Long before President Donald Trump threatened to cut off Huawei's access to U.S. technology, the Chinese telecom equipment maker was pouring money into research that reduces its need for American suppliers.Huawei's founder says instead of crippling the company, the export curbs are making it a tougher competitor by forcing managers to focus resources on their most important products.Little-known to Americans, Huawei Technologies Ltd. is the No. 2 smartphone brand worldwide and the biggest maker of switching gear at the heart of phone networks. Its equipment is used by 45 of the 50 biggest global phone carriers.Huawei is a pioneer in the emerging field of next-generation, or 5G, telecoms. It promises not just faster internet but support for self-driving cars and other futuristic applications. That fuels Western security concerns and makes 5G politically sensitive. The United States claims the company might aid Chinese spying, though Huawei denies that and American officials have provided no evidence.Huawei needs some American innovations, especially Google services used on Android phones, but industry experts say the company is increasingly self-sufficient after spending 485 billion yuan ($65 billion) on research and development over the past decade. Is US in constitutional crisis? That may not be most important question."They have a strategy to become completely independent from U.S. technology. And in many areas they have become independent," said Bengt Nordstrom of North Stream, a research firm in Stockholm.Ren Zhengfei, who founded the company in 1987, acknowledged in an interview that phone sales will suffer if access to technology, including Google services for smartphones, is disrupted by the addition of Huawei to a U.S. Commerce Department "entity list" that requires it to get government permission to buy American technology. Phone sales could be $20 to $30 billion less than forecast over the next two years, Mr. Ren and other executives said, but the company will survive."When the entity list came out, they hoped Huawei would die," Mr. Ren said. "Not only did Huawei not die, it is doing even better."The company was added to the entity list on May 16 but already has been granted two 90-day extensions after American suppliers of processor chips and other technology warned they stand to lose billions. Intel Corp. and other vendors that industry analysts say were paid a total of some $12 billion last year by Huawei have asked the Trump administration for permission to continue sales.The biggest potential American blow to Huawei would be the loss of Google services that are standard features on Android-based phones. Huawei could use Android, which is open-source, but would lose Google's music, maps and other applications, making it harder to compete with Samsung, the No. 1 smartphone brand."Nobody is going to spend money to buy a premium Huawei phone if it doesn't have maps, YouTube, Google Play," said Samm Sacks, an expert in Chinese digital policy at the New America think tank.Mr. Ren said he wants to keeping using Android and working with American suppliers. But as a fallback, the company unveiled its HarmonyOS operating system in August and said Android phones can be switched to the new system in days if necessary.Huawei, with $107 billion in 2018 sales, spent 100 billion yuan ($15 billion) on research and development last year, more than Apple or Microsoft. It has 76,000 engineers and other researchers at its sprawling, leafy headquarters campus in southern China and in Silicon Valley, Russia, India's Bangalore, and other industry centers.Huawei is "rapidly building up strength" in R&D, Forrester analyst Charlie Dai said.In the AP interview, Mr. Ren made a sales pitch to Washington: To ease security fears, Huawei will license 5G technology to American developers."I am open to the possibility of a paid transfer of 5G technology and production techniques to U.S. companies," Mr. Ren said.That is a long shot, given Washington's pressure on phone carriers to shun Huawei. But it would increase the company's presence in 5G and generate license fees and demand for its products.Huawei is on a global charm offensive, trying to convince European and other governments there is no truth to U.S. claims it is a security risk.Washington has been lobbying European governments to exclude Huawei from 5G networks but Germany, France, and Ireland say they have no plans to ban any supplier.Early on, Huawei faced complaints it copied technology from industry leaders. It temporarily pulled out of the U.S. in 2003 after Cisco accused the company of copying software in routers.But the company is catching up with Western developers, industry experts say. Huawei says it has collected $1.4 billion since 2015 in license fees from other companies that use its technology.Huawei is, along with Ericsson and Nokia, a leader in developing network equipment to support 5G. The company says it has invested $4 billion in that since 2009, produces its own equipment, and uses no U.S. technology."It's almost all our own components," Mr. Ren said.Huawei also is among hundreds of companies that are creating 5G phones and other devices, making it the only competitor to straddle the two markets."They are very well positioned to develop 5G – at least the same level as their competitors," Mr. Nordstrom said.5G is meant to vastly expand telecom networks to support self-driving cars, factory robots, nuclear power plants, medical equipment, and other applications.That, plus growing use of networks to link fighter planes and other military hardware, raises the potential cost of security failures and the political sensitivity of 5G.Huawei bills its Mate 20 X smartphone, which went on sale in China in August, as the first with 5G capability.It uses Kirin 980 and Balong 5000 chips from Huawei's HiSilicon subsidiary instead of chips from Qualcomm or Intel. HiSilicon also makes Kirin chips for lower-end phones and Kunpeng chips for servers.Huawei launched its Ascend line of processor chips in October for artificial intelligence. The 310 for self-driving cars and the more powerful 910 are based on architecture from British chip designer Arm Ltd.Arm said in July it might be forced to cut ties with Huawei because it does some research in the U.S. That highlighted the challenge of finding suppliers with no U.S. links. Get the Monitor Stories you care about delivered to your inbox. Arm said in an email it is "actively communicating" with the U.S. Commerce Department about the relationship.This story was reported by The Associated Press.

Over the past decade, China has embraced US sports and high-tech products like iPhones and Teslas, and US businesses granted access to China’s domestic market have benefited from a huge and increasingly wealthy set of consumers. For US tech companies, the ties often run deeper: They rely on China’s factories and supply chain and, increasingly, its top-class research talent, says Chris Meserole, a foreign policy fellow and technology expert at the Brookings Institution in Washington. “I don’t think the public is aware of just how fully intertwined our economies are,” he says.Those ties are increasingly strained as political and economic tensions ratchet up amid the ongoing trade war, and in response to politically charged flashpoints like the Hong Kong protests. The way Blizzard, the NBA, and Apple have capitulated to the Chinese government reflects the economic reality of today’s relationship.Meserole says US and Chinese companies are already looking for ways to divest themselves from the other country, by finding alternative sources of manufacturing or investment for example. He believes the trend will continue. “To me the question isn’t ‘Will we see a decoupling?’” he says. “It is ‘At what scale will we decouple?’”Disentangling US and Chinese interests may prove painful for the businesses involved and for each country’s economy. NBA games, for example, are broadcast on Chinese state media CCTV, and the league has partnered with Chinese media company Tencent to stream its games in the country—a $1.5 billion partnership that Tencent and CCTV suspended this week, prompting fans there to seek refunds.For US game studios, which can't operate in China without a government-granted license and often form joint ventures with Chinese companies, jeopardizing that license means jeopardizing an increasing swath of your bottom line. "More and more companies have grown dependent on China's market size, which can easily account for half your game revenue," Kern says. "That's an inordinate amount of pressure." The calculations are even more complex for Activision Blizzard: Asia accounted for 12 percent of the company’s revenue in the first half of the year; and Tencent holds a 5 percent stake in the company.Each of this week’s disputes unfolded against the backdrop of the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. In addition to stamping out dissent, China also may want to signal its ability to hurt the US economically. “The Chinese government understands that it wields tremendous power over US businesses in exchange for access to the market,” says Samm Sacks, an expert on China’s digital economy at New America, a think tank.With trade negotiations between the US and China resuming this week in Washington, including a scheduled meeting between President Trump and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, such tension will make it more difficult for US companies to simply ignore politics in China. But Sacks says that with the two nations seemingly on course for greater conflict, it may be important to recognize the things they have in common. “There's a lot of nationalist rhetoric on both sides of the Pacific right now,” she says. “But the reality is that a splintering of tech and culture would be incredibly disruptive, and even dangerous.”For US consumers like Kern, the blowback is less a matter of nationalism than of principle. Citing two NBA fans who were ejected from a game in the US for chanting "Free Hong Kong," he calls companies' need to back away from China an "unethical dilemma." "Either you start to censor your games, your players, your employees to Chinese standards," he says, "or you don't get investments, you don't get access to half the market, and you can't compete globally."Blind spots in AI just might help protect your privacyThe best tech and accessories for your dogThe game-changing tech behind Gemini Man's “young” Will SmithThe Icelandic village where the sun never sets in summerA detox drug promises miracles—if it doesn't kill you first👁 If computers are so smart, how come they can’t read? Plus, check out the latest news on artificial intelligence🎧 Things not sounding right? Check out our favorite wireless headphones, soundbars, and Bluetooth speakers

Power shutdowns intended to prevent more devastating California wildfires are raising new concerns about another longstanding environmental threat: air pollution. As utilities halted service to more than 2 million people this week, lines formed at hardware stores selling portable generators, while many hospitals and businesses fired up their own. The prospect of emissions belching from untold numbers of the machines, some powered by diesel and gasoline as well as propane and natural gas, was troubling in a state already burdened with some of the nation's worst air quality. "It is a major concern," said Dr. Laki Tisopulos, executive officer of the Ventura County Air Pollution Control District. "Imagine if you are in a large metropolitan area like Los Angeles or the (San Francisco) Bay Area and you have hundreds or thousands of these engines kicking in. All of a sudden you have many localized sources of pollution that are spewing carcinogens right where we breathe. It can be next door to a school, a hospital." Questions also arose over how the blackouts might affect traffic patterns, potentially causing even more tie-ups and discharges than usual from vehicles. They are a leading factor in California air pollution, along with a warm, sunny climate that helps produce ozone and topographical features such as the Central Valley where polluted air often stagnates. "It's on people's minds in the air quality world," said Kristine Roselius, spokeswoman for the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, which tracks air pollution and sets regulations in a nine-county region that includes San Francisco. "The wildfires that are driven by climate change and all the consequences of that are certainly a new normal and it's constantly emerging," Roselius said. The district had not detected any uptick in contamination levels at its more than 30 air quality monitoring gauges, although the high winds that prompted the power shutdowns could be dispersing them, she said Friday. Staffers will be watching for spikes in pollutants including nitrogen oxides and small, sooty particles, which generators tend to produce, she said. But it could be difficult to pinpoint the cause, since air quality is influenced by many factors, she added. Government officials and experts said pollution from emergency power during intentional blackouts is one more wrinkle for policymakers and planners dealing with a constant threat of catastrophic infernos and more extreme weather. Significant rises in diesel exhaust could worsen asthma symptoms and pose risks for people with heart and lung diseases, said Dr. John Balmes, a spokesman for the American Lung Association and a Bay Area resident among those temporarily without electricity. "There would have to be a lot used at the same time to have much of an impact outside the immediate area of the generator," he said. Pacific Gas & Electric Co., the state's largest electricity provider, announced its shutdowns as forecasts called for gusts that could knock trees and limbs into power lines and spark flames. The California Air Resources Board, the state's clean-air agency, described the power interruptions as necessary to protect people and property but acknowledged they would lead to widespread reliance on standby generators. "The use of these engines will generate additional emissions," board spokeswoman Melanie Turner said. "We will be assessing the impact as these public safety power shutoffs evolve." People using generators should check with their local air districts about rules and permit requirements, Turner said. But the board considers operation of stationary and portable diesel engines during a shutdown to be an emergency that meets state regulations. The Bay Area district already was offering incentives to encourage bigger customers such as wastewater treatment plants, municipal buildings and schools to switch from diesel generators to those powered with cleaner fuels such as natural gas or solar energy, Roselius said. Those efforts could be broadened to include small businesses and individuals, she said. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency also regulates air contamination from the kinds of engines used in most emergency generators. "EPA is concerned about any emissions that have the potential to effect human health and the environment," a spokeswoman said. Southern California Edison said it had cut power to more than 20,000 customers in five counties, including Los Angeles, and was considering the same action for about 110,000 more. In Ventura County, air quality specialist Phil Moyal said there was no sign of contamination from generators. But the area was experiencing a blast of Santa Ana winds that originate inland and blow pollutants offshore. Once winds subside, generator emissions could contribute to a rise in ozone if power blackouts continue, he said. It could be hard to quantify the effects of power shutdowns on air quality because of the many factors to consider, including how to weigh the pollution they cause against the pollution avoided by preventing wildfires, said Joe Goffman, a former assistant administrator with EPA's Office of Air and Radiation during the Obama administration. "The kinds of fires California has seen in recent years have been major, catastrophic polluters in and of themselves," said Goffman, now director of the Harvard Law School Environment and Energy Law Program. "These shutdowns are being done precisely to prevent that from happening." ——— Follow John Flesher on Twitter: @johnflesher.

At a rally in Louisiana Friday night, President Donald Trump came out swinging against the impeachment inquiry he faces and signaled plans to embrace a general election strategy that will again rely on personal attacks against Democratic Party leaders and his potential 2020 rivals. Trump was at the Friday evening rally, in part, as the head of the Republican Party, a role he has not always fully embraced. While before the crowd in Lake Charles, a small city in southwest Louisiana, he called on voters to support either of the state’s two Republican gubernatorial candidates, saying, “One of these two guys are fantastic.” Governor John Bel Edwards — a rarity as a Democratic governor in the south — is facing a challenge that pollsters believe could lead to a runoff election with one of the GOP candidates. “I need you to send the radical Democrat establishment a loud and clear message: You are going to fire your Democrat governor who has done a lousy job,” Trump said at the beginning of a wide-ranging, hour-and-a-half-long speech.But Trump also used the night as an opportunity to attack the investigation into his relationships with foreign powers, calling House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry “bullshit.”“The radical Democrats’ policies are crazy. Their politics are corrupt. Their candidates are terrible and they know they can’t win on election day, so they’re pursuing an illegal, invalid, and unconstitutional bullshit impeachment,” he said.Trump is currently facing an impeachment inquiry in the House as a result of a July 25 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in which he is alleged to have asked the new leader to investigate the family of former Vice President Joe Biden, a leading candidate for the 2020 Democratic nomination. Trump has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing on the call, saying that it was “perfect.”More recently, he has ramped up attacks on the inquiry itself. On Tuesday, the White House sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other top House Democrats calling the process unfair, partisan, and unconstitutional. On Friday, Trump concentrated and personalized that line of attack, saying that Pelosi’s involvement in the impeachment inquiry means that she “hates the United States of America.” President Trump rails against Speaker Pelosi: "I used to think she loved the country — she hates the country ... Nancy Pelosi hates the United States of America because she wouldn't be doing this." pic.twitter.com/R7meOSQhCb— NBC News (@NBCNews) October 12, 2019 “I used to think she loved the country. She hates the country,” he said. “Because she wouldn’t be doing this to the country if she didn’t. She hates the country.”And Trump said that a memo about the call, released by his administration in lieu of a full transcript, had left the House speaker — whom he called “Nervous Nancy” — feeling “stuck.” Trump mocks Bernie Sanders for having a heart attack pic.twitter.com/1sphsh8oyM— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 12, 2019 “It looks like Bernie lost his chance, right?” Trump said, referencing Sanders’s health problems. “It looks like when Bernie gets out, which seems inevitable, when Bernie gets out, it looks like those will go to your radical leftist Elizabeth Warren.”But, Trump argued, this would ultimately benefit him, as he told the crowd that he thought he would win favor over Warren. “I actually think they’re going to endorse me, because if they don’t, can you imagine having Pocahontas as your president,” he said of the media. The disparaging nickname “Pocahontas” is an allusion to the fact that the Massachusetts senator has historically identified as being of Native American ancestry, a claim she has apologized for and ceased making in recent months.Trump’s use of that offensive nickname was his most explicitly racial comment of the night, a tonal pivot from the night before, when, in Minneapolis, he unleashed a similar level of aggression using more personal — and at times explicitly racist — terms. There, he attacked Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), and, as Vox’s Aaron Rupar reported, pushed fringe conspiracy theories linking refugees to crime waves. The line of argument stood out in a state known for its large Somali population, many of whom, like Omar, came to the United States as refugees.It is notable that Trump did not tread this same rhetorical territory in deep-red Louisiana. Trump sees Minnesota as a swing state well within his ability to win in 2020, and he clearly hopes to do so by animating his base. Louisiana, on the other hand, is a state he won in 2016 — there, in safer territory, he appealed more to national-level politics, working more on attacking Democrats and defending against questions of impeachment despite being in the state to support local candidates. Those local candidates are hoping the president can help one of them win statewide office, however.On Saturday, Louisianans cast ballots in a gubernatorial primary that analysts have said could be a bellwether for other statewide races this year. At stake is the question of how influential Trump can be in affecting the outcome of close elections and to what extent Democratic voters in urban centers can counter more rural conservative voters throughout the rest of their states.The Louisiana race pits incumbent Governor John Bel Edwards, a right-leaning Democrat who has restricted abortion access in the state, against five challengers. Most prominent among them are Rep. Ralph Abraham and Eddie Rispone, a businessperson. Edwards is currently one of just a few Democratic governors in the south. The Republican Party sees the state as an opportunity to pick up another governor’s seat and has invested heavily in the race, although some national party leaders fear that the campaign between Abraham and Rispone, which has at times turned testy, could undermine the party’s efforts in the state as a whole. This is where Trump comes in: His visit was an attempt to mobilize Republican voters. Should Edwards secure more than 50 percent of the vote, he will retain his governorship; however, if he gets less, he will enter a runoff election against whoever is in second place. Historically, Republicans have won against Democratic incumbents in such contests, and because of this, GOP leaders have been trying to force a November runoff. Trump has indicated his support for this strategy but has refused to endorse either Abraham or Rispone, arguing either would make a good governor. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 12, 2019 At Friday’s rally, he brought them both onstage while rebuking them for fighting one another. “You’re not allowed to hit your Republican opponent,” he said. “You’re only allowed to hit John Bel Edwards, because he deserves it.”

Turkey’s invasion of northeastern Syria has begun, days after the Trump administration relocated US troops stationed in the region. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced Wednesday that the Turkish military and Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army had launched an offensive into northeastern Syria, bombing and shelling territory that’s under the control of the US-backed Syrian Kurdish fighters and putting the lives of thousands of civilians at risk. A press officer for the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which is led by Kurdish fighters, said that Turkish planes have begun to carry out airstrikes on civilian areas. “There is a huge panic among people of the region,” Mustafa Bali, the press officer, wrote. Turkish media showed bombings of border towns, and reports say that Kurds were fleeing some border towns, including Ras al Ain and Tel Abyad. The Syrian Democratic Forces said that at least two civilians had been killed in the “Turkish aerial bombardment” in the village of Mosharrafa, west of Ras al Ain. The Turkish military initiated a ground offensive across the border into Syria late Wednesday, according to the Washington Post.The Turkish incursion across Syria’s border was imminent after the White House said earlier this week that it was relocating troops from the area in anticipation of Turkey’s advance. Though the Pentagon and White House officials later tried to clarify that the US did not support or endorse Turkey’s impending offensive, both Democratic and Republican lawmakers and former officials condemned President Trump’s decision to move troops and accused the administration of abandoning the Kurds — the US’s key partner on the ground in Syria in the fight against ISIS — and leaving them exposed to slaughter. Turkish jets have begun bombing targets in Ras al-Ayn (Kurdish: Serê Kaniyê) pic.twitter.com/mJ3nsPOaqS— Piotr Zalewski (@p_zalewski) October 9, 2019 “The Turkish Armed Forces, together with the Syrian National Army, just launched #OperationPeaceSpring against PKK/YPG and Daesh terrorists in northern Syria,” President Erdogan wrote on Twitter. “Our mission is to prevent the creation of a terror corridor across our southern border, and to bring peace to the area.”“#OperationPeaceSpring will neutralize terror threats against Turkey and lead to the establishment of a safe zone, facilitating the return of Syrian refugees to their homes,” Erdogan continued. “We will preserve Syria’s territorial integrity and liberate local communities from terrorists.” #OperationPeaceSpring will neutralize terror threats against Turkey and lead to the establishment of a safe zone, facilitating the return of Syrian refugees to their homes.We will preserve Syria’s territorial integrity and liberate local communities from terrorists.— Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (@RTErdogan) October 9, 2019 Erdogan’s statement is disingenuous on many fronts, the most obvious being that Turkey’s encroachment into Syria is likely to create even more chaos and bloodshed, rather than the peace or protection from terrorism that Erdogan is promising. Turkey wants to establish a “safe zone” within Syrian territory to push back on Kurds near the Turkish border, who have de facto control over the northeastern region of Syria. In this zone, Erdogan also wants to resettle many of the approximately 3.6 million Syrian refugees who’ve fled to Turkey in the years-long civil war. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), who are led by Kurdish forces, helped defeated ISIS’s territorial caliphate, leading the battle against the jihadists in places such as Raqqa. But Turkey sees the Kurds’ presence close to its border as an existential threat, as they’re linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a separatist group that’s waged an insurgency in Turkey for decades. Both Turkey and the US classify the PKK as a terrorist group, and Erdogan has become agitated as the Syrian Kurds have established control over the region right across the border. The US had been working with Turkey since August to try to ease Erdogan’s security concerns, conducting joint patrols and incrementally establishing a buffer zone across the border, by pushing back and destroying some Syrian Kurdish fortifications. The Pentagon touted this strategy as recently as last week, right before Trump’s abrupt announcement that US troops were getting out and Turkey was coming into northeastern Syria. The Kurds, meanwhile, argued that they cooperated in this initiative, and now they’ve been left “defenseless.”“This attack will spill the blood of thousands of innocent civilians because our border areas are overcrowded,” the SDF said. — Clarissa Ward (@clarissaward) October 9, 2019 #Breaking:Two civilians lost their lives, two others were injured in the Turkish aerial bombardment targeted the village of Misharrafa, west of Ras al-Ain. pic.twitter.com/fZOM8T76I9— Coordination & Military Ops Center - SDF (@cmoc_sdf) October 9, 2019 Turkey also wants to use this “safe zone” as a staging ground for returning refugees to “resettle them in their homeland.” Erdogan is under a lot of pressure in this regard, as backlash against Syrian refugees is growing in the country. Of course, the millions of Syrian refugees who fled are from different parts of the country, and many of the displaced are Syrian Arabs, who — according to Erdogan’s desires — will now be resettled in a Kurdish area, displacing the native population and potentially inflaming ethnic tensions. The United Nations has warned that a protracted Turkish offensive against Syrian Kurds could create another refugee crisis, rather than help solve the existing one. The SDF has called on the international community to condemn the attack, and has asked the United States and its coalition partners in Syria to establish a no-fly zone to protect its people. Republican and Democratic lawmakers are continuing to speak out against Trump’s decision to abandon Kurdish allies and are warning about the potential fallout — including the risk of ISIS returning — from this move. Other US allies have been slightly more forceful in speaking out against Turkey, a fellow NATO ally. The United Kingdom and France are planning to call for an emergency United Nations Security Council meeting about Turkey’s invasion. The European Commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, warned Turkey to “act with restraint,” and said it would take no part in Turkey’s establishment of a “safe zone” for refugees. (The EU gives financial support to Turkey for its refugees, an effort to stem the continent’s own migration crisis.)NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg acknowledged that Turkey, a NATO ally, had legitimate security concerns, but that the country must avoid any actions that “destabilize the country further.”German officials also warned that Turkey risked a humanitarian disaster, and that invasion could spark the resurgence of ISIS.ISIS fighters were routed in the past few years, resulting in the loss of the organization’s territorial caliphate, and the Kurdish forces in Syria were a huge reason why. But experts — including the Pentagon — have worried for months that ISIS could reconstitute, and still threaten the US and its allies with terror attacks. And Turkey’s attack is likely to make the situation even more untenable. On Wednesday, the SDF reportedly stopped all operations to defeat ISIS, and the SDF said that Turkey had attacked a camp, where Kurdish fighters had previously trained to battle ISIS.Syrian Democratic Forces are also the guardians of thousands of ISIS prisoners, including overseeing the al-Hol refugee camp filled with tens of thousands of ISIS families that’s widely known to be a recruiting ground for the terror group. The SDF capacity was stretched to begin with, but analysts and experts fear that if Kurdish troops are pulled away to fight off Turkey or protect civilians, then these ISIS fighters could attempt a mass prison break and exploit the chaos that a Turkish invasion would bring.Trump said in a statement Wednesday that Turkey is responsible “for ensuring all ISIS fighters being held captive remain in prison and that ISIS does not reconstitute in any way, shape, or form.” But how the US can even hold Turkey to that commitment is totally unclear. Dozens of ISIS fighters have launched what Kurdish officials say is a “coordinated and organized” attempt to seize control of part of Raqqa. Many of us predicted that ISIS would be back, but I have to say I didn’t think it would be this soon. https://t.co/EhgDI6Enqw— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) October 8, 2019 Kurdish officials, of course, have an incentive to show the fallout of Turkey’s invasion — but the grave humanitarian risk and the opportunity for ISIS were predicted long before Turkish warplanes began their assault. Turkey is sending troops and tanks to its border with Syria hours after President Trump announced he would be removing US forces from the nation. Syrian Kurds feel betrayed and ISIS is watching. Looking for a quick way to keep up with the never-ending news cycle? Host Sean Rameswaram will guide you through the most important stories at the end of each day.Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Trump accused House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff of misleading people about the Ukraine call by giving an impressionistic summary during a meeting. Seconds later, Trump followed suit. After House Speaker Nancy Pelosi saw the rough transcript of the conversation with his Ukrainian counterpart, Trump told the crowd, she responded: What the hell? Nobody ever told me this was the call. This morning, I asked a Pelosi spokesman if she had actually said that. “No, not true,” he said definitively.If any sort of uplifting message was coming from the president, it was cast toward Fox News. Trump rattled off the names of various network hosts as if the audience were intimately familiar with each one, and revealed that in the personal rating scale he uses to judge Fox’s talent, Brian Kilmeade had climbed from a seven to “10 territory.” (Something must have happened to rehabilitate Fox in Trump’s mind; just 12 hours earlier, he had tweeted that Fox “doesn’t deliver for US anymore.”)Trump’s campaign relies on these rallies to both fortify and expand his base of support. Whoever wrote Trump’s speech last night included the obligatory notes that might appeal to the sliver of swing voters whose opinion of Trump may not yet have hardened. In the prepared remarks, Trump vowed to protect people with preexisting health conditions and to safeguard Medicare. He read those parts without any particular vocal affect, perhaps because he doesn’t truly believe they’re the way to win. One Republican operative close to the White House, speaking anonymously to discuss campaign strategy, told me that Trump is convinced of the old political adage “The race will hinge on turnout.” If he can mobilize and excite his base voters, they’ll show up in force, much as they did in 2016, impeachment be damned.“I think we’re going to have a turnout the likes of which we’ve never seen in the history of our country,” Trump said last night. For that to happen, he needs to paint the political system as a Manichaean struggle between his coalition of “real Americans” and elite forces determined to bring him down. Nuanced plans for revamping health care won’t cut it; he needs to maintain his supersize persona. Rallies figure into this calculus. Trump makes sure they’re a spectacle—a piece of theater for everyone to talk about the next morning.“His message is so edgy, and his core support is so intense and enthusiastic, and the rallies are so unlike anything we’ve seen in the modern era,” the strategist told me. “Arithmetically speaking, this election is about jacking up turnout of your own supporters on the theory that no one on their side of the ball excites them the way Trump excites us,” he said, referring to the Democrats.The 20,000-seat arena was largely filled last night. Hours before Trump appeared, the crowd spotted a celebrity walking across the floor and exploded in cheers. “Mike! Mike! Mike!” they chanted deliriously. Was it Vice President Mike Pence? I wondered, moving toward the entourage. No, bigger even than Pence. It was Mike Lindell, the chief executive officer of My Pillow and a Minnesota favorite son. Knowing nothing about the man behind the pillow, I tapped out a quick Google search and took my place in line to speak with him.

closeVideoHow has Trump's phone call controversy impacted Ukraine?Fox News correspondent David Spunt reports on the origins of Ukraine corruption allegations.Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., on Sunday said the impeachment of President Trump "shouldn't take very long" because she claimed he's already confessed that he pressured Ukrainian leaders to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, a 2020 presidential rival.While taking questions at a United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) candidate forum in Altoona, Iowa, the White House contender was asked by UFCW President Marc Perrone if she would prosecute Trump for impeachment."I've been calling for the impeachment of this president for a long time," replied Harris, a former prosecutor in San Francisco. "And, based on everything I know, yes."She claimed Trump already has confessed to trying to using the power of his office to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate Biden and his son Hunter, who previously was on the board of Ukrainian gas company Burisma Holdings.Video"We have a confession. We have a coverup," Harris said, referring to reports alleging that White House lawyers moved the transcript of Trump's phone call with Zelensky from the computer system where they're normally kept to a more secure system.Trump, on the contrary, repeatedly has denied doing anything wrong. He called his phone call with Zelensky "perfect."Harris continued, "When people say, 'how long do you think this impeachment process is going to be?' It shouldn't take very long, because, I mean, he did it out in the open."Support among congressional Democrats for Trump's impeachment has grown since House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., announced the start of a formal impeachment inquiry against Trump last month.

India is an Android nation, and no one knows that better than Apple.Although the iPhone has been available in the world’s second-largest smartphone market since May 2011, it has failed to make a mark there. Initially seen as an aspirational status symbol among some affluent loyalists, Apple began losing ground to more affordable competitors a few years ago. Today, iPhones comprise less than 1% of the Indian smartphone market, data from market-analysis firm Canalys show.“Apple does not have well-priced products to tackle the India market,” independent tech-policy analyst Prasanto K Roy, who previously worked with IT industry trade body NASSCOM, told Quartz. “Even at the premium range, iPhones are way over the price of comparable flagships like the Samsung Galaxy S10, and other popular brands have come into flagship territory such as OnePlus 7 Pro.”

It’s a busy, hearing-packed week for the US House of Representatives as members come back from a two-week recess to continue their impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump. Members of the House Intelligence Committee never really left Capitol Hill during recess. Lawmakers in that committee — along with members of the two other committees investigating Trump’s contacts with Ukraine, the foreign affairs and oversight committees — have spent the last two weeks conducting hearings and deposing witnesses in order to determine whether Trump attempted to use the office of president to gain dirt on his political enemies. So far, these sessions have revealed text messages that appear to support the allegations of a whistleblower who accused Trump of attempting to coerce Ukraine into investigating former Vice President Joe Biden. The hearings have also raised new questions about the involvement of private citizens in official US foreign policy, including Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani. At least four former and current Trump administration officials are testifying in front of lawmakers this week. First up is Fiona Hill, a former National Security Council adviser on Russia. Hill is expected to give her perspective on what the council did and didn’t know about the July 25 call Trump had with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in which Trump asked his Ukrainian counterpart to investigate Biden. As lawmakers proceed with these hearings, the committees are also waiting to hear back on whether administration officials will respond to a fresh round of subpoenas issued last week. Here’s everything you need to know to get up to speed on another dizzying week of news in Washington.Here’s what we know so far about the impeachment inquiry hearings scheduled so far this week: Fiona Hill, Trump’s former top adviser on Russia, is appearing in a closed-door session before the House Intelligence, Foreign Affairs, and Oversight Committees. Hill was a career official who served across six administrations and is not considered a Trump loyalist. She abruptly left the National Security Council about a week before Trump’s July 25 call with Zelensky. Hill is expected to testify about how the National Security Council was largely in the dark about the activities of other Trump officials and Rudy Giuliani — the president’s personal lawyer — with respect to Ukraine. Semyon “Sam” Kislin, an associate of Giuliani, is scheduled to appear for a closed-door deposition with House Intelligence Committee staff. George Kent, deputy assistant secretary of state for Europe and Eurasia, is scheduled to appear for a closed-door deposition. Kent is a career diplomat at the State Department who served in Ukraine from 2015 to 2018. He was supposed to testify earlier but did not show up due to White House pressure. P. Michael McKinley, former senior adviser to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, is scheduled to be deposed in a closed-door session. Former European Union Ambassador Gordon Sondland is scheduled to appear for a closed-door deposition. Sondland was originally supposed to testify October 8, but the Trump administration initially blocked him from appearing. Sondland’s testimony could be a pivotal moment for House Democrats’ investigation, particularly as they work to determine whether Trump wanted to trade US military aid for an investigation into Biden and his son Hunter (we’ll get into that more later). Counselor of the United States Department of State T. Ulrich Brechbuhl is scheduled to appear for a closed-door deposition. Brechbuhl is close to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Laura Cooper is scheduled to appear for a closed-door deposition. Reports over the weekend suggest this week could be another big one for Democrats’ impeachment inquiry, particularly because of what former EU Ambassador Sondland may tell lawmakers and their staff. The Washington Post reported this weekend Sondland plans to tell Congress that explosive text messages in which the ambassador denied Trump was offering Ukraine a quid pro quo arrangement (the release of congressionally approved military aid in exchange for an investigation into Biden) was simply Sondland relaying a message that Trump told him over the phone. “It’s only true that the president said it, not that it was the truth,” a source familiar with Sondland’s Thursday testimony told the Washington Post’s Aaron Davis and John Hudson. If Sondland indeed follows through with that testimony, it could be a watershed moment, precisely because Trump and his White House have used Sondland’s texts to say there was no quid pro quo as a big part of its defense. If it turns out that message originated from the president himself, it could undercut that argument. By deposing more diplomats and career service officials, lawmakers are starting to paint a fuller picture of the Trump administration’s activities around Ukraine. Last week, lawmakers talked to former US ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch for nearly 10 hours. Among other things, Yovanovitch told them she had been ousted from her post in May after a “concerted campaign against me,” led by Giuliani and supported by Trump. Yovanovitch also testified she was targeted for her work on anti-corruption in Ukraine, which she said was interrupting the business interests of some of Giuliani associates in the region.Giuliani himself is also coming under more scrutiny; last week, CNN reported that prosecutors in the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York “are examining Giuliani’s involvement in the broader flow of money” involving his Ukrainian associates Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, who were arrested on charges of violating campaign finance law last week.It’s a lot to keep up with, but it means that Trump’s personal lawyer seems to be in worsening legal trouble. This tangled web around Ukraine means Trump is only going to face more scrutiny from lawmakers going forward. If evidence keeps mounting that Trump tried to engineer his own defense, that scrutiny could result in articles of impeachment.Democrats have a lot of subpoena deadlines to follow up on this week; they’re waiting to see if a number of current and former Trump officials will respond to their subpoenas for documents and witnesses. It’s worth noting the Trump administration wrote a letter last week saying it won’t comply with any congressional requests and subpoenas related to the impeachment inquiry, so these will likely turn into court battles. However, some of the individuals Congress has requested documents from are not administration officials; they are not subject to the same broad protection of executive privilege and could comply with the subpoenas of their own accord. And some administration officials could — as Yovanovitch did — disregard the White House’s guidance and cooperate as well. On October 4, congressional committees sent a letter to Vice President Mike Pence requesting a list of documents to examine whether Pence had knowledge of Trump’s July 25 phone call to Zelensky. The White House has said it will not comply. Sondland was supposed to provide the House Intelligence Committee documents by October 14, but his attorneys said he cannot provide the documents. Pentagon officials are supposed to turn over records to the committees outlining the delay in military aid to Ukraine, with an October 15 deadline. Acting Director of the Office of Management and Budget Russell Vought has been asked by the committees to turn over documents on the delay of military aid to Ukraine by the same October 15 deadline. Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney was subpoenaed on October 4 for documents related to the impeachment inquiry. He’s supposed to provide the documents by October 18. Energy Secretary Rick Perry was subpoenaed on October 10 for documents related to his contact with Ukrainian president Zelensky in May and June. He’s supposed to provide the documents by October 18, but hasn’t yet responded. Giuliani was subpoenaed by the House Intelligence Committee on September 30 and ordered to produce documents about his work in Ukraine by October 15. Giuliani has said he won’t comply with the request or testify. Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, two Giuliani associates, were requested to testify before the committees and hand over documents, and committee investigators sent them a formal subpoena on October 10. Parnas and Fruman have so far refused to cooperate with Congress, but they have also been arrested on a separate charge of violating campaign finance laws. Like Giuliani, the two men are exempt from executive privilege protections. This list shows how wide-ranging the congressional inquiry into Trump and his administration officials’ dealings with Ukraine has become. But with most of these requests, the Trump administration has already refused to provide documents and witnesses, meaning these requests will get tied up in lengthy court proceedings.So far, Democrats have had the most success with career administration officials who aren’t Trump loyalists. The big question is how many Trump loyalists they can get to talk to them as well.

There is little template for a modern F.B.I. chief pursuing a prominent perch in political advocacy. Mr. Comey has performatively bristled at the observation that he is the bureau’s most consequential leader since its first, affecting a grimace recently when a forum moderator introduced him as “the first F.B.I. director since J. Edgar Hoover to be a household name.”“There’s no precedent,” Tim Weiner, author of “Enemies: A History of the F.B.I.,” said of Mr. Comey’s present ambitions. “But then, there’s never been a president who’s been perceived as a threat to American national security.”A former registered Republican who planned to complete his 10-year F.B.I. term in 2023, Mr. Comey has urged Democrats against charging to “the socialist left.” He is open to appearing with presidential candidates at campaign functions or even at a nominating convention, if they will have him, though he vowed never to seek office himself.Mr. Comey donated money earlier this year to Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, a former law school classmate, but in the interview volunteered few opinions on the rest of the 2020 Democratic field, save for a compliment about the thoughtfulness of the South Bend, Ind., mayor whose name he seemed unsure of (“Is it Pete Boot-ed-edge?”).Some veterans of law enforcement have questioned the value, and the propriety, of Mr. Comey’s new phase, mocking the emotive turn that has found him posting images of nature and open road on social media.Rod J. Rosenstein, the former deputy attorney general whose 2017 memo about Mr. Comey was cited to rationalize the firing of the F.B.I. director that May, has been particularly cutting. At a speech last spring, Mr. Rosenstein taunted the former director for “selling books and earning speaking fees while speculating about the strength of my character and the fate of my immortal soul.”

“This is mid-October, so this is pretty much the standard, classic wildfire season in Southern California,” she said.The winds, she said, usually last for a couple of days before they subside, which gives firefighters a chance to control blazes. On average, she said, there are three Santa Ana wind events this month each year.But the damage that such fires cause is increasing, as scientists have warned, because more people are moving into homes built near where cities end and wildlands begin. Weather is becoming more extreme in general, so this year’s rainy winter has made for lots of material to burn.Ms. Guzman Morales said her research has shown that climate change could make Santa Ana wind events less frequent in fall and spring, and when coupled with projected decreases in fall precipitation, would push Southern California’s wildfire season deeper into winter.She said it’s tough to predict whether that could contribute to more severe blazes, although her report suggested that back-to-back Santa Ana wind events in December could result in longer burning and bigger wildfires.While they arrive and move separately, Northern California’s Diablo winds behave similarly to Santa Ana winds, Ms. Guzman Morales said, but have been less studied. “We want to look at the coordination between those two wind regimes,” she said, “and whether there’s a common larger scale reason.”

"Apple, which often positions itself as a champion of privacy and human rights, issending some IP addresses from users of its Safari browser on iOS to Chinese conglomerate Tencent-- a company with close ties to the Chinese Communist Party," reports theblog:Engadget adds that it's "not clear" whether or not Tencent is actually collecting IP addresses from users outside of China. ("You'llsee mention of the collection in the U.S. disclaimer, but that doesn't mean it's scooping up info from American web surfers.")Butpoints out that the possibility is troubling, in part because Safari is the #1 most popular mobile internet browser in America, witha market share of over 50%.

As the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump continues, Trump pushed back Saturday against speculation about whether he and his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani — a key figure in that inquiry — were on the outs. “He may seem a little rough around the edges sometimes,” Trump tweeted of Giuliani, “But he is also a great guy and wonderful lawyer. Such a one sided Witch Hunt going on in USA. Deep State. Shameful!” So now they are after the legendary “crime buster” and greatest Mayor in the history of NYC, Rudy Giuliani. He may seem a little rough around the edges sometimes, but he is also a great guy and wonderful lawyer. Such a one sided Witch Hunt going on in USA. Deep State. Shameful!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 12, 2019 The tweet came a day after Trump appeared to distance himself from his lawyer following a rough few days for the former New York City mayor that have placed him squarely at the heart of the impeachment inquiry that probes into potential wrongdoing in Trump’s dealings with Ukraine.During a marathon hearing on Friday, the former US ambassador to Ukraine alleged Giuliani had orchestrated a campaign against her that led to her removal in order to protect the business interests of his allies. And on Thursday, an indictment was unsealed against two of Giuliani’s business associates, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, for campaign finance violations — part of a federal investigation that may include an investigation into Giuliani himself.When journalists asked the president following the hearing whether Giuliani still represented him, Trump said, “I don’t know.”“I haven’t spoken to Rudy,” Trump went on. “I spoke to him yesterday briefly. He’s a very good attorney, and he has been my attorney.”Giuliani later told the Washington Post’s Josh Dawsey that he is still the president’s lawyer. He repeated this assertion to Politico on Saturday in a text: “Still President’s counsel in same way as before…no change,” he wrote.Trump’s tweet on Saturday was not as unambiguous at Giuliani’s statements. But Saturday evening he was more clear with Fox News’ Jeanine Pirro. Pirro asked, “Is he your attorney?” and Trump answered, “Yes, and he’s a great gentleman, he was a great mayor, one of the greatest, maybe the greatest mayor in the history of New York.”It would seem, then, that the two men are, at least for now, maintaining their professional relationship — one that was solidified during Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.Giuliani has been front and center — often because he placed himself there — in the impeachment inquiry into Trump ever since a whistleblower complaint, released in September, alleged that Trump attempted to pressure Ukrainian leaders into investigating the family of former Vice President Joe Biden, a leading contender in the 2020 presidential race. In a series of sometimes-bizarre television appearances, Giuliani admitted that the president had asked Ukraine to investigate the Bidens; repeatedly yelled at news anchors who asked questions about the phone call; and, at one point, inexplicably, read his own personal texts off of an iPad. These defenses were often seen as unhelpful but not overly problematic. In recent weeks, however, Giuliani’s name has begun being connected to the inquiry and the whistleblower’s allegations not in reference to his work as the president’s counsel but as an active participant in the push to have Biden investigated.Giuliani has long claimed — without evidence — that Ukraine has proof Democrats worked to undermine the 2016 election and that Biden abused the power of the vice presidency. As the inquiry has progressed, questions have been raised about the lawyer’s efforts to have Ukraine investigate those claims, including traveling to meet with Ukrainian officials. Giuliani, who is not a government official, said the State Department was aware of and aided these efforts.Hoping to better understand Giuliani’s role in the Ukraine matter, the former mayor was issued a subpoena by the House committees on intelligence, oversight, and foreign affairs for documents tied to the call with Zelensky on September 30.Earlier this week, two of his business associates, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, were arrested for campaign finance violations; according to Reuters, Parnas was linked to a Ukrainian businessman under investigation for bribery.Yovanovitch further suggested that Giuliani may have taken on this campaign because he and his associates — including Parnas and Fruman, whom she alluded to but did not directly name — stood to benefit financially if the US halted its anti-corruption work in the region. All of this suggests that Giuliani may not be doing many favors for his client, for whom he has worked as an unpaid attorney since April of 2018. Indeed, some aides to the president have reportedly been pushing for Giuliani’s ouster, according to Politico, which was told by administration sources that the aforementioned behavior is evidence that Giuliani is a bad influence on their boss.“Rudy Giuliani needs to stop talking,” Politico quotes a former campaign official as saying. Over the course of his presidential tenure and even during his campaign, Trump has severed a number of longtime professional relationships, including with close friend Tom Barrack and longstanding advisor Roger Stone. Another personal lawyer, Michael Cohen — a longtime ally and abettor to Trump’s political and business interests — ultimately testified against his former boss after the two fell out. So it would not be completely unprecedented for Trump to cut off ties with Giuliani if he began to see their relationship as anything but helpful as he undergoes the fourth-ever impeachment inquiry in America’s history. For now, Trump has made it clear he appreciates his lawyer’s loyalty and will continue to brush off negative messages about the man as just another day in the “Witch Hunt.” President Pence? President Pelosi? There are nearly a dozen ways the impeachment inquiry could end. Vox’s Laura McGann runs through each of them. Looking for a quick way to keep up with the never-ending news cycle? Host Sean Rameswaram will guide you through the most important stories at the end of each day.Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

SEE NEW POSTSLeigh Ann Caldwell and Garrett HaakeGeorge Kent tells lawmakers he was told to 'lay low' after raising concerns about GiulianiState Department official George Kent told lawmakers in a closed-door deposition Tuesday that acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney appointed three other Trump administration officials to spearhead the president's efforts in Ukraine.According to Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., who was present for the deposition, Kent testified that Mulvaney oversaw a meeting where he sidelined State Department officials and tapped three political appointees — Energy Secretary Rick Perry, European Ambassador Gordon Sondland and special envoy Kurt Volker — to oversee Ukraine policy for the United States.Kent, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State who worked on Ukraine and five other countries, told congressional investigators that the trio called themselves “the three amigos” and elbowed all the other officials at State out of the way, according to Connolly.Read more about Kent's testimony here.Rebecca ShabadPelosi says House won't hold a vote on impeachment 'at this time'Signaling that Democrats won’t cave to GOP demands, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Tuesday that the House will not hold a formal floor vote on their impeachment inquiry into President Donald trump "at this time.""There is no requirement that we have a vote. So at this time, we will not be having a vote," Pelosi told reporters on Capitol Hill following a brief closed-door Democratic caucus meeting. "And I’m very pleased with the thoughtfulness of our caucus in terms of being supportive of the path that we are on in terms of fairness, in terms of seeking the truth, in terms of upholding the Constitution of the United States."House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who joined her at the news conference, echoed her remarks and said that the Constitution is “very clear” that an initial vote is not required.Read more on the news conference here.Peter AlexanderFormer Texas congressman cooperating with Manhattan prosecutorsFormer Texas Rep. Pete Sessions said that he is cooperating with Manhattan prosecutors in a case that relates to Rudy Giuliani and his associates."Mr. Sessions is cooperating with the US Attorney from the Southern District of New York and will be providing documents to their office related to this matter over the next couple of weeks as requested," a spokesman for Sessions said. Schiff: Officials were 'urged not to comply with the law' by the Trump administrationOct. 15, 201903:00Leigh Ann CaldwellPence refuses House request to provide documents related to Ukraine callVice President Mike Pence’s office Tuesday said it will not comply with a request from the House to turn over documents related to President Donald Trump's July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.In a letter to the chairman of the House Intelligence, Foreign Affairs and Oversight committees, Pence counsel Matthew Morgan called the request part of a “self-proclaimed impeachment inquiry,” noting that the House of Representatives has not yet taken a vote to open the inquiry.Those chairmen sent Pence a request on October 4 asking for documents and communications pertaining to the phone call the withholding of military and security aid to Ukraine.Read more here.McConnell: Democrats are 'throwing fairness and precedent to the wind'Oct. 15, 201902:04Hans NicholsWhite House budget office will not comply with congressional subpoenasThe White House Office of Management and Budget Office will not comply with subpoenas from House impeachment investigators, according to an administration official.The White House and OMB Director Russ Vought have made it clear they are not participating in the impeachment process, the official said."We will continue to not participate in this process which is not designed to get to the truth," Vought told Fox News in an interview last week. "It is designed to relitigate the last election and influence the next election. OMB spends every day trying to have less spending and have more deregulatory initiatives on behalf of what the president promised the American people and we're trying to keep those promises."Sen. Murphy: We now know for certain there was a quid pro quoOct. 15, 201906:10Allan Smith and Alexandra MoeSchiff says there have been 'significant breaks in the White House firewall'House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said Monday that "there have been real breaks, significant breaks in the White House firewall" despite the Trump administration's efforts to stonewall the impeachment inquiry.But Schiff said he and his Democratic colleagues "fully expect on things that are more within" the administration's "control, they will stonewall us."Schiff praised ousted U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, former Trump Russia aide Fiona Hill and others who have obeyed House subpoenas. On Tuesday, Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani told ABC News he did not plan to comply with the subpoena aimed at his work in Ukraine. Schiff talks 'significant breaks' in White House firewall amid impeachment inquiryOct. 15, 201900:56Kristen Welker, Hallie Jackson and Peter AlexanderRudy Giuliani will not comply with congressional subpoenaRudy Giuliani won't comply with a congressional subpoena as part of the House impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump, an attorney for Giuliani told House investigators in a letter on Tuesday.Giuliani, the president's personal lawyer, had been subpoenaed for documents related to his work in Ukraine, which has come under intense scrutiny after Trump asked the Ukrainian president to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter. Last week, two of Giuliani's business associates who had been assisting him in his Ukrainian venture were arrested on campaign-finance charges.Jon Sale, Giuliani's attorney for purposes of handling the subpoena, wrote that the former New York City mayor "will not participate because this appears to be an unconstitutional, baseless, and illegitimate 'impeachment inquiry.'" Sale called the subpoena "overbroad, unduly burdensome, and seeks documents beyond the scope of legitimate inquiry."Read more here.Load More Posts

Few people had better seats than Josh Campbell for the drama that has shaped the Trump presidency. A supervisory special agent at the FBI, he was special assistant to James Comey and stayed on into Robert Mueller’s first year as special counsel.In real time, he witnessed the investigations into both Hillary Clinton’s emails and Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. He was there in Los Angeles when his boss was sacked on national TV, by the president, at the advice of Jared Kushner.Less than a year later, Campbell wrote a column for the New York Times, titled “Why I Am Leaving the FBI”. He has now authored a must-read on what went down in the first 18 months of the Trump presidency. Filled with color and quotes, it is highly digestible.Campbell remains disgusted by the debasement of law enforcement institutions by the president and his allies. Just as Comey did, he sees Trump acting as a “mob boss”.After watching Trump suck up to Vladimir Putin in Helsinki in July 2018, Campbell concludes that Trump acted as if he were somehow compromised by the Russian strongman and “afraid of what Mueller might find”. In light of recent reports that Trump’s communications with an unidentified foreign leader may have injured US security and triggered a standoff between the administration and Congress, Campbell’s take cannot be readily dismissed.Not surprisingly, Campbell rejects the notion of a “deep state” in opposition to the “will of the people”. In rebuttal, he painstakingly lays out a tick-tock of the Russia investigation, codenamed “Crossfire Hurricane”.The popularization on the right of the idea that the deep state is a source of Trump’s woes lies with Breitbart, which began flogging the concept in December 2016. Yet as a Steve Bannon, the brains behind Trump’s victory and a former head of Breitbart, told the author Michael Wolff: “You do realize … none of this is true.” Let that sink in.Crossfire Hurricane also turns it guns on Jeff Sessions, the former attorney general; Rod Rosenstein, the former deputy attorney general; William Barr, the current attorney general; and Sarah Sanders, Trump’s former spokeswoman. It is a target-rich environment.Campbell accuses Rosenstein of Janus-faced duplicity. In his telling, Rosenstein invited Comey to speak to a group of lawyers on “effective leadership”, then in a matter of weeks branded Comey a “terrible leader who was no longer effective”.Elsewhere, Campbell describes Rosenstein’s oleaginous efforts to get hold of him after learning the author had a gig on CNN. Suffice to say, Campbell is neither flattered nor amused.Barr comes in for his share of criticism. Campbell tags him for his letter that characterized the Mueller report as giving Trump a clean bill of legal health, when it did no such thing. As the special counsel said, Barr’s account “did not fully capture the context, nature and substance” of the actual report.Campbell also takes issue with Barr’s public contention that the Trump campaign was the target of “spying”. In Campbell’s view, the accusation was baseless political “red meat”, another indication that “Trump’s war on the FBI is far from over”.As for Sanders, Campbell is filled with unbridled – and deserved – contempt. After Comey was fired, the White House press secretary went on national TV and lied “about countless members of the FBI” who were supposedly grateful. On that score, Campbell quotes an FBI agent who bluntly bellowed “What a load of bullshit” and labeled Huckabee’s story “complete garbage”.Sanders confessed to the special counsel that her comment was Trump fan fiction, “made ‘in the heat of the moment’ that was not founded on anything”. Sanders is now a member of the Fox commentariat and complains that “99%” of the people who attack her are women.In case she missed it, women went for Clinton by 14 points in 2016 and voted Democratic almost three to two in last year’s midterms. Sanders appears to be angling to run for Arkansas governor, a job once held by her father.Crossfire Hurricane also shines a light on Devin Nunes and the battle over Trump within the House intelligence committee, which can be described as both discouraging and illuminating. Campbell interviews Eric Swalwell, a committee member and former candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination.From Swalwell’s perspective, life within the intelligence committee was icy, not heated: an undesirable outcome. As Swalwell frames it, he actually wishes things had become “contentious” because “that would have meant that Nunes and the Republicans were engaging us. But they never engaged.” Committee Democrats met with “blank stares”, he says. What this episode holds for a post-Trump world should leave Americans worried.The book also grapples with Comey’s conduct of the Clinton investigation, recording voices critical of the press conference in which he announced that Clinton would not be prosecuted, but said her conduct was less than desirable. Among those interviewed is Robby Mook, Clinton’s campaign manager.Campbell also suggests the debacle arose because Loretta Lynch, then attorney general, declined to recuse herself after meeting Bill Clinton on an airport tarmac, and Comey felt it necessary to throw himself into the breach.As Campbell puts it: “Two things I know for certain. The first is that James Comey is an honorable man.” Second, “Comey was dealt an impossible hand.”In late August, the justice department inspector general issued his report on Comey memorializing his meetings with the president then leaking them to the press. The inspector general determined the leaks “violated applicable policies and his FBI employment agreement”.More important, “DoJ declined prosecution” and national security was not compromised. Even by Trump’s own twisted standards, Comey and Campbell have some reason to smile. Topics Donald Trump Trump administration US politics Trump-Russia investigation James Comey FBI US national security reviews

Donald Trump suffered a major setback in the long struggle to conceal his tax returns on Monday, when he lost a federal court ruling in New York.A judge ruled that the president’s claim to immunity while in office was “repugnant” and said Manhattan’s district attorney could subpoena eight years of Trump’s personal and corporate tax returns from his accountants, Mazars USA.An appeals court blocked any immediate handover of the records but the escalating court battle leaves Trump with less room for manoeuvre and adds to woes that include a fast-moving impeachment inquiry, which on Monday saw House Democrats issue subpoenas for documents from the Pentagon and the White House budget office.Trump is the first US president in nearly 40 years not to release his tax information, despite having promised to do so during the 2016 campaign.Last month the office of the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus Vance, investigating hush money payments to women including the pornographic actor Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential election, subpoenaed eight years of Trump’s tax returns.A federal investigation into the hush money led to Trump’s former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen pleading guilty to campaign finance violations. Trump, who denies Daniels’ claim of a sexual relationship, has claimed any payments were a personal matter, not a campaign expense.The federal investigation wound up in July. Vance, a Democrat, launched a fresh investigation into whether the Trump Organization falsely listed its reimbursement of Cohen for the $130,000 (then £93,000) payment to Daniels as a legal expense. That would be illegal in New York.Trump’s lawyers argue the president is immune from such an investigation while in office and the US constitution requires Vance to wait until after Trump has left the White House.On Monday, the US district judge Victor Marrero in Manhattan described the immunity argument as “extraordinary” and as “an overreach of executive power [that was] repugnant to the nation’s governmental structure and constitutional values”.In a 75-page decision, the judge added: “The court cannot square a vision of presidential immunity that would place the president above the law.”Despite the impeachment inquiry and a fresh political crisis over Syria, Trump still found time to address the decision on Twitter.“The Radical Left Democrats have failed on all fronts, so now they are pushing local New York City and State Democrat prosecutors to go get President Trump,” he wrote. “A thing like this has never happened to any President before. Not even close!”The president’s lawyers immediately appealed to the second US circuit court of appeals, which granted a temporary stay of the ruling “pending expedited review”.Separately, Trump is trying to block Deutsche Bank from handing over financial records, which the bank has said include tax returns and which are sought by multiple House committees.The criminal investigation in New York is unfolding with Trump already under siege from an impeachment inquiry touched off by his efforts to get Ukraine’s leader to investigate the former vice-president Joe Biden, a potential opponent at the polls next year.Trump has accused the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, of handing out subpoenas “like cookies”. There was no let up on Monday as Democrats subpoenaed the heads of the Department of Defense and the Office of Management and Budget for documents related to the Trump administration’s decision to freeze aid to Ukraine.Democrats said in a statement: “The enclosed subpoena demands documents that are necessary for the committees to examine this sequence of these events and the reasons behind the White House’s decision to withhold critical military assistance to Ukraine that was appropriated by Congress to counter Russian aggression.”The deadline to comply is 15 October.Trump has continued to unleash a volley of impetuous tweets, suggesting Pelosi could be guilty of treason.“Nancy Pelosi knew of all of the many Shifty Adam Schiff lies and massive frauds perpetrated upon Congress and the American people,” Trump wrote on Sunday evening, referring to the chairman of the House intelligence committee, whom he has accused of treason.Congress is in recess but the House intelligence, foreign affairs and oversight committees will continue to hear from witnesses this week. Gordon Sondland, the US ambassador to the European Union, will give his deposition on Tuesday. Marie Yovanovitch, the former US ambassador to Ukraine who was recalled early, is due to appear on Friday.A lawyer representing the original intelligence community whistleblower whose complaint launched the impeachment inquiry said on Sunday that a second whistleblower had come forward and spoken to the intelligence community’s internal watchdog, further complicating the president’s case. Topics Donald Trump Law (US) New York Trump impeachment inquiry Stormy Daniels news

It will surprise no one that Donald Trump factors heavily into Why We Hate, a six-part Discovery Channel documentary series (executive produced by Steven Spielberg and Alex Gibney) that investigates the many forms and causes of—and possible remedies for—intolerance. So ubiquitous is his presence, in fact, that even when he’s not the specific topic of conversation, his corrosive shadow looms large over the proceedings—as when international criminal lawyer Patricia Viseur Sellers, describing Khmer Rouge madman Pol Pot’s motivations for initiating genocide, states (with a pause that indicates she knows what she’s about to imply), “He was going to make Cambodia great again.”Our current president’s ugly, divisive language and policies—and the white nationalist movements and mass shootings that have been inspired by it—are a natural fit for directors Geeta Gandbhir and Sam Pollard’s non-fiction work (premiering Oct. 13), because Trump perfectly embodies key elements of their portrait of personal and societal animosity. In short, the president is the latest in a long line of leaders who’ve exploited hate in a very particular, authoritarian way. First, he promotes the propagandistic message that the world is at war with him and those like him, and that his enemies are dehumanized “others” (see, for instance, his comment about immigrants: “These aren’t people; these are animals”). Then, he establishes himself as the sole persecuted figure who can provide sanctuary and deliverance from this threat—a promise couched in victimhood and compassion. In doing so, he weaponizes intolerance, making it a permissible position to hold and any ensuing violence committed in its name justifiable. It’s a strategy familiar to anyone who’s studied 20th century history, and Why We Hate details its employment in, among other places, 1930s Germany, 1970s Cambodia, 1990s Rwanda and 2017-2018 Myanmar—locales for massacres that were fueled by the nationally promoted idea that the enemy (Jews, Tutsis, Muslim Rohingya people) was somehow a rat, or a cockroach, or a snake. Directors Gandbhir and Pollard make no blanket condemnation of Trump, because they don’t have to; just discussing his behavior in the context of his dictatorial predecessors does the work for them, illustrating how he preys upon supporters’ feelings of marginalization and oppression, turning those emotions into drivers of prejudice and conflict. His is a bigotry game as old as time itself, and thus it’s no wonder that reformed neo-Nazi Frank Meeink states, on-camera, that his white-power brethren saw Trump’s warning about border-crossing druggies, rapists and murderers as an obvious and direct shout-out to their cause.Though our commander-in-chief is a frequent focal point of Why We Hate, he’s far from the only—or even primary—area of concentration. Gandbhir and Pollard take an expansive look at the origins of hate, casting their net far and wide, and the issue of nature versus nurture is predictably central to their inquiry. A study of infant and toddler responses to simple positive/negative stimuli suggests that humans are born with at least some fundamental comprehension of right and wrong, and justice. Other studies, on the other hand, have demonstrated that, when placed in certain circumstances, average men and women can be compelled to behave in a horrific manner—especially when encouraged to do so by a charismatic leader. That too speaks to Trump, just as it relates to Hitler and the Holocaust, which proves to be ground zero for examinations of not only why we hate, but how enormous groups of individuals can go along with, and actively partake in, unthinkable atrocities.Stanley Milgram’s famous 1963 experiment—in which adults were asked to shock their fellow participants for incorrectly responding to questions—remains eye-opening evidence of mankind’s capacity for carrying out cruel orders. Still, it’s merely one of Why We Hate’s numerous examples of people’s willingness to set aside, or negate, their morality. At the same time, Gandbhir and Pollard also look into the way in which tribalism—and the symbols of those tribes— helps foster an us-against-them mentality, a sense of belonging and togetherness, and therefore a cherished identity to be protected at all costs. That’s seen in the rabid fanaticism of British footballers, in American white nationalists (including 2015 Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof), and in Jesse Morton’s Revolution Muslim—all collectives that use irrational detestation of dissimilar groups as a means of self-definition.The role of the internet (and its plethora of insular message boards and fake news) in creating and nurturing these communities—and the media’s hand in exacerbating cultural and political polarization—are also insightfully explored by Why We Hate. For a sprawling, multi-angled view of this gargantuan subject, certain topics don’t get quite the attention they deserve; the part that religion plays in fostering hateful dynamics, for one, is only tangentially touched upon, via Morton’s former pro-Islamic terrorism rhetoric. Nonetheless, Gandbhir and Pollard waste few moments on unnecessary material, navigating the diverse biological and social dynamics that give birth to hate, and allow it to fester and spread in directions both deliberate and unexpected.“Over the course of its six chapters, ‘Why We Hate’ only rarely repeats itself, and it moves with a swift sense of purpose.”While the show is populated by a plethora of talking heads, it generally shapes each episode around one speaker, and it cannily enhances its arguments’ depth and breadth via juxtapositions of narrated comments and non-fiction archival material. Over the course of its six chapters, Why We Hate only rarely repeats itself, and it moves with a swift sense of purpose. That confident pacing and structure adds to its persuasiveness, and goes a long way toward making its material go down somewhat smoothly—a not-inconsiderable feat considering that so much of what it tackles is crushingly upsetting and awful.In its final installment, Why We Hate turns to science as a tool for combatting the roots of hate, via neuroscientist Emile Bruneau’s plan to record interviews with Colombian FARC rebels and then show them to anti-FARC Colombians. His undertaking is guided by the hope that, as with many of the reformed xenophobes profiled here, greater understanding of the “other” will allow tolerance and peace to flourish. According to this thought-provoking series, facing that which one fears, and loathes is the most promising solution to this age-old problem. Although as evidenced by the story of a Tutsi soccer goalkeeper in Rwanda whose life was saved by his Hutu teammate—who then perished as a result of his heroism—it sometimes also takes a good heart that refuses to turn black even in the face of overwhelming evil.

House Democrats are seeking to interview White House budget director Russell Vought on Oct. 25, according to a copy of the letter to the Office of Management and Budget​ obtained by ABC News, the latest sign that they are increasingly focused on the withholding of nearly $400 million in military aid to Ukraine as part of their impeachment investigation. Interested in Impeachment Inquiry? Add Impeachment Inquiry as an interest to stay up to date on the latest Impeachment Inquiry news, video, and analysis from ABC News. Impeachment Inquiry Add Interest Vought, the acting director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, would be among the most senior administration officials called to appear before Congress in the Ukraine probe, though multiple sources told ABC News that the White House is likely to block their appearances before the committee, as they have vowed not to cooperate with the Democrats' investigation.(MORE: Former US national security expert sits for deposition in impeachment inquiry) The White House and OMB did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The committees investigating the matter have also sought interviews with several Pentagon officials, along with Michael Duffey, an associate director of national security programs at OMB, according to requests obtained by ABC News. The issue of military aid is at the heart of the Democrats’ impeachment inquiry, which is focused on whether President Donald Trump withheld aid from Ukraine to pressure the country to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden’s family and a conspiracy theory related to the 2016 presidential election.(MORE: Giuliani's relationship with arrested men subject of criminal investigation: Sources) Democrats subpoenaed OMB and the Pentagon last week for documents related to the aid, along with the events surrounding Trump’s request to acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney to freeze that aid in early July, before his phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. The deadline for those requests for documents is Tuesday, according to the subpoenas. The two leaders discussed U.S. military aid to Ukraine on the call, according to a rough transcript released by the White House. Trump also appeared to pressure Zelenskiy to work with the Justice Department and his personal lawyer to conduct investigations linked to the 2016 election and Biden, a potential 2020 rival. At a news conference at the United Nations General Assembly last month, Trump said he decided to withhold the aid because of concerns about corruption, later adding that he wanted other European allies to pay for military aid to Ukraine as well.(MORE: Trump claims on Ukraine call may stem from foreign official’s year-old request) The Pentagon announced plans in June to provide Ukraine with $250 million in security cooperation funds, after the administration had told Congress it was releasing the aid February and May. The money was unfrozen on Sept. 11, after lawmakers in the House and Senate raised questions about the delay. “We approved the money. The president signed it and we just assumed it was going out,” House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith told NPR earlier this month. “Then we started to hear from a variety of people that it was not going out. Defense Secretary Mark Esper, in an interview with CBS News’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday, said the Pentagon would “do everything we can to comply” with the Democrats’ subpoena.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch:"Providing a gateway for 'toxic apps' is hurting the feelings of the Chinese people, twisting the facts of Hong Kong affairs, and against the views and principles of the Chinese people," it goes on. "Apple and other corporations should be able to discern right from wrong. They also need to know that only the prosperity of China and China's Hong Kong will bring them a broader and more sustainable market."The article also claims Apple reinstated a song which advocates for independence for Hong Kong and hadpreviously been removed from its music store.

CNN host Chris Cuomo has apologized for joking about his pronouns when introducing 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris at an LGBTQ town hall event on Thursday night.When the California senator was introduced on to the stage at the event in Los Angeles, she was quick to make an addition. “Thank you, guys,” she said to the audience. “My pronouns are she, her and hers.”Harris’s add elicited applause, but Cuomo’s response did not. “She, her and hers?” he asked, adding jokingly: “Mine too.”Harris replied flatly: “All right”.One of America’s most famous TV journalists, Cuomo is well known to use the pronouns he, him and his. In progressive spaces and within the LGBTQ community, pronoun introductions are common and largely seen as an inclusive step towards a more nuanced understanding of gender. But the practice has also been mocked and criticized, and has quickly become part of America’s culture wars.The National Center for Lesbian Rights was quick to call out Cuomo’s joke:As was Charlotte Clymer of the Human Rights Campaign:Cuomo issued an apology following the event, saying he was “an ally of the LGBTQ community, and I am sorry because I am committed to helping us achieve equality”.Angelica Ross, a trans rights advocate and trans actor who stars in Pose, said Cuomo’s apology was not enough, and showed he did not understand the importance of pronouns.The town hall featured the biggest names in the Democratic 2020 presidential race to become the nominee to take on Donald Trump at the next election, and comes in the same week as the supreme court heard three discrimination cases involving LGBTQ individuals – the first supreme court case involving the civil rights of transgender people.Among the standout moments of the evening was an emotional interruption from Blossom C Brown, a black trans woman who was not scheduled to ask a question, but took the mic and expressed her anger at the erasure of black trans people from the evening.“Black trans women are dying,” she said. “Our lives matter. I am an extraordinary black trans woman, and I deserve to be here.”Blossom interrupted 2020 candidate and former Texas congressman Beto O’Rourke, who has been asked about what he would do to tackle violence against black trans women. O’Rourke responded, “I’m going to listen to trans women of color. They will be the guide.”At least 19 trans people have been killed this year, according to the Human Rights Campaign, four of whom were killed in Texas. Last year, there were at least 26 deaths, with most of those people being black trans women.Pete Buttigieg, the South Bend mayor and 2020 Democratic candidate, the first openly LGBTQ person to run for president, was asked about the ban on gay men donating blood. He responded:“My blood is not welcome in this country. It’s not based on science, it’s based on prejudice.”He said he would direct the FDA to make rules that conform with science.Buttigieg also talked about how people living with HIV can be undetectable, which means untransmittable, giving a rare national platform to the slogan “U equals U”.The CNN host Anderson Cooper also asked Buttigieg, who has frequently spoken about his faith on the campaign trail: “Do you believe God made you gay?”He responded: “The decision was made way above my pay grade.” Topics LGBT rights CNN Gender Transgender Kamala Harris Democrats news