Hong Kong's protests escalate, the State Department tied to the impeachment inquiry, crossing Twitter's lines
THE BIG STORY
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was also reportedly on Trump's Ukraine call
A whistleblower complaint made public last week suggested that President Donald Trump used the power of his office to pressure Ukraine's president to help his reelection campaign by investigating political rival Joe Biden and his son.
A call between the two leaders is now at the center of an impeachment inquiry by the House of Representatives. Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal and CNN first reported that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was on the call, making him the highest ranking official to have knowledge of the conversation. This also ties the State Department to the impeachment inquiry.
This news came as it was reported that Attorney General William Barr sought help from Australia and Italy to gather information for a Justice Department probe that Trump hoped would discredit the Mueller investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Meanwhile, Congress wants answers from two men who led a smear campaign against Joe Biden, under the direction of Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani. We reported on their smear campaign back in July.
The big picture: The impeachment news cycle is a lot. But all these stories have one common origin — Trump's obsession with Russia.
STAYING ON TOP OF THIS A protesters has reportedly been shot in the chest by a live police round in Hong Kong
A protester has reportedly been shot with a live police round in Hong Kong, the first such incident since mass demonstrations began in the city in June.
Photos showed a man being treated by first aid personnel on the sidewalk. A video circulated online by pro-democracy lawmakers and groups showed a demonstrator being shot at point blank range during violent clashes with riot police. The Hong Kong Police Force did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The citywide protests, which began over a hated extradition bill but have since morphed into a wider pro-democracy movement, are the most direct challenge to the Chinese Communist Party yet — Tuesday marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.
Isaac Lawrence / AFP / Getty Images SNAPSHOTS The Trump administration will have to pay $6.6 million so far to groups that sued over the citizenship census question. After the government's failed attempt to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census, the Justice Department has agreed to pay more than $6.6 million in legal fees so far. The total the administration will owe after dropping the fight is expected to grow.
Florida authorities arrested Clueless actor Stacey Dash on domestic battery charges. The arrest report states that Dash pushed her husband and slapped him in the face, leaving him with "red scratch marks to his left upper arm from being pushed." She told 911 she was defending herself after he put her in a chokehold during a family argument.
Briefly 21: Forever 21 says it's declaring bankruptcy. The iconic teen retailer announced it would file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Forever 21 will close up to 178 stores in the United States, as well as ceasing brick-and-mortar operations in 40 countries, including Japan and Canada
A man is being forced to account after throwing away food as a joke. Sam Arends joked last week about "How to eat In-N-Out Burger" by filming himself throwing an untouched order in the trash — a common Twitter joke format. When he received a barrage of angry comments, he tried to fix it. It didn't exactly go well.
WHAT CROSSES TWITTER'S LINE? Twitter is OK with a pro-Trump militia's tweets about a "full blown 'hot' civil war"
On Sunday, President Trump wrote a Twitter thread where he stitched together quotes from Fox News's Pastor Robert Jeffress, who said that if Trump was impeached and removed from office, there would be a civil war.
That thread was then quote-retweeted by the Twitter account belonging to the Oath Keepers, which added, "This whole thread is important to read. The term 'civil war' is increasingly on people's tongue. And not just 'cold civil war' — full-blown 'hot' civil war."
Who are the Oath Keepers? The Southern Poverty Law Center describes them as "one of the largest radical antigovernment groups in the US today."
The tweet is still up. Twitter told us it would not provide a comment on whether tweets that call for civil war violate its terms of service. But we confirmed that the platform did not intend to remove the tweet.
Read Ryan Broderick's report on this.
 The Oath Keepers descend upon the Gettysburg battlefield to defend it from a rumored confederate flag burning by anti-fascist groups on July 1, 2017. Andrew Lichtenstein / Getty Images THERE WERE NEVER SUCH DEVOTED SISTERS This woman pretended to be a bush during her sister's engagement
Therese Merkel is close with her sister, Rachel. In fact, they're so close that among Rachel's requests to her boyfriend Andrew was that if he were to propose, her sister just had to be there.
So with that in mind, when Therese found out Andrew was planning to propose, the pair got to planning how she could be there and not ruin the vibe. They came up with a bunch of hilarious ideas, but settled on an excellent one: a ghillie suit.
Ghillie suits are camouflage outfits typically worn by hunters to blend into foliage. And it worked. As Andrew popped the question and Rachel said yes, Therese popped out dressed like a bush. As you can imagine, this story quickly went viral.
Wishing you the stillness necessary to listen to your intuition today, Elamin BuzzFeed, Inc.
111 E. 18th St.
New York, NY 10003
Unsubscribe |
Post a Comment