| Trump rages at Democrats over vote on war powers at Ohio rally Posted: 09 Jan 2020 06:01 PM PST  President Trump went after his Democratic critics at a raucous campaign rally hours after the House of Representatives passed a resolution that sought to limit his ability to wage war in Iran.
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| Pelosi says she will send impeachment articles once McConnell discloses Senate rules Posted: 09 Jan 2020 10:34 AM PST  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that she will send articles of impeachment to the Senate "soon," but still wants to see definitive details from the Senate on how it will conduct the trial.
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| A North Korean woman is under investigation after saving her 2 kids from a house fire — but not her portraits of the Kim family Posted: 09 Jan 2020 04:54 PM PST  Daily NK adds that the unnamed woman hasn't been able to care for her kids in the hospital because of the investigation.
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| India's road-block women vow to fight on against citizenship law Posted: 10 Jan 2020 05:24 PM PST  Every night, 75-year-old Noornissa braves the freezing cold to help block one of the main roads into the capital of India, in a protest that is at the forefront of a rising challenge to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. For nearly four weeks, Noornissa and more than 200 other women have sat and slept across the four-lane road between Delhi and the satellite city Noida, gaining nationwide attention as protests erupted across India over a controversial citizenship law that critics say is anti-Muslim. Men stand guard as the women, from the mainly Muslim area of Shaheen Bagh, sing the US civil rights anthem "We Shall Overcome" and chant against the Citizenship Amendment Act, passed last month by Modi's Hindu nationalist government.
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| Storms with hurricane-force winds, huge hail threaten South Posted: 10 Jan 2020 05:16 AM PST |
| Nobel laureate Paul Krugman said he likely fell for a phishing scam. Here's how phishing scams work and how to avoid them. Posted: 09 Jan 2020 07:56 AM PST  Krugman tweeted that he received a phone call indicating that hackers downloaded child pornography on his WiFi network.
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| Ocasio-Cortez Refuses to Pay DCCC Dues, Frustrating House Dems Posted: 10 Jan 2020 10:58 AM PST  Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has exasperated her fellow House Democrats by announcing that she will not pay dues to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which works to elect Democrats to the House."For me personally, I'm not paying D-trip dues" for a "myriad of reasons" the freshman progressive congresswoman from New York said, using a nickname for the DCCC.According to records, she has so far not paid her $250,000 in dues despite leveraging her massive social media following to raise millions for her own reelection, Fox News reported.Ocasio-Cortez said her gripe with the party's official House campaign organization relates to the DCCC's practice of not supporting newer progressive candidates in order to insulate incumbent Democrats."One, I don't agree with the policy around blacklisting groups that help progressive candidates," she said. "I think we need to evolve as a party and make room for that.""I want to help frontline members by putting that money straight into their pocket," Ocasio-Cortez explained.The progressive 30-year-old has made good on that promise, pulling in more than $300,000 last year for candidates of her choosing, including $18,000 for Marie Newman, who seeks to oust longtime Illinois congressman Dan Lipinski, a rare pro-life Democrat."To have people try to purify the caucus because they don't agree with them – 100 percent, I certainly don't agree with that," said Texas Representative Henry Cuellar, one of the Democrats Ocasio-Cortez is trying to replace with a more progressive candidate, in this case Jessica Cisneros, for whom she raised $35,000."Hopefully, we will start to get away from this circular firing squad," Cuellar said.Ocasio-Cortez complained earlier this week that the Congressional Progressive Caucus's standard for lawmakers is too low, saying, "They let anybody who the cat dragged in call themselves a progressive."DCCC Chairwoman Cheri Bustos highlighted the party campaign arm's strong fundraising numbers even without Ocasio-Cortez's contribution."That's always up to individual members so I guess I don't think about it one way or another," Bustos said of Ocasio-Cortez's decision to withhold dues. "We're raising record amounts of money from our members."
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| U.S. Army plans to expand Asian security efforts to counter China Posted: 09 Jan 2020 11:16 PM PST  The U.S. Army plans to deploy two specialized task forces to the Pacific capable of conducting information, electronic, cyber and missile operations against Beijing, a Pentagon official said on Friday. The task forces were slated to deploy over the next two years, U.S. Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy said at an event https://brook.gs/39VM3fS in Washington. The units, called Multi-Domain Task Forces, would help neutralize some capabilities China and Russia already possess.
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| Police, villagers clash over land in Vietnam, leaving 4 dead Posted: 09 Jan 2020 01:35 PM PST  Residents of a Hanoi suburb used grenades, firebombs and spears Thursday in an attempt to stop soldiers from building a wall around a military airport on land they say is private, leaving three police and a villager dead, officials said.
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| Trump news – live: President calls for whistleblower and Bidens to testify in impeachment trial as reports say Iran 'accidentally' shot down Ukraine plane Posted: 09 Jan 2020 02:58 AM PST  Donald Trump has moved to soothe the tensions he inflamed with Iran by assassinating Quds commander Qassem Soleimani, saying the regime is "standing down" after fears a ballistic missile strike on two US military bases in Iraq could escalate into a full blown war.But the president's address to the nation on Wednesday, flanked by senior cabinet members and top generals at the White House, was criticised by many for the slurred nature of much of his speech, with commentators again questioning Mr Trump's fitness for office after he stumbled over simple words.
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| Poll: 55 percent of Americans think Trump killing Soleimani made the U.S. less safe Posted: 09 Jan 2020 07:39 AM PST  A majority of Americans don't seem to be buying the Trump administration's rationale for killing Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleiman, according to a new poll.In a USA TODAY/Ipsos poll released Thursday, 55 percent of U.S. adults said the United States' recent drone strike that killed Soleimani and its immediate aftermath made the country less safe.The administration has contended the opposite in the days since the strike. Vice President Mike Pence, for example, told Today in an interview Thursday that "America is safer" as a result of Trump's decision.But only 24 percent of Americans in this poll said the strike made the country safer, and almost a third of Republicans said the strike made the U.S. less safe. Even so, 42 percent of Americans still supported the Soleimani strike, while 33 percent opposed it and 25 percent didn't know what to think about it.Fifty-two percent of those surveyed also described Trump's behavior with Iran as "reckless," while 62 percent said the strike that killed Soleimani made it more likely that the United States and Iran will go to war. Forty-seven percent said they believe Trump authorized the bombing to distract from impeachment.USA Today's poll was taken by surveying 1,005 adults online on Jan. 7 and Jan. 8, and it was completed prior to Trump's recent address. The margin of error is 3.5 percentage points. Read the full results at USA Today.More stories from theweek.com Trump reportedly admitted impeachment played a big role in his Soleimani decision Donald Trump is behaving like the guiltiest man alive Marianne Williamson drops out of the 2020 race
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| North Korea's Underground Bunkers And Bases Are A Nightmare For America Posted: 10 Jan 2020 03:31 AM PST  What lies within them?
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| Zimbabwe's VP wife sues husband over access to children, house Posted: 10 Jan 2020 09:17 AM PST  The wife of Zimbabwe's vice president, who faces charges of attempting to murder her husband, has sued over access to their children and home, court papers showed Friday. Marry Mubaiwa, 38, who is the wife of Vice President Constantino Chiwenga, 63, was arrested last month on allegations of attempted murder, fraud and contravening currency laws by transferring about $1 million abroad. According to an affidavit filed Thursday, she has not seen her children, and troops have barred her from their matrimonial home.
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| Canada prosecutor says essence of Huawei CFO case is fraud Posted: 10 Jan 2020 04:17 PM PST  Canada's Department of Justice said Friday the allegation against a top Chinese executive arrested at the United States' request would be a crime in Canada and she should be extradited to the United States on fraud charges. Canada arrested Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou, the daughter of Huawei's founder, in Dec. 2018 in a case that sparked a diplomatic furor among the three countries and complicated high-stakes U.S.-China trade talks. China detained two Canadians in apparent retaliation for the arrest Meng.
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| The 7 Coolest Automotive Technologies Unveiled at CES Posted: 10 Jan 2020 09:01 AM PST |
| Thousands of Australians are calling for their prime minster's resignation. He's vowed to keep exporting coal, despite the link between fires and climate change. Posted: 10 Jan 2020 09:30 AM PST  Since September, 25 million acres of Australia have caught fire. The resulting smoke plume stretches 1.3 billion acres.
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| U.S. rebuffs Britain's extradition request for diplomat's wife after fatal crash Posted: 10 Jan 2020 12:57 PM PST  WASHINGTON/LONDON (Reuters) - The United States on Friday rejected a formal request from Britain for the extradition of a U.S. diplomat's wife who left the country last year after a road collision that killed 19-year-old Briton Harry Dunn. British prosecutors are seeking the extradition of Anne Sacoolas over the crash last August in which Dunn was killed while riding his motorbike. "Following the Crown Prosecution Service's charging decision, the Home Office has sent an extradition request to the United States for Anne Sacoolas on charges of causing death by dangerous driving," a UK Home Office spokesman said in a statement on Friday.
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| Former Abe Aide Dismisses Ghosn’s Allegations of Japan Plot Posted: 10 Jan 2020 01:19 AM PST |
| Iran Shot Down Ukraine Flight after Attack on Iraqi Military Bases, U.S. Officials Say Posted: 09 Jan 2020 08:55 AM PST  Pentagon and Iraqi officials claim that a Ukrainian Airlines flight that crashed after leaving Tehran Tuesday night was shot down by an Iranian anti-aircraft missile system, according to multiple reports.Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752, en route from Tehran to Kyiv, was shot down by an Iranian anti-aircraft missile in what was likely an accident, several U.S. military officials told Newsweek. The incident occurred just hours after Iran launched 15 missiles at Iraqi military bases in retaliation for the assassination of general Qasem Soleimani.When asked about the crash during a White House event on Thursday, President Trump said that "somebody could have made a mistake on the other side.""Well, I have my suspicions," he said. "I don't want to say that because other people have their suspicions . . . somebody could have made a mistake on the other side."Several U.S. officials told CBS News that U.S. intelligence identified the Iranian anti-aircraft missiles upon launch using radar systems, which subsequently picked up a mid-air explosion when they struck the plane.All 176 passengers on board the flight were killed. Footage showed the plane on fire as it descended from the sky. The New York Times later released a video showing the plane being struck by a missile.> Breaking First footage of the Ukrainian airplane while on fire falling near Tehran pic.twitter.com/kGxnBb7f1q> > -- Ali Hashem علي هاشم (@alihashem_tv) January 8, 2020Following the incident, Iranian state media initially reported that the plane had crashed due to "technical issues," and Ali Abedzadeh, who leads the country's civil aviation organization, said Wednesday he would not hand over the recovered black boxes to the United States.In a statement Thursday, Abedzadeh dismissed allegations the plane was shot down, saying it was "scientifically impossible and such rumors make no sense at all.""We are aware of the media reports out of Iran and we are gathering more information," Boeing said in a statement after the crash.> We are aware of the media reports out of Iran and we are gathering more information.> > -- The Boeing Company (@Boeing) January 8, 2020Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed Thursday that he would launch an investigation "to find out the causes of the tragedy.""We will definitely find out the truth. We will conduct a detailed and independent investigation," Zelensky said.
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| White House falsely claims 'Obama killed Gaddafi' to justify Soleimani strike Posted: 10 Jan 2020 12:28 PM PST  White House spokesperson Hogan Gidley didn't do a great job defending his employer on this one.As Democrats and some Republicans continue to criticize President Trump's decision to assassinate Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, Gidley chimed in to compare it to the killings of several controversial leaders during former President Barack Obama's presidency. But as journalists and former Obama officials made clear, Gidley's comparisons weren't exactly accurate.> Obama didn't kill Gaddafi -- a militia from Misrata killed him. Democrats were pretty pissed about Awlaki. It was a whole thing. https://t.co/iw3LYSBui7> > — Blake News (@blakehounshell) January 10, 2020Yes, Obama did oversee the killing of Osama bin Laden, which was a widely praised move. But the "legality" of the U.S. killing of al Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki was "a huge political issue" that even led Democrats to team up with Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) to challenge it, Lawfare's Susan Hennessey writes. And Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi? He was overthrown and killed by a Libyan mob.Gidley's tweet came just after Fox News aired a clip of Trump telling network host Laura Ingraham that "I think" Soleimani was planning to attack "four embassies" when he was assassinated, and "that it was probably going to be the embassy in Baghdad." This begs the question that The New York Times' Maggie Haberman later tweeted in response to Gidley: "Why not release the intel since POTUS keeps talking about it?"More stories from theweek.com Trump reportedly admitted impeachment played a big role in his Soleimani decision Rush's Neil Peart dies at age 67 Donald Trump is behaving like the guiltiest man alive
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| Spy scandal rocks Taiwan ahead of weekend elections Posted: 09 Jan 2020 06:27 AM PST  Allegations in the Australian media that a Chinese spy was pressured to smear the Taiwanese ruling party with bribery charges has prompted accusations of meddling in the Taiwanese election. The island of 23 million is already on high alert for any signs of Chinese interference in its presidential and legislative polls on Saturday, amid mounting fears of targeted disinformation campaigns to undermine Tsai Ing-wen, the incumbent president who Beijing deeply mistrusts. China denies trying to do so. In the latest allegations of dirty tricks, reported in The Age, Wang Liqiang, a self-confessed Chinese intelligence operative seeking to defect to Australia, was warned in December that he could be sent back to China and killed if he did not publicly recant his story. In November, Mr Wang sparked an international furore by claiming that he had worked for a Beijing-directed operation to target independence and democracy movements in Hong Kong and Taiwan, and to promote Communist Party influence. Beijing immediately dismissed his story and said he was a convicted criminal, and Taiwan's main opposition party, the Kuomintang (KMT), whom Wang said Beijing was supporting, has strongly denounced the claims, as has Han Kuo-yu, its presidential candidate. Supporters of Han Kuo-Yu, presidential candidate for Taiwan's main opposition Kuomintang (KMT) party Credit: SAM YEH/AFP via Getty Images The KMT favours stronger trade ties with China although it maintains it will not do so at the cost of Taiwanese sovereignty. The island, which China claims as its own territory and threatens to annex, functions as a de facto independent nation. However, the Australian Security Intelligence Operation issued an earlier rare statement to say it took the claims of foreign interference seriously. Security agencies later uncovered a list of threats against Mr Wang on Christmas Eve, the Age reported. He was allegedly asked to recant his accusations by Alex Tsai, a senior KMT official, and directly threatened by a Chinese businessman. He was reportedly told that his family would be spared punishment if he backtracked on his spy claims. It is also claimed he was provided with a script and told to record a video message in which he would falsely claim that Taiwan's governing Democratic Progressive Party had bribed him to lie with "a large sum of money." Wang Liqiang is seeking asylum in Australia, where he has offered a trove of secrets about Chinese political interference Speaking to reporters in Taipei, Alex Tsai, the KMT official named in the story, confirmed he had spoken to Mr Wang, but denied threatening him or offering inducements. "It has nothing to do with Taiwan's elections," he stressed. "Wang Liqiang is not a spy. That is sure," he said, claiming that he had contacted Mr Wang to negotiate to clear the name of a Chinese businessman he had implicated in his espionage accusations. "Both are not Communist spies. Some people say that they're spies working to infiltrate Taiwan, but they've got the wrong person. It's a serious violation of human rights," he said. The DPP, which has repeatedly warned throughout the election campaign that China wants to impose authoritarian rule on Taiwan, expressed shock over the controversy and accused Mr Tsai of not revealing the whole truth. "This is an international scandal," Kuan Bi-ling, a DPP legislator said. In Australia, the federal police force told local media that it was "aware of threats made against a man currently residing in Australia." A spokesman added: "The AFP takes threats of this nature seriously and has commenced an investigation."
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| Egyptian restores historic synagogue, but few Jews remain Posted: 10 Jan 2020 11:47 AM PST  Egypt reopened a historic synagogue on Friday in the Mediterranean coastal city of Alexandria after a yearslong government renovation. The country's Jews largely left more than 60 years ago amid the hostilities between Egypt and Israel. The two-story Eliyahu Hanavi synagogue in Alexandria partially collapsed in 2016.
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| Thousands flee beach towns after prime minister proclaims Australia 'wonderful place to come' Posted: 09 Jan 2020 07:52 AM PST  Hot, windy weather swept back into southeastern Australia on Thursday, whipping historic bushfires and prompting evacuation of several coastal towns.
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| Israel hails 'breakthrough' towards laser air defence system Posted: 10 Jan 2020 02:47 AM PST  The Israeli defence ministry has hailed a "breakthrough" in the development of cheaper laser-based air defences, as tensions soar in the region after Iran hit US targets in retaliation for a high-profile assassination. The lasers, still under development, would be capable of intercepting "everything" fired at Israel, including long and medium range missiles, rockets, mortar rounds and drones, an official told AFP on Thursday, asking not to be identified. The new technology, which Israel hopes to test later this year, uses electricity to power the lasers, doing away with the need for stocks of munitions, the official said.
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| Experts say 'panic' and 'poor training' could have resulted in Iran accidentally shooting down Ukrainian Flight 752 Posted: 10 Jan 2020 09:58 AM PST  The aircraft was flying near the sensitive Malard missile site — but mysteries remain around how it could have been mistaken for a hostile plane.
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| Modi is resurrecting the most horrifying episode of his career to crush dissent Posted: 10 Jan 2020 06:12 AM PST  When Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised to bring his Gujarat Model to the rest of the country, everyone thought he meant the pro-growth reforms that had allegedly done wonders for the economy of his home state. But the events of last week suggest that the real Gujarat Model that Modi had in mind was something else entirely: Government looking the other way as private militants violently attack disfavored groups. It's a model that infamously resulted in the slaughter of more than 1,000 men, women, and children, mostly Muslims, over the course of a few days in 2002 when Modi was its chief minister.And now Modi has done a mini re-enactment at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), a prestigious college in the heart of New Delhi whose opposition has long irritated him. This is no doubt a warning shot to the growing youth resistance against his "papers, please" citizenship law.Here's what happened at JNU:Sunday evening, 40 to 50 hoodlums, mostly men but also a few women, faces partially wrapped in scarfs, armed with clubs, iron rods, and sledgehammers, stormed the campus. Eyewitness accounts and video footage suggest that several of these people were members of the ABVP (Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad), a student union associated with Modi's party. They approached a group of students protesting a sudden, massive fee hike and began thrashing them. They bloodied the student president, Aishe Ghosh, and many others.Then, chanting that the students were traitors who deserve to be shot for opposing the administration, the attackers barged into dorm rooms and went on a rampage, taking care to spare rooms that sported ABVP posters. Muslim students were of course fair game. And so was a blind Hindu student, a Sanskrit scholar and a student of Hinduism no less, whose wall sported a picture of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, India's reformist founding father. (Ambedkar has fallen from grace in pro-Modi circles because he was a vigorous opponent of the caste system and other regressive Hindu practices and his thought is fueling the constitutional case against Modi's Hindu nationalism.)JNU's vice-chancellor, who is appointed by the central government, failed to mobilize campus security to stop the mayhem. Meanwhile, the Delhi police, which is under the command of the Modi government rather than local authorities, ignored the frantic calls of students for over an hour. There was a veritable battalion of cops standing right outside the campus gates, but not a single one of them went in to stop the attack. As if this is not shocking enough, the cops even stood by as ambulances were vandalized right in front of them.Modi hasn't said a word condemning the violence at JNU. No assailant has yet been charged or arrested. The police claim they're zeroing in on some suspects, but judging by how they have handled cow vigilantes lynching Muslims suspected of consuming beef, the culprits will face no more than a slap on the wrist.Incredibly, at the exact same time that the JNU students were getting bashed, the cops were preparing a rap sheet against some of them, including Ghosh, for allegedly vandalizing university computer servers the day before to stop students from registering. Ghosh denies that allegation. Meanwhile, a video that ABVP circulated — and no less than the vice chancellor retweeted — showing that the Sunday violence was triggered by a prior episode when a "lefty student" punched an ABVP member turned out to be the opposite: an ABVP supporter appears to be attacking a "lefty student."All of this — law enforcement standing by as private militants allied with the ruling party go on a violent spree, criminalizing the victims, spreading disinformation to confuse the public — was precisely Modi's modus operandi in Gujarat. But the ominous parallels with that grisly episode don't stop there.The Gujarat carnage was preceded by a long vilification campaign against Muslims, a strategy he is replicating in miniature against the university. Modi has long castigated JNU students and faculty as communists and traitors who want to break up the country — never mind that last year's Nobel Prize recipient in economics along with two of Modi's own cabinet ministers hail from the university. His Home Minister and right-hand man, Amit Shah, known for his brass knuckles politics, has repeatedly said the university's "tukde tukde gang" — meaning the gang that wants to dismember India piece by piece — needs to be "taught a lesson." Modi popularized this moniker a few years ago when some of JNU's firebrand student leaders harshly protested the abrupt hanging of a Muslim man who had allegedly attacked the Indian parliament.Such statements signaled to Modi and Shah's most extreme supporters that they wanted the university targeted, without having to bother with actually giving orders to law enforcement authorities.Not that the duo is shy about doing so when necessary.A few weeks ago, cops appeared to vandalize Jamia Millia University, a Muslim university in New Delhi. But Modi's comrade, Yogi Adityanath, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, went even further. His police showed up at Aligarh Muslim University and roughed up students protesting Modi's faith-cleansing policies that'll strip an untold number of Indian Muslims of citizenship. Over 60 students were injured, three critically. Several students have just disappeared. A Muslim female journalist who was covering a protest in nearby Lucknow was arrested and allegedly assaulted by police.But such tactics are backfiring spectacularly. The anti-government protests, especially on college campuses, are spreading like wildfire. Students at many elite colleges have gone on strike and are holding candle light vigils to protest the events at JNU and AMU along with Modi's nefarious citizenship law.A normal politician would back off in the face of such public opposition and extend an olive branch, especially given how quickly Modi's carefully cultivated squeaky-clean image is getting trashed in India and abroad. But Modi and Shah are doubling down.Previously, they had dubbed secularists defending religious freedom as "Muslim appeasers." Now, even moderate free-market conservatives or middle-of-the-road liberals expressing concern over the direction of the country are being branded as the radical left, Madhvan Narayanan, a veteran Indian journalist, told The Week.Why is Modi doing this? What's his end game?Many fear he is deliberately baiting protesters and fomenting widespread unrest to build an excuse to cancel elections in Delhi next month and put the city under the president's rule. His party is expected to lose handily just as it has done in other state elections in recent months, thanks to the growing dismay over his assaults on citizenship. There is even speculation that he is preparing to suspend India's constitution and declare an emergency, just as Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi notoriously did in 1975.That may or may not be the case. But one open question about Modi always has been whether he was pushing an extreme Hindu nationalist agenda to gain power or vice versa: pursuing power to push his agenda. His growing enemies list — and the private and state violence he will apparently deploy against those on it — suggests that the former might be the case.This means no one outside of Modi's band of merry brothers is safe in India anymore. All of India is Gujarat now. Dissent is out. Violence is in.As one poster at a protest noted: "First AMU. Then JNU. Next You."Want more essential commentary and analysis like this delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for The Week's "Today's best articles" newsletter here.More stories from theweek.com Trump reportedly admitted impeachment played a big role in his Soleimani decision Rush's Neil Peart dies at age 67 Donald Trump is behaving like the guiltiest man alive
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| South Korea’s Moon Reassigns Prosecutors Probing His Government Posted: 09 Jan 2020 01:07 AM PST |
| Thailand asks Malaysia to help find Rohingya who escaped detention center Posted: 09 Jan 2020 04:32 AM PST |
| UN authorizes cross-border aid to Syria only from Turkey Posted: 09 Jan 2020 01:08 PM PST  The U.N. Security Council approved a resolution Friday limiting the delivery of cross-border humanitarian aid to Syria to just two crossing points from Turkey to the mainly rebel-held northwest as Russia demanded — a vote which potentially cuts off assistance from Iraq to over one million Syrians in the northeast. The divided 15-member council was facing Friday's expiration of its mandate to deliver aid across borders, and the possibility of a halt to all cross-border aid. The U.N. humanitarian office says it has been supporting 4 million Syrians — 2.7 million in the northwest and 1.3 million in the northeast.
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| Mexican man slits throat at U.S. border after being denied entry Posted: 09 Jan 2020 02:34 PM PST  A Mexican man has died after slitting his own throat when he was denied entry to the U.S., according to Mexican officials.
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| All the Insane Surveillance Tools the Government (Maybe) Has Posted: 10 Jan 2020 11:44 AM PST |
| Iran denies missile downed Ukrainian plane Posted: 10 Jan 2020 12:27 PM PST  Iran's civil aviation chief denied Friday that a missile downed a Ukrainian airliner which crashed killing all 176 people on board, rejecting Western claims of a catastrophic mistake by Tehran's air defences. The cause of the crash is to be announced Saturday after an investigating committee meeting in the presence of foreign and local parties involved, Iran's Fars news agency said, quoting an "informed source". The report came as Ukraine said its experts had been granted access to the black box flight recorders and as US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo repeated it was "likely" an Iranian missile had downed the plane.
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| A brokered convention is more likely than Elizabeth Warren winning the nomination, FiveThirtyEight forecasts Posted: 10 Jan 2020 09:41 AM PST  The Democratic nominee is starting to take shape in FiveThirtyEight's 2020 vision.The data-driven news site gives former Vice President Joe Biden the best chance of locking down the 2020 Democratic nomination in its primary forecast that debuted Thursday. But things get more complicated beyond the top two candidates, with FiveThirtyEight predicting the Democratic National Committee could arrive at its convention without a nominee.Democratic candidates need to win more than half of pledged delegates ahead of the convention to land the presidential nomination. Biden has a two in five chance of earning that majority, FiveThirtyEight says, while Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt) has a one in five chance.But the next most likely outcome isn't that prominent candidates Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) or former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg win the nomination. It's that no one gets a majority of delegates at all, FiveThirtyEight predicts. The chances of ending up with a contested convention are one in seven, FiveThirtyEight forecasts. Warren meanwhile gets a one in eight chance of locking up the nomination, Buttigieg gets 1 in 10, and all the other Democrats out there get a collective one in 40.Find more of FiveThirtyEight's primary predictions here.More stories from theweek.com Trump reportedly admitted impeachment played a big role in his Soleimani decision Rush's Neil Peart dies at age 67 Donald Trump is behaving like the guiltiest man alive
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| South Africa’s Cosatu Calls for Removal of Eskom Board, Gordhan Posted: 10 Jan 2020 08:12 AM PST |
| Pompeo Says Administration Is Not Sure ‘Where’ or ‘When’ Soleimani Planned ‘Imminent Attacks’ Posted: 10 Jan 2020 07:27 AM PST  Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Thursday that the Trump administration does not know "precisely when" or "precisely where" Iranian general Qasem Soleimani was planning to launch the "imminent attacks" against U.S. assets that the administration cited as justification for the airstrike that killed him last week."There is no doubt that there were a series of imminent attacks being plotted by Qasem Soleimani," Pompeo told Fox News. "We don't know precisely when, and we don't know precisely where, but it was real."The U.S. launched an airstrike in Baghdad on January 3 that killed Soleimani, the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard's elite Quds Force.U.S. officials said they believed Soleimani had been plotting "imminent attacks" on U.S. facilities in the surrounding region that could have killed hundreds of Americans, though multiple reports citing senior diplomatic and military officials have contradicted the claim that an imminent threat had emerged in the days before the airstrike."I don't think there's any doubt that Soleimani had intentions not only to take action against our forces, our diplomats in Iraq but in other countries around the region and world as well," Pompeo said.Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle expressed outrage after a briefing on the airstrike delivered Wednesday by Pompeo and other officials. Republican Senator Mike Lee of Utah led the charge, calling it "the worst" military briefing he's ever attended before backtracking on Thursday. Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky joined Lee in criticizing Pompeo and other intelligence officials for refusing to divulge more information about what prompted the strike and for counseling lawmaker against publicly debating the merits of further escalation."I thought we did a dynamite job," Pompeo said. "We did our level best to present them with all the facts that we could in that setting.""We shared an awful lot with them yesterday," the secretary of state added. "I think members of Congress get frustrated with this sometimes."
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| Bill Cosby asks Pennsylvania high court to review conviction Posted: 09 Jan 2020 09:20 AM PST  Comedian Bill Cosby filed an appeal Thursday of a court decision last month that upheld his conviction for drugging and sexually assaulting a woman at his home. The latest appeal — filed with the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which does not have to take the case — focuses on four key trial issues, including the judge's decision to let five other accusers testify and to send Cosby to trial despite what he called a binding agreement with an earlier prosecutor that he would not be charged in the case. Cosby, 82, is serving a three- to 10-year prison term at a maximum-security state prison in Pennsylvania.
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| U.S. appeals court stays judge's ruling blocking military funds for border wall Posted: 08 Jan 2020 06:26 PM PST  A U.S. federal appeals court on Wednesday put on hold a lower court ruling that blocked President Donald Trump's administration from using $3.6 billion in military construction funds to build a wall on the country's border with Mexico. The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted a stay pending the Trump administration's appeal of a Dec. 10 decision by a federal judge that barred the funding transfer. In a 2-1 ruling, the panel noted that the U.S. Supreme Court had stayed an injunction in a similar border wall case from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
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| Here's How Russia Almost Extended The Age Of The Battleship Posted: 10 Jan 2020 06:45 AM PST  Why didn't it happen?
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| Iran is using bulldozers at the Ukrainian plane crash site, which could make it impossible to prove what happened Posted: 10 Jan 2020 06:50 AM PST  Experts fear that moving pieces of debris could effectively destroy evidence. Iran has also been reluctant to share the plane's flight recorders.
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| Cambodia casino staff strike over pay at billion-dollar gambling den Posted: 10 Jan 2020 01:34 AM PST  Thousands of Cambodian workers at a Phnom Penh casino that turns over more than a billion dollars a year continued a strike Friday calling for better pay, in a country where Chinese money has driven a gambling boom. About 3,000 workers joined the rare walkout in front of the NagaWorld complex in the capital, one of around 100 casinos which have shot up -- many in the last few years to serve a flood of Chinese customers - across the kingdom. The Hong-Kong registered owner, Nagacorp Ltd, has a 70-year lease on the casino and says it made a profit of $245 million mainly from its Cambodia operations in the first six months of 2019.
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| Chinese Vessels Withdraw From Disputed Waters, Indonesia Says Posted: 09 Jan 2020 03:20 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Chinese fishing vessels and coast guard ships accused of intruding into waters near the Natuna Islands withdrew on Thursday, a day after Indonesian President Joko Widodo visited the area and asserted the country's rights over the disputed waters.An aerial reconnaissance by the Indonesian Air Force showed the Chinese ships left the Southeast Asian nation's exclusive economic zone, military spokesman Sisriadi said in a text message. Widodo's trip to the disputed area on Wednesday sent a strong message to China and prompted the withdrawal of the ships, he said.Jokowi, as Widodo is popularly known, visited the Natuna Islands on Wednesday, saying he was there to enforce Indonesia's sovereign rights over the area after Chinese fishing vessels and coast guard ships were spotted in recent weeks. The country had also sent warships and 120 fishing vessels to patrol the area, besides deploying four F-16 fighter jets to the islands.Jokowi Visits Disputed Waters Amid Rising China Tensions While Indonesia claims the incursion of the fishing vessel was in violation of international laws, China said it's operating legally. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said during a briefing on Wednesday both sides have been in communication using diplomatic channels.While the Indonesian navy, coastguard and the air force will continue to monitor the Natuna Islands area, warships and fighter jets will return to their pre-deployment positions, Sisriadi said.The latest conflict followed accusations by the U.S. and other coastal states in Southeast Asia that China was taking a more aggressive stance on its claims to more than 80% of the lucrative waters in the South China Sea. China has called on the U.S. to stop interfering in the region.To contact the reporter on this story: Arys Aditya in Jakarta at aaditya5@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Thomas Kutty Abraham at tabraham4@bloomberg.net, Rieka RahadianaFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Michael Bloomberg will reportedly fund his campaign through November — even if it's helping another nominee Posted: 10 Jan 2020 11:18 AM PST  Michael Bloomberg reportedly has a long-term plan for his well-funded campaign.The billionaire former New York City mayor made a late entry to the 2020 race, but quickly jumped up in the polls thanks to the millions of dollars of self-funding he's been able to put into it. But if he doesn't end up topping the Democratic field, that campaign machine won't go to waste: Bloomberg will continue funding his staff to help whoever locks down the Democratic nomination, campaign officials tell NBC News.Bloomberg already has one of the biggest paid campaign teams out there, with more than 500 workers scattered across the U.S. He's also dominating the TV ad market, all while paying his staffers nearly double what some other campaigns are. Yet all that spending couldn't get Bloomberg on January's Democratic debate stage, and he's still a long shot to win the nomination altogether.But even if Bloomberg can't buy his way into this election, he'll still be paying for it through November, campaign officials said. All the staffers and digital assets Bloomberg pays for would be redirected to the nominee, building a "shadow field operation across the country," including in general election swing states such as Florida, Michigan, and Wisconsin, NBC News reports.That doesn't mean Bloomberg is backing down in his fight for the nomination. "Mike Bloomberg is either going to be the nominee or the most important person supporting the Democratic nominee for president," Bloomberg's campaign manager Kevin Sheekey said. Read more at NBC News.More stories from theweek.com Trump reportedly admitted impeachment played a big role in his Soleimani decision Rush's Neil Peart dies at age 67 Donald Trump is behaving like the guiltiest man alive
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