| Why has the Tulsa Race Massacre been largely forgotten? Posted: 21 Dec 2019 08:47 AM PST  In 1921, as many as 300 black residents of Tulsa, Okla. were killed in one of the worst instances of racial violence in American history. Why is such a horrific event largely left out of U.S. history?
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| Syrian state media says Israel is firing missiles into Syria Posted: 22 Dec 2019 01:30 PM PST ![Syrian state media says Israel is firing missiles into Syria]( "Syrian state media says Israel is firing missiles into Syria") Syrian air defenses opened fire Sunday night on missiles fired from inside Israel, state media reported. Syrian state TV gave no further details but residents of Damascus said explosions could be heard near the capital. State TV said one of the Israeli missiles was shot down near the Damascus suburb of Aqraba.
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| Jeff Van Drew reveals the moment he decided it was time to switch parties Posted: 22 Dec 2019 10:43 AM PST  Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-N.J.) reached the point of no return when a local New Jersey county party chair told him he would face political consequences if he didn't vote in favor of impeachment.Van Drew, in an appearance on Fox News' Sunday Morning Futures on Sunday, told host Maria Bartiromo that when he heard that warning he decided it was time to switch parties. "It made me think for all the years that I've worked so hard and tried to give so much not only to the party but to everybody," the former Democratic congressman said. "It all boils down to that I have my own individual opinion on one vote and that's not going to be allowed, and I'm going to be punished for that, and that's when I knew."> Welcome to the GOP, @CongressmanJVD! pic.twitter.com/DBQLS67zJu> > — GOP (@GOP) December 22, 2019Van Drew, who went against the Democratic line and opposed impeachment from the beginning, officially announced he was crossing the aisle Thursday. He said he feels that he did "the honorable thing" and is sticking by his decision so far, even though there are questions about how he'll actually fit in with the GOP when it comes to non-impeachment voting. Read more at The Hill.More stories from theweek.com 6 powerful phrases every parent should use Let us pray for the brave men and women fighting in the War on Christmas 19 references and callbacks you may have missed in The Rise of Skywalker
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| Biden's press secretary diagnosed with cancer Posted: 22 Dec 2019 12:48 AM PST  "It was never a question whether I'd continue working during treatment — working for Joe Biden and this campaign has been the best, most important experience of my life," TJ Ducklo said.
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| Australian man describes how he survived bushfire in makeshift shelter as inferno roared around him Posted: 22 Dec 2019 03:33 PM PST  An Australian man who became trapped by a bushfire has described how he survived the inferno as it tore through his property at the weekend. Steve Harrison decided to stay for as long as possible to defend his home in the New South Wales village of Balmoral, which was all but wiped out by the out-of-control fires on Saturday. "When it came, it came in like three or four minutes, just a big plume of black smoke and then ember fallout," recalled Mr Harrison. In an interview with ABC, the 67-year-old artist described how he frantically tried to turn on the sprinklers on buildings in his property but within minutes he found himself trapped, unable to escape. "My garden was already on fire here. And the driveway was on fire, and the road was on fire. So I realised I couldn't evacuate," Mr Harrison said. Steve Harrison is lucky to be alive. The potter hid in his 'makeshift kiln' for 20 mins as the Green Wattle Creek fire engulfed his property. He watched his beloved potting shed burn to the ground but thankfully his house is still standing. @abcsydney@abcnewspic.twitter.com/mG6o73MBLF— Lydia Feng (@LydiaLFeng) December 22, 2019 He said he had to turn to his plan B: Hiding in a small kiln, just the size of a coffin, that he had built the day before. It was just big enough for him to crawl inside, he said. "I hid in there for half an hour while the firestorm went over," he said. "It was huge, just glowing orange-red everywhere. Just scary. I was terrified." Mr Harrison said all his neighbours' homes had been destroyed, but his efforts to protect his home meant it was still standing. "I put a lot of money and effort and time into putting dedicated firefighting pumps just to run the sprinklers on the walls and roof," he told ABC News. "My wife and I spent the day wrapping [the house] up in aluminium foil to reflect the heat." Bushfires rage as Australian heatwave leads to hottest ever day, in pictures The village of Balmoral, southwest of Sydney, was devastated by the Green Wattle Creek firestorm that roared through the area twice in three days. Dozens of homes have been lost since Thursday in massive wildfires, including the Gospers Mountain blaze, which covered more than 460,000 hectares (1.1 million acres). Thirty firefighters from Canada and nine from the United States were among fresh crews set to join the battle against the fires on Sunday.
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| A 6-year-old girl found a disturbing hand-written note in a Christmas card that claimed foreign prisoners were being forced to work in China Posted: 22 Dec 2019 12:11 PM PST  The UK-based grocery chain Tesco is investigating a Chinese factory after the girl from London found the note in a pack of charity Christmas cards.
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| Buttigieg backers defend 'wine cave' fundraiser Posted: 20 Dec 2019 09:13 PM PST  The California winemakers who hosted a dinner at a "wine cave" for Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg are defending the fundraising event. Buttigieg's political rivals used the recent fundraiser to criticize the South Bend, Indiana, mayor for soliciting campaign contributions from wealthy donors at Thursday's Democratic presidential debate. Craig and Kathryn Hall, who own the Hall Rutherford winery in Napa Valley, said Friday that they took issue with how their wine cave has been portrayed in the media.
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| Death toll in Europe from storm hits nine Posted: 22 Dec 2019 06:00 AM PST  The death toll from storms that have battered Spain, Portugal and France rose to nine on Sunday as the region braced for more violent winds and heavy rain. Storms Elsa and Fabien have flooded rivers, brought down power lines, uprooted trees and disrupted rail and air travel across the region, leaving more than 118,000 households without electricity. Two people have so far died in Portugal and seven have now been killed in Spain, the worst affected country, after a fisherman was swept off rocks into the sea in Catalonia.
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| ‘It's so unfair’: Trump rages about impeachment in bizarre speech to students as he claims he revived phrase 'Merry Christmas' Posted: 22 Dec 2019 03:37 AM PST  Donald Trump has complained about Nancy Pelosi's decision to delay sending articles of impeachment to the Senate during a bizarre speech to conservative students on Saturday night.Mr Trump, who became the third president to be impeached in US history on Wednesday, has accused Democrats of "violating the Constitution" with the move, which could delay a trial in the Republican-controlled chamber.
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| Modi says citizenship law not anti-Muslim as protests continue across India Posted: 21 Dec 2019 10:48 PM PST  Following days of violent, sometimes deadly protests across India against a new citizenship law critics say discriminates against Muslims, Prime Minister Narendra Modi led a rally on Sunday for his Hindu nationalist party in the capital. New Delhi's state election early next year will be the first major electoral test for Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party in the wake of the mass demonstrations seen after parliament cleared the Citizenship Amendment Act on Dec. 11. Several thousand people took part in Modi's rally where he accused the opposition of distorting facts to trigger protests.
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| Almanac: Baldness Posted: 21 Dec 2019 11:48 PM PST  On December 22, 1997, the FDA approved Propecia, a once-a-day pill for combating the genetic condition known as male pattern baldness
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| Trump adviser: Expect more aggressive poll monitoring in 2020 Posted: 21 Dec 2019 11:52 AM PST  One of President Trump's top reelection advisers told influential Republicans in Wisconsin that the party has "traditionally" relied on voter suppression to compete in battleground states, according to an audio recording obtained by the Associated Press. The adviser said later that his remarks referred to accusations that Republicans use such tactics.
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| Military Nightmare: Is the United States Being Outmatched by Russia and China? Posted: 21 Dec 2019 11:45 PM PST  America may not be able to compete in future wars.
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| Notre Dame fire wakes the world up to dangers of lead dust Posted: 21 Dec 2019 11:56 PM PST  It took a blaze that nearly destroyed Paris' most famous cathedral to reveal a gap in global safety regulations for lead, a toxic building material found across many historic cities. After the Notre Dame fire in April spewed dozens of tons of toxic lead-dust into the atmosphere in just a few hours, Paris authorities discovered a problem with the city's public safety regulations: There was no threshold for them to gauge how dangerous the potentially-deadly pollution was from the dust that settled on the ground. Officials in other historic European capitals such as Rome and London, as well as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the World Health Organization also have no such outdoor lead dust hazard guidelines.
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| Romanians pay tribute to victims of 1989 revolution Posted: 22 Dec 2019 04:35 PM PST  Thousands of people marched in the Romanian capital Bucharest on Sunday to remember those who lost their lives in the revolution 30 years ago that ended the communist dictatorship of Nicolae Ceausescu. President Klaus Iohannis and several ministers from his centre-right administration laid commemorative wreaths and lit candles in front of a monument to the victims. "We want to know the truth about December 1989," Iohannis said a few hours earlier, as he opened an exhibition on the revolution.
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| A Rape Victim’s Stunning Victory Against Japan’s Powerful ‘Weinsteins’ Posted: 22 Dec 2019 02:26 AM PST  TOKYO–A civil court here handed down a landmark ruling last week in the case of freelance journalist Shiori Ito, 30, who alleged she was raped in 2015 by a Noriyuki Yamaguchi, 53, a good friend and biographer of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The court ruled Yamaguchi must pay over ¥3.3 million yen ($30,000) in damages. Since Ito went public with the charges in 2017 after police efforts to pursue the case were quashed, she has become a vital symbol for the still fledgling MeToo movement in Japan; her story is a microcosm of the problems women face here in a nation where there are far too many men who share the attitudes of a Harvey Weinstein.Japan's Big MeToo Moment: You Think Hollywood Abuses Women? You Oughta See Tokyo.Yet this victory in a civil case also reopens the very ugly question of why Yamaguchi never was prosecuted for his alleged crime. The police had a warrant prepared on sexual assault charges and were planning to arrest Yamaguchi at Narita airport on June 8, 2015, but were stopped at the last minute by a high-ranking police bureaucrat known as "Prime Minister Abe's attack dog" who then scuttled the original investigation.The Daily Beast has reported on this case from the very start, following the chain of evidence and documenting the suspicious twists. The civil lawsuits for damages incurred during sexual assault were filed by Ito in September of 2017. She accused Yamaguchi, a former Washington bureau chief for the Tokyo Broadcasting Service, of sexually assaulting her on April 4, 2015, inflicting mental and physical damage. Ito asserted that she met Yamaguchi at a restaurant after he offered to help further her career as a journalist. She claimed that after a few drinks she lost consciousness. When she awoke she was in his hotel room and he was raping her. She said she believed she may have been drugged. Yamaguchi later countersued, claiming that Ito had defamed him, and sought 130 million yen ($1.1 million) in damages. Is Japan's Top Politician Behind a Shameful Rape Cover-Up?The plight of Shiori Ito became world-wide news and the subject of a BBC documentary, Japan's Secret Shame, because in Japan it is even more rare than in other countries for victims to come forward with allegations of sexual assault.Interest has been heightened since the alleged assailant is a close personal friend of the prime minister and has written two books about him. Add to that the role a close ally of the prime minister played in scuttling the investigation and it's not surprising that cries of foul play have been heard inside and outside Japan. On December 18 the Tokyo District Court, Judge Akihiro Suzuki presiding, found Ito's account of the attack was consistent and believable. The court noted that Ito had reported the rape to the police, sought the support of medical professionals, and that the testimony of witnesses and surveillance footage from the hotel all indicated that Ito was unconscious and unable to consent to sexual intercourse. Even before reaching the hotel, the court noted, the semi-unconscious Ito asked the taxi driver to take her to the nearest train station, but Yamaguchi insisted the driver take the pair to the hotel.In addition to these findings, the court dismissed Yamaguchi's defamation claims, effectively throwing out his counter lawsuit. The judge indicated that the information disclosed by Ito was in the public interest, meant to show the obstacles that rape victims face in society, and therefore was not slanderous. * * *What The Doorman Saw* * *Yamaguchi says he will appeal the ruling, but he might want to reconsider in light of what appears to be damning new evidence. On December 19, after the trial was over, the weekly magazine Shukan Shincho, which first brought the case to light in a series of exposés going back to 2017, published an explosive scoop. Shukan Shincho obtained a copy of a written statement from a key witness that had been submitted to the court too late to be included in the civil case. The witness is identified as a doorman at the Sheraton Miyako Hotel, where Yamaguchi took the intoxicated Ito. The doorman had spoken to the police before an arrest warrant had been issued when the investigation was first under way and gave formal testimony as evidence thereafter. However, in the aftermath of the retracted arrest warrant, and a failed appeal to the Prosecutorial Review Board, his testimony never saw the light of day. He was not informed by the courts about the progress of the case and only discovered Ito took it to civil court when the hearings were nearly over. In a desperate effort to speak up about what he saw that night, the doorman came forward with his statement just as the hearings had ended. Ito's lawyers asked for the court proceeding to be reopened, but the court rejected the appeal and his statement was not submitted as evidence. In the published interview with Shukan Shincho, the doorman talked about the first time he spoke to the police on the matter. He said his memory was jogged when an investigator told him "the taxi driver suggested that you may have heard more of their conversation"—that is, the exchanges between Ito and Yamaguchi as she tried to avoid accompanying him. That night, the doorman had opened the backseat door of the taxi in the hotel driveway. "I made eye contact with Yamaguchi," he said, "and I got an impression that he was a scary man, and he was pulling the arm of the woman who sat in the other seat, urging her to get out." "The woman insisted that she had to clean up the mess, she had made a mess, she sounded like a young child and I realized that she had thrown up on the floor of the car," the doorman recalled. "When the man tried to drag her out of the car from the door on her side, she made gestures of protest, refusing to get out, and insisting on cleaning up. I thought she must have really wanted to clean or maybe she was using that as an excuse to get away from him. The man grabbed her arm and said 'don't bother.'" "She could barely stand or walk on her own, barely conscious and completely intoxicated repeating 'I have to clean up,'" the doorman said, "but still she was pulled towards the hotel and I remember her letting out a loud wail as though she were crying." He also noted the arrogance of Yamaguchi, who failed to apologize and did not offer to pay a cleaning charge, which is the custom in Japan when one has defiled a taxi.What followed was caught on the hotel's security camera. Yamaguchi dragged a limp and incapacitated Ito into the hotel lobby. The doorman recalls the police saying, "with testimony as clear cut as this, this case is ours [to win]." However, despite this testimony and other evidence, the case was dropped. * * *No Means No Investigation* * *Ito, at a press conference at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan, speaking in English, said, "When I went to [the] police for the first time after the incident, the first word that I got was these things happen and we can't investigate, which was quite shocking to hear. There's so many reasons behind it why they use this excuse. After I heard that comment, I sort of pressured them: 'Well I know which hotel I came out [of] so please check the CCTV,' and they did. They found the CCTV and they said this is something, it is criminal, but yet they didn't want to file the case, and I asked why again. The investigator [said] that it is because he is pressured by prosecutors because our conviction rate in Japan is very high, and I believe it's something to do with it."Prosecutors only want to bring cases they can be absolutely sure they will win—typically their conviction rates are 99 percent—and sex crimes are hard ones to make. "That was quite surprising," said Ito. She also noted the lack of female police officers. In 2017, fewer than 10 percent of the police force were women. "Police officers need to be educated how to deal with these victims who are traumatized with sex crimes. But my case for instance, I asked for a female police officer [and] I talked to her and after two hours she said, 'I'm sorry I'm from the traffic department and I can't take your report so please talk to my male co-worker who is a male investigator.'"As Ito noted, in Japan, not only are the prosecutors and police reluctant to deal with sexual crimes against women, even if they get their day in court, Japan's predominantly male judiciary is likely to find they didn't resist enough. And thus the rapists often go free. * * *Conspicuous Silence* * *After the court's ruling in favor of Ito last week, several of the previously loud and abusive defenders of Yamaguchi suddenly went quiet. The most conspicuous silence came from Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker and protege of the prime minister, Mio Sugita, who previously gained attention for anti LGBQT remarks. In the BBC documentary, Japan's Secret Shame, Sugita claimed Ito "was at fault as a woman, drinking with a man until she lost consciousness," defending Yamaguchi and men as the "victim in these cases." And her tweet from last June has come back to haunt her. Sugita wrote that Ito did not deserve to be dealt with as a genuine victim. "I don't forgive sex crimes. It is unacceptable to force a victim to take drugs, or drag her into a car, and do things like rape her and I think the punishment should be more severe. But in an outrageous/unreasonable case like Ito Shiori—I feel anger as a woman that she is treated the same way as other rape victims who are absolutely not at fault." The court essentially found that Yamaguchi did the things that Sugita says she can't forgive and her underlying theme that rape victims were often somehow at fault, was not well-received either. At this point in time, she still has made no comment on the court's findings. While some critics of Ito suddenly shut up, the netizens and trolls of Japan quickly rose to the occasion and launched a stream of invective against Ito so offensive that media outlets were at a loss what to do. The Mainichi newspaper disabled the comments on the video of Ito's statement outside the courthouse immediately after the verdict, but one can easily watch the same video on other news channels and the comments keep rolling in: "I want to rape her, too," was a typical comment. Others included, "This is clearly a modern comfort woman's scheme," referring to the Asian and European women who were coerced into sexual slavery by the Japanese army during Japan's imperial era. For the right wing, "comfort women" is a term used to denigrate any independent woman as a willing prostitute, intent on cheating men of their money* * *Did Yamaguchi Get Special Treatment?* * *In his press conference on Thursday at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan, Yamaguchi accused the court of ignoring his claims and alleged there are contradictions in Ito's statements. He called her a habitual liar and hinted that he was now going to sue several media outlets, including The New York Times and the BBC. The only thing that seemed to give him pause was when he noticed that Shiori Ito was in the room listening to him speak, and taking notes.When The Daily Beast asked him, as a veteran journalist himself who had covered crime in Japan, did he know of any case in which the police had rescinded an arrest warrant for a felony, he did not answer the question. He probably doesn't want to answer; numerous sources, lawyers, former prosecutors and police say that it is almost unprecedented for an arrest warrant not to be executed. For better or worse, this is how the Japanese criminal justice process typically works in felony cases. The police investigate, find evidence, then consult with the prosecutors. If the prosecutor agrees, then they go to the court and get a warrant. They make an arrest. The suspect is held for up to 23 days in jail, interrogated every day, and then a final decision is made on whether to prosecute. They can then be rearrested on different charges. The former CEO Of Nissan, Carlos Ghosn, was put through this meat grinder and spent over 120 days in jail. His trial has not yet started. That wasn't the case for Yamaguchi.Yamaguchi did insist that despite his close personal friendship with the prime minister, he had never asked for political interference on his behalf. He says he didn't even know he was under investigation when the Takanawa police reluctantly let him depart without putting him in handcuffs as they had planned on June 8, 2015. For the most part, at the press conference Yamaguchi let his lawyer say the unpleasant things he didn't want coming out of his own mouth. The lawyer's supposed "bombshell" claim that Ito must be lying because she wrote in her book that her relative was a prosecutor when he was not was effectively dismissed two hours later. Ito clarified that her relative was an assistant prosecutor–fukukenji–which in Japan, is rarely differentiated from a regular prosecutor (kenji).* * *A Plea For Help* * *The circumstances that led to the criminal investigation of Yamaguchi being shelved may never be fully known. The civil court did not touch upon the previous events and it is nearly impossible to sue the Japanese government for failure to do its fiduciary duty. The Abe administration has a long history of shredding documents and cover-ups, so getting to the truth will be hard. Perhaps the last word should go to Ito, who made this plea to the media in her closing remarks, when asked about whether there was political interference in her case. Her voice cracked as she spoke."What I want to ask for you guys is that I need your help to find out these things. I can't do this all by myself, and I've been thinking when is the right time to do more investigation around it because I can't [alone]. I need your help." While the Abe administration seems to be rather unhelpful in her case, or to women in general, maybe there are some in or outside of the administration who are willing to help. Mari Hirayama, a Professor in Criminal Procedure and Criminology at Hakuoh University, considers the verdict a step forward for sexual assault victims in Japan. "She could not get justice [from the] Prosecutorial Review Board, but now she is admired worldwide. I hope this [case] inspired the reform for the Penal Code planned next year." Indeed, the common sense ruling of the Tokyo District Court is a leap forward for equal rights in Japan, establishing one thing that should already be crystal clear––if a woman is forced to have sex without her consent, that is a crime.The crusty old men who rule Japan were able to stop one arrest, but Ito has started something unprecedented in this country. The attempt to muzzle the rape investigation has backfired and instead ignited a movement, lead by Ito, who is no longer a victim but a hero for many. In its schemes to silence Ito, the government unwittingly gave voice to an army of women who are fed up with suffering silently and will not be stopped until true justice is served. Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| American Airlines begins offering non-binary gender options during booking process Posted: 21 Dec 2019 11:35 AM PST  American Airlines has quietly rolled out non-binary gender options during the booking process, where people can designate "U" or "X" for their gender.
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| New poll finds that a majority of Americans support Trump's impeachment and removal from office Posted: 22 Dec 2019 03:22 PM PST  The share of Americans who want Trump removed from office has climbed since the House's impeachment proceedings concluded Wednesday.
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| Atmospheric river expected to slam West Coast Posted: 20 Dec 2019 10:58 PM PST  For most, dreams of a white Christmas will remain just that.
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| ‘You have a terribly homosexual face’: Brazil’s president launches homophobic attack on journalist Posted: 21 Dec 2019 04:55 AM PST  Brazil's president has launched a homophobic attack on a journalist in a likely attempt to detract from a criminal investigation into his son's alleged corruption.Jair Bolsonaro, who was elected on a ticket to purge the political class of corruption, railed against media scrutiny of his racism and apparent disdain for the environment, accusing the press of bias against him and his son Flavio Bolsonaro.
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| Hong Kong police sued by journalist who lost eye after being hit with a rubber bullet Posted: 22 Dec 2019 01:00 AM PST  A journalist who lost her eye filming protests in Hong Kong has launched a legal bid to unmask the police officer who shot her with a rubber bullet. Veby Mega Indah was blinded in one eye while live streaming for Indonesian-language publication Suara from the frontline of the Hong Kong protests earlier this year. But she claims police have refused to investigate. She has now submitted a private bid to sue the officer for negligence. But her case cannot progress without knowing the identity of her shooter. She has now applied to the high court to reveal his details. It is the latest damaging case against the Hong Kong police force, which has been accused of heavy-handed tactics. A panel of foreign experts overseeing an investigation into allegations of excessive force resigned earlier this month in protest at slow progress. Veby Mega Indah receives emergency aid after being hit by a rubber bullet Credit: Isaac Lawrence/AFP Ms Indah, 39, is convinced the police are delaying because the evidence is so clear-cut. Despite her efforts, any meeting with the police investigators has yet to materialise, with the only visits coming from police public relations teams. "I'm really offended, this is criminal misconduct. They changed my life and they're treating this as public relations," Indah stressed. She was shot while covering clashes between protesters and police in the district of Wan Chai. She was wearing full press gear including press identification, a helmet, gasmask, a luminous high visual press-vest and eye-goggles. Ms Indah was recording the unfolding events at the time with a group of journalists. As space was tight on the bridge, protesters, press and police were all squeezed close to each other. Hong Kong protests "At one point I heard a fellow journalist shouting 'don't aim at us', in Cantonese," she said. "Then I heard two bangs… loud bangs, then white smoke from the stairs and I saw something coming towards my right eye. It hits me and I staggered as another journalist hugged me, not breaking my fall. I couldn't open my eyes, people were screaming and panicking and the footbridge was trembling," Indah told The Telegraph. First-aiders arrived quickly, as Indah lay on the ground she was in a state of shock. "I was so confused – why would they shoot me? I thought it was going to be my end." Despite the protective wear, the impact of the projectile was so strong it ruptured her eye beyond repair. "When I got to the hospital, a doctor cursed. That's when I knew it was bad. At that point, my main focus was to stay alive. They've told me they cannot improve my vision," she said, holding back the tears. Ms Indah says she has been taking painkillers to ease the pain, whilst she has recently been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress order.
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| Death toll from New Zealand volcano eruption rises to 19 Posted: 22 Dec 2019 02:36 PM PST  The death toll from a volcanic eruption in New Zealand earlier this month has risen to 19 after police said Monday another person died at an Auckland hospital overnight. There were 47 people visiting the tourist destination of White Island when the volcano erupted Dec. 9, killing 13 people initially and leaving more than two dozen others hospitalized with severe burns. The latest victim is the sixth person to die in hospitals in New Zealand and Australia in the two weeks since the eruption.
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| Syria regime advances in Idlib, nine civilians killed Posted: 22 Dec 2019 04:20 PM PST  Maaret al-Numan (Syria) (AFP) - Regime forces have seized dozens of towns and villages in northwest Syria from jihadists following days of violent clashes, fuelling an exodus of civilians, a war monitor said Sunday. The fresh advances in Idlib came as Russian warplanes continued to pummel the province's south, killing nine civilians who were trying to escape the flashpoint area on Sunday, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The ground assault by loyalists of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime brings them closer to capturing one of the largest urban centres in Syria's last major opposition bastion.
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| North Carolina Man Accused of Killing Wife With Lethal Eye Drops Posted: 22 Dec 2019 06:05 AM PST  A North Carolina man has been charged with using Visine eye drops to kill his wife of eight years. Joshua Lee Hunsucker, 35, was arrested and booked late last week, charged with the first-degree murder of Stacy Robinson in September 2018. His bail has been set at $1.5 million. North Carolina's Department of Insurance made the shocking connection after the dead woman's mother, Suzie Robinson, alerted them to possible insurance fraud by her former son-in-law. The case marks the second time eye drops have been allegedly used as a murder weapon. In 2018, a 52-year-old South Carolina woman was charged with murdering her husband by putting eye drops in his drinking water. Robinson alleged that her former son-in-law was motivated to kill her daughter over a relationship he had started during the marriage. The Shelby Star reports that Hunsucker was awarded a $250,000 life insurance payout after his wife's death. Wife Attempted Suicide After Poisoning Husband With Eye Drops: PoliceThe Hunsuckers raised around $10,500 through a GoFundMe campaign after Stacy suffered an unspecified medical condition following the birth of their first daughter in 2013. The couple created another fundraiser after the birth of their second daughter in 2014, during which Robinson went into cardiac arrest and received a pacemaker. She worked at a local preschool and the couple posted pictures of what appeared to be a happy marriage with their young children on social media.The suspect worked as a paramedic, and his co-workers testified that he was "unaffected" by his wife's sudden death. He also allegedly gave varying accounts of what he was doing before his wife stopped breathing, turned blue and collapsed on the sofa in their family home last year, according to court documents. Hunsucker originally told investigators that he had his back to her and found her on the sofa dead, according to the affidavit published in local news outlets. He then changed his story, telling friends how he found her after entering the room.Police say Hunsucker also tried to block authorities from performing an autopsy on his dead wife. But because she was an organ donor, a sample of blood was taken—and later subpeoned in the insurance fraud investigation. The results were used to prove that she had been poisoned after high levels of tetrahydrozolilne were found in her system. North Carolina Department of Insurance attorney Jordan Green said that her blood contained 30 to 40 times higher levels that the normal therapeutic value of the drug, which would have had "a dramatic effect on her heart, which would cause heart stoppage in a short amount of time."Green told a judge during Hunsucker's first court appearance Friday that they had "probable cause he poisoned Mrs. Hunsucker with Visine, which caused her death."Lawyers for Hunsucker "strenuously opposed" the allegations and pleaded that his bail should be lowered to $50,000 so he can be with his two young children. The judge refused the request.Hunsucker's next court appearance is scheduled for Jan. 9. If he is able to pay his $1.5 million bond he will be fitted with an electronic monitoring system. Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Mexico’s Renewable Power Suppliers Face Risks Under Grid Proposal Posted: 22 Dec 2019 03:11 PM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Mexico's Federal Electricity Commission is proposing to cancel some contracts and eliminate discounts on transmission costs for power generators to use its network, dealing the latest blow to Mexico's budding private renewable energy market.CFE, as the state utility is known, is seeking to eliminate 50% discounts on transmission costs for so-called legacy permits granting vested rights to projects holding a power permit or an application filed with the Energy Regulatory Commission, or CRE, before the enactment of Mexico's 2014 electricity reforms, according to the draft proposal from the CFE obtained by Bloomberg. It also looks to cancel some self-supply power contracts that allow companies to generate electricity for their own businesses, using mostly solar energy or natural gas. CFE did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside of the normal business week.A draft proposal seeking to increase transmission costs for private companies and give the CFE preference over private generation when electricity is dispatched into the national grid was first reported by the Financial Times on Saturday. The elimination of incentives for the private sector could significantly hamper investment in renewable energy and raise electricity costs for consumers, the report said.The government of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has sought to dial back reforms from the previous center-right administration and consolidate power in the hands of Mexico's state-owned energy companies CFE and Petroleos Mexicanos.The CFE proposal addressed to the CRE, the National Energy Control Center known as CENACE, the Energy Ministry and the Finance Ministry identified 80 areas to strengthen the state utility by adjusting regulations and agreements without affecting the law. Of these, 14 "strategic issues" require "immediate attention" including giving CFE more control over tariffs that today are set by the regulator, according to the document. If approved, the measures could affect hundreds of contracts with local and international power generators including Iberdrola SA, Enel SpA and Acciona SA, among others.On Saturday, Lopez Obrador said that the state utility would take over 70% of the electricity market if private companies didn't invest enough before the end of his administrative in 2024, national newspaper Milenio reported.Lopez Obrador has been criticized for failing to prioritize the environment when it conflicts with his energy goals. Last month, his government sought to change rules for clean-energy credits, allowing aging hydroelectric dams operated by Mexico's state-owned utility to qualify. But the rule was suspended by a federal judge in December following injunctions from private power companies. Last week, Petroleos Mexicanos was granted a five-year extension on meeting a nationwide requirement to sell ultra-low-sulfur diesel, a move that may worsen air pollution in parts of the country.To contact the reporter on this story: Amy Stillman in Mexico City at astillman7@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: David Marino at dmarino4@bloomberg.net, Dale Quinn, James LuddenFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| A California teacher was placed on leave after allegedly telling students she wants to 'bring back slavery' Posted: 22 Dec 2019 10:32 AM PST  The unnamed educator, who works at a school composed of predominately black and Latino students, is allegedly a supporter of President Donald Trump.
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| Death toll climbs in India protests against citizenship law Posted: 21 Dec 2019 08:53 PM PST  Nine people died on Saturday during clashes between demonstrators and police in northern India.
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| Delta smelt: the tiny fish caught in California's war with Trump Posted: 21 Dec 2019 10:00 PM PST  Harbingers of a diminishing ecosystem, the smelt are almost extinct. Now, forces within the Trump administration could usher them into oblivionOn a warm November morning, John Durand squints over the stern of a small research boat, and gestures toward gray-blue water, and the chaotic tangles of tube-like tule reeds."Cache Slough right here had been known as a hotspot for delta smelt," he says. But it's been four years since Durand and his team of researchers from the University of California, Davis, have found the finger-length fish that gleam golden and "smell kind of like cucumber" in the brackish streams and sloughs of northern California's bay delta.Does he think we'll see any today? Durand chuckles and combs his fingers through his white goatee."It's funny, because the smelt are a small fish, and now they're a rare fish, but they still loom large over all our environmental and water policies," he adds. "It's a lot to put on a little fish."For conservationists and ecologists like Durand, the delta smelt are harbingers, their diminishing numbers a signal that the delta's ecosystem is dangerously close to collapse. For California farmers with thousands of acres to irrigate and millions of dollars on the lines, the smelt are in the way – the state listed the species as endangered in 2009, and in effect constrained how much water can be pulled from the delta.Now, the creatures caught in the crossfire of the state's water wars have all but disappeared, and biologists worry that newly empowered forces within the Trump administration could usher them into oblivion. A delicate balanceFrom the deck of the research boat, gliding down Cache Slough, it's easy enough to imagine how the Sacramento-San Joaquin delta used to look – before the Gold Rush, before colonial settlers built their farms and ranches, before they constrained the marsh with levees and cut its flow with dams and diversions, before massive pumps began sucking it dry, before all the infrastructure drove native wildlife to the brink of extinction.Leaning back in the boat, Durand watches his crew of students and research assistants toss a cone-shaped net off the stern, arc through the air and splash into the water. "The whole process is just beautiful," he says.At the helm, Christopher Jasper, a graduate student, motors forward, dragging the trawl down the slough for five minutes. Then the crew lifts the net up, splashes the contents into a bucket."All right, what have we got?" Jaspar positions his pen over a clipboard. "American shad, 67mm," yells Caroline Newell, her indigo hair exploding out of the back of her UC Davis baseball cap. "Oh, you're looking a little stressed there, buddy," she says, struggling to lay a flailing Sacramento splittail flat so she can measure it, before tossing it overboard.photo collageOver the course of the day, they count a total of 78 fish, including some native species, like the splittail, and some invasive ones, including a massive catfish. But no smelt.Soon after UC Davis researchers first began sampling in the delta, nearly 40 years ago, the delta smelt populations suffered a huge blow: their numbers had suddenly declined by more than 80%. Their numbers dipped even lower after a period of extended drought in the late 80s and early 90s, then lower still during California's most recent drought, which lasted from 2012 through 2016. During these dry spells, California's cities and farms needed to pump more and more delta water – leaving these fish without enough fresh, cold water to survive.Because most Delta smelt live for just one year, even temporary environmental changes can decimate the population. It's not just the overpumping, but the pumps themselves that have strained the smelt. The smelt are poor swimmers, and they're drawn to cloudy, turbid patches of water, where they like to hide and feed. The trouble is, the behemoth pumps run by the state and federal government, which can draw up to 10,000 and 5,500 cubic feet of water per second, respectively, can cause rivers to run backward, sucking smelt and other fish into their system.In an attempt to engineer their way out of problems borne from an over-engineered ecosystem, the US Bureau of Reclamation built a "fish collection facility" a couple of miles north of the pumps. Fish headed toward the machinery are corralled with nets and redirected to collection tanks, where they're catalogued before being trucked back into other parts of the estuary."The problem is, while they're going through that system of canals, or waiting in a truck, they're exposed to all these other fish, all these predators that are happily snacking on them the whole time," says Jon Rosenfield, a fish biologist at San Francisco Baykeeper, an environmental watchdog group.Those that make it through the labyrinth, face hordes of bass who swarm the spots where trucks release their bounty. "It's like the bass have been trained to show up at certain times to feed," Rosenfield says. And after all of that, the smelt may still die from the stress of the whole ordeal, or they may get caught up in the pumps again – rinse and repeat. A 2012 study found that the whole system was, ultimately, inefficient, though the reclamation bureau says the program has been tweaked to separate predators and make the experience more comfortable for the fish.All the while, Delta smelt have also been coping with the encroachment of invasive species. Invasive overbite clams and Asian clams have been leaving the smelt with less to eat. The striped bass and largemouth bass are invaders, as are Mississippi silversides, which feed on smelt eggs and young – though scientists have contested that these predators are responsible for smelt declines.Underlying many of these issues is the climate crisis, which has fueled extended periods of drought and heat waves that have made the waters uncomfortably warm for smelt, and other species struggling to survive in a shifting Delta ecosystem.It's unclear how many smelt are left in the estuary. The last time the UC Davis researchers caught one was in 2016. Surveyors from the California fish and wildlife department netted two in 2017, and none since. Based on data collected in early 2017, US Fish and Wildlife extrapolated that about 48,000 were still surfing the sloughs, but researchers say it's unclear how many Delta smelt still exist in the wild. "I'd guess at least a thousand or more, but we have no way of actually knowing," Durand says. "At this point, they barely register in the ecosystem."So, why do they still get so many Californians so riled up? Water warsEven Donald Trump has an opinion on the Delta smelt. At a March 2016 campaign rally in Fresno, California – in the state's agricultural heartland – then presidential candidate Trump mocked the environmentalists who were desperate "to protect a certain kind of three-inch fish"."They have farms here and they don't get water," he said, as the crowd, holding up green "Farmers for Trump" signs booed. "It is so ridiculous they're taking the water and shoving it out to sea." That night, Trump promised the farmers more water. Ever since then, his administration has been making moves to make good on that pledge.Last fall, Trump signed a memorandum directing federal agencies to review and roll back environmental standards slowing down the flow of water to farms in the central valley. In February this year, the president nominated David Bernhardt to serve as his interior secretary.Prior to joining the administration, Bernhardt worked as a lobbyist and lawyer for the Westlands Water District, the nation's largest agricultural water contractor. The agency serves some of California's wealthiest, most powerful farmers – delivering up to 1.19m acre-feet of irrigation water from the delta each year.In 2014, Bernhardt represented Westlands in an appeals case challenging Endangered Species Act protections for Delta smelt. Upon taking office, he named the water district in his ethics recusal letter, promising not to "participate personally and substantially" in policy issues that could affect his former clients, unless he obtained a waiver.Watchdog groups say Bernhardt hasn't quite kept his word. Even as he oversaw a board effort to weaken Endangered Species Act protections to ease conditions for the oil and logging industries, he delivered a huge victory to Westlands, rolling back protections for the Delta smelt and the endangered Chinook salmon and paving the way for more pumping.When scientists from the marine fisheries service in July submitted a thousand-page report warning that more pumping would jeopardize several species including endangered winter-run Chinook salmon and the Southern Resident killer whales that eat salmon, the Interior Department pulled the document.New reports, called biological opinions, released in October and overseen by the department's Fish and Wildlife Service found that the salmon wouldn't be imperiled, and a separate Delta smelt opinion similarly concluded that the fish would be just fine. The agency touted "smarter delta operations through real-time adaptive management and greater management oversight of delta pumping operations informed by updated science," to help the smelt and other endangered species recover even as the mammoth state and federal pumps drained more water out of the ecosystem.On Thursday, the Trump administration released its final environmental impact statement on the pumping plan, which claims to manage water in an "environmentally and economically sound manner".That's much easier said than done, Rosenfield says. "The 'real-time management' part especially has some huge air quotes around it." The idea is that federal scientists will monitor the water, and signal for the pumps to be turned down. But it's pretty hard to know where exactly the smelt are – after all, they've eluded researchers for years."It's ecological sampling – not surveillance," Rosenfield says. "They don't have little ankle bracelets on them, we can't track every single fish."Even if they could, turning down the pumps isn't quite as easy as shutting off a faucet. The multi-story state and federal pumping plants operate in tandem and are powerful enough to make rivers flow backward. By the time the two agencies coordinate with each other and taper down the pumping, "these fish are already dying", Rosenfield says.Paul Souza, the US Fish and Wildlife official who oversaw the drafting of the biological opinions, says, "there's absolutely no connection" between Bernhardt's past work with Westlands and the results presented in the biological opinion. He and other officials who drafted the reports "are career professionals," Souza said in a statement to the Guardian. "We have led this effort with our teams over the past year and this is a career conservation professional documentation."Westlands contests that the biological opinion benefits them in any way. "I'm not sure that the new biological opinions will produce a single drop of additional water for Westlands," says Tom Birmingham, the agency's general manager. "What the new biological opinions do is provide a degree of operational flexibility," he says, allowing the pumps to take more water when more is available."I have confidence in the ability of the agencies to conduct real-time monitoring, and to adjust operations of the project based on real-time monitoring," he says, noting that federal and state operations are already using these techniques to scan the estuary for turbid conditions that could attract smelt.Shortly after the new biological opinions were released, Westlands concluded negotiations to permanently lock in its water service contract, which entitles them to 1.15m acre-feet of water per year – about twice what the city of Los Angeles uses annually. Birmingham points out that the provision to convert its contract is courtesy of a 2016 law, which was approved by a bipartisan Congress and signed into law by Barack Obama.Westlands, he says, is being unfairly antagonized by environmental groups. "I read the criticisms of the new biological opinions," he says. "And I have to ask myself, have the people expressing those criticisms read the same document?" California fighting wordsBack on the research boat, as an afternoon of sampling winds down, and the weather warms and mellows and stills, it's impossible not to notice the spicy scent of dung and fertilizer in the air. Durand points at a group of cows, sleepily grazing and dumping at the banks of Cache Slough. "As biologists, we call those ecosystem inputs," he says with a laugh. Dung from these cows, and runoff from the nut orchards and fruit farms a few yards inland infuse nutrients into the water that triggers algal blooms. Sometimes, too many nutrients in the water cause plants and algae to overgrow, die and drain the system of oxygen. But this time of year, the system could use a bit of nutrient infusion to feed the delta's fish.Agriculture and nature can work together, Durand says, so long as people are willing to let them. "Everybody wants to be the good guy, and do right by the environment," he says. "I believe that, having talked to some of the local farmers and ranchers in this area."The trouble is, once environmental groups and government officials start talking about reallocating water rights and rationing, "those are triggers, those are fighting words in California," he says. "Revolutions are expensive, I guess, and no one wants to be the one to pay for them."In response to the federal government's chipping away of protections for endangered fish, environmental and fishing industry groups have banded together to sue the federal government, as well, alleging that fewer protections for smelt, steelhead trout, and Chinook salmon will devastate the delta ecosystem and commercial fisheries will be the collateral.California's state government has joined the morass as well: California's governor Gavin Newsom declared that the state is drafting litigation as well. "As stewards of this state's remarkable natural resources, we must do everything in our power to protect them," Newsom announced. "The next generations of Californians deserve nothing less."In response, the federal reclamation commissioner Brenda Burman derided Newsom's preference "to have judges dictate these important projects instead of the career professionals at the federal and state levels who have developed a plan based on the best science and significant input from the public." If Californians want a legal fight, she said in a statement to the Guardian, "that's their choice, we'll see them in court".Westlands has reportedly threatened to walk away from state efforts to broker water-sharing deals if Newsom sues.It could take years for the full effects of the new policy and litigation to become apparent. "In the meantime, know what's ironic?" says Rosenfield. "Even if the smelt disappeared, and we no longer had to worry about protecting them, it's not like we could get much more water out of the system."A 2019 study by Rosenfield and his colleagues at the San Francisco Bay Institute and the Nature Conservancy found that the amount of water the pumps could pull was most often limited by the need to keep saltwater at bay. If enough fresh water isn't, to paraphrase Donald Trump, shoved out to sea, the sea will shove into shore, flooding the estuary with salt water. "And, no one wants salt water," Rosenfield says. "You cannot apply saltwater to farmland. That's what the Romans did to punish their enemies." In most years between 2011 and 2018 – at peak drought – maintenance issues, and a lack of storage capacity limited pumping more than the smelt did, as did protections for other threatened and endangered fish. "The smelt are just a scapegoat," Rosenfield says.Durand says he's sick of talking about Delta smelt. "At the end of the day, sure, it's just a crummy little fish and there aren't a lot of them left," he says. "But then, every time we lose a species it's just a sign that there are more losses to come."If the Delta smelt go, California may be able to pump some more. But then their cousins, the longfin smelt, could disappear next, and then the steelhead trout, and then the various populations of Chinook salmon. "Where do we draw the line?" Durand says. "I don't know how much more stress the system can take."
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| FACT: 10 U.S. Military Bases are Named After Confederate Generals Posted: 22 Dec 2019 05:30 AM PST  The Fort Hood military base in Killeen, Texas.
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| Man who used narwhal tusk to help subdue extremist identified Posted: 21 Dec 2019 09:03 AM PST  A mysterious person who used a narwhal tusk to help subdue a knife-wielding extremist on London Bridge last month has been identified as a civil servant in Britain's Justice Ministry.
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| Harry Dunn's family hits back at US government and Anne Sacoolas's lawyers Posted: 21 Dec 2019 09:24 AM PST  Harry Dunn's family has criticised lawyers acting on behalf of the US intelligence officer's wife accused of killing their son after they claimed she had "co-operated fully" with the investigation. The family has led a high-profile campaign for justice after Anne Sacoolas returned to the US after the car she was driving collided with the 19-year-old's motorbike on August 27. Sacoolas, 42, and her family had been based at RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire and she sparked public outrage after claiming diplomatic immunity due to her husband's job. It was only after she left the UK on a military flight directly from the air base that the Foreign Office wrote to the family to say immunity in her case was not valid. After the Dunn family's campaign - which included a trip to the White House - the Crown Prosecution Service announced on Friday that Sacoolas has been charged with causing death by dangerous driving. Anne Sacoolas, the wife of a US diplomat Credit: Susan Goodwin/Facebook Prosecutors have begun the extradition process to bring her back to the UK, a decision the US government labelled "disappointing" and "unhelpful". But Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said the "law should take its course" in the case of Harry Dunn and the Government will press the issue with the US "at every level". A statement from Amy Jeffress, Sacoolas's lawyer, said she had "co-operated fully with the investigation". She added: "Anne will not return voluntarily to the United Kingdom to face a potential jail sentence for what was a terrible but unintentional accident." Dunn family spokesman Radd Seiger said: "I know (Ms Jeffress) to be one of the finest and most outstanding lawyers in the USA. Her statement however boggles the mind and is deeply disturbing. Tim Dunn (left), the father of teenage motorcyclist Harry Dunn Credit: Jonathan Brady/PA "For Ms Jeffress to seek to undermine one of the most mature, well-developed legal systems in the world, which has fairness at its heart, and which many countries around the world have modelled their legal systems on, is unbecoming of any lawyer, let alone someone of her stature." Mr Seiger urged Sacoolas to "put that defence forward in court here rather than ventilate it publicly". He added: "Like everyone else (in the UK) she will get a fair trial." After the CPS decision on Friday, a spokesman for the US State Department said it was "disappointed", adding it feared the move would "not bring a resolution closer". The department maintained that Sacoolas had diplomatic immunity at the time of the incident. Harry Dunn and parents It added: "It is the position of the United States government that a request to extradite an individual under these circumstances would be an egregious abuse." Asked during a visit to Estonia if suspect Anne Sacoolas should be extradited to the UK, Mr Johnson said: "I think the best thing that I can say there is that the law should take its course and we will be obviously following that case with keen interest and continuing to make representations on behalf of Harry Dunn's family at every level." The Dunn family's lawyer Mark Stephens said that if the US authorities refused to return Sacoolas, it would be the first time in the 100-year history of the extradition treaty that they failed to comply. He told Sky News: "I've got great faith in the judges in America who will not be swayed by political statements. They have to follow the law whether the like it or not. "And the law says Anne Sacoolas comes back to England to face a judge and jury here."
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| Riot police break up Hong Kong rally for China's Uighurs Posted: 22 Dec 2019 03:12 AM PST  Hong Kong riot police broke up a solidarity rally for China's Uighurs on Sunday -- with one officer drawing a pistol -- as the city's pro-democracy movement likened their plight to that of the oppressed Muslim minority. The initially peaceful rally descended into chaos when a small group of protesters removed a Chinese flag from a nearby government building and tried to burn it, an AFP reporter on the scene said. Organisers stopped the flag being burned but riot police then swooped in with pepper spray, sparking anger from the crowd who threw water bottles.
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| Pair from Alabama face 9 murder counts in Illinois shooting Posted: 21 Dec 2019 03:44 PM PST ![Pair from Alabama face 9 murder counts in Illinois shooting]( "Pair from Alabama face 9 murder counts in Illinois shooting") A man and woman from Alabama who were already suspected of murder, kidnapping and other violent crimes in two states were charged Saturday with killing three people in a home in southwest Illinois, authorities said. Brian Koberna, deputy commander of the Major Case Squad of Greater St. Louis, announced nine counts of first-degree murder against Brady Witcher, 41, and Brittany McMillan, 28. Police in Bethalto, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) northeast of St. Louis, discovered the bodies Thursday night after being asked to perform a well-being check.
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| Deaths in custody. Sexual violence. Hunger strikes. What we uncovered inside ICE facilities across the US Posted: 22 Dec 2019 02:13 PM PST  A USA TODAY Network investigation revealed sex assaults, routine use of physical force, poor medical care and deaths at facilities overseen by ICE.
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| Rev. Billy Graham's Christian magazine wants Donald Trump removed. Can we get an 'Amen!' Posted: 21 Dec 2019 11:43 AM PST  In an editorial, Christianity Today called Trump a 'near perfect example of a human being who is morally lost and confused.'
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| Holiday Mystery Solved! Massachusetts Police Department Discovers Therapy Dog Was the Thief Stealing From a Toy Donation Bin Posted: 21 Dec 2019 09:27 AM PST  It wasn't the Grinch after all
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| In the 1860s, France And America Almost Went To War Over Mexico Posted: 22 Dec 2019 06:00 AM PST  A close call.
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| New Zealand's gun buyback program takes in 50,000 guns Posted: 21 Dec 2019 04:08 PM PST  New Zealanders have turned in more than 50,000 guns in the country's gun buyback program. The government banned most assault weapons after a gunman killed 51 people at two Christchurch mosques in March.
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| The White House didn't always celebrate Hanukkah — here's how the tradition began Posted: 22 Dec 2019 08:12 AM PST  Christmas celebrations at the White House date back to 1800, but Hanukkah wasn't acknowledged until much later.
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| Pirates kill one, kidnap four in attacks off Gabon capital Posted: 22 Dec 2019 01:19 PM PST  Pirates attacked four ships in the harbour of the Gabon capital Libreville overnight, killing a captain and kidnapping four Chinese workers, the government said Sunday. "Pirate attacks were perpetrated... against four ships," government spokesman Edgard Anicet Mboumbou Miyakou said, adding that a Gabonese captain was killed and four Chinese sailors were abducted. Pirate attacks are unusual in the harbour, but extremely frequent in the surrounding Gulf of Guinea.
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| Pakistani professor gets death sentence in blasphemy case Posted: 21 Dec 2019 12:23 AM PST  A Pakistani court on Saturday convicted a Muslim professor of blasphemy, sentencing him to death for allegedly spreading anti-Islamic ideas. Junaid Hafeez has been held for six years awaiting trial. Due to security concerns, Saturday's trial was held inside the jail where Hafeez is being held.
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| France kills 33 militants in Mali raid: president Posted: 21 Dec 2019 06:17 AM PST  ABIDJAN/BAMAKO (Reuters) - French forces killed 33 Islamist militants in Mali on Saturday using attack helicopters, ground troops and a drone, near the border with Mauritania where a group linked to al Qaeda operates, French authorities said. The raid about 150 km (90 miles) northwest of Mopti in Mali targeted the same forest area where France wrongly claimed last year it had killed Amadou Koufa, one of the most senior Islamist militants being hunted by French forces in the Sahel.
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| Record rain, darkness: Seattle braces for floods, mudslides Posted: 21 Dec 2019 12:05 PM PST ![Record rain, darkness: Seattle braces for floods, mudslides]( "Record rain, darkness: Seattle braces for floods, mudslides") Record rainfall and darkness has hit Seattle as a major storm begins to lift across western Washington on the first day of winter, though the region is still at risk for flooding, mudslides and avalanches. Friday became the wettest day in Seattle in the past 10 years, and the most rain recorded for Dec. 20 since record-keeping at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport began in 1945. The National Weather Service said the airport recorded 3.25 inches (8.25 centimeters) of rain Friday, making it also the fifth rainiest day in city history.
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| Berlin outraged after Donald Trump hits gas pipeline project with sanctions Posted: 21 Dec 2019 03:35 AM PST  Berlin has accused Washington of interfering in German internal affairs, after Donald Trump signed off on US sanctions against companies building a Russian natural gas pipeline to Germany. "The Federal Government rejects such extraterritorial sanctions," Ulrike Demmer, a spokeswoman, said in Berlin on Saturday. "They affect German and European companies and constitute an interference in our domestic affairs." The US is an outspoken opponent of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which will transport natural gas about 750 miles from Russia, through the Baltic Sea and into Germany. The sanctions will hit any company working with Russia's state-owned Gazprom to complete the project. On Saturday, Switzerland-based Allseas, which operates ships laying sections of the undersea pipeline, said it was suspending work on the £8.5 billion project, which is well advanced. Washington and Eastern European countries oppose the project because it will increase the EU's heavy dependence on Russian gas imports. The pipeline will double Russian energy imports into Germany and, the US fears, give the Kremlin leverage over the EU and its leading economy. Nord Stream gas pipeline The project also bypasses Ukraine, raising fears it would cost the country valuable gas transit fees it currently receives from Moscow. Ms Demmer said the US measures were "particularly incomprehensible" because Russia and Ukraine reached an agreement in principle Thursday on the future transit of Russian gas through Ukrainian territory. The German-Russian Chamber of Commerce insisted last week that the pipeline was important for energy security and urged retaliatory sanctions against the United States if the bill passes. Chancellor Angela Merkel has admitted she would not retaliate. She said on Wednesday, "I see no alternative to conducting talks, though very firm talks, (to show that) we do not approve of this practice." The European Commission said it would carefully examine the sanctions to see how they affected EU companies. "In principle, the EU rejects sanctions against EU companies that do legitimate business," a spokesman said. Both houses of Congress overwhelmingly approved the sanctions, with the Senate voting Tuesday to send the measure to Trump's desk. Iran, Malaysia, Turkey and Qatar are considering trading among themselves in gold and through a barter system as a hedge against any future economic sanctions on them, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said on Saturday. At the end of an Islamic summit in Malaysia, Mahathir praised Iran and Qatar for withstanding economic embargoes and said it was important for the Muslim world to be self-reliant to face future threats.
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| Dozens injured as over 60 cars mangled in pileup on I-64 in Virginia following ice and fog Posted: 22 Dec 2019 09:08 AM PST  Amid foggy and icy conditions on Sunday morning, a devastating pile-up involving over 60 vehicles in Virginia left dozens of people injured.A major pileup accident occurred on Interstate 64 near Norfolk just before 8 a.m., local time, when patchy fog and black ice were reportedly in the Queens Creek Overpass area. Virginia State Police confirmed 51 people were taken to regional hospitals, including 11 people who sustained serious injuries. Emergency personnel on the scene of a large pileup on I-64. (Image via York-Poquoson Sheriff's Office) According to the police, 69 total vehicles were involved in the wreckage. Photos depicted firefighters and other emergency personnel standing on the hoods of mangled vehicles looking for people to rescue. No fatalities or life-threatening injuries were reported."My thoughts are with all involved in the multi-vehicle accident near Williamsburg this morning," Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam tweeted on Sunday. "Grateful for the emergency crews, first responders, hospital staff, @VSPPIO, and @VaDOT personnel who are working around the clock to keep people safe this holiday season."In the immediate aftermath of the accidents, the Virginia Department of Transportation closed both the westbound lanes, where the accidents had occurred, and the eastbound lanes, due to the rubber necking of cars driving by. At 3:35 p.m., local time, the department announced on Twitter that both eastbound and westbound lanes were reopened."In situations such as this, the road may appear wet, rather than icy, hence the term black ice," AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Alex Sosnowski said.According to Sosnowski, temperatures ranged from the upper 20s to the lower 30s in southeastern Virginia before and shortly after daybreak with areas of fog. Firefighters on the scene of a pileup on I-64 near Williamsburg. (Image via Virginia State Police) "The sudden low visibility in parts of the region created a dangerous visibility situation on top of the black ice condition," Sosnowski said."This just demonstrates that even during a mild and storm-free weather pattern, that a few fog patches this time of the year can be dangerous with freezing temperatures," Sosnowski said.Download the free AccuWeather app to check the forecast in your area. Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.
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