| 5 key takeaways from the Democratic debate in Ohio Posted: 15 Oct 2019 09:24 PM PDT  Warren is treated like the front-runner, a "healthy" Bernie returns to the debate stage with key endorsements in his pocket and more.
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| Yang and O'Rourke propose decriminalizing opioids, including heroin Posted: 15 Oct 2019 07:59 PM PDT  Two Democrats suggested making small amounts of heroin legal as a way to combat the drug epidemic.
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| Court seems split on possible resentencing for teen sniper Posted: 16 Oct 2019 01:28 PM PDT  Liberal and conservative justices seemed split Wednesday on whether to grant a new sentencing hearing to Lee Boyd Malvo, one of two snipers who terrorized the Washington, D.C., region in 2002 when he was a teenager. The Supreme Court heard arguments on whether Malvo, who was 17 at the time of the killings, was wrongly sentenced in Virginia to life without parole. Virginia argues Malvo's life sentence was not mandatory because the judge theoretically had discretion to suspend part of Malvo's life sentence, despite a state law mandating either execution or life without parole as the only sentencing options for a capital murder conviction.
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| Turkey's Erdogan says he won't meet with Pence and Pompeo, then immediately doubles back Posted: 16 Oct 2019 07:01 AM PDT ![Turkey's Erdogan says he won't meet with Pence and Pompeo, then immediately doubles back]( "Turkey's Erdogan says he won't meet with Pence and Pompeo, then immediately doubles back") Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's snubbing of Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo sure didn't last long.Sky News on Wednesday morning published an interview with Erdogan in which he indicated ahead of a U.S. delegation's visit to Turkey he wouldn't meet with Pence and Pompeo, saying "I'm not going to talk to them" and that he'll talk "when Trump comes here." This seemed to surprise Pence, who in an interview subsequently said, "we have every expectation that we will meet with President Erdogan." But the meeting is evidently back on, with Erdogan's communications director quickly telling Turkish press he actually does plan to meet with Pence and the rest of the U.S. delegation after all, Axios reports. Pence and Pompeo are visiting in order to negotiate a ceasefire in Syria. At the same time that he's reversing this snub, Erdogan is floating the possibility of canceling his upcoming meeting with Trump in the United States next month, per Reuters, saying he may re-evaluate it because "arguments, debates, conversations being held in Congress regarding my person, my family and my minister friends are a very big disrespect" to Turkey.
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| Kenya opens Chinese-built railway linking Rift Valley town to Nairobi Posted: 16 Oct 2019 01:47 AM PDT ![Kenya opens Chinese-built railway linking Rift Valley town to Nairobi]( "Kenya opens Chinese-built railway linking Rift Valley town to Nairobi") Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta is due to open a new $1.5 billion Chinese rail line on Wednesday linking the capital Nairobi to the Rift Valley town of Naivasha, despite delays in establishing an industrial park there to drive freight traffic. The development of Kenya's railways has been part of China's "One Belt, One Road" initiative, a multi-billion dollar series of infrastructure projects upgrading land and maritime trade routes between China and Europe, Asia and Africa. Kenya had planned to open an industrial park in Naivasha, offering companies tax breaks for investing in manufacturing, and preferential tariffs for electricity generated in the nearby geothermal fields.
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| Buttigieg, O'Rourke clash over assault-rifle buyback plan Posted: 15 Oct 2019 07:57 PM PDT  At Tuesday night's Democratic primary debate, presidential candidates Beto O'Rourke and Pete Buttigieg escalated their disagreement over O'Rourke's proposal for mandatory buybacks of assault weapons.
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| A British family has been deported after a wrong turn led to nearly 2 weeks in ICE detention. Here's how they got entangled in a US immigration nightmare. Posted: 16 Oct 2019 07:06 PM PDT  The Connors' story shows how just one unintentional violation of US immigration law can land a family in weeks of detention in an unfamiliar country.
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| Warren Deletes Infamous DNA Test Tweet One Year After Reveal Posted: 16 Oct 2019 08:48 AM PDT  Senator Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) deleted from her Twitter and YouTube accounts a now-infamous video announcing the results of her DNA test on Wednesday, one year after its initial unveiling was met with heavy bipartisan criticism.A story titled "Happy Anniversary to Elizabeth Warren's DNA Test!" by Jim Treacher, a columnist at PJ Media, revisited the reveal by Warren on Tuesday, a year to the day after the initial video was posted. Treacher then later went to look for the tweet, but found it deleted."My family (including Fox News-watchers) sat together and talked about what they think of @realDonaldTrump's attacks on our heritage. And yes, a famous geneticist analyzed my DNA and concluded that it contains Native American ancestry," the text of the tweet read.The test, which was analyzed by Stanford professor Carlos D. Bustamante, found Warren to be between 1/64th and 1/1024th Native American and prompted further criticism from President Trump, who began calling Warren "Pocahontas" during the 2016 campaign.Following Warren's announcement, Trump mocked the Massachusetts Senator after the Cherokee Nation criticized Warren's use of the test as "making a mockery out of DNA tests and its legitimate uses while also dishonoring legitimate tribal governments and their citizens, whose ancestors are well documented and whose heritage is proven.""Now Cherokee Nation denies her, "DNA test is useless." Even they don't want her. Phony!" Trump tweeted.Though Warren had initially said in March 2018 that she would not undergo a DNA test, she responded to criticism in the aftermath by saying "I believe one way that we try to rebuild confidence [in government] is through transparency."In February, Warren apologized to Bill John Baker, the principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, for her public advertising of the test. "The chief and secretary of state appreciate that she has reaffirmed that she is not a Cherokee Nation citizen or a citizen of any tribal nation," Cherokee Nation spokeswoman Julie Hubbard said in the aftermath.
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| UAE to launch new low-cost airline Posted: 16 Oct 2019 06:47 AM PDT  Abu Dhabi's giant Etihad Airways and Sharjah's low-cost carrier Air Arabia announced Wednesday an agreement to launch a new low-cost airline based in the United Arab Emirates capital. Etihad Airways posted a loss in 2018 for the third year running, it said earlier this year, blaming investment losses and challenging market conditions. The new Air Arabia Abu Dhabi will be launched in "due course", Tony Douglas, CEO of Etihad Aviation Group, said in a statement issued by the two Emirati carriers.
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| GM, UAW strike deal: Automaker, union reach tentative agreement on new contract Posted: 16 Oct 2019 01:08 PM PDT  General Motors and the United Auto Workers reached a proposed tentative agreement on a new contract Wednesday.
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| Atheists, Secular Groups Up in Arms Over State Department Boosting Pompeo’s ‘Christian Leader’ Speech Posted: 15 Oct 2019 12:46 PM PDT  Joe Raedle/GettyThe U.S. Constitution protects the separation of church and state—but evidently not church and State Department, which came under fire for promoting a "Being a Christian Leader" speech Monday on its website.The speech, delivered by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at a meeting of American Association of Christian Counselors on Friday, saw Pompeo discuss the influence of his faith on his work as a U.S. official. On Monday, the State Department shared the speech at the top of its website, ahead of more pressing department issues, like U.S. involvement in Turkey's invasion of Syria. The speech and the State Department's promotion of the video breached the divide between church and state, leaders from secular and atheist communities say."Secretary Pompeo's speech was pure proselytization," Sarah Levin, director of governmental affairs at the Secular Coalition for America told The Daily Beast. During the speech, which he gave in his capacity as Secretary of State, Pompeo stated that "I know some people in the media will break out the pitchforks when they hear that I ask God for direction in my work."His personal faith isn't the problem, Levin said. It's when it dictates his actions as Secretary of State, or when those beliefs top the State Department website."To be clear, we don't judge Secretary Pompeo for being a Christian or for connecting what he's achieved to his faith, but it's unacceptable and a violation of separation of church and state for him to take those beliefs and apply them to policy that affects the American public," Levin said, "and it's just as wrong from him to elevation Christianity above other faiths as it is to elevate Christianity above non-faiths."Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, echoed Levin. "It's perfectly fine for Secretary Pompeo to be a leader who is Christian," Laser said in a statement. "But he cannot use his government position to impose his faith on the rest of us—that is a fundamental violation of the separation of religion and government. Secretary Pompeo's speech on how being a Christian leader informs his decision-making and the posting of the speech on the State Department website send the clear message that U.S. public policy will be guided by his personal religious beliefs."Pompeo has previously indicated that his religious beliefs factored into his policy decisions as a government official. In a March interview with Christian Broadcasting Network, Pompeo was asked whether President Donald Trump had been raised by God "to help save the Jewish people from the Iranian menace.""As a Christian, I certainly believe that's possible," Pompeo answered.The secular website Patheos has tracked Pompeo's comments for years, including a 2015 speech in which he opposed same-sex marriage and stated that "we will continue to fight these battles, it is a never ending struggle… until the rapture."In a 2014 speech at a Kansas church, Pompeo cast Islam as the greatest "threat to America" and urged that "we make sure that we pray and stand and fight and make sure that we know that Jesus Christ our savior is truly the only solution for our world."Nick Fish, president of American Atheists said Pomeo's Friday speech wasn't surprising, given his record."As disappointing as it is to see the State Department parroting Christian nationalist talking points, it isn't a surprise. But this goes above and beyond the obvious problem of Secretary Pompeo promoting one religious worldview on taxpayers' dime," Fish told The Daily Beast. "The bigger issue is that the State Department is being led by a man who genuinely believes that politics is 'a never-ending struggle... until the rapture.'"Levin said the Trump administration has consistently pushed at the boundary between church and state. "This administration has pursued an agenda of Christian nationalism," she said. She pointed to two other questionable incidents this weekend. On Friday, Attorney General Bill Barr gave a speech blaming "the growing ascendancy of secularism" for depression, mental illness, violence, and the opioid epidemic. On Saturday, Trump gave a speech to religious leaders proclaiming that "forever and always, Americans will believe in the cause of freedom, the power of prayer, and the eternal glory of God."Levin called the trio of speeches a "triple threat.""This is not unusual rhetoric we've seen from officials," she said, "but it is unusual to see Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, clear-cut abuse, these officials violating the separation of church and state."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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| New Jersey police are looking for a possible witness to the kidnapping of a 3-year-old girl 30 days ago Posted: 16 Oct 2019 07:35 AM PDT  Five-year-old Dulce Maria Alavez disappeared from Bridgeton City Park in New Jersey on September 16.
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| The US defense secretary gives US's strongest condemnation yet of Turkey's 'unacceptable incursion' in Syria Posted: 15 Oct 2019 07:12 AM PDT  "Turkey's unilateral action was unnecessary and impulsive," Defense Secretary Mark Esper said, adding that US-Turkish relations was now "damaged."
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| Boston pension votes to fire money manager Fisher, withdrawals surge toward $1 billion Posted: 16 Oct 2019 12:48 PM PDT  The City of Boston's retirement board on Wednesday voted unanimously to end its relationship with money manager Kenneth Fisher, whose firm has lost almost $1 billion in assets after allegations he made disparaging remarks about women last week. In addition, on Wednesday evening an official of the Los Angeles pension system for police and firefighters said it will review the roughly $500 million it has invested with Fisher's firm. "As with other pension funds, we are very concerned with the inappropriate comments made by Mr. Fisher," said the Los Angeles system's general manager, Ray Ciranna, via e-mail.
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| Putin signals Russia's return to Africa with summit Posted: 16 Oct 2019 07:08 PM PDT  President Vladimir Putin hosts dozens of African leaders next week as Russia seeks to reassert its influence on the continent and beyond. The heads of some 35 African countries are expected for the first Africa-Russia Summit in the Black Sea resort of Sochi next Wednesday and Thursday. For Putin, the summit is a chance to revive Soviet-era relationships and build new alliances, bolstering Moscow's global clout in the face of confrontation with the West.
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| Cory Booker wants $90m a year to prevent urban gun violence Posted: 16 Oct 2019 04:00 AM PDT  New bill would focus federal dollars on public health approaches to gun violence Senator Cory Booker gives a speech on gun violence at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal church, known as Mother Emanuel, in Charleston, South Carolina, in August. Photograph: Randall Hill/ReutersFor more than a decade, faith leaders from black and brown communities have come to Congress with the same request: spend more money on local strategies to prevent gun violence.Now, the New Jersey senator Cory Booker is introducing legislation that would devote $90m a year to programs that prevent urban gun violence.Booker's new grant program would focus federal dollars on helping the cities with the highest gun homicide rates, and it would prioritize funding for strategies that do not contribute to mass incarceration.series boxInstead of simply directing more federal money to local law enforcement, the new legislation would require cities to give at least half of their federal grant dollars to community organizations that provide services to high-risk people, or to a public department "that is not a law enforcement agency".Booker's bill does not include any gun control provisions: it's focused on strategies that prevent shootings by focusing on the people, not the guns."We're in a tough political climate," said Pastor Michael McBride, a California-based activist who has spent the last decade campaigning for more resources for local gun violence prevention. "This approach charts a way forward that does not bog us down in these intense debates over the second amendment or gun control."Booker's legislation is designed to fund programs that have shown success in reducing gun violence in cities such as Oakland and Richmond, California; Boston, Massachusetts; and New York City. The legislation would devote $90m a year over 10 years to evidence-based approaches to gun violence reduction.In the past decade, as they have invested public dollars into expanding community-based strategies, Oakland has seen a 44% decrease in its gun homicide rate, and nearby Richmond has seen a 67% decrease in its gun homicide rate.The decreases in Oakland, Richmond, and San Francisco have driven a 30% decrease in the overall gun homicide rate across the greater San Francisco Bay Area, even as the number of people living in poverty in the region has increased, and as property crime has spiked in some areas. The decrease in the area is much larger than in the nation overall.The successful local strategies highlighted in Booker's legislation include investing in street outreach workers or "violence interrupters", trusted community members who intervene in local gang conflicts to keep violence from spreading; funding intervention programs in hospitals to help shooting victims change their lives; and supporting "group violence intervention" strategies, such as Boston's Operation Ceasefire, that bring together law enforcement, community partners, and faith leaders to intervene with the small number of men in each city who are most likely to shoot or be shot.Booker's Break the Cycle of Violence Act is co-sponsored by the US representative Steven Horsford, a Nevada Democrat whose father was shot to death during a robbery when he was 19."These deaths are preventable," Horsford said in a statement.Mass shootings are usually the focus of America's gun control debate. But the majority of America's gun homicide victims are killed in smaller daily shootings in neighborhoods that have struggled with gun violence for decades.Black men and boys, who make up just 6% of America's overall population, represent more than 50% of the country's gun homicide victims.A 2015 Guardian investigation found that half of the country's gun homicides were concentrated in just 127 cities and towns. Experts have argued for years that American gun violence is highly concentrated, and that one of the best ways to save lives is to devote more resources into the neighborhoods with the greatest need.Black and brown activists have often felt "invisible" and "erased" from the American gun control debate, McBride said."Our communities are used as props, but never really given serious consideration on how to scale up strategies that save our lives and heal our communities," he said.The new legislation focuses resources on the majority of America's gun violence victims – and it also focuses on solutions that are less politically controversial than gun control laws, McBride said."We think Republicans, historically, have been huge supporters of these kinds of strategies, because of the role that faith communities and redemption and healing play," he said.
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| EU, U.K. Negotiators Said to Be Closing in on Draft Brexit Deal Posted: 15 Oct 2019 08:26 AM PDT ![EU, U.K. Negotiators Said to Be Closing in on Draft Brexit Deal]( "EU, U.K. Negotiators Said to Be Closing in on Draft Brexit Deal") (Bloomberg) -- U.K. and European Union negotiators in Brussels are closing in on a draft Brexit deal with optimism there will be a breakthrough before the end of the day Tuesday, two EU officials said.Any draft legal text will hinge on whether Prime Minister Boris Johnson believes he has the support of the U.K. Parliament, with the backing of the Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party crucial. Officials cautioned talks haven't finished yet and there's work still to do.The pound surged after Bloomberg's initial reports, climbing as much as 1.5% to $1.28, the highest level in nearly five months.While there's some finalizing to do, there are clear indications that negotiators will present a legal text on Wednesday morning for EU governments to scrutinize, an official said. That would only be possible if there's a green light from Johnson, a separate official said.Negotiators have approached -- and even managed to strike -- a Brexit deal before, only to see it shot down by the British government or the House of Commons, and EU negotiators are aware of Johnson's need to get the DUP on board. This could complicate clinching a deal by Tuesday's midnight deadline and shift focus to a summit of EU leaders that starts in Brussels on Thursday.Saturday VoteIf a deal is reached, Johnson would be able to put it to the U.K. Parliament on Saturday and avoid being forced to seek another delay beyond Oct. 31. But he lacks a majority in Westminster and any concessions could prompt the DUP, which props up his administration, to try and thwart the agreement.The U.K's proposals are shrouded in secrecy but the focus is on Northern Ireland's relationship to the EU's customs union and the degree to which checks can be eliminated on goods crossing the Irish border, a scene of violence for decades until the late 1990s.Two EU officials suggested that the U.K. had accepted that customs checks would have to take place on goods travelling between Great Britain and Northern Ireland -- in other words between two parts of the U.K. -- rather than between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic. That customs border in the Irish Sea is something the DUP has previously said it won't support.(Updates with Parliament details starting in the sixth paragraph.)To contact the reporters on this story: Ian Wishart in Brussels at iwishart@bloomberg.net;Nikos Chrysoloras in Brussels at nchrysoloras@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Ben Sills at bsills@bloomberg.net, Richard Bravo, Thomas PennyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Dems Torn Over How Much to Punish Rudy Giuliani for Ignoring Subpoena Posted: 16 Oct 2019 01:27 AM PDT  The Washington Post/GettyHouse Democrats are torn over how to respond after Rudy Giuliani gave them the equivalent of a massive middle finger on Tuesday, telling them he would completely ignore the subpoena that they served him for documents related to his expedition to dig up dirt in Ukraine on the Bidens in order to benefit President Trump.To some Democratic lawmakers, the idea of Trump's personal attorney skating by without a punishment while the courts decide whether he has to comply with their subpoena is infuriating. And it dredges up bad memories of their struggles to hold Trump administration officials to account for ignoring subpoenas over Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation. In response, they want Giuliani to feel some pain, either personally or financially."You don't get to say no to a congressional subpoena," said Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT), who serves on the House Intelligence Committee, which is spearheading the impeachment inquiry. "That's not a thing. That is a crime. He's gonna show up, or he's going to get fined, or he's going to go to jail."But the party's leadership is increasingly convinced that its Ukraine-focused impeachment inquiry is getting results—and that going after Giuliani with threats of contempt of Congress would turn a success into a show that unnecessarily muddies the waters.And many in the caucus believe they already have a strong enough case to impeach Trump, and that Trumpworld's stonewalling of subpoenas will only make it stronger.Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA) told The Daily Beast on Tuesday night that he supports holding individuals accountable for not complying with the House's subpoenas. But he stressed that a court fight over that should not delay what he believes to be clearly justified articles of impeachment. "We have this very clear and compelling evidence right out in front, and in the president's own words, and it's already been corroborated and confirmed by a bunch of first-person witnesses," said Huffman. "I think we've got this, and in some ways we are now gilding the lily."As House Democrats return from a two-week recess poised to display their unity over the impeachment process—only seven of them do not openly support an inquiry—the divide over what to do about Giuliani is a point of divergence that reflects the differing views within the caucus over just how drawn out their impeachment inquiry can or should be. Tuesday was the deadline for Giuliani to comply with a subpoena asking for a broad range of documents and correspondence focusing on his Ukraine activity. The four-page request touches nearly every corner of the Democrats' probe, from the role of the $400 million in delayed security aid to his business interests in Ukraine, and covers the entirety of Trump's presidency.How Rudy Giuliani's Bid to Discredit Mueller Played Into Impeachment ProbeIn a letter, Giuliani's attorney—who was dropped by his client shortly after said letter went out—said the subpoena was "overbroad, unduly burdensome, and seeks documents beyond the scope of legitimate inquiry."In addition to Giuliani, the Department of Defense and the Office of Management and Budget faced a Tuesday deadline to produce documents that were requested in Democrats' subpoenas. OMB said it would not be complying, but Pentagon chief Mark Esper has said he would turn over at least some documents that would help lawmakers better understand the role that the hold-up in security security aid played in Trumpworld's campaign to pressure the Ukranians. "We will do everything we can to comply," Esper told CBS' Face the Nation on Sunday. Vice President Mike Pence, meanwhile, faced a Tuesday request—not a subpoena—for documents illuminating his role in the Ukraine saga. But his office announced on Tuesday that it would not comply with any of the Democrats' requests, casting their impeachment inquiry as illegitimate. The moves echo past attempts from Trumpworld to stiff-arm subpoenas during the Mueller investigation, which prompted intense hand-wringing among House Democrats over how to respond. Ultimately, they did vote in June to hold Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in contempt of Congress for ignoring subpoenas. These were largely symbolic votes, however, and their ramifications were murky at best, leaving Democrats struggling to explain their import to the public. That frustration is clearly animating some lawmakers' desire to reconsider ways to assert their punitive authority—including the avenue of inherent contempt, which empowers the legislative branch to take would-be witnesses into custody until they comply with duly issued congressional orders. "This is another example of why the House needs to revisit inherent contempt," said Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) of Giuliani. "We need to enforce our own subpoenas. We can and we should."But others on Capitol Hill look back on those struggles and see a reason to simply move past it to focus on what they believe really matters. "If the administration, and the president's private sector accomplices, are going to follow through on their promise not to comply with the investigation, including ignoring lawful subpoenas, and if the only recourse (court action) allows them to run out the clock on an active criminal scheme involving U.S. national security and elections, then the House has no choice but impeachment," said a House Democratic aide.Another House Democratic aide put it more bluntly: "They already have the Watergate tapes," the aide said of the impeachment investigators, underscoring why the party was unlikely to pursue a punishment outside the normal legal system for those defying subpoenas.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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| Joe Biden at Democratic debate: 'My son did nothing wrong' Posted: 15 Oct 2019 05:25 PM PDT  Former Vice President Joe Biden reacted to a question at the Democratic debate about Hunter Biden and Ukraine saying, "My son did nothing wrong. I did nothing."
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| U.N. Security Council concerned about northeast Syria, U.S., China, Europeans urge ceasefire Posted: 16 Oct 2019 02:52 AM PDT  The United Nations Security Council voiced concern on Wednesday over the risks of a deterioration in the humanitarian situation in northeast Syria and the escape of Islamic State fighters, but made no reference to a Turkish assault on U.S.-allied Syrian Kurdish militia that began a week ago. The offensive has forced tens of thousands of civilians to flee and raised doubt about the fate of thousands of Islamic State fighters in Kurdish jails. The council said nothing on northeast Syria after it met last Thursday.
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| How Nazi Germany Crushed France During World War II (It Wasn't Luck) Posted: 15 Oct 2019 11:00 PM PDT  Leadership was critical.
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| Hiker Digs Up 1,000-Year-Old Iron Weapon Posted: 15 Oct 2019 07:49 AM PDT  Climate change melted away the ancient arrowhead.
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| 35 foreigners dead in Saudi bus crash: state media Posted: 16 Oct 2019 08:05 PM PDT  Thirty-five foreigners were killed and four others injured when a bus collided with another heavy vehicle near the Muslim holy city of Medina, Saudi state media said on Thursday. The accident on Wednesday involved a collision between "a private chartered bus... with a heavy vehicle (loader)" near the western Saudi Arabian city, a spokesman for Medina police said, according to the official Saudi Press Agency. The accident comes after four British pilgrims were killed and 12 others injured in Saudi Arabia when their bus collided with a fuel tanker in April 2018.
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| View 2021 Genesis GV70 Spy Photos Posted: 15 Oct 2019 09:28 AM PDT |
| Judge says lawsuit against Harvard law professor can proceed Posted: 16 Oct 2019 04:02 PM PDT ![Judge says lawsuit against Harvard law professor can proceed]( "Judge says lawsuit against Harvard law professor can proceed") A woman who went public with claims she was a teenage victim of Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking ring can move toward trial with her defamation lawsuit against Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, a judge ruled Wednesday as she disqualified a law firm from representing her. U.S. District Judge Loretta A. Preska rejected Dershowitz's effort to toss out the lawsuit, but she granted his request to disqualify Boies Schiller Flexner LLP from the case. Dershowitz had sought to toss out the case on several grounds, including that the statute of limitations had passed.
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| Google Maps Banned on Sardinia? Mayor Wants Service Blocked After Putting Tourists in Danger Posted: 15 Oct 2019 10:31 AM PDT  GettyROME—Salvatore Corrias, the mayor of the Sardinian hamlet of Baunei, is fed up. Emergency services in his island town have been called out 144 times over the last 18 months to rescue tourists who nearly followed Google map directions to their deaths. The last straw was last week when the owners of a Porsche were trying to reach a secluded white sand beach but ended up being directed to a steep cliff several hundred feet above it. "There was no way down to the beach on foot for them," Corrias told The Daily Beast. "There wasn't even a way to turn their expensive car around. But even worse, if they had followed the directions at night, Google would have sent them right off the cliff."In the end, Baunei first responders had to turn the car around by physically lifting it up and pointing it back down the mountain range after rescuers reached them on foot (knowing they could not actually drive on the road they were called to). Now Corrias has put up signage all over the island to warn visitors "no Google maps." The rescues are depleting the tiny town's coffers so Corrias has filed a complaint to the ministry that oversees internet matters to try to block the Google Map signal on the island. "We wrote to Google hundreds of times, so we have no choice but to file a legal complaint to block it," he says. In the meantime, he's asked managers of hotels, museums, and restaurants on the island to warn tourists in cars and hikers exploring the island on foot not to rely on the popular service, urging them to use paper maps instead.Baunei is not the only town that has a problem thanks to bad directions by GPS navigation services. Several hamlets in the Alps have also signed petitions to try to block the signals because of the number of skiers trying to reach remote mountain areas who end up on service roads traversable only with heavy equipment. Last year alone, four parties had to be airlifted out of remote areas they reached entirely by bad directions. Google Maps also notoriously sends drivers into Venice despite the fact that the city is car-free.Comune di BauneiIt should be noted that Google is not the only provider with a GPS app that leads people astray. Waze, which is widely used in Europe, bills itself as a real-time traffic-beating app, but there have been plenty of complaints that the app sends people to road construction sites, which is why they seem like less congested routes. Near-death by GPS is not just about sending drivers off cliffs or into rivers. In 2016, 52-year-old Italian tourist Roberto Bardella died in Brazil when he and a friend were on motorcycles touring the city. They followed Google Map directions to the beach from the Christ the Redeemer statue, which sent them into the dangerous Rio de Janeiro favela of Morro dos Prazeres where they were accosted and killed. Bardella was wearing a helmet cam, which the thugs thought was a police camera, authorities said at a time. Had they asked directions from a real person, they would have never been sent through the dangerous area. Google does know it has a problem. When asked for a comment, Google public affairs sent a blanket statement that has been printed widely since the news of the ban broke. "We're aware of an issue in Sardinia where Google Maps is routing some drivers down roads that can be difficult to navigate due to their terrain," the statement reads. "We're currently investigating ways that we can better alert drivers about these types of roads."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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| 'They were sent to the slaughter': Mexico mourns 13 police killed in cartel ambush Posted: 15 Oct 2019 03:20 PM PDT  Ambush the latest in string of brazen attacks by Mexico's drug cartels, as President Amlo defends strategy to halt the violenceFamily members and fellow officers mourn pay tribute to the officers killed in an ambush on Monday. At least 30 gunmen opened fire on the convoy of state police officers. Photograph: Enrique Castro/AFP via Getty ImagesWith an AR-15 assault rifle in his hand and six spare magazines across his chest, the burly policemen looked nothing if not intimidating as he prepared to attend a memorial service for 13 fellow officers who were killed in an ambush in western Mexico on Monday.Inside, he didn't feel so tough."We feel impotent, we feel alone," the officer said, asking for his name not be used for fear of reprisals from his superiors. "We don't have any support."At least 30 gunmen opened fire on the convoy of state police officers as they drove along a rural road in the municipality of Aguililla in the state of Michoacán early on Monday morning.The ambush was the latest in a string of brazen attacks by the Jalisco New Generation cartel (known by its Spanish initials CJNG), and represents a direct challenge to Andrés Manuel López Obrador's promise to end Mexico's security crisis while avoiding direct conflict with organized crime groups.President López Obrador, widely known as Amlo, insists the military-led offensives against the cartels pursued by his two predecessors have only made things worse, and has instead focused on crime prevention. Meanwhile, a 70,000-strong militarized police force called the National Guard has drawn criticism for being used heavily to keep migrants from reaching the US border.Asked about the ambush on Tuesday, Amlo said the government would continue with its strategy. "This is a violent area, and we are going to continue attending to the causes of this kind of social decomposition," he said.According to Falko Ernst, Mexico analyst of the Crisis Group, the problem is that this focus on the long term is allowing entrenched conflicts, like the one in Michoacán, to spin out of control."There is no short-term strategy," he said. "At the very least, these groups are getting the message that the leash is loose – and it makes sense for them to test how far they can go."Monday's ambush was claimed by the CJNG, which is currently fighting to seize the region known as Tierra Caliente – the Hot Land – from a litany of other armed groups.These include the remnants of older cartels partially dismantled by government offensives of the past (such as the once-dominant Knights Templar), former armed vigilante groups and the different police forces – all of which are deeply corroded by links to organized crime.The memorial service in Morelia. Photograph: Enrique Castro/AFP via Getty ImagesTwo active officers and one former officer at Tuesday's memorial services, speaking on condition of anonymity, accepted that the state police force is riddled with corruption.They blamed the commanders who they said gave their subordinates no choice but to follow orders – even if these were orders meant acting in ways that favoured the interests of criminal groups.They also said that they suspected senior commanders knew of an impending attack when they sent the officers to Aguililla to serve a a warrant related to a dispute in a family court.One officer said it was almost unheard of for police to go into that area without an army escort because it is known to be so dangerous."They were sent to the slaughter," she said. "There is a lot of anger."While the police officers at the memorial service held in the state capital Morelia remained stony-faced, several grieving relatives were not so restrained.A speech by Governor Silvando Aureoles – who called for all Mexico to stand together to against criminals "who are on the lowest rung of the human ladder" –was greeted with tepid applause.But as he left a smattering of female voices screamed out "¡Asesino!" and a small group began a chant of "Justicia." Though their voices faded, their sentiment prompted mumblings of agreement throughout the crowd."This ceremony is a mockery – a chance for the bosses to pretend that they care," said the brother of one officer, whose death leaves his five-months pregnant wife and one-year-old child without support. "We are only here so that he is not forgotten."
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| After 30 days, GM-UAW talks suddenly face a deadline. Here's why the clock is ticking Posted: 16 Oct 2019 06:23 AM PDT  GM's executives have until Thursday to draft a provisional plan that UAW leaders will accept and turn into a tentative agreement for its members.
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| UPDATE 3-Pelosi, Trump exchange 'meltdown' barbs over meeting on U.S. policy in Syria Posted: 16 Oct 2019 01:45 PM PDT ![UPDATE 3-Pelosi, Trump exchange 'meltdown' barbs over meeting on U.S. policy in Syria]( "UPDATE 3-Pelosi, Trump exchange 'meltdown' barbs over meeting on U.S. policy in Syria") U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Democratic leaders cut short a meeting with Republican President Donald Trump after he had a "meltdown" over a House of Representatives vote condemning his Syria withdrawal and showed no signs of having a plan to deal with a crisis there. Trump called Pelosi a "third-rate politician" and the meeting in the White House deteriorated into a diatribe, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told reporters.
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| London's Two Secret Advantages That Won the Battle of Britain Posted: 16 Oct 2019 07:00 AM PDT  Good national leadership and careful stewardship of logistics carried the day.
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| A N.J. school district wants to ban students from attending prom if they have more than $75 in school lunch debt Posted: 16 Oct 2019 03:47 PM PDT  A school district in New Jersey passed a new policy this week that will allow schools to bar students from attending prom if they have a school lunch debt above $75.
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| Dutch family found in cellar 'waiting for end of time' Posted: 15 Oct 2019 09:06 AM PDT  Dutch police found a father and six adult children hidden in the basement of a remote farmhouse where they had reportedly spent years "waiting for the end of time", officials said Tuesday. Local media said the family were found after one of the sons went to a nearby pub in a confused state, drank five beers and then asked for help, saying he had not been outside for nine years. "I have never come across anything like this before," local mayor Roger de Groot told a press conference.
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| US weather: 'Bomb cyclone' expected to lash northeast with fierce winds and rain Posted: 16 Oct 2019 12:44 PM PDT  A potential bomb cyclone is expected to hit the Northeast of the US Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service in Boston.New York City, Boston, and Maine will be affected, among other New England locations. It follows last week's storm in the same area, which brought strong winds to beach's along the East Coast.
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| Scientists discover big storms can create 'stormquakes' Posted: 16 Oct 2019 01:59 PM PDT  The shaking of the sea floor during hurricanes and nor'easters can rumble like a magnitude 3.5 earthquake and can last for days, according to a study in this week's journal Geophysical Research Letters. A stormquake is more an oddity than something that can hurt you, because no one is standing on the sea floor during a hurricane, said Wenyuan Fan, a Florida State University seismologist who was the study's lead author. "This is the last thing you need to worry about," Fan told The Associated Press.
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| Blizzard Bans Three Student Gamers Over ‘Free Hong Kong’ Sign Posted: 16 Oct 2019 01:43 PM PDT  PATRIK STOLLARZ/AFP/Getty ImagesActivision Blizzard has suspended three collegiate gamers for expressing support for the Hong Kong protests and advocating for a boycott of the company. The three players—American University students identified by Vice as Casey Chambers, Corwin Dark, and one only by his handle TJammer—held up a sign that read "Free Hong Kong, boycott Blizz" during an official Blizzard broadcast of a tournament for the strategy card game Hearthstone. Now, they're barred from the league for six months. The students were expressing their support for Chung Ng Wai, who goes by Blitzchung in-game, for speaking out in support of Hong Kong protesters during an official tournament broadcast from Taiwan. Blizzard initially banned Chung from the league for a year but later reduced his sentence to six months, a decision many saw as too harsh and bowing to censorship pressure from Beijing.Blizzard on Pro-Hong-Kong Player's Ban: He Can't Go UnpunishedIn making the determination, Blizzard said the broadcasts need to be free from politics."Our official broadcast needs to be about the game and the competition, and to be a place where all are welcome," Blizzard spokesman Dustin Blackwell said in an email to the Daily Beast. "If we allow the introduction of personal views about sensitive issues into the channel, it ceases to be what it's meant for—esports.""Blitzchung's initial punishment was insane," Chambers told the Daily Beast. "Both of us getting punished is largely more equitable, though. I would say that us calling for a boycott of the company deserved more severe punishment than his because his was entirely human-rights-focused."Blizzard has been mired in controversy since banning Chung, which added fuel to the fire of the NBA's own imbroglio involving China. Chinese tech giant Tencent owns a stake in Blizzard, and the company generates a 12 percent of its revenue in the Chinese video game market. Blizzard issued a statement Friday saying that its relationship with China was "not a factor" in its decision to ban Chung. The company's own employees had walked out of work October 9th to protest its treatment of the player.Chambers told the Beast he'd never play Hearthstone again."[Blizzard's] messaging Friday didn't apologize for the initial ban, which was far beyond the pale of what could be considered reasonable. There was no apology for that," he said.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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| Ocasio-Cortez endorsement gives Sanders shot in the arm at critical time Posted: 16 Oct 2019 01:53 PM PDT  Sanders' recent heart attack was a reminder that he would be the oldest person ever elected president Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez speaks alongside Senator Bernie Sanders during a press conference to introduce college affordability legislation outside the US Capitol in June. Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty ImagesBernie Sanders was in trouble. Why, pundits asked, would anyone vote for a 78-year-old white man – and socialist! – who just had a heart attack? On Tuesday the Vermont senator delivered a dramatic riposte; first with a feisty debate performance, then by gaining the backing of three rising stars of the progressive movement – all young congresswomen of colour. Among them was Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who, with megawatt charisma and 5.5m Twitter followers, is one of the most coveted endorsements in the Democratic presidential party."AOC", as she is known, is expected to appear at a "Bernie's Back" rally in her home city of New York on Saturday alongside Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan. That leaves Ayanna Pressley, who hails from Sanders' rival Elizabeth Warren's home state of Massachusetts, as the only member of "the squad" not in his camp.Whether it will have any long-term impact on the race is pure guesswork, but as a shot in the arm it comes not a moment too soon. Sanders' heart attack on 1 October was a reminder that he would be the oldest person ever elected president, while Warren has surged past him in the polls to frontrunner status."My gut is that Sanders' campaign had this endorsement in their back pocket for a long time and they were waiting to deploy it at a moment where it would be most helpful," said one progressive politician, who did not wish to be named."The greatest tell on that was the fact that Sanders rolled it out in the way he did on the debate stage, specifically on a question about his health. That's fine: that's what a smart campaign would do. It's designed to inject new energy into the campaign."Suggestions that Sanders might bow out of the race were evidently premature. He raised $25.3m for his campaign in the last quarter, more than any other Democrat. At Tuesday's night's three-hour debate in Ohio, he forcefully defended his healthcare plans and was even humorous; when Cory Booker pointed out that Sanders supports legalising marijuana, Sanders replied: "I'm not on it tonight."Ocasio-Cortez could prove an invaluable asset and antidote to his perceived weaknesses. While he is in his late 70s, she has just turned 30. While his supporters have sometimes struggled to escape their 2016 reputation as white male "Bernie bros", she is a Hispanic woman with an ability to inspire big, diverse crowds.For Ocasio-Cortez, not endorsing Sanders would have been something of a snub. She was an organizer for his insurgent 2016 primary campaign against Hillary Clinton and has credited him for inspiring her, while working as a bartender, to go into politics. They are aligned as democratic socialists with millennial appeal and a passion for combating the climate crisis.Democratic Socialists of America welcomed the endorsements. "Backed by a diverse, energetic working-class movement and by democratic socialist politicians like Tlaib and Ocasio-Cortez, Bernie Sanders can win the Democratic nomination, beat Donald Trump, and, together, we can transform politics in this country and around the world forever," it said in a statement.Should Sanders claim the nomination, however, the endorsements will likely delight Trump. He has sought to raise the profile of the squad and portray them as the face of a Democratic party taken over by radical leftists with trillion dollar spending plans. The idea of nominee Sanders sharing a stage with Ocasio-Cortez, Tlaib and Omar would be fodder for the president's ad-making machine.But for now, the squad represents Sanders' best hope of blunting Warren's momentum. Neil Sroka, communications director for the progressive group Democracy for America, said: "This is an important boost for Senator Sanders at a critical time. There is no doubt that the heart attack amplified concerns people might have had about Senator Sanders and his health."Sroka added: "Whenever you have a situation like that, you want to show a new sort of energy and I think getting this endorsement at this critical time is a smart move and will undoubtedly be helpful."
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| Sleep Soundly Outdoors by Saving on Klymit Sleeping Pads Posted: 15 Oct 2019 11:26 AM PDT |
| I Ran the VA Under President Trump Until He Fired Me. Our First Trump Tower Meeting Was a Job Interview Unlike Any Other Posted: 16 Oct 2019 08:50 AM PDT  David Shulkin reflects on his chaotic start in the Trump administration
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| Iran's So-Called New Fighter Jet Is Most Likely a Scam (Sort Of) Posted: 15 Oct 2019 09:00 PM PDT  Or just another F-5 ripoff?
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| The Amelia Earhart Mystery Stays Down in the Deep Posted: 15 Oct 2019 05:22 AM PDT  For two weeks in August, a multimillion-dollar search from air, land and sea sought to solve the 80-year mystery of Amelia Earhart's disappearance.Robert Ballard, the ocean explorer famous for locating the wreck of the Titanic, led a team that discovered two hats in the depths. It found debris from an old shipwreck. It even spotted a soda can. What it did not find was a single piece of the Lockheed Electra airplane flown in 1937 by Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan, which vanished during their doomed voyage around the world.Ballard and his crew don't consider it a failure. For one thing, he says, they know where the plane isn't. And in the process, they may have dispensed with one clue that has driven years of speculation, while a team of collaborating archaeologists potentially turned up more hints at the aviator's fate."This plane exists," Ballard said. "It's not the Loch Ness monster, and it's going to be found."Ballard had avoided the Earhart mystery for decades, dismissing the search area as too large, until he was presented with a clue he found irresistible. Kurt Campbell, then a senior official in President Barack Obama's State Department, shared with him what is known as the Bevington image -- a photo taken by a British officer in 1940 at what is now known as Nikumaroro, an atoll in the Phoenix Islands in the Republic of Kiribati. American intelligence analysts had enhanced the image at Campbell's request and concluded a blurry object in it was consistent with landing gear from Earhart's plane.Motivated by this clue, and by 30 years of research on Nikumaroro by the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, Ballard and his crew set a course for the island in August. They were joined by archaeologists from the National Geographic Society, which sponsored and documented the journey for "Expedition Amelia," which will air on the National Geographic Channel on Sunday.Ballard and Allison Fundis, the Nautilus' chief operating officer, coordinated an elaborate plan of attack. First, they sent the ship five times around the island to map it with multibeam sonar and deployed a floating autonomous surface vehicle to map shallower areas off the island's shore. They also used four aerial drones for additional inspections of the surrounding reef.Nikumaroro and its reef are just the tip of a 16,000-foot underwater mountain, a series of 13 sheer escarpments that drop off onto ramps, eventually fanning out at the base for 6 nautical miles.If Earhart crashed there, they believe, rising tides would have dragged her plane over the reef and down the escarpments. Fragments should have collected on the ramps, especially heavier components like the engine and the radio.In deeper water the team deployed the Hercules and the Argus, remotely operated vehicles equipped with spotlights and high-definition cameras. These robots descended 650 feet around the entire island and found nothing.At that point, the crew focused on the northwest corner of the island near the S.S. Norwich City, a British freighter that ran aground on the island in 1929, eight years before Earhart's disappearance. That is the area where the Bevington photo was taken.While they searched there, crew members found so many beach rocks consistent in size and shape with the supposed landing gear in the Bevington image that it became a joke on the ship."Oh look," Ballard would chuckle, "another landing gear rock."Fundis said, "We felt like if her plane was there, we would have found it pretty early in the expedition." But she said they kept up their morale because Ballard reminded them that it took four missions to find the Titanic and that one of those expeditions missed the ship by just under 500 feet.The crew mapped the mountain's underwater drainage patterns and searched the gullies that might have carried plane fragments down slope, to a depth of 8,500 feet. Crew members even searched roughly 4 nautical miles out to sea in case the plane lifted off the reef intact and glided underwater as it sank.Each time a new search tactic yielded nothing, Ballard said, he felt he was adding "nail after nail after nail" to the coffin of the Nikumaroro hypothesis.Still, Ballard and Fundis confess that other clues pointing to Nikumaroro have left them with lingering curiosity about whether Earhart crashed there. For instance, Panamerican Airway radio direction finders on Wake Island; Midway Atoll; and Honolulu, Hawaii; each picked up distress signals from Earhart and took bearings, which triangulated in the cluster of islands that includes Nikumaroro.For years, many Earhart historians have been skeptical of the Nikumaroro theory. And Ballard, Fundis and their team's return to the island will now depend on whether the archaeologists from the National Geographic Society came up with evidence that Earhart's body was there.Fredrik Hiebert, the society's archaeologist in residence, has some leads. His team awaits DNA analysis on soil samples taken at a bivouac shelter found on the island.The camp, known as the Seven Site for its shape, was first noticed by a British officer in 1940. Thirteen bones were gathered then and sent to a colonial doctor in Fiji, who determined they belonged to a European man. The bones were subsequently lost.Decades later, the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, or TIGHAR, tracked down the doctor's analysis. Richard Jantz, director emeritus of the Forensic Anthropology Center at the University of Tennessee, determined that the bones most likely belonged to a woman and that Earhart's build was "more similar to the Nikumaroro bones than 99% of individuals in a large reference sample."Since the 1980s, Tighar has conducted 12 expeditions to Nikumaroro in an effort to find more skeletal remains. It turned up other items from a castaway's existence at the camp but never any bones or DNA.Hiebert's team is hoping to use new techniques to identify evidence of mitochondrial DNA with similarities to Earhart's living relatives in the 22 soil samples they collected.Before the expedition, Hiebert and Erin Kimmerle, a forensic anthropologist, visited the National Museum in Tarawa, Kiribati's capital. On an unmarked shelf, Kimmerle spotted remnants of a female skull. The team now awaits DNA analysis of the specimen.In 2021, the Nautilus will be in the South Pacific fulfilling a contract to map underwater U.S. territories. That will bring the ship to the area around Howland Island, Earhart's intended destination for refueling before her plane disappeared. Ballard and Fundis plan to make time to explore the alternate theory favored by some skeptics of the Nikumaroro hypothesis: that Earhart crashed at sea closer to Howland.Fundis considers Earhart a role model, which gives her the "fuel to keep going," she said.And Ballard explained his own motivation to continue the search."In many ways, I'm doing this for my mother," he said, describing her as a "brilliant woman" who grew up in Kansas, like Earhart, but dropped out of college to raise three children and care for her sister.His mother, Hariett Ballard, admired Earhart and hoped she might pave the way for her children, or perhaps grandchildren, to pursue adventurous careers. Robert Ballard's daughter, Emily Ballard, was among the crew of the Nautilus, hunting for Earhart's plane."I'm not giving up," he said.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
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| Texas pastors seek federal action after police shoot black woman in her home Posted: 16 Oct 2019 03:07 PM PDT  Jefferson's killing on Saturday by a rookie Fort Worth officer was the latest in a string of fatal shootings that has made the city's African American community wary of police, said Pastor Kyev Tatum.
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| Noah: Democratic Party is like a club on Tuesday night; anyone can get in Posted: 16 Oct 2019 10:40 AM PDT  A look at the most recent debate in Best of Late Night
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| The Latest: Authorities seek cause for California fuel fire Posted: 16 Oct 2019 07:51 AM PDT  Officials are trying to determine if a 4.5 magnitude earthquake triggered an explosion at a fuel storage facility in the San Francisco Bay Area that started a fire and trapped thousands in their homes for hours because of potentially unhealthy air. The earthquake struck about 15 miles (24 kilometers) southeast from the NuStar Energy fuel storage facility in the Bay Area community of Crockett 15 hours before the fire started Tuesday. Randy Sawyer, Contra Costa County's chief environmental health and hazardous materials officer, tells KQED News that quake caused malfunctions at two nearby oil refineries operated by Shell and Marathon oil.
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