If Democrats do not approve money for the wall, Mr. Trump has threatened to declare a national emergency and proceed with construction without Congress, a move that could provoke a constitutional clash with the legislative branch over the power of the federal purse. While some legal experts said the president has a plausible case given current law, it would almost surely generate a court challenge.Even some Republicans warned against it. Senator Susan Collins of Maine said that although the law provides the president with emergency powers, “the administration should not act on a claim of dubious constitutional authority.” She added, “It should get authorization from Congress before repurposing such a significant sum of money for a border wall.”The wall is popular with Mr. Trump’s base, but the public at large holds the president responsible for the shutdown, according to polls. In a Reuters-Ipsos poll, 51 percent of respondents said that Mr. Trump “deserves most of the blame,” up four percentage points from earlier in the crisis, while 32 percent pointed the finger at congressional Democrats.Moreover, the public seems to have grown weary of the impasse. Seventy percent of registered voters in the latest The Hill-HarrisX poll favored a compromise, while just 30 percent said sticking to principles was more important than reopening the government.The president’s use of the Oval Office for the speech stirred some debate, with critics asserting that a setting more typically used for occasions of war or other national security crises was being turned into a partisan platform. The subsequent joint statement by Ms. Pelosi and Mr. Schumer was the first time opposition leaders were given national airtime to respond to a president in the Oval Office.Not counting speeches to Congress, Mr. Trump had made only five formal addresses to the nation before Tuesday night, three of them in prime time and none from the Oval Office, according to Mark Knoller, a longtime CBS News journalist who tracks recent presidential history. Mr. Trump’s previous prime-time speeches were to introduce his two Supreme Court nominations and to announce his decision to send more troops to Afghanistan.By contrast, President Bill Clinton gave 16 addresses to the nation over eight years, 14 of them from the Oval Office. President George W. Bush gave 23 such addresses, six from the Oval Office, and President Barack Obama gave 12, with three from his office.

A partial list of people who have appeared in blackface on screen and stage in the 186 years since Rice’s performance on the Bowery includes: Desi Arnaz, Fred Astaire, Dan Aykroyd, Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll (from “Amos ‘n’ Andy”), Ethel Barrymore, Milton Berle, Jimmy Cagney, Joan Crawford, Bing Crosby, Billy Crystal, Ted Danson, Marion Davies, Robert Downey Jr., Judy Garland, Alec Guinness, Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Benny Hill, Bob Hope, Boris Karloff, Buster Keaton, Hedy Lamarr, Janet Leigh, Harold Lloyd, Sophia Loren, Myrna Loy, the Marx Brothers, David Niven, Laurence Olivier, Will Rogers, Mickey Rooney, Frank Sinatra, Grace Slick, Spencer Tracy, Shirley Temple, John Wayne, Mae West, Gene Wilder and the Three Stooges.[Read our critic Wesley Morris’s assessment of Gov. Northam’s situation.]“Its longevity is because it’s been institutionalized into every aspect of American life,” Dr. Barnes said. “People have perpetuated blackface because we don’t teach minstrel history. If these people had ever been exposed to it in a safe classroom environment, they would know better.”Judging from not only various records of campus life but also the numerous Instagram accounts of women appearing as “black” personalities — a phenomenon known as “blackfishing” — many do not know better.The popularity of blackface was at its height in the early 20th century and has waned sharply since the ’50s, but it certainly hasn’t disappeared. Rather, it has taken on different forms, perhaps more palatable to modern audiences. In 1986, “Soul Man” was a major Hollywood release, featuring C. Thomas Howell in blackface, posing as an African-American to reap the rewards of affirmative action. As recently as the early 2000s, Jimmy Kimmel wore blackface on “The Man Show” while doing an impression of the basketball player Karl Malone. He has never apologized for it, and he’s on television five nights a week. And it wasn’t until 2015 that the Metropolitan Opera of New York stopped using makeup to darken the faces of the singers in the lead role of “Othello.”ImageA screenshot of Jimmy Kimmel in blackface on Comedy Central's "The Man Show," which Kimmel co-hosted from 1999 to 2003.If one were looking for a historical case study in celebrating blackface, well, one could proceed straight to the White House of Woodrow Wilson. Wilson knew Thomas Dixon, a novelist who in 1905 published “The Clansman,” an unabashedly racist book set during Reconstruction, featuring bands of black men looting and raping white women, which became a publishing sensationThe “heroes” of the novel were Ku Klux Klansmen who came to the rescue of the white populace. From the book, the director D.W. Griffith made his lauded and wildly popular film, “The Birth of a Nation.” The major “black” characters in the film were portrayed by white actors in blackface. President Wilson showed the movie at the White House; it may have been the first movie ever screened there. “It is like writing history with lightning,” Wilson was quoted as saying about the film. “And my only regret is that it is all so terribly true.”The stage adaptation of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s 1852 novel, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” provided an additional layer of irony. The book, a runaway success that was often credited as one of the precipitators of the Civil War, told of the horrors of slavery. Theater producers bounded into view. But when the first stage production of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” landed in New York City in 1853, it featured an all-white cast.As the 19th century wore on, the country swooned over minstrel and vaudeville productions, which often used burnt cork or shoe polish to darken performers’ faces. And over Al Jolson, in particular. It was around 1904 when Jolson, a Jewish man born in what is now Lithuania, began performing in blackface. Broadway beckoned, and in the succeeding years he became the biggest star of both blackface and Broadway. In 1927, he starred in “The Jazz Singer,” the first talking motion picture. Blackface was such a surefire route to popularity that even black performers started wearing it. Bert Williams, a Bahamian-American comedian, was a major one of these stars, and even in his lifetime his act was freighted with pathos. “Bert Williams was the funniest man I ever saw and the saddest man I ever knew,” W.C. Fields reportedly said.ImageSammy Davis Jr., circa 1930.CreditEverett CollectionIn perhaps one of the more heartbreaking developments, black child actors were enlisted in blackface acts, including an elementary school-aged Sammy Davis Jr. He was a black child portraying a white man portraying a stereotypical black person. Audiences howled in laughter. It is little wonder that Davis, who died in 1990, would spend a lifetime enduring racial jokes and put-downs, despite his many gifts as an entertainer.One of the landmark radio shows in American history was “Amos ’n’ Andy,” which began in 1928 and featured white actors portraying black characters. It was rife with black caricature. Black audiences, starved for entertainment, listened as well as whites. In June 1951, the show landed on television. The actors were now black, but the stereotypes were intact. The protests were swift, and the show lasted less than two years. By then, though, blackface was such an ingrained part of popular American culture — enacted so widely across entertainment media — that it had passed from the stage and screen to everyday life for many. A joke that could be made, a costume that could be worn. And as those recent revelations in Virginia have shown us, it is never long before another door opens and another photo emerges, and there he stands again, the man in blackface.Wil Haygood, a visiting professor at Miami University (Ohio), has written biographies of Sammy Davis, Jr., Thurgood Marshall and Sugar Ray Robinson. His latest book is “Tigerland: 1968-1969.”

We asked for choice. And, guess what? We got it—perhaps more than we bargained for.As the share of people who have canceled traditional TV in the US hurtles toward 20% of the adult population, players big and small are placing bets to see what people will pay for and watch. It is a far—and welcome—cry from the days when TV customers were told, “you’ll pay for all these channels and you’ll like it.” But the result is a barrage of streaming services many people don’t know what to do with.

Enlarge this image Paul Manafort listens to Rick Gates testifying on Tuesday. Art Lien hide caption toggle caption Art Lien Paul Manafort listens to Rick Gates testifying on Tuesday. Art Lien Updated at 8:23 p.m. ETPaul Manafort's former business partner Rick Gates underwent hours of brutal cross-examination on Tuesday in a vicious courtroom battle over his credibility.Gates is the marquee witness in the government's case against Manafort, who stands charged with bank and tax fraud.After Gates described the intricate financial web he says he and Manafort spun to commit financial fraud together, defense attorneys battered Gates with questions about an extramarital affair and asked why anyone should put any stock in what he says now.Gates has pleaded guilty to conspiracy and other charges in exchange for leniency from prosecutors as part of the deal in which he is testifying against his former patron. Manafort's lawyers have seized on that."This jury is just supposed to believe you after all the lies that you've told and the fraud you've committed?" asked Manafort defense attorney Kevin Downing."Yes, because I'm here to tell the truth and take responsibility for my actions," Gates said. "Mr. Manafort had the same path. I'm trying to change."Marathon testimonyThat exchange came toward the end of more than 6 1/2 hours on the witness stand in which Gates recounted what he called a broad scheme to help Manafort. The two men hid money from the IRS in international bank accounts and lied to banks so Manafort could qualify for loans after his income dried up, according to the evidence presented in court.Manafort is charged with 18 counts of tax and bank fraud. Gates was indicted at the same time as Manafort last year; he pleaded guilty in February.Part of that agreement included admitting to having lied to investigators working with the office of Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller. Downing seized on that admission, and the fact that Gates is probably avoiding decades of potential prison time by working with investigators. He questioned Gates' trustworthiness and his motivations for working with prosecutors.Downing also broached an extramarital affair that Gates carried on 10 years ago — a "secret life," as Downing put it — in an apparent effort to taint his reliability as a witness."I acknowledge I had a period of time where I had another relationship," Gates said.He also admitted to having embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars from Manafort, in the form of fake and inflated expense reports.Defense attorneys not only want to damage Gates' trustworthiness but buttress their narrative that Manafort did not keep a close eye on his finances. If there were problems with his financial paperwork, the defense lawyers have argued, it was because Manafort made honest mistakes or he was a victim of what they've called Gates' perfidy.Manafort defense attorney Thomas Zehnle said in his opening statement last week that it was actually Gates who orchestrated the bank and tax fraud that Manafort is accused of and that Manafort was unaware of any wrongdoing."Rick Gates had his hand in the cookie jar, and he couldn't take the risk that his boss might find out," Zehnle said.The government's caseProsecutors have sought to bolster their case that Manafort was the mastermind by showing the jury email chains in which he is directly involved with discussing the alleged financial crimes. The government's lawyers also have asked other witnesses questions intended to draw out that theme."In most instances, it was clear that Mr. Manafort knew what was going on," said Cindy Laporta, a tax accountant for Manafort who also dealt with Gates. She testified on Monday.Even so, hearing that Gates was able to steal so much money from Manafort without being caught cast doubt on how involved Manafort truly was — and Judge T.S. Ellis III noted as much.At one point, Gates said Manafort was "very good at knowing where the money was and where it was spent." The judge interjected to say that he thought Manafort couldn't have been that good if he didn't notice the money Gates stole.Gates is set to take the stand again for more questioning from Downing when court resumes on Wednesday. Then prosecutors are expected to try to rehabilitate his image in the eyes of the jury and question him again. Enlarge this image This courtroom sketch depicts Gates (right) answering questions by prosecutor Greg Andres as he testifies in Manafort's trial. Dana Verkouteren/AP hide caption toggle caption Dana Verkouteren/AP This courtroom sketch depicts Gates (right) answering questions by prosecutor Greg Andres as he testifies in Manafort's trial. Dana Verkouteren/AP The fraud schemeBefore cross-examination began, Gates spent Tuesday morning answering questions from prosecutors.As Manafort's former business partner and right-hand man, Gates testified in granular detail about how the two men used bank accounts in Cyprus and a middleman lawyer nicknamed "Dr. K" to hide and receive payments from Ukrainian oligarchs."I believe [Manafort] understood his name would not be represented, nor would mine," Gates said.When asked by prosecutor Greg Andres who controlled the overseas accounts, Gates responded: "[Manafort] always had control.""And whose money was in those accounts?" Andres followed."Mr. Manafort's money," Gates said.Gates also testified about falsifying mortgage documents and lying to banks to help Manafort qualify for loans.Prosecutors want to prove that Manafort acted with intent and did not just make unassuming mistakes. To that end, Gates reiterated that Manafort directed the actions he took and remained closely involved.Jurors were shown an email in which Manafort responded "WTF" when confronted with how much he would have to pay in taxes if he did not make efforts to adjust his taxable income one year."Why can't you say embezzlement?"Gates clearly had a simpler time answering questions from prosecutor Andres than he did those from Downing. At one point, Gates characterized his taking money from Manafort via the expense reports as "an unauthorized transaction.""Why can't you say embezzlement?" Downing asked."It was embezzlement from Mr. Manafort," said Gates.Downing, at another point, called Gates out for having a more difficult time remembering things when he was doing the questioning compared with when Gates was being questioned by the government's lawyers."Have they confronted you with so many lies you can't remember any of it?" Downing asked.Gates first took the stand late Monday afternoon, drawing gasps from the packed courtroom in Alexandria, Va., when his name was announced as the next witness.Within the first hour of his testimony, Gates said explicitly that he broke the law with Manafort, including by providing false and doctored documents to banks in an effort to inflate Manafort's income to qualify him for loans.Gates also said he lied to accountants working on Manafort's taxes, to conceal foreign bank accounts that prosecutors say Manafort used to hide tens of millions of dollars from the IRS. Politics Paul Manafort's Ex-Partner Rick Gates Testifies They Broke The Law Together "At Mr. Manafort's request, at different points in the year, we did not disclose the foreign bank accounts," Gates said.Prosecutors say Manafort did lucrative political consulting work in Ukraine and then kept much of the money he made in offshore accounts and companies. He would then use overseas wire transfers from those secret accounts to buy luxury items like custom suits and a Land Rover — and avoid paying taxes.When his consulting work dried up after the change of power in Ukraine, prosecutors say, Manafort turned to loans to maintain his lifestyle. The government's lawyers say he qualified for them by lying to lenders.Manafort served as Donald Trump's campaign chairman for a time in 2016 and Gates was his deputy in that role, too. That chapter, for the first time, was touched on in court on Tuesday.After Trump's election, Gates went to work for the then-president-elect's inauguration committee. Gates said Tuesday that even though Manafort had resigned his post within the campaign months prior, Manafort reached out in November 2016 about trying to push for Federal Savings Bank CEO Stephen Calk to be nominated as secretary of the Army.Prosecutors say Federal Savings Bank was one of the banks that lent to Manafort and that Manafort committed fraud in applying for the loan by doctoring a document to inflate his income.Defense attorneys pointed out long before the trial began that Manafort has not been charged with conspiring with the Russians who attacked the 2016 election — the main focus of Mueller's investigation. Law 4 Insights As Manafort Trial Enters Week 2 Legal analysisBill Coffield, a D.C.-area attorney who specializes in white-collar law, says prosecutors needed to use Gates' testimony to flesh out the narrative of Manafort's alleged crimes, but they also must continue to back it up with documents and other witnesses who dealt with Manafort's finances."What the prosecution needs to do is put some meat on the bones," Coffield told NPR's Morning Edition. "They've got somebody whose credibility — talking about Rick Gates here — they've got somebody whose credibility has been severely wounded."The judge, Ellis, has also taken on an outsize role throughout this trial, and that has continued into the second week.On Monday, he clashed with prosecutors over the pace they were taking, as they sought to detail Gates' travel history to and from Ukraine."Let's get to the heart of the matter," Ellis interrupted."Judge, we've been at the heart ..." Andres said."Just listen to me!" Ellis responded.Later in the day, Andres apologized and Ellis accepted, saying: "I'm not concerned about that at all. I remember trying cases."The judge pushed back on prosecutors last week too.When they tried to illustrate Manafort's wealth, Ellis stopped them, saying it wasn't a crime to be rich. When they tried to talk about the Ukrainian oligarchs who paid Manafort, he said it "wasn't the American way" to bias a jury against a defendant based upon the people he chooses to surround himself with.On Tuesday, however, he seemed to interrupt both prosecutors and the defense less than he had in previous days.

A federal judge in California has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from refusing asylum to migrants who cross the US southern border illegally, marking a significant blow to the president’s crackdown on immigration.Trump signed a proclamation on 9 November declaring that people who crossed the border between official US ports of entry would be ineligible for asylum. The move was among the most audacious in the administration’s anti-immigrant agenda as federal laws enshrine the right to claim asylum irrespective of how an individual enters the country. The president had cited a threat to national security amid heightened rhetoric on a number of migrant caravans heading towards the US.But in his ruling on Monday evening, US district judge Jon Tigar said Trump did not have the authority to override the current legislation. He also ruled the president had misused his authority to issue emergency regulations and waive a 30-day waiting period to consider comments on the policy change.“Whatever the scope of the president’s authority, he may not rewrite the immigration laws to impose a condition that Congress has expressly forbidden,” said Tigar, who sits in the northern district of California and was nominated in 2012 by President Barack Obama.On Tuesday morning the administration hit back, vowing to challenge Tigar’s order and branding it “absurd” to side with the civil rights groups who brought the case who had stopped “the entire federal government from acting so that illegal aliens can receive a government benefit to which they are not entitled”.“We look forward to continuing to defend the Executive Branch’s legitimate and well-reasoned exercise of its authority to address the crisis at our southern border,” Trump’s justice department said.In a statement laden with anti-migrant rhetoric, the White House said the ruling would “open the floodgates” to “countless illegal aliens” branding the decision “yet another example of activist judges imposing their open borders policy preferences”.The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) did not immediately comment on the ruling, a temporary restraining order, which will remain in effect for one month unless it is overturned. In issuing the ban, Trump used the same powers he used last year to impose a travel ban that was eventually upheld by the supreme court after it was refined three times and blocked by numerous lower courts.If it is eventually enforced, the ban would make it harder for thousands of people to avoid deportation. The DHS estimates that 70,000 people a year claim asylum between official ports of entry, including a rising number of families and unaccompanied minors fleeing violence in Central America.Baher Azmy, a lawyer for the Center for Constitutional Rights, which sued the government alongside the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), said: “Individuals are entitled to asylum if they cross between ports of entry. It couldn’t be clearer.”About 3,000 people from the first of the caravans have arrived in Tijuana, Mexico, across the border from San Diego, California. US Customs and Border Protection said on Monday it closed off northbound traffic for several hours at the San Ysidro crossing. It has also installed movable wire-topped barriers, apparently to stop a potential rush of people.As of Monday, 107 people detained between official crossings have sought asylum since Trump’s order came into effect, according to the DHS, which oversees Customs and Border Protection. Officials did not say whether those people’s cases were still progressing through the other, more difficult avenues available to them after the proclamation.The administration had insisted the order would push asylum seekers to make their claims at official border crossings. But at many locations the order had resulted in long wait times and, according to advocates, many people including unaccompanied minors being turned away before they could make their claim.Following the ruling, issued late on Monday night, the ACLU attorney Lee Gelerent, who had argued against the ban in court earlier in the day, said: “This ban is illegal, will put people’s lives in danger, and raises the alarm about President Trump’s disregard for separation of powers. There is no justifiable reason to flatly deny people the right to apply for asylum.”Trump issued the proclamation shortly after the midterm elections, during which he ratcheted up anti-immigrant rhetoric on the campaign trail and invoked conspiracy theories about migrant caravans thousands of miles from the US.The radical restrictions were part of a drive to curtail immigration to the US, which led to the family separation crisis this year and a policy banning migrants from several Muslim-majority countries. Topics US-Mexico border Trump administration US politics Mexico Americas US foreign policy US immigration news

I wasn’t surprised to see white people allegedly shouting racist abuse at Raheem Sterling and I don’t blame racists for holding those beliefs. We all discriminate, consciously or subconsciously. To be angry at a few people is a distraction. When it happens, the problem is not that people shout racist abuse, it is that they want to shout racist abuse. If every racist who came to football was silenced, football stadiums would still be full of racists. Racism is everywhere in our society, it is inside every one of us.The next day Sterling turned the spotlight on to how the media portrays young black footballers, compared with how they report similar stories about white players. It was right of him to do so, and it has started a debate on black representation in the media. But we can’t just focus on particular groups, on trying to get more black people into the police force, or running football clubs, or into journalism. Talking about what any one section of our society has to do to combat racism just stops people outside that group asking difficult questions of themselves. We keep looking at symptoms and not treating the cause.I compare it to a cold. When we feel symptoms of a cold we take tablets and suck sweets, and it makes us feel better for a while. But we haven’t found a way to treat the cause, and sooner or later it will come back. With racism it is exactly the same.For a number of years I have been saying that we have to broaden the argument, to go back to the cause of racism, and black people have to stop feeling we are in the position we’re in only because of white people. Originally slavery was about economics, not about racism. Slaves were sold by their own people and traded like goods, bought by those who wanted someone to work for them for free. Then once human rights were recognised they had a problem, because it is clearly wrong to enslave a person. It was then that people started to talk about how certain races were born with a manifest destiny to undertake physical labour and to be enslaved. Racism is a legacy of slavery. For 200 years Western education spread around the world, through colonisation and missionaries, and that is what the world has learned.The same message is still being taught, and the media plays a major part in that. We as a society view different groups of people based on the way they are reported. We read about Muslim grooming gangs, Jamaican Yardie gangs or Nigerian conmen, but when a group of white people are guilty of the same crimes there is no reference to race. If a Muslim commits a murder we cry terrorism even before we know their motivation, but if a white person does it he’s a lone wolf. Subtly and subliminally we have been given a negative perception of Nigerians, Jamaicans and Muslims.People have been taught not just to have a negative perception of black people, but to have a belief in the superiority of white people. Their behaviour is the result of centuries of indoctrination. In times of stress, like the period we’re living through in Britain today, people look for ways to communicate their superiority over others.There is a problem in this country with how the black community is perceived, but also with how it perceives itself. In our culture those born into the working class and into inner cities face a lifelong struggle for opportunities, and if you’re also black it’s compounded. Entire communities feel disenfranchised. Instead of black footballers talking about the discrimination they have encountered, or black actors saying that they can’t win an Oscar, they need to use their profile to talk about how hard it is for a black person to get respect and opportunities for their children.That’s why I’m not a big fan of the black sporting role model. What we’re saying to young black people is that they don’t have to think, to study, to pass exams; they just have to sing, to run, to jump, to fight. The role models Boris Johnson and David Cameron had at Eton were politicians and captains of industry; they grew up believing that anything was possible. The black community campaigns to get more opportunities for black football managers or black actors, but they want respect for their role models without demanding it for themselves.Every day, without a racist word being spoken, people are suffering from racial discrimination. I talk about invisible banana skins: the quiet denial of opportunity and equality. But because it’s invisible nobody is concerned, and because they’re not celebrities nobody is interested. The only fight worth fighting is to give all children equal opportunities regardless of race or gender, to judge individuals on their qualities and not their backgrounds. The victory won’t come when nobody feels able to voice racist abuse, but when nobody thinks of doing so in the first place. Topics Soccer Sportblog Raheem Sterling Race comment

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s Republican allies tangled with one of Trump’s most prominent Democratic critics during a chaotic congressional hearing on Thursday and the U.S. attorney general revealed that Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia inquiry report is more than 300 pages long. Hours after Trump went on Twitter to demand that Democrat Adam Schiff resign from Congress, Republican lawmakers called on him to quit as chairman of the bitterly divided House of Representatives Intelligence Committee because of his comments about the president’s 2016 campaign and Russia. Schiff quickly fired back at a tumultuous hearing and called actions by the president’s associates unpatriotic and corrupt. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, defended Schiff and called the actions of Trump and committee Republicans “shameful” and “irresponsible.” Attorney General William Barr, empowered by Justice Department regulations to decide how much of the special counsel’s report to make public, on Sunday released his four-page summary of Mueller’s findings. Barr said Mueller did not establish that Trump’s campaign conspired with Russia in the 2016 election. The attorney general informed House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler about the length of the report in a telephone call on Wednesday, a Justice Department official said. Barr also agreed to testify before Nadler’s committee, although no date was set, the official said. Republicans in the Senate on Thursday thwarted another effort by Democrats to pass a resolution calling for the Mueller report to be made available to the public and Congress. The House has passed a similar resolution. A Justice Department official said on Tuesday that Barr would issue a public version of the report within “weeks, not months.” But top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer said Barr’s delay of the release has “too much of the odor of political expediency to help the man who appointed him, President Trump.” Pelosi also demanded the report’s release. “No, thank you, Mr. Attorney General. We do not need your interpretation. Show us the report and we’ll come to our own conclusions,” she said. Republicans have launched a counter-attack against Democrats since Barr released his summary. Trump used an early-morning Twitter post to assail Schiff, whose committee is investigating Russia’s influence on U.S. elections. “Congressman Adam Schiff, who spent two years knowingly and unlawfully lying and leaking, should be forced to resign from Congress!” Trump wrote. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) listens during a House Intelligence Committee hearing titled "Putin's Playbook: The Kremlin's Use of Oligarchs, Money and Intelligence in 2016 and Beyond" on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., March 28, 2019. REUTERS/Brendan McDermidTrump did not give specifics of his accusations against Schiff, who has not been accused by authorities of leaking classified information. Republican members of the intelligence panel opened a Thursday session on Russian meddling with an attack on Schiff. They said all nine Republican panel members had signed a letter asking him to quit. Representative Mike Conaway read the letter to Schiff, accusing him of spreading “false information” and saying Republicans had no faith in his ability “to discharge your duties in a manner consistent with your constitutional responsibility.” Schiff responded by citing a list of the Trump campaign’s contacts with Russians, from Donald Trump Jr. welcoming a Russian offer of “dirt” on Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, to former national security adviser Michael Flynn secretly discussing easing U.S. sanctions on Russia with Moscow’s ambassador before Trump became president. “You might say that’s all OK,” Schiff said. “You might say that’s just what you need to do to win. But I don’t think it’s OK. I think it’s immoral. I think it’s unethical. I think it’s unpatriotic and, yes, I think it’s corrupt - and evidence of collusion.” During his investigation, Mueller brought charges against 34 people, including Russian agents and former Trump aides. Mueller left unresolved in his report the question of whether Trump committed obstruction of justice by impeding the Russia investigation and did not exonerate the president, Barr said. Barr himself concluded there was insufficient evidence to establish that Trump had committed obstruction of justice. Pelosi rallied to Schiff’s defense. “They’re afraid of the truth. They’re afraid of competence,” Pelosi told her weekly news conference. “I’m so proud of the work of Chairman Adam Schiff.” The House intelligence committee has been bitterly split along party lines for years on the Russia investigation, which was taken over by Mueller in May 2017 after Trump fired FBI Director James Comey. The committee’s Republicans wrapped up their investigation a year ago, finding no collusion between Trump and Moscow to influence the vote. Democrats, led by Schiff, blasted the announcement as premature. Slideshow (10 Images)Thursday’s hearing, examining the influence of Russian President Vladimir Putin and the country’s wealthiest business leaders, known as oligarchs, continued after the angry exchange between its members. The U.S. intelligence community has concluded that Russia used a campaign of hacking and propaganda to sow discord in the United States, harm Clinton and boost Trump’s candidacy. Russia denied election interference. Reporting by Patricia Zengerle and Andy Sullivan; Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu, Susan Cornwell and Makini Brice; Writing by Will Dunham, Doina Chiacu and Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Bill Trott and Grant McCoolOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Tens of thousands of nationalist demonstrators marched through Warsaw at the weekend to mark Poland’s independence day, throwing red-smoke bombs and carrying banners with slogans such as “white Europe of brotherly nations”.Police estimated 60,000 people took part in Saturday’s event, in what experts say was one of the biggest gathering of far-right activists in Europe in recent years.Demonstrators with faces covered chanted “Pure Poland, white Poland!” and “Refugees get out!”The march organised by far-right groups in Poland is an annual event originally to mark Poland’s independence in 1918. But according to Nick Lowles, from UK anti-extremism group Hope Not Hate, it has become an important rallying point for international far-right groups.“The numbers attending this year seem to be bigger and, while not everyone on the march is a far-right activist or fascist, it is undoubtedly becoming more significant and is acting as a magnet for far-right groups around the world.”Some participants marched under the slogan “We Want God!”, words from an old Polish religious song that the US president, Donald Trump, quoted during a visit to Warsaw earlier this year. Speakers encouraged attendants to stand against liberals and defending Christian values.Many carried the national white-and-red flag while others held banners depicting a falanga, a far-right symbol dating to the 1930s. A demonstrator interviewed by state television TVP said he was on the march to “remove Jewry from power”.Among the far-right leaders attending the march was the former English Defence League leader Stephen Lennon, better known as Tommy Robinson, and Roberto Fiore from Italy. It also attracted a considerable number of supporters of Poland’s governing conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party.TVP, which reflects the conservative government’s line, called it a “great march of patriots”, and in its broadcasts described the event as one that drew mostly ordinary Poles expressing their love of Poland, not extremists.“It was a beautiful sight,” the interior minister, Mariusz Błaszczak, said. “We are proud that so many Poles have decided to take part in a celebration connected to the Independence Day holiday.”The march was one of many events marking Poland’s independence in 1918, when the country regained its sovereignty at the end of the first world war after being partitioned and ruled since the late 18th century by Russia, Prussia and the Austro-Hungarian empire.A smaller counter-protest by an anti-fascist movement took place on Saturday where, although organisers tried to keep the two groups apart, nationalists pushed and kicked several women who had a banner saying “Stop fascism” and chanted anti-fascist slogans.“I’m shocked that they’re allowed to demonstrate on this day. It’s 50 to 100,000 mostly football hooligans hijacking patriotism,” said a 50-year-old Briton, Andy Eddles, a language teacher who has been living in Poland for 27 years. “For me it’s important to support the anti-fascist coalition and to support fellow democrats, who are under pressure in Poland today.”Earlier in the day, the president, Andrzej Duda, presided over state ceremonies also attended by the European council president, Donald Tusk, a former prime minister of Poland.Tusk’s appearance comes at a time when Warsaw has been increasingly at odds with Brussels because of the PiS government’s controversial interference in the courts, large-scale logging in a primeval forest and a refusal to accept migrants. Relations between PiS and Tusk have been so tense that Poland was the only country to vote against his re-election as council president in March.• This article was amended on 17 November 2017 to remove a quotation from one example of anti-Islam hate speech attributed to a banner displayed at the event. The quotation was removed after CNN, an initial source but itself unable later to verify that a banner with those words had been displayed, withdrew a reference to it from the CNN report of the event. Topics Poland Europe The far right news

Yahoo Groups will end in December The soon-to-be released Analogue Pocket will allow users to revisit their favorite childhood games; "Despacito" tops Vevo's most-watched video list. 0:51

US political heavyweight Mitch McConnell has waded into the "racist trainer" row with a call for Nike to reverse a decision to halt sales."I'll make the first order," the Republican Senate majority leader promised if Nike changes its mind.The special-edition Fourth-of July trainer features an old US flag that some people say has racist overtones.Mr McConnell said "I think we've got a problem" if some "Americans find the American flag controversial".The sportswear giant withdrew the trainer, featuring the Revolutionary War-era Betsy Ross flag, following complaints that it represented an era of slavery.Although the origins and meaning are disputed, the flag was adopted by the American Nazi Party and other extremist groups.Sportsman, activist and Nike-sponsored Colin Kaepernick was widely reported as one of those who said it was inappropriate, although he has yet to comment publicly.Nike's decision sparked a huge backlash from conservative America and the governor of Arizona, Doug Ducey, ordered the cancellation a $1m grant to help the company build a factory in the state.Speaking in Kentucky, Mr McConnell told reporters: "I hope Nike either releases these shoes or some other shoe maker picks up the flag, puts it on a pair of shoes and starts selling it. I'll make the first order."If we're in a political environment where the American flag has become controversial to Americans, I think we've got a problem."The heels of the trainers were decorated with the flag, known for its circular arrangement of 13 stars representing the 13 original colonies of the US.The shoes, which had already been shipped to retailers, are selling on the StockX online marketplace for more than $2,000. Nike has asked retailers to return the stock.Texas Senator Ted Cruz also dismissed Nike's move as unpatriotic, writing in a series of tweets that the shoe giant "only wants to sell sneakers to people who hate the American flag". "Yep, I own lots of @Nike I've been a life-long customer, since I was kid. But they've now decided their shoes represent snide disdain for the American flag," he said. "Since they don't want my business anymore, I wont buy any more."In an editorial, the Wall Street Journal said that "no flag of the United States is a symbol of oppression and racism" and that the row was "another sign of our current political insanity".But social media was equally full of comments backing Nike and criticising the firm for thinking the flag was appropriate.Last year Mr Kaepernick, a former NFL star, became the face of Nike's advertisement marking the 30th anniversary of the company's "Just Do It" slogan. The former American football quarterback had previously sparked a furore by kneeling during the national anthem before games to protest against police violence against African-Americans.US President Donald Trump said he had shown "disrespect" to the US flag. Many consumers said they would never buy Nike again after it adopted Mr Kaepernick, and social media featured pictures of people burning their trainers.But in the following three months, Nike reported a rise in sales.Matt Powell, senior industry adviser at the research and consultancy group NPD, said Nike would probably also find support among its core consumers this time."I think it's important to understand who Nike's core demographic is here. They're really focused on teens and looking at the commentary on Twitter and so forth, I don't see a lot of teens coming out with a negative attitude here," he said.

During the third Democratic debate, Andrew Yang made a joke that played up an Asian stereotype: “Now, I am Asian, so I know a lot of doctors,” he quipped.It wasn’t the first time he’d done so. Two months earlier, during the second debate, he told viewers, “The opposite of Donald Trump is an Asian man who likes math.”Yang has also used such one-liners at rallies, and sold merchandise alluding to these comments, including baseball caps and T-shirts simply emblazoned with the word, “Math.” Yang’s statements have spurred mixed reactions from the Asian American community. While some of his supporters told Vox that the jokes are cheeky in-group references that acknowledge Yang’s Asianness, other voters are concerned they reinforce longstanding racist stereotypes about Asian Americans and other minority groups. “I feel like it’s an in-group kind of comment. He is, himself, an Asian American, so he has the right to mention or allude to that stereotype on his terms,” Yang supporter Mudit Verma told Vox, regarding the candidate’s recurring math references. University of Maryland American studies professor Janelle Wong is among those who feel differently. “I think he has done so much to counter stereotypes that it undermines a lot of the important work that his campaign is doing,” she told Vox. Yang himself has said that he’s using these comments to “[poke] fun” at stereotypes and call for “Americans [to] reflect a little bit more on them.”While Yang may have innocuous intentions with his comments, as he said in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper this past weekend, the remarks are nonetheless reaffirming toxic tropes. Given his role as a high-profile Asian American presidential candidate, his message is setting the tone for how many people may see Asian Americans and perpetuating a damaging caricature in the process. Yang’s statements on this subject matter because of how high-profile he’s become as a presidential candidate. This cycle, Yang is one of three historic Asian American and Pacific Islander candidates, a milestone that’s been a source of pride for many Asian Americans I’ve spoken with. Because of his ascent to prominence, however, his words carry significant weight and frame not only his own candidacy, but how Asian Americans are perceived overall. Some Asian American voters have found Yang’s comments humorous and argue that they’re memorable one-liners, while others see them as amplifying troubling stereotypes. “I am Asian, so I know a lot of doctors” Okay @AndrewYang got points from me there #DemocraticDebate— Esther Choo, MD MPH (@choo_ek) September 13, 2019 “I’m Asian so I know a lot of doctors.” LOL @AndrewYang. He also said that we are talking about healthcare all wrong. It should be a given, a right, so that Americans can go about living our lives & fulfilling our dreams. Agree! #DemDebate— Leana Wen, M.D. (@DrLeanaWen) September 13, 2019 Yang has also used his platform to weigh in on other scandals about racism against Asian Americans, including the controversy over comedian Shane Gillis, who had been hired — and then fired — as a new Saturday Night Live cast member after old videos were unearthed of him using racist and homophobic slurs. These statements have also spurred pushback; some argued Yang could have been more forceful in his response. Yang condemned Gillis’s past remarks, including his racist comments about Asian Americans. But even in that condemnation, he waded into controversy himself, comparing Gillis’s insults to slurs faced by other minority groups and the type of backlash those would have received. In doing so, critics say he used the bigotry black people face in America to advance his own arguments and washed over any nuances in how each group has been treated in the past. Yang told the New York Times’s Matt Stevens that his posts were meant to convey an “observation” and weren’t aimed at drawing a comparison between being Asian American and “the experience of growing up black in this country.” He’s also emphasized that he’s interested in having a dialogue with Gillis. I’ve been called chink and gook any number of times in my life. It can be extraordinarily hurtful to feel like you are somehow not part of the only country you have ever known. I have certainly felt that - the churning sense of alienation, anger and marginalization.— Andrew Yang (@AndrewYang) September 15, 2019 It’s also the case that anti-Asian racism is particularly virulent because it’s somehow considered more acceptable. If Shane had used the n word the treatment would likely be immediate and clear.— Andrew Yang (@AndrewYang) September 15, 2019 There’s a major reason why Yang’s broader use of stereotypes is so harmful: they help reaffirm a trope about Asian Americans commonly known as the “model minority” myth, a term that’s pretty much as offensive as it sounds. Trying to keep an open mind about Andrew Yang but his willingness to lean into Asian American stereotypes in order to pander to white audiences is.... disappointing— O L O (@oliviahnguyen) September 17, 2019 As the name suggests, this myth, which has previously been used to treat Asian Americans as a monolithic group, implies that Asians are fixated on school and certain professions, and is damaging for a lot of reasons. It not only obscures the diversity within the Asian American community, it’s also intended to demean other minority groups, Alton Wang writes for the Washington Post: Writing in the New York Times in 1966, the sociologist William Petersen coined the term“model minority” to describe the post-World War II rise of Japanese Americans, even in the face of ongoing prejudice. He contrasted their success to that of what he called “problem minorities” (a term that he set in quotation marks that clearly pointed toward black Americans), groups pulled down by oppression to the point where they would greet even equal opportunity with “either self-defeating apathy or a hatred so all-consuming as to be self-destructive.” Whatever Petersen’s intentions, this contrast exposes the real function of the model-minority myth: It rests not on the laurels of Asian American success, but of black oppression and perceived cultural failure. The myth has been used to pit different minority groups against one another, Wang writes. Additionally, it reinforces the perception that Asian Americans can only be one thing, and in doing so masks the wide range of interests, backgrounds, and needs within the community itself, the blog Reappropriate points out: Every time the Model Minority Myth is misrepresented as fact, we render invisible the real facts about Asian Americans. We fail to see the staggering wealth gap among Asian Americans which leaves more than 10% of Asian Americans living below the poverty line. We ignore evidence that the poverty rate is several times higher for some Asian American ethnic groups, whose members also struggle with far reduced access to college. Andrew Yang jokes that as an Asian, he knows a lot of doctors — implying that many Asian Americans are culturally-inclined to become (or befriend) doctors. This joke forgets how US immigration selects for promising, well-educated Asian immigrants creating a skewed perception of who Asian Americans are. Yang told Tapper this past weekend that he does not claim to represent the entirety of the Asian experience, though he didn’t provide a particularly satisfying answer for why he’s opted to use these stereotypes. “The Asian American community is very diverse, and certainly I would never claim that my individual experience would speak to the depth and the breadth of our community,” he said. “At the same time, I think Americans are very smart and that they can actually see right through that kind of myth. And if anything, by poking fun at it, I’m making Americans reflect more on it.”It’s possible that Yang’s comments could spur some voters to do just that, but it’s also possible that they simply fuel other, more pernicious perceptions. This contradiction speaks to a core tension in his candidacy: The degree of representation he’s embodying for Asian Americans on the national stage has been significant and inspiring, but the messages he’s sending voters aren’t celebrating his identity so much as using it as a punchline.

Norway has followed Germany in suspending donations to the Brazilian government’s Amazon Fund after a surge in deforestation in the South American rainforest. The move has triggered a caustic attack from the country’s rightwing president.Jair Bolsonaro, whose move to meddle in the environmental organisation’s governance led to Norway’s decision, reacted by suggesting that Europe was not in a position to lecture his administration.“Isn’t Norway that country that kills whales up there in the north pole?”, the Brazilian president said. “Take that money and help Angela Merkel reforest Germany.”After weeks of tense negotiations with Norway and Germany, the Bolsonaro government unilaterally closed the Amazon Fund’s steering committee on Thursday. The fund has been central to international efforts to curb deforestation although its impact is contested.Brazil’s environment minister, Ricardo Salles, said the Amazon Fund had been suspended while its rules were under discussion.In response, Ola Elvestuen, his Norwegian counterpart, said an expected payment of about $33.27m (£27.36m) would not take place as Brazil had, in effect, broken the terms of its deal. Norway has been the fund’s biggest donor, and has given about $1.2bn (£985m) over the past decade.“He cannot do that without Norway and Germany’s agreement,” Elvestuen said. “What Brazil has shown is that it no longer wants to stop deforestation.”This week Berlin had said it would withhold an expected payment of about $39m. Norway and Germany questioned an initial proposal from the Brazilian government for the fund’s steering committee to be reduced in size, and had warned against any weakening of the structures of the fund.Grave concerns about the rate of deforestation since Bolsonaro took power have been repeatedly voiced by the Norwegian government and others.According to Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research, the government agency that monitors deforestation, the rate increased by 278% in the year to July, resulting in the destruction of about 870 square miles.Bolsanaro has dismissed the figures, insisting the country “will truly take off once we manage to sensibly extract the riches” in the rainforest, of which 60% is in Brazil.The surge of destruction has continued. Last Saturday, farmers in the Amazon declared a “fire day” and coordinated a massive burnoff of trees to clear land for crops. According to the Folha de São Paulo newspaper, they felt encouraged to take this action because the president had signalled his willingness to open up previously protected land.Near Altamira, the number of fires increased last weekend by more than 900% over the previous worst day this year. In Novo Progresso, the rise was by more than 500%. The forest protection agency, Ibama, has reportedly had to halt operations in Novo Progresso because it no longer has the full backing of the police and national guard.The former army captain was elected with the support of the mining and agricultural sectors. During a visit to the Amazon last year, he told the Guardian that as president he would target “cowardly” environmental NGOs who were “sticking their noses” into Brazil’s domestic affairs.But the new government’s attitude to the Amazon could have wider repercussions. In June, a free trade deal was struck between the EU and Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, known as the Mercosur bloc.Green campaigners claim the deal pays “lip service” to international goals to combat climate warming, and that it will lead to a surge in Brazilian cattle ranching, which many believe is responsible for growing levels of deforestation.The trade deal will require ratification by the parliaments of its member states as well as the European parliament.Last month the Irish parliament backed a symbolic motion instructing the government to “immediately begin building a coalition across the EU to ensure that this deal is rejected”. The motion highlighted concerns about the growing damage to the Amazon. Topics Norway Brazil Amazon rainforest Americas Deforestation Conservation Europe news

The UN Secretary General has demanded an immediate end to fighting in the Eastern Ghouta in Syria, describing the rebel enclave as a "hell on earth"."I believe Eastern Ghouta cannot wait," Antonio Guterres told the UN Security Council on Wednesday.The council is being urged to consider a resolution which calls for a 30-day ceasefire in Syria.The Eastern Ghouta has been under fierce bombardment from government forces backed by Russian airpower.The region is the last major rebel-held area near the capital Damascus.The Syrian military says it is trying to liberate the area from what it terms terrorists - but it has also been accused of targeting civilians. Life in Eastern Ghouta - read residents' stories Why is there a war in Syria? "This is a human tragedy that is unfolding in front of our eyes and I don't think we can let things go on happening in this horrendous way," Mr Guterres said. He said an end to the fighting would allow the evacuation of hundreds of people who require urgent treatment as well as allowing humanitarian aid to reach the region.The draft UN Security Council resolution, proposed by Kuwait and Sweden, is designed to facilitate medical evacuations and deliveries of humanitarian aid. The US ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, said immediate action was needed to save civilian lives from the "barbaric Assad regime".However the BBC's UN Correspondent Nick Bryant says Russia may not allow it to pass.Russia says it wants an urgent Security Council meeting to discuss the situation, but Western diplomats view this as a delaying tactic to give the Syrian military more time to continue its offensive, our correspondent says.Moscow, which supports the Syrian government, said peace talks with the rebels had failed on Wednesday.Meanwhile Iran, another Syrian government ally, says it is in close contact with Syria, Russia and Turkey to try to reduce tension in the Eastern Ghouta.Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told the BBC's Lyse Doucet that Iran believed in a political solution to the conflict, not a military one.UN human rights commissioner Zeid Raad Al Hussein has also joined calls for an end to the conflict in the region."How much cruelty will it take before the international community can... take resolute, concerted action to bring this monstrous campaign of annihilation to an end?" he said in a statement.Pro-government forces, backed by Russia, intensified their efforts to retake the last major rebel stronghold on Sunday night.A doctor working in the region says the situation is "catastrophic" - and he believes the international community has abandoned the people living there."They targeted everything: shops, markets, hospitals, schools, mosques, everything," Dr Bassam told the BBC on Wednesday."Maybe every minute we have 10 or 20 air strikes... I will treat someone - and after a day or two they come again, injured again.""Where is the international community, where is (the UN) Security Council? ... they abandoned us. They leave us to be killed," he said.The UN says at least 346 civilians have been killed and 878 have been injured, mostly in airstrikes.But they say precise figures are still difficult to establish.The Union of Medical Care and Relief Organizations (UOSSM), which operates medical facilities in the Eastern Ghouta, says 70 people were killed on Wednesday, bringing the total to 366.The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the total death toll since Sunday at 310.It said that barrel bombs - containers filled with explosives and shrapnel - were used in government strikes on the towns of Jisreen and Kfar Batna on Wednesday.It follows the bombardment on Tuesday of at least 10 towns and villages across the Eastern Ghouta.No. The government has allowed one humanitarian convoy into the Eastern Ghouta since late November, and there are severe shortages of food.A bundle of bread now costs close to 22 times the national average and 12% of children under five years old are said to be acutely malnourished.On Wednesday, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) joined the UN in calling for emergency humanitarian access to allow much needed aid to be delivered and the wounded to be evacuated."Wounded victims are dying only because they cannot be treated in time. In some areas of Ghouta, entire families have no safe place to go," the ICRC's Marianne Gasser said in a statement.Meanwhile, pro-government fighters have been sent to the Kurdish enclave of Afrin in northern Syria to confront an offensive by Turkish troops and Syrian rebels.Turkey fired shells near the advancing columns, which, it says, forced the pro-government fighters into retreat. Afrin lies just south of the Turkish border. Turkey is trying to oust the Kurdish YPG militia, which controls the area and which has called on the Syrian military for help. Syria has denounced the Turkish offensive as a "blatant attack" on its sovereignty, while Turkey has insisted it will not back down. Syrian government forces are also carrying out offensives on the rebel-held north-western province of Idlib. The UN says more than 300,000 people have been displaced by the fighting there since December.

The dream where I’m leglessisn’t a nightmare, and I’m notafraid — there’s light and a riverand everything is exactlyhow I’d hoped. I’m not tetheredto the earth. I’m not tied downby gravity, dragging my legsalong the bank gravel, not searchingfor the softest patch of moss.I’m not even tired, and thoughI’m certain the dreamis an elegy, it sounds exactly likea praise song. In the dreammy legs break free of meand I watch them float away.The coffin in my chestblows open in the wind,and for once I think I knowwhat it’s like to be withoutall our dead and heavy things. I’ve said this all beforeand anyway, you hadalready been picked up,held down, put under,and refashioned;you were alreadydreaming your bodyin some gravity-lesscountry, already callingit a river, Mars. Let’s goback to wherever it iswe were made for first:to water, or a rustedwindswept planet whereeverything floats and womenare part horse or fox, knockedoff kilter and galloping leftto get where they were meantto go. We’d miss it here eventually.The boat that brought us, I believein it. But having found youI am seeking out the channelwhere we came from.Sister, take my hand? What we leave downin the canyon — the stainof us — red on red,hemoglobin on hematite,the trace of us the one truemap we’ll ever leave. Hiddenout of sight, a place onlyforgotten animals tread, we’repinned to rock in outlineand sketch, the idea of usa puzzle no one’s yet seenor read. Unclaspedby bodies and their weight,we start again, we takeanother shape, we learnour worth by learningwhat we’re not, like newanimals or children who,finding themselves wingless, stilltest the air and fall. Look, there, our deadand heavy elementsare piled high besidethe silhouette of whatwe were before — look,there our prior selveshush out like matchesonce they’ve lit the pyre.The light climbs high,too far away from anybody’shome to be a flare. Look,let’s watch until the whole of itcools first to smoke, then goes.S, I think we will be suited for it:being legless, weightless,wingless, leaping off — I’d like to think as we liftourselves to go, in this newnesswe leave it all behind — a grave, a name,a birthday, a face — in favorof what we know is oursto make, this recordof our speech, our grief,that we’ll turn away fromall the doors that wouldn’topen, every collapsed bridge,and hail instead the spacebetween us, shapeless andendless as it is, thoughwe hold it between usjust the same.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - NBC, Fox News and Facebook pulled an ad by President Donald Trump’s campaign that critics had labeled racist as a bitter election fight for control of the U.S. Congress headed on Monday for an unpredictable finish. Tuesday’s elections, widely seen as a referendum on Trump, have been portrayed by both Republicans and Democrats as critical for the direction of the country. At stake is control of both chambers of Congress, and with it the ability to block or promote Trump’s agenda, as well as 36 governor’s offices. A surge in early voting, fueled by a focus on Trump’s pugilistic, norms-breaking presidency by supporters of both parties, could signal the highest turnout in 50 years for a midterm U.S. election, when the White House is not on the line. The 30-second ad, which was sponsored by Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign and which debuted online last week, featured courtroom video of an illegal immigrant from Mexico convicted in the 2014 killings of two police officers, juxtaposed with scenes of migrants headed through Mexico. Critics, including members of Trump’s own party, had condemned the spot as racially divisive. CNN had refused to run the ad, saying it was “racist.” NBC, owned by Comcast Corp, said on Monday it was no longer running the ad, which it called “insensitive.” Fox News Channel, which Trump has repeatedly named his favorite broadcaster, also said it would no longer run the spot. Fox News, a unit of Twenty-First Century Fox Inc, said it had made the decision after a review but did not elaborate. Facebook Inc said it would no longer allow paid promotions of the ad, although it would allow users to share the ad on their own pages. Trump batted away reporters’ questions about the networks’ decision to drop the ad. “You’re telling me something I don’t know about. We have a lot of ads, and they certainly are effective based on the numbers we’re seeing,” Trump said as he departed Joint Base Andrews in Maryland for a rally in Cleveland. Asked about concerns that the ad was offensive, he replied: “A lot of things are offensive. Your questions are offensive.” After Ohio, Trump headed to campaign against vulnerable Democratic U.S. senators in Indiana and Missouri at the end of a six-day pre-election sweep that has featured heated rhetoric about immigration and repeated warnings about a caravan of Central American migrants moving through Mexico toward the U.S. border. “The contrast in this election could not be more clear,” Trump told supporters in Indiana at a rally for Republican Mike Braun, who is facing incumbent Democratic Senator Joe Donnelly in a tight race. “If you want more caravans, vote for Democrats tomorrow.” Opinion polls and election forecasters favor Democrats to pick up the minimum of 23 seats they need on Tuesday to capture a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, which would enable them to stymie Trump’s legislative agenda and investigate his administration. Republicans are favored to retain their slight majority in the U.S. Senate, currently at two seats, which would let them retain the power to approve U.S. Supreme Court and other judicial nominations on straight party-line votes. FILE PHOTO: United States President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally, ahead of midterm elections, at Pensacola International Airport in Florida, U.S., November 3, 2018. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File PhotoBut 64 of the 435 House races remain competitive, according to a Reuters analysis of the three main nonpartisan U.S. forecasters, and control of the Senate is likely to come down to a half dozen close contests in Arizona, Nevada, Missouri, North Dakota, Indiana and Florida. Democrats also are threatening to recapture governor’s offices in several battleground states such as Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio and Pennsylvania, a potential help for the party in those states in the 2020 presidential race. Trump, who frequently warns of voter fraud and has asserted without evidence that millions of fraudulent votes were cast in 2016, said on Twitter on Monday that law enforcement should be on the lookout for “illegal voting.” Democratic former President Barack Obama delivered doughnuts to campaign volunteers in a House district in suburban Virginia, where Democrat Jennifer Wexton, a state senator, is challenging Republican incumbent Barbara Comstock in a fiercely contested race. Obama said the country’s character and its commitment to decency and equality were on the ballot on Tuesday. “All across the country, what I’m seeing is a great awakening,” he said. “People woke up and said: ‘Oh, we can’t take this for granted. We’ve got to fight for this.’” About 40 million early votes – including absentee, vote-by-mail and in-person ballots – will likely be cast by Election Day, according to Michael McDonald, a professor at the University of Florida who tracks the figures. In the last such congressional elections in 2014, there were 27.5 million early votes. McDonald estimated that 45 percent of registered voters would cast ballots, which would be the highest for a midterm election in 50 years. “The atypical thing that we’re seeing is high early vote activity in states without competitive elections or no statewide elections,” McDonald said in a phone interview. Slideshow (2 Images)“There’s only one explanation for that: Donald Trump. He’s fundamentally changed how people are following politics.” Full election coverage: here Reporting by John Whitesides; Additional reporting by Joseph Ax and Kenneth Li in New York, Steve Holland in Washington and Roberta Rampton at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland; Editing by Scott Malone, Frances Kerry and Peter CooneyOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Marine specialists believe this white beluga whale filmed approaching fishing boats in Norway could have received military-grade training by the Russian navy. The whale, which was first sighted near the Norwegian village of Inga, was wearing a strange harness bearing the words ‘equipment of St Petersburg’. The fisherman said the whale, which was tame and accustomed to people, attempted to pull ropes and straps from the sides of the boats Whale with harness could be Russian weapon, say Norwegian experts

Some members of the caravan of Central American immigrants that arrived in Tijuana last month are starting to illegally slip through the US-Mexico border.The Trump administration has tried a variety of strategies to stop them since they set out on the long trek weeks ago—from insults to troop deployment to the use of tear gas. But for citizens of countries that have long been convulsed by tragedy, those may seem like minor obstacles.Here are some of the conditions and hardships that are driving Guatemalans, Hondurans, and El Salvadorans north in search of asylum.Central Americans are threatened by frequent natural disasters, according to UN University’s World Risk Report. Here’s a list of the most destructive earthquakes, hurricanes, and storms that have hit the region in the past few decades:Year(s)GuatemalaHondurasEl Salvador1976Earthquake1986Earthquake1998Hurricane Mitch2001Earthquake2005Hurricane StanHurricane StanHurricane Stan2007Hurricane Felix2011Tropical depression 12-ETropical depression 12-E2011-2015DroughtDroughtGuatemala and El Salvador haven’t fully recovered from past conflict. Though their bloody civil wars ended in the 1990s, the same weapons are still in circulation and wreaking havoc in the region.Recently, political instability has shaken Honduras, where a 2009 military coup replaced a democratically-elected president with a repressive regime. Civil unrest resurged after last year’s controversial reelection of president Juan Orlando Hernández.ConflictGuatemalaHondurasEl SalvadorCivil war1960-19961980-1992Coup2009Government/protester clashes2017-ongoingPolitical instability and natural disasters have contributed to a widening gap between poor and rich in the region. Poverty and weak institutions have led to rampant crime, which in turn is fed by corruption. The Colegio de la Frontera Norte, or COLEF, a Mexican research university that focuses on migration, points out that violence is a common reality for Central Americans, “reaching even intimate and family spaces.”Here are some indicators COLEF compiled in a report about the plight of caravan members in Tijuana:IndicatorGuatemalaHondurasEl SalvadorPoverty rate54%66%33%Homicide rate3057103Estimated number of gang members15,00036,00060,000

BEIRUT/GENEVA (Reuters) - Aid trucks reached Syria’s eastern Ghouta region on Monday for the first time since the start of one of the war’s deadliest assaults, but the government stripped some medical supplies from the convoy and pressed on with its air and ground assault. The convoy of more than 40 trucks pulled out of Douma in darkness after shelling on the town, without fully unloading supplies during a nine-hour stay. All staff were safe and heading back to the capital Damascus, aid officials said. The Russian-backed Syrian army has captured more than a third of the eastern Ghouta in recent days, threatening to slice the last major rebel-held area near Damascus in two, despite Western accusations it has violated a ceasefire. The United Nations says 400,000 people are trapped inside the besieged enclave, and were already running out of food and medical supplies before the assault began with intense air strikes two weeks ago. “The team is safe, but given the security situation a decision was taken to go back for now. They off-loaded as much as possible given the current situation on the ground,” spokeswoman Iolanda Jaquemet of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said in Geneva. Another aid source told Reuters that 10 trucks left the town “fully sealed”, while four more had been partially unloaded. Hours earlier, a senior U.N. official accompanying the convoy said he was “not happy” to hear loud shelling near the crossing point into eastern Ghouta despite an agreement that the aid would be delivered in safety. Related CoverageTurkish offensive in Syria leads to pause in some operations against IS: PentagonAid convoy in Syria's Ghouta retreats due to insecurity, all safe: Red Cross“We need to be assured that we will be able to deliver the humanitarian assistance under good conditions,” Ali al-Za’tari told Reuters at the crossing point. A World Health Organization official said the government had ordered 70 percent of medical supplies to be stripped out of the convoy, preventing trauma kits, surgical kits, insulin and other vital material from reaching the area. The ICRC confirmed some medical equipment had been blocked but gave no details. The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said strikes targeted frontlines near the town of Harasta and the villages of Beit Sawa and Hosh al-Ashari. The monitor later said 80 were killed and more than 300 wounded in the highest toll in one day since the U.N. Security Council resolution was adopted 10 days ago. A military media unit run by the government’s ally Hezbollah reported that the Syrian army had taken the village of al-Mohammadiyeh, located on the southeastern corner of the enclave. President Bashar al-Assad said on Sunday his forces would continue the push into eastern Ghouta, a densely populated area of farmland and towns just outside Damascus which government forces have encircled since 2013. Many civilian residents have fled from the frontlines into the town of Douma. Assad and his allies regard the rebel groups that hold eastern Ghouta as terrorists, and say a U.N. Security Council resolution demanding a country-wide ceasefire does not apply to operations against them. Trucks from Syrian Red Crescent and humanitarian partners are seen in Ghouta, Syria, March 5, 2018 in this picture obtained from social media. Syrian Red Crescent /via REUTERSA week ago Russia unilaterally announced five-hour daily pauses in the fighting, but clashes have continued during those hours and Western countries dismissed it as inadequate. The fighting in eastern Ghouta follows a pattern used in other areas recaptured by the government since Russia entered the war on Assad’s side in 2015, with sieges, bombardment and ground offensives combined with an offer to let civilians and fighters who surrender escape through “humanitarian corridors”. For the rebels fighting to oust Assad, the loss of eastern Ghouta would mark their heaviest defeat since the battle of Aleppo in late 2016 and end their ability to target the capital. Rebel shelling on Damascus has killed dozens of people during the last two weeks, state-run media has said. The Observatory said government forces had captured a third of the area in their advance from the east. Syrian state television on Monday said the army had made major advances, seizing 40 percent of the area previously held by the rebels. It broadcast live from several captured villages, showing collapsed concrete buildings, rubble-strewn streets, bullet-pocked walls and smoke rising above fields in the distance. Monday’s convoy carrying aid was the first to reach the besieged area since Feb. 14 and only the second since the start of 2018. Za’tari said the shipment had been scaled back from providing food for 70,000 people to providing for 27,500. The United Nations says Syria has agreed to allow in the rest of the food for the full 70,000 in a second convoy in three days. Slideshow (9 Images)Marwa Awad, spokeswoman for the U.N.’s World Food Program, said it had delivered supplies from the trucks after meeting local councils, including food and nutritional assistance. The two-week assault has brought footage of children being carried out of rubble and hospitals being bombed to viewers around the world once again. Since the fall of Aleppo more than a year ago, government forces had focused their efforts mainly on Islamic State-held territory in the more remote east of the country, but they have now renewed their campaign to crush anti-Assad rebels in the heavily-populated west. Moscow and Damascus deny they are killing large numbers of civilians. Assad has dismissed Western statements about the humanitarian situation in eastern Ghouta as “a ridiculous lie”. Additional reporting By Dalhia Nehme in Beirut, Maria Kiselyova in Moscow, and Tom Miles in Geneva; Editing by Peter Graff, William MacleanOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices plunged on Friday on concerns about oversupply, sending world stock markets lower as lagging energy shares weighed down Wall Street. Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., November 21, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McdermidBoth Brent and U.S. crude fell to their lowest levels since October 2017 and were on course for their biggest one-month decline since late 2014. Although the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is expected to curb output, rising U.S. oil supply has fueled persistent concerns about a global surplus. Tumbling oil prices pushed U.S. energy shares down more than 3 percent. As a result, the benchmark S&P 500 stock index ended lower to confirm correction territory, having dropped more than 10 percent from its record closing high in late September. Trading volume was light in a shortened session after the Thanksgiving holiday. MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe also fell. Underwhelming economic data from Europe also dimmed market sentiment, investors said. Surveys of German and euro zone purchasing managers came in weaker than expected. “Oil dropped, and some of the numbers from Europe have been a little weak,” said John Carey, managing director and portfolio manager at Amundi Pioneer Asset Management in Boston. “Today just confirms the recent weakness due to persisting worries about the economy and the effect of higher interest rates on price-to-earnings multiples, borrowing costs and so forth.” Prices of base metals, including nickel and copper, fell sharply on worries of weakening demand in China and a slowdown in global growth as a result of trade tensions between China and the United States. In response to falling oil and U.S. stock prices, benchmark U.S. Treasury yields fell to eight-week lows on Friday as investors moved to safe-haven buying of long-dated U.S. government bonds. The dollar index .DXY, which measures the greenback against a basket of six currencies, also advanced, up 0.25 percent, in keeping with the theme of declining risk appetite. The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 178.74 points, or 0.73 percent, to 24,285.95, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 17.37 points, or 0.66 percent, to 2,632.56 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 33.27 points, or 0.48 percent, to 6,938.98. Benchmark 10-year notes US10YT=RR last rose 4/32 in price to yield 3.0463 percent, from 3.061 percent late on Wednesday. U.S. stock and bond markets closed early on Friday. They were closed on Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday. U.S. crude CLcv1 dropped $4.21 to settle at $50.42 a barrel, a 7.71 percent decline. Brent LCOcv1 settled $3.80 lower to $58.80 a barrel, down 6.07 percent on the day. The MSCI All-Country World Index .MIWD00000PUS shed 0.52 percent. In contrast to U.S. stocks, European equities rose, led by a rally in Italian stocks .FTMIB as the country's bond yields fell after a press report that EU Affairs Minister Paolo Savona is considering resigning over the government's decision to challenge European Union budget rules. Savona denied the report. Slideshow (3 Images)The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.4 percent. In currency markets, disappointing survey data from European purchasing managers pushed the euro down 0.7 percent. The pound was down 0.6 percent on concerns over the passage of an agreement for Britain to leave the European Union. Reporting by April Joyner; Additional reporting by Ritvik Carvalho, Tom Finn and Sujata Rao in London and Andrew Galbraith in Shanghai; editing by Louise Heavens and Chizu NomiyamaOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc’s (FB.O) Silicon Valley campus received the all-clear on Tuesday after fears that a package at its mail facility contained the nerve agent sarin. Four of the social media company’s buildings were evacuated on Monday and two people were checked for possible exposure to the compound that attacks the nervous system and can be fatal. But exhaustive testing by fire and hazardous material teams found no toxic material, said Jon Johnston, fire marshal for the city of Menlo Park in California where Facebook is based. “There is no sarin,” he told Reuters, referring to the package that had erroneously tested positive on Monday morning. Facebook routinely checks all packages and had initiated a standard safety protocol, Johnston added, saying teams worked into the early hours of Tuesday to clear the scene. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents also went to the scene, Facebook said. A Facebook spokesman confirmed the all-clear on Tuesday. “Authorities have confirmed test results were negative for any potentially dangerous substance and the buildings have been cleared for repopulation,” said Anthony Harrison, Facebook’s director of corporate media relations. With 2.3 billion monthly active users worldwide and more than $55 billion in revenue in 2018, Facebook faces criticism for its control of personal information and has been subject to cyber attacks. The entrance sign to Facebook headquarters is seen through two moving buses in Menlo Park, California, on Wednesday, October 10, 2018. REUTERS/Elijah NouvelageIn December, a bomb threat at its main campus in Menlo Park forced the evacuation of several buildings. No bomb was found. Sarin was used in a 1995 attack by a Japanese cult on the Tokyo subway that killed 13 people and injured several thousand. Syria’s government has denied recent accusations that it used sarin against insurgents during their civil war. Reporting by Katie Paul in San Franciso; Andrew Hay in New Mexico, Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles and Rich McKay in Atlanta; Editing by Richard Chang, Lisa Shumaker and Andrew CawthorneOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.