Douglas MacArthur Is One of America's Most Famous Generals. He's Also the Most Overrated

He might be one of President Trump's favorite generals, but as Hampton Sides writes, Douglas MacArthur was far from a military genius.

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Protesters vow hunger strike to push U.S. on climate change

Climate change opponents plan to stage a hunger strike to demand a meeting with U.S. Congressional leader Nancy Pelosi, they said on Tuesday, in the political battle over global warming. The protesters said they want a one-hour on-camera meeting with Pelosi, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, to discuss reducing greenhouse gas emissions to net-zero by 2025. Global warming threatens the planet's food supply with extreme weather, from drought to more dangerous and destructive storms, scientists say.

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James Holzhauer and Emma Boettcher Will Square Off Again on ‘Jeopardy!’

By BY JULIA JACOBS from NYT Arts https://ift.tt/34UjU5j

Zeke Bratkowski, Packer Quarterback but Not a Starr, Dies at 88

By BY RICHARD GOLDSTEIN from NYT Sports https://ift.tt/32C8WzW

Impeachment Briefing: A Viewer’s Guide to the First Public Hearing

By BY NOAH WEILAND from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2O5AIQe

5 Global Trends Shaping Our Climate Future

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What Trump Is Hiding From the Impeachment Hearings

By BY NEAL K. KATYAL from NYT Opinion https://ift.tt/2NFIpgY

Inside the Impeachment War Rooms

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Will televised Trump impeachment hearings convince Americans that he should be removed from office?

After weeks of closed-door testimony, public impeachment proceedings against President Trump will begin Wednesday. But will they change public opinion?

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Don't miss Sunday's shooting stars: The Leonid meteor shower will be visible across the night sky

Look up Sunday night, and you may see the Leonid meteor showers, which come from the constellation Leo the Lion.

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Trump 'fighter' Jim Jordan likely won't get much airtime in impeachment hearings

For all the hype surrounding the move by House Republicans to place Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio on the Intelligence Committee so he can be part of the public impeachment hearings, the conservative firebrand is not likely to have much of a role to play based on the rules governing the hearings.

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Widow sues boat owner in fire off California that killed 34

The widow of a passenger who died in a fiery dive boat disaster that killed 34 people in the waters off California sued the vessel's owners Monday. Christine Dignam, whose husband, Justin Dignam, died when the Conception caught fire Sept. 2 off the Santa Barbara coast, claimed that the boat was unsafe. The vessel didn't have adequate smoke detectors or firefighting equipment, it lacked enough emergency exits, and a required night watch was not on duty when the flames broke out in the middle of the night, according to the wrongful-death lawsuit filed in federal court in Los Angeles.

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Brexit Bulletin: Farage Under Pressure

Days to Brexit deadline: 81(Bloomberg) -- Sign up here to get the Brexit Bulletin in your inbox every weekday.Today in Brexit: No one is backing down in the tussle over whether to create a pre-election Leave alliance.Nigel Farage is coming under pressure to stand aside and let U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson deliver Brexit after the general election on Dec. 12.Arron Banks, one of Farage's key backers in the 2016 referendum, used a column in the Mail on Sunday to urge his former ally to step aside. Business Minister Kwasi Kwarteng echoed that call in an interview with Sky News’s Sophy Ridge. Former Theresa May aide Nick Timothy describes Farage today as a tragic figure, “the Frodo Baggins of Brexit.” But Farage, the original poster boy for Brexit, looks unlikely to give way gracefully. Leavers fear Farage could now split the pro-Brexit vote, help Jeremy Corbyn into Downing Street, and scupper Britain’s departure from the European Union. As Banks put it: If Farage “insists on pursuing his impossible dream of a perfect Brexit, he will not get it.” Weekend polling put Farage’s Brexit Party on 6%-10%, in fourth place. Farage launches his Brexit Party’s election campaign today in Hartlepool, in the north of England. Follow our rolling election coverage for all the latest.For all the pressure, Farage shows little inclination to bow out. On Sunday, he gave Johnson another four days to reach a deal or face Brexit Party candidates running against Conservatives across the whole U.K. His demand: Johnson should abandon his deal and pursue what Farage calls a “clean Brexit.”Why would the prime minister agree? The Tories are certainly nervous about the Brexit Party. Johnson may be enjoying a double digit lead in the polls — but it could evaporate quickly. The Conservatives are also at greater risk of losing supporters to the Brexit party than Labour, polling guru John Curtice pointed out in the Sunday Telegraph. On Sunday, Johnson ruled out extending the transition period beyond 2020, something many have taken as an olive branch to Farage and his supporters.But it would be an almost unthinkable step for Johnson to abandon outright the compromise he spent months hammering out — and even more of one for Farage to walk away. Single-issue campaigners like him need a cause if they are to remain relevant: If Brexit is delivered, and the public moves on, how does he go on being just that?Today’s Must-ReadsBrexit is even hurting Tinder, according to Bloomberg’s Joe Easton and Ivan Edwards. Here’s what companies have been saying about Brexit.  Johnson’s Tories hit out at Labour, saying opposition spending plans would cost £1.2 trillion ($1.5 trillion) over five years. Labour’s finance spokesman, John McDonnell, branded the claim a “ludicrous piece of Tory fake news.” Does Boris Johnson understand his own deal? Recent comments by the prime minister have only sown confusion, according to Bloomberg’s Rob Hutton.Brexit in BriefNo Contraction | The U.K. almost certainly avoided a recession ahead of the now-postponed Oct. 31 deadline to leave the European Union, according to a Bloomberg survey of economists. Official figures are due at 9:30 a.m. in London.More Chaos | The bid for a new Brexit referendum has been thrown into (even more) disarray, with the acting chief of the People’s Vote campaign stepping down amid allegations of harassment, according to the Guardian.Bercow’s Back | The former speaker of the House of Commons tells the Guardian he may be pompous, but says Brexiters and Theresa May are to blame for Britain’s delayed departure from the EU.Outlook Cut | The U.K.’s sovereign credit rating was put on negative outlook by Moody’s Investors Service, which said the country’s ability to set policy has weakened in the Brexit era along with its commitment to fiscal discipline.Time, Please | J D Wetherspoon Plc founder Tim Martin is coming under pressure to keep his pro-Brexit views to himself, according to the Guardian. Shareholder groups are increasingly unhappy with the publican’s habit of including his opinions on the controversial subject in his firm’s trading updates. The next is due on Wednesday.Nationalist Project | “Brexit seems to have knocked the British off their trolleys, depriving at least half of them any sense of proportion. How did they get to be like this?” Ferdinand Mount reviews Fintan O’Toole’s Postwar England and the Rise of Nationalism in the New York Times.Want to keep up with Brexit?You can follow us @Brexit on Twitter, and listen to Bloomberg Westminster every weekday. It’s live at midday on Bloomberg Radio and is available as a podcast too. Share the Brexit Bulletin: Colleagues, friends and family can sign up here. For full EU coverage, try the Brussels Edition.For even more: Subscribe to Bloomberg All Access for our unmatched global news coverage and two in-depth daily newsletters, The Bloomberg Open and The Bloomberg Close.To contact the author of this story: Edward Evans in London at eevans3@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Adam Blenford at ablenford@bloomberg.net, Timothy Coulter "Tim"For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

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Supreme Court’s Conservative Majority Appears Poised to Allow Trump Admin to End DACA

The Supreme Court's conservative justices on Tuesday seemed ready to uphold the Trump administration's decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.DACA was implemented through executive action in 2012, and allows illegal immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as children to apply for a two-year deportation deferral. The deferral, which comes with work eligibility, may be renewed, but does not provide a path to citizenship.The challenge to the Trump administration's decision to end DACA did not dispute that Trump has the legal authority to terminate the program. Rather, it asked justices to consider whether the administration's justifications for ending DACA were "arbitrary and capricious," which would render the order unlawful under the Administrative Procedures Act."I hear a lot of facts, sympathetic facts, that you’ve put out there, and they speak to all of us," said Justice Neil Gorsuch referring to the situation of DACA recipients, also known as Dreamers after a separate piece of legislation. However, Gorsuch questioned whether it was the Supreme Court's place to interfere with the Trump administration's decision to end the program.Chief Justice John Roberts pointed out that the court had affirmed a 2016 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that ended a different Obama-era amnesty initiative known as Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA). Roberts suggested that decision could provide precedent for the Supreme Court's coming decision regarding DACA.President Trump ordered an end to DACA in 2017 after initially showing support for the program."Does anybody really want to throw out good, educated and accomplished young people who have jobs, some serving in the military?" Trump wrote at the time on Twitter. However, nine conservative state attorneys-general then threatened to sue the administration to terminate DACA, arguing that the program constituted an overreach of federal executive power.No new Dreamers have been accepted to DACA since 2017, although the program has been kept alive through various legal challenges, allowing Dreamers to continue to renew their protected statuses.Trump tweeted during the Supreme Court hearing on Tuesday that "Many of the people in DACA, no longer very young, are far from 'angels.' Some are very tough, hardened criminals." However, Trump did promise a "deal" for Dreamers regarding their immigration status after the Supreme Court rules on the program.It was not immediately clear when the court will announce its ruling.

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BART transit system apologizes to black rider cuffed for eating

The head of a San Francisco Bay Area commuter train system apologized to a black rider who was detained and cited by police for eating a breakfast sandwich on a train platform after an outcry from people who assailed enforcement of a no-food rule as racist.

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Italian ship attacked by pirates in Mexico, two crew hurt

Pirates attacked an Italy-flagged offshore supply vessel in the southern Gulf of Mexico, injuring two crew members, the Mexican Navy said on Tuesday, in the latest outbreak of robbery and piracy to hit oil platforms and infrastructure in the area.

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Top Pentagon Official: White House Asked Mysterious Questions About Ukraine Aid

REUTERSAfter the Pentagon announced in June it would give Ukraine $250 million, defense department officials received a list of eyebrow-raising questions that appeared to originate from President Donald Trump regarding details of the military aid, including which U.S. companies were involved in supplying equipment to the country. Laura Cooper, a top Pentagon official with oversight into Ukraine policy, appeared on Capitol Hill last month and told House impeachment investigators that the Pentagon published the Ukraine announcement on its website June 18 which prompted a series of phone calls from officials in Kyiv thanking the department. “They had been looking for a public acknowledgement of the assistance,” Cooper said. Meanwhile, inside the White House officials were holding court with Pentagon officials resulting in three questions that were then forwarded to Cooper’s team at the Department of Defense, Cooper told House investigators. “We got a question from my chain of command forwarded down from the chief of staff, I believe, from the Department of Defense, asking for a follow-up on a meeting with the President,” Cooper said. “The way the email was phrased, it said follow-up from POTUS meeting, so follow-up from a meeting with the President. So, you know, I'm thinking that the questions were probably questions from the President. That's how I interpreted that subject line.”The questions included whether U.S. companies were providing military aid to Ukraine, how many other countries were contributing aid to Ukraine and who was responsible for sending the $250 million to Ukraine, Cooper said in her October deposition.Cooper’s team answered the questions by email, telling senior Pentagon officials that a host of countries provided similar military aid to Ukraine, including the U.K., Canada, Lithuania and Poland. Cooper’s team also produced a list of U.S. companies that provide aid to Ukraine under the Pentagon’s authority. Cooper said the series of queries from the White House was not particularly unusual, but in hindsight they highlight President Trump’s thinking about the Ukraine aid nearly a month before his call with President Volodymyr Zelensky.Cooper told House investigators that she didn’t find out until later that delivery of Ukraine military aid that she oversaw was held up until the day of the now infamous Trump-Zelensky call. But she said she had concerns about its fate as early as mid-July when she learned that the White House had decided to hold up the State Department Ukraine aid.Mulvaney’s OMB Held Up Lethal Ukraine Aid in 2017 for Fear of Russian ReactionOn July 18, officials at the Pentagon attended an interagency meeting on Ukraine policy, Cooper said in her deposition. “There was discussion in that session about the—about OMB [The White House Office of Management and Budget] saying that they were holding the Congressional Notification related to FMF [the State Department aid],” Cooper said. “We tried to clarify, there's no guidance for DOD at this time. Is this correct? And they did not have specific guidance for DOD at the time.”Cooper said her team was “concerned” that the Pentagon aid, then, would also be held up. Her testimony corroborates that of Lt. Colonel Alexander Vidnman, a top State Department official for Europe, who said in his deposition that he learned of the first hold on the military aid in July. That is significantly earlier than previously understood or communicated by other Trump administration officials.Still, Cooper said, it wasn’t until July 25 that her team officially heard from the White House Office of Management and Budget about the hold on Pentagon aid to Ukraine. That news prompted a meeting at the Pentagon about if what the President was doing was legal.“The expression in the room that I recall was a sense that there was not an available mechanism to simply not spend money that has been in the case of notified to Congress,” Cooper said. “So the senior leaders were expressing that they didn’t see how this was legally available.”Cooper testified that OMB acknowledged formally for the first time in late August that the aid might not fully go through, when they struck language from a document saying it would be executed in a “timely” fashion. Cooper told House investigators that she was surprised when the hold on the aid was finally lifted Sept. 11.“It really came quite out of the blue,” Cooper said. “It was quite abrupt. I believe we got an email. And it just said, OMB has lifted the hold,” Cooper said, adding that the Pentagon was told it could start delivering funds the following day. “Ukraine, and also Georgia, are the two front-line states facing Russian aggression. In order to defend further Russian aggression, we need to be able to shore up these countries’ abilities to defend themselves,” Cooper said. “That’s, I think, pure and simple, the rationale behind our strategy of supporting these countries. It’s in our interest to deter Russian aggression elsewhere around the world.”Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

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Clinton says she is being urged by ‘many, many, many people’ to run in 2020

Hillary Clinton on Tuesday declined to rule out launching a future presidential campaign after her two failed bids, saying “many, many, many people” were pressuring her to enter the race. “I, as I say, never, never, never say never,” the former secretary of State said on BBC Radio 5 Live. “But as of this moment, sitting here in this studio talking to you, that is absolutely not in my plans,” Clinton added.

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'Doubling down on stupid': GOP warns Adam Schiff not to block Hunter Biden as impeachment witness

Republican lawmakers stepped up pressure on Rep. Adam Schiff to allow them to call Hunter Biden to testify in the impeachment inquiry.

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Chinese land deal in Solomon's Guadalcanal disrupts access to WWII site

Tour operators and the Japanese ambassador to the Solomons say it appears to be a case of a lack of understanding of the significance of the Alligator Creek site by the new owner. The issue has stirred up debate in the Solomons concerning its new relationship with China, which was formalized in September following the Pacific island nation's decision to sever its diplomatic ties with Taiwan in favor of Beijing.

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SPLC: Trump adviser Stephen Miller injected white nationalist agenda into Breitbart

Senior Trump adviser Stephen Miller shaped the 2016 election coverage of the hard right-wing website Breitbart with material drawn from prominent white nationalists, Islamophobes, and far-right websites, according to a new investigative report by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

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China's Submarines Can Now Launch a Nuclear War Against America

A missile test last November made the point quite clear.

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