| Belarus tells UN sanctions would be 'harmful for everyone' Posted: 26 Sep 2020 05:40 PM PDT  Belarus' foreign minister warned Western nations Saturday against imposing sanctions over the country's disputed presidential election and crackdown on protesters, saying their expressions of concern are "nothing but attempts to bring chaos and anarchy to our country." With the European Union and Britain contemplating sanctions, Belarusian Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei told the virtual U.N. General Assembly meeting of world leaders that "interference in our internal affairs, sanctions and other restrictions on Belarus will have the opposite effect and are harmful for absolutely everyone."
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| Italian family fosters Gambian migrant: 'The son we never had' Posted: 26 Sep 2020 04:56 PM PDT  When Gambian orphan Muhammed Sanneh arrived in Sicily aged 16, his life took an unexpected turn.
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| Syria minister calls Turkey main terrorism sponsor in region Posted: 26 Sep 2020 04:40 PM PDT  Syria's foreign minister accused Turkey on Saturday of being "one of the main sponsors of terror" in his country and the region, and said it is guilty of "a war crime and a crime against humanity" for cutting water to more than a dozen towns that resisted Turkish occupation. In unusually harsh language, Walid al-Moallem said in a prerecorded speech to the first-ever high-level meeting of the U.N. General Assembly held virtually because of the pandemic that the cutoff of water supplies endangered civilian lives, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. The nine-year Syrian conflict, which initially began as a civil war, later became a regional proxy fight.
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| How it happened: From law professor to high court in 4 years Posted: 26 Sep 2020 02:49 PM PDT  Four years ago, Amy Coney Barrett was a little-known law professor in Indiana. Within weeks, she is likely to be the newest associate justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. Barrett's fast-track rise, set to drive the nation's highest court to the right for a generation or longer, is the fulfillment of a decadeslong effort by conservatives to remake the federal bench that kicked into high gear after President Donald Trump was elected.
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| GOP invests $10M in boosting Trump with Barrett confirmation Posted: 26 Sep 2020 02:16 PM PDT  The Republican National Committee is putting Amy Coney Barrett's Supreme Court confirmation fight front and center with voters just weeks before Election Day. The confirmation battle will be featured in a new $10 million RNC digital ad campaign to encourage battleground state voters to return vote-by-mail ballots or go to the polls. The national party, in concert with President Donald Trump's campaign, is planning local events and protests across the country to support Barrett's confirmation as well.
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| The U.S. reckoning on race, seen through other nations’ eyes Posted: 26 Sep 2020 02:10 PM PDT  It's not only in the United States where protests against racial injustice are part of the national conversation. A handful of America's critics have taken note too, using recent months' demonstrations and graphic images of police violence to denounce the country at the United Nations' gathering of world leaders this year. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani invoked the killing of George Floyd, the Black American man who died after a white police officer in Minneapolis pressed his knee against his neck even as he repeatedly said he could not breathe.
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| The U.S. reckoning on race, seen through other nations’ eyes Posted: 26 Sep 2020 02:10 PM PDT  It's not only in the United States where protests against racial injustice are part of the national conversation. A handful of America's critics have taken note too, using recent months' demonstrations and graphic images of police violence to denounce the country at the United Nations' gathering of world leaders this year. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani invoked the killing of George Floyd, the Black American man who died after a white police officer in Minneapolis pressed his knee against his neck even as he repeatedly said he could not breathe.
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| Her words: Amy Coney Barrett on faith, precedent, abortion Posted: 26 Sep 2020 02:10 PM PDT  President Donald Trump on Saturday announced he was nominating Barrett to fill the seat vacated by the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. — 2013 article in the Texas Law Review, citing Roe v. Wade, the 1973 landmark ruling that recognized a woman's right to abortion.
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| Thousands march in Washington to pray and show Trump support Posted: 26 Sep 2020 02:00 PM PDT  Thousands of people packed the National Mall in downtown Washington on Saturday to pray and show their support for President Donald Trump. The march, which stretched from the Lincoln Memorial to the U.S. Capitol, was held just hours before Trump was set to announce he was nominating a conservative judge for the Supreme Court. Vice President Mike Pence, speaking from the steps of the memorial, said he came to extend Trump's "greetings and gratitude" and asked them to pray for the new Supreme Court nominee.
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| The U.S. reckoning on race, seen through other nations' eyes Posted: 26 Sep 2020 01:24 PM PDT  It's not only in the United States where protests against racial injustice are part of the national conversation. A handful of America's critics have taken note too, using recent months' demonstrations and graphic images of police violence to denounce the country at the United Nations' gathering of world leaders this year. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani invoked the killing of George Floyd, the Black American man who died after a white police officer in Minneapolis pressed his knee against his neck even as he repeatedly said he could not breathe.
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| The Latest: Trump highlights choice of Barrett at rally Posted: 26 Sep 2020 01:06 PM PDT  Chants of "fill that seat" erupted as President Donald Trump opened his first campaign rally after nominating Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the U.S. Supreme Court. Trump told several thousand supporters at the event at an airport hangar in Middletown, Pennsylvania, that the federal appeals court judge is a "brilliant legal mind."
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| Boris Johnson urges nations to unite and ‘turn our fire against our common foe’ Posted: 26 Sep 2020 01:04 PM PDT  British Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged world leaders to unite in the fight against COVID-19, speaking Saturday at the 75th Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks in a prerecorded message which was played during the 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly on Saturday. The controversial British leader, who spent three nights in intensive care in early April after contracting the disease, promised an increase of 30% in contributions to the World Health Organization — 340 million pounds ($432 million) — over the next four years.
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| As U.S., China squabble at U.N., a plea - and warning - from one of world's smallest states Posted: 26 Sep 2020 01:02 PM PDT |
| Lord Frost insists EU needs to work on more realistic policy positions on Brexit Posted: 26 Sep 2020 12:35 PM PDT  The Prime Minister's chief Brexit negotiator hinted at progress in the trade talks last night, but insisted the EU still needed to be more "realistic" about the rules that the UK could accept. Lord Frost said the last fortnight of informal talks with Michel Barnier, his Brussels counterpart, had been "relatively positive", as he suggested that the EU had scaled back on some "unrealistic ambitions". The two sides have been at loggerheads over fishing rights in British waters and EU demands for the UK to continue following the bloc's rules on industrial subsidies. Government sources have also claimed that the EU's method of conducting the negotiations has led to "paralysis", with Mr Barnier insisting on slowing down talks on less contentious issues in order to focus on the most difficult areas. Mr Barnier is believed to have given ground on his previous insistence on "parallelism" in the talks. Lord Frost said: "As we enter the final stages of negotiations we are all focusing on what it might take to get a trade agreement in place. "An agreement is still very much possible, but equally very far from certain. The last two weeks of informal talks have been relatively positive, but there remains much to be done, and time is short. "We have been saying from the beginning of this process that we simply want a standard free trade agreement like Canada's. Sadly the EU's position has not been so straightforward and we continue to be asked to accept provisions which do not reflect the reality of the change which our exit from the EU brings. "If the gaps in these areas are to be bridged, the EU still needs to scale back more of its unrealistic ambitions and work on more realistic policy positions. I hope this will be possible this coming week, and I and my team are ready to work as hard as necessary to move things forward." On Monday, Michael Gove will take part in a meeting of the joint UK-EU committee on the Withdrawal Agreement, when he is likely to come under renewed pressure to drop provisions in the Internal Market Bill which would allow ministers to override parts of the 2019 deal. Meanwhile, the Confederation of British Industry released polling showing that three-quarters of businesses (77 per cent) favour the two sides striking a post-Brexit trade agreement, with 18 per cent expressing no preference between a deal or no deal. Some 4 per cent favoured a no-deal outcome. Dame Carolyn Fairbairn, the CBI Director-General, who was pictured alongside Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor last week, said: "Next week Brexit talks enter the eleventh hour. Now must be the time for political leadership and the spirit of compromise to shine through on both sides. A deal can and must be made. "More than three-quarters of businesses want to see a deal that will support people's jobs and livelihoods. This matters for firms and communities across Europe."
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| Amy Coney Barrett, Supreme Court nominee, is Scalia's heir Posted: 26 Sep 2020 11:04 AM PDT  Although Amy Coney Barrett is the president's choice to replace Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, she is more aptly described as heir to another departed Supreme Court justice: conservative hero Antonin Scalia. Like Scalia, for whom she once clerked, she is a committed Roman Catholic and a devotee of his favored interpretation of the Constitution known as originalism. President Donald Trump nominated the 48-year-old federal court appellate judge from South Bend, Indiana, at a Rose Garden press conference Saturday.
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| Egypt returns bodies of 2 Gaza fishermen shot by its navy Posted: 26 Sep 2020 11:01 AM PDT |
| Reports: Car bomb kills 7 in northeastern Syria Posted: 26 Sep 2020 10:43 AM PDT |
| How Trump, Biden are preparing for first presidential debate Posted: 26 Sep 2020 10:39 AM PDT  Ahead of the first debate-stage matchup between President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger Joe Biden, each campaign is promising a stark contrast in policy, personality and preparation. Trump has decided to skip any formal preparation. Biden's campaign has been holding mock debate sessions featuring Bob Bauer, a senior Biden adviser and former White House general counsel, playing the role of Trump, according to a person with direct knowledge of the preparations who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal strategy.
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| Justin Trudeau: 'The World Is In Crisis, And Things Are About To Get Much Worse' Posted: 26 Sep 2020 10:25 AM PDT  The Canadian prime minister argued in a U.N. speech that COVID-19 is a "wake-up call" that current global systems simply don't work anymore.
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| If Barrett joins, Supreme Court would have six Catholics Posted: 26 Sep 2020 09:17 AM PDT  Roman Catholics account for a bit more than 20% of the U.S. population, yet they are on track to hold six of the Supreme Court's nine seats now that President Donald Trump has nominated Amy Coney Barrett to fill its vacancy. Catholic academics and political analysts offer several explanations for the turnaround – related to Catholics' educational traditions, their interest in the law, and – in the case of Catholic conservatives – an outlook that has appealed to recent Republican presidents filling judicial vacancies. Barrett, a favorite of conservative activists for her views on abortion and other issues, will likely be an ideological opposite of liberal icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the Jewish justice whose recent death created the vacancy.
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| Q&A: How to handle technology issues with online school Posted: 26 Sep 2020 09:15 AM PDT  Across the U.S., the pandemic has forced students to attend virtual school to prevent spread of the coronavirus. Your internet service may be inadequate for all-day videoconferencing or simply overstressed. There can be unanticipated consequences from turning on a new video camera in your home for school lessons.
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| At UN, India vows to help produce virus vaccine for world Posted: 26 Sep 2020 08:46 AM PDT  Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi pledged to help the world produce and deliver potential coronavirus vaccines while making no mention Saturday of the heavy toll the pandemic has taken on his own country, where the enormous population has suffered among the highest numbers of cases and deaths in the world. Modi's remarks to the U.N. General Assembly — pre-recorded because the gathering is virtual this year — also said nothing about growing tensions with neighboring Pakistan, whose prime minister, Imran Khan, devoted much of his speech Friday to assailing India, leading to a sharp exchange between the two countries' diplomats in the Assembly hall.
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| Informant in top Venezuela case accused of lying to feds Posted: 26 Sep 2020 08:42 AM PDT |
| Reporter lost International Women of Courage award for criticising Trump Posted: 26 Sep 2020 08:31 AM PDT  * Jessikka Aro was to receive recognition in March 2019 * Senator says administration 'sought to stifle dissent'The US state department "owes an apology" to a Finnish journalist who saw the International Women of Courage Award, bestowed in part for her work on Russia, taken away because she criticised Donald Trump on social media, a prominent senator said."Secretary [of state Mike] Pompeo should have honored a courageous journalist willing to stand up to Kremlin propaganda," said Bob Menendez of New Jersey, the ranking Democrat on the Senate foreign relations committee, about Jessikka Aro, an investigative reporter."Instead, his department sought to stifle dissent to avoid upsetting a president who, day after day, tries to take pages out of [Vladimir] Putin's playbook. The state department owes Ms Aro an apology."Aro was due to receive the award in March 2019. Rescinding it, the state department insisted she had not been a finalist and blamed the confusion on a "regrettable error".But Foreign Policy magazine reported that Aro was punished "after US officials went through [her] social media posts and found she had also frequently criticized President Donald Trump".Menendez said the posts concerned "President Trump's 'fake news' attacks on the media". In one tweet, Aro said Trump and Putin's summit in Helsinki in July 2018 meant "Finnish people can protest them both. Sweet".On Friday, the state department Office of the Inspector General confirmed criticism of Trump caused Aro to lose the award.CNN quoted its report as saying: "Every person interviewed in connection with this matter acknowledged that had [the Office of Global Women's Issues] not highlighted her social media posts as problematic, Ms Aro would have received the IWOC award."According to the OIG, ambassador to Finland Robert Pence said that "although he appreciated Ms Aro's work, the risk of embarrassment to the first lady [Melania Trump] and the department was too great to have her appear on stage at the awards ceremony."In March last year, the ambassador, a Republican donor not related to vice-president Mike Pence, told the Senate committee he had not been "worried" by Aro's posts. The then acting director of the Office of Global Women's Issues said the posts had "not really" caused the withdrawal of the award.Menendez condemned the Trump administration for "misleading the public and Congress".The state department did not immediately apologise.Aro told CNN: "In my heart I feel like an international woman of courage. That the Trump administration can't take away from me."
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| Scores arrested in protest against Belarus' president Posted: 26 Sep 2020 08:24 AM PDT  Hundreds of women calling for the authoritarian president to step down protested in Belarus' capital on Saturday, continuing the large demonstrations that have rocked the country since early August. Police blocked off the center of Minsk and arrested more than 80 demonstrators, according to the Viasna human rights organization. Protests, by far the largest and most persistent in Belarus since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, began Aug. 9 after an election that officials said gave President Alexander Lukashenko a sixth term in office.
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| US colleges struggle to salvage semester amid outbreaks Posted: 26 Sep 2020 08:09 AM PDT  Colleges across the country are struggling to salvage the fall semester amid skyrocketing coronavirus cases, entire dorm complexes and frat houses under quarantine, and flaring tensions with local community leaders over the spread of the disease. Institutions across the nation saw spikes of thousands of cases days after opening their doors in the last month, driven by students socializing with little or no social distancing. School and community leaders have tried to rein in the virus by closing bars, suspending students, adding mask requirements, and toggling between in-person and online instruction as case numbers rise and fall.
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| Boris Johnson urges world leaders to unite against COVID-19 Posted: 26 Sep 2020 07:47 AM PDT  British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Saturday that the coronavirus pandemic has frayed the bonds between nations, and urged world leaders to unite against the "common foe" of COVID-19. Johnson, who made the remarks in a prerecorded speech to the United Nations General Assembly, said that, nine months into the pandemic, "the very notion of the international community looks tattered." Johnson set out a plan for preventing another global pandemic, including a network of zoonotic research labs around the world to identify dangerous pathogens before they leap from animals to humans.
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| The Quiet 2013 Lunch That Could Have Altered Supreme Court History Posted: 26 Sep 2020 07:06 AM PDT  When Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg joined President Barack Obama for lunch in his private dining room in July 2013, the White House sought to keep the event quiet -- the meeting called for discretion.Obama had asked his White House counsel, Kathryn Ruemmler, to set up the lunch so he could build a closer rapport with the justice, according to two people briefed on the conversation. Treading cautiously, he did not directly bring up the subject of retirement to Ginsburg, at 80 the Supreme Court's oldest member and a two-time cancer patient.He did, however, raise the looming 2014 midterm elections and how Democrats might lose control of the Senate. Implicit in that conversation was the concern motivating his lunch invitation -- the possibility that if the Senate flipped, he would lose a chance to appoint a younger, liberal judge who could hold on to the seat for decades.But the effort did not work, just as an earlier attempt by Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., who was then Judiciary Committee chair, had failed. Ginsburg left Obama with the clear impression that she was committed to continuing her work on the court, according to those briefed.In an interview a year later, Ginsburg deflected questions about the purpose of the lunch. Pressed on what Obama might think about her potential retirement, she said only, "I think he would agree with me that it's a question for my own good judgment."With Ginsburg's death last week, Democrats are in a major political battle, as Republicans race to fill her seat and cement the court's conservative tilt.Obama clearly felt compelled to try to avoid just such a scenario, but the art of maneuvering justices off the court is politically delicate and psychologically complicated. They have lifetime appointments and enjoy tremendous power and status, which can be difficult to give up.Still, presidents throughout American history have strategized to influence the timing of justices' exits to suit various White House priorities.President Donald Trump's first White House counsel, Donald McGahn II, the primary architect of the administration's success in reshaping the judiciary, helped ease the way for Justice Anthony Kennedy's retirement in 2018, which allowed Trump and a Republican-controlled Senate to lock down his seat for another generation.McGahn sought to make the justice comfortable with the process by which a successor would be chosen, according to people briefed on their conversations, by seeking his advice on potential picks for lower-court vacancies and recommending that Trump nominate one of his former clerks, Neil Gorsuch, to fill an earlier vacancy. (Brett Kavanaugh, who McGahn recommended to fill Kennedy's seat, was also one of his clerks.)Justices, however, often bristle at any impingement of politics or other pressures in their realm. Robert Bauer, who served as Obama's White House counsel for part of his first term, said he recalled no discussions then of having Obama try to nudge Ginsburg to step aside. Bauer said asking a judge -- any judge -- to retire was hypersensitive, recalling how in 2005 he wrote an opinion column calling for Congress to impose judicial term limits and require cameras in the courtroom, only to have Justice Sandra Day O'Connor blast his column in a speech on threats to judicial independence."The O'Connor episode reflects the sensitivity that justices can exhibit toward pressure from the outside about how the court runs," Bauer said, including showing "resistance to any questions about how long they serve." He added: "White Houses are typically mindful of all this."Resistance aside, Democrats outside the White House also strategized about how to raise the topic of retirement with Ginsburg. Several senior White House staff members say they heard word that Leahy had gingerly approached the subject with her several years before the Obama lunch.He was then chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which oversees Supreme Court nominations; he also had a warm relationship with Ginsburg, a bond forged over their shared enjoyment of opera and visits to the Kennedy Center. Asked through a spokesman for comment, Leahy did not respond.One of the former Obama administration staff members who heard discussion of the roundabout outreach by Leahy was Rob Nabors, who served in a series of White House policy and legislative affairs positions under Obama from 2009 to 2014. But Nabors said he recalled hearing that "it wasn't clear that the message was entirely transmitted effectively, or that it was received in the manner it was delivered."While Obama's own talk with the justice was tactful, changing conditions should have made his implicit agenda clear, according to the two people briefed about the meeting, who spoke only on condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the topic. Democrats were worried about the prospect of losing the Senate. And the president had invited no other justices to lunch.But the failure of that conversation convinced the Obama team that it was pointless to try to talk to her of departure. The next summer, when another Supreme Court term closed without a retirement announcement from her, the administration did not try again.Neil Eggleston, who became White House counsel in April 2014, said that he did not remember anyone proposing that another attempt to ease Ginsburg toward resignation would do any good."I think it is largely not done," he said. "Suggesting that to a Supreme Court justice -- she is as smart as anyone; she doesn't need the president to tell her how old she is and what her timelines are."Given his previous tenure as chief counsel to the Judiciary Committee, Justice Stephen Breyer might have been a more pragmatic target of overtures. Walter Dellinger, a former solicitor general, mentioned to the White House counsel's office during the Obama administration a plan he conceived to motivate Breyer, a known Francophile, to start a next chapter."My suggestion was that the president have Breyer to lunch and say to him, 'I believe historians will someday say the three greatest American ambassadors to France were Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and Stephen G. Breyer,'" recalled Dellinger, who recently joined former Vice President Joe Biden's campaign team.Although it is not clear how, word of Dellinger's idea made its way to Breyer.Dellinger said that when he ran into Breyer at a holiday party not long after Trump was elected, the justice pulled him aside. "So Walter," he asked, "do you still want to ship me off to France?" Dellinger, who sensed the justice was ribbing him, responded, "Mr. Justice, I hear Paris isn't what it used to be."Dellinger added that he now thought Breyer was correct to resist the idea, saying "he has made a tremendous contribution in the ensuing years." Breyer's office declined to comment.In making that suggestion to lure Breyer with an ambassador position, Dellinger was harking back to similar ideas from Lyndon B. Johnson, a master strategist. Johnson lured Justice Arthur Goldberg, who he wanted to replace with his friend Abe Fortas, off the court by offering him the role of ambassador to the United Nations, saying that he would have tremendous power in negotiating the end of the Vietnam War.Goldberg never did have that authority and regretted his decision. "I asked Goldberg, why did you leave the bench?" said Laura Kalman, professor of history at the University of California at Santa Barbara. He answered her in one word: "Vanity."Johnson also played on the paternal pride of the Supreme Court Justice Tom C. Clark, by appointing his son, Ramsey Clark, attorney general in March 1967. Johnson, who wanted to replace Clark with Thurgood Marshall, played up the notion that his continued presence on the court while his son ran the Justice Department created a conflict of interest, and Clark stepped down that June.But presidents cannot force justices to leave the court. Franklin Roosevelt floated a plan to "pack" the court by expanding the number of justices in frustration because aging conservatives kept striking down his "New Deal" programs. President William Taft could not push out Justice Melville Fuller, whom he deemed senile after the justice bungled Taft's swearing-in, biographer David Atkinson wrote; Taft had to wait until Fuller died of a heart attack a year later. (In a book about Taft, Henry Pringle wrote "the old men of the court seldom died and never retired.")Democratic leaders had precious few cards they could have played as they contemplated their options with Ginsburg. She made it clear in several interviews that she had no intention to retire; widowed in 2010, she was devoted to her work, determined to have a voice and appreciated the platform her celebrity offered her as an icon liberals liked to call the "Notorious RBG."She was clearly annoyed at any public suggestions that she step down. In 2014, Erwin Chemerinsky, now dean of the law school at the University of California at Berkeley, wrote articles, appearing in The Los Angeles Times and Politico, declaring that for the long-term good of progressive values, Ginsburg should step aside to make way for a younger Obama appointee."It was certainly conveyed to me that she was not pleased with those who were suggesting that she retire," Chemerinsky said.Randall Kennedy, a professor at Harvard Law School, had also written a column in 2011 in The New Republic calling for Ginsburg and Breyer to step down immediately, suggesting that they should not stay on the court so long that they risked conservatives inheriting their seats."I didn't feel at all apologetic about saying something which frankly seemed to me quite clear," Kennedy said. "I've been praying -- praying -- that I'd be able to look back and say I was wrong. It didn't turn out that way."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| Tiny airborne particles may pose a big coronavirus problem Posted: 26 Sep 2020 06:54 AM PDT  At a University of Maryland lab, people infected with the new coronavirus take turns sitting in a chair and putting their faces into the big end of a large cone. It's part of a device called "Gesundheit II" that is helping scientists study a big question: Just how does the virus that causes COVID-19 spread from one person to another? It clearly hitchhikes on small liquid particles sprayed out by an infected person.
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| Reagan's age, Mitt's binders: Presidential debate highlights Posted: 26 Sep 2020 06:30 AM PDT  President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, are set to meet on Tuesday for their first debate, a highly anticipated event in a highly unusual election year. Trump was impeached for trying to pressure Ukraine to investigate Biden and his son and has repeatedly tried to cast doubt on Biden's mental acuity, going so far as to say the former vice president "doesn't know he's alive." For his part, Biden has said of Trump, "If we were in high school, I'd take him behind the gym and beat the hell out of him."
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| Voters' poorly marked ovals could lead to contested ballots Posted: 26 Sep 2020 06:23 AM PDT  Two decades ago, Florida's hanging chads became an unlikely symbol of a disputed presidential election. This year, the issue could be poorly marked ovals or boxes. Amid the global coronavirus pandemic, more people than ever are expected to bypass their polling place and cast absentee ballots for the first time.
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| South suggests unprecedented joint probe with North Korea into official's death Posted: 26 Sep 2020 05:57 AM PDT  In an unprecedented step late Friday, South Korea suggested a joint investigation with North Korea into the mysterious death of a South Korean official, hours after a rare apology from Kim Jong Un. As public and political outrage grew in the South, the country's presidential office said in a statement that there were discrepancies in accounts of the incident and called for further inquiries. The government has said he may have been trying to defect to the North but his family have denied this.
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| South suggests unprecedented joint probe with North Korea into official's death Posted: 26 Sep 2020 05:57 AM PDT  "We have decided to make the request to North Korea to conduct additional investigations and also request for a joint-investigation," South Korea said.
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| In leaders' UN videos, the backgrounds tell stories, too Posted: 26 Sep 2020 05:46 AM PDT  Chinese President Xi Jinping urged the world to "reject attempts to build blocks to keep others out" as an image of his country's storied Great Wall hung behind him. Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte used photos and videos to illustrate what he was talking about. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison shared his policy views — and his scenic view of Sydney Harbor.
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| 1963 church bombing survivor seeks apology, restitution Posted: 26 Sep 2020 05:28 AM PDT  More than a dozen sticks of dynamite planted by Ku Klux Klansmen exploded at a Birmingham church in 1963, killing four Black girls. The "fifth little girl," Sarah Collins Rudolph, survived but still has shards of glass in her body from the blast that took her sister, her right eye and her dreams of becoming a nurse. Rudolph, 69, is now seeking an apology from the state and compensation for what she says has been a lifetime of trauma.
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| 'I couldn't tolerate it any longer': how Iranian chess referee with secret Jewish heritage was forced to live a 'fake' life Posted: 26 Sep 2020 05:19 AM PDT  When Shohreh Bayat, one of the world's top chess referees, let her hijab slip during a match earlier this year she had no idea she may never return home to Iran again. Not long after the seemingly innocuous pictures of her loose hair had circulated in Iran, where headscarves are strictly mandated by the ruling ayatollahs, she was receiving threats to her life. But there was another reason she felt she could never go back: her secret Jewish heritage. "All my life was about showing a fake image of myself to society because they wanted me to be an image of a religious Muslim woman, which I wasn't," Ms Bayat said in an exclusive interview with the Telegraph, speaking of her Jewish roots for the first time as she awaits asylum in the UK. Last week, Ms Bayat who now wears her long, straight dark hair loose, got to celebrate the Jewish New Year for the first time in her life. "It was amazing. It was a thing I never had a chance to do," Ms Bayat said from her temporary home outside London, describing her excitement, sitting for the Rosh Hashanah dinner with apple, honey and Challah.
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| In Breonna Taylor's name: Devastation and a search for hope Posted: 26 Sep 2020 05:09 AM PDT  Chea Woolfolk searched the crowd until she found the face of the woman she'd come to regard as a second mother. Looking into Mama Rose's eyes, Woolfolk could see that her heart was breaking. Mama Rose has been the matriarch of "Injustice Square," a block downtown that protesters, many of them Black women, have occupied for 120 days.
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| Early vote shows signs of Black voters' shift to mail voting Posted: 26 Sep 2020 05:08 AM PDT  Shirley Dixon-Mosley had never sent a ballot through the mail. "I want to make sure my vote got in and it counted," said the 75-year-old retired teacher's aide in Charlotte, North Carolina. Black voters are among the least likely to vote by mail nationally, but there are early signs they are changing their behavior as the shadow of the coronavirus hangs over the presidential race.
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| Iraq's foreign minister makes first visit to Iran Posted: 26 Sep 2020 04:25 AM PDT |
| AP FACT CHECK: Trump's wrongs on court, virus; Biden errs Posted: 26 Sep 2020 04:13 AM PDT  In a momentous week, President Donald Trump painted a fantastical portrait of a coronavirus that affects "virtually nobody" among the young as he faced a grim U.S. milestone of 200,000 deaths and he asserted a constitutional basis that doesn't exist for rushing a replacement for the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg over her dying wishes. As Americans absorbed news of a grand jury decision not to prosecute Kentucky police officers for killing Breonna Taylor, Trump's campaign pointed to purported economic progress for Blacks under his administration that didn't tell the full story.
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| Ukraine plane crash death toll rises to 26, with 1 survivor Posted: 26 Sep 2020 03:32 AM PDT  Searchers combing the area where a Ukrainian military aircraft crashed found two more bodies on Saturday, bringing the death toll to 26. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy declared Saturday to be a day of mourning for the crash victims and ordered that flights of An-26 planes be halted pending investigation of the crash cause. Zelenskiy, who visited the crash area on Saturday, called for a full assessment of the condition of the country's military equipment and said he wanted an official report on the crash by Oct. 25.
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| Lebanon's parliament speaker says still sticks to French initiative Posted: 26 Sep 2020 03:06 AM PDT |
| Armie Hammer Lists Century-Old Hancock Park Tudor Mansion Posted: 26 Sep 2020 01:50 AM PDT |
| Lebanese nominated premier resigns, in blow to Macron plan Posted: 26 Sep 2020 01:25 AM PDT  Lebanon's prime minister-designate resigned Saturday amid a political impasse over government formation, dealing a blow to French President Emmanuel Macron's efforts to break a dangerous stalemate in the crisis-hit country. The announcement by Moustapha Adib nearly a month after he was appointed to the job further delays the prospect of getting the foreign economic assistance needed to rescue the country from collapse. Adib told reporters he was stepping down after it became clear that the kind of Cabinet he wished to form was "bound to fail."
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| Yom Kippur synagogue attack leaves German Jews still uneasy Posted: 26 Sep 2020 01:06 AM PDT  As Jews around the world gather Sunday night to mark the beginning of Yom Kippur, many in Germany remain uneasy about going together to their houses of worship to pray, a year after a white-supremacist targeted a synagogue in the eastern city of Halle on the holiest day in Judaism. Since then, security has been increased at Jewish institutions across the country, but many wonder whether it is enough amid reports of increasing anti-Semitism and the Halle attack still fresh in their minds. Naomi Henkel-Guembel was inside the building that day a year ago, and didn't immediately understand what was happening when she heard a loud bang outside.
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| Progress against virus brings complacency in parts of Africa Posted: 26 Sep 2020 01:04 AM PDT  With Zimbabwe's coronavirus infections on the decline, schools are reopening, along with churches, bars, restaurants, airports and tourist attractions. With his face mask stuffed into his pocket, Omega Chibanda said he's not worried about COVID-19. "We used to fear coronavirus, not anymore," the 16-year-old said in the crowded Chitungwiza town on the outskirts of the capital, Harare.
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| China pushes emergency use of COVID vaccine despite concerns Posted: 25 Sep 2020 11:19 PM PDT  It's an unusual move that raises ethical and safety questions, as companies and governments worldwide race to develop a vaccine that will stop the spread of the coronavirus. Chinese companies earlier drew attention for giving the vaccine to their top executives and leading researchers before human trials to test their safety and efficacy had even begun. A Chinese health official said Friday that China, which has largely eradicated the disease, needs to take steps to prevent it from coming back.
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| Trump shifts focus to Pennsylvania to shore up reelection Posted: 25 Sep 2020 10:02 PM PDT  President Donald Trump's campaign has grown increasingly focused on making inroads in Pennsylvania to offset potential vulnerabilities in other battlegrounds. Trump narrowly flipped three Great Lakes states — Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — from blue to red in 2016. There are growing concerns inside the campaign, the aides said, about Trump's ability to retain Wisconsin.
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| If We Can’t Ban Nukes, Let’s Stigmatize Them Posted: 25 Sep 2020 10:00 PM PDT |
| Trump taps 'eminently qualified' Barrett for Supreme Court Posted: 25 Sep 2020 09:44 PM PDT  President Donald Trump nominated Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court on Saturday, capping a dramatic reshaping of the federal judiciary that will resonate for a generation and that he hopes will provide a needed boost to his reelection effort. Barrett, a former clerk to the late Justice Antonin Scalia, said she was "truly humbled" by the nomination and quickly aligned herself with Scalia's conservative approach to the law, saying his "judicial philosophy is mine, too." Barrett, 48, was joined in the Rose Garden by her husband and seven children.
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