| In Trump impeachment trial, Nadler presses case by quoting Lindsey Graham — from 1999 Posted: 23 Jan 2020 12:25 PM PST  Rep. Jerry Nadler employed a video clip of Sen. Lindsey Graham during Thursday's testimony of Donald Trump's impeachment trial to make the case that a president need not have committed a crime in order to be removed from office.
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| US military investigating after finding Pornhub video of Navy service members shot through peephole Posted: 24 Jan 2020 01:34 PM PST  The Navy is reportedly investigating videos found on the website Pornhub that they believe show unsuspecting service members through a peephole in a bathroom.The videos were discovered earlier this month by an agent from the Naval Criminal Investigative Series, according to a report by NBC News.
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| Victims' bodies still at New Orleans Hard Rock Hotel months after collapse Posted: 23 Jan 2020 09:19 AM PST  * Wind blows tarp off one of two bodies amid ruins * Unstable building to be imploded in MarchThree months after the partial collapse of the Hard Rock hotel construction site on the tip of New Orleans's historic French Quarter, a macabre reminder of the tragedy that claimed three lives was visible to passersby this week.Among the collapsed building's twisted remains and rubble, the dangling legs of a wedged corpse were revealed to the public after a tarpaulin sheet covering the body was blown away by wind.The gruesome sight came as city officials are scrambling to dismantle the 18-storey, 350-room hotel, which remains an eyesore and still holds the trapped remains of two workers, Quinnyon Wimberly and José Ponce Arreola.After images of the exposed corpse provoked outrage on social media, city firefighters installed a new tarp on Wednesday afternoon. As of Thursday morning the covering remained intact, as police maintained a heavy presence around the collapsed building.The mayor of New Orleans, LaToya Cantrell, urged members of the public and the media not to photograph or share images of the body."To be clear: capturing or sharing images of the victims in such a condition is irresponsible, it is indefensible, and it is not who we are as New Orleanians," a statement from the mayor's office read. "We urge news outlets, residents, and social media users to have nothing to do with making a tragic situation needlessly worse."Cantrell has faced significant criticism for her handling of the saga and it remains unclear if the collapse is being criminally investigated. Last week, city officials announced new plans to implode the building by mid-March, after the firm that owns the site – 1031 Canal Street Development – had lobbied for a gradual demolition process that would have extended into next year.The mayor's office said on Wednesday that "respectful recovery of the remains" is still a "top priority" but that the building's continued instability had made recovery "extremely difficult and very dangerous". One of the bodies is trapped over 11 storeys above street level.A spokeswoman for the mayor's office declined to comment further on Thursday.The city is preparing for the annual Mardi Gras season, which draws about a million tourists to New Orleans in February and brings in about $400m to the local economy.The collapse has also drawn attention to the plight of the city's undocumented community after one worker, Delmer Joel Ramírez Palma, was deported to Honduras by federal authorities, having been hospitalized due to injuries sustained during the incident.Ramírez Palma had alerted authorities to dangers in the construction process before the collapse and was interviewed by Spanish language TV in the aftermath. He had lived in New Orleans for 18 years.Several lawsuits have been filed against the project's developers and contracts, citing allegations of negligence. Plaintiffs include both bystanders and workers injured during the collapse.
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| Damaged By Drone Strike: Suleimani's Sainthood Is Now Being Questioned Posted: 24 Jan 2020 07:52 AM PST  Iran's brand is thinning among the Shi'a and Suleimani's departure creates breathing room for the Shi'a in the region.
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| Mexico sees rise in gangs, vigilantes recruiting children Posted: 23 Jan 2020 07:49 PM PST  One day after a vigilante group revealed that it was using children as young as 8 as "recruits" for armed defense patrols, Mexico's president said Thursday that drug cartels too are recruiting ever-younger kids. The whole issue has sparked a debate in Mexico over the use of children in armed confrontations, with rights groups saying the practice threatens not only kids' safety, but their mental health. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said that because social programs are giving more youths opportunities to study or work, drug cartels are having trouble finding gunmen, leading them to recruit children.
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| Thunberg fires back at Mnunchin after college degree jab Posted: 23 Jan 2020 09:13 AM PST  Treasury Secretary Steven Mnunchin said Greta Thunberg can discuss fossil fuel divestment "after she goes and studies economics in college."
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| 2 elephants escaped a circus in Russia and rolled around in the snow before being recaptured Posted: 24 Jan 2020 07:20 AM PST  Two elephants escaped a circus in Yekaterinburg, Russia. One of them rolled around in the snow. It took a dozen people to wrangle them.
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| Donald Trump is suddenly scared of Mike Bloomberg — as he should be Posted: 23 Jan 2020 02:30 PM PST  Mike Bloomberg probably isn't going to win the Democratic nomination for president. But he might beat Donald Trump anyway. The reason? Well, there are a couple billion of them — namely, the $2 billion Bloomberg plans to spend on Democrats' behalf.
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| Philippine President Duterte threatens to end military deal with U.S. Posted: 24 Jan 2020 08:51 AM PST  Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte warned the United States on Thursday he would repeal an agreement on deployment of troops and equipment for exercises if Washington did not reinstate the visa of a political ally.
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| Trump imposes visa restrictions on pregnant women to target 'criminal' birth tourism Posted: 23 Jan 2020 09:53 AM PST  The United States will no longer issue tourist tourist visas to foreign women travelling to the country on tourist visas, citing security concerns arising from so-called "birth tourism".The new rules were unveiled by the State Department on Thursday, and seek to put an end to the practice of giving birth in the US so that the child can obtain US citizenship.
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| Senators struggle without their phones at Trump's impeachment trial, where all electronics are banned Posted: 23 Jan 2020 12:14 PM PST  Senators had a hard time following the strict no-phone policy while listening in on 12-hour days of arguments during Trump's impeachment trial.
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| China Puts 13 Cities on Lockdown as Coronavirus Death Toll Climbs Posted: 23 Jan 2020 09:34 PM PST  China is striving to contain a deadly virus outbreak the World Health Organization has termed a domestic health emergency
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| Mexico's tough response to migrants doesn't stir outcry Posted: 23 Jan 2020 02:32 PM PST  The hundreds of Central American migrants walking north in southern Mexico have received steady media coverage in Mexico, but with sky-high murders, a stagnant economy and corruption topping the national agenda, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's aggressive efforts to stop them hasn't stirred a widespread reaction. López Obrador, a leftist who throughout his campaign talked about protecting human rights and more respectful treatment of migrants, has taken some criticism from the left, even from within his own party, for Mexico's more militarized reception of migrants who arrived at the Guatemala-Mexico border last weekend.
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| Australia's Kangaroo Island is looking for volunteers to feed animals injured in bushfires Posted: 24 Jan 2020 07:10 AM PST  Nearly half of Kangaroo Island was burned by the bushfires this month alone. The RSPCA has posted an application form.
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| Report: Kamala Harris is considering endorsing Joe Biden Posted: 23 Jan 2020 10:59 PM PST  Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) is seriously contemplating endorsing former Vice President Joe Biden, several Democratic officials with knowledge of the matter told The New York Times. Harris dropped out of the 2020 Democratic presidential race in December, and although she sparred with Biden during debates last summer — most famously when she criticized him for once opposing school busing — they are back on good terms and talk often, the officials said.She likely won't announce an endorsement until after President Trump's Senate impeachment trial is over, the Times reports, and she understands the importance of her decision, especially since two of her fellow female senators — Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota — are also still in the presidential race.Biden has said he "of course" would consider asking Harris to join his ticket if he is the Democratic nominee. By giving him an endorsement, it could secure her spot as his running mate — or, if he chooses someone else to be vice president, his administration's attorney general.More stories from theweek.com Trump debuts official Space Force logo — and it's literally a ripoff of Star Trek 14 dead, hundreds injured after 6.7 earthquake in eastern Turkey Donald Trump and the moral decline of the pro-life movement
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| In southern Poland, archaeologists discover WW2 plane wreck Posted: 24 Jan 2020 06:26 AM PST ![In southern Poland, archaeologists discover WW2 plane wreck]( "In southern Poland, archaeologists discover WW2 plane wreck") Archaeologists have discovered the wreck of a U.S.-made bomber flown by the Soviet Red Army in World War Two, along with the remains of four crewmen killed when it crashed in southern Poland, private broadcaster TVN reported. Marta Wrobel in the town of Bierun during the war and told TVN that the blast from the crash had been powerful enough to blow out windows and doors. The remains of the four Soviet crewmen who perished in the crash will be laid to rest at a nearby Red Army cemetery.
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| No qualms for India's hangman before first job of executing rapists Posted: 24 Jan 2020 12:53 AM PST  Pawan Kumar feels zero sympathy for the four men he is due to hang next month for a 2012 gang rape and murder that appalled India. The group set to meet their demise before dawn on February 1 -- although it may be delayed -- were convicted for a brutal crime against Jyoti Singh, a 23-year-old student. Angry demonstrations by tens of thousands of people broke out across the vast South Asian nation, sparking soul-searching about the plight of Indian women and leading to heavier sentences for sex crimes.
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| Successor to slain Iran general will be murdered if he kills Americans: U.S. envoy Posted: 23 Jan 2020 07:48 AM PST  The successor to the Iranian commander killed in a U.S. drone strike would suffer the same fate if he followed a similar path by killing Americans, the U.S. special representative for Iran said, according to the Asharq al-Awsat newspaper.
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| The outbreaks of both the Wuhan coronavirus and SARS started in Chinese wet markets. Photos show what the markets look like. Posted: 24 Jan 2020 08:37 AM PST  The Wuhan coronavirus outbreak started in a Chinese wet market, where livestock and poultry are sold alongside animals like dogs, hares, and civets.
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| Tennessee governor signs anti-LGBT adoption bill Posted: 24 Jan 2020 01:00 PM PST  Tennessee has become the latest state to assure continued taxpayer funding of faith-based foster care and adoption agencies even if those organizations exclude LGBT families and others based on religious beliefs. Republican Gov. Bill Lee signed the bill Friday without fanfare or an official announcement, making it the first law to be implemented in Tennessee this year. Some faith-based agencies had already not allowed gay couples to adopt.
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| 'Serious safety risk': Man arrested after pointing laser at planes, temporarily blinding one pilot Posted: 24 Jan 2020 08:46 AM PST  Two planes were struck by a laser, temporarily blinding one pilot, as they flew into Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport on Wednesday night.
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| 'The new evidence raises deeply troubling questions': did Arkansas kill an innocent man? Posted: 23 Jan 2020 07:00 AM PST  Revealed: two years after Ledell Lee was executed, damning evidence emerges that experts say could prove his innocenceThe day before Ledell Lee was executed on 20 April 2017, he talked to the BBC from death row. He said that while he could not prevent the state of Arkansas from killing him, he had a message for his executioners: "My dying words will always be, as it has been: 'I am an innocent man'."Almost two years after Lee was strapped to a gurney and injected with a lethal cocktail of drugs, it looks increasingly likely he was telling the truth: he went to his death an innocent man. New evidence has emerged that suggests Lee was not guilty of the brutal murder of a woman in 1993 for which his life was taken.The deceased inmate's sister Patricia Young lodged a lawsuit on Thursday with the circuit court of Pulaski county, Arkansas, petitioning city authorities and the local police department in Jacksonville to release crime scene materials to her family.The ACLU and the Innocence Project, who are investigating the case on the family's behalf, believe state-of-the-art forensic examination of the materials, including DNA testing and fingerprint analysis, could definitively prove Arkansas did indeed execute an innocent man.An 81-page filing in the lawsuit provides damning new evidence that key aspects of the prosecution case against Lee were deeply flawed. The complaint includes expert opinion from a number of world-leading specialists who find glaring errors in the way forensic science and other evidence was interpreted.The lawsuit also includes a bombshell affidavit from Lee's post-conviction attorney who admits to having struggled with substance abuse and addiction throughout the years in which he represented him.Lawyers who prepared the filing, led by Cassandra Stubbs of the ACLU and the Innocence Project's Nina Morrison, conclude: "It is now clear that the state's forensic experts from trial misinterpreted the evidence in plain sight, and their flawed opinions were further distorted by the state in its zeal to convict [Lee] of the crime. The new evidence raises deeply troubling questions about the shaky evidentiary pillars on which the state executed Ledell Lee."Innocence has always been the achilles heel of America's death penalty: how to justify judicially killing prisoners who may have been wrongfully convicted. The question is far from academic: since 1973 no fewer than 167 death row inmates have been exonerated.The most harrowing question is whether innocent prisoners have been executed before the flawed nature of their convictions emerged. In recent years, there have been several cases that, with near certainty, suggest that innocent men have been put to death.They include Cameron Todd Willingham executed in Texas in 2004 for allegedly having caused a fire that killed his three young daughters. After the execution, further evidence emerged that conclusively showed that he could not have set the fire.The Columbia Human Rights Law Review carried out a groundbreaking investigation in which it concluded Carlos DeLuna was innocent when he was executed – also by Texas – in 1989. The six-year study discovered that the convicted prisoner had almost certainly been confused with another man, a violent criminal who shared the name Carlos.Now Ledell Lee looks as though he may be added to the grim rollcall of the wrongly executed. He relentlessly insisted he was not guilty from the moment he was arrested less than two hours after the brutally beaten body of Debra Reese was discovered in her home in Jacksonville on 9 February 1993.The difficulties with the case against Lee began almost immediately. He was picked up nowhere near the crime scene and was not in possession of any possessions that could be linked to the break-in at Reese's home.The only evidence against him was inconclusive at best. There were two eyewitnesses, but they gave conflicting reports of the suspect's identification.> In recent years, there have been several cases that, with near certainty, suggest innocent men have been put to deathThe crime scene was shocking, with blood splattered over the walls and floor. Yet when Lee was arrested on the same day detectives could find no blood on his clothes or body including under his fingernails and nothing was found in a forensic search of his house.Given the paucity of evidence, it is not surprising that it took two trials to find Lee guilty and sentence him to death. The first trial collapsed after the jury was unable to reach a verdict.The ACLU and Innocence Project took up Lee's case very late in the day having been asked to get involved shortly before his scheduled execution date. What they discovered when they opened the case records astounded even these experienced death penalty lawyers.Very quickly they established there were major problems with the prosecution case against Lee. One area that especially concerned them was the inadequacy of Lee's legal representation, both during the second trial in which defense attorneys inexplicably failed to call alibi witnesses that could have placed Lee elsewhere at the time of the murder, and in terms of the help he received at the appeal stage of his case.At one post-conviction hearing, a lawyer working for the state of Arkansas approached the judge and raised concerns about Lee's attorney, Craig Lambert. "Your honor, I don't do this lightly, but I'm going to ask that the court require him to submit to a drug test," the counsel said. "He's just not with us … His speech is slurred."In an affidavit obtained since Lee's execution, signed by Lambert in October, the lawyer admits: "I was struggling with substance abuse and addiction in those years. I attended inpatient rehab. Ledell's case was massive and I wasn't in the best place personally to do what was necessary."Partly as a result of poor legal representation, terrible errors were made in Lee's defense – both at trial and for years afterwards during the appeals process. The complaint goes into detail about these "deeply troubling" shortcomings.One of the key examples relates to the marks found on the victim's cheek. The state's experts mistakenly interpreted the marks as having come from a pattern on a rug in Reese's bedroom where she had been beaten to death with a wooden tire club.In fact, the filing says, the pattern on the body's cheek did not match that on the rug. Instead it was consistent with the murderer stomping on Reese's face directly with his shoe.That is critically significant because the shoes that Lee was wearing that day, which the state used during the trial as evidence against him, were incompatible in the composition of their soles with the injury pattern on Reese's face.To establish this point, an affidavit is provided by Michael Baden, former chief pathologist for New York who is recognized internationally as a leading forensic pathologist. He concludes: "The soles of Mr Lee's sneakers have a much more closely spaced pattern than was transferred in the cheek imprint."That inconsistency is just one of many that were uncovered when Baden and four other specialists were invited to review the case.Lee was executed in a flurry. When the state of Arkansas realized its supply of one of its three lethal drugs, the sedative midazolam, was about to expire at the end of 2017 with no hope of replacing it due to a global ban on medicines being sent to the US for use in executions, it went into overdrive.It announced plans to kill eight prisoners in 11 days.The declaration prompted revulsion from around the US and the world and accusations that the state was engaging in conveyor-belt executions. It was in that climate that attempts by the ACLU and the Innocence Project to have materials gathered at the crime scene of Reese's murder released for DNA testing fell on deaf ears.Though the lawyers presented a strong argument that DNA testing could be crucial in casting doubt on Lee's conviction and pointing towards the real killer, a federal district court denied the request on grounds that Lee had "simply delayed too long" in asking for the materials.It is too late now for Lee. But his lawyers hope that it is not too late to get to the bottom of the case posthumously.The city of Jacksonville is in possession of a rich array of crime scene materials including "Negroid" hairs collected from Reese's bedroom and fingernail scrapings likely to contain DNA from the actual killer – Lee or otherwise."This evidence can now be tested with state-of-the-art methods unavailable at trial, and compared to Mr Lee's unique DNA profile," the filing says.After a welter of legal challenges, Arkansas succeeded in killing four prisoners in one week, including the first double execution held in the US in a single day since 2001. The first of the four to die was Ledell Lee.Should Arkansas now agree belatedly to hand over the crime scene materials for testing, he may yet be proven to have been, just as he always said he was, an innocent man.
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| Lindsey Graham is offering unsolicited legal advice to Trump's team Posted: 23 Jan 2020 08:24 PM PST  Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a juror in President Trump's impeachment trial, is offering free legal advice to his counsel, if they want to accept it.So far, the House impeachment managers have "done a good job" of "painting ... a tapestry, taking a series of events and telling a story," Graham told reporters on Thursday. When Trump's legal team starts delivering his defense on Saturday, they will "start pulling on the threads."Graham also thinks Trump's attorneys will need to shift the focus to former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden. Hunter Biden was on the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian gas company, and is in the center of a debunked conspiracy theory being peddled by Trump allies, including Rudy Giuliani. Graham said Trump's team needs to "really go hard at the idea that when they tell you there's not a scintilla of evidence, groundless, baseless, phony accusations regarding the Bidens, I would challenge that very hard."More stories from theweek.com Trump debuts official Space Force logo — and it's literally a ripoff of Star Trek 14 dead, hundreds injured after 6.7 earthquake in eastern Turkey Donald Trump and the moral decline of the pro-life movement
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| Italy's Crazy World War II Strategy of "Human Torpedoes" Posted: 23 Jan 2020 07:00 PM PST  Was it successful?
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| Parishioner Who Stopped Texas Church Shooter Criticizes Bloomberg on Gun-Control Efforts Posted: 23 Jan 2020 01:41 PM PST  The armed parishioner who took down a shooter at a Texas church in December criticized former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg's gun control efforts on Wednesday."Mr. Bloomberg, had we operated by his standards or his wishes, the carnage would have been significantly greater because the individual still, after the shooting, still had seven live rounds in his gun and three more in his pocket," Jack Wilson said in an interview on Fox News. Wilson, a member of West Freeway Church of Christ in White Settlement, Texas, fired a single round at an armed intruder on December 29, killing the assailant.Bloomberg campaign manager Kevin Sheekey hit back at Wilson in a Thursday appearance on Fox."Mr. Bloomberg supports his right to carry a gun," Sheekey said. "We salute him. But the question is, should anyone who is criminally insane be able to get a gun? I would say no."Earlier in January, while speaking about the Texas incident, Bloomberg appeared to criticize policies that loosen restrictions on gun control."Somebody in the congregation had their own gun and killed the person who murdered two other people, but it is the job of law enforcement to have guns and to decide when to shoot," Bloomberg said. "You just do not want the average citizen carrying a gun in a crowded place."Bloomberg has been heavily involved in gun-control efforts over the years. His proposals for the 2020 presidential election include universal background checks and "red flag screening" measures. In 2013, Bloomberg founded Everytown for Gun Safety, a non-profit that advocates for stricter gun control measures.
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| New Moon Photos! Get Your New Moon Photos Here! Posted: 23 Jan 2020 02:38 PM PST |
| Norway PM shakes up Cabinet after right-wing party exit Posted: 24 Jan 2020 02:30 AM PST  Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg on Friday announced the biggest shake-up of her Cabinet since she took office in 2013, replacing or repositioning two-thirds of ministers in the hope of reviving the Conservative-led coalition's prospects. Solberg lost her majority in parliament this week following the shock exit from government by the right-wing Progress Party over a decision to bring a woman suspected of Islamic State affiliation home to Norway from Syria. While Progress has said it will still back Solberg as prime minister, opinion polls point to an overwhelming lead for center-left opposition parties ahead of a general election in 2021.
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| Belarus' leader blasts Russia for pushing merger of 2 states Posted: 24 Jan 2020 05:44 AM PST  The president of Belarus on Friday accused Moscow of pressuring his country to merge with Russia and vowed not to let it happen. The statement comes amid stalled talks on further strengthening economic ties between two countries, seen in Belarus as Moscow's plot to swallow its post-Soviet neighbor.
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| Scalloped Edges With Major Curve Appeal Posted: 23 Jan 2020 11:58 AM PST |
| US vice police fired over Stormy Daniels strip-club arrest Posted: 24 Jan 2020 09:34 AM PST  Two US vice squad police officers were fired for wrongfully arresting porn star Stormy Daniels, who has claimed an affair with President Donald Trump, city officials in Columbus, Ohio confirmed on Friday. Officers Whitney Lancaster and Steven Rosser were ordered dismissed by Columbus Director of Public Safety Ned Pettus on Thursday, according to documents provided by Pettus' office. Two other officers were suspended for the 2018 strip club arrest of Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, at the Sirens Gentlemen's Club on sexual misdemeanor charges.
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| Hallmark CEO steps down after conservative backlash to same-sex couple ads Posted: 23 Jan 2020 12:54 PM PST  The president and CEO of Hallmark's media brands is stepping down amid a conservative Christian backlash to an ad showing a same-sex couple.Bill Abbott, the now-former head of Crown Media, which operates the Hallmark Channel, is leaving the company one month after the channel aired, then removed, four Zola ads showing two married women kissing.
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| People are really selling iguana meat dubbed 'chicken of the trees' on Facebook Posted: 23 Jan 2020 04:39 AM PST  Iguana meat is listed on Facebook Marketplace for $1.
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| Rep. Ilhan Omar launches 'Send her back to Congress!' reelection bid with big advantages Posted: 23 Jan 2020 02:07 PM PST  Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., is kicking off her reelection campaign Thursday night with a massive bank account and no challengers who pose a serious threat from either party. Her campaign slogan — "Send her back to Congress!" — gleefully evokes President Trump's personal attacks on her.
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| Photos show how China is grappling with the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak as 12 cities are quarantined and hospitals run out of space Posted: 24 Jan 2020 03:00 PM PST  Chinese authorities quarantined people in 12 cities, halting transportation and cutting off nearly 33 million people to try and quell the outbreak.
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| General Says U.S. Troops Deployed to Middle East by Trump Admin. May Be There for ‘Quite a While’ Posted: 24 Jan 2020 06:00 AM PST  Marine General Frank McKenzie, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East, warned troops deployed as part of a recent surge that he was "not sure how long you're going to stay" in the region."You're here because I requested that you come," McKenzie said to sailors and Marines aboard the USS Bataan amphibious assault ship, according to the Associated Press. "I'm not sure how long you're going to stay in the theater. We'll work that out as we go ahead. Could be quite a while, could be less than that, just don't know right now."McKenzie was addressing a small contingent of the 20,000 troops who have been deployed to the Middle East in the last eight months due to escalating tensions with Iran.The general told reporters that while Iran is "deterred right now, the nation "continues to pose a very real threat" to U.S. forces and interests. Iran said that they "did not intend to kill" American troops earlier this month, following a retaliatory rocket attack on U.S. military bases in Iraq."Iran is very hard to read," McKenzie said. "So I would say the fact that things are quiet for a while does not mean that necessarily things are getting better."The U.S. caused waves on January 6 following the leak of a draft letter to Iraq's Ministry of Defense that implied U.S.-led coalition forces were planning to withdraw from the country, only for Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Mark Milley to then say the letter was a "mistake."The State Department then confirmed that U.S. forces would stay in Iraq after Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi asked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to withdraw U.S. forces from the country."America is a force for good in the Middle East," State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said in a statement. "Any delegation sent to Iraq would be dedicated to discussing how to best recommit to our strategic partnership — not to discuss troop withdrawal, but our right, appropriate force posture in the Middle East."
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| Syrians launch symbolic 'one-pound' campaign to lift morale Posted: 24 Jan 2020 07:14 AM PST  With Syria's currency hitting record lows, a nationwide symbolic campaign has been launched by merchants, barbers, supermarkets and even gyms in the war-torn country to support the Syrian pound. Under the slogan "Our pound is our pride," the campaign encourages merchants to sell any staple or service for only one Syrian pound. "This cannot help the Syrian economy, but it is a chance for some people to forget about their troubles and worries," said Marla Khouri, general director of al-Wadi Hotel in the village of al-Meshtayeh in the countryside of Homs province.
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| Democrats walked right into Mitch McConnell's trap Posted: 23 Jan 2020 02:50 AM PST  As the Senate wrapped up its long, loud squabbling about the rules of the impending impeachment trial in the wee hours of Tuesday morning, it was obvious that Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had successfully lured Democrats into yet another procedural trap. The louder the partisan shouting gets, the more McConnell has succeeded in making the president's crimes seem like just another day in a D.C. that is widely loathed by voters. Now in full control of the trial proceedings, and hence the president's fate, McConnell will hold his attenuated trial, the president will huff and puff about total exoneration, and Democrats, still scared of their own shadows and neurotically obsessing over losing a single white voter who can walk to a cornfield, will have kicked away yet another opportunity to properly leverage their power.It didn't have to be this way.When leading Democrats rushed to impeach the president this past fall over the unfolding Ukraine scandal, they were unwittingly playing into the hands of the president and McConnell. While I have always thought the political case for removing Trump was underrated for Republicans, there was probably never any significant chance that McConnell's senate would vote to convict the president. For some Democrats, that meant that impeachment itself was a dangerous waste of time that would inevitably result in a very public victory for President Trump.Others wanted to stand on principle, outcome be damned. But Democrats should always have considered doing what McConnell himself would have done if he had been in Pelosi's shoes — keep the inquiry open as long as possible, strategically deploy leaks and hearings at critical moments like the GOP's summer nominating convention, investigate every possible avenue of the president's wrongdoing in committee after committee, and then sit on it until the upper hand is yours. Maybe you impeach the president close to the election so the Senate has no time to convict. Or maybe you prepare two dozen articles of impeachment and hold onto them in case the president is re-elected. Then impeach him on Inauguration Day. The point is to recognize that the current Senate is an immovable object, and to figure out a way around it rather than plowing directly into it at 65 miles per hour.Pelosi herself seemed to belatedly realize the fundamental dynamic at play here when she refused for several weeks to turn over the articles of impeachment to the Senate. It's hard to believe that she or anyone else in the Democratic caucus thought that McConnell would conduct a fair trial. So what did they think was going to happen, exactly? I can't blame them for hoping for a sharper turn in public opinion against the president, but that ship had sailed long before the full House voted on the articles on December 18.The case for slow-rolling impeachment in the House was threefold. From a substantive standpoint, the White House's hyper-aggressive stonewalling meant that critical witnesses like former Energy Secretary Rick Perry, former National Security Advisor John Bolton, White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney and the Logorrhea-stricken ringleader Rudy Giuliani would not be heard from. The only person in the actual cabal who Americans got to see testify was EU Ambassador Gordon Sondland. Democrats feared their subpoenas would get tied up in court for too long, perhaps past the election, or that the rulings would not go their way. But it's not clear how that's not preferable to what is transpiring now.Would Trump's cronies have melted down under the pressure and admitted to everything under oath in some kind of Colonel Jessup moment? Probably not. But they would have had to perjure themselves and spend the rest of their lives worried about the emergence of new evidence, like witness-protected ex-mafiosos who sleep with a gun under the pillow in fear that they've been found. And they almost certainly would have slipped at some point and accidentally told the truth about something, a la Mick Mulvaney's "we do that all the time" press conference. The thing about a lot of these people is that they are both corrupt and stupid. They wouldn't hold up forever.The second reason was that there were obviously more shoes to drop. Yes, the basic outline of the president's wretched Ukraine caper have been clear since September: Giuliani spearheaded a campaign to blackmail the new Ukrainian president into announcing investigations into Hunter Biden's time on the board of the energy firm Burisma as well as the LSD-spiked fever dream that Kyiv, not Russia, interfered in the 2016 presidential election. Critical military aid was held up, and a White House visit conditioned on the announcements. The twin goals were sabotaging the 2020 election and undermining the findings of the Mueller investigation.The Giuliani end of this scheme always promised more revelations. And sure enough, over the past few weeks we've learned potentially explosive new details from Giuliani bagman Lev Parnas, including that former Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch was under surveillance and that her life may have been threatened by some collection of Giuliani's goons. And the more we learn about these efforts, the more questions we have about why and when the influence operation started and who in the Trump administration was involved. Ukrainian officials seem to agree, and have opened a criminal inquiry into the Yovanovitch affair. Does any Democrat in the House really think they've heard the last bombshell?The third reason brings us to McConnell. The moment they passed the articles of impeachment, Democrats were handing control of the impeachment process over to McConnell, the master manipulator who has outfoxed and wrong-footed Democrats at nearly every juncture over the past decade. The Senate floor defeat of his Obamacare repeal effort should be thought of more like Yankees closer Mariano Rivera blowing Game 7 of the 2001 World Series — a rare stumble that only highlighted how dominant he was the rest of the time. And like Rivera, who threw the same pitch over and over and over again, McConnell runs the same play every time, and Democrats still can't make anything more than weak contact.That play is very simple. If something will benefit Republicans and screw over Democrats, it will be done, as long as it doesn't explicitly violate the Constitution. The majority leader relentlessly uses the Democrats' instinctive protectiveness of good government, procedural fairness and professionalism against them, with a kind of weaponized cynicism that somehow still surprises people. He'll negotiate, only to capitulate to his hardliners. He'll sucker Democrats into compromise, only to then violate either the spirit or the letter of it, often both. He'll let his "moderates" make ambiguous remarks that give Democrats hope, only to whip them into line when it really matters.Democrats should have played keep-away from McConnell for as long as possible. Instead, they let Nate Cohn's Midwest polls and the Sunday show geniuses get into their heads and convince them that impeachment was some kind of grenade they had just enough time to pull the pin on and run away.That's what they did. And it did some damage. Fifty-one percent of Americans believe the president should be removed from office, according to one recent CNN poll, with 58 percent saying he abused the powers of his office. The president has spent months mewling about the unfairness of it all instead of making an affirmative case for his re-election. Every day he looks tinier.But now Democrats are realizing that they left the door open for McConnell to come in and sweep the shards under the rug. It's what he does best, and when he wraps this thing up before the Iowa caucuses and the public moves on, Democrats will have no one to blame but themselves.Want more essential commentary and analysis like this delivered straight to your inbox? 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| Ex-Maryland police officer has been charged with raping and attempting to transmit HIV to a woman he pulled over Posted: 23 Jan 2020 09:06 AM PST  A Maryland Grand Jury has indicted former police officer Martique Vanderpool on charges that he raped and attempted to expose a woman with HIV.
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| Billionaire Draws Ire For Saying Africa Loves Donald Trump Posted: 24 Jan 2020 05:11 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Sign up to our Next Africa newsletter and follow Bloomberg Africa on TwitterSouth African billionaire Patrice Motsepe told President Donald Trump in Davos that Africa loves the U.S. president. Not everybody in his home country shares that sentiment."Africa loves America," Motsepe told Trump at a business dinner during the World Economic Forum this week. "Africa loves you. It's very, very important, we want America to do well, we want you to do well."The country's only black billionaire, and a brother-in-law of President Cyril Ramaphosa, said the success of the U.S. is the success of rest of the world.His comments came just days after it emerged that Trump is considering a proposal to extend travel restrictions to four African nations, including Nigeria, and sparked outrage on local radio stations and social media. South African Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula said on Twitter he doesn't agree that Africa loves Trump.Others cut Motsepe slack for spending millions to treat South Africans to a football match between Mamelodi Sundowns, which he owns, and Spanish giants Barcelona, and for supporting a concert in Johannesburg where Beyonce and Ed Sheeran performed in 2018. Some comments on Twitter also highlighted the importance of U.S. aid to South Africa."He was well within his rights to express his views," Finance Minister Tito Mboweni told reporters on Friday when asked what he thought of the comments by Motsepe, who was part of South Africa's delegation in Davos. "He doesn't have the kind of arrogance to speak on behalf of the South African government."Motsepe capped off the week in which his holding firm announced a multi-million dollar deal to become the largest shareholder in South African retirement services provider Alexander Forbes Group Holdings Ltd. by being appointed to the WEF's board of trustees.\--With assistance from Paul Richardson.To contact the reporter on this story: Prinesha Naidoo in Johannesburg at pnaidoo7@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Rene Vollgraaff at rvollgraaff@bloomberg.net, Mike CohenFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| America's B-25G Bomber Was The Air Force's Very Own Flying Tank Posted: 24 Jan 2020 09:00 AM PST  And it shot like one too.
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| Report: Saints fighting release of emails with Catholic church Posted: 24 Jan 2020 10:47 AM PST ![Report: Saints fighting release of emails with Catholic church]( "Report: Saints fighting release of emails with Catholic church") The New Orleans Saints want to keep emails exchanged with the local Roman Catholic archdiocese private and are going to court to try to shield the correspondence, according to an Associated Press report. The emails could show that the team was assisting the Archdiocese of New Orleans in managing the fallout from a sexual abuse scandal through public relations strategies, according to a court filing. The request to bring the documents to light was filed on behalf of more than 20 men who believe the emails could show the Saints helped the archdiocese to hide crimes.
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