Sugar Land

Hillary Clinton's attacks on Tulsi Gabbard are embarrassing

It’s sad that instead of doing something useful with her post-political career, Clinton has decided to lob ludicrous accusations at younger Democrats‘Even though Gabbard may be a flawed messenger, the message itself is correct: we no longer need to hear what Hillary Clinton thinks about anything.’ Photograph: Richard Drew/APHillary Clinton has kept a relatively low profile since her embarrassing 2016 election defeat, popping up only occasionally to make out-of-touch elitist comments that confirm why she lost. So it was somewhat surprising to hear her weigh in on the 2020 Democratic primary with a truly bizarre comment about (of all people) Tulsi Gabbard.Clinton accused the Hawaii congresswoman of being groomed by outside forces, saying: “I think they’ve got their eye on somebody who is currently in the Democratic primary and are grooming her to be the third-party candidate … She’s the favorite of the Russians.” There is some dispute about whether Clinton meant it was the Russians or Republicans who were pushing a third-party Gabbard candidacy, but a Clinton spokesman asked about the comments replied “if the nesting doll fits”, clearly implying it was dastardly Russians.Gabbard immediately hit back hard, calling Clinton (accurately) “the queen of warmongers, embodiment of corruption, and personification of the rot that has sickened the Democratic party for so long”. While hosts of The View backed up Clinton, calling Gabbard a “useful idiot”, others such as the Vermont senator Bernie Sanders and South Bend’s mayor, Pete Buttigieg, suggested that Clinton ought to have had some evidence before implying something so outrageous about a Democratic elected official.But it was typical Clinton. Paranoia about Russian influence has been ubiquitous among the Clinton set since 2016, in part because it helps to explain how the loss to Donald Trump wasn’t really Clinton’s fault. Liberals in the media like Rachel Maddow openly admit to having an obsession with Russia, and end up seeing the hands of Vladimir Putin on everything. Clinton herself has had trouble coming to terms with her loss. Even though accounts from inside the campaign confirm that Clinton barely knew why she was running for president, couldn’t craft any kind of message, and made laughably overconfident decisions about where to campaign, her campaign memoir was less a mea culpa than a j’accuse. It pointed fingers at Sanders and James Comey, and ended up sounding a lot like the Onion’s parody title: We All Made Mistakes But You Made Most Of Them.Years later, Clinton has learned seemingly nothing. Elsewhere on the podcast episode in which she made the accusations against Gabbard, Clinton blames fake news, foreign interference and voter suppression for undermining democracy and keeping Democrats out of power. Those are factors, but the big one is the one that Gabbard herself identified: the “rot that has sickened the Democratic party for so long”. Clinton practiced a corrupting and duplicitous form of politics that made many would-be Democratic voters feel completely unrepresented by the party. But instead of spending her time in the woods doing some soul-searching, Clinton has evidently spent it cooking up new conspiracy theories about the all-powerful Putin.Tulsi Gabbard is completely right about what Clinton represents. Clinton was the Democratic party at its absolute worst: pro-war, pro-Wall Street, self-enriching, inept, devoid of any transformative vision and contemptuous of ordinary people. It’s very clear that Sanders would have been the smart choice in 2016, and Gabbard was one of the few Democratic officials to recognize that at the time and endorse him. Actually, that was courageous of her – most Democratic officials, even those whose politics should have aligned them more closely with Sanders than Clinton, were too timid to buck the establishment and risk their career by potentially getting on the wrong side of an incoming Clinton administration.That’s not to say that Gabbard herself should be the future of the Democratic party. Far from it: while Gabbard has made a big deal of her anti-war stance, she has embraced the vicious Indian nationalist prime minister, Narendra Modi, and been far more hawkish and softer on torture than she would like progressive voters to believe. Her willingness to criticize the “rot” in her own party may make Gabbard a refreshing presence on the debate stage, but no serious leftist can support someone who spent the Obama years echoing Republican talking points about “radical Islam”. She’s still no “useful idiot”, and even with her flaws she is preferable to truly intolerable candidates like Buttigieg and Joe Biden. If we were (God forbid) somehow faced with the choice between Tulsi Gabbard and Amy Klobuchar, the country would be far better off in Gabbard’s hands.Even though Gabbard may be a flawed messenger, the message itself is correct: we no longer need to hear what Hillary Clinton thinks about anything. Her kind of politics is, thankfully, a relic of history, and we have moved on. It’s sad that instead of doing something useful with her post-political career, Clinton has decided to lob ludicrous, borderline defamatory, accusations at younger Democratic women who were less wrong than Clinton was about dozens of issues. Fortunately, hardly anybody is listening any more. * Nathan Robinson is the editor of Current Affairs and a Guardian US columnist

Silicon Valley CEOs Appear to Have Chosen Their 2020 Candidate

(Bloomberg) -- The technology industry is looking for something different in a president in 2020. And it appears Pete Buttigieg is their candidate.While Joe Biden and Senator Elizabeth Warren are topping national polls in the contest for the Democratic Party’s nomination, California’s deep-pocketed Silicon Valley is donating to the 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Indiana over the former vice president by a 5-to-1 margin.“Pete is a clean slate for the party in ways Biden can’t be,” said Cyrus Radfar, a 35-year-old technology entrepreneur and Democratic donor. “There’s new life and new energy that Pete brings, especially as the base of the Democratic Party is getting younger. I think he’s going to be on the national stage for a long time.”Buttigieg has staged a fundraising blitz in posh Northern California communities, holding events hosted by technology executives such as Netflix Inc. Chief Executive Officer Reed Hastings, Nest Labs home-automation company co-founder Matt Rogers, and Chelsea Kohler, director of product communications at Uber Technologies Inc., among others.Were he to win, Buttigieg would not only be the youngest president, but also the first openly gay one. While he is successfully raising money, Buttigieg has struggled until recently to enter the top tier of candidates nationally.But there are signs that he could be a moderate voter’s alternative to Biden. While raising money in California, Buttigieg is campaigning heavily in Iowa, and it appears both efforts are paying off. A USA Today/Suffolk University poll of likely Iowa caucus goers put Buttigieg just behind Biden and Warren for the first time. Biden had 18% support, Warren 17% and Buttigieg 13%.Millennial voters in the tech industry say they appreciate that Buttigieg’s liberal policies seem grounded in reality and recognize “a cutthroat world,” as Elizabeth Moran, 28, put it at a debate watch party in Silicon Valley’s Sunnyvale. Moran, who works at Poshmark, a social commerce platform, said she likes Buttigieg’s grasp of economics.“Well-educated recognizes well-educated,” Moran said, adding that Buttigieg could have come to Silicon Valley after graduating from Harvard as many Ivy League graduates do.In other words, in their eyes, Buttigieg is like them.“There’s a big move on the Democratic side to more heavily regulate tech, and that hasn’t been part of Buttigieg’s message,” said Raphael Sonenshein, executive director of the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs at California State University, Los Angeles. “His message is consistent with innovation and forward-looking technology. He has not given the impression that he would threaten their interests.”While he hasn’t said much about competition and antitrust, Buttigieg has focused on improving regulations as opposed to breaking up big tech.“We’re going to need to empower the FTC to be able to intervene, including blocking or reversing mergers, in cases where there’s anti-competitive behavior by tech companies,” he said in a CNN town hall in April, referring to the Federal Trade Commission.Buttigieg was his high school’s valedictorian and went on to Harvard, where he befriended two roommates of future Facebook Inc. CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and was one of the first 300 users on the social media platform. He was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, joined McKinsey & Co. as a consultant, and volunteered for Barack Obama’s tech-savvy 2008 presidential campaign before joining the U.S. Navy Reserve and serving in Afghanistan.His relationship with Zuckerberg persisted. Zuckerberg, 35, visited South Bend in 2017 while doing research for his philanthropic organization, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and got a personal tour from Buttigieg. That relationship lasted into this year, when Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, recommended two people that Buttigieg ultimately hired for his campaign. Ben LaBolt, a spokesman for Zuckerberg and Chan, said the couple hasn’t yet decided whom to support for president.The Golden StateCalifornia voters have an unusually large influence in choosing the party’s nominee this cycle. The state primary next year is in March instead of its previous June slot and its donors contributed 1 of every 5 dollars raised by the party’s presidential candidates in the first six months of this year, data from the Center for Responsive Politics show.Buttigieg is second only to home-state senator Kamala Harris in the percentage of his campaign money that comes from California. Harris got 45% of her donations from Californians, Buttigieg got 22%.Harris, who was the state’s attorney general, raised $1 million from California lawyers, more than twice as much as any other candidate. She was also the top recipient of donations from employees of the entertainment industry. But California employees of tech companies, including giants like Facebook, Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp., backed Buttigieg more than any other candidate.Silicon Valley bundlers -- fundraisers who gather money from numerous employees of a firm -- have raised concerns about both Warren and Senator Bernie Sanders, who are relying primarily on small-dollar contributions from online donors.Warren is particularly thorny for the tech industry. She has vowed that she will not meet with big donors who want to “buy access” -- and perhaps more troubling for them, has promised to break up big technology companies. Some technology workers are contributing to Warren and Sanders, but few are writing the $2,800 checks that Buttigieg and Biden are relying on, likely because they’ve been quieter on the question of how to handle big tech.Buttigieg is positioning himself as a younger alternative to 76-year-old Biden. Like Biden, he has not embraced the progressive wing’s Medicare for All, instead proposing government-run health care “to those who want it,” without eliminating private insurance.In other areas, he hasn’t taken many unique stances, but his Midwestern and military background seeps into some plans. An issue page on his campaign website is simply called “Unleash rural opportunity,” and he has proposed eliminating some student debt in exchange for national service.Paul Holland, a California venture capitalist and fundraiser for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign, said he believes a moderate has the best chance of winning. In his circles, Biden hasn’t attracted the same kind of enthusiastic support that other candidates have.“It’s Mayor Pete and Cory Booker who are getting most of the attention,” he said.Buttigieg himself drew the contrast between his candidacy and Biden’s during a Marin County event.“Every time we’ve won in our party it’s been with a candidate with new ideas, who hasn’t been on the scene for too long,” Buttigieg said. “That’s what works. Also, Americans are most likely to support the opposite of what’s in the Oval Office.”Among Buttigieg’s donors are Ron Conway, an investor who has guided San Francisco mayors to back tech-friendly policies; Scott Belsky, the chief product officer and executive vice president at Adobe Inc.; Tony Xu, CEO of Doordash Inc.; David Marcus, the head of Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency project and Wendy Schmidt, wife of former Google CEO Eric Schmidt.Buttigieg’s fundraising has been prodigious, but he’s still behind in national polls. He stands at just 5% in the RealClearPolitics national average, compared with 26% for Biden. And that raises pragmatic questions about who can win the Democratic nomination.“Even with his flaws, Biden is the guy who’s probably going to satisfy the moderates,” Holland said.To contact the reporters on this story: Bill Allison in Washington DC at ballison14@bloomberg.net;Jeffrey Taylor in San Francisco at jtaylor184@bloomberg.net;Sophie Alexander in San Francisco at salexander82@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Peter EichenbaumFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

Kim orders South's buildings at resort in North be destroyed

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered the destruction of South Korean-made hotels and other tourist facilities at the North's Diamond Mountain resort, apparently because Seoul won't defy international sanctions and resume South Korean tours at the site. Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency said Wednesday that Kim had visited the resort and described its facilities as "shabby" and lacking national character.

An Air France flight was forced to turn back in midair when staff found an unattended cellphone that wasn't claimed by any of the passengers

Air France flight 136 to Chicago from Paris landed at Ireland's Shannon Airport, where the police scanned a cellphone found on board.

House Democrats’ Campaign Arm Directly Ties Its Moderate Members to Impeachment

A new mailer sent by the Democratic Party’s House campaign arm directly ties some of the party’s most vulnerable members to the impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump, creating the potential for political potholes for those members down the road. The mailer, which was obtained by The Daily Beast, pleads with donors to contribute to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee to help support so called “Frontliner” members who hail from key swing districts.  “House Democrats are courageously standing up for our democracy, our national security, and the Constitution by launching an impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump,” reads the mailer. "As I write to you, every single member of the leadership and a majority of the House have stepped forward for our nation. The courage of these leaders and of our newly elected Frontliners should be an inspiration to all of us. We cannot let them down.” House Democrats Plan an Impeachment BlitzAs far as fundraising solicitations go, the DCCC mailer is not particularly provocative. Indeed, dozens of congressional Democrats have sent similar fundraising appeals based on the impeachment inquiry since Speaker Nancy Pelosi made it official on Sept. 24.But in trying to gin up donations off of the impeachment proceedings, the campaign committee has taken a notable gamble. The frontline members in the party are precisely the ones most publicly skittish about pursuing Trump’s impeachment—arguing, often, that it is a solemn responsibility or even a grave step that is fraught with political risk. That message could be complicated by the fact that the House Democratic campaign arm is now raising money explicitly for them and explicitly off of impeachment. "The survival of our democracy may literally depend on what we do here,” the fundraising solicitation reads. “Please rush your contribution to the DCCC today."The DCCC’s plea, sent directly to potential donors inside a letter that announces “ACTION NEEDED,” reflects a notable shift in how party leadership has approached impeachment. For months, Pelosi and DCCC Chair Cheri Bustos (D-IL) let it be known that they thought pursuit of impeachment was a massive political risk for the party, specifically endangering the gains that Democrats had made with more moderate voters. But polls have shifted in the Democrats’ favor since the impeachment inquiry began. A spokesperson for the DCCC said that “Democrats won back the House because the American people knew they’d work to bring down the cost of health care, fight to invest in the future of America’s economy, and take on corruption in Washington. That includes ensuring no one–not even the Presidentis above the law.”Even DCCC data has suggested that the issue of impeachment is now a toss-up among the public. Whether that data is the same in swing districts is not entirely clear. But what’s notable is that of the many Democrats who have sent impeachment-based fundraising appeals since the inquiry began, several were Frontliners who did not favor impeachment until the anonymous whistleblower’s account of Trump’s phone call with the Ukrainian president became public.Rep. Colin Allred–a Texas Democrat and impeachment holdout who flipped a longtime GOP seat in 2018–sent a fundraising email on Sept. 30: “The President of the United States may think he is above the law–but Colin Allred is holding him accountable!”Others have leaned on attacks from the DCCC’s rival, the National Republican Congressional Committee. “The NRCC is attacking Mikie for calling on Congress to use all of the tools at its disposal–including impeachment hearings–to determine whether President Trump pressured Ukraine to interfere in our elections,” said a Sept. 25 fundraising appeal from Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.), another district-flipping freshman. Democratic fundraising professionals say that the impeachment push—and the Trump conduct at the heart of it—have inspired the party base in a rare way. According to Greg Berlin, founder and partner at Mothership Strategies, a Democratic digital fundraising firm, the first weeks of the impeachment inquiry and the Ukraine story have been one of the most significant non-electoral fundraising and activism moments among Democrats since the president fired former FBI Director James Comey in 2017.“This was so brazen, so out in the open, so obvious, that it really allowed the donors and activists to grab onto it,” he said. “We haven’t seen something with this kind of staying power in a very, very long time.”Indeed, Pelosi’s impeachment announcement—which came at the end of the third fundraising quarter of 2019—helped to fuel a strong fundraising quarter for the DCCC. It raised $27.4 million in Q3—with nearly half of that total coming in the month of September—which the committee says is its strongest third quarter ever in a non-election year. House Democrats head into the final months of 2019 with three times more cash on hand—$36 million—than their GOP counterpart.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.

Tasmanian Tigers Are Extinct, So Why Are Locals Reporting Sightings?

These sightings, if true, would reverse the belief that the carnivore has gone extinct.

Newt Gingrich and Whoopi Goldberg go at it on 'The View' over Trump's 'lynching' comments

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Whoopi Goldberg go toe to toe over Trump’s “lynching” comments on Twitter.

Can Israel Fend off an Iranian Missile or Drone Attack?

How good are their defenses?

Seattle Public Schools Want to Teach Social Justice in Math Class. That Hurts Minorities.

Seattle’s public-school district has proposed a new math curriculum that would teach its students all about how math has been “appropriated” -- and how it “continues to be used to oppress and marginalize people and communities.”A draft of the curriculum, which was covered in an article in Education Week, would teach students how to “explain how math and technology and/or science are connected and how technology and/or science have (sic) been and continues to be used to oppress and marginalize people and communities of color,” as well as to “identify and teach others about mathematicians* of color in their various communities: schools, neighborhoods, places of worship, businesses, etc.”Education Week reports:> If adopted, its ideas will be included in existing math classes as part of the district’s broader effort to infuse ethnic studies into all subjects across the K-12 spectrum. Tracy Castro-Gill, Seattle’s ethnic studies director, said her team hopes to have frameworks completed in all subjects by June for board approval.> > If the frameworks are approved, teachers would be expected to incorporate those ideas and questions into the math they teach beginning next fall, Castro-Gill said. No districtwide—or mandated—math/ethnic studies curriculum is planned, but groups of teachers are working with representatives of local community organizations to write instructional units for teachers to use if they wish, she said.As strange as it may sound, this proposed curriculum is not the first time that someone has argued for teaching math in this way. In fact, in 2017, an online course developed by Teach for America -- titled “Teaching Social Justice Through Secondary Mathematics” -- instructed how to teach their students how “math has been used as a dehumanizing tool.” Also in 2017, a University of Illinois math-education professor detailed what she saw as some of the more racist aspects of math, claiming that “mathematics itself operates as Whiteness.”I wrote columns about both of these stories that year -- and, at the time, most people likely saw them simply as examples of “fringe” beliefs, confined to only super-progressive, ultra-woke circles. With the announcement of this Seattle proposal, however, we can no longer reassure ourselves that this is the case. Now, the social-justice approach to teaching math has officially entered the mainstream (and taxpayer-funded!) arena.This concerns me, and, believe it or not, that’s actually not because I despise “people and communities of color.” In fact, it’s quite the opposite: It’s because this approach to teaching math will only end up harming the very groups it claims it champions. As The American Conservative’s Rod Dreher notes:> The young people who are going to learn real math are those whose parents can afford to put them in private schools. The public school kids of all races are going to get dumber and dumber.Guess what? Minority students are far more likely to attend public school than whites. In fact, according to Private School Review, “[t]he average percent of minority students in private schools is approximately 28 percent.”In other words? The minority students, the members of the very groups that this curriculum presumably aims to aid, are actually going to be learning less math than they would have without it -- because they will be spending some of that class time learning about how math’s racism has hurt them. Ironically, one of the curriculum’s goals is to teach students how to “critique systems of power that deny access to mathematical knowledge to people and communities of color,” and yet, that’s exactly what the district itself would be doing with it.The historical contributions of communities of color are important, and students should study them. A better place to study them, though, would (quite obviously) be a history class, not a mathematics one. Mathematics classes should be for mathematics lessons; this is especially important considering the fact that math is exactly where American students (of all races) struggle compared to students in other countries. In fact, according to a Pew Research study from 2017, American students ranked 38th out of 71 countries in the subject. If we want to fix this, we need to focus more on math, instead of looking for ways to teach less of it in the very classes where our students are supposed to be learning it.The bottom line is: If Seattle’s school district really wants to help minority students excel in mathematics, the last thing it should be doing is proposing a math curriculum that would teach less of it in the schools that they’re most likely to attend.

U.S. Security Bloc to Keep China in ‘Proper Place,’ Pompeo Says

(Bloomberg) -- Terms of Trade is a daily newsletter that untangles a world embroiled in trade wars. Sign up here. U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo has said efforts to revive the Indo-Pacific security grouping known as the Quad will help the Washington contain China’s rise.“We’ve reconvened ‘the Quad’ -- the security talks between Japan, Australia, India and the United States that had been dormant for nine years,” Pompeo said in a speech to the conservative Heritage Foundation research group on Tuesday. “This will prove very important in the efforts ahead, ensuring that China retains only its proper place in the world.”His remarks came in a speech where he also said U.S. President Donald Trump “has changed the global conversation on China” and that Beijing “is a strategic competitor at best that uses coercion and corruption as its tools of statecraft.”The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue involving four democracies is seen as a counter to China’s growing influence in Asia as it spends billions on infrastructure, builds artificial structures in the South China Sea and expands its military power. However, some of the group’s members -- particularly India -- have occasionally tried to downplay the significance of the group to avoid angering Beijing or alienating countries in Southeast Asia.Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has mocked the idea of a unified Indo-Pacific strategy as a “headline-grabbing idea” that will dissipate “like the sea foam in the Pacific or Indian Ocean.”“The four countries’ official position is that it targets no one,” Wang said in March. “I hope they mean what they say and their action will match their rhetoric. Nowadays, stoking a new Cold War is out of sync with the times and inciting bloc confrontation will find no market.”In late September, the talks were upgraded from officials to the ministerial level, with Pompeo meeting the four foreign ministers of the Quad nations, including Australia’s Marise Payne, Japan’s Toshimitsu Motegi and India’s Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.To contact the reporter on this story: Iain Marlow in Hong Kong at imarlow1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Scott at bscott66@bloomberg.net, Daniel Ten Kate, Chris KayFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

US far-right activists get four years in jail for attacking leftists

Two members of a US far-right group were each sentenced to four years in prison on Tuesday for brawling with anti-fascist demonstrators in New York, prosecutors said. The sentencing comes as tensions between white supremacists and leftists simmer in the United States. Maxwell Hare and John Kinsman, members of the Proud Boys group, were found guilty in August by a state court of several counts of attempted assault and rioting.

UPDATE 1-Turkey, Russia strike deal to remove Syrian Kurdish YPG, launch joint patrols

SOCHI, Russia/ANKARA, Oct 22 (Reuters) - Turkey and Russia agreed on Tuesday to remove the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia to beyond 30 km (19 miles) from the Turkish border, after which their troops will jointly patrol a narrower strip of land in a "safe zone" Ankara has long sought in northern Syria. Beginning at noon (0900 GMT) on Wednesday, Russian military police and Syrian border guards will move in to facilitate the removal of YPG members and weapons to beyond the zone in a mission that should take about six days, according to the deal. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov hailed the deal as one that would end the bloodshed in the region, while Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey had no designs on Syrian territory as it continued to push the YPG south.

Son of Pentagon chief works at company that bid for contract

Defense Secretary Mark Esper has removed himself from decision-making on a cloud computing contract potentially worth $10 billion, citing his son's employment with one of the original contract bidders. The Pentagon is in the final stages of determining the winner of the initial $1 million Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, or JEDI, contract, which could be worth as much as $10 billion over 10 years if all options are exercised. Hoffman did not identify Esper's son by name.

President Trump is right to keep administration members from secret tribunals: Rep. Biggs

Speaker Nancy Pelosi should formalize the impeachment inquiry by a vote of the whole House, writes Rep. Andy Biggs, chairman of the Freedom Caucus

Iranian beauty queen pleads for asylum in the Philippines

An Iranian beauty queen is seeking asylum in the Philippines, fearing for her life after Tehran demanded her extradition for a crime she claims she did not commit.  Bahareh Zare Bahari, who represented Iran at the 2018 Miss Intercontinental pageant in Manila, and who has studied dental medicine in the Philippines since 2014, has been held for six days at the country’s Ninoy Aquino airport after Iran slapped an Interpol Red Notice on her for alleged assault.  In a series of messages, the distraught Ms Bahari told the Telegraph that the case was a “big lie,” adding that she believed she was being targeted for her political activism and outspoken support of women’s rights. If she was deported to Iran, “they will kill me,” she said.  Markk Perete, undersecretary at the Philippine department of justice, said that “the only reason she was held at the airport -  and we really don’t call it detention -  it is really restraining her from entering the Philippine territory, is only because of that Red Notice issued against her.” He added that the request had been made “presumably on account of a pending criminal case against her in Iran, and this case was filed by an Iranian national against her in relation to an assault that happened presumably here in the Philippines.” Bahareh Zare Bahari, who is studying dental medicine, is an outspoken advocate for women's rights Credit: Facebook However, Mr Perete said that the Philippines was unaware of this allegation, and that an earlier accusation of commercial fraud against her had been dismissed.  There were no criminal cases pending against Ms Bahari, he confirmed. “We don’t have any cause for refusing her entry for violation of our laws.” Ms Bahari’s asylum plea is now being considered by the justice department, with the help of a lawyer.  Meanwhile, the dental student is confined to Terminal 3’s transit area awaiting her fate. “There is no updating, no information about the reason why [they] keep me here so long,” she said.  She believes her political statement at the pageant - waving a poster of Reza Pahlavi, the exiled former crown prince, and one of the foremost critics of Iran’s Islamic government - made her enemies in Tehran.  Mr Pahlavi's name has been invoked by some Iranian groups who have called for a return of the monarchy to deal with corruption and poor economic conditions. “I used his photo on stage to be [the] voice of my people because all news and media are ignoring my people,” she said.  Human Rights Watch on Tuesday called for “a fair and impartial hearing of her claim” in Manila.  “It’s absolutely critical the Philippines provides Bahareh Zare Bahari with support, including access to legal counsel, to compile and file her asylum application,” said Phil Robertson, HRW deputy Asia director.  “While waiting for the details to become clear, there should be no action under Iran’s Interpol red notice, especially since under Interpol rules a red notice is null and void if the person named in the notice is found to be a refugee fleeing from the state that issued it.”

U.S. Marine Corps Stealth Fighters Get a New Home. A British Aircraft Carrier

A squadron of U.S. Marine Corps F-35B stealth fighters will embark on the Royal Navy’s new aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth in 2021 when the vessel sails on her first operational deployment.

Hong Kong Government Formally Withdraws Extradition Bill That Ignited Protests

Hong Kong's government on Wednesday formally pulled the extradition bill that ignited months of violent pro-democracy protests.“I formally announce the withdrawal of the bill,” Secretary for Security John Lee announced to the Chinese territory's legislature, citing “conflicts in society” as his justification.Hong Kong has been roiled by protests throughout the summer, originally sparked by outrage over the extradition law, which Hong Kong residents say would allow Chinese authorities to effectively “kidnap” them with little evidence of criminality.However, the concern over the law has ballooned into fear that China plans to throw out its “One Country, Two Systems” policy regarding Hong Kong — and the withdrawal of the bill is unlikely to curb the protests.China has vowed a “severe” response to the protests and has accused demonstrators of terrorism.Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam announced last month that the extradition bill would be withdrawn. The protesters have since made several other broader demands including enhanced democracy for Hong Kong, an independent investigation into police conduct, and amnesty for protesters who have been arrested.

More than 100 elephants die in Botswana in suspected anthrax outbreak

More than 100 elephants have died in Botswana in the past two months partly because of a suspected anthrax outbreak, the government said on Tuesday. "Preliminary investigations suggest the elephants are dying from anthrax whilst some died from drought effects," a Department of Wildlife and National Parks statement said. "Due to the severe drought, elephants end up ingesting soil while grazing and get exposed to the anthrax bacteria spore," it said.

Lebanon's Hezbollah under rare street pressure

When mass anti-government protests engulfed Lebanon, a taboo was broken as strongholds of the Shiite Hezbollah movement saw rare demonstrations criticising the party and revered leader Hassan Nasrallah. This shattered the myth of absolute acquiesence among Hezbollah's popular base, baffling even those who hail from the movement's strongholds. "No one ever expected that in any of these areas in south Lebanon we would hear a single word against Nasrallah," or Amal Movement leader Nabih Berri, said Sara, a 32-year-old activist who participated in protests in the southern city of Nabatiyeh.

Trump’s quest for vengeance against John Brennan

President Donald Trump’s obsession with former CIA director John Brennan could be on a collision course with an ongoing Justice Department probe as Attorney General Bill Barr takes a more hands-on approach to examining the intelligence community’s actions in 2016. Barr has been meeting with the U.S.’ closest foreign intelligence allies in recent months, making repeated overseas trips as part of an investigation he is overseeing into the origins of the Russia probe and whether any inappropriate “spying” occurred on Trump’s campaign. As part of that investigation, Barr and John Durham, the federal prosecutor he appointed to conduct it, have been probing a conspiracy theory for which there is little if any evidence, according to several people with knowledge of the matter: that a key player in the Russia probe, a professor named Joseph Mifsud, was actually a Western intelligence asset sent to discredit the Trump campaign — and that the CIA, under Brennan, was somehow involved.

Iraq: U.S. troops crossing border from Syria don't have approval to stay

U.S. forces that crossed into Iraq as part of a withdrawal from Syria do not have permission to stay and can only be there in transit, the Iraqi military said on Tuesday.

Why the F-15X Fighter Could Be Set to Soar

There are not enough F-22s and F-35s to go around.

Taiwan Asks Hong Kong for Return of the Murder Suspect Whose Case Sparked Months of Protests

Chan Tong-kai is set to be released from prison in Hong Kong on Wednesday

TV Reporter Climbs All Over Classic Cars on Live Camera, Gets Fired

The reporter for Good Morning Sacramento sprawled out on a classic Ford T-Bird in the course of reporting.

Canadian Court Rules against Transgender Activist Jessica Yaniv in Fight with Beauticians over Waxing

The British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal has ruled against Canadian transgender activist Jessica Yaniv in a case stemming from a complaint Yaniv filed against multiple female beauticians who refused to wax Yaniv’s male genitalia.“Self-identification does not erase physiological reality,” said Jay Cameron, a lawyer for the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, which represented the beauticians. “Our clients do not offer the service requested. No woman should be compelled to touch male genitals against her will, irrespective of how the owner of the genitals identifies.”The Tribunal said in its decision that Yaniv had had filed the “complaints for improper purposes,” and had contradicted herself in “disingenuous” testimony. Yaniv, who is sexually attracted to women, brought 15 complaints against a number of beauticians in the Vancouver area, seeking as much as $15,000 in damages from each one.“Most of the women who were the target of Yaniv’s complaints work out of their own home, are of immigrant background, and have small children with them in the house during the day,” the Justice Centre’s report said. Yaniv also apparently accused immigrants during the trial of discrimination for refusing service on religious grounds, writing earlier this year on Facebook that “we have a lot of immigrants here who gawk, judge and aren’t the cleanest of people, they’re also verbally and physically abusive, that’s one reason I joined a girl’s gym.”Yaniv is being ordered to pay $2,000 to three of the accused women, one of whom was forced out of business due to the case.In August, Yaniv was arrested for owning a taser, after brandishing it on camera during an interview about Yaniv’s alleged history of predatory behavior toward children. Screen-captured messages allegedly from Yaniv highlighted intimate questions to underage girls, and legal documents showed an attempt to organize a topless pool party for such girls.

Making do with less: Mexican media bruised by president's austerity

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador took office in December promising to reduce public spending to free up more resources for the poor. Between January and August, Lopez Obrador's government spent 88 million pesos ($4.6 million) on advertising, just 3.6% of the sum spent in the same months of 2018 by his predecessor Enrique Pena Nieto, Public Administration Ministry (SFP) data show. The reduction in government publicity, which had accounted for 10% or more of advertising revenue for many outlets, has sparked layoffs and the suspension of projects in an industry still suffering disruption from the shift to the internet.

A Tenn. county official called Pete Buttigieg a slur. It sparked calls to boycott Dollywood

Following his remark, Commissioner Warren Hurst went on to say, “I’m not prejudice, but by golly a white male in this country has very few rights."

Indian troops kill 3 senior Kashmiri militants

Indian forces have killed a top militant commander and his two associates in a counterinsurgency operation in Indian-controlled Kashmir, police said Wednesday. Hamid Lelhari and his associates were killed Tuesday evening in a gunfight that erupted after Indian security forces launched a counterinsurgency operation in southern Awantipora area, said Dilbagh Singh, chief of police in Indian-controlled Kashmir. Police say Lelhari became the operations chief of Ansar Ghawzat-ul-Hind, an affiliate of the al-Qaida militant group, after Indian troops killed a top militant, Zakir Musa, last year.

Trump is said to believe that the Democrats will never impeach him, despite his aides' desperate attempts to get him to prepare for it

President Donald Trump seems to think a Democratic impeachment inquiry may not pose a threat — a view some around him consider dangerously complacent.

Southern Niger reels after Nigeria closes borders

Dan Issa (Niger) (AFP) - "Nothing crosses into Nigeria and nothing comes out. It's hermetically sealed," said Amadou Idi, sitting in a makeshift shelter to keep out of the rain, and reflecting on the downturn in his luck. Idi's job is a transiting agent -- to get goods across the border to Nigeria at the Dan Issa frontier post in southeastern Niger.

America's Allies Are Thinking Through How To Make the F-35 Even Deadlier

More airfields to operate from?

Hong Kong Police Already Have AI Tech That Can Recognize Faces

(Bloomberg) -- Hong Kong law enforcement authorities have access to artificial intelligence software that can match faces from any video footage to police databases, but it’s unclear if it’s being used to quell months-long pro-democracy protests, according to people familiar with the matter.Police have been able to use the technology from Sydney-based iOmniscient for at least three years, and engineers from the company have trained dozens of officers on how to use it, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information isn’t public. The software can scan footage including from closed-circuit television to automatically match faces and license plates to a police database and pick out suspects in a crowd.In addition to tracking criminals, iOminiscient’s artificial intelligence can be used for everything from finding lost children to managing traffic. In one training session that took place after the protests began in June, the people said, officers asked how to automatically identify license plate numbers using dashboard cameras.Questions over the use of facial recognition technology have loomed over the protests, stoking fears that Hong Kong is moving closer to a mainland-style surveillance state. Demonstrators have worn masks, destroyed CCTV cameras, torn down so-called smart lampposts and used umbrellas to hide acts of vandalism. Authorities in turn used an emergency law this month for the first time in more than half a century to ban face masks, a move that triggered increased violence.“Hong Kong people are afraid of being captured by the CCTV cameras,” said Bonnie Leung, a district councilor and a former leader of the Civil Human Rights Front, which has organized some of the biggest protests in the past few months. “Why are people still wearing face masks? Because of the police surveillance.”While Hong Kong’s government has disclosed some ways it uses facial recognition technology, Chief Executive Carrie Lam’s administration and the police haven’t publicly confirmed whether they are using it to monitor the protests. Patrick Nip, secretary for constitutional and mainland affairs, said in June that no government department had procured or developed automated facial recognition-CCTV systems or applied the technology in CCTV systems.Nip’s office referred all questions on facial recognition technology to the police, which didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment.iOmniscient declined to comment on whether Hong Kong’s police use its facial recognition technology. The company said that its technology also has the capability to keep identities anonymous for such uses as crowd control. Its systems are used in more than 50 countries and only a small portion of overall revenue comes from Hong Kong, where business opportunities are relatively limited given privacy concerns and fewer cameras compared with other cities, according to the firm.Under Hong Kong’s privacy laws, which are more stringent than the mainland, members of the public must be informed if they’re subject to surveillance. If authorities are matching faces or names to identity markers, that would fall under the privacy ordinance, according to Stuart Hargreaves, a law professor at Chinese University of Hong Kong who researches surveillance and privacy issues. However, police can claim an exemption if the data is being used to detect or prevent crime.“Is the ‘facial recognition’ simply the police combing through video footage for ‘known individuals,’ or is there some kind of automated AI system at play?” Hargreaves said. “The truth is we simply do not know.”The world’s five most-watched cities are all in China, with the top city of Chongqing having about 168 cameras per 1,000 people, according to estimates by Comparitech. By comparison, Hong Kong’s 50,000 CCTVs are one-tenth the number in London and not enough to put it in the top 20 most-watched cities.Hong Kong authorities have tried to appease concerns by pointing out that there is no in-built facial recognition in recently installed smart lampposts or in CCTV cameras at China government offices. Still, the technology has been used in the city for more than a decade, including at the airport and Shenzhen border for immigration control.Next year a new electronic identity system is scheduled to come into effect in which as many as 100 public services will make use of biometric authentication, including facial recognition, eye scans, and finger and voice prints. A unit of Ping An Insurance Group Co., whose shareholders include the Shenzhen government, is responsible for the design, implementation and support of the core system, as well as facial recognition and imaging processing, according to a government statement in April.Some Chinese companies recently blacklisted by the U.S. over human rights concerns in the far west region of Xinjiang have their tech in Hong Kong. Face scan technology from AI startup Yitu Technology will be among the options that staff can choose to access the headquarters of the government’s electrical and mechanical services department, according to a June statement on the three-month trial project. Yitu didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co. cameras with facial recognition capabilities are installed outside of buildings including the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, though the facial recognition function hasn’t been turned on, according to responses from government agencies to lawmaker Charles Mok. The department told him it sent footage from its cameras to police seven times since the protests began.“The whole thing is: do you trust the government with your data?” said Mok, who has been in the information technology industry for more than 20 years. “That’s the problem, if there’s a whole breakdown of trust.”A Hikvision spokesperson said its products are sold through third parties, so it cannot confirm camera locations or whether a specific function is turned on. The group opposes the U.S. sanctions and is working to address concerns, recently retaining former U.S. Ambassador Pierre-Richard Prosper to advise on human rights and compliance.On Hong Kong’s streets, riot police have sought to avoid the cameras even while arresting more than 2,000 protesters, including nearly 100 people for violating the mask ban. They’ve used flashlights to disrupt media coverage, and some officers removed ID numbers and donned masks to hide their identities for fear that they could become victims of personal attacks online, known as doxxing. Apple Inc. recently pulled a live mapping app used by protesters to track some police deployments including of water cannons.Hong Kong protesters have continued distributing masks at rallies, telling demonstrators to take one “if you aren’t feeling well” to take advantage of exemptions in the law.At least one Hong Kong company, TickTack Technology, pulled out of the smart lamppost program after protesters tore one down and found a Bluetooth Beacon the company used to signal its location to devices including smartphones. Demonstrators then doxxed some of the group’s founders.“We prefer to be low-profile till things cool down,” a TickTack spokesman said by email.Hong Kong’s Innovation and Technology Bureau said in a statement that it “deeply regrets” that a local enterprise was cowed into stopping the supply of its technology, calling it a “serious blow” to local innovation. The government has denied that the lampposts have facial recognition capabilities.Hong Kong’s colleges are also involved in facial recognition. Tang Xiaoou, a professor at Chinese University of Hong Kong’s Department of Information Engineering, is a founder of SenseTime, the world’s most valuable artificial intelligence startup.The developer of facial recognition was among eight Chinese companies blacklisted by the U.S. over Xinjiang, where the Chinese government has implemented a massive program of surveillance and re-education camps to monitor the local mostly Muslim population. The company said it sees its technology as a “global force for good” and is disappointed with the U.S. sanctions, and will work to address any concerns.Sensetime said its focus in the city is on education and it does not have any contracts with the Hong Kong government. The group published Hong Kong’s first textbook on artificial intelligence for secondary schools.Banks including HSBC Holdings Plc allow clients to open accounts with selfies under guidelines of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, which is also considering allowing face scans for ATMs. Customs guidelines allow firms to use face scans for security.The current protests may dampen enthusiasm for greater use of facial recognition. As demonstrations have become more violent and intense over the weeks, the number of masks has grown -- including, more recently, those of Chinese President Xi Jinping and the Guy Fawkes mask associated with the Anonymous movement.“The government is just trying to take away our rights,” Angus, a 22-year-old student wearing a surgical mask and black clothes, said on the day Lam announced the ban. “They’re just the tool of the Chinese government. We don’t want to be China.”(Updates with Hikvision comment.)To contact the reporter on this story: Blake Schmidt in Hong Kong at bschmidt16@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Daniel Ten Kate at dtenkate@bloomberg.net, Adam Majendie, Chris KayFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

Trump 'like a squirrel caught in traffic' during Pentagon meeting: Aide

In President Trump's first full briefing at the Defense Department, he requested a grand "Victory Day" parade with "vehicles and tanks on Main Street" and down Pennsylvania Avenue, like the "amazing" parade he'd just witnessed in France, Guy Snodgrass, a top aide to then-Defense Secretary James Mattis, recounts in his new book, "Holding the Line." "The Fourth of July is too hot," Trump added.

The Crisis of Catholic Leadership

In the last 48 hours there have been two big Vatican stories. First, revelations about the Holy See’s financial crisis; second, and more bizarrely, a furious dispute over statues being thrown into the Tiber. But really it’s all one story, the big story of contemporary Catholicism: a disastrous failure of leadership at the top of the Church.Vatican finances may not usually be a subject to set the pulse racing, but the last month has been dramatic: Vatican police raided offices and confiscated computers, after finding — to quote a leaked search decree — “serious indications of embezzlement, fraud, abuse of office, money-laundering, and self-laundering.” Other leaks suggested that as much as $560 million of Catholics’ donations to the Vatican were invested in speculative deals that Vatican investigators described as “reckless.” The pattern, even at this early stage of the inquiry, is familiar: The faithful have trusted a leadership class that has done little to deserve their trust.Indeed, donations are already falling — partly because of the abuse crisis, where once again the Vatican has been less than transparent. In 2017 it emerged that Pope Francis had reduced sanctions against some abusers. Then last year, the Vatican’s former ambassador to the U.S. made a set of spectacular accusations, claiming there had been a concerted effort, featuring many senior figures up to and including the pope, to protect Cardinal Theodore McCarrick from numerous allegations of abuse. A letter from the Catholic Women’s Forum, bearing almost 50,000 signatures, asked for a Vatican response to the ambassador’s claims. None came.Silence and confusion have recently become Vatican trademarks, not least where doctrinal questions are concerned. For instance, an ambiguous papal document was used to claim that the Church now blesses divorce and remarriage; instead of clarifying that the Church could never do so, the Vatican allowed the confusion to grow, and when the pope did speak, he piled ambiguity on ambiguity.Something similar happened with the female statues that ended up in the Tiber. On October 4, versions of these statues were used during a ceremony in the Vatican gardens to mark the start of a synod (meeting of bishops) on the Amazon region. As the pope looked on, the participants knelt and bowed before the statues. Cue two weeks of debate. Were they, as critics suggested, offering a kind of pagan worship to Mother Earth — or were they, as the statues’ defenders argued, paying an Amazon-flavored homage to the Virgin Mary? Only the Vatican could have given a full answer. But there was no explanation before or during the ceremony; when journalists requested one, they got a series of contradictory, sometimes maddeningly vague, answers. Meanwhile, versions of the statues have been paraded through St Peter’s Basilica, prominently displayed in the synod hall, and exhibited in a well-known Roman church — from which, in the early hours of yesterday morning, they were removed and hurled into the river. Things only reached this stage because the Vatican, in response to the sincere anxiety of many Catholics, refused to clarify what was going on.But the Vatican isn’t always characterized by silence and inaction. Much of the time there is a frenzy for change, the ecclesiastical equivalent of a midlife crisis in which a man abandons his family, leaves the country, and tries to reinvent his personality from scratch. Out goes the Vatican’s cautious diplomacy and witness to human dignity; in comes an inexplicable desire to flatter Chinese dictator Xi Jinping, with one senior official declaring that “right now, those who are best implementing the social doctrine of the Church are the Chinese.” (Not a word on the Chinese government’s Uyghur internment camps.) Distinguished cardinals are removed without explanation, while newcomers are rapidly promoted only to fall from grace for offenses such as plagiarism and photo-doctoring. One of Rome’s great theological schools, the John Paul II Institute, is gutted and the faculty replaced with fresh faces, some of whom are best-known for attacking Catholic doctrine.And now, at the Amazon synod, there is another push for “reform,” inspired by radical theologians such as Bishop Fritz Lobinger. Under Lobinger’s scheme, outlined in a 1998 book, Catholics will no longer be chiefly served by seminary-trained priests; instead, every parish will be crowded with part-time clergy. “The word ‘priest’ will be nothing special,” Lobinger fantasized, “because there will be so many priests — the bus-driver, the bank-teller, the postmaster, the butcher.” For Lobinger and his ilk, women priests are a good idea, but the main thing is to reconstruct the priesthood and the sacraments. Figures such as Bishop Erwin Kräutler — a Lobinger fan, and an outspoken critic of Church teaching — are highly influential at the synod and propose, as a first step toward more revolutionary changes, the ordination of married men. If the synod does suggest such a move, it would be another episode that would test the loyalty of Catholics.Saint Robert Bellarmine, one of the giants of Catholic theology, observed that Catholics might end up having to “resist” a pope. Nobody, Bellarmine wrote, can “judge, punish, or depose” the pontiff: Catholics must acknowledge him as their lawful superior. But it may, in extraordinary circumstances, be right “to resist him, by . . . hindering the execution of his will.” Bellarmine was speaking theoretically. But for many Catholics, it is becoming a very practical distinction.

For Syrian Kurds, a leader's killing deepens sense of U.S. betrayal

Kurdish politician Hevrin Khalaf spent the final months of her life building a political party that she hoped would help shape Syria's future, drawing the attention of U.S. officials who said it would have a say in what happened once the war ended. To her colleagues in the Future Syria Party and Kurdish communities in Syria's northeast more broadly, her killing became a symbol of betrayal by the United States. As recently as Oct. 3, State Department officials reassured her at a meeting that Washington would safeguard northern Syria from a threatened Turkish assault by mediating between Kurdish-led forces and Ankara, according to a colleague who was present.

Blackout Round 2? Californians brace for possible outage

Hundreds of thousands of California residents braced for another possible power outage as the state's two largest utilities warned that a return of dangerous fire weather could prompt shut-offs across the state. The warning from Pacific Gas & Electric about a possible blackout Wednesday in Northern California prompted a feeling of resignation among residents and business owners and renewed rushes to stock up on emergency supplies. "I think it's not panic per se, just 'Eh, we gotta do this AGAIN?'" said Kim Schefer, manager of Village True Value Hardware in Santa Rosa.

Top Ukraine diplomat says Trump did use military aid to secure Biden investigation

America’s top Ukraine diplomat has testified that Donald Trump made the release of military aid to the country conditional on investigations into the Bidens and the 2016 election being announced, contradicting White House denials.  William Taylor told the impeachment inquiry that he was informed Mr Trump wanted the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy to personally announce the investigations, because such a statement would put him in a “public box”.  The explosive testimony, which was delivered in a 15-page opening statement, directly challenges Mr Trump’s claim that he made no “quid pro quo” in holding back the aid to secure probes that were politically helpful.  Elsewhere Mr Taylor laid out the deep disquiet he and other US officials felt at Mr Trump’s decision to hold back almost $400 million in military assistance to Ukraine for more than a month as he pushed for the investigations.    Mr Taylor said he “sat in astonishment” upon hearing that no more spending on military assistance was going to be approved, noting later that “more Ukrainians would undoubtedly die without the US assistance.” He also claimed that four US cabinet members – the defence secretary, secretary of state, CIA director and national security adviser – all tried to see Mr Trump to convince him to stop holding back the aid, but found the meeting was “hard to schedule”.  Donald Trump has denied there was a 'quid pro quo' between sending Ukraine military aid and securing politically helpful investigations  Credit: Brendan Smialowski / AFP The testimony, delivered behind closed doors to congressional committees leading the impeachment inquiry, was jumped on by Democrats, who called it a “sea change” in their investigation, which could lead to a vote on Mr Trump’s removal from office. His opening statement was obtained by various US media outlets.  At the heart of the impeachment inquiry is a claim that Mr Trump pressured the Ukrainian president to launch an investigation into Joe Biden, the Democrat who he could face at the 2020 election, and his son Hunter Biden, who once worked for a Ukrainian gas company.  Mr Trump is accused of holding back US military aide to Ukraine, a country gripped in civil war against Russian-backed forces, to secure an investigation into Burisma – the company that hired Hunter Biden – as well as Ukraine’s alleged meddling in the 2016 election.   The president has always denied there was a “quid pro quo”, in other words that there was no agreement that aid would flow only once the investigations were announced.  However the testimony of Mr Taylor, who served as US ambassador to Ukraine between 2006 and 2009 and came back to serve in an interim basis as ‘charge d'affaires’ in the Ukraine embassy in July, provided a detailed rebuttal to that claim.  The most eye-catching part of his opening statement came when he described conversations with Gordon Sondland, the US ambassador to the EU who was familiar with Mr Trump’s thinking.  Process of impeachment Mr Sondland, a one-time Trump donor turned diplomat, was part of an “irregular” channel for Ukraine policy that also involved Rudy Giuliani, Mr Trump’s lawyer, and other US officials, according to Mr Taylor.  Mr Taylor described learning that Mr Trump could be linking the release of military aid to the announcement of investigations into Burisma - the company that employed Hunter Biden - and Ukraine's 2016 election involvement. He then reached out to Mr Sondland for guidance.  “Ambassador Sondland said that ‘everything’ was dependent on such an announcement, including security assistance,” Mr Taylor said, recounting a phone call in early September.  “He said that President Trump wanted President Zelenskiy ‘in a public box’ by making a public statement about ordering such investigations.” Mr Taylor also recounted another phone call  later in the month with Mr Sondland. In the call he said that Mr Sondland noted that Mr Trump said there was not a “quid pro quo”.  Joe Biden and his son Hunter at a basketball game together in 2010 Credit: AP Photo/Nick Wass However Mr Sondland also said that Mr Trump wanted the Ukrainian president to “clear things up” or there would be a “stalemate”, according to Mr Taylor. Mr Taylor added that he took the word stalemate to mean that the military assistance would not be handed over.  At one point, Mr Taylor said that Mr Sondland defended the US president's  behaviour by citing his business past. “When a businessman is about to sign a check to someone who owes him something, he said, the businessman asks that person to pay up before signing the check,” Mr Taylor said, describing Mr Sondland's comments.  Mr Taylor was also critical of the role Rudy Giuliani, Mr Trump’s personal attorney, played. He said there was an “irregular” Ukraine policy-making channel that involved Mr Giuliani which “undercut” official US foreign policy.  Last week, Mr Sondland pushed back on claims that he had been a central figure in securing investigations into the Bidens when he gave testimony to the inquiry  He said then: “I recall no discussions with any State Department or White House official about Former Vice President Biden or his son, nor do I recall taking part in any effort to encourage an investigation into the Bidens.”  Mr Sondland is not known to have commented on Mr Taylor's testimony. Democrats said he may be asked to return for further questioning.  The White House and Mr Trump are yet to respond to Mr Taylor's testimony.

Driver dies days after pickup collided with small plane

Patrick J. Schounard died from injuries he suffered when a single-engine aircraft attempting to land collided with his pickup truck in Wisconsin.

Here's What We Know About the Air Force's New B-21 Stealth Bomber

An excellent plane.

Quantum leap in computing as Google claims 'supremacy'

Scientists claimed Wednesday to have achieved a near-mythical state of computing in which a new generation of machine vastly outperforms the world's fastest super-computer, known as "quantum supremacy". A team of experts working on Google's Sycamore machine said their quantum system had executed a calculation in 200 seconds that would have taken a classic computer 10,000 years to complete. This property, known as superposition, means a quantum computer, made up of several qubits, can crunch an enormous number of potential outcomes simultaneously.

Classic Car Fraud Lands Missouri Man In Federal Prison

As the classic car market continues to grow, scams like this are probably only going get worse. A Kansas City, Missouri man was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for one count of wire fraud and one count of transporting a stolen vehicle following a classic car scheme. According to a release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Western District of Missouri, Travis D. Oberg, 51, was fraudulently selling cars that didn't belong to him, and in the end, he ended up stealing $145,000 from his victims.Oberg had set up an LLC called Maaco Sales and Reconditioning using the name of the nationwide paint repair company to trick his customers. A victim from Connecticut was scammed out of $53,000 after Oberg "sold" him a 1973 BMW, 1988 Mercedes-Benz 560SL, 1985 Porsche 911 Carrera Coupe and a 1967 Jaguar XKE 2+2 Coupe (like the one shown above), and he later "sold" the same Jaguar and Porsche to a California man for $37,000.Another victim trusted Oberg with his 1957 Ford Thunderbird to restore and consign but instead he just sold it outright and kept the $12,500 from the sale. Sadly, this wasn't his first time running this scam. Oberg had been previously sentenced to federal prison for the same type of crime only before he had defrauded his customers of over $900,000.Here are three easy tips to avoid encountering the same: * Pay with credit card if possible \- This is generally the safest way to pay due to the fact that you can always dispute fraudulent charges, but, of course, this isn't always possible. * Hire a reputable vehicle inspector \- Spending a couple hundred dollars up front is better than getting scammed out of tens of thousands of dollars * Do your research \- If a deal is too good to be true (1973 BMW, 1988 Mercedes-Benz 560SL, 1985 Porsche 911 Carrera Coupe and a 1967 Jaguar XKE 2+2 Coupe for $53,000, for example), then it probably is. Also, do a quick search of the person/company you're dealing with. A Google search of Oberg's name comes up with claims of fraudulent activity dating back almost a decade Related Articles... * Custom SUVs Built For Auction Stolen From Kids Cancer Charity * U.S. Marshals Auctioning Off 149 Vehicles From DC Solar Scam

Charges: Church shooting suspect badly beats public defender

A man charged with attempted murder in a church shooting attacked his public defender during a jailhouse meeting, sending the man to intensive care with severe head injuries and no memory of the beating, according to documents released Tuesday. Dale Holloway, 37, of Manchester, assaulted public defender Michael Davidow on Monday morning at the Valley Street jail in Manchester, New Hampshire, the documents said. In this case, the officer heard a knock and turned to see Holloway standing up and Davidow seated at the table, with his hands over his face and blood dripping onto the floor.

A top Marine Corps scout sniper managed to sneak up on his enemy completely naked except for a pair of boots

The nude sniper proved that to truly disappear you don't need clothes, just that you fully embrace the "weirdest thing in the world."

China plans to replace Hong Kong leader Lam with 'interim' chief executive: FT

Lam has become a lightning rod for protests over fears that Beijing is tightening its grip, limiting the freedoms enjoyed under the "one country, two systems" principle enshrined when colonial ruler Britain handed Hong Kong back to China in 1997. Sources told the FT that officials in China want the situation in Hong Kong to stabilise before making a final decision, as they do not want to be seen to be giving in to violence. The leading candidates to succeed Lam include Norman Chan, the former head of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, and Henry Tang, who has also served as the territory's financial secretary and chief secretary for administration, the report said.