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The Women's March announced the introduction of 16 new members to its board on Monday, one of whom once accused the FBI of recruiting for ISIS.Zahra Billoo, a civil-rights attorney who is also the director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations's San Francisco chapter, made the accusation in a 2015 tweet.> I'm more afraid of racist Zionists who support Apartheid Israel than of the mentally ill young people the FBI recruits to join ISIS. CVE> > -- Zahra Billoo (@ZahraBilloo) February 18, 2015Billoo did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.The news comes as the Women's March announced the departure of former organizers Linda Sarsour, Tamika Mallory, and Bob Bland following allegations of anti-Semitism within the group's leadership.Mallory was condemned after appearing in rallies with Louis Farrakhan, the anti-Semitic leader of the Nation of Islam. According to a report in Tablet magazine, she also spread anti-Semitic conspiracy theories at the first organizers' meeting of the Women's March, claiming that Jews were leaders in the African slave trade. One of the group's original leaders, Carmen Perez, is staying on despite the fact that she too has been accused of blaming Jews for the slave trade.Sarsour, also a supporter of Farrakhan, is active in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, which advocates an economic boycott of Israel. She was recently hired by Bernie Sanders to work on his presidential campaign.

A firefighter was killed and at least six others were injured when a powerful propane explosion destroyed a new building Monday in Farmington, Maine.

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) called for the impeachment of Supreme Court justice Brett Kavanaugh in a tweet on Monday, amid controversy over a discredited New York Times story detailing further allegations of sexual-misconduct against Kavanaugh that was published Saturday.Along with her tweet, which was posted, then deleted, and then posted again without explanation, Ocasio-Cortez shared a video of a speech she gave at what appears to be a rally against Kavanaugh's then-impending confirmation.> This was almost a year ago.> > It is unsurprising that Kavanaugh, credibly accused of sexual assault, would lie under oath to secure a Supreme Court seat.> > Because sexual assault isn’t a crime of passion - it’s about the abuse of power.> > He must be impeached.pic.twitter.com/9PhrgeYuHv> > -- Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) September 16, 2019"Could you imagine if Brett Kavanaugh had to sit in front of a panel of eleven women of color deciding his fate? Could you imagine? Could you imagine?" she asks in the video as the crowd applauds.The Times story, which was questioned after the alleged victim said she did not remember the incident it described, led a number of Democratic presidential candidates, including Senators Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren, to join Ocasio-Cortez in calling for Kavanaugh's impeachment.> I sat through those hearings. Brett Kavanaugh lied to the U.S. Senate and most importantly to the American people. He was put on the Court through a sham process and his place on the Court is an insult to the pursuit of truth and justice. > > He must be impeached.> > -- Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) September 15, 2019> Last year the Kavanaugh nomination was rammed through the Senate without a thorough examination of the allegations against him. Confirmation is not exoneration, and these newest revelations are disturbing. Like the man who appointed him, Kavanaugh should be impeached.> > -- Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) September 15, 2019President Trump, meanwhile, suggested that those who continue to accuse Kavanaugh should be sued.> Just Out: “Kavanaugh accuser doesn’t recall incident.” @foxandfriends DO YOU BELIEVE WHAT THESE HORRIBLE PEOPLE WILL DO OR SAY. They are looking to destroy, and influence his opinions - but played the game badly. They should be sued!> > -- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 16, 2019

Spain's National Court on Monday rejected the extradition to the United States of a former Venezuelan military spy chief accused of drug smuggling and other charges. The court released retired Maj. Gen. Hugo Carvajal, who denies the charges and says that they were politically motivated. María Dolores Argüelles, a lawyer for Carvajal, said she had no immediate details of the ruling beyond that a release order had been issued for the retired general.

The leader of the Islamic State group released a new alleged audio recording Monday calling on members of the extremist group to do all they can to free IS detainees and women held in jails and camps. The purported audio by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, in which he also said that his group is carrying out attacks in different countries, was his first public statement since April, when the shadowy leader appeared in a video for the first time in five years. With a $25 million U.S. bounty on his head, al-Baghdadi is the world's most wanted man, responsible for steering his chillingly violent organization into mass slaughter of opponents and directing and inspiring terror attacks across continents and in the heart of Europe.

Forecasters continued to closely monitor a tropical disturbance over the open Atlantic Monday. The system, dubbed 97L, first caught the eye of meteorologists late last week and they caution that further development is expected. AccuWeather Hurricane Expert Dan Kottlowski said the system bears watching for progression to a tropical depression and perhaps even the ninth named storm of the Atlantic season."We expect this feature to become a tropical depression and [it] may go on to become Tropical Storm Imelda later this week," according to Kottlowski."The evolving tropical feature is projected to pass just east and north of the Leeward Islands on Friday," he added.As of 2 p.m. EDT Monday, the National Hurricane Center said the system was located about 1,200 miles east of the Lesser Antilles and has about a 90% chance of development over the next five days. This image, taken during Monday midday, Sept. 16, 2019, shows part of the tropical Atlantic Basin. Africa can be seen to the right and South America is visible to the lower left. The feature of interest is a patch of clouds in the middle and slightly closer to South America than Africa. (NOAA/GOES-East) "Early indications suggest this feature will track east of the United States mainland, but it is way too early to say with confidence as to exactly where it will track beyond Friday," Kottlowski said. Interests over the Leeward Islands should monitor the progress of this feature for an uptick in showers and thunderstorms late this week.As the track is uncertain, other areas of the Caribbean and Bahamas should watch this system as it evolves.Meanwhile, a tropical wave will cause some showers and thunderstorms over the Leeward and Windward islands into Tuesday.Hurricane Humberto is forecast to pass close to Bermuda during the middle of this week as a Category 2 or Category 3 hurricane.Swells propagating southward from this distant hurricane can reach unprotected northern shores of the northern Caribbean islands in the form of large waves and strong rip currents this week.

A U.S. service member was killed in Afghanistan on Monday, the NATO-led Resolute Support mission said, after the collapse of talks between the United States and Taliban to end the nearly 18-year old war. It said the service member was killed in action but did not provide further details. This brings the number of U.S. service members killed in combat in Afghanistan to 17 this year.

The remains of former Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe, who died on September 6, arrived in his home village on Monday for a subdued farewell at a dusty sports field after a weekend state funeral with African leaders in the capital.

He may have the best explanation for how the Trump presidency happened: We 'automated away' 4 million manufacturing jobs in presidential swing states.

Owen Carey collapsed about an hour after he ate the grilled chicken in April 2017. A corner ruled that he died from a "severe anaphylactic reaction."

The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court appealed on Monday against the shock acquittal of former Ivory Coast leader Laurent Gbagbo over post-electoral violence that killed around 3,000 people. Gbagbo, the first head of state to stand trial in The Hague, and his deputy Charles Ble Goude, were both cleared of crimes against humanity in January and released the following month. "The appeal will demonstrate that the trial chamber committed legal and procedural errors which led to the acquittals of Mr Gbagbo and Mr Ble Goude on all counts," Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda's office said.

Thousands of Indonesian firefighters are locked in an around-the-clock game of Whack-a-Mole as they battle to extinguish an invisible enemy -- underground fires that aggravate global warming. Vast blazes are ripping across the archipelago's rainforests, unleashing a toxic haze over Southeast Asia that has triggered health fears and sent diplomatic tensions with Indonesia's neighbours soaring. "It's so much harder to fight fires on peatlands," a dirty and exhausted Hendri Kusnardi told AFP outside smog-hit Pekanbaru city in Sumatra.

More than half of the tigers that Thai authorities confiscated in 2016 from an infamous Tiger Temple tourist attraction have died from a viral disease because their immune systems were weakened by inbreeding, media reported. The Buddhist temple west of Bangkok was a tourist destination where visitors took selfies with tigers and bottle-fed cubs until authorities removed its nearly 150 tigers in 2016 in response to global pressure over wildlife trafficking.

United Nations aid chief Mark Lowcock said Saudi Arabia plans to pay $500 million next week of a pledge it made in February to help fund a humanitarian response in Yemen, which the world body has described as the world's worst aid crisis. Lowcock on Monday told the U.N. Security Council that Saudi Arabia - which leads a military coalition fighting in Yemen - planned to pay on Sept. 25 and that the United Arab Emirates had also recently made a payment of $200 million.

Representative Ilhan Omar responded on Sunday to the son of a victim of the September 11 terrorist attacks, who called her out for previous comments about the attacks that critics found dismissive.During the memorial service for 9/11 victims at Ground Zero, Nicholas Haros Jr., who lost his mother, 76-year-old Francis Haros, in the attacks, wore a shirt emblazoned with the phrase, "some people did something" on the front, the phrase Omar used to refer to the attacks.After reading the names of some of the victims, Haros Jr. repeated the phrase and pointed to his shirt."Today I am here to respond to you exactly who did what to whom," he said. "Madam, objectively speaking, we know who and what was done.""CAIR was founded after 9/11 because they recognized that some people did something and that all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties," the Minnesota Democrat said earlier this year during remarks to the Council on American–Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights group, a comment that sparked outrage among conservatives and some families of victims."So 9/11 was an attack on all Americans. It was an attack on all of us and I certainly could not understand the weight of the pain that the victims of the families of 9/11 must feel, but I think it is really important for us to make sure that we are not forgetting the aftermath of what happened after 9/11," Omar responded Sunday on CBS when asked about Haros Jr.'s criticism. "Many Americans found themselves now having their civil rights stripped from them, and so what I was speaking to was the fact that as a Muslim, not only was I suffering as an American who was attacked on that day, but the next day I woke up as my fellow Americans were now treating me as a suspect."Haros Jr. appeared to accept Omar's goodwill, saying the congresswoman had "showed respect for the loss of families. And that was a good thing."

Iran's Revolutionary Guards have seized a vessel in the Gulf for allegedly smuggling 250,000 litres of diesel fuel to the United Arab Emirates, Iran's semi-official Students News agency ISNA reported on Monday. "It was detained near Iran's Greater Tunb island in the Persian Gulf...the crew have been handed over to legal authorities in the southern Hormozgan province," ISNA said, without elaborating on the nationalities of the crewmen.

The Indian authorities have intensified their rescue efforts today with more than 20 people still missing after a boat illegally carrying Indian tourists capsized on Sunday. The bodies of 12 people have so far been recovered from the Godavari River in Andhra Pradesh after the ‘Royal Vasishta’ vessel collided with a rock formation while traveling to the popular tourist destination of Papikondalu. The local government said they had banned tourist boats from operating on the river after heavy rainfall caused water levels to rise dangerously. ‘Stern action’ would be taken against those responsible for organising the tour, according to the Home Minister for Andhra Pradesh.  Local media said while life jackets were available on the boat most passengers were not wearing them because it was unusually hot. They also reported that the crew seemed untrained to deal with the emergency. The ‘Royal Vasishta’ was carrying 61 people, including crew, when it sunk. Everyone on board was an Indian national and the majority were believed to be tourists from the neighbouring Telengana state. Two helicopters, eight boats and a team of divers have been deployed to search for those missing and feared drowned. They are yet to locate the vessel which is believed to have sunk to a depth of over 300ft.  The Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh accompanied one of the helicopters to conduct an aerial survey of the accident spot while Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted his condolences.  India has an extremely poor safety record when it comes to boat travel. Operators rarely adhere to laws which govern the number of passengers who can safely travel at one time and do not carry out checks. In May 2018, 30 people died after a similar boat capsized close to the location of Sunday’s accident.

Saudi Aramco officials said Sunday that 5 million barrels per day had been affected, carving a 5%-sized hole in the world's total oil supply.

(Bloomberg Opinion) -- A small squadron of drones — and possibly cruise missiles — penetrated Saudi Arabia’s air defenses on Saturday, laying waste to a significant, valuable portion of two of the world’s most essential oil processing facilities. Amid worries about the impact of the strikes on global oil markets (half the kingdom’s oil output was affected) and fears about broader military confrontations upending a region perennially vexed by crossed swords, ancient religious rifts, geopolitical maneuvering and greed, facts and conjecture began jockeying for attention.Houthi rebels fighting the Saudis in a brutal civil war in Yemen took credit for the strikes. Iran backs the Houthis, and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo took to Twitter on Saturday afternoon to blame Iran for “an unprecedented attack on the world’s energy supply” and to assert that there “is no evidence the attacks came from Yemen.” Pompeo didn’t specify where the strikes actually originated. The Saudis, backed by the U.S. in Yemen, have yet to pin the strikes on Iran, while the Iranians themselves deny any involvement. On Sunday, the U.S government produced photos that officials said indicated that the drones had to have flown into Saudi Arabia from Iraq or Iran. Iraq denies being involved.Not everyone is telling the truth here (although everyone might think they are) and any prudent response to the attacks hinges on more factual certainty. Patience and foresight are diplomatic virtues in moments like this, even if the correct response ultimately involves more severe economic sanctions on Iran or military actions designed to rein in its rulers.Like any U.S. president, Donald Trump could play a clarifying role and use the power and prestige of his office to bring a sense of order to what is a dangerous dynamic in the Arab world right now. It’s possible that the next few days will build toward the most momentous foreign policy challenge Trump will experience. But we’ve also arrived here precisely because of Trump’s own haphazard and conflicted approach to regimes he claims he wants to upend. Someone who has presided over the most chaotic White House of modern times is unlikely to navigate this complicated crisis with the necessary deftness.The White House issued a statement Saturday confirming that Trump had phoned Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to offer support for the country and oil markets. The president then filled his communication platform of choice, Twitter, with an array of attacks on the media, praise for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, promos for events meant to support black colleges, and a reminder that the “USA is Winning Again!”At about 6 p.m. Sunday, Trump tweeted that he planned to release inventories from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve to help stabilize oil markets. About an hour later, he weighed in again on behalf of the Saudis.“Saudi Arabia oil supply was attacked,” he tweeted. “There is reason to believe that we know the culprit, are locked and loaded depending on verification, but are waiting to hear from the Kingdom as to who they believe was the cause of this attack, and under what terms we would proceed!”In a flash, and most likely without consulting anyone else on his White House team, Trump indicated he was willing to put the U.S. military at the disposal of the Saudis and that he’d come out, guns blazing, whenever the Saudis thought the time was right.Shortly after that, he noted that there was “PLENTY OF OIL!” and that no one should think that he stumbled in his own dealings with the Iranians — that perhaps the Iranians saw him softening and took advantage of him.“The Fake News is saying that I am willing to meet with Iran, ‘No Conditions.’ That is an incorrect statement (as usual!),” he tweeted just after 7 p.m.The problem with that one is that Trump did, in fact, say in June that he’d be willing to take a meeting with Iran with “no preconditions.” And several days ago Trump said he’d be willing to meet with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani at the upcoming United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York.Did any of that diplomatic signaling ( including the departure of Trump’s hawkish national security adviser John Bolton) coax the Iranians into a more aggressive stance, convincing them to try to disable a crucial oil field controlled by its most powerful foe in the Arab world at a time when that foe was moving toward a public offering of shares in its national oil company, Saudi Aramco? Who knows.What probably hasn’t been lost on Iran is that Trump has postured and blustered about his willingness to use military force to corral countries he considers hostile to the U.S., but then fails to follow through. In June, Trump ordered a military strike on Iran, only to call it off at the last minute.This isn’t new behavior from the president. He spent parts of his business life threatening to vanquish competitors or run circles around them when he was “artofthedealmaking,” only to find himself outmaneuvered or unable to deliver on his warnings (often to his own financial and reputational detriment).The president has likewise boxed himself in with the Saudis. In addition to turning a blind eye to the kingdom’s own military atrocities in Yemen, and to countenancing the murder of the Saudi journalist and dissident Jamal Khashoggi, Trump and his family have myriad financial conflicts of interest involving Saudi money. Trump has left himself little room to find diplomatic solutions that don’t meet the Saudis’ needs first, while he continues to blur the line between serving the U.S. national interest and his own self-interest.And one of the most harrowing aspects of Trump’s presidency — that an inexperienced self-promoter utterly ignorant about much of the world and lacking any real interest in international affairs had assumed power over the mightiest military force on the planet — is now in full relief in the wake of the drone strikes in Saudi Arabia.Character is at play here, too. There’s a presidential election coming and with it the danger that Trump will find military confrontations overseas useful avenues for a political boost. That would suggest he may not be making completely sober-minded decisions. Perhaps the president will rise to the occasion this week, despite the forces he helped set in motion and which are now pulling him in multiple directions. But don’t hold your breath.To contact the author of this story: Timothy L. O'Brien at [email protected] contact the editor responsible for this story: James Boxell at [email protected] column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Timothy L. O’Brien is the executive editor of Bloomberg Opinion. He has been an editor and writer for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, HuffPost and Talk magazine. His books include “TrumpNation: The Art of Being The Donald.”For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.