| Trump Isn’t a Nazi. He’s a Failure. Posted: 27 Dec 2019 11:48 AM PST  Nancy Pelosi's fecklessness has ensured that Americans understand impeachment to be a purely political matter, and as a purely political matter impeachment is as dead as your leftover Christmas turkey.Only a few days after the impeachment vote, President Donald Trump hit his best job-approval rating ever in the Quinnipiac poll. Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell is ready to slap the process around like a housecat tormenting a sparrow. The magic bullet missed, and now Democrats have to make a more ordinary case against Trump.The problem is: They don't know how.The case against Trump in 2016 was that he is unfit for the office. The case against Trump in 2020 is — or should be — that he is not very good at his job.In 2016, Trump promised Americans sustained 3-percent economic growth, but the economy has not met that standard. He promised a shrinking trade deficit, but the trade deficit has grown. He promised to build a wall along the southern border and to make Mexico pay for it, which he has not done. Which is to say, on the core issues of economic growth, trade, and immigration, President Trump is a failure by his own criteria.But the Democrats are poorly positioned to take Trump to the woodshed on these issues.Consider immigration. In 2016, Senator Bernie Sanders toured Iowa union halls with an immigration message that was not too different from Trump's. He denounced "open borders" as a billionaires' plot to flood the U.S. market with cheap labor. At the time, Democrats still talked about illegal immigration like it was . . . illegal.In 2020, ascendant Democratic primary candidate Pete Buttigieg has just published a plan that would reduce the deportation of illegal immigrants, including those guilty of certain categories of crimes, and Democrats as a whole have invested a great deal of political capital in opposing Trump's efforts to control illegal immigration.Why? A majority of Americans say they personally worry about illegal immigration, and a large majority — 77 percent in the most recent Gallup poll — say they see illegal immigration as a "critical threat" or an "important threat." Trump has thrived on the issue of illegal immigration, and, in response, Democrats have taken a position that is both bad policy and bad politics.On trade, Democrats have done the opposite: Rather than blindly opposing a basically good policy, they have adopted the worst of Trump's ideas. Senator Elizabeth Warren apes Trump's nationalist posturing, insisting that trade is a question of "loyalty to America" and charging that American businessmen "have no patriotism." Her proposals would essentially prohibit trade deals with China and Mexico, among other countries. But two-thirds of Americans say Trump's trade war is unlikely to improve their lives and a third say it will leave them worse off, according to a Hill/HarrisX survey. Warren is unlikely to outdo Trump on a nationalism agenda, but nonetheless she has maneuvered herself into a position that is both bad policy and bad politics.On the economy, Trump has seen modest success after tax cuts and deregulatory efforts. The Democrats oppose these for ideological reasons, but also because they have the stink of Trump on them.A more intelligent approach for Democrats (and for us lonely few anti-Trump conservatives) would be to concede that the president's positions on issues such as illegal immigration and trade speak to concerns that are genuine and legitimate while pointing out that his actions have been in the main ineffective or genuinely destructive. But the Democrats are so committed to their exotic fairy tale — Trump is a monster, Trump is a Nazi, Trump is a white nationalist, etc. — that they have forgotten how to run an ordinary campaign against an ordinary failure.* * *National Review Institute (NRI) is the nonprofit 501(c)(3) journalistic think tank that supports the NR mission and 14 NRI fellows (including this author!), allowing them to do what they do best: Advance principled and practical conservate journlaism. NRI is currently in the midst of its End-of-Year Fund Appeal and seeks to raise over $200,000 to support the work of the NRI fellows. Please consider giving a generous end-of-year tax-deductible contribution to NRI. Your gift, along with all those from the NR Nation, will provide the essential fuel for our mission to defend those consequential principles for which National Review has fought since 1955, and for which, with your support, it will carry the fight far into the future. Thank you for your consideration.
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| Municipal police chief arrested over Mexican Mormon massacre Posted: 28 Dec 2019 06:22 AM PST  Mexican authorities have arrested a municipal police chief for his suspected links to the killing of three women and six children of U.S.-Mexican origin in northern Mexico last month, local media and an official said on Friday. Suspected drug cartel hitmen shot dead the nine women and children from families of Mormon origin in Sonora state on Nov. 4, sparking outrage in Mexico and the United States. Several Mexican media outlets reported that law enforcement agents arrested Fidel Alejandro Villegas, police chief of the municipality of Janos, which lies in the neighboring state of Chihuahua, on suspicion of involvement in the crime.
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| Bolivia says Spain 'tried to extract' wanted aide from Mexico embassy Posted: 28 Dec 2019 04:38 PM PST  Bolivia on Saturday accused Spain of an abortive attempt to extract a wanted former government aide from Mexico's embassy in La Paz, prompting a sharp denial from Madrid. It was the latest twist in a murky incident Friday involving embassy personnel in the Bolivian capital that has sparked a bitter diplomatic spat. Several hours later, Bolivia's top diplomat accused Spanish embassy staff of trying to infiltrate the Mexican mission with a group of masked men in what it said was a violation of Bolivian sovereignty.
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| Man who made 27,000 crosses for shooting victims is retiring Posted: 27 Dec 2019 01:03 PM PST  An Illinois man who made more than 27,000 crosses to commemorate victims of mass shootings across the country is retiring. Greg Zanis came to realize, after 23 years, his Crosses for Losses ministry was beginning to take a personal and financial toll on him, according to The Beacon-News. "I had a breaking point in El Paso," he said, referring to the mass shooting outside of a Walmart in El Paso, Texas.
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| Young Girl Dies After 'Medical Emergency' on Delta Flight Posted: 27 Dec 2019 06:00 AM PST  The child reportedly went into cardiac arrest shortly after the flight took off
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| In 2010, The Navy Surfaced 3 Nuclear Submarines To Scare China Posted: 28 Dec 2019 03:30 AM PST  Submarines are good for more than defense.
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| Navy Seal pardoned of war crimes by Trump described by colleagues as 'freaking evil' Posted: 27 Dec 2019 08:03 AM PST  Eddie Gallagher 'OK with killing anything that moved', Iraq veterans told investigators in testimony obtained by New York TimesA Navy Seal platoon leader controversially cleared of war crimes by Donald Trump was a "toxic" character who was "OK with killing anything that moved", according to fellow Iraq veterans who reported his conduct to military investigators.The explosive testimony was published Friday by the New York Times, which obtained previously unseen video interviews and text messages from several former members of an elite commando unit once led by special operations chief Eddie Gallagher.Gallagher was convicted in July of posing with the dead body of a teenage Islamic State captive he had just killed with a hunting knife. He was granted clemency by the president in November in a decision that angered military chiefs.In the interviews, conducted by navy investigators looking into Gallagher's conduct during a tour of duty in Iraq in 2017, fellow platoon members told of a ruthless leader who stabbed the captive to death for no reason then forced his troops to pose for a photograph with the corpse.At his court martial, Gallagher was acquitted of murder but demoted in rank for the lesser charge of posing with the body – a decision Trump reversed.In a lengthy criminal investigation report, the navy detectives laid out other allegations against Gallagher, including shooting a schoolgirl and elderly man from a sniper's roost. Members of Alpha Platoon's Seal Team 7 alarmed by their leader's conduct said they were initially shut down by military chiefs when they first spoke up, and told their own careers would suffer if they continued to talk about it.Eventually, the Navy Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) began an inquiry and the platoon members were called to give evidence."The guy is freaking evil," special operator first class Craig Miller, one of the platoon's most experienced members, told investigators in sometimes tearful testimony. "I think Eddie was proud of it, and that was, like, part of it for him."Miller said Gallagher, who had the nickname Blade, went on to stage a bizarre "re-enlistment ceremony" over the body of the captive. "I was listening to it and I was just thinking, like, this is the most disgraceful thing I have ever seen in my life," he said.At his court martial, the panel heard evidence that Gallagher had emailed a photograph to a friend in the US containing a photograph of him holding up the dead captive's head with the words: "Good story behind this, got him with my hunting knife."Another platoon member, medic Corey Scott, said: "You could tell he was perfectly OK with killing anybody that was moving."In text messages exchanged by the group around the time of their testimony, which were also obtained by the New York Times, platoon members urged each other to speak truthfully to the investigators."Tell the truth, don't lie or embellish," one team member, a sniper, wrote. "That way he can't say that we slandered him in any way."Gallagher maintains the allegations against him are a fabrication by platoon members who could not match his own high standards and who were intent on ousting him."My first reaction to seeing the videos was surprise and disgust that they would make up blatant lies about me, but I quickly realized that they were scared that the truth would come out of how cowardly they acted on deployment," Gallagher said in a statement to the Times issued by his lawyer Timothy Parlatore."I felt sorry for them that they thought it necessary to smear my name."Despite Gallagher's conviction for war crimes, Trump has lauded him – and two other military members he granted clemency to last month – as "great fighters"."I stood up for three great warriors against the deep state," Trump told supporters at a Thanksgiving rally in Sunrise, Florida, apparently referring to a decision just weeks earlier by Adm Mike Gilday, the US navy's chief of operations, to deny Gallgher's appeal for clemency and uphold his demotion.Gallagher and his wife Andrea were photographed last weekend with the president and first lady Melania Trump at Mar-a-Lago, Trump's private Florida resort where he is spending the holidays.
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| Japan police find human remains in boat suspected from North Korea: Coast Guard Posted: 28 Dec 2019 01:59 AM PST ![Japan police find human remains in boat suspected from North Korea: Coast Guard]( "Japan police find human remains in boat suspected from North Korea: Coast Guard") Japanese police found the remains of at least five people in a wooden boat suspected to be from North Korea on the coast of one of Japan's outlying islands on Saturday, a Coast Guard official said. Police made the discovery in the wooden boat's stem around 9:30 a.m. (0030 GMT) on Saturday on Sado island, which is off the coast of Japan's northwestern prefecture of Niigata, Coast Guard official Kei Chinen said.
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| Survivors tell of France's 'dirty war' in Cameroon independence Posted: 27 Dec 2019 07:46 PM PST  Ekité (Cameroon) (AFP) - It was a "dirty war" waged by French colonial troops but it never made headlines and even today goes untold in school history books. The brutal conflict unfolded in Cameroon, which on January 1 marks its 60th anniversary of independence -- the first of 17 African countries that became free from their colonial masters in 1960. "My life was overturned," Odile Mbouma, 72, said in the southwestern town of Ekite.
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| Philippines bans two U.S. senators, considers tighter entry restrictions for U.S. citizens Posted: 27 Dec 2019 09:03 AM PST  The Philippines has banned two U.S. lawmakers from visiting and will introduce tighter entry restrictions for U.S. citizens should Washington enforce sanctions over the detention of a top government critic, President Rodrigo Duterte's spokesman said on Friday.
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| Baltimore breaks city record for killings per capita in 2019 Posted: 27 Dec 2019 01:05 PM PST  Baltimore broke its annual per capita homicide record after reaching 342 killings Friday. With just over 600,000 residents, the city hit a historically high homicide rate of about 57 per 100,000 people after recent relentless gunfire saw eight people shot — three fatally — in one day and nine others — one fatally — another day. The total is up from 309 in 2018 and matches the 342 killings tallied in 2017 and 2015, the year when the city's homicide rate suddenly spiked.
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| Photos show scenes of devastation after a plane carrying 98 people crashed in Kazakhstan, killing at least 12 Posted: 27 Dec 2019 03:14 AM PST  The Bek Air flight from Almaty to Nusultan plunged into a building in the village of Almerek just after take-off on Friday, amid foggy conditions.
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| Record cocaine haul worth more than $1bn seized in Uruguay after drugs found in flour containers Posted: 28 Dec 2019 07:29 AM PST  A record haul of 6 tonnes of cocaine estimated to be worth more than $1bn (£765m) has been seized in Uruguay, according to the country's navy.Naval and customs officers seized 4.4 tonnes of cocaine which had been hidden in four soy flour containers destined for Lome, Togo, in Montevideo port and another 1.5 tonnes on a ranch, local reports said.
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| Nuclear power plant in UAE risks sparking arms race, expert warns Posted: 27 Dec 2019 11:00 PM PST  Four nuclear reactors being built in the United Arab Emirates could spark a nuclear arms race in the Middle East and leave the Persian Gulf at risk of a Chernobyl-style disaster, a leading nuclear scientist has claimed. In a report, Dr Paul Dorfman, chairman of the Nuclear Consulting Group, warned the UAE's Barakah nuclear power plant lacks key safety features, poses a threat to the environment, is a potential target for terrorists and could be part of plans to develop nuclear weapons. "The motivation for building this may lie hidden in plain sight," Dr Dorfman told the Telegraph. "They are seriously considering nuclear proliferation." Dr Dorfman, who is also an honorary senior research associate at University College London's Energy Institute, has served as a nuclear adviser to the British government and led the European Environment Agency response to the Fukushima disaster. However, the UAE has stressed that it is committed to "the highest standards of nuclear safety, security and non-proliferation." The UAE hired the South Korean firm Korea Electric Power Corporation to build the Barakah - "Divine Blessing" in Arabic, plant in 2009. It will be the first nuclear power plant in the Arabian peninsula, and has fuelled speculation that Abu Dhabi is preparing for a nuclear arms race with the Islamic Republic. The UAE has denied allegations by the Qatari government that its power plant is a security threat to their capital of Doha and the Qatari environment, dismissing any causes for concern. Abu Dhabi's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahyan photographed in Germany earlier this year Credit: Reuters However, Houthi rebels in Yemen claimed they hit the Barakah nuclear power plant with a missile in 2017. The UAE denied that the rebels fired any such missile, adding that they had an air defence system to deal with such threats. Dr Dorfman said that scrambling fighter aircraft or firing surface to air missiles in time to intercept an incoming strike would be difficult. In September, Saudi air defences failed to stop a drone attack on oil processing facilities. Houthi rebels claimed responsibility for that attack, though Saudi Arabia blamed Iran. The increase in transportation of radioactive materials through the Persian Gulf when the plant goes into operation could also raise the risk of potentially fatal collisions, explosions, or equipment and material failure. Any radioactive discharge resulting from accidents could easily reach population centres on the Gulf coast and have a potentially devastating impact on delicate Gulf ecosystems, including rare mangrove swamps. The plant is also vulnerable to climate change and extreme temperatures that could affect its cooling system, Dr Dorfman's report says. The International Panel on Climate Change has said that extreme sea level events are now likely to happen more frequently, meaning coastal power plants such as Barakah could become defenseless against rising sea levels, tidal ingress and storm surges. High average sea water temperatures in the Gulf could also make it more difficult to cool the reactor using sea water. The cost of the 1986 Chernobyl accident has been recently estimated to be around $235 billion (£179 billion). The Japanese Centre for Economic Research has said the 2011 Fukushima accident cost over 81 trillion YEN(£567 billion), although the Japanese government has put the cost at YEN 22 million (£142 billion). The United Arab Emirates Foreign ministry had not responded to a request for comment at the time of publication.
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| Truck bomb in Somali capital kills at least 79 at rush hour Posted: 27 Dec 2019 10:14 PM PST  A truck bomb exploded at a busy security checkpoint in Somalia's capital Saturday morning, killing at least 79 people including many students, authorities said. It was the worst attack in Mogadishu since the devastating 2017 bombing that killed hundreds. The explosion ripped through rush hour as Somalia returned to work after its weekend.
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| A giant 'blob' of hot water more than twice the size of California threatens the survival of fish and coral near New Zealand Posted: 27 Dec 2019 03:48 PM PST  A 386,000-square-mile chunk of the Pacific Ocean east of New Zealand is 10 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than average in what could be a marine heat wave.
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| Libya parliament speaker urges rejection of UN-recognised govt Posted: 28 Dec 2019 04:44 PM PST  The speaker of Libya's parliament on Saturday urged the international community to reject the legitimacy of the war-torn country's UN-recognised government which is pursuing closer military ties with Turkey. Libya has been beset by chaos since a NATO-backed uprising toppled and killed dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011, with rival administrations in the east and the west vying for power. In a reflection of the deep political divisions, the elected parliament in the east is allied with military strongman Khalifa Haftar, who is at war with the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) recognised by the United Nations.
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| Islamic State says it beheaded Christian captives in Nigeria Posted: 27 Dec 2019 11:36 AM PST  The Islamic State group released a video purporting to show its militants beheading 10 Christian men in Nigeria, saying it was part of a campaign to avenge the deaths of its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and its spokesman.
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| Death toll reaches 28 as Philippines recovers from Christmas typhoon Posted: 26 Dec 2019 07:09 PM PST  The death toll from a Christmas typhoon that tore through the central Philippines rose to 28 on Friday, with 12 people missing, the disaster agency said, as authorities moved to restore power and residents tried to repair damaged homes. Typhoon Phanfone hit late on Tuesday with winds of up to 120 kph (75 mph) and gusts of 150 kph, dumping sheets of uninterrupted rain on a string of islands, damaging hundreds of homes and causing flooding in eight areas. It was the seventh typhoon to strike the Philippines this year and came as millions of people in the predominantly Catholic country were heading home to celebrate Christmas with families.
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| Why Are Academics Ignoring Iran’s Colonialism? Posted: 27 Dec 2019 03:30 AM PST  Academics today are obsessed with colonization, empire, and cultural hegemony, along with postcolonialism, ethnic studies, and intersectionality. Scholarship in many fields has come to be dominated by hegemony-fighting, indigenous-supporting anti-imperialists who attack anyone who disagrees with them. When a journal called Third World Quarterly published an article in 2017 about the benefits of colonialism, the uproar from the social-justice professors led to the article's being withdrawn and 15 members of the editorial board resigning amid threats.So if the profession is so adamant about the evils of colonialism, why is it ignoring Iran?When strong countries exert their (unfair) advantages over weaker ones, imposing their values and cultures and manipulating indigenous economies, academics are among the loudest and most creative critics. Even the most benign influence of a powerful country over a weaker one is excoriated -- hence the long obsession with something called "cocacolonization." Legions of scholar-activists are busy enlisting history to shed light on the present, drawing parallels between a benighted European era of colonization and an ongoing American or Israeli one, looking under rocks for signs of Western, American, and Trumpian oppression and proclaiming a new American empire. Fair enough -- but why ignore the Iranian attempts to do exactly to others what they accuse others of having done to Iran?Journalists and analysts, such as Jonathan Spyer and Seth Frantzman, have been documenting Iran's colonial expansion for many years. But most academics have been reluctant to turn their skills on Iran. Many prefer softer targets, such as Israel and the U.S. Earlier this month, the United Nations' Decolonization Committee pushed eight anti-Israel measures through the General Assembly, showing where its priorities lie.Even without its violations of other countries' sovereignty, Iran itself is an empire, with ethnic Persians dominating the Arabs, Kurds, Balochis, Azeris, Turkmen, Lur, Gilakis, and Mazandaranis. Only a few, notably Daniel Pipes, Ilan Berman, and Shoshana Bryen, are interested in this fact.Khomeini's Islamic Revolution was an imperialist project from the beginning, as one of his first moves after taking power (even before the collapse of the post-shah provisional government in November 1979) was to establish the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to spread his ideas. Shortly thereafter he made moves in Lebanon, dispatching "1,500 IRGC advisers [to] set up a base in the Bekaa Valley as part of [his] goal to export the Islamic Revolution to the Arab world," as Matthew Levitt put it. Those advisers were instrumental in creating Hezbollah, which has served to spread Iran's influence throughout the world.In 1998, the al-Quds Force, the IRGC's unconventional-warfare unit, got a new leader when Qassem Soleimani was appointed commander. Soleimani has ramped up Iran's colonial enterprise, capitalizing on the U.S. toppling of Saddam Hussein in 2003 to take over Iraq in a way Iran could never have accomplished on its own. The so-called Arab Spring offered Soleimani the opportunity to stake out territory in Syria using Hezbollah and in Yemen using the Shia Houthi rebels, completing the goal of a "Shia Crescent" stretching from the Gulf to the Mediterranean.Books on British and American empire building in Iran and the greater Middle East (real and imagined) come out every year. The topic has earned tenure for many willing to genuflect at the altar of Edward Said by exposing alleged evils of European and American "Orientalism." Yet almost no academics are writing about one of the world's most obvious and bloodiest colonizing projects even as it plays out right under their noses.There are exceptions, of course. Efraim Karsh's Islamic Imperialism (2006) reminded everyone that the Middle East is "where the institution of empire not only originated . . . but where its spirit has also outlived its European counterpart."Another exception is Tallha Abdulrazak, a researcher at the University of Exeter's Strategy and Security Institute, but his interests in Iranian colonialism seem to end at Iraq, and the anti-American and anti-Israel tendencies in his writing at Al Jazeera and the Middle East Eye suggest a lack of interest in the totality of Iranian empire-building. These tendencies were doubtless instrumental in his being awarded the Al Jazeera Young Researcher Award in 2015.Think-tank scholars have not shied away from Iran's interference in other countries. Michael Rubin of the American Enterprise Institute notes that "aside from Russia, Iran is the world's most imperialistic country today . . . little different in its quest for political and economic domination of poorer states as its tormentors were in the nineteenth century."Israeli scholars too seem more interested in today's Iran than in yesterday's. Hillel Frisch, professor of political studies and Middle East studies at Bar-Ilan University and a senior research associate at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, calls Iran "the only country whose focus is on political, military, and terrorist intervention and involvement in areas beyond its contiguous borders against states that have not struck the homeland."But where are the clarion calls from the ivory towers? Are all the anti-Orientalists busy stigmatizing the West, privileging victimhood over achievement and finding new ways to use "other" as a verb (perhaps at UC Berkeley's Othering & Belonging Institute)? Where are the conferences, symposia, and special-issue journals on Iranian imperialism? The Council on Foreign Relations hosted an event dedicated to Iran's imperial foreign policy in February, but if any similar event occurred at an American university in 2019, it wasn't advertised and remains well hidden.The 21st century began with a frenetic deluge of articles and books decrying a new American "imperialism" in the Middle East that had begun after 9/11. But books decrying the rise of Iranian imperialism have not even come in a trickle.So what exactly are the Middle East specialists up to?On the fringes of the profession, where the activists lurk, a counteroffensive is under way. Iran apologist Hamid Dabashi of Columbia University wrote and published a "Letter Against US Imperialism" on December 7 objecting to "the current U.S. imperial project," aided by the IMF, that "seek[s] a return to neocolonial governance in the form of a U.S.-backed regime." Dabashi somehow persuaded 38 academics (12 from colleges in California) to join with an odd assortment of artists, activists, lawyers, and podcasters to sign the desperate and bizarre letter that completely misunderstands the protests in Iran in November.Even the socialists at New Politics find fault with Dabashi's letter for its "dismissal of the Iranian regime's oppressive and violent influence in Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq" and its shallow "conceptualization of imperialism [which] does not include and condemn the sub-imperialisms of Iran."Mainstream Middle East specialists prefer to pretend that there is no Iranian imperialism, "sub" or otherwise. When hundreds, perhaps thousands, of them assembled in New Orleans at the annual meeting of the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) last month, the topic seems to have escaped them. Over the course of four days they convened 20 academic sessions, each comprising between 18 and 24 topics, for a total of 304 events: panels, round tables, thematic conversations, conference papers, and special current-issue sessions. In each of these events at least a half dozen experts presented, chaired, or refereed. And not a single event was devoted to Iran's colonial influence in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, or Yemen. There was nothing about the ascendant Iranian empire. The Qajar Empire, on the other hand, was covered in multiple sessions. Also popular were events about someplace called either "Palestine/Israel" or "Israel/Palestine," depending apparently on the whims of the moderator.The Iranian colonial project is among the most significant events in modern history, and its contours coincide with the interests and deeply held beliefs of the professoriate. But most academics are remarkably uncurious about Iran's colonialism. Talk about wasting the moment.
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| Teen fatally crashed ATV after cop used stun gun; family wins $12 million settlement Posted: 28 Dec 2019 12:49 PM PST ![Teen fatally crashed ATV after cop used stun gun; family wins $12 million settlement]( "Teen fatally crashed ATV after cop used stun gun; family wins $12 million settlement") The settlement will go to the family of 15-year-old Damon Grimes, who was driving his ATV in August 2017 when the fatal incident occurred.
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| India's protests: why now? Posted: 27 Dec 2019 07:45 PM PST  Mumbai-based copywriter Sarah Syed says she was long alarmed by the Hindu nationalist direction of India under Prime Minister Narendra Modi but felt powerless to stop it -- until now. Like many others taking part in the current wave of protests, the final straw was Modi's new citizenship law and then the images of students being tear-gassed when they demonstrated against it. "Now though it feels criminal to sit out the protests and say nothing," the 27-year-old told AFP.
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| "Double murder-suicide" likely in deaths of mom and 2 kids Posted: 27 Dec 2019 01:01 AM PST  A district attorney called the deaths of Erin Pascal and her children Allison, 4, and Andrew, 1, "unspeakable."
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| Ivory Coast leader says Soro must face full force of the law Posted: 28 Dec 2019 11:19 AM PST  Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara on Saturday said former rebel leader and presidential candidate Guillaume Soro was not above the law and would face justice for allegedly seeking to destabilize the country. Soro this week canceled plans to return to Ivory Coast after the authorities issued a warrant for his arrest as part of an investigation into an alleged coup plot that has seen more than 15 people close to him detained. In his first comments on the case, Ouattara said at a news conference in Abidjan that anyone "involved in destabilizing the country, must face the full force of the law".
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| North Korea Could Have 100 Nuclear Warheads (And Soon) Posted: 28 Dec 2019 02:00 AM PST  What can America do?
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| Man, 60, dies after beating in $1 Christmas Eve mugging Posted: 28 Dec 2019 06:12 AM PST  A 60-year-old man who was kicked and punched while defending his partner during a $1 mugging on Christmas Eve has died. Juan Fresnada died Friday afternoon at the Bronx hospital where he was taken in critical condition after the mugging early Tuesday, the New York Police Department said Saturday.
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| 2019 saw most mass killings on record, US database reveals Posted: 28 Dec 2019 09:00 AM PST  Thirty-three of 41 incidents involved firearms, research shows, even as overall number of homicides fellThis year saw the highest number of mass killings on record, database records show, with 41 incidents claiming 211 lives in 2019 even as the overall US homicide rated dropped.According to the database complied by the Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University, 33 of the incidents, defined as when four or more people are killed excluding the perpetrator, involved firearms.The 41 mass killings were the most in a single year since the database began tracking such events back in 2006. Other research going back to the 1970s shows no other year with as many mass killings. The second-most was 38 in 2006.Following deadly rampages in Virginia Beach, Virginia, in May; in the Texas cities of Odessa and El Paso, and Dayton, Ohio, in August; and in Jersey City, New Jersey, this month, the brutal yearly tally comes as the debate over gun-control and efforts to reduce access to 4m assault weapons in circulation appear stalled.On Saturday, the 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden renewed his calls for curbs on the military-style weapons, telling supporters in a funding email: "The American people may be running out of tears, but we cannot run out of strength and resolve to get something done."But Biden remains an exception to the leading Democratic candidates in refusing to support some form of federal gun licensing.With some variations in detail, all, including Biden, have called for imposing stricter background checks and a federal ban on assault-style weapons. But only the former New York mayor Mike Bloomberg has made gun control central to his policy platform, calling for a national gun licensing system, stricter background checks, as well as federal laws allowing courts to confiscate firearms from people considered dangerous.Those efforts come after a troubled year for the country's most vociferous and powerful gun advocate, the National Rifle Association. Beset by executive infighting, the lobbying group faces a New York state investigation into claims that thousands of dollars were diverted to its board members.In terms of the number of fatalities, the 211 people killed in this year is still eclipsed by the 224 victims in 2017, when the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history took place at a concert in Las Vegas.California, with some of the strictest gun laws in the country, registered eight mass killings, the most in the country. Nearly half of US states experienced a mass killing.According to the database, most mass killings fail to make national news unless they spill into public spaces. The majority involve people who knew each other, family disputes, drug or gang violence or people with beefs that directed their anger at co-workers or relatives.According to the database, the first mass killing of the year occurred 19 days into the new year when a 42-year-old man took an ax and stabbed to death his mother, stepfather, girlfriend and 9-month-old daughter in Clackamas county, Oregon. The attack ended when police shot and killed the assailant.In many cases, what triggered the perpetrator remains a mystery, the database shows. The incident in Oregon was one of 18 mass killings where family members were killed, and one of six that didn't involve a gun. Other weapons included knives, axes and arson. Nine mass shootings occurred in public spaces; others were in homes, workplaces or bars."What makes this even more exceptional is that mass killings are going up at a time when general homicides, overall homicides, are going down," James Densley, a criminologist and professor at Metropolitan State University in Minnesota, told the Associated Press. "This seems to be the age of mass shootings," Densley said, expressing worry over a "contagion effect" spreading mass killings."What fuels contagion is fear," explained James Alan Fox, a criminologist at Northeastern. "These are still rare events. Clearly the risk is low but the fear is high."The Associated Press contributed reporting
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| The 20 most dangerous volcanoes in the US, ranked Posted: 27 Dec 2019 03:37 AM PST  A US Geological Survey list of volcano threats has been updated for the first time since 2005. California, Oregon, Washington, and Hawaii are at risk.
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| Five killed in Louisiana plane crash Posted: 28 Dec 2019 12:10 PM PST  A small plane crashed into the parking lot of a post office in Louisiana shortly after takeoff on Saturday, killing five people and fully engulfing a car on the ground in flames, authorities said. The two-engine Piper Cheyenne crashed about 1 mile from the Lafayette Regional Airport, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Tony Molinaro said. The plane was en route to a college football playoff game in Atlanta between Louisiana State University and Oklahoma, said Steven Ensminger Jr., who told The Associated Press that his wife, Carley McCord, was on board. Ensminger Jr. is the son of the offensive coordinator for the LSU football team. McCord was a sports reporter. View of a car which was damaged in light aircraft plane crash which killed five Credit: Scott Clause /The Daily Advertiser Video and photos showed a trail of scorched and burning grass around the crash site in the city of Lafayette. A blackened car sat in the post office parking lot, which was carpeted with scattered tree limbs. Four people were brought to the hospital: one from the plane, one on the ground and two post office employees who were brought in for evaluation, said Lafayette Fire Department spokesman Alton Trahan. The aircraft was an eight-passenger plane, Lafayette Fire Chief Robert Benoit told KLFY-TV. The plane went down in a part of the city with a scattering of banks, fast food chains and other businesses. Marty Brady, 22, said the lights went out at his apartment a couple of hundred yards (183 meters) or so away from the crash site as he was preparing to make coffee. He said he ran out and saw black smoke and flames from the post office parking lot and downed power lines. "There were some people screaming and somebody yelled that it was a plane," he said. Brady said the plane clipped a power line over the gate to his apartment complex. "If it had been a little lower, it could have been a lot worse," he said. Kevin Jackson told KLFY-TV he heard a "massive explosion" and saw a "big old ball of flame" when the plane crashed. He and other eyewitnesses told the TV station that the plane hit a car as it fell, and that someone could be heard screaming inside the vehicle. Lafayette is the fourth-largest city in Louisiana with a population of about 130,000, according to the 2018 census. It is located about 135 miles west of New Orleans. _-
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| Scores in Turkey protest Russia over Idlib assault Posted: 28 Dec 2019 07:41 AM PST  Several hundred Turkish and Syrian protesters held an anti-Russia demonstration in Istanbul on Saturday against intensified Russian and regime bombardment in Syria's rebel bastion of Idlib. The protesters -- mostly Syrians living in Turkey -- gathered close to the Russian consulate in Istanbul, shouting "Murderer Putin, get out of Syria!", referring to the Russian President Vladimir Putin. Since mid-December, regime forces and their Russian allies have heightened bombardment on the southern edge of the final major opposition-held pocket of Syria, eight years into the country's devastating war.
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| Palestinians in Gaza will scale back protests along the fortified border with Israel Posted: 27 Dec 2019 11:08 AM PST  Palestinians in Gaza will scale back protests along the fortified border with Israel, factions in the strip said on Thursday, in a sign of a lasting détente between Israel and Gaza's Islamist rulers, Hamas, along the volatile frontier.
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| Winter storm brings nightmare travel conditions across Southwest Posted: 26 Dec 2019 09:55 PM PST  Travelers heading from Nevada to California sat in traffic for hours after snowy conditions forced the closure of the busy Interstate 15.
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| Thai navy SEAL who took part in cave rescue dies after year-long infection Posted: 27 Dec 2019 07:15 AM PST  A Thai navy SEAL who took part in the dramatic rescue of 12 boys and their soccer coach from a flooded cave in northern Thailand last year has died from a blood infection he contracted during the operation, the Royal Thai Navy said on Friday. Petty Officer Beiret Bureerak had been receiving treatment, but his condition worsened, the navy said in a statement. Another rescuer, former navy diver Sergeant Saman Kuman, died during the rescue operation.
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