Figuring out what Trump might be trying to say tends to be easier when you watch him. Almost no one speaks in carefully organized paragraphs, but facial expressions, pacing, tone, and gesticulations can help you decode what someone means. Trump is an extreme case: Watch him speak, and you can at least tell roughly what he’s talking about; it’s only when you try to figure out precisely what he means and look at a transcript that you are likely to see how hollow the core is.There’s one more thing that helps cover up Trump’s incoherence, which is his energetic speaking style. The president is not a good speaker, per se—there’s a reason Stephen Miller drew ridicule when he pronounced Trump “the best orator to hold [his] office in generations”—but he is a transfixing one. His “low energy” insult stuck to Jeb Bush in the 2016 GOP primary not only because of Bush’s laid-back demeanor but because of Trump’s own animation. “The most accurate way to predict reaction to a debate is to watch it with the sound turned off,” my colleague James Fallows wrote in 2016. Trump not only grasps that truth, but he probably does better if voters aren’t listening too closely—or at all. Because he looks and sounds vigorous, his meandering sentences recede from focus.To prove this point, consider what happens when Trump’s words are divorced from images of Trump. The virality of the comedian Sarah Cooper, who has made a series of videos in which she painstakingly lip-synchs Trump’s words, is premised on the absurdity of the pronouncements themselves. In 2017, the comedian and late-night host John Oliver made a similar point by having an actor read Trump’s words, underscoring their incoherence.Putting an impressive facade on a shoddy edifice is the story of Trump’s pre-political career, too. Commentators mock his orange complexion and apparently artificial tan, his hair style, and his hair coloring, and they do look faintly ridiculous, but they also serve their purpose—they make him seem younger. Biden must relate, at least a little: His own locks look much fuller than they did 35 years ago, a fact that Politico in 2008 attributed to hair transplants.Given the importance, and success, of creating this impression of vigor, it’s no wonder that Trump has reacted so fiercely to questions about his health this summer and fall. In June at West Point, Trump seemed to struggle to drink a glass of water and descend a ramp. Matt Drudge spread a video from July in which Trump seemed to be dragging his leg. When a New York Times reporter’s book said Vice President Pence was on standby to take over the duties of the president during a mysterious trip by Trump to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center last year, Trump fiercely denied having a series of mini-strokes—though the book had made no such allegation. Trump’s denial only fed speculation. As I have written, speculative, long-distance diagnoses about Trump’s health are beside the point. Whatever the cause for impairment, it’s the president’s ability to do his job that matters most.

Stephen Colbert spent a good portion of his monologue Wednesday night tearing into Trump defense attorney Alan Dershowitz for arguing on the Senate floor that the president’s corruption cannot be impeachable because he did it in the “public interest” of getting himself re-elected.“Sifting through the logical turd Dershowitz just pinched out in the Senate well there, it’s hard to find the largest corn kernel of logical fallacy,” the Late Show host said before zeroing in on the lawyer’s “justification why any quid pro quo with a foreign government to manipulate our elections would be fine.” In response to Dershowitz saying a president’s election is “in the public interest,” Colbert shot back, “No, it’s not! Only the public gets to decide what’s in the public interest—not the politician. It’s ‘we the people’ not ‘you the douchebag.’” “Of course, esteemed counselor tighty-whitey does think that some quid pro quo might be possibly bad,” Colbert said, apparently referring to Dershowitz’s admission that he received a massage at Jeffrey Epstein’s mansion but kept his underwear on. While Dershowitz said it would be wrong for a “hypothetical” president to get a monetary “kickback” from a foreign leader in exchange for releasing foreign aid, he argued that if that person thinks he’s “the greatest president that ever was” and does whatever he wants to win the election, “that cannot be an impeachable offense.” “That cannot be an impeachable offense?” Colbert asked in response. “You can do anything if you believe in yourself?” He imagined the inspirational poster in Dershowitz’s office that reads, “Confidence: When you believe you can fly, you’re always above the law.”

Gunmen stormed the offices of Save the Children in Jalalabad on Wednesday, killing at least six people and wounding 27 in an attack claimed by Islamic State.The latest assault on a foreign charity in Afghanistan underlined the growing dangers for aid workers in the country, who have become casualties of an increase in militant violence in recent years.The attack began just after 9am when a suicide car bomb was detonated outside the offices. The attackers then used rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) to blast their way inside.Afghan security forces fought the gunmen for nearly 10 hours, at one stage rescuing nearly 50 people from the basement of the building as fighting continued on the floors above, said a member of the Ningarhar provincial government, Sohrab Qaderi.Army officials said at least six people had been killed – two soldiers, two guards working for Save the Children and two other civilians, one of whom also worked for the British charity. Another 27 people were wounded, including nine Afghan security service members.Save the Children confirmed “with profound sadness” that three of its staff members had been killed in the attack. “All other staff have been safely rescued from the office. Four were injured in the attack and are receiving medical treatment,” a spokesman said.“Save the Children condemns this attack in the strongest possible terms. We are shocked and appalled at the violence carried out against our staff in Afghanistan, who are dedicated humanitarians, committed to improving the lives and wellbeing of millions of children across the country.”The incident was claimed by Isis, which has established a foothold in eastern Nangarhar province, of which Jalalabad is the capital. The group said in a statement it was targeting British and Swedish groups in the region.All Save the Children programmes across Afghanistan were being temporarily suspended and offices shut. “Investigations into the nature of the attack are ongoing and the motive cannot yet be confirmed,” the organisation said. “We remain committed to resuming our operations and lifesaving work as quickly as possible, as soon as we can be assured that it is safe to do so.”Up to four heavily armed insurgents are thought to have been involved in the attack. Initial information suggested the men had been wearing military uniforms, said Attaullah Khogyani, a provincial government spokesman.Television footage and video shot by onlookers during the attack showed thick smoke billowing from a burning car outside the complex and a fire burning on at least one floor of the building.Zabiullah, a Save the Children employee who uses one name, said he had heard “a very big explosion” and seen gunmen rushing into the office. “The attackers just opened the doors and threw grenades then opened fire,” he said. “When me and my friends saw the situation we rushed the basement. I saw six of my colleagues who were wounded. We were terrified and locked the door.”Mohammad Amin, who was in the compound at the time, told AFP from his hospital bed that he had heard “a big blast”. “We ran for cover and I saw a gunman hitting the main gate with an RPG to enter the compound,” Amin said. “I jumped out of the window.”Worried relatives gathered at the scene during the gun battle between the militants and security forces. “I am here because my son is stuck inside,” said one onlooker, Khan Jan. “I am worried for him. I haven’t been able to get in touch with him. He switched [off] his phone.”A Taliban spokesman said his group was not involved in the attack. At the weekend Taliban gunmen raided a luxury hotel in Kabul, killing at least 22 people, mostly foreigners.The UN’s mission in Afghanistan tweeted that it was looking into reports of Wednesday’s violence. “Attacks directed at civilians or aid organisations are clear violations of international humanitarian law and may amount to war crimes,” it said.The assault on Save the Children, which has operated in Afghanistan since 1976, follows an ambush of International Committee of the Red Cross workers last year. Six employees were killed in that attack, and the charity said in October it would “drastically” reduce its presence in the country. The decision by the Red Cross, which has been working in Afghanistan for more than 30 years, highlighted the growing dangers facing aid workers.The UK ambassador to Afghanistan, Nick Kay, said Wednesday’s incident was an outrage. “Any attack on children & humanitarians is a crime against humanity,” he said on Twitter.US and Afghan forces have been carrying out ground and air operations against Isis fighters in Nangarhar. While Afghan security forces are conducting most of the fighting against Isis and Taliban militants, US troops operate alongside them in a training capacity and are frequently on the frontline.The last major attack in Jalalabad was on 31 December, when an explosion at a funeral killed 18 mourners and wounded 13. There was no claim of responsibility.Last April the US detonated the largest conventional bomb it has ever used in combat against Isis fighters in the Achin district of Nangarhar province. The Afghan government claimed the “mother of all bombs” killed 90 militants. Bilal Sarwary contributed to this report from Kabul. Akhtar Mohammad Makoii reported from Herat. Topics Afghanistan South and Central Asia Charities Aid Islamic State news

The risk of civil collapse from nuclear weapons and the climate crisis is at a record high, according to US scientists and former officials, calling the current environment “profoundly unstable”.They said the rise of “cyber-enabled disinformation campaigns” compounds both threats by keeping the public from insisting on progress.The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists announced its symbolic “doomsday clock” has moved forward to 100 seconds to midnight, the closest to catastrophe that the scientists have judged the world to be at any point since its creation in 1947, at the outset of the cold war.“The world needs to wake up. Our planet faces two simultaneous existential threats,” said Mary Robinson, chair of an independent group of global leaders called The Elders, and the former president of Ireland and former UN high commissioner of human rights.Robinson said that countries that don’t aim to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions heating the planet and instead exploit fossil fuels are issuing “a death sentence for humanity”.She said while public pressure presents a “sliver of hope” for the climate, there is no such pressure on leaders to avert nuclear threats.As long as nuclear weapons are available it is inevitable they will one day be used, “by accident, miscalculation or design”, she said. Robert Rosner, chair of the Bulletin’s science and security board, said society has normalized a very dangerous world, and that “information warfare” is undermining “the public’s ability to sort out what’s true and what’s patently false”.Sharon Squassoni, a board member and research professor at George Washington University, noted the US withdrawal from the Iran nuclear agreement, which has resulted in Iran reducing compliance. And she said although some thought Donald Trump’s unique approach might bring North Korea to the negotiating table, no real progress has ensued.The warning comes as nuclear arms control is in danger of dying out altogether. The Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty lapsed in August after the US accused Russia of cheating and Donald Trump declared he would leave the 1987 treaty altogether. The US has begun testing medium-range missiles similar to the new Russian weapon, although it is unclear where in Europe or Asia they would be based.The death of the INF leaves the New Start treaty as the last remaining limit on the US and Russian deployed strategic arsenals. It was agreed in 2010 by the then Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, and Barack Obama, and it expires in February 2021.It can be extended for five years and Vladimir Putin has said he is willing to agree an extension, but the Trump administration has insisted that China be included. China, whose arsenal is a 20th of the two nuclear superpowers and not as aggressively deployed, has ruled out joining in.The farthest the doomsday clock has ever been from midnight was 17 minutes at the end of the cold war.While nuclear warfare remains a threat, the climate crisis continues to intensify, as the US federal government under Trump has withdrawn from international climate efforts.Last year was the second hottest on record for the Earth’s surface. The 2019 average temperature was 1.1C warmer than the average between 1850 and 1900, before the ramp-up of fossil fuel use. Greenhouse gas emissions from human activities are on track to push that warming to 3 or 4C. The disruptions are intensifying extreme weather and expected to exacerbate poverty and global unrest.“If the Earth warms by what we tend to think of as just a few degrees and human life pushes the planet into the opposite of an Ice Age … or even pushes the climate halfway there, we have no reason to be confident that such a world will remain hospitable to human civilization,” said Sivan Kartha, a board member, senior scientist at the Stockholm Environment Institute and author of the fifth and sixth assessment reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.Robert Latiff, a board member and retired air force major general, said the Trump administration’s “disdain for expert opinion” threatens action on climate change and a host of other science-based issues. New technologies and developments – from “deep fake” videos, to dangerous pathogens and artificial intelligence, all could threaten a fragile global peace. Topics Nuclear weapons Climate change (Environment) Climate change (Science) news

[Read more on Brazil’s Coronavirus cases and deaths.]RIO DE JANEIRO — As the coronavirus tore through Brazil, President Jair Bolsonaro came under blistering criticism for sabotaging the isolation measures imposed by states, encouraging mass rallies by his supporters and lashing out on the soaring death toll, saying, “What do you want me to do?”Now that the outbreak in Brazil has gotten even worse — with more infections than any country but the United States — Mr. Bolsonaro’s government has come up with a unique response to the growing alarm: It decided to stop reporting the cumulative toll of the virus altogether.Brazil’s health ministry took down the website where it had been reporting coronavirus statistics on Friday. And then, when it came back online on Saturday, the site omitted the historical data — leaving out how many people had already been infected or killed because of the virus.Lawmakers and health experts quickly attacked Mr. Bolsonaro in unusually blistering terms. Not only did they condemn the government’s decision to withhold comprehensive statistics as deaths and contagion continue to soar, but they roundly criticized the Bolsonaro administration’s repeated practice of playing down the danger of the virus, regardless of what scientists and his own health ministers may say.Gilmar Mendes, a Supreme Court justice, called the government’s “manipulation of statistics a tactic of totalitarian regimes,” adding that the “trick will not absolve the government from an eventual genocide.”ImageLawmakers and health experts have condemned the decision to withhold coronavirus data made by the administration of Jair Bolsonaro.Credit...Adriano Machado/ReutersThe pandemic — and, specifically, the government responses to them — have been highly contentious around the world. But in few places have the issues been quite as polarizing as in Brazil, a country already separated by a political chasm between Mr. Bolsonaro’s furious detractors and equally fervent devotees. Less than 10 percent of Americans have coronavirus antibodies, a new study finds. In the U.S., the virus is spreading fastest in the heartland. Florida lifts restrictions for restaurants and other businesses. Mr. Bolsonaro, who initially described the virus as a “measly flu,” says the challenge of the virus is dwarfed by the economic fallout of stay-at-home measures, and that the real danger is the rising unemployment that will leave people hungry.But he has also come under withering criticism for joining large pro-government protests that risk spreading the virus, for ordering the armed forces to mass produce an unproven medication for the virus, hydroxychloroquine, and for fighting with his own health officials as the crisis intensified.Now Brazil is suffering the highest daily number of deaths in the world — often over 1,000 a day — and the government has stopped reporting the cumulative toll of the outbreak.“By altering the numbers, the health ministry is trying to cover the sun with a sieve,” Rodrigo Maia, the Speaker of the lower House of Congress said in a message on Twitter posted shortly after midnight on Monday. “It is urgent to restore the credibility of statistics. A ministry that distorts numbers creates a parallel universe to avoid facing the reality of facts.”Carlos Wizard Martins, a businessman who was recently tapped to help lead the government’s response, told the newspaper O Globo last week that the country’s coronavirus statistics were being audited because federal officials believed that states were reporting inflated figures in an effort to secure more funding.That explanation, which was not supported by evidence, was broadly seen as the government’s latest misstep in its response to the outbreak.ImageResidents of the Paraisópolis favela in São Paulo protested for better health care during the coronavirus pandemic.Credit...Victor Moriyama for The New York TimesThe health ministry has been rocked by personnel turnover in recent weeks as the virus took hold in Brazil. Mr. Bolsonaro fired one health minister, Luiz Henrique Mandetta, in mid-April after the two clashed over the president’s disdain for social distancing measures that the ministry and state governors were promoting.Then the health minister’s successor, Nelson Teich, quit after less than a month on the job, leaving the ministry in the command of an active duty general with no health care experience.The government on Sunday issued two different figures on the latest daily death toll, initially reporting 1,382 fatalities, only to revise that number to 525. The ministry said the early figure included erroneously reported deaths.The health ministry on Sunday also said in a statement that its new record-keeping method would provide “a more realistic snapshot of what is happening at the national level.”The government did not explain its new methodology for tracking cases.Over the weekend, the National Council of Health Secretaries, which represents local health officials, launched a website compiling comprehensive data. According to that tally, as of Sunday Brazil had more than 680,400 confirmed coronavirus cases and at least 36,151 deaths.The council responded with indignation to the accusation that state officials were providing fictitious numbers for monetary gain, referring to the allegation leveled by Mr. Wizard.Over the weekend, outraged Brazilians called for a boycott of Mr. Wizard’s businesses. On Sunday night, Mr. Wizard announced he would step down from his role in government.“I apologize for any statement I have made that could have been interpreted as disrespectful toward the relatives of victims of Covid-19 or health professionals who have embraced the noble mission of saving lives,” he said in a statement.ImageCarlos Wizard, tapped to help lead the government’s response, said the coronavirus statistics were being audited because of a belief that states were inflating figures. He has since resigned.Credit...Miguel Schincariol/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesBrazil, which has a robust public health care system, has historically excelled at epidemiological surveillance. If anything, experts said that a rigorous audit of Covid-19 cases would reveal that the disease has killed more people than the official data has captured because testing has been severely limited. An analysis by the Times found that in Manaus, a metropolis deep in the Amazon, the number of deaths in April was three times its historical average for the month.“The tampering of pandemic data by the Ministry of Health is, to say the least, distressful,” said Denise Garrett, a Brazilian American epidemiologist who worked at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for more than two decades. “The data should be communicated in a transparent, accurate and timely manner. This is crucial for decision-making and also of utmost importance to avoid public confusion.”Manuela Andreoni and Letícia Casado contributed reporting.

Natural disasters claimed 10,400 lives and imposed $160 billion worth of damage to the global economy last year, German reinsurer Munich Re said today. That’s down from $350 billion and 13,000 fatalities in 2017. The good news, such as it is, stops there.Subject to yearly fluctuations, the cost of natural disasters is set to rise because they’re generally getting more frequent over time. Munich Re counted 850 “natural catastrophes” last year (pdf), up from 740 the year before. The average annual cost of disasters over the past 30 years, $140 billion, is still lower than last year’s relatively modest total.Take the California wildfires that have raged in recent years. Increasingly dry and hot weather in the US state is sparking larger flames—three-quarters of the biggest fires there have taken place over the last two decades, according to National Geographic. “Such massive wildfires appear to be occurring more frequently as a result of climate change,” said Munich Re Board member Torsten Jeworrek.Wildfires caused $24 billion in economic damage to California last year, three-quarters of which was insured, according to Munich Re. Entire cities were wiped out by the blazes, whose after-effects are continuing to hit private pocket books and corporate balance sheets.For example, this week S&P downgraded the debt of California utility PG&E investment rating to “junk” status. The move is partly due to new regulatory pressures, but a larger part of the story is that the company’s equipment may be found liable for causing some of the fires, representing billions in potential liabilities.The most sweeping study to date on the costs of climate change was published by Nature in May 2018, and it pegged the savings related to curbing emissions, of which avoided costs of disasters are a part, at a whopping $20 trillion.

“The sum may seem low — we realize that,” he said. “This is a unique situation, and we have looked at the concrete danger in each case. If the person was one to two meters away from the truck, it is deemed attempted murder. If the person is farther away, it is considered endangering a life.”Mr. Akilov, a welder from Samarkand, Uzbekistan, applied for asylum in November 2014, but was rejected and told to leave. (It is unclear when he entered Sweden.) When his appeal was also rejected, he went underground, working in construction around Sweden. The authorities could not find him to deport him.The police said that they had looked for Mr. Akilov in February last year but that he had already gone underground. Even if he had been found, however, it would have been difficult to deport him because of the poor human rights situation in Uzbekistan, Patrik Engstrom, the head of the Swedish border police, told The New York Times last year.Shortly before 3 p.m. on April 7, 2017, Mr. Akilov, then 39, hijacked a delivery truck parked in central Stockholm and turned on to a busy shopping street, Drottninggatan. Then, in a 40-second terror spree, he mowed down and killed five people and injured almost a dozen others before he crashed into a department store.He tried to detonate a homemade bomb in the truck before fleeing the scene, Judge Palmkvist said. Hours later, the police arrested Mr. Akilov in a suburb north of Stockholm. He immediately admitted to the attack, the authorities said.Three people were killed immediately; two died later in hospital. Those killed included Ebba Akerlund, 11; Lena Wahlberg, 69, a retired teacher; Marie Kide, a 66-year-old Swede; Crispin Benvington, 41, a Briton who worked for the music streaming service Spotify in Stockholm; and Maïlys Dereymaeker, 31, of Belgium, who was visiting the city.A few hours before the terrorist act, Mr. Akilov filmed himself on his mobile phone swearing allegiance to the Islamic State and saying, “It is time to kill,” the police said.

In particular, Mr. Griffin and Mr. Shams examined the flow of Tether, a token that is supposed to be tied to the value of the dollar and that is issued exclusively by Bitfinex in large batches. They found that half of the increase in Bitcoin’s price in 2017 could be traced to the hours immediately after Tether flowed to a handful of other exchanges, generally when the price was declining.Other large virtual currencies that can be purchased with Tether, such as Ether and Zcash, rose even more quickly than Bitcoin in those periods. The prices rose much more quickly on exchanges that accepted Tether than they did on those that did not, and the pattern ceased when Bitfinex stopped issuing new Tether this year, the authors found.Sarah Meiklejohn, a professor at the University College London who pioneered this sort of pattern spotting, said the analysis in the new paper “seems sound” after reviewing it this week.Philip Gradwell, the chief economist at Chainalysis, a firm that analyses blockchain data, also said the study “seems credible.” He cautioned that a full understanding of the patterns would require more analysis.Mr. Griffin previously wrote research pointing to fraudulent behavior in several other financial markets. He drew attention for a 2016 paper that suggested that a popular financial contract tied to the volatility in financial markets, known as the VIX, was being manipulated. A whistle-blower later came forward to confirm those suspicions, and now several active lawsuits are focused on the allegations.Beyond his work at the University of Texas, Mr. Griffin has a consulting firm that works on financial fraud cases, including some in the virtual currency industry.

In a bipartisan rebuke to President Donald Trump, the US House of Representatives has overwhelmingly passed a resolution condemning his decision to pull United States troops out of Syria, abandoning US allies in the region as Turkish troops have moved in.The 354-60 vote on the resolution Wednesday was largely symbolic, but it signaled the widespread disapproval among lawmakers for Trump’s latest controversial foreign policy move. It came as fighting continued in northeastern Syria between Turkey and Kurdish fighters, who have been a key US ally in fighting the terror group ISIS. “At President Trump’s hands, American leadership has been laid low, and American foreign policy has become nothing more than a tool to advance his own interests,” said House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Eliot Engel (D-NY), who introduced the resolution. “Today we make clear that the Congress is a coequal branch of government and we want nothing to do with this disastrous policy.”Trump’s decision to pull out American troops pleased Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who promptly moved his troops in to fight Kurdish militias he views as a threat. But it inflamed both congressional Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill. This follows a pattern; Republicans have been most willing to rebuke Trump on his foreign policy choices, including a vote to end the Saudi war in Yemen. Some who have otherwise defended Trump throughout his impeachment inquiry in the House have been quick to criticize him on the chaos he’s causing in the region — fearing it will spur a reemergence of ISIS.“The entire region will suffer the consequences of some very bad actors getting back on the battlefield again because of that,” said Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) on the Senate floor Wednesday. “The administration clearly did not coordinate with the State Department, with the Department of Defense, with what was happening in the region, to make sure we were securing those fighters and preparing for that moment.”The non-binding resolution reiterates the House’s opposition to the pullout of Syria troops and calls on Turkey to stop its military action in the country. It also asks Trump to present a plan to combat and defeat ISIS in the region. Both the House and Senate are considering sanctions packages in the coming days that go beyond the White House’s proposed punitive measures against Turkey. It appears Trump is shutting down communication with Congress on Syria; the White House abruptly canceled a bipartisan all-member Congressional briefing on the situation, per a tweet from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. I am deeply concerned that the White House has canceled an all-Member classified briefing on the dangerous situation the President has caused in Syria, denying the Congress its right to be informed as it makes decisions about our national security.— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) October 16, 2019 However, Pelosi and other Democratic Congressional leaders still met with Trump on Wednesday, during which Pelosi said the president had a “meltdown.” Upon exiting the White House, she and others recounted an explosive meeting with Trump. Pelosi told reporters outside the White House that Trump appeared “shaken up” by the House vote during a meeting she and other Democratic leaders had with the president.“That’s why we couldn’t continue in the meeting, because he was just not relating to the reality of it,” Pelosi said.Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) clarified that Democrats had walked out after Trump called Pelosi a “third-rate politician.”“What we witnessed on the part of the president was a meltdown,” Pelosi added. “Sad to say.”Predictably, the White House saw the meeting differently, per a statement White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham to PBS NewsHour.“The president was measured, factual and decisive, while Speaker Pelosi’s decision to walk out was baffling, but not surprising,” Grisham said. “While Democratic leadership chose to storm out and get in front of the cameras to whine, everyone else in the meeting chose to stay in the room and work on behalf of this country.”At an earlier press conference Wednesday, Trump appeared to endorse Russia taking on more of a role in the region, another viewpoint that alarmed congressional Republicans. A bipartisan Senate version of the House resolution condemning Trump’s move was also introduced Tuesday. But there’s not a lot of teeth in these resolutions. Senate Republicans don’t break with Trump on much, but the president’s decision to withdraw troops from northern Syria has prompted significant pushback from several of his allies in the upper chamber. Although Republicans appeared to reconcile some concerns earlier this week, statements that Trump made during a press appearance on Wednesday have seemingly caused the conflict to flare up once more. During an event with the Italian president, Trump sought to defend his decision to remove troops from the region, noting that the United States’ Kurdish allies are “not angels” and that the ongoing clashes between Turkey and Syria were “not between Turkey and the United States.”Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), one of Trump’s stalwart supporters in the Senate, shot back quickly regarding the president’s comments. “If the president did say that Turkey’s invasion is no concern to us, I find that to be an outstanding — an astonishing statement which I completely and totally reject,” he told NBC News. Graham elaborated on his criticism in a Twitter thread, emphasizing that Trump’s statements could lead to a “disaster worse than President Obama’s decision to leave Iraq.” However, I firmly believe that if President Trump continues to make such statements this will be a disaster worse than President Obama’s decision to leave Iraq.— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) October 16, 2019 Trump’s decision to remove troops from Syria has previously prompted questions from many Republicans who have favored American intervention in the region and voted to preserve it. Sens. Pat Toomey (R-PA), Mitch McConnell (R-KY), and Joni Ernst (R-IA) were among those who argued that Trump’s actions were a “betrayal” of the United States’ Kurdish allies, when he made the announcement last week. On Monday, Trump said he would impose sanctions on Turkey in an effort to curb the country’s military onslaught in northern Syria, a move that has not appeared to deter Turkish forces. Trump’s decision appeased some Republicans including Graham, however, prompting them to applaud the president’s attempts to target Turkey. “Given the events that have happened at this point, it’s probably the most you can do in the short term,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) told Politico. Trump’s comments on Wednesday and the ongoing military offensive from Turkey have sustained renewed pushback in the Senate, though. In addition to the Republican uproar, Senate Democratic leaders are calling for lawmakers to back the House’s bipartisan resolution condemning the President’s decision to remove troops in the region. “Sanctions against Erdoğan are fine and good. President Erdoğan should be punished for his military adventurism and his aggression. But sanctions alone are insufficient,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a floor speech Wednesday. McConnell expressed hopes that a meeting between Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and Erdoğan would lead to a resolution of the current conflict. “I’m sorry that we are where we are. I hope the Vice President and the Secretary of State can somehow repair the damage,” McConnell said during a weekly press briefing.Update: This piece was updated to include a statement from White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham.

Choosing to live in a crime-stressed neighborhood in Newark, the city New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker once led as mayor, gives him a perspective that America sorely needs at this time. As rioters and looters turned peaceful protests into nights of chaos and violence, Booker tweeted, “My team right now is drafting legislation to achieve better transparency and accountability into police misconduct in this country. We know what we need to do—now we need to manifest a collective will to get it done.” It was 5:57 a.m. Sunday morning, a weekend from hell, and the congenitally energetic Booker would soon be on CNN talking about the need for a national registry of cops who have been terminated for misconduct, or had complaints brought against them, so problem officers can’t easily get hired in another jurisdiction. Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis cop charged in the death of George Floyd, had 18 conduct complaints brought against him in his 19-year career. Booker’s registry wouldn’t address the systemic toleration that allowed an officer so compromised to remain on street duty. But another proposed reform would get at what drives the anger behind the protests—that a police officer who committed such a heinous act of murder in broad daylight with everyone watching would be charged only with third-degree murder. The legislation that Booker is readying would alter Section 242, the federal statute governing police misconduct, to change the intention standard from “willfulness standard” to “recklessness standard.” To win a first-degree murder charge, a prosecutor would have to prove that Chauvin had willful intention that he sought to kill Floyd, a very high bar that is rarely met in the world of policing. The three pillars of Booker’s reform package call for police accountability, more data, and more training. He would ban choke holds and restrict no-knock warrants of the kind that led to the tragic death of Breonna Taylor, who was asleep in her own home in Louisville, Kentucky, when the cops barged in. Booker would change the “qualified immunity doctrine” in federal law so that victims of police misconduct would no longer be barred from recovering damages in the form of financial remuneration when police violate their constitutional rights. The core of the proposed legislation is its call for data to lift the curtain of secrecy around police procedures. “It is really stunning in this day and age that there is no federal reporting on state and local statistics on law enforcement use of force,” an aide to Booker told The Daily Beast. “They receive money from the federal government, and they’re not reporting data about when force is being used, and demographic data on who that force is being used against.” An investigation in 2018 of 72,677 use-of-force reports in New Jersey by NJ Advance Media for NJ.com found that 38 percent were brought by 10 percent of the officers. “You can imagine if we have this data nationwide what we will learn,” says the Booker aide. Ed Chung, a former prosecutor who works on criminal justice reform at the Center for American Progress, supports Booker’s effort but cautions, “If we can get that information, great, but we’re going to get a lot of pushback.” On a call with civil rights leaders Monday, Sherrilyn Ifill of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund invoked President Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing, a seminal work that she said is “gathering dust” on a shelf at the Department of Justice. “There’s no confusion about what we want,” she said. “We have been talking about this ad nauseam for the last five years.”Now’s the time for action, and Booker has the zeal of a convert. He wasn’t always on the side of progressive reform. He won the Newark mayor’s race in 2006–his second try–on a platform of zero tolerance policing, promising to prosecute even the most minor infractions while boosting social services to the most challenged communities. Crime fell, but grievances mounted against the police for racial profiling, harassing minorities with unwarranted stops, and finally and most telling, the use of excessive force. When the ACLU petitioned the Department of Justice to intervene in 2010, Booker argued the outside interference was “one of the worst ways” to bring about meaningful change. “We don’t need people who are going to frustrate, undermine and mischaracterize our agency.” Booker had his eyes opened and his consciousness raised by the ACLU, and he would later say he was “relieved and enthusiastic” about working with the DOJ to address the allegations brought by the ACLU. Times changed, and in the new era of Black Lives Matter, Booker is in the forefront in the U.S. Senate pushing for progressive criminal justice reforms. If there’s anything surprising about his turnaround, it’s why it didn’t happen sooner. When Booker was graduating from Stanford in 1992, he wrote a column describing how he felt after a jury acquitted Rodney King’s assailants, four police officers, setting off violent protests in Los Angeles. “I’m a black man. I am 6 feet 3 inches tall and 230 pounds, just like King. Do I scare you? Am I a threat? Does your fear justify your actions? Twelve people believed it did.” “I was in Atlanta in 1968 when Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis by a white man.”He also recounted how police had recently stopped him near the George Washington Bridge that connects New Jersey and New York. “Five police cars, six officers, surround my car, guns ready,” he wrote. “I sat shaking.” Once cleared, he was told that he had fit the description of a car thief. No black person, however accomplished, is immune from the racism that lingers in the air like an invisible dust, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar wrote this week.I was in Atlanta in 1968 when Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis by a white man. Newsweek sent the four of us in the Atlanta bureau gas masks in anticipation of the city erupting in riots. We didn’t need them. Mine is still in the basement as a reminder of that time. The city’s progressive white mayor, Ivan Allen, led the way in a police car for the nearly 4,000 black students from the city’s historically black colleges to march through the neighborhoods. A decade earlier, Allen had run a failed race for governor on a segregationist platform. "I wasn't so all-fired liberal when I first moved into City Hall," he wrote in his book, Notes on the Sixties. “But when I saw what the race-baiters were doing or could do to hold back the orderly growth of Atlanta, it infuriated me and eventually swung me to the extreme end opposite them.” Two years earlier, in 1966, attempting to quell a riot in a black neighborhood, Allen climbed on a police car to talk to the crowd, only to be toppled to the ground as the protesters rocked the vehicle. Uninjured and undeterred, he walked the streets without a riot helmet urging his black constituents to “please go home,” and shouting, “This is a good city. Help keep it that way, and go home.” Peace prevailed under his leadership. it was “the city too busy to hate.” Other cities didn’t fare so well, and Richard Nixon galvanized the grievances and the fear felt by whites to win the White House. Then as now the peaceful protests were hijacked by the more extreme elements, and the politics were seized by one side. An election shaping up to be a referendum on Trump’s handling of the coronavirus could turn into a choice of leadership on race, America’s original sin. From knee to knee, from Colin Kaepernick to George Floyd, America is now at another decision point. There is no more margin for error.

Brazil has overtaken the United Kingdom to become the country with the third-highest number of confirmed coronavirus infections, amid warnings from its former health minister that three painful months lie ahead.Latin America’s largest economy has now recorded 254,220 cases, placing it behind only the United States and Russia, and ahead of the UK, which on Monday had 247,706.Meanwhile, in Mexico – the region’s No 2 economy – allegations that Covid-19 deaths were being dramatically undercounted added fuel to an increasingly acrimonious political battle over the government’s response to the pandemic.Brazil has officially suffered 16,792 Covid-19 deaths – the world’s sixth-highest number – although underreporting and low testing rates mean the true figure is likely to be considerably higher.One leading newspaper, O Globo, has claimed that Brazil’s former health minister, Luiz Henrique Mandetta, feared the death toll could eventually reach 150,000.Despite the intensifying public health crisis, Brazilian front pages continue to be dominated by the political turmoil engulfing the far-right presidency of Jair Bolsonaro.Two health ministers have left Bolsonaro’s administration in the space of a month, with the latest, Nelson Teich, resigning last Friday after clashing with the president. Teich’s predecessor, Mandetta, was sacked in mid-April after publicly questioning Bolsonaro’s flouting of social distancing guidelines.In an interview with the Folha de São Paulo newspaper on Monday, Mandetta painted a bleak portrait of the situation his country faced.“The health ministry is a ship that has lost its way,” Mandetta said, warning that Brazil was only two months into a traumatic five-month period that would only begin normalizing in September.Mandetta predicted at least three major cities – Manaus and Belém in the Amazon and Fortaleza in the north-east – would have to impose lockdowns because of the rapid spread of the coronavirus. Authorities in Manaus have been forced to dig mass graves for Covid-19 victims because of the soaring number of deaths.Bolsonaro’s deliberate undermining of social distancing and quarantine measures has sparked outrage and seen opposition to his government rise – although the rightwing populist continues to boast a hardcore of support.Miguel Lago, the director of Brazil’s Institute for Health Policy Studies, said he feared the political upheaval was compromising efforts to save lives.“It’s terrible to see that Brazil is more worried about politics than with health … It’s absurd that in the middle of a humanitarian crisis we are discussing petty politics so much,” he said.“But I think this is Bolsonaro’s strategy,” Lago added, arguing that the president was trying to distract from and disown the negative human and economic impact of the pandemic.“There are many important discussions we should be having. How can we fight the economic crisis? How can we fight the health crisis? How can we improve our health system during and after the coronavirus crisis? How can we deal with the loss of 10% of our GDP? But none of those discussions are taking place. All we are discussing is politics,” Lago complained.The pandemic has also become the subject of a bitter political row in Mexico, which has so far officially registered 51,633 coronavirus infections and 5,332 deaths.But a review of death certificates in Mexico City published by investigative journalists suggests an undercounting of Covid-19 deaths by a factor of three – at a time when the country is preparing to reopen and the president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, is speaking confidently of “taming” the coronavirus.Reporters from the anti-graft group Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity gained access to Mexico City death certificates and found 4,577 cases where physicians listed the probable or possible cause of death as Covid-19 or coronavirus. That figure is more than triple the 1,332 confirmed deaths in Mexico City that are acknowledged by the federal government.The investigation follows a series of stories alleging that Mexico is undercounting its Covid-19 deaths.Mexico City’s government has denied any deliberate undercounting and the country’s coronavirus tsar, Hugo López-Gatell, has admitted Mexico probably has more than eight times more Covid-19 deaths than officially recorded.“We have a bureaucratic and Jurassic system for data capture,” said Xavier Tello, a physician and healthcare analyst, offering a partial explanation for the difficulties in compiling the Covid-19 death toll. Information is often handwritten, he added, and prone to errors and discretion. “We have a 21st-century pandemic, followed by 1980s means.”On Tuesday, López Obrador again dismissed criticism of his government’s response. “For us, the strategy has been successful,” he said. Topics Coronavirus outbreak Brazil Mexico Americas Jair Bolsonaro Andrés Manuel López Obrador news

Apple just announced adigital-only event on Sept. 15where it's expected to reveal its newest iPhones. Apple typically unveils its new iPhones during an event at its headquarters in Cupertino, Calif. in September, but this year it will host it online-only due to the ongoing spread of the coronavirus. From a report: It's possible Apple also announces the Apple Watch Series 6, a refresh to its iPad Air and other products at the event. The event starts at 10 a.m. PT. Apple didn't provide any additional details but will likely stream it online, as it usually does. Apple is expected to announce four new iPhones this year, including two "regular" iPhone 12 models and two iPhone 12 Pro models with new designs that include sharper edges around the corners. For reference, the new design will be similar to 2010's iPhone 4, according to TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Screen sizes include a 5.4-inch model, two with 6.1-inch screens and a big model with a 6.7-inch display, according to Kuo, who also said that Apple won't include headphones or a charger in the box.

Federal investigators have accused Donald Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, of tampering with potential witnesses while on bail ahead of his federal bank fraud and tax case.Prosecutors asked that the judge overseeing his case “revoke or revise” the order releasing him ahead of trial.In a court filing on Monday, prosecutors working for the special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, said Manafort and an associate “repeatedly” attempted to contact witnesses using his phone and an encrypted messaging application. They allege it happened shortly after a grand jury returned a new indictment against Manafort, violating the terms of his house arrest. On Tuesday, US district judge Amy Berman Jackson gave Manafort until Friday to respond to the allegations of attempted witness tampering and set a hearing for 15 June. In an emailed statement Manafort’s spokesman, Jason Maloni, said: “Mr Manafort is innocent and nothing about this latest allegation changes our defense. We will do our talking in court.”Mueller has indicted Manafort in federal courts in Washington and Virginia. He was released to home confinement after his arraignment in October.Manafort faces felony charges in the two cases over allegations he concealed tens of millions of dollars from the Internal Revenue Service that he had earned advising pro-Russia politicians in Ukraine. He is also accused of conspiring to launder money and failing to register as a foreign agent when he lobbied for the pro-Russia Ukrainian government. The events took place before Trump ran for president.Manafort has pleaded not guilty to all the charges.FBI agent Brock Domin wrote in court documents that Manafort “contacted and attempted to contact” two unnamed witnesses, “in an effort to influence their testimony and to otherwise conceal evidence”. He added: “The investigation into this matter is ongoing.” The witnesses, according to the court filings, worked with Manafort in organizing the Hapsburg Group, described by the counsel’s office as “a group of former senior European politicians to take positions favorable to Ukraine, including by lobbying in the United States”.One of the potential witnesses told the government that he believed Manafort’s outreach was an effort to “suborn perjury”, a criminal offense to induce a witness to lie under oath. Manafort attempted to contact one of the witnesses in February after a federal grand jury in Washington returned a “superseding indictment”, which accused him of having “secretly retained” a group of European officials to lobby for positions favorable to Ukraine in the US. According to the court filing, Manafort called and messaged one of the witnesses on 24 February, the day after his longtime associate and a former Trump campaign official entered guilty pleas to conspiracy and lying to the FBI. During one call the witness told the government that Manafort identified himself and said he wanted to give “a heads-up about Hapsburg”. The witness said he hung up because he was “concerned” about the call, according to the affidavit. Manafort continued to try to contact him with an encrypted messaging application. Through the app, Manafort sent a link to Business Insider story titled “Former European leaders struggle to explain themselves after Mueller claims Paul Manafort paid them to lobby for Ukraine”. Then he wrote: “We should talk. I have made clear that they worked in Europe.”The filing says: “The government confirmed that these messages were sent by Manafort, upon review of Manafort’s iCloud account pursuant to a court-authorized search.”Trump has repeatedly denied collusion with Russia and on Monday called Mueller’s investigation a “phony Russian witch hunt”. Topics Trump-Russia investigation Paul Manafort Robert Mueller Donald Trump Russia Trump administration US politics

image captionThe 86-year-old grandmother was raped in DelhiTens of thousands of rapes are reported in India every year, but some stand out for being deeply disturbing.In one particularly shocking case, police in the capital, Delhi, have arrested a man in his 30s for the rape and assault of an 86-year-old grandmother."The woman was waiting outside her home on Monday evening for the milkman when she was approached by her attacker," Swati Maliwal, head of the Delhi Commission for Women, told the BBC."He told her that her regular milk delivery man wasn't coming and offered to take her to the place where she could get milk." The octogenarian trustingly accompanied him, said Ms Maliwal, adding that he took her to a nearby farm where he raped her."She kept crying and begging him to leave her. She told him that she was like his grandmother. But he ignored her pleas and assaulted her mercilessly when she tried to resist and protect herself," Ms Maliwal said.Local villagers who were passing by heard her cries and rescued her. They handed over the attacker to the police.Ms Maliwal, who visited the survivor at her home on Tuesday, described her meeting as "heart-breaking"."Her hands are totally wrinkled. You get a shock when you hear what she went through. There are bruises on her face and all over her body. She is suffering from extreme trauma."image copyrightGetty Imagesimage captionSexual violence against women has been a focus in India in recent yearsMs Maliwal has demanded the death penalty for the attacker, whom she described as "not human"."I'm writing to the chief justice of Delhi High Court and the lieutenant-governor of the city to fast-track the case and hang him in six months," she said.Rapes and sexual violence have been in the spotlight in India since December 2012 when a 23-year-old physiotherapy student was gang-raped on a moving bus in Delhi. She died a few days later from injuries sustained during the assault. Four of the accused were hanged in March.But despite the increased scrutiny of sexual crimes, their numbers continue to rise.Will Delhi rape hangings make women safer?Why Indians are celebrating the killings in Hyderabad According to the National Crime Records Bureau, police recorded 33,977 cases of rape in India in 2018 - that works out to a rape every 15 minutes. But campaigners say the actual numbers are much higher as many cases are not even reported.And not all make news - only the most brutal or shocking get reported in the press.In the last few days, while India has been struggling to cope with the coronavirus pandemic, there have been reports ofan ambulance driver who allegedly raped a Covid-19 patientwhile ferrying her to hospital.Last month, a 13-year-old girl was found raped and murdered in a sugarcane field and her father alleged that her eyes were gouged outand her tongue had been cut.And in July,a six-year-old girl was abducted and rapedand her attacker inflicted severe injuries to her eyes apparently so she couldn't identify him.As women's activist Yogita Bhayana points out, no age group is safe."I have met a month-old girl and women in their 60s who've been raped," Ms Bhayana, who works for People Against Rapes in India (Pari), an NGO working with survivors, says.image copyrightEPAimage captionIndia passed tough new law rape laws in 2013After the global outcry over the brutality of the December 2012 Delhi bus rape, India introduced tough new rape laws, including the death penalty in especially horrific cases, and promised to set up fast-track courts to try rape cases.But, campaigners say, things have not changed much on the ground."The situation hasn't changed because protecting women and girls should top the list of government priorities, but it does not even figure there," Ms Bhayana says. "India talks about external security, but I ask them what about internal security? What are you doing to ensure the safety of women and girls?"Ms Bhayana says over the years, she has written more than 100 letters to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking justice for rape victims, but hasn't received a single response. "Why doesn't he talk about it?" she asks.Was Delhi gang rape India's #Metoo moment?Why do Indian politicians invoke rape to win votes?While in opposition,Mr Modi had described Delhi as "the rape capital"in several election rallies.And after taking over as the prime minister in 2014, he appeared to make it a priority - in his first independence day speech that year,he talked about rapeand offered parents some advice on how to bring up better sons."When we hear about these rapes our heads hang in shame," he said."In every home, parents ask daughters lots of questions as to where she is going, when will she return, and ask her to inform them when she reaches her destination."But have you ever asked your son where he is going, why is he going and who are his friends? After all, the person committing the rape is also someone's son," he said, advising parents to keep tabs on their sons.media captionDelhi Nirbhaya rape death penalty: How the case galvanised IndiaIn India's largely feudal and patriarchal society, this was seen as ground-breaking.But since then the growing cases of sexual violence, many of them involving influential people, have made news - and Mr Modi has mostly kept silent,except for one tweet in 2018 that "India's daughters will get justice" after rape allegations involving members of his own party became headline news.Ms Bhayana says there is "no magic wand, no one thing" that can make this problem of gender violence disappear overnight.She says a lot needs to change - police and judicial reform, greater sensitisation of police and lawyers, and better forensic tools. "But above all, we need gender awareness, we need to work to change the mindsets, to prevent such crimes from happening in the first place." And that is a tough ask, she adds. "There is no sign that any government, be it the Delhi government or the federal government, is serious about tackling gender violence."I've been working in the field for eight years. I've never met anyone who's really serious about the issue."Ms Bhayana says there are hoardings in public places about all sorts of issues, about various achievements of government, about Covid-19, or cautioning people against drug use."But have you ever seen a hoarding in any city about rape or gender violence?" she asks. "We often see hoardings with Mr Modi's pet slogan, "Beti bachao, beti padhao [Educate daughters, save daughters]. I say why don't we change it to Beta padhao, beti bachao [Educate your sons, save daughters]?"

LONDON—The U.K. government has given the green light for Huawei Technologies Co. to build part of its next-generation 5G cellular network, dismissing calls from the Trump administration to boycott the Chinese telecom-equipment vendor over security fears.The government said Huawei would be given permission to build noncritical parts of the country’s 5G network. Britain’s National Security Council concluded that the security risks the Chinese company presented could be managed. Huawei officials have repeatedly denied claims that its equipment could be used by the Chinese state to spy on countries or incapacitate key infrastructure.“Nothing in this review affects this country’s ability to share highly sensitive intelligence data over highly secure networks, both within the U.K., and with our partners,” British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said.The decision is a major setback for American-led efforts to clamp down on the use of Huawei products, and could embolden other countries to follow the U.K.’s lead. Germany is expected to make a decision on whether to allow Huawei to build sections of its own 5G network this year. Canada is also still to decide whether to block the equipment maker.U.S. officials visited London recently to reiterate their fears that the use of Huawei would strengthen China’s attempt to gain a stranglehold on the global telecom-equipment market. In recent days, President Trump, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have warned U.K. officials of what they describe as the dangers of allowing telecom companies to use Huawei equipment.

Lawmakers in both parties took aim at California-based video game company Blizzard Entertainment after it heavily penalized a Chinese player who spoke out in support of Hong Kong protesters during an interview.Blizzard, which is based in Irvine, faced backlash from fans — including account cancellations and calls for international boycotts — after it was revealed that the company was involved in a decision to rescind all prize money and issue a one-year suspension to Blitzchung, a professional gamer who competes on Blizzard's international "Hearthstone" circuit.Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) tweeted that the issue was an example of U.S. companies being willingly engaged in Chinese efforts to tamp down on human rights."Recognize what’s happening here. People who don’t live in #China must either self censor or face dismissal & suspensions. China using access to market as leverage to crush free speech globally. Implications of this will be felt long after everyone in U.S. politics today is gone," tweeted Rubio.Recognize what’s happening here. People who don’t live in #China must either self censor or face dismissal & suspensions. China using access to market as leverage to crush free speech globally. Implications of this will be felt long after everyone in U.S. politics today is gone. https://t.co/Cx3tkWc7r6— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) October 8, 2019"Blizzard shows it is willing to humiliate itself to please the Chinese Communist Party. No American company should censor calls for freedom to make a quick buck," added Wyden.Blizzard shows it is willing to humiliate itself to please the Chinese Communist Party. No American company should censor calls for freedom to make a quick buck. https://t.co/rJBeXUiwYS— Ron Wyden (@RonWyden) October 8, 2019The company, best known for its mega-hit "World of Warcraft," has not addressed the issue publicly after news broke Tuesday.It has largely spent time in the hours since the story came out dealing with a massive wave of user-generated fallout on Twitter, Reddit and its own forums as well as protests from streamers on the video streaming platform Twitch.The controversy even appeared to spread to Mark Kern, a team leader and alumnus of Blizzard who previously worked on "World of Warcraft."It's done. #BoycottBlizzard pic.twitter.com/2jMG1TNuZr— Mark Kern (@Grummz) October 9, 2019Elsewhere, Blizzard employees conducted their own silent protests, including covering up signs at Blizzard's Irvine headquarters referring to the company's commitment to free speech.Angry Blizzard Employees Cover “All Voices Matter” Sign https://t.co/FtCgMf76v3 pic.twitter.com/CItKEdiVom— Connor (@mmofallout) October 8, 2019

In 2010, the filmmaker Miao Wang spent three months in Beijing, and started to notice two things: the increasing number of wealthy Chinese, and widespread dissatisfaction with the Chinese education system. Across the social spectrum, Wang—who had left Beijing for the U.S. with her family in the ’90s, when she was 13—heard conversations about the problems with China’s rote-learning-heavy and highly competitive gaokao system, under which students’ scores on a single exam determine where and whether they will attend university. Many pointed to the liberal Western education system, said to emphasize critical thinking, as a solution. Yet in the U.S., there was also a great deal of hand-wringing over the failures of the American approach, accompanied by news headlines about Chinese schoolchildren outpacing American kids. That interplay planted the seed of an idea in Wang’s mind.One year later, Wang was invited to Fryeburg Academy, a boarding school in Maine, to present a feature film she’d made, called Beijing Taxi. An hour and a half from Portland, the school seemed utterly rural, yet when Wang arrived, she was surprised to be met by three Chinese students.“After the film screening, I went with a teacher to the cafeteria and was even more shocked to find Chinese students surrounding two big tables,” said Wang. It turned out that the school has an international student body of 160, of which at least one-third is Chinese. “The vision of these students coming from megacities in China to this quiet and remote American town created such a juxtaposition that I left the academy knowing that this is where my film will begin.” MAINELAND (2018) Posted by Maineland on Tuesday, February 13, 2018 The result is Wang’s latest documentary, Maineland. The film follows two high school students from China’s wealthy elite, Stella Xinyi Zhu and Harry Junru He, as they settle into boarding school in small-town Maine. The two are part of an enormous wave of “parachute students,” as they are called in Chinese, who are being sent alone by their parents to schools in the U.S. and elsewhere around the world, paying top dollar to do so. (Increasingly, some are also sent to public schools, and boarded in private homes.)Still, Wang’s film arrives at a time of uncertainty for many coming to the U.S. to study, and the institutions that cater to them. The number of F-1 visas issued to foreign students seeking to attend college and other types of academic institutions in the U.S. dropped by 17% in the year that ended September 30, 2017, a reflection, some say, of the Trump administration’s stricter immigration policies.Wang spoke to Fast Company about the work of capturing life on both sides of the Pacific against the backdrop of China’s rising economic power–as well as the universality of being an awkward kid making one’s way through those poignant and unforgettable teenage years. Maineland, which received the Special Jury award at the 2017 South by Southwest festival, will debut March 16 at the AMC Empire 25 in New York City for a one-week run, followed by a nationwide theatrical and digital release on Amazon. (AMC is jointly owned by China’s Wanda Group and Alibaba.)Fast Company: When did you first become aware of the growing phenomenon of parachute kids?Miao Wong: I first became aware during the summer I spent in Beijing in 2010. People across the social spectrum were talking about education and sending children abroad. I was working on a project that was filming in an internet addiction camp in Beijing. Many of the kids in the camp either rebelled against or couldn’t handle the pressures of a Chinese education. Many of them would be doomed to fail the gaokao. The parents of many of these students looked for ways to send their children abroad, for what they hoped was a more progressive learning system. But most of these parents were busy business entrepreneurs who had no plans to go abroad with their children; they had to stay in China to oversee their enterprises.On a separate occasion, while I was doing research on a project related to psychology, a psychologist told me that a portion of his clients are students who are severely depressed due to pressures at school compounded with problems at home. I wanted to do a project that would not only allow me to examine the Chinese and American educational systems, but also look at societal problems emerging from the mounting pressures of a new Chinese economic paradigm. Many of the families that can afford to send their children abroad to a private boarding school with a price tag of $40,000–$50,000 per year have backgrounds in business or politics. Many are factory owners, or entrepreneurs who made their fortunes in the booming 1990s. And many of these parents are too busy or face too much pressure of their own to spend much time with their children.Stella in Maineland, 2018. [Photo: courtesy of Three Water Productions]FC: How did you find the two subjects of your film, Stella and Harry?MW: I knew I wanted to film the entire trajectory of my main characters, starting with their lives and dreams in China, then coming to the U.S. and seeing their process of adjustment and adaptation. But since only a small number of students who wish to study abroad can go, it was impossible to know ahead of time what students I found in China would actually make the journey.A solution to my problem landed in my lap in the spring of 2011 when I received the invitation to screen my first feature doc, Beijing Taxi, at Fryeburg Academy in Maine. When I saw the large number of Chinese students in the cafeteria after the screening, I had to inquire how in the world they found their way from Chinese megalopolises of more than 20 million to this small town with a population just over 3,000. It turned out that the Fryeburg admissions director goes to China to recruit and interview twice a year.That fall, I followed the admissions director on his next trip to China and began my focused scout. With the access the school provided, I could zero in and choose from the students who were interviewed and accepted by Fryeburg. Stella and Harry were among more than 40 interviewees from the two trips I filmed with the director. I started with five students, and narrowed down eventually to just Stella and Harry.Stella and Harry both stood out immediately. Stella had a sort of buoyancy and vivaciousness that stood in contrast to the American stereotype of “a quiet Asian girl.” She also came from a wealthy family that owned factories, and to my surprise, they were very eager to show the new face of China’s economic boom to a Western audience. Harry seemed very thoughtful, and much more traditional in his upbringing. I love the contrast between their two families–both spoke volumes about different aspects of contemporary China.Harry in Maineland, 2018. [Photo: courtesy of Three Water Productions]FC: How do you think Stella and Harry were affected by their time in Maine?MW: I think the biggest change for most students who come to study in the U.S., Stella and Harry included, is independence and individualistic ideas. They learn independent thinking and decision making. They also develop new thoughts about home and country, including a more sophisticated understanding of both China and the U.S. Most students realize that the U.S. is not as perfect and idealistic as they had imagined. Many start to recognize the complex problems in the U.S., such as gun violence, racial prejudice, and inequality. They also see China in a new light. For some, this makes them very patriotic and nationalist; for others, it raises many questions about the Chinese political system and lack of free speech. For most international students, this dialogue will be ongoing for a long time to come.Partly due to some troubles at home, Stella launched head-on into her new vibrant social life in Maine, taking art classes, joining cheerleading and dance clubs, and emulating the American high school dating life seen in her favorite Hollywood movie High School Musical. Gradually, in her second year though, she begins to settle down and return to the path her parents set for her. Even though she wanted to pursue arts and teaching, she went on after graduation to study supply chain management and logistics at Michigan State University. In January 2018, she completed her BA one semester early, and headed back to Shanghai to pursue an MBA in business part-time, while working for her family enterprise part-time.Harry started off much like a “normal” Chinese boy, quiet in demeanor, enjoys playing video games and soccer. Though his social life was more limited, his philosophical outlook led him to develop a much deeper understanding of the value of critical and independent thinking. His ideas and relationship to his home and country became more complex. Harry went on to study international relations at Washington Jefferson College in a small town near Pittsburgh. After college graduation, he plans to stay in the U.S. and pursue a graduate degree in business and/or computer science.FC: What about the other way around: How are American students and schools affected by having these Chinese students? I imagine the answer is different for schools that have one to three Chinese students a year versus dozens or more . . .MW: Chinese now account for one-third of international students for most schools across the country. That’s a significant number. Speaking from the perspective of someone who experienced being the lone Chinese in school, I can tell you the difference is huge. When you’re the only one, you are the one expected to do all the adjusting and adapting. When you’re not only accounting for one-third of the student body, but also contributing the majority of the finances to keep the school afloat, I guarantee the school and the community are at least trying to do their part in helping the students fit in and stay in school. They are an undeniable force on campus. I’ve seen efforts ranging from small things like including a myriad of Chinese sauces and condiments in the school cafeteria, to bigger things like schools looking for teachers who are bilingual Mandarin/English speakers so they can accommodate all the Chinese students in their classes.Related: How VIPKid CEO Cindy Mi Made Education A Universal Language Stella and her dad in Maineland, 2018. [Photo: courtesy of Three Water Productions]FC: It seems like Stella’s father, and maybe less so Harry’s father, see sending their child abroad as a sort of strategic business decision. Stella’s father says something like, ‘In 10 or 20 years, America and China will be dominant superpowers. I want my daughter to integrate with Americans . . . students who study abroad will be the future elite.’ Harry’s father says, ‘Your future workplace will likely be international, so you need to know how to get along with people.’ Do you think the fathers got the ‘return on investment’ they were expecting? And how would you urge parents to think about sending their kids abroad?MW: I think most Chinese today, especially from business backgrounds like Stella’s and Harry’s dads, have seen and understand that everyone lives in a global village now. They have seen firsthand as businessmen the effects of globalization. Gaining an international perspective is one of the top reasons now for Chinese parents to send their children abroad. Stella’s parents own factories, and their goods are exported around the world. Harry’s father used to work for a large enterprise that also did import and export. They are both acutely aware of the international nature of business, and the benefits of exposure to the outside world.I think in both cases, their parents do get a good return on their investment, even if it doesn’t come directly in dollar terms. However, I don’t claim this to be the experience for all Chinese students who come to study abroad. It takes a lot to adjust–the experience can build character–but not everyone has the personality and support needed to come through this experience positively. There are students who end up just playing video games in the dorms all day and fail school, then get sent back to China. It’s not the majority, but it could happen. [Editor’s note: In 2016, four “parachute kids” were sentenced to prison terms in California for their role in bullying and attacking a fellow female Chinese student in an incident that a judge said reminded him of Lord of the Flies.]Harry in Maineland, 2018. [Photo: courtesy of Three Water Productions]FC: You’ve screened the film throughout both China and the U.S. What kinds of reactions do you get? Do you get different reactions from the two audiences?MW: Most of the American audiences are not as aware of the parachute student phenomenon, so their questions and reactions are less about the specifics of studying abroad. They react to some of the scenes in the film where the teachers express some cringeworthy remarks. People often gasp in shock at the wealth on display, especially in Stella’s family. For Chinese audiences, the topic of study-abroad is close to everyone’s heart. Everyone has very strong opinions and/or questions about the experience of studying abroad. They’ve asked things like, ‘What do you think is a good age for students to go abroad? Are they going abroad too young? What can they do to better prepare for going abroad? Is the study-abroad experience a necessarily good one? Is it worth it?’Maineland, 2018. [Photo: courtesy of Three Water Productions]FC: Why did this topic strike a chord with you?MW: This topic is close to my heart since I grew up in Beijing and moved with my brother to the U.S. in 1990 as a teenager, to join our parents who were among the first mainland Chinese visiting scientist scholars to come here. I was the only mainland Chinese student in my eighth-grade public school, and later on, my brother and I were the only two in the private day high school we enrolled in. I had just learned the English alphabet before I left China, and I didn’t speak to anyone for my first two years in the U.S. I know the challenges of being a teenager transitioning to a new language and completely foreign culture all too intimately.But so much has changed since 1990. I can’t imagine what it’s like to come to the U.S. and have one-third to one-half of your classmates be from mainland China. I also came to the U.S. with my parents, which is very different from these parachute students, who are here alone. Their social circle of other Chinese students becomes very close-knit, as they’re the ones who truly understand everything they’re going through. Their families often have no idea what they’re experiencing, since most of the time they only visit for graduation, or for some, for orientation. MAINELAND (2018) | American Friends Posted by Maineland on Thursday, March 1, 2018 And of course, the biggest change is that China is no longer a backwards country decades behind the U.S. One thing I found interesting is that Fryeburg Academy also serves as a local school for the area, with 500 local day students. Most of the local day students pay a minimal tuition, compared to the $43,000 (in 2011) to $48,000 (in 2015) the boarding students have to pay. This further piqued my interest in turning stereotypes upside down: Contrary to the image of China as a third-world country (that was common while I was growing up), the Chinese students were the wealthy cosmopolitan elites studying alongside their American peers, many of whom were struggling economically.Ironically too, while the Chinese are fully embracing globalization and a global village, America is closing its doors and turning inward. While I used to feel like the impoverished “country bumpkin,” most of these Chinese students are cosmopolitan and much more well-traveled than their American peers.[The topic] also made me ask many questions, some of which couldn’t be answered in the span of the few years I filmed, but perhaps only observed: With such an enormous wave of Chinese students getting a Western education during their formative years, what impact could this have for the future of China, and for U.S.-China relations?FC: Speaking of U.S.-China relations—and looking at a recent sharp drop in the number of international student visas—what does it mean to see this film released in our current political climate?MW: I remember vividly the day after the election, when my editor Liz Rao and I returned to the edit room for the last stretch of our edit. We could not help but see the film in a new context, and realize that the film had become more relevant than ever. Throughout the course of filming, from 2011 to 2015, the U.S. was on a course of opening its doors, to immigrants and to international educational exchange. It was clear that along with the Trump presidency came the dawn of a new era. America took a sharp U-turn, to closing its doors on all fronts.I always anticipated that as China rose as a global economic power and gained influence, there would be reverberations and pull-backs [here]. America is not used to being challenged in its position of being No. 1. Now with the Trump presidency, we’re starting to see the backlash. The relentless attack on immigration and now the recent sharp drop in the number of international student visas will certainly impact the U.S. in ways this administration might not realize.The vast majority of international students and immigrants come to the U.S. because they truly see America as a beacon of hope. They come seeking refuge, freedom, education, and opportunities. They have to work much harder than native citizens to achieve their goals and stay in this country, often sacrificing the loved ones, comfort, and even prestige they were accustomed to back home. Many become naturalized U.S. citizens and bring immeasurable contributions and honor to this society.They also bring significant financial contribution to this country. In the case of international students, they are literally helping boarding schools, colleges, and universities in this country stay afloat, contributing billions of dollars to the economy and supporting hundreds of thousands of jobs. Through a universal coming-of-age story, I hope my film will reach across the political spectrum and humanize the struggles of these students and the immigrant experience.This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.Eveline Chao is a freelance journalist based in Brooklyn and the author of NIUBI! The Real Chinese You Were Never Taught in School. Find her @EvelineChao

Sen. Cory Booker gives emotional speech on racism and George Floyd protests04:46Sen. Cory Booker gave an emotional speech on the Senate floor, weaving in his personal experiences with the sentiments of protesters around the U.S. demanding racial equality and justice for George Floyd.June 3, 2020

“This is a persuasive exercise,” says Frank O. Bowman III, a law professor at the University of Missouri. “You need to persuade [the public] not only that the president did XYZ, but that what he did is of sufficient gravity to merit his removal.”The public hearing, which is scheduled for December 4, follows historical precedent. During the impeachment of President Bill Clinton in 1998, the House Judiciary Committee held a similar hearing on the background and history of impeachment. The committee members called on 19 experts to determine whether Clinton’s alleged conduct justified impeachment, including 10 who testified on the Republican side, eight on the Democratic side, and one joint witness, the constitutional-law expert Michael Gerhardt.Such a hearing “provide[s] the members of the committee with some expert guidance,” Gerhardt, now a law professor at the University of North Carolina, told me in an interview. “People on the committee will be the ones who make the final judgment, but they really want and perhaps need some educated, informed judgment about what the law is, and that will provide a foundation for them.”It’s still unclear which witnesses will be called to testify. But both Gerhardt and Bowman told me they expect the hearing to operate similarly to the one held in 1998. The members will likely ask questions about the Intelligence Committee’s forthcoming report, which will compile all the evidence gathered by Democrats throughout their two-month impeachment inquiry. Witnesses will offer definitions of misdeeds such as “bribery” and “high crimes and misdemeanors,” which are among the impeachable offenses listed in Article II of the Constitution. It’s likely, too, that there will be a discussion of where obstruction of justice and the Trump administration’s flouting of congressional subpoenas fit in.Even after two weeks of public hearings, Americans are deeply divided on impeachment, and not a single Republican in either the House or the Senate publicly supports it. So Democrats are viewing this hearing as one of the last opportunities they have to convince congressional Republicans that impeachment is warranted. “Ideally, [committee members] would conceive their role as educative at this point, of explaining to the country why it is the facts we know are impeachable and on what grounds,” Bowman told me.“We often say ‘high crimes and misdemeanors,’ but we say this with no understanding of what that actually means,” said one Democratic aide to a member on the Judiciary Committee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Impeachment is a fundamentally political process, not a legal one.But the hearing is far from an easy win for Democrats. They’ll need to nail their approach, Bowman said, deciding ahead of time what kind of case they want to make against the president. And they’ll need to think about how to frame the president’s alleged quid pro quo with Ukraine, to show how it falls into the category of “high crimes and misdemeanors.” Committee members will also need to decide the extent to which they’ll broaden the scope of the inquiry to include issues such as Russian election interference and potential violations of the Constitution’s emoluments clause. It will be a challenge: Democrats have a wealth of grievances against the president, and, given the party’s stated goal to wrap up the process before the end of the year, there’s not much time for them to arrange it concisely.

SEATTLE (AP) — In a story Oct. 29 about Amazon’s contributions to the Seattle City Council elections, The Associated Press misspelled the last name of a council member. It is Lorena González, not Gonzáles.A corrected version of the story is below:Amazon hopes $1.5 mil elects pro-business Seattle leadersAmazon has poured $1.5 million into the local election in its liberal hometown of Seattle, hoping to remake the City Council as more pro-businessBy GENE JOHNSONAssociated PressSEATTLE (AP) — Brian Sweeney has a long list of complaints about Amazon, from the way it treats warehouse workers to the low taxes it pays and its effort to win concessions from cities to bring in jobs. So when he learned the online retail giant had poured $1 million into remaking the Seattle City Council with more business-friendly candidates, he pulled out his wallet.The New York resident sent $15 to socialist council member Kshama Sawant, a target of the online retail giant. While that doesn’t compare to Amazon’s unprecedented spending Oct. 14, about 1,900 others also have donated to Sawant since then, her campaign says. It’s a dramatic rise in support and a reflection of the risk Amazon is taking as it splashes into the politics of its liberal hometown.ADVERTISEMENTMany in Seattle aren’t happy with the council, but they also may not like a company headed by the world’s richest man, Jeff Bezos, trying to influence their vote. As historic income inequality fuels homelessness and soaring housing prices, some progressives elsewhere don’t like it either.“Amazon could do this in hundreds of places around the country with all the money they’re not paying in taxes,” said Sweeney, a 28-year-old software engineer turned carpenter in Valley Stream, New York.With seven of the nine Seattle council seats in play Nov. 5, business interests see an opportunity to shift city leadership closer to the political center and away from a bent to potentially tax big companies to fund homeless services or improve public transit.The council is officially nonpartisan, but Republicans stand little chance of getting elected in Seattle, and many of the business-backed candidates are moderate to progressive Democrats. The race will decide whether the council is dominated by socialists and extremely liberal Democrats or more centrist ones.“We are contributing to this election because we care deeply about the future of Seattle,” Amazon spokesman Aaron Toso said in a statement. “We believe it is critical that our hometown has a City Council that is focused on pragmatic solutions to our shared challenges in transportation, homelessness, climate change and public safety.”Progressive Democratic presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders are among those accusing Amazon of trying to buy the council.The elections come a year after a political debacle that damaged the council’s popularity. The leaders unanimously passed the “Amazon tax,” designed to make lucrative companies contribute more to affordable housing for the homeless.ADVERTISEMENTIt repealed the tax after a revolt from Amazon, which would have had to pay around $11 million a year and threatened to halt its growth in the city. The company said Seattle didn’t need more money and that it was “highly uncertain whether the City Council’s anti-business positions or its spending inefficiency will change for the better.”The debate helped cement Amazon’s awakening to local politics as the council’s popularity slipped, especially over its handling of homelessness. Four council members decided not to seek re-election.There’s been little progress in the four years since the city declared a homelessness crisis. Many business interests support “sweeps” of homeless camps accompanied by teams to help people get services.Liberal council members, including Sawant, say the sweeps are inhumane and don’t work. She wants money for tiny-house villages.Meanwhile, some in Sawant’s district say she’s more interested in building a national socialist movement than responding to their concerns. A large portion of her donations come from out of state.Sawant helped make Seattle the first big city to adopt a $15-an-hour minimum wage. She frequently says people must choose sides in “class warfare” and has warned that a win by Amazon would embolden corporate interests to fight efforts to make the rich pay more in taxes or spread progressive policies like tenants’ rights and paid sick leave laws.The two liberal, vocally pro-union council members who are not up for re-election, Teresa Mosqueda and Lorena González, didn’t endorse Sawant in the primary.But after Amazon weighed in, both enthusiastically endorsed her last week. She’s running against Egan Orion, director of an annual gay pride festival in Seattle.González said Amazon’s support might swing Orion’s positions.“When there’s that much money being offered, there will be a quid-pro-quo expectation,” she said. “Amazon has plenty of access to the council already. What they want is elected officials who are going to bend to their will.”At a recent debate, Orion pointed to his work in the LGBTQ community and with small businesses, saying, “That narrative does not match the person that I am or the way I am running this campaign.”He describes himself as a progressive but says more can be accomplished by negotiating with business leaders than by demonizing them.Amazon gave $1 million this month to the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce’s political action committee, bringing its total contributions to the PAC this year to $1.5 million — a huge amount for a local election. Starbucks, Expedia and a development company started by late Microsoft founder Paul Allen also have contributed.“Generally, folks have seen a council that talks a lot about progress on homelessness, on reducing traffic, on helping with our increasingly unaffordable housing stock, and they really just haven’t seen progress,” PAC executive director Markham McIntyre said. “With taxes going up year after year, they get frustrated when they’re not seeing results.”So far, independent spending in the council races has reached more than $3.5 million.Labor groups also are spending heavily, including Civic Alliance for a Progressive Economy, which is backed by progressive Amazon investor Nick Hanauer and has raised nearly $500,000. The PAC of the hotel workers union Unite Here has raised even more.State Sen. Reuven Carlyle, a Seattle Democrat, said he didn’t know what effect Amazon’s spending will have on the election but that he understood its desire to “rebalance” the council.“They’re showing that they care a lot about their hometown, just as labor cares a lot and social justice activists care a lot,” Carlyle said.