Iranian-backed militia threatens retaliation for US strikes on their forces in Iraq and Syria

An Iran-backed militia vowed on Monday to retaliate for US military strikes in Iraq and Syria which killed 25 of its fighters and wounded dozens. "Our battle with America and its mercenaries is now open to all possibilities," Kataib Hizbollah said in a statement. "We have no alternative today other than confrontation and there is nothing that will prevent us from responding to this crime."   Iraq described the attacks on Kataib Hizbollah as a “flagrant violation” of its sovereignty, and Iran said the airstrikes were “an obvious case of terrorism”. Moqtada al-Sadr, the notorious Iraqi Shia cleric, said on Monday that he was willing to work with Iran-backed militia groups - his political rivals - to end the United States military presence in Iraq through political and legal means. If that does not work, he will "take other actions" in cooperation with his rivals to kick out US troops. Sadr's militia fought US troops for years following Washington's invasion of Iraq in 2003. Iraqi Shiite cleric and leader Moqtada al-Sadr attends a meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister in Najaf on June 23, 2018 The US launched strikes against five targets in Iraq and Syria on Sunday, aiming to damage Kataib Hizbollah – a separate entity to the better-known Hizbollah, based in Lebanon. The US blames the group for the killing last week of an American contractor in a rocket attack on an Iraqi military base. The US attack - the largest targeting an Iraqi state-sanctioned militia since 2011 - represents a new escalation in the proxy war between the US and Iran playing out in the Middle East. Russia’s foreign ministry called the “exchange of strikes” between Kataib Hizbollah and US forces in Iraq “unacceptable,” and called for restraint from both sides. “We consider such actions unacceptable and counterproductive. We call upon all parties to refrain from further actions that could sharply destabilise the military-political situation in Iraq, Syria, and the neighboring countries,” a ministry statement said. Thousands of protesters blocked roads and bridges across southern Iraq on Dec 23, condemning Iranian influence and political leaders who missed another deadline to agree on a new prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, praised the “important” strikes, in a phone call to Mike Pompeo, the US secretary of state. Mr Netanyahu “congratulated him on the important US action against Iran and its proxies in the region,” according to a statement issued by the Israeli leader’s office. Mr Pompeo said the strikes send the message that the US will not tolerate actions by Iran that jeopardise American lives. “We have repeatedly – the president, the secretary of state - made clear that if we are attacked by the regime or its proxies we will respond,” said Brian Hook, Donald Trump’s special envoy to Iran.  He refused to comment on further possible actions. The US has maintained some 5,000 troops in Iraq at the invitation of the Iraqi government, to help assist in the fight against the Islamic State group. But on Monday Iraq’s prime minister, Adel Abdul Mahdi, said that invitation could now be rescinded. "The prime minister described the American attack on the Iraqi armed forces as an unacceptable vicious assault that will have dangerous consequences," his office said.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2rKlpVW

Ex-Bosnian Serb general indicted for aiding genocide

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — Bosnia's war crimes prosecutor on Tuesday charged a former Bosnian Serb general with aiding genocide in the 1995 massacre at the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica. More than 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were killed when Bosnian Serb troops captured the U.N.-protected enclave of Srebrenica in July 1995 during the Bosnian war.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2QfvcNg

China took their parents: the Uighur refugee children of Turkey

The school on the outskirts of Istanbul is a rare place where Uighur child refugees from China can study their language and culture. Having fled a worsening crackdown on Uighur Muslims in northwest China, some of their parents thought it was still safe to return occasionally for business and to visit family, only to disappear into a shadowy network of re-education camps from which no communication is permitted. Nine-year-old Fatima has only vague memories of her homeland -- and now, of her father, too.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2SI5wKG

Swiss Embassy worker detained in Sri Lanka gets bail

A Sri Lankan Court on Monday granted bail to a Swiss Embassy employee who was detained pending charges that she made statements to create disaffection toward the government and fabricated evidence. Before her arrest, the employee, a Sri Lankan national, had reportedly said she was abducted, held for hours, sexually assaulted and threatened by captors who demanded that she disclose embassy-related information. Sri Lankan authorities have said they investigated her complaint but found no evidence to file charges against anyone.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2F5rTSj

Judge dismisses House impeachment subpoena challenge from John Bolton deputy

Charles Kupperman, a deputy to John Bolton when he was President Trump's national security adviser, filed suit after the House subpoenaed him in October as part of its impeachment investigation, asking a federal court to decide if he should comply with the subpoena or follow the White House directive that he refuse to testify. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon dismissed the lawsuit on Monday, noting that the House had withdrawn its subpoena and said it won't reissue it, and the Justice Department said it wouldn't prosecute him for defying the subpoena in any case. House and Justice Department lawyers had asked Leon to dismiss the lawsuit."The House clearly has no intention of pursuing Kupperman, and his claims are thus moot," Leon wrote in his 14-page ruling. Kupperman's continued pursuit of a legal answer to his twin directives was widely seen as a proxy for Bolton, who shares a lawyer with his former deputy. Bolton said he would not testify without a subpoena, and the House did not issue one for him.Both Kupperman and Bolton have been described by people who did testify as key witnesses of Trump's pressure campaign against Ukraine and decision to withhold appropriated military aid. House Democrats flagged Kupperman's refusal to testify as more proof of Trump's obstruction of Congress and declined to get bogged down in a long legal fight.Senate Democrats have requested that Bolton testify under oath at Trump's Senate impeachment trial, though Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has all but ruled out witnesses at the trial. Bolton had used the lawsuit's existence as reason to avoid talking about Trump's Ukraine dealings, though he has hinted he has things to tell.More stories from theweek.com The Obama legacy is not what many liberals think Trump's scandals will haunt America for years The first decade in history

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2F61aFb

Angola Court Freezes Assets Held by Africa’s Richest Woman: Reports

(Bloomberg) -- Sign up to our Next Africa newsletter and follow Bloomberg Africa on TwitterAn Angolan court placed a freeze on assets held by Isabel dos Santos, Africa’s richest woman, including stakes in wireless operator Unitel SA and lenders Banco BIC and Banco de Fomento Angola, Diario de Noticias and Lusa reported, citing a statement from the Angolan Attorney General’s office.The court order also applies to dos Santos’s husband, Sindika Dokolo, and Mario da Silva. The Attorney General sought the order, saying the three had engaged in transactions with state-owned companies that led to Angola’s government incurring losses of $1.14 billion, according to the reports.Isabel dos Santos said in an emailed statement on Tuesday that the judgement contains statements that are completely untrue, and that she’ll use all available instruments of Angolan and international law to fight the order.Dos Santos, the daughter of Jose Eduardo dos Santos who served as Angola’s president from 1979 to 2017, wrote earlier on Twitter a “message of tranquility and confidence to my teams,” without referring directly to the court action. “The road is long, the truth will prevail,” she said.In October, dos Santos said she did nothing wrong when she was chairwoman of state-owned oil company Sonangol and called a probe into the transfer of millions of dollars from the Luanda-based firm “political vengeance.”(Adds statement from dos Santos in third paragraph.)To contact the reporters on this story: Jim Silver in New York at jsilver@bloomberg.net;Joao Lima in Lisbon at jlima1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Chad Thomas at cthomas16@bloomberg.net, Mike Cohen, Alastair ReedFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/39ni5kB

In Leaked Memo, Andrew Yang Asks DNC for More Debate Polls

Andrew Yang is urging the Democratic National Committee to take an unorthodox step in its debate oversight process: commission more polling over the next several days. In a letter sent to DNC Chairman Tom Perez on Dec. 21, obtained by The Daily Beast, the Democratic contender calls for the DNC to commission four early-state polls before Jan. 10 as part of an effort to encourage more diversity on the debate stage in Iowa. “With the upcoming holidays and meager number of polls currently out in the field, a diverse set of candidates might be absent from the stage in Des Moines for reasons out of anyone’s control,” Yang wrote. “This is a troubling prospect for our party. Regardless of the DNC’s best intentions, voters would cry foul and could even make unfounded claims of bias and prejudice.”Yang, who qualified for the first six debates but has yet to reach the polling threshold for the seventh, was the only candidate of color on stage at the recent Los Angeles event. Andrew Yang Goes Mainstream in New Million-Dollar Ad CampaignSo far, the five candidates who have qualified for the CNN-hosted Jan. 14 event at Drake University—former Vice President Joe Biden, Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), and South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg—are all white.Yang has met the individual donor requirement and one qualifying poll, but has three left before he can clear the criteria, and believes commissioning more qualifying polls would be a “simple solution.” Yang, an entrepreneur who’s had flashes of momentum throughout the Democatic primary in some early states, contends the biggest barrier to allowing “a diverse set of candidates” to debate at the next event is the lack of recent qualifying polls that meet the committee’s specifications.It’s been over a month since a poll in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, or South Carolina has been taken, the letter contends, which would not take into account any potential polling bumps from candidates’ recent performances at the sixth debate earlier this month. “As you know, big shifts can happen within short periods in this race, as we’ve already witnessed multiple times,” Yang wrote.Democrats Must Not Have an All-White Debate—and the White Candidates Should Say SoMore polls, “would provide an accurate snapshot of the current state of the race and where voters’ hearts and minds are, thus getting ahead of an imminent problem,” he wrote. A DNC official pointed to 26 total qualifying polls for the December debate. For the January event, the qualifying window was one week longer, in part to account for holidays, the official said.    “The DNC has been more than inclusive throughout this entire process with an expansive list of qualifying polls, including 26 polls for the December debate, more than half of which were state polls,” the official told The Daily Beast. “The DNC will not sponsor its own debate-qualifying polls of presidential candidates during a primary. This would break with the long standing practice of both parties using independent polling for debate qualification, and it would be an inappropriate use of DNC resources that should be directed at beating Donald Trump.”The correspondence is the first time Yang has written Perez. A senior campaign official said the team has not heard back from the chairman directly, but did receive an acknowledgement that it was received from DNC staff. “Andrew Yang has managed to create a broad coalition for the future of our country and we, as a party, need to keep bringing more people into the fold instead of trying to keep people out of the political process,” a senior Yang campaign official said, noting that the team now has nearly 400,000 donors and 1 million contributions, figures first shared with The Daily Beast. Yang’s campaign expects to raise at least $12.5 million in the fourth quarter, 25 percent more money than in the previous one, his campaign said. 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.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/353gqgE

Bosnia indicts Serb army general over Srebrenica genocide

A Bosnian war crimes prosecutor on Tuesday indicted a Bosnian Serb former army general for taking part in the 1995 massacre of about 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica, an atrocity described as genocide by two international courts. Milomir Savcic, 60, is accused of commanding the Bosnian Serb Army headquarters 65 Protection Motorised Regiment, which included a military police battalion, to capture, kill and bury adult Muslim Bosniaks from the U.N.-protected eastern enclave of Srebrenica in July 1995. Bosnian Serb forces led by General Ratko Mladic attacked Srebrenica on July 11, 1995, separated men from women and children, and killed about 8,000 Muslims, who were then buried in mass graves.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2tihGiH

Russian court jails 2 terrorism suspects arrested on US tip

A St. Petersburg court on Monday ordered the detention of two Russian men who were arrested on a tip provided by the U.S. and are suspected of plotting unspecified terrorist attacks in the city during the New Year holidays. The Dzerzhinsky District Court ruled that the suspects identified as Nikita Semyonov and Georgy Chernyshev should remain in custody pending their trial. The FSB didn't elaborate on their alleged motives or targets, but Russia's state television reported that the suspects had recorded a video swearing their allegiance to the Islamic State group.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/39ng9Zg

Iraq riots expose an America weaker and with fewer options

Mobbing of US embassy after US strikes on state-sanctioned militia show America’s plan of maximum pressure only added to chaosThe mobbing of a US embassy has historically served as an emblem of America in decline, so the scenes around the embattled mission in Baghdad are a fitting end to the decade.Tuesday’s events are not quite as decisive as the 1975 helicopter evacuation of the embassy in Saigon, or the seizure of the Tehran embassy four years later. Iraqi forces did turn up eventually to protect the Baghdad mission. It turned out the ambassador was on holiday anyway, so he did not have to endure the humiliation of a rooftop escape. But the demonstration of US weakness, after spending $2tn in Iraq, was plain for all to see.The rioters, organised by the Iranian proxy militia Kata’ib Hezbollah (KH), brushed past Iraqi checkpoints, and there were members of parliament from the government bloc among them. Security forces who have had no compunction about firing tear gas canisters into the skulls of anti-Iranian protesters on Tahrir Square, stood by and watched molotov cocktails thrown at the US embassy. In its public pronouncements, the Iraqis put more blame on Washington than Tehran.For Iran, the embassy riot was the latest move in a deliberate strategy, to raise the costs of the US presence in Iraq and drive a wedge between the Iraqi government and Washington.The competition between the US and Iran for influence in Iraq would have escalated anyway as the threat from Isis declined. But the US effort to destroy Iran economically through its campaign of maximum pressure has meant the Iranians have nothing to lose.“The Iranians have been very, very methodical over the past six months about their responses to the maximum pressure campaign. And unfortunately, it is not really met any counter-response,” said Barbara Leaf, former US ambassador to the United Arab Emirates. “The question is: while Iran has a very methodical approach to upping the ante, do they at some point trip across a red line that they don’t even know exists?”It was inevitable that the repeated attacks by KH on Iraqi bases hosting US troops would eventually lead to American casualties, as happened on Friday near Kirkuk, triggering US retaliatory airstrikes on KH camps in Iraq as well as Syria.Ariane Tabatabai, a political analyst at the Rand Corporation, said: “The US was sort of stuck between a rock and a hard place, because on the one hand, if it did not respond to this latest attack, considering that a US citizen was killed, it would have sent a pretty strong signal that the red line that it had laid out about US casualties didn’t mean anything.”By highlighting the Iraqi government’s impotence on its own territory, the retaliation diverted public dissatisfaction with the heavy-handed Iranian presence in Iraq, to the desire to be rid of the imperious Americans. The US comes out of this tit-for-tat round weaker and with fewer options.It is not clear whether the US has a plan for what happens now. The campaign of maximum pressure was supposed to force Iran to accept a worse deal than the 2015 multilateral nuclear agreement on which Donald Trump walked out in 2018. The oil and banking embargo on Iran have been highly effective in damaging the Iranian economy, but have failed to make Iran bow to US demands for Tehran to give up its military stake in Middle East conflicts and its enrichment of uranium.Instead, Iran has hit back against tanker traffic in the Persian Gulf, and Saudi oil facilities, while ratcheting up pressure on the US military presence in Iraq.US officials have talked in recent days about “restoring deterrence” against such moves with air strikes against KH targets, and have warned they are ready to escalate by taking the fight into Iranian territory.US deterrence however is undermined by having given Iran so little to lose, and by the vacillation of the president, who is entering an election year claiming he has extricated the country from costly foreign wars, while simultaneously wanting to appear tough in the standoff with Iran.“To those many millions of people in Iraq who want freedom and who don’t want to be dominated and controlled by Iran, this is your time!” Trump tweeted on Tuesday, but he sent the tweet while on his way to his golf course in Palm Beach.He was convinced that maximum pressure would bring Iran to the negotiating table as a supplicant, but instead it has added to the chaos.No one – almost certainly not even Trump – knows how he is going to respond.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/36dY4uN

Andrew Yang has a simple idea for how the DNC can increase diversity at the next debate

Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang has a suggestion for the Democratic National Committee.There's been a lot of wariness as the field whittles down about the lack of diversity among the party's top presidential candidates. So far, the five candidates to have qualified for January's debate in Iowa — Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), former Vice President Joe Biden, and South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg — are all white. And Yang, who has yet to qualify for the January event, was the only minority candidate at the last debate in December.In a letter sent to DNC Chair Tom Perez obtained by The Daily Beast, Yang provided a pretty simple idea for how to increase diversity at the January debate. He just thinks the DNC should commission more qualifying polls.Of course, that would go a long way toward helping Yang, who has met the individual donor requirement, but is three qualifying polls short of reaching the threshold. Still, in the letter he tried to appeal to the party at large, saying that the an all-white debate stage was a "troubling prospect" for the DNC, and could even lead to "unfounded claims of bias and prejudice." More polls, he told Perez, "would provide an accurate snapshot of the current state of the race and where voters' hearts and minds are." Read more at The Daily Beast.More stories from theweek.com The Obama legacy is not what many liberals think Trump's scandals will haunt America for years The first decade in history

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/36bxvq2

Trump Retweet of Alleged Whistle-Blower’s Name Is Back on Twitter

(Bloomberg) -- A retweet by President Donald Trump, naming the alleged whistle-blower whose complaint triggered the investigation that resulted in his impeachment, was restored to Twitter late Saturday.The post, originally from the handle @Surfermom77, was retweeted by Trump to his 68 million followers about midnight Friday and by Saturday morning was no longer visible in the president’s Twitter feed. CNN first reported late Saturday that the temporary removal followed a Twitter glitch that affected certain accounts, not deliberate action to delete the tweet by Trump or someone with access to his account.“Due to an outage with one of our systems, tweets on account profiles were visible to some, but not others,” the social media site posted on its @TwitterSupport account.The tweet identifies an individual it says is the whistle-blower: the person who first raised alarm about the president’s conduct in his July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.New HandlesA mystery also emerged around the @Surfermom77 Twitter handle that Trump retweeted, which by Sunday night was wiped from the social media site. Trump’s Friday retweet was being directed to a new handle, @4Shereene4. By Monday, the user was going as @LovelyGigi33.@Surfermom77 had described herself as living in California and a “100% Trump supporter” -- as did the handles @4Shereene4 and @LovelyGigi33.The account, which posted pro-Trump and anti-Democratic material, was temporarily suspended by Twitter on Monday morning. The ban was swiftly lifted and a Twitter spokeswoman described it as having occurred “in error.”The account is “not currently in violation of the Twitter rules,” the spokeswoman said.Confirming the identity of the account holder is next to impossible, but the @Surfermom77 account has previously engaged in strange activity. Since its inception in 2013, the user’s profession changed from “historian-documentary writer” to “educator” to “image model,” according to older versions of the account captured by the nonprofit Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine. The name of the account holder also changed, from “Sophia” to “Evonne” and back to “Sophia.”Rotating account names is a technique used “to spread partisan content at high volume” while avoiding detection, according to Filippo Menczer, a professor of computer science and informatics at Indiana University, whose team is researching the tactic on social media. While the tweet outing the alleged identity of the whistle-blower was likely authored by a human, rather than a bot, the account itself could be “one of possibly many inauthentic accounts controlled by a single actor, to post anonymously -- hiding the identity of that actor,” Menczer said.Whistle-blower PostsSurfermom77 also appeared more than 1,000 times in Twitter’s own data set detailing accounts the company has removed and attributed to state-backed operations. The handle appeared in conversations -- including being retweeted -- with accounts that Twitter removed because they were deemed to be run by Russia, its Internet Research Agency, Iran or Venezuela.In late 2016 the account was linked to Gab, another social media platform popular among the extreme right wing.The White House didn’t respond to a request for comment on Trump’s Twitter activity.Trump has posted about the whistle-blower dozens of times in the past several months and also suggested in comments to reporters that he would like to unmask or face the individual.“Like every American, I deserve to meet my accuser,” Trump tweeted in September.On Thursday Trump also retweeted a link to a Dec. 3 article from the conservative Washington Examiner newspaper that carried the name of the alleged whistle-blower.Attorney Andrew Bakaj, who represents the whistle-blower, lamented in a tweet on Saturday that U.S. lawmakers, who in the past have championed the privacy rights of whistle-blowers, including Iowa Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, have shown “deafening” silence recently.“This is a defining moment where legacies will either be solidified or destroyed,” Bakaj said on Twitter.(Updates with details of Twitter activity starting in the fifth paragraph.)To contact the reporters on this story: Ros Krasny in Washington at rkrasny1@bloomberg.net;Kartikay Mehrotra in San Francisco at kmehrotra2@bloomberg.net;Alyza Sebenius in Washington at asebenius@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: James Ludden at jludden@bloomberg.net, Andrew Martin, Alex WayneFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2QsByaV

Officials struggle to determine cause of fatal Louisiana plane crash

"The wreckage is in pretty tough shape. Between impact damage and fire damage, there's not a lot to work with," an aviation official said.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2ZC8Bxu

The suspect in the stabbing attack at a rabbi's home pleaded not guilty to all charges. Here's what we know about him so far.

Grafton E. Thomas, 37, has pleaded not guilty to five counts of attempted murder and one count of burglary. Here's what we know about him so far.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/37lbSnj

U.S. Taking Democracy for Granted, Chief Justice Roberts Says

(Bloomberg) -- The U.S. has “come to take democracy for granted,” Chief Justice John Roberts said, urging his fellow judges to keep educating the public about the workings of the federal government and the Constitution.Roberts, who is slated to oversee the Senate‘s impeachment trial of President Donald Trump in the coming weeks, used his year-end report Tuesday to laud the federal judiciary’s work on civic education, while issuing a thinly veiled warning about the fragility of American democracy in a fractious time.“We have come to take democracy for granted, and civic education has fallen by the wayside,” Roberts wrote. “In our age, when social media can instantly spread rumor and false information on a grand scale, the public’s need to understand our government, and the protections it provides, is ever more vital.”Roberts described a 1788 riot that incapacitated John Jay while he was working with Alexander Hamilton and James Madison on the Federalist Papers, a series of articles published to promote the ratification of the Constitution. Jay was hit in the head with a rock while trying to quell the riot, which was sparked by a rumor that medical students were dissecting the body of a recently deceased woman. Jay later became the first U.S. chief justice.“It is sadly ironic that John Jay’s efforts to educate his fellow citizens about the framers’ plan of government fell victim to a rock thrown by a rioter motivated by a rumor,” Roberts wrote.Roberts has become the nation’s leading champion of judicial independence since being appointed to the Supreme Court by President George W. Bush in 2005. In his new report, the chief justice called the judiciary “a source of national unity and stability” but added a cautionary note.“We should also remember that justice is not inevitable,” Roberts wrote in a passage directed at his judicial colleagues. “We should reflect on our duty to judge without fear or favor, deciding each matter with humility, integrity, and dispatch.”Roberts, 64, is in the middle of a challenging Supreme Court term that includes cases on LGBTQ discrimination, abortion and gun rights. In late March or early April the court will hear arguments on Trump’s effort to prevent his financial information from being turned over to Congress and a New York grand jury.Roberts released the report three days after his mother, Rosemary A. Roberts, died at age 90. Her obituary said she was surrounded by her family when she passed away.To contact the reporter on this story: Greg Stohr in Washington at gstohr@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Joe Sobczyk at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net, Laurie Asséo, Anna EdgertonFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2MHxhz1

What Are Those Mysterious Drones Doing in Colorado?

The swarm appears to be practicing a search for ... something.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2SE3zyY

Abducted Sri Lanka journalist's wife: Military derails case

The wife of an abducted Sri Lankan journalist is accusing the military of trying to derail a court case in which nine soldiers have been charged with her husband's abduction and enforced disappearance nearly 10 years ago. Prageeth went missing in 2010 during the presidency of Mahinda Rajapaksa, the brother of current President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Prageeth, an analyst and cartoonist, wrote against alleged corruption, nepotism and Rajapaksa’s conduct during a military campaign against ethnic Tamil rebels in ending Sri Lanka's long civil war.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/357YRw1

Indonesia protests to China over border intrusion near South China Sea

Indonesia said on Monday it had protested to Beijing over the presence of a Chinese coastguard vessel in its territorial waters near the disputed South China Sea, saying it marked a "violation of sovereignty".

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/37uzNRv

Iraqi protesters breach U.S. Embassy complex in Baghdad amid anger over airstrikes

Anger over U.S. airstrikes Sunday against Iran-backed militia Kataib Hezbollah boiled over in Baghdad on Tuesday as militia supporters broke into the U.S. Embassy complex and set fire to a reception area, The Associated Press reports. Iraqi officials say the U.S. ambassador and other staff evacuated the embassy as militia supporters started gathering outside, but the security forces who remained fired tear gas at the dozens of protesters who breached a side gate. AP reporters at the scene also heard sounds of gunfire and saw U.S. troops on the embassy roof with guns pointed at the attackers.Leaders of several Iran-backed militias were in the crowd at the embassy shouting "Down, Down U.S.A." and "Death to America." Sunday's airstrikes killed 25 Kataib Hezbollah militants, a response, U.S. officials said, to an attack Friday that left one U.S. contractor dead. The attack on the U.S. Embassy followed funerals for the militants in a Baghdad neighborhood. Before breaking down the side gate, protesters smashed security cameras, torched three empty trailers used by security guards, and spray-painted "Closed in the name of the people" on the embassy gates.More stories from theweek.com The Obama legacy is not what many liberals think Trump's scandals will haunt America for years The first decade in history

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2tf9wYq

Powerful winter storm lingers in Upper Midwest

A fierce winter storm that created blizzard conditions in parts of Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota shut down interstates, led to hundreds of vehicle crashes and brought a metropolitan area of more than 200,000 people to a standstill on Monday morning. Residents in the Fargo and Moorhead, Minnesota area who are used to snowstorms were told to stay home after a foot of heavy, wet snow made that fell on top of a sheet of ice made travel difficult and stoked early fears about spring flooding. The National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning in northeastern Minnesota, northern Wisconsin and Michigan's Upper Peninsula, where periods of heavy snow and gusty winds were expected to create difficult travel conditions.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2QdKZw1

37 Great Gifts for DIYers

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2SA9ZPA

Warren Assails Lobbying Against Her Health Plan: Campaign Update

(Bloomberg) -- Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren assailed the clout in Washington of billionaires and large corporations that have lined up to fight her calls for a wealth tax and Medicare for All.“Many corporate executives and career politicians and billionaires on both sides of the aisle want to keep their influence and their wealth,” Warren, a U.S. senator from Massachusetts, said in a speech in Boston Tuesday. “And they are already deep in the fight to do so.”Warren said that industry interests were lining up to stifle many of the more ambitious initiatives of her campaign, including the swift creation of a government-run health-care system that would cover all Americans and eliminate private insurance -- a proposal also offered by her rival for the party’s nomination, Bernie Sanders.“Americans overwhelmingly believe that health care is a basic human right,” Warren said. “But the private health insurance industry is dumping millions of dollars in false TV ads to scare people away from any change.”Medicare for All remains popular with the Democratic base, yet some have worried that it could hurt Democrats in the general election against President Donald Trump. Union members and millions of other Americans who have health insurance are reluctant to give it up.Biden Holds Narrow Edge Over Trump in Florida Poll (6 a.m.)Joe Biden holds a narrow edge over Donald Trump in a head-to-head match-up in Florida, the only leading Democratic candidate currently presenting serious competition to the president in the crucial 2020 swing state, according to a poll released Tuesday.The former vice president is backed by 47% of Florida voters, while 45% say they support Trump, according to the poll by Mason-Dixon Polling & Strategy conducted Dec. 11-16. The result is well within the survey’s 4 percentage point margin of error, and 8% of registered voters remain undecided.By comparison, Trump leads Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren 51% to 42%, and has a five-point advantage over Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, 49% to 44%. Against South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Trump leads 48% to 45%. Trump won Florida’s 29 electoral 2016 by just more than 1 percentage point.A Mason-Dixon poll of Virginia registered voters showed Biden with a 49% to 45% lead over Trump. But as in Florida, Trump leads Warren, Sanders and Buttigieg in the state, which has been trending toward Democrats over the last several elections. -- Joe SobczykCOMING UP:Warren will deliver a New Year’s Eve address from Boston’s historic Old South Meeting House on fighting corruption.Five Democratic candidates -- Warren, Sanders, Biden, Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar have qualified for the next debate, on Jan. 14, in Iowa.Trump is scheduled to hold a campaign rally in Milwaukee on the same night as the debate.(Michael Bloomberg is also seeking the Democratic presidential nomination. Bloomberg is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.)\--With assistance from Joe Sobczyk.To contact the reporter on this story: Misyrlena Egkolfopoulou in Washington at megkolfopoul@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Kevin Whitelaw at kwhitelaw@bloomberg.net, Michael Shepard, Elizabeth WassermanFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/39q4qcq

A Plan for World War III: How the Warsaw Pact Planned to Defeat NATO

History had other ideas.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/37tVEbM

British teenager found guilty of lying about 'gang rape' in Cyprus holiday resort

A British teenager has been found guilty of lying about being gang-raped while on holiday in the Cypriot resort of Ayia Napa, in a case that has raised questions about the island's treatment of victims of sexual assault. The 19-year-old Derbyshire woman, whom The Telegraph has chosen not to identify, says she was raped by up to 12 Israeli men in her hotel room in July. She later retracted the accusation after hours of questioning by police. The teenager was convicted on Monday of the charge of “public mischief” by Famagusta district court in the nearby town of Paralimni. In his ruling, Judge Michalis Papathanasiou said the defendant did not tell the truth and tried to deceive the court with "convenient" and "evasive" statements. "She did not make a good impression on the court," he said.  "She was never clear on what happened. She was not stating the truth and I reject the version she gave." He delayed sentencing until January 7, when the woman could be ordered to pay a €1,700 (£1,500) fine and serve up to a year in prison. The teenager, dressed in black with her blonde hair tied up, sighed in disbelief as the court’s translator relayed Judge Papathanasiou’s decision. Around 25 protesters from the Network Against Violence Against Women sat in court with gags over their mouths showing an image of stitched-up lips. As the defendant walked out of court in a blindfold to hide her identity, they shouted: "We are with you. We know. We believe you." More than a dozen women from an association for the protection of women attended court wearing white scarves with an image of lips sewn shut printed on them.   Credit: REX The case has raised grave concerns for the safety of female tourists on the island, which attracts more than a million British holidaymakers each year. The teenager reported the alleged rape to police hours after the alleged incident on July 17. Soon afterwards, the Israeli teenagers, who denied the allegations, were arrested. Two weeks later the woman was questioned for eight hours by Cyprus police without a lawyer or family member present. During that time, she signed a statement of retraction saying she concocted the story. The alleged gang rape took place in the party resort of Ayia Napa in Cyprus Credit: AFP The prosecution claimed she had made up the story because she felt ashamed and humiliated after discovering that she had been filmed having sex with one of the Israelis. Her lawyers claimed she was suffering from trauma after the alleged incident and made the statement to police under duress. She was charged with causing public mischief, defined by the Cypriot criminal code as knowingly providing police with “a false statement concerning an imaginary offence”.  She was arrested in August and had her passport confiscated. The Israelis, aged 15 to 22, were allowed to return home to Tel Aviv, where they celebrated their release, shouting "the Brit is a whore" and popping champagne at Ben Gurion airport. The woman, who has had to forego a place at university in the UK because of the trial proceedings, spent Christmas in Cyprus after she was refused permission to return home until after the verdict. An Israeli teenager is embraced by relatives after being released from Famagusta police headquarters in southeast town of Paralimni, Cyprus, Credit: AP Her lawyers tried to get the retraction statement thrown out as evidence. However, Judge Papathanasiou ruled that the questioning did not amount to undue pressure and her statement - which her defence team claimed did not appear to have been written by a native English speaker - was admissible. The court heard how the men, who were not required to give evidence during the trial, had targeted the teenager and had bragged that they were going to “do orgies” with her. She had chosen to give evidence in court to prove she was not lying after the judge branded her an “unreliable witness”. She told the hearing earlier this month that she had initially agreed to have sex with one of the accused men, a man identified only as Sam, 21, who she met while working in Ayia Napa. The teenager said his friends burst into the room and she shouted out "No." “I said I am not doing that and told them all to go,” she said. “They left for a few seconds and Sam told me to lie on the bed and he got on his knees and put them on my shoulders,” she continued. She described being pinned down and raped multiple times by different members of the group. “I tried to cross my legs. I was trying to throw my arms about,” she told the court. “I don’t know how many of them raped me. I couldn’t see.” Suspects cover their faces with their shirts as they arrive at the Famagusta courthouse in Paralamni, Cyprus, in July  Credit: AP The woman claims she then fled the hotel semi-naked to friends who took her to a medical clinic. She was examined by doctors before the police were called. The handling of the case has been questioned by experts and has raised serious questions about the rigour of both the police and judiciary in investigating the woman’s allegation. Marios Matsakis, a forensic pathologist, testified in court that he had found DNA traces from four men on the woman. He claimed the rape kit exam presented in court as evidence was incomplete. ''There was no examination of the teenager's clothing which is surprising,” Mr Matsakis said. “The woman was obviously in bad shape with a large number of external injuries, most of which were recent,” he added.  Women rights activists stage a protest in support of a British teenager accused of falsely claiming she was raped by Israeli tourists Credit: AFP Responding to the verdict, Nir Yaslovitzh, the lawyer representing the young men, said: "I applaud the court's decision to convict the girl. I hope that the court will find it appropriate to aggravate the punishment imposed on the girl who refuses to this day to take responsibility for the horrible act she has done against the boys." Ritsa Pekri, the woman's defence counsel, asked the judge for leniency in sentencing on Monday, citing her age and "maturity" handling the pressure she had been under. "She's been in prison for one month and in Cyprus, effectively as a prisoner, for five. She's lost her friends, her place at university, her social life. She now has psychological problems as a result of the incident. She should be allowed home to be treated." Her mother has claimed her human rights had been violated. “We were told no one could interfere because it’s local judicial process, and I understand that, but I find it shocking that neither Europe, nor the embassy, nor our Government, feel able to make sure her rights are being observed.” Women's rights groups and civil society organisations reacted with anger to the guilty verdict. "This woman was not only raped by those 12 men, but raped by the state, by society and by the media here," protester Maria Mappouridou told The Telegraph outside the court. "Police in Cyprus always find a reason not to believe women who claimed they have been raped, many of us here today have experienced it. It's like Cyprus is 100 years behind on this, it's hard to believe we're fighting this in 2019 in an EU country." Equality Now, an  international women's rights organisation that campaigns on failings in laws relating to sexual violence, said there needed to be an investigation into how the teenager was treated by the Cypriot police on the night she signed her retraction statement.  "The teenager’s court testimony about being gang-raped and her subsequent treatment by state authorities, alongside the supporting evidence provided by expert witnesses for the defence, clearly expose the need for a comprehensive investigation into the night in question and the way the case has been handled by Cypriot police, medical authorities and state prosecutors," said Alexandra Patsalides, a human rights lawyer with the organisation. The manner in which the British woman was treated by police and prosecutors "appears to have fallen considerably below international standards," she said. "There are various complex reasons why a victim of sexual violence may retract their allegation. They might be traumatised and vulnerable, and have a lack of confidence in or fear of the justice process, especially if they have been subjected to prejudicial attitudes and negative gender stereotypes by the investigating authorities." The Cyprus Womens' Lobby, an advocacy group, called for a wide-ranging review of how the police treat cases of rape and sexual assault. "The whole process is fraught with problems, not just this case," Eleni Karaoli, a member of the group, told The Telegraph.  "Everything needs to be reviewed, from the first moment a victim approaches the police to how they take statements and how they treat the medical evidence. If that means changing the law, then we need to do that." There was no information on how many similar cases there may have been in Cyprus. "But we do know there are cases of domestic violence where women who have been beaten by their husbands are told by the police just to go back to them." Michael Polak, part of the teenager's defence team Credit: EPA/REX Michael Polak, a British lawyer who is part of the teenager's defence team, told The Telegraph: "We are very disappointed with the decision but we are not surprised given how the trial was conducted. "The judge said it was not about the rape but about whether she lied. But we say the two are inextricably linked. The rape is an essential element of whether she lied. He did not consider the case properly. "We say the evidence - including defence witnesses' testimony and the police's failure to secure the crime scene - should have exonerated our client. "It doesn't finish here. The next stage will be to appeal to the Supreme Court of Cyprus and then, if necessary, to the European Court of Human Rights." The appeals process could take up to four years, he said. The handling of the case should prompt Cyprus to make the recording of police station interviews obligatory, Mr Polak said.  The woman's questioning on the night she retracted the rape claim was not recorded because there is no such requirement under current Cypriot law. "The Cypriot police should ask themselves whether they want a proper justice system or not. We need to know what happens inside police stations when defendants are questioned," said the lawyer. A spokesperson for the FCO told the Telegraph: "We continue to support a British woman and her family following her arrest in Cyprus. This has been a deeply distressing case. Our staff have visited her a number of times in detention, attended court hearings, and are in regular contact with her legal representatives and the local authorities."

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2QuzGyq

Reporter's husband reveals her last text before plane crash

Carley McCord was one of five people killed in a small plane crash in Louisiana over the weekend

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2ZCYTe1

U.S. presidential candidate Sanders given clean bill of health after October heart attack

U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders passed a stress test this month after a heart attack required him to have two stents inserted in an artery in October, doctors to the Democratic presidential candidate said on Monday. Sanders' campaign released letters from his main doctor and two heart specialists, who all gave the 78-year-old White House hopeful a clean bill of health after physical exams, electrocardiogram monitoring and a treadmill stress test. "Mr Sanders is more than fit enough to pursue vigorous activities and an occupation that requires stamina and an ability to handle a great deal of stress," said Philip A. Ades, the director of cardiac rehabilitation at the University of Vermont Medical Center (UVM), where the senator had the stress test on Dec. 11.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/359qOmY

US strikes Iran-backed militia strongholds in Iraq and Syria

The U.S. launched strike against Iranian military targets in Syria following a Friday attach in Iraq that killed one American.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2F7q1Iw

Rep. John Lewis diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer

Rep. John Lewis, who helped organize the March on Washington in 1963, asked for prayers in his statement and said he has a "fighting chance."

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2Q5rYM1

Greta Thunberg calls world leaders' attacks on her 'just funny'

Greta Thunberg says it's "just funny" when she's personally attacked by world leaders like President Trump.The 16-year-old Swedish climate change activist, who earlier this month was named Time's person of the year, spoke with Today on BBC Radio on Monday and was asked about recent attacks on her, such as when Trump lashed out at her in a tweet by claiming she has an anger management problem or when Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro called her a "brat.""Those attacks are just funny because they obviously don't mean anything," Thunberg said. "Well, I guess, of course, it means something. It means they are terrified of young people bringing change, which they don't want."Thunberg went on to say that these attacks are "proof that we are actually doing something and that they see us as some kind of threat."This comes after Trump went after Thunberg on Twitter in response to Time's decision to name her person of the year, writing she "must work on her anger management problem, then go to a good old-fashioned movie with a friend!"Asked in the BBC interview whether Trump is one of those people who sees her as a threat, Thunberg said "it's possible.""Not me, of course, me myself alone am not much of a threat," she added. "But it's that I'm a part of a big movement that they probably see as a threat."Thunberg also reiterated that a meeting with Trump at the United Nations earlier this year would not have been productive, saying that even if she did have an opportunity to speak with the president, she "wouldn't have wasted my time."More stories from theweek.com The best headlines of 2019 Giants, Browns fire head coaches on otherwise quiet 'Black Monday' Republicans are still trying to steal your health insurance

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2ZJ334g

Plane crash before LSU Peach Bowl: Carley McCord among 5 victims identified

A plane crashed Saturday in Lafayette, Louisiana, killing five people. One person on board survived. Passersby pulled person from flaming wreckage.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2Sxz8KI

New York Jews scared, defiant as mayor decries anti-Semitism 'crisis'

At a Hasidic synagogue in Brooklyn, police, state troopers and civilian volunteers stand guard as Orthodox Jews mark the end of Hanukkah under heightened security following a spate of attacks. New York, home to the largest Jewish community outside of Israel, had long been a place where Jews felt safe.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2QbLned

A survivor of the Kazakhstan plane crash that killed at least 12 said the aircraft was crushed 'like a tin can'

Aslan Nazaraliyev told Sky News that the Bek Air plane started "swaying" and "vibrating" seconds after taking off from Almaty.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/37j5sVG

Maximum Pressure on Iran is Working. That’s Why It’s Lashing Out. Let’s Keep It Up.

In a clear sign that the Islamic regime in Iran is worried about its survival, it has increased its attacks on American interests in the region, including the launch of missiles by its proxy Kataib Hizbollah on Friday that killed one American civilian contractor and injured several U.S. and Iraqi military officers. In response, the Trump administration engaged in some signaling of its own, hitting five targets in Iraq and Syria on Sunday, reportedly destroying the group’s munitions depot and control center and killing one commander. Jonathan Hoffman, the chief Pentagon spokesman, warned Iran that unless it stops its malign behavior the United States will continue to defend itself. Iran Demands a $15 Billion Credit Before Resuming Talks With Trump and EUSo while the Iranian regime may have gambled on a show of force to rally its base, the response from Washington was likely more than the clerics bargained for. Washington is calling the regime’s bluff, in fact. Tehran may have believed that America would not retaliate. In the past, Donald Trump showed restraint when a U.S. drone was shot out of the sky and Saudi oil facilities were hit by missiles reportedly coming out of Iran. But the attacks on Friday demanded a military response, and they got one.Good. Exposing the regime’s weaknesses, economically and now militarily, may be the best strategy yet of putting the squeeze on Tehran.   The 13th century Iranian poet Saadi Shirazi had a saying that perfectly captures Donald Trump’s understanding of the regime in Iran: "If you want to bring a mullah down from his high horses, make sure both he and the four-legged animal are hungry." By all accounts the campaign of ‘maximum pressure’ is wreaking economic and psychological havoc on the regime and the mullahs are scared. During the recent uprisings the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC ) cracked down brutally on the protestors and killed more than 1,500 in the deadliest uprising since the Iranian Revolution.The Islamic leadership continues to blame America, Israel, dissidents like Reza Pahlavi, the son of Iran’s late Shah, and Masih Alinejad, Iranian activist and the founder of the grassroots campaign of civil-disobedience My Stealthy Freedom, for the country’s troubles. But the reality is starkly different. Decades of economic mismanagement and political isolation have ruined the lives of Iranians and dashed the hopes of young people. To make matters worse, recent droughts and destructive floods have hurt the farmers and low-income households who traditionally form the base of the regime’s support. So while the sanctions are in fact hurting the Iranian people, in a rebuttal to the regime the Iranians refuse to blame America for their misery. Instead, their chants are "Death to the Dictator" and if they feel especially brave "Death to Khamenei," referring to the country's Supreme Leader, who they see as having sold Iran to an outdated revolutionary ideology. Multiple accounts have emerged of Iranian officials demanding grieving parents reimburse the cost of ammunition used to slaughter their children and keep silent if they want to retrieve their bodies. The mullahs are still riding the horse, but the horse, bone-tired and hungry, is refusing to go along.How did we get here?The Iranian Regime has long been running on ideological fumes, imposing strict Islamic law on one of the Middle East’s most moderate, well-educated populations. While wide-ranging social freedoms were curtailed, the oil-rich regime stayed in power through a rentier system, providing heavily subsidized goods and a wide social safety net, all funded through oil sales.The U.S. maximum pressure campaign has brought Iranian oil sales crashing down, from 2.1 million barrels in 2017 to as low as 160,000 barrels in August 2019. With the oil valves almost shut, the mullahs have realized that their tired ideology cannot feed the people or grease the machinations of their regional meddling. Can Trump Lie His Way Out of War With Iran? Yep. That’s What He’s Been Doing.In response to the wide-ranging protests which spread to 29 of Iran’s 31 provinces, Iran authorized a brutal crackdown and shut off Iran’s internet to keep the world from bearing witness. Many hundreds of deaths and thousands of arrests seemed cow the population into relative submission and the latest protests have for the most part fizzled out. But the “moderate” Rouhani regime which seeks engagement with Europe eventually got the internet restored—and then what began as a trickle of videos in response to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s request for footage of the crackdown has, at last count, cascaded into over 20,000 videos showing countless horrors. Where do we go from here?Successive American administrations have sought accommodation with Tehran to no avail. From secret negotiations to multilateral treaties like the landmark nuclear deal, America has failed to curb Iran’s malfeasance. The U.S. also has tried and failed to empower reformists and moderates on the streets and in Iranian political circles by funding television broadcasts such as the Voice of America. But Iranian civil rights activist Masih Alinejad believes that “reformers” and “moderates” are a western miscategorization when applied to the Iranian context where the reformists and the conservative are all the same. One need only look at the statements, or silence, of Iran’s most prominent reformist and moderate politicians to see that she is correct. True reformers would vigorously defend Iranian protesters—who, under Article 24 of the Islamic Revolution’s own constitution, have the right to freedom of expression. True moderates would condemn the killing of unarmed children by the country’s security services. But instead, Iranian leaders argued that the protests were sponsored by foreigners or they have kept quiet altogether.  As such, we need to realize that the people who need empowering are not in the Iranian parliament or in the President’s Office. Rather, they are on the streets of Iran and right here in the U.S., and efforts should be made to widen their audience so their practical ideas about the future of Iran could be heard.We also need to continue the maximum pressure campaign, provide Iranians with the right cyber technology that evades internet shutdowns, blacklist Iranian operatives involved in the slaughter, make public the secret bank accounts of the regime elite, shine light on the opulent lifestyle of their children in western countries, and name and shame the regime for its human rights abuses as ambassador Nikki Haley did when she was at the United Nations.  Since the 1979 Revolution, the Islamic regime has repeated the narrative that America is the bane of its existence regardless of what America does. The Obama administration stood by during Iran's violent 2009 uprisings, calculating that any word of support would be used by the regime to blame “the Great Satan.” The result? America was blamed anyway, even in the face of a measured, and some say, half-hearted response. The question is, if Washington will be seen as a culprit, why not do something helpful?There is no shame in opposing a heinous regime that kills its own people and President Trump was right to call out the mullahs for their duplicitous ways and dangerous  and destabilizing meddling in the region. Judging from the reaction of the Islamic regime to the latest round of protests, this regime’s demise may already have begun. The challenge for this administration and the next is making sure to stay the course.   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.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2rJVeyE

Andrew Yang has a simple idea for how the DNC can increase diversity at the next debate

Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang has a suggestion for the Democratic National Committee.There's been a lot of wariness as the field whittles down about the lack of diversity among the party's top presidential candidates. So far, the only five candidates to have qualified for January's debate in Iowa — Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), former Vice President Joe Biden, and South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg — are all white. And Yang, who has yet to qualify for the January event, was the only minority at the last debate in December.In a letter sent to DNC Chair Tom Perez obtained by The Daily Beast, Yang provided a pretty simple idea for how to increase diversity at the January debate. He just thinks the DNC should commission more qualifying polls.Of course, that would go a long way toward helping Yang, who has met the individual donor requirement, but is three qualifying polls short of reaching the threshold. Still, in the letter he tried to appeal to the party at large, saying that the an all-white debate stage was a "troubling prospect" for the DNC, and could even lead to "unfounded claims of bias and prejudice." More polls, he told Perez, "would provide an accurate snapshot of the current state of the race and where voters' hearts and minds are." Read more at The Daily Beast.More stories from theweek.com The best headlines of 2019 Giants, Browns fire head coaches on otherwise quiet 'Black Monday' Republicans are still trying to steal your health insurance

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/36bxvq2

Cuomo Calls Hanukkah Stabbing Attack ‘Domestic Terrorism’

(Bloomberg) -- New York Governor Andrew Cuomo called a multiple stabbing during Hanukkah celebrations on Saturday night “an act of domestic terrorism,” and President Donald Trump urged the nation to unite against antisemitism. The attack, which Cuomo said was one of about 13 antisemitic incidents in the past few weeks, took place in Monsey, a suburban hamlet in Rockland County, north of New York City.“I believe the situation has gotten so bad, frankly, that we need to increase our legal enforcement,” Cuomo said Sunday during a televised press briefing.A man reportedly entered the home of a Hasidic rabbi during Hanukkah celebrations Saturday evening and stabbed people gathered there with a large knife, injuring five people. Five CountsThe Ramapo Police Department said in a statement Sunday that 37-year-old Grafton Thomas had been arraigned on five counts of attempted murder and one count of burglary. Thomas was transported to Rockland County Jail, according to the police department.Earlier, Cuomo said on CNN that attacks like the one in Monsey should be “punished as if it is an act of terrorism.” He said New York state would take the lead, and that he would outline those plans in his State of the State address in January.Cuomo said in an interview on Fox News that he would also increase the police presence.Adding OfficersNew York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has said he’ll add additional police officers in certain New York neighborhoods with large Jewish populations, like Brooklyn’s Crown Heights and Williamsburg. On Sunday in an interview with Fox News, the mayor said that the country was experiencing a “crisis of antisemitism.” “We have seen enough in New York,” Cuomo said on CNN‘s “State of the Union.” “This is violence spurred by hate. It is mass violence and I consider this an act of domestic terrorism.”The Anti-Defamation League has identified 10 anti-Semitic incidents in New York and New Jersey since the eight-day Hanukkah festival began Dec. 22.On Dec. 23, a 65-year-old Orthodox man was punched in the face in Manhattan by someone screaming anti-Semitic slurs, according to the league. Later an Orthodox man was chased by a group yelling anti-Semitic slurs in Brooklyn. The attacks have continued, culminating in the stabbing Saturday night.“At this point we are in an epidemic in New York City, of all places,” Oren Segal, director of the ADL’s Center on Extremism, said on CNN. “There’s a lot of fear and anxiety.”Trump tweeted Sunday afternoon that the attack was “horrific. We must all come together to fight, confront, and eradicate the evil scourge of antisemitism.” On Twitter, Democratic presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders said he was “outraged by this knife attack in Monsey. We must confront this surge of antisemitic violence, prioritize the fight against bigotry, and bring people together -- instead of dividing people up.”Other 2020 White House hopefuls weighed in. Senator Elizabeth Warren said on Twitter that she was “heartsick” and “bigotry has no place in our society.” Former Vice President Joe Biden said the county needs to “fight these flames of hatred.”Senator John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican, said on CNN that it was right to get “evil” people off the street, but that he’d want to see the law Cuomo is proposing before supporting such a measure on a national level.“America is a big, wide-open, pluralistic country. I don’t think any of us want to live in a police state,” Kennedy said. “Freedom has risk.” (Updates with Trump tweet from first paragraph.)To contact the reporter on this story: Eric Newcomer in San Francisco at enewcomer@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Mark Milian at mmilian@bloomberg.net, Ros Krasny, Steve GeimannFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2smovzR

Cyprus court finds British woman guilty of false rape claim

A court in Cyprus on Monday found a British woman guilty of falsely claiming she was gang-raped by a group of Israeli tourists in the holiday resort of Ayia Napa. "The statements you have given were false," the judge told the defendant in remarks translated by the court interpreter. The Israelis, aged 15 to 18, were released without charge the same month after the woman was arrested on suspicion of making a false statement.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2ZBd6bh

19-year-old found guilty of lying about being gang-raped

A British teenager has been found guilty of lying about being gang-raped in Cyprus. The woman, 19, was convicted of a single count of public mischief at Famagusta District Court in Paralimni, Cyprus, on Monday.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/36hsRac

Put away phones at mealtimes and talk to each other, says pope

Pope Francis on Sunday urged people to talk to each other at mealtimes instead of using their mobile phones, citing Jesus, Mary and Joseph as an example for families to follow. "I ask myself if you, in your family, know how to communicate or are you like those kids at mealtables where everyone is chatting on their mobile phone ... where there is silence like at a Mass but they don't communicate," the pope said. "We have to get back to communicating in our families," Francis said in his unscripted remarks.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/359XOLU

New WeWork cochiefs will reportedly receive an $8.3 million golden parachute each if they are fired or choose to leave

Co-CEOs Artie Minson and Sebastian Gunningham would cost WeWork almost $17 million if ousted, the Financial Times says, citing documents.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/36bXopy

Ex-Nissan boss Ghosn, facing Japan trial, arrives in Beirut

Former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn, who is awaiting trial in Japan on charges of financial misconduct, has arrived in Beirut, a close friend said Monday. It was not clear how Ghosn, who is of Lebanese origins and holds French and Lebanese passports, left Japan where he was under surveillance and is expected to face trial in April 2020. Ricardo Karam, a television host and friend of Ghosn who interviewed him several times, told The Associated Press Ghosn arrived in Lebanon Monday morning..

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/39nqsfU

GOP Senator: ‘There Are No Rules’ for Senate Impeachment Trial

Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) claimed on Sunday’s broadcast of State of the Union that there are no “substantive rules” when it comes to holding an impeachment trial and that the Constitution doesn’t provide much guidance to the Senate.CNN anchor Jake Tapper noted that Kennedy had previously said his objective in President Donald Trump’s impeachment is to be fair to both sides. He asked the lawmaker about Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) saying she was “disturbed” that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he would coordinate with the White House on impeachment.“Were you also bothered when Majority Leader McConnell said there would be no daylight between him and the White House?” Tapper asked.“I think Senator McConnell is entitled to his opinion and his approach. So is Senator Murkowski,” Kennedy stated, adding that if you look at specific case law on impeachment, “the rule is there is no substantive rules.”“It is not a criminal trial,” he continued. “The Senate is not really a jury. It is both jury and judge. The chief justice is not the judge, he’s the presiding officer. There are no standards of proof. There are no rules of evidence.”The guidelines provided by Article 1, Section 3 of the Constitution say that the Senate has the “sole Power to try all Impeachments,” the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court will preside over the trial, and a president will only be removed from office if two-thirds of the Senate convicts.Kennedy went on to say that every member of the Senate is entitled to approach impeachment any way they want until a majority of the chamber votes on passing new rules, reiterating that he wants it “to be fair to both sides.”“I thought that the House proceedings were unnecessarily unfair and when the American people walk away from the Senate trial, if we ever have one, I don’t want them saying: ‘Well, we were just run over by the same truck twice. It was unfair in the house and it was unfair in the Senate,’” the Louisiana senator said. “I want people to think that it was a level playing field.”Asked whether his idea of fairness would be for both House impeachment managers and the president’s team to call the witnesses they deem worthy, Kennedy said they first need to decide whether Senate will hear evidence during the trial.“But, look, there are no rules here,” he asserted. “For example, what is an impeachable offense? I think the precedent shows that not all impeachable offenses are crimes. But it also shows that not all crimes are impeachable offenses.”Kennedy, meanwhile, concluded by saying it would be proper for Trump to continue blocking key White House witnesses from testifying if called by Congress.“I fully expect the president to do two things,” he said. “Claim executive privilege, which is his right. And number two, demand his own list of witnesses.”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.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2svCFyy

US hits pro-Iran group with deadly strikes in Iraq, Syria

The US has carried out air strikes against a pro-Iran militant group in Iraq, killing 19 fighters, two days after a rocket attack that killed an American civilian contractor. The Pentagon said on Sunday it targeted weapons caches or command and control facilities linked to Kata'ib Hezbollah (KH) in Western Iraq, as well as Eastern Syria, in response to a barrage of 30 or more rockets fired on Friday. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said "we will not stand for the Islamic Republic of Iran to take actions that put American men and women in jeopardy".

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/37hLScv

Ukraine holds big prisoner swap with pro-Russian separatists

KIEV/MOSCOW (Reuters) - Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian separatists in the east completed a large-scale prisoner swap on Sunday after bussing scores of detainees in the five-year conflict to an exchange point in the breakaway Donbass region. The swap should help build confidence between the two sides, who are wrangling over how to implement a peace deal after the loss of more than 13,000 lives, but major disagreements remain and full normalization is far off. Ukraine said 76 pro-government detainees were handed over, while separatists said they took 120 of their prisoners during the swap at a checkpoint near the industrial town of Horlivka.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2MGKecG

Greta Thunberg: 'I wouldn't have wasted my time' speaking to Trump

* Swedish activist and president attended UN climate summit * ‘He’s not listening to experts … why would he listen to me?’Greta Thunberg has said she wouldn’t have wasted her time talking to Donald Trump about climate change at the UN climate change summit in New York earlier this year – the same event she was pictured glaring at the one of the world’s leading climate-change deniers.The Swedish climate activist made the comment during an interview on BBC Radio 4 on Monday morning, where she had been invited to guest-edit the programme.Thunberg, 16, was asked what she would have said to the leader who pulled the US – one of the world’s leading carbon emitters – out of the Paris climate accord, and who has taken radical steps to undo decades-old US pollution standards.She said: “Honestly, I don’t think I would have said anything. Because obviously he’s not listening to scientists and experts, so why would he listen to me?”She added: “So I probably wouldn’t have said anything, I wouldn’t have wasted my time.”Thunberg’s comments came several weeks after Trump attacked her for being named Time magazine’s person of the year.“So ridiculous. Greta must work on her Anger Management problem, then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend! Chill Greta, Chill!” Trump tweeted at the time.She has also been attacked by Brazil’s far-right president Jair Bolsonaro.“It is staggering, the amount of coverage the press gives that brat,” Bolsonaro said at the time.Invited to respond to her critics, Thunberg told the program “those attacks are just funny because they obviously don’t mean anything”.She said: “I guess of course it means something – they are terrified of young people bringing change which they don’t want – but that is just proof that we are actually doing something and that they see us as some kind of threat.”

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2swIGec

Politicians and celebrities spoke out after the New York machete attack that shook the Jewish community to its core

Five people were stabbed in a rabbi's home in Monsey, New York during a Hanukkah celebration on Saturday.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2F5HocY

Swiss Embassy worker detained in Sri Lanka gets bail

A Sri Lankan Court on Monday granted bail to a Swiss Embassy employee who was detained pending charges that she made statements to create disaffection toward the government and fabricated evidence. Before her arrest, the employee, a Sri Lankan national, had reportedly said she was abducted, held for hours, sexually assaulted and threatened by captors who demanded that she disclose embassy-related information. Sri Lankan authorities have said they investigated her complaint but found no evidence to file charges against anyone.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2F5rTSj

Aladdin proposes to Jasmine during curtain call

A shining, shimmering, splendid ring was placed on Jasmine's finger.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2MCzlZq

WH releases info on call with Putin after Russia does

Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a phone call on Sunday, thanked President Trump for passing on information that helped prevent "acts of terrorism" in Russia, the Kremlin said.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2smuJjf

Russia claims to have deployed Avangard hypersonic missiles that 'cannot be intercepted'

Russia says it has deployed its first hypersonic missiles which President Putin claims are capable of transporting nuclear warheads at 27 times the speed of sound. The location of the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle has not been confirmed but has been widely reported to be the Urals, a mountain range in western Russia. Sergei Shoigu, Russia's defence minister confirmed that the missiles entered service at 10am Moscow time on Friday, describing their deployment as a "landmark event".  Vladimir Putin said that the missiles put Russia ahead of the rest of the world. "Not a single country possesses hypersonic weapons, let alone continental-range hypersonic weapons," he said, arguing that the West was "playing catch-up with us". "The Avangard is invulnerable to intercept by any existing and prospective missile defence means of the potential adversary." Vladimir Putin said that the West is now "playing catch-up" Credit: REUTERS Moscow said the Avangard is launched on top of an intercontinental ballistic missile but it can make sharp manoeuvres on the way to its target, making it more difficult to intercept. The Russian government had announced the missiles last year and in March 2018 Mr Putin likened the missile to a "meteorite" and a "fireball" in a state address. The Avangard, which Mr Putin said could penetrate current and future missile defence systems, can carry a nuclear weapon of up to two megatons. The Pentagon responded to the deployment by saying it would "not characterise the Russian claims" about the Avangard's capabilities. The United States has its own hypersonic missile programme, as does China, which in 2014 said it had carried out a test flight. The US has been developing hypersonic weapons in recent years. In August, Mark Esper, the defence secretary, said the Pentagon was some years from deploying its own missiles.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2MxoEXJ