- PoliticsYahoo News
Romney speculates Turkey called Trump's bluff: 'Are we so weak and inept?'
In an impassioned speech on the Senate floor Thursday, Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, blasted President Trump's decision to pull troops from defensive positions in Syria, and brought up the possibility that “Turkey may have called America's bluff” in an exchange between Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. “Are we so weak and inept diplomatically that Turkey forced the hand of the United States of America? Turkey?” Romney said.
- NewsYahoo News
Buttigieg, O'Rourke clash over assault-rifle buyback plan
At Tuesday night's Democratic primary debate, presidential candidates Beto O'Rourke and Pete Buttigieg escalated their disagreement over O'Rourke's proposal for mandatory buybacks of assault weapons. “Every single one of them is an instrument of terror,” said former Texas Rep. O'Rourke when asked how he planned to take away assault weapons from American gun owners, registered or unregistered. O'Rourke in a previous debate said, “Hell, yes,” he would as president establish a mandatory government buyback program for AK-47 and AR-15 rifles but without going into details of how it would be enforced.
WorldAssociated PressChina detains 2 US citizens who ran teaching program
China said Thursday it detained two U.S. citizens on suspicion of organizing others to illegally cross the border, amid sharpening tensions between the sides over trade, technology and other sensitive issues. Police in the eastern province of Jiangsu arrested Alyssa Petersen and Jacob Harlan on Sept. 27 and Sept. 29, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said. "The department handling the case has informed the U.S. Consulate General in Shanghai in a timely manner, arranged U.S. diplomats to conduct consular visits and protected the legitimate rights and interests of the two," Geng said at a regular press briefing.
- CelebrityReuters
UPDATE 1-Plane carrying UK's William and Kate twice aborts Pakistan landing in severe turbulence
Britain's Prince William said he and his wife Kate were fine after a Royal Air Force plane carrying the royal couple was forced to abort a landing in Islamabad twice on Thursday and return to Lahore after being caught in a severe thunderstorm. The RAF Voyager plane carrying the royals, who are on a four-day official visit to Pakistan, tried to land twice, at Rawalpindi air base and Islamabad international, before it decided to return to Lahore. William, who has previously worked as a search and rescue helicopter pilot, told reporters after they landed that he and Kate were fine, joking that the problems had been caused because he was flying the plane.
- WorldBloomberg
Hong Kong Activist Renews Call for March After Hammer Attack
Jimmy Sham -- convenor of the Civil Human Rights Front, which has organized many of the city's largest peaceful protests -- issued a plea from his hospital bed Thursday for police to allow the march go ahead in the Tsim Tsa Tsui area as planned. Sham was assaulted by four to five men Wednesday while on his way to a meeting in nearby Mong Kok -- the second time he's been attacked since August. “When Jimmy was at his street counter, many of the citizens expressed that they really hope there will be a safe march on Sunday,” the Civil Human Rights Front said in a statement Thursday.
- WorldThe Telegraph
Mystery as plane carrying Russian arms smugglers crashes in Congo
The Democratic Republic of Congo has one of the world's worst aviation safety records, so reports that an aircraft had tumbled into a remote forest last week caused few international ripples. Since then, however, a deepening mystery over the nature of the cargo and the identity of those on board has left the Congolese government facing awkward questions. The passengers were identified as the personal chauffeur of Felix Tshisekedi, Congo's president, and three of his bodyguards.
- WorldThe National Interest
Meet the Ohio-Class: America's Nuclear Doomsday Submarines
Each of the 170-meter-long vessels can carry twenty-four Trident II submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) which can be fired from underwater to strike at targets more than seven thousand miles away depending on the load. As a Trident II reenters the atmosphere at speeds of up to Mach 24, it splits into up to eight independent reentry vehicles, each with a 100- or 475-kiloton nuclear warhead. In short, a full salvo from an Ohio-class submarine—which can be launched in less than one minute—could unleash up to 192 nuclear warheads to wipe twenty-four cities off the map.
- CelebrityUSA TODAY
Doing it for the 'gram? Royal Caribbean says no to that, bans guest from ever sailing again
Doing it for the 'gram? Royal Caribbean Cruises doesn't think that's a good idea, particularly when it's dangerous. Earlier this week on the Allure of the Seas a guest was observed recklessly and dangerously posing for a photo by standing on her stateroom balcony railing with the help of her companion," Jonathon Fishman, corporate reputation manager for Royal Caribbean Cruises, told USA TODAY in an email.
WorldAFP35 foreigners dead in Saudi bus crash
Thirty-five foreigners were killed and four others injured when a bus collided with another heavy vehicle near the Islamic holy city of Medina, Saudi state media said on Thursday. The accident on Wednesday evening involved the collision of "a private chartered bus... with a heavy vehicle" near the western city, a spokesman for Medina police said, according to the official Saudi Press Agency.
- PoliticsYahoo News
Pelosi describes Trump's 'very serious meltdown' during White House meeting on Syria
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi walked out of a meeting with Donald Trump about the crisis in Syria Wednesday after she said the president had had a “very serious meltdown” and insulted her in front of other congressional leaders. Now we have to pray for his health, because this was a very serious meltdown on the part of the president,” Pelosi told reporters on Capitol Hill. It was the first face-to-face meeting between Trump and Pelosi since House Democrats began their impeachment inquiry of the president in late September, and it came just hours after the House passed a resolution by a bipartisan vote of 354 to 60 rebuking the president for abandoning Kurdish militias that the U.S. had recruited to fight ISIS.
- PoliticsThe Daily Beast
Trevor Noah Exposes Eric and Don Jr.’s Hunter Biden Nepotism Hypocrisy
What I don't understand is why these people are complaining about that. With that, he cut to a clip of Donald Trump Jr. accusing Hunter Biden of trading on his name and Eric Trump arguing that he and his brother are exempt from criticism because they do not sit on any corporate boards. First of all, I'm not surprised nobody has put Beavis and Forehead on any corporate boards,” Noah said.
- NewsAssociated Press
The Latest: Probe after Chicago chief found lying in car
The Latest on Chicago police Superintendent Eddie Johnson being found lying in car (all times local): 5:25 p.m. Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson has asked the department to investigate his actions after he was found lying down in a car near his home. A passerby called 911 Thursday after finding Johnson in a car parked near a stop sign.
- WorldReuters
The North Korean history behind Kim Jong Un's mountain horse ride
North Korea's ruling party newspaper Rodong Sinmun devoted its front page on Thursday to making sure Kim's impoverished people understood the significance of his ride up Mount Paektu, saying it symbolized their leader's resolve to protect the country in the face of outside pressure. North Korea is under a number of international economic sanctions, imposed because of its development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, and a record of human rights abuses. Many ordinary North Koreans are facing food shortages, international aid agencies say, due in part to government failures, poor weather, and the international sanctions.
- LifestyleCar and Driver
How Can This Be? The Mid-Engine Corvette's Forward Visibility is Actually Worse Than the Front-Engine C7's
We were hoping that one of the many benefits of having a Chevrolet Corvette with its engine relocated behind the occupants was a much improved view forward. However, our test data shows that not only is it not great among the mid-engine crowd, the C8's forward view over the hood is actually worse than the previous-generation Corvette's. It's a missed opportunity on an otherwise revolutionary new Corvette.
U.S.Yahoo News VideoA N.J. school district wants to ban students from attending prom if they have more than $75 in school lunch debt
A school district in New Jersey passed a new policy this week that will allow schools to bar students from attending prom if they have a school lunch debt above $75.
- LifestyleArchitectural Digest
Peek Inside Eero Saarinen’s Iconic General Motors Technical Center
A new book dives into the rarely seen archives of the iconic midcentury-modern campus in Warren, Michigan Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
- WorldNational Review
U.S. Indicts Turkish Bank With Ties to Giuliani Client For Evading Iran Sanctions
The U.S. Justice Department on Tuesday indicted Turkey's second-largest bank on charges of fraud and money laundering, accusing it of helping Iran evade sanctions implemented to curb its nuclear program. Halbank was reportedly involved in the largest Iran sanctions violation to date, sending billions of dollars in gold and cash to Iran in exchange for oil and gas. “This is one of the most serious Iran sanctions violations we have seen, and no business should profit from evading our laws or risking our national security,” Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers said in a statement released by the Justice Department.
- NewsUSA TODAY
Hundreds of police officers have been labeled liars. Some still help send people to prison.
Last year, the state's attorney's office started reviewing court cases involving at least 25 Baltimore police officers because of misconduct charges against them. Prosecutors recently began asking the courts to vacate nearly 800 convictions that involved testimony or investigations by these officers – and more could be coming as the office continues to gather information. More than 530 Baltimore police officers have been added to an internal notification system, and defense attorneys are contacted if those officers are considered by prosecutors as witnesses.
- PoliticsYahoo News
Republicans infuriated by Schiff's secrecy
That pattern of secrecy and strategic leaks has enraged congressional Republicans, who charge that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff are seeking to remove the president from office while circumventing the kind of public accounting that an impeachment should involve. Republicans know that making their case will be difficult on constitutional grounds, and their strongest argument may be with appearances. One Republican staffer involved in the impeachment process, and who could only speak to Yahoo News on the condition of anonymity, complained that Democrats were using “brute force” by not allowing the minority party to call its own witnesses behind closed d...
WorldAFPPutin signals Russia's return to Africa with summit
President Vladimir Putin hosts dozens of African leaders next week as Russia seeks to reassert its influence on the continent and beyond. The heads of some 35 African countries are expected for the first Africa-Russia Summit in the Black Sea resort of Sochi next Wednesday and Thursday. For Putin, the summit is a chance to revive Soviet-era relationships and build new alliances, bolstering Moscow's global clout in the face of confrontation with the West.
- NewsAssociated Press
Controlled blasts to bring down cranes at collapse site
Two giant, badly damaged construction cranes towering over a partially collapsed hotel project are to be demolished Friday with a series of controlled explosions in hopes of dropping them straight down without damaging nearby businesses and historic buildings around the site at the edge of the French Quarter. Fire Chief Tim McConnell said work was beginning Thursday in hopes of bringing the multi-ton structures down ahead of approaching tropical weather. Forecasters said a tropical storm could form in the Gulf of Mexico and affect the area by Friday night.
- PoliticsReuters
Explainer: Democrats Warren and Sanders want wealth tax; economists explain how it works
From 1982 to 2018 the share of U.S. wealth held by the 400 richest Americans is estimated to have grown from 1% to around 3.5%, or probably around $3 trillion. According to Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman, the University of California at Berkeley economists who developed that estimate, that is in part because the wealthiest American families declare only a small portion of their actual economic gains in any given year as income, while leaving the rest invested in stocks and other assets, to grow in value. Saez has been involved in a series of what are considered groundbreaking studies of U.S. income, inequality and economic mobility that involved both developing techniques to impute income based on holdings of wealth, and extensive access to U.S. Internal Revenue Service records.
- NewsThe Daily Beast
Washington Group Fighting Affirmative Action Used Proud Boys As Guards
An anti-affirmative action campaign used members of the Proud Boys for security—and is now claiming it didn't realize its protection team was an organization labeled a hate group. On Nov. 5, voters in Washington state are set to decide on the future of Referendum 88, a measure that would allow affirmative action hiring in public jobs. The measure has support from civil rights groups like the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), but faces opposition from a state veterans group and the organization Washington Asians for Equality, which claims the measure would lead to preferential treatment for some groups.
- NewsThe Guardian
Thirty years after devastating quake, is San Francisco ready for the next?
On the afternoon of 17 October 1989, a 6.9-magnitude earthquake rocked the San Francisco Bay Area, killing 63 people and causing $13bn in damages as it toppled a chunk of the Bay Bridge, colapsed a section of freeway in Oakland, and crumbled thousands of buildings from San Francisco to Santa Cruz. Thirty years later, California will launch an earthquake early warning app, the first to cover the whole state, developed by UC Berkeley and the California Office of Emergency Services. The decades since the Loma Prieta quake have been remarkably quiet – yet it's not a matter of if, but when, the next large earthquake will rattle the Bay Area, and the consequences will undoubtedly be severe.
- PoliticsBloomberg
Mexico Throws $900 Million at Labor to Entice Democrats on USMCA
Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is pledging close to $1 billion to implement a law to improve labor conditions that U.S. Democrats say is key to passing a stalled North American trade accord. Mexico's Finance Ministry will ask lawmakers to boost the budget that was already presented to congress by $69 million for next year, Lopez Obrador stated in a letter he sent to U.S. Representative Richard Neal, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. He promised another $830 million over the following three years to fund the labor overhaul.
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