- PoliticsYahoo News
Uneasy Democrats still hope for a white knight to save them from Biden, Warren or Sanders
Although Sen. Elizabeth Warren has gained ground on him over the course of the year, a series of polls taken after the most recent debate have been positive for Biden, including a CNN survey released Wednesday morning that showed him with his widest lead among Democratic voters since shortly after he entered the race in April: 34 percent to 19 percent for Warren and 16 percent for Sen. Bernie Sanders. That hasn't stopped establishment Democrats from worrying about his campaign or the party's chances against Donald Trump in 2020 with either Biden or one of the runner-ups, the two most liberal candidates in the race, as the likely standard bearer.
- NewsThe Guardian
Honduran woman accuses immigration agent of sexual assault over seven years
A Honduran woman living in Connecticut has accused a US immigration agent of sexually assaulting her over a period of seven years under the threat of deportation, according to a federal lawsuit. The woman, identified in the lawsuit as Jane Doe, sued the US Department of Homeland Security, the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), and the former Ice agent Wilfredo Rodriguez on Saturday, seeking $10m in damages. “My only comment is that my client had a choice: cooperate with Ice or be deported with her family,” said George Kramer, the woman's lawyer.
- NewsUSA TODAY
Missouri farmer Garland Nelson charged with murder in deaths of Wisconsin brothers
A Missouri man has been charged with murder in connection to the deaths of two Wisconsin brothers this summer. Caldwell County Sheriff Jerry Galloway announced Wednesday morning that charges were filed in against Garland Joseph Nelson, 25. Nelson is accused of killing Nicholas and Justin Diemel, ages 34 and 24, who had traveled to Missouri to meet with him regarding cattle transactions, Galloway said.
WorldAFPRussia-Turkey deal shatters Syria Kurd dreams of self-rule
The Sochi agreement defines the contours of the debacle for the Kurdish forces, who still controlled close to a third of Syria two weeks ago and have now lost almost everything. "For the Kurds, this is the end of Rojava, of their dreams of autonomy," is how Fabrice Balanche, a geographer specialised in Syrian affairs, summed it up. The fate of Rojava -- the name Kurds give to their region -- was sealed in a handshake Tuesday between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
BusinessYahoo News VideoNewt 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.
- PoliticsReuters
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.
- WorldBloomberg
Mexico Misleads on Failed Arrest of ‘Chapo’ Son: Ex-DEA Official
Mexico's government isn't being truthful about the botched attempt to capture the son of the world's most notorious drug trafficker, according to a former head of international operations for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. The administration of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador hasn't revealed that while trying to bring Ovidio Guzman Lopez into custody, security forces had caught another son of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, Mike Vigil, the former DEA official, said in an interview. Ivan Archivaldo Guzman Salazar had also been detained and let go when gunmen overpowered police, Vigil said, citing unverified intelligence he received from top Mexico police sources.
- WorldAssociated Press
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. The report said Kim criticized North Korea's policies pushed under his late father as too dependent on the South and vowed that the North would redevelop the site on its own.
- WorldPopular Mechanics
Tasmanian Tigers Are Extinct, So Why Are Locals Reporting Sightings?
The Australian government recently released a list of documented thylacine—also known as the Tasmanian tiger or Tasmanian wolf—sightings. It remains to be seen whether or not any reported thylacine sightings will be made official—something made especially difficult with no photographic proof or other hard evidence. If the creatures are extinct, there may still be hope to see a living thylacine as scientists have replicated their DNA and may one day be able to use the genetic material to clone the animal.
- PoliticsYahoo News
Top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine offers damning testimony
The top U.S. emissary to Ukraine painted a devastating portrait in testimony Tuesday on Capitol Hill of what appeared to be White House-directed efforts to pressure the government in Kiev to investigate a Democratic political rival. American diplomacy was conducted along two “channels,” according to William B. Taylor Jr., the senior U.S. diplomat to Ukraine. As Taylor explained to congressional investigators on Tuesday, one was the “regular, formal” channel, which included “the bulk of the U.S. effort to support Ukraine against the Russian invasion” that has been a persistent threat for a half-decade.
- NewsNational Review
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.” Educat...
- BusinessCar and Driver
See Photos of the New Honda Fit
The new fourth-generation Fit hatchback is here, but its prospects for the U.S. are not looking good. From Car and Driver
NewsAFPUS 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.
- PoliticsThe Guardian
Hillary Clinton's attacks on Tulsi Gabbard are embarrassing
Hillary 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. 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. Related: It was gutsy of Hillary Clinton to stand by Bill.
- WorldThe National Interest
Can Israel Fend off an Iranian Missile or Drone Attack?
The IDF's missile defense shield is composed of four layers: the iconic Iron Dome system for intercepting short-range rockets, David's Sling for medium-range rockets, Arrow-2 against intermediate-range ballistic missiles, and Arrow-3 against ICBM's and potentially satellites. Widely seen as a class-leading missile defense system when it was introduced in 2011, Iron Dome has since come under criticism by several revisionist defense commentators. MIT Professor Ted Postol authored a series of influential if not controversial articles arguing that Iron Dome's true interception rate -- that is, its ability to strike and destroy a rocket's warhead rather than its fuselage-- was under 50%.
- WorldReuters
UPDATE 3-China plans to replace Hong Kong leader Lam with 'interim' chief executive -FT
China is drawing up a plan to replace Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam with an "interim" chief executive, the Financial Times reported, citing people briefed on the deliberations, which would bring to a close Lam's rule after months of often-violent pro-democracy protests. Lam has become a lightning rod for protests over fears that Beijing is tightening its grip, limiting the freedoms enjoyed under the "one country, two systems" principle enshrined when colonial ruler Britain handed Hong Kong back to China in 1997. Sources told the FT that officials in China want the situation in Hong Kong to stabilise before making a final decision, as they do not want to be seen to be giving in to violence.
- NewsAssociated Press
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.
- WorldThe Independent
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. Image scans show debris surrounding the vessel on the sea floor.
- PoliticsYahoo News
Trump’s 'lynching' tweet draws outrage — and some Republican support
Leading Republicans rushed to defend President Trump's controversial tweet Tuesday in which he portrayed himself as the victim of a “lynching” by House Democrats pursuing his impeachment. “Lynching is a reprehensible stain on this nation's history, as is this President,” Harris tweeted. “Lynching is an act of terror used to uphold white supremacy,” Booker tweeted.
- WorldThe Week
America's consumer paradise means hell on Earth for Chinese Muslims
It is a description of the conditions under which perhaps as many as a million Uighur Muslims live in China in 2019. China, in case you had forgotten, is the United States' largest trading partner, the country whose achievements in everything from infrastructure to STEM education we are supposed to be fawning over, the country our president is an idiot for wanting to tangle with, and prominent sports figures are officially not allowed to criticize. In the last six or so years they have created hell on Earth for the country's largest Turkic ethnic minority group in the ostensibly autonomous Xinjiang region.
- WorldThe Telegraph
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.
WorldAFPIraqi 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.
- PoliticsNational Review
Biden Regains Lead Over Democratic 2020 Rivals in New National Poll
Biden enjoys the support of 34 percent of Democratic and Democratic-leaning registered voters, the highest level of support CNN has recorded since just after his campaign's April launch, according to the poll, which was conducted by SSRS and published Wednesday. Trailing him are Senator Elizabeth Warren at 19 percent and Senator Bernie Sanders at 16 percent. South Bend, Ind. Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Senator Kamala Harris are at 6 percent each, Senator Amy Klobuchar and former El Paso congressman Beto O'Rourke are at 3 percent, and businessman Andrew Yang polls at 2 percent.
- WorldThe National Interest
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. “Commentary from Tailhook 2019 suggests a new crisis is at hand,” James Holmes, a professor at the U.S. Naval War College in Rhode Island, wrote in Proceedings, the professional journal of the U.S. Naval Institute.
- BusinessReuters
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. But his austerity drive has left media outlets reeling, and raised questions about whether Lopez Obrador is trying to influence coverage. 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.
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