner from Kentucky. "I hope Senator McConnell gets that. If he supports us, we will support him."The United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), the national mining union, has for years called on McConnell and other lawmakers to pass legislation that would help mitigate the fallout of the increasing number of energy company bankruptcies and the closure of hundreds of mines. In 1974, Congress passed a law that established minimum standards for pension plans in private industry. That same year UMWA negotiated its pension plan with coal mining companies. But with the demise of the coal industry, the fund is running out of money. It's expected to be insolvent by 2022.Behind closed doors, two sources with direct knowledge say, McConnell has privately promised miners a more permanent fix to the pension issue, but even national coal mining leaders are skeptical that the Senate majority leader and his colleagues in Congress will help in the short term."Coal miners understand something—when people tell us 'we're going to pass legislation'… we don't believe it," said Cecil Roberts, president of the UWMA, at a recent speech in Washington. "Anyone who understands how Congress works knows that that's a fight."Several miners who spoke to The Daily Beast said they felt McConnell had blocked the funding for pensions because some of the union members had decided to support his 2014 election opponent, Alison Lundergan Grimes. Others, though, were wary of going too far in their condemnation of the majority leader, saying that at the end of the day, McConnell was their best shot at ensuring they could continue providing for their families. (In 2017 McConnell helped push forward a bipartisan spending bill that included a permanent extension of health care benefits to thousands of coal miners.) On Friday two miners featured in an attack add by McGrath said they were not told their images would be used for a political campaign and demanded that McGrath stop airing them."We thank Mr. McConnell for what he did to help on our health care, but now he needs to finish the job and do something about our pensions," said Bob Cox, a 73-year-old former miner who serves as the president of a local UMWA chapter. "It's a day to day concern for a lot of the older people I live with. They're not well and they don't need the extra worry that it brings on. If anything goes wrong, we won't last as long as we thought we would."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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| Second Amendment Foundation: Background checks policy shouldn't be decided on just Odessa Posted: 09 Sep 2019 03:15 PM PDT  Anti-gun-rights extremists are exploiting the tragic shooting in Odessa, Texas, writes Alan Gottlieb, founder of the Second Amendment Foundation.
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| View Photos of BMW i Hydrogen Next Fuel-Cell Concept Posted: 10 Sep 2019 08:41 AM PDT |
| Pope says he prays U.S.-led schism can be thwarted Posted: 10 Sep 2019 12:03 PM PDT  Pope Francis said on Tuesday he prayed that dissent from American Catholic conservatives would not lead to a schism in the Church and that he was willing to listen to critics and make corrections if necessary. Some of his critics had allowed political ideology to infiltrate religious doctrine, he said. It was the first time Francis has spoken so openly about the possibility of a schism in the 1.3 billion worldwide Roman Catholic Church, albeit in answer to a question.
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| Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Sergey Brin, and Marissa Mayer reportedly attended an elite private dinner with Jeffrey Epstein just 2 years after he served a prison sentence for soliciting sex from a 14-year-old girl (AMZN, GOOGL, TSLA, MSFT) Posted: 10 Sep 2019 07:52 AM PDT  The private dinners, known informally as the "billionaires' dinners," are held by the New York literary agent John Brockman.
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| 10-year-old girl films mom driving drunk, police say Posted: 10 Sep 2019 09:30 AM PDT ![10-year-old girl films mom driving drunk, police say]( "10-year-old girl films mom driving drunk, police say") The girl showed Glendale police officers video in which three children under the age of 15 could be heard yelling at her mother to stop.
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| Satellite images show US-pursued Iran tanker still off Syria Posted: 10 Sep 2019 08:33 AM PDT  New satellite photos obtained Tuesday show an Iranian oil tanker pursued by the U.S. remains off the coast of Syria. The images from Planet Labs obtained by The Associated Press have the Adrian Darya-1 still near the port city of Tartus. The Adrian Darya 1, formerly known as the Grace 1, was carrying 2.1 million barrels of Iranian crude oil worth some $130 million.
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| Trump launches furious yet confused attack on rival's affair with 'flaming dancer' after promoting QAnon conspiracy theorist Posted: 09 Sep 2019 06:32 AM PDT  Donald Trump has attacked a Republican 2020 rival over an extramarital affair during an early morning Twitter rant in which he also promoted a QAnon conspiracy theorist."When the former Governor of the Great State of South Carolina, @MarkSanford, was reported missing, only to then say he was away hiking on the Appalachian Trail, then was found in Argentina with his Flaming Dancer friend, it sounded like his political career was over," Mr Trump tweeted on Monday.
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| 60+ Christmas Cookies That You'll Finish Before Santa Arrives Posted: 09 Sep 2019 02:58 PM PDT |
| Couple faces 'theft charges' after $120,000 bank error Posted: 10 Sep 2019 04:30 AM PDT 
The reports say that Robert and Tiffany Williams, from Montoursville, had reportedly had $120,000 deposited into their BB&T account in May after a mistake at the bank. The couple allegedly spent most of the money on items ranging from an SUV to a race car, local media said quoting Pennsylvania State police. After reportedly failing to answer calls from the bank, they are now reportedly facing felony theft charges.
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| Freed in prisoner swap, Ukraine's Sentsov warns: Don't trust Russia Posted: 10 Sep 2019 10:09 AM PDT  Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov on Tuesday warned against trusting Russian President Vladimir Putin, after Moscow freed him from jail in a historic prisoner swap with Kiev this weekend. Dressed casually in a polo shirt and jeans, the 43-year-old seemed calm and composed at his first news conference since flying to Kiev on Saturday along with 34 other Ukrainian prisoners. "As far as Russia's wishes for peace go, a wolf can put on a lamb's clothing, but his teeth don't disappear.
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| Judge Blocks Ban on Asylum-Seekers Who Travel through Safe Third Country Posted: 09 Sep 2019 10:22 AM PDT  A federal judge in San Francisco restored a nationwide injunction on Monday preventing the Trump administration's ban on asylum-seekers who travelled through a so-called safe third country before arriving in the U.S.U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar issued the ruling after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in August narrowed his previous nationwide injunction, allowing the Trump administration to implement the asylum-rule change in Texas and New Mexico but not in California or Arizona.In response to an overwhelming surge in asylum-seekers arriving at the southern border, the administration announced in July that migrants who travel through a safe third country before arriving in the U.S. must apply for, and be denied, refugee status in that country before they can apply for asylum in the U.S.The rule change would effectively bar Central American migrants, who comprise the vast majority of recent asylum-seekers, from applying for asylum in the U.S. after crossing through Mexico. Tigar ruled to temporarily block it in July after concluding that it violated federal immigration law. He also blocked another policy change that would have barred asylum-seekers who cross the border between ports of entry rather than surrendering themselves to law-enforcement authorities.Mexico deployed 6,000 troops to its southern border in June after President Trump threatened to impose substantial tariffs on Mexican imports if steps were not taken to stem the flow of Central American migrants traveling through the country en route to the U.S. The troop deployment, combined with seasonal changes in migration patterns, appears to be having an effect: U.S. Customs and Border Patrol announced Wednesday that the number of border apprehensions has declined by more than 56 percent since peaking in May at 144,255.
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| Mugabe polarizes Zimbabwe in death as well as in life Posted: 10 Sep 2019 06:06 AM PDT  Zimbabwe's founder Robert Mugabe is proving as polarizing in death as he was in life, with a fight over where he will be buried threatening to embarrass his successor and deepen divisions in the ruling ZANU-PF party. President Emmerson Mnangagwa's government wants Mugabe, who led Zimbabwe from independence in 1980 until the November 2017 coup that ousted him, buried at a national monument to heroes of the liberation war against the white minority Rhodesian regime. Mnangagwa has taken the threat to snub a burial at National Heroes Acre sufficiently seriously that he has dispatched a delegation to Singapore, where Mugabe died in a hospital on Friday, to negotiate with the family, government sources said.
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| California and Alabama are the only two states that aren't participating in the giant antitrust investigation of Google, and neither is really saying why (GOOGL, FB) Posted: 09 Sep 2019 01:10 PM PDT  Every other US state, as well as Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia, is taking part in the inquiry.
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| Woman, 73, charged with killing her 82-year-old neighbor with brick at a home for seniors Posted: 10 Sep 2019 08:49 AM PDT  Chun Yong Oh is charged with first and second degree murder for the death of Hwa Cha Pak, her neighbor at a home for senior citizens in Maryland.
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| Chinese State-Run Paper Singles Out Navarro for Trade ‘Lies’ Posted: 09 Sep 2019 07:38 PM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Terms of Trade is a daily newsletter that untangles a world embroiled in trade wars. Sign up here. The Chinese Communist Party's flagship newspaper took aim at one of Washington's most prominent China hawks, calling recent comments by Peter Navarro unconstructive "lies" that hinder the progress of trade talks.Navarro, an adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump, repeated accusations he's previously termed China's "seven deadly sins" during a Sunday interview with Yahoo Finance -- including alleged cyberattacks, forced technology transfers and currency manipulation. He also said China is taking on the "full burden" of U.S. tariffs on its products."All these preposterous comments are not constructive at all, and go against the larger direction of the two sides taking real action to create favorable conditions for the negotiations," Beijing's state-run People's Daily wrote in a commentary Tuesday. Navarro intended to "throw cold water on international markets," it said.Those "irresponsible" comments should stop, and the U.S. should show "sincerity" and "action" to create condition for the negotiations, the paper said.China and the U.S. will hold face-to-face trade negotiations in Washington in the coming weeks, after a deterioration in relations last month left global investors reeling amid increasing evidence the conflict is harming both nations. The U.S. Agriculture Department's undersecretary for trade, Ted McKinney, also used provocative language on Monday, calling Chinese President Xi Jinping a "communist zealot.""It is important for both China and the United States to grasp the opportunity of stabilizing bilateral trade and economic ties," the People's Daily commentary said, adding that the two countries should work together in the direction set by their leaders.To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Miao Han in Beijing at mhan22@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Jeffrey Black at jblack25@bloomberg.net, Sharon Chen, Karen LeighFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Family trapped atop waterfall send SOS message in plastic bottle and someone finds it Posted: 10 Sep 2019 02:04 AM PDT  It was a desperate act of hope by a father fearing he had brought his family into mortal peril.When Curtis Whitson found himself, his partner and his 13-year-old son trapped atop an isolated 40-foot waterfall in California, his only solution for possible escape was a plan he did not dare dream could really work.
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| Former Taliban hostage admits striking wife but says she asked to be hit Posted: 10 Sep 2019 02:59 PM PDT  Joshua Boyle, charged with sexual assault, tells court estranged wife Caitlan Coleman was unfit to parent their four childrenJoshua Boyle outside court in Ottawa in March. Boyle has pleaded not guilty to the charges. Photograph: Lars Hagberg/AFP/Getty ImagesThe Canadian man who spent five years held hostage in Afghanistan with his American wife has admitted striking her with a broom, but told a court in Ottawa that she asked to be hit, as his trial for sexual assault nears its conclusion.Under cross-examination by prosecutors on Tuesday, Joshua Boyle claimed he struck his estranged wife, Caitlan Coleman, several times in December 2017. But he had acted not out of anger, but because she frequently asked to be spanked.ENDNEWBoyle and Coleman, who married in 2011, were kidnapped by Afghan militants during a backpacking trip in 2012 and were transferred to the custody of the Taliban-linked Haqqani network.Boyle has pleaded not guilty to assault, sexual assault and unlawful confinement betweenOctober and December 2017, after the couple returned to Ottawa.Since taking the stand last week, Boyle, 36 has worked to counter the prosecution's depiction that he was a manipulative and abusive husband.He is also accused of administering a noxious substance.On Tuesday, he disputed accusations that he drugged Coleman with the anti-depressant trazadone, instead testifying he had offered her the drug because she was prone to "fits".Hygiene routines – in disarray after five years in captivity – were a point of friction between him and Coleman, he said.He told the court that on 5 November – about a month after they were rescued by Pakistan security forces – Coleman flew into a rage when he suggested that she took a shower before meeting his parents."I don't remember if I invoked the fact both my mother and father had complained about Caitlan's hygiene," said Boyle. "Meeting in public was often embarrassing for them."Earlier in the week, Boyle accused Coleman of "incompetence" as a mother, saying that while in captivity, Coleman would "shut down", neglecting to feed their newborn or change diapers, prompting him to ask guards for food for the child.Even after the family was rescued in 2017 and brought to Canada, Boyle claimed Coleman would strike and violently shake their oldest child in their family's Ottawa apartment.In previous testimony from March and April, Coleman claimed Boyle was mercurial and violent, choking, punching and biting her. In addition to cataloguing numerous instances of sexual assault, she also alleged Boyle threatened to kill her – in front of their children.But during-cross examination, Boyle dismissed the accusation that he was manipulative in their relationship, suggesting Coleman's behaviour and accusations could be attributed to mental illness. He also claimed that his demands that Coleman maintain a certain weight and dress in a specific manner were merely "suggestions" that she could have freely disregarded.The trial, which began in March, has been marred by numerous procedural delays over what material – including Coleman's past sexual history – is admissible in court.The proceedings also came to a standstill in July after Coleman gave several interviews to media outlets about her time in captivity, despite an order from the judge not to discuss the case.The defence will question Boyle on Wednesday, with closing arguments from both sides scheduled for the end of September.
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| Aussie veterans hand over details of Viet Cong dead Posted: 10 Sep 2019 01:58 AM PDT  Australian Vietnam War veterans on Tuesday handed over information to help their former enemies locate the bodies of some of the 200,000 North Vietnamese and Viet Cong soldiers still classed as missing in action. At a ceremony with Vietnamese officials, a small team of Australian veterans shared a database including map references showing where 3,800 Vietnamese are believed to be buried after fights with Australian and New Zealand forces. "Basically it was the right thing to do," said team leader Bob Hall, a Vietnam veteran and researcher at the University of New South Wales who led the project.
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| Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders would stand to benefit from the most from Andrew Yang dropping out of the 2020 presidential race Posted: 10 Sep 2019 11:31 AM PDT  If Andrew Yang's candidacy doesn't end up staying viable through the first few primary contests, his sizable base of supporters will be up for grabs.
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| Shoot them? Hang them? - Filipino heavyweights hanker for death penalty return Posted: 09 Sep 2019 02:21 AM PDT  If he gets his way, Filipino senator and boxing champion Manny Pacquiao would have drug criminals executed by firing squad. It comes at the behest of President Rodrigo Duterte, the popular, self-styled "punisher", notorious for his crackdowns on crime, and a war on drugs that has killed thousands of mostly poor, urban Filipinos. Pacquiao, a staunch Duterte loyalist and the only boxer to win world titles in eight divisions, believes executions are the best deterrent for big drug syndicates.
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| Bolton's rootin', tootin' exit: Today's Toon Posted: 10 Sep 2019 01:34 PM PDT  Want to keep up with USA TODAY's editorial cartoons? Bookmark this page. We'll update it frequently.
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| Malnourished 13-year-old boy weighing 65 pounds escapes from Ohio home; parents charged Posted: 10 Sep 2019 03:18 PM PDT ![Malnourished 13-year-old boy weighing 65 pounds escapes from Ohio home; parents charged]( "Malnourished 13-year-old boy weighing 65 pounds escapes from Ohio home; parents charged") The 13-year-old boy had a very strict vegan diet that basically consisted of almonds, bananas and grapes, Crawford County Prosecutor Matt Crall said.
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| NRA sues San Francisco over terrorist declaration Posted: 09 Sep 2019 09:00 PM PDT  The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, accuses city officials of violating the gun lobby's free speech rights for political reasons and says the city is seeking to blacklist anyone associated with the NRA. Last week, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed a resolution calling the NRA a "domestic terrorist organization," contending the group spreads propaganda that seeks to deceive the public about the dangers of gun violence.
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| Ex-Trump Adviser: Taliban Doesn’t Care About Killing Civilians, So Neither Should We Posted: 09 Sep 2019 09:25 AM PDT  During a Monday morning Fox News appearance, former deputy national security adviser K.T. McFarland reacted to the Trump administration's scuttled peace talks with the Taliban by suggesting the United States shouldn't be concerned with "civilian deaths" in Afghanistan in the future, calling for a large-scale bombing campaign if any Americans are killed "anywhere in the world."Asked by Fox News anchor Bill Hemmer to give her take on Trump canceling a planned Camp David meeting with the Taliban just days before the anniversary of 9/11, McFarland first said that it was a "great place to announce it" as they were "hoping they would have a deal.""But now that they don't have a deal, I think it's important that they canceled it," she noted. "You don't want the Taliban to think they have the upper hand."McFarland, a former Fox News contributor, went on to say that the Taliban needs to "look at what life is going to be like when America leaves" as there will be no American aid or assistance, adding that they "can go ahead and kill each other until the end of time."After further stating that since there was no deal it would have been a "travesty" to have the meeting at Camp David so close to 9/11, McFarland was asked to respond to Democratic presidential candidate Amy Klobuchar's pointed criticism of the canceled meeting."I think she is absolutely wrong," McFarland said of the Minnesota senator's complaint that President Trump was treating foreign policy like a "game show."McFarland then said the administration should tell both Afghanistan's government and the Taliban that American troops will leave under the condition that "you don't kill Americans, you don't kill Americans in Afghanistan, you don't kill Americans anywhere in the world and you sure as heck don't kill Americans in the American homeland.""If you do, you won't get another dollar of American aid any place, anytime, anywhere, and secondly, we'll come back here and we'll find who helped assist attacks on the American homeland and we will bomb them," she continued. "We will bomb the training camps, we will bomb the bases and since you don't care about civilian deaths, we aren't going to either."McFarland's desire to see Afghanistan civilian deaths comes on the heels of Fox News contributor Joey Jones calling for the execution of detainees any time an American soldier is killed overseas."The first thing I would do today, is every time one of our soldiers dies overseas during these talks, I would go down to Guantanamo and I would execute a Taliban captive," he said during a Fox & Friends appearance on Saturday. "We have to show them that we're not just looking for an exit strategy."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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| With school shootings an increasingly common fear, some students and teachers have started writing their own wills Posted: 10 Sep 2019 10:45 AM PDT  Teachrs and students are statistically unlikely to find themselves hunted by a school shooter, but their perceived fear is still very real.
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| Archbishop of Canterbury apologizes for massacre in India Posted: 10 Sep 2019 08:02 AM PDT  The archbishop of Canterbury said Tuesday he regrets a massacre by British colonial forces of hundreds of Indians participating in a peaceful demonstration for independence 100 years ago. Archbishop Justin Welby spoke at a memorial for victims of the attack in northwest India. The massacre took place at Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar on April 13, 1919, when the British Indian Army opened fire at a crowd demonstrating for independence, killing more than 300 and injuring 1,200.
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| Migrant rescue captain who defied Italy says actions 'were justified' Posted: 10 Sep 2019 01:59 PM PDT  The German captain of rescue vessel Sea-Watch 3, Carola Rackete, who was temporarily arrested in Italy for docking without permission so she could let rescued migrants land, said Tuesday her "actions were justified". Rackete, 31, was arrested on June 29 and held for several days after the Sea-Watch 3 hit an Italian police speedboat while entering the port of Lampedusa island despite a ban from entering Italy's waters. "I am still under investigation by the Italian authorities but am I worried?
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| Boris Johnson could soon be forced to resign as prime minister and make way for Jeremy Corbyn Posted: 09 Sep 2019 01:36 AM PDT  The UK prime minister is rapidly running out of options after opposition parties agreed to veto his request for an October general election.
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| View Photos of the Hyundai 45 Concept Posted: 10 Sep 2019 12:00 AM PDT |
| U.S. Marshals: Escaped Arizona murder suspect on 15 Most Wanted list Posted: 10 Sep 2019 07:01 AM PDT  U.S. Marshals believe Blane Barksdale and his wife, Susan, could be in remote areas of eastern Arizona. Couple escaped Aug. 26 in Utah.
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| Chrissy Teigen destroys Donald Trump on Twitter Posted: 09 Sep 2019 10:56 AM PDT  "Filthy-mouthed" Chrissy Teigen vs. "p**** a** b****" President Trump.
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| China’s Ambassador to South Africa Attacks Trump Over Trade Posted: 10 Sep 2019 09:04 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Terms of Trade is a daily newsletter that untangles a world embroiled in trade wars. Sign up here. Lin Songtian, China's ambassador to South Africa, took out a half-page advertisement in a key local newspaper to attack the stance of the U.S. and President Donald Trump on global trade.In a paid-for editorial in Business Day, South Africa's biggest financial newspaper, Lin said bullying by the U.S. will drive the world into a "severe recession" and accused Trump of capriciousness."The Chinese culture emphasizes that 'gentlemen keep their words.' Honoring the promises and commitments is the basic ethical code and requirement for state leaders and businessmen," he said in the advert titled 'Voice of China.' His comments were also published in the Star newspaper."The president of the U.S. runs his country according to his own will, dictates the world through Twitter and changes his position overnight," Lin said.The column, part of a drive by Beijing to have its ambassadors speak out globally, reflects the deteriorating relationship between the world's two biggest economies. The Chinese Communist Party's flagship newspaper on Tuesday accused Trump adviser Peter Navarro of lying. A day earlier, Ted McKinney, the U.S. Agriculture Department's top trade official, called Chinese President Xi Jinping a "communist zealot."The U.S. embassy in South Africa declined to comment.Tit-for-tat import tariffs imposed by the U.S. and China are roiling world markets and upending global trade patterns."The U.S. insisting on escalating the trade frictions with China will harm the common interests of all people around the world and no one can escape," Lin said. "The U.S. clings to the winner takes all law of the jungle."Actions by the U.S. are harming its own economy as China's technological companies will need to establish new supply chains and its agricultural goods importers are already finding other sources of crops such as soybeans, which are being acquired from Brazil, he said. Trump is damaging his reputation and that of his country, he added."Even God doesn't know what he will do tomorrow," Lin said. "Such a U.S. model of democracy has become the laughing stock of all people around the world."(Adds soybean buying in ninth paragraph)To contact the reporter on this story: Antony Sguazzin in Johannesburg at asguazzin@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: John McCorry at jmccorry@bloomberg.net, Pauline Bax, Gordon BellFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Netanyahu accuses Iran of destroying secret 'nuclear site' Posted: 09 Sep 2019 11:59 AM PDT  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday accused Iran of having a previously undisclosed site aimed at developing nuclear weapons that it destroyed. Iran destroyed the site located near the city of Abadeh, south of Isfahan, sometime between late June and late July after realising that Israel had detected it, Netanyahu alleged. In an address on live television, with photos of the alleged site on a screen behind him, Netanyahu referred to an intelligence trove he had previously announced last year.
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