| Iran's sole female Olympic medallist defects Posted: 11 Jan 2020 01:09 PM PST  Iran's only female Olympic medallist Kimia Alizadeh announced Saturday she has permanently left her country, citing the "hypocrisy" of a system she claims humiliates athletes while using them for political ends. "Should I start with hello, goodbye, or condolences?" she wrote on Instagram, as Iran reeled from Wednesday's accidental shooting down of a Ukrainian airliner that killed all 176 people onboard. Alizadeh, who won a bronze medal in taekwondo at the 2016 Rio Olympics, cited oppression by authorities in the Islamic republic.
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| Michael Bloomberg will reportedly fund his campaign through November — even if it's helping another nominee Posted: 10 Jan 2020 11:18 AM PST  Michael Bloomberg reportedly has a long-term plan for his well-funded campaign.The billionaire former New York City mayor made a late entry to the 2020 race, but quickly jumped up in the polls thanks to the millions of dollars of self-funding he's been able to put into it. But if he doesn't end up topping the Democratic field, that campaign machine won't go to waste: Bloomberg will continue funding his staff to help whoever locks down the Democratic nomination, campaign officials tell NBC News.Bloomberg already has one of the biggest paid campaign teams out there, with more than 500 workers scattered across the U.S. He's also dominating the TV ad market, all while paying his staffers nearly double what some other campaigns are. Yet all that spending couldn't get Bloomberg on January's Democratic debate stage, and he's still a long shot to win the nomination altogether.But even if Bloomberg can't buy his way into this election, he'll still be paying for it through November, campaign officials said. All the staffers and digital assets Bloomberg pays for would be redirected to the nominee, building a "shadow field operation across the country," including in general election swing states such as Florida, Michigan, and Wisconsin, NBC News reports.That doesn't mean Bloomberg is backing down in his fight for the nomination. "Mike Bloomberg is either going to be the nominee or the most important person supporting the Democratic nominee for president," Bloomberg's campaign manager Kevin Sheekey said. Read more at NBC News.More stories from theweek.com The death of rock's master craftsman 5 royally funny cartoons about Harry and Meghan's exit Chip Walter recommends 6 great science books
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| US destroyer fires warning blasts at Russian warship in Arabian Sea Posted: 10 Jan 2020 12:09 PM PST  A Russian warship ignored warnings from a US Navy destroyer in the North Arabian Sea on Thursday as the Russian craft "aggressively approached" the vessel.Crew aboard the USS Farragut "fired five short blasts" to signal the Russian ship's danger of collision, according to a statement from the US Navy's Fifth Fleet. Video footage onboard the Farragut shows the Russian Navy's craft steering towards the destroyer and coming within 180 feet of its rear.
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| Death Toll in Pakistani Mosque Explosion Increases to 15 Posted: 11 Jan 2020 12:18 AM PST |
| Senior police officer arrested in Kashmir on suspicion of aiding militants Posted: 12 Jan 2020 06:21 AM PST |
| Democratic 2020 candidates vie for unions, Latinos in Nevada Posted: 11 Jan 2020 01:11 PM PST  Democratic presidential candidates descended on Nevada on Saturday in an attempt to build relationships with Latino voters and win the coveted endorsement of the powerful casino workers' Culinary Union. Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg, both running as Midwestern moderates who've warned against liberal plans to move the U.S. to a government-run health insurance system, pitched themselves Saturday morning to Culinary Union workers, who prize their robust health plans.
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| The U.K. Has Sent a Formal Extradition Request to U.S. for Anne Sacoolas, the Wife of a Diplomat Charged in the Death of Harry Dunn Posted: 10 Jan 2020 04:40 PM PST  U.K. prosecutors sent a formal extradition request to the U.S., asking that the country return Anne Sacoolas to face trial for the killing of teenager Harry Dunn
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| Puerto Rico's strongest quake since 1918 has residents on edge Posted: 11 Jan 2020 10:04 PM PST  More than 300 people are homeless a day after the 6.4 magnitude quake rocked the island still recovering from Hurricane Maria.
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| Trump reportedly told associates he killed Soleimani under pressure Posted: 11 Jan 2020 09:25 AM PST  President Trump said he killed Iran's important military leader last week in part to appease Republican senators who will play a crucial role in his Senate impeachment trial, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.
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| The US reportedly sent secret messages to Iran via Swiss intermediaries, urging not to retaliate too strongly and further provoke Trump Posted: 11 Jan 2020 07:32 PM PST  The Swiss embassy in Tehran has been used by the American government to communicate with Iran since the 1979 Iranian Revolution.
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| This Picture Might Just Depict the Ultimate Military Weapon Posted: 12 Jan 2020 01:25 AM PST  Meet the MLRS.
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| Huawei exec can be extradited to US, Canada attorney general says Posted: 10 Jan 2020 09:03 PM PST  Canada's Department of Justice said a Huawei executive arrested in Vancouver could be extradited to the United States, because her offense is a crime in both countries, according to documents released Friday. Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou, who was originally detained on a US warrant in late 2018, faces an extradition hearing in Vancouver that begins on January 20. The United States accuses Meng of lying to banks about violating Iran sanctions.
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| Australian Bushfires and Heat Are Killing Flying Foxes by the Thousands Posted: 11 Jan 2020 02:15 AM PST  Bushfires fueled by climate change that are raging across eastern Australia have burned millions of acres, destroyed thousands of buildings, and killed 25 people. But there are other victims: Australia's endangered flying foxes. These furry, doe-eyed, puppy-size migratory bats have died by the thousands in the fires and in the months of extreme heat that preceded the blazes. While the bushfires have affected billions of animals and killed potentially millions of them, the flying foxes are uniquely vulnerable. Above a certain temperature, they can simply drop dead from the trees where they roost. Stressed adult bats that survive the heat often abandon their pups —a death sentence for the helpless babies. Fires have destroyed millions of the trees the fruit-eating bats rely on. Despite desperate rescue efforts, as many as a fifth of Australia's flying foxes have died in just a few months. And with the southern continent's hot, dry summer in full flow and bushfires likely to continue, many more bats could perish.Owing to runaway global warming, this season's extraordinary temperatures and fires could become the new normal. In that case, flying foxes are almost certainly doomed to extinction. "They're the canaries in the coal mine for climate change," Evan Quartermain, head of programs for the Washington, D.C.-based Humane Society International, told The Daily Beast.Australia's wildlife rescuers are panicking, but the country's climate change-denying national leaders definitely aren't. "This ecological nightmare should be sounding very loud alarm bells in the halls of parliament, but it's not," Lou Bonomi, a rescuer with the Fly By Night Bat Clinic in Melbourne, told The Daily Beast. Seven species of flying fox call Australia home. Three are classified as "vulnerable" or "endangered" by Australia's Ministry of the Environment. Prior to the heat and fires, hunting and deforestation were the biggest threats. Two species, the gray-headed flying fox and the spectacled flying fox, live in large numbers in the eastern bushfire zone and have suffered the most in recent months.As recently as early 2019, there were around 700,000 gray-headed flying foxes and around 100,000 spectacled flying foxes in eastern Australia, according to government surveys. Then the temperatures rose and fires broke out. 2019 was the hottest and driest year on record in Australia, according to government statistics. The annual bushfire season that began in late 2019 also has broken records. Nearly 26 million acres have burned so far. That's seven million more acres than burned in the Amazon's own catastrophic fires last year. Flying foxes suffer potentially fatal heat stress at temperatures over 40 degrees Celsius, or 104 degrees Fahrenheit. "We have about 30 of us who will prepare to head out if we see the forecast is going to be 40 degrees Celsius or higher," Bonomi said. "You can imagine our dread when we had forecasts of 44 and 43 degrees both in two weeks."Rescuers try to cool down the bats by gently spraying them with water. It's easier said than done. There are hundreds of flying-fox colonies. Some are nearly a mile across and number tens of thousands of bats roosting high in the trees. "We walk up and down with firefighting backpacks filled with water and quietly try to cool them," Bonomi said. "They are so stressed and so flighty that you really have to go easy doing this, despite what your instinct tells you to do. Go too close or move in too soon and the bats will take flight. This can kill them as they're already so hot and exhausted. Sometimes it's just too late, you reach them and they will drop dead at your feet." "Some of the younger ones you can offer water for them to lap, cool them down and keep offering water," Bonomi added, "but honestly, you spend half an hour with one little one and in the meantime 20 around you die." Bonomi said 20 percent of the flying foxes in the biggest nearby colony have died in recent months. Conservationists are still tallying up the countrywide bat death toll. It could be in the tens of thousands in a total population that was already in decline owing to hunting and habitat destruction. Rescue groups and animal hospitals have taken in thousands of abandoned pups for rehabilitation. Humane Society International is helping to supply rehabilitators with food for the pups. Fly By Night Bat Clinic is experimenting with sprinklers that could help keep colonies cool. Both groups are raising money for rescuers and rehabilitators.But all these measures are short-term fixes to a long-term problem. Barring a global green-energy revolution, atmospheric carbon is likely to increase and temperatures will spike even higher. If you think 2019 and 2020 have been bad for bats, try to imagine 2021. Or 2030, for that matter. "Given that extreme heat events are becoming more frequent and intense under climate change, the long-term prospects of the species must be considered as of serious concern," Justin Welbergen, associate professor of animal ecology at Western Sydney University and president of the Australasian Bat Society, told The Daily Beast.The federal government under Prime Minister Scott Morrison has reacted with a veritable shrug. The Department of the Environment declined to comment for this story. "We have a conservative government of climate skeptics, who prioritize wealth, big business and non-renewable energy sources that are ruining us faster than we can fix," Bonomi explained. "While our beautiful country burns, our prime minister holidays. While entire species literally collapse around us, the government is investing in coal-mining and logging our old growth forests.""If governments at all levels don't do everything they can to make Australia's nature more resilient to climate change, I don't think flying foxes, and in turn us humans, will stand a chance," Quartermain said.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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| The 9 Things You Need in Your Car This Winter Posted: 11 Jan 2020 12:00 PM PST |
| UK police say it was mistake to call climate group extremist Posted: 11 Jan 2020 10:01 AM PST  British police say it was an "error of judgment" to include environmental protest group Extinction Rebellion in an official document that listed extremist organizations. The counterterrorism police unit for southeast England included the climate change protesters alongside Islamic extremists and banned neo-Nazi group National Action in a guide to "safeguarding young people and adults from ideological extremism," The Guardian newspaper reported.
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| Relatives of massacre victims torn over future in Mexico as most flee Posted: 11 Jan 2020 05:44 PM PST  The gangland ambush by cartel gunmen in November on a dusty road in northern Mexico left three mothers and six children dead, their charred vehicles riddled with bullets, and a once-strong faith deeply shaken in the picturesque hamlets the families have called home for generations. "La Mora will never be the same," said 27-year-old holdout Kendra Miller, whose brother Howard lost his wife Rhonita and their four children in the attack. Today, roads in and around La Mora are patrolled by hundreds of heavily-armed soldiers, helicopters buzzing overhead.
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| Bernie Sanders in Trump's crosshairs in wake of Iran crisis Posted: 10 Jan 2020 10:36 AM PST  The Iran crisis collided with the Democratic presidential race this week as Sen. Bernie Sanders and President Trump battled over the circumstances of the U.S. strike that killed a prominent Iranian general.
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| U.S. military tried to take out another Iranian leader, but failed Posted: 10 Jan 2020 12:38 PM PST  The U.S. military tried, but failed, to take out another senior Iranian commander on the same day that an American airstrike killed a Revolutionary Guard commander, U.S. officials said Friday.
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| Your Air Force Never Wants To Battle These Five Air Defense Missiles Posted: 11 Jan 2020 12:30 AM PST  The world's best.
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| Storms sweep southern US, Midwest as death toll rises to 11 Posted: 11 Jan 2020 10:49 AM PST  Severe storms sweeping across southern portions of the U.S. and up into the Midwest were blamed Saturday in the deaths of at least 11 people, including two first responders, as high winds, tornadoes and unrelenting rain battered large swaths of the country. Storm-related fatalities were reported in Texas due to icy weather, in Alabama from a deadly tornado and in Louisiana, where winds were so strong that a trailer home was lifted off its foundation and carried several hundred feet. A man drowned in Oklahoma and the storms even touched the Midwest with at least one death on an icy highway in Iowa.
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| There's a glaring loophole in Trump's latest claim that Soleimani was plotting to attack US embassies when he was assassinated Posted: 10 Jan 2020 02:14 PM PST  Why wasn't Congress informed about Soleimani's alleged attacks when administration officials briefed them on the strike this week?
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| Iraq PM tells Kurdish leaders he does not seek 'hostility' with US Posted: 11 Jan 2020 06:15 AM PST  Iraq's caretaker premier told Kurdish leaders on Saturday he did not seek a hostile relationship with the United States, in his first visit to the autonomous region since coming to power in 2018. Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi travelled to Arbil with a delegation of top ministers and his intelligence chief. The trip came at a time of political turmoil for Iraq, after months of anti-government rallies that saw Abdel Mahdi resign and worsening ties with the US as Iraqi lawmakers push for a withdrawal of foreign troops.
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| This Is How the U.S. Navy Hunts Nuclear-Armed Chinese Submarines Posted: 10 Jan 2020 11:13 AM PST  From the sky!
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| Protesters demand Iran's leaders quit after military admits it hit plane Posted: 11 Jan 2020 03:02 PM PST  Protests erupted across Iran for a second day on Sunday, piling pressure on the leadership after the military admitted it had mistakenly shot down a Ukrainian airliner at a time when Tehran had feared U.S. air strikes. "They are lying that our enemy is America, our enemy is right here," a group of protesters outside a university in Tehran chanted, according to video clips posted on Twitter. Posts showed other demonstrators outside a second university and a group of protesters marching to Tehran's Azadi (Freedom) Square.
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| Israel to begin testing laser weapon to shoot down rockets Posted: 11 Jan 2020 05:50 AM PST  The Israeli military will soon begin testing a new laser weapon to shoot down incoming missiles and drones, the Israeli ministry of defence has announced. Israel's government said it had made "a breakthrough" in the futuristic technology and is expecting to begin demonstrating its use later this year. "We are entering a new age of energy warfare in the air, land and sea," the ministry said. "Throughout the year 2020 we will conduct a demo of our capabilities." While the technology has proved enormously costly to develop, Israel hopes that once it is functional it will be a cheaper alternative to expensive interceptor missiles. Israel's advanced Iron Dome missile defence system costs about $80,000 (£61,211) for each missile it fires to intercept an incoming rocket. The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) believes the new laser will cost as little as $1 per shot once functioning. Israel unveils laser-based missile interception system https://t.co/HJIlEXOJ03pic.twitter.com/duFY1FlloG— Haaretz.com (@haaretzcom) January 8, 2020 The laser weapon also has the advantage of never running out of ammunition as long as it has a steady supply of electricity, according to the Times of Israel. Israeli defence planners have long feared they could run out of Iron Dome missiles if forced to fight an extended conflict on two fronts. One limitation of the laser weapon is that its effectiveness diminishes on cloudy days or when there are other forms of atmospheric interference. "We can only shoot down with a laser what we can see," said Brigadier General Yaniv Rotem. The ministry said the laser was meant to complement the Iron Dome system but would not replace it. Israel is working on three different systems for the laser weapon. One would be a stationary system meant to protect cities from rockets fired by Hamas or Hizbollah, while a second would be a smaller, mobile system to protect troops in the field. The third would be mounted on an aircraft and intended to shoot down high-flying missiles that are above cloud level and therefore beyond the reach of ground-based laser systems.
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| ‘Every day I was praying’: Detroit dad deported after 30 years returns home to US Posted: 10 Jan 2020 07:03 PM PST  Jorge Garcia was deported on Jan. 15, 2018, and was stuck in Mexico for almost two years, separated from his family in Michigan.
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| The 7 Best Web Browsers for Every Kind of Netizen Posted: 10 Jan 2020 12:54 PM PST |
| Bloomberg Will Spend to Beat Trump, Even If He’s Not the Nominee Posted: 11 Jan 2020 05:25 PM PST |
| At least 11 dead as storms sweep through US south Posted: 12 Jan 2020 12:16 AM PST  Severe storms sweeping the southern US killed at least 11 people, authorities said, as tornadoes and high winds upturned cars, destroyed homes and left tens of thousands without power. The storms hit parts of the south on Friday and were expected to move east and north on Sunday, according to the National Weather Service, which issued flood and tornado warnings for several states. Among the dead were a policeman and firefighter who were hit by a vehicle in Texas after being called out to respond to traffic accidents in icy conditions, local authorities said.
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| America Needs More Aircraft Carriers, And Britain's Royal Navy Has An Idea Posted: 11 Jan 2020 10:15 PM PST  Is leasing an option?
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| Boeing's fired CEO got his $62 million payout confirmed the same day 2,800 people in the 737 Max supply chain were laid off Posted: 10 Jan 2020 06:36 PM PST  Boeing spelled out its large pay package for Dennis Muilenburg on Friday. Meanwhile, Kansas-based supplier Spirit AeroSystems made huge redundancies.
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| Saudi military trainees to be expelled from U.S. after Florida shooting: CNN Posted: 11 Jan 2020 05:53 PM PST  More than a dozen Saudi servicemen who are training at U.S. military bases will be expelled from the United States in the aftermath of a Pentagon review prompted by the deadly Dec. 6 shooting by a Saudi Air Force officer at an American naval base in Florida, CNN reported on Saturday. The Saudi personnel being expelled are not accused of aiding the Saudi Air Force second lieutenant who killed three American sailors at the Pensacola installation, CNN reported, quoting unnamed sources. The Pentagon referred questions to the Justice Department, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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| Defying police, Iranians protest over plane shootdown Posted: 12 Jan 2020 01:41 AM PST  Iranian demonstrators defied a heavy police presence Sunday night to protest their country's days of denials that it shot down a Ukrainian passenger plane carrying 176 people, the latest unrest to roil the capital amid soaring tensions with the United States. Other videos suggested similar protests were taking place in other Iranian cities. The plane crash early Wednesday killed everyone on board, mostly Iranians and Iranian-Canadians.
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| Canada, under pressure over plane crash, warns Iran 'world is watching' Posted: 11 Jan 2020 01:26 PM PST  The Canadian government, under pressure at home to be tougher on Iran over it shooting down a passenger jet, on Friday reiterated calls for an investigation into the disaster and warned Tehran that "the world is watching".
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| Hong Kong denies entry to Human Rights Watch director Posted: 12 Jan 2020 08:01 AM PST  Hong Kong authorities barred the head of Human Rights Watch from entering the Chinese territory Sunday, the advocacy group said. Kenneth Roth, Human Rights Watch's executive director, had planned to launch the organization's annual world report in Hong Kong this week. The report's focus is China's efforts to "deliberately undermine the international human rights system," Roth said in video posted to his Twitter.
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| Friends and foes gather in Oman to mourn Qaboos Posted: 12 Jan 2020 03:34 AM PST  World and regional leaders, many at odds with one another, met Oman's new ruler on Sunday to offer condolences for the death of Sultan Qaboos whose quiet diplomacy during five decades in power helped calm regional turbulence. The rulers of Qatar and the United Arab Emirate, which are locked in a protracted dispute, were among those who visited the royal palace in Muscat as was the foreign minister of Iran, which is an arch-foe of U.S.-allied Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
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| Gambian exiled ex-president demands return in leaked recording Posted: 11 Jan 2020 04:50 PM PST  Former Gambian dictator Yahya Jammeh, forced into exile in 2017, has been heard in a leaked recording demanding that his right to return be respected by the authorities. Jammeh has hardly been heard from since fleeing to Equatorial Guinea. In a statement published at the time of his exile, the African Union, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the United Nations committed to working with the Gambian government to ensure Jammeh's security and rights, in particular his right to return.
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| China's South China Sea Military Bases Are More Than They Seem Posted: 11 Jan 2020 02:00 AM PST  China's military outposts in the South China Sea are a breach of Beijing's agreement to not militarize the sea.
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| Woman who sat in ER with chest pain left after waiting for hours – and died soon after Posted: 11 Jan 2020 07:12 PM PST  Tashonna Ward's family is seeking answers from Froedtert Hospital, where she spent more than two hours in the emergency department before she left.
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