CIA, other spy agencies gathered intel on Rudy Giuliani's dealings with alleged Russian agents

The U.S. wasn't spying on Giuliani, but on people with whom he talked, including Andrii Derkach, identified by the Treasury Department as a Russian agent.

Low-key Democrat tries to hang onto Senate seat in Michigan

Call him low-key, understated, maybe even “boring." First-term Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan is betting voters care more about his effectiveness, as he desperately fights to keep a seat his party is counting on to take the Senate majority. The bespectacled, bearded 61-year-old former investment adviser is a rare Senate candidate this cycle, a Democrat running in a battleground state Donald Trump carried in 2016.

Republicans boycott House intel hearing on the risks of QAnon and other misinformation

The virtual hearing was unclassified and featured testimony from non-government experts about the risks posed by the rapid expansion of the QAnon conspiracy theory and the role of elected officials, including President Trump, in spreading unverified rumors.

Disney fires back at Elizabeth Warren in row over executive pay

Company calls senator’s open letter challenging reinstatement of executive pay ‘misinformed’

Senate Republicans push narrow stimulus bills as Pelosi and Mnuchin resume talks.

By BY EMILY COCHRANE from NYT World https://ift.tt/2IGsVt3

7 Chicago cops suspended for roles in chief's traffic stop

Seven Chicago police officers have been suspended for their roles the night then-Superintendent Eddie Johnson was found asleep behind the wheel of his SUV after having several drinks at a bar, according to a report by the city's inspector general released Friday. Superintendent David Brown decided to suspend two probationary officers for one day each, two other officers for seven days, a sergeant for 14 days, a lieutenant for 21 days and a commander for 28 days, according to Inspector General Joseph Ferguson's report. Johnson has denied the allegations made by the former driver, Cynthia Donald.

Hunter Biden: FBI probing alleged emails for links to foreign intelligence operation, report says

Expert warns emails should be treated as ‘Trump campaign product’

'Big pile' of eels dumped in NYC park; impact not yet known

Andrew Orkin was taking a break from his evening jog to sit by Prospect Park Lake when he turned around and was startled to see a tangle of wriggling snakes. There are no plans to eradicate the eels.

Missing Hong Kong protester Alexandra Wong 'was held in mainland China'

"Grandma Wong" says she was detained by mainland police and forced to renounce her activism.

Farmer who went viral after carving Biden-Harris message into his soybean field says there’s more to the story

North Dakota voter reveals why he decided to share a message of support for the Democrats after Donald Trump’s trade wars cost his farm ‘a lot of money’

Turkey reportedly test-fires S-400 air defense system

NATO member Turkey has tested its Russian-made S-400 air defense system, Turkish media reported, raising the specter of a new standoff with the United States.

Former UK PM Blair accused of breaking quarantine rules after U.S. trip: Sunday Telegraph

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has been accused of breaking UK COVID-19 restrictions after failing to self-isolate for two weeks following a two-day trip to the United States, the Sunday Telegraph reported. The newspaper said it had obtained pictures showing Blair, who served as prime minister from 1997 to 2007, leaving a London restaurant 10 days after his return from Washington last month. The Sunday Telegraph said it understood that Blair appealed to Whitehall officials for special dispensation from the COVID-19 rules, but that he was not issued with the formal exemption letter he would have needed to avoid a 14-day isolation period.

Flush With Cash, Biden Eclipses Trump in War for the Airwaves

By BY NICK CORASANITI, WEIYI CAI AND DENISE LU from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/3dBBhNN

Fox News Breaking News Alert

Fox News Breaking News Alert

President Trump begins second rally of the night, this time in Janesville, Wisconsin

10/17/20 4:58 PM

Woman who told Trump he had a nice smile at his town hall wishes the president would 'talk less' and is 'not a fan'

Paulette Dale, the voter who complimented the president's smile on Thursday, told the Miami New Times that she planned to vote for Joe Biden.

Missile strikes on Azerbaijan cities after separatist capital shelled

A missile strike levelled several homes in Azerbaijan's second city of Ganja on Saturday, with one resident telling AFP he saw seven victims pulled out of the rubble.

Japan to release Fukushima's contaminated water into sea: reports

Nearly a decade after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, Japan's government has decided to release over one million tonnes of contaminated water into the sea, media reports said on Friday, with a formal announcement expected to be made later this month. The decision is expected to rankle neighbouring countries like South Korea, which has already stepped up radiation tests of food from Japan, and further devastate the fishing industry in Fukushima that has battled against such a move for years. The disposal of contaminated water at the Fukushima Daiichi plant has been a longstanding problem for Japan as it proceeds with an decades-long decommissioning project.

Trump tweets fake news story from satirical conservative website

President Trump on Friday tweeted a fake news story published by the Babylon Bee, a satirical website for Christian conservatives, mocking Twitter for blocking users from sharing an unconfirmed report about Joe Biden's son.

Fact check: Biden voted to tax Social Security, wants to reform retirement benefits

As a senator, Joe Biden voted to tax Social Security benefits. As a presidential hopeful, he does not propose taxing property or retirement accounts.

Parents of Student Arrested After Teacher Beheaded for Showing Anti-Muslim Cartoon

Anti-terrorism prosecutors in France have detained nine people, including a minor, after a geography teacher was decapitated in broad daylight in front of multiple witnesses on a street in northern Paris on Friday afternoon, according to Paris police.The attack outside a school in the Parisian suburb of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine occurred after the teacher showed caricatures of the prophet Muhammad published in the satire magazine Charlie Hebdo to his students, a police spokesperson told NBC. The teacher, identified as Samuel Paty, 47, told Muslim students they could leave the classroom ahead of the lesson on freedom of expression and blasphemy, according to the school district. However, several furious parents reportedly demanded Paty’s resignation after the lesson.Citing a police source, Agence France-Presse reported that the attacker shouted “Allahu Akbar” or “God is Great” after the decapitation. The attacker, said to be an 18-year-old Chechen who was born in Moscow, was then fatally shot by police in the suburb of Eragy Sur Oise after threatening officers with his knife. A handgun was found near his body, police said.He was reportedly wearing a vest that could have contained explosives, which led police to send in the bomb squad. No information has been released whether the vest was lethal. Extremists have been indoctrinated to believe that suicide bombings and killings of “infidels” will grant them 72 virgins in paradise for their sacrifice. Those arrested included the attacker’s family members and parents of one of the victim’s Muslim students. The police spokesperson said the suspect had claimed responsibility for the attack and posted a photo of the headless victim on Twitter that was later removed.Terror Investigation Launched After Knife Attack at Charlie Hebdo’s Old Offices Injures TwoThe Friday attack is one of several terrorism-related tragedies to hit the French capital over the years. Last month, two people were injured in a knife attack close to the former offices of satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, where Islamist militants killed 12 people in 2015 in revenge for a controversial cartoon of the prophet Muhammad. Officials said the September attack was an act of Islamist terrorism carried out amid a criminal trial for the 2015 attackers.Paty had reportedly been threatened after showing students the very cartoons that Charlie Hebdo was targeted for publishing. The Guardian reported that, after the lesson, the father of a 13-year-old girl who didn’t leave the classroom posted a YouTube video claiming Paty had shown a “photo of a naked man” and said it was the Muslim prophet. The father called the teacher a thug.As the situation intensified, the school convened a meeting with Paty, a head teacher and an education department official.After the killing, Charlie Hebdo tweeted, “Intolerance just reached a new threshold and seems to stop at nothing to impose terror in our country.”“Tonight, it was the Republic that was attacked with the despicable assassination of one of its servants, a teacher,” Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer said Friday. “I think tonight of him, of his family. Our unity and steadfastness are the only answers to the monstrosity of Islamist terrorism.”The Washington Post reported the country’s anti-terror prosecutor immediately opened an investigation into the “murder in connection with a terrorist enterprise” and “criminal terrorist association.”French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday evening went to the crime scene after an emergency meeting with Interior Minister Gerard Darmanin. Darmanin set up a crisis center to deal with the grisly attack. Macron called the beheading “an Islamist terrorist attack” at the scene. “One of our fellow citizens was assassinated today because he was teaching, he was teaching pupils about freedom of expression.”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.

China passes amendments outlawing insulting national flag

The Standing Committee of China’s congress on Saturday passed amendments to a law that will criminalize the intentional insulting of the national flag and emblem, after anti-government protesters in Hong Kong last year desecrated the Chinese flag. According to the newly amended National Flag and National Emblem Law, which will take effect on Jan. 1, those who intentionally burn, mutilate, paint, deface or trample the flag and emblem in public will be investigated for criminal responsibility. The law also states that that national flag must not be discarded, displayed upside down or used in any manner that impairs the dignity of the flag.

Trump won 81 percent of white evangelicals in 2016. Ralph Reed says he’ll do better this year.

“I think polling is at this point, it’s a discredited science,” Reed said.

Pelosi says she will probably talk to Mnuchin on coronavirus relief Sunday

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Friday that she would probably talk to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin over the weekend for the latest round of negotiations on coronavirus relief. "As soon as I get it, which I haven't gotten yet, then we will talk about it, probably on Sunday," she added.

Texas billionaire charged in $2B tax fraud scheme

Texas billionaire Robert Brockman was charged in a $2 billion tax fraud scheme on Thursday by federal prosecutors.

Ex-chief of staff John Kelly told friends that Trump's dishonesty is 'astounding' and 'pathetic', report claims

‘He is the most flawed person I have ever met in my life,’ former chief of staff reportedly said

Broward jail leaders fired after another mentally ill inmate gives birth in her cell, BSO says

The Broward County Sheriff’s office fired two top administrators after a woman who went into labor in her jail cell was not given medical care despite screams of pain.

friday pm update

By Unknown Author from NYT Briefing https://ift.tt/2H9JrRV

Judge upholds Cuomo’s restrictions on religious services in hot spots.

By BY ED SHANAHAN AND ALAN FEUER from NYT World https://ift.tt/350S7C0

One of Trump’s better days, but look a little closer.

By BY NATE COHN from NYT The Upshot https://ift.tt/2IDlfrw

Ed Benguiat, a Master of Typography, Is Dead at 92

By BY NEIL GENZLINGER from NYT Business https://ift.tt/3lSjxRk

Latino and Black Americans are still dying in disproportionately high numbers, the C.D.C. says.

By BY JOHN ISMAY from NYT World https://ift.tt/2IvE8fM

Georgia at a Tipping Point

By BY GIOVANNI RUSSONELLO from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/35aaHaM

$421 Million in Debt: Trump Calls It ‘a Peanut,’ but Challenges Lie Ahead

By BY RUSS BUETTNER AND SUSANNE CRAIG from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/3lXm4cO

'Fire! Fire! Fire!': A ship captain faces prosecution after a slaughter at sea

The chilling case of the Ping Shin 101, which is still unfolding, shows the challenge of prosecuting crimes on the high seas.

After living in a converted school bus for a year, a retiree is now $10,000 in debt and selling her schoolie — here's the one cost she didn't see coming

Keri Gallioux said she had to sell her car, take out a loan, and max out her credit cards. It then took a toll on her emotional health.

Turkey reportedly test-fires S-400 air defense system

NATO member Turkey has tested its Russian-made S-400 air defense system, Turkish media reported, raising the specter of a new standoff with the United States.

‘They have a gun to my head’: Kayleigh McEnany claims she’s been ‘permanently' banned from Twitter for sharing Biden story

'When I log on to my Twitter account, it says I'm permanently banned’, says McEnany

Philippine activists say detainee's treatment was cruel

Philippine left-wing groups on Friday criticized the treatment of a detained activist who was allowed by a Manila court to attend her baby’s burial but was forced to wear handcuffs and a sweltering protective suit and was heavily guarded by armed escorts as she quietly wept. Critics have pointed to the treatment of Reina Mae Nasino and her 3-month-old daughter, River, as indicative of what they say is the “barbarity” of President Rodrigo Duterte and law enforcers toward perceived opponents. Nasino, a 23-year-old human rights worker, and two other activists were arrested last year in the Manila office of a left-wing group.

"A crime in plain sight": Lindsey Graham solicits campaign donations in the halls of the Senate

"I never felt better about my campaign than I do right now," Graham claims as he trails his rival in fundraising

'Get the kids back to school': Donald Trump uses son's COVID-19 diagnosis to push for reopening classrooms

Barron Trump’s positive COVID-19 test has become part of his father's push to physically reopen schools. The 14-year-old has since tested negative.

U.S. to execute a man and woman convicted of murder: Justice Department

Now is a good time to fish for snakeheads in South Florida’s canals and lakes

Snakeheads are an invasive fish that have made themselves at home in South Florida’s freshwater lakes and canals.

Yahoo News/YouGov poll: Trump is actually doing worse with all white voters than in 2016

In the homestretch of the 2020 campaign, Trump not only appears to be performing worse than before among college-educated white women, he's also doing worse among white voters in general.

Lindsey Graham accused of ‘committing a crime in plain sight’ for soliciting donations amid senate hearing

Senate judiciary chairman seemingly calls for campaign donations during a break at Judge Amy Coney Barrett senate confirmation hearings

Inspired by Trump, Hasidic Backlash Grows Over Virus Rules

NEW YORK -- A group of mostly young men began descending on the Brooklyn home of a Hasidic journalist just before midnight Sunday.The men, who were fellow ultra-Orthodox Jews, were shouting that the journalist, Jacob Kornbluh, was a snitch, an informer who had betrayed his own by publishing reports on how devoutly religious Jews in the city had been ignoring coronavirus guidelines.The group got all the way to Kornbluh's doorstep, where a line of police officers kept them at bay.The tense scene spoke to what many Orthodox leaders said they had been seeing for weeks: a growing, raucous faction of young men in the community, tired of pandemic guidelines and resentful of secular authorities, who are taking their cues from the broader right-wing movement in society, including from President Donald Trump.For months, misinformation and rumors about the virus, some inspired by Trump, have spread widely in forums like WhatsApp that are popular with ultra-Orthodox New Yorkers, according to numerous interviews with Hasidic leaders and community members.Now a new shutdown in Orthodox neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens, ordered last week by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, appears to have inflamed sentiments further. Cuomo closed nonessential business and schools and limited attendance to 10 people at a time in houses of worship in the hardest-hit areas, including synagogues.Cuomo was spurred by spiking caseloads in the Orthodox community and concerns that health rules were not being followed. But some Orthodox voices have responded by arguing that their community's religious life was being targeted by the government.The Orthodox Jewish community in the New York region includes Hasidic and other ultra-Orthodox groups. There are as many as 500,000 ultra-Orthodox Jews in the New York region, and they have long tended toward conservative politics. In 2016, Hasidic neighborhoods in Brooklyn voted overwhelmingly for Trump.But the pandemic may have also emboldened more extreme elements, complicating efforts to curb the virus and frightening normally outspoken Hasidic activists and writers."There is a mistrust in media, a mistrust in government, and people don't check the facts," Kornbluh said in an interview. "In the years since Trump came onto the scene, people are more engaged in politics and follow Trump and his conspiracy theories."After the virus devastated Hasidic neighborhoods in the early days of the pandemic, many residents began to believe that safety precautions were unnecessary because they had developed herd immunity, according to community leaders.That attitude, which health officials say has no basis in fact, has been a primary reason for a recent surge of cases in Brooklyn and Queens that has raised the citywide positivity rate to levels not seen in months.On the first night after the governor announced the restrictions, a group of mostly young men in the predominantly Orthodox neighborhood of Borough Park took to the streets in protest.They were led by a local radio host and viral video personality, Heshy Tischler, a Trump follower and a candidate for City Council who was once convicted of conspiracy to commit immigration fraud and sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison.Tischler identifies as Orthodox but is not part of a Hasidic sect. Still, he has gained popularity during the pandemic, in part because he has gone after critics of the Hasidic community.The ultra-Orthodox communities in New York are an insular world that distrusts outsiders and disdains members who speak up in public about sensitive issues, like education or public health.Since March, Kornbluh, a reporter for Jewish Insider who has lived in Borough Park for 18 years, has been posting on Twitter about the disregard for coronavirus safety measures in these communities.On the second night of protests -- where some waved pro-Trump banners -- the crowd spotted Kornbluh, who was covering the events, and pointed him out to Tischler.Tischler, unmasked, approached Kornbluh and began calling him a traitor. Soon Kornbluh was surrounded by men and teenagers who shoved him against a wall; punched, kicked and struck him with objects; and then chased him for two blocks. Videos of the attack quickly appeared on social media.Kornbluh said many in the group told him that he deserved to die and called him "Nazi" and "Hitler.""They were saying I am not part of this community and I should leave," Kornbluh said.Tischler was arrested Sunday in connection with the attack. After he was taken into custody, a group of men showed up at Kornbluh's home.Tischler was arraigned Monday on charges including inciting a riot and was released without bail. He returned home, where a boisterous crowd of young Hasidic supporters awaited him.Standing on his porch, he plugged his candidacy for City Council and declared that he did not condone violence."We're going to continue our fight," he said. "We're going to beat that Mayor de Blasio! We're going to knock Cuomo out!"The turmoil is also revealing a fault line through ultra-Orthodox New York over the question of how much the government -- and the pandemic -- should be allowed to intrude on religious life. In March and April, rabbis vigorously debated about whether synagogues should close in compliance with COVID-era restrictions or whether communal prayer must continue, according to Yochonon Donn, a Hasidic journalist.But in recent months, as the pandemic has ground on and a new outbreak has brought renewed restrictions, the question of how to respond is playing out in the street and online, forums where the influence of rabbis is limited but where Tischler's theatrical videos have been shared widely.While local leaders and elected officials have denounced the violence at last week's protests, relatively few have condemned Tischler.Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel, executive vice president of Agudath Israel of America, an Orthodox umbrella group, said Tischler was a fringe figure who had "made an idiot of himself.""I don't think anybody really knew him or had heard of him until he decided to turn himself into the wonderful spokesman he thinks he is," Zwiebel said. "This guy is supposed to be a community leader? Please. It is an embarrassment."Tischler first gained popularity in June when he used bolt cutters to unlock city playgrounds -- at least 14, in his telling -- that had been closed by authorities as part of COVID-19 restrictions. The move was celebrated by Orthodox parents, many of whom had been crowded in small apartments with many children.In an interview in Crown Heights last week, Tischler said he believed the newly imposed restrictions were singling out Orthodox Jews because "the Jews don't fight back, the Jews take things lying down.""We will not be sheep anymore," he said.He called Trump one of the "greatest presidents we've ever had" and said he thought that Cuomo was exaggerating the threat of the coronavirus because the governor planned "to create martial law."As he spoke, a small circle of young men gathered on the sidewalk to listen. One of them, Mendy Freidman, 23, shrugged when asked if he supported Tischler but said that he understood his appeal."Nobody else is willing to do what he does," he said. "Nobody else is willing to go to jail."But Tischler's public stunts often contain a hint of menace. Last month, when city health officials held a news conference in Brooklyn to discuss the virus uptick, he disrupted the event while not wearing a mask, shouting at top health officials that the virus uptick was fake, and called them "Jew haters" and "garbage."And his messages have carried racist undertones. Some of the city health workers sent to conduct outreach in Orthodox neighborhoods have been people of color. In one video, Tischler shows himself calling them outsiders who are "ready to come after us.""I'm sure most of them are from just the projects, picked off the street with not even proper training," he said.The criminal charges against Tischler stem from his actions during the protests, which lasted for two nights last week and resulted in attacks on at least three men. Two of them, a photographer and a Hasidic man accused of disloyalty to the community, were attacked Tuesday.After those episodes, Kornbluh sent Tischler a late-night WhatsApp message, which was shared with The New York Times, calling the violence that Tischler was stoking a "chillul Hashem" -- a desecration of God's name.The next morning, Tischler filmed a video of himself in a graveyard threatening Kornbluh, which soon spread in popular Hasidic WhatsApp groups.That night he confronted Kornbluh at the protest, setting off the mob attack that resulted in Tischler's arrest Sunday, prosecutors say.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company

7 Chicago cops suspended for roles in chief's traffic stop

Seven Chicago police officers have been suspended for their roles the night then-Superintendent Eddie Johnson was found asleep behind the wheel of his SUV after having several drinks at a bar, according to a report by the city's inspector general released Friday. Superintendent David Brown decided to suspend two probationary officers for one day each, two other officers for seven days, a sergeant for 14 days, a lieutenant for 21 days and a commander for 28 days, according to Inspector General Joseph Ferguson's report. Johnson has denied the allegations made by the former driver, Cynthia Donald.

A Judge Pushes a Police Officer and Hurls Threats, but Isn’t Charged

By BY ED SHANAHAN from NYT New York https://ift.tt/2TbDbM1

Trump repeated his false claims about voter fraud.

By BY MAGGIE ASTOR from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2H6GVeL

“The UK is up 2,500 percent, the E.U. is up 722 percent and the United States is down 21 percent.”

By BY LINDA QIU from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2T0VaVf

“People are leaving New York by the thousands, and you’re going to have a hard time ever building it up again.”

By BY JEANNA SMIALEK from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2H6hr1x

Jake Gyllenhaal on His First Tony Nomination

By BY SARAH BAHR from NYT Theater https://ift.tt/3lLO7vK

Biden slams Trump’s handling of the virus and calls for a strong federal response.

By BY SYDNEY EMBER from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/3j0yUVR