The Overnight News Digest is a nightly series chronicling the eschaton.
PoliticoLindsey Graham dishes on Trump in hoax calls with Russians
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham … received a call from a man he thought was Turkey’s minister of defense earlier in August, it didn’t strike him as unusual. “Thank you so much for calling me, Mr. Minister,” Graham said. “I want to make this a win-win, if we can.”
But it wasn’t the Turkish defense minister at all. Instead, it was Alexey Stolyarov and Vladimir Kuznetsov, Russian pranksters with suspected ties to the country’s intelligence services who go by “Lexus and Vovan.” […]
The substance of Graham’s conversation with Stolyarov, who was posing as Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar, is newly relevant in light of the South Carolina senator’s push for sanctions on Turkey as punishment for their offensive against the Kurds in northern Syria. Graham labeled the Kurds a “threat” to Turkey in the call, seemingly contradicting what he has said publicly in recent days. […]
Graham also expressed sympathy for Turkey’s “Kurdish problem” and described the Kurds as a “threat.” […]
“I told … Trump that Obama made a huge mistake in relying on the YPG Kurds,” Graham continued. “Everything I worried about has come true, and now we have to make sure Turkey is protected from this threat in Syria. I’m sympathetic to the YPG problem, and so is the president, quite frankly.”
Two Giuliani Ukraine associates indicted on campaign finance charges
Two foreign-born associates of Rudy Giuliani were indicted on campaign finance charges made public on Thursday over alleged schemes to buy political influence on behalf of a Ukrainian government official and a Russian businessman.
The Giuliani associates had been working with the former New York mayor on a campaign to discredit former Vice President Joe Biden and investigate alleged Ukrainian interference in the 2016 election. Giuliani has said he undertook those efforts, which are now at the heart of congressional impeachment inquiries, in his capacity as a personal lawyer for … Donald Trump.
But Trump was emphatic late Thursday that he did not know either man, dismissing a picture of him with the men as irrelevant “because I have a picture with everybody.”
xTwo Florida businessmen tied to Donald Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani have been arrested on campaign finance violations over a $325,000 donation to a PAC supporting the president. https://t.co/6ZyLHrpvQj
— The Associated Press (@AP) October 10, 2019 The Washington PostTrump’s biggest lender, Deutsche Bank, does not have the his tax returns
Trump’s biggest lender has told an appeals court it does not have in its possession Trump’s personal tax returns, according to a ruling released Thursday in a legal battle between Congress and the president.
The disclosure came in an order from the New York-based appeals court, which is considering whether Trump can block subpoenas from two House committees seeking years of his personal financial documents from Deutsche Bank and Capital One. The lawsuit, which preceded the House impeachment inquiry, is one of several the president has filed to try to block access to his business data.
Mike Pence’s extremely evasive answers on Ukraine
Vice President Pence has studiously avoided being drawn into many of President Trump’s controversies, but he has not been able to avoid the current imbroglio involving Ukraine.
And when pressed Wednesday on what he knew and when he knew it, Pence was extremely evasive — and conspicuously so.
Pence has previously said that his meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in early September included no talk about investigating the Bidens, but that they did discuss the broader concept of “corruption.” A whistleblower has also alleged that Trump canceled Pence’s planned trip to Zelensky’s May inauguration and sent Energy Secretary Rick Perry instead — one of several indications that high-level meetings have been withheld for leverage.
BloombergPeru’s Leader More Popular Than Ever After Shutting Congress
Peruvian President Martin Vizcarra’s decision to dissolve Congress to end a long-running political feud has made him the country’s most popular leader in more than three decades.
Vizcarra’s approval rating soared to 82% from 52% last month, according to a poll by Lima-based Datum Internacional poll published in Gestion and Peru21 newspapers on Thursday. His decision to shut the legislative body was supported by 85% of those questioned while 74% said it will be beneficial for the country.
Thousands of Peruvians celebrated in the streets after Vizcarra told the Andean nation Sept. 30 that he was invoking his constitutional right to dissolve Congress and calling new parliamentary elections.
Pelosi Confronts Decision on Formal Trump Impeachment Vote
Donald Trump is pushing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to hold a formal vote on impeachment, a move that would change the politics of the probe more than its legal standing.
Trump this week escalated his fight against the Democratic-led investigation of his dealings with Ukraine with a letter from the White House counsel that contends the administration cannot cooperate with an inquiry that is “invalid” in part because the full House hasn’t voted to investigate. […]
A decision whether to call the president’s bluff is likely to be a main topic when Pelosi convenes a conference call with House Democrats at the end of the week. Representative Dan Kildee of Michigan, one of the leadership’s vote counters, said Democrats could easily pass a resolution authorizing the impeachment inquiry with as many as 230 votes.
Los Angeles TimesTrump’s children take in millions overseas as president slams Biden’s son
Eric Trump and his older brother, Donald Trump Jr., run the Trump Organization, which conducts business — and takes in tens of millions of dollars annually — around the globe and is still owned by the president. The company is forging ahead with projects in Ireland, India, Indonesia and Uruguay, and is licensing the Trump name in such turbulent areas as Turkey and the Philippines.
Their sister Ivanka is a senior advisor to the president. She kept her international fashion business going for 18 months after she was given a loosely defined White House portfolio that includes interacting with heads of state and working with domestic and international corporate chiefs on economic programs. […]
Time and again, Trump’s children have blurred the lines of family, nation and business — essentially the charge the president makes against the Bidens as he battles a House impeachment inquiry focused on whether he improperly pushed Ukraine to investigate his political rivals for what he claims were shady dealings.
Ukraine president says there was no ‘blackmail’ in Trump phone conversation
The Ukrainian president said Thursday that there was no pressure from the White House during his now-infamous July phone call with President Trump, who had asked him to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden as well as a theory that Ukraine had interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
“There was no pressure or blackmail from the U.S.,” Volodymryr Zelenksky said during a 14-hour series of meetings with Ukrainian and international journalists that were broadcast live from Kyiv on social media and several television channels.
“This call influenced only one thing. We needed to secure a meeting, that it was necessary to meet with the president,” he said. “I wanted to show him our team, our young team. I wanted to get him into Ukraine.”
AP NewsRetiree checks to rise modestly amid push to expand benefits
Millions of retirees will get a modest 1.6% cost-of-living increase from Social Security in 2020, an uptick with potential political consequences in an election year when Democrats are pushing more generous inflation protection.
The increase amounts to $24 a month for the average retired worker, according to estimates released Thursday by the Social Security Administration. Following a significant boost this year, the cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, for 2020 reverts to its pattern of moderate gains.
But seniors and advocates complain that the inflation yardstick used to determine the annual adjustment doesn’t adequately reflect their costs, mainly for health care.
Turkey presses Syrian assault as thousands flee the fighting
Turkey pressed its air and ground assault against U.S.-allied Kurdish forces in northern Syria on Thursday for a second day, pounding the region with airstrikes and an artillery bombardment that raised columns of black smoke in a border town and sent panicked civilians scrambling to get out.
Amid the fierce fighting, residents fled with their belongings loaded into cars, pickup trucks and motorcycle rickshaws, while others escaped on foot. The U.N. refugee agency said tens of thousands were on the move, and aid agencies warned that nearly a half-million people near the border were at risk.
It was a wrenchingly familiar scene for many who had fled the militants of the Islamic State group only a few years ago.
Iran women attend FIFA soccer game for first time in decades
They had to sit well apart from the men, and the stadium was practically empty, but thousands of Iranian women in merry jester hats and face paint blew horns and cheered Thursday at the first FIFA soccer match they were allowed to freely attend in decades.
In what many considered a victory in a decades-long fight by women in Iran to attend sporting events, they wrapped themselves in the country’s vibrant red, green and white colors and watched with excitement as Iran thrashed Cambodia 14-0 in a 2022 World Cup qualifier at Tehran’s Azadi, or Freedom, Stadium.
“We are so happy that finally we got the chance to go to the stadium. It’s an extraordinary feeling,” said Zahra Pashaei, a 29-year-old nurse who has only known soccer games from television. “At least for me, 22 or 23 years of longing and regret lies behind this.”
The Guardian'Betrayal leaves a bitter taste': spurned Kurds flee Turkish onslaught
aiting 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 thudded in the distance as Rammo shuffled towards an arriving minibus, along with several dozen other Kurds jostling for seats. Like thousands of others, they were desperate to flee Qamishli, and make their way to anywhere far away from the feared Turkish onslaught.
Two-thirds of bird species in North America could vanish in climate crisis
Two-thirds of bird species in North America are at risk of extinction because of the climate crisis, according to a new report from researchers at the Audubon Society, a leading US conservation group.
The continent could lose 389 of the 604 types of birds studied. The species face threats to their habitats from rising temperatures, higher seas, heavy rains and urbanization.
Those at risk include the wood thrush, a well-known songbird, and the Baltimore oriole, the mascot of Maryland’s baseball team. The recognizable common loon could disappear, as could the vibrant mountain bluebird.
Revealed: top UK thinktank spent decades undermining climate science
Shares The UK’s most influential conservative thinktank has published at least four books, as well as multiple articles and papers, over two decades suggesting manmade climate change may be uncertain or exaggerated.The Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) has issued publications arguing climate change is either not significantly driven by human activity or will be positive. The group is one of the most politically influential thinktanks in the UK, and boasts that 14 members of Boris Johnson’s cabinet, including the home secretary, foreign secretary and chancellor, have been associated with the group’s past and current initiatives.
Despite a longstanding international consensus among climatologists that human activity is accelerating climate change, the IEA’s publications throughout the 1990s and 2000s heavily suggested climate science was unreliable or exaggerated. In recent years the group has focused more on free-market solutions to reducing carbon emissions.
Al JazeeraCanada: 'An election about nothing' leaves many uninspired
n just under two weeks, millions of people in Canada will cast their votes for the country's next parliament.
And while election posters adorn street lamps, leaders trade barbs in televised debates, and campaign stops are organised from coast-to-coast, in many ways the election has failed to capture the attention of would-be voters.
"A lot of people really do feel that at some level, this is an election about nothing," said Lisa Young, a professor in the School of Public Policy at the University of Calgary.
"There hasn't been a unifying debate" in the campaign so far, Young said, and instead, "it has been focused on these questions about the leaders and how they present themselves, as opposed to questions of vision or direction or policy".
Fighting rages as Turkey steps up assault against Kurdish forces
Huge plumes of smoke billowed into the sky as Turkey pressed ahead with its assault against Kurdish forces in northeastern Syria, pounding the region with air raids and artillery fire amid heavy fighting that sent panicked civilians on both sides of the border fleeing.
Tens of thousands of people in Syria scrambled to escape the violence, according to the United Nations, as the Turkish offensive against the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) continued at a fierce pace for a second day on Thursday.
Footage posted online showed residents fleeing with their belongings loaded into vehicles, and some even escaping on foot, while aid agencies warned that an estimated 450,000 people living within five kilometres (three miles) of the border were at risk.
The AtlanticSo it’s come to this: In barely two weeks, the House impeachment inquiry of … Donald Trump has already devolved into the gravest game of constitutional chicken in decades. As of this morning, each side remains frozen in place by the White House’s blanket defiance of congressional demands for documents and witness testimony about Trump’s requests for Ukrainian help in investigating his potential 2020 rival Joe Biden. History suggests the road ahead may be both long and winding.
Just hours before European Union Ambassador Gordon Sondland was to testify before the House Intelligence Committee Tuesday, word came that the administration had barred him from cooperating with what Trump called a “totally compromised kangaroo court.” By day’s end, in an eight-page letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi and three committee chairmen, White House Counsel Pat Cipollone had escalated Trump’s resistance to all-out war, denouncing the House’s demands as “baseless, unconstitutional efforts to overturn the democratic process,” and declining all cooperation with “your partisan and unconstitutional inquiry under these circumstances.”
Five Radical Climate Policies That Most Americans Actually Like
For the first time in years—and maybe ever—Democrats are getting ambitious about climate change. Several presidential candidates have proposed $1 trillion plans that variously nudge, cajole, and force the economy to reduce carbon pollution. The largest plan, from Senator Bernie Sanders, calls for $16.3 trillion in public investment over 10 years, which would be the biggest economic stimulus package since the New Deal.
These plans confront a confusing array of public views. Voters are more worried about climate change than ever before, but they also seem to dislike the Democratic Party’s move to the left. So how do voters feel about this new set of progressive policies?
A new survey finds: They like it. At least five aggressive and left-wing climate policies are supported by most registered voters in the United States. Americans seem particularly fond of large spending packages, as Sanders has advanced, and climate policies with a populist bent, such as Senator Elizabeth Warren’s proposed climate import fee and her “economic patriotism” plan.
VoxTrump may soon ban Russian observation flights over US military bases. That’s a bad thing.
The United States is on the verge of leaving a decades-old treaty that has helped it gain intelligence on the militaries of potential foes, especially Russia. If the Trump administration goes through with the decision, the US will lose a valuable intelligence-gathering method and potentially make the world less safe.
According to multiple reports, the White House wants to pull the US out of the Open Skies Treaty, one of the most wide-ranging arms control pacts in the world. Originally an idea by President Dwight Eisenhower and made reality by President George H.W. Bush in 1992, it allows nations to conduct unarmed flights over another country’s military installations and other areas of concern.
Put into effect 10 years later, it has since helped the 34 North American and European signatories — including the US and Russia — gain confidence that others weren’t developing advanced weapons in secret or planning big attacks.
Ars TechnicaPolitical ads can lie if they want, Facebook confirms
A few weeks ago, Facebook made it clear that posts shared by politicians are exempt from Facebook's community standards and also from fact-checking. The company did, however, indicate one area where posts made by politicians' accounts could be subject to scrutiny: in paid advertising. Faced with a stark real-world test, though, Facebook appears once again to be erring on the side of letting misinformation circulate far and wide if a politician promotes it.
The ad in question involves … Donald Trump and his campaign for re-election. The Trump campaign in the past week has been airing ads on Facebook making false accusations about former Vice President Joe Biden, a Democratic candidate for the 2020 presidential nomination. The ads' claims about Biden's activities in Ukraine and elsewhere have been repeatedly debunked as baseless conspiracy theories, not only by media outlets but also by Republican politicians.