| McConnell reaffirms he has 'no choice': Senate will take up impeachment if it passes House Posted: 30 Sep 2019 09:32 AM PDT  Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Monday that if the House impeaches President Trump he will "have no choice" but to hold a trial in the Senate and a vote on removing the president from office.
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| '2020 Vision' Monday: Kate McKinnon is running again on 'SNL' — this time as Elizabeth Warren. How the new season's cast could shape the primary Posted: 30 Sep 2019 12:26 PM PDT  "Saturday Night Live" returned this weekend for its 45th season, renewing a tradition of lampooning presidents (and would-be presidents) that stretches back to the show's earliest days.
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| This brewery in Maine gifts its employees with a free trip to Belgium on their 5 year work anniversary Posted: 01 Oct 2019 12:37 PM PDT  Allagash Brewing Company was voted Best Place to Work in Maine for 7 years running according to Outside Magazine — and has the best work perks.
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| A 30-year-old man was gored by a bison at a Utah state park, then brought his 22-year-old date there and she was gored too Posted: 01 Oct 2019 03:17 PM PDT  Kyler Bourgeous says he probably won't return to the same park again, because he has "this weird feeling that the bison there really don't like me."
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| Arizona boy dead after man attempted exorcism to get 'demon' out of him, officials say Posted: 01 Oct 2019 01:00 PM PDT ![Arizona boy dead after man attempted exorcism to get 'demon' out of him, officials say]( "Arizona boy dead after man attempted exorcism to get 'demon' out of him, officials say") Pablo Martinez told police and the FBI that within the last week, he had noticed that "his son … had a demon inside of him."
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| Japan says Nigerian died of starvation after immigration hunger strike Posted: 01 Oct 2019 03:20 AM PDT  Japanese immigration authorities said Tuesday a Nigerian man who died in detention in June starved to death while on hunger strike, in the first officially acknowledged case of its kind. "An autopsy has found the man died of starvation," an official at the Immigration Services Agency told AFP. The man in his forties, whose name has been withheld, died on June 24 after falling unconscious at Omura Immigration Center and being taken to a hospital in southern Japan.
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| Trump's 'Civil War' threat is 'beyond repugnant,' says GOP Rep. Kinzinger Posted: 30 Sep 2019 06:57 AM PDT  Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., an Air Force veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, criticized the president for quoting an evangelical pastor who warned that a "Civil War like fracture" would occur if Trump is removed from office.
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| 'She completely objectified me': Husband of 2020 candidate Elizabeth Warren jokes about how his relationship with the senator began Posted: 30 Sep 2019 06:38 PM PDT  The 2020 candidate Elizabeth Warren and her husband participated in the couple's first joint interview since the beginning of her campaign.
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| Meghan Markle stuns in Banana Republic trench dress while on royal tour Posted: 01 Oct 2019 07:52 AM PDT  Meghan Markle stepped out solo Tuesday morning on the second to last day of the royals' South African tour.
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| UPDATE 2-Saudi Arabia has sent messages to Iran's president - Iran gov't Posted: 30 Sep 2019 03:35 AM PDT ![UPDATE 2-Saudi Arabia has sent messages to Iran's president - Iran gov't]( "UPDATE 2-Saudi Arabia has sent messages to Iran's president - Iran gov't") Saudi Arabia has sent messages to Iran's president through the leaders of other countries, an Iranian government spokesman said on Monday, at a time of heightened tensions between the regional rivals. "Messages from the Saudis were presented to (Iran's President) Hassan Rouhani from the leaders of some countries," spokesman Ali Rabiei said, according to the semi-official ILNA news agency. Saudi Arabia's crown prince warned in an interview broadcast on Sunday that oil prices could spike to "unimaginably high numbers" if the world doesn't come together to deter Iran, but said he preferred a political solution to a military one.
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| Canada, US seek to reduce dependency on China for rare earth minerals Posted: 30 Sep 2019 11:18 AM PDT  Canada is in talks with the United States to seek ways for both to reduce their dependance on China for rare earth elements, key minerals for high-tech products, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Monday.
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| CNN's Jake Tapper politely shreds GOP Rep. Jim Jordan's Trump-Ukraine talking points Posted: 30 Sep 2019 01:01 AM PDT ![CNN's Jake Tapper politely shreds GOP Rep. Jim Jordan's Trump-Ukraine talking points]( "CNN's Jake Tapper politely shreds GOP Rep. Jim Jordan's Trump-Ukraine talking points") Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney "is on shaky ground in the wake of a bad week for President Trump," CNN reports, largely because he didn't immediately "have a strategy for defending and explaining the contents" of a reconstructed transcript of Trump's July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) tried his hand Sunday with the White House's subsequent talking points. CNN's Jake Tapper wasn't having it.Jordan alleged that former Vice President Joe Biden had pressured Ukraine to fire top prosecutor Viktor Shokin to help out his lawyer son, Hunter Biden, who had recently gotten a seat on the board of Ukrainian gas company Burisma. "That's not what happened," Tapper said, noting repeatedly that Shokin was ousted because he wasn't prosecuting people and the Ukrainian investigations related to Burisma's owner were dormant when Hunter Biden was hired. Shokin "wasn't going after corruption -- do you understand what I'm saying?" Tapper asked.Jordan kept hitting on the younger Biden's reported salary, and Tapper eventually stopped him. "If you want to push a law saying that the children of presidents and vice presidents should not be doing international business deals, I'm all for it," Tapper said. "But you're setting a standard that is not being met right now." He gave examples from Trump's children."I'm just telling you what happened," Jordan said. "No, you're not," Tapper said. "It's amazing the gymnastics you'll go through to defend what --" Jordan began, and Tapper brought up accusations from Ohio State wresters that Jordan turned a blind eye to sexual abuse by the team doctor: "Sir, it's not gymnastics -- it's facts! And I would think somebody who's been accused of things in the last year and two would be more sensitive about throwing out wild allegations against people.""I understand you want to change the subject," Tapper said, after Jordan began jumping down 2016 rabbit holes, "but the president was pushing the president of Ukraine to investigate a political rival. I cannot believe that that is okay with you."If you are interested in the Hunter Biden story, a former New York Times reporter runs down at The Intercept how Trump, Giuliani, and "the right-wing spin machine" inverted his 2015 reporting on the Bidens, and The Washington Post has a longer look at the Bidens in Ukraine and this helpful explainer.
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| Lebanese prime minister paid $16 million to South African bikini model over Seychelles 'affair' Posted: 01 Oct 2019 10:39 AM PDT  Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri gave a South African bikini model nearly $16 million US dollars after meeting her on holiday, it emerged on Monday, as Lebanon faces violent protests over a burgeoning economic crisis. Candice van der Merwe met Mr Hariri at a private resort in the Seychelles in 2013 when she was 20. The married father-of-three, who is Lebanon's most powerful Sunni politician, was 43. When asked why Mr Hariri gave her the money, she responded that they had begun a romantic relationship. "I have also been told I have a very engaging personality," she said, in court documents obtained by The New York Times. The gift would have remained secret were it not for South African tax authorities, who froze Ms van der Merwe's assets, asking her to explain the change in her fortunes. She filed suit against them for $65 million in damages, alleging that the hold on her accounts forced her to sell the property she had bought with Mr Hariri's gift, while the related publicity severed her connection with the Prime Minister. Candice van der Merwe said she had an "engaging personality", according to court documents The court records filed as a result put the details into the public domain. As Mr Hariri gave Ms van der Merwe the money between his two terms as Prime Minister, while not in office, he does not appear to have broken any Lebanese or South African laws. There are no allegations that the money was linked to public funds, and Mr Hariri, whose personal wealth was estimated at $1.5bn US by Forbes magazine in 2018, is clearly wealthy enough to have sent the transactions from his private accounts. Staff at Hariri-owned English-language newspaper The Daily Star say they have not been paid their salaries in nearly four months. Several have left as a result, leaving the publication severely understaffed. The news of Mr Hariri's gift came as Moody's credit rating agency announced it has placed Lebanon's already low credit rating "under review for a downgrade." On Sunday protests against the failing economy and inadequate infrastructure turned violent in the capital Beirut, as protesters blocked roads and set fire to tires. Mr Hariri has not responded to the reports.
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| Four 'extremely dangerous' prisoners escape after overpowering guards Posted: 30 Sep 2019 01:07 AM PDT  Four prisoners who are considered "extremely dangerous" escaped from a county jail in Ohio early Sunday morning after overpowering two guards, authorities said.The inmates used a homemade weapon known as a shank and stole the keys to a corrections officer's vehicle, which was used in the first part of their escape from Gallia County Jail, Sheriff Matt Champlin said at a news conference.
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| First GOP member of Congress voices support for Trump impeachment inquiry Posted: 01 Oct 2019 06:46 AM PDT  Rep. Mark Amodei on Friday became the first Republican member of Congress to publicly support the impeachment inquiry into President Trump.
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| Russians drinking less, living longer, WHO says Posted: 01 Oct 2019 02:27 AM PDT ![Russians drinking less, living longer, WHO says]( "Russians drinking less, living longer, WHO says") Russia remains a nation of heavy drinkers, but alcohol consumption has fallen 43 percent from 2003 to 2016, a key factor in the country's rapid rise in life expectancy, the World Health Organisation said on Tuesday. Russians consume the equivalent of 11-12 litres worth of pure ethanol a year, among the world's highest consumption levels, but the reduction since 2003 has substantially reduced mortality, the WHO said in a report.
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| Ukraine Peace Talks Get Breakthrough as Kyiv Accepts Compromise Posted: 01 Oct 2019 12:09 PM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Talks to end the five-year conflict in eastern Ukraine produced the first major breakthrough since a lapsed 2015 peace accord, paving the way for an international summit to cement progress.Negotiators meeting Tuesday in the Belarusian capital of Minsk agreed on a schedule under which elections will be held in the breakaway regions and a new law will be passed granting them special status. The plan was proposed by Frank-Walter Steinmeier when he was Germany's foreign minister and is known as the Steinmeier formula.The agreement comes as new President Volodymyr Zelenskiy targets better relations with Russia. He reiterated Tuesday that Ukraine wants a cease-fire, a withdrawal of Russian-backed fighters and control of its border back before ballots are cast."If we want elections under Ukrainian law, we understand the border should be ours," Zelenskiy told a news conference in Kyiv. Elections can't be held if "any troops" remain in the disputed regions, he said.Ukraine and Russia, one-time allies, have been at loggerheads since protesters in Kyiv ousted Kremlin-backed leader Viktor Yanukovych in 2014. Russia went on to annex Crimea and foment the conflict in Ukraine's Donbas region, which has killed more than 13,000 people.The hostilities have triggered U.S. and European Union sanctions against Russia, rekindling Cold War rivalries."The Steinmeier formula itself carries no threat or betrayal," Oleksiy Haran, a politics professor at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, said by phone. "The Ukrainian position is that security requirements are fulfilled before elections and that elections are conducted freely. So the question is: will Ukraine go back on these points, which would be very bad, or will it insist on them?"Signs of a detente between Moscow and Kyiv were on display last month in a mass exchange of prisoners, including 24 Ukrainian sailors detained last year in a naval clash with Russia.'No Capitulation'But Zelenskiy has said special status for Donbas won't include changes to Ukraine's constitution, which lays out goals for membership of the EU and NATO. The Kremlin opposes its neighbor's plans for Western integration, which sparked tensions between the two former allies back in 2013.Special-status legislation will be drafted by parliament in "close cooperation and consultation with society," Zelenskiy said. "No red lines will be crossed in the new law. That's why there will be no capitulation."The next step could be negotiations involving the leaders of Germany and France alongside Zelenskiy and Russian President Vladimir Putin -- the so-called Normandy format for talks.Tuesday's development opens the way to such a meeting and steps toward a peaceful resolution of the conflict, according to Alexei Chesnakov, a former Kremlin official who continues to consult for the Russian authorities on Ukraine. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said "the door is open" to further progress in the implementation of the 2015 Minsk peace accord."Today, the final obstacles have been removed to holding a summit of the Normandy four," Zelenskiy said. "We'll know the date in the very near future."(Updates with Russian, German reaction in penultimate paragraph.)\--With assistance from Patrick Donahue and Henry Meyer.To contact the reporters on this story: Aliaksandr Kudrytski in Minsk, Belarus at akudrytski@bloomberg.net;Volodymyr Verbyany in Kyiv at vverbyany1@bloomberg.net;Kateryna Choursina in Kyiv at kchoursina@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Andrea Dudik at adudik@bloomberg.net, Andrew LangleyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| 'King of dad jokes': Colorado man goes viral after taking over his town's community center sign Posted: 01 Oct 2019 10:06 AM PDT  It takes confidence to call yourself "the king" of anything — but when it comes to dad jokes, Vince Rozmiarek makes a pretty strong case for himself.
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| Eurasian Showdown: Are China's or Russia's Infantry Fighting Vehicles Superior? Posted: 30 Sep 2019 12:00 PM PDT  We rank these bad boys.
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| Missouri executes killer despite concern about painful death Posted: 01 Oct 2019 05:44 PM PDT  A Missouri man was executed Tuesday for killing a man during a series of violent crimes in 1996, despite concerns that the inmate's rare medical condition would cause a gruesome lethal injection. Russell Bucklew was executed at the state prison in Bonne Terre. It was Missouri's first execution since January 2017.
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| Outcry as Pakistan appoints new envoy to UN Posted: 01 Oct 2019 03:00 AM PDT  A decision by Pakistan to appoint a former diplomat as its ambassador to the United Nations has sparked criticism over his alleged involvement in a domestic violence dispute in 2002. Munir Akram "has been appointed as Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the United Nations in New York, in place of Dr. Maleeha Lodhi," the country's ministry of foreign affairs said in a statement late Monday. Akram served a previous stint in the post from 2002 to 2008.
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| A 72-year-old Dallas man fatally shot a burglar, then went back to sleep, police say Posted: 30 Sep 2019 07:46 AM PDT ![A 72-year-old Dallas man fatally shot a burglar, then went back to sleep, police say]( "A 72-year-old Dallas man fatally shot a burglar, then went back to sleep, police say") A 72-year-old Dallas man fatally shot a suspected burglar outside his home, authorities said, and went back to sleep before calling police.
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| 10 Home Prep Tips Before Going on Vacation Posted: 01 Oct 2019 03:28 PM PDT |
| Trump's false theory that whistleblower requirements changed just before the complaint over his Ukraine call got shut down by the intelligence watchdog Posted: 01 Oct 2019 03:07 AM PDT  The Inspector General of the Intelligence Committee said the process had not changed, and the whistleblower claimed some firsthand information.
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| Egypt gets back looted gold coffin displayed in New York Posted: 01 Oct 2019 07:37 AM PDT  Egypt exhibited on Tuesday the golden coffin of an ancient Egyptian priest that was returned by New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art following the discovery that it had been looted and illegally sold. The coffin had been buried in Egypt for 2,000 years before it was stolen from the country's Minya region in the aftermath of the 2011 uprising that toppled veteran leader Hosni Mubarak. Officials say it was smuggled through several countries by an international trafficking ring before being sold to an unwitting Metropolitan Museum two years ago for $4 million.
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| What the Next Democratic President Has in Store for Us, with or without Congress Posted: 01 Oct 2019 08:14 AM PDT  The betting market PredictIt gives the Democrats about a 60 percent chance of capturing the presidency next year. Their odds of winning the Senate are only about one in three, however — meaning that in the event of a Trump loss, conservatives could feel the relief of sweet, sweet gridlock as Congress simply refuses to pass Medicare for All and zillion-dollar handouts to college grads.But there is good reason to temper your optimism about such a scenario: Congress has handed over to the executive branch a frighteningly broad ability to make laws by itself. The campaign has given us some previews of this — Kamala Harris wants to go after guns and Elizabeth Warren would target fracking, whether Congress likes it or not — though the candidates have mostly been focused on their biggest and most expensive pieces of proposed legislation.Last week, however, the liberal American Prospect rolled out a series of articles proposing a meaty "Day One Agenda" for the next Democrat in charge of the White House. This president could roll back Trump's deregulatory efforts, bring backed stalled Obama initiatives, and launch government giveaways and major assaults on business, all without the legislative branch's help. Read it and weep.Think it would take a vote in Congress to cancel "almost all" student debt? Think again, says Marcia Brown. Citing a forthcoming law-review article by Luke Herrine, Brown notes a provision of federal law giving the Department of Education the authority to "compromise, waive, or release" claims against student borrowers. While other actors in the executive branch (the attorney general and the Office of Management and Budget) might have to sign off, the department could in theory use this authority to simply stop collecting student debt.Think Trump got us out of Obama's Clean Power Plan for good? You shouldn't, Ben Adler says. The next president could take us back down that path. And since carbon emissions are far lower today than anyone expected — thanks to fracking and other technological improvements — the next president could "go further and increase the rule's ambition."Think the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is a done deal, so long as Democrats don't have enough votes in Congress to undermine it? Nope, writes Victor Fleischer. The IRS can't repeal the law, but it can aggressively reinterpret many of its provisions, not to mention provisions in the rest of our enormous tax code, in ways that affect the taxation of huge sums of money.There's lots more: A Democratic president could go after drug companies by threatening to let generics manufacturers make patented drugs, create "postal banking" by executive fiat, bring back aggressive antitrust enforcement against the biggest and most successful companies, and make pot "effectively legal."Okay, that last one I'm fine with. But how do we stop the rest?One way would have been for Republicans to rein in the executive branch in the two years they controlled Congress, albeit without a filibuster-proof margin in the Senate, but that didn't happen. Another would be to hold the White House, or at least luck into a moderate Democrat not eager to test the limits of executive power. Once a Democratic president actually starts trying this stuff, though, the issue will fall to the courts. (There's yet another article about that!)The easiest way to argue against an abuse of executive power is to say that the relevant statute passed by Congress doesn't actually authorize it. Though courts have typically given executive agencies broad deference when it comes to interpreting laws, many conservative judges have shown signs that they want to reverse this trend. Some of the actions outlined above do fall well within the discretion Congress has handed over to the executive branch, but the more aggressive ones go far beyond anything Congress anticipated when passing the laws in question.In some situations, such as when the president simply refuses to enforce a law, it can also be argued that the president is violating the Constitution's command that he "take care" to faithfully execute the laws. But there's very little precedent for such cases, and it can be difficult to find someone harmed by the action with standing to sue, or to distinguish a failure to "take care" from normal discretion regarding how laws are executed.Then there's the big kahuna: The "nondelegation doctrine," which holds that Congress can't delegate its constitutional lawmaking authority to the president, at least not when it comes to key policy decisions as opposed to filling in minor details. This doctrine has sat dormant for decades, but the Supreme Court's conservatives are interested in reviving it. The question is how far they would be willing to take it, and to what degree they would treat new expansions of executive power differently from old ones.In an opinion this year, liberal justice Elena Kagan remarked that if the conservatives on the Court were right and the delegation of power at issue in the case was unconstitutional, then "most of Government" would be unconstitutional. (The conservatives lost the case 5–3, but Brett Kavanaugh recused himself, and Samuel Alito voted with the liberals despite wanting to reconsider the nondelegation doctrine in a different case, presumably one where Kavanaugh could create a five-conservative majority.) Kagan's fears are music to my ears, but I bet at least one conservative justice flakes before they are anywhere close to realized, not least because the conservative dissent to the opinion in which she voiced them takes pains to specify that even under the nondelegation doctrine, Congress may, for example, "authorize executive-branch officials to fill in even a large number of details."Still, conservatives could find themselves relying on the judicial branch a whole lot in the years ahead. In the event that a liberal Democrat takes the White House and pushes executive power past the limit, we could be saying "but Gorsuch and Kavanaugh!" for far longer than anyone thought.
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| Zimbabwe Rejects U.S. Claim That Diamond Mine Uses Forced Labor Posted: 01 Oct 2019 11:07 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Zimbabwe accused the U.S. of ignorance after the U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced it's blocking rough diamond imports from the Marange fields because they were produced with forced labor. "It's unfortunate that the U.S. authorities have been misinformed or misled to believe that Zimbabwe is mining diamonds through forced labor," government spokesman Nick Mangwana said Tuesday by text message. "As a government we have a very strong revulsion towards any form of slavery or servitude. To even suggest that Zimbabwe has some form of corporate forced labor is either mischievous or simply ignorant."Imports from Zimbabwe are not the only ones targeted by the ban. The U.S. agency listed a range of products earlier Tuesday, from garments from China to gold from the Democratic Republic of Congo. To contact the reporter on this story: Ray Ndlovu in Johannesburg at rndlovu1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Karl Maier at kmaier2@bloomberg.net, Pauline Bax, Rene VollgraaffFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| China is growing fed up with British private schools 'creaming off' the best pupils, headteachers warned Posted: 01 Oct 2019 10:29 AM PDT  The Chinese government is growing fed up with British private schools "creaming off" the best pupils, a conference has been told. Institutions which have set up sister schools or franchises in China now face a "backlash" for party officials, according to Richard Gaskell, schools director at ISC Research which specialises in analysing data on international schools. There are now 47 campuses in China operated by British schools. The £41,580-a-year Wellington College runs schools in Tianjin, Shanghai and Hangzhou while the £44,346-a-year Dulwich College has two schools in Shanghai, one in in Beijing and Suzhou. Mr Gaskell said that British private schools in China have been "growing on steroids" in recent years but they are now facing a crackdown by the authorities. ISC Research conducted interviews with headteachers of 50 international schools in China, and found that they are now facing "extraordinary scrutiny" from officials. Mr Gaskell told delegates at the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference (HMC): "Private schools have been subjected to increased visits and scrutiny. There is a backlash against the rapid increase in private schools in China, particularly from the big public schools where it's conceived that they have been simply creaming the best kids for their schools." He explained that local education bureau officials have been visiting private schools in China to "gather intelligence on structure and systems". "The view of some of the heads we interviewed is that they want to replicate these models in their own Chinese schools," he said. Any new schools planning on opening up campuses in China should "be ready for the bureaucracy, legislation and the regulation", he warned, adding: "There is no light touch, it is now highly intrusive." Earlier this year, China announced that all schools would have to adopt a lottery system for places, raising concern among private schools that this will put an end to academic selection. It comes after an earlier ruling that private schools need to teach the Chinese national curriculum as well as whichever international qualifications they offer. Mr Gaskell also said that Beijing is "clearly worried" about the number of Chinese students who go overseas to be educated. Mainland China is the largest source of foreign-born pupils at British boarding schools, with numbers rising 10 per cent last year to just over 9,000. "The Chinese state is now looking at ways to curb number of Chinese families going abroad for education," he said. "They are keen to attract families, who have gone overseas for work and lifestyle opportunities, to come back to China. "There is a focus group investigating barriers to families returning from abroad, and one such barrier is deemed to be guaranteed access to high quality education."
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| The Latest: San Francisco disputes NRA victory declaration Posted: 01 Oct 2019 04:02 PM PDT ![The Latest: San Francisco disputes NRA victory declaration]( "The Latest: San Francisco disputes NRA victory declaration") San Francisco Mayor London Breed told department heads in a Sept. 23 memo that the resolution does not direct the city to investigate ties between its contractors and the NRA. The NRA seized upon her memo Tuesday as evidence that the mayor is backing down and said the memo was a "clear concession" in response to its lawsuit over the resolution.
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| Firms in Cuba running afoul of US banking squeeze Posted: 30 Sep 2019 06:23 PM PDT  The bank used by a Swiss NGO operating in Cuba has refused to handle any more transfers to Havana over fears of US sanctions, a concern replicated across the international financial system when dealing with the communist-run island. "We don't know what to do," said Luisa Sanchez, coordinator of MediCuba, an NGO operating in Cuba since 1992 providing HIV, cancer and pediatric assistance. "On August 27, our bank called our accountant to inform him that from September 1, there would be no more transfers to Cuba," Sanchez told AFP in Havana.
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| Ukrainian orphan accused of being an adult found with another family in Indiana Posted: 01 Oct 2019 07:56 AM PDT  Following the controversy and mixed accounts surrounding Natalia, a Ukrainian orphan at the center of an adoption scandal, she has reportedly been living with a family in the same state where she was left by a family who moved to Canada.
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| R Kelly complains about not being able to see more than one girlfriend at a time in jail Posted: 01 Oct 2019 01:38 AM PDT  R Kelly has apparently included not being able to see more than one girlfriend at a time as one of the reasons he should be granted bail.According to the Chicago Tribune, Kelly's lawyers have asked the judge in the singer's New York federal case to reconsider after he was refused bail in July.
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| View Photos of the 2020 BMW X5 M and X6 M Posted: 01 Oct 2019 03:01 PM PDT |
| Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney: Ukraine phone call is 'starting to seem like a political set up' against Donald Trump Posted: 01 Oct 2019 06:22 AM PDT  "What did you know and when did you know it?" Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney asked in a tweet, referencing Nancy Pelosi's interview on "60 Minutes."
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| This is how white privilege plays out in the Harvard admissions process Posted: 01 Oct 2019 03:56 PM PDT  Researchers estimate that roughly three-quarters of white legacy students would have been rejected if they had been treated the same as their non-white peersPhilosophy students cheer during Commencement Exercises at Harvard University. Photograph: Brian Snyder/ReutersFor those who believe that white privilege is a myth, a new study on the Harvard admissions process may debunk that.After Students for Fair Admissions took Harvard to court for allegedly discriminating against Asian Americans in a high-profile case last year, researchers – including one expert involved in the lawsuit – have examined some of the documents made publicly available from that case. On Tuesday the judge in the case ruled that Harvard's admissions policy, though not perfect, did not violate the constitution.The research shines a light on the elusive selection of students who are either related to staff and donors or on the dean's interest list (usually referred to as "legacy students"), or athletes.These students are accepted at a higher rate than other applicants, even though they have worse grades. They also tend to be overwhelmingly white: roughly a third of legacy students are African American, Hispanic or Asian American.Being selected as a legacy student in itself is an advantage: these applications are closely monitored by staff at Harvard, perhaps the reason why they are about 20 times more likely to be interviewed. And of course, being interviewed means you're more likely to get in.As such, all legacy students are advantaged in comparison to their peers, regardless of race. For example, students who apply as athletes are 14 times more likely to be accepted to Harvard, and those who are related to a member of staff are seven times more likely to get in.But this advantage plays out differently for white and non-white students. Taking into consideration factors such as the grades and extra-curricular activities of legacies and athlete students, the researchers estimate that roughly three-quarters of white legacy students would have been rejected if they had been treated the same as non-white legacy students. Forty-three per cent of white students admitted to Harvard were recruited as athletes, legacy students or the children of faculty or of major donors, the study found.Another interesting finding from the paper is that, while people may think of Harvard as an academic institution first and foremost, a high proportion of its students are athletes: 34%.The researchers conclude that getting rid of the preferential treatment of athletes and legacy students would "significantly alter the racial distribution of admitted students, with the share of white admits falling and all other groups rising or remaining unchanged".
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| Stranded Asylum Seekers Ask Appeals Court to Let Them In Posted: 01 Oct 2019 12:32 PM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Central Americans seeking asylum in the U.S. said they've waited long enough in Mexico for their applications to be assessed under a Trump administration policy they call unlawful.On Tuesday, their advocates asked the federal appeals court in San Francisco to rule that the policy is illegal. Such a ruling would open the border gates to about 45,000 people, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.The three-judge panel didn't decide whether to uphold a judge's ruling to block the "forced return" policy, as the ACLU asked, but it expressed concern why the government doesn't ask immigrants whether they had any fears about being sent back to Mexico. It's standard practice for asylum seekers to be asked if they are fearful of returning to their home countries.The appeals court previously has allowed the policy to remain in effect during the litigation -- which the ACLU says is endangering the tens of thousands of people."Individuals returned to Mexico are sent to areas with some of the highest murder rates in the world," the ACLU said in a court filing. "They face extreme dangers -- killings, kidnappings, sexual assault, robbery, and other forms of violence -- from cartels, the gangs they fled their home countries to escape, corrupt government officials, and an anti-migrant sentiment."The lawsuit is one of the many fronts on which immigrant rights' advocates have been battling the administration's efforts to block entry to the swelling number of migrants from Central American countries.The government also is trying to stop people from applying for asylum in the U.S. if they didn't make such an application in another country on their way to the U.S. -- so a person from El Salvador should have applied for asylum in Guatemala, or Mexico, according to the U.S.In another case the appeals court heard Tuesday, the U.S. is seeking to overturn a judge's decision that found it was illegal to require asylum seekers to apply only at official border crossings.An appeals panel in December rejected the government's request to put the judge's ruling on hold while the case was tried. The panel said it was likely the rule was "arbitrary and capricious."The cases are: East Bay Sanctuary Covenant v. Trump, 18-17274, and Innovation Law Lab v. McAleenan, 19-15716, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth District (San Francisco).(Updates with hearing in second paragraph.)To contact the reporter on this story: Edvard Pettersson in Los Angeles at epettersson@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net, Peter Blumberg, Steve StrothFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| After 70 Years, Communist China Is Weaker Than It Appears Posted: 30 Sep 2019 12:33 PM PDT  The Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 after 69 years of tyranny and aggression. On October 1, the People's Republic of China will officially turn 70. The brutal regime of Mao Zedong and Xi Jinping has made China the world's longest surviving Communist country, and unlike the Kremlin of old, Beijing seems stronger than ever.The contrast between China today and the Soviet Union at its death could hardly be more stark. In the early 1990s, Russia's military was swiftly losing ground to American investment and innovation, forcing a global retreat of influence and power. Today, the People's Liberation Army is quickly closing the gap with the U.S. armed forces and is projecting its newfound power from the Arctic to Africa to Australasia.Communist China is also sprinting economically. It overtook Japan as the world's second-largest economy in 2011, and its GDP has nearly tripled since then. Many forecasters say it's a matter of when, not if, China overtakes the U.S. By comparison, the Soviet Union struggled to keep its economy even half as large as America's.Finally, China is markedly more oppressive than the Soviet Union at a similar age. Where the latter was weakening its control over people through perestroika and glasnost, the former has imprisoned millions of Muslim Uighurs, initiated a new crackdown on Christian worshipers, and instituted a draconian social-credit system that monitors the Chinese people's daily lives and ranks them accordingly. It even seems willing to initiate a Tiananmen Square–style crackdown on the escalating protest movement in Hong Kong.Has Communist China discovered a fountain of youth? Yes, and it's exactly where Ponce de Leon said it would be: in America.Whereas the Soviet Union largely walled itself off from its greatest adversary, literally and figuratively, China's leaders have sought to exploit America across the board for decades. China profits from U.S. financial markets; purchases cutting-edge U.S. firms; pilfers trade secrets and technology from U.S. companies, including defense contractors; and promotes a massive misinformation campaign on U.S. soil to sway policy and public opinion in its favor. Yet far from being a source of strength, Communist China's dependence on America is one of its primary weakness.Like the Soviet Union before it, China's tyranny stifles the creativity of its people. While Beijing grants some few a small amount of economic autonomy, it refuses to let the average Chinese citizen fully pursue her dreams, apply her talents, or realize her potential, preventing untold advances across every field of endeavor. There's a reason Chinese parents send their children to American universities and their cash to Western banks. China's seemingly inexorable rise requires continued access to America and the fruits of our system of free enterprise and the rule of law.This reality is coming into focus under President Trump. The administration has started to disentangle Communist China from America's economy and institutions. China's stock markets are suffering and its economy is growing at the slowest rate in nearly three decades. Additional unraveling of U.S.–China ties will likely further demonstrate the bankruptcy of the Communist economic model, and its need for external support.Beijing knows this, hence its relentless focus on tamping down trade tensions, but not national security or human-rights issues. It also benefits from the widespread belief that Communist China is here to stay, so we might as well deal with it rather than hope for a better, more democratic regime. In our organization's discussions with government leaders, prominent academics, and corporations, we have found an overwhelming belief that a change in China's government would be catastrophic. They prefer to work with the devil they know, not hope for a devil they don't.Yet the lessons of history are worth remembering. The fall of the Soviet Union ushered in a new era of freedom, prosperity, and peace in its former lands, and far beyond. A collapse of red rule in China will surely be more complicated, given its greater interaction with the world, but it stands to reason that the Communist party's loss will be the Chinese people's gain. Many others, America included, will benefit, too.Communist China is weaker than it appears. However, it's unlikely to fall unless the United States, and the rest of the free world, continue to ratchet up the pressure. The Communist ideology is a parasite that cannot survive for long on its own. This 70th anniversary is a time to realize that Communist China should never have gotten this far.
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| Slain Saudi writer's fiancee says prince must give answers Posted: 01 Oct 2019 10:16 AM PDT  The fiancee of slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi said Tuesday that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has a duty to answer questions now that he has accepted responsibility for the killing inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul last year. Hatice Cengiz told The Associated Press she is apprehensive about returning to the site Wednesday for a ceremony marking the anniversary of Khashoggi's death, but takes strength knowing she won't be alone this time. Cengiz waited outside the consulate last year on Oct. 2 as Khashoggi entered to collect documents needed to marry her.
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| Britain will introduce points-based immigration system: interior minister Posted: 01 Oct 2019 08:24 AM PDT  British interior minister Priti Patel will say on Tuesday the government will end free movement and introduce an Australian-style points-based immigration system once the country leaves the European Union. In a speech at the Conservative Party's annual conference, Patel will say her Brexit mission is "to end the free movement of people once and for all.
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| A student at Karen Pence's school alleged students cut her dreadlocks. She just took it back. Posted: 30 Sep 2019 11:46 AM PDT ![A student at Karen Pence's school alleged students cut her dreadlocks. She just took it back.]( "A student at Karen Pence's school alleged students cut her dreadlocks. She just took it back.") The Virginia private school student who claimed three classmates pinned her down and forcibly cut off her dreadlocks has now retracted the story.Reports emerged last week about an allegation from 12-year-old Amari Allen, who is black, that three white sixth-grade boys pinned her down during recess at Immanuel Christian School and cut her dreadlocks while saying "my hair was nappy and I was ugly and I shouldn't have been born," as she told The Washington Post. The story quickly went viral online in part because second lady Karen Pence teaches art part time at the school.But the Post now reports Allen has told the school that this incident, which was being investigated by the Fairfax County Police Department, did not happen, with her family apologizing in a statement. "To the administrators and families of Immanuel Christian School, we are sorry for the damage this incident has done to trust within the school family and the undue scorn it has brought to the school," Allen's grandparents said in a statement. "To the broader community, who rallied in such passionate support for our daughter, we apologize for betraying your trust."The principal of the school, Stephen Danish, confirmed that Allen now says the allegations are false, saying, "We recognize that we now enter what will be a long season of healing."
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| North Korea Can’t Hide Its Population Problem Posted: 30 Sep 2019 08:20 AM PDT  Isolation might protect the "hermit kingdom" for now, but its demographic destiny cannot be avoided.
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| A passenger filmed the engine cover coming off a United Airlines plane, which was forced to turn back to the airport Posted: 30 Sep 2019 07:08 AM PDT  United Airlines flight 293 had to turn back to Denver International Airport over what United called a "mechanical issue with one of the engines."
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