Breaking: Another Florida county hit with lawsuit over election – from Fox, NBC and other outlets

Palm Beach County in Florida was hit with a lawsuit from Fox Television, NBC and Scripps Media.

“Our attorneys are fighting for access…”

Marissa Bagg at NBC-6 Miami reported Friday that the news outlets were suing the county over their lack of transparency while counting ballots from the midterm elections Tuesday.

“NBCUniversal, Scripps Media and Fox Television are suing Susan Bucher and the Palm Beach County Canvassing Board for refusing to allow us to record video while they review ballots in a public meeting,” she tweeted.

The lawsuit called for an emergency petition against Susan Bucher, the Supervisor of Elections for Palm Beach County, and the Palm Beach County Canvassing Board.

The news outlets alleged that they were being unlawfully banned from “nondisruptive video recording” of the public meeting as protected by Florida law.

Bagg and other Florida reporters objected to the restriction against video recording earlier Friday from their social media accounts.

“Palm Beach County Canvassing Board tells photographers to stop taking video and photos during open public meeting over election ballots,” said WPTV journalist Matt Sczesny.

https://www.theblaze.com/news/2018/11/09/breaking-another-florida-county-hit-with-lawsuit-over-election-from-fox-nbc-and-other-outlets

Hollywood actor tweets in support of gun control – accidentally admits to breaking CA law

Hollywood actor Ashton Kutcher sent a tweet from his official account attempting to advocate for gun control in the wake of the horrible Thousand Oaks attack in California, but accidentally admitted to breaking the law himself.

“No one is taking your guns”

The actor sent several tweets in support of strengthening gun control laws in one of the most restrictive states in the Republic, but one tweet raised eyebrows by the admission he made.

https://www.theblaze.com/news/2018/11/09/hollywood-actor-tweets-in-support-of-gun-control-accidentally-admits-to-breaking-ca-law

Russia Hosts Taliban And Afghan Officials For Peace Talks; U.S. Diplomat In Attendance

On Friday talks opened between the Afghan government and the Taliban in Moscow, in an unprecedented moment where both sides have come together for formal face-to-face talks hosted by the Russian government.

Following a press conference wherein Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov urged "I am counting on you holding a serious and constructive conversation that will justify the hopes of the Afghan people," the talks commenced behind closed doors.

This is Moscow's first successful attempt to get all sides at the same table as a prior summit was deemed a failure when Afghan government authorities refused to attend. And while Kabul high officials are nowhere present for this week's talks, members of the government-appointed Peace Council are attending the event. Notably, among the dozen nations to send envoys to the event is the United States; however, the US has merely sent a diplomat from the American Embassy in Moscow as an observer.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-11-09/russia-hosts-taliban-and-afghan-officials-peace-talks-us-diplomat-attendance

>>3826809

Too much basement time

Pompeo, Mattis Call on China to Remove Its Missiles From Spratly Islands

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of Defense James Mattis during talks with Chinese officials said the United States wants Beijing to withdraw its missiles from the Spratly islands in the South China Sea, the State Department said in a press release.

"The United States called on China to withdraw its missile systems from disputed features in the Spratly Islands, and reaffirmed that all countries should avoid addressing disputes through coercion or intimidation," the release said after Pompeo and Mattis met with Chinese diplomats and security officials at the State Department.

Earlier, Chinese Foreign Affairs Director Yang Jiechi, alongside Pompeo and Mattis at a joint press conference, said the situation in the South China Sea is moving "toward greater stability."

According to the release, both countries during the talks, the second US-China Diplomatic and Security Dialogue, agreed to support a peaceful resolution of disputes, overflight issues and other lawful uses of the sea in the region.

In May, Mattis said that despite Chinese President Xi Jinping’s pledge not to militarize the Spratly Islands, Beijing had moved weapons there. In turn, Beijing said that it had the sovereign right to send troops to any part of its territory.

The Asia-Pacific region has several territorial disputes in the South China and East China seas that involve Brunei, China, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam. Beijing considers the Spratly archipelago as its territory, although a Hague-based court concluded that there was no legal basis for China's maritime claims.

https://sputniknews.com/asia/201811101069681079-usa-china-missiles-south-china-sea/

Afghan anti-corruption program is corrupt, US officials say

November 9, 2018

KABUL, Afghanistan — An anti-corruption program once seen as a beacon of hope in Afghanistan is failing to accomplish much, according to U.S. officials who say the nation’s top prosecutor is corrupt.

The Anti Corruption Justice Center’s efforts have stagnated, while U.S. officials described Afghanistan’s once-lauded attorney general as dishonest, corrupt and deficient, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction said in a report released last week.

“The Center was portrayed and emphasized as one of the good things in Afghanistan,” Vanda Felbab-Brown of the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based think tank, said in an interview. “(The report) is pretty devastating for the government, or anyone who wants to argue that there has been important progress and we shouldn’t give up on Afghanistan.”

The attorney general’s office declined comment after multiple requests from Stars and Stripes.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani established the Justice Center with considerable help from Western military advisers and diplomatic organizations in 2016. The Afghan attorney general’s office still tries most corruption cases, but it refers major cases involving senior officials or major sums of money to the Justice Center.

U.S. officials said the Justice Center seemed to be making progress when it completed its first money-laundering case this year.

But there was no significant progress made in major corruption cases this year, the report said. The Justice Center seems to be chasing low-level cases to placate its Western donors, instead of targeting corrupt Afghan high-ranking officials, it said.

“The attorney general’s performance is deficient, his accomplishments are lacking, and he fails to cooperate with the U.S. Embassy on anticorruption matters,” members of the U.S. Justice Department said in a SIGAR report.

https://www.stripes.com/news/afghan-anti-corruption-program-is-corrupt-us-officials-say-1.555894