| Pat Cipollone, Trump’s aggressive impeachment defender, could change the presidency Posted: 14 Jan 2020 04:47 AM PST  Pat Cipollone is using a defensive strategy that could end up redefining the power of the presidency. His detractors say his stonewalling of the impeachment inquiry and other investigations into Trump could do long-term damage to the very institution he is supposed to protect.
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| Texts Appear to Show Former Ukraine Prosecutor Offering Info on Bidens in Exchange for Ouster of Then-Ambassador Yovanovitch Posted: 15 Jan 2020 05:41 AM PST  A trove of documents provided to House impeachment investigators by Lev Parnas, an associate of Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, appears to show former top Ukraine prosecutor Yuri Lutsenko offering Giuliani damaging information on Joe and Hunter Biden in exchange for the firing of then–U.S. ambassador Marie Yovanovitch.Lutsenko was critical of Yovanovitch due to her support for an anti-corruption institution based in Ukraine, as well as because the ambassador had been critical of Lutsenko and his office."It's just that if you don't make a decision about Madam — you are calling into question all my declarations. Including about B," Lutsenko wrote to Parnas in Russian in a Whatsapp message from March 22. "Madam" likely refers to Yovanovitch, while it is unclear if "B" designates Biden or Burisma, the Ukrainian company on whose board Hunter Biden sat from 2014 to early 2019.Lutsenko, who was in the midst of an investigation into Burisma, updated Parnas four days later, writing that he had found evidence of money transfers pertaining to "B.""And here you can't even remove one fool :(" Lutsenko told Parnas via text message."She's not a simple fool[,] trust me," Parnas wrote back. "But she's not getting away."The documents also reveal that Parnas's associate, Connecticut businessman and congressional candidate Robert Hyde, was in contact with some unidentified person who was surveilling Yovanovitch.During her testimony before Congress last year, Yovanovitch speculated that Giuliani and his associates were working to have her fired in order to install an ambassador who would be more amenable to their corrupt business dealings in Ukraine.The documents are likely to breath new life into the Democrat-led impeachment process against President Trump, just as the House plans to vote to transfer the impeachment articles to the Senate for trial.The contours of the trial are as yet unclear. Republicans in the Senate and the Trump administration have vacillated between calls to allow witnesses to testify at the trial and a desire to dismiss the charges without summoning witnesses at all.
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| Mueller Witness Nader Pleads Guilty to Child Porn Charge Posted: 13 Jan 2020 03:16 PM PST ![Mueller Witness Nader Pleads Guilty to Child Porn Charge]( "Mueller Witness Nader Pleads Guilty to Child Porn Charge") (Bloomberg) -- George Nader, a Lebanese-American businessman whose name appeared 125 times in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report on Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, pleaded guilty to criminal charges stemming from his June arrest for possession of child pornography.Nader also admitted to transporting a 14-year-old boy into the U.S. to have the child engage in criminal sexual activity. He entered his plea Monday before U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema in Alexandria, Virginia, avoiding a trial that had been set for Monday and then postponed until March 2.Nader's plea resolves just one set of criminal allegations against him. Additionally, he was indicted last month in federal court in Washington for his role in a $5.3 million illegal campaign finance scheme. He pleaded not guilty in that case on Dec. 13.In the Alexandria case, Nader pleaded guilty to one count of possession of child pornography and one count of transportation of a minor boy for purposes of illegal conduct. He faces a mandatory minimum penalty of 10 years in prison and a maximum penalty of 50 years when sentenced on April 10, though sentences for federal crimes are usually less than the maximum penalties.The plea is part of an agreement Nader struck with prosecutors. The terms of the deal weren't immediately made public.Read More: Mueller Witness Charged in $5.3 Million Campaign Finance SchemeNader reserved the right to appeal the trafficking charge, which dates back to 2000, as beyond the statute of limitations, according to a report by the Associated Press.Nader's attorney, Jonathan Jeffress, didn't immediately reply to an emailed request for comment.A senior adviser to United Arab Emirates Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed, Nader gained notoriety in Mueller's report as the arranger of a clandestine January 2017 meeting in the Seychelles between Trump campaign surrogate Erik Prince and Kirill Dmitriev, who heads a Russian sovereign wealth fund. Prince is the brother of U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. The report described Dmitriev as closely tied to Russian President Vladimir Putin.Nader had "developed contacts with both U.S. presidential campaigns during the 2016 election and kept Dmitriev abreast of his efforts to do so," the special counsel reported. "According to Nader, Dmitriev said that his and the government of Russia's preference was for candidate Trump to win, and asked Nader to assist him in meeting members of the Trump campaign," though Nader didn't do so until after the election.Read More: Mueller Witness Nader Faces New Child Pornography ChargesNader and seven other people -- including Ahmad "Andy" Khawaja, chief executive officer of the online payment processor Allied Wallet Ltd. -- were charged with making campaign contributions in other people's names, both to disguise the source of those funds and to evade federal limits on political gifts by individuals. Khawaja hasn't answered the charges.A resident of Dubai, Nader has been in federal custody since his June arrest at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport. The evidence underpinning the initial charges against him was discovered after his arrival on another international flight, at Dulles International Airport outside Washington, in January 2018. Agents then had a warrant to search any electronic device stemming from a matter they said in June was unrelated to child porn.Nader was found to be in possession of three mobile phones, including one with dozens of videos of children engaged in sexually explicit conduct, the FBI said in a June affidavit supporting his arrest warrant.Nader pleaded guilty to similar charges in Virginia in 1991.The case is U.S. v. Nader, 19-cr-201, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Virginia (Alexandria).(Updates with news of plea agreement and with background in second and third sections)To contact the reporter on this story: Andrew Harris in federal court in Washington at aharris16@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net, Peter JeffreyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| New video shows that 2 missiles struck the Ukrainian plane that crashed in Iran Posted: 14 Jan 2020 11:53 AM PST  The video shows that the plane continued to fly for a brief period after it was struck by the two missiles, which were fired about 20 seconds apart.
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| How Joe Biden escaped the Democratic debate unscathed Posted: 14 Jan 2020 08:51 PM PST  While people will likely be talking about Tuesday's post-Democratic debate handshake-that-wasn't between Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) for quite a while, the early takeaway is that all six candidates took it pretty easy on one another during the debate itself.Several observers think former Vice President Joe Biden, in particular, was let off the hook. Biden, despite various gaffes, has remained the frontrunner since he jumped into the race last year, and his lead is steady, if not overwhelming. But the sense after the debate was that his opponents are still waiting for him to stumble on his own and therefore missed a chance to go after his resume and chip away at the polling deficit.> There was a time and a place for the "assume Biden will collapse" strategy, but I think it's pretty clear at this point that's not going to work.> > -- Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) January 15, 2020And, well, not losing might be just as valuable as a standout performance for the former vice president, who appears to have emerged without much more than a scratch. > no one laid a glove on @JoeBiden during the DemocraticDebate ... based on that alone he won.> > -- Kurt Bardella (@kurtbardella) January 15, 2020More stories from theweek.com Putin's latest proposal renews speculation about his attempts to stay in power after term ends The Sanders campaign addresses that tense post-debate moment with Warren Bernie Sanders tried to shake Elizabeth Warren's hand after the debate. She brushed him off.
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| Inter-Korean projects could help ease sanctions on North: South Korea's Moon Posted: 13 Jan 2020 05:27 PM PST  South Korean President Moon Jae-in said on Tuesday it was too early to be pessimistic about stalled denuclearization dialogue between the United States and North Korea, and that inter-Korean cooperation could help ease the way for sanctions to be lifted. Despite hostile rhetoric from Pyongyang, North Korea has not conducted a weapons test nor shut the door to more talks even after Washington ignored its year-end deadline to make concessions, Moon told an annual New Year news conference. "North Korea made clear that the door to dialogue is not closed though there's a premise that they can come back to talks only when their demands are accepted," he said.
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| How the world discovered the Nazi death camps Posted: 13 Jan 2020 06:09 PM PST  Images of what the Allies found when they liberated the first Nazi death camps towards the end of World War II brought the horror of the Holocaust to world attention. Many of the ghastly pictures were at first held back from the broader public, partly out of concern for those with missing relatives. The concentration and extermination camps were liberated one by one as the Allied armies advanced on Berlin in the final days of the 1939-1945 war.
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| Trump Admin Walks Back Anti-MEK Memo Posted: 13 Jan 2020 04:07 PM PST  At whiplash speed, the State Department is walking back an order barring American diplomats from meeting with controversial Iranian dissident groups—including one close with Trump World allies and previously designated as a terror group, the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK). The initial memo, greenlit by a career State Department employee, angered Congressional Iran hawks. And the Department's move to change its guidance has drawn cheers from them. The first memo, first reported by Bloomberg and reviewed by The Daily Beast, included sober warnings against meeting with the MEK, pointing to its terrorist past and saying most everyday Iranians have a low view of the group. The memo also warned about interactions with the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan, highlighting its attacks on Iranian military targets; and directed diplomats to get permission from State Department headquarters before meeting with members of an Azeri separatist group. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo sent out the memo on January 7, and it cautioned that meetings with these groups could undermine U.S. efforts to reach a deal with Tehran. Joey Hood, a senior career State Department official, approved the memo, according to the document The Daily Beast reviewed. But now, the memo is being overridden. The Daily Beast obtained a cable, sent to U.S. diplomats Sunday night, superseding the week-old directive. "Posts should welcome opportunities to meet with and learn from members of the Iranian diaspora community," said the cable, which explicitly noted it "supersedes" the January 7 missive. "After 40 years of repression and violence at the hands of the Ayatollahs, the Iranian people's pride in their history has not diminished nor has their resolve to celebrate it in the face of the Islamic republic's abuses." Rudy Giuliani Calls Former Iranian Terrorists 'My People'The cable went on to say that U.S. diplomats should consider hosting members of the diaspora for "Persian cultural events," while noting that "not all Iranian opposition groups' interests and objectives align with U.S. policy priorities." "While it is up to the Iranian people to determine the future course of their nation, the United States will continue to stand with them and echo their calls for justice and accountability," the cable said.While the new memo did not mention MEK or the other groups, it said diplomats should simply "use good judgement when receiving invitations or meeting with opposition groups" and should raise questions and concerns with senior State officials––an apparent revocation of the order that they only take such meetings with Foggy Bottom's explicit approval. State Department spokespersons did not respond to multiple requests for comment on the cable.Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani—who the MEK hired to help it get off the U.S. list of foreign terrorist groups and who recently called the group "my MEK people"—welcomed the reversal. "[The MEK] is very supportive of a free…Iraq. It's run by a great woman who is committed to ending suppression of women and in a non-nuclear Iran," the president's personal lawyer messaged The Daily Beast. "They were of great assistance to us during [the] Iraq invasion and are supported by a very non-partisan group of American former and present public officials."The MEK is close with several other hawkish Trumpworld figures, including retired Gen. Jack Keane and former National Security Adviser John Bolton. Former Attorney General Michael Mukasey, Giuliani's longtime friend and former law partner, is a pro bono adviser to the group's political wing. The group has a controversial past. For, among other things, its alleged role in assassinating three U.S. Army officers and three more civilian contractors, the MEK found itself on the American government's official list of foreign terrorist organizations. It's also been accused of acting as a death squad for the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. A 2009 Rand Corporation paper described the MEK's "near-religious devotion to [its leaders], public self-deprecation sessions, mandatory divorce, celibacy, enforced separation from family and friends, and gender segregation." The group and its allies vehemently deny all these charges. The fast-paced walk-back came after the initial State Department memo drew ire from Congressional Iran hawks. One noted that the memo went out to diplomats just days after a U.S. strike killed Soleimani, and as senior political officials at the State Department were presumably bracing for Tehran's retaliation. "It's a pretty significant 180 for State," said Christian Whiton, formerly a senior advisor to the Department under Presidents Trump and George W. Bush. "Even if it's worded diplomatically, it's not that common to have something issued and then rescinded almost immediately. And I think it just goes to show that the original statement was something done at a junior level that didn't have support or buy-in from senior political officials."It was the second time in recent months that Hood, the career official who greenlit the memo, angered Hill hawks. In Congressional testimony on December 4, he had a tense exchange with Sen. Ted Cruz about funding for the Lebanese government and whether that money went to Hezbollah. A transcript of the hearing indicates that Hood laughed in response to a question from Cruz; the episode left raw nerves. "They're undermining the president's policy when nobody's watching," said a Hill staffer for member pushing for a tougher policy toward Iran. Others, meanwhile, pointed to the reversal as the latest struggle by the Trump administration to clearly explain its stance on conflict with Iran. A Congressional staffer working on Iran policy and who favored the reversal noted that it comes as the administration has sent mixed messages on the legal basis for the Soleimani strike and the number of U.S. embassies threatened by Iranian-allied Shiite militias. "I think there's a lot of fog of war-type messages that have come out," said the staffer, who spoke anonymously to discuss the sensitive matter. "I think there's still a lot of fog of war."The State Department reversal, as reflected in the cable, comes as Pompeo and other U.S. officials, including Defense Secretary Mark Esper, have struggled to publicly articulate the U.S.' next steps after killing Soleimani and to reconcile their accounts of the intelligence that precipitated that strike.For years, the Trump administration had maintained a campaign of "maximum pressure," leveling crippling sanctions on Iran's economy in an effort to re-open talks with Tehran on a nuclear deal. Since the Soleimani strike, Trump administration officials have struggled to define the administration's Iran policy. Some have said the maximum pressure campaign always included a military option. Others say the U.S. has long communicated to the Iranians that if Tehran killed Americans, there would be military consequences.Now, it seems, the State Department is shifting its thinking on how to approach Iran on a diplomatic level following the Soleimani strike. In the hours immediately following the assasination, U.S. officials, in an attempt to de-escalate, described the hit as a warning and insisted that America was still interested in working with Iran on conversations about the nuclear deal. The U.S. special representative for Iran Brian Hook appeared on BBC World, saying that killing Soleimani was designed to "advance the cause of peace." Sunday's cable, meanwhile, will cheer Iran hawks––and frustrate Obama administration alums."There are at least two problems with this reversal," said Jarrett Blanc, a former Obama administration official who worked on Iran policy. "The first is that the policy is wrong. U.S. diplomats should not be meeting with MEK or its affiliates. They represent a dangerous cult. We should avoid all the mistakes of the Iraq war including being hoodwinked by purported diaspora opposition with no links at home. The second problem is that it reflects the total incompetence and chaos of this administration's policy making —to send out an instruction and less than a week later countermand it. They just don't know what they are doing."For years in the United States, lobbyists and advocates for the MEK have operated an aggressive, sustained, and successful campaign to have the group removed from the State Department's terror list, a move that was finalized in the Obama era. The organization's stateside backers also include Democratic figures such as retired Gen. Wesley Clark and Howard Dean, as well as attorneys Victoria Toensing and Joseph diGenova, two informal legal advisers to Trump.Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Mexico Doesn’t Know What to Do With Its Presidential Dreamliner Posted: 14 Jan 2020 11:40 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- A state-of-the-art $130 million presidential Boeing Co. 787 Dreamliner is becoming a headache for the government of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.Mexico is flying back the luxurious aircraft from California after failing to sell it for over a year, Lopez Obrador said Tuesday in his daily press conference, adding that they are rethinking options to get rid of the plane that he has deemed as too ostentatious.AMLO, as the Mexican president is known, put the Dreamliner on the block right after his inauguration in December 2018, choosing to fly commercial airlines instead to make a point about his frugal government style. The plane was flown to a Boeing hangar in Victorville, where the government has been paying maintenance and rent fees while trying to sell it.A dozen potential bidders surfaced last year but no deal was closed, Jorge Mendoza, chief executive officer of state bank Banobras, which is overseeing the sale process, said at the same conference. The plane has a market value of $130 million, Mendoza said, down from the $219 million that Mexico agreed to pay when it ordered it in 2012.Read More: Mexico Set for Loss on AMLO Sale of $219 Million DreamlinerLopez Obrador said he even offered the plane to U.S. President Donald Trump and agreed to receive goods in exchange, to no avail."We give them the plane, they can pay us in kind. We need X-rays, ambulances, tomographs, laboratories," he said. "We didn't get an answer."The government is now open to renting the plane or splitting ownership among 12 holders, AMLO said, urging Mexicans to make offers for the plane and other aircraft, including helicopters and Gulfstreams, that the government is auctioning. In the meantime, the Air Force will keep the Dreamliner in custody.AMLO has repeatedly criticized the purchase of the plane as too lavish for the leader of a country with millions living in poverty. The president, who has yet to make his first international trip as head of state, also recently argued that the aircraft is too big and expensive for his traveling schedule, given that he can reach most locations in Mexico in less than two hours with commercial flights.\--With assistance from Lorena Rios and Andrea Navarro.To contact the reporter on this story: Cyntia Barrera Diaz in Mexico City at cbarrerad@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Juan Pablo Spinetto at jspinetto@bloomberg.netFor 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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| Black prosecutors back Gardner, say they've faced resistance Posted: 14 Jan 2020 01:13 PM PST  One day after St. Louis' top prosecutor filed a federal lawsuit alleging a concerted and racist conspiracy to push her out of office, other black female prosecutors from across the U.S. defended Kim Gardner, saying they've faced the same resistance in their own communities. Six prosecutors, already in St. Louis for a university's panel discussion, joined a rally Tuesday at a downtown courthouse to show support for Gardner. The St. Louis circuit attorney on Monday filed what she called an unprecedented federal civil rights lawsuit accusing "entrenched interests" including the city, the police union and others of intentionally impeding her efforts to reform racist practices, in part by seeking her ouster.
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| The 11 Most Anticipated Buildings of 2020 Posted: 14 Jan 2020 02:52 PM PST |
| Here are the winners and losers of the 7th Democratic primary debate Posted: 14 Jan 2020 09:07 PM PST  It was a big night for Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York, who wasn't even on the stage, also made a splash.
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| Germany raids offices, homes of suspected China spies Posted: 15 Jan 2020 02:58 AM PST ![Germany raids offices, homes of suspected China spies]( "Germany raids offices, homes of suspected China spies") Police have raided homes and offices in Brussels and across Germany in a case involving three people suspected of spying for China, prosecutors said on Wednesday. Der Spiegel magazine, which first reported the raids, said one of the three suspects was a German national who until 2017 had worked as a senior diplomat for the European Union's foreign service, including multiple stints as an EU ambassador. The case is the first in recent years involving concrete allegations of spying by China against Germany and the EU.
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| Russia's Fifth-Generation Fighter Can Now Shoot Hypersonic Missiles (And The F-35 Can't) Posted: 14 Jan 2020 10:01 PM PST  Look out, America.
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| All Senior Russian Officials Resign as Putin Announces Reforms That Would Weaken His Successor Posted: 15 Jan 2020 06:45 AM PST  Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev announced his resignation and that of a host of other senior officials during a televised address on Wednesday.President Vladimir Putin, Medvedev's longtime mentor and ally, praised the Prime Minister while noting that Medvedev's cabinet failed to accomplish certain goals.The resignation came just after Putin delivered his state of the nation address. In the speech, as reported by the Turkish paper The Daily Sabah, Putin argued for changes to Russia's constitution to increase the authority of lawmakers to appoint prime ministers and cabinet members.However, at the same time Putin asserted that Russia would not remain stable under a parliamentary system of government, and that the President should retain power to dismiss parliamentary appointments and remain in control of the country's military and law enforcement bodies.Putin's current term ends in 2024, and under current law he must step down from the office. According to CNN, the proposed reforms would weaken Putin's successor and shift power to parliament prime minister's office, to which Putin may ultimately transfer.Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny charged the changes were a ploy by the President to help him retain power even after he leaves office."The only goal of Putin and his regime is to stay in charge for life, having the entire country as his personal asset and seizing its riches for himself and his friends," Navalny wrote on Twitter.Putin has led Russia for over 20 years, longer than any Russian leader since Josef Stalin. From 2008 to 2012 Medvedev took up the post of president while Putin switched to prime minister, but Putin was widely understood to retain ultimate control over the government during that time.
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| Was Columbus Right About Cannibals in the New World? Posted: 15 Jan 2020 08:00 AM PST  New evidence points to the possibility that the famous explorer's journals were more fact than fiction.
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| Johnson Predicts U.K.-EU Deal in 2020 Despite Fight Over Fishing Posted: 14 Jan 2020 01:17 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Sign up to our Brexit Bulletin, follow us @Brexit and subscribe to our podcast.U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said it's "very likely" his government will secure a trade deal with the European Union before his year-end deadline, despite a looming battle over fishing rights.The premier said he would prepare for failure just in case talks on the future trading relationship between Britain and the EU collapse, but insisted that's not what he expects.His comments came after the European Commission warned that a trade agreement this year must include a fisheries accord -- setting up a clash with Johnson's administration."You always have to budget for a complete failure of common sense -- that goes without saying -- but I'm very, very, very confident," Johnson said. "This is about building a great new partnership."The U.K. is set to leave the EU on Jan. 31, but will remain subject to exiting European laws and trade regulations during a transitional period lasting for the rest of the year.During this time, negotiators from both sides will be working to reach agreement on the terms of the future trading and security relationship and Johnson has said he will not extend the transition phase into 2021.To contact the reporter on this story: Tim Ross in London at tross54@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Flavia Krause-Jackson at fjackson@bloomberg.net, Stuart BiggsFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Body of missing Ohio teen found in neighbor’s chimney 'appears to be an accident,' police say Posted: 14 Jan 2020 01:01 PM PST  The body of Harley Dilly was found in the chimney of a vacant house, and his death appeared to be accidental, Port Clinton police said.
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| Helmet trouble strikes 2nd all-female spacewalk Posted: 15 Jan 2020 04:07 AM PST  Two NASA astronauts ventured out Wednesday on a second all-female spacewalk to finish upgrades to the International Space Station's power grid, but quickly ran into a helmet problem. It was the second pairing of Jessica Meir and Christina Koch outside the orbiting lab. Last October, they teamed up for the world's first spacewalk by two women.
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| Ex-Trump Aide Michael Flynn Tries to Withdraw Guilty Plea Posted: 15 Jan 2020 09:38 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn accused prosecutors of pressuring him to lie under oath and told a judge he wants to withdraw his guilty plea to the charge he lied to federal agents.Flynn "exercised his right to move to withdraw his plea of guilty because the government has engaged in bad faith and vindictive conduct," breaching a plea deal made when Flynn first conceded the charge in late 2017, defense attorney Sidney Powell said in a statement Wednesday morning, calling her client "innocent."Late Tuesday, Powell filed papers with U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan in Washington seeking the plea withdrawal and asking for a postponement of Flynn's Jan. 28 sentencing. Earlier this month, prosecutors asked the court to impose a jail term as long as six months, claiming Flynn had stopped cooperating with them. The U.S. had previously been content with a probationary sentence.It's very hard to withdraw a guilty plea, said Stephen Braga, who chairs the white-collar criminal defense practice at Bracewell LLP. In court, Flynn twice admitted his guilt and acknowledged he knew what he was doing and wasn't under pressure when he entered his plea.Read More: Prosecutors Attack Flynn's 'Extraordinary Reversal' on His Guilt"The primary difficulty in establishing a substantial claim of innocence for a defendant who has pled guilty is the fact that the defendant has already admitted his guilt under oath in the plea proceeding before the very same judge who is now asked to rule upon the motion to withdraw," Braga said.Former Chicago federal prosecutor Jeffrey Cramer said Flynn is probably playing to an audience of one. The president can pardon him."If you're looking for a pardon, the success of this argument doesn't really matter," said Cramer, now a managing director with Berkeley Research Group LLC.Powell previously tried, unsuccessfully, to get the case against her client dismissed for prosecutorial misconduct.Flynn pleaded guilty in December 2017 to lying to federal agents about his contacts with Sergey Kislyak, then Russia's ambassador to the U.S., after Trump won the 2016 presidential election and before he took office. While Trump made Flynn his first national security adviser, that assignment lasted just three weeks before reports that Flynn had made misleading statements about his actions prompted his ouster.Flynn was initially set to be sentenced in December 2018, but that proceeding went awry after his initial defense counsel suggested he'd been tricked by the agents who questioned him, prompting Sullivan to ask the retired general anew whether he was guilty. Flynn affirmed that he was.Read More: Flynn Should Get Jail, U.S. Says in TurnaboutThe punishment date was then postponed so Flynn could complete his cooperation with prosecutors, who were preparing their case against a former Flynn business partner accused of illegally lobbying on behalf of Turkey.According to Powell, with whom Flynn replaced his original legal counsel in June, in the course of preparing for that trial against Bijan Kian, prosecutors demanded Flynn admit to knowingly signing a false Foreign Agents Registration Act form."He rightly refused to lie for the government, and his new counsel would not allow him to do so, nor allow the government to bully him into acquiescence," his lawyers wrote.Flynn asked the judge to delay his sentencing to Feb. 27. The government doesn't oppose the delay, he said. It's unclear whether the judge will agree.In 2018, the government had recommended Flynn get probation based on his cooperation with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election. In a filing last week, prosecutors said actions and comments by Flynn and his lawyer since his last sentencing hearing in 2018 "negate the benefits of much of the defendant's earlier cooperation." They said they no longer believed he deserved credit for accepting responsibility for his actions.The case is U.S. v. Flynn, 17-cr-232, U.S. District Court, District of Columbia (Washington).(Updates with analysis in second section)To contact the reporters on this story: Edvard Pettersson in Los Angeles at epettersson@bloomberg.net;Andrew Harris in federal court in Washington at aharris16@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net, Peter JeffreyFor 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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| Iranians bury dead from downed plane after days of rage on the street Posted: 14 Jan 2020 10:39 PM PST  Iranians buried their dead from an airliner shot down by the military as authorities on Wednesday identified more of the 176 victims of last week's crash, which led to days of rage against Iran's rulers followed by a police crackdown. Emotions have been running high as the victims of the Jan. 8 crash are mourned. Protesters took to the streets of Iranian cities for four days after the armed forces finally acknowledged on Saturday, after days of denials, that they had brought down the plane.
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| Ukraine plane struck by two missiles: NYT Posted: 14 Jan 2020 04:18 PM PST  Two Iranian missiles struck down a Ukrainian passenger jet, the New York Times reported Tuesday, posting verified security camera footage showing double projectiles gliding through the sky before hitting their target. The Ukraine International Airlines plane was brought down shortly after takeoff on Wednesday, killing all 176 passengers and crew on board. It came clean on Saturday when Revolutionary Guards aerospace commander Brigadier General Amirali Hajizadeh acknowledged a missile operator had mistaken the plane for a cruise missile and opened fire independently.
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| Chairman Mao Wanted To Invade Taiwan Posted: 14 Jan 2020 04:30 PM PST  So why didn't he?
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| Republicans claim Nancy Pelosi is intentionally helping Joe Biden and hurting Bernie Sanders by delaying the Senate impeachment trial Posted: 14 Jan 2020 09:19 AM PST  Republicans are claiming that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is meddling in the 2020 primaries in an effort to boost Joe Biden and hurt Bernie Sanders.
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| Russia says US Indo-Pacific strategy is to contain China Posted: 14 Jan 2020 11:07 PM PST  Russia on Wednesday criticized the United States for introducing a new Indo-Pacific concept it said was aimed at containing China. Addressing a global conference in the Indian capital to discuss the most challenging issues facing the world community, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Asia-Pacific cooperation until now was centered on Southeast Asia. The Indo-Pacific concept being pushed by the United States, Japan and others was to reconfigure the existing structure, he said.
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| In separation of church and state, which institution is being protected? Posted: 14 Jan 2020 08:46 AM PST  Quebec has banned some public workers from displaying religious symbols on the job, prompting debate over what needs more protection, church or state.
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| What you need to know about the Microsoft Windows 10 patch Posted: 14 Jan 2020 02:40 PM PST  Microsoft has released a patch for a Windows 10 vulnerability that could expose you to breaches or surveillance, the National Security Agency says.
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| Six tourists have been arrested over accusations that they damaged Peru's cultural heritage Posted: 14 Jan 2020 10:33 AM PST  Six tourists, including a Frenchwoman, have been arrested over accusations that they damaged Peru's cultural heritage by defecating in a sacred temple at the iconic Machu Picchu sanctuary. "The six tourists are being detained and investigated by the public ministry for the alleged crime against cultural heritage," Cuzco regional police chief Wilbert Leyva said on Monday, quoted by the local Andina news agency.
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| Merkel Fends Off Another Hustle From Upstart Tipped for Her Job Posted: 13 Jan 2020 08:00 PM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Sign up here to receive the Davos Diary, a special daily newsletter that will run from Jan. 20-24.Angela Merkel is batting away the next generation of German conservatives as they vie for a spotlight toward the end of her long chancellorship.The latest contender to be dealt with is Markus Soeder, the 53-year-old head of her Bavarian sister party. The chancellor called Soeder last week to signal her displeasure with his demands for a cabinet reshuffle but didn't consider his move as a serious challenge, according to people with knowledge of the exchange.Soeder argues that freshening up the government would boost the Christian Democrats' electoral chances once Merkel steps down. Her spokesman said she has no plans for any personnel changes.In the final act of her chancellorship, there's no shortage of contenders vying for a chance to follow her as leader of Europe's biggest economy. But despite speculation she might be forced out early after pledging to make her fourth term her last and giving up the leadership of the Christian Democratic Union just over a year ago, Merkel is holding firm.Last year, she brushed off a push from Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, her successor as leader of the CDU, to bring forward and choreograph the transition and recent polls suggest Merkel is still Germany's most popular politician after 14 years in power.Soeder is the second-most popular, according to a survey in Focus magazine, and in some corners is tipped as a potential successor to Merkel. His witty attack on political rivals was a highlight of the CDU party conference in November for many delegates.Gathering his own party, the Christian Social Union, at a 1,000-year-old former Bavarian monastery in Seeon last week, Soeder expounded on the need for new faces to shore up support for the CDU/CSU alliance and made it clear he'll keep pushing for a government overhaul by summer, regardless of Merkel's opposition.A one-time party rabble rouser, Soeder has recast himself as a more moderate, even green-friendly, political grandee since he took over the Bavarian state premiership in 2018 and the CSU chairmanship a year later.His message -- that the Christian Democratic-led bloc needs to modernize to reach newer generations -- is resonating among voters and politicians alike after the country's traditional mainstream parties suffered a series of devastating defeats in European and regional elections last year.Low ProfileMerkel herself has also taken a much lower profile, often going days without a public appearance and weeks without a significant address. Last summer, the 65-year-old chancellor suffered occasional bouts of shaking that some observers saw as a further sign of a weakening chancellor at the end of her reign.Kramp-Karrenbauer, whose support Soeder will need if he's to build pressure on the chancellor, is sitting on the fence so far. A reshuffle can be discussed, she said during a brief visit to the CSU gathering, but her preference is to build a "team for the future" by the end of the year.Both she and Merkel will look to see whether Soeder's call for a shakeup gains traction as CDU leaders meet over the weekend at a retreat in the northern port city of Hamburg.AKK, as Kramp-Karrenbauer is known in Germany, risks being sidelined by Soeder's rise and already had to fend off a challenge from a different group of rivals looking to threaten her position as Merkel's heir apparent. She managed to head off that rebellion, but saw herself overshadowed by Soeder's charisma and wit.She later took a jab at the Bavarian for not clearing his proposals with the party leadership beforehand."We speak a lot, sometimes before we bring ideas to the public and sometimes after we've already gone public," AKK, 57, told reporters at the monastery.Soeder's prospects for succeeding Merkel are uncertain. The CDU and CSU have only put forward a Bavarian candidate for the chancellorship twice in Germany's postwar history, in 1980 and 2002. Both lost.For now, his Bavarian perch gives Soeder a chance to cause havoc in Berlin from a safe distance.Read More:The Former Parcel Courier Who Could Bring Down Angela MerkelBavarian Steals the Show as Merkel Party Wrestles With LeaderGermany Debuts Green Bonds in 2020 to Support Climate ActionTo contact the reporters on this story: Patrick Donahue in Berlin at pdonahue1@bloomberg.net;Arne Delfs in Berlin at adelfs@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Ben Sills at bsills@bloomberg.net, Raymond ColittFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| The 'Super-Charged' F-15EX Fighter: Why This Combat Pilot Loves It Posted: 14 Jan 2020 03:12 AM PST  With growing threats abroad, including from nations like China and Russia that seek to take America's top spot on the world's economic and military stages, we need to deploy a fighter fleet that can guarantee global air superiority. This plane can do that.
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| Bloomberg campaign posts surreal tweets during Dem debate Posted: 15 Jan 2020 03:48 AM PST  The tweets include a photo of a meatball with Bloomberg's face on it.
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| Warren and Biden Skirmish Over U.S. Troops in Middle East Posted: 14 Jan 2020 07:06 PM PST  Pull all U.S. combat troops from the Middle East, every last one of them. That was the position Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) staked out on Tuesday night's Democratic debate. It was a stance that set her apart from several of her rivals, most notably former Vice President Joe Biden.For the first time in a series of debates for the 2020 presidential election moderators focused the first thirty minutes of Tuesday night's event on how candidates would fare as commander in chief —specifically how they'd handle the growing threat of Iran in the Middle East and if they would choose to withdraw troops from the region. The debate comes just two weeks after President Donald Trump chose to assassinate Iran's top military General Qassem Soleimani while he was driving near the Baghdad airport in Iraq.Warren, a candidate often criticized for her lack of experience on foreign policy, said she would be the best fit for commander in chief because she has a clearer view of America's military engagements abroad that's kept the U.S. at war in Iraq and Afghanistan for the better part of two decades."On the Senate armed services committee, we have one general after another in Afghanistan who comes in and says, you know, we've just turned the corner. And now it's all going to be different. And then what happens? It's all the same for another year," Warren said. "This has got to stop. It's not enough to say some day, we're going to get out. No one on the ground, none of our military can describe what the conditions are for getting out. It's time to get our combat troops home."How Biden Kept Screwing Up Iraq—Over and Over and Over AgainBiden bragged that, during the Obama administration, he led the effort to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq. But that drawdown helped bring about the rise of the so-called Islamic State terror group. But later in the debateTuesday night, Biden said troops should stay in the region to patrol the Gulf, adding that it would be a "mistake to pull out the small number of troops that are there now to deal with ISIS." Biden stumbled in the rest of his answer, quibbling with words on what would happen if troops did withdraw, eventually pointing the blame at Trump for putting America in a position where they now be kicked out of Iraq.Sen. Sanders (D-VT) avoided the question from CNN's Wolf Blitzer by simply saying that "American people are sick and tired of endless wars which have cost us trillions of dollars." Sanders instead pivoted his answer to focus on the need for U.S. diplomacy with Middle Eastern weapons. He said the U.S. needs to work more closely with the United Nations and should "rebuild the State Department.". Candidates, including Klobuchar and Mayor Pete Buttigieg, rounded out the foreign policy section by underscoring the need for diplomacy despite the rising tensions between the U.S. and Iran under the Trump administration. Buttigieg said "ensuring that Iran does not develop nuclear weapons" will be a priority in his administration as did Sanders. Klobuchar said she'd make it a point to get the U.S. back into the nuclear deal with Iran. (President Trump pulled out of the 2015 deal in his first 100 days of taking office).Following the assasination of Soleimani, Tehran announced that it would pull out of its remaining obligations of the nuclear deal but would allow international inspectors to continue to study its activities in its facilities.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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| Students back in court over Confederate statue case Posted: 14 Jan 2020 03:18 PM PST  A national civil rights organization filed an appeal Tuesday on behalf of University of North Carolina students who want to intervene in a settlement that gives $2.5 million and a Civil War commemorative statue to a Confederate heritage group. "We have been told repeatedly that this settlement was negotiated in the interest of student safety - but truly what safety is there in empowering a group rooted in racism and violence?" UNC-Chapel Hill sophomore De'Ivyion Drew said in a news release from the Lawyers' Committee.
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| Australian student expelled from North Korea says he was kidnapped from dorm Posted: 15 Jan 2020 02:06 AM PST  An Australian student who was briefly detained in North Korea last year over spy charges said he had been kidnapped by secret police and forced to make a false confession, according to an article written by him and seen by Reuters on Wednesday. Alek Sigley was held for nine days from June 25 while studying for a postgraduate degree in modern Korean literature at the prestigious Kim Il-sung University in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital. North Korean state media KCNA said he had admitted his "spying acts" including passing data and photos he collected by utilizing his status as a foreign student to "anti-state" media outlets.
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| A CNN report said Abby Huntsman was leaving 'The View' over Meghan McCain's baby envy. McCain says that's sexist. Posted: 14 Jan 2020 07:35 PM PST  Abby Huntsman announced she was leaving "The View." A report in CNN Business said a recent confrontation with Meghan McCain was part of the reason.
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| Thousands plan to lobby Virginia over gun control. Now, the governor may ban them from bringing guns Posted: 15 Jan 2020 08:58 AM PST  In Virginia, what could be thousands of armed people plan to head to the state Capitol on Monday to lobby and rally for their Second Amendment rights.
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| South Africa Must Finalize Land Policy in 2020, Ramaphosa Says Posted: 14 Jan 2020 07:56 AM PST ![South Africa Must Finalize Land Policy in 2020, Ramaphosa Says]( "South Africa Must Finalize Land Policy in 2020, Ramaphosa Says") (Bloomberg) -- Sign up to our Next Africa newsletter and follow Bloomberg Africa on TwitterSouth African President Cyril Ramaphosa asked business leaders to present solutions to redistribute land to majority blacks as the government works to finalize changes to legislation and the constitution to allow for the expropriation of land without compensation."This year we are going to have to finalize the legislation and the constitutional construct on the land question," he said at a conference organized by Business Unity South Africa on Tuesday."One of the things we have been asking for is the business community to come forward with solutions of resolving the centuries-old problem of land," he told the country's largest business lobby group. "I would like to see the business community taking this issue up rather more seriously."The ruling African National Congress plans to change the nation's constitution to make it easier to seize land without paying for it to address racially skewed ownership patterns dating back to colonialism and white-minority rule, a view shared by the Economic Freedom Fighters, the second-largest opposition party.Ramaphosa asked business leaders to play a more proactive role in land expropriation through a donations policy, which will allow for companies to voluntarily give up under-utilized land to communities whose land was taken away."What is a certainty is that the land question has to be addressed. As South Africa we cannot run away from it," he said. "The key issue for us is: Are we going to be part of the solution or are we going to be part of the problem?"To contact the reporter on this story: Amogelang Mbatha in Johannesburg at ambatha@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Karl Maier at kmaier2@bloomberg.net, Jacqueline Mackenzie, Robert BrandFor 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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| MGM Resorts selling MGM Grand for $2.5 billion Posted: 14 Jan 2020 11:08 AM PST  MGM Resorts International is selling the real estate assets of the MGM Grand on the Las Vegas Strip to a joint venture for about $2.5 billion.
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| China Figured Out The Secret To Closing The Gap With America's Military Posted: 14 Jan 2020 05:30 PM PST  More than just defense spending.
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| Who won the debate? Depends on who you think can beat Trump Posted: 15 Jan 2020 08:18 AM PST  Democrats need to put Trump at the center of their debates
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| Nigel Farage gets his way, and last laugh: Brexit is coming Posted: 14 Jan 2020 08:34 AM PST  Nigel Farage, the self-declared "pantomime villain" of Brexit, is leaving his favorite theater — the European Union's parliament in Strasbourg — this week with a sense of mission accomplished. On Jan. 31, the U.K. will be leaving the EU, in a historic loss for the bloc — and a historic gain for the likes of Farage. The European Union was still thriving, expanding at the time, and could shrug off a loud and sometimes foul-mouthed British parliamentarian as just a nuisance about to be swatted aside by the force of history of closer integration.
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| Michael Avenatti Arrested by Feds at California State Bar Hearing Posted: 14 Jan 2020 06:41 PM PST  LOS ANGELES—Ex-Stormy Daniels lawyer and Trump antagonist Michael Avenatti was led out of the State Bar Court in Los Angeles by federal agents on Tuesday evening. The arrest occurred outside the disciplinary hearing in which the State Bar of California has accused the hard-charging, tough-talking attorney of using a doctored document to scam a client out of nearly $840,000, funneling money from a lawsuit settlement fund to his own personal use.The State Bar of California, the official attorney licensing agency, has sought to put Avenatti on "involuntary inactive status," setting in motion a timeline for disbarment proceedings.During a break in testimony, members of the United States Attorney's Office for the Central District of California, who are prosecuting Avenatti in a separate criminal matter in Orange County, parleyed with Avenatti's team of lawyers and took the lawyer into custody. "I understand that Mr. Avenatti has been arrested by the federal authorities for violating the terms of his release," said attorney Steven Bledsoe, who represents the alleged Avenatti victim in the State Bar case and was present when the arrest occurred. Avenatti was taken into custody at around 6 p.m. PST. When the court resumed, his lead counsel in the disciplinary case, Thomas Warren, told the court that in connection with a criminal matter in Santa Ana, Avenatti was unable to return to court. As he was being led out of the courthouse, the normally garrulous lawyer said simply, "Completely innocent." This story is developing. Michael Avenatti Lived the High Life While Owing Millions to IRSRead 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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| Philippines struggles to evacuate reluctant villagers near volcano Posted: 14 Jan 2020 05:23 AM PST  A cloud of ash and fountains of lava gushed for a third day from the crater of Taal, which lies in the middle of a lake about 70 km (45 miles) south of the center of the Philippines capital Manila. Everyone living within 14 km (9 miles) of the volcano has been ordered to leave: potentially as many as 300,000 people, though disaster agency spokesman Mark Timbal said he believed the actual number who had been there was much lower.
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