| Is the U.S. Embassy Baghdad Attack a Sign of Things to Come? Posted: 31 Dec 2019 03:03 PM PST  Iranian-backed militia swarmed the U.S. embassy in Baghdad on Tuesday chanting "Death to America," sparking widespread concern among officials in Iraq and Washington about further targeting of American outposts in the days to come. The protest escalated Tuesday afternoon in Iraq as individuals holding the flags of Kataib Hezbollah, which launched rocket attacks that killed an American contractor on Friday only to be hit by U.S. airstrikes on Sunday, scrawled graffiti on the walls of the compound and used long concrete poles to try and break through the doors and windows. Is U.S. Embassy Attack in Baghdad Part of an Iran Trap?Others climbed on top of one of the American buildings, hoisting the Kataib Hezbollah flags to the roof. The crowds eventually dispersed, but U.S. officials said they would send additional troops to the area to protect embassy staffers. The State Department said there were no plans to evacuate the compound.The embassy protest took place after the U.S. launched a strike on Kataib Hezbollah in Iraq and Syria on Sunday, killing 24 people and wounding 50, according to a press statement from Kataib Hezbollah. Two days before that, the U.S. said the group launched rockets at a base near Kirkuk, Iraq, killing one American contractor. "We responded defensively to the Iranian proxy attack that killed an American citizen and wounded American and Iraqi soldiers," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Tuesday. "Now, Iranian backed groups are threatening our embassy in Baghdad."The rocket strike in Kirkuk represented the culmination of tensions between the U.S.-led anti-ISIS coalition and Iranian-backed militias in Iraq that have been mounting as the Trump administration's "maximum pressure" campaign against Iran intensified and the U.S.-Iran relationship veered towards aggressive confrontation.After a series of attacks on Japanese, European, and Saudi oil tankers in the Gulf attributed to Iran in May, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo ordered the evacuation of non-essential personnel from the U.S. embassy in Iraq and its consulate in Basra, citing intelligence showing an increased risk to U.S. officials from Iranian-backed proxies in Iraq. The move, according to the Pentagon's Lead Inspector General of Operation Inherent Resolve, established to fight the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, has affected all operations of Mission Iraq, limiting the mission's ability to help Iraq become "a more resilient, independent, democratic country, and to support counter-ISIS efforts."The U.S. military footprint in Iraq also has shrunk due to growing tensions with Iran and the militias it supports. For more than a year Iraqi politicians have called on the United States to withdraw all of its troops from the country, saying their continued presence would make an already volatile situation all the more perilous.Over the summer, a series of unexplained explosions at Iranian-backed militias' ammunition storage facilities led to allegations that Israel had targeted Iranian ballistic missiles stored at the facilities. U.S. officials denied any involvement in the explosions, but Iraqi officials facing an onslaught of conspiracy theories and Iranian-backed militia outrage, restricted the the anti-ISIS coalition's use of Iraqi airspace—a move that "hurt the Coalition's ability to counter the ISIS threat in Iraq," according to the most recent Pentagon report.The swarm attacking the U.S. embassy on Tuesday alarmed Democratic lawmakers on Capitol Hill, concerned that the Trump administration's maximum pressure policy had sparked an irreversible escalation with Tehran that could kickstart, at a minimum, a stand-off with Iranian-backed militias in Iraq. "Trump's reckless decisions to walk away from the Iran [nuclear] Deal and now to launch airstrikes in Iraq without Iraqi government consent have brought us closer to war and endangered U.S. troops and diplomats," Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), a Democratic presidential candidate, said on Twitter. "We should end the forever wars, not start new ones."Republicans took to social media to denounce the media's use of the term "protesters" to describe the mass of people who encircled the U.S. embassy Tuesday, saying those who participated were directly linked to the Iranian-backed militias. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) said the protesters were members of the Hezbollah militia operating in Iraq. "There's zero question," Rubio declared on Twitter. Photos surfaced on social media Tuesday showing leaders of Kataib Hezbollah at least mingling with the protesters at the American embassy.Both the Senate and House foreign affairs committees called for briefings on the situation from top State Department officials. Meanwhile, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), a member of the Senate Armed Forces Committee, announced Tuesday on Twitter that he had met President Donald Trump in Florida to discuss the situation in Iraq, saying the president was "determined to protect American personnel" and that he expected "Iraqi partners to step up to the plate." "No more Benghazis," said Graham.Not everyone believes that the flareup over Iranian-backed militias will mark the beginning of the end for the U.S. military presence in Iraq. "We both still realize we need each other and I don't think this will serve as a break. It is a low point; I don't think it's a breaking point," one former senior military officer told The Daily Beast."Iraq is in between two nation states, both of whom they need help from, both of whom they want good relationships with, and both of whom are at each other's throats. Not to be too sympathetic to the Iraqi government, but they are in a very precarious position politically and they don't have the depth or breadth of experience to work their way through it," he said.While it's unclear yet whether Iraq will apply further restrictions on the U.S.-led anti-ISIS coalition in the wake of the U.S. strikes, experts say the impact of either a withdrawal or expulsion of U.S. forces would be clear."The effectiveness of the CT [counter terrorism] effort would be rapidly degraded by a U.S. pullout, and ISIS would likely begin to rebuild some higher-end attack capabilities, particularly car bomb and suicide bomber networks," Alex Mello, a security consultant, told The Daily Beast.The impact would likely be felt hardest among Iraq's Counterterrorism Service (CTS) and other elite special operations units which U.S. special operators have spent years training and have fought alongside when the ISIS caliphate still stood. But Mello says conventional troops among Iraqi Security Forces would also feel the effect of a U.S. drawdown. "They've become accustomed to operating with U.S. support, particularly relying on airborne intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance coverage during clearance operations. If U.S. combat air support was also withdrawn, ISIS would be able again to mass openly in large groups and potentially threaten to overrun Iraqi forward operating bases and larger combat outposts."Maximum Pressure on Iran Is Working. That's Why It's Lashing Out. Let's Keep It Up.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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| 16 inmates killed in bloody two and a half hour prison riot after guns snuck into facility Posted: 01 Jan 2020 09:05 AM PST  At least 16 inmates were killed in a central Mexico prison and five others wounded after a bloody two-and-a-half hour riot.Four guns – believed to have been smuggled in during prison visits on Tuesday, where found at the scene of the violent melee at the Cienguillas state prison in the north-central Zacatecas region.
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| Bailed tycoon Ghosn flees to Lebanon from 'rigged' Japan Posted: 31 Dec 2019 08:58 AM PST  Former Nissan chief Carlos Ghosn said Tuesday he had fled to Lebanon to escape injustice in Japan, where he was on bail awaiting trial on financial misconduct charges. The auto tycoon's abrupt departure was the latest twist in a rollercoaster journey that saw him fall from boardroom to detention centre and sparked questions over an embarrassing security lapse in Japan. It was not clear how he managed to leave Japan, as his bail conditions barred him from exiting the country he had been held in since his sudden arrest in November 2018 sent shockwaves through the business world.
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| Minister: Texas shooter previously grew irate over cash requests Posted: 31 Dec 2019 09:02 AM PST  The man who opened fire inside a Texas church on Sunday, killing two people before being shot to death, visited the church several other times this year and was given food but got angry when officials refused to give him money, said a minister at the church.
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| GOP Sen. Collins says she's open to impeachment witnesses Posted: 31 Dec 2019 11:59 AM PST  Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine says she's open to calling witnesses as part of the Senate impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, but she says it is "premature" to decide who should be called until senators see the evidence that is presented. Collins also said it was inappropriate for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, to pledge "total coordination" between the White House and the Senate during the impeachment trial.
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| Russia’s Hypersonic ICBM Is Operational. So What? Posted: 01 Jan 2020 12:00 AM PST  Moscow might not even need them. Here's why.
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| In California: Blackouts, celeb scandals, crooked cops and wildfires Posted: 01 Jan 2020 03:32 PM PST  We closed out a year and ended a decade. ICYMI, here's a look back at last year's biggest stories from the Golden State
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| People in Colorado and Nebraska say they've seen mysterious swarms of giant drones in the sky. 19 organizations have said they're not responsible. Posted: 31 Dec 2019 08:56 AM PST  Large swarms of drones have been reported in six counties across Colorado and Nebraska, but no one knows where they're coming from.
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| Nine Killed as Jakarta Hit by Worst Flooding Since 2013 Posted: 01 Jan 2020 04:28 AM PST ![Nine Killed as Jakarta Hit by Worst Flooding Since 2013]( "Nine Killed as Jakarta Hit by Worst Flooding Since 2013") (Bloomberg) -- Nine people have died as heavy monsoon rains lashed the Indonesian capital and nearby cities since New Year's Eve, triggering the worst flooding in almost seven years.The rains submerged homes and cars and shut one of Jakarta's airports. More than 700 areas in greater Jakarta region suffered from power outages, according to state-run electricity company PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara. Commuter trains suspended some operations, said PT Kereta Commuter Indonesia.The Jakarta provincial government is prioritizing the safety of residents and instructed schools and some offices to be prepared in providing shelter as the country's weather agency expects rainfall to continue in the next three days. The death toll was provided by the country's disaster mitigation agency.The Halim Perdanakusuma airport had to shut as the runway was flooded and authorities diverted several flights to Soekarno-Hatta. Many roads in Jakarta were also not passable.President Joko Widodo had instructed government agencies to prioritize rescue and to immediately normalize the operation of strategic public facilities, such as the Halim Perdanakusuma airport, he said on Twitter.In January 2013, more than 30 million residents of the city were affected by flooding that killed dozens of people and inundated areas including the central business district.Indonesia's weather agency, known as BMKG, urged people to store important documents in a safe place and to prepare for power supply backup.(Updates with latest death toll in first paragraph.)\--With assistance from Tassia Sipahutar, Yoga Rusmana, Fathiya Dahrul, Harry Suhartono and Rieka Rahadiana.To contact the reporters on this story: Arys Aditya in Jakarta at aaditya5@bloomberg.net;Eko Listiyorini in Jakarta at elistiyorini@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Thomas Kutty Abraham at tabraham4@bloomberg.net, Colum Murphy, Clarissa BatinoFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Buttigieg 1st to announce Q4 fundraising haul of $24.7 million Posted: 01 Jan 2020 08:20 AM PST  And they're off!South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg was the first 2020 Democrat out of the gate with his fourth quarter fundraising haul announcement after the quarter ended on Tuesday. He raised $24.7 million, beating out nearly every candidates' total from the last quarter, his campaign announced Wednesday.Buttigieg's Q4 announcement homed in on his small-money donations, saying its average contribution this quarter was $33 and that 98 percent of its donations were less than $200. That focus is a clear rebuttal to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) after she went after Buttigieg's high-dollar fundraisers in December's Democratic debate.Warren raised just a bit less than Buttigieg in the third quarter, with $24.6 million. She hinted at a less prosperous Q4 in an email last week where she told supporters she had only brought in $17 million. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) meanwhile had the best fundraising quarter of any 2020 candidate yet in Q3, but hasn't yet indicated how this quarter is shaping up.More stories from theweek.com The Obama legacy is not what many liberals think Sorry, the 2010s aren't over yet 1st trailer for A Quiet Place 2 plunges Emily Blunt into the apocalypse
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| 18 Inventions that Changed Our Lives in the 2010s Posted: 31 Dec 2019 08:53 AM PST |
| Washington says Baghdad failed to 'protect' Americans Posted: 30 Dec 2019 08:37 PM PST  Washington has accused Iraqi authorities of having failed to "protect" US interests, the day after deadly American air strikes against a pro-Iran group sparked anger. At least 25 fighters were killed in Sunday night's attacks, which were in retaliation for the death last week of a US civilian contractor. "We have warned the Iraqi government many times, and we've shared information with them to try to work with them to carry out their responsibility to protect us," a senior US State Department official told reporters in Washington on Monday.
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| Apes, monkeys among 30 animals killed in German zoo fire Posted: 01 Jan 2020 02:17 AM PST  Police said paper sky lanterns launched nearby to celebrate the arrival of 2020 were probably to blame. Several witnesses saw cylindrical paper lanterns with little fires inside flying in the night sky shortly after midnight Wednesday near the Krefeld Zoo, Gerd Hoppmann, the city's head of criminal police, told reporters. "People reported seeing those sky lanterns flying at low altitude near the zoo and then it started burning," Hoppmann said.
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| Donald Trump warns Iran it will pay 'big price' as protesters try to storm US embassy in Baghdad Posted: 31 Dec 2019 08:31 PM PST  Donald Trump accused Iran of orchestrating the attack on the US embassy in Baghdad as he said he expected Iraq to "use its forces" to intervene. "Iran will be held fully responsible for lives lost, or damage incurred, at any of our facilities. They will pay a very BIG PRICE! This is not a Warning, it is a Threat," he wrote on Twitter. "The US Embassy in Iraq is, & has been for hours, SAFE! Many of our great Warfighters, together with the most lethal military equipment in the world, was immediately rushed to the site." Mr Trump intensified pressure on the Iraqi authorities who had been powerless to prevent hundreds of demonstrators breaching the outer wall of the embassy compound in the heavily fortified green zone. He pressed the case for action in a call to Iraq's caretaker Prime Minister Adel Abd al-Mahd, urging him to protect US personnel and property. Asked later in the day about the possibility of tensions spiraling into a war with Iran, Mr Trump told reporters: "Do I want to? No. I want to have peace. I like peace. And Iran should want to have peace more than anybody. So I don't see that happening." Chanting "death to America", the protesters set fire to a sentry box, pulled security cameras away from walls and hurled a barrage of missiles including Molotov cocktails. At one point the mob, which was protesting against US airstrikes on an Iranian-backed militia in Iraq on Sunday, used a drainpipe in an attempt to smash an embassy window. US troops tried to disperse the crowd firing warning shots before using teargas and stun grenades. At least 62 people were reported to have been injured. Iran killed an American contractor, wounding many. We strongly responded, and always will. Now Iran is orchestrating an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Iraq. They will be held fully responsible. In addition, we expect Iraq to use its forces to protect the Embassy, and so notified!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) 31 December 2019 Amid mounting tension, the US announced it would be deploying additional marines to increase security. Two Apache helicopters flew over the compound in a show of force. Matt Tueller, the US ambassador in Iraq, was not in the embassy at the time, but will be returning to join staff in the compound, the US State Department said. Under pressure from Mr Trump to protect US personnel, Mr Mahdi had deployed special forces at the main gate in an attempt to prevent hundreds of protesters forcing their way in. Some of the crowd did withdraw, while others pitched tents, paving the way for a siege, which a spokesman for the militant group said would remain until US diplomats leave the country. As the violence unfolded in Iraq, Mr Trump intensified pressure on both Iraq and Iran with a series of tweets. "We expect Iraq to use its forces to protect the Embassy, and so notified!" Mr Trump tweeted, saying Iran "will be held fully responsible" for the unrest. Mr Trump was unapologetic for the military action which killed at least 25 fighters from Iran-backed Kataeb Hezbollah, a militant group with the US holds responsible for the death of an American contractor. "Iran killed an American contractor, wounding many. We strongly responded, and always will," the US president wrote. Supporters of Kataeb Hezbollah were prominent among the demonstrators in Baghdad, with the group's flags hanging on the fence surrounding the embassy. The Iraqi government, which is already facing a wave of protests across the country, has found itself caught in the crossfire between Tehran and Washington. Thousands of protesters and militia fighters outside the gate denounced U.S. air strikes in Iraq. Credit: AFP Mr Mahdi condemned the weekend's airstrikes, but Mr Trump remained unrepentant as he urged the country to stand up to 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!" the president tweeted. In response, Tehran accused the US of "audacity" in blaming Iran for the demonstrations. "The surprising audacity of American officials is so much that after killing at least 25... and violating the country's sovereignty and territorial integrity, that now... they attribute the Iraqi people's protest against their cruel acts to the Islamic Republic of Iran," said foreign ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi. In the US, Republican hawks praised Mr Trump's tough response to the attack on the embassy. "He has put the world on notice - there will be no Benghazi's on his watch," tweeted Lindsey Graham, a close Trump ally and GOP senator from South Carolina. Newt Gingrich called for even tougher action. "The United States should respond to Iran in Iran. The Iranian dictatorship doesn't care how many of its allies we hit in Iraq. We have to go after the heart of the enemy and make them pay decisively."
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| Japan Airlines Is Giving Away 50,000 Free Flights to Tourists. Here's How to Get One Posted: 30 Dec 2019 11:21 PM PST  Tourists flying to Japan with Japan Airlines this summer can win free tickets to a surprise destination in the country
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| 4,000+ People Trapped on Pristine Australia Beach as Wildfires Close In Posted: 31 Dec 2019 03:20 AM PST  More than 4,000 people, including residents, hundreds of tourists, and children, are trapped on beaches near the town of Mallacoota on Australia's east coast, surrounded as raging wildfires fueled by strong winds are barreling toward them. Officials are telling them they may need to jump into the sea to save themselves. David Jeffrey, a local business owner, told BBC News that he and other residents sheltering on an adjacent beach nearby were preparing to jump into the sea before sudden winds pushed the flames in the other direction. "There's a rock wall that they've built to keep back the sea, and that was where we were going to jump into the water if the radiant heat had hit," he told BBC by Skype. "It looks a lot like Armageddon. It's terrifying." The Australian government announced that it is readying naval ships and military helicopters to carry out evacuations after all roads leading to the area are now blocked by raging blazes. More than 200 fires are now burning across the the states of New South Wales and Victoria.The apocalyptic images cut a stark contrast as fireworks lit up over Sydney Harbour as New Year's celebrations rang out, despite widespread protests over fears of the pyrotechnics starting more fires amid the country's heat and wildfire emergency.A father and son are reported to have died and four other people are missing after several people tried to escape through the fires, despite government warnings to shelter in place until they can be rescued, according to government officials. The Australian government has called for assistance from the U.S. and Canada, which are preparing to send fire crews to help fight the blazes that have burned some 10 million acres and killed more than a dozen people over the last several weeks. The fires have been fueled by extreme temperatures and strong winds coupled with a three-year drought. Several people are trapped on beaches around Batemans Bay, which is a popular New Year's Eve destination for those who travel to Australia to enjoy the summer in the Southern Hemisphere.Many of those trapped have posted eerie photos on social media of the blood-red skies and night-like conditions in the afternoon as smoke from the raging fires blocks the sun.One woman posted a terrifying photo of her young son wearing a mask and a life jacket on a boat as they tried to escape Mallacoota.Firefighters have also been trapped in the fires, with one unit posting a video as they tried to reach safety as the fire surrounded their truck. Australian authorities say they have no prediction for when the fires will be contained. 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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| Israel Now Has a Second Squadron of Deadly F-35I Stealth Fighters Posted: 01 Jan 2020 10:13 AM PST  The first public photograph has appeared depicting an F-35 stealth fighter in the livery of Israel's second squadron of the radar-evading jets.
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| Carlos Ghosn, awaiting trial in Japan, somehow fled to Lebanon Posted: 30 Dec 2019 09:54 PM PST  Carlos Ghosn, the former chairman of Nissan, announced Tuesday that he is now in Lebanon, despite being ordered by Japanese courts not to leave the country while awaiting trial on financial misconduct charges. Ghosn insisted in his statement that he has "not fled justice — I have escaped injustice and political persecution." He was arrested in Japan in November 2018 then detained and rearrested for months before a court ordered him released on $9 million bail in April. Ghosn, 65, was told to hand over his passport and placed under close surveillance.Japanese media quoted anonymous prosecutors expressing puzzlement as to how Ghosn managed to leave Japan. Ghosn holds Lebanese, French, and Brazilian citizenship, and Lebanon and Japan do not have an extradition treaty. Japan's minister of state for foreign affairs met with the Lebanese president and foreign minister in Beirut earlier this month, The Washington Post reports.Ghosn was expected to go on trial in April on criminal charges of financial misconduct and underreporting his income, charges he denies. In his statement, Ghosn said he "will no longer be held hostage by a rigged Japanese justice system where guilt is presumed, discrimination is rampant, and basic human rights are denied, in flagrant disregard of Japan's legal obligations under international law and treaties it is bound to uphold." Fellow Nissan-Renault board member Greg Kelly, a U.S. citizen, was also arrested, but none of the Japanese board members were detained.More stories from theweek.com The Obama legacy is not what many liberals think Sorry, the 2010s aren't over yet 1st trailer for A Quiet Place 2 plunges Emily Blunt into the apocalypse
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| 2 missing Idaho kids are in danger and mom 'completely refused' to help find them, police say Posted: 31 Dec 2019 07:16 AM PST  Tylee Ryan, 17, and Joshua Vallow, 7, were last seen in Rexburg, Idaho, on Sept. 23. Their parents are not cooperating with investigators, police said
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| Federal judge temporarily exempts truck drivers from California gig worker law Posted: 01 Jan 2020 05:43 AM PST  U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez in San Diego granted on Tuesday a five-page order sought by trade group California Trucking Association while he considers imposing a permanent injunction, the hearing for which is set for Jan. 13. "Having considered the parties' arguments set forth in Plaintiffs' supporting papers, as well as Defendants' and Intervenor-Defendant's opposition papers, the Court finds that Plaintiffs' requested temporary restraining order is warranted", the judge said in his order. California's gig worker law was signed by Governor Gavin Newsom in September and has garnered national attention, largely owing to the size of California's workforce and the state's leadership role in establishing policies that are frequently adopted by other states.
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| Holocaust education planned after WV jail guard Nazi salute Posted: 31 Dec 2019 08:09 AM PST  West Virginia plans to begin training its corrections department staff about the Holocaust after a photograph of correction officer cadets giving Nazi salutes led to dozens of firings and widespread outrage, officials said Tuesday.
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| Trump threatens Iran will pay ‘a very big price’ over US embassy protests in Baghdad Posted: 31 Dec 2019 08:56 AM PST  Washington humiliated as hundreds storm American compound chanting slogans in support of pro-Iranian militiasDonald Trump has directly threatened Iran, saying it will pay a "very big price" for any US lives lost or facilities damaged in the wake of a mob attack on the American embassy in Baghdad.In a humiliating day for Washington, hundreds of supporters of Iraqi Shia militia, many wearing military fatigues, besieged the US compound, at one point breaching the main gate and smashing their way into several reception rooms. They lit fires, battered down doors and threw bricks at bulletproof glass.The rampage was carried out with the apparent connivance of Iraqi security forces who allowed protesters inside the highly protected Green Zone. US guards responded with teargas but did not open fire.After declaring the embassy safe, Trump tweeted: "Iran will be held fully responsible for lives lost, or damage incurred, at any of our facilities. They will pay a very BIG PRICE! This is not a Warning, it is a Threat. Happy New Year!"The Trump administration's declared policy has been to treat any attack on US interests by Iranian proxies as an attack by Iran itself. On Sunday, the US conducted air strikes on bases belonging to the Kata'ib Hezbollah militia group, which is formally part of the Iraqi army. The group's attacks on Iraqi bases hosting coalition forces culminated in the death of a US contractor and injuries to at least four American soldiers in Kirkuk on Friday.At least 25 fighters were killed and dozens injured in the US strikes. The embassy attack followed.Instead of advancing US goals, the airstrikes appear to be the latest in a series of foreign policy blunders in the Middle East. Iraq's government furiously condemned them, while pro-Iranian militias promised further attacks against American targets, with the goal of expelling US forces."Iran killed an American contractor, wounding many. We strongly responded, and always will," Trump tweeted. "Now Iran is orchestrating an attack on the US embassy in Iraq. They will be held fully responsible."The US embassy denied earlier reports from Iraq's foreign ministry that the ambassador and his staff were hastily evacuated, as protesters surged towards the building.A state department spokesperson told the Guardian the chief of the US mission in Iraq, Matthew Tueller, was away on a scheduled vacation and left Baghdad a week ago. The embassy was under lockdown but had not been evacuated, officials said, with diplomats sheltering in a "safe room"."The Iranian-backed demonstrations in front of the US embassy should not be confused with the Iraqi protesters who have been in the streets since October to decry the corruption exported to Iraq by the Iranian regime," the spokeswoman said."We have made clear the United States will protect and defend its people, who are there to support a sovereign and independent Iraq. We are closely monitoring the situation in Iraq and call on the government of Iraq to protect our diplomatic facilities per their obligations."Video from the scene showed thick grey smoke engulfing the compound against a backdrop of wailing from an emergency siren. Protesters shouted "no, no, America!" and "no, no, Trump!", and "death to America!". By nightfall fires were still burning. One masked man walked off with an official US embassy sign.Map of embassy locationThe US state department said personnel at the embassy were safe and there were no plans to evacuate. "Our first priority is the safety and security of US personnel," a spokesperson said in a statement."US personnel are secure and there has been no breach," the spokesperson said. "There are no plans to evacuate Embassy Baghdad."The US defence secretary, Mark Esper, announced that he authorized the immediate deployment of about 750 soldiers to the Middle East. He said additional troops are prepared to deploy over the next several days.Former foreign service staff compared the chaotic scenes to the ransacking in 1979 of the US embassy in Tehran, when 52 US citizens were taken hostage. Tuesday's events, however, were not on the same dramatic scale. There was no loss of life and most of the embassy building was not breached.Nonetheless, the prospect of a worsening conflict between US forces and Iranian proxies in Iraq looms large. The Trump administration's policy of piling sanctions and economic pressure on Tehran appears to have delivered few tangible diplomatic results and has taken relations with Iraq to a new low.Iraq's prime minister, Adel Abdul Mahdi – an ally of both Iran and Washington – vowed on Tuesday to protect the safety and security of US personnel. After doing little initially to halt the violence, Iraqi security forces turned up in force in the afternoon and formed a protective line between angry crowds and US guards.The US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo said the US would "protect and defend its people" in a phone call with Abdul Mahdi. The viability of the US diplomatic mission in Baghdad – its largest in the world – is now an open question, as demonstrators set up tents outside its perimeter.Many of the protesters had come from funerals held in Baghdad for some of the dead militia fighters. They were carrying flags belonging to Kata'ib Hezbollah and to Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Forces), a powerful paramilitary group of which Kata'ib Hezbollah is a part.Qais al-Khazali, the leader of the Iranian-backed Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq militia, and many other senior militia leaders were among the demonstrators. On Monday, Iran condemned the US strikes as "terrorism". Russia complained it had not been given advance warning.Street protests take place regularly in the Iraqi capital. In recent months, security guards have shot dead more than 450 people protesting against rampant government corruption and the growing influence of Iranian-backed groups, including Kata'ib Hezbollah.
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| Algeria's richest man walks free on time served Posted: 31 Dec 2019 11:44 PM PST  Algeria's richest man Issad Rebrab walked free on time served early Wednesday after a court sentenced him to six months for tax, banking and customs offences. Prosecutors had sought a one-year prison sentence for the 74-year-old head of Algeria's biggest privately owned conglomerate Cevital, who was one of several tycoons arrested in April as part of a sweeping corruption investigation. The probe followed the resignation of president Abdelaziz Bouteflika after weeks of mass protests against his 20-year rule.
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| Immigration in 2019: Trump restricts asylum and overhauls legal immigration Posted: 31 Dec 2019 03:43 AM PST  2019 was arguably the Trump administration's most successful one in its quest to severely restrict asylum and overhaul the legal immigration system.
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| Thousands flee to beaches amid devastating Australian wildfires Posted: 31 Dec 2019 05:00 AM PST  Thousands of Australians were forced to flee to beaches on Tuesday as wildfires continued to blaze in New South Wales and Victoria.About 4,000 people sought refuge on nearby beaches in the town of Mallacoota in Victoria, with thousands along the New South Wales coast needing to evacuate their homes, CNN reports. Fires have been raging in Australia for the past several months, and 70 new fires reportedly started in Victoria on Monday, while more than 60 fires haven't yet been contained in New South Wales."It was like we were in hell," a vacationer in New South Wales told CNN. "We were all covered in ash.""It should have been daylight but it was black like midnight and we could hear the fire roaring," a local business owner in Mallacoota told BBC News. "We were all terrified for our lives."After the death of a father and son in Cobargo, at least 11 people have died amid Australia's devastating fire season, during which more than 900 homes have been destroyed in New South Wales, The New York Times reports. Victoria Emergency Services Commissioner Andrew Crisp said there have been "significant" property losses, The Associated Press reports.Australian military aircraft and vessels will assist in the emergency services, BBC News reports, and the United States and Canada have also been asked to help in the effort. CNN reports that weather conditions are expected to improve in the next 24 hours before worsening by the end of the week, again "bringing dangerous fire conditions."More stories from theweek.com The Obama legacy is not what many liberals think Sorry, the 2010s aren't over yet 1st trailer for A Quiet Place 2 plunges Emily Blunt into the apocalypse
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| Japan Eyes New Tech Law to Fend Off Chinese Influence, Yomiuri Says Posted: 31 Dec 2019 11:17 PM PST ![Japan Eyes New Tech Law to Fend Off Chinese Influence, Yomiuri Says]( "Japan Eyes New Tech Law to Fend Off Chinese Influence, Yomiuri Says") (Bloomberg) -- Japan is planning a law to provide incentives for companies to use domestic parts in high-tech equipment to increase local competitiveness and fend off Chinese influence in security-related infrastructure, the Yomiuri newspaper reported, without citing how it obtained the information.The Japanese government plans to introduce the bill in the ordinary Diet session and have it in effect by this summer, according to the Wednesday report. The government sees the incentives initially being used with the introduction of 5G telecommunication equipment and drones, the Yomiuri said.Private companies can apply for tax subsidizes or government aid when installing high-tech equipment and will be judged on factors including safety, supply stability and international compatibility, the Yomiuri reported.China has said restrictions on Chinese technology could damage bilateral ties, and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will have to tread carefully as he looks to host President Xi Jinping for a state visit planned for the spring of this year. If Xi makes the trip, it would crown Abe's drive to restore a relationship between the two largest economies in Asia that was in a deep freeze when he took office in 2012.Japan's sole military ally, the U.S., has been pushing for countries to ban equipment from China's Huawei Technologies Co. Japan has said it will exclude equipment with security risks without making an official decision on Huawei.To contact the reporter on this story: Lisa Du in Tokyo at ldu31@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Rachel Chang at wchang98@bloomberg.net, Jon Herskovitz, Karen LeighFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| An Officer Admitted Making a Racist Threat. He Still Has a Job. Posted: 31 Dec 2019 11:54 AM PST  Michael J. Reynolds, a New York City police officer, landed in Nashville, Tennessee, on a Sunday morning in July 2018, court records show. He and six other men, two of whom he later identified as New York City officers, were on what was supposed to be a three-night bachelor-party junket.About 18 hours later, Reynolds, who is white, kicked in a black woman's door in a drunken rage, threatening her and her sons with a racist slur and obscenities."I'll break every bone in your neck," he said in a rant that included two expletives. He then fled to his nearby Airbnb rental just before police arrived.This month, he was sentenced to 15 days in jail and three years' probation after pleading no contest to four misdemeanors as a result of the episode, court records show.As of Monday, though, he remained an officer, stirring a growing backlash against the New York Police Department. More than 10,000 people signed an online petition demanding his dismissal and supporting the woman whose home he invaded, Conese Halliburton."Michael Reynolds is a violent and dangerous racist who has no business carrying either a badge or a gun," her lawyer, Daniel Horwitz, said via email. "Ms. Halliburton wants the NYPD to fire him immediately so that he can't hurt anyone else."The Police Department said last week that Reynolds was on "modified duty" and that the disciplinary process was awaiting the Nashville case's conclusion. Asked about the matter again Monday, a top department official said the process "was moving forward and questioning will take place imminently."Reynolds, 26, apologized in court for the episode and claimed that he had no memory of it because he had been drinking heavily."I'm sorry," he testified. "I made a mistake. I consumed too much alcohol."Edward Yarbrough, Reynolds' lawyer, said that because of the jail time, "We think his job is in jeopardy." Yarbrough had sought a sentence that could have allowed his client to keep his job and have his record expunged in several years.The case of Reynolds is again focusing scrutiny on the pace of the Police Department's disciplinary process. In a prominent example of how it can drag on, five years passed before Officer Daniel Pantaleo, whose use of a prohibited chokehold contributed to the 2014 death in police custody of Eric Garner, was fired and stripped of his pension benefits in August.The police commissioner has the ultimate say over firings, but police unions typically fight such moves. Officers who are ousted sometimes sue to try to get back their jobs and benefits, as Pantaleo is doing.Reynolds' crimes did not occur in the line of duty, nor did he cause physical injuries. But Halliburton testified that he had done significant psychological damage."My kids want to move," she said at the sentencing Dec. 6. "They don't want to be in that house anymore. We don't have peace. To know that you've been living somewhere all your life, and you don't have that anymore, and where would you go, it's not fair."In court, Halliburton, the prosecutor, the judge and Reynolds' own lawyer all used the same term -- terrorize -- to describe what Reynolds had done to Halliburton's family that night.The episode, some of which, including audio of Reynolds' ranting, was captured by a neighbor's security cameras, began shortly after 2:30 a.m. on July 9, 2018.At the time, Halliburton testified, she was lying in bed talking with her youngest son in her house in Nashville's 12 South section."I could hear, like, someone, like, yelling," she said.Looking out a window, her son saw a man who turned out to be Reynolds in the yard. Halliburton called 911. While she was on the phone, she said, she heard "like a boom, boom, boom.""It sounds like he's trying to come in my house," she recalled telling the 911 operator.Moments later, she said, Reynolds was inside. Her two dogs ran to protect her, barking and biting at his shorts. He tried to fight them off."He just kept coming down the hallway," she said.Halliburton said that her two eldest sons, who were 17 and 20 at the time, tried to stop him from coming any farther into the house. He did not budge."He was in the house for, like, seven, eight minutes," Halliburton testified.It was during this time that security cameras captured Reynolds screaming a racist slur at Halliburton and her family and threatening them with violence.He left, she said, after appearing to comprehend that the police were coming.When officers arrived, she described the intruder to them and suggested they talk to the men staying at the Airbnb two doors away.Before storming into Halliburton's house, Reynolds testified, he and his friends had been drinking in Nashville's Lower Broadway area. He said he did not know how much alcohol he had consumed.The only thing he remembered, he testified, was identifying himself as a police officer when speaking to a Nashville officer who answered Halliburton's call. He said he learned about what he had done from his friends later.Halliburton and two neighbors confronted Reynolds and his friends later that day in the street.Halliburton and the neighbors testified that the men, including Reynolds and a man he identified as a fellow New York City officer, apologized.Reynolds said he had gone into the home by mistake, thinking that it was their rental.But Halliburton and the neighbors also testified that the officers were laughing at the same time, saying that they had "immunity" because they were law enforcement officers.Nashville detectives later tracked down Reynolds, and Halliburton and her sons identified him from a photo array.After being charged with aggravated burglary and assault, he pleaded no contest in September to aggravated criminal trespassing and three counts of assault. He is to report to jail Jan. 15 if he does not appeal his sentence before then.In arguing that Reynolds, a five-year Police Department veteran previously assigned to the 33rd Precinct in Upper Manhattan, deserved jail time, Brian Ewald, the prosecutor, said Reynolds and his friends had tried to "bully their way through this or out of this.""Keep quiet, don't tell anybody a thing and we'll get out of this," Ewald said in describing the men's attitude. "You know, we went, we cut up in another city, what happens in Nashville stays in Nashville, let's get out of town early and live our lives."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
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| Hong Kong riot police use tear gas to answer firebombs to ring in New Year Posted: 31 Dec 2019 10:41 AM PST  Hong Kong protesters rang in the New Year with a wave of fresh mass demonstrations, as they tried to show they could maintain pressure on the Beijing-backed government into 2020.
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| Financial tug-of-war emerges over fire victims' settlement Posted: 31 Dec 2019 11:00 PM PST  A financial tug-of-war is emerging over the $13.5 billion that the nation's largest utility has agreed to pay to victims of recent California wildfires, as government agencies jockey for more than half the money to cover the costs of their response to the catastrophes. Pacific Gas & Electric declared bankruptcy nearly a year ago as it faced about $36 billion in claims from people who lost family members, homes and businesses in devastating wildfires in 2017 and 2018. PG&E settled with the insurers for $11 billion.
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| Protesters stormed the US Embassy in Baghdad and torched parts of it on New Year's Eve Posted: 31 Dec 2019 05:05 AM PST  A large crowd of protesters gathered to demonstrate against US airstrikes on an Iran-backed militia, and some stormed the US compound.
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| Erdogan, Istanbul rival lock horns over 'crazy canal' Posted: 31 Dec 2019 08:21 PM PST  President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's dream project of building a canal in Istanbul to rival those at Suez and Panama has turned into a political showdown with the city's new mayor. Ekrem Imamoglu, who won a shock victory for the opposition in 2019 to become mayor of Turkey's largest city, says the 75 billion lira ($12.6 billion) canal is wasteful, environmentally destructive and could even increase the earthquake risk. "Canal Istanbul is a criminal project," he tweeted in December as he launched an "Either Canal or Istanbul" campaign and withdrew from a construction protocol signed by the previous mayor.
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| Israel Is Using Lasers to Shoot Down Flaming Kites (and Explosive Condoms) Posted: 31 Dec 2019 04:55 AM PST  Kites, balloons and even inflated condoms, launched across the Gaza border into southern Israel by Hamas and other Palestinian groups, have become a major problem for the Israeli military. A solution has arrived.
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| Cold War Between Biden and Mayor Pete Suddenly Burns Hot Posted: 01 Jan 2020 02:26 AM PST  If there was ever a Biden-Buttigieg cold war, it just got hot. For months, former Vice President Joe Biden and South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg have avoided any major direct confrontation during the sporadic gloves-off skirmishes of the Democratic primary. Biden, the former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Buttigieg, a veteran of the Afghanistan war, have each sought to make cogent commander-in-chief cases on the campaign trail—hardly ever at each other's expense. But with just over a month until caucusing commences, the unpredictability of the political cycle has turned the notion of an inevitable winner upside down, with two of the leading contenders—a 77-year-old established politician and a 37-year-old Beltway neophyte—now on a collision course over one of their most powerful shared interests. The two men have markedly different approaches to highlighting contrasts with their rivals. Biden, who has reliably topped national polls since launching his campaign in April, tends to employ a simple approach: Stay (mostly) out of the fray; attack (mostly) only when attacked; and try, with varying degrees of success, to stick to the script.Biden Sneers at Millennials, and Vice VersaButtigieg, whose final term as mayor of South Bend, Indiana, officially ends at noon on Wednesday, prefers the opposite. When Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) hesitated for weeks to release financial details of her health care proposal, for example, the mayor made sure to note that resistance during a televised debate in front of millions of viewers. When Warren hit back in a subsequent event for Buttigieg's frequent appearance at high-dollar fundraisers, he reminded viewers she's the "wealthy person"—not him. Now, with the two moderate Democrats just three percentage points away from each other in Iowa and New Hampshire, the first two early voting states that tee off the nominating contest in mere weeks, Buttigieg has gone on a rare offensive against Biden. The mayor has criticized the former senator's Iraq War vote—a favorite line of attack from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who was opposed to the effort—and changed his tone on Biden's son Hunter, who has been the subject of a coordinated misinformation campaign from President Donald Trump. "As I've said before, I don't think it's a smart strategy because those who have gone after the VP on the Democratic side have not lived politically to tell about it," Antjuan Seawright, a Democratic strategist familiar with Biden's early state operation in the South, told The Daily Beast. One person directly familiar with Biden's thinking framed it more broadly. "The closer you get to voting, the more pot shots you take," the insider said. "He's seen his numbers go down. We've seen this with [Sen. Kamala] Harris up and down, Warren up and down, and Buttigieg. Campaigns and candidates at some point kind of can't help themselves."The insider's comments were made in reference to Buttigieg calling the Iraq War the "worst foreign policy decision made by the United States in my lifetime" in an interview with Iowa Public Television on Sunday. "I certainly respect the vice president, but this is an example of why years in Washington is not always the same thing as judgment," Buttigieg said. Buttigieg, who unlike Sanders did not say the vote was disqualifying, is unlikely to make Biden's Iraq War stance a focus of his offensive strategy but rather one data point in a larger thread of contrast among multiple contenders. Indeed, the Buttigieg campaign is more keen to double down on the previous line of contrast that's he's been discussing publicly for months: that "Washington experience" isn't the only type of relevant work history necessary to become president and that judgment is informed by many different personal and professional paths. That theme is so well known that one campaign adviser affiliated with a separate rival candidate acknowledged strategizing around Buttigieg's potential to bring up his military experience at some point on the debate stage."He had telegraphed this was going to be his set," the source said.In an interview on Monday, the mayor also weighed in on an issue that has infuriated Team Biden for months: his son Hunter Biden's work in Ukraine. When asked by the Associated Press how Buttigieg would have handled a hypothetical politically delicate situation similar to Biden's, he said he would have taken a different approach."I would not have wanted to see that happen," Buttigieg said, in reference to Hunter serving on the board of a Ukrainian natural gas company while his father served as vice president. A moment later, Buttigieg reiterated previous remarks that the line of questioning is nothing more than a distraction. "At the same time, again, I think this is being used to divert attention from what's really at stake in the impeachment process. There's been no allegation, let alone finding of any kind of wrongdoing," he said. Still, Buttigieg's criticism is a change in posture for the Indiana Democrat, who has defended the former vice president's son in the face of an onslaught of harassment from Trump.In an October appearance on CNN's State of the Union, Buttigieg lauded Hunter Biden's decision to step down from the board of a Chinese private equity company, citing it as an improvement on the Trump administration's embrace of nepotism."I think it demonstrates the difference in standards relative to the White House," Buttigieg said at the time. "I mean, here you have Hunter Biden stepping down from a position in order to make sure, even though there's been no accusation of wrongdoing, doing something just to make sure there's not even the appearance of a conflict of interest. While, in the White House, the president of the United States is a walking conflict of interest."That same month, Buttigieg dodged a question from the Washington Examiner about whether he would allow his own child to serve on the board of a foreign company, calling the issue a "shiny object" intended to divide the Democratic Party and deflect from the president's own actions."One thing that is really important right now is to deny this president [the opportunity] to change the subject, and the subject is that the president confessed on national television to an abuse of power," Buttigieg said at the time. "Let's deal with that and not get caught in the shiny objects he's going to throw out."The change of tone now matches the frenetic nature of the Democratic primary cycle, multiple campaign insiders and outside strategists said, when several candidates all competing for momentum in the first few early voting states throw out new lines of contrast in an effort to maximize attention.This week's remarks were not the first time Buttigieg signaled differences with Biden over foreign policy. In June, The Daily Beast reported early signs of the mayor quietly moving in on one of Biden's top issues: America's standing on the world stage. During competing campaign events on the same day, both Democrats used the word "existential" when discussing matters of national security, both arguing that the fundamental principle of democracy was under attack by Trump and highlighting parts of their own records to put the country back on track. Mayor Pete Buttigieg Quietly Moves in on Joe Biden's Top IssueSpokespeople from Biden's and Buttigieg's campaigns declined to comment on the record for this story. But as the Feb. 3 Iowa caucus approaches, Democratic strategists eagerly gamed out the polling implications of reigniting such contrasts again now. "A well-run campaign, which we have every reason to believe Buttigieg's is, wouldn't be attacking Biden unless their internal data showed it was necessary," one Democratic strategist said. "Likewise, they would only use a message that quantitative or qualitative data showed had a chance at success."The latest Real Clear Politics polling average reveals a hefty gap between Biden and Buttigieg's standing nationally. The former vice president has a commanding 20-point lead over Buttigieg, earing 28.4 percent of support to the mayor's 8.2 percent. In the early states, the space between the two aspirants is much narrower. In Iowa, where Buttigieg has surged in recent months, he tops polling averages at 22 percent. But Biden, who has focused the majority of his campaign strategy on winning more diverse areas, including South Carolina, is just behind Buttigieg at 18.8 percent, following an eight-day, 18-county bus tour there. In New Hampshire, it's a similar story. Buttigieg is approximately three points ahead of Biden there, earning 17.7 percent of support to the former vice president's 14.3 percent. Both of them trail Sanders, with 19 percent."I think Pete is worried he will lose voters to Biden," Liz Mair, a veteran Republican campaign operative, said simply. Still, other seasoned political hands offered a more optimistic end result for Buttigieg, who one former top campaign aide to Hillary Clinton said "isn't afraid to go on offense," suggesting that's a strategic advantage in a matchup against Trump. "The difference between what we are seeing from him and have seen from others in the past is that if he isn't the nominee, he will be at the front of the line to unite the party," the former Clinton aide said.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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| Jury awards $4 million to Disney Cruise worker Posted: 31 Dec 2019 01:07 PM PST  A Florida jury has decided that a Disney Cruise Line worker deserves $4 million from the company based on her claim that she got inadequate medical care from ship doctors after she was hit by a car during a port of call.
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| Medical Student Arrested, Held Without Bail After Alleged Attempt to Smuggle Cancer Research to China Posted: 31 Dec 2019 07:27 AM PST  Research specimens were found in a sock in Zaosong Zheng's suitcase, bound for China
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| Ukraine and Russia Can Deal When They Must But Peace Isn’t Close Posted: 31 Dec 2019 03:05 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Quickfire agreements on energy and the Kremlin-backed war that erupted after Vladimir Putin annexed Crimea show Ukraine and Russia can increasingly look past their differences to strike deals.The natural-gas pact agreed late Monday, which ended fears of disruptions to European Union supplies, comes a day after the former allies' second prisoner swap in four months. EU diplomats, mediating in both cases, may feel they're making headway in easing tensions more than five years after the conflict in eastern Ukraine rekindled Cold War animosity and brought a barrage of sanctions against Russia.That Ukraine and Russia now meet at all -- let alone reach consensus on hot-button issues like these -- marks undoubted progress. It's been driven by pragmatism and a readiness to compromise under EU and U.S. pressure, including the Trump administration's sanctions against Russia's Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project.The gas deal was necessary as transit contracts ran down. Putin wants sanctions relief and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has prioritized ending a war that's killed more than 13,000 people.The fundamental question -- whether Ukraine leans east or west -- is going nowhere without concessions regarded as impossible by one side or another. The standoff with Moscow over Ukraine's desire to join the EU and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization will remain a headache for world powers from Brussels to Washington."The events of the past several years have created significant changes in how the two governments and their people relate to one another, and to the rest of Europe," said Alex Brideau, an analyst at Eurasia Group. "Recent developments help ease tension, but they don't reset that relationship."Ensure FlowsThe EU will nevertheless breathe a sigh of relief after the accord was signed to ensure flows of gas through Ukraine from Russia's Gazprom for the next five years. Supplies to the region have been cut twice during in the past 13 years at times of peak demand because of financial and political disputes between the two neighboring states.Russia, keen to take advantage of French President Emmanuel Macron's push to reintegrate it after years of isolation, has less incentive to cause mayhem this time. But it retains its long-term goal of seeking to slash dependence on Ukraine's transit network.That Russia agreed to a longer-than-expected gas deal this time reflects potential fallout from the U.S. sanctioning its Nord Stream 2 pipeline to send flows directly to Europe bypassing Ukraine rather than any act of kindness. For Zelenskiy, it ensures Ukraine remains one of the key transit routes for Russian gas during the remainder of his five-year term and beyond, earning the country billions of dollars in fees.Still, the fact an initial deadline to finalize the deal was missed stems from a lack of trust that prompted demands for safeguards to be added to the new contracts.Prisoner DealThere are similar reasons to scrutinize the exchange of prisoners.Despite efforts to return all his countrymen, Zelenskiy remains frustrated, with hundreds still being held.What's more, the latest swap included Ukrainian riot police who sided with the Kremlin-backed leader that protesters toppled in 2014 after more than 100 were killed on the streets of Kyiv. Handing over those officers, who aren't prisoners of war, prompted demonstrations against their release back home.The gas agreement and the prisoner swap cap a month in which Putin and Zelenskiy held their first face-to-face meeting during talks on the conflict in eastern Ukraine in Paris. While the detente remains fragile, the two sides enter 2020 with potentially the best prospects in years for easing tensions.Putin and Zelenskiy spoke by phone on Tuesday and agreed to coordinate lists of detainees for possible future exchanges, according to a statement from the Ukrainian president's office. The gas agreement creates a "favorable atmosphere for resolving other bilateral problems" and the Dec. 29 prisoner swap "helps strengthen mutual trust," the Kremlin said in a statement.There may be more prisoner exchanges, though "I do not think we will see real compromises on big issues" from Russia in relation to resolving the conflict, said John Herbst, director of the Atlantic Council's Eurasia Center and a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine.To contact the reporters on this story: Daryna Krasnolutska in Kyiv at dkrasnolutsk@bloomberg.net;Andrew Langley in London at alangley1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Andrea Dudik at adudik@bloomberg.net, Tony Halpin, Gregory L. WhiteFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Global air crash deaths fall by more than half in 2019 Posted: 01 Jan 2020 09:19 AM PST  The number of deaths in major air crashes around the globe fell by more than half in 2019, according to a report by an aviation consulting firm. The To70 consultancy said Wednesday that 257 people died in eight fatal accidents in 2019. The worst crash of 2019 involved an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX plane that crashed March 10, killing 157 people.
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| Trump says he has been denied due process. But the Constitution does not afford him that. Posted: 01 Jan 2020 10:03 AM PST  Like Bill Clinton and Andrew Johnson before him, President Trump does not have the same constitutional protection afforded to criminal defendants.
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| Ghosn says he escaped 'injustice' in Japan; Lebanon calls arrival a private matter Posted: 30 Dec 2019 06:16 PM PST  BEIRUT/TOKYO (Reuters) - Ousted Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn said on Tuesday he had fled to Lebanon to escape a "rigged" justice system in Japan, raising questions about how one of the world's most-recognised executives had slipped away while on bail. Ghosn's abrupt departure marks the latest twist in a year-old saga that has shaken the global auto industry, jeopardised the alliance of Nissan Motor Co Ltd and top shareholder Renault SA and increased scrutiny of Japan's judicial system. "I am now in Lebanon and will no longer be held hostage by a rigged Japanese justice system where guilt is presumed, discrimination is rampant, and basic human rights are denied," Ghosn, 65, said in a brief statement on Tuesday.
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| Hanukkah candles burn in Iraqi Kurdistan Posted: 01 Jan 2020 08:23 AM PST  Al-Qosh (Irak) (AFP) - In the glow of the nine-candled menorah, with kippa skullcaps on their heads and tallit prayer shawls around their shoulders, a small association is working to revive Hanukkah in Iraq. The country has been nearly emptied of its Jewish community amid regional conflicts and violence within its borders, but this year, the town of Al-Qosh hosted its first Hanukkah celebrations. Al-Qosh is a majority Christian town around 50 kilometres (30 miles) north of Mosul, the former self-proclaimed "capital" of the Islamic State group (IS) in Iraq.
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| Can Iran Hope To Stop U.S. Stealth Drones? Posted: 01 Jan 2020 03:30 AM PST  America is increasing its presence in the Middle East.
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| Illinois governor clears thousands of marijuana convictions Posted: 31 Dec 2019 08:19 PM PST  Illinois' governor granted more than 11,000 pardons for low-level marijuana convictions on Tuesday.
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| A Condescending Anti-Gun Argument Posted: 01 Jan 2020 03:30 AM PST  My friend and former colleague Tom Nichols has been going on one of his regularly scheduled Twitter anti-gun rants over the past few days. In his latest, he slammed the "spread of gun worship" among conservatives. That Nichols's opinions on the subject, which resemble a progressive 17-year-old's knowledge of American gun culture, get a lot of attention from anti-gun types tells you something about the anti-gun movement: that it, too, has very limited experience with guns and the people who own them.Among Nichols's beliefs is that, as he put it this week, conservatives now "measure freedom by how many of us walk around with guns." He also believes that concealed carry culture is really just "conservative virtue-signaling" as a stand-in for real patriotism, that gun owners "measure [their] sense of worth" by whether or not they are carrying firearms, and that gun "worship" has become a "litmus test" for conservatives, to the detriment of conservatism itself.It is safe to say that none of this is true. What Nichols advances is a grossly distorted view of American gun culture, one that suggests he either has spoken to zero gun owners about guns or didn't listen to them when they did speak.In fact, the people whom Tom is clumsily describing — those of us who carry guns, who take a keen interest in gun policy, and who believe that it is fine for responsible and well-trained gun owners to carry their firearms in public places — do not actually "worship" guns. Nor do we tie these interests and habits into our sense of self-worth and patriotism. Here is the truth: Guns are many things, and one of the things they are is tools. Like any tool, guns have a good and meaningful application when used properly and correctly, e.g. when they are carried by trained, law-abiding citizens and used for proper defensive and life-saving measures. A good example of that is the recent shooting at the church in White Settlement, Texas, in which an armed parishioner shot and killed a murderous gunman before a rampage could really begin.Tom calls that scenario a "lucky break." But this is precisely the point. The vast majority of gun carriers will never have the need to draw their weapons. Virtually none of them (a few blustery dimwits aside) wants to draw his weapon. Tom's claim that the Right has undergone a "pornification of gun ownership" does not comport with the reality of those gun owners who would be happy to live out their lives without getting in a firefight.For these gun owners, carrying guns has nothing to do with some base desire to get in a shootout. They carry because they want to be able to protect themselves and other innocent people if an insane murderer decides to start shooting. It's not rocket science.Statistics are not on the side of Nichols's argument. In the past twelve years concealed permits have increased by over 300 percent; homicides, meanwhile, have been dropping since the early 90s, with the murder rate 5.3 percent lower than it was in 2009, at the beginning of the concealed-carry boom. Nichols's persistent prognostication notwithstanding, the rise of concealed carry has not actually led to more accidental gun deaths, either; such deaths are at historic lows.There are plenty of other reasons besides self-defense that many Americans enjoy guns: They are fascinating machines, they are fun to shoot for sport, they are both a potent symbol and a practical example of the unique American brand of civic and political freedom. Yes, we like guns. Yes, many people carry firearms for self-defense. No, we do not "worship" guns. Nichols and his friends would do well to get off their sneering Twitter feeds and actually talk to gun enthusiasts at length, as we are not the idiotic slack-jawed trigger-happy cowboys he so desperately wants us to be.
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| Mystery over identity of decades-old headless torso found in cave partially solved – but not how he got there Posted: 01 Jan 2020 10:54 AM PST  The mystery over the identity of a headless torso that was hidden inside a cave for decades has finally been solved – partly.Investigators say the body belongs to Joseph Henry Loveless, an outlaw who murdered his wife with an axe and was not seen after he escaped from jail in 1916.
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