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CBD products are found everywhere from gas stations to drugstores. A record number of farmers are growing hemp for CBD this year, but making money has proved challenging.
November 16, 2019Read More
(Bloomberg) — Protests erupted in cities across Iran, leaving at least one person dead, after the government unexpectedly hiked gasoline prices, the semi-official Iranian Student’s News Agency reported.The fatality occurred during clashes in Sirjan in…
November 16, 2019Read More
China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers in shorts and t-shirts made a surprising appearance in some Hong Kong streets on Saturday, briefly helping residents clean up debris and barricades after anti-government protests blocked roads. The presence of PLA troops on the streets, even to help clean up roads near their base, could enrage protesters and stoke further controversy over the Chinese-ruled territory’s autonomous status. The former British colony has been rocked by more than five months of demonstrations, with pro-democracy protesters angry at perceived Communist Party meddling in a city guaranteed its freedoms when it returned to Chinese rule in 1997. A member of Chinas People’s Liberation Army (PLA) stands guard inside Osborn Barracks in Kowloon Tong in Hong Kong on November 16, 2019. – China’s President Xi Jinping warned on November 14 that protests in Hong Kong threaten the “one country, two systems” principle governing the semi-autonomous city that has tipped into worsening violence with two dead in a week. Credit: AFP Clashes between protesters and police have become increasingly violent, and China has warned that any attempt at independence for Hong Kong will be crushed, but the military have remained inside their base. By late afternoon, the soldiers had left the streets outside Baptist University, which neighbours their barracks in the leafy district of Kowloon Tong. Chinese troops have appeared on local streets only once since the 1997 handover, to help with cleanup operations after a typhoon in late 2018. It was not immediately clear how many were involved on Saturday. Hundreds of residents moved in to help clear barricaded roads near several universities that were occupied and fortified by protesters this week Read More | Hong Kong crisis In some cases the two sides clashed, before the dwindling number of anti-government protesters at the campuses retreated. Anti-China students and activists have barricaded at least five campuses in the last week, stockpiling petrol bombs, catapults, bows and arrows and other weapons. In October, Chinese soldiers issued a warning to Hong Kong protesters who shone lasers at their barracks in the city, in the first direct interaction between mainland military forces and protesters. In August, Beijing moved thousands of troops across the border into Hong Kong in an operation state news agency Xinhua described at the time as a routine “rotation”. An anti-government protesters stands at a blocked outlet of the Cross Harbour Tunnel near the Polytechnic University in Hong Kong Credit: Reuters Up to 12,000 troops are now believed to be based across Hong Kong – more than double the usual number garrison number, foreign envoys and security analysts estimate. China denies interfering in Hong Kong’s affairs and has blamed Western countries for stirring up trouble. President Xi Jinping has repeatedly said he has confidence in the Hong Kong government restoring order. Police say they are acting with restraint in the face of potentially deadly attacks. Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule under a “one country, two systems” formula guaranteeing its colonial-era freedoms. Protesters’ demands include full democracy and an independent investigation into perceived police brutality.
November 16, 2019Read More
(Bloomberg) — Sign up to our Brexit Bulletin, follow us @Brexit and subscribe to our podcast.Scotland Yard is investigating complaints of electoral fraud after accusations that the ruling Conservative party offered enticements to Brexit Party candidat…
November 16, 2019Read More
One civilian was killed and other people injured in Iran’s Sirjan, the semi-official news agency ISNA said on Saturday, a day after protests in the central city over a petrol price hike. “Unfortunately someone was killed,” Sirjan’s acting governor Mohammad Mahmoudabadi said in the report, adding that the cause of the death and whether “the individual was shot or not” was still unclear. Other people were injured during the demonstrations, he said. Iran tensions | Read more Mahmoudabadi emphasised that “security forces did not have permission to shoot and were only allowed to fire warning shots… which they did.” He said it was a “calm gathering” that was exploited by some who “destroyed public property, damaged fuel stations and also wanted to access the oil company’s main fuel depots and set fire to them”. Their effort was thwarted by forces including the police, the Revolutionary Guards and the Basij militia, ISNA quoted him as saying. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Credit: Reuters Iran imposed petrol rationing and raised pump prices by at least 50 percent on Friday, saying the move was aimed at helping citizens in need with cash handouts. Under the scheme, drivers will pay 15,000 rials (13 US cents) a litre for the first 60 litres of petrol bought each month, with each additional litre costing them 30,000 rials. “Scattered” protests against the measure also broke out in other cities including Abadan, Ahvaz, Bandar Abbas, Birjand, Gachsaran, Khoramshahr, Mahshahr, Mashhad and Shiraz, according to state news agency IRNA.
November 16, 2019Read More
Syrian opposition activists say a car bomb has killed at least 12 people in a northern town controlled by Turkey-backed opposition fighters. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that 14 people, including nine civilians, were …
November 16, 2019Read More
Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily BeastAs Russia’s state media watch impeachment proceedings against U.S. President Donald J. Trump they’re loving what they see. They don’t think the man they brag about getting elected is in much danger. They listen in delight as Republicans parrot conspiracy theories first launched by Russians. And they gloat about the way Trump removed U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, because they blame her for promoting democratic “color revolutions” that weakened Moscow’s hold on the former Soviet empire. Best of all, from the Kremlin’s point of view, they see Trump pushing Ukraine back into the Russian fold.Republicans Thought Yovanovitch Would Be a Pushover. She Beat Them Up InsteadSo while the historical impeachment inquiry, after two days of public hearings, has been deemed by some pundits to lack “pizzazz,” the Kremlin is having a ball. Instead of disseminating their usual conspiracy theories, the Russians watch gleefully as the Republicans do that for them. From the long-debunked “Crowdstrike” cyber plot positioning Ukraine as the fall guy for what undoubtedly was Russian interference in the 2016 elections, to anti-Semitic conspiracy theories centering around Jewish financier and philanthropist George Soros, rivers of Russian dezinformatsiya are flowing down from the President of the United States and the GOP, through the impeachment hearings, to Trump’s cult-like devotees. The Kremlin also enjoys the Trump-GOP treatment of the Mueller report as a colossal hoax, or even a joke, letting Russian President Vladimir Putin off the hook, and putting him in a position to make light of the whole matter.During a public appearance for Russian Energy Week, Putin “jokingly” promised to interfere in the upcoming presidential elections in the United States. Speaking at the Paris Peace Forum, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov pledged to “solve the problem” of the American elections in 2020. When President Trump pulled a news report out of his pocket at his Louisiana rally featuring the picture of Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko denying there was a quid pro quo of security assistance for an investigation of Joe Biden and his son, Olga Skabeeva, the host of Russian state television news show 60 Minutes, complained with sharp irony: “When we—here in Russia—were electing Trump, we were certain that to express his gratitude, he would carry a picture of Putin in his pocket.” This desensitizing mirth mirrors Trump’s infamous public dare: “Russia, if you’re listening,” but treating a serious matter as a joke does not diminish its real gravity.Russian experts and state media propagandists constantly reiterate that President Trump cannot and will not be impeached, because the Republicans are controlling the Senate. On 60 Minutes, Skabeeva mockingly told some sacrificial Ukrainian panelists: “We appointed Trump and you can’t unseat him.” Leading Russian state media outlets repeatedly publicize the name of the alleged whistleblower. State TV channel Rossiya-1 smeared Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch as a Soros-linked architect of post-Soviet color revolutions. The co-host of 60 Minutes, Evgeny Popov, warned Ukraine of the threat if faces if it does not cooperate with Trump’s demands: “If Trump gets re-elected, and you don’t investigate Biden… [Ukraine] won’t get anything from America. Not a thing.”The Kremlin is eager to help Trump, in fact, because his presidency has proven to be exceedingly beneficial for the Kremlin—having brought chaos into American politics, undermined trust in democratic institutions, weakened transatlantic alliances, delivered Syria into the hands of Putin, Syria’s Bashar al-Assad and Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan, thereby elevating the international image of Russia as a global force to be reckoned with. State Dept. Aide Says He Overheard Sondland Tell Trump Ukraine President Would Do ‘Anything’The ongoing impeachment inquiry is a twofold gift for the Kremlin. On the one hand, President Trump and the Republican Party are doing Putin’s work by assailing U.S. intelligence agencies, career diplomats and institutions. On the other hand, the impeachment inquiry revealed an unprecedented rift between the United States and Ukraine—America’s strategic partner that enjoyed decades of strong bipartisan support.Witnesses in the impeachment inquiry laid bare President Trump’s reported indifference toward Ukraine’s plight of deterring Russian aggression—treating this fledgling democracy as a mere tool for his personal needs, while disregarding national interests of the United States. The statement of State Department aide David Holmes revealed a candid assessment by Gordon D. Sondland, the U.S. Ambassador to the European Union, who surmised that President Trump couldn’t care less about Ukraine or its war with Russia. Holmes wrote in his opening statement that—according to Ambassador Sondland—President Trump “did not give a s–t about Ukraine,” concerning himself instead with “big stuff” that could benefit him personally, “like the Biden investigation.”In stark contrast to Trump’s ambivalence, Putin hungers after the restoration of Russia’s control and influence over Ukraine. As the late Zbigniew Brzezinski once said, “Without Ukraine, Russia ceases to be a Eurasian empire.” During National Security Council staffer Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman’s deposition in the ongoing impeachment probe, he reaffirmed a geopolitical reality that none of Russia’s post-Soviet neighbors are of greater significance than Ukraine. Putin could not possibly envision a sweeter gift than Ukraine falling away from the West into the welcoming—albeit bloodied—hands of the Kremlin. Popov on 60 Minutes urged all Ukrainians to “finally sober up and understand that the only country willing to lovingly cover Ukraine with its nuclear shield is Russia.” (Note that when the Soviet empire collapsed, Ukraine was left with a substantial nuclear arsenal which it gave up in exchange for an agreement with Russia that its territorial integrity would remain inviolable—an agreement Putin trampled on when he annexed Crimea and launched the war in eastern Ukraine.)During a press conference at the BRICS Summit (an association of five major emerging national economies: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) on Thursday, Putin told Ukrainians: “Don’t look for happiness overseas, don’t look across the oceans… but make deals with your neighbors.”Using the treasure trove of documents released during the impeachment inquiry, Russia’s master propagandists are weaponizing the information to demoralize the Ukrainians. State TV hosts, experts and talking heads are browbeating visiting Ukrainian guests and audiences by painting a picture where the West is merely using Ukraine for its own ends—predicting Trump will soon abandon the country just as he did America’s Kurdish allies in Syria. There is a common thread permeating the Russian media blitz: Ukraine is all alone and has nowhere left to turn, except to Russia.“Everyone is laughing at you,” scoffed Skabeeva, addressing a Ukrainian panelist on 60 Minutes. Maksim Yusin, the editor of international politics at the leading Russian business daily Kommersant exclaimed, “Ukraine is toxic, everyone will want to avoid it now.” When Ukrainian panelist Alexander Goncharov said that his country is relying on the support of Republicans, the hosts and other panelists broke out in uproarious laughter. “Listen to Rand Paul,” said the co-host of 60 Minutes, playing the clip of the Kentucky senator bluntly stating: “I wouldn’t give them anything.” The Kremlin is poised to reap more rewards from the presidency of Donald Trump—and suddenly, Ukraine seems to be within reach.Appearing on the Russian state TV program, The Evening with Vladimir Soloviev, analyst Dmitry Drobnitsky said that Trump is fulfilling the dreams of anti-American strategists by withdrawing U.S. forces from the Middle East and retreating to domestic affairs. Drobnitsky predicted: “If Trump manages “to defeat his enemies and gets re-elected, he will start doing whatever he wants—and the world will see ‘Trump unchained.’ He will fulfill all of his promises.” The host, Vladimir Soloviev, threw in another prediction: “And after that, his daughter will become the next president.” The Kremlin sees another trump card in its future.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
November 16, 2019Read More
Closed-door testimony from the only White House staffer cooperating with the probe could provide first-hand knowledge about details that remain hazy.
November 16, 2019Read More
The 656-foot vessel started capsizing in September, stirring concerns about the pollution creeping into the waterways.
November 16, 2019Read More
Research has shown that more than 37 percent of school districts have adopted drug-testing policies, but whether they lead to reduced rates of substance abuse is unclear, one expert said.
November 16, 2019Read More
Here’s a rundown of what happened on the presidential campaign trail this week, as impeachment hearings began in Washington.
November 16, 2019Read More
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