| Russian State TV Backs Trump’s Wild Impeachment Attacks Posted: 21 Dec 2019 02:01 AM PST  Russian state media have joined President Vladimir Putin in delivering a full-throated defense of impeached U.S. President Donald J. Trump. Such support would have been implausible for any other U.S. leader, much less one who claims to be "tough on Russia." But bluster aside, Trump has been reluctant to sign off on additional Russian sanctions. Pro-Kremlin experts, lawmakers and talking heads believe President Trump would do away with most of the sanctions in record time if not for the U.S. Congress.Russia's State TV Calls Trump Their 'Agent'Bolstering these assumptions is the case of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project between Russia and Germany. On Friday, Trump signed the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which contains a provision sanctioning Nord Stream 2. But the project is just weeks away from completion and analysts doubt the imposition of sanctions at this late stage can be effective, much less halt the project. The Trump administration meanwhile is opposing the bipartisan Defending American Security from Kremlin Aggression Act, or "DASKA," meant to punish Russia for its interference in the 2016 election and deter it from such actions in the future. The administration called the bill "unnecessary" in a 22-page letter to Congress. "The Trump administration stood up in defense of Russia against DASKA sanctions," Russian media concluded. The Kremlin is likewise continuing to stand up for President Trump. During President Vladimir Putin's annual news conference in Moscow, he claimed that the impeachment was based on "absolutely made up" allegations. Echoing the GOP, the Russian president said, "The party that lost the [2016] election, the Democratic Party, is trying to achieve results by other methods, other means." On Friday, Trump touted Vladimir Putin's endorsement on his Twitter feed.The chairman of the Russian State Duma (the lower house of parliament) foreign affairs committee Leonid Slutsky called impeachment "the revenge of the Democrats for the defeat in the 2016 presidential election."Supporting Trump, Russian state media attacked the Democrats, but saw pure comedy in the GOP making ill-conceived comparisons between Donald Trump and Jesus Christ while likening the impact of the impeachment to the attack on Pearl Harbor. (Novaya Gazeta, which is not part of the state media, concluded that Trump is obviously guilty and many Republicans realize he's been deserving of impeachment for quite some time. Nonetheless, the GOP defends the president in order to preserve the party, while many of the Democrats are "honest people who are ready to sacrifice themselves in the name of the ideas of the founding fathers." Novaya Gazeta opined that re-election in 2020 "is in Trump's pocket," but the moral victory belongs to the Democrats.)One of the Kremlin's top propagandists, Vladimir Soloviev, heaped praise upon Trump and rattled off a list of bogus defenses in his coverage of the impeachment proceedings. During his show, The Evening with Vladimir Soloviev, the host favorably mentioned a "documentary film" based on the Ukrainian exploits of the U.S. president's private lawyer, Rudolph Giuliani. The show was quickly slapped together in order to defend Trump's pursuit of fictitious "dirt" against Joe Biden, along with the allegations that Ukraine—not Russia—interfered in the U.S. elections.Soloviev proceeded to accuse the Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden of "conspiring" with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and European leaders to remove Viktor Shokin—the corrupt former Prosecutor General of Ukraine. Defending President Trump by echoing his talking points, Soloviev exclaimed: "There was no quid pro quo!"The claim that Ukraine and not Russia interfered in U.S. elections is a Kremlin-spawned conspiracy theory that reportedly was conveyed to President Trump personally by Vladimir Putin during their secretive meeting at the G-20 summit in 2017. Trump was so impressed by the tale of the Russian president (whom he calls "my friend"), he would say: "The Russians didn't do anything. The Ukrainians tried to do something," according to The Washington Post. The Kremlin's fable further blossomed, when it started to be widely accepted and frequently reiterated by the GOP.Vladimir Soloviev praised Trump's letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, calling the U.S. president a "highly educated" writer of "multiple bestsellers," who wrote the letter "for future generations." Soloviev surmised that when it comes to the upcoming presidential race of 2020, "Trump is defeating all potential candidates." Soloviev theatrically complained: "Here's what I can't understand. Why do they hate Trump so much?" The Atlantic Council's expert appearing on the show, Ariel Cohen, explained that Trump is a political outlier, who boasted about grabbing women by their private parts. The Russian state TV host immediately jumped in to defend President Trump as an alleged proponent of "free love."Throughout the segment, pro-Kremlin propagandists criticized Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Greta Thunberg, but found no fault in Trump. During one of his previous shows, Soloviev said he was troubled, saddened by "insulting" anti-Trump ads, featuring prominent actors and celebrities. He urged respect towards the American president, although he's shown very little in the past. On his earlier shows, Soloviev described President Trump as "Donald Ivanovich" and "Trumpushka," joked about the U.S. president sending the Republicans to Moscow in order to make deals with Russian hackers, questioned which "Motherland"—the U.S. or Russia—"geriatric" Trump would serve and pondered whether Trump would end up fleeing to Russia like the former President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych.With respect to President Trump's Democratic opponents in the upcoming presidential race, the Russian state media have only one clear favorite: Tulsi Gabbard. Vladimir Soloviev asked: "Who would be the ideal candidate from the Democrats?" "John F. Kennedy," replied Andrey Sidorov, deputy dean of World Politics at Moscow's State University. "Kamala Harris," suggested the Atlantic Council's expert Ariel Cohen. Soloviev disagreed: "No, it should be Gabbard." Pro-Kremlin TV pundit and Rossiya Segodnya state news agency CEO Dmitry Kiselyov shares Soloviev's affinity for Tulsi Gabbard, having aired a "getting to know her" profile on his weekly show, Vesti Nedeli.Notably, Tulsi Gabbard refused to take a principled stand in the vote on two articles of impeachment against Trump, merely voting "present." Gabbard's failure to condemn the atrocities of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad and non-fulfillment of her Congressional duties with respect to entering a meaningful impeachment vote demonstrate the absence of moral clarity, a quality that is highly prized by the Kremlin. Russia's state media outlet, RT, aired President Trump's speech at his Michigan rally, wherein the American president claimed that by proceeding with the impeachment, "House Democrats have branded themselves with an eternal mark of shame." Meanwhile, Russian state television branded the American president as the Kremlin's "agent"—an "eternal mark of shame" indeed.Germans Aim to Kneecap U.S. Sanctions on RussiaRead more at The Daily Beast.Get 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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| Hero who used narwhal tusk to stop UK attack praises victims Posted: 21 Dec 2019 02:17 AM PST  A mysterious figure who used a rare narwhal tusk to help subdue a knife-wielding extremist on London Bridge last month has been identified as a civil servant in Britain's Justice Ministry. Darryn Frost broke his silence Saturday, telling Britain's Press Association that he and others reacted instinctively when Usman Khan started stabbing people at a prison rehabilitation program at Fishmongers' Hall next to the bridge on Nov. 29. Frost used the rare narwhal tusk that he grabbed from the wall to help subdue Khan even though the attacker claimed to be about to detonate a suicide vest, which turned out to be a fake device with no explosives.
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| Ex-cop indicted for murder in Atatiana Jefferson's death Posted: 20 Dec 2019 08:51 PM PST  Atatiana Jefferson was shot and killed in October when Officer Aaron Dean fired through a window.
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| Ex-Carnival, Royal Caribbean, and Norwegian Cruise Line workers reveal their 11 best hacks for living on a cruise ship Posted: 22 Dec 2019 05:52 AM PST  Eight former cruise-ship employees told Business Insider what advice you need to know if you're going to spend months working on a ship.
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| Muslim nations consider gold, barter trade to beat sanctions Posted: 20 Dec 2019 11:18 PM PST  Iran, Malaysia, Turkey and Qatar are considering trading among themselves in gold and through a barter system as a hedge against any future economic sanctions on them, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said on Saturday. At the end of an Islamic summit in Malaysia, Mahathir praised Iran and Qatar for withstanding economic embargoes and said it was important for the Muslim world to be self-reliant to face future threats.
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| Military Nightmare: Is the United States Being Outmatched by Russia and China? Posted: 21 Dec 2019 11:45 PM PST  America may not be able to compete in future wars.
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| 'I'm Kidnapped': A Father's Nightmare on the Border Posted: 22 Dec 2019 08:24 AM PST  REYNOSA, Mexico -- He remembers being on his knees, gagged and blinded with duct tape, his hands tied behind his back. One of his captors struck his left thigh with a bat and scraped his neck with an ax, threatening to cut him.His 3-year-old son watched and wailed."Tell the boy to shut up. Make him shut up," one of the men barked, ripping the duct tape from his mouth.A few hours earlier, the 28-year-old migrant from Honduras, whose name is Jose, had been walking with his son down a street in Reynosa, Mexico, having been turned back at the border by the United States. Suddenly three men grabbed him, shoved a hood over his head and thrust him and his son into a vehicle.The abduction Nov. 25 set off hours of intense negotiations as Jose's wife in the United States, forced to listen to the sounds of her husband being tortured, tearfully negotiated a ransom over the phone.In a series of phone conversations, and in several voice messages reviewed by The New York Times, the wife, a woman named Cindy who works at a bakery in Elizabeth, New Jersey, promised to get the $3,000 the kidnappers were demanding. "I will do everything to get it," she said, sobbing into the phone. "But don't let them hurt him. Take care of the child."Hundreds of thousands of people fled Central America over the past year, many of them seeking asylum in the United States from threats of extortion, murder and forced recruitment into gangs. But instead of allowing them to enter, the Trump administration has forced more than 55,000 asylum-seekers to wait for months in lawless Mexican border towns like Reynosa while it considers their requests for protection, according to Mexican officials and those who study the border.Drug-related violence has long plagued these areas, but this bottleneck of migrants is new -- and because many asylum-seekers have relatives in the United States, criminal cartels have begun kidnapping them and demanding ransoms, sometimes subjecting them to violence as bad or worse than what they fled.In the past, migrants from places like Central America, Africa and Asia seeking asylum were allowed to enter the United States while their claims were adjudicated. Those who could not demonstrate a fear of persecution usually were ordered deported to their home countries. That changed earlier this year with the adoption of the "Remain in Mexico" policy, under which most asylum applicants are prevented from entering the United States except to attend their court hearings.With the Mexican government struggling to contain crime and violence, and ramshackle camps full of vulnerable migrants cropping up on the border, kidnappings have spiked. "Families on this side of the border, regardless of social status, will manage to pay ransom," said Octavio Rodriguez, a scholar at the University of San Diego who studies violence in Mexico and the border region.Authorities have doubled the number of police officers in the past three years in the state of Tamaulipas, which includes Reynosa, but it is not enough, said Aldo Hernandez, the state's communications director. "Neither the municipal nor state governments have the resources to fight this situation," he said.Some are blaming Mexico's president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, and his government's decision to step back from confrontations with drug cartels."The Lopez Obrador administration has sent the message to organized crime that police and national guard will not confront you. That emboldens them to target this population," said Tony Payan, a scholar at the Baker Institute of Rice University who studies the U.S.-Mexico border.Mark Morgan, acting commissioner for Customs and Border Protection, said that those awaiting asylum hearings who fear for their safety should "work with the government of Mexico" to keep themselves safe."I have heard reports the same as you of violence," he told reporters last week, noting that it is well known that dangerous drug cartels target migrants south of the border. "We encourage these people first of all not to even put themselves in the hands of the cartels to begin with."In the border towns of the Rio Grande Valley, the busiest migrant crossing point into the United States, kidnappers have struck in recent months near shelters, at bus stops and outside grocery stores.A 35-year-old Salvadoran man who was waiting with his family in Tijuana after claiming asylum near San Diego was kidnapped, fatally stabbed and dismembered Nov. 20, Mexican authorities reported. His lawyer said he had been pursued by "criminal organizations" in his home country.A 28-year-old woman from El Salvador and her 3-year-old son were abducted -- not once but twice -- after arriving at the border. The woman, who gave her name as Nora, said that in August they were held hostage until a family member in Houston transferred $2,200 to their captors.Then in October, Nora said, she took her son to use the bathroom outside the encampment where they were staying and encountered three men. She was blindfolded, she said, and the men took turns raping her over several hours, in front of her son, before dumping the two of them on the side of a road."I surrendered to American immigration and thought we would be safe," she said in a recent interview at a shelter in Reynosa.There have been 636 documented cases of violent attacks, including abduction and rape, against migrants who were returned to Mexico by U.S. authorities since the Remain in Mexico policy began in January, with 293 attacks in the last month alone, according to Human Rights First. The advocacy group based its tally on credible reports from researchers, lawyers and media outlets but said the actual numbers were likely higher because most incidents go unreported.The story of Jose and his family began in Honduras earlier this year, when they decided to seek safe haven in the United States. Gang members had demanded a "war tax" to allow him to keep operating his car wash and dropped notes at the family's doorstep, threatening to kill them.Cindy, who had a valid tourist visa, flew to the United States with their older son in June. Jose and their younger child, who lacked visas, made their trek over land. They arrived at the Texas border in July and applied for asylum but were told to wait in Mexico and return for a series of court hearings in the ensuing months.The kidnappers struck in November, after Jose and his son had already attended two court hearings in the United States.His captors ordered him to contact any family he had in the United States, he said, and when he denied knowing anyone there, the beatings began."You're lying. This bat is thirsty for blood," he recalled one of them saying.Jose dictated his wife's number to the men, and they called her from his cellphone. When she did not pick up, they clubbed him, causing him to keel over in pain.When they called again, Cindy answered."'I'm kidnapped,'" Cindy, who, like her husband, did not want her last name published because of fear of reprisals, recalled Jose uttering in agony over the phone.Then the captors hung up, apparently hoping to ratchet up the pressure. When they called again, they told Cindy to come up with $3,000 within an hour if she wanted to spare the lives of her son and husband."I was completely desperate. I could hear my son crying in the background," Cindy recalled. "I told them I didn't have the money; I'd have to borrow it. Give me more time."Cindy sprinted to the home of the babysitter who cares for her 5-year-old son and collapsed there, pleading for help.A fusillade of calls and texts with threats from the kidnappers soon followed."If you don't deposit the money fast, we'll disappear with your son," the men told her.Cindy called her husband's cellphone again and left a voice message."Jose, send me -- send me an audio. I want to know how the child is doing," she said, her voice rising in anguish. "Respond! Respond!"While she was driving to the bank with the babysitter to withdraw cash, one of the men in Reynosa taunted her husband and scraped his neck with the blunt side of an ax, he said, while another put a gun to his head.On the next call, Cindy told the men she could manage no more than $2,000, and they relented. She rushed to a money-transfer kiosk to send the cash, and as the one-hour deadline approached, the captors urged her to hurry. "Si, I am here. Right now," she typed back.There was a problem, though. She could not complete the transaction without their names, so they texted them to her -- unfamiliar names belonging to a man and a woman. In the text, they urged her to use Moneygram or Western Union and send "$1,000 to each.""This is the first one," she texted, sending the kidnappers a photograph of the invoice for $1,009.99, including a $9.99 transfer fee.Because the money-transfer outlet would not allow her to send more than $1,000, she rushed to another shop to send the rest of the money."As soon as all the money is here, we'll free them," one of the captors typed."OK, gracias," Cindy replied.Back at home, though, she received a call from the kidnappers: They had been unable to access the money. "We give you 20 minutes to fix this," a kidnapper typed.Eight minutes later, another text message popped up: "Hurry up. It's getting late."Back in Reynosa, one of the men struck Jose's right arm with the bat and kicked him in the stomach, and he began to vomit. The man brought a bucket and shoved his head inside.After visits to three money senders, Cindy managed to transfer the rest of the money. Jose's abductors stripped the tape from his eyes and put the hood back over his head. They dropped him and his son at the Reynosa bus station, warning that if he notified police, "you're both dead. We have pictures of you."With no phone and no money, Jose said, he staggered across the bridge that leads to the United States to seek out Border Patrol agents. He pleaded to stay in the United States. "Our lives depend on it. I swear I am telling the truth," he told them.He said the agents took him to an office, where he remembers that they photographed his wounds and gave him a tranquilizer before sending them to spend the night at a holding facility.The next day, Jose was escorted to a room where, over the phone, he expressed fear of returning to Mexico to an asylum officer.About 40 minutes later, an immigration official told Jose that they would have to go back to Mexico. He handed him a document that said that Jose "did not establish a clear probability of persecution or torture in Mexico."Recently, Jose described his ordeal from a migrant shelter in Reynosa. He still had bruises and scrapes on his neck, arms and legs, and said his right arm -- the one that received most of the blows from the bat -- was still numb.His son, who just turned 4, was playing with another child near the picnic table where he sat. That day, Jose said, he had been able to borrow a phone to call Cindy, who was crying when she heard his voice. He was crying, too. They did not know when they would meet again.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
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| Former NSA Director Michael Rogers Cooperating with Durham Investigation into Trump-Russia Probe Posted: 20 Dec 2019 03:32 PM PST  Former National Security Agency director and retired Adm. Michael Rogers has met multiple times with U.S. attorney John Durham as part of an ongoing probe into the origins of the counterintelligence investigation into the 2016 Trump campaign, The Intercept reported Friday.Rogers, who served as NSA director under Obama and Trump, "has cooperated voluntarily," according to sources. Durham, who did not agree with DOJ inspector general Mike Horowitz's report on the predication of the FBI's Crossfire Hurricane investigation, is also looking into what role former CIA director John Brennan played in the 2017 intelligence community assessment that detailed Russian interference in the election.The assessment, compiled by the FBI, the CIA, and the NSA, stated that Vladimir Putin "ordered an influence campaign" that "aspired to help" Trump and discredit Clinton. While the FBI and the CIA had high confidence in the conclusion, Rogers's NSA reported a moderate confidence and was the "lone exception," as Brennan testified in May 2017.Rogers, who retired in May 2018, played a central role in addressing FISA abuses of Section 702 — which allows the government to acquire counterintelligence by surveilling foreign persons.According to a FISA court ruling declassified in April 2017, a Rogers-ordered audit found violations in "approximately eighty-five percent" of Section 702 searches from November 1, 2015, to May 1, 2016. The violations were mainly linked to a practice known as "upstream" surveillance in which NSA agents use a search tool to collect any communications that mention the target.After learning of the issue Rogers subsequently shut down the "about query" tool on October 21, 2016, the same day the FBI received a FISA warrant to surveil Trump-campaign adviser Carter Page, and then told the FISC of his findings three days later.After former DNI James Clapper recommended to Obama that he be removed, Rogers travelled to Trump tower to meet with the president-elect Trump without informing his supervisors on November 17, 2016. Later that day, the Trump transition team announced it was shifting its operations to Trump National Golf Club in New Jersey.
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| Klobuchar and Buttigieg had very different debate nights, survey shows Posted: 20 Dec 2019 11:58 AM PST  Who won Thursday's Democratic debate? It depends how you measure.Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) got the most speaking time, with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D) coming close behind — all at around 20 minutes. Former Vice President Joe Biden talked for just 15 minutes, oddly low given his consistent lead in the polls, and entrepreneur Andrew Yang and billionaire philanthropist Tom Steyer each got about 11 minutes with the mic.Meanwhile, a new FiveThirtyEight/Ipsos survey finds two significant wins for Klobuchar, who "gained a little over 4 points in the share of respondents who said they were considering voting for her," more than double anyone else's gains. She also posted the best pre- and post-debate comparative gains in respondents' average rating of candidates' chances to beat President Trump. Still, relative improvements like Klobuchar's are not the same as an overall lead, and in that Biden, Sanders, and Warren dominated the night.The debate's losers are easier to identify: Buttigieg and Steyer had the worst evening, the Ipsos survey showed, each coming away with higher unfavorable ratings and minimal gains among prospective voters. In fact, Buttigieg was the sole candidate whose net favorability declined.The next Democratic debate is scheduled for January, and once again the polling and fundraising requirements for participation will be raised in an effort to narrow the field.More stories from theweek.com 6 powerful phrases every parent should use SNL turned back the clock for Eddie Murphy's return Porn is evil. Don't ban it.
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| Trump adviser: Expect more aggressive poll monitoring in 2020 Posted: 21 Dec 2019 11:52 AM PST  One of President Trump's top reelection advisers told influential Republicans in Wisconsin that the party has "traditionally" relied on voter suppression to compete in battleground states, according to an audio recording obtained by the Associated Press. The adviser said later that his remarks referred to accusations that Republicans use such tactics.
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| New Zealanders hand in 50,000 guns after assault weapon ban Posted: 21 Dec 2019 06:12 AM PST  New Zealand authorities said Saturday their country will be a safer place after owners handed in more than 50,000 guns during a buyback program following a ban on assault weapons. The government banned the most lethal types of semi-automatic weapons less than a month after a lone gunman in March killed 51 worshippers at two Christchurch mosques. Provisional figures indicate 33,000 people handed in 51,000 guns, and another 5,000 guns as part of a parallel amnesty in which owners could hand over any type of firearm without any questions being asked but without getting compensated.
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| North Carolina Man Accused of Killing Wife With Lethal Eye Drops Posted: 22 Dec 2019 06:05 AM PST  A North Carolina man has been charged with using Visine eye drops to kill his wife of eight years. Joshua Lee Hunsucker, 35, was arrested and booked late last week, charged with the first-degree murder of Stacy Robinson in September 2018. His bail has been set at $1.5 million. North Carolina's Department of Insurance made the shocking connection after the dead woman's mother, Suzie Robinson, alerted them to possible insurance fraud by her former son-in-law. The case marks the second time eye drops have been allegedly used as a murder weapon. In 2018, a 52-year-old South Carolina woman was charged with murdering her husband by putting eye drops in his drinking water. Robinson alleged that her former son-in-law was motivated to kill her daughter over a relationship he had started during the marriage. The Shelby Star reports that Hunsucker was awarded a $250,000 life insurance payout after his wife's death. Wife Attempted Suicide After Poisoning Husband With Eye Drops: PoliceThe Hunsuckers raised around $10,500 through a GoFundMe campaign after Stacy suffered an unspecified medical condition following the birth of their first daughter in 2013. The couple created another fundraiser after the birth of their second daughter in 2014, during which Robinson went into cardiac arrest and received a pacemaker. She worked at a local preschool and the couple posted pictures of what appeared to be a happy marriage with their young children on social media.The suspect worked as a paramedic, and his co-workers testified that he was "unaffected" by his wife's sudden death. He also allegedly gave varying accounts of what he was doing before his wife stopped breathing, turned blue and collapsed on the sofa in their family home last year, according to court documents. Hunsucker originally told investigators that he had his back to her and found her on the sofa dead, according to the affidavit published in local news outlets. He then changed his story, telling friends how he found her after entering the room.Police say Hunsucker also tried to block authorities from performing an autopsy on his dead wife. But because she was an organ donor, a sample of blood was taken—and later subpeoned in the insurance fraud investigation. The results were used to prove that she had been poisoned after high levels of tetrahydrozolilne were found in her system. North Carolina Department of Insurance attorney Jordan Green said that her blood contained 30 to 40 times higher levels that the normal therapeutic value of the drug, which would have had "a dramatic effect on her heart, which would cause heart stoppage in a short amount of time."Green told a judge during Hunsucker's first court appearance Friday that they had "probable cause he poisoned Mrs. Hunsucker with Visine, which caused her death."Lawyers for Hunsucker "strenuously opposed" the allegations and pleaded that his bail should be lowered to $50,000 so he can be with his two young children. The judge refused the request.Hunsucker's next court appearance is scheduled for Jan. 9. If he is able to pay his $1.5 million bond he will be fitted with an electronic monitoring system. Read more at The Daily Beast.Get 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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| Biden's press secretary diagnosed with cancer Posted: 22 Dec 2019 12:48 AM PST  "It was never a question whether I'd continue working during treatment — working for Joe Biden and this campaign has been the best, most important experience of my life," TJ Ducklo said.
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| Why did this US governor pardon child rapists and brutal killers? Posted: 21 Dec 2019 03:00 AM PST  Matt Bevin has horrified opponents and allies alike with a slew of 'extreme pardons' that also disproportionately benefited white offendersIn May 2014, Patrick Baker and two accomplices set out to rob a house in Knox county, Kentucky. Baker knew the hardest part of the home invasion would be getting past the front door, so he devised a plan to dress up as police officers conducting a routine investigation.Once inside the Mills family home, Baker revealed his true colours. He tied up the mother of the family, ignoring the pleas of the three children present, stole money and objects, then turned a gun on the father, Donald Mills, shooting him dead.When Judge David Williams sentenced Baker in December 2017 to 19 years in prison for reckless homicide, burglary and impersonating a police officer, he said he would have given a longer punishment if he could. "I've been practicing law for 30-something years, and I've never seen a more compelling or complete case, the evidence was just overwhelming."Fast-forward just two years and Patrick Baker is a free man, released by Kentucky's outgoing governor in act that has been dubbed "extreme pardon". The brutal killing is just one of the extraordinary elements of the eleventh-hour move by Matt Bevin, a Republican in the Donald Trump mould who even by his own controversial record has astonished and angered his state with his pardons.It was the final manoeuvre of a governor who was elected in 2016 on Trump's coat-tails, making Kentucky the last southern state in America to turn Republican, only to be voted out of office last month. What motivated a politician who has spent the past three years waging bitter wars with teachers, trade unionists, voters, liberals, scientists and reproductive rights advocates suddenly display such profuse mercy towards prisoners has become the talk of Kentucky.Even his own previously loyal Republican peers have expressed bewilderment. The top Republican in the state senate has called for an investigation of Bevin's "extreme pardons and commutations".Mitch McConnell, the US senator from Kentucky better known as the Republican trying to stymie Trump's impeachment trial in Congress, has denounced the release of "heinous criminals" in his home state as "inappropriate".Speculation of what drove Bevin to his action initially focused on money, after the Louisville-based Courier Journal discovered that the family of Patrick Baker had donated $21,500 to Bevin's political campaign funds before the commutation. Suspicion of pecuniary incentives then turned to moral outrage of a different sort after Bevin tried to explain on local radio why he had pardoned Micah Shoettle after only 18 months of his 23-year sentence for rape."There was zero evidence," Bevin told the radio host, adding that the girl's hymen had been intact.That provoked a whole new chorus of indignation, including from paediatricians who pointed out that rape cannot be proved or disproved by examination of the hymen.That was just the start of it. As intrepid local journalists began to dig into the mountain of pardoned cases, other apparent horrors emerged.They included further sexual offenders. Dayton Jones, who Bevin set free after three years of a 15-year sentence, had pleaded guilty to raping a boy aged 15 whose bowel he ruptured with a sex toy. Charles Phelps had his name removed from the sex offender registry by Bevin having pleaded guilty in 2013 to child abuse images offences and sexual conduct with minors.The gruesome details of the violent crimes committed by some of those selected for commutation did not stop there. Delmar Partin was convicted of beheading a female co-worker and hiding her mutilated body in a barrel; Irvin Edge had hired a hitman to murder his business partner at home in front of his family; Blake Walker had killed his own parents.Most of the lucky 428 singled out by Bevin were non-violent. When the Courier Journal came to analyse the beneficiaries of his largesse, the paper found that 336 of them were on non-violent drug sentences.But therein lay another discrepancy. Within that group, 95% were white. That's in a state in which 20% of inmates on drug convictions are African American or from some other minority community.The newspaper calculated there were almost 1,000 black or other minority prisoners who would have qualified for Bevin's largesse. He chose 16.On one level, there is something fitting about the storm of controversy in which Bevin has finished his governorship given that disputes seemed to follow him around throughout his term in office. At the height of a recent measles epidemic, he let it be known that he had exposed each of his nine children to a neighbor's chickenpox so that they would contract the disease as an alternative to getting vaccinated."They were miserable for a few days, and they all turned out fine," he said, while telling the federal government to get its nose out of people's private business. That anti-vaxxer sentiment expressed by Kentucky's then governor earned him a riposte from a leading paediatrician who remarked: "We're no longer living in the 17th century".Earlier this year, when Kentucky schools were closed to protect children from the -20F (-29C) wind chills, Bevin publicly complained: "C'mon now. I mean, what happened to America? We're getting soft."On policy, he followed the classic Trump textbook, ramming through "right-to-work" laws that prevent trade unions gathering fees as a condition of employment, denouncing teachers on strike for exposing kids in their charge to sexual abuse and physical danger, supporting efforts to suppress the vote among minority communities, limiting access to Medicaid and banning abortion at 20 weeks.The toxic combination earned him Trump's adoration – the US president unsuccessfully campaigned on Bevin's behalf in the recent gubernatorial race – but it also gained him the mantle of one of the most unpopular governors in the US.Last week Bevin posted a long screed on Twitter in which he sought to explain his pardons. He began by evoking the spirit of redemption and second chances, and the ambition to help offenders seek rehabilitation.He went on to insist that during his years as governor he had invested hundreds of hours to reviewing petitions for pardon. "Contrary to that which has been falsely stated by many, not a single person was released who had not already been scheduled for a specific release date," he said.He denied any financial motive, calling any such suggestion "highly offensive and entirely false".The Twitter thread does not appear to have satisfied his detractors, or calmed the widespread shock at a Republican's last-minute flurry of pardons. The sister of the murdered home owner, Donald Mills, was blunt after she learnt that Patrick Baker was now out."Matt Bevin can rot in hell," she said.
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| ‘Olive hasn’t been raised’: After praying for miracle, girl's family now plans memorial Posted: 21 Dec 2019 05:10 PM PST  A press release from the Bethel Church says Olive's parents, Andrew and Kalley Heiligenthal, are now planning a memorial service.
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| Death toll in Europe from storm hits nine Posted: 22 Dec 2019 06:00 AM PST  The death toll from storms that have battered Spain, Portugal and France rose to nine on Sunday as the region braced for more violent winds and heavy rain. Storms Elsa and Fabien have flooded rivers, brought down power lines, uprooted trees and disrupted rail and air travel across the region, leaving more than 118,000 households without electricity. Two people have so far died in Portugal and seven have now been killed in Spain, the worst affected country, after a fisherman was swept off rocks into the sea in Catalonia.
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| Sen. Schumer predicts Mitch McConnell will block all Democratic Supreme Court picks Posted: 20 Dec 2019 12:24 PM PST  Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., warned about the stakes for the 2020 elections Thursday, saying that it's imperative Democrats focus on winning back more than just the presidency and making sure that Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is no longer the majority leader.
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| Pakistan says Indian shooting kills 3 in Kashmir Posted: 22 Dec 2019 03:25 AM PST ![Pakistan says Indian shooting kills 3 in Kashmir]( "Pakistan says Indian shooting kills 3 in Kashmir") Pakistani authorities said Sunday that mortars fired by Indian troops into Pakistan's portion of the disputed Kashmir region have killed three civilians and damaged nearly a dozen homes in recent days. Although Pakistan and India often exchange fire in Kashmir, skirmishes have increased in the past several days.
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| ‘If they have to testify under oath, he has to leave': Scaramucci reveals four witnesses whose testimony could force Trump to resign Posted: 22 Dec 2019 05:26 AM PST  Former Trump aide Anthony Scaramucci has claimed there are four key witnesses who could force the president to resign during the upcoming impeachment trial.Mr Scaramucci has said Donald Trump would not be able to "handle the heat" of testimonies from some of his top officials and would leave office before he could be removed by the Senate.
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| Tesco suspends Chinese supplier after prisoner labour report Posted: 22 Dec 2019 03:28 AM PST  British supermarket giant Tesco suspended a Chinese supplier of Christmas cards on Sunday after a press report said a customer found a message written inside a card saying it had been packed by foreign prisoners who were victims of forced labour. Tesco, Britain's biggest retailer, donates 300,000 pounds ($390,000) a year from the sale of the cards to the charities British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK and Diabetes UK. Peter Humphrey is a British former journalist and corporate fraud investigator.
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| Harry Dunn's family hits back at US government and Anne Sacoolas's lawyers Posted: 21 Dec 2019 09:24 AM PST  Harry Dunn's family has criticised lawyers acting on behalf of the US intelligence officer's wife accused of killing their son after they claimed she had "co-operated fully" with the investigation. The family has led a high-profile campaign for justice after Anne Sacoolas returned to the US after the car she was driving collided with the 19-year-old's motorbike on August 27. Sacoolas, 42, and her family had been based at RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire and she sparked public outrage after claiming diplomatic immunity due to her husband's job. It was only after she left the UK on a military flight directly from the air base that the Foreign Office wrote to the family to say immunity in her case was not valid. After the Dunn family's campaign - which included a trip to the White House - the Crown Prosecution Service announced on Friday that Sacoolas has been charged with causing death by dangerous driving. Anne Sacoolas, the wife of a US diplomat Credit: Susan Goodwin/Facebook Prosecutors have begun the extradition process to bring her back to the UK, a decision the US government labelled "disappointing" and "unhelpful". But Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said the "law should take its course" in the case of Harry Dunn and the Government will press the issue with the US "at every level". A statement from Amy Jeffress, Sacoolas's lawyer, said she had "co-operated fully with the investigation". She added: "Anne will not return voluntarily to the United Kingdom to face a potential jail sentence for what was a terrible but unintentional accident." Dunn family spokesman Radd Seiger said: "I know (Ms Jeffress) to be one of the finest and most outstanding lawyers in the USA. Her statement however boggles the mind and is deeply disturbing. Tim Dunn (left), the father of teenage motorcyclist Harry Dunn Credit: Jonathan Brady/PA "For Ms Jeffress to seek to undermine one of the most mature, well-developed legal systems in the world, which has fairness at its heart, and which many countries around the world have modelled their legal systems on, is unbecoming of any lawyer, let alone someone of her stature." Mr Seiger urged Sacoolas to "put that defence forward in court here rather than ventilate it publicly". He added: "Like everyone else (in the UK) she will get a fair trial." After the CPS decision on Friday, a spokesman for the US State Department said it was "disappointed", adding it feared the move would "not bring a resolution closer". The department maintained that Sacoolas had diplomatic immunity at the time of the incident. Harry Dunn and parents It added: "It is the position of the United States government that a request to extradite an individual under these circumstances would be an egregious abuse." Asked during a visit to Estonia if suspect Anne Sacoolas should be extradited to the UK, Mr Johnson said: "I think the best thing that I can say there is that the law should take its course and we will be obviously following that case with keen interest and continuing to make representations on behalf of Harry Dunn's family at every level." The Dunn family's lawyer Mark Stephens said that if the US authorities refused to return Sacoolas, it would be the first time in the 100-year history of the extradition treaty that they failed to comply. He told Sky News: "I've got great faith in the judges in America who will not be swayed by political statements. They have to follow the law whether the like it or not. "And the law says Anne Sacoolas comes back to England to face a judge and jury here."
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| Elizabeth Warren says her previous fundraising experience made her decide to 'do better' Posted: 22 Dec 2019 03:32 AM PST  Elizabeth Warren charged an entry fee for a 2018 fundraiser. But she pledged not to hold those events as a presidential candidate, she said Saturday.
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| Record rain, darkness: Seattle braces for floods, mudslides Posted: 21 Dec 2019 12:05 PM PST ![Record rain, darkness: Seattle braces for floods, mudslides]( "Record rain, darkness: Seattle braces for floods, mudslides") Record rainfall and darkness has hit Seattle as a major storm begins to lift across western Washington on the first day of winter, though the region is still at risk for flooding, mudslides and avalanches. Friday became the wettest day in Seattle in the past 10 years, and the most rain recorded for Dec. 20 since record-keeping at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport began in 1945. The National Weather Service said the airport recorded 3.25 inches (8.25 centimeters) of rain Friday, making it also the fifth rainiest day in city history.
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| France's Macron says colonialism was 'grave mistake' Posted: 21 Dec 2019 03:46 PM PST  French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday said "colonialism was a grave mistake," and called for "turning the page" on the past during a visit to Ivory Coast, a former French colony in West Africa. "I belong to a generation which was not" part of the colonial-era, he said.
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| Miracle survivor on mission to help close gaps in tsunami warning system Posted: 21 Dec 2019 04:39 PM PST  Arif Munandar had been pronounced dead before he woke up in a body bag four days after a monstrous wave swept his village in Indonesia's northern Aceh province 15 years ago. When a 9.1-magnitude quake opened a faultline deep beneath the Indian Ocean, it triggered a tsunami as high as 17.4 meters (57 feet), killing more than 230,000 people in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand and nine other countries. Aceh province bore the brunt of the disaster.
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| Trump careens toward a Christmas crisis with North Korea Posted: 21 Dec 2019 08:02 AM PST  Democrats are annoyed at a lack of transparency from the White House and are urging Trump to avoid "fire and fury" talk.
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| Four critically injured in shooting at Chicago memorial party Posted: 22 Dec 2019 05:56 AM PST  A shooting at a house party early Sunday on Chicago's South Side wounded 13 people, four of them critically, Chicago police said. The shooting stemmed from a dispute at a house party that was "given in memorial of a subject slain in April," Chief of Patrol Fred Waller said. He said shots were first fired just after 12:30 a.m. The victims range in age between 16 and 48 and suffered "different and various gunshot wounds to their bodies." Two people are being questioned, Chief Waller said. One of them was arrested with a weapon, he said, while the other was wounded. Waller said police recovered a revolver. Chief Waller described three different shooting scenes at the residential location in the city's Englewood neighborhood. The shooting started inside, and then more shots were fired as people began spilling out of the house. He said shots were also fired at a third place in the vicinity. He described the shooting as an "isolated incident."
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| Deaths in custody. Sexual violence. Hunger strikes. What we uncovered inside ICE facilities across the US Posted: 20 Dec 2019 07:06 PM PST  A USA TODAY Network investigation revealed sex assaults, routine use of physical force, poor medical care and deaths at facilities overseen by ICE.
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| Biden: No regrets for talking openly about stuttering Posted: 20 Dec 2019 01:53 PM PST  Joe Biden has been fighting a stutter since childhood, and he said Friday he has no regrets about talking openly about it after one of his responses in Thursday's presidential debate prompted a mocking tweet from former White House press secretary Sarah Sanders. Sanders ridiculed Biden on Twitter after he appeared to imitate a stuttering child during the debate. The tweet was later deleted and Biden said he accepted Sanders' public apology for posting it.
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| Pair from Alabama face 9 murder counts in Illinois shooting Posted: 21 Dec 2019 03:44 PM PST ![Pair from Alabama face 9 murder counts in Illinois shooting]( "Pair from Alabama face 9 murder counts in Illinois shooting") A man and woman from Alabama who were already suspected of murder, kidnapping and other violent crimes in two states were charged Saturday with killing three people in a home in southwest Illinois, authorities said. Brian Koberna, deputy commander of the Major Case Squad of Greater St. Louis, announced nine counts of first-degree murder against Brady Witcher, 41, and Brittany McMillan, 28. Police in Bethalto, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) northeast of St. Louis, discovered the bodies Thursday night after being asked to perform a well-being check.
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| The US has decided to stop sending bomb-sniffing dogs to two Middle Eastern countries after many of the animals died Posted: 21 Dec 2019 10:23 AM PST  Over a dozen US-trained canines have died from mistreatment and lack of care while others are living in unhealthy conditions, a watchdog found.
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| Pakistan Cannot Get Enough Of America's F-16 Fighting Falcon Posted: 21 Dec 2019 07:30 AM PST  Pakistan operates around sixty-six F-16A/Bs and nineteen F-16C/Ds in four active squadrons.
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| Sydney Faces ‘Catastrophic’ Fire Danger Amid Record Heat Posted: 20 Dec 2019 10:26 PM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Sydney faced "catastrophic" fire conditions on Saturday as a record heatwave exacerbated more than 100 blazes burning across Australia's most populous state.New South Wales has declared a state of emergency amid the heatwave, which has produced the hottest day on record and fanned bushfires along Australia's eastern coastline, smothering Sydney in smoke. Today's catastrophic warning for greater Sydney, the highest level of danger, means fires can spread rapidly and are extremely difficult to control. It is the second such warning for the city this season."Catastrophic fire danger is as bad as it gets," New South Wales Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons told reporters. There is concern that an expected southerly wind change will bring erratic fire conditions, he said.The crisis has caused road closures and authorities have urged motorists to avoid travel, disrupting holiday plans for Sydneysiders hoping to leave the city for a summer break. Prime Minister Scott Morrison cut short his vacation in Hawaii and apologized for taking leave while the wildfires ravage Australia, reflecting the political pressure building on his government that denies the blazes are linked to climate change. He is expected to land in Sydney later Saturday.In New South Wales alone, eight people have been killed, more than 6 million acres -- an area the size of Massachusetts -- have been burnt out and 800 houses destroyed since the fire season started unusually early this year. Fires are also raging in Victoria, Queensland and South Australia, where local media reported one person died in a fire zone today.On Wednesday, the average maximum temperature across Australia reached 41.9 degrees Celsius (107.4 degrees Fahrenheit), surpassing the record 40.9 Celsius set a day earlier, according to the weather bureau. On Thursday it reached 41 Celsius, meaning those three days were the three hottest ever recorded. While a temperature of 36 Celsius was forecast for Sydney today, the mercury soared into the 40s in some suburbs.To contact the reporter on this story: Matthew Brockett in Wellington at mbrockett1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Matthew Brockett at mbrockett1@bloomberg.net, Edward Johnson, Michael S. ArnoldFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| How This Researcher Invented an Entirely New—and Entirely Badass—Field of Science Posted: 20 Dec 2019 01:42 PM PST  Leda Kobziar and other pyroaerobiologists find life up in smoke. Literally.
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| Baghdad's 'Tahrir Beach' where the revolution takes a break Posted: 22 Dec 2019 05:02 AM PST  Close to Baghdad's protest hotspot of Tahrir Square, a sandy Tigris River bank offers some relief from the revolution: youths kick around footballs and smoke shisha pipes to booming hiphop music. Unemployed and penniless, another man here, Ali, is intoxicated by the wind of revolt that has swept through Iraq since early October in the biggest wave of street rallies since the 2003 US-led invasion. "Tahrir Beach", as its occupants call it, has maintained the carnival-like atmosphere of the protests before they were marred by bloodshed and fear.
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| Illinois wants to get rolling on weed sales, but some say only white men are set to profit Posted: 21 Dec 2019 09:10 AM PST  Illinois is the 11th state to legalize recreational marijuana, but some say it's following a dangerous trend: Dispensary owners are all white
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| Kansas wants you, America Posted: 22 Dec 2019 03:15 AM PST  Here are three of the week's top pieces of financial insight, gathered from around the web:Bad financial advice for teachers High-fee investments are leaving teachers with dramatically smaller nest eggs for their retirement plans, said Gretchen Morgenson and Anne Tergesen at The Wall Street Journal. Teachers with 403(b) accounts — government employees' equivalent of the 401(k) — typically have more than half their assets invested in annuities, which carry costs as high as 3 percent a year. "In contrast, fees on 401(k) accounts average less than 1 percent." For a typical account, over 25 years "an extra two percentage points in fees would cut 38 percent from the final account value." Some school districts also hire middlemen who "help teachers and other school employees choose investments." These "third-party administrators" promise independent advice — but are sometimes paid extra by mutual fund companies to steer teachers into higher-cost accounts.Investing while black Secret recordings at a Phoenix bank branch reveal "what racism in the banking industry sounds like," said Emily Flitter at The New York Times. Jimmy Kennedy, a former NFL lineman, started recording conversations with his financial adviser at JPMorgan Chase after he moved $800,000 into the bank but "kept getting the runaround" about becoming a private client, a status "reserved for accounts with more than $250,000." When he tried to find out why, Kennedy, who is black, was told that "bank employees were scared of dealing with him." "We're in Arizona," the adviser said. "I don't have to tell you about what the demographics are in Arizona. They don't see people like you a lot."Kansas wants you, America Topeka will pay you up to $15,000 to move there, said Kevin Hardy at The Kansas City Star. With the state capital's unemployment rate at 2.9 percent, near a 10-year low, businesses are struggling to fill openings and attract new talent. The "Choose Topeka" program, approved last week, offers up to $15,000 to pay for moving expenses for anyone who buys a primary home in the city, and $10,000 for people who rent. One caveat before you rush to pack up your stuff: The program has only $300,000 in its coffers for the first year. The city's difficulties mirror those of many smaller cities in an increasingly centralized economy. Topeka's not Kansas City, one local business leader says, where "you have a 2 million–plus metro, which sells itself."More stories from theweek.com 6 powerful phrases every parent should use SNL turned back the clock for Eddie Murphy's return Porn is evil. Don't ban it.
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| Judge revokes grazing permit for ranchers pardoned by Trump Posted: 20 Dec 2019 07:29 PM PST  A judge on Friday revoked the grazing permit of two ranchers who were pardoned last year by President Donald Trump on an arson conviction for setting fire to federal lands. U.S. District Judge Michael Simon ruled in the long-running case after hearing arguments from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which granted a 10-year grazing permit to Dwight and Steven Hammond after Trump's July 2018 pardon.
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