BBC NEWS: October 2019

Islamic State confirmed on Thursday that its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed in a weekend raid by U.S. special forces in northwestern Syria, and vowed revenge against the United States. The Iraqi rose from obscurity to lead the ultra-hardline group and declare himself "caliph" of all Muslims, holding sway over huge areas of Iraq and Syria from 2014-2017 before Islsmic State's control disintegrated under U.S.-led attacks. The group confirmed his death in an audio tape posted online and said a successor, identified as Abu Ibrahim al-Hashemi al-Quraishi, had been appointed.

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Reading Scores on National Exam Decline in Half the States

WASHINGTON -- The average eighth grade reading score on a nationally representative test declined among public school students in more than half of the states, according to data released Wednesday by the National Center for Education Statistics, the research arm of the Education Department.The dismal results were part of the release of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as the "nation's report card." The test assesses a sample of fourth and eighth grade students -- more than 290,000 in each subject in 2019 -- every other year."Over the past decade, there has been no progress in either mathematics or reading performance, and the lowest-performing students are doing worse," Peggy Carr, the associate commissioner of the center, said in a statement.Such findings will inevitably prompt demands for policy change. In a statement, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who is championing a $5 billion school choice program, said that the results "must be America's wake-up call.""We can neither excuse them away, nor simply throw more money at the problem," she said.That vision is in stark contrast to the one that has emerged in the Democratic presidential primary. All the leading candidates have suggested spending billions more federal dollars on traditional public schools, and two of the front-runners -- Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders -- have proposed slowing the growth of the charter school sector.The losses on the national exam were steepest for students who had been struggling the most, a segment that is the focus of many school reform policies.Eighth graders at the bottom 10th percentile of reading achievement lost 6 points on the exam compared with similar students two years ago, while students at the 50th percentile lost 3 points and students at the 90th percentile -- top achievers -- lost only 1 point."Eighth grade is a transitional point in preparing students for success in high school, so it is critical that researchers further explore the declines we are seeing here," Carr said.White, black, Hispanic, Native American and multiracial students all lost ground in eighth grade reading, while there was no significant change for Asian students.Washington, one of 27 cities to participate in a separate analysis of urban school systems, was the only city or state to see significant improvement in eighth grade reading, according to a federal analysis of the data.This year, 31 states noted a drop of 2 to 7 points in their average eighth grade reading score -- which the federal government deemed significant -- compared with their performances in 2017. Indiana, New Hampshire and Virginia were the states with the largest declines among eighth graders.Fourth grade reading scores dropped in 17 states, with New Jersey having the largest decline, 6 points; only one state, Mississippi, improved, the data showed.States' average math scores fared considerably better, particularly among fourth graders. Nine states had significant increases in fourth grade math, compared with 2017 numbers, with Mississippi again leading the pack. The eighth grade score in three states improved, while six noted a decline.While the most recent results are disappointing, trends in student achievement look more positive over the long term. American students have made large gains in math and small gains in reading since 1990, but those improvements began to level out around 2009. There is no consensus among experts as to why.The Council of the Great City Schools, a coalition of large urban school systems, said it saw a hopeful story in the new data. Over the past two decades, students in cities have moved closer to national achievement averages in both math and reading."The fact that large city schools have cut their performance gap with the nation in about half is even more remarkable when you consider that our schools have substantially more poor students and English-language learners than the average public school across the nation," the group said in a statement. Such results "suggest that the nation's urban public schools are adding substantially more educational value than the average school."The National Assessment of Educational Progress is considered a "low stakes" exam, because schools and teachers do not lose funding, pay or autonomy based on how their students perform. Some researchers consider the test the gold-standard measure of learning nationwide, while others argue it is unfair to judge schools using an exam that may have little connection to the material teachers cover in the classroom.DeVos said the 2019 scores reflected a "student achievement crisis," where progress had stalled, two out of three children were not proficient readers, and outcomes continued to worsen for the most vulnerable students."Every American family needs to open the nation's report card this year and think about what it means for their child and for our country's future," she said. "The results are, frankly, devastating."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company

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California Governor Accepted Donations from Utility Company He Now Excoriates for ‘Greed’

California governor, Democrat Gavin Newsom, has accepted large donations from Pacific Gas & Electric Co., a utility company he now excoriates for "greed" and "mismanagement."PG&E has faced widespread criticism for implementing blackouts for millions of customers to avoid sparking wildfires in the midst of California's dry and windy fall weather."I have a message for PG&E," Newsom wrote on Twitter on Friday. "Your years and years of greed. Years and years of mismanagement. Years and years of putting shareholders over people. Are OVER."Newsom and allies accepted $208,400 from the utility during his 2018 gubernatorial campaign, according to local affiliate ABC10. Of that total, $150,000 went to a political spending group called “Citizens Supporting Gavin Newsom for Governor 2018,” while the rest went to directly to Newsom's campaign.PG&E filed for bankruptcy in January 2019. Faulty PG&E electricity equipment has been blamed for sparking several wildfires in the past decade.California has consistently shut down proposals to clear dead trees from forests and to trim trees near power lines state wide, creating conditions for a rash of wildfire outbreaks in recent years.The Kincaid Fire currently burning in Sonoma County in the northern part of the state has forced the evacuation of roughly 200,000 people. The fire is twice the size of the city of San Fransisco.Newsom declared a state of emergency on Sunday in response to the Kincaid Fire and several other wildfires throughout the state. He again threatened PG&E in a statement on the situation."There is a plan to get out of this. This is not the new normal,” Newsom said on Sunday at an evacuation center in northern California. “This is not a 10-year process to deal with this. That will not be the case… [PG&E] will be held to account to do something radically different

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Putin faces Syria money crunch after U.S. keeps control of oil fields

Russian President Vladimir Putin is facing an unwelcome new financial challenge in Syria after the U.S. pullback enabled his ally Bashar Assad to reclaim the biggest chunk of territory in the country still outside his control.

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Full coverage: House passes impeachment resolution

The House on Thursday voted to pass a historic resolution establishing formal procedures for the ongoing impeachment inquiry into President Trump. The 232-196 vote fell almost exclusively along party lines, with two moderate Democrats voting no.

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Graphic: Examining the weapons and tactics used by police and protesters in Hong Kong

As the showdown between police and protesters in Hong Kong has intensified, officers have used increasing force, deploying an arsenal of crowd-control weapons, including tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets, sponge grenades and bean bag rounds. Protesters have also stepped up their actions, hurling petrol bombs, vandalizing mainland Chinese banks and businesses believed to be pro-Beijing, throwing bricks at police stations and battling officers in the streets, sometimes with metal bars. Reuters scrutinized hundreds of images of the protests, as well as dozens of police reports and video footage, and combined this research with reporting on the ground to document the weapons used by the police and protesters, and how the violence has increased from day to day.

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G.M. Union Members Return to Work, but Worries Are Far From Over

GM autoworkers returned to work with a new contract after their longest nationwide strike in nearly 50 years. Here's where they stand now.

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How The B-1 Lancer Went From A Nuclear Bomber To an ISIS Killer

Priorities and capabilities change with time.

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Democrats accused Republicans of trying to trick an impeachment witness into naming the whistleblower

In a closed-door deposition, Republicans questioned Lt. Col. Vindman on whom he had discussed trump's Ukraine call with, alarming Democrats.

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Death sentence confirmed against four men in Morocco backpacker murders

A Moroccan appeals court upheld, late on Wednesday, death sentences against three Moroccan men for murdering two Scandinavian women in the Atlas mountains last December. A fourth man was also handed capital punishment after he was sentenced to life in prison by an anti-terrorism court on July 18. The other three were handed death sentences at the time.

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Ilhan Omar refuses to back vote recognising Armenian genocide

Ilhan Omar declined to vote in favour of a resolution recognising the mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as a genocide, saying any "true acknowledgement" of such crimes must include other historical "mass slaughters".The Minnesota Democrat was one of just three House members to vote “present” on the resolution that passed in an overwhelming 405-11 vote.

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Wednesday, 30 October 2019

Biden's communion denial highlights faith-politics conflict

A Roman Catholic priest's denial of communion to Joe Biden in South Carolina on Sunday illustrates the fine line presidential candidates must walk as they talk about their faiths: balancing religious values with a campaign that asks them to choose a side in polarizing moral debates. The awkward moment for Biden came during a weekend campaign swing through South Carolina, a pivotal firewall in his hopes to claim the Democratic presidential nomination. The former vice president on Sunday visited St. Anthony Catholic Church in Florence, a midsize city in the state's largely rural northeast.

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Chuck Schumer: Vindman Should Be Given 'Appropriate Protections' After Testifying | NBC News - NBC News

Chuck Schumer: Vindman Should Be Given 'Appropriate Protections' After Testifying | NBC News NBC News
Testimony: Nunes acolyte misrepresented himself to Trump as Ukraine expert POLITICO
Seth Meyers Goes Off on Laura Ingraham for Smearing Vindman The Daily Beast
Alexander Vindman should be celebrated, not smeared The Washington Post
Accusing Vindman of Divided Loyalties Makes No Sense Bloomberg
View full coverage on Google News

from "news" - Google News https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZZk-Y9hsMg

Mitch McConnell: Impeach resolution denies Trump 'basic rights' - New York Post

Mitch McConnell: Impeach resolution denies Trump 'basic rights' New York Post
How can GOP senators serve as impeachment jurors when they're implicated in Trump's misdeeds? Salon
The Note: Threats to Trump multiply amid pressure for loyalty ABC News
New poll poses serious questions about Democrats' impeachment drive Washington Examiner
POLITICO Playbook PM: The new Trump defense POLITICO
View full coverage on Google News

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Dog Survives After Being Hit by a Car and Getting Wedged in the Bumper for Miles - Yahoo Entertainment

Dog Survives After Being Hit by a Car and Getting Wedged in the Bumper for Miles Yahoo Entertainment
Dog survives being hit by car, getting stuck in grill for 45-minute ride WESH Orlando
Dog struck by car rides inside bumper for miles WDAF FOX4 Kansas City
Sorry, kids, it's going to rain on Halloween WBAL TV Baltimore
Dog hit by car, gets stuck in grill for 45-minute ride WFLA
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Thousands sign petition to shut down controversial haunted house: ‘A torture chamber under disguise’ - AOL

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Kincade Fire’s destructive toll on Sonoma wineries, vintners - The Mercury News

Kincade Fire’s destructive toll on Sonoma wineries, vintners The Mercury News
Firefighters brace for pivotal battle against Kincade fire Santa Rosa Press Democrat
Live updates: Santa Rosa, Windsor evacuation orders lifted after near catastrophe San Francisco Chronicle
Father and son describe watching their homes burn down in the Kincade Fire Washington Post
Guy Fieri helps feed first responders amid California's Kincade Fire Page Six
View full coverage on Google News

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Photos from space show the Kincade Fire's spread across California wine country

Satellites in space observed the Kincade Fire burning through dry vegetation. Infrared images show scorched land.

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Tucker Carlson and Guest Blame Diversity and ‘Woke’ Culture for California Fires

Fox NewsFox News host Tucker Carlson and his guest, conservative YouTube personality Dave Rubin, both insisted Tuesday night that the wildfires burning across California are due largely to progressive ideology, “woke” culture, and diversity in hiring.During Tuesday’s broadcast of Tucker Carlson Tonight, Carlson welcomed on Rubin, a political commentator and podcaster, to discuss the issues surrounding the large fires engulfing the state, including those related to the electrical grid and firefighting methods.“PG&E; strikes me as almost a metaphor for the destruction of the state,” Carlson said about the state’s power company. “Here’s the utility which doesn’t really know anything about its own infrastructure but knows everything about the race of its employees. How did we get there?”After noting that he lives near one of the fires in the Los Angeles area, Rubin immediately took aim at liberal politics as the main reason the wildfires have grown so large and dangerous.“The problem right now is that everything, EVERYTHING, from academia to public utilities to politics, everything that goes woke, that buys into this ridiculous progressive ideology that cares about what contractors are LGBT or how many black firemen we have or white this or Asian that, everything that goes that road eventually breaks down,” he declared.As Carlson nodded and said “that’s true,” Rubin continued, complaining that this isn’t how “freedom is supposed to operate.”“What is supposed to happen—imagine if your house was on fire,” he added. “Would you care what the public utility or what the fire company, what contractor they brought in, what gender or sexuality or any of those things he or she was? It’s just absolutely ridiculous.”The Fox News host continued to agree with Rubin, who went on to tie PG&E;’s preemptive blackouts to a lack of “libertarian or conservative-minded people in California to fight what the progressives are doing to the state.”“If you can’t keep the lights on and you can’t keep the place from burning down, you’ve reached the point where there is no kind of lying about it anymore,” Carlson concluded. “It’s falling apart. It’s a disaster. It’s not civilized anymore.”Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

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US helicopter raid reported in Syria after trove of Baghdadi intelligence taken

The US is believed to have carried out fresh raids on suspected senior Islamic State members in Syria overnight, as officials assessed a treasure trove of intelligence gathered from Isil leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s final hideout. Helicopters reported to be from the US-led coalition flew late on Monday night into al-Shuyukh village south of Jarablus, around three miles from a raid the previous day that killed Isil’s spokesman Abu Hassan al-Muhajir. Donald Trump, the US president, tweeted on Tuesday that Baghdadi's "number one replacement" had been killed. He did not name who that was, but it is thought he was referring to Muhajir. Analysts do not agree that Muhajir would have been Baghdadi's natural successor. Just confirmed that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s number one replacement has been terminated by American troops. Most likely would have taken the top spot - Now he is also Dead!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 29, 2019 A spokesman for the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which is believed to have jointly conducted the mission, said there had been a “successful raid targeting and arresting senior Isil members” on Monday night without elaborating. Local sources reported that the mission lasted no more than 20 minutes and no clashes were heard. “An Iraqi family had moved there in recent times,” Aghiad al-Kheder, co-founder of anti-Isil activist group Sound and Picture, told the Telegraph. “We think two men were taken away by the helicopters.” The men’s identity, or relationship to Baghdadi, was not immediately known. “We think it's related to the Baghdadi raid,” said Mr Kheder, whose group has sources on the ground in the area. ”For sure US found important documents and maybe in the next few days we will see many operations like this.” Pentagon officials told the Washington Post that the documents and other information gathered during the raid on the compound in Barisha in Idlib province close to the Turkish border would prove useful in hunting down remaining senior Isil figures. The officials said two men were also captured alive in the raid who they hoped could provide intelligence about the group. Evidence was growing that Isil had an established smuggling ring, taking senior members from Deir Ezzor in eastern Syria and Qaim in western Iraqi to Idlib. The last moments of Islamic State leader Kurdish spies cultivated a source inside Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s inner circle who was able to steal the Islamic State leader’s underwear for DNA sampling and provide a detailed layout of his compound ahead of the US raid, the SDF commander said. Mazloum Kobani Abdi, the head of the SDF, told NBC his intelligence officers had turned one of Baghdadi’s security advisors who was able to give critical information about the jihadist leader’s house and the tunnels beneath it. The source took a pair of Baghdadi’s underwear and a blood sample to help US forces confirm who was hiding in the compound. The source was at the site on the night of the raid and was whisked out by US commandos. Polat Can, a senior adviser to the SDF, revealed more detailed information about the group's role in finding Baghdadi. "Since 15 May, we have been working together with the CIA,” said Polat Can, a senior adviser to the SDF. He said their surveillance tracked the 48-year-old reclusive leader moving to the village of Barisha in northern Idlib from northern Deir Ezzor in April. Iraqi officials confirmed to the Telegraph that they had arrested members of Baghdadi’s inner circle who were part of the ring and gave up the leader’s location. It is thought fighters with the Islamist group Hurras al-Din, an al-Qaeda-aligned group which is usually hostile to Isil, were also facilitating senior Isil leaders’ movement through rebel-held Idlib. Baghdadi was discovered at the house of one Hurras al-Din commander, Abu Mohamed al-Halabi, who was killed in the raid. Mustafa Bali, SDF’s spokesman, said that Muhajir, described as Baghdadi’s right-hand man, was believed to have been in the area in order to facilitate Baghdadi’s movements in Idlib and possibly on to Turkey. Muhajir was targeted in the village of Ain al-Baydah near Turkish-administered Jarablus with the help of SDF intelligence. Local sources said Muhajir had been travelling in a convoy made up of an oil tanker and a car. The SDF has questioned how Ankara was not aware of the presence of Baghdadi and other senior leaders so close to areas in Syria under its control.

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Exclusive: How Lebanon's Hariri defied Hezbollah

After hitting a dead end in efforts to defuse the crisis sweeping Lebanon, Saad al-Hariri informed a top Hezbollah official on Monday he had no choice but to quit as prime minister in defiance of the powerful Shi'ite group. The decision by the Sunni leader shocked Hussein al-Khalil, political advisor to Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, who advised him against giving in to protesters who wanted to see his coalition government toppled. The meeting described to Reuters by four senior sources from outside Hariri's Future Party captures a critical moment in the crisis that has swept Lebanon for the last two weeks as Hariri yielded to the massive street protests against the ruling elite.

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Frustration mounts as California is hit with more blackouts

Frustration and anger mounted across Northern California as the state's biggest utility began another round of fire-prevention blackouts Tuesday that could leave millions of people without electricity, some for five days or longer. The shut-offs, aimed at keeping windblown electrical equipment from sparking wildfires, came as fire crews raced to contain two major blazes in Northern and Southern California before the winds picked up dangerously again. The fires have destroyed dozens of homes in Sonoma County wine country and in the hills of Los Angeles.

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Former special counsel thinks Alexander Vindman will get Gordon Sondland in 'deep, deep legal trouble'

Things aren't looking good for U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, a former special counsel argues.Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the top Ukraine expert on the National Security Council, will testify Tuesday about his concerns about the Trump administration's interactions with Kyiv. Vindman's opening statement contradicts Sondland's claims that he never discussed former Vice President Joe Biden or his son, Hunter, with any White House or State Department official and that he never encouraged Ukraine to investigate the Bidens over Hunter Biden's ties to Ukrainian gas company, Burisma.Vindman's statement, on the other hand, claims Sondland stressed the importance of investigating the Bidens, Burisma, and Ukraine's role in the 2016 U.S. presidential election in the presence of Vindman and former NSC official Fiona Hill. Vindman will also testify that both he and Hill told Sondland his statements were inappropriate, which has been corroborated by testimony from both Hill and former U.S. diplomat to Ukraine Bill Taylor.Ryan Goodman, who once served as special counsel to the general counsel of the Department of Defense, thinks that spells bad news for Sondland, who could be in "deep, deep legal trouble" following Vindman's testimony. Stay tuned. > Sondland is in deep, deep legal trouble. > > On the left: Lieutenant Colonel Vindman's opening statement (corroborated by Fiona Hill's and Bill Taylor's testimony). > > On the right: Sondland's opening statement. > > 18 USC 1001 pic.twitter.com/rLgqx8hXiW> > -- Ryan Goodman (@rgoodlaw) October 29, 2019

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Facebook Uncovers Russian Disinformation Campaign in Africa in Prelude to 2020 U.S. Elections

Facebook announced on Wednesday that it had removed three Russian-backed influence networks from its platform that targeted several African countries including Cameroon, Mozambique, Libya, and Sudan.The networks posted information in Arabic critical of U.S. and French policies in Africa, while praising Russian initiatives in the region. Russian operatives worked with local citizens to set up Facebook accounts that appeared more authentic."They are trying to make it harder for us and civil society to try and detect their operations," Nathaniel Gleicher, head of Facebook’s cybersecurity policy, told the New York Times.Director of the Stanford Internet Observatory Alex Stamos, himself a former Facebook executive, said the Russian campaign in Africa will have implications for the 2020 presidential elections."We will see a model where American groups are used as proxies, where all the content is published under their accounts and their pages,” Stamos said.The Russian networks are linked to Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian oligarch who has been sanctioned by the U.S. for interfering in U.S. elections.When the State Department announced new sanctions on Prigozhin in September, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the U.S. will not tolerate any interference in the voting process.“We have been clear: We will not tolerate foreign interference in our elections,” said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in a statement. “The United States will continue to push back against malign actors who seek to subvert our democratic processes and we will not hesitate to impose further costs on Russia for its destabilizing and unacceptable activities.”

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Fox News Panel Speculates That Latest Trump Impeachment Witness Committed Espionage

Fox NewsFox News host Laura Ingraham and two of her guests Monday night suggested that White House national security official Alexander Vindman, who is set to testify before Congress that he heard President Trump press his Ukrainian counterpart to investigate his political opponents, is guilty of “espionage” and could be a Ukrainian double agent.During a panel discussion on The Ingraham Angle, Ingraham turned to law professor Alan Dershowitz and former Justice Department official John Yoo—author of the so-called “Torture Memos”—to weigh in on reports that Vindman will tell House impeachment investigators that he twice voiced objections to his superiors about Trump’s actions toward Ukraine.According to Ingraham, however, the really interesting part of the New York Times report on Vindman wasn’t that he raised concerns over Trump attempting to pressure a foreign government to investigate American citizens but rather that Vindman is a Ukrainian-American immigrant.“He’s a decorated colonel, by the way, in the Iraq War,” she said. “But because Colonel Vindman emigrated from Ukraine along with his family when he was a child and is fluent in Ukrainian and Russian, Ukrainian officials sought advice from him about how to deal with Mr. Giuliani, though they typically communicated in English.”“Now, wait a second, John,” Ingraham continued, addressing Yoo. “Here we have a U.S. national security official who is advising Ukraine, while working inside the White House, apparently against the president’s interest, and usually, they spoke in English. Isn’t that kind of an interesting angle on this story?!”Yoo replied that he found it “astounding” before offering his own bit of astounding speculation.“You know, some people might call that espionage,” the former Bush administration official suggested.After floating the possibility that Vindman—an Iraq War veteran with a Purple Heart—was a Ukrainian spy, Yoo said he thought Vindman’s upcoming testimony wasn’t “breaking news” because it didn’t add “any new facts” since we can “all make our judgment” on Trump’s July 25 call with the Ukrainian president.“I think that is something the American people should decide rather than just the House,” he added. “And that is the next election.”Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

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How to Eat Alone (and Like It)

By BY JESS MCHUGH from NYT Smarter Living https://ift.tt/31WLbCt

Georgia Plans to Purge 300,000 Names From Its Voter Rolls

By BY NICHOLAS CASEY from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2WrdJ5X

Stick to Sports? No Way. Deadspin Journalists Quit en Masse.

By BY MARC TRACY from NYT Business https://ift.tt/31YbsQz

Hundreds of U.S. Troops Leaving, and Also Arriving in, Syria

By BY ERIC SCHMITT AND HELENE COOPER from NYT World https://ift.tt/331hmlz

Iraq Prime Minister Pressed to Quit as Protests Clog Streets

By BY ALISSA J. RUBIN from NYT World https://ift.tt/2pqzoyQ

New top story on Hacker News: Show HN: A minimal Fortran TCP client and server

Show HN: A minimal Fortran TCP client and server
5 by milancurcic | 0 comments on Hacker News.

New top story on Hacker News: Grandmaster level in StarCraft II using multi-agent reinforcement learning

Grandmaster level in StarCraft II using multi-agent reinforcement learning
12 by Jyaif | 0 comments on Hacker News.

Trump judicial nominee breaks down during Senate hearing

Lawrence VanDyke broke down when asked whether he was biased against LGBT people.

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Comedian Kevin Hart shares emotional video after crash

The US comedian shared the video of his recovery after a severe car accident in September.

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Tuesday, 29 October 2019

Federal judge blocks Alabama abortion ban - AL.com

Federal judge blocks Alabama abortion ban AL.comView full coverage on Google News

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Why Are There So Many Fires In California?

A perfect storm of conditions have created an environment ripe for fire.

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As wildfires foul California air, residents don face masks. But they really need respirator masks

What kind of mask do you need for wildfire smoke? As wildfires blaze around San Francisco and Los Angeles, here's how to protect yourself from smoke

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Schiff to handle impeachment witness testimony in break from precedent

Under past precedent in 1974 and 1998 — the last two times the House conducted an impeachment inquiry — the House Judiciary Committee was the hub for investigations, hearings, and a committee vote on articles of impeachment.

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Alexander Vindman's Trump-Ukraine testimony: five key takeaways

Army lieutenant colonel to describe his concerns Trump’s Biden plot was undermining US foreign policy in Ukraine * Ukraine expert to testify on Trump-Zelenskiy call – liveAlexander Vindman arrives for a closed-door deposition at the US Capitol in Washington DC, on 29 October. Photograph: Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty ImagesIn his opening statement before congressional impeachment investigators on Tuesday, Lt Col Alexander S Vindman planned to describe his concerns that Donald Trump’s plot to undermine Joe Biden was undermining US foreign policy in Ukraine.Here are five key takeaways: 1 White House call summary is accurateAs the top Ukraine expert on the national security council (NSC), Vindman was on the 25 July phone call between Trump and the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy. He planned to testify that a call summary released by the White House is accurate: “As the transcript is in the public record, we are all aware of what was said.” 2 Vindman took concerns to NSC lawyerVindman planned to describe multiple scenes in which White House discussions about Ukraine policy, including discussions with Ukrainians, were interrupted by an insistence that Ukraine announce baseless investigations tied to Biden. “I did not think it was proper to demand that a foreign government investigate a US citizen, and I was worried about the implications for the US government’s support of Ukraine,” Vindman planned to say. Vindman planned to describe how on multiple occasions he took his concerns to the top lawyer for the national security counsel, as at least one other colleague did. 3 Vindman’s testimony appears to conflict with Sondland’s claimsAs multiple witnesses have previously, Vindman planned to finger ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland, as the Trump administration’s point man in extracting the “deliverable” – a Biden investigation announcement – from Ukraine. Vindman planned to say: “I stated to Ambassador Sondland that his statements were inappropriate, that the request to investigate Biden and his son had nothing to do with national security.” That testimony appears to conflict sharply with Sondland’s own claims to ignorance about any effort to negotiate a deal with Ukraine involving a Biden investigation. 4 Vindman’s family fled the former Soviet Union Vindman, a career public servant and soldier, arrived in the US at age three when his family fled the former Soviet Union. He is a US army officer, a lieutenant colonel, with two decades of experience in the military. He was decorated with a Purple Heart after being wounded in an improvised explosive device attack while deployed in Iraq. 5 White House accused Vindman of ‘espionage’ against TrumpThe White House and media allies have launched a character smear against Vindman, accusing him of disloyalty to the US and of “espionage” against Trump. Trump seemed surprised that Vindman was on the phone call and wondered on Twitter why so many people were listening: “I knew people were listening in on the call (why would I say something inappropriate?), which was fine with me, but why so many?” Trump tweeted. “Why are people that I never even heard of testifying about the call.”

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Residents flee, power cut as crews battle California fire

Cody Rodriguez never went to sleep the night two years ago when wildfire roared out of tinder-dry hills in Northern California wine country, trapping people unaware in their homes and forcing thousands of panicked residents to flee in the dark. "It has brought a lot of anxiety," Rodriguez said outside an evacuation center Sunday at Napa Valley College.

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White House: Dem resolution shows impeachment is 'illegitimate sham' | TheHill - The Hill

White House: Dem resolution shows impeachment is 'illegitimate sham' | TheHill The Hill
Newt Gingrich: Pelosi announces Trump impeachment inquiry vote – Here's what I am on the lookout for now Fox News
Schumer: 'Increasingly worried' Trump will shut down government over impeachment | TheHill The Hill
Making impeachment inquiry official undoes a Trump talking point Los Angeles Times
GOP Reps who oppose impeachment proceedings will fail in their duties Washington Examiner
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Map: Getty Fire perimeter, evacuations in Los Angeles - The Mercury News

Map: Getty Fire perimeter, evacuations in Los Angeles The Mercury NewsView full coverage on Google News

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Want to get angry? Watch this House Republican fail to answer a simple question about Ukraine. - CNN

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Wildfire in Los Angeles Threatens to Burn the Iconic Getty Center - Bloomberg TicToc

Wildfire in Los Angeles Threatens to Burn the Iconic Getty Center Bloomberg TicTocView full coverage on Google News

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CNN anchor blasts contributor Sean Duffy over 'anti-immigrant bigotry' | TheHill - The Hill

CNN anchor blasts contributor Sean Duffy over 'anti-immigrant bigotry' | TheHill The HillView full coverage on Google News

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Trump: Only crimes in 'Impeachment Hoax' committed by 'Shifty Adam Schiff' | TheHill - The Hill

Trump: Only crimes in 'Impeachment Hoax' committed by 'Shifty Adam Schiff' | TheHill The Hill
Republicans are uncomfortable defending Trump? Good. They should be. The Washington Post
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Pelosi announces full House vote on impeachment inquiry

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sought Monday to deprive President Trump of a legal and political argument against the Democrats’ impeachment inquiry, announcing she would hold a vote in the full House this Thursday that “affirms the ongoing, existing investigation.”

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Catholic priest says he denied Joe Biden Holy Communion at Mass in South Carolina because of abortion views

"Any public figure who advocates for abortion places himself or herself outside of Church teaching." Rev. Robert Morey said in a statement.

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UPDATE 7-PM Hariri resigns as Lebanon crisis turns violent

Saad al-Hariri resigned as Lebanon's prime minister on Tuesday, declaring he had hit a "dead end" in trying to resolve a crisis unleashed by huge protests against the ruling elite and plunging the country deeper into turmoil. Hariri addressed the nation after a mob loyal to the Shi'ite Muslim Hezbollah and Amal movements attacked and destroyed a protest camp set up by anti-government demonstrators in Beirut.

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Argentina’s Alberto Fernandez Has Olive Branch Coffee Meeting With Macri

(Bloomberg) -- Alberto Fernandez doesn’t take over as Argentine president until Dec. 10, but how he interacts with outgoing leader Mauricio Macri in the meantime is key to an economy in turmoil. On Monday at least the two men were talking.Fernandez arrived at the presidential palace in downtown Buenos Aires without any staff, save for a spokesman. Television networks showed pictures of the men, both in suits, shaking hands before sitting in armchairs facing each other. They met for about an hour over coffee.Later on Fernandez smiled and waved as he entered a car to leave, but he did not comment.Even that is a start for what could be a tricky transition period from a market-friendly leader who tried to enact fiscal discipline, to a left-leaning populist who has promised to increase spending for a public tired of the high cost of living and lack of strong public services.Fernandez told Macri during the meeting that he will provide details of a team to work with the Macri administration through Dec. 10, a person familiar with their discussion said. Fernandez didn’t mention anyone specific and he did not hand over a list of names, the person said. Fernandez’s adviser Santiago Cafiero will coordinate the transition team, they added.Argentine Bonds Fall After Fernandez Wins Presidential VoteMacri has been grappling with a contracting economy, high inflation, a sliding currency and a tricky debt negotiation with the International Monetary Fund. The economy could be in even worse shape by the time Fernandez takes office, so statements of intent to work together in the interim could reassure markets, investors and the public alike.A surprisingly strong win by Fernandez in a primary vote in August spooked markets, with the currency slide that followed forcing Macri to enact capital controls. In the early hours of Monday after Macri conceded the election, Fernandez was giving little away.“Hopefully those who were our opponents during these four years are conscious of what they’re leaving behind and help us rebuild the country from the ashes,” he told supporters at his campaign bunker.Fernandez Wins in Argentina as Voters Rebuff Macri’s AusterityAnalysts argue Fernandez may need to moderate his rhetoric after Macri’s coalition fared better than expected in congressional races, setting the stage for potential gridlock.“That implies greater limitations for Alberto Fernandez’s future government,” said Camila Perochena, a political science professor at University of Torcuato Di Tella in Buenos Aires. “The need to reach consensus with the opposition is becoming more evident.”Investors are waiting for Fernandez to unveil his economic team and further clues to his policy direction. His team ranges from traditional economists to unorthodox policy makers. It’s unclear how Fernandez will renegotiate Argentina’s $56 billion credit line with the IMF, a deal that’s currently suspended due to policy uncertainty.“Alberto Fernandez will have little time to find the formula for an economic turnaround,” said Nicolas Solari, director of polling firm Real Time Data. “The coalition he’s bringing to the presidency is just as broad as it is unstable.”For his part, Macri’s government moved quickly overnight to limit the market fallout from his loss, significantly tightening capital controls to stabilize the peso. Argentines can only buy $200 in greenbacks per month, sharply down from the previous ceiling put in place Sept. 1 of $10,000. Before then, dollar purchases were unlimited.Argentina’s Election and Currency Controls: All You Need to KnowThe Argentine peso gained 0.8% on Monday after the controls. Bonds declined, with spreads between U.S. Treasury notes widening 98 basis points to the highest in nearly two months. Stocks also declined with a benchmark U.S.-listed ETF falling 2.4%. A key question will be how Fernandez interacts with his powerful deputy, former president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. She was president from 2007 to 2015 and handed Macri an economy damaged by years of Peronism -- an anti-elite political movement that traditionally favors workers over business owners.Some noted Fernandez’s left-leaning remarks in his victory speech, in particular expressing support for former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva, who is in jail. He also plans to travel soon to Mexico to meet its left-wing president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.“We’ll have to see the tone of Fernandez’s administration to find consensus,” said Juan Germano, director of Argentina polling firm Isonomia. “The last four years showed there was no consensus between Kirchner’s and Macri’s parties, but with this election result, both sides have more incentives to reach consensus.”(Adds stocks trading in 14th paragraph. A previous version of the story corrected the exchange rate.)To contact the reporters on this story: Patrick Gillespie in Buenos Aires at pgillespie29@bloomberg.net;Jorgelina do Rosario in Buenos Aires at jdorosario@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Juan Pablo Spinetto at jspinetto@bloomberg.net, Rosalind MathiesonFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

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Trump says al-Baghdadi died 'screaming and crying.' U.S. officials aren't sure how he knows that.

Gen. Mark A. Milley, who watched the raid with Trump in the Situation Room, told reporters at the Pentagon that he doesn't know "what the source of that was."

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Congresswoman's exit prompts question of equity amid scandal

The resignation of a female Democratic congresswoman over a consensual, sexual relationship with a campaign aide has sparked questions about whether women are held to higher standards in public life. At the center of the controversy is Katie Hill, a first-term lawmaker from California and a rising Democratic Party star. In a video released Monday, Hill said she was stepping down because she was "fearful of what might come next" following the online publication of explicit pictures that outed her relationship with a female staffer.

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English tourists seriously injured in Australia shark attack

An English tourist had his foot bitten off by a shark while another was bitten during the attack in the Whitsunday Islands near Australia's Great Barrier Reef on Tuesday, officials said. In the latest in a string of shark attacks in the tourist area, a 28-year-old man's right foot was bitten off while a 22-year-old man suffered serious lacerations to his lower left leg, according to Mackay Base Hospital. The pair were in a "serious but stable" condition in hospital after being airlifted from the resort town of Airlie Beach, an official told AFP.

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Northern California double-whammy: Amid blackouts, massive fire forces nearly 200,000 to flee homes

Nearly 200,000 people in Northern California are under mandatory evacuation orders as the wind whips up, making the Kincade Fire even more dangerous.

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Is Trump trying to unleash the Border Patrol on all of America?

Two in three Americans live in the "border zone," a 100-mile stretch inland where some constitutional due process and privacy protections are functionally canceled in the name of border security. The zone includes entire states -- Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, nearly all of New England, and all but a tiny sliver of Michigan -- as well as about three in four of our 20 largest metro areas. Is the Trump administration trying to make it bigger?The prospect seems obviously attractive to immigration hawks like White House senior adviser Stephen Miller, known to be the president's chief influence on border policy. Yet the possible suggestion of interest in expanding the border zone comes not from Miller but acting Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Mark Morgan, who joined President Trump on stage at a law enforcement conference in Chicago this week."We will be building 450 miles of big, beautiful wall by the end of 2020," Morgan said, implausibly. "With every mile of wall that's being built, I promise you, it's not just the cities and towns on the border. I always say: Every town, every city, every state is a border town, a border city, and border state."Is that just a figure of speech? Because it's blatantly untrue -- unless the border zone goes national.My suspicion here may seem unfounded, and I hope it is. But I think there are two good reasons to be wary.The first is the nature of the border zone, which too few Americans realize exists. The Fourth Amendment protects our right "to be secure in [our] persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures" and requires specific probable cause before search warrants are issued. But at the border, CBP agents are allowed to conduct searches of bags and vehicles without meeting those requirements. And in 1953, the Justice Department issued a regulation saying these relaxed rules apply within a "reasonable distance" from the actual border, a term the DOJ defined as 100 miles.The 100-mile decision was made by unelected administrators. It wasn't open to public input, nor was it determined by our representatives in Congress. Nevertheless, the Supreme Court upheld the rule in 1976 in U.S. v Martinez-Fuerte, where the 7-2 majority wrote that usually law enforcement must have "individualized suspicion" to breach someone's privacy, but as long as the Border Patrol checkpoints are "reasonably located" (i.e. within the 100-mile range), agents can stop, search, and question motorists without any particular cause.As the minority opinion noted, there's "no principle in the jurisprudence of fundamental rights which permits constitutional limitations to be dispensed with merely because they cannot be conveniently satisfied." The fact that CBP agents typically won't be able to establish probable cause by looking at a moving vehicle should not mean they get to ignore the Constitution. That's not how rights work, and this "papers, please" style of law enforcement is fundamentally un-American.Yet even if you agree with the theory of the 100-mile rule, the practice is a disaster and sees CBP authority expanded well past what Martinez-Fuerte permitted. As Cato Institute scholar and former CIA analyst Patrick Eddington has detailed, CBP agents "elect to ignore the court's admonition in the Martinez-Fuerte ruling that 'any further detention ... must be based on consent or probable cause.'" They've "used violence to remove motorists from their vehicles when they decline to answer questions after asserting their rights;" expanded their searches to planes, buses, and trains; and used the checkpoints in service to the wars on drugs and terror. (No terrorists have ever been arrested this way.)The upshot, as the ACLU has reported in its extensive coverage of the border zone, is CBP "agents are stopping, interrogating, and searching Americans on an everyday basis with absolutely no suspicion of wrongdoing, and often in ways that our Constitution does not permit." And in the years since the 100-mile rule was created, Border Patrol agents have grown from a force of 1,100 to around 21,000, with an estimated 170 permanent "interior checkpoints." What may have been relatively innocuous at the start is now a major problem.That brings us to the second reason to be worried by Morgan's remark: The border zone as it exists today was implemented with remarkably little pushback. The Border Zone Reasonableness Restoration Act of 2019 would reduce the zone to 25 miles, but that would still include most major cities in the current designation -- and it has no legislative traction anyway.If neither Congress nor the Supreme Court objects to this status quo, why would we expect them to object to extending the border zone to include the final third of the population? If it's fine to have CBP infringing around 200 million people's Fourth Amendment rights, what's another 100 million?It's not true that every town, every city, every state is a border town, a border city, and border state. The unchallenged corruption of the border zone gives us good cause to be leery of any talk that suggests they are.

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‘Fear’ Review: 3 Men in a Shed, 1 Missing Girl on Their Minds

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Michelle Obama on white flight: 'Y'all were running from us'

The former US first lady says race and lack of understanding of migrants still divides the US and world.

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