| Schiff accuses NSA, CIA of withholding documents on Ukraine Posted: 19 Jan 2020 11:29 AM PST  The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee is accusing U.S. intelligence agencies of withholding documents from Congress on Ukraine that could be significant to President Donald Trump's impeachment trial.
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| Body of woman who was missing for almost 6 years found in car submerged in NJ river Posted: 19 Jan 2020 11:10 AM PST  Vanessa Smallwood of Maple Shade, N.J., was 46 at the time of her disappearance. She was identified in a statement from New Jersey State Police.
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| How U.S. Navy Aircraft Carriers Are Going All in on Drones Posted: 19 Jan 2020 02:20 AM PST  The Navy is building a special new command and control mini "drone-headquarters" space on its aircraft carriers to operate deck-launched drones as part of a strategy aimed at massively increasing the scope of carrier-launched drone missions in coming years.
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| Ex-Carnival and Norwegian Cruise Line workers reveal the things they couldn't live without on board Posted: 19 Jan 2020 06:04 AM PST  Workers for cruise lines like Carnival and Norwegian might be away from home for over six months, so they need to be thoughtful about what they pack.
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| Facebook says technical error caused vulgar translation of Chinese leader's name Posted: 18 Jan 2020 09:25 AM PST  Facebook Inc on Saturday blamed a technical error for Chinese leader Xi Jinping's name appearing as "Mr Shithole" in posts on its platform when translated into English from Burmese, apologizing for any offense caused. The error came to light on the second day of a visit by the president to the Southeast Asian country, where Xi and state counselor Aung San Suu Kyi signed dozens of agreements covering massive Beijing-backed infrastructure plans. A statement about the visit published on Suu Kyi's official Facebook page was littered with references to "Mr Shithole" when translated to English, while a headline in local news journal the Irrawaddy appeared as "Dinner honors president shithole".
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| Fewer Americans are binge-drinking, but those who do are drinking more per session Posted: 18 Jan 2020 08:31 AM PST  New CDC data shows binge-drinking is declining, but American adults who do drink heavily are consuming 12% more alcohol per session.
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| Houthi rebels kill at least 70 soldiers in Yemen after attack on mosque Posted: 19 Jan 2020 10:54 AM PST  Yemen's president condemned on Sunday an attack by Houthi rebels on a government military camp, as authorities said fatalities had risen to at least 79 troops. Ballistic missiles smashed into a mosque in the training camp in the central province of Marib late Saturday, wounding 81 others during evening prayers, according to Abdu Abdullah Magli, spokesman for the Yemeni Armed Forces. The oil-rich province of Marib lies about 115 kilometers (70 miles) east of the Houthi-controlled capital, Sanaa. The city is a stronghold of the Saudi-led, U.S.-backed coalition. The missile strike was the bloodiest attack in Marib since the beginning of Yemen's long-running civil war, marking a military escalation in a rare spot of relative stability. The U.N. envoy to Yemen delivered a stern warning about the recent spike in military activity across multiple provinces, noting with "particular concern" the airstrike that hit the military camp. "The hard-earned progress that Yemen has made on de-escalation is very fragile. Such actions can derail this progress", said Martin Griffiths. President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi described Saturday's assault on Muslim worshipers as an act of "blatant aggression" that underscored Houthis' "lawlessness" and "unwillingness" to make peace, according to Saudi Arabia's state-run news agency. He denounced the Houthis as "a cheap Iranian tool in the region." A Shiite Houthi tribesman holds his weapon during a tribal gathering showing support for the Houthi movement, in Sanaa, Yemen Credit: AP Yemen's defense ministry placed the military on heightened alert at nearby bases, directing troops to "take precautions" ahead of imminent battle. "This attack will be answered harshly," Magli warned in a televised statement. Coalition forces said they launched "massive assaults" on rebel targets northeast of the capital, killing and wounding dozens of Houthi fighters. There was no immediate comment from the Houthi faction. Yemen's civil war erupted in 2014 when Iran-backed Shiite Houthi rebels seized Sanaa, and much of the country's north, ousting President Hadi. The conflict became a regional proxy war months later as a Saudi-led coalition intervened to try and restore Hadi's internationally-recognized government, which rules in exile in Riyadh, the Saudi capital. Both Houthi rebels and Saudi-led coalition forces have been accused of war crimes and rampant human rights abuses in Yemen. Indiscriminate coalition air strikes and rebel shelling have drawn widespread international criticism for killing civilians and hitting non-military targets. The grinding war in the Arab world's poorest country has killed more than 10,000 people, displaced over 3 million and pushed the country to the brink of famine. Meanwhile, fighting has settled into a bloody stalemate.
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| Two More Bodies Found at Tijuana Property Where Missing California Couple Were Buried Under the Dirt Floor Posted: 19 Jan 2020 09:00 AM PST  Two more bodies have been discovered at a Tijuana, Mexico, property where investigators earlier found the remains of a missing California couple buried under the dirt floor of a house on Friday. Jesús Rubén López Guillén, 70, a U.S. resident, and his wife Maria Teresa Guillén, 65, a naturalized U.S. citizen, were reported missing by their daughter Norma López after they traveled from Garden Grove to Tijuana on Jan. 10 to collect more than $6,400 in overdue rent from their 37-year-old son-in-law. Police in Garden Grove launched a missing persons investigation after López said she could no longer track her parents' movements through the Find My Phone app. She said the last signal she received before their phone went dead was at the property they owned where her husband was living in southern Tijuana, about 4 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border. Their bodies were found buried under the dirt floor of one of the property's three homes late Friday.While conducting an investigation into the circumstances of the Guilléns' murder, Mexican investigators say they discovered the bodies of another couple buried in the property. It is not known if they were found in the same house as the Guilléns' remains. The new victims have not yet been identified, but police in Mexico say they also may have been involved in a monetary dispute with the son-in-law.The son-in-law, a Mexican national who was deported from the U.S. in 2012 and identified only as "Santiago" in court documents, was first charged with the California couple's disappearance and taken into custody while the property was searched. Baja California state prosecutor Hirán Sánchez confirmed that when his in-law's bodies were found, he was charged with their murder.Sanchez told reporters that when the son-in-law was first questioned about what happened to his in-laws, he offered up a "series of contradictions" including a tale that they had walked across the border and that he had picked them up. López says her parents had instead driven their own pickup truck to retrieve the money. The son-in-law also told police that he first took them to their property and then they went together to a bank to exchange currency he paid them, after which he said he drove them back to the border. Instead investigators say that the son-in-law tried to extract money with the couple's bank cards."The Guilléns drove themselves to their houses, not Santiago," Sanchez said at a news conference. "They never left."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 communicated with Nunes aide about Ukraine, documents show Posted: 18 Jan 2020 05:52 AM PST  Lev Parnas, the indicted associate of Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani who worked as his envoy in Ukraine, communicated with a top aide to Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) about an effort to find damaging information on former Vice President Joe Biden, documents released Friday night by House Democrats revealed.The evidence shows Derek Harvey, a former White House official and top aide to Nunes, communicated extensively with Parnas and sought to speak with Ukrainian prosecutors who were giving Giuliani information about Biden, reports The Washington Post. The documents corroborate Parnas' own claims about Nunes' office's involvement in the scheme.Parnas has said President Trump and his associates were working to push Ukraine into announcing an investigation into Biden. The messages, the Post writes, "indicate Nunes' office was aware of the operation at the heart of impeachment proceedings against the president — and sought to use the information Parnas was gathering." Nunes, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, did not comment on the documents.Read more at The Washington Post and NBC News.More stories from theweek.com 5 scathingly funny cartoons about the Bernie Sanders-Elizabeth Warren feud Fox News' Chris Wallace says Lindsey Graham's view on impeachment witnesses 'directly contradicts' his 1999 position Giuliani says he'd 'love' to testify in Senate impeachment trial
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| Illegal crossings plunge as US extends policy across border Posted: 19 Jan 2020 09:24 AM PST  Adolfo Cardenas smiles faintly at the memory of traveling with his 14-year-old son from Honduras to the U.S.-Mexico border in only nine days, riding buses and paying a smuggler $6,000 to ensure passage through highway checkpoints. Father and son walked about 10 minutes in Arizona's stifling June heat before surrendering to border agents. Instead of being released with paperwork to appear in immigration court in Dallas, where Cardenas hopes to live with a cousin, they were bused more than an hour to wait in the Mexican border city of Mexicali.
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| China Thinks It Can Nuke American Cities. Should We Worry? Posted: 18 Jan 2020 02:00 PM PST  World War III is no joke...
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| A plane slid off the runway and more than 800 flights were canceled as winter weather hit the Midwest Posted: 18 Jan 2020 10:49 AM PST  Authorities issued alerts for areas across the Northeast as blizzard conditions were forecasted to New York and New England over the weekend.
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| El Chapo 701 craft lager coming soon thanks to drug lord's daughter Posted: 19 Jan 2020 10:23 AM PST  The mug shot of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, imprisoned leader of the ruthless Sinaloa Cartel, is not just for police blotters anymore.
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| The 25 Best PSP Games Posted: 19 Jan 2020 06:00 AM PST |
| Trump's Russia adviser 'escorted from White House' amid investigation Posted: 19 Jan 2020 01:06 PM PST  President Trump's latest Russia expert has reportedly been escorted from the White House amid claims of a security-related investigation.
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| Africa's richest woman accused of corruption and siphoning off state assets Posted: 19 Jan 2020 04:14 PM PST  Africa's richest woman has been accused of corruption and exploiting her own country's natural resources, after thousands of documents detailing her business interests were leaked to the media. Isabel dos Santos, who resides in the UK and whose father was the president of Angola, faces allegations of exploiting family connections to secure deals on land, oil and diamonds. According to the documents, seen by BBC Panorama and the Guardian, she and her husband were allowed to buy up valuable state assets and siphon hundreds of millions of dollars out of Angola. Ms dos Santos, whose fortune is estimated at £2bn, says these claims are entirely false and that she is the victim of a witch-hunt led by the Angolan government. She also wrote on Twitter that the leaked documents were "fake" and based on "false information." Ms dos Santos is already under investigation for corruption by the Angolan government, which has frozen her assets in the country. The documents were obtained by the Platform to Protect Whistle-blowers in Africa and then passed to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. Anti-corruption campaigners responded by claiming that Ms dos Santos has been exploiting her own country for personal gain, with normal Angolan citizens the victims of her lavish lifestyle. "Every time she appears on the cover of some glossy magazine somewhere in the world, every time that she hosts one of her glamorous parties in the south of France, she is doing so by trampling on the aspirations of the citizens of Angola," Andrew Feinstein, the head of Corruption Watch, told the BBC. In an interview with the BBC following the leak, Ms dos Santos said: "I regret that Angola has chosen this path, I think that we all stand a lot to lose. "Now, when you look at my track record and you see the work I have done and look at all the companies I have built, most certainly my companies are commercial companies. "If you tell me, is there anything wrong for an Angolan person to have a business venture with a state company, I think there is nothing wrong." She added that she was facing "prejudice" due to being the daughter of José Eduardo dos Santos, who served as President of Angola from 1979 to 2017. Ms dos Santos was educated in the UK and is married to Sindika Dokolo, a Congolese art collector and businessman.
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| Impeachment: Trump wants Senate trial over before State of the Union address Posted: 19 Jan 2020 08:04 AM PST  * Graham outlines unlikely aim given battles to come * A Very Stable Genius review: at the court of King Donald * Impeachment: is Trump set to survive and win a second term?Donald Trump wants his impeachment trial to end before his state of the union address in just two weeks' time, Lindsey Graham said on Sunday."His mood is, to go to the state of the union [on 4 February] with this behind him and talk about what he wants to do for the rest of 2020 and what he wants to do for the next four years," the South Carolina senator and close Trump ally told Fox News Sunday.That timeline is ambitious, given overwhelming public support for a fair airing of the charges against Trump at his Senate trial, in which opening arguments will be heard on Tuesday. Graham conceded that a swift dismissal of the charges, which he had hoped for, will not be possible.The trial could include testimony from top Trump advisers with firsthand knowledge of his alleged attempts to pressure Ukraine to investigate his political rivals. But the White House has indicated that Trump would invoke executive privilege to prevent such advisers from testifying, setting up a court fight that could drag the trial out for weeks or longer."The sooner this is over the better for the country," Graham insisted.On Saturday evening, House Democrats and the Trump legal team outlined their approaches to the trial.The House impeachment managers, who will act as prosecutors, declared the president must be removed for putting his political career ahead of the public trust and seeking to hide that betrayal from Congress and the American people.The seven managers led by intelligence committee chair Adam Schiff published a 46-page tiral brief. A 61-page "statement of material facts" was attached.In a much slimmer filing, the White House replied to a congressional writ of summons notifying Trump of the charges against him and inviting him to attend the trial.The six-page White House filing was a work of blanket denial, stating: "President Trump categorically and unequivocally denies each and every allegation in both articles of impeachment."> If all of the president's arguments are true, then the president truly is above the law> > Jason CrowSigned by White House counsel Pat Cipollone and by Jay Sekulow, a personal lawyer to Trump, it also charged the Democrats with "a brazen and unlawful attempt to overturn the results of the 2016 election and interfere with the 2020 election, now just months away".Speaking to ABC's This Week on Sunday, Schiff noted that the White House did not attempt to rebut the case on its facts."It's surprising in that it really doesn't offer much new beyond the failed arguments we heard in the House," he said. "The facts aren't seriously contested."Another impeachment manager, Jason Crow of Colorado, said the White House was in effect arguing that Trump was above the law."If all of the president's arguments are true, that a president can't be indicted, and that the abuse of power, the abuse of public trust doesn't count as an impeachable offense – if that is true, then no president can be held accountable," he told CNN's State of the Union. "Then the president truly is above the law."The battle lines roughly plotted by the two documents will be engaged in earnest on Tuesday, when the House managers are expected to begin making their case against the president. A two-thirds majority of senators would be required to remove Trump from office. That is vastly unlikely, given a Republican party aligned behind the president and a Senate leadership openly in lockstep with the White House.Trump must be removed, Democrats argue, owing to the egregiousness of his past misconduct and his ongoing efforts to encourage foreign tampering in US elections."President Trump's continuing presence in office undermines the integrity of our democratic processes and endangers our national security," the managers wrote. "President Trump's abuse of power requires his conviction and removal from office."On Sunday Alan Dershowitz, the controversial Harvard law professor who has joined Trump's legal team, argued on CNN that the charges against the president were not impeachable because abuse of power does not constitute a "high crime and misdemeanor" as stipulated in the US constitution as grounds for impeachment.That view is an extreme outlier among legal scholars, but it is not the only time that Dershowitz, who formerly represented OJ Simpson and the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, has gone against his colleagues.Dershowitz denied that his past representation of and friendship with Epstein could "backfire" in the impeachment trial, besmirching the president's defense in the eyes particularly of women in Senate and beyond."They understand that it's pure McCarthyism to hold a lawyer responsible for having represented controversial clients," he said.Republicans have never attempted to mount a point-for-point rebuttal of evidence amassed by Democrats that Trump mounted a months-long effort to extract announcements from Ukraine that Trump thought could damage Joe Biden, his political rival.Evidence indicates that the effort derailed the career of a respected US ambassador at the wishes of corrupt Ukrainian elements, potentially threatening her personal security; used the promise of a White House meeting to extract the "deliverable" Trump wanted; and escalated to the suspension by Trump of security aid for Ukraine appropriated by Congress.The Democratic briefing highlighted evidence that has emerged since Trump was impeached in the House in December. That evidence includes documents and testimony from Lev Parnas, a former close associate of Rudy Giuliani, Trump's designated point person in Ukraine.Identifying himself as the "personal counsel to President Trump", Giuliani sought a meeting with Ukrainian president-elect Volodymyr Zelenskiy in May 2019, according to Parnas evidence cited in the briefing."President Trump has betrayed the American people and the ideals on which the nation was founded," the Democratic briefing concluded."Unless he is removed from office, he will continue to endanger our national security, jeopardize the integrity of our elections, and undermine our core constitutional principles."
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| What Can Iran Hope To Do Against America's Stealth Aircraft? Posted: 18 Jan 2020 07:40 AM PST  Drones and more.
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| 'I Dare You to Mock Me.' Capt. 'Sully' Sullenberger Defends Joe Biden Against Attacks on His Speech in New York Times Op-Ed Posted: 19 Jan 2020 01:22 PM PST  Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger opened up about his past struggles with stuttering in defending Biden and his speech.
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| Cult slayed pregnant woman and five of her children in Panama Posted: 19 Jan 2020 11:14 AM PST  A religious sect whose members believed to be "anointed by God" forced a pregnant woman and five of her children to walk through fire as part of a cult ritual, according to local residents.
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| Philippine military says 5 Indonesians kidnapped by Abu Sayyaf militants Posted: 19 Jan 2020 02:55 AM PST ![Philippine military says 5 Indonesians kidnapped by Abu Sayyaf militants]( "Philippine military says 5 Indonesians kidnapped by Abu Sayyaf militants") The Philippine military on Sunday said it has launched search and rescue operations for five Indonesian fishermen kidnapped by militants belonging to the Islamic State-linked Abu Sayyaf group in Malaysian waters last week. Three were released, while the remaining five were probably brought by their captors to the southern Philippine province of Sulu, said Lieutenant General Cirilito Sobejana, chief of the military's Western Mindanao Command. Sulu is Abu Sayyaf's stronghold.
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| AP Explains: CFO of China's Huawei facing extradition to US Posted: 19 Jan 2020 08:02 AM PST ![AP Explains: CFO of China's Huawei facing extradition to US]( "AP Explains: CFO of China's Huawei facing extradition to US") An extradition hearing begins Monday in a Vancouver courtroom for Huawei top executive Meng Wanzhou, the daughter of the company's founder. Canada arrested Meng while she was changing planes at Vancouver's airport in late 2018.
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| Yemen missile attack kills at least 70 soldiers: sources Posted: 18 Jan 2020 11:08 PM PST  At least 70 Yemeni soldiers have been killed in a missile attack launched by Huthi rebels on a mosque in the central province of Marib, medical and military sources said Sunday. The Huthis attacked a mosque in a military camp in Marib -- about 170 kilometres (105 miles) east of Sanaa -- during evening prayers on Saturday, military sources told AFP.
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| The most iconic tourist attraction in 26 countries around the world Posted: 18 Jan 2020 09:32 AM PST  There's something powerful about finally seeing a famous landmark or natural wonder in person instead of on a postcard (or on Instagram).
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| House Democrats argue for Trump's conviction in Senate impeachment trial Posted: 19 Jan 2020 07:10 AM PST  House Democrats filed a 111-page legal brief ahead of President Trump's impeachment trial, arguing he threatens national security.The House prosecutors laid out the argument against Trump that led to his impeachment last month on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. The legal brief says "evidence overwhelmingly establishes" Trump's guilt and says the Senate "must eliminate the threat" he poses.The White House defense team, meanwhile, has not filed its official brief, but rejected the impeachment managers' arguments as "highly partisan." Without directly addressing allegations Trump abused his power by withholding Ukrainian aid to push for a politically-motivated investigation of his rivals, the White House castigated the "lawless process" that led to his impeachment.Read more at The Washington Post.More stories from theweek.com 5 scathingly funny cartoons about the Bernie Sanders-Elizabeth Warren feud Fox News' Chris Wallace says Lindsey Graham's view on impeachment witnesses 'directly contradicts' his 1999 position Giuliani says he'd 'love' to testify in Senate impeachment trial
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| Russia Is Worried About Britain's Astute-Class Submarines Posted: 18 Jan 2020 10:30 PM PST  The class seems to have overcome its technical and financial problems, although the lingering impact of those issues could affect not only future classes of SSNs, but also the UK's commitment to building a new class of SSBNs.
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| Trump Administration Proposes Rollbacks to Obama-Era School Lunch Programs on Michelle Obama's Birthday Posted: 18 Jan 2020 08:32 AM PST  The proposed rules would allowing more flexibilities in the amount of fruits and vegetables served
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| Bless Virginia for passing the Equal Rights Amendment, but blame women for taking this long Posted: 19 Jan 2020 03:00 AM PST  Women could've fought for the ERA long before now, but too many chose political ideology over enshrining protections in the U.S. Constitution.
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| World's richest 2,000 people hold more than poorest 4.6 billion combined: Oxfam Posted: 19 Jan 2020 04:17 PM PST  The world's richest 2,153 people controlled more money than the poorest 4.6 billion combined in 2019, while unpaid or underpaid work by women and girls adds three times more to the global economy each year than the technology industry, Oxfam said on Monday. In its "Time to Care" report, Oxfam said it estimated that unpaid care work by women added at least $10.8 trillion a year in value to the world economy - three times more than the tech industry. To highlight the level of inequality in the global economy, Behar cited the case of a woman called Buchu Devi in India who spends 16 to 17 hours a day doing work like fetching water after trekking 3km, cooking, preparing her children for school and working in a poorly paid job.
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| 2 more Puerto Rico officials fired after warehouse break-in Posted: 19 Jan 2020 01:57 PM PST  Gov. Wanda Vázquez fired the heads of Puerto Rico's housing and family departments Sunday in the latest fallout over the discovery of a warehouse filled with emergency supplies dating from Hurricane Maria. The removal of Housing Secretary Fernando Gil and Department of Family Secretary Glorimar Andújar came a day after the governor fired the director of Puerto Rico's emergency management agency. Vázquez fired him hours after a Facebook video showed angry people breaking into the warehouse in an area where thousands have been in shelters since a recent earthquake.
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| Fearless Delhi women protesters inspire national movement Posted: 18 Jan 2020 05:42 PM PST  Defiant women who have been blocking a New Delhi highway for more than four weeks in protest against a bitterly disputed citizenship law have inspired thousands across India to copy their challenge to the Hindu nationalist government. Nearly all pay tribute to the 200 grandmothers and housewives and students who sit and sleep across the main road in the Shaheen Bagh district of Delhi, fighting a law that would give passports to "persecuted" religious minorities from three neighbouring countries but only non-Muslims. Hundreds of thousands of people have taken part in rallies across India since parliament passed the Citizenship Amendment Act on December 11.
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| Germans are slamming Elon Musk's plans to clear 740 acres of forest for a $45.36 million Tesla factory Posted: 19 Jan 2020 01:36 PM PST  "I am not against Tesla," one activist said. "But it's about the site; in a forest area that is a protected wildlife zone. Is this necessary?"
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| 'Brazen and unlawful': Trump team attacks House impeachment effort in first formal response Posted: 18 Jan 2020 02:11 PM PST  The president's initial reply comes on the same day House managers previewed their own opening arguments.
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| Harvey Weinstein: fourth accuser opts out of settlement to pursue own claim Posted: 18 Jan 2020 10:00 PM PST  Exclusive: Dominique Huett says settlement amount 'not very fair' and joins growing list of women to reject proposed dealA controversial proposed settlement between Harvey Weinstein and alleged victims of his sexual misconduct faces further delays, as a fourth accuser opts out and several others plan to object.Dominique Huett will remove herself from the settlement in order to pursue her own claim against the movie mogul, the Guardian can reveal. At least two other accusers have retained lawyers to file formal objections to the deal.Last month, it was reported that Weinstein and more than 30 women had reached a tentative deal following two years of negotiations.However, the Guardian has learned that a settlement hearing that was due before Weinstein's criminal trial in New York has been postponed until at least February. It is not known if this was due to the growing number of women opting out.Huett joins three others who have decided to not be a part of the agreement: Wedil David, Kaja Sokola and Alexandra Canosa.Huett told the Guardian: "Originally I thought it was the best option for everyone, but after finding out more details, I think that opting out is the best way to get a better deal for me and for everyone."Under the proposed deal, Weinstein would not have to pay a penny or admit any wrongdoing. The settlement would be paid by insurance companies representing the producer's former studio, the Weinstein Company. More than $12m – a quarter of the overall package – would go towards legal costs for Weinstein and his board."I feel the settlement amount is not very fair for all victims and the way it is structured really benefits the defendants a lot more than us," Huett said. "I want to opt out to set a precedent for others and say that this settlement is not just."> The settlement is not very fair and benefits the defendants more than us> > Dominique HuettHuett has retained a new attorney, Douglas Wigdor, who represents two others who have opted out. Wigdor believes the $500,000 Huett was offered was "not fair". "I think Dominique's case is worth significantly more than this," he said.Wigdor will take on Huett's claim, which was filed in a California court in October 2017, under sex trafficking laws. She was the first alleged Weinstein victim to file a civil claim and unlike many other accusers has a case within the statute of limitations.Huett alleges that in 2010, Weinstein invited her to the Peninsula Beverly Hills hotel in Los Angeles for a business meeting. She says he forced oral sex on her then masturbated, telling her it was a right of passage to a career in Hollywood."He wouldn't take no for an answer," she said. "I refused and said no but was so shocked and paralysed by fear that I froze."It's devastating to think that what he did to me had happened to so many other actresses in the years before and that if his company had acted when they first learnt of his behaviour, it would never have happened to me."Weinstein has denied any claim, criminal or civil, of non-consensual sex.The proposed settlement with some of his alleged victims is part of a $47m deal aimed at paying Weinstein Company debts. Of this sum, around $6.2m would go to 18 accusers who filed cases in the US, Canada and the UK. Approximately $18.5m is thought to be set aside for class-action participants, more of whom are expected. Board members of the Weinstein Company would be protected from liability.Zelda Perkins and Rowena Chiu have also retained Wigdor to file objections to the deal, the Guardian has learned. Kevin Mintzer is also counsel for Huett, Perkins, and Chiu.Perkins and Chiu, Weinstein's British assistants in the late 90s, reached a settlement and signed an NDA in 1998 after they alleged he attempted to rape Chiu at the Venice film festival. Perkins and Chiu are not part of the proposed settlement, but say they are speaking out for other victims."This is the whole reason I broke my NDA, so women can't be pushed into a corner," Perkins told the Guardian."It is not indicative or correct compensation for the crimes and the majority of that money is being fed back to Harvey's own defence," she said of the deal. "They're making it look like he's compensating victims but he and his board of directors will be gaining more than the individuals will be."Perkins added: "Ultimately the most important thing is that these women get compensation."Wigdor said: "We are not seeking to prevent survivors who want to participate in a settlement from doing so. We just want to ensure that those who don't are not precluded from going after insurance proceeds and the directors, and that the terms of the agreement are fair."Caitlin Dulany, a lead plaintiff in the settlement, believes it is the best option for many women.If the settlement did not go ahead, she said, "it would mean that the majority of us – whose claims were dismissed or outside the statute of limitations – would be unlikely to recover anything. The settlement is important to me because it recognises the trauma that all survivors have endured, and not just that of a select few."If the proposed settlement or an amended version were to proceed, it would allow other accusers to join.Katherine Kendall who like Dulany was part of the original class action, said: "It's been a huge effort for all of us over the past two years, but the main thing is we want to be in a position where other women can come forward and join us.."Lisa Rose, who worked as a British administrator for Weinstein in 1988 and claims he harassed her, said she would file an objection to the settlement but added: "I understand completely that for some women taking the settlement is the right course of action and don't want to get in their way."
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| Designer Ayissi is first black African at fashion's top table Posted: 19 Jan 2020 04:45 AM PST  Not only is he joining fashion's creme de la creme, the Cameroonian couturier is shaking up the stereotype of what "African materials" are by refusing to use wax prints which he dismisses as "colonial". Highly colourful wax cotton prints flooded West Africa after Dutch mills began turning out millions of rolls of the material with patterns borrowed from Indonesian batik in the 19th century. "Still when we talk about African fashion it's always wax, which is a real pity, because its killing our own African heritage," Ayissi told AFP.
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| Founder of South Korean retail giant Lotte dies Posted: 19 Jan 2020 02:15 AM PST  Lotte Group founder Shin Kyuk-ho, who started manufacturing chewing gum in 1948 in Japan and built the business into South Korea's No.5 conglomerate with interests ranging from retail to chemicals, died on Sunday, the company said. Lotte was founded in 1948 as a chewing gum maker in Japan by Shin, who moved to the neighbouring country when the Korean peninsula was under Japanese colonial rule.
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| Iran backtracks on plan to send flight recorders to Ukraine Posted: 19 Jan 2020 01:50 AM PST  The Iranian official leading the investigation into the Ukrainian jetliner that was accidentally shot down by the Revolutionary Guard appeared to backtrack Sunday on plans to send the flight recorders abroad for analysis, a day after saying they would be sent to Kyiv. The same official was quoted by the semi-official Tasnim news agency on Saturday as saying the recorders would be sent to Ukraine, where French, American and Canadian experts would help analyze them. Iranian officials previously said the black boxes were damaged but usable.
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| Austria's 'ghetto' language classes stir segregation fears Posted: 17 Jan 2020 06:38 PM PST  Every morning Abulrahman leaves his normal primary school lessons in Vienna and joins about 20 other children for three hours to learn to read, write and speak German. Despite conservative Chancellor Sebastian Kurz's new coalition partners, the Greens, having expressed concerns about the controversial policy, it looks set to continue. Kurz has pledged to maintain his anti-immigration reforms -- with junior partner, the Greens, conceding -- including the special classes, which the government argues allow children with weak German skills to learn at their own pace without holding others back.
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| A 'naked philanthropist' who says she raised $1 million for Australia's fires is now sending nudes to people who donate to Puerto Rico Posted: 18 Jan 2020 06:44 AM PST  Kaylen Ward says she raised $1 million for Australia, sending nudes to people who donated. Now she is doing the same, raising money for Puerto Rico.
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| Rebel Wilson declares 2020 'the year of health' Posted: 18 Jan 2020 08:41 AM PST  Rebel Wilson's personal trainer posted a picture of the actress on Instagram where she looks noticeably slimmer. At the start of the year, Wilson had declared 2020 "the year of health."
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| Former White House Chief Economic Advisor to Trump Says Tariffs 'Hurt the U.S.' Posted: 19 Jan 2020 09:31 AM PST  "I don't think the tariffs helped us get to any different outcome"
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| Rep. Ilhan Omar Says ‘We Must Stop Detaining’ Illegal Immigrants Posted: 19 Jan 2020 02:26 AM PST  "This should never be the case," she wrote. "The cruelty of our immigration system becomes clearer every day. We must stop detaining immigrants and start giving them pathways to citizenship."
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| Police robots keep malfunctioning, with mishaps ranging from running over a toddler's foot to ignoring people in distress Posted: 19 Jan 2020 06:07 AM PST  As companies have begun to experiment with security robots, the robots have repeatedly hit obstacles — or, in some cases, fallen into them.
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| US seeks to deport Honduran mom, sick children to Guatemala Posted: 18 Jan 2020 05:20 PM PST  The U.S. government says it will deport a Honduran mother and her two sick children, both of whom are currently hospitalized, to Guatemala as soon as it can get them medically cleared to travel, according to court documents and the family's advocates. The family's advocates accuse the U.S. of disregarding the health of the children, ages 1 and 6, to push forward a plan currently being challenged in court to send planeloads of families to different countries so that they can seek asylum elsewhere. Both children have been hospitalized in recent days in South Texas' Rio Grande Valley.
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