| Gohmert Melts Down on House Floor After Nadler Accuses Him of Spouting ‘Russian Propaganda’ Posted: 18 Dec 2019 01:45 PM PST  The U.S. House's impeachment debate took a dramatic turn on Wednesday afternoon when Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) stormed back to the dais to shout at Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) after he accused the Texas lawmaker of peddling "Russian propaganda."During his floor speech, Gohmert—a fervent defender of the president—groused that the impeachment of President Donald Trump was really an effort by Democrats to "stop the investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice and Ukraine into the corruption of Ukraine interference in the U.S. election in 2016.""This is a travesty, We're in big trouble" Gohmert huffed, adding: "Now it's lowered even further, the bar. [Impeachment] will be used for political battles and this country's end is now in sight. I hope I don't live to see it. This is an outrage."After Gohmert wrapped up his speech, Nadler took a moment to chastise the Texas lawmaker before yielding his time to a Democratic congressman."I'm deeply concerned that any member of the house would spout Russian propaganda on the floor of the House," the judiciary chair sternly said, prompting Gohmert to run back to the podium.Pointing his finger at Nadler, the Texas congressman yelled and demanded that the chairman's words be stricken from the record. Nadler, for his part, appeared to not react to or indulge Gohmert's angry outburst.Last month, it was reported that the intelligence community had briefed senators and their aides that Russia has engaged in a lengthy campaign to frame Ukraine for Russia's 2016 election interference and hacking. The briefing basically aligned with Dr. Fiona Hill's impeachment testimony in which she criticized Republicans for pushing a "fictional narrative" about Ukrainian meddling.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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| Judge throws out New York fraud case against Trump campaign chair Posted: 18 Dec 2019 10:18 AM PST  A mortgage fraud case involving a disgraced former chair on Donald Trump's presidential campaign hsa been dismissed by a New York judge, who argued local charges stacked against Paul Manafort would amount to double jeopardy.Manafort, who recently began a seven and a half year prison sentence following charges stemming from special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into foreign interference in US elections, was already convicted on similar federal charges.
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| Democratic Representative Calls on McConnell to Recuse Himself and Threatens Mistrial Posted: 18 Dec 2019 06:18 AM PST  Representative Jackie Speier (D., Calif.) has called on Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell to recuse himself from the impending impeachment trial over his admission that he would not be an "impartial juror" and his claim that the trial was politically motivated."I'm not an impartial juror," McConnell told CNN on Tuesday. "This is a political process. There is not anything judicial about it. Impeachment is a political decision."Speier responded by arguing that McConnell's statement should disqualify him from participating in the impeachment trial."I think we're going to have to call a mistrial before it even gets over to the Senate," Speier said on CNN. "My understanding is that each of the senators is going to have to take an oath that they will independently evaluate the evidence for impeachment. . . . It sounds like there's no interest in doing that whatsoever, and I would think Mitch McConnell should recuse himself."The House is expected to approve two articles of impeachment against President Trump this week, one for abuse of power and the other for obstruction of Congress.McConnell is currently under pressure from both Democrats and Republicans to set parameters for an expected impeachment trial in the Senate that will please both sides. On Tuesday, McConnell slammed minority leader Chuck Schumer's (D., N.Y.) proposal to determine which witnesses to call for testimony in the same document that will set rules for impeachment hearings."It is not the Senate's job to leap into the breach and search desperately for ways to get to 'guilty,'" McConnell said on the Senate floor. "The Senate is meant to act as judge and jury, to hear a trial, not to re-run the entire fact-finding investigation because angry partisans rushed sloppily through it."
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| Supreme Court will hear church-state separation case brought by religious schools that fired teachers Posted: 18 Dec 2019 11:29 AM PST  The question is whether teachers whose primary responsibility is education can be treated as "ministers" and exempted from discrimination laws.
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| 16th-century anchors found off Mexican coast offer clues into Spanish conquest Posted: 17 Dec 2019 04:44 PM PST  Archaeologists have discovered two iron ship anchors off Mexico's Gulf Coast that they say date back 500 years and could have belonged to Spaniard Hernan Cortes' fleet, which landed in 1519 before overthrowing the Aztec empire. The anchors, found on the ocean floor near the former Spanish settlement of Villa Rica in southeastern Veracruz state, are well preserved and resemble those made in the 1500s, Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) said on Monday.
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| The 7 Best Electric Cars of 2019 Posted: 18 Dec 2019 12:57 PM PST |
| OIC criticises Malaysia's Muslim summit Posted: 18 Dec 2019 10:42 AM PST  The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Wednesday mounted a veiled attack on a Muslim summit in Malaysia shunned by Saudi Arabia, saying such gatherings would weaken Islam. Leaders of Muslim nations, including Saudi rivals Iran, Turkey and Qatar, will attend the summit this week in Kuala Lumpur, which analysts say is aimed at rivalling the OIC, a 57-member pan-Islamic body headquartered in the Saudi city of Jeddah. Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad dismissed those concerns in a phone call Tuesday with Saudi Arabia's King Salman, insisting the summit was not intended to create a new bloc.
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| A nuclear attack would most likely target one of these 6 US cities — but experts say none of them are prepared Posted: 18 Dec 2019 03:58 AM PST  If a nuclear bomb were to strike the US, cities might not have enough emergency services to aid the wounded.
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| Former Fox News employees ask 2020 candidates to speak out against nondisclosure agreements Posted: 18 Dec 2019 04:58 AM PST  Gretchen Carlson and other former Fox News employees are seeking help from 2020 candidates in their fight against nondisclosure agreements.Carlson in 2016 filed a retaliation and sexual harassment lawsuit against Roger Ailes, the late CEO and chair of Fox News, but signed a nondisclosure agreement in a settlement. She has formed the group Lift Our Voices along with two other Fox News employees who sued the network and signed nondisclosure agreements, Julie Roginsky and Diana Falzone, to end the practice of silencing workers from speaking out about such workplace issues.The group is now calling on 2020 candidates for president to publicly condemn these nondisclosure agreements, The New York Times reports."It is time for our leaders to demonstrate that they are on the side of the women and men who have been silenced for too long from discussing the hostility they have encountered by speaking out loudly and publicly against NDAs," the letter says.The Times notes that the group is not calling for the end of all nondisclosure agreements in general but specifically ones having to do with workplace environment issues like sexual harassment. Carlson, whose story of alleged sexual harassment at Fox News is depicted in the new movie Bombshell, has spoken out about being "forced into silence" by a nondisclosure agreement she has asked to be release from, as she wrote in a recent Times op-ed."This is the next phase in the MeToo movement, and it is one that needs to gain traction if we truly want to change the culture for better," she wrote.More stories from theweek.com The Trump impeachment's failure before launch White House reportedly mulling asking Jim Jordan to join Trump's Senate defense team The White House said Trump 'will be working all day.' Instead he's been angrily tweeting about impeachment.
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| Police investigating incident at Trump's Mar-a-Lago club Posted: 18 Dec 2019 02:14 PM PST  Police say they are investigating an incident Wednesday at President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago club, but have not released any specifics. Palm Beach police spokesman Michael Ogrodnick said in an afternoon email, "There is an open investigation," but he did not indicate when specific information would be released. There have been two trespassing incidents at Mar-a-Lago in the last 13 months.
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| Why Both Russia And America Failed In Afghanistan Posted: 18 Dec 2019 05:00 AM PST  It's well past time to let Afghans decide Afghanistan's future without foreign "assistance."
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| Thai serial killer wanted in new murder after prison release Posted: 17 Dec 2019 03:56 AM PST  Thai police are hunting a convicted serial killer in connection with another murder months after he was released for good behaviour, authorities said Tuesday.
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| Mexican children shiver in tents at U.S. border as temperature freezes Posted: 18 Dec 2019 05:01 PM PST ![Mexican children shiver in tents at U.S. border as temperature freezes]( "Mexican children shiver in tents at U.S. border as temperature freezes") Mexican officials concerned about the health of Mexican asylum seekers including around 200 young children sleeping in the open near the U.S. border in Ciudad Juarez tried to move people to shelters on Wednesday, as temperatures dropped below freezing. In recent months, Ciudad Juarez has seen a rapid increase in Mexicans seeking to apply for asylum in the United States, leading to a backlog in the city as U.S. border officials limit the number of asylum cases they receive at the port of entry each day. A waiting list contains about 1,200 people, of which about 550 are staying in camps near the bridge to the United States, the Chihuahua state government said.
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| Service dog has epic reaction seeing his hero, Dug from 'Up,' at Disney's Animal Kingdom Posted: 18 Dec 2019 10:28 AM PST ![Service dog has epic reaction seeing his hero, Dug from 'Up,' at Disney's Animal Kingdom]( "Service dog has epic reaction seeing his hero, Dug from 'Up,' at Disney's Animal Kingdom") People say that you should never meet your heroes. But for Henry the service dog, meeting his hero was everything it should have been.
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| US, Russian military leaders meet in Switzerland on Syria Posted: 18 Dec 2019 10:54 AM PST  The top US and Russian military chiefs met Wednesday in Switzerland for talks on Syria, where both countries are militarily engaged and maintain regular contact to avoid accidental confrontations. General Mark Milley, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, and his Russian counterpart, General Valery Gerasimov, met in Bern, a spokeswoman for Milley said. It was Gerasimov's first meeting with Milley, who became chairman in September.
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| Accusing Bernie Sanders of antisemitism? That's a new low Posted: 18 Dec 2019 06:31 AM PST  The allegations should be called for what they are: politiking in service of politicians who will put more Jews in dangerBernie Sanders – son of Dorothy and Elias Ben Yehuda Sanders, who emigrated from Poland in 1921 to escape antisemitism, and whose family that remained in Poland was slaughtered in the Holocaust – is not antisemitic. But some are trying to convince you that he is.The conservative Washington Examiner's Tiana Lowe published a story accusing the Sanders campaign of being the "most antisemitic in decades". Worth noting is that Lowe expressed gratitude several months back for her grandfather's service to the Chetniks, a nationalist armed front which collaborated with the Nazis and delivered thousands of Jews to them in service of building an ethnically homogenous Greater Serbia. She also posed for a picture with Milo Yiannopoulos, who once sent $14.88 on PayPal to a Jewish journalist, a reference to Nazi slogans.For Lowe and others on the right that have jumped on this bandwagon, though, details don't really matter. Sanders, an avowed democratic socialist, simply belongs to an opposing political camp with opposing values. Like the attacks against Corbyn abroad and Ilhan Omar at home, those now being lobbed at Sanders aren't about defeating antisemitism so much as using it as a narrative device to undermine a worldview that offends them. Sanders's solidarity with Palestinians suffering under occupation is not an affront to Jews but to the right's propaganda that looking out for their best interest means a blanket, unquestioning support for whatever the Israeli government happens to be doing, which at the moment includes maintaining a brutal apartheid state.> Trump and his xenophobic allies abroad are undoubtedly bad for the Jews, and so are smear campaigns that play into their handsThis all stands in wild contrasts to Sanders's actual views on antisemitism. As the Vermont Senator himself explained a recent essay for Jewish Currents entitled How to Fight Anti-Semitism, we now live in one of the most dangerous periods Jews have faced in recent memory, from the deadly shootings like the one at Pittsburgh's Tree of Life Synagogue last year to a wave of of far-right energy in Europe that waxes nostalgic for the continent's fascist past."Opposing antisemitism is a core value of progressivism," Sanders writes. "So it's very troubling to me that we are also seeing accusations of antisemitism used as a cynical political weapon against progressives. One of the most dangerous things Donald Trump has done is to divide Americans by using false allegations of antisemitism, mostly regarding the US–Israel relationship. We should be very clear that it is not antisemitic to criticize the policies of the Israeli government." He goes onto lay out how a Sanders administration will confront antisemitism at home and abroad: immediately appointing a special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, rejoining the United Nations Human Rights Council and "helping to shape an international human rights agenda that combats all forms of bigotry and discrimination", among other measures.That the Sanders campaign is somehow abetting antisemitism seems absurd on its face, but more outlandish blows have landed. As I wrote last week, antisemitism itself has been a reliable tool of a right looking to ward off the left, and anti-socialism has often peddled in antisemitic tropes. Accusations coming from rightwing pundits and politicians now follow proudly in this tradition, albeit with feigned concern for Jews now used to defend against policies they disagree with. Just last week, Trump called a room of Jews "brutal killers, not nice people at all" before selling an executive order to criminalize campus protests as a defense of the Jewish people. Trump and his xenophobic allies abroad are undoubtedly bad for the Jews, and so are smear campaigns that play into their hands.Before they snowball into something worse, the right's allegations of antisemitism against the left – and the first Jew within striking distance of the White House, at that – should be called out for what they are: cynical politiking in service of politicians who will put more Jews in danger. * Kate Aronoff is a writer based in New York. * This article was amended on 18 December 2019 to correct the spelling of Milo Yiannopoulos' name.
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| One photo shows why Boeing had to shut down production of its grounded 737 Max Posted: 18 Dec 2019 03:04 AM PST  Boeing is suspending production of the 737 Max nine months into the aircraft's grounding, the latest setback in a rolling crisis around the plane.
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| Search finds possible graves of 1921's Tulsa Race Massacre victims Posted: 17 Dec 2019 04:03 PM PST  Scientists surveying a cemetery and a homeless camp in Tulsa, Oklahoma, found pits holding possible remains of black residents killed nearly 100 years ago in a race massacre, investigators have revealed.
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| Lindsey Graham Calls on Giuliani to Testify on Corruption before Senate Judiciary Committee Posted: 18 Dec 2019 10:05 AM PST  Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) told reporters on Wednesday that he wants Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani to testify before the panel regarding allegations that Joe Biden leveraged his position as vice president to secure a lucrative position for his son on the board of a Ukrainian gas company."I'm going to be reaching out to Rudy, writing a letter saying you're welcome to come to this committee, if you have something you'd like to share about corruption," Graham told reporters. Giuliani would not be compelled to make an appearance, the Senator added.Giuliani's actions have been scrutinized during the impeachment inquiry into President Trump's conduct regarding Ukraine. Democrats suspect Trump withheld military aid from Ukraine to pressure the country to investigate corruption allegations against political rival Joe Biden and his son Hunter, who sat on the board of the Ukrainian natural gas company Burisma while Joe Biden was handling Ukraine policy as vice president.Giuliani repeatedly travelled to Ukraine in 2019 to meet with contacts and push for an investigation into the Bidens. Those contacts include former head prosecutor Yuriy Lutsenko, who Giuliani considered taking on as a client at the same time he was urging Lutsenko to investigate the Bidens, and a KGB-trained pro-Russian lawmaker Andriy Derkach, whose father was a KGB operative and one-time head of Ukrainian intelligence.Graham would like Giuliani to testify to his committee before the Senate impeachment trial is expected to begin.The House will vote Wednesday on two articles of impeachment against President Trump, one for abuse of power and another for obstruction of Congress. The articles are expected to pass along party lines, with most Democrats in favor and every Republican House member opposed.
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| Woman forced to remove hijab in jail settles for $120K Posted: 17 Dec 2019 12:17 PM PST  A Minnesota Muslim woman has received $120,000 to settle her lawsuit alleging she was forced to strip in jail and remove her hijab for a booking photo over a traffic offense, the woman and her attorneys said Tuesday. Aida Shyef Al-Kadi, of St. Louis Park, appeared with her attorneys at the Minneapolis headquarters of the Council on American-Islamic Relations to announce the settlement approved last month by U.S. District Judge John Tunheim. Al-Kadi, 57, said her treatment at the Ramsey County jail in August 2013 was "one of the most humiliating and harmful experiences"of her life.
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| Merkel rules out retaliation after U.S. sanctions Russian gas pipeline Posted: 18 Dec 2019 01:44 PM PST  BERLIN/FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday Germany would not retaliate against a decision by the United States to impose sanctions on companies building the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. The U.S. Senate on Tuesday passed legislation to impose sanctions on firms constructing the underwater pipeline to bring Russian natural gas to Germany. The Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which is backed by Russia's Gazprom, would allow Russia to bypass Poland and Ukraine to deliver gas under the Baltic Sea to Germany.
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| Republican mega-donor urged ex-Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin to pardon convicted killer Posted: 17 Dec 2019 04:09 PM PST  Public records show prominent Kentucky banker Terry Forcht lobbied then Gov. Matt Bevin on behalf of Patrick Baker twice.
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| Florida Man: a year in eccentricity, gators and crime Posted: 17 Dec 2019 05:51 PM PST  There is a Florida Man Twitter account, and for good reason -- the Sunshine State seems to be the scene of some of the wackiest news of any given year. Thanks to the marvels of the internet, the exploits of "Florida Man" -- a wayward regular Joe, or a clumsy criminal -- are the stuff of social media legend. Of course, the abundance of wild animals -- we are looking at you, alligators -- help a lot.
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| Dozens of former French soldiers joined jihadist groups in Middle East, new report reveals Posted: 18 Dec 2019 06:00 AM PST  Islamist groups have recruited dozens of former French soldiers, a troubling new report has revealed less than three months after a terrorist attack by a staff member at police headquarters in Paris shocked the nation. More than a third of the ex-servicemen are converts to Islam and nearly half served in elite Foreign Legion, parachute, commando or marine units where they acquired expertise in combat and handling weapons and explosives. The conservative newspaper Le Figaro published excerpts on Wednesday from the forthcoming report by the Centre for the Analysis of Terrorism, a Paris-based think tank. The report says the French army "constitutes a strategic recruitment target for terrorist groups… and former soldiers represent tremendous assets for these groups." The report, "Soldiers and Jihad", profiles 23 ex-servicemen "identified within terrorist organisations [mainly Isil] or implicated in plotting terrorist attacks". An earlier parliamentary report noted that about 30 former servicemen have joined jihadist groups since 2012. Several former Legionnaires have been arrested over terrorist plots in France, and ex-paratroopers or commandos have become leaders of Isil combat units in Syria or Iraq. French troops are fighting Islamists in the Middle East and the Sahel region of Africa Credit: MICHELE CATTANI/AFP via Getty Images Others who stayed in France have been involved in planning attacks against soldiers or military sites. Some of the ex-servicemen "became radicalised after they joined the French army, while others started becoming radicalised after they left the army," the report said. "However, some were planning to go and join jihadist groups before being recruited by the French armed forces." One such fighter is named as Boris V., from Charente, in south-western France, who became an air commando specifically to learn skills that would be useful to a terrorist group. He took the nom de guerre of "Younous the Deserter" and was killed near Aleppo, Syria, in 2016. Frédéric R., a former legionnaire in his sixties who converted to Islam, was arrested last month and confessed to helping a group of radicalised youths plan attacks. French military intelligence said efforts to detect and prevent radicalisation were stepped up earlier this year and "several cases showing low-level signs" were currently being monitored. It said none of the cases posed an immediate danger and "the threat level from Sunni jihadist Islam within the armed forces is now considered low". In October, a radicalised police employee stabbed four people to death at police headquarters in Paris, supposedly one of France's most secure buildings. Thibault de Montbrial, a former paratrooper and head of the Centre for Internal Security Studies, another think tank, told the Telegraph: "The issue of detecting people likely to become radicalised while serving [in the armed forces] is capital. Even if the army is a formidable institution for integration and cohesion, the risk is real".
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| How Good Is Russia's New Sukhoi S-70 Okhotnik-B "Hunter" Stealth Drone? Posted: 17 Dec 2019 04:21 AM PST  We take a look at this secretive Russian platform.
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| A 95-year-old former soldier was the only WWII veteran at the Battle of the Bulge memorial in Washington, DC Posted: 17 Dec 2019 01:30 PM PST  "Above all, it was bitter cold," George Arnstein said of the Battle of the Bulge. "It was the coldest winter in I don't know how many decades."
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| South Korea’s Moon Picks Ex-House Speaker to Be Prime Minister Posted: 16 Dec 2019 09:49 PM PST ![South Korea's Moon Picks Ex-House Speaker to Be Prime Minister]( "South Korea's Moon Picks Ex-House Speaker to Be Prime Minister") (Bloomberg) -- South Korean President Moon Jae-in named a former parliament speaker known for working with the opposition to be prime minister, as he looks to avoid another bruising appointment fight before next year's general elections.Moon nominated veteran Democratic Party lawmaker Chung Sye-kyun, who served as speaker from 2016 to 2018, to head his government in a televised briefing Tuesday in Seoul. Chung, 69, will replace Lee Nak-yon, who's expected to run in April's legislative elections after becoming the longest-serving prime minister since South Korea's transition to democracy."He has the ability to work well with the opposition party for us to reach an agreement within the National Assembly," Moon said of Chung. "He will also bring security and harmony in our society."Chung enjoyed broad support in parliament during his two terms as speaker, which has traditionally played a mediating role in South Korean politics, minimizing the threat of resistance from opposition lawmakers. Moon saw his poll numbers slip to record lows in October after forcing through the appointment of a former close aide as justice minister, only to see him resign weeks later.South Korea President's Biggest Headache Is Prosecutor He PickedMoon passed over another ruling party lawmaker, Kim Jin-pyo, for the prime minister's job due to criticism from organized labor group over his perceived conservative economic positions such as opposing taxation on religious figures, the DongA Ilbo newspaper reported earlier this month.Chung, who has been elected to six terms in the National Assembly, previously served stints as the Democratic Party chief and as minister of commerce, industry and energy. His appointment as prime minister is seen as way to pave the way for Lee to run in the April 15 election, the Maeil Business Newspaper reported Tuesday.To contact the reporter on this story: Jihye Lee in Seoul at jlee2352@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Scott at bscott66@bloomberg.net, Peter PaeFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| 12 Deals We Love From REI’s Last-Minute Holiday Sale Posted: 18 Dec 2019 01:52 PM PST |
| Dog found 2,000 miles from home made it back before the holidays Posted: 18 Dec 2019 01:13 PM PST  They say there's no place like home for the holidays — and a dog named Zeus had quite the journey back.
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| Feds: Seattle barrel company used hidden drain to pollute Posted: 18 Dec 2019 02:10 PM PST  A century-old Seattle barrel company has been indicted along with its third-generation owner in what prosecutors describe as a long-running pollution conspiracy. The 36-count indictment made public Wednesday said Seattle Barrel and Cooperage used a hidden drain to pump caustic wastewater directly into the King County sewer system. Seattle Barrel refurbishes used industrial and commercial barrels and drums.
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| 'Wait for Mother Nature': Last 2 victims of New Zealand's volcano eruption may never be found Posted: 18 Dec 2019 06:51 AM PST  Winona Langford and Hayden Marshall-Inman, missing since the White Island Volcano erupted, were apparently washed out to sea and may never be found.
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| Mexico won't probe ex-leader Calderon after U.S. nabs aide: president Posted: 18 Dec 2019 12:26 PM PST  Mexico will not investigate former president Felipe Calderon after one of his onetime aides was charged in the United States with accepting bribes from a drug cartel, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Wednesday. At a regular government news briefing Lopez Obrador was asked if Mexico would probe Calderon following the arrest of ex-security minister Genaro Garcia Luna last week, or whether he would leave the matter in the hands of the United States. "There won't be an investigation because it would create the perception we're doing it for political purposes," said Lopez Obrador, a leftist who claimed he was robbed of the presidency in 2006 after a narrow loss to the conservative Calderon.
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| Thai police make arrest over 'inappropriate' Facebook rally photo Posted: 17 Dec 2019 10:50 PM PST  Thai police arrested a suspect behind an "inappropriate" photo posted on Facebook from an anti-government rally, a minister said Wednesday, as the offending image went viral days after the largest protest since March's elections. Downtown Bangkok saw thousands turn out Saturday for a rally led by ultra-popular opposition frontman Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit and his Future Forward Party (FFP) executives. Carrying posters denouncing "dictatorship" and calling for prime minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha to "get out", the protesters rallied peacefully for an hour.
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| Why Russia Felt Threatened By Estonia's Largest Ever Military Exercise With NATO Posted: 17 Dec 2019 11:00 PM PST  Estonia's large-scale Siil 2018 exercise is not trivial.
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| Former Trump associate Rick Gates has been sentenced to 45 days in jail, 3 years probation, and a $20,000 fine Posted: 17 Dec 2019 08:57 AM PST  Sentencing guidelines recommended several years for the types of crimes Gates pleaded guilty to, but the judge noted he cooperated extensively.
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| 30 Ceramic Table Lamps to Elevate Your Space Posted: 18 Dec 2019 10:13 AM PST |
| FISA Court Issues Rare Public Order Condemning FBI for Russia Probe Abuses and Demanding Reforms Posted: 17 Dec 2019 01:37 PM PST  In a rare public order issued Tuesday, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court condemned the FBI for the errors and omissions in its application to surveil Trump-campaign adviser Carter Page and gave the bureau until January 10th to propose reforms to prevent future abuses.The order follows the release of Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Horowitz's report, which detailed 17 "significant errors and omissions" in the warrant application to surveil Page."The frequency with which representations made by FBI personnel turned out to be unsupported or contradicted by information in their possession, and with which they withheld information detrimental to their case, calls into question whether information contained in other FBI applications is reliable," wrote the FISA court."Therefore, the Court orders that the government shall, no later than January 10, 2020, inform the Court in a sworn written submission of what it has done, and plans to do, to ensure that the statement of facts in each FBI application accurately and completely reflects information possessed by the FBI that is material to any issue presented by the application," the order continues.The publication of the IG report caused Senate Republicans to call for reform of the FISA application process, and several publicly acknowledged Utah Senator and FISA-skeptic Mike Lee as a leader on the issue."I wish Mike Lee weren't sitting here two people from me right now, because as a national security hawk, I've argued with Mike Lee in the four-and-a-half or five years that I've been in the Senate that stuff just like this couldn't possibly happen at the FBI and at the Department of Justice," Senator Ben Sasse (R., Neb.) said during a Senate hearing on the IG report."Because we've now seen the abuses we were warned about, you can smirk again, you were right," Senator Thom Tillis (R., N.C.) told Lee.
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| Whistleblower accuses Mormon Church of hoarding $100 billion intended for charitable purposes Posted: 17 Dec 2019 06:55 AM PST  The Mormon Church may be misleading its congregation when it comes to its tax-exempt investment fund, The Washington Post reports.David Nielsen, a former senior portfolio manager at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' investment division, filed a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service in November alleging the Mormon church's leaders stockpiled $100 billion in surplus donations rather using them for charitable purposes as intended.Nielsen, who did not respond to the Post's queries, reportedly urged the IRS to strip the church's investment arm, Ensign — a non-profit required to operate exclusively for religious, educational, or other charitable purposes — of its tax-exempt status. He also accused church leaders of using donations to bail out a church-run insurance company and a Salt Lake City, Utah, mall that was part of a joint venture between the church and a local real estate company.No documents were provided to support Nielsen's claims, but Philip Hackney, a former IRS official who teaches tax law at the University of Pittsburgh, said the complaint raised a "legitimate concern" about whether Ensign deserved its tax-exempt status."If you have a charity that simply amasses a war chest year after year and does not spread any money for charity purposes, that does not meet the requirements of tax law," he told the Post. Read more at The Washington Post.More stories from theweek.com Democrats are sleepwalking into a Biden disaster GOP senators reportedly unhappy with Trump's impeachment rant The Trump impeachment's failure before launch
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| House Democrat calls on McConnell to recuse himself and threatens mistrial Posted: 18 Dec 2019 10:24 AM PST  Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., has called on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to recuse himself from the impending impeachment trial over his admission that he would not be an "impartial juror" and his claim that a trial would be politically motivated.
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| Removed statues of Forrest, Davis given to Confederate group Posted: 17 Dec 2019 12:15 PM PST  A Tennessee nonprofit group has handed over statues of Confederate leaders Nathan Bedford Forrest and Jefferson Davis to the Sons of Confederate Veterans, two years after they were removed from public parks in Memphis, officials said Tuesday. The statues of Forrest and Davis have been given to Forrest's descendants and the Sons of Confederate Veterans "to display them as they wish," City of Memphis legal officer Bruce McMullen said.
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| A Florida man 'sitting in his car' was killed in UPS hijacking shootout. His family is calling for an investigation Posted: 18 Dec 2019 08:28 AM PST  The family of Richard Cutshaw, a bystander who was killed in a shootout following the hijacking of a UPS truck in Florida, wants answers.
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| Finger-wagging Muslim women become Indian protest symbols Posted: 17 Dec 2019 12:31 AM PST  A group of Muslim women who formed a barricade around a male student being attacked by baton-swinging police have become symbols of the protests currently gripping India. In a video that has gone viral, the four young women rush to surround the young man as police in riot gear thrash at him with six-foot (two-metre) bamboo sticks known as "lathi". The protests, which raged for another day on Tuesday, follow the passing by parliament last week of legislation making it easier for people from three neighbouring countries to get Indian citizenship.
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| Russia's Military Is Powerful, But Its Tanks Can't Stand Up To America's Javelins Posted: 17 Dec 2019 09:30 PM PST  The Javelin has undergone quite a few upgrades since initial deployment in 1996.
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| U.S. sues CVS for fraudulently billing Medicare, Medicaid for invalid prescriptions Posted: 17 Dec 2019 07:48 AM PST  CVS Health Corp and its Omnicare unit were sued on Tuesday by the U.S. government, which accused them of fraudulently billing Medicare and other programs for drugs for older and disabled people without valid prescriptions. The Department of Justice joined whistleblower litigation accusing Omnicare of violating the federal False Claims Act for illegally dispensing drugs to tens of thousands of patients in assisted living facilities, group homes for people with special needs, and other long-term care facilities. According to a civil complaint filed in Manhattan federal court, Omnicare would often assign new numbers to prescriptions after the original prescriptions expired or ran out of refills.
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| Greece's Parthenon temple has had the wrong name for centuries, new research by archeologists claims Posted: 17 Dec 2019 09:17 AM PST  Sitting on top of the Acropolis, the Parthenon is one of the most dazzling buildings from antiquity, but for 2,000 years we have been getting its name wrong, according to new research. Dutch scholars claim that the name "Parthenon" – popularised in the Roman period - originally belonged to an entirely different building, not the vast stone temple that looms over Athens and attracts millions of tourists a year. The real Parthenon was in fact an ancient Greek treasury which contained offerings to the goddess Athena, according to the research by Utrecht University. Today known as the Erechtheion, it is located about 100 yards from the main temple on the Acropolis, the massive rocky escarpment that rises from central Athens. Rather than being known as the Parthenon, the big temple should be known by its original ancient Greek name, the tongue-twisting Hekatompedon. Lightning over the Parthenon Credit: Getty "That means 'the hundred-foot temple' and the main room of the big temple was indeed exactly 100 feet long," Janric van Rookhuijzen, the archeologist behind the research, told The Telegraph. He acknowledges that Hekatompedon, which is mentioned in archives dating back 2,500 years, does not exactly roll off the tongue. A more user-friendly name would be "The Great Temple of Athena." "Hekatompedon is a difficult name to pronounce. That may be part of the reason that Parthenon caught on – it was much more catchy," he said. Dr van Rookhuijzen says his research, based on a study of archeological data and ancient texts, did not go down very well initially with Greek archeologists. "My Greek friends and colleagues were of course very suspicious – who is this Dutch guy saying the name should be changed? But they're now saying there is some merit to the theory I have put forward." Parthenon means "house of virgins" and the smaller temple is indeed decorated with stone caryatids, sculpted female figures which act as pillars, holding up the roof. Devoted to the ancient cult of Athena, it would have housed a treasury containing precious objects associated with the goddess, including musical instruments and swords from Persia. "Where the scientific community is concerned, Van Rookhuijzen's insight will cause a minor seismic shift," said Josine Blok, professor emeritus of ancient cultures at Utrecht University. "Not only will the names need to be adjusted, this changes our image of the cult of the goddess Athena and the Acropolis as a whole." Ineke Sluiter, professor of Greek language and literature at Leiden University, said: "This study demonstrates the permanent importance of never blindly trusting that the commonly-held wisdom is actually true." A detail from the Elgin Marbles in the British Museum Credit: Getty The research has been published in the American Journal of Archaeology and the Dutch edition of National Geographic Magazine. An icon of ancient Greek culture, the Parthenon and its marbles have been a bone of contention between Greece and Britain for 200 years, ever since Lord Elgin brought some of the friezes back to London. They are held by the British Museum, which has resisted Greek demands that they be permanently returned to Athens. Last month Xi Jinping, China's president, pledged his support for the Greek campaign to recover the marbles. "Not only do I agree with the return of the Parthenon sculptures but you will also have our support, as we too have our own [artefacts] of Chinese culture outside the country and are trying to get them home," he said during a two-day visit to Athens.
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| Here's what time the House of Representatives' impeachment vote is expected to happen Posted: 18 Dec 2019 03:24 PM PST  Trump is on course to become the third president in US history to be impeached. The House can pass impeachment with a simple majority.
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| New details emerge on snowstorm plane crash that left 9 dead Posted: 18 Dec 2019 01:41 PM PST  An NTSB investigator examines the wreckage of a Pilatus PC-12 airplane at Chamberlain Municipal Airport in South Dakota. The aircraft crashed on Saturday, November 30, 2019, moments after taking off. The crash killed nine of the 12 people on board. (NTSB) The pilot and a passenger worked for three hours "to remove snow and ice from the airplane," according to a National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) preliminary report, prior to a deadly plane crash late last month in South Dakota that claimed the lives of nine passengers and injured three others.The NTSB said a witness recalled having seen the efforts to clear the single-engine Pilatus PC-12 before the plane took off and then crashed within a mile of takeoff in Chamberlain, South Dakota, Nov. 30."If you have the proper equipment it shouldn't take three hours, especially for a plane that size," Ethan Klapper, a journalist and licensed aircraft dispatcher, told AccuWeather. "Sounds like something improper happened here. Also, they were clearing the snow while it was still snowing. So likely there was additional accumulation that was occurring during this, and they took off with still more snow that accumulated on the aircraft."Chamberlain, and much of South Dakota, was under a Winter Storm Warning from the National Weather Service at the time of the crash. Winds of 7 mph and moderate snow were reported at the time of the flight with overcast conditions and half-mile visibility, according to the report. Freezing rain and snow were observed at the Chamberlain Municipal Airport the previous afternoon and overnight.The plane arrived in Chamberlain Friday at about 9:30 a.m. CST, according to an earlier NTSB statement. The airplane remained parked on the airport ramp until the accident a day later."It seems a classic case of no deicing chemicals were sprayed or that there was some kind of buildup of new snow on the wings," said AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Alex Sosnowski. "Or is it possible the air speed indicator was clogged with, or again became clogged with, snow and ice? Or, did they damage something on the plane while clearing it of snow and ice?" A photo of a Pilatus PC-12 in flight. (Pilatus Aircraft Ltd) Ice and snow need to be properly removed from a plane for the flight to be legal, and if that doesn't happen, the consequences can be dire. Variations in drag and lift could be substantial if a plane is not properly deiced, an aviation expert confirmed with AccuWeather.Three of the plane's warning systems - the stall warning, stick shaker and stick pusher \- activated within 15 seconds after liftoff, the NTSB report noted. The airplane immediately rolled about 10 degrees to the left after takeoff. The plane then reversed to five degrees to the right before it "ultimately entered a 64-degree left bank as the airplane reached its peak altitude of 460 feet above ground," according to the report.It's also possible the time taken to clear the plane's snow and ice affected pre-flight preparations. The pilot and passenger worked for three hours before being joined by the remaining passengers shortly before the flight, according to the NTSB report. The pilot requested clearance from Minneapolis Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC) at 12:24 p.m., saying he'd be ready in five minutes. At 12:27 p.m., he received clearance with a void time of 12:35 p.m. No radio communications were received from the pilot and radar contact was never established. At 12:40 p.m., Minneapolis ARTCC contacted the Chamberlain airport manager, who advised the plane had departed about 10 minutes earlier. An alert notice was then issued.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.The data recorder captured cockpit sound, the report noted; the NTSB will convene a group of technical experts to produce a transcript. The preliminary report does not include analysis or a probable cause for the accident. Probable cause will be determined at the end of the investigation, which could take between 12-14 months to complete.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.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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