| McConnell releases impeachment trial rules, sparking new outcry from Democrats Posted: 20 Jan 2020 04:40 PM PST  Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell released the rules for a Senate impeachment trial on Monday evening.
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| Quake causes damage, injuries in China's Xinjiang region Posted: 19 Jan 2020 07:35 PM PST  A strong earthquake damaged buildings and injured at least one person seriously in China's far west Xinjiang region, the government said Monday. Rescue teams were sent to Peyzawat county, an area east of the city of Kashgar, after the Sunday night quake. State broadcaster CCTV showed a cluster of small collapsed brick buildings and partially fallen walls that fronted properties along the street.
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| Northeastern College Student Deported to Iran Despite Judge’s Order Posted: 21 Jan 2020 07:55 AM PST  The attorneys for a 24-year-old Iranian national and Northeastern University student who inspired protests at Boston Logan International Airport over the weekend said their client was deported late Monday in spite of a federal court order.Shahab Dehghani was detained Sunday night at about 5 p.m. when he arrived to study economics at the private school on a valid F1 student visa. He was held for secondary questioning by federal agents, and more than 100 people reportedly came out to demonstrate on his behalf outside of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) area of the airport for at least three hours on Monday. Protesters chanted "let Shahab in," "do the right thing," "stop deporting students," and "let him in!"Dehghani was ordered removed from the U.S. without his having access to a lawyer, WBUR reported, but his attorneys, Susan Church and Kerry Doyle, filed an emergency federal petition on his behalf Monday night. The filing claimed CBP agents violated Dehghani's rights when they detained him at the airport in the first place.U.S. District Court Judge Allison Burroughs granted the order, scheduled a hearing in Boston federal court at 10 a.m. on Tuesday to discuss the matter, and appeared to delay Dehghani's removal."It is not a total victory. It is a partial victory," Church told a crowd of protesters on Monday night, according to MassLive.com.Despite that order, Church said on Twitter Tuesday morning that Shahab Dehghani was "removed from the U.S. at 10:03 p.m." Monday after agents told "multiple attorneys" that he was taken off the plane about 30 minutes earlier.Church tweeted on Tuesday morning: "THEY LIED."A CBP spokesperson said in a statement that the agency could not confirm or deny that Dehghani was even in custody, citing the Privacy Act."Applicants must demonstrate they are admissible into the U.S. by overcoming all grounds of inadmissibility including health-related grounds, criminality, security reasons, public charge, labor certification, illegal entrants and immigration violations, documentation requirements, and miscellaneous grounds," the statement said.Judge Richard G. Stearns reportedly dismissed the case during a Tuesday morning hearing, declaring the issue moot—since Dehghani had already been deported—and noting that he did not believe he had the authority to order CBP to allow for the student's return, according to WBUR.During the 10 a.m. hearing in Boston federal court, CBP attorneys also disputed the timeline presented by Dehghani's attorneys, one of whom said Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey received confirmation that the emergency stay order was granted before the flight took off, WBUR reported. In court, the agency's attorneys reportedly claimed that Dehghani's plane left before the order was issued."We are aware that a Northeastern University student who is an Iranian citizen has been denied entry to the United States," school spokeswoman Shannon Nargi said in a statement to The Daily Beast. "Northeastern welcomes thousands of international students and supports them with an array of resources. We have been in touch with federal officials to learn more about this case and to provide our student with the appropriate assistance to facilitate a successful return to Northeastern."Dehghani previously attended University of Massachusetts Boston and was in the country for more than two years before he returned to Iran to visit family in December 2018, MassLive.com reported.Massachusetts Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren recently requested more information from CBP about additional security measures that may target Iranian travelers entering the country. The Guardian reported that the U.S. has deported at least 10 Iranian students with valid visas since August—despite the lengthy and intense approval process it takes to acquire that paperwork. Seven of those students had reportedly flown into Logan International Airport in Boston, and some now allege serious infractions by an individual CBP officer at the Boston airport, the newspaper reported.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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| Forget North Korea or Pakistan: This U.S. Ally Has a Nuclear Arsenal That Could Kill Billions Posted: 20 Jan 2020 11:55 PM PST  And its all underwater.
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| UK to introduce tougher jail terms for convicted terrorists after London Bridge attack Posted: 20 Jan 2020 04:12 PM PST  Britain will introduce tougher jail sentences for convicted terrorists and will end early release as part of a series of measures to strengthen its response to terrorism, the government said on Tuesday. Prime Minister Boris Johnson pledged to make changes after an attack near London Bridge in November in which Usman Khan, a convicted terrorist who had been released early from prison, killed two people. Khan had been sentenced to a minimum of eight years in prison in 2012 with a requirement that the parole board assess his danger to the public before release.
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| Rudy Giuliani says Lev Parnas 'misled' him and 'lied stupidly' Posted: 20 Jan 2020 10:14 PM PST  Rudy Giuliani is "heartbroken" over recent comments made by his former associate Lev Parnas, who says he worked closely with Giuliani in Ukraine as part of an attempt to find damaging information about former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter.Speaking to Fox News host Laura Ingraham on Monday night, Giuliani, President Trump's personal lawyer, said he was once "close to" Parnas, but was "misled by him." In October, Parnas and his business partner Igor Fruman were arrested and charged with campaign finance violations. Last week, Parnas made several public accusations against Giuliani, President Trump, and Attorney General William Barr, implicating all of them in the Ukraine scheme that is central to Trump's impeachment.While Fruman did not cooperate with House impeachment investigators, Parnas did, turning over documents and other materials. Parnas said while he was in Ukraine trying to find dirt on the Bidens, he "wouldn't do anything without the consent of Rudy Giuliani and the president." Giuliani, a former U.S. attorney, refuted this, saying Parnas "in very large part did not tell the truth" and "lied stupidly."Giuliani told Ingraham he would not discuss all of Parnas' accusations, but did deny ever talking about his Ukraine investigation with Barr and said Parnas' account of a meeting during a 2018 White House Hanukkah party was a lie. In November, CNN reported that Parnas told two people close to him that during the celebration, Trump let Parnas and Fruman know he wanted them to go on a "secret mission" to Ukraine to investigate the Bidens. Giuliani said this was "absolutely untrue," as they were never pulled into a private meeting.Parnas posted a photo taken at the party on social media, showing him posing with Trump, Giuliani, Fruman, and Vice President Mike Pence. Trump has repeatedly denied knowing Parnas; Parnas has promised to keep releasing pictures of the two of them together. More stories from theweek.com The Saudi crown prince reportedly personally hacked Jeff Bezos' phone. He may have done the same thing to Jared Kushner. Senate tables Chuck Schumer's first impeachment amendment along party lines The real problem with McConnell's impeachment rules
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| Russia admits its deadly Zircon hypersonic missile is suffering from 'childhood diseases' Posted: 21 Jan 2020 02:11 PM PST  The weapon which is expected to eventually arm the country's newer frigates is apparently experiencing developmental challenges.
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| 2 inmates were killed Monday night at an understaffed Mississippi prison Posted: 21 Jan 2020 10:32 AM PST  Two inmates were killed Monday night at an understaffed Mississippi prison that has been shaken by other deadly violence in recent weeks. The state Department of Corrections confirmed the deaths Tuesday but did not immediately release the names of the latest inmates killed at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman. The department said it is investigating the deaths.
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| AOC criticises Democratic Party: ‘We don’t have a left party in the United States’ Posted: 21 Jan 2020 07:32 AM PST  New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez explained that the Democratic party does not represent the political left in the United States, calling the organisation a "centre or centre-conservative" party that "can't even get a floor vote" on nationalising health care.She said: "We can't even get a floor vote on Medicare for All — not even a floor vote that might get doubled down."
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| Michigan lawmaker says senator harassed her at orientation Posted: 21 Jan 2020 07:04 AM PST  A Michigan lawmaker alleged Tuesday that a fellow legislator sexually harassed her during a Capitol orientation 14 months ago, coming forward a week after a young female reporter said the same senator made a sexist comment to her before a group of high school boys. Sen. Mallory McMorrow, a Royal Oak Democrat, filed a complaint against Republican Sen. Peter Lucido.
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| What you need to know about China's Wuhan coronavirus and how it could affect you Posted: 21 Jan 2020 10:46 AM PST  A virus in China has killed six people, infected more than 200, and spread to the US. Here's what you need to know about the disease.
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| The Navy Has a Plan to Stop Ship-Killer Missiles Posted: 20 Jan 2020 11:28 PM PST  The threat keeps building from nations like Russia, China, Iran and many others.
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| Arizona mother arrested on suspicion of killing her three young children Posted: 21 Jan 2020 11:00 AM PST  A 22-year-old woman was arrested and booked into jail on Tuesday on suspicion of killing her three young children, city police said, after the bodies were found inside her south Phoenix home. The suspect, Rachel Henry, was taken into custody by Phoenix police early on Tuesday after admitting that she harmed the children, said Sergeant Mercedes Fortune of the Phoenix Police Department. Responders found the three children unresponsive, and were unable to resuscitate them.
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| Iran acknowledges Russian-made missiles targeted Ukraine jet Posted: 21 Jan 2020 12:29 AM PST  Iran acknowledged on Tuesday that its armed forces fired two Russian anti-aircraft missiles at a Ukrainian jetliner that crashed after taking off from Tehran's main airport earlier this month, killing all 176 people on board. For days after the Jan. 8 shootdown, Iran denied that it fired missiles at the plane, initially blaming a technical malfunction and engine fire for the crash.
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| New poll on the eve of Trump's impeachment trial finds that 51% of Americans think he should be removed from office Posted: 20 Jan 2020 04:18 PM PST  A slim majority of Americans in a new CNN poll said the Senate should convict President Donald Trump in his impeachment trial.
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| Monarch Butterfly Activist Missing in Mexican Cartel Country Posted: 21 Jan 2020 08:29 AM PST  A week after one of Mexico's foremost experts on monarch butterflies mysteriously vanished, a local human-rights organization is urging authorities to investigate, suggesting the case may be linked to illegal logging.Homero Gomez, a 50-year-old agricultural engineer who manages the El Rosario Butterfly Sanctuary in Michoacan, was last seen Jan. 13 while attending a meeting in a neighboring town, the attorney general of the State of Michoacá said. Authorities say the next morning, messages promoting El Rosario were sent from his cellphone to all of his contacts.His family reported him missing that afternoon after his phone went silent, authorities said. The Human Rights State Commission of Michoacan has also asked the attorney general's office to determine if Gomez's disappearance is linked to his activism against logging. The day he went missing, Gomez tweeted two videos of thousands of monarchs in El Rosario: Both showed the butterflies "looking for water" in the "largest sanctuary in the world."In addition to his work at the sanctuary—located in the western Mexican state that's also notorious for its violent criminal activity—Gomez has been vocal about his belief that illegal logging is threatening the monarch butterfly's habitat. According to experts, the butterfly migrates every winter from Canada and the United States to reproduce in small clusters of Mexico's pine and fir forests."He was probably hurting the [business] interests of people illegally logging in the area," Mayte Cardona, a commission official, told Reuters, adding that more than 200 volunteers have joined the search for Gomez since last week.The Municipal Police, Michoacan's public-security ministry, and the state's common land authorities have also joined in the search, according to El Universial.According to its website, Gomez opened his El Rosario sanctuary in November 2017 in an attempt to combat illegal logging in an area key to the development of the monarch. Due to climate change, illegal logging, and other environmental factors, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates about a billion butterflies have vanished between 1990 and 2015.Vatican to Open Tombs in Hunt for Teen Missing for 30 YearsIn June 2019, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced the decision to delay its decision about whether the monarch is an endangered or threatened species, citing a litigation settlement. The decision, which will be made 18 months later than the original deadline, will allow for more time for data collection about the butterfly's annual winter trajectory and will allow for conservation work—like Gomez's—to help new breedings.The sanctuary has been praised across Mexico, including by Interim General Director of World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Jorge Rickards, who called it a model of conservation work. The organization even hosts visits to Gomez's sanctuary in a monarch-conservation trip around Mexico, calling El Rosario "one of 12 sanctuaries that comprise the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve."In addition to protecting the orange and black butterfly's migration pattern, the longest of any insect, the community-owned lands of El Rosario have provided a new influx of revenue to the town's 5,000 residents, according to local reports. "Thanks to the butterflies, we have an income for four months, from November to March. We also have better roads... new investors," Gomez said in 2017, after a tree-planting initiative that brought 750 volunteers.Air Force Major Charged With Murder After Missing Wife's Remains FoundRead 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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| Jess Phillips Quits Race to Replace Corbyn as U.K. Labour Leader Posted: 21 Jan 2020 08:29 AM PST ![Jess Phillips Quits Race to Replace Corbyn as U.K. Labour Leader]( "Jess Phillips Quits Race to Replace Corbyn as U.K. Labour Leader") (Bloomberg) -- Sign up to our Brexit Bulletin, follow us @Brexit and subscribe to our podcast.Jess Phillips quit the race to replace Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the U.K. Labour Party, saying she was unable to unite the divided movement.Phillips failed to win the necessary backing from trade unions and local parties to get on the final ballot. There are now four candidates left in the contest to succeed Corbyn, who last month led the party to its worst election defeat since the 1930s.Life After Corbyn? The Politicians Vying to Become Labour Leader"The Labour Party will need to select a candidate that can unite all parts of our movement -- the union movement, the members and elected representatives," Phillips said in a video on YouTube Tuesday. "I have to be honest that at this time, that person isn't me."The new leader will have the task of reviving the U.K.'s main opposition party. Under Corbyn, the party became bitterly divided over his socialist policies, accusations of antisemitism, and an ambiguous policy on Brexit.Corbyn CriticPhillips, 38, was a vocal critic of Corbyn, making her a divisive candidate unpopular with his supporters, who saw her as undermining his efforts. She didn't say which of the four remaining candidates she would support.The backbench member of Parliament had already said her campaign was not going well, and on Monday she failed to gain the support of retail trade union Usdaw, which instead backed front-runner Keir Starmer. As Labour's fourth-largest affiliate, Usdaw would have helped get Phillips over the line, but instead assured Starmer of a place in the final ballot.Under the complex rules of the contest, candidates need to secure the backing of either 33 constituency Labour parties, or three affiliates, two of which must be unions and make up at least 5% of affiliated membership.Starmer's main rival, Rebecca Long-Bailey, hopes to win the support of Unite or the Communication Workers Union. On Wednesday, the GMB union backed Lisa Nandy, calling her "a breath of fresh air in the debate over Labour's future."Four RemainThe fourth candidate remaining is Emily Thornberry. Labour's foreign affairs spokeswoman just scraped through the first phase of the contest, which required candidates to secure the backing of 22 MPs and Members of the European Parliament.Writing in the Guardian newspaper on Monday, Phillips said her first hustings had been "awful" and it was highly unlikely anyone except Starmer or Long-Bailey would win the race."I was awful because I was trying to hit a million different lines and messages in 40 seconds," she wrote. "Some were my lines, some were other people's and it fell flat."\--With assistance from Thomas Penny.To contact the reporter on this story: Jessica Shankleman in London at jshankleman@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Tim Ross at tross54@bloomberg.net, Alex Morales, Stuart BiggsFor 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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| Jeff Bezos’s Phone Hacked by Saudi Crown Prince: Report Posted: 21 Jan 2020 02:12 PM PST  Amazon founder Jeff Bezos's phone was hacked by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in 2018, five months before the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, the Guardian reported on Tuesday.According to the report, Bezos and bin Salman were having a friendly discussion on Whatsapp when on May 1 bin Salman sent the Amazon CEO a video file. That file was likely infected with malware, and in a matter of hours large amounts of data were extracted from Bezos's phone.Bin Salman is currently attempting to open Saudi Arabia to western investment and wean the country's economy off its dependence on oil. However, the prince is suspected of involvement in the murder of Khashoggi, which occurred at the Saudi embassy in Turkey.Khashoggi, a columnist at the Bezos-owned Post, was critical of the Saudi regime and allied himself with an organization funded by Qatar, Saudi Arabia's rival in the Persian Gulf.If confirmed, the hack into Bezos's phone would also raise questions regarding how the National Enquirer tabloid received text messages between Bezos and his mistress in early 2019, including photos of the two in various revealing states.On February 7, Bezos published the photos online to prove that American Media Inc., the owner of the Enquirer, was attempting to blackmail him to stop the Amazon CEO's investigation into how the Enquirer obtained the text messages in the first place."Of course I don't want personal photos published, but I also won't participate in their well-known practice of blackmail, political favors, political attacks and corruption," Bezos wrote at the time. "I prefer to stand up, roll this log over and see what crawls out."
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| S. Korea naval unit to expand operations to Strait of Hormuz Posted: 20 Jan 2020 10:52 PM PST  A South Korean anti-piracy unit has temporarily expanded its mission to the Strait of Hormuz, a vital global oil route at the center of soaring tensions between Iran and the United States. South Korea's Defense Ministry announced the expansion Tuesday, saying it was meant to help ensure the safe passage of South Korean vessels and nationals through the waterway. South Korea has conducted anti-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden since 2009 and is expanding to the strait that connects the Gulf of Oman and Persian Gulf.
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| Why America Stores 50 B61 Nuclear Bombs in Turkey Posted: 21 Jan 2020 02:00 AM PST  Seems like a questionable idea.
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| 4 wild stories we've learned so far from 'A Very Stable Genius,' a new book on the Trump White House Posted: 21 Jan 2020 01:39 PM PST  The book tells never-before-heard stories about the Trump White House, and confirms anecdotes that were detailed in other books and reporting.
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| Homeless Oakland Moms Cut Deal to Buy House They Squatted In Posted: 21 Jan 2020 12:32 PM PST  A group of homeless mothers evicted and arrested after squatting in an empty Oakland residence have reached an agreement to buy the home in a radical conclusion to a struggle that shone a renewed spotlight on the Bay Area's dire housing shortage. The women, known collectively as Moms 4 Housing, occupied a house in West Oakland from November until Alameda County Sheriff's deputies removed them in a pre-dawn raid on January 14. Cops also arrested two of the women, along with two men on the scene. Around the same time as that eviction raid, hundreds of supporters gathered at the house to express solidarity with the mothers' rallying cry of "housing is a human right." On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Moms 4 Housing announced that the women—who were released from jail last week—reached an agreement to purchase the property from its owner with the help of a local nonprofit, Oakland Community Land Trust. "This is what happens when we organize, when people come together to build the beloved community. Today we honor Dr. King's radical legacy by taking Oakland back from banks and corporations," said Dominique Walker, one of the mothers who was living in the home.Eviction Squad Tosses Moms on Street in Ultra-Rich Bay AreaThe house, owned by the Southern California real estate company Wedgewood, had remained empty for two years, even as homelessness in Oakland rose by nearly half in the same time period. Members of Oakland's city council had urged the company to make a deal with the mothers to end the dispute. In a statement, the company said, "Wedgewood is thankful for the outpouring of support for our company throughout the illegal occupation of our Oakland property. We appreciate the local, state and national support for property owners as well as the public's support for non-violent discussion and action." Activists who worked with the mothers were quick to brandish the outcome as not just a win but a precedent they might repeat."The moms fought for all of Oakland," said Carroll Fife, director of the Oakland chapter of the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment. "Now Wedgewood has pledged to work with the City of Oakland's Housing and Community Development Department and the Oakland Community Land Trust to negotiate a first right of refusal program for all Oakland properties they own and we will hold them to it." 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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| Signs of life at 'no-man's land' around Philippine volcano Posted: 20 Jan 2020 11:48 PM PST  A desolate landscape of ash dunes and bare trees left by the eruption of the Philippines' Taal volcano lay in contrast with a few signs of life at ground zero of the disaster on Tuesday. The island site was buried by massive deposits of ash when Taal erupted last week and remains under a mandatory evacuation order due to a feared bigger blast. Authorities have said any outward signs of an imminent eruption have been weak over the past several days.
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| China Tries to Ease Concern U.S. Trade Deal Hurts Other Nations Posted: 21 Jan 2020 07:53 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Terms of Trade is a daily newsletter that untangles a world embroiled in trade wars. Sign up here. Chinese Vice Premier Han Zheng told the World Economic Forum that the country's trade deal with the U.S. won't hurt rival exporting nations as complaints mount from governments that were left out of the agreement.In the most high-profile remarks on the country's economic policy since the accord was signed last week, Han said that its commitment to buy more from the U.S. is in line with its World Trade Organization obligations and won't squeeze out other imports. Han also pledged to lower barriers for foreign investors as he set out the case for China's engagement with the global economy."China will open its door wider," Han told an audience in Davos, Switzerland. "Though facing some protectionism from some countries, the determination to open up will not waver."The speech comes less than a week after Chinese President Xi Jinping sealed a "phase one" deal intended to de-escalate a trade war with U.S. President Donald Trump. The accord saw China commit to crack down on the theft of American technology and corporate secrets by its companies and state entities, while outlining a $200 billion spending spree to try to close its trade imbalance with the U.S."The phase-one trade deal is good for U.S., China and the world," Han said. "China's increasing purchases of U.S. goods are in accordance with WTO guidelines and will not impact its imports from other countries."Han made the comments just as Trump gave his own speech in Davos, in which the U.S. president claimed credit for overseeing an economy enjoying its longest expansion yet, with an unemployment rate that fell to a five-decade low after tax cuts, deregulation and improved trade deals. He also spoke of his close relationship with Xi."He's for China and I'm for the U.S., but other than that, we love each other," he said.Under the agreement, China will boost purchases of U.S. manufactured goods, agricultural products, energy and services over the next two years. Critics say such pre-determined demand can have adverse consequences elsewhere.'Managed Trade'"The real problem with managed trade is that it may divert, rather than expand, international commerce," Chad Bown, a senior fellow and trade expert at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, said in a report released Tuesday. "For example, China could purchase more American soybeans by cutting back on imports of oilseeds from Brazil."Germany's Kiel Institute for the World Economy said China's pledge to boost American imports could end up costing the European Union about $11 billion next year. "If trade costs and hence relative prices do not change, Chinese imports from the U.S. must come at the expense of third countries," the institute said in a study published this week.Last week, EU trade commissioner Phil Hogan said his team will scrutinize whether China's pledge is allowed under the WTO."We haven't analyzed the document in detail, but we will and if there's a WTO-compliance issue of course we will take the case," Hogan told a conference on Thursday in Washington.Separately, Australia is pushing China for the same dairy concessions that the U.S. received, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. As part of phase one of the deal, the U.S. secured regulatory breaks on dairy products shipped to China, barriers that have hampered Australian exporters, the newspaper reported last week.To contact the reporters on this story: Dandan Li in Beijing at dli395@bloomberg.net;Crystal Chui in Zurich at tchui4@bloomberg.net;Bryce Baschuk in Geneva at bbaschuk2@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Scott at bscott66@bloomberg.net, Ben Sills, Brendan MurrayFor 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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| Experts: Iran Could Be a Nuclear Armed State in Just 1 Year Posted: 20 Jan 2020 10:00 PM PST  365 days until a crisis?
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| 30 Doormats That Will Wow Visitors Posted: 21 Jan 2020 08:30 AM PST |
| Erdogan says Somalia has invited Turkey to explore for oil in its seas: NTV Posted: 20 Jan 2020 04:54 AM PST  Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday that Somalia had invited Turkey to explore for oil in its seas, after Ankara signed a maritime agreement with Libya last year, broadcaster NTV reported. Turkey has been a major source of aid to Somalia following a famine in 2011 as Ankara seeks to increase its influence in the Horn of Africa to counter Gulf rivals like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
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| McConnell Impeach Plan: Run Like Hell, Pray for No Surprises Posted: 21 Jan 2020 01:52 AM PST  The vision that Senate Republican leaders have for the impeachment trial of President Trump, which is set to begin on Tuesday, is simple: a sprint that briskly checks the required procedural boxes before arriving, business-like, at the end result—an acquittal of the president. The vision that Trump himself has for the impeachment trial of President Trump, however, may be different. He has approached the trial that will decide the fate of his presidency as a scorched-earth battle to vindicate himself and a zero-sum loyalty test for congressional Republicans. His trial team, announced last week, reflects that combative mindset. Between Kenneth Starr—the architect of President Clinton's impeachment 20 years ago—and Alan Dershowitz, the celebrity attorney and former Clinton backer turned Trump defender, what is effectively a Fox News panel will be guiding Trump's defense in a trial before 100 U.S. senators and the chief justice of the Supreme Court.The tension between a group of Republican lawmakers who publicly make clear they want no "circus" and a president with a penchant for creating them will be just one factor that will make Trump's impeachment trial unlike the other two trials in U.S. history—or any other event in U.S. history, for that matter. Another unique factor: the steady flow of fresh facts and revelations directly related to the charges laid out in articles of impeachment. Last Thursday, as senators were sworn in as jurors, they were struggling to keep up with incendiary, breaking allegations about Trumpworld's conduct on Ukraine from Lev Parnas, an associate of Trump's personal lawyer and former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani. On top of that, a federal government watchdog had just found that the White House violated the law in withholding appropriated funds from Ukraine. Taken together, it all seems a recipe for mayhem—a sign that anything could happen as the trial unfolds over the next several weeks. But underneath all the drama, the fundamental political reality has remained static since the beginning: When it's over and the votes are tallied, Trump will almost certainly not be removed from office. A flat "no" was Sen. Ted Cruz's answer when asked last Thursday if anything at all had changed over the last few months about whether or not Trump's conduct on Ukraine justifies his removal from office."We will respect due process, both sides will be allowed to present their case," said the Texas Republican, a reliable Senate ally of the president. "And then we will decide the matter pursuant to the law and the Constitution, and I am confident at the end of this proceeding the result will be an acquittal. "Most Democrats know that the prospect of 20 GOP senators joining with all Democratic senators to ensure Trump's removal is, as it stands, not remotely likely. Publicly, though, Democrats are holding out hope that the ultimate bank shot—getting just four Republicans to side with them on a vote to call additional witnesses like former National Security Adviser John Bolton, who might offer new and damning evidence of Trump's misconduct—could alter the cold political reality they're facing."In a trial, you never know what will happen if you have witnesses and documents," Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) told The Daily Beast. "It can change the dynamic of the trial. As to whether it'll change the ultimate outcome, that's for senators to decide after hearing all the witnesses."On Monday night, McConnell unveiled his proposed rules to govern the trial. They reflect a desire to storm through the proceeding; this week, the House Democratic prosecutors and the president's defense team will each get a 24 hour block of time for presenting their argument—but two days in which to do it. After that, senators will get several hours to pose questions to each side's representatives.After that point, per the proposed rules, senators will vote on whether or not to consider additional witnesses and evidence. If a fourth Republican does not vote yes on that, it's possible Trump's acquittal could come less than two weeks before the formal opening of the trial. The Senate Democratic leader, Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, slammed the rules package on Monday night, saying it was proof that Senate Republicans were complicit in a "cover up." He and other Democrats noted that the rules do not admit the evidence collected by the House's impeachment inquiry at the outset, instead punting that question to a vote later on. "Any senator that votes for the McConnell resolution will be voting to hide information and evidence from the American people," said Schumer. Previously, the Democratic leader had aggressively pushed McConnell to vote on additional witnesses from the get-go, and he said that he will use the limited procedural power he has to force those votes anyway on Tuesday. The provision allowing for a vote on whether or not to call new witnesses is the result of a pressure campaign initiated by a small group of centrist, Trump-critical and/or retiring GOP senators, who pushed McConnell to craft the rules to guarantee a vote on calling additional witnesses when trial arguments conclude. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Mitt Romney of Utah, for example, have openly advocated for that vote, and both have said they are leaning toward casting it in favor of new witnesses.Other Republicans, meanwhile, are trying to turn Democrats' witness calls against them by claiming the GOP should get to call figures like Hunter Biden, who is not relevant to the articles of impeachment but is useful for suggesting the vice president and his son were connected to corrupt activity in Ukraine. Cruz, for example, has floated a witness "reciprocity" idea in which Biden would be called by the White House if senators voted to call someone like Bolton. On that subject, most Senate Republicans' desire for a smooth, minimally dramatic affair could clash with Trumpworld's appetite for total war. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, for instance, has threatened to force multiple votes to call Biden if Democrats continue to push for their own witnesses. Many, however, are wary of creating a "circus-like" atmosphere—something that top Republicans like Sen. John Cornyn of Texas have explicitly warned against. Also possible to derail a quick, ho-hum trial is a continued drip of new information—possible or even likely even if no new witnesses are called—about Trump's Ukraine push. The factual record on the saga that sparked Trump's impeachment is still growing as each side's advocates begin exploring the timeline inside and out over the course of many hours of oral arguments. That is another point of stark difference between Clinton's trial—in which there was a similar push for new witnesses but no similar, steady drumbeat of new information—and Trump's.In particular, the disclosure of evidence from Parnas, who was at the center of the Ukraine pressure campaign, suggests that the highest echelons of the administration knew and approved of the effort and its aim to subject Biden to political pain. Amid it all, some of the jurors admitted a struggle to keep up. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) tweeted on Thursday "how surreal it is" to start the trial "on a day when major news continues to break." And nearly all Democrats pointed to the disclosures as more reason to include additional witnesses during the trial.Many Senate Republicans, meanwhile, have settled on a strategy of slamming new evidence—like that revealed by Parnas' disclosures—as illegitimate because it was not collected in the course of the House's impeachment inquiry. Gathering of new evidence, said Sen. James Lankford (R-OK), is outside the scope of the trial."This is not a fact finding search to go see if we can find something to be able to prove him innocent or guilty," said Lankford. If the ultimate judgment of the trial may not be in doubt, the way it will be rendered carries significant implications for which party controls the Senate after the 2020 election. Questions of process, like calling witnesses, are likely to fuel attack ads against vulnerable senators on both sides for months and months. "I think a lot of this is more a focus on putting the incumbent Republicans who are on the ballot in 2020—making sure that they have some hard votes to cast that can be used against them in the campaign," said Cornyn of Democrats' efforts. "Because we know how the story ends, especially with the 67-vote threshold."And that final vote Cornyn is referencing—to acquit or convict—may define the political fates of a set of vulnerable senators on both sides up for reelection in November. Less certain is how it will define the fate of the person at the center of it all. Already, however, one truth is clear: the trial will not go away as quickly as Trump wants it to, and it will be taken more seriously than he wants it to. On the other hand, McConnell's control has its limits. The president's Twitter feed, for example, falls far outside his jurisdiction—and can, as it has before, scramble the Senate GOP's careful plans at any moment. The day after the trial formally began with all 100 senators' solemn oaths—which was sobering enough to members on both sides that many declined to speak on their way out of the Capitol—the president approvingly tweeted a comment from Fox News' Laura Ingraham, who said, "entertaining this Impeachment is a joke. This whole thing should be dismissed."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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| Photos of starving lions in Sudan spark campaign to save them Posted: 20 Jan 2020 07:35 PM PST  One of the five lions at Khartoum's Al-Qureshi Park is believed to have died.
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| Xi Vowed Not to Turn the Screws on Hong Kong, Carrie Lam Says Posted: 21 Jan 2020 09:29 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Sign up here to receive the Davos Diary, a special daily newsletter that will run from Jan. 20-24.Chinese President Xi Jinping has offered personal assurances that he won't use the protests in Hong Kong as an excuse to tighten Beijing's controls on the region, Chief Executive Carrie Lam said.Speaking in a Bloomberg Television interview at the World Economic Forum Tuesday, Lam pushed back against the widespread assumption that Xi is tightening controls on Hong Kong as she sought to reassure global investors that the Asian financial center will remain stable despite months of historic and increasingly violent protests."There is no truth in the allegation that the central government is tightening the grip on Hong Kong," Lam said. "The central government has time and again made it very clear that they want Hong Kong to succeed under 'One Country, Two Systems' and a high degree of autonomy.""It was made very clear to me by President Xi Jinping on the three occasions that I met him" in recent months, she added.Lam arrived in Davos after a fresh bout of protest violence in downtown Hong Kong, with four police officers injured in clashes with demonstrators Sunday following an otherwise peaceful rally. More than seven months of pro-democracy protests have battered the former British colony's economy, undermined its reputation for political stability and increased geopolitical tensions between the U.S. and China.China has governed Hong Kong since 1997 under a "one country, two systems" framework that preserves its freedom of expression, independent courts and capitalist financial system. The city's pro-democracy opposition has accused Beijing of eroding that autonomy and stonewalling calls for meaningful direct elections of the chief executive, who's currently selected by a 1,200-member committee.While Lam withdrew legislation allowing extraditions to China that initially prompted the unrest, she has so far refused to consider other key protester demands including an independent probe of the police. Nevertheless, in Davos, Lam hinted that there may be other motivations behind the protests."One has to wonder what are the underlying factors that caused the sustained social unrest in the last few months," she said.The protests have been more subdued since mid-November, when pro-democracy candidates swept elections for local district councils though the city of 7.4 million people remains bitterly divided, with widespread distrust of Beijing and the local government. The main political event this year will be elections for the more powerful Legislative Council in September.Rumors have persisted for months that Beijing may replace Lam, whose approval rating is hovering near a record low of 14%, according to a Hong Kong Public Opinion Program survey released earlier this month. So far, President Xi Jinping has reaffirmed China's support for Lam, although Beijing replaced its main representative in Hong Kong earlier this month with an official some analysts described as a hardliner.Lam herself insisted she wouldn't quit."I will do my utmost to stay in this position and arrest the current situation," she said.To contact the reporters on this story: Haslinda Amin in Singapore at hamin1@bloomberg.net;Dandan Li in Davos, Switzerland, at dli395@bloomberg.net;Iain Marlow in Hong Kong at imarlow1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Scott at bscott66@bloomberg.net, Daniel Ten KateFor 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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| Migrants tear-gassed as they try to storm into Mexico Posted: 20 Jan 2020 02:21 PM PST  Hundreds of Central Americans from a new migrant caravan tried to storm into Mexico Monday by fording the river that divides the country from Guatemala, but National Guardsmen fired tear gas trying to force them back.
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| Documents: Extremist group wanted rally to start civil war Posted: 21 Jan 2020 12:11 PM PST  A hidden camera captured members of a white supremacist group expressing hope that violence at a gun rights rally in Virginia this week could start a civil war, federal prosecutors said in a court filing Tuesday. Former Canadian Armed Forces reservist Patrik Jordan Mathews also videotaped himself advocating for killing people, poisoning water supplies and derailing trains, a prosecutor wrote in urging a judge in Maryland to keep Mathews and two other members of The Base detained in federal custody. Last month, a closed-circuit television camera and microphone installed by investigators in a Delaware home captured Mathews talking about the Virginia rally as a "boundless" opportunity.
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| Why Did North Korea Sink the South Korean Warship Cheonan in 2010? Posted: 21 Jan 2020 01:50 AM PST  What was the point of this terrible act?
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| Biden selfie with elevator operator goes viral after 2020 candidate fails to secure New York Times endorsement Posted: 21 Jan 2020 08:35 AM PST  A clip of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden taking a selfie with an elevator operator has gone viral after the former vice president failed to secure an endorsement from The New York Times.The exchange was captured on camera when Mr Biden was on his way to meet the Times' editorial board as part of a series of interviews with Democratic 2020 election candidates.
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| World needs to prepare for 'millions' of climate displaced: U.N. Posted: 21 Jan 2020 06:27 AM PST  The world needs to prepare for millions of people being driven from their homes by the impact of climate change, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said on Tuesday. Speaking to Reuters at the World Economic Forum, Filippo Grandi said a U.N. ruling this week meant those fleeing as a result of climate change deserved international protection, and that it had broad implications for governments. The U.N. Human Rights Committee made the landmark ruling on Monday in relation to Ioane Teitiota, from the Pacific nation of Kiribati, who brought a case against New Zealand after authorities denied his claim of asylum.
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| The last time China was hit by a deadly illness like the Wuhan virus, it covered it up and 774 people died. There are fears it could happen again. Posted: 21 Jan 2020 12:13 AM PST  China tried to cover up the deadly SARS virus in 2003, and observers are closely watching China as it deals with a new virus outbreak.
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| Meet the General Who Ran Soleimani’s Spies, Guns and Assassins Posted: 21 Jan 2020 01:51 AM PST  They're the Quds Force officers who tracked and killed Iraqis working with the U.S.-led coalition, hunted those deemed hostile to Iranian influence through a council of assassins, and smuggled the spies, money, weapons, and secrets into Iraq that sowed chaos across the country during the American occupation. Qassem Soleimani first gained the attention of Western media through his role in instigating a campaign of covert violence against the U.S. in Iraq which cost the lives of over 600 American troops. But underneath the now famous Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps icon, other officers managed the war that first made Soleimani notorious. For a period during the mid-2000s, one of those officers was Brigadier General Ahmed Foruzandeh, who rose to command the Ramazan Corps, part of the Guard's elite Quds Force, after cutting his teeth in the unit running guerrilla warfare operations during the Iran-Iraq war.'OK, Now What?': Inside Team Trump's Scramble to Sell the Soleimani Hit to America"Although Qassem Soleimani was the architect of that broader strategy, it was his lesser known lieutenants who ran and oversaw the operations," Dr. Afshon Ostovar, a scholar at the Naval Postgraduate School, said. "Foruzandeh was one of the top Quds Force operatives in the field in Iraq, yet his name was hardly known at the time." Declassified documents obtained by The Daily Beast through the Freedom of Information Act offer new details of Foruzandeh's campaign of violence in Iraq during the latter 2000s. They show how Foruzandeh and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) funneled guns, money, and spies into Iraq and assassinated both Americans and Iraqis. And they offer hints that the man who helped Iran kill hundreds of Americans throughout the Iraq war may not have actually retired years ago as he let on, but continued to consult for his former boss long after the war ended.Iranian and American media alike have treated Foruzandeh's old boss, the former Quds Force commander Soleimani, with something approaching hagiography. In profiles and obituaries, he's cast as a legendary "shadow commander" possessed of superhuman abilities and cunning, a judgment not entirely supported by Soleimani's colleagues. By contrast, declassified documents obtained by The Daily Beast and other sources paint a more prosaic picture of Foruzandeh. Like a number of Quds Force personnel, Foruzandeh's career in Iraq drew on nothing more mystical than relationships and experience. His first brush with the world of covert operations in the Iran-Iraq war met with middling success and the guerrilla warfare effort he supported barely moved the needle in the conflict. But by the time the U.S. showed up on Iran's doorstep, Foruzandeh had been carrying out guerrilla warfare and covert operations across the Iran-Iraq border for nearly 20 years with some of the same people and organizations. "They clearly have, one, home court advantage. Two, these guys have been doing special operations in the region for their entire adult life and they're veterans of the brutal Iran-Iraq war," Doug Wise, a former CIA officer and station chief in Baghdad, told The Daily Beast of Iranian Quds Force officers who worked on Iraq. "These guys are worthy adversaries. They're not 10 feet tall. They have human and physical limitations but extraordinary experience in conducting the operations that they were required to conduct," Wise said. * * *"Big picture," Col. Donald Bacon, then the chief of special operations and intelligence information for the coalition, said in a 2007 press conference, "the Ramazan Corps is the organization that does operations here in Iraq to—they use it to—they're the ones who transit in the weapons, the funding and help coordinate Iraqi militia extremists into Iran to get them training and then get them back into Iraq."Ramazan was the Quds Force unit in charge of causing chaos in Iraq and, at least for a time, Foruzandeh was its commander. The unit, which dated back to the Iran-Iraq war, divided its forces between a handful of sub-commands along the Iraqi border. Foruzandeh had worked in Fajr command, based in Ahwaz, Iran, which handled operations in Basra and southern Iraq, working his way up to deputy commander of Ramazan.By 2007, as violence in Iraq peaked, intelligence reports surveyed Iranian covert operations in Iraq as the U.S. turned its attention away from the Sunni jihadist insurgency and towards the violence instigated by Iran and its proxies. The documents include raw reporting marked as "not finally evaluated intelligence" from sources whose motivations are described as "based on favorable experiences with U.S. forces and desire to rid Iraq of destructive foreign influences" but they track broadly with what U.S. officials have said about Ramazan Corps and its personnel.Taken together, they show a sprawling campaign of covert violence with Foruzandeh and the Ramazan Corps in charge.The documents spend considerable space detailing the elaborate process by which the Iranian-overseen "Golden Death Squad" targeted, approved, and carried out assassinations against Iraqis they viewed as obstacles. The unit, the report wrote, "consists of Iranian intelligence leadership that provide guidance and funding to Iraqis that are recruited from [Jaish al-Mahdi], Badr Corps, the Al-Fadilah Party, and other Shia Iraqi parties and militias that conduct assassination operations against former Ba'ath party members, Iraqis that are working with the [Coalition Forces], and Iraqis that are not supporting Iranian influence in Iraq."Iranian officers shuttled Iraqi members of the assassination teams to Ahwaz, Iran, the headquarters of Ramazan's Fajr command, for training. The 10-day long course included instruction from Iranian officers on "information collection to support the targeting of coalition forces in Iraq, assassinations, and the use of indirect fire systems such as Katyusha rockets and mortars." Iran also trained its proxies in the use of "what is described as very sophisticated explosives that can penetrate [Coalition Forces'] armor," an apparent reference to the notorious Iranian-made explosively formed projectiles which killed and maimed hundreds of American troops. When it came time to decide who would be killed, Quds Force officers set up a process for adjudicating assassination targets, giving Iraqi allies a role in the process, according to the documents. "Iraqis that are agents of the Iranians are allowed to produce lists of Iraqis that are to be assassinated," it notes. "Most of these Iraqis that are authorized to make decisions regarding who is to be killed by the Golden Death Squad are members of the Iraqi government and security forces." Meetings of the hit squad reportedly took place at the Basra governor's office where members of Basra police intelligence would "routinely attend."Iranian intelligence officers also nominated their own targets for assassination. Their names were handed to a member of the Iranian-backed Badr militia. The Iranian officer who passed the targets along—his name is redacted in the report—is described as "a Persian Iranian that is fluent in Iraqi Arabic and has a southern Iraqi accent due to the years he has spent in Iraq."Those slated for assassination included not just former Baathists but Iraqis who worked with the U.S.-backed coalition. The documents recount how one Quds Force officer, assigned to Ramazan's Fajr command in southern Iraq, ran an Iraqi agent who photographed coalition informants for the IRGC. The unnamed Quds Force officer then "passe[d] the pictures to Iraqis that he tasks and funds to kill those identified by [redacted's] reporting and pictures."In at least one case, Foruzandeh reportedly intervened to help one of his militia allies after coalition officials arrested them. Mehdi Abdmehd al-Khalisi allegedly ran the Muntada al-Wilaya militia, a small, Iranian-backed Shiite militia implicated in the murder of a number of former Baathist officials and an attack on coalition troops. When coalition officials arrested al-Khalisi in 2005, senior Iraqi officials began pressuring the coalition to release him. A classified cable leaked by WikiLeaks show that informants told the U.S. that al-Khalisi had been communicating with Foruzandeh about attacks on British forces in Iraq's Maysan governorate via encrypted telegrams as early as 2003. After his arrest, the cable says that an informant of "unknown reliability" reported that Foruzandeh "has authorized an expenditure of up to $500,000 for operations to secure Mr. al-Khalisi's release, and that senior [Iraqi Transitional Government] officials have received telephone calls from the Brigadier requesting assistance." Along with the assassinations came Iranian weapons and trainers. Reporting by the Long War Journal first sketched out Ramazan's "rat lines" in Iraq and documents obtained by The Daily Beast note that the unit oversaw a "complex smuggling apparatus from Ahwaz, Iran into Iraq" that included "weapons, information, financial support, and Iranian intelligence officers." The money, guns, and Iranian personnel began their journey in Ahwaz and were handed off to smugglers at the border with Iraq.Iranian intelligence officers would vet smugglers for loyalty and to ensure that they had a "pre-existing relationship with the [Iraqi border police] because of their tribal relationship"—a relationship that nonetheless "usually involves a pre-arranged bribe." Once across the border, smugglers toting money, guns, and Iranian personnel were "typically met by a reception element that represents a Shia militia group that the operation support package was built for."In the ports of southern Iraq, Ramazan agents smuggled weapons via hidden compartments in the fuel tanks of fishing boats, according to the documents. As violent as Foruzandeh's tenure in occupation-era Iraq war was, he wasn't entirely averse to covert diplomacy. Ahmed Chalabi, the exiled Iraqi lobbyist who helped push the Bush administration to war in Iraq, met with Foruzandeh in the spring of 2004, according to a 2008 biography of Chalabi by journalist and former Daily Beast senior correspondent Aram Roston. At the time, Chalabi had transitioned from pro-war lobbyist to an Iraqi member of parliament and was seeking to accommodate himself to Iran's newfound influence in Iranian politics. Some time after the meeting, the U.S. learned that Iranian intelligence had suddenly realized American spies were reading their cable traffic and had broken their codes. A few months later, American intelligence officials told The New York Times they believed Chalabi had walked into the Iranian embassy in Baghdad and blown the operation to the station chief of Iranian intelligence at the embassy. Chalabi denied any involvement in the leak but the incident led the Bush administration to end its relationship with him.* * *Foruzandeh's father worked for the Abadan oil company and when he left the company, his family of 13 sons and daughters moved to Khorramshahr, just across the border from Basra in Iraq. His son Ahmed was an early supporter of Iran's Islamic Revolution, a stance which earned him a stint in prison at university—thanks to the ruling Shah's secret police—and the revolutionary bonafides that came with it when the Shah's government was ousted.In the early days of the Islamic Revolution, Foruzandeh worked with the IRGC to identify and arrest Arab dissidents in Khorramshahr opposed to the new government. His knowledge of the area, proven commitment to the regime, and background in underground work made him a natural fit for intelligence when the Iran-Iraq war started."After Iraq's invasion, he was the intelligence chief of the Khorramshahr unit that later played a key role in re-taking the city from the Baathists in 1982," Amir Toumaj, an Iran researcher who's written extensively on the Quds Force, explained of Foruzandeh. "His biography states that he started developing a relationship with Hassan Bagheri around the time of Khorramshahr's fall and sent him reports," Toumaj says. Bagheri, the founder of the Islamic Republic's intelligence service, was killed during the war but went on to become one of Iran's most famous "martyrs." His brother, Mohammad, is now Iran's highest-ranking military officer and it was those kinds of connections that would help pave Foruzandeh's ascent to the highest ranks of the IRGC.Trump, Iran, and Where 'The Forever War' Was Always HeadedLater in the war, Foruzandeh left his position in Khorramshahr's 22nd Badr Brigade and joined the Ramazan Corps. The unit was designed to work with dissident groups in Iraq and carry out guerrilla operations behind enemy lines while the otherwise static style of trench warfare that characterized the Iran-Iraq conflict played out. At Ramazan's Fajr headquarters, where Foruzandeh first worked, the unit carried out operations with Iraqi Shiite groups like the Badr Brigade, a group of exiled dissidents and former prisoners of war. The militia was originally "conceived by the Iranians as an adjunct to the IRGC-QF Ramazan Corps," according to a 2005 State Department cable, and drew support from their political arm, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq. During the Iran-Iraq war, radio broadcasts from Tehran hailed operations by the "Ramazan Headquarters" which claimed assassination attempts with "Iraqi mujahidin" on Saddam's interior minister Samir al-Shaykhali in Baghdad, the "revolutionary execution" of a Ba'ath Party official in Baghdad's Mansur neighborhood, and having set fire to one of Saddam's Baghdad palaces "used for pleasure by Ba'ath party officials and senior officers of that regime."Ramazan's Fajr headquarters and the Badr Brigade didn't do much to change the tide of the war. It ended in a bloody stalemate in 1988, more of exhaustion than because of guerrilla daring. One of the Ramazan Corps's most valuable relationships actually lay farther north with Kurdish forces from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. The group carried out strikes deep into Iraqi Kurdish territory with Ramazan's backing, including a 1986 raid on Iraqi oil infrastructure in Kirkuk (later memorialized in a cheesy Iranian action flick, Kirkuk Operation).But the relationships forged by Ramazan with Iraqi Shia militants would prove useful to both the Revolutionary Guards and Iran years down the road when groups like Badr took on an important role in Iraqi politics and security. When the war ended, both Ramazan Corps and Foruzandeh remained focused on Iraq, particularly during the Shia uprising against Saddam at the end of the Persian Gulf War. One Iranian news account put Foruzandeh in charge of working with Iranian-backed militias to support the uprising "in order to speed up the support of the Iraqi Mujahideen" because his unit, Ramazan's Fajr headquarters, was closest to the revolt in Basra.There's not much evidence about how Foruzandeh spent his time in the interim between America's first two wars in Iraq. The most evidence available is a fragmentary report from Saddam-era intelligence documents captured by the U.S. after the war that shows Foruzandeh running an agent inside a camp for the Mujahideen-e-Khalq, an Iranian dissident cult group which fought on behalf of Iraq during the war and carried out a series of terrorist attacks in Iran.* * *Not many senior Ramazan Corps veterans appear to have retired. Iraj Masjedi, another Quds Force Iraq veteran, took over as Iran's ambassador in Baghdad in 2017. Abdul Reza Shahlai, who served in Iraq during the occupation alongside Foruzandeh, is now at 63 years old reportedly the top Quds Force officer in Yemen and was unsuccessfully targeted in a U.S. airstrike there the same night that special operations forces killed Soleimani.After the U.S. wound down its occupation in Iraq, Foruzandeh, gray-haired and portly, gave every impression of having retired and contented himself with the hobbies of old age, despite a U.S. sanctions designation on him during the war. He told an Iranian news outlet that he'd retired from the Quds Force in 2008, and was working on an oral history project about his hometown. In public, he spent his spent time shuffling between memorial ceremonies for fallen comrades. It doesn't appear to be true.Another declassified intelligence document obtained by The Daily Beast offers hints that Foruzandeh may not have retired after all. The report, an account of senior Iranian officials' participation in a museum project "documenting lessons learned from the Iran-Iraq war," suggests he kept at least a consulting role in Quds Force operations. In describing the background of officials present at the meeting, the report says Foruzandeh still dabbled in "management of personnel and logistic support to IRGC-QF external activities." Iran's Khorasan province "has been recently added to his portfolio." Iran's Khorasan province borders northwest Afghanistan and by 2013, the Obama administration had already been arguing for years that Quds Force officers were secretly supporting the Taliban in order to weaken U.S. and NATO forces in the country. There are some reasons to be skeptical of the declassified report. The sources claim that Foruzandeh was appointed a director of Iran's Iran-Iraq war museum, but he's not listed by the museum as an official or referred to as such in news accounts. It's also dated around the same time Foruzandeh gave an interview to an Iranian news outlet announcing that he was working on a history project about his hometown's role in the Iran-Iraq war.Still, other evidence suggests Foruzandeh was still in the irregular warfare business.In 2014, one of Foruzandeh's closest colleagues in the Quds Force, fellow brigadier general and Ramazan Corps veteran Hamid Taghavi, was killed by ISIS in Iraq. The death came as a surprise, not least because Taghavi was one of the highest-ranking IRGC officers killed in Iraq since the Iran-Iraq war. Like Foruzandeh, Taghavi was also supposed to have left active duty. Instead, he was in Iraq supporting a Shiite militia loyal to Iran, Sayara al-Khorasani, and organizing Iran's fight against ISIS."Commander Taghavi was retired. No one thought he'd go to Iraq and be able to play a role in the mobilization and organization of the [Iraqi Popular Mobilization Units militia]," Foruzandeh told a meeting of Ahwaz city officials after his death. Taghavi's death hit Foruzandeh hard and he would break down in tears recounting his comrade's life when talking to reporters. In one interview, Foruzandeh suggested he'd been in contact with Taghavi by phone shortly before his death and offered advice for his work standing up pro-Iranian militias after ISIS took Mosul"He came to the place where we were stationed," Foruzandeh said without elaborating. "We told him about the situation in Iraq, the characteristics of the conflict, the various Iraqi groups, and the challenges that existed. The Iraqi forces had deficiencies that needed to be addressed." Taghavi was concerned about Iranian-backed militias' performance during operations in Jurf al-Sakhar, an Iraqi town captured by ISIS and taken back during a brutal operation coordinated by the Quds Force. "He believed that unless these forces received better training they would suffer severe casualties. The casualties these forces suffered were generally due to a lack of proper military training. They didn't know how to move, what to do when they're under fire from the enemy, how to provide cover when attacking, or even how to clear traps and contaminants from an infected area," Foruzandeh recalled.One of the last public glimpses of Foruzandeh comes from an unlikely source: Facebook. Foruzandeh doesn't appear to have a profile, but his acquaintances identified him in pictures during a 2016 visit to meet with Iraqi officials from Maysan Province. The photos show a grandfatherly Quds Force officer with his trademark scowl described as an "advisor" to Iran's Supreme Leader, a tailored visiting dignitary in a place where decades before he was once a spry, hunted guerrilla in hand-me-down fatigues.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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| Nigerian military clears thousands from Lagos waterfront Posted: 21 Jan 2020 10:21 AM PST  Nigerian navy personnel shot in the air Tuesday as they sought to clear a waterfront community of 10,000 people in the latest mass-eviction around economic hub Lagos. Bulldozers rumbled into Tarkwa Bay, a semi-rural area on an island in the city of some 20 million, as part of an operation the military say is aimed officially at stopping the looting of nearby oil pipelines. AFP correspondents heard gunfire during the operation.
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| Mexico Murders Rise to Record in AMLO’s First Year in Office Posted: 20 Jan 2020 06:38 PM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Murders in Mexico rose to a new record in 2019, the first full year of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's presidency, posing a challenge to the popular leader to make good on a campaign promise of reducing violence.Slayings, often fueled by the nation's drug cartels, climbed to 34,582, compared with 33,743 a year earlier, according to data released by the national public security system. The 2.5% increase represents the least since homicides fell in 2014 and compared with increases of 17% to 28% in the previous three years."What's relevant is that homicides continue at an extremely high level, and the only change is the height of the wave," said Vidal Romero, a professor of political science at Mexico's Autonomous Institute of Technology, or ITAM, and co-director of the Center for the Study of Security, Intelligence and Governance. "Things haven't changed, and there's no policy that's getting to the root of the problem."Drug traffickers pose a shared threat to the U.S. and Mexico. Murders in the Latin American nation are often carried out with weapons smuggled in from the U.S. Meanwhile, American overdose deaths, from drugs that frequently originate in or travel through Mexico, surged to about 70,000 annually in recent years, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.While Lopez Obrador, known popularly by the abbreviation AMLO, has managed to maintain his approval at 72%, according to a poll by newspaper El Financiero published earlier this month, voters probably would hold his Morena party responsible for poor security results at mid-term congressional elections in 2021, Romero said.Two high-profile episodes late last year focused attention on Mexico's security challenge. In October, Lopez Obrador's security cabinet decided to release the captured son of kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman to avoid a firefight and bloodshed between authorities and criminals that the government worried would affect civilians. In November, nine members of a Mormon family with dual American-Mexican citizenship were killed in an attack by cartel gunmen.President Donald Trump has pushed Mexico to do more to confront drug gangs, calling for the nations together to "wage war" on the cartels. In November he floated classifying them as terrorist organizations. In December, after a visit to Mexico City by U.S. Attorney General William Barr, Trump said he was holding off "temporarily" on the proposal at the request of Lopez Obrador.Read More: Trump Pushes Mexico to Step Up Efforts to Battle Drug GangsSo far, Mexico has resisted a heavy-handed approach, wishing to avoid the level of militarization that took place when Felipe Calderon was president from 2006 to 2012. Mexico's efforts have been focused on deploying tens of thousands of members from its new National Guard, a force that officially began work in July and still isn't at full strength.Lopez Obrador's strategy also includes education and subsidies for young people. But the phrase he has used at times to summarize his philosophy, "hugs, not shots," has been criticized by many security analysts as naive and Pollyannish.(Updates with comments in third paragraph.)To contact the reporter on this story: Eric Martin in Mexico City at emartin21@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Nacha Cattan at ncattan@bloomberg.net, Walter Brandimarte, Dale QuinnFor 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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| Security guard 'definitely saved lives' by killing shooter at Kansas City bar, police say Posted: 21 Jan 2020 11:04 AM PST  A Missouri security guard was lauded as a hero after shooting a gunman who killed one person and wounded 15 outside a Kansas City nightclub.
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| Police: Dad strangles coyote to defend family under attack Posted: 21 Jan 2020 06:24 AM PST ![Police: Dad strangles coyote to defend family under attack]( "Police: Dad strangles coyote to defend family under attack") A coyote attacked a pair of dogs, bit a woman and skirmished with a vehicle before being killed by a father defending his family on a walk Monday, police said. The same coyote is likely connected to three attacks that happened relatively close together and throughout the course of an hour, Kensington Police Chief Scott Cain said Monday. Police say they believe the coyote attacked a vehicle on a roadway in Hampton Falls, New Hampshire, bit a 62-year-old woman and her dogs on a porch in Kensington and then attacked a family walking on a trail in Exeter.
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| Meet the TF-X: Turkey's Wanna-Be F-22 Stealth Fighter Posted: 21 Jan 2020 03:04 AM PST  But it might not happen.
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| Amanda Knox posts selfie in old prison uniform as her 'something old' to prepare for wedding Posted: 21 Jan 2020 09:39 AM PST  With just 40 days left until her wedding, like many a bride-to-be, Amanda Knox has a long to-do list to get through before the big day.Ms Knox revealed a unique "something old" in a post on Instagram as she knuckles down to get through the tasks at hand – her old uniform from her time in an Italian prison.
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