Columbiana

Uneasy Democrats still hope for a white knight to save them from Biden, Warren or Sanders

With questions about the former VP's fundraising and the general election viability of the two New England senators, the Democratic establishment is looking for a new option in the primary race.

The Latest: Hong Kong protesters rally at British Consulate

Hundreds of pro-democracy protesters have formed a human chain at the British Consulate in Hong Kong to rally support for their cause from the city's former colonial ruler. The event was organized in support of a debate on Thursday in Britain's Parliament on whether to offer British citizenship to Hong Kongers in light of the unrest that has gripped the city since early June. People born in Hong Kong before July 1997, when China took back control of the city, were eligible for British National Overseas passports, which don't provide British citizenship.

Iranian beauty queen pleads for asylum in the Philippines

An Iranian beauty queen is seeking asylum in the Philippines, fearing for her life after Tehran demanded her extradition for a crime she claims she did not commit.  Bahareh Zare Bahari, who represented Iran at the 2018 Miss Intercontinental pageant in Manila, and who has studied dental medicine in the Philippines since 2014, has been held for six days at the country’s Ninoy Aquino airport after Iran slapped an Interpol Red Notice on her for alleged assault.  In a series of messages, the distraught Ms Bahari told the Telegraph that the case was a “big lie,” adding that she believed she was being targeted for her political activism and outspoken support of women’s rights. If she was deported to Iran, “they will kill me,” she said.  Markk Perete, undersecretary at the Philippine department of justice, said that “the only reason she was held at the airport -  and we really don’t call it detention -  it is really restraining her from entering the Philippine territory, is only because of that Red Notice issued against her.” He added that the request had been made “presumably on account of a pending criminal case against her in Iran, and this case was filed by an Iranian national against her in relation to an assault that happened presumably here in the Philippines.” Bahareh Zare Bahari, who is studying dental medicine, is an outspoken advocate for women's rights Credit: Facebook However, Mr Perete said that the Philippines was unaware of this allegation, and that an earlier accusation of commercial fraud against her had been dismissed.  There were no criminal cases pending against Ms Bahari, he confirmed. “We don’t have any cause for refusing her entry for violation of our laws.” Ms Bahari’s asylum plea is now being considered by the justice department, with the help of a lawyer.  Meanwhile, the dental student is confined to Terminal 3’s transit area awaiting her fate. “There is no updating, no information about the reason why [they] keep me here so long,” she said.  She believes her political statement at the pageant - waving a poster of Reza Pahlavi, the exiled former crown prince, and one of the foremost critics of Iran’s Islamic government - made her enemies in Tehran.  Mr Pahlavi's name has been invoked by some Iranian groups who have called for a return of the monarchy to deal with corruption and poor economic conditions. “I used his photo on stage to be [the] voice of my people because all news and media are ignoring my people,” she said.  Human Rights Watch on Tuesday called for “a fair and impartial hearing of her claim” in Manila.  “It’s absolutely critical the Philippines provides Bahareh Zare Bahari with support, including access to legal counsel, to compile and file her asylum application,” said Phil Robertson, HRW deputy Asia director.  “While waiting for the details to become clear, there should be no action under Iran’s Interpol red notice, especially since under Interpol rules a red notice is null and void if the person named in the notice is found to be a refugee fleeing from the state that issued it.”

US far-right activists get four years in jail for attacking leftists

Two members of a US far-right group were each sentenced to four years in prison on Tuesday for brawling with anti-fascist demonstrators in New York, prosecutors said. The sentencing comes as tensions between white supremacists and leftists simmer in the United States. Maxwell Hare and John Kinsman, members of the Proud Boys group, were found guilty in August by a state court of several counts of attempted assault and rioting.

Florida Committee Backs Removing Sheriff Over Response to Parkland Shooting

The Florida Senate Rules Committee on Monday recommended removing the Broward County sheriff accused of mishandling the February, 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.Sheriff Scott Israel has been accused of bungling the response to the shooting by not effectively coordinating officers on the scene, as well as for not properly investigating threats made by the shooter before he acted.Seventeen students and school staff were killed in the shooting by a former student, who had been expelled from the high school due to disciplinary issues.Florida Governor Rick DeSantis, a Republican, had campaigned to remove Israel from his post during the Florida general election. DeSantis suspended Israel soon after taking office in January 2019.The committee's decision was divided along party lines, with Democrats backing Sheriff Israel.Now that the committee has recommended Israel's removal, the full Florida Senate will vote on the matter on Wednesday."We didn't understand the magnitude of the failures by law enforcement," Ryan Petty, whose 14 year old daughter was killed in the shooting, said in testimony to the committee. "The testament to that failure is 17 dead children and teachers, 17 more with life-altering injuries — a burden we must bear forever."Israel's supporters urged the Senate to reinstate him. The Sheriff was elected to office in 2012."Please be the body that doesn't turn its back on the voters of Broward County," said Patti Lynn, a backer of Israel. "Our county voted for Sheriff Scott Israel. It's up to the voters of Broward County to remove him."

Trump administration says Obamacare plan premiums to fall

Monthly premiums for an average 2020 Obamacare health insurance plan will fall about 4 percent from this year, according to a report released Tuesday by the Trump administration, which has tried to dismantle the program. The Trump administration has cut back on funding for the health insurance program, which was created by President Barack Obama as part of the Affordable Care Act and is often called Obamacare, and has sought to overturn it in Congress and legal courts. Obamacare provides needs-based subsidies to help low-income people buy health insurance.

Can Israel Fend off an Iranian Missile or Drone Attack?

How good are their defenses?

Ukraine just threw a huge wrench into Trump's key defense denying a quid pro quo

Ukrainian officials knew in early August that President Trump had frozen military aid — all while pushing for politically motivated investigations.

Kim orders South's buildings at resort in North be destroyed

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered the destruction of South Korean-made hotels and other tourist facilities at the North's Diamond Mountain resort, apparently because Seoul won't defy international sanctions and resume South Korean tours at the site. Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency said Wednesday that Kim had visited the resort and described its facilities as "shabby" and lacking national character.

Tasmanian Tigers Are Extinct, So Why Are Locals Reporting Sightings?

These sightings, if true, would reverse the belief that the carnivore has gone extinct.

Hong Kong murder suspect whose case sparked political crisis released from prison

Chan Tong-kai, the murder suspect whose case sparked a political crisis in Hong Kong, has been released after serving 18 months in prison. Mr Chan, a Hong Kong resident, is suspected of murdering his girlfriend, Poon Hui-wing, while on holiday in Taiwan last year. By the time Ms Poon’s body had been discovered hidden among park bushes, Mr Chan was back in Hong Kong, where he later confessed to the crime. He could not be easily extradited to face trial in Taiwan, despite requests from the island’s authorities, because no formal extradition agreement exists. Instead, Mr Chan, 20, was charged in Hong Kong with the lesser crime of money laundering, which landed him in prison. As his case unfolded, the Hong Kong government launched a new proposal in February that would explicitly permit extradition to other jurisdictions, and crucially, allow foreign and Chinese nationals – even those transiting through the city – to be sent to mainland China for trial. Chan Tong-kai, left, talks to the media as he is released from prison in Hong Kong Credit: AP City leaders said the extradition bill would plug a legal loophole highlighted by Mr Chan’s case. But the proposal immediately triggered backlash amongst activists, lawyers, and the business community, over concerns that exposure to China’s murky legal system would weaken Hong Kong’s longstanding autonomy. On Wednesday, Hong Kong authorities formally withdrew the bill. But after months of mass protests, activists have said it is far too little, too late. Violence is escalating, and protesters are demanding Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam to resign and for an independent inquiry into police handling of the protests. Hong Kong protests | Read more Ms Lam has thus far stood her ground, and China’s ruling Communist Party has thrown its weight behind her publicly. But as the crisis drags on, it appears Beijing may be starting to lose faith in her ability to handle the situation. The Chinese government is mulling plans to replace Ms Lam with an interim chief executive next year to sit out the remainder of her term, which will end in 2022, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday, citing anonymous sources.    China's foreign ministry in Beijing, however, dismissed the report as mere rumours. “I want to say sorry to Poon Hiu-wing’s family,” Mr Chan told reporters Wednesday morning upon release. “I am willing to surrender myself to Taiwan and to face trial and serve the jail sentence there.” Authorities in Hong Kong and Taiwan, however, have yet to agree on how Mr Chan will travel to Taiwan. The Telegraph has learned that a group of informal mediators attempted Tuesday night to secure an 11th-hour compromise for escorting Mr Chan from Hong Kong to face trial in Taiwan, though Ms Lam’s office did not respond to the proposal.

Iraq: U.S. troops crossing border from Syria don't have approval to stay

U.S. forces that crossed into Iraq as part of a withdrawal from Syria do not have permission to stay and can only be there in transit, the Iraqi military said on Tuesday.

Biden extends polling lead over 2020 Democrat rivals to widest margin in six months

Joe Biden is leading by his widest-set margin among Democratic presidential contenders since his campaign's launch in April, according to a new poll from CNN.More than 35 per cent of Democrat and Democrat-leaning voters support the former vice president, compared to other frontrunners Elizabeth Warren, who polled at 19 per cent, and Bernie Sanders, who was on 16 per cent.

Making do with less: Mexican media bruised by president's austerity

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador took office in December promising to reduce public spending to free up more resources for the poor. Between January and August, Lopez Obrador's government spent 88 million pesos ($4.6 million) on advertising, just 3.6% of the sum spent in the same months of 2018 by his predecessor Enrique Pena Nieto, Public Administration Ministry (SFP) data show. The reduction in government publicity, which had accounted for 10% or more of advertising revenue for many outlets, has sparked layoffs and the suspension of projects in an industry still suffering disruption from the shift to the internet.

'Who gives a s--t about Afghanistan?': Trump stunned officials with his comments during a military briefing, former aide says

Trump made the remarks during a meeting with top military officials, according to Jim Mattis's former speechwriter, Guy Snodgrass.

North Mexico city of Culiacan cleans up after cartel fight

CULIACÁN, Mexico (AP) — Residents of the northern Mexico city of Culiacan tried to get back to their routines Tuesday, five days after gunmen from the Sinaloa drug cartel sowed terror across the city. Hundreds of cartel gunmen took to the streets with heavy weaponry Thursday to open fire on soldiers and police, seeking to force the release of a drug lord held by a military patrol. It now patrols the city streets in trucks and armored vehicles.

Seattle Public Schools Want to Teach Social Justice in Math Class. That Hurts Minorities.

Seattle’s public-school district has proposed a new math curriculum that would teach its students all about how math has been “appropriated” -- and how it “continues to be used to oppress and marginalize people and communities.”A draft of the curriculum, which was covered in an article in Education Week, would teach students how to “explain how math and technology and/or science are connected and how technology and/or science have (sic) been and continues to be used to oppress and marginalize people and communities of color,” as well as to “identify and teach others about mathematicians* of color in their various communities: schools, neighborhoods, places of worship, businesses, etc.”Education Week reports:> If adopted, its ideas will be included in existing math classes as part of the district’s broader effort to infuse ethnic studies into all subjects across the K-12 spectrum. Tracy Castro-Gill, Seattle’s ethnic studies director, said her team hopes to have frameworks completed in all subjects by June for board approval.> > If the frameworks are approved, teachers would be expected to incorporate those ideas and questions into the math they teach beginning next fall, Castro-Gill said. No districtwide—or mandated—math/ethnic studies curriculum is planned, but groups of teachers are working with representatives of local community organizations to write instructional units for teachers to use if they wish, she said.As strange as it may sound, this proposed curriculum is not the first time that someone has argued for teaching math in this way. In fact, in 2017, an online course developed by Teach for America -- titled “Teaching Social Justice Through Secondary Mathematics” -- instructed how to teach their students how “math has been used as a dehumanizing tool.” Also in 2017, a University of Illinois math-education professor detailed what she saw as some of the more racist aspects of math, claiming that “mathematics itself operates as Whiteness.”I wrote columns about both of these stories that year -- and, at the time, most people likely saw them simply as examples of “fringe” beliefs, confined to only super-progressive, ultra-woke circles. With the announcement of this Seattle proposal, however, we can no longer reassure ourselves that this is the case. Now, the social-justice approach to teaching math has officially entered the mainstream (and taxpayer-funded!) arena.This concerns me, and, believe it or not, that’s actually not because I despise “people and communities of color.” In fact, it’s quite the opposite: It’s because this approach to teaching math will only end up harming the very groups it claims it champions. As The American Conservative’s Rod Dreher notes:> The young people who are going to learn real math are those whose parents can afford to put them in private schools. The public school kids of all races are going to get dumber and dumber.Guess what? Minority students are far more likely to attend public school than whites. In fact, according to Private School Review, “[t]he average percent of minority students in private schools is approximately 28 percent.”In other words? The minority students, the members of the very groups that this curriculum presumably aims to aid, are actually going to be learning less math than they would have without it -- because they will be spending some of that class time learning about how math’s racism has hurt them. Ironically, one of the curriculum’s goals is to teach students how to “critique systems of power that deny access to mathematical knowledge to people and communities of color,” and yet, that’s exactly what the district itself would be doing with it.The historical contributions of communities of color are important, and students should study them. A better place to study them, though, would (quite obviously) be a history class, not a mathematics one. Mathematics classes should be for mathematics lessons; this is especially important considering the fact that math is exactly where American students (of all races) struggle compared to students in other countries. In fact, according to a Pew Research study from 2017, American students ranked 38th out of 71 countries in the subject. If we want to fix this, we need to focus more on math, instead of looking for ways to teach less of it in the very classes where our students are supposed to be learning it.The bottom line is: If Seattle’s school district really wants to help minority students excel in mathematics, the last thing it should be doing is proposing a math curriculum that would teach less of it in the schools that they’re most likely to attend.

Missouri farmer Garland Nelson charged with murder in deaths of Wisconsin brothers

Wisconsin brothers Nicholas and Justin Diemel were reported missing after they missed a flight back to Wisconsin following a business trip in July.

U.S. Navy Pilots Admit: We Could Lose a War With China

A panel of young aviators voiced a harsh warning to the audience at the U.S. Navy’s annual Tailhook aviation convention in Nevada in September 2019: the Navy’s pilots aren’t ready to do battle with a high-tech foe such as China.

Hillary Clinton's attacks on Tulsi Gabbard are embarrassing

It’s sad that instead of doing something useful with her post-political career, Clinton has decided to lob ludicrous accusations at younger Democrats‘Even though Gabbard may be a flawed messenger, the message itself is correct: we no longer need to hear what Hillary Clinton thinks about anything.’ Photograph: Richard Drew/APHillary Clinton has kept a relatively low profile since her embarrassing 2016 election defeat, popping up only occasionally to make out-of-touch elitist comments that confirm why she lost. So it was somewhat surprising to hear her weigh in on the 2020 Democratic primary with a truly bizarre comment about (of all people) Tulsi Gabbard.Clinton accused the Hawaii congresswoman of being groomed by outside forces, saying: “I think they’ve got their eye on somebody who is currently in the Democratic primary and are grooming her to be the third-party candidate … She’s the favorite of the Russians.” There is some dispute about whether Clinton meant it was the Russians or Republicans who were pushing a third-party Gabbard candidacy, but a Clinton spokesman asked about the comments replied “if the nesting doll fits”, clearly implying it was dastardly Russians.Gabbard immediately hit back hard, calling Clinton (accurately) “the queen of warmongers, embodiment of corruption, and personification of the rot that has sickened the Democratic party for so long”. While hosts of The View backed up Clinton, calling Gabbard a “useful idiot”, others such as the Vermont senator Bernie Sanders and South Bend’s mayor, Pete Buttigieg, suggested that Clinton ought to have had some evidence before implying something so outrageous about a Democratic elected official.But it was typical Clinton. Paranoia about Russian influence has been ubiquitous among the Clinton set since 2016, in part because it helps to explain how the loss to Donald Trump wasn’t really Clinton’s fault. Liberals in the media like Rachel Maddow openly admit to having an obsession with Russia, and end up seeing the hands of Vladimir Putin on everything. Clinton herself has had trouble coming to terms with her loss. Even though accounts from inside the campaign confirm that Clinton barely knew why she was running for president, couldn’t craft any kind of message, and made laughably overconfident decisions about where to campaign, her campaign memoir was less a mea culpa than a j’accuse. It pointed fingers at Sanders and James Comey, and ended up sounding a lot like the Onion’s parody title: We All Made Mistakes But You Made Most Of Them.Years later, Clinton has learned seemingly nothing. Elsewhere on the podcast episode in which she made the accusations against Gabbard, Clinton blames fake news, foreign interference and voter suppression for undermining democracy and keeping Democrats out of power. Those are factors, but the big one is the one that Gabbard herself identified: the “rot that has sickened the Democratic party for so long”. Clinton practiced a corrupting and duplicitous form of politics that made many would-be Democratic voters feel completely unrepresented by the party. But instead of spending her time in the woods doing some soul-searching, Clinton has evidently spent it cooking up new conspiracy theories about the all-powerful Putin.Tulsi Gabbard is completely right about what Clinton represents. Clinton was the Democratic party at its absolute worst: pro-war, pro-Wall Street, self-enriching, inept, devoid of any transformative vision and contemptuous of ordinary people. It’s very clear that Sanders would have been the smart choice in 2016, and Gabbard was one of the few Democratic officials to recognize that at the time and endorse him. Actually, that was courageous of her – most Democratic officials, even those whose politics should have aligned them more closely with Sanders than Clinton, were too timid to buck the establishment and risk their career by potentially getting on the wrong side of an incoming Clinton administration.That’s not to say that Gabbard herself should be the future of the Democratic party. Far from it: while Gabbard has made a big deal of her anti-war stance, she has embraced the vicious Indian nationalist prime minister, Narendra Modi, and been far more hawkish and softer on torture than she would like progressive voters to believe. Her willingness to criticize the “rot” in her own party may make Gabbard a refreshing presence on the debate stage, but no serious leftist can support someone who spent the Obama years echoing Republican talking points about “radical Islam”. She’s still no “useful idiot”, and even with her flaws she is preferable to truly intolerable candidates like Buttigieg and Joe Biden. If we were (God forbid) somehow faced with the choice between Tulsi Gabbard and Amy Klobuchar, the country would be far better off in Gabbard’s hands.Even though Gabbard may be a flawed messenger, the message itself is correct: we no longer need to hear what Hillary Clinton thinks about anything. Her kind of politics is, thankfully, a relic of history, and we have moved on. It’s sad that instead of doing something useful with her post-political career, Clinton has decided to lob ludicrous, borderline defamatory, accusations at younger Democratic women who were less wrong than Clinton was about dozens of issues. Fortunately, hardly anybody is listening any more. * Nathan Robinson is the editor of Current Affairs and a Guardian US columnist

Deep-sea researchers discover second missing Battle of Midway ship

After the recent discovery of a Japanese aircraft carrier that was destroyed in the 1942 Battle of Midway, researchers combing through the deep seas for lost World War II-era warships have found the remains of another craft.Discovered nearly 5,500-metres below the surface in the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, roughly 2,000 kilometres from Pearl Harbour, the carrier Akagi was found by a crew using an autonomous underwater vehicle on Sunday morning.

Newt Gingrich and Whoopi Goldberg go at it on 'The View' over Trump's 'lynching' comments

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Whoopi Goldberg go toe to toe over Trump’s “lynching” comments on Twitter.

Almost all Republicans — especially Fox News viewers — opposed Trump's impeachment before the inquiry was opened, new poll finds

In a poll before the Ukraine scandal, 98% of Republicans who said Fox News was their main news source said Trump shouldn't be impeachment and removed.

Southern Niger reels after Nigeria closes borders

Dan Issa (Niger) (AFP) - "Nothing crosses into Nigeria and nothing comes out. It's hermetically sealed," said Amadou Idi, sitting in a makeshift shelter to keep out of the rain, and reflecting on the downturn in his luck. Idi's job is a transiting agent -- to get goods across the border to Nigeria at the Dan Issa frontier post in southeastern Niger.

U.S. attorney general calls for counseling, intervention to prevent mass shootings

U.S. Attorney General William Barr on Wednesday announced a new effort to prevent mass shootings through court-ordered counseling and supervision of potentially violent individuals. The effort, announced in a memo to federal prosecutors and law enforcement officials, follows dozens of deadly mass shootings in the United States this year, including a massacre of 22 people at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, and another just one day later in Dayton, Ohio, in which nine people were killed. The FBI was given expanded powers after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks to investigate foreign terrorism threats.

Phoenix police officer involved in viral video stop of couple fired

Phoenix Chief Jeri Williams announced that the officer involved in a viral video stop of Dravon Ames and Iesha Harper has been fired.

U.S. Marine Corps Stealth Fighters Get a New Home. A British Aircraft Carrier

A squadron of U.S. Marine Corps F-35B stealth fighters will embark on the Royal Navy’s new aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth in 2021 when the vessel sails on her first operational deployment.

Pennsylvania Governor Promises to Veto Abortion ‘Heartbeat’ Bill

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf, a Democrat, vowed on Wednesday to veto an abortion "heartbeat" bill touted by Republican lawmakers should the bill pass the state legislature.The bill, introduced by Republican state Senator Doug Mastriano and Representative Stephanie Borowicz, would ban abortions in cases where a physician can detect a fetal heartbeat."When you hear a baby’s heartbeat, everything changes," said Borowicz during a Monday press conference at the state Capitol. "If you can be declared dead when the heart stops why not declared alive when it starts?"Wolf vowed to veto the legislation almost immediately after it was announced."I will veto any abortion ban that is put on my desk," the Governor said in a statement. "These policies run counter to the notion of individual freedom and lack a sound scientific basis."Wolf reiterated his opposition in a Tuesday tweet, writing "Pennsylvania will NOT be the next state to ban abortion because I will VETO this bill."Pennsylvania currently permits abortions up to 24 weeks into pregnancy, after which abortions may be allowed if the woman's life is determined to be in danger.On May 15 of this year, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey signed into law the nation's most restrictive abortion bill, which outlaws the performance of abortions unless it is to prevent a "serious health risk.""To the bill’s many supporters, this legislation stands as a powerful testament to Alabamians’ deeply held belief that every life is precious & that every life is a sacred gift from God," Ivey said at the time.After the Alabama bill's passage, Wolf had promised to veto any similar legislation submitted to him."I’ll veto any anti-choice bill that lands on my desk," Wolf wrote on Twitter on May 16. "I won’t let our commonwealth go backward on reproductive rights."

Fears Are Growing Among Mainland Chinese Living in Hong Kong

(Bloomberg) -- As Hong Kong’s historic protests become increasingly violent, mainland Chinese living in the city are becoming increasingly fearful.Min, who moved to Hong Kong from the mainland in 1995 and now runs his own hedge fund, said the startling escalation in mayhem prompted him to tell his children not to speak Mandarin in public for fear they’ll get beaten up in the Cantonese-speaking city.Before going out for dinner, Min checks his phone for news on which city streets are blocked due to mass marches or violent clashes. He stopped flying on the city’s flagship carrier, Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd., where some staff took part in protests and others were fired after investigations into depleted oxygen tanks. With battles between police and black-clad mobs becoming pervasive, Min said he’s considered moving his business to Shanghai and his family to Canada.“They have no moral bottom line as to what they’ll do to achieve their goals,” Min, who asked that his full name not be used for fear of retribution, said of the protesters. “Fingers crossed, I believe the police can crush this.”The strife ripping through Hong Kong -- with police officers and protesters in hand-to-hand combat, subway stations set ablaze and an improvised explosive device detonated near a police car -- looks very different to the city’s mainland-born residents. More than 1 million mainlanders, including many professionals, have migrated across the border since China regained control of the former British colony in 1997, helping swell its population to 7.5 million.The protests began in opposition to a since-scrapped government bill allowing extraditions to mainland China and have expanded to include calls for greater democracy and an independent inquiry into police tactics. While the majority of protesters are peaceful, the demonstrations often feature a darker, anti-China tone. Some demonstrators have burned Chinese flags and spray-painted the phrases “Chinazi” and “Hong Kong is not China!” across the city.The rhetoric is spilling over into violence on both sides. A 22-year-old mainland visitor accused of slashing a teenage Hong Kong protester in the abdomen surrendered to police this week.Over the weekend, gangs ransacked or destroyed Chinese bank branches and retail businesses, including an outlet for smartphone maker Xiaomi Corp. based in Beijing.The tensions between mainlanders and locals also surface in daily office interactions.“Employees are generally encouraged to not discuss this topic at work and to leave political opinions at home,” said Benjamin Quinlan, chief executive officer of financial-services consultancy Quinlan & Associates. Still, “you can’t segregate a private and corporate life so cleanly, and there will inevitably be opinions on politics that don’t gel among colleagues.”When crowds surged into the streets recently, Yang, a 34-year-old finance professional from China, watched from above in one of the city’s gleaming skyscrapers.TVs in the office -- and desktop live-streams -- were all tuned to the protests against Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam’s impending use of a colonial-era emergency powers law to ban face masks on demonstrators. Mobile phones buzzed with messages flowing across WeChat groups about looming protests and violence outside, including one alarming video of a Chinese banker from JPMorgan Chase & Co. getting punched in the head by a protester, and someone yelling: “Go back to the mainland!”On Tuesday, lawmakers debated the ban on face coverings at the city’s Legislative Council. Financial Secretary Paul Chan was also set to announce various measures to support local businesses impacted by the protests.Yang, who asked to be identified only by one name, also is scared to speak Mandarin and has been regularly fleeing across the border to nearby Shenzhen to escape the violence. That Friday afternoon, she left early and dashed to meet her husband and daughter at the bus station, right before the city descended into its worst violence on the weekend of Oct. 5.“As I rushed to the bus station to regroup with my family, I was so stressed -- hearing my heart beating quickly and strongly,” she said, adding she bought the last three tickets for a bus that whisked them all to Shenzhen, which was celebrating 70 years of Communist rule with buildings and billboards decked out in red lights.“When the bus crossed the bridge and was about to enter Shenzhen, we all saw the red neon at the other side of the river,” she said. “I felt suddenly relaxed.”At the same time, several mainlanders interviewed said they were reluctant to uproot the lives they built in Hong Kong over many years: landing coveted jobs at international companies, getting their children into international schools and buying homes. And plenty of Mandarin conversations can be heard while walking through the financial district.Yet while many mainlanders say they feel shunned by some Hong Kongers, many locals worry that showing support for the protests will hurt their careers. Some Hong Kong employees working at Chinese firms said they were told to attend pro-Beijing demonstrations, and feared losing their jobs if they refused.Pro-Beijing RalliesOne Hong Konger with the surname Ho, who took a job at a U.S.-based bank over the summer after working at a Chinese bank in the city for three years, said mainland colleagues at her former employer would try to find out her stance on the conflict -- and criticize anyone they thought supported the protesters.“I was asked to attend the rallies that support the Hong Kong police,” said the employee, who asked not to be identified by her full name to avoid hurting her career. “Of course, I didn’t go. Then some of my former colleagues linked my resignation to my political views. They thought I was fired because I’m pro-independence, which wasn’t true.”In the financial sector, the conflicts between those sympathetic to protesters and those aligned with Beijing can be seen in instances both subtle and dramatic.Hao Hong, chief strategist at Bocom International Holdings Co. in Hong Kong, recently visited another company to meet with workers from mainland China, stepping into an office and speaking to them in Mandarin. Their local colleague quickly raised the volume on a nearby TV, overpowering the conversation with the sound of a show -- in Cantonese.Moving Back“Sometimes people refuse to talk to you if you speak to them in Mandarin,” said Hong, who’s lived in the former British colony for eight years. “Everyone is touchy.”In addition to not speaking Mandarin in public, other mainlanders said they have stopped using WeChat -- the Tencent Holdings Ltd.-owned Chinese messaging service -- in the open.Some have started considering relocating back to the mainland, despite spending decades in the city, said one woman who works at a Chinese hedge fund and asked that she only be identified as Levy. Mainlanders with children in local schools are concerned they will be exposed to anti-government sentiment, she said.“We are all in the financial industry,” Levy said. “If they can find good offers in Shanghai or Beijing, there is now a stronger incentive to move back.”(Updates paragraph 5 to clarify the mainland population in Hong Kong, and adds government measures to boost the economy in paragraph 13.)\--With assistance from Manuel Baigorri, Moxy Ying, Lulu Yilun Chen and Iain Marlow.To contact the reporters on this story: Bei Hu in Hong Kong at bhu5@bloomberg.net;Alfred Cang in Singapore at acang@bloomberg.net;Alfred Liu in Hong Kong at aliu226@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Candice Zachariahs at czachariahs2@bloomberg.net, ;Daniel Ten Kate at dtenkate@bloomberg.net, Daniel Taub, Michael TigheFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

Joe Biden forced to apologise for 1998 claim that impeaching Bill Clinton could be seen as ‘partisan lynching’

Joe Biden has been forced to apologise for suggesting the impeachment of Bill Clinton could be seen as “a partisan lynching”.The Democrat presidential frontrunner's 1998 comments resurfaced after he attacked Donald Trump for making a similar claim.

Rep. Ilhan Omar condemns North Dakota state senator's Facebook post

Rep. Ilhan Omar has condemned a Republican state senator from North Dakota who posted a long-debunked photo on his Facebook page that purports to show the Minnesota Democrat holding a weapon at an al-Qaida training camp.

California governor wants investigation of high gas prices

California's governor has asked the attorney general to investigate why the state's gas prices are so high, pointing to a new report suggesting big oil companies are "misleading and overcharging customers" by as much as $1 per gallon. The commission said California drivers paid an average of 30 cents more per gallon in 2018, with the difference getting as high as $1 per gallon in April of this year. The result is California drivers paid an additional $11.6 billion at the pump over the last five years.

Iraqi Kurds turn to Zoroastrianism as faith, identity entwine

Zoroastrianism. Years of violence by the Islamic State jihadist group have left many disillusioned with Islam, while a much longer history of state oppression has pushed some in Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region to see the millennia-old religion as a way of reasserting their identity. "After Kurds witnessed the brutality of IS, many started to rethink their faith," said Asrawan Qadrok, the faith's top priest in Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region.

'Johnny Reb' no longer welcome in Norfolk: Virginia city gets OK to move Confederate statue

Virginia's attorney general says the city of Norfolk can move its "Johnny Reb" Confederate statue from a busy downtown intersection to a cemetery

An Air France flight was forced to turn back in midair when staff found an unattended cellphone that wasn't claimed by any of the passengers

Air France flight 136 to Chicago from Paris landed at Ireland's Shannon Airport, where the police scanned a cellphone found on board.

Bernie Weighed in on the 'Outrageous' Hillary-Tulsi Spat. You Won't Believe Which Side He Took.

“She’s the favorite of the Russians,” Clinton had said.

Hong Kong Police Already Have AI Tech That Can Recognize Faces

(Bloomberg) -- Hong Kong law enforcement authorities have access to artificial intelligence software that can match faces from any video footage to police databases, but it’s unclear if it’s being used to quell months-long pro-democracy protests, according to people familiar with the matter.Police have been able to use the technology from Sydney-based iOmniscient for at least three years, and engineers from the company have trained dozens of officers on how to use it, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information isn’t public. The software can scan footage including from closed-circuit television to automatically match faces and license plates to a police database and pick out suspects in a crowd.In addition to tracking criminals, iOminiscient’s artificial intelligence can be used for everything from finding lost children to managing traffic. In one training session that took place after the protests began in June, the people said, officers asked how to automatically identify license plate numbers using dashboard cameras.Questions over the use of facial recognition technology have loomed over the protests, stoking fears that Hong Kong is moving closer to a mainland-style surveillance state. Demonstrators have worn masks, destroyed CCTV cameras, torn down so-called smart lampposts and used umbrellas to hide acts of vandalism. Authorities in turn used an emergency law this month for the first time in more than half a century to ban face masks, a move that triggered increased violence.“Hong Kong people are afraid of being captured by the CCTV cameras,” said Bonnie Leung, a district councilor and a former leader of the Civil Human Rights Front, which has organized some of the biggest protests in the past few months. “Why are people still wearing face masks? Because of the police surveillance.”While Hong Kong’s government has disclosed some ways it uses facial recognition technology, Chief Executive Carrie Lam’s administration and the police haven’t publicly confirmed whether they are using it to monitor the protests. Patrick Nip, secretary for constitutional and mainland affairs, said in June that no government department had procured or developed automated facial recognition-CCTV systems or applied the technology in CCTV systems.Nip’s office referred all questions on facial recognition technology to the police, which didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment.iOmniscient declined to comment on whether Hong Kong’s police use its facial recognition technology. The company said that its technology also has the capability to keep identities anonymous for such uses as crowd control. Its systems are used in more than 50 countries and only a small portion of overall revenue comes from Hong Kong, where business opportunities are relatively limited given privacy concerns and fewer cameras compared with other cities, according to the firm.Under Hong Kong’s privacy laws, which are more stringent than the mainland, members of the public must be informed if they’re subject to surveillance. If authorities are matching faces or names to identity markers, that would fall under the privacy ordinance, according to Stuart Hargreaves, a law professor at Chinese University of Hong Kong who researches surveillance and privacy issues. However, police can claim an exemption if the data is being used to detect or prevent crime.“Is the ‘facial recognition’ simply the police combing through video footage for ‘known individuals,’ or is there some kind of automated AI system at play?” Hargreaves said. “The truth is we simply do not know.”The world’s five most-watched cities are all in China, with the top city of Chongqing having about 168 cameras per 1,000 people, according to estimates by Comparitech. By comparison, Hong Kong’s 50,000 CCTVs are one-tenth the number in London and not enough to put it in the top 20 most-watched cities.Hong Kong authorities have tried to appease concerns by pointing out that there is no in-built facial recognition in recently installed smart lampposts or in CCTV cameras at China government offices. Still, the technology has been used in the city for more than a decade, including at the airport and Shenzhen border for immigration control.Next year a new electronic identity system is scheduled to come into effect in which as many as 100 public services will make use of biometric authentication, including facial recognition, eye scans, and finger and voice prints. A unit of Ping An Insurance Group Co., whose shareholders include the Shenzhen government, is responsible for the design, implementation and support of the core system, as well as facial recognition and imaging processing, according to a government statement in April.Some Chinese companies recently blacklisted by the U.S. over human rights concerns in the far west region of Xinjiang have their tech in Hong Kong. Face scan technology from AI startup Yitu Technology will be among the options that staff can choose to access the headquarters of the government’s electrical and mechanical services department, according to a June statement on the three-month trial project. Yitu didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co. cameras with facial recognition capabilities are installed outside of buildings including the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, though the facial recognition function hasn’t been turned on, according to responses from government agencies to lawmaker Charles Mok. The department told him it sent footage from its cameras to police seven times since the protests began.“The whole thing is: do you trust the government with your data?” said Mok, who has been in the information technology industry for more than 20 years. “That’s the problem, if there’s a whole breakdown of trust.”A Hikvision spokesperson said its products are sold through third parties, so it cannot confirm camera locations or whether a specific function is turned on. The group opposes the U.S. sanctions and is working to address concerns, recently retaining former U.S. Ambassador Pierre-Richard Prosper to advise on human rights and compliance.On Hong Kong’s streets, riot police have sought to avoid the cameras even while arresting more than 2,000 protesters, including nearly 100 people for violating the mask ban. They’ve used flashlights to disrupt media coverage, and some officers removed ID numbers and donned masks to hide their identities for fear that they could become victims of personal attacks online, known as doxxing. Apple Inc. recently pulled a live mapping app used by protesters to track some police deployments including of water cannons.Hong Kong protesters have continued distributing masks at rallies, telling demonstrators to take one “if you aren’t feeling well” to take advantage of exemptions in the law.At least one Hong Kong company, TickTack Technology, pulled out of the smart lamppost program after protesters tore one down and found a Bluetooth Beacon the company used to signal its location to devices including smartphones. Demonstrators then doxxed some of the group’s founders.“We prefer to be low-profile till things cool down,” a TickTack spokesman said by email.Hong Kong’s Innovation and Technology Bureau said in a statement that it “deeply regrets” that a local enterprise was cowed into stopping the supply of its technology, calling it a “serious blow” to local innovation. The government has denied that the lampposts have facial recognition capabilities.Hong Kong’s colleges are also involved in facial recognition. Tang Xiaoou, a professor at Chinese University of Hong Kong’s Department of Information Engineering, is a founder of SenseTime, the world’s most valuable artificial intelligence startup.The developer of facial recognition was among eight Chinese companies blacklisted by the U.S. over Xinjiang, where the Chinese government has implemented a massive program of surveillance and re-education camps to monitor the local mostly Muslim population. The company said it sees its technology as a “global force for good” and is disappointed with the U.S. sanctions, and will work to address any concerns.Sensetime said its focus in the city is on education and it does not have any contracts with the Hong Kong government. The group published Hong Kong’s first textbook on artificial intelligence for secondary schools.Banks including HSBC Holdings Plc allow clients to open accounts with selfies under guidelines of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, which is also considering allowing face scans for ATMs. Customs guidelines allow firms to use face scans for security.The current protests may dampen enthusiasm for greater use of facial recognition. As demonstrations have become more violent and intense over the weeks, the number of masks has grown -- including, more recently, those of Chinese President Xi Jinping and the Guy Fawkes mask associated with the Anonymous movement.“The government is just trying to take away our rights,” Angus, a 22-year-old student wearing a surgical mask and black clothes, said on the day Lam announced the ban. “They’re just the tool of the Chinese government. We don’t want to be China.”(Updates with Hikvision comment.)To contact the reporter on this story: Blake Schmidt in Hong Kong at bschmidt16@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Daniel Ten Kate at dtenkate@bloomberg.net, Adam Majendie, Chris KayFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

Anonymous Trump official who wrote New York Times op-ed to release book

A Warning will expand on the September 2018 article detailing an internal ‘resistance’ effort to thwart the presidentThe official described Trump as making ‘half-baked, ill-informed and occasionally reckless decisions’. Photograph: Rex/ShutterstockAn anonymous senior government official who wrote an excoriating op-ed column describing Donald Trump’s time in office, and detailing an internal “resistance” movement to thwart the president, has written a book that will be released in November.The book, titled A Warning, will expand on the anonymous article which was published by the New York Times in September 2018, it emerged on Tuesday.That article, which the Times said was written by a current Trump administration official, presented a shocking description of Trump’s presidency.The official described Trump as making “half-baked, ill-informed and occasionally reckless decisions” and said a group of Trump appointees were working on “thwarting Mr Trump’s more misguided impulses until he is out of office”.The Washington Post and CNN reported that the book will be published on 19 November. A draft press release to accompany the launch, obtained by CNN, described the book as: “Picking up from where those first words of warning left off, this explosive book offers a shocking, first-hand account of President Trump and his record.”The release of A Warning is unlikely to please Trump, who remains embroiled in the Ukraine scandal and is facing growing public appetite for his impeachment and removal from office.After the New York Times published the anonymous article last year Trump suggested the writer had committed “treason” in filing the piece, and called for the New York Times to reveal the official’s identity. (The Times did not.)The Times opinion article, which ran under the headline: I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration, described a chaotic White House led by a president whose leadership style is “impetuous, adversarial, petty and ineffective”.The official wrote that “many of the senior officials in his own administration are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations”.“Given the instability many witnessed, there were early whispers within the cabinet of invoking the 25th amendment, which would start a complex process for removing the president,” the official wrote.The Times described the writer as “a senior official in the Trump administration whose identity is known to us and whose job would be jeopardized by its disclosure”.

After El Paso and Odessa shootings, my plan to reduce mass violence: Sen. John Cornyn

No person, family, or community should endure the heartbreak caused by the recent mass shootings in Texas. It’s time to answer their call for action.

Lawyer for Kavanaugh accuser to investigate Baltimore police

A former federal prosecutor who represented one of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh's accusers will lead an independent review of a corruption-plagued unit of the Baltimore Police Department, the department's chief announced Wednesday. Michael Bromwich will have "full autonomy" to conduct the review of the department's Gun Trace Task Force "without interference from us," said Police Commissioner Michael Harrison. Bromwich was the Justice Department's inspector general from 1994 to 1999 and served as the nation's top offshore drilling regulator after BP's deadly Deepwater Horizon disaster in 2010.

The Crisis of Catholic Leadership

In the last 48 hours there have been two big Vatican stories. First, revelations about the Holy See’s financial crisis; second, and more bizarrely, a furious dispute over statues being thrown into the Tiber. But really it’s all one story, the big story of contemporary Catholicism: a disastrous failure of leadership at the top of the Church.Vatican finances may not usually be a subject to set the pulse racing, but the last month has been dramatic: Vatican police raided offices and confiscated computers, after finding — to quote a leaked search decree — “serious indications of embezzlement, fraud, abuse of office, money-laundering, and self-laundering.” Other leaks suggested that as much as $560 million of Catholics’ donations to the Vatican were invested in speculative deals that Vatican investigators described as “reckless.” The pattern, even at this early stage of the inquiry, is familiar: The faithful have trusted a leadership class that has done little to deserve their trust.Indeed, donations are already falling — partly because of the abuse crisis, where once again the Vatican has been less than transparent. In 2017 it emerged that Pope Francis had reduced sanctions against some abusers. Then last year, the Vatican’s former ambassador to the U.S. made a set of spectacular accusations, claiming there had been a concerted effort, featuring many senior figures up to and including the pope, to protect Cardinal Theodore McCarrick from numerous allegations of abuse. A letter from the Catholic Women’s Forum, bearing almost 50,000 signatures, asked for a Vatican response to the ambassador’s claims. None came.Silence and confusion have recently become Vatican trademarks, not least where doctrinal questions are concerned. For instance, an ambiguous papal document was used to claim that the Church now blesses divorce and remarriage; instead of clarifying that the Church could never do so, the Vatican allowed the confusion to grow, and when the pope did speak, he piled ambiguity on ambiguity.Something similar happened with the female statues that ended up in the Tiber. On October 4, versions of these statues were used during a ceremony in the Vatican gardens to mark the start of a synod (meeting of bishops) on the Amazon region. As the pope looked on, the participants knelt and bowed before the statues. Cue two weeks of debate. Were they, as critics suggested, offering a kind of pagan worship to Mother Earth — or were they, as the statues’ defenders argued, paying an Amazon-flavored homage to the Virgin Mary? Only the Vatican could have given a full answer. But there was no explanation before or during the ceremony; when journalists requested one, they got a series of contradictory, sometimes maddeningly vague, answers. Meanwhile, versions of the statues have been paraded through St Peter’s Basilica, prominently displayed in the synod hall, and exhibited in a well-known Roman church — from which, in the early hours of yesterday morning, they were removed and hurled into the river. Things only reached this stage because the Vatican, in response to the sincere anxiety of many Catholics, refused to clarify what was going on.But the Vatican isn’t always characterized by silence and inaction. Much of the time there is a frenzy for change, the ecclesiastical equivalent of a midlife crisis in which a man abandons his family, leaves the country, and tries to reinvent his personality from scratch. Out goes the Vatican’s cautious diplomacy and witness to human dignity; in comes an inexplicable desire to flatter Chinese dictator Xi Jinping, with one senior official declaring that “right now, those who are best implementing the social doctrine of the Church are the Chinese.” (Not a word on the Chinese government’s Uyghur internment camps.) Distinguished cardinals are removed without explanation, while newcomers are rapidly promoted only to fall from grace for offenses such as plagiarism and photo-doctoring. One of Rome’s great theological schools, the John Paul II Institute, is gutted and the faculty replaced with fresh faces, some of whom are best-known for attacking Catholic doctrine.And now, at the Amazon synod, there is another push for “reform,” inspired by radical theologians such as Bishop Fritz Lobinger. Under Lobinger’s scheme, outlined in a 1998 book, Catholics will no longer be chiefly served by seminary-trained priests; instead, every parish will be crowded with part-time clergy. “The word ‘priest’ will be nothing special,” Lobinger fantasized, “because there will be so many priests — the bus-driver, the bank-teller, the postmaster, the butcher.” For Lobinger and his ilk, women priests are a good idea, but the main thing is to reconstruct the priesthood and the sacraments. Figures such as Bishop Erwin Kräutler — a Lobinger fan, and an outspoken critic of Church teaching — are highly influential at the synod and propose, as a first step toward more revolutionary changes, the ordination of married men. If the synod does suggest such a move, it would be another episode that would test the loyalty of Catholics.Saint Robert Bellarmine, one of the giants of Catholic theology, observed that Catholics might end up having to “resist” a pope. Nobody, Bellarmine wrote, can “judge, punish, or depose” the pontiff: Catholics must acknowledge him as their lawful superior. But it may, in extraordinary circumstances, be right “to resist him, by . . . hindering the execution of his will.” Bellarmine was speaking theoretically. But for many Catholics, it is becoming a very practical distinction.