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Giuliani is said to be under investigation for Ukraine work

Giuliani is said to be under investigation for Ukraine work

The New York Times reports: Federal prosecutors in Manhattan are investigating whether President Trump’s personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani broke lobbying laws in his dealings in Ukraine, according to two people familiar with the inquiry. The investigators are examining Mr. Giuliani’s efforts to undermine the American ambassador to Ukraine, Marie L. Yovanovitch, one of the people said. She was recalled in the spring as part of Mr. Trump’s broader campaign to pressure Ukraine into helping his political prospects. The investigation…

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Military leader of Syrian Kurds tells U.S. ‘you are leaving us to be slaughtered’

Military leader of Syrian Kurds tells U.S. ‘you are leaving us to be slaughtered’

CNN reports: The commander of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces told a senior US diplomat, “You are leaving us to be slaughtered,” demanding to know whether the US is going to do anything to protect Syrian Kurds as Turkey continues its military operation targeting America’s Kurdish allies in Syria. “You have given up on us. You are leaving us to be slaughtered,” Gen. Mazloum Kobani Abdi told the Deputy Special Envoy to the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, William Roebuck,…

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Warren’s unwillingness to pander to conservatives makes some of her critics uncomfortable

Warren’s unwillingness to pander to conservatives makes some of her critics uncomfortable

The Washington Post reports: About 90 minutes into Thursday’s forum on LGBTQ issues in Los Angeles, a gay rights leader posed a question to Sen. Elizabeth Warren: How would she respond if a voter approached her and said, “I’m old-fashioned, and my faith teaches me that marriage is between one man and one woman?” Warren (D-Mass.) responded with a theatrical seriousness. “Well, I’m going to assume it’s a guy who said that,” she deadpanned, pausing a beat for the audience…

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Tulsi Gabbard: The only Democratic candidate who appeals to right-wing extremists

Tulsi Gabbard: The only Democratic candidate who appeals to right-wing extremists

The New York Times reports: Stephen K. Bannon, President Trump’s former chief strategist, is impressed with her political talent. Richard B. Spencer, the white nationalist leader, says he could vote for her. Former Representative Ron Paul praises her “libertarian instincts,” while Franklin Graham, the influential evangelist, finds her “refreshing.” And far-right conspiracy theorists like Mike Cernovich see a certain MAGA sais quoi. “She’s got a good energy, a good vibe. You feel like this is just a serious person,” Mr….

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James Comey wants an end to the Trump presidency

James Comey wants an end to the Trump presidency

The New York Times reports: James Comey slumps strategically in restaurants — all 6-foot-8 of him, drooping faux-furtively with his back to the room — and daydreams about deleting the civic-minded Twitter feed where a bipartisan coalition pronounces him a national disgrace. He sleeps soundly — nine hours a night, he ballparks — and organizes the self-described “unemployed celebrity” chapter of his life around a series of workaday goals. “One of my goals has been to get to 10 consecutive…

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Former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine delivers scathing indictment of how Trump administration conducts foreign policy

Former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine delivers scathing indictment of how Trump administration conducts foreign policy

The New York Times reports: Marie L. Yovanovitch, who was recalled as the American ambassador to Ukraine in May, testified to impeachment investigators on Friday that a top State Department official told her that President Trump had pushed for her removal for months even though the department believed she had “done nothing wrong.” In a closed-door deposition that could further fuel calls for Mr. Trump’s impeachment, Ms. Yovanovitch delivered a scathing indictment of how his administration conducts foreign policy. She…

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Pentagon officials deemed Trump administration withholding of aid to Ukraine was illegal

Pentagon officials deemed Trump administration withholding of aid to Ukraine was illegal

Yahoo News reports: The Pentagon was confused. Hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid to Ukraine had been appropriated in late 2018 by Congress, intended to help fend off aggression by neighboring Russia. But well into 2019, as summer was edging toward autumn, the funds had still not moved. Department of Defense officials began to worry that the funds would never make it to Ukraine, since the appropriations would expire with the end of the fiscal year on Sept….

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Syrian Kurds burn with anger at Trump’s betrayal

Syrian Kurds burn with anger at Trump’s betrayal

The Guardian reports: Waiting at a roadside depot, Hussein Rammo, a stooped elderly Kurd, his eyes wet with tears, had the look of a broken man. “Betrayal leaves the bitterest taste,” he said, his voice at a whisper as he discussed Donald Trump’s decision to abandon Syria’s Kurds. “I am 63 years old and I have never seen anything like this. Before there was regime oppression and now we are getting betrayal. This is worse.” Shells fired by Turkish forces…

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Abandoning Kurds could cost Trump support from evangelical Christians

Abandoning Kurds could cost Trump support from evangelical Christians

The Guardian reports: Evangelical Christian voters have been among Donald Trump’s most enthusiastic and reliable supporters. Trump’s recent rejection of asylum seekers and cuts to domestic food assistance programs have not stopped followers of Christ from flocking to the president. A great schism, however, may finally be at hand. In drips that have become a gush, evangelical leaders this week have sharply criticized Trump’s decision to stand down US forces in northern Syria, warning that Turkey’s invasion of the region…

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Giuliani’s Ukrainian Trump team: In search of influence, dirt and money

Giuliani’s Ukrainian Trump team: In search of influence, dirt and money

The New York Times reports: When Rudolph W. Giuliani set out to dredge up damaging information on President Trump’s rivals in Ukraine, he turned to a native of the former Soviet republic with whom he already had a lucrative business relationship. Lev Parnas, a Ukrainian-American businessman with a trail of debts and lawsuits, had known Mr. Giuliani casually for years through Republican political circles. Last year, their relationship deepened when a company he helped found retained Mr. Giuliani — associates…

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In its relentless pursuit of power, Silicon Valley is fueling the climate crisis

In its relentless pursuit of power, Silicon Valley is fueling the climate crisis

Rebecca Solnit writes: The climate crimes of big tech are legion. This summer the Amazon burned. Why? In part because of the policies of the new anti-environmental, anti-human-rights president, Jair Bolsonaro. How did Bolsonaro rise to prominence and then the presidency? YouTube, and certain of its algorithms that push people toward more extreme content, played a large part. As the New York Times reported in August, not long ago Bolsonaro was “a marginal figure in national politics – but a…

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Google made large contributions to climate-change deniers

Google made large contributions to climate-change deniers

The Guardian reports: Google has made “substantial” contributions to some of the most notorious climate deniers in Washington despite its insistence that it supports political action on the climate crisis. Among hundreds of groups the company has listed on its website as beneficiaries of its political giving are more than a dozen organisations that have campaigned against climate legislation, questioned the need for action, or actively sought to roll back Obama-era environmental protections. The list includes the Competitive Enterprise Institute…

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Turkish president threatens to send 3.6 million Syrian refugees to Europe

Turkish president threatens to send 3.6 million Syrian refugees to Europe

The Guardian reports: The Turkish president has threatened to “open the gates” for Syrian refugees in his country to migrate to Europe if the continent’s leaders label Turkey’s military campaign in north-eastern Syria an “occupation”. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan warned European Union states he would “open the gates and send 3.6 million refugees your way” during a combative speech at a meeting of lawmakers from his Justice and Development (AK) party on Thursday afternoon. He rebuked critics of the operation in…

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Trump, Pentagon have no contingency plan for ISIS escapees as Turkey attacks U.S. allies in Syria

Trump, Pentagon have no contingency plan for ISIS escapees as Turkey attacks U.S. allies in Syria

Time reports: As Turkish warplanes bomb U.S.-backed Kurdish allies in northeastern Syria, the Trump Administration has yet to draw up a strategy to safeguard and maintain the more than 30 detention camps that hold tens of thousands of ISIS fighters, families and sympathizers spread across the region. The Kurds, part of the U.S.-allied Syrian Democratic Forces, control facilities holding about 11,000 ISIS detainees across northern Syria. They also run a camp for internally displaced persons known as al-Hol, in northeastern…

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