| Colombia rejects Venezuelan proposal to resume diplomatic relations Posted: 30 Jan 2020 01:42 PM PST  Colombia rejected Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's proposal that the two countries resume diplomatic relations on Thursday, amid a dispute over a fugitive former Colombian congresswoman who was captured in Venezuela. Maduro abruptly cut diplomatic relations with neighboring Colombia last February after Colombian President Ivan Duque helped Venezuelan opposition politicians deliver humanitarian aid to their crisis-stricken country.
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| Bernie Sanders is starting to get slammed on how he would finance Medicare for All Posted: 30 Jan 2020 08:45 AM PST  The attacks on Medicare for All echo what Sen. Elizabeth Warren faced last year as she surged ahead in national polls.
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| New Jersey mayor admits getting drunk, taking off his pants and passing out in employee's bed Posted: 30 Jan 2020 10:19 AM PST  The mayor of a New Jersey town admitted that he had "too much to drink" when he took off his trousers and crawled into an employee's bed at a party.Mahwah mayor John Roth told NorthJersey.com that he "did go upstairs to bed" and apologised for his drunken behaviour at staff party after a letter from the "concerned employees of the township of Mahwah" circulated in local reports following the incident.
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| Delta, American Airlines suspend flights between US, China Posted: 30 Jan 2020 06:09 PM PST  Delta Air Lines and American Airlines said Friday they will suspend all flights between the U.S. and China, making them the first U.S.-based airlines to do so and joining several international carriers that have stopped flying to China as the coronavirus outbreak continues to spread. Delta plans to wait until Feb. 6 to suspend China operations to help travelers in China leave the country. Delta said it will stop the flights through April 30.
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| A Purple Heart recipient who feds say faked his own death after raping his step-daughter is now on the '15 most-wanted' list Posted: 29 Jan 2020 01:46 PM PST  US Marshals say that Jacob Scott is a survivalist and a military veteran who knows how to live off the grid.
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| Key senator to vote to block trial witnesses Posted: 30 Jan 2020 08:23 PM PST  Sen. Lamar Alexander said on Thursday night that he will not vote to allow witnesses and evidence into the impeachment trial of President Trump.
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| U.S. EPA Chief of Staff Is Headed to Top Coal Mining Group Posted: 31 Jan 2020 06:05 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler's chief of staff is leaving the agency to work for the nation's top coal mining trade group.Ryan Jackson is stepping down after three years at the Environmental Protection Agency to become the National Mining Association's senior vice president of government affairs, the trade group said on Thursday night."Mr. Jackson's in-depth knowledge of the issues and nearly 20 years of working in the U.S. Senate demonstrate a reputation for persistence, integrity, working in a bipartisan fashion," said Ashley Burke, a spokeswoman for the association, which represents companies such as Peabody Energy Corp. and Alliance Coal LLC.The EPA has oversight over many issues tied to mining, including the cleanup of old sites and water impacts tied to extracting coal and other minerals. The agency also regulates air pollution from power plants burning coal, and under President Donald Trump it has sought to ease mandates blamed for discouraging electric sector reliance on the fossil fuel.Because of Jackson's government post, he will be restricted from lobbying the administration for five years and will focus solely on congressional advocacy, Burke said.Jackson joined the EPA after working for Senator Jim Inhofe, an Oklahoma Republican, and was counsel to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. His tenure as chief of staff began under the former EPA administrator, Scott Pruitt.His departure was reported earlier by Politico.Most recently, Jackson drew attention because of a dispute with the agency's independent watchdog. For months, the office of the inspector general complained that Jackson was not fully cooperating with some of its investigations and openly defying efforts to get more information. The office last year went so far as to issue a rarely used "seven-day letter" formally admonishing Jackson.The dispute was deemed resolved after Jackson sat down for an interview with the watchdog's investigators in December. On Jan. 16, the EPA's acting inspector general said in a letter to lawmakers that Jackson's cooperation with ongoing investigations was now complete and the matter "resolved," though hardly "timely."(Updates with details on EPA mining oversight, IG dispute starting in fourth paragraph.)To contact the reporters on this story: Ari Natter in Washington at anatter5@bloomberg.net;Jennifer A. Dlouhy in Washington at jdlouhy1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Jon Morgan at jmorgan97@bloomberg.net, Steve GeimannFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Republicans Can’t Win Presidential Elections Anymore, but They Sure Can Steal Them Posted: 30 Jan 2020 01:47 AM PST  "Let the people decide for themselves!" cried White House Counsel Pat Cipollone Wednesday, warning senators not to even think about pushing Trump out less than 10 months before an election.Hmmm: Where have I heard that one before?Alan Dershowitz Defends Trump With an Unapologetic Embrace of American FascismFlash back four years, to when Justice Antonin Scalia died and, while his corpse was still warm, Mitch McConnell said: "The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president."That was a blatant abuse of legislative branch power, one of the most corrupt procedural moves any senator has made since the days when the old segregationists used whatever tricks they could to hold up civil rights bills. Also a total Hail Mary pass, because as McConnell spoke those words in February 2016, no one thought for a second that Trump was actually going to become president and most everyone thought it would be Hillary Clinton. But the bet came up a winner, and McConnell got away with the kind of black-is-white/up-is-down logic at which the Republicans have become so skilled. He cloaked his anti-democratic maneuver (denying a constitutional prerogative to a duly elected president who won by a very comfortable margin) in the language of democracy (let the people decide).So it is here. They can thump on all they want about Federalist this or Hamilton's letter that, but the fact is that impeachment is in the Constitution. There's no time frame on it. The Constitution doesn't say, "Of course, we think you shouldn't do it to a president within 10 months of an election." It says the Senate may convict, period. Just like it says the President shall nominate people to fill Supreme Court vacancies, and the Senate shall vote on that nominee. Nothing about short-circuiting that process in a president's last year.It's total nonsense. Suppose that in, oh, July of a presidential election year, a president had a political opponent killed. Caught in flagrante delicto, as it were. Open and shut. And suppose that like Trump most of the time, he didn't even bother denying it. Under current law, the president couldn't be arrested. That would have to wait until he left office. So the nation would be faced with two choices. Keep a murderer in the Oval Office, as the leader of the free world, or impeach him and remove him from office.In that case, should the Senate just wait and "let the people decide"? Actually, if the president-murderer were a Republican, Midnight Mitch and Lawless Lindsey would undoubtedly say yes, which would give them and Fox plenty of time to concoct a story that the president was acting in self-defense, boldly preempting some "deep state" conspiracy. But the vast majority of Americans would presumably not want a murderer in the White House and would want him impeached and convicted.And, of course, if it were a Democratic president, Mitch and Lindsey and the gang would be all for impeachment and conviction. They'd stand there before the very same cameras they stand before today solemnly telling us that it doesn't matter whether it's 100 days before Election Day or one, the Constitution imposes upon them this grave duty and they have no choice but to carry it out.So "let the people decide" is not a principle. It's an excuse. But to people paying only fleeting attention, it sounds like principle. Which they know. Which is what makes it so manipulative and cynical. This isn't a hypothetical question. Alan Dershowitz flat-out claimed this as a legal principle Wednesday, asserting that, "If a president does something which he believes will help him get elected in the public interest, that cannot be the kind of quid pro quo that results in impeachment." If only Nixon had known about this get-out-of-jail free card that Republican senators look ready to punch now for Trump. But that's not even the worst part of it. The worst part of "let the people decide" is that in our system as it now stands, the people don't decide. In 2016, the people chose Hillary Clinton by nearly 3 million votes. They decided. They wanted Hillary Clinton to be the next president (and nominate that Supreme Court justice). But people don't count in our system. States do.Cipollone knows this, as do all the Republicans from McConnell on down who've taken to parroting the defense counsel's line. And they know a couple other things, too.One, they know that after they acquit Trump, he's going to go right back to cheating and trying to rig the 2020 election. Dershowitz just gave him constitutional carte blanche to do it if Republican senators accept this logic. And not only do they know Trump will go back to cheating; they quietly hope he will. This is because of the second thing they know. Two, they know there's a sporting (or better) chance that Trump is going win on the cheap again, but this time even worse. Trump could lose the popular vote this time by 5 million or more and still eke out an Electoral College win, as experts like David Wasserman and various others have written. Assuming a vote of perhaps 145 to 150 million (about 137 million voted last time, and I'm guessing interest will be higher), 5 million is a lot. More than 3 percent. In any other election in this country, that's case closed. The state laws that allow recounts typically allow them if the margin is less than 1 percent, or even .5 percent. Not 3.33 percent.So no, in the United States of America, or the United States of Republican America, the people do not decide. The people chose Al Gore. The people elected Barack Obama to eight years in office, not seven, canceling out his appointment powers in the eighth year. And the people chose Hillary Clinton. This is not partisan sour grapes. This is a crisis of a Constitution that was the product of compromises made with slaveholders. Today, the slaveholders' descendants likewise have us by the throat and hide behind "the people." Poor Merrick Garland learned that the hard way. But so have we all. 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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| Iranian factory makes U.S. and Israeli flags to burn Posted: 29 Jan 2020 06:38 PM PST  Business is booming at Iran's largest flag factory which makes U.S., British and Israeli flags for Iranian protesters to burn. The factory produces about 2,000 U.S. and Israeli flags a month in its busiest periods, and more than 1.5 million square feet of flags a year. Tensions between the United States and Iran have reached the highest level in decades after top Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad on Jan. 3, prompting Iran to retaliate with a missile attack against a U.S. base in Iraq days later.
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| You can buy a flight from Hong Kong to New York for $201. The catch? You have to stop in Wuhan for 6 hours. Posted: 31 Jan 2020 08:32 AM PST  Wuhan, a city in central China, is at the epicenter of a global coronavirus outbreak that has infected almost 10,000 people and killed over 200.
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| The U.S. Interior Department Grounds All of Its Chinese-Made Drones Posted: 30 Jan 2020 12:12 PM PST  If it was made in China—or uses Chinese parts—it ain't flying.
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| Tom Cotton Claims Coronavirus Epidemic ‘Much Worse’ than China Admits Posted: 30 Jan 2020 07:52 AM PST  Senator Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) claimed on Thursday that the coronavirus epidemic spreading across China is worse than the country is willing to admit."There was a 28% increase in coronavirus cases overnight in China," Cotton wrote in a Twitter post. "Make no mistake, though: these aren't 'new' cases. Just what China is willing to admit. It's much worse."By Thursday morning over 7,700 cases of the virus were confirmed worldwide, mostly in mainland China, while 68 cases were recorded in other locations around the world. 170 people have died from the virus so far.Cotton has repeatedly pushed for a travel ban to China due to concerns over the spread of the virus. On Tuesday Cotton sent a letter to members of President Trump's cabinet, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, urging the administration to enact a travel ban."As of [Tuesday] morning, China has reported that the Wuhan coronavirus has infected more than 4,500 people and killed more than 100," Cotton wrote in the letter. "But the real number is likely far higher — perhaps in the hundreds of thousands — given the Chinese Communist Party's long history of covering up and minimizing these crises."On Friday Senator Josh Hawley (R., Mo.) himself called for a ban on U.S.-China travel as the epidemic spread.The World Health Organization will meet on Thursday to determine whether to announce a global-health emergency. W.H.O. director general Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has praised China's response to the outbreak."I was struck by the determination of Chinese leadership & it's people to end the new coronavirus outbreak," Dr. Tedros wrote on Twitter.
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| US hits Iran with new sanctions, keeps some waivers in place Posted: 30 Jan 2020 01:30 PM PST  The Trump administration said Thursday that it will continue — at least for now — its policy of not sanctioning foreign companies that work with Iran's civilian nuclear program. Brian Hook, U.S. envoy to Iran, said the U.S. would renew for 60 days sanctions waivers that permit Russian, European and Chinese companies to continue to work on Iran's civilian nuclear facilities without running afoul of U.S. sanctions.
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| Double murderer becomes second US inmate executed in 2020 Posted: 29 Jan 2020 07:50 PM PST  A man convicted of murdering his ex-wife and her new partner in 1997 was executed in the US state of Georgia on Wednesday evening. Donnie Lance, 66, received a lethal injection at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson at 9:05 pm (0205 GMT Thursday), according to the Georgia Department of Corrections.
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| American Airlines agent said Orthodox Jews only bathe once a week, lawsuit claims Posted: 30 Jan 2020 05:43 PM PST ![American Airlines agent said Orthodox Jews only bathe once a week, lawsuit claims]( "American Airlines agent said Orthodox Jews only bathe once a week, lawsuit claims") A Michigan couple say they've been defamed by American Airlines' continued statements that they were removed from a flight because of their smell.
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| Sen. Lamar Alexander's Democratic colleagues are 'disappointed' with his no-witnesses vote, see a silver lining Posted: 31 Jan 2020 02:06 AM PST  Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) announced Thursday night that he will vote against calling new witnesses in President Trump's impeachment trial, but he also said Trump's actions were "inappropriate." His decision means there will likely be at most 50 votes for witnesses, and since few people think Chief Justice John Roberts would break a tie, Trump's trial is expected to come to a swift end.Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) told CNN's Anderson Cooper he's "very disappointed" in Alexander's decision, though it appears the GOP senator "essentially said that the House case has been proven but it doesn't rise to the level of impeachment." Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) told CNN's Chris Cuomo that he's also "deeply disappointed" in Alexander's decision to allow "the first impeachment trial in history that has no witnesses at all, and it's hard to imagine that this is a fair trial under those circumstances." On the other hand, he said, it's "refreshing to hear somebody on the other side describe it as inappropriate."> Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet tells CNN's @ChrisCuomo he's "disappointed" in Sen. Lamar Alexander's decision to oppose impeachment trial witnesses, but says it's "refreshing to hear somebody on the other side describe [President Trump's actions] as inappropriate." pic.twitter.com/wD5qybfG7t> > -- Cuomo Prime Time (@CuomoPrimeTime) January 31, 2020Cooper's panel was less inclined to see the upside. CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin said Alexander's statement was "a little baffling," and "the only thing that's clear is that he's not voting for witnesses and that he thinks the president's behavior is inappropriate. ... But, I mean, let's be clear: This means that this trial was a sham. This trial was not a trial in any meaningful sense of the word."John Dean, a central figure in the Watergate impeachment scandal, said this is "not a profile in courage by Lamar" on "the most significant vote he makes in his career." Former Republican National Committee chief of staff Mike Shields disagreed, saying it's a "huge" act of courage on Alexander's part because "he's going to get eviscerated by people like you." Columnist Kirsten Powers countered that his "statement is about not wanting to hear from the person that we kept hearing we needed to hear from, so it's not a real trial, and it's not a real exoneration," and Carl Bernstein chimed in to call it "a cover-up" by Senate Republicans. Watch below. More stories from theweek.com Mitch McConnell's rare blunder John Bolton just vindicated Nancy Pelosi All the president's turncoats
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| Hillary Clinton refusing to be served $50m defamation lawsuit, Tulsi Gabbard lawyer claims Posted: 30 Jan 2020 07:44 AM PST  Hillary Clinton's representatives have refused to accept legal papers relating to the $50 million defamation lawsuit filed against her by Tulsi Gabbard, according to the Hawaii congresswoman's lawyer.Ms Gabbard, who is currently seeking the Democratic party's 2020 presidential nomination, filed the suit against Ms Clinton after the former secretary of state and 2016 presidential candidate insinuated that she was "the favourite of Russians".
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| Movin' on up: Bloomberg glides past Warren to No.3 in Democratic race - Reuters/Ipsos Posted: 30 Jan 2020 01:42 PM PST  After steadily rising in popularity over the last several weeks, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg appears to have surpassed U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren among registered voters for the 2020 Democratic nomination, according to a Reuters/Ipsos national public opinion poll released on Thursday. The Jan. 29-30 poll found that 12% of registered Democrats and independents said they would vote for Bloomberg in the state nominating contests that begin next week in Iowa. Bloomberg appears to have won over a broad coalition of potential voters, including Baby Boomers, high-income earners, rural Americans and Democrats without a college degree, according to an analysis of the last two months of Reuters/Ipsos polling.
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| US passenger from Wuhan 'attempted to leave' California military base, put on quarantine Posted: 30 Jan 2020 02:32 PM PST  "He or she did not take a step outside the base," a health official told Insider, adding that the passenger was not "trying to do anything sneaky."
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| A New and Controversial U.S. Nuclear Weapon Goes to Sea Posted: 30 Jan 2020 08:13 AM PST  The missile submarine USS Tennessee is the first to deploy with the W76-2 warhead.
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| US hits Russian railroad with sanctions over Crimea Posted: 29 Jan 2020 03:25 PM PST  The Trump administration on Wednesday imposed sanctions on a Moscow-based private railway company that last month opened passenger service between Russia and Crimea, a Ukrainian peninsula that Russia annexed in 2014. The sanctions target Grand Service Express, its CEO and seven people who were slapped with European Union sanctions earlier in the week for their role in organizing Russian local elections on Crimea in September. The EU and the U.S. imposed economic sanctions on Russia after the annexation and refuse to recognize Moscow's authority over the region.
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| Berlin Adopts Five-Year Freeze to Rein In Soaring Rents Posted: 30 Jan 2020 04:50 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Berlin's plan to rein in the city's rental market was approved by lawmakers, capping revenue for property owners and potentially driving investors away from the German capital. Shares in major landlords slumped.Berlin's legislature backed measures including a five-year rent freeze Thursday, more than six months after they were proposed by the left-leaning administration. The changes will likely come into force by the end of February, though opposition parties have signaled their intention to challenge them in court.The initiative put forward by the Left party's Katrin Lompscher, head of urban development and housing, is intended to ease the burden on tenants after a property boom caused rents to double over the past decade. The political intervention has spooked investors as a separate campaign attempts to force Berlin's government to expropriate properties from large landlords including Deutsche Wohnen SE."We don't want Berlin to become a copy of overpriced cities like London and Paris, where many people can no longer afford an apartment," Lompscher said during the debate that preceded the ballot. Out of 150 votes cast, 85 lawmakers voted in favor and 64 against, with one abstention.Deutsche Wohnen shares fell as much as 2.1% and were down 0.6% at 1:30 p.m., extending its decline over the past 12 months to about 13%. Vonovia SE, Germany's largest landlord and owner of about 40,000 apartments in the capital, declined as much as 1%, and Berlin-based property owner Adler Real Estate AG dropped as much as 2.4%.The Christian Democratic Union -- Chancellor Angela Merkel's party, which is in opposition in Berlin -- plans to challenge the measures in Germany's constitutional court "as soon as possible," according to a spokesman. That can only happen once the new legislation takes effect.The adoption of the measures "sends a fatal signal to investors," Ulrich Lange, a deputy leader of Merkel's bloc in the national parliament, said in an emailed statement."What's more, there's a high possibility that the law will be declared unconstitutional," Lange added. "That will create rental chaos. It cannot be emphasized enough that the only solution that will ease the pressure on Berlin's rental market remains: build."'El Dorado'Michael Voigtlaender, an economist at the Cologne-based IW Institute, has also criticized Berlin's focus on rent controls rather than encouraging investors and developers to build more affordable homes to keep pace with the city's rapidly growing population.The government's actions are a catastrophe that "threatens to cause considerable damage to both the housing market and Berlin as a whole," the IW said in a recent report for the CDU. The value of some properties in the city could fall by more than 40% as a result of the rent restrictions, the institute estimates.Lompscher has dismissed such concerns. In an interview this month, she called Berlin an "El Dorado" for real-estate companies. Her department has worked closely with other German cities, and she expects Berlin's intervention in the property market to "have consequences" within the country and internationally.Not everyone agrees, though. Vonovia this month described the rent reforms as "Berlin specific." The company doesn't expect the measures to be replicated by other German states "except in the unlikely event that the Federal Constitutional Court were to rule largely in favor of the legislation," Vonovia said in a Jan. 23 note to investors.(Updates with lawmaker comment from seventh paragraph)To contact the reporter on this story: Andrew Blackman in Berlin at ablackman@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Chad Thomas at cthomas16@bloomberg.net, Iain Rogers, Chris ReiterFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Father-son duo of Tennessee deputies beat handcuffed people and bragged about it, feds say Posted: 30 Jan 2020 08:00 AM PST  Prosecutors allege Tony and T.J. Bean used excessive force on at least seven people and then bragged about it, calling it "the Grundy County way."
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| Say goodnight, Spitzer. Farewell to a groundbreaking space telescope. Posted: 30 Jan 2020 10:27 AM PST ![Say goodnight, Spitzer. Farewell to a groundbreaking space telescope.]( "Say goodnight, Spitzer. Farewell to a groundbreaking space telescope.") You've likely heard of Hubble and Kepler. But the Spitzer was the Swiss Army knife of space telescopes.
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| Senators break into laughter as Schiff points out ironic difference between Trump's legal defense and DOJ arguments Posted: 30 Jan 2020 12:46 PM PST  President Trump's impeachment defense team seems to be on a different page than lawyers in the Department of Justice.Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) noted this disparity while answering questions from senators in Trump's Senate impeachment trial on Thursday. Schiff said that while Trump's legal team argued the House should have gone to court to force witnesses like former National Security Adviser John Bolton to testify via subpoena, Justice Department lawyers were — nearly simultaneously — arguing in a separate case that it's up to Congress to enforce subpoenas through measures like... impeachment.> "You can't make this stuff up... The Justice Department, in resisting House subpoenas, is in court TODAY and was asked: If Congress can't come to the court to enforce subpoenas... what remedy is there?> > The DOJ lawyers response? Impeachment." - @RepAdamSchiff pic.twitter.com/eUMkaENXHQ> > — House Intelligence Committee (@HouseIntel) January 30, 2020"You can't make this stuff up," said Schiff. As CNN reports, a DOJ lawyer on Thursday said if the House needs to enforce a subpoena, one of its options is to use its impeachment powers. As a reminder, Trump was impeached on obstruction of Congress after ordering aides to defy subpoenas that would have brought them to the House floor as witnesses. During the court hearing (related to the Trump administration's efforts to change the census, not an impeachment-related hearing), DOJ lawyer James Burnham argued the House can't ask the courts to enforce subpoenas — precisely what Trump's impeachment lawyers are suggesting Democrats should have done. Trump's legal team says Democrats should have fought in court for further witnesses, while Trump administration lawyers say courts have no right to enforce congressional subpoenas.There were reportedly "audible gasps and laughs" on the Senate floor after Schiff pointed out the comedic timing of the opposing arguments.More stories from theweek.com Mitch McConnell's rare blunder John Bolton just vindicated Nancy Pelosi All the president's turncoats
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| Bloomberg glides past Warren to No. 3 in Democratic race — Reuters/Ipsos poll Posted: 30 Jan 2020 03:02 PM PST  After steadily rising in popularity over the last several weeks, former NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg appears to have surpassed Sen. Elizabeth Warren among registered voters for the 2020 Democratic nomination, according to a Reuters/Ipsos national public opinion poll released Thursday.
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| EU court will not intervene in Croatia-Slovenia border dispute Posted: 31 Jan 2020 01:22 AM PST  The European Union's top court ruled on Friday that it had no jurisdiction to settle a border dispute between Slovenia and Croatia, complicating Croatia's accession to the Schengen free-travel area. Slovenia had argued that its fellow EU member could be sued under EU law because it was not implementing a 2017 border ruling by the intergovernmental Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague. The European Commission has said Croatia meets the technical criteria for Schengen membership, but Slovenia is unhappy with Croatia's rejection of the ruling, and has the power to veto its accession.
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| Why Did the Coast Guard Sail Right by Taiwan and China in 2019? Posted: 31 Jan 2020 06:20 AM PST  A good idea?
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| Pentagon identifies 2 Air Force airmen killed in Afghanistan Posted: 29 Jan 2020 02:40 PM PST  The Pentagon on Wednesday released the names of two Air Force officers killed in the crash of their Bombardier E-11A electronic surveillance plane in Afghanistan. Voss was assigned to Air Combat Command headquarters at Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Virginia. Phaneuf was assigned to the 37th Bomb Squadron at Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota.
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| France, Italy Drag Euro-Area Economy to Worst Quarter Since 2013 Posted: 31 Jan 2020 03:20 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Terms of Trade is a daily newsletter that untangles a world embroiled in trade wars. Sign up here. The euro-area economy barely grew at the end of 2019 as unexpected contractions in France and Italy dealt the bloc its weakest quarter in almost seven years.The surprise slump in two of the region's biggest nations is yet another blow for their governments. President Emmanuel Macron is already under fire amid protests over controversial pension reforms, while Italy's fragile coalition is scarred by internal skirmishes.Output in the 19-nation region rose just 0.1% in the fourth quarter, down from 0.3% in the previous period, and underlying inflation slowed in January to the weakest in three months. The French economy shrank 0.1%, and Italy posted a 0.3% contraction. Germany has previously said it posted slight growth at the end of 2019 -- the official reading is due next month.The economic gloom may prove to be temporary. Surveys have suggested that the rot has been stemmed for now. The European Central Bank says the risks to the outlook have become "less pronounced," and more signs of improving momentum came Thursday when the European Commission reported a marked rise in sentiment in January, led by manufacturing and construction.What Bloomberg's Economists Say"Growth momentum is set to build into 2020 reflecting fewer risks from the global economy -- trade tension between the U.S. and China have eased somewhat and the worst type of Brexit should be avoided. We see quarterly growth of 0.3% through 2020."\-- Jamie Rush. Read the EURO-AREA REACTStill, the reports could revive calls for more spending by countries that have fiscal space, such as Germany. The ECB has repeatedly called for action, and the European Union's executive arm is planning to publish a document next week asserting that the euro zone's fiscal rules are too convoluted.The yield on German 10-year debt has slipped in recent days and fell below -0.4% for the first time in three months. The euro was little changed at $1.1031 at 11:57 a.m. Frankfurt time on Friday.Trade risks have returned to the fore with the U.S. renewing threats last week to raise duties on imports of cars from the EU, and France only narrowly avoiding American tariffs on wine and cheese in a dispute over digital taxation. The U.S. just reported the biggest drop in imports since 2009, and new concerns are emerging such as the coronavirus and the hit to Chinese and global growth.Read our Virus UpdateFrench cognac maker Remy Cointreau has already sounded a note of caution over the impact of the virus on its business in China and ditched its guidance for the year. Airlines including Germany's Lufthansa cut flights, and Finnish elevator-maker Kone expect a hit on bottom lines amid factory closures.French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire blamed his economy's poor results on disruptions in ports, the rail network and fuel deposits and highlighted resilient consumption and business investment."This temporary slowdown does not call into question the fundamentals of French growth," he said. Without the curb from companies using up stocks rather than increasing production, the economy would have expanded about 0.3%.One bright spot was Spain, where the government woke up to more evidence that the economy is one of Europe's outperformers. Faster-than-anticipated growth of 0.5% was driven by buoyant exports and a strong increase in services.\--With assistance from Harumi Ichikura, Kristian Siedenburg, Jeannette Neumann, John Follain and Zoe Schneeweiss.To contact the reporters on this story: William Horobin in Paris at whorobin@bloomberg.net;Jana Randow in Frankfurt at jrandow@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Fergal O'Brien at fobrien@bloomberg.net, Paul GordonFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Doomsday Mom Lori Vallow Misses Deadline to Produce Missing Kids Posted: 30 Jan 2020 01:44 AM PST  In the six weeks since Idaho police announced that Tylee and J.J. Vallow were missing, the investigation into the siblings' disappearance has taken more turns than one of their stepfather's Mormon apocalypse novels.And it took another one Thursday when their mother, Lori Vallow, blew the court-ordered deadline to produce them or face a contempt of court charge and possible arrest and extradition from Hawaii.That's where she and husband Chad Daybell have been holed up since cops started looking into the whereabouts of their children, the deaths of their previous spouses, and other bizarre incidents connected to the couple.Last weekend, police on the island of Kauai served Vallow with a court order signed by an Idaho judge, giving her five days to turn up with 17-year-old Tylee and 7-year-old J.J., who was adopted and is autistic.Ominously, police found no sign of the kids or any indication that they had been in Hawaii. Authorities and family members waited all day Thursday to see if Vallow would comply and bring an end to the troubling mystery.But the 5 p.m. MT deadline came and went with no sign of Vallow or her children.Idaho Doomsday Couple Found in Hawaii—Without Missing KidsKauai Prosecuting Attorney Justin Kollar told The Daily Beast this week that he's been involved in other missing persons cases over the last decade, "but I've never seen one with so many twists and turns."He did not know if Vallow and Daybell had ever left Hawaii for Idaho, and Kauai police did not return calls for comment. In Idaho, authorities are being very close-lipped because much of the child-protection case is sealed."We hope and pray that the children will be produced or found and that they are safe and healthy," Madison County Prosecuting Attorney Rob Wood said in a statement.A reporter for East Idaho News, who was in Kauai when police stopped the couple with a search warrant last weekend and seized their vehicle, pelted them with questions about the children that they refused to answer. Told that people were praying for Tylee and J.J., Vallow had a two-word response: "That's great."Beyond that, the newlyweds have only commented on the situation in a single, brief statement from an Idaho attorney. "Chad Daybell was a loving husband and has the support of his children in this matter. Lori (Vallow) Daybell is a devoted mother and resents assertions to the contrary. We look forward to addressing the allegations once they have moved beyond speculation and rumor," lawyer Sean Bartholick said.Idaho police maintain there's a lot more than speculation at play. No one has seen the children since late September. Daybell and Vallow got hitched soon after their previous spouses died—deaths that are now under new scrutiny. And they have refused to assist police in any way."We strongly believe that Joshua and Tylee's lives are in danger," Rexburg police said last month.Chad Daybell, 51, is a prolific author of books aimed at a Mormon audience. With titles like Days of Fury, Evading Babylon, and The Rise of Zion, they focus on doomsday scenarios and near-death situations.A memoir, Living on the Edge of Heaven, catalogs what he says were his own near-death experiences, during a cliff-jumping incident when he was 17 and being hit by a wave at La Jolla Cove in California in his 20s."While his body was being tossed by the wave, his spirit was visiting with his grandfather, who showed him future events involving his still-unborn children," an Amazon summary of the book reads. "This accident caused his veil that separates mortal life from the Spirit World to stay partially open, so he often feels as if he has a foot in both worlds."Lori Vallow, 46, was living in Hawaii with her fourth husband, Charles, Tylee, and J.J. when she reportedly began reading Daybell's florid end-times prose and became obsessed with his worldview.It's not clear exactly how or when they met, but by 2018, she was involved with a group called Preparing a People that puts on conferences, lectures, and podcasts for those who, as its website says, "look forward to the rapidly coming changes to our current Telestial way of life, and rejoice in the hope of a far better world to soon come!"By then, Lori and Charles had moved from Hawaii to Arizona—and their 12-year marriage was on the rocks.Slain Hubby Claimed Doomsday Mom Threatened to Kill HimFamily members have said that Lori took Tylee and J.J. and disappeared for weeks. Charles filed for divorce in February 2019, painting a disturbing picture of his wife.He said she had become "obsessive about near-death experiences and spiritual visions" and refused to see a mental health professional. She claimed to be "a god assigned to carry out the work of the 144,000 at Christ's second coming in July 2020," Charles wrote in his petition, obtained by the Arizona Republic. He said she threatened to him kill him if he interfered with her plans.Charles didn't go through with the divorce, though, withdrawing the petition a month later. He decamped to Texas while Lori stayed in Arizona. Four months later, he was dead.On July 11, 2019, he showed up at Lori's home to see J.J. and was shot to death by her brother, Alex Cox, who told police it was self-defense. By his account, Charles got into an argument with Lori, became physical and then came at him with a baseball bat. "We knew immediately that was wrong," Charles' sister Kay Woodcock, who is also J.J,'s grandmother, said at a press conference earlier this month. "It was a setup."Cox was not charged at the time and was found dead himself five months later of unknown causes. Arizona police have said the case was still open at the time.Within weeks of Charles Vallow's killing, Lori moved to Idaho with Tylee and J.J. Kay Woodcock and her husband, Larry, who live in Louisiana, said their contact with the little boy became more limited. "That was very concerning to us," Kay said. By the end of September, J.J. was reportedly no longer attending Rexburg Elementary School.Over the next couple of weeks, police in Arizona and Idaho were alerted to two strange incidents that have since taken on greater significance.On Oct. 2, Brandon Boudreaux—who was in the midst of a divorce from Lori Vallow's niece—was driving home from the gym in Gilbert, Arizona, when a bullet came whizzing into his vehicle. He has said police told him the Jeep that raced away from the scene was registered to the late Charles Vallow.A week later, in Salem, Idaho, Chad Daybell's wife, Tammy, 49, had just returned from the grocery store when, as she described to police, she was ambushed by someone clad in black and a ski mask who pointed what appeared to be a paintball gun at her. She called for Chad and the person took off."She wasn't shot, and there wasn't any evidence to who it was. She figured it was a prankster. That's what we wrote it up as," Fremont County Sheriff Len Humphries told the Rexburg Standard Journal. "She wasn't injured. Beyond what she told us, we had nothing to go on."Ten days later, there was another call from the house. Tammy was dead.Doomsday Writer's Friend Says He Prophesied Wife's Mysterious DeathAn obituary said the mother of five grown children "passed away peacefully in her sleep." Her father, Ron Douglas, told a Salt Lake City TV station Chad called him crying, saying Tammy had a coughing fit the night before and simply never woke up. Chad turned down an autopsy and the death was listed as natural causes.According to the obituary, Tammy and Chad had met when she was a freshman at Brigham Young University and quickly married. She supported the family while he continued his education and helped him build the Spring Creek Book Company, which published his novels.Tammy and Chad had been married for nearly 30 years, but within weeks of her death, he remarried—reportedly traveling to Hawaii to tie the knot with Lori.By late November, the Woodcocks had grown very worried about J.J. and Tylee and asked authorities to check on them. When police showed up, Chad and Lori said the children were with relatives in Arizona. A quick check showed that was not true, but when cops returned the next day, the couple were gone. Investigators learned the children had not been seen in two months and, chillingly, that the couple had told people that Tylee was dead or that Lori did not have children.Now police were just as concerned as the Woodcocks—and not just about Tylee and J.J. In early December, they secured permission to exhume Tammy Daybell's body to determine if there was foul play. (Autopsy results are not yet available.) And police in Arizona began investigating Charles Vallow's death with a new eye.Others began to reassess the couple, as well. Nancy and Michael James, who run Preparing a People—which they describe as a media company, not a religious organization—wrote on their website that they returned from a vacation to news of Tammy's death."We considered Chad Daybell a good friend, but have since learned of things we had no idea about," they wrote last month in a post that has since been removed. "We recently learned of Chad's new marriage to Lori Vallow a couple weeks after Tammy Daybell died... We did not know Lori as well as we thought we knew Chad."The Jameses announced they were removing all content on their site from Daybell and Vallow. "We pray for the truth of whatever happened to be quickly manifest," they wrote.Those prayers would not be answered. On Dec. 30, Rexburg police issued an extraordinary statement, publicly blasting Vallow for refusing to cooperate with their search for her children."We know that the children are not with Lori and Chad Daybell and we also have information indicating that Lori knows either the location of the children or what has happened to them. Despite having this knowledge, she has refused to work with law enforcement to help us resolve this matter," they said.Police said Vallow had left Idaho, but they did not say where she was. That became clear over the weekend when East Idaho News revealed that they were in Hawaii. They moved into a townhouse condo in a gated community bordering a golf course where neighbors said they kept to themselves.On Saturday, Kauai police served Vallow with the child protective order requiring her to produce the children in Idaho by Jan. 30. On Sunday, they stopped the couple at the Kauai Beach Resort, served search warrants, and took their SUV away.On Wednesday, the Woodcocks—who have put up a $20,000 reward for information leading to the return of Tylee and J.J.—flew from Louisiana to Idaho in the hopes that Vallow would show up with the children. It's what everyone hoped, even though nearly every development in the case has only raised more questions. As Tammy Daybell's father, Ron Douglas, told Fox 13: "Every time you peel a layer off the onion it makes you scratch your head."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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| Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz filmed attacking sheriff deputy inside jail Posted: 31 Jan 2020 06:32 AM PST  Video has emerged of Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz attacking a deputy inside Broward County's main jail.The attack took place on Nov 13, 2018, and depicts Cruz pacing around a common area before getting into an argument with a guard and attacking him.
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| Idaho kids still missing after "multiple deaths with strange circumstances" Posted: 29 Jan 2020 07:20 PM PST  Grandparents Larry and Kay Woodcock are pleading for the safe return of 7-year-old JJ Vallow and 17-year-old Tylee Ryan.
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| Chinese planes to bring overseas Wuhan citizens back to virus-hit city Posted: 30 Jan 2020 11:37 PM PST  China sent two planes to Malaysia and Thailand on Friday to bring "stranded" Hubei province residents back to the virus-stricken city of Wuhan, authorities said. The Xiamen Airlines flights will pick up the Chinese nationals from Kota Kinabalu in Malaysia and the Thai capital Bangkok, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).
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| U.S. seeks Iraqi nod to bring in air defenses after Iran attack Posted: 30 Jan 2020 08:49 AM PST  The United States is trying to secure permission from Iraq to take Patriot missile defenses into the country to better defend U.S. forces after Iran's Jan. 8 missile attack, which wounded 50 American troops, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said on Thursday. The United States did not have Patriot air defenses deployed to al-Asad air base in Iraq, where at least 11 of Iran's ballistic missiles struck, killing no one but triggering massive blasts that caused traumatic brain injury among U.S. forces.
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| The Latest: Russia closing its land border with China Posted: 29 Jan 2020 08:59 PM PST  Russia is closing its land border with China, similar to steps taken by Mongolia and North Korea, to guard against a new viral outbreak. Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin issued the decree Thursday, ordering the 2,600-mile land border with China closed starting Friday. Some countries have reduced flights and airlines have halted them because of the new virus that has sickened thousands in central China.
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| U.S. Farm Chief Presses EU to Throw Doors Open to American Foods Posted: 30 Jan 2020 04:39 AM PST ![U.S. Farm Chief Presses EU to Throw Doors Open to American Foods]( "U.S. Farm Chief Presses EU to Throw Doors Open to American Foods") (Bloomberg) -- Terms of Trade is a daily newsletter that untangles a world embroiled in trade wars. Sign up here. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue signaled that a renewed transatlantic trade truce will require more ambitious European Union efforts to ease imports of American foods.Perdue criticized an idea being pursued by the bloc of a piecemeal accord that would scale back European regulatory barriers to individual American products such as shellfish, saying a U.S. farm-trade deficit with the EU of $10 billion to $12 billion was "unsustainable and unreasonable."Instead, he said, Europe should reject the "political science of fear" over U.S. farm goods and ease market access for them in general."We're looking for real substance," Perdue said from Rome on Thursday during a conference call with reporters. "It depends on recognizing international standards."The comments challenge Europe's better-safe-than-sorry approach to food safety -- a stance that has led to longstanding EU bans on hormone-treated beef and "chlorinated" chicken, and to a slow approval process in Europe for genetically modified foods.The remarks also highlight the obstacles to reviving a July 2018 transatlantic commercial truce. A fraying of that deal in recent months prompted U.S. President Donald Trump and European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen last week to pledge fresh efforts to reach a trade accord, which she said could also include matters related to energy and technology.Any failure could prompt an escalation in tit-for-tat tariffs that began in 2018 when Trump invoked national-security considerations to impose duties on steel and aluminum from Europe.Perdue described talks he held on Monday with EU officials in Brussels as "very productive." And, while declining to speculate about the elements of any transatlantic farm deal because it is being handled in Washington by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Perdue held out the prospect of results within weeks.To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan Stearns in Brussels at jstearns2@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Ben Sills at bsills@bloomberg.net, Nikos Chrysoloras, Peter ChapmanFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Why The Navy Risked Everything To Assassinate The Admiral Who Planned Pearl Harbor Posted: 30 Jan 2020 02:00 AM PST  There was no escape for Admiral Yamamoto.
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| More than 6,000 people are trapped on a cruise ship in Italy after a woman was suspected of having the coronavirus Posted: 30 Jan 2020 06:18 AM PST  Passengers of a Costa Cruises cruise ship can't disembark. Two passengers, one of whom was experiencing coronavirus symptoms, were quarantined.
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| Dems Hope Team Trump’s ‘Absurd’ Arguments Give GOP Pause Posted: 29 Jan 2020 03:25 PM PST  For months, Democrats have argued President Trump should be removed from office because he put his personal political interest over the national interest. And for a few minutes on the Senate floor on Wednesday, a defender of Trump's offered a remarkable response: that's not possible—because they're the same thing."Every public official I know believes his election is in the public interest," ventured Alan Dershowitz, the ex-Harvard Law professor who has joined Trump's defense team. "If a president does something which he believes will help him get elected in the public interest, that cannot be the kind of quid pro quo that results in impeachment." "Everybody has mixed motives," Dershowitz continued, "and for there to be a constitutional impeachment based on mixed motives would permit almost any president to be impeached."Democratic senators sitting and taking in the professor's argument were stunned. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who had been leaning back in his seat, sat up straight and looked around at his neighbors, mouthing something to Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI), who had an incredulous expression on his face. Nearby, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) gave a disgusted flick of her wrist and a distressed Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) stretched out his arms pleadingly.Gillibrand later told The Daily Beast that Dershowitz's argument was "absurd." "I mean, it was beyond recognition as a legal argument," she said. "I think it made their case laughable."Approached later that evening, Dershowitz reiterated his earlier comments about "mixed motives," telling The Daily Beast that it's not impeachable for a politician to act with re-election in mind if he is also acting in the "public interest."The remarks caused a brief stir, but were ultimately consumed by the forward motion of a trial that seems increasingly likely to deliver a swift verdict in favor of Trump. Democrats said they could only hope it gave pause to the senators weighing an acquittal or a vote later this week to block new witnesses and documents from consideration.Whether it matters, said Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE), is "mostly in the hands of folks who should be more alarmed and concerned about the idea of an all powerful president who they are about to seriously consider exonerating." If the argument bothered Republicans, some did not let it show. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) conceded that Dershowitz has "probably made stronger arguments." When approached by reporters during a break in the trial, Sen. Todd Young (R-IN) and Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) appeared to struggle to answer questions about Dershowitz's claims. At one point a reporter repeated what Dershowitz said on the Senate floor and Young disputed it, saying "I don't think that's what he said." Young immediately tried to turn the conversation from Dershowitz to the Bidens. In a muddled statement, Young argued that Dershowitz's claims were somewhat valid because the president was trying to investigate corruption, even if it had to do with a major political rival."It gets back to the whole question of the Bidens," Young told reporters. "That's what was being referred to in terms of — is there corruption in Ukraine? And were the Bidens completely clear of it?"After spending the start of the week battling to keep up with bombshells about the content of ex-National Security Adviser John Bolton's book—which reportedly contains confirmation of the quid-pro-quo Trump sought on Ukraine—the Senate GOP has shown increased resolve to block testimony from Bolton and other witnesses, setting them up to conclude the trial as early as Friday.The question-and-answer portion that unfolded Wednesday afternoon, which allowed senators to pose written questions for the White House counsel and the Democratic managers, was the first chance for them to raise issues and substantively participate in the trial.Both parties seemed to approach the day largely as an opportunity to tee up either the White House or the House managers to return to key points or refute the other side's. Tellingly, though, the Democrats' first question—posed by Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.)—was a set-up to hammer home his only point these days: could the Senate render a real verdict in the trial without hearing from Bolton? Republicans stifled some exasperated chuckles as Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) came to the dais and affirmed that, no, the Senate could not do so. After lobbing questions that allowed Team Trump to attack the House's impeachment process, the GOP used question time to echo talking points repeatedly voiced by Trump and his allies—namely, the involvement of former Vice President Joe Biden's son, Hunter, in a Ukrainian energy company, and the motives of the anonymous whistleblower whose account sparked the impeachment inquiry.Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) asked, for example, a question that raised reporting from some media outlets who have alleged an identity for the whistleblower and claimed that the person had political ties to Biden.And Sens. Cruz and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) both posed another Biden-related hypothetical to House managers: if President Obama had evidence that Mitt Romney's son was being paid $1 million by a corrupt Russian company, and Romney had acted to benefit that company, would Obama have had the authority to request an investigation?When Chief Justice John Roberts asked the question out loud to the room, several senators could be heard chuckling. Some shook their heads. Graham looked back at Romney in the chamber, smiled, and nodded his head.Schiff responded to Graham's question by saying that the question itself was flawed because the comparison was not one-to-one. But he said it would be improper for any president to call for a foreign power to investigate their political rival. "The reality is, for a president to withhold military aid from an ally... to target their political opponent is wrong and corrupt. Period," Schiff said.The questions seemed to offer some of the only glimpses into the calculations of the tight-lipped swing senators who could either prolong or end the trial this week. Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski asked a question to the White House: did they recall Trump ever mentioning concerns about the Bidens and Ukrainian corruption before Biden entered the Democratic primary in 2019?"I can't point to something in the record," answered Trump attorney Patrick Philbin. 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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| 'A lot of chaos': State Department says it will fly Americans back from Wuhan, but questions remain Posted: 31 Jan 2020 06:31 AM PST  The State Department announcement that more flights would bring back Americans from Wuhan was welcome news, but plenty of questions remain.
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| The operator of the downed helicopter that Kobe Bryant and 8 others died in is suspending operations for an undisclosed amount of time Posted: 30 Jan 2020 05:47 PM PST  An employee of Island Express told Business Insider that the company will not fly on Jan. 30 or 31. It may cancel additional flights.
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| Indonesia deports detained U.S. reporter: lawyer Posted: 31 Jan 2020 07:41 AM PST ![Indonesia deports detained U.S. reporter: lawyer]( "Indonesia deports detained U.S. reporter: lawyer") A U.S. journalist who has written stories about environmental destruction in Indonesia was deported on Friday after being arrested over alleged visa violations, his lawyer and his news outlet said. Philip Jacobson, had been detained 45 days earlier in Palangkaraya, the provincial capital of Central Kalimantan in Borneo island, according to a statement from environmental news provider Mongabay. Arvin Gumilang, a spokesman for Indonesia's Immigration Directorate General, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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