| Russian police arrest over 1,000 in Moscow election protest Posted: 28 Jul 2019 01:30 AM PDT  Russian police cracked down fiercely Saturday on demonstrators in central Moscow, beating some people and arresting more than 1,000 who were protesting the exclusion of opposition candidates from the ballot for Moscow city council. Police also stormed into a TV station broadcasting the protest. State news agencies Tass and RIA-Novosti cited police as saying 1,074 were arrested over the course of the protests, which lasted more than seven hours.
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| British man who ‘faked death’ while facing rape charges arrested in US Posted: 28 Jul 2019 08:14 AM PDT  A British man has been arrested in the US after allegedly faking his own death while facing rape charges in Scotland.Kim Gordon, also known as Kim Vincent Avis, disappeared in February after his son reported that he had not come out of the sea after swimming at a Californian beach.But investigators said the boy's account "fell apart" and he could not say how they supposedly travelled to Monastery Beach, which is locally nicknamed Mortuary Beach because of frequent drownings.The Monterey County Sheriff's Office concluded that Mr Gordon had not entered the water after an extensive search including a helicopter, boats, divers and a drone."We continued to investigate the case and learned that Avis was out on bail for 24 felony sexual abuse charges pending in Scotland," a spokesperson said."After speaking with his ex-wife, we became suspicious of the drowning report. We reinterviewed his son and determined he was not telling the truth."Mr Gordon's son was returned to Scotland by the local child protection department, while local police, Scottish authorities and Interpol continued the investigation.Authorities said the 55-year-old was traced to Colorado Springs following a sighting and arrested on Friday morning.Mr Gordon is being held by US marshals in the city, ahead of an extradition hearing later this month.A Police Scotland spokesperson said: "Police Scotland is aware of reports from the USA regarding Kim Gordon or Avis and is liaising with the relevant authorities."Scottish media reported that he was facing 24 charges, including allegations of rape, sexual and physical assault.Mr Gordon, who formerly busked and sold jewellery in Inverness, failed to attend a court hearing in Edinburgh in March.
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| US drug busts in Pacific net cocaine worth $350 mn Posted: 27 Jul 2019 08:46 AM PDT  The US Coast Guard have seized $350 million worth of cocaine in a series of operations in the Pacific Ocean, captured in a dramatic video showing suspected drug smugglers frantically tossing their cargo from a speeding boat. The Coast Guard released images late Friday of the high-speed chase by one of its cutters, one of six recent interdictions in international waters of the Pacific Ocean, off the Mexican and Latin American coasts. The Coast Guard did not specify how many arrests were made in the latest actions, but said that so far this fiscal year it has detained more than 400 suspected smugglers in the Eastern Pacific while seizing more than 230,000 pounds of cocaine.
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| Turkey Stockpiled F-16 Parts Ahead of Getting the Russian S-400 Anti-Air System Posted: 27 Jul 2019 08:30 PM PDT  NATO member Turkey is determined to acquire ballistic missile technology, and aims to co-produce the next generation of the S-400, the officials added, citing discussions with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Erdogan said his country will take delivery of the S-400 within days.A Bloomberg report says Turkey has been stockpiling parts for F-16s and other military equipment in anticipation of a U.S. sanction for acquiring the Russian S-400 air defense system.Two anonymous officials from Turkey who spoke to the news outlet refused to clarify on what types of spares were accumulated, how much was acquired and how long they can last.Relations between the two countries deteriorated over the course of the Syrian civil war, when the U.S. armed a Kurdish militia that Turkey views as a terrorist group, and in the aftermath of a 2016 coup attempt against Erdogan that his government blames on a Turkish imam residing in the U.S.(This first appeared earlier in July 2019.)NATO member Turkey is determined to acquire ballistic missile technology, and aims to co-produce the next generation of the S-400, the officials added, citing discussions with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Erdogan said his country will take delivery of the S-400 within days."The first batch of S-400s will be delivered in a week or 10 days," Haberturk newspaper cited him as saying in a report Monday. "I've clearly told this to Trump, Mr. Putin also said it."
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| Nadler: Mueller’s testimony ‘broke the lie’ Trump has been telling Americans Posted: 28 Jul 2019 09:17 AM PDT  * House judiciary chair says it could clear path to impeachment * Adam Shiff: 'We are now in preliminary to a judicial proceeding'Democrats Adam Schiff, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Jerrold Nadler, and Elijah Cummings, at a news conference after Robert Mueller's testimony on 24 July. Photograph: J Scott Applewhite/APRobert Mueller's testimony to Congress "broke the lie" Donald Trump has been telling and potentially cleared the path to impeachment, House judiciary chair Jerrold Nadler said on Sunday.That does not mean, however, that an attempt to remove Trump from office is set to begin.Adam Schiff, chair of the intelligence committee, said that "for the purposes of the law and constitution, where we are now is most accurately described as preliminary to a judicial proceeding".Nadler, a New York Democrat, was defending the decision to call former special counsel Mueller before Congress, amid controversy over the impact and value of his appearances before the judiciary and intelligence panels."I think it was very important that he testified," Nadler told ABC's This Week, "because he … broke the lie that the president and the attorney general have been saying to the American people."Since his report was issued the attorney general and the president have misrepresented that report, lied to the American people about it, said the report found no collusion, no obstruction and totally exonerated the president.> I wish Mueller had testified in more narrative fashion, that the words didn't need to be coaxed from him as much> > Adam Schiff"All those three statements are lies. It was very important for Mueller to get up there and say just that."In his testimony, Mueller did not go beyond the contents of his 448-page report into Russian election interference, links between Trump and Moscow and possible obstruction of justice by the president.Mueller had resisted the call to testify and observers noted the 74-year-old former FBI director's halting and reluctant demeanour. On Saturday the Washington Post went so far as to report that "some lawmakers are privately wondering whether there was some truth to … rumours" that Mueller "might not be as sharp as he once was".A spokesman for Mueller declined to comment but Trump did not hesitate to crow about "the greatest display of ineptitude [and] incompetence that the Halls of Congress have ever seen".Schiff told NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday he wished Mueller "had testified in more narrative fashion, that the words didn't need to be coaxed from him as much as they did".Mueller submitted his report in March and it was published in redacted form in April, after attorney general William Barr issued a summary of its contents which Democrats said was misleading. He did not find evidence of a criminal conspiracy between Trump and Moscow but did lay out 11 instances of possible obstruction of justice by the president or his campaign.Trump has claimed complete exoneration – as he did in tweets on Saturday in which he urged equal focus on supposed misdeeds by Democrats and FBI agents.Mueller stated both on paper and in person on Capitol Hill that he did not exonerate the president on questions of obstruction of justice.The White House has blocked attempts to call witnesses to testify, moves House Democrats say are unconstitutional, given their mandated oversight role.The result is a rolling battle for public opinion.Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney fired his own shot on Sunday, telling CBS's Face the Nation that part of the president's motivation for a controversial attack on the House oversight chairman was that Elijah Cummings "is spending all of his time on this impeachment inquiry which we all know is going nowhere".> The president lied repeatedly to the American people and to investigators and conducted a corrupt cover-up> > Jerrold NadlerIn turn, Nadler made clear Democrats believe Mueller's testimony had PR value."The hearing was an inflection point," he told CNN's State of the Union. "It showed quite clearly that the report did not exonerate the president, that it found that the Russian government interfered in the campaign, they tried to interfere in our election and the Trump campaign welcomed that assistance and co-operated."And then the president lied repeatedly to the American people and to investigators and conducted a corrupt cover-up with at least five criminally indictable acts of obstruction of justice."As Mueller repeatedly pointed out, a Department of Justice opinion holds that a sitting president cannot be indicted. The special counsel also stressed that he was not saying he would have indicted Trump but for the opinion's existence.Nonetheless, Nadler told CNN, "these are very serious offences against the rule of law and we now have to get further evidence and put it before the American people as we consider articles of impeachment in the committee."Nadler repeated his view that Trump "utterly deserves" to be removed.On Friday, in a suit that mentioned the word impeachment 76 times, the judiciary committee petitioned in court for access to evidence collected by Mueller.Nadler said such evidence might include material on possible wrongdoing by Trump outside the Russia inquiry, for example under the emoluments clause of the constitution which is meant to guard against personal gain from public office.Schiff told NBC: "Right now the most important thing is to obtain the grand jury material, to see the evidence."Around 100 Democrats in the House, less than half the caucus, have come out in support of impeachment.Nadler rejected a claim by California Democrat Jackie Speier that if impeachment has not begun by September it will be too late, given the proximity of the 2020 election.As well as the near-guarantee that impeachment would fail in the Republican-held Senate, Democratic leaders are wary of galvanising Trump supporters.Schiff said he worried "about the message of taking an impeachment case to trial, losing that case, having the president acquitted, and then having an adjudication that this conduct is not impeachable."But the jury that I'm most worried about, not the Senate because I think that's a preordained conclusion, is the American people. Can we make the case to the American people? And I want to make sure that that's true before we go down this path because it's going to occupy a year of the nation's time. I want to make sure that's the right decision."
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| Airline asks two strangers to share hotel room with one bed after missing flight Posted: 27 Jul 2019 02:45 AM PDT  An airline has been asked to apologise after offering two strangers who had missed their flights an overnight stay in a room with a single bed.Elizabeth Coffi Tabu, 71, had been due to return to Paris on 19 July after spending a month with her family in Canada.However, when she missed the second leg of her journey from Montreal after her first flight was delayed, she was offered an overnight stay with another passenger - a 35-year-old man she had never met before.Speaking to CNN, Coffi Tabu's daughter Jerryne Mahele Nyota said: "My mother told the Air Canada agent, 'I don't know this man. We are not a couple,' - but they said there was only one room."She added that her mother, who makes the trip out to North America every year, struggled to make her connection as she was currently a wheelchair user following a run of cancer treatment.Upon discovering the room only had a single bed for them to sleep in, the man offered to spend the night on the sofa.Ms Mahele Nyota added: "He was a perfect gentleman but I obviously felt uncomfortable with my mom spending a night with a man half her age, a man that's a total stranger."After several hours Ms Mahele Nyota was able to arrange for another hotel room for her mother, who received two $10 (£8) food vouchers for her flight and a seat with additional leg room from the airline after explaining her ordeal.She was returned to Paris almost 24 hours after her scheduled arrival time.Mahele Nyota has since called on the airline to apologise, and expressed concern that vulnerable people unable to ask for help could be left in the same situation as her mother.She told Canadian broadcaster CBC: "Now [my mother is] realising, how is it possible? You know? And she said, 'It's not fair, it's not fair, they never gave me another option.'"In a statement an Air Canada spokesperson said: "It is not our policy to have passengers who are not travelling together share a room. In this case an error was initially made allocating rooms."
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| Bernie Sanders denounces 'greed' of American drug companies Posted: 28 Jul 2019 01:26 PM PDT  Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders accused American pharmaceutical companies Sunday of letting diabetic patients die out of "greed," after he accompanied a group of Americans to Canada to buy insulin. Sanders joined the group, which took a bus from the US city of Detroit to Windsor, Ontario to restock on insulin, which costs 10 times more in the United States than in its northern neighbor. "How come the same exact medicine, in this case insulin, is sold here in Canada for one-tenth of the price it is sold in the United States?" Sanders demanded after visiting a Windsor pharmacy.
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| Indian villagers beat tiger to death after attacks Posted: 28 Jul 2019 09:46 AM PDT  An investigation has been launched in India after a tigress blamed for injuring a number of villagers was clubbed to death in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. The killing was compared to a "lynching" by Indian media and online commentators after news channels aired footage of over 40 villagers beating the tiger to death with sticks and clubs. Forestry Department officials said they tried to intervene and remove the animal from the game reserve that bordered the village in Uttar Pradesh but rangers were also set upon by the mob and had to flee for their lives. Villagers said the tiger had attacked people working in the fields - a claim disputed by forestry officials. The incident took place last week after a child "suddenly went near the tigress without any reason," said Naveen Khandelwal, Divisional Forest Officer at the Pilibhit Tiger Reserve. When the youth raised a cry, villagers rushed to save him. Around 40 people entered the jungle and assaulted the tigress, leaving it seriously injured, said Mr Khandelwal. A post-mortem conducted by wildlife experts concluded that the tigress died "due to shock" as a result of blood hemorrhage, broken bones and numerous injuries with sharp and blunt objects, according to local media. Mr Khandelwal said locals also attacked the forest officials monitoring the tigress and created obstacles in their work. Four people have been arrested and an investigation has been ordered into the incident. Around 30 people were killed by tigers in India in 2018, and more than 60 tigers have died or been killed so far this year across the country. Tigers were close to extinction in India a few years ago due to poaching. But the country is now home to more than half the world's tiger population with more than 2,220 found in special reserves in a 2014 census. The Indian government is expected to announce a further increase in tiger numbers in the 2018 census.
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| 2020 Trump campaign press secretary reacts to Fox News poll showing Biden ahead of Trump Posted: 27 Jul 2019 07:02 PM PDT  Kayleigh McEnany weighs in on the latest Fox News poll that shows Joe Biden leading President Trump by 10 points in a head-to-head match up.
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| Kenya governor of president's home area held for corruption Posted: 28 Jul 2019 10:53 AM PDT |
| Arizona lawmaker criticized for saying US might look like South America Posted: 28 Jul 2019 08:17 AM PDT  Sen. Sylvia Allen, a Republican from Snowflake, made the comments at an event celebrating Mormon political pioneers, according to the Phoenix New Times.
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| World War III? How Russia, China, Japan and South Korea Nearly Started a War Posted: 27 Jul 2019 02:25 AM PDT  The morning dawned peacefully enough on July 22 as Chinese and Russian warplanes soared towards a rendezvous point over the Sea of Japan for what was to be their first-ever joint patrol.As Russia's defense ministry put it, this was intended to deepen "Russian-Chinese relations within our all-encompassing partnership, of further increasing cooperation between our armed forces, and of perfecting their capabilities to carry out joint actions, and of strengthening global strategic security."Representing the PLA Air Force were two H-6K jet bombers which threaded their away through the international airspace of the Korean Strait to meet over the Eastern Sea with two modernized Russian Tu-95MS "Bear" bombers, each with four turboprop engines with noisy contra-rotating propellers.Accompanying the Bears was a Russian A-50 Mainstay airborne early warning plane with a huge rotating radar dish mounted on a dorsal pylon to helped coordinate the multinational elements.These aircraft repeatedly entered and exited South Korea's air-defense identification zone (ADIZ), so the South Korean air force dispatched eighteen domestically-built F-15K Slam Eagle and KF-16 jet fighters to intercept them.
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| Young asylum seekers in US easy prey for gangs Posted: 27 Jul 2019 07:09 AM PDT  Young Central American asylum seekers fleeing violence and poverty in their home countries are increasingly falling prey to the notorious MS-13 gang in the United States, authorities say. The youngsters, most of them from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, are proving to be easy targets for the gang which takes advantage of their vulnerability as immigrants. "They are young victims who very likely left their countries in the hope that they would find security and prosperity in the United States," Los Angeles County district attorney Jackie Lacey said last week as she announced a sweeping indictment against 22 members of the gang.
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| Israel says Arrow-3 missile shield passes U.S. trials, warns Iran Posted: 28 Jul 2019 01:18 AM PDT  Israel's U.S.-backed Arrow-3 ballistic missile shield has passed a series of live interception tests over Alaska, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday, casting the achievement as a warning to Iran. Jointly manufactured by U.S. firm Boeing Co, Arrow-3 is billed as capable of shooting down incoming missiles in space, an altitude that would destroy any non-conventional warheads safely. It passed its first full interception test over the Mediterranean Sea in 2015 and was deployed in Israel in 2017.
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| Trump campaign appoints beauty queen who was ‘stripped of title over offensive tweets about Muslims and black people’ Posted: 28 Jul 2019 09:24 AM PDT  A student who lost her beauty queen title over tweets about Muslims and black people is joining a Trump campaign advisory board.Kathy Zhu said she was crowned Miss Michigan but lost her title after organisers discovered her tweets."It has been brought to the attention of Miss World America (MWA) that your social media accounts contain offensive, insensitive and inappropriate content," MWA appears to have said, in an email Ms Zhu posted online.The organisation stated the removal of the title would be enforced "effective immediately", adding that the Republican supporter must remove any reference to herself being a MWA participant on all social media platforms.But the 20-year-old has now been appointed to a Trump campaign advisory board, despite the controversy."I am so excited to now be part of the Women For Trump Coalition Advisory Board!" Ms Zhu said on Friday."Let's get Trump re-elected for 2020!"The official Trump campaign Twitter account described the University of Michigan student as "a patriot who has continued to stand for American values despite being stripped of her crown"."Thank you for your support of President Trump," the account added.Ms Zhu's controversial tweets have now been deleted.According to screenshots obtained by the Orlando Sentinel, the student had encountered and taken umbrage at a "try a hijab" booth at her university campus."So you're telling me that it's now just a fashion accessory and not a religious thing?" she wrote. "Or are you just trying to get women used to being oppressed under Islam?" In a second post, the student replied to a tweet about police violence against the African American community."Did you know that the majority of black deaths are caused by other blacks? Fix problems within your own community first before blaming others," she wrote.In a statement earlier sent to The Independent the 20-year-old said: "I stand by each and every one of my tweets on my account."She added that in her opinion, "Coming out as a conservative is way harder than coming out as gay in today's society."In 2016, Ms Zhu starred in a YouTube video with TV network Fusion titled: "Why this 18-year-old is voting for Donald Trump."While several social media users have expressed messages of support towards her, others have condemned the student over her comments."Don't get it twisted – Kathy Zhu was stripped of her title for disgusting tweets. Tweets that were racist. Not because she is a conservative," one Twitter user wrote.The Independent has contacted Miss World America for comment.
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| Every Mid-Engined Sports Car—Including a Few You Might Afford! Posted: 27 Jul 2019 05:59 AM PDT |
| Brazil miners kill tribal leader in Amazon land invasion Posted: 28 Jul 2019 11:33 AM PDT  Armed miners have reportedly invaded a village in a remote part of Brazil and killed a tribal leader. Villagers fled but were planning to return, sparking fears of a "bloodbath," according to local reports. The violence began last week when the indigenous leader was reportedly stabbed to death in an area belonging to the Waiapi tribe in Amapa state, in the north of the country. It came as around 50 miners, known as "garimpeiros," were said to have overrun the Waiapi village of Mariry. The leader's body was reportedly found with stab wounds in a river. The village is 186 miles from the state capital and a team of police departed to investigate. Randolfe Rodrigues, an opposition senator from Amapa, writing on his Facebook page, said: "The situation is urgent." He warned of a "bloodbath" and added: "This is the first violent invasion in 30 years since the demarcation of the indigenous reserves in Amapa." Jawaruwa Waiapi, a Wajãpi leader, said the government should send soldiers because the miners were armed with rifles. He said: "We're in danger." There are more than 1,000 Waiapi living in remote villages near the Brazilian border with French Guiana. Brazil's tribal peoples have long faced pressure from miners, ranchers and loggers. Activists say the threats have intensified since Jair Bolsonaro, the pro-business president, took power in January vowing to increase development in the Amazon rainforest. The Waiapi live deep inside the Amazon in an area rich in gold, manganese, iron and copper. Their territory is one of hundreds Brazil's government demarcated in the 1980s for the exclusive use of indigenous inhabitants, and access by outsiders is strictly regulated. Reports of the attack emerged as Mr Bolsonaro once again defended mining in the Amazon, highlighting the "absurd quantity of minerals" there. Mr Bolsonaro said he was looking for the "first world" to help Brazil exploit the areas.
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| Trump wins SCOTUS case to allow Pentagon funding to build border wall Posted: 28 Jul 2019 10:43 AM PDT ![Trump wins SCOTUS case to allow Pentagon funding to build border wall]( "Trump wins SCOTUS case to allow Pentagon funding to build border wall") Retired ICE supervisor Thomas Kilbride says the Supreme Court did the right thing, this is a big victory for the president.
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| Taliban vows future Afghanistan won't be terrorists' hotbed Posted: 26 Jul 2019 09:28 PM PDT  America's longest war has come full circle. The United States began bombing Afghanistan after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, to root out al-Qaida fighters harbored by the Taliban. Now, more than 18 years later, preventing Afghanistan from being a launching pad for more attacks on America is at the heart of ongoing U.S. talks with the Taliban.
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| How North Korea Could Launch a Nuclear War from the Sea Posted: 26 Jul 2019 10:00 PM PDT  North Korea's Kim dynasty has long practiced an unsubtle form of political signaling which can be summed up: when things aren't going its way, launch some missiles.Thus after National Security Advisor John Bolton, who has long advocated forceful "regime change" in North Korea, met with South Korean officials in July 2019, Pyongyang celebrated his arrival by test-firing two new short-range ballistic missiles.And as U.S. troops prepared to embark on their its first major military exercise with South Korea after a long hiatus in August 2019, on July 22 Pyongyang released photos of Kim Jong Un in gray suit visiting a dry dock to inspect what analysts have concluded is an old Romeo-class submarine modified to launch ballistic missiles through its sail (conning tower).A KCNA press release pointedly indicated the submarine's role in "strategic tasks"—a very thinly-veiled reference to its role launching nuclear weapons.
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| Italian police launch investigation into picture showing blindfolded US suspect in Rome police murder Posted: 28 Jul 2019 11:52 AM PDT  Italian police have launched an investigation into a picture showing a US student suspected of killing an officer, in a blindfold and handcuffs soon after the arrest. Two American teenagers were arrested on Saturday in Rome accused of the stabbing murder of Italian military police officer Mario Cerciello Rega in a drug deal gone awry. Finnegan Lee Elder, 19, and Gabriel Christian Natale-Hjorth, 18, are both from San Francisco and had been holidaying in the Italian capital. The pair are due in court on Monday to face charges of murder and extortion. Investigators said they stole the backpack of a man who helped them buy 'fake' cocaine and demanded 100 euros and a gram of the real drug for its return. People arrive to pay respect in the church where Carabinieri officer Mario Cerciello Rega was laid in state, in Rome, Sunday, July 28, 2019 Credit: AP The intermediary told police of the theft and two plainclothes officers went to the rendezvous, where Mr Rega was stabbed 11 times in a brawl. According to a statement by the Carabinieri, the Americans confessed to the crime after police found a knife hidden in the ceiling of their hotel room. Both men are being held in Rome's Regina Coeli prison, where nearly 1000 inmates are crammed into an ageing convent intended for 650. Mr Natale-Hjorth and Mr Elder attended Tamalpais High School together in Mill Valley, California, one of the five richest post-codes in the United States. In California, the Elder family posted a handwritten note on their door asking for privacy and released a statement expressing condolences to Rega's grieving family. "We are shocked and dismayed at the events that have been reported, but have very little independent information about these events. We have not been able to have any communication with our son," read the statement. According to Italian media reports citing police, Mr Elder confessed to the killing but said he did not realize that Rega was a police officer because the officers involved were both in plainclothes and he did not understand Italian. The picture of Mr Natale-Hjorth with head bowed and eyes covered by a blue blindfold at a police station started circulating on the Internet on Saturday and was published by several Italian newspapers on Sunday. Francesco Codini, Mr Elder's lawyer, said his client exercised his right not to respond to questions during a Saturday court hearing, in which he was ordered to remain in jail. 'The investigation is ongoing and our work has only just begun,'' Mr Codini told the Telegraph.
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| Cuban officials attend funeral service for Cardinal Ortega Posted: 28 Jul 2019 02:52 PM PDT |
| White House chief says 'everything Donald Trump says is offensive' Posted: 28 Jul 2019 01:14 PM PDT  Donald Trump's White House has defended the president in the wake of incendiary tweets he launched at a senior Democratic congressman of colour whose district he claimed was "rodent and rat infested". Mick Mulvaney, the president's acting chief of staff, described the tweets as "hyperbolic" after they sparked backlash across the country and among top Democrats, who rebuked the "racist attacks". "I understand that everything Donald Trump says is offensive to some people," Mr Mulvaney said in an interview with CBS News' Face the Nation on Sunday. He then noted how the president "said things that were critical" of four congresswomen of colour the same week Nancy Pelosi also criticised the group, adding that Mr Trump received negative press coverage over the issue, while the House speaker did not. Mr Mulvaney did not mention, however, mention that Ms Pelosi was criticising the group over their votes on a border defence funding bill, and Mr Trump had told the politicians to "go back" to their countries in a series of tweets largely seen as racist. "I understand why" his latest tweets attacking Democratic Congressman Elijah Cummings and the majority-black city of Baltimore are being perceived as racist, Mr Mulvaney said on Sunday. "But that doesn't mean that it's racist," he said. > Acting WH Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney euphemistically describes Trump's racist tweets as "hyperbolic," says "everything that Donald Trump says is offensive to some people" — as if that makes it okay. pic.twitter.com/gIqUD5uQP6> > — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) > > July 28, 2019Mr Trump spent his Saturday morning sharing videos posted by Twitter users seemingly showing run-down portions of Mr Cumming's district in Maryland, writing divisive and hate-filled messages towards the congressman on the social media platform throughout the day. "There is nothing racist in stating plainly what most people already know, that Elijah Cummings has done a terrible job for the people of his district, and of Baltimore itself," the president wrote on Sunday as backlash swelled over his latest tweets in just weeks that came across as racist and divisive to many Americans. "Dems always play the race card when they are unable to win with facts," he added. "Shame!"Mr Mulvaney continued to defend the president in another interview with Fox News Sunday's Chris Wallace, as the anchor grilled him over Mr Trump's frequent use of the word "infested" to describe places with large black populations. "There is a clear pattern here, Mick," Mr Wallace said as he laid out specific examples in recent years of the president using the term "infested" to attack politicians of colour. "You're spending way too much time reading between the lines," Mr Mulvaney said. "I'm not reading between the lines," Mr Wallace responded. "I'm reading the lines."
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| Our Former Long-Term Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio Test Car Is for Sale Posted: 27 Jul 2019 02:10 PM PDT  We thought we'd heard the last of the somewhat problematic sports sedan after its 40,000-mile test, but here it is again.
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| Vatican says no recent bones found in search of ossuary Posted: 28 Jul 2019 07:33 AM PDT  Experts say they have found no recent bones in their examination of a ossuary as part of a search for a teenager who disappeared 36 years ago, Vatican officials said Sunday. A Vatican spokesman said a team of specialists, who completed their work Sunday, had found no bones old enough to match those of Emanuela Orlandi, the missing teenager. Forensics specialist Giovanni Arcudi, who led the team, said they had found "no bone structure dating back to a period later than the end of the 19th century," said the statement.
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| Hong Kong’s Economy Hit by Protests, Finance Secretary Chan Says Posted: 27 Jul 2019 10:39 PM PDT ![Hong Kong's Economy Hit by Protests, Finance Secretary Chan Says]( "Hong Kong's Economy Hit by Protests, Finance Secretary Chan Says") (Bloomberg) -- Social unrest gripping Hong Kong has affected the city's economy and businesses, and the unemployment rate is likely to rise from current levels, Financial Secretary Paul Chan said in a blog post.In the Chinese-language post on his website, Chan said many local retail and catering businesses had experienced a "sharp decline" in business, and he warned that the longer the historic protests go on, the more pressure they will pile on small and medium enterprises."For foreign tourists and enterprises, the unrest in Hong Kong dampens their appetite for traveling and investment," Chan said in translated comments. If the movement lasts, he said, "everyone's employment and livelihood will be at stake."The Hong Kong government will consider countermeasures to stabilize the economy, Chan said, without providing details.The overall economic downturn that Hong Kong is experiencing, including because of external factors such as the U.S.-China trade war and frictions in the technology sector, will "inevitably be transmitted to the job market." The jobless rate will likely rise from its current 20-year low of 2.8%, Chan wrote. The import and export, wholesale and construction industries are among the most affected and their situations have begun to deteriorate, he said.Read more about the protests' hit on Hong Kong's economyOver the past eight weeks, hundreds of thousands of people have demonstrated against proposed legislation that would ease extraditions to mainland China. While the planned law has been suspended, the movement has grown to include calls for Chief Executive Carrie Lam's resignation, causing a political crisis in the city.Hong Kong is set to report preliminary second-quarter gross domestic product on July 31. The government will also conduct an interim review of the year's economic growth forecast to reflect possible changes in the coming months more accurately, Chan said.There have been signs this month that the mass demonstrations are starting to take a toll on the financial hub's economy as big-spending travelers stay away. Some global luxury retailers said the unrest weighed on sales due to store closures and fewer tourists. The Hong Kong Retail Management Association expressed concern that civil unrest could damage the city's image as a safe environment, culinary capital and haven for shoppers.\--With assistance from Evelyn Yu.To contact the reporter on this story: Eric Lam in Hong Kong at elam87@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Christopher Anstey at canstey@bloomberg.net, Karen Leigh, Stanley JamesFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| US citizen says he lost 26 pounds under 'inhumane' conditions at border facility in Texas Posted: 27 Jul 2019 09:31 AM PDT  An 18-year-old U.S. citizen from Dallas says he lost 26 pounds while being held for more than three weeks at a U.S. border detention center.
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| Diplomats recommit to saving Iran deal, oppose US sanctions Posted: 28 Jul 2019 08:50 AM PDT  Diplomats from Iran and five world powers recommitted Sunday to salvaging a major nuclear deal amid mounting tensions between the West and Tehran since the U.S. withdrew from the accord and reimposed sanctions. Representatives of Iran, Germany, France, Britain, China, Russia and the European Union met in Vienna to discuss the 2015 agreement that restricts the Iranian nuclear program. Fu Cong, the head of Chinese delegation, said that while there were "some tense moments" during the meeting, "on the whole the atmosphere was very good.
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| The Navy Reportedly booted SEAL Team 7 out of Iraq Posted: 26 Jul 2019 09:00 PM PDT  When the commander of Special Operations Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve unceremoniously booted SEAL Team 7 out of Iraq this week, the U.S. Special Operations Command justified it "due to a perceived deterioration of good order and discipline within the team during non-operational periods."But according to an alarming new report in the New York Times, "deterioration of good order and discipline" seemed to be an understatement.While the Navy initially indicated that an alcohol-soaked July 4th party was the core driver of the decision, a senior Navy official revealed to the New York Times' David Philipps that a senior enlisted platoon member had allegedly raped a female service member assigned to the SEAL platoon.In addition, "when commanders began investigating the allegations, the entire platoon invoked their right to remain silent" under the Fifth Amendment, Philipps reports. "At that point, the official said, commanders decided to send the whole platoon home, including the lieutenant in command."When reached for comment by Task & Purpose, SOCOM spokesman Ken McGraw said the command was "unable to confirm the nature of any allegations that are currently under investigation."
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| British PM Johnson tells EU: ditch the backstop or there will be no-deal Brexit Posted: 27 Jul 2019 03:54 AM PDT ![British PM Johnson tells EU: ditch the backstop or there will be no-deal Brexit]( "British PM Johnson tells EU: ditch the backstop or there will be no-deal Brexit") British Prime Minister Boris Johnson cautioned the European Union on Saturday that the Irish backstop, which he said was undemocratic and divisive, needed to be ditched if they were to strike a Brexit divorce deal. "If we get rid of the backstop whole and entire then we are making a lot of progress," Johnson said, when asked if it is was only the Irish border backstop that he wanted changed. "But we can't do it as long as that anti-democratic backstop, that backstop that seeks to divide our country, divide the UK, remains in place," he said.
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| US senator helps pregnant migrant with life-threatening condition apply for asylum at US-Mexico border Posted: 28 Jul 2019 03:25 PM PDT  A pregnant Mexican woman suffering complications was told by immigration officers that they couldn't process her family's asylum claim at the US border on Saturday before a US senator intervened to persuade the officers to take the woman to a Texas hospital.While visiting a migrant shelter on Saturday, Ron Wyden grew concerned about a woman who was 38 weeks pregnant and suffering from pre-eclampsia and other complications.The senator and his staff decided to take the woman, her husband and 3-year-old son to a port of entry to make their asylum claim.At the Paso del Norte Bridge linking Juárez and El Paso, the family approached two US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers, presented their identification and said they wanted to request asylum.They then heard the words that tens of thousands of asylum seekers have been told for more than a year at the US-Mexico border: "We're full," a CBP officer told them.Mr Wyden, who had followed behind the family along with an entourage of staff members and friends from Oregon, then stepped forward and identified himself.He told the officers that Mexicans are exempt from the "metering" programme CBP has used to strictly control the number of people allowed to request asylum at ports of entry.He also told the officers the woman was late term in her pregnancy and suffering complications.The officers called a supervisor, who arrived minutes later, and allowed the family to go to the port of entry to make their asylum claim.Mr Wyden was clearly shaken by his two-day visit to the border, which included a tour of CBP holding cells and an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility.At the Juárez shelter, he met a 3-year-old boy who had stopped speaking after being held with his father by the US Border Patrol and then sent back to Mexico.Mr Wyden spoke with families who were required to stay in Mexico for six months before their first US immigration court hearing."These policies that I've seen are not what America is about. And in fact what we saw with respect to the woman who is here today is just a blatant violation of US law," Mr Wyden said, referring to the pregnant woman.He said he believed the CBP agents would have turned away the family if he had not intervened, a sentiment echoed by Taylor Levy, an El Paso immigration attorney who took Mr Wyden and his staff to Juárez."I feel very confident that if the family had tried to present alone, they would not have been allowed in," Ms Levy said.A CBP spokesman said the officer would not have told the family that asylum processing was at capacity if they had explained that they were Mexican and that the mother was pregnant.However, the family gave the officer, whose uniform identified his last name as Loya, a folder that contained their Mexican birth certificates and identification.Shaw Drake, the policy director for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Border Rights Centre in El Paso, Texas, said he asked the officer afterward if the family had identified themselves as Mexican asylum seekers, and the officer said they had.Mr Wyden was also critical of a CBP officer who told the senator's staff they were not allowed to take photos or video on the bridge.The ACLU's Mr Drake said the officer, whose name tag identified him as Castro, was wrong, and he told the staff they could continue to record."Certainly it looked like it had the potential for not going well. The ACLU folks talked about their legal rights to be able to record the [processing], and one of the officers said, 'We have a situation'," Mr Wyden said."So having done this for a while, those are the kinds of things that concern you and might suggest it's not going well."Metering is used as a way to cap the number of people allowed to apply for asylum at ports of entry.Mexicans are supposed to be exempt from metering under US asylum laws, Mr Drake said. He said he had seen CBP agents turning back Mexican asylum seekers before."If someone arrives on our border and expresses a fear of return to their home country, the government is barred from returning that person to their home country until a process has been followed to determine whether they have the right to remain in the United States as an asylee or a refugee," he said."And so turning a Mexican away at the border, back into Mexico, is directly returning an asylum seeker to the country from which they're fleeing persecution with no process to determine whether they have a fear of returning to that country."Mr Wyden met the family, who asked not to be identified, at a shelter that houses about 250 migrants in Juárez. They were sharing a small room with 11 other migrants.They said they were from the Mexican state of Guerrero and wanted to seek asylum because they feared violence from drug cartels and their government allies."There's a lot of insecurity, and the government is involved and corrupted with the cartels. There's just no way to survive," the father told Mr Wyden.The family showed Mr Wyden their number for the metering list, which is kept by the Chihuahua State Population Council in Juárez.The number 17,647 was handwritten on a slip of paper. More than 5,000 people were ahead of them on the list, meaning they faced a four- or five-month wait before being allowed to come to a US port of entry and seek asylum.The family said they had not previously gone to a port of entry because they thought they had to get on the metering list.Lauren Herbert, an Oregon paediatrician who accompanied Mr Wyden on the border tour, said she became concerned when talking to the mother."She had a previous diagnosis of preeclampsia, which already places her at high risk," Herbert said after the family crossed the border."And then she described two days of leaking fluid," which could indicate a ruptured membrane that threatened the life of mother and unborn child. "This is a high-risk pregnancy, and she needs to be seen by a doctor. Now."After Mr Wyden met the woman and her family, Ms Levy, the immigration attorney, and Mr Drake urged the senator to push CBP to get the woman to a hospital as soon as possible."The US government keeps saying that they don't put Mexicans on the metering list and that Mexicans will always be accepted because they're fleeing Mexico," Ms Levy said. She suggested Mr Wyden approach the border officers along with an ACLU representative and lawyers."That's what we're going to do," Mr Wyden said.About an hour later, the family was undergoing initial processing by CBP to begin their asylum claim. CBP officials told Mr Wyden that the mother would quickly be taken to a hospital for evaluation. Their status was not clear on Saturday night.Ian Philabaum, programme director for the legal group Innovation Law Lab who accompanied the senator on his two-day border tour, said the family's plight would have been much different without Mr Wyden's assistance."If not for the presence of a US senator, another asylum-seeker would have been sent back to dangerous conditions in Mexico, the same country she is fleeing, and despite the fact that she is pregnant and in dire need of medical attention," he said..Washington Post
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| President, first lady make unannounced visit to Trump's D.C. hotel Posted: 26 Jul 2019 07:19 PM PDT ![President, first lady make unannounced visit to Trump's D.C. hotel]( "President, first lady make unannounced visit to Trump's D.C. hotel") The visit capped off a big week for the president.
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| Death toll in Nigeria Boko Haram attack up to 65: official Posted: 28 Jul 2019 11:22 AM PDT  An attack this weekend by Boko Haram fighters on a funeral in northeast Nigeria has left 65 people dead, almost triple the initial toll, a local official said Sunday. "It is 65 people dead and 10 injured," local government chairman Muhammed Bulama said. Bulama said more than 20 people died in the initial attack on a funeral gathering.
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| Climate change warning as Arctic Circle burning at record rate Posted: 27 Jul 2019 05:41 AM PDT  An unprecedented outbreak of wildfires in the Arctic has sent smoke across Eurasia and released more carbon dioxide in two months than the Czech Republic or Belgium does in a year. As 44C heatwaves struck Europe, scientists observed more than 100 long-lasting, intense fires in the Arctic in June, the hottest month on record, and are seeing even more in July, according to Mark Parrington of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. Mostly in Alaska and Russia, the infernos have collectively released more than 120 million tonnes of CO2, more than the annual output of most countries. It is the most carbon emitted since satellite monitoring began in the early 2000s. This will further exacerbate climate change and has sent smoke pouring toward more populated parts of the world. Pollutants can persist more than a month in the atmosphere and spread thousands of kilometres. "You ask people about the Arctic, they think ice, polar bears, a clean environment, but clearly that's changing and that's no longer the case," Mr Parrington said. "It should be an alarm bell that something isn't right, but the way it could directly affect them is the long-range transfer of smoke pollution. I don't think it's getting as far as western Europe just yet but that could happen." The huge amounts of carbon from the fires will exacerbate climate change Credit: Maxar Technologies via AP While some have estimated that up to half a million kilometres have burned worldwide this year, Russia has been especially hard hit. Already, dangerous levels of smoke pollution have been reported this week in the cities of Chelyabinsk, Tomsk and Novosibirsk, where a curtain of smog turned the daytime sun a deep red. The number of patients in some cardiac wards have reportedly doubled. Fires first erupted in the peatlands of northern Siberia in June and have been joined by blazes in the massive boreal forests south of the Arctic circle. More than 30,000 square kilometres of Russian territory are currently burning, already about as much as in 2018 and twice as much as in 2017. This has created a 4.5 million square kilometre "smoke lid" that reaches as far east as the Pacific Ocean and as far south as Kazakhstan. To the west, thick smoke haze has drifted into more populated parts of the country, obscuring the streets of cities like Yekaterinburg and Perm and being detected all the way in Kazan on the Volga River. "This morning I thought a rubbish bin was burning outside the window, but it hasn't passed, the smoke is staying there," Yekaterinburg resident Yevgenia Panasyuk told local television. Impressive extent of heavy smoke across much of central Russia/Siberia, Alaska & Canada from numerous intense boreal & Arcticwildfires shows up in latest Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service aerosol optical depth forecast https://t.co/N5E33mccshpic.twitter.com/br0kkT02HY— Mark Parrington (@m_parrington) July 24, 2019 Once rare in the cold, wet tundra and forests, fires in the Arctic, which is warming at twice the world average, have been flaring up with increasing frequency. The Copernicus satellite system has observed an average of 50 to 60 Arctic hotspots on summer days since it began monitoring in 2003. This summer it has been seeing about 250 per day. And while in the past Arctic blazes would typically go out in a few days, the duration of this year's fires, many of which of have been burning for nearly two months, is shocking, Mr Parrington said. The long-term effects could be dire. Already in June, fires began to deposit soot known as "black carbon" on Arctic sea ice, accelerating its melt. Russia has mobilised 2,715 personnel and 28 aircraft but they are only fighting fires in about 1,500 square kilometres of territory. A brush fire burns in South Anchorage, Alaska Credit: Loren Holmes/Anchorage Daily News via AP Like in Alaska and Canada, not all fires here receive a response. Since 2015, Russia has declined to combat blazes in vast, remote "control zones" unless they threaten towns. "The logic is clear, we need to save money," the head of the Krasnoyarsk region said this month. But the policy of leaving fires alone until they spread to populated areas has resulted in an "environmental disaster at a national level," Greenpeace Russia said on Friday. It claimed that hundreds of villages were within the control zones, calling on these boundaries to be redrawn and for the government to send additional firefighting forces to defend villages. Also on Friday, a study published in Science found that some Alaskan glaciers were melting 100 times faster than previously thought. Drawing on data about the terminus of a glacier in LeConte Bay collected by local high students since 1983, scientists scanned the glacier with sonar, radar and time-lapse cameras for two summers to discover that the underwater part of it was melting up to 16 feet per day in August. Their results have demonstrated that glaciers are more sensitive to warming ocean temperatures than researchers had known.
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| Emmett Till memorial will be made bulletproof after photo of gun-toting students surfaces Posted: 28 Jul 2019 02:04 PM PDT  Emmett Till's memorial will be bulletproof after outrage over a photo of three gun-toting Ole Miss students posing in front of the sign.
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| Police: 1998 Arkansas school shooter killed in crash Posted: 28 Jul 2019 02:39 PM PDT  A man who was 11 years old in 1998 when he and a friend fatally shot four students and a teacher at their Arkansas middle school has died in a crash on a northeastern Arkansas highway, the State Police said. Drew Grant, 33, who had legally changed his name from Andrew Golden and had been living in Jackson, Missouri, died at around 9 p.m. Saturday, television station KAIT reported. The vehicle he was driving crashed head-on into another vehicle on Highway 167 near Cave City, which is about 100 miles (160 kilometers) north of Little Rock.
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| Almost a War?: Russian and Chinese Planes Violated South Korean Airspace Posted: 28 Jul 2019 01:02 AM PDT  Intrusions into East China Sea airspace claimed by both China and Japan are fairly common — even sometimes involving South Korea. What HappenedAn odd set of confrontations unfolded July 23 around the Korean Peninsula involving South Korea, Russia, China and Japan. According to an official South Korean account of the events, early on July 23, two Chinese H-6 bombers entered South Korea's Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) near Ieodo, a submerged rock claimed by both South Korea and China in the Yellow Sea. They later entered the ADIZ once again at Ulleung island off South Korea's east coast in the Sea of Japan before being joined by Russian TU-50 bombers and re-entering the ADIZ for a third time. After this, a Russian A-50 early warning aircraft and two Tu-95 bombers entered the ADIZ around Dokdo Island — a maritime space that Japan also claims as the Takeshima Islands — before the A-50 passed into South Korean-claimed airspace, leaving it and then reentering it again. South Korea scrambled jets to respond to both alleged entries by the A-50, firing both warning shots and flares.
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| U.K. Deploys Destroyer to Protect Shipping in Strait of Hormuz Posted: 28 Jul 2019 08:05 AM PDT ![U.K. Deploys Destroyer to Protect Shipping in Strait of Hormuz]( "U.K. Deploys Destroyer to Protect Shipping in Strait of Hormuz") (Bloomberg) -- The U.K. has deployed one of its Type 45 warships to help escort commercial ships through the Strait of Hormuz after Iran seized a British vessel amid heightening tensions with the West.The frigate, HMS Duncan, will operate alongside the Royal Navy's HMS Montrose Type 23 to shepherd British-flagged ships through the strait, the Ministry of Defence said in a statement. The air defense destroyer will operate until late August, it said.Oman, which shares the waterway with Iran, said it was in talks with "all parties" to restore stability to the waterway."We don't mediate, but in this case we are more concerned than others to ensure the stability of navigation," Foreign Minister Yousef Bin Alawi said after discussions with Iranian officials in Tehran. Oman has close ties with Iran.Tensions have flared in the strait in recent weeks as Iran pushes back against U.S. sanctions that are crippling its oil exports. Iran's Revolutionary Guard detained the Stena Impero this month and is still holding the ship. That move came after U.K. forces seized an Iranian tanker near Gibraltar early this month for allegedly violating sanctions against Syria.Oil ChokepointThe strait is a vital thoroughfare for the energy industry, accounting for about a third of the world's seaborne oil flows. The U.K. said last week under former Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt that further measures would be taken to respond to Iran, without giving detail on those plans."Freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz is vital not just to the U.K., but also our international partners and allies," Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said in the statement. "Merchant ships must be free to travel lawfully and trade safely, anywhere in the world."The Type 45, manufactured by BAE Systems Plc, was designed to replace the Type 42 warships that formed part of the Royal Navy's fleet during the Falklands War. The final Type 42 was retired in 2013.The U.K. and Iran are maintaining contacts to try to resolve the situation. In a letter published Sunday by state-run Islamic Republic News Agency, President Hassan Rouhani congratulated Boris Johnson on becoming the U.K. prime minister and said he hoped this would usher in improved ties between London and Tehran.Britain's ambassador to Iran, meanwhile, said he had "good and detailed talks" with a senior hardline lawmaker who heads the Islamic Republic's parliamentary commission for National Security and Foreign Policy.Envoy Robert Macaire said in a tweet that it was "important to keep these channels of discussion open" after meeting with cleric and lawmaker, Mojtaba Zonnour, in Tehran. Zonnour was formerly Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's representative to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.Unraveling DealThe standoff over the tankers has fanned the intense strains in the region over renewed U.S. sanctions on Iran following Washington's abandonment of the multipower nuclear deal with Tehran last year. The other signatories to the deal met with an Iranian envoy in Vienna on Sunday to try to salvage the agreement.Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi characterized the talks as "constructive" but said his country will continue to scale back its commitments to the nuclear deal unless European powers guarantee Iran's ability to gain economic benefits promised in the accord, the semi-official Fars news reported.(Updates with Oman working to stabilize Hormuz in 3rd paragraph, Rouhani letter to Johnson in ninth, Iranian deputy foreign minister's comments in 13th.)\--With assistance from Arsalan Shahla and Vivian Nereim.To contact the reporter on this story: Benjamin Katz in London at bkatz38@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Anthony Palazzo at apalazzo@bloomberg.net, Amy TeibelFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| UK PM Johnson tells EU: ditch the backstop or there will be no-deal Brexit Posted: 27 Jul 2019 04:10 AM PDT  British Prime Minister Boris Johnson cautioned the European Union on Saturday that the Irish backstop, which he said was undemocratic, needed to be ditched if they were to strike a Brexit divorce deal. Johnson, since taking office on Wednesday, has repeatedly warned that if the EU continues to refuse to renegotiate the Withdrawal Agreement agreed by his predecessor, Theresa May, then he will take Britain out on Oct. 31 without a deal.
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| 'Abortion is freedom': Pro-choice billboard adverts protest all-male council declaring city ‘sanctuary for the unborn’ Posted: 28 Jul 2019 08:56 AM PDT  Almost overnight, a small town nestled in the heart of the Southern Bible Belt has become a battleground for America's deeply divisive debate over women's reproductive rights.There are no abortion clinics in Waskom, located near the Louisiana border, but last month an all-male city council passed an ordinance largely written by an anti-abortion group declaring it a "sanctuary city for the unborn".Officials insisted it was a preventive measure, designed to allay the council's fears that the signing of strict abortion bans in the neighbouring state could prompt clinics to move across the border and into their town of about 2,200 residents.Responding to the proclamation, abortion rights activists from Austin, around 300 miles away, erected two billboards on the edge of town that asserted "abortion is freedom" and directed women needing care to a website with information on local services.That small act of external resistance has galvanised many of the of men and women who live in the town.Heated disagreements have broken out on local Facebook groups since the billboards appeared, and a small number of women have reached out to the billboard sponsors to thank them for their visible protest.Others in town said they were considering volunteering to collect signatures from those who oppose the ban and setting up a support network for those who need it.The majority of local residents of Waskom interviewed by The Washington Post said they supported the ordinance and resent more liberal parts of the state plastering their views on billboards in a largely conservative community."I think they did it to take a dig at Waskom," said Jayna Lay, 37, who owns a local garage. "They send the wrong message in my opinion. 'Abortion is freedom', that's a messed up phrase. That's pretty much saying, 'Kill your children and you're free'. That's crazy to me."Ms Lay said she knew the council's action would cause controversy. "The day before the meeting, Facebook exploded. But I would never see Waskom having an abortion clinic anyway; it's such a small town full of churches."Corey Gossens, 31, who works in the railroad industry, was one of the few Waskom residents willing to speak out publicly against the ban."It baffles me how a group of all white middle-class men adopted an ordinance making abortion illegal within the city limits of Waskom," he said."It's been my personal experience that some people of this calibre in these small towns are in support of a pro-life stance only when it doesn't directly involve their lives and their perfect little white-picket-fence world."Mr Gossens asserted that men who agreed with the ordinance "would likely drive hours away from home with their pregnant teen daughter in tow for an appointment with Planned Parenthood, if they thought the birth of this hypothetical child would compromise their position in society, or their seat on the church pew".He added: "I have seen this myself, and many who remain silent beside me will attest. This is why I feel the billboard is a beautifully and perfectly timed juxtaposition to the absolute insanity taking place in a town that is barely on the map."Women living in Waskom who oppose the ordinance and support the message of the billboards would only speak on the condition of anonymity. They said they feared being "shunned" by their churches and, in some cases, even their own husbands."A woman should be able to have the right to have an abortion," said one woman, who spoke with unconcealed fury about the council's move. "You can't just take people's rights away. There is a reason why you get an abortion – we don't know what happens behind closed doors."There are young ladies around here I've spoken to whose family don't believe that an uncle has been raping them. So they've been forced to get an abortion. Things get swept under the rug here."There are women here who agree with me and a lot who have had abortions but are too afraid to say anything," she added. She offered no further details.Delma Catalina Limones, the communications manager for NARAL Pro-Choice Texas, which helped pay for the billboards, said they had no contact with anyone in Waskom until the billboards were erected. "People reached out to thank us for them," she said.The city ordinance declared her organisation, along with other reproductive rights allies, "criminal," despite the 1973 Supreme Court decision legalising abortion. "Organisations that perform abortions and assist others in obtaining abortions are declared to be criminal organisations," the ordinance states.It adds that it "shall be unlawful" for any of these organisations to offer "services of any type," rent office space, purchase real property or establish a "physical presence of any sort" within Waskom."We refuse to be intimidated, and we will continue to work to expand and protect abortion access in Texas," Ms Limones said.Cristina Parker, communications director for the Austin-based Lilith Fund, an organisation that also helped fund and erect the billboards, said her group wanted local women to know abortion was still legal and available to them.When abortion bans are voted on, "it does create a lot of confusion," she said.Jesse Moore, the local mayor, insisted the matter was closed. "We have no intentions whatsoever to go [head] to head with anybody who opposes it," he said in an interview in his Waskom office. "As far as I am concerned, we are done with the abortion clinic issue."Texas has historically been at the forefront of the abortion rights battle. Roe v Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision, originated here.As the state-by-state battle over abortion rights has intensified this year, Republican lawmakers have increasingly pushed strict bans on the procedure as part of a strategy designed to give the Supreme Court the opportunity to overturn the landmark ruling.Neither side indicated they expect the Waskom ordinance to advance that far.Mr Moore insisted the move in Waskom was solely about stopping a clinic from ever opening in the city.He said he "didn't hear a word" of opposition from anyone who attended the packed meeting when the ordinance was passed, and that the meeting prompted "the largest crowd I have seen"."I want to make clear that we passed that ordinance to keep abortion clinics out of Waskom," he said. "I don't like what they [the billboards] say, but they have got that right."The abortion clinic closest to Waskom is Hope Medical Group for Women, just over 20 miles across the border in Shreveport, Louisiana.Mr Moore said the council "got wind" that this clinic was planning on relocating, or putting a satellite office in Waskom.The clinic's administrator, Kathaleen Pittman, said there was never a plan to move."Hope Medical Group for Women never had any intention of moving there," Ms Pittman said. "Information provided to the city of Waskom was absolutely incorrect."Townspeople point to external groups as stirring up confusion and using the town as a front for both sides of the debate to promote their agendas.Lobbying for the ordinance was led by Right to Life of East Texas, whose director, Mark Lee Dickson, applauded the move on Facebook."Mark approached us and we talked to him about it," Mr Moore said. "He and his group came up with an ordinance and a resolution."There were some little changes made to it, and we decided that was the one we were going to go with; we felt like it fit us better than anything we'd seen."It is not hard to find residents who are willing to speak in support of their council's new ordinance. Erin Grable, 47, rejected the idea that an abortion is acceptable in any circumstance.As she served customers settling down for lunch at Jim's Bar-B-Que, she described herself as a Christian."So of course I don't believe in abortion," she said. She said she believed there are a "million other options that nobody wants to talk about," including adoption.Asked whether she supported the right of a woman to seek an abortion in cases of rape or incest, she replied: "In my heart, no. I'm a full-on Christian, and I think there are always different things you can do."I pray for people who are lost, in my mind. People who believe in abortion ... need prayer."She also rejected criticisms levied at the male council members who passed the ordinance. "The thing they don't want to tell you is that 90 per cent of the people at that meeting were female," she said."They want to say we are letting men make our decisions. I think that's ridiculous. We are strong women in Texas; we know what we think and believe all by ourselves, and we will tell you."Suzan Maxwell, 58, owns an embroidery printing business, added she, too, is "very proud" of what has happened in the town.A recent Washington Post-ABC poll found support for legal abortion stands at its highest level in more than two decades, with a 60 per cent majority nationwide who say abortion should be legal in most or all cases.Even in Waskom, some uncertainty surfaced. Speaking on the outskirts of the town, Damon Anderson, 60, a father to one daughter, said he struggles to justify the right to abortion when women have access to birth control. However, he said, in the instance of rape or incest, it was "different."He said: "If you got raped or beaten, I think you should have a choice as to whether you want to be a mother or not."I wouldn't necessarily want an abortion clinic in this town," he added. "I would hate to know that there are babies being killed across the street, but people have got to go somewhere."Washington Post
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| Trump names John Ratcliffe to replace Dan Coats as director of national intelligence Posted: 28 Jul 2019 02:07 PM PDT  The Texas congressman stood up for the president during last week's Mueller hearings.
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| France's Macron to host Putin ahead of G7 summit Posted: 27 Jul 2019 12:53 PM PDT  Bormes-les-Mimosas (France) (AFP) - French President Emmanuel Macron confirmed Saturday he had invited his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin for talks on August 19, days before hosting a G7 summit. Macron said the meeting with Putin would take place at his summer retreat, the medieval fort of Bregancon near the village of Bormes-les-Mimosas on France's Mediterranean coast.
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| From Africa to Mexico: How far would you go for the American dream? Posted: 28 Jul 2019 12:07 AM PDT  Hobbling from snake bites, men and women traversing one of the world's most dangerous stretches of jungle are abandoned to their fate. Corpses float by in the brown churn of the angry river. In the heart of the Darien Gap between Colombia and Panama there is no time to wait for the incapacitated, the infirm or those not strong enough to push on. "The only thing you can do is help yourself," says Tangie Sule, aged 29, shaking his head as he recalls the days and months he spent on one of the world's most extraordinary migration journeys. The route from South to North America is well trodden by those seeking a new life in the US. But this year has seen a sharp rise in migrants from an entirely different continent. Tangie, like the 50 or so people he was travelling with through the rivers, mountains and swamplands of the Darien Gap, is from Cameroon. Tangie is one of hundreds of Africans now camped at the Mexico border in a seemingly interminable queue for an asylum hearing Credit: Erin Siegal McIntyre /The Telegraph He is one of a growing cohort of refugees from war-torn Central Africa to escape to visa-friendly entry points in South America and hit the road on the long march to the US border. As Europe has tightened immigration controls, and the numbers crossing the Mediterranean fallen away precipitously, citizens of troubled African nations have started looking west across the Atlantic. And why not? Brazil and Ecuador's visa requirements allow citizens of many countries in Africa to travel there with relative ease. Tens of thousands have made the epic trek in recent years. Last year 2,958 African migrants were detained in Mexico alone, according to government figures, up from 785 in 2014. Many more go undetected. Tangie is one of hundreds of Africans now camped at the Mexico border in a seemingly interminable queue for an asylum hearing – an increasingly rare occurrence under the administration of United States President Donald Trump. Standing outside the San Isidro border crossing in Tijuana, Mexico, mere meters from his final destination, he remembers the days and months he spent between here and his home town 10,000 miles away. African migration map to the US Tangie's story A former money transfer agent, Tangie fled his home in Cameroon and flew to Quito, Ecuador. From there, he travelled north across the Americas to reach Mexico and, hopefully one day, the United States. Tangie, an Anglaphone, left Cameroon after he was persecuted by police working for the dominant, French-speaking majority, he says. "I did not decide to leave but I had to leave because my life was at risk," he says. He loves his country but says he was forced out. After being arrested twice and tortured for his activism work for the Southern Cameroon National Council, which represents the English-speaking minority, the police came looking for him in his home. "My younger brother was in the house with my sister. As he saw them coming; he tried to run and they shot him. They shot him dead," he says. Tangie just starting out in the Colombian jungle, near Capurgana Tangie left his home town of Bamenda, and his wife and one-year-old child, to take a flight to Quito, now a gateway into the Americas for thousands of African migrants fleeing violence and poverty at home. From Quito he crossed over the border by land into Colombia. "I met African brothers and they told me 'we should go far, let's migrate, let's leave this place', so we started from Colombia and we went to Panama. We trekked by foot." But blocking their way was the infamous Darien Gap. The treacherous 60-mile zone of dense rainforest that separates Colombia and Panama is infested with drug traffickers as well as poisonous snakes and spiders. It is the only break in the Pan American highway, which runs from the tip of Chile to Alaska. Tangie and a group of some 50 Africans who met in Colombia entered the thick jungle through the coastal town of Capurgana, after paying for a rickety speed boat to take them across the bay at the end the Atrato River. Not everybody came out the other side. "It was a horrible experience believe me – if I had known what it was going to be like I would have remained in Colombia," says Tangie. "You find somebody dying but you cannot help that person. We were in a group of Cameroonians of more than 50, believe me – around 45 of us made it. The others died on the way – they got swept away [by] the rivers in the jungle. Snake bites. There's nothing you can do. The only thing you can do is help yourself." He continues: "We had people who could not resist the mountain. All we did was tell the person take it easy, take it slow, we will wait for you at the summit. "There are times when we got to the summit and we waited hours for people and they don't come. There are people that had snakebites and we didn't have any medication for them – we saw their legs starting to get black and all we could do was abandon them. "We had people being carried by the [river] water – you just see their corpses left by the water on the bank." African migrant route to the US - Darien Gap The Darien Gap isn't just home to the usual jungle features of poisonous wildlife, fast-flowing rivers and challenging climate conditions. Often referred to as the 'mouth of the funnel' this slice of land is where tons of cocaine from Colombia moves north, heading for the world's biggest retail market – the United States. Weapons are also trafficked through the Darien Gap to be used by criminal gangs and /or guerrilla armies operating in the region. After finally making it over the Panama border, Tangie and his companions were given shelter in makeshift camps at the northern end of the Gap. After that, he says that they were bussed through the country at the expense of the government, who he says didn't want migrants wandering around looking for help. The same happened in Costa Rica, where Tangie says that they were given a pass that gave them permission to pass through within 25 days. Migrants crossing irregularly the border between Guatemala and Mexico. Credit: Encarni Pindado /The Telegraph "We left and went to Nicaragua, Nicaragua to Honduras – who also gave us passes – and then we went to Guatemala. When we got to Guatemala we were told that if we were arrested we would be deported so we had to smuggle ourselves from Guatemala to Mexico," says Tangie. He and his fellow travellers managed to get on a bus through Guatemala to the Suchiate river that runs along part of the border with Mexico. It is the main entry point for migrants from Central and South America and its economy is almost entirely based round the flow of goods, and people. Hundreds, if not thousands, of people arrive at the final stopping point in Guatemala – Tecun Uman – and then take one of the dozens of cycle taxis up to the river's edge. From there they cross on makeshift rafts, operated by oarsman who navigate the waters high or low for the price of a dollar per person. African migration route to the US - Suchiate river People smugglers are charging migrants some $3,000 for help getting from here to the United States border, said Oswaldo Garcia, who has been working as an oarsman for the last 14 years. To get from Central American countries to as far as the city of Houston, and evade Customs and Border Patrol, it's much more expensive and costs between $9,000 to $12,000. Since the first mass caravan in October 2018, official vigilance on the river has been growing. Most recently, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) sent some 21,000 troops from the newly created National Guard to both of Mexico's borders – part of the deal he cut with President Donald Trump in June to avoid threatened tariffs. The security force is new, and was created by AMLO this year to bring down Mexico's record homicide rates – in part caused by warring drug gangs. Instead, it has been tasked with apprehending migrants, and preventing them from coming into Mexico or trying to cross its northern line into the United States illegally. Never in its modern history has Mexico sent troops to its northern border with the US to prevent migrants from crossing - historically the country has depended on the remittances sent home by Mexicans in El Norte (the North, as the U.S is referred to in Mexico). Central American migrants queue at The Mexican Comisssion for Refugees in Tapachula Credit: Encarni Pindado /The Telegraph Less than 40kms away, a 45-minute drive from the Suchiate River, lies the city of Tapachula, and this is the first hub within Mexico for migrants wanting to declare themselves to the authorities. Most want legal status in Mexico to avoid having to stay out of sight and reduce their chances of being extorted by corrupt officials or, worse, kidnapped and blackmailed by crime gangs. Outside the offices of its immigration agency, INM, hundreds of people congregate everyday to get information about refuges and boarding houses and temporary legal status in the country as they move north to the U.S border. Black bin bags, cardboard boxes, blanket rolls and disposable eating plates surround babies sleeping on blankets on the ground, clad in nothing but nappies to counter the humid heat of Mexico's most southern state, Chiapas. People here are from a spectrum of countries: the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Cameroon, Angola, Eritrea and even India – nationalities very rarely seen seen on this migrant trail a decade ago. Some of them are asking for asylum in Mexico. Percentage of US refugee arrivals that are African Emmanuel, aged 42, a teacher from Angola, came via Brazil to Mexico. Softly spoken and traveling alone, he isn't wedded to the idea of getting to the United States. "I don't know the procedure here," he says. "But as long as I can get a visa and find a job to do, I'm in Mexico. I can't be here without working." But most, like Aginetta, aged 30, from Kinshasa, Congo, who was traveling with her daughters aged 1 and eight, had their eyes on the US. "It's difficult to be here," she says. "I don't have money to eat or sleep or drink." Much like the US, Mexico has been overwhelmed by the wave of migrants coming from the region and other continents in the last year. In Tapachula housing is at full capacity, and many migrants are sleeping in the streets. Broadly speaking, people in Mexico have been tolerant of migrants, aware of the troubles they are fleeing. But generosity has worn thin since the first mass caravans in October last year. Migrants crossing the Suchiate river, the border between Guatemala and Mexico Credit: Encarni Pindado /The Telegraph Tangi said that he and his fellow African travellers have encountered negative reactions in Mexico. "Permit me but there is a lot of racism here. Even in the bus, people take their clothes and cover their noses and it's not comfortable for them." These factors discourage many from making Mexico their final destination, and the majority end up clustering in towns along the northern border, waiting to ask for asylum in the US. Tijuana has a shabby charm in parts and American-style roads and restaurants in others. Both seedy and sophisticated, it is traditionally a popular tourist playground for Americans in cities like San Diego on the other side of the line. The crossing where Tangie and his friends are waiting, the San Ysidro, is thought to be the busiest land crossing on the border and in the world. But increasingly, tourists are staying away as they become bottlenecks for people wanting to get to the US. Migrants like Tangie are growing increasingly desperate as they wait for a way out and a change of scene. African migrants apprehended on the US-Mexico border A photo of the bodies of Oscar and Valeria Martinez, a father and his two-year-old girl from El Salvador who drowned trying to cross the Rio Grande that separates the US and Mexico on parts of the border, recently sent ripples around the world. Many experts saw it as a direct result of Trump's "Remain in Mexico" policy. "The US policy of metering who can request asylum at the ports of entry, which can mean weeks or months of waiting in dangerous Mexican border towns, drove this father to make the desperate decision to cross the river with his family," said Maureen Meyer, director of the Mexico and Migrant Rights program at Washington Office for Latin America (WOLA) think tank. "[The number of Africans migrating to Mexico] is a problem in a lot of senses," added Maria Dolores Paris Pombo, a professor at Mexico's Colegio de la Frontera Norte. "Mexico has no tradition of integration, not even for Central Americans.... Racism in Mexico is very strong and there is very little support – including for applying for asylum. Most people have to support themselves from within the community." Where there is desperation, corruption thrives. A number of migrants told The Telegraph said that by paying between $800 to $1,000, those waiting can advance their place in the line to speed up entry. "People are now buying their number before getting in," said Tangie. Cameroon native Tangie Sule will spend months awaiting his asylum interview in the United States from Tijuana Credit: Erin Siegal McIntyre /The Telegraph For Tangie and his friends from Cameroon the wait will be long. Trump is making most asylum applicants wait in Mexico whilst their cases are processed – the "Remain in Mexico" policy – because the US immigrant processing system is overwhelmed, some say 'broken'. In the first week of June, more than 500 people from Africa were arrested by US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) on the Del Rio part of the border in Texas, including one group of more than 100 people, according to CBP. That's more than the total of 211 African migrants detained there over the whole of 2018. The migrants from Africa, a rising number from Asia taking a similar route, and Latin America are all part of a growing tide that Trump has called an "invasion" and declared a national emergency. Last week Tangie was still at the border – having been there for more than six weeks. In his final communications with The Telegraph, he said that he was considering crossing the border illegally as the numbers in line had failed to advance. "I have been persevering," he said via a WhatsApp message. "But life in Tijuana is getting harder day after day. I have no choice but to get into the US illegally. If you don't find me online, just pray for me." 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