| In fiery memo, Dem lawmaker urges Congress to include Trump’s 'racism' in articles of impeachment Posted: 04 Dec 2019 09:47 AM PST  Rep. Al Green, the first member of Congress who called for President Trump to be impeached sent a memo Wednesday to House members urging them to incorporate concerns about Trump's "racism" into the ongoing impeachment inquiry.
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| Democrats face prospect of no black candidates on December debate stage Posted: 04 Dec 2019 01:43 PM PST  The most diverse Democratic candidate field will likely be represented by no black candidates in the next televised debate.
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| Wanted Indian guru resurfaces to announce new cosmic country Posted: 04 Dec 2019 08:36 AM PST  An Indian guru facing rape and sexual abuse charges made headlines Wednesday after he emerged from hiding and announced the birth of a new cosmic country with its own cabinet and golden passports. Swami Nithyananda, a controversial self-styled godman with thousands of followers in southern India's Karnataka and Tamil Nadu states, posted a video on his YouTube channel announcing the special project to his followers. 41-year-old Nithyananda announced that his country is called Kailaasa, and is the biggest Hindu nation without boundaries.
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| Pakistan pulls back on prosecuting Chinese sex traffickers Posted: 05 Dec 2019 06:58 AM PST  Pakistan has declined to pursue a sprawling case against Chinese sex traffickers due to fears it would harm economic ties with Beijing, the AP reported on Wednesday. Pakistan has been seeking closer ties with China for years as Beijing continue to make major investments in the country's infrastructure.
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| Russian spies used French Alps as 'base camp' for hits on Britain and other countries Posted: 05 Dec 2019 08:59 AM PST  Fifteen Russian spies, including those accused of the Salisbury nerve agent attack, used the French Alps as a "base camp" to conduct covert operations around Europe over a five-year period, according to reports. The revelations came as Germany expelled two Russian diplomats after prosecutors said there was "sufficient factual evidence" linking Moscow to the killing of a former Chechen rebel commander in central Berlin. According to Le Monde, British, Swiss, French, and US intelligence have drawn up a list of 15 members of the 29155 unit of Russia's GRU military spy agency who all passed through France's Haute-Savoie mountains close to the Swiss and Italian borders. They stayed between 2015 and late 2018, notably in the towns of Evian, Annemasse and Chamonix - the scene of a ski chase in the 1999 James Bond film, The World Is Not Enough. They arrived from London, Moscow, Spain and often Geneva. The Le Monde report added five new names to those already published by online investigative outlets such as Bellingcat and The Insider. Their identities and movements were uncovered during a joint probe by allied counterespionage services in the wake of the attempted poisoning of defector Sergei Skripal in Salisbury in March 2018, said the paper. Britain and its allies accuse the Kremlin of seeking to assassinate Mr Skripal, a charge Russia vehemently denies. Those who stayed in the Haute-Savoie included Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov - the cover names of the two GRU agents accused of carrying out the attack on Mr Skripal, along with Serguei Fedotov, the suspected mastermind. According to Le Monde, a fourth agent believed to be linked to the Skripal assassination attempt and who stayed in the Alps, Serguei Pavlov, was located in the UK by MI6 in 2017. Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, the Russian suspects in the Skripal poisoning, are among those alleged to have used the French Alps as a base Credit: Getty Images Europe Le Mondesaid the five new names cited, all aliases, are Alxandre Koulaguiine, Evgueni Larine, Tour Nouzirov, Naman Youssoupov and Guennadi Chvets. The unit was also active in areas such as Bulgaria, Moldova, Montenegro and Ukraine. Western intelligence services involved found no material or arms left behind by the agents during their stays in France, Le Monde said, but their presence was confirmed by where they ate, stayed and shopped. "The most likely hypothesis is to consider it (Haute-Savoie) as a rear base for all the clandestine operations carried out by unit 29155 in Europe," said a senior French intelligence official, quoted by Le Monde. The paper said that one theory is that by staying in the Alps, the agents hoped to shake off any suspicion before they carried out their missions, which could explain why they conducted no covert missions on French soil. On Wednesday, Angela Merkel's government summoned the Russian ambassador and ordered two of the embassy staff to leave the country within seven days. The two diplomats concerned are believed to be Russian intelligence officers, according to local media reports. The German foreign ministry said they had been declared persona non grata in protest at Russia's failure to cooperate with investigations into the killing of Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, a Georgian national shot dead in a Berlin park in August. The suspected killer was captured by police attempting to dispose of a gun believed to be the murder weapon in the nearby river Spree. He was carrying a Russian passport which identified him as Vadim Sokolov, but German prosecutors on Wednesday confirmed that they now believe that is a false identity. Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were both poisoned with Novichok, a banned chemical weapon, in Salisbury Credit: Social media/EAST2WEST NEWS Police findings indicate that it is "highly likely" the arrested man is Vadim Krasikov, a Russian national previously wanted for the murder of a businessman in Moscow in 2013, prosecutors said. A senior MP in Angela Merkel's Christian Democrat party (CDU) on Thursday described the case as a "return to the days of the Cold War". "Counterintelligence and foreign reconnaissance against Russia must be significantly expanded," Armin Schuster told Bild newspaper. "Germany must get its act together if a foreign state can order murder on German soil.". France denies any "laxism" by its embassy in Moscow for handing him a 90-day emergency visa on July 29 on a fictitious address. He passed through Paris before travelling on to Berlin. British and French intelligence sources told Le Monde the assassination was "ordered by the pro-Kremlin Chechen regime of Ramzan Kadyrov with logistical help of the Russian state". According to Le Monde, French intelligence suspects the Berlin assassination was leaked to the public for "political reasons" linked to President Emmanuel Macron's apparent rapprochement with Moscow. Last week, Mr Macron said: "Has the absence of dialogue with Russia made the European continent any safer? ... I don't think so." "France's desire to rebuild strategic ties with Moscow has clearly prompted reactions from states who prefer direct confrontation with Russia," said one French intelligence source, who denied any French "complacency or naivity" towards Moscow. French surveillance of foreign Russian espionage was, the source told Le Monde, "no doubt higher than any other service in Europe".
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| The Reviews Are In: 31 Air Force Pilots Say Why They Love the F-35 Stealth Fighter Posted: 03 Dec 2019 10:00 PM PST  This is better than checking Yelp.
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| 19 unforgettable images from the Pearl Harbor attack 78 years ago Posted: 05 Dec 2019 02:03 PM PST  December 7, 1941 began as a perfect Sunday morning. These photos show the attack by Imperial Japan that changed history.
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| Postal worker shot at a Virginia post office Posted: 04 Dec 2019 02:52 PM PST ![Postal worker shot at a Virginia post office]( "Postal worker shot at a Virginia post office") Authorities say a postal worker has been shot at a northern Virginia post office by an agent for the Postal Service's Inspector General's office. News outletsreport that it happened Wednesday morning at the parking lot of the Lovettsville post office in Loudoun County. The Loudoun County Sheriff's Office is investigating the shooting along with the inspector general's office.
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| The college admissions scandal ringleader tried to recruit 7 Stanford coaches to be part of the scheme but only one took the bait Posted: 04 Dec 2019 11:04 AM PST  Stanford President Marc Tessier-Lavigne published a letter about the school's investigation into the college admissions scandal on Tuesday.
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| Rep. Devin Nunes files $435 million defamation lawsuit against CNN Posted: 05 Dec 2019 04:42 AM PST  Rep. Devin Nunes, a California Republican, alleges that CNN published a "demonstrably false hit piece" on him.
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| Transgender teen charged in school shooting will be tried as an adult Posted: 04 Dec 2019 02:09 PM PST ![Transgender teen charged in school shooting will be tried as an adult]( "Transgender teen charged in school shooting will be tried as an adult") A 16-year-old transgender teenager should be tried as an adult on murder charges stemming from a shooting rampage at a suburban Denver high school in which one student was killed and eight others wounded, a Colorado judge ruled on Wednesday. Alec McKinney, 16, was ordered along with Devon Erickson, 19, to stand trial on first-degree murder, attempted murder and weapons charges in the May 7 shooting at the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) School in Highlands Ranch, Colorado, on May 7. An 18-year-old student at the school, Kendrick Castillo, was shot to death when he ran toward one of the two assailants in what has been called a heroic effort to stop the shooting and save lives.
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| Opposition figure freed in Nigeria after court ruling Posted: 05 Dec 2019 01:24 PM PST  Nigerian opposition activist Omoyele Sowore and co-defendant Olawale Bakare were set free on Thursday after months in detention, for alleged treason. The pair were released hours after a judge gave the secret police 24 hours to release Sowore, who had been held since August by the Department of State Services (DSS) after urging protests under the online banner "#RevolutionNow". Sowore, 48, also ran unsuccessfully against President Muhammadu Buhari in the February polls.
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| Double the Fighters: Why Japan Wants Domestic F-3s and the F-35 Posted: 05 Dec 2019 08:00 AM PST  Specialized roles for both planes.
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| The 25 Best Sci-Fi Movies on Netflix Right Now Posted: 05 Dec 2019 01:00 PM PST |
| Report: Investigators ask about Illinois House leader Posted: 05 Dec 2019 02:15 PM PST ![Report: Investigators ask about Illinois House leader]( "Report: Investigators ask about Illinois House leader") The longest-serving state House speaker in modern American history is a subject of inquiries in an ongoing federal corruption investigation that has already entangled several top Illinois Democrats, according to a newspaper report published Thursday. Four people interviewed by investigators told the Chicago Tribune that FBI agents and prosecutors asked about Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan's ties to ComEd lobbyists, contracts the utility had with Madigan associates and government jobs those close to Madigan have landed. A message seeking comment from Madigan spokesman Steve Brown on Thursday was not returned.
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| The fired Chicago police superintendent says he made a 'poor decision' on the night he was found asleep at a stop sign with his SUV running Posted: 04 Dec 2019 07:27 AM PST  Former Chicago police superintendent Eddie Johnson said he "did not intentionally mislead or deceive the Mayor or the people of Chicago."
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| President Trump's trade policy seems to have achieved the impossible Posted: 05 Dec 2019 04:42 PM PST  Past administrations' symbolic protocol exchanges with China were a fool's errand, writes Juscelino F. Colares of Case Western Reserve University
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| Tesla refused to help the police with an investigation into stolen copper wire after Elon Musk learned about the incident because the company was scared of bad press Posted: 04 Dec 2019 09:08 AM PST  Tesla declined to assist authorities on other occasions amid reports of "rampant crime" in 2018, according to the Reno Gazette Journal.
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| Rep. Duncan Hunter Shows no Signs of Resigning Despite Pleading Guilty to Campaign Finance Charges Posted: 05 Dec 2019 06:34 AM PST  Representative Duncan Hunter (R., Calif.) has not indicated that he will leave his seat in the House after he pleaded guilty on Wednesday to campaign finance violations.Hunter had long criticized the investigation against him as a "witch hunt," but announced on Sunday that he would change his stance and plead guilty. Hunter and his wife, who pleaded guilty to similar charges in June, were accused of using $250,000 in campaign funds to pay for family vacations to Hawaii, plane tickets for their pet rabbit, and other personal expenses. Both face a possible sentence of eight to fourteen months in jail."I failed to monitor and account for my campaign spending. I made mistakes, and that's what today was all about," Duncan told reporters on Tuesday after his guilty plea. He said he wanted to avoid a trial "for my kids. I think it would be really tough for them."However, the congressman has not yet discussed resigning from the House with minority leader Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.). Hunter refused to answer Politico on Wednesday when they asked whether he planned to resign.Hunter is scheduled to be sentenced on March 17. One Republican lawmaker said party leadership would give him time to "get his affairs in order," but that time would be limited. Republicans had to force Hunter to give up positions on various House committees after his guilty plea.Former Rep. Chris Collins (R., N.Y.) resigned on September 30, one day before he pleaded guilty to charges of insider trading.
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| Bloomberg says ending 'nationwide madness' of gun violence drives his White House bid Posted: 05 Dec 2019 01:44 PM PST  Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg said on Thursday he wants to become president to end "the nationwide madness" of U.S. gun violence, calling it evil and saying he would allow its victims to file lawsuits against gun manufacturers. The billionaire media mogul, who jumped into the crowded field of Democratic White House candidates last month, unveiled a national gun control plan at a forum with survivors of gun violence in Aurora, Colorado, where 12 people were killed during a mass shooting inside a movie theater in 2012. Apart from allowing gun violence victims to sue manufacturers, the plan would force owners of assault weapons to register their weapons and require permits for all gun purchases.
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| Hermit crabs dying after mistaking plastic for shells, study finds Posted: 04 Dec 2019 03:59 PM PST  Hermit crabs are mistaking plastic for shells and the problem has killed more than half a million of the crustaceans, a new study by the Natural History Museum has found. The creatures do not make their own shells but instead move from discarded shell to discarded shell as they grow. They are not used to plastic in their environment so do not know to avoid it. Once they crawl into a piece of plastic debris, the crabs frequently get stuck and starve to death. Researchers said that if even just one crab mistakes some plastic debris for a shell, this can cause a "gruesome chain reaction", as when one dies it emits a signal alerting others there is a new shell. This causes scores of crabs to come scurrying across the island and fall into the plastic trap. The team carried out several surveys across a range of sites to ascertain of how many containers there were, including how many were open, how many were in a position likely to trap crabs, and how many contained trapped crabs. The results recorded 61,000 crabs trapped in debris on Henderson Island and 508,000 on the Cocos (Keeling) islands. This equated to 1-2 crabs per m2 of beach falling foul of debris, a significant percentage of the population. Around 570,000 hermit crabs become entrapped in debris on two tropical islands - the Cocos (Keeling) Islands in the Indian Ocean and Henderson Island in the Pacific. Dr Alex Bond, Senior Curator in Charge, Birds, The Natural History Museum, said, "The problem is quite insidious really, because it only takes one crab. "Hermit crabs do not have a shell of their own, which means that when one of their compatriots die, they emit a chemical signal that basically says 'there's a shell available' attracting more crabs who fall into the containers and die, who then send out more signals that say there are more shells available. "Essentially it is this gruesome chain reaction." The results come from a first of its kind study led by the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS) at the University of Tasmania and including researchers from London's Natural History Museum as well as the Two Hands Project community science organization. IMAS researcher Dr Jennifer Lavers, who led the study said, "These results are shocking but perhaps not surprising, because beaches and the vegetation that fringes them are frequented by a wide range of wildlife. "It is inevitable that these creatures will interact with and be affected by plastic pollution, although ours is one of the first studies to provide quantitative data on such impacts." The study is published in the Journal of Hazardous Materials.
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| 'In cold blood': Syria Kurds say killed, robbed by Turkey proxies Posted: 04 Dec 2019 05:47 PM PST  Syrian Kurdish mother Shara Sido says the news came to her via a messaging application. Sitting inside a modest house in the de-facto Syrian Kurdish capital of Qamishli, the displaced 65-year-old scrolls through her phone to find a picture. Turkish troops and their Syrian proxies have overrun a swathe of northern Syria since October, after a deadly military campaign against Kurdish forces that caused tens of thousands to flee their homes.
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| Activists apologize for use of Holocaust victims’ remains Posted: 05 Dec 2019 01:50 AM PST  An activist group has apologized to Jewish organizations outraged over their use of purported Holocaust victims' remains in an installation outside Germany's parliament building meant to draw attention to the perils of far-right extremism. The Center for Political Beauty, a Germany-based activist group known for provocative stunts, installed an urn outside the Reichtstag building on Monday, saying it contained victims' remains that it had unearthed from 23 locations near Nazi death and concentration camps in Germany, Poland and Ukraine. Following the uproar from Jewish organizations decrying the stunt as an instrumentalization of the Holocaust and an affront to the dead, the group apologized and by Thursday morning the urn had been wrapped in opaque black plastic so its contents could not be seen.
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| Trump’s $28 Billion Trade War Bailout Is Overpaying Farmers Posted: 04 Dec 2019 08:57 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Terms of Trade is a daily newsletter that untangles a world embroiled in trade wars. Sign up here. President Donald Trump's $28 billion farm bailout may be paying many growers more than the trade war with China has cost them.The U.S. Department of Agriculture's calculations overshot the impact of the trade conflict on American soybean prices, according to six academic studies, a conclusion that is likely to add to criticism that the bailout has generated distortions and inequalities in the farm economy."It's clear that the payment rates overstated the damage suffered by soybean growers," said Joseph Glauber, the USDA's former chief economist who published a review of the research in late November. "Based on what the studies show, the damages were about half that."The academic research has focused on soybeans in part because the crop has been the most visible target of Chinese retaliation and overall received the most trade aid. But the method the department used to calculate trade losses also likely overstates the conflict's financial impact on most other farm products, though for a few commodities it may understate the true impact, Glauber, now a senior fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute, said in an interview.The divergence doesn't necessarily mean a bonanza for American farmers, who are being financially squeezed on other fronts, including a global commodity glut that is depressing prices and a year of wild weather that is damaging crop yields. Also, the trade conflict risks long-term loss of market share for U.S. producers as overseas customers build relationships with replacement suppliers. Neither the academic nor the USDA estimates take potential future market losses into account."You're ruining a huge export market," said Yuqing Zheng, an agricultural economist at the University of Kentucky. "Longer term, we don't know for sure what the impact will be. Even if there is no future tariff, China might import less from the United States."Still, a team led by Zheng estimated the trade conflict depressed U.S. soybean prices by only 36 cents per bushel in its first year, a period in which the bailout program paid soybean growers more than four times that: $1.65 per bushel.The scale of the farm rescue package has now swelled to more than twice the ultimate $12 billion cost of the controversial auto industry bailouts under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. And it's increasingly come under under fire.Senate Democrats issued a report in November arguing the trade aid program favors large producers over smaller ones. An advocacy group, the Environmental Working Group, released a study that asserted big farms so far have been the main beneficiaries of the billions of dollars in aid payments.The USDA forecast last week net farm income will rise more than 10% this year to $92.5 billion, with additional government aid accounting for all of the increase in profits. Almost 40% of projected U.S. farm profits this year will come from trade aid, disaster assistance, federal subsidies and insurance payments. With the extra aid, farmers will have their highest profits in six years, though still well below the $124 billion they netted in 2013, according to the department.A Purdue University-CME Group survey of farmers' agricultural sentiment climbed for a second month in November to match its highest level since the survey's inception in 2015. Midwest SupportersThe trade aid, particularly for soybeans, largely goes to the president's political supporters. Polls show Trump has maintained overwhelming backing from farmers. In the 2016 election, Trump won eight of the 10 states with the largest soybean acreage, all of them in the Midwest. Glauber estimates more than half of the direct payments under the USDA's market facilitation program cover soybeans.The apparent over-payment stems from the method the USDA used to compute trade damages for the rescue package. The department forecast the overall price impact of punitive tariffs China and other nations imposed on U.S. farm products without considering sales farmers would gain as the world market reorganized in response. But as China bought more soybeans from Brazil, instead of the U.S., other buyers stepped in to purchase more soybeans from the U.S., replacing product they had previously bought from Brazil."A broader analysis like some of these show the beans go elsewhere," Glauber said. "They don't just go into storage. Some of them go to Europe. Some of them go to other uses. We ended up crushing a lot more soybeans in 2018 than expected. We exported more vegetable oil, more protein meal. All of that mitigates the price impact."Pat Westhoff, director of the University of Missouri's Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute, led a team that estimated tariffs from China and other nations involved in trade disputes caused the price of U.S. soybeans to drop by 78 cents per bushel.The USDA projections "do not consider the impact of exports to other markets," Westhoff said. "They consider only the negatives and not the positives."New MarketsMichael Adjemian, an economist at the University of Georgia, came up with a lower impact: 52 cents a bushel. He based his model on the export price for soybeans in New Orleans."New markets emerged," Adjemian said. "We sold more to the rest of the world, though not enough to make up all of the difference."Robert Johansson, the USDA's chief economist, said the department decided to base trade aid on a projection of "gross" trade losses rather "net" losses primarily for consistent treatment of producers of diverse farm products affected. It's harder to isolate net trade impact for specialty crops such as pecans or almonds than for major commodities such as soybeans, he said."We need to be pretty sure whatever method we use is consistent across all commodities," Johansson said. "You can imagine what the reaction would be if we said we'll use this model for soybeans and that model for sorghum and another one for cotton."USDA officials also concluded after consulting with U.S. trade negotiators that there was an advantage to using the gross damages method because it is the basis the country uses for arguing cases before the World Trade Organization, which handles international trade disputes, Johansson said.Transportation FactorIndividual producers also may face greater losses than the overall net price impact of the trade war depending on their location because there may be higher transportation costs for moving their goods to a different market or other adjustment costs, he added.In some cases, though, the method the USDA uses to compute trade aid may understate losses to farmers. Westhoff cited corn growers. The gross trade losses cover only the direct impact of the tariff dispute. Corn growers have primarily been hurt by indirect effects as farmers who might otherwise grow soybeans produce corn instead, bringing down corn prices, he said.The USDA has made a higher trade damage estimate for soybeans in this year's aid program, at $2.05 per bushel, which Westhoff said also exceeds his group's estimate for the impact in the period.This year's payment is higher because the USDA decided to calculate the damage based on export sales over the past 10 years; last year's payment was based on a comparison with the prior year.Wendy Brannen, a spokeswoman for the American Soybean Association, declined to comment.(Updates with sentiment survey in 11th paragraph. A previous version of the story corrected the spelling of Johansson.)To contact the reporter on this story: Mike Dorning in Washington at mdorning@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Joe Sobczyk at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net, Millie Munshi, Steven FrankFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Biden calls Iowan a 'damn liar' Posted: 05 Dec 2019 11:49 AM PST  Joe Biden came out swinging on the campaign trail this week. After a wave of criticism about his measured response to President Trump's relentless accusations that his son Hunter had relied on nepotism to land a lucrative position on the board of directors of Ukrainian oil company, Biden confronted a voter in Iowa who parroted that claim.
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| 3 charged over Australia’s largest crystal meth seizure Posted: 04 Dec 2019 06:08 PM PST  Two customs agents and an information technology worker appeared in a court on Thursday charged with drug offenses over Australia's largest seizure of methamphetamine, which had been smuggled to Melbourne from Bangkok in stereo speakers. Police estimate the 1.6 metric tons (1.7 U.S. tons) of the drug also known as ice and crystal meth had a street value of AU$1.197 billion ($818 million). The 37 kilograms (82 pounds) of heroin also seized was the largest haul of that drug in Australia since 2017, police said.
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| India's cabinet sends religion-based citizenship bill to parliament Posted: 04 Dec 2019 02:42 AM PST ![India's cabinet sends religion-based citizenship bill to parliament]( "India's cabinet sends religion-based citizenship bill to parliament") NEW DELHI/GUWAHATI, Dec 4 (Reuters) - India's cabinet approved a bill on Wednesday to give citizenship to religious minorities persecuted in neighbouring Muslim countries, the first time that the country is seeking to grant nationality on the basis of religion. Last month, Amit Shah, India's federal home (interior) minister, told parliament that non-Muslim minorities - Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Christians, Sikhs and Parsis - who fled from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan would be given Indian citizenship under the proposed law. The Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) was first introduced in 2016 by the Hindu nationalist government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi but was withdrawn after an alliance partner withdrew support and protests flared in India's remote and ethnically diverse northeastern region.
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| Missile Shield: Romania Now Has America's Aegis Ashore Posted: 05 Dec 2019 02:10 AM PST  A powerful system.
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| A man arrested in Russia is accused of building a fake border with Finland 15 miles from the real one and charging migrants $11,000 to cross it Posted: 05 Dec 2019 10:49 AM PST  The man is accused of building fake border posts in the Vyborg region, Interfax said, and taking the men on an extended route along a series of roads.
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| Indonesia minister says sacking Garuda CEO over smuggled Harley Posted: 04 Dec 2019 04:37 PM PST  The CEO of Indonesia's national airline Garuda will be sacked for allegedly smuggling a Harley Davidson motorcycle into the country and using a sub-ordinate's name on import papers to avoid detection, a minister said Thursday. State-owned enterprises minister Erick Thohir said the airline's chief Ari Ashkara allegedly brought over parts of the disassembled motorbike on a plane from France last month. The alleged smuggling was meant to avoid declaring the 800 million rupiah ($57,000) motorbike to customs, he added.
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| William Barr: 'Communities' that don't show law enforcement more respect may lose 'police protection' Posted: 04 Dec 2019 06:11 AM PST  William Barr made the comments, which have drawn some criticism, while awarding law enforcement officers and deputies for service in policing.
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| Pentagon Denies U.S. is Considering Deploying Thousands of Additional Troops to Middle East Posted: 05 Dec 2019 05:18 AM PST  The Pentagon denied a report from the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday that the U.S. is considering a buildup of military forces in the Middle East, including dozens of ships and up to 14,000 additional soldiers.The possible deployment of military forces could be intended to counter threats from Iran throughout the region. U.S. officials are reportedly concerned that an Iranian attack on U.S. forces as they currently stand would leave America with few options to respond. Sending additional forces may give the U.S. more leeway in choosing an appropriate response to Iranian aggression.Pentagon press secretary Alyssa Farah flatly denied the Journal's report on the number of troops the U.S. was considering for deployment."This reporting by the @WSJ is wrong.The U.S. is not considering sending 14,000 additional troops to the Middle East," Farah wrote on Twitter.In September, Iran launched a sophisticated attack combining drones and cruise missiles on Saudi Arabian oil-processing infrastructure, briefly halting the flow of five percent of the world's oil supply. The Iranian government is currently under intense domestic pressure after protests over fuel prices rocked the country. Regime security forces have reportedly killed hundreds of demonstrators while the government imposed a country-wide internet blackout.President Trump is weighing a buildup of U.S. forces even as the country prepares for an election year. Trump has repeatedly promised to end American involvement in "endless wars" and touted the withdrawal of troops from northern Syria in October as a fulfillment of his pledge, despite severe Republican criticism of the decision.
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| Second evacuation order lifted in Texas city hit by explosion, chemical fire Posted: 04 Dec 2019 09:24 PM PST  Authorities on Thursday lifted a second evacuation order in a week for thousands of people in a Texas city as U.S. safety officials began examining what caused the latest in a series of chemical plant fires in the state. The about 14,000 residents of Port Neches 95 miles (153 km) east of Houston were told to flee late on Wednesday when air monitors detected high levels of cancer causing petrochemicals butane and butadiene following an explosion last week. Butadiene is the main product of the TPC Group's facility in the city struck by last week's blast and fire, which injured three workers and prompted an initial, two-day evacuation.
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| Warren Is Drafting U.S. Legislation to Reverse ‘Mega Mergers’ Posted: 04 Dec 2019 03:43 PM PST  (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren is drafting a bill that would call on regulators to retroactively review about two decades of "mega mergers" and ban such deals going forward.Warren's staff recently circulated a proposal for sweeping anti-monopoly legislation, which would deliver on a presidential campaign promise to check the power of Big Tech and other industries. Although the Trump administration is currently exploring their own antitrust probes, the proposal is likely to face resistance from lawmakers.According to a draft of the bill reviewed by Bloomberg, the proposal would expand antitrust law beyond the so-called consumer welfare standard, an approach that has driven antitrust policy since the 1970s. Under the current framework, the federal government evaluates mergers primarily based on potential harm to consumers through higher prices or decreased quality. The new bill would direct the government to also consider the impact on entrepreneurs, innovation, privacy and workers.Warren's bill, tentatively titled the Anti-Monopoly and Competition Restoration Act, would also ban non-compete and no-poaching agreements for workers and protect the rights of gig economy workers, such as drivers for Uber Technologies Inc., to organize.A draft of Warren's bill was included in an email Monday from Spencer Waller, the director of the Institute for Consumer Antitrust Studies at Loyola University Chicago. Waller urged fellow academics to sign a petition supporting it. He said Warren was working on the bill with Representative David Cicilline, the most prominent voice on antitrust issues in the House. Waller declined to comment on the email.Representatives for Cicilline and Warren declined to comment. The existence of the bill and Warren's support of it were reported earlier this week by the technology publication the Information.In Washington, there is some support across the political spectrum for increased antitrust scrutiny of large technology companies. Warren positioned herself as a leader on the issue this year while campaigning on a plan to break up Big Tech. She has repeatedly called for unwinding Facebook Inc.'s acquisitions of WhatsApp and Instagram, along with Google's purchase of YouTube and advertising platform DoubleClick.Read more: Warren Accuses Michael Bloomberg of 'Buying the Election'It's not clear when a bill would be introduced or whether it would move forward in its current form. Cicilline has said he would not introduce antitrust legislation until he concludes an antitrust investigation for the House Judiciary Committee in early 2020.Amy Klobuchar, a Senator from Minnesota who's also vying for the Democratic nomination, has pushed legislation covering similar ground. Klobuchar plans to introduce additional antitrust legislation soon, according to a person familiar with the matter who wasn't authorized to discuss the plans and asked not to be identified.Any proposal would face significant hurdles to becoming law, and Warren's version could be particularly problematic because it promotes the idea that antitrust enforcement is equivalent to being against big business, said Barak Orbach, a law professor at the University of Arizona who received a draft of the bill. "The way I read it is that Elizabeth Warren is trying to make a political statement in the course of her campaign," Orbach said. "It's likely to have negative effects on antitrust enforcement, so I just don't see the upside other than for the campaign."The bill proposes a ban on mergers where one company has annual revenue of more $40 billion, or where both companies have sales exceeding $15 billion, except under certain exceptions, such as when a company is in immediate danger of insolvency. That would seemingly put a freeze on many acquisitions for Apple Inc., Alphabet Inc., Facebook, Microsoft Corp. and dozens of other companies. The bill would also place new limitations on smaller mergers.Chris Sagers, a law professor at Cleveland State University, said the proposal would serve as an effective check on corporate power. "I don't think you'll have new antitrust policy until Congress says the courts have incorrectly interpreted the statutes," he said. "Someone has to do what Elizabeth Warren is doing."(Michael Bloomberg is also seeking the Democratic presidential nomination. Bloomberg is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.)To contact the reporters on this story: Eric Newcomer in San Francisco at enewcomer@bloomberg.net;Joshua Brustein in New York at jbrustein@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Milian at mmilian@bloomberg.netFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| The U.S. Army's Ultimate Weapon Isn't a New Gun or Tank Posted: 05 Dec 2019 12:55 AM PST  Nope. Think AI.
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| St. Louis Woman Looked Up ‘What to Do if Your Husband Is Upset You Are Pregnant’ Before Her Murder: Warrants Posted: 05 Dec 2019 11:58 AM PST  Before she went missing last month, a St. Louis woman looked up "what to do if you husband is upset you are pregnant" on her phone, according to search warrants.Beau Rothwell, 28, reported the disappearance of his six-weeks-pregnant wife, Jennifer Rothwell, on Nov. 12, after she failed to show up for work at a chemical engineering firm. Two days later, authorities charged him with second-degree murder and tampering with physical evidence in connection with his 28-year-old wife's slaying. Rothwell is currently being held without bond after authorities on Nov. 19 located his wife's body—which was found after he gave up information on her location, police said.In the newly released search warrants obtained by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, investigators say Beau Rothwell called authorities at 9:44 p.m. on Nov. 12 to report his wife of four years missing. He initially told investigators they had spent the night before watching cooking television shows together, and he had last seen her leaving for work the next morning.Charred Body Found in NYC Storage Unit Is 'Very Likely' Missing Mom, Police SayPolice later found her car parked with her cell phone inside about a mile from their home just outside Creve Coeur."She has not been seen or in contact with anyone since leaving her home. Jennifer has no history of leaving and is normally in contact with family members and friends on a daily basis," St. Louis County police said at the time of her disappearance.When authorities tried to search their home, Rothwell did not let police enter and barred them from looking at his car and cell phone. He also refused to give police a DNA sample, and immediately requested an attorney.As they searched the perimeter of the couple's home, investigators found various cleaning supplies, including rubber gloves and paper towels in a trash can, the warrants state. St. Louis County police told The Daily Beast in a statement video surveillance also shows Rothwell purchasing the supplies with a gift card and cash at Dierbergs grocery store on Nov. 11. "This purchase was oddly at a time during a major snow event involving dangerous driving conditions, and was also contradictory to Beau Rothwell's statement that he was home with his wife all night," the warrant states.Husband of Missing Connecticut Mom Jennifer Dulos Takes Stand in Civil Lawsuit Brought by Mother-in-LawOn Nov. 13, after obtaining a search warrant for the couple's home, detectives found "empty cleaning bottles, wet carpet soaked with bleach, large areas of blood in carpeting and underlying pad," police said. "DNA from the victim's mother and father was analyzed and is consistent with the blood found in the carpet," the warrant states. Detectives also described the home as having an "overwhelming" smell of bleach and other cleaners, adding that the drywall in the basement appeared to be damaged and contained samples of human hair. In the attached garage, investigators found a 2015 GMC Canyon pick-up truck that also smelled of bleach. The night, Rothwell was arrested on suspicion of murder. On Nov. 18, authorities found Jennifer in a wooded area during a six-hour search near Troy, Missouri. According to the Post-Dispatch, detectives found the 28-year-old naked and partially covered in branches and brush after her husband allegedly gave up information about her location. The medical examiner's office has not yet determined her official cause of death. Read 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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| California bars insurers from dropping customers in fire-prone zones Posted: 05 Dec 2019 01:45 PM PST  California state regulators on Thursday banned insurance companies from dropping customers who live in fire-prone areas, a move aimed at helping some 800,000 people across the state. The decision calls for a mandatory one-year moratorium on insurance companies refusing to renew policies in areas at high risk for wildfire. "This wildfire insurance crisis has been years in the making, but it is an emergency we must deal with now if we are going to keep the California dream of home ownership from becoming the California nightmare," Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara said in a statement.
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| Climate models have been right all along, study finds Posted: 05 Dec 2019 01:59 AM PST  Even the rather primitive climate computer models of the 1970s, 80s and 90s were impressively accurate, lending extra credibility to the much more advanced climate models of today, study finds
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| Moderate Dems Urge Party Not to Include Info from Mueller Report in Impeachment Articles Posted: 05 Dec 2019 05:47 AM PST  A group of moderate House Democrats is calling on the party not to include charges based on the Mueller report in any articles of impeachment against President Trump, warning that doing so could backfire on them, Politico reported Thursday."I would prefer that we stick to what we have," said Rep. Tom O'Halleran (D., Ariz.), one of the chairmen of the moderate Blue Dog Coalition."Activities from the 2016 election, I think, should be left to voters in the 2020 election," said Rep. Ben McAdams (D., Utah). "My focus is on those things that are forward looking."Former special counsel Robert Mueller's final report on the Russia investigation outlined 11 instances of potential obstruction of justice by Trump. However, moderate lawmakers say they prefer to focus impeachment on the allegations that Trump engaged in a quid pro quo scheme involving the provision of U.S. military aid to Ukraine in exchange for the public announcement of an investigation into political rival Joe Biden."I know that there's some people who are interested in kind of a kitchen sink approach — let's throw all kinds of things in there because we can and talk about all the things we're concerned about regarding the president," said Rep. Elissa Slotkin, a former Defense Department official who resisted supporting impeachment until the Ukraine matter appeared."We have been taking the country down this road on this very targeted issue of Ukraine and the issues around the president using his office for personal and political gain," the Michigan moderate said. "And that's what I think we should focus on."Democrats flipped over three dozen seats previously held by Republicans in 2018. Many of the moderate members cautioning about impeachment are vulnerable freshman members representing those red-leaning districts.The last two House Democrats to resist backing the impeachment inquiry are Representatives Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey and Collin Peterson of Minnesota.The House Judiciary Committee is hearing testimony from impeachment witnesses this week and is expected to draft articles of impeachment as soon as next week. The committee's Democratic counsel on Wednesday outlined three possible articles of impeachment, namely abuse of power and bribery, obstruction of Congress, and obstruction of justice.
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| Thai cave dive hero fights back tears as he tells court ‘life sentence with no parole’ inflicted by Elon Musk Posted: 05 Dec 2019 02:48 AM PST  A British diver who helped rescue a dozen boys trapped in a cave in Thailand fought back tears as he told a court Elon Musk's "pedo guy" slur amounted to "a life sentence with no parole".Vernon Unsworth choked up on Wednesday as he testified against the Tesla CEO during a defamation trial in Los Angeles.
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| Kansas GOP congressman faces probe of voter registration Posted: 04 Dec 2019 10:52 AM PST  Authorities plan to investigate whether a freshman Kansas congressman broke state laws by listing a UPS Inc. store as his address on a voter registration form and for obtaining a mail-in ballot in a November election. The questions about Rep. Steve Watkins come as some fellow Republicans hope to oust him during the August 2020 primary. Watkins' spokesman said Wednesday that the congressman's use of the UPS store's address in southwest Topeka was an inadvertent mistake that will be corrected.
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| Zimbabwe court appoints Mugabe daughter to identify his assets Posted: 05 Dec 2019 03:13 AM PST  A court in Zimbabwe on Thursday appointed Robert Mugabe's daughter to identify assets left by the late former leader so they can be distributed to his beneficiaries, his lawyer said. Zimbabweans are keen to know how much wealth Mugabe accrued during his 37 years in power. The Master of High Court in Harare appointed Bona Chikore executor of her father's estate, the Mugabe family lawyer Terrence Hussein told reporters, adding that this had been agreed by family members.
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| Investigators probing role weather may have played in deadly South Dakota plane crash Posted: 05 Dec 2019 07:52 AM PST  An NTSB investigator examines the wreckage of a Pilatus PC-12 airplane near Chamberlain Municipal Airport in South Dakota. The aircraft crashed on Saturday, November 30, 2019, moments after taking off amid heavy snowfall. The crash killed nine of the 12 people on board. (NTSB) The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) released new information Tuesday about the plane crash in Chamberlain, South Dakota, that killed nine people and injured three others within a mile of takeoff. A review of the available information about the fatal crash, which occurred Saturday within a mile of takeoff, indicates weather was a significant, if not major, factor, experts say.Chamberlain, and much of South Dakota, was under a winter storm warning and experiencing near-blizzard conditions around the time of the crash on Saturday.The single-engine Pilatus PC-12 arrived in Chamberlain Friday at about 9:30 a.m. CST, according to the NTSB report. The airplane remained parked on the airport ramp until the accident a day later, the report noted."They landed on Friday ahead of the storm, and it looks like they just left the plane parked on the runway," said AccuWeather senior meteorologist David Samuhel, who reviewed the NTSB statement. "There was probably 8 or 9 inches of snow, so the plane probably had a whole lot of snow and ice on it." The NTSB is still investigating the crash, and it's not clear if the snow and ice were cleared from the aircraft before takeoff. Samuhel said, "If they didn't get the snow and ice off the wings, that would be a huge problem." A photo of a Pilatus PC-12 in flight. (Pilatus Aircraft Ltd) An aviation expert AccuWeather spoke with also said there was likely frost or ice below the layer of snow and added that it's "doubtful the facilities exist for that sort of deicing at this small airport." AccuWeather reached out to the Chamberlain airport manager, who as of late Thursday had not yet responded.Ice and snow needs to be properly removed from a plane for the flight to be legal, and if that doesn't happen, the consequences can be dire. "You're looking at [an] increase in drag of 40 percent and decrease of lift of 30 percent if you don't deice properly."Also, the NTSB reported the weather observation station at the Chamberlain airport recorded winds of 7 mph, with half-mile visibility and moderate snow and icing. AccuWeather's Samuhel believes the winds were likely much stronger."I question the wind reading at Chamberlain airport," he said. "Pierre is about 65 miles to the northwest of Chamberlain, but the conditions probably weren't much different and winds in Pierre were gusting to 40 mph and even higher some parts of the day."They were leaving Saturday and the storm was starting to wrap up, but they were still in a bad part of it where the wind was really kicking up and they were probably getting blowing snow, too," Samuhel said.According to Travis Garza, president of wellness company Kyani, the company's two founders, Jim Hansen and Kirk Hansen, were among the crash victims. The other seven passengers who died were their relatives; three passengers survived.Another factor that could have contributed to the crash was a possible load imbalance. The Pilatus PC-12 pilot's information manual notes the "maximum number of occupants is 9 passengers" plus 1-2 pilot(s). According to the NTSB report, there were 12 people on the plane.There were 393 U.S. civil aviation deaths in 2018, an increase from 347 in 2017, according to the NTSB. Most aviation deaths in 2018 took place during general aviation operations - all civilian flying except scheduled passenger airline service - when 381 were killed, compared to 331 in 2017.
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