| Australian Jews decry Israeli health minister's appointment Posted: 30 Dec 2019 01:54 AM PST  Australia's Jewish community has slammed an Israeli government decision to promote to the post of health minister a legislator who is suspected of aiding an alleged sexual abuser wanted in Australia. The Israeli government on Sunday appointed Yaacov Litzman as health minister, sparking a litany of condemnations from Australia's staunchly pro-Israel Jewish community. In an open letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Jeremy Leibler, the president of the Zionist Federation of Australia, called the decision "a slap in the face to the Australian Jewish community, the Australian people," as well as to the survivors of the alleged abuse.
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| Republican senator: no rules, many options for Trump impeachment trial Posted: 29 Dec 2019 11:40 AM PST  Republican Senator John Kennedy, a frequent defender of President Donald Trump, said on Sunday there were no real rules for how the U.S. Senate should run its impeachment trial and that the chamber could choose to hear witnesses and evidence. "When it comes to impeachment, the rule is that there are virtually no substantive rules," Kennedy told CNN's "State of the Union." As a result, he said, there were plenty of steps the Senate could take, including forming a committee to hear evidence in the case. The Democratic-led House of Representatives impeached Republican Trump this month for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress charges stemming from his effort to get Ukraine to investigate political rival Joe Biden, a leading contender in the 2020 Democratic presidential race.
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| Homeowners in North Carolina called 911 to report an intruder. It turned out to be a rogue Roomba Posted: 30 Dec 2019 06:44 AM PST  A man and his wife in North Carolina called 911 after hearing noises coming from downstairs. It wasn't an intruder.
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| Chinese doctor who claimed first genetically edited baby is jailed for three years and handed heavy fine Posted: 30 Dec 2019 02:40 AM PST  A Chinese scientist who set off an ethical debate with claims that he had made the world's first genetically edited babies was sentenced Monday to three years in prison because of his research, state media said. He Jiankui, who was convicted of practicing medicine without a license, was also fined 3 million yuan ($430,000) by a court in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, China's official Xinhua News Agency said. Two other researchers involved in the project received lesser sentences and fines. Zhang Renli was sentenced to two years in prison and fined 1 million yuan. Qin Jinzhou received an 18-month sentence, but with a two-year reprieve, and a 500,000 yuan fine. Chinese scientist He Jiankui speaks at the Second International Summit on Human Genome Editing in Hong Kong on November 28, 2018. Credit: AFP He, the lead researcher, shocked the scientific world when he announced in November 2018 that he had altered the embryos of twin girls who had been born the same month. He described his work in exclusive interviews with The Associated Press. The announcement sparked a global debate over the ethics of gene editing. He said he had used a tool called CRISPR to try to disable a gene that allows the AIDS virus to enter a cell, in a bid to give the girls the ability to resist the infection. The identity of the girls has not been released, and it isn't clear if the experiment succeeded. The CRISPR tool has been tested elsewhere in adults to treat diseases, but many in the scientific community denounced He's work as medically unnecessary and unethical, because any genetic changes could be passed down to future generations. The U.S. forbids editing embryos except for lab research. Targeted genome editing | What does it all mean? He told the AP in 2018 that he felt a strong responsibility to make an example, and that society would decide whether to allow the practice to go forward. He disappeared from public view shortly after he announced his research at a conference in Hong Kong 13 months ago, apparently detained by authorities initially in an apartment in Shenzhen. The Xinhua report, citing the court's verdict, said the researchers were involved in the births of three gene-edited babies to two women, confirming reports of a third baby. The court said the three researchers had not obtained qualification as doctors to practice medicine, pursued fame and profits, deliberately violated Chinese regulations on scientific research and crossed an ethical line in both scientific research and medicine. It also said they had fabricated ethical review documents. He studied in the U.S. before setting up a lab at the Southern University of Science and Technology of China in Shenzhen, a city in Guangdong province that borders Hong Kong. The verdict accused him of colluding with Zhang and Qin, who worked at medical institutes in the same province.
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| Make No Mistake: China Would Destroy U.S. Cities In A Nuclear War Posted: 30 Dec 2019 07:00 AM PST  No one wins in a nuclear war.
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| A sports reporter who died in a Louisiana plane crash tried to contact her husband before the aircraft went down. He didn't see her text. Posted: 30 Dec 2019 10:06 AM PST  A sports journalist named Carley McCord was one of five people who died in a plane crash near Louisiana's Lafayette Regional Airport on Saturday.
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| U.S. airstrikes in Iraq and Syria hit sites linked to Iran Posted: 29 Dec 2019 09:02 PM PST  The United States carried out airstrikes in Iraq and Syria on Sunday, targeting weapons and munitions depots used by Kataib Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed militia.Over the last two months, there have been 11 rocket attacks against bases used by the U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State. U.S. officials said Sunday's airstrikes were in response to an attack that took place in Kirkuk, Iraq, on Friday, which left one U.S. contractor dead and four U.S. troops injured.Kataib Hezbollah is connected to Iran's paramilitary Quds Forces, U.S. officials told The Wall Street Journal, and the Pentagon said the airstrikes are meant to serve as a warning to stop attacking the coalition's bases. A Kataib Hezbollah official said 25 members of the militia were killed in the airstrikes.More stories from theweek.com Giants, Browns fire head coaches on otherwise quiet 'Black Monday' The White House always knew Trump's order to freeze Ukraine aid could blow up, New York Times details The best headlines of 2019
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| Jewish leaders urge action after another 'senseless' attack Posted: 30 Dec 2019 06:46 AM PST  When a suspect walked into the home of a rabbi celebrating Hanukkah and stabbed five celebrants it was the latest in a week of anti-Semitic attacks in the nation's most demographically diverse area — and an incident that reverberated across the country. "Again, here we are: mourning another act of senseless anti-Semitic violence committed against our community and praying for those who were the victims of this hate," Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement Sunday following the attack a day earlier in Monsey, New York.
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| Turkey arrests 94 Islamic State suspects ahead of New Year Posted: 30 Dec 2019 12:22 AM PST ![Turkey arrests 94 Islamic State suspects ahead of New Year]( "Turkey arrests 94 Islamic State suspects ahead of New Year") Turkish police detained 94 people suspected of ties to Islamic State in nationwide raids on Monday ahead of New Year celebrations, police and state media said, two months after the group's leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed. Counter-terror police carried out the operations in the central provinces of Ankara, Kayseri and Adana, and Batman in the southeast, state-owned Anadolu news agency reported. At 5 a.m. (0200 GMT) in Batman, some 400 police officers detained 22 people in simultaneous raids on various addresses, seizing weapons, ammunition and documents, Anadolu said.
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| No sign of "Christmas gift" from North Korea yet, but deadline looms Posted: 29 Dec 2019 08:34 PM PST  There's been speculation Kim Jong Un might test an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of delivering a nuclear warhead.
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| Iraq militia chief warns U.S. airstrikes could bring tough response Posted: 30 Dec 2019 08:42 AM PST  A top Iraqi militia leader warned of a strong response against U.S. forces in Iraq following airstrikes in Iraq and Syria overnight that hit several bases of his Iranian-backed group and killed at least 25 people.
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| The 25 Best Small Towns in America Posted: 30 Dec 2019 06:00 AM PST |
| The bushfires in Australia are so big they're generating their own weather — 'pyrocumulonimbus' thunderstorms that can start more fires Posted: 30 Dec 2019 05:47 AM PST  The "front" between the calm air outside the fire zone and the stormcloud is so sharp that it can generate lightning — and that can start new fires.
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| Ukraine, Rebels Complete Prisoner Swap Under Deal With Putin Posted: 29 Dec 2019 07:56 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Ukraine and two breakaway regions supported by the Kremlin exchanged prisoners on Sunday under an agreement reached with Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this month as the former allies seek an end to more than five years of war in the Donbas area.Ukraine received 76 captives from the Russian-backed rebels, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's office said Sunday when announcing the completion of the swap. Ukraine returned 127 captives to the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk republics, Ukrainian Hromadske TV reported, citing Serhiy Sivokho, adviser to the head of the National Security and Defense Council.Zelenskiy and Putin met with the leaders of France and Germany in the first week of December in an effort to resume the peace process, which has become a main point of division between Russia and the West. The U.S. and European Union accuse the Kremlin of stoking the conflict and responded with economic sanctions that are still in place.Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel "gave a positive assessment" of the swap, the Kremlin said Sunday after the leaders spoke by phone. Ukraine's Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko said on his Twitter feed that the "all for all" formula for exchanging verified prisoners will discussed as a priority at the next Normandy format meeting with Germany, France and Russia.The deadly conflict in Ukraine's east erupted soon after Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014. Fighting between Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed separatists has claimed more than 13,000 lives since it began, and negotiators have struggled to make a ceasefire stick along the 500-kilometer (310-mile) contact line.In September, Ukraine and Russia had exchanged 35 prisoners each The Ukrainians who were freed included a filmmaker and 24 sailors while the authorities in Kyiv handed over militants captured during the fighting in Donbas.(Updates with the number of prisoners in the 2nd paragraph, reaction from Putin, Merkel, Ukraine Foreign Minister in fourth.)To contact the reporter on this story: Volodymyr Verbyany in Kiev at vverbyany1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Torrey Clark at tclark8@bloomberg.net, Andrew ReiersonFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Police say a Florida Grubhub driver attacked 2 Burger King workers by swinging a 3-foot ashtray after being told his order wasn't ready Posted: 30 Dec 2019 07:25 AM PST  A Grubhub deliveryman was charged with assault, with police saying he attacked two employees at a Florida Burger King.
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| New York Jews scared, defiant as mayor decries anti-Semitism 'crisis' Posted: 30 Dec 2019 01:23 PM PST  At a Hasidic synagogue in Brooklyn, police, state troopers and civilian volunteers stand guard as Orthodox Jews mark the end of Hanukkah under heightened security following a spate of attacks. New York, home to the largest Jewish community outside of Israel, had long been a place where Jews felt safe.
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| Swiss Embassy worker detained in Sri Lanka gets bail Posted: 30 Dec 2019 02:04 AM PST  A Sri Lankan Court on Monday granted bail to a Swiss Embassy employee who was detained pending charges that she made statements to create disaffection toward the government and fabricated evidence. Before her arrest, the employee, a Sri Lankan national, had reportedly said she was abducted, held for hours, sexually assaulted and threatened by captors who demanded that she disclose embassy-related information. Sri Lankan authorities have said they investigated her complaint but found no evidence to file charges against anyone.
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| 'Impeachment is about Trump’s conduct, not mine': Biden expands on subpoena remarks Posted: 29 Dec 2019 02:11 PM PST  "The subpoenas should go to witnesses with testimony to offer to Trump's shaking down the Ukraine government," former Vice President Joe Biden said.
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| Ousted Renault-Nissan boss Ghosn leaves Japan for Lebanon Posted: 30 Dec 2019 01:20 PM PST  Carlos Ghosn, the ousted boss of the Renault-Nissan <7201.T> carmaking alliance who was awaiting trial in Japan on charges of financial misconduct, flew into Lebanon on Monday evening, several newspapers reported. France's Les Echos newspaper cited an unidentified source and a report in Lebanese newspaper L'Orient-Le Jour, but there was no immediate confirmation from official sources. The Wall Street Journal and New York Times said Ghosn had fled Japan.
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| Bank's Secret Campaign to Win Entry to U.S. for Shah of Iran Posted: 29 Dec 2019 08:29 AM PST  One late fall evening 40 years ago, a worn-out white Gulfstream II jet descended over Fort Lauderdale, Florida, carrying a regal but sickly passenger almost no one was expecting.Crowded aboard were a Republican political operative, a retinue of Iranian military officers, four smelly and hyperactive dogs and Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, the newly deposed shah of Iran.Yet as the jet touched down, the only one waiting to receive the deposed monarch was a senior executive of Chase Manhattan Bank, which had not only lobbied the White House to admit the former shah but had arranged visas for his entourage, searched out private schools and mansions for his family and helped arrange the Gulfstream to deliver him."The Eagle has landed," Joseph V. Reed Jr., chief of staff to the bank's chairman, David Rockefeller, declared in a celebratory meeting at the bank the next morning.Less than two weeks later, on Nov. 4, 1979, vowing revenge for the admission of the shah to the United States, revolutionary Iranian students seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and then held more than 50 Americans -- and Washington -- hostage for 444 days.The shah, Washington's closest ally in the Persian Gulf, had fled Tehran in January 1979 in the face of a burgeoning uprising against his 38 years of iron-fisted rule. Liberals, leftists and religious conservatives were rallying against him. Strikes and demonstrations had shut down Tehran, and his security forces were losing control.The shah sought refuge in America. But President Jimmy Carter, hoping to forge ties to the new government rising out of the chaos and concerned about the security of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, refused him entry for the first 10 months of his exile. Even then, the White House only begrudgingly let him in for medical treatment.Now, a newly disclosed secret history from the offices of Rockefeller shows in vivid detail how Chase Manhattan Bank and its well-connected chairman worked behind the scenes to persuade the Carter administration to admit the shah, one of the bank's most profitable clients.For Carter, for the U.S. and for the Middle East it was an incendiary decision.The ensuing hostage crisis enabled Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to consolidate his theocratic rule, started a four-decade conflict between Washington and Tehran that is still roiling the region and helped Ronald Reagan take the White House. To American policymakers, Iran became a parable about the political perils in the fall of a friendly strongman.Although Carter complained publicly at the time about the pressure campaign, the full, behind-the-scenes story -- laid out in the recently disclosed documents -- has never been told.Rockefeller's team called the campaign Project Eagle, after the code name used for the shah. Exploiting clubby networks of power stretching deep into the White House, Rockefeller mobilized a phalanx of elder statesmen.They included Henry A. Kissinger, a former secretary of state and chairman of a Chase advisory board; John J. McCloy, former commissioner of occupied Germany after World War II and an adviser to eight presidents as well as a future Chase chairman; a Chase executive and former CIA agent, Archibald B. Roosevelt Jr., whose cousin, CIA agent Kermit Roosevelt Jr., had orchestrated a 1953 coup to keep the shah in power; and Richard M. Helms, a former director of the CIA and former ambassador to Iran.Charles Francis, a veteran of corporate public affairs who worked for Chase at the time, brought the documents to the attention of The Times."Today's corporate campaigns are demolition derbies compared to this operation," he said. "It was smooth, smooth, smooth and almost entirely invisible."Records of Project Eagle were donated to Yale by Reed, the campaign's director. But he deemed the material so potentially embarrassing to his patron that Reed, who died in 2016, stipulated that the records remain sealed until Rockefeller's death. Rockefeller died in 2017 at the age of 101.Some of the information may embarrass others as well. Hawkish critics have often faulted Carter as worrying too much about human rights and thus failing to prop up the shah.But the papers reveal that the president's special envoy to Iran had actually urged the country's generals to use as much deadly force as needed to suppress the revolt, advising them about how to carry out a military takeover to keep the shah in power.A spokeswoman for Carter did not respond to requests for comment. A spokesman for Carter at the time of the crisis was not immediately available.After the hostages were taken, the Carter administration worked desperately to try to free the captives, and on April 24, 1980, authorized a rescue mission that collapsed in disaster: A helicopter crash in the desert killed eight service members, whose charred bodies were gleefully exhibited by Iranian officials.The hostage crisis doomed Carter's presidency. And the team around Rockefeller, a lifelong Republican with a dim view of Carter's dovish foreign policy, collaborated closely with the Reagan campaign in its efforts to preempt and discourage what it derisively labeled an "October surprise" -- a preelection release of the American hostages, the papers show.The Chase team helped the Reagan campaign gather and spread rumors about possible payoffs to win the release, a propaganda effort that Carter administration officials have said impeded talks to free the captives."I had given my all" to thwarting any effort by the Carter officials "to pull off the long-suspected 'October surprise,'" Reed wrote in a letter to his family after the election, apparently referring to the Chase effort to track and discourage a hostage release deal. He was later named Reagan's ambassador to Morocco.Rockefeller then personally lobbied the incoming administration to ensure that its Iran policies protected the bank's financial interests. The records indicate that Rockefeller hoped for the restoration of a version of the deposed government.At the start of the Iranian upheaval, the papers show, Kissinger advised Rockefeller that the probable conclusion would be "a sort of Bonapartist counterrevolution that rallies the pro-Western elements together with what was left of the army."Kissinger, in a recent email, acknowledged that the prediction "reflects my thinking at the time" but said "it was a judgment, not a policy proposal."But Rockefeller evidently continued to advocate for some form of restoration long after the shah fled Tehran.As late as December 1980, Rockefeller personally urged the incoming Reagan administration to encourage a counterrevolution by stopping "rug merchant type bargaining" for the hostages and instead taking military action to punish Iran if the hostages were not released. He suggested occupying three Iranian-controlled islands in the Persian Gulf."The most likely outcome of this situation is an eventual replacement of the present fanatic Shiite Muslim government, either by a military one or a combination of the military with the civilian democratic leaders," Rockefeller argued, according to his talking points for meetings with the Reagan transition team.An heir to his family's oil fortune, Rockefeller styled himself a corporate statesman and personally knew many White House officials, including Carter. He had known the shah since 1962, socializing with him in New York, Tehran and St. Moritz, Switzerland.As Tehran's coffers swelled with oil revenues in the 1970s, Chase formed a joint venture with an Iranian state bank and earned big fees advising the national oil company.By 1979, the bank had syndicated more than $1.7 billion in loans for Iranian public projects (the equivalent of about $5.8 billion today). The Chase balance sheet held more than $360 million in loans to Iran and more than $500 million in Iranian deposits.Rockefeller often insisted that his concern for the shah was purely about Washington's "prestige and credibility." It was about "the abandonment of a friend when he needed us most," he wrote in his memoirs.His only advocacy for the shah, Rockefeller wrote, had been in a brief aside to Carter during an unrelated White House meeting in April 1979."I did nothing more, publicly or privately, to influence the administration's thinking."Yet the Project Eagle papers show that Rockefeller received detailed updates on the risks to Chase's holdings, and that even his aside to Carter in April had been planned out the previous day with Reed, McCloy and Kissinger.Over lunch at the Knickerbocker Club in New York, Carter's special envoy to Tehran, Gen. Robert E. Huyser, told the Project Eagle team that he had urged Iran's top military leaders to kill as many demonstrators as necessary to keep the shah in power.If shooting over the heads of demonstrators failed to disperse them, "move to focusing on the chests," Huyser said he told the Iranian generals, according to minutes of the lunch. "I got stern and noisy with the military," he added, but in the end, the top general was "gutless."Rockefeller had his own special envoy to try to help the shah: Robert F. Armao, a Republican operative and public relations consultant who had worked for Rockefeller's brother Nelson, a former governor of New York and former vice president.Armao became one of the shah's closest advisers, and after Nelson Rockefeller died at the start of 1979, he reported to the Project Eagle team at Chase nearly every day for more than two years."Everybody had the hope that there would be a repeat of the 1953 events," Armao recalled recently, referring to the U.S.an-backed coup that restored the shah the first time he fled.When the shah's rule became untenable at the start of 1979, the State Department first turned to David Rockefeller for help relocating the Iranian monarch in the U.S."Not large enough for my very special client," Reed wrote to a Greenwich, Connecticut, broker who had offered two estates priced at around $2 million each -- about $7.4 million today.But while the shah tarried in Egypt and Morocco, an Iranian mob briefly seized the U.S. Embassy in February. Diplomats warned that admitting the shah risked another assault, and Carter changed his mind about offering haven.Rockefeller refused to deliver this bad news to the shah, afraid that it would hurt the bank by alienating a prized client."The risks were too high relating to the CMB position in Iran," he responded, referring to Chase Manhattan Bank, according to the records.Instead, Rockefeller scrambled to find accommodations elsewhere -- first in the Bahamas, and then in Mexico -- while strategizing with Kissinger, McCloy and others about how to persuade the White House to let in the shah.During a three-day push in April, Kissinger made a personal appeal to the national security adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinski, and a follow-up phone call to Carter. Rockefeller buttonholed the president at the White House.And in a speech, Kissinger publicly accused the Carter administration of forcing a loyal ally to sail the world in search of refuge, "like a flying Dutchman looking for a port of call" -- the seed of what became a "who lost Iran" campaign theme for the Republicans.McCloy flooded the White House with lengthy letters to senior officials, often arguing about the danger of demoralizing other "friendly sovereigns." "Dear Zbig," he addressed his old friend Brzezinski.Finally, in October, Reed sent his personal doctor to Cuernavaca, Mexico, "to take a 'look-see'" at the shah.He had been hiding a cancer diagnosis. The doctor, Benjamin H. Kean, determined that the shah needed sophisticated treatment within a few weeks -- in Mexico, if necessary, Kean later said he had concluded.But when Reed put the doctor in touch with State Department officials, they came away with a different prognosis: that the shah was "at the point of death" and that only a New York hospital "was capable of possibly saving his life," as Carter described it at the time to The Times.With that opening, the Chase team began preparing the flight to Fort Lauderdale."When I told the customs man who the principal was, he almost fainted," the waiting executive, Eugene Swanzey, reported the next morning.The plane's bathroom was malfunctioning. The shah and his wife hunted in vain for a missing videocassette to finish a movie. And their four dogs -- a poodle, a collie, a cocker spaniel and a Great Dane -- jumped on everyone. The Great Dane "hadn't been washed in weeks," Swanzey said. "The aroma was just terrible."When Reed met the plane on its final arrival in New York, he recalled the next day, the shah seemed to be thinking, "'At last I am getting into competent hands.'"But as he checked the shah into New York Hospital, Reed was circumspect."I am the unidentified American," he told the inquisitive staff.Reed, Rockefeller and Kissinger met again three days after the hostages were taken."Noted was the feeling of indignation as being high and nothing useful to say," read the minutes.The White House said the shah had to depart as soon as possible, but Project Eagle continued."The ideal place for the Eagle to land," Reed wrote to Armao on Nov. 9, forwarding a brochure for a 350-acre Hudson Valley estate.A week later, Rockefeller personally urged Carter in a phone call to direct the secretary of state to meet with the shah about "the current situation." Carter did not and the shah soon departed, for Panama, then Egypt.Only after the death of the shah, on July 27, 1980, nine months after his landing in Fort Lauderdale, did the Project Eagle team shift to new objectives. One was protecting Rockefeller from blame for the crisis.Over roast loin of veal and vintage wine at the exclusive River Club in New York, Rockefeller and nine others on the team gathered on Aug. 19. Amid discussion of a laudatory biography of the shah by a Berkeley professor that the team had commissioned, some warned that a Rockefeller link to the embassy seizure would be hard to escape.Why was the shah admitted? "Medical treatment/DR recommended," one said, using Rockefeller's initials, according to minutes of the dinner. "This association cannot be ignored."But Kissinger was reassuring. Congress would never hold an investigation during an election campaign."I don't think we are in trouble any more, David," Kissinger told him.The hostages were released on Inauguration Day, Jan. 20, 1981, and a few days later Carter's departing White House counsel called Rockefeller to inquire about how the release deal affected Chase bank."Worked out very well," Rockefeller told him, according to his records. "Far better than we had feared."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
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| A survivor of the Kazakhstan plane crash that killed at least 12 said the aircraft was crushed 'like a tin can' Posted: 29 Dec 2019 10:39 AM PST  Aslan Nazaraliyev told Sky News that the Bek Air plane started "swaying" and "vibrating" seconds after taking off from Almaty.
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| Duterte Renews Attacks on TV Network, Urges Owners to Sell Posted: 30 Dec 2019 12:26 AM PST ![Duterte Renews Attacks on TV Network, Urges Owners to Sell]( "Duterte Renews Attacks on TV Network, Urges Owners to Sell") (Bloomberg) -- Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte continued his attacks on a local television network he's accused in the past of bias, and urged owners of ABS-CBN Corp. to sell before its franchise expires in March.In a televised speech delivered in the local language at Davao City on Monday, Duterte suggested the media firm's franchise renewal is uncertain. He had earlier threatened to block the network's bid to extend the franchise for 25 years."Your contract is expiring. I'm not sure what will happen if you renew," he said. "If I were you, I would just sell."Duterte has accused ABS-CBN as well as privately-owned Philippine Daily Inquirer of unfair reporting, allegations that the media companies have denied. The president's criticisms of ABS-CBN pushed its share price to a decade low earlier this month. The stock ended 2019 with a 21% loss compared with the local benchmark index's 4.7% gain for the year.Duterte also resumed his criticism of water utilities for alleged corruption, threatening to arrest and jail the owners of Manila Water Co. and Maynilad Water Services Inc. He reiterated a plan for a military takeover of the operations.Manila Water of Ayala Corp. and Maynilad owners Metro Pacific Investments Corp. and DMCI Holdings Inc. are among the worst-performing Philippine stocks this year, plunging since early December when Duterte started his censure."For those of you asking where are the big fish in my fight against corruption, I'll deliver them: Ayala and Pangilinan," he said. "If they do something wrong, I'll really jail them," Duterte said, referring to the family of Jaime Augusto Zobel, which owns Manila Water and Manuel Pangilinan, who chairs Metro Pacific.The two tycoons didn't immediately respond to requests for comments.Manila Water plunged 63% this year despite a rebound in the final week of trading ending Dec. 27. Metro Pacific was down 25%, while DMCI tumbled 48%.To contact the reporters on this story: Andreo Calonzo in Manila at acalonzo1@bloomberg.net;Clarissa Batino in Manila at cbatino@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Sam Nagarajan at samnagarajan@bloomberg.net, ;Cecilia Yap at cyap19@bloomberg.net, Clarissa BatinoFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| I went to Ireland's bizarre Barack Obama-themed service station, complete with a museum and statues that make it as otherworldly as it sounds Posted: 30 Dec 2019 02:43 AM PST  Barack Obama Plaza is a service station branded after the former the US president after he visited the local town of Moneygall, home of his ancestor.
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| Giuliani reportedly defied White House policy to oust Maduro from office Posted: 30 Dec 2019 08:25 AM PST  Rudy Giuliani, a personal lawyer of President Trump, defied White House foreign policy to ease Venezuela's socialist President Nicolás Maduro out of office last year, the Washington Post reported.
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| Trump says he has been denied due process. But the Constitution does not afford him that. Posted: 30 Dec 2019 01:04 AM PST  Like Bill Clinton and Andrew Johnson before him, President Trump does not have the same constitutional protection afforded to criminal defendants.
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| PSA: REI is Having an Epic End-of-the-Year Sale Right Now Posted: 30 Dec 2019 01:27 PM PST |
| Legal marijuana sales may spark Midwest interstate tension Posted: 29 Dec 2019 09:43 AM PST  Retailers legally selling marijuana for the past month in Michigan say they have drawn customers from surrounding Midwestern states where the drug remains illegal and, as Illinois prepares to joins the recreational market on Wednesday, officials are renewing warnings to consumers against carrying such products over state lines. The dynamic is familiar for states on the West and East coasts where the sale and use of marijuana has been broadly allowed since Colorado's market opened in 2014, despite a federal ban that created a patchwork of legal and cultural snares. Nebraska and Oklahoma went so far as to file an unsuccessful lawsuit against Colorado, arguing that its marijuana law would have ill effects for surrounding states.
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| Ukraine holds big prisoner swap with pro-Russian separatists Posted: 29 Dec 2019 01:00 AM PST  KIEV/MOSCOW (Reuters) - Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian separatists in the east completed a large-scale prisoner swap on Sunday after bussing scores of detainees in the five-year conflict to an exchange point in the breakaway Donbass region. The swap should help build confidence between the two sides, who are wrangling over how to implement a peace deal after the loss of more than 13,000 lives, but major disagreements remain and full normalization is far off. Ukraine said 76 pro-government detainees were handed over, while separatists said they took 120 of their prisoners during the swap at a checkpoint near the industrial town of Horlivka.
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| US carries out first strikes in a decade against Iran-backed Kataib Hizbollah in Iraq and Syria Posted: 29 Dec 2019 05:04 PM PST  The United States has launched its first airstrikes in nearly a decade against the Iran-backed militia forces in Iraq and Syria. The Pentagon said it hit five bases used by the Iraqi Hizbollah militant group following a rocket attack in Iraq that killed a US civilian contractor. Three of the bases were in Iraq, and two in Syria, where the militia has been trying to bolster the regime of President Assad. "US forces have conducted precision defensive strikes against five KH facilities in Iraq and Syria that will degrade KH's ability to conduct future attacks against OIR coalition forces," the Pentagon said. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the strikes send the message that the US will not tolerate actions by Iran that jeopardise American lives. The strike is the first direct confrontation between US and Iranian-backed forces in Iraq since 2011, when President Obama withdrew some of his forces. "I would note also that we will take additional actions as necessary to ensure that we act in our own self-defence and we deter further bad behavior from militia groups or from Iran," said Defence Secretary Mark Esper, who was accompanied by Mr Pompeo and Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. A combination of images depicts what the U.S. military says are bases of the Kataib Hezbollah militia group that were struck by U.S. forces, in the city of Al-Qa'im Credit: Reuters The delivered the brief statement to reporters in a ballroom at Trump's Mar-a-Lago club, where the president is on a more than two-week winter break. According to the Al Arabiya news network, the US evacuated dozens of staff from its embassy in Baghdad on Sunday night amid concerns of retaliation. The targets of the US bombs included weapons storage facilities and command locations used to plan and execute attacks, the statement added. On Friday, terrorists fired a barrage of 30 rockets at an Iraqi military base in Kirkuk, an oil-rich region north of Baghdad. A US civilian contractor died in the strike. Iraq's Joint Operations Command said in a statement that three U.S. airstrikes on Sunday evening Iraq time hit the headquarters of the Hezbollah Brigades at the Iraq-Syria border, killing four fighters. Iraq's Hezbollah Brigades, a separate force from the Lebanese group Hezbollah, operate under the umbrella of the state-sanctioned militias known collectively as the Popular Mobilization Forces. Many of them are supported by Iran. The Popular Mobilization Forces said Sunday that the U.S. strikes killed at least 19 of Kataeb Hezbollah's members. Kataeb Hezbollah is led by Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, one of Iraq's most powerful men. He once battled US troops and is now the deputy head of the Popular Mobilization Forces. Washington had recently promised "a decisive US response" to a growing number of unclaimed attacks on its interests in Iraq, which it blames on pro-Iran factions. US-Iran tension levels have soared since Washington pulled out of a landmark nuclear agreement with Tehran last year and imposed crippling sanctions.
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| Churchgoers kill gunman who shot two during Texas service Posted: 29 Dec 2019 10:58 PM PST  Worshippers in the US state of Texas shot dead a gunman who opened fire during a livestreamed Sunday service, ending an attack that killed two parishioners, authorities said. The latest US shooting at a house of worship took place in the suburban Fort Worth community of White Settlement on Sunday morning when the gunman entered West Freeway Church of Christ, officials said. "A couple of members of the church returned fire, striking the suspect who died at the scene," White Settlement Police Chief J.P. Bevering told reporters.
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| Rare Chinese Bureaucratic Shakeup Reveals Future Leaders Posted: 30 Dec 2019 04:40 PM PST  (Bloomberg) -- China's sprawling bureaucracy is undergoing a regional reshuffle of a rare scale, with new appointments and job swaps offering hints of potential future leaders being groomed by Beijing.At least 32 new mayoral-level officials have been appointed since Dec. 21, with 29 of them being relocated to a new province for the first time, according to data compiled by Bloomberg News. The other three are being moved for just the second time. While the Communist Party has routinely relocated minister-level officials from one province to another, that's less common among lower-level officials."We have almost never seen the transfer of mid-level officials between provinces at a scale this massive," said Suisheng Zhao, executive director of the Center for China-U.S. Cooperation at the University of Denver's Graduate School of International Studies. "Grooming the party's talent pipeline is the most important aspect of Xi Jinping's reform of governance modernization."Xi has repeatedly called for training more capable cadres and the Communist Party's Central Committee vowed in March to accelerate that by promoting the exchange of officials across local areas, departments and state-owned enterprises. The equivalent of the party's human resources department is overseeing the current spate of new appointments, underscoring their importance.The personnel moves come has Xi seeks to control a nationwide economic slowdown amid high pork prices and a trade war with the U.S. The Chinese president might touch on the challenges facing the nation Tuesday evening, when he's expected to deliver an annual New Year's Eve address.Future LeadersSince Dec. 21, when two officials from Zhejiang and Shandong in the east were sent to the predominately-Muslim western region of Xinjiang, new positions have been announced every day.On Monday, Huaian -- a city of about 5 million in Jiangsu -- welcomed its new mayor, Chen Zhichang, the former head of Beijing's Shijingshan district. Born in 1974, Chen spent his whole career in Beijing aside from a short stint in Tibet. His profile is similar to most of the cadres who were moved around this month, who spent most of their working lives in one place.Of the 32 officials who got new jobs, 21 were born after 1970, signaling the emergence of a new generation of leaders.Wang Liqi, born in 1977, was appointed China's youngest mayor. He was nominated to manage Jiuquan City in Gansu, pending rubber-stamp approval by the local legislature. Since graduating from Tsinghua University with a master's degree in engineering in 2003, Wang spent his entire political career in Heilongjiang, a northeastern province bordering Russia.Top-down CampaignA local bureaucrat from Inner Mongolia's Organization Department shed light on the changes when welcoming an official from Chongqing as the new mayor of its Wuhai city.The change in leadership was part of the Central Organization Department's decision "to select and send outstanding cadres on cross-provincial and regional exchanges," local media cited Sun Fulong, the director of Inner Mongolia's Civil Service Bureau as saying on Dec. 24.Sun said the swapping of officials across regions was done to implement Xi's instructions on bureaucratic organization and of "extreme significance to the modernization of national governance."Xi has repeatedly complained about a lack of drive among some local officials, and urged cadres to be more daring and take on more challenges. He warned in January that "the party is facing sharp and serious dangers of a slackness in spirit, lack of ability, distance from the people, and being passive and corrupt."As these reshuffles become more institutionalized, they will help "break the curse of the central government's orders not being able to travel beyond the top leadership's compound of Zhongnanhai," said Zhao. "Party central wants to select people who are not only politically reliable but also have an outstanding performance record, and send them to other provinces to effectively disrupt the intertwined local interest groups."(Updates with Xi's speech in fifth paragraph.)To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Dandan Li in Beijing at dli395@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Scott at bscott66@bloomberg.net, Sharon Chen, John LiuFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Human remains — including 2 decapitated heads — were found on a North Korean 'ghost ship' that washed ashore in Japan Posted: 30 Dec 2019 07:57 AM PST  The vessel washed ashore on the Japanese island of Sado on Friday. Officials said they found seven human remains onboard.
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| DNC rejects Andrew Yang's request to commission polls to increase diversity at January debate Posted: 30 Dec 2019 12:40 PM PST  The DNC said that commissioning primary polls would break with its tradition of independent polling.
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| Mexican Police Chief Arrested in Mormon Massacre Case Posted: 30 Dec 2019 01:47 AM PST  CALI, Colombia—A municipal police chief in northern Mexico has been arrested for an alleged role in the deaths of three women and six children—all dual U.S.-Mexican citizens—on November 4.Fidel Alejandro Villegas, aka El Chiquilín (The Kid), is the police chief of Janos, Chihuahua. The municipality borders the U.S. and sits about 105 miles across the state line from the site of the massacre in neighboring Sonora. It's also on the same route the families had planned to travel on the day they were ambushed.Why the Drug War Can't Be Won—Cartel Corruption Goes All the Way to the TopThe victims were members of the LeBaron and Langford clans, which are part of a breakaway sect of Mormons long established in both Chihuahua and Sonora. Villegas, who was detained on Thursday, is now awaiting trial in Mexico City. He is the fifth person to be arrested as part of an investigation that has at times seemed scattershot, since the other suspects have all been picked up under questionable circumstances. Mexican federal officials claim the mothers and children were accidental victims in a turf war between rival crime groups. And prosecutors allege Villegas is tied to one of those groups, called La Línea, which is the armed enforcement wing of the Juárez Cartel and has a strong presence in Janos. Surviving members of the Mormon families reject the official "accident hypothesis" and claim they were targeted deliberately on a remote stretch of highway last month, and family spokesperson Julián LeBaron says he was less than surprised by the alleged involvement of a high-level police officer in the region."The entire northwest [of Mexico] has a reputation that all police officers work for organized crime," he said in an interview with Aristegui News, shortly after Villegas' arrest. "And that's what high school kids tell you. It's not a mystery."* * *'ENDEMIC' CORRUPTION* * *Villegas' detention raises as many questions as it answers. How was a police chief from a jurisdiction more than a hundred miles away from the crime scene, and in another state, actually involved? So far authorities have released scant details.Robert Bunker, an expert on international security at the University of Southern California, told The Daily Beast that corruption among security forces in Mexico has "metastasized over decades" to the point where it is "endemic." The most infamous case of cops working with organized crime was the disappearance of 43 students in Guerrero state in September 2014, when police and soldiers allegedly teamed up with cartel sicarios to do away with the victims.Bunker noted that a law officer like Chief Chiquilín Villegas could have provided "departmental resources—vehicles, uniforms, intelligence, weapons or even personnel—to help facilitate the ambushes." Another possibility, as Bunker noted, is that the investigation of Police Chief Villegas will be used to expose people who have "more intimate knowledge of the cartel and its operations."Emmanuel Gallardo, an independent Mexican journalist who specializes in organized crime, agrees. "They're going to investigate his bank accounts and his financial history for evidence of bribes and paybacks and where they might have come from."A similar background investigation led to another high-profile arrest earlier this month, when Genaro García Luna, the central government's former National Security Minister and mastermind of the country's ongoing Drug War, was arrested by U.S. authorities on charges of conspiring with the Sinaloa Cartel."First Luna and now Chiquilín," Gallardo said. "This shows again the relationship the cartels have with the state. We cannot think of Mexican authorities and organized crime as separate entities. They are part of the same problem, part of the same world." "This is why Mexicans are frustrated. Why they are afraid," Gallardo said. "When a violent crime happens you can't go to the police because there is a high probability the same cops who are listening to your complaint are working with drug traffickers and assassins. This is the reason that 98 percent of homicides go unsolved in Mexico."* * *TORTURE, DEATH THREATS, STARVATION* * *Added to the persistent failure to nail the killers is the equally persistent inclination of authorities to round up "the usual suspects," then let them go. The first man arrested in the LeBaron case, just two days after the shooting, already has been released. Three other men were rolled up in Janos the first week of December, amid government claims that they were high-ranking members of La Línea. But protests erupted after friends and family members claimed the men had been framed. Janos Mayor Sebastián Efraín Pineda also backed the families, telling news outlets he knew the arrestees personally and that "they're not criminal leaders." In that incident, authorities stand accused by the families of planting evidence and of trying to force confessions from the detained suspects."Scapegoating to create guilty parties" remains a frequent problem in Mexico, journalist Gallardo said, citing the case of French national Florence Cassez, who was imprisoned for seven years in Mexico on trumped up kidnapping charges before judges overturned her sentence."They can make you confess with several techniques," said Gallardo. These including physical torture, death threats to loved ones, even starvation. "This is not like the States, where you can complain of human rights abuses. Here they can torture with impunity. They know how to push prisoners to say anything they want them to say," Gallardo said. After the LeBaron killings, which made headlines around the world, the administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is "throwing suspects at the problem as it engages in damage control," said USC's Bunker. "At this level of Mexican politics it is not about getting the perpetrators or championing the rule of law—it is about making the problem go away as quickly as possible." * * *AN ALL-OUT CARTEL WAR* * *Whatever comes of Chiquilín's involvement—or the lack thereof—the killing of those nine women and children continues to cause ripples throughout the Mexican underworld.The area of eastern Sonora where the attack took place is said to be controlled by a faction of the Sinaloa Cartel under the rule of Iván Guzmán, 36, and Alfredo Guzmán, 30. These two sons of jailed kingpin Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán are known collectively as Los Chapitos. The other principal bloc of the Sinaloa Cartel is dominated by Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, a shadowy figure often referred to as "El Capo de Capos," the Boss of Bosses, due to his power and longevity.As The Daily Beast reported shortly after the massacre, Zambada was none too happy about the bad publicity and the major heat brought down on the supposedly sovereign territory of the Sinaloa Cartel. The tension between El Mayo and Los Chapitos has continued to worsen, and could result in Mayo taking over the whole outfit from the Guzmán family.A source within one of the cartels that operate in the area, who agreed to speak only under condition of anonymity, described El Mayo as "an old-school man with Old Testament laws," who has little time for the "Narco Juniors'" seeming frivolity. "A couple of weeks ago the little Chapo boys were supposed to attend a meeting [with Mayo] on the mountain. They were 'too busy to go.'"Yet they have "plenty of time to post on Facebook about cars and pictures of money," the source said, and added the Chapitos were "too impressed" with their position to be good bosses due to their "immaturity.""They are getting weaker every day," he said.Reporter Gallardo agreed with that assessment, saying: "El Mayo is respected. The Chapitos are young and spoiled." Gallardo added that their growing vulnerability could have far-reaching consequences, in part due to a botched and bloody attempt to arrest two other, younger Guzmán brothers this fall. "The eyes of the federal government and of Washington are on them all now," he said. "They can handle local authorities, but not the White House [or] joint operations with the DEA."If Mayo, sensing weakness and ineptitude, moved against the younger faction, Gallardo said, the Chapitos "would just be killed. El Mayo has more resources and experience." However, conflict like that could bleed both sides, and "open the door for other groups to move in and start taking over their territory," including arch rivals like the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and La Línea's parent group, the Juárez Cartel. Smelling blood, such enemies "would move in like hyenas," touching off a kill-or-be-killed conflict between high-powered, paramilitary gangs, resulting in even higher levels of civilian deaths and collateral damage."The last thing the Mexican government wants," Gallardo said, "is an all-out cartel war." But the savage murder of those women and children on a lonely road in northern Mexico could lead to exactly that.Trump Labeling Mexico's Cartels 'Terrorists' Makes Things WorseRead 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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| Alligators, pricey bananas and naked people: 2019 in Florida Posted: 29 Dec 2019 08:48 AM PST  In 2019, Florida Banana managed to eclipse Florida Man. From alligator antics to naked people doing wacky things, Florida did not disappoint in the weird news department this year. In December, a Miami couple spent more than $100,000 on the "unicorn of the art world" — a banana duct-taped to a wall — during Art Basel. Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan sold three editions of "Comedian," each in the $120,000 to $150,000 range.
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| Greece proposes World Court if maritime dialogue with Turkey fails Posted: 29 Dec 2019 03:12 AM PST ![Greece proposes World Court if maritime dialogue with Turkey fails]( "Greece proposes World Court if maritime dialogue with Turkey fails") Greece's Prime Minister said in remarks published on Sunday that if Athens and Ankara cannot solve their dispute about maritime zones in the Mediterranean they should turn to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague to settle the disagreement. Turkey signed an accord with Libya's internationally recognized government last month that seeks to create an exclusive economic zone from Turkey's southern Mediterranean shore to Libya's northeast coast. Greece and Cyprus, which have long had maritime and territorial disputes with Turkey, say the accord is void and violates the international law of the sea.
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| ‘He’ll claim it was a witch hunt’: Democrats fear Trump will be ‘emboldened’ if he survives impeachment trial Posted: 30 Dec 2019 04:46 AM PST  Democratic senators are worried Donald Trump will be emboldened if he survives the upcoming impeachment trial and will use an acquittal as momentum for his 2020 re-election campaign.Sixty-seven votes are needed to convict and remove the president from office but that result seems unlikely in the Republican-controlled Senate, where Mr Trump's party holds a 53-47 majority.
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| Earthquake Bombs: How Britain Killed Hitler's Most Powerful Battleship Posted: 29 Dec 2019 05:00 AM PST  They may have led to this super bomb.
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| Hanukkah candles burn in Iraqi Kurdistan Posted: 30 Dec 2019 10:40 AM PST  Al-Qosh (Irak) (AFP) - In the glow of the nine-candled menorah, with kippa skullcaps on their heads and tallit prayer shawls around their shoulders, a small association is working to revive Hanukkah in Iraq. The country has been nearly emptied of its Jewish community amid regional conflict and violence within its borders, but this year, the town of Al-Qosh hosted its first Hanukkah celebrations. Al-Qosh is a majority Christian town around 50 kilometres (30 miles) north of Mosul, the former self-proclaimed "capital" of the Islamic State group (IS) in Iraq.
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| As Betelgeuse Dims, Scientists Wonder If We're Watching a Star Die Posted: 30 Dec 2019 10:46 AM PST  The star is fading, and scientists are trying to figure out what that means.
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| Johnson Won’t ‘Die in a Ditch’ Over Brexit Timeline, Hogan Says Posted: 30 Dec 2019 01:05 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- The U.K. is likely to drop its opposition to extending the Brexit transition period beyond 2020, European Union Trade Commissioner Phil Hogan said.In an interview with the Irish Times, Hogan said that Prime Minister Boris Johnson had previously said he'd rather "die in a ditch" than extend an earlier deadline of Oct. 31 to exit the bloc -- before doing just that."I don't believe Prime Minister Johnson will die in the ditch over the timeline for the future relationship either," Hogan said.Johnson's Conservatives swept to victory in this month's general election, campaigning on a promise to "get Brexit done." Legislation to deliver Britain's EU departure on Jan. 31 has already passed its first parliamentary hurdle and will be debated again in the new year.The bill includes a provision that outlaws extending a planned transition period beyond the end of 2020, with Johnson saying he'll be able to negotiate a post-Brexit trade deal with the bloc before then.The Irish commissioner, who will play a pivotal role in talks on the future relationship between the EU and U.K., said the ban on any extension was "very odd," suggesting it may have been a political stunt. He said the U.K. has yet to fully grasp the implications of exiting the bloc, and he remained baffled by the decision."Why trade a Rolls Royce for a second-hand saloon?" he told the newspaper.To contact the reporter on this story: Dara Doyle in Dublin at ddoyle1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Chad Thomas at cthomas16@bloomberg.net, Alex Morales, Stuart BiggsFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Juul employees vape at desks despite company threat to dock bonuses for e-cigarette use, report says Posted: 30 Dec 2019 10:02 AM PST  Juul banned vaping at its offices last year, but some employees continue to use e-cigarettes at their desks, in hallways and in meetings, according to the Wall Street Journal.
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| 37 Great Gifts for DIYers Posted: 30 Dec 2019 12:58 PM PST |
| Russia warns Iran nuclear deal in danger of 'falling apart' Posted: 30 Dec 2019 04:29 AM PST  Iran's nuclear deal with world powers is in danger of "falling apart" without the compliance of the United States and the European Union, Russia's foreign minister warned Monday after meeting with his Iranian counterpart in Moscow. The 2015 deal between Iran and Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States lifted sanctions on Iran in exchange for limits on its nuclear program. The U.S. withdrew from the accord last year and imposed crippling economic sanctions that block Iran from selling crude oil abroad.
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