| Fox’s Stuart Varney: Why Would You Impeach a President Who Just Killed a Terrorist? Posted: 03 Jan 2020 07:46 AM PST  The morning after President Donald Trump ordered an American airstrike that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, Fox Business Network host Stuart Varney had one question on his mind: "Where does this leave impeachment?"With the markets roiling over the specter of war with Iran, Varney wondered aloud on Friday morning whether the assassination of one of Iran's top leaders would provide a "temporary interruption" to the bull market or if this is "something that will go on for some time to come.""What happens to the price of gasoline in America, as the price of oil goes up?" Varney added. "On the world market? Will we now halt the decline in gas prices and start to see them rise?"The conservative Fox Business anchor then shifted to the political ramifications of the president's actions, asking how Democrats will react to this over the coming weeks and months.After saying Democrats had a "difficult political row to hoe" by urging caution and warning that killing Soleimani could be reckless, Varney suggested that the impeachment of Trump may need to be scrapped due to impending war."And where does it leave impeachment?" Varney asked. "Are we now going to try to impeach and remove from office the commander-in-chief who's just taken out one of the world's leading terrorists? That's quite a question, I suggest."The pro-Trump host wasn't the only Fox personality to express this view on Friday morning. During an appearance on Fox News' America's Newsroom, Fox News contributor and Trump super PAC chairman Ed Rollins said Democrats are "foolish if they are going to continue on this impeachment process.""This is an unsafe world and this shows great strength," Rollins concluded.During the broadcast of his three-hour morning program Varney and Co., Varney continued to obsess over the issue, asking multiple guests whether impeachment should be shelved. "Are we really going to put the president of the United States on trial and risk the commander in chief being removed from office?" Varney asked Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) at one point. "Where does all this leave impeachment?"Kennedy, meanwhile, said that impeachment had "moved from folly to farce" under House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Senate "should ignore her and go back to work and deal with the crisis in Iran and other more pressing domestic issues."Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Police: Psychic said girl was possessed, scammed mom of $70K Posted: 03 Jan 2020 06:39 AM PST  Tracy Milanovich, 37, of Somerset, is charged with obtaining property by trick, along with larceny and witness intimidation, Somerset police said in a statement Thursday. Police started investigating Dec. 17 when the alleged victim reported that she was tricked by Milanovich into handing over large sums of cash along with household items, including towels and bedding, to battle the demon. The allegations date to Nov. 15, when the woman first went to Milanovich's business, Tracy's Psychic Palm Reader, for a tarot card reading, police said in their report.
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| More Than Mines: Iran Is Ready To Harass And Destroy The U.S. Navy Posted: 03 Jan 2020 03:25 AM PST  Iran has been preparing for this.
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| Cruise ship tour: New Carnival Panorama cruises to Mexico with water park, top-notch dining, more Posted: 03 Jan 2020 06:17 AM PST  The first brand-new Carnival cruise ship to debut on the West Coast in 20 years, the Carnival Panorama was christened in Long Beach in December.
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| China seeks to identify cause of mystery pneumonia infecting 44 Posted: 03 Jan 2020 03:04 AM PST ![China seeks to identify cause of mystery pneumonia infecting 44]( "China seeks to identify cause of mystery pneumonia infecting 44") Chinese health authorities are trying to identify what is causing an outbreak of pneumonia in the central city of Wuhan, officials said on Friday, as the tally of cases rose to 44 and Singapore said it would screen arrivals on flights from there. The World Health Organization said it was aware of the reports, is monitoring the situation and is in contact with the Chinese government about it. Chinese municipal health officials in Wuhan said in a statement on their website on Friday that they had ruled out common respiratory diseases, such as influenza, bird flu and adenovirus infection, as the cause.
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| Carlos Ghosn fled Japan using a 2nd French passport that the courts let him keep, reports say Posted: 02 Jan 2020 02:39 AM PST  The former Nissan CEO abruptly appeared in Lebanon, from which he cannot be extradited, after giving authorities in Japan the slip.
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| 'People Do Not Like the Unknown.' Here's What To Know About The Mystery Drones Hovering Over Rural Colorado and Nebraska Posted: 02 Jan 2020 10:50 AM PST  Sightings of mysterious drones have been reported over night skies in rural Colorado and Nebraska. Officials are searching for answers.
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| How Bernie Sanders' response to the Soleimani strike stands out Posted: 03 Jan 2020 09:43 AM PST  Will today be remembered as the day that Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) "locked up" the 2020 Democratic nomination?Ben Smith, editor-in-chief of BuzzFeed News, suggested Friday there's a "decent chance" of that, noting how Sanders' response to President Trump's ordering of a drone strike that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani stands out among the top candidates in the Democratic field.Democratic presidential candidates have been weighing in on Trump's decision, with Sanders describing the strike as an "assassination" and a "dangerous escalation" that "brings us closer to another disastrous war in the Middle East that could cost countless lives and trillions more dollars."Though all of the 2020 Democrats were critical of Trump's decision, BuzzFeed notes that "Sanders took a different tone, one drawn from a wing of the party that has opposed American wars since Vietnam," while most other leading contenders "took more cautious" stands, being sure to begin their statements by condemning Soleimani.Politico's Holly Otterbein made a similar observation, noting that while former Vice President Joe Biden noted that "no American will mourn Qassem Soleimani's passing" and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) called Soleimani a "murderer, responsible for the deaths of thousands," Sanders' statement "does not have such a beginning."> A distinction from Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren's statements: They both start, respectively, by saying, "No American will mourn Qassim Suleimani's passing," and "Soleimani was a murderer, responsible for the deaths of thousands." Bernie Sanders' does not have such a beginning. https://t.co/2HU0i2jT7I> > — Holly Otterbein (@hollyotterbein) January 3, 2020Sanders was initially the only one of the Democratic candidates to describe the killing as an assassination, though Warren later on Friday did so as well.Former South Bend, Indiana, mayor Pete Buttigieg also weighed in on Friday, releasing a statement that Smith described as "more Biden than Sanders," adding, "I'm just not sure which Democratic primary voters want this."More stories from theweek.com Mike Pence crams 3 inaccuracies about 9/11 into 1 tweet while trying to justify Soleimani strike America is guilty of everything we accuse Iran of doing 4 reasons to beware Trump's decision to kill Soleimani
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| Hong Kong legal groups condemn protester insults to judge Posted: 02 Jan 2020 03:07 AM PST  Hong Kong's Law Society and Bar Association on Thursday condemned abusive graffiti sprayed by protesters on a court building that insulted a judge by name. The groups called that "an affront to the rule of law and judicial integrity" in the former British colony, which has retained its unique judicial system free from the corruption and political interference so common on mainland China. "The graffiti are outrageous and firmly condemned,"the joint letter stated.
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| Kentucky attorney general asks FBI to investigate ex-Gov. Matt Bevin's pardons Posted: 02 Jan 2020 03:04 PM PST  Former Gov. Matt Bevin has received criticism for pardoning or commuting the sentences of more than 650 people following his failed re-election bid.
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| Search for driver after video emerges of car speeding off California cliff Posted: 02 Jan 2020 10:11 AM PST  Dramatic video captured by a motorist appears to show a vehicle plunging off of a cliff in California this week — but authorities have yet to find the SUV or the driver.In the video, a dark SUV can be seen speeding off of the road at a curve.
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| A F-22 Raptor Snuck Right Underneath an Iranian Fighter Jet Posted: 03 Jan 2020 10:00 AM PST  In a war, Iran won't know what hit them.
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| Emergency Declared as Australia Wildfire Death Toll Rises to 20 Posted: 02 Jan 2020 10:02 PM PST  (Bloomberg) -- The death toll from wildfires sweeping Australia climbed to 20 on Friday as authorities declared a state of emergency and ordered thousands of tourists to evacuate before extreme conditions at the weekend.Ten people have been killed this week alone by the infernos in New South Wales and Victoria states that have cut-off communities, destroyed hundreds of homes and shocked the world with images of holiday-makers forced to shelter on beaches.A mass evacuation of tourists has been ordered for a 350-kilometer (217-mile) stretch of coast from Nowra -- about a three-hour drive south of Sydney -- to the Victoria state border, where a similar emergency has been declared in an area the size of Belgium."There is a window until tonight, for people to get out and we encourage them to do so," New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters. "Please do not stay in the area unless you absolutely have to."The unprecedented crisis has seen fires burn across all six Australian states and caused the highest number of fatalities since 180 people were killed by the Black Saturday blazes in 2009.More than 12 million acres (5 million hectares) have been destroyed -- that's more than twice the size of Wales, and larger than Denmark -- since the fire season began months ago during the southern hemisphere winter. The scale of the blazes dwarfs the California wildfires in 2018, which destroyed about 1.7 million acres.About half a billion native animals may have been killed in the blazes in New South Wales state alone, according to researchers at the University of Sydney, while tens of thousands of livestock may have been lost in Victoria, the ABC cited the state agriculture minister as saying.The disaster has fanned mounting concerns about climate change in the world's driest-inhabited continent and triggered a backlash against the conservative government. Prime Minister Scott Morrison was heckled on Thursday by angry residents when he visited the bushfire-hit town of Cobargo, where two people died earlier this week, while others declined to shake his hand and called for more resources to tackle the disaster.Environmentalists are demanding he takes more concerted steps to curb emissions in a nation that gets most of its power through burning fossil fuels and generates massive revenues through coal exports.Roads were clogged with traffic Friday as people made their way out of danger zones, while the navy was evacuating about 1,000 people from the isolated coastal township of Mallacoota, which was hit hard by a bushfire on New Year's Eve.The Bureau of Meteorology says southeastern Australia faces extreme fire weather on Saturday, with temperatures pushing through 40 degrees Celsius, low humidity and strong winds that are expected sweep through the fire zone in Victoria's East Gippsland region by mid-afternoon.New South Wales Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons told reporters the day would be worse than New Year's Eve, when massive fire-fronts tore through rural, forested communities and even impacted more established resort towns such as Batemans Bay, crammed with tourists during the peak summer holiday season.Emergency warnings were also issued in South Australia, where authorities urged people to avoid the popular holiday destination of Kangaroo Island. A blaze there was "virtually unstoppable," firefighters said.To contact the reporter on this story: Edward Johnson in Sydney at ejohnson28@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Daniel Ten Kate at dtenkate@bloomberg.net, Jason ScottFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| 'Depart Iraq Immediately.' U.S. Embassy Advises Americans to Leave After Qasem Soleimani Assassination Posted: 03 Jan 2020 05:57 AM PST  After the drone strike that killed Iranian general Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad, the State Department urged Americans to leave Iraq.
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| Man arrested in Las Vegas kidnapping caught on surveillance video Posted: 02 Jan 2020 02:37 PM PST 
The video, which was circulated by police, shows the woman sobbing as she runs from a car toward the home's front door. She bangs on the door as the attacker runs up behind her. The man grabs the woman, throws her to the ground and kicks her in the stomach as she cries. He then says, "Why would you do that?" as he drags the woman back toward the car. Police identified the suspect as 23-year-old Darnell Rodgers. The attack took place shortly before 1 a.m. on Wednesday in a neighborhood south of McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas. ABC News reported that the woman, who has not been identified, has been found safe.
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| Former Fox News reporter says she rejected Trump's sexual advance Posted: 03 Jan 2020 03:16 PM PST  Former Fox News reporter and occasional Fox & Friends host Courtney Friel writes in a new memoir that before he was president, Donald Trump told her she was "the hottest one at Fox News" and during one call, "out of nowhere, he said: 'You should come up to my office sometime, so we can kiss,'" according to an excerpt of the book shared with the New York Daily News. Friel writes she was "shocked" by the come-on and said no: "'Donald,' I responded, 'I believe we're both married.' I quickly ended the call."Friel, now an anchor at KTLA-TV in Los Angeles, said Trump's "proposition made it difficult for me to report with a straight face on Trump running for president," the Daily News reports. "It infuriated me that he would call all the women who shared stories of his bold advances liars. I totally believe them. ... At least now I can joke that I could have banged the president — but I passed." You can read more about Friel's upcoming book, Tonight At 10: Kicking Booze and Breaking News, at the Daily News.More stories from theweek.com 4 reasons to beware Trump's decision to kill Soleimani America is guilty of everything we accuse Iran of doing Senate won't hold impeachment trial until Pelosi hands over articles, McConnell says
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| 'I had nowhere to go': Mississippi hunter battles rattlesnake in deer stand Posted: 02 Jan 2020 07:38 AM PST  Hunting in December, a Mississippi man found a rattlesnake only inches away in a hunting blind. He was in a real predicament.
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| US starts sending asylum seekers across Arizona border Posted: 02 Jan 2020 02:30 PM PST  The U.S. government on Thursday began sending asylum-seekers back to Nogales, Mexico, to await court hearings that will be scheduled roughly 350 miles (563 kilometers) away in Juarez, Mexico. Authorities are expanding a program known as Remain in Mexico that requires tens of thousands of asylum seekers to wait out their immigration court hearings in Mexico. Until this week, the government was driving some asylum seekers from Nogales, Arizona, to El Paso, Texas, so they could be returned to Juarez.
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| One Of NATO's Greatest Fears: A Russian Invasion Of Iceland Posted: 02 Jan 2020 04:00 PM PST  Iceland has not had a military since 1869.
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| Argentine president expresses doubt over mysterious prosecutor death Posted: 02 Jan 2020 02:28 PM PST  Argentine President Alberto Fernandez said on Thursday he doubts that a prosecutor who died two days after accusing former president Cristina Kirchner of a cover up in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center committed suicide. Nisman was appointed special prosecutor into the 1994 bombing of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) headquarters, which left 85 dead and 300 wounded. The timing and circumstances of his death were suspicious: it came just days after he directly accused then-president Kirchner and some of her top aides of covering up Iran's alleged involvement in the bombing.
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| Terrifying video shows a 'fire tornado' ripping through the Australian countryside as devastating fires ravage the country Posted: 03 Jan 2020 05:44 AM PST  Australia's third-largest island is ravaged by two fires as firefighters battle huge blazes destroying homes, lives, and wildlife across the country.
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| Ex-CIA boss: "There will be dead Americans" after Iran general killed Posted: 03 Jan 2020 12:39 AM PST  The targeted killing of Qassem Soleimani, one of Iran's top military leaders, has escalated tensions between the U.S. and Iran, with Iran vowing revenge
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| Cyprus rape case: Teenager begs Boris Johnson to bring her home and end 'waking nightmare' Posted: 02 Jan 2020 04:50 PM PST  A British teenager found guilty of lying about being gang-raped in Cyprus has pleaded with Boris Johnson to "bring me home". The 19-year-old alleged she was raped by up to 12 Israeli tourists in a hotel room in the Ayia Napa on July 17, but she has said Cypriot police forced her to sign a retraction statement which led to her being convicted of public mischief at Famagusta District Court, in Paralimni. "Every second of this ordeal has been a waking nightmare," the woman said. "I'm 19 and all I want to do is clear my name and come home to my family," she added in quotes reported by The Sun. "I would say to both the Foreign Secretary and Prime Minister, both of whom are fathers, please support me with your actions, not just with your words." The paper also reported that the Foreign Office had on Thursday contacted the teenager's family for the first time since she was convicted. Protesters claim the woman is a victim of Cyprus's "rape culture" Credit: IAKOVOS HATZISTAVROU/AFP via Getty Images A Foreign Office spokeswoman told PA that the UK was "seriously concerned" about the "fair trial guarantees in this deeply distressing case and we will be raising the issue with Cypriot authorities". Dominic Raab, the Foreign Secretary, said on Monday that he would raise the case with the Cypriot authorities. The woman's legal team said that regardless of the sentence passed by the court, they would appeal against the conviction, even if she was given a suspended sentence - which would still mean a criminal record. "Appealing against the conviction is the most important thing for a young person," Michael Polak, director of the campaigning group Justice Abroad, said. An online crowdfunding appeal to raise money for legal support for the woman's daughter has passed £120,000, exceeding its £105,000 goal. The "help teen victim get justice in Cyprus" GoFundMe page was set up by British lawyer John Hobbs in August to raise cash for the 19-year-old's legal representation. The woman has been on bail since the end of August, after spending a month in prison, and could face up to a year in jail and a 1,700 euro (£1,500) fine when she is sentenced on January 7. A number of prominent legal figures in Cyprus have also written to Costas Clerides, the attorney-general, urging him to intervene in the case. The group includes former justice minister Kypros Chrysostomides, who told the BBC the woman involved had "already suffered a lot" and he expected her sentence would be "very lenient". "She has already been in detention for four-and-a-half weeks and she has been prevented from travelling for about five months already," he said. But the government of Cyprus has said it has "full confidence in the justice system and the courts". Meanwhile, the teenager's mother, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has backed calls for a tourism boycott of the country. "The place isn't safe - it is absolutely not safe. And if you go and report something that's happened to you, you're either laughed at, as far as I can tell, or, in the worst case, something like what's happened to my daughter may happen," she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. The woman said her daughter was experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), hallucinations, and is sleeping for up to 20 hours a day because of a condition called hypersomnia. "She needs to get back to the UK to get that treated - that's my absolute primary focus. She can't be treated here because hearing foreign men speaking loudly will trigger an episode," she said. "It needs resolving otherwise she's going to carry on having this for the rest of her life."
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| Pressure is mounting on fugitive Carlos Ghosn as authorities make arrests and the probe into his mysterious escape heats up Posted: 03 Jan 2020 11:59 AM PST  The former executive may have broken Lebanese law by visiting Israel, a group of lawyers contend, potentially throwing his safe haven into jeopardy.
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| Trump’s Biggest Fox News Boosters Suddenly Stop Railing Against ‘Deep State’ Intelligence Posted: 03 Jan 2020 03:41 PM PST  Suddenly, it appears the U.S. intelligence community is back in good standing over at Fox News.Since Trump's election, an inescapably common refrain of the president and his biggest boosters in conservative media has been to rail against the "deep state." The Russian election interference probe, they've repeatedly said, was nothing more than a coup or disinformation campaign perpetrated by the anti-Trump intelligence community.Over the past 24 hours, however, incessant Fox griping over "deep state" suddenly went quiet, replaced by sober pleas that—when it comes to the info allegedly justifying Trump's ordered airstrike killing Iran's top general Qassem Soleimani—the U.S. intelligence community's findings should be heeded and taken seriously as unimpeachably correct information.Immediately after the Pentagon confirmed U.S. responsibility for the strike, claiming it "was aimed at deterring future Iranian attack plans," Fox News host Sean Hannity—perhaps the most well-known "deep state" critic in media—heaped praise upon the intelligence community."The ability of the military, our intelligence community, the State Department, and the president making the call, very quickly, you know, understood that the Iranian forces on the ground bore a direct threat to the American people," said Hannity, calling into his own show on Thursday night. "Once the intelligence was confirmed, once the understanding that they were there to sow the discord and discontent, the president acted as quickly as possible, taking out this top general.""But I will say the big headline is, this is a huge victory for American intelligence, a huge victory for our military, a huge victory for the State Department, and a huge victory and total leadership by the president," the primetime host, who has spent more than two years and countless on-air segments railing against shadowy "deep state" intelligence, concluded.By Friday morning, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo went even further than the Pentagon, saying that it was necessary to take out Soleimani as it disrupted an "imminent attack," adding that "the risk doing nothing was enormous" and the "intelligence community made that assessment and President Trump acted decisively last night."Following Pompeo's assertions, Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade—who last month chastised a Daily Beast writer for not asking Lisa Page about a deep-state conspiracy theory—openly defended and applauded the intelligence community.After Fox News star Geraldo Rivera sarcastically noted the "U.S. intelligence has been excellent since 2003 when we invaded Iraq, disrupted the entire region, for no real reason," he told Kilmeade not to "start cheering this on" while claiming his colleague "never met a war you didn't like.""I will cheer it on. I am elated," Kilmeade exclaimed, adding that it's "not true" that he loves war.During a later appearance on Fox News' The Daily Briefing, host Dana Perino—a former Bush White House press secretary—repeatedly claimed an attack was "imminent," asking Kilmeade what the consequences would have been if Trump didn't act."What everyone is missing, it's not our choice," the Fox & Friends host replied. "These things are happening. It's how we react to what is happening."Kilmeade—no longer skeptical of intelligence officials—also insisted that the president didn't need to brief Congress before killing the Iranian leader because he needed to act quickly due to the information obtained."But if you want him to get congressional approval over a strike that is time sensitive when an attack is imminent and he landed at the airport? Are you kidding me?" Kilmeade huffed.During Friday's broadcast of Fox Business Network's Varney and Co., anchor Stuart Varney also seemed a bit amnesiac over his previous missives against the intelligence community. Despite claiming in the past that the "deep state" was trying to undermine Trump's presidency, the pro-Trump host credulously touted Pompeo's "imminent attack" claim throughout his show."That's what Mike Pompeo, Secretary of State, told Fox News earlier this morning, that there was an imminent attack and the president ordered the killing to stop that imminent attack," Varney proclaimed at one point. "Good cause to do it."In a later segment, Fox & Friends Weekend host and unofficial Trump adviser Pete Hegseth—who once noted that the "American people didn't vote for the Deep State"—also found newfound praise for the intel community, adding that Trump likely waited until the "intelligence lined up."A Fox News guest, however, seemed to reveal one of the biggest self-contradictions.Former Trump adviser Christian Whiton lamented Friday on Fox News' Outnumbered Overtime that it is "really sad" that Democrats "aren't willing to give our president and our military the benefit of the doubt in a crisis." A few weeks ago, though, Whiton gave no such benefit of the doubt to a member of both the military and intelligence community. During an interview with Fox Business host Lou Dobbs, Whiton called former National Security Council member and impeachment witness Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman a "deep state crybaby" who "poured himself into an Army outfit to go and frankly speak contemptuous things against the commander-in-chief."Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Warren, Klobuchar, Booker recent fundraising lags top rivals Posted: 03 Jan 2020 03:00 AM PST  Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren said Friday that she raised $21.2 million from October through December, with more than $1.5 million coming on the last day of the year. Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar said she took in $11.4 million for her White House bid to close out the year, while New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker said he raised $6.6 million. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, the strongest progressive voice along with Warren, said he raised more than $34.5 million in the same quarter, proving that his heart attack in October hasn't slowed his fundraising prowess.
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| Why It Seems Like Nothing Can Stop the A-10 Warthog Posted: 02 Jan 2020 08:00 PM PST  Is it still viable?
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| Climate deniers are cooking themselves — and everyone else Posted: 03 Jan 2020 02:50 AM PST  The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world that climate change is something only hippies should care about. By this view, commonly expressed by conservative politicians, fixing climate change is only for bleeding-hearts who care more about hugging trees than making money.But this is completely wrong. Climate change will wreck the environment, and in the process it will wreck human society as well — causing many deaths and billions of dollars in damage, as we're seeing now as Australia is battered by the worst wildfires in its history. People who deny or downplay climate change are broiling themselves and everyone else alive.Some extreme weather events have a complex array of causes, and it is hard to tie them definitively to climate change. Hurricane formation, for instance, involves winds, ocean temperatures and the difference between atmospheric temperatures, the spin of the earth, and many other factors, so it is a tricky business to pin worse storms on global warming. (Nevertheless, a growing body of research does indeed point to climate change as a key cause of increasing hurricane severity.)But that is not true at all of the Australian bushfires. Fires get worse when things are hot, dry, and windy, and climate change has provided all of those conditions in abundance. The continent has warmed by about 2 degrees Fahrenheit (a bit over 1 degree Celsius) since the 1970s, and in keeping with the predictions of climate models, Australia has experienced steadily worse droughts and heat waves over the last 30 years. The current drought may end up being the worst in history — this spring was the driest ever recorded on the continent, and back on December 18 it set a new record for the hottest day ever measured with an average temperature across the entire country of 105.6 degrees.So far this Australian fire season, almost 15 million acres have been burned, at least 18 people have died, a further 17 are missing, and over 1,200 homes have burned down. Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated, and thousands more are still trapped in hazardous locations. Australia's largest cities have repeatedly suffocated under smoke plumes — on December 11, Sydney recorded particulate pollution 11 times worse than the "hazardous" level, and at time of writing capital city Canberra had the second-worst air in the world. Meanwhile, the ongoing drought has devastated Australian farmers.Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison (from the Liberal Party, which is politically conservative) has been wrong-footed by the crisis — residents of fire-stricken towns yelled at him during a tour of the damage, and his record of boosting fossil fuels has become a major focus of news coverage of the events.Morrison insists that he has taken a measured approach to climate, but this is nonsense — on the contrary, Australia is one of the major climate villains in the world. Morrison has long been in the pocket of Big Carbon, and has consistently boosted fossil fuel development as prime minister. Indeed, before he was head of the Liberals he brought a chunk of coal onto the floor of parliament and accused the opposition party of "coalphobia." As recently as November, his deputy prime minister was calling climate activists "inner-city raving lunatics."As a result, Australia's domestic emissions have increased steadily since 2013, when the Liberals took power and immediately repealed the carbon tax passed under the previous Labor Party government. More importantly, Australia is the second-largest coal exporter in the world (only recently passed up by Indonesia, despite increased Australian production), and thanks to the Liberal government, it has recently soared to become the second-largest exporter of liquid natural gas as well, and may take first place next year. Most of that fuel goes to Japan, China, India, and Korea. All this makes Australia the third-largest exporter of carbon dioxide emissions, just behind Russia and Saudi Arabia.To be fair, the opposition party isn't much better, despite the modest carbon tax mentioned above. Labor Party leader Anthony Albanese backs coal exports despite criticizing Morrison's abysmal climate record.Of course, Australia's natural environment is getting pummeled as well by the drought and fires. As Nerilie Abram writes at Scientific American, "early estimates suggest that around 500 million animals have died so far, including 30 percent of the koala population in their main habitat."But it is worth emphasizing that the koalas aren't the only ones suffering. If adorable animals being slaughtered by the millions doesn't tug one's heartstrings, then perhaps consider self-interest, as Australians hide in lakes to keep from being burned alive. A few more years of fat coal profits aren't worth making Mad Max into a documentary.In short, Australia, like many countries (very much including the United States) is pathologically addicted to fossil fuels, and is roasting itself and the world in the process. Without strong international climate policy, there will be future droughts, fires, and other disasters that make the current crisis seem like a friendly daydream.More stories from theweek.com Mike Pence crams 3 inaccuracies about 9/11 into 1 tweet while trying to justify Soleimani strike America is guilty of everything we accuse Iran of doing 4 reasons to beware Trump's decision to kill Soleimani
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| Iran vows to avenge Soleimani death in 'right place and time' Posted: 03 Jan 2020 08:10 AM PST  Iran's top security body vowed to retaliate in the "right place and time" after the United States killed Revolutionary Guards commander Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad on Friday. "America should know that its criminal attack on General Soleimani has been the country's biggest mistake in west Asia, and America will not avoid the consequences of this wrong calculation easily," the Supreme National Security Council said in a statement. "These criminals will face severe vengeance... in the right place and time," it added after holding an extraordinary meeting following Soleimani's death.
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| Las Vegas Police Arrest Man After Apparent Kidnapping Caught on Doorbell Camera Posted: 02 Jan 2020 10:46 AM PST  The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police said a 23-year-old man had been arrested and charged with kidnapping and domestic battery.
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| An oxygen leak forced Lufthansa passengers heading to Brazil to take an 8-hour flight from Frankfurt to Frankfurt Posted: 03 Jan 2020 02:21 AM PST  Lufthansa Flight 500 to Rio de Janeiro turned back to Frankfurt while off the coast of West Africa, with passengers in the air for over eight hours.
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| Trump administration restricts some e-cigarette flavors Posted: 03 Jan 2020 01:48 AM PST  The ban came under immediate criticism from public health advocates who said it does not go far enough. It does not apply to most e-cigarette liquids that are purchased separately, a variety most often sold in vape shops and used in so-called open tank e-cigarettes.
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| Kurz Seals Historic Pact With Austria’s Greens for Second Term Posted: 02 Jan 2020 12:50 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Sebastian Kurz clinched a historic alliance with Austria's Green party to claim a second term as chancellor and position his country at the forefront of Europe's battle to limit climate change.Kurz, a 33-year-old conservative, announced the deal late on New Year's Day. Pending approval by a Green party conference on Saturday, the new administration could be sworn in by President Alexander Van der Bellen (himself a former Green leader) on Jan. 7.Two years after he leaped to prominence by embracing the backlash against immigration, Kurz may be about to set a very different precedent for Europe's conservatives by teaming up with the Greens. His new coalition brings the Austrian Greens into the federal government for the first time and offers a template for politicians across the continent searching for a formula to repel the threat of populism.German conservative Ursula von der Leyen took charge of the European Commission last month after forging a parliamentary majority around her plan to decarbonize the European economy. The next government in Berlin could see a similar alliance as the Greens supplant the ailing Social Democrats as the natural partner for Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats."Kurz is now trying to address the two main issues of the next decade: immigration and climate change," said Carsten Brzeski, chief economist at ING Germany. "This can become an interesting test case for Germany, and indeed for Europe: the first conservative-Green coalition."It's a risky project though.From 2015, Kurz used the European refugee crisis to take over his party. He dressed the conservatives in the clothes of populism and steered them out of an awkward coalition with the Social Democrats to join forces with a xenophobic party founded by former Nazis. After winning two straight elections, a third of his voters are now former supporters of the Freedom Party and other rightist groups.By teaming up with the Greens, Kurz finds himself on the opposite side of the debate from the populists and vulnerable to their attacks for the first time. Concessions to his partner could also estrange his new voters as well as People's Party mainstays like farmers, industry, commuters and traditionalists panicking about meat prices or fuel taxes."It's going to be hard to swallow for many groups in the People's Party," said Thomas Hofer, a political analyst and consultant in Vienna. "It's also a fine line to tread because of the voters he won from the Freedom Party."Yet Kurz had few other options after the tumultuous months that started when the "Ibiza" bombshell exploded on Austria's political scene in May. German media published excerpts of a video shot on the Spanish island that appeared to show nationalist leader Heinz-Christian Strache offering state contracts in return for campaign funds. That toppled Strache and Kurz's government, and triggered a snap elections on Sept. 29.The Freedom Party descended ever further into scandal. Secret gold stashes in the Alps, eye-watering expense accounts, and photos of cash-filled bags from eastern European donors emerged. The Social Democrats failed to benefit from the affair under their hapless and gaffe-prone new leader Pamela Rendi-Wagner. Kurz and the Greens were the only clear winners."There is no alternative, and he knows it," Hofer said.Litte is known yet about the government program Kurz and Green leader Werner Kogler, 58, have agreed on and they declined to take questions when they announced their agreement on New Year's Day. The programme will be presented Thursday afternoon. Both have flagged to their followers that their very different policies may make for some difficult compromises.Kurz will have to show to his supporters that his tough line on migration and integration remains intact, that there are neither more taxes nor more debt and that legislation will remain business-friendly. Kogler will need some wins on climate policy, including tangible investments in infrastructure and some form of carbon taxes, at least a toning down of the anti-immigration rhetoric of Kurz's former government, and measures on transparency and anti-corruption."It is possible to cut taxes and make the tax system more ecological," Kurz said. "It's possible to protect the climate, and the borders."Kurz will appoint his close ally Gernot Bluemel as the next finance minister. The Greens will get an enlarged transport ministry that will be headed by environmental activist Leonore Gewessler, and name as justice minister Alma Zadic, a 35 year-old lawyer who fled the Bosnian civil war to Austria in the 1990s."I think this can hold," Brzeski said. "Kurz has shown he's very flexible and adaptable."(Updates with statements on deal by Kurz and Kogler.)To contact the reporter on this story: Boris Groendahl in Vienna at bgroendahl@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Ben Sills at bsills@bloomberg.net;Chad Thomas at cthomas16@bloomberg.netFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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