Trump cites ‘phony Emoluments Clause’ for G-7 controversy

At a Cabinet meeting, President Trump blamed the “phony Emoluments Clause” in the U.S. Constitution for the controversy over his decision to have the G-7 summit at his resort in Doral, Fla.

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Three people hospitalised by chemical leak on board American Airlines plane

Three people have been hospitalised after a cleaning product leaked on an American Airlines flight forcing it to make an emergency landing in Dublin. The plane was less than an hour into its flight from London Heathrow to Philadelphia when two crew members fell unconscious due to the powerful smell. Several passengers complained of burning eyes and skin irritation and one traveller was also taken to hospital in Ireland. 287 passengers and 12 Philadelphia-based crew members were on board flight AA729, which had been cleared for take off despite concerns over the leaked liquid. Reports suggest the product was left behind in one of the bathrooms. In audio from the cockpit, the pilot explained that although the product is believed to be non-toxic, the crew required immediate assistance.  He said: "We’ve actually covered the container of the substance. It was a cleaning product that was used at London Heathrow, if you wait a moment I actually have a picture of the container that I have in a plastic bag.  "It was spilled and for some reason the container itself was left behind in the aircraft in one of the lavatories and continued to seep into the carpeting and produce what I’m told is not, it is not a toxic substance. "We require paramedics to come on board the airplane and render immediate assistance. We’ve had two of our flight crew staff made, excuse me, the cabin staff have actually lost consciousness, but I think they’re back to a state of consciousness just now and there are general complaints about burning eyes and skin problems." The pilot added that the leaking product was an aircraft interior cleaner made by Callington, a leading specialty chemicals manufacturer.  One passenger told The Telegraph the plane had been delayed at Heathrow whilst reports of an "unusual smell" were investigated.  He said: "Before take off the captain came on the loudspeaker saying the flight attendants had reported an unusual smell, and the flight was delayed while they investigated. They must've judged it safe because we flew out after, only to be rerouted to Dublin a short time later." @AmericanAir There aren't even chairs, we're not allowed to leave this area where we're penned in like cattle, and we've not been fed by the likes of you since boarding four plus hours ago. You're the worst. pic.twitter.com/PqnelJ2P2u— Philip Ott (@Blasphevism) October 21, 2019 He added that the flight's 287 passengers were "penned in like cattle" at Dublin airport before been taken by bus to stay overnight in a hotel. They have not been told when they can expect onward travel.  Another passenger expressed concern for others onboard, calling the incident a "sickness outbreak".  Ok, so this hasn’t quite gone to plan. Chemical spillage has led to sickness outbreak and an emergency landing in Dublin. firecrewparamedicspolice— Katie Phillips (@KatieHJP) October 21, 2019 A statement released by American Airlines said: "American Airlines flight 729 from London Heathrow to Philadelphia diverted to Dublin due to an odor caused by a spilled cleaning solution in the galley." "The flight landed safely in Dublin at 1:15 p.m. local time, and taxied to the gate." "Medical personnel have met the aircraft to evaluate any crew members or passengers who may need additional assistance." The Telegraph has contacted Callington for comment.  Want the best of The Telegraph direct to your email and WhatsApp? Sign up to our free twice-daily Front Page newsletter and new audio briefings.

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The story behind a soldier's act of solidarity with the US allies Trump is leaving behind in Syria

A US solider was photographed wearing a patch in apparent solidarity with the Kurdish-backed forces that the US is leaving behind.

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Homes destroyed, thousands without power after tornado rips through Dallas

Three people have been hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries attributed to the storm, the city of Dallas said in a statement. "There are still residents impacted by downed trees, power outages, and storm-related damages," the city said, adding that multiple traffic signals were also knocked out by the storm. Some 55,000 homes and businesses in Dallas County were still without power on Monday morning, emergency management officials said.

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Donald Trump calls for public identification of Ukraine whistleblower

Railing against impeachment, President Trump called for the identification of the whistleblower who accused him of improperly pressuring Ukraine.

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Petrol bombs thrown in Hong Kong as anger flares over 'triad' attack on protest leader

Police and protesters exchanged tear gas and petrol bombs in Hong Kong on Sunday amid anger over an attack on a leading activist by men allegedly linked to triad gangsters.   Clashes broke out as tens of thousands took to the streets for an unsanctioned anti-government march, many also defying a face mask ban introduced in a bid to curb the protests.  Tensions ran high after Jimmy Sham, the leader the Civil Human Rights Front which called the march, was attacked earlier in the week by a group of men wielding metal poles and hammers. Witnesses said that those responsible for the assault were associated with pro-Beijing triads that have been blamed for previous violence against protesters.   On Saturday afternoon, a 19-year-old man was also hospitalised after being stabbed in the abdomen while handing out pro-democracy flyers in Tai Po, a district in northern Hong Kong.  Politically motivated attacks and vandalism have been on the rise as the situation continues to escalate in what is now the twentieth consecutive week of protests.  Protesters are now vandalising and destroying shops, banks, and businesses associated with mainland China. As moderate, peaceful marchers branched off from the more radical, black-clad frontline protesters near Tsim Sha Tsui police station, violence flared. Riot police fired tear gas and water cannon, drenching Hong Kong's biggest mosque with blue dye in what they said was an accident Credit: Kyle Lam/Bloomberg Protesters threw molotov cocktails and set fire to makeshift barricades, while riot police charged with batons and fired volleys of tear gas and rubber bullets.  Throughout the afternoon a water cannon truck chased protesters down Nathan Road, one of the city's busiest shopping thoroughfares, leaving it streaked with blue dye from the vehicle's turrets. The dye, used to identify protesters, also contains a painful pepper solution. The entrance to the city's biggest mosque was painted blue when the truck fired at a handful of people outside. Police said hitting the building was an accident. Vivek Mahbubani, a Hong Kong-born comedian, stood with a group of friends on Nathan Road, handing out water and egg tarts to marchers. “People passing by today shared our smiles and instead of feeling worried when passing. They all agreed that we are all Hongkongers," he told The Telegraph.  “When I heard about the attack on Jimmy Sham, I was horrified. To think that Hong Kong has become a place where something like this can happen was shocking.”

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Detroit-area men who sent millions to Yemen spared prison

A group of Detroit-area men opened bank accounts to move millions of dollars to Yemen, their war-torn native country. One by one, U.S. District Judge Avern Cohn declined to send them to prison, despite guidelines that call for a few years or more behind bars. The Detroit area is believed to have the highest U.S. population of Yemenis, a demographic that has risen amid war in Yemen that has killed tens of thousands of people and left millions more with food and health care shortages.

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1, 2, 3, 4, Trump Can’t Rule Us Anymore

By BY MICHELLE GOLDBERG from NYT Opinion https://ift.tt/2J7uDAP

Hillary Clinton posts parody Kennedy letter mocking Trump

Hillary Clinton on Sunday posted a joke letter on Twitter supposedly sent by John F. Kennedy during the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, written in the excitable style of US President Donald Trump's recent letter to Turkey. The parody letter, originally from ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live" TV show, is written on mocked-up White House letterhead and addressed to Russia's then leader Nikita Khrushchev. Get your missiles out of Cuba," starts the letter pretending to be from president Kennedy.

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There's a reasonable explanation why this mom saw a 'ghost baby' in her sleeping son's crib

This mom's 'ghost baby' baby monitor mix-up has us all laughing.

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Hong Kong leader visits mosque struck by blue water-cannon dye

Hong Kong's pro-Beijing leader and the city's police chief apologised Monday as they visited a mosque that was struck with blue dye from a water cannon during the latest bout of violent protests. The entrance to the Kowloon Mosque, the international hub's largest, was sprayed by a water cannon truck on Sunday, causing anger among both local Muslims and protesters. Police use the dye -- often mixed with an irritant -- as a way to identify protesters but it has frequently left streets and buildings daubed in a garish blue.

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Wary foes Turkey and Syria hold covert contacts to avoid conflict

Turkey is holding covert contacts with Syria's government to avert direct conflict in northeast Syria where both sides have deployed their armies, Turkish officials say, despite Ankara's long-standing hostility to President Bashar al-Assad. Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan backs rebels who fought to topple Assad during Syria's eight-year civil war.

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Trump news: President claims Adam Schiff is an 'informant' while slamming 'phony' Emoluments Clause in rambling Cabinet meeting

Donald Trump has complained after pulling back his announcement that the next G7 summit of world leaders would be held at his Trump National Doral Miami golf resort, raging that the media and his Democratic opposition concerned about conflict of interest failed to mention that “NO PROFITS would be taken”.On the Sunday talk show circuit, the president’s acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney defended the president's original plan by arguing he is “in the hospitality business” while ex-Republican congressman Justin Amash accused him of treating US troops “as paid mercenaries” by relocating them to Iraq and Saudi Arabia rather than bringing them home from war-torn Syria.

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Warren Says She’ll Release a ‘Plan’ to Fund Medicare for All after Dodging the Issue during Debate

After facing heavy criticism from fellow candidates during the last Democratic debate for evading questions about funding her Medicare for All proposal, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) announced Sunday at an event in Iowa that she was “getting close” to a funding plan after “working for a long time on this question.”“I plan over the next few weeks to put out a plan that talks about specifically the cost of Medicare for All, and specifically how we pay for it,” Warren said. “Right now, the cost estimates for Medicare for All vary by trillions and trillions of dollars, and the different revenue streams for how to fund it — there are a lot of them. So this is something I’ve been working for months and months, and it’s got just a little more work until it’s finished.” During the fourth Democratic debate on October 19, Warren was chastised by fellow Senator Amy Klobuchar (D., Minn.) and South Bend, Ind., mayor Pete Buttigieg for refusing to acknowledge that an increase in middle-class taxes would be required to fund the plan.When Warren was asked again on Sunday if middle-class taxes would go up under her plan, she deflected, saying, “The whole plan will be out — you’ll be able to look at it.”Senator Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.), who introduced the legislation on the Senate floor in 2017, has not shied away from explaining that middle-class taxes will go up under Medicare for All, assuaging concerns with a pledge that total costs will be less than they are currently. “The tax increase they pay will be substantially less than what they were paying for premiums and out-of-pocket expansions,” Sanders said during the Ohio debate. The original bill does not address how the single-payer system will be funded.Buttigieg, who last week released an ad claiming that Warren and Sanders were “infringing on freedom” with their Medicare for All proposals, told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday that he thinks Warren is being “evasive” on the issue.“We need to see how this is going to be paid for,” Buttigieg said. “Right now, whether you copy-paste the Bernie Sanders math or do it some other way, there is a hole amounting to trillions of dollars in how this is supposed to work.”

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‘I’m not your n-word’: school guard fired for repeating racial slur

Students rally round Marlon Anderson as Madison Metropolitan School District indicates it will review zero-tolerance policyMarlon Anderson, a security guard at a Wisconsin high school who was fired after he says he repeated a racial slur while telling a student who had called him that word not to use it, has filed a grievance seeking his job back. Photograph: Steve Apps/APA high school security guard in Madison, Wisconsin, said he was fired after repeating a racial slur that was used against him. The news spurred protests and demands for reinstatement.“Short story....I get called a bit@ @ss Ni€€A by a student, I responded do ‘not call me ni€€a !’ And I got fired,” Marlon Anderson wrote in a Facebook post on 16 October. Anderson also criticized the Madison Metropolitan School District, writing “MMSD I unfortunately expected better.”The district said Anderson was fired due to its “zero-tolerance” policy against the use of racial slurs, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.The local teacher’s union said it would file a grievance on behalf of Anderson, NBC 15 reported. Anderson reportedly said he would file suit if MMSD did not give him his job back.On Friday, hundreds of students left school to protest, walking two miles to the MMSD offices. The school’s black student union, of which Anderson’s son is a member, met the MMSD superintendent and the school board president, the Journal Sentinel reported.“Anything that involves us, our voices will be heard,” Noah Anderson reportedly told a crowd of around 1,000 following the meeting.National figures came to Anderson’s defense. Arne Duncan, Barack Obama’s education secretary, tweeted Friday": “The Madison, WI school district needs to grow a brain, and a heart, really quickly! I’ve seen some crazy things over the years, but this is one of the worst. Just more evidence our country still can’t handle issues of race, and racism.”The singer Cher also offered to help, telling Anderson “if you want to sue … I will incur your expenses”.Anderson, 48, claims he was escorting an unruly male student out of Madison West High School on 9 October when the student started calling him the n-word. The student also allegedly shoved and threatened the school’s assistant principal, the Journal Sentinel said.Madison West High School senior Noah Anderson, 17, president of the school’s Black Student Union and son of the school’s recently-fired security guard Marlin Anderson, leads a rally in support of his father outside the school in Madison, Wisconsin, on Friday. Photograph: John Hart/AP“Every type of n-word you can think of, that’s what he was calling me,” Anderson said. “I said, do not call me that name. I’m not your n-word. Do not call me that.”The school’s principal, Karen Boran, told Anderson later that week keeping his job would be “an uphill battle”. Boran then told parents in a letter on Wednesday a school staffer wasn’t coming back to work, following an investigation.“As you know, our expectation when it comes to racial slurs has been very clear,” Boran wrote. “Regardless of context or circumstance, racial slurs are not acceptable in our schools.”The school district superintendent said on Friday it wants to have a strict policy against racial slurs, but suggested it might be reviewed.“All of us here know that education is a dynamic social process,” the Journal Sentinel reported the statement as saying. “Sometimes it gets messy when we have to grapple together around deeply held values like what it means to be anti-racist.“…There is no doubt that language matters and racial slurs are harmful. However, at this point, we have an opportunity to look more deeply into the response to the use of racial slurs in our schools.”The school board president also said it would review district rules on disciplining staff for using such language.An area youth organization, the Boys & Girls Club of Dane County, said on Friday that it had hired Anderson while district officials weigh his appeal.On Facebook, Anderson wrote: “This is a great help to be able to earn wages while we go through this appeals process. The reality is I did not just lose wages but also benefits. Most importantly we will soon be without health insurance … which makes the loss that much more impactful to myself and my family.“This among other reasons is why I am still fighting for my position @ West with fervor.”He added that he was “amazed at the dynamic support from my Madison Community your love is recognized and so appreciated. I am still fighting for my position @ West and for justice to be applied to my situation. I am also still fighting to challenge the ‘no tolerance’ policy that made me a casualty to its flawed planning and implementation. Please continue to keep us in your prayers.”

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Castro says he needs $800,000 in 10 days or campaign is over

Former Obama administration housing secretary Julián Castro said Monday that he'd drop out of the presidential race if he doesn't raise $800,000 in 10 days — following the lead of rival Cory Booker, who rode a similar plea to a recent uptick in donations. Last month, Booker, a New Jersey senator, made a similar request and raised $2.1 million in just 10 days , after a number of his opponents and other elected officials rallied around him and encouraged people to donate. Castro has the 165,000 donors the Democratic National Committee is requiring to qualify for the next debate but hasn't met a polling threshold showing at least 3% support in four party-approved polls.

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China Is Building 'The Mother of All Bombs': Report

America already has one.

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Nestor heads into Georgia after tornados damage Florida

Nestor raced across Georgia as a post-tropical cyclone late Saturday, hours after the former tropical storm spawned a tornado that damaged homes and a school in central Florida while sparing areas of the Florida Panhandle devastated one year earlier by Hurricane Michael. The storm made landfall Saturday on St. Vincent Island, a nature preserve off Florida's northern Gulf Coast in a lightly populated area of the state, the National Hurricane Center said. Nestor was expected to bring 1 to 3 inches of rain to drought-stricken inland areas on its march across a swath of the U.S. Southeast.

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Michael Bloomberg ‘still looking at’ a presidential run ... but only if Biden is out

The former New York mayor’s attitude towards wealth is staunchly opposite to Elizabeth Warren’s, with whom he’s repeatedly clashedMichael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York, is teasing a presidential run if former vice-president Joe Biden were to fall back. Photograph: Ritzau Scanpix/ReutersFormer New York mayor Michael Bloomberg is at it again – teasing a presidential run. At 77, he won’t even be the oldest in the field, and the billionaire is certainly not short of funding to be able to throw his hat in the ring.Over the past several weeks, he’s signaled renewed interest in the democratic nomination, telling friends and associates he’s “still looking at” running for president. But he has cautioned he’d only join the race if former vice-president Joe Biden’s faltering centrist campaign takes a decisive hit or pulls out early in primary season, according to a report by CNBC.Biden’s collapse would likely leave Elizabeth Warren as frontrunner, a liberal candidate with whom he has repeatedly clashed over her anti-corporate policies and fears she will push the party too far to the left and eliminate the chance of a Democratic candidate unseating Donald Trump next year.Bloomberg’s disagreements with Warren are stark. In January, when he was considering a run for president, he described Warren’s wealth tax proposals in extreme terms .“We shouldn’t be embarrassed about our system,” he said. “You want to look at a system that’s not capitalistic, just take a look at what was perhaps the wealthiest country in the world and now people are starving to death. It’s called Venezuela.”More recently, at an anti-gun event in Iowa hosted by the Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund, a group Bloomberg founded and supports, he was again asked about Warren’s wealth tax proposals.“I just said to Senator Warren on the way out, ‘Senator, congratulations, it’s a nice talk. But let me just remind you if my company hadn’t been successful, we wouldn’t be here today, so enough with this stuff’,” he said.Bloomberg’s attitude to wealth is diametrically opposed to Warren, whose criticisms of the financial sector’s excesses are legion. Before he ever ran for New York mayor, his company threw a party in London complete with entertainers – representing avarice – instructed to wave bundles of cash and shout: ‘Money, ain’t it gorgeous?’Forbes recently put his wealth at $51bn.Bloomberg has previously flirted with presidential ambitions, but he decided not to run in 2016 after concluding he might split the Democratic vote. It is not clear that dynamic has changed, nor whether Democratic primary voters really have the taste for a billionaire candidate. But others see a possible centrist path to the White House.“The reality is both parties, Republican and Democrat, are in serious trouble, they are not functioning, and they’ve gone to extremes,” says veteran strategist Hank Sheinkopf. “Could Mike Bloomberg unite the centre of the party and bring people to the center if he can prove he can win? The answer is yes.”“Bloomberg has up-top professionals ready if he needs them, and he could assemble an operation in days and go to work. Whether the Democrats like him as centrist or not, they want to win the White House. He provides an extraordinary alternative to losing.”People familiar with Bloomberg’s thinking says his aims are clear – and they’re grouped neatly as gun control, climate change, coal, education and health.“He doesn’t understand why people don’t talk about his five points more. If he happens to mention something about the presidency at a cocktail party and they get talked about more, that’s a good thing for him,” one source said.Strengthening the rumor mill is Bloomberg’s appointment of his former deputy Patti Harris to his company’s management committee. Harris has been at the company since 1994. As Bloomberg’s deputy during his three terms as New York mayor, Harris was regarded, in personal and political terms, as the keeper of the Bloomberg brand, his personal gate keeper and point person on all strategic and staffing decisions.“She’s the most important person in his life and director of all his political aspiration,” says the source. “If you believe in this line of gossip, putting Harris in to run the company frees him up to run for president. You can argue that he’s setting himself up to do something.”When Bloomberg was last considering a run, almost exactly a year ago, a Quinnipiac University poll found he had an overall unfavorable rating of 32%, and 19% of Democrats viewed him negatively. Howard Wolfson, a top political advisor, hinted at how much Bloomberg would look to invest in a campaign for president.“Mike spent more than $100m in his last mayor’s race. Last time I looked, NYC is a fraction of the size of the country as a whole,” Wolfson explained, pointing out that he spent at least more than $110m backing Democrats during the 2018 congressional midterm elections.Asked what Bloomberg would spend on his own campaign, Wolfson replied, “Whatever is required.”With Biden appearing to be running low on funds, and a Warren or possibly Bernie Sanders candidacy looming, it’s not surprising that Bloomberg’s interest is again stirring. Last month, Fox Business reported that he still has a team of political advisors on the payroll.“I think it’s something he wants. He has not been shy about that,” a Bloomberg ally told CNBC. “Bloomberg is in if Biden is out,” a billionaire friend added.

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Pete Buttigieg 2020 campaign hired staff recommended by Mark Zuckerberg

Pete Buttigieg reportedly gave jobs to two staffers who were referred to his 2020 presidential campaign by Mark Zuckerberg and the Facebook founder's wife Priscilla Chan.The Democratic hopeful hired Eric Mayefsky and Nina Wornhoff to serve as his campaign’s senior digital analytics adviser and organising data manager after Mr Zuckerberg and Ms Chan passed on their CVs.

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UPDATE 3-Israel's Netanyahu gives up effort to form new government

Benjamin Netanyahu gave up his effort to form a new government on Monday after failing to secure a majority coalition, creating an opportunity for centrist rival Benny Gantz to replace Israel's longest serving prime minister. Netanyahu, who heads the right-wing Likud party, said he had been unable to form a government following an election in September, and was returning the mandate back to Israel's president, Reuven Rivlin. Rivlin said he intends to task Gantz with the job of putting together a new government.

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A Reporter Walked Into a Prison Full of ISIS Detainees

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Trump Running Out of Options for Homeland Security Secretary

By BY ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS AND MAGGIE HABERMAN from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/33PtqGj