| Before a notorious phone call, the Trump administration was lauded for helping Ukraine Posted: 04 Oct 2019 03:00 PM PDT  A central irony of the controversy over President Trump's alleged efforts to condition military aid to Ukraine on political favors is that Trump has presided over the shipment of more lethal weaponry to Ukraine than had his predecessor, President Barack Obama.
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| 'I've never had a crystal': Marianne Williamson demands to be taken seriously Posted: 04 Oct 2019 12:05 PM PDT  Marianne Williamson wants you to know she's not a "crystal woo woo lady."
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| Texas execution halted over claims judge was anti-Semitic Posted: 04 Oct 2019 03:58 PM PDT  A Jewish death row inmate who was part of the "Texas 7" gang of escaped prisoners and faced execution in less than a week won a reprieve on Friday after claiming the former judge at his trial was anti-Semitic and frequently used racial slurs. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granted a stay of execution for Randy Halprin, who had been scheduled to receive a lethal injection on Oct. 10. The appeals court ordered Halprin's case be sent back to the Dallas County court that convicted him, so it can review his claims that his trial judge was biased against him because he is Jewish.
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| China is filling a 'strategic vacuum' in the Pacific left by the US and its allies, and that's bad news for Taiwan Posted: 05 Oct 2019 07:38 AM PDT  The benign neglect of the US and its partners in the Pacific created an opening for China, according to Dr. Anna Powles.
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| Andrew Yang Shouldn’t Retreat from His Past Success in Revitalizing Depressed Cities Posted: 04 Oct 2019 01:22 PM PDT  As Peter Beinart has trenchantly observed in The Atlantic, formerly moderate Generation X Democratic candidates Cory Booker and Kamala Harris have chosen to turn their backs on policies they once championed. Booker no longer talks up his successful expansion of charter schools as mayor of Newark, while Harris has run away from her common-sense decision, as San Francisco district attorney, to enforce truancy laws as a means to get the attention of parents of disadvantaged students. But there's another Gen X candidate, unmentioned by Beinart, who's run away from past successes: Andrew Yang.While he promotes government-led efforts to redistribute income, Yang has been silent about his own groundbreaking efforts to help declining cities — not through government, but through civil society. In 2011, after a successful career as corporate lawyer and business-school test-prep entrepreneur, Yang founded Venture for America (VFA). Modeled on Teach for America, VFA aimed to attract applicants from elite colleges to work as paid interns at start-up companies in poor cities such as Detroit, Cleveland, Birmingham, and Baltimore. Its funding came entirely from philanthropists, most importantly Detroit's Dan Gilbert, the founder of Quicken Loans. Like Dan Markowits, the author of the new The Meritocracy Trap, Yang saw the best and brightest as having "too limited a vision of what career success looks like," and got to work fixing the problem.Today, VFA is still in operation, with fellowships in 14 different cities around the country. The organization has supported more than 1,000 fellows, working in business incubators and often going on to found start-ups of their own. It says that 51 percent of them continue to live in the cities where their fellowship was based, and they've been involved in starting 129 new companies.Bringing graduates of some 300 colleges to cities that ambitious young people have long been fleeing is nothing to sneeze at. It's a record of success that gives Yang, if he'd only use it, a ready-made, positive message on the stump: Talented people can start new businesses, help power established ones, and in the process, make cities thrive. This message is all the more powerful when juxtaposed with generations of failed local, state, and federal policies based on the idea that subsidies to attract business are the best way of rejuvenating cities in decline.Indeed, what is striking about Yang's Venture for America is its fundamental separation from those failed government policies and from government itself. This is a private organization, fueled by philanthropic dollars and private start-up seed money. And its economic underpinnings are sound, as the work of Harvard's Ed Glaeser on the key impact of the "divergence" of human capital on urban economies has shown. Seattle never recruited Starbucks, Amazon, or Microsoft; those companies grew organically, thanks to talented founders and a skilled labor pool.It is depressing, then, that Yang has downplayed VFA's record of success in favor of a campaign built on a more dispiriting message: American capitalism is so broken, he says, that only a universal basic income, funded by a national value-added sales tax, can mitigate its destructive impact. One wishes that he would point to his own record in teaching Democrats that government is not the best route to prosperity. Indeed, government — through cumbersome permitting processes, high taxes, and burdensome licensing requirements — often holds back the fortunes of down-on-their-luck cities such as those Venture for America has helped revitalize. To be sure, this would be a more politically fraught path: Yang is a Democrat, and redistribution is the coin of his party's realm. But if he were braver, he could do quite a lot to change that state of affairs.
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| National Taco Day 2019: Where to get free tacos, $1 tacos and deals Friday Posted: 04 Oct 2019 10:24 AM PDT  Oct. 4 is National Taco Day, and chains are marking the taco lovers' fiesta with free tacos or specials, including Del Taco, Taco Bell and Taco John's.
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| India-Pakistan Nuclear War Could Destroy the Ozone Layer and Kill Millions Posted: 04 Oct 2019 12:34 AM PDT  Soot particles may also deplete between 30 to 50 percent of the ozone layer, allowing more of the sun's radiation to penetrate the atmosphere, causing increased sunburns and rates of cancer. Oh, and that is just the beginning.
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| UPDATE 1-Grenade attack in Kashmir injures 10 amid India clampdown Posted: 05 Oct 2019 12:24 AM PDT ![UPDATE 1-Grenade attack in Kashmir injures 10 amid India clampdown]( "UPDATE 1-Grenade attack in Kashmir injures 10 amid India clampdown") A grenade attack on Saturday in Kashmir's southern city of Anantnag injured 10 people, including a traffic policeman and a journalist, police said on Twitter, blaming "terrorists". Many people in Kashmir have been seething since India stripped its portion of the Muslim-majority region of autonomy on Aug. 5, shutting off phone networks and imposing curfew-like restrictions in some areas to dampen discontent. Some of those curbs have been slowly relaxed, but mobile and internet communications in the Kashmir valley are largely still blocked.
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| Greta Thunberg tells Yahoo News: Powerful men like Trump 'want to silence' young climate activists Posted: 04 Oct 2019 01:09 PM PDT  Greta Thunberg tells Yahoo News that youth climate activists are "making a difference."
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| Jury convicts man in killing of Chicago boy lured into alley Posted: 03 Oct 2019 08:37 PM PDT  Prosecutors contended that Dwright Boone-Doty and fellow gang member Corey Morgan planned the November 2015 killing of Tyshawn Lee before Boone-Doty took a gun Morgan gave him and shot the boy. The Cook County jury that found Boone-Doty guilty deliberated for a little more than two hours after a long day of closing arguments. A separate jury will decide Morgan's fate, and the judge ordered those jurors sequestered for the night after they didn't reach a verdict.
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| Ethiopia's largest ethnic group marks thanksgiving festival Posted: 05 Oct 2019 12:01 AM PDT  Members of Ethiopia's largest ethnic group chanted and waved flags as they gathered for the first time to celebrate their thanksgiving festival in the capital -- a city that prominent members of the group claim belongs to them. The annual Irreecha festival of the Oromo people marks the end of the rainy season and the start of the harvest season. It is traditionally held in the city of Bishoftu, located in the Oromia region some 50 kilometres (30 miles) southeast of the capital, Addis Ababa.
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| 2020 Lincoln Continental Coach Door Edition Priced at $116,645 Posted: 05 Oct 2019 10:05 AM PDT  High-dollar, old-school American opulence is back for 2020, suicide doors and all.
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| Former 'Fixer Upper' stars Chip and Joanna Gaines to open boutique hotel in Waco, Texas Posted: 04 Oct 2019 11:11 AM PDT  Chip and Joanna Gaines, owners of Magnolia Homes and the former stars of HGTV's show 'Fixer Upper,' have a new project.
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| Sunk U.S. Battleships During the Gulf War? Saddam Could Have Pulled It Off. Posted: 05 Oct 2019 01:34 AM PDT  A difficult task.
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| Exclusive: Trump Shows 'No Interest' in New North Korea Missile Threat, Prepares Diplomatic Offer Posted: 04 Oct 2019 12:02 PM PDT  Sources tell TIME that President Trump "didn't care" about a new North Korea missile threat and wants to move forward with talks with North Korea.
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| Woman charged with false rape report faces trial in Kansas Posted: 04 Oct 2019 02:18 PM PDT  A University of Kansas student who is charged with making a false rape report will go on trial this month after a judge denied motions to dismiss charges and suppress portions of the case, much to the chagrin of defense attorneys who say police botched the investigation. Judge Amy Hanley's ruling on Thursday means the trial will begin as scheduled on Oct. 28, The Kansas City Star reported.
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| 10 Parking Feats That Are Completely Next Level Posted: 04 Oct 2019 08:27 AM PDT |
| Turkey Boosts Syria Border Troops as Erdogan Flags Incursion Posted: 05 Oct 2019 02:48 PM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Turkey reinforced army units at the Syrian border hours after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signaled an imminent cross-border operation against U.S.-backed Kurdish militants in Syria.Turkey sent additional armored vehicles and troops to the border town of Akcakale late Saturday, across from Tal Abyad in Syria, according to state TV television TRT.Erdogan said earlier in the day that Turkey was ready to start a military operation in northern Syria to claim areas from the Kurdish militant group YPG and may act "as soon as today or tomorrow." "We have made our preparations, completed our operation plans," Erdogan said at an AK Party meeting in Kizilcahamam in Ankara Province. "We have given the necessary orders." The operation in the east of the Euphrates river in northern Syria will be carried out by land and air, he said.Erdogan has vowed to create a buffer zone inside Syria by pushing back Kurdish militants and settling Syrian refugees in the country's north. Turkey suspects that the U.S. is backing Kurdish aspirations for self-rule in Syria and is prepared to use military force to prevent what it perceives as an attempt to redraw the region's map.Turkey wants to act before winter conditions make it difficult for tanks to operate in muddy terrain, leaving little room for a last-minute agreement with the U.S.Erdogan has repeatedly called on the U.S. to join forces in expanding a previously negotiated security zone in Syria -- designed to be off-limits to American-backed Kurdish YPG forces -- while threatening an incursion if he didn't get his way by the end of last month.The YPG, which helped defeat Islamic State, has been at the heart of Turkey-U.S. tensions. Turkey sees the fighters as a critical threat given their link to the separatist PKK, an autonomy-seeking Kurdish group. It's considered a terrorist organization by the U.S. and the European Union.Erdogan wants to resettle some of the more than 3.6 million Syrians who fled their country's civil war in the buffer area to alleviate the burden on Turkey's economy and defuse social tensions over hosting the world's largest refugee population.(Adds context starting with fifth paragraph)To contact the reporter on this story: Selcan Hacaoglu in Ankara at shacaoglu@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Onur Ant at oant@bloomberg.net, ;Alaa Shahine at asalha@bloomberg.net, Tony CzuczkaFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| WKD: Russia Is Giving Its Su-57s Anti-Ship Missiles To Fight The U.S. Navy Posted: 05 Oct 2019 02:00 AM PDT  The Navy has its hands full.
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| Six elephants die while trying to save each other in 'Hell's Abyss' Thai waterfall Posted: 05 Oct 2019 10:45 AM PDT  Six wild elephants drowned after slipping off a waterfall in northeast Thailand, authorities said on Saturday, with two others saved after they became stranded while apparently trying to rescue one of those that fell into the current. Officials in the northeastern Khao Yai national park were alerted to elephants "crying" for help at 3am, the Thai Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation said in a statement. Hours later, they found six bodies at the bottom of the gushing Haew Narok ("Hell's Abyss") waterfall. Two of the elephants had apparently attempted to save one of those that fell, but they found themselves trapped on a thin, slippery sliver of rock above the churning waters. Video showed another of the hulking animals struggling desperately to get back up to where the pair stood. Park officials tossed food laced with nutritional supplements in an attempt to boost their energy and give them the strength to climb back up into the forest. They later said the two had been rescued but were extremely distressed. Parks department spokesperson Sompoch Maneerat said it was unclear what caused the accident. "No one knows for sure the real cause of why they fell, but there was heavy rain there last night," he told AFP. The waterfall was closed to tourists as the rescue took place. Elephants are Thailand's national animal and live in the wild in parts of the country, but their numbers have dwindled to only a few thousand. Deforestation has pushed the wild population into closer contact with humans in recent decades and away from their natural habitats.
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| Giuliani plays down role in proposed Ukraine statement on corruption Posted: 05 Oct 2019 04:39 PM PDT  Kurt Volker, Trump's former envoy to Ukraine, told lawmakers on Thursday that Giuliani had said the statement should include a reference to a gas company on which the son of Trump's political rival, Joe Biden, had served as a board member. Giuliani said Volker and Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, came to him about the proposed statement on corruption and asked for his advice on what should be in it.
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| Ruth Bader Ginsburg says people will see this period in American history as 'an aberration' Posted: 05 Oct 2019 05:14 AM PDT  US Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has said people will look back at this period of American politics as "an aberration".The 86-year-old judge made the comment during an event at Amherst College, Massachusetts, according to The Boston Globe.
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| Baltimore prosecutor wants 790 'tainted' convictions erased Posted: 04 Oct 2019 01:16 PM PDT  Baltimore's top prosecutor has begun asking judges to throw out nearly 800 convictions that she said were tainted by officers linked to a corruption scandal. The Baltimore Sun reported Friday that State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby's review found 790 criminal cases handled by 25 city officers whom she says she has reason to distrust. Mosby updated the number of officers being scrutinized on Friday, saying it could fluctuate as her office investigates.
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| Border Agent Harasses Journalist at U.S. Customs—Again Posted: 04 Oct 2019 03:53 PM PDT  REUTERSA U.S. Customs and Border Protection official reportedly refused to allow a reporter through customs on Thursday unless he answered the repeated question "You write propaganda, right?" in the affirmative, at least the third such incident involving harassment of a journalist by a passport official this year.Ben Watson, a news editor at Defense One, was returning to the United States from a reporting assignment in Denmark when a USCBP official, after asking whether Watson was carrying any undeclared foods, inquired into his profession. When Watson responded that he worked in journalism, the official began repeatedly badgering him into "admitting" that he writes propaganda, Watson wrote of his experience."So you write propaganda, right?" Watson recalled the official asking, a question posed at least four times before the passport officer returned Watson's passport and allowed him to enter the country.Watson, who covers national security and homeland security, eventually told the official that the closest he came to writing propaganda was during his time as a public affairs officer for the U.S. Army. The official was, apparently, unamused. Watson finally told the officer that he wrote propaganda, "for the purposes of expediting this conversation," before being asked the question one more time."I've honestly never had a human attempt to provoke me like this before in my life," Watson told his colleagues after the incident. "This behavior is totally normal now, I guess?"In response to questions from The Daily Beast about the incident, a CBP spokesperson said that the agency is aware of Watson's allegations and is investigating the incident."We hold our employees accountable to our core values of vigilance, integrity and service to country, and do not tolerate inappropriate comments or behavior by our employees," the spokesperson said, adding that travelers have the right to ask to speak with a supervisor to address concerns they have.Harassment of non-citizen reporters on visas by USCBP officials calling them "fake news" has been a persistent issue within the agency. In February, BuzzFeed News reporter David Mack, an Australian citizen, received a personal apology from then-USCBP Assistant Commissioner for Public Affairs Andrew Meehan, after Mack was interrogated at John F. Kennedy International Airport for ten minutes about the outlet's coverage of Michael Cohen and the special counsel investigation into President Donald Trump."The immigration agent at JFK just saw that I work for BuzzFeed and just grilled me for 10 minutes about the Cohen story, which was fun given he gets to decide whether to let me back into the country," Mack tweeted at the time. (Disclosure: Mack is a personal friend of this reporter.)British journalist James Dyer, who writes about pop culture, tweeted in August that he was harassed as "fake news" by a USCBP official upon arriving at Los Angeles International Airport. "He wanted to know if I'd ever worked for CNN or MSNBC or other outlets that are 'spreading lies to the American people,'" Dyer said at the time, adding that he was only let go "after I said that I was just here to write about Star Wars, and would keep the fake news about that to a bare minimum."After Watson shared his story on Friday, TIME Washington Correspondent Vera Bergengruen shared a similar story."This has happened to me coming back into the country too, last year," Bergengruen said. "A pretty aggressive questioning about who I worked for and 'fake news.'"After Dyer's experience, a USCBP spokesperson told The Daily Beast that "unappropriated comments or behavior are not tolerated, and do not reflect our values of vigilance, integrity and professionalism."After the incident with Mack in February, USCBP said that the officer's comments "do not reflect CBP's commitment to integrity and professionalism of its workforce," and vowed to immediately review the event."I hope—I can only hope that you treat this incident as incidental," said Meehan. "It does not reflect the agency, and certainly not the professionalism that its officers strive to maintain."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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| Giuliani gives bizarre interview before posting angry 4:54 a.m. tweet Posted: 05 Oct 2019 11:05 AM PDT  President Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani said his mission was "to disrupt the world" as he attempted to defend his involvement in the Ukraine scandal.
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| Haiti braces for more upheaval after big protest Posted: 05 Oct 2019 08:15 AM PDT  PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Haitians braced for more upheaval on Saturday as opposition leaders, emboldened by a massive protest demanding the resignation of President Jovenel Moïse, pledged to remain on the streets. Friday marked one of the largest demonstrations since the protests began weeks ago as opposition supporters say they are tired of corruption, ballooning inflation and a shortage of basic goods. "If they love Jovenel that much, then send him somewhere else," said Assad Volcy, who launched a political party two years ago but is joining forces with opposition leaders from other parties trying to oust Moïse.
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| Turkey detains five Germans on terror charges: report Posted: 05 Oct 2019 06:17 AM PDT  Turkish authorities have detained five Germans over alleged links to Kurdish militants, pro-Kurdish media reported. The PKK is considered to be a terror group by Ankara, the United States and the European Union. The five, who were detained this week, were being held in Ankara, the agency said.
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| View Aston Martin DBS GT Zagato Photos Posted: 04 Oct 2019 09:05 AM PDT |
| Senator says he was blocked by Trump from telling Ukraine foreign aid was coming Posted: 04 Oct 2019 02:03 PM PDT  Sen. Ron Johnson was blocked by President Donald Trump from telling Ukraine's president that aid was on its way after accusations Trump was withholding it until the nation investigated his political rival.
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| Jury finds Chicago gang member guilty in the murder of 9-year-old Tyshawn Lee Posted: 03 Oct 2019 07:22 PM PDT  A jury found gang member Drwight Boone-Doty guilty Thursday in the murder of Tyshawn Lee, a 9-year-old boy was shot and killed.
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| Theranos founder accused of bilking lawyers in civil case Posted: 04 Oct 2019 03:02 PM PDT  The founder of scandalized blood-testing startup Theranos is now being accused of skipping out on bills owed to the lawyers defending her against fraud charges in a civil lawsuit. Elizabeth Holmes, who ran Theranos until its 2018 collapse, hasn't paid her Palo Alto, California, attorney John Dwyer and his colleagues for the past year, according to documents filed Monday in Phoenix federal court. The documents cited Holmes "current financial situation" without elaborating.
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| A Jeffrey Epstein accuser blames Victoria's Secret owner Les Wexner for sexual assault that she says occurred on his Ohio property Posted: 05 Oct 2019 01:04 PM PDT  In New Albany, Ohio, Maria Farmer says Jeffrey Epstein assaulted her in a home owned by CEO Les Wexner, with guards who wouldn't let her leave.
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| Iranian F-5 Pilots Have Their Eyes Trained On America's F-35 Stealth Fighters Posted: 04 Oct 2019 03:00 PM PDT  Could Iran take one down?
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| NOT REAL NEWS: A look at what didn't happen this week Posted: 04 Oct 2019 12:14 PM PDT  None of these is legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. CLAIM: So-called "climate change" is mostly driven by factors unrelated to human activity, NASA scientists say. THE FACTS: Articles circulating online in early October wrongly suggest that NASA has rejected human responsibility for climate change and, instead, attributed the phenomenon to variations in Earth's axis and tilt.
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| Second Whistle-Blower May Emerge, Times Says: Impeachment Update Posted: 04 Oct 2019 07:04 PM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- The House Intelligence Committee heard Friday from intelligence community Inspector General Michael Atkinson, who has said he examined a whistle-blower's complaint about President Donald Trump and Ukraine and found it to be "urgent" and "credible."Here are the latest developments:Second Whistle-blower May Come Forward: (9:42)A second person is considering whether to come forward as a whistle-blower in the investigation of Trump's dealings with Ukraine, the New York Times reported on Friday night.The second person, like the whistle-blower whose complaint touched off the House impeachment inquiry, is an intelligence official, the Times said, but has more direct knowledge of what transpired leading up to the July 25 phone call between Trump and Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy.The Times report, which cited two unnamed sources, said the second person had spoken to Atkinson.Democrats Subpoena White House Records (6:21 p.m.)House impeachment investigators on Friday subpoenaed the White House for documents on efforts by President Donald Trump and his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani to pressure Ukraine, an escalation in the battle between Democrats and the White House over records and testimony.Much of the information sought relates to alleged attempts by Trump and Giuliani, as well as others in the administration, to prod Ukraine into launching an investigation to help discredit Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son, Hunter."We deeply regret that President Trump has put us -- and the nation -- in this position, but his actions have left us with no choice but to issue this subpoena," the chairmen of three committees wrote.Senator Says Trump Denied Ukraine Aid Link (4:18 p.m.)GOP Senator Ron Johnson says Trump denied to him in August that he linked security aid for Ukraine to Trump's effort to prod that country into conducting an investigation about the 2016 U.S. election.Johnson told the Wall Street Journal that Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, told him that aid was being tied to Trump's wish for an investigation by Ukraine.Johnson said he asked Trump about the matter and the president said he would "never do that."Pence Documents Sought by House Committees (3:41 p.m.)Chairmen of three House committees asked Vice President Mike Pence Friday to provide documents for the Trump-Ukraine investigation.The chairmen said in a letter that public reports have "have raised questions about any role you may have played in conveying or reinforcing the president's stark message to the Ukrainian president."The chairmen are seeking, by Oct. 15, any documents Pence has related to his Sept. 1 meeting with Ukraine's president during which the vice president was reported to have discussed the hold on U.S. security aid to that country.The committee leaders also requested any documents Pence may have reviewed after Trump's phone call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, because of reports that a member of Pence's staff may have participated in the call.Pence's office said in a statement that the letter "does not appear to be a serious request" and that it has been forwarded to his counsel's office for a response.Ex-Envoy Says He Was Unaware of Ukraine Pressure (1:15 p.m.)Former special envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker sought to distance himself from any attempt to urge Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, telling three House committees that he "at no time" was aware of or took part in such an effort.Volker delivered the statement in his prepared remarks, obtained by Bloomberg News, to a closed door session with the panels on Thursday.Volker said he didn't act as a facilitator for Trump's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, in setting up meetings or other activities designed to leverage pressure on Ukraine officials for a probe of Biden and his son."Notably, I did not listen in on the July 25, 2019, phone call between President Trump and President Zelenskiy, and received only superficial readouts about that conversation afterwards," he said in the remarks. "I was not aware that Vice President Biden's name was mentioned, or a request was made to investigate him, until the transcript of this call was released on September 25, 2019."He also said he's known Biden for 24 years and suggestions that he would act as vice president in any manner to benefit his son "simply has no credibility to me."Romney Calls Trump Statements 'Appalling' (12:28 p.m.)Republican Senator Mitt Romney strongly criticized Trump for calling on China and Ukraine to investigate political rival Joe Biden."By all appearances, the President's brazen and unprecedented appeal to China and to Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden is wrong and appalling," Romney wrote on Twitter Friday.The Utah senator is one of only a few GOP lawmakers to publicly chastise the president.Romney also wrote on Twitter, "When the only American citizen President Trump singles out for China's investigation is his political opponent in the midst of the Democratic nomination process, it strains credulity to suggest that it is anything other than politically motivated."In late September, Romney said he was "deeply troubled" after reading a rough transcript of Trump's July 25 call that showed the president asking Ukraine's president to investigate Biden. -- Steven T. DennisCornyn Alleges Justice Is Probing Biden (11:35 a.m.)Republican Senator John Cornyn alleged on Twitter Friday that the Justice Department is reviewing possible conflicts of interest by former Vice President Joe Biden, but a person with knowledge of the matter said the probe that Cornyn referred to doesn't involve Biden.Cornyn, a member of the Judiciary and Intelligence committees and a close Trump ally, said in a tweet Friday that the top law enforcement agency "is investigating foreign government influence, VP Biden conflicts of interest, and possible corruption." He refused to give any details.A Cornyn aide clarified that the senator's tweet saying that the DOJ was investigating the Bidens was actually referring to a possible future expansion of an investigation led by John Durham, a U.S. attorney assigned by Attorney General William Barr to review the origins of the 2016 Justice Department and intelligence agency investigation of Russia's influence in the 2016 election.The person with knowledge of the matter said Durham's investigation doesn't involve the Bidens.Trump has denounced the 2016 investigation as a "witch hunt" aimed at hurting him politically. He and his allies have been attempting to raise suspicions about actions by Biden, one of the leading contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination. Trump has publicly sought help from Ukraine and China to investigate Biden, and alleged efforts to do that behind the scenes are now the center of an impeachment inquiry by House Democrats. -- Steven T. Dennis, Chris StrohmTrump Insists He's Fighting Corruption (10:49 a.m.)Trump insisted that he asked Ukraine's government to re-open investigations into Joe Biden and his family only out of an interest in fighting corruption."We want to find out what happened with 2016," Trump told reporters on Friday as he departed the White House to visit wounded soldiers at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. "I don't care about Biden's campaign, but I do care about corruption."I believe there was tremendous corruption with Biden," he added.Trump's allegation that Joe Biden, as vice president, pressured Ukraine to abandon an investigation related to a company that employed his son Hunter Biden has been discredited. Trump has also asked Ukraine's current government to explore an unsubstantiated conspiracy theory that people in the country were behind hacks of Democratic Party email accounts during the 2016 election. -- Josh WingroveImpeachment Probe Moves to Inspector General (10:08 a.m.)Intelligence Inspector General Michael Atkinson arrived on Capitol Hill to face questions from House investigators regarding a whistle-blower's complaint about President Donald Trump's call with Ukraine's president that is at the center of the Democrats' impeachment inquiry.Intelligence Committee members and staff intend to ask Atkinson about the administration's initial handling of the whistle-blower's information. They'll also ask for corroborating information he found that led him to deem the complaint not only credible, but urgent.Atkinson first received the complaint Aug. 12, and he determined the report to be credible on Aug. 26 after his initial investigation. House Republicans have raised questions about the origins of the whistle-blower's report and its credibility. --Billy HousePelosi Asks What Trump Offered China for Biden Probe (9:20 a.m.)House Speaker Nancy Pelosi asked in a tweet Friday morning what President Donald Trump promised China "in exchange for interfering in our election?""An easier deal on trade? Ignoring crackdown on Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement? Condoning repression of religious freedom?"Pelosi said in a separate tweet, "Congress must not back down from our duty to defend the Constitution as @realDonaldTrump ignores the Founders' warnings about foreign interference at every turn." -- Kasia KlimasinskaGOP's Sasse Slams Trump Call on China to Probe Bidens (8 a.m.)At least one Republican senator is worried about Trump's invitation to China to investigate Joe Biden and his son. Ben Sasse of Nebraska issued a written statement to the Omaha World-Herald, saying it's up to the justice system to investigate the Bidens, not Beijing."Hold up: Americans don't look to Chinese commies for the truth," Sasse said, according to the newspaper, in one of the strongest rebukes to Trump from a Republican yet. "If the Biden kid broke laws by selling his name to Beijing, that's a matter for American courts, not communist tyrants running torture camps."Sasse nonetheless joined Trump in criticizing Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff, who is leading the House's impeachment investigation. "Congressman Schiff is running a partisan clown show in the House -- that's his right because the Constitution doesn't prohibit clown shows, but fortunately, in the Senate, we're working to follow the facts one step at a time," Sasse said in his statement.Speaking to reporters publicly on Thursday, Trump publicly declared some of the things that prompted the whistle-blower complaint in the first place. He called on both Ukraine and China to investigate the Bidens as House committees began impeachment inquiries into whether Trump abused his power to get foreign governments to investigate a political rival.The president defended his comments in a Friday tweet, saying asking other countries to help probe corruption "is done all the time." -- Josh WingroveKey EventsTrump and his allies are trying to sow doubt by suggesting that Schiff orchestrated the whistle-blower complaint. Schiff's aides have flatly denied coordination, and attorneys for the whistle-blower said Schiff didn't have any contact with them or the whistle-blower.Vice President Mike Pence said Thursday he raised issues of corruption in Ukraine when he met on Sept. 1 with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. The vice president didn't say whether he discussed anything related to Biden or his family. He has previously said he did not.Biden's campaign said Trump's statement that Chinese President Xi Jinping should investigate the former vice president and his son was a "grotesque choice of lies over truth and self over country."House committees heard from their first formal witness, former U.S. envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker, behind closed doors Thursday. He resigned last Friday after the whistle-blower's complaint contained references to him.\--With assistance from Kasia Klimasinska, Billy House, Josh Wingrove, Chris Strohm, Steven T. Dennis and John Harney.To contact the reporters on this story: Billy House in Washington at bhouse5@bloomberg.net;Chris Strohm in Washington at cstrohm1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Joe Sobczyk at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net, Laurie AsséoFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Thousands protest mask ban in Hong Kong as city's leader toughens stance Posted: 04 Oct 2019 07:05 AM PDT  Thousands of defiant masked protesters streamed into Hong's streets Friday after the city's embattled leader invoked rarely used emergency powers to ban masks at rallies in a hardening of the government's stance after four months of antigovernment demonstrations.
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| How 1 Parade Proves China's Military Is Becoming Very Dangerous Posted: 04 Oct 2019 10:00 AM PDT  Drones, missiles and much more.
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