| Biden answers critics of his moderation: 'I have no love' for Republicans who attack me Posted: 19 Dec 2019 06:43 PM PST  At the Democratic debate, former Vice President Joe Biden responded to critics on the left who say he is too moderate — and too willing to work with Republicans who have enabled President Trump — to be the party's nominee.
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| Klobuchar has to prove her electability every day. Why not Buttigieg? Posted: 20 Dec 2019 12:59 PM PST  He's the 37-year-old mayor of Indiana's fourth-largest city, yet he has risen to the top of the polls in Iowa and New Hampshire. She is the thrice-elected senior senator from a state Donald Trump nearly won in 2016, yet she has struggled to break out of the mid-single digits.
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| Look Out America: Russia's Hypersonic Avangard Nuclear Missile Is Going Live Posted: 20 Dec 2019 02:45 PM PST  The Avangard is a nuclear-armed glider that travels at hypersonic (faster than Mach 5) speed.
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| A Mississippi man went on a window-breaking spree just so he could get arrested and stay in jail to escape the cold Posted: 20 Dec 2019 11:39 AM PST  A homeless man in Natchez, Mississippi, asked if he could stay in jail for shelter. Deputies told him he couldn't do so unless he was in custody.
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| 3 Legal Experts on What the Obamacare Ruling Really Means Posted: 20 Dec 2019 05:29 AM PST  Ever since Judge Reed O'Connor of the Northern District of Texas ruled a year ago that the Affordable Care Act was unconstitutional, the country has been waiting for the next arbiter -- a federal appeals court -- to weigh in on the fate of the landmark health law.That ruling finally came Wednesday. But it offered little clarity.The judges from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 that one key element of the law -- the mandate requiring people to have insurance -- was unconstitutional. But they sent the rest of the case back to O'Connor for what the dissenting judge called a "do-over," asking him to give it another think on the question of whether other parts of the law should be struck down too.The move means the legal showdown could continue for a long time, almost certainly beyond the 2020 election.We spoke with three law professors who have closely followed the battles over Obamacare to preview what next steps in this already prolonged litigation might look like.Can anything be done to speed up this process?The group of Democratic states that are defending the act could ask for all judges on the 5th Circuit to take the case, known as an en banc hearing. Xavier Becerra, the attorney general of California, said in a news conference Thursday that he wants to appeal directly to the Supreme Court but is consulting other attorneys general in the group about that strategy."Both are long shots," said Jonathan H. Adler, who teaches at Case Western Reserve University School of Law. Since there are no immediate consequences to Wednesday's ruling -- the law continues to be enforced while the court process plays out -- the Supreme Court, in particular, would be unlikely to consider the case until it has made its way fully through the lower courts, Adler said.Not everyone shares that view, given the national importance of the law to the nation's health care system. "This is an unusual case, and the writing for the ACA is on the wall," said Nicholas Bagley, a professor at the University of Michigan School of Law. "So the court might opt to hear it now."When is O'Connor likely to rule again?The 5th Circuit put the burden on both sides to do their homework, to submit new briefs and reargue the case, a time-consuming process. And the federal government will be taking a new stance, since it now supports striking down the full ACA, a different position from its original one.Adding the time it will take for O'Connor to draft a fresh decision, his ruling might not emerge for nearly a year, several legal observers say. Then the appeal process would begin anew.Is this decision a legal punt?Adler considers the ruling a punt, saying, "it has no practical effect."Bagley, not so much: "The Supreme Court might well take the case, and this will remain a political headache for the Republicans."Abbe R. Gluck, a professor at Yale Law School, characterizes the 5th Circuit's ruling as more intentional. "As the dissent says, severability is a question of law -- the court doesn't need more briefing or facts to determine," Gluck said, referring to the doctrine that says when Congress strikes down an element of a law but doesn't explicitly erase it all, the rest stands. "Instead, it sent the case back to a judge who has made his distaste for the entire ACA unclear," ducking responsibility for knocking it down or reinforcing it.Any clue what the appeals panel really thinks?"I think the panel is skeptical of the all-or-nothing approach to severability and isn't quite sure what to do," Adler said. "But that is somewhat speculative on my part."Bagley took a harder line, saying he thought the majority opinion almost completely endorsed O'Connor's ruling. The judge had said that when Congress in 2017 eliminated the tax penalty for those who didn't buy insurance, the full act became null."The court thinks, though, that there might be a few portions of the ACA that can be salvaged," Bagley said. "But it's signaling that it's OK if O'Connor thinks those are precious few indeed."Any bets on how the 5th Circuit will ultimately rule?Gluck said the panel noted that O'Connor gave short shrift to the views of the 2017 Congress, which struck down the penalty for not buying insurance but said nothing about eliminating the full health care law."Once the inquiry properly shifts to the 2017 Congress," she said, "it will be hard for any court to invalidate the whole law without looking like it is engaging in egregious judicial overreach."How long could this case continue?"The case is all but certain to drag out well past the 2020 election," Bagley said.Among the three law professors, on that point there was no dissent.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
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| The Army and Navy's investigation is finally over: The academy students accused of flashing 'white power' signs were just playing the stupid 'circle game' Posted: 20 Dec 2019 11:21 AM PST  The Naval Academy said one of the midshipmen texted their roommate "got em" in an apparent reference to seeing the gesture on TV.
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| U.S. transport chief said economic issues not a factor in 737 MAX's safety review Posted: 20 Dec 2019 02:27 PM PST  The economic impact of Boeing Co's planned halt of 737 MAX production will not be considered by U.S. regulators in their ongoing review of when to end the grounding of a plane involved in two major fatal crashes, U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao said on Friday. In an interview with Reuters, Chao said the White House has not pressured the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to speed up its review. Chao also said the White House Council of Economic Advisers had conducted a study of the economic impact of the grounding, which forced Boeing - a critical American manufacturing company - to halt deliveries in March, and assessed that it would cause around a 0.4% reduction in U.S. gross domestic product.
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| Syria says possible drone attacks hit 3 oil, gas facilities Posted: 20 Dec 2019 11:18 PM PST ![Syria says possible drone attacks hit 3 oil, gas facilities]( "Syria says possible drone attacks hit 3 oil, gas facilities") Near-simultaneous attacks believed to have been carried out by drones hit three government-run oil and gas installations in central Syria, state TV and the Oil Ministry said Saturday. No one claimed responsibility for the attacks, which targeted the Homs oil refinery — one of only two in the country — as well as two natural gas facilities in different parts of Homs province. Syria has suffered fuel shortages since earlier this year amid Western sanctions blocking imports, and because most of the country's oil fields are controlled by Kurdish-led fighters in the country's east.
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| Trump will ‘absolutely’ designate Mexican cartels like CJNG as terrorists. Will it help? Posted: 20 Dec 2019 10:20 AM PST  President Donald Trump will "absolutely" designate Mexican cartels as terrorists, which could fray already strained U.S.-Mexico relations.
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| Trudeau to US: don't sign China trade deal unless Canadians freed Posted: 20 Dec 2019 01:02 AM PST  Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called on the United States not to sign a trade deal with China unless Beijing agrees to release two Canadians detained since last year, prompting a defensive response from Beijing. Former diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor have been held in China's opaque legal system since they were apprehended on December 10, 2018, accused of espionage.
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| 'Steel Rain': Could This Be the U.S. Military's Ultimate Weapon? Posted: 21 Dec 2019 12:11 AM PST  Don't take on an MLRS.
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| The Texas ex-police officer who fatally shot Atatiana Jefferson in her own home has been indicted on a murder charge Posted: 20 Dec 2019 12:40 PM PST  Atatiana Jefferson had been playing video games with her nephew on October 12 when the officer, Aaron Dean, shot her through her bedroom window.
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| Vegans charged with murder after baby dies of starvation Posted: 20 Dec 2019 08:53 AM PST  A vegan couple who fed their children only raw fruits and vegetables have been charged with murder after their son allegedly died of starvation.
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| POWER RANKING: Here's who has the best chance of becoming the 2020 Democratic presidential nominee Posted: 20 Dec 2019 09:05 AM PST  We've combined Insider polling and results of Morning Consult's daily survey to create a weekly power ranking of the potential 2020 candidates.
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| New dedicated migrant bus route prompts outrage in Greece. Posted: 21 Dec 2019 07:04 AM PST  A new bus route devised specifically for migrants has sparked outrage in a town in northern Greece, with accusations of segregation and racism following hostility to migrants from some locals. In 2016 an old military settlement in Diavata, on the outskirts of Thessaloniki, has been turned into a refugee camp for about 1,000 people, 30 of whom are unaccompanied minors. The camp has been met with hostile protests since the beginning. In 2016, when construction started, former Mayor Mimis Fotopoulos was assaulted by locals who opposed it. Protests by anti-refugee groups have been mounting since then. Most recently, in November, a "barbeque against illegal migrants" was organised by a group called "United Macedonians" where attendants ate pork and drank alcohol in view of the camp's mostly Muslim residents. The action drew heavy criticism. Senior members of the governing conservative New Democracy party expressed their support for the barbeque, and one of them even attended. Other members of the party condemned the event. The "Ionia Committee", another protest group of locals against the camp has been pushing for a separate bus line. Migrant and refugee numbers are rising across Europe In early November, a spokesperson claimed that the number 54 bus, which currently services both residents and the camp, "is filled with migrants and locals can't fit on", adding that there have been reports of harassment. On their Facebook page, the Ionia Committee described the approval of the new bus line as a "vindication of their struggle". In a press release, the Communist Party of Greece said the decision on the new bus "caters to the far-right, ramps up racist views and is no cause for celebration". Users on social media have also described the decision as "racist" and have drawn parallels with mid-century segregation in the US. Greek newspaper Documento likened the route to 20th-century segregation in the US Deep South with a headline saying it was like "Alabama '55", while local news outlet Alterthess in an editorial described it as "an ignorant decision that resembles dark times". A child holds a banner reading "Asylum and shelter for refugees" as an anti-racist group protests in solidarity with refugees and migrants outside the refugee's camp of Diavata The bus will go by the refugee camp and then follow a parallel route to the existing one. The municipality's announcement claimed that the new line would "relieve line 54 which services Diavata". Ioannis Ioannidis, the Mayor of Delta claims that it wasn't the Committee, but the Municipality that requested the bus line and dismisses all criticism of segregation. "The issue is that OASTH has greatly reduced bus routes", he told The Daily Telegraph. "The new bus will also pick up locals and visitors along the way, it will not start from the camp and head straight to the train station". Evangelos Papadakis, a Public Information Officer in UNHCR's Thessaloniki branch says they expect the new bus will benefit the residents in the area, but they will remain sceptical until its exact route and the particulars of accessibility to all are announced. According to recent data, there are 103,500 refugees staying in Greece. 71,368 arrivals have been recorded in 2019. More than a million refugees have passed through Greece since 2015. Hardened immigration laws have made it difficult for them to be relocated towards mainland EU. Anti-refugee protests have broken out in various locations across the country over the last few months.
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| Why did this US governor pardon child rapists and brutal killers? Posted: 21 Dec 2019 03:00 AM PST  Matt Bevin has horrified opponents and allies alike with a slew of 'extreme pardons' that also disproportionately benefited white offendersIn May 2014, Patrick Baker and two accomplices set out to rob a house in Knox county, Kentucky. Baker knew the hardest part of the home invasion would be getting past the front door, so he devised a plan to dress up as police officers conducting a routine investigation.Once inside the Mills family home, Baker revealed his true colours. He tied up the mother of the family, ignoring the pleas of the three children present, stole money and objects, then turned a gun on the father, Donald Mills, shooting him dead.When Judge David Williams sentenced Baker in December 2017 to 19 years in prison for reckless homicide, burglary and impersonating a police officer, he said he would have given a longer punishment if he could. "I've been practicing law for 30-something years, and I've never seen a more compelling or complete case, the evidence was just overwhelming."Fast-forward just two years and Patrick Baker is a free man, released by Kentucky's outgoing governor in act that has been dubbed "extreme pardon". The brutal killing is just one of the extraordinary elements of the eleventh-hour move by Matt Bevin, a Republican in the Donald Trump mould who even by his own controversial record has astonished and angered his state with his pardons.It was the final manoeuvre of a governor who was elected in 2016 on Trump's coat-tails, making Kentucky the last southern state in America to turn Republican, only to be voted out of office last month. What motivated a politician who has spent the past three years waging bitter wars with teachers, trade unionists, voters, liberals, scientists and reproductive rights advocates suddenly display such profuse mercy towards prisoners has become the talk of Kentucky.Even his own previously loyal Republican peers have expressed bewilderment. The top Republican in the state senate has called for an investigation of Bevin's "extreme pardons and commutations".Mitch McConnell, the US senator from Kentucky better known as the Republican trying to stymie Trump's impeachment trial in Congress, has denounced the release of "heinous criminals" in his home state as "inappropriate".Speculation of what drove Bevin to his action initially focused on money, after the Louisville-based Courier Journal discovered that the family of Patrick Baker had donated $21,500 to Bevin's political campaign funds before the commutation. Suspicion of pecuniary incentives then turned to moral outrage of a different sort after Bevin tried to explain on local radio why he had pardoned Micah Shoettle after only 18 months of his 23-year sentence for rape."There was zero evidence," Bevin told the radio host, adding that the girl's hymen had been intact.That provoked a whole new chorus of indignation, including from paediatricians who pointed out that rape cannot be proved or disproved by examination of the hymen.That was just the start of it. As intrepid local journalists began to dig into the mountain of pardoned cases, other apparent horrors emerged.They included further sexual offenders. Dayton Jones, who Bevin set free after three years of a 15-year sentence, had pleaded guilty to raping a boy aged 15 whose bowel he ruptured with a sex toy. Charles Phelps had his name removed from the sex offender registry by Bevin having pleaded guilty in 2013 to child abuse images offences and sexual conduct with minors.The gruesome details of the violent crimes committed by some of those selected for commutation did not stop there. Delmar Partin was convicted of beheading a female co-worker and hiding her mutilated body in a barrel; Irvin Edge had hired a hitman to murder his business partner at home in front of his family; Blake Walker had killed his own parents.Most of the lucky 428 singled out by Bevin were non-violent. When the Courier Journal came to analyse the beneficiaries of his largesse, the paper found that 336 of them were on non-violent drug sentences.But therein lay another discrepancy. Within that group, 95% were white. That's in a state in which 20% of inmates on drug convictions are African American or from some other minority community.The newspaper calculated there were almost 1,000 black or other minority prisoners who would have qualified for Bevin's largesse. He chose 16.On one level, there is something fitting about the storm of controversy in which Bevin has finished his governorship given that disputes seemed to follow him around throughout his term in office. At the height of a recent measles epidemic, he let it be known that he had exposed each of his nine children to a neighbor's chickenpox so that they would contract the disease as an alternative to getting vaccinated."They were miserable for a few days, and they all turned out fine," he said, while telling the federal government to get its nose out of people's private business. That anti-vaxxer sentiment expressed by Kentucky's then governor earned him a riposte from a leading paediatrician who remarked: "We're no longer living in the 17th century".Earlier this year, when Kentucky schools were closed to protect children from the -20F (-29C) wind chills, Bevin publicly complained: "C'mon now. I mean, what happened to America? We're getting soft."On policy, he followed the classic Trump textbook, ramming through "right-to-work" laws that prevent trade unions gathering fees as a condition of employment, denouncing teachers on strike for exposing kids in their charge to sexual abuse and physical danger, supporting efforts to suppress the vote among minority communities, limiting access to Medicaid and banning abortion at 20 weeks.The toxic combination earned him Trump's adoration – the US president unsuccessfully campaigned on Bevin's behalf in the recent gubernatorial race – but it also gained him the mantle of one of the most unpopular governors in the US.Last week Bevin posted a long screed on Twitter in which he sought to explain his pardons. He began by evoking the spirit of redemption and second chances, and the ambition to help offenders seek rehabilitation.He went on to insist that during his years as governor he had invested hundreds of hours to reviewing petitions for pardon. "Contrary to that which has been falsely stated by many, not a single person was released who had not already been scheduled for a specific release date," he said.He denied any financial motive, calling any such suggestion "highly offensive and entirely false".The Twitter thread does not appear to have satisfied his detractors, or calmed the widespread shock at a Republican's last-minute flurry of pardons. The sister of the murdered home owner, Donald Mills, was blunt after she learnt that Patrick Baker was now out."Matt Bevin can rot in hell," she said.
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| Iran's Missile Forces: Just How Deadly? Posted: 21 Dec 2019 08:30 AM PST  Iran has heavily invested in these capabilities.
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| U.S. Diplomat's Wife Charged Over Teen's 'Death by Dangerous Driving' in U.K. Crash Posted: 20 Dec 2019 07:09 AM PST  After the incident, Anne Sacoolas claimed diplomatic immunity and left the United Kingdom
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| Chris Christie wades into Senate impeachment fight Posted: 20 Dec 2019 02:09 AM PST ![Chris Christie wades into Senate impeachment fight]( "Chris Christie wades into Senate impeachment fight") The former New Jersey governor is launching an outside group to give Senate Republicans air cover ahead of an expected trial early next year.
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| Public push to legalise same-sex marriage in China Posted: 21 Dec 2019 06:10 AM PST  Legalising same-sex marriage was among the top suggestions made by the Chinese public to lawmakers tasked with amending the civil code, a spokesperson for the top legislative body said. The public push comes despite a recent crackdown in China on LGBT activists and the wider gay community, as well as censorship of content related to homosexuality in films and on social media. Feedback from ordinary people was solicited in November by the Commission for Legislative Affairs ahead of its meeting next week to discuss updates to the civil code, which mostly deals with matters relating to marriage and family.
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| Why Trump’s impeachment trial is unlikely to result in removal from office Posted: 20 Dec 2019 02:00 AM PST  McConnell and his fellow Republicans have signaled they will seek to move the Senate trial on and off the national stage as quickly as possible * McConnell and Pelosi set for showdown over next stepsSome time early next year, 100 senators are expected to swear an oath ahead of the Senate trial of Donald Trump on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.That oath reads: ''I solemnly swear that in all things appertaining to the trial of the impeachment of Donald Trump, now pending, I will do impartial justice according to the Constitution and laws: So help me God.''The trial could, theoretically, result in Trump's removal from office. But with Republican senators circling the wagons and majority leader Mitch McConnell vowing to work "in total coordination" with the White House on Trump's defense, that outcome appears extremely unlikely despite the vow of "impartial justice".Instead, McConnell and his fellow Republicans have signaled they will seek to move the impeachment trial on and off the national stage as quickly as possible, with zero witnesses testifying and unclear allowances for Democrats to make their case."If the Senate blesses this historically low bar, we will invite the impeachment of every future president," McConnell said in a floor speech Thursday. Earlier he had declared: "I'm not an impartial juror".The basic expectation is that Trump skates, with all 53 Republican senators taking the above oath and then, with the phrase "so help me God" still echoing in the chamber, voting to acquit. A two-thirds majority of senators – 67 if everyone votes – voting to convict would be required to remove Trump from office."Even in spite of the president's clear misconduct, everything for Senate Republicans comes down to politics right now," said Elliot Williams, a former justice department official and principal with the Raben Group, a public affairs and strategic communications firm."The president is immensely popular with Republican voters, and he has shown that he is willing to declare war on any Republican who steps out of line. That will largely affect Republican senators' behavior and that's unfortunate."Political and legal analysts warn the senate impeachment trial might not run so smoothly as McConnell might wish, however.Under historic senate rules, a simple majority of 51 votes would be enough to prevent a quick dismissal of the case, and to upend McConnells' minimalist preferences on everything from calling witnesses to presenting evidence.Further uncertainty will be introduced by the role of supreme court chief justice John Roberts, whose presence at the trial is prescribed in the constitution but whose actual role appears largely up to his own discretion."The rules give us a lot of specific stage instructions about what certain actors are supposed to say, the oaths they take, and at what time of day certain events are supposed to occur," said Hilary Hurd, a JD candidate at Harvard Law who has dissected the procedure for the Lawfare blog.> Even in spite of the president's clear misconduct, everything for Senate Republicans comes down to politics right now> > Elliot Williams"But when it comes to the major aspects of how this trial is actually going to work, it lays out some guidelines, but they're default guidelines that can be changed with 51 votes. So the twists and turns of the actual trial are not something that can be envisioned by just reading the rules."In the weeks leading up to impeachment, an intriguing split developed between McConnell, with his quickie game plan, and Trump, who has expressed a desire to produce the trial as reality TV tailored for conspiracy theorists and Trump superfans.Trump dared the House to impeach him "fast", "so we can have a fair trial in the Senate," with a parade of witnesses who would "reveal, for the first time, how corrupt our system really is." The president's draft witness list includes House intelligence chair Adam Schiff, House speaker Nancy Pelosi, Joe and Hunter Biden "and many more".In reply, Senate Democrats have proposed a witness list of their own, including former national security adviser John Bolton, acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and two officials from the office of management and budget, all of whom the White House blocked from testifying previously.House speaker Nancy Pelosi injected added uncertainty to the process on the night of Trump's impeachment, by saying the House would wait to refer articles of impeachment to the Senate until the terms of the Senate trial were made clear.McConnell "says it's OK for the foreman of the jury to be in cahoots with the lawyers of the accused," Pelosi said. "That doesn't sound right to us."The flagrant advertising by McConnell and colleagues such as Lindsey Graham – "I'm not trying to pretend to be a fair juror here," Graham has said – of their intention to acquit Trump is "utterly inappropriate" and "shocking", said Norm Ornstein, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and bestselling author of One Nation After Trump."Imagine if somebody's up on a murder trial, and it turns out that the foreman of the jury has worked with the defense team before the trial started to make sure that the outcome was just what they wanted," Ornstein said. "We would view it as outrageous."The peril, for Republicans, lies in a potential political price to be paid for seeming too dismissive of the allegations against Trump – and in the possibility that a small, renegade faction of four Republican senators could decide to hobble McConnell, if the majority leader is seen as moving too dismissively.While such a breakaway faction of elected Republicans has yet to materialize on any Trump-related question, there remains the possibility that Republican senators who are either relatively free from Trump's political power – Mitt Romney of Utah – or senators facing difficult re-election bids in 2020 – Susan Collins of Maine; Cory Gardner of Colorado; Dan Sullivan of Alaska; Joni Ernst of Iowa; Martha McSally of Arizona – could congeal to form some sort of temporary resistance."You have four, five, six Senate Republicans up in 2020 who are going to have to answer for those votes," said Ornstein. "So this is frankly pretty tricky business."Williams said: "It's hard to know how vulnerable Republican senators might act, given that for three years, we've heard maddening stories about how in private, Republican senators seem to be quite concerned about the president's conduct – but they simply refuse to engage in their constitutional duties and hold the president accountable."Roberts is another wild card. The two chief justices to have previously presided at Senate impeachment trials – William Rehnquist in 1999 and Salmon Chase in 1868 – left two opposing models for the role, said Hurd, with Chase treating the Senate like a courtroom in which he ruled frequently, and Rehnquist treating it like a political theater in which he played a limited role."Roberts is obviously Rehnquist's protegé," said Hurd. "How he decides to approach this is anybody's guess, and I imagine this is going to have a huge effect on how the different strategies will work themselves out."What's at stake in the Senate goes beyond the political fate of any member of Congress, Williams said."The core question here is what standard do we want to set for future presidents," said Williams. "If we accept that future presidents can invite foreign meddling in our elections, then senators are free to condone that."That would be a very sad day for American democracy."
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| Amy Klobuchar Seizes Her Debate Moment, Crushes It Posted: 19 Dec 2019 08:30 PM PST  It was the night Amy Klobuchar has been dreaming of for all of 2019. Whether it was the smaller debate stage, or a candidate finally finding her groove, the stars all seemed to align. Amy Klobuchar won the debate. She came across as very comfortable and likable. She had the second biggest amount of time, after Bernie Sanders. She nearly won the clock. She has experience, but these debates exercise a different muscle. Maybe it took her a while to acclimate to these debates. That could be fortuitous, if she is peaking at the right moment. I hesitate to talk too much about her smile and likability, for fear of being accused of sexism, but I think this is a big challenge for a lot of female candidates who want to appear tough and experienced. She probably did the best job of balancing all of these things that I have ever seen.On Trump's impeachment, she urged, "Let me make the case to the American people. As a wise judge said, 'The president is not king in America. The law is king."On NATO members mocking Trump, she suggested the more telling part was his response: "Yeah, they were making fun of him, some of the world leaders," she said. "The point of it was that he couldn't even tolerate it. He is so thin-skinned that he walked.""He quit. America doesn't quit," she said.On climate change, she said, "There's an Ojibwe saying that great leaders make decisions not for this generation but seven generations from now. This president doesn't keep his decisions for seven minutes."Regarding her Midwestern roots, she quipped, "It's not flyover country to me. I live there."Frequently flashing a wide smile, even as she threw sharp elbows, Klobuchar struck the perfect balance between "Minnesota nice" and tough-as-nails debater—between "hot dish" Midwestern mom and the moderate Plan B for Democrats should Joe Biden falter. Standing in Klobuchar's way, of course, is Mayor Pete Buttigieg. Not surprisingly, the two clashed on Thursday.In a spat over experience, Buttigieg boasted that he won re-election with "80 percent of the vote as a gay dude in Mike Pence's Indiana." Unfazed, Klobuchar shot back, pointing out that Buttigieg lost a state treasurer race "by 20 points." Buttigieg held his own, but the clash favored Klobuchar, whose experience is clearly superior. With Kamala Harris off the stage and not missed, it was the kind of performance that could help propel Klobuchar in Iowa, and/or—should Biden go on to win the nomination—put her on the short-list to be tapped as a potential running mate. Speaking of Biden, he certainly didn't do anything that would knock him off his perch as the frontrunner. Too often during this campaign, his stammering answers have raised eyebrows. Thursday night, however, Biden demonstrated clarity and energy, delivering what was probably his best line of his campaign: "If anyone has reason to be angry with the Republicans and not want to cooperate it's me," he said. "The way they've attacked me, my son, my family. I have no love. But the fact is we have to be able to get things done, and when we can't convince them, we go out and beat them."A commitment to working across the aisle is not likely to inspire the chattering classes, but one suspects it's more popular with the kinds of voters who want the return to normalcy that a Biden presidency represents. Still, the notion that if he can't convince them, he'll beat them, also demonstrates Biden's ability to be seen as a scrappy fighter, should he need to be. But the big story, in my estimation, is that Klobuchar finally showed up. If this performance translates into a poll surge—and that's never a guarantee, but it sure seems possible—Klobuchar could be finding her mojo just at the right time. She heads into the holiday season—potentially into 2020—on the heels of what was, by far, the best debate of her campaign. What a turnaround for a candidate who began 2019 plagued by stories of her mistreating staffers, and the vivid imagery of her eating a salad with a hair comb, and ends the year on an upswing. It might not seem like it, but Iowa will be here before you know it. In politics, timing is everything. For Klobuchar, it seems, time might have been on her side. 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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| The Iran-Iraq War Saw U.S. F-5Es and Soviet MiG-21s Battle To The Death Posted: 21 Dec 2019 06:00 AM PST  But it was more than a proxy war.
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| DNA test frees Texas man from life sentence - and leads to confession of a new murder suspect Posted: 21 Dec 2019 12:55 PM PST  Lydell Grant, who was serving a life sentence, has been freed after a new DNA test of a murder victim's fingernail pointed to a different suspect.
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| Court rules in landmark climate change case Posted: 21 Dec 2019 04:22 AM PST  The Dutch government must cut greenhouse gas emissions by 25% by the end of 2020 to protect its citizens from the effects of climate change.
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| Iran's Rouhani welcomes Japan opt-out of U.S.-led naval mission in Gulf Posted: 21 Dec 2019 06:48 AM PST  Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Saturday welcomed Japan's decision not to join a U.S.-led naval mission in the Gulf and said he had discussions on ways of "breaking" U.S. sanctions on a trip to Tokyo. Friction between Tehran and Washington has increased since last year when U.S. President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of Iran's 2015 nuclear deal with six nations and re-imposed sanctions on the country, crippling its economy. Washington proposed the naval mission after several attacks in May and June on international merchant vessels, including Saudi tankers, in Gulf waters which the United States blamed on Iran.
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| A floating nuclear power plant that activists dubbed 'Chernobyl on ice' has started producing electricity in Russia. Here's what it looks like. Posted: 20 Dec 2019 10:01 AM PST  The plant sailed 3,100 miles to a remote area in northern Russia in the fall. But environmentalists say floating nuclear plants are risky.
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| Gabbard faces heat back home for vote on impeachment Posted: 20 Dec 2019 03:53 AM PST  Long-shot presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard is facing some heat in her heavily Democratic home state of Hawaii for voting "present" on two articles of impeachment against President Trump.
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| An Impeached Trump Can’t Be Trusted on North Korea Posted: 20 Dec 2019 08:00 AM PST  (Bloomberg Opinion) -- President Donald Trump's all-but-certain acquittal in his impending Senate impeachment trial will likely embolden him in all sorts of ways, some more frightening than others. One deal he will be sorely tempted to make, after three years of erratic and mostly unproductive diplomacy, is to accommodate his "friend" Kim Jong Un and ease sanctions on North Korea. It will be up to Congress to stop him."If I weren't president, you'd be at war with North Korea," Trump said in September. It's certainly true that the U.S. and North Korea aren't trading blows across the DMZ. It's demonstrably false that, Trump's extravagant claim notwithstanding, "there is no longer a nuclear threat from North Korea." This is despite three meetings with Kim, a couple of "beautiful" letters, the U.S. and South Korean suspension of various military exercises, and the muting of criticism of the North's abominable human-rights record.If anything, North Korea has become a more formidable adversary since Trump took office. As a recent United Nations report makes clear, it has "continued to enhance its nuclear and missile programs." In Trump's first year in office, it conducted numerous intercontinental and medium-range ballistic missile launches and its sixth and most powerful nuclear test. (Also recall that Kim had his half-brother assassinated in Malaysia with a VX nerve agent drawn from the world's third biggest chemical-weapons stockpile.) Even after Kim said in April 2018 that tests of nuclear bombs and ICBMs were no longer necessary, North Korea has violated UN sanctions by launching short-range missile and stockpiling more fissile material. This year's 20 missile launches will almost match its record 24 launches in 2016.Less notorious but no less disturbing have been North Korea's increasingly aggressive cyber attacks. One brazen and sophisticated hack took over the infrastructure for ATM machines and enabled North Korean agents in 20 countries to make 10,000 cash withdrawals over the course of five hours. Since 2017, banks from Chile to Kuwait have reported the regime's cybertheft of tens of millions of dollars, along with thwarted attempts involving even bigger sums. Its hackers also filched more than $150 million from various crypto-currencies circulating in South Korea, Slovenia, India, Bangladesh and Southeast Asia.Sadly, Trump has fractured what used to be a fairly united global front against such misdeeds and provocations. His downplaying of North Korea's short-range missile launches, for instance, irked Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. His willingness to use the U.S. military presence in Japan and South Korea as leverage in trade negotiations has shaken the trust of allies, as have his extortionate demands for host-nation support that, in the case of South Korea, actually exceed the cost of keeping U.S. forces there. His trade war with China, whatever its other mixed benefits, has undermined China's willingness to work with the U.S. to pressure its neighbor. At the UN, a combination of U.S. high-handedness and neglect has badly damaged the existing UN sanctions regime, which both Russia and China are trying hard to loosen.To be sure, Trump deserves credit for seeking to end the stalemate that has prevailed on the Korean peninsula. But his impulsiveness, lack of vision and chaotic management style have nullified his summitry's positive impact, leaving dashed expectations on the part of North Korea and no clear path forward for the U.S.Earlier this month North Korea signaled a potential return to brinkmanship, threatening the unchecked pursuit of its nuclear and missile programs unless the U.S. agrees to ease sanctions. That possibility casts a shadow over Trump's re-election campaign, depriving him of a prized talking point.Congress is rightly alarmed over the current impasse and Trump's possible willingness to take whatever deal he can get. In the National Defense Authorization Act sent to the White House for signature last week, a bipartisan group of senators added a raft of new sanctions on North Korea. They need to go further than that, and there's a model for doing so: the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015, which gave Congress the ability to review the agreement, required the president to regularly certify Iran's compliance, limited his ability to waive sanctions and expedited the process for re-imposing statutory sanctions in the event of a breach. The Senate passed it 98-1; the House, 400-25.Republican senators who vote to acquit Trump on impeachment will have to live with the consequences of their actions. Asserting Congress's oversight over any North Korean deal — and more broadly, over this administration's erratic foreign policy — could at least help to make those consequences less dire for the rest of the world.To contact the author of this story: James Gibney at jgibney5@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Newman at mnewman43@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.James Gibney writes editorials on international affairs for Bloomberg Opinion. Previously an editor at the Atlantic, the New York Times, Smithsonian, Foreign Policy and the New Republic, he was also in the U.S. Foreign Service from 1989 to 1997 in India, Japan and Washington.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| The World's Only 'Battlecrusiers' are Back (And in Russia's Navy) Posted: 21 Dec 2019 12:20 AM PST  But are they just as obsolete as battleships?
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| 'It’s not easy': Wrongly convicted man leaves prison after 24 years, finds changed world Posted: 21 Dec 2019 10:49 AM PST  Ralph Lee Jr. savors his new-found freedom. But he's had to learn about cell phones and cable TV.
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| Joe Biden was drowned out during much of the Democratic debate Posted: 19 Dec 2019 08:05 PM PST  Former Vice President Joe Biden was supposed to be a 2020 frontrunner. He didn't talk like it.Biden, the largely undisputed poll leader in the Democratic primary field, spent just 15 minutes and 28 seconds speaking during Thursday's debate. That's nearly four minuted behind South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg's 19 minutes, 12 seconds, and puts Biden ahead of only entrepreneurs Andrew Yang and Tom Steyer in terms of talking time, CNN reports.Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) is meanwhile on the lower end of the polling spectrum. But that didn't stop her from speaking the second most of the seven candidates onstage. She gt in 19 minutes, 54 seconds of words, while Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) topped the list with 20 minutes, 18 seconds. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) meanwhile came in third just behind them with 19 minutes, 23 seconds.Find a chart comparing speaking times at CNN.More stories from theweek.com Porn is evil. Don't ban it. Elizabeth Warren's attack on Buttigieg's wine cave fundraiser 'plays into hands' of GOP, former Obama campaign aide says Trump is now attacking Christianity Today — and its editor is doubling down
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| China criticizes U.S. defense bill as interference Posted: 21 Dec 2019 03:57 AM PST  China's top lawmaking body on Saturday criticized the defense bill that Washington passed this week as "interference", Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported. You Wenze, a spokesperson for the Foreign Affairs Committee of China's National People's Congress (NPC), expressed "strong dissatisfaction" with the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), passed overwhelmingly in the U.S. Senate this week. U.S. President Donald Trump has promised to quickly sign the $738 billion bill into law.
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| Why Does Starbucks Melt Conservative Brains? Posted: 21 Dec 2019 01:57 AM PST  Rep. Steve King (R-IA) had an important warning to share on Tuesday: A Starbucks manager in North Carolina was firing employees for saying "Merry Christmas," a sure sign to him of future persecution against Christians.There was just one problem. The supposed Starbucks manager, who tweeted from the account @MuellerDad69, was not a Starbucks manager at all but a co-host of the lefty humor podcast "Eat The Rich." The trolly tweet should have been an obvious joke. But King was the latest conservative personality to fall for a hoax about Starbucks and its supposed politics. During the holiday season, and especially in a year when Starbucks' founder attempted to launch a presidential campaign, the coffee company has become a magnet for contentious political issues. Starbucks is more than a purveyor of hot bean water—it's the family table where America goes to argue.Take the past few weeks in Starbucks headlines. In late November, an Oklahoma Starbucks manager was fired after a police officer claimed he'd received a hot chocolate with "pig" printed on the label. The manager claimed the employee who printed the label was actually a longtime friend of the officer and that the cop told her the prank was "no big deal." That context was omitted during a Fox News segment in which an anchor speculated that "maybe there's an anti-law enforcement credo" at play in Starbucks. Last week, a California county sheriff claimed Starbucks baristas ignored a pair of police officers, prompting the sheriff to tweet that "the anti police culture repeatedly displayed by Starbucks employees must end." This week, it was King's participation in the "Merry Christmas" hoax.And all of this comes amid the annual right-wing panic over whether Starbucks' holiday cups are sufficiently Christian, and whether its employees say "Merry Christmas."Part of the problem is Starbucks' role as a public meeting place in a country that invests little in so-called "third places": areas of community engagement outside the home or workplace. Although spaces like parks and public squares conventionally fit this role, Starbucks is a popular substitute, where you can probably sit around for a few hours without buying anything. (It's also why Starbucks functions as a de facto public restroom in cities like New York that won't invest in usable public toilets.)That idea is baked into Starbucks' business model, said Tim Calkins, a professor of marketing at Northwestern University."Starbucks has always positioned itself as sort of a community spot," Calkins told The Daily Beast. "We've long talked about the idea of a third place: there's your home, there's your work, and then there's Starbucks."But when a national coffee franchise takes on the duties of a civic space, it can become a site for our national angst. "The inadvertent consequence is that people bring up a lot of the issues that are affecting the community," Calkins said. "You see a lot of these issues come to light."One such issue prompted Starbucks to put its "third place policy" into writing last year. Although the coffee shops have long implied that anyone is welcome, a Philadelphia location was accused of racial profiling for calling the police on a pair of black men who were waiting in the shop ahead of a business meeting—an incident that sparked a national conversation on racism.Outrage Grows After Arrest of Two Black Men at a Philly StarbucksSuccessful brands necessarily face greater scrutiny, said Scott Galloway, a professor of marketing at New York University. But a successful coffee brand can come under fire in a way that successful car companies seldom do."Coffee is something we engage in every day," Galloway said. "What Chevrolet thinks—car purchases happen every 5 to 7 years—is not as much a part of our everyday lives. We have a much more intimate relationship with coffee; the fact that we're in the store every day, and even the fact that coffee itself is somewhat linked to conversation and dialogue."There's also the question of whether Starbucks is seen as a liberal institution. Its founder, Howard Schultz, briefly teased a run against President Donald Trump this year. His promise to help America "come together" mirrored Starbucks' loftiest aspirations as a public meeting place. But the mockery for Schultz's presidential bid also looked a lot like the contempt for some of Starbucks' liberal-leaning campaigns, like an ill-advised 2017 plan to have baristas write "race together" on coffee cups when they wanted to discuss race issues with customers. Though Schultz billed himself as a "centrist independent," some of his anti-Trump aspirations might have colored Starbucks policies, Galloway suggested."The founder of Dunkin [Donuts] has and is not positioning him or herself for a run for president," he said. "I believe that Mr. Schultz—and this is his prerogative—wanted to be an active voice in the world of political discourse."Fancy coffees can already code as liberal. The term "latte liberal" has been used to cast segments of the left as finicky yuppies. When President Barack Obama acknowledged a Marine while holding a coffee cup, the right called it the "latte salute" even though the contents of his cup were unknown. The stereotype has given rise to a baffling industry of explicitly conservative coffee brands like Black Rifle Coffee Company. When Starbucks was accused of being anti-police earlier this year, Black Rifle pledged to donate bags of coffee to police officers.Though much of its fare wouldn't be out of place at other fast-food joints, Starbucks deliberately maintains an upscale image."Starbucks has always been something of an aspirational place," Calkins said. "I think people feel that about Starbucks, but as a result, they have expectations for the company. People bring all their opinions and points of view to Starbucks when they show up every day."4Chan Hoax About Free Starbucks Coffee for Black Customers Reaches Laura Ingraham's ShowThe result is a ubiquitous coffee chain that functions as a public space across the country, despite a perceived liberal image that clashes with many of its customers' conservative politics. It's a situation ripe for Fox News-style grievance narratives about the embattled Republican, forced to endure liberal tyranny everywhere he turns. That's why some of the biggest Starbucks controversies have stemmed from the company's own customers. In 2015, a conservative activist filmed a rant about Starbucks' lack of explicit Christian imagery on its holiday cups, inspiring a wave of anti-Starbucks backlash on the religious right. Tellingly of America's apolitical Starbucks addiction, some conservatives said they told baristas to write "Merry Christmas" on their cups, but did not boycott the company.The holiday furor never fully died down, and now the end of every year is marked by news stories about whether Starbucks' holiday cups have done enough to appease the Christian right. (In 2017, the cups featured two cartoon hands holding each other, prompting conservative outlets like the Blaze to wonder whether the hands looked a little too masculine and whether Starbucks was promoting "a gay agenda.")Inevitably, those fears migrated into hoaxes and parodies. @MuellerDad69's trolling tweet ("I'm the manager of a Starbucks in Charlotte NC. I have informed my employees that they will be fired on the spot if I hear them say 'Merry Christmas' to any customers. I'm doing it because I personally dislike conservative Christians.") was shared as a screenshot by a conservative Facebook user with the caption, "this guy hates our President and is now attacking Christians whose next … please share." King shared that post with the caption "wow."On Twitter, Starbucks—which did not respond to a request for comment for this story—clarified that it did not employ @MuellerDad69 and that his account had been suspended for impersonating a barista.Even when Starbucks hoaxes turn out to be fake, they've still found their way onto Fox News. In 2018, a 4chan hoax that encouraged trolls to demand free coffee for black customers was featured on Laura Ingraham's primetime show as an example of "liberal guilt" and "liberals using black people."Ingraham called the prank "so funny."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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| Russia appears to have kept a major nuclear accident secret. But scientists called the 'Ring of 5' tracked the plume of radiation to its source. Posted: 20 Dec 2019 09:28 AM PST  "An unprecedented release" of radiation in Europe can most likely be attributed to an undeclared nuclear accident at Russia's Mayak nuclear facility.
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| A Mexican indigenous town's environmental revolt Posted: 20 Dec 2019 05:48 PM PST  Cherán (Mexico) (AFP) - When illegal logging turned their green, pine-covered hills into an ecological wasteland, the people of the Mexican indigenous town of Cheran decided to arm themselves with rifles and reclaim their land. Today, eight years after rising up against illegal loggers and the drug cartel behind them, Cheran is practically an independent enclave tucked into the lawless mountains of western Mexico. Its residents have their own system of government based on community assemblies.
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| U.S. considers sending Mexican migrants to Guatemala Posted: 20 Dec 2019 09:18 PM PST  The Trump administration is weighing the possibility of sending Mexican asylum-seekers to Guatemala, which has seen hundreds of thousands of its own citizens trek north in the past year.
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