| Nobel laureate starts fund for survivors of sexual violence Posted: 21 Sep 2019 05:31 PM PDT  The Nobel Peace Prize-winning surgeon whose hospital in war-torn Congo has treated over 50,000 victims of sexual violence has launched a fund with the goal of providing reparations for survivors of conflicts around the world. Dr. Denis Mukwege said in an interview Saturday that he and his team at Panzi Hospital in eastern Bukavu province could physically and mentally help victims of rape and other abuse, but that the only way to really heal survivors is for society to accept the wrong that was done to them through reparations. Mukwege said reparations can be individual or collective, symbolic or financial, depending on the victim, the case and the context.
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| Iran's Zarif: U.S. 'posturing' by sending troops to Saudi Arabia in wake of attacks Posted: 21 Sep 2019 04:47 PM PDT ![Iran's Zarif: U.S. 'posturing' by sending troops to Saudi Arabia in wake of attacks]( "Iran's Zarif: U.S. 'posturing' by sending troops to Saudi Arabia in wake of attacks") Zarif again denied that Iran had anything to do with the attacks.
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| AP interview: Colombia says Maduro's "brutality" must end Posted: 21 Sep 2019 04:29 PM PDT  Colombia's president compared Nicolás Maduro to Serbian war criminal Slobodan Milosevic as he goes on a diplomatic offensive to corral the Venezuelan socialist, warning that he would be making a "stupid" mistake if he were to attack his U.S.-backed neighbor. Ivan Duque made the comments in an interview Saturday with The Associated Press before traveling to New York where he is expected to condemn Maduro before the United Nations General Assembly as an abusive autocrat. Duque believes Maduro is not only responsible for the country's humanitarian catastrophe but is also now a threat to regional stability for his alleged harboring of Colombian rebels.
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| Labour Party Backs Away From Civil War as Conference Starts Posted: 21 Sep 2019 02:43 PM PDT ![Labour Party Backs Away From Civil War as Conference Starts]( "Labour Party Backs Away From Civil War as Conference Starts") (Bloomberg) -- A motion to oust Tom Watson, deputy leader of the U.K.'s main opposition Labour Party, was withdrawn after it opened up divisions on the first day of the party's conference, threatening to overshadow preparations for a general election.The ruling National Executive Committee was due to vote on the surprise move on Saturday morning as delegates met in Brighton, southern England, for a gathering that was supposed to kick start the party's campaign to oust Prime Minister Boris Johnson.The plan to cut Watson's position sparked fury from Labour members of Parliament and dominated the media on Saturday morning, eclipsing the party's policy announcements. The chatter on Sunday morning looks set to be clouded by the resignation of Corbyn's aide Andrew Fisher, reported by the Sunday Times to have said Corbyn won't win the next general election."We've had a bad start to our conference," Watson, who earlier referred to the attempt to strip him of his job as "a drive-by shooting," told reporters as he arrived in Brighton on Saturday evening. The party needs "to reunite the conference after what has been, frankly, quite a ridiculous start to it and totally unnecessary," he said.Watson, who was elected on a separate mandate from leader Jeremy Corbyn, has publicly disagreed with the leadership on Brexit policy. He has been pushing for a second referendum before a general election is held and for the party to support remaining in the European Union.The NEC also sought to clarify Labour's Brexit policy with a draft of a statement that will be put to delegates on Monday. It said that if the party wins a general election it will negotiate a "sensible" deal with the EU within three months before putting it to a referendum, with remaining in the bloc the other option in the ballot.The conference will debate Brexit on Monday afternoon and will vote on motions brought by constituencies from across the country once they have been consolidated in a meeting on Sunday night. The issue came 14th in a ballot of priorities for delegates on Saturday, securing one of the 20 slots for debate.The deputy leader said the move to abolish his post was driven by Jon Lansman, who founded and runs Momentum, a grassroots group set up to support Corbyn's leadership, and Len McCluskey, leader of the Unite labor union, the party's biggest financial backer.Lansman said after the motion was withdrawn that he welcomes and supports the party's plan to review the deputy leader's role. He also appeared to recognize the division his move had caused."We need to make sure the deputy leader role is properly accountable to the membership while also unifying the party at conference," he tweeted. "This review is absolutely the best way of doing that."The attempts to remove Watson were criticized by prominent Labour MPs including former leader Ed Miliband and Yvette Cooper.Labour plans to use its annual conference to set out its agenda for the expected general election and highlight dividing lines from Johnson's Conservative Party."What we need at this time is unity and a focus on winning the upcoming election," Dave Prentis, general secretary of the labor union Unison, said in a statement. "Anything else is a betrayal of Unison members and working people everywhere -- all of whom are relying on us to deliver a Labour government."(Adds departure of Corbyn aide in third paragraph.)To contact the reporters on this story: Thomas Penny in London at tpenny@bloomberg.net;James Amott in London at jamott@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Andrew Davis at abdavis@bloomberg.net, Stuart BiggsFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Iran vows ‘destruction of any aggressor’ as US moves troops to Saudi Arabia Posted: 21 Sep 2019 02:19 PM PDT  Iran has threatened "the full destruction of any aggressor" after the Pentagon said the US would deploy additional troops and military equipment to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in the wake of attacks on major oil sites.Major General Hossein Salami told state media the Revolutionary Guard was prepared for "any scenario" and that a retaliatory attack on Iran from US or Saudi forces would provoke "an all-out war".
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| Iran's Guard says ready for 'any scenario' amid US standoff Posted: 21 Sep 2019 01:25 PM PDT  Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard is ready for combat and "any scenario," its chief commander said Saturday, as the country's nuclear deal with world powers collapses and the U.S. alleged Iran was behind a weekend attack on major oil sites in Saudi Arabia that shook global energy markets. Iran has denied involvement in the Sept. 14 attack that was initially claimed by Yemen's Iranian-backed Houthi rebels.
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| How the United States Could Lose Iraq Posted: 21 Sep 2019 01:11 PM PDT  There is a battle for influence in Iraq today, and Iran is winning.
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| The Key to Understanding Vladimir Putin Posted: 21 Sep 2019 01:08 PM PDT  It is common to ascribe America's growing difficulties with Russia to President Vladimir Putin personally, but the sources of Russian discontent predate Putin's presidency.
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| Rare protests in Egypt call for president to step down Posted: 21 Sep 2019 12:46 PM PDT  Rare anti-government protests broke out in several Egyptian cities late Friday calling on President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi to step down. The small street demonstrations were quickly dispersed by riot police using batons and tear gas. As defense minister, he led the military's overthrow of an elected but divisive Islamist president in 2013, amid mass protests against that president's brief rule.
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| U.S. Plan to Add Mideast Troops After Attack Draws Pelosi Rebuke Posted: 21 Sep 2019 11:37 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. will send a "moderate" number of troops to the Middle East and additional missile defense capabilities to Saudi Arabia in response to last weekend's attack on oil facilities, top Pentagon officials said. The top Democrat in Congress said the actions are unacceptable.Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said Friday that the decision came at the request of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and represented a "first step" in the U.S. response. He reiterated U.S. statements that evidence collected to date shows Iran was responsible for the attacks. The briefing by Esper and General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, followed a meeting of national security officials at the White House."Iran is waging a deliberate campaign to destabilize the Middle East," Esper told reporters at the Pentagon. He added that the U.S. has shown "great restraint" in responding so far, but called the strike on Saudi Aramco facilities on Saturday a "dramatic escalation."Esper and Dunford are still deciding on the specific number of troops and weapons systems but said the personnel deployment will be relatively small, not numbering in the thousands, and that more details would be forthcoming.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Saturday said the decision is an attempt by the administration to circumvent the will of Congress, which adopted resolutions to block arms sales to the Saudis and U.A.E. and condemn the Saudis for the "continued assault" on men, women and children."These unacceptable actions are cause for alarm," Pelosi said Saturday in a statement. "Americans are weary of war, and have no interest in entering another Middle East conflict, particularly on behalf of Saudi Arabia."In addition to the U.S. missile defense assistance, Esper said "we are calling on many other countries who all have these capabilities to do two things -- stand up and condemn these attacks" and also contribute equipment.U.S. and Saudi analyses of the attack have described the strike as complex, involving a mix of low-flying drones and cruise missiles coming from the north. The attack exposed glaring vulnerabilities in Saudi Arabia's defense capabilities despite having spent hundreds of billions of dollars on weaponry in recent years.Swarms of Drones"There's an international action led by the U.S. and in coordination with the Saudi kingdom to protect the navigation in the gulf and the Arabian sea," Saudi Arabia's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel Al-Jubeir said in a news conference in Riyadh on Saturday. This way "tankers and oil supplies are not subject to any complications from Iran," he said.Saudi Arabia has already taken delivery of Patriot-3 hit-to-kill missiles bought years ago to defend against cruise and ballistic missiles. The kingdom earlier this year finalized a long-sought after contract for Lockheed Martin Corp.'s Thaad missile interceptors designed to intercept ballistic missiles at higher altitudes. It's not known whether any Thaad batteries have been delivered."No single system is going to be able to defend against a threat like" the combination of systems launched against Saudi Arabia last week, Dunford said. "But a layered system of defensive capabilities would mitigate the risk of swarms of drones or other attacks that may come from Iran."U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo, who has repeatedly said Iran was responsible for the attack, returned early Friday from a two-day trip to Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E., saying he wanted to begin building a coalition that would organize a response to Iran.During a news conference earlier Friday, President Donald Trump signaled he's trying to avoid a military conflict. Trump campaigned in 2016 on getting the U.S. out of Mideast conflicts and he's repeatedly criticized the second U.S. invasion of Iraq."I will say I think the sanctions work, and the military would work," Trump told reporters. "But that's a very severe form of winning."On Friday the Treasury Department announced it is sanctioning Iran's central bank and sovereign wealth fund, a move aimed at squelching any remaining trade the country conducts with Europe and Asia.The Blame GameIranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif warned that any U.S. or Saudi strike on his country in response to the attacks on the kingdom's critical oil facilities would lead to "all-out war.""I know that we didn't do it," Zarif told CNN. "I know that the Houthis made a statement that they did it."Zarif later said in a post on Twitter that it was "curious" the Saudis "retaliated" against Yemen when Iran was blamed for the attacks. "It is clear that even the Saudis themselves don't believe the fiction of Iranian involvement."Yemeni Shiite Houthi rebel leader Mahdi al-Mashat announced Friday the halt of drone and ballistic missile attacks on Saudi Arabia. He also called on the Saudi-led coalition to lift the blockade on the port of Hodeidah and reopen Sana'a International Airport."We judge other parties by their deeds and actions and not by their words," Saudi Arabia's Al-Jubeir said.\--With assistance from Dana El Baltaji, Donna Abu-Nasr and Salma El Wardany.To contact the reporters on this story: Tony Capaccio in Washington at acapaccio@bloomberg.net;Glen Carey in Washington at gcarey8@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Bill Faries at wfaries@bloomberg.net, Kevin WhitelawFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| IS claims Iraq minibus bombing that killed 12 Posted: 21 Sep 2019 11:24 AM PDT  The Islamic State group claimed responsibility Saturday for a minibus bombing in Iraq a day earlier, which killed 12 people outside the Shiite holy city of Karbala. The bombing was one of the biggest attacks targeting civilians since the extremist group was declared defeated inside Iraq in 2017. The group's sleeper cells continue to wage an insurgency and carry out sporadic attacks across the country.
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| Behind the Whistleblower Case, a Long-Held Trump Grudge Toward Ukraine Posted: 21 Sep 2019 11:23 AM PDT  WASHINGTON -- For months this spring and summer, Ukraine's newly elected president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, tried to deflect pressure from President Donald Trump and his allies to pursue investigations into former Vice President Joe Biden, Biden's son and other Trump rivals.The pressure was so relentless that Zelenskiy dispatched one of his closest aides to open a line of communication with Rudy Giuliani, one of Trump's personal lawyers. Giuliani was the loudest voice among those demanding that Ukraine look at Biden's dealings with the country when he was vice president at the same time his younger son, Hunter Biden, was doing business there, and also the release by Ukrainians in 2016 of damaging information about a top Trump campaign aide.Over breakfast in early July at the Trump International Hotel, Zelenskiy's aide asked the State Department's envoy to Ukraine for help connecting to Giuliani. Several days later, the aide discussed with Giuliani by phone the prospective investigations as well as something the Ukrainians wanted: a White House meeting between Zelenskiy and Trump.But if Zelenskiy's goal was to reduce the pressure to pursue the investigations and win more support from the White House -- not least for Ukraine's fight against Russia -- he would be disappointed.On July 25, two weeks after the first call between Zelenskiy's aide, Andriy Yermak, and Giuliani, Zelenskiy had a call of his own with Trump. During their conversation, Trump pressed for an investigation into Biden and repeatedly urged Zelenskiy to work with Giuliani, according to people familiar with the call.In the weeks after the call, events unfolded rapidly in a way that alarmed some officials in both countries. They interpreted the discussions as dangling support to Ukraine in exchange for political beneficial investigations.On Aug. 12, a whistleblower filed a complaint with the intelligence community inspector general that was at least in part about Trump's dealings with Ukraine, according to two people familiar with the matter.Around the same time, Giuliani met face-to-face in Spain with Yermak to press again for the investigations and to discuss the status of the prospective Trump-Zelenskiy meeting. The State Department acknowledged that its envoy had helped connect Giuliani and Yermak, and Giuliani said he briefed the department on his discussions.Then, in late August, the Ukrainians learned that a package of U.S. military assistance was being delayed by the White House, because, Vice President Mike Pence later explained after a meeting with Zelenskiy, he and Trump "have great concerns about issues of corruption."That sequence of events is now at the heart of a clash between congressional Democrats and the White House over whether Trump used the powers of his office and U.S. foreign policy in an effort to seek damaging information about a political rival. The conflict has been fueled in recent days by the administration's refusal to allow the intelligence community inspector general to disclose to Congress any information about the complaint.The dispute has further stoked calls among House Democrats to advance impeachment proceedings against the president . Trump's open backing for a Ukrainian investigation into the Bidens -- "Somebody ought to look into that," he told reporters in the Oval Office on Friday -- is especially striking for coming soon after the special counsel's lengthy investigation into whether Trump encouraged or accepted help from Russia in the 2016 campaign.The situation has also highlighted Trump's grudge against Ukraine, a close ally that has long enjoyed bipartisan support as it seeks to build a stable democracy and hold off aggression from its hostile neighbor to the east, Russia.Trump has often struck a less-than-condemnatory tone toward Russian aggression, including its interference on his behalf in the 2016 presidential election, and its 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, which Trump said last month should no longer prevent Russia from rejoining the Group of 7 industrialized nations.Only after Congress put intense bipartisan pressure on the administration did Trump release the military assistance package to Ukraine last week.After delays in scheduling a White House meeting for Zelenskiy, and the cancellation of a trip by Trump to Europe during which the two would have met in person for the first time, a meeting was finally added to Trump's calendar for Wednesday in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. Privately, Trump has had harsh words about Ukraine, a former Soviet state. He has been dismissive of his own administration's recommendations that he throw the full support of the U.S. government to Zelenskiy, a former comedian and political neophyte who is seen in the West as a reformer elected with a mandate to stop both Russian aggression and the political corruption that has long plagued the country.In May, a delegation of U.S. officials returned from Zelenskiy's inauguration praising the new president and urging Trump to meet with him, arguing that Zelenskiy faced enormous headwinds and needed American support. The future of Ukraine, they said during an Oval Office meeting with Trump, would be decided in the next six months.Trump was not sympathetic. "They're terrible people," he said of Ukrainian politicians, according to people familiar with the meeting. "They're all corrupt and they tried to take me down."The skepticism harbored by Trump and Giuliani toward the Ukrainian government is derived at least partly from their belief that officials in the Ukrainian government of the time supported Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign and tried to sabotage Trump's.Trump's campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, was forced to resign after anti-corruption prosecutors in Ukraine disclosed records showing that a Russia-aligned political party had earmarked payments for him from an illegal slush fund.Giuliani has claimed without evidence that the records were doctored, and one of the matters into which he has sought an investigation is the records' provenance and release, including whether Ukrainian officials improperly worked with American allies of Clinton's to use the records to generate law enforcement and news media scrutiny of Manafort in an effort to damage Trump's campaign.Giuliani contends that the circumstances around the records could undermine the legitimacy of the special counsel's investigation. Manafort is serving a seven-and-a-half-year prison sentence on charges brought by the special counsel related to his work in Ukraine. Even after Manafort pleaded guilty to some of the charges, Giuliani consulted with Manafort's lawyers about ways to raise doubts about the ledger as a means to question the special counsel's investigation. Giuliani's assertions about Ukraine often closely parallel Trump's claims.As far back as the summer of 2017, Trump posted on Twitter about "Ukrainian efforts to sabotage Trump campaign" and bolster Clinton, demanding, "So where is the investigation."The other matter involves the overlap between Biden's diplomacy in Ukraine and his son's involvement in a gas company owned by a Ukrainian oligarch.Biden is a leading contender for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, and Giuliani has acknowledged that such an investigation could damage him.Trump has called attention to the scrutiny of Hunter Biden, and to questions about the former vice president's involvement in the removal of a Ukrainian prosecutor whose office had authority over investigations of the oligarch whose company paid Hunter Biden.The former vice president's support for the removal of the Ukrainian prosecutor was consistent with the administration's policy and the anti-corruption goals of the Western allies. But State Department officials at the time were concerned that Hunter Biden's work for the gas company could complicate his father's diplomacy in Ukraine.On Friday, Biden dismissed Trump's criticism.The president has suggested he would like Attorney General William Barr to look into any material gathered by the Ukrainian prosecutors on the matters.Starting almost a year ago, Giuliani, a former federal prosecutor and New York mayor, enlisted intermediaries in a monthslong effort to build interest in the Ukrainian inquiries. They worked with prosecutors under the former Ukrainian government to gather information about the investigations.After Zelenskiy's victory, Giuliani planned a trip to Ukraine in May to try to press Zelenskiy's team to pursue the investigations and to meet with people Giuliani believed would have insights into the new administration and the investigations he was pushing. "We're not meddling in an election, we're meddling in an investigation, which we have a right to do," Giuliani said at the time.After the planned trip prompted a backlash from Democrats accusing him of trying to enlist foreign assistance to help Trump's reelection, Giuliani canceled the trip at the last minute. He accused Zelenskiy's allies of planning a "set up."Zelenskiy's transition team, not wanting to be seen as taking sides in U.S. politics, rebuffed a request from Giuliani for a meeting with the new president, a former adviser to Zelenskiy, Serhiy Leshchenko, said in an interview."It was clear that the Zelenskiy team doesn't want to interfere in American politics," Leshchenko said. "They were very angry about this issue."Leshchenko and two other Ukrainians, all of them young, Western-leaning politicians and veterans of the 2014 revolution, said in interviews that Giuliani's efforts created the impression that the Trump administration's willingness to back Zelenskiy was linked to his government's readiness to pursue the investigations sought by Trump's allies.When it became clear that he would not be granted an audience with the incoming Ukrainian president, Giuliani asserted in an interview on Fox News that Zelenskiy was being advised by "people who are the enemies" of Trump, including Leshchenko.Giuliani seemed to be referring to Leshchenko's role in helping to draw attention to reports about the "black ledger" book that detailed $12.7 million in off-the-books payments to Manafort, who did extensive work in Ukraine for Viktor Yanukovych, the disgraced former president.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
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| Youth leaders at UN demand bold climate change action Posted: 21 Sep 2019 10:23 AM PDT  Fresh off the climate strike that took hundreds of thousands of young people out of classrooms and into the streets globally, youth leaders gathered at the United Nations Saturday to demand radical moves to fight climate change. "We showed that we are united and that we, young people, are unstoppable," Swedish 16-year-old activist Greta Thunberg, who started the climate strike movement with her lone protest in front of her country's parliament about a year and a half ago. More than 700 mostly young activists attended the first of its kind Youth Climate Summit, according to Luis Alfonso de Alba, the U.N. special climate summit envoy.
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| UN welcomes Houthi move to halt attacks on Saudi Arabia Posted: 21 Sep 2019 10:15 AM PDT  The U.N. envoy for Yemen says the Houthi rebels' initiative to halt attacks on Saudi Arabia "could send a powerful message of the will to end the war" in Yemen. Martin Griffiths' comments Saturday came hours after the Houthi announcement, and a week after the rebels claimed a strike that crippled a key oil facility in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia has led a military coalition fighting the Houthis in Yemen since 2015.
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| UK's Labour Party in turmoil as vote to oust deputy ditched Posted: 21 Sep 2019 09:38 AM PDT  Britain's major opposition Labour Party was trying to defuse a major row Saturday after a close ally of leader Jeremy Corbyn sought to oust his deputy, a move that prompted a furious outcry from many in the party. While the attempt to dislodge Tom Watson was ditched after Corbyn intervened, the row laid bare divisions in the party at a time when it should be readying for an expected general election in the next few months against a Conservative government and prime minister racing to take Britain out of the European Union by the scheduled Oct. 31 Brexit date. "We are supposed to be here this week to fight Boris Johnson, to outline our positive vision for the country at a general election, and I think it's been undermined on day one," Watson told cheering supporters as he arrived in the southern England city of Brighton for the start of Labour's annual conference.
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| Trump heads to UN with long list of deals he's yet to close Posted: 21 Sep 2019 09:13 AM PDT  President Donald Trump, a self-described deal-maker, is saddled with a long list of unresolved foreign policy deals he has yet to close heading into his U.N. visit this coming week. There are challenges with Iran, North Korea, the Afghan Taliban, Israel and the Palestinians — not to mention a number of trade pacts. Trump has said repeatedly that he is in "no rush" to wrap up the deals.
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| He Envisioned the World That Trump Is Demolishing Posted: 21 Sep 2019 09:03 AM PDT  Topical Press Agency/GettyA century apart, two American presidents faced a world spinning out of control. One was a builder and the other a disrupter. But they have more in common than might be expected.In most ways, Woodrow Wilson and Donald Trump could not be more different. Wilson was a man of faith, a Ph.D. who wrote books and lectured widely; as president, he oversaw the greatest progressive reform in history. Trump is a hedonist and subliterate boor who seeks to strip away any program that serves people in need or common concerns like the environment or global warming. But the parallels are striking too. Both experienced periods of physical and mental instability that made close observers wonder whether they should stay in office. Both were prone to fits of temper and conspiracy theories. Both demanded absolute loyalty—and exiled those who spoke their minds. Both complained about entrenched elites conspiring to sabotage their world-changing agendas. Frustrated with the tedious bargaining in Congress, both took refuge in the roar of the crowds at rallies and parades.One quality above all else—psychological fragility, and an all-encompassing fear of failure and humiliation—defined both presidents' lives and their approaches to power. Their brittle but defiant egos made them unwilling to work with others. That offers sobering lessons for our time.* * *A hundred years ago, when Woodrow Wilson returned from the Paris peace conference, he experienced an unusual case of writer's block—an unusual malady for the most voluble president in history. The problem, he said, was that he had "very little respect for the audience," the Republicans who took control of the Senate in the 1918 midterm elections. For his whole career—as a professor, university president, governor, and U.S. president—Wilson used words to overcome his painful shyness and promote his causes. When he got stuck, he withdrew from Washington and took to the road. Historians have long debated Wilson's psychology. Both parents were demonstrative but also demanding. Like Trump's father Fred, Wilson's father Joseph guided him but also mocked him when he failed. His mother Jessie was a relentless hypochondriac who, passively aggressively, demanded her son's attention. Late in learning to read, Wilson turned inward to a fantasy life. He learned how to fit in by standing out, always aloof. Speechmaking was his path to power.In his first term, Wilson was a model president. After laying out a reform agenda, he allowed Congress to do its work. At appropriate times, he bargained and compromised on the Federal Reserve Act, the Underwood Tariff Act, Clayton Anti-Trust Act, the creation of the income tax, and labor reform. When the European war broke out in 1914, Wilson argued successfully for neutrality, then for preparedness. After winning reelection in 1916, Wilson quickly changed and went all-out for war. Emotionally, he shut down when he faced opposition. When he called for "war without victory," Republicans like former President Theodore Roosevelt and Senate Majority Leader Henry Cabot Lodge hissed. But he would not engage them. When he went to Paris to push for the League of Nations, the English and French agreed in exchange for carving up the territory of the defeated Central Powers and exacting punishing reparations against Germany. To Wilson, the League was the prize. This entity—less than a world government but more than a treaty—would, he said, prevent 98 percent of future wars. It would also provide the authority needed to solve other problems, like labor relations, trade, freedom of the seas, arms control, colonialism, and human rights. Republicans (and some Democrats) feared the League would cede American sovereignty to European powers and, soon, to "colored" nations. Senator James Reed of Missouri, a Democrat, complained: "Think of submitting questions involving the very life of the United States to a tribunal on which a nigger from Liberia, a nigger from Honduras, a nigger from India … each have votes equal to that of the great United States."Even before Wilson went to Paris, Lodge assembled an opposition coalition: isolationists (like Hiram Johnson), realpolitik balance-of-power advocates (like T.R.), and middle-of-the-roaders (like Porter McCumber). Wilson tried, gamely, to persuade them. He met reluctant senators for one-on-one talks but converted no one. He hosted the Foreign Relations Committee but converted no one. The more Wilson spoke, in fact, the more he alienated one faction or another. But Wilson was, above all, a talker. And so, 100 years ago this month, he embarked on the most ambitious speaking tour in presidential history: 10,000 miles, 20 states, 27 cities, all on a hot steel train, swaying up and down mountains and through forest fires—hell on the fragile man's constitution. He spoke mostly in places where he would not be able to persuade reluctant senators to change their minds. Back in Washington, Lodge and the Republicans tended to their swelling anti-treaty coalition.Most Americans favored the treaty, but with little fervor. Most supporters agreed that "reservations" were needed to protect American control over war-making powers, maintain the sanctity of the Monroe Doctrine, and enable the U.S. to quit the league if it worked against American interests. Mostly, though, people wanted to get on with their lives after years of war. American life in 1919 was in state of crisis, with unprecedented labor strikes, race riots, growing inequality, depressed wages and spiraling prices, a rough transition from a wartime economy, sweeping attacks on immigrants, systematic attacks on civil liberties, and the first Red Scare (even as thousands of Americans were stuck in Russia fighting an undeclared war). The ugliest problem was, as always, race. Many blacks thought they finally earned respect when they volunteered for the war and manned factories and railroads at home. Whites resented their claim to the American Dream. Riots broke out in Chicago, Washington, Omaha, and Elaine, Arkansas, among other cities, claiming at least 153 lives. Lynchings claimed 83 lives. In Omaha, white mobs set fire to a jailhouse, seized a black man suspected of rape, shot him up until his entrails spilled out of his chest, then burnt his body in a bonfire. Smiling photos by the burnt remains were sold as postcards.(Wilson had no inclination to confront the race issue. A child of the South, he restored segregation to the federal bureaucracy. He screened the racist film "Birth of a Nation" at the White House—though his famous praise for it, "like writing history with lightening," might have been apocryphal. The movie was based on a novel by a friend from Johns Hopkins University, who peppered him with ideas for tightening race laws to make the Democrats the majority party.)Workers staged more than 2,000 strikes. Many turned violent when management, Pinkertons, and state and local cops attacked them. When Boston police struck in September, the taciturn governor Calvin Coolidge sat silent while Bostonians rioted; then, when the police gave in, he had the cops fired and replaced.Attacks on civil liberties—which began with the Espionage Act of 1917, the Sedition Act of 1918, and the Alien Act of 1918—ramped up with the strikes and terrorist attacks. The postmaster general wouldn't deliver hundreds of publications deemed insufficiently pro-American. A young bureaucrat named J. Edgar Hoover began to collect a database of names he considered subversives for the Bureau of Investigation. During the war, the feds tapped a nationwide network of citizen spies who ratted on German-Americans and other "hyphenated" Americans—an impressive resource for continued repression. The American Protective League alone had 200,000 citizen-spies, who infiltrated virtually every major institution, including the NAACP.Labor leaders and socialists who spoke out against the war, including four-time Socialist presidential candidate Eugene Debs, languished in jail. (Debs would run for president again in 1920, while in jail.) Privately, Wilson acknowledged at least some of the dissidents should be freed but his bitterness stayed his hand. The next president, Warren Harding, would ultimately make some healing gestures.On his Western tour, Wilson struggled to get to know his country again. He alternated between high-minded appeal, and low-down ones. Rather than acknowledging honest concerns, he repeated that the League of Nations would prevent "98 percent" of future wars. He offered detailed explanations of complex issues like Article X (the cooling-off provision, which mandated arbitration and boycotts before war) and Article XI (the busybody provision, which required member nations to raise complaints when they saw misbehavior by other nations). But he could not resist demagogic appeals against Germans, Russians, Republicans, laborers, and others. Wilson's tour revealed some of the nation's fault lines. In Columbus, Republicans worked behind the scenes to dampen turnout for the parade—then went all out to create a rousing welcome for a gathering of Civil War veterans. In North Dakota, where the socialist Nonpartisan League governed, he faced leftist skeptics about his policies on war, labor, and civil liberties. In California, Chinese critics panned the treaty for giving Shandong to Japan. Wherever he went, Irish critics attacked his subservience to Britain—especially the provision that allocated six votes to England and other members of the British empire. In Seattle, where the radical syndicalist Wobblies had organized a general strike in January, protesters rebuked him by standing silent for six blocks of an otherwise joyous parade. The silent attack humiliated the president; one moment he was happily waving a top hat, the next he was crumbled and gray in his seat. Jack Kipps, the man who organized that silent protest, instantly regretted it. "I felt like two cents for pulling that demonstration," he said. Mournfully, he called himself Wilson's assassin.For most of the trip, Wilson aroused excitement. Few people then ever saw or heard a president. A president's presence alone was a cause for patriotic celebration. But after Wilson left town, a Republican "truth squad" often took his place in the city auditorium and fired up the crowds against Wilson. Many of the opposition's crowds were bigger; most were more raucous. "Impeach him!" the crowd at a Chicago rally called out.But Wilson scored some victories. In California, the home of a leading opponent, Senator Hiram Johnson, the president's speeches rallied more than 100,000. The editor of the Republican Los Angeles Times declared Wilson and his cause triumphant. Even though no senators flipped to the pro-treaty side and at least a handful moved toward the anti-treaty side, the size and enthusiasm of the crowds indicated a nationwide shift.At least that's what the Wilson party thought leaving southern California for Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, and Colorado.Wilson had suffered serious ailments—gastrointestinal problems, splitting headaches, and (according to later medical historians) a series of strokes—all his life. At the Paris Peace Conference he spent a week in bed with a mysterious ailment, probably the Spanish Flu (which originated at an American army base). In Paris, he appeared to lose his mental stability; he accused servants of spying and stealing furniture. Aides whispered about his mental health.On the Western tour, Wilson rarely got a good night's sleep. He struggled to eat—sometimes he could only drink black coffee—and had to be propped up by a window so he could breathe and get some rest. Alas, his doctor was not much of a doctor. Wilson hired him more for his bonhomie and unflagging devotion. Dr. Cary Grayson's prescription for Wilson's ailments was play, especially golf (he once took 26 shots on a single hole) and auto rides through Rock Creek Park. But on the western trip, Wilson could rarely escape even to take a walk.Just before the scheduled end of the tour, Wilson collapsed and was returned to Washington—where, three days later, he suffered a stroke that left him an invalid. When his secretary of state convened a Cabinet meeting to discuss his health emergency, the president fired him. Alone with his wife and a few aides, he ordered Democrats to vote against compromises that would have saved some form of the treaty.* * *A quarter-century later, after another world war, the U.S. and its allies constructed a new world order based on mutual-protection pacts like NATO and the United Nations. Had Wilson compromised, the League of Nations might have evolved to fill those kinds of roles. Another global conflict might have been avoided. Now, Donald Trump has done his best to unravel these organizations and other agreements, like the Paris climate accord and the Iran nuclear pact. What Wilson started, Trump aims to rip apart. Wilson's insecurity made him a gambler. Rather than bargaining, he bet everything on big ideas, big speeches, big gestures. Even when the Senate rejected the treaty in November 1919 and March 1920, he wanted to double down. Alone in a dark room in the White House, now an invalid, he fantasized about running for president again in 1920. He also entertained ideas about a national referendum on the League. In that sense, Wilson resembled the current president who declares that "I alone can fix it" and calls himself "the chosen one." Wilson believed in his singular role in history. "Remember that God ordained that I should be the next president of the United States," he told one party leader.Still, when his party moved on from him in 1920, Wilson accepted it. "We are still in darkness but I am sure that it is the darkness that eventually lightens," he told a visitor after leaving the White House. "I realize now that I am only… a tool that has served the purpose in God's hand. I was stricken because it was His way of doing things. It was His will to set me aside; He knows what is best."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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| Trump Won't Like This: Iran's Clever Strategy of Pushback Is Working Posted: 21 Sep 2019 08:00 AM PDT  For a weak power, Iran is playing its hand well.
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| Iran issues 'battlefield' warning as US deploys troops Posted: 21 Sep 2019 07:59 AM PDT  Any country that attacks Iran will become the "main battlefield", the Revolutionary Guards warned Saturday after Washington ordered reinforcements to the Gulf following attacks on Saudi oil installations it blames on Tehran. Tensions escalated between arch-foes Iran and the United States after last weekend's attacks on Saudi energy giant Aramco's Abqaiq processing plant and Khurais oilfield halved the kingdom's oil output. Yemen's Huthi rebels have claimed responsibility for the strikes but the US says it has concluded the attacks involved cruise missiles from Iran and amounted to "an act of war".
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| Syria says it captured drone near Israeli-occupied Golan Posted: 21 Sep 2019 07:31 AM PDT  Syrian authorities captured and dismantled Saturday a drone rigged with cluster bombs near the border with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, state news agency SANA said. Israel frequently conducts airstrikes and missile attacks inside war-torn Syria but rarely confirms them. Israel says it targets mostly bases of Iranian forces and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah in Syria.
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| Iranian Students Set to Start at U.S. Universities Are Barred From Country Posted: 21 Sep 2019 07:29 AM PDT ![Iranian Students Set to Start at U.S. Universities Are Barred From Country]( "Iranian Students Set to Start at U.S. Universities Are Barred From Country") At least a dozen Iranian students who were set to begin graduate programs in engineering and computer science say their visas were abruptly canceled and they were barred from their flights to the United States this month.The sudden batch of visa cancellations, which came at a time of heightened tensions between the United States and Iran, set off a scramble by university officials, lawmakers, the students' union and Iranian-American advocates to figure out what had happened.The State Department said that there had been no change in policy regarding student visas, and higher education officials say that visa problems arise every fall for some of the hundreds of thousands of international students who travel to attend U.S. colleges and universities.But the students, most of whom were headed to schools in the University of California system, say their visas were revoked at the last minute, without any warning or explanation. Most were prevented from boarding flights in Iran, and others from boarding connecting flights in the Persian Gulf. One was detained at Boston Logan International Airport and then turned back.Many of the students said that a State Department webpage showed their visa cases had been updated around Aug. 30, and they were prevented from boarding in early September.All of that came before a Sept. 14 attack on two key Saudi oil installations, which has escalated a standoff between the United States and its ally Saudi Arabia against Iran.A law enacted in 2012 under President Barack Obama requires the U.S. government to deny visas to Iranian students whose coursework would prepare them to work in the energy or nuclear sectors in their home country. Consular officials have wide discretion on how to interpret the statute and put it in place, said Jamal Abdi, the president of the National Iranian American Council, a Washington-based group.Mark Dubowitz, the chief executive of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, also based in Washington, said he appreciated that the 2012 law had sought to prevent knowledge gained in the United States from being used in the service of the Iranian government.But he pointed to the difficulty in predicting how students would use technical skills that are widely sought after and applicable in many industries. He suggested a more radical approach: to overturn the Trump administration's travel ban and require Iranian students in sensitive fields to stay in the United States after graduation.Most Iranians cannot obtain visas to travel to the United States because of the travel ban on visitors from their country, as well as from Libya, Somalia, Syria, Yemen, North Korea and Venezuela. But there are narrow exemptions, including for students. Most of the students who were barred had been given single-entry visas, and were prepared to go years without seeing family members who would not have been able to visit them.In phone interviews and emails, the students said they were crestfallen. Some had left high-level jobs or sold their homes, or had turned down opportunities in Europe or Canada. Most said their studies had been fully funded, and many had been slated to begin teaching or research positions in addition to their studies."I feel I'm damaged emotionally, financially, academically," said Peyman, 23, who was supposed to begin a degree in electrical engineering at the University of California at San Diego. He asked to be identified only by his first name because he did not want to jeopardize his chances of getting another visa.Peyman said that he had been barred from a connecting flight in Qatar this month and that an airline employee had scrawled "CANCELED" across his visa in pen, saying the instructions to do so had come from the Department of Homeland Security.The State Department does not release data on visa revocations, and the department said it could not release information about individual cases.Abdi, the president of the National Iranian American Council, said the group normally hears about visa denials, not last-minute revocations. But new vetting procedures -- including reviewing social media information from visa applicants -- have been "a black box," he said.The student workers in the University of California system are represented by the U.S. Automobile Workers Local 2865. Its president, Kavitha Iyengar, said in a statement that her members "do not deserve to be discriminated against."She said that the union often helps members who have visa issues, but that she had never seen a problem of this scope.John A. Perez, the chairman of the University of California system's Board of Regents, said the university would stand with its international students "no matter where they were born -- and protect them in any way we can from the unpredictable actions of this administration."The university's media relations office said in a separate statement that it was working with government agencies and lawmakers to resolve the issue. It also noted that other Iranian students in the science, technology, engineering and math fields had arrived on campus before September.A spokesman for Customs and Border Protection reiterated that there had been no change in policy. He added that the agency had the authority to cancel visas but also had policies in place "to ensure multiple layers of review when adjudicating a denial of admission."The White House did not immediately respond to a question about whether visa policy had been changed.At a time when the Iranian economy is in dire condition, hobbled by U.S. sanctions, many Iranian students pay out of pocket to visit the U.S. embassies in Armenia or Turkey for visa interviews, in addition to paying for plane tickets and other arrangements.Nima Abdollahpour, 23, completed his bachelor's degree at Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, which is often called the MIT of Iran, and had planned to study electrical and computer engineering at the University of California, Davis.He said he and other students had grown frustrated as they were directed from one government agency to the next."I am a student who will lose another year or two of my life to find another program, as well as tons of money and energy," he said.Chinese scholars have also faced restrictions on visas to the United States amid tensions between the two countries, prompting educators to voice concerns about the possible impact on innovation and on researchers already in the United States. Last month, nine Chinese undergraduate students enrolled at Arizona State University were detained at Los Angeles International Airport and sent back to China without explanation.In a statement on Thursday, Michael M. Crow, the president of Arizona State University, criticized Customs and Border Protection's handling of the student visa process."They are unevenly and inappropriately making determinations that have no factual basis and that they have no experience making," he said."If CBP and DHS do not take this problem seriously," Crow said, "all universities need to seek review by Congress and the courts."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
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| UPDATE 2-Saudi Arabia to wait for investigation before responding to attacks -minister Posted: 21 Sep 2019 07:18 AM PDT ![UPDATE 2-Saudi Arabia to wait for investigation before responding to attacks -minister]( "UPDATE 2-Saudi Arabia to wait for investigation before responding to attacks -minister") Saudi Arabia will wait for the results of an investigation before responding to last weekend's attack on its oil facilities, for which it believes Iran is responsible, a senior official said on Saturday. Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel al-Jubeir told reporters that the probe, which Riyadh has invited international investigators to join, would prove that the Sept. 14 strikes came from the north. "It was done with Iranian weapons, therefore we hold Iran accountable for this attack..." Jubeir told a news conference, declining to speculate about specific actions.
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| U.S. Orders 2 Universities to Recast Tone on Israel Posted: 21 Sep 2019 07:09 AM PDT  WASHINGTON -- The Education Department has ordered Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to remake the Middle East studies program run jointly by the two schools after concluding that it was offering students a biased curriculum that, among other complaints, did not present enough "positive" imagery of Judaism and Christianity in the region.In a rare instance of federal intervention in college course content, the department asserted that the universities' Middle East program violated the standards of a federal program that awards funding to international studies and foreign language programs. The inquiry was part of a far-reaching investigation into the program by the department, which under Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, has become increasingly aggressive in going after perceived anti-Israel bias in higher education.That focus appears to reflect the views of an agency leadership that includes a civil rights chief, Kenneth L. Marcus, who has made a career of pro-Israel advocacy and has waged a yearslong campaign to delegitimize and defund Middle East studies programs that he has criticized as rife with anti-Israel bias.In this case, the department homed in on what officials saw as a program that focused on the region's Muslim population at the expense of its religious minorities. In the North Carolina program's outreach to elementary and secondary school students, the department said, there was "a considerable emphasis placed on the understanding the positive aspects of Islam, while there is an absolute absence of any similar focus on the positive aspects of Christianity, Judaism or any other religion or belief system in the Middle East."Too few of the Duke-UNC programs focused on "the historic discrimination faced by, and current circumstances of, religious minorities in the Middle East, including Christians, Jews, Baha'is, Yazidis, Kurds, Druze and others," the department said.With its actions, the department entered the debate over Israel and Palestinians that has roiled campuses around the country.The department's action "should be a wake-up call," said Miriam Elman, an associate professor at Syracuse University and executive director of the Academic Engagement Network, which opposes the boycott-Israel movement that has animated campus activism across the country. She added, "What they're saying is, 'If you want to be biased and show an unbalanced view of the Middle East, you can do that, but you're not going to get federal and taxpayer money.' "Palestinian rights groups accused the Education Department of intimidation and infringing on academic freedom."They really want to send the message that if you want to criticize Israel, then the federal government is going to look very closely at your entire program and micromanage it to death," said Zoha Khalili, a staff lawyer at Palestine Legal, one such group. The department's intervention, she added, "sends a message to Middle Eastern studies programs that their continued existence depends on their willingness to toe the government line on Israel."In a letter to university officials, the assistant secretary for postsecondary education, Robert King, wrote that programs run by the Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies appeared to be misaligned with the federal grant they had received. Title VI of the Higher Education Act awards funding to colleges "establishing, strengthening and operating a diverse network of undergraduate foreign language and area or international studies centers and programs."The Education Department "believes" the Middle Eastern studies consortium "has failed to carefully distinguish between activities lawfully funded under Title VI and other activities" that are "plainly unqualified for taxpayer support," King wrote.The letter, published this week in the Federal Register, said that the consortium's records on the number of students it had enrolled in foreign language studies -- a cornerstone of the federal grant program -- were unclear and that "it seems clear foreign language instruction and area studies advancing the security and economic stability of the United States have taken 'a back seat' to other priorities."King wrote that the department believed other offerings, such as a conference focused on "love and desire in modern Iran" and another focused on Middle East film criticism, "have little or no relevance to Title VI." The department wrote the consortium's programming also "appears to lack balance."The department also criticized the consortium's teacher training programs for focusing on issues like "unconscious bias, serving LGBTIQ youth in schools, culture and the media, diverse books for the classroom and more." They said that it had a "startling lack of focus on geography, geopolitical issues, history, and language."The administration ordered the consortium to submit a revised schedule of events it planned to support and a full list of the courses it offers and the professors working in its Middle East studies program. The department also directed the consortium to demonstrate that it had "effective institutional controls" to stay compliant with the administration's interpretation of the Higher Education Act. The universities were given until Sept. 22, only days before the department is scheduled to approve funding Sept. 30.A spokesman for Duke declined to comment, referring questions to the University of North Carolina. A spokeswoman for UNC acknowledged receipt of the letter."The consortium deeply values its partnership with the Department of Education and has always been strongly committed to complying with the purposes and requirements of the Title VI program," the university said in a statement. "In keeping with the spirit of this partnership, the consortium is committed to working with the department to provide more information about its programs."To advocacy groups enmeshed in academic battles over Israel, the new investigation was not surprising.Last year, the department reopened a case into anti-Jewish bias at Rutgers University that the Obama administration had closed with no finding of wrongdoing. In reconsidering the case, Marcus said the Education Department would be using a State Department definition of anti-Semitism that, among other things, labels "denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination" anti-Jewish bigotry, suggesting that it had been adopted by his office. The Education Department has not adopted that definition.In June, DeVos said she had ordered an investigation into whether the Duke-UNC consortium had misused any of the $235,000 it received in Title VI grants, including to sponsor an event in March called "Conflict Over Gaza: People, Politics, and Possibilities." Rep. George Holding, R-N.C., had requested that DeVos investigate whether federal funding was used to host the conference, which constituents had said was rife with "radical anti-Israel bias."Holding said the conference featured active members of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel -- known as BDS -- and featured panelists who "distorted facts and misrepresented the complex situation in Gaza." He said a video shown at the conference featured a performer who sang a "brazenly anti-Semitic song."But some groups came to the defense of the Middle East studies consortium. Tallie Ben Daniel, research and education manager at Jewish Voice for Peace, a liberal group that advocates Palestinian rights, said the investigation was the latest attempt by the Trump administration "to enforce a neoconservative agenda onto spaces of academic inquiry and exploration." She called the consortium's curriculum " rich and diverse."To critics like Daniel, the targeting of the UNC-Duke program appeared to be a continuation of efforts that predated the Trump administration. A group founded by Marcus, the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, has pressed Education Department and Congress for years to crack down on Middle East studies programs that the center claimed promoted an anti-Israel bias.Elman, the professor at Syracuse, said the department's scrutiny of the programs was long overdue."To get Title VI, you really have to strive for viewpoint diversity," she said. "This is what our students want. They don't want to be indoctrinated. They want both sides. It's possible to do that and still make people uncomfortable."Before joining the Education Department, Marcus had aggressively lobbied for the Higher Education Act to crack down on Middle East studies programs and criticized both the Education Department and Congress for failing to hold institutions accountable for violating the law's "diverse perspectives" requirement.In 2014, he wrote an opinion article that assailed the Title VI program for "being used to support biased and academically worthless programming on college campuses," leaving students and faculty with opposing views "ostracized and threatened.""Aside from their intellectual vapidity," Marcus wrote, "many of these programs poison the atmosphere on campus."He called on the department to establish a complaint process that would prompt extensive reviews of entire programs like the one being undertaken into UNC and Duke.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
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| Trump Pressed Ukraine Leader for Corruption Inquiry Into Biden's Son Posted: 21 Sep 2019 06:57 AM PDT  WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump pressed the Ukrainian president in a July call to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden's son, according to a person familiar with the conversation, an apparently blatant mixture of foreign policy with his 2020 reelection campaign.Trump also repeatedly told the Ukrainian leader, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, to talk with his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who had been urging the government in Kyiv to investigate Biden and his family, according to two other people briefed on the call.Trump's request is part of the secret whistleblower complaint that is said to be about Trump and at least in part about his dealings with Ukraine, according to two people familiar with the complaint.Biden is a leading candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination. The president has made no secret that he wanted Ukraine to investigate any improper overlap between Biden's own diplomatic efforts there and his son's role with a gas company owned by a Ukrainian oligarch. "Someone ought to look into Joe Biden," Trump told reporters Friday in response to a question about his call with Zelenskiy.The revelations added urgency to questions about Trump's dealings with Ukraine, which is battling Russian-controlled separatists in the country's east. When the president sought the Biden investigation, the Trump administration's military aid to Ukraine had been frozen for weeks.The United States suspended that assistance in early July, according to a former U.S. official. Trump did not discuss the aid in the July 25 call with Zelenskiy, whose government did not learn of the suspension until August, according to people familiar with the call. The Wall Street Journal first reported details of the call.For Democrats who want to examine the whistleblower complaint -- itself the subject of an internal administration dispute over whether to hand it over to Congress, as is generally required by law -- the key question is whether Trump was demanding a quid pro quo, explicitly or implicitly. Democratic House committee chairmen are already investigating whether he manipulated U.S. foreign policy for personal political advantage and have requested the transcript of the Zelenskiy call.The growing controversy had echoes of the dominant scandal of the first years of Trump's administration: whether his campaign sought help from Russia to benefit him in 2016. Ultimately, the special counsel found that although "insufficient evidence" existed to determine that Trump or his advisers engaged in a criminal conspiracy with the Russians, his campaign welcomed Moscow's election sabotage and expected to benefit from it.Any attempt by Trump to ask a foreign power to "dig up dirt" on a political rival while withholding aid is corrupt, said Rep. Adam B. Schiff, D-Calif., the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, one of the panels examining Trump's Ukraine dealings."No explicit quid pro quo is necessary to betray your country," tweeted Schiff, who has also pushed for the whistleblower complaint to be given to Congress.Trump opened a direct counterattack Friday against the whistleblower, whose identity is unknown, as are many details about the complaint. The president dismissed the allegations and labeled the whistleblower, without evidence, a political partisan."It's a ridiculous story. It's a partisan whistleblower," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, though he acknowledged he did not know the person's identity. "They shouldn't even have information."Trump and Giuliani have pressed for an investigation of the Bidens for weeks, after reports this year in The New York Times and elsewhere examined whether a Ukrainian energy company sought to buy influence in Washington by hiring Biden's younger son, Hunter Biden. The younger Biden had a lobbying business in Ukraine while his father was vice president.When he was vice president, Biden cast himself as both the Obama administration's advocate of military assistance to Kyiv as well as the chief antagonist of the notorious corruption in Ukraine's government. In early 2016, he threatened to withhold $1 billion in American loan guarantees if Ukraine's top prosecutor was not dismissed after accusations that he had ignored rampant corruption.Biden succeeded; the prosecutor general was voted out office. And Hunter Biden had an interest in the outcome: He sat on the board of an energy company that had been in the sights of the ousted prosecutor general.On Friday, the former vice president accused Trump in a statement of using the power of the United States to extract "a political favor." Biden called for the president to release the transcript of his call with Zelenskiy and said that if the reports about it proved true, "there was no bottom to President Trump's willingness to abuse his power and abase our country."He also said the allegations that he or his son committed wrongdoing in Ukraine were baseless. "Not one single outlet has given any credibility to his assertion," Biden told reporters after a campaign event in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.Controversy over the Trump administration's Ukraine policy has swirled for weeks but has been confined mostly to foreign policy experts. The revelations about the whistleblower complaint plunged the issue into the center of the political debate.Congress has still not seen the whistleblower's allegation. Although the inspector general for the intelligence community, Michael Atkinson, has sought to provide it, the acting director of national intelligence, Joseph Maguire, has blocked him in a dispute over legal requirements.Maguire and his general counsel decided against providing the complaint to Congress after consulting with Pat Cipollone, the White House counsel, according to a person familiar with the move.Mounting evidence that the White House was involved in the effort to withhold the complaint from lawmakers has stirred anger on Capitol Hill. Speaker Nancy Pelosi accused Maguire of violating the law."If the president has done what has been alleged, then he is stepping into a dangerous minefield with serious repercussions for his administration and our democracy," she added in a statement.Republicans were largely silent about Trump's calls for a foreign investigation of his political rival. Their apparent desire to avoid criticizing the president during a political crisis stood in contrast to the criticism from party members after the administration froze aid to Ukraine.The administration, critics said, has struggled to explain the move, which has convinced some Democrats that it was part of an effort bring about a Biden investigation."They have no shame," said Michael Carpenter, a former aide to Biden and expert on Ukraine. He added: "They released the assistance in mid-September after the bipartisan uproar over the freeze -- and under pressure from the House investigations. But strikingly, the administration never articulated why the assistance was frozen in the first place."Giuliani has spearheaded a push for a Biden inquiry. He met with Zelenskiy's emissaries this summer in hopes of encouraging his government to pursue investigations into the family as well as whether Ukrainian officials took steps during the 2016 election to damage Trump's campaign.Giuliani has said he was acting on his own, though his comments on Thursday seemed to draw a closer connection to Trump. "A President telling a Pres-elect of a well known corrupt country he better investigate corruption that affects US is doing his job," Giuliani tweeted shortly after an appearance on CNN, where he first denied, then admitted, asking the government in Kyiv to investigate the Bidens.Although they agreed to meet with Giuliani, the Ukranians have so far refused to open the investigations. But there is little doubt the pressure from Trump is causing stress on the new government, according to a former Ukranian official.Since 2014, Ukraine has been under attack by Russia and its proxy, a fight that has become a grinding conflict that has made it difficult for Kyiv to continue its overhaul efforts and work to become more integrated with Europe and the West.But now Ukraine also finds itself potentially at odds with the leader of its most critical partner, the United States, and at the center of a political battle in Washington.Trump and Zelenskiy will meet next week on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, a senior administration official confirmed Friday after Zelenskiy's office announced the meeting. But the administration has put off any commitment for a White House meeting, which Zelenskiy views as crucial for the relationship.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
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| Iran Dilemma, U.S. Health and a Balkan Weed Craze: Weekend Reads Posted: 21 Sep 2019 05:00 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- The attack against Saudi Arabia's oil infrastructure exposed serious flaws both in U.S. President Donald Trump's "maximum pressure" approach to Iran, which his administration blames, and the Kingdom's ability to defend its most important sites.The risk of an out-of-control Brexit may have increased after U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson met European Union officials, while, across the world, Taiwan lost key allies in its struggle for international recognition. In the U.S., health care is again under scrutiny because of a wave of deaths liked to vaping and a loophole that allows insurers to offer plans with weak coverage. There's also a gold-rush style stampede erupting in the Balkans for legal marijuana.We hope you enjoy these and more of our best stories from the past seven days in this edition of Weekend Reads.Iran Shows Trump That It's Too Big to Be Crushed or MarginalizedTrump warned earlier this year that "it's going to be a bad problem for Iran if something happens." As Marc Champion explains, something big has happened with an attack on Saudi oil infrastructure, and it looks like it's Washington that has a problem.Read more about how Saudi Arabia, a country with the world's third-largest military budget, failed to defend an industry it depends on and click here for some 2,500 advice on how to deal with Iran.Brexit Stirs British Class War as Corbyn's Troops Target EtonWith Britain in turmoil over Brexit, the Labour Party may soon stir up another huge argument: the class war over private schools. Kitty Donaldson writes how some party members are pushing to abolish establishments for paying elites or tax them out of existence.Before Cracking Down, Trump's FDA Gave Vaping Room to Breathe A deadly lung disease linked to vaping in the U.S. is raising new questions about an FDA regulatory extension. Anna Edney reports how e-cigarette makers ramped up sales during a gap in public-safety knowledge.Under Trump, Health Insurance With Less Coverage Floods MarketWhen David Diaz suffered a heart attack, he wasn't expecting to end up $244,447.91 in debt – he had a short-term insurance plan. But as Zeke Faux, Polly Mosendz and John Tozzi write, providers are taking advantage of a loophole expanded by the Trump administration that allows them to sell plans so skimpy that they offer no meaningful coverage.Steyer Invests in Companies He Says Are Part of the ProblemBillionaire Tom Steyer says he's spending his own money to run for president to slow climate change and break the political power of corporations. Bill Allison and Tom Maloney explain that some of that cash comes from companies he says are part of the problem.Trump's $28 Billion Bet That Rural America Will Stick With HimTrump's trade-war induced farm rescue has cost taxpayers more than double the 2009 bailout of Detroit's Big Three Automakers. Mario Parker and Mike Dorning describe how it's covering only part of farmers' losses, and how they expect the money to keep flowing.Lured by China's Cash, Tiny Pacific Islands Give Up on TaiwanFor Taiwan, the Pacific Islands had been relatively stable as China siphoned off diplomatic partners elsewhere after independence-leaning President Tsai Ing-wen took power in 2016. Jason Scott reports how that all changed this week.India Seeks to Adopt China-Style Facial Recognition in PolicingIndia is planning to establish one of the world's largest facial recognition systems. Archana Chaudhary lays out how it's a potentially lucrative opportunity for surveillance companies. But privacy advocates warn it could lead to a Chinese-style Orwellian state.Carbon-Cutting Cities Plug In to 'Electrify Everything' MovementEnvironmental activists who once advocated using natural gas are changing their tune. Read Ari Natter's look into the shift to "electrify everything" – from school buses to barbecue grills – that's gaining steam as power from renewable sources grows.And finally … Investors are clamoring in a far-flung corner of Europe to join a plan to make their country a nation of cannabis farmers. Slav Okov and Andrea Dudik explain how, whether it's former policemen, a lawyer, or relatives of the prime minister, everyone in North Macedonia seems to want in. To contact the author of this story: Michael Winfrey in Prague at mwinfrey@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Kathleen Hunter at khunter9@bloomberg.netFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Your Weekend Reading: Takin’ It to the Streets Posted: 21 Sep 2019 04:30 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Want to receive a daily news briefing, including this weekend edition, in your inbox every day? Sign up hereMillions of people took to the streets to demand leaders gathering next week at the United Nations do something about climate change. Germany quickly put $60 billion toward new green initiatives, but Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro plans to defend himself in the face of widespread criticism over his handling of the Amazon fires. The good news is that there's evidence cleaner energy can be profitable and investors want more of it. The bad news is that time is running out.What you'll want to read this weekendIt's been a crazy week for the money markets. But as stocks rise, there are signs the U.S. economy may be getting better.Respiratory illnesses from vaping have topped 500 in the U.S., and a seventh person has died. There's also a race on to contain tainted Zantac.Mary Barra is remaking GM for a future of electric and self-driving cars. China currently owns that market.The Trump administration is trying to strip California of its authority to mandate cleaner cars and has watered down former President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act to the point that many policy holders have insurance that barely covers anything at all.Retire, reboot and become an entrepreneur. Seriously. Climate change is adding to the risks of retiring.What you'll need to know next weekBritain's top court will rule on the suspension of Parliament. India's prime minister travels to Texas for a "Howdy Modi" rally. Israel holds talks to form a government, without Netanyahu. The Emmys are awarded Sunday. Robert de Niro has a chance. The Rugby World Cup continues in Japan. There's beer.What you'll want to read in Bloomberg WealthHow to invest $1 million and help save the Earth. From the obvious, like electrified vehicles and solar plants, to the obscure, like more sustainable coffee roasting. To contact the author of this story: David Rovella in New York at drovella@bloomberg.netFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Bolsonaro Wants to Defuse Amazon Fire Controversy With UN Speech Posted: 21 Sep 2019 04:00 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro heads to New York on Monday in an attempt to defuse the international outcry over the fires raging through the Amazon, while simultaneously asserting the country's right to develop the rainforest as it sees fit.Until recently, few countries enjoyed such widespread affection as Brazil did, with its tradition of multilateral and "soft power" diplomacy, its unrivaled footballing prowess and vast natural beauty. ButBolsonaro will address the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday amid global indignation over his government's handling of the deforestation in the Amazon.Brazil's government believes the international criticism is unfair, but its actions show that it's worried, including about the potential economic consequences. Fund managers with more than $16 trillion in assets have demanded action on deforestation, while European lawmakers are lining up to attack the trade deal between the European Union and the South American trade bloc that Brazil leads, Mercosur. Austria's parliament rejected the agreement on Wednesday.In response, the Bolsonaro administration launched a public relations campaign asserting Brazil's sovereignty over the Amazon and commitment to protecting and sustainably developing the rainforest. Now the president is taking that message to the UN.Read more: Bolsonaro's Words Are the Sparks as Brazil's Farmers Burn Amazonia"The United Nations General Assembly could be a great opportunity for Brazil to present and clarify its foreign policy," said Sergio Amaral, Brazil's ambassador to Washington D.C. until earlier this year. It's also a chance to demonstrate its "commitment to sensitive issues for the international community, like the environment."The question remains of how Bolsonaro can both calm fears over deforestation while asserting Brazil's right to develop the Amazon. There's also the added tension of his likely interaction with French President Emmanuel Macron -- whose wife the Brazilian leader insulted."I am preparing a fairly objective speech," the president said on his weekly Facebook live broadcast on Thursday night. "No one is going to fight with anyone, you can rest assured."In the same breath, however, he said that he'd receive a beating in the press, no matter what he said, and that some countries were more interested in buying up the Amazon than saving it.Government ReactionFor the government the international outcry is vastly disproportionate to the amount of environmental damage."This has been orchestrated by Brazilian groups that are systematically against the government," Foreign Minister Ernesto Araujo said in an interview on Sept 3. "They want to use any tools at their disposal to attack the government even if this harms the country."Environment Minister Ricardo Salles argues that the Bolsonaro administration's development policies highlight how much previous Brazilian governments failed the 20 million people who live in the Amazon region."This is the first government that engages in a serious discussion about how to develop the Amazon," he said. "The worst human development indicators in Brazil are in the Amazon."Araujo, as well as Institutional Security Minister General Augusto Heleno and Eduardo Bolsonaro, the president's son and nominee to be Brazil's next ambassador to Washington D.C., are helping the president to draft his speech.While he may seek to minimize reports of environmental destruction, an emollient address is unlikely, particularly given that Bolsonaro retains the support of the U.S. government in his approach to the Amazon. Given the president's outspoken nature -- and love of social media -- even a softer tone would probably not last long."Brazil used to communicate this idea of great sociability," Andreza dos Santos Souza, the director of the Brazilian Studies Program at Oxford University, said. "These intolerant speeches are changing this perception."Negative ImpactThe outrage over the Amazon fires clearly has the potential to harm Brazil. Ahead of the G-7 Macron threatened to scrap the EU-Mercosur trade deal over what he described as Bolsonaro's "lies" over his commitment to climate change.The U.S. clothing company VF Corporation, which owns Timberland, Kipling Bags and The North Face, has suspended Brazilian leather purchases, and Norway's two biggest investors have warned global companies against contributing to environmental damage. Brazilian embassies have also been targeted by protesters.Fitch Solutions Macro Research, formerly BMI Research, issued two reports warning of "increased scrutiny" and "economic risks" after the fires. "We believe that international concern over deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon basin will create headwinds to export demand and investment inflows," Fitch wrote.Read more: Amazon Fires Another Warning for Brazil Stocks, JPMorgan SaysFor Amaral, Brazil has rapidly lost its hard-won reputation as a leader on environmental issues. Aside from the blow back from certain countries or corporations, individual consumers may start to reject Brazilian products. "This change is terrible for the country, terrible for the image of the country and for the perception of consumers," he said.Brazil has fallen four places this year in the global ranking of the Country Brand Index, a measure developed by the Sao Paulo-based global branding consultancy FutureBrand, and now ranks 47th out of 75. The survey was completed in July, before the fires in the Amazon, but took into account the first six months of Bolsonaro's government."The Amazon is a very sensitive topic, with huge repercussions, and it comes on top of a number of negative issues associated with Brazil in the past few years," Daniel Alencar, partner-director of FutureBrand, said. But, he added, a country's brand is constantly in flux. "No single event is going to destroy the image of Brazil."\--With assistance from Samy Adghirni.To contact the reporters on this story: Simone Iglesias in Brasília at spiglesias@bloomberg.net;Bruce Douglas in Brasilia Newsroom at bdouglas24@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Juan Pablo Spinetto at jspinetto@bloomberg.net, Matthew BristowFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Ailing Iranian held by Somali pirates is released Posted: 21 Sep 2019 03:18 AM PDT ![Ailing Iranian held by Somali pirates is released]( "Ailing Iranian held by Somali pirates is released") A humanitarian group working to free people taken hostage by Somali pirates in recent years says an Iranian man held for four-and-a-half years has been released and is on his way home. A statement Saturday by the Hostage Support Partnership says Mohammad Sharif Panahandeh had become increasingly ill and couldn't have survived much longer. Piracy off Somalia has dropped in recent years after a multinational patrolling effort.
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| Iran warns any country that attacks will be 'main battlefield' Posted: 21 Sep 2019 02:28 AM PDT  Iran's Revolutionary Guards commander on Saturday warned any country that attacks the Islamic republic will see its territory become the "main battlefield" as he opened an exhibition of captured drones. Major General Hossein Salami also said Iran was "ready for any type of scenario" following reports that Washington is weighing military options in response to attacks on Saudi oil installations it blames on Tehran. "Whoever wants their land to become the main battlefield, go ahead," Guards commander Major General Hossein Salami told a news conference in Tehran.
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| Motion to oust UK Labour Party deputy leader withdrawn- lawmaker Posted: 21 Sep 2019 02:26 AM PDT ![Motion to oust UK Labour Party deputy leader withdrawn- lawmaker]( "Motion to oust UK Labour Party deputy leader withdrawn- lawmaker") A motion to abolish the position of deputy leader at Britain's main opposition Labour Party in a bid to oust Tom Watson, whose position on Brexit differs from leader Jeremy Corbyn, has been withdrawn, lawmaker Mary Creagh said on Saturday. Citing disloyalty over Brexit at a meeting of Labour's National Executive Committee on Friday, Jon Lansman, the founder of the left-wing grassroots movement Momentum, had proposed abolishing the deputy's post, according to two party officials. "I understand the motion against Tom Watson has been withdrawn," Creagh said on Twitter.
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| UPDATE 6-UK Labour deputy leader survives bid to oust him over Brexit Posted: 21 Sep 2019 01:01 AM PDT ![UPDATE 6-UK Labour deputy leader survives bid to oust him over Brexit]( "UPDATE 6-UK Labour deputy leader survives bid to oust him over Brexit") LONDON/ BRIGHTON, England, Sept 21 (Reuters) - The deputy leader of Britain's Labour Party survived an attempt to oust him over Brexit on Saturday after party chief Jeremy Corbyn moved to defuse a row that threatened to overshadow the party's bid to show it was ready for power. Holding its annual party conference just weeks before Prime Minister Boris Johnson has promised "do or die" to lead Britain out of the European Union, Labour was keen to set out its agenda for government rather than put its Brexit divisions on display.
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| UK Labour deputy leader says Brexit stance behind effort to oust him Posted: 21 Sep 2019 12:14 AM PDT ![UK Labour deputy leader says Brexit stance behind effort to oust him]( "UK Labour deputy leader says Brexit stance behind effort to oust him") The deputy leader of Britain's main opposition Labour Party said on Saturday that his stance on Brexit, where he backs a second referendum before a parliamentary election, unlike leader Jeremy Corbyn, is behind efforts by some in the party to remove him. Jon Lansman, the founder of the left-wing grassroots movement Momentum, has proposed a motion to abolish the post of deputy leader, currently held by Tom Watson, according to two party officials.
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| Crossfire Hurricane review: tale of Trump and the FBI is a gas gas gas Posted: 20 Sep 2019 10:00 PM PDT  Josh Campbell worked for James Comey – his book is a must-read indictment of the 'mob boss' in the White HouseDonald Trump listens during a meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House. Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty ImagesFew people had better seats than Josh Campbell for the drama that has shaped the Trump presidency. A supervisory special agent at the FBI, he was special assistant to James Comey and stayed on into Robert Mueller's first year as special counsel.In real time, he witnessed the investigations into both Hillary Clinton's emails and Russia's interference in the 2016 election. He was there in Los Angeles when his boss was sacked on national TV, by the president, at the advice of Jared Kushner.Less than a year later, Campbell wrote a column for the New York Times, titled "Why I Am Leaving the FBI". He has now authored a must-read on what went down in the first 18 months of the Trump presidency. Filled with color and quotes, it is highly digestible.Campbell remains disgusted by the debasement of law enforcement institutions by the president and his allies. Just as Comey did, he sees Trump acting as a "mob boss".After watching Trump suck up to Vladimir Putin in Helsinki in July 2018, Campbell concludes that Trump acted as if he were somehow compromised by the Russian strongman and "afraid of what Mueller might find". In light of recent reports that Trump's communications with an unidentified foreign leader may have injured US security and triggered a standoff between the administration and Congress, Campbell's take cannot be readily dismissed.EmbedNot surprisingly, Campbell rejects the notion of a "deep state" in opposition to the "will of the people". In rebuttal, he painstakingly lays out a tick-tock of the Russia investigation, codenamed "Crossfire Hurricane".The popularization on the right of the idea that the deep state is a source of Trump's woes lies with Breitbart, which began flogging the concept in December 2016. Yet as a Steve Bannon, the brains behind Trump's victory and a former head of Breitbart, told the author Michael Wolff: "You do realize … none of this is true." Let that sink in.Crossfire Hurricane also turns it guns on Jeff Sessions, the former attorney general; Rod Rosenstein, the former deputy attorney general; William Barr, the current attorney general; and Sarah Sanders, Trump's former spokeswoman. It is a target-rich environment.Campbell accuses Rosenstein of Janus-faced duplicity. In his telling, Rosenstein invited Comey to speak to a group of lawyers on "effective leadership", then in a matter of weeks branded Comey a "terrible leader who was no longer effective".Elsewhere, Campbell describes Rosenstein's oleaginous efforts to get hold of him after learning the author had a gig on CNN. Suffice to say, Campbell is neither flattered nor amused.> Not surprisingly, Campbell rejects the notion of a 'deep state' in opposition to the 'will of the people'Barr comes in for his share of criticism. Campbell tags him for his letter that characterized the Mueller report as giving Trump a clean bill of legal health, when it did no such thing. As the special counsel said, Barr's account "did not fully capture the context, nature and substance" of the actual report.Campbell also takes issue with Barr's public contention that the Trump campaign was the target of "spying". In Campbell's view, the accusation was baseless political "red meat", another indication that "Trump's war on the FBI is far from over".As for Sanders, Campbell is filled with unbridled – and deserved – contempt. After Comey was fired, the White House press secretary went on national TV and lied "about countless members of the FBI" who were supposedly grateful. On that score, Campbell quotes an FBI agent who bluntly bellowed "What a load of bullshit" and labeled Huckabee's story "complete garbage".Sanders confessed to the special counsel that her comment was Trump fan fiction, "made 'in the heat of the moment' that was not founded on anything". Sanders is now a member of the Fox commentariat and complains that "99%" of the people who attack her are women.In case she missed it, women went for Clinton by 14 points in 2016 and voted Democratic almost three to two in last year's midterms. Sanders appears to be angling to run for Arkansas governor, a job once held by her father.Crossfire Hurricane also shines a light on Devin Nunes and the battle over Trump within the House intelligence committee, which can be described as both discouraging and illuminating. Campbell interviews Eric Swalwell, a committee member and former candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination.From Swalwell's perspective, life within the intelligence committee was icy, not heated: an undesirable outcome. As Swalwell frames it, he actually wishes things had become "contentious" because "that would have meant that Nunes and the Republicans were engaging us. But they never engaged." Committee Democrats met with "blank stares", he says. What this episode holds for a post-Trump world should leave Americans worried.> The book also grapples with Comey's conduct of the Clinton investigation, recording critical voicesThe book also grapples with Comey's conduct of the Clinton investigation, recording voices critical of the press conference in which he announced that Clinton would not be prosecuted, but said her conduct was less than desirable. Among those interviewed is Robby Mook, Clinton's campaign manager.Campbell also suggests the debacle arose because Loretta Lynch, then attorney general, declined to recuse herself after meeting Bill Clinton on an airport tarmac, and Comey felt it necessary to throw himself into the breach.As Campbell puts it: "Two things I know for certain. The first is that James Comey is an honorable man." Second, "Comey was dealt an impossible hand."In late August, the justice department inspector general issued his report on Comey memorializing his meetings with the president then leaking them to the press. The inspector general determined the leaks "violated applicable policies and his FBI employment agreement".More important, "DoJ declined prosecution" and national security was not compromised. Even by Trump's own twisted standards, Comey and Campbell have some reason to smile.
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| Bill Maher Makes the Case for Joe Biden: He Is ‘Mildly Embarrassing’ But Not ‘Insane’ Like Trump Posted: 20 Sep 2019 09:16 PM PDT  HBOHBO's Bill Maher ended his Friday night broadcast of Real Time by taking aim at Republicans and conservative pundits who defend President Donald Trump regardless of what he says and does, introducing a new concept: Catch-23.During his "New Rules" segment, Maher explained to his viewers that "Catch-22 meant if you claimed to be insane to get out of combat, it actually proved you were sane." On the other hand, "Catch-23 is if Donald Trump never makes you insane, you are insane!"Noting that Republicans love to toss around the term "Trump Derangement Syndrome" to brush aside criticism of the "Dear Leader" as nothing but liberals being "sore losers" who can't accept Trump is president, Maher admitted there was some of that on the left before asking: "Have you watched this man over the last four years?!"Playing a montage of Trump's most bizarre moments at his campaign rallies, the HBO star snarked that Republicans somehow came to the conclusion that this was "how a president behaves" before pointing out that conservatives were correct to say liberals haven't gotten over Trump.John Oliver Drags Joe Biden Over 'Record Player' Gaffe at Democratic DebateBill Maher Exposes Tomi Lahren on 'Real Time' "You're right. we haven't gotten over it, because no one should," he exclaimed.Maher went on to highlight the president taking North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Saudis at their words, adding that this is "what Trump Derangement Syndrome really is: pretending that all of this is perfectly acceptable behavior for an American president and defending the indefensible.""That's deranged," he quipped. "That's a syndrome. And it's coming from the right. It's like body odor: if you smell it all the time, it's probably you."This prompted the acerbic comic to make a case for supporting Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden even if he "rapidly declines and legit loses his mind," telling Republicans: "I am going to pretend 'nothing to see here,' just like you're doing now."Maher would go on to encourage Democrats to vote for Biden even if he devolves from the current "mildly embarrassing gaffe machine who mixes up stories and waits 'til he's onstage for his eyeball to explode and his dentures to fall out.""That guy would not be nearly broken and crazy enough to teach the Republicans the lesson they need to learn," he noted. "For this, I need Joe Biden to be full-on, forgot-to-wear-pants, crumbs-in-the-hair, screaming-at-the-toaster nuts!"Maher continued: "And when Republicans say, 'Wait a minute, how can you give unwavering support for someone who's clearly lost it?' I'll say, 'I don't know, you tell me.'"The veteran comedian told his audience that in private, they'll go ahead and admit that their guy is nuts, but publicly they'll be in full denial mode, pointing to Fox Business host Stuart Varney's assertion that Trump has never lied as a prime example of how to act.Rolling his eyes at Varney's obsequiousness, Maher said he wanted to see Biden do "every fucked-up thing a celebrity ever did"—such as wear a meat dress or interrupt Taylor Swift at an awards show—just so he could tell Republicans that Biden's "a different kind of president.""And after he plows the presidential limousine through a farmer's market, I'll say, 'Why so upset, Republicans? That's just Biden being Biden,'" Maher concluded.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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| In 1988, Iran and America Went to War at Sea Posted: 20 Sep 2019 09:00 PM PDT  Let's just say this: half of Iran's Navy was sent to the bottom of the sea.
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| United States announces military response and Iran sanctions after attacks on Saudi oil facilities Posted: 20 Sep 2019 08:39 PM PDT  The United States announced on Friday it would send military forces to the Gulf following attacks on Saudi oil facilities, hours after Donald Trump ordered new sanctions on Tehran. Mr Trump said the sanctions were the toughest-ever against another country, but indicated he did not plan a military strike, calling restraint a sign of strength. The Treasury Department renewed action against Iran's central bank after US officials said Tehran carried out weekend attacks on rival Saudi Arabia's oil infrastructure, which triggered a spike in global crude prices. Those attacks, combined with an Iranian attack on an American spy drone in June, represented a "dramatic escalation of Iranian aggression," Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said. The Pentagon chief announced that the United States would send military reinforcements to the Gulf region at the request of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The US blamed Iran for the attacks on Saudi Aramco Credit: AP "In response to the kingdom's request, the president has approved the deployment of US forces, which will be defensive in nature, and primarily focused on air and missile defense," Mr Esper said. However Joint Chiefs of Staff Joe Dunford categorized the deployment as "moderate," with the number of troops not expected to reach the thousands. Earlier in the day the president attacked both critics who thought the mogul-turned-president would trigger war and hawks seeking a military response. "The easiest thing I could do (is) knock out 15 different major things in Iran," Mr Trump said. "But I think the strong-person approach and the thing that does show strength would be showing a little bit of restraint." Saudi Arabia on Friday revealed extensive damage from the strikes on state giant Aramco's facilities in Khurais and the world's largest oil processing facility at Abqaiq. Strikes against Saudi oil plants The attacks, which knocked out half of Saudi Arabia's oil production, have been claimed by Yemen's Iran-backed Huthi rebels, but Washington has pointed its finger at Tehran, condemning the strikes as an "act of war." Abqaiq was struck 18 times while nearby Khurais was hit four times in a raid that triggered multiple explosions and towering flames that took hours to extinguish, Aramco officials said. The United States already maintains sweeping sanctions on Iran including on its central bank, with anyone who deals with it subject to prosecution, due to Tehran's alleged nuclear program. But the new sanctions Friday were imposed for the additional reason of "terrorism," the Treasury said, adding that Iran's central bank had provided "billions of dollars" to two groups blacklisted by the United States. Iran responded that the move showed that the US was running out of options. Mr Trump recently said that he hopes for talks with Mr Rouhani, who responded that Trump must first ease sanctions. Last year Mr Trump pulled out of a nuclear accord with Iran negotiated under former president Barack Obama, sending tensions soaring as he tried to stop all countries from buying Iran's oil.
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| Trump says going into Iran would be an "easy" decision Posted: 20 Sep 2019 06:45 PM PDT  The president's remarks came at a news conference after the U.S. announced intensified sanctions on Iran
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| US sending more troops to Gulf, Trump announces Iran sanctions Posted: 20 Sep 2019 06:43 PM PDT  The United States announced Friday that it was sending military reinforcements to the Gulf region following attacks on Saudi oil facilities that it attributes to Iran, just hours after President Donald Trump ordered new sanctions on Tehran. Trump said the sanctions were the toughest-ever against another country, but indicated he did not plan a military strike, calling restraint a sign of strength. The Treasury Department renewed action against Iran's central bank after US officials said Tehran carried out weekend attacks on rival Saudi Arabia's oil infrastructure, which triggered a spike in global crude prices.
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