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Jan 23, 2020
Attorneys representing Chloe Wiegand's family say a ship visit proves it's "physically impossible" for her grandfather to hold her out of the window.
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Jan 23, 2020
A FISA Court order declassified Thursday confirmed that the government had found two of the four FISA applications authorized for the FBI to surveil 2016 Trump-campaign adviser Carter Page to be "not valid," and will further investigate the validity of the other two.The order revealed that the government found two of the surveillance application renewals to be "not valid" based on "the material misstatements and omission" used by the FBI, which was found by the Justice Department to have "insufficient predication to establish probable cause to believe that Page was acting as an agent of a foreign power."Based on the ordering of the applications, it appears the review found the second and third renewal applications used against Page to be invalid, while the original application and the first renewal remain under investigation. The third renewal was personally signed by James Comey, while the fourth was signed by Andrew McCabe.The court also said it was still waiting on the Bureau after it "agreed ‘to sequester all collection the FBI acquired pursuant to the Court's authorizations'" against Page, but so far has not provided an update.DOJ inspector general Michael Horowitz revealed "at least 17 significant errors or omissions" committed by the FBI in his report on the Bureau's "Crossfire Hurricane" investigation into the 2016 Trump campaign, but did not come up with any "documentary evidence" that the probe was predicated by political bias.Among the more egregious violations detailed in
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Jan 23, 2020
Spain's government will hold an emergency meeting on Friday to deal with the impact of a storm that has caused heavy rains, powerful winds and huge waves, and killed at least 13 people. Residents were left grappling with the wreckage of Storm Gloria, including collapsed bridges, damaged railway lines and entire beaches wiped away by waves. "I think what's important right now is that we're all united, that we work shoulder-to-shoulder and cooperate, as we are doing," Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez told reporters after flying over areas of eastern Spain that have been hit.
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Jan 23, 2020
Behold, the impeachment contradiction of contradictions.It's not surprising that a full 91 percent of Democrats have said they think President Trump "definitely" or "probably" did something illegal to warrant his impeachment, as a recent Pew Research Center poll found. But a solid 32 percent of Republicans or those who lean Republican have also said the same about Trump's conduct — not that they necessarily think it should warrant his removal.Yes, of Republicans who are either "definitely" or "probably" convinced Trump's behavior was illegal, a full 59 percent say that doesn't mean he should be removed from office, Pew found. As for those Republicans who say Trump has "definitely" or "probably" done something unethical, 78 percent believe he should remain. Among Republicans who say Trump has definitely or probably done things that are illegal, 59% say he should remain in office following the Senate impeachment trial. https://t.co/d0LOFwghRu pic.twitter.com/YZ5Z6cuwMN — Pew Research Center (@pewresearch) January 23, 2020Pew surveyed 12,638 people from Jan. 6-19 via phone and online, with a 1.3 percent margin of error.More stories from theweek.com Democrats walked right into Mitch McConnell's trap Longtime PBS anchor Jim Lehrer dies at 85 The world is less than 2 'minutes' from doomsday, atomic scientists warn
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Jan 23, 2020
Kathleen Kingsbury, a deputy editorial page editor and member of The New York Times's editorial board, revealed Thursday that she wrote a full 2,000-word endorsement of Joe Biden, only for the board to reject it because "it didn't match the moment."The Times broke new ground this cycle by conducting on-the-record interviews with nine of the top candidates and airing the interviews, which have historically been off-the-record, on their documentary show The Weekly on FX.Kingsbury explained to Times columnists on the The Argument podcast how the Times editorial board arrived at its first-ever dual endorsement of Senators Amy Klobuchar (D., Minn.) and Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.), saying that "policy prescriptions" and the "messages" drove much of the thought-process. She also dismissed concerns about electability, calling the effort to predict which candidate would be most successful in the general election a "fool's errand.""What we realized is that the party needs to have that conversation amongst itself. It's really not the role of the editorial board to determine the future of the Democratic Party," Kingsbury said.But she revealed that, following heightened tensions with Iran after President Trump's decision to kill Qasem Soleimani, she went ahead and drafted an endorsement of Biden, citing his opposition to the war in Afghanistan."Right after we had the outbreak of conflict with
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Jan 23, 2020
Officials described the mother, who was not identified, as a 22-year-old woman who recently moved to Arizona from Oklahoma.
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Jan 23, 2020
(Bloomberg) -- Despite taking flack for his high-dollar fundraisers, Pete Buttigieg is moving ahead with a swanky event a week before the Feb. 3 Iowa caucuses.The former South Bend, Indiana, mayor will hold a reception on Sunday in a location in Des Moines that will only be revealed to donors who confirm they are attending.A limited number of tickets are available for $250, $500 and $1,000, but for the maximum primary donation of $2,800 attendees can also go to a "pre-reception."At a debate in December, Elizabeth Warren attacked Buttigieg for holding a fundraiser in a California "wine cave." He responded that his campaign needs support "from everybody who is committed to helping us defeat Donald Trump."Disclaimer: Michael Bloomberg is also seeking the Democratic presidential nomination. He is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.This post is part of Campaign Update, our live coverage from the 2020 campaign trail.To contact the author of this story: Ryan Beckwith in Washington at rbeckwith3@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Max BerleyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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Jan 23, 2020
Lawyers for the woman accused of procuring underage girls to have sex with Jeffrey Epstein told a judge that hackers "breached" her computer after a court failed to redact her email address in filings it released last year.Ghislaine Maxwell's lawyer Ty Gee said in a December letter to Judge Loretta A Preska that, "despite the Second Circuit's best efforts, it made serious mistakes" when redacting thousands of pages of records associated with a defamation lawsuit filed by one of Epstein's accusers, Virginia Giuffre.
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Jan 23, 2020
U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told Greta Thunberg she should study economics, a jibe which prompted the climate activist to say she didn't need a degree to know the world was not meeting its climate targets. There are signs U.S. President Donald Trump is starting to engage more seriously on climate change and listening to the concerns of corporations, the European Commission's vice-president and head of its 'Green Deal' said. Diversification is crucial to ensuring a country's security in the rollout of 5G mobile technology and shunning one supplier altogether risks being counterproductive, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said.
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Jan 23, 2020
Rep. Ilhan Omar's congressional career got off to a rocky start just a year ago, with her provocative remarks on Israel and Jews stirring anger across the country and raising speculation that some other Minnesota Democrat might step forward to challenge her in 2020. Omar was kicking off her reelection campaign Thursday night with a massive bank account and no challengers who pose a serious threat from either party. In an overwhelmingly Democratic district that where Omar took 78% of the vote in 2018, University of Minnesota political scientist Larry Jacobs gives her opponents no chance.
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Jan 23, 2020
U.S. President Donald Trump fired off a new round of Twitter insults aimed at political rival Michael Bloomberg on Thursday, shortly after the Democratic presidential candidate's campaign debuted a new television ad attacking the Republican seeking re-election. Trump mocked Bloomberg's height, called the entirety of the Democratic field of candidates "clowns" and dismissed the idea that the former New York City mayor would help the ultimate Democratic nominee in the general election. Bloomberg might be getting under Trump's skin with attack ads, part of a campaign focused on the president with an estimated cost so far above $200 million.
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Jan 23, 2020
Apocalyptic doom is apparently closer than it's ever been before.Every year, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists announces the world's status on its "doomsday clock," which reveals just how close all of humanity is to certain destruction. And after putting it at a dangerous two minutes from apocalypse for the last few years in a row, scientists upped their prediction to an unprecedented 100 seconds on Thursday.The greatest threats to humanity, as outlined by the Bulletin, are "nuclear war and climate change," which are "compounded by a threat multiplier — cyber-enabled information warfare — that undercuts society's ability to respond." The scientists specifically called out how 2019 saw the end of "several major arms control treaties and negotiations," while "political conflicts regarding nuclear programs in Iran and North Korea remain unresolved and are, if anything, worsening."As for climate change, scientists acknowledged "public awareness of the climate crisis grew over the course of 2019, largely because of mass protests by young people around the world." But "government action" hasn't risen to meet that public push, and even the UN has "put forward few concrete plans to further limit the carbon dioxide emissions," the statement continued. Altogether, this puts the world closer to a metaphorical midnight than ever before in the clock's 73-year history.More stories from theweek.com Democrats walked right into Mitch McConnell's trap Michael Bloomberg gets another moderate mayor's endorsement fr
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Jan 23, 2020
A teenage boy allegedly stabbed his mother and 13-year-old twin brothers to death before going to school as if it were a normal day.Landon Durham, 16, is accused of killing his mother, Holli Christina Durham, 36, and brothers Branson and Baron Durham, at their home in Munford, Alabama.
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Jan 23, 2020
(Bloomberg) -- A new poll shows Bernie Sanders as the top pick for New Hampshire voters after support for the senator nearly doubled over the past month.Sanders, who is from neighboring Vermont, jumped from fourth to first in a WBUR poll out Thursday.He led the pack by double digits with 29%, up from 15% in December, followed by Pete Buttigieg with 17%, Joe Biden with 14% and Elizabeth Warren with 13%.Aside from Sanders, all other candidates moved between 0 and 3 percentage points. The poll was conducted from January 17-21 and has a margin of error of 4.8 percentage points. WBUR is the Boston NPR affiliate.Sanders led among voters under 45 with 37%. Among those voters, Buttigieg followed with 17%, Warren with 16% and Biden with 6%. Sanders also led among voters over the age of 45 with 24%, followed by Biden with 19%, Buttigieg with 16% and Warren with 11%.This post is part of Campaign Update, our live coverage from the 2020 campaign trail.\--With assistance from Ryan Beckwith.To contact the author of this story: Emma Kinery in Washington at ekinery@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Magan SherzaiFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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Jan 23, 2020
The successor to the Iranian commander killed in a U.S. drone strike would suffer the same fate if he followed a similar path by killing Americans, the U.S. special representative for Iran said, according to the Asharq al-Awsat newspaper.
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Jan 23, 2020
Wuhan residents called for help and shared worries of food shortages Thursday, with streets in the virus-hit central Chinese city left deserted after it was put on lockdown. After he bought some, the person behind him in the queue bought the remaining stock in the shop.
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Jan 23, 2020
Floods across the island of Madagascar has killed at least 12 people this week, with 18 missing, after unseasonably heavy rain, the national disaster office said on Thursday. Parts of Africa have experienced heavy rain in recent months because the Indian Ocean is warmer than usual, partly as result of a cyclical weather phenomenon and partly because oceans are warming everywhere. Floods, landslides and a cyclone killed more than 1,200 people across East and Southern Africa last year, according to a Save the Children count based on U.N. and government figures.
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Jan 23, 2020
Muslim religious leaders joined members of a U.S. Jewish group at Auschwitz on Thursday for what organizers described as "the most senior Islamic leadership delegation" to visit the site of a Nazi German death camp. The secretary general of the Muslim World League, Mohammad bin Abdulkarim Al-Issa, and the CEO of the American Jewish Committee, David Harris, led the tour to the Auschwitz-Birkenau memorial in Poland.
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Jan 23, 2020
Michelle Carter, who urged a Massachusetts teenager to kill himself, was released from jail Thursday. She was convicted of involuntary manslaughter following the death of her boyfriend Conor Roy III in 2014.
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Jan 23, 2020
Michelle Carter, who urged a Massachusetts teenager to kill himself, was released from jail Thursday. She was convicted of involuntary manslaughter following the death of her boyfriend Conor Roy III in 2014.
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Jan 23, 2020
"Is she the chief economist or who is she? I'm confused," Mnuchin joked about the Swedish teenager's call for America to quit fossil fuels.
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Jan 23, 2020
Revealed: two years after Ledell Lee was executed, damning evidence emerges that experts say could prove his innocenceThe day before Ledell Lee was executed on 20 April 2017, he talked to the BBC from death row. He said that while he could not prevent the state of Arkansas from killing him, he had a message for his executioners: "My dying words will always be, as it has been: ‘I am an innocent man'."Almost two years after Lee was strapped to a gurney and injected with a lethal cocktail of drugs, it looks increasingly likely he was telling the truth: he went to his death an innocent man. New evidence has emerged that suggests Lee was not guilty of the brutal murder of a woman in 1993 for which his life was taken.The deceased inmate's sister Patricia Young lodged a lawsuit on Thursday with the circuit court of Pulaski county, Arkansas, petitioning city authorities and the local police department in Jacksonville to release crime scene materials to her family.The ACLU and the Innocence Project, who are investigating the case on the family's behalf, believe state-of-the-art forensic examination of the materials, including DNA testing and fingerprint analysis, could definitively prove Arkansas did indeed execute an innocent man.An 81-page filing in the lawsuit provides damning new evidence that key aspects of the prosecution case against Lee were deeply flawed. The complaint includes expert opinion from a number of world-leading specialists who find glaring
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Jan 23, 2020
A 16-year-old boy was charged Wednesday after being accused of carrying out what appears to be the worst mass shooting in Utah in 13 years.
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Jan 23, 2020
According to Chinese court documents obtained by Axios, 20-year-old Luo Daiqing was arrested after returning to Wuhan for summer break.
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Jan 23, 2020
Senator Ted Cruz (R., Texas) told reporters Wednesday that House impeachment manager's Adam Schiff's focus on the propriety of President Trump's request for an investigation into the Bidens made it "critical" that Hunter Biden testify about his role on the board of Burisma."I think the House managers made a very serious strategic error today," Cruz told ABC News. "Adam Schiff's arguments to open the day today directly drew into question Hunter Biden and made not only his testimony relevant, which it already was, but it is now critical."The Texas Republican explained that if Democrats argue that any allegations of corruption against Hunter Biden and former vice president Joe Biden are a "scam," such claims are "directly relevant" and need to be explored.Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow later declined to comment on Cruz's argument.Cruz first floated the idea of "witness reciprocity" for testimony from Biden in exchange for the testimony of former national security adviser John Bolton on January 14.In an interview Tuesday with CBS News, Schiff said that Biden's testimony would be immaterial to the case and "would not be appropriate," implying that the testimony would amount to a continuation of "the same smear campaign that was foiled when his plot was discovered.""Hunter Biden, for example, can't tell us anything about whether the president withheld military aid, whether he withheld that aid to coerce Ukraine to conduct political investigations. Or why he wouldn't meet with the
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Jan 23, 2020
Most people recognize that there are first names given almost exclusively by black Americans to their children, such as Jamal and Latasha. While fodder for comedians and social commentary, many have assumed that these distinctively black names are a modern phenomenon. My research shows that's not true.Long before there was Jamal and Latasha, there was Booker and Perlie. The names have changed, but my colleagues and I traced the use of distinctive black names to the earliest history of the United States.As scholars of history, demographics and economics, we found that there is nothing new about black names. Black names aren't newMany scholars believe that distinctively black names emerged from the civil rights movement, perhaps attributable to the Black Power movement and the later black cultural movement of the 1990s as a way to affirm and embrace black culture. Before this time, the argument goes, blacks and whites had similar naming patterns. Historical evidence does not support this belief.Until a few years ago, the story of black names depended almost exclusively on data from the 1960s onward. New data, such as the digitization of census and newly available birth and death records from historical periods, allows us to analyze the history of black names in more detail.We used federal census records and death certificates from the late 1800s in Illinois, Alabama and North Carolina to see if there were names that were held almost exclusively by blacks and not whites in the past. We found that there were indeed.For
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Jan 23, 2020
Kristin Smart's mother said she was contacted by a former FBI agent, but there is no timeline for an announcement in her case, the family later said.
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Jan 23, 2020
A Michigan college student says she was sexually assaulted on a Spirit Airlines flight, but that flight attendants treated her like an annoyance.
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Jan 23, 2020
John Kapoor, the founder of Insys Therapeutics Inc , on Thursday was sentenced to 66 months in prison for his role in a bribery and fraud scheme that contributed to the U.S. opioid crisis. Kapoor, 76, is now the highest-ranking pharmaceutical executive to be sentenced in a case linked to the opioid crisis. During a hearing that lasted nearly two hours, U.S. prosecutors asked U.S. District Court Judge Allison D. Burroughs to sentence Kapoor to 15 years in prison.
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Jan 23, 2020
Novelist Marlon James on the Lawrence v. Texas case and what it revealed to him about America and his own search for self.
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Jan 23, 2020
Coast Guard says surveillance footage shows what appeared to be a "clean jump" from the Royal Caribbean's "Oasis of the Seas," which was docked in San Juan.
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Jan 23, 2020
These days, her statements are unvarnished and resentful. To the voters who hate her, she seems comfortable letting them know that she hates them, tooIn the months after the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton went into the woods. They became almost comic, the sightings of her that would pop up on social media, as the woman who had exercised uncommon influence over American political life, who had in fact won the popular vote and nearly became president, reduced to a soul-searching wanderer in the wilderness, wearing fleece and wondering what went wrong. People asked her for selfies in public locales whose mundanity stood in contrast to her former power. Here she was, the woman who had watched Osama bin Laden die in real time, who had led one of the first major fights for healthcare reform, who had sat with presidents and prime ministers and extracted from them commitments to do things that they did not want to do. Here she was, once one of the world's most powerful people, walking on a low-altitude beginners' hiking trail. Here she was, the former senator and secretary of state and very nearly the first female president, in a supermarket outside her tony suburb, posing with a fan in front of a stack of organic apples.There was a degree of schadenfreude in the sharing of these pictures of Clinton during the months following the 2016 presidential election. Even those most alert to the coming dangers and needless suffering that would be imposed by a Donald Trump presidency seemed a bit giddy at how far she had fallen, relieved to see her knocked from her pe
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Jan 23, 2020
Two weeks ago, the United States seemed on the brink of starting another war in the Middle East after a drone strike killed Iran's most notorious spymaster, Qasem Soleimani, as he departed an international airport in Baghdad. The shadowy general, in charge of the Iranian equivalent of the CIA, was one of the most effective operatives in the Middle East's history. He built a sprawling army of proxy militias throughout the region and helped expand Tehran's dominance in nearby countries.But the dust has now settled, and none of the doomsday scenarios that so many in the media warned about has come to pass. It is true that Iran launched a missile attack into U.S. bases in Iraq, but the attack was merely symbolic. As Iraqi officials revealed the following day, Iran had informed them of an imminent attack on U.S. bases, a message that the Iraqis promptly and predictably passed on to the Americans. No fatalities were recorded, but the Iranian regime still told its followers that dozens if not hundreds of Americans were killed as a result of the retaliation.Indeed, none of the doomsday scenarios were plausible to begin with. Iran has a narrow menu of options in terms of escalation against the U.S. It is not interested in a direct war with the U.S., nor are any of its proxies or allies in the region. The regime faces increasingly crippling sanctions imposed by Washington, and domestic unrest is building up with occasional street protests. Also, its allies in Iraq and Lebanon have been under unprecedented pressure from grassroots protests
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Jan 23, 2020
The new findings appear to be the most comprehensive understanding of the mysterious virus, known as 2019-nCoV, so far.
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Jan 23, 2020
In November 2019, Apple changed the maps on its apps to show Crimea as part of Russia, after it was annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
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Jan 23, 2020
Airports around the world have begun taking precautions to deal with an anticipated influx of Chinese tourists taking Lunar New Year holidays, just as the outbreak of a pneumonia-like virus in China has prompted officials there to take drastic measures to prevent its spread. Dubai International Airport, the world's busiest for international travel, announced on Thursday that, following government guidance, all passengers arriving on direct flights from China will receive thermal screening at the gate upon arrival and be provided with informational brochures. The screening at the airport, home to Emirates airline, will be conducted at secured, closed gates by teams from the Dubai Health Authority and the Airport Medical Center, Dubai Airports said in a statement provided to The Associated Press.
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Jan 23, 2020
HONG KONG—The city of 11 million where China's deadly coronavirus outbreak originated is now under total quarantine, a massive lockdown that marks a dramatic shift from the Chinese government's previously reaction, which was focused on limiting what the public could learn about the spread of the disease.China's Deadly Coronavirus Cover-Up Is Getting Worse as First Case Hits U.S.But the move comes after the virus has spread far and wide, including at least one case in the United States. Sixteen people who came into contact with the country's sole confirmed coronavirus patient, in Washington State, are being monitored for pneumonia symptoms.It is still far from clear that Beijing is revealing all that it knows about the disease and its transmission at a moment when hundreds of millions of people are expected to be on the move as Chinese New Year approaches on January 25.Wuhan, a major city in central China and a key transport hub, is now cut off from the rest of the country. Flights out of the city have been canceled, as have outbound trains. Public transportation in Wuhan has been shut down. Before the lockdown came into effect, many people rushed to train stations and bus depots to purchase any tickets that would take them out of the city. Now soldiers of the People's Liberation Army prevent them from even entering those buildings. Police vans are parked in front of toll booths on highways leading out of the city, turning back anyone who attempt
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Jan 23, 2020
(Bloomberg) -- Nigeria's government was surprised by the news that the U.S. is considering travel restrictions on its citizens and the ban would mean officials will have to find new ways to meet with investors, Finance Minister Zainab Ahmed said.Nigeria is one of seven countries, more than half of which are in Africa, included in a list that may be affected if the Homeland Security Department's recommendation to expand restrictions is approved, according to a person familiar with the matter. President Donald Trump is reviewing it. The other African states targeted because of security concerns are Eritrea, Sudan and Tanzania."It will mean restrictions in being able to meet with investors in the U.S. and to be able to meet with Bretton Woods institutions that are in the U.S.," Ahmed said Thursday in an interview with Bloomberg TV at the World Economic Forum in Davos. "It means we will have to make meeting arrangements alternative to the U.S. because there are options that are open to us," such as the U.K., she said.Nigeria, which vies with South Africa to be the continent's biggest economy, is struggling to boost economic growth after a 2016 contraction. The International Monetary Fund projects gross domestic product will expand 2.5% this year. The possible travel restrictions won't hurt growth, Ahmed said."We have some very active investors in the Nigerian bond market that are in the U.S. and also some that have taken up our Eurobonds," Ahmed said. "We connect with them directly and through our advisers such
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Jan 23, 2020
(Bloomberg) -- From fine whiskey to European flights to cigar bars, the tab for the Ukraine mission was starting to add up.Even one of President Donald Trump's wealthiest contributors sounded peeved. "Just becoming expensive flying u guys everywhere LEV," wrote Harry Sargeant III, a Florida energy tycoon, in a pointed text to Lev Parnas, Rudy Giuliani's advance man on the Ukraine operation.A trove of documents recently released by Parnas, including that text from April, provides some new details about the money web that helped support Giuliani's work in Ukraine as President Trump's personal lawyer.The group's apparent wish list included discrediting a Trump rival, tying Ukraine to 2016 election meddling and pushing for the ouster of a U.S. ambassador -- the propriety of which is now at the heart of impeachment proceedings in Washington.Money flowed to Giuliani and his cohorts from home loans, friends, relative strangers and wealthy businessmen, some with interests in the gas and energy sector. It even came from a lawyer for an embattled Ukrainian energy tycoon fighting extradition to the U.S. on a conspiracy charge.Giuliani was working for the president without pay, and under financial strain from his public divorce proceeding. While most pro bono clients cover their lawyers' out-of-pocket expenses, the famously tight-fisted Trump doesn't appear to have been shelling out for the travel racked up by Giuliani, Parnas and his Florida business partner, Igor Fruman.The travel arrangements could brush up against campaign finance laws. While Giuliani, Parnas and Fruman can volunteer as much of their time as they want for a campaign, any subsidy for such work by third par
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Jan 23, 2020
US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Thursday advised climate activist Greta Thunberg, who has been bitterly critical of US policy at the World Economic Forum, to study economics before giving out lessons. The Trump administration and Greta Thunberg have sparred indirectly since Tuesday on panels in Davos but organisers have carefully averted any direct confrontation. In a speech on Tuesday, US President Donald Trump castigated the "prophets of doom" and those that predicted a climate "apocalypse", while Thunberg sat in the audience.
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Jan 23, 2020
They protect Europe.
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Jan 23, 2020
Japanese prosecutors hit back Thursday at claims made by fugitive former Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn that he was interrogated for "up to eight hours per day" during questioning over financial misconduct allegations. Ghosn, who dramatically skipped bail earlier this month and fled to Lebanon, had painted a picture of harsh conditions in Japanese custody that authorities have contested. "I had spent the previous months being interrogated up to eight hours a day without any lawyers present, without an understanding of exactly what I was being accused of, without access to the evidence that justified this travesty against my human rights and dignity," he told reporters in Lebanon.
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Jan 23, 2020
(Bloomberg) -- Sign up for Next China, a weekly email on where the nation stands now and where it's going next.The case of a Chinese student jailed for tweets he sent while studying in America underscores that being overseas is no protection from Beijing's censors.Luo Daiqing, who attends the University of Minnesota in the U.S., was sentenced to six months in jail by a district court in November for "provocation" after he posted tweets that "defaced the image of the country's leaders" and had a "negative impact" on society. He was detained in his hometown of Wuhan between July 12 and Jan. 11.A Twitter account linked to Luo posted photos showing government slogans printed over a cartoon villain who looks similar to Chinese President Xi Jinping, according to Axios, which first reported the case Wednesday. The account, which was inaccessible on Thursday, also posted images of Winnie the Pooh, whose likeness is considered sensitive on Chinese social media due to unflattering comparisons to the Communist Party chief.The case is another sign that China is cracking down on government criticism, even outside its borders. While Twitter Inc.'s service is one of many foreign websites banned on the mainland, it's accessible using virtual private network software that mask a user's location and Chinese propaganda organizations maintain a robust presence on the platform.The court said Luo had "confessed" to using a false identity for a post that included altered pictures in a bid to attract attention. He later deleted them af
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Jan 23, 2020
(Bloomberg) -- Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar asked Greece to demilitarize 16 Aegean islands near Turkey he claims were illegally armed, in a move that may exacerbate strains in the countries' relations."We expect Greece to act in line with international law and the agreements it has signed," state-run Anadolu Agency cited Akar as saying in Ankara on Wednesday.The two neighbors are already at loggerheads over offshore natural-gas reserves in the eastern Mediterranean. Tensions over conflicting claims have escalated since Turkey and Libya signed a contentious agreement last year that delineates maritime borders and affirms claims of sovereignty over areas of the Mediterranean.Turkey's claims could make it more difficult and costly to build a planned natural-gas pipeline that could link the eastern Mediterranean basin with European markets through Cyprus, Greece and Italy.Greece and Turkey, both NATO members, came close to conflict in 1996 over a pair of uninhabited islets in the Aegean.To contact the reporter on this story: Cagan Koc in Istanbul at ckoc2@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Onur Ant at oant@bloomberg.net, Amy Teibel, Paul AbelskyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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Jan 23, 2020
(Bloomberg) -- Sign up here to receive the Davos Diary, a special daily newsletter that will run from Jan. 20-24.The European Commission's upcoming report on enlargement, which seeks to update the process of accepting new members and mollify objections from France, is vital for the future of the Western Balkans, Croatia's prime minister said.The European Union is trying to revive the longstanding membership hopes of North Macedonia and Albania after French President Emmanuel Macron vetoed a plan in October to let them start accession talks. Citing the need for tougher scrutiny over their respect for the rule of law, Macron's objection has also cast a shadow on the stalled membership paths of Balkan neighbors Serbia and Montenegro."The whole idea is to make the process more political, less bureaucratic, more structured," Croatian Premier Andrej Plenkovic said in an interview on Wednesday on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. "If this report is well received and supported by France, then we will be in a more favorable context."The report will try to address "reservations" held by some other countries that want to see North Macedonia and Albania make more progress in aligning their judiciaries and fighting against graft and organized crime with EU norms.Croatia, which in January took over the EU's six-month rotating presidency, will use its term to advocate for its neighbors, he said.The European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen recently expressed optimism about unblockin
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Jan 23, 2020
Derek Tai was arrested outside Hong Kong's Legislative Council building last June, early in the city's anti-government protests, which have seen millions join demonstrations over the past seven months. Tai, a soft-spoken 21-year-old philosophy major, was one of the first protesters to be arrested. In past cases, defendants have been sentenced to eight months.
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Jan 23, 2020
An elementary school headmaster said Thursday he planned a gold shop robbery in Thailand due to personal and financial problems and apologized to the families of the three people who were killed. A 2-year-old boy was among the victims of the shooting earlier this month that caused public outrage and increased pressure for a swift arrest. Police arrested Prasitthichai Khaokaew, 38, early Wednesday and said he confessed to his crimes during interrogation.
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Jan 23, 2020
Ballistic missile submarines—or as sailors call them, 'boomers.'
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Jan 23, 2020
SHANGHAI/BEIJING (Reuters) - A new coronavirus spreading from the city of Wuhan has put a spotlight on China's poorly regulated wild animal trade - driven by relentless demand for exotic delicacies and ingredients for traditional medicine. China's markets, where wild and often poached animals are packed together, have been described as a breeding ground for disease and an incubator for a multitude of viruses to evolve and jump the species barrier to humans. "The origin of the new coronavirus is the wildlife sold illegally in a Wuhan seafood market," Gao Fu, director of China Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told a briefing.
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Jan 23, 2020
Footage and personal accounts from the city at the center of the coronavirus outbreak showed the extreme measures being used to contain the spread.
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Jan 23, 2020
After spending 18 years teaching students about democracy, Annmarie Small decided it was time to become a United States citizen.Last Thursday, the Tallahassee, Florida, teacher went to the city's federal courthouse and became a naturalized citizen. She wasn't alone -- in addition to the other 74 people who became citizens that day, Small was joined by her fourth grade students. "It has been an amazing experience and it's an honor," she told WTXL. "It's not just for myself, but it's for my students as well and for my community."Small and her son moved to the United States from Jamaica nearly two decades ago, and she said she has always felt supported by her students, their families, and her colleagues. A party was held for Small after the naturalization ceremony, and the guests included her current students as well as several former ones. "It doesn't matter if you're from a different country," she said. "Everybody is the same." More stories from theweek.com Democrats walked right into Mitch McConnell's trap Marianne Williamson backs Andrew Yang in Iowa caucuses because 'we need to lighten up' Michael Bloomberg gets another moderate mayor's endorsement from San Francisco's London Breed
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Jan 23, 2020
Vancouver (AFP) - Protestors outside a Canadian courtroom pressing for the release of a senior Chinese telecommunications executive fighting extradition to the US were paid actors, they told local media.
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Jan 23, 2020
Iran has long sought the withdrawal of American forces from neighboring Iraq, but the U.S. killing of an Iranian general and an Iraqi militia commander in Baghdad has added new impetus to the effort, stoking anti-American feelings that Tehran hopes to exploit to help realize the goal. The Jan. 3 killing has led Iraq's parliament to call for the ouster of U.S. troops, but there are many lingering questions over whether Iran will be able to capitalize on the sentiment. It is not clear whether the protesters will try to recreate a New Year's Eve attack on the U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad by Iran-supported militias in the wake of U.S. airstrikes that killed 25 militiamen along the border with Syria.
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Jan 23, 2020
Democrats on Wednesday accused Donald Trump at his historic Senate impeachment trial of seeking to cheat to ensure re-election in November, and called for "courage" by the president's fellow Republicans while considering the case against him. Adam Schiff, head of the House of Representatives' prosecution team, took to the Senate floor to deliver hours of methodical arguments to a hushed chamber hearing only the third-ever impeachment trial of a US president.
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Jan 23, 2020
The 1900s would have been wholly different if Germany had won the war.
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Jan 23, 2020
At least one person was killed and seven others, including a child, were wounded on Wednesday after a dispute among a group of people escalated into a shootout near a tourist area in downtown Seattle, authorities said. Carmen Best, chief of police in the northwestern US city, told reporters that multiple suspects were being sought in connection with the mass shooting that took place near a McDonald's fast food restaurant, just blocks away from the popular Pike Place Market. Best said witnesses and video footage indicated that the incident unfolded after several people standing in front of the McDonald's got into a dispute and began shooting at each other, hitting bystanders.
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Jan 23, 2020
Residents of China's Wuhan scrambled to stock up on supplies on Thursday as authorities suspended transport links in and out of the city in a bid to stop the spread of a new coronavirus that has raised fears of a global pandemic. It has gone on to kill 17 people and infected nearly 600, most in China but cases have been detected as far away as the United States. Flights out of the city were also being suspended, it said.
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Jan 23, 2020
The beasts are more survivable than they seem.
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Jan 22, 2020
"Obviously, the alleged incident is absolutely antithetical to our fraternity's ideals and values," Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity spokesperson said.
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Jan 22, 2020
The death toll rose to 20 on Thursday from a volcanic eruption on New Zealand's White Island last month, as two people still missing were officially confirmed dead. The two individuals were Hayden Marshall-Inman of New Zealand and Winona Langford of Australia, police said. "The chief coroner has ruled that both Winona and Hayden died on White Island," John Tims, a deputy police commissioner, said in a statement.
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Jan 22, 2020
Amash was the sole Republican who supported Trump's impeachment before becoming an independent, while Gaetz has been a loyal ally to the president.
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Jan 22, 2020
Does it have a new mission now?
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Jan 22, 2020
The attack, which reportedly took place earlier this month, was largely overlooked as tensions between the US and Iran flared.
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Jan 22, 2020
The shooting is the third in Seattle in two days
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Jan 22, 2020
When Epstein was convicted and serving time for procuring an underage girl in Florida for sex, word of his 13 month sentence and his alleged crimes made their way to St. Thomas.
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Jan 22, 2020
After keeping the august members of the U.S. Senate in their seats for roughly 18 of the previous 30 hours, Adam Schiff told the group of not-so-young lawmakers that he and a fellow impeachment manager had just over two hours more to go Wednesday night.
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Jan 22, 2020
Hundreds of Central Americans trying to reach the United States were stuck at the Mexico-Guatemala border on Wednesday after the Mexican government beefed up security to meet U.S. demands to contain migrant flows. Under sustained pressure from President Donald Trump, Mexico's government has adopted tougher measures to reduce the number of people heading towards the U.S. border. Migrants in Tecun Uman, on the Guatemalan side of the border, were taken by surprise.
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Jan 22, 2020
There was no immediate word on a cause or the model of the plane that crashed at Corona Municipal Airport in California.
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Jan 22, 2020
Port-au-Prince (AFP) - Rose Boncoeur brought two emaciated little girls to live in her modest home in Haiti as part of a reform drive aimed at keeping children out of orphanages. The government of the Americas' poorest country is pushing to deinstitutionalize children so as to avoid the darkest sides of orphanage life -- trafficking of kids or even worse abuse. Boncoeur gets no financial help to feed or clothe her two charges, and is forced to ask people for used clothing for her foster children -- sisters, aged eight months and three years.
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Jan 22, 2020
A probable cause document doesn't provide a possible motive for the brutal killings that Rachel Henry is charged with.
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Jan 22, 2020
The Wuhan coronavirus outbreak started in a Chinese wet market, where livestock and poultry are sold alongside animals like dogs, hares, and civets.
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Jan 22, 2020
China has failed to send home North Korean workers by a December deadline in violation of United Nations sanctions, a senior U.S. official said on Wednesday, adding that this was why Washington blacklisted two entities involved in Pyongyang's labor export. A 2017 U.N. Security Council resolution, which China backed, demanded that all countries repatriate all North Korean workers by Dec. 22 to stop them earning foreign currency for North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile programs. The United States has estimated Pyongyang was earning more than $500 million a year from nearly 100,000 workers abroad, of which some 50,000 were in China and 30,000 in Russia.
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Jan 22, 2020
Fox News host Greg Gutfeld on Wednesday argued that the real reason Democrats are impeaching President Donald Trump is that they are "boring people" and the president is "phenomenally interesting."During the 5 PM hour, Fox News decided to air their highly rated conservative panel show The Five instead of sticking with live coverage of the Senate impeachment trial like CNN and MSNBC did.Immediately, Gutfeld blasted the proceedings by saying impeachment had become "so trivial," flinging out an analogy about tattoos to make his case."If you saw somebody with a tattoo you stared at it," he exclaimed. "A war vet or a biker or possibly both but now they're on bass players, there on sorority sisters. Tattoos can be found on middle-age suburbanites at their Peloton class. That's what impeachment is."Co-host Jesse Watters, meanwhile, took to taunting House impeachment manager Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), claiming the House Intelligence Committee chairman "looks like a rotten dandelion" and is the "kind of guy that tucks his t-shirt into his mom jeans."Moments after Watters' juvenile insults aimed at one of the president's favorite targets, Gutfeld further played to Trump's ego by heaping praise upon the president while bashing Democrats."Finally, when you watch this, it's boring," he declared. "That's the real reason why they are impeaching him. These are all really boring people up against a phenomenally interesting person.""This is a bloated cat trying to hack out an orange furba
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Jan 22, 2020
The Chinese city at the heart of a deadly virus outbreak is under effective quarantine, with outward flights and trains suspended, subways halted and large public events cancelled as doctors in full-body protective suits treat patients. The coronavirus has spread across China and beyond, with 17 people killed and more than 500 infected in an outbreak that started in Wuhan -- a central city of 11 million people described by state media as "the main battlefield" against the disease. Most cases are in Wuhan, a major transport hub with a seafood market that has been identified as the epicentre of the epidemic.
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Jan 22, 2020
While President Trump's desire to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden launched his impeachment investigation and eventual trial in the first place, Biden is officially distancing himself from the whole thing.When asked Wednesday if he'd consider testifying in exchange for testimony from former National Security Adviser John Bolton, Biden said he wants "no part of that," per The Washington Post. It's "not an irrational question to ask," Biden conceded, but said "the reason I would not make the deal, the bottom line is, this is a constitutional issue. We're not going to turn it into a farce or political theater."Democrats, namely the House's impeachment managers, have continually pushed for the Senate to allow Bolton to testify in Trump's trial. Bolton has said he would be willing to do so, and even some Republicans have indicated their interest in hearing from him. Other Republicans have insisted they'd like to hear from Hunter Biden as well, with some saying Biden and Bolton's testimonies should be conducted in pairs.Biden's comments follow Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer's (D-N.Y.) assurance earlier in the day that a witness swap was "off the table," even regarding Hunter Biden.More stories from theweek.com Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow says he'd advise the president not to attend his impeachment trial Several senators left the chamber in the middle of Adam Schiff's impeachment remarks The White House is arguing the impeachment articles don't
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Jan 22, 2020
The city of Miami on Wednesday suspended a Hispanic police captain who was strongly condemned after he publicly claimed he was black when fighting accusations that he has derided black people. The Miami Dade Branch of the NAACP had called for Police Capt. Javier Ortiz's resignation earlier this week, saying it was deeply concerned by the comments Ortiz made at a city commission meeting last week. On Wednesday, Miami police spokesman Michael Vega said Ortiz had been relieved of duty pending an investigation.
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Jan 22, 2020
It won't be an easy battle.
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Jan 22, 2020
Juice WRLD, whose real name is Jarad Higgins, died at Chicago Midway Airport on December 8 as police searched his plane for drugs and guns. He was 21.
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Jan 22, 2020
The Senate floor is a tight ship, with lawmakers blocked from bringing food, electronics, and just about every drink with them when they enter it. Yet one 60-year-old precedent provides a loophole to those strict rules — and a senator has finally used it to liven up President Trump's impeachment trial.Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) was the first senator spotted asking for and receiving a glass of milk during the trial, in accordance with a longstanding allowance of dairy in the Senate, CBS News' Grace Segers noted Wednesday. He then got a second glass of milk, CBS News' Julia Boccagno noted, and paired it with a piece of Hershey's chocolate from the Senate's candy desk — seemingly a violation of floor rules.Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C. ) also reportedly acquired a glass of milk, Segers noted later. And in a twist, Segers tweeted that she'd heard Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) actually had some milk the night before. More milk-related news: I've been informed that Ted Cruz drank milk at around midnight last night. Apparently, senators have to provide their own milk to the cloakroom, although they do keep it cold for senators. — Grace Segers (@Grace_Segers) January 22, 2020It's surprising that Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) hasn't engaged in the trend yet, seeing as he was the one who reminded us of the dairy procedure on Tuesday.More stories from theweek.com Giants quarterback Eli Manning retires after 16 seasons The White House is arguing the impeachment articles don't include allegations
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Jan 22, 2020
Pete Buttigieg finds himself in a place that he could hardly have contemplated when he began running for president a year ago: He likely cannot finish lower than second in the Iowa caucuses if he wants to advance in the Democratic presidential nominating campaign. "I'm not sure a win is necessary, but he's got to be in the top two, I would think, to have any chance of moving on," said Joe Trippi, campaign manager for former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean's 2004 presidential campaign. Each of the top four candidates in Iowa faces his or her own version of the challenge.
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Jan 22, 2020
The lawsuit said Clinton's comments had damaged the presidential candidacy of Gabbard, a U.S. representative from Hawaii, and were motivated by anger over Gabbard's endorsement in 2016 of Clinton's Democratic nominating contest rival, Bernie Sanders. "Clinton got exactly what she wanted by lying about Tulsi - she harmed her political and personal rival's reputation and ongoing presidential campaign, and started a damaging whisper campaign based on baseless, but vicious, untruths," said the lawsuit, filed in federal court in New York.
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Jan 22, 2020
Under a proposed federal rule, airlines wouldn't be required to accept emotional support animals, and would exclude service animals other than dogs.
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Jan 22, 2020
Former Vice President Joe Biden seemingly doesn't want to hear about his apparent feud with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).After an Iowa campaign event on Wednesday, Biden walked off the stage in a pretty typical way: followed by reporters asking him questions. But one from CBS News' Ed O'Keefe about Sanders seemingly sent him over the edge.As Biden left the stage, O'Keefe asked why he was attacking Sanders after just accepting his apology a day earlier. "Why wasn't his apology enough, Mr. Vice President?" O'Keefe asked. Biden stopped, turned around, and peppered O'Keefe with a barrage of "why why why why why." "You're getting nervous, man! Calm down," Biden then said before briefly answering the question. WATCH: After a campaign event in Mason City, Iowa, @joebiden reacts to @edokeefe's question about his ongoing feud with @berniesanders: "Calm down, it's okay." https://t.co/a2hmMbnjnf pic.twitter.com/ymOMWRR2zP — CBS News (@CBSNews) January 22, 2020O'Keefe's question stems from one of Sanders' supporters accusing Biden of having a "corruption problem" in an op-ed, and another putting together a video purportedly showing Biden opposing social security. Sanders apologized for the op-ed but not for the video, as Biden pointed out to CBS News.More stories from theweek.com Giants quarterback Eli Manning retires after 16 seasons The White House is arguing the impeachment articles don't include allegations of a quid pro quo because the exact words don't appear Several senators
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Jan 22, 2020
The weather in Florida has been so cold, iguanas are falling from trees. People are selling their meat.
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Jan 22, 2020
Four people were killed Wednesday in the crash of a small airplane at a Southern California airfield, authorities said. The plane went down at Corona Municipal Airport, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) east of Los Angeles, police said. Four fatalities were confirmed, the Corona Fire Department said on Twitter.
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Jan 22, 2020
As House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) delivered his remarks during Wednesday's impeachment proceedings, several senators — on both sides — reportedly grew restless.Some lawmakers, like Sens. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) and Tim Scott (R-S.C.), were reportedly standing for the last hour of Schiff's presentation, while Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) were caught roaming around. A few folks were reportedly waiting impatiently by the door, and others like Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Jim Risch (R-Idaho), who was caught taking a quick snooze during Tuesday's portion of the trial, felt the need to get their blood pumping and left the room completely.It appears that Schiff could sense the atmosphere and subsequently gave everyone a 10-minute warning, but that reportedly just propelled people to bolt for the door even more quickly. All told, there were somewhere between 20 and 30 empty chairs by the end of the speech. Talk about restlessness: Senators were expecting a brief recess at 3:08. A half dozen Rs were literally waiting by the door. When Schiff declared he had 10 mins left, many bolted for the exits anyways. I counted 20 empty desks on R side, and 6 on Dem side. — Sarah Ferris (@sarahnferris) January 22, 2020Sure, it's not the best look for elected members of the upper chamber deliberating over something as historic as impeachment, but they've had a long couple of days. Sometimes you just need to stretch your legs.More stori
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Jan 22, 2020
A Tennessee inmate has chosen the electric chair for his scheduled execution next month, opting like four other inmates in little more than a year for electrocution over the state's preferred execution method of lethal injection. Nicholas Sutton, 58, is scheduled to be put to death Feb. 20 for the stabbing death of a fellow inmate decades ago while serving a life sentence for his grandmother's slaying. An affidavit signed on Tuesday said he waives the right to be executed by lethal injection and chooses electrocution.
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Jan 22, 2020
A teenager in Utah accused of fatally shooting four of his relatives and wounding a fifth will be charged as an adult as soon as Wednesday, a prosecutor said.
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Jan 22, 2020
Wuhan, China, is on lockdown following the outbreak of a coronavirus in the city. The Chinese government decided Wednesday that it was necessary to quarantine the city, which is home to more than 11 million, by shutting down intra-city public transportation. Outbound flights and trains will also be canceled for the time being as efforts to learn more about the virus and how it spreads continue. The illness is believed to have started in Wuhan and has spread to several other countries, including a reported case in the United States. Overall, there have been more than 500 confirmed cases and 17 deaths.Despite the preventative measures being taken in Wuhan, the World Health Organization said Wednesday that it wasn't ready to declare the outbreak a global emergency. That could very well still happen -- and soon -- but at the moment things apparently aren't clear enough for the United Nations agency to issue that designation. Tim O'Donnell Here's why the World Health Organization delayed declaring the Chinese coronavirus outbreak a global health emergency pic.twitter.com/orzgpr7kRt -- QuickTake by Bloomberg (@QuickTake) January 22, 2020More stories from theweek.com Woman reunites with long-lost father after he's a suggested Facebook friend Several senators left the chamber in the middle of Adam Schiff's impeachment remarks The White House is arguing the impeachment articles don't include allegations of a quid pro quo because the
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Jan 22, 2020
Details about Hunter Biden could complicate life for Joe Biden — exactly what Trump was trying to do with his Ukraine scheme last summer.
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Jan 22, 2020
Chinese authorities are placing the city of Wuhan under quarantine in an attempt to slow the outbreak of a new coronavirus that originated in the city.The state-owned China Daily announced that trains and flights to Wuhan would be temporarily suspended. Local government authorities also announced that public transportation within the city would be curtailed by Thursday."There has already been human-to-human transmission and infection of medical workers," deputy director of the National Health Commission Li Bin said at a Wednesday news conference. "Evidence has shown that the disease has been transmitted through the respiratory tract and there is the possibility of viral mutation."The World Health Organization announced at a separate press conference on Wednesday that it had decided not to declare a world emergency regarding the outbreak, but agreed to continue monitoring the situation.Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province in central China, has already seen a number of cases of the virus. In total the virus has infected over 500 people and killed 17.On Tuesday the Center for Disease Control reported the first confirmed case of the virus in the United States. A man from Washington State contracted the virus while on a visit to Wuhan. Other cases have been reported in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand.The Wuhan virus is from the same family of coronaviruses as SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, which killed over 800 people worldwide in an outbreak toward the end of 2002.
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Jan 22, 2020
(Bloomberg) -- Mexico's Senate is set to debate bills to legalize marijuana and regulate outsourcing in the coming period from February to April.The Senate will debate a bill co-authored by Senate Majority Leader Ricardo Monreal to regulate planting, production, labeling, sales and distribution, and would make it free for medical use, according to a document sent by the senator's office. It would also create the Mexican Institute for Regulation and Control of Cannabis to create rules for points of sale and the allowed THC contents for products.While marijuana has been increasingly legalized in the U.S., its use remains restricted in Mexico. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has said he'd consider legalizing the drug or regulating its use, but it's not a priority of his security strategy, which instead focuses on rooting out corruption and providing opportunities for young people so they don't turn to drugs and crime.Also on the list of bills to be debated this session is a justice reform that raised controversy after an initial draft included changes to the constitution to allow prosecutors to monitor phone calls and emails. Legislation to fight climate change is also on the docket, according to Monreal's office. The Mexican Senate will take up these topics in its regular session that runs from Feb. 1 to April 30. Monreal's Morena party holds a majority in both houses of congress.When it comes to outsourcing, Monreal has said the practice will be debated to improve its regulation. A proposed bill that would have banned outsourcing outright was postponed after business chambers raised concern about the legislation. The practice is criticized by some labor activists who say it help
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Jan 22, 2020
WASHINGTON -- Armed with rifles and explosives, about a dozen al-Shabab fighters destroyed an American surveillance plane as it was taking off and ignited an hourslong gunfight this month on a sprawling military base in Kenya that houses U.S. troops. By the time al-Shabab was done, portions of the airfield were burning, and three Americans were dead.Surprised by the attack, U.S. commandos took around an hour to respond. Many of the local Kenyan forces, assigned to defend the base, hid in the grass, while other U.S. troops and support staff were corralled into tents, with little protection, to wait out the battle. It would require hours to evacuate one of the wounded to a military hospital in Djibouti, roughly 1,500 miles away.The brazen assault at Manda Bay, a sleepy seaside base near the Somali border, on Jan. 5, was largely overshadowed by the crisis with Iran after the killing of that country's most important general two days earlier and is only now drawing closer scrutiny from Congress and Pentagon officials.But the storming of an airfield used by the U.S. military so alarmed the Pentagon that it immediately sent about 100 troops from the 101st Airborne Division to establish security at the base. Army Green Berets from Germany were shuttled to Djibouti, the Pentagon's major hub in Africa, in case the entire base was in danger of being taken by al-Shabab, an East African terrorist group affiliated with al-Qaida."The assault represented a serious security lapse given how much of a target the base was
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Jan 22, 2020
A former Oklahoma zookeeper and one-time candidate for governor was sentenced Wednesday to 22 years in prison for his role in a murder-for-hire plot and violating federal wildlife laws. A federal judge in Oklahoma City sentenced 56-year-old Joseph Allen Maldonado-Passage — who is also known as "Joe Exotic" — for trying to arrange the killing of a Florida animal sanctuary founder who criticized his treatment of animals. The woman, Carole Baskin, wasn't harmed.
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Jan 22, 2020
Mr. Peanut was murdered by ad execs for a Super Bowl commercial
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Jan 22, 2020
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, on a visit to Jamaica on Wednesday, cautioned nations against taking "easy money" from China, warning it could be counterproductive, in a second attack in as many days against China's economic role in the region. On Tuesday, he drew the ire of Chinese officials when he said "flashy" Chinese economic promises often produces debt dependency and erode the sovereignty of borrower nations.
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Jan 22, 2020
Democrats officially kicked off their opening arguments in the impeachment trial of President Trump Wednesday with a bit of a shift in tone after one particularly contentious late-night exchange.Near the end of an impeachment trial session beginning Tuesday, House Judiciary Committee Chair Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) on the Senate floor accused Republican senators of "voting for a cover up" as he argued in favor of an amendment to subpoena former National Security Adviser John Bolton, per The Wall Street Journal. Nadler also suggested Republicans were engaging in "treacherous" behavior, The Washington Post reports. Republicans throughout the day on Wednesday slammed Nadler for his statement; Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) told CNN it was "insulting and outrageous," while Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said the comment "offended her" and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said in a press conference, "To my Democratic colleagues, you can say what you want about me but I am covering up nothing."Following this criticism, House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) began Democrats' opening arguments Wednesday with a less combative tone, thanking senators for having "paid attention to every word and argument you heard from both sides" the day before."I want to begin today by thanking you for the conduct of the proceedings yesterday and for inviting your patience as you go forward," Schiff added. "We have
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Jan 22, 2020
Religious conservatives asked the Supreme Court Wednesday to overturn 38 state constitutional amendments and require taxpayers to fund religious schools.You read that right. The case, Espinoza v. Montana Dept. of Revenue isn't about whether a state may fund religious schools through a school choice, voucher, or similar program. It's about whether it must.And the conservatives might just win.At issue in the case, probably the most significant church-state case on the 2019-20 docket, is Montana's "no-aid" amendment to its state constitution, which was revised and passed in 1972. Like similar amendments in 37 other states, it prohibits "direct or indirect funding" for any "sectarian purpose."In 2015, the state legislature passed a law that gave a tax credit of up to $150 for donations to a school scholarship program. But in 2018, the Montana Supreme Court struck down the program, saying it violated the 1972 constitutional provision.[JM1] That's when a group of religious organizations upped the ante. They went to the Supreme Court, seeking not just to reinstate the program but to toss out the "no-aid" amendment entirely - and, as a consequence, invalidate 37 similar amendments across the country.That would open the floodgates to the funding of religious schools, especially since the plaintiffs argue that not funding them—previously the constitutional norm—is actually a form of discrimination.As in many of these cases, how Espinoza looks depends on how
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Jan 22, 2020
The military balance will never be the same.
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Private Label