| El Paso shooting: Mexico government calls for US gun law reform over 'act of terrorism' in Texas Posted: 05 Aug 2019 05:06 AM PDT  The Mexican government has dubbed the mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, over the weekend an "act of terrorism" against Mexicans, while the president of that nation expressed hope that the US will act swiftly to change its gun laws.The shooting, on Saturday, has left at least 22 people dead, after a gunman opened fire in a Walmart just miles from the US-Mexico border."There could be a change to their laws because it is stunning what is happening, unfortunate, and very powerful," Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the Mexican president, said on Monday. "I don't rule out that they could change their constitution and laws. These are new times; you have to always be adjusting the legal framework to the new reality."The shooting on Saturday has shocked many in the US and Mexico, and has sparked an international conversation around white supremacy and racism in the US after reports indicated the white gunman wrote an anti-immigrant screed online before the attack.Foreign minister Marcelo Ebrard called on the US to establish a "clear and convincing position against hate crimes' following the shooting that he called an "act of terrorism" against Mexicans."Mexico is outraged," Mr Ebrard said, noting that at least seven Mexican citizens are among the dead.More follows…
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| Trump's response to the weekend massacres show he is an ethical black hole Posted: 05 Aug 2019 12:37 PM PDT  Trump is playing the country like he's a conductor of a symphony of racist violence'Under this president, people are now afraid to go the hospital or to go the police.' Photograph: Susan Walsh/APDonald Trump continues to play his cynical game of dodging responsibility, shifting blame and exploiting tragedy. In a press conference called to address the horrors of two mass shootings in the United States over the past weekend, the president said nothing about his pivotal role in stoking fear and racism among certain segments of the population, said nothing about the fact that five of the 10 deadliest shootings in American history have happened since 2016, the fact that he has become a figurehead in the dark underground of the global white nationalist movement.Instead, Trump blamed the internet, blamed video games, blamed Congress and blamed "mental health issues". By tying legislation for tougher gun laws to immigration reform, as he tweeted earlier, Trump also and by extension blamed immigrants, who themselves are the victims of the very racism that has been unleashed by this president.With this ethical black hole of leadership and narcissistic exploitation of other people's tragedy, Trump proves once again – as if we needed any more proof – that he is unfit for the office he occupies. But the tragedy is larger than his job. It's also what he's doing to our country.How are we, the ordinary people of this country, supposed to go about our daily lives in this country any more? The victims in Ohio were doing nothing but enjoying themselves before they were gunned down. The killed and wounded in El Paso were doing nothing but back-to-school shopping.Nor does it stop there. Last April, people were terrorized in Poway, California, when a shooter entered their synagogue as they were celebrating Passover and began firing. And at least since last March, when a suspected white supremacist stormed two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, killing 51 people, American Muslims have congregated more nervously, increasing security at their mosques around the country. If you think the New Zealand connection is far afield from the American context, note that both the alleged Poway and El Paso shooters referenced the New Zealand shooter directly and favorably in their own manifestos."In general, I support the Christchurch shooter and his manifesto," the alleged El Paso shooter's manifesto says. "This attack is a response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas. They are the instigators, not me." The rhetoric here sounds suspiciously like the president's, who for months, had been tweeting and shrieking about the so-called caravan being "an invasion of our country". Trump even laughed at the suggestion that migrants should be shot.Such is the world of ideas that circulate dangerously and freely today. Hispanics are invaders, says the suspected El Paso shooter. Muslims want to "replace" white people, according to the accused Christchurch shooter. Jews are determined to "enslave" all the other races, proclaims the alleged Poway shooter. All of these notions are as ridiculous as they are noxious.But while such ideas can be easily dismissed, their real-world consequences cannot. When will the next shooting happen? And who will be its target? The world of the rightwing extremist is populated by too many enemies. Muslims, Latinxs, Jews, immigrants, African Americans, refugees, women. And who will the president blame next?Probably those with mental disabilities, but the idea that mass shooter phenomenon is "a mental illness problem" is another Trumpian sleight of hand. Not only does such a notion deflect responsibility from his own racist statements and actions (and not only does it conveniently forget that in 2018 Trump himself made it easier for people with mental illness to buy guns), but it also advances a dangerous falsehood. In fact, there is no scientifically discernible link between gun violence and mental illness. But with Trump making the link loudly and publicly, those with mental disabilities become even more vulnerable.In fact, Trump is playing the country like he's a conductor of a symphony of racist violence. Each of us has come to know a particular fear under him, and he draws it out of us when he wants. Muslims have learned to prepare for violence against them when the president tweets or retweets Islamophobic content. Immigrants – including legal permanent residents, for God's sake – are being told to live in constant fear of Ice raids and immigration detention. Jewish Americans worry about attending their synagogues. Refugees are told they will be sent back.Trump waves his baton, and the racism sings.Nor is this just a matter of perception or limited to the violent acts of the extreme fringe. Reports in El Paso indicate that some people avoided seeking medical care or approaching authorities to find their loved one because of their immigration status, leading the West Texas wing of the Customs and Border Protection to tweet: "We are not conducting enforcement operations at area hospitals, the family reunification center or shelters. We stand in support of our community."Under this president, people are now afraid to go the hospital or to go the police. We are being taught to be afraid of the very institutions that have been created to protect us.Enough of this bloody, miserable and discordant concert of death and hatred. The basic answers are not difficult. We need fewer guns. We need less racism. We need a different president. * Moustafa Bayoumi is the author of the award-winning books How Does It Feel To Be a Problem? Being Young and Arab in America. He is professor of English at Brooklyn College, City University of New York
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| Man who threatened to 'shoot up' Walmart in Florida said he was inspired by El Paso shooting Posted: 05 Aug 2019 09:03 AM PDT  A Florida man who threatened to "shoot up" a Walmart on Sunday said he was inspired by Saturday's mass shooting in El Paso, Texas.
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| Kamala Harris Has 1 Big Weakness That Won't Be Easy to Dismiss Posted: 05 Aug 2019 02:59 AM PDT  During Wednesday night's Democratic presidential debate, Tulsi Gabbard tore into Kamala Harris for her track record as a prosecutor in San Francisco and later as California's Attorney General. The attack was sharp and effective, earning Gabbard an outsize share of the post-debate commentary. Its thrust was entirely fair, too, as any number of articles have demonstrated, including Lara Bazelon's recent takedown in The New York Times titled Kamala Haris Was Not a Progressive Prosecutor.The real significance of Gabbard's critique, however, lies not in the proposition that Harris was a particularly unprofessional or malign prosecutor, but rather in the fact that she seems to have been a rather ordinary prosecutor who simply did her job the way most prosecutors do. And if that makes a former-prosecutor-turned-presidential-candidate look like a monster, then perhaps that says more about prosecutors in general than it does about Kamala Harris in particular.Gabbard's gut-punch underscores the difficult position that modern prosecutors find themselves in as the key players in a substantially immoral and increasingly indefensible criminal justice system. A near-universal blind spot of career prosecutors like Harris is their failure to appreciate the fact that law and morality can—and in our system frequently do—diverge.
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| Mexican man who shielded wife in Texas mass shooting dies Posted: 05 Aug 2019 01:48 PM PDT  A Mexican man who threw himself in front of his wife to shield her from bullets in a mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, died on Monday, officials and his family said, raising the toll of Mexican nationals killed in one of two weekend mass shootings in the United States to eight. Juan de Dios Velazquez, 77, had moved to El Paso with his wife Estela Nicolasa, 65, from Ciudad Juarez, just across the border in Mexico, six months before they were caught in Saturday's mass shooting at a Walmart store. "He couldn't fight anymore, his heart started to fail," said Idaly Velazquez, a niece who confirmed his passing to Reuters.
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| Cellmate uses toilet to drown convicted Florida pedophile Posted: 05 Aug 2019 10:41 AM PDT  Paul Dixon has been charged with second-degree murder in the death of David Oseas Ramirez. The death allegedly occurred after the cellmates got into an argument.
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| Ohio shooting suspect had been suspended from school for making a 'rape list' of girls he wanted to attack Posted: 05 Aug 2019 09:11 AM PDT  The Ohio gunman who killed nine people on Sunday had previously been suspended from school over a "hit list" of classmates and a "rape list" of girls he wanted to sexually assault. Connor Betts, 24, opened fire outside a crowded bar in the early hours of Sunday, injuring dozens and leaving his own sister among the fatalities, before police on patrol in the area shot him dead. It has now emerged that the gunman had a history of violence, leading to questions over how he was able to purchase the fire arms used in the shooting spree. According to high school classmates, Betts was suspended during their junior year at suburban Bellbrook High School after a hit list of those he wanted to kill was found scrawled in a school bathroom. That followed an earlier suspension after Betts came to school with a list of female students he wanted to sexually assault, according to the two classmates, a man and a woman who are both now 24 and did not wish to be identified. "There was a kill list and a rape list, and my name was on the rape list," the female classmate told the Associated Press. Mourners leave flowers and candles at the entrance of Ned Peppers bar in the Oregon District following a memorial service Credit: Scott Olson/Getty A former cheerleader, the woman said she didn't really know Betts and was surprised when a police officer called her cellphone during her freshman year to tell her that her name was included on a list of potential targets. "The officer said he wouldn't be at school for a while," she said. "But after some time passed he was back, walking the halls. They didn't give us any warning that he was returning to school." The school district has not commented on those accounts, only confirming that Betts attended schools in the district. A former principal, Chris Baker, who retired this summer, told the Dayton Daily News "would not dispute that information" but refused to give any further information. However police said there was nothing in the 24-year-old's background that would have prevented him from purchasing the .223-caliber rifle with extended ammunition magazines that he used in Sunday's attack. The discovery of the hit list early in 2012 sparked a police investigation, according to local media reports, but it is not clear whether it led to any further action. Betts had no apparent criminal record as an adult, though if he had been charged as a juvenile that would typically be sealed under state law. "There's nothing in this individual's record that would have precluded him from getting these weapons," Dayton Police Chief Richard Biehl said on Sunday. The rifle Betts used in the shooting spree was fitted with an extended drum magazine that could hold 100 rounds. The gun was bought legally online from a dealer in Texas and shipped to a local firearms dealer, police said. Betts' sister Megan Betts, 22, was one of the first to be killed. Police said the siblings had arrived in the same vehicle with a third person earlier in the evening, but separated before the rampage. Of the 27 people injured, four remained in serious condition and one person in a critical condition. While Betts, who was 17 at the time, was not named publicly as the author of the list at the time, the former classmates said it was common knowledge within the school he was the culprit. Drew Gainey was among those who went on social media Sunday to say red flags were raised about Betts' behaviour years ago. "There was an incident in high school with this shooter that should have prevented him from ever getting his hands on a weapon. This was a tragedy that was 100% avoidable," he wrote on in a post on Sunday. Brad Howard, who said he was friends with Betts from preschool right until their high school graduation, offered a different assessment. "Connor Betts that I knew was a nice kid. The Connor Betts that I talked to, I always got along with well," he said. Mike Kern, a customer at the gas station where Betts used to work in Bellbrook, said "he was the nicest kid you could imagine". "I never heard him talk about violence, say a racist word, or anything like that," he added. Mr Kern said they sometimes played trivia at a bar near the gas station, and Mr Betts often knew the answers on questions about current events and pop culture. "He was real smart," he said. "He knew all the answers."
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| Libya airliner narrowly avoids airport bombing Posted: 05 Aug 2019 03:53 AM PDT  A Libyan airliner has narrowly escaped being hit by incoming fire as it landed at war-torn capital Tripoli's sole functioning airport, aviation officials said. "The crew on the flight from Benghazi, which was carrying 124 passengers, avoided being hit by bombing on Mitiga International Airport" on Sunday evening, the airport's management wrote on Facebook. The incident forced the airport to close to air traffic and re-route flights to Misrata, some 200 kilometres (125 miles) further east, until late Sunday night.
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| Mitch McConnell campaign posts photos of tombstones with Democrat names on hours after El Paso shooting Posted: 05 Aug 2019 03:14 PM PDT  Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell has been criticised after his re-election campaign team posted a photo of gravestones bearing the names of various Democrats and their policies – hours after the deadly mass shooting in El Paso on Saturday. Alongside a picture of a grinning Senator McConnell, the tweet shows a tombstone reading "RIP Amy McGrath, November 3rd 2020", who is running to unseat him in the Kentucky senate race.The other gravestones include socialism, the Green New Deal and Merrick Garland, a Democratic Supreme Court nominee who Mr McConnell refused to bring to the Senate floor for a vote in 2016.The tweet was posted on Saturday evening, just hours after the mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, that has so far left 22 people dead. Democrat Amy McGrath has responded to the post, saying: "Hours after the El Paso shooting, Mitch McConnell proudly tweeted this photo. I find it so troubling that our politics have become so nasty and personal that the Senate Majority Leader thinks it's appropriate to use imagery of the death of a political opponent (me) as messaging."> The Grim Reaper of Socialism at FancyFarm today. FancyFarm139 pic.twitter.com/KMKJifu3b5> > — Team Mitch (@Team_Mitch) > > August 3, 2019Ms McGrath then added: "It's symptomatic of what is wrong with our system. I'm fine with the ordinary rough and tumble of politics, but this strikes me as beyond the pale."Mr McConnell previously spoke out against violent political rhetoric, slamming Democrats for engaging in "toxic behaviour" leading up to the 2018 midterm elections.Patrick Crusius, the suspected shooter in the El Paso attack, is believed to have posted a four-page message online calling the Walmart attack "a response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas".The repeated use of the word "invasion" was one of many rhetorical devices in common with President Trump's stance on the issue of immigration, which Mr McConnell has amplified in his role as Senate Majority Leader.Senator McConnell's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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| Chicago suffers bloody weekend as gun violence leaves seven dead Posted: 05 Aug 2019 02:45 PM PDT  Mass shootings command widespread media coverage, but lost in the national conversations about guns are everyday killings A memorial where 26-year-old Chantell Grant and 35-year-old Andrea Stoudemire were shot and killed on 28 July in the South Side of Chicago. Photograph: Kamil Krzaczyński/AFP/Getty ImagesAs deadly mass shootings devastated communities in Texas and Ohio and reignited calls for lawmakers to act on gun reform, Chicago experienced yet another bloody weekend – suffering the kind of violence that has come to be treated by the nation as almost routine in this city.Seven people were killed and 46 wounded here, including in two multiple shootings on the west side. The first of the shootings, in the Douglas Park neighborhood early on Sunday, left seven wounded; the second, in Lawndale hours later, wounded another seven and killed one."As a city, we have to stand up and do a hell of a lot more than we've done in a very long time," Mayor Lori Lightfoot said in an address on the violence over the weekend."There are no adequate words at this point," she said of the violence.Often lost in national conversations about guns are shootings occurring every day in places like Chicago, which has continued to see high levels of violence, mostly affecting its predominantly black and brown south and west sides."In Chicago, it's just another weekend," Father Michael Pfleger, a south side pastor and anti-violence activist, said of the national response to the city's deadly violence. "It gets forgotten and pushed to the side."Where mass shootings tend to command widespread media coverage, Pfleger said, violence in Chicago tends not to make national headlines. In part, he believes it's become an "old story" after years of the city suffering from a devastatingly high murder rate. But it also has to do with the fact that those being affected by the city's scourge of violence are mostly black and brown Chicagoans, he said."Black and brown life being taken by gun violence is not something America has been concerned about for a long time," the St Sabina pastor said."It needs to get the same attention," Pfleger continued. "We have 47 people shot and seven killed. If that happened over in Iraq, that's all anyone would be talking about."To erase everyday violence from the national conversation about gun control is to lose sight of the scope of the problem, according to Kris Brown, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence."We do that at our own peril," Brown told the Guardian. "It's not routine for the people who live in these communities, and it doesn't have to be accepted as normal."As studies have shown, mass shootings like those in Texas and Ohio represent just a fraction of gun deaths in America. Suicides and other homicides account for the majority of firearm-related deaths. "We need to look at gun violence as the public health epidemic it is," Brown said. "We have to change the cultural narrative around guns."Doing so can be challenging, though, given the unwillingness by Republicans to act on commonsense gun reforms."The shootings that occurred this past weekend in Chicago are certainly not taken for granted by the neighborhoods and families that experience them all too often," Rob Nash, chair of the board of directors for the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence, said in an email interview. "The only people who have accepted gun violence as being routine are public policymakers who refuse to take action to stop it."Brown said the Brady campaign was continuing to work on changing the national narrative about guns, and Pfleger is organizing a national demonstration in Washington DC, in September in an effort to pressure lawmakers into action. "They're not gonna just do it," Pfleger said of gun reform. "They have to be pushed."
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| Ebrard Calls Shootings ‘Terrorism’ Against Mexicans in U.S. Posted: 04 Aug 2019 06:28 PM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- The mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, which left seven Mexicans dead, is being considered an act of terrorism against the country's community in the U.S., Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said.The country's consulate is working with the victim's families, Ebrard said at a press conference on Sunday. Mexico will take legal action against whoever was responsible for selling the weapon and will follow the investigation closely, he said."This will mark the first time that Mexico condemns an act of the kind as terrorism," Ebrard said.Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said he instructed Ebrard to explore legal measures to protect Mexican nationals in the U.S. after the shootings."I asked Marcelo Ebrard that in spite of the pain, we act responsibly," Lopez Obrador said in comments at an event Sunday posted on Twitter. The country's "indignation" will be translated into effective and expedited legal action that will demand conditions to protect Mexicans, Ebrard said in a video posted on Twitter.Ebrard said the country's attorney general is considering litigation and might look to extradite the shooter."For Mexico, this individual a terrorist," he said. Mexico will also send a diplomatic note to the U.S. to ask in a "respectful but firm" manner that the government make a clear statement against hate crimes.Police on Saturday arrested a 21-year-old Texas man suspected of opening fire with an assault rifle at a Walmart store a few miles from the Mexican border, killing at least 20 people. Authorities are investigating a possible link to an anti-immigrant document, with anger directed against immigrants and specifically against Mexicans.Less than 24 hours after the El Paso shooting, a gunman in body armor killed at lest nine people and injured dozens of others in Dayton, Ohio. Ebrard said no Mexicans were hurt or killed there.Mexico's ambassador to the U.S., Martha Barcena, was among the many who condemned the attack. "The intentionality of the attack against the Latino and Mexican community in El Paso is frightening," she tweeted Sunday. "Xenophobe and racist discourse has to stop. No to violence. No to hatred."The U.S. Justice Department is treating the case as domestic terrorism, spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said on Twitter. A conviction could entail the death penalty.(Updates with the number of Mexicans killed and details from the press conference.)To contact the reporter on this story: Andrea Navarro in Mexico City at anavarro30@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Case at bcase4@bloomberg.net, Mark Niquette, Ros KrasnyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| A United Airlines flight from Scotland to New York was canceled after 2 pilots were arrested on suspicion of drinking before they were meant to fly Posted: 05 Aug 2019 05:01 AM PDT  Scottish police arrested the pilots on suspicion of "carrying out pilot functions or activity while exceeding the prescribed limit of alcohol."
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| Malaysian police looking for missing 15-year-old London girl Posted: 05 Aug 2019 06:47 AM PDT  Police in Malaysia said Monday they are investigating the disappearance of a 15-year-old London girl, but there were no initial indications of foul play. The family of Nora Quoirin says her father discovered her missing from her bedroom Sunday morning at a resort hotel in a nature reserve 63 kilometers (39 miles) south of Kuala Lumpur, with the window left open. The Lucie Blackman Trust, a British charity supporting people during a crisis overseas, quoted the girl's aunt as saying the family considers her disappearance a criminal matter.
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| The U.S. Has Been Averaging More Than 1 Mass Shooting Per Day Posted: 05 Aug 2019 06:02 AM PDT  On Saturday, millions of Americans went to bed mourning the latest deadly mass shooting — this one in El Paso, Texas — and woke up the next day to news of a second, in Dayton, Ohio. The weekend carnage left at least 29 people dead, and plenty of indignation about Republican lawmakers who refuse to take up any meaningful gun reform, continuing to take money from pro-gun groups like the National Rifle Association.In truth, however, there was nothing particularly remarkable about the close timing of these two attacks: the United States has been averaging more than one mass shooting per day for at least the past three and a half years.According to the definition established by the Gun Violence Archive, which tracks every mass shooting in the country, a mass shooting is any incident in which at least four people were shot. And so far in 2019, there have been 255 such incidents. Monday, August 5 is just the 217th day of the year.And yes, there's already been a mass shooting today, in Brooklyn.If current trends hold — and given Republicans' resistance to any type of gun reform, there's no reason to expect mass shootings to abate — 2019 will set a new high for the number of mass shootings in the United States. But it won't be the first year on record to average more than one mass shooting per day — that distinction belongs to 2016, which saw 382 such incidents. The two years following were only marginally better, with 346 in 2017 and 340 in 2018. At the current pace, 2019 will close out a 4-year period in which Americans experienced more than one mass shooting per day.El Paso and Dayton happening 13 hours apart isn't just unremarkable — it's a statistical certainty.
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| US warned Sweden of 'negative consequences' if A$AP Rocky were not released from jail for trial Posted: 04 Aug 2019 03:01 AM PDT  A U.S. presidential envoy warned of "potentially negative consequences" to U.S.-Swedish relations if rapper A$AP Rocky were not released from prison, according to reports.
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| Cadillac CT6-V Shows Off New Blackwing V-8 Posted: 05 Aug 2019 06:00 AM PDT |
| Outrage in Gambia over claims ex-president ordered killings Posted: 05 Aug 2019 03:54 AM PDT  Baba Hydara was in his car, listening to the radio, when he heard a former hitman of ex-president Yahya Jammeh coldly describe how his dad was murdered. Baba's father, Deyda Hydara, co-founder of The Point newspaper and AFP's correspondent in The Gambia for 30 years, was revered among journalists in this small west African country. Baba Hydara, 42, has fought for years for his father's murderers and those who ordered them to be brought to book.
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| UPDATE 1-Bolton warns China, Russia not to double down on support of Maduro Posted: 05 Aug 2019 01:50 PM PDT ![UPDATE 1-Bolton warns China, Russia not to double down on support of Maduro]( "UPDATE 1-Bolton warns China, Russia not to double down on support of Maduro") U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton on Monday warned China and Russia not to double down in support of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, saying Venezuela might not repay its debt to them after Maduro falls. Bolton said a democratically elected government in Venezuela may view the two countries as hostile powers for supporting what he called the "criminal regime" of Maduro for so long, and could opt not to pay them back billions of dollars in loans.
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| Life in Walmart El Paso store before the mass shooting shines a light on why it was targeted Posted: 05 Aug 2019 03:32 AM PDT  Two nations physically and culturally come together in El Paso. The bustling Walmart on the city's east side, just minutes from the border with Mexico, exemplified those ties.The store was a border version of Middle America: A large number of Mexican-American families from El Paso crowded into the megastore daily for inexpensive groceries and, late in the summer, back-to-school supplies.Almost as often, families from Mexico drove across the international bridge to buy bargain TVs, cartons of nappies and discount clothing.It was one of the company's top 10 in America: Where most stores of its kind average 14,000 customers a week, the El Paso Walmart, a retail analyst said, saw 65,000.Its racks are stocked with Mexican football jerseys, cans of chillies and salsa and Mexican flags, folded beneath the American and Texas flags on display. The pharmacy's staff members are fully bilingual."It really does feel like a United Nations store," said Burt Flickinger, a retail consultant who has visited and studied the store.This is the border as it is lived everyday, far from the heated national debate over immigration. Children come and go across the international boundary for school, others come for jobs and shopping.It was in this Walmart, on a sunny Saturday morning, where a white gunman angered by what he called the "Hispanic invasion of Texas" chose to carry out a horrific act of violence.Disturbed gunmen have previously targeted American Jews, African Americans, Muslim-Americans, gay Americans and American journalists.Authorities say the El Paso gunman, identified as Patrick Crusius, 21, targeted Mexican and Mexican-American shoppers and workers in the attack on Saturday, killing 20 people and wounding 27 others.While there have been numerous Hispanic victims in several of the mass shootings that have shocked the nation in recent years — including the Pulse nightclub attack in Orlando, Florida, in 2016 — the massacre in El Paso was the deadliest anti-Latino attack in modern US history.The manifesto that a federal law enforcement official said Mr Crusius wrote and posted online minutes before the shooting made his anti-immigrant beliefs clear.He wrote that immigration "can only be detrimental to the future of America," and bemoaned a future in which Hispanics would take control of the local and state governments, "changing policy to better suit their needs".The apparent anti-Latino motive behind the attack stunned residents and officials, who saw the nation's fraught debate over culture and immigration erupting with sudden violence in a city that had been both a focal point of immigration and a place — like many border towns — where the notion of immigration and national identity had rarely felt divisive."What was most shocking to me is not that it was a mass shooting but the motive, the fact that he specifically targeted Mexican-Americans and Hispanics," said Gilda Baeza Ortega, 67, a librarian at Western New Mexico University who was in El Paso visiting her parents. "He came here for us."Across the country, many Latinos were describing the targeted killings as a 11 September moment, and the FBI's announcement Sunday that it had opened a domestic terrorism investigation only reinforced that belief, especially in a city that is 80 per cent Hispanic."This Anglo man came here to kill Hispanics," El Paso's sheriff, Richard Wiles, said. "I'm outraged, and you should be, too. This entire nation should be outraged. In this day and age, with all the serious issues we face, we are still confronted with people who will kill another for the sole reason of the colour of their skin."Before the attack upended the sense of normalcy in El Paso, the Walmart and the shopping area surrounding it lured many people from across the border, as well as many El Paso residents looking for something to do on a weekend afternoon.People from both countries would go to new releases at a cinema not far from the Walmart, shop for discount clothing at a nearby Ross Dress for Less or stop in for happy hour at Hooters.Texas has long been a state where Hispanics have shaped and in many ways defined what it means to be Texan. But in recent years, the old white Texas and the new Hispanic Texas have repeatedly clashed.Some of this tension involves who gets to tell history. Activists and scholars have begun focusing on the legacy of racist campaigns of terror against Latinos in this part of the West, including the killings a century ago of Mexicans by lynch mobs made up of Anglos.Going back further in the debate over any "invasion of Texas," historians note that it was actually carried out by Anglo slaveholders who migrated to the region in the 19th century when it was still part of Mexico, then seceded in 1836 and enshrined white supremacy in the first Texas Constitution.The more recent clashes have led not only to years-long court battles but also to physical confrontations between white and Hispanic politicians on the floor of the Texas House of Representatives.White Republican officials in Texas have publicly expressed alarm about what they describe as an "invasion" of migrants spreading disease at the Texas border.El Paso residents have now seen the most hateful parts of the debate bringing violence to their doors.Adriana Ruiz was among those who left flowers, having picked up a bouquet from another Walmart in El Paso after church."I just..." she said, her voice trailing off. "Right now, my heart is broken."Ms Ruiz, 50, said she was pained by the animosity that had surrounded the national debate about El Paso as it became a ground zero of sorts in recent months as migrants came rushing in from Central America.A hateful act seemed like such a stark contrast to the vibe and texture of the city where she was born and raised. She remembered going to Ciudad Juarez in Mexico on Saturdays with her mother, grandmother and aunts to go shopping."No matter who it is," she said. "We make them feel at home."The shooting, she said, showed that a toxic environment outside El Paso was finding its way into the city. She heard it in the remarks about life in the city that did not reflect what she knew, especially those from Donald Trump, the US president."That is something that came from the top," Ms Ruiz said, referring to the frequent portrayal of the border as a place of crisis that was threatened with invaders from outside."It's idiotic," she said, conceding that her anger had left her stumped for the right words. "I want to say some harsher words, but it's not right."Larry Scott, 40, said he had been in the Walmart on Saturday morning, several hours before the shooting. He had gotten two new tattoos on his left arm recently, including one of the Monopoly man holding a bag of money, and he needed ointment.When he heard about the attack, Mr Scott, who said he serves in the Army and is stationed at nearby Fort Bliss, felt an urge to do something, to somehow pitch in. He came back to the store Sunday, but that offered little consolation.El Paso was not his hometown. He was originally from Dallas, he said. Yet he had grown attached to the city."It's not a big city," he said. "But it's our home. I'm hoping this makes El Paso stronger."The Walmart where the shooting occurred lies on the east side of El Paso along Interstate 10, near a number of hotels, chain restaurants and a mall.Aside from the wares that are aimed at Mexican shoppers, it resembles hundreds of other Walmarts across America. The store does not sell guns, but does sell ammunition, a Walmart spokesman, Randy Hargrove, said.On Sunday, the store remained blocked off by police officers who continued to collect evidence of the massacre inside. The parking lot was still packed, with the same cars that had been sitting there since the shooting the day before.A steady line of cars drove by, some with cameras pressed to their windows. One man walked up, stood silently for a moment, made the sign of the cross and walked away.New York Times
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| More than 175 killed worldwide in last eight years in white nationalist-linked attacks Posted: 04 Aug 2019 12:58 PM PDT  At least 16 high-profile attacks have been motivated by white nationalist conspiracy theoriesProtesters against gun violence dressed in white march in Times Square in response to recent mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio, on Sunday in New York City. Photograph: Go Nakamura/Getty ImagesIn the past eight years, more than 175 people around the world have been killed in at least 16 high-profile attacks motivated, or apparently motivated, by white nationalist conspiracy theories, including the far-right racist belief that nonwhite immigrants and refugees are "invaders" who pose an existential threat to the white race.The targets of deadly attacks have included Muslim worshippers at mosques in Canada, Britain and New Zealand; black Americans in church, including during Bible study at a historic black church in South Carolina; Jewish Americans in synagogues across the United States; and leftwing politicians and activists in the US, UK, Greece and Norway.Now, law enforcement officials in the United States are investigating two more mass shootings with potential links to white nationalist radicalization.An attack on Saturday at a Walmart superstore in El Paso, Texas, a majority-Hispanic city, which left 22 people dead and more than two dozen wounded, and a shooting the previous weekend at a garlic festival in Gilroy, California, packed with families with young children, which left three people dead and 15 wounded.Many of the white male perpetrators or suspects in these attacks have explicitly described immigrants and refugees as "invaders" or an "invasion" online, and have cited previous white nationalist killers as the inspiration for their attacks.Several of these deadly attacks have also been closely linked to mainstream political debates over refugees and immigration. Here are the prominent cases prior to this August 2019 shooting: April 20191 killed in mass shooting targeting a synagogue in Poway, California, US.The alleged shooter, 19, from California, opened fire in a synagogue during Passover services, killing a 60-year-old woman and injuring three others. An "open letter" posted on the 8chan extremist message board before the attack included white nationalist conspiracy rhetoric and said the shooter was inspired by the gunman who had opened fire on Muslims at two mosques in New Zealand the month before. March 201951 killed in mass shootings targeting two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand.The alleged shooter, a 28-year-old white man from Australia, posted on 8chan before the attack, and then live-streamed himself shooting unarmed people in and around two Christchurch mosques. The manifesto posted before the shooting paid tribute to previous white nationalist attacks, including Anders Breivik's 2011 bomb and shooting attack in Norway, as well as historic acts of violence against Muslims. October 201811 killed in a mass shooting targeting the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, US.The alleged shooter, a 46-year-old white man, reportedly shouted "All Jews must die!" during the attack. After he was taken into custody, he told a law enforcement official that he believed Jews "were committing a genocide to his people", a central white nationalist conspiracy theory. The gunman, who is awaiting trial and has pleaded not guilty, apparently had an active profile on an extremist social media site, where he accused Jewish people of trying to bring "evil" Muslims into the US, and wrote that a refugee aid organisation "likes to bring invaders in that kill our people". October 2018Man attempted to enter black church before allegedly killing two black people in a supermarket in Kentucky, US.A witness said that during the attack, the alleged shooter said: "Whites don't kill whites." His two victims, Maurice Stallard, 69, and Vickie Lee Jones, 67, were both black. Shortly before the shooting he had attempted to enter a nearby, predominantly black church, which was locked. The suspect was charged with hate crimes. August 2017Heather Heyer was killed and dozens injured after a car ploughed into anti-Nazi protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, US.After authorities shut down a violent white supremacist and neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, one of the men who had been photographed with a white supremacist group drove his car into a crowded street full of counter-protesters. Heather Heyer, 32, who was there protesting the far-right supporters, was killed. Dozens more were injured, many seriously. The killer had been obsessed with Hitler as a teenager, according to a former teacher. He was sentenced to life in prison. June 2017A man called Makram Ali was killed and 12 people injured after a van ploughed into worshippers outside a mosque in Finsbury Park, United Kingdom.The killer, who has been jailed for life, shouted: "I want to kill all Muslims – I did my bit," after the van attack, according to witnesses. He had been radicalised online and over Twitter, a judge concluded, and avidly consumed anti-Muslim propaganda from prominent rightwing figures. May 2017Two men stabbed to death after intervening in an anti-Muslim rant, Portland, Oregon, US.Two men were killed and one injured after they tried to intervene to protect young women on a public train who were being targeted with an anti-Muslim tirade. Their alleged killer shouted "Free speech or die" later in a courtroom, and "Death to Antifa! You call it terrorism, I call it patriotism!" The suspect is awaiting trial. March 2017Timothy Caughman stalked and killed by a white supremacist with a sword, New York, US.The alleged killer later pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life behind bars.Caughman, a 66-year-old "can and bottle recycler", had lively social media accounts full of photographs with celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey. His killer, an American military veteran, said he targeted a random black man on the street in New York City as a "practice run" for a bigger attack. January 2017Six people killed during evening prayers at a mosque in Quebec City, Canada.One of the victims, Azzeddine Soufiane, was killed as he attempted to tackle the gunman. Nineteen people were also injured in the shooting, which the convicted gunman said was prompted by Justin Trudeau's tweet that refugees were welcome in Canada, and that "diversity is strength". Those comments from the Canadian prime minster followed US president Donald Trump's travel ban on people from several Muslim-majority countries. The shooter, who said he feared refugees would kill his family, had previously been known as an aggressive online troll . June 2016Labour MP Jo Cox shot and stabbed to death, UK.Cox was a supporter of Britain staying in the European Union. She was attacked a week before the EU referendum vote in 2016. The man convicted of killing her was a white supremacist obsessed with the Nazis and apartheid-era South Africa. He shouted: "This is for Britain," "Keep Britain independent" and "Britain first" as he killed her. October 2015Three killed in attack on school in Trollhättan, Sweden.The attacker targeted a local high school with a high percentage of immigrant students. Police said students and teacherswith darker skinwere targeted. Three died, including 15-year-old Ahmed Hassan, who was born in Somalia and had recently moved to Sweden. June 2015Nine people killed during Bible study at a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina, US.The nine victims included elderly longtime church members at the Mother Emanuel AME church, and Clementa Pinckney, a state senator. The shooter, a self-avowed white supremacist, said he wanted to start a race war, and that he was concerned about "black-on-white crime". He has been convicted of murder and hate crimes. April 2014Three killed at Jewish centre and retirement home in Overland Park, Kansas, US.A former Ku Klux Klan leader shot and killed three people, one of them just 14 years old. He was later convicted of murder. He said he believed Jews were destroying the white race, and that diversity was a kind of genocide. None of his victims were Jewish, but he said he considered two of them to be accomplices to Jewish people. September 2013Rapper and anti-fascist activist Pavlos Fyssas stabbed to death in Piraeus, Greece.A senior member of Greece's neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party was imprisoned after confessing to the killing. August 2012Six worshippers killed in a shooting targeting a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin.The dead included the temple president, Satwant Singh Kaleka. The shooter, a "frustrated neo-Nazi" who had played in white power bands, was a regular on racist websites, and died in the attack. He had previously talked to one colleague in the US military about a "racial holy war that was coming" and told another he was a "race traitor" for dating a Latina woman. July 201177 people killed in attacks on Utøya island and in Oslo, Norway.A bomb attack, followed by a shooting that targeted the island summer youth camp of Norway's Labor party. The shooter, who was convicted and is in prison, wanted to prevent an "invasion of Muslims" and deliberately targeted politically active young people who he saw as "cultural Marxists" and proponents of multiculturalism. More than half of the dead were teenagers.
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| Classmate Says Dayton Shooter Targeted Her in High School: ‘We Predicted He Would Do This’ Posted: 05 Aug 2019 12:17 PM PDT  via TwitterJessica Masseth was months into her sophomore year at Bellbrook High School in Ohio when she started getting disturbing text messages from a freshman named Connor Betts. Betts texted that Masseth was on his "rape list," describing in detail "what he wanted to do" to her, she said—even sending her the list of all of his proposed victims to prove she wasn't the only one. Finally, Masseth said she had enough and went to police. "I was not surprised at all when I heard his name on the news yesterday," she said. "We predicted he would do this 10 years ago." Early Sunday morning, authorities said Betts, 24, opened fire on a crowded Dayton street lined with bars and restaurants. Wearing body armor and carrying an assault-style rifle outfitted with a magazine carrying a hundred rounds, he killed nine people, including his sister, and injured 26 others. Police killed him before he murdered more.Dayton Shooter Murdered Sister in Attack, Officials SayPolice said they do not have a motive for Betts' deadly rampage, but Masseth and other classmates said he expressed violent attitudes going back a decade.Word spread quickly in 2010 about the lists of 15 classmates he wanted to "rape or kill" in a notebook he carried around, Masseth said. "He had a kill list that was mostly guys and then a rape list that was mostly girls," Masseth said, adding that he also texted her the list to prove she was on it. "The lists basically had any girl who turned him down, any girl who thought they were above him, and any guy that was competition or was seen as a threat."Masseth, who said she was "not one of the popular girls," was shocked when she started to get Betts' texts naming her as one of the girls on his "rape list." The texts, she said, made it seem like Betts had a "God complex mixed with 'Iwantattention.'"Masseth said she doesn't even remember having a full conversation with him."In the texts, and on the lists, he talked about destruction and dismemberment. I mean how did the police not know he was going to do something like what he did this weekend?" she said. "Everyone knew he was not right."After "countless texts" and growing concern in school about the lists, Masseth said she finally told her mother, who encouraged her to contact the authorities. Another former classmate, who spoke to The Daily Beast but asked not to be named, said she learned she was on the list when she was questioned by police in the principal's office one morning."There was chatter at school that a kid was taken off the bus by the police but we weren't really sure who it was," she said. "But then police started asking me questions about Connor Betts and whether there was any reason he would want to hurt me."The former student said the list was conveyed to her as a "kill, dismember, and rape list.""My best friend and I on that list," she said. "But a good amount of girls on the list were girls that didn't want to date him. I personally never perceived our relationship as that close."Police officers pulled Betts off a school bus as they headed to school, a former classmate told The Washington Post. Masseth said police questioned Betts about the hit lists and he was suspended from school. The following year he returned to school, she said. When she graduated in 2012, Betts was still "not right." "He basically got a slap on the wrist," she said. "If he was only held accountable, this shooting would have never happened because he wouldn't have been able to buy any firearms. There are levels of failure here."Police declined to comment on the purported lists, citing the "ongoing investigation" into Betts' mass murder. Dayton Police Chief Richard Biehl said Sunday that Betts had no criminal record as an adult. Police said Betts arrived in Dayton's downtown entertainment district Saturday night in his father's car with with his younger sister, Megan, and a male acquaintance. Betts fatally shot his sister and wounded the acquaintance, who survived, police said. The acquaintance is not suspected to have played a role in the attack, officials say.Sometime around then, Betts crept through an alley before opening fire near a tattoo parlor before moving across the street toward a crowded line waiting to enter a bar. Just then, several police officers wielding pistols, a rifle, and a shotgun unloaded on Betts—and stopped him a split second before he stepped through the bar's open doors.Police said they are still investigating why Betts killed his sister and eight other people. Masseth said it is "still frightening" to learn he could have made good on his threat against her. "Everyone in high school knew what he was capable of, but there was a gap in getting Connor help because people just decided they didn't care," she said. "If people just cared a little more, none of this would have happened."The Mother Who Lost a Daughter to Her Son, the Mass MurdererRead 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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| Probe: No bias by TSA supervisor, but profiling concerns Posted: 05 Aug 2019 01:15 PM PDT  Investigators were unable to corroborate specific allegations that a Transportation Security Administration supervisor instructed air marshals to racially discriminate against passengers at Florida's busiest airport. The Office of Inspector General launched the investigation a year ago at the request of U.S. lawmakers after three air marshals went public with the discrimination allegations about the supervisor.
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| Mitch McConnell Falls Outside His Home, Fractures Shoulder Posted: 04 Aug 2019 03:09 PM PDT  Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell fell outside his home and fractured his shoulder in Louisville, Kentucky, Sunday."This morning, Leader McConnell tripped at home on his outside patio and suffered a fractured shoulder. He has been treated, released, and is working from home in Louisville," McConnell spokesman David Popp said in a statement according to The Washington Post.McConnell, 77, was briefly hospitalized after the fall. The Republican traveled to Kentucky on Friday to spend the roughly five-week recess in his home state. He was spotted Saturday at the annual Fancy Farm picnic, a political rally that features speakers from both parties, reported WLKY.The senator is seeking his seventh term in the Senate and faces a challenge from Democrat Amy McGrath, a former Kentucky congressional candidate and Marine fighter pilot.McConnell's fall comes as his critics point fingers at the powerful politician following two mass shootings in Texas and Ohio over the weekend. CNN anchor Brian Stelter used Twitter to point out six instances where McConnell offered prayers for those affected by mass shootings.
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| Politicians Keep Blaming Mass Shootings on Mental Health Issues. Doctors Say They're Wrong Posted: 05 Aug 2019 10:22 AM PDT  They want to focus on gun control
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| FBI's haunting warning about 'lone offenders' paints a grim picture Posted: 05 Aug 2019 08:20 AM PDT  Series of deadly shootings highlight a simmering threat within the USA, a risk nearly on par with the international terror threat
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| EU criticises 'militarisation' of South China Sea Posted: 05 Aug 2019 02:29 AM PDT  The "militarisation" of the South China Sea is threatening peace in the contested waterway, the EU's top diplomat said Monday in Hanoi, echoing warnings from the US as pressure mounts against Beijing's ambitions in the region. China has been accused of deploying warships, arming outposts and ramming fishing vessels in the resource-rich sea, sparking ire from other claimants. On Monday, the European Union's foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said the bloc was concerned over "increasing tension" in the area.
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| Police Fire Tear Gas to Protect China Office: Hong Kong Update Posted: 04 Aug 2019 05:41 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Hong Kong police once again used tear gas against protesters trying to attack China's main representation office, capping a weekend of violent demonstrations across the city that mark the ninth week of civil unrest in the Asian financial capital.Riot police used gas to deter hundreds of black-clad protesters, many wearing hard hats, goggles and gas masks, from approaching the China liaison office in Sai Wan on Sunday. Protesters then migrated to Causeway Bay, a bustling shopping and dining area, and set up barricades that were blocking one of the busiest roadways in the city.Earlier marchers massed in Tseung Kwan O, in the city's New Territories, and surrounded the district police station, pelting it with projectiles and breaking windows.On Saturday, thousands converged in Kowloon, where police used tear gas to try to disperse crowds and re-open blocked roads. Police stations came under attack there as demonstrators hurled projectiles at them and set fires.The violence, including arson and blockading major roads, "crosses the line" of peaceful and rational protests and cannot be tolerated, the Hong Kong government said in a statement Sunday. The city is reaching a "very dangerous" point, the statement said. The government also urged people not to join a planned general strike on Monday, saying it would hurt the economy and increase the risk of a recession.China's official Xinhua News Agency said in a commentary on Sunday that China's central government would not sit back and let the situation continue.The protest movement that began as weekend marches has shifted form and become a part of daily life, with disquiet growing in the Asian financial hub. Dozens of people appeared in court last week on a colonial-era rioting charge that carries a 10-year prison term -- signaling the city's Beijing-backed government is heeding calls for a stronger response, bolstered by support from Chinese authorities.Demonstrations began nearly nine weeks ago over opposition to legislation easing extraditions to China, and demands have since widened to include Chief Executive Carrie Lam's resignation, the release of people detained at previous protests and an inquiry into the police's use of force.Sunday marches kick off (6 p.m.)Two marches kicked off on Sunday afternoon, one on the western side of Hong Kong island and the other in the New Territories district of Tseung Kwan O.The New Territories attracted thousands who moved directly to the local police station. Some protesters hurled projectiles at the building, breaking windows and drawing a warning from police that the crowd would be dispersed. Police issued a statement advising the public to leave the area immediately.The island march started at the expat-friendly residential neighborhood of Kennedy Town and was scheduled to end at Sun Yat Sen Memorial Park in Sai Ying Pun.One of the protesters in Kennedy Town, 61-year-old church secretary Danny Yuen, said he was worried that the clashes could lead to serious injuries or death, which would "affect society's stability.""I don't like to see the violence, I'd like to see a peaceful way to engage with the government, but the government is forcing this way onto people," he said. "If the government would retract the bill, it would reduce tensions."China won't sit back (11 a.m.)Police said in a statement Sunday that at least 20 vehicles were damaged and officers' safety was put at risk when protesters hurled bricks and other objects into the station with "large catapults." When police dispersed the crowd some protesters hurled petrol bombs and other objects at officers, who fired tear gas to try to quell the violence, police said.At least 20 people were arrested for offenses including unlawful assembly and assault, according to the statement.Xinhua said in a commentary that the central government would not sit back and let the situation continue, while reiterating that it's sticking to the one country, two systems regime. The news agency warned "evil forces which are trying to challenge the central government's authority, to destroy the one country, two systems bottom line" that they will be judged by history.The report accused protesters of throwing a Chinese national flag into the sea in an act that is an insult to all Chinese nationals including Hong Kong residents.Two marches are planned for Sunday afternoon, one in the western side of Hong Kong island, ending in the area near China's liaison office; the other in the New Territories neighborhood of Tseung Kwan O.Government Condemns Acts of Protesters (2:16 a.m.)The Hong Kong government in a statement expressed regret over what it termed protesters' "violent" and "radical" actions, including barricading major roads in the Yau Tsim Mong district and the entrance to the Cross Harbor Tunnel. It said the actions went beyond what a "civilized society" considers freedom of expression. "We express regret over such behaviors which are illegal and disregard the public order and the needs of other members of the public." Acts that defaced the national flag were also condemned.Wong Tai Sin residents tear-gassed (Sunday, 12:05 a.m.)Police fired tear gas in Wong Tai Sin, a residential area with mostly public housing named for the nearby temple of the same name. Many were apparently local residents without gas masks or hard hats. They were angry at riot police who made arrests earlier on, including of at least one elderly person. Many remained on the streets as confrontations continued. Hundreds of protesters returned and encircled a police station in the Prince Edward neighborhood.Police use tear gas in Mong Kok (Saturday, 10:38 p.m.)Police fired tear gas in the densely populated neighborhood of Mong Kok for the first time since the start of the protests seven weeks ago. Lines of riot police faced off against demonstrators who had blocked Nathan Road, a main commercial thoroughfare. Police made progress in clearing many of the demonstrators, though some appeared to have entered into other neighborhoods with a thinner police presence.A large number of protesters remained in neighboring Tsim Sha Tsui, even after police fired several rounds of tear gas there to try dispel the demonstrators.Tear gas fired in Tsim Sha Tsui (Saturday 9:15 p.m.)Police fired tear gas to dispel protesters who had surrounded a police station in the Tsim Sha Tsui area, a shopping district that attracts many Chinese tourists. Protesters had set a fire near the station and hurled bricks at the outpost. Demonstrators had also blocked Nathan Road, the main thoroughfare in Kowloon, from Tsim Sha Tsui to Mong Kok. Riot police were also out in number trying to clear protesters from the Mong Kok district.Cross-Harbour Tunnel barricaded (Saturday 7 p.m.)Marchers from a rally in Mong Kok broke up into groups with some heading toward the shopping district of Tsim Sha Tsui, where they took over the waterfront Canton Road. Some protesters set up barricades blocking the entrance to the Cross Harbor Tunnel, a busy route for vehicles, TV footage showed. Authorities cleared the barricades but traffic was backed up in a huge jam on the Hong Kong Island side of the tunnel.Organizers said 120,000 people attended the anti-government march, while police estimated that 4,200 were on the originally agreed route for the rally.One city, two rallies (Saturday 3 p.m.)Anti-government protesters gathered in a park in the Kowloon area for a 1.5 kilometer (about 1 mile) march to the Mong Kong district on a route approved by police. The park was overflowing with thousands of demonstrators spilling into the streets as police kept a low profile.In Causeway Bay, across the harbor on the Hong Kong Island side, thousands protesters congregated in Victoria Park in support of the police. Organizers said 90,000 people took part, while the media reported police as saying 26,000 attended.One of the demonstrators, who would only give her name as Ms Fung, accused the media of supporting protesters."If the news is beneficial to the people clad in black, they report it," she said. The protesters don't realize the harm they're inflicting on the economy, she said. "The police are very good compared to other countries."Lam Attends Event (Friday 8:50 p.m.)Hong Kong's embattled leader attended a cocktail reception celebrating the upcoming 70th anniversary of the People's Republic of China at the Hong Kong Cultural Center. Some 20 black-clad protesters waited for her, Radio Television Hong Kong reported. Afterward, she didn't answer questions from protesters and media about the civil servants' rally as she was escorted away by bodyguards. People called out to her: "Have you ever responded to us?" "You are ignoring public opinion." "Do you agree you are hiding?"'To Voice My Opinion' (8:15 p.m.)"I am worried about the future of Hong Kong. We are being China-fied after all, despite the promise of 'one country, two systems.' I will keep coming out because I am so worried," said Ms Fung, a 60-year-old retired civil servant who worked as a clerk in the police commissioner's office for more than 20 years and declined to give her first name. "I want to come out and show that it's not just the young people and the people who are protesting that are against Carrie Lam, the extradition bill, and the police violence."Earlier in the evening, organizers played a video on a jumbo screen that summarized weeks of protests. When it came to July 21 attacks on marchers by unidentified white-shirted men at a train station in the suburb of Yuen Long, some people wept.My department "serves Hong Kong people," said Alan Cheung, 28, who works for the city's fire services department and came to the protest in a black shirt. "What happened in Yuen Long station and the police, what they do, is injustice.""I come to this protest to voice my opinion," Cheung said.Civil Servant Rally (7:30 p.m.)Thousands of people poured into centrally located Chater Garden after work for a planned civil servants' protest, some of them chanting the popular Chinese saying "add oil," a refrain of this movement that means to add fuel. The crowds flooded onto adjoining Chater Road as black-shirted demonstrators continued to join the gathering.Anticipating the rally, the government on Thursday night released a statement saying its civil servants must uphold their "political neutrality."Protesters' Next PlansA general strike and seven accompanying rallies called for Monday across the city are gaining traction in protester forums. They call for peaceful "non co-operation actions" at three busy metro stations at 7:30 a.m., as rush hour kicks off: Lai King, Diamond Hill and Fortress Hill. The strike begins hours later, at 1 p.m., with gatherings in Tuen Mun, Tseun Wan, Tai Po, Sha Tin, Mong Kok, Wong Tai Sin and Admiralty, which houses government offices and has been ground zero for weeks of mass marches.About 450 employees from both Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. and Hong Kong Airlines Ltd. said they will take part in Monday's strike, Apple Daily reported Saturday, citing unidentified people.More than 300 Cathay Pacific and Cathay Dragon employees, including pilots, flight attendants and support staff, and about 150 from Hong Kong Airlines have expressed support for the civil action, the paper said. The employees who want to take part may take leave or call in sick, Apple Daily reported.(Updates with tear gas being fired near China liaison office.)\--With assistance from Sheryl Tian Tong Lee, Kari Lindberg, Alfred Liu, Anjali Cordeiro and Natalie Lung.To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Karen Leigh in Hong Kong at kleigh4@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Scott at bscott66@bloomberg.net, Brian Wingfield, James AmottFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| View Photos of the New 2020 Nissan Versa Posted: 05 Aug 2019 10:04 AM PDT |
| UN report: North Korea cyber experts raised up to $2 billion Posted: 05 Aug 2019 04:27 PM PDT  The experts said in a new report to the Security Council that North Korea is using cyberspace "to launch increasingly sophisticated attacks to steal funds from financial institutions and cryptocurrency exchanges to generate income" in violation of sanctions. Cryptocurrency exchanges deal in virtual money like bitcoin, Ethereum and Ripple which use a technology called blockchain.
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| Is Manila Worth American Lives? Posted: 04 Aug 2019 03:00 PM PDT  Washington policymakers treat allies like Facebook friends, the more the merrier. Montenegro or the United Kingdom, allies are viewed as much the same. Administrations routinely ink another "mutual" defense treaty and pretend the result is a real military alliance, designed to make America more secure.In fact, most U.S. "allies" are nothing of the sort. During the Cold War Washington's principal objective was to prevent weak, war-torn, and/or failed states from falling under the control of the Soviet Union, and later China and North Korea. Although General and then President Dwight Eisenhower warned against turning the Europeans into security dependents, successive administrations ignored his advice. The U.S. inevitably took the lead and didn't worry much about what its nominal allies did. They lagged behind the United States, failed to fulfill their commitments, and not too subtly took a very cheap if not quite free ride at Washington's expense. U.S. officials whined on cue about the unfairness, but otherwise did nothing.The allies eventually recovered economically, with Japan, Germany, the UK, France, and South Korea becoming important international players. Nevertheless, Washington continues to be overwhelmingly responsible for national and regional as well as global security. The presumption is that its alliances are essentially costless. All Washington needs to do to deter impudent adversaries is make an occasional threat or issue a pertinent demand. There's really no need for allies to even possess weapons.
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| Poll shows Germany still divided 30 years after fall of Berlin Wall Posted: 04 Aug 2019 07:35 AM PDT  Almost 30 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, a new poll has exposed the enduring political divisions in Germany. The nationalist Alternative for Germany party (AfD) has surged to first place in the former communist east, with 23 per cent support. But it has failed to make a similar breakthrough in the former west, where it is in fourth place with just 12 per cent. The figures for the Green Party, which is in second place in the national polls, are almost a mirror image of the AfD's. In the former west, the Greens have 25 per cent support, but in the east it is they who are mired in fourth place with just 13 per cent. Just three months ahead of national celebrations to mark the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Wall, the findings of the poll for Bild am Sonntag newspaper have laid bare the deep divide that persists across the old Cold War border. The AfD looks set to dominate the headlines in the run-up to November's anniversary, with the polls suggesting it could come first in regional elections in three eastern states this autumn. The party's anti-migrant platform has proved highly effective in the former communist east, where the city of Chemnitz saw violent protests last year. But the east accounts for less than a fifth of Germany's population, and the party has failed to make the sort of inroads in the west it would need to challenge for power. Current polls suggest the AfD could come first in three regional elections in eastern Germany this autumn Credit: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg The poll's findings suggest Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) are the only party that can claim nationwide support. They are first in the west with 27 per cent, and second in the east with 22 per cent — a single point behind the AfD. Support for Germany's other traditional main party has collapsed: the centre-Left Social Democrats (SPD) are third in the west on 13 per cent and a dismal fifth in the east with just 11 per cent. While the AfD is unlikely to win a majority in any of this autumn's regional elections, and will probably be kept out of power by a coalition of rival parties, coming first would be a shot across the bows of Mrs Merkel's government. The latest poll findings come as a new academic study claimed to show how the AfD distorts public perception of migrant crime figures. Researchers at Hamburg and Leipzig universities found AfD press statements blamed migrants for crimes in 95 per cent of cases last year, while police figures show they were only responsible for 35 per cent. "It's surprising how consistently this happens," Prof Thomas Hestermann and Prof Elisa Hoven, the study's authors, said.
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| Utah State Student Killed Herself After Eight Months of Racist Attacks—and the School Did Nothing, Suit Claims Posted: 05 Aug 2019 10:24 AM PDT  Courtesy Anderson and Karrenberg Law Firm"Every day I dread going to class now because I sit three feet from my white bully," a Malaysian student at Utah State University texted her friend months before she killed herself, according to a federal lawsuit filed last week on her family's behalf.After eight months of racist bullying by classmates, 24-year-old Ph.D. candidate Jerusha Sanjeevi ended her life in April 2017, the 91-page complaint states. Sanjeevi was of Chinese and Indian heritage but was born and raised in Malaysia.The lawsuit, filed by Sanjeevi's boyfriend, Matthew Bick, names as defendants Utah State University, the head of the psychology department, some of the students who were in her cohort, and professors. The complaint alleges negligence, wrongful death, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. It contends that the university's lack of action—even after Sanjeevi complained about the alleged bullying to professors and a department chairperson—violated her civil rights. The Herald Journal first reported on the lawsuit Friday.Sanjeevi graduated from Minnesota State University with a Master's degree in clinical psychology and then enrolled in Utah State's psychology Ph.D. program in fall 2016. Eighty-three percent of students at the school are white, the lawsuit claims. The department "knowingly allowed one of its students to be verbally abused, intimidated and subjected to cultural and racist discrimination by favored students over the course of eight months, when she was rendered so emotionally devastated and hopeless that she committed suicide," the lawsuit claims.Other students in her cohort spread rumors about Sanjeevi, made fun of her "weird" Asian name, told her she smelled like Indian food, and derided her darker skin color as making her less deserving of a research position, according to the lawsuit.One of the students repeatedly made derisive comments about Asians, including that "Asian researcher names are so weird" and "Asians only want to please their parents," the complaint alleges. Members of the cohort told Sanjeevi's attorneys that this other student "was tormenting [Sanjeevi] daily."During an email conversation between professors excerpted in the lawsuit—about the tension between Sanjeevi and one of her alleged bullies—one wrote: "This is getting messy and ugly.""I'm going to leave my lab because I can't take it anymore," Sanjeevi told a friend, according to the lawsuit. "She knew that I've been struggling with the fear of getting deported since the election. She knew that I have no power here as a foreign student. And she did this to me on top of all of that. I don't understand how a person can be so cruel."In an essay assignment, Sanjeevi wrote that "[e]ncountering racism even in graduate school in psychology reinforced a powerful lesson that I learned my entire life: that I can put a nice suit on, but I can never take my skin off."By December, Sanjeevi had a meeting with the head of the department to report that she felt bullied and was "afraid" of at least one member of her cohort. But the department head labeled the issue as "a conflict between students" and declined to investigate the multiple reports of bullying and racism by specific students, even after Sanjeevi's death, according to the lawsuit.Eventually, other students began describing Sanjeevi as "despondent," "withdrawn," and "defeated and tired," the complaint states. Over those eight months, Sanjeevi reported the alleged bullying to at least five faculty members, in addition to a member of the school's counseling center, a representative of the student conduct office, and another individual at the affirmative action department, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.Just days before she killed herself, Sanjeevi told a friend that she was overwhelmed by the department's apparent apathy, the complaint states."I just don't understand why I matter so little to them," she said. "I haven't been feeling like living and this just confirms that I don't want this life anymore."On April 22, 2017, she died of acute carbon monoxide poisoning. Her body was found two days later."When something like this happens, people ask why," Sanjeevi wrote in a note before her death. "So I'm about to tell you why, and spare you the wondering.""I have lived with depression for over half my life, and somehow survived each episode. But each wave of sadness grew darker and longer," she wrote. "I looked and looked for a lifeline. Until I realized that I didn't deserve one. Because [the Department] succeeded at teaching me what poverty, violence, rape, and hunger somehow never did… When you dismissed the bullying report, you provided a final confirmation that I did, in fact, not matter.""The innocence of blonde hair and blue eyes could deny, with toxic ease, the 'crazy' ramblings of this dirty brown skin," Sanjeevi continued. "Watching the department not only choose to not enact consequences, but to give an award to the sick person who bullied me, was the last nail in my coffin. My heart was broken."Amanda DeRito, a spokeswoman for the university, told The Daily Beast on Monday that Sanjeevi's suicide was "a tragic event that had a huge impact on the psychology department and on our entire university" and said the university "strongly" disputes the allegations in the complaint."We believe Utah State took all appropriate action to address interpersonal issues between students in the department," DeRito said, declining to comment further on the details of the case, citing the pending litigation.The complaint seeks unspecified punitive and compensatory damages for Sanjeevi's family in Malaysia."Please be kinder in the future," Sanjeevi wrote in her suicide note. "Please send my ashes to my parents."If you or a loved one are struggling with suicidal thoughts, please reach out to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741.Death-Obsessed Missouri Frat Brother's 'Advice' Pushed Five People to Kill Themselves, Lawsuit ClaimsNYPD Officer Dies of Suicide, the Third Self-Inflicted Death in Less Than Two WeeksRead 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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| Trump says 'something GREAT' can come out of shootings, tying background check bill to immigration reform Posted: 05 Aug 2019 05:25 AM PDT  In the wake of the deadly mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, the president also blamed the media for "the anger and rage that has built up over many years."
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| O.C. murder fugitive who allegedly murdered wife in 2012 captured in Mexico, authorities say Posted: 05 Aug 2019 12:33 PM PDT  A Southern California multimillionaire who went on the run after he was charged in the 2012 death of his wife was captured in Mexico, according to the Newport Beach Police Department.
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| A 6-year-old boy was thrown from the 10th floor of London's Tate Modern Posted: 05 Aug 2019 12:29 PM PDT  A teen was arrested and charged with attempted murder after allegedly throwing a boy from the 10th floor of London's Tate Modern gallery.
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| Yemen rebel drones target Saudi airports: coalition Posted: 05 Aug 2019 03:51 AM PDT  Saudi air defences intercepted Yemeni rebel drones targeting civilian airports on Monday, a Riyadh-led military coalition said, as the rebels ramp up cross-border attacks. The coalition, in a statement published on Saudi state media, said the strikes were "simultaneous" but did not specify the targets or number of drones intercepted. The Iran-aligned Huthi rebels' Al-Masirah television earlier said their drones targeted civilian airports in the southern cities of Abha and Najran as well as King Khaled airbase in Khamis Mushait.
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| Joe Biden's brother and hedge fund manager accused of fraud Posted: 05 Aug 2019 02:05 PM PDT  A federal lawsuit accuses the brother of former Vice President Joe Biden, hedge fund manager Michael Lewitt, and others of attempting to defraud a Tennessee business. The Knoxville News Sentinel reports that the defendants have until mid-August to respond to the lawsuit filed last month by Michael Frey and Dr. Mohannad Azzam. It says the plaintiffs founded Diverse Medical Management to reform failing rural hospitals, and Jim Biden promised to sell the health care plan to investors.
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| India gold prices hit record high on global cues, weak rupee Posted: 05 Aug 2019 03:21 AM PDT  Gold prices in India jumped over 2% on Monday to record levels, following gains in overseas markets and as the rupee fell to a five-month low, dampening demand further in the world's second-biggest consumer of the precious metal. Local gold futures hit an all-time high of 36,990 rupees ($524.70) per 10 gram, taking their gains to more than 17% in 2019. Dealers were offering a discount of up to $36 an ounce over official domestic prices, the highest since August 2016.
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| Frenchman achieves 'dream' of first hoverboard Channel crossing Posted: 04 Aug 2019 01:49 AM PDT  A Frenchman who has spent years developing a jet-powered hoverboard zoomed across the English Channel on Sunday, fulfilling his quest just 10 days after failing in a first attempt when he fell into the water while trying to refuel. Franky Zapata set off on his "Flyboard" from Sangatte on the northern coast of France at 8:17 am (0617 GMT) for the 35-kilometre (22-mile) trip to St. Margaret's Bay in Dover, on England's south coast. "Everything went great! Even though it was still tricky," Zapata said after the flight, referring to a complex landing manoeuvre on a boat around three-quarters of the way across to pick up a fresh backpack full of kerosene.
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| Yield Curve Blares Loudest U.S. Recession Warning Since 2007 Posted: 05 Aug 2019 01:41 PM PDT ![Yield Curve Blares Loudest U.S. Recession Warning Since 2007]( "Yield Curve Blares Loudest U.S. Recession Warning Since 2007") (Bloomberg) -- The latest eruption in the U.S.-China trade dispute pushed a widely watched Treasury-market recession indicator to the highest alert since 2007.Rates on 10-year notes sank to 1.714% on Monday, completely erasing the surge that followed President Donald Trump's 2016 election. At one point, they yielded 32 basis points less than three-month bills, the most extreme yield-curve inversion since the lead-up to the 2008 crisis.The moves follow reports that China is responding to the American president's threat of more tariffs by allowing the yuan to fall and halting imports of U.S. agricultural products. Many major investors expect the slide in 10-year yields to continue given the risk that a protracted dispute creates for markets.Count BlackRock Inc., the world's largest asset manager, among them. The firm's global chief investment officer of fixed income, Rick Rieder, foresees 1.5% for the 10-year."We could be in a significantly lower-rate environment for a while" given that central banks are poised to ease, Rieder told Bloomberg Television on Monday.The outlook for steeper declines resonated in options markets, too, which saw trades targeting a drop through 1% this month.Columbia Threadneedle's Ed Al-Hussainy also sees the potential for a further leg down in the 10-year benchmark, but says Federal Reserve rate cuts could help the yield curve reverse its current course."Potentially now the curve starts to steepen because the Fed is being pressured -- by a combination of data and obviously downside risks in trade -- to be more forceful," the senior strategist said in a phone interview.Heavy buying in fed funds futures contracts since the Fed delivered its quarter-point reduction last week means the market is now pricing in another reduction in September, and then some.Al-Hussainy expects investors to turn to even more aggressive positioning for rate cuts. He says the signal from the curve suggests money markets should be pricing in a higher probability of the Fed's policy rate going to zero in the coming year."There's a huge disconnect now," he said. "You don't need to do a lot of mental gymnastics to get to the Fed having to cut 200 basis points to put off a recession."(Updates 10-year yield in second paragraph.)\--With assistance from Claire Boston and Edward Bolingbroke.To contact the reporter on this story: Emily Barrett in New York at ebarrett25@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Benjamin Purvis at bpurvis@bloomberg.net, Nick Baker, Mark TannenbaumFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| A Brazilian gang leader dressed up as his 19-year-old daughter to escape from prison. It didn't work Posted: 04 Aug 2019 07:19 PM PDT  Clauvino de Silva attempted to escape prison by dressing up as his 19-year-old daughter and leaving her in his cell.
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| Lockdown in Indian Kashmir as thousands more troops sent Posted: 04 Aug 2019 03:50 PM PDT  Authorities in Indian-administered Kashmir placed large parts of the disputed region under lockdown early Monday while India sent in tens of thousands of additional troops and traded accusations of clashes with Pakistan at their de facto border. Communications were cut, with private mobile networks, internet services and telephone landlines cut, an AFP reporter said.
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| Thousands evacuated after explosions at Russia ammo depot Posted: 05 Aug 2019 11:16 AM PDT  Massive explosions at a Russian military ammunition depot in Siberia injured at least eight people and prompted the evacuation of thousands Monday. Russia's Defense Ministry said a fire triggered the explosions at a storage facility for gunpowder charges near the city of Achinsk in eastern Siberia's Krasnoyarsk region.
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