| Democratic candidate Tom Steyer backs rival Joe Biden around impeachment inquiry, says he 'should be left out of this' Posted: 27 Sep 2019 07:14 AM PDT  Long-shot presidential candidate Tom Steyer, a billionaire hedge fund manager and leading Democratic donor, ruled out attacks on former Vice President Biden at the next Democratic primary debate over the allegations that are central to the impeachment inquiry.
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| Ocasio-Cortez calls for government bailout to help struggling NYC cab drivers Posted: 27 Sep 2019 09:40 PM PDT  Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is now backing up a financial rescue for those who were lured into predatory loans.
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| Iran releases photo of Khamenei with Hezbollah chief Posted: 28 Sep 2019 11:59 AM PDT  Iran has released a "never before seen" photo of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei alongside Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah. The three men are shown in front of what appears to be a door covered by a curtain and surrounded by shelves stacked with books -- decor associated with Khamenei's Tehran office.
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| Julian Assange ‘subjected to every kind of torment’ in Belmarsh prison as he awaits extradition Posted: 28 Sep 2019 09:11 AM PDT  The father of Julian Assange has said the WikiLeaks founder is "being subjected to every sort of torment" at Belmarsh prison as he awaits the hearing that could see him extradited to the US.The whistleblower who is being held alongside some of the UK's most infamous criminals ahead of his extradition hearing in February, could face a maximum prison sentence of 175 years under charges laid down by Washington.
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| Canadian police release findings of report into murders of three tourists Posted: 27 Sep 2019 04:06 PM PDT  Two dead Canadian teens who were the subject of an intense manhunt this summer confessed to the murders of three tourists in northern Canada in a series of videos, but did not reveal a motive behind their actions or indicate remorse, Canadian police said on Friday. The bodies of Bryer Schmegelsky, 18, and Kam McLeod, 19, were found on Aug. 7 after a two week-long search that began in northern British Columbia and ended in the remote and hostile terrain of northern Manitoba, three provinces and several thousand kilometers (miles) away. The pair were first reported as missing after leaving their hometown of Port Alberni, British Columbia, in search of work.
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| Back in 2010, the U.S. Navy Surfaced 3 Elite Submarines to Warn China Posted: 28 Sep 2019 01:45 AM PDT  In 2010, China was given a glimpse of what could happen in a war.
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| Hillary Clinton: Trump 'has turned American diplomacy into a cheap extortion racket' Posted: 27 Sep 2019 10:27 AM PDT  Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton accused President Trump on Friday of having "turned American diplomacy into a cheap extortion racket."
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| Purple Heart recipient dies saving 3-year-old granddaughter Posted: 27 Sep 2019 02:45 PM PDT  A Purple Heart recipient has died saving his 3-year-old granddaughter from a house explosion in Oklahoma.
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| Russians Used Greed to ‘Capture’ NRA, Senator Alleges in New Report Posted: 27 Sep 2019 10:30 AM PDT  Pavel Ptitsin/APTies between the National Rifle Association and influential Russians were substantial and potentially lucrative enough to render the politically potent gun lobby an "asset" of Russia, according to a Senate Democrat's year-plus investigation. More than 4,000 pages of NRA records provided to Sen. Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the finance committee, documented deep connections between the beleaguered gun group and Maria Butina, who in December pleaded guilty to conspiring to act as a Russian agent without registering with the Justice Department. Wyden's report, released Friday and undertaken without the cooperation of committee Republicans, indicates that greed motivated some NRA officials to engage in the outreach.Butina also made clear to NRA officials long before their controversial Butina-facilitated December 2015 trip to Moscow that Alexander Torshin, her patron and an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was a man with mysterious pull in the Kremlin. She emailed former NRA president David Keene in January 2015 that Torshin's appointment to the Russian central bank was "the result of a 'big game' in which he has a very important role. All the details we can discuss with you only in person."Maria Butina's Boss Alexander Torshin: The Kremlin's No-Longer-Secret Weapon"During the 2016 election, Russian nationals effectively used the promise of lucrative personal business opportunities to capture the NRA and gain access to the American political system," Wyden said. Representatives for the NRA did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In addition to scrutinizing the December 2015 NRA trip, Wyden found that the NRA hosted former Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak for a three-hour tour of its headquarters in August 2015. Kislyak was a key figure in Russia's 2016 election interference before former national security adviser Mike Flynn pleaded guilty to misrepresenting his conversations with him to the FBI. An NRA calendar entry provided to Wyden suggests that NRA leaders took Kislyak hunting at the Grand National Waterfowl Hunt weeks before the Moscow trip. Wyden's report shows the NRA officials, donors, and supporters meeting with Russian officials under U.S. sanctions during the Moscow trip, something previously reported. But it also shows that Butina ensured the NRA would send sufficiently senior leaders, something necessary to enhance Torshin's prestige, by dangling opportunities for NRA luminaries to enrich themselves. While U.S. sanctions do not make meeting with foreigners under sanction illegal, U.S. nationals can't conduct business with them.Returning from Moscow further inclined the NRA to aid its Russian friend Butina, who presented herself as the head of a rare Russian gun-rights foundation. Soon after, the NRA bought Butina and Torshin memberships in a hunters' advocacy group known as Safari Club International. Later, one of the key NRA figures on the Moscow trip, Pete Brownell, confirmed to Wyden that he personally introduced Butina to Donald Trump Jr. at the NRA's 2016 annual meeting, though Brownell's counsel dismissed it as a "chance encounter." Butina would also write to NRA heavies for formal invitations to their events, something she said would help her get visas to enter the country.The NRA has attempted to distance itself from the Moscow trip after it became politically controversial. It told Wyden's office in May that any relationship "certain individuals, including NRA supporters and volunteers" had with Butina and Torshin was entirely distinct from NRA business.Yet Wyden's report shows then-NRA president Allan Cors, who backed out of the trip, contemporaneously referring to it in an email to Torshin as a chance to "represent the NRA" to influential Russians. Among those Russians were Butina's reputed moneyman, Igor Pisarsky, whom Butina presented as Putin's "campaign manager"; the sanctioned Russian deputy prime minister for the defense industry, Dmitry Rogozin; and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Documentation the NRA provided, the report notes, did not show "action to discourage or prevent its officers from using organization resources to explore business opportunities or to meet with sanctioned individuals and entities" during the trip. Cors' absence from the trip was a problem for Butina. Without a senior NRA leader to show off to the influential Russians who had agreed to meetings, Torshin could lose face. "Many powerful figures in the Kremlin are counting on Torshin to prove his American connections—a last minute important member cancellation could affect his political future," she emailed. In November, Butina turned to Brownell, the NRA's then-vice president and Cors' future successor, with an urgent plea for his attendance. Outside the NRA, Brownell runs a business that sells guns, ammunition, and firearms accessories. A Brownell spokesperson told The Daily Beast in February that Brownell took the trip "understanding that it was an NRA-related event organized with the support of the organization." His corporate compliance officer later said Brownell could meet with sanctioned Russians insofar as his trip was not business but an NRA "cultural exchange."But materials Wyden acquired cast doubt on that. Butina, in emails, told Brownell that while it was an NRA trip, "especially for you and your company I have something more." She told him that Russian gun manufacturers "are ready to meet you and talk about export and import deals." Another email, this one from Brownell, records the NRA vice president musing that he was "not interested in attending if [it is] just an NRA trip." In another email, Brownell called the "strictly diplomatic" trip a chance to "introduce our company to the governing individuals throughout Russia." Among the people the NRA met with in Russia were representatives of the Kalashnikov Concern, a weapons manufacturer under U.S. sanctions. The report states that later Brownell explored a deal with someone he met on the trip but ultimately canceled because the Russian was unable to follow proper import-export rules. Brownell recently resigned from the NRA's board, a move seen as part of the organization's recent turmoil. In April, its president Oliver North resigned after losing a power struggle to longtime NRA magnate Wayne LaPierre. The group is locked in bitter litigation with its former ad firm, which might be the least of its legal woes, considering investigations into its tax status by attorneys general in New York and the District of Columbia.A representative for Brownell did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Brownell was not the only one to whom Butina appealed with an offer unrelated to NRA business. Wyden's report corroborated a Daily Beast report that Butina told trip attendee Keene, who was also the Washington Times' opinion editor, that one of the meetings was with a Russian media oligarch who would be able to secure Keene an interview with Putin for the paper.Butina also dangled to the NRA a meeting with Putin himself, though no such meeting appears to have manifested. An email ahead of the trip from Butina's since-indicted boyfriend, the GOP consultant Paul Erickson, to Brownell promised "private meetings with the top ministers in Putin's government and private lunches in oligarch's dachas." Butina fronted money for the attendance of another trip attendee, NRA donor Jim Liberatore, for which the NRA reimbursed her with $6,000 from its president's budget. The NRA was an open door for Butina and Torshin, whose goal was to use the organization as a lever to move U.S. politics in a direction more agreeable to Russian interests. In addition to welcoming the two to the NRA's own events, the NRA aided them in attending other conservative-friendly gatherings, including the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, a staple event for politicians of both parties. Butina asked then-presidential candidate Donald Trump a question about U.S.-Russian relations at a campaign stop in Las Vegas, boasted of being a conduit for his campaign's communications to Russia, and was photographed with prominent GOP politicians like Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. Wyden stopped a step short of recommending the NRA lose its tax-exempt status, citing insufficient cooperation from the group. "A broader review of NRA's activities in recent years" from the IRS was needed to determine if the NRA's Russian connections fit within a "persistent pattern of impermissible conduct," the report concluded. "The totality of evidence uncovered during my investigation, as well as the mounting evidence of rampant self-dealing, indicate the NRA may have violated tax laws. This report lays out in significant detail that the NRA lied about the 2015 delegation trip to Moscow," Wyden said. "This was an official trip undertaken so NRA insiders could get rich—a clear violation of the principle that tax-exempt resources should not be used for personal benefit."Read more at The Daily Beast.Get 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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| The Treasury’s Housing Plan Would Pave the Way for Another Financial Crisis Posted: 27 Sep 2019 03:30 AM PDT  Treasury's plan for releasing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from their conservatorships is missing only one thing: a good reason for doing it. The dangers the two companies will create for the U.S. economy will far outweigh whatever benefits Treasury sees.Under the plan, Fannie and Freddie will be fully recapitalized — probably by allowing them to keep all or a portion of their profits and by selling shares to the public. However they are recapitalized, Treasury makes clear that they will continue to be backed by the government — a benefit for which they will be required to pay.The Treasury says the purpose of their recapitalization is to protect the taxpayers in the event that the two firms fail again. But that makes little sense. The taxpayers would not have to be protected if the companies were adequately capitalized and operated without government backing.Indeed, it should have been clear by now that government backing for private profit-seeking firms is a clear and present danger to the stability of the U.S. financial system. Government support enables companies to raise virtually unlimited debt while taking financial risks that the market would routinely deny to firms that operate without it.Nor, it seems, has Treasury considered what kind of business Fannie and Freddie will likely pursue as government-backed profit-seeking firms.When Fannie and Freddie had minimal capitalization and a free but "implicit" government guarantee, profitability was easy. Most of the housing finance market was open to them, and they could set their pricing at levels others could not match. That enabled them to drive competitors out of any portion of the market that they wanted to dominate. By the early 2000s they were acquiring and securitizing — or holding in portfolio — about 50 percent of all U.S. mortgages.They will not be able to do this under Treasury's plan. The demands for profitability from their shareholders, coupled with the cost of their government backing, is almost certain to eliminate the pricing advantages that allowed them to dominate the housing finance market before the financial crisis.Still, their government support will allow them to earn significant profits in a different way — by taking on the risks of subprime and other high-cost mortgage loans. That business would make effective use of their government backing and — at least for a while — earn the profits that their shareholders will demand.The Treasury plan warns Fannie and Freddie that they will have to earn "less than the return on other activities" when they acquire the mortgages of "low-and-moderate-income families." But this only means that they will have to earn more on the middle-class mortgages that are the heart of the housing finance market.This is an open invitation to create another financial crisis. If we learned anything from the 2008 mortgage market collapse, it is that once a government-backed entity begins to accept mortgages with low down payments and high debt-to-income ratios, the entire market begins to shift in that direction.Middle-class homebuyers, who could otherwise afford the down payments and other terms of a prime mortgage, seek out the opportunity to buy a larger home with a low or no downpayment.Only a firm with government backing could pursue this business, but it will be a plausible profit-making activity for Fannie and Freddie once they are released from the conservatorships and free to exploit their government guarantee. In the midst of the housing boom in the early 2000s, Fannie's staff noted that 37 percent of the subprime mortgages they were acquiring — ostensibly to meet the government's affordable-housing goals — were going to homebuyers above median income.The results were clearly on view in 2008, when a collapse in the home-mortgage system brought on by the prevalence of weak and risky mortgages produced a monumental financial crisis. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.Given this potential outcome, why is the Treasury proposing this plan? There is no obvious need for a government-backed profit-making firm in today's housing finance market. FHA could assume the important role of helping low- and moderate-income families buy their first home.We would all be better off if the Federal Housing Finance Agency — the GSEs' regulator and conservator — simply decided to withdraw them gradually from the market. As their conservator, FHFA has the power to do this by reducing the size of the mortgages they are permitted to buy until they are no longer significant players in housing finance. Banks and private securitizers would then easily take their place, most likely focusing solely on prime mortgages.In that case, of course, today's speculators in Fannie and Freddie stock would be the losers, but the taxpayers and the financial markets would be saved from a major future loss.Why this hasn't already happened in a conservative administration remains an enduring mystery.
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| Zimbabwe's Mugabe buried in home village, ending an era Posted: 28 Sep 2019 09:00 AM PDT  Zimbabwe's founding leader Robert Mugabe was buried on Saturday in his home village of Kutama, ending a dispute between his family and the government of his successor President Emmerson Mnangagwa over his final resting place. Mugabe ruled Zimbabwe for 37 years from independence in 1980 but was a polarizing figure idolized by some for his role in the country's liberation struggle and hated by others for ruining a promising nation through disastrous economic policies and repression against opponents. After Mass by a Roman Catholic priest and speeches by family members, Mugabe was buried in the courtyard of his rural homestead without the pomp and fun fare usually reserved for national heroes.
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| 2020 Vision: Impeachment is gaining in the polls — and so is Warren Posted: 27 Sep 2019 11:50 AM PDT  How Trump impeachment is polling, Warren's continued rise, Gabbard qualifies for the fourth debate, and campaign cash troubles plague some Democrats.
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| 'Frankenstein's monster': Dog breeder who created the labradoodle says they're his 'life's regret' Posted: 27 Sep 2019 06:20 AM PDT  The man who invented the labradoodle says creating the breed is his "life's regret" and that he has no clue why anyone would want one.
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| Ivory Coast Leader Wants to Hand Over Power to New Generation Posted: 28 Sep 2019 09:34 AM PDT ![Ivory Coast Leader Wants to Hand Over Power to New Generation]( "Ivory Coast Leader Wants to Hand Over Power to New Generation") (Bloomberg) -- Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara is in favor of "handing over to the new generation" in next year's presidential polls, but did not rule out running in the election.The 78-year-old, who has just over a year left of his second term in office, was addressing reporters in his hometown of Dimbroko after a four-day visit to the surrounding region.Ouattara addressed plans to amend the constitution to include an age limit for presidential hopefuls, saying "it's part of the evolution of our country," Seventy-five percent of the population is aged under 30 and "we can't remain indifferent." But he also said "don't interpret this as me not being a candidate."His fiercest political rivals include Henri Konan Bedie , 85, who broke away from the ruling coalition last year after Ouattara claimed a new constitution adopted in 2016 allows him to seek a third mandate if he wishes.Another, Laurent Gbagbo, 74, was acquitted by the International Criminal Court on charges of crimes against humanity committed after a disputed vote in 2010, but prosecutors are appealing the ruling.To contact the reporter on this story: Leanne de Bassompierre in Abidjan at ldebassompie@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Andre Janse van Vuuren at ajansevanvuu@bloomberg.net, Jacqueline Mackenzie, Keith CampbellFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| UPDATE 3-Yemen's Houthis say attacked Saudi border frontline, no immediate Saudi confirmation Posted: 28 Sep 2019 07:56 AM PDT ![UPDATE 3-Yemen's Houthis say attacked Saudi border frontline, no immediate Saudi confirmation]( "UPDATE 3-Yemen's Houthis say attacked Saudi border frontline, no immediate Saudi confirmation") Yemen's Houthi movement said on Saturday it had carried out a major attack near the border with the southern Saudi region of Najran and captured many troops and vehicles, but there was no immediate confirmation from Saudi Arabian authorities. The Houthis' military spokesman said in a statement that three "enemy military brigades had fallen" in the attack, which he said was launched 72 hours ago and supported by the group's drone, missile and air defence units.
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| Once Again, Progressive Anti-Christian Bigotry Carries a Steep Legal Cost Posted: 27 Sep 2019 11:20 AM PDT  Last summer, in the days after the Supreme Court decided Masterpiece Cakeshop on the narrow grounds that Colorado had violated Jack Phillips's religious-liberty rights by specifically disparaging his religious beliefs, a bit of a skirmish broke out among conservative lawyers. How important was the ruling? Did it have any lasting precedential effect?For those who don't recall, the Supreme Court ruled for Phillips in large part because a commissioner of the Colorado Civil Rights Commission called Phillips's claim that he enjoyed a religious-freedom right not to be forced to design a custom cake for a gay wedding a "despicable piece of rhetoric." The commissioner also denigrated religious-liberty arguments as being used to justify slavery and the Holocaust.While all agreed that it would have been preferable had the court simply ruled that creative professionals could not be required to produce art that conflicted with their sincerely held beliefs, the question was whether Justice Anthony Kennedy's strong condemnation of anti-religious bigotry would resonate beyond the specific facts of the case. For example, what would happen if, in a different case, state officials called faithful Christians who seek to protect the religious freedom of Catholic adoption agencies "hate-mongers"?In the United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan, it turns out that such rhetoric has cost the state a crucial court ruling, granted a Catholic adoption agency a vital victory, and demonstrated — once again — that anti-religious bigotry can (and should) carry substantial legal costs.The case is called Buck v. Gordon. My friends at Becket represent St. Vincent Catholic Charities, a former foster child, and the adoptive parents of five special-needs kids. The facts are relatively complicated, but here's the short version: St. Vincent upholds Catholic teaching by referring same-sex and unmarried families who seek foster and adoption recommendations and endorsements to agencies that have no objection to providing those services. There is no evidence that St. Vincent has prevented any legally qualified family from adopting or fostering a child. In fact, same-sex couples "certified through different agencies" have been able to adopt children in St. Vincent's care.In 2015 the state of Michigan passed a statute specifically designed to protect the religious liberty of private, religious adoption agencies. In 2018, however, Dana Nessel, a Democratic attorney general, took office. During her campaign, she declared that she would not defend the 2015 law in court, stating that its "only purpose" was "discriminatory animus." She also described proponents of the law as "hate-mongers," and the court noted that she believed proponents of the law "disliked gay people more than they cared about the constitution."Then, in 2019, the attorney general reached a legal settlement in pending litigation with the ACLU that essentially gutted the Michigan law, implementing a definitive requirement that religious agencies provide recommendations and endorsement to same-sex couples and banning referrals. The plaintiffs sued, seeking to enjoin the relevant terms of the settlement, and yesterday Judge Robert Jonker (a Bush appointee) granted their motion for a preliminary injunction.His reasoning was simple. There was ample evidence from the record that the state of Michigan reversed its policy protecting religious freedom because it was motivated by hostility to the plaintiffs' faith. Because Michigan's targeted St. Vincent's faith, its 2019 settlement agreement couldn't be truly considered a "neutral" law of "general applicability" that would grant the state a high degree of deference in enforcement.Instead, the state's targeting led to strict scrutiny. Here's Judge Jonker:> Defendant Nessel made St. Vincent's belief and practice a campaign issue by calling it hate. She made the 2015 statute a campaign issue by contending that the only purpose of the statute is discriminatory animus. After Defendant Nessel took office, the State pivoted 180 degrees. . . . The State also threatened to terminate its contracts with St. Vincent. The Summary Statement's conclusion – that if an agency accepts even one MDHHS child referral for case management or adoption services, the agency forfeits completely the right to refer new parental applicants to other agencies based on its sincerely held religious beliefs – is at odds with the language of the contracts, with the 2015 law, and with established State practice. Moreover, it actually undermines the State's stated goals of preventing discriminatory conduct and maximizing available placements for children.The last point is key. As stated above, there was no evidence that St. Vincent prevented any qualified couple from adopting. In fact, if the state forced St. Vincent's to choose between upholding the teachings of its faith or maintaining its contractual relationship with the state, then it risked shrinking the available foster or adoption options in the state of Michigan. The state demonstrated that it was more interested in taking punitive action against people of faith than it was in maintaining broader access to foster and adoption services for its most vulnerable citizens.The judge rightly called the state's actions a "targeted attack on a sincerely held religious belief." Once again, Masterpiece Cakeshop pays religious-liberty dividends. Once again, a court declares — in no uncertain terms — that in the conflict between private faith and public bigotry, religious liberty will prevail.
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| Barreling toward impeachment proceedings, Pelosi offers Trump her thoughts and prayers Posted: 27 Sep 2019 06:50 AM PDT  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and President Trump took to cable news and Twitter on Friday morning as the first week of the impeachment battle came to a close in Washington.
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| They Will Kill You: The Secrets of the Delta Force Revealed Posted: 27 Sep 2019 06:25 AM PDT  One of America's top forces.
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| North Carolina Detective Fired After Allegedly Sending Inappropriate Messages to Women Whose Rape Cases He Handled Posted: 27 Sep 2019 02:32 PM PDT  Paul G. Matrafailo III was fired in May from the Fayetteville Police Department for allegedly writing inappropriate messages to rape victims.
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| Philadelphia students sickened after eating laced rice cereal treats: Police Posted: 27 Sep 2019 09:26 AM PDT  Several children have been sickened after allegedly eating laced rice cereal treats from a fellow student, Philadelphia police say.
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| Greta Thunberg marches in Montreal for global climate protests Posted: 28 Sep 2019 04:59 PM PDT  The 16-year-old Swede met privately with Trudeau but later told a news conference with local indigenous leaders that he was "not doing enough" to curb greenhouse gases responsible for global warming. Thunberg generated headlines around the world earlier this week with her viral so-called "How Dare You?" speech at the UN climate summit, accusing world leaders of betraying her generation.
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| A fitness influencer will serve nearly 5 years in jail for using 369 Instagram accounts to harass bodybuilding colleagues and allegedly faking her daughter's kidnapping Posted: 27 Sep 2019 03:19 PM PDT  Police also say that Tammy Steffen faked the attempted kidnapping of her 12-year-old daughter and tried to pin it on a former business partner.
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| Israeli minister urges unity government to stave off 'blow-up' in Iran tensions Posted: 27 Sep 2019 02:28 AM PDT  Israel's energy minister on Friday warned tensions between Iran and the United States were reaching a breaking point and an Israeli unity government deal was needed to stave off the threat of conflict following an inconclusive election last week. Washington has blamed Iran for a Sept. 14 attack on Saudi Arabia's oil facilities, and on Thursday announced it would send radar systems and Patriot missiles to the kingdom to bolster its defenses. Iran denies carrying out the attack.
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| A black hole is shredding a star, and NASA caught the incredible space event on camera Posted: 27 Sep 2019 10:08 AM PDT ![A black hole is shredding a star, and NASA caught the incredible space event on camera]( "A black hole is shredding a star, and NASA caught the incredible space event on camera") Astronomers think the supermassive black hole weighs around six million times the sun's mass and is located about 375 million light-years away.
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| Tucker Carlson: Adam Schiff Is ‘Clearly, Demonstrably Mentally Ill’ Posted: 26 Sep 2019 06:18 PM PDT  If you thought Tucker Carlson couldn't push the envelope any further, I have some news for you.The Fox News primetime star opened up his program on Thursday night by taking aim at House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) for giving a parody account of President Donald Trump's July 25 call with the Ukrainian president, explicitly calling the California lawmaker "mentally ill" in the process.Insisting that it's "hard to see" how Trump's actions are an impeachable offense, the Fox News host turned to Thursday's testimony of acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire, which was chaired by Schiff. Claiming that it is the media's fault for setting up "terrible incentives" for people to make "extreme and mindless statements" to get on TV, Carlson then held up Schiff as a "prime example.""He recently went into a kind of trance and delivered his own prophetic version of what he believed must have happened between President Trump and the president of Ukraine," Carlson stated, playing a clip of Schiff delivering a parody version of the call at Thursday's hearing."Keep in mind, that isn't some guy babbling in the men's room at Starbucks, that is the man who chairs the mighty House Intelligence Committee," he said."We trust him with the most sensitive information and yet he is clearly, demonstrably mentally ill," Carlson added. The Fox News host didn't qualify his diagnosis of the Democratic congressman other than to suggest that it was insane to want the president impeached for pushing the Ukrainian president to look into his political rival.Carlson's latest inflammatory remarks are just the latest controversy for the conservative Fox News star. This week has seen him get into an on-air spat with his fellow colleagues Shep Smith and Judge Andrew Napolitano after one of his guests called Napolitano a "fool," an insult that went unchallenged by Carlson. It also has been less than two months since the primetime host sparked outrage for saying white supremacy is a "hoax" just three days after the El Paso shooting.The Fox host's comments also come on the heels of the backlash caused by Fox News guest Michael Knowles calling 16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg a "mentally ill Swedish child," prompting the network to issue a quick apology and state that they have no plans to book Knowles in the future.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get 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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| Shooting death of South Carolina postal worker sparks massive investigation Posted: 27 Sep 2019 10:15 AM PDT  More than 70 federal, state and local authorities are now investigating the shooting death of United States Postal Service carrier Irene Pressley.
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| Five Years On, Hong Kong Activist Joshua Wong Speaks to TIME About the Umbrella Revolution Posted: 27 Sep 2019 12:55 AM PDT  "We claimed we would be back—and now we are back," the 22-year-old says
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| Former college towns left to adapt to business loss Posted: 28 Sep 2019 06:41 AM PDT  As colleges and universities come alive this fall, some campuses sit closed and empty after succumbing to a recent wave of fewer students and financial challenges. In Poultney, Vermont, population 3,300, Green Mountain College had occupied a prominent spot at the end of the main street for 185 years. The closure "literally changed the entire town of Poultney," said Mel Kingsley, who runs Mel's Place Hair Salon, several blocks from campus, and got 30% of her business from students.
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| Bogota in photos row over Venezuela at UN Posted: 27 Sep 2019 02:21 PM PDT  Colombian President Ivan Duque said he handed the UN photographic evidence this week proving Venezuela was sheltering ELN rebels, but the images were duds. The pictures were contained in a 128-page dossier he handed to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres at the General Assembly in New York on Thursday. One purportedly shows guerrillas carrying out "indoctrination" of rural schoolchildren in the Venezuelan state of Tachira in April 2018.
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| Chicago teachers authorize strike against third-largest U.S. public school district Posted: 26 Sep 2019 08:21 PM PDT  Chicago teachers locked in protracted labor negotiations with the city have voted overwhelmingly to authorize their union to launch a strike against the third-largest U.S. public school district as soon as next month, the union said on Thursday. A tally of ballots showed that 94% of some 25,000 dues-paying members of the Chicago Teachers Union supported giving their leaders the discretion to call a strike starting on Oct. 7 at the earliest, the union said in a statement. The outcome of the vote far exceeded the three-quarters majority required by union rules to authorize a strike, which would be the third by Chicago teachers since 2011.
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| Cairo on lock-down as Egyptian government tries to head off anti-Sisi protests Posted: 27 Sep 2019 09:40 AM PDT  Egypt's government put central Cairo on lockdown Friday as it tried to head off protests against President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi but was unable to stop scattered demonstrations in other parts of the country. In an effort to prevent a repeat of last week's protests calling for Mr Sisi's overthrow, Egyptian forces sealed off Cairo's Tahrir Square and blocked several of the main bridges over the Nile. Military vehicles rumbled through otherwise largely empty streets. But demonstrators reportedly still turned out on Warraq, a rural island in the Nile near downtown Cairo, where they chanted for Mr Sisi to resign. Government forces fired tear gas and buckshot to break up the protests, according the Mada Masr new site. Videos showed also demonstrators in Qina, a small city south of Cairo, trampling on government posters and deriding Mr Sisi as "the date", a mocking nickname referring to the president's thinning hair. The protests were sparked by a series of videos from Mohamed Ali, a former state building contractor now living in exile in Spain. He has alleged widespread corruption in Mr Sisi's government and has become an unlikely resistance figure with his calls for revolution. تمزيق لافتات تأييد للسيسي في قوص بقنا صعيد مصر pic.twitter.com/cdRyWAh5cu— Amr Elqazaz (@amrsalama) September 27, 2019 By sundown on Friday, the mass protests that Mr Ali called for had failed to materialise, despite his last-minute videos urging people to take to the streets against the president. "Enough with the humiliation," he said. "Get rid get rid of him today. This is your historic chance." However, last Friday's protests did not begin until after nightfall, when youths in Cairo, Alexandria, Suez, and other cities demonstrated. Mr Sisi, arriving back in Cairo from a week at the UN in New York, said the protests were the work of conspirators trying to damage Egypt. "It is a war between us and them," he said. The government staged several large pro-Sisi demonstrations, including one near Rabaa Square, where Mr Sisi's forces killed a thousand people in a single day in August 2013 while breaking up a sit-in by Islamist protesters. Supporters of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi during a rally in Cairo Credit: KHALED ELFIQI/EPA-EFE/REX The security forces have arrested around 2,000 people since last Friday's protests, including prominent lawyers and academics. At least 76 have been "disappeared", meaning they were arrested but authorities are denying they are in custody, according to the Egypt Commission on Rights and Freedoms, a human rights group. The top Democrat and Republican on the House foreign affairs committee put out a joint statement calling on the government to allow peaceful protests to go ahead. "Egyptians have the right to protest peacefully and to exercise that right without fear of retribution," they said. The government postponed a football match between FC Masr and Aswan FC on security grounds, in an apparent effort to prevent crowds from gathering during the game and turning into a demonstration.
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| Parents plead not guilty to abandoning daughter. Records show they legally changed her age Posted: 27 Sep 2019 03:21 PM PDT  Parents are accused of abandoning their adopted daughter and moving the rest of the family to Canada.
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| Karen Pence was reportedly so mad at Trump's election she refused to kiss Mike Pence Posted: 27 Sep 2019 11:22 AM PDT ![Karen Pence was reportedly so mad at Trump's election she refused to kiss Mike Pence]( "Karen Pence was reportedly so mad at Trump's election she refused to kiss Mike Pence") Mother didn't like this.Vice President Mike Pence is pretty darn close with his wife Karen Pence, the woman he reportedly calls "mother" and refuses to meet other women alone without. But when Pence buddied up with President Trump, whom Karen Pence reportedly despised, her displeasure culminated in the ultimate diss on Election Night 2016, Tom LoBianco reports in his forthcoming book Piety and Power: Mike Pence and the Taking of the White House.It's been reported before that Karen Pence was not thrilled with her husband joining Trump on the campaign trail. Things got even worse with Trump's Access Hollywood scandal, with Karen Pence reportedly telling her husband that she wouldn't appear in public anymore if he continued running alongside Trump.Mike Pence obviously didn't let that threat get to him, but when Trump was eventually elected, Karen Pence reportedly still wasn't happy. "You got what you wanted, Mike," she reportedly told him that November night. She refused to kiss him, and said "leave me alone," Peter Baker details in The New York Times' review of LoBianco's book. Read more of LoBianco's reporting here.
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| Before Pearl Harbor America and Nazi Germany Were Fighting a Secret War Posted: 26 Sep 2019 08:00 PM PDT  A conflict before the wider war to come.
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| Family sues Best Buy after the death of a 75-year-old woman who police say was bludgeoned and set on fire by a man delivering her washing machine Posted: 27 Sep 2019 06:11 PM PDT  Evelyn Udell's family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Best Buy and two delivery contractors.
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| 'I Think and Hope That Netanyahu Will Fail.' A Top Israeli Arab Lawmaker on the State of Coalition Talks Posted: 27 Sep 2019 09:32 AM PDT  Joint List leader Ayman Odeh responds now that Israel's incumbent has been asked to form a government
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| Largest captive alligator in US spends goes missing in Storm Imelda floods at height of hunting season Posted: 28 Sep 2019 07:52 AM PDT  Some people can't sleep if they know there's a spider in their house.Imagine being in Beaumont, Texas, and thinking that the largest alligator ever caught in the United States was on the loose.
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