| Thousands mourn Iranian general as region braces for revenge Posted: 03 Jan 2020 10:59 PM PST  Thousands of militiamen and other supporters chanting "America is the Great Satan" marched in a funeral procession Saturday in Baghdad for Iran's top general after he was killed in a U.S. airstrike, as the region braced for the Islamic Republic to fulfill its vows of revenge. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran's elite Quds Force and mastermind of its regional security strategy, was killed early Friday near the Baghdad international airport along with senior Iraqi militants in an airstrike ordered by President Donald Trump.
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| Mom tearfully recounts moments before star player's suicide Posted: 02 Jan 2020 08:32 PM PST  "I could feel the pain in his soul and it was breaking my heart," she said in a video
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| Pentagon: Anyone who tries to overrun the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad will 'run into a buzz saw' after violent protests Posted: 02 Jan 2020 12:43 PM PST  The Pentagon warned on Thursday morning that anyone who tries to breach the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad would face a "buzz saw."
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| Ghosn fled Japan after security firm hired by Nissan stopped surveillance: sources Posted: 03 Jan 2020 11:05 PM PST  Ousted Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn left his Tokyo residence after a private security firm hired by Nissan Motor Co stopped monitoring him, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Saturday. Ghosn has become an international fugitive after he revealed on Tuesday he had fled to Lebanon to escape what he called a "rigged" justice system in Japan, where he faces charges relating to alleged financial crimes. Nissan had hired a private security company to watch Ghosn, who was on bail and awaiting trial, to check whether he met any people involved in the case, the three sources said.
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| Terrifying video shows a 'fire tornado' ripping through the Australian countryside as devastating fires ravage the country Posted: 03 Jan 2020 05:44 AM PST  Australia's third-largest island is ravaged by two fires as firefighters battle huge blazes destroying homes, lives, and wildlife across the country.
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| Cops in Missing Siblings Case Search Doomsday Writer’s Home Posted: 03 Jan 2020 05:39 PM PST  Idaho police and FBI agents investigating two missing children swarmed a home owned by their stepfather and his mysteriously deceased first wife.Fremont County Sheriff Len Humphries told East Idaho News that investigators developed probable cause for a search warrant of the Salem house. Officers with rakes and metal detectors could be seen scouring the snow-covered backyard."This has been in the works for several days," Humphries told the news site. "When you are doing an investigation, you have to accumulate evidence, and the process takes time."The home is where Tammy Daybell was found dead on Oct. 19. Her husband, doomsday writer Chad Daybell, soon married Lori Vallow, whose own husband had died just a few months earlier.The newlyweds attracted the attention of law-enforcement when Vallow's extended family reported they had not heard from her two children, 17-year-old Tylee Ryan and adopted 7-year-old Joshua "J.J." Vallow.According to authorities, the couple said the kids were with family in Arizona, a claim which turned out to be a lie. Then Daybell and his new bride fled the state, police said.Doomsday Writer's Friend Says He Prophesied Wife's Mysterious DeathThe search for the children soon expanded to include other mysteries.Tammy Daybell's body was exhumed so investigators could conduct the autopsy that her husband had rejected when she died of supposedly natural causes.Officials are also looking into the death of Charles Vallow, Lori's first husband, who was reported shot to death by her brother, Alex Cox, on July 11. Cox died of unspecified causes on Dec. 12, leaving Tylee and J.J. the only other witnesses to Charles' death.Also under scrutiny is Chad and Lori's interest in doomsday scenarios and near-death experiences. Both were contributors to a website called Preparing a People that says its goal is to "help prepare the people of this earth for the second coming of Jesus Christ." Vallow's family members have said they believe the couple was in a cult, but Preparing a People's owners have denied that and said it is a media company with no religious affiliation.Idaho Cops Blast Doomsday Parents of Missing KidsPolice earlier this week put out an appeal to Daybell and Vallow to come forward and reveal the whereabouts of the children."It is astonishing that rather than work with law enforcement to help us locate her own children, Lori Vallow has chosen instead to leave the state with her new husband," they said in a statement.A week earlier, a local lawyer retained by the couple had put out a statement denying any wrongdoing."Chad Daybell was a loving husband and has the support of his children in this matter. Lori (Vallow) Daybell is a devoted mother and resents assertions to the contrary. We look forward to addressing the allegations once they have moved beyond speculation and rumor," lawyer Sean Bartholick said.Bartholick said this week he had no further comment.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| A F-22 Raptor Snuck Right Underneath an Iranian Fighter Jet Posted: 03 Jan 2020 10:00 AM PST  In a war, Iran won't know what hit them.
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| Legal basis for US killing of Iran general depends on threat Posted: 03 Jan 2020 09:01 AM PST  Did President Donald Trump have the legal authority to order the killing of a top Iranian general in Iraq? Iran and its allies are vowing revenge. In its limited explanation so far, the Pentagon said Gen. Qassem Soleimani was "actively developing" plans to kill American diplomats and service members when he was killed in a U.S. drone strike Friday near the Baghdad airport shortly after arriving in the country.
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| Cruise ship tour: New Carnival Panorama cruises to Mexico with water park, top-notch dining, more Posted: 03 Jan 2020 06:17 AM PST  The first brand-new Carnival cruise ship to debut on the West Coast in 20 years, the Carnival Panorama was christened in Long Beach in December.
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| Coalition scales back Iraq operations for security reasons: US Posted: 04 Jan 2020 02:03 AM PST  US-led forces helping Iraqi troops fight jihadists have scaled back operations, a US defence official told AFP Saturday, a day after an American strike killed top Iranian and Iraqi commanders. "Our first priority is protecting coalition personnel," the official said, saying the US-led force had "limited" their training and other anti-jihadist operations. The official said the change came after a series of rocket attacks by pro-Iran factions on US troops in recent months.
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| Man Captured on Doorbell Camera Footage Confessing to Murder Posted: 03 Jan 2020 05:22 AM PST  A man was captured on home security camera footage confessing to the murder of his sister Friday, shortly after she was stabbed to death in a Texas home, authorities said.The woman, Jennifer Chioma Ebichi, 32, had been stabbed at least a dozen times when authorities found her on the kitchen floor at the home in Pflugerville, according to documents provided by the Travis County District Clerk's Office. Her younger brother, Michael Egwuagu, 25, was arrested on a murder charge.An arrest affidavit said one witness saw Egwuagu "exit the residence smiling and with a bloody kitchen knife in his hand stating, 'I killed Jennifer.' Michael's clothing was covered in blood."It added that footage from a doorbell camera at the home corroborated the witness testimony.The episode is one of several recent examples of doorbell cameras -- increasingly affordable and popular security tools that can be connected to home Wi-Fi systems -- yielding footage that becomes useful to local authorities."Every time there is more surveillance and more captured of the lived experience, that will be helpful for police investigators," said Andrew Guthrie Ferguson, a law professor and author of "The Rise of Big Data Policing: Surveillance, Race, and the Future of Law Enforcement.""The consequences are an erosion of privacy and security at our homes and in our private moments," he added. "The trade-off is one that is hard, but also one I'm not sure citizens have fully understood when they decided to buy a little extra security for their home."One of the best-known doorbell camera brands is Ring, which makes a doorbell that doubles as a security camera and was acquired by Amazon in 2018. According to data shared publicly by the company, it now has partnerships with more than 700 local police and sheriff's departments, including the Travis County Sheriff's Office.Authorities can access footage via Ring's Neighbors app, which people can use to share videos and monitor criminal activity in their neighborhood. When the police seek videos from a certain location, Ring asks users in the area if they are willing to share their footage.Users can refuse, but the police can still obtain footage using other legal avenues, such as obtaining a warrant."Ring will not disclose user videos to police unless the user expressly consents or if disclosure is required by law, such as to comply with a warrant," the company said in a statement Thursday. "Ring objects to overbroad or otherwise inappropriate legal demands as a matter of course."It was unclear whether a Ring camera was involved in the Pflugerville case; other popular home security camera brands include Wyze and Nest. The sheriff's department declined to say which brand of camera had filmed Egwuagu on Friday.The murder charge captured additional attention because Egwuagu had been known as a star football player at the University of Texas, San Antonio. He was a safety who tried out for National Football League scouts in 2017 and 2018.After Egwuagu left the residence in Pflugerville, an Austin suburb, around 5 p.m. Friday, witnesses said he knelt down in the street as though he were praying, then removed his clothing and placed it in a trash can, the arrest affidavit said. The arrest affidavit also said that Ebichi's two children were present at the time of her death.An autopsy showed that Ebichi had been in her first trimester of pregnancy when she died. Dr. J. Keith Pinckard, chief medical examiner in Travis County, estimated that she had sustained one dozen to two dozen stab wounds, according to the arrest affidavit.Egwuagu is being held on a $500,000 bond. A statement from the office of Krista A. Chacona, a lawyer representing Egwuagu, said: "We do not have any comment at this time except to say that this is a very painful and difficult time for the family. We would ask that people please respect their privacy and allow them time to grieve."In recent weeks, home security cameras have raised concerns about data leaks and hacking. Executives at Wyze, the company behind a budget-friendly home security camera, said this week that the information of 2.4 million of their customers had been exposed to the public because of an employee error.And last month, there were reports of at least four individual cases of camera security systems being hacked; in one case involving a Ring security camera, a man was able to speak to an 8-year-old girl whose bedroom was being filmed. He used a racist slur and said he was Santa Claus.On Wednesday, a violent episode that had been captured on home surveillance footage was posted on YouTube by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. The footage shows a woman who appears to be trying to escape from a man. He can be seen running after her, kicking her down some stairs and dragging her toward a white car. The police posted the video to seek help from the public in identifying the man and the woman."Police are going to see new opportunities, and they're going to seize those opportunities because more information is obviously better for them," Ferguson said. "But it all comes at a cost to a certain sense of personal privacy, and also the collective privacy of your neighborhood and your community and who's surveilling whom in particular neighborhoods."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| Pressure is mounting on fugitive Carlos Ghosn as authorities make arrests and the probe into his mysterious escape heats up Posted: 03 Jan 2020 11:59 AM PST  The former executive may have broken Lebanese law by visiting Israel, a group of lawyers contend, potentially throwing his safe haven into jeopardy.
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| Indonesia Steps Up Sea Patrols to Monitor China Fishing Boats Posted: 03 Jan 2020 07:49 PM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Indonesia's military has stepped up naval and aerial patrols of the Natuna Sea area because of a rising number of Chinese fishing vessels in the region.The Southeast Asian nation has deployed three ships and two aircraft in the gas-rich North Natuna Sea, and two additional vessels are on the way to join the group, Yudo Margono, commander of the Joint Regional Defense Command, said in statement.The deployment came after Indonesian Foreign Affairs Minister Retno Marsudi said China should comply with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and reiterated Jakarta's position that it will never acknowledge Beijing's nine-dash line, a demarcation it uses to show its claims in the area.Marsudi sent a diplomatic note to Beijing protesting the intrusion of Chinese vessels into Indonesia's special economic zone in the area, according to a statement on the Cabinet Secretary's website.China is in dispute with several Southeast Asian countries over its claim to areas of the South China Sea. On Dec. 12, Malaysia submitted to the United Nation's Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf information on what it believes are its its sovereignty rights in the area.\--With assistance from Arys Aditya and Tassia Sipahutar.To contact the reporter on this story: Harry Suhartono in Jakarta at hsuhartono@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Thomas Kutty Abraham at tabraham4@bloomberg.net, Stanley JamesFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Netflix show returns late Argentine prosecutor to spotlight Posted: 02 Jan 2020 09:08 PM PST  Almost five years later, the death of Alberto Nisman, the prosecutor who led the investigation into Argentina's deadliest terrorist attack, still perplexes and fascinates many in this South American country. Nisman had accused then-President Cristina Fernández, her Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman, a lawmaker and four others of conspiring to lift Interpol's red alerts against a handful of prominent Iranians accused of involvement the 1994 bombing of Argentina's AMIA Jewish center, an attack that left 85 people dead. According to the prosecutor, Fernández's government may have negotiated impunity for the suspects with Tehran in exchange for resuming trade relations.
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| Why It Seems Like Nothing Can Stop the A-10 Warthog Posted: 02 Jan 2020 08:00 PM PST  Is it still viable?
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| Why Obama, Bush, and Bibi All Passed on Killing Soleimani Posted: 03 Jan 2020 01:59 PM PST  Until the Trump administration blew him away in Baghdad in the pre-dawn dark of Friday morning, Qassem Soleimani had made the very fact of his survival part of his considerable mystique. The powerful Iranian general commanded forces that had become the scourge of Iran's adversaries abroad, especially the United States and Israel. Yet he came and went to the war fronts of the Middle East unscathed.In fact, conscious decisions were taken under the George W. Bush administration, even when Soleimani was in the crosshairs, not to pull the trigger. Gen. Stanley McChrystal wrote last year, he had a shot in 2007 but let Soleimani go: "The decision not to act is often the hardest one to make—and it isn't always right."Ali Khedery, a former U.S. adviser in Iraq, told The Daily Beast that not striking Soleimani when they had the chance was an "enormous frustration to me and many of my colleagues.""I remember during the [2007 Iraq troop] surge sitting with Ambassador Ryan Crocker and [Gen.] David Petraeus and saying, 'Wouldn't it be a shame if Soleimani ran into one of his own EFPs," Khedery added, using the acronym for Explosively-Formed Projectiles, the Iranian-made bombs that killed dozens and dozens of American troops in Iraq. "But obviously, this was a decision that had to be taken by the president personally because of its implications."Under the Barack Obama administration, the assassination of the most famous general in the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps appears not to have been considered seriously.There was never any manhunt, according to Derek Chollet, assistant secretary of defense from 2012 to 2015. "To my knowledge there was never a decision of 'We've gotta go find this guy and get him.'" Nobody could begin to be sure what would come next if Soleimani were killed, and no scenario looked good. And in those days the priority was stopping Iran from developing a nuclear weapon without having to go to war. The murder of Soleimani could have scuttled the negotiations.The calculus was a fairly simple one, says Chollet: "Do the potential risks of taking an action like this outweigh the gain of taking him off the battlefield?" The answer was yes.U.S. Braces for Iran's 'Counterpunch' After Slaying of SoleimaniAccording to Patricia Ravalgi, who served as a civilian analyst at U.S. Central Command from 2008 to 2019, concerns at the operational level went beyond declined opportunities to terminate Soleimani. There was often the worry among military planners and Washington policymakers that with Iranian-backed militias and American troops operating in close proximity in Iraq, especially during the campaigns against the so-called Islamic State, Soleimani would be in the wrong place at the wrong time, get killed by accident, "and all hell would break loose.""There was even wishful thinking that Soleimani would stay out of Iraq more, to keep such an accident from occurring," says Ravalgi.But why didn't the Israelis target Soleimani?According to Soleimani, in an interview given just three months ago, they did. Speaking to Iranian television last year, the head of the élite Quds Force of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed that Israeli aircraft targeted him and Lebanese Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in 2006, while Soleimani commanded forces in Beirut during the Second Lebanon War."Israeli spy planes were constantly flying overhead," he said as he began his war story. Hezbollah, an Iranian backed militia, had its situation room in the heart of Dahiyeh, a Beirut neighborhood, and the Israelis were "watching every movement," Soleimani said. Then late one night, he and Imad Mughniyeh, Hezbollah's most notorious terrorist operative, decided to remove Nasrallah to safety in a separate building. Shortly after their arrival, two Israeli bombardments struck nearby, he said. "We felt that these two bombings were about to be followed by a third one… so we decided to get out of that building. We didn't have a car, and there was complete silence, just the Israeli régime planes overflying Dahiyeh," he recalled. Soleimani said he hid under a tree with Nasrallah from what appeared to be heat-seeking drones while Mughniyeh went in search of a car. Afraid the car was also being tracked, they eventually switched cars in an underground garage, supposedly confounding the Israelis.Mughniyeh's luck did not last long. He was blown up in Damascus in 2008 in an operation later attributed jointly to the CIA and Israel's Mossad. An Israeli military officer with knowledge of Israel's Iran preparedness told The Daily Beast that when the Americans took out Soleimani this week, "It wasn't a surprise, not really."The officer, who spoke without attribution because he was not authorized to speak with the media, said there had been previous Israeli and American efforts to eliminate Soleimani, though it wasn't clear to what extent the plans had advanced.The Obama administration "asked us not to proceed," he said. "It was clear the implications could be much greater than a localized war, the repercussions could affect the whole world."This time around, "We're not involved in the American operation," said the Israeli officer. "But the Iranians always put us together, the big Satan and the little Satan. You see people on the streets screaming death to America and death to Israel. Could we potentially get hit? Of course. We are secondary, seen as a proxy for the United States."Iran's Qasem Soleimani is the Mastermind Preparing Proxy Armies for War With AmericaIn Trump's remarks from his Mar-a-Lago resort on Friday, he claimed, "We took action last night to stop a war. We did not take action to start a war." But as his predecessors understood well, the decision to assassinate Soleimani has opened the door into the unknown and the unknowable."We need de-escalation," one anxious Iraqi official told The Daily Beast, "and this is the mother of all escalations." —with additional reporting by Spencer AckermanRead more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| 'We're not going to cower': Small Jewish communities prepare for increasing anti-Semitic attacks Posted: 04 Jan 2020 05:31 AM PST  With anti-Semitic attacks on the rise, Jewish leaders grapple with how to create welcoming environments while keeping their congregation safe.
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| Obama Invited Leader of Recent Iraq Embassy Protests to White House Posted: 02 Jan 2020 01:56 PM PST  One of the instigators of a multi-day siege of the U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad was controversially invited to the Oval Office by Barack Obama in 2011.U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted pictures of those responsible on Tuesday, including one of Hadi al Amiri, who served as Iraq's transport minister from 2010 through 2014 under then-Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, and traveled with the prime minister to meet Obama at the White House in December of 2011.> The attack today was orchestrated by terrorists – Abu Mahdi al Muhandis and Qays al-Khazali – and abetted by Iranian proxies – Hadi al Amari and Faleh al-Fayyad. All are pictured below outside our embassy. pic.twitter.com/2QfGGrfmDd> > -- Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) December 31, 2019Obama went through with the visit despite concerns over al-Amiri from former chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R., Fla.)Ros-Lehtinen told The Washington Times in 2011 that it was "extremely disturbing that the White House would see fit to welcome al-Amiri to a discussion on the future of Iraq.""If anything, he should be subject to questioning by the FBI and other appropriate U.S. law enforcement and counterterrorism agencies," she said at the time, referring al-Amiri's suspected links to the deadly 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia. "The victims of Khobar Towers and the families of thousands of U.S. troops who paid the ultimate sacrifice in Iraq deserve no less."> Yesterday, Hadi al-Amiri, head of the Badr Org & Falih Alfayyadh, chairman of the Pop Mobilization Units (the Iraqi umbrella org that nominally controls the Iranian-backed militias) helped fuel the assault on our embassy. But in 2011, they helped Obama fuel his big Iran fantasy. pic.twitter.com/tLOVicCn6b> > -- Mike (@Doranimated) January 1, 2020 Amiri has a long history of pro-Iranian leanings. After fighting on the Iranian side in the Iran-Iraq war, he served as the former commander of the Badr Corps, which had close ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. While in office, he allegedly allowed Iran to use Iraqi airspace to fly men and munitions to Damascus in support of the Assad regime during the Syrian civil war."I love Qassem Suleimani! He is my dearest friend," he told The New Yorker in 2013, expressing admiration for the head of the IRGC's Quds Force, which was labelled a terrorist organization by the State Department in April.On Wednesday, Iranian-backed militias ended their assault on the U.S. Embassy after the Defense Department deployed roughly 750 troops to Kuwait as a precautionary measure.
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| Fleet commander directs US Navy’s surface force to develop concepts for unmanned ships Posted: 03 Jan 2020 07:31 AM PST  The U.S. Navy is making moves to develop concepts for the integration of unmanned surface vessels into its surface fleet.
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| Auto legend and ex-GM exec Bob Lutz slams fugitive Carlos Ghosn, says he has a 'god complex' and 'CEO disease' Posted: 02 Jan 2020 03:15 PM PST  Carlos Ghosn, the former head of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance, has been accused of financial misconduct.
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| 'Millions of sparks': Weather raises Australia's fire danger Posted: 02 Jan 2020 06:10 PM PST  Wildfires raging across Australia have prompted one of the largest evacuations in the country's history as what is already the worst season on record is likely to become even more devastating due to hot weather and strong winds. Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews declared a disaster across much of the eastern part of the state, allowing the government to order evacuations in an area with as many as 140,000 permanent residents and tens of thousands more vacationers. "If you can leave, you must leave," Andrews said.
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| Former Fox News reporter says Trump came on to her and she rejected it Posted: 03 Jan 2020 08:46 AM PST  Former Fox News reporter and occasional "Fox & Friends" host Courtney Friel writes in a new memoir that before he was president, Donald Trump told her she was "the hottest one at Fox News" and that during one call, "out of nowhere, he said: 'You should come up to my office sometime, so we can kiss,'" according to an excerpt of the book shared with the New York Daily News.
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| Precision Guided Munition Stockpiles Could Decide Israel's Next Conflict Posted: 03 Jan 2020 11:00 PM PST  Win or lose?
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| Soleimani's funeral procession brings out thousands in Baghdad Posted: 04 Jan 2020 05:36 AM PST  Thousands gathered Saturday in Baghdad for the funeral procession of Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps' elite Quds force who was killed in a U.S. airstrike this week in Iraq. His death has heightened tensions between Washington and Tehran, with the latter vowing to retaliate for the strike.Many of the mourners were reportedly militia members donning their military fatigues, and anti-American and anti-Israel chants could be heard coming from the crowd. Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi, who has announced his resignation after a series of anti-government protests, and Iraqi militia commander Hadi al-Amiri attended the procession, which also honored Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis and other Iraqis killed alongside Soleimani in the strike.> Thousands of Iraqis, including the prime minister, took part in the funeral procession for General Soleimani and the militia commanders killed in a US airstrike. pic.twitter.com/Hl1uVZJvB4> > — DW News (@dwnews) January 4, 2020Soleimani's body will reportedly make its way to Iran by Sunday after it's carried to Shiite holy sites in Iraq. The general's image has reportedly appeared on billboards on major streets in Iran, and a ceremony honoring him took place at a mosque in the Shiite holy city of Qom. Read more at The Associated Press and Reuters.More stories from theweek.com America is guilty of everything we accuse Iran of doing Mike Pence crams 3 inaccuracies about 9/11 into 1 tweet while trying to justify Soleimani strike Australia has 'yet to hit the worst' of fires
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| In 1978, A Horrific Terror Attack Tore The Shah's Iran Apart Posted: 03 Jan 2020 02:30 PM PST  And reshaped history.
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| Marine Corps Authorizes Concealed Carry on Bases Following Recent Shootings Posted: 02 Jan 2020 12:36 PM PST  The Marine Corps announced Tuesday that it was authorizing Marines and civilians in Marine Corps law enforcement roles to carry personal firearms while on base.Lieutenant General George Smith, Deputy Commandant, Plans, Policies, and Operations, announced in a press release that the Marines were changing their policy following December shootings at Naval Air Station Pensacola and at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard in Hawaii, which left five dead."These tragic events prompted Headquarters Marine Corps (HQMC) to accelerate existing efforts to develop concealed carry policies," the memo reads.Marine Corps spokesman Captain Joseph Butterfield said that approximately 3,200 individuals will be eligible to carry their personal firearms under the new policy, according to the Washington Examiner. Before the change, only Marine Corps law enforcement officials were allowed to carry service weapons while performing on-duty tasks.On December 6, Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani, a Saudi Air Force second lieutenant who was training at Naval Air Station Pensacola, opened fire at the base before he was shot and killed by sheriff's deputies. The shooting happened just days after Navy sailor Gabriel Romero shot two civilians before killing himself at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard.In the aftermath of the Pensacola shooting, U.S. officials confirmed they were investigating a string of anti-American tweets made by the gunman before he began shooting. SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadist media, reported that the gunman did not claim allegiance to any group, but echoed famed Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden.The Navy then suspended flight instruction for Saudi military trainees in Florida while investigations were ongoing.
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| Africa’s Richest Woman Says Asset Freeze Dooms Her Companies Posted: 03 Jan 2020 08:25 AM PST ![Africa's Richest Woman Says Asset Freeze Dooms Her Companies]( "Africa's Richest Woman Says Asset Freeze Dooms Her Companies") (Bloomberg) -- Sign up to our Next Africa newsletter and follow Bloomberg Africa on TwitterIsabel dos Santos, Africa's richest woman and the daughter of former Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, said her businesses in Angola are set to fail after a court froze her assets and bank accounts in the oil-producing country."Freezing my accounts prevents me from being able to manage and recapitalize my companies," Dos Santos, who has been living outside Angola since 2018, said in an emailed statement. "As such, they have all but been sentenced to death."The 46-year-old London-educated engineer amassed a fortune during her father's almost four-decade rule and has an estimated net worth of about $2 billion, Bloomberg data shows. In Angola, her business empire includes stakes in Angola's biggest mobile telecommunications company Unitel, two of the country's biggest private lenders, Banco de Fomento Angola and Banco BIC, a supermarket chain, a beer factory and a cable company.Outside Angola, Dos Santos holds indirect stakes in several companies, including Portuguese oil company Galp Energia SGPS SA and cable company NOS SGPS SA.State LossesEarlier this week, an Angolan court placed a freezing order on the Angolan assets of Dos Santos, her husband Sindika Dokolo, and one of her executives, Mario da Silva. The nation's Attorney General accuses the three of engaging in transactions with state-owned companies that led to the government incurring losses of $1.14 billion.The move marks another step in President Joao Lourenco's bid to battle graft and dismantle the influence of his predecessor's family over key industries.Since Lourenco took power in 2017, Jose Filomeno, Isabel's brother, has been fired as the head of Angola's sovereign wealth fund and accused of illegally transferring $500 million from Angola's central bank to the U.K. Their sister, Welwitschia dos Santos, recently lost her seat as a member of parliament after leaving Angola.Isabel dos Santos, whose wealth and influence earned her the nickname "The Princess," has accused Lourenco of carrying out a witch hunt against her family and insists that her wealth has been the product of hard work and determination. She said she created more than a dozen companies in Angola that collectively employed more than 10,000 people, whose jobs were now at risk."I was given no opportunity to respond to the charges which, so far as we are even able to understand them, appear to be wholly bogus," she said. "We are concerned that the so-called charges may be based on fabricated documents."Even so, the clamp-down against Dos Santos has been welcomed by some in Angola, where poverty is rife despite the nation's oil and diamond riches and resentment has been stoked by the concentration of power and wealth in the hands of a politically connected elite. The southern African nation is ranked one of the world's most corrupt nations by Transparency International."The idea that they are being the target of a witch hunt is hard to accept when many of them have been living the good life and never seemed to be worried when others were being prosecuted," said Paulo Carvalho, a sociology professor at Agostinho Neto University in Luanda, the Angolan capital. "The freezing order is aimed at preventing the transfer or sale of some of these assets and won't interfere with the day-to-day business of these companies."Dos Santos said she would fight the injustice that had been perpetrated against her and warned the court ruling would send the wrong message to international investors."If this judgment is allowed to stand it shows that the justice system is flawed and the government is prepared to abuse it for their own ends," she said. "This is a smokescreen to mask the flawed economic policy which the current government have introduced."Allegations made by the Angolan Attorney General include that:The state, through its diamond-marketing company Sodiam and oil company Sonangol, transferred large sums of foreign currency to foreign companies -- of which the ultimate beneficiaries were the individuals facing the court order -- without securing the expected returns.Sonangol paid 75.1 million euros ($83.8 billion) to buy a stake in Galp Energia indirectly held by Dos Santos and her husband. Shortly before Dos Santos was fired as Sonangol's chairwoman in 2017, she tried to repay the consideration received for the stake in Angolan kwanzas but Sonangol's new board returned the money and asked that payment be made in euros. It was never received.Dos Santos and her husband entered a 50-50 joint venture with state-owned diamond company Sodiam to invest in Geneva-based jewelry maker De Grisogono. Sodiam ended up paying most of the initial 120 million-euro loan that was taken to fund the investment.Former President Dos Santos ordered Sodiam to sell diamonds to companies related to the individuals notified in the court order at below market prices. They then sold the gems abroad and generated hefty profits.The three individuals sought to hide assets bought with state funds by transferring them to other entities. Almost all of their assets were alleged to be held outside of Angola.Portuguese police blocked a 10-million-euro bank transfer from a Portuguese bank to Russia that Dos Santos tried to carry out through her business partner Leopoldino Fragoso do Nascimento.Dos Santos tried to sell her 25% stake in Unitel to a foreign investor.(Updates with allegations against Dos Santos in bullet points after last paragraph.)To contact the reporter on this story: Henrique Almeida in Lisbon at halmeida5@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Joao Lima at jlima1@bloomberg.net, ;Paul Richardson at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net, Mike CohenFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| U.S. Embassy in Australia: Tourists should leave due to wildfires Posted: 02 Jan 2020 02:59 PM PST  Tourists on Australia's South Coast of New South Wales should leave, U.S. Embassy officials warned Thursday, because of "extreme fire danger."
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| Donald Trump impeachment: Call to block aid to Ukraine came directly from president, new emails show Posted: 02 Jan 2020 02:49 PM PST  Unredacted emails published on Thursday show that the order to maintain a freeze on military aid to Ukraine came directly from President Trump, despite Pentagon officials warning him that it might be illegal. The president was impeached last month by the House of Representatives over allegations that he abused his power and obstructed Congress when he withheld funding to Ukraine in exchange for an investigation into his Democratic rivals, including Senator Joe Biden. Mr Trump has denied that he acted improperly and claimed that the impeachment is a politically-motivated witch-hunt by House Democrats, led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Congress returns from its Christmas break on Friday with Mr Trump's impeachment proceedings in stalemate. In order for the president to be removed from office, Democrats need to instigate a trial in the Senate. Ms Pelosi has so far refused to send the two articles of impeachment against Mr Trump to the Senate until the chamber agrees on trial parameters that she considers fair. No progress was made over the Christmas break as to the rules of the trial. Democrats in the Senate want to hear from key witnesses who refused to testify during the House investigation, and obtain documents which were denied to the impeachment probe. Read more | Donald Trump's impeachment Republicans have angrily rejected these plans, with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell admitting last month that he was working in "total co-ordination" with the White House on how to conduct the trial. The emails published on Thursday by a national security website show that a White House official told the Pentagon that the order to hold the Ukraine aid came from the president himself. According to Just Security, an August 30 email sent by Michael Duffey, associate director of national security programs at the Office of Management and Budget, to the Pentagon's comptroller said the aid freeze would continue at Mr Trump's direction, despite mounting legal worry within the Defense Department. Trump engaged in unprecedented, total obstruction of Congress, hiding these emails, all other documents, and his top aides from the American people. His excuse was a phony complaint about the House process. What's the excuse now? Why won't Trump & McConnell allow a fair trial? https://t.co/S3ZlEJMMDB— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) January 2, 2020 "Clear direction from POTUS to continue to hold," Mr Duffey wrote in the email. The unredacted message was one of several not turned over to House investigators conducting the impeachment inquiry, Just Security reported. On Thursday, top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer said Mr Duffey's email "further implicates" Trump and compromises Mr McConnell's push to have a trial without documents and witnesses as sought by Democrats. Mr Schumer said it was imperative that Duffey and other key figures testify, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney. President Donald Trump's approval rating Mr Schumer said the emails "are a devastating blow to Senator McConnell's push to have a trial without the documents and witnesses we've requested. The American people deserve a fair trial that gets to the truth, not a rigged process that enables a cover-up." Ms Pelosi said" "Trump engaged in unprecedented, total obstruction of Congress, hiding these emails, all other documents, and his top aides from the American people. Why won't Trump & McConnell allow a fair trial?" Mr Trump on Thursday repeated his claim that the impeachment effort was a "partisan witch hunt" that has fuelled national divisions.
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| Ghosn lawyer feels betrayal, sympathy over tycoon's Japan escape Posted: 04 Jan 2020 02:50 AM PST  A lawyer for former Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn said Saturday he felt betrayed by his client's escape from Japan but still understood his act, claiming it resulted from Japan's inhumane justice system. "But anger was turning to something else as I recalled how he was treated by the country's justice system," Takano said. Ghosn is thought to have taken a private jet from Kansai Airport in western Japan, heading for Istanbul.
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| Revealed: Iran Secretly Built A New Corvette Loaded With Missiles Posted: 03 Jan 2020 03:07 AM PST  The two-year effort underscores Iran's effort to build up its ship-construction capabilities -- and could weigh on Tehran's ambitious plan to develop a new class of destroyer.
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| Thousands in Iraq mourn top Iranian general killed by U.S.; rockets fired in Baghdad Posted: 03 Jan 2020 09:43 PM PST  With shouts of "Death to America", tens of thousands of people marched in Iraq on Saturday to mourn Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani and an Iraqi militia leader who were killed in a U.S. air strike that has raised the specter of wider conflict in the Middle East. On Saturday evening, a rocket fell inside Baghdad's heavily-fortified Green Zone near the U.S. Embassy, another hit the nearby Jadriya neighborhood and two more rockets were fired at the Balad air base north of the city, but no one was killed, the Iraqi military said in a statement. Soleimani, commander of the Revolutionary Guards' foreign legions, was killed in the U.S. strike on his convoy at Baghdad airport.
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| Google suspends Xiaomi integration with its home products after a user reported seeing footage from random people's homes, including a sleeping baby Posted: 03 Jan 2020 03:50 AM PST  Xiaomi said the issue was caused by a software update.
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| At least 228 police officers died by suicide in 2019, Blue H.E.L.P. says. That's more than were killed in the line of duty Posted: 03 Jan 2020 09:11 AM PST  More police officers died by suicide in 2019 than were killed in the line of duty, advocacy group Blue H.E.L.P. reports.
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| Border Militia Leader Pleads Guilty to Gun Charge. His Followers Say It’s Fake News. Posted: 03 Jan 2020 11:58 AM PST  His group claimed to be enforcing the law when they rounded up undocumented immigrants at gunpoint. But now after months of contesting charges, militia leader Larry Hopkins has pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm.Hopkins heads the United Constitutional Patriots (UCP), a vigilante group that made headlines this year after it released footage of members ordering migrants to the ground at gunpoint near the El Paso border. Many of the people at the opposite end of their rifles were children. For all his role-playing as an officer, Hopkins had his own criminal history. In April, he was arrested on weapons charges. He pleaded not guilty, and his followers cased him as a martyr for their cause. But on Thursday, he changed his plea, prompting members of his conspiratorial group to falsely claim his guilty plea had been fabricated.Hopkins, 70, is not allowed to own a gun. He has three felony convictions, including a weapons charge in Michigan in 1996, being a felon in possession of a firearm in Oregon in 2006, and impersonating a peace officer around the same time.Border Militias Use Facebook Live to Turn Immigrant Confrontations Into 'Reality TV'That didn't stop him from stockpiling nine guns, along with ammunition in a New Mexico home in 2017, the FBI charged in a criminal complaint earlier this year.Hopkins' UCP is notoriously gun-happy. In videos they uploaded to Facebook, members carry what appear to be semi-automatic rifles while prowling the border. Though U.S. Border Patrol has claimed not to work with the vigilante group, Border Patrol officers sometimes appeared in videos of UCP patrols, and the group claimed to have close relations with the U.S. agency.Hopkins, who promotes far-right conspiracy theories, has also claimed to be in contact with President Donald Trump and allegedly said he was training the UCP to "assassinate" Hillary Clinton, former President Barack Obama, and liberal megadonor George Soros.His change of plea on Thursday touched off a new wave of false claims from his group, which has maintained that Hopkins is innocent of his weapons charges. In a UCP Facebook group on Thursday, a prominent member (who previously claimed the "deep state" was paying for migrants to "crash the system") claimed Horton had not pleaded guilty, but that all his charges were actually dropped. (They were not.) Other members ordered each other not to share news coverage of Hopkins' guilty plea, which they claimed was not real.Hopkins' lawyer, Kelly O'Connell, confirmed that the guilty plea was legitimate. "It doesn't surprise me" that UCP members claimed his charges were dropped, O'Connell told The Daily Beast. "These guys' minds are all fighting against what they see is this very unjust government police state and everything. I understand the resistance to accepting him changing his plea, but nobody called me from the group to verify anything, or ask why" Hopkins changed his plea.Part of the decision stemmed from Hopkins' health. The militia leader was beat up in jail where he may have been housed with "people he was personally involved with," O'Connell said, adding that Hopkins also claimed to have badly injured his head in a courthouse fall. Hopkins also reported heart and diabetic concerns. "The questions was, you're looking at up to 10 years on a charge that is typically not difficult to prove," O'Connell explained of Hopkins' weapons charge. "Are you gonna fight this out to the end or would you rather take a plea deal?"Hopkins isn't the only UCP member facing charges. Jim Benvie, who previously acted as the group's spokesperson, was charged in June for allegedly impersonating a Border Patrol officer while detaining migrants. The case against him stems from his own Facebook videos. UCP members often uploaded livestreams of their exploits, during which Benvie can be heard to identify himself as "Border Patrol" while ordering people to sit on the ground. In another unrelated case filed in June, Benvie was charged with fraud for allegedly running a cancer charity scam using images of a real child who had been diagnosed with brain cancer. The child's father told The Daily Beast that Benvie falsely claimed to have set up a "trust" for the child, and solicited $50,000 using the boy's pictures.Benvie also faces a felony charge of possessing a stolen vehicle. He's pleaded not guilty.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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| What's happening with the polar vortex this year? Posted: 03 Jan 2020 11:26 AM PST  Commuters braves the wind and snow in frigid weather, Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2019, in Cincinnati, Ohio. (AP Photo/John Minchillo) Last January the polar vortex was about to plunge into the United States, unleashing an unforgiving and deadly outbreak of Arctic air across much of the nation -- which is why forecasters are keeping a close eye on what it may do as 2020 begins.During the January 2019 polar vortex invasion, officials warned residents of nearly instantaneous frostbite danger as AccuWeather RealFeel® Temperatures plunged as low as minus 77 degrees Fahrenheit in the Upper Midwest. The punishing cold froze the Great Lakes, creating slushy waves as eerie sea fog blanketed parts of the region. The extreme weather forced the cancellation of thousands of flights at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport and school closures across portions of the Midwest and Northeast.This year, the polar vortex, which is a large pool of frigid air - typically the coldest in the Northern Hemisphere - that often sits over the polar region during the winter, is forecast to remain strong and hover near the Arctic Circle in the coming weeks.AccuWeather meteorologists expect blasts of Arctic air to be brief and generally contained to the northern tier states for much of January."When you have a strong polar vortex, it tends to keep frigid air pent up so that it is difficult for long-lasting outbreaks of frigid conditions to reach the middle latitudes, including portions of the Midwest and Northeast," AccuWeather Lead Long-Range Meteorologist Paul Pastelok said. "We generally expect the polar vortex to remain strong through at least the middle of the month and possibly longer," Pastelok added. "Even if the polar vortex was to weaken, it could still take another week or two for widespread colder air to move southward toward the contiguous states."Instead, through at least Jan. 20 and perhaps into the last week of January 2020, the average flow of air across the U.S. is likely to be from the Pacific Ocean. A pattern with a west-to-east flow such as this is likely to create near- to slightly below-average temperatures over the Rockies and mild weather to areas east of the Rockies.Periodic northward bulges in the jet stream over the eastern half of the nation are likely to bring rounds of well-above-average temperatures to much of the Central and Eastern states."We still expect some brief bouts of cold air to knock down temperatures for a couple of days at a time over the northern Plains and Upper Midwest," Pastelok said."There will also be some general resistance to warm weather from upstate New York to New England," AccuWeather Senior Long-Range Meteorologist Joe Lundberg said.Most storms will struggle to tap enough cold air to produce widespread heavy snow due to a fast flow of air from the Pacific across the lower 48 states. This image shows the approximate coverage and depth of snow over the Lower 48 United States as of Jan. 3, 2019. Wintry precipitation won't bypass the entire eastern portion of the country as cold air will occasionally infiltrate the upper Great Lakes and central and northern parts of New England -- and forecasters say that some signs point toward a pattern change that may allow for frigid air to grip a larger zone of the U.S. during the latter part of the month."There are some signs that the polar vortex may weaken and become somewhat elongated, which may allow Arctic air to move southward late in the month, but we are a little suspicious about that potential this far out," Pastelok said.However, additional signals may support the pattern flip, according to experts."There are also some other signs of potential change late in the month, such as a weakening of the area of high pressure off the Atlantic coast," AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Jason Nicholls said.The clockwise circulation around this large high pressure system has been helping to pump warmth over the southern and eastern parts of the nation in recent weeks."If this system weakens, it would allow colder air to more easily settle across the Central and Northeastern states," Nicholls stated.Given the expanse and frequency of warm air through the first three weeks of the month, January 2020 is likely to finish much above average in temperatures over the eastern half to two-thirds of the nation, with the exception of the northern tier, where temperatures may be closer to, but still above, average.The upcoming pattern may pose some challenges for businesses like ski resorts. However, a number of nights in the weather pattern may still be cold enough for ski resorts to make snow in New England, the central Appalachians and the Upper Midwest. And, since most ski slopes are located on the shady side of the mountains and the sun angle is low in January, the snow that is on the trails may be slow to melt during the day.The mild conditions may also be a problem for ice fishing interests. The lack of sustained cold may prevent ice from forming on some lakes and ice that does form may be too thin to support the weight of people. Experts say skating and fishing interests should use extreme caution under such conditions.Prolonged mild weather during this time of year can threaten fruit trees and grape vines where the buds tend to soften. The softening buds can be more prone damage due to harsh cold weather that may follow.On a positive note, the mild weather will allow tens of millions of home and property owners to save on heating costs during a month that typically brings some of the coldest weather of the entire winter season.The milder weather pattern will also generally promote ideal traveling conditions across the region. But, brief episodes of cold air can be enough to trigger blinding snow squalls in parts of the Midwest and Northeast, and mild weather and the right ingredients in the winter can cause issues besides snowfall, including fog problems, dangerous black ice and localized flooding.Download the free AccuWeather app to check the forecast in your area. Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.
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| Biden Says Trump Must Explain Baghdad Killing: Campaign Update Posted: 02 Jan 2020 09:02 PM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Former Vice President Joe Biden warned that President Donald Trump "just tossed a stick of dynamite into a tinderbox" by ordering the killing of a powerful Iranian general in Baghdad."No American will mourn Qassem Soleimani's passing. He deserved to be brought to justice for his crimes against American troops and thousands of innocents throughout the region," Biden said in a statement. But he added that Trump "owes the American people an explanation of the strategy and plan to keep safe our troops and embassy personnel, our people and our interests, both here at home and abroad, and our partners throughout the region and beyond."Biden, who has made his foreign policy experience in the Senate and the Obama administration the centerpiece of his presidential campaign, said "I'm not privy to the intelligence and much remains unknown, but Iran will surely respond. We could be on the brink of a major conflict across the Middle East."In the hours after the attack in Baghdad, Republicans in Congress largely praised the president, while some of their Democratic counterparts said there could be consequences.On Twitter, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, another Democratic presidential candidate, called the killing "reckless" and a move that "increases the likelihood of more deaths and new Middle East conflict."Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, a rival of Warren and Biden, said in a statement that "Trump promised to end endless wars, but this action puts us on the path to another one."Marianne Williamson Lays Off Her Campaign Staff (4 p.m.)Author Marianne Williamson has laid off her entire presidential campaign staff, according to her campaign manager Patricia Ewing.Ewing, who was dismissed along with the rest of the team, said Williamson is "still figuring out what she's going to do" at this time.Williamson, a spiritual guru who ran on a message of promoting peace, has lagged in the polls since she entered the race and is currently polling in last place at 0.2% in the Real Clear Politics average. -- Emma KineryBiden Improves Fundraising, But Lags Key Rivals (2:28 p.m.)Joe Biden had his strongest fundraising quarter yet during the final three months of 2019 but still took in less than at least of his two key opponents.The former vice president's campaign raised $22.7 million in the fourth quarter, he announced in a web video Thursday. That puts his haul behind Bernie Sanders's $34.5 million and Pete Buttigieg's $24.7 million. Elizabeth Warren hasn't reported her fourth-quarter total.Biden's campaign said it doubled online fundraising from the third to fourth quarters. The average online contribution was $23 and the overall average contribution was $41 during the quarter.Biden raised $21.5 million during the second quarter and $15.2 million in the third. The drop between quarters was a wake-up call for some Biden backers, who pushed more aggressively to raise money during 2019's final three months.In October, Biden's worries about his campaign resources led him to reverse his previous opposition to the creation of a super-PAC supporting his candidacy as a group of allies and former aides launched Unite the Nation. The group had spent $2.2 million on advertising in Iowa as of Dec. 30, according to a memo from its staff. -- Jennifer EpsteinMichael Bloomberg to Skip Nevada Caucuses (2:02 p.m.)The Nevada State Democratic Party says Michael Bloomberg will not appear on the preference cards for the state's Feb. 22 caucuses, in keeping with his plans to skip the early nominating contests.The former New York mayor wasn't among 13 candidates, including Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg, who met a Jan. 1 filing deadline to appear on the preference card, the party said Thursday. The Nevada contest follows the Iowa caucuses on Feb. 3 and the New Hampshire primary on Feb. 11.Bloomberg, who announced his candidacy on Nov. 24, has said he joined the race too late to compete effectively in the February caucuses and primaries. Instead, he's focusing on California, Texas, North Carolina and other states voting March 3 on so-called Super Tuesday and in contests later in March, when more than 60% of the pledged delegates needed for the party's nomination are awarded.Bloomberg is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News. -- Mark NiquetteWarren Would End Delays for Disability Benefits (11:03 a.m.)Warren proposes to eliminate waiting periods to make it easier for disabled people to access benefits under Social Security Disability Insurance and Medicare.Current law imposes delays before obtaining benefits of up to five months for Social Security and 12 months for Medicare. In a proposal released Thursday, she says that she'd get rid of them.Warren's plan also calls for phasing out — rather than immediately halting — Social Security disability benefits once the beneficiary returns to work, reducing them by $1 for every $2 earned above an inflation-indexed threshold of $2,110. Her plan would additionally expand the program's maximum Supplemental Security Income benefit to the federal poverty level.Her plan includes various other measures including protecting disabled people in prison by requiring jails to build accommodations.According to a campaign official, Warren sought advice from various disability advocates, including former Senator Tom Harkin, an Iowa Democrat who was an original sponsor of the Americans with Disabilities Act. -- Sahil KapurYang Raised $16.5 Million in Fourth Quarter (8:57 a.m.)Democrat Andrew Yang raised $16.5 million in the final three months of 2019, his best-showing so-far but well-behind Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg, according to figures released by his campaign.The entrepreneur has received in total more than 1 million contributions from 400,000 donors, the campaign said. The average was $30. Yang's fourth-quarter haul is $6.5 million more than the $10 million he raised in the third quarter, according to data from his campaign.Yang's total is less than half the $34.5 million Sanders' campaign reported and short of the $24.7 million that South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Buttigieg's campaign touted for the same period.Yang's campaign chief Nick Ryan said the total shows the candidate continues to "exceed expectations, whether it's in terms of grassroots fund raising, making the debates, early state polling, or the ability to draw big crowds." -- Kathleen MillerBiden Is First to Win Iowa Congress Endorsement (8:25 a.m.)Biden has secured the first endorsement from a member of Iowa's congressional delegation, gaining the support Thursday of Abby Finkenauer.The first-term congresswoman represents Iowa's 1st Congressional District, which voted for Donald Trump in 2016 after going for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012. The district covers northeastern Iowa, the area where Biden is concentrating his time during a five-day state trip that begins Thursday. Finkenauer will join Biden for several of his Iowa stops, his campaign said."Joe Biden's character, record, and commitment to rebuilding the backbone of the country — the middle class — is what Iowa and this country needs," Finkenauer said in announcing her support of Biden.The congresswoman's ties to Biden date back more than a decade. In 2007 and 2008, she was volunteer coordinator for Biden's unsuccessful presidential bid, which ended after the Iowa caucus. And she has a personal connection to another campaign — she's engaged to Elizabeth Warren's Iowa political director, Daniel Wasta.Finkenauer, 31, is the first of Iowa's three House Democrats to endorse a presidential candidate and just the second member of Congress from one of four early-decision states to make an announcement. Nevada Representative Dina Titus is also backing Biden. -- Jennifer EpsteinTrump Gets $46 Million in Fourth Quarter (7:55 a.m.)Trump's campaign said it had raised $46 million in the last three months of 2019, saying that it was the candidate's best fund-raising quarter in the 2020 election cycle.Trump's campaign ended the year with $102.7 million in cash on hand, it said. Trump raised $143 million in 2019 and the campaign said it banked $83.4 million. It began the year with $19.3 million cash on hand.In recent months, the president's campaign has sought to use the House impeachment investigation as part of its fundraising effort, urging potential donors to give as a way to rebuke Democrats. -- Mario ParkerSanders Raised $34.5 Million in Quarter (6 a.m.)Sanders's presidential campaign raised $34.5 million in the fourth quarter, it said in a statement, likely giving him the largest war chest of any Democratic nominee entering the party's first nominating contests in February.The campaign said on Thursday that since February, it had raised more than $96 million from more than 5 million individual donations. The average contribution was $18 and almost none of Sanders's donors had reached the $2,800 federal contribution limit, meaning they could donate again."Bernie Sanders is closing the year with the most donations of any candidate in history at this point in a presidential campaign," his campaign manager Faiz Shakir said in the statement. "He is proving each and every day that working class Americans are ready and willing to fully fund a campaign that stands up for them and takes on the biggest corporations and the wealthy."Sanders had raised about $73.7 million through the quarter that ended Sept. 30, the most among Democratic candidates, and had about $33.7 million on hand, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. His campaign did not say in its statement on Thursday how much Sanders had on hand.On Wednesday, Sanders said in an email to supporters that his campaign had more donors than Trump's, and predicted that he would raise more than $1 billion if he's the Democratic nominee to challenge the president's re-election this year.Sanders trails only South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg in polls of Iowa Democratic voters, according to a RealClearPolitics average, and narrowly leads in New Hampshire. Iowa will hold the nation's first caucuses on Feb. 3, while New Hampshire will follow on Feb. 11.Buttigieg announced Wednesday that he raised about $24.7 million in the fourth quarter. -- Laura Litvan and Bill AllisonCOMING UP:Five Democratic candidates -- Biden, Buttigieg, Sanders, Warren and Senator Amy Klobuchar -- have qualified for the next debate, on Jan. 14 in Iowa.Trump is scheduled to hold a campaign rally in Milwaukee on the same night as the debate, as well as a rally in Toledo on Jan. 9.The first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses will be held Feb. 3.(Michael Bloomberg is also seeking the Democratic presidential nomination. Bloomberg is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.)\--With assistance from Mark Niquette, Laura Litvan, Bill Allison, Mario Parker, Kathleen Miller, Sahil Kapur, Jennifer Epstein and Emma Kinery.To contact the reporter on this story: John Harney in Washington at jharney2@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Steve Geimann, John HarneyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Hospital can remove baby from life support: Texas judge Posted: 02 Jan 2020 01:35 PM PST  A Texas judge on Thursday sided with a hospital that plans to remove an 11-month-old girl from life support after her mother disagreed with the decision.
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| RIP, Aircraft Carriers and Submarines: How Much of the U.S. Navy is Obsolete? Posted: 02 Jan 2020 05:00 PM PST  Are America's submarines and aircraft carriers out of place?
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| Inside the plot by Iran’s Soleimani to attack U.S. forces in Iraq Posted: 03 Jan 2020 04:55 PM PST  The Revolutionary Guards commander instructed his top ally in Iraq, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, and other powerful militia leaders to step up attacks on U.S. targets in the country using sophisticated new weapons provided by Iran, two militia commanders and two security sources briefed on the gathering told Reuters. The strategy session, which has not been previously reported, came as mass protests against Iran's growing influence in Iraq were gaining momentum, putting the Islamic Republic in an unwelcome spotlight.
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| Russia halts oil supplies to Belarus in push for closer ties Posted: 03 Jan 2020 03:30 AM PST  Russia has halted oil supplies to Belarus as talks on strengthening economic ties remained stalled over concerns that Russia could effectively swallow up its neighbor. In a case that has echoes of Russia's relationship with Ukraine before it annexed the Crimean Peninsula, Belarus' state-owned oil company said Friday that Moscow has stopped supplying crude until contracts for this year are drawn up. Belarus' two main refineries were operating at low capacity, running on reserves.
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| The Quadrantids brings bright fireball meteors to the sky this weekend. Here's how to catch the first meteor shower of the decade. Posted: 03 Jan 2020 10:07 AM PST  Every year, our planet passes through cosmic detritus left over from an asteroid called EH1. For people on Earth, that means an epic meteor shower.
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