U.S. Rep. John Shimkus of Illinois said Friday he won't run for re-election after more than 20 years in Congress, the 14th House Republican to decline a 2020 race. Shimkus represents the 15th District, which includes all or part of 33 counties stretching from central Illinois to near the southern tip. Shimkus, 61, of Collinsville has won in three different districts after boundaries were changed following the decennial census.
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"We will always respect the freedom of religion of every veteran of every faith," Pence said in a speech addressing the American Legion National Convention in Indianapolis on Wednesday. The military religious freedom foundation that originally objected to the Bible called the president a "repulsive and repellent fundamentalist Christian" bully.
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Former vice president Joe Biden said Tuesday that he would prefer to choose a woman or a person of color as his running mate should he win the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.“Whomever I pick, preferably it will be someone who was of color and/or a different gender, but I’m not making that commitment until I know that the person I’m dealing with I can completely and thoroughly trust as authentic and on the same page,” Biden said.He added, however, that the main quality he would prioritize in a potential vice president is being "simpatico" with his values.“The one thing I know is the job of being president in 2020 as in 2016 and in 2008 is too big for any one person,” former president Barack Obama's running mate said. “You’ve got to have somebody you can turn to.”Obama “knew that he and I had the same value set and the same political disposition as what we should do, and he knew if I ever had any doubt, I would come back to him,” Biden continued. “That’s what I most want in whomever I pick. They’ve got to be simpatico with what I stand for and with what I want to get done.”Some black Democratic lawmakers have floated Senator Kamala Harris, who is of Jamaican and Tamil Indian heritage and is running against Biden for president, as a potential running mate should Biden secure the Democratic nomination. Rumors swirled earlier this year that Biden has also considered tapping Stacey Abrams, who lost her bid for Georgia governor last year but made headlines for alleging voter suppression afterward.Biden told CNN last month that it “would be great” to have a female running mate but declined to get into specifics, saying he did not want to be perceived as "arrogant."
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President Trump has responded after a report by the Justice Department inspector general found that ex-FBI Director James Comey had broken federal rules by leaking a memo on his meetings with the president but did not recommend his prosecution.
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The Democratic infighting over the next presidential debate really boils down to one issue: Lower-tier candidates think the party rules are narrowing the field too early. One candidate says winning a statewide race should be added as a criterion.
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The governor of lllinois said Friday he's erased the drug conviction of an Army veteran who was deported to Mexico in 2018, a step that the man's supporters hope will help him return to the U.S. "I recognize this pardon is not a perfect solution, but it is the most just action to take to allow a U.S. veteran the opportunity to be treated fairly by the country he served," Gov. J.B. Pritzker said. Miguel Perez Jr., 41, who was born in Mexico, doesn't have U.S. citizenship but had a green card as a permanent U.S. resident.
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Barack Obama thinks about his brand and his legacy a lot, and he dreads what Joe Biden might do to it. This month alone, Biden mistook New Hampshire for Vermont even though the sole reason he was in that part of the country was the first-in-the-nation primary, which is famously not held in Vermont. He said RFK was assassinated in the 1970s. He said he couldn’t remember the name of the British prime minister in the midst of bragging about his foreign-policy chops. And he speculated about what it might have been like if Obama had been assassinated.This last, ghastly gaffe might be too much for Obama to take. Obama believes his brand is cool, technocratic, tightly controlled, a bit wonkish and professorial, inspirational, buttoned-down, Ivy League, definitely forward-looking. Biden is warm, free-wheeling, intellectually ungifted, frank and unguarded to the point of outright sloppiness, so old he served in the Senate alongside segregationist Democrats, and so out of touch he actually touts his friendship with these guys. Obama thought back in 2008 Biden was so old that he would never again run for president, his team strongly discouraged Biden from entering the race in the fall of 2015, and Biden’s jaw-dropping string of verbal blunders indicates a strong possibility of incipient cognitive decline.As Barack Obama surveys the Democratic contenders for 2020, he must be thinking: 1) None of these people has half my political skills but 2) Elizabeth Warren is my kind of gal. Warren is also cool, wonky, and professorial, also a Harvard product. Though she is 70, she looks younger and hasn’t displayed any signs of cognitive decline. Like Obama, she would be labeled a “historic” president. If she reached the Oval Office, he wouldn’t have to cringe every time she opened her mouth. He wouldn’t have to worry that her back-slapping tendencies would allow her to get rolled by Mitch McConnell. He trusts her so much that he let her guide one of his signature achievements, setting up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.One poll released in late August gave Warren a one-point lead over Biden. Two other polls released in the second half of August show her within three points of Biden. True, most others give him a double-digit lead, and some have her in third place, albeit narrowly, behind Bernie Sanders. Yet she’s close enough that Obama must be wondering if his endorsement could vault her into the lead position.What then? Like everyone else on earth, Obama notices that Biden looks like a much stronger candidate than Warren in a matchup against Trump. Warren might well be Hillary 2.0: She’s off-putting. She’s smug. She’s . . . a she. Polls show Democrats are extremely worried that the American people won’t accept a woman president. The more she uses words like “My Daddy” and ostentatiously drinks beer, the less relatable she is. It’s hard to imagine the American people are thinking, “Yes, this is the voice I want to listen to every day for the next four years.”So there would be risk involved in backing Warren. But from Obama’s perspective, there’s also risk involved in Biden’s becoming president and embarrassing him every day. Maybe even, in his dotage, Biden might let what’s left of the Obama legacy slip away. If Obama thinks like most Democrats, he probably believes that nonsensical hullabaloo about email servers, not Hillary Clinton’s deficiencies as a candidate or sexism, was what cost her the presidency.Obama proved to be a failure at almost everything except getting Obama elected to office, but he is not a man notable for a modest view of his own skills. He must be thinking his star power could restore black turnout to levels approaching where it was when he was on the ballot. He must be thinking that with a push from him, and a little help from his turnout wizards, Elizabeth Warren could avoid Hillary Clinton’s errors and enter the White House.If Obama were to endorse Warren, the 2020 Democratic primaries would be upended, and Obama would be praised for lighting a path to a genuinely progressive presidency. And if Biden won the nomination anyway, no biggie: Obama could simply campaign for him in the general election and settle for a less-than-ideal Democratic presidency. I’m guessing Obama comes out strong for Warren.
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A large wooden sculpture that strongly resembles Donald Trump was erected this week in Slovenia, home country of Trump's wife Melania, though its designer insists it is meant to represent a "statue of liberty", not the U.S. president. Tom Schlegl's 8-metre (26 foot) statue in the village of Sela, north of the capital Ljubljana, depicts a man with blond hair and an angry expression, wearing a blue suit, white shirt and red tie. "I designed the statue because people have forgotten what the Statue of Liberty stands for.
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US police fired pepper spray Saturday after counter-demonstrators accused them of protecting "Straight Pride" advocates who support President Donald Trump, and refused to let officers re-open a road. The unrest came after the counter-protesters and "Straight Pride" group -- considered homophobic extremists by their opponents -- staged dueling rallies in Boston. Officers fired pepper spray and made several arrests.
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Donald Trump has said the decision on whether to evacuate residents of Florida to protect them from Hurricane Dorian, would be made on Sunday after meeting with officials.As he left the White House for the presidential retreat at Camp David in Maryland, he said members of the federal emergency management agency (FEMA) would be joining him to monitor events.
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Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong and another core member of a pro-democracy group were granted bail after being charged with inciting people to join a protest in June, while authorities denied permission for a major march Saturday as they took what appears to be a harder line on this summer's protests. The organizers of the march on the fifth anniversary of a decision by China against allowing fully democratic elections for the leader of Hong Kong said they were calling it off after an appeals board denied permission. The police commander of Hong Kong island, Kwok Pak Chung, appealed to people to stay away from any unauthorized rallies, warning that those caught could face a five-year jail term.
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Iran has gone further in breaching its nuclear deal with world powers, increasing its stock of enriched uranium and refining it to a greater purity than allowed, the U.N. atomic agency report said on Friday. The quarterly report from the International Atomic Energy Agency, which is policing the 2015 deal, confirms Iran is progressively backing out of the deal in retaliation for Washington's withdrawal form the accord and renewal of sanctions that have hit Iranian oil sales. Iran has said it will breach the deal's limits on its nuclear activities one by one, ratcheting up pressure on parties who still hope to save it.
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Israel has positioned dummy decoys dressed as soldiers on the border with Lebanon, according to local reports, as the country prepares for strikes by Hizbollah. Israel and Hizbollah, which last fought a war in 2006, are on high alert after Israel carried out a series of attacks on the group in Lebanon and neighbouring Syria and Hizbollah promised a retaliation. Lebanese journalist Ali Shueib, who works for Hizbollah’s al-Manar TV station, tweeted photos of off-road army vehicles with what appeared to be a mannequin in the front seat. “Stop the jokes,” he tweeted, saying that using these dummies only reveals “‘stupidity and foolishness’ because you have not learned that you are facing men that have the intelligence, professionalism, courage, and faith to defeat.” خلصنا المزح بموضوع الجيب ✋ هذه الفضيحة كفيلة بإسقاط رؤوس كبيرة في جيشكم !! لأنها تدل عن "غباء وحمق" لأنكم لم تتعلموا بعد انكم بمواجة رجال لديهم من الحكمة والحرفية والشجاعة والإيمان مايكفي لهزيمتكم !!انضبوا وضبوا تماثيلكم .. هالحركات حتى الأطفال بلعبة الغميضة ما بيعملوها ✋ pic.twitter.com/0FqVHC0hF9— علي شعيب ���� (@ali_shoeib1) August 29, 2019 Or Heller, an Israeli military correspondent for Channel 10 News, posted a close-up of the dummy taken from the other side of the vehicle, suggesting that Israel had placed it there in anticipation of a Hizbollah assault. The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) has been known to use mannequins, placing them in bunkers or sniper’s nests in an effort to trick its enemies into thinking they are manned by soldiers and leading them to reveal their position. Hizbollah, which is backed by Iran, have been warning they intend to carry out “calculated strike” against Israel in the coming days, in revenge for an Israeli strike in Syria which killed two Hizbollah fighters and a drone attack which is reported to have targeted precision-missile technology over the weekend. וכך ניראות הבובות בקו, בתמונה שחבר צפוני צילם. ברקע: ההבנה בצהל שנארסראללה סינדל את עצמו לתגובה על תקיפת הרחפנים בדאחייה. בדפוסי הפעולה האפשריים שלו: מטען, ירי צליפה, או ירי טילים נגד טנקים. pic.twitter.com/0jJ3QGc2iB— Or Heller אור הלר (@OrHeller) August 29, 2019 Sources close to the Shia movement had indicated to the Telegraph that the group would look to attack Israeli troops along the border and send drones into the country in a "like-for-like" retaliation for the drone attack. Israel is fighting a shadow war with arch-foe Iran, targeting its proxies in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq and attempting to disturb the flow of weapons. On its Twitter account on Thursday, the IDF went public with what it said were details about an extensive Iranian-sponsored project to provide Hizbollah with the means to produce precision-guided missiles. It released the names of four Iranian Quds Forces officers it alleged to be training Hizbollah members in Lebanon. Members of Lebanon's Shia Hizbollah movement carry the coffin of a fighter killed in Israeli strikes in Syria, during the funeral in the Ghobeiry neighbourhood of southern Beirut Credit: AFP Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus, an Israeli military spokesman, said Tehran had in recent months increased the pace of the project such that it was "faster in terms of buildings, facilities, locations, conversion and manufacturing facilities, and it means more people, operatives involved in doing so". "It is time for them (the Lebanese government) to understand their responsibility and understand the fact that what they are letting Hizbollah and Iran do on Lebanese soil is their responsibility," Lt Col. Conricus said. Israel has said that it holds the Lebanese state responsible for Hizbollah’s actions since the movement now has MPs in parliament. Lebanon on Wednesday opened fire on Israeli drones operating inside Lebanese airspace, after warning its neighbour it would defend its sovereignty.
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A Utah man was convicted Friday of running a multimillion-dollar opioid ring that sent hundreds of thousands of potentially deadly pills across the country in a scheme that authorities said helped fuel the nation's opioid epidemic. A jury reached the verdict after deliberating less than a day in the case against Aaron Shamo. "He's 29 and his life is over," defense attorney Greg Skordas said after the verdict was read.
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Almost two centuries after descending to its watery grave, the HMS Terror could offer up new clues to its demise -- and solve one of the most enduring mysteries in the history of Arctic discovery. The Terror vanished alongside the HMS Erebus during explorer Sir John Franklin's storied Arctic expedition that left Britain in 1845 to discover the Northwest Passage linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The Erebus was found in Victoria Strait in 2014, while the Terror was located under 24 meters (80 feet) of water two years later in what is now known as Terror Bay, off King William Island, Nunavut.
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President Donald Trump said Thursday that the United States will keep a permanent presence in Afghanistan, with 8,600 troops initially, even after a deal is reached with the Taliban. "We're going down to 8,600 and then we make a determination from there," Trump said in an interview with Fox News radio. Despite overwhelming advantages in firepower, the US military has little to show for its efforts and Trump is hoping he can declare the war over in time for his 2020 reelection campaign.
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The Federal Aviation Administration said on Friday a blue-ribbon panel of experts around the world will need a few more weeks to finish its review into the Boeing 737 MAX certification. Boeing Co has said it hopes to receive regulatory approval for updated flight control software at the center of both crashes in October, but it could take a month or two for airlines to train pilots on the new software and prepare the jets for commercial flight after sitting idle for months. In September the NTSB plans to outline airplane design certification procedures, the head of the agency, Robert Sumwalt, told Congress in July.
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A policy change announced by the Trump administration this week that would end automatic citizenship for the children of certain U.S. military personnel or government employees stationed abroad was denounced as “disgusting and disgraceful” by Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill.
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Alabama Governor Kay Ivey apologized Thursday for a blackface skit she participated in while a student at Auburn University during the 1960s.“I offer my heartfelt apologies for the pain and embarrassment this causes, and I will do all I can — going forward — to help show the nation that the Alabama of today is a far cry from the Alabama of the 1960s,” Ivey said in a statement. “We have come a long way, for sure, but we still have a long way to go.”The Republican governor, 74, stopped short of capitulating to calls from Alabama Democrats to resign, however.“While some may attempt to excuse this as acceptable behavior for a college student during the mid-1960s, that is not who I am today, and it is not what my Administration represents all these years later,” Ivey insisted.The governor claimed she cannot recall either the skit or a 1967 interview on a campus radio program with her then-fiancé, who described how Ivey had "had put some black paint all over her face" for the bit. However, she acknowledged she had likely participated in such a skit and said she has "genuine remorse" now for her involvement.Democratic state representative Terri Sewell dismissed Ivey's apology as not reparation enough, saying the governor's actions are "reprehensible and are deeply offensive."Her words of apology ring hollow if not met with real action to bridge the racial divide," Sewell added.
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Donald Trump has suggested he should be given “stolen time back” due to “how unfairly” he has been treated by the FBI and its investigations into him.“The disastrous IG Report on James Comey shows, in the strongest of terms, how unfairly I, and tens of millions of great people who support me, were treated,” Mr Trump tweeted on Friday morning.
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An American service member was killed in Afghanistan, the US-led NATO mission said Friday, the latest US fatality as talks between the US and the Taliban continue. "A US service member died during combat operations in Afghanistan, August 29, 2019," NATO's Resolute Support mission said in a statement. The death brings to at least 15 the number of members of the US military to be killed in action in Afghanistan this year, just as Washington is seeking a way out of its longest war.
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A group of 155 migrants forced their way into Spain's North African enclave of Ceuta from Morocco on Friday, Spanish authorities said. "They are all from sub-Saharan Africa, the majority from Guinea," a spokesman for the central government's office in Ceuta told AFP.
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France’s first lady, Brigitte Macron, hit back on Thursday at mockery of her age and appearance on Jair Bolsonaro’s Facebook page amid a war of words between the Brazilian president and her husband that has left £18m in emergency funding for the Amazon in limbo. Her comments came as Mr Bolsonaro, accused by critics of allowing tens of thousands of fires to rage unchecked in the Amazon rainforest, announced a two-month ban on fires deliberately started by farmers. Critics have accused the Brazilian president of allowing farmers to start fires in order to clear forest for crops or grazing. Mrs Macron, 65, did not mention Mr Bolsonaro by name, but implied that the 64-year-old president was out of tune with contemporary attitudes to women. Mrs Macron thanked the thousands of Brazilians who had offered apologies on social media for their president’s approval of a post deriding her for being nearly 25 years older than her husband, Emmanuel Macron, the French president. The post implied that Michelle Bolsonaro, the 37-year-old wife of Mr Bolsonaro, 64, was better looking than the French first lady. Mrs Macron said: “Times are changing. There are those who are on the train of change, women are there with you, like you, you’ve almost all understood, gentlemen. Not everyone, some are still on the platform and I’m sure they will soon get on the train.” A fireman works to extinguish a fire at a forest near Porto Velho, Brazil, 28 August 2019 Credit: REX Her comments won sustained applause as she inaugurated a newly refurbished museum devoted to the Battle of Agincourt at a ceremony with the British ambassador, Edward Llewellyn, at the site of the 1415 English victory over the French in northern France. “It’s not just for me, it’s for all women,” Mrs Macron said. “Things are changing and everyone must realise it.” The diplomatic clash between the French and Brazilian presidents came as Mr Macron tried to lead international efforts to help Brazil put out the fires, which he sees as a global problem because the world’s largest rainforest produces 20 per cent of its oxygen. Mr Bolsonaro, whose critics have labelled him “Captain Chainsaw” because of what they say is his disregard for the environment, rejected £18 million in aid from the G7 announced at a summit hosted by Emmanuel Macron, the French president, in the coastal resort of Biarritz at the weekend. But he has accepted a separate £10m offer of assistance from the United Kingdom. State governors and agribusiness leaders from the Amazon region have implored Mr Bolsonaro to accept financial aid from the G7, fearing that continued tensions could harm Brazil’s exports. Mr Bolsonaro has now outlawed all uses of fire in the region except for farming in indigenous communities, but he stressed that the ban was only temporary. “The people there set these fires, it's a tradition,” he said. Data from Brazil's Institute of Space Research has shown the increase in fires this year is linked to a rise in deforestation, with illegal land grabbers clearing areas of virgin forest in order to sell to agribusiness firms. Under domestic and international pressure, the government is expected to launch a series of environment-related measures next week including curbs on deforestation and gold panning. Local media have warned of a new Amazon gold rush stemming from relaxed oversight and poverty. On Wednesday, Donald Trump lent his support to Mr Bolsonaro. “I have gotten to know [Mr Bolsonaro] very well during our dealings with Brazil”, Mr Trump tweeted. “He is working very hard on the Amazon fires and in all respects doing a great job for the people of Brazil.” Mr Bolsonaro thanked him, saying that the “fake news campaign built against [Brazilian] sovereignty will not work.”
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The Boy Scouts of America is facing a threat from a growing wave of lawsuits over decades-old allegations of sexual abuse. The Scouts have been sued in multiple states in recent months by purported abuse victims, including plaintiffs taking advantage of new state laws or court decisions that are now allowing suits previously barred because of the age of the allegations. A lawyer representing 150 people who say they were abused as Boy Scouts is planning a suit in New Jersey when the state's new civil statute of limitations law takes effect Dec. 1.
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Another spanner has been thrown into the works in the countdown to Brexit. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson asked the Queen to suspend parliament which will scupper MPs chances to block a no-deal Brexit. On Wednesday, the Queen approved Johnson's request, prompting a national outcry and protests across the country.During a Central London protest against prorogation (the official term for the suspension of parliament), a Portuguese woman, who has lived and worked in the UK for 20 years, interrupted an interview and delivered an impassioned and extremely moving speech about Brexit's impact on her life."I'm Portuguese and I worked here for 20 years and I have no voice and the Settlement Scheme is not working," the woman -- whose name is unknown -- told Sky News. The woman is referring to the EU Settlement Scheme, which allows EU citizens to apply to continue living in the UK once it's no longer part of the European Union. She had been attending the protest, stating her reason for attending as "because I need a voice." "I gave this country my youth, I'm very grateful for what you taught me but you must make me part of all this process," she said. "I can't just be kicked out, I've built things for you, I've looked after your children, I looked after the elderly in this country, now you kick me out with what?"> A Portuguese national interrupted an interview to speak passionately to Sky News during protests against prorogation, saying she had "given her youth" to the UK > > For more on this story, head here: https://t.co/Bw9GJrZl0b pic.twitter.com/sFCZ1cnvrO> > -- Sky News (@SkyNews) August 28, 2019Per BBC News, a no-deal Brexit would result in the UK immediately exiting the EU with no agreement on Oct. 31. "Overnight, the UK would leave the single market and customs union -- arrangements designed to help trade between EU members by eliminating checks and tariffs (taxes on imports)," the BBC explains.The woman said she is "very, very hurt" by what's happening to the country. As she was about to walk away from the interview, the Sky News journalist urged her not to go away, and asked what was happening with her Settlement Status application. She explained that she'd been told her National Insurance number (the UK version of Social Security) didn't "correspond to the right thing" and she's been told she has to restart the whole process. "Oct. 31 is fast approaching, what am I going to do? What am I going to do? How am I going to stay? What are my rights?" she said. WATCH: Watch Zuckerberg's face freeze after a far-right politician credited Facebook for Trump's win and Brexit
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