| Joe Biden: 'No one in my family will have an office in the White House' or be 'a cabinet member' if I'm president Posted: 13 Oct 2019 04:00 PM PDT  Joe Biden's visit to Iowa came the same day his son, Hunter, announced he would step down from the board of a Chinese company.
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| Nepal pushes to end dependency on India with China rail, tunnel deals Posted: 13 Oct 2019 04:40 AM PDT  Chinese President Xi Jinping wound up two days of meetings in Nepal on Sunday with separate deals for a rail link to Tibet and a tunnel, an official said, as the Himalayan nation seeks to end an Indian dominance over its trade routes by increasing connectivity with Beijing. The 70-km (42-mile) rail link will connect Gyiron in Tibet with Nepal's capital city of Kathmandu, making it one of the most ambitious infrastructure projects in the country. A Chinese team has already conducted a preliminary study for the project, which will be part of China's Belt and Road Initiative, Xi's signature diplomatic and trade push that is attempting to recreate the old Silk Road joining China with Asia and Europe.
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| The Latest: Powerful typhoon reaches greater Tokyo area Posted: 12 Oct 2019 06:26 PM PDT  Helicopters are plucking people from their flooded homes as rescue efforts went into full force in wide areas of Japan, including Tokyo, after a powerful typhoon unleashed heavy rainfall, leaving at least four dead and 17 missing. Typhoon Hagibis made landfall south of Tokyo Saturday and moved northward. Several train service in the Tokyo area resumed early morning.
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| France 'worried' after nearly 800 IS relatives escape Syrian camp Posted: 13 Oct 2019 08:32 AM PDT  France said Sunday it was "worried" after Kurdish authorities reported that hundreds of relatives of foreign jihadists had escaped from a displacement camp in northern Syria in an area under Turkish assault. France has been hit by a wave of jihadist attacks since 2015, many claimed or inspired by the Islamic State group, and has expressed concerns that a Turkish assault on Kurdish forces at the helm of the fight against IS in Syria would bolster the radicals. "Of course we are worried about what could happen and that is why we want Turkey... to end" the assault "as quickly as possible", government spokeswoman Sibeth Ndiaye told France 3 television.
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| Russia's New Nuclear Weapon Is A Real Doomsday Device (And Aimed At America) Posted: 11 Oct 2019 11:00 PM PDT  If you can't beat them, destroy them.
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| Girl scales replica of Trump’s 'un-climbable' border wall Posted: 12 Oct 2019 11:35 AM PDT  An 18-foot replica of President Trump's border wall has been climbed in a matter of seconds by an 8-year-old girl and a man who returned for another attempt while juggling with one hand.
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| HK leader ditches meeting Ted Cruz, says the U.S. senator Posted: 12 Oct 2019 03:53 AM PDT ![HK leader ditches meeting Ted Cruz, says the U.S. senator]( "HK leader ditches meeting Ted Cruz, says the U.S. senator") Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam scrapped a scheduled meeting with U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, the highest profile U.S. politician to visit the city since anti-government protests broke out more than four months ago, the senator said on Saturday. Lam had requested that the afternoon meeting be completely confidential and Cruz refrain from speaking with the media about it, Cruz told journalists in Hong Kong. "She seems to misunderstand how free speech operates, and also how freedom of the press operates," said Cruz, a Republican senator from Texas.
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| Islamic State Rears Its Head, Adding to Chaos as Turkey Battles Kurds Posted: 12 Oct 2019 08:09 AM PDT  CEYLANPINAR, Turkey -- The Turkish invasion of Kurdish-held territory in northern Syria raised new fears of a resurgence of the Islamic State on Friday, as five militants escaped from a Kurdish-run prison and the extremist group claimed responsibility for a bomb that exploded in the regional capital.As Turkish troops launched a third night of airstrikes and ground incursions, Kurdish fighters said they had thwarted a second attempt to break out of a detention camp for families of Islamic State members.The moves compounded a mounting sense of turmoil in northeast Syria, where tens of thousands of residents were reported fleeing south. The Turkish government said its troops had advanced 5 miles inside part of the country. Several major roads had been blocked and a major hospital abandoned.Since Wednesday, Turkish forces have pummeled Kurdish-held territory with airstrikes and sent in ground troops, trying to seize land controlled by a Kurdish-led militia, the Syrian Democratic Forces. That militia fought alongside U.S. troops in the recent war against the Islamic State.The campaign began after President Donald Trump suddenly ordered U.S. troops to withdraw from the area, giving implicit approval to Turkey's long-anticipated attack on the Kurdish-led militia.Trump's decision was widely criticized, including by his Republican allies in the United States, who said it was a betrayal of an ally -- the Kurds -- that could cause a re-emergence of the Islamic State.The White House -- concerned that Congress would pursue bipartisan sanctions legislation against Turkey -- said Trump would sign an executive order giving the Treasury Department new powers to punish officials in Turkey if its military targeted ethnic and religious minorities."We hope we don't have to use them," said Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary. "But we can shut down the Turkish economy if we need to."Since pulling out, U.S. officials have expressed growing concern at the direction the Turkish incursion has taken, with officials warning Friday that the United States would respond forcefully if Islamic State fighters were allowed to escape from prisons in the area.On Friday afternoon, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey vowed to continue the campaign."The West and the U.S., together they say, 'You are killing the Kurds'," said Erdogan in a speech. "Kurds are our brothers. This struggle of ours is not against Kurds. It is against terror groups.''The Turkish government has framed the campaign as a counterterrorist operation because the Kurdish-led militia has close ties with a banned Turkey-based guerrilla movement that has waged a decadeslong struggle against the Turkish state.Erdogan has promised that the fight against the Islamic State will continue and that his forces and their allies will continue to guard any captured militants in Kurdish-held prisons.But the operation has already proved highly disruptive to efforts to keep the Islamic State at bay. Although U.S. and Kurdish forces have defeated Islamic State militants in northeastern Syria, the group has sleeper cells in the region that could use the turmoil to retake the land they controlled in the early years of the Syrian civil war.And the Kurdish militia has diverted soldiers to fight the invasion and abandoned joint operations with U.S. troops as it prioritizes the defense of its land.On Friday, a car bomb exploded on a residential street in Qamishli, the de facto capital of the Kurdish-held region -- a rare act of Islamic State terrorism in a city that was relatively free of trouble before the Turkish assault began.The Turkish bombardment has also endangered the security of several Kurdish-run prisons for Islamic State militants, with at least three in the vicinity of continuing Turkish airstrikes. It is widely feared that in the chaos, Islamic State fighters will escape captivity, as the five did Friday.Kurdish authorities said shells had reached two Kurdish-controlled displacement camps, prompting officials to move some of their 20,000 inhabitants farther south.One of the camps, in Ain Issa, has hundreds of relatives of Islamic State fighters, heightening fears over the effect that the Turkish invasion will have on the fight against the militant group.Kurdish forces also released video of a third camp, which they said showed an effort to escape by members of Islamic State families.A second video, seen by The New York Times, appeared to show prisoners trying to escape a Kurdish-controlled jail after it was hit by an airstrike.While the Turkish airstrikes have hit targets along most of the 300-mile-long Kurdish-held territory, the ground battle has focused on two small but strategically located Syrian border towns, Tel Abyad and Ras al-Ain.Turkish troops and their Syrian Arab allies have captured a cluster of villages around the two towns, which lie in the center of the Kurdish region. The troops have in one place established a front line 5 miles from the Turkish border, the Turkish vice president, Fuat Oktay, said Friday evening, according to Turkish media.Their presence has prompted 100,000 residents to flee south, according to U.N. estimates, and forced the evacuation of a major hospital in Tel Abyad that was run by Doctors Without Borders, an international medical charity.A second hospital, in Ras al-Ain, was also evacuated, according to a separate report by the Rojava Information Center, an information service run by activists in the region.Turkish mortar shells also landed close to U.S. troops near the city of Kobani on Friday, prompting a complaint from the U.S. military, the Turkish Defense Ministry confirmed. No one was killed. Turkish officials said the Americans had not been targeted, though the Pentagon said Turkey had known that U.S. forces were in the area.At least 54 Kurdish fighters have been killed since Wednesday, along with 42 from the Turkish-backed force, according to tolls compiled by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a conflict monitor based in Britain.Turkish towns north of the border have also been affected, as Kurdish fighters have returned fire.Since fighting began Wednesday, at least 17 civilians, including four children, have been killed in Turkish border towns. At least four Turkish soldiers have died in the fighting, according to Turkish officials.An entire Turkish border town -- Ceylanpinar -- was evacuated, after two girls were killed in a rocket strike Thursday and two people were seriously wounded Friday.Ceylanpinar was largely deserted Friday afternoon, with shops shuttered and only stray dogs and a few men slipping out to chat or buy cigarettes."Our city is a ghost town," complained Musa Sahman, 70, who sells a local raw meat delicacy but had no customers. "Our government is fighting for Syria, but we don't have any business."But the damage has been far worse on the Kurdish side, where 60 civilians have died since Wednesday, according to the Kurdish Red Crescent.The U.S. decision to ally with Kurdish militias set the stage for Turkey's invasion this week.By capturing land previously held by the Islamic State, Kurdish fighters were then able to create an autonomous statelet that spans roughly a quarter of all Syrian territory and is effectively independent of the central Syrian government in Damascus.But this dynamic has been chastening for Syria's northern neighbor, Turkey, which views the central figures in the autonomous Kurdish region as hostile actors with strong connections to a violent Kurdish nationalist group inside Turkey itself.Turkey's military campaign has come hand in hand with a crackdown on criticism inside Turkey.The state-run media authority warned that it would "silence" any outlet deemed to have published material damaging to the offensive. Two editors at separate independent news websites were briefly detained, their outlets reported."We will never tolerate broadcasts that will negatively affect our beloved nation and glorious soldiers' morale and motivation, that serves the aim of terror, and might mislead our citizens with faulty, wrong and biased information," the media authority said in a statement.The Turkish incursion has prompted a mixed reaction from the 3.6 million Syrian refugees sheltering in Turkey.Some fear they will end up being deported to the areas recaptured by Turkish forces in northern Syria, despite having no ancestral links there. Others from the areas of northern Syria currently under attack said they welcomed the campaign.In Turkey, on a hilltop overlooking the Syrian border and the town of Tel Abyad, a lone Syrian man, Mehmet Huseyn, 45, crouched in the shade of a rusting water tank, scanning the horizon for signs of movement.His brother and family were in his home village, 6 miles beyond the ridgeline, while he had been working as a farm laborer in Turkey for four years to support his family of seven, he said."Our village is there," he said. "I am looking in case they leave and we can return home."But it pained him to see more war visited on his home. "Our insides are burning," he said. "We love our land and we love our country."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
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| Norwegian Cruise Line passengers demand refunds after ship skips several scheduled stops Posted: 12 Oct 2019 11:31 AM PDT ![Norwegian Cruise Line passengers demand refunds after ship skips several scheduled stops]( "Norwegian Cruise Line passengers demand refunds after ship skips several scheduled stops") Norwegian Cruise Line passengers voiced their anger after disembarking from the ship Friday after several port stops were canceled due to weather.
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| Pregnancy discrimination continues, 41 years after US ban Posted: 12 Oct 2019 07:50 AM PDT  For 41 years, federal law has banned pregnancy discrimination in the workplace. Prompted by presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren's claim that she was forced out of a teaching job in 1971 because she was pregnant, scores of women have shared similar experiences on social media. Police officers, academics, fast food workers, lawyers, flight attendants, administrative assistants and others say they hid pregnancies on the job or during interviews, faced demeaning comments and were demoted or even fired after revealing a pregnancy.
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| Canada vote pitches Trudeau into fight of his political life Posted: 12 Oct 2019 06:37 PM PDT  The gloves have come off as Justin Trudeau struggles to hold onto his parliamentary majority heading into the last week of a tight campaign before Canada's October 21 general election. The latest polls put his Liberals in a dead heat with the Conservatives, led by Andrew Scheer. Barring a trip-up over the coming days, whoever wins the most votes may have to seek the backing of one or more minor parties to form the next government.
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| Portland antifa activist killed in hit and run, police say Posted: 13 Oct 2019 08:40 AM PDT  City's antifascist group says death of Sean D Kealiher, 23, was not 'related to fascist activity' and police did not specify a motiveThe Multnomah county medical examiner determined the cause of death to be homicide, caused by blunt force trauma. Photograph: Jonathan Bachman/ReutersA Portland antifascist activist was killed in the early hours of Saturday in an apparent hit-and-run near Cider Riot, a cidery and taproom popular with the city's anarchist left that has been the scene of conflict with rightwing groups. According to the Portland Police Bureau, the car involved was fired upon and crashed into a nearby building. Its occupants fled the scene. Police said in a statement that the 23-year-old victim, Sean D Kealiher, was taken to a local hospital by associates. The Multnomah county medical examiner determined the cause of death to be homicide, caused by blunt force trauma. Police said homicide squad detectives would investigate and called on witnesses to come forward. Kealiher was a prominent participant in antifascist and anti-Trump protests in Portland, speaking and marching in opposition to events held by rightwing groups. His activities occasionally attracted the attention of rightwing bloggers and social media personalities. Rose City Antifa, the city's longest-standing antifascist group, said in a tweet addressing Kealiher's death that it "was not related to fascist activity". Police did not specify a motive. Portland mayor Ted Wheeler and the Oregon Democratic party, outside whose building the incident happened, expressed condolences on Twitter. Memorial tributes were laid at the site. Six men, including Patriot Prayer leader Joey Gibson, are awaiting trial on charges arising from a violent incident at Cider Riot on 1 May. In an affidavit in support of Gibson's arrest warrant, police officer Brad Kalbaugh described the group approaching Cider Riot "in an effort clearly designed to provoke a physical confrontation". Multiple videos of that incident show punches, thrown drinks and pepper spray being exchanged. One of the men awaiting trial, Ian Kramer, is alleged to have struck a woman with a baton, fracturing her vertebra. More video appears to show members of the group planning violence ahead of the brawl. Gibson and the other men are charged with riot. Some face felony assault charges.Cider Riot's owner, Abram Goldman-Armstrong, has commenced a $1m lawsuit against Gibson and several others. Goldman-Armstrong's lawyer, Juan Chavez, says his client has been subject to "homophobic and antisemitic" harassment since the suit was filed.
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| Hong Kong protesters and police clash, metro and shops targeted Posted: 12 Oct 2019 07:56 PM PDT  Rallies in shopping malls on Hong Kong island and across the harbor in the Kowloon district began peacefully around midday with a few hundred people at each chanting "Free Hong Kong" and other slogans. Police said protesters threw bricks and petrol bombs at police, with one setting a police van alight in Kowloon's Sha Tin district. Police made several arrests and used tear gas to disperse protesters, saying they used "minimum force".
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| EU Seeks to Halt U.S. Tariffs Over Airbus Aid in Last-Gasp Plea Posted: 13 Oct 2019 11:17 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Terms of Trade is a daily newsletter that untangles a world embroiled in trade wars. Sign up here. The European Union made a last-ditch appeal to the U.S. to refrain from triggering retaliatory tariffs over illegal subsidies to Airbus SE, warning of economic harm to both sides and repeating a call for a negotiated solution.European Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom told her U.S. counterpart, Robert Lighthizer, that his plan to hit $7.5 billion of EU goods ranging from planes to whiskey with duties would compel the EU to apply countermeasures in a parallel lawsuit over market-distorting aid to Boeing Co. U.S. levies would make a negotiated settlement harder to reach, she said."I strongly believe that imposing additional tariffs in the two aircraft cases is not a solution," Malmstrom said in an Oct. 11 letter to Lighthizer seen by Bloomberg News. "It would only inflict damage on businesses and put at risk jobs on both sides of the Atlantic, harm global trade and the broader aviation industry at a sensitive time."The World Trade Organization is due to give final approval for U.S. retaliation in the Airbus case on Monday, allowing tariffs to kick in as planned on Friday.The trans-Atlantic dispute over aircraft aid risks fraying a trade truce struck between the U.S. and EU in July 2018. At the time, both sides pledged to try to scale back commercial barriers and avoid a repeat of tit-for-tat tariffs that began with President Donald Trump's duties on European steel and aluminum on U.S. national-security grounds.The WTO cases over subsidies to Airbus and Boeing are 15 years old. Because of the calendar, the U.S. is entitled to strike first and the EU would follow suit sometime in 2020.Malmstrom gave no sign in her letter to Lighthizer that an idea floated in some EU circles for quicker European retaliation is gaining ground. The idea weighed was to hit back by invoking an unrelated, older WTO case against a now-defunct U.S. tax break given to companies, including Boeing, via subsidiaries known as foreign sales corporations.Instead, Malmstrom said the EU's planned countermeasures of $12 billion would be applied "when the time comes on the parallel Boeing case."Aside from causing economic harm, hastier European retaliation could undermine the EU's claim to be working to uphold the WTO system that Trump's protectionism is shaking."We are ready to negotiate a settlement for both the Airbus and the Boeing case addressing remaining compliance obligations on both sides, putting these cases behind us," Malmstrom said.To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan Stearns in Brussels at jstearns2@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Ben Sills at bsills@bloomberg.net, Tony Czuczka, Linus ChuaFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| German police investigate bitcoin transfer to synagogue killer Posted: 13 Oct 2019 07:12 AM PDT  German police are investigating a bitcoin transfer made to the far-Right extremist behind Wednesday's terror attack in Halle to determine if the man possessed a broader support network. German media outlet Spiegel reports that a transfer of 0.1 bitcoin – approximately €750 (£660) – was made to alleged attacker Stephan Balliet in the lead up to the attack. Police said the transfer came from an unknown source. Balliet told police interrogators that he had received the money from someone whom he had communicated with on the internet, but that he did not know who they were. Questions were raised as to how Balliet, who had been unemployed for a significant period of time in the lead up to the attack, was able to fund the attack, including buying the materials for his home-made weapons. As reported by Spiegel, the man told investigators that the weapons were cheap to manufacture, primarily as he constructed them from basic raw materials. He told police he bought steel worth €50, cartridge cases for €25 and a telescope for €20 to manufacture the weapons, which he based on designs released online by British pro-gun activist Philip Luty "The further investigations will deal in particular with the question of whether other persons were involved in the act or its preparation alongside Stephan Balliet", said a spokesman for the Federal Criminal Police Office. The 27-year-old Balliet was active in far-Right chatrooms, with police suspecting he was radicalised online. Balliet uploaded a manifesto outlining his motives, details of his weapons and indications as to the nature of his plans in the lead up to the attack.
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| The U.S. Spoiled a Deal That Might Have Saved the Kurds, Former Top Official Says Posted: 13 Oct 2019 05:06 PM PDT  Ismail Coskun/APABU DHABI—Abandoned by the Americans, their former allies, Syria's Kurds reportedly are allowing troops from the Assad regime to enter territory they had under their control. The Kurds also are putting out feelers to Russia for support against an onslaught by Turkish troops and Turkish-supported militias.A return of Bashar al-Assad's forces to northeastern Syria for the first time in seven years would make visible the end to the bitter, controversial U.S. mission there against the so-called Islamic State. That's not because of any concerted decision to withdraw by President Trump, whose antiwar rhetoric obscured his vacillation about leaving. It's because Assad will deny his American adversary the room to operate that the Syrian Kurds had provided their deceitful American partners. "We know that we would have to make painful compromises with Moscow and Bashar al-Assad if we go down the road of working with them," the Kurdish commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) wrote in an op-ed published Sunday in Foreign Policy. "But if we have to choose between compromises and the genocide of our people, we will surely choose life for our people."More in sorrow than in anger, the commander, Mazloum Abdi, wrote, "When the whole world failed to support us, the United States extended its hands. We shook hands and appreciated its generous support."But under Turkish pressure, at Washington's request, the Kurds "agreed to withdraw our heavy weapons from the border area with Turkey, destroy our defensive fortifications, and pull back our most seasoned fighters. Turkey would never attack us so long as the U.S. government was true to its word with us."Or so they believed. "We are now standing with our chests bare to face the Turkish knives," Mazloum wrote.Brett McGurk, who resigned as the presidential special envoy to the coalition against ISIS last December, told The Daily Beast on Sunday that such a move by the Syrian Kurds was predictable under the circumstances. Even last year, when McGurk was still serving, Kurdish leaders in Syria were telling the Americans that if support for them and deterrence against a Turkish attack was not going to continue, they needed to make a deal with the Assad regime and Russia for protection. "We have given our road map to the Russians. We are just waiting on a decision," one senior Kurdish official told The Washington Post.McGurk said he supported that idea at a time when Trump already was talking about pulling out of Syria, but he met firm opposition within the administration. (Special Representative for Syria Engagement Jim Jeffrey, for one, "told the Kurds on multiple occasions, 'we'll manage Turkey, don't make a deal with the [Assad] regime,'" according to a source familiar with the matter.) Then-National Security Adviser John Bolton and crew insisted the U.S. must stay in Syria until Iran was out, or at least on its way. (Representatives for Bolton, whom Trump fired last month, did not immediately reply to a request for comment. Neither did State Department spokespeople.)Since McGurk's resignation, he has stayed in touch with the members of the SDF and some contacts in the U.S. departments of state and defense. He says the Kurds asked repeatedly if the support and protection of the United States could be relied upon, and they were told repeatedly that the Americans had their backs. But that was not the case. McGurk told the Beirut Institute Summit in Abu Dhabi that when the Russians first got heavily involved in Syria in 2016, an oft repeated truism about Kremlin duplicity was "Everybody knows not to get into a well with a Russian rope.""But now what I hear," McGurk told the audience, "is that nobody should get into a well with an American rope."In other words, once it became clear in 2018 that Trump was hostile to the open-ended U.S. presence in Syria he inherited, the Kurds had options to help ease the end of their relationship with the Americans. But Trump's State Department and Pentagon, unwilling to face up to a final withdrawal—and the unequivocal loss of U.S. influence in a part of the Middle East where it is increasingly impotent, if not irrelevant—convinced the Kurds not to plan for an American departure. Had the Kurds done so, their new Russian and Syrian partners might have been able to spare them the devastation that Turkey is now wreaking as the U.S. pulls back and stands by. And now that the slaughter has begun, Mazloum has made clear that his forces and his people have no choice but to look to Russia and Damascus for support. Unfortunately for the Kurds, as McGurk points out, after Trump's betrayal dramatically weakened their position, when they call the Russians or the Syrian regime it's not clear that anyone is picking up the phone.Meanwhile, mass escapes of ISIS prisoners and alleged war crimes by Turkish-backed militia members in northeast Syria reflected the mounting chaos as Ankara drives ahead with an assault that already is deeper into Syria than originally announced."I think we are likely to see a significant comeback by ISIS," McGurk told the audience in Abu Dhabi. In Washington and in the field, confusion among the Americans is rampant. Ever since last Sunday's phone call between Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the administration has aggressively insisted that its green light to Erdogan, complete with a presidential invitation to the White House next month, was really a red light.Trump Says U.S. Troops Have Quit Syria. It's Not True.On Sunday, Defense Secretary Mark Esper told CBS, "Look, it's a very terrible situation over there. A situation caused by the Turks, by President Erdoğan. Despite our opposition they decided to make this incursion into Syria." Trump has escalated his rhetoric about the generation-long disaster of the U.S. military in the Mideast, but he has still yet to withdraw from Syria–and has in fact deployed 14,000 new troops to the Gulf region in the past six months. Incoherence, deceit and betrayal are now the most conspicuous characteristics of U.S. policy. Esper said that because the Kurds are looking to cut a deal if you will with the Syrians and the Russians to counter-attack against the Turks in the north, American troops could find themselves "caught between two opposing advancing armies and it's a very untenable situation. So I spoke with the president last night after discussions with the rest of the national security team and he directed that we begin a deliberate withdrawal of forces from northern Syria."But as it dawns on Trump that his "end endless wars" mantra could ignite a new endless war, he is reluctant to carry out a full troop withdrawal. Esper spoke about withdrawing from "northern Syria" two days after he and Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, insisted there were "no additional changes to our force posture." Two knowledgeable U.S. officials told The Daily Beast that the U.S. planned to remain in Syria, just further away from the Turkish fighting positions. Some undisclosed hundreds of the 1,000 U.S. forces currently in Syria will indeed leave the country—for elsewhere in the Mideast, however, not home. U.S. 'Withdraws' as Kurds Strike Deal to Let Assad's Forces Into RegionBut all of that improvisation, the consequence of senior officials attempting to salvage something after the Trump-Erdogan accord, may now be overtaken by events. Assad's forces are unlikely to permit continued U.S. operations. The end of a war never declared by Congress may come not by American decision, let alone negotiation, but by American adversaries seizing the initiative that Trump has been comfortable abandoning. Already reports are coming in from Syria of ISIS fighters breaking out of their Kurdish detention facilities as the Kurds fight for their lives. According to the New York Times, the rapid pullback, sometimes under fire from their Turkish NATO ally, has cost the Americans their plans to move a handful of senior ISIS detainees to U.S. military custody in neighboring Iraq. All of it raises the prospect of ISIS grabbing victory – meaning a new lease on life – out of the jaws of defeat after the Kurds, sponsored by the U.S., finished off the Caliphate in 2018.Meanwhile leaders in the Middle East are trying to come to terms with the fact that the Americans have proved to be fatally unreliable allies.Hoshyar Zebari, the former deputy prime minister and foreign minister of Iraq, told the Beirut Institute Summit in Abu Dhabi that in the Syrian war, "The Russians did not walk away from their partners. The Iranians did not walk away from their partners. But the Americans did.""Definitely the Turks will be emboldened," Zebari told The Daily Beast. "We expect about 50,000 refugees to cross the border," he said, mostly into the Kurdish region of Iraq. 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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| In or out? Court case on job bias casts pall on LGBT fests Posted: 13 Oct 2019 02:40 PM PDT  National Coming Out Day festivities were tempered this year by anxiety that some LGBT folk may have to go back into the closet so they can make a living, depending on what the Supreme Court decides about workplace discrimination law. "I want all members of our community to feel supported by the government, and often for a lot of us and a lot of friends of mine, it's the first time that they feel represented," said Jessica Goldberg, a bisexual senior at the University of Colorado Denver.
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| Canonisation: how to become a Catholic saint Posted: 12 Oct 2019 07:49 PM PDT  The canonisation on Sunday of Britain's Cardinal John Henry Newman -- one of the Roman Catholic Church's most renowned converts -- and four others is the last stage in the Vatican's arduous process of creating saints. The Church puts candidates through meticulous vetting and in most cases two "miracles" are required, usually healings resulting from the candidate's posthumous intercession in answer to prayers. Friends or relatives can apply posthumously for their loved one to be recognised as having a "reputation for sainthood", which gets the ball rolling on the full sainthood application process.
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| How Dangerous Is Turkey's Military on the Battlefield? Posted: 12 Oct 2019 10:00 AM PDT  F-16s, submarines and state of the art tanks are just a small part of what Turkey can use to wage war.
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| Police Respond to Reports of Mall Shooting in Florida, Confirm One Person Injured Posted: 13 Oct 2019 02:06 PM PDT  Authorities have not yet identified the circumstances which led to the shooting
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| UPDATE 2-Hong Kong protesters, police in chaotic clashes, as metro, shops targeted Posted: 13 Oct 2019 02:16 AM PDT ![UPDATE 2-Hong Kong protesters, police in chaotic clashes, as metro, shops targeted]( "UPDATE 2-Hong Kong protesters, police in chaotic clashes, as metro, shops targeted") * 'Hong Kong has become a police state. Several rallies in shopping mall started peacefully around midday with a few hundred people at each chanting slogans such as "Free Hong Kong", but by late afternoon hardcore black-clad activists trashed shops and metro stations and erected road blocks around the city.
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| Canadian Snowbird plane crashes during Atlanta air show Posted: 13 Oct 2019 12:54 PM PDT  The remaining festivities associated with the annual air show were cancelled following the crash
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| Democratic debate: Time for 2020 presidential candidates to get real on health care Posted: 13 Oct 2019 10:47 AM PDT  Promises win elections, but how does this field plan to keep those promises once they reach the Oval Office?
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| Kurdish general to U.S.: Either protect us, or 'move aside so we can let in the Russians' Posted: 12 Oct 2019 10:54 AM PDT ![Kurdish general to U.S.: Either protect us, or 'move aside so we can let in the Russians']( "Kurdish general to U.S.: Either protect us, or 'move aside so we can let in the Russians'") Gen. Mazloum Kobani Abdi, the commander of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, did not mince words when meeting with William Roebuck, the Deputy Special Envoy to the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS on Thursday, CNN reports. "You have given up on us," Mazloum said, referring to President Trump's decision to pull U.S. troops out of northern Syria, giving Turkey an opening to invade, which they have. "You are leaving are leaving us to be slaughtered."An internal U.S. government readout obtained by CNN also revealed that Mazloum told Roebuck he has considered gaining the support of another foreign power in place of the U.S. "I've been holding myself for two days from going to the press and saying that America abandoned us and that I would like you to get out of our areas now so that I can invite Russia and regime planes to take over this airspace," Mazloum said. "Either you stop this bombing on our people now or move aside so we can let in the Russians."Roebuck reportedly then suggested Mazloum not make any "immediate decisions," but instead give him time to relay the message to the State Department. Read more at CNN.
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| Iowa teacher who posted 'sniper rifle' comment about Greta Thunberg visit resigns Posted: 11 Oct 2019 07:46 PM PDT  Science teacher Matt Baish had been placed on administrative leave after posting "Dont have my sniper rifle" on an article about Greta Thunberg.
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| Serial killer's victim portraits could help crack cold cases Posted: 13 Oct 2019 11:37 AM PDT  Most of the women in Samuel Little's hand-drawn portraits seem to be frowning. Little, whom the FBI identified this month as the most prolific serial killer in U.S. history, produced startlingly detailed likenesses of dozens of women he says he strangled over the course of more than three decades. Now the FBI is publicizing his portraits — hoping that someone, somewhere, will recognize the face of a long-lost loved one in an image drawn by the killer himself.
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| Southern California wildfires burning unchecked Posted: 12 Oct 2019 08:40 AM PDT  Gusting winds fueling a fast-moving wildfire in southern California showed no signs of abating Saturday as a blaze that forced the evacuation of some 100,000 people kept burning out of control. A red flag warning of critical fire danger -- strong winds and very low humidity -- has been extended into the weekend, the National Weather Service said. Firefighters said people have taken evacuation orders seriously in the so-called Saddleridge fire burning in the San Fernando Valley area of greater Los Angeles.
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| Why Poland Really Needs the Patriot Missile Defense System (Think Russia) Posted: 12 Oct 2019 07:00 PM PDT  A robust, modern, integrated Polish air defense will complicate Russian attack planning and help ensure the survivability of both Polish military units and installations, as well as NATO's forward-deployed forces.
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| Trial date set for former decorated Green Beret facing murder charge Posted: 12 Oct 2019 06:03 AM PDT  Maj. Mathew Golsteyn is accused of killing a Taliban bombmaker; an update on the case from Nancy Golsteyn and Rep. Duncan Hunter.
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| Canada's Trudeau vows to forge ahead with campaign after security threat Posted: 13 Oct 2019 08:06 AM PDT  Canada's Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Sunday that he will not change the way he is campaigning ahead of the Oct. 21 federal election after a security threat forced him to wear a bulletproof vest at a campaign rally on Saturday. Trudeau arrived 90 minutes late to a rally outside of Toronto wearing the bulky protection under his shirt after he had received a security threat. No details have been provided by the Liberal Party or police.
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| UPDATE 1-Scientists endorse mass civil disobedience to force climate action Posted: 13 Oct 2019 04:53 AM PDT ![UPDATE 1-Scientists endorse mass civil disobedience to force climate action]( "UPDATE 1-Scientists endorse mass civil disobedience to force climate action") In a joint declaration, climate scientists, physicists, biologists, engineers and others from at least 20 countries broke with the caution traditionally associated with academia to side with peaceful protesters courting arrest from Amsterdam to Melbourne. Wearing white laboratory coats to symbolise their research credentials, a group of about 20 of the signatories gathered on Saturday to read out the text outside London's century-old Science Museum in the city's upmarket Kensington district. "We believe that the continued governmental inaction over the climate and ecological crisis now justifies peaceful and non-violent protest and direct action, even if this goes beyond the bounds of the current law," said Emily Grossman, a science broadcaster with a PhD in molecular biology.
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| Rose McGowan attacks Hillary Clinton over ties to ‘monster’ Harvey Weinstein Posted: 13 Oct 2019 04:33 AM PDT  Rose McGowan has lashed out at Hillary Clinton over a report that Ronan Farrow's investigation into Harvey Weinstein was a "concern" for the Clinton camp.The actor was one of the first to come forward with allegations of sexual misconduct against the disgraced producer, and a lead campaigner for the MeToo movement. Weinstein has denied all allegations of non-consensual sex.
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| Trump takes his stump speech to the Values Voter Summit Posted: 12 Oct 2019 05:58 PM PDT  President Donald Trump on Saturday delivered a full-throated defense of his presidency at the Values Voter Summit, calling Democrats "crazy" over their impeachment inquiry, touting his recent withdrawal of troops from Syria and pledging to fight for religious liberty in America and around the world. "These are bad bad people," Trump said of House Democrats, telling some 3,000 attendees at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C., that "we're going after" House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House intel chair Adam Schiff, while raising the prospect of suing them, in a 79-minute address that hewed closely to his stump speech. Pelosi "hates our country," the president continued, before further lashing out against the House impeachment inquiry that followed revelations from a whistleblower alleging Trump sought the help of a foreign government to dig up dirt on a political rival.
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| A professor spoke about whiteness at Georgia Southern University. Students burned her book. Posted: 13 Oct 2019 01:53 PM PDT ![A professor spoke about whiteness at Georgia Southern University. Students burned her book.]( "A professor spoke about whiteness at Georgia Southern University. Students burned her book.") A Latina author challenged students at Georgia Southern University to think about white privilege. Students burned copies of her book.
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| The Latest: Man charged in New Hampshire church shooting Posted: 12 Oct 2019 04:44 PM PDT  The New Hampshire attorney general's office says a man has been charged in a shooting that took place during a wedding ceremony. Thirty-seven-year-old Dale Holloway has been charged on Saturday with purposely and knowingly causing bodily injury by means of a deadly weapon for shooting 75-year-old Stanley Choate in the chest. A third person, Mark Castiglione, 60, was struck in the head by an object.
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| Property investors turn to SE Asia amid Hong Kong unrest Posted: 12 Oct 2019 07:30 PM PDT  From luxury Singapore apartments to Malaysian seafront condos, Hong Kong investors are shifting cash into Southeast Asian property, demoralised by increasingly violent protests as well as the China-US trade war. Hong Kong businessman Peter Ng bought a condominium on the Malaysian island of Penang -- which has a substantial ethnic Chinese population and is popular among Hong Kongers -- after the protests erupted. "The instability was a catalyst for me," the 48-year-old stock market and property investor told AFP, adding he was worried about long-term damage to the Hong Kong economy if the unrest persists.
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| A Real Threat: Why Russia's Air Force Should Be Taken Seriously Posted: 13 Oct 2019 05:00 AM PDT  And why countries love to buy them.
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| With Hypersonic Missiles, Israel's F-35s Are Upping The Ante In Syria Posted: 13 Oct 2019 03:20 PM PDT  Iran has taken notice.
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| Sanders says rival Warren is 'capitalist through her bones' Posted: 12 Oct 2019 05:37 PM PDT  Sanders made the comment in an interview for ABC's "This Week," highlighting a difference with Warren, who has been rising steadily in the polls, and now shares the leading position with former Vice President Joe Biden. Sanders has been falling well behind both. "Elizabeth, I think, as you know, has said that she is a capitalist through her bones.
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| One killed as hotel under construction collapses in New Orleans Posted: 12 Oct 2019 04:39 PM PDT  Video of the collapse was widely shared on social media and the fire department posted photos of the aftermath showing crumpled floors and tangles of broken construction materials. Local media said three people were missing and emergency services were using rescue dogs and drones to search for any more victims. Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards urged residents and visitors alike to avoid the area.
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| Canada Has Winter-Tire Appointment Week, and Maybe We Should, Too Posted: 12 Oct 2019 09:01 AM PDT  With snow making its first appearance, U.S. drivers in northern areas should consider switching to winter tires.
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| Mattis: Trump's troop pullout will lead to 'disarray' in Syria and Isis resurgence Posted: 13 Oct 2019 06:44 AM PDT  * Ex-defense secretary calls resurgence of Isis 'a given' * Kurds say 785 Isis affiliates escape camp after Turkish shellingJames Mattis declined the opportunity to directly criticise his former boss, Donald Trump. Photograph: Leah Millis/ReutersThe former defense secretary James Mattis has said Donald Trump's abrupt withdrawal of US troops from the Syria-Turkey border has increased the chances of a resurgence of Islamic State. But the retired general passed up an opportunity to directly criticise the president."If we don't keep the pressure on," Mattis told NBC's Meet the Press, "then Isis will resurge. It's absolutely a given that they will come back."After Mattis's remarks were released, the Kurdish-led administration in northern Syria said 785 foreign individuals affiliated with Isis had escaped the camp where they were being held, following heavy Turkish shelling.Trump announced the US withdrawal on Monday after a call with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The surprise announcement prompted widespread accusations of a betrayal of Kurds allied to the US in war-torn Syria. Turkey, which regards some Kurdish groups as terrorists, swiftly attacked. The president also said Erdoğan would visit the White House.Trump faced stringent attacks from both sides of the aisle. In Washington on Saturday night he held his ground, telling the conservative Values Voter Summit he was "an island of one"."We have to bring our great heroes, our great soldiers, we have to bring them home," he insisted. "It's time. It's time."> If we don't keep the pressure on, then Isis will resurge. It's absolutely a given that they will come back> > James MattisOn Sunday morning, Trump warmed to his theme. The president said it was "very smart not to be involved in the intense fighting along the Turkish border, for a change", amid a stream of tweets that included a startling statement: "Others may want to come in and fight for one side or the other. Let them!"In more measured tones, defense secretary Mike Esper told CBS' Face the Nation "it's a very terrible situation over there" but insisted roughly 1,000 US troops would be evacuated in a "deliberate withdrawal".US forces are not yet out of harm's way. The Washington Post reported that Turkish forces which shelled an area where US special forces troops remained on Friday had known for months they were there.Brett McGurk, the former US envoy to the global coalition against Isis who resigned over Trump's attempts to withdraw from Syria, told the Post: "Turkey wants us off the entire border region to a depth of 30km [20 miles]. Based on all the facts available, these were warning fires on a known location, not inadvertent rounds."Turkey is facing threats of US sanctions – reiterated by Trump in his speech on Saturday night – unless it calls off the incursion. Two of its Nato allies, Germany and France, have said they are halting weapons exports and the Arab League has denounced the operation.But airstrikes and shelling continue in Kurdish areas and harrowing scenes among panicked and grieving refugees are being reported worldwide. More than 130,000 people have been displaced from rural areas around Tel Abyad and Ras al Ain as a result of the fighting, the United Nations said. Turkish forces and their Syrian allies seized large parts of the town of Suluk, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Sunday, the fifth day of the offensive.On Saturday, CNN reported that earlier this week Gen Mazloum Kobani Abdi, head of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, told a senior US diplomat: "You have given up on us. You are leaving us to be slaughtered."Also on Saturday, another SDF commander told a press conference: "The protection of Isis prisons will not remain our priority. The defence of our soil will be prioritised if [the] Turkish military continues its attacks."On Sunday, the Kurds said some Isis prisoners had escaped. In an apparent reference to Turkish-backed Syrian insurgents, the Kurds said mercenaries attacked a camp where Isis "elements" attacked guards and opened the gates."The brutal military assault led by Turkey and its mercenaries is now taking place near a camp in Ain Issa, where there are thousands from families of Isis," the Kurds said, adding "some were able to escape after bombardments that targeted" the camp.Mattis discussed the threat of an Isis resurgence on NBC's Meet the Press with Chuck Todd, in an interview to be broadcast in full on Sunday."It's in a situation of disarray right now," he said in excerpts released by the broadcaster. "Obviously, the Kurds are adapting to the Turkish attacks. And we'll have to see if they're able to maintain the fight against Isis. It's going to have an impact. The question is, how much?"Asked if the US would regret Trump's decision, Mattis said: "We have got to keep the pressure on Isis so they don't recover."We may want a war over. We may even declare it over. You can pull your troops out as President Obama learned the hard way out of Iraq, but the 'enemy gets the vote', we say in the military. And in this case, if we don't keep the pressure on, then Isis will resurge. It's absolutely a given that they will come back."Trump said this week any militant prisoners escaping from camps guarded by Kurds "will be escaping to Europe". He also said the Kurds "didn't help us in the second world war, they didn't help us in Normandy, for example".Mattis's apparent disinclination to directly criticise the president, even as Syria spirals into ever worse chaos as a result of US actions, is in keeping with his approach since resigning in December 2018.The retired US Marine Corps general has said he has a "duty of silence" regarding the president he served. That commitment has held despite Mattis having resigned, like McGurk, in response to an earlier attempt by Trump to pull US troops from Syria and in protest at his treatment of America's allies.In September, Mattis published a memoir, Call Sign Chaos. The book skirted his service to Trump, focusing instead on his career in the US armed forces.
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| Another storm to keep chilly air in place across northern Plains through midweek Posted: 12 Oct 2019 07:49 AM PDT  Following the potent snowstorm and blizzard conditions just a few days ago, another storm will keep the November-like chill in the region into Wednesday.The last storm brought more than two feet of snow across parts of the Dakotas, and caused chaos for travelers by air and along interstates 90 and 15.This same storm will stall north of the Great Lakes, helping to funnel in chilly Canadian air into much of the region through Sunday. Snow showers will linger in Minnesota and the northern half of Wisconsin.The cool conditions will hold for the Chicago Marathon on Sunday as well, with wet weather staying to the north and east. The storm will gradually weaken and move northward into Canada through Monday, allowing for a brief rise in temperatures for some in the Plains.By being further removed from the storm and on the southern side of the jet stream, cities like Rapid City, South Dakota; Omaha, Nebraska; and Des Moines, Iowa, will all warm up noticeably on Monday.After being stuck in the 40s, afternoon highs on Monday in these cities will reach into the middle and upper 50s, which is still 5-10 degrees Fahrenheit below normal for the middle of October.The next storm looks to take shape in western Canada on Sunday, which will trek through the northern Plains and Upper Midwest on Monday night and Tuesday.Unlike the last storm, significant snow accumulation is not expected, although there could be a little light snow for some. "A cold rain, gusty winds and even some wet snowflakes will be in store for portions of the Upper Midwest on Tuesday, lingering into early on Wednesday," said AccuWeather Meteorologist Brandon Buckingham.Snowflakes will be most likely to mix in across northern Minnesota during the day on Tuesday, but there could be some snowflakes mixing in across northern Michigan and Wisconsin Tuesday night."In what has been a difficult year already for farmers across the Midwest, early season snow and well below-average temperatures aren't providing much help during the harvest," said Buckingham.The cold air filtering in along with the storm could cause any wet areas to rapidly freeze up, leading to areas of black ice. Motorists and those on foot should be on the look out for these slippery spots, even if it only rained in their area.Farther east, temperatures are likely to peak on Tuesday before the chilly air moves in Wednesday."Temperatures will rebound briefly to around 60 Tuesday for places like Chicago and Detroit, but the warmer temperatures will be accompanied by showery weather," Buckingham added.By Wednesday, the wet weather will shift to the Northeast, but leave behind November-like temperatures for the Great Lakes region.The late-autumn weather is likely to hold through the middle of the week, before a high pressure pushes a different air mass into the area late this week."This should bring more seasonable conditions by late in the week," said Buckingham. Download the free AccuWeather app to see the exact forecast for your area. Keep checking back for updates on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.
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| Police: Woman killed by 6-foot log pushed off cliff in Ohio state park; 2 teens charged Posted: 12 Oct 2019 02:46 PM PDT  Ohio investigators say the six-foot log was pushed or thrown off the cliff in the Hocking Hills State Park. Two teens have been charged.
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| Woman, 33, escaping police custody struck by car in Maple Shade, New Jersey Posted: 12 Oct 2019 07:27 PM PDT  A 33-year-old woman trying to escape from police custody was struck by a car in Burlington County, New Jersey, authorities said.
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| UPDATE 1-Russia says exploring settlement in euros, roubles for energy exports Posted: 12 Oct 2019 11:02 PM PDT |
