| Taliban council agrees to cease-fire in Afghanistan Posted: 29 Dec 2019 01:50 AM PST  The Taliban's ruling council agreed Sunday to a temporary cease-fire in Afghanistan, providing a window in which a peace agreement with the United States can be signed, officials from the insurgent group said. A cease-fire had been demanded by Washington before any peace agreement could be signed. A peace deal would allow the U.S. to bring home its troops from Afghanistan and end its 18-year military engagement there, America's longest.
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| The suspect in the stabbing attack in a rabbi's home pled not guilty to all charges. Here's what we know about him so far. Posted: 29 Dec 2019 01:38 PM PST  Grafton E. Thomas, 37, has just pled not guilty to five counts of attempted murder and one count of burglary. Here's what we know about him so far.
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| In China's Crackdown on Muslims, Children Have Not Been Spared Posted: 29 Dec 2019 08:37 AM PST  HOTAN, China -- The first-grader was a good student and beloved by her classmates, but she was inconsolable, and it was no mystery to her teacher why."The most heartbreaking thing is that the girl is often slumped over on the table alone and crying," he wrote on his blog. "When I asked around, I learned that it was because she missed her mother."The mother, he noted, had been sent to a detention camp for Muslim ethnic minorities. The girl's father had passed away, he added. But instead of letting other relatives raise her, authorities put her in a state-run boarding school -- one of hundreds of such facilities that have opened in China's far western Xinjiang region.As many as 1 million ethnic Uighurs, Kazakhs and others have been sent to internment camps and prisons in Xinjiang over the past three years, an indiscriminate clampdown aimed at weakening the population's devotion to Islam. Even as these mass detentions have provoked global outrage, though, the Chinese government is pressing ahead with a parallel effort targeting the region's children.Nearly a half-million children have been separated from their families and placed in boarding schools so far, according to a planning document published on a government website, and the ruling Communist Party has set a goal of operating one to two such schools in each of Xinjiang's 800-plus townships by the end of next year.The party has presented the schools as a way to fight poverty, arguing that they make it easier for children to attend classes if their parents live or work in remote areas or are unable to care for them. And it is true that many rural families are eager to send their children to these schools, especially when they are older.But the schools are also designed to assimilate and indoctrinate children at an early age, away from the influence of their families, according to the planning document, published in 2017. Students are often forced to enroll because authorities have detained their parents and other relatives, ordered them to take jobs far from home or judged them unfit guardians.The schools are off-limits to outsiders and tightly guarded, and it is difficult to interview residents in Xinjiang without putting them at risk of arrest. But a troubling picture of these institutions emerges from interviews with Uighur parents living in exile and a review of documents published online, including procurement records, government notices, state media reports and the blogs of teachers in the schools.State media and official documents describe education as a key component of President Xi Jinping's campaign to wipe out extremist violence in Xinjiang, a ruthless and far-reaching effort that also includes mass internment camps and sweeping surveillance measures. The idea is to use the boarding schools as incubators of a new generation of Uighurs who are secular and more loyal to both the party and the nation."The long-term strategy is to conquer, to captivate, to win over the young generation from the beginning," said Adrian Zenz, a researcher at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation in Washington who has studied Chinese policies that break up Uighur families.To carry out the assimilation campaign, authorities in Xinjiang have recruited tens of thousands of teachers from across China, often Han Chinese, the nation's dominant ethnic group. At the same time, prominent Uighur educators have been imprisoned, and teachers have been warned they will be sent to the camps if they resist.Thrust into a regimented environment and immersed in an unfamiliar culture, children in the boarding schools are only allowed visits with family once every week or two -- a restriction intended to "break the impact of the religious atmosphere on children at home," in the words of the 2017 policy document.The campaign echoes past policies in Canada, the United States and Australia that took indigenous children from their families and placed them in residential schools to forcibly assimilate them."The big difference in China is the scale and how systematic it is," said Darren Byler, an anthropologist at the University of Colorado who studies Uighur culture and society.Public discussion in China of the trauma inflicted on Uighur children by separating them from their families is rare. References on social media are usually quickly censored. Instead, the state-controlled news media focuses on the party's goals in the region, where predominantly Muslim minorities make up more than half the population of 25 million.Visiting a kindergarten near the frontier city of Kashgar this month, Chen Quanguo, the party's top official in Xinjiang, urged teachers to ensure children learn to "love the party, love the motherland and love the people."Science vs. ScriptureAbdurahman Tohti left Xinjiang and immigrated to Turkey in 2013, leaving behind cotton farming to sell used cars in Istanbul. But when his wife and two young children returned to China for a visit a few years ago, they disappeared.He heard that his wife was sent to prison, like many Uighurs who have traveled abroad and returned to China. His parents were detained too. The fate of his children, though, was a mystery.Then in January, he spotted his 4-year-old son in a video on Chinese social media that had apparently been recorded by a teacher. The boy seemed to be at a state-run boarding school and was speaking Chinese, a language his family did not use.Tohti, 30, said he was excited to see the child and relieved he was safe -- but also gripped by desperation."What I fear the most," he said, "is that the Chinese government is teaching him to hate his parents and Uighur culture."Beijing has sought for decades to suppress Uighur resistance to Chinese rule in Xinjiang, in part by using schools in the region to indoctrinate Uighur children. Until recently, though, the government had allowed most classes to be taught in the Uighur language, partly because of a shortage of Chinese-speaking teachers.Then, after a surge of anti-government and anti-Chinese violence, including ethnic riots in 2009 in Urumqi, the regional capital, and deadly attacks by Uighur militants in 2014, Xi ordered the party to take a harder line in Xinjiang, according to internal documents leaked to The New York Times earlier this year.In December 2016, the party announced that the work of the region's education bureau was entering a new phase. Schools were to become an extension of the security drive in Xinjiang, with a new emphasis on the Chinese language, patriotism and loyalty to the party.In the 2017 policy document, posted on the education ministry's website, officials from Xinjiang outlined their new priorities and ranked expansion of the boarding schools at the top.Without specifying Islam by name, the document characterized religion as a pernicious influence on children and said having students live at school would "reduce the shock of going back and forth between learning science in the classroom and listening to scripture at home."By early 2017, the document said, nearly 40% of all middle-school and elementary-school age children in Xinjiang -- or about 497,800 students -- were boarding in schools. At the time, the government was ramping up efforts to open boarding schools and add dorms to schools, and more recent reports suggest the push is continuing.Chinese is also replacing Uighur as the main language of instruction in Xinjiang. Most elementary and middle school students are now taught in Chinese, up from just 38% three years ago. And thousands of new rural preschools have been built to expose minority children to Chinese at an earlier age, state media reported.The government argues that teaching Chinese is critical to improving the economic prospects of minority children, and many Uighurs agree. But Uighur activists said the overall campaign amounts to an effort to erase what remains of their culture.Several Uighurs living abroad said the government had put their children in boarding schools without their consent.Mahmutjan Niyaz, 33, a Uighur businessman who moved to Istanbul in 2016, said his 5-year-old daughter was sent to one after his brother and sister-in-law, the girl's guardians, were confined in an internment camp.Other relatives could have cared for her, but authorities refused to let them. Now, Niyaz said, the school has changed the girl."Before, my daughter was playful and outgoing," he said. "But after she went to the school, she looked very sad in the photos."'Kindness Students'In a dusty village near the ancient Silk Road city of Hotan in southern Xinjiang, nestled among fields of barren walnut trees and simple concrete homes, the elementary school stood out.It was surrounded by a tall brick wall with two layers of barbed wire on top. Cameras were mounted on every corner. And at the entrance, a guard wearing a black helmet and a protective vest stood beside a metal detector.It wasn't always like this. Last year, officials converted the school in Kasipi village into a full-time boarding school.Kang Jide, a Chinese language teacher at the school, described the frenzied process on his public blog on the Chinese social media platform WeChat: In just a few days, all the day students were transferred. Classrooms were rearranged. Bunk beds were set up. Then, 270 new children arrived, leaving the school with 430 boarders, each in the sixth grade or below.Officials called them "kindness students," referring to the party's generosity in making special arrangements for their education.The government said children in Xinjiang's boarding schools are taught better hygiene and etiquette as well as Chinese and science skills that will help them succeed in modern China."My heart suddenly melted after seeing the splendid heartfelt smiles on the faces of these left-behind children," said a retired official visiting a boarding elementary school in Lop County near Hotan, according to a state media report. He added that the party had given them "an environment to be carefree, study happily, and grow healthy and strong."But Kang wrote that being separated from their families took a toll on the children. Some never received visits from relatives, or remained on campus during the holidays, even after most teachers left. And his pupils often begged to use his phone to call their parents."Sometimes, when they hear the voice on the other end of the call, the children will start crying, and they hide in the corner because they don't want me to see," he wrote."It's not just the children," he added. "The parents on the other end also miss their children, of course, so much so that it breaks their hearts and they're trembling."The internment camps, which the government describes as job training centers, have cast a shadow even on students who are not boarders. Before the conversion of the school, Kang posted a photo of a letter that an 8-year-old girl had written to her father, who had been sent to a camp."Daddy, where are you?" the girl wrote in an uneven scrawl. "Daddy, why don't you come back?""I'm sorry, Daddy," she continued. "You must study hard too."Nevertheless, Kang was generally supportive of the schools. On his blog, he described teaching Uighur students as an opportunity to "water the flowers of the motherland.""Kindness students" receive more attention and resources than day students. Boarding schools are required to offer psychological counseling, for example, and in Kasipi, children were given a set of supplies that included textbooks, clothes and a red Young Pioneer scarf.Learning Chinese was the priority, Kang wrote, though students were also immersed in traditional Chinese culture, including classical poetry, and taught songs praising the party.On a recent visit to the school, children in red and blue uniforms could be seen playing in a yard beside buildings marked "cafeteria" and "student dormitory." At the entrance, school officials refused to answer questions.Tighter security has become the norm at schools in Xinjiang. In Hotan alone, more than $1 million has been allocated in the past three years to buy surveillance and security equipment for schools, including helmets, shields and spiked batons, according to procurement records. At the entrance to one elementary school, a facial recognition system had been installed.Kang recently wrote on his blog that he had moved on to a new job teaching in northern Xinjiang. Reached by telephone there, he declined to be interviewed. But before hanging up, he said his students in Kasipi had made rapid progress in learning Chinese."Every day I feel very fulfilled," he said.'Engineers of the Human Soul'To carry out its campaign, the party needed not only new schools but also an army of teachers, an overhaul of the curriculum -- and political discipline. Teachers suspected of dissent were punished, and textbooks were rewritten to weed out material deemed subversive."Teachers are the engineers of the human soul," the education bureau of Urumqi recently wrote in an open letter, deploying a phrase first used by Stalin to describe writers and other cultural workers.The party launched an intensive effort to recruit teachers for Xinjiang from across China. Last year, nearly 90,000 were brought in, chosen partly for their political reliability, officials said at a news conference this year. The influx amounted to about one-fifth of Xinjiang's teachers last year, according to government data.The new recruits, often ethnic Han, and the teachers they joined, mostly Uighurs, were both warned to toe the line. Those who opposed the Chinese-language policy or resisted the new curriculum were labeled "two-faced" and punished.The deputy secretary-general of the oasis town of Turpan, writing earlier this year, described such teachers as "scum of the Chinese people" and accused them of being "bewitched by extremist religious ideology."Teachers were urged to express their loyalty, and the public was urged to keep an eye on them. A sign outside a kindergarten in Hotan invited parents to report teachers who made "irresponsible remarks" or participated in unauthorized religious worship.Officials in Xinjiang also spent two years inspecting and revising hundreds of textbooks and other teaching material, according to the 2017 policy document.Some who helped the party write and edit the old textbooks ended up in prison, including Yalqun Rozi, a prominent scholar and literary critic who helped compile a set of textbooks on Uighur literature that was used for more than a decade.Rozi was charged with attempted subversion and sentenced to 15 years in prison last year, according to his son, Kamalturk Yalqun. Several other members of the committee that compiled the textbooks were arrested too, he said."Instead of welcoming the cultural diversity of Uighurs, China labeled it a malignant tumor," said Yalqun, who lives in Philadelphia.There is evidence that some Uighur children have been sent to boarding schools far from their homes.Kalbinur Tursun, 36, entrusted five of her children to relatives when she left Xinjiang to give birth in Istanbul but has been unable to contact them for several years.Last year, she saw her daughter Ayshe Tursun, then 6, in a video circulating on Chinese social media. It had been posted by a user who appeared to be a teacher at a school in Hotan -- more than 300 miles away from their home in Kashgar."My children are so young; they just need their mother and father," Tursun said, expressing concern about how authorities were raising them. "I fear they will think that I'm the enemy -- that they won't accept me and will hate me."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
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| Trump claims homelessness 'so easy' to handle in attack on Democrats Posted: 28 Dec 2019 09:45 AM PST  President says governors of New York and California should 'politely' ask him for help in latest broadsideDonald Trump has continued to use America's homelessness crisis to attack his political opponents in California and New York, tweeting on Saturday that homelessness should be "easy" to handle and that the governors of the two liberal states should ask him for help.Workers and activists on the front lines of the crisis have repeatedly said that Trump's "tough talk" on homelessness is concerning, and that some of his proposed policies will only make the situation worse.As the number of homeless people has increased sharply in cities across California, some local politicians have already tried to try to penalize people for being homeless, rather than addressing root causes of the crisis, including unaffordable rents and evictions pushing people on to the streets.Meanwhile, Trump has continued to fuel anxiety by repeatedly suggesting he might try to implement some kind of police crackdown in California to clear the streets of encampments.On Christmas Day, Trump attacked California's governor, Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, for his "bad job" on "taking care of the homeless population in California"."If he can't fix the problem, the Federal Govt. will get involved!" the president said.On Thursday, Trump attacked Nancy Pelosi, the California Democrat who has lead the effort to impeach him, and told her to "clean up her filthy dirty District & help the homeless there".On Saturday, Trump wrote that fixing the homeless crisis "would be so easy with competence!"The governors of California and New York "must do something", Trump wrote, and if they "can't handle the situation, which they should be able to do very easily, they must call and 'politely' ask for help."In September, a report from Trump's Council of Economic Advisers concluded that "policing may be an important tool to help move people off the street and into shelter or housing where they can get the services they need".Trump told reporters that month he was concerned about homeless people living on "our best streets, our best entrances to buildings", places "where people in those buildings pay tremendous taxes, where they went to those locations because of the prestige"."We can't let Los Angeles, San Francisco, and numerous other cities destroy themselves," he said, citing his concern that "foreign tenants" who moved to the cities because of the "prestige" now wanted to leave because of the homeless people and tents on the streets.Violent attacks directly targeting homeless people have risen in California in the past year: in Los Angeles alone, there have been at least eight incidents in which people threw makeshift explosives or flammable liquids on homeless people or their tents, according to officials and the Los Angeles Times.Trump's repeated tweets about homelessness have been labeled "vile and reprehensible" by activists.Diane Yentel, the president and chief executive of the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC), noted on Thursday that Trump had proposed drastically shrinking or eliminating federal programs that keep the lowest-income people affordably housed, an important prevention measure that keeps people from becoming homeless."In California, over 37,000 of the lowest-income people are at risk of eviction from this Trump proposal alone," Yentel said.She also noted that Trump's Department of Housing and Urban Development had "proposed allowing homeless shelters to discriminate and refuse shelter to transgender and other LGBTQ people, subjecting them to high risk of violence".Homelessness is continuing to rise across California: a year-end Guardian investigation found that homelessness had increased 16% in Los Angeles, 17% in San Francisco, 42% in San Jose, 47% in Oakland, and 52% in Sacramento county, home to the state's capital. Many people were experiencing homelessness for the first time, and both families and seniors are increasingly struggling with homelessness.Trump's focus on homelessness in California and elsewhere is not the first time he has suggested that he could "easily" solve complex social problems in cities where Democrats hold political power.During his presidential campaign, Trump claimed that an unnamed Chicago police official had told him that violence in Chicago could be stopped "in one week" if officers were allowed to be "very much tougher than they are right now".Chicago typically has the highest total number of murders of any American city, though other smaller cities, including St Louis, have higher per capita murder rates.
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| Iran blasts France for 'interference' over jailed academic Posted: 29 Dec 2019 01:41 AM PST  Tehran accused Paris on Sunday of "interference" in the case of an Iranian-French academic held in the Islamic republic, saying she is considered an Iranian national and faces security charges. France said Friday it summoned Iran's ambassador to protest the imprisonment of Fariba Adelkhah and another academic, Roland Marchal of France, saying their detention was "intolerable".
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| How Did Britain Plan To Stop A Surprise Russian Invasion? Nuke Their Path Posted: 28 Dec 2019 04:00 PM PST  A crazy plan.
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| Saudi Arabia Sentences Man to Death for Theater Stabbings: TV Posted: 29 Dec 2019 04:00 AM PST ![Saudi Arabia Sentences Man to Death for Theater Stabbings: TV]( "Saudi Arabia Sentences Man to Death for Theater Stabbings: TV") (Bloomberg) -- A Saudi Arabian court sentenced a Yemeni man to death for stabbing three performers at a theater show in the capital last month in an attack ordered by al-Qaeda, state-run TV reported.Another defendant was jailed for 12 1/2 years, Al Ekhbariya channel reported, citing the criminal court. The attack, in which three people were injured, was ordered by al-Qaeda in neighboring Yemen, the broadcaster said. It didn't specify where it got the information.The mid-November attack in Riyadh came as the conservative kingdom undergoes a drastic overhaul of its social norms spearheaded by its young crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman. Saudis have been granted freedoms that include the loosening of rules on women's attire and travel as well as the mixing of genders in conjunction with a plan to wean the economy off oil.The court rulings were preliminary and both defendants can file appeals.\--With assistance from Sarah Algethami.To contact the reporter on this story: Reema Alothman in Riyadh at ralothman1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Donna Abu-Nasr at dabunasr@bloomberg.net, Michael Gunn, Bruce StanleyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Attacker stabs five at rabbi's home in New York Posted: 28 Dec 2019 11:25 PM PST  An attacker stabbed five people late on Saturday at a Hasidic rabbi's home in New York state and fled before apparently being arrested, a Jewish organization said, a rampage that came after days of increased tension over anti-Semitic assaults. The Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council (OJPAC) said on Twitter an attacker wearing a scarf stabbed the victims at a house in Monsey, Rockland County, about 30 miles north of New York City. "The suspect fled the scene, but he is in custody at this time," the Ramapo Police Department said in a Facebook post.
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| Islamic State group says it beheaded Christian prisoners in Nigeria Posted: 28 Dec 2019 10:55 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 former leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and its spokesman.
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| Buttigieg critiques Biden's 'judgment' on Iraq War vote Posted: 29 Dec 2019 12:45 PM PST  Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg on Sunday called former Vice President Joe Biden's vote to authorize the Iraq War part of the nation's "worst foreign policy decision" of the millennial mayor's lifetime. Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, was responding to a question about how his foreign policy experience measured up to others' in the Democratic race, specifically Biden, who was a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee when the U.S. went to war. "This is an example of why years in Washington is not always the same thing as judgment," Buttigieg said while recording the program "Iowa Press" on Iowa Public Television, according to a transcript.
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| A New York Times column exploring why 'Jews are smart' is prompting heavy criticism and canceled subscriptions Posted: 28 Dec 2019 01:13 PM PST  Columnist Bret Stephens relied on a study about IQ tests written in part by a professor who is associated with white supremacist groups.
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| "I was taken": 7-year-old torn from dad at U.S. border Posted: 28 Dec 2019 11:28 PM PST  CBS News documentary "The Faces of Family Separation" follows the harrowing journey of four migrant families fleeing violence in Central America, only to be split apart after arriving in the U.S.
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| US strikes Iran-backed militia strongholds in Iraq and Syria Posted: 29 Dec 2019 11:06 AM PST  The U.S. launched strike against Iranian military targets in Syria following a Friday attach in Iraq that killed one American.
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| Nazi Germany Could Have Won World War II, Until It Invaded Russia Posted: 29 Dec 2019 06:00 AM PST  Then it was all over.
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| U.S. Denies Seeking 20% Troop Funding Boost From South Korea Posted: 27 Dec 2019 07:01 PM PST ![U.S. Denies Seeking 20% Troop Funding Boost From South Korea]( "U.S. Denies Seeking 20% Troop Funding Boost From South Korea") (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. denied a report that it's demanding South Korea pay as much as 20% more to host American troops, as funding talks between the two nations continue.The 10%-20% figure referred to in Korean media is "ungrounded speculation," a Trump administration official said by email. U.S. negotiators will seek a "fair and equitable" outcome at the next round of talks in early January, the official said.Last month, U.S. negotiators walked out of a meeting on troop funding in Seoul after South Korea balked at a $5 billion price tag for hosting U.S. troops -- a fivefold increase. Citing a diplomatic source it didn't identify, South Korea's Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported earlier this week that the White House had dropped that demand after receiving assurances Seoul would purchase more American weapons. The increase may now be about 10%-20% above the current level of nearly $1 billion, the newspaper said.The deal, known as the Special Measures Agreement, technically expires at the end of this year. But both sides are likely to agree to some sort of temporary extension as they negotiate, allowing for the continued operations of about 28,500 U.S. military personnel on the peninsula.The talks with South Korea could affect other countries that host U.S. troops, as the Trump administration is seeking funding increases from other American allies.To contact the reporter on this story: Kanga Kong in Seoul at kkong50@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Shamim Adam at sadam2@bloomberg.net, Edward Johnson, Tom RedmondFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Trump Retweets Name of Alleged Whistleblower Posted: 28 Dec 2019 06:38 PM PST  For the first time since the Ukraine scandal erupted, President Trump has retweeted the name of the alleged whistleblower and directly displayed it to his 68 million followers. The late-night retweet just before midnight on Friday went largely unnoticed at first, but was still displayed in the president's Twitter feed as of Saturday evening, by which point it had been retweeted more than 13,000 times. The retweet was of a tweet from a user called "Surfermom77," an account purportedly belonging to a woman named Sophia in California that seems unusually active in churning out pro-Trump posts and memes. The tweet shared by Trump attacked House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff and, without any evidence, identified the whistleblower as a man whose name has been circulated by conservative media and far-right figures in recent weeks. The Daily Beast is declining to publish the name and has not independently verified the identity of the whistleblower.Trump's retweet comes just two days after he retweeted a post from an account associated with his re-election campaign that linked to an article including the unsubstantiated name of the whistleblower.As The Daily Beast previously reported, Trump had talked about the name of the alleged whistleblower with friends, media figures, and senior administration officials in recent months, and asked if they thought it was appropriate for him to publicly announce or tweet the name. But administration officials and those within his inner circle—including his own daughter, Ivanka Trump—cautioned him against posting the name of the alleged whistleblower. Ivanka Trump Tells Her Dad: Don't Tweet the Whistleblower's Name!Lawyers representing the whistleblower previously told The Wall Street Journal their client had received multiple death threats, even as the president and his allies continued to vilify the whistleblower. Schiff said last month that part of the reason Democrats did not call the whistleblower to testify as part of the impeachment inquiry was because the president had called the person a "spy" and hinted that his actions were deserving of the "death penalty.""The president said the whistleblower and others should be treated as a traitor and a spy and we ought to use the penalty and that's the death penalty," Schiff said on Meet the Press at the time.After the whistleblower's complaint went public in late September, The New York Times reported that Trump told a small audience at a private event that whoever gave the whistleblower "information" that was used against him was "close to a spy." "You know what we used to do in the old days when we were smart with spies and treason, right? We used to handle it a little differently than we do now."Trump Pushes Out Tweet Naming Alleged WhistleblowerRead 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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| Slippery salvation: Could seaweed as cow feed help climate? Posted: 29 Dec 2019 07:28 AM PST  Coastal Maine has a lot of seaweed , and a fair number of cows. The researchers — from a marine science lab, an agriculture center and universities in northern New England — are working on a plan to feed seaweed to cows to gauge whether that can help reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change. The concept of feeding seaweed to cows has gained traction in recent years because of some studies that have shown its potential to cut back on methane.
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| Elizabeth Warren's campaign is 30% behind in quarterly fundraising 4 days before deadline Posted: 28 Dec 2019 01:57 PM PST  The campaign said it was doing "something different" as it "probably won't" raise as much as last quarter by the December 31 FEC reporting deadline.
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| Trump retweets post naming alleged whistleblower Posted: 29 Dec 2019 06:38 AM PST  President Trump retweeted, then deleted, a post that included the alleged name of the anonymous whistleblower whose complaint ultimately led to Trump's impeachment by the House.
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| Putin You've Got A Problem: The Russian Navy Posted: 29 Dec 2019 12:00 PM PST  Russia received twenty-three new ships this year. That's where the good news ends.
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| Iraq Shuts Southern Oil Field on Concern Over Protesters’ Safety Posted: 28 Dec 2019 05:14 AM PST ![Iraq Shuts Southern Oil Field on Concern Over Protesters' Safety]( "Iraq Shuts Southern Oil Field on Concern Over Protesters' Safety") (Bloomberg) -- Iraq, OPEC's second-biggest producer, halted output from a southern oil field as protesters walked close to installations, according to person with knowledge of the situation who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter.Other southern fields will make up the amount from the shutdown, which won't affect the country's output. The halt is temporary until the Nasiriya field, which produces 80,000 to 85,000 barrels a day, is clear of protesters.The closure was a precautionary measure for the safety of the field as well as the nearby protesters, the person said.Protesters have rallied more than once over the past two months near the southern oil fields in Basra and other cities and near refineries, but output hasn't previously been shut down.Around 500 people have died and more than 22,000 others wounded in clashes between security forces and protesters since Oct. 1. Iraqis, mostly from the Shiite majority population, are protesting against government corruption, poor services, and wide-ranging Iranian political influence, calling for an overhaul of the ruling class.To contact the reporter on this story: Khalid Al-Ansary in Baghdad at kalansary@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Andrew Davis at abdavis@bloomberg.net, Sara Marley, James AmottFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Chinese man charged with taking photos of US Navy base Posted: 29 Dec 2019 03:24 PM PST  A Chinese man has been arrested by US authorities while he photographed an American Navy base in the Florida Keys.
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| Residents, vacationers urged to leave Australian region as fire conditions worsen Posted: 28 Dec 2019 03:20 PM PST  Residents and vacationers in part of the Australian state of Victoria were urged to leave on Sunday ahead of what is expected to be a day of extreme fire danger. State Emergency Management Commissioner Andrew Crisp told both residents and tens of thousands of vacationers in the East Gippsland region to leave no later than Monday morning. "What we are saying now, based on the conditions that will be confronting us tomorrow across the state, but in particular in East Gippsland, is that if you're holidaying in that part of the state, it's time that you left," Crisp said at a media conference on Sunday.
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| Thousands of koalas feared dead in Australia wildfires Posted: 28 Dec 2019 12:53 PM PST  Thousands of koalas are feared to have died in a wildfire-ravaged area north of Sydney, further diminishing Australia's iconic marsupial, while the fire danger increased in the country's east on Saturday as temperatures soared. The mid-northern coast of New South Wales was home to up to 28,000 koalas, but wildfires have significantly reduced their population in recent months. Koalas are native to Australia and are one of the country's most beloved animals, but they've been under threat due to a loss of habitat.
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| 2020 will likely be a groundbreaking year in space. Here's a calendar of the biggest rocket launches, meteor showers, eclipses, and more. Posted: 28 Dec 2019 05:47 AM PST  If all goes well next year, SpaceX and Boeing will launch their first astronauts for NASA, and Mars will gain three new rovers.
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| Donald Trump has violated his oath. Mitch McConnell is about to violate 2 of them. Posted: 28 Dec 2019 08:47 AM PST  Every senator has a constitutional obligation of impartiality. But Mitch McConnell's role as Senate leader makes his obligation even more important.
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| Doomsday Writer’s Friend Says He Prophesied Wife’s Mysterious Death Posted: 28 Dec 2019 07:56 AM PST  Idaho author Chad Daybell, who wrote a series of doomsday books for Mormon readers, confided in a friend that he had visions his first wife would die. "Angels had told him that he was going to lose Tammy," Julie Rowe told a local TV station this week.Tammy did end up dead—and now Daybell is at the center of a tangled mystery that includes the exhumation of her body, an investigation into two missing children, and questions about the deaths of his second wife's husband and brother.Daybell and wife Lori Vallow have not been seen since October. They reportedly left their Rexberg home before police showed up with a search warrant amid concern that two of Vallow's children, a 17-year-old girl and an adopted 7-year-old with special needs, were missing. In a Dec. 20 statement, police said the missing children, Tylee Ryan and Joshua Vallow, may be tied to a suspicious death investigation. They say neither was reported as missing to authorities but that their whereabouts are unknown. Lori Vallow married Daybell just weeks after his first wife Tammy Daybell died in the family's home at the age of 49. After Daybell refused to order an autopsy on his wife, which is his right, the coroner listed her cause of death as "natural." Vallow's own husband Charles Vallow was fatally shot by Lori Vallow's brother Alexander Cox during a domestic disturbance in July that is now also under investigation. Cox died on Dec. 12 of unknown causes. Vallow and Daybell were members of an organization called Preparing a People that says its goal is to "help prepare the people of this earth for the second coming of Jesus Christ." Vallow's extended family members told East Idaho News that they felt the group was a cult. "I don't want to attack anyone's beliefs," Brandon Boudreaux, a relative of Vallow's said. "But when you look at the fruit that's come from this group and its beliefs … it certainly, from my mind, doesn't come from God." Preparing a People founders Michael and Nancy James deny the group is a cult or represents a specific religion. They have removed references to the couple, both contributors, from their website. "We considered Chad Daybell a good friend, but have since learned of things we had no idea about," they wrote. "We recently learned of Chad's new marriage to Lori Vallow a couple weeks after Tammy Daybell died... We did not know Lori as well as we thought we knew Chad."Rowe was also a Preparing a People member—and a close friend of Daybell's since he published her book on a near-death experience at the publishing house he founded with his first wife. She said Daybell told her he wanted to get out of the publishing business but that Tammy did not."He said I'm ready to get out and Tammy doesn't want to get out," Daybell told Rowe, according to local media reports. "When she passes, I'm done, I can't keep doing this." Rowe, who said she is using her own visions to try to send messages to Daybell, insists the missing children are safe. "I do know the kids are safe. I can see them," she said. "I can see their energy and that they're in a bright house."Police aren't so sure. On Dec. 11, Rexberg police exhumed Tammy's remains to conduct a proper autopsy. Those results have not been released, but Daybell and Vallow denied any wrongdoing through attorney Sean Bartholick—who says he does not know where the couple or Vallow's children are, says they deny any accusations. "Chad Daybell was a loving husband and has the support of his children in this matter," Bartholick told the East Idaho News. "We look forward to addressing the allegations once they have moved beyond speculation and rumor."Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Remains of six recovered from missing Hawaii helicopter wreckage Posted: 27 Dec 2019 08:08 PM PST  The remains of six people were found at the crash site of a tour helicopter that went missing in Hawaii, officials said on Friday. Seven people were initially aboard the aircraft, which failed to return Thursday afternoon. "The remains of six individuals were recovered Friday afternoon at the site of the helicopter wreckage in Kokee near Nualolo," the county of Kauai said in a statement.
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| Secrets Revealed: America Almost Stockpiled Nuclear Weapons In Iceland Posted: 29 Dec 2019 12:02 AM PST  Why didn't it happen?
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| At Least 79 Dead in Truck Bomb Attack in Somalia’s Capital Posted: 28 Dec 2019 01:05 PM PST ![At Least 79 Dead in Truck Bomb Attack in Somalia's Capital]( "At Least 79 Dead in Truck Bomb Attack in Somalia's Capital") (Bloomberg) -- At least 79 people, many of them university students, died when a truck bomb exploded during rush hour at a busy intersection in Somalia's capital of Mogadishu, according to the Associated Press and other news reports.An explosives-laden vehicle hit the taxation office near a junction in Mogadishu, Ahmed Abdi Hussein, a Somali police officer, told Bloomberg News by phone. Another police official said the target was Turkish engineers who were in a vehicle near the intersection, without elaborating on how he got the information.Two Turks were killed in the attack, Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency reported, citing Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.At least 125 people were wounded and were being treated at nearby hospitals. The number of dead could exceed 100, Anadolu Agency said, quoting Ambassador Mehmet Yilmaz.The explosion took place at a checkpoint after police blocked the truck from entering the city, the Associated Press reported, citing the nation's police chief.No one has claimed responsibility for the attack. The al-Qaeda-linked militant group al-Shabab last week said they carried out a car bombing that killed eight people in central Somalia and the group has been blamed for an October 2017 bombing that killed more than 500 people.Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed blamed al-Shabab for what he called a "heinous act of terror.""This dark day has robbed our nation of dozens of innocent lives, the perpetrators of this heinous act of terror will never dim the spirits of the people of Somalia," he said in a statement posted on Twitter. "Let's join hands in countering this evil in our midst. Let's move fast and help out the survivors."The U.S. embassy in Somalia, speaking on behalf of Ambassador Donald Yamamoto, sent its "deepest condolences to the families and friends of the victims" in a Twitter message.The United Nations issued a statement on behalf of Secretary General Antonio Guterres that "strongly condemns" the attack and expressed condolences to the injured and families of the victims."He stresses that the perpetrators of this horrendous crime must be brought to justice," the UN said in the statement. "The Secretary-General reiterates the full commitment of the United Nations to support the people and Government of Somalia in their pursuit of peace and development."The African nation is among the world's poorest, and is struggling to rebuild after decades of civil war.(Updates death toll in first paragraph.)\--With assistance from Taylan Bilgic and Susan Decker.To contact the reporters on this story: Mohammed Omar Ahmed in Garowe at mahmed76@bloomberg.net;Mohamed Sheikh Nor in Mogadishu at msheikhnor@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Shamim Adam at sadam2@bloomberg.net, Ros Krasny, Matthew G. MillerFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Woman charged with hate crime amid NYC anti-Semitic attacks Posted: 28 Dec 2019 11:35 AM PST  A woman accused of slapping three people in one of a series of apparently anti-Semitic attacks reported throughout New York during Hanukkah was charged Saturday with attempted assault as a hate crime, court records show. Tiffany Harris, 30, was released without bail after her arraignment on the attempted assault charge and misdemeanor and lower-level charges , according to the records.
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| Two men shot dead in eastern Saudi city were driving car bomb, SPA says Posted: 29 Dec 2019 05:11 AM PST ![Two men shot dead in eastern Saudi city were driving car bomb, SPA says]( "Two men shot dead in eastern Saudi city were driving car bomb, SPA says") Two Saudi men shot dead last week in the eastern city of Dammam were driving a car loaded with explosives and were planning an "imminent terrorist operation", the SPA state news agency said on Sunday, citing security forces. The two were found with explosive paste in the car, SPA said.
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| Aladdin proposes to Jasmine during curtain call Posted: 28 Dec 2019 03:10 AM PST  A shining, shimmering, splendid ring was placed on Jasmine's finger.
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| Winter weather: Storm to hit nation's middle from north to south, delaying flights Posted: 28 Dec 2019 08:59 AM PST ![Winter weather: Storm to hit nation's middle from north to south, delaying flights]( "Winter weather: Storm to hit nation's middle from north to south, delaying flights") Weather forecasters warn of flight delays across the Midwest, with some white-out conditions. Road travelers should pack a flashlight and food.
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| Russia claims to have deployed Avangard hypersonic missiles that 'cannot be intercepted' Posted: 27 Dec 2019 07:26 PM PST  Russia says it has deployed its first hypersonic missiles which President Putin claims are capable of transporting nuclear warheads at 27 times the speed of sound. The location of the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle has not been confirmed but has been widely reported to be the Urals, a mountain range in western Russia. Sergei Shoigu, Russia's defence minister confirmed that the missiles entered service at 10am Moscow time on Friday, describing their deployment as a "landmark event". Vladimir Putin said that the missiles put Russia ahead of the rest of the world. "Not a single country possesses hypersonic weapons, let alone continental-range hypersonic weapons," he said, arguing that the West was "playing catch-up with us". "The Avangard is invulnerable to intercept by any existing and prospective missile defence means of the potential adversary." Vladimir Putin said that the West is now "playing catch-up" Credit: REUTERS Moscow said the Avangard is launched on top of an intercontinental ballistic missile but it can make sharp manoeuvres on the way to its target, making it more difficult to intercept. The Russian government had announced the missiles last year and in March 2018 Mr Putin likened the missile to a "meteorite" and a "fireball" in a state address. The Avangard, which Mr Putin said could penetrate current and future missile defence systems, can carry a nuclear weapon of up to two megatons. The Pentagon responded to the deployment by saying it would "not characterise the Russian claims" about the Avangard's capabilities. The United States has its own hypersonic missile programme, as does China, which in 2014 said it had carried out a test flight. The US has been developing hypersonic weapons in recent years. In August, Mark Esper, the defence secretary, said the Pentagon was some years from deploying its own missiles.
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| The 'lathi': India's colonial vintage anti-protest weapon Posted: 28 Dec 2019 06:35 PM PST  As Indian protests against a new citizenship law have intensified, so has police use of "lathis", sturdy sticks used to whack, thwack and quell dissent since British colonial times -- to sometimes deadly effect. At least 27 people have died in the past two weeks of protests, mostly from bullets, but hundreds more have been injured in clashes between demonstrators and riot police wielding the bamboo canes. "From being used as means to regulate crowds, lathi has turned into a lethal weapon," said V. Suresh, the secretary general of the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), a non-profit rights group.
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| Rather Than Retiring, The Air Force's B-2 Bomber Is Being Upgraded (For Nuclear War) Posted: 29 Dec 2019 04:00 AM PST  The B61-12 adds substantial new levels of precision targeting and consolidates several different kinds of attack options into a single weapon.
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| Serb President Vucic to Step Down as Party Chief After Elections Posted: 29 Dec 2019 05:50 AM PST ![Serb President Vucic to Step Down as Party Chief After Elections]( "Serb President Vucic to Step Down as Party Chief After Elections") (Bloomberg) -- Serbia's President Aleksandar Vucic will overhaul his ruling party in June after general elections in spring, pledging thorough personnel changes including stepping down himself as its chief.Vucic, whose term as the head of state expires in 2022, spoke a day after unveiling an ambitious development plan through 2025 to boost economic expansion to try to catch up with the European Union that his country aspires to join. The parliamentary elections are expected in April or May, after which the ruling center-right Serbian Progressive Party will hold a convention on June 28, he told reporters in Belgrade."It's my decision not to run" for the top party job, he said, calling for a younger generation of activists. He didn't say who would succeed him.The ruling party was founded in 2008 by Vucic and other defectors from the ultra-nationalist Serb Radical Party who sought to reinvent themselves as moderates with pro-EU views. It remains well ahead of other political groups with more than 50% popular support, according to polls. The rating appears unaffected by opposition accusations of deteriorating standards of democracy and rampant corruption, claims which Vucic and his party dismiss.To contact the reporter on this story: Misha Savic in Belgrade at msavic2@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Irina Vilcu at isavu@bloomberg.net, Neil Chatterjee, Andrew ReiersonFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| WH releases info on call with Putin after Russia does Posted: 29 Dec 2019 11:22 AM PST  Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a phone call on Sunday, thanked President Trump for passing on information that helped prevent "acts of terrorism" in Russia, the Kremlin said.
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| Turkey evacuates wounded after deadly Mogadishu blast Posted: 29 Dec 2019 01:48 AM PST  A Turkish military cargo plane landed in the Somali capital on Sunday to evacuate people badly wounded in a devastating truck bombing that killed at least 90 people including two Turkish nationals. The plane also brought emergency medical staff and supplies, the Turkish embassy said in a tweet, adding these had been taken to a Turkish-run hospital in Mogadishu. Somali Information Minister Mohamed Abdi Hayir Mareye told state media that 10 Somalis who were badly wounded in Saturday's blast would be evacuated to Turkey.
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| Drawn-out sex crimes case rattles Israel-Australia ties Posted: 27 Dec 2019 10:06 PM PST  Nicole Meyer endured years of sexual abuse allegedly at the hands of her former school principal. The lengthy, Kafkaesque legal saga over the sex crimes suspect's fate has not only agonized Meyer but is testing the relationship between Israel and one of its closest allies, Australia. Malka Leifer's case is still far from resolved and even Australia's pro-Israel Jewish community is losing patience.
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| New WeWork co-chiefs would reportedly each receive an $8.3-million golden parachute if they were fired or choose to leave Posted: 29 Dec 2019 01:45 PM PST  Co-chief executives Artie Minson and Sebastian Gunningham would cost WeWork almost $17 million if ousted, documents reportedly show.
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| 2019 was supposed to be a landmark 'Year of Tolerance' in the UAE. It didn't turn out that way. Posted: 29 Dec 2019 01:21 AM PST  The UAE cracked down on dissidents, did nothing to counter the oppression of Muslims in Kashmir and Xinjiang, and saw the wife of its leader flee.
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| We Iowans will continue to be kind, even as coastal elites' snootiness grates Posted: 29 Dec 2019 03:00 AM PST  Laugh with us about the famed butter cow if you must, but don't put us — and our hometowns — down.
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| DR Congo Ebola death toll 2,231 to date -- monitoring agency Posted: 29 Dec 2019 09:26 AM PST  A total of 2,231 people have died out of 3,373 declared cases of Ebola in the current epidemic in the DR Congo, according to the agency overseeing the response, health officials said Sunday. Deadly unrest in the fragile state has hampered the fight against the disease during the latest epidemic, which broke out on August 1, 2018, with the eastern provinces of North Kivu and Ituri particularly badly hit. Both areas, beset by violence for two decades, have seen repeated attacks on Ebola health workers by dozens of armed groups as well as on health sites set up to treat victims.
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