China calls for 'severe punishment' for those involved in UK truck deaths

China called on Britain on Friday to seek "severe punishment" for those involved in the deaths of 39 people, believed to be Chinese nationals, found in a truck container near London, as a major state-backed paper said Britain should bear some responsibility for the case. For years, illegal immigrants have stowed away in trucks while attempting to reach Britain, often from the European mainland. In 2000, 58 Chinese were found dead in a tomato truck at the port of Dover.

Read the Trump Administration's Warning Letter to Laura Cooper

WASHINGTON -- The White House has declared that the executive branch will not cooperate with the House's impeachment inquiry, but some officials have nevertheless provided testimony to Congress about what they know about whether President Donald Trump's attempts to pressure the Ukrainian government into investigating his political rivals were a quid pro quo in return for aid.One such witness, Laura Cooper, a Pentagon official, received a warning letter that shows how the administration has attempted to persuade officials to keep silent. Cooper appeared before impeachment investigators Wednesday during a closed-door session that was delayed by Republican lawmakers who burst into the House Intelligence Committee's secure suite to protest the inquiry.Below is a copy of the letter Cooper received, obtained and annotated with context and analysis by The New York Times.Deputy Secretary of Defense1010 Defense PentagonWashington, D.C. 20301-1010Oct. 22, 2019(The date stamp shows that the deputy secretary of defense, David Norquist, sent this warning letter Tuesday, the day before Cooper was scheduled to give voluntary, private testimony. That same day, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif. and chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, signed a subpoena stating that Cooper was legally required to appear.)Daniel LevinWhite & Case LLP701 13th Street, NWWashington, D.C. 20005-3807Dear Mr. Levin:I understand that you have been retained by Ms. Laura Cooper, the Department's Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia, as her private counsel for a deposition to be conducted jointly by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and the Committee on Oversight and Reform, "[p]ursuant to the House of Representatives' impeachment inquiry." The Department's October 15, 2019 letter to the Chairs of the three House Committees [Tab A] expressed its belief that the customary process of oversight and accommodation has historically served the interests of congressional oversight committees and the Department well. The Committees' purported "impeachment inquiry," however, presents at least two issues of great importance.The first issue is the Committees' continued, blanket refusal to allow Department Counsel to be present at depositions of Department employees. Department Counsel's participation protects against the improper release of privileged or classified information, particularly material covered by the executive privilege which is the President's alone to assert and to waive. Excluding Department Counsel places the witness in the untenable position of having to decide whether to answer the Committees' questions or to assert Executive Branch confidentiality interests without an attorney from the Executive Branch present to advise on those interests.It violates settled practice and may jeopardize future accommodation. Furthermore, the Department of Justice has concluded that "congressional subpoenas that purport to require agency employees to appear without agency counsel are legally invalid and are not subject to civil or criminal enforcement." See Attempted Exclusion of Agency Counsel from Congressional Depositions of Agency Employees, 43 Op. O.L.C. (May 23, 2019) [Tab B].The second issue is the absence of authority for the Committees to conduct an impeachment inquiry. In its October 15, 2019 letter, the Department conveyed concerns about the Committees' lack of authority to initiate an impeachment inquiry given the absence of a delegation of such authority by House Rule or Resolution. This correspondence echoed an October 8, 2019 letter from the White House Counsel [Tab C] expressing the President's view that the inquiry was "contrary to the Constitution of the United States and all past bipartisan precedent" and "violates fundamental fairness and constitutionally mandated due process."This letter informs you and Ms. Cooper of the Administration-wide direction that Executive Branch personnel "cannot participate in [the impeachment] inquiry under these circumstances" [Tab C]. In the event that the Committees issue a subpoena to compel Ms. Cooper's appearance, you should be aware that the Supreme Court has held, in United States v. Rumely, 345 U.S. 41 (1953), that a person cannot be sanctioned for refusing to comply with a congressional subpoena unauthorized by House Rule or Resolution.To reiterate, the Department respects the oversight role of Congress and stands ready to work with the Committees should there be an appropriate resolution of outstanding legal issues. Any such resolution would have to consider the constitutional prerogatives and confidentiality interests of the co-equal Executive Branch, see Tab D, and ensure fundamental fairness to any Executive Branch employees involved in this process, including Ms. Cooper. Sincerely,[signed] David L. Norquist Attachments: As statedThis article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company

Russian woman convicted by U.S. of being agent returns home

Russian national Maria Butina, who was jailed in the United States in April after admitting to working as a Russian agent, arrived in Moscow on Saturday, greeted by her father and Russian journalists who handed her flowers. "Russians never surrender," an emotional Butina told reporters at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport, flanked by her father and the Russian Foreign Ministry's spokeswoman. Butina pleaded guilty in December last year to one count of conspiring to act as a foreign agent for Russia by infiltrating a gun rights group and influencing U.S. conservative activists and Republicans.

Bishops Ask Pope to Approve Married Priests, and Open the Way to Women Deacons

Alberto Pizoli/AFP/Getty ImagesVATICAN CITY–A group of Roman Catholic bishops voted on Saturday 128 in favor and 41 against a proposal to lift a thousand-year-old ban on married priests. The 184 bishops ministering in the Amazon region voted that married “viri probati”—men of proven virtue—should be allowed to be ordained as priests for the purpose of delivering the major sacraments to Catholics in areas where no priests are assigned. Pope Says Maybe to Married PriestsNow Pope Francis must decide whether to sign off on the proposal, which many believe he just might do, which would also open up a debate on celibacy in the priesthood. The married men eligible for the priesthood would already have to be deacons which, for lack of a lengthy description, are a lighter version of priests. They can be married and they are allowed to perform many clerical functions, but not deliver holy mass. They can, however, deliver many of the sacraments including baptism, funeral and burial services, distribute holy communion known as the Eucharist, and preach the homily sermon so long as there is an ordained priest leading the mass. Deacons are either ‘permanent,’ meaning devout, sometimes married men who serve the church throughout the world, or ‘transitional,’ meaning those preparing for the priesthood. At a briefing in Rome on Saturday evening, Canadian Cardinal Michael Czerny pointed out that all men ordained into the priesthood must be deacons first. With that in mind, what the Amazon synod fathers also decided is perhaps even more groundbreaking. On Saturday, they approved a proposal to open the long-closed door to the ordination of women as deacons by agreeing to study the matter. And if women are allowed to be deacons, that could one day pave the way to female priests. Did Pope Francis Just Pave the Way for Women Priests?Pope Francis, in spontaneous remarks closing the meeting ahead of a farewell mass on Sunday, promised he would keep an open mind . “I am going to take up the challenge that you have put forward,” he said, “that women be heard.” “We still have not grasped the significance of women in the Church,” Francis said Saturday as nuns in attendance nodded their heads and the entire assembly erupted in applause. “Their role must go well beyond questions of function.”What is perhaps most remarkable about the potentially groundbreaking decisions that might change the face of the church forever is that the two issues–the question of married priests and celibacy and that of women clergy—are based on a meeting about Catholics living in some of the most remote and poverty-stricken areas in the world. But the decision to move forward on both of these issues is one that may also cause a schism in the church. Even before the final vote, conservative Catholic militants had made their message clear, that the Amazon region should not be a pacesetter on these issues. Those from the Amazon region in attendance at the conference had brought with them five so-called Pachamama wooden statues depicting a scene with a naked, pregnant woman at the center that many conservatives described as “false idols.” Conservative Catholic Twitter exploded with comments about Pope Francis worshiping the “pagan” statues and how they represented a church in demise. The same critics scoffed when Francis opened the summit by telling the prelates they could leave their cassocks at home and wear suits to the working sessions.Shortly before the vote, while those in attendance were finalizing their document, the statues were stolen from the church in Rome where they were kept during the synod meeting and thrown into the Tiber River.Roman police fished out the statues on Friday and gave them back to the pope who apologized for the act. On Saturday, the Pachamama statues were front and center inside the synod hall, undoubtedly boiling the blood of those who sought to destroy them. If the pope’s response to the stolen statues is any indication, he may well heed the vote of the bishops on two of the most important issues the Catholic church has faced outside of clerical sex abuse and, with it, change the face of Catholicism forever. 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.

UPDATE 1-N.Korea tells U.S. not to ignore year-end deadline on Trump-Kim friendship - KCNA

North Korea said on Sunday there has been no progress in the North Korea-United States relations, and hostilities that could lead to an exchange of fire have continued, according to North Korea's state news agency KCNA. Kim Jong Un has set an end-of-the-year deadline for denuclearisation talks with Washington. Kim Yong Chol was the nuclear talks envoy to the United States for the discussions between the two countries before the second summit between Trump and Kim Jong Un in Vietnam in February ended in failure.

Undecided 2020 voters like Andrew Yang and Joe Biden the most of all the Democratic candidates

The former vice president and the former entrepreneur respectively represent the establishment and the insurgency of the Democratic Party in 2020.

Democrats Get More of Mueller Report for Impeachment Inquiry

(Bloomberg) -- Congressional Democrats reviewing possible impeachment of President Donald Trump won a court order compelling the U.S. Justice Department to turn over grand-jury materials from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election by Oct. 30.The House Judiciary Committee has shown “that it needs the grand-jury material referenced and cited in the Mueller Report to avoid a possible injustice in the impeachment inquiry,” Beryl Howell, chief judge of the U.S. District Court in Washington, said Friday in a 75-page ruling.It’s the latest in a string of defeats for the president and his administration in courts around the country. On Oct. 18 alone five courts issued rulings against the president, including ones on immigration and on keeping his tax returns secret.Howell’s decision Friday heightens Trump’s jeopardy as the House presses ahead with questioning those with information on his attempts to persuade Ukraine‘s government to investigate Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son Hunter.The judge was critical of the administration’s refusal to cooperate with the impeachment inquiry, saying that made the release of the grand-jury documents all the more important.“Impeachment based on anything less than all relevant evidence would compromise the public’s faith in the process,” Howell wrote.She also rejected a central claim advanced by Republicans to challenge impeachment -- that Congress’s inquiry is invalid because the full House hasn’t authorized it.“No governing law requires this test -- not the Constitution, not House rules, and not rule 6(e),” she said, referring to the rule governing disclosure of grand jury matters. “Imposing this test would be an impermissible intrusion on the House’s constitutional authority both to ‘determine the rules of its proceedings’ under the Rulemaking Clause and tp exercise ‘the sole power of Impeachment’ under the Impeachment clause.”Preserve SecrecyThe Justice Department had opposed the release of materials, citing the need to preserve grand-jury secrecy and claiming the House wasn’t engaged in a “judicial proceeding” warranting release of the information. Howell confirmed the inquiry constituted a judicial proceeding.The department is reviewing the ruling, spokeswoman Sarah Sutton said.The judge also tackled the thorny issue of the president’s claim that he’s immune from indictment while in office, per an Office of Legal Counsel opinion that was written in 1973.“This leaves the House as the only federal body that can act on allegations of presidential misconduct,” she said. Then she added: “This OLC legal conclusion has never been adopted, sanctioned, or in any way approved by a court.”The House committee, led by New York Democrat Jerrold Nadler, sued to force release of information underpinning Mueller’s report in July. It gained greater urgency two months later when a whistle blower claimed Trump tied $391 million in aid to Ukraine to its willingness to investigate the Bidens. That prompted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to start a formal impeachment inquiry.Nadler hailed the ruling in a statement calling the forthcoming information “critical to our work.”In his 448-page report made public in April, Mueller said there was insufficient evidence to show Trump or anyone working on his campaign had collaborated with Russia’s efforts to disrupt the election, but the special counsel pointedly declined to say that Trump had not obstructed the investigation.Large swaths of the document were blacked out to preserve grand jury secrecy and information related to ongoing cases and investigations.Trump is also facing pressure from a trio of lawsuits asserting he’s violated the U.S. Constitution’s two emoluments clauses. A U.S. appeals court in New York recently revived a case contending he violated one of those provisions by being enriched by foreign governments through his far-flung business empire, while a separate appellate court in Richmond, Virginia, has agreed to reconsider an earlier ruling rejecting similar claims.The president is also seeking a reversal of Washington judge’s refusal to throw out a lawsuit lodged by more than 200 Congressional Democrats who want to force him to come to them for permission to accept those benefits, as required by the Constitution.Elsewhere:A federal appeals court in Washington on Oct. 11 ordered Trump’s accountants, Mazars USA LLP, to comply with a congressional subpoena for Trump’s financial records. Trump has asked the appeals court to reconsider.A federal appeals court in New York is weighing Trump’s request to block a grand jury subpoena requiring Mazars to provide tax returns and other records to the Manhattan DA. A lower-court judge has ruled for the DA.In May, a federal judge in New York rejected Trump’s request to block Congress from obtaining his records from Deutsche Bank and Capital One Financial Corp. Trump is appealing that ruling to the New York-based appeals court.A federal judge in Washington this week imposed a 30-day deadline for the Trump administration to disclose at least some of the U.S. State Department documents related to the Ukraine influence scandal that spurred the impeachment probe by House Democrats. A watchdog group sued for the records.The case is In re Application of the Committee on the Judiciary, U.S. House of Representatives, for an Order Authorizing Release of Certain Grand Jury Materials, 19-gj-48, U.S. District Court, District of Columbia (Washington).(Updates with comment from House Judiciary chairman.)To contact the reporter on this story: Andrew Harris in federal court in Washington at aharris16@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net, Joe Schneider, Steve StrothFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

Firefighters battle fierce wildfires across California

Firefighters on Friday battled several wildfires raging across California that destroyed homes and forced evacuations, as more than 18 million people were under a red flag warning in the southern part of the state. Tens of thousands of residents near Santa Clarita, north of Los Angeles, fled their homes as the so-called Tick Fire scorched 4,300 acres (1,740 hectares) and was only five percent contained by Friday afternoon. New evacuations in the area were ordered early Friday as the fire that began the day before continued to spread, driven by so-called Santa Ana winds gusting up to 65 miles (105 kilometers) per hour.

Funeral set for girl abducted, killed in Alabama

A funeral service is set for this weekend for a 3-year-old Alabama girl who was abducted from a birthday party and asphyxiated, and officials said Friday they are establishing a permanent reward fund in her memory. The service for Kamille McKinney was scheduled for Sunday afternoon, with burial to follow at Elmwood Cemetery. The funeral is planned for New Beginning Christian Ministry, where pastor Sylvester Wilson said the church has a 700-seat sanctuary and can use its fellowship hall as an overflow auditorium.

Steven Mnuchin may have gone against IRS warnings to help a friend get a major tax break

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin may have used his position to help a billionaire friend earn a significant tax break and subsequent profits, despite the Internal Revenue Service warning against it, The New York Times reports. The Treasury Department, reportedly at the personal instruction of Mnuchin, made an area of land in Nevada owned by financier Michael Milken, who was reportedly an inspiration for the character of Gordon Gekko in the film Wall Street, eligible for a federal tax break that it did not previously qualify for after alleged pressure from Milken's business partner other landowners. The IRS expressed its doubts about the decision, arguing in an internal memo obtained by the Times that "failure to apply the designation standards equally across the board will call into question the legitimacy of the process by which the designations were made." The memo also stated that the appearance of "arbitrary" Treasury standards like this one could open the "door for accusations that the determination process was influenced by political considerations or bias." Spokespersons for both Mnuchin and Milken, who are reportedly longtime friends, said the two men did not discuss the matter and Mnuchin had no knowledge of Milken's investments in Nevada. Regardless, the report has already spurred criticism. Read more at The New York Times. > THREAD: Let's start with this smoking-gun memo-obtained by The New York Times. Treasury at direct order of Sec. Mnuchin took what staff at IRS warned would be seen as a overtly political act & one could undermine the integrity of a multi-billion dollar Trump-era federal tax break pic.twitter.com/XrToQiBa1r> > -- Eric Lipton (@EricLiptonNYT) October 26, 2019> And the bottom line is that Mr. Mnuchin directed his staff to take a move that many strongly objected to, and which some saw as overtly political, and which stood to benefit his billionaire friend, Milken. (Nevada Gov sent in this letter 45 minutes after phone call with Mnuchin) pic.twitter.com/CnlzVcDAxF> > -- Eric Lipton (@EricLiptonNYT) October 26, 2019

Man Opens Fire in Georgia Walmart Dies After Turning Gun on Himself: Police

No one besides the shooter was injured

Bolivia Vote Tally Shows Morales Win but Monitors Urge a Run-Off

(Bloomberg) -- The final tally in Bolivia’s election shows that Evo Morales got enough votes to win a fourth term as president, but opponents are disputing the result while the European Union and the Organization of American States called for a second round.With 99.99% of ballots counted from the Oct. 20 election, Morales had 47.1% versus 36.5% for his main rival, Carlos Mesa. This means that Morales has the lead of more than ten percentage points which he needed to avoid a run-off in December.Clashes broke out between rival supporters in some cities in the worst violence is the worst the nation has seen in more than a decade, according to Kathryn Ledebur, director of the Andean Information Network, a Bolivia-based think tank.Morales himself told reporters Thursday that he had secured a first round win. The president is an ally of Nicolas Maduro, though, unlike his Venezuelan counterpart, he has presided over growth and rising living standards.The Organization of American States identified flaws in the electoral process, and called for a second round in December. The EU said it “fully shares” this view. The OAS has accepted Morales’ invitation to verify the results.The preliminary vote count was halted on Sunday evening, then re-started 24 hours later. This caused widespread suspicion, protests and accusations of fraud. While votes were still being tallied, the vice president of the electoral authority resigned, and opposition supporters set fire to its regional.The governments of the U.S., Brazil, Colombia and Argentina said they are “deeply worried” by anomalies in the ballot counting, according to a joint statement send by the Colombian foreign affairs ministry. Even though there’s no clear evidence of fraud, the “confusing lack of transparency” from the electoral authority means that the opposition won’t accept Morales’s win as legitimate, Ledebur said.The unrest in Bolivia comes after days of clashes in neighboring Chile, following a rise in metro fares, and more than a week of violence in Ecuador earlier in the month after the government increased fuel prices.To contact the reporter on this story: Matthew Bristow in Bogota at mbristow5@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Juan Pablo Spinetto at jspinetto@bloomberg.net, Walter Brandimarte, Bruce DouglasFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

Pope asks forgiveness for theft of controversial Amazon statues

Pope Francis asked for forgiveness from Amazon bishops and others at a Church assembly on Friday after conservative Catholic militants stole statues they considered pagan idols from a church and dumped them in the Tiber river. "First of all, this happened in Rome, so as bishop of the diocese, I ask forgiveness from the persons who were offended by this gesture," he said at the start of the last session of the three-week assembly, known as a synod. The synod is discussing the future of the Church in the Amazon and threats to its environment.

Firefighters race to control blazes before winds roar back

Howling winds that fueled destructive wildfires across California began to die down Friday, but residents in the northern part of the state braced for another round of power outages aimed at preventing what are expected to be the strongest gusts in years from sparking more blazes this weekend. Fires destroyed dozens of buildings in Northern California wine country and in subdivisions on the outskirts of Los Angeles, where flames shut down a freeway and smoke forced schools to close. California's largest utility admitted its electrical equipment may have ignited the wildfire amid Sonoma County's vineyards despite blackouts imposed to prevent blazes.

In new blow to Mexico's crime fight, judge frees suspected cartel members

Twenty-seven of 31 suspected cartel members arrested this week in a Mexico City raid were freed by a judge, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Friday, marking his government's second high-profile failure to keep suspected criminals locked up in as many weeks. The suspects were nabbed by security forces in a central district of the capital on Tuesday after authorities seized two laboratories used to produce synthetic drugs, 50 kg (110 pounds) of chemical precursors, more than two tons of marijuana and 20 kg of cocaine, as well as an unspecified amount of money, rocket launchers and grenades. Lopez Obrador, speaking at his regular morning press conference, said the unexpected release of the criminal suspects would be investigated but cautioned against a rush to judgment.

Fifteen killed, dozens wounded as Iraq protests flare for second day

At least 67 Iraqis were killed and hundreds wounded in two days of protests over the weekend, as demonstrators clashed with security forces and militia groups in a second wave of protests against Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi's government this month.

from Reuters: World News https://ift.tt/2WewJV6

Convicted Russian agent Maria Butina released from prison and deported

Russian gun rights activist Maria Butina released from prison and left Miami on a flight to Moscow Friday night.

On withholding aid to Central America, Mulvaney was correct: 'We do that all the time'

In an infamous press briefing last week, White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney confirmed that the Trump administration is in the habit of using foreign aid to coerce compliance with U.S. policy. Central America is a case in point.

Funeral set for girl abducted, killed in Alabama

A funeral service is set for this weekend for a 3-year-old Alabama girl who was abducted from a birthday party and asphyxiated, and officials said Friday they are establishing a permanent reward fund in her memory. The service for Kamille McKinney was scheduled for Sunday afternoon, with burial to follow at Elmwood Cemetery. The funeral is planned for New Beginning Christian Ministry, where pastor Sylvester Wilson said the church has a 700-seat sanctuary and can use its fellowship hall as an overflow auditorium.

Rudy Giuliani rants about money, Middle East and Bidens in accidental call to reporter

President Donald Trump's attorney Rudy Giuliani can be heard discussing Joe Biden, his son Hunter Biden, former secretary of state John Kerry and a need for cash on two voicemails accidentally left on a reporter's mobile phone.Mr Giuliani had reportedly "butt dialled" NBC reporter Rob Shapiro when Mr Giuliani was in the middle of a conversation with another man about business in the Middle East, a few weeks after he had accidentally called the same reporter, leaving a voicemail attacking the Bidens while in conversation with another person.

Georgia high court declines to hear appeal or halt execution

Ray Jefferson Cromartie, 52 is scheduled for a lethal injection Wednesday at the state prison in Jackson. Cromartie maintains his innocence, and his lawyers asked the Georgia Supreme Court for permission to appeal a lower court's rejection of a request for DNA testing and a request for a new trial. Cromartie still has other requests for relief pending in the courts.

Driver charged as more Vietnamese feared among 39 UK truck victims

British police investigating the deaths of 39 people in a refrigerated truck charged the driver on Saturday with manslaughter and people trafficking, as families in Vietnam expressed fear their loved ones were among the dead. The 25-year-old from Northern Ireland was "charged with 39 counts of manslaughter, conspiracy to traffic people, conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration and money laundering", Essex police said. Three more people are in custody in Britain over the investigation, the country's largest murder probe since the 2005 London suicide bombings.

Hizbollah leader warns of civil war after days of Lebanon protests

The leader of Hizbollah on Friday warned Lebanon that nationwide protests calling for the overthrow of the government could lead to chaos and civil war.  Hassan Nasrallah praised protesters for achieving “unprecedented” economic reforms but also suggested foreign intervention had a role in the demonstrations.  Over a quarter of Lebanon’s population are reported to have taken to the streets in anti-corruption protests over the past week. Hizbollah supporters have in recent days organised counter-attacks on the protests, which have so far remained largely free of sectarian division.  The powerful Shiite group, which is backed regionally by Iran, is in coalition with the government of Prime Minister Saad Hariri.  Speaking to the nation for the first time on day nine of the mass protests, Nasrallah warned that he had “intelligence” of foreign “conspiracies” to drag Lebanon into civil war.  Lebanon has been swept by more than a week of nationwide protests against the political elite Credit: AFP The leader claimed that the protests had started spontaneously, but were now being funded and organised by local and foreign actors who were exploiting the naivety of protestors. His speech echoed those given earlier this week by Mr Hariri and Michel Aoun, the country's president.  On the streets, protesters appeared unmoved. “All of them means all of them” they chanted, in reference to the demand for the country's entire cabinet to be replaced.   For the second day, security forces had to create human walls between the protestors and Hizbollah supporters in attempts to stop scuffles. “We are not going to stop our protests until we get what we want. We have been suffocated in these conditions for years. They have to go. All of them means all of them,” said Hieba, a 42-year-old restaurant owner.

Family safe after speeding car is knocked out of its path

Traffic video released Wednesday by Phoenix police shows a car driven by Shannon Vivar making a right turn and unintentionally hitting the speeding vehicle out of the family's way as they crossed the street. Vivar's mother, Shirley, and her 3-year-old son were in the car with her. "I yelled, 'Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, Shannon!' And then we collided," Shirley Vivar said.

Russian soldier shoots dead eight comrades at military base

A Russian soldier has shot dead eight fellow soldiers at a military base in eastern Siberia.  It is believed that the soldier - who had served for four months - was a conscript and has since been detained.  The shooting happened in the Transbaikal region on Friday at around 6.20pm local time.  Rossiyskaya Gazeta, a Russian newspaper published by the Government of Russia, reports that two further soldiers were injured and remain in a serious condition. It added that the shots were discharged from a service weapon.  According to reports from local outlets the soldier, who is described as a "young man", aimed at his victims' heads before shooting wounded colleagues with what witnesses described as "controlled shots". Russia's Investigative Committee said it had opened a murder case against the suspect, whom it identified as 20-year-old Ramil Shamsutdinov. The soldier - whose name has not been released - was said to be guarding the base at the time. Deputy Defence Minister Andrey Kartapolov is flying to the area to investigate the incident. Gorny - Russia The suspected gunman may have been suffering from mental health problems, reports Russian news agency TASS.  According to TASS, the Russian defense ministry said: "At 6:20 p.m. local time on October 25, a serviceman of the repair and maintenance base stationed on the territory of the Trans-Baikal Region opened fire against his fellow servicemen from this service firearm during a change of the guard. "As a result, eight servicemen were killed on the spot while two others received wounds of various severity." The wounded servicemen "were promptly taken to the military hospital where they received necessary qualified medical assistance and their health condition is not life-threatening," the statement says. The Telegraph have contacted the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation for a comment.

DeVos Fined $100,000 for Failure to Forgive Student Debt

(Bloomberg) -- U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos was hit with a $100,000 fine for violating a judge’s order to stop debt collection efforts against former students at bankrupt Corinthian Colleges Inc.Despite the order, the department went as far as seizing the students’ tax refunds and wages.U.S. Magistrate Judge Sallie Kim in San Francisco issued the fine Thursday, after finding DeVos in contempt of court. Kim ordered the $100,000 to go to a fund held by the students’ lawyers to help the more than 16,000 borrowers who she said suffered damages from the violation. Both sides must submit a plan for administering the fund by Nov. 15.The judge’s rebuke comes hours after DeVos’s point person on overhauling the student loan system abruptly resigned and publicly called for mass debt forgiveness.“There is no question that defendants violated the” court order, Kim wrote in her ruling. She said the violation hurt individual borrowers.The language the judge used in her written order Thursday was more reserved than what she said in court earlier this month. At an Oct. 7 hearing, Kim said she was “astounded” by the agency’s conduct, saying it was “gross negligence,” at best, and “an intentional flouting” of her order, at worst.The Education Department didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.“The contempt finding and sanctions here are appropriate and well-deserved,” said Eileen Connor, a lawyer for the students. “The department and its leaders need to do better by students.”Corinthian, once among the largest for-profit college chains in the country, faced a flood of government investigations and lawsuits alleging systemic fraud before filing for bankruptcy protection from creditors in 2015.In the aftermath, the federal government declared that as many as 335,000 former students could erase their loans by checking a box and signing their names on a simple form, under penalty of perjury. Doing so, the former students were told, would void their debt and prompt a refund on past payments.In 2017, a group of former Corinthian students sued the Education Department and DeVos claiming the government stopped granting the loan discharges. The case was brought as a class action on behalf of about 80,000 students.A report the department filed last month to show its compliance with the judge’s order to cease debt collections instead explained that the agency has seized tax refunds and wages from at least 1,808 students.The cases are Manriquez v. DeVos, 17-cv-07210, and California v. U.S. Department of Education, 17-cv-07106, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (San Francisco).(Adds comment from students’ lawyer)To contact the reporter on this story: Joel Rosenblatt in San Francisco at jrosenblatt@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net, Joe Schneider, Peter BlumbergFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

Solomons govt says China's island lease 'unlawful'

The Solomon Islands government says a contract signed by one of its provinces to lease the entire island of Tulagi to a Chinese company is unlawful and should be terminated. Details of the controversial long-term lease between Solomons' Central Province and China Sam Enterprise Group were made public shortly after the Pacific nation switched diplomatic ties from Taiwan to Beijing in September, which sparked a strong rebuke from the United States. Headquartered in Beijing, Sam Group is a technology, investment and energy conglomerate founded in 1985 as a state-owned enterprise.

The Problem with President Pence

Republican senators will soon be receiving an invitation to tear apart the GOP ahead of the 2020 elections, and they are going to decline to accept it.It’s a trope of pro-impeachment commentary that it should be simple for Republican senators to swap out President Donald Trump, who puts them in awkward positions every day, for Vice President Mike Pence, an upstanding Reagan conservative who could start with a fresh slate in the runup to the 2020 election.The only flaw in this scenario is that it is entirely removed from reality.If Senate Republicans vote to remove Trump on anything like the current facts, even the worst interpretation of them, it would leave the GOP a smoldering ruin. It wouldn’t matter who the Democrats nominated for 2020. They could run Bernie Sanders on a ticket with Elizabeth Warren and promise to make Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez secretary of the treasury and Ilhan Omar secretary of defense, and they’d still win.A significant portion of the Republican party would consider a Senate conviction of Trump a dastardly betrayal. Perhaps most would get over it, as partisan feelings kicked in around a national election, but not all. And so a party that has won the popular vote in a presidential election only once since 1988 would hurtle toward November 2020 divided.How does anyone think that would turn out?A lot of Trump supporters are going to want to blame the Republican establishment even if Trump loses in 2020 with the backing of the united party apparatus. Imagine what they will think if a couple of dozen Republican senators decide to deny him the opportunity to run for reelection, without a single voter having a say on his ultimate fate. It’s hard to come up with any scenario better designed to stoke the populist furies of Trump’s most devoted voters.Trump himself isn’t going to get convicted by the Senate and say: “Well, I’m a little disappointed, to be honest. But it was a close call, and Mike Pence is a great guy, and I’m just grateful I had the opportunity to serve in the White House for more than three years.”He won’t go away quietly to lick his wounds. He won’t delete his Twitter account. He won’t make it easy on anyone. He will vent his anger and resentment at every opportunity. It will be “human scum” every single day.And it’s not as though the media are going to lose their interest in the most luridly telegenic politician that we’ve ever seen. The mainstream press would be delighted to see Trump destroyed, yet sad to bid him farewell. The obvious way to square the circle would be to continue to give Trump lavish coverage in his post-presidency. He’d be out of the White House but still driving screaming CNN chyrons every other hour.In other words, Trump’s removal wouldn’t be a fresh start for Pence and the GOP; it would be more like getting stuck in the poisonous epilogue of the Trump era, awaiting the inevitable advent of the Elizabeth Warren, Joe Biden, or Pete Buttigieg era.All of this is why the “cracks in the Republican Senate” coverage is so ridiculous and overwrought. It depends on the idea that GOP senators — who, it is true, are continually frustrated by Trump’s controversies — are on the verge of engineering their party’s own destruction.It’s possible to come up with a scenario in which Ukraine developments are much worse than imaginable right now, and Trump’s support craters, even among Republicans. Then, you might have GOP senators voting to convict. This is just another path to the immolation of the party in 2020, though; there’s no way it would snap back from a Nixonian meltdown at the top in less than a year.In short, Mike Pence might be elected president one day, but it’s not going to be while presiding over a party that has just jettisoned Donald Trump.© 2019 by King Features Syndicate

More arrests after 39 bodies discovered in truck; Vietnamese nationals may be among dead

Police made more arrests Friday in connection with the investigation into 39 bodies discovered in the back of a truck outside London.

E.A. Carmean,Who Forsook a Life in Art for the Church, Dies at 74

By BY ROBERTA SMITH from NYT Arts https://ift.tt/2p2Rlnb

U.S. imposes sanctions on Zimbabwe's state security minister

The United States has imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe's state security minister, Owen Ncube, over what it says is credible information of his involvement in "gross violations of human rights," U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Friday.

from Reuters: World News https://ift.tt/2WglI5E

'Just too darn old:' Sanders, Biden confront age concerns

Bernie Sanders insists he feels better than ever less than a month after heart surgery, but his return to the campaign trail this week sparked new questions about the unusually old age of the Democratic Party's leading 2020 presidential candidates. Both Sanders, 78, and Joe Biden, 76, suggest their age isn't a major issue, but voters, particularly older voters, aren't so sure. Gordon Lundberg, a 71-year-old retired Lutheran pastor from Ames, said candidates' health is a key issue for him because he understands how it feels to age.

Drug lord delivers blunt Lebanon protest support

A week into daily demonstrations that have gone on into the early hours, the Lebanese may be in need of a pick me up -- and the country's most famous drug dealer offered just that Thursday. Nouh Zaiter, a hashish dealer on the run from Lebanese authorities, delivered a blunt message in support of anti-corruption protests that have crippled the country. The self-styled Lebanese Robin Hood released a video on a local news site calling on protesters in the eastern Baalbek region to demonstrate on Thursday evening.

'A sad day': Louisiana deputy and his school teacher wife face 60 counts of child porn and child rape accusations

Sheriff's deputy Dennis Perkins and his wife Cynthia Thompson Perkins, a teacher, were arrested on child pornography and rape charges in Louisiana.

Harvard’s Student Newspaper Chooses Ethical Journalism over PC Mob’s Demands

Harvard University’s student newspaper, the Harvard Crimson, was accused of “cultural insensitivity” and “blatantly endangering undocumented students” last month -- all because it had adhered to journalistic ethics.It’s true: According to an article in the Washington Post, all that the newspaper had done to deserve this was ask U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement representatives for comment on a story about an “Abolish ICE” protest. In other words? The paper’s reporters were attacked because they demonstrated basic journalism skills. It is, after all, not only not controversial to ask both sides for their views in a straight-news piece; it would actually be controversial not to.Despite this, the Post reports that “hundreds” of students signed a petition calling on the newspaper to stop talking to ICE completely. Their cause was quite obviously absurd, and it depresses me that hundreds of our nation’s (supposedly) best and brightest could actually be ignorant enough to sign something like that.The good news? Rather than back down from the pressure, the newspaper stood its ground. Earlier this week, Crimson editors Angela N. Fu and Kristine E. Guillaume published a defense of the paper’s work.“The Crimson exists because of a belief that an uninformed campus would be a poorer one — that our readers have the right to be informed about the place where they live, work, and study,” the letter states. “In pursuit of that goal, we seek to follow a commonly accepted set of journalistic standards, similar to those followed by professional news organizations big and small.”It continued:> Foremost among those standards is the belief that every party named in a story has a right to comment or contest criticism leveled against them. That’s why our reporters always make every effort to contact the individuals and institutions we write about — administrators, students, alumni, campus organizations, and yes, government agencies — before any story goes to press. We believe that this is the best way to ensure the integrity, fairness, and accuracy of our reporting.Good for them.Yes, I understand how illogical it was that this was ever even a controversy to begin with. The truth is, though, we’re now living in a culture where people don’t always use logic. Particularly, the social-justice mob has a habit of just throwing around buzzwords instead – such as “insensitive” or “racist” or “sexist” -- and fully expects that doing so will be enough to silence their opponents. Worse? It often works. Often, when the mob accuses a person of doing something offensive, the knee-jerk response is an apology. The pressure, after all, can be very intense -- no one wants to be smeared, or even canceled, and sometimes an apology can seem like the only way out.I’m glad to see that the Harvard Crimson didn’t do this. These student editors stood up not only for journalism specifically, but also for logic in general. They rejected the idea that the offended person is always right, simply because he or she is offended. Not only is this great news on its own, but I also hope it will inspire others to stand up for what’s right in the future -- rather than making the social-justice mob more powerful by caving to it out of fear.

Right-wing pastor says Trump supporters will 'hunt down' Democrats when he leaves office

President Donald Trump's supporters will "hunt down" Democrats and bring "violence to America" once the president leaves office, according to right-wing Christian pastor and conspiracy theorist Rick Wiles.On his apocalyptic TruNews programme, captured by Right Wing Watch, Mr Wiles said the president's impeachment or "however he leaves" office will inspire "veterans, cowboys, mountain men" and "guys that know how to fight" to bring "violence to America" by hunting down Mr Trump's political enemies.

Philippine vice president says time for Duterte to halt failed drug war; 'It's not working'

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte should allow the United Nations to investigate his war on drugs, and abandon a deadly campaign that has been failure and a dent on the country's international image, its vice president said on Wednesday.

Without help from US, UN climate fund struggles to meet goal

Rich countries gathered Thursday in France to discuss replenishing an international fund that is meant to help poor nations tackle climate change, but which is falling short of its targets because the U.S. has stopped contributing. The two-day meeting in Paris aims to replenish the Green Climate Fund, which has spent much of the $7 billion it received from governments in the past five years. Governments agreed at a U.N. climate summit in 2015 to raise $100 billion each year by 2020 to help developing countries reduce their emissions and cope with the inevitable impacts of global warming, such as sea level rise and droughts.

The candidates who've qualified for November Democratic debate

The Democratic National Committee announced its fifth presidential debate will be held in Georgia in November

Suspected gang members found dead amid surge of violence in Mexico

Nine men allegedly linked to organized crime were shot dead in southern Mexico during a confrontation with other armed civilians, state authorities said, as the country grapples with a wave of violence. The bodies were found Wednesday night in the remote village of Zitlala, according to the prosecutor's office in the state of Guerrero, one of the country's poorest and hardest-hit by Mexico's long-running drug war. In recent weeks, Mexico has been shaken especially hard by several outbursts of violence linked to organized crime.

Warren’s Socialism for the Upper-Middle Class Is Awful — and Conservatives Need a Better Alternative

The first thing that needs to be noted about Elizabeth Warren’s wealth tax — and, unsurprisingly, is seldom mentioned in discussions of it — is that it would redistribute hundreds of millions of dollars from the rich to the nearly rich.Let’s assume for argument’s sake that the wealth tax passes as she now proposes it and raises $2.75 trillion, as she estimates it will. (These are big assumptions, but bear with me.) Her plan would dedicate $1.25 trillion of that sum to “higher education” — that is, mostly to 18-year-olds who are already in the top third of their peers, as academic achievement and economic status are so closely correlated. Just over half of that ($640 billion) is dedicated to debt relief for college students. She would cap the relief at $50,000 and aim it at those who are earning less than $100,000 a year.The caps and controls would exclude those doctors and lawyers who come out of school with a huge portion of the total student debt in America, but begin earning well into the six figures shortly after graduation. It’s also true, though, that many student-debt holders who have a similar career trajectory can afford to earn less than $100,000 a year in order to win $50,000 in debt relief. Debt relief would rain down on graduates who are themselves privileged enough to take entry-level jobs in high-status fields for the promise of delayed rewards. Many of these debt-holders would still be on their high-earning parents’ health-care plans.A great part of the Warren debt-relief plan is simply taxing the wealthiest 75,000 households, and redistributing the gains to the next-wealthiest 250,000 households. We need to call this what it is: The continuing transformation of the Democratic party into the party of upper-middle-class entitlements, an attempt to take from the “bad” rich — the asset holders — and give to the “good” nearly rich. That many of the latter will become or are children of the former is just a trifling detail.While it could hardly be called revolutionary, the plan is actually pretty smart politics for Warren and the Democrats. It will dedicate a new program to demographic groups that have been moving away from Republicans and consolidating behind Democrats in recent elections: college graduates, upwardly mobile suburbanites. It will also address the genuine scandal of ever-growing student debt, without addressing the problem of ever-growing tuition and the luxurification of the American college experience. That is, it will relieve the costs to students, without really hitting the bottom line for the professoriate and administrations of colleges — another constituency that punches above its weight in the Democratic coalition.All of this should invite Republicans and conservatives to think harder about what direction they want to go in the future. There has been a lot of lazy and unfocused rhetoric about social and cultural “elites” in our circles, but not much in the way of making a coherent political case about the corruption and unfairness that is creeping into our system of meritocracy. Elizabeth Warren gets credit for having a “plan for that.” We may not like her plans. But until we figure out how to make the college experience a better value, more worthwhile and less costly to students and the rest of society, the question will gnaw: Do we have anything better?

Boeing considered system redesign before accidents: NTSB report

House Democrats win court case to see Mueller's grand jury evidence

Here comes another two wins for impeachment Democrats.Washington's top federal judge ruled Friday that the House should get to see the previously withheld grand jury evidence from ex-Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. The Justice Department will have to hand over the evidence by Oct. 30, Judge Beryl Howell ruled Friday -- along with issuing a ruling in favor of Democrats' impeachment inquiry.House Democrats sued the DOJ for access to the redacted Mueller evidence in July, but the White House counsel's office has held out so far. Howell's ruling to force the DOJ's cooperation will ensure Democrats don't have to "redo the nearly two years of effort spent on the special counsel's investigation, nor risk being misled by witnesses," she wrote in her decision.Howell also struck down Republican arguments that the House's impeachment inquiry requires a chamber vote to be legitimate. "Even in cases of presidential impeachment, a House resolution has never, in fact, been required to begin an impeachment inquiry," Howell wrote in her ruling.> BREAKING (!): Judge rules the House is entitled to Mueller grand jury material. Huge win for Judiciary Committee / Dems. pic.twitter.com/ahru9pUl1y> > -- Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) October 25, 2019The two wins continue a long streak of progress for impeachment Democrats, though they have been hindered by White House officials who've been barred from testifying before House committees.

Giuliani, Overheard Talking About Need for Cash, Mistakenly Calls NBC Reporter

By BY MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2pSpndJ

Has M.L.B.’s Ball Lost Its Juice? Some Players Think So

By BY JAMES WAGNER from NYT Sports https://ift.tt/2PjHCDF