| Trump: Soleimani 'should have been taken out many years ago!' Posted: 03 Jan 2020 07:06 AM PST  President Trump on Friday defended the authorization of a U.S. drone strike that killed Iran's top general in Baghdad, suggesting that the killing should have been carried out by previous administrations.
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| War with Iran: How the U.S. Navy SEALs Would Attack Posted: 04 Jan 2020 03:00 AM PST  They'd have an uphill battle.
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| With hours' notice, US fast-response force flies to Mideast Posted: 04 Jan 2020 12:40 PM PST  Hundreds of U.S. soldiers deployed Saturday from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, to Kuwait to serve as reinforcements in the Middle East amid rising tensions following the U.S. killing of a top Iranian general. Lt. Col. Mike Burns, a spokesman for the 82nd Airborne Division, told The Associated Press 3,500 members of the division's quick-deployment brigade, known officially as its Immediate Response Force, will have deployed within a few days. A loading ramp at Fort Bragg was filled Saturday morning with combat gear and restless soldiers.
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| Some Lebanon banks close over angry clients' demands Posted: 04 Jan 2020 07:51 AM PST  Banks in a region of northern Lebanon were closed until further notice on Saturday, the National News Agency said, after lenders balked at customer anger over a liquidity crisis. Since September banks have arbitrarily capped the amount of dollars that can be withdrawn or transferred abroad, sparking fury among customers who accuse lenders of holding their money hostage. There is also a limit on Lebanese pound withdrawals.
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| Carlos Ghosn's escape plane reportedly also ferried gold for Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro Posted: 03 Jan 2020 08:02 AM PST  Bloomberg reported that two planes operated by MNG Holding, which aided in Ghosn's escape, also assisted a Venezuelan gold trade.
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| What is pansexuality and how does it compare with bisexuality? Posted: 04 Jan 2020 10:12 AM PST  Layla Moran, a British Liberal Democrat politician, has recently revealed that she identifies as pansexual. In an interview, Moran told how she had started a relationship with a woman six months ago, a development she described as "surprising" in terms of her sexual identity.
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| Trump says U.S. killed Soleimani 'to stop a war' Posted: 03 Jan 2020 12:58 PM PST  President Trump said Friday that he ordered the targeted killing of Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani in Iraq in order "to stop a war."
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| A fugitive was on the run for 40 years. Police finally arrested him for public intoxication Posted: 03 Jan 2020 06:56 AM PST  Jose Romero was arrested Saturday in Delaware. He evaded capture in South Carolina in 1979 after being convicted of armed robbery.
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| Delta plane slides off taxiway at Green Bay airport Posted: 04 Jan 2020 08:05 AM PST ![Delta plane slides off taxiway at Green Bay airport]( "Delta plane slides off taxiway at Green Bay airport") Airport officials said Flight 1770 was headed for Atlanta when it left the taxiway around 6:15 a.m. No injuries were reported, nor was there any damage to the plane. Conditions were icy at the time of the incident, but Airport Director Marty Piette told the Green Bay Press-Gazette that he wasn't sure if that's what caused the plane to slide off the taxiway.
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| Coalition scales back Iraq operations for security reasons: US Posted: 04 Jan 2020 02:03 AM PST  US-led forces helping Iraqi troops fight jihadists have scaled back operations, a US defence official told AFP Saturday, a day after an American strike killed top Iranian and Iraqi commanders. "Our first priority is protecting coalition personnel," the official said, saying the US-led force had "limited" their training and other anti-jihadist operations. The official said the change came after a series of rocket attacks by pro-Iran factions on US troops in recent months.
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| The Fed says interest rates are likely to remain at historically low levels — for now Posted: 03 Jan 2020 12:21 PM PST  Federal Reserve officials saw fewer risks to the economy at the end of 2019 and predicted there would be no need to adjust interest rates this year.
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| Indonesia Steps Up Sea Patrols to Monitor China Fishing Boats Posted: 03 Jan 2020 07:49 PM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Indonesia's military has stepped up naval and aerial patrols of the Natuna Sea area because of a rising number of Chinese fishing vessels in the region.The Southeast Asian nation has deployed three ships and two aircraft in the gas-rich North Natuna Sea, and two additional vessels are on the way to join the group, Yudo Margono, commander of the Joint Regional Defense Command, said in statement.The deployment came after Indonesian Foreign Affairs Minister Retno Marsudi said China should comply with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and reiterated Jakarta's position that it will never acknowledge Beijing's nine-dash line, a demarcation it uses to show its claims in the area.Marsudi sent a diplomatic note to Beijing protesting the intrusion of Chinese vessels into Indonesia's special economic zone in the area, according to a statement on the Cabinet Secretary's website.China is in dispute with several Southeast Asian countries over its claim to areas of the South China Sea. On Dec. 12, Malaysia submitted to the United Nation's Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf information on what it believes are its its sovereignty rights in the area.\--With assistance from Arys Aditya and Tassia Sipahutar.To contact the reporter on this story: Harry Suhartono in Jakarta at hsuhartono@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Thomas Kutty Abraham at tabraham4@bloomberg.net, Stanley JamesFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Carlos Ghosn may have escaped arrest in double bass case Posted: 02 Jan 2020 11:17 PM PST  The former Nissan chairman was being held on financial misconduct charges when he fled Japan and ended up in his native Lebanon.
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| Democrats battle White House over executive power and congressional oversight Posted: 03 Jan 2020 02:37 PM PST  Two hearings in a Washington court brought the battle between the House and the White House into stark relief.
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| In 1978, A Horrific Terror Attack Tore The Shah's Iran Apart Posted: 03 Jan 2020 02:30 PM PST  And reshaped history.
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| Border Militia Leader Pleads Guilty to Gun Charge. His Followers Say It’s Fake News. Posted: 03 Jan 2020 11:58 AM PST  His group claimed to be enforcing the law when they rounded up undocumented immigrants at gunpoint. But now after months of contesting charges, militia leader Larry Hopkins has pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm.Hopkins heads the United Constitutional Patriots (UCP), a vigilante group that made headlines this year after it released footage of members ordering migrants to the ground at gunpoint near the El Paso border. Many of the people at the opposite end of their rifles were children. For all his role-playing as an officer, Hopkins had his own criminal history. In April, he was arrested on weapons charges. He pleaded not guilty, and his followers cased him as a martyr for their cause. But on Thursday, he changed his plea, prompting members of his conspiratorial group to falsely claim his guilty plea had been fabricated.Hopkins, 70, is not allowed to own a gun. He has three felony convictions, including a weapons charge in Michigan in 1996, being a felon in possession of a firearm in Oregon in 2006, and impersonating a peace officer around the same time.Border Militias Use Facebook Live to Turn Immigrant Confrontations Into 'Reality TV'That didn't stop him from stockpiling nine guns, along with ammunition in a New Mexico home in 2017, the FBI charged in a criminal complaint earlier this year.Hopkins' UCP is notoriously gun-happy. In videos they uploaded to Facebook, members carry what appear to be semi-automatic rifles while prowling the border. Though U.S. Border Patrol has claimed not to work with the vigilante group, Border Patrol officers sometimes appeared in videos of UCP patrols, and the group claimed to have close relations with the U.S. agency.Hopkins, who promotes far-right conspiracy theories, has also claimed to be in contact with President Donald Trump and allegedly said he was training the UCP to "assassinate" Hillary Clinton, former President Barack Obama, and liberal megadonor George Soros.His change of plea on Thursday touched off a new wave of false claims from his group, which has maintained that Hopkins is innocent of his weapons charges. In a UCP Facebook group on Thursday, a prominent member (who previously claimed the "deep state" was paying for migrants to "crash the system") claimed Horton had not pleaded guilty, but that all his charges were actually dropped. (They were not.) Other members ordered each other not to share news coverage of Hopkins' guilty plea, which they claimed was not real.Hopkins' lawyer, Kelly O'Connell, confirmed that the guilty plea was legitimate. "It doesn't surprise me" that UCP members claimed his charges were dropped, O'Connell told The Daily Beast. "These guys' minds are all fighting against what they see is this very unjust government police state and everything. I understand the resistance to accepting him changing his plea, but nobody called me from the group to verify anything, or ask why" Hopkins changed his plea.Part of the decision stemmed from Hopkins' health. The militia leader was beat up in jail where he may have been housed with "people he was personally involved with," O'Connell said, adding that Hopkins also claimed to have badly injured his head in a courthouse fall. Hopkins also reported heart and diabetic concerns. "The questions was, you're looking at up to 10 years on a charge that is typically not difficult to prove," O'Connell explained of Hopkins' weapons charge. "Are you gonna fight this out to the end or would you rather take a plea deal?"Hopkins isn't the only UCP member facing charges. Jim Benvie, who previously acted as the group's spokesperson, was charged in June for allegedly impersonating a Border Patrol officer while detaining migrants. The case against him stems from his own Facebook videos. UCP members often uploaded livestreams of their exploits, during which Benvie can be heard to identify himself as "Border Patrol" while ordering people to sit on the ground. In another unrelated case filed in June, Benvie was charged with fraud for allegedly running a cancer charity scam using images of a real child who had been diagnosed with brain cancer. The child's father told The Daily Beast that Benvie falsely claimed to have set up a "trust" for the child, and solicited $50,000 using the boy's pictures.Benvie also faces a felony charge of possessing a stolen vehicle. He's pleaded not guilty.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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| Carnival Elation spills 'gray water' at Florida port due to valve problem Posted: 03 Jan 2020 07:43 AM PST  The Carnival Elation spilled "gray water" from its plumbing and shower systems while docked at Port Canaveral in Florida on Thursday.
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| Train derailment in eastern Iowa leaves mess, slows traffic Posted: 03 Jan 2020 10:57 AM PST  A train derailment Friday morning sent more than a dozen rail cars and tankers off the tracks in the eastern Iowa city of LeClaire, shutting down a nearby highway and sending a hazardous materials team scrambling to the downtown district site. The derailment happened a couple of hundred feet from the banks of the Mississippi River, along U.S. Highway 67, which runs parallel to the tracks. LeClaire police closed the highway in both directions shortly after the derailment and told the public to avoid the area.
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| Giant new rallies slam Indian government's citizenship law Posted: 03 Jan 2020 06:00 AM PST  Tens of thousands of people protested across India on Friday against a citizenship law passed by the Hindu nationalist government that critics say discriminates against Muslims. Some 30,000 marched in the southern city of Bangalore, more than 20,000 in Siliguri and thousands in Chennai, while big rallies were also held in New Delhi, Guwahati and other cities. Demonstrators shouted slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government.
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| What's behind the recent rash of anti-Semitic attacks? Posted: 03 Jan 2020 01:36 AM PST  There were more than 1,300 anti-Semitic incidents in 2019, according to the Anti-Defamation League, including a stabbing at a rabbi's home Saturday. Rabbi Angela Warnick Buchdahl and professor Ibram Kendi joined "CBS This Morning" to discuss the rash of hate.
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| Schumer calls McConnell proposal on witnesses a 'trap' Posted: 03 Jan 2020 11:25 AM PST  As the standoff over rules for an impeachment trial continues, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell repeated Friday that he would consider a proposal to call for witness testimony — a stance that his Democratic counterpart, Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, calls a "trap."
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| Is Kim Jong-un Feeling Insecure? Posted: 03 Jan 2020 04:19 AM PST  Why did Kim allow the party plenary report to replace his traditional New Year's Address? As with many things in North Korea, we do not know, forcing us to speculate. At least one possibility is that Kim Jong-un fears that his pattern of failures in 2019 has significantly undermined his position as the god of North Korea.
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| Terry Gilliam: 'I'm tired, as a white male, of being blamed for everything' Posted: 04 Jan 2020 09:42 AM PST  Former Monty Python star Terry Gilliam responded to the #MeToo movement, labelling it "a witch hunt," saying he is "tired, as a white male, of being blamed for everything that is wrong with the world."
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| Fresno mass shooting: police arrest six suspects in deadly November attack Posted: 03 Jan 2020 10:03 AM PST  Authorities say that gang members targeted an event where they believed rival gang members were gatheredPolice in Fresno, California, have arrested seven suspects in a mass shooting that left four dead in November, alleging gunmen targeted a backyard where they believed rival gang members were gathered.Police in the central valley city said this week that seven gang members were responsible for the 17 November shooting at a watch party for a Sunday afternoon football game. The suspects opened fire at a party in retaliation for a recent gang-related killing, authorities said, but the victims were not gang members and not part of the group that the suspects meant to target.All four men killed were of Hmong descent, part of the vibrant community of families who came to California as refugees after fleeing war and violence in south-east Asia. The tragedy devastated Hmong people across the globe, and families of the victims were initially outraged at law enforcement's suggestions that their loved ones may have had ties to gangs.Police alleged Tuesday that Mongolian Boy Society gang members were behind the killing, and that two gunmen with semiautomatic weapons attacked the home because they thought it was a party of a rival Asian Crips gang. But the investigation revealed only one person watching the football game had a connection with Asian Crips,and was "not an active gang member", said Andy Hall, Fresno's police chief. The department has said there was no evidence suggesting the four fatal victims were gang members.A police spokesman said there were some people who left the party who have not been identified.The victims were Xy Lee, 23, a well-known Hmong singer; Kou Xiong, 38, a chef at a local restaurant; Phia Vang, 31, a musician who worked at a local lab; and Kalaxang Thao, 40, who worked at an Asian grocery store. Six other people were injured.On 17 December, police arrested Billy Xiong, a 25-year-old Fresno resident, on suspicion of mail theft and located one of the guns used to kill the four men, authorities said. The mass shooting was allegedly retaliation for the killing of his brother, Randy Xiong, 16 hours earlier. Police also eventually arrested Anthony Montes, 27; Jhovanny Delgado, 19; Pao Vang, 19; Porge Kue, 26; Johnny Xiong, 25; and Ger Lee, 27.Hall alleged the men were "self admitted" Mongolian Boy Society members and that they all planned the shooting, but police have not said who shot the men in the backyard. Lee, Montes, Kue and Billy Xiong were charged Thursday in state court with murder, conspiracy to commit murder, attempted murder and a gang charge. The other three men were charged in federal court with conspiracy to commit murder in the aid of racketeering.Lawyers for the suspects could not immediately be reached."It is bittersweet," said Bobby Bliatout, a local Hmong community leader. "We are happy that they were caught … so we can have some closure and move on."He said the initial suggestion by police that the killings were gang-related had overshadowed the horror of the losses: "It's a terrible tragedy … in minority communities, we are targeted right away with the word 'gang' or 'criminals'."Nou Xiong, a reporter for the local Hmong TV Network, who is also one of the victim's cousins, said many in the Fresno Hmong community were surprised to learn police had made arrests: "They thought it was going to be another cold case or just disregarded as another 'gang shooting'. That's what they do with minority communities."Vong Mouanoutoua, a local councilman, said it was clear "innocent lives were taken", adding that people shouldn't dwell on the gang label."A gang member's life is not less important than a non-gang member's life. It's always a loss," he said, noting that the men arrested were all very young. "Their lives are changed forever."Kou Lee, the 31-year-old brother of Xy Lee, the famous singer killed in the attack, told the Guardian after the shooting that he was "distraught" about the word gang being tied to his brother, who was well known and celebrated in Fresno: "Everybody fell in love with him when he sings."Xy Lee's community was other artists and musicians, said Mitch Herr, another Hmong community leader, who had lunch with the singer a week before he was killed: "Anyone that came to know him loved him, because he was always there for the community, always there for his friends … The future was so bright for him."
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| Who Was Qassem Soleimani? A Master of Iran’s Intrigue and Force Posted: 03 Jan 2020 05:16 AM PST  In July 2018, after President Donald Trump warned Iran's president not to threaten the United States, a rejoinder came not from the Iranian leader but from a military figure perhaps even more powerful."It is beneath the dignity of our president to respond to you," Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani declared in a speech in western Iran. "I, as a soldier, respond to you."On Friday, Soleimani was reported killed in an airstrike in Baghdad.The general, a once-shadowy figure who enjoyed celebrity-like status among the hard-line conservatives in Iran, was a figure of intense interest to people inside and outside the country.It is not just that he was in charge of Iranian intelligence gathering and covert military operations, and regarded as one of its most cunning and autonomous military figures. He was also believed to be very close to the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei -- and seen as a potential future leader of Iran.That Soleimani was in Iraq when he was killed at age 62, at Baghdad International Airport, was not surprising.He was in charge of the Quds Force of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, a special forces unit that undertakes Iranian missions in other countries. He had been named to lead it in the late 1990s.In that role, Soleimani was believed to be the chief strategist behind Iran's military ventures and influence in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere in the region and beyond. He was considered the most effective military intelligence official in the region.A senior Iraqi intelligence official once told U.S. officials in Baghdad that Soleimani had described himself as the "sole authority for Iranian actions in Iraq."In his speech denouncing Trump, he was even less discreet -- and openly mocking."We are near you, where you can't even imagine," he said. "We are ready. We are the man of this arena."Well before the speech, U.S. officials had learned to see Soleimani as a formidable adversary.After the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq that toppled Saddam Hussein, the United States accused Soleimani of plotting attacks on U.S. soldiers.The general worked to expand Iran's influence in Iraq, tying down the U.S. military. The Iranian government was determined to retain its influence in the region and felt threatened by the expanding U.S. military presence on its western and eastern flanks.And in 2011, the Treasury Department placed him on a sanctions blacklist, accusing him of complicity in what U.S. officials called a plot to kill the Saudi ambassador to Washington.But at times, the adversary looked more like ally, however tenuous the relationship. U.S. officials cooperated with the Iranian general in Iraq to reverse gains made by the Islamic State -- a mutual enemy.At the height of the Iraq War, as the Quds Force under Soleimani armed and trained Shiite militias in Iraq, the general was stoking violence and then mediating the conflict so he could make himself indispensable and keep the Iraqis off balance, former U.S. officials have said.According to a June 2008 cable written by Ryan Crocker, then the U.S. ambassador to Baghdad, Soleimani played a role in brokering a cease-fire that enabled the battered Shiite militias in the Sadr City neighborhood of Baghdad, which Iran was supporting, to withdraw.In 2015, Soleimani was in the northern Iraqi city of Tikrit, commanding Iraqi Shiite militias that were trying to recapture it from ISIS fighters. U.S. warplanes belatedly joined that campaign.Soleimani also caught the imagination of ordinary Iranians. He came to prominence during Iran's bloody eight-year war with Iraq. As a Revolutionary Guards' commander, he gained a reputation for leading reconnaissance missions behind Iraqi lines."For Qassem Soleimani, the Iran-Iraq war never really ended," Crocker once said in an interview. "No human being could have come through such a World War I-style conflict and not have been forever affected. His strategic goal was an outright victory over Iraq, and if that was not possible, to create and influence a weak Iraq."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| Peru prosecutors seek 12-year term for Kenji Fujimori Posted: 04 Jan 2020 04:38 PM PST  Peruvian prosecutors are seeking a 12-year prison term for former lawmaker Kenji Fujimori on charges of attempting to buy votes in a plot to keep ex-president Pedro Pablo Kuczynski from being impeached. Prosecutor Bersabeth Revilla accused the son of jailed ex-president Alberto Fujimori of bribery and influence-peddling. Also charged are former lawmakers Guillermo Bocangel and Bienvenido Ramirez.
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| The Quadrantids brings bright fireball meteors to the sky this weekend. Here's how to catch the first meteor shower of the decade. Posted: 03 Jan 2020 10:07 AM PST  Every year, our planet passes through cosmic detritus left over from an asteroid called EH1. For people on Earth, that means an epic meteor shower.
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| At least 228 police officers died by suicide in 2019, Blue H.E.L.P. says. That's more than were killed in the line of duty Posted: 03 Jan 2020 09:11 AM PST  More police officers died by suicide in 2019 than were killed in the line of duty, advocacy group Blue H.E.L.P. reports.
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| Mom tearfully recounts moments before star player's suicide Posted: 02 Jan 2020 08:32 PM PST  "I could feel the pain in his soul and it was breaking my heart," she said in a video
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| Trump tells evangelicals that God is 'on our side' Posted: 03 Jan 2020 03:47 PM PST  Launching a political coalition called "Evangelicals for Trump" at a Florida megachurch on Friday, President Trump declared his belief that God supports his agenda.
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| Revealed: Iran Secretly Built A New Corvette Loaded With Missiles Posted: 03 Jan 2020 03:07 AM PST  The two-year effort underscores Iran's effort to build up its ship-construction capabilities -- and could weigh on Tehran's ambitious plan to develop a new class of destroyer.
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| Methodists propose split in gay marriage, clergy impasse Posted: 03 Jan 2020 11:53 AM PST  United Methodist Church leaders from around the world and across ideological divides unveiled a plan Friday for a new conservative denomination that would split from the church in an attempt to resolve a decades-long dispute over gay marriage and gay clergy. The proposal, called "A Protocol of Reconciliation & Grace Through Separation," envisions an amicable separation in which conservative churches forming a new denomination would retain their assets. The new denomination also would receive $25 million.
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| Tropical cyclones likely to become another weather worry for Australia amid bushfires Posted: 03 Jan 2020 07:55 AM PST  While the dangerous fires in Australia continue to make national headlines this week, the opposite side of the country may be under a different weather threat."Meteorologists continue to monitor the Timor Sea for development through the weekend and into early this week," said AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Adam Douty.In this zone, conditions are favorable for any tropical lows to flourish, increasing the chances of tropical development. Meanwhile, evacuation orders continue to pile up in Victoria, New South Wales and even Kangaroo Island through the weekend in response to the bushfires. Whether it becomes a defined tropical system or not, the tropical low is likely to approach land by early this week, bringing with it waves of heavy, tropical rainfall.A general southwesterly track is expected for the tropical low, likely putting parts of the Kimberley and Pilbara coasts in its path, including coastal cities like Broome, Port Hedland and Karratha.In addition to on land, offshore boats and oil interests should also pay attention to this storm."It appears at this time that the system has two possible tracks: one where the center passes near the coast or even remains offshore, while the other where the system moves inland across Western Australia," said Douty.Both solutions will bring periods of heavy, flooding rainfall along the coast, while the second solution brings the rainfall farther inland.If the system is over water long enough to become a more organized tropical cyclone, damaging winds of 63 km/h (39 mph) or more will be a concern, particularly at the coast nearest to the center of the storm.It is not out of the question that more than a single tropical threat could emerge in the coming days.Another system may develop off Australia's Top End, most likely by the middle of this week.While impacts may change depending on the strength of the system, tropical rainfall and flooding at this time are the primary threats as the low slowly drifts southward toward the Northern Territory. The Darwin and Palmerston City areas could be affected.Check back with AccuWeather.com for more updates on the weather effecting Australia and the world.
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| U.S. killing of Iran's second most powerful man risks regional conflagration Posted: 03 Jan 2020 09:59 AM PST  The U.S. killing of Qassem Soleimani, Iran's most powerful figure after its supreme leader, is seen by Tehran as an act of war that risks regional conflagration. By ordering Friday's air strike on the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard's foreign legions, President Donald Trump has taken the United States and its allies into uncharted territory in its confrontation with Iran and its proxy militias across the region.
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| Man Captured on Doorbell Camera Footage Confessing to Murder Posted: 03 Jan 2020 05:22 AM PST  A man was captured on home security camera footage confessing to the murder of his sister Friday, shortly after she was stabbed to death in a Texas home, authorities said.The woman, Jennifer Chioma Ebichi, 32, had been stabbed at least a dozen times when authorities found her on the kitchen floor at the home in Pflugerville, according to documents provided by the Travis County District Clerk's Office. Her younger brother, Michael Egwuagu, 25, was arrested on a murder charge.An arrest affidavit said one witness saw Egwuagu "exit the residence smiling and with a bloody kitchen knife in his hand stating, 'I killed Jennifer.' Michael's clothing was covered in blood."It added that footage from a doorbell camera at the home corroborated the witness testimony.The episode is one of several recent examples of doorbell cameras -- increasingly affordable and popular security tools that can be connected to home Wi-Fi systems -- yielding footage that becomes useful to local authorities."Every time there is more surveillance and more captured of the lived experience, that will be helpful for police investigators," said Andrew Guthrie Ferguson, a law professor and author of "The Rise of Big Data Policing: Surveillance, Race, and the Future of Law Enforcement.""The consequences are an erosion of privacy and security at our homes and in our private moments," he added. "The trade-off is one that is hard, but also one I'm not sure citizens have fully understood when they decided to buy a little extra security for their home."One of the best-known doorbell camera brands is Ring, which makes a doorbell that doubles as a security camera and was acquired by Amazon in 2018. According to data shared publicly by the company, it now has partnerships with more than 700 local police and sheriff's departments, including the Travis County Sheriff's Office.Authorities can access footage via Ring's Neighbors app, which people can use to share videos and monitor criminal activity in their neighborhood. When the police seek videos from a certain location, Ring asks users in the area if they are willing to share their footage.Users can refuse, but the police can still obtain footage using other legal avenues, such as obtaining a warrant."Ring will not disclose user videos to police unless the user expressly consents or if disclosure is required by law, such as to comply with a warrant," the company said in a statement Thursday. "Ring objects to overbroad or otherwise inappropriate legal demands as a matter of course."It was unclear whether a Ring camera was involved in the Pflugerville case; other popular home security camera brands include Wyze and Nest. The sheriff's department declined to say which brand of camera had filmed Egwuagu on Friday.The murder charge captured additional attention because Egwuagu had been known as a star football player at the University of Texas, San Antonio. He was a safety who tried out for National Football League scouts in 2017 and 2018.After Egwuagu left the residence in Pflugerville, an Austin suburb, around 5 p.m. Friday, witnesses said he knelt down in the street as though he were praying, then removed his clothing and placed it in a trash can, the arrest affidavit said. The arrest affidavit also said that Ebichi's two children were present at the time of her death.An autopsy showed that Ebichi had been in her first trimester of pregnancy when she died. Dr. J. Keith Pinckard, chief medical examiner in Travis County, estimated that she had sustained one dozen to two dozen stab wounds, according to the arrest affidavit.Egwuagu is being held on a $500,000 bond. A statement from the office of Krista A. Chacona, a lawyer representing Egwuagu, said: "We do not have any comment at this time except to say that this is a very painful and difficult time for the family. We would ask that people please respect their privacy and allow them time to grieve."In recent weeks, home security cameras have raised concerns about data leaks and hacking. Executives at Wyze, the company behind a budget-friendly home security camera, said this week that the information of 2.4 million of their customers had been exposed to the public because of an employee error.And last month, there were reports of at least four individual cases of camera security systems being hacked; in one case involving a Ring security camera, a man was able to speak to an 8-year-old girl whose bedroom was being filmed. He used a racist slur and said he was Santa Claus.On Wednesday, a violent episode that had been captured on home surveillance footage was posted on YouTube by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. The footage shows a woman who appears to be trying to escape from a man. He can be seen running after her, kicking her down some stairs and dragging her toward a white car. The police posted the video to seek help from the public in identifying the man and the woman."Police are going to see new opportunities, and they're going to seize those opportunities because more information is obviously better for them," Ferguson said. "But it all comes at a cost to a certain sense of personal privacy, and also the collective privacy of your neighborhood and your community and who's surveilling whom in particular neighborhoods."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| Google suspends Xiaomi integration with its home products after a user reported seeing footage from random people's homes, including a sleeping baby Posted: 03 Jan 2020 03:50 AM PST  Xiaomi said the issue was caused by a software update.
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| Argentine Fighter Wins $1 Million in NYC, Won’t Bring Prize Money Home Posted: 03 Jan 2020 12:44 PM PST ![Argentine Fighter Wins $1 Million in NYC, Won't Bring Prize Money Home]( "Argentine Fighter Wins $1 Million in NYC, Won't Bring Prize Money Home") (Bloomberg) -- Emiliano "He-Man" Sordi, an Argentine martial arts fighter, won a $1 million purse in New York City. If he has his way, that's just where the money will stay."I'm not going to be so stupid as to take even one dollar back to Argentina," Sordi wrote Thursday on Twitter after battering Jordan Johnson into submission to win the Professional Fighters League's light heavyweight title at Madison Square Garden.Read More: Hottest Job in Argentina Is Helping the 1% Hide Their Cash Abroad Many Argentines stash their savings outside the country, upwards of $300 billion according to government figures, because they've lost heavily during past crises in the troubled South American nation. In the late 1980s there was hyperinflation, and in the early 2000s the government turned dollar savings into pesos at an unfavorable exchange rate. More recently, there have been sudden currency devaluations.Sordi, 28, said in a television interview that the uncertainty -- and the prospect of taxes as high as 50% -- made him want to keep his prize in the U.S. Efforts to reach him Friday were unsuccessful.The fighter, who is 6-foot-2, about 205 pounds and sports the requisite complement of tattoos, has a record of 22 wins and eight losses. Growing up in Rio Cuarto, his father was a lathe operator and money was short -- when he began training he had to borrow gloves. Now, he splits his time between Argentina and San Diego, California.Mariano Sardans, founder of wealth management firm FDI in Buenos Aires, said in an interview that Sordi may be obliged to bring the dollars home and face an unfavorable exchange rate and taxes. President Alberto Fernandez has tightened currency controls to stem capital flight and increased export taxes to boost fiscal revenues."They talk about socialism but with other people's money," Sordi said on television. "It's really easy that way."\--With assistance from Jorgelina do Rosario.To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan Gilbert in Buenos Aires at jgilbert63@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Juan Pablo Spinetto at jspinetto@bloomberg.net, Stephen Merelman, Robert JamesonFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Uganda's Museveni begins jungle march to highlight liberation struggle Posted: 04 Jan 2020 10:45 AM PST  Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni on Saturday began a six-day march through the jungle to re-trace the route through which his guerrilla forces seized power three decades ago, which critics dismissed as a bid to rally support ahead of 2021 elections. Museveni is one of Africa's longest-ruling leaders, having seized power in 1986 after taking part in rebellions to end the brutal rule of Idi Amin and Milton Obote, and is expected to seek a sixth term in office in the next elections.
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| QAnon Believer Teamed Up With Conspiracy Theorists to Plot Kidnapping, Police Say Posted: 04 Jan 2020 01:59 AM PST  Colorado mother Cynthia Abcug became an unlikely star on the fringe right last year thanks to a battle with her state's child-welfare department over custody of her son, which became a cause célèbre among believers of the bizarre pro-Trump QAnon conspiracy theory. But a recently unsealed arrest warrant alleges that Abcug had bigger plans, working with other armed QAnon believers to plan a kidnapping.Montana police arrested Abcug in Kalispell, Montana, on Dec. 30, on a felony conspiracy to commit kidnapping arrest warrant issued in Colorado. Abcug had allegedly teamed up with other QAnon believers to carry out the kidnapping, according to witness statements to police. The alleged target of the purported kidnapping is redacted in court documents, but the individual is described as once having been in Abcug's "care." The 50-year-old's son was taken from her by Colorado child-welfare officials in the spring of 2019. Police in Parker, Colorado, first became aware of Abcug's alleged plan in late September, when her daughter told authorities that she had been discussing a kidnapping "raid" with other QAnon believers. Abcug's daughter told police she was concerned that someone could be hurt in the raid.Trump Throws Fresh Fuel on Dangerous QAnon Conspiracy TheoryAccording to a heavily redacted police affidavit, Abcug's daughter told police that her mom was a committed QAnon believer who had been discussing how "people from the Q-Anon group planned to kidnap" the unnamed person. Abcug had obtained a gun of her own, according to her daughter, and talked about a person or group of people "dying" in a "raid" conducted by QAnon believers.Police found QAnon paraphernalia at Abcug's home, including blue awareness bracelets promoting a QAnon website and the name of a prominent QAnon Twitter poster. Abcug allegedly stressed "her belief that people would be injured during the raid," saying that they were "evil Satan worshipers" and "pedophiles," according to the affidavit. Abcug's daughter said her mom typically only left the house to meet with fellow QAnon supporters. "[Abcug's daughter] explained that Abcug got involved with Q-Anon, and that Abcug has repeatedly talked about a raid (to her and others), wherein people from the Q-Anon group planned to kidnap [name redacted]," the arrest warrant affidavit reads. "She expressed concern that people were going to be injured, and that it was going to occur 'soon.'" QAnon, an elaborate conspiracy theory that posits that Donald Trump is at war with Satanic pedophile-cannibals in the Democratic Party, began in late 2017 with anonymous message board posts made by a person or a group of people known only as "Q." Since then, it's won adherents among Trump supporters, including some GOP congressional candidates. The president and his re-election campaign have repeatedly flirted with QAnon promoters, even though the FBI considers QAnon to be a potential domestic terror threat.While QAnon promoters often claim their movement is non-violent, the conspiracy theory has been linked to two murders, including the slaying of a Gambino mafia family boss. Other QAnon believers have been charged with crimes, including a church vandalism and an attempt to shut down a bridge with an improvised armored truck.Accused Pizzagate Arsonist Pleads Guilty to Setting Fire at D.C. PizzeriaAbcug's feud with state officials over custody of her son turned her into a star among QAnon believers and other fringe activists after she broadcast her allegations about supposed abuses committed by the state's child-welfare system on right-wing websites like InfoWars, Big League Politics, and PJ Media.Abcug didn't respond to a request for comment, and The Daily Beast was not able to confirm the details of Abcug's custody case. A segment of QAnon believers have become convinced, in an outgrowth of the Pizzagate conspiracy theory, that child-protective services double as a kind of hunting ground for the mythical pedophiles they're convinced run the anti-Trump "deep state." "The Child Protective Services was a front line for funneling in the trafficking," Abcug said in a June appearance on a QAnon-affiliated YouTube channel. "I had not been open to that yet." The custody case brought Abcug into contact with more QAnon believers, including a man identified in the police affidavit as "Ryan," an "armed guard" who was staying with her. Abcug reportedly described her associate as a "sniper." Abcug stopped responding to police during their investigation last September and eventually left Colorado, only resurfacing in Montana in late December. Abcug was arrested after a tip from the FBI, according to a local news report.Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Precision Guided Munition Stockpiles Could Decide Israel's Next Conflict Posted: 03 Jan 2020 11:00 PM PST  Win or lose?
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| 'We're not going to cower': Small Jewish communities prepare for increasing anti-Semitic attacks Posted: 04 Jan 2020 05:31 AM PST  With anti-Semitic attacks on the rise, Jewish leaders grapple with how to create welcoming environments while keeping their congregation safe.
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| Rep. Crenshaw pushes back on 'absurd' criticism of Soleimani airstrike Posted: 03 Jan 2020 05:51 AM PST  Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw says he wishes Democrats would 'leave the hypocrisy aside' on fighting enemies that want to destroy us.
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| Cycle of revenge: What's next after killing of Iran general? Posted: 03 Jan 2020 07:43 AM PST  The unprecedented killing of Iran's top general in a U.S. airstrike in Iraq has sent shockwaves across the Middle East, with Iran and its allies vowing revenge amid fears of an all-out war. The targeted attack on Friday could give them pause by signaling that the mercurial President Donald Trump is willing to wield U.S. military power in dramatic and unforeseen ways. The slain general, Qassem Soleimani, was a towering figure who mobilized heavily-armed militias across the region against the United States and its allies, extending Iran's influence to the Mediterranean.
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