Chesa Boudin is San Francisco’s new District Attorney – Los Angeles Times
Chesa Boudin is San Francisco’s new District Attorney – Los Angeles Times

When Chesa Boudin learned he had won a tight race to become San Francisco’s new district attorney, he was flying home from a visit with his father at a prison in upstate New York.

Boudin was just 14 months old when his left-wing activist parents were incarcerated for their role in an armed robbery that killed three men. His close-up view of the criminal justice system shaped his career as a public defender who vowed to make sweeping reforms if elected to serve as the city’s top prosecutor.

He entered the race as the underdog but wound up with more votes than interim Dist. Atty. Suzy Loftus, who had the backing of California’s Democratic establishment. After several days of ballot counting, Boudin had 36% of the vote to Loftus’ 31%. (Two other candidates split the remainder of the vote.)

By electing Boudin, San Francisco voters added to a nationwide wave of victories by district attorney candidates who promised a radical departure from the punitive, law-and-order policies of the past.

Boudin described his victory as a bellwether in the liberal movement to refocus the criminal justice system on rehabilitation rather than punishment.

“It sends a pretty loud and clear message that the war on drugs and the tough-on-crime policies and rhetoric of the 1990s and early 2000s are on their way out,” Boudin said from his home in the city’s Outer Sunset neighborhood. “It shows that there’s a massive thirst for change.”

Loftus, who had received endorsements from Mayor London Breed, Gov. Gavin Newsom and the state’s two U.S. senators, congratulated Boudin in a tweet that pledged cooperation with her onetime opponent.

“I didn’t win the race — but we won the support of so many San Franciscans who are demanding that our city work more effectively together to build safety,” she tweeted.

In recent years, voters across the country have embraced candidates intent on reducing prison terms, reforming bail practices and being more judicious about bringing charges against defendants, according to the Vera Institute for Justice, a nonprofit criminal justice organization based in Brooklyn, N.Y.

In 2018, reform-minded district attorney candidates were elected in Texas, Missouri, Alabama, North Carolina and Maine, according to the institute. This year, candidates in Mississippi and Virginia joined the list.

Scott Colom said that when he was campaigning in Mississippi’s Circuit Court District 16, he was initially surprised at how readily people agreed with his view that too many people with drug and mental health issues were being sent to prison.

“It’s coming from the voters,” said Colom, who won his election. “As more and more candidates win, more and more people are being courageous to run, and you’re starting to see more and more public defenders run for district attorney. That’s traditionally unheard of, that people with that type of background would switch over to that side.”

With nearly half of Americans related to someone who has been jailed or imprisoned, criminal justice reform has become increasingly important to voters, regardless of party lines.

“What excites me is not just that we’re getting prosecutors elected who run on these reform platforms, but that there’s a larger understanding as a nation that we can’t continue down this path” of mass incarceration, said Jamila Hodge, a project director at the Vera Institute. A former prosecutor, Hodge now helps district attorneys turn their reform-minded campaign platforms into policies once they’re elected.

In California, such candidates have had mixed results at the polls. Last year, Diana Becton became the first black person and woman to lead the Contra Costa district attorney’s office after promising to focus on bail reform and restorative justice. But candidates promising reforms in Alameda, Sacramento and San Diego counties failed to unseat incumbents.

Boudin’s remarkable biography appeared to play to his advantage. His parents were members of the radical leftist group Weather Underground and began serving their sentences in the mid-1980s. His mother was released in 2003, and his father could remain behind bars for the rest of his life.

Boudin, 39, said he thinks that real-life experience resonated with the city’s voters.

“It made them appreciate that this is not just a kind of opportunity for political gain or power — this is a life journey for me,” he said. “This is something I’ve been affected by, thinking about, working on pretty much my entire life, and not something I got interested in in law school.”

Though he wasn’t the favored candidate of California’s political establishment, Boudin received important endorsements from prominent liberal politicians and prosecutors from outside the state, including Chicago Dist. Atty. Kim Foxx, Philadelphia Dist. Atty. Lawrence Krasner and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

The presidential candidate tweeted congratulations on Boudin’s “historic victory,” writing that “now is the moment to fundamentally transform our racist and broken criminal justice system by ending mass incarceration, the failed war on drugs and the criminalization of poverty.”

Boudin said he plans to do a lot of listening and intends to establish a restorative justice program for crime victims.

The Rhodes Scholar and Yale Law School graduate said he expects more like-minded prosecutors will be elected in other American cities in 2020.

The desire for change “is not limited to San Francisco,” he said.

“I think people understand that the massive amount of money we’re spending on punishment is not making us safer and is really destroying our collective humanity in ways that are profound and far-reaching and deep seated,” Boudin said.

The political environment of San Francisco is different from that of other cities, said Jason McDaniel, a political science professor at San Francisco State University.

It is so thoroughly blue that it has long elected liberal Democrats as district attorneys. That includes George Gascón, who abruptly quit as the city’s district attorney last month to run for the same office in Los Angeles County.

“What this election shows is that voters are not scared off by candidates who go even farther to the left of liberal Democrats to propose pretty radical change to the way the criminal justice system works,” McDaniel said. “It’s a continuation of something we’ve seen in San Francisco for a couple of decades, but we’ve seen it pick up steam nationwide.”

McDaniel said the real test will be whether candidates like Boudin can carry out the sweeping reforms they’ve pledged.

“Will they get buy-in from the rank-and-file workers in the criminal justice system, the D.A.s, the sheriff?” he said. “That is not something that’s guaranteed.”

Source Article from https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-11-10/chesa-boudin-is-new-district-attorney-in-san-francisco

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Hong Kong Police Shoot at Protesters; One Man Requires Emergency Surgery – The Wall Street Journal
Hong Kong Police Shoot at Protesters; One Man Requires Emergency Surgery – The Wall Street Journal

Monday’s clashes created confusion for the city’s commuters who were heading to work or school. Many were left stranded at subway stations, while several universities canceled classes for the day. The disruptions continued well into the day as police spilled into the city’s Central district, an area crammed with offices and luxury retailers.

Pistols Drawn

Police drew firearms in three separate incidents Monday morning.

Hong Kong

Sha Tin

New Territories

Kowloon

Sai Wan Ho

Tung Chung

Hong Kong

island

5 miles

5 km

A 21-year-old male protester shot at a close distance.

Police officers drew their revolvers from their holsters.

Source: staff reports

Around midday, many people in office clothes were seen running away from clouds of tear gas; they took refuge in the lobbies of nearby buildings. Some poured water into their eyes to alleviate the pain from the gas. Police made a number of arrests as crowds chanted abuse at them.

Other graphic scenes circulated online of scuffles across the city. In one video, a man in a green T-shirt was doused in flammable liquid and set on fire after he confronted protesters who were vandalizing a subway station. The man, who criticized them for not being Chinese, was on fire above his waistline. Another photo showed him later, topless with burns to his torso. His identity and condition are unknown.

The protests, now in their sixth month, have shown no signs of abating even after the government withdrew an extradition bill that initially sparked unrest. Weekend clashes are now commonplace as many young black-clad and masked protesters focus their anger on police, who they accuse of using excessive force to put down protests.

The shooting is likely to put more pressure on the government to consider protesters’ demands for a new independent investigation into police conduct. It is also likely to deepen the divide between Hong Kong residents and the government.

The scuffles on Monday morning followed another weekend of clashes between police and protesters across town. In many districts across the city, residents were seen coming outside to shout abuse at police as they fired tear gas and made arrests.

Peaceful vigils were also held over the weekend for a student who died Friday morning from head injuries sustained in a fall from a parking garage in the early hours of last Monday while police were using tear gas in a nearby dispersal operation.

Monday’s shooting was the third live-fire incident that injured protesters since the demonstrations began. On Oct. 1, an 18-year-old student was shot in the chest by a riot police officer in the western New Territories while he was part of a group attacking the officer. Three days later, a 14-year-old boy was shot in the left thigh by a plainclothes officer who was surrounded by protesters.

At the scene of Monday’s shooting, a uniformed policeman drew his pistol with one hand and grabbed a protester with the other, the online video showed. Another black-clad protester approached the policeman and the officer fired at him. The shot protester fell to the ground immediately, clutching the right side of his stomach. The officer then fired two more rounds in the direction of other protesters. Hospital Authority officials didn’t comment on whether there was a second injured person.

Outside the intensive care unit of Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital, supporters of the injured 21-year-old protester, who was identified by his friends as Patrick Chow, gathered. A woman in her early 30s said she came to the hospital with her 9-year-old daughter to show support for Mr. Chow.

The gunshot was unnecessary, said the woman, who only gave her first name, Ceres.

Mr. Chow had been out protesting before, according to his girlfriend who only gave her last name, Yuen. Ms. Yuen said she spoke to Mr. Chow before he headed out Monday morning.

After dawn Monday, protesters set up barricades at several key transportation interchanges around the city, including two road tunnels, according to police. More than a dozen locations were targeted for barricading by protesters, according to footage circulating online and posters in Telegram chat rooms where many protesters receive information about rallies.

A policeman walks under a cordon at the site where a police officer shot at pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong on Monday.


Photo:

anthony wallace/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

In some areas, police responded by firing tear gas. Some commuters got caught in the middle in the district of Tseung Kwan O, where the student died last week after falling from the parking garage. The affected commuters were treated by people appearing to be first aid workers who were carrying water and saline solution.

The Hong Kong Police Force said it opened fire early Monday morning in the Eastern District of Hong Kong island without providing details. Earlier, police issued a statement calling on protesters to stop obstructing traffic.

Demands from protesters widened over the summer to include calls for an independent inquiry into alleged police misconduct against demonstrators and greater democratic rights, including full universal suffrage in choosing Hong Kong’s leader.

Chief Executive

Carrie Lam

has in recent weeks softened her stance on an independent inquiry into how the police have handled the protests, saying she would consider it after assessing the results of an existing probe by Hong Kong’s Independent Police Complaints Council. Pro-democracy groups have said the body isn’t independent and doesn’t have the leverage—it can’t summon witnesses, for example—to be effective.

On Saturday, a panel of independent experts called in to assist the council said the body lacks power and resources to meet the demands of investigating the force’s conduct during the protests, according to a statement posted on the

Twitter

account of panel member Clifford Stott, a dean for research at Keele University in England.

The independent panel of experts, which is tasked to conduct a fact-finding study into the unrest after growing public concern about police behavior and tactics, urged “a deeper more comprehensive inquiry” by an independent body with greater powers.

—Rachel Yeo and Joyu Wang contributed to this article.

Write to Eun-Young Jeong at Eun-Young.Jeong@wsj.com and Joanne Chiu at joanne.chiu@wsj.com

Source Article from https://www.wsj.com/articles/hong-kong-police-shoot-at-protesters-one-man-is-in-emergency-surgery-11573442207

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Political vacuum in Bolivia as Morales announces resignation – Al Jazeera English
Political vacuum in Bolivia as Morales announces resignation – Al Jazeera English

La Paz, Bolivia – A jubilant crowd in La Paz celebrated Bolivian President Evo Morales‘s resignation on Sunday, even as the country faced a political vacuum in the wake of October’s controversial election.

“We’ve won our democracy back,” Luis Ramos told Al Jazeera as he waved the national flag in the country’s capital.

More:

Morales, who was already under pressure following the October 20 elections, resigned after electoral fraud was identified in a preliminary report released by the Organization of American States (OAS) early on Sunday morning.

Bolivia finds itself embroiled in its worst political crisis in decades after Morales secured a slight margin of victory over his principal rival, former President and Vice-President Carlos Mesa, in the poll.

Protesters have filled city streets and set up roadblocks that have brought commerce to a standstill.

“The situation is very unstable and does seem to be deteriorating,” Eric Farnsworth, Vice President of the Council of the Americas told Al Jazeera from Washington, DC.

“Bolivia is traditionally a very divided society. It’s divided in geographical terms, in socio-economic terms, in racial terms so there’s a lot of kindling here for a fire to really take off if calmer heads don’t prevail.”

Morales, who had previously agreed to respect the OAS findings as binding, quickly announced new elections and a new electoral commission. Shortly after, Mesa embraced new elections but insisted that neither Morales nor his Vice-President Alvaro Garcia Linera should be allowed to run.

Both Mesa and the OAS agreed to allow Morales to complete his current term, which was due to end on January 22 to ensure an orderly transition.


Rise of conservative right

But neither anticipated the sudden rise of Santa Cruz’s civic committee leader, Luis Fernando Camacho.

The Christian conservative has stolen a lot of Mesa’s thunder, arriving in La Paz with great fanfare last week to demand Morales’s immediate resignation. He split with Mesa a day later when Mesa urged him to wait until the results of the OAS audit.


“I will never participate in another meeting with Carlos Mesa,” he told the local paper, La Razon. “I realised we were supporting a person who didn’t care about the people’s vote.”

Morales’s sudden resignation has left a political vacuum with no one currently in charge in Bolivia’s Presidential Palace. With so many resignations in the past 24 hours, Jeanine Anez, vice-president of the Senate, is next in line according to the 2009 constitution.

While most of the protests denouncing fraud have been largely peaceful, right-wing gangs have launched increasingly violent attacks on their enemies.

In recent days, they have burned down government ministers’ houses and taken their relatives hostage in order to force their resignation. Much of the attacks are couched in the racism that is never far from the surface in Bolivia.

“Indians out of the university” read graffiti in front of La Paz’s public university a week after the elections.

“They talk about democracy all the time,” said a La Paz deputy of Morales’s Movimient al Socialismo (MAS) who asked to remain anonymous out of fear for her family’s safety. “But it’s clear that they don’t think poor people and Indians should all have the same rights as them. Is that democracy?”


The turmoil increased when part of the police forces mutinied against Morales government on November 8 and Williams Kaliman, the head of the armed forces, on Sunday “suggested” that Morales resign in order to restore peace to the country.

The current crisis has its roots in a 2016 referendum that Morales hoped would allow him to modify the constitution and run for another term.

After he narrowly lost, he promised to respect the results but a year and half later, the country’s electoral court declared that not permitting him to run would violate his human rights. They also abolished term limits for all elected government posts.

The move galvanised the fragmented opposition which steadily grew beyond the urban middle class to the rural and working-class people who had benefitted most from the policies of Morales’s government.

“I’m worried that Evo is staying in power so long,” said fruit vendor Marlene Soto, “but we want someone who will carry on his policies.”

Cochabamba feminist activist Maria Fernandez told Al Jazeera: “Evo’s last two terms in office were marked by corruption, arrogance and a disregard for the people who put him into power. But I’m not celebrating his resignation because I’m afraid that this is a takeover by religious extremists who are anti-women and racist.”

Source Article from https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/11/political-vacuum-bolivia-morales-announces-resignation-191111043447380.html

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Nikki Haley, Former UN Ambassador, Tells NPR Trump’s Actions Not Impeachable – NPR
Nikki Haley, Former UN Ambassador, Tells NPR Trump’s Actions Not Impeachable – NPR

In an interview with NPR about her new book, former Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley said she made an effort to avoid the “toxic” and “trashy” White House — and that she’ll campaign for President Trump in 2020. Above, she poses for a portrait at NPR studios in New York City on Nov. 8.

Amr Alfiky for NPR


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Amr Alfiky for NPR

In an interview with NPR about her new book, former Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley said she made an effort to avoid the “toxic” and “trashy” White House — and that she’ll campaign for President Trump in 2020. Above, she poses for a portrait at NPR studios in New York City on Nov. 8.

Amr Alfiky for NPR

A onetime member of the Trump administration has some mildly critical words for her old boss but disagrees with Congress’ efforts to impeach him.

Former Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley said in an interview with NPR on Friday that “it is not a good practice for us ever to ask a foreign country to investigate an American” — referring to President Trump’s efforts to get Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, his potential 2020 opponent.

But, she added, “I don’t see it as impeachable.”

Haley, who served from 2017 to 2018, has written a book about her time as ambassador — With All Due Respect: Defending America With Grit and Grace.

In the interview, she said it’s “arrogant” of Congress to attempt to impeach Trump before an election year. “Did the Ukrainians call for an investigation? No,” Haley said. “Did the president hold up aid? He released it as he should,” she said. And so, in her view, there was no “smoking gun.”

Calling impeachment an abstraction, Haley said:

“The American people should decide what they think is right and wrong. For Congress or [House Speaker Nancy] Pelosi and [Senate Minority Leader Chuck] Schumer to sit there and say they are going to decide this for the American people is just wrong.”

Haley criticized the anonymous author of the upcoming book A Warning, set to go on sale Nov. 19, which purports to be an insider’s account of the White House and outlines an alleged effort to replace Trump under the 25th Amendment with Vice President Pence.

With All Due Respect

Defending America With Grit and Grace

by Nikki R. Haley

Hardcover, 262 pages |

purchase

Haley called the author “cowardly” and said she was never in a conversation “that even whispered anything about the 25th Amendment.” She said she witnessed “multiple conversations and debates in front of the president,” adding that “at the end of the day, the president decides, and if he does and you can’t live with it, then quit.”

What’s more, Haley said, “there is no way that anyone believes that Mike Pence ever considered” replacing the president.

Not to say there wasn’t plenty of backroom intrigue at the White House. Haley said there were people within the Trump administration “who tried to undermine the president,” citing then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and then-White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, in particular. Haley said they “tried to recruit me and said they were trying to save the country and that if they did not do something, people would die.”

But Haley said it wasn’t that they were worried about “a rogue president that was out of control,” but rather policy differences they had with Trump, including withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement and the Iran nuclear deal and moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

NPR has reached out to Kelly and Tillerson for comment.

Haley said the embassy move was “one where they said the sky would fall.” But, as Haley noted, the embassy was moved and “the sky is still up there.”

And Haley, who said she “loved every second” of being ambassador to the U.N., doesn’t hide her disdain for Washington, or at least 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. She said that when she would visit the White House, “I couldn’t get back to New York fast enough, “because it [the White House] was toxic, it was political and it was trashy.”

Haley said she left her U.N. post because after two years there and the preceding six as governor of South Carolina (she was the state’s first female governor and its first Indian-American one) she was tired of “going nonstop, 24/7 for eight years” and was anxious to spend more time with her family.

Haley said she will be campaigning for Trump’s reelection in 2020 and has no political plans beyond that. But she quickly added: “I’m too young to stop fighting.” And while she’s not running for anything now, she plans on taking it “a year at a time.”

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2019/11/11/777679782/former-u-n-ambassador-haley-trump-actions-not-a-good-practice-but-not-impeachabl

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Trump urges allies to not ‘be led into the fools trap’ of saying Ukraine call ‘was not perfect, but is not impeachable’ | TheHill – The Hill
Trump urges allies to not ‘be led into the fools trap’ of saying Ukraine call ‘was not perfect, but is not impeachable’ | TheHill – The Hill

President TrumpDonald John TrumpFormer National Security Adviser John Bolton gets book deal: report Trump administration proposes fee for asylum applications, spike in other immigration fees Biden expresses shock that Trump considers attending Russia May Day event MORE on Sunday urged Republican lawmakers not to fall into the “fools trap” of saying his July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was “not perfect, but is not impeachable.”

In a tweet he again referred to the conversation at the center of the House impeachment inquiry, in which he urged Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe BidenJoe BidenDecember Democratic debate venue switched to Loyola Marymount University Biden expresses shock that Trump considers attending Russia May Day event Strategists say Warren ‘Medicare for All’ plan could appeal to centrists MORE, as “perfect.”

“The call to the Ukrainian President was PERFECT. Read the Transcript! There was NOTHING said that was in any way wrong. Republicans, don’t be led into the fools trap of saying it was not perfect, but is not impeachable,” Trump tweeted.

“No, it is much stronger than that. NOTHING WAS DONE WRONG!” he added.

Trump has frequently used the refrain “read the transcript!” to respond to critics of the conversation he had with Zelensky, while Democrats and some conservative critics have argued that it was improper for the president to press a foreign leader to open a criminal investigation into Biden, a front-runner for the 2020 Democratic nomination.

Republican defenders of the president have largely argued that the president’s actions were not improper because, they assert, military aid to Ukraine was not held up over the request for an investigation into Biden and his son, Hunter Biden.

Some GOP lawmakers have, however, criticized the president for bringing up an investigation into Biden, such as House Armed Services ranking Republican member Rep. Mac ThornberryWilliam (Mac) McClellan ThornberryAmerica’s avengers deserve an advocate Lawmakers dismiss fresh fears of another government shutdown Lobbying World MORE (Texas), who called Trump’s actions “inappropriate,” but not impeachable.

Source Article from https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/469817-trump-urges-allies-to-defend-ukraine-call-dont-be-led-into-the-fools

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Republicans push diversions and distractions ahead of this week’s televised impeachment hearings – CNN
Republicans push diversions and distractions ahead of this week’s televised impeachment hearings – CNN

Chat with us in Facebook Messenger. Find out what’s happening in the world as it unfolds.

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/11/politics/republicans-trump-impeachment-inquiry/index.html

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Giuliani Associate Says He Gave Demand for Biden Inquiry to Ukrainians – The New York Times
Giuliani Associate Says He Gave Demand for Biden Inquiry to Ukrainians – The New York Times

Mr. Trump froze nearly $400 million in military aid to Ukraine shortly before a July 25 call with the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, in which Mr. Trump personally sought investigations into the Bidens and claims that Ukrainians had meddled in the 2016 election. In the call, Mr. Trump did not explicitly link the aid and the investigations.

Mr. Trump has denied a quid pro quo involving aid, and Mr. Zelensky has said he never felt pressured to pursue an investigation.

The meeting in Kiev in May occurred after Mr. Giuliani, with Mr. Parnas’s help, had planned a trip there to urge Mr. Zelensky to pursue the investigations. Mr. Giuliani canceled his trip at the last minute, claiming he was being “set up.”

Only three people were present at the meeting: Mr. Parnas, Mr. Fruman and Serhiy Shefir, a member of the inner circle of Mr. Zelensky, then the Ukrainian president-elect. The sit-down took place at an outdoor cafe in the days before Mr. Zelensky’s May 20 inauguration, according to a person familiar with the events. The men sipped coffee and spoke in Russian, which is widely spoken in Ukraine, the person said.

Mr. Parnas’s lawyer, Joseph A. Bondy, said the message to the Ukrainians was given at the direction of Mr. Giuliani, whom Mr. Parnas believed was acting under Mr. Trump’s instruction. Mr. Giuliani said he “never authorized such a conversation.”

A lawyer for Mr. Fruman, John M. Dowd, said his client told him the men were seeking only a meeting with Mr. Zelensky, the new president. “There was no mention of any terms, military aid or whatever they are talking about it — it’s false,” said Mr. Dowd, who represents Mr. Fruman along with the lawyer Todd Blanche.

In a statement on Friday, Mr. Shefir acknowledged meeting with Mr. Parnas and Mr. Fruman. But he said they had not raised the issue of military aid. Mr. Shefir said he briefed the incoming president on the meeting. Mr. Shefir was a business partner and longtime friend whom Mr. Zelensky appointed as his chief adviser on the first day of his presidency.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/10/nyregion/trump-ukraine-parnas-fruman.html

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Chesa Boudin, whose parents were imprisoned, wins San Francisco D.A.’s race – NBCNews.com
Chesa Boudin, whose parents were imprisoned, wins San Francisco D.A.’s race – NBCNews.com

SAN FRANCISCO — Chesa Boudin, the son of anti-war radicals sent to prison for murder when he was a toddler, has won San Francisco’s tightly contested race for district attorney after campaigning to reform the criminal justice system.

The former deputy public defender declared victory Saturday night after four days of ballot counting determined he was ahead of interim District Attorney Suzy Loftus. The latest results from the San Francisco Department of Elections gave Boudin a lead of 8,465 votes.

Loftus conceded and said she will work to ensure a smooth and immediate transition.

Boudin, 39, became the latest candidate across the nation to win district attorney elections by pushing for sweeping reform over incarceration. He said he wants to tackle racial bias in the criminal justice system, overhaul the bail system, protect immigrants from deportation and pursue accountability in police misconduct cases.

Chesa Boudin shown with his father, David Gilbert, in the maximum security prison where he is serving a sentence for killing a Brinks guard and two police officers during a robbery by the radical group The Weather Underground.Ralf-Finn Hestoft / Corbis via Getty Images

“The people of San Francisco have sent a powerful and clear message: It’s time for radical change to how we envision justice,” Boudin said in a statement. “I’m humbled to be a part of this movement that is unwavering in its demand for transformation.”

Boudin entered the race as an underdog and captured voters’ attention with his extraordinary life story: He was 14 months old when his parents, who were members of the far-left Weather Underground, dropped him off with a babysitter and took part in an armored car robbery in upstate New York that left two police officers and a security guard dead.

His mother, Kathy Boudin, served 22 years behind bars and his father, David Gilbert, may spend the rest of his life in prison.

“Growing up, I had to go through a metal detector and steel gates just to give my parents a hug,” Boudin said in his campaign video.

He said that as one of the dozens of people whose lives were shattered by the deadly robbery in 1981, he experienced first-hand the destructive effects of mass incarceration and it motivated him to reform the nation’s broken criminal justice system.

He was raised in Chicago by Weather Underground leaders Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn before studying law at Yale University. He later won a Rhodes Scholarship and worked as a translator for Venezuela’s late President Hugo Chavez before coming to San Francisco.

He remained close to his parents and posted a photo on his Facebook campaign page of a family reunion in New York this past week.

In this Nov. 21, 1981, file photo, Katherine Boudin is led from Rockland County Courthouse in New York.Handschuh / AP

Loftus was appointed the interim district attorney by Mayor London Breed last month after George Gascon announced he was resigning and moving to Los Angeles to explore a run for DA there.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California accused Breed of undermining the democratic process.

Loftus was endorsed by the city’s Democratic establishment, including Gov. Gavin Newsom and Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris.

“San Francisco has always been supportive of a progressive approach to criminal justice … It’s the nature of that town and I congratulate the winner,” Harris said Sunday while campaigning in Iowa for the Democratic presidential nomination. Loftus worked for Harris when she was the city’s district attorney.

Boudin received high-profile support from Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and writer and civil rights activist Shaun King.

“Now is the moment to fundamentally transform our racist and broken criminal justice system by ending mass incarceration, the failed war on drugs and the criminalization of poverty,” Sanders tweeted Saturday when he congratulated Boudin on his win.

Source Article from https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/chesa-boudin-whose-parents-were-imprisoned-wins-san-francisco-d-n1079586

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Bolivian president announces resignation amid protests | TheHill – The Hill
Bolivian president announces resignation amid protests | TheHill – The Hill

Bolivian President Evo Morales announced his resignation in a televised address on Sunday following weeks of protests in the country and demands from military leaders for him to step down.

CNN reported that Morales told viewers that his resignation, which occurred after the Organization of American States (OAS) announced that “serious irregularities” occurred during his reelection last month, was for “the good of the country.”

He had earlier in the day agreed to the OAS’s call for new elections to be held.

Several other government officials, including Morales’ vice president, also resigned, according to multiple news reports.

His ouster follows weeks of violent protests that began after the Oct. 20 election, during which at least three people were killed and hundreds more were injured. Police assigned to guard Morales’ presidential palace reportedly abandoned their posts on Saturday.

Carlos Mesa, leader of Bolivia’s top opposition party, had rejected Morales’s calls for negotiations, telling reporters: “I have nothing to negotiate with Evo Morales, who has lost all grip on reality.”

 

Source Article from https://thehill.com/policy/international/469821-bolivian-president-announces-resignation-amid-protests

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Trump to hold news conference with Turkish President on day of House’s first public impeachment hearings – CNN
Trump to hold news conference with Turkish President on day of House’s first public impeachment hearings – CNN

Chat with us in Facebook Messenger. Find out what’s happening in the world as it unfolds.

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/10/politics/trump-erdogan-house-public-impeachment-hearing/index.html

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Swalwell says evidence in impeachment depositions amounts to ‘extortion scheme’ by Trump admin – Fox News
Swalwell says evidence in impeachment depositions amounts to ‘extortion scheme’ by Trump admin – Fox News
Video

Fox News Flash top headlines for Nov. 10

Fox News Flash top headlines for Nov. 10 are here. Check out what’s clicking on FoxNews.com

Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., said on Sunday that the evidence he has seen from the depositions given in the House impeachment inquiry into President Trump amounts to an “extortion scheme” by the White House.

Speaking on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” Swalwell – a member of the House Intelligence Committee – said that while President Trump is owed his due process rights, he believes the evidence shows the administration using taxpayer dollars to investigate Trump’s political opponents in the 2020 election.

“It’s important that the president has due process, and evidence is not a conclusion,” Swalwell said. “We have enough evidence from the depositions that we’ve done to warrant bringing this forward, evidence of an extortion scheme using taxpayer dollars to ask a foreign government to investigate the president’s opponents.”

TRUMP-UKRAINE HOUSE IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY TO START ‘OPEN HEARINGS’ NOV. 13, SCHIFF SAYS

Swalwell added: “It’s important that these witnesses raise their right hands and take questions from both Republicans and Democrats… It’s important that the Republicans are afforded the opportunity to suggest which witnesses we should call and we’ll decide whether that’s relevant.”

Video

Swalwell also lambasted Republican calls for the former Vice President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, to come before the House – saying that “we’re not going to go back in time and revisit conspiracy theories that were implicated in the president’s call.”

Trump has sought to implicate Biden and his son, Hunter, in his July 25 call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Hunter Biden worked for a Ukrainian gas company at the same time his father was leading the Obama administration’s diplomatic dealings with Kiev. Though the timing raised concerns among anti-corruption advocates, there has been no evidence of wrongdoing by either the former vice president or his son.

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The first public hearings in the impeachment inquiry are scheduled to be held next Wednesday and Friday, featuring current and former officials with knowledge of the Ukraine controversy.

Video

The first public hearing will feature Bill Taylor, the acting U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, who already testified behind closed doors before congressional investigators that the president pushed Ukraine to investigate election interference, Biden and his son and their Ukrainian dealings — and that he was told U.S. military aid and a White House meeting were used as leverage to get a public announcement from Kiev that the probes were underway.

George Kent, the deputy assistant Secretary of State, also will appear with Taylor. Kent testified behind closed doors last month, and told the committees that he had concerns about Hunter Biden’s role on the board of Ukrainian natural gas firm, Burisma Holdings, in 2015, but was rebuffed by the former vice president’s staff, which said the office was preoccupied with Beau Biden’s cancer battle.

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/swalwell-says-evidence-in-impeachment-depositions-amount-to-extortion-scheme-by-trump-admin

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Nikki Haley: Top aides ‘told ex-UN envoy to undermine Trump’ – BBC News
Nikki Haley: Top aides ‘told ex-UN envoy to undermine Trump’ – BBC News
Media captionNikki Haley says impeachment is the ‘death penalty for public officials’.

Nikki Haley, former US ambassador to the UN, has said two top White House aides encouraged her to undermine President Donald Trump.

In a new book, Ms Haley says then-Chief of Staff John Kelly and then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told her to resist some of Mr Trump’s demands.

They reportedly told her they were “trying to save the country”.

There was no immediate comment from Mr Tillerson. Mr Kelly said he had wanted the president to be fully informed.

“If by ‘resistance’ and ‘stalling’ she means putting a staff process in place… to ensure [Mr Trump] knew all the pros and cons of what policy decision he might be contemplating so he could make an informed decision, then guilty as charged,” Mr Kelly told US broadcaster CBS.

Mr Trump tweeted his approval of the book, writing: “Good luck Nikki!”

What does she say in the book?

Ms Haley says Mr Kelly and Mr Tillerson told her they “weren’t being subordinate, they were trying to save the country”.

“It was their decisions, not the president’s, that were in the best interests of America, they said,” she wrote in her book With All Due Respect, which was seen by the Washington Post before its release on Tuesday.

Mr Tillerson, she added, told her people would die if the president were not restrained.

Ms Haley, 47, said she had refused the request from Mr Kelly and Mr Tillerson, and called it “dangerous” and “offensive”.

“Instead of saying that to me they should have been saying that to the president, not asking me to join them on their sidebar plan,” she told CBS.

“It should have been – go tell the president what your differences are and quit if you don’t like what he’s doing. But to undermine a president… it is really a very dangerous thing and it goes against the constitution, and it goes against what the American people want. It was offensive.”

The former ambassador said she disagreed with the president over his handling of Russian President Vladimir Putin at a summit in Helsinki in 2017.

She also wrote that his comments after the deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville in 2017, that there were good people on “both sides”, had been “hurtful and dangerous”. A counter-protester, Heather Heyer, was killed at the demonstration.

But Ms Haley also said she supported a number of Mr Trump’s policies that others within the administration opposed – such as his decisions to pull the US out of a nuclear deal with Iran, and to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement.

In the interview with CBS, she also criticised House Democrats’ moves to impeach the president, saying that impeachment is “like the death penalty for public officials”.

Source Article from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-50370347

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Hong Kong police officer shoots protester with live round in early morning clashes – CNN
Hong Kong police officer shoots protester with live round in early morning clashes – CNN
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    Julia Hollingsworth and Isaac Yee contributed reporting.

    Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/10/asia/hong-kong-protester-shot-intl-hnk/index.html

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    Bolivian Leader Evo Morales Steps Down – The New York Times
    Bolivian Leader Evo Morales Steps Down – The New York Times

    It remained unclear on Sunday night who would take power, as several officials in the line of succession had resigned. Mr. Morales’s resignation statement was expected to be read in Congress Monday.

    Mexico’s foreign minister, Marcelo Ebrard, said on Twitter on Sunday night that his country would offer Mr. Morales asylum if he sought it.

    Mr. Morales’s departure is a milestone in the spasms of unrest that have roiled Latin America in recent months. Several leaders in the region have been bedeviled by street protests, acts of vandalism and deepening political polarization — dynamics exacerbated by underperforming economies and rising outrage over inequality.

    As it became clear that the military would turn on him, Mr. Morales flew with Mr. García and a small number of aides from La Paz to Chimoré, in the state of Cochabamba. It was unclear whether Mr. Morales intended to leave Bolivia or stay in that area, which is home to coca leaf growers and has been a stronghold of support.

    Mr. Morales’s increasing grip on the country had been worrying critics — and many supporters — for years.

    In 2016, he had asked voters to do away with the two-term limit established in the 2009 Constitution, which was drafted and approved during his first term. Voters narrowly rejected the proposal in a referendum — which, under Bolivian law, was supposed to have been binding.

    But Mr. Morales found a workaround. The Constitutional Court, which is packed with his loyalists, held that term limits constricted human rights, giving Mr. Morales the right to run for office indefinitely.

    Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/10/world/americas/evo-morales-bolivia.html

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    Swalwell says evidence in impeachment depositions amounts to ‘extortion scheme’ by Trump admin – Fox News
    Swalwell says evidence in impeachment depositions amounts to ‘extortion scheme’ by Trump admin – Fox News
    Video

    Fox News Flash top headlines for Nov. 10

    Fox News Flash top headlines for Nov. 10 are here. Check out what’s clicking on FoxNews.com

    Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., said on Sunday that the evidence he has seen from the depositions given in the House impeachment inquiry into President Trump amounts to an “extortion scheme” by the White House.

    Speaking on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” Swalwell – a member of the House Intelligence Committee – said that while President Trump is owed his due process rights, he believes the evidence shows the administration using taxpayer dollars to investigate Trump’s political opponents in the 2020 election.

    “It’s important that the president has due process, and evidence is not a conclusion,” Swalwell said. “We have enough evidence from the depositions that we’ve done to warrant bringing this forward, evidence of an extortion scheme using taxpayer dollars to ask a foreign government to investigate the president’s opponents.”

    TRUMP-UKRAINE HOUSE IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY TO START ‘OPEN HEARINGS’ NOV. 13, SCHIFF SAYS

    Swalwell added: “It’s important that these witnesses raise their right hands and take questions from both Republicans and Democrats… It’s important that the Republicans are afforded the opportunity to suggest which witnesses we should call and we’ll decide whether that’s relevant.”

    Video

    Swalwell also lambasted Republican calls for the former Vice President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, to come before the House – saying that “we’re not going to go back in time and revisit conspiracy theories that were implicated in the president’s call.”

    Trump has sought to implicate Biden and his son, Hunter, in his July 25 call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Hunter Biden worked for a Ukrainian gas company at the same time his father was leading the Obama administration’s diplomatic dealings with Kiev. Though the timing raised concerns among anti-corruption advocates, there has been no evidence of wrongdoing by either the former vice president or his son.

    CLICK HERE FOR THE FOX NEWS APP

    The first public hearings in the impeachment inquiry are scheduled to be held next Wednesday and Friday, featuring current and former officials with knowledge of the Ukraine controversy.

    Video

    The first public hearing will feature Bill Taylor, the acting U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, who already testified behind closed doors before congressional investigators that the president pushed Ukraine to investigate election interference, Biden and his son and their Ukrainian dealings — and that he was told U.S. military aid and a White House meeting were used as leverage to get a public announcement from Kiev that the probes were underway.

    George Kent, the deputy assistant Secretary of State, also will appear with Taylor. Kent testified behind closed doors last month, and told the committees that he had concerns about Hunter Biden’s role on the board of Ukrainian natural gas firm, Burisma Holdings, in 2015, but was rebuffed by the former vice president’s staff, which said the office was preoccupied with Beau Biden’s cancer battle.

    Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/swalwell-says-evidence-in-impeachment-depositions-amount-to-extortion-scheme-by-trump-admin

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    Haley: Top Trump aides tried to get me to undermine him | TheHill – The Hill
    Haley: Top Trump aides tried to get me to undermine him | TheHill – The Hill

    Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki HaleyNimrata (Nikki) HaleyFormer UN ambassador predicts Trump won’t be impeached Top Democrat: Getting Trump off the ballot wouldn’t benefit party Haley: Communication with Trump was ‘nearly constant,’ and he ‘always listened’ MORE claims two of President Trump’s former senior advisers tried to get her to undermine him to “save the country,” The Washington Post reported Sunday, citing Haley’s upcoming memoir and an interview with her. 

    According to the newspaper, Haley said former Secretary of State Rex TillersonRex Wayne TillersonTop Senate Dem: Officials timed immigration policy around 2020 election The Hill’s Morning Report – Witness transcripts offer new clues; Election Day Five takeaways from the first Trump impeachment deposition transcripts MORE and former White House chief of staff John KellyJohn Francis KellyMORE would try to get her to work around the president. 

    “Kelly and Tillerson confided in me that when they resisted the president, they weren’t being insubordinate, they were trying to save the country,” Haley wrote, according to the Post. 

    “It was their decisions, not the president’s, that were in the best interests of America, they said. The president didn’t know what he was doing,” she continued. 

    In one portion of the book, Haley reportedly recalls a disagreement with Tillerson and Kelly during an Oval Office meeting over her suggestion that the United States should withhold funding for a U.N. agency that supports Palestinians. 

    She said she had the backing of Trump’s Mideast envoys, according to the Post. 

    Kelly and Tillerson, however, argued that cutting aid could lead to violence and greater threats to Israel, as well as reduced U.S. influence, Haley reportedly wrote. 

    Kelly, she added, later responded to Haley in his office: “I have four secretaries of state: you, H.R., Jared, and Rex. I only need one,” she wrote, referring to Jared KushnerJared Corey KushnerMan pleads guilty in plot to attack Cleveland on July 4 Progressives press Democrats to rethink Israel policy Trump denies knowing lobbyist who boasted of inside access to administration MORE and then-national security adviser H.R. McMaster.  

    “I was so shocked I didn’t say anything going home because I just couldn’t get my arms around the fact that here you have two key people in an administration undermining the president,” Haley told the Post. 

    She also wrote that Kelly stalled when Haley requested a meeting with Trump and said the former chief of staff complained when she went around him to do so, according to the Post. 

    Tillerson did not respond to the Post’s request for comment. 

    Kelly told the newspaper that if providing Trump “with the best and most open, legal and ethical staffing advice from across the [government] so he could make an informed decision is ‘working against Trump,’ then guilty as charged.”

    Haley wrote that she and others had an obligation to carry out Trump’s wishes since he was elected by voters, according to the Post, which obtained a copy of her memoir, “With All Due Respect,” which is set to be published on Tuesday. 

    Haley resigned from her position last year. She had previously served as South Carolina governor. 

    Haley also told the Post she’s encountered two types of people as a woman in politics. 

    “You encounter people who respect you for your skill and your knowledge and the work that you’re trying to do, and support you in that process. Or you encounter people who disregard you and see you as in the way. That would happen at times,” she told the Post. 

    But she told the newspaper she has no personal quarrel with Kelly, a retired four-star Marine general, and called him a patriot.

    –This report was updated at 1:17 p.m.

    Source Article from https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/469807-haley-top-trump-aides-tried-to-get-me-to-undermine-him

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    Whistleblower Q&A Offer Still Awaiting An Official ‘No’ From Republicans – NPR
    Whistleblower Q&A Offer Still Awaiting An Official ‘No’ From Republicans – NPR

    Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif. has listed the anonymous whistleblower on a list of witnesses Republicans will like to call as part of the impeachment inquiry.

    Susan Walsh/AP


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    Susan Walsh/AP

    Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif. has listed the anonymous whistleblower on a list of witnesses Republicans will like to call as part of the impeachment inquiry.

    Susan Walsh/AP

    A week has passed since lawyers for the anonymous whistleblower who set off the impeachment inquiry extended an offer to House Republicans to make the whistleblower available to answer written questions under oath.

    Since the offer was sent to Rep. Devin Nunes of California, the top Republican on the House intelligence committee, the whistleblower’s legal team has been waiting for an official response. So far, they say, they have not received one.

    “Crickets,” said Mark Zaid, an attorney for the whistleblower. Zaid said that until Nunes formally declines the offer, it will continue to stand.

    The idea of having the whistleblower answer written questions directly from Republicans has been dismissed by President Trump and allies in the House, including Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.

    Nunes’ office did not respond to requests for comment on Sunday. But Nunes has pressed forward with efforts to question the whistleblower publicly by including the unnamed individual on a list of witnesses House Republicans would like the opportunity to hear from once public hearings in the impeachment inquiry begin on Wednesday. Nunes said the president should have the opportunity to confront his accuser.

    House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., is expected to block that request. He wrote in a letter to Nunes on Saturday that since much of the whistleblower’s complaint has been substantiated by other evidence and witness testimony, the individual’s account is no longer central to the investigation.

    “The whistleblower’s testimony is therefore redundant and unneccessary,” Schiff said.

    Preserving the whistleblower’s anonymity, he added, is a top priority.

    Democrats echoed Schiff on Sunday, arguing that given the evidence already gathered, the whistleblower testimony is no longer necessary.

    “The only thing that the whistleblower can say is that he was told by other people about the phone call,” Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., said on ABC News’ This Week. “We have the other people coming forward to actually testify. So you have direct evidence, not indirect evidence. And the whistleblower has great risk associated with his life right now.”

    Even some Republicans agree that the whistleblower’s identity should remain shielded. Texas Republican Rep. Will Hurd, who previously worked as an undercover officer with the CIA, said on Fox News Sunday that unmasking the whistleblower could have a chilling effect on would-be whistleblowers.

    “I think we should be protecting the identity of the whistleblower,” Hurd said. “I’ve said that from the very beginning because how we treat this whistleblower will impact whistleblowers in the future.”

    With the public phase of the impeachment inquiry set to begin this week, the outlines of how both parties plan to address the now-infamous July 25 call between President Trump and the president of Ukraine are coming into clearer view.

    “I believe that it is inappropriate for a president to ask a foreign leader to investigate a political rival,” said Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, on ABC’s This Week. “I believe it was inappropriate. I don’t believe it was impeachable.”

    At least one Republican, Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana, said the president’s behavior may have crossed the line.

    “If it can be demonstrated that the president asked for and had the requisite state of mind, that the president asked for an investigation of a political rival, that’s over the line,” Kennedy said on CBS’s Face the Nation. Asked if over the line means impeachable, Kennedy replied: “Yeah, probably.”

    At the same time, Kennedy attacked the Democratic-led impeachment inquiry process as being slanted, pointing to Schiff’s reluctance to allow the witnesses Republicans have requested.

    “You can’t limit the witnesses,” Kennedy said. “I don’t think any fair-minded person in the Milky Way believes that Speaker Pelosi or Chairman Schiff are impartial here.”

    Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky, who has emerged as an outspoken supporter of Trump and critic of the whistleblower, said making military aid contingent on corruption investigations should not be controversial.

    “Presidents have withheld aid before for corruption,” Paul said on NBC’s Meet the Press . “So the thing is I think it’s a mistake to say, ‘Oh, he withheld aid, until he got what he wanted.’ Well, if it’s corruption, and he believes there to be corruption, he has every right to withhold aid.”

    But Democrats maintain that President Trump’s attempts to enlist a foreign power to dig up dirt on a political rival in order to help his re-election bid was an abuse of power.

    This week’s public hearings will start Wednesday with testimony from two diplomats: William Taylor, the acting U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, and George Kent, the deputy assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian affairs.

    On Friday Marie Yovanovitch, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, is scheduled to testify.

    Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2019/11/10/778096946/whistleblower-offer-to-field-written-questions-stands-but-gop-seeks-public-testi

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    Trump to hold news conference with Turkish President on day of House’s first public impeachment hearings – CNN
    Trump to hold news conference with Turkish President on day of House’s first public impeachment hearings – CNN

    Chat with us in Facebook Messenger. Find out what’s happening in the world as it unfolds.

    Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/10/politics/trump-erdogan-house-public-impeachment-hearing/index.html

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    Lawmakers spar over impeachment witnesses as probe enters public phase – The Washington Post
    Lawmakers spar over impeachment witnesses as probe enters public phase – The Washington Post

    He said it would be “inappropriate,” but not impeachable, for a president to ask a foreign leader to investigate a political rival, as Trump is alleged to have done. The importance of process, Thornberry maintained, cannot be ignored.

    Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/lawmakers-spar-over-impeachment-witnesses-as-probe-enters-public-phase/2019/11/10/89a91c80-03c3-11ea-8292-c46ee8cb3dce_story.html

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    Mulvaney’s move to join impeachment testimony lawsuit rankles Bolton allies – The Washington Post
    Mulvaney’s move to join impeachment testimony lawsuit rankles Bolton allies – The Washington Post

    Charles Cooper, a lawyer for Bolton, declined to comment on Mulvaney’s effort to join the suit, saying only, “We will provide our answer in court.”

    Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/mulvaneys-move-to-join-impeachment-testimony-lawsuit-rankles-bolton-allies/2019/11/10/06f3553a-0332-11ea-8bab-0fc209e065a8_story.html

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    Washington Post: Nikki Haley says top Trump aides tried to recruit her to undermine President – CNN
    Washington Post: Nikki Haley says top Trump aides tried to recruit her to undermine President – CNN

    Chat with us in Facebook Messenger. Find out what’s happening in the world as it unfolds.

    Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/10/politics/nikki-haley-tillerson-kelly-save-the-country-recruit-white-house/index.html

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