| Mueller said Trump was 'not exculpated' for obstruction of justice. The dictionary responded Posted: 24 Jul 2019 08:04 AM PDT  Merriam-Webster tweeted the definition of 'exculpate' in response to Mueller's remarks
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| The Latest: Iran diplomat warns Brazil over 2 stranded ships Posted: 24 Jul 2019 09:49 AM PDT  Iran's ambassador says Tehran will reconsider imports from Brazil if it continues to refuse to refuel two Iranian vessels stranded there. Seyed Ali Saqqayian was quoted by Iran's semi-official Fars news agency as saying Wednesday Iran could easily find new suppliers of corn, soybeans and meat. Iran's Foreign Ministry hasn't commented on the issue of the two Iranian vessels, one reportedly loaded with corn, stranded at a Brazilian port due to lack of fuel.
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| Justice Department will not pursue criminal contempt charges in Census dispute with Congress Posted: 24 Jul 2019 02:11 PM PDT  The U.S. Justice Department will not pursue criminal charges against Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, after Democrats in the House of Representatives voted to hold them in contempt in a dispute over documents concerning whether to include a citizenship question on the 2020 Census. "Accordingly, the department will not bring the congressional contempt citations before a grand jury or take any other action to prosecute the Attorney General or the Secretary," he added.
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| Indonesia pardons woman sentenced to jail for exposing lewd boss Posted: 25 Jul 2019 01:57 AM PDT  An Indonesian woman sentenced to six months in jail for exposing her lecherous boss won a parliamentary pardon Thursday after the case sparked an outcry over victim's rights. Loud applause broke out in the House of Representatives as lawmakers unanimously voted to quash the prison sentence handed to Baiq Nuril Maknun over a recording she made of her former employer's sexual harassment. Rights groups had condemned the sentence and the high-profile case sparked fears it would discourage victims of sexual harassment from speaking out in the conservative Muslim majority nation.
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| 'Daddy, I’m scared': Police smash car window, drag man out while baby sits in back then hand him over to ICE Posted: 25 Jul 2019 05:34 AM PDT  A video showing police officers smashing a man's car window before dragging him from his vehicle in front of his terrified children has sparked outrage in the US.The footage of Florencio Millan-Vazquez being hauled from his car and dumped onto the pavement in Kansas City, Missouri, was live streamed on Facebook.In it, his11-year-old son and seven-month-old daughter can be heard crying in the back as officers wrestle the unresisting chef from the vehicle and onto the pavement."Daddy," the boy says at one point. "I'm scared."The incident happened as Mr Millan-Vazquez, aMexican national, and his girlfriend Cheyenne Hoyt were preparing to take the baby, who is disabled, to a doctor's appointment.Immigration agents, apparently acting on intelligence, swooped on the family as they were set to drive out of their apartment complex.The officials ask to see proof that Mr Millan-Vazquez is in the country legally. When he and Ms Hoyt reply by asking to see a warrant for his arrest, the agents tell the couple they do not need one.After 25 minutes of Mr Millan-Vazquez refusing to leave his vehicle, city police officers arrive, smash the window and drag him out.Mr Millan-Vazquez can later be heard asking to say goodbye to his son – a request that is denied."I'm still in shock," Ms Hoyt said following the incident on Monday. "You think that it's not going to happen to my family, like I never thought this was going to happen."You hear the things Trump says, but [Mr Millan-Vazquez] is not a rapist, he's not a murderer, or a drug dealer. And the way they did it in front of the kids – they didn't care."Ms Hoyt, who shot and posted the video, added: "It was like something you saw on a movie."Emanuel Cleaver, US congressman for Missouri, called the video "very concerning as to the traumatization of children and the reasonable use of force".He said it was "heart-breaking and gut-wrenching".US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials later defended their actions saying that Mr Millan-Vazquez has twice re-entered the US illegally since being voluntarily deported in 2011 and that he had misdemeanours on his record.Shawn Neudauer, ICE spokesman, said: "Millan-Vazquez was uncooperative and refused to exit his vehicle or follow lawfully issued commands issued by ICE and local police."After attempting to negotiate with Millan-Vazquez for about 25 minutes, the ICE officers were left with no other choice than make the arrest by physically removing him from the vehicle."The arrest occurred on the same day Donald Trump's administration announced it was to allow immigrants to be deported without going before a judge if they had been in the US for less than two years. Previously that time span was just two weeks.
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| View Photos of the 2020 Lexus RX Crossover Posted: 24 Jul 2019 10:00 AM PDT |
| A Violent Turn in Hong Kong Protests Marks a Dangerous New Phase Posted: 25 Jul 2019 03:23 AM PDT  Sparked by a proposed bill that would allow suspected criminals to face trial in China, protests in Hong Kong have turned violent.
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| Far-Right Groups Embrace ‘Straight Pride Parades’ to Win Recruits, Media Attention Posted: 25 Jul 2019 02:14 AM PDT  Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/ReutersFar-right groups looking to put a friendlier face on their politics are increasingly organizing so-called "Straight Pride Parades" in an attempt to both garner media attention and new recruits. The "Straight Pride" trend kicked off in Boston last month, when a group calling itself Super Happy Fun America announced plans for a Straight Pride Parade at the end of August. News reports and Twitter chatter focused on the novelty and strangeness of a parade celebrating "straight pride," imagining a group of particularly aggrieved heterosexual men in cargo shorts. Much of that coverage missed the fact that Super Happy Fun America's goals aren't so innocent—its lead organizer has been involved in far-right group Resist Marxism, and praised a Chilean dictator for executing liberals. Rather than representing any sort of "straight pride," the Boston Straight Pride parade turned out to be just another attempt at right-wing trolling. Now another set of far-right activists thousands of miles away are trying the same tactic. An explicitly anti-gay group calling itself the "National Straight Pride Coalition" announced plans this week for a Straight Pride Parade in Modesto, CA on August 24 to defend "Western Civilization." While the Boston Straight Pride Parade at least pretended not to be an attack on gay rights, with openly gay anti-Muslim activist Milo Yiannopoulos as its grand marshal, the Modesto event is clearly a vehicle for racial and homophobic hate. On its website, the group describes homosexuality as "evil," and adds that it was created in part to defend "whiteness." Still, participants in the Modesto parade were quick to paint criticism of the event as an attack on straight people. The event permit request describes it as merely a "cultural celebration event." "The moment you have a straight pride parade, everyone goes crazy," said Ryan Schambers, who describes himself as a member of the National Straight Pride Coalition. Mark Ricci, the head of Modesto Progressive Democrats, said the Straight Pride Parade is just a cover for organizers' extremist politics."It's like a front for what their real intentions are," said Ricci, whose group plans to participate in a counterprotest to the Modesto event. The Modesto Straight Pride event hasn't received a permit yet. Thomas Reeves, a spokesman for the city of Modesto, said the permitting process should be settled by the end of the week. "The city of Modesto cannot deny a permit based on an organization's values, the content of speeches, or the views of speakers," Reeves said in a statement. "The approval of the permit would not be an endorsement or sponsorship of any particular message by the city, but a recognition of the free speech rights enshrined in the First Amendment." The National Straight Pride Coalition is the creation of Don J. Grundmann, a longtime anti-gay activist and perennial failed Senate candidate in California. Grundmann said presenting his event as a "Straight Pride Parade" has earned it more attention that it would have received if he had billed it as another right-wing rally."It can be publicity, naturally," Grundmann said. "Straight pride—it shouldn't be a term which is controversial." Super Happy Fun America did not respond to a request for comment on the Modesto event. But Grundmann said his group doesn't have anything to do with the Boston Straight Pride march, and criticized their comparative openness to gay rights, which he described as "completely opposite from what we would do." Grundmann then proceeded to go on an anti-Semitic rant about a secretive, wealthy cabal controlling world events, down to the counterprotest to his own event. Asked if he was attacking Jewish people, Grundmann said, "you can figure it out."The Straight Pride Parade in Modesto has already attracted support from at least one local Republican official. Schambers is listed as a member of the local Stanislaus County GOP's central committee leadership on its website, although he insists he's no longer a county Republican official. The Stanislaus County GOP didn't respond to a request for comment.Schambers' involvement in the parade was first noted by a left-wing "digital community center" called It's Going Down. In an interview with The Daily Beast, he vaguely criticized the anti-gay language on the National Straight Pride Coalition, but then said he's participating in the event in part because he thinks it'd "probably be better" if gay people were instead straight. Ricci said Modestans aren't fooled by Grundmann posing as a support of "straight rights" and pointed out that Grundmann is a resident of the Bay Area—nearly 100 miles away from the planned site of the Straight Pride Parade. "We're just deeply disappointed that there are people out there who continue to use this thinly veiled hate speech under the guise of equality," Ricci said. Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| FBI Chief Says China's Trying to `Steal Their Way' to Dominance Posted: 24 Jul 2019 02:18 AM PDT  FBI Director Christopher Wray told senators that China is engaging in a sweeping effort to steal its way to economic dominance, with more than 1,000 investigations underway on intellectual property theft "almost all leading back to China."
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| Poll: Democrats Increasingly Think DOJ Meddled in Mueller Probe Posted: 24 Jul 2019 05:35 AM PDT  Democrats have become increasingly suspicious that the special counsel's investigation into Russia's influence on the 2016 election was seriously hampered by the Trump administration's Justice Department since the final report on the probe was released in April, according to a new poll.Overall, about 37 percent of voters said they have confidence that Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe was conducted "very fairly" or "somewhat fairly," while 42 said the investigation was conducted "not too fairly" or "not fairly at all," according to the most recent Politico/Morning Consult poll.Those numbers reflect more suspicion about the probe than in April when Mueller's final report was first released to lawmakers and the public. At that point, 46 percent of voters considered the investigation fair, while 29 percent thought it had been carried out unfairly.Since then the number of Democratic voters who think the investigation was compromised spiked 15 percentage points, while the number who think the probe was conducted fairly sank 9 points. Republicans have also grown slightly more skeptical of the investigation, 6 percent more saying they have less faith in it now.The poll also found that voters are split on whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russians during the 2016 election, 42 percent saying the campaign did collude and 41 percent disagreeing. A large majority of Democrats, 72 percent, said they think the campaign did indeed engage in collusion.Mueller is set to testify on the investigation and his report before the House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees Wednesday morning.The poll surveyed 1992 voters between July 19 and 21.
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| No F-35 for You: Iran's Air Force Might Be Dying Posted: 25 Jul 2019 12:43 AM PDT  Not good.Two incidents in late August 2018 involving Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force F-5F Tiger II fighter jets underscored the ongoing crisis in Iran's air force.On Aug. 21, Iran unveiled what it described as a new, fourth-generation fighter jet. Iranian president Hassan Rouhani even sat in the plane's cockpit and posed for photographs.One problem. The aircraft in question was conspicuously an F-5F, one of the 17 Iran bought from the United States during the rule of the Shah. It was not domestically-built."Iran has probably upgraded the electronics systems, originally from the 1960s, and made other upgrades," Iran analyst Nader Uskowi suggested. "But it is not clear why the president of the country should unveil a 40-year-old plane as a new fighter."War Is Boring contributor Sebastien Roblin pointed out that Iran is in fact developing a new plane called the Kowsar-88, another in a long line of modified reverse-engineered F-5s that Tehran will either use as a trainer or light-attack aircraft.But that jet "wasn't ready for display this August, so Tehran simply took an old, very well-known jet fighter and claimed it was a new one, in full view of domestic and international audiences that would know better," Roblin wrote at The National Interest.
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| Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, at 86, dreams of serving many more years Posted: 24 Jul 2019 04:43 AM PDT  Supreme Court Associate Justice and liberal icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg has a message for friends and foes alike: She hopes to serve many more years.
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| The 'American Dream' of many migrants becoming a Mexican one Posted: 23 Jul 2019 06:52 PM PDT  Honduran Rolando Rodrigo arrived last week in the Mexican city of Tapachula with his family, just one stop on the long route to the United States and the dream of a new life free from the poverty and gang violence that wracks their homeland. Just hours after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard exchanged congratulations on "significant progress" in a deal to slow down the wave of undocumented migrants heading for US soil, Rodrigo wandered about Tapachula's central square with his three-year-old son Gadiel asking for money to feed his family.
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| Pakistan opposition parties hold protest rallies against PM Khan Posted: 25 Jul 2019 09:20 AM PDT ![Pakistan opposition parties hold protest rallies against PM Khan]( "Pakistan opposition parties hold protest rallies against PM Khan") Pakistan's main opposition parties held protest rallies in cities across the country on Thursday, accusing Prime Minister Imran Khan's government of ruining the economy and seeking to intimidate and silence its opponents. The so-called "Black Day" protests, a year after Khan's PTI party swept to power following a bitterly contested election, come amid mounting economic problems for Pakistan and a political climate that has grown increasingly angry. "Every day in the presence of Imran Khan is a black day," Maryam Nawaz, leader of the PML-N party that was ousted from power in last year's election told a crowd of thousands of supporters in a football stadium in the western city of Quetta.
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| Ford's "Baby Bronco" Compact SUV Shows Off Its Off-Road Chops Posted: 25 Jul 2019 11:00 AM PDT  This Escape-based crossover could be called Bronco Scout, Bronco Sport, or Adventurer.
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| Canadian police confirm sightings of murder suspects Posted: 25 Jul 2019 03:39 PM PDT  Police said Thursday there have been two sightings of the suspects in the slaying of an American woman, her Australian boyfriend and another man in the Gillam area of Manitoba and they are believed to still be nearby. Royal Canadian Mounted Police Cpl. Julie Courchaine said authorities have corroborated the sightings of 19-year-old Kam McLeod and 18-year-old Bryer Schmegelsky.
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| We’re Getting an Idea of Boris Johnson’s Plan A: Deal, Then Election Posted: 25 Jul 2019 10:27 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Boris Johnson hasn't given much information about his Brexit plans B, C or D, but his statement to Parliament on Thursday gives us an idea of his Plan A:Prepare Britain for No Deal. Posters, TV ads, roads widened and infrastructure installed. The message: "Britain Can Take It"Tell the EU it can either give way, or take its share of the economic hit from a no-deal split. Secure enough concessions to go back to ParliamentGet the deal through Parliament. Britain leaves the EU. Can-do spirit and pluck have won the dayCall an election. Probably around March 2020, because parties don't like campaigning in the winter. Johnson needs a majority in Parliament to do any of the things he wants to do, and this would be his moment of maximum strengthThat's if everything goes well. If things go badly and he can't get enough concessions to satisfy Parliament, the election might be sooner.To contact the reporter on this story: Robert Hutton in London at rhutton1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Tim Ross at tross54@bloomberg.net, Thomas PennyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| SpaceX 'Starhopper' rocket test ends in spectacular flames Posted: 25 Jul 2019 02:21 AM PDT  SpaceX's Starhopper – a prototype of the rocket it hopes will one day fly around the solar system – had a failed launch test that ended with it being surrounded by flames.The company was aiming to try the first "untethered" test of the rocket, which was intended to allow it to jump up into the air and then come back down again, without the restraining ties that have held it down in previous attempts.But as the test began, the rocket failed to launch and it stayed on the ground as flames poured out of its rocket. Another flame flew out of the top of the rocket, as can be seen on the video.The rocket itself appeared to survive without problems, but it is just the latest in a run of issues. It came a week after the Starhopper craft flew a fireball out of its bottom during another test.It was the first time that SpaceX has allowed one of the tests to be streamed. Previous attempts have happened in private – with spectacular descriptions of the launches leaking out after."It appears as though we have had an abort on today's test. As you can see there, the vehicle did not lift off today," SpaceX engineer Kate Tice said on a live stream provided by the company. "As I mentioned before, this is a development program, today was a test flight designed to test the boundaries of the vehicle."While the Starhopper is just a test vehicle, SpaceX hopes that it will one day turn into a rocket known as Starship. It aims to use that one day to carry people to Mars, with the help of a huge array of rocket engines.
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| Fake Tweets Put Israel in Bed With Iranian Exile ‘Terrorists’ Posted: 25 Jul 2019 02:14 AM PDT  Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/GettyTEL AVIV—It was already late afternoon Tuesday local time when a call came in from a contact several time zones away. "A strange story is making the rounds in the Iranian press," said the contact, who tracks such things. The leader of the Mujahedin e-Khalq (MEK), an Iranian exile group often described by critics as a cult, had secretly traveled to Israel last week for meetings with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Mossad chief Yossi Cohen. Rudy Giuliani, a long-time supporter of the group, had apparently been a go-between.A Shady Facebook Campaign Is Stoking the Iran-U.S. ConflictEven stranger was the source for the report: the French consul general in Jerusalem, Pierre Cochard, who had publicized the news a few days prior via his personal Twitter account, citing a former colleague whom he had worked with in Tehran. In a long five-tweet thread, Cochard lamented the fact that the MEK leader, Maryam Rajavi, a political refugee in France, had not received official approval from Paris for such sensitive talks with the Israeli government. "You may want to look into this on your end," my contact said.The intriguing report hadn't really gained traction yet, although a few Iran-focused journalists and analysts on Twitter had begun credibly highlighting the consul's tweets and bombshell revelations. The news value was obvious. A quasi-Marxist group that fell afoul of the Islamic Republic after the 1979 revolution, the MEK has been in exile for most of the last four decades. Both the U.S. and European Union used to consider the group a terrorist organization, a designation lifted just a few years ago after a high-profile lobbying campaign by many allegedly well-paid supporters like former CIA chief James Woolsey, Howard Dean, and, yes, Giuliani. More to the point the MEK was simply weird, with a cult of personality reportedly built around its husband-wife leaders, Massoud and Maryam Rajavi. While their actual base of support inside Iran is extremely suspect, the MEK does on occasion deliver. In the early 2000s they were the source for several major revelations regarding Iran's nuclear weapons program. Which is where Israel may come in. According to a 2017 report likely attributable to the Obama administration, Israel had teamed up with the MEK to assassinate Iranian nuclear scientists. More recently, an Iranian terror plot out of Austria and Belgium in 2018 reportedly was foiled by the Mossad. The alleged target? An MEK rally in Paris. In short, there were plausible reasons for Rajavi to make a trip to Jerusalem, although such a move would be hugely controversial—sending a message, as it was sure to do, that the MEK is an Israeli partner in the service of regime change in Iran. "The Iranians always suspect a hidden hand supporting any of the anti-regime groups, inside or outside the country, rightly or wrongly," one U.S-based analyst that covers Iran told The Daily Beast. The French consul in Jerusalem would surely have known all of this when he went public. The Cochard profile, on the face of it, looked like a legitimate French diplomat's personal account. It retweeted the French foreign ministry, it issued official-sounding platitudes about Bastille Day and the Franco-Israel relationship, it spotlighted highlights from French President Emanuel Macron. Established in 2013, the account had over 2,000 followers, including the verified profiles of several prominent Israeli journalists, the French ambassador in Israel, and the French embassy in Tel Aviv. A picture of the consul general visiting a Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem was tweeted out around the same time as the MEK thread; a cursory search on Google brought up no other hits for the image, lending further credence to the account's legitimacy. An initial inquiry made to the Israeli Prime Minister's Office for comment dished up what often is a classic non-denial denial. Responding to the question of whether Ms. Rajavi indeed visited Israel last week to meet with Netanyahu, a spokesman told The Daily Beast that "[I] have not seen those media reports and have nothing to offer on query." When pressed on the fact that these weren't media reports, but rather (ostensibly) the online postings of a senior European diplomat working across town in Jerusalem, the spokesman declined to comment further. Intriguing. And yet, going back further in the account's timeline, things began to look very different. The consul was in the past apparently a major fan of the University of Arkansas Razorbacks. Homages to Lebron James were interspersed with ruminations about NBA basketball generally. Following the patois of modern social media there were purposeful spelling mistakes and online American slang. Not exactly the public profile of a pedigreed French diplomat and graduate of the prestigious École Nationale d'Administration. At a certain point earlier this year, it turned out, the account was re-branded—or bought, or potentially hacked. Gone were the references to the Razorbacks and King James. In their place, under the profile of Pierre Cochard, the account was now churning out, in fluent French, tweets about high diplomacy and French foreign policy hyperspecific to what a real consul general sitting in Jerusalem would be occupied with. Until, at the height of an escalating standoff between Tehran and Washington (and Jerusalem), it tweets out an elaborate story regarding the MEK, Rudy Giuliani, secrets flights from Talinn, the Mossad, and more. The story did succeed in gaining some traction online before this reporter finally reached the French consulate for comment, bringing L'affaire Rajavi to its attention. A spokesman rejected the veracity of the profile, telling The Daily Beast it was a fake and that they were contacting Twitter about the matter. The consulate added that Cochard had been the victim of an identity theft on the popular social media platform. Twitter took down the Pierre Cochard account a few hours later. Giuliani to Speak Beside Leader of Accused Iranian 'Cult'The story, a classic case of fake news and disinformation, was luckily stopped before it was able to travel halfway around the world—although the Iranian media is likely still flogging the "report." Yet the real moral is just how much time, effort, and resources were invested to make this particular profile seem like the real personal account of the French consul general in Jerusalem. This is the new face of psy-ops and cyber-ops in our hyperconnected, digitized world, and it all too often resembles the real thing. As if on cue, on Wednesday the Israeli intelligence services said they had scuttled a wide-ranging Iranian online recruitment campaign targeting Israeli nationals, primarily via the use of fake social media profiles on Facebook."The Consulate General of France in Jerusalem calls internet users to remain vigilant," read the conclusion of the official statement issued Tuesday. 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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| 'Enraged' wife hits husband with laptop during argument over other women on plane in Miami Posted: 25 Jul 2019 04:26 PM PDT  A woman on an American Airlines plane about to take off from Miami threw a laptop at her husband, hitting a flight attendant and a passenger.
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| Gambia ex-president accused of ordering murder of two US businessmen Posted: 25 Jul 2019 02:16 PM PDT  Former members of a Gambian death squad known as the Junglers on Thursday accused ex-president Yahya Jammeh of ordering the murder of two US citizens in 2013, having already confessed to the killing of a well known journalist. Since Monday, Gambians have been gripped by live coverage of three ex-Junglers -- Malick Jatta, Omar Jallow and Amadou Badjie -- before the West African country's Truth and Reconciliation Commission. On the last day of hearings before the commission adjourns until August 5, Badjie, a member of Jammeh's elite hit squad, said the head of state had ordered in June 2013 that two US-Gambian businenessmen, Alhaji Ceesay and Ebrima Jobe, who he suspected were planning a coup, should be "chopped into pieces".
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| UPDATE 3-N.Korea's Kim says missile launch a warning to S.Korean 'warmongers' Posted: 25 Jul 2019 03:12 PM PDT |
| Glaciers Are Melting Underwater. It's Worse Than Previously Thought Posted: 25 Jul 2019 12:40 PM PDT  Underwater glacier melt could be happening faster than previously thought, a dangerous finding as melting ice and glaciers raise sea levels
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| Woman shoots 2 Israeli men to death at Mexico shopping mall Posted: 25 Jul 2019 08:32 AM PDT  A woman wearing a blond wig disguise killed two Israeli men at a restaurant in an upscale Mexico City shopping mall. Videos and photos posted on social media showed restaurant patrons cowering under tables during Wednesday's attack. Customers at the shopping center fled, dove to the floor or took refuge behind storefronts as the sound of gunshots rang through the complex.
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| Home Depot Employee Dies After Dry Wall Falls on Him Posted: 24 Jul 2019 10:43 AM PDT  A 60-year-old man died overnight following an accident at the Missouri Home Depot where he worked.
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| Ukraine’s Rookie Leader Ups the Ante in Match-Up With Putin Posted: 25 Jul 2019 10:36 AM PDT ![Ukraine's Rookie Leader Ups the Ante in Match-Up With Putin]( "Ukraine's Rookie Leader Ups the Ante in Match-Up With Putin") (Bloomberg) -- Best known as a TV comic before he shot to power this spring, Ukraine's leader isn't joking any longer.Looking for a quick win early in his presidency, Volodymyr Zelenskiy has prioritized freeing the Ukrainian sailors held by Russia after a naval clash in 2018. Talks last week with Vladimir Putin yielded little, but the stakes rose dramatically on Thursday when Ukraine seized a Russian oil tanker and its crew.It's a bold gambit. Putin is comfortable locking horns with Russia's ex-Soviet neighbors and isn't afraid to up the ante even further. In fact, it came as a surprise when he recently rejected the idea of sanctions against Georgia following anti-Kremlin protests in Tbilisi.Even so, the risk is that Zelenkiy's bravado backfires."There's a risk that it will cause tough response from Russia," Volodymyr Fesenko, head of the Penta research institute in Kiev, said by phone.Later Thursday, it looked like Zelenskiy wanted to lower the temperature as the Russian embassy in Kiev announced that the ten crew members -- all Russians -- were released.But Ukraine still has the vessel -- a small tanker built in 1989 to carry gasoline and diesel. And Putin, who remains desperate to reclaim some sway in Ukraine after protests wrenched the country out of Russia's orbit and toward the European Union, won't like the optics of his ship being seized.The blowback, when it comes, may be painful. Russia's foreign ministry has promised a swift response consisting, ominously, of "appropriate measures."To contact the reporters on this story: Yulia Surkova in Kiev at ysurkova@bloomberg.net;Andrew Langley in London at alangley1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Andrea Dudik at adudik@bloomberg.net, Balazs Penz, Flavia Krause-JacksonFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Rudy Giuliani, Estranged Wife Argue in Court Over His Free Trump Legal Work Posted: 25 Jul 2019 09:01 AM PDT  REUTERSRudy Giuliani is providing gratis legal work for President Donald Trump to shortchange estranged wife Judith Nathan Giuliani, her lawyer said Thursday during a proceeding in their increasingly acrimonious divorce."Not only is he working pro bono for the president, for this individual, but it's costing him money," said Bernard Clair, who represents Judith. "Not only does he work for free, but all of his expenses, every time he goes down to Washington, D.C., every time he travels for the president… it comes out of his own pocket." "When he's going to work for the president, he bundles, for lack of a better word, clients from his other businesses" to defray these costs, including a recent trip to Warsaw, Poland, Clair said. Clair said Giuliani's work for Trump is meant to lead the court to "believe he somehow doesn't have money." The lawyer added that Giuliani spent "over one million on credit cards" but "says 'woe is me' financially… 'I don't have any money left.'" Giuliani borrowed $100,000 from Marc Mukasey, another one of Trump's lawyers and has paid back some $90,000, Clair said.Judge: Rudy Giuliani, Estranged Wife Can't Be in Same Room at Country ClubsJudith filed for divorce from the former New York City mayor in April 2018, after 15 years of marriage. Allegations that Giuliani has been holding out on her have been an ongoing theme of the divorce proceedings. Clair alleged in court in November that Giuliani cried poor after she served him divorce papers. In addition to citing the no-cost legal work for Trump, Clair had claimed that Giuliani did so after spending $286,000 on his rumored girlfriend, a New Hampshire hospital administrator named Maria Rosa Ryan. "Mr. Giuliani has taken it upon himself to radically change the financial status quo that existed prior to this action," Clair had told Justice Michael Katz, calling it "conduct that can only be characterized as SIDS... sudden income deficit syndrome.""My client doesn't care about romantic interest or otherwise, she really doesn't… What she cares about is that these expenses, for these people, are continuing while she's not received any direct support since August of this past year—not a dime directly for her," Judith's lawyer had said.In the proceeding last fall, Clair claimed that Giuliani earned $7.9 million in 2016 and $9.5 million in 2017. Their monthly expenses were about $232,000 and $238,000, respectively.Faith Miller, a lawyer representing Giuliani, insisted the ex-mayor has been trying to find other sources of income, including a podcast. Miller, meanwhile, accused Judith of taking "everything that she in her own personal opinion was hers" from one of their homes, including "the china, silverware, the pictures off the walls.""He walked in, the place was denuded, the place was a mess," Miller said. "I did not! I did not," Judith cried out, slapping her hand against the table."I'm not going to tolerate an outburst," Judge Katz warned. The furniture allegation is among many petty squabbles in their made-for-tabloid split. In March, Katz told them not to be in the same room if they ran into each other at country clubs.Millionaire Rudy Giuliani Cries Poor in Divorce Court After Spending Big on Alleged Mistress"There was an issue at one of the clubs last week," Lisa Zeiderman, one of Giuliani's attorneys, previously told Katz. "We're going to ask that Ms. Giuliani just keep her distance from Mr. Giuliani when they're at clubs together and their children, as well, and not take photographs, because that's what was happening last weekend, I'm advised, at one of the clubs.""He just wants to be left alone," Zeiderman had said.One of Judith's lawyers had responded that Giuliani was just embarrassed to be spotted spending money on his purported girlfriend's daughter. (Giuliani denied this after that hearing.)Clair had told Katz that "she went into the gift shop at the club. She saw Mr. Giuliani. He got anxious and yelled at her.""I am tired of hearing about Mr. Giuliani's personal life," Katz had remarked, later saying, "Whoever is in the room first is allowed to stay in the room."The second person who enters the room can go to another room "and vice versa," Katz had instructed.Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Rep. Tlaib Compares BDS Movement Against Israel To U.S. Boycotting Nazi Germany Posted: 24 Jul 2019 09:08 AM PDT  Democratic Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib compared the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel to Americans' boycott of Nazi Germany during a Tuesday floor speech.The Michigan congresswoman was speaking against a House resolution passed Wednesday that opposes the movement because it "does not favor a two-state solution and that seeks to exclude the State of Israel and the Israeli people from the economic, cultural, and academic life of the rest of the world," the text of HR 246 states.Tlaib started by saying she would not allow Congress to attack the right to "boycott the racist policies of the government and state of Israel.""The right to boycott is deeply rooted in the fabric of our country," Tlaib said. "What was the Boston Tea Party but a boycott? Where would we be now without the boycott led by civil rights activists in the 1950s and '60s, like the Montgomery bus boycott and the United Farm Workers grape boycott?"She continued that some of the country's "most important advances in racial equality and equity and workers' rights" have been achieved through constitutional, collective action.
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| California college student Harrison Duran has long been 'obsessed' with dinosaurs. He just found a real one Posted: 25 Jul 2019 01:29 PM PDT  Harrison Duran, a fifth-year biology student from the University of California, Merced, found the 65-million-year-old fossil in North Dakota.
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| US sanctions Venezuela emergency food 'corruption network' Posted: 25 Jul 2019 08:59 AM PDT  The US Treasury Department on Thursday announced sanctions against three of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's stepsons, a Colombian businessman and six others for running a "corruption network" that profited from emergency food imports. The US has in recent months escalated sanctions against Venezuela, which is struggling with a political and economic crisis that the United Nations says has left a quarter of its 30 million people in need of humanitarian aid. The new restrictions target Maduro's stepsons Walter Jacob Gavidia Flores, Yosser Daniel Gavidia and Yoswal Alexander Gavidia Flores, whom the US says collaborated with Colombian businessman Alex Nain Saab Moran to profit off importing emergency food into the country as it struggled with rising malnutrition.
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| See Photos of the 2020 Audi Q3 Sportback Posted: 24 Jul 2019 06:00 AM PDT |
| Star orbiting massive black hole lends support to Einstein's theory Posted: 25 Jul 2019 05:17 PM PDT  Observations of light coming from a star zipping in orbit around the humongous black hole at the center of our galaxy have provided fresh evidence backing Albert Einstein's 1915 theory of general relativity, astronomers said on Thursday. Researchers studied a star called S0-2, boasting a mass roughly 10 times larger than the sun, as it travels in an elliptical orbit lasting 16 years around the supermassive black hole called Sagittarius A* residing at the center of the Milky Way 26,000 light years from Earth. The famed theoretical physicist proposed the theory, considered one of the pillars of science, to explain the laws of gravity and their relation to other natural forces.
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| AP Explains: How Emirates troop drawdown impacts Yemen's war Posted: 24 Jul 2019 11:15 PM PDT  The United Arab Emirates, one of the most powerful parties in Yemen's war, has begun to draw down its forces, pulling out several thousand troops in a move that leaves the Saudi-led coalition there with a weakened ground presence and fewer tactical options. The UAE isn't quitting Yemen or the coalition, which it and Saudi Arabia formed in 2015 to stem the advance of Iranian-allied Shiite rebels known as Houthis who took over the north. The UAE says the reduction aims to boost negotiations with the Houthis to end the war.
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| Inmate questioned after Jeffrey Epstein is found nearly unconscious in jail cell Posted: 25 Jul 2019 02:45 PM PDT  An inmate was questioned over an incident in which financier and convicted sexoffender Jeffrey Epstein was found nearly unconscious in his New York Cityjail cell, WNBC reports
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| 40+ Halloween Desserts That'll Thrill Everyone At Your Holiday Party Posted: 25 Jul 2019 01:19 PM PDT |
| Maine Confirmed Its First Case of a Rare Tick-Borne Virus in Years. Here's What to Know About Powassan Posted: 25 Jul 2019 05:24 AM PDT  What to know about the tick-borne illness
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| Ole Miss student from Texas arrested after allegedly killing classmate Posted: 24 Jul 2019 09:27 AM PDT  Brandon Theesfeld is charged with the murder of 21-year-old Alexandria Kostial, whose body was found near a lake about 30 miles from campus.
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| Trump unleashes furious tirade at reporter after being asked about indictment: ‘You’re at the top of the list!’ Posted: 25 Jul 2019 04:17 AM PDT Donald Trump has furiously berated two journalists for asking about the possibility of him being indicted after leaving office, labelling them as purveyors of "fake news".The president was speaking to a group of reporters following Robert Mueller's closely watched testimony before two congressional committees on Wednesday.During the session the former special counsel confirmed that Mr Trump could be charged with obstruction of justice once he left office."Could you charge the president with a crime after he left office?" Ken Buck, a Republican congressman, asked Mr Mueller."Yes," the former special counsel said in reply."You believe that you could charge the president of the United States with obstruction of justice after he left office?""Yes," Mr Mueller said again.But the president insisted that Mr Mueller had corrected his answer, in an angry tirade at political journalists later in the day."When you saw Robert Mueller's statement, the earlier statement and then he did a recap, he did a correction later on in the afternoon," he said when Hallie Jackson, a journalist at NBC News, asked him about the possibility of an indictment."And you know what that correction was and you still asked the question, you know why? Because you're fake news and you're one of the worst."And let me just tell you – the fact that you even asked that question, you're fake news because you know what, he totally corrected himself in the afternoon and you know that just as well as anybody."The president appeared to be confusing Mr Mueller's response to Ken Buck with his separate answer to Ted Lieu. During the first hearing Mr Lieu asked if the special counsel had not indicted Mr Trump because of an Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) memo, which argues that you cannot indict a sitting president.The OLC is an agency which operates within the US justice department.Mr Lieu asked: "I'd like to ask you the reason, again, that you did not indict Donald Trump is because of OLC opinion stating that you cannot indict a sitting president, correct?""That is correct," Robert Mueller said.But the 74-year-old clarified his remarks later in the day."(W)hat I want to clarify is we did not make any determination with regard of culpability in any way. We did not start that process down the road," he said at the beginning of his appearance before the House Intelligence Committee.Mr Mueller did not correct his answer to Mr Buck, but the president repeatedly insisted that he had in later exchanges with reporters."He didn't say that," Mr Trump said to a second journalist who asked him about the indictment remarks."Again, you're fake news and you're right at the top of the list also."Let me just tell you…read his correction. Read his correction! If you read his correction you'll find out. That's why people don't deal with you, because you're not an honest reporter."Yamiche Alcindor, PBS White House correspondent, said the president had also lashed out at her."I quoted Robert Mueller directly to President Trump and he replied that I was being "untruthful" in my question. He was totally wrong," she said on Twitter.Despite Mr Mueller's testimony there is little sign Democrats will start impeachment proceedings against the president, although Representative Lori Trahan joined 90 others calling for an impeachment inquiry.Nancy Pelosi, the house speaker, opposes moving forward on impeachment for now. She said Democrats wanted to assemble the strongest case possible, focusing her remarks on Trump's personal finances and his business connections."One of those connections could be to the Russians and that's what we want to find out," she said.Members of Congress are expected to leave Washington at the end of the week for a long summer break, returning in September.Additional reporting by agencies
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| US warship sails through Taiwan Strait, China 'concerned' Posted: 25 Jul 2019 01:13 AM PDT  An American warship sailed through the Taiwan Strait, the US Navy and Taiwanese authorities said Thursday, triggering concern in Beijing. The transit came as China, which views Taiwan as a renegade province, unveiled a defence white paper Wednesday stressing its willingness to use force to thwart any move towards the self-ruled island's independence, and accusing the United States of undermining global stability. According to the US Navy's Seventh Fleet, the USS Antietam, a guided-missile cruiser, conducted a routine transit through the narrow waterway separating the Chinese mainland and Taiwan during July 24-25.
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| 2-year-old injured after riding baggage conveyor belt at Atlanta airport Posted: 25 Jul 2019 06:52 AM PDT  A 2-year-old boy was hurt after jumping on a baggage conveyor belt at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. He landed in a luggage room.
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| Putin allies' oil feud spills into public view Posted: 24 Jul 2019 10:11 PM PDT  The blame game over a contamination scandal in Russia's oil industry has breached President Vladimir Putin's inner circle. Igor Sechin, head of Rosneft, the world's biggest publicly-traded oil company, and Nikolai Tokarev, the boss of Transneft, the world's largest pipeline network, are embroiled in an unusually public and rancorous dispute over their companies' responses to the contamination of Russia's Druzhba ("Friendship") pipeline, an episode that disrupted exports and tarnished Moscow's image as a reliable energy supplier.
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| Point Break: Is Iran Ready to Retaliate Against America? Posted: 25 Jul 2019 08:32 AM PDT  The United States and Iran remain locked in a tense standoff, punctuated by periodic escalations, that could easily transition into a full-blown conflict. Following the U.S. withdrawal from the JCPOA, Iran has been subjected to crushing sanctions that have contracted its economy and put pressure on its leadership. Rather than concede, Iran has responded with increasingly provocative moves—sabotaging several oil tankers, shooting down a U.S. drone, and openly violating the uranium enrichment and storage thresholds in the JCPOA. Many in Washington want the United States to launch military strikes on Iran because they believe the prospect of a war that it would lose would force Iran into submission. Military action is much more likely to backfire, however, since it would only legitimize Iran's nuclear program and make a nuclear arsenal essential to defend itself from the United States.Iran has clearly telegraphed that it would restart uranium enrichment unless America's European allies—who want to remain in the JCPOA—defy U.S. sanctions and continue to import Iranian oil. Iran's recent moves are a desperate effort to recapture some of the economic benefits of the deal in exchange for its continued compliance. So far, modest European efforts to that end have done little to ease Iran's economic crisis. Iran's recent seizure of a British oil tanker—retaliation for the Royal Navy's seizure of an Iranian vessel—is likely to make the Europeans even less willing to risk angering the United States on Iran's behalf.
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| Co-conspirator in ex-India PM's assassination released on parole Posted: 25 Jul 2019 04:40 AM PDT  India's longest-serving female prisoner, who was convicted over the assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, walked out of prison Thursday on a 30-day parole to arrange her daughter's marriage. Nalini Sriharan was granted parole earlier this month by the Madras High Court after spending nearly three decades in jail over her role in Gandhi's murder by a female suicide bomber in 1991.
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| Governor acknowledges Native Hawaiian plight on Mauna Kea Posted: 24 Jul 2019 12:39 PM PDT  After a week of tension and dozens of arrests, Hawaii's governor is vowing to find a peaceful resolution to the ongoing stalemate with Native Hawaiian activists who are trying to prevent the construction of another telescope atop a Big Island volcano. Gov. David Ige visited the protest site Tuesday evening after acknowledging that their grievances were not just about the new observatory but also the treatment of Native Hawaiians going back more than a century. Activists welcomed Ige with a nose-to-nose greeting called honi as he approached a tent where Hawaiian elders have been blocking a road prevent to construction equipment and crews from reaching the summit of Mauna Kea.
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| Florida girl, 9, attacked by bison at Yellowstone National Park Posted: 24 Jul 2019 10:00 AM PDT  A nine-year-old girl was thrown into the air by a bison at YellowstoneNational Park on Monday
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| The medical examiner said a man died of natural causes. Funeral home employees found stab wounds in his neck Posted: 24 Jul 2019 06:33 PM PDT ![The medical examiner said a man died of natural causes. Funeral home employees found stab wounds in his neck]( "The medical examiner said a man died of natural causes. Funeral home employees found stab wounds in his neck") A medical examiner in Georgia ruled a man died of natural causes. Then funeral home employees found stab wounds in his neck.
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| Meghan McCain Confronts Adam Schiff: Show Me Your ‘Smoking Gun’ on Trump Collusion Now Posted: 25 Jul 2019 09:35 AM PDT  The View's Meghan McCain pressed House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) on Thursday to reveal his "smoking gun" that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 election, prompting the congressman to say the "evidence is in plain sight.""You have claimed for years now you have a smoking gun of evidence of collusion," McCain said to Schiff. "Your quote is, 'ample evidence of collusion.' You said that, but Robert Mueller and his investigation found that there was no collusion.""So can you share with us right here, right now on The View, the evidence that you have and explain why Mueller was wrong yesterday?" McCain demanded.After the California lawmaker pointed out that Mueller "wasn't wrong" and that he specifically said the report "didn't address the issue of collusion," McCain fired back."What's your evidence? You have been saying that on TV for years," she exclaimed.Schiff, who in March stood by his claims that there was "direct evidence" of Trump collusion by pointing to the infamous 2016 Trump Tower meeting, replied that he's "been saying that the evidence is in plain sight" and "not hidden anywhere.""The Russians offered dirt on Hillary Clinton in writing and sent it to [Donald Trump Jr.]," Schiff stated. "And Don Jr.'s response was in writing and said, 'As for your offer of foreign illegal help, I would love it.' He accepted the offer."Noting that Team Trump later lied about the meeting and that represented the "personification of collusion," Schiff added that Mueller had a different question—whether he could prove the crime of conspiracy."And as you know, well before the Mueller report, I was pointing out to the public, there is a difference between what we understand is collusion and whether you can prove all the elements of crime," he said.McCain would then move on, asking the House Intel chair if he felt the hearing was a "big win" for Democrats, leading Schiff to respond that he considered it a "win for the American people" as they got to hear the "unfiltered" facts of the investigation directly from Mueller."If you are measuring whether this is a success in terms of whether it brings us closer to impeachment or not, that was not my object with wanting him to come in," he added. "My object was to find out what work did you do."Following former Special Counsel Robert Mueller's House testimony, Schiff has downplayed the possibility of impeachment, saying on Thursday that they "need to be realistic" that the president will only leave office "by being voted out" in 2020. Adding that he's not convinced Democrats should put the country through impeachment, Schiff warned that Trump would feel "exonerated" if he were acquitted by a GOP-led Senate.Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Black man trying to propose to his girlfriend interrupted by security guard accusing him of shoplifting Posted: 24 Jul 2019 12:21 AM PDT  Cathy-Marie Hamlet started her Facebook post with the good news: She'd gotten engaged.But her fiance kept getting interrupted, she said, as he proposed from the lawn of hard cider company Angry Orchard's tree-filled, 60-acre property in New York's Hudson Valley.Security intruded on the couple's happy moment three times to accuse Ms Hamlet's boyfriend of stealing a T-shirt, including once while he popped the question.Staffers followed Ms Hamlet and her fiance, who are black, to the parking lot as they left, the 32-year-old wrote in her post, which had been shared more than 5,000 times Tuesday afternoon. She believes they were racially profiled."I have never been so humiliated in my life," she said. "[M]yself and some of my friends left Angry Orchard in tears."Angry Orchard has replaced members of the security team involved and removed the manager who was on duty, Jessica Paar, a spokeswoman for Boston Beer Co. – Angry Orchard's owner – told The Washington Post in a statement on Tuesday.The company is also launching new, mandatory training on "security awareness and unconscious bias" for the staff."We badly mishandled the situation and our team overreacted," Ms Paar said, adding, "The situation doesn't reflect our values of respect for all and creating a welcoming environment for all our guests."Ms Paar did not immediately respond to questions clarifying the company's actions against the employees involved.Ms Hamlet wrote on Facebook that she and her fiance, identified by NBC News as Clyde Jackson, had left New York City on Sunday for Angry Orchard's farm in Walden. The occasion: Mr Jackson's 40th birthday. Six friends came along.A woman from security at the cider company approached the couple before they'd sat down at a table outside, Ms Hamlet said. The employee apologised and said she'd have to check Mr Jackson's back pocket, explaining that someone told her Mr Jackson stole a shirt from the gift store.Mr Jackson emptied out his pockets while trying to hide the ring he was about to propose with, Ms Hamlet recalled. No T-shirt was found.Mr Jackson launched into his proposal, she said, but before he could finish, the employee was back – this time saying she needed to check Ms Hamlet's bag because someone told her Mr Jackson gave her the stolen item.Ms Hamlet said she did as asked, even though her bag was too small to fit a shirt. But she questioned the woman's motives: "I know you're just doing your job, but I can't help but wonder if this is because we're Black," her Facebook post said. "We're the only Black people here at your establishment."The woman denied that race was a factor and went away, Ms Hamlet said, leaving Mr Jackson to finish his proposal – and her to accept. People cheered. The friends who accompanied the couple to the farm joined them, hugging and congratulating the newly engaged couple.That's when the Angry Orchard employee came back a third time, Ms Hamlet said. The security woman said that she hadn't realised the friends were a group and that now she'd need to check all of their purses and pockets. More security workers came over, and Ms Hamlet says she found her party facing six employees who claimed patrons, too, had witnessed Mr Jackson stealing a T-shirt."I felt humiliated, especially after one of my white friends made a point of asking them to check her bag for the T-shirt, but they refused to do so," Ms Hamlet told NBC."Call the police! I saw you steal it," Ms Hamlet said one of the security people shouted to another.When Ms Hamlet told the employees to check their security cameras – which the staff said existed – the employees started filming the group and took a picture of Ms Hamlet's license plate, according to Hamlet. Asked whether Angry Orchard had reviewed security footage, Ms Paar said she would have to look into it.With the dispute escalating, the couple and their friends "decided to leave rather than be attacked," Ms Hamlet wrote online, saying she has "no reason to steal a $28 T-shirt."She vowed not to drink Angry Orchard again.Angry Orchard said in a statement tweeted out Tuesday that it began investigating the incident Ms Hamlet described as soon as it learned about the events. The security team involved "approached a group of guests based on what they thought was credible information at the time," Angry Orchard said in an earlier statement to People magazine.Ms Paar said she reached out to Ms Hamlet on Monday and spoke with her on the phone to apologise.Ms Hamlet did not respond to a request for a comment, and Mr Jackson could not be reached.Angry Orchard was the latest company to scramble to address stories of employees singling out black customers. Starbucks faced accusations of racial profiling last year after a store manager called the police on two black men as they waited for a meeting.The incident led the coffee chain to close more than 8,000 US stores for a day-long staff training on racial bias. Companies like Sephora, Saks Fifth Avenue, Old Navy and Walmart have grappled with similar scandals, responding with investigations, new training and firings amid outrage.Eric Yaverbaum, chairman at public relations firm Ericho Communications, said he thinks Ms Hamlet's story should prompt other companies to think more proactively about addressing racial profiling with their employees – to prevent incidents, rather than apologise afterward."The worst time to prepare is when the tide's rising," he added. "The tide's rising on this issue, period ... Address that in your workplace before it becomes a problem."Ms Hamlet's dismay at Angry Orchard was about more than the spoiling of a joyful day, and she closed her Facebook post by telling the company that if they didn't want black patrons, it should "put a sign on the door so that we know we are not welcome."She told NBC: "It's sad that in 2019 we still need to have these conversations."The Washington Post
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| Saudi Prince’s Megacity Shows Signs of Life Posted: 24 Jul 2019 09:01 PM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- The walls are covered with graffiti in the sleepy fishing village of Khurayba. There are supplications to God, advertisements for vacation rentals and house painters. Near the local school, there's a scribbled plea: "Open the windows of hope and drive out the despair."It's here in northwest Saudi Arabia that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman wants investors to put their money to realize his $500 billion vision for the region. Called "Neom," it promises to be the most freewheeling part of the kingdom, with state-of-the-art resorts and smart technologies run by robots.But it's also here where the risks to the 33-year-old prince's grand plan for his country are writ large. Neom is the boldest pillar of a social and economic transformation that so far has seen at least as many delays as successes. Indeed, the question since the prince announced the vast development at an extravaganza in 2017 has been whether it can become a reality. A three-day trip to the region, which is roughly the size of Massachusetts, showed the scale of the task as well as the potential. Many of the locals who have lived there for years are looking forward to some prosperity, while others are concerned they will be removed and their homes bulldozed.The area has stunning, untouched shorelines with waves rippling in the turquoise water. Purple volcanic mountains loom over the Red Sea. Historic sites include a wadi where locals believe Moses landed when he crossed over from Egypt, alighting in a valley along the water.Construction workers have already descended on the small towns and some building has started. The small Neom Bay airport, with its gleaming white interior, opened for commercial flights last month. Workers were driving construction equipment along the roads. An "I (heart) Neom" sign sits outside a heavily secured base camp of temporary housing for employees, the road leading to sleek white homes lined with solar-powered streetlights.Read more: Saudi Arabia's Sci-Fi City in the Desert"It's not only a vision on paper," said Lojain Alharbi, a 25-year-old Neom employee who works as a business analyst for the sports sector. "It's already happening."In an interview with Bloomberg in October 2017, Prince Mohammed said that by 2030, the completion date for his transition to Saudi Arabia 2.0, Neom will contribute $100 billion to economic output.The name comes from "neo," meaning new, and "m," the first letter of mustaqbal, Arabic for future, he said. There will be 12 small cities or towns next to the sea in Neom and others in the valleys and mountains, he said in another interview a year later, as well as an industrial zone, a huge port and several airports.What Neom Says Is HappeningThere's interest from foreign companies and more talks are expected. Neom plans to start a fund to invest in businesses that will either be based there or sell goods and services there. More than 400 firms are "interested in discussing opportunities" with the fund. Seven foreign companies are vying to lead development of Neom Industrial City, the project's second phase. Plans to build a causeway linking Saudi Arabia to Egypt are going ahead. Yet looming large is not just the cost or the challenge of luring foreign investors into what some see as a vanity project, it's also the politics.As Saudi Arabia's de facto leader, Prince Mohammed purged relatives, jailed dissidents, tightened his grip on the military and waged a war in Yemen that created the world's worst humanitarian crisis. The murder last year of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents in Istanbul caused an international outcry, pushing several prominent figures to withdraw from the Neom advisory board.The project is closely tied to Prince Mohammed and until he assumes the throne when his father, King Salman, dies, there will be uncertainty about the transition and what might happen to his plans."We really don't have details about anything in Neom, which is why we don't know how viable it is," said Steffen Hertog, associate professor in comparative politics at the London School of Economics and Political Science. "No one seems to have committed any sums. Things are moving a bit more slowly than was anticipated."There's also the challenge of drawing tourists to an area that's a hop away from established resorts like Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt. Saudi Arabia bans alcohol, and while Neom is expected to have looser rules than other parts of the kingdom, the prince has said that those who want to drink can go to Egypt or Jordan.The government-owned company that's developing Neom said it received positive feedback after meeting with "senior business leaders from Asia, Europe and the U.S.," with opportunities in tourism, energy, technology and water infrastructure attracting "significant interest.""Companies understand that we are building not only a region, but a commercial powerhouse, and they want to be a part of it," Neom said in a response to questions on Wednesday. For the tens of thousands of people currently living in the 26,500 square kilometers (10,200 square miles) allocated for the project, the concern is more about where they will end up. News that they will become part of a global megaproject has brought a mix of hope of economic prosperity and also worry stoked by rumors that they will be resettled to make way for luxury villas and office parks.More than 20,000 people will need to be moved based on current estimates, Neom said. "The relocations will be done as part of an established process that is being worked on with the World Bank," Neom said. "Residents will be compensated, and there will be a number of social programs in place to support them."Until Neom was announced, the region was relatively unknown and neglected. Schools and electricity came to the area as other Saudi regions were prospering from the first oil boom in the 1970s. Dirt roads still connect many homes in the villages."We're in a state of waiting for the future," said Mahmood, a 54-year-old Khurayba resident, adding the resettlement issue has become the main topic of discussion. "This is the point that makes them scared of the transformation."Despite his worries, Mahmoud hopes he and other villagers will become part of Neom rather than marginalized. Neom has announced a new scholarship program to send local students abroad to study tourism, hospitality and antiquities.Driving past his single-story school that now lies in ruins, Mahmoud pointed at the small rooms where he squatted on the floor to study by lamplight in 1975. The area didn't get electricity until the 1980s, with only the sea breeze to cool the summer heat, he said.Last week, Saleh al-Huwaity, an 48-year-old resident of nearby Sharma, dismissed fears of being removed. In between puffs of smoke at a fly-ridden café with ripped couches and bare walls, he rattled off a list of boons that have already arrived in his village.There are ATMs now, and a 24-hour clinic opened. An influx of workers has sent rent prices soaring, lining the pockets of local landlords, including him. He hoped to one day see Sharma's public beach—a stretch of sand littered with trash—outfitted with cycling paths."We're very, very, very, happy, because I lived here before and there was nothing," said al-Huwaity, who works in the coast guard. When villagers bring up the resettlement issue, he responds with: "Our government is compassionate with its citizens." Besides, he added, "if the interest of the country requires that I give up my home and my farm, take them!" As workers arrive on site, the talk of "more robots than humans" that accompanied Neom's launch has faded. In its place is the down-to-business approach of its chief executive, Nadhmi Al-Nasr, formerly of Saudi Aramco.The first phase of the project, Neom Bay, which includes the Khurayba and Sharma villages, was originally scheduled for completion in 2021. U.S. engineering firm Aecom was awarded the project management consultancy contract for the bay earlier this year.The second phase of Neom will be an industrial city, an idea the kingdom executed successfully before in Jubail. Neom has invited bids from seven foreign firms to identify which will lead the development, the company said in its response to questions. Neom is also moving forward with plans to build a causeway to Egypt and contracts have been awarded to Arup Group, WSP and Fugro NV so far, it said.For now, Sharma and Khuraybah come to life when the king spends his summer holidays in Neom. It's the second year that he's eschewed vacationing in Morocco. The two large hotels in the area were full and traffic on the roads has increased, as have police patrols.At her small shop in Sharma, Salma hopes Neom will help change mindsets in the village she grew up in with the exposure to foreigners.Though Salma graduated from college with a mathematics degree, she lives a life so circumscribed by local customs that her family won't allow her to go to the sea, just a few minutes away. Her days are spent between home and a women-only shop she runs selling items like diapers, nail polish and Hello Kitty hair accessories.Asked how her life would change when Neom comes, Salma repeated the question with a smile. "Of course it will change," she said. "For the better, of course."Other residents, however, aren't so sure."They're looking forward to good things coming," said Abdulaziz Al Huwaity, 40, from Khurayba. "But these good things, will the people of Neom have a share of them?" \--With assistance from Hayley Warren and Patricia Suzara.To contact the authors of this story: Vivian Nereim in Riyadh at vnereim@bloomberg.netDonna Abu-Nasr in Riyadh at dabunasr@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Rodney Jefferson at r.jefferson@bloomberg.netFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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