Tucker Carlson and Guest Blame Diversity and ‘Woke’ Culture for California Fires

Fox NewsFox News host Tucker Carlson and his guest, conservative YouTube personality Dave Rubin, both insisted Tuesday night that the wildfires burning across California are due largely to progressive ideology, “woke” culture, and diversity in hiring.During Tuesday’s broadcast of Tucker Carlson Tonight, Carlson welcomed on Rubin, a political commentator and podcaster, to discuss the issues surrounding the large fires engulfing the state, including those related to the electrical grid and firefighting methods.“PG&E; strikes me as almost a metaphor for the destruction of the state,” Carlson said about the state’s power company. “Here’s the utility which doesn’t really know anything about its own infrastructure but knows everything about the race of its employees. How did we get there?”After noting that he lives near one of the fires in the Los Angeles area, Rubin immediately took aim at liberal politics as the main reason the wildfires have grown so large and dangerous.“The problem right now is that everything, EVERYTHING, from academia to public utilities to politics, everything that goes woke, that buys into this ridiculous progressive ideology that cares about what contractors are LGBT or how many black firemen we have or white this or Asian that, everything that goes that road eventually breaks down,” he declared.As Carlson nodded and said “that’s true,” Rubin continued, complaining that this isn’t how “freedom is supposed to operate.”“What is supposed to happen—imagine if your house was on fire,” he added. “Would you care what the public utility or what the fire company, what contractor they brought in, what gender or sexuality or any of those things he or she was? It’s just absolutely ridiculous.”The Fox News host continued to agree with Rubin, who went on to tie PG&E;’s preemptive blackouts to a lack of “libertarian or conservative-minded people in California to fight what the progressives are doing to the state.”“If you can’t keep the lights on and you can’t keep the place from burning down, you’ve reached the point where there is no kind of lying about it anymore,” Carlson concluded. “It’s falling apart. It’s a disaster. It’s not civilized anymore.”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.

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Troops, armored vehicles enter Syria to protect oil fields from ISIS

The Pentagon moved troops and armored vehicles into Syria Thursday to protect oil fields from exploitation by ISIS.

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Fire sweeps Pakistani train, killing 73, after cooking fire

A fire swept through a Pakistani train on Thursday, killing 73 people and injuring nearly 40 after a gas canister that passengers were using to cook breakfast exploded, the minister of railways said. The fire destroyed three of the train's carriages near the town of Rahim Yar Khan in the south of Punjab province. It was the worst disaster on Pakistan's accident-plagued railway system in nearly 15 years.

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Anthony Scaramucci and Steve Bullock trade jabs over prank endorsement

Anthony Scaramucci, President Donald Trump’s former, short-lived White House communications director-turned-detractor, saw his fame exploited Thursday in a campaign stunt by a Democratic presidential candidate. The stunt unfolded on Twitter when Steve Bullock — Montana’s governor and a long-shot candidate who’s failed to qualify for all but one Democratic primary debate this year — posted a video recorded by “The Mooch” for the celebrity-shout-out site Cameo in which he appears to endorse Bullock’s campaign. “We support you, Steve B. I know you got a tough race ahead of you, but you’ve done this before,” Scaramucci says in the 19-second clip filmed from inside a moving car.

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Full coverage: House passes impeachment resolution

The House on Thursday voted to pass a historic resolution establishing formal procedures for the ongoing impeachment inquiry into President Trump. The 232-196 vote fell almost exclusively along party lines, with two moderate Democrats voting no.

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The Latest: Man accused of arson in California wildfire

Authorities say a man was arrested and accused of arson after a crew responded to a report of a wildfire in Northern California. A CalFire statement said engine crews were able to quickly contain the small fire in the Sonoma County community of Geyserville and identified a potential suspect. Authorities reported progress Wednesday in battling the Kincade fire in Sonoma County that started last week outside of Geyserville and forced the evacuation of the entire community, home to about 900 people.

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UPDATE 2-American Airlines flight attendants stand up to Boeing CEO on 737 MAX

American Airlines' flight attendants union still has safety concerns about the Boeing 737 MAX and is demanding an active role in the relaunch of the grounded aircraft, its president told Boeing Co's chief executive in a letter seen by Reuters. "The 28,000 flight attendants working for American Airlines refuse to walk onto a plane that may not be safe and are calling for the highest possible safety standards to avoid another tragedy," Association of Professional Flight Attendants President Lori Bassani said in the letter.

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Police say body of British tourist missing in Cambodia found

The body of a British backpacker missing for more than a week in Cambodia was found at sea Thursday about 60 miles (100 kilometers) from the island where she disappeared, officials said. The police chief for Preah Sihanouk province, Maj. Gen. Chuon Narin, said the body of 21-year-old Amelia Bambridge was discovered in the Gulf of Thailand northwest of Koh Rong, where she disappeared after attending a beach party on the night of Oct. 23. It was found near another island, Koh Chhlam, close to Cambodia's maritime border with Thailand.

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'Very sloppy': Rudy Giuliani, Trump's cybersecurity adviser, went to an Apple store to get his iPhone unlocked

Cybersecurity experts told NBC that Giuliani going to a third-party location for technical help violated basic security protocols.

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Israel rearrests Palestinian MP, daughter says

Israeli forces on Thursday rearrested a Palestinian lawmaker who was freed in February after being held without trial for 20 months over links to an outlawed leftist group, her daughter said. "My mother Khalida Jarrar was arrested from our house in Ramallah" at about 3:00 am (0100 GMT), Jarrar's daughter Yafa posted on Facebook. Spokespeople for Israel's Shin Bet security service, which generally directs such arrests, could not immediately be reached for comment.

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A California couple who was forced to evacuate their home and winery share what it's really like to endure the wildfires engulfing the state

California's Sonoma wine country dealt with destructive wildfires in 2017. Here's how one winery is dealing with 2019's Kincade Fire.

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House Democrats are just trying to invalidate the 2016 election of President Donald Trump

Speaker Nancy Pelosi is subverting rule of law, write former acting U.S. Attorney General Matt Whitaker and Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry.

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New Threats Put Wildfire Fighters’ Health on the Line

By BY JULIE TURKEWITZ from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/34hJr8d

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Brazil wildfires: Blaze advances across Pantanal wetlands

The area is one of the most biodiverse regions in the world, and a popular tourist destination.

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Islamic State vows revenge against U.S. for Baghdadi killing

Islamic State confirmed on Thursday that its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed in a weekend raid by U.S. special forces in northwestern Syria, and vowed revenge against the United States. The Iraqi rose from obscurity to lead the ultra-hardline group and declare himself "caliph" of all Muslims, holding sway over huge areas of Iraq and Syria from 2014-2017 before Islamic State's control disintegrated under U.S.-led attacks. The group confirmed his death in an audio tape posted online and said a successor, identified as Abu Ibrahim al-Hashemi al-Quraishi, had been appointed.

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2 women have been criminally charged over their partners' suicides. Why do men escape the same blame?

Experts told Insider they could not recall a similar instance of a man being charged with manslaughter in connection with his partner's suicide.

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Graphic: Examining the weapons and tactics used by police and protesters in Hong Kong

As the showdown between police and protesters in Hong Kong has intensified, officers have used increasing force, deploying an arsenal of crowd-control weapons, including tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets, sponge grenades and bean bag rounds. Protesters have also stepped up their actions, hurling petrol bombs, vandalizing mainland Chinese banks and businesses believed to be pro-Beijing, throwing bricks at police stations and battling officers in the streets, sometimes with metal bars. Reuters scrutinized hundreds of images of the protests, as well as dozens of police reports and video footage, and combined this research with reporting on the ground to document the weapons used by the police and protesters, and how the violence has increased from day to day.

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How The B-1 Lancer Went From A Nuclear Bomber To an ISIS Killer

Priorities and capabilities change with time.

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Putin faces Syria money crunch after U.S. keeps control of oil fields

Russian President Vladimir Putin is facing an unwelcome new financial challenge in Syria after the U.S. pullback enabled his ally Bashar Assad to reclaim the biggest chunk of territory in the country still outside his control.

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What Fiat Chrysler and PSA Peugeot Citroën Merger Will Mean for U.S. Car Buyers

Now that FCA and PSA confirm they're doing a 50/50 merger, we're more likely to see technology being shared than cars being added to the U.S. market.

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These Salvador Dali–Painted Tarot Cards Are as Spooky as You’d Imagine

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Trump impeachment: Official says she was repeatedly urged to oust Ukraine ambassador by Republican lobbyist

A US government official has reportedly told politicians leading the impeachment hearings against Donald Trump that she was urged by a Republican-linked lobbyist to remove the US ambassador to Ukraine from her post, as the president's allies launched a smear campaign against her.Catherine Croft, a Ukraine expert who worked at the US State Department, said she was repeatedly contacted by lobbyist Robert Livingston about ousting Marie Yovanovitch, according to prepared remarks obtained by NPR.

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Al-Baghdadi paid rival for protection but was betrayed by his own

Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was able to hide out in an unlikely part of Syria, the base of a rival group, because he was paying protection money to its members, according to receipts for the payments recovered by researchers. But he was ultimately betrayed by a close confidant, leading to his death in a raid by U.S. Special Operations forces last weekend.

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Michelle Obama: White Americans 'still running' from black neighbors

Michelle Obama said that white Americans are “still running” from their nonwhite fellow citizens during a summit in which she detailed how her own experience of white flight unfolded during her upbringing on Chicago’s South Side.

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China pushes higher 'moral quality' for its citizens

From budgeting for rural weddings to dressing appropriately and avoiding online porn, China's Communist Party has issued new guidelines to improve the "moral quality" of its citizens. Officials have released several sets of guidelines this week alongside a secretive conclave of high-ranking officials in Beijing which discusses the country's future direction. Public institutions like libraries and youth centres must carry out "targeted moral education" to improve people's ideological awareness and moral standards, according to the rules.

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Tucker Carlson and Guest Blame Diversity and ‘Woke’ Culture for California Fires

Fox NewsFox News host Tucker Carlson and his guest, conservative YouTube personality Dave Rubin, both insisted Tuesday night that the wildfires burning across California are due largely to progressive ideology, “woke” culture, and diversity in hiring.During Tuesday’s broadcast of Tucker Carlson Tonight, Carlson welcomed on Rubin, a political commentator and podcaster, to discuss the issues surrounding the large fires engulfing the state, including those related to the electrical grid and firefighting methods.“PG&E; strikes me as almost a metaphor for the destruction of the state,” Carlson said about the state’s power company. “Here’s the utility which doesn’t really know anything about its own infrastructure but knows everything about the race of its employees. How did we get there?”After noting that he lives near one of the fires in the Los Angeles area, Rubin immediately took aim at liberal politics as the main reason the wildfires have grown so large and dangerous.“The problem right now is that everything, EVERYTHING, from academia to public utilities to politics, everything that goes woke, that buys into this ridiculous progressive ideology that cares about what contractors are LGBT or how many black firemen we have or white this or Asian that, everything that goes that road eventually breaks down,” he declared.As Carlson nodded and said “that’s true,” Rubin continued, complaining that this isn’t how “freedom is supposed to operate.”“What is supposed to happen—imagine if your house was on fire,” he added. “Would you care what the public utility or what the fire company, what contractor they brought in, what gender or sexuality or any of those things he or she was? It’s just absolutely ridiculous.”The Fox News host continued to agree with Rubin, who went on to tie PG&E;’s preemptive blackouts to a lack of “libertarian or conservative-minded people in California to fight what the progressives are doing to the state.”“If you can’t keep the lights on and you can’t keep the place from burning down, you’ve reached the point where there is no kind of lying about it anymore,” Carlson concluded. “It’s falling apart. It’s a disaster. It’s not civilized anymore.”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.

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White House blocked effort to condemn Russia for seizing Ukraine ships, Congress told

State department aide makes revelation in testimony, while Russia envoy nominee John Sullivan grilled at confirmation hearingDonald Trump with Vladimir Putin at the G20 summit in Osaka in June this year. Trump voiced concern over the 2018 capture but did not blame Moscow. Photograph: Mikhail Klimentyev/TassThe White House blocked the US state department from issuing a statement condemning Russia for seizing Ukrainian military vessels, according to a state department official, in the latest example of the strain the Trump administration is under in pursuing conflicting policies towards the two countries.The revelation on Wednesday came from Christopher Anderson, who was a senior aide to the special envoy on Ukraine, Kurt Volker, in November 2018, when Russia fired on and captured three Ukrainian vessels in the Sea of Azov off the Crimean peninsula.“While my colleagues at the state department quickly prepared a statement condemning Russia for its escalation, senior officials in the White House blocked it from being issued,” Anderson said in his prepared remarks to congressional committees holding impeachment hearings. “Ambassador Volker drafted a tweet condemning Russia’s actions, which I posted to his account.”In the face of silence from the White House, the then US ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, condemned Russian behaviour, after which the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, followed suit. Trump voiced concern but did not blame Moscow.The 24 Ukrainian sailors detained in the operation were returned last month as part of a prisoner exchange.Anderson, and his successor in the Ukraine job, Catherine Croft, both testified to House committees on Wednesday about the role played by Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, in foiling state department efforts to bolster the president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in the face of Russian military intervention in eastern Ukraine.In his testimony, Anderson quoted the former national security adviser, John Bolton, as saying: “Giuliani was a key voice with the president on Ukraine which could be an obstacle to increased White House engagement.” On Wednesday, the House committees asked Bolton to testify on 7 November, but it is unclear whether he will attend.Bolton’s former deputy, Charles Kupperman, is currently seeking a court ruling on whether to comply with his congressional subpoena in the face of a White House order not to testify.At the other side of Congress, the nominee to become ambassador to Russia, John Sullivan, faced pointed questions on Wednesday at confirmation hearings in the Senate about Giuliani and the split US policy towards Russia and Ukraine.Sullivan, currently the deputy secretary of state, said he was aware of Giuliani’s role in a campaign against the former US ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch. Asked if he knew Trump’s lawyer was “seeking to smear” Yovanovitch, he replied: “I believe he was, yes.”Sullivan confirmed he had been shown a dossier of material attacking Yovanovitch, saying it had provided by the White House to the state department legal adviser, but he was not aware it had been put together by Giuliani. He said the dossier “didn’t provide to me a basis for taking action against our ambassador”.He said that Pompeo gave Sullivan no explanation for the decision to recall Yovanovitch before the end of her posting, other than she had “lost the confidence of the president”.“As I understand, [Trump] may decide that he doesn’t like my testimony today and he doesn’t want me to go to Russia. The president can decide when he loses confidence in his ambassador – then that person is not going to continue as ambassador,” Sullivan said.Sullivan sought to avoid taking a position on the testimony by several former and current state department officials that the president, through Giuliani, had made a White House meeting and US military aid dependent on the Ukrainian government investigating Trump’s political rivals.“Soliciting investigations into a domestic political opponent – I don’t think that would be in accord with our values,” Sullivan said. But he would not confirm that was what the president had done.Democratic senators signaled that they were prepared to support Sullivan’s nomination as an experienced and respected diplomat, acknowledging the difficult position he was in. But they expressed concern he had not done more to find out what Trump and Giuliani were trying to achieve in Ukraine.The ranking Democrat on the Senate foreign relations committee, Bob Menendez, told Sullivan he had been playing the role of “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.”“You’re going to go to Russia, and you’re going to be saying one set of things based upon your testimony here,” Menendez said. “And we have the president who, in his public statements, is totally aligned differently than what you’re going to be saying.”“Do you understand the incredibly difficult job that you’re going to have as a result of that?” Menendez asked Sullivan.“I would say, senator, you’ve cited the president’s statements. I’d cite the president’s actions,” the nominee replied, listing sanctions the administration had imposed on Russia.

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Man loses foot, another seriously injured in shark attack while snorkeling in Australia

The shark attack occurred in Hook Passage in the Whitsunday Islands off Australia's Queensland coast, rescuers say.

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The Latest: Islamic State leader buried at sea, US says

The head of United States Central Command says Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was buried at sea after a weekend raid on his compound. Gen. Frank McKenzie told reporters Wednesday that al-Baghdadi died after he exploded a suicide vest just before U.S. troops were going to capture him. McKenzie says two children were killed in the explosion set off by the Islamic State leader.

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The Democrats' impeachment process has a credibility problem

Has the House impeachment inquiry hit a brick wall on credibility? Or have House Democrats decided to call Republicans' bluff?After weeks of refusing to hold a full floor vote to formally launch an impeachment inquiry, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) abruptly changed position this week. A Thursday vote will set out more clear parameters for the ongoing investigation without explicitly declaring an impeachment inquiry, but it's far from clear whether this changes anything appreciably -- or if there's anything to change with the current focus on Ukraine policy as the predicate for impeachment.The bill that emerged Tuesday afternoon appears to directly address some of the key criticisms of House Republicans, who grew so frustrated with the closed hearings that they staged an intervention of sorts last week, breaching the Secure Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) in which the depositions were being taken under the control of House Intelligence Chair Adam Schiff. That set off worries among Democrats that further such demonstrations could obstruct and drag out the impeachment process into next year and into the election cycle, something Pelosi would like to avoid.Democrats' claims that the demonstrations were a GOP stunt had some basis in fact. Some of the Republicans who participated actually did have access to the hearings as members of three committees participating in the testimony. Contrary to some claims made at the time, Republican committee members had the opportunity to ask questions of the witnesses during the deposition and were very engaged in that process.Still, other Republican complaints had started to take their toll. Republicans wanted Democrats to hold a full House vote to openly authorize an impeachment inquiry, rather than use committees to conduct an ad hoc investigation while House Democratic leadership publicly acknowledged that impeachment was the goal. They also wanted open hearings with the witnesses being subpoenaed, which Democrats refused to grant in order to keep witnesses from knowing preceding testimony. Democrats pointed out that the House rules allowed for closed-session depositions and compared them to secret grand-jury proceedings, but Republicans countered that grand juries don't leak characterizations of the testimony at pressers, as Schiff and other Democrats had been doing all along.That has made the proceedings seem as though they're being conducted by a kangaroo court, which has allowed Trump to argue that the process is corrupt. The only way to gain traction for this process is to give it more credibility -- and to call the bluff of Republicans and Trump. Thus, Pelosi introduced a bill that will allow Republicans to call their own witnesses and to access all deposition materials, under the same rules used in the Bill Clinton impeachment process in 1998. The bill also establishes a mechanism for the full release of testimony, which Republicans have repeatedly demanded.This presents an immediate tactical risk for the White House. One of Pelosi's motives is to parry Trump's refusal to cooperate based on a lack of formal approval by the full House. A federal court ruled against Trump last week, but Trump can tie that question up for months on appeals, time that Pelosi perceives she does not have. A full House vote approving these rules not only means that Republicans no longer have due-process complaints (at least going forward), it signals to courts that the full House has indeed given tacit approval for an impeachment inquiry in providing a relatively fair structure for it.However, Pelosi is more worried about a different court: the court of public opinion. That perception that the impeachment process is unfair has hampered Democrats' ability to generate the kind of public support they need to take this to a full vote on impeachment without risking the gains Pelosi made in the 2018 midterms. National polling showing support for impeachment gaining momentum overall, but the response from the American public looks quite different on a state-by-state basis. A poll by The New York Times and Siena College last week showed that voters in six critical swing states with the closest margins in 2016 generally oppose impeachment, 43/53. Those numbers would suggest that continuing on this impeachment process might produce a Pyrrhic victory for Democrats in 2020, one that could produce a historic win for an already-impeached president for the first time ever.To fix that problem, and to force the Senate to take this more seriously, Pelosi has to revamp the process to provide at least the appearance of fairness. However, it's not likely to matter in the end. Impeachment is only the first step in the removal process, and in this case it's likely to be the last step Democrats can successfully take.The Republicans control the Senate, but their majority matters less than the fact that Democrats don't have a supermajority. If Democrats had uncovered a truly serious crime in this probe, that would likely convince at least 20 Senate Republicans to make Mike Pence president. The core problem is that Ukraine-Gate doesn't appear to involve an explicit statutory crime at all, but instead an alleged abuse of authority to gain political advantage over former Vice President Joe Biden. The House can decide what constitutes an impeachable offense, but the Senate decides whether it's even worthy of a full trial, let alone a removal.An impeachment without a removal will, in the end, look a lot like a political campaign no matter how much Pelosi improves the process. Voters will ask themselves why Democrats spent all year obsessed with impeachment under varying rationalizations and then chose the one issue on which they could almost guarantee no success in removal. Pelosi may win a tactical victory with this upcoming vote, but it's not going to solve the big strategic issue awaiting Democrats at the end of this process.Want more essential commentary and analysis like this delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for The Week's "Today's best articles" newsletter here.

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California Governor Accepted Donations from Utility Company He Now Excoriates for ‘Greed’

California governor, Democrat Gavin Newsom, has accepted large donations from Pacific Gas & Electric Co., a utility company he now excoriates for "greed" and "mismanagement."PG&E has faced widespread criticism for implementing blackouts for millions of customers to avoid sparking wildfires in the midst of California's dry and windy fall weather."I have a message for PG&E," Newsom wrote on Twitter on Friday. "Your years and years of greed. Years and years of mismanagement. Years and years of putting shareholders over people. Are OVER."Newsom and allies accepted $208,400 from the utility during his 2018 gubernatorial campaign, according to local affiliate ABC10. Of that total, $150,000 went to a political spending group called “Citizens Supporting Gavin Newsom for Governor 2018,” while the rest went to directly to Newsom's campaign.PG&E filed for bankruptcy in January 2019. Faulty PG&E electricity equipment has been blamed for sparking several wildfires in the past decade.California has consistently shut down proposals to clear dead trees from forests and to trim trees near power lines state wide, creating conditions for a rash of wildfire outbreaks in recent years.The Kincaid Fire currently burning in Sonoma County in the northern part of the state has forced the evacuation of roughly 200,000 people. The fire is twice the size of the city of San Fransisco.Newsom declared a state of emergency on Sunday in response to the Kincaid Fire and several other wildfires throughout the state. He again threatened PG&E in a statement on the situation."There is a plan to get out of this. This is not the new normal,” Newsom said on Sunday at an evacuation center in northern California. “This is not a 10-year process to deal with this. That will not be the case… [PG&E] will be held to account to do something radically different

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Prosecutors accuse ex-Trump adviser Flynn of trying to walk-back guilty plea

U.S. prosecutors on Tuesday accused President Donald Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn of making "an extraordinary reversal" to try to undo his sworn admission that he lied to former Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigators about his contacts with Russia. Federal prosecutors asked U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan for the opportunity to oppose a bid filed by Flynn's lawyers last week to have the case dismissed - even though Flynn pleaded guilty in 2017 - because of alleged prosecutorial misconduct. The retired Army lieutenant general and former Trump campaign adviser has pleaded guilty to lying to FBI agents about his 2016 conversations with Sergey Kislyak, then-Russian ambassador to the United States.

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Biden's communion denial highlights faith-politics conflict

A Roman Catholic priest's denial of communion to Joe Biden in South Carolina on Sunday illustrates the fine line presidential candidates must walk as they talk about their faiths: balancing religious values with a campaign that asks them to choose a side in polarizing moral debates. The awkward moment for Biden came during a weekend campaign swing through South Carolina, a pivotal firewall in his hopes to claim the Democratic presidential nomination. The former vice president on Sunday visited St. Anthony Catholic Church in Florence, a midsize city in the state's largely rural northeast.

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Here's How America Will Stop Iran from Invading Saudi Arabia

The master plan.

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Elizabeth Warren got behind the Facebook employees slamming Mark Zuckerberg for allowing lies in political ads

The two Democratic politicians tweeted their support for the Facebook workers who oppose the company's stance on lies in political ads.

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Boeing 'doesn't understand our grief'

Zipporah Kuria's father Joseph Waithaka was one of 157 people killed when a Boeing 737 Max crashed in March.

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How to Eat Alone (and Like It)

By BY JESS MCHUGH from NYT Smarter Living https://ift.tt/31WLbCt

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Georgia Plans to Purge 300,000 Names From Its Voter Rolls

By BY NICHOLAS CASEY from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2WrdJ5X

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Stick to Sports? No Way. Deadspin Journalists Quit en Masse.

By BY MARC TRACY from NYT Business https://ift.tt/31YbsQz

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Hundreds of U.S. Troops Leaving, and Also Arriving in, Syria

By BY ERIC SCHMITT AND HELENE COOPER from NYT World https://ift.tt/331hmlz

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Iraq Prime Minister Pressed to Quit as Protests Clog Streets

By BY ALISSA J. RUBIN from NYT World https://ift.tt/2pqzoyQ

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Car industry gloom as UK production falls further

Output fell in September capping a 15-month period of decline, an industry body says.

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How protests pushed Hong Kong to the recession brink

Growth figures due out Thursday are expected to show Hong Kong's economy has fallen into recession.

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My Money: 'I only paid 70p towards my dinner'

As part of a new BBC blog series, Eliza Hunt shares what she spent her money on this week.

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Trump judicial nominee breaks down during Senate hearing

Lawrence VanDyke broke down when asked whether he was biased against LGBT people.

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Comedian Kevin Hart shares emotional video after crash

The US comedian shared the video of his recovery after a severe car accident in September.

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House Passes Resolution Recognizing Armenian Genocide

By BY CATIE EDMONDSON AND RICK GLADSTONE from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2Nq4qPo

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Despair for Many and Silver Linings for Some in California Wildfires

By BY THOMAS FULLER, JULIE TURKEWITZ AND JOSE A. DEL REAL from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/32WbkCw

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Can the Nationals and Astros Turn This World Series Into a Classic?

By BY TYLER KEPNER from NYT Sports https://ift.tt/2NnCk7r

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Congresswoman's exit prompts question of equity amid scandal

The resignation of a female Democratic congresswoman over a consensual, sexual relationship with a campaign aide has sparked questions about whether women are held to higher standards in public life. At the center of the controversy is Katie Hill, a first-term lawmaker from California and a rising Democratic Party star. In a video released Monday, Hill said she was stepping down because she was "fearful of what might come next" following the online publication of explicit pictures that outed her relationship with a female staffer.

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Chile’s Pinera Fires Top Economic Ministers Amid Protests

(Bloomberg) -- Ten days of riots, protests and reprisals claimed their first political victims Monday as Chile’s President Sebastian Pinera fired eight ministers, including the biggest hitters in the cabinet.The interior, finance and economy ministers were all dismissed, with Pinera naming a younger, more centrist team to convince protesters that their voice has been heard.A wave of riots, looting and protests has caused more than a billion dollars of damage this month, before spawning the largest peaceful demonstration in the country’s history. Yet, today’s announcement is unlikely to placate a movement that has demands ranging from tax reform to constitutional change, via the resignation of the billionaire president himself.“These have been difficult days,” Pinera said at a ceremony in the presidential palace. “Our government has heard the loud and clear message of the Chilean people who want a more fair and more inclusive society.”The president’s approval rating slumped to 14% last week as the protests all but paralyzed the country’s largest cities, according to a survey by pollster Cadem. Opposition lawmakers have announced a constitutional accusation against Pinera on the grounds of human rights violations.Outgoing CousinPinera appointed Gonzalo Blumel as interior minister and Ignacio Briones as finance minister.Briones is dean of the school of government at Universidad Adolfo Ibanez. He has a PhD in political economy from Institut d´Etudes Politiques de Paris and was a senior adviser to the Finance Minister during Pinera’s first term in office.“I have a very positive opinion of Briones as an academic and an expert in public policy, but he doesn’t have much experience in the political arena and this may eventually show,” said Tomas Izquierdo, an economist and chief executive officer of research firm Gemines Consultores.Today’s firings also included Andres Chadwick, the interior minister and Economy Minister Juan Andres Fontaine.Chadwick was a particular source of anger because of the violent suppression of the protests and the fact he is Pinera’s cousin. His replacement, Blumel, 41, was until now minister of the presidency, coordinating the passing of government bills with Congress.Fontaine was another target of protesters after remarking that to avoid the higher subway prices, people should just get up earlier to take the subway at non-peak hours. A study earlier this year showed that Santiago residents face commutes as long as two hours.Mounting AngerThe firings are unlikely to quell mounting anger over how Pinera has dealt with the protests. More than 1,000 people have been injured and over 3,000 arrested, according to the Chilean Human Rights Institute. Police and the armed forces between them are responsible for five deaths for which it is bringing homicide charges, the institute said on Oct. 22.Protests resumed in front of the government’s Moneda palace after the announcement, according to images on TV.“Chileans have been marching against Pinera’s agenda and the new interior minister is precisely the person that was in charge of pushing that agenda,” said Yasna Provoste, a senator for the opposition Christian Democrats party. “Pinera’s government just can’t get a grasp of the citizens’ demands.”The extent of the protests shows the challenge facing Pinera’s center-right government. Pinera initially tackled the violence as a law-and-order matter, stating the country was at war with criminals. That only made things worse. He then apologized for failing to recognize genuine grievances and announced measures including raising taxes for high-income earners and lifting basic pensions.While more than 600 supermarkets have been looted, the occurrence of serious violence has slowed. Losses for Chile’s retail sector due to looting and lost sales reached $1.4 billion since the protests began, according to the Santiago Chamber of Commerce.Former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, now the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, said she would send a team to look into allegations of human-rights violations, a move the government welcomed.(Updates with comment from opposition senator in 13th paragraph)To contact the reporter on this story: Eduardo Thomson in Santiago at ethomson1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Daniel Cancel at dcancel@bloomberg.net, Philip SandersFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

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Elected Arizona official accused of selling babies suspended

An elected official in Arizona was suspended Monday after he was charged with running a human smuggling scheme that brought pregnant women from the Marshall Islands to the U.S. to give birth and then paid them to give up their children for adoption. Leaders in Arizona's most populous county suspended Assessor Paul Petersen without pay for 120 days. The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors doesn't have the power to permanently remove him from his office, which determines the value of properties for tax purposes in Phoenix and its suburbs.

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Federal Prosecutors Are Lining Up Witnesses Against Jeffrey Epstein’s Cronies

Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/Photos GettyIt’s been more than two months since Jeffrey Epstein killed himself, but the investigation into possible accomplices is still very much alive. In recent days, federal prosecutors probing the financier’s sex-trafficking ring have been asking Epstein victims if they could serve as witnesses in the criminal case they are building.Representatives from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York traveled to Florida for an Oct. 15 meeting with several of Epstein’s victims and their counsel. The staffers, who worked in the victim services unit, held a similar meeting in New York on Oct. 23, lawyers for the women and a law enforcement source told The Daily Beast.Two people familiar with the investigation said that prosecutors have heard from “dozens” of witnesses or victims since Epstein’s arrest in July.Following Epstein’s death in August, which was ruled a suicide by hanging, the Department of Justice said that it would continue to investigate anyone who helped Epstein procure underage girls or helped him to cover up crimes. A spokesman for the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to comment on where the probe stands, only saying that the “investigation is continuing.”The Biggest Bombshells in Newly Unsealed Epstein DocumentsSpencer Kuvin, a Palm Beach attorney who represents two women who were abused by Epstein, said the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York offered counseling services to the group of victims who gathered in Miramar, Florida.The representatives also worked to debunk conspiracy theories, which the victims have encountered online, related to Epstein’s jailhouse suicide. According to Kuvin, prosecutors continue to battle wild speculation on how the 66-year-old money-manager died, along with rumors that he isn’t dead at all.“The U.S. Attorney’s Office wanted to put to rest some of those conspiracy theories—that he was killed, that he’s still alive. There are people still talking about that,” Kuvin told The Daily Beast. “There are still people that think this was an absolute ruse and he’s sitting pretty in another part of the world.” Kuvin said investigators assured the women that their probe into Epstein’s alleged co-conspirators was ongoing. The lawyer declined to comment on the identities of those suspected accomplices.“They wanted to meet with some of the victims to discuss whether or not they could be potential witnesses in that ongoing investigation,” Kuvin said. “One of my clients is going to meet with them privately about that issue.”Epstein Victim: Ghislaine Maxwell Made Me Recruit ‘Youngest-Looking’ Girls for EpsteinDuring the Florida meeting, coordinators for federal prosecutors answered questions from the women, some of whom felt burned over their treatment 12 years ago, when the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Miami secretly negotiated a cushy plea deal for Epstein. Back then, the feds promised the women they’d prosecute the creepy multimillionaire; instead, they collaborated with his legal team to downgrade the charges.“The focus really is: What are you doing now and are you honestly going to pursue the co-conspirators or are those just words?” Kuvin said.“They’ve been wronged by the system numerous times,” Kuvin added of his clients and other victims of Epstein, “from the late 2000s all the way up to him killing himself. Every time an official comes forward and says, ‘Don’t worry. We’re going to do the right thing,’ they shake their heads and say, ‘We’ll see.’”In New York last week, prosecutors met with victims at a federal building downtown where local FBI headquarters is housed to inform the women of their rights and offer counseling services.Duncan Levin, a former assistant U.S. Attorney and chief of asset forfeiture at the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, said Epstein’s inner circle shouldn’t rest easy. “There is at least some evidence that other people facilitated his crimes, and there’s obviously enough public interest in the case that [prosecutors] aren’t going to drop it just because he’s dead,” said Levin, managing partner at Tucker Levin, PLLC.Levin said prosecutors are likely to thoroughly investigate Epstein’s alleged enablers and seek forfeiture of Epstein’s properties that were used to facilitate the sex crimes. Jeffrey Epstein Reveals His Fortune Includes $56 Million in CashA bare-bones rundown of Epstein’s assets submitted by his lawyers following his arrest, and bank records obtained by prosecutors, provided a glimpse into Epstein’s net worth which is estimated at more than $550 million, but it may not be a complete accounting. The listed assets included $56 million in cash and another $500 million in properties and investments.The properties include $85 million worth of real estate in the U.S. Virgin Islands—including his own private island—an $8.6 million Paris apartment, a $12 million Palm Beach estate, a $17 million New Mexico ranch, and his Manhattan mansion—which Epstein claimed is worth $55 million but prosecutors have said is worth $77 million.“Justice is a slow-moving train,” Levin said. “This is par for the course. Investigations are measured in months and years not days and weeks.”“I would be very nervous if I were somebody who helped Jeffrey Epstein at this point and would be seeking legal counsel,” Levin added.Epstein was arrested on July 6 and charged with sex-trafficking and conspiracy to commit sex-trafficking. The indictment referred to three victims and three unnamed employees of Epstein who allegedly assisted in the sex pyramid scheme.According to the complaint, Epstein created a “network of minor victims in multiple states to sexually abuse and exploit” and “worked and conspired with others, including employees and associates who facilitated his conduct by, among other things, contacting victims and scheduling their sexual encounters with Epstein.”From 2002 to 2005, the indictment states, Epstein “enticed and recruited” minor girls as young as 14 to visit his mansions and engage in sex acts with him, after which he or his assistants gave the victims hundreds of dollars in cash.It’s unclear which alleged co-conspirators prosecutors are targeting.In one July court filing, prosecutors requested a protective order, indicating they planned to produce certain documents and materials that “would impede, if prematurely disclosed, the Government’s ongoing investigation of uncharged individuals.”In 2008, when Epstein pleaded guilty to state charges, his non-prosecution agreement with the feds granted immunity to his alleged accomplices, “including but not limited to Sarah Kellen, Adriana Ross, Lesley Groff, or Nadia Marcinkova.”Where Are Jeffrey Epstein’s Alleged Accomplices Now?Groff’s lawyer, Michael Bachner, previously told The Daily Beast: “At no time during Lesley’s employment with Epstein did she ever engage in any misconduct.”Attorneys for Marcinkova told CNN last month that she was a victim herself and “is and has been severely traumatized.” They added: “She needs time to process and make sense of what she has been through before she is able to speak out.”According to the report, Kellen’s spokeswoman had a similar explanation. “Very soon after Sarah was brought into Epstein's world, he began to sexually abuse her, and this abuse went on for years. Sarah continues to struggle with the trauma of her experiences and has chosen not to speak publicly at this time.”Ross hasn’t spoken publicly on the allegations.One lawsuit, filed by a Jane Doe in September against Epstein’s estate, describes Kellen and Groff as a pair of adult employees who “specifically facilitated his abuse.” The women scheduled the girl’s visits to Epstein’s Manhattan mansion and “often asked Doe to bring other girls with her,” paying her every time she did so.Meanwhile, Groff, a former assistant to Epstein, is facing a lawsuit from Jennifer Araoz, who says she was in high school when Epstein raped and abused her. A second assistant, Cimberly Espinosa, is also listed as a defendant in the case.Araoz’s complaint also targets Epstein’s alleged madam, Ghislaine Maxwell—who’s kept a low profile since the hedge-funder’s arrest and has long faced accusations of recruiting underage girls and taking part in sexual abuse herself.Ghislaine Maxwell.Mark Mainz/GettyAnother lawsuit, recently filed by Priscilla Doe, alleges that “in addition to providing sexual instruction, Ghislaine Maxwell further made sure that Plaintiff and the other young females were constantly on call to sexually service Jeffrey Epstein.”Maxwell isn’t the only Epstein friend under scrutiny in the press. Authorities in France are looking into sexual misconduct claims against talent scout Jean-Luc Brunel, accused in civil court filings of procuring young models for Epstein to exploit.“Jeffrey Epstein has told me that he has slept with over 1,000 of Brunel’s girls, and everything that I have seen confirms this claim,” said accuser Virginia Giuffre in a 2015 affidavit. Giuffre says she was 16 when Maxwell recruited her into Epstein’s trafficking ring.In response, Brunel issued a statement denying Giuffre’s claims, saying he never participated “directly nor indirectly, in the actions Mr. Jeffrey Epstein is being accused of.”Models Say Jeffrey Epstein’s Closest Pal Drugged, Raped ThemLast year, Epstein may have attempted to buy the silence of alleged co-conspirators just as his name re-emerged in the press.Prosecutors say Epstein wired payments to two unnamed women—one received $250,000 while the other got $100,000—shortly after the Miami Herald’s exposé on Epstein’s 2007 sweetheart deal. Those individuals were listed as possible co-conspirators in Epstein’s non-prosecution agreement, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in July.At a bail hearing that month, Assistant U.S. Attorney Alex Rossmiller told the court that “after seven days of this case being public following months of a covert investigation, the evidence is already significantly stronger and getting stronger every single day.“Many individuals identifying themselves as victims and witnesses have contacted the government,” Rossmiller continued, “and we are in the process of receiving and corroborating this additional evidence.”Brad Edwards, an attorney who sued the government on behalf of victims over Epstein’s lenient plea deal, said, “I assume that if there are others that should be held accountable for crimes that can still be prosecuted, then they will.”Edwards said he trusts that New York prosecutors “are trying to leave no stone unturned.”Last month, U.S. District Judge Kenneth Marra refused to scrap the non-prosecution agreement that shielded Epstein and his alleged co-conspirators from facing serious charges—despite Marra’s ruling that the agreement was illegal. Marra also denied the victims’ requests for other relief: attorneys’ fees, a hearing where victims could speak, and the release of documents including grand jury materials. The decision was part of a 2008 lawsuit Jane Does 1 and 2 filed against the United States, alleging the feds violated the Crime Victims’ Right Act. Courtney Wild, who has come forward as Jane Doe 1, has appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit. Oral arguments are scheduled for January.“A ruling rescinding the immunity provisions would have permitted the victims to confer with government prosecutors about the possibility of obtaining prosecution of Epstein’s co-conspirators in the Southern District of Florida — i.e., would have afforded them their rights under the CVRA,” Wild’s appeal states.Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

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UPDATE 1-Iraq's Sadr calls on rival to join him in ousting PM

Populist Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has invited his biggest political rival to work with him on ousting the country's prime minister as thousands of anti-government protesters took to the streets for a fifth day. In a statement on Tuesday Sadr, who leads parliament's largest bloc, asked Hadi al-Amiri, leader of the second-largest, to help him introduce a vote of no confidence in Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi. "To answer brother Abdul Mahdi, I thought asking you to call an early election would preserve your dignity but as you have refused, I invite brother Amiri to work with me on withdrawing confidence from you immediately," he said.

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Schiff to handle impeachment witness testimony in break from precedent

Under past precedent in 1974 and 1998 — the last two times the House conducted an impeachment inquiry — the House Judiciary Committee was the hub for investigations, hearings, and a committee vote on articles of impeachment.

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For these women, it's Halloween all year round

For many of us Halloween is a one day event, but for these women Halloween is their job.

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Why passwords don't work, and what will replace them

Passwords can be insecure, easy to lose and easier to forget, so can new tech protect us?

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‘Fear’ Review: 3 Men in a Shed, 1 Missing Girl on Their Minds

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Michelle Obama on white flight: 'Y'all were running from us'

The former US first lady says race and lack of understanding of migrants still divides the US and world.

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Catholic priest says he denied Joe Biden Holy Communion at Mass in South Carolina because of abortion views

"Any public figure who advocates for abortion places himself or herself outside of Church teaching." Rev. Robert Morey said in a statement.

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