| Trump: 'Afghanistan is a safe place by comparison' to Chicago Posted: 28 Oct 2019 10:24 AM PDT  President Trump used his first trip to Chicago as president to disparage the city and its police chief, who had boycotted his appearance.
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| Baghdadi leaves bitter legacy in Iraqi city of Mosul he terrorised Posted: 28 Oct 2019 09:15 AM PDT ![Baghdadi leaves bitter legacy in Iraqi city of Mosul he terrorised]( "Baghdadi leaves bitter legacy in Iraqi city of Mosul he terrorised") When Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi took to the pulpit of Iraq's historic al-Nuri mosque to declare his caliphate in 2014, residents of Mosul had no idea the extent to which their city would be devastated. "This strange man we had never seen before took the podium instead of our regular imam," said Fahd Qishmou, 48, who attended Baghdadi's infamous speech, proclaiming himself "caliph" over millions of people in Iraq and Syria. Once a proud symbol of Mosul, the 850-year-old mosque has lain in ruin since Islamic State was routed there in 2017, piles of twisted metal and flattened stone.
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| Navy upholds sentencing of Navy SEAL for posing with corpse Posted: 29 Oct 2019 03:25 PM PDT  The U.S. chief of naval operations on Tuesday denied a request for clemency and upheld a military jury's sentence that will reduce the rank of a decorated Navy SEAL convicted of posing with a dead Islamic State captive in Iraq in 2017. Adm. Mike Gilday made the decision after carefully reviewing the trial transcripts and the clemency request by the lawyers of Edward Gallagher, said Cmdr. Nate Christensen, spokesman for Gilday, in a statement. Gallagher's lawyer, Timothy Parlatore, said they are disappointed in the ruling that will cost Gallagher up to $200,000 in retirement funds because of his loss of rank from a chief petty officer to a 1st class petty officer.
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| In a Kurdish prison, former IS fighters never see the sun Posted: 29 Oct 2019 10:29 AM PDT  Just months ago, the most hardcore among them were still bent on defending the last sliver of the Islamic State group's "caliphate" in Baghouz, Syria. AFP correspondents obtained exclusive access to the site in Hasakeh province. IS fighters were accused of carrying out beheadings, mass executions, rapes, abductions and ethnic cleansing in territory they held across swaths of Iraq and Syria.
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| Here's What California's Kincade Wildfire Looks Like From Space Posted: 28 Oct 2019 03:03 PM PDT  The Bay-area's Kincade wildfire has grown so large that a satellite can record the plumes from 23,000 miles away in space.
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| Catholic priest says he denied Joe Biden Holy Communion at Mass in South Carolina because of abortion views Posted: 29 Oct 2019 11:26 AM PDT  "Any public figure who advocates for abortion places himself or herself outside of Church teaching." Rev. Robert Morey said in a statement.
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| This timeline shows exactly what happened on board the Lion Air Boeing 737 Max that crashed in less than 13 minutes, killing 189 people Posted: 29 Oct 2019 10:11 AM PDT  Documents released by Indonesia in late October have given a definitive picture of what happened on board the plane as it entered its fatal descent.
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| View Every Angle of the 2019 Rolls-Royce Cullinan Posted: 29 Oct 2019 09:59 AM PDT |
| Trump shows off 'wonderful' dog used in al-Baghdadi raid Posted: 28 Oct 2019 01:41 PM PDT  The president declassified a picture of the Belgian Malinois that helped the U.S. military track down the ISIS leader.
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| Correction: Puerto Rico-Cruise Ship Death story Posted: 29 Oct 2019 12:09 PM PDT  In a story Oct. 28 about charges brought in a cruise ship death, The Associated Press reported erroneously that a child who died was 2 and the man's niece. SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — A man who police say dropped his young granddaughter from the 11th floor of a cruise ship docked in Puerto Rico in July has been accused of negligent homicide.
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| Kuwait's ruler opens parliament after medical treatment Posted: 29 Oct 2019 02:04 AM PDT ![Kuwait's ruler opens parliament after medical treatment]( "Kuwait's ruler opens parliament after medical treatment") Kuwait's 90-year-old ruler opened the country's parliament on Tuesday with a call to fellow Gulf Arab states to end a row that has shattered regional unity, in his first public address since being hospitalized last month in the United States. Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, who has ruled the OPEC oil producer since 2006, has been trying to mediate in the dispute that has seen Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain impose a boycott of Qatar since mid-2017. "It is neither acceptable nor tolerable for the dispute between our brothers in the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council to continue," he said, standing to address lawmakers from a podium in a speech at the annual opening of Kuwait's National Assembly.
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| Bursting at the seams: inside an IS prison in Syria Posted: 29 Oct 2019 10:33 AM PDT  Behind the steel door, the cell is as packed as their eyes are empty -- haggard, scrawny prisoners in orange jumpsuits lying head-to-toe cover every inch of floor space. An AFP team was given rare access to one of the crowded detention facilities in northeastern Syria where Kurdish forces are holding Islamic State group (IS) suspects. As a Turkish offensive launched against Kurdish forces earlier this month wreaks chaos in the area, just how solid such doors will be is a question keeping the world on edge.
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| The Kincade Fire in California's Sonoma County has forced nearly 200,000 people to flee their homes. Here are the latest updates. Posted: 29 Oct 2019 09:36 AM PDT  The Kincade Fire in California's Sonoma County has burned 75,415 acres. PG&E; told regulators that a broken jumper cable may have started the blaze.
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| Daylight saving time is ending this weekend. These states want to make DST permanent Posted: 29 Oct 2019 10:23 AM PDT  Adjust your clocks back one hour Nov. 3 at 2 a.m. — lest you wake up an hour early to everything in the days ahead. But some states might change that.
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| Trump Administration Challenges California Sanctuary Law in Supreme Court Posted: 29 Oct 2019 08:18 AM PDT  The Trump administration has petitioned the Supreme Court to strike down California's "sanctuary law," which hinders cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities.The administration is challenging several provisions in the California Values Act, or S.B. 54. The law prohibits officials from sharing information with ICE about a suspect's release from custody, eliminating any opportunity for ICE agents to take illegal immigrants into custody before they are released from local jails. It also prohibits local law-enforcement officers from sharing physical descriptions of suspects with immigration authorities."The practical consequences of California's obstruction are not theoretical; as a result of SB 54, criminal aliens have evaded the detention and removal that Congress prescribed, and have instead returned to the civilian population, where they are disproportionately likely to commit additional crimes," the Trump administration argued in its petition, which was filed Monday.While the provisions of S.B. 54 do not technically apply to suspects with a violent criminal history, since the law effectively prevents local law enforcement from cooperating with ICE, immigration officials must stake out jails and police stations to await the release of non-citizen suspects from custody, and only then make arrests.Last week at a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee, ICE official Timothy Robbins claimed that the Los Angeles police department was releasing as many as 100 illegal immigrants per day from custody."Cooperation between ICE and state and local law enforcement agencies is critical to the agency's efforts to identify and arrest removable aliens, and to protect the nation's security," Robbins said at the time. "Unfortunately, we are seeing more jurisdictions that refuse to work with our officers, or directly impede our public safety efforts."
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| Vietnam Seizes $4.3B in Falsely Labeled Chinese Aluminum Posted: 29 Oct 2019 05:57 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Terms of Trade is a daily newsletter that untangles a world embroiled in trade wars. Sign up here. Vietnamese customs discovered and seized about $4.3 billion of Chinese aluminum falsely labeled "Made-in-Vietnam" before being shipped mostly to the U.S., the Dan Tri news website reported, citing Nguyen Van Can, head of the General Department of Vietnam Customs.The aluminum was imported from China by a company based in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau that tried to sidestep U.S. tariffs, according to the report that didn't give the company's name. Vietnamese customs worked with American authorities during the investigation.Vietnam has become a top destination for suppliers looking to avoid U.S. and Chinese tariffs amid the ongong trade war between the great powers, which also makes it a potential magnet for fraudsters.Vietnamese authorities are increasing scrutiny on product origins and tightening issuance of certificate of origins for exports, in an attempt to stop trade fraud, Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry Tran Quoc Khanh told reporters in Hanoi in July. The government has stepped up its efforts "to prevent the Vietnamese territory from being taken advantage of, and not being used to avoid tariff with any markets," Khanh said.Vietnamese shipments to the U.S. increased 26.6% from January through October compared to the same period last year, the Hanoi-based General Statistics Office said in an estimate released earlier today.To contact the reporter on this story: Nguyen Dieu Tu Uyen in Hanoi at uyen1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: John Boudreau at jboudreau3@bloomberg.net, Derek WallbankFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| China Is Finishing Its First Large Helicopter Assault Ship Posted: 29 Oct 2019 12:00 PM PDT  What will that mean for America?
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| 'The Wild West': Questions surround Trump legal team payments Posted: 29 Oct 2019 02:00 AM PDT  Until now, Trump's legal arrangements have been in a gray area of regulation. But now, critics are trying to change that.
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| Elected Arizona official accused of selling babies suspended Posted: 28 Oct 2019 05:29 PM PDT  An elected official in Arizona was suspended Monday after he was charged with running a human smuggling scheme that brought pregnant women from the Marshall Islands to the U.S. to give birth and then paid them to give up their children for adoption. Leaders in Arizona's most populous county suspended Assessor Paul Petersen without pay for 120 days. The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors doesn't have the power to permanently remove him from his office, which determines the value of properties for tax purposes in Phoenix and its suburbs.
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| EXCLUSIVE-Baghdadi's aide was key to his capture -Iraqi intelligence sources Posted: 28 Oct 2019 04:27 AM PDT ![EXCLUSIVE-Baghdadi's aide was key to his capture -Iraqi intelligence sources]( "EXCLUSIVE-Baghdadi's aide was key to his capture -Iraqi intelligence sources") In their long hunt for Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Iraqi intelligence teams secured a break in February 2018 after one of the Islamic State leader's top aides gave them information on how he escaped capture for so many years, said two Iraqi security officials. Baghdadi would sometimes hold strategy talks with his commanders in moving minibuses packed with vegetables in order to avoid detection, Ismael al-Ethawi told officials after he was arrested by Turkish authorities and handed to the Iraqis. "Ethawi gave valuable information which helped the Iraqi multi-security agencies team complete the missing pieces of the puzzle of Baghdadi's movements and places he used to hide," one of the Iraqi security officials said.
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| 8 Hero Dogs That We Don't Deserve Posted: 29 Oct 2019 02:51 PM PDT |
| Global leaders, tycoons flock to Saudi 'Davos in desert' Posted: 29 Oct 2019 10:37 AM PDT  Saudi Arabia drew top finance moguls and political leaders to its Davos-style investment summit Tuesday, in stark contrast to last year when outrage over critic Jamal Khashoggi's murder sparked a mass boycott. Organisers say 300 speakers from over 30 countries, including American officials and heads of global banks and sovereign wealth funds, were attending the three-day Future Investment Initiative (FII), nicknamed "Davos in the desert". A strong turnout at the event, aimed at projecting the insular kingdom as a dynamic investment destination, would help repair de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's global image that was tainted by journalist Khashoggi's gruesome killing last October.
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| Northern California double-whammy: Amid blackouts, massive fire forces nearly 200,000 to flee homes Posted: 27 Oct 2019 07:42 PM PDT  Nearly 200,000 people in Northern California are under mandatory evacuation orders as the wind whips up, making the Kincade Fire even more dangerous.
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| Woman who repeatedly told boyfriend to kill himself charged with manslaughter after his suicide Posted: 29 Oct 2019 07:01 AM PDT  The girlfriend of a university student who killed himself hours before his graduation ceremony has been charged with manslaughter after she allegedly repeatedly told him to take his own life.Inyoung You, 21, sent a series of text messages telling Alexander Urtula, 22, to "go kill yourself" or "go die" in the two months leading up to his suicide, according to prosecutors.
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| President Trump prepares for unwelcome trip to Chicago Posted: 28 Oct 2019 03:25 AM PDT  President Trump's visit to Chicago is stirring up a tempest even before he arrives in the city that he's repeatedly derided as the poster child of urban violence and dysfunctional Democratic politics.
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| Mexico ex-governor's wife detained in London Posted: 29 Oct 2019 10:48 AM PDT ![Mexico ex-governor's wife detained in London]( "Mexico ex-governor's wife detained in London") The wife of jailed former Veracruz state Gov. Javier Duarte has been detained in London, Mexican authorities said Tuesday. A Mexican official who was not authorized to speak about the case said that Karime Macias was detained Tuesday. Macias had been with him at the time.
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| Meet America's Mini-Warships: The Key to Taking on Iran? Posted: 29 Oct 2019 05:40 AM PDT  Or North Korea?
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| China downplays Solomon island lease debacle, tells U.S. to stay out Posted: 29 Oct 2019 02:38 AM PDT ![China downplays Solomon island lease debacle, tells U.S. to stay out]( "China downplays Solomon island lease debacle, tells U.S. to stay out") There is nothing unusual about Chinese companies experiencing issues when investing in Pacific island states or elsewhere, China's Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday, after a rebuffed attempt by a Chinese firm to lease an island in the Solomons. The Solomon Islands government said last week a deal signed by one of its provinces to lease the entire island of Tulagi to a Chinese company is unlawful and should be terminated, a move applauded by United States. Details of the long-term lease between the Solomons' Central Province and China Sam Enterprise Group were made public shortly after the Pacific nation switched diplomatic ties to Beijing from Taiwan in September.
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| 'It's hell' without Compaore: Burkinabes miss dictator five years on Posted: 29 Oct 2019 07:23 AM PDT  Ziniaré (Burkina Faso) (AFP) - Five years after the people of Burkina Faso rose up against Blaise Compaore, chasing him out of the nation he ruled with an iron fist for 27 years, dire living conditions are prompting nostalgia for the old days. "Before, there were projects, work, businesses," said Maurice Iboudo, a sales agent in Ziniare, home to Compaore's sprawling residence near the capital Ouagadougou. The deprivation even extends to the zoo on Compaore's former presidential estate.
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| Iowa man killed wife after she found 'problems' with finances, planned meeting with banker: Records Posted: 29 Oct 2019 12:56 PM PDT  Roy Browning Jr. is charged with murder in relation to the death of JoEllen Browning, who worked for the university for more than four decades.
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| Convicted rapist freed from life sentence by mistake Posted: 29 Oct 2019 07:00 AM PDT  A convicted rapist serving a life sentence was released from prison in error.US marshals are on the trail of Tony Maycon Munoz-Mendez, who was wrongly let out of Rogers state prison in Reidsville, Georgia, on 25 October.
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| The Internet Wouldn't Be the Same Without These 11 Women Posted: 29 Oct 2019 12:54 PM PDT |
| Trump mimics Dayton shooting during first visit to Chicago as president: 'Boom boom boom' Posted: 29 Oct 2019 01:56 PM PDT  President Trump on Monday mimicked officers killing a mass shooter in Dayton, Ohio, who murdered nine people with a semiautomatic rifle in August. "Boom, boom, boom," the president said. "They were out there. Perfect. There was no fear. There was no anything. They reacted."
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| Women for Trump? In Search of Hidden Voters Posted: 29 Oct 2019 06:56 AM PDT  ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Lara Trump thinks that her father-in-law, President Donald Trump, could use some extra support at this particular stage of his presidency. So along with Karen Pence, the second lady, Lara Trump traveled to this (slimly) blue state with a message for women who support him: Don't be afraid to speak up -- and by all means, please speak up."We know it's not easy sometimes to be a Trump supporter," she said in praise of the hundreds of women, most of them white, who attended her Women for Trump event this month. "We appreciate you so much. You stand up for what you believe in."Onstage next to her, Karen Pence, an evangelical Christian whose initial distaste for Donald Trump's unchaste behavior has been widely reported, gave rare public testimony about how much she thinks the president respects women."I just want to encourage you not to be afraid," Karen Pence told the group gathered in a conference room in St. Paul's historic train station. "This time, we have a record, so it's like, you can't tell me stuff on the fake news."The visit was one of several that high-profile Trump campaign operatives have made in recent weeks to reach out to women -- especially those who may have turned away from the president during the 2018 midterm elections and who may be increasingly squeamish as impeachment proceedings accelerate in Washington.Their other goal is to keep existing supporters motivated and encourage them to spread the campaign's message of a healthy economy, a reverence for the military and an aggressive approach to securing the border with Mexico."You are the keys to winning this election," Kayleigh McEnany, the campaign's national press secretary, told the crowd.But the Trump campaign is facing an uphill battle. A majority of women -- including more than 90% of black women and 60% of Hispanic women -- favored Trump's opponent Hillary Clinton in 2016. And though the 53% of white women who voted for Trump were a factor in his election, a recent Quinnipiac University poll showed plummeting support for him in that demographic.And now in Minnesota, a state that Trump narrowly lost but campaign officials think he could win in 2020, a Star Tribune Minnesota Poll released last week showed voters split on impeachment, and women overwhelmingly more likely to say that Trump has abused his power.As the impeachment inquiry proceeds, the gender gap may only widen, both in Minnesota and nationally."He had a big gender problem already," said Celinda Lake, president of Lake Research Partners and a longtime pollster and political strategist for Democrats. "The way he responds is one of the things that women don't like. This really aggressive bullying-type tone is part of what women don't like about him."But Lara Trump dismissed the recent polling on impeachment and said campaign officials were hoping to attract women who might be motivated by the president's insistence that he was a victim of a partisan effort."Things like this impeachment inquiry only motivate people," she said, "certainly people that like what they've seen from this president."Lara Trump is among the best known of the quartet of high-profile Trump campaign stars looking to build support among women. The others are Kimberly Guilfoyle, a former Fox News personality who is dating Donald Trump Jr.; Katrina Pierson, a campaign-era aide who joined the Trump team after having worked on Sen. Ted Cruz's Senate campaign; and McEnany, the campaign's Harvard-educated national press secretary, who is one of the campaign's most visible fixtures."We don't feel we need to show a different president," McEnany said. "The authenticity that he shows is enough, and we think it's enough to win reelection."But the campaign's focus on selling Donald Trump's record does not impress Geoff Garin, a Democratic pollster who works with the super PAC Priorities USA, who argues that the president's record -- particularly on issues like health care -- will cut against him."Polls clearly and consistently show that Trump is in terrible shape with women, particularly with college-educated women and younger women, but not only with them," Garin said, suggesting that the campaign's statements to the contrary are simply wishful thinking. "While Trump brags on how well women are doing in the economy today, polls show that women voters are the least likely to feel that they have benefited from Trump's economic policies."The working premise of the Trump campaign's effort with women is that there is a hidden Trump voter -- loosely defined as a woman who is unregistered, unpersuaded or less than vocal about her support for the president -- who can be identified and motivated to vote. If the campaign can reach enough of them, the thinking goes, the pollsters can be proved wrong.Democratic pollsters concede that woman may exist."A lot of us are trying to correct for it," Lake said, referring to voter surveys that Democrats are conducting. She said the woman the Trump campaign is likeliest to appeal to is white, without a college degree, married and likely to vote the way her husband does on Election Day.She is also likely to hang up on pollsters, Lake said.Jamie Starkweather, a 42-year-old from Battle Creek, Michigan, is the type of woman campaign officials want to reach. Starkweather grew up a Democrat and voted for Clinton in 2016, then married a conservative and stopped working shortly after the election. Her husband's trucking business, she said, is doing well under this economy.Starkweather, who holds an associate degree, said she began to dislike what she saw as an intense focus on racial issues on social media, which she blames on liberals. Starkweather pointed to Trump's support among people like Candace Owens, who has rallied black supporters of the president, as evidence that he is not racist."If he's so racist, and if he's such a bad man," Starkweather added, "then why are these people supporting him?"To Starkweather and other Trump supporters, the accusations about Trump's abusive or misogynistic behavior toward women -- including comments on the leaked "Access Hollywood" audio taped in which Trump bragged about grabbing women by the genitals -- are outdated indiscretions committed long before he entered politics."He was a little bit of a playboy," Starkweather said. "Everybody knows that."Pierson, one of the few African-Americans on the Trump campaign, acknowledged the difficulty of finding such voters at an event in the Detroit suburbs."I applaud you all for having the courage to stand up for what you believe in," she told the group of women at the meeting.And within the campaign, there is a renewed urgency to find more women like Starkweather.In Madison, Wisconsin, last month, Guilfoyle visited with a dozen female volunteers she affectionately deputized as her "soldiers for truth," sharing stories of making phone calls and even winning a pig-kissing contest in support of the president."You have to do whatever it takes," Guilfoyle told the volunteers, to get people to vote."Give people a ride," she told them. "Do whatever it takes. Get them there."This sustained outreach is a marked contrast to the improvisational operation of 2016, run by a handful of trusted aides and family members.Back then, there were few full-time campaign staff members and fewer women, and Corey Lewandowski, the original campaign manager, periodically walked around the campaign headquarters on the fifth floor of Trump Tower with a baseball bat.Kellyanne Conway, now the White House counselor, would later take over that role, and become the first woman to run a winning Republican campaign. And the current campaign manager, Brad Parscale, makes a point of noting that more than half the 2020 team's employees are women.Conway, who repeatedly pressed the idea of a hidden voter with reporters in 2016, said in an interview that this voter was still out there. This voter, she said, is "tired of arguing with folks in their circle of life who are very opinionated and strong willed and loud" -- and opposed to Trump.At a rally in New Hampshire in August, McEnany spoke to supporters like Carly Downs, 33, who said she was initially unsure of whom to vote for in 2016 and in an interview boiled down her split-second voting decision by using an expletive to describe Clinton."We all know who he was prior to becoming the candidate," Downs said about Trump.The campaign says its fundraising data is evidence that hidden voters exist: Half of all donations in the first quarter came from women, compared with about 25% in 2016, according to a campaign official."He may be raising buckets of money," Lake, the pollster, observed, "but he's going to need it to win women back."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
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| Frustration mounts as California is hit with more blackouts Posted: 29 Oct 2019 12:42 PM PDT  Frustration and anger mounted across Northern California as the state's biggest utility began another round of fire-prevention blackouts Tuesday that could leave millions of people without electricity, some for five days or longer. The shut-offs, aimed at keeping windblown electrical equipment from sparking wildfires, came as fire crews raced to contain two major blazes in Northern and Southern California before the winds picked up dangerously again. The fires have destroyed dozens of homes in Sonoma County wine country and in the hills of Los Angeles.
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| This Means War: Iran Has A Huge Wishlist Of Fighter Jets Posted: 27 Oct 2019 11:59 PM PDT  That all could be changing.
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| North Carolina's congressional map is illegal Republican gerrymander, court rules Posted: 28 Oct 2019 07:07 PM PDT  The decision was a victory for Democrats, who have struggled to gain a foothold in both the state legislature and North Carolina's 13 U.S. congressional districts, in part because of how Republicans drew the electoral lines. The ruling seems likely to ensure that the state's 2020 congressional elections will take place under a new map, dealing a blow to Republicans' hopes of recapturing the U.S. House of Representatives after Democrats swept to power in that chamber last year.
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| Baby Shortage Prompts China’s Unwed Mothers to Fight for Change Posted: 28 Oct 2019 02:00 PM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Sign up for Next China, a weekly email on where the nation stands now and where it's going next.For generations, a Chinese woman who gave birth out of wedlock was shunned by society and discriminated against by authorities. Now, as the Communist Party seeks to boost a slowing birthrate, that is starting to change.Yue Li, based in the southern port city of Guangzhou, thought she would face a range of obstacles in getting her son legal documents after she gave birth last year following a separation from her ex-boyfriend. But she was surprised how easy it was to access maternity benefits and obtain a residential permit known as a hukou for her son-- so much so that she posted a step-by-step guide for others in a WeChat account for non-conventional families.Even though authorities finally scrapped the one-child policy in 2016, along with rules requiring a marriage certificate for hukous, implementation has been mixed across China's 31 provinces. In Guangdong, where Yue lives, provincial authorities have removed fines that were levied against unwed mothers for flouting the nation's "family planning" laws."To be honest, the looser policies really gave me a lot more courage to have the baby," Yue wrote in the WeChat account named Diverse Family Network, which advocates reproductive rights and has more than 2,000 followers. "It would not have been possible a year earlier. The penalties would have cost tens of thousands of yuan!"Zhan Yingying, who runs the WeChat account, said more than 100 unwed mothers from a dozen of China's most developed cities told her they hadn't been harassed by the authorities over fines or encountered problems getting hukous for their children."We do see signs of easing restrictions in places," Zhan said by phone, adding that more women are speaking out and pushing for change. "If they don't tell the stories, they will always be ignored."Changing AttitudesThe societal shift is underway as the Communist Party gets desperate for newborns. The number of babies born in the country dropped to the lowest level in almost 60 years in 2018, signaling the looser two-child policy has done little to reverse its slowing birthrate, and worsening the outlook for growth in the world's second-largest economy.After taking power in 1949, the Communist Party codified centuries of culture that placed the traditional nuclear family at the center of society into so-called "family planning" laws, leaving little room to accommodate single parents or same-sex relationships. While no law in China directly penalizes women for having children outside of marriage, for a long time almost every aspect of her child's life -- including during pregnancy -- was made harder without a father named on official paperwork.There is no official data on single mothers in China. A state-run Shanghai media outlet called The Paper estimated that more than 1 million people have been born out of wedlock in China, based on the 2010 census and a study conducted by local academics in 2014.Attitudes toward single parents are changing in China, as they are in the rest of the world. In a survey released in 2016 of about 2,800 Chinese by three NGOs including the Rainbow Lawyers Network, more than 86% of respondents said it was acceptable for a single woman to have a child, and 75% said it was acceptable for lesbian couples to have children.He Yafu, a Guangdong-based demographer, said moves to give back reproductive rights to individuals would have "little impact" on the overall fertility rate as financial pressures, high housing prices and the demands of work often discourage both single and married women from having children. But, he said, the moves are "still significant as it means a departure from decades of family planning policies."Losing BattleAlthough things are getting better, many women still struggle against ingrained biases in many parts of China. Zou Xiaoqi has been locked in a two-year court battle with the Shanghai Social Insurance Fund Management Center as it refused to reimburse her for medical expenses after having a child because she couldn't produce a document that required a marriage certificate."You won't find explicit discriminatory policies in official documents against unwed mothers but in reality they are everywhere," said Zou, the mother of a two-year-old son. "Unwed mothers' reproductive rights aren't explicitly denied in the country's national law, but once you get on the ground and start to claim your benefits, it's just impossible."In China, employers pay into a government fund that covers its female employees' maternity insurance and salary when they have a baby, but requirements for making claims differ between cities and provinces. Zou's case is now before the Shanghai Supreme Court after she lost twice in lower courts."For us, it's no longer about claiming the benefits, or even about winning," said Li Jun, Zou's lawyer. "It's about the social awareness toward those women who are denied from their legal rights, just because they brought babies into this world without that piece of paper, a marriage certificate."Unlike many in China, Zou is aware of her rights and has the means to fight for them. She's college-educated, works for a foreign company, and is able to afford a live-in nanny who charges 7,000 yuan ($990) a month. Born in 1977, Zou came of age during China's period of opening up under former leader Deng Xiaopeng, a time that led many to question the strictures governing daily life and assert their rights more strongly.Seeking ChangeFor the younger generation, the question is even more fundamental. Alan Zhang, a 28-year-old single freelance film director, has sought to push China's lawmakers to reverse a rule that excludes single women from accessing state-operated sperm banks."Why do I have to get married to become a mother?" Zhang, whose Chinese name can also be translated as Ellen, asked in a January WeChat post seeking a sperm donor. "I'm ready physically and psychologically, but the sperm banks in China do not accept applications from unwed mothers."Zhang got mixed responses to her post. Along with critics calling her irresponsible and radical, she also received applications from a dozen candidates both inside and outside China, though none of them met her standards.Zhang ended up writing letters to the 64 delegates of the National People's Congress, China's legislature, who are from Jilin -- the only province that doesn't exclude single women from the state-operated sperm banks. She asked them to push for the same reform nationwide, but never heard back.One lawmaker who has sought change hasn't had much luck either. Huang Xihua, a delegate of China's legislature and the deputy secretary general of the government in Huizhou, a city in Guangdong, proposed removing all limits on family planning at this year's annual gathering. Women make up about a quarter of the NPC, which has almost 3,000 members.Huang has also called on the National Health Commission to remove the specific regulations barring single women from sperm banks, but told Bloomberg News she hasn't received any feedback from them on her suggestion. The National Health Commission, which formulates the nation's family planning policies, didn't immediately respond to a fax seeking comment on the progress of reforms for unwed mothers."As a country modernizes, there is little it can do to boost fertility: reducing the cost of female births and introducing public measures are necessary, but not enough," Huang said. "What is needed is greater independence for women, a break with traditional patriarchal structures and recognition of the legal rights of children born out of wedlock."To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Dandan Li in Beijing at dli395@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Scott at bscott66@bloomberg.net, Sharon Chen, Daniel Ten KateFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Iranian beauty queen stuck at Philippine airport for nearly 2 weeks fears death if deported Posted: 29 Oct 2019 09:42 AM PDT  Bahareh Zare Bahari continues to await her fate at the Manila international airport after arriving nearly two weeks ago from Dubai.
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| Nigerian pastor accused of abusing children who fled Boko Haram Posted: 28 Oct 2019 08:08 PM PDT  Deep in the tropical forest in southern Nigeria, an evangelical pastor runs a sprawling camp billed as a refuge for thousands of children who fled the Boko Haram jihadist insurgency in the north. Solomon Folorunsho, known as Pastor Solomon, says he is on a self-proclaimed mission to help humanity, creating the International Christian Centre for Missions (ICCM).
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| He was undocumented. Now he's exposing detention center abuse Posted: 29 Oct 2019 02:49 PM PDT  Tom Wong, a UC San Diego professor, has surveyed 600 asylum seekers and says the president's policy is 'sending people to die'Tom Wong, a UC San Diego professor, is uncovering the abuse immigrants face in overcrowded detention facilities. Photograph: Erik Jepsen/UC San Diego PublicationsTom K Wong's world shattered at age 16 in 1998 when his parents told him he was undocumented. The Riverside, California, teenager thought his life was over.Now 37, Wong is one of the prominent scholars in the US on immigration, most recently uncovering abuses inside detention centers in his latest University of California, San Diego research. The political science professor, whose family migrated from Hong Kong when he was two and overstayed their visas, released groundbreaking research on Tuesday on asylum seekers, exposing violence and suffering at the border as the Trump administration is escalating its crackdown on migrants.Wong surveyed more than 600 asylum seekers affected by Donald Trump's controversial "remain in Mexico" policy, which has forced tens of thousands to return to Mexico while their cases advance. Roughly, 85% reported that immigration detention facilities failed to provide adequate food and water and that they were unable to sleep due to overcrowding, cold temperatures and other conditions. Only 20% reported being able to take care of basic hygiene, such as showering and brushing their teeth.More than half said they faced verbal abuse inside detention, with some saying they also suffered physical abuse. Roughly 25% also had their property seized when taken into detention, including important documents and cash that was not returned to them, he said.A majority said they were forced to return to Mexico without any further investigation of the violence they might face there, which Wong said was a direct violation of the policy.While waiting in Mexico, one out of four said they were threatened with physical violence, and more said they ended up homeless.Asked about Wong's research, a spokesperson for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) said the agency "provides safe, humane, clean, professionally run and appropriate conditions of confinement" and access to legal and translation services. A spokesperson for Customs and Border Protection, which also detains migrants, said it "takes allegations of mistreatment of individuals in our facilities seriously" and that employees found to violate standards "will be held accountable".Wong talked with the Guardian about his non-traditional academic career, the crisis at the border, and how he uses his PhD to fight back. The conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.Can you tell me what it was like to discover you were undocumented?My parents told me I couldn't go with my high school basketball team to Canada. Then they told me I couldn't get a driver's license. I couldn't get a job. And there was just a cascade of no, no, no. And finally my parents said it's not because we don't want you to do these things, it's because you can't. All my hopes and dreams about growing up were literally shattered in a single moment. And it was during a time when there wasn't the undocumented youth movement, so I wasn't able to find other students.I grew up in a predominantly Latino neighborhood, and before I found out I was undocumented, California was becoming a ground zero for this emerging anti-immigrant movement. I remember there were policy debates with the white kids on one side, the brown kids on the other, and me feeling like I had little understanding. But everything that was being said negatively toward my Latino classmates actually applied more directly to me.How did you overcome this and become an academic?I barely graduated high school after learning I was undocumented, because at the time I thought, what's the point? But I got married when I was 19 and I was able to adjust my immigration status. I paid for a summer politics class, and I thought if this professor can make a living teaching, maybe I can do the same.It took me years to realize I bring a different perspective to the study of immigration, politics and policy, that my history is my comparative advantage. It's a perspective that helps me ask questions that others don't. It took me a while to talk about my experience of being undocumented, because my parents' immigration status was still tenuous. But they're fine now, and I'm able to speak out.What has been most shocking to you about your findings on what happens to asylum seekers?Some findings were simultaneously shocking, but also very expected since we've heard anecdotal reports. There were over 200 incidents of verbal abuse, dozens of instances of physical abuse and even property being taken away. I heard of someone losing their life savings.The findings about language access also really stuck out. Individuals are getting instructions about critically important steps in languages that they don't speak: often Central American asylum speakers who speak an indigenous language by default are given instructions in Spanish. In San Diego, there are a lot of different languages – Asian Indians seeking asylum who speak Hindi were given instructions in English or Spanish. I find it hard to believe that we as a country can't find a Hindi speaker. This is a basic due process tenet.What do we now know about the conditions people face when they are forced to return to Mexico?So many have experienced or been threatened with physical violence while waiting. Despite the handshake agreement between the United States and Mexico that Mexico is responsible for the humanitarian needs of these asylum seekers being returned, we areputting people in harm's way by returning them to Mexico.What do you think is most important for the public to understand about the impact of Trump's policies on asylum seekers right now?This administration wants to see net zero refugee admissions, which we are getting close to. This is a core part of the agenda. It's not just in disregard of international and domestic law, but it's in disregard of the fact that so many of the asylum seekers who are being turned away are seeking protection from persecution. It's an agenda that is blind to the experiences of these families. The inevitable result is that people will be sent to circumstances where they will likely die.What do you hope is the impact of your work and your findings?I used to believe in facts swaying public opinion. But I fear we are in a political moment where the ability to select which facts to consider true is making the work we do less important. Now it may be very difficult to move public opinion when opinions are formed on such a visceral level.But facts still matter. The truth still matters, because what is happening now is the administration is often acting first, and then the courts are litigating later. So even if the public is less and less swayed by the facts on the ground, judges still are.Were there moments in your career where you found academia unwelcoming?It can be strange having lived through something and then hearing about that subject through the perspective of somebody who studies the topic, but doesn't have that personal connection. But I do quantitative work, and at the end of the day, the data speak much louder than my own personal background.What's the hardest part of doing academic work that is relevant to urgent policy matters?A lot of academics are just scared about being wrong and being publicly wrong. But I believe in the importance of the work, and that means I need to be confident that I can stand by it. A few years ago I thought my bar was peer review in an academic journal. Now I understand my bar to be that as well as, "Can this pass muster with a federal judge or can this withstand a deposition from attorneys for the Department of Justice?"What effect does the work have on you personally?It's often miserable. It's difficult to hear. It's difficult to interact with people, to see women and little kids who are the ages of my own children in shelters in Mexico, not knowing what's going on. It is difficult to not internalize it. But I believe in the work. If it's not me, I'm afraid there won't be others who step up. Because it'll be too easy for those others who want to step up to then step out after really understanding how difficult it is to have these conversations.How do you think we can get out of this crisis moment?We have to know our immigration policy past. Every generation gets to decide for itself, whether it embraces diversity through our immigration system or pushes it away by closing our golden door. We are defining for this generation how we are answering the question of what it means to be a nation of immigrants. And we have done that historically. And in some periods in our history, we have closed our doors to immigrants, and in other periods we have opened them again. This is cyclical. It is difficult to live through, but this has been a cyclical part of our immigration policy past.Every four years we as a country get to collectively answer whether or not we still believe in this idea that we are a nation of immigrants. In 2020, we will get to vote.
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| Lebanese prime minister quits amid anti-government protests Posted: 29 Oct 2019 04:24 PM PDT  Lebanon's prime minister resigned Tuesday, bowing to one of the central demands of anti-government demonstrators shortly after baton-wielding Hezbollah supporters rampaged through the main protest camp in Beirut, torching tents, smashing plastic chairs and chasing away protesters. The demonstrators later returned to the camp in time to hear the news that Prime Minister Saad Hariri said he was stepping down after hitting a "dead end" in trying to resolve the crisis, which has paralyzed the country for nearly two weeks.
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| NRA Officials Found NRATV Messaging to Be ‘Distasteful and Racist’: Lawsuit Posted: 28 Oct 2019 08:50 AM PDT  NRATVThe federal lawsuit between the National Rifle Association and the ad firm that created its now-defunct NRATV outlet has taken an uglier turn, with the pro-gun group now alleging its own leadership found the TV outlet's messaging "distasteful and racist."According to an Oct. 25 amended complaint filed in its ongoing lawsuit against Ackerman McQueen, NRA officials believed the short-lived TV outlet—which featured shows from right-wing stars like Dana Loesch and Dan Bongino—"strayed from the Second Amendment to themes which some NRA leaders found distasteful and racist."As an example of a "damaging" segment, the NRA filing alludes to an instance on Loesch's show Relentless, in which an on-air graph featured a picture of kid's cartoon character Thomas the Tank Engine wearing a Ku Klux Klan hood. "Attempts by the NRA to 'rein in' AMc and its messaging were met with responses from AMc that ranged from evasive to hostile," the gun lobby further alleges.Furthermore, the NRA claims, in closed-door meetings Ackerman McQueen presented to embattled NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre "fabricated and inflated sponsorship and viewership claims." When tasked with the "simple request" of gathering digital "unique visitors" data for NRA executives, the filing claims, AMc went silent. Overall, the gun group alleges, the ad firm often gave an "intentionally (and wildly) misleading" representation of NRATV's viewership performance."Tellingly, when NRATV finally shut down in June 2019, no one missed it," the NRA fumes in the new filing. "Not a single sponsor or viewer even called, confirming what at least some NRA executives suspected—the site had limited visibility and was failing the accomplish any of its goals."The amended complaint is just the latest shot fired in an ongoing battle between the gun-lobbying group and its estranged ad firm. The lawsuit, originally filed in late August in Dallas, blasted AMc for its handling of NRATV and demanded the firm remove any reference to the NRA from its website.Prior to that, the NRA sued Ackerman McQueen in Virginia Circuit Court to demand information about its billing practices and eventually demand tens of millions of dollars.The National Rifle Association, meanwhile, has been embroiled in several scandals of its own: a ProPublica report alleging sexual harassment by a senior NRA staffer; vicious infighting among top executives; and reportedly out-of-control spending and debt fueled by legal fees, unpaid bills, and expenses on lavish travel, clothing, and makeup for LaPierre and his wife.In a lengthy statement to The Daily Beast, the ad firm blasted the NRA's "false claims" and went after LaPierre, alleging the NRA CEO repeatedly "defrauded" the firm. "In the final 18 months, AMc representatives progressively discovered that LaPierre and his executive team, with the board's oversight and approval, were marketing false products and narratives to NRA members, covering up sexual harassment, attempting to intimidate public officials, disrupting internal investigations about Russia, spending member money for personal benefit and more."AMc further wrote: "LaPierre controlled every aspect of NRATV for which he recruited talent, approved every budget, audited every metric and required ultimate confidentiality. Ackerman McQueen routinely offered and toward the end of the relationship demanded that an outside firm audit NRATV performance but LaPierre refused. Unlike the NRA, AMc welcomes full transparency. LaPierre's apparent paranoia and lust for secrecy fed his justification for private air travel, luxury hotels and countless other expenses for himself, his family and friends that were all paid by member dues."The ad firm's statement concluded by alleging that LaPierre and the NRA now "grovel at the feet of the media they used to decry" by filing lawsuits against the NRATV creator—"another cynical attempt to distract from Wayne LaPierre's documented mismanagement of the organization and the captive board's complicit behavior," the firm added.Meanwhile, the NRA added in a statement from Michael J. Collins, partner at Brewer, Attorneys & Counselors and counsel to the NRA: "The NRA believes Ackerman McQueen breached its fiduciary duties, engaged in fraudulent billing, and failed to maintain adequate books and records—all in an effort to enrich itself at the expense of the NRA and its members. The allegations reveal a pattern of corruption that included NRATV, a failed media enterprise the agency proposed, managed and sustained through misleading accounts of viewership and promised commercial viability. In the end, the NRA believes NRATV became all 'smoke and mirrors'—a vehicle touted by Ackerman for the sole purpose of continuing the flow of millions of dollars of fees which the agency needed to sustain itself." Collins continued: "At the same time, when questions began to arise about Ackerman's billing practices and whether it was taking advantage of the considerable discretion it possessed in such matters, the agency stonewalled the inquiry and embarked upon a scorched-earth campaign against all of its perceived adversaries. Ultimately, this included the CEO of the Association, executives, and outside professionals charged with obtaining answers to legitimate concerns about the agency's practices. The NRA and its members are determined to ferret out what now appears to have been a considerable amount of corruption."—This story has been updated with comments from both Ackerman McQueen and the NRA.NRA Spent Tens of Thousands on Hair and Makeup for CEO's WifeNational Rifle Association Calls NRATV a 'Failed Endeavor' in New LawsuitRead 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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| UPDATE 1-Iraq's Sadr calls on rival to join him in ousting PM Posted: 29 Oct 2019 10:40 AM PDT ![UPDATE 1-Iraq's Sadr calls on rival to join him in ousting PM]( "UPDATE 1-Iraq's Sadr calls on rival to join him in ousting PM") Populist Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has invited his biggest political rival to work with him on ousting the country's prime minister as thousands of anti-government protesters took to the streets for a fifth day. In a statement on Tuesday Sadr, who leads parliament's largest bloc, asked Hadi al-Amiri, leader of the second-largest, to help him introduce a vote of no confidence in Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi. "To answer brother Abdul Mahdi, I thought asking you to call an early election would preserve your dignity but as you have refused, I invite brother Amiri to work with me on withdrawing confidence from you immediately," he said.
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