Hong Kong goes quiet as subway, shops close after night of violence

Hong Kong fell eerily silent on Saturday, with the subway and most shopping malls closed in an unprecedented shutdown of one of the world's biggest commercial centers after the government invoked emergency measures to curb months of unrest. Hundreds of anti-government protesters defied a ban on face masks and took to the streets across the Chinese-ruled city earlier in the day. Rail operator MTR Corp suspended all services, paralyzing transport in the Asian financial hub, while malls and shops closed early after a night of chaos in which police shot a teenage boy and protesters torched businesses and metro stations.

Pro-Trump group takes credit for woman talking about eating babies at AOC town hall

At a town hall for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., a woman in a T-shirt that read “Save the planet Eat the Children” stood up and suggested people should eat babies to fight climate change. A pro-Trump group, LaRouchePAC, took credit for the stunt.

At least four killed in cargo plane crash landing in Ukraine

At least four crew were killed on Friday when a Ukrainian Antonov-12 cargo airplane made an emergency landing near the western airport of Lviv after disappearing from radar, officials said. One of the crew had called the service at 7:29 a.m. to report the emergency landing of the plane, which was found 1.5 km (1 mile) from the airport. The landing was made 'in connection with the end of the fuel', Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Vladyslav Kryklii said later on Facebook, adding that the plane had been flying to Lviv from Spain.

WKD: Russia Is Giving Its Su-57s Anti-Ship Missiles To Fight The U.S. Navy

The Navy has its hands full.

Defending the indefensible? The 10 ways Trump and his supporters are fighting back against impeachment

Republicans are privately said to be very worried.The wayward, scattershot approach adopted by Donald Trump and the White House as the president is confronted by the threat of impeachment, does not appear to working.

Fourteen-year-old shot in clashes between Hong Kong protesters and police in wake of face mask ban

A 14-year-old boy was shot as clashes broke out between protesters and police in Hong Kong on Friday in the wake of a blanket ban on face masks.  Demonstrators stormed the city’s shopping district and set fire to Chinese banks.  Police said a 14-year-old boy was shot in the thigh, but said it was unclear if he was hit by a stray bullet or shot by a police officer who fired his gun after being attacked by a group of protesters. The Hospital Authority said a 14-year-old boy was taken to hospital and was last night in serious condition. The incident would mark the second time live rounds have been fired against protesters since the demonstrations began. The face-mask ban invokes colonial-era emergency powers for the first time since the UK handed the city back to China in 1997. Police fired tear gas and all metro services to Hong Kong Island were halted as some stations also came under attack from protesters. The new face mask law will ban demonstrators from covering their faces in full or partially to prevent their identification during protests, marches or illegal assemblies, with violators facing up to one year of imprisonment or a maximum fine of $3,190. Authorities sent in rows of riot police to quell the protests Credit: NICOLAS ASFOURI/AFP At a press conference flanked by her most senior ministers, Carrie Lam, the embattled Chief Executive, said the government enacted the unpopular measure out of duty to “end violence and restore order” to the city, which was now in a “very critical state of public danger” after four months of anti-government protests. The decision to invoke the colonial-era Emergency Regulations Ordinance to push through the face mask ban was “difficult but necessary for the public interest” after scenes of chaos and panic, she argued. As protesters gathered following the announcement, China voiced support for "extremely necessary" ban. The new law is aimed primarily at students, the most active participants in the city’s protests, which began in June against a contentious bill that would have allowed extradition to mainland China, but has since snowballed into a demand for greater rights, including universal suffrage. Schools across the financial hub have already been issued with details of the “Anti-mask act.” The ban was introduced after the worst street violence in decades this week when an 18-year-old demonstrator was shot and critically wounded during a clash with the police. However, the dramatic step by Carrie Lam’s government threatens to inflame tensions further. Hong Kong chief executive confirmed the ban on Friday Credit: PHILIP FONG/AFP Opponents of the measure fear that the use of the Emergency Regulations Ordinance – a colonial-era law first used by the British government to quell a seamen’s strike in Hong Kong harbour in 1922 – could open the door to sweeping controls. They fear that the government could use the ordinance as a form of martial law that would permit authorities to implement any new regulation the government believes would help end “an occasion of emergency or public danger.” Examples could include greater powers to arrest citizens, censor publications, shut off communications networks and search premises without warrants.

Anti-Muslim Group, ACT for America, to Host Gala at Mar-a-Lago

By BY MARIEL PADILLA from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/31Nn8qk

Romney rips Trump: 'Wrong and appalling' to ask China and Ukraine to investigate Biden

Republican Sen. Mitt Romney issued a stern rebuke of the president's call for foreign governments to investigate Joe Biden.

Giuliani plays down role in proposed Ukraine statement on corruption

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.

Dallas ex-cop's conviction: Was justice served?

Former Dallas police officer Amber Guyger was sentenced to 10 years in prison for the murder of her neighbor Botham Jean. Guyger said she had accidently entered Jean's apartment thinking it was her own and shot him because she believed he was an intruder.

The Latest: Iraq Parliament speaker says he supports demands

An influential Iraqi Shiite cleric has called on the government to resign and early elections be held to bring the country out of a crisis that has left more than 50 dead in four days. Earlier in the day, al-Sadr's Sairoon political bloc in parliament that came in first in last year's national elections said it was suspending participation in parliamentary activities until the government introduces a program that serves Iraqi aspirations. Since the spontaneous rallies began Tuesday, security forces have fired live rounds and tear gas every day to disperse them in multiple provinces.

Ukrainian prosecutors are reviewing their investigation into Burisma, the energy company where Hunter Biden worked

"We are reviewing all cases that were closed ... to make a decision on whether this was illegal," Ukraine's prosecutor general told reporters Friday.

The Entire World Knows That Protester Was Shot in Hong Kong

Beware Beijing: Everyone is watching you now.

Spiro Agnew's Lawyer: Mike Pence Should Be Worried About Impeachment Too

Martin London, who represented Spiro Agnew, writes that no vice president has ever been impeached, but Mike Pence could be the first.

Vintage airplane pilots shaken by Connecticut crash of B-17

The deadly crash of a B-17 bomber in Connecticut has shaken the ever-smaller community of pilots who fly World War II-era planes that they say offer both unique challenges and thrills. Seven people were killed when the plane crashed and burned Wednesday about eight minutes after taking off from Bradley International Airport. The pilot, Ernest "Mac" McCauley, 75 who was regarded as one of the most experienced B-17 pilots in the country, reported a problem with an engine, turned back to the airport and touched down before losing control on a runway and crashing into a de-icing facility.

Hong Kong goes quiet as subway, shops close after night of violence

Hong Kong fell eerily silent on Saturday, with the subway and most shopping malls closed in an unprecedented shutdown of one of the world's biggest commercial centers after the government invoked emergency measures to curb months of unrest. Hundreds of anti-government protesters defied a ban on face masks and took to the streets across the Chinese-ruled city earlier in the day. Rail operator MTR Corp suspended all services, paralyzing transport in the Asian financial hub, while malls and shops closed early after a night of chaos in which police shot a teenage boy and protesters torched businesses and metro stations.

Jury convicts man in killing of Chicago boy lured into alley

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.

Dallas ex-cop's conviction: Was justice served?

Former Dallas police officer Amber Guyger was sentenced to 10 years in prison for the murder of her neighbor Botham Jean. Guyger said she had accidently entered Jean's apartment thinking it was her own and shot him because she believed he was an intruder.

6 wild elephants die after falling from waterfall in Thailand, reports say

The Thai elephants may have been trying to save each other from dangerous falls where a similar incident occurred in the past, reports say.

Sunk U.S. Battleships During the Gulf War? Saddam Could Have Pulled It Off.

A difficult task.

Elizabeth Warren campaign staffer fired for unspecified 'inappropriate behavior'

The campaign launched an investigation into the allegations over the past two weeks, which resulted in the staffer's termination.

Russia's Su-35S: The Real Stealth Killer (As In Russia's Su-57?)

Fitting a gap in Russia's air force.

Top Biden Donors Gather Amid Storm Clouds Over Campaign

By BY SHANE GOLDMACHER from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2AMV7mQ

Ecuador transport unions suspend protests against cuts to fuel-subsidy

Ecuadorean transport unions agreed on Friday to suspend protests against President Lenin Moreno's scrapping of fuel-subsidies, a union spokesman said, after two days of unrest that halted transport nation-wide and resulted in almost 370 arrests.

from Reuters: World News https://ift.tt/2OkWSj9

India-Pakistan nuclear war could kill 100 million

The year is 2025 and militants have attacked India's parliament, killing most of its leaders. New Delhi retaliates by sending tanks into the part of Kashmir controlled by Pakistan. Fearing it will be overrun, Islamabad hits the invading forces with its battlefield nuclear weapons, triggering the deadliest conflict in history -- and catastrophic global cooling, with temperatures not seen since the last Ice Age.

Trump tries out new defenses as damaging Ukraine evidence piles up

President Donald Trump on Friday defended his brazen call for foreign governments to interfere in the 2020 election by launching investigations into the Bidens, repeatedly claiming he is duty-bound to encourage the probes while insisting his motivations are apolitical. This is about corruption,” Trump told reporters outside the White House. “And if you look and you read our Constitution and many other things, I have an obligation to look at corruption.

The Supreme Court has accepted a potentially landmark abortion case

Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh is receiving his biggest abortion test yet.The Supreme Court announced Friday it would hear a case involving a Louisiana law that restricts which doctors can perform abortions. It's essentially the same law the court struck down in 2016, but this time around, there's an additional conservative justice on the bench, The Washington Post reports.The law in question, enacted in 2014, requires that abortion providers also have surgical privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of their clinics. It also sets hospital-like standards for clinics, including mandating their hallways are a minimum width and that they have certain expensive equipment, per NPR. Louisiana has said that its law is just like the Texas mandate that the court struck down three years ago, but this time, the consistent swing voter Justice Anthony Kennedy has retired and been replaced with Kavanaugh.Kavanaugh isn't skirting around his position on the case. The Louisiana case already came to the Supreme Court last year after the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld it and Louisiana abortion clinics appealed. But the top court didn't issue a full ruling, with Chief Justice John Roberts only joining liberals in a 5-4 vote to block the law from taking effect for the time being.Kavanaugh wrote the court's dissent in last year's Louisiana decision, implying he'll do the same this time around. Roberts meanwhile voted with the minority conservatives in the 2016 Texas case, and if he does the same again, he'll solidify a conservative majority and open up the possibility of more state laws that make it harder for abortion providers to do their jobs.

Pentagon orders officials to submit all documents on Ukraine aid freeze

The Pentagon's Office of General Counsel has ordered officials to send all documents and communications about military aid to Ukraine “for cataloguing and review,” the top Defense Department spokesperson said today, adding that this is standard practice for high-profile issues. The documents could play a role in the House's impeachment inquiry, launched after President Donald Trump appeared to make military aid to Ukraine conditional on officials investigating Trump’s political rivals, including former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter. “Today, the general counsel of the department, in keeping with past practice on matters of importance and to ensure that all appropriate department information is available on this matter directed that DoD offices should provide any pertinent documents and records to the Office of General Counsel for cataloguing and review,” Pentagon spokesperson Jonathan Hoffman told reporters.

Ohio University suspends all frats, citing hazing allegations against 7 chapters

Ohio University has suspended all fraternities, citing a "growing concern elevated by allegations of hazing" against seven chapters made this week.

Democrats Subpoena White House Records: Impeachment Update

(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: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 and Steven T. Dennis.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.

Trump Whistleblower Is Registered Democrat: Report

The whistleblower who filed a complaint against President Trump that now forms the center of an impeachment inquiry against him is a registered Democrat, according to a report from CNN.That fact was reported by inspector general for the intelligence community Michael Atkinson as an "arguable political bias on the part" of the whistleblower.However, Atkinson also wrote in a report on the whistleblower that "such evidence did not change my determination that the complaint relating to the urgent concern 'appears credible.'"> 2/ The attorney for the whistleblower declined to comment. > > The IG said "such evidence did not change my determination that the complaint relating to the urgent concern 'appears credible' particularly given the other information the ICIG obtained during its preliminary review."> > -- Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) October 3, 2019The as-yet unidentified whistleblower was described by the New York Times as a CIA analyst who worked at the White House.The complaint alleges the White House went to unusual lengths to secure the transcript of a phone conversation between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The whistleblower said he had received information from those with firsthand knowledge of the conversation that Trump may have committed an abuse of power.Trump released the transcript of the call on September 25, in which he said:> There’s a lot of talk about Biden’s son, that Biden stopped the prosecution [of Viktor Shokin] and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great. Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it. It sounds horrible to me.A week before the conversation Trump had ordered a halt to a $391 million military-aid package to Ukraine, drawing accusations that he used the aid as leverage to pressure Zelensky to investigate a political rival.House Democrats announced last week that they would begin an impeachment inquiry into Trump's handling of the situation. Trump has so far denounced the allegations as a "hoax" and today reiterated his assertion that Zelensky should investigate the Bidens and called on China to look into Hunter Biden's business dealings in that country as well.

Spiro Agnew's Lawyer: Mike Pence Should Be Worried About Impeachment Too

Martin London, who represented Spiro Agnew, writes that no vice president has ever been impeached, but Mike Pence could be the first.

Elaine Feinstein, Poet, Novelist and Biographer, Dies at 88

By BY NEIL GENZLINGER from NYT Books https://ift.tt/336vI3D

Trump and His Henchmen in the Flames

By BY ROGER COHEN from NYT Opinion https://ift.tt/30Omg3j

Boeing crash victims' lawyer to seek testimony from 737 MAX whistleblower

An attorney representing families of passengers killed in a Boeing Co 737 MAX crash in Ethiopia said on Friday he will seek sworn evidence from a Boeing engineer who claims the company rejected a proposed safety upgrade to the 737 MAX because it was too costly.

from Reuters: World News https://ift.tt/2VcyOjI

Jury finds Chicago gang member guilty in the murder of 9-year-old Tyshawn Lee

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.

Death toll from vaping-linked illness now at 19 in US

A report by clinicians in North Carolina last month pointed to the inhalation of fatty substances from aerosolized oils, but a new study by the Mayo Clinic published this week found patients' lungs had been exposed to noxious fumes. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday that 18 deaths in 15 states had now been positively linked to vaping, from a total of 1,080 cases of people sickened  -- a jump of 275 since last week. Connecticut officials also announced the first death in the state, bringing the total to at least 19.

Fiery B-17 plane crash has people asking: Are vintage bomber rides dangerous?

The World War II-era B-17 bomber that crashed Wednesday was never designed to carry passengers. Yet seven died. Should historic flights end?

Teenager shot as violence flares hours after Hong Kong imposes emergency powers

Hong Kong police shot and wounded a teenage boy on Friday, as violent protests erupted across the Chinese-ruled city hours after its embattled leader Carrie Lam invoked colonial-era emergency powers last used more than 50 years ago. Lam, speaking at a news conference, said a ban on face masks would take effect on Saturday under the emergency laws that allow authorities to "make any regulations whatsoever" in whatever they deem to be in the public interest. Nearly four months of anti-government protests have plunged Hong Kong into its biggest political crisis since its handover from Britain to China in 1997 under a "one country, two systems" formula that granted it autonomy and broad freedoms not enjoyed on the mainland.

18 Famous Authors’ Houses Worth Seeing

Ukraine's new top prosecutor: no evidence against Hunter Biden so far

Ukraine's new top prosecutor said on Friday he was not aware of any evidence of wrongdoing by the son of former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, and he had not been contacted by any foreign lawyers about the case. U.S. President Donald Trump asked President Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in a July 25 phone call to investigate Biden and his son Hunter, who earned money from a Ukrainian gas company. "I have no such information," General Prosecutor Ruslan Ryaboshapka said, when asked whether he had evidence of wrongdoing by Hunter Biden.

Election Commission chair hints that Trump asking foreign countries for help against Biden violates law

FEC chair Ellen Weintraub posted a reminder about U.S. election law following Trump's latest requests to foreign nations.

Republicans should be ashamed of their silence on Trump's call for China to go after Biden

Republicans continue to make excuse after excuse for Trump, even as the president makes his corruption a public affair.

Biden Dirt File Has Private Email Between John Solomon and Rudy Allies

Saul Loeb/AFP/GettyA controversial right-leaning reporter at the center of the Trump-Ukraine scandal emailed a copy of one of his stories—before it was published—to a top ally of Rudy Giuliani, as well as two pro-Trump investigators attempting to dig up negative information on the Biden family.In March, The Hill's investigative reporter John Solomon published a story claiming that the U.S. government had pressured Ukrainian prosecutors to drop a probe of a group funded by the Obama administration and liberal billionaire George Soros. The story was published at 6 p.m., according to a timestamp on the paper’s website. Solomon himself didn’t share it on his Twitter account until 6:56 p.m. that night. The earliest cache of the story in the Internet Archive is from 7:42 p.m. Eastern time.But hours before that, at 12:52 p.m. Eastern time, Solomon appears to have sent a version of the article to Ukrainian-American businessman Lev Parnas and the Trumpworld lawyers Joe diGenova and Victoria Toensing. The email was titled “Outline of Soros reporting, including embedded documents” and included the headline and the text of his piece.Two congressional sources confirmed to The Daily Beast that Solomon’s email was part of a roughly 50-page package of material that was turned over to lawmakers on Wednesday by the State Department’s Inspector General’s office. Reuters was the first to report the email’s inclusion in the packet.That material, according to congressional sources, appeared to be a “misinformation” effort meant to smear the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine and the Bidens. CNN reported on Wednesday that Giuliani had conceded that the information in the package originated, at least in part, with him.Not Just Ukraine: Rudy and Bannon Try a Whole New Way to Slime Biden“They told me they were going to investigate it,” Giuliani said to CNN, referring to a call he got from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.Neither Solomon nor The Hill responded to request for comment from The Daily Beast. But in a series of tweets Wednesday night, Solomon said he sent the email “as a reporter fact-checking my work”—although the email contained the text of a fully drafted story, not isolated items that needed vetting.“The email released to the public appears to omit the opening line of my originally sent email,” Solomon claimed in the tweets. “Here is the passage that preceded the summary of my reporting. ‘Appreciate eyeballing for accuracy. Want to be fair and accurate.’ That’s not scandalous. It’s good journalism.”Emails sent to the addresses Solomon used for Parnas, diGenova and Toensing did not bounce back but were not returned.Solomon’s email to Parnas, diGenova, and Toensing suggests even stronger ties between the Hill columnist and the Trump team tasked with digging up dirt on Biden abroad. And it raises questions about the degree to which pro-Trump figures were working directly with sympathetic journalists to try and dig up and spread dirt on Biden and like-minded Democrats. Solomon’s March 29 story about the U.S. embassy in Ukraine makes no direct mention of Parnas, diGenova, or Toensing—instead, the piece cites a letter about the probe from U.S. embassy official George Kent, and claims by former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko that the U.S. pressured him to halt an investigation into the Soros- and U.S.-backed group. But the three individuals have emerged as key players in the lead-up to Trump’s request for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to work with Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer, to investigate the Bidens. Parnas, a Giuliani friend and golf buddy, was a key player in connecting the former New York City mayor to former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin, whom Biden and other top Western government entities and officials had hoped to push out because of his perceived inaction tackling corruption.DiGenova and Toensing have been some of the president’s most trusted outside allies for years. During  Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation last year, the duo was briefly mentioned as possibilities to join the president’s legal defense team. On Sunday, Fox News reported that diGenova and Toensing had been working alongside Giuliani to dig up dirt on Biden—a revelation that the New York Times had noted months prior.   Leaked Memo: Colleagues Unload on John Solomon, the Journo Who Kicked Off Trump’s Ukraine ConspiracySolomon’s work has come under intense scrutiny following the revelation that a series of his stories about Ukraine may have helped spark events leading to Trump’s request that President Zelensky team up with Giuliani to investigate the Bidens.On March 20, Solomon published an interview with Lutsenko in which the ex-prosecutor accused the former vice president of having pressured the then-Ukrainian president in 2016 to fire Lutsenko’s predecessor, Shokin. The insinuation, according to Lutsenko, was that Biden hoped to quash an investigation into a Ukrainian gas company connected to his son Hunter Biden. Despite Lutsenko’s retraction of some of the claims, and conclusion that Hunter Biden “did not violate any Ukrainian laws,” the incident was cited in a U.S. government whistleblower’s complaint as one of the circumstances that eventually led to Trump’s call with Zelensky.Meanwhile, The Washington Post reported new details Wednesday night about Giuliani’s dirt-digging on another front: He’s been consulting via a lawyer with Trump's imprisoned former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort to inquire about the so-called black ledger that reportedly revealed a Ukrainian political party had funneled millions to Manafort. Giuliani believes the ledger was part of a conspiracy by Ukrainians to interfere in the 2016 election on behalf of Hillary Clinton.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.