Top Stories Today – July 19, 2019
Top Stories Today – July 19, 2019
Trump raised more money in California than most Democrats
Donald Trump raised $3.2m in California since the beginning of this year, according to campaign finance data analyzed by CalMatters, a not-for-profit news organization focused on California issues. Trump beat out everybody in the field except for Senator Kamala Harris, who raised $7.5m, and Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who raised $5.1m. Harris, who is California’s junior senator, has been leading in donations from the state since launching her campaign in January.
Trump bested even the former vice-president Joe Biden, the frontrunner in the Democratic primary, and Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, who have strong support throughout the state. The Guardian
Iran denies US destroyed Iranian drone
Iran said Friday it can provide images that disprove President Donald Trump’s statement that a US warship destroyed an Iranian drone near the Persian Gulf after it threatened the ship. The incident marked a new escalation of tensions between the countries, less than a month after Iran downed an American drone in the same waterway and Trump came close to retaliating with a military strike. The Iranian military said all its drones had returned safely to their bases and denied there was any confrontation with a US vessel the previous day.
Trump on Thursday said the USS Boxer took defensive action after an Iranian drone closed to within 1,000 yards of the warship and ignored multiple calls to stand down. Trump blamed Iran for a “provocative and hostile” action and said the US responded in self-defense. Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, told reporters as he arrived for a meeting at the United Nations that “we have no information about losing a drone today.” The Associated Press
Suspect in Kyoto arson attack had grudge
Police were investigating Friday the gutted animation studio building in Kyoto where a man raging about theft set a fire that killed 33 people, crushing the hearts of comic fans in Japan and beyond. Witness accounts and reports suggested the man had a grudge against Kyoto Animation, but police only have said the suspect, who is still hospitalized, is a 41-year-old man from near Tokyo who did not work for the studio.
Later Friday, Kyoto police identified the man as Shinji Aoba, according to the Japanese broadcaster NHK and other media. The reports, quoting an unnamed source, said Aoba spent three and half years in prison for robbing a convenience store in 2012 and also had mental problems. Police would not immediately confirm the reports. The man told police that he set the fire because he thought ”(Kyoto Animation) stole novels,” according to Japanese media. It was unclear if he had contacted the studio earlier. The company founded in 1981 and better known as KyoAni made a mega-hit anime series about high school girls and trained aspirants to the craft. The Associated Press
Republicans worry send her back chant
President Donald Trump tried to distance himself on Thursday from supporters’ chants of “send her back” at a rally where he blasted Somalia-born US Representative Ilhan Omar, as Republicans worry the incendiary mantra could set the tone for the 2020 campaign. “I felt a little bit badly about it,” Trump said, claiming he “started speaking very quickly” to shut down the chants. Video of the rally shows Trump actually waited more than 13 seconds after the chants began to resume his speech, and that he continued disparaging Omar with his next words. The rally chants echo Trump’s racist Sunday tweet directed at Omar and three other Democratic congresswomen, telling them to “go back” to the countries they came from.
Omar, a Democrat, shot back that Trump was “spewing fascist ideology,” and Republicans expressed alarm that the inflammatory chant, building off of provocative tweets and statements by Trump, might become a theme of his 2020 re-election campaign. The Washington Post, Reuters
Taiwan to treat Hong Kong asylum seekers humanely
Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen says she would follow “humanitarian principles” in dealing with asylum seekers from Hong Kong. Tsai made the comments after Radio Free Asia reported that more than a dozen protesters from Hong Kong have fled to Taiwan. In response, China’s foreign ministry Friday warned Taiwan against “pretending to be compassionate.”
Taiwan does not have a formal refugee policy. Any move to resettle Hong Kong protesters is likely to anger Beijing. Hong Kong is a Chinese territory that has been rocked over the last month by massive protests against an extradition bill that would allow residents to be tried in mainland China. China also claims Taiwan as its territory, though the democratically governed island split from the Communist Party-ruled mainland amid civil war in 1949. The Voice of America
Dutch troops 10% liable for Srebrenica deaths
The Dutch supreme court has upheld a ruling that the Netherlands was partially responsible for 350 deaths in Bosnia’s Srebrenica massacre. The court said the state had 10% liability, as this was the probability that its soldiers could have prevented the killings. Bosnian Serb forces killed a total of 8,000 Muslim men in the town of Srebrenica in 1995.
The Dutch had been guarding a UN safe zone when it was overrun. It is rare for a state to be held responsible for failures in UN peacekeeping work, but the court emphasized that the Netherlands bore “very limited liability”. In 2002, a report into the Netherland’s role in Srebrenica caused the entire Dutch government to resign. BBC
Japanese minister admonishes S Korean envoy
Japan’s foreign minister publicly admonished South Korea’s ambassador on Friday in a worsening dispute over compensation for Korean forced laborers that has spilled over into their trade in high-tech materials used to make memory chips and screens. The dispute between the key US allies took a deadly turn when a South Korean man set himself on fire in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul in an apparent protest. He died later.
South Korea accused Japan of violating international law with its curbs this month on the export of high-tech materials to South Korean chipmaking giants, which could disrupt global supply chains. Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono summoned South Korea’s ambassador, Nam Gwan-pyo, a day after the expiry of Japan’s deadline for South Korea to accept third-country arbitration of the forced labor dispute. Ties been the neighbors have been thorny for decades because of South Korean resentment of Japan’s occupation of the Korean peninsula from 1910 to 1945. The forced labor issue was thrust to centerstage last year when a South Korean court ordered two Japanese firms to pay compensation to Koreans forced to work for them. Japan says the whole compensation issue was settled under a 1965 treaty. Reuters
Trump to nominate Eugene Scalia for Labor Secretary
President Donald Trump says he will nominate lawyer Eugene Scalia to be his new labor secretary. Scalia is the son of the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. He is a partner in the Washington office of the Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher law firm. Trump tweeted that Scalia “is highly respected not only as a lawyer, but as a lawyer with great experience working with labor and everyone else.”
Trump’s previous labor secretary, Alexander Acosta, resigned last week. Acosta has come under renewed criticism for his handling of a 2008 secret plea deal with wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein, who is accused of sexually abusing underage girls. The Voice of America
Epstein denied bail, declared ‘danger’ to community
Financier Jeffrey Epstein has been denied bail as he faces charges for allegedly running a sex ring involving dozens of minor girls, a federal judge ruled Thursday. Epstein’s lawyers had proposed a $77 million bail package that would let him await trial in his Manhattan townhouse with privately funded security.
US District Judge Richard M. Berman dismissed what he called an “irretrievably inadequate” bail package, saying prosecutors showed “clear and convincing evidence” Epstein posed a flight risk despite his lawyers promising his vehicles and private jet would be deregistered. Epstein also posed a “danger” to the community and his alleged victims, Berman continued. Epstein has pleaded not guilty to sexual abuse charges and faces up to 45 years in prison. The Wall Street Journal, NBC News via The Week