| Hillary Clinton says evidence for impeachment inquiry is 'dramatic and irrefutable' Posted: 01 Oct 2019 09:30 AM PDT  Hillary Clinton dismissed concerns that Democrats are overreaching in their impeachment inquiry into President Trump, calling the evidence at the center of the probe "dramatic and irrefutable."
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| PHOTOS: China marks 70 years of communism with massive show of force Posted: 02 Oct 2019 06:14 AM PDT  Soldiers of People's Liberation Army (PLA) are seen in front of a sign marking the 70th founding anniversary of People's Republic of China before a military parade on its National Day in Beijing, China October 1, 2019. (Photo: Thomas Peter/Reuters) China celebrated its growing power and confidence with a big display of military hardware and goose-stepping troops in Beijing on Tuesday, overseen by President Xi Jinping who pledged peaceful development on Communist China's 70th birthday. The event is the country's most important of the year as it looks to project its assurance in the face of mounting challenges, including nearly four months of anti-government protests in Hong Kong and an economy-sapping trade war with the United States. (Reuters) See more news-related photo galleries and follow us on Yahoo News Photo Twitter and Tumblr.
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| Australian teen 'deliberately' mowed down, killed 20 kangaroos Posted: 01 Oct 2019 07:33 PM PDT  An Australian teenager has been charged over the deaths of 20 kangaroos, which he allegedly mowed down with his truck in a killing spree that lasted an hour. The dead kangaroos, including two joeys, were found littered over roads in Tura Beach, 450 kilometres (280 miles) south of Sydney, on Sunday morning. Police said Wednesday the man, 19, had been arrested and charged with animal cruelty offences on Tuesday.
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| China’s new missiles could reach U.S. in 30 minutes Posted: 01 Oct 2019 04:12 AM PDT  Military planners in Washington and elsewhere will be taking note of new missile technology displayed by China, particularly a hypersonic ballistic nuclear missile believed capable of breaching all existing anti-missile shields deployed by the U.S. and its allies.
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| UPDATE 4-Missouri executes man convicted of killing ex-girlfriend's lover Posted: 01 Oct 2019 05:33 PM PDT ![UPDATE 4-Missouri executes man convicted of killing ex-girlfriend's lover]( "UPDATE 4-Missouri executes man convicted of killing ex-girlfriend's lover") Missouri on Tuesday executed a man convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend's lover more than 20 years ago, local media reported, after a court rejected his argument he faced cruel and unusual punishment because of a rare medical condition that would make lethal injection severely painful. Russell Bucklew, 51, was pronounced dead at 6:23 p.m. CDT at the state's death chamber in Bonne Terre for the 1996 murder of Michael Sanders, shortly after he moved in with Bucklew's ex-girlfriend Stephanie Ray, CBS affiliate KFVS12 reported. The Missouri Department of Corrections did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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| Fast food drive-thrus: Which chains are the fastest and slowest? Posted: 02 Oct 2019 12:09 PM PDT  Time spent in fast food drive-thrus was 20 seconds slower in 2019 than the year before, a new performance study suggests.
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| Police Drone Finds Fugitive Who's Been Living in a Cave for 17 Years Posted: 02 Oct 2019 10:26 AM PDT  The man lived in the wilderness for the past 17 years.
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| The White House is 'paralyzed' and 'teetering on the edge of a cliff' as it grapples with Ukraine fallout and 'Hurricane Rudy' Posted: 01 Oct 2019 07:56 AM PDT  A senior US official described the mood within the White House as "a Category 5 storm" as it deals with Trump and "Hurricane Rudy."
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| Fairfax County Police Officer Suspended for Turning Individual over to ICE Posted: 02 Oct 2019 06:59 AM PDT  The Fairfax County Police Department has suspended an officer for detaining and turning the driver in an accident over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Saturday in violation of the department's policy not to assist ICE with civil enforcement.The driver lacked a Virginia driver's license, so the officer who responded to the accident ran a Department of Motor Vehicles check and discovered that ICE had issued a civil violation to the individual for failing to appear for a deportation hearing, according to Fairfax County police.The officer verified the ICE warrant and contacted the ICE agent listed as the point of contact, who came to the scene of the traffic crash. The officer gave the driver a ticket for driving without a license but continued to detain the individual until the ICE agent took over custody.Fairfax County Police Chief Edwin Roessler lamented the incident and said the officer is being disciplined."This is an unfortunate issue where the officer was confused," the police chief said, according to the Washington Post. "We have trained on this issue a lot. This is the first time we've had a lapse in judgment, and the officer is being punished."The officer has been relieved of all law-enforcement duties pending an internal investigation."Our police officer violated our longstanding policy and deprived a person of their freedom, which is unacceptable," Roessler added in a statement. "Our county is one of the most diverse counties in the nation and no one should have the perception that FCPD is acting as a civil immigration agent for ICE. This matter damages our reputation and the longstanding policy that I have stated many times that our officers shall not act as immigration agents."The police department said ICE informed them that the driver was released after three hours with an ankle monitor.
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| 10 Fat Bears and the Machines I Think They Kinda Look Like Posted: 02 Oct 2019 06:38 AM PDT |
| Shipwrecked Colombians clung to cocaine bales Posted: 01 Oct 2019 01:46 PM PDT  Three suspected drug smugglers survived in shark-infested Pacific waters by clinging for hours to floating bales of cocaine, Colombia's navy said Tuesday. The three Colombians are suspected of smuggling 1.2 tons of cocaine from Tumaco in Colombia when their boat was hit by a wave Saturday and capsized, Captain Jorge Maldonado of Colombia's Task Force Against Drug Trafficking told AFP. "The coastguard arrived and these three people were floating on a material that by its characteristics resembled drugs," said Maldonado.
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| Former NC GOP head pleads guilty to lying in bribery case Posted: 02 Oct 2019 09:15 AM PDT  The former chairman of North Carolina's Republican Party admitted Wednesday that he broke the law by lying to federal agents about his role in an alleged effort to bribe the state's top insurance regulator to help a major GOP donor. Robin Hayes, 74, pleaded guilty to making a false statement in August 2018 to FBI agents conducting the bribery investigation. Hayes, a former congressman, was initially also charged with conspiracy and bribery.
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| Boris Johnson to Suspend Parliament to Outline New Program Posted: 02 Oct 2019 10:46 AM PDT ![Boris Johnson to Suspend Parliament to Outline New Program]( "Boris Johnson to Suspend Parliament to Outline New Program") (Bloomberg) -- Follow @Brexit, sign up to our Brexit Bulletin, and tell us your Brexit story. U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson will suspend Parliament on Oct. 8 so that he can outline a new legislative program, two weeks after the country's highest court ruled that his previous attempt to stop parliament sitting was unlawful.But unlike that suspension, this one will only last six days, before Parliament returns Oct. 14 for a Queen's Speech. "The government will set out its plans for the NHS, schools, tackling crime, investing in infrastructure and building a strong economy," Johnson said in an emailed statement. "We will get Brexit done on Oct. 31 and continue delivering on these vital issues."Members of Parliament who want to tie Johnson's hands further on Brexit now have just three sitting days in order to do so before the suspension begins. Rebel Conservatives and opposition parties already teamed up last month to pass a law against the government's wishes compelling Johnson to seek to delay the divorce if he's unable to secure a deal acceptable to both the EU and Parliament by Oct. 19.The announcement comes just over a week after the Supreme Court declared Johnson's previous suspension -- which was supposed to last 5 weeks -- "unlawful," saying that "no justification for taking action with such an extreme effect" had been given to the court. A four- to six-day suspension is the norm before a Queen's speech, the court ruled.To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Morales in London at amorales2@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Tim Ross at tross54@bloomberg.net, Robert HuttonFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| UPDATE 2-Vatican financial control office director, four others suspended - report Posted: 02 Oct 2019 06:21 AM PDT ![UPDATE 2-Vatican financial control office director, four others suspended - report]( "UPDATE 2-Vatican financial control office director, four others suspended - report") Five Vatican employees, including the number two at the Vatican's Financial Information Authority (AIF) and a monsignor, have been suspended following a police raid, the Italian magazine L'Espresso reported on Tuesday. The scandal, affecting two departments at the heart of the Vatican, was the first after several years of relative calm in which reforms enacted by Pope Francis appeared to be taking root. A Vatican spokesman said he had no immediate comment on the report.
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| Man severely burned after falling into hot spring by Old Faithful in Yellowstone Posted: 01 Oct 2019 11:56 AM PDT  Walking off the boardwalks in Old Faithful is illegal, punishable by up to six months in prison and a $5,000 fine. Siemers may face criminal charges.
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| Andrew Yang puts other Dems to shame with big cash haul Posted: 02 Oct 2019 04:17 PM PDT  Andrew Yang likes to joke about being a math guy, and right now, the numbers are on his side. The Democratic businessman announced Wednesday that over the past three months he raked in $10 million for his presidential campaign — more than a number of his rivals for the Democratic nomination and just shy of Sen. Kamala Harris, who has won three statewide elections in the nation's biggest state. Yang's $10 million haul is at least double the amount raised last quarter by 16 other presidential candidates, among them five U.S. senators who had years to build email lists and mingle with the donor class before running for president.
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| Rush Limbaugh Blasts Fox News: They Should Change Name to ‘Fox Never Trumper Network’ Posted: 02 Oct 2019 03:25 PM PDT  REUTERSConservative radio star Rush Limbaugh inserted himself directly into the middle of the Fox News civil war between the network's news division and opinion personalities, complaining on Wednesday that the conservative-leaning network isn't completely on board with the president.Blasting the House Democrats impeachment inquiry during Wednesday's broadcast of The Rush Limbaugh Show, the right-wing talker bellowed about the coverage of President Donald Trump's now-infamous July 25 call in which he pressured the Ukrainian president to investigate Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden."They're trying to create the illusion that Trump is a mob boss," Limbaugh exclaimed. "And he was ordering someone to make up dirt or else we're not going to give you the money. Or worse. None of what they're saying happened in that phone call!"Limbaugh then took aim at Fox News, complaining that there are "Never Trumpers all over" the network, mocking those at Fox who have said the call is hard to defend or inappropriate."There's nothing hard to defend about the phone call," the radio host yelled. "You just don't want to defend it! You know, Fox really ought to change the name of the network from the Fox News Channel to the Fox Never Trumper Network! Because that's who's getting the highlights, and they're bringing in Democrats like Donna Brazile!"In the wake of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's announcement last week that the House Democrats were pursuing an impeachment inquiry, there have been several notable on-air scuffles between Trump-supporting Fox News hosts and Fox anchors and analysts. Anchor Shep Smith, for instance, took issue with primetime host Tucker Carlson allowing Trump-defending guest Joe diGenova to call Fox News senior judicial analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano "a fool" unchallenged, prompting Carlson to return fire by mocking Smith while suggesting he's a "partisan opinion host." 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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| A Virginia teacher is suing his school district after he was fired for refusing to use a trans student's pronouns, arguing that doing so would have been 'telling a lie' Posted: 02 Oct 2019 04:02 PM PDT  A teacher alleged that the school tried to force him to "express an objective biological falsehood" by urging him to use the student's male pronouns.
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| Mom sentenced in deaths of 2 girls banished by doomsday cult Posted: 01 Oct 2019 01:05 PM PDT ![Mom sentenced in deaths of 2 girls banished by doomsday cult]( "Mom sentenced in deaths of 2 girls banished by doomsday cult") A Colorado woman will spend the rest of her life behind bars for killing her two daughters after she and other members of a doomsday religious group banished them to a car without food or water because the girls were thought to have been impure. Nashika Bramble was sentenced to life in prison without parole Tuesday in the deaths of Makayla Roberts, 10, and Hannah Marshall, 8. The sisters' bodies were found in September 2017 in a car parked on a farm near Norwood, a town of about 500 people 30 miles (48 kilometers) west of the Telluride ski resort.
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| DANGER AHEAD: China's Six Carrier Navy Is Just Around the Corner Posted: 01 Oct 2019 09:22 PM PDT  Will it tilt the balance against local U.S. forces?
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| New whistleblower comes forward regarding Trump’s tax audit Posted: 02 Oct 2019 07:31 AM PDT  A new whistleblower complaint alleges that "possible misconduct" occurred in an effort to influence the audit of President Trump's taxes.
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| U.S. Treasury sanctions chief Mandelker leaving for private sector Posted: 02 Oct 2019 09:32 AM PDT  Sigal Mandelker, the U.S. Treasury official who oversaw the Trump administration's aggressive use of sanctions as a foreign policy tool, has resigned to return to the private sector, the U.S. Treasury secretary said on Wednesday. "She is a fierce advocate for effectively leveraging our powerful economic tools to make an impact for a safer world," Mnuchin said in a statement. As undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence since June 2017, Mandelker supervised the ramping up of sanctions against Iran, mainly aimed at strangling oil exports after the United States left the 2015 landmark nuclear deal with Iran.
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| Mouse falls from White House ceiling into man's lap Posted: 02 Oct 2019 01:19 AM PDT  Reporters got a surprise when a mouse fell from the ceiling at the White House.The rodent fell onto the lap of NBC News White House correspondent Peter Alexander yesterday morning, before eventually seeking refuge amid a tangle of wires behind a shelf.
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| View Photos of the Nissan IMk Concept Posted: 01 Oct 2019 10:00 AM PDT |
| Giuliani’s Ukraine Work Tied to Firm Whose Website Has Vanished Posted: 02 Oct 2019 07:37 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- The website of the consulting firm that forged business contacts for Rudy Giuliani in Ukraine and Russia for more than a decade vanished suddenly after his communications were subpoenaed.Giuliani was dubbed "America's Mayor" because of his New York City perch in the days after 9/11, but later he built a lucrative career in the private sector as a foreign security consultant.The genesis of many of those foreign connections was TriGlobal Strategic Ventures. The firm was set up in the U.S. in 2003 by a group of Russians and emigres from the former Soviet Union. Using the group's network, Giuliani amassed security contracts around the globe, which continued even after he became the U.S. president's unpaid lawyer last year.On Tuesday, the company's website reverted to "TGSV – Coming Soon." On Wednesday morning, after this article was published, the site was restored, though sometimes hard to reach.Giuliani's contracts, and who paid for them, are now coming under heavy scrutiny by Congress as it tries to trace his shadow diplomatic work for President Donald Trump in Ukraine. House Democrats have demanded documents and communications among Giuliani, TriGlobal and its co-founder and president, Vitaly Pruss, going back to the beginning of the Trump presidency. Pruss has played a pivotal role in connecting Giuliani to the Ukrainians who make up the backbone of the House's subpoena request.The Democrats are moving quickly with their impeachment inquiry of Trump over his request that Ukraine investigate a political rival.Another ConnectionAnother TriGlobal connection emerged on Tuesday. A member of the firm's advisory board said in an interview with Bloomberg News that he was the one who invited Giuliani to a conference in Armenia where President Vladimir Putin of Russia spoke, along with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. Giuliani had planned to speak but withdrew from the event after the public disclosure of his plans and those of the Russian president.TriGlobal's website once provided more information about that board member, Ara Abramyan. A biography in June 2016 listed him as a "very close adviser to the Russian government's inner circle including the President and the Prime Minister." The description disappeared from the site the next year.Reached by phone and asked about the TriGlobal connection, Giuliani continued to direct attention elsewhere, namely on Trump's political rival. "This is a diversion," he told Bloomberg News. "TriGlobal is totally insignificant."Giuliani's work with TriGlobal dates to at least 2005, when the firm arranged for him to meet in New York with representatives of Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works PJSC, the Russian steel producer. TriGlobal has offices in New York, London, Moscow, Kyiv, Zurich and Vienna. No one answered any of the phone numbers listed, and most weren't working.Some of Giuliani's foreign contacts were chronicled in a whistle-blower complaint that touched off the congressional inquiry. According to the complaint and a rough record of a phone conversation provided by the White House, Trump asked Ukraine's new president to dig up dirt on a leading Democrat presidential contender, former Vice President Joe Biden, and his son, Hunter, and said twice that Giuliani would follow up. Giuliani had publicly called for such an action and met with various Ukrainian prosecutors. He also peddled discredited conspiracy theories involving the origins of the Mueller probe into Russian election interference.Armenian ConferenceThe Armenian conference he was scheduled to attend was organized with the support of Russia's Ministry of Trade and Industry; the Armenian government; Rostec State Corp., Russia's main defense contractor; and the Eurasian Economic Union, which Putin started as a counterweight to the European Union.Giuliani was due to speak on a panel with Sergei Glazyev, a Kremlin adviser sanctioned by the U.S. over his role in Russia's annexation of Crimea. Giuliani spoke after Glazyev at last year's conference, but said in an interview earlier this year that he had never met him.Abramyan, an Armenian who says he spends time in Moscow, Europe and the U.S., denied that Giuliani's cancellation this year had anything to do with Putin's appearance. "We never paid him for a speech or for a visit," Abramyan said on the sidelines of the conference in Yerevan. "He agreed to come as my friend, my good friend."He declined to discuss whether anyone else paid Giuliani to attend.Abramyan said he met Giuliani decades ago when Giuliani was a federal prosecutor in New York. At the time, Abramyan asked him for an introduction to the late New York district attorney Robert Morgenthau, whose father was ambassador to the Ottoman Empire during World War I.Abramyan's Russian ties are deep. His company, JSC Soglasye, worked on the reconstruction of the Kremlin years ago.A spokesman for the Kremlin didn't reply to questions on Abramyan.Consulting WorkPruss has worked as a consultant for Transneft PJSC, Russia's state-owned oil pipeline operator, and a host of Russian companies, according to his biography on the TriGlobal website before it disappeared. He worked closely with Giuliani from 2008 to 2011, the site said. He declined to comment when approached at the conference in Yerevan.They have a more recent connection, as well. Giuliani's 2017 consulting contract in Ukraine, advising the mayor of the eastern city of Kharkiv, was paid for mostly by a local oligarch named Pavel Fuks.According to Fuks, Pruss was their connection."I've known Pruss for a long time," Fuks said in an interview earlier this year. "During the financial crisis, he proposed I buy some distressed assets in America."The House is seeking Giuliani's communications with Pruss, Fuks and Gennady Kernes, the mayor of Kharkiv, along with an extended list of current and former Ukrainian politicians and prosecutors.Another is Semyon Kislin, a Ukrainian-born entrepreneur who emigrated to the U.S. in the 1970s. Kislin was a political bundler for Giuliani's campaigns for mayor of New York in the 1990s, and Giuliani named him to the board of the city's Economic Development Corp.Kislin visited Kyiv in August and contacted Serhiy Shefir to congratulate him on his appointment as a close staffer of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, his lawyer confirmed to Bloomberg. Kislin has for years had conversations with Ukrainian officials about his investments in the country, for which he is seeking repayment.A spokesman for Zelenskiy didn't respond to requests for comment. Kislin's lawyer said he had received a request. "I believe that Mr. Kislin has no information regarding any subject that is relevant to the pending inquiry," wrote Jeffrey Dannenberg, of the New York law firm Kestenbaum, Dannenberg & Klein.The House also wants to see all of Giuliani's communications with Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, Ukrainian emigres who worked in Kyiv over the past year to dig up incriminating information on the Bidens. They're executives at an energy company that donated $325,000 last year to a pro-Trump super PAC. The donation prompted a complaint by a non-profit watch dog accusing the company and the two businessmen of violating campaign finance laws.(Updates with restored TriGlobal website.)\--With assistance from Caleb Melby and Polly Mosendz.To contact the reporters on this story: Stephanie Baker in London at stebaker@bloomberg.net;Sara Khojoyan in Yerevan at skhojoyan@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Winnie O'Kelley at wokelley@bloomberg.net, David S. JoachimFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| More than 132,000 Sephardi Jews apply for Spanish citizenship as deadline expires Posted: 02 Oct 2019 09:34 AM PDT  More than 132,000 Jews have applied for Spanish citizenship since the government offered residence to relatives of those expelled during the Inquisition more than 500 years ago. The deadline has now passed for Sephardi Jews - hailing from the Iberian peninsula - to claim rights to citizenship after the window for applications closed. Most have applied from South America. But in Britain the rules have created an unexpected opportunity for some members of the Jewish community to avoid the impact of Brexit by gaining a European passport. The total number of Jews applying to return is not far off the estimated 200,000 who are thought to have fled in the 1490 after facing the option of converting to Catholicism or being burned at the stake. The initiative in Spain has been coupled by a similar offer by the Portuguese government to atone for the persecution of Jews. Meanwhile in Austria last month the parliament ratified a law extending citizenship to descendants of Nazi victims who fled during and after Hitler's Third Reich. Figures from Spain's justice ministry show that by the end of August, one month before the September 30 deadline, 117 British Jews had applied for Spanish citizenship under the scheme introduced in 2015. It remains unclear how many more British Jews have applied in the final rush to meet the Spanish deadline that saw 72,000 applications flood in last month alone, more than in the previous four years combined. "Most of them were from citizens in Latin American countries, mainly Mexico, Colombia and Venezuela," Spain's justice ministry said. But more than 420 British Sephardic Jews have been granted Portuguese passports under that country's citizenship initiative, also launched in 2015. In 1492 the Catholic monarchs of Spain, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, ordered the country's approximately 200,000 Jews to convert to Christianity under the aegis of the Inquisition. Unknown thousands opted for exile, some entering Portugal, which also imposed compulsory conversion or exile by the end of the 15th century. "It was a pragmatic decision," Londoner Adam Perry told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency of his decision to apply for Portuguese citizenship, adding that it was "also a form of protest action against Brexit, with which I deeply disagree". "The Spanish government's law helps Sephardic Jews to close a circle, healing a wound that was opened more than five centuries ago," Marcelo Benveniste told The Telegraph about his decision to apply in 2015. All four of Mr Benveniste's grandparents moved to Argentina from the Greek island of Rhodes, where they had continued to speak Ladino, a language also known as Judaeo-Spanish. Spain asks Sephardic Jews wishing to gain citizenship to show that they can speak Spanish, as well as proving their hereditary connections.
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| Taliban co-founder heads to Pakistan as US envoy visits Posted: 02 Oct 2019 01:56 AM PDT  Taliban co-founder Mullah Baradar was due in Pakistan Wednesday as US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad also visited, officials said, though it was unclear if they would meet for the first time since Donald Trump scuttled talks between Washington and the insurgents. Insurgent spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid tweeted that the Pakistan visit would be the fourth leg of a tour that included Russia, China and Iran. The US embassy confirmed that Khalilzad was in Islamabad "this week" for consultations following discussions between the US and Pakistan at the United Nations General Assembly in New York last week.
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| Lawyer: Uber driver killed passenger in self-defense Posted: 01 Oct 2019 04:36 PM PDT  An Uber driver charged with first-degree murder in the death of a passenger shot the man in self-defense after he touched, punched and pulled his hair as he was speeding down an interstate, his lawyer told jurors Tuesday. In opening arguments in Michael Hancock's trial, Johnna Stuart said Hancock asked a driver who stopped to help to call 911 and then urged a dispatcher to send help to save Hyun (Huhn) Kim, 45, after shooting him on Interstate 25 in June 2018.
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| A teen died by suicide after being outed online. His family worries the DA is 'anti-gay' Posted: 01 Oct 2019 02:47 PM PDT  Channing Smith, 16, died by suicide after two teens outed him on social media. His family is worried that the county DA could affect the case.
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| China's Air Force Has One Flaw It Could Never Fix (Until Now) Posted: 01 Oct 2019 08:05 PM PDT  Making quality jet engines.
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| North Korea says successfully tested new submarine-launched ballistic missile Posted: 02 Oct 2019 02:21 PM PDT  North Korea said on Thursday it had successfully test-fired a new submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) from sea to contain external threats and bolster self-defense, ahead of fresh nuclear talks with the United States. The launch on Wednesday was the most provocative by North Korea since it resumed dialogue with the United States in 2018 and a reminder by Pyongyang of the weapons capability it had been aggressively developing, including intercontinental ballistic missiles, analysts said. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un "sent warm congratulations" to the defense scientists who conducted the test, state news agency KCNA said, indicating he did not attend the launch as he had done previously at tests of new weapons systems.
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| Will a wealth tax be crippled by avoidance schemes? Posted: 02 Oct 2019 02:55 AM PDT ![Will a wealth tax be crippled by avoidance schemes?]( "Will a wealth tax be crippled by avoidance schemes?") Wealth taxes are hot in American politics right now. Polling consistently finds that the idea of taxing the massive fortunes held by our richest citizens is broadly popular on a bipartisan basis. And the two most progressive candidates in the Democratic presidential primary -- Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) -- have dueling proposals to do just that.But wealth is a mercurial thing, and more difficult to measure than straight income. Critics contend that a wealth tax would be crippled by avoidance schemes the rich would cook up. As an idea, a wealth tax may fire people up. But would it actually work?I can't answer that question for you in a single column. But it's not just complicated because of the technicalities of tax evasion. It's hard for everyone to even agree on what a wealth tax "working" would mean.One of the arguments worth engaging with comes from Larry Summers, who's worked in previous Democratic administrations, and his co-author, Natasha Sarin, who point to the already-existing estate tax, which itself is a form of wealth tax. And revenue for the estate tax chronically comes it at much lower levels than you'd expect if you just ran the raw numbers on the tax rate and the amount of wealth it could hit. Summers and Sarin argue this is due to numerous evasion strategies: "questionable appraisals; valuation discounts for illiquidity and lack of control; establishment of trusts that enable division of assets among family members with substantial founder control; planning devices that give some income to charity while keeping the remainder for the donor and her beneficiaries; tax-advantaged lending schemes" to cite a few examples.As a crude intellectual exercise, they use the results of the estate tax to estimate Warren's wealth tax would only bring in one-eighth to three-eighths of the roughly $200 billion in annual revenue she calculates. They don't do this so much to claim their numbers are right, as to point out the enormous variances evasion can cause. (This same problem would also apply to Sanders' proposal, which is even more aggressive.)Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman, the economists who consulted with Warren and ran her numbers, certainly aren't unaware of this criticism. They point out that the make-up of wealth among the very rich is different than among average citizens: 80 percent of the wealth held by the top 0.1 percent is in stocks, bonds and real estate, which are actually pretty easy to measure and value. Warren has committed to keeping the definitions and language of her tax bill as clean and simple as possible, so as to avoid creating loopholes. She wants to significantly bulk up the resources available to the IRS to police tax avoidance. And Warren wants her wealth tax to apply globally, so as to cut down on efforts by the wealthy to simply move their money overseas.More broadly and ambitiously, Saez and Zucman propose ideas like a global wealth registry, built on international cooperation, to track and police wealth holdings, and to enable a more coherent international taxation regime.The underlying challenge is that dealing with tax evasion boils down to political will, influence, and discipline. Over time, either your lawmakers allow lobbyists to blow loopholes in the tax code, or they don't; either they continue giving tax authorities the resources and funding they need to crack down on avoidance, or they don't; and so on. Critics of wealth taxes such as Summers are essentially invoking a skepticism that the necessary political will can ever be mustered, while champions of wealth taxes like Warren and Sanders think these proposals can be used to muster the political will where it once was lacking.Finally, to go one more layer down, mustering the political will to impose a wealth tax inherently involves combating the political leverage and influence that mass concentrations of wealth represent. The more a wealth tax is successful, presumably, the more political force can be mustered to preserve and protect it.This gets to one other complication: Is revenue really the best measure of whether a wealth tax is working?Most everyone both in favor of and opposed to wealth taxes assumes their purpose is to raise the money that will then pay for big spending programs. But the U.S. federal government is the source of all U.S. federal currency -- it can "print" as much money as it wants. "For the federal government, taxes are not about raising revenue, taxes are about reducing consumption to prevent inflation," as economist Dean Baker recently put it. And there's a critical distinction between how much money a tax brings in and how much aggregate consumption it affects in the economy: "Do we think this additional tax bill will reduce the number of times Bill Gates or Jeff Bezos goes out to dinner," Baker asked. "Will they take fewer vacations or buy fewer cars, planes, and yachts?" The effect on consumption won't be zero, but it will be far lower than the effect of the same amount of money taken out of a broader and less wealthy group of taxpayers.Essentially, a wealth tax wouldn't really be about financing government spending or holding down inflation. It'd be about changing the structure of the economy, and ownership in particular: Are companies owned by a small number of rich shareholders, or a bigger number of rich shareholders? Do politicians need to get donations from a small number of rich people, or a larger number of less rich people? Who gets to control decision-making in the economy, and how much power do they wield?If a rich person sells one set of financial instruments and buys another somewhere else to avoid a new wealth tax, that's not necessarily a problem. If that rich person sells off a factory or a business to move their money, that presents more of a quandary. But whether that sale is good or bad depends on what happens next: Is the business ended (Along with the jobs it represents?) or does it simply change ownership? Is it sold to a more socioeconomic diverse group of owners with different prerogatives? Given the right conditions and surrounding policy changes, could it be sold to the workers themselves? Those latter results would ultimately be better for American democracy.None of this is a slam dunk argument in favor of a wealth tax. For example: Baker is also skeptical of wealth taxes, because he fears they'll encourage more people to become lawyers and accountants in the tax evasion industry, when our society could make better use of their talents elsewhere.But to decide a wealth tax's worth, these are the questions we should be asking.Want more essential commentary and analysis like this delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for The Week's "Today's best articles" newsletter here.
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| Trump ally suing reporter for $75m over claims of undocumented workers on his family’s farm Posted: 01 Oct 2019 07:01 AM PDT  A top ally of Donald Trump has sued a journalist for $75m (£61.3m) in damages for alleging his family's farm partially relied on undocumented workers.Devin Nunes, a California representative and former dairy farmer, filed the lawsuit in federal court against Hearst Magazines, the publisher of Esquire, and reporter Ryan Lizza.
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| Ukraine opens Chernobyl's infamous reactor four control room to tourists Posted: 01 Oct 2019 12:00 PM PDT  Ukraine has opened the control room of Chernobyl reactor four, the epicentre of the worst nuclear disaster in history, to the public as part of a tourist boom. It was in this room in April 1986 that Soviet engineers shut down cooling pumps as part of a test, causing an out-of-control reaction, explosion and fire that killed at least 54 people and exposed hundreds of thousands to harmful radiation. Now those brave or foolhardy enough to venture inside can catch a very brief glimpse of the place where this tragic history was made. An estimated 200 tonnes of radioactive fuel still remain in the increasingly unstable steel-and-concrete sarcophagus erected over reactor four by the accident "liquidators". Such is the fear of radiation leaks that a 355-foot, 36,000-tonne steel arch, the world's largest movable metal structure, was built and rolled over it in 2016 at a cost of £1.3 billion. What Chernobyl left behind: inside an abandoned city Human habitation is sharply curtailed within the 1,000-square-mile exclusion zone around the accident site. But thanks to a "green corridor" to streamline tourism announced by president Volodymyr Zelenskiy in July, fans of the Chernobyl HBO series can find a wide variety of tours. Previously, most visitors were only able to see the plant from the outside. For many the highlight was the crumbling flat blocks and ferris wheel of the nearby ghost town of Pripyat, whose 50,000 residents were abruptly evacuated. Last week, however, officials took journalists through the plant's kilometre-long corridor of gold-coloured aluminium and into the reactor four control room, which is located under the new containment arch but outside the old sarcophagus, to announce its opening as part of 21 new tourist routes. While much of the equipment was removed from the control room during an investigation after the accident, rusting panels with banks of buttons and displays can still be seen. A worker is scanned for radiation during the visit to the control room Credit: Sergey Dolzhenko/EPA-EFE/REX The visit lasted only a few minutes to keep radiation exposure from reaching dangerous levels. Guests spent far more time donning respirators, helmets and protective clothing and going through scanners on the entrance and exit. Radiation levels vary widely but tend to concentrate in plants and soil. Inside the reactor four building, the biggest threat is radioactive dust. A visitor who accidentally wipes against something can get a large dose, according to maintenance workers, who spray chemicals to keep the dust down. While numbers had been increasing before the HBO programme, more than 87,000 people have already visited Chernobyl this year, compared to 72,000 last year. The government has been improving walking trails, checkpoints and mobile reception and recently approved river boat tours. Not everyone has welcomed the tourists, however. A rash of scantily clad selfies led to the producer of the HBO series to call on people to "comport yourselves with respect". Yaroslav Yemelianenko, director of the largest excursion company Chernobyl Tour, said if visitors stay on the guided route for the day, they are exposed to no more than 4 micro-sieverts, less radiation than in an hour on a transatlantic plane flight. Radioactive dust still lingers in the Chernobyl plant Credit: Sergey Dolzhenko/EPA-EFE/REX But doctor Yury Bandazhevsky, who has studied Chernobyl for decades, has opposed tourism to the exclusion zone as a needless risk of radiation exposure. Campfires in particular can release large amounts of dangerous particles, he warned. "Tourists can be both a victim and source of this danger," he said. On Monday, Kiev region police said they had arrested 323 "stalkers," as explorers of abandoned places are called after a popular video game, who bypassed exclusion zone checkpoints this year.
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| In Syria camp, uncertain future for foreign IS orphans Posted: 01 Oct 2019 07:04 PM PDT  Sitting in a wheelchair beside a metal fence in a camp in northern Syria, nine-year-old Ruqaya Mohammad raises a scarf over her face to hide from journalists. The Egyptian girl lost her left eye, her legs and both her parents during battles against the Islamic State group in their last Syria redoubt in March. Aged 18 months to 13-years-old, the children were born to parents from Russia, Uzbekistan, Indonesia, Tajikistan, Egypt and Iraq.
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| Judge upholds voter ID, strikes parts of 2017 voting law Posted: 01 Oct 2019 01:24 PM PDT  An Iowa judge has upheld voter ID as allowable under the Iowa Constitution but struck down as unconstitutional portions of a 2017 voting reform law challenged by a Hispanic civil rights group and an Iowa State University student. The law signed by former Gov. Terry Branstad requires voters to show certain forms of identification when voting at the polls, provide an identification number on absentee ballot applications and allows county auditors to reject ballots if they believe signatures don't appear to match a voter signature on record. The League of United Latin American Citizens of Iowa and ISU student Taylor Blair sued Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate in May 2018 challenging the law as unconstitutional saying it could lead to voter suppression and disenfranchise voters, especially Latinos who vote absentee in large numbers.
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| Social Security scammers invented wild cover stories, posed as dead relatives, feds say Posted: 02 Oct 2019 04:19 PM PDT ![Social Security scammers invented wild cover stories, posed as dead relatives, feds say]( "Social Security scammers invented wild cover stories, posed as dead relatives, feds say") One man hired a homeless woman to pose as his dead mom; another faked a friend's murder. Here's how feds are targeting Social Security Scammers.
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| One Nation May Have No Choice But to Buy the F-35 Stealth Fighter Posted: 01 Oct 2019 06:47 AM PDT  Canada may simply have no choice. Here's why.
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| Blackstone Is Warned Denmark Will Act on High Apartment Rents Posted: 02 Oct 2019 03:50 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Denmark's new left-wing government pledged tough laws to control housing costs and singled out Blackstone Group Inc. for "unsustainable" rental practices.Kaare Dybvad, the Danish housing minister, said Blackstone is "challenging" local legislation "where there are holes." By taking advantage of those holes, the concern is that properties are being bought up and then rented out at prices that Danes are finding increasingly difficult to afford.Speaking in an interview in Copenhagen on Tuesday, Dybvad said that "it's clear we need to do something about this.""We're not going to legislate around an individual firm, but the way this has been going so far isn't sustainable," he said. "If Blackstone chooses to conduct itself in a different way in Denmark, in a more sustainable way here than in many other places in the world, then it's clear that they're allowed to be here on the same terms as others."Dybvad said the Social Democrat government that has ruled Denmark since June will now start formulating stricter laws to address the concerns. He has previously criticized Blackstone for "driving up prices in the Copenhagen rental market" and making it harder for low-income earners to remain in the city.The housing minister laid out his plans as Denmark's parliament met for its first session since the summer break. As the chamber reconvened, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen took the opportunity to lash out at what she described as corporate greed.The 41-year-old became Denmark's youngest ever head of government this year after promising a more equal society with increased spending on welfare. Her government's budget proposal means that Denmark will need to raise its borrowing requirement for next year by about $2.3 billion, the finance ministry estimates.Frederiksen also used her speech to lawmakers to zero in on the housing market. "An American private-equity fund is purchasing our houses," she said. And she touched on the list of financial scandals that have angered Danish voters in recent years. "Does greed know no boundaries? Apparently not," she said.Blackstone has said it's a long-term investor in the Danish market, and that it complies with all regulations. Jean Ahlefeldt-Laurvig, a spokeswoman for Blackstone-owned 360 North Property Management, said in August that "the under-supply of rental housing in Copenhagen needs to be addressed, which is why we are bringing additional units to market, while continuing to invest capital into the properties, improving sustainability and contributing to the local economy.""We intend to own these properties for decades and will ensure that they are operated to the highest standard," Ahlefeldt-Laurvig said back then. "We have always operated within the existing regulatory framework, which is one in which all leases are and will remain indefinite for the existing tenants."(Adds reference to borrowing requirement.)\--With assistance from Frances Schwartzkopff and Nick Rigillo.To contact the reporter on this story: Morten Buttler in Copenhagen at mbuttler@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Tasneem Hanfi Brögger at tbrogger@bloomberg.net;Paul Sillitoe at psillitoe@bloomberg.netFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Trump's foreign policy is for sale. That threatens our national security Posted: 02 Oct 2019 03:00 AM PDT  The president's efforts to govern in his own self-interest will undermine the world's faith in our commitments'Trump will use the full power of the United States to compel countries to do his dirty work.' Photograph: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty ImagesThe Ukraine scandal is not only undermining American democracy – it's damaging national security. US foreign policy increasingly looks like that of a mafia state, wielded at the behest of, and for the benefit of, one man's personal interests, and for sale to the highest bidders. This is devastating America's role in the world.Trump led an effort – along with other government officials and the president's personal lawyer – to use the power of the United States to pressure the government of Ukraine to fabricate smears about one of Trump's domestic political opponents. As the White House admitted in a transcript of Trump's 25 July call with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Trump asked Zelenskiy for a "favor" – to look into the former vice-president Joe Biden and his son – and said that the US attorney general, Bill Barr, and Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, would help.At the same time, Trump withheld military assistance to Ukraine – which is fighting a war with Russia – on a timeline that makes it clear that it was part of an attempt to use taxpayer dollars as leverage to get Ukraine to do Trump's personal bidding.> The US under Trump could be treated like a powerful autocracy – a country that must be dealt with, but not trustedThis is confirmed by the whistleblower complaint from a member of the US intelligence community, who sums it all up: "The President of the United States is using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 US election." The complaint also describes an effort by the White House to hide the president's conversation with Zelenskiy because officials knew how damning it was. And then, the White House and the Department of Justice intervened to prevent the complaint from making its way to Congress as the law requires.Many more facts are sure to follow, but the facts we already know are damning: Trump has been using the power of the presidency to extort a foreign government to help his own re-election chances. Trump's administration then tried to cover it up. And when it came out, Trump threatened the whistleblower with retaliation. All of this has fueled an impeachment inquiry.This kind of behavior, coming from the president of the United States, is shocking. But coming from Trump, it is hardly surprising.The former FBI director Robert Mueller documented in 448 pages of a Department of Justice report the extent to which Trump and his campaign worked to solicit, receive and coordinate assistance from Russia in the 2016 election, as well as the numerous attempts by Trump to obstruct that investigation.Trump refused to shed his private business interests before assuming office, meaning that as president he has faced numerous conflicts of interest. His family's financial dealings with countries ranging from China to Saudi Arabia raise suspicion about whose interests Trump is pursuing.'Now we are learning that Trump attempted to convince the Australian prime minister to help discredit the origins of the Mueller investigation.' Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty ImagesNow we are learning that Trump attempted to convince the Australian prime minister to help discredit the origins of the Mueller investigation – and the White House again recognized how explosive this was and hid the transcript of the conversation. It also appears that Barr is a lead player in conducting Trump's personal foreign policy, trying to get others, including the United Kingdom and Italy, to help discredit the Mueller investigation. That Trump and the top official in charge of enforcing US law would try to get some of America's closest allies and intelligence partners to help with Trump's own personal political agenda is deeply troubling.All of this makes clear (if it wasn't already clear) that Trump will use the full power of the United States to compel countries to do his dirty work. The reports of more hidden transcripts of presidential conversations – a practice that appears to extend at least to conversations with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and Saudi Arabia's leader, Mohammed bin Salman – raise serious questions about what other US interests Trump has sacrificed for his own gain.The possibilities for Trump to undermine US interests are endless.If allies want the United States to uphold treaties, maybe Trump will demand cash payments – not to the United States, but to Trump himself.If countries want good trade terms, maybe Trump will require them to fabricate scandals about members of Congress who are investigating him. Perhaps China will sweeten the pot of a trade deal with more trademarks for Ivanka Trump's businesses or assistance in her father's re-election campaign. In fact, there is a report that Trump may have already attempted to ask China to look into the Biden family.At their next summit, the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, could offer to use North Korea's cyber-hacking capabilities to help Trump's campaign in exchange for sanctions relief.We're through the looking glass now. America's friends are perplexed, and the damage could be incalculable. Some countries may try to placate Trump because the United States is indeed powerful and they are scared that the US mob-boss-in-chief might break their legs. But they will hate us, look for other options, and ditch us at the first opportunity.Our closest allies will reject us. No matter how important the US alliance is for these countries, the current scandal will force them to distance themselves even further from the United States. Intelligence cooperation could slow because allies know Trump is abusing those channels. No one will have faith in US commitments because they fear that Trump will sell them out for personal gain. The United States under Trump could be treated like a powerful autocracy – a country that must be dealt with, but not trusted, and always hedged against.Trump must be held to account for the sake of national security.
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| U.S. Attorney General Barr met Italian intelligence officials: newspaper Posted: 02 Oct 2019 11:59 AM PDT  U.S. Attorney General William Barr held two secret meetings with Italian intelligence agencies as part of an investigation by President Donald Trump's administration into the origins of the inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 American election, Italy's Corriere della Sera newspaper reported on Wednesday. Without citing its sources, the newspaper said Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte had authorized the two meetings in Rome with Gennaro Vecchione, head of the DIS intelligence service, as well as other officials in August and last week.
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| Modi hails toilet 'milestone' as India marks Gandhi's 150th Posted: 02 Oct 2019 09:49 AM PDT  Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday declared the country of 1.3 billion people free of open defecation, and turned his sights towards eradicating single-use plastic next. Modi -- whose claim has been challenged by experts -- made his ambitious "latrines for all" pledge when he first took office in 2014 and his announcement late Wednesday coincided with the 150th birthday of Mahatma Gandhi, an icon not just for Indian independence but also sanitation. "In 60 months, 600 million people have been given access to toilets, more than 110 million toilets have been built," Modi said in a speech to 20,000 village chiefs in western Ahmedabad city in his and Gandhi's home state of Gujarat.
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| Owner charged with cruelty over deaths of goats in Warsaw Posted: 01 Oct 2019 09:53 AM PDT ![Owner charged with cruelty over deaths of goats in Warsaw]( "Owner charged with cruelty over deaths of goats in Warsaw") Polish prosecutors on Tuesday pressed animal cruelty charges against the owner of a herd of goats, some of whom died on an island in Warsaw. Some 60 goats and sheep from a private farm had been sent to an island on the Vistula River last year to help control its lush grass and shrubbery, which was an obstacle to nesting for river birds. Some 30 other goats were found alive, but many were in poor condition, according to Dawid Fabjanski of the group Animal Rescue.
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