world news: 2019-10-06

Saturday 12 October 2019

Pentagon officials worried withholding aid was illegal

The Ukraine affair has turned into an impeachment inquiry that could see President Trump removed from office. But it is also an example of yet another federal agency — this time, the Pentagon — caught off-guard by the president’s political imperatives.

Journalist and author James Stewart on impeachment inquiry: ‘Trump acted like someone who’s guilty’

Journalist and author of "Deep State" James Stewart joins Yahoo News Editor in Chief Dan Klaidman and Chief Investigative Correspondent Michael Isikoff to talk about the impeachment inquiry surrounding President Trump.

The Latest: Fire witness reports sparks near electric lines

Los Angeles arson investigators say a witness reported seeing sparks or flames coming from a power line near where a wildfire is believed to have started. Peter Sanders, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Fire Department, says investigators are seeking additional witnesses. Southern California Edison says it owns the transmission tower that was shown on KABC-TV.

Turkey Mistakenly Shells U.S. Special Forces in Syria: Report

U.S. special forces based in Syria have been caught in Turkish artillery fire, according to Newsweek. It remains unclear whether there were any other casualties.The contingent of U.S. troops was operating in the Kurdish-dominated city of Kobani in northeastern Syria when they were hit by shelling from Turkey's military, which is currently invading the region.A senior Pentagon official confirmed the incident, saying Turkish forces should have precise knowledge of American positions.Earlier on Friday Defense Secretary Mark Esper told reporters that a small number of special forces had been moved back from the Syrian border with Turkey in advance of the Turkish incursion into Kurdish territory. President Trump was met with bipartisan criticism when he announced the move on Monday as prominent lawmakers and pundits interpreted the development as an indication that the U.S. had signed off on the invasion.Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has stated the goal of the operation is to secure an area inside Syria to resettle 3.6 million Syrian refugees currently residing in Turkey, as well as to fight Kurdish groups Turkey deems terrorist organizations.The U.S. partnered with several of those groups to combat ISIS. There are roughly 12,000 ISIS prisoners currently held in Kurdish detention facilities, although it is unclear what will happen to them as a result of the invasion.Meanwhile, the commander of the heavily-Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces, General Mazlum Kobani Abdi, confirmed in an interview that Turkish shelling hit a prison with ISIS fighters in Syria, and five ISIS fighters managed to escape.The United Nations estimated that over 100,000 people fled the region in anticipation of Turkey's invasion.

Two dead near Los Angeles as Saddleridge fire forces 100,000 people to evacuate

The Saddleridge fire, which began in Sylmar, is moving quickly thanks to Santa Ana winds, burning homes and forcing evacuations in California near LA

U.S. military says not abandoning Kurds, condemns Turkish offensive

The Pentagon strongly denied on Friday accusations that it had abandoned its Syrian Kurdish allies to a Turkish military onslaught, which it said was destabilizing the region and doing "dramatic harm" to U.S.-Turkey relations. U.S. President Trump's decision to pull back troops from Syria's border with Turkey has been widely criticized in Washington as a tacit "green light" for a Turkish offensive that intensified on Friday, with Turkish air and artillery strikes on Kurdish militia. "Nobody green-lighted this operation by Turkey, just the opposite.

Federal judges rule against Trump in 3 cases on executive powers

The president's legal team was handed three courtroom defeats on Friday.

Honduran cartel figure testifies he bribed presidents

The former boss of Honduras' Los Cachiros cartel testified Friday that he paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to the current and former presidents of Honduras in exchange for protection from extradition to the United States and other favors. Devis Leonel Rivera Maradiaga said in a Manhattan court that he gave then-President Porfirio Lobo between $500,000 and $600,000 in 2009 and alleged that Lobo helped him launder the proceeds from drug trafficking. Rivera Maradiaga also said he paid a $250,000 bribe to current President Juan Orlando Hernández, without specifying the date.

Missing dog reunited with owner 12 years later

"I'm just so happy to have her back. I cried so many nights without her," Dutchess's owner, Katheryn Strang, said

The Latest: Iran: 2 missiles hit oil tanker off Saudi coast

Iranian officials say two missiles have struck an Iranian tanker traveling through the Red Sea off the coast of Saudi Arabia. This is the latest incident in the region amid months of heightened tensions between Tehran and the U.S. There was no immediate word from Saudi Arabia on the reported attack on Friday near the Red Sea port city of Jiddah. The reported attack comes after the U.S. has alleged that in past months Iran attacked oil tankers near the Strait of Hormuz, at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, something denied by Tehran.

Top Diplomat Was Axed for Protesting Giuliani’s Back-Channel Ukraine Crusade

Alex Wong/GettyThe House impeachment inquiry dismissed as “illegitimate” by the White House is about to hear testimony from a former top aide ready to go on the record about Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani’s “shadow policy” in Ukraine—along with the former ambassador to Ukraine who was reportedly ousted for refusing to put up with all the off-the-books maneuvering. The Associated Press reports former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, was dismissed from her post after calling out Giuliani’s back-channel methods in his crusade to have Ukrainian authorities investigate debunked corruption allegations against one of Trump’s top political rivals in 2020, former Vice President Joe Biden.A former diplomat said Yovanovitch made clear there were formal procedures to follow when requesting a country's help in an investigation, and recalled that she refused to participate in “offline, personal, informal stuff.” After Yovanovitch was abruptly dismissed from her post earlier than expected in May as Giuliani pursued the investigations, national security officials reportedly raised concerns about her ouster and the lawyer's push to make it happen.Additionally, Trump's former top aide to Russia and Europe will reportedly testify to Congress that Giuliani—along with U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland—circumvented the National Security Council to pursue their own Ukraine “shadow policy.”According to NBC News, Fiona Hill plans to tell lawmakers that Giuliani and Sondland bypassed former National Security Adviser John Bolton and other processes to access the president on Ukraine-related issues.National security officials also raised concerns about Sondland. According to The Washington Post, he claimed Trump put him in charge of Ukraine relations and expressed in a meeting how Ukraine's corruption investigations “need to be started up again”—which officials understood to be a reference to the Biden probes.Yovanovitch is scheduled to appear before the House Intelligence, Foreign Affairs, and Oversight Committees on Friday behind closed doors. Hill is also expected to testify before Congress on Oct. 14.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

German suspect admits anti-Semitic attack, far-right motive

The German suspect in a deadly attack targeting a synagogue has admitted to the shooting rampage, confessing it was motivated by anti-Semitism and right-wing extremism, federal prosecutors said Friday amid government warnings of an "elevated" risk of further attacks. Stephan Balliet, 27, made a "very comprehensive" confession during an interrogation lasting several hours, said a spokesman for the federal prosecutor's office in Karlsruhe. Germany's Interior Minister Horst Seehofer warned meanwhile in a ZDF television interview that there was now an "elevated" threat of another anti-Semitic or terrorist attack saying around half of 24,000 suspected far-right extremists had an "affinity" with firearms and could engage in violence.

SDF Commander Claims Alliance With Assad ‘Could Happen’ If Kurds ‘Become Hopeless’ Following U.S. Withdrawal

Mazloum Abdi, the commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces, told Bloomberg in a phone interview Thursday that, without U.S. support, the Kurds may turn to Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad to help resist recent Turkish offensives in northern Syria.“If our allies do not stop this catastrophe to our people, the situation will become worse,” he said. “I think an alliance with Assad could happen. If we get to this point, where we are hopeless.”President Trump announced on Monday that U.S. troops would withdraw from northeast Syria, a move followed by an invasion of the area by Turkey. The Turkish government plans to set up a “safe zone” inside Syria to resettle Syrian refugees who fled their country’s civil war, as well as to fight the Kurdish YPG, which it considers a terrorist organization.The SDF, which has said it has lost more than 10,000 fighters in the war against the Islamic State, warned in a statement Monday that with Turkey invading, it would be forced to divert forces from operations against ISIS in the south, destroying “all that has been achieved in terms of stability over the last years.”The SDF has over 11,000 ISIS prisoners in custody. Abdi told Bloomberg that, for now, the Kurds are continuing to guard the prisoners but may not be able to continue to do so as the fight against the Turkish incursion escalates. He also said that some militia members fighting along side the Turks are former jihadists.Following several days of a Turkish offensive into northern Syria, President Trump suggested Thursday that the U.S. may use soft power tactics to halt the bloodshed.“We have one of three choices: Send in thousands of troops and win Militarily, hit Turkey very hard Financially and with Sanctions, or mediate a deal between Turkey and the Kurds!” Trump tweeted.Abdi urged Trump to reconsider his withdrawal of U.S. troops from the region in the Thursday interview.“I believe the only person capable of preventing this disaster is President Trump,” he said.According to Reuters, Syrian deputy foreign minister Faisal Maqdad said Thursday that the Kurds were “armed groups had betrayed their country and committed crimes against it. We won’t accept any dialogue or talk with those who had become hostages to foreign forces.”The Syrian Kurdish YPG helped the Syrian government in the early days of the Syrian civil war, but Damascus has threatened that the Kurds must submit to state authority or risk defeat to Turkey.

US to send 3,000 troops to Saudi Arabia as it withdraws from Syria

The United States is to send an additional 3,000 troops to Saudi Arabia “to assure and enhance” the country’s security in the wake of the Aramco oil attacks, the Pentagon announced on Friday. Mark Esper, the defence secretary, said the US was sending two more Patriot missile batteries, one THAAD ballistic missile interception system, two fighter squadrons and one air expeditionary wing. It came as Iran claimed yesterday that one of its oil tankers had been struck with missiles off the coast of Saudi Arabia in an incident shrouded in mystery. The new deployment means that, since May, the US has sent an additional 14,000 members of the armed forces into the region. "Secretary Esper informed Saudi Crown Prince and Minister of Defense Muhammad bin Salman this morning of the additional troop deployment to assure and enhance the defense of Saudi Arabia," the Pentagon said. “As we have stated, the United States does not seek conflict with the Iranian regime, but we will retain a robust military capability in the region that is ready to respond to any crisis and will defend US forces and interest in the region.” The announcement came just days after Mr Trump declared all US troops would be pulled out of Syria, complaining about "ridiculous endless wars". Mr Trump had campaigned on a promise to get US servicemen out of the Middle East, putting America First, and the decision is unlikely to go down well with his base. Iranian state television said the explosion damaged two storerooms aboard the unnamed oil tanker Credit: twitter Iranian media claimed its vessel was hit on Friday morning about 60 miles from the Saudi port of Jeddah, causing it to leak oil into the Red Sea. The National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC) said the ship was damaged but stable and denied reports it had been set ablaze. Tensions have been high since the Spring after an Iranian tanker suspected of carrying crude to Syria in violation of EU sanctions was seized off Gibraltar. In retaliation, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard impounded British-flagged tanker Stena Impero. Then last month Saudi’s oil fields were hit by a large-scale missile and drone attack it blamed on Tehran, which saw production plummet and oil prices soar. Iran's foreign ministry claimed the vessel, which was first named as Sinopa before it was identified as the Sabiti, had been "targeted twice" but did not provide further details. On Friday morning, an unnamed source told Iran media the vessel was struck by missiles "probably" originating from Saudi Arabia, but Iran’s national oil company later denied the claim. Pictures released on Iranian media later showed no discernible damage and no evidence of any fire. TankerTrackers, which monitors oil exports, told the Telegraph there was no independent evidence to suggest the vessel had been hit. Iranian tanker attack “Had she been struck, they wouldn't be sailing back as fast as they are sailing right now. She's moving at 10 knots an hour," they said. “(Iran is) fishing for higher prices, trying to remind the world that geopolitical risk is its way of controlling the oil market." Oil prices surged two per cent on the news. Publicly available ship tracking records show both ships are currently in the Red Sea. The Sinopa turned its transmitter on earlier this week for the first time in more than 50 days. The Sabiti, meanwhile, turned its tracker on early Friday after nearly 60 days of no transmissions. It is common for Iranian tankers to turn off automatic identification systems (AIS) to avoid detection - often to evade international sanctions or harassment from Saudi Arabia. TankerTrackers said this suggested the Sabiti, laden with one million barrels of oil may have been heading for Syria. However, it declared the Gulf as its destination. Thina Margrethe Saltvedt, an analyst at Nordea Markets, said it was not the particulars of the latest incident that were worrying traders but the fear of worse to come. "The risk premium is rising... not because the tanker per se contains enough oil to squeeze the market,” she said. “But the risk that this incident will be retaliated or more attacks would come either in Iran, Saudi Arabia or Iraq."

Four dead in New York shooting

At least four people died and three were wounded in a shooting at an unlicensed private social club in New York early Saturday, police said. No one has been arrested over the early morning shooting in Brooklyn, and the motive and exact circumstances are not known, a New York police official told AFP. Four men were pronounced dead at the scene, while two other men and a woman suffered non-life threatening injuries, the police official said.

CNN anchor Chris Cuomo issued an apology in the middle of the network’s town hall on LGBTQ issues

CNN anchor Chris Cuomo issued an apology in the middle of the network’s town hall on LGBTQ issues Thursday night after he joked he, too, used female pronouns.

UK's Johnson will speak to EU leaders on Brexit deal by end of Monday: Sunday Times

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will speak to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker by the end of Monday in an attempt to urge the leaders to support his Brexit deal, the Sunday Times reported http://bit.ly/2oBg1Tq.

from Reuters: World News https://ift.tt/2IIZB26

Why Turkey Wants Their Invasion of Syria to Go Quickly

Ankara wants to be sure it takes its objectives.

California governor signs fur sale, circus animal bans

California will be the first state to ban the sale and manufacture of new fur products and the third to bar most animals from circus performances under a pair of bills signed Saturday by Gov. Gavin Newsom. Animal rights groups cheered the measure as a stand against inhumane practices. The proposal was vigorously opposed by the billion-dollar U.S. fur industry, and the Fur Information Council of America has already threatened to sue.

Latest: Authorities lift evacuation orders for LA-area fire

Authorities announced that all evacuation orders for the wildfire that hit the San Fernando Valley have been lifted. In Los Angeles, a man went into cardiac arrest and died at the scene of a wildfire that broke out late Thursday and damaged or destroyed 31 structures.

Ukraine leader says troops must withdraw before Putin summit

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday threatened to call off a summit with Russian leader Vladimir Putin if all sides do not agree on plans to pull out troops from the east. The country's comedian-turned-leader is gearing up to hold talks with Putin in Paris in an effort to revive a peace process to end the five-year separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine. "If there is no pullback (of troops) there is no Normandy summit," Zelensky told reporters, referring to talks with Putin that would be hosted by France President Emmanuel Macron and also involve German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Message to evangelicals: Impeachment is about Donald Trump. It's not an attack on you.

When a human object of devotion violates law and moral standards, it's time to break away and recommit to our faith, our principles, our conscience.

Fort Worth Officer Fatally Shot Woman Inside Her Home, Police Say

By BY MARIEL PADILLA from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2q1gcYr

Friday 11 October 2019

Kurds say repulsed new Turkish ground push

Kurdish forces said they repulsed a fresh Turkish ground attack in northeastern Syria Thursday, a day after Ankara launched a cross-border assault that has drawn international condemnation. Turkey bombarded targets in Kurdish-controlled areas on Wednesday to pave the way for an invasion Ankara says is aimed at establishing a buffer zone inside Syria. Turkish forces attempted a ground assault on the border town of Tal Abyad on Wednesday but the Syrian Democratic Forces -- the autonomous Kurdish administration's de facto army -- said they repulsed the attack.

Protesters burn MAGA hats, police use pepper spray in tense hours after Donald Trump rally in Minneapolis

Protesters clashed with police and threw urine in the streets after President Donald Trump's campaign rally Thursday night in Minneapolis.

Erdogan Threatens To ‘Open the Doors’ to Europe for Refugees if Criticisms Continue

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan issued a warning to the European Union during a speech to his party on Thursday, threatening to flood the continent with millions of refugees in response to international criticism of Turkey’s recent military offensive in northern Syria.“Hey EU, wake up. I say it again: if you try to frame our operation there as an invasion, our task is simple: we will open the doors and send 3.6 million migrants to you,” Erdogan said in the speech. The public opinion over Erdogan’s actions has largely been negative.On Thursday, France’s foreign ministry requested the Turkish ambassador, Ismail Hakki Musa, speak in Paris about the recent attacks, according to sources. Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio also called for an immediate end to the fighting.“As a government we think that the Turkish offensive initiative is unacceptable. We condemn it … because military action in the past has always led to more terrorism,” he said. “We call for an immediate end to this offensive which is absolutely not acceptable given that the use of force continues to endanger the life of the Syrian people, who have already experienced tragedy in recent years.”Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a statement Thursday joining his European counterparts in calling for Turkey to end its attacks against the Kurds. “Israel strongly condemns the Turkish invasion of the Kurdish areas in Syria and warns against the ethnic cleansing of the Kurds by Turkey and its proxies. Israel is prepared to extend humanitarian assistance to the gallant Kurdish people,” he said.Iran, a close ally of the Syrian government, called for the Turks to halt their advance, while Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia would push for the necessity of dialogue between Turkey and Syria.”During the Thursday rally, an inflammatory Erdogan defended his government’s decision-making and accused other countries of being dishonest in their criticisms.“They are not honest, they just make up words,” he said. “We, however, create action and that is our difference.”

Outrage in Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo over Handke's Nobel win

Austrian writer Peter Handke's Nobel literature prize win on Thursday sparked outrage in Albania, Bosnia and Kosovo, where he is widely seen as an admirer of late Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic. In the 1990s, Handke emerged as a vocal defender of the Serbs during the bloody collapse of the former Yugoslavia, even comparing them to Jews under the Nazis, a remark he later retracted. "Never thought would feel to vomit because of a Nobel Prize," Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama wrote on Twitter.

'Trey is a joke among us': Gowdy is a divisive addition to Trump's legal team

The president’s decision to bulk up his legal team with former Rep. Trey Gowdy amid a widening impeachment inquiry is drawing criticism from one of his high-profile supporters.

WWII Lesson for Trump: Turkey Was in Bed With the Nazis

The Nazis melted gold dental fillings from concentration camp victims and found the best price for it was in neutral Turkey.At the same time, Turkey kept selling Germany the chromium ore it needed to build weapons and continue the war. But in harkening back to World War II in an effort to justify giving Turkey a green light to crush the Kurds, President Donald Trump ignored such damning truths. He instead said of the Kurds, “They didn't help us with Normandy.”Never mind that present day Kurds have suffered thousands of casualties as our most effective allies against ISIS.Trump’s Crazy Syria Move Will Wipe Out America’s Allies and Set Up a Big ISIS ComebackNever mind that the Kurds of 1944 were scattered across a half dozen countries in the Middle East and were in no position to help even themselves.And never mind that Turkey started out World War II pledged to support the Allies only to suddenly switch when it looked like the Nazis would win.“Turkey began World War II bound to Britain and France by the military alliance of October 1939, moved to non-belligerency in June 1940 after the fall of France, and adopted a policy of ‘active neutrality’ in the spring of 1941 after German occupation of the Balkans and the conclusion of a German-Turkish Treaty of Friendship in June 1941,” notes a 1998 report on Holocaust restitution by the House Committee on Banking and Financial Services. The report cites a November 1943 assessment by German Munitions Minister Albert Speer “that much of Germany's manufacture of armaments would come to a halt within 10 months if Turkey's chromite exports to Germany were ended.”In the meantime, the Germans sold ingots of absolute evil in Turkey.“Two German banks with branches in Turkey, the Deutsche Bank and the Dresdner Bank, took advantage of the high prices on the Turkish free gold market to sell looted gold provided by the Reichsbank in return for foreign currency, particularly Swiss francs,” the report says. “Some of the gold provided by the Reichsbank came from the infamous ‘Melmer account’ in which the SS deposited the gold jewelry, coins, bars, and dental fillings robbed from its victims at the killing centers and concentration camps.” The Reichsbank was the central financial institution of Germany. Deutsche Bank would go on to become the lone financial institution in the 1990’s willing to risk making huge loans to Donald Trump. Even as he condemns the Kurds for failing to do what they could not possibly have done at Normandy without a nation-state of their own, Trump says nothing about Deutsche Bank’s Nazi past or about Turkey’s continued sales of chromium ore to Germany until April 1944. Turkey finally returned to our side in August 1944—two months after Normandy—when it appeared that the Nazis were going to lose after all.U.S. forces that fought their way from Normandy into Germany recovered ledgers showing that Deutsche Bank had sold at least 998 kilograms of what the congressional report terms “gold looted from individual victims of Nazi persecution.”The report adds, “Other German gold acquired by Turkey during and after the War included coins and ingots from the account of German Foreign Minister Joachim Ribbentrop at the Reichsbank, which had been stocked with gold looted from occupied Europe.”At war’s end, Turkey had done exactly nothing to assist the Allies besides no longer selling chromium to the Nazis. Turkey nonetheless argued that since it had been at war with Germany, it should not be expected to turn over whatever Nazi wealth it retained.“Turkey, an 11th hour ally, returned no looted gold… and turned over no money,” the report notes.Turkey also kept the money it made selling the Nazis chromium ore that kept the war going. The report says Turkey only stopped after President Franklin Roosevelt threatened Turkey with “economic war.”Our current president made a similar threat this week, when he tweeted, “As I have stated strongly before, and just to reiterate, if Turkey does anything that I, in my great and unmatched wisdom, consider to be off limits, I will totally destroy and obliterate the Economy of Turkey.”The major difference is that this threat seems to be having no effect.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

Sasse Condemns Beto O’Rourke’s ‘Bigoted’ Call to Strip Churches of Tax Exempt Status

Senator Ben Sasse (R., Neb.) released a statement Friday condemning Beto O'Rourke for "extreme intolerance" after O'Rourke advocated revoking tax-exempt status from churches that refuse to perform same-sex marriages."This bigoted nonsense would target a lot of sincere Christians, Jews, and Muslims," wrote Sasse. "Leaders from both parties have a duty to flatly condemn this attack on very basic American freedoms.""This extreme intolerance is un-American," Sasse went on. "The whole point of the First Amendment is that…everyone is created with dignity and we don't use government power to decide which religious beliefs are legitimate and which aren't."O'Rourke touted his LGBT rights platform at a CNN town hall event on Thursday, telling the crowd he supported removing tax-exempt status from churches, religious schools, and charities if they are against same-sex marriages."There can be no reward, no benefit, no tax break for anyone … that denies the full human rights and the full civil rights of every single one of us,” O'Rourke told the audience.O'Rourke previously drew condemnation from conservatives after pledging at the third Democratic primary debate to confiscate semi-automatic rifles from their legal owners. O'Rourke is currently polling nationally at just below two percent of the Democratic vote.Meanwhile on Thursday, Senator Elizabeth Warren released her own LGBT rights platform in which she promises to provide government funding for gender transition surgeries for inmates. In addition, she pledged to incarcerate transgender inmates with prisoners of the opposite biological sex, meaning that a transgender man would be placed in a women's prison.

GM, UAW clash over how to reach deal to end lengthy strike

Pakistan's Khan blasts media 'double standard' over Hong Kong protests

Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan accused international media Friday of a "double standard", saying news outlets give more prominence to the ongoing protests in Hong Kong than to the situation in disputed Kashmir. Khan, who returned this week from a trip to Beijing, also told a crowd of roughly 300 people at a rally in Islamabad that Hong Kong "is a part of China, but this (Kashmir) is a disputed territory".

Rudy Giuliani was reportedly retained for 'hundreds of thousands of dollars' by an associate's firm Fraud Guarantee

Giuliani was paid generously to work for indicted Ukrainian-American Lev Parnas at his firm Fraud Guarantee, The New York Times reported on Thursday.

France's Macron urges need to end Turkish assault in Syria in Trump phone call

France and the United States have agreed to remain in close contact over Turkey's escalating campaign in northern Syria, French President Emmanuel Macron's office said, adding that he had stressed the need to try to end the offensive in a phone call with his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump late on Friday.

from Reuters: World News https://ift.tt/2B16CqZ

The Free World at 30

By BY ROGER COHEN from NYT Opinion https://ift.tt/2nDrNMx

Kevin McAleenan Is Out as Acting Homeland Security Secretary

By BY ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS, MAGGIE HABERMAN AND MICHAEL D. SHEAR from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/33qoJ5L

Trump's stonewalling could speed up impeachment

Democrats believe they have enough evidence to impeach Trump, in the form of a whistleblower complaint and a partial transcript of a phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in which Trump asked Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son.

Turkey Starts Probing Social Media Posts Against Syria Incursion

(Bloomberg) -- The Turkish police force started to crack down on social media content that it says went against the country’s military operation in Syria, and launched legal action against 78 people. It wasn’t immediately clear if anyone has been detained.The posts represented incitement to “hatred,” the national police force said on its website late Wednesday, and accused the posters of engaging in “propaganda of a terrorist organization.” The charges carry years in prison if upheld by a court.Turkish Warplanes and Artillery on the Attack: Syria UpdateTurkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan formally announced the beginning of a military offensive into northeastern Syria late Wednesday, three days after President Donald Trump said the U.S. wouldn’t stand in the way. A major ground incursion began hours later.The latest move by Turkish police mirrors actions during the country’s military operation into Syria’s Afrin town in early 2018, when hundreds of people were detained and some formally arrested.\--With assistance from Taylan Bilgic.To contact the reporter on this story: Ugur Yilmaz in Istanbul at uyilmaz@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Onur Ant at oant@bloomberg.net, Adveith Nair, Cagan KocFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

Greta Thunberg's fans are upset she didn't win the Nobel Prize, but a peace expert says she should have never been a contender

Greta Thunberg was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize after leading strikes that push leaders to address climate change. Here's why she didn't win.

Migrant Alleged to Have Raped Woman Immediately after Sheriff’s Office Ignored ICE Detainer and Released Him Is Arrested

An undocumented Salvadoran immigrant accused of raping a woman immediately after he was released from custody by the Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office, which failed to honor an Immigration and Customs Enforcement order to detain him, was arrested by ICE agents on Wednesday, the agency has announced.Antonio Ulises Perez, 38, was released from the Oklahoma County Jail on Wednesday and went "almost immediately" to the house of the woman he is accused of raping. ICE arrested Ulises Perez later on Wednesday, the agency said in a statement.ICE filed a detainer request with the Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office on Tuesday, before Ulises Perez was released, asking that he be transferred to immigration authorities, but the Sheriff's Office refused to honor it "in direct contravention of federal immigration law," ICE said in a statement."Unfortunately, this is not an isolated event," the statement said. "A few months ago, Oklahoma County decided to no longer honor ICE detainers and began releasing criminal aliens back into the local community at the expense of law-abiding citizens."“It is unconscionable that someone who is sworn to uphold the law would find it acceptable to release an alleged rapist who is illegally present in the U.S. back into the community when there are other options available under federal immigration law,” read a statement from Marc Moore, the field-office director for ICE Dallas. “Within a few hours of being released, this illegal alien was back at the home of the rape victim where he was free to re-victimize her and harm other members of the community.""Fortunately, ICE deportation officers were able to quickly locate this individual and safely take him back into custody," Moore said.

Exclusive: U.S. migrant policy sends thousands of children, including babies, back to Mexico

Since January, the U.S. government has ordered 16,000 migrants under 18, including nearly 500 infants, to wait with their families in Mexico for U.S. immigration court hearings, a Reuters analysis of government data found. The risk of violence and illness runs high and is of particular concern for families with young children or those with chronic health conditions, according to interviews with health professionals, migrants, aid workers and advocates. The children, whose numbers have not been previously reported, are among tens of thousands of migrants returned to Mexico under a Trump administration policy known as the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP).