| 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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| 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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| 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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| Coronavirus worries have surgical masks flying off shelves in New York's Chinatown Posted: 24 Jan 2020 12:58 PM PST  Teresa Zhan, a pharmacist in Manhattan's Chinatown, had not seen protective face masks sell out in her 10 years as an employee until this week, when China's coronavirus arrived in the United States just days before Lunar New Year celebrations. More than a dozen pharmacies in the tiny district had run out of face masks or only had a few left on Friday. Pharmacists said hundreds of locals had rushed to buy masks for protection from the newly discovered coronavirus that has killed 26 people in China and infected at least 800 others, including a case in Chicago and another near Seattle.
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| Social worker charged with coercing client into prostitution Posted: 24 Jan 2020 09:20 AM PST ![Social worker charged with coercing client into prostitution]( "Social worker charged with coercing client into prostitution") A former child services caseworker has been charged with human trafficking, accused of recruiting a mother who was her client into prostitution in exchange for a favorable custody recommendation, authorities said. Candace Talley, 27, of Winslow, New Jersey, was working for the Division of Children and Youth Services in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, when she coerced the mother, whose children were in foster care and whose case Talley was managing, into working as a prostitute, the Delaware County District Attorney's office announced Thursday. Talley drove the woman to and from jobs and took more than 25% of the money that was made, authorities said.
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| Biden Calls DACA Recipients ‘More American Than Most Americans’ Posted: 24 Jan 2020 06:29 AM PST  Former vice president Joe Biden said at a campaign event in Iowa Thursday that most undocumented immigrants benfitting from the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program are "more American than most Americans.""These kids have come, they've done well, most of these kids — there's a lot of them . . . they in fact have done very, very well," Biden said. "In many cases, they're more American than most Americans are because they have done well in school. They believe the basic principles that we all share. I think they should, in fact, put on a path to citizenship."Biden, who earlier this week said he would fire any ICE agent attempting to deport illegal immigrants who had not committed a felony, has been an outspoken defendant of former president Barack Obama's immigration record."We didn't lock people up in cages. We didn't separate families. We didn't do all of those," the former vice president said during the September Democratic debate. In November, the U.N. revealed that Obama held over 100,000 illegal immigrant children in detention in 2015.DACA is currently facing a Supreme Court decision on its survival, after the Trump administration decided to end it in 2017.A November report from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services showed that approximately one in 10 DACA recipients have an arrest record, after President Trump tweeted many had criminal backgrounds."Many of the people in DACA, no longer very young, are far from 'angels.' Some are very tough, hardened criminals," Trump wrote on November 12.Trump has also stated he would be open to a "deal" with Democrats to allow DACA recipients to stay in the U.S.
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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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| China seals off more cities as virus toll climbs Posted: 23 Jan 2020 10:00 PM PST  China sealed off millions more people near the epicentre of a virus outbreak on Friday, shutting down public transport in an eighth city in an unprecedented quarantine effort as the death toll climbed to 26. While the World Heath Organization held off on declaring a global emergency despite confirmed cases in half a dozen other countries, China expanded a lockdown now covering some 26 million people and cancelled some Lunar New Year celebrations to prevent the disease spreading further. The virus that emerged in the central city of Wuhan has now infected 830 people, the national health commission said.
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| White House breaks silence on Jeff Bezos phone-hacking scandal, calls Saudi Arabia an 'important ally' Posted: 23 Jan 2020 10:10 AM PST  The White House weighed in on reports that Saudi Arabia hacked Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' phone, saying it takes the situation seriously.
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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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| '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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| 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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| Iran uses violence, politics to try to push US out of Iraq Posted: 22 Jan 2020 10:12 PM PST  Iran has long sought the withdrawal of American forces from neighboring Iraq, but the U.S. killing of an Iranian general and an Iraqi militia commander in Baghdad has added new impetus to the effort, stoking anti-American feelings that Tehran hopes to exploit to help realize the goal. The Jan. 3 killing has led Iraq's parliament to call for the ouster of U.S. troops, but there are many lingering questions over whether Iran will be able to capitalize on the sentiment. It is not clear whether the protesters will try to recreate a New Year's Eve attack on the U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad by Iran-supported militias in the wake of U.S. airstrikes that killed 25 militiamen along the border with Syria.
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| Samantha Bee Dunks on Trump’s Defense Team: ‘A Virtual Dream Team of Rape Culture’ Posted: 23 Jan 2020 12:25 AM PST  Early in her weekly show Wednesday night, Samantha Bee played a clip of Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) telling Fox News that he thinks not calling witnesses in the Senate impeachment trial is the "right thing to do." "And if anyone's an expert on witnesses not talking about the crimes they saw, it's Jim Jordan," the Full Frontal host said, putting up a headline about how the congressman allegedly knew about sexual abuse at Ohio State and said nothing. That was a preview of what was to come later in the opening segment when Bee took a closer look at President Trump's defense team "Continuing his tradition of appointing only the best, Trump's defenders include Ken Starr, Alan Dershowitz and Jim Jordan," she said. "It's a virtual dream team of rape culture." Trevor Noah Destroys Alan Dershowitz's Impeachment HypocrisyBee ran through their troubling resumes, including Starr's tenure as president of the Christian Baylor University. "Just to be clear, when Jesus said to 'turn the other cheek,' he didn't mean away from people getting assaulted," she said. And there's Dershowitz who once called statutory rape an "outdated concept." Bee added, "In Dershowitz's defense, it's not like he was close friends with notorious pedophile and didn't-kill-himself-er Jeffrey Epstein. Oh no, I'm sorry, he totally was." "It is infuriating that these three men are allowed to show their faces in polite society, much less defend the captain of the rape culture all-star team," she said. "Look, the impeachment case isn't about sexual assault. But for women and survivors it is horrifying to see these men congeal together to protect each other." The host ended the segment by predicting that when this is all over, Jordan, Starr and Deshowitz might just start their own rapist-defending law firm: "The only law firm whose phone number is 911." For more, listen to Samantha Bee on The Last Laugh podcast below: Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Virologist who helped identify SARS on coronavirus outbreak: 'This time I'm scared' Posted: 23 Jan 2020 02:58 PM PST  Experts are seeing shocking similarities between the coronavirus that has now spread beyond China and the SARS outbreak of 2003.Like the infectious pneumonia that has killed at least 17 people, SARS was caused by a coronavirus that originated in China. But when one of the virologists who helped identify the SARS virus visited Wuhan, where this virus originated, he didn't see nearly enough being done to fight it. People were out at markets without masks, "preparing to ring in the New Year in peace and had no sense about the epidemic," Guan Yi of the University of Hong Kong's State Key Laboratory of Emerging Infectious Diseases told Caixin. Airports were hardly being disinfected, Guan continued, saying the local government hasn't "even been handing out quarantine guides to people who were leaving the city."The city did disinfect the market where the virus has been traced to, but Guan criticized Wuhan for that, saying it hurts researchers' abilities to track down the virus's source. "I've never felt scared," Guan told Caixin. "This time I'm scared."A case involving the coronavirus was identified in Washington state on Wednesday, and cases have also been identified in Thailand, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore. A total of 639 cases were confirmed in China.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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| The FBI reportedly stopped a Saudi plot to kidnap a YouTuber on US soil after he criticized Mohammed bin Salman for Jamal Khashoggi's killing Posted: 23 Jan 2020 07:58 PM PST  Abdulrahman Almutairi used social media to criticize the Saudi government. It appears to have almost cost him his life.
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| U.S., China Must Adjust for Stable World, Singapore Leader Says Posted: 23 Jan 2020 04:36 AM PST ![U.S., China Must Adjust for Stable World, Singapore Leader Says]( "U.S., China Must Adjust for Stable World, Singapore Leader Says") (Bloomberg) -- Sign up here to receive the Davos Diary, a special daily newsletter that will run from Jan. 20-24.Both the U.S. and China must make adjustments if they are going to reach a lasting phase-two trade deal that benefits the rest of the world, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said.Speaking in an interview with Bloomberg's Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait, Lee said "both sides have to make quite basic adjustments." The U.S., he said, must decide whether to create rules that allow "the best man" to win or only let America come out on top."America First means you do the best for the United States," Lee said in Davos, Switzerland, while attending the World Economic Forum. "So do you do the best by prospering in the world and there are other countries who are doing well, or do your best by being a big country in a troubled world? And I'm not sure that the second is a very good answer."The U.S.-China War Over Trade and Tariffs, Explained: QuickTakeChina, on the other hand, must decide whether they are going to be "constructive players" in world affairs and accept that "rules which were acceptable to other countries when they were smaller and less dominant now have to be revised and renegotiated," Lee said."It's not so easy for them to concede and voluntarily step back from what they feel they can hold on to for a while longer," he said. But if they make that adjustment, "there's some possibility of working out a modus vivendi which will be stable and constructive for the world," he said.Huawei ConcernsSingapore, a city-state heavily dependent on trade, had been one of the most outspoken countries in Asia calling for the U.S. and China to reach a trade deal. Lee has warned that Southeast Asian nations might one day be forced to choose if the world economy gets pulled apart into different blocs.The Trump administration has sought to convince countries around the world to avoid using equipment from Huawei Technologies Co., China's biggest tech firm, for 5G networks, arguing it poses a national security threat. Singapore's government so far has left the decision up to its telecommunications operators.How Huawei Landed at the Center of Global Tech Tussle: QuickTakeLee reiterated that Singapore hasn't "banned Huawei" but will evaluate it based on operational requirements. Any system will have weaknesses, he said, and governments must try to keep them secure."We have to make our own assessments, and the assessments have to be based on facts and risks," Lee said. "And having made those assessments, well we may come to a conclusion which is different from what the Americans have come to, but it doesn't mean that we're not concerned about similar issues."Lee added that differences of opinion on Huawei don't necessarily signal a loss of U.S. influence. "If you ask us on security cooperations, certainly we are closer to the U.S. than to China," Lee said. "But in terms of our trade, the Chinese are our biggest trading partner. In terms of our overall relationship, we have deep relationships with both."March SummitPresident Donald Trump last November invited countries in the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or Asean, to a special summit in the U.S. after he skipped the bloc's meeting in Bangkok. At the time, most leaders in the region snubbed the group's meeting with Trump's representative, National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien.Lee said he would join other Asean leaders for a meeting with Trump in Las Vegas on March 14."I'm sure we'll be discussing areas where we can cooperate and do more together," Lee said. "I hope that Mr. Trump, amidst his many domestic preoccupations, will send a message that Asia is important to him and Southeast Asia has its part in the Americanscheme of things."China has recently stepped up efforts to assert its territorial claims in the South China Sea, prompting fellow claimants like Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia to resist those advances in the energy-rich waters. The Asean bloc has been negotiating a legally binding code of conduct in the waters for more than two decades, and aim to complete it in the next few years."It's not an easy thing to do," Lee said of the code of conduct. "We're working at it and we've made some progress in the negotiating process, but I think it's better to be talking and working toward this rather than abandoning this and actually coming to blows on the ground."\--With assistance from Joyce Koh, Faris Mokhtar, Michelle Jamrisko and Ruth Pollard.To contact the reporters on this story: Iain Marlow in Hong Kong at imarlow1@bloomberg.net;Philip J. Heijmans in Singapore at pheijmans1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Daniel Ten Kate at dtenkate@bloomberg.net, Nasreen SeriaFor 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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| 4 killed in plane crash at Southern California airport Posted: 22 Jan 2020 05:48 PM PST  There was no immediate word on a cause or the model of the plane that crashed at Corona Municipal Airport in California.
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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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| '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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| North Korea confirms former commander is new foreign minister Posted: 23 Jan 2020 05:41 PM PST  SEOUL/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - North Korea on Friday confirmed that Ri Son Gwon, a former defense commander with limited diplomatic experience, has been appointed the country's new foreign affairs minister, while the United States repeated calls for Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons. North Korea's official KCNA news agency reported that Ri, the latest military official to be promoted under North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, gave a speech as minister at a New Year dinner reception hosted by the ministry on Thursday for embassies and international organizations.
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| US Vice President Pence to Pope Francis: You made me a hero Posted: 24 Jan 2020 03:59 AM PST  U.S. Vice President Mike Pence met with Pope Francis at the Vatican on Friday, discussing the anti-abortion march in Washington and telling the pontiff, "You made me a hero" back home by granting him a private audience. Pence was beaming after the meeting, which appeared to be particularly cordial. The hero description apparently referred to Pence's Catholic family upbringing.
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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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| 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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| Trump administration accused by the UK of a 'denial of justice' after refusing to extradite a diplomat's wife accused of killing a British teenager Posted: 24 Jan 2020 02:14 AM PST  The UK government said the decision to reject the extradition request was a "denial of justice."
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| China Is Building a Hospital for Coronavirus Patients in Just Six Days. How? Posted: 24 Jan 2020 11:35 AM PST  The country has taken on similar rush jobs before.
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| U.S. charges former Mexican police commander in El Chapo-linked cocaine investigation Posted: 24 Jan 2020 10:31 AM PST  U.S. prosecutors on Friday charged a former Mexican federal police commander with accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from Mexican drug cartels to help them send cocaine into the United States, in a case linked to imprisoned drug lord Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán.
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| Scalloped Edges With Major Curve Appeal Posted: 23 Jan 2020 11:58 AM PST |
| French unions warn Macron pension strikes will drag on for months Posted: 24 Jan 2020 04:18 AM PST  France's hardleft trade unions on Friday threatened industrial action for months to come, as they searched for a way to force President Emmanuel Macron to ditch the biggest overhaul of the country's pension system since World War Two. The unions have been locked in battle with Macron over the fate of France's generous pension benefits since early December. Macron wants to streamline the existing set-up of 42 different pension schemes, each with their own levels of contributions and benefits, into a single system that gives every pensioner the same rights for each euro contributed.
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| Donald Trump shares image of Barack Obama scaling Trump Tower Posted: 24 Jan 2020 03:49 AM PST  Donald Trump has tweeted a photoshopped image of Barack Obama scaling the walls of Trump Tower with suction cups and holding binoculars.The image, which was posted without a caption, appeared to be a reference to Mr Trump's claims that Mr Obama and the FBI illegally spied on him.
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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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| These gun enthusiasts at the Virginia rally carried more firepower than many US troops Posted: 23 Jan 2020 09:32 AM PST  "This sends a strong visual message," a man holding a .50 caliber rifle said. Attendees also came with an armored vehicle and a grenade launcher.
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| Spotted: America's Shadowy Stealth Spy Drone Posted: 22 Jan 2020 07:00 PM PST  Does it have a new mission now?
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| Auction Politics Return to Ireland in Real Estate Battle Posted: 24 Jan 2020 02:52 AM PST ![Auction Politics Return to Ireland in Real Estate Battle]( "Auction Politics Return to Ireland in Real Estate Battle") (Bloomberg) -- Ireland's general election is turning into a race to see who can offer voters the most, and home builders stand to be the biggest winners.Ahead of the Feb. 8 election, the two political parties jostling to lead the government, Fine Gael and Fianna Fail, are effectively offering free money to would-be homeowners after house prices almost doubled since their 2013 low.Leo Varadkar's Fine Gael is proposing to boost a tax repayment for first-time buyers by 50% to 30,000 euros ($33,100). Fianna Fail, the main opposition party, is promising the government will contribute one euro for every three saved, capped at 10,000 euros, for the same group. It will also top up the tax rebate.Companies like Glenveagh Properties Plc. and Cairn Homes Plc., reliant on first-time buyers to hit their targets, are set to benefit, Ronan Dunphy, an analyst at Investec Plc. in Dublin, said in a note. The measures will eventually fuel demand and prices, analysts say, and Glenveagh shares have gained 4.3% since the election was called on Jan. 14, with Cairn up 2.2%.For some, the promises are a reminder of the Celtic Tiger years which led to the one of the worst real estate crashes in history. Auction politics is "ramping up," said Conall MacCoille, an economist at Davy, Ireland's biggest securities company. "We will also be looking out for excessive spending commitments that might threaten to fritter away the 3 billion euros budget surplus that we expect in 2020."The proposals come as an Irish Times poll showed Fianna Fail holding a narrow lead over Fine Gael in the race to become the biggest party, a position which would place them in the driving seat to form a coalition government.Government formation, however, may some time, and in the meantime, the proposals could place a brake on the property markets as buyers await for certainty."These demand-side supports bring back memories of the 2000s period and will be inflationary to the market," Goodbody chief economist Dermot O'Leary said in a research note. "But there is a risk that prospective first time buyers may hold off on purchase in the very short-term prior to the introduction of these schemes."(Adds shares in fourth paragraph)To contact the reporter on this story: Peter Flanagan in Dublin at pflanagan23@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Ambereen Choudhury at achoudhury@bloomberg.net, Dara DoyleFor 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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| 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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| The Attacks on Bernie Are Further Proof That ‘Victim’ Hillary Is Not Good at This Posted: 23 Jan 2020 01:33 PM PST  A Hillary Clinton hot take is in the headlines again: According to her, "nobody likes" presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders.Earlier this week, The Hollywood Reporter published an interview with Clinton, a promotional piece for the upcoming Hulu documentary about her political career, in which the former secretary of state was asked about a statement she'd made during the documentary.The interviewer, Lacey Rose, asked:> In the doc, you're brutally honest on Sanders: "He was in Congress for years. He had one senator support him. Nobody likes him, nobody wants to work with him, he got nothing done. He was a career politician. It's all just baloney and I feel so bad that people got sucked into it." That assessment still hold?Hillary replied, simply: "Yes, it does."Next, Rose asked Clinton whether or not she would support Sanders if he were to become the Democratic nominee. Clinton said: "I'm not going to go there yet" — and then proceeded to attack Sanders's supporters for what she calls their "relentless attacks on lots of his competitors, particularly the women," accusing Bernie himself of having "not only permitted" "this culture," but also seeming "to really be very much supporting it."Later, continuing the discussion about what Clinton sees as Bernie's "pattern" of sexism, Clinton offered as evidence the fact that Sanders had told her that she was "unqualified" when they were both running for the Democratic nomination in 2016. (Note: This "unqualified" comment, made during an April 2016 debate, was in response to Clinton questioning Sanders's own qualifications. It is more than worth noting that, in making this criticism, Sanders stuck to questioning her on her past policy only, pointing out blunders such as her vote in favor of the Iraq War.)So, what came of all of Clinton's brutal attacks on Sanders? Did his supporters flee? Did people express their deepest sympathies that Clinton had to encounter him?Nope; far from it. In fact, ILikeBernie started trending on Twitter. Los Angeles Chargers running back Justin Jackson shared a screenshot showing that he'd just donated to Sanders, telling Clinton: "Every time you trash him, I will give more." Bernie's competitors for the nomination, Representative Tulsi Gabbard and billionaire Tom Steyer, weighed in to say that they also "like" him.The backlash was so bad, in fact, that Clinton took to her own Twitter account to backtrack, clarifying that she would, in fact, support whomever became the Democratic nominee.Personally, I am left thinking one thing: Hillary Clinton is not good at this.Despite the fact that Clinton has been in politics for decades, it seems that her political instincts are actually quite terrible. This is not the first time during the primary that Clinton has helped a candidate she'd intended to bring down.In October, Clinton made the absurd, baseless allegation that Tulsi Gabbard was being "groomed" by the Russians. (Note: She offered no proof.) When Gabbard responded harshly — which I can't say I wouldn't do if someone were making those accusations about me — a Clinton spokesman went after her for doing so, slamming her for her "[d]ivisive language filled with vitriol."And what happened then? Well, first, Gabbard got a bump in the polls — a significant enough one, in fact, to earn her a spot at the November Democratic primary debate. This week, it's also been announced that Gabbard is suing Clinton for defamation over the "Russian asset" remarks.Like I said: Hillary Clinton is not good at this. Now, I can't help but notice a common theme when it comes to the way Clinton and her team seem to approach the political arena. All too often, they can't resist the urge to make things about her.To Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders is bad because she and her buddies in Congress don't "like" him. He's sexist because he told her that she wasn't "qualified." After Tulsi Gabbard defended herself against Clinton's brutal, objectively unfair attacks, Clinton's spokesperson wasted no time aiming to get sympathy for Clinton over them -- pointing out how Clinton had had to endure Tulsi's supposed "vitriol."This is, unfortunately for Clinton, more of the exact same thing that we saw throughout her failed 2016 election campaign. The most obvious example, of course, would be that campaign slogan: "I'm With Her." Rather than choose something that even so much as hinted to the American people what she would do for them, she chose instead to make the focus on them needing to be there for her. She was calling on voters to be there for her against sexism, there for her against the brutal attacks from that evil orange monster, Donald J. Trump. In fact, many people struggled to find any sort of message in Clinton's campaign — except, of course, for the fact that Trump is mean to her, and that, in order to be a decent person, you had to help her deal with that by being with her, against Trump.Of course, I'm not saying that women in politics don't face sexism. They do. In fact, women in anything have to face sexism — and if you don't believe me, then I'd suggest you try asking one.What's more, I'm also not denying the fact that Donald Trump has his own brand of self-absorption. He does, and that's obvious — whether the septuagenarian is calling himself a "young, vibrant man" or talking about his "beautiful head of hair," it's really no secret that Donald Trump spends a decent amount of time thinking about how fond he is of, well, Donald Trump.Hillary's self-obsession, however, is different. Unlike Trump, she is quite clearly particularly obsessed with feeling sorry for herself — and she wants, more than anything, for other people to feel sorry for her, too. She has a pattern of blatantly seeking sympathy even when it's outright ridiculous for her to do so. Hillary Clinton had the backing of the entire DNC during her 2016 run, and yet, after she lost, all she could do was whine incessantly about how many people had wronged her throughout the process and made it so unfair. You know, like James Comey. Or the media. Or white women. Or Russia. Hell, at one point, she even had the nerve to call herself "a victim of . . . the assumption" that she "was going to win."In her memoir — which is, in all honesty, nothing more than a glorified pity party on paper -- she whines that "[t]here are times when all I want to do is scream into a pillow." Elsewhere, she complains about how hard it was for her to write the book (which, by the way, broke sales records and made her millions):"Literally, at times when I was writing it, I had to go lie down," she said. "I just couldn't bear to relive it."Make no mistake: Hillary Clinton's attempts to seek sympathy in recent years are endless. Worse, this "strategy" also isn't new: When she was running against President Obama in 2008, her performance in one of the debates was so drenched in her woe-is-me-attitude that Politico published a piece declaring: "Hillary Clinton as the inevitable Democratic nominee didn't work. Hillary Clinton as the front-runner didn't work. So how about Hillary Clinton as the victim?"Yes: Hillary Clinton is consumed by feeling sorry for herself. What's more, she has obviously been operating under the false notion that all she needs to do is get others to share in this obsession, and then that will translate into political support. She must feel this way; there's no other reason she'd keep doing it.Here, though, is the problem: Expecting support simply because of the ways you say you've been wronged is just as bad as expecting support simply because you say you are, shall we say, "a very stable genius."Actually? In some ways, it's kind of worse.Now, it's important to point out that Trump, unlike Clinton, has managed to pause his self-obsession long enough to communicate his vision for the country. Yes, he may change his mind at times — but he's at least attempted to maintain his focus on what he wants to do for the country. You may disagree with what he says he wants to do (and I, for one, certainly have disagreed at times) but at least Trump talks about his message enough for people to have some understanding of what the hell it is.Even if he hadn't been able to do this though, I think I'd still find his brand of self-obsession less obnoxious than Clinton's. Trump may consistently be trying to paint himself as a rich, attractive, unparalleled savior of the world, but Clinton is consistently trying to paint herself as some kind of sick, flea-infested, three-legged street puppy — and, I've got to say, I have a pretty hard time feeling sorry for her.When we talk about Hillary Clinton, after all, we are hardly talking about someone who is struggling to make it in the world. We're not talking about someone on the streets or in a shelter; we're talking about an Ivy League-educated former secretary of state who is worth tens of millions of dollars. We are talking about someone who earns hundreds of thousands of dollars per speech. (In other words? For an hour of talking.) Given all that, I have to admit that I do find it kind of hard to spend any time feeling bad for such a rich, influential person -- especially while I'm sitting here in my rental apartment.Now, I certainly wouldn't say that Trump necessarily handles any attacks "better" than Clinton does. He, after all, has a tendency to lash out and insult people, and he's said a lot of things in response to criticism with which I've definitely had a problem. What's more, he also certainly does his own fair share of complaining. (Have you ever hear him talk about the media?)The difference, though, is that he seems to aim to do so from a position of toughness. I've heard him call many things "unfair," and yet I've never once felt as though he wanted me to feel sorry for him. If Trump loses this election, I don't doubt that he will take as little responsibility for his own loss as Hillary Clinton did hers, but I also don't anticipate him expecting an international pity party because of it.Maybe by that time, no matter who wins, Clinton will have finally decided to end her own pity party. I, at least, certainly would hope so. After all (as someone who had to ask a friend what I was looking at in an Instagram photo of the interior of a private jet yesterday), I've really have a pretty hard time feeling too bad for either one of them -- and I don't think I'm alone.
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| 'What choice do I have?' Lock-down strands millions in China's Wuhan Posted: 24 Jan 2020 03:07 AM PST  A trickle of passengers at the train station in the Chinese city of Wuhan put on a brave face on Friday as they arrived in the epicenter of a coronavirus outbreak that has killed 26 people, infected hundreds and raised fears of a pandemic. Authorities have all but shut down Wuhan, a city of 11 million and a major transport hub, at what is normally the busiest time of year - the Lunar New Year holiday - when millions of people travel home to visit their families. Millions of people in surrounding cities are virtually stranded after public transport networks were shut to stop the spread of the virus, believed to have originated at a Wuhan market illegally selling wildlife.
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| Trump’s ‘Ridiculous’ Impeachment Defense Could Crumble Posted: 24 Jan 2020 02:01 AM PST  Republicans couldn't have created a more twisted trial of the president if they'd named Kafka to the defense team. What a bind they've put Democrats in. To fight back against White House lawyers' main objection to the House's articles of impeachment—that the officials in the room where the impeachable acts happened did not testify—Democrats have to plead for those witnesses to testify now. And that gives Donald Trump's political defense a favorite talking point: If Democrats have such a strong case (which in fact they do), than why are they spending the first two days of the trial begging for more evidence? Easy. While Republicans insist that there's no case without witnesses and that it's too late to call them, they neglect to mention that it's Republicans who demanded and got witnesses in Clinton's impeachment, including the president himself. Sen. Lindsey Graham, who's ripping into Democrats now for supposedly creating a "complete circus" by demanding witnesses, was a House impeachment manager then.Trump's Lawyers are Lying About the Meaning of ImpeachmentHe and his fellow Senate Republicans also don't mention that the first-hand testimony they contend that there's no case without could only come from the first-hand witnesses Trump has blocked from testifying. It's like murdering your wife and then complaining about being a widower. A refrain of White House Counsel Pat Cippolone's presentations has been how "ridiculous" it is to expect Republicans to gather evidence the House didn't take the time to collect. I lost count of exactly how ridiculous it was at about his 20th time. The Democrats' dilemma is that it's almost impossible to demand something without creating the impression that you need it. They've been here once before. For two years, they placed their hopes of holding Trump accountable on the Mueller investigation, that is, until it came out. Almost immediately, Democrats asked for more, more, more: to hear from White House Counsel Don McGahn in person even though he'd delivered the goods in his deposition; for additional documents; for documents already provided to be un-redacted; for Special Counsel Robert Mueller to come to the Hill for what they hoped would be a dramatic reading of his report. Lost in all this complaining was Mueller flatly saying that his report did not exonerate Trump, although Trump constantly claimed that it did. In the end, Democrats came across as cruelly disappointed in Mueller's two volumes of scrupulously documented impeachable acts while Attorney General William Barr was as happy as a lark for having injected his false summary of it into the public bloodstream before it was published in full.House Democrats didn't take the time to wait for witnesses before sending their bill of impeachment to the Senate because it would have been a colossal waste of time. How fruitless to wait for something the White House defiantly refused to provide, or for a final court ruling that might or might not eventually come, or for a miracle. In any event, why wait for witnesses you don't need to prove the gravamen of your case given that Trump admitted to everything? It's a tic of the president's to proudly announce that something obviously wrong was actually perfect on the theory that if a perfect person with unlimited power does something, it can't be wrong. A guilty man would hide his bad acts, right?One of Trump's favorite congressmen, Texas Rep. Mac Thornberry, made that very point during the House hearings. Thornberry asked whether extorting the Ukrainian president to help Trump cheat in the upcoming election was "anything… that's different than [Trump] says in public all the time… or different than the American people have been hearing for three years? I don't hear that." That might be a novel defense for a serial killer, but hardly fit for a president. Democrats need to help the public keep two things in mind at the same time. First, that no more witnesses are needed. This is an open-and-shut case with the partial call transcript and documents revealing that Trump secretly withheld congressionally appropriated funds, the crime Republicans say is necessary for impeachment. Second, that there's no reason that Americans—and senators—shouldn't hear former National Security Adviser John Bolton describing the "drug deal" he saw going down, however much listening to Bolton and others like acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo might hurt the sensitive ears of Devin Nunes, Sean Hannity, and the rest of the whimpering Republican caucus.A vote for witnesses would give some senators a way to cut the baby in half, to show they're not complete patsies for Trump but are loyal enough to the party to vote against conviction. This may be particularly appealing to those senators in purplish states up for re-election. Republican Senators live in fear of Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who announced before the trial began that he planned to do everything the president wanted, including not having witnesses because it would be a "fishing expedition." His party's 53-47 advantage means he's only as powerful as any four of his fellow Republicans let him be. There are five—Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, Cory Gardner, Joni Ernst, and Martha McSally—atop the list of the most unpopular and endangered home-state senators who could peel off. McConnell also has to worry about a few others like sometimes statesman Mitt Romney, retiring senators like Lamar Alexander, and institutionalists like Rob Portman. If McConnell loses any four of them, he loses his ironclad grip on the length and depth of the trial. It's hard to sit still for hours of argument but it's uplifting to watch the House managers rise to the occasion, so much so that— as reported on MSNBC—Graham encountered Schiff at the elevator, shook his hand, and congratulated him on a job well done. If Democrats succeed in turning the Republican sleight of hand back on them—and they tried in every presentation on Wednesday—they will either get their witnesses, or they will get voters to see what's wrong with the spineless Republicans who refused to call them. So as not to push the potential defectors too far at the outset, McConnell abandoned two of his most unfair rules. Still, Collins cast a show vote for one of Schumer's amendments, likely with McConnell's approval, to shore up her supporters in Peloton classes in Kennebunkport. Of The Five, she's the most dramatic about how difficult the burden of being her reasonable self is. Despite her suffering, she almost always ends up where Trump wants her. The Five will get another opportunity to vote for witnesses next week, after a Sunday off counting up the calls from constituents who've been in a courtroom or just watched Law & Order and have some idea of what a trial entails. Voting in favor of a real trial on the biggest stage of their careers may give The Five—it would only take four of them—the chance to be the independent lawmakers they once were. Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Experts fear China virus lockdown is too late Posted: 24 Jan 2020 08:14 AM PST  China's bid to contain a deadly new virus by placing cities of millions under quarantine is an unprecedented undertaking, but it is unlikely to stop the disease spreading, experts warn. The contagious virus has already reached elsewhere in China and abroad, and even an authoritarian government has only a small time frame in which trapped residents will submit to such a lockdown, they say.
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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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| New Moon Photos! Get Your New Moon Photos Here! Posted: 23 Jan 2020 02:38 PM PST |
| Greta Thunberg fires back after Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin says she isn't qualified to lecture the US on climate change Posted: 23 Jan 2020 10:32 AM PST  "Is she the chief economist or who is she? I'm confused," Mnuchin joked about the Swedish teenager's call for America to quit fossil fuels.
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