Ukraine Saga’s Growing Cast of Characters

By BY SHARON LAFRANIERE from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2MtoLTu

‘Shame on Him’: Evangelicals Call Out Trump on Syria

By BY ELIZABETH DIAS from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/3234TNK

Florida Man Sentenced to 20 Years in Deadly Parking Confrontation

By BY HEATHER MURPHY from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/33jnZ29

Choke point: Vietnam skilled labor squeezed by Sino-U.S. trade war

A new front has opened in the U.S.-China trade war as companies shifting manufacturing to Vietnam engage in a fierce battle for skilled labor, aggravating an existing shortage and prompting calls for education reforms to address the problem.

from Reuters: World News https://ift.tt/316tj7u

Migrant protesters occupy U.S.-Mexico border bridge, close crossing

MATAMOROS-BROWNSVILLE BRIDGE, U.S.-Mexico border, Oct 10 (Reuters) - U .S. asylum seekers camped out in a dangerous Mexican border town occupied a bridge to Brownsville, Texas on Thursday, leading to the closure of the crossing, witnesses and authorities said. Hundreds of the migrants have been camped for weeks on the end of the bridge in Matamoros, Mexico, a city known for cartel control of people trafficking and gang violence. Many of those camped out are awaiting court dates for hearings in the United States weeks or months later under a U.S. policy called the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP).

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2VxsJOV

Seven misleading arguments against impeachment by Trump and his allies

As Democrats continue their impeachment inquiry, the president and his allies keep presenting certain misleading defenses.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2M0EKJz

Married priests question raises fears of Church split

An idea to fill empty pulpits in remote locations by allowing married men to become priests is bitterly dividing a Vatican assembly, with critics warning the emotive issue could fracture the Catholic Church. The hot-button topic of whether an exception can be made to the centuries-old custom of celibacy in places where there is a shortage of priests has dominated the start of the three-week "synod" on the Pan-Amazonian region. Austro-Brazilian bishop Erwin Krautler said Wednesday he estimated some two-thirds of the bishops in the region support the idea of "viri probati" (married "men of proven virtue") as candidates for priesthood.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2IEYwIB

Erdogan Threatens To ‘Open the Doors’ to Europe for Refugees if Criticisms Continue

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan issued a warning to the European Union during a speech to his party on Thursday, threatening to flood the continent with millions of refugees in response to international criticism of Turkey’s recent military offensive in northern Syria.“Hey EU, wake up. I say it again: if you try to frame our operation there as an invasion, our task is simple: we will open the doors and send 3.6 million migrants to you,” Erdogan said in the speech. The public opinion over Erdogan’s actions has largely been negative.On Thursday, France’s foreign ministry requested the Turkish ambassador, Ismail Hakki Musa, speak in Paris about the recent attacks, according to sources. Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio also called for an immediate end to the fighting.“As a government we think that the Turkish offensive initiative is unacceptable. We condemn it … because military action in the past has always led to more terrorism,” he said. “We call for an immediate end to this offensive which is absolutely not acceptable given that the use of force continues to endanger the life of the Syrian people, who have already experienced tragedy in recent years.”Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a statement Thursday joining his European counterparts in calling for Turkey to end its attacks against the Kurds. “Israel strongly condemns the Turkish invasion of the Kurdish areas in Syria and warns against the ethnic cleansing of the Kurds by Turkey and its proxies. Israel is prepared to extend humanitarian assistance to the gallant Kurdish people,” he said.Iran, a close ally of the Syrian government, called for the Turks to halt their advance, while Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia would push for the necessity of dialogue between Turkey and Syria.”During the Thursday rally, an inflammatory Erdogan defended his government’s decision-making and accused other countries of being dishonest in their criticisms.“They are not honest, they just make up words,” he said. “We, however, create action and that is our difference.”

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2Vt7b64

Republican donors who helped Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani in Ukraine arrested over campaign finance violations

Two Republican donors who reportedly have ties to Rudy Giuliani's dealings in Ukraine have been arrested on separate campaign finance charges, a spokesman for the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's office has revealed.Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, both believed to be Ukrainian-Americans, have been under investigation by the US attorney's office and are expected to appear in a federal court in Virginia later today.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2M5lkTS

Politician charged in human trafficking adoption scheme

An Arizona elected official ran a human smuggling scheme that promised pregnant women thousands of dollars to lure them from a Pacific Island nation to the U.S., where they were crammed into houses to wait to give birth, sometimes with little to no prenatal care, prosecutors allege. Paul Petersen, the Republican assessor of Arizona's most populous county, was charged in Utah, Arizona and Arkansas with counts including human smuggling, sale of a child, fraud, forgery and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Investigators also found eight pregnant women from the Marshall Islands in raids of his properties outside Phoenix, and several more are waiting to give birth in Utah, authorities said.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/30YhzE3

Carnival passenger critically injured after falling onto lower cruise ship deck

A 23-year-old man aboard the Carnival Valor cruise ship this week fell off a railing and onto a lower deck, sustaining serious injuries.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2MtzAFi

US sends asylum seekers to Mexico’s border towns as it warns citizens of violence in region

Advocates have sounded the alarm about the dangers of Remain in Mexico program as report reveals at least 340 instances of rape, kidnapping, torture and other violent attacksMigrants, mostly from Central America, wait to board a van which will take them to a processing center, in El Paso, Texas, on 16 May. Photograph: Paul Ratje/AFP/Getty ImagesThe United States has sent more than 51,000 asylum-seekers to wait in dangerous border towns in Mexico as it advises its own citizens not to travel to those regions because of the severe threat of kidnapping, murder and violent crime.Advocates have been warning about the dangers of Remain in Mexico, or Migration Protection Protocols (MPP), since the program was announced in January. But their warnings have grown louder this week after a new report by Human Rights First revealed that there were at least 340 reports of rape, kidnapping, torture and other violent attacks against people returned to Mexico while they wait for their case to be heard in US immigration court.Ursela Ojeda, a policy adviser at the Women’s Refugee Commission, has visited the border multiple times to see how the policy is being implemented and said the new report was the “tip of the iceberg”.“When you see people not showing up for their court hearing in Remain in Mexico, you have to wonder what happened to the people who aren’t there,” Ojeda said.“There is no way to know why they just missed court – they could have been kidnapped, they could have been killed, they could have been put on a bus by the Mexican government and shoved to another part of the country with no way to get back.”The Human Rights First report surveys gruesome incidents, such as when a three-year-old boy from Honduras and his parents were kidnapped after being returned to Nuevo Laredo. The mother said the last time she saw her husband he was lying on the ground, beaten and bleeding and told her: “Love, they’re going to kill us.” The kidnappers released the three-year-old and his mother, who doesn’t know if her husband is alive.A Cuban asylum seeker told the group he saw a group of men stop a taxi outside a Mexican government immigration office and kidnap the four Venezuelan women and girl inside who were being sent to a shelter.Migrants, mostly from Mexico, are pictured sitting on the ground waiting near the Paso del Norte Bridge at the Mexico-US border, in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on 12 September. Photograph: Paul Ratje/AFP/Getty ImagesNuevo Laredo and Matamoros, two of the cities in the Tamaulipas state people are being returned to, are among the most dangerous in the world. The US State department issued a level 4 travel warning for the region because “violent crime, such as murder, armed robbery, carjacking, kidnapping, extortion and sexual assault is common”.Speaking at the White House on Tuesday, the acting head of US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), Mark Morgan, ignored multiple questions about what the US government was doing to address the violence facing people sent back to Mexico.“We’re trying to overcome the message that the cartels have been putting out there that it’s going to be a free ride into the United States,” Morgan said. “We’re now sending the message that, if you’re coming here as an economic migrant, you’re not going to be allowed into the United States.”He celebrated the program for keeping people out of the US, where they would have been detained or released while they waited for their court date. He also said the program was stopping smugglers and improving due process – though advocates say it is doing the exact opposite.Shelters and other aid groups are overwhelmed by the migrants pouring into border towns and many are left to sleep and fend for themselves on the streets, without healthcare or work opportunities.Attorneys say it is nearly impossible to provide legal counsel. Some of the US-based attorneys who have crossed the border have received credible threats of violence and the US has not secured an agreement with Mexico to ensure US attorneys don’t get arrested for practicing law in Mexico without a license.At the end of August only 34 out of 9,702 people placed into the Remain in Mexico program had legal representation – just 0.4%, according to researchers at Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (Trac).There is also little accountability for the government’s claim that vulnerable people are exempt from the program on a case-by-case basis. Human Rights First said the screening process is a “farce” and advocacy groups have seen vulnerable groups, including pregnant women and LGBT people, returned.Democratic 2020 presidential candidate, Julián Castro, on Monday crossed the border with eight gay and lesbian asylum seekers from Cuba, Guatemala and Honduras and a deaf Salvadoran woman and three of her relatives.“Hours after we were told LGBT and disabled asylum seekers would have their cases heard, they have been returned to Mexico,” Castro said in a tweet. “By law, these migrants are supposed to be exempt from the Remain in Mexico policy – but CBP had decided to ignore their due process. Outrageous.”In September, a Salvadoran woman who was eight-and-a-half months pregnant and experiencing contractions was apprehended by US border patrol, given medicine to stop contractions in a hospital, then returned to Mexico.In March, a 27-year-old with the cognitive age of a four-year-old child, was separated from the cousin and son he traveled with and sent back to Mexico. He was reunited with his mother in the US at the end of August after the Guardian reported on his case.This policy is colliding with other policies that have crippled the asylum system, including a ban on migrants seeking asylum at the border before seeking protection in another country.On Monday, the Women’s Refugee Commission and other advocacy groups sent a letter urging Congress to investigate the Remain in Mexico program’s “grave human rights and due process violations”.Advocacy groups also filed a lawsuit against it in February. The policy was blocked in April, but an appeals court temporarily allowed it to continue while the ruling is appealed.In the court case, the union which represents 2,500 employees in the DHS agency which interviews and adjudicates asylum claims, US Customs and Immigration Services, filed a brief describing Remain in Mexico as “entirely unnecessary” because the system could handle the increase in asylum claims.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2IG9WMh

Sons of Stephon Clark, Killed by Police, Will Receive $2.4 Million Settlement

By BY NEIL VIGDOR from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2ODkrnw

Florida Man Sentenced to 20 Years in Deadly Parking Confrontation

By BY HEATHER MURPHY from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2M3nByY

Ukraine Scandal Snags Pete Sessions’s Congressional Comeback Bid

By BY CATIE EDMONDSON from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/35kxoZ7

Trump dismisses concerns about leaving Kurds at the mercy of Turkey

President Trump was unconcerned about what is widely characterized as a betrayal of the Kurdish fighters who bore the brunt of the battle against ISIS.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/33iXaLz

Warren jumps ahead of Biden in latest 2020 polls

Elizabeth Warren is leading the crowded pack of candidates vying for the 2020 Democratic primary nomination for the first time, according to new results from polling aggregation website RealClearPolitics, which averages poll data from across the US. The numbers released on Wednesday show the progressive Massachusetts senator polling at 26.6 per cent, with former Vice President Joe Biden slightly behind her at 26.4 per cent.The latest numbers follow Tuesday’s Quinnipiac University poll, which found Ms Warren capturing 29 per cent of Democrat and Democrat-leaning independent voters. Mr Biden followed at 26 per cent, and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders trailed on 16 per cent. No other candidates topped 4 per cent in that poll.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/35mRNgn

Fox News Host Slams Fox Poll Showing Most Americans Approve Impeachment

Fox News host Greg Gutfeld on Thursday blasted his network’s most recent poll finding a majority of registered voters want President Donald Trump impeached and removed from office over the Ukraine scandal, claiming it was unfairly biased towards Democrats and that “these polls have been known to be wrong.”During a panel discussion on Fox News’ The Five focused on Trump’s Thursday night campaign rally in Minnesota and whether he can possibly flip the Democratic stronghold, liberal co-host Juan Williams noted that most polls show the president losing to his potential Democratic opponents before bringing up Fox’s finding that 51 percent of registered voters are in favor of impeachment.“I’ve been seeing this poll everywhere and I know it’s a Fox News poll but we got to point out that it’s weighted toward Democrats,” Gutfeld declared. “From what I’ve seen, it’s 48 percent Democrats, 40 percent Republicans, 12 percent other. So it’s weighted for that.”The Fox News personality went on to say that the poll was taken at a time when there’s a “fever pitch of media coverage about a single topic,” suggested that such results are to be expected.“You’ve got all the Democrats, plus or minus 3 percent, saying they want him out,” he added. “That’s not a big finding. That’s not a surprise. In a month or so when all this stuff fades, let’s see where it is now.”According to the Fox News poll, 51 percent of registered voters would like to see Trump impeached and removed. While it found 85 percent of Democrats want the president out, it also shows 13 percent of Republicans would like Trump removed and 39 percent of independents. “We have to remind ourselves how many Democrats and how many Republicans are in this poll and these polls have been known to be wrong,” Gutfeld continued. “Sorry for bringing it up. But if you’re going to put it on the table at The Five we get to respond.”Williams, meanwhile, noted that more people self-identify as Democrats than Republicans in the country and that’s why the poll is weighted that way. This prompted conservative co-host Katie Pavlich to say that they don’t live in the states needed to win the electoral college, suggesting they are mostly in California and New York.The poll, however, showed that in swing counties where Trump and Hillary Clinton were within 10 points of each other in 2016, support for impeachment increased to 52 percent.Gutfeld’s criticism of his own network’s poll comes as other Fox News on-air personalities have attempted to spin the results as either not significant or a positive for Trump. While some have suggested “misinformation” is skewing the polls, others have expressed doubt about the findings.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/318suLn

'A victim of their own failure': Why PG&E's massive power shutdown in California was inevitable

Months after declaring bankruptcy, California's primary utility, PG&E;, has once again raised the ire of residents and politicians alike.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2M3M4nX

A White House adviser is flip-flopping on whether China gave him information on Joe Biden's son after Trump asked Beijing to investigate the Bidens

Michael Pillsbury, an informal White House adviser on China, keeps changing his story about whether Beijing gave him information on the Bidens.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2ODxrcC

U.S. backs Brazil for OECD membership, but Argentina first

The U.S. government said on Thursday that it supported Brazil's taking steps toward joining the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), though it is first backing accession by Argentina.

from Reuters: World News https://ift.tt/2B2tSVu

Factbox: Who are the Giuliani associates charged with trying to influence U.S. elections?

Igor Fruman and Lev Parnas, two foreign-born associates of U.S. President Donald Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, were charged on Thursday with conspiring to influence U.S. politics with illegal campaign contributions.

from Reuters: World News https://ift.tt/2AXJZ6K

G.M. Chief Meets With Union Officials for First Time in Strike

By BY NEAL E. BOUDETTE from NYT Business https://ift.tt/2IEHw5q