| Democrats battle White House over executive power and congressional oversight Posted: 03 Jan 2020 02:37 PM PST  Two hearings in a Washington court brought the battle between the House and the White House into stark relief.
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| An Iranian military commander says there are '35 vital American positions in the region' which they can strike in response to top general's assassination Posted: 04 Jan 2020 01:33 PM PST  The potential targets include US ships stationed near Iran, as well as cities in Israel, one of America's closest allies.
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| Some Lebanon banks close over angry clients' demands Posted: 04 Jan 2020 07:51 AM PST  Banks in a region of northern Lebanon were closed until further notice on Saturday, the National News Agency said, after lenders balked at customer anger over a liquidity crisis. Since September banks have arbitrarily capped the amount of dollars that can be withdrawn or transferred abroad, sparking fury among customers who accuse lenders of holding their money hostage. There is also a limit on Lebanese pound withdrawals.
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| Global powers warn that the world has become a more dangerous place after U.S. attacks Posted: 03 Jan 2020 05:29 AM PST  Global powers warned Friday that the world has become a more dangerous place and urged restraint after the U.S. assassinated Iran's top general, although Britain and Germany also suggested that Iran shared blame for provoking the targeted killing that dramatically ratcheted up tensions in the Mideast.
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| Schumer calls McConnell proposal on witnesses a 'trap' Posted: 03 Jan 2020 11:25 AM PST  As the standoff over rules for an impeachment trial continues, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell repeated Friday that he would consider a proposal to call for witness testimony — a stance that his Democratic counterpart, Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, calls a "trap."
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| Fox News segment on Soleimani strike descends into chaos as Geraldo Rivera and Brian Kilmeade clash Posted: 03 Jan 2020 06:41 AM PST  A Fox News segment on the killing of Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran's Quds Force, became quite heated Friday morning as a shouting match between Geraldo Rivera and Brian Kilmeade broke out.Rivera spoke with the hosts of Fox & Friends on Friday morning and encouraged them not to cheer the U.S. air strike that killed Soleimani, a dramatic escalation of tensions with Iran that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says was necessary to prevent an attack in the region."I will cheer it on," Kilmeade told Rivera, to which Rivera responded, "Then you, like Lindsey Graham, have never met a war you didn't like." > Geraldo: Don't for a minute start cheering this on, what we have done, what we have unleashed -- > > Kilmeade: I will cheer it on. I am elated. > > Geraldo: Then you, like Lindsey Graham, have never met a war you didn't like. > > Kilmeade: That is not true, don't even say that. pic.twitter.com/1VZ3tZJPRb> > -- Lis Power (@LisPower1) January 3, 2020Rivera suggested Kilmeade shouldn't so easily trust U.S. intelligence in light of the "con job that drove us into" the Iraq war. The segment became even more tense as Kilmeade suggested Rivera is "making excuses for Iran." "Dammit, I'm not making excuses, Brian!" Rivera shouted. "That's absolute baloney!" He went on to tell Kilmeade that his "arrogance is exactly what's wrong with the region." Watch the most heated portion of the chaotic segment below. > All out brawl on Fox & Friends > Kilmeade: You're making excuses for Iran. > > Geraldo: Dammit, I'm not making excuses Brian that's absolute baloney! ... Your arrogance is exactly what's wrong with the region. pic.twitter.com/ULtzgNOk4I> > -- Lis Power (@LisPower1) January 3, 2020More stories from theweek.com America is guilty of everything we accuse Iran of doing Trump's perilous delusions about Tehran Can Mike Vrabel's Titans add to the theory that Bill Belichik struggles against his protégés?
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| Mississippi says two inmates escaped from troubled prison Posted: 04 Jan 2020 05:42 AM PST  Mississippi authorities were searching for two prisoners believed to have escaped Saturday from one of several prisons rocked by violence that has left at least five inmates dead in the past week. Gov. Phil Bryant on Saturday said via Twitter that he has directed "the use of all necessary assets and personnel" to find the two inmates who escaped from the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman. The state Department of Public Safety has deployed state troopers and the highway patrol's special operations group to help the Department of Corrections find the two inmates and to help restore order at the troubled facility that they escaped from, Bryant said.
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| Carlos Ghosn's escape plane reportedly also ferried gold for Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro Posted: 03 Jan 2020 08:02 AM PST  Bloomberg reported that two planes operated by MNG Holding, which aided in Ghosn's escape, also assisted a Venezuelan gold trade.
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| Is Kim Jong-un Feeling Insecure? Posted: 03 Jan 2020 04:19 AM PST  Why did Kim allow the party plenary report to replace his traditional New Year's Address? As with many things in North Korea, we do not know, forcing us to speculate. At least one possibility is that Kim Jong-un fears that his pattern of failures in 2019 has significantly undermined his position as the god of North Korea.
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| Australian Firefighters Brace for Inferno Amid Searing Heat Posted: 03 Jan 2020 05:14 PM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Firefighters are bracing for an intensification of catastrophic wildfires sweeping southeastern Australia amid searing temperatures and strong winds.Emergencies have been declared and tourists have been urged to flee a 350-kilometer (217-mile) stretch of coastline in New South Wales and Victoria states as temperatures climb as high as 46 degrees Celsius (115 degrees Fahrenheit) inland Saturday. Hot, dry winds have brought "extremely dangerous" conditions, intensifying wildfires and sparking blazes.Two people died in wildfires on South Australia's Kangaroo Island, adding to the death toll, which stood at 20 on Friday."Today is all about saving lives," New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters in Sydney Saturday. "There are still windows for people to get out if you wish to do so."Fires that have been burning since Dec. 20 on Kangaroo Island, off the South Australian coast, overran a car killing its occupants, the state's assistant police commissioner Linda Williams told reporters in Adelaide Saturday.More than 500 people are battling blazes across the island, a prominent tourist destination, scorching much of the Flinders Chase National Park and devastating wildlife. Improved weather conditions Saturday are helping to bring the infernos under control, said Mark Jones, chief of the Country Fire Service.Mass ExodusTens of thousands of people in New South Wales have altered their travel plans or relocated because of the warnings, Berejiklian said. Across Victoria, about 100,000 people have been urged to evacuate amid concerns that blazes could be unstoppable, ABC reported.Convoys of vehicles have departed fire-ravaged areas, and navy ships have carried hundreds of people to safety in eastern Victoria state, one of the largest peacetime evacuations in Australia's history.About 60 of the 137 grass and bush-land fires in New South Wales are burning out of control, Berejiklian said. Winds from the west and northwest will reach speeds of as much as 90 kilometers an hour, the state's Rural Fire Service said, potentially fanning the flames and spreading embers, igniting new blazes.Flare Up Risk"Strong, dry northwesterly winds will cause ongoing fires to flare up yet again threatening communities that have already experienced widespread devastation," said Jonathan How, a weather forecaster with the Bureau of Meteorology.More than 12 million acres (5 million hectares) have been blackened -- an area about twice the size of Vermont -- in hundreds of blazes in recent months. That's bringing terrifying scenes of walls of fire that have killed about half a billion native animals and destroyed hundreds of homes.Gusty winds of up to 80 kilometers an hour will probably reach Victoria's southern region of Gippsland by midday Saturday in a cooling, southerly change that should arrive in Sydney in the late evening, the weather bureau said.Still, it won't diminish the fire risk since a change in wind direction will cause the flank of wildfires to become the new front, "greatly broadening the fire threat area," How said. In addition, thunderstorms and lightening could start more fires.Australia's electricity grid operator warned that blazes may bring down vital transmission lines and raise the likelihood of outages, days after wildfires and winds damaged power lines and forced blackouts for tens of thousands of households in fire-affected towns in the nation's southeast.Insurers have already received 5,250 claims as a result of the catastrophe, with losses estimated at A$321 million ($223 million), the Insurance Council of Australia said Friday.(Adds Kangaroo Island deaths in third and fifth paragraphs.)To contact the reporter on this story: Jason Gale in Melbourne at j.gale@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Shamim Adam at sadam2@bloomberg.net, Siraj DatooFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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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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| '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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| What's behind the recent rash of anti-Semitic attacks? Posted: 03 Jan 2020 01:36 AM PST  There were more than 1,300 anti-Semitic incidents in 2019, according to the Anti-Defamation League, including a stabbing at a rabbi's home Saturday. Rabbi Angela Warnick Buchdahl and professor Ibram Kendi joined "CBS This Morning" to discuss the rash of hate.
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| Trump tells evangelicals that God is 'on our side' Posted: 03 Jan 2020 03:47 PM PST  Launching a political coalition called "Evangelicals for Trump" at a Florida megachurch on Friday, President Trump declared his belief that God supports his agenda.
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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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| Delta plane slides off taxiway at Green Bay airport Posted: 04 Jan 2020 08:05 AM PST ![Delta plane slides off taxiway at Green Bay airport]( "Delta plane slides off taxiway at Green Bay airport") Airport officials said Flight 1770 was headed for Atlanta when it left the taxiway around 6:15 a.m. No injuries were reported, nor was there any damage to the plane. Conditions were icy at the time of the incident, but Airport Director Marty Piette told the Green Bay Press-Gazette that he wasn't sure if that's what caused the plane to slide off the taxiway.
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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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| China calls for easing UN sanctions on N.Korea Posted: 03 Jan 2020 10:18 AM PST  A Chinese-Russian resolution aimed at easing international sanctions on North Korea is a "timely" step in the "right direction," China's UN ambassador Zhang Jun said Friday. "We can really contribute to the political dialogue between the parties concerned, especially between the United States and DPRK," or North Korea, he added.
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| What is pansexuality and how does it compare with bisexuality? Posted: 04 Jan 2020 10:12 AM PST  Layla Moran, a British Liberal Democrat politician, has recently revealed that she identifies as pansexual. In an interview, Moran told how she had started a relationship with a woman six months ago, a development she described as "surprising" in terms of her sexual identity.
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| A fugitive was on the run for 40 years. Police finally arrested him for public intoxication Posted: 03 Jan 2020 06:56 AM PST  Jose Romero was arrested Saturday in Delaware. He evaded capture in South Carolina in 1979 after being convicted of armed robbery.
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| Ilhan Omar Implies Trump Ordered Soleimani Killing as ‘Distraction’ from Impeachment Posted: 03 Jan 2020 08:23 AM PST  Representative Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.) implied on Thursday that President Trump may have ordered the killing of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani to distract the public from impeachment proceedings."So what if Trump wants war, knows this leads to war and needs the distraction?" Omar wrote on Twitter. "Real question is, will those with congressional authority step in and stop him? I know I will."Analysts from several news outlets echoed the assumption. CNN analyst Karen Finney wrote that "today's air strike feels like attempt to create a distraction from impeachment and build support for Trump," while MSNBC contributor Joyce Alene said it was "highly possible then timing of tonight's attack was meant as a distraction."President Trump ordered an airstrike on a convoy near Baghdad International Airport carrying Soleimani on Thursday evening. As head of the Quds Force, a U.S.-designated terror group, Soleimani led intelligence and counterespionage efforts for the IRGC. Also killed in the strike was Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, an Iraqi militia leader who led a days-long siege against the U.S. embassy in Baghdad.The U.S. State Department issued a warning to American citizens to leave Iraq in the wake of the attack."Due to heightened tensions in Iraq and the region, we urge U.S. citizens to depart Iraq immediately," the agency wrote on Twitter. "Due to Iranian-backed militia attacks at the U.S. Embassy compound, all consular operations are suspended. U.S. citizens should not approach the Embassy."Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on CNN on Friday that Trump had ordered the strike due to an "intelligence-based assessment" warning of an "imminent attack" by Iranian forces in the region.
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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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| Train derailment in eastern Iowa leaves mess, slows traffic Posted: 03 Jan 2020 10:57 AM PST  A train derailment Friday morning sent more than a dozen rail cars and tankers off the tracks in the eastern Iowa city of LeClaire, shutting down a nearby highway and sending a hazardous materials team scrambling to the downtown district site. The derailment happened a couple of hundred feet from the banks of the Mississippi River, along U.S. Highway 67, which runs parallel to the tracks. LeClaire police closed the highway in both directions shortly after the derailment and told the public to avoid the area.
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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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| 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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| Peru prosecutors seek 12-year term for Kenji Fujimori Posted: 04 Jan 2020 04:38 PM PST  Peruvian prosecutors are seeking a 12-year prison term for former lawmaker Kenji Fujimori on charges of attempting to buy votes in a plot to keep ex-president Pedro Pablo Kuczynski from being impeached. Prosecutor Bersabeth Revilla accused the son of jailed ex-president Alberto Fujimori of bribery and influence-peddling. Also charged are former lawmakers Guillermo Bocangel and Bienvenido Ramirez.
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| Tens of thousands march in southern India to protest citizenship law Posted: 04 Jan 2020 05:24 AM PST  HYDERABAD/NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Over one hundred thousand protesters, many carrying the Indian tricolour flag, took part in a peaceful march in the southern city of Hyderabad on Saturday, chanting slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi's new citizenship law. The protest, dubbed the 'Million March', was organized by an umbrella group of Muslim and civil society organizations. More than 40 percent of Hyderabad's estimated population of nearly 7 million are Muslims.
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| Terry Gilliam: 'I'm tired, as a white male, of being blamed for everything' Posted: 04 Jan 2020 09:42 AM PST  Former Monty Python star Terry Gilliam responded to the #MeToo movement, labelling it "a witch hunt," saying he is "tired, as a white male, of being blamed for everything that is wrong with the world."
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| Who Was Qassem Soleimani? A Master of Iran’s Intrigue and Force Posted: 03 Jan 2020 05:16 AM PST  In July 2018, after President Donald Trump warned Iran's president not to threaten the United States, a rejoinder came not from the Iranian leader but from a military figure perhaps even more powerful."It is beneath the dignity of our president to respond to you," Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani declared in a speech in western Iran. "I, as a soldier, respond to you."On Friday, Soleimani was reported killed in an airstrike in Baghdad.The general, a once-shadowy figure who enjoyed celebrity-like status among the hard-line conservatives in Iran, was a figure of intense interest to people inside and outside the country.It is not just that he was in charge of Iranian intelligence gathering and covert military operations, and regarded as one of its most cunning and autonomous military figures. He was also believed to be very close to the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei -- and seen as a potential future leader of Iran.That Soleimani was in Iraq when he was killed at age 62, at Baghdad International Airport, was not surprising.He was in charge of the Quds Force of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, a special forces unit that undertakes Iranian missions in other countries. He had been named to lead it in the late 1990s.In that role, Soleimani was believed to be the chief strategist behind Iran's military ventures and influence in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere in the region and beyond. He was considered the most effective military intelligence official in the region.A senior Iraqi intelligence official once told U.S. officials in Baghdad that Soleimani had described himself as the "sole authority for Iranian actions in Iraq."In his speech denouncing Trump, he was even less discreet -- and openly mocking."We are near you, where you can't even imagine," he said. "We are ready. We are the man of this arena."Well before the speech, U.S. officials had learned to see Soleimani as a formidable adversary.After the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq that toppled Saddam Hussein, the United States accused Soleimani of plotting attacks on U.S. soldiers.The general worked to expand Iran's influence in Iraq, tying down the U.S. military. The Iranian government was determined to retain its influence in the region and felt threatened by the expanding U.S. military presence on its western and eastern flanks.And in 2011, the Treasury Department placed him on a sanctions blacklist, accusing him of complicity in what U.S. officials called a plot to kill the Saudi ambassador to Washington.But at times, the adversary looked more like ally, however tenuous the relationship. U.S. officials cooperated with the Iranian general in Iraq to reverse gains made by the Islamic State -- a mutual enemy.At the height of the Iraq War, as the Quds Force under Soleimani armed and trained Shiite militias in Iraq, the general was stoking violence and then mediating the conflict so he could make himself indispensable and keep the Iraqis off balance, former U.S. officials have said.According to a June 2008 cable written by Ryan Crocker, then the U.S. ambassador to Baghdad, Soleimani played a role in brokering a cease-fire that enabled the battered Shiite militias in the Sadr City neighborhood of Baghdad, which Iran was supporting, to withdraw.In 2015, Soleimani was in the northern Iraqi city of Tikrit, commanding Iraqi Shiite militias that were trying to recapture it from ISIS fighters. U.S. warplanes belatedly joined that campaign.Soleimani also caught the imagination of ordinary Iranians. He came to prominence during Iran's bloody eight-year war with Iraq. As a Revolutionary Guards' commander, he gained a reputation for leading reconnaissance missions behind Iraqi lines."For Qassem Soleimani, the Iran-Iraq war never really ended," Crocker once said in an interview. "No human being could have come through such a World War I-style conflict and not have been forever affected. His strategic goal was an outright victory over Iraq, and if that was not possible, to create and influence a weak Iraq."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| 2 inmates missing in Mississippi after riots, deaths at prisons across the state Posted: 04 Jan 2020 12:52 PM PST  Two inmates at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman were reported missing early Saturday, amid a week of riots and deaths at prisons across the state.
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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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| Trump lawyers want columnist's defamation suit to be tossed Posted: 03 Jan 2020 05:15 PM PST  President Donald Trump's lawyers asked a judge Friday to throw out an advice columnist's defamation lawsuit over his response to her allegation that he raped her in the 1990s. Trump's lawyers argue E. Jean Carroll's suit can't go forward in a New York state court because his statements were made in Washington. New York law doesn't allow for defamation suits over statements made elsewhere, except in circumstances Carroll's case doesn't meet, Trump lawyer Lawrence S. Rosen wrote.
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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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| The New U.S. Space Force Also Has a 'SPOC' Posted: 03 Jan 2020 07:33 AM PST  It's perfectly logical.
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| Argentine Fighter Wins $1 Million in NYC, Won’t Bring Prize Money Home Posted: 03 Jan 2020 12:44 PM PST ![Argentine Fighter Wins $1 Million in NYC, Won't Bring Prize Money Home]( "Argentine Fighter Wins $1 Million in NYC, Won't Bring Prize Money Home") (Bloomberg) -- Emiliano "He-Man" Sordi, an Argentine martial arts fighter, won a $1 million purse in New York City. If he has his way, that's just where the money will stay."I'm not going to be so stupid as to take even one dollar back to Argentina," Sordi wrote Thursday on Twitter after battering Jordan Johnson into submission to win the Professional Fighters League's light heavyweight title at Madison Square Garden.Read More: Hottest Job in Argentina Is Helping the 1% Hide Their Cash Abroad Many Argentines stash their savings outside the country, upwards of $300 billion according to government figures, because they've lost heavily during past crises in the troubled South American nation. In the late 1980s there was hyperinflation, and in the early 2000s the government turned dollar savings into pesos at an unfavorable exchange rate. More recently, there have been sudden currency devaluations.Sordi, 28, said in a television interview that the uncertainty -- and the prospect of taxes as high as 50% -- made him want to keep his prize in the U.S. Efforts to reach him Friday were unsuccessful.The fighter, who is 6-foot-2, about 205 pounds and sports the requisite complement of tattoos, has a record of 22 wins and eight losses. Growing up in Rio Cuarto, his father was a lathe operator and money was short -- when he began training he had to borrow gloves. Now, he splits his time between Argentina and San Diego, California.Mariano Sardans, founder of wealth management firm FDI in Buenos Aires, said in an interview that Sordi may be obliged to bring the dollars home and face an unfavorable exchange rate and taxes. President Alberto Fernandez has tightened currency controls to stem capital flight and increased export taxes to boost fiscal revenues."They talk about socialism but with other people's money," Sordi said on television. "It's really easy that way."\--With assistance from Jorgelina do Rosario.To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan Gilbert in Buenos Aires at jgilbert63@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Juan Pablo Spinetto at jspinetto@bloomberg.net, Stephen Merelman, Robert JamesonFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Hundreds flee fearing Boko Haram after Chad army leaves Nigeria Posted: 04 Jan 2020 09:18 AM PST  Chad has ended a months-long mission fighting Boko Haram in neighbouring Nigeria and withdrawn its 1,200-strong force across their common border, an army spokesman told AFP on Saturday. "None of our soldiers remains in Nigeria," he added.
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| 7-ton titan washes ashore hundreds of miles from home Posted: 03 Jan 2020 10:00 PM PST  Mother Nature delivered a belated Christmas gift to New Smyrna Beach, Florida, on Dec. 26, with residents gathering to see the metal behemoth that washed ashore.The "gift" was a bright red, 21-foot-long, 8-foot-wide buoy with a white "8" near the top. Previously used as a channel marker to guide ships, it had traveled over 300 miles from Port Royal Sound off the coast of South Carolina after being torn loose from its mooring after Hurricane Dorian, the U.S. Coast Guard said.But this wasn't the first time the buoy had gone rogue. In 2017, it had been uprooted from Charleston, South Carolina, and washed ashore Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. The Daytona Beach News-Journal reported that this occurred during Hurricane Irma.Until the U.S. Coast Guard clarified the story of the two separate occurrences, there were reports that the buoy had been lost at sea for two years after Hurricane Irma and had recently washed ashore for the first time."The buoy broke away in 2017 and was recovered shortly thereafter," spokesman for the U.S. Coast Guard Sector Jacksonville Petty Officer 2nd Class Ryan Dickinson told the outlet. "Then, after Hurricane Dorian rolled through, (Coast Guard Sector Charleston) did an inspection of all the buoys."It has not yet been determined exactly how the buoy broke loose from its mooring in either occurrence.Although Hurricane Irma's path took it up the west Florida coast and into Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee, impacts from the powerful storm did stretch to the coasts of the Carolinas.Charleston, South Carolina, received 8 inches of rain, strong winds and a battering surf from the storm.> GOES16 captured this imagery of Irma from landfall yesterday up until mid-morning 9/11. Get the latest info @ https://t.co/cSGOfrM0lG pic.twitter.com/DgLLqijRiM> > -- NOAA Satellites (@NOAASatellites) September 11, 2017Like the red jeep that Dorian had stranded on Myrtle Beach, the red buoy attracted a crowd of beachgoers. A few even took to climbing the marker as it sat precariously tilted in the sand.But on Thursday, Volusia County contractors came to transport the buoy. The temporary tourist attraction will be taken to Jacksonville to evaluate whether it can be used again, officials told The Associated Press.
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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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| Fresno mass shooting: police arrest six suspects in deadly November attack Posted: 03 Jan 2020 10:03 AM PST  Authorities say that gang members targeted an event where they believed rival gang members were gatheredPolice in Fresno, California, have arrested seven suspects in a mass shooting that left four dead in November, alleging gunmen targeted a backyard where they believed rival gang members were gathered.Police in the central valley city said this week that seven gang members were responsible for the 17 November shooting at a watch party for a Sunday afternoon football game. The suspects opened fire at a party in retaliation for a recent gang-related killing, authorities said, but the victims were not gang members and not part of the group that the suspects meant to target.All four men killed were of Hmong descent, part of the vibrant community of families who came to California as refugees after fleeing war and violence in south-east Asia. The tragedy devastated Hmong people across the globe, and families of the victims were initially outraged at law enforcement's suggestions that their loved ones may have had ties to gangs.Police alleged Tuesday that Mongolian Boy Society gang members were behind the killing, and that two gunmen with semiautomatic weapons attacked the home because they thought it was a party of a rival Asian Crips gang. But the investigation revealed only one person watching the football game had a connection with Asian Crips,and was "not an active gang member", said Andy Hall, Fresno's police chief. The department has said there was no evidence suggesting the four fatal victims were gang members.A police spokesman said there were some people who left the party who have not been identified.The victims were Xy Lee, 23, a well-known Hmong singer; Kou Xiong, 38, a chef at a local restaurant; Phia Vang, 31, a musician who worked at a local lab; and Kalaxang Thao, 40, who worked at an Asian grocery store. Six other people were injured.On 17 December, police arrested Billy Xiong, a 25-year-old Fresno resident, on suspicion of mail theft and located one of the guns used to kill the four men, authorities said. The mass shooting was allegedly retaliation for the killing of his brother, Randy Xiong, 16 hours earlier. Police also eventually arrested Anthony Montes, 27; Jhovanny Delgado, 19; Pao Vang, 19; Porge Kue, 26; Johnny Xiong, 25; and Ger Lee, 27.Hall alleged the men were "self admitted" Mongolian Boy Society members and that they all planned the shooting, but police have not said who shot the men in the backyard. Lee, Montes, Kue and Billy Xiong were charged Thursday in state court with murder, conspiracy to commit murder, attempted murder and a gang charge. The other three men were charged in federal court with conspiracy to commit murder in the aid of racketeering.Lawyers for the suspects could not immediately be reached."It is bittersweet," said Bobby Bliatout, a local Hmong community leader. "We are happy that they were caught … so we can have some closure and move on."He said the initial suggestion by police that the killings were gang-related had overshadowed the horror of the losses: "It's a terrible tragedy … in minority communities, we are targeted right away with the word 'gang' or 'criminals'."Nou Xiong, a reporter for the local Hmong TV Network, who is also one of the victim's cousins, said many in the Fresno Hmong community were surprised to learn police had made arrests: "They thought it was going to be another cold case or just disregarded as another 'gang shooting'. That's what they do with minority communities."Vong Mouanoutoua, a local councilman, said it was clear "innocent lives were taken", adding that people shouldn't dwell on the gang label."A gang member's life is not less important than a non-gang member's life. It's always a loss," he said, noting that the men arrested were all very young. "Their lives are changed forever."Kou Lee, the 31-year-old brother of Xy Lee, the famous singer killed in the attack, told the Guardian after the shooting that he was "distraught" about the word gang being tied to his brother, who was well known and celebrated in Fresno: "Everybody fell in love with him when he sings."Xy Lee's community was other artists and musicians, said Mitch Herr, another Hmong community leader, who had lunch with the singer a week before he was killed: "Anyone that came to know him loved him, because he was always there for the community, always there for his friends … The future was so bright for him."
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| Danger: Should We Fear China's New H-20 Stealth Bomber? Posted: 02 Jan 2020 09:30 PM PST  It's set to fly in 2025.
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| Carnival Elation spills 'gray water' at Florida port due to valve problem Posted: 03 Jan 2020 07:43 AM PST  The Carnival Elation spilled "gray water" from its plumbing and shower systems while docked at Port Canaveral in Florida on Thursday.
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| A new anti-robocall law pummels spam callers with fines and pressures phone companies to stop robocalls in their tracks — but it won't end them just yet Posted: 03 Jan 2020 10:12 AM PST  The TRACED Act increases fines on spam callers and requires phone companies to stop robocalls and identify spoofed numbers with fake Caller IDs.
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