New mum Cardi B is not going to pretend that giving birth to her daughter three months ago was easy.
The rapper was a guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live where she was pretty honest about what happens to your body during childbirth. Cardi B mentions vaginal tearing and episiotomy stitches, both of which are normal parts of giving birth vaginally.
“She broke my vagina,” Cardi B said. “Nobody told me they were going to stitch my vagina!”
NEWS … THE WHITE HOUSE is gearing up to launch a public push for Congress to pass a farm bill with work requirements for food stamps ahead of Election Day. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP has enlisted VICE PRESIDENT MIKE PENCE to lead the push, alongside Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue.
THE FARM BILL — which includes renewal of food stamps alongside agricultural policy — is currently stalled in negotiations between the House and Senate.
THE WHITE HOUSE is expected to make the case that there are jobs that need to be filled in America, so Democrats should accede to work requirements for food stamps — something that they say has doomed the usually bipartisan farm-policy legislation.
TRUMP is expected to pick up this message in his stump speeches: House Democrats voted against the farm bill and vulnerable Senate Democrats have held it up in negotiations.
CONGRESS is out until after Election Day, which makes the immediate renewal impossible. But the administration believes this to be a poignant political issue with 19 DAYS until Election Day.
Good Thursday morning. AS THE WORLD TURNS … CHICAGO TRIBUNE: “Republican U.S. Rep. Scalise’s visit to Naperville highlights national importance of Chicago-area race”: “Steve Scalise, the No. 3 leader in the U.S. House who was wounded in a shooting at a Congressional baseball practice last year, lent a hand to U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam on Wednesday evening, hosting a fundraising reception for the incumbent Republican as he tries to hold onto his seat in Illinois’ 6th Congressional District.” Tribune
— ROSKAM AND SCALISE ran against each other in a competitive race for whip in 2014 — a race that propelled Scalise toward the top of the party.
MIAMI HERALD: “Pelosi touts gun control in Broward visit with Parkland parents,” by Martin Vassolo and Alex Daugherty: “Democrats may be wary of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi in other parts of the country, but she’s welcome in South Florida.
“With the midterm elections just weeks away, Parkland students and parents convened Wednesday with Pelosi in Coral Springs to game plan for November. The round table discussion focused on gun control, moderated by U.S. Rep Ted Deutch, was equal parts emotional venting and strategizing.
“Pelosi called the activists and parents a ‘blessing to our country,’ and said because of the energy coming out of Parkland, the issue of gun control would top the Democratic Party’s agenda in the House of Representatives if they take control. ‘I admire you so much,’ she said. ‘You have the purpose, the generosity of spirit. You have the marchers — you have people who will go out there to make a difference — and you just have a relentless, persistent, dissatisfied approach.’” Miami Herald
— MARC CAPUTO: “Shalala walks into anti-Castro buzzsaw”: “There’s a simple rule in running for Congress in Miami: don’t campaign with someone who praised Fidel Castro and fought sanctions against Venezuela’s dictatorial regime. But Donna Shalala didn’t figure it out until it was too late.
“In a district filled with Castro-hating Cuban-Americans and Venezuelan exiles, Shalala’s campaign committed an egregious gaffe — and set off a round of Democratic finger-pointing — by posting an announcement that she would hold a campaign event Wednesday with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and her fellow Californian, Rep. Barbara Lee.
“In 2016, Lee had said Castro’s death should be mourned. Lee’s visit was ultimately canceled, but not before Shalala was savaged in a debate by her Republican opponent. Shalala and Pelosi were also protested by Republicans, some of whom pounded on the door outside and shouted ‘go back to Cuba!’ ‘commie!’ and ‘witches!’” POLITICO
SITUATIONAL AWARENESS FOR NAVY YARD’ERS … WHOLE FOODS in Navy Yard (100 H St, SE) opens today.
BIG HEIDI CRUZ PROFILE … THE ATLANTIC’S ELAINA PLOTT: “Heidi Cruz Didn’t Plan for This: She had her whole future mapped out when she met Ted Cruz, starting with her dream job in Washington. This is the story of what came after.”
“‘You know, Ted is up for a tough reelection. I don’t know the future. I think he’s gonna win,’ she mused, breezing through the sentences as if she were talking about anything other than her husband’s political survival. She’s rooting for the team, sure (‘I really hope he wins his reelection’), but with her hectic work schedule, she doesn’t think much about it beyond that (‘I help out on the weekends where I can’).
“It may be Heidi’s way of avoiding one truth she’s learned as a political spouse: that this life only gets harder as it goes on. Another term in the Senate means six more years her husband won’t live at home. It means more family conversations about why Dad can’t make it to school on Wednesday for the meet and greet with Caroline’s new teachers. It means Heidi is working 70-hour weeks not only because she wants to, but also because she has to.
“‘I really feel mission-driven on what he’s accomplishing,’ she clarified. But ‘it does take some supportiveness, you know. Six to seven years in it, with me being the primary breadwinner—it’s like, ‘Uh, yeah, this is when people say thank you. I’ll now take that appreciation.’ She laughed. ‘Yeah, we’re seven years into this, and we’re not buying a second home anytime soon.’” The Atlantic
JOE BIDEN told NORAH O’DONNELL, in an interview for “CBS This Morning,” that he hopes Democrats don’t impeach DONALD TRUMP.CBS
NYT’S KEN VOGEL on A15: “As Other Republican Candidates Struggle Financially, Trump Stockpiles Cash”: “Reports filed this week show that President Trump sits atop a sophisticated data-driven fund-raising machine that has already brought in more than $106 million — a majority of which came from small donors, with none coming from Mr. Trump’s own pocket — and has spent more on his ‘Make America Great Again’ hats, $2 million, than his 2016 effort had spent on the entire campaign in its first report. …
“Even after the costly investments in digital advertising, data analytics and other tools of modern campaigning, the three committees that make up Mr. Trump’s campaign apparatus entered this month with a remarkable $47 million in the bank, according to their filings with the Federal Election Commission. …
“But the stockpiling has prompted grumbling among some Republican strategists, who contend — mostly in private — that the cash would be better allocated to the party’s at-risk congressional candidates, many of whom are being drastically outraised by their Democratic opponents.
“Mr. Trump, they argue, does not need the money now as much as the party’s congressional candidates, both because he will not face voters again for more than two years, and because he won his 2016 campaign more by relying on his megarallies and Twitter feed than on pricey campaign infrastructure.” NYT
PRE-ELECTION-DAY DASH … “Senate GOP midterm agenda: Judges, judges and more judges,” by Burgess Everett and Elana Schor: “A handful of Republican senators did something unusual on Wednesday: With the Senate not even in session, and no Democrats in sight, they convened the Judiciary Committee to advance a half-dozen of Donald Trump’s judicial nominees.
“For Republicans, there’s nothing that matters more. They aren’t pitching a big visionary agenda to persuade voters to return them to power next year — there’s only passing mention in the midterms of repealing Obamacare, and little talk of making Trump’s border wall a reality. It’s all about the judiciary. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has given every indication that his primary focus — through Election Day and, assuming Republicans still control the Senate, in the two years to follow, will be the ongoing reshaping of the courts.” POLITICO
THE LATEST ON KHASHOGGI …
— NYT’S JULIAN BARNES, MATT ROSENBERG and GARDINER HARRIS: “U.S. Spy Agencies Are Increasingly Convinced of Saudi Prince’s Ties to Journalist’s Disappearance”: “American intelligence officials are increasingly convinced that Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia is culpable in the killing of the dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, an appraisal that poses challenges to a White House intent on maintaining a close relationship with the kingdom.
“Intelligence agencies have not yet been able to collect direct evidence of the prince’s involvement, American and European officials said. They also have not been able to conclude whether Prince Mohammed directly ordered the killing of Mr. Khashoggi, or whether his intention was to have Mr. Khashoggi captured and taken back to Saudi Arabia, according to one official.
“But intelligence agencies have growing circumstantial evidence of the prince’s involvement — including the presence of members of his security detail and intercepts of Saudi officials discussing a possible plan to detain Mr. Khashoggi, according to American officials. Officials have also said the prince’s complete control over the security services makes it highly unlikely that an operation would have been undertaken without his knowledge.” NYT
— NAHAL TOOSI: “‘That grip and grin will come back to haunt him’: Pompeo takes heat for friendly Saudi sit-down”: “Just this week, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo published an essay arguing that one major reason President Donald Trump’s foreign policy vision will succeed is its ‘moral clarity.’
“But then there he was: The same Mike Pompeo, in the same week, smiling and chatting amiably with Saudi leaders suspected of orchestrating the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Pompeo expressed confidence that the Saudis will conduct a legitimate probe into the case and hold wrongdoers accountable — a stance many in Washington found hard to believe.
“Pompeo’s performance can be chalked up to any number of factors, including the inevitable trade-offs most U.S. administrations find they must make in dealing with unsavory allies who happen to be key to American interests. But it was also an example of Pompeo — a former Army tank commander who loves tough talk — toeing the Trump line, even if it risks tarnishing his image.” POLITICO
— WAPO’S BOB COSTA, JOSH DAWSEY and PHIL RUCKER: “Amid global outrage over Khashoggi, Trump takes soft stance toward Saudis”: “In days of private phone calls and Oval Office huddles, Trump has repeatedly reached for reasons to protect the U.S.-Saudi relationship, according to administration officials and presidential advisers.
“Trump has stressed Saudi Arabia’s huge investment in U.S. weaponry and worries it could instead purchase arms from China or Russia. He has fretted about the oil-rich desert kingdom cutting off its supply of petroleum to the United States. He has warned against losing a key partner countering Iran’s influence in the Middle East. He has argued that even if the United States tried to isolate the Saudis, the kingdom is too wealthy to ever be truly isolated.
“And he has emphasized that although Khashoggi had been living in Virginia and wrote for The Washington Post, the dissident journalist is a Saudi citizen — the implication being that the disappearance is not necessarily the United States’ problem.” WaPo
KHASHOGGI’S LAST COLUMN — Karen Attiah, WaPo’s global opinions editor writes: “I received this column from Jamal Khashoggi’s translator and assistant the day after Jamal was reported missing in Istanbul. The Post held off publishing it because we hoped Jamal would come back to us so that he and I could edit it together. Now I have to accept: That is not going to happen. This is the last piece of his I will edit for The Post. This column perfectly captures his commitment and passion for freedom in the Arab world. A freedom he apparently gave his life for.” “Jamal Khashoggi: What the Arab world needs most is free expression”
MCGAHN OUT — “McGahn exits as White House counsel,” by Brent D. Griffiths and Nancy Cook: “White House counsel Don McGahn departed the the Trump administration on Wednesday, leaving the counsel’s office without a head as the midterms approach and the prospect of a deluge of subpoenas from a new House Democratic majority looms.
“McGahn, who had a contentious relationship with the president, met with Trump Wednesday for about 20 minutes, according to a source familiar with the exchange, who described it as a respectful but not friendly gathering. While the president has said he favors Washington attorney Pat Cipollone as McGahn’s successor, Cipollone is still going through his background check and that process could take weeks, meaning there may not be anyone in the post immediately or through the election next month.” POLITICO
— NANCY COOK in POLITICO Magazine, “Don McGahn Leaves Trump With Big Wins — And Big Risks: The White House’s top lawyer leaves behind a legacy of conservative judges and regulatory rollback. But critics say he also left the president exposed to a Democratic reckoning in November.” POLITICO
THE INVESTIGATIONS …
— CNN’S ERICA ORDEN: “Michael Cohen meets with prosecutors investigating Trump’s family business, charity”: “Michael Cohen and his attorney met Wednesday with a group of state and federal law enforcement officials investigating various aspects of President Donald Trump’s family business and charitable organization, according to people familiar with the meeting.
“The group, which included the federal prosecutors from the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York who charged Cohen in August and officials from the New York Attorney General’s office, met at the Midtown New York City office of Cohen’s attorney, Guy Petrillo, these people said. CNN observed Cohen leaving Petrillo’s office building Wednesday afternoon. Assistant US Attorney Tom McKay, the lead prosecutor on the Cohen case, had entered the building earlier in the day.” CNN
— “Special counsel pushing Paul Manafort for information on Roger Stone: Sources,” by ABC News’ John Santucci, Katherine Faulders and Ali Dukakis: “Prosecutors from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office have been asking former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort — their newest cooperating witness — about his friend and former business associate Roger Stone, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.
“Stone, a longtime political adviser to President Donald Trump and onetime partner of Manafort’s at the lobbying firm Black, Manafort, Stone and Kelly, has come under increasing scrutiny from the special counsel in recent months. Nearly a dozen individuals close to Stone have been brought in for interviews with the Mueller team, and many of those same individuals have also appeared before a federal grand jury.” ABC
TRUMP’S THURSDAY — The president is meeting with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at 10 a.m. in the Oval Office. At 2 p.m., he will meet with the South Carolina delegation in the Roosevelt Room. Trump will then leave for Missoula, Montana. At 6:30 p.m. (MDT), Trump will attend a political rally in Montana. Afterward, he will fly to Phoenix, Arizona.
HUFFPO’S MATT FULLER talks about NANCY PELOSI with Reps. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) and Conor Lamb (D-Pa.), Heather Caygle, Pelosi deputy chief of staff Drew Hammill, Doug Heye and the Washington Examiner’s Laura Barron-Lopez. The podcast
2018 WATCH — ALEX ISENSTADT: “Mitt makes his move”: “A sleepy Utah Senate race was always a small playing field for a former presidential nominee. Now, Mitt Romney is going national again.
“After spending most of the past year quietly tending to his own race, Romney is using his formidable national profile and expansive political network to elect embattled Republicans across the country. Weeks before his virtually assured election to the Senate, the 2012 Republican standard bearer is issuing endorsements, appearing in TV ads, and fundraising for hopefuls up and down the ballot.” POLITICO
— “Dem challenger says Feinstein ‘on the sidelines’ in fight against Trump,” by Carla Marinucci in San Francisco: “Sen. Dianne Feinstein, facing an unexpectedly contentious Democrat-on-Democrat battle for a fifth full term, faced attacks on Wednesday from her progressive challenger, Kevin de León, who argued that California’s coming battles against President Donald Trump on immigration reform and climate change would need aggressive Washington leadership ‘on the frontlines, not the sidelines.’” POLITICO
BORDER TALES — “ICE subpoenas immigration lawyer in leak hunt,” by San Francisco Chronicle’s Tal Kopan: “The Trump administration has subpoenaed an immigration attorney in an attempt to determine who leaked an internal memo that laid out how Immigration and Customs Enforcement should implement Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ decision to restrict political asylum for victims of domestic violence and gang crimes. The attorney said he doesn’t intend to reveal his sources or any other information about how he obtained the memo.
“The subpoena was sent to Colorado-based immigration attorney Daniel Kowalski, who is also the editor of Bender’s Immigration Bulletin, an immigration law journal published by LexisNexis. It demands that Kowalski hand over ‘all information’ related to the memo he posted in July, including when, how and where he got it. The summons asks for ‘contact information for the source of the document.’” SF Chronicle
DAN DIAMOND spoke with PETER ORSZAG in the latest PULSE CHECK podcast. Listen and subscribe
SPOTTED: Former President Barack Obama on Wednesday morning going through the Carne y Arena installation in D.C., the virtual reality exhibition by Academy Award winning filmmaker Alejandro Inarritu, and supported by the Emerson Collective. The exhibit is closing at the end of the month … Rudy Giuliani at Salt Lake City airport. “He was hanging in the SkyClub with an ominous security guy,” said our tipster … Toby Keith yesterday in the lobby of the Trump Hotel.
SPOTTED at CBS News chief White House correspondent Major Garrett’s book party for “Mr. Trump’s Wild Ride” last night at Joe’s — $18.89 on Amazon (pix): Phil Rucker, Ashley Parker, Josh Dawsey, Zeke Miller, Jeff Zeleny, Kaitlan Collins, Abby Phillip, Chris Isham, Ward Sloane, Weijia Jiang, Ed O’Keefe, Bret Baier, Jeremy Diamond, Steven Portnoy, Paula Reid, Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), Steve Holland, Jeff Mason, Jackie Alemany, Annie Clark and Matt Whitlock.
— SPOTTED at Toolbox Art Studio to celebrate Betsy Fischer Martin’s appointment as the executive director of the Women and Politics Institute at American University: Dean Vicky Wilkins, daughter Ella, sister Julie McCarter, Jonathan Martin, Nicole Nason, Wolf Blitzer, Jeff Zeleny, John Harris, Hilary Rosen, Tammy Haddad, Evan Thomas, Charlie Cook, Bob Costa, Anita Dunn, Jeremy and Robyn Bash, Heather Podesta, Anita McBride, Abby Livingston, Jane Hall, Brooke Brower, Ken Vogel, former Rep. Connie Morella (R-Md.), Gwen Holliday, AB Stoddard, Christina Reynolds, Ann Stock, Shawna Thomas, Jessica Dean and Bill Nichols.
BIRTHDAY OF THE DAY: Marion Smith, executive director of Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation and chairman of the National Civic Art Society. A trend he thinks deserves more attention: “Anticommunism, of course. It’s back, and mostly because communists are back. And if you think that’s hyperbole, Jeremy Corbyn, Ortega, Maduro, and Xi Jinping have got a surprise for you. There’s rapid growth of new organizations, memorials, and museums all over the world dedicated to learning from the failures of communism in 40 nations since 1917, as well as an increasing number of human rights and dissident groups confronting Communist Parties in power today.” Playbook Plus Q&A
BIRTHDAYS: Caitlin Conant, political director of CBS News (hat tips: Alex Conant, Lisa Leonard and Michele Perez Exner) … Annie LeHardy, of the First Lady’s office, is 26 … Julia Ioffe … Politico’s Annie Karni, Margaret Stewart and James Bush … Michael Krempasky, partner at Brunswick Group … Rep. Dennis Ross (R-Fla.) is 59 … Rep. Brenda Lawrence (D-Mich.) is 64 … Makese Motley … Daniel Scarvalone of Bully Pulpit Interactive … Colorado State Rep. Dan Pabon is 41 … Jan Simmons … Troy Appel … Joshua Sinai … Babs Chase, president and founder of Chase Magnolia Partners … Bill Evers, research fellow at the Hoover Institution … Colleen Sullivan … Valeria Boucas … Katherine Lyons Hahn …
… DOT’s Marianne McInerney (h/t Todd Inman) … Erik Abate … Alex Miehls, producer for Fox News’ “The Story with Martha MacCallum” in NY and a Boehner alum (h/t Brianna Ehley) … Kiki Reginato … Amazon’s Theresa (Lepow) Dugan, who recently got married to Tom Dugan — pic… Amanda Robinson … Rachael Parry … Jordyn Gottlieb … Jake Loft, client services associate for Targeted Victory (h/ts Zac, Lenny and Logan) … Fox News’ Jon Decker is 52 … Jonathan Tasini … Edelman’s Trisch Smith … Bloomberg’s Cas Holloway … Sarah Cannon … Steve Whitmer … Flavia Colgan … Karen Smith Murphy … Martha Burk … Richard Lobo … former Rep. Chris Shays (R-Conn.) is 73 (h/t Katie Levinson Burke) … former Sen. Jim Talent (R-Mo.) is 62 … Mason Wiggins … Anne Summers (h/t Teresa Vilmain)
Redditor u/MattShea replaced the happy Bruno Mars song with the much darker Timberlake one and uploaded it to the subreddit r/funny, even though it’s not funny at all. In fact, it’s pretty unsettling to watch.
We see what you’re twerking with, Spot. Please promise not to whip us if we misbehave.
Inside a windowless conference room at Facebook’s sprawling headquarters, a few dozen employees sit in what’s become the heart of the company’s wide-ranging efforts to fight election interference.
It’s called the war room — Facebook’s hub for its election interference first responders. The engineers and data scientists and policy officials whose job it is to spot everything from foreign interference to attempts at voter suppression.
The war room, which officially opened in September, is emblematic of just how much has changed at Facebook in the wake of the 2016 election — and how much is still at stake. After failing to spot Russia-backed influence campaigns and stem the tide of fake news in 2016, Facebook use is falling as distrust for the company grows.
Mark Zuckerberg, who once dismissed election-related concerns as a “crazy idea” (he later apologized), has spent hours testifying in front of Congress and EU officials. And, nearly two year after the election, many of Facebook’s new policies governing ads and misinformation are still only just beginning to take shape.
Against that backdrop, Facebook’s war room is the company’s best opportunity yet to prove not only that it has learned from its past mistakes but that it knows how to fix them.
“In all honesty, I haven’t seen a cross-companywide effort like this since we did the shift to mobile in 2012,” says Katie Harbath, Facebook’s director of global politics and government outreach.
Inside the war room
The war room itself is a single, conference room at Facebook’s Menlo Park headquarters. It’s staffed nearly 24 hours a day (closer to election day it will be a round-the-clock operation), with representatives from 20 different teams across the company.
“The primary thing we’ve learned is actually just how effective it is having people across functions in the same room together,” says Samidh Chakrabarti, who directs elections and civic engagement initiatives at Facebook.
Facebook’s election ‘war room.’
Image: karissa bell/mashable
In some ways, the war room feels like the least that Facebook can do. If election interference touches dozens of different teams, it seems obvious that members of those teams should be able to communicate quickly and without obstacles. The fact that it’s taken nearly two years to make that happen, then, says more about how dysfunctional things were in the run-up to the 2016 election than how effective the company is at fighting influence operations today.
But Chakrabarti and other executives are quick to point out just how big a difference it can make to have everyone in the same physical space.
Inside the war room, clusters of desks fill the center of the room, while the walls are lined with large displays. There are also maps of the United States and Brazil, flags, clocks, and a timer ticking down to the next election (in this case, it’s Brazil’s run-off elections at the end of October).
War room staffers constantly monitor election-related activity on Facebook, as well as viral trends on other platforms like Reddit and Twitter (using CrowdTangle, an analytics tool owned by Facebook).
One display has a live video feed of a similar war room in a Brazil Facebook office so the two groups can instantly connect at moment’s notice.
Also on the walls: Facebook’s signature motivational posters, emblazoned with platitudes like, “beliefs don’t make us better but our behavior will,” and “nothing on Facebook is somebody else’s problem.”
Same policies, new organization
Some of the work that happens in the war room isn’t, itself, new. Facebook has long had teams in place to root out fake accounts and fight spam, for example. Other aspects are more closely related to its recent election efforts. The company’s engineering team created software that can track the spread of fake news stories and political content originating outside the United States.
If these systems detect “anomalies,” like sudden spikes in reports of voter suppression or activity that appears to be spammy or “coordinated,” then Facebook’s war room data scientists are instantly alerted. Once they’re alerted, they can investigate and route issues to the operations team who are able to take action. (Facebook has previously removed accounts linked to influence campaigns originating from Russia and Iran).
Motivational posters, maps, and flags line wall of Facebook’s election ‘war room.’
Image: karissa bell/mashable
In this way, it’s not so much Facebook enforcing new policies as it is reorganizing its disparate teams and tools to be able to detect and respond to problems much more nimbly. Issues that once could have taken days or even weeks to resolve can now be addressed in a matter of hours.
“When it comes to an election, every moment counts. If there are late-breaking issues, we need to be able to detect them and respond to them as quickly as possible,” says Chakrabarti.
The company will face questions about whether its war room efforts go far enough, and if its policies are even equipped to handle issues this complex in the first place.
WhatsApp, which uses encrypted messaging, has proved to be particularly challenging for Facebook. In Brazil, where WhatsApp is the most dominant messaging app, fake news has been spreading at an alarming rate. And Facebook isn’t able to track fake news that spreads through WhatsApp messages the way it can in News Feeds.
Still, the war room and everything that happens inside it is a necessary step. Everyone is finally in the same room and ready to act. And, unlike in 2016, they are actually looking for problems before they blow up. Now Facebook just has to hope those safeguards will be enough.
Florida Democratic congressional candidate Donna Shalala speaks to volunteers at an event with fellow congressional candidate Debbie Mucarsel-Powell and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on Oct. 17. | Wilfredo Lee/AP Photo
There’s a simple rule in running for Congress in Miami: don’t campaign with someone who praised Fidel Castro and fought sanctions against Venezuela’s dictatorial regime.
But Donna Shalala didn’t figure it out until it was too late.
Story Continued Below
In a district filled with Castro-hating Cuban-Americans and Venezuelan exiles, Shalala’s campaign committed an egregious gaffe — and set off a round of Democratic finger-pointing — by posting an announcement that she would hold a campaign event Wednesday with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and her fellow Californian, Rep. Barbara Lee.
In 2016, Lee had said Castro’s death should be mourned.
Lee’s visit was ultimately canceled, but not before Shalala was savaged in a debate by her Republican opponent. Shalala and Pelosi were also protested by Republicans, some of whom pounded on the door outside and shouted “go back to Cuba!” “commie!” and “witches!”
The timing was especially poor for Shalala, occurring in the final weeks of a race in which the Democrat has struggled to lock down an open, Democratic-leaning House seat that was once assumed to be hers for the taking.
About 57 percent of the district’s voters are Hispanic, the bulk of whom are Cuban-American. In addition to Cuban exiles, the district also has Venezuelans who despise dictator Nicolas Maduro’s regime and immigrants from Nicaragua, many of whom oppose socialist Daniel Ortega.
Before the 2018 campaign cycle, Democrats viewed the seat as one of the best opportunities for a pick-up in the nation. Not only was popularRepublican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen retiring, but the district voted for Hillary Clinton over President Trump by nearly 20 points. Shalala also had a solid profile: former head of the Clinton Foundation, one-time University of Miami president and former Health and Human Services Secretary.
Miami’s Republican-leaning Cuban exile community isn’t as powerful as it once was, but the influx of Venezuelans fleeing Maduro and the rise of Ortega has given Miami-Dade’s Republican Party a renewed sense of focus —and Shalala walked right into that buzzsaw.
“There are still Cubans in the congressional district who hate Fidel Castro and they don’t like someone praising Fidel Castro,” Miami-Dade County GOP Chairman Nelson Diaz said. “The problem for Shalala — and I’m not personally accusing her of being a socialist or a communist — is it reinforces our narrative that Donna isn’t from here. She doesn’t understand the community. She has no real roots. The Democrats were so clueless that they didn’t shut this down instantly. It’s crazy.”
An independent Mason-Dixon poll last week showed former Spanish-language TV journalist and personality Maria Elvira Salazar leading Shalala by 2 percentage points — and Diaz said that lead may grow as word blazes through the Cuban-American community about Lee’s comments.
Shalala and Pelosi insisted they were unaware of the logistical details of the event.
“I don’t know who invited her. We have members of Congress popping down here all the time,” said Shalala, who stressed that she’s anti-Castro.
Pelosi denied knowing why Lee decided not to appear at the event.
“You’re asking me a question that I cannot answer,” Pelosi told POLITICO. “I would not begin to go down that path because I don’t know what the objection to her was and why she is not here.”
Pelosi said Lee told her the night before that she was in Georgia instead.
“She’s all over the country. It’s a coincidence,” Pelosi said of her friend. “We are friends. She’s my colleague in California. She is a leader in the Congress of the United States, a respected leader. But I’m all over the country, everyplace, all the time. And by coincidence, some of my colleagues overlap in their travels. But it isn’t a decision that they make to go to be where I am. They’re going to where they’re going. And it sometimes overlaps.”
But according to Democratic and campaign insiders in Washington and Miami, Lee’s decision to come to Miami came at the request of Pelosi, whose visit was planned a month before. Lee’s appearance was relayed to the Shalala campaign through Washington Democratic channels on Monday night, said the sources, who asked to remain anonymous to avoid angering Pelosi.
Shalala’s staff felt they were boxed in. They knew the Lee appearance could be problematic but this was an event that Pelosi was coming down for and they were afraid of slighting the Democratic Leader and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. So staffers on Tuesday posted the campaign announcement on Shalala’s website the following day anyway, touting the arrival of Lee and Pelosi.
“Pelosi is the future House speaker. She’s the most powerful Democrat in the chamber,” said a Shalala campaign staffer, explaining the decision to plow ahead. “We couldn’t offend her and tell her she couldn’t bring her friend. We were stuck.”
Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, a Democrat running in the adjacent 26th Congressional District, was also scheduled to attend the event with Shalala and the two California congresswomen. But when Mucarsel-Powell learned of Lee’s comments, she quickly reversed course andsaid she would not attend.
“Debbie’s no fool,” said one source familiar with Mucarsel-Powell’s thinking.
Shalala was told of Lee’s comments but didn’t insist on removing the announcement from the website. But her campaign manager, Will Washington, worked the phones with the DCCC to try to get Lee to pull out.
As staffers began researching Lee to prepare for any questions that might come up, they were shocked at what they found. To their amazement and horror, Lee praised Fidel Castro after his death.
“We need to stop and pause and mourn his loss,” Lee told the San Jose Mercury News of Castro’s death in 2016.
And that wasn’t all. Lee had also penned a letter to then-President Obama asking him not impose sanctions on Venezuela, whose dictatorial regime now vies with Cuba’s as anathema on the campaign trail for both Republicans and Democrats in South Florida and, especially, in Florida’s 27th Congressional District.
Meanwhile, the clock was ticking down to Shalala’s first debate Tuesday night with Salazar, the GOP nominee. The debate, at Salazar’s insistence, was in Spanish, a language Shalala doesn’t speak.
“It seems to me that Mrs. Shalala should reconsider and cancel that press conference,” Salazar said, according to The Miami Herald. “That is an offense and a lack of sensitivity to prisoners, to those shot, to the exiles who live here in the city of Miami.”
Shalala was baffled. Salazar was speaking loudly in Spanish in one of Shalala’s ears while she tried to listen to what her staff said was a muddled translation in the other. She was also confused because Salazar was referring to a “press conference” but that wasn’t the exact event that was planned.
“I definitely don’t know anything about that press conference,” Shalala responded, according to the Herald. “But I absolutely oppose the Cuban government.”
When she got her bearings, Shalala criticized Salazar for giving what she described as a softball interview with Castro years before, a criticism Shalala reiterated Wednesday.
“I have an opponent that treated Castro with enormous respect, bowed to him and called him ‘El comandante.’ I would never do that. Nor would I ever stand next to them at any time,” Shalala said. “Our positions are very clear on socialism and communism. Whether its Maduro, or Ortega … or Castro. Our position is that we hate these people. We hate what they’ve done to their people.”
But where Shalala emphasized how much she disliked Castro, Pelosi declined to say whether she agreed or disagreed with Lee’s comments about mourning the dead dictator.
“I never interpret, question the motivation, or speak for my colleagues,” she said. “That’s why I’m the leader.”
To mark the occasion, Ellen took to Twitter to give the following “present” to Osaka.
Okay, so some context to that tweet. After she won the U.S. Open, Osaka made an appearance on The Ellen Show. She was asked about her celebrity crush, and she told Ellen “he was in Black Panther, but he was the villain.”
Minutes later, Ellen had already sent Michael B. Jordan a selfie of the two of them (skip to 3:50 in the clip below):
Flash-forward to Osaka’s birthday, and she’s clearly still feeling a tad awkward about Ellen’s matchmaking antics.
Then the man himself responded.
This one is better and more recent. LOL Happy Belated Bday Naomi. But seriously I want to invite you to the Creed 2 premiere as a bday present pic.twitter.com/TS8vmSsRdM
Facebook’s latest hack had the information of 29 million users scraped, but apparently by scammers wanting financial gain, rather than for political or ideological purposes.
The Wall Street Journal cited people familiar with Facebook’s internal investigation on the hack, who claimed those behind the attack were Instagram and Facebook spammers posing as a digital marketing company.
The incident has been under investigation since Sept. 25, when Facebook’s security team discovered someone downloading a large amount of digital access tokens from the social platform.
These tokens allow access to any part of a user’s Facebook account, but the spammers only accessed a limited set of information compared to what they could’ve taken. These spammers were motivated by money, rather than ideology, according to preliminary findings.
On top of that, a further 14 million users had other details like gender, locale/language, relationship status, and religion retrieved, on top of the previous data. One million users had no details accessed.
The people responsible behind the attack were able to exploit a vulnerability in the “View As” feature, which allows users to see how their profile looks to other people.
When contacted by Mashable, a Facebook spokesperson pointed to comments made by VP of Product Management, Guy Rosen, in a press call last Friday.
“We are cooperating with the FBI on this matter. The FBI is actively investigating and have asked us not to discuss who may be behind this attack,” he said.
Narinder Singh Khalsa’s father, Avtar Singh Khalsa, was killed in an ISIL-claimed attack in Afghanistan’s eastern city in July.
Now, the 38-year-old Sikh Afghan is continuing his father’s legacy and contesting in parliamentary elections on October 20.
Avtar was a long-time leader of the tiny Sikh community, comprising fewer than 300 families in Afghanistan, and the only Sikh candidate in the upcoming polls.
After he died, along with 19 members of his community in a suicide bombing in Jalalabad, the Sikh community called on Narinder to run from Kabul.
Education, land rights and security for his community top Narinder’s agenda.
“I want to stand up for the rights of my people, I want to get their rights from the government and from the international community, because we have suffered for years,” Narinder told Al Jazeera.
“The people, our Afghan people, have to know that there are not just Muslims in this country. Whoever is living here, regardless of his or her religious background or ethnicity, is an Afghan.”
Across Kabul, candidates’ posters carry messages pledging to improve security, root out corruption and reform education.
More than 2,500 candidates are running in the third parliamentary election since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, including 418 women.
They are competing for the 249 seats in the Wolesi Jirga, Afghanistan’s lower house of parliament.
But the candidates face continuous risks, with the Taliban promising disrupt the “bogus elections”.
“People who are trying to help in holding this process successfully by providing security should be targeted and no stone should be left unturned for the prevention and failure [of the election],” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in the statement last week.
The Independent Election Commission (IEC) said in a statement on Wednesday that at least 10 candidates have been killed since July.
Abdul Jabar Qahraman was killed in his office on Wednesday by a bomb planted under his chair, in the southern Helmand province. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.
The group has repeatedly warned politicians to withdraw from the ballot, but Kabul’s independent candidate, Engineer Zakia Wardak, says she has “seen it all” when it comes to violence in the country and will not step down.
“My father, General Abdul Ali Wardak, was killed during the communist regime in 1978 in Afghanistan,” she said, referring to the years when the Afghan communist party launched a coup againstPresident Mohammed Daoud, killed him and gripped power until 1992.
“And my brother Zalmay Wardak, who was a former Afghan National Army (ANA) general, and a candidate for this year’s parliamentary elections, was mysteriously murdered at his home in Kabul in August.”
Zakia Wardak hopes to win a seat so she can ‘open doors of the parliament to Afghans in need’ [Courtesy of Zakia Wardak]
Wardak, who has also lost her husband in an accident in Kabul in 2011, encourages young girls to pursue education and “face difficulties in life with bravery”.
“Men are responsible to provide for their families and when you lose men, you become helpless. The only way out of helplessness is to be educated and strong. This is why I will fight for education for women if I win a seat in the parliament.”
Zakia, who is head of the Women Engineers Association in Kabul, wants to “open doors of the parliament to Afghans in need”.
As she campaigns, she reminds Afghans of their right to vote and the impact they can have.
“I want people to know who they are voting for, do some background research on the candidate. Has the candidate helped anyone before? It is important for them to know the power of a single vote.”
I am not willing to vote because due to security and corruption, the election, just like before, won’t be transparent. When a parliament member is selected, they don’t do anything for us.
Zmaria, 50, a taxi driver in Kabul
In spite of the candidates’ enthusiasm, Afghans have little faith in the political process.
The polls were originally set to be held in early 2015 following presidential elections in 2014, but were delayed to July 7, 2018 and were then pushed to October 20 due to security fears and reforms in voter registration.
“I am not willing to vote because due to security and corruption, the election, just like before, won’t be transparent,” Zmaria, 50, a taxi driver in Kabul, told Al Jazeera.
“When a parliament member is selected, they don’t do anything for us and only work on developing their own lives and businesses.
“Why should we trust them when there is a war going on in the country and people are dying every day in the attacks, will they speak to the Taliban or Daesh (ISIL) to not kill us?”
According to local media, turnout is expected to be lower than the 8.9 million registered to vote.
An MP helps with making laws and overseeing the government. They receive a monthly salary of between $2,400 and $2,600. They also get immunity from prosecution and imprisonment.
‘Being a politician is not easy in Afghanistan’
Abdul Rahman Shams, a 54-year-old candidate from Nangarhar, said Afghans have “suffered and sacrificed so much for decades” and deserve sincerity from politicians.
Sham’s cousin, Abdul Zahir Haqqani, the director of religious affairs and Hajj pilgrimage department, was targeted and killed when a suicide bomber walked up to his car and detonated his explosives in March in Jalalabad, Nangarhar’s capital.
Haqqani was a vocal critic of the Taliban and ISIL.
Abdul Rahman Shams says Afghans deserve sincere politicians [Courtesy of Abdur Rehman Shams]
“Being a politician is not easy in a country like Afghanistan. I have seen so much in the past decades; children left orphans, women widowed and so much more, but I can’t hide from my responsibilities, I will fulfill my promises and try to help,” he said.
“People have put their faith in me. I hope all of us gather under one flag united and strong.”
Voting will be held at 27,000 polling stations in 33 of 34 provinces. The IEC has delayed elections in eastern Ghazni province because of security fears.
At least 2,000 polling stations threatened directly by the Taliban will remain closed.
The fighters said in their statement that teachers should prevent their schools from being used as polling stations, warning of attacks.
Local media reported some 50,000 soldiers will be deployed across Afghanistan to provide security.
The parliamentary elections viewed as a dry run for the presidential vote, expected to be held in April.
“War has negative effect on a society, it affects the economy and kills positivity,” said Zakia Wardak, the female candidate in Kabul.
“I know we are in danger every second, but we love our country and we are here to stand beside our people.”
With reporting by Emran Feroz in Kabul, Afghanistan
For the first time in his career, Carmelo Anthony came off the bench as the Houston Rockets opened their 2018-19 season with a 131-112 loss to the New Orleans Pelicans at Toyota Center on Wednesday night.
And the results weren’t pretty.
In 27 minutes off the pine, Anthony struggled to settle into a groove and managed nine points on 3-of-10 shooting, including 1-of-5 from three.
“It’s challenging mentally more so than anything, having to prepare for the game differently,” Anthony said after the loss, per ESPN.com’s Tim MacMahon. “Other than that, it’s a challenge all the way around. It’s just a matter of how I’m going to react to that challenge and accepting that challenge, which I am, which I will do.”
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However, Anthony is hardly pushing for a change. Rather, the 10-time All-Star sounds committed to figuring out how he can thrive in his new role.
“For me, at this point, it’s more about what I have to do for the sake of the team instead of trying to just go out there and do whatever or trying to have a specific role,” he said. “Every night will be different, but for the most part, it is a challenge, but it’s something that I’ll get used to quick.”
As long as Anthony maintains that mindset, the Rockets will be in good shape.
James Harden and Chris Paul can create open catch-and-shoot opportunities galore for the 34-year-old, and his track record suggests it will merely be a matter of time before he’s sinking those looks regularly.
Anthony and the Rockets will have two days off before they hit the hardwood at Staples Center for a showdown with LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday night.
Forest is being felled at an unsustainable rate in the Solomon Islands to meet surging demand from China, according to a new investigation by environmental group Global Witness.
A combination of detailed research, satellite imagery, trade data, and on-the-ground and drone photography showed “the shocking pace and extent of the growing degradation of the Solomon Islands’ tropical forests”, Global Witness said in its report into logging in the South Pacific country.
The trade volume of its single largest export commodity surged more than 20 percent to just over three million cubic metres in 2017, according to central bank figures.
Global Witness said that is 19 times more timber than is sustainable. It estimated the country’s annual sustainable yield at 155,000 cubic metres a year, the lowest but most recently calculated of several government and expert analyses, according to Reuters news agency.
‘No questions asked’
Solomon Islands exports 82 percent of its timber to China, the mainland’s second biggest source of tropical logs after Papua New Guinea. Together, the two countries supply half of China’s tropical log imports.
“If China continues to buy its wood with ‘no questions asked’, it risks undermining efforts by its trading partners to improve governance, prevent environmental degradation, and achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals,” Global Witness said in the report Paradise Lost.
“The innovative steps that China is taking to reduce its own carbon emissions will be undermined if it continues to buy so much tropical wood from the Solomon Islands.”
Race to save the rainforests in Asia-Pacific
The risks of illegal logging in the Solomon Islands are so high that any European or US-based importers of uncertified timber would be unlikely to be able to meet their legal requirements without making extensive site visits, the report said. It warned companies importing timber from processing countries, mainly China, could well find themselves buying Solomon Islands’ lumber.
“The scale of the logging is so unsustainable that natural forests will be exhausted very soon if nothing changes,” said Beibei Yin, who led the investigation team.
Logging roads
In 2011, the Solomon Islands’ ministry of finance suggested if logging activities continued at the pace then, the country’s natural forests would be exhausted by 2036.
“The Chinese companies which import most of the wood are so significant that if all of them together stop buying there is still a chance to revert back,” Yin told Reuters news agency.
Global Witness said its analysis of satellite imagery showed a web of logging tracks now covered much of the Solomons’ archipelago, putting more than half the country’s lowland areas within one kilometre of a road.
Totalling 12,613km, that road network is twice as long as China’s Yangtze River, the report said. Satellite imagery showed 669km of road above 400 metres, where logging is supposed to be restricted.
The Solomon Islands, an archipelago of some 990 islands, has more than 2.2 million hectares of forest covering about 80 percent of its land area.
Happy Belated Bday Naomi. But seriously I want to invite you to the Creed 2 premiere as a bday present 
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from Last Season 
Daily Trends Hunter 