| The tale of Algeria's stolen cannon and France's cockerel Posted: 10 Oct 2020 04:50 PM PDT  Hopes grow that a gigantic weapon stolen after the invasion of Algiers in 1830 may soon be returned.
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| UK urges businesses to prepare for end of Brexit transition Posted: 10 Oct 2020 04:01 PM PDT |
| Biden hits Trump on economy in critical Pennsylvania county Posted: 10 Oct 2020 03:00 PM PDT  With the backdrop of a union facility in a key battleground county of Pennsylvania, Joe Biden on Saturday blistered President Donald Trump as only pretending to care about the working-class voters who helped flip the Rust Belt to the Republican column four years ago. "Anyone who actually does an honest day's work sees him and his promises for what they are," Biden told a masked, socially distanced crowd at a training facility for plumbers and other tradespeople. The Democratic challenger has hammered Trump on the economy in recent weeks, from sweeping indictments of how the president has downplayed the novel coronavirus and its economic fallout to a withering personal contrast between Biden's middle-class upbringing with that of the multimillionaire's son and self-proclaimed billionaire.
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| Brazil reaches 150,000 deaths from COVID-19 milestone Posted: 10 Oct 2020 02:57 PM PDT  Brazil's count of COVID-19 deaths surpassed 150,000 on Saturday night, despite signs the pandemic is slowly retreating in Latin America's largest nation. The Brazilian Health Ministry reported that the death toll now stands at 150,198. The figure is the world's second highest behind the United States, according to the tally maintained by Johns Hopkins University.
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| North Korea holds rare nighttime military parade, shows off possible new monster missile Posted: 10 Oct 2020 02:09 PM PDT  It wasn't clear if the monster missile was active or simply a shell, but the unprecedented spectacle less than a month ahead of the U.S. presidential election could raise the specter of coming North Korean weapons tests. This year, North Korea has taken a hostile posture toward the U.S., airing grievances and declaring its aversion to nuclear negotiations with Washington. This image from video broadcasted by North Korea's KRT shows what appears to be a giant intercontinental ballistic missile.
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| Israeli protests against Netanyahu draw tens of thousands Posted: 10 Oct 2020 12:36 PM PDT  Tens of thousands of Israelis calling on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to resign demonstrated across the country Saturday evening, saying he is unfit to rule while on trial for corruption charges and accusing him of mismanaging the nation's coronavirus crisis. Protesters gathered at hundreds of locations across the country due to a nationwide lockdown that has barred them from protesting at the usual site outside Netanyahu's official residence in Jerusalem. The largest gathering at Habima Square in central Tel Aviv drew thousands of protesters, who blew horns and pounded on drums and tambourines.
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| North Korea military parade suggests Trump's strategy may not be paying off Posted: 10 Oct 2020 11:24 AM PDT  During a pre-dawn military parade Saturday, North Korea unveiled what appeared to be a new intercontinental ballistic missile that's larger than any the country has rolled out before. The display was widely seen as an example of how President Trump's approach to denuclearization talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un -- which have fluctuated between intimidation and cordiality -- haven't panned out over the years.> Bottom line: after four years of "Fire and Fury" and "We fell in love", North Korea has more nuclear weapons and a more advanced ballistic missile program. https://t.co/97e5q340Wo> > -- Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) October 10, 2020> This is how well @realDonaldTrump 's North Korea policy is going. > > "North Korea unveils massive new ballistic missile in military parade."> > KJU had a 4 year free pass to advance his capabilities and the threats he poses to our national security.https://t.co/HFyEOjfnye> > -- Sam Vinograd (@sam_vinograd) October 10, 2020Arms control experts have said the images of the missile suggest it's big enough to carry multiple warheads, or perhaps a large thermonuclear one, but it's unclear if the ICBM is actually just for show since there's no indication it's been tested.Either way, the unveiling appears to be a bold move that signals Kim wants to strengthen his nuclear arsenal amid stalled negotiations with Trump, though it will likely be considered less provocative because of the choice to reveal the weapons system during a parade rather than conducting an actual test. > It'd be seen as less provocative for North Korea to unveil a new weapon at a parade rather than conduct a weapons test. Especially if it's a longer-range missile. Trump has warned he doesn't want any big provocations around the election.> > -- William Gallo (@GalloVOA) October 10, 2020More stories from theweek.com Mike Pence was the unlikely winner of the vice presidential debate The myth of Mike Pence's appeal Trump is shockingly bad at this
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| Vote Leave QC who hit out at election watchdog's 'gross' errors lined up to be its chairman Posted: 10 Oct 2020 10:28 AM PDT  A senior QC who accused the election watchdog of "gross" legal errors is being lined up to chair the body, The Telegraph can reveal. Senior Tories are touting Timothy Straker as a replacement for Sir John Holmes, a former diplomat who is being forced to stand down at the end of a controversial four-year term. Mr Straker, 65, had previously advised the Electoral Commission before representing the official Vote Leave campaign in a series of skirmishes with the body. Sir John's successor will be chosen by a committee of MPs but, under electoral law, cannot be a member of a political party or anyone who has recently served as a Member of Parliament. Senior figures in Number 10 Downing Street and the Cabinet Office are understood to have held discussions about the possibility of Mr Straker taking over from Sir John. A source described the QC as a "neutral arbiter" who is "steeped in electoral law" after working in the field for several decades. However, his appointment would be likely to be resisted by anti-Brexit campaigners because of his work acting for the Vote Leave campaign in the wake of the 2016 referendum. Mr Straker, who has acted for returning officers across the country, has become a fierce critic of the Electoral Commission and spoke out against the body's plans to attempt to hand itself powers to prosecute political parties. Last week, The Telegraph disclosed that MPs on the Speaker's committee on the Electoral Commission had denied Sir John's request to extend his four-year term beyond December. His predecessor served for two terms, totalling eight years. A public recruitment campaign is expected to begin shortly.
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| Probe launched into death of director of Korean firm in Iraq Posted: 10 Oct 2020 09:51 AM PDT |
| Belarus' authoritarian leader visits his foes in prison Posted: 10 Oct 2020 09:26 AM PDT  Belarus' authoritarian president on Saturday visited a prison to talk to opposition activists, who have been jailed for challenging his re-election that was widely seen as manipulated and triggered two months of protests. President Alexander Lukashenko spent more than four hours talking to his jailed political foes at the Minsk prison that belongs to Belarus' State Security Committee, which still goes under its Soviet-era name, KGB. Lukashenko's office said that "the goal of the president was to hear everyone's opinion."
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| Spain's Canary Islands see new influx of African migrants Posted: 10 Oct 2020 09:14 AM PDT  More than 1,000 have arrived in recent days and this year has seen a big increase from 2019.
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| Judge throws out Trump campaign's Pennsylvania lawsuit Posted: 10 Oct 2020 09:07 AM PDT  A federal judge in Pennsylvania on Saturday threw out a lawsuit filed by President Donald Trump's campaign, dismissing its challenges to the battleground state's poll-watching law and its efforts to limit how mail-in ballots can be collected and which of them can be counted. The ruling by U.S. District Judge J. Nicholas Ranjan — who was appointed by Trump — in Pittsburgh also poured cold water on Trump's claims that Pennsylvania is fertile ground for election fraud. Trump's campaign said it would appeal at least one element of the decision, with barely three weeks to go until Election Day in a state hotly contested by Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.
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| Families seek new investigations into old police killings Posted: 10 Oct 2020 08:17 AM PDT  One man died a decade ago after a police officer in New York state told him to move his illegally parked car. Another, in the midst of a mental health crisis on a Virginia highway, was fatally shot by an officer in 2018. A third man died in Oklahoma the next year after a foot chase and struggle with police.
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| Brexit negotiators must bridge 'significant gaps' within days, Boris Johnson warns Posted: 10 Oct 2020 08:12 AM PDT  Boris Johnson has warned Emmanuel Macron that Brexit negotiators will need to bridge "significant gaps" within days, as Tory sources suggested the French president's stance on fishing was standing in the way of a deal. In a telephone call on Saturday morning, the Prime Minister warned Mr Macron that "progress must be made" on fishing quotas and the EU's demands for the UK to abide by a "level playing field" of rules, including on industrial subsidies. Lord Frost, Mr Johnson's chief negotiator, is in the middle of a fortnight of intensive talks with his EU counterpart Michel Barnier as they attempt to avoid a no-deal outcome at the end of the transition period on December 31. Mr Johnson's intervention came as Conservative sources said the prospect of a deal now turned on whether Mr Macron was prepared to make a "political decision" to compromise on fish – a totemic issue for British and French coastal towns and villages. The EU's position until now has been to insist on replicating the Common Fisheries Policy, maintaining the access and quota shares enjoyed by EU fishermen before Brexit. But UK negotiators are insisting that British waters should be subject to annual negotiations that allow British fishermen to reclaim a much greater share of fish.
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| Men accused in plot on Michigan governor attended protests Posted: 10 Oct 2020 08:01 AM PDT  Among the armed protesters who rallied at the Michigan Capitol against Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's coronavirus lockdown this past spring were some of the men now accused in stunning plots to kidnap her, storm the Capitol and start a "civil war." The revelation has sparked scrutiny of rallies that were organized by conservative groups opposed to the Democratic governor's orders and egged on by President Donald Trump. It has also prompted renewed calls from Democrats for a gun ban in the building — an effort that so far has failed even after they reported feeling threatened by rifle-carrying protesters who entered the Statehouse.
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| North Korea displays huge new ICBM at coronavirus-defying parade Posted: 10 Oct 2020 07:13 AM PDT  North Korea showed off a gigantic new intercontinental ballistic missile Saturday that analysts described as the biggest of its kind in the world, as the nuclear-armed country defied the coronavirus threat with thousands of maskless troops taking part in a military parade.
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| Government to favour UK shipbuilding firms for contracts under defence review plans Posted: 10 Oct 2020 06:58 AM PDT  British shipbuilding companies would be favoured for Government contracts under plans being considered by Boris Johnson's defence review. The Integrated Review is understood to be considering changes to EU-derived rules that prevent the UK from prioritising domestic firms as part of a push to boost the UK shipbuilding industry at the end of the post-Brexit transition period. On Saturday, a Ministry of Defence spokesman confirmed: "Defence is committed to supporting the Government's ambition to reinvigorate UK shipbuilding. As we approach the end of the transition period, the MoD is exploring opportunities to better tailor the regulations to meet our needs, although no decisions have been made." Since 2009, the EU's single market rules have covered UK defence procurement, following previous exemptions. Currently, the EU-derived Defence and Security Public Contracts Regulations (DSPCR) require the Government to carry out international competitions for contracts relating to "non-sensitive" defence shipbuilding. "Sensitive" vessels, such as submarines and some classes of warships, are exempt. The Telegraph understands that Mr Johnson's review is weighing up reforms to the regulations, including the possibility of new legislation which could relax the current rules by 2023. David Jones MP, the deputy chairman of the Tory European Research Group, said: "Despite the intention to do more British shipbuilding, HMG could have a nasty surprise in the courts if they do not amend retained EU law on defence procurement which makes UK-limited procurement more difficult."
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| Ex-NJ governor Chris Christie says he's out of the hospital Posted: 10 Oct 2020 06:51 AM PDT  Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said Saturday he has been discharged from a New Jersey hospital where he spent a week, following his announcement that he had contracted the coronavirus. "I am happy to let you know that this morning I was released from Morristown Medical Center," Christie said in a Saturday morning post on Twitter. Christie announced Oct. 3 that he had tested positive and said hours later that he had checked himself into the hospital after deciding with his doctors that doing so would be "an important precautionary measure," given his history of asthma.
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| U.S. calls for negotiations with N. Korea to achieve complete denuclearization Posted: 10 Oct 2020 06:44 AM PDT |
| Egypt’s president signs strategic maritime deal with Greece Posted: 10 Oct 2020 06:22 AM PDT  Egypt's president Saturday ratified a maritime deal setting its Mediterranean Sea boundary with Greece and demarcating an exclusive economic zone for oil and gas drilling rights, the state-run news agency reported, in a move that has angered Turkey. The bilateral agreement is widely seen as a response to a rival deal between Turkey and Libya's Tripoli-based government that spiked tensions in the East Mediterranean region, along with Turkey's disputed oil and gas exploration in the seawaters.
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| Africa 'needs $1.2tn' to recover coronavirus losses Posted: 10 Oct 2020 05:55 AM PDT  The economic damage caused by coronavirus leaves the continent with a big repair bill, the IMF says.
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| Mideast wildfires kill 3, force thousands to flee homes Posted: 10 Oct 2020 05:41 AM PDT  Wildfires around the Middle East triggered by a heatwave hitting the region have killed three people, forced thousands of people to leave their homes and detonated landmines along the Lebanon-Israel border, state media and officials said Saturday. The areas hit by the heatwave are Syria, Lebanon, Israel and the Palestinian territories. Wildfires spread across different areas of Israel and the West Bank for a second day Saturday, forced thousands of people to evacuate their homes.
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| Egypt begins trial of ex-student in case fueling #MeToo wave Posted: 10 Oct 2020 05:32 AM PDT |
| Tehran to impose fines for virus regulation breaches as caseload soars Posted: 10 Oct 2020 04:52 AM PDT  Iran is to start imposing fines for breaches of health regulations in the capital, President Hassan Rouhani announced on Saturday, after daily coronavirus infections hit a record high this week.
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| Aid group says Libyan militia is holding hostage 60 migrants Posted: 10 Oct 2020 04:48 AM PDT |
| Kyrgyzstan bans rallies, imposes curfew to end turmoil Posted: 10 Oct 2020 04:29 AM PDT  Authorities in Kyrgyzstan on Saturday arrested a former president, banned rallies and imposed a curfew in the Central Asian nation's capital, seeking to end a week of turmoil sparked by a disputed parliamentary election. The declaration of the 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. curfew in Bishkek followed President Sooronbai Jeenbekov's decree on Friday announcing a state of emergency in the city until Oct. 21. On his orders, troops deployed to the capital on Saturday to enforce the measure, but it's unclear whether the military and the police would obey the president's orders or side with his rivals if the political infighting escalates.
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| Why would someone plan to abduct the governor of Michigan? Posted: 10 Oct 2020 03:30 AM PDT  "I am an originalist," Antonin Scalia once told an interviewer. "I am a textualist. I am not a nut."Whatever critics think of the late Supreme Court justice and the school of jurisprudence that has become synonymous with his name, his distinction seems one worth maintaining. There is all the difference in the world between people like Scalia and his followers, who find it absurd that somewhere in the text of an amendment ratified in 1868 there is enshrined an explicit right to conduct then subject to universal moral opprobrium throughout the known world, and others, who believe it is the solemn duty of every American to imitate the Founding Fathers by engaging in armed insurrection against federal and state governments (for such iniquities as the imposition of speed limits). There are, in fact, nuts.This distinction, between mainstream legal conservatives and dangerous fantasists, is the backdrop against which I think we should attempt to make sense of the alleged plot against Gretchen Whitmer, the Democratic governor of Michigan. Thank goodness (if the FBI affidavit is any indication), the scheme did not advance much beyond the exchanging of messages in a private Facebook group in which the proportions between genuine members and paid informants were (as they tend to be in such groups) roughly equal. The level of organizational sophistication achieved by these would-be terrorists makes the airport shoe bomber look like Professor Moriarty.What is interesting about "Wolverine Watchmen," the militia group hitherto unknown to experts on extremism to which the plotters are said to belong, is not so much what they came close to accomplishing but the source of their ideology, which has little to do with the serious objections to Whitmer's policies peacefully voiced by millions of Michiganders. To these "Wolverines," the lockdown and other events of the last year are irrelevant.To understand this plot (and to see why such things, however unlikely they are to come off, are always taken seriously by investigators), it is important to consider the history of the so-called constitutional militia movement. Robert Churchill rightly begins his fine study of this phenomenon, not in the right-wing fever swamps of the South or the remote west, but in Michigan, the birthplace of the U.A.W., arguably the most moderate state in the union, where in the early 1990s, two Baptist clergymen, Norm Olson and Ray Southwell, vowed to "shake their guns in the tyrant's face."Unlike many of their contemporaries and successors, Olson and Southwell explicitly rejected the notion that the conflict between ordinary citizens and state and federal government agencies was racial. They disavowed anti-Semitism and worked effortlessly to root out racial, sexual, religious and other forms of bigotry. They were, as only Michigan men can be, revolutionaries who doggedly insisted upon old-fashioned Midwestern politeness. They were also wholly unrepresentative of what would follow, as membership in what became known as the Michigan Militia Corps surged to more than 10,000 in the wake of Ruby Ridge and Waco. Soon apparent instances of government overreach, concerns about privacy, and perceived threats to the Second Amendment would give way to reprints of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, dark hints about the natural subjugation of women, and a restoration of those Darwinian principles which had ensured the survival and flourishing of our species.That a movement dedicated to right-wing terrorism would trace its origins to rural Michigan is not as strange as if the same had been true of, say, Seattle. We remain one of the most culturally conservative states in the union. We are also, I would argue, though such claims do not easily submit to quantitative evaluation, the most nostalgic of Americans, always hearkening back to our half-understood post-war golden age. But we are also quiet people, interested in common sense and decency for reasons having nothing to do with ideology; we are distrustful of all manner of enthusiasm in politics, including the crude atavistic worldview of the militia, which, even in a state in which gun ownership is both widespread and uncontroversial, never reached anything like a critical mass of support.This is not to say that it remained wholly invisible to those of us who lived here during the decade in which it was founded. My own childhood in this state was on more than one occasion darkened by the shadow of the militia movement. Between the ages of two and five I lived in what Michiganders call "the Thumb," the vast peninsula north of Detroit. Surrounded by Lake Huron at its edges, the Thumb's interior is mostly empty save for thousands and thousands of acres of farm land and dark scattered forests. It was here in Decker, not far from our house in Cass City, that two brothers active in militia circles were often seen on their own farm in the company of one of their friends. My mother to this day recalls seeing the trio, each man clad in camouflage, leaving the old Kritzman's department store just as she, my sister, and I were entering.The brothers were known around town and widely disliked. The men who instinctively distrusted the brothers were not cosmopolitan liberals; they were farmers themselves, hunters, many of them hard drinkers inured to violence and clinging in their own way to stubbornly independent views of the world. Most of them hated both the federal government and the big banks that had repossessed so many farms during the previous decade. But they had no patience for the lunatic views of the brothers and most kept their distance. (The rumor was that they were all gay.) Readers of a certain age will have guessed by now that the surname of the brothers was Nichols, and that their friend was Timothy McVeigh.Fifteen or so years later, after the movement had been in steady decline, I would hear from a former state police officer about what he considered a typical encounter with a militia member during the group's heyday. "Tommy," as I will call him, had been a modestly successful middleweight boxer before becoming a cop in the Upper Peninsula, which makes the Thumb look like I-75 north of Detroit during rush hour. Tommy had heard complaints from a waitress at a bar that a man dressed in camouflage — the military kind, not what you wear for deer hunting — had been making lewd comments whenever he stopped in. He went to the home of the man, who had already made himself a nuisance by handing out anti-government pamphlets and videocassettes, and politely but firmly told him to leave the woman alone. The militia member responded that the waitress was just being coy, that she really welcomed his advances, and indeed was inviting rather more than those. Tommy did his best to disabuse the man of these notions."That's bullshit," the militia man said. "Feminism has made women go against what they really want, which is force."A week or so later, after receiving another call from the waitress, Tommy returned to the house and opened the door, which, oddly enough given the lunatic views of its inhabitant on the subject of privacy, was unlocked. "Hey, Tommy," the man said. Behind him on a television screen an instructional video whose subject matter would be most accurately described as rape apologia was playing. Tommy said nothing. Instead he bear-hugged the man and dragged him across the room to the kitchen table. Then he began to loosen the man's belt."I'm ready," Tommy said, reaching for the man's fly button and zipper."No!" the man screamed."Huh?""No, no, stop, no.""You told me when someone says no they really mean yes.""No, no, no!""Wait," Tommy said, suddenly relaxing his grip on the man's shoulders. "Does no mean no?""Yes."Tommy released the man, took the militia tape out of the VCR, and left.I cannot exactly defend Tommy's police work here. I can only say that after his intervention no further sexual harassment was reported, nor did the suspect, if that is the right word for someone who was never formally charged with a crime, ever again attempt to propagandize on behalf of militia groups in our sparsely populated county.This story, which I heard as a teenager, took place just after the turn of the century, by which time the Michigan militia was already falling apart. Like every revolutionary movement, it would collapse due to a combination of members' half-heartedness about the value of "the struggle" and internecine conflict over its ultimate objectives (the latter exacerbated by undercover law enforcement agents). The chief disagreement by the end of the '90s was between those who considered themselves engaged in a primarily political conflict to restore America to roughly the political conditions under which the Bill of Rights had been ratified and those who believed that the stakes were much higher, that by stockpiling weapons and watching cassettes about the Trilateral Commission and the Bilderberg Group they were preparing themselves to face the armies of Antichrist. Neither position seems to enjoy much purchase these days.What explains the rise and rapid fall of the militia movement in the Great Lakes State during the last decade of the 20th century? And, more important, what accounts for its dogged, though thankfully rather more limited appeal today? I am wary of facile explanations, but I think two related factors can be singled out. One is the ghost of the American Founding, specifically the widespread inability to understand the revolution of 1776 in terms of the greater historical forces at work — among them the impossibility of a Western European maritime power ruling a colony whose expansion into a vast continent-spanning empire was inevitable. Instead we tell ourselves that the Founding was the glorious but unlikely legacy of a ragged band of patriots whose heroism would now (alas) be dismissed as terrorism.The second, not entirely unrelated explanation for the appeal of militia groups belongs to political economy. In a world from which tangible authority of the sort once exercised by George III and the British Parliament has all but disappeared, replaced by a sinuous continuum of economic exchange that even in the '90s transcended borders, one in whose injustices we are all more or less equally culpable, it is understandable that some persons horrified by the pace of change and their own feelings of powerlessness would seek a more concrete enemy. But it is not what CEOs and U.N. bureaucrats do behind closed doors that ensures the survival of globalized neoliberal capitalism but what millions of us do in public each day whenever we purchase goods and services. The seat of power is the system itself, and, as various Marxist writers have shrewdly observed, it is much easier to imagine the apocalypse than an end to our current economic system.The only cabals are the ones making idle threats to kidnap moderate liberal governors, who once bombed a daycare center in Oklahoma.More stories from theweek.com Mike Pence was the unlikely winner of the vice presidential debate The myth of Mike Pence's appeal Trump is shockingly bad at this
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| #EndSARS protests: Nigeria president commits to ending police brutality Posted: 10 Oct 2020 03:09 AM PDT  Muhammadu Buhari responds to protests sparked by a video of a man allegedly being killed by officers.
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| With Americans anxious to go out, walking tours pick up pace Posted: 10 Oct 2020 02:00 AM PDT  With an eerily quiet and empty stadium plaza behind him, the tour guide tried to help people picture what they would have seen there more than 160 years earlier. "It's been a pretty big hit," Walls said.
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| Delta adds insult to injury in hurricane-ravaged Louisiana Posted: 09 Oct 2020 11:02 PM PDT  The day after Hurricane Delta blew through besieged southern Louisiana, residents started the routine again: dodging overturned cars, trudging through knee-deep water to flooded homes with ruined floors and no power, and pledging to rebuild after the storm. Delta made landfall Friday evening near the coastal Louisiana town of Creole with top winds of 100 mph (155 kph). It then moved over Lake Charles, a city where Hurricane Laura damaged nearly every home and building in late August.
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| North Korea defies coronavirus with huge military parade Posted: 09 Oct 2020 10:27 PM PDT  North Korea showed off a gigantic new intercontinental ballistic missile Saturday that analysts described as the biggest of its kind in the world, as the nuclear-armed country defied the coronavirus threat with thousands of maskless troops taking part in a military parade. North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un warned that his country would "fully mobilise" its nuclear force if threatened as he oversaw an early morning military parade showing off the new hardware. The event, which aimed to galvanise the secretive country at a time of increasing economic hardship and isolation due to the pandemic, took place before dawn on Saturday and edited footage was broadcast later in the day. The unveiling of the seemingly new weapon followed a familiar display of goose-stepping troops, armoured vehicles and a broad range of smaller ballistic missiles, all in celebration of the 75th anniversary of the country's ruling party. State television showed an ICBM on a transporter vehicle with at least 22 wheels, larger than anything previously displayed by the nuclear-armed country.
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| Whitmer plot could affect fight for battleground Michigan Posted: 09 Oct 2020 10:08 PM PDT  Gretchen Whitmer knew she'd have the spotlight Thursday. Hours after the FBI revealed a group of anti-government vigilantes had plotted to kidnap her, the Democratic governor of Michigan addressed her state — and the nation — with a message that didn't mince words about whom she blamed for the threat: President Donald Trump was complicit for "giving comfort to those who spread fear and hatred and division." It was a familiar move for a governor who has repeatedly engaged in heated public battles with the president that may only hurt him in a pivotal state against Democrat Joe Biden.
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| Specter of election chaos raises questions on military role Posted: 09 Oct 2020 10:03 PM PDT  It's a question Americans are unaccustomed to considering in a presidential election campaign: Could voting, vote-counting or the post-vote reaction become so chaotic that the U.S. military would intervene? The Constitution keeps the military in a narrow lane — defending the United States from external enemies. The potential use of troops, either active duty or National Guard, at the polls or in post-election unrest has been discussed by governors and military leaders.
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| Florida GOP fights to animate Trump's base without president Posted: 09 Oct 2020 09:59 PM PDT  Nearly 300 Republicans packed shoulder-to-shoulder maskless and sweating inside a Holiday Inn conference room this week in the heart of the Florida Panhandle to see their party's biggest political stars not named President Donald Trump. With Trump grounded in Washington, they chanted and cheered as the governor, the self-described "Trumpiest" Florida congressman and the president's eldest son shared anti-Democratic conspiracy theories, attacked the media and warned that Joe Biden "is a puppet for the radical left." While energetic, the crowd was a far cry from the tens of thousands drawn to the president's past rallies in this deep-red bastion of Trumpism, where the president's dominant performance four years ago helped deliver Florida, and with it, the White House.
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| Five things to know about court nominee Amy Coney Barrett Posted: 09 Oct 2020 09:53 PM PDT  Confirmation hearings begin Monday for President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Amy Coney Barrett. If confirmed, the 48-year-old appeals court judge would fill the seat of liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died last month. Ginsburg's replacement by Barrett, a conservative, would shift the balance on the court significantly right, from 5-4 in favor of conservatives to 6-3.
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| A senior warning sign for Trump: 'Go Biden' cry at Villages Posted: 09 Oct 2020 09:31 PM PDT  Sara Branscome's golf cart whizzed down the smooth asphalt path that winds through The Villages, the nation's largest retirement community, an expanse of beautiful homes, shops and entertainment venues that bills itself as "Florida's Friendliest Hometown." Branscome's cart was festooned with two American flags that flapped in the warm afternoon breeze. Branscome jabbed her left foot on the horn pedal, then gave a thumbs-up.
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| Team Trump Admits Its ‘Russiagate’ Head Fake Has Been a Flop Posted: 09 Oct 2020 09:19 PM PDT  With coronavirus running through his body in competition with a heavy steroidal dose, President Trump is frustrated that a country where over 210,000 people have died from the virus seems uninterested in the "hoax" of Russiagate.Trump spent part of his week demanding the latest version of his Russia counter-narrative—that the intelligence officials teamed up with Democrats to invent Russian collusion in 2016—be used to prosecute his political enemies. "I say, 'Bill [Barr], we have plenty [of evidence], we don't need any more," Trump told Maria Bartiromo on Thursday. On Friday, he fumed to Rush Limbaugh that Republicans are "afraid they're going to influence the election… they don't play the tough game."Providing that "evidence" to Attorney General William Barr's special prosecutor is loyalist Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe. Intelligence veterans are seething as Ratcliffe helps Trump concoct a narrative to aid him in an election. "Everyone knows the deal here," said Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, a former CIA officer. "They know Ratcliffe is irresponsible. It's just everything goes."Yet Trump and his aides, in recent weeks, have recognized that the public isn't captivated by the Breitbart-friendly accounts of uncovered notes from former CIA officials four years ago, according to two sources familiar with the private complaints."Mainstream media isn't covering it. So most voters aren't aware of the facts," John McLaughlin, a top Trump pollster, told The Daily Beast. "You're [the] first reporter who's ever asked me and it has yet to be a question in the debates."Other political advisers don't even think it's worth the bother at this point. Some senior Trump aides have privately insisted that amplifying the inquiry from special prosecutor John Durham is a waste of time, at least electorally. "It is not going to move any votes that aren't already in our column," one said."The media has worked hard to keep voters in the dark about Joe Biden colluding with Hillary Clinton to spread the Russia collusion hoax and undermining the peaceful transition of power in 2017," Matt Wolking, the Trump campaign's deputy communications director, said in response to a request for comment Friday.One person who has repeatedly talked to Trump about Durham's probe and the president's desire to imprison many of his political enemies recounted how Trump has lamented how more people aren't defecting from the Democratic Party for what is supposedly the "biggest scandal" in recent U.S. political history. The president also blames media outlets—including Fox—for not covering Durham-related developments as aggressively as he'd like. They're "cover[ing] it up" for the voters and American public, Trump has said.Another source with knowledge of the president's griping on the matter said that there was at least one instance in the past two months when President Trump had flipped through cable-news channels looking for coverage of the probe one day, only to voice his irritation when he couldn't find any.Trump is leaning heavily on Barr, through Durham, to produce the electoral deus ex machina of indictments. "Unless Bill Barr indicts these people for crimes, the greatest political crime in the history of our country, then we're going to get little satisfaction, unless I win," he told Bartiromo.Trump may not be satisfied. Multiple outlets have reported that Durham is unlikely to either indict anyone before the election or release a public report. Durham's probe already confronts deep skepticism, particularly after a key aide resigned in protest of Barr's pressure on it. The unlikelihood of Durham delivering has now strained Trump's relationship with his attorney general, according to the AP.That's a reflection of the importance Trump's desired narrative provides for his supporters—in defeat as well as in victory. It portrays them as hobbled from the start by a disloyal security establishment bent on persecution. That doesn't necessarily require prosecutions. But it does require public disclosures of intelligence fitting that narrative. Those stakes have been on display this week, as MAGA turned on Trump's CIA director and championed Ratcliffe.How Team Trump Keeps Twisting the Real Election ThreatTrump Wants to Oust FBI Director Chris Wray After the ElectionIt's a proxy fight with implications for the future of U.S. intelligence. Trump's approach to intelligence was on display during Rudy Giuliani's dirt-hunts in Ukraine, and even earlier, in 2011, when he claimed to have "investigators" in Hawaii searching for Barack Obama's birth certificate: to gather information useful against his domestic enemies. That's been embraced by Trump's allies—especially Rep. Devin Nunes, the top Republican on the House intelligence community—while frustrating Democrats and alarming intelligence veterans, both of whom hope for a return to the status quo ante. Some wonder if this style of intelligence weaponization will endure on the right, beyond Trump's presidency."That's just everything now—the Post Office as a domestic political weapon, the census is being used as one," said a former senior intelligence official. "The right wing has come around to the view that it is legitimate to use every aspect of government as leverage to preserve their own political power and destroy their enemies. That's the reality of where we are. There's no rational view of the proper job of intelligence agencies that says it's to protect the president."Intelligence veterans are quick to point to the very long history of politicized intelligence, from the Bay of Pigs to Iran-Contra to Iraq. They also observe that previous politicization was typically tied to a foreign target, rather than a domestic political fight, something that highlights the blatancy of Ratcliffe and Trump's efforts. "There was a set of rules both sides played by, even if they politicized their analysis like [Bush-era Undersecretary of Defense] Doug Feith did to support a desired policy," Mowatt-Larsen said. "The aberration here is that it's being used purely to support the president in an election context. That's an unacceptable politicization."Hours before the vice presidential debate, Ratcliffe announced he gave Durham almost 1,000 pages of documents. Ratcliffe, in a statement, pledged to "continue to ensure the Intelligence Community's responsiveness to the DOJ's requests." The week before, Ratcliffe released summaries of intercepted 2016-era Russian intelligence analysis fitting Trump's desired narrative, despite conceding it "may reflect exaggeration or fabrication." He subsequently insisted, after an uproar, that he wasn't laundering Russian disinformation."You're just declassifying things that are essentially raw intelligence with no context, with no reason to do it," said a former top Trump-era senior intelligence official. "Except the timing that makes it feel as though it is designed to serve one of the candidates."Former CIA Director John Brennan, whose notes are among Ratcliffe's disclosures and provisions, excoriated Ratcliffe for politicizing intelligence. "It is appalling his selective declassification of information. It is designed to advance the political interests of Donald Trump and Republicans who are aligned with him," Brennan told CNN. CIA allies are quick to point out that none of the multiple inquiries into Russian election interference have substantiated Trump's narrative of Clinton's campaign inventing a hoax of Russia collusion. Instead, they've validated the 2017 intelligence assessment that Russia intervened on Trump's behalf.Now the CIA director Trump appointed has come under the sustained ire of MAGA.Two key Trump allies in the Senate, Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Ron Johnson (R-WI), excoriated CIA Director Gina Haspel on Wednesday for allegedly obstructing document production in their own probe of the FBI's Trump-Russia inquiries. "This cannot continue–the American public has a right to know about the rampant mistakes and biased decisions that occurred during the Obama administration that undermined a peaceful transition of power," they wrote.It threw into relief MAGA's increasing dissatisfaction with Haspel, the torture veteran and CIA institutionalist whom Trump placed at Langley. Haspel faces internal dissatisfaction for, reportedly, muzzling the CIA's Russia analysts on Trump's behalf. ("She calls analysts liars all the time," an ex-official told Politico.) Additional pressure on Haspel has come from Nunes, who recently said he hoped Haspel would support "the maximum release of documentation." This week, the MAGA publication The Federalist, citing intelligence sources, accused Haspel "personally" of obstructing the release of "key Russiagate documents" so Trump will lose re-election.Trump has set the tone for it. "You have a Deep State, you have a group of people that don't want to have documents shown, which tells you a bad thing. But you have to give them, and we're getting them, ultimately," Trump told Bartiromo. He praised Ratcliffe as "terrific." He didn't mention Haspel.Both ODNI and the CIA declined to answer Daily Beast questions about whether Haspel disagreed with any of Ratcliffe's document provisions to Durham. The New York Times reported Friday that she opposed Ratcliffe's earlier declassifications. Asked about Grassley and Johnson's accusation, CIA spokesperson Nicole de Haay said, "We've received the letter, and of course, we intend on responding as quickly as possible."Two former intelligence officials said Haspel, a CIA lifer, had little choice but to protect the agency's interests against Trump. One suggested that declassification risked exposing agency sources. "Aside from selective declassification, which is clearly going on here, it wouldn't surprise me if it's reached the stage where people at the agency say to Haspel, 'You do this and you'll blow our sources,' and that's where Gina will be forced into taking a stand," the ex-official said.That former official thought the domestic weaponization of intelligence wasn't necessarily a permanent feature of elite American politics. But the official said it depended on Republican moneymen repudiating Trump and compelling the party to abandon his mode of politics. That's something that they haven't done in four years–and something capital, historically, never does against nationalisms.Revealed: Jared Kushner's Private Channel With Putin's Money ManBarr's Prosecutor Hasn't Grilled Key Russiagate Witnesses"Is the result of this election definitive enough that the Republican Party decides we're going to change our approach, or are they locked in?" the ex-official said. "It's all going to come down to the plutocrats that fund the Republican Party."Mowatt-Larssen, author of the memoir A State of Mind: Faith and The CIA, agreed there was nothing inevitable about permanent domestic politicization of intelligence. But he said the intelligence agencies needed to "purge" themselves of habits of acquiescence to political figures."The first thing you need to do is restore your reputation and purge—I use that word deliberately—all the ways you've been intimidated, cajoled and persuaded to join a political enterprise. The intelligence agencies have to recognize there is now a problem with their truth-seeking character, objectivity, independence and nonpolitical role now being in question," he said. "What's clear is there's been a trend toward politicization that has gotten really bad, and the intelligence community is aware they're under assault."Trump is confident that a nation mired in a pandemic and corresponding economic disaster cares about relitigating the Russia investigations. "The American people are totally aware of this," he assured Limbaugh.—with additional reporting by Erin BancoRead more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet 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 makes 1st public appearance since his hospital stay Posted: 09 Oct 2020 09:16 PM PDT  President Donald Trump on Saturday made his first public appearance after being hospitalized for the coronavirus, defying public health guidelines to speak to a crowd of hundreds even as the White House refused to declare that he was not contagious. Trump took off a mask moments after he emerged on the White House balcony to address the crowd on the lawn below, his first step back onto the public stage with just more than three weeks to go until Election Day. With bandages visible on his hands, likely from an intravenous injection, Trump spoke for 18 minutes, far less than at his normal hour-plus rallies.
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| WFP chief seeks million from donors, billionaires for food Posted: 09 Oct 2020 09:00 PM PDT  Even before COVID-19 became an issue, World Food Program chief David Beasley was warning global leaders that the world would face the worst humanitarian crisis since World War II in 2020. Then came COVID-19 which quickly became a pandemic that has swept the world, escalating the need for food — and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says it is still not under control. Beasley, who got COVID-19 in April, has spent the months since he recovered reaching out to world leaders and visiting stricken countries with a new warning that he delivered to the U.N. Security Council last month: millions of people are closer to starvation because of the deadly combination of conflict, climate change and the coronavirus pandemic.
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| Taiwan's leader hopes for reduced tensions with China Posted: 09 Oct 2020 08:50 PM PDT  Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen said Saturday she has hopes for less tensions with China and in the region if Beijing will listen to Taipei's concerns, alter its approach and restart dialogue with the self-ruled island democracy. Speaking at Taiwan's National Day celebrations on Saturday, Tsai took note of recent remarks by Chinese leader Xi Jinping in a video message to the U.N. General Assembly that China would never seek hegemony, expansion or to establish a sphere of influence. "As countries in the region and around the world are now concerned about China's expanding hegemony, we hope this is the beginning of genuine change," Tsai said in her annual address at the Presidential Office in downtown Taipei.
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| North Korea unveils new weapons at military parade Posted: 09 Oct 2020 06:49 PM PDT  North Korean leader Kim Jong Un warned Saturday that his country would "fully mobilize" its nuclear force if threatened as he took center stage at a military parade in which the country unveiled what appeared to be a new intercontinental ballistic missile and other additions to its growing weapons arsenal. Instead, he focused on a domestic message urging his people to remain firm in the face of "tremendous challenges" posed by the coronavirus pandemic and crippling U.S.-led sanctions over his nuclear program. Kim described the North's continuing efforts to develop its nuclear deterrent as necessary for its defense and said it wasn't targeting any specific country with its military force.
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