| Parnas said he is speaking out because he is afraid of William Barr Posted: 16 Jan 2020 07:08 PM PST  Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas said he was giving media interviews about his role in President Trump's attempts convince Ukrainian officials to announce an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden because he wanted to protect himself from Attorney General William Barr.
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| Georgia sets execution for man convicted of killing 2 people Posted: 17 Jan 2020 10:54 AM PST  Donnie Cleveland Lance, 66, is scheduled to die Jan. 29 at the state prison in Jackson, state Attorney General Chris Carr and Department of Corrections Commissioner Timothy Ward announced Friday. Lance has exhausted his standard appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court declined last year to hear his case, though three justices dissented. According to a Georgia Supreme Court summary of the case, Lance went to Wood's home the night of Nov. 8, 1997, kicked in the front door and shot Wood in the front and back with a shotgun and then beat Joy Lance to death with the butt of the shotgun, the summary says.
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| Bloomberg Visits Capitol Hill to Woo Democratic Lawmakers Posted: 16 Jan 2020 12:01 PM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Michael Bloomberg is meeting with groups of Democrats in Congress on Capitol Hill on Thursday seeking support for his fledgling 2020 presidential campaign.The former New York mayor plans to meet separately with BOLD PAC, the political arm of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus; ASPIRE PAC, the political arm of Asian American and Pacific Islander members of Congress; the New Democrat Coalition of centrist Democrats and the co-chairs of the Blue Dog Coalition of "fiscally responsible" Democrats.The New Democrat group sent a letter to every Democratic presidential candidate to meet with them.BOLD PAC said in a statement that the meeting focused on issues facing Latinos such as comprehensive immigration reform, as well as "increasing access to affordable health care, tackling the issue of gun violence and creating an inclusive economy."Bloomberg is self-funding his campaign, so the purpose of the meetings is relationship building and to get to know individual members, according to a person familiar with one of the groups.Bloomberg is also expected to attend a private reception in San Francisco on Thursday evening that will include Silicon Valley technology billionaires, Recode reported and the campaign confirmed.Bloomberg is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.(Adds BOLD PAC statement in fourth paragraph.)\--With assistance from Billy House and Erik Wasson.To contact the reporter on this story: Mark Niquette in Columbus at mniquette@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Craig GordonFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| 'You have not seen anything yet,' climate activist Greta says ahead of Davos Posted: 17 Jan 2020 08:10 AM PST  Swedish activist Greta Thunberg marched with 10,000 protesters in the Swiss city of Lausanne on Friday and said "you have not seen anything yet" before some head to Davos next week to challenge the global financial elite to fight climate change. "So, we are now in a new year and we have entered a new decade and so far, during this decade, we have seen no sign whatsoever that real climate action is coming and that has to change," Thunberg said in a speech in Lausanne. Hundreds will take trains over the weekend and then march to Klosters near Davos, the annual gathering of world political and business leaders that Thunberg is attending for the second year in a row and will take part in two panel events.
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| Why Russia Doesn't Like (Or Have) Many Aircraft Carriers Posted: 18 Jan 2020 04:00 AM PST  Not enough money?
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| ICE leader blames 'sanctuary' policies for NYC killing Posted: 17 Jan 2020 11:48 AM PST ![ICE leader blames 'sanctuary' policies for NYC killing]( "ICE leader blames 'sanctuary' policies for NYC killing") Matthew Albence, the acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said at a news conference Friday that the slaying could have been prevented if city officials had complied with a federal request to turn over the assailant, a Guyanese national, for deportation. "It's unbelievable that I have to come here and plead with the city of New York to cooperate with us to help keep this city safe," Albence said.
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| Alan Dershowitz and Ken Starr join Trump impeachment defense team Posted: 17 Jan 2020 08:24 AM PST  The legal team representing President Trump in his Senate impeachment trial will include some familiar faces, especially for regular viewers of Fox News.
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| Seven Jurors Chosen for Harvey Weinstein’s NYC Trial So Far Posted: 16 Jan 2020 11:06 AM PST  Seven of the 12 jurors who will decide the fate of disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein were chosen on Thursday out of a panel that briefly included supermodel Gigi Hadid.The three women and four men will be among those to determine if Weinstein is guilty of predatory sexual assault and first-degree rape in connection with alleged assaults on his former production assistant in 2006 and another woman in 2013."This trial is not a referendum on the MeToo movement," Manhattan Supreme Court Justice James Burke said to a pool of 140 before individual questioning began. "You must decide this case on the evidence."Hadid was dismissed only minutes after arriving because both the defense and prosecutors "found her to be unsuitable," even though she insisted she could be impartial. It was decided that her presence would be disruptive, court officials confirmed to The Daily Beast. Harvey Weinstein Arrives at Court as Long-Awaited Rape Trial Kicks OffAnother potential juror was dismissed for tweeting about the trial after receiving a summons to appear. Burke ordered that person to return in March and said they could face jail time. "There's one person who did clearly violate the court's [order]," Burke said. "I am asking you to return to this courtroom… to show cause for why I should not hold you in contempt."Weinstein has been accused of misconduct ranging from crude behavior to rape by dozens of women—including top Hollywood actresses—but these are the first criminal charges to arise out of those allegations. Weinstein's defense attorney, Donna Rotunno, began Thursday's line of questioning by asking the potential jurors whether they think her client is guilty and whether anybody is "going to give women more credence or believe that they are more believable, more reliable because they are women?"After nobody raised their hand, Rotunno asked whether "anyone here who's heard anything positive about Mr. Weinstein?""I've heard that, yes, he's a successful movie producer," one person said.On Wednesday night, Weinstein's defense team filed a motion asking to question jurors behind closed doors. That motion was brought up on Thursday, with Rotunno stating that about 30 potential jurors had reported being sexual assault victims or knowing someone who is a sexual assault victim and that the line of questioning in a room full of strangers may be uncomfortable."I think asking these questions in front of other people can be quite difficult and will contaminate the entire pool," Rotunno said.Burke shot down the request, stating the current "four-part, laborious, time-consuming jury panel is working." Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Joan Illuzzi also objected to the request, saying, "I don't think the defense could possibly say that a person who had either themselves been sexually assaulted or know someone who has been sexually assaulted is now no longer qualified to sit on this case. That is not the law."Weinstein Charged in Los Angeles With Sexually Assaulting Two WomenSince last Tuesday, hundreds of prospective jurors have appeared at the courthouse to answer questions about whether they can be unbiased in a case that has been making headlines since the first allegations were published in a 2017 bombshell report by The New York Times. More than 80 women have since come forward to accuse the film titan of sexual misconduct and using his influence to coerce them into silence spanning three decades. At trial, prosecutors plan to argue that Weinstein capitalized on the power and prestige of his production empire, The Weinstein Company, to cover up a pattern of predatory behavior.The allegations helped launch the global MeToo movement, which inspired hundreds of women to come forward with their own accounts of sexual harassment or assault at the hands of powerful men in politics, media, and the entertainment industry.Weinstein has repeatedly denied the allegations. He faces life in prison if convicted and is also facing several sex crime charges in Los Angeles. As potential jurors were questioned, a New York City appellate judge denied Weinstein's appeal for a stay of the trial. The judge, however, determined he will consider the defense's appeal to move the trial to Suffolk or Albany.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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| Parnas: 'I'm scared,' speaking out because of William Barr Posted: 17 Jan 2020 03:21 AM PST  Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas said he was giving media interviews about his role in President Trump's attempts to convince Ukrainian officials to announce an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden because he wanted to protect himself from Attorney General William Barr.
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| Don't turn plane crash into political issue: Iran foreign ministry spokesman Posted: 16 Jan 2020 11:49 PM PST  All countries involved in the Ukrainian airliner crash in Iran should avoid turning it into a political issue, an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Friday. "We request all sides not to make human issues, particularly this tragic accident, into an excuse for political gestures," Abbas Mousavi was quoted as saying by the semi-official ISNA news agency. Five countries whose citizens died when Iran shot down the airliner last week said on Thursday that Tehran should pay compensation to families of the victims, and that the world was watching for its response.
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| Rainstorms douse bushfires across eastern Australia Posted: 17 Jan 2020 04:03 PM PST  Rain and thunderstorms doused long-burning bushfires across much of eastern Australia Saturday, but they also brought a new threat of flooding in some areas. Major bushfires continued to rage in regions of the south and southeast of the country that have so far missed out on the rain, including in wildlife-rich forests on Kangaroo Island off the southern coast. The fire service in New South Wales (NSW) state, the country's most populous and the hardest hit by the crisis, said 75 fires continued to burn Saturday, down from well over 100 a few days earlier.
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| Revealed: The Secrets Behind Russia's Crazy 100-Megaton Nuclear Torpedo Posted: 17 Jan 2020 09:00 PM PST  From fiction to reality.
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| Sri Lanka lifts ban on drones imposed after Easter attacks Posted: 18 Jan 2020 12:55 AM PST ![Sri Lanka lifts ban on drones imposed after Easter attacks]( "Sri Lanka lifts ban on drones imposed after Easter attacks") Sri Lankan authorities have lifted a ban on drones that was imposed after the Easter Sunday attacks that left 263 people dead in the Indian Ocean island nation. The lifting of the ban comes amid a growing demand for flying drones from media institutions, foreigners, wedding videographers and photographers, and commercial advertising companies. All civil drone operators will be required to obtain approval from the Defense Ministry to fly drones, the ministry said on its website Saturday.
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| An ISIS preacher captured in Iraq was apparently so overweight that police had to take him away in the back of a pickup truck Posted: 17 Jan 2020 06:36 AM PST  Shifa al-Nima was captured in the Mansour neighborhood of Mosul by the Nineveh police command, according to Iraqi police.
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| 'I remember that call': Devin Nunes recalls 'odd' chat with indicted Giuliani associate Parnas Posted: 16 Jan 2020 02:05 PM PST  "I remember that call, which was very odd, random, talking about random things," Nunes told Fox on Wednesday.
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| Life in a Troubled Mississippi Prison, Captured on Smuggled Phones Posted: 16 Jan 2020 12:28 PM PST  ATLANTA -- The cellphone rang once before someone picked up. On the other end was an inmate inside Unit 29 of the Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman. "Hello," he said.Then, in a steady voice that competed against a cacophony of rowdy conversations and a fuzzy signal, he urgently described to a complete stranger the turmoil he said existed on the inside. Some inmates needed medical attention, he said. All of them could use a hot shower."Mold everywhere, rats everywhere," said the inmate, who was serving time for armed robbery, aggravated assault and other charges.Then the line suddenly fell silent. When the inmate returned a moment later, he explained that an officer had walked past and that he had needed to quickly stash his phone. He had paid $600 for the smartphone -- contraband in prisons nationwide. If caught with it, years could be tacked onto his already lengthy sentence.He then handed the phone to another inmate. "They're treating us like animals," that inmate said, before passing the phone on yet again.And so it went, from one prisoner to the next, in a phone call with a reporter that stretched on for roughly an hour. The inmates complained about unreliable electricity and water, injuries that had not healed, and the vermin that forced them to hang leftover food from the ceiling. One inmate mentioned his girlfriend; another, the countdown to his release, now almost a month away.The meandering conversation was punctuated by lulls, as the phone was hidden or passed around, capturing the ambient noise of life inside the maximum-security prison.Parchman, the oldest prison in Mississippi, with a notorious reputation for harsh conditions, has descended into dilapidation and chaos, including a recent burst of violence that left several inmates dead.Inmates have used illegal cellphones to capture and transmit images -- inmates fighting, broken toilets, holes in prison walls, dangling wires and dead rodents caught in sticky traps -- that have come to define the crisis in Mississippi. Many photos were texted to The New York Times.Across the country, prisons are rife with smuggled cellphones, allowing inmates access to the internet, social media and their old lives outside the prison walls. But state officials said the phones have been used by inmates to propel unrest, and by gangs to orchestrate attacks on rivals, inside and outside of prison.Officials said the pervasiveness of cellphones -- nearly 12,000 were seized in Mississippi in 2018 -- has threatened prison security. And, by providing an uncontrolled link to the outside world, they also have undermined the very notion of incarceration."There is a lot of misinformation fanning the flames of fear in the community at large, especially on social media," Pelicia E. Hall, the state corrections commissioner, said in a recent statement. "Cellphones are contraband and have been instrumental in escalating the violence."Gang warfare, decrepit accommodations and a severe shortage of corrections officers has attracted widespread attention and come to dominate the state's political agenda. Activists and others say the problems are long-standing, but they credit the images with igniting a surge of outrage."The story never really would have broke" without cellphones, said Honey D. Ates, whose son is serving a 15-year sentence at the state prison in Wilkinson County."We can hear all about it," she said, "but actually seeing it, it's times a hundred."It has been nearly impossible for corrections officials to curb the use of cellphones, as they have been difficult to ferret out. "As fast as you take them out, they're back in," said Martin F. Horn, a former top corrections official in New York City and Pennsylvania, who teaches at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice."It sort of defeats the purpose of a prison wall, if you will," Horn said.In recent years, an inmate on death row in Texas used a smuggled phone to make threatening phone calls to a state senator. After an hourslong riot killed seven prisoners at a state prison in South Carolina, officials there blamed phones as a reason for the violence. Even Charles Manson, the closely guarded notorious mass killer who died in 2017, was repeatedly caught with phones.In Mississippi, inmates, their relatives and activists said that phones are often brought in by corrections officers and case managers, and the devices, usually pay-as-you-go burner phones, can cost upward of $300 inside. Elsewhere, visitors have sneaked them in, and there have been documented cases of phones being shot over prison fences with potato guns and deposited by drones.State officials in Mississippi have resorted to a range of measures, including seeking court orders to get service providers to shut down specific devices. In a statement, the Mississippi Department of Corrections said that it also used technology to interrupt cellular signals, regularly conducted shakedowns and used dogs to sniff out the devices.Mississippi's prisons have been rocked by an outbreak of violence and disorder in recent weeks. Five inmates have been killed, including three at Parchman, and many others have been injured. In the chaos, two inmates escaped but were later caught. For several days, all of the prisons were locked down.Critics said the unrest reflected a pattern of problems in state prisons, which are stretched thin under the weight of an inmate population still swollen from the tough-on-crime measures of the 1980s and 1990s. Some elected officials and civil rights groups, in a complaint calling for a federal investigation, described "extreme" staff vacancies despite having the third-highest incarceration rate in the country.State leaders have acknowledged the severity of the concerns, and corrections officials have warned of a brewing crisis as they press lawmakers for more funding. On Monday, Hall, the corrections commissioner, issued a statement reiterating concerns over Unit 29 at Parchman, quoting a letter she had sent in August describing a facility that was "unsafe for staff and inmates due to age and general deterioration."As the violence flared, inmates broadcast live on Facebook as fires raged inside one prison. They posted images of faucets spewing discolored water, and walls splotched with mold.Those images catapulted the crisis into public, coming at a pivotal moment as a new legislative session begins and Gov. Tate Reeves, a Republican, was sworn in on Tuesday.Officials and others have said that much of the unrest has quieted. The state Department of Corrections has lifted lockdowns at all of its facilities except for Parchman. But the recent turmoil has brought new scrutiny, including from the rappers Jay-Z and Yo Gotti, who filed a lawsuit on Tuesday on behalf of prisoners, assailing what they described as an "utter disregard" for inmates and their rights.State officials have countered that the depictions shared on social media only added to the discord. The outgoing governor, Phil Bryant, told reporters recently that the inmates craved limelight. "You're making them stars," he said, "and they're convicts."Albert Sykes, an activist on criminal justice issues, said many inmates feared repercussions over cellphones, a lifeline for staying in touch with families, especially as rolling lockdowns caused by staffing shortages have curtailed visitation.The inmates' fears have been fueled by the case of Willie Nash, who was sentenced to 12 years in prison for having a cellphone in a county jail. He was being held on a misdemeanor count when he asked a jailer if he could charge his phone's battery, an inquiry that led to the new charge. The sentence was upheld last week by the Mississippi Supreme Court, even as justices noted that it was "obviously harsh" and "seems to demonstrate a failure of our criminal justice system."Ates said that her son had expressed his own fear, but that she had encouraged him to be defiant. "You can't shut all of us up," she said, "and you can't take all the cellphones." In recent weeks, she has become something of a switchboard operator, receiving messages on Facebook from inmates across the state.One video that has been widely shared showed an inmate at Parchman, who spoke on the phone briefly the other day, with an open wound that he said he had received after being struck by what he thought was a rubber bullet. His back was covered in blood and he walked over to a sink, where he turned the knobs but no water came out."Please try to help us," said the inmate, who was convicted on aggravated assault and gun possession charges. "Let the world know."He then passed the phone back to its owner. Its battery was draining, and the electricity had flickered out again. The inmate apologized for cutting the conversation short, but said he needed to go.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| Watch live: SpaceX is about to blow up a rocket in a crucial test to show NASA that its spaceship ready to launch astronauts Posted: 18 Jan 2020 04:20 AM PST  Elon Musk's SpaceX is going to make one of its own rocket boosters explode to prove that its Crew Dragon spaceship is ready to send people to space.
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| Rand Paul Slams the Bidens over Alleged Corruption: ‘It Smells to High Heaven’ Posted: 17 Jan 2020 12:39 PM PST  Senator Rand Paul (R., Ky.) said Thursday that Joe and Hunter Biden's activity in Ukraine "goes to the heart of the matter" surrounding the upcoming impeachment trial in the Senate, and argued that GOP senators must be willing to call President Trump's preferred witnesses, or "all hell is going to break lose."Appearing on Hannity, Paul stated that he believed the alleged corruption perpetrated by Hunter Biden in his role on the board of a Ukrainian gas company Burisma — while his father was overseeing official U.S. relations with Kyiv —needed to be explored."If the president is being accused of withholding foreign aid, and his argument is, 'Well, we were studying corruption, and we wanted to know about corruption in Ukraine,' and I think the Bidens are as corrupt as the day is long," Paul argued. "No young man who is the son of a politician gets $50,000 a month who has no experience, working for a Ukrainian oligarch. You know, for goodness sakes — it smells to high heaven. It smells like corruption."Paul pointed to bias in the media as the reason why the issue has not been more thoroughly explored. In its Friday release of an interview with Joe Biden, The New York Times editorial board opened by saying "There is no indication that you or your son did anything wrong or were part of any corruption in Ukraine.""Every day on the mainstream media, they say, 'Oh, there's no there there. This has been investigated. There is no corruption.' I think the American people don't buy it," Paul told Hannity. "Here's the thing: Fair is fair. If they're going to put the president through this, they're going to have to have witnesses on both sides."The Kentucky Republican, who earlier this week threatened fellow Republican senators with consequences if they did not bring forward Trump-favored witnesses, reiterated his point Thursday night, saying his "fear" is that "if people play games with the witnesses . . . I think all hell is going to break lose.""If it turns out and the Republican base sees that this only looks like Democrat witnesses and no presidential witnesses, I guarantee that the Republican base will punish those people who set up that kind of scenario," Paul stated.
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| Woman pleads guilty to killing husband by putting eye drops in his water Posted: 17 Jan 2020 04:23 AM PST  A South Carolina woman pleaded guilty to fatally poisoning her husband by putting eye drops in his water for days. She was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
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| German minister wants close security ties with post-Brexit Britain Posted: 16 Jan 2020 10:22 AM PST  Germany wants to deepen trade ties with London and continue close cooperation on security and defence projects after Britain's divorce from the European Union, Defence Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer said on Thursday. Britain is set to leave the EU on Jan. 31 after agreeing a deal late last year. "Brexit is not the end of cooperation between Britain and Europe and not at all the end of cooperation between Britain and Germany," she said in the text of a speech she delivered in London, stressing common interests bound them together.
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| US court dismisses suit by youths over climate change Posted: 17 Jan 2020 10:32 AM PST  A federal appeals court on Friday dismissed a lawsuit by 21 young people who claimed the U.S. government's climate policies and reliance on fossil fuels harms them, jeopardizes their future and violates their constitutional rights, potentially dealing a fatal blow to a long-running case that activists saw as an important front in the war against environmental degradation. The Oregon-based youth advocacy group Our Children's Trust filed the lawsuit in 2015 in Eugene on behalf of the youngsters. It sought an injunction ordering the government to implement a plan to phase out fossil fuel emissions and draw down atmospheric carbon dioxide emission.
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| Khamenei Says Iran Strike Delivered a ‘Slap’ to the U.S. Superpower Image Posted: 17 Jan 2020 03:45 AM PST ![Khamenei Says Iran Strike Delivered a 'Slap' to the U.S. Superpower Image]( "Khamenei Says Iran Strike Delivered a 'Slap' to the U.S. Superpower Image") (Bloomberg) -- Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Iran had delivered a "slap to the U.S.'s image as a superpower" in this month's military confrontation, seeking to rally Iranians around an embattled establishment as he led Friday prayers in Tehran for the first time in eight years.His speech came amid unprecedented international scrutiny over the Islamic Revolutionary Guard's unintentional shooting down of a Ukrainian passenger plane just hours after Iran had fired missiles into Iraqi bases housing American troops without causing fatalities. That attack had been in retaliation for the killing of a top Iranian commander by the U.S."They're hit by strikes in Syria, in Iraq, in Lebanon and in Afghanistan at the hands of the power of resistance, but this strike was greater than all of those, it was a strike on prestige," Khamenei said of the Iranian action in Iraq. U.S. officials, including President Donald Trump, who claimed to be on the side of the Iranian people are "clowns," he said.Khamenei branded the U.S. "terrorists" for the Jan. 3 killing of General Qassem Soleimani, whom he credited with being the most effective force in defeating Islamic State.Soleimani was a hero to many Iranians for his leadership of an elite unit of the Guard which orchestrated Iran's military policy overseas, playing a major role in destroying the extremist group's rule in Syria and Iraq. His killing brought the nation together in mourning but that sense of unity was shattered by the downing of the Ukraine International Airlines plane, which killed all 176 people on board. Most of the victims were Iranian citizens or dual nationals.'Bitter Incident'Khamenei called the jet disaster an "extremely bitter incident" but said public opinion over the tragedy had been manipulated by U.K. and U.S.-based television channels. The top cleric directly instructed the Revolutionary Guard to carry out a full investigation and guarantee that there could never be a repeat.Once Iranian officials finally accepted responsibility, after days of denials, protests against the government broke out in Tehran and other cities. Just weeks earlier, security forces had crushed some of the biggest and most sustained anti-regime demonstrations in more than a decade. Human rights groups say hundreds of people were killed in that crackdown.While Iran's leaders admitted culpability for the jet disaster they have also blamed the U.S. for creating the sense of crisis that preceded it. In the part of his sermon conducted in Arabic, Khamenei said the "real punishment" for the U.S. would be its forced ouster from the Middle East.Under pressure from Democrats at home, Trump has offered various justifications for the decision to kill Soleimani, including intelligence that he said pointed to imminent attacks on U.S. embassies, as well as past American military deaths due to Iranian actions supervised by Soleimani in Iraq.A report on Friday said that nearly a dozen U.S. troops were treated for concussion after Iran's missile attacks in Iraq. The U.S. and Iran have since both signaled they want to back away from further military conflict, but with the two arch foes locked in a deepening confrontation over Iran's nuclear program and American sanctions, tensions in the Gulf remain high.On Tuesday the U.K., Germany and France angered Tehran by announcing they would activate a dispute resolution mechanism contained in the 2015 nuclear deal which Trump exited before reimposing sanctions. The European move nudged the accord closer to the brink of collapse.Khamenei accused the European countries of working with the U.S. to try and force Iran "to its knees," and said he had "never trusted them since day one."(Updates with more comments, statement on EU countries)To contact the reporter on this story: Golnar Motevalli in Dubai at gmotevalli@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Lin Noueihed at lnoueihed@bloomberg.net, Mark Williams, Karl MaierFor 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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| A 15-year-old orphan who lives with his grandparents is being kicked out of their senior living community because he's too young Posted: 17 Jan 2020 12:51 PM PST  Collin Clabaugh has been living with his grandparents in a 55-and-over gated community in Arizona since last year, when both of his parents died.
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| Tensions are High, Extremists are Expected to Attend. Here's What to Know About the Pro-Gun Rally in Richmond, Virginia Posted: 17 Jan 2020 04:32 PM PST  Officials in Richmond are taking extra security precautions after threats of violence by extremists who plan to attend the pro-gun rally.
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| Groom accused of sexually assaulting teenage waitress at wedding spared jail Posted: 17 Jan 2020 12:19 PM PST  A man accused of sexually assaulting a woman at his own wedding reception pleaded guilty to misdemeanours after more serious charges against the New Jersey groom were dropped, keeping him out of prison.In a Pennsylvania court on Thursday, 32-year-old newlywed Matthew Aimers received six years of probation as part of a plea agreement on misdemeanour charges of simple assault, indecent exposure and disorderly conduct during his November 2018 reception. Charges of indecent assault, imprisonment of a minor and harassment were dropped.
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| U.S. warship transits Taiwan Strait less than week after election Posted: 16 Jan 2020 04:29 PM PST  A U.S. warship sailed through the Taiwan Strait on Thursday, the island's defense ministry said, less than a week after Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen won re-election by a landslide on a platform of standing up to China which claims the island. The ship sailed in a northerly direction through the sensitive waterway and Taiwan's armed forces monitored it throughout, the ministry said in a brief statement on Friday, describing the sailing as an "ordinary mission". Taiwan is China's most sensitive territorial and diplomatic issue and Beijing has never ruled out the use of force to bring the island under its control.
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| The 1 Downside to Building Fake Islands China Didn't See Coming Posted: 16 Jan 2020 11:48 PM PST  Too much land to defend?
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| Town on edge in Colombia after 5 killed, 2 vehicles burned Posted: 17 Jan 2020 09:45 AM PST  A remote town was on edge Friday after at least five people were found shot to death, highlighting Colombia's struggle to bring peace to rural areas where drug crops are abundant and illegal armed groups are active. The killings happened overnight in an isolated part of the Jamundi municipality in southwestern Colombia and also left two vehicles incinerated, officials said. It was the third massacre in Jamundi in the past year.
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| Liberia souring on George Weah at two-year mark Posted: 17 Jan 2020 06:25 PM PST  Dominic Kpadeh heaves a hammer over his head to crack a half-tonne rock in a northern suburb of Liberia's capital Monrovia, knowing his hard labour earns him far less than a year ago. Stories such as Kpadeh's are common in Liberia, where rampant inflation has left many people struggling and increasingly turning their anger on President George Weah. A former football icon whose goals for AC Milan and Paris St Germain dazzled fans, Weah came to power in January 2018, promising to invest in education and create jobs.
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| Kate Middleton bows out of idea of having more kids with Prince William Posted: 17 Jan 2020 12:10 PM PST  The Duchess of Cambridge addressed the possibility of more children during a Wednesday visit to the city of Bradford on Wednesday.
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| The United States' main allies are abandoning Trump as his threats to world leaders backfire Posted: 18 Jan 2020 06:31 AM PST  European leaders are talking openly about loosening Europe's alliance with the United States as President Donald Trump alienates long-standing allies.
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| Abandoned by Allies, EU Censure Pushes Orban Toward EPP Exit Posted: 17 Jan 2020 01:13 AM PST ![Abandoned by Allies, EU Censure Pushes Orban Toward EPP Exit]( "Abandoned by Allies, EU Censure Pushes Orban Toward EPP Exit") (Bloomberg) -- Hungary's prime minister said he was on the verge of quitting the European Union's biggest political group after it backed a resolution demanding that the bloc intensify efforts to rein in his perceived democratic backsliding.In a joint resolution on Hungary and Poland, the European Parliament said Thursday that EU probes into the rule of law in both countries haven't resulted in improvements. EU lawmakers also called for additional mechanisms to reinforce the bloc's ability to discipline rogue member states.Pointedly for Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, whose ruling Fidesz party is in the EPP, a large majority of the umbrella group supported the resolution. The EPP is considering whether to expel Fidesz over the dismantlement of checks and balances in Hungary."We were within a centimeter of quitting the EPP," Orban told state radio in an interview on Friday. "When our allies betray us -- and the majority of the EPP betrayed us -- we have no place there."The EPP suspended Fidesz in March over the erosion of the rule-of-law. Orban reiterated that he may preemptively withdraw his party from the EPP, and if he does he will most likely create a new EU umbrella platform.Orban has already held talks about possible cooperation with Poland's nationalist ruling Law & Justice Party, which is a member of a smaller group in the European Parliament."Things can't go on like this, that's for sure," Orban said, adding that the only reason he didn't withdraw Fidesz from the EPP already was because Italian, French and Spanish members voted against the resolution. "That gives us some hope, though it's waning."(Updates with Orban comments in fourth and last paragraphs.)\--With assistance from Veronika Gulyas.To contact the reporter on this story: Zoltan Simon in Budapest at zsimon@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Balazs Penz at bpenz@bloomberg.net, Andrea Dudik, Michael WinfreyFor 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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| As Iran and Iraq simmer, giants of Shiite world vie for influence Posted: 17 Jan 2020 08:49 AM PST ![As Iran and Iraq simmer, giants of Shiite world vie for influence]( "As Iran and Iraq simmer, giants of Shiite world vie for influence") The separation of religion and state is splitting the Shiite world, pitting the supreme leader of Iran, a theocracy, against Iraq's grand ayatollah.
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| Off-duty Hong Kong police officer arrested for supporting protests Posted: 17 Jan 2020 10:41 AM PST  An off-duty Hong Kong police officer was arrested along with seven other people on Friday as they tried to put pro-democracy posters on a footbridge, police said. It's the first known case of a police officer being apprehended for supporting the massive demonstrations that have led to more than 6,500 arrests in the past seven months. The officer, 31, and the seven other people aged 14 to 61, were arrested at 3:00 am on Friday in Tuen Mun, a district in northwest Hong Kong.
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| North Korea Fact: Trillions of Dollars in Wealth Is Sitting Below the Surface Posted: 16 Jan 2020 11:33 PM PST  The reclusive regime sits on $10 trillion in minerals.
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| EU border chief says migrant entries from Turkey on the rise Posted: 17 Jan 2020 05:17 AM PST  The number of migrants entering Europe from Turkey rose significantly last year as people fleeing strife in Syria and Afghanistan flooded into the country and then set out for Greece, the head of the European Union's border agency said Friday. More than 82,000 migrants tried to enter Europe without authorization in 2019, an increase of 46% over the previous year, Frontex Executive Director Fabrice Leggeri said in Brussels. "This was mainly due to the situation in Syria, but also instability in Afghanistan, and changing policies towards Afghan nationals by Iranian and Pakistani authorities," Leggeri told reporters.
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| 18 Things You Probably Don't Know About Prohibition Posted: 17 Jan 2020 01:08 PM PST  A century ago, the government effectively banned booze. The details are much weirder than what you remember from history class.
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| Michael Moore hits out at Elizabeth Warren for 'stabbing Bernie in the back' and helping Trump Posted: 16 Jan 2020 10:13 AM PST  Documentary filmmaker Michael Moore said Elizabeth Warren's campaign insistence that Bernie Sanders said a woman couldn't win the presidency had "paralysed" him.On his podcast, the filmmaker said: "I was paralysed — paralysed — that her staffers would say such a thing ... Any of us who have known Bernie forever know automatically, we don't even have to hear him denying saying it, because there's no way he'd say that."
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| Passengers were terrified when an engine on their United flight failed after takeoff Posted: 16 Jan 2020 10:08 AM PST  No one was hurt in the frightening incident, and passengers were flown on a later flight on a different plane.
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| Lawmakers condemn conditions faced by asylum-seekers in Mexico Posted: 17 Jan 2020 09:47 PM PST  Members of a congressional delegation described the squalid conditions faced by the asylum-seeking families and children they met in Matamoros, Mexico.
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| Painting found in Italian museum wall is stolen Klimt Posted: 17 Jan 2020 01:51 PM PST  A painting found stashed inside a wall at an Italian museum has been confirmed as the stolen "Portrait of a Lady" by Austria's Gustav Klimt, prosecutors said on Friday, two decades after the artwork went missing. The century-old painting was discovered concealed in an external wall by gardeners at the Ricci Oddi Gallery of Modern Art in Piacenza, northeast Italy, last month. "It is with no small emotion that I can tell you the work is authentic," prosecutor Ornella Chicca told reporters.
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