| 2020 Vision: Impeachment is gaining in the polls — and so is Warren Posted: 27 Sep 2019 11:50 AM PDT  How Trump impeachment is polling, Warren's continued rise, Gabbard qualifies for the fourth debate, and campaign cash troubles plague some Democrats.
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| Parents arrested in death of boy who had begged not to be returned to them Posted: 27 Sep 2019 10:49 AM PDT  The parents of a 4-year-old boy who had begged not to be returned to them have been arrested in his death.
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| 'Headless' 2-year-old girl goes viral for her creepy Halloween costume Posted: 27 Sep 2019 09:32 AM PDT  A young Filipina girl quite literally turned heads with her inventive Halloween costume.
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| Three-Dozen ISIS Fighters Killed in Series of U.S. Strikes in Libya Posted: 27 Sep 2019 10:26 AM PDT  The U.S. military killed 36 ISIS militants in a series of three airstrikes in Libya over the past eight days, U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) announced Friday."This ongoing campaign against ISIS-Libya demonstrates that U.S. Africa Command persistently targets terrorist networks that seek to harm innocent Libyans," read a statement from AFRICOM's director of intelligence, Navy Rear Admiral Heidi Berg. "We will continue to pursue ISIS-Libya and other terrorists in the region, denying them safe haven to coordinate and plan operations in Libya."Seventeen ISIS members were killed in an airstrike on Thursday in southwest Libya. That strike followed a strike Tuesday near Murzuq that killed eleven jihadis, and a previous strike in the same area late last week that killed eight alleged fighters, AFRICOM said.Tuesday's airstrike "was conducted to eliminate ISIS terrorists and deny them the ability to conduct attacks on the Libyan people," said AFRICOM's director of operations, U.S. Army Major General William Gayler. "This effort demonstrates the resolve of the U.S. and our Libyan partners to deny safe havens to terrorists."None of the three strikes, which were the first such U.S. operations in Libya in over a year, appear to have caused civilian casualties, according to AFRICOM.
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| Iran releases photo of Khamenei with Hezbollah chief Posted: 28 Sep 2019 11:59 AM PDT  Iran has released a "never before seen" photo of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei alongside Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah. The three men are shown in front of what appears to be a door covered by a curtain and surrounded by shelves stacked with books -- decor associated with Khamenei's Tehran office.
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| Julian Assange ‘subjected to every kind of torment’ in Belmarsh prison as he awaits extradition Posted: 28 Sep 2019 09:11 AM PDT  The father of Julian Assange has said the WikiLeaks founder is "being subjected to every sort of torment" at Belmarsh prison as he awaits the hearing that could see him extradited to the US.The whistleblower who is being held alongside some of the UK's most infamous criminals ahead of his extradition hearing in February, could face a maximum prison sentence of 175 years under charges laid down by Washington.
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| Canadian police release findings of report into murders of three tourists Posted: 27 Sep 2019 04:06 PM PDT  Two dead Canadian teens who were the subject of an intense manhunt this summer confessed to the murders of three tourists in northern Canada in a series of videos, but did not reveal a motive behind their actions or indicate remorse, Canadian police said on Friday. The bodies of Bryer Schmegelsky, 18, and Kam McLeod, 19, were found on Aug. 7 after a two week-long search that began in northern British Columbia and ended in the remote and hostile terrain of northern Manitoba, three provinces and several thousand kilometers (miles) away. The pair were first reported as missing after leaving their hometown of Port Alberni, British Columbia, in search of work.
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| Israel's Air Force Is Armed with F-35s and F-15s (And Now Supersonic Missiles) Posted: 27 Sep 2019 05:49 AM PDT  How good are they?
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| Purple Heart recipient dies saving 3-year-old granddaughter Posted: 27 Sep 2019 02:45 PM PDT  A Purple Heart recipient has died saving his 3-year-old granddaughter from a house explosion in Oklahoma.
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| Hillary Clinton: Trump 'has turned American diplomacy into a cheap extortion racket' Posted: 27 Sep 2019 10:27 AM PDT  Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton accused President Trump on Friday of having "turned American diplomacy into a cheap extortion racket."
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| United Airlines flight forced to make emergency landing after passenger gets stuck in bathroom Posted: 27 Sep 2019 09:25 AM PDT  A United Airlines flight was forced to make an unexpected landing on Wednesday after a passenger got stuck inside the plane's bathroom.
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| California teen put into coma after using vape pen reportedly laced with hydrogen cyanide Posted: 27 Sep 2019 07:01 AM PDT  A California teen spent nine days in a coma after using a vape pen that was reportedly laced with hydrogen cyanide.
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| Trump calls out CNN for missing punctuation mark as impeachment looms Posted: 27 Sep 2019 01:12 PM PDT  An impeachment inquiry is looming, and the revelations in the whistleblower scandal pop up hour by hour, but President Trump took CNN to task on Friday over the use of the word "liddle."
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| Hong Kongers kick off days of rallies ahead of China's birthday Posted: 27 Sep 2019 08:04 AM PDT  Thousands of Hong Kong pro-democracy activists on Friday night kicked off what is expected to be an intense period of protests, aiming to cast a shadow over communist China's momentous anniversary celebrations. Beijing is preparing a huge military parade on Tuesday to mark 70 years since the founding of the People's Republic of China, revelling in its transformation into a global superpower. Four days of action are planned in the run-up to Tuesday with clashes almost certain after police denied permission for a march on the anniversary itself citing safety concerns.
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| Saudi Arabia implements public decency code as it opens to tourists Posted: 28 Sep 2019 02:08 AM PDT  Saudi Arabia said on Saturday it would issue fines for 19 offences related to public decency, such as immodest dress and public displays of affection, as the Muslim kingdom opens up to foreign tourists. The Interior Ministry decision accompanies the launch of a visa regime allowing holidaymakers from 49 states to visit one of the world's most closed-off countries. Violations listed on the new visa website also include littering, spitting, queue jumping, taking photographs and videos of people without permission and playing music at prayer times.
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| Back in 2010, the U.S. Navy Surfaced 3 Elite Submarines to Warn China Posted: 28 Sep 2019 01:45 AM PDT  In 2010, China was given a glimpse of what could happen in a war.
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| Russians Used Greed to ‘Capture’ NRA, Senator Alleges in New Report Posted: 27 Sep 2019 10:30 AM PDT  Pavel Ptitsin/APTies between the National Rifle Association and influential Russians were substantial and potentially lucrative enough to render the politically potent gun lobby an "asset" of Russia, according to a Senate Democrat's year-plus investigation. More than 4,000 pages of NRA records provided to Sen. Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the finance committee, documented deep connections between the beleaguered gun group and Maria Butina, who in December pleaded guilty to conspiring to act as a Russian agent without registering with the Justice Department. Wyden's report, released Friday and undertaken without the cooperation of committee Republicans, indicates that greed motivated some NRA officials to engage in the outreach.Butina also made clear to NRA officials long before their controversial Butina-facilitated December 2015 trip to Moscow that Alexander Torshin, her patron and an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was a man with mysterious pull in the Kremlin. She emailed former NRA president David Keene in January 2015 that Torshin's appointment to the Russian central bank was "the result of a 'big game' in which he has a very important role. All the details we can discuss with you only in person."Maria Butina's Boss Alexander Torshin: The Kremlin's No-Longer-Secret Weapon"During the 2016 election, Russian nationals effectively used the promise of lucrative personal business opportunities to capture the NRA and gain access to the American political system," Wyden said. Representatives for the NRA did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In addition to scrutinizing the December 2015 NRA trip, Wyden found that the NRA hosted former Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak for a three-hour tour of its headquarters in August 2015. Kislyak was a key figure in Russia's 2016 election interference before former national security adviser Mike Flynn pleaded guilty to misrepresenting his conversations with him to the FBI. An NRA calendar entry provided to Wyden suggests that NRA leaders took Kislyak hunting at the Grand National Waterfowl Hunt weeks before the Moscow trip. Wyden's report shows the NRA officials, donors, and supporters meeting with Russian officials under U.S. sanctions during the Moscow trip, something previously reported. But it also shows that Butina ensured the NRA would send sufficiently senior leaders, something necessary to enhance Torshin's prestige, by dangling opportunities for NRA luminaries to enrich themselves. While U.S. sanctions do not make meeting with foreigners under sanction illegal, U.S. nationals can't conduct business with them.Returning from Moscow further inclined the NRA to aid its Russian friend Butina, who presented herself as the head of a rare Russian gun-rights foundation. Soon after, the NRA bought Butina and Torshin memberships in a hunters' advocacy group known as Safari Club International. Later, one of the key NRA figures on the Moscow trip, Pete Brownell, confirmed to Wyden that he personally introduced Butina to Donald Trump Jr. at the NRA's 2016 annual meeting, though Brownell's counsel dismissed it as a "chance encounter." Butina would also write to NRA heavies for formal invitations to their events, something she said would help her get visas to enter the country.The NRA has attempted to distance itself from the Moscow trip after it became politically controversial. It told Wyden's office in May that any relationship "certain individuals, including NRA supporters and volunteers" had with Butina and Torshin was entirely distinct from NRA business.Yet Wyden's report shows then-NRA president Allan Cors, who backed out of the trip, contemporaneously referring to it in an email to Torshin as a chance to "represent the NRA" to influential Russians. Among those Russians were Butina's reputed moneyman, Igor Pisarsky, whom Butina presented as Putin's "campaign manager"; the sanctioned Russian deputy prime minister for the defense industry, Dmitry Rogozin; and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Documentation the NRA provided, the report notes, did not show "action to discourage or prevent its officers from using organization resources to explore business opportunities or to meet with sanctioned individuals and entities" during the trip. Cors' absence from the trip was a problem for Butina. Without a senior NRA leader to show off to the influential Russians who had agreed to meetings, Torshin could lose face. "Many powerful figures in the Kremlin are counting on Torshin to prove his American connections—a last minute important member cancellation could affect his political future," she emailed. In November, Butina turned to Brownell, the NRA's then-vice president and Cors' future successor, with an urgent plea for his attendance. Outside the NRA, Brownell runs a business that sells guns, ammunition, and firearms accessories. A Brownell spokesperson told The Daily Beast in February that Brownell took the trip "understanding that it was an NRA-related event organized with the support of the organization." His corporate compliance officer later said Brownell could meet with sanctioned Russians insofar as his trip was not business but an NRA "cultural exchange."But materials Wyden acquired cast doubt on that. Butina, in emails, told Brownell that while it was an NRA trip, "especially for you and your company I have something more." She told him that Russian gun manufacturers "are ready to meet you and talk about export and import deals." Another email, this one from Brownell, records the NRA vice president musing that he was "not interested in attending if [it is] just an NRA trip." In another email, Brownell called the "strictly diplomatic" trip a chance to "introduce our company to the governing individuals throughout Russia." Among the people the NRA met with in Russia were representatives of the Kalashnikov Concern, a weapons manufacturer under U.S. sanctions. The report states that later Brownell explored a deal with someone he met on the trip but ultimately canceled because the Russian was unable to follow proper import-export rules. Brownell recently resigned from the NRA's board, a move seen as part of the organization's recent turmoil. In April, its president Oliver North resigned after losing a power struggle to longtime NRA magnate Wayne LaPierre. The group is locked in bitter litigation with its former ad firm, which might be the least of its legal woes, considering investigations into its tax status by attorneys general in New York and the District of Columbia.A representative for Brownell did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Brownell was not the only one to whom Butina appealed with an offer unrelated to NRA business. Wyden's report corroborated a Daily Beast report that Butina told trip attendee Keene, who was also the Washington Times' opinion editor, that one of the meetings was with a Russian media oligarch who would be able to secure Keene an interview with Putin for the paper.Butina also dangled to the NRA a meeting with Putin himself, though no such meeting appears to have manifested. An email ahead of the trip from Butina's since-indicted boyfriend, the GOP consultant Paul Erickson, to Brownell promised "private meetings with the top ministers in Putin's government and private lunches in oligarch's dachas." Butina fronted money for the attendance of another trip attendee, NRA donor Jim Liberatore, for which the NRA reimbursed her with $6,000 from its president's budget. The NRA was an open door for Butina and Torshin, whose goal was to use the organization as a lever to move U.S. politics in a direction more agreeable to Russian interests. In addition to welcoming the two to the NRA's own events, the NRA aided them in attending other conservative-friendly gatherings, including the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, a staple event for politicians of both parties. Butina asked then-presidential candidate Donald Trump a question about U.S.-Russian relations at a campaign stop in Las Vegas, boasted of being a conduit for his campaign's communications to Russia, and was photographed with prominent GOP politicians like Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. Wyden stopped a step short of recommending the NRA lose its tax-exempt status, citing insufficient cooperation from the group. "A broader review of NRA's activities in recent years" from the IRS was needed to determine if the NRA's Russian connections fit within a "persistent pattern of impermissible conduct," the report concluded. "The totality of evidence uncovered during my investigation, as well as the mounting evidence of rampant self-dealing, indicate the NRA may have violated tax laws. This report lays out in significant detail that the NRA lied about the 2015 delegation trip to Moscow," Wyden said. "This was an official trip undertaken so NRA insiders could get rich—a clear violation of the principle that tax-exempt resources should not be used for personal benefit."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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| Democrats have a long list of possible witnesses in Trump impeachment inquiry Posted: 27 Sep 2019 02:22 PM PDT  The list of people Democrats may seek information from regarding President Trump's attempt to obtain dirt on Joe Biden seems to grow by the minute.
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| 'Frankenstein's monster': Dog breeder who created the labradoodle says they're his 'life's regret' Posted: 27 Sep 2019 06:20 AM PDT  The man who invented the labradoodle says creating the breed is his "life's regret" and that he has no clue why anyone would want one.
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| Ivory Coast Leader Wants to Hand Over Power to New Generation Posted: 28 Sep 2019 09:34 AM PDT ![Ivory Coast Leader Wants to Hand Over Power to New Generation]( "Ivory Coast Leader Wants to Hand Over Power to New Generation") (Bloomberg) -- Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara is in favor of "handing over to the new generation" in next year's presidential polls, but did not rule out running in the election.The 78-year-old, who has just over a year left of his second term in office, was addressing reporters in his hometown of Dimbroko after a four-day visit to the surrounding region.Ouattara addressed plans to amend the constitution to include an age limit for presidential hopefuls, saying "it's part of the evolution of our country," Seventy-five percent of the population is aged under 30 and "we can't remain indifferent." But he also said "don't interpret this as me not being a candidate."His fiercest political rivals include Henri Konan Bedie , 85, who broke away from the ruling coalition last year after Ouattara claimed a new constitution adopted in 2016 allows him to seek a third mandate if he wishes.Another, Laurent Gbagbo, 74, was acquitted by the International Criminal Court on charges of crimes against humanity committed after a disputed vote in 2010, but prosecutors are appealing the ruling.To contact the reporter on this story: Leanne de Bassompierre in Abidjan at ldebassompie@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Andre Janse van Vuuren at ajansevanvuu@bloomberg.net, Jacqueline Mackenzie, Keith CampbellFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Ocasio-Cortez calls for government bailout to help struggling NYC cab drivers Posted: 27 Sep 2019 09:40 PM PDT  Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is now backing up a financial rescue for those who were lured into predatory loans.
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| Once Again, Progressive Anti-Christian Bigotry Carries a Steep Legal Cost Posted: 27 Sep 2019 11:20 AM PDT  Last summer, in the days after the Supreme Court decided Masterpiece Cakeshop on the narrow grounds that Colorado had violated Jack Phillips's religious-liberty rights by specifically disparaging his religious beliefs, a bit of a skirmish broke out among conservative lawyers. How important was the ruling? Did it have any lasting precedential effect?For those who don't recall, the Supreme Court ruled for Phillips in large part because a commissioner of the Colorado Civil Rights Commission called Phillips's claim that he enjoyed a religious-freedom right not to be forced to design a custom cake for a gay wedding a "despicable piece of rhetoric." The commissioner also denigrated religious-liberty arguments as being used to justify slavery and the Holocaust.While all agreed that it would have been preferable had the court simply ruled that creative professionals could not be required to produce art that conflicted with their sincerely held beliefs, the question was whether Justice Anthony Kennedy's strong condemnation of anti-religious bigotry would resonate beyond the specific facts of the case. For example, what would happen if, in a different case, state officials called faithful Christians who seek to protect the religious freedom of Catholic adoption agencies "hate-mongers"?In the United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan, it turns out that such rhetoric has cost the state a crucial court ruling, granted a Catholic adoption agency a vital victory, and demonstrated — once again — that anti-religious bigotry can (and should) carry substantial legal costs.The case is called Buck v. Gordon. My friends at Becket represent St. Vincent Catholic Charities, a former foster child, and the adoptive parents of five special-needs kids. The facts are relatively complicated, but here's the short version: St. Vincent upholds Catholic teaching by referring same-sex and unmarried families who seek foster and adoption recommendations and endorsements to agencies that have no objection to providing those services. There is no evidence that St. Vincent has prevented any legally qualified family from adopting or fostering a child. In fact, same-sex couples "certified through different agencies" have been able to adopt children in St. Vincent's care.In 2015 the state of Michigan passed a statute specifically designed to protect the religious liberty of private, religious adoption agencies. In 2018, however, Dana Nessel, a Democratic attorney general, took office. During her campaign, she declared that she would not defend the 2015 law in court, stating that its "only purpose" was "discriminatory animus." She also described proponents of the law as "hate-mongers," and the court noted that she believed proponents of the law "disliked gay people more than they cared about the constitution."Then, in 2019, the attorney general reached a legal settlement in pending litigation with the ACLU that essentially gutted the Michigan law, implementing a definitive requirement that religious agencies provide recommendations and endorsement to same-sex couples and banning referrals. The plaintiffs sued, seeking to enjoin the relevant terms of the settlement, and yesterday Judge Robert Jonker (a Bush appointee) granted their motion for a preliminary injunction.His reasoning was simple. There was ample evidence from the record that the state of Michigan reversed its policy protecting religious freedom because it was motivated by hostility to the plaintiffs' faith. Because Michigan's targeted St. Vincent's faith, its 2019 settlement agreement couldn't be truly considered a "neutral" law of "general applicability" that would grant the state a high degree of deference in enforcement.Instead, the state's targeting led to strict scrutiny. Here's Judge Jonker:> Defendant Nessel made St. Vincent's belief and practice a campaign issue by calling it hate. She made the 2015 statute a campaign issue by contending that the only purpose of the statute is discriminatory animus. After Defendant Nessel took office, the State pivoted 180 degrees. . . . The State also threatened to terminate its contracts with St. Vincent. The Summary Statement's conclusion – that if an agency accepts even one MDHHS child referral for case management or adoption services, the agency forfeits completely the right to refer new parental applicants to other agencies based on its sincerely held religious beliefs – is at odds with the language of the contracts, with the 2015 law, and with established State practice. Moreover, it actually undermines the State's stated goals of preventing discriminatory conduct and maximizing available placements for children.The last point is key. As stated above, there was no evidence that St. Vincent prevented any qualified couple from adopting. In fact, if the state forced St. Vincent's to choose between upholding the teachings of its faith or maintaining its contractual relationship with the state, then it risked shrinking the available foster or adoption options in the state of Michigan. The state demonstrated that it was more interested in taking punitive action against people of faith than it was in maintaining broader access to foster and adoption services for its most vulnerable citizens.The judge rightly called the state's actions a "targeted attack on a sincerely held religious belief." Once again, Masterpiece Cakeshop pays religious-liberty dividends. Once again, a court declares — in no uncertain terms — that in the conflict between private faith and public bigotry, religious liberty will prevail.
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| Boy, 13, fatally attacked at middle school. His organs will save lives, family hopes Posted: 26 Sep 2019 07:23 PM PDT ![Boy, 13, fatally attacked at middle school. His organs will save lives, family hopes]( "Boy, 13, fatally attacked at middle school. His organs will save lives, family hopes") The student, identified as Diego by police, was pronounced clinically dead Tuesday night. His family hopes to donate his organs, police say.
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| Greta Thunberg marches in Montreal for global climate protests Posted: 28 Sep 2019 04:59 PM PDT  The 16-year-old Swede met privately with Trudeau but later told a news conference with local indigenous leaders that he was "not doing enough" to curb greenhouse gases responsible for global warming. Thunberg generated headlines around the world earlier this week with her viral so-called "How Dare You?" speech at the UN climate summit, accusing world leaders of betraying her generation.
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| Japan's Failed Twice to Track North Korean Missiles Posted: 27 Sep 2019 05:16 AM PDT  We've got a problem.
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| Zimbabwe's Mugabe buried in home village, ending an era Posted: 28 Sep 2019 09:00 AM PDT  Zimbabwe's founding leader Robert Mugabe was buried on Saturday in his home village of Kutama, ending a dispute between his family and the government of his successor President Emmerson Mnangagwa over his final resting place. Mugabe ruled Zimbabwe for 37 years from independence in 1980 but was a polarizing figure idolized by some for his role in the country's liberation struggle and hated by others for ruining a promising nation through disastrous economic policies and repression against opponents. After Mass by a Roman Catholic priest and speeches by family members, Mugabe was buried in the courtyard of his rural homestead without the pomp and fun fare usually reserved for national heroes.
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| Barreling toward impeachment proceedings, Pelosi offers Trump her thoughts and prayers Posted: 27 Sep 2019 06:50 AM PDT  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and President Trump took to cable news and Twitter on Friday morning as the first week of the impeachment battle came to a close in Washington.
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| TV reporter responds to stranger who kissed her during live broadcast: 'It is not OK' Posted: 27 Sep 2019 11:45 AM PDT  A Kentucky TV reporter is speaking out after a stranger kissed her during a live broadcast last Friday.
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| Sixth-Grade Boys Allegedly Attack, Cut Girl’s ‘Ugly’ Dreadlocks at Private Christian School Posted: 27 Sep 2019 09:33 AM PDT  Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/Courtesy Cynthia AllenAmari Allen was about to use the slide at the Immanuel Christian School playground on Monday when three white classmates appeared. Within "seconds," the 12-year-old said, she was pushed down, her hands held behind her back as the boys called her names and cut off patches of her "ugly, nappy" dreadlocks. "One of the boys put his hand over my mouth so I wouldn't scream while they used scissors on my hair," she recalled to The Daily Beast on Thursday. "They were all laughing, calling me ugly, and saying I should have never been born."The alleged assault only lasted "a minute or two" before the bell rang to signal the end of recess, the sixth grader said. The three boys took off running to go into their math class while Amari stayed on the slide, trying to collect herself before following behind. "They ran off laughing, and I was just sitting there," the soft-spoken teenager said. "I'm hurt that it happened. All I want to ask them is, Why?"The Monday afternoon racist attack at the private Immanuel Christian School—an already controversial school where Karen Pence, the second lady of the United States, teaches art class part-time—has "destroyed" the Allen family, and they are now seeking legal and administrative retributions. Courtesy of Cynthia AllenAmari's mother, Cynthia Allen, told The Daily Beast that the family met with school officials on Thursday morning to demand the three boys be removed and updated policies be put into place to ensure "this doesn't happen again." Allen also said Amari filed a police report. "We take seriously the emotional and physical well-being of all our students, and have a zero-tolerance policy for any kind of bullying or abuse. We are deeply disturbed by the allegations being made, and are in communication with the family of the alleged victim to gather information and provide whatever support we can," the school said in a statement to The Daily Beast. "We have also reached out to law enforcement to ask them to conduct a thorough investigation, and further inquiries should be directed to the Fairfax County Police Department.""All I am asking for is this to be resolved, if they can't leave school, then I will," Amari said. Her mother agreed, adding, "She's in real pain but she wants justice."The 53-year-old mom said it took two days for Amari to finally admit the attack even happened. At first, the 12-year-old told her mother that the missing parts of her hair were the result of playing "beauty salon" with another friend. "We continued to press her on it because it just didn't sound like something she would do," Cynthia Allen said. "Then she started breaking down crying, trembling, and shaking before telling us what happened."Amari said she "instantly felt better" when she told her family about how the three sixth-grade boys pinned her down on the playground. She said while one boy covered her mouth, a second boy put her hands behind her back, and a third boy cut her dreadlocks while calling her names."They called her 'ugly,' told her she was an 'attention seeker,' called her hair 'nappy,' all of these horrible things," her mother said. "And when they ran away laughing, she just had to sit there and get herself together." Amari admitted she initially denied that anyone cut her hair out of fear of retaliation. The three boys—including one that used to be her friend—are in six of her classes and she said she was afraid they "would come after me.""They had scissors, so they could have done anything to me," the sixth grader said. "I was afraid if I told the teacher they wouldn't care."Amari's mom explained that this was not the first time her daughter had been subjected to bullying by these three classmates. Throughout the school year, the boys have allegedly been "taking her lunch every single day and calling her names.""My concern is, how did they not see what was taking place, on the playground and all year," Allen said. "Karen Pence, the vice president's wife, works at the school. There is security and secret service everywhere. How did they not know!"The Immanuel Christian School, which enrolls kindergartners through eighth graders at its campus in Springfield, Virginia, has been previously embroiled in controversy after its school banned LGBT students and demanded all employees affirm the belief that marriage should only be between a man and a woman.According to The New York Times, the school's employment application requires prospective teachers to describe their faith and sign their initials next to a list of beliefs, including Immanuel Christian's definition of marriage and stances on sexual identity."I understand that the term 'marriage' has only one meaning; the uniting of one man and one woman," the application reads, detailing that certain "moral misconduct" considered disqualifying includes "heterosexual activity outside of marriage (e.g., premarital sex, cohabitation, extramarital sex), homosexual or lesbian sexual activity, polygamy, transgender identity, any other violation of the unique roles of male and female."Pence, 62, has had a long history with the school, having taught from 2001 to 2013 while her husband served in Congress. And in December, the second lady decided to return twice a week to the private school as an art teacher. Cynthia Allen said despite the school's recent controversies, she is more concerned with its future and said she is planning to speak to administrators further about preventing another racist attack. But for now, she said, Amari will not return to school. "Amari is surviving, but this can't happen again," she said. "She is terrified, she has not been able to sleep. And she is strong, I can't imagine if this happened to somebody else."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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| Cairo on lock-down as Egyptian government tries to head off anti-Sisi protests Posted: 27 Sep 2019 09:40 AM PDT  Egypt's government put central Cairo on lockdown Friday as it tried to head off protests against President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi but was unable to stop scattered demonstrations in other parts of the country. In an effort to prevent a repeat of last week's protests calling for Mr Sisi's overthrow, Egyptian forces sealed off Cairo's Tahrir Square and blocked several of the main bridges over the Nile. Military vehicles rumbled through otherwise largely empty streets. But demonstrators reportedly still turned out on Warraq, a rural island in the Nile near downtown Cairo, where they chanted for Mr Sisi to resign. Government forces fired tear gas and buckshot to break up the protests, according the Mada Masr new site. Videos showed also demonstrators in Qina, a small city south of Cairo, trampling on government posters and deriding Mr Sisi as "the date", a mocking nickname referring to the president's thinning hair. The protests were sparked by a series of videos from Mohamed Ali, a former state building contractor now living in exile in Spain. He has alleged widespread corruption in Mr Sisi's government and has become an unlikely resistance figure with his calls for revolution. تمزيق لافتات تأييد للسيسي في قوص بقنا صعيد مصر pic.twitter.com/cdRyWAh5cu— Amr Elqazaz (@amrsalama) September 27, 2019 By sundown on Friday, the mass protests that Mr Ali called for had failed to materialise, despite his last-minute videos urging people to take to the streets against the president. "Enough with the humiliation," he said. "Get rid get rid of him today. This is your historic chance." However, last Friday's protests did not begin until after nightfall, when youths in Cairo, Alexandria, Suez, and other cities demonstrated. Mr Sisi, arriving back in Cairo from a week at the UN in New York, said the protests were the work of conspirators trying to damage Egypt. "It is a war between us and them," he said. The government staged several large pro-Sisi demonstrations, including one near Rabaa Square, where Mr Sisi's forces killed a thousand people in a single day in August 2013 while breaking up a sit-in by Islamist protesters. Supporters of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi during a rally in Cairo Credit: KHALED ELFIQI/EPA-EFE/REX The security forces have arrested around 2,000 people since last Friday's protests, including prominent lawyers and academics. At least 76 have been "disappeared", meaning they were arrested but authorities are denying they are in custody, according to the Egypt Commission on Rights and Freedoms, a human rights group. The top Democrat and Republican on the House foreign affairs committee put out a joint statement calling on the government to allow peaceful protests to go ahead. "Egyptians have the right to protest peacefully and to exercise that right without fear of retribution," they said. The government postponed a football match between FC Masr and Aswan FC on security grounds, in an apparent effort to prevent crowds from gathering during the game and turning into a demonstration.
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| North Carolina Detective Fired After Allegedly Sending Inappropriate Messages to Women Whose Rape Cases He Handled Posted: 27 Sep 2019 02:32 PM PDT  Paul G. Matrafailo III was fired in May from the Fayetteville Police Department for allegedly writing inappropriate messages to rape victims.
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| A fitness influencer will serve nearly 5 years in jail for using 369 Instagram accounts to harass bodybuilding colleagues and allegedly faking her daughter's kidnapping Posted: 27 Sep 2019 03:19 PM PDT  Police also say that Tammy Steffen faked the attempted kidnapping of her 12-year-old daughter and tried to pin it on a former business partner.
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| China rejects 'smear' after Airbus hacking report Posted: 27 Sep 2019 01:59 AM PDT  Beijing on Friday rejected an AFP report that Chinese hackers were suspected of being behind a series of cyber attacks on European aerospace giant Airbus. The hackers targeted Airbus suppliers -- British engine-maker Rolls-Royce, French technology consultancy and supplier Expleo, and two other French contractors -- in search of commercial secrets, according to security and industry sources who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity. "In recent years, there have been many reports about cyber attacks in the media.
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| They Will Kill You: The Secrets of the Delta Force Revealed Posted: 27 Sep 2019 06:25 AM PDT  One of America's top forces.
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| Oil shipping rates soar as U.S. supertanker sanctions rattle crude trade Posted: 27 Sep 2019 02:02 AM PDT  SINGAPORE/LONDON (Reuters) - Key oil freight rates from the Middle East to Asia rocketed as much as 28% on Friday in a global oil shipping market spooked by United States sanctions on units of Chinese giant COSCO for alleged involvement in ferrying crude out of Iran. In what the State Department called "one of the largest sanctions actions the U.S. has taken" since curbs were re-imposed on Iran in November last year, two units of COSCO were named alongside other companies in claims of involvement in sanctions-busting shipments of Iranian oil. The surprise move, affecting one of the world's largest energy shippers operating more than 50 supertankers, comes as U.S. President Donald Trump seeks to exert maximum pressure on Iran to drop nuclear programmes.
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| Gingrich: Pelosi is opening a can of worms Posted: 26 Sep 2019 06:01 PM PDT  Fox News contributor Newt Gingrich reacts to the Democrats' official impeachment inquiry of Donald Trump.
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| A black hole is shredding a star, and NASA caught the incredible space event on camera Posted: 27 Sep 2019 10:08 AM PDT ![A black hole is shredding a star, and NASA caught the incredible space event on camera]( "A black hole is shredding a star, and NASA caught the incredible space event on camera") Astronomers think the supermassive black hole weighs around six million times the sun's mass and is located about 375 million light-years away.
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| Largest captive alligator in US spends goes missing in Storm Imelda floods at height of hunting season Posted: 28 Sep 2019 07:52 AM PDT  Some people can't sleep if they know there's a spider in their house.Imagine being in Beaumont, Texas, and thinking that the largest alligator ever caught in the United States was on the loose.
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| Israeli minister urges unity government to stave off 'blow-up' in Iran tensions Posted: 27 Sep 2019 02:28 AM PDT  Israel's energy minister on Friday warned tensions between Iran and the United States were reaching a breaking point and an Israeli unity government deal was needed to stave off the threat of conflict following an inconclusive election last week. Washington has blamed Iran for a Sept. 14 attack on Saudi Arabia's oil facilities, and on Thursday announced it would send radar systems and Patriot missiles to the kingdom to bolster its defenses. Iran denies carrying out the attack.
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| Report: Arson suspect set fires before attending reunion Posted: 28 Sep 2019 10:29 AM PDT ![Report: Arson suspect set fires before attending reunion]( "Report: Arson suspect set fires before attending reunion") A suspected arsonist traveled from Missouri to Northern California to set more than a dozen wildfires before attending his 50th high school reunion, a newspaper reported Saturday. A former classmate told the San Jose Mercury News that Freddie Owen Graham appeared happy at the party on Sept. 21. Graham, a Milpitas, California-native who has lived in the Kansas City area for the past three decades, didn't seem troubled or upset, Rich Santoro said.
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| Here's who will be onstage for the October 15 Democratic debate hosted by CNN and The New York Times, what time it'll start, and how to watch Posted: 27 Sep 2019 11:34 AM PDT  The debate, which will feature 12 candidates all debating on one stage, will be hosted at Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio.
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| Bogota in photos row over Venezuela at UN Posted: 27 Sep 2019 02:21 PM PDT  Colombian President Ivan Duque said he handed the UN photographic evidence this week proving Venezuela was sheltering ELN rebels, but the images were duds. The pictures were contained in a 128-page dossier he handed to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres at the General Assembly in New York on Thursday. One purportedly shows guerrillas carrying out "indoctrination" of rural schoolchildren in the Venezuelan state of Tachira in April 2018.
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| Before Pearl Harbor America and Nazi Germany Were Fighting a Secret War Posted: 26 Sep 2019 08:00 PM PDT  A conflict before the wider war to come.
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| 18 Transgender Killings This Year Raise Fears of an 'Epidemic' Posted: 27 Sep 2019 11:55 AM PDT  ATLANTA -- In the most recent killing of a transgender woman, her body was found inside an abandoned car, burned beyond recognition. In another case, the woman was pulled from a lake at a Dallas park. And in a third, she was found dead near a golf course, just weeks after she survived a brutal beating that was captured on video.In the United States this year, at least 18 transgender people -- most of them transgender women of color -- have been killed in a wave of violence that the American Medical Association has declared an "epidemic." The killings, which have been reported across the country, have heightened fears and alarm among communities already familiar with looming threats to their safety."It's always in the forefront of our minds, when we're leaving home, going to work, going to school," said Kayla Gore, who lives in Memphis. "Guys were flirting with me at the gas station, and the first thought was, 'This could go horribly wrong.'"The killings this year follow at least 26 recorded last year by the Human Rights Campaign. But transgender advocates acknowledged that those figures fail to grasp the full extent of the perils the community faces, as data provided by law enforcement officials can be incomplete and many crimes are never reported.The paucity of reliable data makes it difficult to measure whether violence against transgender people has increased. But many advocates say that hostility has intensified, as a rise in visibility has also stirred animosity and emboldened people to attack.The climate of fear reflects a widening gulf in the acceptance of transgender groups, which today have far more representation in popular culture. There are transgender or gender-nonconforming characters on television and in movies, and Mattel recently introduced a line of gender-neutral dolls. Yet that cultural progress has not trickled down to everyday life, particularly for those who are the most vulnerable."We are the most afraid we've ever been," said Mariah Moore, a program associate for the Transgender Law Center, who lives in New Orleans. "But we're also stronger than we've ever been."Many transgender people said they have hunkered down, avoiding meeting people they do not know and sticking to places where they will have greater odds of staying safe."A lot of folks are living in silos," Gore said.Between May and July -- when pride events were taking place across the country -- at least 14 LGBTQ people were killed, according to a report from the Anti-Violence Project. Seven of the victims were black transgender women."The increased visibility is a signal for them that they need to double down in fighting back," Beverly Tillery, the executive director of the Anti-Violence Project in New York, said of those looking to harm transgender people. "We're definitely seeing what we would call a backlash."The dangers, of course, extend beyond explicit bias crimes. Discrimination can stand in the way of housing, education and job prospects, pushing many transgender people into homelessness as well as into sex work, elevating risks to their safety. And for black transgender women, racism can compound the discrimination."The prejudices don't add upon one another, they multiply upon one another," said Sarah McBride, the national press secretary for the Human Rights Campaign.Police departments have hired more LGBTQ officers and have sought to mend strained relationships, but advocates say many transgender people avoid calling the police if they are threatened or even physically attacked.Dana Martin, 31, was the first known transgender person killed in 2019, found shot to death in a vehicle in Montgomery, Alabama, in January.Since then, three transgender women have been killed in Dallas, including Muhlaysia Booker, a 23-year-old who was shot to death about a month after being brutally assaulted in an unrelated attack that was captured on video and garnered national attention. Another transgender woman in Dallas was shot several times last week and gravely wounded in an attack that the authorities are investigating as a hate crime.In Detroit in June, an 18-year-old man was charged with first-degree murder for the targeted killings of a transgender woman, Paris Cameron, and two gay men.The most recent killing, at least the 18th, took place near Clewiston, Florida. The body of Bee Love Slater, 23, was found in a scorched car on Sept. 4, her body so badly burned that she had to be identified with dental records.The series of killings has mobilized transgender and LGBTQ groups, with calls for lawmakers to strengthen hate crime legislation and bar the use of the so-called gay- or trans-panic defense for people charged with attacks. They have also organized self-defense classes and guides on where to find affirming places to eat and shop.The violence against transgender women has been cited by several Democratic presidential candidates, including Sens. Kamala Harris and Cory Booker and Rep. Julian Castro. At a candidates forum on LGBTQ issues in Iowa last week, Sen. Elizabeth Warren read aloud the names of those who have been killed this year."We do not talk enough about trans Americans, especially trans African-Americans and the especially high rates of murder right now," Booker said on Twitter after the Democratic debate in Miami in June. "It's not enough just to be on the Equality Act. We need to have a president who will fight to protect LGBTQ Americans every day."Jennicet Gutierrez, a national community organizer for Familia: Trans Queer Liberation Movement, said she has had moments when people felt entitled to question her identity or insult her with transphobic comments. Some had threatened her with guns, she said, "or at times, they get very physical.""Fortunately," she continued, "I have experience with those sort of attacks and have been able to survive and been able to organize my community and speak up and really challenge these injustices."Moore said she felt a call to action in 2017, after Chyna Gibson, a 31-year-old black transgender woman, was fatally shot in New Orleans. Moore, 31, said the killing in her hometown rattled her.Even so, she was already deeply aware of the risks she and other transgender people face. She recounted the time, in 2014, when she was attacked and had to leap from a third-story window to save herself, shattering her knees."I want us to live in a world," she said, "where we don't have to worry about walking out of our front doors and being killed because someone doesn't understand who we are."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
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| Karen Pence was reportedly so mad at Trump's election she refused to kiss Mike Pence Posted: 27 Sep 2019 11:22 AM PDT ![Karen Pence was reportedly so mad at Trump's election she refused to kiss Mike Pence]( "Karen Pence was reportedly so mad at Trump's election she refused to kiss Mike Pence") Mother didn't like this.Vice President Mike Pence is pretty darn close with his wife Karen Pence, the woman he reportedly calls "mother" and refuses to meet other women alone without. But when Pence buddied up with President Trump, whom Karen Pence reportedly despised, her displeasure culminated in the ultimate diss on Election Night 2016, Tom LoBianco reports in his forthcoming book Piety and Power: Mike Pence and the Taking of the White House.It's been reported before that Karen Pence was not thrilled with her husband joining Trump on the campaign trail. Things got even worse with Trump's Access Hollywood scandal, with Karen Pence reportedly telling her husband that she wouldn't appear in public anymore if he continued running alongside Trump.Mike Pence obviously didn't let that threat get to him, but when Trump was eventually elected, Karen Pence reportedly still wasn't happy. "You got what you wanted, Mike," she reportedly told him that November night. She refused to kiss him, and said "leave me alone," Peter Baker details in The New York Times' review of LoBianco's book. Read more of LoBianco's reporting here.
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| Parents plead not guilty to abandoning daughter. Records show they legally changed her age Posted: 27 Sep 2019 03:21 PM PDT  Parents are accused of abandoning their adopted daughter and moving the rest of the family to Canada.
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| Malaysia PM says can't provoke Beijing on South China Sea, Uighur issue Posted: 28 Sep 2019 04:33 AM PDT  Malaysia does not want to take a confrontational stance toward China over the disputed South China Sea and Beijing's alleged mistreatment of its minority Uighur Muslims, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said in an interview published on Saturday. Malaysia is too small to face up to the Asian powerhouse, even though Chinese ships surveying its waters for oil and gas in South China Sea do so without permission, he told an online news service during a visit to New York this week. "We watch what they are doing, we report what they are doing, but we do not chase them away or try to be aggressive," Mahathir told BenarNews https://www.benarnews.org/english/news/malaysian/question-answer-09272019150003.html.
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| 'I Think and Hope That Netanyahu Will Fail.' A Top Israeli Arab Lawmaker on the State of Coalition Talks Posted: 27 Sep 2019 09:32 AM PDT  Joint List leader Ayman Odeh responds now that Israel's incumbent has been asked to form a government
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| UPDATE 2-Road map for Puerto Rico's exit from bankruptcy filed in U.S. court Posted: 27 Sep 2019 11:49 AM PDT ![UPDATE 2-Road map for Puerto Rico's exit from bankruptcy filed in U.S. court]( "UPDATE 2-Road map for Puerto Rico's exit from bankruptcy filed in U.S. court") Puerto Rico would reduce a major portion of its debt by more than 60% under a long-awaited restructuring proposal the bankrupt U.S. commonwealth's federally created financial oversight board filed in court on Friday. The so-called plan of adjustment covering $35 billion of bonds and claims and more than $50 billion of pension liabilities would allow Puerto Rico to exit a form of bankruptcy that commenced in May 2017 if it wins U.S. District Court approval. "This is the beginning of the end of Puerto Rico's bankruptcy process," José Carrión, chairman of the oversight board, told reporters following a public hearing on the plan.
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