| Nunes Aide Is Leaking the Ukraine Whistleblower’s Name, Sources Say Posted: 28 Oct 2019 05:02 PM PDT  Photo Illustration by Sarah Rogers/The Daily Beast / Photos GettyA top aide to Rep. Devin Nunes has been providing conservative politicians and journalists with information—and misinformation—about the anonymous whistleblower who triggered the biggest crisis of Donald Trump's presidency, two knowledgeable sources tell The Daily Beast. Derek Harvey, who works for Nunes, the ranking Republican on the House intelligence committee, has provided notes for House Republicans identifying the whistleblower's name ahead of the high-profile depositions of Trump administration appointees and civil servants in the impeachment inquiry. The purpose of the notes, one source said, is to get the whistleblower's name into the record of the proceedings, which committee chairman Adam Schiff has pledged to eventually release. In other words: it's an attempt to out the anonymous official who helped trigger the impeachment inquiry.On Saturday, The Washington Post reported that GOP lawmakers and staffers have "repeatedly" used a name purporting to be the whistleblower during the depositions. The paper named Harvey as driving lines of questioning Democrats saw as attempting to determine the political loyalties of witnesses before the inquiry. A former official told the Post that Harvey "was passing notes [to GOP lawmakers] the entire time" ex-NSC Russia staffer Fiona Hill testified. "Exposing the identity of the whistleblower and attacking our client would do nothing to undercut the validity of the complaint's allegations," said Mark Zaid, one of the whistleblower's attorneys. "What it would do, however, is put that individual and their family at risk of harm. Perhaps more important, it would deter future whistleblowers from coming forward in subsequent administrations, Democratic or Republican." Zaid has represented The Daily Beast in freedom-of-information lawsuits against the federal government. More Potential Whistleblowers Are Contacting CongressThe whistleblower is not Harvey's only target. Another is a staffer for the House intelligence committee Democrats whom The Daily Beast has agreed not to name due to concerns about reprisals against the staffer. Harvey, both sources said, has spread a false story alleging that the whistleblower contacted the staffer ahead of raising internal alarm about President Trump's July 25th phone call attempting to get a "favor" from Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky to damage Trump's rival Joe Biden. In right-wing circles, contact with Schiff is meant to discredit the whistleblower as partisan. The eagerness of Republicans to go after the intelligence committee staffer so alarmed Democrats that they raised the issue with GOP leadership, according to a senior official on the intelligence committee."We are aware of these unsupported and false attacks on a respected member of our staff," the official told The Daily Beast. "It is completely inappropriate, and we have previously urged the Republican leadership to address this situation."The official would not comment on any aspect of the depositions' proceedings. Trump, who has called the whistleblower treasonous, has speculated baselessly that Schiff is the source of the whistleblower's account of the Zelensky call, even though Schiff was not on the call and Trump's own summary of the call corroborated the whistleblower's second-hand account. Derek Harvey's career has been extraordinary. As a Defense Intelligence Agency analyst, he played an important role in the 2007-8 troop surge in Iraq. David Petraeus kept Harvey aboard for an intelligence billet at U.S. Central Command. Harvey aligned with another member of the counterinsurgency coterie, DIA Director Mike Flynn, and followed Flynn onto Trump's White NSC from there, Harvey became a crucial aide to Nunes, a pivotal Flynn and Trump ally. There is no reasonable definition of a Deep State that excludes Derek Harvey from elite membership.Harvey did not respond to a request for comment. The staffer declined to comment. A spokesperson for Nunes did not respond to a request for comment.Despite hearing of the Trump-Zelensky call secondhand, the whistleblower's account of Trump's pressure campaign against Ukraine has been corroborated by numerous witnesses before the impeachment inquiry, as well as Trump's own of the July 25 call. Sources believe the persistent conservative focus on the whistleblower is both an attempt at deterring other would-be whistleblowers and discrediting the impeachment as politically motivated, though it is unclear what misconduct the whistleblower is alleged to have engaged in. Influential conservatives have claimed that the whistleblower's identity is no secret at all. On Oct. 24, Fred Fleitz, formerly chief of staff of the NSC under John Bolton and a CIA official before that, claimed on CNN that OANN, Breitbart, the House intelligence committee, CNN and the White House "has the name." Fleitz asserted as well that "the president knows who he is." Fleitz cited no source for his information. Harvey has a history of passing on information to damage colleagues. As The Daily Beast reported in March, an April 2017 email senior State Department official Brian Hook sent to himself, titled "Derek notes," contained descriptions of State Department officials suspected of disloyalty or troublesomeness. Examples of such disloyalty included "butter[ing] up to Clinton people," Hook wrote. The email is currently being examined by a State Department inspector general investigation into department politicization.Harvey is not the only Nunes ally involved in the Ukraine story. A former Nunes staffer who now works on the NSC, Kash Patel, gave Trump damaging information about Ukraine, Politico recently reported. Patel was a driving force behind Nunes' efforts in 2017 and 2018 to discredit the origins of the FBI investigation into the Trump campaign's connections with Russian election interference.Far right news groups like the Gateway Pundit blog and the OANN TV network have run pieces naming their guess at the whistleblower's identity. The official identified by OANN and Gateway Pundit has been a target for fringe conservative media figures even before the whistleblower filed his complaint to the DNI Inspector General's office.GOP criticism of the whistleblower has focused on their contact with Democratic investigators as people like Harvey spread the idea that they were in cahoots. That line of attack went into overdrive on Oct. 2, when Schiff's camp confirmed that the whistleblower reached out to the Intelligence Committee before filing a formal complaint in order to get "guidance on how to report possible wrongdoing within the intelligence community." But the whistleblower, per a spokesman for Schiff, did not tell the chairman the content of the complaint nor the identity of the whistleblower. Still, that seemed to contradict Schiff's statement in late September that Democrats had "not spoken directly" with the whistleblower, a remark the congressman later told The Daily Beast he regretted he did not make "much more clear."Trump's Plan to Save His Presidency: Take a Hatchet to Adam SchiffThose statements have provided fuel for allegations from Trump and his allies that the whistleblower and Democrats were engaged in some unseemly coordination before the fact, or that they did not follow the proper whistleblower laws. Zaid, meanwhile, has stressed that the whistleblower acted properly and without any kind of coordination or interference. "The whistleblower drafted the Complaint entirely on their own. Legal counsel Andrew Bakaj provided guidance on process but was not involved in the drafting of the document and did not review it in advance," Zaid told ABC News on Oct. 2. "In fact, none of the legal team saw the Complaint until it was publicly released by Congress," Zaid said. "To be unequivocally clear, no Member or congressional staff had any input into or reviewed the Complaint before it was submitted to the Intelligence Community Inspector General."That inspector general, Michael Atkinson, has said in letters to top lawmakers that the whistleblower's complaint was credible and urgent. Though Joseph Maguire, the acting Director of National Intelligence, did not believe he had to notify the Intelligence committees of the complaint as required by law, he nevertheless testified before lawmakers on Sept. 26 that the whistleblower "followed the steps every step of the way."Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Ex-CIA spy flees from Italy to U.S. fearing for her safety: paper Posted: 27 Oct 2019 06:04 AM PDT  A former U.S. spy, pardoned by Italy in connection with the CIA kidnapping of a terrorism suspect in Milan, has fled from Italy to the United States fearing for her safety, Italian newspaper Il Corriere della Sera on Sunday quoted her as saying. Sabrina de Sousa is one of 26 people convicted by Italy in absentia over the 2003 abduction of Egyptian cleric Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, but the only one to spend any time in prison for the operation, in which she denies involvement. De Sousa was still due to carry out community service in Italy until next year after the Italian president commuted her four-year prison sentence but she decided to flee the country after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and CIA Director Gina Haspel visited Rome in October, Il Corriere said.
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| Congresswoman's exit prompts question of equity amid scandal Posted: 28 Oct 2019 02:56 PM PDT  The resignation of a female Democratic congresswoman over a consensual, sexual relationship with a campaign aide has sparked questions about whether women are held to higher standards in public life. At the center of the controversy is Katie Hill, a first-term lawmaker from California and a rising Democratic Party star. In a video released Monday, Hill said she was stepping down because she was "fearful of what might come next" following the online publication of explicit pictures that outed her relationship with a female staffer.
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| Judge to allow portion of Nick Sandmann lawsuit against Washington Post to continue Posted: 28 Oct 2019 01:42 PM PDT ![Judge to allow portion of Nick Sandmann lawsuit against Washington Post to continue]( "Judge to allow portion of Nick Sandmann lawsuit against Washington Post to continue") A federal judge is allowing a portion of Covington Catholic student Nathan Sandmann's lawsuit against the Washington Post to continue.
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| NRA leadership thought its own TV channel was airing 'distasteful and racist' content Posted: 28 Oct 2019 11:22 AM PDT  "One particularly damaging segment featured children's cartoon characters adorned in Ku Klux Klan hoods," the court filing stated.
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| Over 40 skulls found in den of Mexico cartel suspects Posted: 28 Oct 2019 12:04 PM PDT  Police found more than 40 skulls, dozens of bones and a fetus in a glass jar next to an altar in the den of suspected drug traffickers in Mexico City during a raid this week, authorities said on Sunday.
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| View Photos of FCA's New Vehicle Simulator Posted: 28 Oct 2019 02:52 PM PDT |
| Nearly 200,000 people have fled their homes in California's Sonoma County as the Kincade Fire continues to grow Posted: 28 Oct 2019 09:37 AM PDT  The Kincade Fire in California's Sonoma County has burned 66,200 acres. PG&E; told regulators that a broken jumper cable may have started the blaze.
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| U.S. Spies Say Turkish-Backed Militias Are Killing Civilians As They Clear Kurdish Areas in Syria Posted: 28 Oct 2019 02:24 PM PDT  Officials fears the groups could be using American-made weapons to conduct potential war crimes
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| Angry at criticism, Philippines' Duterte dares vice president to take over law enforcement Posted: 28 Oct 2019 04:08 AM PDT ![Angry at criticism, Philippines' Duterte dares vice president to take over law enforcement]( "Angry at criticism, Philippines' Duterte dares vice president to take over law enforcement") Philippine leader Rodrigo Duterte on Monday lashed out at Vice President Leni Robredo for criticising his war on drugs, and offered to put her in charge of law enforcement. The president has a frosty relationship with opposition leader Robredo, who was elected separately from Duterte, whose drugs crackdown has killed thousands, stirring global alarm, although polls show strong domestic support for the campaign. It was not immediately clear if Duterte's offer was meant sarcastically, although he said he would send a letter to Robredo, a former human rights lawyer.
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| Feds: Brothers with alleged Hezbollah ties are 'dangerous' Posted: 28 Oct 2019 03:41 PM PDT ![Feds: Brothers with alleged Hezbollah ties are 'dangerous']( "Feds: Brothers with alleged Hezbollah ties are 'dangerous'") Federal prosecutors say two brothers charged with conspiring to export drone parts and technology from the U.S. to Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia in Lebanon are "dangerous" and should remain in custody while they await trial, according to a court document filed Monday. Usama and Issam Hamade are charged with conspiracy to violate U.S. export laws. Usama Hamade is also charged with smuggling.
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| Impeachment: DOJ appeals order to release secret evidence gathered by Robert Mueller in Russia investigation Posted: 28 Oct 2019 01:08 PM PDT  The Department of Justice says it shouldn't turn evidence over to a House committee contemplating Trump's impeachment because it wouldn't be kept confidential.
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| Sinkhole swallows half of Pittsburgh bus during rush hour Posted: 28 Oct 2019 07:50 AM PDT  A bus has fallen into a sinkhole in downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, after ground gave way beneath the vehicle as it waited at a traffic light during rush hour.Video and pictures of the scene show the bus with its rear end in the ground where the road cracked and fell, and the front of the vehicle several feet off the ground.
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| Jewish groups voice fear over German far-right surge Posted: 28 Oct 2019 04:38 AM PDT  Jewish community leaders in Germany voiced alarm Monday over a surge in support for the far-right AfD in a regional election Thuringia state, just weeks after an anti-Semitic attack. Led by one of its most radical figures, Bjoern Hoecke, the anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim Alternative for Germany party doubled its score from the previous election in 2014 to 23.4 percent in the ex-communist region, knocking Chancellor Angela Merkel's CDU party off second spot. The head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Josef Schuster, said the AfD's success could no longer be dismissed merely as "protest votes" because there was no denying the hard-right extremist ideology of Thuringia's AfD branch.
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| Argentina’s President-Elect Picks Mexico For First Trip Abroad Posted: 28 Oct 2019 08:03 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Argentina's president-elect Alberto Fernandez will go to Mexico in his first trip abroad, signaling an interest in aligning himself with like-minded leftist leaders in Latin America such as Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.Fernandez is set to travel to meet the Mexican president next week, according to a person with knowledge of the decision. The exact dates of the trip have yet to be confirmed, the person said, declining to be named because he is not authorized to speak publicly.AMLO, as the Mexican president is known, said during his daily press conference that he will speak to Fernandez on the phone Monday but stopped short of confirming the encounter, just saying the meeting "is very likely."After winning Argentina's presidential election on Sunday, Fernandez wasted no time in touting the old guard of Latin America's leftist leaders. He congratulated Evo Morales for winning a contested fourth term in Bolivia and called for the liberation of Brazil's former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a hero for the Latin American left, from prison, drawing the disapproval of current leader Jair Bolsonaro.The trip to Mexico to meet AMLO is another step suggesting Fernandez will change Argentina's foreign policy after four years of the pro-business administration of Mauricio Macri.Fernandez didn't mention Venezuela in his speech which has been a major regional issue due to the huge flow of migrants leaving the country due to the severe economic crisis. Macri was a strong critic of President Nicolas Maduro.Fernandez takes office on Dec. 10.(Update with AMLO comment in 3rd paragraph.)\--With assistance from Lorena Rios.To contact the reporter on this story: Jorgelina do Rosario in Buenos Aires at jdorosario@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Juan Pablo Spinetto at jspinetto@bloomberg.net, Daniel CancelFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| De Blasio Ordered Top NYPD Officers to Drive Son to Yale Posted: 28 Oct 2019 08:07 AM PDT  New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio ordered members of his NYPD security detail to drive his son to Yale University and back multiple times, the New York Daily News reported Monday.Former members of the Executive Protection Unit with direct knowledge of the matter said detectives from the unit ferried de Blasio's son Dante to Yale several times during his freshman year. Dante decided in his sophomore year that he would rather ride the train to the university, and officers would pick him up upon his return to Penn Station."If you were told to bring him home from Yale, that's what we did," one former unit member said."If the commanding officer of the 75 (precinct) said, 'move my kid to college,' do you really think that wouldn't kill his career?" another former member commented. "But because it's the mayor, everyone just does it."The reports come after city officials admitted in August that Executive Protection Unit officers helped move de Blasio's daughter Chiara out of her apartment to the mayor's residence while on duty."Members of the family's detail were standing by and offered to help," the mayor's press secretary Freddi Goldstein insisted at the time. "Their involvement was strictly voluntary."The NYC Department of Investigation is probing the current incident but has so far refused to elaborate on the details."DOI is aware of the matter and declines further comment," a DOI spokesperson told the Daily News.De Blasio ended his presidential campaign earlier this year after consistently underperforming in polling. An August survey found the mayor had a lower approval rating than President Trump in deep-blue New York City.New York City's largest police union slammed de Blasio when he announced the end of his presidential bid."This campaign proved that it doesn't really matter whether Mayor Bill de Blasio is speaking to empty rooms in Iowa or spinning his wheels in a Park Slope gym. What matters to New Yorkers is that he isn't doing his job," union head Patrick J. Lynch said in a statement.
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| Trump actively tried to derail the 3 biggest things that helped take out ISIS leader al-Baghdadi Posted: 27 Oct 2019 08:58 PM PDT  The US was able to neutralize the ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi because of the intelligence community, Syrian Kurds, and US presence in Syria.
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| Here's What California's Kincade Wildfire Looks Like From Space Posted: 28 Oct 2019 03:03 PM PDT  The Bay-area's Kincade wildfire has grown so large that a satellite can record the plumes from 23,000 miles away in space.
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| Kentucky gov's race stirs clash over casino suicide claims Posted: 27 Oct 2019 02:36 PM PDT  Entering the final days of Kentucky's bitter race for governor, Republican incumbent Matt Bevin exposed himself to a new attack by flatly denying his recorded claim that suicides happen nightly in casinos. Telling a debate audience Saturday night that the truth matters, Bevin challenged his opponent to produce a tape proving his denial wrong. Democrat Andy Beshear offered up the audiotape Sunday.
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| Former Boston College student charged in suicide death of boyfriend, echoing Michelle Carter case Posted: 28 Oct 2019 03:08 PM PDT  A former Boston College student was charged in connection with the suicide death of her boyfriend, drawing comparisons to the Michelle Carter case.
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| Chicago teachers strike continues after talks fail to break impasse Posted: 28 Oct 2019 12:15 AM PDT  Classes were canceled for about 300,000 students in Chicago for an eighth day on Monday as the teachers' union and public school district failed over the weekend to resolve a deadlock in contract talks over class sizes, support staff levels and pay. Each side blamed the other for the impasse in the third-largest U.S. school district, where the strike began on Oct. 17, and the union, which represents the city's 25,000 teachers, has been without a contract since July 1. The strike is the latest in a wave of work stoppages in U.S. school districts in which demands for school resources have superseded calls for higher salaries and benefits.
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| Manhunt launched for teenager in ‘extreme danger’ abducted from bedroom Posted: 28 Oct 2019 02:52 AM PDT  A manhunt has been launched to find a 14-year-old girl in "extreme danger" who is believed to have been abducted from her bedroom by a 33-year-old man, US authorities said.An amber alert has been issued to find Isabel Shae Hicks and her suspected abductor Bruce William Lynch Jr.
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| New York Doesn’t Need a Smoking Gun to Win the Exxon Climate Trial Posted: 28 Oct 2019 01:00 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- The trial of New York's $1.6 billion securities-fraud lawsuit against Exxon Mobil begins its second week Monday, after a series of witnesses failed to provide any concrete evidence that the oil giant knowingly misled shareholders about its climate change accounting.Testimony by investors and employees did show a potential lack of clarity as to the difference between two measures of climate costs used by the energy giant. One is a public "proxy cost" for the impact of climate-change regulations on future energy demand, and the other a greenhouse gas (GHG) cost used internally to decide how to spend on new projects like drilling and oil sands.The "proxy cost," New York claims, made it look to investors like Exxon had a more sober view of sinking demand and tougher regulations than was actually applied internally.And under New York law, how things look to shareholders—rather than what Exxon intended—may be what decides the case.Last week, witnesses were confronted with dozens of internal emails and reports about the two accounting gauges, as well as the company's communications with shareholders. Those shareholders had demanded as far back as 2013 to know how Exxon was calculating the cost of climate change. New York has argued that Exxon intentionally misled investors by publicizing a "sham" proxy cost, tricking the market and thus inflating the company's stock price. Exxon contends that the two costs are used for different purposes, and that New York is conflating them to show a discrepancy where there is none."We're not trying to trick ourselves with our own internal documents," Robert Bailes, Exxon's former greenhouse gas manager, testified on Friday. Indeed, none of the documents discussed at trial so far appeared to show an intentional scheme like the one New York Attorney General Letitia James alleges. Read More: How Exxon's Climate Change Trial Became a Battle Over NumbersTo be sure, the state is far from resting its case and the court has yet to hear from several witnesses, including former Exxon Chief Executive Officer Rex Tillerson. It's also possible that New York could unveil some heretofore unseen email or document that provides evidence of a smoking gun. The attorney general, however, doesn't need one.James sued under New York's Martin Act, which empowers officials to target a wide range of corporate behavior that may negatively impact shareholders. While New York claims Exxon intentionally misled shareholders, under this securities law it doesn't have to prove intent to win."This is precisely why New York is pursuing Exxon under the Martin Act," said James Fanto, a professor at Brooklyn Law School. "New York could prevail if it showed that Exxon's disclosure had a kind of fraudulent effect in misleading shareholders.""The dispute is in how that was portrayed to the investors."New York Supreme Court Justice Barry Ostrager, who is presiding over the nonjury trial in lower Manhattan, alluded to this Wednesday when he asked the lawyers if confusion among Exxon's shareholders was enough to trigger a Martin Act violation."Would you agree that if the disclosures that Exxon made confused investors with respect to the utilization of these two different costs, then there would be a Martin Act violation?" the judge asked Exxon's lawyer Theodore Wells."No, your Honor," Wells responded. "I would state that under the law that there's a difference between somebody being confused and a statement being misleading. I think you have to look at it in context. I think the concepts are different."Kevin Wallace, a lawyer for the attorney general, rejected Wells' premise, arguing that the case turns on what Exxon disclosed to the public "and what the investors understood.""There's no dispute on the grounds about the existence of the two systems," Wallace said. "The dispute is in how that was portrayed to the investors."The state's first witness, activist investor Natasha Lamb, testified that she wrote to Exxon in 2013 on behalf of clients who were concerned that climate change posed a financial risk to the company.She sought a shareholder resolution demanding the company disclose how it was managing those risks, according to a copy of the letter, displayed on large screens in the courtroom.Exxon ultimately agreed to issue a report on the matter in 2014, which Lamb, a managing partner at Arjuna Capital LLC, testified wasn't an accurate representation of the financial threats facing the fossil fuel company. Lamb, who helped make Exxon's proxy cost public, said she didn't know at the time that Exxon used a different measure, the GHG cost, internally."My understanding is they were being used interchangeably," Lamb testified of the two accounting measures.But under cross-examination by Exxon attorney Justin Anderson, she was asked whether anyone at the company had told her that the public and internal numbers were interchangeable. "No one said that sentence, no," Lamb responded, adding "I don't know how I would understand it in any other way.""The dispute is in how that was portrayed to the investors."Ostrager expressed some skepticism about New York's use of Lamb, a frequent Exxon critic, to begin its case on behalf of shareholders, briefly interrupting her testimony to ask her, "why didn't you just sell your Exxon shares and buy Apple stock?"But the judge's displeasure was not necessarily to Exxon's advantage. Much of the testimony—both Lamb's and that of earlier witnesses—wasn't required for New York to prove Exxon violated state law, Ostrager said. At one point, Ostrager appeared to lose his patience with another lawyer for the state, Jonathan Zweig, as he questioned Exxon executive Guy Powell, a greenhouse gas manager, about alleged discrepancies in the company's proxy costs."Mr. Zweig, before we go through anymore of this agonizing, repetitious questioning about the documents that are not being disputed; the chronology of which are not in dispute: What is it exactly that you are trying to elicit from this witness?" the judge asked. "This is a Martin Act case. Intent is not an element of the Martin Act case."To contact the author of this story: Erik Larson in New York at elarson4@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: David Rovella at drovella@bloomberg.netFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Reuters source: Top aide to al-Baghdadi helped his capture Posted: 28 Oct 2019 04:28 AM PDT  In their long hunt for Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Iraqi intelligence teams secured a break in February 2018 after one of the Islamic State leader's top aides gave them information on how he escaped capture for so many years, said two Iraqi security officials.
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| China's Very Own B-2 Bomber? Meet the H-20 Stealth Bomber Posted: 27 Oct 2019 01:00 AM PDT  Coming in the 2020s?
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| Democrats just dropped a big hint that they have everything they need to impeach Trump Posted: 28 Oct 2019 12:52 PM PDT  Democrats said they wouldn't pursue court cases after a former top national-security official refused to testify.
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| Kamala Harris Argues Racism, Sexism Jeopardize Her Electability Posted: 28 Oct 2019 09:47 AM PDT  Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris described electability as the "elephant in the room" of her campaign and pondered whether America is ready for a woman of color to be commander in chief."Essentially, is America ready for a woman and a woman of color to be president of the United States?" Harris said in an interview with Axios on HBO. "There is a lack of ability or a difficulty in imagining that someone whom we have never seen can do a job that has been done 45 times by someone who is not that person."The same conversation happened when Barack Obama ran for president, the California senator added.Harris has been especially vocal about both racial justice and women's rights during her 2020 campaign. During this month's debate, she accused the debate moderators and fellow contenders for the Democratic nomination of failing to adequately prioritize the discussion of abortion rights. The former California attorney general also made headlines during the first Democratic debate in June when she called out former vice president Joe Biden for remarks he made praising two segregationist senators."It was hurtful to hear you talk about the reputations of two United States senators who built their reputations and careers on the segregation of race in this country," Harris said from the debate stage."It was not only that, but you also worked with them to oppose busing," she continued. "There was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools and she was bused to school every day. That little girl was me."Biden made the offending remarks several weeks earlier when he reminisced about bygone days when politics was characterized by a higher level of civility, citing his ability to get along with two segregationist senators despite their differences as an example."At least there was some civility. We got things done. We didn't agree on much of anything," Biden said. "But today you look at the other side and you're the enemy."Harris is currently polling in fifth place behind former vice president Joe Biden, Senator Elizabeth Warren, Senator Bernie Sanders, and South Bend, Indiana mayor Pete Buttigieg.
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| Prosecutors want black judge who criticized incarceration rates of African Americans removed Posted: 27 Oct 2019 01:49 PM PDT  Iberia Parish judge Lori Landry has questioned the large number of black Louisianans incarcerated by the district attorney's office
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| Romania, Hungary recruit in Asia to fill labour shortage Posted: 27 Oct 2019 08:11 PM PDT  Sporting yellow safety helmets, about 30 men are busy at work on a construction site south of Bucharest, exchanging a few words in Vietnamese. Faced with a growing labour shortage which threatens their economies, Romania and Hungary are courting Asian workers, going against Hungarian nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban's anti-immigration rhetoric. "My friend, my friend," a Romanian worker says to his Vietnamese colleague in English at the Bucharest construction site, trying to break the language barrier.
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| Cambodian police search for British woman, 21, missing from beach Posted: 28 Oct 2019 12:20 AM PDT  Cambodian authorities and volunteer divers were searching on Monday for a 21-year-old British woman who has been missing for five days from its southwestern coast popular with backpackers. Amelia Bambridge was last seen on Thursday leaving a party on Koh Rong island in the province of Preah Sihanouk, said its governor Kouch Chamroeun, who led the search that included eight volunteer divers. Chamroeun said Bambridge's bag containing her belongings, including a mobile phone and a watch, was found on a rock near the water's edge.
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| Refugees poured into my state. Here’s how it changed me. Posted: 28 Oct 2019 04:05 AM PDT  Muslim immigrants have helped revive, and change, a former mill town. Here's a look at the deepening bonds between Lewiston's natives and newcomers.
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| Zimbabwean girl, 11, says she poked crocodile's eyes to save friend's life Posted: 28 Oct 2019 09:01 AM PDT  A girl aged 11 claimed she jumped on the back of a crocodile and gouged its eyes as it was trying to eat her friend near their homes in north-western Zimbabwe . Rebecca Munkombwe, a schoolgirl in Hwange town, 200 miles northwest of Bulawyo, rushed to a stream at the sound of screams. Her friend, Latoya Muwani, nine, was struggling to stay afloat as the crocodile latched its jaws around her. Rebecca jumped on to the creature and dug her fingers deep into its eyes, she told Bulwayo's Sunday News. The crocodile loosened its grip on Latoya and slipped away under the water, allowing Rebecca to drag her friend - who only suffered minor injuries - to the bank. "We had just left the water when we heard Latoya, who was left alone swimming near the deep zone, screaming that something was biting her," Rebecca said. "I jumped on top of the crocodile and started beating it with my hands before using my fingers to poke its eyes until it released her. Once she was free, I swam with her to the bank where the other children pulled her out of the water." She feared the crocodile would return to attack as they clambered to safety, but it was not seen again. Latoya was admitted to nearby St Patrick's Hospital. Fortune Muwani, Latoya's father, described his daughter's survival as "miraculous", adding: "I was at work when I learnt that my daughter had been attacked by a crocodile while swimming. "For a moment I thought of the worst before I learnt that she had survived after being saved by Rebecca. How she managed to do that I don't know but am grateful to God. Latoya is recovering well here at St Patrick's and we expect her to be discharged soon." Steve Chisose, a local councillor, said attacks were on the rise because problems with water supplies were driving more people to use unprotected, crocodile-infested streams. "We have challenges accessing water which forces women and children to use unprotected sources such as these crocodile-infested streams. The women are usually accompanied by their children who get naughty and end up swimming," he said. He appealed to Zimbabwe's Parks and Wildlife Management Authority to remove crocodiles from local rivers. "They cause serious harm or death," he added.
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| Britain's World War II Experience Inspired The U.S. Military's "Mother Of All Bombs" Posted: 27 Oct 2019 11:58 PM PDT  The biggest, non-nuclear weapon in the U.S. arsenal.
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| Anomalies in Trump situation room photo spark online conspiracy theories it was staged Posted: 28 Oct 2019 06:26 AM PDT  In 2011, 10 years after the terrorist attacks in New York which destroyed the twin towers of the World Trade Centre, the architect of the hijackings, Osama bin Laden, was killed by US special forces in a raid in Pakistan.The US Navy Seals carrying out the raid relayed live footage to the White House, and a photograph of president Barack Obama alongside his national security team witnessing the operation was used on the front pages of newspapers around the world.
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| Bernie Sanders won key endorsements from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib by defending them when few others would Posted: 28 Oct 2019 02:07 PM PDT  The key endorsements were motivated by personal loyalty and a mutually beneficial political relationship between the lawmakers.
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| More severely obese kids should get surgery, MD group says Posted: 28 Oct 2019 06:11 AM PDT  The guidance issued Sunday by the American Academy of Pediatrics is based on a review of medical evidence, including several studies showing that surgery in teens can result in marked weight loss lasting at least several years, with few complications. In many cases, related health problems including diabetes and high blood pressure vanished after surgery. While most of those studies involved teens, one included children younger than 12 and found no ill effects on growth, the policy says.
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| With raging fires, high winds and blackouts, California is living a disaster movie. Is this the 'new normal'? Posted: 28 Oct 2019 07:20 AM PDT  Californians have come to expect the fall fires. The power outages are a new — and unwelcome — twist to a reality that's playing out like a bad movie.
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| Vietnam collects DNA samples from relatives of UK missing Posted: 27 Oct 2019 09:36 AM PDT  Vietnamese officials collected DNA samples on Sunday from relatives of those feared among 39 people found dead in a truck in Britain, a security source and a family member told AFP, as villagers held emotional prayers for the victims. The 31 men and eight women found dead were initially identified as Chinese, but several Vietnamese families have come forward saying they believe their relatives are among the dead. The grim case has cast light on the extreme dangers facing illegal migrants seeking better lives in Europe.
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| U.S. military envisions broad defense of Syrian oilfields Posted: 28 Oct 2019 03:46 PM PDT ![U.S. military envisions broad defense of Syrian oilfields]( "U.S. military envisions broad defense of Syrian oilfields") The United States will repel any attempt to take Syria's oil fields away from U.S.-backed Syrian militia with "overwhelming force," whether the opponent is Islamic State or even forces backed by Russia or Syria, the Pentagon said on Monday. The U.S. military announced last week it was reinforcing its position in Syria with additional assets, including mechanized forces, to prevent oilfields from being taken over by remnants of the Islamic State militant group or others. U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper offered some of his most detailed remarks to date about the mission at a news briefing on Monday.
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| Is There a Right Way to Make a Manhattan Cocktail? Posted: 28 Oct 2019 01:17 AM PDT  GettyWhiskey, sweet vermouth and bitters. This incredibly simple formula produces the Manhattan, one of the most complex and delicious cocktails of all time. A drink so good it "changed the face of cocktails," wrote bartending legend Gary Regan in the Joy of Mixology. "Quite simply, when properly constructed, it is the finest cocktail on the face of the Earth."While the ratio of its ingredients has certainly fluctuated over time and can vary from bartender to bartender, the drink is fairly straightforward to make. However, the devil is in the details and since writing The Manhattan: The Story of the First Modern Cocktail, I have been asked over and over again by friends, relatives and even barflies, the same three questions about the recipe. In hopes of setting the record straight, here are my answers, which just might surprise you. Cheers!* * *SHOULD I USE BOURBON OR RYE?* * *Well, that's a good question. If you look in vintage cocktail books, the earliest known Manhattan recipes are found in three books from 1884: George Winters' How to Mix Drinks, O.H. Byron's The Modern Bartenders' Guide, and J.W. Gibson's Scientific Bar-Keeping. Even if you're able to track down copies of these works, the recipes, disappointingly, just call for "whisk(e)y." Not until the 1887 edition of Jerry Thomas' pioneering Bar-Tender's Guide do we find a specific spirit being called for and that whiskey is, indeed, rye. Thomas wasn't alone in his selection—the spirit is called for in the 1898 edition of The Police Gazette Bartenders Guide.But rye wasn't universally used and a few years earlier the Boston Herald reported that "A Manhattan cocktail, by the way, is a very good drink just before dinner. It is the ordinary vermouth cocktail with a foundation of first-rate Bourbon whiskey. I do not advise the Boston Herald readers to drink anything, but, if they will drink, I think they will agree with me that a Manhattan cocktail is about as good as anything that can be manufactured." As an aside, this is perhaps the last time anyone in Boston wrote something nice about something coming out of New York, but I digress. So, what should you use? I like rye for a spicier Manhattan and I like bourbon for a sweeter one. Which one should you have? I guess that depends upon the mood you're in. Both are delicious in my book.* * *LEMON PEEL, CHERRY OR SOME OTHER GARNISH?* * *While most Manhattans are usually now garnished with a cherry, that wasn't always the case. Going back to J.W. Gibson's Scientific Bar-Keeping, the reader is instructed to "squeeze the juice of a lemon rind" over the drink prior to serving. And both Jerry Thomas and Harry Johnson's Bartenders' Manual also call for a lemon twist. It's not until George Kappeler's 1895 Modern American Drinks do we find anyone suggesting a cherry garnish. But the fruit wasn't universally adopted. In 1903, in the Bartenders' Encyclopedia, author Tim Dalydirects his reader to garnish the Manhattan with either a cherry or olive. On the topic of the cherry, cocktail folklore tells us that the first time it was used to garnish a Manhattan was at the Palmer House Hotel in Chicago. The story was reported in a trade journal called Mixer and Server, published by the Hotel and Restaurant Employees International Alliance and the Bartenders International League of America. A 1911 issue explains that Colonel Neumeister, "the Chicago millionaire cheese manufacturer…was the originator of the 'cherry in the cocktail.'" It seems that Neumeister had cornered the market on cherries but, alas, no one was buying cherries and he was in jeopardy of taking a big loss. He "had over a thousand cases of the cherries that he could not dispose of for four dollars a case to bakers and confectioners, the only ones that had any use for them." One day, however, Neumeister had an inspiration, "he put a cherry into a Manhattan cocktail which was being served to himself and his friend, Potter Palmer, the foremost hotel man in Chicago at the time, and the proprietor of the world-famous Palmer House. And right there was born the cherry in the cocktail idea that is used now in every civilized country in the world." The story goes on to report that "a week later cherries were worth fifteen dollars a case and following the lead of the Palmer House bar, were used in nearly every bar in Chicago, New York and other cities…and in thirty days the fad had extended to the Pacific Coast."While it's a great story, I'm not sure if Neumeister really had anything to do with the popularization of the cherry garnish. But what I can tell you is don't settle for the standard stemmed maraschino cherries you'll find in most grocery stores, they're artificially colored and a flavor abomination. I recommend Traverse City Whiskey's excellent cocktail cherries, or those offered widely by Amareno Fabbri and Luxardo, they're all superb.* * *IS THERE A RIGHT RATIO?* * *Many professional and home bartenders use the standard formula of 2-1-2 for their Manhattans. (That is two-parts whiskey, one-part sweet vermouth and two dashes of bitters.) It's easy to remember, since the telephone area code for Manhattan was traditionally 212. But is that the right ratio of whiskey to vermouth? Well, that question is up to the drinker. Some bartenders, like New York legend Norman Bukofzer, who worked in the Ritz-Carlton overlooking Central Park, use a different ratio depending upon the strength and flavor of the whiskey selected. And that's not to mention that some drinkers add more vermouth, if they want a less boozy tipple.Now that we got that out of the way, what was the original ratio? Let's go back to the bookshelf of dusty old bartender guides. In all three of the aforementioned 1884 books from Messrs. Byron, Gibson and Winters, the drink is made up of equal parts whiskey and vermouth. Further, the above-referenced books from Jerry Thomas and the Policeman's Gazette actually call for two-parts vermouth to one-part whiskey, which is now referred to as a Reverse Manhattan.But by the 1890s and into the 20th century, we see more and more bartenders settling into what we now consider the "conventional" ratio of two-parts whiskey to one-part vermouth, beginning with William "The Only William" Schmidt's 1891 book The Flowing Bowl. It's also seen in Louis Muckensturm's Louis' Mixed Drinks (1906), Jacques Straub's Drinks (1914), Hugo Ensslin's Recipes for Mixed Drinks (1916), and Patrick Gavin Duffy's Official Mixers Manual (1934). Then there are the "regional" twists that can be applied to the Manhattan, two of which are, oddly enough, found in the American Midwest. Order a Manhattan in, say, Northern Michigan, and you'll likely get it served on the rocks, not up. Cross Lake Michigan over to Wisconsin, and you might be surprised to find your Manhattan made with brandy, not whiskey. As they say, travel globally, drink locally, that's fine with me.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| South Dakota asks court to let execution proceed Posted: 28 Oct 2019 02:57 PM PDT  The state of South Dakota asked a judge Monday to reject an inmate's objection to the lethal drug scheduled for use in his execution. Charles Russell Rhines is scheduled to die next week for the 1992 fatal stabbing of a 22-year-old doughnut shop worker during a robbery. Rhines moved last week to block the execution by arguing that pentobarbital, commonly used to euthanize animals, doesn't act quickly enough.
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| House Republicans Are Taking Another Shot At Reforming America's Healthcare Posted: 27 Oct 2019 01:33 PM PDT  Is this the right policy for Americans?
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| Best Sam's Club Black Friday Deals on TVs and Computers Posted: 28 Oct 2019 03:45 PM PDT  We've already reported on early Black Friday deals from BJ's, which have now started. But you'll have to wait until Saturday, Nov. 9, if you're a Sam's Club member—or intend to become one. That's...
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| Greg Walden to retire in latest sign of GOP doubts about retaking House Posted: 28 Oct 2019 09:59 AM PDT  Rep. Greg Walden, the top Republican on the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee, will retire at the end of this Congress — the latest sign that Republicans see a struggle to retake the House in 2020. The 62-year-old Walden, who was first elected in 1998, said he was confident he'd win reelection but decided instead to end his congressional career in Jan. 2021.
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| Coast Guard to the rescue: Man in pain taken from cruise ship near Atlantic City, New Jersey Posted: 28 Oct 2019 05:46 AM PDT ![Coast Guard to the rescue: Man in pain taken from cruise ship near Atlantic City, New Jersey]( "Coast Guard to the rescue: Man in pain taken from cruise ship near Atlantic City, New Jersey") Coast Guard personnel took a man suffering severe abdominal pain off a cruise ship traveling about 20 miles east of Atlantic City, New Jersey.
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