| A nuclear attack would most likely target one of these 6 US cities — but experts say none of them are prepared Posted: 18 Dec 2019 03:58 AM PST  If a nuclear bomb were to strike the US, cities might not have enough emergency services to aid the wounded.
|
| Indonesia parades 6 foreigners arrested for drugs on Bali Posted: 17 Dec 2019 11:09 PM PST  Indonesian authorities said Wednesday that they have arrested six foreigners for allegedly trying to smuggle drugs onto the tourist island of Bali. A Swiss man, a Thai man, a Singaporean woman, a Chilean man and two Hong Kong men wearing orange detainee uniforms were paraded with their feet and hands tied at a news conference in Denpasar, the capital of Bali province. The customs spokesman for the Bali and Nusatenggara regional office, Wachid Kurniawan, said the suspects were arrested separately since last month upon arrival at the airport.
|
| 16th-century anchors found off Mexican coast offer clues into Spanish conquest Posted: 17 Dec 2019 04:44 PM PST  Archaeologists have discovered two iron ship anchors off Mexico's Gulf Coast that they say date back 500 years and could have belonged to Spaniard Hernan Cortes' fleet, which landed in 1519 before overthrowing the Aztec empire. The anchors, found on the ocean floor near the former Spanish settlement of Villa Rica in southeastern Veracruz state, are well preserved and resemble those made in the 1500s, Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) said on Monday.
|
| Toronto mass shooting victims sue gun maker Smith & Wesson in $150m lawsuit Posted: 17 Dec 2019 09:40 AM PST  * Two people died and 13 were injured in July 2018 attack * Lawsuit claims company created 'ultra-hazardous product'Victims of a mass shooting in Toronto have launched a class action lawsuit against gun manufacturer Smith & Wesson, alleging the company failed to implement key safety features in its weapons that could have prevented the 2018 attack.The suit, the first of its kind in Canada, was filed in Ontario superior court on Monday. Plaintiffs are seeking C$150m in damages from the American company.On the evening of 22 July 2018, Faisal Hussain opened fire on the city's bustling Danforth avenue, killing two people and injuring 13 others. He killed himself following a shootout with police.The weapon used in the attack – an M&P40 semi-automatic pistol – had been stolen from a gun dealer in the province of Saskatchewan.The lead plaintiffs in the case are Skye McLeod and Samantha Price, recent high-school graduates and friends who were celebrating a birthday when Hussain opened fire. As pedestrians ran for cover, Price was hit in the leg and her friend, 18-year-old Reese Fallon, was shot dead. A young child in the area, Julianna Kozis, 10, was also killed.The suit, which has not yet been certified by a judge, alleges Smith & Wesson created an "ultra-hazardous product" and delayed implementing technology that prevents unauthorized users from firing the weapon. The claims within the lawsuit have not been proven in court.Often taking the form fingerprint sensor or a radio-frequency microchip, numerous "smart gun" technologies exist that can prevent unauthorized firing of a weapon. Gun lobby groups in the United States, led by the National Rifle Association, have fought for years against widespread adoption of the safety features."What we have right now, is a technology from the 19th century," said Malcolm Ruby, the lawyer representing victims' families, told the Guardian. "People aren't still using rotary telephones any more. They've moved on. But this is an industry that has refused to modernize."Without the technology in place, the lawsuit claims it was "reasonably foreseeable" people such as Hussain could inflict widespread damage with a stolen weapon.The suit also refers to an agreement between Smith & Wesson and the US government, dating back nearly 20 years, in which the company pledged to make smart gun technology a key feature in new firearm designs – but never did."Despite the agreement, in 2005 the defendant introduced the … model of the handgun used in the Danforth shooting, which failed to include smart gun technology," the lawsuit read.Following a flurry of litigation against American gun manufacturers in the late 1990s, the companies are now largely shielded from claims of negligence in the US. But families of victims in the Sandy Hook shooting won a key victory last month, when the US supreme court allowed a lawsuit against gun maker Remington Arms to go ahead. There are no special protections for the manufacturers in Canada, said Ruby.The lawsuit is open to victims of the shooting who suffered injury while fleeing the gunfire, as well as the families of victims. Smith & Wesson has stated it does not comment on the pending litigation."If you have a product that can harm people – you're obligated to fix that," said Ruby. "And we know these guns have caused widespread harm over the years – and will continue to do so."
|
| McConnell Rejects Schumer’s Opening Offer on Impeachment Trial, Claims It Would Set ‘Nightmarish Precedent’ Posted: 17 Dec 2019 08:10 AM PST  Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell rejected on Tuesday Minority Leader Chuck Schumer's suggestion that the Senate agree to call certain witnesses as part of their resolution detailing the parameters of the impending impeachment trial.Schumer released his suggestion to the press before sending it to McConnell."It is not the Senate's job to leap into the breach and search desperately for ways to get to 'guilty,'" McConnell said. The Majority Leader said Schumer's proposal would set a "nightmarish precedent" for future impeachment trials."The Senate is meant to act as judge and jury, to hear a trial, not to re-run the entire fact-finding investigation because angry partisans rushed sloppily through it," McConnell continued.The House is expected to vote this week on two articles of impeachment against President Trump, for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. With a solid majority of Democrats planning to approve both articles, the impeachment process will most likely continue to the Senate, where McConnell and Schumer must agree on the parameters of an impeachment trial.McConnell faces pressure from both Republicans and Democrats to call certain witnesses the House either did not call or was not able to bring to testify. Republicans want to hear from Hunter Biden and Rudy Giuliani, while Democrats want to call on White House acting chief-of-staff Mick Mulvaney, whose appearance at House hearings the Democrats were unable to compel.For his part, McConnell slammed the incoming articles of impeachment as "the thinnest, least thorough presidential impeachment in our nation's history."
|
| Russian state TV airs Giuliani interview after he spreads Ukraine conspiracy theories Posted: 16 Dec 2019 02:15 PM PST  Russian state-run TV has aired Rudy Giuliani's interview with OAN, a pro-Trump news channel, in which he promoted widely debunked conspiracy theories to undermine the impeachment inquiry into the president.
|
| Rudy Giuliani stunningly admits he 'needed Yovanovitch out of the way' Posted: 16 Dec 2019 11:58 AM PST  Well, that wasn't subtle.In a sweeping article in The New Yorker, focused on Ukraine's former General Prosecutor Yuriy Lutsenko, President's Trump personal lawyer and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani was pretty open about his plan to get rid of Marie Yovanovitch, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine.Lutsenko reportedly wasn't fond of Yovanovitch, whom he felt favored his rival, the head of Ukraine's new anti-corruption bureau. That seemingly made him a good partner for Giuliani, who was launching a campaign to get Kyiv to investigate the actions of some of President Trump's domestic political rivals in Ukraine. Giuliani has widely been viewed as the leading force behind the movement to drive Yovanovitch out of her role because she was seen as an obstacle to his investigation-related plans, and he admitted as much to The New Yorker.> This seems quite problematic to Trump's defense about ousting Yovanovitch. > > "I believed that I needed Yovanovitch out of the way," Giuliani said. "She was going to make the investigations difficult for everybody."https://t.co/u7IFgGg8jD> > — Andrew Desiderio (@AndrewDesiderio) December 16, 2019Giuliani then compiled a dossier on Yovanovitch and former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, who once served on the board of a Burisma, a Ukrainian gas company at the center of corruption allegations. He went on to coordinate with journalist John Solomon, who interviewed Lutsenko for The Hill, to push the story and force out Yovanovitch. "I said, 'John, let's make this as prominent as possible,'" Giuliani told The New Yorker. Read more at The New Yorker.More stories from theweek.com Trump's pathological obsession with being laughed at The most important day of the impeachment inquiry Jerry Falwell Jr.'s false gospel of memes
|
| Russia Spread Disinformation Related to Yovanovitch and Steele Posted: 17 Dec 2019 12:16 PM PST  (Bloomberg) -- A Russian-linked operation aimed at dividing Western allies spread disinformation on social media for three years on such topics as the "Steele dossier" and the performance of former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, according to a new report.Hundreds of accounts on multiple internet platforms amplified 44 narratives in at least six languages over the course of the effort, which targeted relationships between the U.S. and U.K, as well as the U.S. and Germany, among other Western allies, according to a report released Tuesday by Graphika, a company that uses artificial intelligence to map and analyze information on social media.Two of the false narratives focused on American political controversies, "the smear campaign" against Yovanovitch in 2019 and "the dossier of claims against U.S. President Donald Trump in early 2017," Ben Nimmo, the head of investigations at Graphika, wrote in the report. Yovanovitch, who was removed from her post in May, testified in the U.S. House Intelligence Committee's impeachment investigation hearings against Trump. The dossier was part of the false story that U.K. intelligence officials interfered in the 2016 election, according to the report."It looks like this operation leverages U.S. political stories to cause trouble between America and its allies," Nimmo said.Still, Graphika's research concluded "none of these stories gained significant traction. This operation struggled to place its content in front of real users, perhaps in part because of the measures it took to hide the true identity of its operators, such as the use of single-use burner accounts."The disinformation effort ran from October 2016 to October 2019 and was part of a broader, Russian-based operation known as "Secondary Infektion," according to Graphika. Facebook Inc. and Reddit have previously removed accounts related to the operation.The report comes after Russia spread disinformation ahead of the U.K. election last week and American intelligence agencies have warned that foreign actors will seek to influence voter perceptions ahead of the 2020 U.S. presidential election.Starting in October, accounts related to Secondary Infektion amplified leaked trade documents in the run-up to the Dec. 12 U.K. election. Nimmo wrote that the U.K. element of the operation appeared to be the only narrative among the disinformation stories in the report that gained significant traction on social media."All the earlier stories were based on forgeries," he wrote. "Some were carefully crafted, others were laughably inept, but all were false. Almost all these stories fell flat. By contrast, the leak of genuine U.K. trade documents was one of the headline moments of the U.K. election campaign and made the news well beyond British shores."The disinformation campaign also touched on a topic of special interest to Russia. "A cluster of articles spread alarming rumors about the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea, games from which Russia had been banned for doping," according to the report.To contact the reporter on this story: Alyza Sebenius in Washington at asebenius@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Andrew Martin at amartin146@bloomberg.net, Andrew Pollack, Sara FordenFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
|
| Chernobyl At Sea: When A Soviet Submarine Created An Atomic Disaster Posted: 17 Dec 2019 07:24 AM PST  The incident remained a secret until the end of the Cold War.
|
| Biden saying he'd only serve one term would be an Election Day risk with little reward, new Insider poll shows Posted: 17 Dec 2019 12:23 PM PST  Former Vice President Joe Biden would seemingly risk losing much more than he'd gain from announcing his intention to serve one term.
|
| Double-murderer deported to Germany after decades in US jail Posted: 17 Dec 2019 05:58 AM PST  A German man who has served 33 years in a US prison for a double murder arrived back in Germany on Tuesday, after receiving parole. Officials in the state of Virginia allowed 53-year-old Jens Soering, the son of a diplomat, to be released on parole. "I'm so happy to be in Germany after 33 years in prison in the US," he told journalists in a short statement at Frankfurt Airport.
|
| Removed statues of Forrest, Davis given to Confederate group Posted: 17 Dec 2019 12:15 PM PST  A Tennessee nonprofit group has handed over statues of Confederate leaders Nathan Bedford Forrest and Jefferson Davis to the Sons of Confederate Veterans, two years after they were removed from public parks in Memphis, officials said Tuesday. The statues of Forrest and Davis have been given to Forrest's descendants and the Sons of Confederate Veterans "to display them as they wish," City of Memphis legal officer Bruce McMullen said.
|
| Change to Chinese university's charter dropping 'freedom of thought' stirs debate Posted: 18 Dec 2019 03:31 AM PST  Changes to the charter of one of China's top universities including the dropping of the phrase "freedom of thought" and inclusion of a pledge to follow the Communist Party's leadership has sparked heated debate and a rare act of student defiance. The changes to the charter of Fudan University in Shanghai, considered one of China's more liberal institutions, came to light on Tuesday when the education ministry said it had approved alterations for three universities. "If I may dare to ask those who initiated the amendment of the Fudan University charter, how do you expect our generation of Fudan people to face our ancestors," said one Weibo user.
|
| The 25 Best Sandbox Games Posted: 17 Dec 2019 12:37 PM PST |
| FISA Court Issues Rare Public Order Condemning FBI for Russia Probe Abuses and Demanding Reforms Posted: 17 Dec 2019 01:37 PM PST  In a rare public order issued Tuesday, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court condemned the FBI for the errors and omissions in its application to surveil Trump-campaign adviser Carter Page and gave the bureau until January 10th to propose reforms to prevent future abuses.The order follows the release of Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Horowitz's report, which detailed 17 "significant errors and omissions" in the warrant application to surveil Page."The frequency with which representations made by FBI personnel turned out to be unsupported or contradicted by information in their possession, and with which they withheld information detrimental to their case, calls into question whether information contained in other FBI applications is reliable," wrote the FISA court."Therefore, the Court orders that the government shall, no later than January 10, 2020, inform the Court in a sworn written submission of what it has done, and plans to do, to ensure that the statement of facts in each FBI application accurately and completely reflects information possessed by the FBI that is material to any issue presented by the application," the order continues.The publication of the IG report caused Senate Republicans to call for reform of the FISA application process, and several publicly acknowledged Utah Senator and FISA-skeptic Mike Lee as a leader on the issue."I wish Mike Lee weren't sitting here two people from me right now, because as a national security hawk, I've argued with Mike Lee in the four-and-a-half or five years that I've been in the Senate that stuff just like this couldn't possibly happen at the FBI and at the Department of Justice," Senator Ben Sasse (R., Neb.) said during a Senate hearing on the IG report."Because we've now seen the abuses we were warned about, you can smirk again, you were right," Senator Thom Tillis (R., N.C.) told Lee.
|
| OK boomer: how Barack Obama became the ultimate centrist dad Posted: 18 Dec 2019 03:00 AM PST  He's progressive, sure, but we shouldn't forget the former president is also a diehard centrist – and he's not shy of reminding usBarack Obama took to the stage at an event in Singapore on Monday to ponder one the world's most revolutionary question: wouldn't the world be better if it were run by women?He said: "Now, women, I just want you to know: you are not perfect, but what I can say pretty indisputably is that you're better than us [men]."Some have questioned Obama's motives: is he just taking a shot at Bernie Sanders? Others called him condescending, equating his statement to the men who praise their stay-at-home wives for doing "the most important job in the world".Would it be uncouth to say that Obama has become … a centrist dad? Who lectures people with extremely mundane, unsolicited opinions? 1\. When he told Black Lives Matter to stop yellingIn 2016, Obama met young people in Europe and was asked whether his administration had gone far enough in tackling racial profiling. Instead of answering the question, Obama turned his attention towards the Black Lives Matter movement."Once you've highlighted an issue and brought it to people's attention … then you can't just keep on yelling at them," Obama said.And so, the president who ran on a campaign promising people "Yes, we can" was using his platform to criticize a campaign group working to highlight how routinely American police shoot and kill unarmed black men. 2\. When he complained about woke cultureWhen Obama took the stage to talk down to young people in October, it was almost too easy to agree with him. The world is messy, he said, so we should be more careful about our tendency to "cancel" people online – especially if our judgment is replacing real action.Which all sounds fair enough. But then came his central message: that change is incremental. "We can't completely remake society in a minute. This idea of purity and you're never compromised and you're always politically woke … you should get over that quickly," he said.There is a term for older people who benefitted from the boom and are now criticising young people for wanting change too quickly, and I think it's: OK, boomer. 3\. When he said America was not ready for real changeIn November, Obama – who now has a net worth of $70m – stood up in front of a room of similarly wealthy people to reassure them that the system doesn't need to be radically changed."Even as we push the envelope and we are bold in our vision, we also have to be rooted in reality," Obama said at the annual Democracy Alliance meeting, attended by wealthy liberal donors. "The average American doesn't think we have to completely tear down the system and remake it."Perhaps Americans wanting radical change should re-think their approach. Get ready to lean in to good health insurance, everybody! 4\. When he bragged about helping oil companiesAt a Rice University gala in 2018, Obama took credit for the oil and gas boom in America. "It went up every year I was president. Suddenly America's the biggest oil producer and the biggest gas. That was me, people, say thank you," he said.Oil production grew 88% under Obama's two terms. The US is also one of the biggest consumers of fossil fuels, and the planet is literally burning – so this is not exactly something to be proud of, but credit where credit is due, I guess. 5\. When he said he'd stand up to stop SandersObama has said he would support any Democratic nominee for president in 2020. But judging by a Politico report from November, he doesn't include Bernie Sanders in that list. The piece quoted close sources to him who said that Obama has refrained from speaking out against Bernie so far because Sanders doesn't look like a credible threat.But privately, Politico reported, Obama has vowed to "speak up to stop him" if it looks like Sanders has a proper shot at winning the nomination.
|
| Mexico Is About to Find Out If Minimum Wage Raises Kill Jobs Posted: 18 Dec 2019 04:00 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Economists debating the impact of a minimum wage on inequality, inflation and the jobless rate are about to get a ton of new evidence from Mexico.The country is boosting its minimum wage 20% next year, an increase seven times faster than inflation, on top of a 16% jump this year.The leftist government of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is using the wage as a tool to fight poverty and inequality. This is a stark break from Mexico's recent policies, when increases to the minimum salary barely topped inflation to help exporters to the U.S. keep costs down.Before Lopez Obrador took office, Mexico's minimum wage was the second-lowest among more than 30 countries in a study by the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development as a proportion of what an average worker made. Only the U.S. was lower.Economists are split on whether increases in the minimum wage hurt job creation.Harvard University's Gregory Mankiw, who used to chair the U.S. Council of Economic Advisers, has argued that it reduces job opportunities for unskilled workers. Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman says there's no evidence that raising the minimum wage costs jobs.Mass ProtestsThe wage increase comes as policy makers are debating how to reduce social disparities amid mass protests in several Latin American countries.Read More: Mexico Boosts Minimum Wage by Seven Times Rate of InflationSo how is Mexico's experiment going?Despite the warnings of Mexico's central bank, the 16% increase to the minimum salary this year hasn't stoked inflation -- at least not yet.The inflation rate has fallen to about 3% from 4.8% a year ago. Core inflation, which aims to track underlying price trends by excluding the most volatile goods such as food and energy, hardly budged during 2019.Some economists also point to strong consumer demand as a benefit of workers' higher spending power.Banxico board member Gerardo Esquivel, an appointee of Lopez Obrador and a dovish member of the famously hawkish central bank, celebrated the additional wage increase which takes effect Jan. 1, saying it was "fair and necessary."Inflation, JobsSome other economists have warned that the cumulative impact of two double-digit increases will affect prices far more in 2020 and will force the central bank to slow its series of interest rate cuts."We're starting to see some effect of high minimum wage increases on inflation in the form of higher core inflation, and that will make the central bank more prudent," said Ernesto Revilla, head of Latin America economics at Citigroup Inc. in New York. "It will make Banxico go slowly in the easing cycle."In addition, Mexico created 30% fewer formal jobs through November compared to last year. The central bank had said in an August note that the wage hike at the start of the year contributed to that job creation slowdown.Banxico, which is forecast to cut its key interest rate by a quarter point on Thursday, didn't reply to a comment request on the impact of this week's increase on jobs and prices.Mexican salaries are rising across the board which, along with higher remittances, will allow consumer spending to grow faster than the rest of the economy next year, according to Bank of America's Carlos Capistran.Still, even after the increase, the minimum wage will still be at just $6.50 per day.The adjustment is "very good for the country, very good for businesses and especially good for workers," Gustavo de Hoyos, who heads Coparmex, one of Mexico's largest business chambers, said in a video posted on his Twitter account. This is the "biggest increase in real terms since 1988."What Our Economist Says"The salary hike may have helped moderate the deceleration in consumption this year, but the positive effect has been eroded in part by the negative effect on employment and the risks for inflation."\--Felipe Hernandez, Latin America economist for Bloomberg EconomicsAmplified ImpactMexico's minimum wage is soaring so rapidly that it now will cover a much larger number of workers, amplifying its impact.This year's minimum wage hike only boosted about 1% of salaries in the formal economy. Next year, that figure may reach 10%, as more workers are earning less than the new income floor of 123.22 pesos per day, according to Jose Luis de la Cruz, director of the Industrial Development and Economic Growth Institute in Mexico City"The positive impacts, as well as the challenges for inflation and for companies, will be greater," he said.\--With assistance from Jeannette Neumann.To contact the reporters on this story: Juan Pablo Spinetto in Mexico City at jspinetto@bloomberg.net;Nacha Cattan in Mexico City at ncattan@bloomberg.net;Eric Martin in Mexico City at emartin21@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Simon Kennedy at skennedy4@bloomberg.net, Matthew BristowFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
|
| Adam Schiff: Trump 'appears not well' after 'angry, rambling letter' attacking impeachment Posted: 18 Dec 2019 09:25 AM PST  After President Trump's angry six-page letter lashing out at impeachment, House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) says he "appears not well."Schiff spoke to CNN on Wednesday as the House of Representatives is poised to approve two articles of impeachment charging Trump with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. On Tuesday, Trump lashed out at Democrats in a letter, accusing them of "declaring open war on American democracy." He also lashed out specifically at Schiff in the letter, accusing the Intelligence Committee Democrat of having "cheated and lied all the way up to the present day.""It is a long, angry, rambling letter of someone who appears not well," Schiff said Wednesday. "I'm not sure of any other way to describe it."Schiff also responded to Trump in the Oval Office suggesting he should be harshly punished for his "parody" of the infamous Ukraine call that sparked the impeachment inquiry. "This is not a president above threatening anyone who gets in his way," Schiff said. "...He is not going to intimidate me." > "It is a long, angry rambling letter of someone who appears not well," House Intel Chair @RepAdamSchiff says about President Trump's letter to Speaker Pelosi ahead of the House vote on impeachment. https://t.co/cEFFEi0bm4 pic.twitter.com/eRzANJUPB5> > -- CNN Newsroom (@CNNnewsroom) December 18, 2019More stories from theweek.com Democrats are sleepwalking into a Biden disaster Wait — did liberals actually think they'd remove Trump from office? GOP leader Kevin McCarthy carefully avoids saying whether Trump 'did anything wrong'
|
| Grandfather offered plea deal in girl's cruise ship death Posted: 17 Dec 2019 09:59 PM PST  Puerto Rican defense attorney Jose Perez said Anello doesn't want to plead guilty and would rather clear his name at trial.
|
| Malnourished dog adopted after walking into home amid storm Posted: 16 Dec 2019 11:13 AM PST  A malnourished dog that wandered into a Philadelphia home during a storm has been adopted. Sports podcast host Jack Jokinen said his wife found the dog when she went to grab a pacifier for their baby at 4 a.m. Saturday. After watching surveillance footage of his home, Jokinen figured out that the wind had blown his front door wide open for several hours, he said in a video he posted on Twitter.
|
| 'Wait for Mother Nature': Last 2 victims of New Zealand's volcano eruption may never be found Posted: 18 Dec 2019 06:51 AM PST  Winona Langford and Hayden Marshall-Inman, missing since the White Island Volcano erupted, were apparently washed out to sea and may never be found.
|
| Parents of girl found in Malaysia jungle say case has 'criminal element' Posted: 17 Dec 2019 09:08 PM PST  The parents of a Franco-Irish teenager whose body was found in the Malaysian jungle said they believe there was a "criminal element" to her disappearance, which police classified as a missing-person case. The unclothed body of 15-year-old Nora Quoirin was discovered in August after a 10-day hunt through dense rainforest, in a ravine about 2.5 kilometres (1.5 miles) from the resort where she had been staying. Meabh and Sebastian Quoirin told Irish broadcaster RTE they could not imagine that Nora, who had learning difficulties, would have been able to wander that far.
|
| Dozens of former French soldiers joined jihadist groups in Middle East, new report reveals Posted: 18 Dec 2019 06:00 AM PST  Islamist groups have recruited dozens of former French soldiers, a troubling new report has revealed less than three months after a terrorist attack by a staff member at police headquarters in Paris shocked the nation. More than a third of the ex-servicemen are converts to Islam and nearly half served in elite Foreign Legion, parachute, commando or marine units where they acquired expertise in combat and handling weapons and explosives. The conservative newspaper Le Figaro published excerpts on Wednesday from the forthcoming report by the Centre for the Analysis of Terrorism, a Paris-based think tank. The report says the French army "constitutes a strategic recruitment target for terrorist groups… and former soldiers represent tremendous assets for these groups." The report, "Soldiers and Jihad", profiles 23 ex-servicemen "identified within terrorist organisations [mainly Isil] or implicated in plotting terrorist attacks". An earlier parliamentary report noted that about 30 former servicemen have joined jihadist groups since 2012. Several former Legionnaires have been arrested over terrorist plots in France, and ex-paratroopers or commandos have become leaders of Isil combat units in Syria or Iraq. French troops are fighting Islamists in the Middle East and the Sahel region of Africa Credit: MICHELE CATTANI/AFP via Getty Images Others who stayed in France have been involved in planning attacks against soldiers or military sites. Some of the ex-servicemen "became radicalised after they joined the French army, while others started becoming radicalised after they left the army," the report said. "However, some were planning to go and join jihadist groups before being recruited by the French armed forces." One such fighter is named as Boris V., from Charente, in south-western France, who became an air commando specifically to learn skills that would be useful to a terrorist group. He took the nom de guerre of "Younous the Deserter" and was killed near Aleppo, Syria, in 2016. Frédéric R., a former legionnaire in his sixties who converted to Islam, was arrested last month and confessed to helping a group of radicalised youths plan attacks. French military intelligence said efforts to detect and prevent radicalisation were stepped up earlier this year and "several cases showing low-level signs" were currently being monitored. It said none of the cases posed an immediate danger and "the threat level from Sunni jihadist Islam within the armed forces is now considered low". In October, a radicalised police employee stabbed four people to death at police headquarters in Paris, supposedly one of France's most secure buildings. Thibault de Montbrial, a former paratrooper and head of the Centre for Internal Security Studies, another think tank, told the Telegraph: "The issue of detecting people likely to become radicalised while serving [in the armed forces] is capital. Even if the army is a formidable institution for integration and cohesion, the risk is real".
|
| Argentine gang held 'Welcome' signs as cover to target victims in airport Posted: 17 Dec 2019 04:43 AM PST  The Argentine crime gang that killed a British businessman held "Welcome" signs in the airport arrivals hall as cover to spot wealthy tourists, officials say, as four men have been arrested in connection with the shooting.
|
| The North Korean Submarine Fleet: A Rusting Bunch of Steel or Threat? Posted: 18 Dec 2019 03:30 AM PST  Just because they're old doesn't mean they can be discounted.
|
| Trump says ‘it’s a witch hunt’ and Clinton said ‘I have sinned’: US prepares for third impeachment in its history Posted: 18 Dec 2019 09:08 AM PST  In September 1998, two months before he was impeached by the House, Bill Clinton stood before faith leaders in Washington DC and declared: "I have sinned."On Tuesday morning, a day before the House was expected to deliver a similar censure to Donald Trump, the president performed his own outreach via Twitter.
|
| Scientists discover DNA of woman on 5,700-year-old "chewing gum" Posted: 17 Dec 2019 10:19 PM PST  She likely had dark skin, brown hair and blue eyes, and hailed from a Danish island in the Baltic Sea.
|
| 8 killed in Mexico shootout between National Guard, suspects Posted: 17 Dec 2019 01:33 PM PST ![8 killed in Mexico shootout between National Guard, suspects]( "8 killed in Mexico shootout between National Guard, suspects") Mexico's National Guard said seven gunmen and one of its officers died in a shootout Tuesday in the north-central state of Guanajuato. Authorities said the suspects opened fire on a National Guard patrol on a highway near the city of Irapuato and the officers returned fire. Guanajuato was once considered a relatively peaceful agricultural and industrial state.
|
| Supreme Court will hear church-state separation case brought by religious schools that fired teachers Posted: 18 Dec 2019 08:37 AM PST  The question is whether teachers whose primary responsibility is education can be treated as "ministers" and exempted from discrimination laws.
|
| Florida Man: a year in eccentricity, gators and crime Posted: 17 Dec 2019 05:51 PM PST  There is a Florida Man Twitter account, and for good reason -- the Sunshine State seems to be the scene of some of the wackiest news of any given year. Thanks to the marvels of the internet, the exploits of "Florida Man" -- a wayward regular Joe, or a clumsy criminal -- are the stuff of social media legend. Of course, the abundance of wild animals -- we are looking at you, alligators -- help a lot.
|
| Accusing Bernie Sanders of antisemitism? That's a new low Posted: 18 Dec 2019 06:31 AM PST  The allegations should be called for what they are: politiking in service of politicians who will put more Jews in dangerBernie Sanders – son of Dorothy and Elias Ben Yehuda Sanders, who emigrated from Poland in 1921 to escape antisemitism, and whose family that remained in Poland was slaughtered in the Holocaust – is not antisemitic. But some are trying to convince you that he is.The conservative Washington Examiner's Tiana Lowe published a story accusing the Sanders campaign of being the "most antisemitic in decades". Worth noting is that Lowe expressed gratitude several months back for her grandfather's service to the Chetniks, a nationalist armed front which collaborated with the Nazis and delivered thousands of Jews to them in service of building an ethnically homogenous Greater Serbia. She also posed for a picture with Milo Yiannopoulos, who once sent $14.88 on PayPal to a Jewish journalist, a reference to Nazi slogans.For Lowe and others on the right that have jumped on this bandwagon, though, details don't really matter. Sanders, an avowed democratic socialist, simply belongs to an opposing political camp with opposing values. Like the attacks against Corbyn abroad and Ilhan Omar at home, those now being lobbed at Sanders aren't about defeating antisemitism so much as using it as a narrative device to undermine a worldview that offends them. Sanders's solidarity with Palestinians suffering under occupation is not an affront to Jews but to the right's propaganda that looking out for their best interest means a blanket, unquestioning support for whatever the Israeli government happens to be doing, which at the moment includes maintaining a brutal apartheid state.> Trump and his xenophobic allies abroad are undoubtedly bad for the Jews, and so are smear campaigns that play into their handsThis all stands in wild contrasts to Sanders's actual views on antisemitism. As the Vermont Senator himself explained a recent essay for Jewish Currents entitled How to Fight Anti-Semitism, we now live in one of the most dangerous periods Jews have faced in recent memory, from the deadly shootings like the one at Pittsburgh's Tree of Life Synagogue last year to a wave of of far-right energy in Europe that waxes nostalgic for the continent's fascist past."Opposing antisemitism is a core value of progressivism," Sanders writes. "So it's very troubling to me that we are also seeing accusations of antisemitism used as a cynical political weapon against progressives. One of the most dangerous things Donald Trump has done is to divide Americans by using false allegations of antisemitism, mostly regarding the US–Israel relationship. We should be very clear that it is not antisemitic to criticize the policies of the Israeli government." He goes onto lay out how a Sanders administration will confront antisemitism at home and abroad: immediately appointing a special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, rejoining the United Nations Human Rights Council and "helping to shape an international human rights agenda that combats all forms of bigotry and discrimination", among other measures.That the Sanders campaign is somehow abetting antisemitism seems absurd on its face, but more outlandish blows have landed. As I wrote last week, antisemitism itself has been a reliable tool of a right looking to ward off the left, and anti-socialism has often peddled in antisemitic tropes. Accusations coming from rightwing pundits and politicians now follow proudly in this tradition, albeit with feigned concern for Jews now used to defend against policies they disagree with. Just last week, Trump called a room of Jews "brutal killers, not nice people at all" before selling an executive order to criminalize campus protests as a defense of the Jewish people. Trump and his xenophobic allies abroad are undoubtedly bad for the Jews, and so are smear campaigns that play into their hands.Before they snowball into something worse, the right's allegations of antisemitism against the left – and the first Jew within striking distance of the White House, at that – should be called out for what they are: cynical politiking in service of politicians who will put more Jews in danger. * Kate Aronoff is a writer based in New York. * This article was amended on 18 December 2019 to correct the spelling of Milo Yiannopoulos' name.
|
| Greece's Parthenon temple has had the wrong name for centuries, new research by archeologists claims Posted: 17 Dec 2019 09:17 AM PST  Sitting on top of the Acropolis, the Parthenon is one of the most dazzling buildings from antiquity, but for 2,000 years we have been getting its name wrong, according to new research. Dutch scholars claim that the name "Parthenon" – popularised in the Roman period - originally belonged to an entirely different building, not the vast stone temple that looms over Athens and attracts millions of tourists a year. The real Parthenon was in fact an ancient Greek treasury which contained offerings to the goddess Athena, according to the research by Utrecht University. Today known as the Erechtheion, it is located about 100 yards from the main temple on the Acropolis, the massive rocky escarpment that rises from central Athens. Rather than being known as the Parthenon, the big temple should be known by its original ancient Greek name, the tongue-twisting Hekatompedon. Lightning over the Parthenon Credit: Getty "That means 'the hundred-foot temple' and the main room of the big temple was indeed exactly 100 feet long," Janric van Rookhuijzen, the archeologist behind the research, told The Telegraph. He acknowledges that Hekatompedon, which is mentioned in archives dating back 2,500 years, does not exactly roll off the tongue. A more user-friendly name would be "The Great Temple of Athena." "Hekatompedon is a difficult name to pronounce. That may be part of the reason that Parthenon caught on – it was much more catchy," he said. Dr van Rookhuijzen says his research, based on a study of archeological data and ancient texts, did not go down very well initially with Greek archeologists. "My Greek friends and colleagues were of course very suspicious – who is this Dutch guy saying the name should be changed? But they're now saying there is some merit to the theory I have put forward." Parthenon means "house of virgins" and the smaller temple is indeed decorated with stone caryatids, sculpted female figures which act as pillars, holding up the roof. Devoted to the ancient cult of Athena, it would have housed a treasury containing precious objects associated with the goddess, including musical instruments and swords from Persia. "Where the scientific community is concerned, Van Rookhuijzen's insight will cause a minor seismic shift," said Josine Blok, professor emeritus of ancient cultures at Utrecht University. "Not only will the names need to be adjusted, this changes our image of the cult of the goddess Athena and the Acropolis as a whole." Ineke Sluiter, professor of Greek language and literature at Leiden University, said: "This study demonstrates the permanent importance of never blindly trusting that the commonly-held wisdom is actually true." A detail from the Elgin Marbles in the British Museum Credit: Getty The research has been published in the American Journal of Archaeology and the Dutch edition of National Geographic Magazine. An icon of ancient Greek culture, the Parthenon and its marbles have been a bone of contention between Greece and Britain for 200 years, ever since Lord Elgin brought some of the friezes back to London. They are held by the British Museum, which has resisted Greek demands that they be permanently returned to Athens. Last month Xi Jinping, China's president, pledged his support for the Greek campaign to recover the marbles. "Not only do I agree with the return of the Parthenon sculptures but you will also have our support, as we too have our own [artefacts] of Chinese culture outside the country and are trying to get them home," he said during a two-day visit to Athens.
|
| China insists that a star Premier League player who criticized China's crackdown on Muslims was 'blinded by fake news' and invites him to Xinjiang to see the detention centers for himself Posted: 16 Dec 2019 08:49 PM PST  Mesut Ozil sparked fury in China last week after slamming the country's government for its detention of millions of ethnic Muslims in Xinjiang.
|
| Ex-Trump aide Manafort's fraud case in New York dismissed Posted: 18 Dec 2019 06:13 AM PST  Paul Manafort, U.S. President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, on Wednesday won the dismissal of New York state fraud charges, in a defeat for the Manhattan district attorney's efforts to hold him accountable even if pardoned by Trump. Justice Maxwell Wiley of the state Supreme Court in Manhattan said at a hearing that letting the district attorney, Cyrus Vance, prosecute Manafort would violate Manafort's protection against double jeopardy, or being prosecuted twice for the same conduct. "We will appeal today's decision and will continue working to ensure that Mr. Manafort is held accountable for the criminal conduct against the People of New York that is alleged in the indictment," Vance's spokesman Danny Frost said in a statement.
|
| Why proposed food stamp changes could make "the poor more poor" Posted: 18 Dec 2019 02:22 AM PST  An estimated 3.7 million Americans could lose their SNAP benefits next year if the government implements the changes
|
| Home of suspected 'Golden State Killer' sold in Sacramento Posted: 17 Dec 2019 10:51 AM PST  The home of a man suspected of being the notorious "Golden State Killer" was sold last month to a couple who intend to live there. Joseph DeAngelo's 1,500-square-foot (139-square meter) three-bedroom, two-bath ranch home in Citrus Heights was sold for $320,000, a price near the bottom of the market for three-bedroom homes in that area, the Sacramento Bee reported Tuesday.
|
| Supreme Court refuses to consider cities' efforts to prosecute the homeless for sleeping outside Posted: 16 Dec 2019 12:59 PM PST  The Supreme Court refused to hear a case on the question of whether the homeless can be prosecuted using laws designed to regulate public camping and sleeping – or whether that constitutes "cruel and unusual punishment."
|
| Was Truman Right to Drop Nuclear Bombs on Imperial Japan? Posted: 18 Dec 2019 02:30 AM PST  A terrible event that was still the correct call.
|
| Thai police make arrest over 'inappropriate' Facebook rally photo Posted: 17 Dec 2019 10:50 PM PST  Thai police arrested a suspect behind an "inappropriate" photo posted on Facebook from an anti-government rally, a minister said Wednesday, as the offending image went viral days after the largest protest since March's elections. Downtown Bangkok saw thousands turn out Saturday for a rally led by ultra-popular opposition frontman Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit and his Future Forward Party (FFP) executives. Carrying posters denouncing "dictatorship" and calling for prime minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha to "get out", the protesters rallied peacefully for an hour.
|
| Argentina gang behind British tourist murder held welcome signs in airport arrival, say officials Posted: 16 Dec 2019 12:09 PM PST  The Argentinian crime gang which killed a British businessman held welcome signs in the airport arrivals hall as cover to spot wealthy tourists, officials say, as four men have been arrested in connection with the murder. Property magnate Matthew Gibbard and his family arrived at Ezeiza International Airport in Buenos Aires on Saturday morning, and were identified as targets because of their "high-end watches", according to a spokesman for the Ministry of Justice and Security in Argentina. CCTV shows that they were followed to their five star hotel across town, where Mr Gibbard, 50, and his stepson Stefan Zone, 28 were held up and shot while trying to fight off their attackers. Mr Gibbard died shortly afterwards and Mr Zone remains in hospital with a gunshot wound to the leg, which narrowly missed his femoral artery. One witness, who arrived in the aftermath of the shooting told a local news crew that he saw Mr Gibbard's wife next to her husband screaming "stay with me, stay with me." He added that "the son was also screaming in pain on the floor. It was very chaotic and disturbing." Guards were outside the Faena hotel in Buenos Aires after the attack Credit: AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko In a press conference yesterday, the Chief of Security for Buenos Aires, Marcelo D'Alessandro said: "This gang works in the arrivals hall of the Ezeiza airport, where they look for tourists coming from Europe and the United States. From there they begin their pursuit." "The modus operandi was to spot people at the airport wearing high-end watches, follow them to their destination, and rob them. "They had a kind of placard, they would pretend to work to work for Uber," he added. Mr Gibbard was a director at Tingdene, a retirement homes firm, which turned over £20 million last year, according to Companies House. He is also listed as a director for a local vineyard, and a vegetation management company. His stepson, Mr Zone is understood to be a product manager at JP Morgan, and works in London. Yesterday, police raided 18 properties across Buenos Aires and arrested four men, including an Argentinian who is thought to be the gang leader. They are still hunting at least six more people involved in the attack, including the shooter. It is understood that the chauffeur which drove the family to the hotel is not under suspicion. "We were able to identify the perpetrators and we are working to arrest them," said Mr D'Alessandro, adding that one of the suspects arrived on a flight from the Caribbean only last Monday. "Saturday's wasn't the first crime they've committed," he said, linking the group to an attack on a Canadian businessman outside the Intercontinental hotel last month. On Thursday, before the attack on Mr Gibbard and his stepson, an Argentinian was arrested for trying to steal a watch in a similar manner in the Palermo area of Buenos Aires. He was linked to the same gang by Mr D'Alessandro. Today, there will be a meeting between police and security forces to try and move the investigation forward. "It is an atrocious act and the loss of a human life is irreversible. Our job is to stop these criminals and bring them to Justice," said Diego Santilli, Argentina's security Minister. On Sunday, the president, Alberto Fernandez branded the incident "atrocious" adding: "We must be severe, we cannot tolerate this." Last night the Foreign Office told The Telegraph that they keep all their travel advice "under constant review."
|
| Magnetic North Pole Changes Time Zones, Just Keeps Drifting Posted: 17 Dec 2019 01:52 PM PST  Your compass is a lie.
|
| One photo shows why Boeing had to shut down production of its grounded 737 Max Posted: 18 Dec 2019 03:04 AM PST  Boeing is suspending production of the 737 Max nine months into the aircraft's grounding, the latest setback in a rolling crisis around the plane.
|
| Exclusive: Ukrainian tycoon's lawyer says he lent money to Giuliani associate Posted: 18 Dec 2019 06:44 AM PST  A lawyer for a Ukrainian oligarch on Wednesday said he had lent $1 million to Lev Parnas, an associate of U.S. President Donald Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, and Parnas' wife in order for them to buy a home in Florida. In his first public comments on the transaction since it was revealed by U.S. prosecutors this week, the Dubai-based lawyer, Ralph Isenegger, said in an emailed statement to Reuters that the interest-bearing loan was a personal business transaction. U.S. prosecutors said Ukraine-born U.S. citizen Parnas, who has been charged with campaign finance violations, concealed the payment from them.
|
| Russia's state television calls Trump its 'agent' Posted: 16 Dec 2019 01:10 PM PST  As Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov returned home from his visit with President Trump in the Oval Office last week, Russian state media was gloating over the spectacle. TV channel Rossiya 1 aired a segment entitled "Puppet Master and 'Agent' — How to Understand Lavrov's Meeting With Trump."
|
| Note says wife didn't kill man found in Utah freezer Posted: 17 Dec 2019 12:54 PM PST ![Note says wife didn't kill man found in Utah freezer]( "Note says wife didn't kill man found in Utah freezer") Detectives have found a notarized letter they believe was written by a man whose body had been in a freezer in a Utah apartment for a decade that says his wife did not kill him, authorities said. The note discovered Monday appears to have been written by Paul Edward Mathers, 69, whose body was found inside a freezer last month after police found his wife dead of natural causes in the apartment in the small city of Tooele near Salt Lake City. Investigators are looking into the possibility that the couple devised the scheme together before he died or that the woman forged the letter, but they are waiting on evidence that includes medical and financial records, Hansen said.
|
| California groom beaten to death at his wedding reception Posted: 18 Dec 2019 08:19 AM PST  Two brothers face murder charges for allegedly beating a groom to death after crashing his wedding reception, California police said Tuesday.
|
| Why America's B-50 Bomber Was Much More Than An Evolved B-29 Superfortress Posted: 17 Dec 2019 06:00 PM PST  The first aircraft to fly around the world.
|
No comments:
Post a Comment