| On impeachment day, Trump says he can't believe it's happening Posted: 18 Dec 2019 05:47 AM PST  Hours before the U.S. House of Representatives was expected to vote to approve the articles of impeachment against him, President Trump expressed his disbelief on Twitter.
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| Tekashi 6ix9ine broke down crying in court after his estranged father showed up at his sentencing Posted: 18 Dec 2019 02:09 PM PST  The rapper's biological dad asked to speak in court after being estranged from his son for 15 years. The judge didn't let him talk.
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| Meet India's Fighter Jet Armed With Supersonic Nuclear Missiles Posted: 18 Dec 2019 12:10 PM PST  Watch out, Pakistan and China!
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| Samantha Bee Breaks Down Why Impeaching Trump Is Far From ‘Pointless’ Posted: 18 Dec 2019 08:12 PM PST  After a cold open parody of A Christmas Carol that found Samantha Bee as Ebenezer Scrooge waking up from her Trump nightmare to celebrate Impeachment Day, the Full Frontal host wished her viewers a very "Merry Impeach-mas." "Look, we should all take a moment to feel excited that Trump is finally facing a consequence," Bee said before cutting off her audience's cheers with, "OK, moment's over, time for people to ruin it." With that she cut to a series of clips of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) throwing cold water on any excitement by vowing to let Trump off the hook during his Senate trial."The really galling thing about the GOP firewall around Trump is that he's still openly doing the same crimes they're protecting him for," the host said, pointing to "nightmare before Christmas" Rudy Giuliani, who was back in Ukraine just last week continuing to search for dirt on Joe Biden and his son Hunter. "Rudy is still doing the stuff that got the president impeached today and he doesn't seem worried at all that there are going to be any consequences," Bee said, playing a clip of Giuliani telling Fox he's not "afraid" of being indicted himself. "Excuse me, but the only time Rudy Giuliani feels fear is when he gets too close to a very crisp apple," Bee joked. "One bite and those teeth fly out of his face." Looking ahead, Bee predicted that come January "this whole process is going to get even uglier," with Graham showing off his "best Kavanaugh-confirming sneer" and McConnell trying to "rush the impeachment trial through in 15 minutes." "This whole process is already excruciating and it's going to get worse," Bee said. "It might even feel like impeaching Trump was pointless. But it's not. In a world where old rich white dudes seem to increasingly operate with impunity, today Trump faces the tiniest bit of 'punity' and that is magic." The opening segment ended with David Alan Grier's Santa Claus bringing Bee the one gift she's always wanted: the approved articles of impeachment against Donald Trump.For more, listen to Samantha Bee on The Last Laugh podcast below: Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch went on Fox News to promote his book — and to echo the 'war on Christmas' myth Posted: 17 Dec 2019 11:26 AM PST  Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch is the latest victim in the war on Christmas.On Tuesday, Gorsuch appeared on Fox & Friends to promote his recent book — an odd move for a supposedly nonpartisan judge. President Trump's favorite show is known for its solidly conservative agenda, and Gorsuch quickly played into Fox & Friends' hands with the first two words he spoke.When Gorsuch was introduced Tuesday, he pointedly replied with a "Merry Christmas," to which host Ainsley Earhardt responded "I love that you say that." After all, Fox News has been fighting for the right to say that phrase for years as it's drowned out by "Happy Holidays." Gorsuch's choice words soon drew a few critics from the politically correct crowd, prompting Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), a certified member of the Merry Christmas militia, to come to his defense.In an attempt to combat "Democrats" who are supposedly "smear[ing] him for wishing Americans a Merry Christmas," Tillis tweeted out a link to a card he's putting together for Gorsuch and his family.> I worked tirelessly to confirm Justice Gorsuch, and I'm not about to let Democrats smear him for wishing Americans a Merry Christmas. That's why I'm putting together a Merry Christmas card to send to Justice Gorsuch and his family – will you add your name? https://t.co/DsPKgbJF0p https://t.co/kYeUEke7gb> > — Thom Tillis (@ThomTillis) December 17, 2019Clicking to Tillis' site reveals a digital Christmas greeting that's reminiscent of a young coder's first web design project. Visitors are welcome to send Gorsuch a Christmas greeting of their own — a system which will absolutely not be abused in any way.More stories from theweek.com Democrats are sleepwalking into a Biden disaster Wait — did liberals actually think they'd remove Trump from office? The Trump impeachment's failure before launch
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| Impeachment Explained: The sitting Congressman who was impeached and removed from former federal judgeship – now voting in Trump’s impeachment Posted: 18 Dec 2019 08:25 AM PST  In this episode of Impeachment Explained, Yahoo News looks at a historical instance when a Florida federal judge was impeached and removed from office in 1989 but was able to get elected to Congress in 1992. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Fla., is still a member of Congress today but finds himself in some hot water after all these years. Who is Alcee Hastings, and how was it possible? Yahoo News explains.
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| OIC criticises Malaysia's Muslim summit Posted: 18 Dec 2019 10:42 AM PST  The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Wednesday mounted a veiled attack on a Muslim summit in Malaysia shunned by Saudi Arabia, saying such gatherings would weaken Islam. Leaders of Muslim nations, including Saudi rivals Iran, Turkey and Qatar, will attend the summit this week in Kuala Lumpur, which analysts say is aimed at rivalling the OIC, a 57-member pan-Islamic body headquartered in the Saudi city of Jeddah. Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad dismissed those concerns in a phone call Tuesday with Saudi Arabia's King Salman, insisting the summit was not intended to create a new bloc.
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| Democrats suggest Mike Pence may be 'misleading' Congress about his call with Ukraine Posted: 17 Dec 2019 01:06 PM PST  The head of the House Intelligence Committee said Vice President Mike Pence may be "purposefully misleading" Congress about his own actions on Ukraine.
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| The 7 Best Electric Cars of 2019 Posted: 18 Dec 2019 12:57 PM PST |
| Horowitz Pushes Back on Claim that He Exonerated FBI of Political Bias: ‘We Did Not Reach that Conclusion’ Posted: 18 Dec 2019 11:12 AM PST  Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz clarified Wednesday that his investigation into the FBI's FISA abuses "did not reach" the conclusion that the bureau was unaffected by political bias during its 2016 Russia investigation.Following the release of the report, Democrats and former FBI officials were quick to point to Horowitz's statement that he "did not find documentary or testimonial evidence" of political bias in the opening of Crossfire Hurricane, arguing that the statement proved President Trump's claims of a politically-motivated "witch hunt" were false.In an op-ed published after the report's release, James Comey attacked Trump and attorney general William Barr, saying "those who smeared the FBI are due for an accounting." On Sunday, the former FBI director attributed to "sloppiness" the 17 "significant errors and omissions" included in the FISA application to surveil Trump-campaign adviser Carter Page.Appearing on CNN with former FBI former deputy director Andrew McCabe, former FBI general counsel James Baker said that Trump should "apologize to me, to my colleagues" because "there was no hoax, there was no conspiracy to overthrow anybody, there was no sedition, there was no treason, there was no evidence of any of that."But under questioning from Senator Josh Hawley (R., Mo.), Horowitz explained his investigation did leave the door open to possible political bias because his team could not accept the explanations FBI members gave on why there were "so many errors" in their investigation."We have been very careful in the connection with the FISA's for the reasons you mentioned to not reach that conclusion," Horowitz told Hawley. "As we've talked about earlier — the alteration of the email, the text messages associated with the individual who did that, and our inability to explain or understand, to get good explanations so that we could understand why this all happened."Horowitz's clarification comes after U.S. attorney John Durham released a statement saying his office did "not agree with" the report's statements regarding the origins of the FBI's 2016 Russia probe.The inspector general also said during testimony that his team was looking further into whether the FBI's "basic errors" in the case were potentially systemic.
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| A 17-year-old girl was arrested after allegedly stealing a $2 million plane and driving it into an airport building in California Posted: 19 Dec 2019 02:53 AM PST  Officials at Fresno Yosemite International Airport said they are unsure how the suspect could have got inside the plane.
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| Mexican children shiver in tents at U.S. border as temperature freezes Posted: 18 Dec 2019 05:04 PM PST  Mexican officials concerned about the health of Mexican asylum seekers including around 200 young children sleeping in the open near the U.S. border in Ciudad Juarez tried to move people to shelters on Wednesday, as temperatures dropped below freezing. In recent months, Ciudad Juarez has seen a rapid increase in Mexicans seeking to apply for asylum in the United States, leading to a backlog in the city as U.S. border officials limit the number of asylum cases they receive at the port of entry each day. A waiting list contains about 1,200 people, of which about 550 are staying in camps near the bridge to the United States, the Chihuahua state government said.
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| Calculated Risk: This Is How China Will Use Its Aircraft Carriers Against America Posted: 18 Dec 2019 06:30 PM PST  China is committed to dominating the Western Pacific.
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| Report: German spy agency releases Himmler daughter files Posted: 19 Dec 2019 06:26 AM PST  Germany's foreign intelligence agency has declassified documents regarding its employment of the daughter of top Nazi Heinrich Himmler as a secretary in the early 1960s, the country's top-selling newspaper reported Thursday. The BND agency declassified the documents on Gudrun Burwitz-Himmler at the Bild newspaper's request. The paper previously confirmed the intelligence agency employed Burwitz-Himmler from 1961 to 1963.
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| Archeologists Have Located a Possible Mass Grave Associated With The 1921 Tulsa Race Riots. Here's What To Know Posted: 17 Dec 2019 03:25 PM PST  Archeologists have identified what might be a mass grave of Black people killed during the 1921 Tulsa Race Riots, a massacre that killed 300
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| The role of race and gender in the 2020 presidential race - CBS News poll Posted: 18 Dec 2019 10:55 PM PST  Do Democrats think black or female nominees would have harder time beating Trump in 2020?
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| Republican mega-donor urged ex-Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin to pardon convicted killer Posted: 17 Dec 2019 04:09 PM PST  Public records show prominent Kentucky banker Terry Forcht lobbied then Gov. Matt Bevin on behalf of Patrick Baker twice.
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| Connecticut Man Named Prime Suspect in His Baby's Disappearance, Mother's Murder Posted: 18 Dec 2019 02:54 PM PST  Police in Ansonia have officially named Jose Morales, 43, a suspect in the killing of Christine Holloway,43, and the disappearance of their one-year-old daughter Vanessa Morales.
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| Trump called Boeing CEO ahead of MAX shutdown: source Posted: 19 Dec 2019 08:31 AM PST  President Donald Trump phoned the head of Boeing ahead of the company's announcement on Monday that it was halting production of the 737 MAX, a person familiar with the matter said Thursday. Trump called Boeing Chief Executive Dennis Muilenburg on Sunday for details about the MAX production plans, the person said, confirming reports in US media. Muilenburg assured Trump that the company's plan to halt output on the troubled plane would not result in layoffs, the person told AFP.
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| A 95-year-old former soldier was the only WWII veteran at the Battle of the Bulge memorial in Washington, DC Posted: 17 Dec 2019 01:30 PM PST  "Above all, it was bitter cold," George Arnstein said of the Battle of the Bulge. "It was the coldest winter in I don't know how many decades."
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| It's sizzling: Australia experiences hottest day on record Posted: 17 Dec 2019 11:52 PM PST  Australia experienced its hottest day on record and temperatures are expected to soar even higher as heatwave conditions embrace most of the country. The Australian Bureau of Meteorology said the average temperature across the country of 40.9 degrees Celsius (105 Fahrenheit) Tuesday beat the record of 40.3 Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) from Jan. 7, 2013. "This hot air mass is so extensive, the preliminary figures show that yesterday was the hottest day on record in Australia, beating out the previous record from 2013 and this heat will only intensify," bureau meteorologist Diana Eadie said in a video statement on Wednesday.
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| The sheriff's deputy seen slamming an 11-year-old onto the ground in a viral video has been charged with assault Posted: 17 Dec 2019 01:47 PM PST  The school resource officer, Warren Durham, is charged with assault on a child under 12, child abuse, and willful failure to discharge his duties
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| Every McDonald's in Peru closes over deaths of two employees Posted: 18 Dec 2019 08:06 PM PST  The teenage workers were electrocuted during the job, police said, according to BBC News.
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| 30 Ceramic Table Lamps to Elevate Your Space Posted: 18 Dec 2019 10:13 AM PST |
| Putin says he's open to tweaking presidential term limits Posted: 19 Dec 2019 04:20 AM PST  Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday he was open to the possibility of altering Russia's constitution, including proposals to increase parliament's power and to limit the number of presidential terms anyone can serve. The issue of constitutional change in Russia is watched closely amid speculation about Putin's own political ambitions. In power as either president or prime minister since 1999, Putin, 67, is due to step down in 2024 when his fourth presidential term ends.
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| Trump Tries to Turn Impeachment to His Advantage for 2020 Posted: 19 Dec 2019 07:16 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Donald Trump will be the first impeached U.S. president to seek re-election in more than 150 years, and he's betting that voters in key swing states will view his rebuke at the hands of House Democrats as a rallying cry.Recent national polls have shown weakening support for Trump's removal from office, and in states including Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, data and interviews suggest the picture is even brighter for the incumbent president.The House adopted two articles of impeachment almost entirely along partisan lines, setting up a Senate trial for early next year. There's little sign Trump will be convicted in the Republican-controlled chamber. More important for the president is convincing voters that they should share his anger at a first term pockmarked by what he calls partisan investigations and return him to the White House in 2020.The president fired off dozens of tweets and retweets of fellow Republicans early Thursday, blasting the impeachment and attacking Speaker Nancy Pelosi for suggesting that she would refrain from sending the articles of impeachment to the Senate until she secured changes in the rules for the trial.In a campaign rally late Wednesday as the House voted to impeach him, Trump previewed how he'll handle his impeachment in the coming months. He spent more than two hours extolling his administration's achievements and said Democrats showed "deep hatred and disdain for the American voter" and would pay for it in the election."This lawless, partisan impeachment is a political suicide march for the Democratic party," Trump told supporters in Battle Creek, Michigan, a Republican stronghold that helped him win the traditionally Democratic state in 2016.Trump also enjoys a receptive audience across swaths of Wisconsin. Dawn Anderson, 60, said that she and her husband are independents who voted for Trump in 2016 and can't wait to do it again next year."I'm mad," she said in an interview outside a Woodman's Markets grocery store in Kenosha. "He shouldn't have to defend himself the way he is."About 52% of registered Wisconsin voters oppose Trump's impeachment and removal from office, according to a Marquette University Law School poll conducted between Dec. 3 and Dec. 8. Forty percent are supportive.'Turned Off'Trump won Wisconsin by some 22,000 votes in 2016, or about 0.7 percentage points -- the first time a Republican won the state since 1984. Officials in both parties think the state could be the most important battleground in the country in 2020.In his office in Madison, Mark Jefferson, executive director of the Wisconsin Republican Party, pulled out a poster-sized map of the state from beneath a pile of Trump and Mike Pence merchandise. The map showed county-level voting results from the 2016 election for both Trump and Ron Johnson, the state's Republican U.S. senator.Jefferson pointed out areas where Johnson enjoyed a higher margin of victory over his opponent than Trump did -- growth opportunities for the president in 2020, he said. The party tailors its message in part based on geography: rural voters may be more attracted to Trump's unconventional approach to governing, while those in suburbs may be more interested in his policy achievements, Jefferson said.He likened the impact of impeachment to former Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's 2012 re-election campaign, which followed a failed effort to recall the Republican."I took my car to a mechanic here in Dane County and he was an older guy, about 70 years old, said he had never voted before in his life, but he went and voted this one time because he was so irritated with the recalls," Jefferson said. "I think there are going to be some people who are really turned off by this."But Wisconsin turned bluer in 2018, when voters chose a Democratic governor, Tony Evers, to replace Walker and returned Democrat Tammy Baldwin to the Senate by a double-digit margin."Everything is trending toward the Democrats, whether it's in rural Wisconsin or the sort of red suburban areas," said Phil Shulman, a spokesman for Wisconsin Democrats. Trump "hasn't done anything to expand his coalition. He won by the skin of his teeth in 2016. Everything had to fall the right way for him to win the state and everything did fall the right way."Trump's StrategyNo other president has previously won his party's nomination for election after being impeached. Bill Clinton was impeached during his second term. Andrew Johnson, impeached in 1868 after clashes with Republicans over reconstruction following the Civil War, lost the Democratic Party nomination to Horatio Seymour. Seymour in turn was defeated for election by Ulysses Grant.Richard Nixon resigned in 1974 after the House Judiciary Committee approved articles of impeachment related to the burglary of Democratic Party headquarters in the Watergate building.Democrats' first article of impeachment finds that Trump abused the power of his office by withholding military assistance from Ukraine and pressuring President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter. The other finds that Trump obstructed Congress by directing government officials not to testify in the impeachment inquiry or to respond to subpoenas for documents.Trump's strategy has been to attack his impeachment and those conducting it, rather than practically ignoring the House action as Bill Clinton did in 1998, said Jason Miller, a senior communications adviser on Trump's 2016 campaign. Trump has had notable success pressuring and cajoling congressional Republicans to unify behind him; none of them voted for impeachment in the House.And despite his unpopularity and the gravity of the Ukraine allegations, Trump has all but squelched a primary challenge to his re-election. That "tells us how much this has become the party of President Trump," said Jeffrey Engel, founding director of the Center for Presidential History at Southern Methodist University in Dallas."A president that is this unpopular nationally should be ripe for a challenger," he said.Ad SpendingOn Tuesday, Trump sent an angry, six-page letter to Pelosi, warning her the impeachment vote would backfire on Democrats and fuel his re-election bid."He's a counter-puncher," said Kelly Sadler, a spokeswoman for America First, the primary super-political action committee working on Trump's re-election. "We're being aggressive because we know that this is a highly partisan endeavor."The Republican party and allied groups have spent more than $16.4 million on television and digital ads mostly targeting 31 vulnerable congressional Democrats by portraying impeachment as a conspiracy against the president, according to figures compiled by Advertising Analytics. Democrats, by contrast, have spent just $5.7 million on their own ads, which mostly focus on issues such as lowering the cost of health care and raising wages.Back in Wisconsin, Shulman said Democratic volunteers knocked on the doors of more than 54,000 homes in early November, focusing on people the party identified as infrequent or independent voters or persuadable Republicans. Impeachment was no more than "a whisper" in the conversations, Shulman said. Voters expressed more concern about health-care costs, jobs and Trump's trade war with China.(Michael Bloomberg is also seeking the Democratic presidential nomination. Bloomberg is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.)(Updates with Trump tweets in fourth paragraph.)\--With assistance from Bill Allison and Justin Sink.To contact the reporter on this story: Mario Parker in Washington at mparker22@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net, Joshua Gallu, Justin BlumFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Trump's food stamp cuts begin soon – and black Americans to be hardest hit Posted: 19 Dec 2019 01:00 AM PST  New work requirements are set to throw 700,000 people off Snap benefits, with African Americans to be particularly hard hitAs Kyle Waide visited the Atlanta community food bank recently, where he is CEO, he ran into a woman who had recently lost her administrative job at a university. She was looking for work, she told him, but it was hard to find. She was struggling to get by.Though she had food stamp benefits, she still needed to visit Waide's food bank until she landed a new job, she added, because she had a home and a child to pay for. With her job gone, she said, she needed all the extra help she could get to feed her family.Thousands in Atlanta like her are already struggling to make ends meet, even before the Trump administration scales back benefits to low-income Americans to the supplemental nutrition assistance program (Snap) as food stamps are known. Approximately 700,000 Americans will soon lose their benefits as the government tightens the regulations around stable work requirements for recipients, stretching the already scarce resources of the communities that Waide's operation helps.Those communities are often African American, raising the prospect that Trump's move will put extra stress on minority families. Approximately one in three households using Snap benefits are African American. In general, African American households are more likely to experience food insecurity, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. In 2016, Snap helped more than 13 million African American households put food on the table, according to data from the US agriculture department's fiscal year 2016 Snap Households Characteristic data.Waide stresses the importance of Snap even as his food bank provides more than 63m meals to more than 750,000 Georgians annually. Snap, he says, provides 12 times the amount of assistance that food banks do nationwide."[Snap] is a very important source of nutrition for families, kids and seniors in our community," he says. Annually, the food bank helps 10,000 residents of the state enroll for or renew Snap benefits.Alex Camardelle, senior policy analyst at the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, says many of the 100,000 Georgians who are thought to be affected by the coming change will be African American."We're concerned that high levels of unemployment in certain areas of the state, despite an overall improvement in the unemployment numbers, is going to disproportionately impact black Georgians," he says.Black Georgians, he adds, have an unemployment rate in the state that could be triple that of white residents, often because of additional barriers they face, like where they live, access to transportation and the difficulty of finding a job in a mandated period of time.Waide echoes the sentiment. "Poverty and hunger disproportionately affect people of color. These are going to be low-income folks in rural communities who are economically vulnerable by definition," he said. "When they can't eat, they can't get over other hurdles."Rural households experience more struggle with food security, according to the Food Research and Action Center, compared with households in metro areas. Food insecurity is also twice as high among African American households compared with white households, in rural communities or not.The average Georgian on Snap benefits remains approximately eight months before cycling out of the program as they get back to some sort of stability, Waide explains, just as the program intends. The myth of anyone perpetually staying on government benefits just is not true, he says.When the change to the work requirement takes place in April next year, Waide is confident the food bank will see a high demand to try to make up for the shortfall.Last year, he points out, his food bank stepped in when a government shutdown left thousands of federal workers in Atlanta without pay."We mobilized our network and donors to distribute hundreds of thousands of meals. And we'll do the same here, this time," he said.
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| How America Could Catch China Preparing for a War Posted: 19 Dec 2019 01:08 AM PST  The U.S. Navy needs better surveillance and reconnaissance systems if it's to have any chance of detecting a Chinese build-up in the Western Pacific in the weeks or days preceding a possible major war.
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| Meth boom adds to Afghanistan's opium and heroin woes Posted: 18 Dec 2019 09:15 PM PST  At a sprawling rehabilitation centre on the outskirts of Kabul, dozens of dazed-looking drug addicts clamber out of police buses and shuffle toward the facility. Almost unheard of in Afghanistan until a few years ago, meth's sudden appearance has blindsided authorities in a country already suffering from a crisis in opium and heroin addiction. "My life has been ruined by addiction," said 25-year-old Sulaiman, one of the 40 or so men arriving at the treatment centre.
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| Suit: Police barged into Kansas home, beat man for no reason Posted: 19 Dec 2019 06:24 AM PST ![Suit: Police barged into Kansas home, beat man for no reason]( "Suit: Police barged into Kansas home, beat man for no reason") A federal lawsuit alleges that Kansas City, Kansas, police broke into a man's home in the middle of the night and beat him before having him charged with battery of a law enforcement officer. Joseph Harter, 43, claims in the lawsuit filed last week in federal court that he was temporarily blinded by blood in his eyes and went to a hospital after the October 2018 beating, The Kansas City Star reported. The police department and the Unified Government of Wyandotte County declined to comment Wednesday on the pending litigation, which alleges that Harter was the victim of illegal entry, battery, false imprisonment and excessive force.
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| Possible mass grave from 1921 massacre found: "It was hell on earth" Posted: 17 Dec 2019 08:23 PM PST  Scientists in Oklahoma are one step closer to finding possible evidence of mass graves linked to the deadly violence of 1921.
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| Former Fox News employees ask 2020 candidates to speak out against nondisclosure agreements Posted: 18 Dec 2019 04:58 AM PST  Gretchen Carlson and other former Fox News employees are seeking help from 2020 candidates in their fight against nondisclosure agreements.Carlson in 2016 filed a retaliation and sexual harassment lawsuit against Roger Ailes, the late CEO and chair of Fox News, but signed a nondisclosure agreement in a settlement. She has formed the group Lift Our Voices along with two other Fox News employees who sued the network and signed nondisclosure agreements, Julie Roginsky and Diana Falzone, to end the practice of silencing workers from speaking out about such workplace issues.The group is now calling on 2020 candidates for president to publicly condemn these nondisclosure agreements, The New York Times reports."It is time for our leaders to demonstrate that they are on the side of the women and men who have been silenced for too long from discussing the hostility they have encountered by speaking out loudly and publicly against NDAs," the letter says.The Times notes that the group is not calling for the end of all nondisclosure agreements in general but specifically ones having to do with workplace environment issues like sexual harassment. Carlson, whose story of alleged sexual harassment at Fox News is depicted in the new movie Bombshell, has spoken out about being "forced into silence" by a nondisclosure agreement she has asked to be release from, as she wrote in a recent Times op-ed."This is the next phase in the MeToo movement, and it is one that needs to gain traction if we truly want to change the culture for better," she wrote.More stories from theweek.com Late night hosts mock House GOP 'drama queens' for comparing Trump's impeachment to Jesus' crucifixion Trump implies at rally that the late Democratic Rep. John Dingell is in hell Democrats are sleepwalking into a Biden disaster
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| Hard currency elusive in Havana as monetary reform looms Posted: 19 Dec 2019 07:10 AM PST  HAVANA (Reuters) - "I'm buying dollars, I'm buying euros," Roly, 28, whispers furtively to tourists outside a hotel in Havana. Roly, who declined to disclose his last name for fear of reprisals, works as a "mule", traveling abroad to buy goods to sell back in Communist-run Cuba where the black market booms due to shortages and high prices in the state-run economy. Analysts say the recent elusiveness of hard currency is likely due to a deteriorating economic situation and increased demand as the government steps up moves to end Cuba's labyrinthine dual currency system.
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| Pelosi Digs In Against McConnell Over Impeachment Trial Standoff Posted: 19 Dec 2019 09:31 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday extended her standoff with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell over starting President Donald Trump's impeachment trial, insisting she's waiting to see whether Republicans will agree to a "fair" process.Pelosi surprised many House Democrats Wednesday night after the House impeached Trump when she said she would delay naming impeachment managers -- who would argue the House case in the Senate -- until the Senate lays out its procedures for the trial."When we see what they have, we'll know who and how many we will send over," she said at a news conference Thursday. Pelosi cast it as a procedural matter and cited the Senate's ability to come up with a bipartisan trial plan after President Bill Clinton was impeached.McConnell, Trump and their Republican allies taunted Pelosi over the delay. McConnell said on the Senate floor that Pelosi and House Democrats "may be too afraid to even transmit their shoddy work product to the Senate." Trump tweeted as Pelosi spoke Thursday morning, saying that "Pelosi feels her phony impeachment HOAX is so pathetic she is afraid to present it to the Senate."Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer has been pressing McConnell to agree to let Democrats call as witnesses four Trump administration officials who the president blocked from participating in the House impeachment inquiry."Is the president's case so weak that none of the president's men can defend him under oath?" Schumer said on the Senate floor.After meeting later with Pelosi, Schumer said they are "on the same page. We both want a fair trial."McConnell and other GOP senators have been indicating they want a quick trial, with arguments presented by the House managers and Trump's counsel without witnesses. McConnell was giving no ground."It's beyond me how the speaker and Democratic leader in the Senate think withholding the articles of impeachment and not sending them over gives them leverage," he told reporters at the Capitol. "Frankly, I'm not anxious to have the trial."The House had always planned to wait until after a Senate vote scheduled for Thursday on spending bills before notifying the Senate of impeachment, a step that would force the Senate to drop all other business and take up an impeachment trial. Pelosi didn't specify what conditions or terms she wanted to see in the Senate trial procedures.It's unclear how long Pelosi is willing to hold back the formal notification to the Senate that Trump has been impeached or the naming of Democratic lawmakers who would serve as managers for the House's impeachment.House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler told reporters he doubts the articles would be held for long, but McConnell needs to provide a fair proceeding in accordance with the oath senators take at the start of the trial."Given what Senator McConnell has said about how he is going to be working hand-in-glove with the White House defense counsel, I don't see how he can take that oath," he said.'Kangaroo Court'The idea of a delay surfaced from rank-and-file Democrats on Wednesday, who began discussing it with Democratic leaders as the day went on."At this point her decision to withhold sending them over is meritorious," Democratic Representative Jackie Speier said Thursday. "I think this gives the House leverage to make sure this isn't a kangaroo court."McConnell called the House impeachment process rushed and shoddy."If the speaker ever gets her house in order, that mess will be dumped in the Senate's lap," he said on the Senate floor. "If the nation accepts this, presidential impeachments may cease being a once-in-a-generation event."In response, Schumer accused McConnell of hypocrisy for accusing House Democrats of being motivated by partisan rage when majority leader himself declared he will not be impartial and for complaining about a rushed impeachment process.McConnell "is planning the most rushed, least thorough" impeachment trial in American history, Schumer said.(Updates with remarks by Schumer, McConnell in seventh, ninth paragraphs)\--With assistance from Billy House.To contact the reporters on this story: Daniel Flatley in Washington at dflatley1@bloomberg.net;Erik Wasson in Washington at ewasson@bloomberg.net;Steven T. Dennis in Washington at sdennis17@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Joe Sobczyk at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net, Laurie AsséoFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Why Russia's Tu-22M3 Bomber Terrifies the World Posted: 18 Dec 2019 02:30 PM PST  And it's everywhere.
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| Russia 'shouldn't touch' Lenin's body in mausoleum: Putin Posted: 18 Dec 2019 04:13 PM PST  The body of Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin should stay in its mausoleum on Red Square in Moscow, so long as Russians retain personal memories of the Soviet period, President Vladimir Putin said Thursday. Asked at his annual press conference whether the embalmed body of the first Soviet leader, who died in 1924, should be removed, Putin said his position had not changed but also criticised the way Lenin set up the USSR. Liberals regularly raise the question of removing Lenin's body for burial and more than 60 percent of Russians support this according to a 2017 survey by VTsIOM state pollster.
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| Feds: Seattle barrel company used hidden drain to pollute Posted: 18 Dec 2019 02:10 PM PST  A century-old Seattle barrel company has been indicted along with its third-generation owner in what prosecutors describe as a long-running pollution conspiracy. The 36-count indictment made public Wednesday said Seattle Barrel and Cooperage used a hidden drain to pump caustic wastewater directly into the King County sewer system. Seattle Barrel refurbishes used industrial and commercial barrels and drums.
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| Victims of Catholic Clergy Sex Abuse Sue Pope Francis Posted: 17 Dec 2019 11:53 AM PST  Victims of sexual abuse at the hands of Catholic clergy are suing Pope Francis, claiming he and senior Vatican officials knew that a number of priests molested children but kept the revelation a secret, the New York Post reported on Tuesday.The class-action lawsuit was filed Tuesday in federal court in Manhattan, brought by seven victims of abuse. The sole defendant named in the suit is the Holy See, the governing body of the entire Catholic Church, at whose head is the Pope."The Holy See has known for centuries that Catholic priests were using their positions and roles in Catholic parishes and schools to sexually molest children," the suit alleges.Pope Francis on Tuesday ended the policy of "pontifical secrecy" to guard information on sexual abuse cases. Archbishop Charles Scicluna, the Vatican's leading investigator of sex abuse crimes, called the move an "epochal decision" that will facilitate greater communication between civil law enforcement and church investigators.Francis said that cases of alleged abuse should still be handled with "security, integrity and confidentiality" to protect victims and the accused.The class-action suit alleges the "pontifical secrecy" rule prevented many church officials from revealing abuse."This mandatory secrecy policy, imposed on threat of removal and ex-communication, bound Bishops and Dioceses for well over a century," the suit reads.The suit was brought by victims following the enactment of the Child Victims Act in New York state in February. The law extended the statute of limitations in criminal sex abuse cases to age 28, while civil suits can be brought by a victim until age 55.
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| "I could have been killed": Man body-slammed by cop speaks out Posted: 18 Dec 2019 05:15 PM PST  CBS Chicago has obtained new surveillance footage of the incident last month that shows moments leading up to the violent arrest.
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| 6 foreigners arrested on Bali for drugs, paraded by police Posted: 18 Dec 2019 04:15 AM PST  Indonesian authorities said Wednesday that they have arrested six foreigners for allegedly trying to smuggle drugs onto the tourist island of Bali.
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