| If Bernie Sanders is stuck in D.C. for an impeachment trial, AOC could campaign for him Posted: 06 Dec 2019 11:31 AM PST  A prolonged impeachment trial in the Senate would sideline as many as five Democratic presidential hopefuls in the run-up to the first votes in the 2020 race. Rep. Ocasio-Cortez could play a key role for the Vermont senator.
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| Nikki Haley claims Dylann Roof 'hijacked' the 'heritage' of the Confederate flag in church massacre Posted: 06 Dec 2019 12:32 PM PST  Nikki Haley, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said that white supremacist Dylann Roof "hijacked" the Confederate flag by carrying out a mass killing of African-Americans in a Charleston, S.C., church in 2015.
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| Indian border officials on lookout for fugitive cosmic guru Posted: 07 Dec 2019 02:17 AM PST  Indian border officials and embassies have issued an alert for a fugitive guru accused of rape, the government said, days after the holy man announced the creation of his own "cosmic" country. Swami Nithyananda -- one of many self-styled Indian "godmen" with thousands of followers and a chequered past -- is wanted by police for alleged rape, sexual abuse, and abduction of children. Earlier this week, he announced online that he has created his own new country -- reportedly off Ecuador's coast -- complete with cabinet, golden passports, and even a department of homeland security.
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| 'He'd do it again': Former Obama official says Trump must be impeached Posted: 06 Dec 2019 09:17 AM PST  Former acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal, the author of the new bestseller "Impeach: The Case Against Donald Trump," believes the GOP notion that Congress can responsibly let voters decide if President Trump's conduct is impeachable at the ballot box "makes no sense."
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| Suspect in deadly shooting at Florida naval base was reportedly a Saudi pilot in the US for training Posted: 06 Dec 2019 11:45 AM PST  The suspect was reportedly a Saudi aviation student, and authorities are said to be investigating whether the deadly shooting was terrorism-related.
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| Rep. Duncan Hunter: 'Shortly after the holidays I will resign from Congress' Posted: 06 Dec 2019 03:42 PM PST  The GOP Congressman announced he would be resigning "shortly after the holidays" after pleading guilty earlier this week to misusing campaign funds.
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| In warning to Netanyahu, House endorses 2-state solution Posted: 06 Dec 2019 04:13 PM PST  The House on Friday threw its weight behind a two-state solution between Israelis and Palestinians, in a warning to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he mulls annexing the West Bank.
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| China Is Building Its Very Own Stealth Bombers: Meet the H-20 and JH-XX Posted: 07 Dec 2019 02:00 AM PST  Meet the H-20 and JH-XX
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| Aung San Suu Kyi to fight genocide charges in the Hague Posted: 07 Dec 2019 04:01 AM PST  Once feted by the West as a human rights heroine, Myanmar's civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi will travel to the Hague this week to defend her regime over accusations of genocide against its Rohingya Muslim minority, in one of the most-high profile international legal cases in a generation. Myanmar rejects the allegations which stem from the military's savage ethnic cleansing campaign in Rakhine state in 2017 that forced 740,000 people to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh, where they now live in squalid refugee camps. Ms Suu Kyi, who will personally represent her fledgling democracy when the first hearings kick off on Tuesday at the International Court of Justice in the Netherlands, has vowed to "defend the national interest." In doing so, she will be defending the military who once held her under house arrest for many years to keep her out of power. The Myanmar public have rallied to support Aung San Suu Kyi as she travels to the Hague Credit: Lynn Bo/REX Her decision to brush aside concerns that backing the military's brutality against the Rohingya will further tarnish her now sullied international reputation, has won her plaudits at home for once again championing the cause of her people. Myanmar tour companies have organised discount holiday packages to supporters who wish to attend the hearings, with Myanmar citizens in the Netherlands offering homestays and logistical support. Daw July, responsible for the visa service at one of the companies, said it was trying to sell the tickets as cheaply as possible. "It is a way to show support for Mother Suu," she told the Myanmar Times, using Ms Suu Kyi's local nickname. The lawsuit charging genocide, including mass murder and rape, was lodged by Gambia, a tiny, mainly Muslim West African state backed by the 57-nation Organisation for Islamic Cooperation (OIC). The case will be fought by a Gambian team led by Abubacarr Tambadou, the British-educated Justice Minister, who spent more than a decade prosecuting cases from Rwanda's 1994 genocide. Rohingya refugees live in squalor and dependent on aid in Bangladesh Credit: Danish Siddiqui/Reuters Mr Tambadou personally pushed for formal OIC support to prosecute Myanmar after visiting the overcrowded refugee camps in Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar, and listening to harrowing testimonies about rape, murder and children being burned alive. "I saw genocide written all over these stories," he said in an interview with Reuters in Gambia's capital, Banjul. The minister plans to ask the judges to immediately order Myanmar to cease violence against Rohingya civilians and preserve evidence that could help the genocide case. He said he would draw from his experience of living through Gambia's former "brutal dictatorship" as he faces off with the Myanmar delegation. "We know too well how it feels like to be unable to tell your story to the world, to be unable to share your pain in the hope that someone out there will hear and help," he said.
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| Bloomberg says his reporters must 'live with' limits on coverage Posted: 06 Dec 2019 12:11 PM PST  Democratic presidential hopeful Michael Bloomberg on Friday defended the policy implemented by his news agency to steer clear of investigating him, saying doing so would not be credible. Bloomberg told CBS News he "hired somebody outside" to run the Bloomberg News organization and establish policies for ethics. When asked about complaints from Bloomberg journalists that the policy to avoid investigating him or other Democratic candidates, he replied, that they "have to live with some things" about the job.
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| New Yahoo News/YouGov poll shows that Democrats have so far failed to seal the deal on impeachment Posted: 06 Dec 2019 01:04 PM PST  A majority of registered voters buy Democrats' central argument for impeachment, but Americans remain too polarized and uncertain about key details to back Trump's removal from office in the kind of numbers that could create real momentum, a new poll shows.
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| Former Rep. Katie Hill says the wave of harassment she faced after alleged revenge porn leak left her contemplating suicide Posted: 07 Dec 2019 02:30 PM PST  Former Rep. Katie Hill now says that she has "to keep going forward, and be part of the fight to create the change" to protect young women.
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| 50 Great Gadget and Gear Gifts for the Holidays Posted: 06 Dec 2019 10:29 AM PST |
| Official documents shed light on Tokyo's role in 'comfort women': Kyodo Posted: 06 Dec 2019 09:38 PM PST ![Official documents shed light on Tokyo's role in 'comfort women': Kyodo]( "Official documents shed light on Tokyo's role in 'comfort women': Kyodo") The Imperial Japanese Army asked the government to provide one "comfort woman" for every 70 soldiers, Japan's Kyodo news agency said, citing wartime government documents it had reviewed, shedding a fresh light on Tokyo's involvement in the practice. "Comfort women" is a euphemism for the girls and women - many of them Korean - forced into prostitution at Japanese military brothels. The issue has plagued Japan's ties with South Korea for decades.
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| Blind man executed in US for killing ex-girlfriend Posted: 05 Dec 2019 07:52 PM PST  A blind man was executed by the US state of Tennessee on Thursday for burning his ex-girlfriend to death. Lee Hall, who was previously known as Leroy Hall, chose to be executed by electrocution rather than lethal injection, a choice that Tennessee has offered to those condemned to death before 1999. Hall, 52, was sentenced to death after he was convicted of setting a car on fire with his former girlfriend inside in 1991.
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| New Jersey journalist re-arrested in Nigeria after brief glimpse of freedom Posted: 07 Dec 2019 12:13 PM PST  Omoyele Sowore, imprisoned in his home country of Nigeria since August, has been freed from government custody, but still has to stand trial.
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| Mexicans fleeing violence form new encampment on border Posted: 06 Dec 2019 11:49 AM PST  An exodus of migrants fleeing drug cartel violence and corruption in Mexico has mired hundreds of immigrants in ramshackle tent camps across the border from El Paso and brought new chaos to a system of wait lists for asylum seekers to get into the U.S. Migrant tent camps have been growing in size at several border crossings in Ciudad Juarez, driven by a surge in asylum seekers from regions in southern Mexico gripped by cartel violence. One camp in Juarez is populated by about 250 Mexican asylum seekers, who are living in increasingly cold conditions as they wait for U.S. authorities to let them in to the country.
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| Trump Says Giuliani Will File a Report on Findings From Ukraine Posted: 07 Dec 2019 01:09 PM PST  (Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump said that his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, plans to prepare a report for the U.S. Justice Department and Congress about allegations of misconduct the former New York mayor says he uncovered during a recent trip to Ukraine.Trump said Giuliani, a central figure in the impeachment investigation into whether Trump pressured Ukraine into a politically-motivated investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden, hadn't briefed him on his findings.But, the president said, "I hear he found plenty.""He's going to make a report, I think to the attorney general and to Congress," Trump told reporters at the White House on Saturday as he departed for a fund-raising trip to Florida. "He says he has a lot of good information. I have not spoken to him about that information yet."Repeated ClaimsGiuliani has repeatedly made unsubstantiated claims about interactions between the Obama White House and Ukrainian officials. Multiple administration officials testified during the impeachment proceedings that they were worried Giuliani was pursuing politically motivated conspiracy theories and conducting a shadow foreign policy on behalf of Trump and at the expense of U.S. interests.Still, Giuliani traveled to Ukraine with the conservative One America News Network in what he described as an effort "to bring before the American people" information he said House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff "covered up."Busy on TwitterIt's unclear if Giuliani did so with the blessing of or on the orders of the president, who has previously denied asking his lawyer to travel to Ukraine.In a series of Twitter posts during his travels this month, Giuliani alleged that billions of dollars were "stolen by crooks, from both countries, at the highest levels."That included a tweet in which Giuliani wrote that the "Accounts Chamber in Ukraine found an alleged misuse of $5.3B in U.S. funds during the Obama administration." He subsequently tweeted that "much of the $5.3B in US Aid Ukraine reported as misused was given to the embassy's favored NGO's."But the Accounting Chamber of Ukraine said that the $5.3 billion came from multiple countries, that the funds to non-governmental organizations represented only a small percentage of the aid, and that the issue was improper accounting rather than misuse of funds, according to CNN.The president's lawyer also tweeted without substantiation that the "Obama embassy," led by then-ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, urged Ukrainian police not to investigate the matter.Giuliani was accompanied in Kyiv by Andriy Telizhenko, a Ukrainian who worked at the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington in 2016 and is the source of unsubstantiated allegations that his country interfered with the 2016 U.S. election.Top Ukrainian officials, including President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Igor Kolomoisky, a Ukrainian billionaire who has ties to Zelenskiy, said they didn't plan to meet with Giuliani on his trip.To contact the reporter on this story: Justin Sink in Washington at jsink1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net, Ros Krasny, Matthew G. MillerFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| 13 Mythical Creatures, Ranked Posted: 07 Dec 2019 04:01 AM PST |
| Tesla changed the release dates for the most and least expensive versions of the Cybertruck by a year Posted: 06 Dec 2019 08:09 AM PST  Tesla said the three-motor Cybertruck would enter production in late 2021, while production for the single-motor Cybertruck would begin in late 2022.
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| Saudi gunman called US 'nation of evil' before Florida shooting, monitoring group says Posted: 07 Dec 2019 02:53 AM PST  A Saudi trainee military pilot reportedly condemned the United States as a "nation of evil" before carrying out a mass shooting at a top US Navy base in Florida. Lieutenant Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani killed three people and injured eight before being shot dead himself by police at the Naval Air Station Pensacola. The Saudi Air Force officer, who was on a US-sponsored training programme, reportedly posted a manifesto on Twitter in which he wrote: "I'm against evil, and America as a whole has turned into a nation of evil." It went on: "I'm not against you for just being American, I don't hate you because your freedoms, I hate you because every day you supporting, funding and committing crimes not only against Muslims but also humanity." According to the the SITE intelligence group, which monitors jihadist activity, the messages were posted hours before the shooting, and quoted Osama bin Laden. The FBI was investigating whether the postings were made by Alshamrani, and whether he was part of a wider group. Navy Capt. Tim Kinsella briefs members of the media following a shooting at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Fla., Friday, Dec. 6, 2019. The US Navy is confirming that a shooter is dead and several injured after gunfire at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola. Credit: Pensacola News Journal Agents detained six other Saudis for questioning, three of whom reportedly started filing after the attack. It was not clear whether they had any connection to the gunman or were just at the scene. The sprawling Naval Air Station Pensacola is the site of the US National Naval Aviation Museum, and the base of the Blue Angels flight demonstration team. It is referred to as the home of US naval aviation and hundreds of pilots from allied nations pass through for training at any one time. Military personnel are not allowed to carry weapons on the base but Alshamrani was able to take a Glock handgun, purchased locally, into a classroom building where trainee pilots were studying. His training at the base began in August 2017 and was due to finish in August 2020. He was also armed with up to six extended magazines, meaning he could have caused far greater carnage had he not been shot by sheriff's deputies who rushed to the scene. Gun murders per 100,000 residents Saudi Arabia sought to distance itself from the incident as it seeks to repair its image of being an exporter of Islamic extremism. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers in the September 11, 2001 attacks were Saudis, including some who gained civilian flight training in the US. Last year, the Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi was killed at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. King Salman telephoned Donald Trump to denounce the Florida shooting as "heinous" and to pledge cooperation over investigating it. Prince Khalid bin Salman, the king's younger son and deputy defence minister, said: "Like many other Saudi military personnel, I was trained in a US military base, and we used that valuable training to fight side by side with our American allies against terrorism and other threats." The aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy arrives for exercises at Naval Air Station Pensacola Credit: US NAVY via Reuters However, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis suggested Riyadh should offer compensation to the victims, saying they "owe a debt". US officials said Saudi Air Force officers undergoing military training in the US were intensely vetted, "hand-picked," and often came from elite families. But Mark Esper, the US defence secretary, said vetting procedures would be reviewed. He said: "Are we screening persons coming to make sure they have their life in order, their mental health is adequate?" There are currently 5,000 foreign aviation students from 153 countries in the US, including hundreds of Saudis. Captain Timothy Kinsella, the Pensacola base commander, said: "The cross-training with allies is something that we have done for a long time. In World War II, we had Royal Air Force folks training here." Alshamrani reportedly held a dinner party in the days before the shooting, at which he and three others watched videos of mass shootings. One of the three men who attended the dinner party then filmed outside the building while the Pensacola shooting was taking place, according to a US official. One victim was named as Joshua Kaleb Watson, 23, a recent graduate of the US Naval Academy. His brother Adam Watson said that, despite being shot several times, he made it outside and alerted the response team to where the gunman was. Mr Watson said: "He saved countless lives today with his own. He died a hero."
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| Russia's Su-57 Would Be A Game-Changer If It Wasn't So Expensive Posted: 07 Dec 2019 07:00 AM PST  Moscow can't afford it.
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| North Korea says US denuclearization talks 'out of negotiation table' Posted: 07 Dec 2019 09:31 AM PST  North Korea on Saturday said denuclearization talks with the United States were "out of the negotiation table," while slamming European UN Security Council members who had recently denounced its "provocative" ballistic missile launches. The statement from North Korea's ambassador to the UN Kim Song came after Belgium, Estonia, France, Germany, Poland and the United Kingdom on Wednesday condemned North Korea's "continued testing of ballistic missiles," and called for strict enforcement of sanctions against Pyongyang.
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| The Story of Henry Lee Lucas, the Notorious Subject of Netflix’s The Confession Killer Posted: 06 Dec 2019 12:09 PM PST  Thee self-proclaimed serial killer confessed to committing as many as 600 murders. Most of those claims turned out to be lies
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| Iowa worker who took bathroom photos may have many victims Posted: 06 Dec 2019 09:17 AM PST  A settlement between the state of Iowa and three of its Department of Revenue workers whose genitals were secretly photographed by a male colleague while they were going to the bathroom won't bring the matter to a close, as files found on the fired employee's work computer show he may have victimized dozens of other men. The State Appeal Board voted Monday to settle the 2017 lawsuit brought by Daniel Wagner, Lloyd Lofton and Joshua Bates for $900,000. The men, who will each pocket $185,290, said coworker Kenneth Kerr stalked them at work and that supervisors failed to act when they complained about it.
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| Biden Says He Would Consider Giving Ambassadorships to Donors Posted: 06 Dec 2019 08:29 PM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Joe Biden said Friday he would not rule out appointing donors as ambassadors, but wouldn't make decisions about those roles based on someone's financial contributions."Nobody in fact will be appointed by me based on anything they contributed," he told a group of reporters aboard his "No Malarkey" bus in Decorah, Iowa."But, for example, you have some of the people who are out there that are prepared to in fact, that are fully qualified — head of everything from being the ambassador to NATO to be the ambassador to France or any other country — who may or may not have contributed, but that will not be any basis upon which I in fact would appoint anybody."Other Democratic presidential candidates, including Senator Elizabeth Warren, have criticized the longstanding practice of appointing donors to governmental positions. Warren, who has sworn off high-dollar fundraisers, has vowed to not nominate wealthy contributors as ambassadors.In a wide-ranging 20-minute interview, Biden also defended his response to an Iowa voter who confronted him Wednesday over his son's work in Ukraine, which has come into sharp focus during the U.S. House impeachment investigation of President Donald Trump. He said he wanted to keep the focus on Trump, but reacted because the man made accusations that were false.Biden said his son did nothing wrong and referred to a statement by Hunter Biden that he exercised "poor judgment" in joining the board of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings."My son speaks for himself," the former vice president said. "He's a 47-year-old man. He didn't do anything wrong."Joe Biden, who is at the end of an eight-day bus tour across Iowa, again spoke about the need for bipartisan cooperation. He emphasized the vital role that the two-party system plays in American democracy, and the importance of having a robust Republican Party."I'm really worried that no party should have too much power," he said. "You need a countervailing force."He added: "You can't have such a dominant influence that then you start to abuse power. Every party abuses power if they have too much power."Biden also touted his ability to help other Democrats get elected, as he argued why he is best suited to bring about gains for party candidates as the presidential nominee.Biden, who often cites polls in swing states that show him defeating Trump, said the requests from candidates in swing districts for him to campaign on their behalf in the midterms is evidence of his appeal."I don't have to go out and look at a poll," he said. "Just go into those states. You can feel it. You can taste it."(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 reporter on this story: Tyler Pager in Decorah, Iowa at tpager1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Max Berley, John HarneyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| 3 Guard members killed in Minnesota Black Hawk crash identified Posted: 07 Dec 2019 10:09 AM PST  Killed were Chief Warrant Officer 2 James A. Rogers Jr., age 28; Chief Warrant Officer 2 Charles P. Nord, 30; and Sgt. Kort M. Plantenberg, 28.
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| AOC blasts Trump policy, says her family used food stamps Posted: 06 Dec 2019 07:23 AM PST  Freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., slammed the Trump administration on Thursday over new changes to the food stamps program that will cause nearly 700,000 people to lose access to benefits.
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| China's top diplomat tells Pompeo U.S. should stop interfering in China's internal affairs Posted: 07 Dec 2019 03:57 AM PST  China's top diplomat Yang Jiechi told U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in a phone call on Saturday that the United States should stop interfering in China's internal affairs, according to a report by state TV. Citing the passing of the Uighur Human Rights Policy Act of 2019 and the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act of 2019, Yang said the United States had seriously violated international relations, and urged Washington to "correct its mistakes" and "immediately stop interfering in China's internal affairs".
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| The acting Navy secretary promises he'll fix the Ford aircraft carrier because he's tired of it being a 'whipping boy for why the Navy can't do anything right' Posted: 07 Dec 2019 06:30 AM PST  Explaining that the president is "very concerned" about the Ford, Modly said that he is making fixing this flattop a top priority for the Navy.
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| Belarus crowds rally against closer Russia ties Posted: 07 Dec 2019 06:31 AM PST  Roughly 1,000 Belarusians joined an unauthorised demonstration on Saturday against the prospect of a closer union with Russia. Long-time ruler Alexander Lukashenko was meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Russia on Saturday to discuss "key issues in our bilateral relations, including the prospects for deepening integration", according to the Kremlin. Police quickly intervened to oversee the demonstration but made no arrests.
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| Mexico Does Not Deserve Credit For Falling Arrests At U.S. Southern Border Posted: 06 Dec 2019 08:00 PM PST  The United States has better alternatives to deal with this crisis than abandoning its asylum laws and treating asylum seekers like criminals.
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| Polyamorous 20-year-old is dating 4 men while pregnant with her first child Posted: 07 Dec 2019 07:18 AM PST  Tory Ojeda is a 20-year-old woman from Jacksonville, Fla., who is in a polyamorous relationship with four men. She is now expecting her first child with one of her partners. Ojeda told Barcroft Media that while the baby is biologically one of her partner's, the five of them plan on raising the child together as a family.
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| GOP Rep. pitches LGBTQ rights bill with religious exemptions Posted: 05 Dec 2019 11:08 PM PST  As Democrats champion anti-discrimination protections for the LGBTQ community and Republicans counter with worries about safeguarding religious freedom, one congressional Republican is offering a proposal on Friday that aims to achieve both goals. The bill that Utah GOP Rep. Chris Stewart plans to unveil would shield LGBTQ individuals from discrimination in employment, housing, education, and other public services — while also carving out exemptions for religious organizations to act based on beliefs that may exclude those of different sexual orientations or gender identities. Stewart's bill counts support from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Seventh-day Adventist Church, but it has yet to win a backer among House Democrats who unanimously supported a more expansive LGBTQ rights measure in May.
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| Why Texas’s fossil fuel support will ‘spell disaster’ for climate crisis Posted: 06 Dec 2019 11:30 PM PST  The state – which leads the way as US output of oil and gas is forecast to rise 25% in the next decade – is intensifying its production pipeline by pipelineIn the same month that Greta Thunberg addressed a UN summit and millions of people took part in a global climate strike, lawmakers in America's leading oil- and gas-producing state of Texas made a statement of their own.Texas's Critical Infrastructure Protection Act went into effect on 1 September, stiffening civil and criminal penalties specifically for protesters who interrupt operations or damage oil and gas pipelines and other energy facilities.Within a couple of weeks, two dozen Greenpeace activists who dangled off a bridge over the Houston ship channel became the first people charged under the new law, which allows for prison sentences of up to 10 years and fines of up to $500,000 for protest groups.The new Texas law is emblematic of the unyielding loyalty of conservative lawmakers to the fossil fuel industry in a state stacked with influential climate science deniers or sceptics such as the US senator and former Republican presidential hopeful Ted Cruz and which named a pipeline tycoon to its parks and wildlife conservation commission.With kindred spirits in the Trump White House, Texas is now intensifying its support of the fossil fuel industry and, pipeline by pipeline, literally laying the groundwork for production to ramp up even more in the next decade.The scale of new production is "staggering", according to an analysis by Global Witness, a campaign group, with Texas leading the way as US output of oil and gas is forecast to rise by 25% over the next decade. This makes it a "looming carbon timebomb", the group believes, in a period when global oil and gas production needs to drop by 40% to mitigate the worst impacts of the climate crisis."The sheer scale of this new production dwarfs that of every other country in the world and would spell disaster for the world's ambitions to curb climate change," the report states.The US is already the planet's leading producer of oil and gas and central to its rise is the Permian Basin, a shale region of about 75,000 sq miles extending from west Texas into New Mexico.Despite the oil price crash of 2014, the Permian's oil production has soared from about a million barrels a day in 2011 to about 4.5m this autumn, while natural gas production has trebled since 2013, according to US government figures.In March, the Permian overtook Saudi Arabia's Ghawar to become the world's most productive oilfield. While Saudi Arabia's overall production remains far higher, predictions that the Permian's output will continue to grow at a similar rate – doubling by 2023 as pipeline capacity expands and major oil companies increase their presence – are alarming environmentalists.> Having some kind of wild west boom going on in Texas ... that's just the precise opposite to what should be going on> > Lorne Stockman"Having some kind of wild west boom going on in Texas where it's every man for himself drilling as quickly as possible and trying to pull the stuff out of the ground in a kind of frenzy, that's just the precise opposite to what should be going on," said Lorne Stockman, a senior research analyst at Oil Change International, a clean energy advocacy group.While there are some indicators of a slowdown in the growth rate, Chevron's president of North American exploration and production, Steve Green, told an industry event in October that the oil major sees a "boom boom boom kind of economy" with a "long, healthy pace of activity in the Permian and Texas for decades to come", Bloomberg reported.The Permian's fortunes are not dependent on the whims of one or two dominant companies – there are hundreds of operators, from tiny independents to huge multinationals such as Chevron, ExxonMobil, BP, Shell and ConocoPhillips, many of the corporations which, as the Guardian has reported, are behind a large proportion of the planet's carbon emissions and are poised to flood markets with an additional 7m barrels per day over the next decade.Gene Collins has witnessed firsthand the flipside of the Permian's economic boom. The 68-year-old, who runs an insurance agency and is on the board of a local economic development corporation, was born and raised in Odessa, a city which, with neighbouring Midland, is at the heart of the Permian. Heavy trucks are damaging road surfaces, traffic accidents have increased and housing rates have soared, he claimed."It has not been a gradual growth. It's been the type of growth that puts such a strain on the community that we're unable to keep up with what we need to handle the crowds, the influx. Our housing shortage is really epidemic. It puts a burden on our school districts. We need teachers but we can't bring teachers in because we have no place for them to stay," Collins said.A report last May by the Environmental Integrity Project, a not-for-profit group, cited a lack of air quality monitoring in west Texas, with only one station to track sulphur dioxide levels, and limited regulatory oversight which relies on companies to self-report unauthorised emissions.The pace of drilling, low prices and lack of capacity have led to the Permian's frackers producing more natural gas than the infrastructure system can handle, prompting them to vent gas or deliberately burn it off in an environmentally harmful process known as flaring."We probably have some of the worst air that we've ever had out here in west Texas" Collins said. "Every night we flare out here, let off natural gas, a lot of it really fugitive emissions because we don't have the regulators out here." A spokeswoman for the Texas Oil and Gas Association, a trade group, did not respond to a request for comment on how the industry plans to improve air quality in the Permian. Its president, Todd Staples, has said that its members "are accomplishing emissions progress through voluntary programmes, innovations and efficiencies".New pipelines should help relieve the bottlenecks, such as the Gulf Coast Express, a 448-mile pipeline which went online in September to take natural gas from west Texas towards the state's portion of the Gulf coast. But these too come at an environmental cost.> We're facing a massive wave of fossil fuel facilities that we've never seen before> > Rebekah HinojosaIn the Rio Grande valley, at the border with Mexico, activists are battling to stop the construction of three planned liquefied natural gas processing and export facilities at the port of Brownsville."We're facing a massive wave of fossil fuel facilities that we've never seen before," said Rebekah Hinojosa, a local organiser with the Sierra Club, a national environmental group. "The lifeblood of those communities is nature, ecotourism, shrimping, fishing, dolphin watch tours. Having a massive fossil fuel industry is not compatible."Though Texas is also the national leader in wind power capacity, the fracking investment locks the state into a fossil fuel future and enables the US to export cheap gas to other countries, perpetuating worldwide demand.Democrats in Texas are pinning their hopes on long-term demographic shifts that point to the state becoming a political battleground within the next decade, potentially paving the way for more climate-conscious policies such as restrictions on fossil fuel production, tougher regulatory regimes and promotion of renewables."Will Texas have a political shift that might empower Democrats at some stage who might be more willing to think about restraining the growth of the oil sector, if not reversing it?" said Joshua Busby, an associate professor of public affairs at the University of Texas at Austin and senior research fellow at the Center for Climate and Security. Busby believes natural disasters might accelerate change by altering the economic equation. The Gulf coast's vulnerability to storms potentially made more severe by global heating – such as Harvey, which flooded much of the Houston area in 2017 - could damage ports, refineries and petrochemical plants, erode financial markets' enthusiasm for fossil fuel investments, hurt companies' bottom lines and push climate concerns higher up the priority list for voters in traditionally conservative suburban and rural areas.Collins doubts that a radical transformation is imminent. "We have climate change deniers running the government. So there's really no benefit to them [in restricting drilling] if they think that the energy that is produced outweighs the risk," he said.The new measure punishing protesters, he said, underlines the political priorities in Texas: "For them to pass a law like that gives you an indication of what they think about the oil industry versus the rights and the health of human beings."
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| Susan Collins facing massive ad buy attacking tax vote Posted: 06 Dec 2019 01:35 PM PST ![Susan Collins facing massive ad buy attacking tax vote]( "Susan Collins facing massive ad buy attacking tax vote") The outside group Maine Momentum is attacking Collins over her 2017 vote.
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| Iraqis protest to defy 'slaughter' in Baghdad as drone hits cleric's home Posted: 07 Dec 2019 11:49 AM PST  Thousands attended angry protests in Baghdad and southern Iraq Saturday, grieving but defiant after 20 of them were killed in an attack the previous day that demonstrators described as "slaughter". The dramatic developments have threatened to derail the anti-government rallies rocking Iraq since October, the largest and deadliest grassroots movement in decades. Late Friday, at least 20 protesters were killed or sustained wounds that later proved fatal, while dozens more were injured, when unidentified gunmen attacked a large building where protesters had camped out for weeks, medics said.
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| How World War III Begins in 2029 (A U.S.-China Battle Over Taiwan?) Posted: 07 Dec 2019 12:00 AM PST  That's what one fictional article that went viral last week suggests. Could it come true?
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| Indian rape victim dies in hospital after being set ablaze Posted: 06 Dec 2019 06:52 PM PST ![Indian rape victim dies in hospital after being set ablaze]( "Indian rape victim dies in hospital after being set ablaze") A 23-year-old rape victim died in a hospital in the Indian capital two days after she was set on fire by a gang of men, including her alleged rapist, Reuters partner ANI reported on Saturday. The woman was on her way to board a train in Unnao district of northern Uttar Pradesh state to attend a court hearing when she was doused with kerosene and set on fire on Thursday, according to the police. Uttar Pradesh is India's most populous state and has become notorious for its poor record regarding crimes against women, with more than 4,200 cases of rape reported there in 2017 - the highest in the country.
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| Video shows people scaling US border wall in seconds - despite Trump insisting it 'can't be climbed' Posted: 06 Dec 2019 12:47 PM PST  Donald Trump has praised construction of newly constructed wall along the US-Mexico border, which the president has insisted "can't be climbed".But a viral video has proved that the wall can easily be scaled with a ladder.
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| Carjackers’ Plan Foiled Because They Can't Drive Stick Posted: 06 Dec 2019 01:30 PM PST  In case you needed another reason to buy a car with a manual transmission.
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