| Impeachment and a path to redemption for Trump Posted: 16 Jan 2020 09:23 AM PST  President Trump's most effective path forward, not only to prevail in the impeachment proceedings but to end this ordeal and create a strong position from which to govern, is to follow the Clinton model rather than the Nixon path.
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| Bureaucracy to brutality: New evidence reveals IS hierarchy Posted: 16 Jan 2020 11:13 AM PST  Documents compiled by a U.S.-based Syrian rights group reveal how Islamic State militants used one of their most powerful bureaucratic bodies to regulate daily life and impose and execute penalties. The Washington-based Syria Justice and Accountability Center said Thursday that the evidence — documents produced by IS itself — could help identify individuals responsible for atrocities during the militants' four-year reign of terror and lead to criminal prosecutions. The 24-page report, called "Judge, Jury and Executioner," is based on dozens of documents obtained by SJAC from inside Syria and collected by a local activist from abandoned IS offices in Raqqa province, where the militants also had their self-declared capital in a city that carries the same name.
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| FBI arrests 3 alleged neo-Nazis who were armed and anticipating a race war Posted: 16 Jan 2020 11:03 AM PST  The arrests come ahead of a big gun-rights rally in Virginia, where the governor has warned that there are "credible threats" of malicious activity.
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| Princess Cruises responds after 'Marriage Story' actress speaks out, sues alleging bedbugs Posted: 17 Jan 2020 04:57 AM PST  A "Marriage Story" actress and her husband are suing Princess Cruises, alleging their room was infested with bedbugs.
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| Secrets Stolen: What Will China Do With Data On Israel's Iron Dome Missile Defense? Posted: 16 Jan 2020 09:00 PM PST  If China can break into top-secret Israeli computers, they can break into America's—and everybody else's, too.
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| Republican tells female reporter 30 schoolboys ‘could have a lot of fun’ with her Posted: 16 Jan 2020 05:09 AM PST  A Republican lawmaker is facing calls for a sexual harassment investigation after he told a young female reporter that a group of high school boys "could have a lot of fun" with her.Peter Lucido, a Michigan state senator, has been accused of making inappropriate comments to local reporter Allison Donahue during a tour of the state Capitol.
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| Pentagon to soon resume Saudi training halted after base shooting Posted: 16 Jan 2020 10:14 AM PST ![Pentagon to soon resume Saudi training halted after base shooting]( "Pentagon to soon resume Saudi training halted after base shooting") The Pentagon said on Thursday it would soon announce a resumption in operational training of Saudi military officers in the United States, suspended after a Saudi officer's fatal shooting of three Americans at a Florida naval base last month. The U.S. military grounded Saudi pilots and restricted the some 850 visiting Saudi military personnel in the country to classroom training as part of a "safety stand-down" during which time it reviewed vetting procedures. Next week, Defense Secretary Mark Esper is due to visit the base in Pensacola, Florida, where the shooting took place and will brief base leadership on planned improvements in vetting of foreign military personnel and changes to security procedures, including physical security at U.S. bases, the Pentagon said.
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| Biden allegedly told Bush in 2002 he'd get the Nobel Peace Prize if he could invade Iraq quickly Posted: 15 Jan 2020 11:23 AM PST  Presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden has been distancing himself from his 2002 vote for the invasion of Iraq as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at the time.
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| Postpone the Impeachment Trial until the House Finishes Investigating Posted: 15 Jan 2020 02:34 PM PST  Two things happened simultaneously on Wednesday: (a) The House of Representatives transmitted to the Senate two articles of impeachment approved on straight partisan lines a month ago, and (b) the House's impeachment inquiry — yes, it's still very much alive — highlighted new, relevant evidence it has turned up about the activities in Ukraine of President Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, and Giuliani's associates.The Democrats' strategy is coming clear.The House provided the Senate with two half-baked impeachment articles. House Democrats rushed through the investigation, forgoing salient witnesses and evidence, because of the political calendar. The charges are weak and the inquiry was needlessly short-circuited, so Democrats have continued investigating the premature allegations. Now they are publicly disclosing newly acquired evidence, with the promise of more to come. Transparently, their goal is to pressure the Senate not merely to conduct a trial but to complete the investigation that the House failed to complete — calling witnesses and gathering evidence, as if a trial were nothing more than an extension of an open-ended grand-jury probe.Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans should not let them get away with it. No trial court would allow itself to be whipsawed this way. A federal judge would tell prosecutors to go back to the grand jury, finish the investigation, and come back to the trial court when they have a case ready to be tried, not investigated.That is not to say new evidence may not be serious. It may be very serious. It could make the case worse for President Trump. But in any event, there should be just one trial, and it should occur when the investigation is complete. This is not supposed to be a non-stop grand jury, with an ever-hovering prospect of new articles of impeachment, in addition to an endless stream of newly emerging materials that the Senate is expected to sort out rather than judge.Leader McConnell and Senate Republicans should hold the two pending articles in abeyance, or vote to dismiss them without prejudice to the House's revoting them when its impeachment inquiry is finally concluded.The new information that has emerged underscores a strategic error by the president and House Republicans, which I have outlined several times since the Ukraine controversy emerged. They have insisted on fighting the Ukraine allegations on the impossible theory that the president's communication with his Ukrainian counterpart, President Volodymyr Zelensky, was "perfect," and that there was no quid pro quo — i.e., no indication that the president was withholding official acts sought by Kyiv ($400 million in defense aid and a White House visit) until its government met his demands (the public announcement that Ukraine would conduct an investigation of the Bidens and into Ukraine's role in the Trump-Russia investigation).I have contended, to the contrary, that the president's best defense is that nothing of consequence happened. I have been prepared to assume that the president pressured Ukraine, as alleged. But it was much ado about nothing: Ukraine got the defense aid (and barely knew it had been briefly delayed); Zelensky did not have to make any commitment about investigations; and he got his high-profile audience with President Trump (albeit at the United Nations in New York City, not at the White House). The president's defense should be that, while there may have been improprieties, nothing here approaches the egregious misconduct required to trigger impeachment.This would be the best strategy in any event. It is an imperative strategy, however, in a situation such as this one, where the investigation is continuing and new information is coming out continuously. Under my approach, if new evidence emerged about the president's knowledge of or complicity in the pressure campaign on Zelensky, it could be dismissed as mere confirmation of what was already obvious. But because the president and Republicans have taken the tack that nothing inappropriate happened and no pressure was asserted, any evidence of impropriety and pressure can be framed as a bombshell — even though it doesn't actually change the bottom line.Giuliani associate Lev Parnas is under indictment in the Southern District of New York (SDNY), in a case that has factual overlap with events that were the focus of the House impeachment inquiry. Parnas wants to use his potential value as a witness in the impeachment inquiry as leverage against his SDNY prosecution. So he has begun sharing information from the SDNY case with House investigators. They, in turn, are releasing the information to the media, which are reporting it as ground-shaking revelations.That information (texts, notes, and the like) indicates that Giuliani, representing that he was acting with the president's knowledge and approval, and in his official capacity as Trump's private lawyer, sought a meeting with Zelensky in mid May 2019. The implication is that this was part of a then-ongoing plan to push Ukraine for an investigation of the Bidens.Moreover, there are communications between Parnas and Yuriy Lutsenko, a Ukrainian prosecutor who was helping Giuliani investigate possible Biden corruption, about their desire for the ouster of Marie Yovanovitch — the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, who was eventually removed by the president at the urging of Giuliani (among others). There is enough detail in Parnas's correspondence about Yovanovitch's activities that it raises the disturbing specter that he was monitoring an American ambassador.The allegedly unjustified removal of Yovanovitch was extensively covered in the House hearings, which included the ambassador's testimony. It was mainly atmospheric, rather than substantive. The president does not need a reason to dismiss an ambassador. And while it was vaguely suggested that Yovanovitch was removed because she was seen as an obstacle to pressuring Ukraine for an investigation of the Bidens, that was not established. There are no impeachment articles tied to her removal.If I am right, and Parnas is trying to use his potential value as an impeachment witness as a chip in plea negotiations with the SDNY, that could take time to work out. (The SDNY, whose job is prosecution, not impeachment, would want a guilty plea and full cooperation; Parnas would want immunity.) Meanwhile, the other major storyline is that John Bolton, formerly the president's national-security adviser, has indicated that he is willing to testify if called. He is patently a relevant witness to the internal administration discussions over delayed defense aid to Ukraine. So is acting chief of staff and budget director Mick Mulvaney. So may be Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, if the House's continuing investigation is focusing on Ambassador Yovanovitch's dismissal.Plainly, there are loose ends here that the House should have tied up and that, importantly, the House is continuing to investigate. Note that Democrats have been caterwauling that the impeachment trial will not be fair because Senate Republicans are too in-the-tank for Trump to do their duty as impartial decision-makers (as if Democrats were not rabid anti-Trump partisans). But what could more undermine the fairness of a trial than a continuing, very public investigation of the same defendant while that trial is proceeding?No trial judge would put up with that. Prosecutors would not be permitted to present the case before a trial jury while, outside the courtroom, they were prejudicing the trial by continuing to investigate and publicize their findings.There is a very simple solution, one that judges in federal court deal with all the time in cases that are still under investigation when an indictment is initially filed: Don't schedule the trial until the prosecutors acknowledge to the court that the investigation is over and no further charges are anticipated.It is worth bearing in mind: Impeachment is not just any trial. It stops the legislative business of the United States cold. There will be no movement of bills, no consideration of appointments, no hearings on vital issues such as Iran and the use of force. The impeachment trial will impede the work of the Supreme Court, since the chief justice must preside. In this instance, the impeachment trial will even wreak havoc on the Democratic nomination campaign, as senators — including top-tier contenders Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders — must sit as jurors for six days a week.These are costs that must be borne. There has been an impeachment, so the Constitution calls on the Senate to act. But for the sake of our governance, that should mean a single trial, and it should represent the Democrats' best, most complete case for the president's removal. That trial should not happen until the investigation is done and the charges are fully ripe. By contrast, if Republicans allow Democrats to engage in the ongoing gamesmanship — in which the Senate trial would open, but House Democrats plan to throw new evidence into the mix every few days or weeks, demanding that the Senate trial be expanded to investigate what it all means — we would be looking at weeks, maybe months, of governmental paralysis. There is, moreover, basic fairness: The accused is supposed to know what the allegations are before the trial starts — the charges are not supposed to evolve as the trial proceeds.The importance of preserving impeachment as a viable constitutional remedy for presidential misconduct transcends the current administration and Congress. If impeachment must be done, it should be done right. It should not be done as a partisan game of investigative ping-pong between congressional chambers.
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| This Harvard-educated, NASA-qualified, Navy SEAL gives his kids this simple advice every day Posted: 16 Jan 2020 07:29 AM PST  "It wasn't as simple as, 'I want to do this because it's an accomplishment,'" Jonny Kim told Insider. "It's never been that shallow for me."
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| The TSA apologized after an agent pulled a Native American passenger's braid and said "giddyup!" during a pat down Posted: 17 Jan 2020 09:11 AM PST  Tara Houska was going through security at the Minneapolis airport on Monday when she said an agent humiliated her by whipping her braids.
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| 10 Home Prep Tips Before Going on Vacation Posted: 16 Jan 2020 11:00 AM PST |
| Iran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei calls Trump a 'clown,' defends Iran's military Posted: 17 Jan 2020 08:35 AM PST  Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called President Donald Trump a "clown" as he led Friday prayers in Tehran for the first time since 2012.
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| U.S., Japan May Invest in Indonesia Islands Near South China Sea Posted: 16 Jan 2020 10:39 PM PST  (Bloomberg) -- The U.S., Japan and South Korea are keen to invest in Indonesia's Natuna Islands as President Joko Widodo steps up efforts to rebuff Chinese claims over the resource-rich waters in the South China Sea.The countries are interested in building fisheries processing and manufacturing industries in Natuna, Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Pandjaitan, told reporters in Jakarta on Friday. Indonesia can manage the sea dispute with China without going into a war, Pandjaitan, a former general, said."The U.S. investors have expressed their interest, along with investors from Japan, Korea and China," Padjaitan said. "For us, it doesn't matter where they come from."Widodo's efforts to lure foreign investment into the Natuna islands may ratchet up tension with Beijing following the intrusion of Chinese fishing vessels into an area claimed by Indonesia as an exclusive economic zone. Indonesia is not a claimant in the broader dispute over the South China Sea, but it does insist on its sovereign rights to waters around the Natunas.Beijing says while it has no territorial disputes with Jakarta, claims over maritime interests in certain waters in the South China Sea "overlap.""War is the last resort in our negotiation process," Pandjaitan said referring to the standoff with China on Natuna. "But under no circumstances will we negotiate our sovereignty and territorial rights."Jokowi, as Widodo is commonly known, visited the Natuna islands last week and asserted Indonesia's sovereignty over the waters after authorities deployed fighter jets and warships to push back the Chinese fishing vessels, which were accompanied by coast guard ships. The president also inaugurated a fisheries processing center in the region and days later invited Japan to invest in Natuna to develop the fishing industry.Indonesia is also seeking investment by Vietnamese marine processing companies. Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi met officials of Hai Nam Co., a seafood importer this week in Ho Chi Minh City, and asked it to explore a joint venture with Indonesian companies for a fisheries processing unit in areas including Natuna, according to a foreign ministry statement Thursday.It has identified a location in north Natuna for a fishing port, while southern Natuna will serve as a base for the navy, Pandjaitan said. The country will also soon acquire its first ocean-going vessel, probably from Denmark, to beef up its sea powers, he said.To contact the reporters on this story: Arys Aditya in Jakarta at aaditya5@bloomberg.net;Harry Suhartono in Jakarta at hsuhartono@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Stephanie Phang at sphang@bloomberg.net, Thomas Kutty AbrahamFor 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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| Philippines reimposes ban on workers deploying to Kuwait Posted: 16 Jan 2020 04:16 PM PST  The Philippines said Friday it was reimposing a ban on its citizens going to work in Kuwait after a Filipina was allegedly killed by her employer, echoing a 2018 row between the two countries. President Rodrigo Duterte approved the ban as his government accused the emirate of covering up the killing of a maid, one of about 240,000 Filipinos working in the Gulf state. Duterte's government briefly banned Filipinos deploying for work in Kuwait two years ago amid a diplomatic row that began with the discovery of the remains of a murdered Filipina maid in her employers' freezer.
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| Taliban open to 10-day ceasefire with U.S., talks with Afghan government: sources Posted: 16 Jan 2020 09:19 PM PST  KABUL/PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - The Taliban will implement a 10-day ceasefire with U.S. troops, a reduction in violence with Afghan forces and discussions with Afghan government officials if it reaches a deal with U.S. negotiators in talks in Doha, two sources have said. If an agreement is sealed, it could revive hopes for a long-term solution to the conflict in Afghanistan. Taliban and U.S. negotiators met on Wednesday and Thursday to discuss the signing of a peace deal, according to a spokesman for the Taliban office in Qatar.
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| Jordan, Meadows Send Letter to FISA Court Questioning Kris Appointment Posted: 16 Jan 2020 12:10 PM PST  House Oversight Committee Republicans Jim Jordan and Mark Meadows issued nine demands to FISA Court presiding judge James Boasberg in a Thursday letter in response to the appointment of Obama Department of Justice lawyer David Kris to help oversee the FBI's reform of FISA applications.The letter, obtained by National Review, asked Boasberg to identify who else besides Kris was considered, whether Kris's past defense of the FISA application to surveil Trump-campaign adviser Carter Page was taken into account, and whether "the FISC bears any responsibility for the illegal surveillance of Carter Page," among other concerns."If the FISC's goal is to hold the FBI accountable for its serious misconduct, Mr. Kris does not appear to be an objective — or likely effective — amicus curiae for several reasons," the letter states. "At minimum, the selection of Mr. Kris creates a perception that he is too personally invested on the side of the FBI to ensure it effectuates meaningful reform."A Republican official with knowledge of the letter told National Review that the letter signaled a concerted Congressional effort to reform FISA."For too long, the FBI has remained largely un-checked when it comes to the FISA process. Congress must ensure that FISC stands ready to protect civil liberties without even the slightest indicia of political bias," he said.The letter appears to be a follow-up to Monday comments from Meadows, who said in an interview that Republicans were "appealing this to the Judge" regarding Kris's appointment. The North Carolina Congressman also slammed the move to appoint Kris, saying that "there's no way" Kris is the right man to address abuses "if he doesn't even acknowledge that there is a problem."Kris, a former assistant attorney general in the Obama DOJ's national security division, has extensive experience with the FISA Court, serving as an amicus curiae, or special adviser, since March 2016.A frequent contributor to Lawfare blog, Kris was an outspoken defender of the FBI's authority in surveilling Page, who was accused of being a Russian agent.Following the release of heavily-redacted FISA applications used to surveil Page in July 2018, Kris doubled down. "It seems to me very likely that if we get below the tip of the iceberg into the submerged parts and more is revealed, it will get worse, not better," for Page, he told MSNBC's Rachel Maddow at the time. The letter references Kris's comment to Maddow as evidence that he is biased in favor of the bureau and against Page.DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz revealed in December that the FBI knowingly withheld information that Page was a CIA informant in order to obtain a FISA warrant against him, and even doctored an email to keep the information from the court. The report also revealed that the bureau did not inform the FISC of the partisan origins of the uncorroborated Steele dossier despite its playing a "central and essential" role in their application to surveil Page.In their letter, Jordan and Meadows also request that Boasberg give greater insight into the details surrounding the court's assessment of the Page applications, including when it "first received any indication that information contained in the FBI's surveillance applications for Carter Page was misleading or false."
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| Alabama man charged with abusing missing woman's corpse Posted: 16 Jan 2020 11:31 AM PST ![Alabama man charged with abusing missing woman's corpse]( "Alabama man charged with abusing missing woman's corpse") The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office charged Fredrick Hampton, 50, on Thursday with abuse of Paighton Houston's corpse. Hampton hasn't been charged with involvement in the 29-year-old's death, news outlets reported. Hampton was initially held in the Birmingham City Jail beginning Dec. 28 on suspicion of kidnapping, but he was released two days later after investigators failed to gather enough evidence to charge him with a crime, news outlets reported.
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| Camera Captures the Moment a Deer Sheds Its Antlers in the Middle of the Night Posted: 16 Jan 2020 07:21 AM PST  If you blink you might miss it
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| McConnell says 'the House's hour is over' Posted: 16 Jan 2020 08:02 AM PST  During an address on the floor, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said, "The House's hour is over. The Senate's time is at hand."
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| Trump threatened UK with 25% car tariffs unless it agreed to accuse Iran of breaking nuclear deal Posted: 16 Jan 2020 05:42 AM PST  Donald Trump threatened the UK with a 25 per cent tariff on its cars unless the British government officially accused Iran of breaking the 2015 nuclear deal, it has been reported.The secret threat last week, first reported by The Washington Post, which cited unnamed European officials, would have seen the tariff imposed on all European automobile imports to the US unless Britain, France and Germany agreed to the ultimatum.
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| Race to save animals on Australia's fire-ravaged 'Galapagos' Posted: 16 Jan 2020 12:36 AM PST  On an island famed as Australia's "Galapagos" for its unique and abundant wildlife, rescuers are racing to save rare animals in a bushfire-ravaged landscape. The charred forest floor on Kangaroo Island is littered with corpses of animals incinerated by the blazes that swept through two weeks ago. Unprecedented fires across swathes of southern and eastern Australia over the past five months have killed an estimated billion animals.
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| Did Russian Prime Minister Medvedev Drop a Grim Hint About Putin’s Latest Power Grab? Posted: 16 Jan 2020 07:14 AM PST  At a celebration of the Russian Orthodox New Year on Tuesday, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev chose a grim message, the sarcasm of which left his audience on edge. But, then, Medvedev probably knew what Wednesday would bring—the resignation of his entire government—and the audience did not.Putin's Power Play: Shuffle the Cabinet But Keep CommandOn national television, the prime minister read at length from Anton Chekhov's story "A Night in the Cemetery," which suggests with ironic wit that celebrating the coming of the New Year is a foolish pursuit, unworthy of a properly functioning mind, since "every coming year is as bad as the previous one," and the newest year is bound to be even worse. Instead of celebrating the New Year, Chekhov wrote—and Medvedev read—one should suffer, cry and attempt suicide. Every new year brings you closer to death, makes you poorer, your bald spots larger and your wife older, he said.Medvedev's sour greetings brought on some awkward laughs and sparse applause from confused Russian bureaucrats in the studio audience, most of whom remained stone-faced. The prime minister seemed nervous and almost dropped his papers at the end of the speech.Then Wednesday dawned, and Russian President Vladimir Putin in his annual state of the nation address proposed a constitutional overhaul. It supposedly is designed to boost the powers of parliament and the cabinet, but more likely is intended to give Putin, 67, a firm grip on the country for many more years, even decades, to come. A few hours later, Medvedev submitted his resignation, and his entire cabinet submitted theirs as well. And while some of them may stay on, Medvedev, who once served a term as Putin's placeholder president, will move to a previously nonexistent post.Putin offered the prime minister slot to Mikhail Mishustin, the head of the Russian Tax Service, who has been described as "the taxman of the future," digitally acquiring receipts of every transaction in Russia within 90 seconds. It's unclear whether Mishustin will be a placeholder technocrat or assume other responsibilities currently known only to Putin. But in his annual address, Putin articulated the need to identify any persons with current or former double citizenships and foreign holdings, eliminating them from government service. Mishustin might become instrumental in such a reshuffling of Russia's power elites, who are perceived to be unpatriotic by maintaining residences or bank accounts abroad. The added pressure will also give Putin further leverage over them. In the past, Putin and Medvedev have choreographed moves that allowed Putin to remain in charge under different titles, swapping places to circumvent term limits.This time around, Medvedev will assume a newly created position as the Deputy Chairman of the Security Council and all current ministers will remain in an acting capacity until a new government is appointed.Meanwhile, the leader of Chechnya in Russia's volatile North Caucasus region, Ramzan Kadyrov has declared himself to be "temporarily incapacitated," relegating his duties to the current prime minister of Chechnya, Muslim Khuchiyev.Putin's sweeping changes are widely interpreted as designed to weaken his successor, reshaping Russia's power structure in order to create additional opportunities for Putin's continued control over the government, even after the conclusion of his fourth presidential term in 2024. Putin proposed amending the Russian constitution to expand the powers of the legislative branch and investing additional powers in the State Council, leading to speculation Putin is contemplating his future return at the helm of a newly empowered Parliament, after the expiration of his current presidential term.Commentary on the Russian president's likely intention to carve out a new position for himself has been skillfully avoided by the Russian state media. Instead, Kremlin-controlled news outlets chose to focus on promised subsidies for families with young children, designed to address Russia's demographic crisis by boosting the birth rate, and the general claim that Putin has, as it were, made Russia great again.On the Russian state television show, The Evening with Vladimir Soloviev, the host proclaimed, "The greatness of the country is indisputably tied to the name of Putin." Soloviev argued that the Russian president "restored respect" towards their country globally. His take was echoed by the State Duma Deputy Chair Irina Yarovaya, who pontificated that Putin, having achieved his foreign policy and national security objectives, could now move on to his domestic agenda. Yarovaya said, "We remember statements by [U.S. President Barack Obama] in 2014—very recently—that Russia is a regional power of minor importance. We remember all of that. We remember how the sanctions started. We remember how we weren't invited to the G8. And today there is a line of world leaders waiting just to talk to our president over the phone…"The sanctions started and Russia was disinvited after it seized and annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea in 2014, then incited and abetted a separatist war in Ukraine's east. They were intensified after Russia's flagrant interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential elections.Russian state media also highlight Putin's promises of socioeconomic largesse and his prediction that "Russia's economy will grow faster than the global average in 2021." During the last decade, the Russian leader has promised in vain that Russia will become the world's fifth largest economy by 2024. It is currently ranked as the 11th largest economy in the world, with a smaller GDP than that of California. President Putin's current growth prediction is much more modest. It's still not realistic, but such promises had to be made as Russia's declining standards of living have led to political unrest and mass protests.Without providing any direct answers as to his own plans, the Russian leader—who has now been in power for 20 years—created new venues for his continued reign in yet-to-be-revealed future capacities.Amid all the uncertainties, maybe it shouldn't surprise us that Medvedev was reading Chekhov's story about a blind drunk civil servant who stumbles out of a New Year's celebration only to get lost in a graveyard—and then discovers in the morning he was somewhere else entirely.Russia Loves the Impeachment Hearings Because GOP Is Parroting Kremlin PropagandaRead 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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| Royal Caribbean blames 'reckless' grandfather in toddler Chloe Wiegand's death Posted: 17 Jan 2020 07:48 AM PST  "His actions... were reckless and irresponsible and the sole reason why Chloe is no longer with her parents," Royal Caribbean said in court documents.
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| Qatar further eases restrictions on migrant workers' exit Posted: 16 Jan 2020 03:46 AM PST ![Qatar further eases restrictions on migrant workers' exit]( "Qatar further eases restrictions on migrant workers' exit") Qatar said on Thursday it had scrapped restrictions on leaving the country for nearly all migrant workers as part of reforms answering accusations of exploitation especially in the run-up to the 2022 World Cup. The measure removes exit visas for hundreds of thousands of domestic workers left out of earlier reforms - mainly from Asian nations like Nepal, India and the Philippines - whom rights groups said were left open to abuse by being excluded. Unions and activists have documented labor exploitation, dangerous conditions and deaths of workers building stadiums and infrastructure for both the 2018 World Cup in Russia and the upcoming event in Qatar.
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| Japan convicts Australian who sought to see his children Posted: 16 Jan 2020 08:13 AM PST  An Australian journalist based in Japan says he is a victim of Japanese child custody laws that allow only one parent access to children of broken marriages, a day after he was convicted of trespassing at the apartment building of his estranged wife's parents to try to find his children. Scott McIntyre was arrested in November, a month after he entered the apartment building. The Tokyo District Court on Wednesday sentenced McIntyre, a former sports journalist for Australia's SBS network, to six months in prison.
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| Aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln shatters US Navy's record for longest post-Cold War deployment with 10-month around-the-world tour Posted: 17 Jan 2020 07:25 AM PST  The Lincoln broke a cruise record the ship set nearly two decades earlier, sailed around the world, and sent warnings to both Russia and Iran.
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| These Are the Crazy High-Tech Weapons America Would Fight World War III With Posted: 16 Jan 2020 11:59 AM PST  Better to deter than to actually fight.
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| 'You're a liberal hack': Republican senator snaps at CNN journalist who asked her about impeachment trial Posted: 16 Jan 2020 10:18 AM PST  A Republican senator lashed out at a journalist who asked about Donald Trump's impeachment as she was walking into a hearing room, calling the reporter a "liberal hack" and refusing to answer his questions.Arizona Republican Martha McSally slammed CNN's Manu Raju on Thursday as he asked a seemingly straightforward question about the start of the US Senate's impeachment trial.
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| Hong Kong Leader Says China Could Treat City the Same After 2047 Posted: 15 Jan 2020 08:16 PM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Hong Kong's leader said China could continue guaranteeing the city its separate freedoms under the "one country, two systems" principle after it expires in 2047."My view is that, as long as we insist on the 'one country, two systems' principle, with the in-depth implementation of the principle and ample understanding, which fits the interests of Hong Kong citizens, then there is sufficient reason to believe that 'one country, two systems' will be practiced smoothly in the long term, and will not be changed after 2047," Chief Executive Carrie Lam told lawmakers at a question-and-answer session at the city's Legislative Council on Thursday.The comments are some of Lam's most detailed statements on the long-term political future of the former British colony, which was returned to Chinese rule in 1997 on the promise that Beijing would leave its capitalist economy and political freedoms untouched for 50 years. They echoed those made by China's government in recent years.During a 2017 visit to the financial hub marking the anniversary of its handover, President Xi Jinping said he hoped for the "smooth and long-term successful practice" of "one country, two systems," according to Hong Kong's pro-China newspaper Wen Wei Po.Uncertain FutureAnxiety and fear about Hong Kong's political future under an increasingly authoritarian administration in Beijing have fueled seven months of violent pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, initially triggered by since-scrapped legislation over extraditions to the mainland.Once the 50-year time period expires in 2047, China is under no obligation to continue permitting Hong Kong to keep separate freedoms -- including a free media and the right to protest -- that make the city distinct from the mainland. Protesters and pro-democracy lawmakers have frequently accused China of undermining the promises the country's leaders made to Britain before the handover in 1997 and envision a bleak future beyond 2047, in which Hong Kong is treated like any other Chinese city.Some pro-establishment lawmakers have argued that violent protests in favor of greater democracy are likely to make Beijing feel threatened, and less likely to continue guaranteeing Hong Kong's separate freedoms after 2047.Luo Huining, the new director of China's Liaison Office in the city, said Wednesday that Hong Kong's people should place their hope in "one country, two systems."If the system is implemented well, "Hong Kong will win development opportunities and earn room for growth," he said. If it isn't, "there will be non-stop conflicts and chaos."To contact the reporters on this story: Iain Marlow in Hong Kong at imarlow1@bloomberg.net;Natalie Lung in Hong Kong at flung6@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Scott at bscott66@bloomberg.net, Karen Leigh, Adrian KennedyFor 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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| When Iran Took Americans Hostage, Bernie Backed Iran’s Defenders Posted: 16 Jan 2020 02:00 AM PST  Bernie Sanders, a top competitor in the Democratic primaries, has attacked Joe Biden for bringing "just a lot of baggage" into the race. But if past views are a major consideration, consider the baggage that Sanders drags into the campaign.Go back over 40 years, to the start of Iran's long conflict with the United States. On April 1, 1979, the theocratic Islamic Republic of Iran was proclaimed. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who had returned to Iran from exile to assume command of the revolt, became Supreme Leader in December of that year. His rise was accelerated by the seizure on Nov. 4 of 52 American diplomats and citizens, and citizens of other countries, at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. The hostage crisis became the means by which the Ayatollah crushed political opponents in Iran. Dealing with the hostage taking became the overwhelming political crisis for President Jimmy Carter. It lasted 444 days. Virtually all Americans—Democrats, Republicans and independents—united in support of the hostages and the international call for their freedom. One prominent political figure on the 2020 stage, then almost completely unknown, stood apart by joining a Marxist-Leninist party that not only pledged support for the Iranian theocracy, but also justified the hostage taking by insisting the hostages were all likely CIA agents. Who was that person? It was Bernie Sanders. Sanders would like the public to believe, as an AP story put it, that "democratic socialism [is] the economic philosophy that has guided his political career." But that has not always been the case. In 1977, he left the tiny left-wing Liberty Union Party of Vermont that he'd co-founded, and in 1980 instead aligned himself with the Socialist Workers Party (SWP), the self-proclaimed Trotskyist revolutionary party, became its presidential elector in Vermont, and campaigned for its candidates and platform that defended the Iranian hostage seizure. In fact, the SWP's position on Iran is part of what distinguishes it from democratic socialist groups. When its presidential candidate, Andrew Pulley, came to speak at the University of Vermont in October 1980, Sanders chaired the meeting. Pulley attracted only 40 students to his rally, where he concentrated, according to the SWP's newspaper The Militant, "on the Iran-Iraq war," and condemned "anti-Iranian hysteria around the U.S. hostages." Military action against Iran was not at that point theoretical—Pulley's speech came six months after the attempt to free the hostages in Operation Eagle Claw had failed. In his standard stump speech, Pulley condemned "Carter's war drive against the Iranian people," and said that the U.S. "was on the brink of war with Iran," which would be fought "to protect the oil and banking interests of the Rockefellers and other billionaires." Americans, he predicted, would soon "pay on the battlefields with our very own lives." Their criticism of the Ayatollah was intended "to get us ready for war." And, Pulley charged, the media who criticized those of us who were against "American imperialism" were "declared insane." As for the hostages, Pulley said "we can be sure that many of them are simply spies… or people assigned to protect the spies." Pulley's words were a direct echo of what the Islamic Society of University Teachers and Students had declared on Nov. 4, 1979 : "We defend the capture of this imperialist embassy, which is a center for espionage." Six months after the 1980 election, on May 21, 1981, Sanders spoke at another Pulley rally. "For the last 40 years," Sanders said, "the Socialist Workers Party has… been harassed, informed upon, had their offices broken into, had members of their party fired from their jobs, and have been treated with cold contempt by the United States government." Even worse, he went on, apparently referring to the Iranian hostage crisis, "now anybody who stands up and fights and says things is automatically a terrorist." He claimed that he had been investigated himself by the FBI because "I was an elector for the Socialist Workers Party," referring to his formal role in the 1980 election with the Trotskyists. The Sanders campaign did not respond to a request for comment. Asked about the SWP in 1988, Sanders, then the mayor of Burlington and a congressional candidate, talked down the connection, saying that: "I was asked to put my name on the ballot and I did, that's true." Today, no mention of Sanders' association with the SWP appears in any campaign biography he has issued. But Sanders remained tied to the party after 1980. He was a featured speaker at a Boston rally for the SWP's Massachusetts gubernatorial candidate and the party's slate for Congress in 1982, the year after he was narrowly elected mayor of Burlington. In 1984, he again spoke on behalf of the SWP's presidential candidate, this time former Black Panther Mel Mason, telling The Militant that "at a time when the Democratic and Republican parties are intellectually and spiritually bankrupt, it is imperative for radical voices to be heard which offer fundamental alternatives to capitalist ideology." It remains unclear when Sanders's affiliation with the SWP ended. Of course, Sanders had a right to his beliefs. But he has not been fully transparent about what those beliefs, connections, and loyalties have been over the years. Sanders says that he has been consistently and firmly dedicated to democratic socialism. His record, however, reveals a very different story around the time of the Iranian hostage crisis. But Democratic voters today concerned above all with defeating Donald Trump and the electability of their prospective presidential candidate need to know the whole of Sanders' history. He has not always been the democratic socialist he claims to be. Sanders could have supported the Socialist Party, the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee, or Social-Democrats U.S.A., the three leading democratic socialist organizations existing in 1980. He rejected them. Instead he embraced a Marxist-Leninist communist sect that proclaimed its solidarity with Iran. The preeminent democratic socialist of the time, Michael Harrington, wrote that the hostage taking was "terribly wrong," and that "the original evil was compounded by the psychological and physical brutalization to which at least some of the hostages were subjected. The moral stance of those who denounce such acts is clear and compelling." Far from denouncing the acts, Sanders stood with those who applauded the hostage taking. If Sanders were to become the Democratic presidential nominee, all this will come pouring out in Trump ads on television and social media. Voters will see TV clips of the American hostages, blindfolded and abused, alongside Sanders as the Trotskyist elector supporting the Iranian kidnappers. Rest assured, Trump will make absolutely sure that it is Sanders' own past that will bury him and perhaps the Democratic Party. 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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| Rain douses some Australian bush fires but flash floods now threaten wildlife Posted: 17 Jan 2020 08:19 AM PST  Heavy rains in fire-ravaged eastern Australia have brought welcome relief for firefighters and farmers, but sparked flash floods that have led to fresh scrambles to save native animals. As the rain hit on Thursday the New South Wales State Emergency Services department warned that the sudden heavy downpours in some areas would bring flash flooding, falling trees and landslides where the fires have wiped out vegetation. On Friday, the warnings were realised when flash floods hit the Australia Reptile Park on the NSW east coast, and the state's koalas - having lost thousands of their number and huge swathes of their habitat - needed to be rescued again as floods thundered down fire-blasted hills empty of vegetation. Park director Tim Faulkner told local media that the sudden floods on Friday morning were "incredible". "Just last week we were having daily meetings to discuss the imminent threat of bushfires," he said. "Today, we've had the whole team out there, drenched, acting fast to secure the safety of our animals and defend the park from the onslaught of water… We haven't seen flooding like this at the park for over 15 years." And while the rains have doused fires in some areas, blazes continue to rage across many other parts of the country where the weather stayed dry, including in other parts of New South Wales where 82 fires were still burning, with 30 out of control, and in the state of Victoria, to the south. Parts of the state's Alpine region were evacuated again as erratic winds caused spot fires around a large blaze at Mount Buffalo. The rain also completely missed Kangaroo Island, the nation's third biggest off the southern coast of the mainland, where fires have devastated the formerly wildlife-rich national park. The authorities have warned the crisis could worsen again with Australia only halfway through its summer. The unprecedented fires, fuelled by climate change and a years-long drought, have already claimed 28 lives over the past five months. They have scorched massive tracts of pristine forests in eastern and southern Australia, decimated livestock on already barren farms and destroyed 2,000 homes. In areas where rain has arrived, there are new concerns that muddy ash will be swept into rivers and lakes, exacerbating an emerging crisis as fish die in vast numbers due to ash poisoning the waterways. The NSW Department of Primary Industries has received reports of "hundreds of thousands" of fish dead in the Macleay river since December 2019.
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| France to deploy Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier to support Middle East operations Posted: 16 Jan 2020 10:17 AM PST ![France to deploy Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier to support Middle East operations]( "France to deploy Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier to support Middle East operations") France will deploy the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier and its battle group from January to April to support French military operations in Middle East, Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday. "The aircraft carrier will support Chammal operations (in the Middle East) from January to April 2020 before deploying to the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea", Macron said at a New Year speech to the French military.
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| Report: Israeli home demolitions in east Jerusalem spiked Posted: 16 Jan 2020 07:00 AM PST  Israeli authorities demolished homes in Palestinian areas of east Jerusalem at a significantly higher rate in 2019 than the previous year, according to an Israeli advocacy group. In a new report, Ir Amim said 104 housing units were demolished in 2019, compared() to 72 units in 2018. Aviv Tatarsky, the Ir Amim researcher who wrote the report released Wednesday, said the group found that only 7% of housing units advanced by city planners last year were for Palestinian neighborhoods.
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| These clothes use outlandish designs to trick facial recognition software into thinking you're not human Posted: 17 Jan 2020 07:47 AM PST  Privacy-focused designers, academics, and activists have designed wearable accessories and clothes meant to thwart facial recognition tech.
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| Why Is Saudi Arabia Is Buying 4 Littoral Combat Ships From America? Posted: 16 Jan 2020 03:00 PM PST  The LCS isn't very good.
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| Nancy Pelosi's unprecedented gamble to hold her fire with Trump's impeachment is paying off in spades Posted: 16 Jan 2020 06:49 AM PST  Since the House voted to impeach Trump, there have been 10 major developments that dramatically raise the stakes of his impeachment trial.
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| Brazil Looks to India as Trade Ties with Argentina Deteriorate Posted: 15 Jan 2020 01:42 PM PST ![Brazil Looks to India as Trade Ties with Argentina Deteriorate]( "Brazil Looks to India as Trade Ties with Argentina Deteriorate") (Bloomberg) -- Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is set to visit India next week, aiming to boost trade with a rapidly growing market as ties with neighboring Argentina deteriorate.With the Asian nation expanding around 7% a year over the past decade, Brazil sees a huge potential for its exports of food and commodities, according to Marcos Troyjo, the special secretary of foreign trade and international relations at the Economy Ministry."International experience shows us that people eat more and invest in infrastructure when their income doubles," Troyjo said in an interview in Brasilia.Why in India, 5% GDP Growth Is Cause for Alarm: QuickTakeBrazil sees a chance to increase its $7 billion in annual bilateral trade with India to $25 billion in the next few years. With the South Asian giant doubling its per capita income in the last 10 years and set to overtake China in terms of population in the next decade, India represents a massive potential market for Brazil as it opens its economy to the world, Troyjo said.Argentine RowsBrazil's plans to deepen its relationship with India come as its ties with neighboring Argentina deteriorate.While 2019 saw the two economies work together to push for a trade deal between the Mercosur customs union and the European Union, relations have soured since the election of Bolsonaro's ideological opposite, Alberto Fernandez.With both the new Argentine government and many lawmakers in the EU lukewarm about the agreement, its future is unclear."We are aiming for a greater integration of Brazil into the world economy," Troyjo said. "What we are going to do with Mercosur is in line with this. But all the signs that we have seen in the last few weeks have been bad."Read more: Implement EU-Mercosur Trade Deal Swiftly, Says BolsonaroBrazil would not tolerate any foot-dragging on the part of its Mercosur partners, he added. "We cannot allow, as in the past, to travel at the speed of a convoy, where everyone's speed is determined by the speed of the slowest vehicle."Davos MessageBefore the trip to India, the economic team, including Troyjo and Economy Minister Paulo Guedes, will attend the World Economic Forum in Davos.Their message to the potential investors at the Swiss resort will be that Brazil has managed to reform its pension system, in contrast to those countries that are still increasing their spending on old-age benefits.Brazil is swimming against the tide, Troyjo said, that is the great difference between the country and the rest of the world."We have a huge stock of liquidity in the world and a lack of investment in infrastructure," he said. "We want to tackle this great paradox."While Brazil is also looking to develop its relationship with China, this will not extend to the signing of a trade deal. Instead Brasilia wants to see the EU-Mercosur deal finalized in order to make the country more attractive for the Chinese.Troyjo said that the signing of the first phase of a U.S.-China agreement is a welcome development and should have a positive impact on Brazil. According to Troyjo, at this moment in time what the country needs most is a reduction in the level of global uncertainty in order to move ahead with economic reforms."It's best to do this when the skies are blue than in the middle of a rainstorm," he said.To contact the reporters on this story: Martha Beck in Brasilia at mbeck96@bloomberg.net;Simone Iglesias in Brasília at spiglesias@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Juan Pablo Spinetto at jspinetto@bloomberg.net, Robert Jameson, Bruce DouglasFor 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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| Former Philippine police chief will be charged for drug war corruption Posted: 16 Jan 2020 10:25 AM PST  The former chief police enforcer of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's deadly war on drugs will be charged with corruption for allegedly protecting officers linked to the narcotics trade, the country's justice department said Thursday. Oscar Albayalde resigned in October after serving as Philippine police chief for more than a year, having presided over an anti-narcotics crackdown that left thousands of drug suspects dead.
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| Researchers Discover Five New Exoplanets in Our Cosmic Backyard Posted: 15 Jan 2020 11:41 AM PST  Meet 'Cold Neptune,' a newly discovered exoplanet that redefines the word 'cold.'
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| Fires, then floods: How much can a koala bear? Posted: 16 Jan 2020 09:53 PM PST  A week ago, koalas at an Australian wildlife park were in the path of raging bushfires. On Friday, they were soaking wet and being carried to safety from flash floods. Months of drought that have contributed to Australia's catastrophic bushfire season have this week given way to huge downpours in some of the blaze-ravaged areas.
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| Russia: Iran was spooked by reports of U.S. F-35s when it downed airliner Posted: 17 Jan 2020 06:18 AM PST  Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday that Iran's accidental shooting down of a Ukrainian airliner last week occurred at a time when Tehran was spooked by reports of advanced U.S. stealth fighters in the area. Iran's downing of Ukraine International Airlines flight 752, which killed all 176 people aboard, has created a crisis for the Islamic Republic's clerical rulers who have faced days of protests after the Iranian military admitted it had shot down the plane accidentally. Lavrov, speaking at his annual news conference in Moscow, called the incident a human error and said he was not trying to excuse anyone for what happened.
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| Panel finds FAA followed procedures in approving Boeing Max Posted: 16 Jan 2020 06:05 AM PST  A government advisory committee has concluded that federal regulators followed established procedures when they certified the Boeing 737 Max and did not delegate too much safety analysis for the plane to Boeing. The committee was appointed by Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao in April, after crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia killed 346 people. The committee's findings differ sharply from those of legislators who are investigating Boeing and the FAA.
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| A man who was put up in a Comfort Inn 'boardroom suite' discovered it was literally a boardroom with a bed Posted: 15 Jan 2020 02:37 PM PST  The stranded traveler shared his amusement on Twitter, where the photo of the "boardroom suite" hotel room went viral.
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