| Kushner named Trump’s border-wall czar — along with practically everything else in government Posted: 26 Nov 2019 02:33 PM PST  President Trump has recently tasked his son-in-law — whose to-do list already includes brokering peace in the Middle East, leading U.S. trade policy, reorganizing the entire U.S. government and reforming the criminal justice system — with overseeing the construction of his border wall ahead of the 2020 election.
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| Utah banning ‘conversion therapy’ with Mormon church backing Posted: 27 Nov 2019 07:58 AM PST  Utah is on its way to becoming the 19th state to ban the discredited practice of conversion therapy in January after state officials formed a proposal that has the support of the influential Church of a Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Republican Gov. Gary Herbert announced Tuesday night that church leaders back a regulatory rule his office helped craft after legislative efforts for a ban on the therapy failed earlier this year. The faith known widely as the Mormon church opposed a previous version of the rule because it wanted assurances that church leaders and members who are therapists would be allowed to provide spiritual counseling for parishioners or families — which were included in the latest conversion therapy ban plan.
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| US weather forecast: Powerful storms to bring heavy snow and high winds, causing Thanksgiving travel chaos Posted: 26 Nov 2019 10:36 AM PST  Millions of Americans are bracing for two "powerful" storms expected to dump heavy blankets of snow and force road closures and flight delays as families prepare for a busy week of travel during the Thanksgiving holiday.A snowy weather system could linger through the rest of the week and into the weekend as it moves east, potentially bringing snow to New England and delivering a wintry coast-to-coast blow to the holiday weekend.
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| TSA officers find high-capacity gun magazines hidden in an infant toy at Orlando airport Posted: 27 Nov 2019 11:10 AM PST  TSA revealed officers discovered two high capacity magazines in an infant's toy at the Orlando International Airport.
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| A Chicago Student Ignored a Man's Late-Night Catcalls. Now He's Charged With Her Murder Posted: 27 Nov 2019 12:04 PM PST  Prosecutors said the man was 'angry that he was being ignored'
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| 71 Gifts That Give Good Vibes Posted: 26 Nov 2019 09:57 AM PST |
| NGO accuses North Korea of institutionalised child sex abuse Posted: 27 Nov 2019 02:50 AM PST ![NGO accuses North Korea of institutionalised child sex abuse]( "NGO accuses North Korea of institutionalised child sex abuse") North Korean children are "constantly in danger" of sexual abuse and resulting social stigma without any chance to seek legal protection, a Seoul-based rights group said on Wednesday. Activists with PSCORE, or People for Successful Corean Reunification, interviewed more than 200 young male and female North Koreans who had fled to settle in the affluent, democratic South for a study on child abuse at home, at school and in state facilities such as prison camps and orphanages. In a 195-page report, "Inescapable Violence: Child Abuse within North Korea", the group described sexual abuse as "institutionalised and widely accepted as a normal part of life".
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| An Air Canada Boeing 787 flying across the Atlantic was forced to turn back after its windshield cracked Posted: 26 Nov 2019 07:27 AM PST  Air Canada Flight 857 was due to fly from London to Toronto but instead landed in Ireland after the crack in the 787-8 windshield was noticed.
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| Gillum sets sights on denying Trump victory in Florida in 2020 Posted: 26 Nov 2019 12:53 PM PST  Andrew Gillum says he knows why President Trump left his lifelong home of New York to take up residence in Florida and doubts his "antics" for reelection will work.
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| Saudi crown prince visits UAE amid push to end Yemen war Posted: 27 Nov 2019 08:25 AM PST  Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman visited the United Arab Emirates Wednesday, as efforts to end the nearly five-year war in Yemen gain momentum. Riyadh and Abu Dhabi are close allies and key members of a military coalition backing the government in Yemen against the Iran-aligned Huthi rebels.
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| ‘She slipped': Grandfather speaks on 1-year-old’s fatal fall from Royal Caribbean cruise ship Posted: 26 Nov 2019 06:54 AM PST  "I didn't realize there wasn't any glass until the absolutely that it was too late," Salvatore Anello told CBS news in a story that aired Tuesday.
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| Texas inmate freed while innocence claims investigated Posted: 26 Nov 2019 09:11 AM PST  A Houston man serving a life sentence for a 2010 fatal stabbing was freed on bond Tuesday while authorities reinvestigate his case, including new DNA evidence that his lawyers say exonerates him. Lydell Grant has been in prison for seven years for the killing of 28-year-old Aaron Scheerhoorn outside of a Houston club. Grant was convicted in 2012.
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| 24-Cylinder Monster Truck Big Rig Sells for $12 Million Posted: 26 Nov 2019 03:15 PM PST  "Thor24" brought in big numbers this past weekend.
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| PREVIEW-Bronx man, battling own legal woes, brings gun rights case to U.S. Supreme Court Posted: 27 Nov 2019 03:01 AM PST ![PREVIEW-Bronx man, battling own legal woes, brings gun rights case to U.S. Supreme Court]( "PREVIEW-Bronx man, battling own legal woes, brings gun rights case to U.S. Supreme Court") Two weeks before Efrain Alvarez and his attorneys asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear their challenge to a New York City regulation that limited where licensed handgun owners could transport their weapons, police officers showed up at his Bronx apartment and took away all his firearms. From two imposing steel vaults in the back bedroom, they confiscated around 45 firearms, including five handguns.
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| Police cited 55 people for eating on San Francisco trains. Only nine were white Posted: 26 Nov 2019 02:15 PM PST  New data renews concerns about racial profiling, just weeks after viral video showed police detaining a black man who was eating a sandwichPassengers wait for a Bart train to depart the Fruitvale station in Oakland, California. Photograph: Ben Margot/APPolice officers for the San Francisco Bay Area commuter train system disproportionately target black riders with citations for eating and drinking, according to new data, renewing concerns about racial profiling.The Bay Area Rapid Transit (Bart) data was released following a viral video showing police handcuffing a 31-year-old black man who was cited for eating a breakfast sandwich on his way to work. The new records show that more than 81% of people stopped for eating and drinking on Bart since 2014 were people of color, and that the vast majority of them were black.Stops for eating and drinking on trains or platforms are infrequent within Bart, the train system that runs between San Francisco, Oakland and surrounding suburbs. Of 55 people cited for this offense over the last five years, 33 were black passengers, representing 60% of the citations. Nine of the stops were white passengers, seven were listed as Hispanic, five were categorized as "other" and one was unknown, according to the data, which was obtained by the San Francisco Examiner.Only 10% of Bart's total riders are black. Ridership data, collected last year, showed that 35% of overall riders are white, 32% are Asian/Pacific Islander and 17% are Latino.Bart spokeswoman Alicia Trost said in an email that the data shows citations are "very rare" and are "handed out at stations across the system".She said: "When an officer witnesses someone eating, they remind the rider that eating is not allowed and if the rider puts the food away no citation is necessary. It is a rare occurrence to need to issue a citation after reminding the rider not to eat."John Burris, a civil rights lawyer representing Steve Foster, the man stopped in the recent video, said Tuesday that the data was not surprising and was evidence of racial profiling. "This is a form of biased policing, and it's very harmful to African Americans. Other people eat sandwiches all the time, and they don't get stopped."The 15-minute video that received national attention showed a white Bart police officer stopping Foster at the station in Pleasant Hill, north-east of Oakland. The footage showed the officer holding on to Foster's backpack and telling him he was not free to go until he identified himself and that he was resisting arrest. Backup officers arrived, and Foster was handcuffed and taken away in front of morning commuters.The citation he received required him to pay a $250 fine or do 48 hours of community service."It was so insulting to him and disturbing," said Burris. "He was humiliated in front of all the people on Bart."The video sparked protests and widespread criticism, and Bart leaders eventually apologized and promised to investigate. Bob Powers, Bart's general manager, said at the time he was "disappointed how the situation unfolded".A citation or arrest for a minor infraction like eating can escalate to a significantly more serious conflict, said Cat Brooks, the co-founder of the Anti Police-Terror Project in Oakland."Eating a sandwich is certainly not a reason to throw yet another black body into the criminal justice system," she said. "We have to hold these cops accountable for racial profiling."Bart police have long faced scrutiny for brutality and racial profiling, in particular following the 2009 killing of Oscar Grant, an unarmed 22-year-old shot dead on the Fruitvale station platform. There have since been a number of other killings and allegations of abuse by Bart police.Bart should not be citing anyone for eating in the first place, Brooks said.Burris said there should be better training to prevent biased policing, and that it was wrong to handcuff riders for eating.Trost, the Bart spokeswoman, said all officers receive training in "fair and impartial policing, bias-based policing … and de-escalation".The Bart controversy comes as the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) in New York is facing intense backlash over a number of viral videos of police, including the arrest of a food vendor selling churros, and an incident in which officers pulled guns on a teenager accused of fare evasion. * This article was amended on 27 November 2019 to correct a mathematical error.
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| 20 of the World's Most Stunning Public Staircases Posted: 27 Nov 2019 05:00 AM PST |
| Obama's candidate for 2020: None of the above Posted: 26 Nov 2019 12:01 PM PST  What Obama seems to be looking for, and failing to find, is someone like him: new but comforting; more consensus-minded than combative; inspirational but not ideological.
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| One False Move By Israel or Iran Will Lead to War Posted: 26 Nov 2019 07:14 AM PST  Over the last two years, Israel has warned about Iran's entrenchment in Syria. But Iran has continued its role in Syria, and it continues to threaten Israel and transfer precision guidance to Hezbollah for converting its rockets.
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| An 'unprecedented' bomb cyclone will bring 100-mph winds to the West Coast Posted: 27 Nov 2019 03:22 AM PST  A rare West Coast "bomb cyclone" is forecast to sweep into southern Oregon and northern California later Tuesday and into Wednesday.
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| Dubai court reduces sentence for editor who killed his wife Posted: 27 Nov 2019 12:21 AM PST  A British newspaper editor convicted of killing his wife with a hammer had his sentence reduced by Dubai's Court of Appeal on Wednesday. The court ordered that former Gulf News editor Francis Matthew must serve a seven-year sentence for manslaughter in the 2017 killing of his wife, Jane. Matthew had received as much as a 15-year sentence for the killing.
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| Merkel urges Europe to stick together in China dealings Posted: 27 Nov 2019 02:41 AM PST  German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday urged EU countries to speak as one in their dealings with China, warning it would be "disastrous" to go it alone at a time of tensions with the Asian giant over technology and human rights. "One of the biggest dangers I see... is that everyone in Europe has their own China policy, and that we end up sending completely different signals," Merkel said in a speech to German lawmakers. "That would not be disastrous for China, but it would be disastrous for us in Europe," she added.
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| Kremlin pays tribute to late Soviet spy it says may have changed history Posted: 27 Nov 2019 08:01 AM PST  The Kremlin on Wednesday paid tribute to a late Soviet intelligence officer it credits with helping foil a Nazi plot to kill Winston Churchill, Josef Stalin and Franklin Roosevelt, saying her career may have changed the course of history. Goar Vartanyan, who died on Monday at the age of 93, was an undercover field operative for decades and allegedly helped thwart a plan backed by Adolf Hitler to assassinate the allied leaders at their first "Big Three" conference in Tehran in 1943. Born in Armenia in 1926, Vartanyan moved to Iran in the 1930s where, at the age of 16, she joined an anti-fascist group led by her future husband, Soviet spy Gevork Vartanyan, that was tasked with ensuring security for the World War Two conference.
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| One of Supreme Court's most important abortion cases has just begun Posted: 26 Nov 2019 12:21 AM PST  A 63-page opening brief was filed late Monday night by the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) in the case
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| Revealed: Buttigieg 2020 campaign took money from top Kavanaugh lawyers Posted: 27 Nov 2019 05:34 AM PST  Campaign admits mistake in accepting thousands of dollars from Alexandra Walsh and Beth Wilkinson, who represented nomineePete Buttigieg's campaign said it would return the money to the lawyers who represented Brett Kavanaugh. Photograph: Christopher Aluka Berry/ReutersPete Buttigieg's 2020 campaign is returning thousands of dollars in donations from two top Washington lawyers who represented Brett Kavanaugh in his controversial confirmation hearing, saying it will not accept funds from people who helped secure the justice's seat on the supreme court.Buttigieg's campaign received $7,200 from Alexandra Walsh – $3,150 of which had already been returned because it exceeded limits – and attended a fundraiser in July that was co-hosted by the Washington lawyer. Buttigieg also received $2,800 from Beth Wilkinson, Walsh's law partner, who also represented Kavanaugh.When asked by the Guardian about the donations, the campaign said it had overlooked the lawyers' role in the Kavanaugh confirmation and had made a mistake in accepting the donations.It said: "With nearly 700,000 donors, a contribution we would otherwise refuse sometimes gets through. We believe the women who have courageously spoken out about Brett Kavanaugh's assault and misconduct, and we thank the Guardian for bringing this contribution to our attention."A spokesperson added: "[Kavanaugh] should have never been put on the supreme court and this campaign will not accept donations from those who played a role in making that happen. Accordingly, we will be returning this contribution and others from this firm."Walsh and Wilkinson are frequent donors to Democratic causes. During this 2020 election cycle, Wilkinson has donated $1,000 to the California senator Kamala Harris's campaign and $2,800 to the Colorado senator Michael Bennet's campaign. Wilkinson also gave $2,800 to the New York senator Kirsten Gillibrand, who has since dropped out of the race and has been an outspoken critic of Kavanaugh.The Washington law firm Wilkinson Walsh Eskovitz represented the then nominee for the supreme court after Christine Blasey Ford accused him of sexually assaulting her when both were high school students in suburban Maryland. Walsh and Wilkinson led the charge defending Kavanaugh, even as more accusations of sexual misconduct were unearthed, and painted the judge as the victim of an "outrageous" campaign.In one case, Wilkinson questioned why women who accused Kavanaugh of assault had not immediately gone to the police to report alleged assaults, instead of members of Congress, and insisted that Kavanaugh treated women with dignity and respect.The judge has denied all of the allegations against him.In another case, Walsh sought to downplay comments that were made in Kavanaugh's high school yearbook. When the New York Times reported that Kavanaugh was listed as a member of the "Renate Alumni" – a reference to a classmate from a neighbouring Catholic girls' school that appeared to insinuate sexual conquest – Walsh was quoted in a statement as saying that Kavanaugh had been friends with Renate in high school and had "admired her very much". She also stated that the two had once shared a "brief kiss goodnight".When asked about the reference, Renate Dolphin told the New York Times that the insinuation in Kavanaugh's yearbook was "hurtful and simply untrue". She also denied Walsh's assertion that she and Kavanaugh had ever kissed.Walsh did not respond to a request for comment about the Buttigieg campaign's decision to reject her donations. Wilkinson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.The Harris and Bennet campaigns did not return a request for comment on the donations they received from Wilkinson. Gillibrand's office also did not return a request for comment.The Buttigieg campaign has been a vocal critic of Kavanaugh and has said that, if elected, he would choose a supreme court justice similar to Ruth Bader Ginsberg, who shared his "progressive values".
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| How Devin Nunes lawsuit threat undermines Donald Trump's impeachment defense Posted: 26 Nov 2019 06:31 AM PST ![How Devin Nunes lawsuit threat undermines Donald Trump's impeachment defense]( "How Devin Nunes lawsuit threat undermines Donald Trump's impeachment defense") He's not going to win, and in the long run, he may end up hurting the very man he's trying to protect.
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| Gabbard Continues to Slam Clinton for Russian ‘Grooming’ Remarks Posted: 27 Nov 2019 05:25 AM PST  Representative Tulsi Gabbard (D., Hawaii) continued to lash out at Hillary Clinton on Tuesday following the former presidential candidate's insinuation that Gabbard's presidential policy platform was based on advancing Russian interests."I think they've got their eye on someone who's currently in the Democratic primary and are grooming her to be the third-party candidate," Clinton said on the Campaign HQ podcast in October. According to Clinton, Gabbard was "the favorite of the Russians. They have a bunch of sites and bots and other ways of supporting her so far."When asked about the comments, Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill seemed to confirm that she had been referring to the Russians, when he said, "If the nesting doll fits." But Clinton later backtracked and insisted she was referring to Republicans, not the Russians, as "grooming" Gabbard.Speaking on Tuesday with stand-up comedian Joe Rogan on "The Joe Rogan Experience," Gabbard and the host both criticized Clinton for her comments."When you look at the media establishment pushing a lot of the same narrative and a lot of the same message, then you can see how someone gets away with calling a sitting member of Congress, a candidate for president, a soldier actively serving in the National Guard, veteran of two Middle East deployments, basically a traitor of the country that I love and that I'm willing to lay my life down for," Gabbard told Rogan. "And to get away with it without any evidence or basis whatsoever."When Rogan asked how Clinton was able to make her accusation without any evidence to support it, Gabbard blamed the "power of the Clinton machine" and "the power of the political establishment" for allowing Clinton's accusation to go unchecked.Gabbard is currently polling at below 2 percent of the national Democratic primary vote, according to RealClearPolitics. The congresswoman raised considerable controversy by meeting with Syrian dictator Bashar al Assad in 2017.
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| Buttigieg claims 2nd while Warren sinks in new 2020 poll Posted: 27 Nov 2019 04:18 AM PST  Pete Buttigieg rocketed into second place in the Democratic presidential nomination race, polling showed Tuesday, with support for progressive ex-frontrunner Elizabeth Warren sliding behind.
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| The son of a deputy from a neighboring county has been charged with the murder of Alabama Sheriff 'Big John' Williams Posted: 26 Nov 2019 05:25 AM PST  William Chase Johnson, the suspect in the killing of Alabama Sheriff "Big John" Williams, is the son of a sheriff's deputy in a neighboring county.
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| The Latest: Airports hit in stormy California Posted: 26 Nov 2019 07:38 AM PST  Stormy weather and a power outage have affected two Northern California airports as a storm hits the region. KPIX-TV says the Federal Aviation Administration imposed a ground delay at San Francisco International Airport Tuesday because of the weather, cutting the number of arrivals in half. The airport reported several hundred delayed flights and about two dozen cancellations.
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| Back to the Future: China is Putting Hypersonic Missiles on a 1950s Bomber Posted: 26 Nov 2019 03:00 PM PST  Chinese H-6Ks—a knockoff of the 1950s Soviet Tu-16 bomber—are getting an upgrade.
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| UPDATE 1-Iran says hundreds of banks were torched in "vast" unrest plot Posted: 27 Nov 2019 02:23 AM PST ![UPDATE 1-Iran says hundreds of banks were torched in "vast" unrest plot]( "UPDATE 1-Iran says hundreds of banks were torched in \"vast\" unrest plot") Iran's top leader on Wednesday denounced an outbreak of deadly unrest as a "very dangerous conspiracy" as authorities reported about 731 banks and 140 government sites had been torched in the disturbances. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the protests amounted to a plot that Iranians had defeated, referring to the worst anti-government unrest in Iran since authorities put down demonstrations against election fraud in 2009. "A deep, vast and very dangerous conspiracy that a lot of money had been spent on ... was destroyed by the people," Khamenei said in a meeting with members of the paramilitary Basij force which took part in the crackdown against protests, according to his official website.
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| Freed UK hostage and wife say chained, threatened in Philippines Posted: 26 Nov 2019 02:11 AM PST  A British man and his wife rescued this week from Islamist captors in the Philippines' south say they were chained and threatened with beheading if they didn't deliver a ransom. The couple, shaken but unharmed, told their nearly two-month ordeal to reporters after escaping during a firefight Monday between Philippine troops and the Islamic State-linked Abu Sayyaf group. The husband, named by British authorities as Alan Hyrons, painted a "very humiliating and degrading" life in captivity, with little to eat in a haze of constant fear.
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| Woman kept husband’s body in freezer for up to 11 years Posted: 27 Nov 2019 04:49 AM PST  The body of a man was found in the freezer of a deceased woman's home and may have been kept there for over a decade, police say.The remains of both individuals were found during a welfare check on a 75-year old woman who had not been seen in about two weeks by a building maintenance worker.
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| Fox News Backs Trump’s ‘War on Thanksgiving’ BS He Got From Fox Posted: 27 Nov 2019 08:43 AM PST  The Trump-Fox News Feedback Loop was on full display Wednesday morning when President Donald Trump's favorite morning show backed his patently absurd claim that liberals want to change the name of Thanksgiving—an idea he obviously got from Fox's recent round-the-clock "War on Thanksgiving" coverage.At his Tuesday night campaign rally in Florida, the president insisted that "some people" want to change the name of the holiday and "don't want to use the term Thanksgiving," likening this supposed anti-Thanksgiving sentiment to another infamous right-wing media invention."And that was true with Christmas. Now everybody is using Christmas again. And remember I said that," Trump declared. "Now we're gonna have to do a little work on Thanksgiving. People have different ideas on why it shouldn't be called Thanksgiving. Everybody here loves the name Thanksgiving and we're not changing it!"During Wednesday morning's broadcast of Fox & Friends, the hosts appeared to give credence to the president's conspiracy, all while sidestepping the role their network had in planting the idea in his head."Last night, the president was talking about somebody who was apparently talking about changing the name of the holiday," co-host Steve Doocy noted while airing a clip of the president's remarks."I don't think there's a huge push to change the name of Thanksgiving, is there?" Brian Kilmeade wondered aloud."You know, in 2015 there was a rumor Obama wanted to change the name but that was debunked," Doocy responded, referencing a Snopes fact-check of a viral email campaign from a few years ago. "So, perhaps what he is talking about is just all these stories about your carbon footprint and the amount of energy you use to travel over the river and through the woods to grandmother's house."In recent weeks, Fox News' opinion shows have run countless segments insisting that liberals and progressives want to "cancel" the holiday and fight a "War on Thanksgiving," tying it all to a single HuffPost opinion piece about the environmental impact of Thanksgiving dinner. The article, while providing readers with steps to reduce their carbon footprint, never called for the holiday to be abolished or even for Americans to stop celebrating it.Later in the segment, fill-in co-host Emily Compagno accepted the president's premise that there was a concerted effort to change the name of Thanksgiving, providing a counterargument to these imaginary critics."I think the issue that a lot of people have to—with potentially changing that name—is the fact that in that name we're expressing gratitude and whatever historical connotations we can acknowledge," she said. "It still doesn't take away from the fact that this is the day that we are to give thanks and gratitude for our loved ones and blessings."In its news recap of the president's remarks, meanwhile, the network framed Trump's baseless claim with the following headline: "Trump vows not to change the name of Thanksgiving despite cries from the 'radical left'". Interestingly, there was no reference to Fox's consistent coverage of the "War on Thanksgiving" in the piece.This isn't the first time that Fox News has taken a single HuffPost piece to accuse the left of trying to "cancel" something holiday-related. Last year, the network's digital site published several articles while its opinion shows ran multiple segments denouncing liberals' supposed complaints that Christmas classic Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was "seriously problematic," all based on a largely satirical HuffPost video.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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| ‘Anti-Islam’ Europe Is No Place for Azerbaijan, President Says Posted: 27 Nov 2019 03:32 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- President Ilham Aliyev said Azerbaijan won't seek closer integration with Europe, which he accused of discriminating against Muslims and undermining his country's traditional values."Where shall we integrate?" Aliyev said in a rare public criticism of the West in a speech to university students and teachers in the capital, Baku, on Tuesday. "Shall we integrate with those who are saying 'Stop Islam'? Shall we integrate to a place where there's no difference being made between men and women? We definitely shall not."Aliyev's remarks mark a departure from the national security strategy he approved in 2007, which said energy-rich Azerbaijan targets membership in European and Euro-Atlantic alliances. The majority Muslim but secular nation of 10 million people sandwiched between Iran and Russia forged close political and economic ties with the U.S. and the European Union after declaring independence from the former Soviet Union in 1991.The president's speech "was his acknowledgment of the failure of secularism and western values in Azerbaijan," prominent Azeri journalist Khadija Ismayil wrote on Facebook. Ismayil, who's known for investigative reports into Aliyev's undeclared family businesses, was sentenced to prison in 2015 and freed the following year after international criticism of her detention and trial.Energy PartnerThe U.S. helped Azerbaijan build oil and gas pipelines westward bypassing Russia. The EU regards Azerbaijan as a strategic energy partner and began talks in 2017 on a new framework agreement with Baku.While Aliyev and his late father Heydar, who ruled Azerbaijan for 10 years before his death in 2003, refused to join Russian-led military and economic blocs, U.S. and EU criticism of the poor state of democracy and human rights in Azerbaijan have strained relations. Aliyev won a landslide to secure a fourth term and extend his rule for seven years in 2018 elections seen as flawed by Western observers and boycotted by opposition parties.The president is "quite sincere" in his opposition to European integration because "Europe means democracy, free elections, rule of law, universal human rights and social welfare," Altay Goyushov, an opposition politician who heads the Baku Research Institute, a think tank in the city, wrote on Facebook."Aliyev wants to see a medieval monarchy in Azerbaijan," he said.To contact the reporter on this story: Zulfugar Agayev in Baku at zagayev@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Torrey Clark at tclark8@bloomberg.net, Tony HalpinFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| The Uyghur Emergency Posted: 27 Nov 2019 08:42 AM PST  When people talk about what the Chinese government is doing to the Uyghur people in northwest China, they tend to refer to the Nazis. They can be excused.In April 2018, Jerome A. Cohen raised the specter of the Nazis. He is considered the dean of China scholars in the United States, born in 1930. He is a very careful, judicious man. He would not use the N-word -- "Nazi" -- lightly. But he said that what was happening to the Uyghurs reminded him of his relatives in Austria and Germany. Some 40 of them were killed.At the beginning of this month, Fred Hiatt of the Washington Post had an article headed "In China, every day is Kristallnacht." He noted that you are not supposed to bring up the Nazis, because the Holocaust was a unique event. Yet, in a discussion of northwest China, the Nazis are hard to avoid.The government has rounded up more than a million Uyghurs and other minorities, throwing them into concentration camps, or "reeducation" camps. These camps constitute a Chinese gulag archipelago.Among the Uyghurs, there are a relative handful of militants, as there are among the Rohingyas (the minority people whom the Burmese government has brutalized). This gives the government an excuse to go after everyone -- think of Lidice, multiplied untold times.Some Uyghur inmates have been tortured to death; many have been driven to suicide. The Chinese government aims to stamp out Uyghur culture, religion, language -- all of it.The government has moved ethnic Chinese men into Uyghur homes, to act as substitute fathers and husbands. The real fathers and husbands are away in the camps (if they are indeed still alive).Also, the government gets them young. The government rounds up young Uyghurs, before they have committed any "crime," even in the Communist Party's eyes. In Cuba, the government has done the same thing, for decades. The Cuban government commonly arrests people on the charge of "pre-criminal social dangerousness."On Monday, the Associated Press had a staggering report. It talks of "the Chinese government's deliberate strategy to lock up ethnic minorities even before they commit a crime, to rewire their thoughts and the language they speak." The report also cites a slogan -- a mission statement, if you will -- from the Ministry of Justice: to "wash brains, cleanse hearts, support the right, remove the wrong."In Xinjiang Province, where the Uyghurs live -- the Uyghurs themselves call it "East Turkestan" -- the Chinese government has created a near-perfect Orwellian police state. As the AP reports,> Beijing is pioneering a new form of social control using data and artificial intelligence. Drawing on data collected by mass surveillance technology, computers issued the names of tens of thousands of people for interrogation or detention in just one week.In charge of Xinjiang is Chen Quanguo, a notorious name in China. Earlier in this decade, he was sent to Tibet, to subdue that proud, rebellious people. He did such a good job of it, he was sent to Xinjiang to do the same, and worse. "Round up everyone who should be rounded up," is his word.This directive is contained in an astonishing trove of documents, given to the New York Times. The documents come from inside the Chinese Communist Party and number more than 400 pages. They were given to the Times by some brave, daring leaker. They make for horrifying reading.So does the AP report, which also relies on documents. Here is one excerpt from that report -- a story, a piece of testimony -- for those who can stomach it:> Mamattursun Omar, a Uighur chef arrested after working in Egypt, was interrogated in four detention facilities over nine months in 2017. Omar told the AP that police asked him to verify the identities of other Uighurs in Egypt.> > Eventually, Omar says, they began torturing him to make him confess that Uighur students had gone to Egypt to take part in jihad. They strapped him to a contraption called a "tiger chair," shocked him with electric batons, beat him with pipes and whipped him with computer cords.> > "I couldn't take it anymore," Omar said. "I just told them what they wanted me to say."> > Omar gave the names of six others who worked at a restaurant with him in Egypt. All were sent to prison.In response to the AP, the Chinese government has said, "Fake news." Unfortunately, it is not.Xinjiang Province, or East Turkestan, is probably the biggest human-rights emergency in the world right now (unless you consider North Korea, which is an ongoing emergency). China in general is a kind of emergency. As Jerry Cohen has said, Xi Jinping -- the CCP No. 1 -- is presiding over the most repressive period in China since Mao's Cultural Revolution.What can be done, for the Uyghurs in particular? Beijing should be made to pay a price. Business as usual should be disrupted. What is happening in northwest China is not normal, and the world should not proceed normally.Free World companies that abet China's repression should be sanctioned and shamed. Chinese officials themselves should be sanctioned, if not shamed. The Winter Olympics are scheduled for Beijing in 2022 -- why?Above all, Free World governments should call attention to this emergency. They should shine a light on it. Dictatorships like to operate in secrecy. Darkness is their friend, and so is silence. People with megaphones should not shut up about this.The president of the United States has the biggest megaphone of all. He should give voice to American values and stand up for freedom, as our leaders long have, however unevenly.William F. Buckley Jr. used to say that everyone has a tank of indignation. You can't be indignant about every injustice, all day. So, what are you going to spend your tank on? There is no better "spending," today, than the horror faced by Uyghurs.
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| Hawaii man arrested for 'extreme stalking' of family in Utah Posted: 27 Nov 2019 05:39 AM PST  U.S. prosecutors have arrested a Hawaii man they accuse of sending hundreds of unwanted service providers, including plumbers and prostitutes, to a Utah home.
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| Travel is 'going to be chaotic': Winter storm will dump a foot of snow from Rockies to Great Lakes Posted: 27 Nov 2019 03:23 AM PST  A powerful pre-Thanksgiving winter storm is forecast to dump up to a foot of snow from the Rockies to the Great Lakes on Tuesday.
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| China's H-20 Stealth Bomber Could Be the U.S. Military's Worst Nightmare Posted: 25 Nov 2019 07:30 PM PST  Be on notice.
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| U.S. House panel sues Barr, Ross seeking to enforce Census probe subpoenas Posted: 26 Nov 2019 08:18 AM PST  U.S. House of Representatives Democrats filed a federal lawsuit on Tuesday seeking to enforce subpoenas against Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross as part of their investigation into the Trump administration's handling of the U.S. 2020 Census. The House Oversight and Reform Committee in July held Barr and Ross in criminal contempt for defying the panel's subpoenas as lawmakers probe the administration's attempt to add a controversial citizenship question to the government's population count.
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| How Climate Change Exacerbates Gender Inequality Across the Globe Posted: 26 Nov 2019 10:39 AM PST  A new study explores how warming temperatures are widening inequities for women
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| Airlines are joining in on Black Friday with major flight sales — here's how you can save Posted: 27 Nov 2019 10:33 AM PST  Delta, Southwest Air France, Qatar, Aer Lingus, and more have posted Black Friday sales. We expect deals from airlines like United and American, too.
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| Stop Treating American Expats Like Tax Cheats Posted: 25 Nov 2019 11:00 PM PST ![Stop Treating American Expats Like Tax Cheats]( "Stop Treating American Expats Like Tax Cheats") (Bloomberg Opinion) -- An estimated 9 million American citizens living outside the U.S. face a tax nightmare those at home can't imagine and none should ever suffer. The reason: The U.S. is one of only two countries in the world (the other is Eritrea) that taxes its citizens regardless of where they live.American expats don't necessarily owe the U.S. any tax: They can deduct taxes paid to host countries, which are often higher, or take an exemption. But they have to file returns and disclosures regardless, at a significant cost in accounting fees, nuisance and needless anxiety. The rules are often unclear, and foreign employers and financial institutions don't report the numbers in the way the Internal Revenue Service prefers. The penalties for even innocent mistakes can be draconian. The U.S. proceeds as though any citizen with a foreign bank account were a likely tax evader or money launderer. Citizens with foreign assets must disclose them not only to the IRS but also to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.Surprisingly enough, people who live and work abroad tend to acquire other overseas assets along the way. The IRS sees a plain-vanilla European mutual fund, for example, as a "passive foreign investment company," and requires disclosures that are Kafkaesque. The Obama-era Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act made things worse. It threatens foreign banks with drastic penalties if they fail to provide information on customers who are "U.S. persons" (citizens or green-card holders). As a result, many financial institutions simply refuse to serve Americans at all.Owing to the original sin of citizen-based taxation, moreover, every tweak to American tax law seems to exacerbate the problem. President Donald Trump's reform of 2017 added rules aimed at the overseas profits of U.S. companies. Inadvertently, the IRS now treats the American owner of a lemonade stand in Belgium like Google, forcing them to declare a new kind of income known — say it out loud to feel it — as GILTI.The original targets of this harsh regime were rich Americans living in the U.S. and stashing money in hidden offshore accounts. But hardened tax cheats developed new evasion strategies long ago. The victims today are Americans abroad with ordinary incomes and no special tax expertise. They include "accidental Americans" who aren't even aware of the rules — children born in the U.S. while their foreign parents happened to be visiting, for instance, or people born and living abroad whose fathers were U.S. soldiers.Some U.S. expats renounce their citizenship, but few want to cut ties to their country, and for most the cost is prohibitive in any case. They should never be made to feel that it's necessary. At a minimum, the U.S. should simplify the rules for its expats and raise the balance thresholds so middle-income filers are exempt. But the best solution would be even simpler: Follow the example set by almost every other economy (did I mention Eritrea?) and base the personal income tax on residency, not citizenship.To contact the author of this story: Andreas Kluth at akluth1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: James Boxell at jboxell@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Andreas Kluth is a member of Bloomberg's editorial board. He was previously editor in chief of Handelsblatt Global and a writer for the Economist. For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| 7 Amazing Facts About the Speedy Cheetah Posted: 27 Nov 2019 09:45 AM PST |
