| Defeated governor pardons man convicted of decapitating woman and stuffing her body into barrel Posted: 13 Dec 2019 12:01 PM PST  Outgoing Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin commuted the sentence on Monday of a man who had been convicted of decapitating a woman and disposing of her body in a 55-gallon barrel.
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| Sanders retracts controversial endorsement less than 24 hours after making it Posted: 13 Dec 2019 02:03 PM PST  Sen. Bernie Sanders retracted his endorsement of congressional candidate Cenk Uygur on Friday, less than 24 hours after making it, as allegations of sexism hit the former online talk show host.
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| Pawn shop operator Ahmed A-Hady arrested as Jersey City shooting investigation expands Posted: 15 Dec 2019 09:22 AM PST  A pawn shop operator was arrested on a weapons charge as authorities expanded their investigation into last week's Jersey City shooting rampage.
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| Judge's decision may shine light on secret Trump-Putin meeting notes Posted: 13 Dec 2019 10:49 AM PST  A district court judge in Washington, D.C. has ordered administration lawyers to explain why, for more than two years, the White House has refused to turn over to the State Department an interpreter's notes from a meeting between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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| Operation Plunder: How 1 Hellish Battle Slowed The Allies' Capture Of Nazi Germany Posted: 14 Dec 2019 06:30 PM PST  The battle was utter hell.
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| Kamala Harris flames out: Black people didn't trust her, and they were wise not to Posted: 14 Dec 2019 02:00 AM PST  Younger blacks and black progressives took a deeper, dispassionate dive into Kamala Harris' real-world record. They didn't like what they found
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| Decades on, Soviet bombs still killing people in Afghanistan Posted: 14 Dec 2019 07:26 PM PST  Gholam Mahaiuddin sighs softly as he thinks of his 14-year-old son, who was killed in the spring by a bomb dropped last century in the hills of Bamiyan province in central Afghanistan. "We knew the mountain was dangerous," said Mahaiuddin, who found his son's remains after he didn't come home one day. Forty years after the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan -- and three decades since the conflict ended -- the war's legacy continues to claim lives across the country.
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| Kentucky's new Democratic governor hits the ground running Posted: 14 Dec 2019 05:05 AM PST  Just days into his term as Kentucky's governor, Democrat Andy Beshear already has checked off some big priorities from his to-do list: a new state school board installed; the education commissioner gone; more than 140,000 nonviolent felons' voting rights restored. "This week's actions are pieces of cake compared to what he faces in terms of building a budget and getting a program through the legislature," longtime Kentucky political commentator Al Cross said. Beshear's aggressive start as governor was possible because he did most of it with executive orders, fulfilling promises he had made during the campaign.
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| Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warns Iran of 'decisive response' if harm in Iraq Posted: 13 Dec 2019 03:52 PM PST  Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday warned Iran of a "decisive" response if U.S. interests are harmed in Iraq, after a series of rocket attacks on bases.
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| 'I'm 13': Killing in Park Yields Startling Suspects Posted: 14 Dec 2019 07:07 AM PST  NEW YORK -- The murder suspect walked into the courtroom Friday wearing black sweatpants, Air Jordan sneakers and a navy hoodie. He bit his bottom lip nervously as a court officer asked his name, then his age."I'm 13," he said.The deadly stabbing of an 18-year-old Barnard College student, Tessa Majors, as she walked in a park near the school's Manhattan campus has jarred New York City, recalling an era decades ago when violent street crime was far more common.But also shocking have been revelations about ages of two of the suspects: They are 13 and 14 years old."This makes what was already an excruciating tragedy even more painful," said City Councilman Mark Levine, who represents the neighborhood where Majors was stabbed. "You now have families on both sides of this horrific crime who are facing devastating loss."Majors, a first-year college student from Virginia who was interested in journalism and played in a rock band, was walking through Morningside Park in upper Manhattan on Wednesday night when three teenagers tried to rob her, police said.In court Friday, a detective laid out a chilling account of the struggle that ended with Majors' death.One of her assailants pulled a knife and stabbed her several times. As the group fled, Majors staggered up a flight of stairs, out of the park and onto the street, where a campus security guard found her.A folding knife with a blade roughly 4 inches long was found nearby and was being tested for DNA and fingerprints, a law enforcement official said.At Friday's hearing, Detective Vincent Signoretti testified that the 13-year-old boy, whom The New York Times is not naming because he is not being charged as an adult, told police that he and two other teenagers had gone to Morningside Park specifically to rob people."They followed a man with the intention of robbing him and decided not to," Signoretti said.The trio later spotted Majors in the park, he said. The boy told Signoretti that he watched his two friends grab the student, put her into a chokehold and remove items from her pockets, the officer testified.Then, shortly before 7 p.m., the boy watched as his friend slashed the young woman with a knife and feathers from the stuffing of her coat came flying out, the detective testified.The boy was arrested on trespassing charges Thursday evening in a building near the park and interviewed by detectives with his uncle present, officials said. His statements led investigators to the other suspects, one law enforcement official said.One of those suspects, who is 14, was detained and interviewed Friday, the official said. A second official said that he had a lawyer present when he was interviewed.The third suspect is believed to be the person who stabbed Majors and as of Friday evening was still being sought, the first official said.The 13-year-old, who lives in Harlem and is 5 feet 5 inches tall, has not been formally charged with a crime. A judge ordered he be held until Tuesday, when he is due back in court for another hearing. He is expected to be arraigned eventually on charges of second-degree felony murder, robbery and criminal possession of a weapon.Rachel Glantz, an attorney for New York City, said at the hearing that the allegations were "the most serious charges that can come before a family court."Under New York state law, minors charged with intentional murder can be tried as adults. But the 13-year-old will be prosecuted in family court because he is facing a charge of felony murder, meaning that he is not accused of stabbing the woman but of taking part in robbery during which Majors was killed.The boy's lawyer, Hannah Kaplan with the Legal Aid Society, said police did not have any evidence beyond the boy's statement. She added that he had never been arrested before."There is no allegation my client touched the complainant in this case," Kaplan said. "He was merely present when this took place."The skinny teenager sat at the defense table slightly hunched over as public defenders whispered into his ear during the hearing. The boy's aunt and uncle, Shaquoya Carr and Roosevelt Davis, who are his guardians, sat directly behind him. Davis appeared to wipe away tears.After the hearing ended, a court officer placed handcuffs on the 13-year-old, tightening them to fit his slender wrists.Reached by phone, another aunt, Sonia Davis, said she did not believe the boy took part in the murder."No, I don't think he did this, not at all," Sonia Davis said. Of Majors' killing, she said, "I do feel bad for her and the family."The seemingly random killing of Majors in a park of symbolic importance to the community surrounding it, rattling university students and other city residents."It's just crazy," said Tyrone Singleton, 53, a building superintendent who lives near the park. "It's sad they took that girl's life for nothing. I'm ready to get up out of here."Majors grew up in Charlottesville, Virginia, and had just moved to New York for her first semester of college. She spent her weekends singing and playing punk rock. She and her band, Patient 0, had just put out their first album in the fall, and they had played their first New York City concert in October.Her father, Robert Inman Majors, who goes by his middle name, is a novelist and teaches creative writing at James Madison University in Virginia."We are devastated by the senseless loss of our beautiful and talented Tess," her family said in a statement Friday. "We are thankful for the incredible outpouring of love and support we have received from across the country."The park where Tessa Majors was stabbed, near the campuses of Barnard College and Columbia University, is in a precinct in Harlem that has grown safer over the years, with major crimes declining drastically there over the last 20 years, according to police data. The precinct had only one other murder so far this year."It's terrifying to think that that could happen anywhere," Mayor Bill de Blasio said at a news conference Thursday. "It's unbelievable to me that that could happen here, next to one of our great college campuses."But residents have raised concerns about persistent crime in Morningside Park, even as the neighborhood around it improves, and playgrounds and ballfields replace desolate patches once strewn with crack vials.Earlier this year, several people reported that they had been approached from behind in the park and punched by young people.As of Sunday, there had been 20 robberies reported inside Morningside Park or on its perimeter this year, compared to seven in the same period last year.Since June, five people have reported being robbed on or near the staircase at 116th Street and Morningside Drive, near the location where Majors was stabbed. Recently, police said, several teenagers had been arrested in a pattern of robberies in the area.Levine, the city councilman, said officials needed to do more to keep the park safe, including filling gaps in lighting and boosting surveillance camera coverage, which he called spotty.Tom Baker, 73, has lived on the Upper West Side and has had an affiliation with Columbia since 1964. He said he feared the killing of Majors would cause a return to a bygone mentality of fear that once divided the university from the surrounding neighborhoods. Majors, he said, "was somebody who had no idea what the old Columbia rules were.""In the old days, nobody went through Morningside Park -- at all," he said. "Ever."He said he had been pleased to see the neighborhood become safer in the last 25 years. Still, he said Wednesday's murder was deeply troubling."It makes you wonder, are we going back? Is the city on its way down?" Baker asked. "My prediction would be that they are going to revert to the old rules by instinct."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
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| Zimbabwe vice president's wife arrested for suspected fraud, money laundering Posted: 15 Dec 2019 05:29 AM PST ![Zimbabwe vice president's wife arrested for suspected fraud, money laundering]( "Zimbabwe vice president's wife arrested for suspected fraud, money laundering") Zimbabwean authorities arrested the wife of Vice President Constantino Chiwenga on charges of money laundering, fraud and violating exchange control regulations, the country's anti Corruption Commission (ZACC) said on Sunday. Marry Mubaiwa was arrested on Saturday evening and will likely appear in court on Monday, ZACC spokesman John Makamure said. Appointed by President Emmerson Mnangagwa this year, ZACC is under pressure to show that it can tackle high-level graft, which watchdog Transparency International estimates is costing the country $1 billion annually.
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| Pelosi announces U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade deal Posted: 14 Dec 2019 11:30 PM PST  House Democratic leaders announced a deal on a trade agreement with Canada and Mexico.
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| Is Congress Set to Open U.S. Banks to Drug Cartels? Posted: 15 Dec 2019 12:04 AM PST  Should we let them?
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| Supreme Court to decide Native American land dispute in Oklahoma Posted: 13 Dec 2019 03:43 PM PST  Ten states, from Maine to Texas to Montana, have warned that the boundaries of Native American lands have jurisdictional consequences there as well.
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| An influencer and model said she isn't doing a gender reveal because 'that may not be who my child decides to be' Posted: 13 Dec 2019 01:35 PM PST  Iskra Lawrence is among influencers making money for documenting their pregnancies, but she's not cashing in on her baby's sex.
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| New Zealand eruption death toll rises to 18 Posted: 14 Dec 2019 11:53 PM PST  The death toll from New Zealand's White Island volcano eruption rose to 18 Sunday, including two people whose bodies have not been recovered, police said. Deputy police commissioner Mike Clement said there was "every chance" the bodies had been washed into the sea from the stream where they were last seen Monday. The death toll now stands at 18 after an Australian victim who had been repatriated to Sydney died in hospital almost a week after the deadly eruption.
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| Judge: 234K Wisconsin voter registrations should be tossed; victory for conservatives Posted: 13 Dec 2019 04:36 PM PST  A Wisconsin judge on Friday ordered that the registration of up to 234,000 voters be tossed out because they may have moved, a victory for conservatives that could make it more difficult for people to vote next year in the key swing state.
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| Challenge to immigration law is tossed on eve of enactment Posted: 13 Dec 2019 12:47 PM PST  A law that will allow New Yorkers to get driver's licenses without having to prove they are in the country legally weathered a second court challenge Friday, days before its enactment. A federal district judge ruled against Rensselaer County Clerk Frank Merola, saying he lacked the legal capacity to bring the lawsuit. Merola, a Republican, had argued that the state law conflicts with federal immigration law.
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| A Mobster's Murder, and the Jockeying to Move Up the Hierarchy Posted: 14 Dec 2019 07:20 AM PST  NEW YORK -- On a quiet night in March, a mob leader was executed in New York City for the first time since 1985. The body of Francesco Cali, a reputed boss of the Gambino crime family, lay crumpled outside his Staten Island home, pierced by at least six bullets.Hours later, two soldiers in the Gambino family talked on the phone. One of them, Vincent Fiore, said he had just read a "short article" about the "news," according to prosecutors.No tears were shed for their fallen leader. The murder was "a good thing," Fiore, 57, said on the call. The vacuum at the top meant that Andrew Campos, described by authorities as the Gambino captain who ran Fiore's crew, was poised to gain more power.Cali's death was just the beginning of surprises to come for the Gambino family.Last week, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn charged Fiore and 11 others in a sprawling racketeering scheme linked to the Gambinos, once the country's preeminent organized crime dynasty. The charges stemmed from a yearslong investigation involving wiretapped calls, physical surveillance and even listening devices installed inside an office where mob associates worked.As part of the case, the government released a court filing that offered an extremely rare glimpse at the reactions inside a Mafia family to the murder of their boss -- a curious mix of mourning and jockeying for power. The case showed that life in the mob can be just as petty as life in a corporate cubicle."Mob guys are the biggest gossips in the world," said James J. Hunt, the former head of the Drug Enforcement Administration's office in New York. "You think they're tough guys, but they're all looking out for themselves. The only way they get promoted is by a guy dying or going to jail."While Fiore initially plotted how Cali's death would help him and his faction, he adopted a different tone when calling his own ex-wife a few days later, prosecutors said. He warmly referred to Cali as "Frankie" and seemed to mourn the boss as a man who "was loved." He speculated about the killer's motive, saying he had watched the surveillance tape from Cali's home that captured the murder.Vincent Fiore appeared ambitious, court documents showed, eager to reveal his connections to other gangs and organized crime families. About two weeks after Cali's death, Fiore bragged in another wiretapped conversation about how he could take revenge on students who had hit his son at school, a government filing said.Fiore talked first about sending his daughter to beat the students up.But he also had other options, he said on the call. His ex-wife's father was a Latin King, her nephews were Bloods, and her cousin was a member of the Ching-a-Lings, the South Bronx motorcycle gang.Vincent Fiore and the other defendants have each pleaded not guilty to the charges. A lawyer for Fiore did not respond to a request for comment.Despite decades of declining influence in New York City, the Gambino family, led by the notoriously flashy John J. Gotti in the 1980s, is still raking in millions of dollars, according to the government. Prosecutors said they had evidence that the family had maintained its long-standing coziness with the construction industry, infiltrating high-end Manhattan properties.The indictments accused Gambino associates of bribing a real estate executive to skim hundreds of thousands of dollars from New York City construction projects, including the XI, a luxury building with two twisting towers being built along the High Line park in West Chelsea.At the height of their power in the 1980s and early 1990s, the Gambinos and other organized crime families had a stranglehold on New York City construction, through their control of construction unions and the concrete business.Some of the defendants charged last week operated a carpentry company called CWC Contracting Corp., which prosecutors said paid kickbacks to real estate developers in exchange for contracts.Despite the scramble after Cali's death in March, the Gambino crime family continued to thrive through fraud, bribery and extortion, investigators said.The wiretaps quoted in court papers hinted at the crime family's capacity for violence. One of the defendants was recorded in April claiming that he had a fight in a diner and "stabbed the kid, I don't know, 1,000 times with a fork." Inside another defendant's home and vehicle, agents found brass knuckles and a large knife that appeared to have blood on it.Among the notable names in last week's takedown were two longtime Gambino members, Andrew Campos and Richard Martino, who were once considered by Gotti to be rising stars in the Mafia, according to former officials."John was enamored by these guys," said Philip Scala, a retired FBI agent who supervised the squad investigating the Gambino family. "He couldn't believe what they were doing. These kids were making millions of dollars as entrepreneurs."In particular, Martino has long been viewed by mob investigators as somewhat of a white-collar crime genius, former officials said. Prosecutors have previously accused him of orchestrating the largest consumer fraud of the 1990s, which netted close to $1 billion. One part of that scheme involved a fake pornography website that lured users with the promise of a free tour and then charged their credit cards without their knowledge.Campos, 50, and Martino, 60, each pleaded guilty in 2005 to their role in the fraud and served time in federal prison.But as soon as they were released, the government said, they returned to the family business.Martino is now accused of hiding his wealth from the government to avoid paying the full $9.1 million forfeiture from his earlier case.After Martino's release from prison in 2014, he still controlled companies that conducted millions of dollars in transactions, using intermediaries to obscure his involvement, the government alleged. This included investments in pizzerias on Long Island and in Westchester County, according to a person familiar with the matter.Martino's lawyer, Maurice Sercarz, said his client fully paid the required forfeiture before reporting to prison. He added, "The suggestion that Mr. Martino concealed his ownership of businesses and bank accounts to avoid this obligation ignores or misrepresents his financial circumstances."Campos, meanwhile, climbed the ranks to become a captain inside the Gambino family, according to prosecutors.Henry E. Mazurek, a lawyer for Campos, said the government's photos and surveillance footage of his client were not evidence of a crime. "The government presents a trumped-up case that substitutes old lore for actual evidence," Mazurek said.After searching Campos' home in Scarsdale, New York, a wealthy suburb north of New York City, investigators found traces of a storied mob legacy. In his closet there were photos taken during his visits with Martino to see Frank Locascio, Gotti's former consigliere, or counselor, in prison.Locascio is serving a life sentence. He was convicted in 1992 alongside Gotti by the same U.S. attorney's office that brought last week's indictment. Gotti, who died in prison in 2002, was found guilty of, among other things, ordering the killing of Paul Castellano in 1985, the last time a Gambino boss was gunned down in the street.On March 14, the day after Cali's death, Campos drove into Manhattan around 5:50 p.m. to discuss the circumstances of the murder with Gambino family members, seemingly unaware that law enforcement was tracking his every move.He parked near a pizzeria on the Upper East Side, according to a person familiar with the matter. As the night progressed, he met with Gambino family captains on the Upper East Side and near a church in Brooklyn. They stood in the street, chatting openly, but law enforcement officials could not hear the conversations.Several days later, Campos and Fiore drove to Staten Island for a secret meeting. A group of about eight high-level Gambino lieutenants gathered to discuss Cali's murder, a court filing said. In a wiretapped call the next day, Fiore complained that he had stayed out past midnight.Fiore said on the call that a woman had been at Cali's home the night of his death, pointing to her as a possible connection. Court papers do not reveal the woman's identity.Nobody within the mob family seemed to suspect the person who was charged: a 25-year-old who appeared to have no clear motive.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
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| 9 Dem candidates demand DNC toss out current debate rules Posted: 15 Dec 2019 12:07 AM PST  Party officials signaled Saturday that they are unlikely to budge and change the rules.
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| Mortal Enemy? How Does the People's Liberation Army View the United States? Posted: 14 Dec 2019 04:30 PM PST  Enemy or adversary?
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| Switzerland Plans to Send Its Old Fighter Jets Back to the U.S. Posted: 15 Dec 2019 08:34 AM PST ![Switzerland Plans to Send Its Old Fighter Jets Back to the U.S.]( "Switzerland Plans to Send Its Old Fighter Jets Back to the U.S.") (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. is expected to buy 22 aging fighter jets from Switzerland, a country that's struggling to modernize its own air force.U.S. Navy representatives and the Swiss defense procurement agency, known as Armasuisse, discussed the deal in July, an agency spokesman said by email on Sunday. The contract is expected to be signed once U.S. lawmakers approve the fiscal 2020 defense budget, he said.President Donald Trump is seeking $718 billion in Pentagon funding for 2020, including $39.7 million for the F-5s, an aircraft first delivered to Switzerland in 1978. Nowadays, the U.S. uses the F-5 to simulate enemy planes in aerial combat training.Switzerland has been trying to buy new warplanes for years. Voters in 2014 rejected a 3.1 billion-franc ($3.2 billion) order for Saab AB Gripen fighter jets. Switzerland now plans to spend about 6 billion francs on new fighter jets, according to SonntagsZeitung newspaper and previous Swiss media reports."If the Americans want to take over the scrap iron, they should do it," Beat Flach, a Green Liberal lawmaker, told SonntagsZeitung, which reported on the planned sale on Sunday. "It's better than having the Tigers rot in a parking lot."To contact the reporter on this story: Albertina Torsoli in Geneva at atorsoli@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Beth Mellor at bmellor@bloomberg.net, Tony Czuczka, James AmottFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Hong Konger 'missing' after crossing China bridge checkpoint Posted: 15 Dec 2019 03:27 AM PST  Hong Kong's immigration department said Sunday they have received reports a man went missing on a cross-border mega bridge to the gambling hub of Macau that currently hosts a Chinese mainland police checkpoint. The disappearance first emerged on Saturday when the man's son told local media his father had texted to say he was being detained while passing through an artificial island manned by Chinese police on his way to the semi-autonomous city of Macau. The man was travelling by bus on Friday afternoon along the bridge-and-tunnel network linking Hong Kong, Macau and mainland city Zhuhai, his son said.
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| The US quietly expelled two suspected Chinese spies after they drove onto a secretive military base in Virginia Posted: 15 Dec 2019 08:13 AM PST  The incident is the first time Chinese diplomats have been suspected of spying on US soil in more than 30 years.
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| Five Italians sentenced to jail for gang rape of British tourist in popular holiday resort Posted: 15 Dec 2019 01:30 AM PST  Five Italians have been jailed for the gang rape of a British woman in the popular resort of Meta di Sorrento, south of Naples. The men, who were all employees of a hotel where the woman was staying, set up a WhatsApp group after the rape which they called "Bad Habits". They were accused of slipping the 50-year-old Kent woman a date rape drug and then subjecting her to multiple rapes in the Hotel Alimuri on the night of October 6 2016. They filmed and took photos of the assault and some were identified by tattoos on their bodies. The woman was on holiday with her 25-year-old daughter, who went to bed early on the night the attack happened and was not targeted by the Italians. They were sentenced on Friday to prison terms of between four and nine years by a court in the nearby town of Torre Annunziata. The rapists were named as Gennaro Davide Gargiulo, who was given the heaviest sentence of nine years; Antonino Miniero and Fabio De Virgilio, who were sentenced to eight years; Francesco D'Antonio, who will go to jail for seven years; and Raffaele Regio, who was given a four-year sentence. Sorrento is popular with British tourists Credit: Look The British victim was not in court but had been in "a state of anxiety all day" while awaiting the verdict from a panel of three judges, said Lucilla Longone, her Italian lawyer. She was "delighted" with the tough sentences handed down, her lawyer said. When the sentences were read out there was uproar in court, with the defendants' families shouting and yelling abuse at the judges. Police officers escorted the judges out of the courthouse through a side entrance as around 30 relatives hurled threats at them. The woman was allegedly given a date-rape drug in a drink that she accepted from two of the Italians on the last night of her holiday. The two barmen then took her to a nearby swimming pool and raped her. They then passed her onto the other men, who raped her in a part of the hotel used as staff accommodation. The men photographed her and later shared the photos on a WhatsApp group that they called "Bad Habits". The judges will deliver their "motivazione" or explanation of the guilty verdicts within 90 days, as is customary under Italian law. Meta di Sorrento is close to Sorrento, a picturesque town which commands views of the Bay of Naples and is a favoured base for exploring the Amalfi Coast, Pompeii and the island of Capri. When the men were arrested, Costanzo Iaccarino, the head of the local hoteliers' association, said he was appalled by what had happened. "We treat our guests with great care and the British, for us, have always been our preferred visitors. We participate in travel fairs in London every year." Sorrento is so popular with tourists from Britain that one guidebook nicknames it "Eastbourne-on-the-Med".
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| China welcomes preliminary deal in trade war it blames on US Posted: 14 Dec 2019 12:27 AM PST  China expressed cautious optimism Saturday about a first-step trade agreement that dials down a trade war it blames the U.S. for starting. Chinese experts and news media joined government officials in saying the deal would reduce uncertainty for companies, at least in the short term. "It at least stabilizes the situation and lays a foundation for the next round of trade talks or canceling additional tariffs in the future," said Tu Xinquan, a professor at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing.
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| How Would America Fight If the Tomahawk Missile Didn't Exist? Posted: 14 Dec 2019 08:15 PM PST  An important counterfactual.
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| Bolivia's interim leader says arrest warrant to be issued against Morales Posted: 14 Dec 2019 07:07 PM PST  Bolivia will issue an arrest warrant in the coming days against former leftist President Evo Morales, accusing him of sedition, interim Bolivian President Jeanine Anez said on Saturday. Morales is in Argentina, granted refugee status this week just days after the inauguration of new President Alberto Fernandez. Peronist Fernandez succeeded outgoing conservative Argentine leader Mauricio Macri, who lost his bid for re-election in October.
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| Why is the president of the United States cyberbullying a 16-year-old girl? Posted: 14 Dec 2019 03:15 AM PST  What it says to girls is: no matter what you do, no matter how much you achieve, powerful men will try to cut you downThe morning after election day 2016, I got a call from a girls' school in New York where I was scheduled to speak. "We have to reschedule," said a representative from the school. "The girls are too upset."Girls across the country were upset when Trump was elected, but not simply on partisan grounds. They were upset because Donald Trump was a bully, a cyberbully, and he bullied girls and young women like them – women like the former Miss Universe Alicia Machado, who revealed that, when she was 19, he called her "Miss Piggy," a dig at her weight.In a New York Times poll in the run-up to the election, nearly half of girls aged 14 to 17 said that Trump's comments about women affected the way they think about their bodies. Only 15% of girls said they would vote for him if they could.And now Trump has a new target for his bullying: Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old environmental activist. Thunberg seems to be really making Trump upset, without meaning to. She doesn't fit into any of his ideas of how girls are supposed to act. She isn't trying to be a contestant in one of his beauty pageants. She's too busy trying to get world leaders like him to do something about the climate crisis. She's too occupied by giving speeches at places like the UN – where Trump was laughed at, when he gave a speech in 2018, and Thunberg was met with respect, despite slamming the entire body for "misleading" the public with inadequate emission-reduction pledges.In the last couple of weeks, while Trump was seemingly mocked by his peers at the Nato summit in London, and impeachment hearings against him began, Thunberg was named Time's person of the year, an honor Trump reportedly wanted. And so he did what he always seems to do, on Twitter, when he's upset: he lashed out by accusing the person upsetting him of the very things he's feeling, or is guilty of."Greta must work on her Anger Management problem, then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend!" Trump tweeted on Thursday. "Chill Greta, Chill!"Poor Trump. This tweet didn't sound very chill. And Thunberg knew it. Like the majority of girls growing up in the digital age, she has been cyberbullied before – by Trump himself, who, after her celebrated speech before the UN General Assembly, sarcastically tweeted, "She seems like a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future. So nice to see!"Both times Trump has tweeted about her, Thunberg's responses have been jocular, and sarcastic in kind. This week, she changed her Twitter bio to: "A teenager working on her anger management problem. Currently chilling and watching a good old fashioned movie with a friend."In her handling of being cyberbullied by the president of the United States, at age 16, Thunberg has become an inspiration for girls two times over – first as a climate activist, then as a social media ninja.But that doesn't mean that Trump's cyberbullying of Thunberg is any less despicable, or dangerous. What it says to girls all over the world is: no matter what you do, no matter how much you achieve, powerful men can and will try to cut you down.This message is depressing, scary and not without potentially dire consequences. It's a message that has contributed to a precipitous rise in the suicide rate among girls. It's a message that has contributed to rising anxiety and depression among girls and young women. It's a message that Trump's wife, Melania, is supposed to be combatting, with her campaign against cyberbullying.But girls don't need Melania Trump to be their role model in fighting against online harassment. They have each other, and they have Thunberg. * Nancy Jo Sales is a writer at Vanity Fair and the author of American Girls: Social Media and the Secret Lives of Teenagers
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| Malema re-elected as head of SAfrican radical left Posted: 15 Dec 2019 01:55 AM PST  The controversial head of South Africa's far left Economic Freedom Fighters, Julius Malema, was re-elected unopposed as at a party congress in Johannesburg. "For the position of president, it is Mister Julius Malema, may he please come forward," vote organiser Terry Tselane of the Institute of Election Management Services in Africa announced to some 3,000 delegates late on Saturday.
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| Joe Biden warns Democrats that UK election shows what happens when candidates 'move so far to the left' Posted: 14 Dec 2019 08:26 AM PST  Joe Biden and other centrist US Democrats have warned against their party moving too far to the left ahead of 2020, following the historic defeat of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn in the UK general election.The former vice president suggested Mr Corbyn's liberal platform and having taken the Labour party "so far to the left" ultimately contributed to Boris Johnson's landslide victory this week.
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| UN climate talks face failure Posted: 14 Dec 2019 09:25 AM PST  A UN climate summit in Madrid risked failing Saturday after all-night negotiations between countries left them more divided than ever over on how to fight global warming and pay for its ravages.
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| Indonesia nabs 2 suspected smugglers of leopard, lion cubs Posted: 15 Dec 2019 05:31 AM PST  Indonesian police said Sunday that they have arrested two men suspected of being part of a ring that poaches and trades in endangered animals and seized from them several lion and leopard cubs and dozens of turtles. One of the suspects, identified only as Yatno, was arrested Saturday in Pekanbaru, the capital of Riau province, after picking up suspicious boxes from a speedboat at a port in Dumai district, said Andri Sudarmadi, Riau police's chief detective. Police found several boxes containing four lion cubs, a leopard cub and 58 turtles in his van.
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| An exclusive fundraiser reveals Pete Buttigieg is being backed by some of Silicon Valley's wealthiest families Posted: 14 Dec 2019 07:05 AM PST  Buttigieg has come under fire from rival Democratic candidate Elizabeth Warren for his ties to big tech.
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| Will the Navy's New LRASM Missile Change the Balance of Power? Posted: 13 Dec 2019 08:00 PM PST  Or will it keep the status quo?
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| Body of 21-year-old vet recovered from volcano island as family fight for survival in hospital Posted: 14 Dec 2019 09:02 AM PST  Krystal Browitt, an Australian veterinary student from Melbourne who had just turned 21, was sightseeing with her sister and father on the island of Whakaari when toxic ash clouds spewed rocks and dust high into the air. Her mother stayed on the cruise ship, safe from the hot blanket of fumes and stones that rained down on the group of tourists hoping to see inside the crater of one of the country's most active volcanoes. The body of Ms Browitt was finally recovered from the island in a daring mission by elite military bomb squads on Friday. She was formally identified as among the 15 to have died so far on Saturday morning. The closure is likely to be little comfort for her mother Marie who was on Saturday keeping a bedside vigil for her surviving daughter, Stephanie, 23, and husband Paul fighting for their lives among the critically injured in hospital. Fourteen people remain hospitalised in New Zealand, 10 of whom are in critical condition with horrific burns. Thirteen others have been transported to Australia for treatment. One person succumbed to their injuries on Saturday morning, officials said. Police divers prepare to search the waters near White Island off the coast of Whakatane Credit: NZ Police Some patients have burns to up to 95 per cent of their bodies. Surgeons ordered 1.2 million sq cm of donor skin from the US earlier in the week in a desperate attempt to keep victims alive. It is understood that two British women are among the injured in hospital. The nature of the gas meant that survivors were found with third-degree burns to their skin but their clothing largely intact, and many suffered burnt lungs from inhaling the superheated gas, made up of sulphur dioxide and hydrogen chloride. Dr Watson said the gases would have reacted with the eyes, skin and mucous membranes, causing agony to the victims. Two people are missing, assumed dead, on the island itself. A team of nine from the Police National Dive Squad resumed their search at 7am on Saturday for a body seen in the water. Deputy Commissioner Tims said the water around the island is contaminated, requiring the divers to take extra precautions to ensure their safety, including using specialist protective equipment. "Divers have reported seeing a number of dead fish and eels washed ashore and floating in the water," he said. "Each time they surface, the divers are decontaminated using fresh water."
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| Talks between Saudi Arabia and Qatar good for the region: Iran foreign minister Posted: 15 Dec 2019 07:23 AM PST  Talks between Saudi Arabia and Qatar to heal their two-year rift are a good development for the whole Gulf region, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Sunday in Doha. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt cut diplomatic and trade links with Qatar in June 2017, accusing it of backing terrorism and aligning itself with Iran.
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| Democrats rip McConnell after he vowed 'total coordination' with Trump White House on impeachment trial Posted: 14 Dec 2019 02:12 PM PST  Over Sen. Mitch McConnell's "total coordination" with the Trump White House, Rep. Val Demings, said the Kentucky Republican "must recuse himself."
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| A Man Sparked Outrage After Slapping a Reporter's Backside on Live TV. Now He's Charged With Sexual Battery Posted: 14 Dec 2019 01:08 PM PST  Thomas Callaway later called the interaction 'an awful mistake'
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| Weinstein’s lawyers insist he isn’t using Zimmer frame for sympathy in court after he is seen shopping without it Posted: 14 Dec 2019 07:42 AM PST  Harvey Weinstein's lawyers have insisted he is not using a Zimmer frame to win public sympathy, after he was photographed walking without one.The disgraced film producer was filmed hunched over a four-legged walking frame as he slowly pushed himself into a courthouse in New York for a bail hearing on Wednesday.
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| Lebanon counter-protesters clash with police in Beirut Posted: 14 Dec 2019 10:05 AM PST  Late Saturday afternoon, young counter-protesters from an area of Beirut dominated by the powerful Shiite movement Hezbollah and fellow Shiite movement Amal tried to raid a key anti-government protest camp in Martyrs' Square. The square, in central Beirut, has been at the epicentre of protests which flared in mid-October over perceived official corruption, poor services and economic woes. Both Amal and Hezbollah are partners in Lebanon's cross-sectarian government.
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