Philippe Kervyn de Volkaersbeke

【Move to another page】
Quote
https://ift.tt/2nCIA1L
Philippe Kervyn de Volkaersbeke

Andreas Philopater: antiquarian

---

'''Philippe Kervyn de Volkaersbeke''' (19 April 1815 - 15 July 1881) was a Belgian politician and antiquary.

==Life==
Kervyn de Volkaersbeke was born in Sint-Niklaas on 19 April 1815, the son of Jean Charles Kervyn de Volkaersbeke and Angélique Léonie de Nève.<ref name=Molle>F. Van Molle, "Kervyn de Volkaersbeke, baron Philippe Auguste Chrétien", ''[[Nationaal Biografisch Woordenboek]]'', vol. 2 (Brussels, 1966), 393-400.</ref> After secondary school in Brussels, he studied at the [[University of Ghent]] without taking a degree.

From 1854 to 1857 he served on Ghent city council as alderman of public works, extending the city library. In 1861 he succeeded his father-in-law as mayor of [[Nazareth, Belgium]], retaining that position until his death.<ref name=Molle/>

In the [[1861 Belgian general election|1861 parliamentary elections]] he was elected from the [[arrondissement of Ghent]]. He was not re-elected in the [[1864 Belgian general election|1864 elections]], but he again represented the same constituency from 1870 to 1878. His maiden speech in the [[Chamber of Representatives (Belgium)|Chamber of Representatives]], on 11 June 1861, was against a free trade agreement with the United Kingdom, which he saw as a threat to Ghent's textile industry.<ref name=Molle/> He took an active part in parliamentary debates on the budgets for home affairs and public works, demonstrating concern for the bridges, roads and telegraph lines in his own constituency, as well as for the enlargement of the [[Ghent–Terneuzen Canal]], but also for the better accommodation of the [[National Archives of Belgium]] and the [[State Archives in Ghent]], better wages and working conditions for librarians and archivists in state employ, and an increase in the subsidy to [[Royal Conservatory of Ghent|Ghent conservatory]].<ref name=Molle/> He ensured that the [[Geeraard de Duivelsteen]] was acquired by the state to house the State Archives in Ghent.<ref name=Molle/>

Before and during his political career, he was active in cultural and literary societies, and published on antiquarian themes. In 1850 he became one of the directors of the ''[[Messager des sciences historiques]]'', to which he was a frequent contributor throughout his life. He published several books, two articles in the ''Annales de l'Académie d'Archéologie d'Anvers'', and sixteen items in the ''[[Biographie Nationale de Belgique]]'', ten on members of the Borluut family.<ref name=Molle/> In 1878 he was appointed to the committee preparing the festivities for the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of Belgian independence.<ref name=Molle/>

He died in Nazareth, Belgium, on 15 July 1881.<ref name=Molle/>

==Writings==
* ''Histoire généalogique et héraldique de quelques familles de Flandres'' (Ghent, multiple volumes, 1848 onwards)
* with J. Diegerick, ''Documents inédits concernant les Troubles des Pays-Bas, 1577-1584'' (2 vols., Ghent, 1848-1850)<ref>[https://ift.tt/2mGDIIU vol. 1], [https://ift.tt/2mKOa2f vol. 2]</ref>
* ''Verslag van 't magistraet van Gent nopens de godsdienstige beroerten aldaer, loopende van den 30 junij 1566 tot den 30 april 1567, gevolgd door talrijke bewijsstukken'' (Ghent, 1850)<ref>https://ift.tt/2lY0bkq>
* ''Le Songe d'un antiquaire: nouvelle fantastique'' (Ghent, 1853)<ref>https://ift.tt/2mxD6FK>
* ''Correspondance de François de la Noue, surnommé Bras de fer, accompagnée de notes historiques et précédée de la vie de ce grand capitaine'' (Ghent and Paris, 1854)<ref>https://ift.tt/2lY1zn7>
* ''Les Eglises de Gand'' (2 vols., Ghent, 1857-1858).<ref>[https://ift.tt/2mKOb6j vol. 1: Ghent cathedral], [https://ift.tt/2odU5xc vol. 2: parish churches and chapels]</ref>
* ''Mémoires sur les Troubles de Gand, 1577-1579, par François de Halewyn, seigneur de Zwevegem'' (Brussels, 1865)<ref>https://ift.tt/2nC7iPO>
* ''Les Pourbus'' (Ghent, 1870)<ref>https://ift.tt/2oczBop>
* ''Les Missions diplomatiques de Pierre Anchement, 1492-1506'' (Ghent, 1873)<ref>https://ift.tt/2oe9Vb6>

==References==




[[Category:1815 births]]
[[Category:1881 deaths]]
[[Category:People from East Flanders]]
[[Category:Members of the Chamber of Representatives (Belgium)]]

September 29, 2019 at 09:09AM

Marianne Winder

【Move to another page】
Quote
https://ift.tt/2lUXRus
Marianne Winder

Jack1956:

---

'''Marianne Winder''' (10 September 1918 &ndash;6 April 2001) was a British specialist in Middle High German and a librarian at the [[Institute of Germanic Studies]] at the [[University of London]].

Born in [[Tepliz]], the daughter of Ludwig Winder, she was associated for more than thirty years at the library of the Wellcome Institute of the History of Medicine where she was successively Assistant Librarian (1963-1970), Curator of Eastern printed manuscripts and books (1970-1978) and finally, after having retired, a Tibetan Medical Consultant (1978-2001).<ref name=Allan> Nigel Allan , 'Marianne Winder', ''Medical History'', Vol. 45, No. 4,October 2001, p. 533-535 (ISSN 0025-7273, PMID 16562323, PMCID PMCPMC1044426, read online, accessed September 28, 2019)</ref>

==Biography==
Marianne Winder was born in September 1918 in Tepliz in north-west of Prague, in what was then the Austro-Hungarian Empire. She was the eldest of the two daughters of Ludwig Winder, a writer and literary critic, and Hedwig Winder. Her early life was bound up in the social milieu of the Jewish intelligentsia of Central Europe before its destruction during [[World War I]]. [[Franz Kafka]] was part of the Prague literary circle that included his father. When the political situation deteriorated in the 1930s the Winder family was forced to leave Prague to seek refuge in England.<ref name=Allan/> After the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, Winder fled on June 29, 1939, when he crossed the Polish border illegally with his family, his journey taking him across Poland and Scandinavia to England, where he arrived with his wife and daughter Marianne on July 13, 1939. His youngest daughter, and Marianne's younger sister, Eva, born in 1920, remained in Prague. She died in 1945 in the concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen]]. Six weeks after their arrival, the Winders were evacuated to [[Reigate]], where they lived in a refugee hostel. When the inn was closed in 1941, the family moved to [[Baldock]], then a small village in [[Hertfordshire]]. In the summer of 1941 Winder was diagnosed with coronary thrombosis . Ludwig Winder succumbed to his heart disease on 16 June 1946.

==Studies==
After the War, Marianne Winder began studying German at the [[University of London]]. On gaining her she obtained a post as tutor at the German section of the [[University of Nottingham]]. She completed a Master's thesis on the [[etymology]] of High Middle German words,an excerpt from which was published in 1952 as a supplement to [[Maurice Walshe]]'s dictionary, ''A Concise German Etymological Dictionary''.<ref name=Allan/>

==Career==
In 1953 Winder was appointed Assistant Librarian at the [[Institute of Germanic Studies]] at the [[University of London]], where she continued her research on German language and literature. She was interested in the writings of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance on astrology. She defended a thesis on German astrological books from 1452 to 1600 and graduated in 1963 with a degree in Librarianship from [[University College London]]. Her dissertation was published in 1966 in ''The Annals of Science''. At this time she accepted the position of Assistant Librarian at the [[Wellcome Institute]] for the History of Medicine]].<ref name=Allan/>

At the [[Wellcome Institute]] her linguistic knowledge proved to be very useful for cataloging the collection. She collaborated with Dr. Walter Pagel, a pathologist and medical historian, and co-authored with him several articles including 'Gnostiches bei Paracelsus und Konrad von Megenberg' in ''Fachliteratur des Mittlelalters'', (1968); 'Hervey and the Modern Concept of Disease', in ''The Bulletin of the History of Medicine'', (1968); 'The Eight of Adam and the Reluctant "Gnostic" Ideas in the Paracelsian Corpus' in ''Ambix'', (1969). In 1972 she established the bibliography of Dr. Pagel's writings in Science, medicine and society in the Renaissance, in a tribute volume in his honour. On his death she took charge of the publication of his complete work in two volumes, published in 1985 and 1986.<ref name=Allan/>

Having embraced [[Buddhism]] in the 1960s she became an archivist for the [[Buddhist Society]]. In 1957 she had published the German translation of [[Edward Conze]]'s ''Buddhist Texts Through the Ages'' but emphasized that she did not associate herself with all the points of view expressed in this autobiography, let alone with the passages on the President of the Buddhist Society [[Christmas Humphreys]] who, according to her, had had the most beneficial influence on her life .

Winder spoke several languages including [[Sanskrit]] and Buddhist Pali.[ 13 ] In 1958 she became deputy editor of the [[Buddhist Society]]'s magazine ''The Middle Way'' and succeeded [[Carlo Robins]] as editor-in-chief from 1961 to 1965, when she was succeeded by Muriel Daw.[ 14 ][ 15 ] Winder wass also interested in the language and culture of [[Tibet]]<ref name=Allan/> and took lessons in Tibetan at the [[School of Oriental and African Studies]].[ 16 ][ 17 ] When the position of Curator of Oriental Manuscripts and Prints was created at the [[Wellcome Institute]] in 1970 she gained it. This was the beginning of Winder's start second career.<ref name=Allan/>

==Second Career==
Winder undertook to catalogue and classify the collections for which she was responsible and to place them within the reach of the specialists of Eastern Studies, a vast task which made them a leading source for the study of the medicine in Asian cultures.<ref name=Allan/> At the same time she began a collaboration with Rechung Rinpoche Jampal Kunzang which led to the publication in 1973 of ''Tibetan Medicine: Illustrated in Original Texts'', a book which, through its foreign editions in Chinese and French and its revisions, became a classic on Tibetan medicine,<ref name=Allan/> and the first work in English on the subject[ 18 ] .

The new curator attends all classes of English Tibetologist David Snellgrove{ 19 ]. In addition to Tibetan, she learned several languages ​​including Sanskrit and Pali[ 20 ] .

==Retirement]]
Upon her retirement in 1978, Marianne Winder was appointed a Tibetan Medicine Consultant by the Institute to complete the great work of her second career, the Catalogue of Tibetan manuscripts and xylographs, and the catalog of thankas, banners. and other paintings and drawings in the Library of the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine , which will be published in 1989.<ref name=allan/ His successor as Conservative is Nigel Allan [ 21 ] .

In September 1985, she made a paper entitled Sanskrit Vaidurya at an international conference on Indian medicine [ 1 ] at the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine , published in the Proceedings of the Symposium. [ 22 ]

In 1986, she organized a conference on aspects of classical Tibetan medicine in Central Asia together with a leading exhibition, Body and mind in Tibetan Medicine , at the Wellcome Institute in London, conference of which she produces the catalog. The proceedings of the conference are under his direction and published in 1993 under the title Aspects of Classical Tibetan Medicine [ 23 ] .

Marianne Winder died in London in April 2001 after a short illness.

==References==





[[Category:1918 births]]
[[Category:2001 deaths]]
[[Category:English Buddhists]]
[[Category:20th-century Buddhists]]
[[Category:Converts to Buddhism]]
[[Category:English Indologists]]
[[Category:Buddhist translators]]
[[Category:Translators from Sanskrit]]
[[Category:Buddhist writers]]
[[Category:British Buddhist scholars]]
[[Category:20th-century translators]]

September 29, 2019 at 05:01AM

Embassy of Turkey, Beijing

【Move to another page】
Quote
https://ift.tt/2nsQxXs
Embassy of Turkey, Beijing

The Account 1:

---

|website=http://pekin.be.mfa.gov.tr/Mission}}The '''Embassy of the Turkey in Beijing''' ([[Turkish language|Turkish]]: Türkiye'nin Pekin Büyükelçiliği) is the [[diplomatic mission]] of [[Turkey]] to [[China]]. It is located in the 9 East 5th Street, Sanlitun in the [[Chaoyang District, Beijing|Chaoyang District]]. It has business, economic, security, customs, cultural, tourism, counselors and military attaché offices.<ref></ref>

== Ambassadors ==
{| class="wikitable"
!Ambassador
!Entered office
!Left office
|-
|
|1972
|1974
|-
|
|1974
|1978
|-
|
|1978
|1980
|-
|
|1980
|1984
|-
|
|1984
|1988
|-
|
|1988
|1990
|-
|
|1990
|1994
|-
|
|1994
|1996
|-
|
|1996
|1998
|-
|
|1998
|2000
|-
|
|2000
|2004
|-
|
|2004
|2008
|-
|
|2009
|2013
|-
|
|2013
|2017
|-
|
|2017
|－
|}

== References ==
<references />
[[Category:Diplomatic missions in Beijing|Turkey]]
[[Category:Diplomatic missions of Turkey|Beijing]]
[[Category:China–Turkey relations]]

September 29, 2019 at 02:50AM

Syria demands withdrawal of U.S., Turkish troops, warns of 'countermeasures'

【Move to another page】
Quote
https://ift.tt/2ocuvZt
Syria demands withdrawal of U.S., Turkish troops, warns of 'countermeasures' Syria's foreign minister on Saturday demanded the withdrawal of all U.S. and Turkish troops, warning that the Syrian government had the right to take action if they remain.
September 29, 2019 at 02:49AM

Meghan Markle privately visits memorial to a murdered South African woman

【Move to another page】
Quote
https://ift.tt/2o91myp
Meghan Markle privately visits memorial to a murdered South African woman Meghan Markle took time out of her schedule to privately visit a memorial to a young South African woman.
September 28, 2019 at 09:40PM

Millennials have less than 7 hours of relaxation time per week, survey claims

【Move to another page】
Quote
https://ift.tt/2o4io0u
Millennials have less than 7 hours of relaxation time per week, survey claims It might be because they're too wrapped up in their phones, according to the poll.
September 28, 2019 at 06:00PM

Trump Touts Border Security Ahead of the 2020 Campaign

【Move to another page】
Quote
https://ift.tt/2mz27QB
Trump Touts Border Security Ahead of the 2020 Campaign

VOA White House correspondent Patsy Widakuswara contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON — After more than two years of political and legal strife, U.S. President Donald Trump appears to be prevailing in revamping immigration policy and building portions of a wall to limit migration across the southern U.S. border.

Trump views boosting border security as a "promise kept" to the American people, one he will tout to voters in his re-election bid next year.

"[W]e're doing it. We get it done," the president said this past week. "The [border] wall is being built."

Senate Deals Wall Setback, but Trump May Still Win on Border video player.

Embed

" />

WATCH: Senate Deals Wall Setback, but Trump May Still Win on Border

Despite setbacks from U.S. courts and Congress, Trump is claiming, and some critics grudgingly concede, uneven but seemingly inexorable headway in altering conditions, migration flows, and legal as well as physical structures at America's southern border with Mexico.

Migrants from Central America and Cuba line up outside the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance to apply for asylum and refugee status in Tapachula, Mexico, Sept. 13, 2019.

Migrant apprehensions down

The administration reports nearly 100 kilometers of new border wall construction since 2017 and aims to extend barriers by more than 600 kilometers by the end of next year. Meanwhile, apprehensions of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border fell from 144,255 in May to 64,006 in August, a 56% decline.

While migrants continue to arrive at the border, far fewer have been held on U.S. soil since the administration reached an accord with Mexico under which asylum-seekers are returned to Mexico to await their immigration court hearings. Separate pacts with Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, designed to deter U.S.-bound migration, establish them as asylum destinations where claimants must seek protection before pursuing a case in the United States.

While many of Trump's migration and border security initiatives face a myriad of legal challenges, the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this month temporarily greenlighted the administration's policy of denying asylum to non-Mexicans who had not sought protection in a third country they transited.

"The president's doing a lot of good things right now in the immigration space," U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services acting director Ken Cuccinelli said at a Washington news event Thursday. "There's no one big thing. It really makes more sense to look at it as a lot of little things that together form the administration's forward-marching policies."

FILE - Central American migrants wait for food in a pen erected by U.S. Customs and Border Protection to process a surge of migrant families and unaccompanied minors in El Paso, Texas, March 27, 2019.

Critics see calculated brutality

Opponents see a dogged and brutal campaign waged for domestic political purposes.

"Since taking office, the president has systematically worked to politicize the U.S. immigration system and polarize Americans on this issue," the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Bob Menendez of New Jersey, recently said. "I believe the president is engaged in a calculated attempt to aggravate regional migration dynamics for domestic political gain at the expense of our national security."

Trump pulled out a surprising victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016, in part by promising to stem the tide of migration and to build a "big, beautiful wall" along the southern border.

Gallup polling since the start of his administration has found public approval of Trump's handling of immigration hovering between 38% and 42%, with disapproval ranging from 57% to 61%. The net-negative ratings point to policies that are far more popular with the president's supporters than the nation as a whole.

"I think the core Trump supporter has to be happy with what the president has delivered on immigration," Washington-based Republican strategist John Feehery said. "He [Trump] is not going to get everything he wanted. He's not going to get all the wall built, he's not going to cut off all illegal immigration. But people know that he's trying hard to keep faith with his campaign promises."

Feehery added, "On the other side, the Democrats are not happy with what the president has delivered and they think that he is still a racist."

Pentagon Defers 127 Building Projects to Fund Border Wall

The Pentagon is shifting $3.6 billion from 127 military construction projects to build a section of Trump's promised US-Mexico border wall

Mexico not paying for the wall

One glaring 2016 campaign promise Trump has not kept is getting Mexico to pay for border wall construction. Faced with Mexico's flat refusal, and Congress' denial of substantial wall funding, Trump in February declared a national emergency at the border in order to redirect billions of dollars from the Pentagon to wall construction.

The Senate twice has voted to rescind the emergency declaration, but it fell short of veto-proof majorities each time.

Potential pitfalls could loom for Trump's message that he is getting results on immigration and border security. For instance, the recent drop in migrant apprehensions came during the hottest months of the year, when migrant arrivals at the border typically wane. At present, it is too soon to know whether they will pick up again as temperatures moderate.

"[W]e still need to see what happens with the southwest border apprehension numbers," said Bipartisan Policy Center senior analyst Cristobal Ramon. "If the number of people who are arriving spike up in this coming fiscal year, it's going to be a question of whether or not he [Trump] can actually legitimately say he's winning [on immigration]."

Fewer migrants held on U.S. soil may alleviate sharp criticism the administration has faced over overcrowding, unsanitary conditions and child separations at detention facilities. Already, however, immigrant rights groups and some U.S. lawmakers are accusing the White House of placing asylum-seekers at the mercy of gangs and cartels by forcing them to stay in Mexico.

Human rights groups, meanwhile, decry the administration's asylum pacts with Central American countries with staggeringly high murder and poverty rates — the very nations from which a large proportion of migrants have departed.

FILE - Acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Ken Cuccinelli speaks during a briefing at the White House in Washington, Aug. 12, 2019.

Even so, conventional wisdom holds that concern for the fate of migrants is more likely to animate Democratic voters and some moderate Republicans than Trump's core supporters.

"What the numbers show is that when the president stands up for working class Americans with better trade deals and stronger borders, that he appeals to Americans who are trying to find work," Feehery said. "Moderate Republicans are never going to like this president, and probably are never going to vote for him."

"Presidents have lots of opportunities to broaden their base [of supporters], Trump hasn't really even tried," University of Virginia political analyst Larry Sabato said. "They [Trump's re-election team] are depending on that intense base, not just to turn out, but to bring 10 friends [to the polls]."

With the 2020 presidential contest looming and an impeachment inquiry underway in the House of Representatives, the man some see as Trump's "immigration czar" has signaled an awareness that the president's time in office may end before he implements all he desires on border security and immigration.

"Time is our opponent here," Cuccinelli said. "We know that we have to, you know, get things done by the latter part of 2020. You can't assume anything going forward. We have a work window that we have to operate within."

September 28, 2019 at 05:39PM

Giuliani, Once ‘America’s Mayor,’ Now a Central Figure in Trump Impeachment Inquiry

【Move to another page】
Quote
https://ift.tt/2o5krRX
Giuliani, Once 'America's Mayor,' Now a Central Figure in Trump Impeachment Inquiry

It's been a long, strange road for Rudy Giuliani, the hard-nosed prosecutor who gained fame as "America's Mayor" for his leadership in New York City after the terror attacks on September 11, 2001.

Once seen as a promising Republican presidential candidate himself, Giuliani is now trying to beat back accusations that he was a key player in an international scandal that has President Donald Trump facing an impeachment inquiry.

Over the course of the past two years, Giuliani, 75, has held multiple meetings with officials from Ukraine as part of an effort to persuade that country's government to open an investigation focused on former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, who served on the board of a Ukrainian energy company called Burisma Holdings.

At the same time, Giuliani was pushing for a separate investigation into alleged cooperation between Ukrainian officials and Hillary Clinton's campaign in the 2016 election, suggesting that Joe Biden had also played a role in that unproven conspiracy.

FILE - U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton attend a ceremony to unveil a portrait honoring retiring Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid on Capitol Hill in Washington, Dec. 8, 2016.

Joe Biden, of course, has long been seen as Trump's most likely Democratic opponent in the 2020 presidential election, and is the opponent that reportedly most concerns the president. Giuliani has taken these actions, he said, in his capacity as the president's personal lawyer.

Whistleblower complaint

The story came to a head this week with the release of a whistleblower complaint, later confirmed by a rough transcript of the phone conversation released by the White House, that claimed Trump pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate the Bidens in the context of a phone call about military aid.

But Trump's July 25 phone call with Zelenskiy only took place after Giuliani did months of groundwork, jetting across the Atlantic to meet with an assortment of current and former Ukrainian officials to press his theories about the Bidens.

FILE - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy speaks during a meeting with law enforcement officers in Kyiv, Ukraine, July 23, 2019.

In fact, the whistleblower complaint also accused Giuliani of complicating U.S. diplomatic efforts in Ukraine and forcing career State Department employees to attempt to "contain the damage."

Speaking to The Washington Post earlier this year, Giuliani estimated that he had met with at least five current and former Ukrainian prosecutors in pressing his case against the Bidens.

He was also not shy about sharing his ideas publicly.

In May, for example, he demanded on Twitter, "Explain to me why Biden shouldn't be investigated if his son got millions from a Russian loving crooked Ukrainian oligarch while He was VP and point man for Ukraine."

In June, he again tweeted about Biden, suggesting that there were allegations that the vice president had "bribed" former Ukrainian Prime Minister Petro Poroshenko, though he did not include any evidence of such allegations, and none has since surfaced.

Diplomatic freelancing

FILE - General Prosecutor of Ukraine Viktor Shokin speaks during news conference in Kyiv, Ukraine, Feb. 16, 2015.

Specifically, Giuliani has been pushing the theory that Biden, as vice president, took improper actions in 2015 by pressing the government in Kyiv to fire Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin, who was considered corrupt by a wide array of the United States' European allies.

Giuliani's claim, propounded in tweets, on television and in interviews, is that Joe Biden's real motive was to quash an ongoing investigation of Burisma in order to benefit his son, who had been named a member of the company's board, with a reported salary of $50,000 per month.

To date, Giuliani has produced no evidence that either of the Bidens took improper action. In fact, Ukrainian officials have said that at the time of the prosecutor's firing, there was no investigation of Burisma for Biden to derail. Officials have also said they have no reason to believe Hunter Biden did anything illegal.

Despite criticism that he is operating as a shadow State Department, Giuliani has been defiant, even while admitting that he is interfering in the Ukrainian government's affairs on the president's behalf.

In an interview with The New York Times in May, he said, "We're not meddling in an election; we're meddling in an investigation, which we have a right to do."

He added: "This isn't foreign policy. I'm asking them to do an investigation that they're doing already and that other people are telling them to stop. And I'm going to give them reasons why they shouldn't stop it, because that information will be very, very helpful to my client, and may turn out to be helpful to my government."

Giuliani's freelancing in Ukraine drew the attention of members of Congress, who on September 9 complained in a statement to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that "a growing public record indicates that, for nearly two years, the President and his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, appear to have acted outside legitimate law enforcement and diplomatic channels to coerce the Ukrainian government into pursuing two politically motivated investigations under the guise of anti-corruption activity." 

That letter was sent before the whistleblower complaint outlining Trump's call to Zelenskiy, which led to an announcement by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that the Democrat-led body would pursue an impeachment investigation of the president.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks during a press conference at the Palace Hotel on the sidelines of the 74th session of the U.N. General Assembly in New York, Sept. 26, 2019.

The chairmen of three House committees subpoenaed Pompeo on Friday over his failure to produce documents related to reported efforts by Trump and his associates "to improperly pressure the Ukrainian government to assist the President's bid for re-election."

Pompeo has not publicly discussed Giuliani's dealings with Ukraine and the State Department.

Giuliani's reaction to the whistleblower complaint has been fierce, with television appearances in which he claimed that he was actually acting at the behest of the State Department and reiterated his accusations against the Bidens.

In an interview with The Atlantic, during which the reporter described him as "very angry" and "shouting," he said, "It is impossible that the whistleblower is a hero and I'm not. And I will be the hero! These morons — when this is over, I will be the hero."

Long friendship

FILE - President-elect Donald Trump calls out to media as he and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani pose for photographs as Giuliani arrives at the Trump National Golf Club Bedminster clubhouse, Nov. 20, 2016, in Bedminster, N.J.

Trump and Giuliani have been friends at least as far back as 1989, when the developer supported Giuliani's first bid for mayor of New York.

Giuliani, in turn, was one of Trump's most ardent and aggressive supporters during the 2016 presidential election. His speeches and appearances were sometimes so over the top that pundits were openly questioning his sanity.

But Giuliani endeared himself to Trump, taking on some of the most unpleasant assignments as a campaign surrogate.

He was one of the only Trump surrogates willing to speak for the president in the days following the October 2016 release of the infamous Access Hollywood tape, in which then-candidate Trump was caught admitting to sexually assaulting women. Two days later, Giuliani appeared on all five major U.S. television Sunday talk shows.

Giuliani first came to broad public attention in the 1980s, while serving as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. He led multiple high-profile prosecutions of white-collar criminals and organized crime figures.

While he was praised by many for his record of successful convictions, he was also broadly criticized for heavy-handed tactics that resulted in the public humiliation of individuals who were never charged with wrongdoing.

Giuliani parlayed his tough-on-crime image into two terms as mayor of New York, during which time he focused on improving the quality of life in the city. He was known for pressing police to crack down on petty crime on the theory that doing so would also bring down levels of serious crime, and indeed, the city became considerably safer during his time in office.

FILE - New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani leads New York Gov. George Pataki, left, and Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., on a tour of the site of the World Trade Center disaster, Sept. 12, 2001.

As his final term as mayor was coming to an end, the 9/11 attacks put a spotlight on Giuliani, as he led efforts to recover from the shattering terrorist attacks. He won near-unanimous praise for his handling of the attacks' aftermath, earning the nickname "America's Mayor," and soon afterward left public office to launch Giuliani Partners, a security consulting firm.

He briefly returned to public view in 2008, with a failed bid to win the Republican presidential nomination. Though he was thought to be considering other races, including for the New York governorship and another presidential run, Giuliani has not been a candidate for office in more than a decade.

September 28, 2019 at 05:36PM

In the Shadow of the Moon

【Move to another page】
Quote
https://ift.tt/2msW28f
In the Shadow of the Moon
September 28, 2019 at 08:00AM

Haiti Protesters Block Roads, Loot, Set Fires to Force President to Resign

【Move to another page】
Quote
https://ift.tt/2mt67Cf
Haiti Protesters Block Roads, Loot, Set Fires to Force President to Resign

The following reporters contributed to this report: Matiado Vilme, Yves Manuel, Dieuline Gedeus in Port-au-Prince, Jaudelet Junior Saint Vil in Fort Liberte, Innocente Desgranges in Petit Goave, Socrate Ameyes Jean Pierre, James Dorvil, Alexandre Joram in Miragoane, Junior Racine in St. Marc, Hernst Eliscar in Les Cayes

WASHINGTON, PORT-au-PRINCE, GONAIVES, FORT LIBERTE, PETIT  GOAVE, MIRAGOANE, ST. MARC, LES CAYES - Haiti's latest protests began with explosions when hundreds of Cite Soleil residents, a slum notorious for gang activity, drug dealing and kidnapping, attacked the local UDMO security force headquarters.

They looted, carrying out furniture and other materials, then set fire to the building and police cars, prompting the explosions.

#Haiti Protest started with a bang, literally, early this morning when Cite Soleil protesters attacked, looted and set fire to the UDMO security forces headquarters. This was the scene. Video by @VOAKreyol Yves Manuel pic.twitter.com/9d20pbL5F3

— Sandra Lemaire (@SandraDVOA) September 27, 2019

A protester who spoke to VOA Creole Friday said their actions were in response to what they said were injustices by police and poor governance, which has made their lives miserable.

A man poses with a painting after looting a shop during a protest to demand the resignation of president Jovenel Moise in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Sept. 27, 2019.

"When you see the people in the street with nothing but their arms and legs, and the UDMO sees that and shoots and kills three people in Cite Soleil, we have to tell the residents to rise up and root out this government because Jovenel Moise has done nothing for us except kill us," he said.

Elsewhere in Port-au-Prince, protesters blocked roads with stones, branches and flaming tires. Businesses and schools were shuttered as thousands marched up Delmas, a main road linking the downtown area to affluent suburbs.

But protesters looted businesses such as an electronics store and Banj, a multiuse complex that houses a tech company owned by hipster and tech guru Marc Alain Boucicault. He sent out an SOS on Twitter as protesters crashed through the steel gates and entered the complex, ransacking it and setting fires.

Protesters broke into, looted and set fire to @banjHT a multi-use complex which is the brainchild of Haitian tech guru @marcalainb#Haiti Marc Alain sent out an SOS 🆘 tweet as this was happening. pic.twitter.com/CiUdzRJTZH

— Sandra Lemaire (@SandraDVOA) September 27, 2019

A protester VOA Creole spoke to on the Delmas road said he was in the streets for the first time today because he's starving.

"I've had to rely on neighbors three days in a row to be able to eat a little something," he said. "The president has to go, he is the cause of our suffering."

Firefighters run to a restaurant that was set on fire during a protest in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Sept. 27, 2019.

Opposition Senator Ricard Pierre joined the protesters on their march uptown.

"Today is the final battle in the war to get rid of Jovenel," he told VOA Creole.

As protesters made their way up to Petionville, police fired teargas in an attempt to stop them. They were unsuccessful. The massive crowd reached the suburb and set fire to a private home next to Sogebank, a financial institution, and then looted a Chinese-owned business and a pharmacy.

#Haiti Protest is on. Police using tear gas to disperse protesters attempting to reach affluent suburb of Petionville. Video @VOAKreyol Matiado Vilme pic.twitter.com/DVDiyEoqqW

— Sandra Lemaire (@SandraDVOA) September 27, 2019

In Gonaives to the north, protesters hit the streets wielding machetes. Reporters who witnessed the angry crowd marching through town ran for cover.

In Fort Liberte, protesters set up burning barricades and placed a casket in the middle of the road to block National Highway 6, which links northern towns to the capital. Hundreds filled the streets, a reporter estimated.

"We're in the streets today to demand the president resign and to let everyone know the Northeast has had enough," a young man in his 20s told VOA Creole. "The government is no good and we're suffering so we decided to block the road to see if the situation will get better."

In Petit Goave to the south, protesters set fire to the local office of the national electric company EDH, and to the courthouse. Video recorded by VOA Creole showed smoke billowing from inside as the building along with the burned court files inside.

#Haiti Petit Gôave, Courthouse is on fire along with all the court case files. Video @VOAKreyol Innocente Desgranges pic.twitter.com/Op6qZVXUOt

— Sandra Lemaire (@SandraDVOA) September 27, 2019

In Miragoane, protesters marched to a raboday beat as they chanted "lock them up" and "lock up Jojo (President Moise) as they made their way around town.

Three men in their 20s were shot and wounded by police during the demonstration, VOA Creole reporters said.

In Miragoane to the South, protesters marched to a raboday beat chanting lock them up and lock up Jojo -@moisejovenel Video @VOAKreyol Socrate Ameyes Jean Pierre #Haitipic.twitter.com/nAM0wiLZiW

— Sandra Lemaire (@SandraDVOA) September 27, 2019

In St. Marc, also in the south, thousands filled the streets to protest against the president, a reporter estimated.

"We don't have schools, there's no infrastructure, we don't have hospitals, we don't have anything," a protester wearing a Haitian flag bandana on his head and a Haitian flag wrapped around his torso told VOA Creole. "Why are we living like this? We want to be rid of this system (government). We can't deal. We're tired of it. The youth are over it."

In St Marc, this protester cited lack of schools, infrastructure, hospitals, good governance as reason they are in the street #Haiti Video @VOAKreyol Junior Racine pic.twitter.com/tjusmvhTEh

— Sandra Lemaire (@SandraDVOA) September 27, 2019

And in Les Cayes, angry protesters fired on a police post in an attempt to take over the police station. The gate and building were damaged, but local UDMO security forces were able to intervene and arrested some of the perpetrators.

President Jovenel Moise has not commented on the protests.

A U.S. Embassy security alert on Twitter warned American citizens living in Haiti not to venture out into the streets.

The opposition groups who called for the nationwide protest say they will not stop until the president responds to their demand to step down.

As night fell, residents were bracing for what the morning might bring.

September 28, 2019 at 11:38AM

Outages Meant to Deter Wildfires Burden Rural California Counties

【Move to another page】
Quote
https://ift.tt/2nUFXbP
Outages Meant to Deter Wildfires Burden Rural California Counties

When California's largest utility warned it would cut power to thousands to prevent its equipment from starting wildfires during warm, windy weather, officials in the wealthy wine region of Sonoma County sprang into action.

They declared a state of emergency and called up additional first responders who could direct traffic or take vulnerable residents to places with electricity.

Nearly 200 miles (275 kilometers) north, officials in rural Butte County simply posted Pacific Gas & Electric information online about which neighborhoods would be affected and what to do with perishable food.

FILE - Pacific Gas & Electric crews work on restoring power lines in a fire-ravaged neighborhood in the aftermath of a wildfire in Santa Rosa, Calif., Oct. 14, 2017.

Rich county, poor county

Both counties had communities decimated in wildfires ignited by power lines in recent years. They face the long-term prospect of frequent power shutoffs during fire season as PG&E and other utilities try to prevent their equipment from sparking blazes like the one last year that killed 85 people and nearly destroyed the Butte County town of Paradise.

More populated, wealthier counties have adapted their emergency plans to respond to the new reality of thousands of residents losing power for an undetermined amount of time. But the preventive outages are proving to be a burden to smaller, poorer counties without resources to set up places for people to cool off or mobilize staff to deal with emergencies if outages stretch past two days.

"The outages are to avoid an emergency and a fire disaster, but there are no resources that counties can access to make sure that people are at a cooling station or get the transportation they need to get there," said Darby Thomas, deputy executive director of the California State Association of Counties.

Millions yet to be doled out

California lawmakers this year set aside $75 million to prepare local governments for the outages, but officials have yet to decide how to distribute the money.

The outages are new for PG&E and Southern California Edison, which together provide power in 55 of California's 58 counties. The utilities and county officials are working together to figure out their roles, but a lack of standards has led to disparate responses.

This week, PG&E shut off power to more than 48,000 customers in seven

counties in wine country and the Sierra Nevada foothills as the humidity plunged, temperatures rose and winds kicked up — a combination that has fueled some of the most destructive blazes in California history.

The outages lasted less than a day, and no major problems were reported.

FILE- Homes leveled by the Camp Fire line the Ridgewood Mobile Home Park retirement community in Paradise, Calif., Dec. 3, 2018.

Wine country prepares

In Sonoma County, PG&E cut power to 700 people in the Santa Rosa area, where a massive blaze in October 2017 killed 22 people and destroyed more than 5,000 homes.

The county started planning for power outages shortly after regulators approved them in May, emergency management director Chris Godley said.

"Just like we prepare for an earthquake, or fire season, or flood season, we also prepared for the de-energization because if the power will be out for more than 48 hours, it's really an emergency for the community," he said.

The county's outage plan calls for opening facilities with air conditioning, adding more police patrols to direct traffic after streetlights go out and sending workers to check on those who are sick or immobile.

"Our response philosophy is to ensure maximum and full response immediately because we don't know the level and scope of what's going to happen," Godley said.

Elsewhere, residents on their own

In Butte County, where 24,000 customers lost power twice this week, authorities ensured backup generators worked, had staffers ready in case they needed to check on vulnerable people and shared PG&E updates on social media. They planned to rely on two PG&E cooling centers.

FILE - Sheriff's deputies recover the remains of a victim of the Camp Fire in Paradise, Calif., Nov. 10, 2018.

"Our role is to make sure the information gets out there because it's really PG&E's thing," county spokeswoman Miranda Bowersox said.

Lake County, home to 60,000 people in the Sierra foothills where wildfires in recent years killed four people and burned hundreds of buildings, emergency officials have spent $500,000 buying and installing generators that can power police, fire, water and sewage services.

It doesn't have the resources to do much more than ensure government buildings are operating during an outage, said Dale Carnathan, county emergency services manager.

As in Butte County, Carnathan said Lake County's focus has been on telling people the location of outages, advising them to buy nonperishable food and generators, and urging them to charge their phones.

"What people need to understand is that local government is not going to be able to come to their rescue," he said. "We need them to take responsibility for their own safety and security, at least for the short term, because we're going to be in the same boat they are in."

Long outages a problem

Though the outages were brief this week, those longer than two days can strain communities, said Thomas of the counties association. Even after the weather improves, there can be delays as utilities inspect every line before restoring power.

A lot still needs to be done to help counties prepare, including drawing up plans to help people with medical issues or disabilities, she said.

"Most of these counties haven't had to deal with this before," Thomas said. "We're hoping that some of the funds go toward not only buying generators but also helping them plan for these emergencies so they are able to respond."

September 28, 2019 at 09:18AM

North Macedonian PM: Extortion Probe Will Be Resolved Before EU Talks

【Move to another page】
Quote
https://ift.tt/2lKvGhT
North Macedonian PM: Extortion Probe Will Be Resolved Before EU Talks

Prime Minister of North Macedonia Zoran Zaev says he is optimistic that an extortion investigation of the country's former chief special prosecutor will be resolved ahead of upcoming European Union accession talks.

"I expect that once I return (from New York), there will be something prepared by the working groups, the negotiators on both sides," Zaev told VOA's Macedonian Service at the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Thursday.

Zaev, who refused to divulge details of a pending agreement for fear of disrupting negotiations, said he expects a deal before a European Council meeting on Oct. 17, when ministers from the 28 EU member states will decide whether to let North Macedonia and Albania start the accession process.

"The solution itself will send another message about our political and democratic maturity," he said, referring to EU accession criteria.

FILE - Public prosecutor Katica Janeva, right, takes an oath in Skopje, Macedonia, Sept. 16, 2015.

This summer, North Macedonia's former chief Special Prosecutor, Katica Janeva, unexpectedly tendered her resignation amid allegations that she masterminded a scheme to extort millions from an indicted businessman in exchange for a reduced sentence.

Janeva's Special Prosecution Office (SPO), an organized-crime-busting outfit also tasked with addressing high-level corruption, has long been emblematic of the former Yugoslav republic's transatlantic aspirations. By spearheading investigations of the now-ousted authoritarian regime of former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, Janeva's office was largely mandated to restore rule of law.

The country changed its name from Macedonia to North Macedonia in a historic 2018 Prespa accord, ending a more than two-decade dispute with Greece over its name, and removing an obstacle to EU and NATO membership.

Last month, EU Commissioner Johannes Hahn said Skopje needs to reform its judiciary to ensure it can handle high-level crime and corruption cases before the EU accession talks begin.

Zaev met with his Greek counterpart, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, in New York, where the two discussed ways to build on the Prespa agreement.

From border crossings to trade deals and economic cooperation, Zaev said, "These are the ways to enhance the friendship that we have already established through the Prespa agreement," adding that he was "pleased with this first encounter."

Mitsotakis, who took office in July, told Zaev he would never have signed the 2018 deal with Macedonia, but that he would nonetheless honor it. 

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks during a press conference at the Palace Hotel on the sidelines of the 74th session of the U.N. General Assembly in New York, Sept. 26, 2019.

On Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that he plans to visit North Macedonia on an upcoming swing through Italy, Greece and the Western Balkans during the first week of October.

Pompeo "will attend the U.S.-Holy See Symposium on Partnering with Faith-Based Organizations, where he will deliver keynote remarks," read a Friday statement from the State Department. "He will have a private audience with His Holiness Pope Francis, and meet with Secretary of State Cardinal [Pietro] Parolin and Secretary for Relations with States Archbishop [Paul] Gallagher."

Pompeo will then meet with Italian leaders before meeting with Zaev and his top officials in the capital of North Macedonia, along with the leaders of Montenegro and Greece.

This story originated in VOA's Macedonian Service. 

September 28, 2019 at 07:43AM

'Suck it up!': 'Handmaid's Tale' author blasts interviewer over Trump comparisons

【Move to another page】
Quote
https://ift.tt/2nXwukc
'Suck it up!': 'Handmaid's Tale' author blasts interviewer over Trump comparisons Margaret Atwood, the author of the dystopian novel "The Handmaid's Tale," blasted an interviewer who tried to compare Atwood's fictional land of Gilead -- where women are property and forced to bear children -- to the United States under Trump.
September 28, 2019 at 07:48AM

German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence

German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence

【Move to another page】
Quote
https://ift.tt/2ni4ozV
The German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) was founded in 1988 as a non-profit public-private partnership. It has research facilities ...
September 28, 2019 at 02:01AM

Erdogan Defies Trump Over Iran Sanctions

【Move to another page】
Quote
https://ift.tt/2nRP5Os
Erdogan Defies Trump Over Iran Sanctions

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday continued to chart a collision course with Washington over Iran. Erdogan is categorically ruling out enforcing American sanctions intended to put Iran in an economic straitjacket.

"It is impossible for us to cancel relations with Iran with regard to oil and natural gas. We will continue to buy our natural gas from there," Erdogan said to reporters Friday, while returning from the United Nations General Assembly. Turkey is Iran's second-largest importer of natural gas.

"The importance [of] this announcement is economic," said Iran expert Jamshid Assadi of France's Burgundy Business School. "Any income in Tehran's situation is very welcome by the regime, which is increasingly starved of funds."

President Donald Trump talks with reporters after arriving at Joint Base Andrews, Sept. 26, 2019, in Maryland.

President Donald Trump imposed sweeping sanctions on Tehran after withdrawing the United States from an international nuclear accord with Iran. Dubbed a "maximum pressure campaign" by Trump, White House officials indicated they want to cut Iran's energy exports to zero.

"The American grand strategy in the region, is not on the same line as Turkey's foreign policy, not now and not in the past," said international relations professor Huseyin Bagci of Ankara's Middle East Technical University. "Turkey will not go against Iran; we will not be Iran's enemy. Competitor yes, but never its enemy."

Erdogan acknowledged U.S. sanctions are impacting trade with Iran, saying Turkish private companies have curtailed oil purchases from the Islamic nation to avoid punitive measures. Speaking anonymously, a European banker said internationally-operating Turkish companies would not risk being hit with U.S. sanctions for trading with Iran.

Even so, the Turkish president is pledging to step up bilateral trade. "On this issue [trade] especially and many other issues, we will continue our relations with Iran," said Erdogan.

FILE - Turkish liras, center, featuring images of Turkish Republic founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, among other foreign currency, Istanbul, June 8, 2015.

Last week, Erdogan reportedly discussed with Iranian President Hasan Rouhani a goal of tripling bilateral trade, which currently stands at $10 billion. The discussions focused on ways to use domestic currencies — the Turkish lira and Iranian rial — as a means of evading U.S. sanctions that prohibit the use of the dollar in trade transactions with Iran.

"Turkey will circumvent and break U.S. sanctions against Iran, just as they have done in the past," said Bagci, "because Ankara does not believe it's bound by those sanctions. This will likely result in U.S. sanctions against Turkey, but Turkey is ready for that."

Erdogan told Fox News on Wednesday, "Sanctions have been avoided in the past. I, for one, know that sanctions have never solved anything."

Last year, a New York Court convicted and jailed a senior banking executive of the Turkish state-owned Halkbank for violating U.S. sanctions on Iran.

A street vendor sells roasted chestnuts in front of a branch of Halkbank in central Istanbul, Turkey, Jan. 10, 2018.

U.S. authorities are still considering whether to impose a fine against Halkbank, which analysts say could run into the billions of dollars. The size of any potential penalty is widely seen as leverage Washington has over Ankara.

Undaunted, Erdogan told reporters Friday he was aware his stance could invite punitive measures from Washington. Analysts note the Turkish president had already irked Washington by casting doubt over claims Tehran was responsible for an attack earlier this month on Saudi Arabia oil refining facilities.

"If we just place the entire burden on Iran, it won't be the right way to go. Because the evidence available does not necessarily point to that fact," Erdogan said Wednesday.

Saudi Colonel Turki al-Malki displays pieces of what he said were Iranian cruise missiles and drones recovered from the attack site that targeted Saudi Aramco's facilities, during a press conference in Riyadh, Sept. 18, 2019.

Several key European countries are backing Washington's belief that Tehran is behind the attack.

Ankara's strong backing of Tehran comes as Erdogan is trying to build regional support for his plan to repatriate as many as two million Syrian refugees.

Erdogan envisages relocating the refugees to a so-called "safe zone" in northeast Syria currently controlled by the YPG, a Syrian Kurdish militia. Ankara designates the YPG as terrorists, and Turkish forces are poised to push the militia 40 kilometers back from Turkey's frontier.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani speaks during the Cabinet meeting in Tehran, Iran, Sept. 18, 2019.

Speaking in Ankara earlier this month, Rouhani insisted refugees be returned to their home towns, not repatriated en masse.

"Rouhani is saying to Turkey, that it will not support Ankara's plan of the mass returning of refugees, "said international relations lecturer Soli Ozel of Istanbul's Kadir Has University.

"Damascus and Tehran are perfectly happy that millions of Sunni Arabs, which oppose Damascus, are out of Syria," he added.

Analysts suggest Tehran will not soften its stance. 

"Tehran will not just change its stance over Syria and refugees because Ankara is opposing U.S. sanctions, that is just a dream," said Bagci.

Despite Ankara and Tehran backing opposing sides in the Syrian civil war, the two countries, along with Moscow, say they want an end to the conflict.

Ankara's cooperation with Moscow on Syria has alarmed Washington. Turkey's purchase of Russia's S-400 missile system prompted Washington to suspend sales of the U.S. F-35 fighter jets. Turkish companies were also excluded from the warplane's construction.

 

September 28, 2019 at 04:56AM

‘Law & Order: SVU’ star Ice-T says Jussie Smollett ‘Empire’ drama inspired upcoming Season 21 episode

【Move to another page】
Quote
https://ift.tt/2nfQP3W
'Law & Order: SVU' star Ice-T says Jussie Smollett 'Empire' drama inspired upcoming Season 21 episode We all knew it would happen eventually.
September 28, 2019 at 05:21AM

A Primer on the Trump Impeachment Controversy

【Move to another page】
Quote
https://ift.tt/2nhbnsG
A Primer on the Trump Impeachment Controversy 

U.S. President Donald Trump took to Twitter again Friday to lash out at the media and the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee as a formal impeachment inquiry moved forward in Congress over allegations Trump solicited Ukraine's president to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, a potential rival of Trump's in the 2020 presidential election. 

Trump's main target was Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff of California, who presided over Thursday's questioning of the acting director of national intelligence about the handling of a whistleblower complaint.   

At the center of the complaint is a July 25, 2019, phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in which the whistleblower alleges: 

— Trump pressured Zelenskiy to investigate Biden and his son Hunter, who was at one time on the board of a Ukrainian energy company. 

— Trump suggested multiple times that Zelenskiy meet with his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, and U.S. Attorney General William Barr about the investigation. 

— White House officials secured all records of the phone call in a separate electronic system used to store classified and sensitive information, a move denounced by Democrats as a cover-up. 

Normally, such an "urgent" complaint would have been forwarded to congressional intelligence committees within three weeks. But the acting director of national intelligence, Joseph Maguire, missed a Sept. 2 deadline, defying congressional demands for the document and a subpoena for his testimony.

Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire takes his seat before testifying before the House Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Sept. 26, 2019.

 

Congress finally received the whistleblower complaint on Sept. 25. The next day, Maguire appeared before the House Intelligence Committee in a public hearing. He testified that he took the complaint to White House lawyers, then Justice Department lawyers, who advised it was not urgent enough to send to Congress. Maguire refused to acknowledge whether he spoke to Trump about the whistleblower's complaint.

Protected by law 

Federal law protects government workers from retribution if they report wrongdoing by government officials. Such whistleblowers are granted anonymity for their protection. 

Video has surfaced of Trump attacking the whistleblower's sources. Speaking at a closed-door event at the U.S. Mission to the U.N on Thursday, Trump described the sources as "close to a spy," suggesting it was an act of treason, punishable by death. 

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., leads other House Democrats to discuss H.R. 1, the For the People Act, which passed in the House but is being held up in the Senate, at the Capitol in Washington, Sept. 27, 2019.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, said she was concerned about Trump's remarks, promising that the impeachment committees would ensure there was no retaliation for people who came forward with information. She did not set out a timeline for the impeachment process, although she told MSNBC "it doesn't have to drag on." 

Trump maintained he had a "perfect conversation" with his Ukrainian counterpart and was just trying to get his government to investigate corruption. The White House released a summary of Trump's phone call with Zelenskiy, which shows Trump raising the issue of investigating the Bidens. The call took place while U.S. military aid to Ukraine was suspended by Trump. 

September 28, 2019 at 03:51AM

Test drive: The 2020 Kia Telluride is a big deal

【Move to another page】
Quote
https://ift.tt/2njmCRC
Test drive: The 2020 Kia Telluride is a big deal Kia knows what Americans like.
September 28, 2019 at 03:29AM

Remembering Hurricane Gloria's impact on Long Island

Remembering Hurricane Gloria's impact on Long Island

【Move to another page】
Quote
https://ift.tt/2nVCREG
On Sept. 27, 1985, 34 years ago today, Hurricane Gloria, a Category 3 storm, made landfall near Long Beach. Roughly 750,000 lost power, some for ...
September 27, 2019 at 09:56PM

iPhone 11 Pro price in India

【Move to another page】
Quote
https://ift.tt/2nhW6bi
iPhone 11 Pro price in India
September 27, 2019 at 11:00PM

Immigration officials slammed for using Google Translate to vet refugees' social media posts

【Move to another page】
Quote
https://ift.tt/2nfKzci
Immigration officials slammed for using Google Translate to vet refugees' social media posts The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has been slammed for using the Google Translate tool to vet refugees' social media posts.
September 28, 2019 at 02:17AM

Next 2020 presidential debate: 12 candidates on one night only

【Move to another page】
Quote
https://ift.tt/2lJmF8M
Next 2020 presidential debate: 12 candidates on one night only Next month's Democratic presidential debate will take place on just one single night instead of over two, the Democratic National Committee announced Friday.
September 28, 2019 at 01:46AM

Trump Demands Key Lawmaker Step Down Over Whistleblower Case

【Move to another page】
Quote
https://ift.tt/2lBzXE6
Trump Demands Key Lawmaker Step Down Over Whistleblower Case

The whistleblower controversy involving U.S. President Donald Trump continued to evolve Friday with the president calling for the resignation of a key lawmaker, who allegedly misrepresented him during a congressional hearing, while House Speaker Nancy Pelosi declared that Attorney General William Barr has "gone rogue."

The developments are in response to a complaint from a whistleblower who alleges that Trump, in a July 25 phone call, sought help from the new president of Ukraine in digging up incriminating information, about former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter, that would hurt Biden's prospects of winning the Democratic presidential nomination and challenging Trump in 2020.

Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff, a Democrat, speaks during testimony by Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire before the House Intelligence Committee, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Sept. 26, 2019.

Trump called Friday for the resignation of Adam Schiff, the Democratic chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, for allegedly misrepresenting him during a hearing Thursday on the administration's delay in submitting the whistleblower's complaint to Congress.

"He was supposedly reading the exact transcribed version of the call, but he completely changed the words to make it...sound horrible, and me sound guilty," Trump tweeted.

"Adam Schiff therefore lied to Congress and attempted to defraud the American Public," Trump said. "I am calling for him to immediately resign from Congress based on this fraud!"

...sound horrible, and me sound guilty. HE WAS DESPERATE AND HE GOT CAUGHT. Adam Schiff therefore lied to Congress and attempted to defraud the American Public. He has been doing this for two years. I am calling for him to immediately resign from Congress based on this fraud!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 27, 2019

In opening remarks at Thursday's House hearing, Schiff said the complaint is "the most graphic evidence yet that the president of the United States has betrayed his oath of office."

Schiff said that as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy tried to ingratiate himself to Trump during the call, Trump's response read "like a classic organized crime shakedown" and proceeded to describe his interpretation of Trump's remarks.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi arrives at the Capitol in Washington, Sept. 26, 2019.

In an interview Friday with MSNBC, Pelosi said Barr, the nation's top law enforcement official, "had gone rogue" in his handling of the complaint.

A public readout of the July conversation disclosed by the White House this week shows Trump urged President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to work with Barr and Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani to investigate Biden and his son.

Pelosi accused Barr of being part of a White House "cover-up" of the phone call. "I think where they're going is a cover-up of a cover-up."

The whistleblower's complaint also said the White House tried to "lock down" the information to prevent its public disclosure. Efforts to hide the information allegedly included the removal of the transcript of the call from the computer system that is typically used for such records of calls with foreign leaders and loading it into a separate electronic system that is used only for classified information that is of an "especially sensitive nature."

FILE - U.S. Attorney General William Barr speaks at the Justice Department in Washington, July 15, 2019.

The complaint noted that a White House official described that as an abuse of the secure system because there was nothing "remotely sensitive" on the phone call from a national security perspective.

The whistleblower noted that White House officials said this was "not the first time" the Trump administration placed a presidential transcript into this "codeword-level system solely for the purpose of protecting politically sensitive, rather than national security sensitive information."

On Thursday, before leaving New York where he attended the U.N. General Assembly, Trump told a crowd of staff from the United States Mission to the U.N. that he wants to know who provided information to the whistleblower. He said that whomever did so was "close to a spy" and that "in the old days," spies were dealt with differently," according to The New York Times newspaper.

 

September 28, 2019 at 01:44AM

Trump, allies ramp up attacks over Ukraine call furor as Dems hit gas on impeachment

【Move to another page】
Quote
https://ift.tt/2miNctN
Trump, allies ramp up attacks over Ukraine call furor as Dems hit gas on impeachment The White House and congressional Democrats moved into a state of total political war in the wake of this week's stunning document dumps, historic testimony and impeachment inquiry launch over President Trump's July phone call with the Ukrainian president. 
September 27, 2019 at 11:02PM

Eagles cornerback Avonte Maddox stretchered out after hard hit from teammate in fourth quarter

【Move to another page】
Quote
https://ift.tt/2mcb6aj
Eagles cornerback Avonte Maddox stretchered out after hard hit from teammate in fourth quarter Philadelphia Eagles cornerback Avonte Maddox had to be stretchered out of Lambeau Field Thursday night after he took a brutal hit from teammate Andrew Sendejo late in the fourth quarter.
September 27, 2019 at 04:39PM

Rudy Giuliani blasts 'bitter' Romney over response to Trump-Ukraine case

【Move to another page】
Quote
https://ift.tt/2mbgHgY
Rudy Giuliani blasts 'bitter' Romney over response to Trump-Ukraine case Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani slammed Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, for what he called a weak response to the Ukraine phone call whistleblower's complaint against President Trump.
September 27, 2019 at 03:46PM

Colonial Guard of Spanish Guinea

【Move to another page】
Quote
https://ift.tt/2n3Cur6
Colonial Guard of Spanish Guinea

Sundostund:

---

The '''Colonial Guard of Spanish Guinea''' (also known as '''Colonial Guard''' or '''African Colonial Guard''') was a body that assumed customs, military and law enforcement duties in [[Spanish Guinea]] from its establishment in 1908 until the independence of [[Equatorial Guinea]] in 1968.

== History ==

The Colonial Guard was founded as a result of the Budget Law of 1908, which provided for replacement of garrisons of the [[Spanish Marine Infantry|Marine Infantry]] and the [[Civil Guard (Spain)|Civil Guard]] and the [[Customs]] office by a single body that could assume all the functions of these three. The objective of the Colonial Guard was to protect the [[Spaniards]] settled in the colony.<ref></ref>

At its creation, the Colonial Guard was composed 430 European and indigenous men, which meant an increase of more than 12% in the workforce with respect to the sum of the three bodies it replaced. The composition of this first composition was set at 1 [[captain]], 3 [[first lieutenant]]s, 7 [[second lieutenant]]s, 14 [[sergeant]]s, 42 [[corporal]]s and 1 [[cornet]] (all of them Europeans living in the colony and from the Civil Guard), 1 senior musician, also of European origin, as well as 12 cornets, 6 1st guards, 320 2nd guards, 6 1st musicians, 12 2nd musicians and 6 music learners (all of them indigenous).

At the commencement of the [[Spanish Civil War]] the commander of the Colonial Guard, [[Luis Serrano Maranges]], revolted against the [[Second Spanish Republic]] and joined the [[Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War)|Nationalist faction]].<ref name="p.439"> Martínez Bande, José Manuel (2011). ''Los años críticos: República, conspiración, revolución y alzamiento''. Encuentro, pág. 439</ref> His rebellion meant that all of Spanish Guinea would end up joining the Nationalist faction.<ref name="p.439" /> Nevertheless, part of the members loyal to the [[Republican faction (Spanish Civil War)|Republican faction]], fleeing with their families by boat to [[Barcelona]], were reintegrated into active duty with the same rank by the Republican government (according to the Government Bulletin of the Republic of 18 June 1937).

== References ==



[[Category:Civil Guard (Spain)]]
[[Category:Defunct gendarmeries]]
[[Category:Defunct law enforcement agencies of Spain]]
[[Category:Military history of Spain]]
[[Category:History of Equatorial Guinea]]
[[Category:1908 establishments in Spain]]
[[Category:1968 disestablishments in Spain]]
[[Category:Military units and formations established in 1908]]
[[Category:Military units and formations disestablished in 1968]]

September 27, 2019 at 01:27PM

Newt Gingrich says Dem, Pelosi impeachment push 'doesn't make any sense at all'

【Move to another page】
Quote
https://ift.tt/2m8wQUo
Newt Gingrich says Dem, Pelosi impeachment push 'doesn't make any sense at all' Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., who oversaw the 1998 impeachment proceedings against then-President Bill Clinton, said current Speaker Nancy Pelosi is making a nonsensical mistake.
September 27, 2019 at 11:12AM

Kashmir Crisis to be Raised Friday at UN General Assembly

【Move to another page】
Quote
https://ift.tt/2m8fd7a
Kashmir Crisis to be Raised Friday at UN General Assembly

Heightened tensions in Jammu and Kashmir will likely be in the spotlight Friday at the United Nations, when the leaders of India and Pakistan address the General Assembly.

"He expects the international community to respond in time before there is a catastrophe," Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi told VOA of his prime minister, Imran Khan, who will be making his U.N. debut.

FILE - Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi addresses a news conference in Islamabad, Pakistan, Aug. 8, 2019.

Kashmir has been a regional flashpoint for decades. India and Pakistan have fought several wars over the majority-Muslim territory since they both gained independence from Britain in 1947.

India's Aug. 5 decision to revoke the special status of Jammu and Kashmir has led to a security crackdown and communications blackout in the territory and a dangerous escalation between the nuclear-armed neighbors.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be making his first visit to the U.N. since his re-election in May, and it will be his first appearance at the annual debate in five years.

Leaders, including U.S. President Donald Trump, have urged the two nations to open a dialogue to resolve the situation.

The foreign ministers of China and Russia are also scheduled to deliver their statements Friday, as is the prime minister of the Bahamas. His island nation was ravaged last month by Hurricane Dorian, and he is likely to talk about the effects of climate change as his nation struggles to clean up and rebuild.

On Thursday, the assembly heard from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who said he remained committed to a two-state solution with Israel despite recent setbacks.

FILE - Israel's acting foreign minister Israel Katz, who also serves as intelligence and transport minister, attends the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, Feb. 24, 2019.

Israel's foreign minister, Israel Katz, delivered his country's statement, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suffered an election setback and remained at home. Katz called on the Palestinians to return to negotiations without any preconditions.

He spoke of the Sept. 14 attack on two major Saudi oil facilities and said it was carried out on the direct orders of Iranian leader Ali Khamenei in order to destabilize world oil supplies.

"I call on international community to unite in order to stop Iran," Katz said.

Saudi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Assaf said the attacks on his country, carried out by 25 cruise missiles and drones, cut Saudi oil production by almost half and are a test for the international community's will.

"The latest attacks and aggression have exposed the Iranian regime to the entire world," he said. "It is necessary for the international community today to realize that cutting off sources of finance is the best way to compel the regime to renounce its militias, to prevent it from developing ballistic missiles, and to put an end to its destabilizing activities in the region and in the world."

Washington and Riyadh have accused Iran of being responsible for the attack on Saudi oil facilities. Tehran has denied any involvement.

U.N. and international experts have gone to Saudi Arabia to support the investigation into the attack. A Saudi official said this week that once all work is done, Riyadh will decide its next steps in consultations with its allies.

September 27, 2019 at 10:52AM