| Democrats battle White House over executive power and congressional oversight Posted: 03 Jan 2020 02:37 PM PST  Two hearings in a Washington court brought the battle between the House and the White House into stark relief.
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| 'Millions of sparks': Weather raises Australia's fire danger Posted: 02 Jan 2020 06:10 PM PST  Wildfires raging across Australia have prompted one of the largest evacuations in the country's history as what is already the worst season on record is likely to become even more devastating due to hot weather and strong winds. Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews declared a disaster across much of the eastern part of the state, allowing the government to order evacuations in an area with as many as 140,000 permanent residents and tens of thousands more vacationers. "If you can leave, you must leave," Andrews said.
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| An Iranian military commander says there are '35 vital American positions in the region' which they can strike in response to top general's assassination Posted: 04 Jan 2020 01:33 PM PST  The potential targets include US ships stationed near Iran, as well as cities in Israel, one of America's closest allies.
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| A fugitive was on the run for 40 years. Police finally arrested him for public intoxication Posted: 03 Jan 2020 06:56 AM PST  Jose Romero was arrested Saturday in Delaware. He evaded capture in South Carolina in 1979 after being convicted of armed robbery.
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| Ghosn fled Japan after security firm hired by Nissan stopped surveillance: sources Posted: 03 Jan 2020 11:05 PM PST  Ousted Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn left his Tokyo residence after a private security firm hired by Nissan Motor Co stopped monitoring him, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Saturday. Ghosn has become an international fugitive after he revealed on Tuesday he had fled to Lebanon to escape what he called a "rigged" justice system in Japan, where he faces charges relating to alleged financial crimes. Nissan had hired a private security company to watch Ghosn, who was on bail and awaiting trial, to check whether he met any people involved in the case, the three sources said.
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| With hours' notice, US fast-response force flies to Mideast Posted: 04 Jan 2020 12:40 PM PST  Hundreds of U.S. soldiers deployed Saturday from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, to Kuwait to serve as reinforcements in the Middle East amid rising tensions following the U.S. killing of a top Iranian general. Lt. Col. Mike Burns, a spokesman for the 82nd Airborne Division, told The Associated Press 3,500 members of the division's quick-deployment brigade, known officially as its Immediate Response Force, will have deployed within a few days. A loading ramp at Fort Bragg was filled Saturday morning with combat gear and restless soldiers.
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| Some Lebanon banks close over angry clients' demands Posted: 04 Jan 2020 07:51 AM PST  Banks in a region of northern Lebanon were closed until further notice on Saturday, the National News Agency said, after lenders balked at customer anger over a liquidity crisis. Since September banks have arbitrarily capped the amount of dollars that can be withdrawn or transferred abroad, sparking fury among customers who accuse lenders of holding their money hostage. There is also a limit on Lebanese pound withdrawals.
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| Schumer calls McConnell proposal on witnesses a 'trap' Posted: 03 Jan 2020 11:25 AM PST  As the standoff over rules for an impeachment trial continues, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell repeated Friday that he would consider a proposal to call for witness testimony — a stance that his Democratic counterpart, Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, calls a "trap."
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| Iran Options Seem Narrow as It Seeks to Avenge Slain General Posted: 03 Jan 2020 12:38 PM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei threatened "severe retaliation" against the U.S. for the assassination of the country's most prominent military commander, but he may be limited in what he can do.While Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told state TV that the Islamic Republic's response can come "at any time and by any means," U.S. sanctions have hobbled his nation's economy. Any action that triggered a conventional war with the U.S. would put the Shiite Muslim power at a severe disadvantage.Anti-government protests have also challenged the regime's dominance in Iraq, Lebanon and at home. Now, in Al Quds commander Qassem Soleimani, Iranians have lost the very man they would have relied upon to craft an effective response.Tehran's strategy since President Donald Trump pulled out of the landmark 2015 nuclear deal that had promised rapprochement between Iran and the West suggests any retaliation will likely be measured. It needs to be significant enough to reflect Soleimani's stature, though not enough to invite an unbridled conflict with the world's military superpower. Such controlled reprisals could include a strike at diplomatic staff or cyberattacks."I don't think either the U.S. or Iran want all-out war," said Sir Tom Beckett, a former lieutenant general in the British Army and now executive director of the International Institute for Strategic Studies-Middle East. "The U.S. needed to assert its willingness to take military action alongside its campaign of exerting maximum economic pressure." That has now been done. The bigger question is whether the removal of Soleimani, a national hero to many Iranians, proves to have been part of a wider strategy.The U.S. and Iran are effectively already at war. Since at least the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Soleimani's approach to challenging American power was to assemble and strengthen proxy Shiite militias in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen. He then used these to prosecute a hybrid war against the U.S. and its regional allies at arm's length, without triggering a direct response from Washington.The Trump administration plans to send about 2,800 troops from the Army's 82nd Airborne division to Kuwait to act as an additional deterrent against Iran. The new U.S. contingent will join about 700 troops dispatched to Kuwait earlier this week as part of the division's rapid-reaction "ready battalion," according to two U.S. officials who asked not to be identified discussing the deployment. The U.S. already had about 60,000 personnel.Game ChangerSuccessive administrations underGeorge W. Bush and Barack Obama chose not to risk an escalation despite Soleimani's responsibility for U.S. fatalities. Now it's Iran that will have to weigh the risks of a determined response. As U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper put it hour before the drone strike in Baghdad: "The game has changed."Yet despite Khamenei's stark threat, Iran is unlikely to reach for a maximal option, such as a missile strike on American bases in Bahrain or elsewhere in the Gulf. To do so would invite suicide, analysts say."This is an intensely dangerous moment, but as always with Iran, we should be wary of hyperbolic predictions," said Suzanne Maloney, deputy director of foreign policy at the Brookings Institution. "Tehran is well practiced at calibrating retaliation around its real interests, which ultimately concern regime survival and targeting its reprisals with deliberation and precision."QuickTake: How Qassem Soleimani Helped Shape the Modern MideastIn the past, it was Soleimani who made those calibrations. A veteran of the Iran-Iraq war, Soleimani ran the elite unit of the Revolutionary Guard Corps that specialized in unconventional warfare and overseas operations.They included a series of pinpoint attacks on oil tankers in the Gulf last year that culminated with a daring attack on a Saudi oil facility. No fatalities were reported in any of the attacks and neither the U.S. nor Saudi Arabia had a response.Militia NetworkSoleimani's network of militias appear to have triggered his death. They shelled a U.S. base in Iraq, killing a U.S. contractor, and then stormed the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, evoking memories of the 1979 U.S. hostage crisis in Tehran.On Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the U.S. had struck out at Soleimani because it had information he was planning further attacks against U.S. personnel.Those militias remain the most effective and usable military tool at Iran's disposal. Soleimani's deputy, who was quickly named as the new Quds force chief, said the group's strategy would not change.The question, according to British military strategist Beckett and others, is where Khamenei will opt to strike and at what level -- with a single dramatic action, or multiple much smaller attacks that would make it harder for the U.S. to escalate again."Iranian leaders are unlikely to lash out blindly," said Maloney. "Instead, they will indulge in the short-term opportunity to whip up nationalism and wait for the best opportunity to inflict damage on U.S. interests and allies."Not SarajevoPolitical risk consultancy Eurasia Group predicted on Friday that Iran's immediate response would likely involve low to moderate level clashes inside Iraq, with Iranian-backed militias attacking U.S. bases, renewed harassment of shipping in the Gulf and other strikes around the world that could be hard to anticipate. A cyberattack is one option Iranian officials are almost certainly considering, according to some experts.Zarif said Friday that the consequences of the U.S. killing Soleimani will be "broad" and will be out of Iran's hands because of the general's widespread popularity in the region.QuickTake: Iran Is Big on Cyberwarfare. How Does That Work?Unlike the political assassination in the Balkans that triggered World War I, the fallout out from Thursday's attack is likely to be far less widespread, according to Emile Hokayem, senior fellow for Middle East Security at the London-based IISS."This is not a Franz Ferdinand moment," said Hokayem. "It's at best an inflection point. Hundreds of thousands have been dying in the region over the last 10 years or so, including at the hands of Soleimani. The U.S. and Iran are already at war."(Updates with Zarif's comment, U.S. troops dispatched starting in second paragraph)\--With assistance from Lin Noueihed, Glen Carey and Polina Noskova.To contact the reporter on this story: Marc Champion in London at mchampion7@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Flavia Krause-Jackson at fjackson@bloomberg.net, Rodney JeffersonFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| 2 inmates missing in Mississippi after riots, deaths at prisons across the state Posted: 04 Jan 2020 12:52 PM PST  Two inmates at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman were reported missing early Saturday, amid a week of riots and deaths at prisons across the state.
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| UK's Johnson to meet EU chief von der Leyen in London Posted: 04 Jan 2020 04:53 AM PST  British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will meet European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in London on Wednesday ahead of the opening rounds of trade talks that will begin once Britain formally leaves the bloc on Jan. 31. The two leaders are likely to discuss whether they can strike a new trade relationship in the transition period that will follow until December 2020. Von der Leyen has said time is extremely short "for the mass of issues that have to be negotiated".
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| What is pansexuality and how does it compare with bisexuality? Posted: 04 Jan 2020 10:12 AM PST  Layla Moran, a British Liberal Democrat politician, has recently revealed that she identifies as pansexual. In an interview, Moran told how she had started a relationship with a woman six months ago, a development she described as "surprising" in terms of her sexual identity.
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| Delta plane slides off taxiway at Green Bay airport Posted: 04 Jan 2020 08:05 AM PST ![Delta plane slides off taxiway at Green Bay airport]( "Delta plane slides off taxiway at Green Bay airport") Airport officials said Flight 1770 was headed for Atlanta when it left the taxiway around 6:15 a.m. No injuries were reported, nor was there any damage to the plane. Conditions were icy at the time of the incident, but Airport Director Marty Piette told the Green Bay Press-Gazette that he wasn't sure if that's what caused the plane to slide off the taxiway.
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| Is Kim Jong-un Feeling Insecure? Posted: 03 Jan 2020 04:19 AM PST  Why did Kim allow the party plenary report to replace his traditional New Year's Address? As with many things in North Korea, we do not know, forcing us to speculate. At least one possibility is that Kim Jong-un fears that his pattern of failures in 2019 has significantly undermined his position as the god of North Korea.
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| Trump tells evangelicals that God is 'on our side' Posted: 03 Jan 2020 03:47 PM PST  Launching a political coalition called "Evangelicals for Trump" at a Florida megachurch on Friday, President Trump declared his belief that God supports his agenda.
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| Peru prosecutors seek 12-year term for Kenji Fujimori Posted: 04 Jan 2020 04:38 PM PST  Peruvian prosecutors are seeking a 12-year prison term for former lawmaker Kenji Fujimori on charges of attempting to buy votes in a plot to keep ex-president Pedro Pablo Kuczynski from being impeached. Prosecutor Bersabeth Revilla accused the son of jailed ex-president Alberto Fujimori of bribery and influence-peddling. Also charged are former lawmakers Guillermo Bocangel and Bienvenido Ramirez.
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| 'Depart Iraq Immediately.' U.S. Embassy Advises Americans to Leave After Qasem Soleimani Assassination Posted: 03 Jan 2020 05:57 AM PST  After the drone strike that killed Iranian general Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad, the State Department urged Americans to leave Iraq.
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| Border Militia Leader Pleads Guilty to Gun Charge. His Followers Say It’s Fake News. Posted: 03 Jan 2020 11:58 AM PST  His group claimed to be enforcing the law when they rounded up undocumented immigrants at gunpoint. But now after months of contesting charges, militia leader Larry Hopkins has pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm.Hopkins heads the United Constitutional Patriots (UCP), a vigilante group that made headlines this year after it released footage of members ordering migrants to the ground at gunpoint near the El Paso border. Many of the people at the opposite end of their rifles were children. For all his role-playing as an officer, Hopkins had his own criminal history. In April, he was arrested on weapons charges. He pleaded not guilty, and his followers cased him as a martyr for their cause. But on Thursday, he changed his plea, prompting members of his conspiratorial group to falsely claim his guilty plea had been fabricated.Hopkins, 70, is not allowed to own a gun. He has three felony convictions, including a weapons charge in Michigan in 1996, being a felon in possession of a firearm in Oregon in 2006, and impersonating a peace officer around the same time.Border Militias Use Facebook Live to Turn Immigrant Confrontations Into 'Reality TV'That didn't stop him from stockpiling nine guns, along with ammunition in a New Mexico home in 2017, the FBI charged in a criminal complaint earlier this year.Hopkins' UCP is notoriously gun-happy. In videos they uploaded to Facebook, members carry what appear to be semi-automatic rifles while prowling the border. Though U.S. Border Patrol has claimed not to work with the vigilante group, Border Patrol officers sometimes appeared in videos of UCP patrols, and the group claimed to have close relations with the U.S. agency.Hopkins, who promotes far-right conspiracy theories, has also claimed to be in contact with President Donald Trump and allegedly said he was training the UCP to "assassinate" Hillary Clinton, former President Barack Obama, and liberal megadonor George Soros.His change of plea on Thursday touched off a new wave of false claims from his group, which has maintained that Hopkins is innocent of his weapons charges. In a UCP Facebook group on Thursday, a prominent member (who previously claimed the "deep state" was paying for migrants to "crash the system") claimed Horton had not pleaded guilty, but that all his charges were actually dropped. (They were not.) Other members ordered each other not to share news coverage of Hopkins' guilty plea, which they claimed was not real.Hopkins' lawyer, Kelly O'Connell, confirmed that the guilty plea was legitimate. "It doesn't surprise me" that UCP members claimed his charges were dropped, O'Connell told The Daily Beast. "These guys' minds are all fighting against what they see is this very unjust government police state and everything. I understand the resistance to accepting him changing his plea, but nobody called me from the group to verify anything, or ask why" Hopkins changed his plea.Part of the decision stemmed from Hopkins' health. The militia leader was beat up in jail where he may have been housed with "people he was personally involved with," O'Connell said, adding that Hopkins also claimed to have badly injured his head in a courthouse fall. Hopkins also reported heart and diabetic concerns. "The questions was, you're looking at up to 10 years on a charge that is typically not difficult to prove," O'Connell explained of Hopkins' weapons charge. "Are you gonna fight this out to the end or would you rather take a plea deal?"Hopkins isn't the only UCP member facing charges. Jim Benvie, who previously acted as the group's spokesperson, was charged in June for allegedly impersonating a Border Patrol officer while detaining migrants. The case against him stems from his own Facebook videos. UCP members often uploaded livestreams of their exploits, during which Benvie can be heard to identify himself as "Border Patrol" while ordering people to sit on the ground. In another unrelated case filed in June, Benvie was charged with fraud for allegedly running a cancer charity scam using images of a real child who had been diagnosed with brain cancer. The child's father told The Daily Beast that Benvie falsely claimed to have set up a "trust" for the child, and solicited $50,000 using the boy's pictures.Benvie also faces a felony charge of possessing a stolen vehicle. He's pleaded not guilty.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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| Firefighters Assess the Damage After a Long Night: Australia Update Posted: 04 Jan 2020 02:21 PM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Authorities are assessing mass property damage across southeastern Australia after searing temperatures and strong winds fanned catastrophic wildfires Saturday in one of the worst days of the weeks-long crisis.Dozens of communities, from small towns on the south coast of New South Wales, to alpine villages in neighboring Victoria state, faced extreme conditions as fires grew so large they generated dry thunderstorms.Thousands of people, including tourists, had heeded the advice of authorities and evacuated a 350-kilometer (217-mile) stretch of coastline and also dangerous inland areas over the past few days to escape the intensifying infernos. But many remained, hosing down their properties to protect against falling embers as they anxiously waited to see if the winds would blow the fire front in their direction.In Narooma, a seaside town of about 3,000 people, the sky was bathed in an orange glow from nearby blazes and those who remained prepared to spend the night sleeping in their cars in parkland close to the water's edge. Inland, hundreds of evacuees camped in the town showground in Bega and endured pitch darkness as the thick smoke blocked out the sun and ash fell from the sky.Australia Fire Maps: Where the Devastating Wildfires Are BurningTwo people died in wildfires that have destroyed more than a third of South Australia's Kangaroo Island, devastating the national park and farmland and severely damaging the luxury Southern Ocean Lodge resort. Penrith, on the outskirts of Sydney, reached a record 48.9 degrees Celsius (120 degrees Fahrenheit) Saturday, symbolic of the dangerous weather conditions that have fanned ferocious flames and sparked new blazes further south.Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced Saturday an unprecedented level of military support to boost firefighting and recovery efforts as the national death toll from four months of infernos rose to 23.Australia's Wildfire Crisis: Key Numbers Behind the DisasterHere's the latest (all times local):Milder weather (8:15 a.m.)Milder conditions in New South Wales are providing some relief after a "very long night for many residents," New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters in Sydney.No one is unaccounted for in the state. Authorities may have estimates of the extent of property damage as early as Sunday afternoon, she said.Almost 150 "volatile, dynamic" fires are still blazing across the state, Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said, after the service's second-busiest day."It was an awful day yesterday, a very difficult day," Fitzsimmons said, adding that hot weather forecast later in the coming week may bring more fires.Property losses will run into the "hundreds," he said. Four firefighters were injured battling blazes in New South Wales, and a 47-year-old man died from a cardiac arrest after aiding efforts.Property damage (7:30 a.m.)Communities are bracing for news of property damage and loss early Sunday after another long night for firefighters. Southern New South Wales was ablaze into the early hours, with two emergency-level fires burning, including in the Bega Valley, near Victoria's northeastern border.Cooler weather and light rain across parts of eastern Victoria has provided some relief and enabled firefighters to reduce the number of emergency-level fires to 4 from 17.'Atomic bomb' (5 a.m.)Officials issued new emergency warnings for bushfires that hit communities including Buldah, Cann River and Club Terrace in Victoria, saying it's too late to leave. Hours earlier, residents of Dandongadale and Nug Nug were advised to evacuate immediately.At midnight, the fire service in New South Wales said the threat is "still not over" with seven fires at emergency warning and 11 labeled watch and act. A statewide total fire ban remains in effect for Sunday."This is not a bushfire," New South Wales Transport Minister Andrew Constance told ABC radio. "It's an atomic bomb."\--With assistance from Edward Johnson and Ben Bartenstein.To contact the reporter on this story: Jason Gale in Melbourne at j.gale@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Shamim Adam at sadam2@bloomberg.net, Matthew G. Miller, James LuddenFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| In 1978, A Horrific Terror Attack Tore The Shah's Iran Apart Posted: 03 Jan 2020 02:30 PM PST  And reshaped history.
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| Ex-Nissan chief made escape to Beirut aboard charter flights Posted: 03 Jan 2020 02:02 AM PST  Charter flights that spirited ex-Nissan chief Carlos Ghosn from Japan to Istanbul and from there to Beirut — an escape made possible with the help of an airline employee who falsified records. Details emerged Friday of the bizarre path to freedom that allowed the ex-Nissan boss to jump $14 million bail, seemingly under the noses of Japanese authorities, and evade charges of financial misconduct that could carry a jail sentence of up to 15 years. The improbable weekend escape has confounded and embarrassed Japanese authorities, even setting off wild speculation that Ghosn was carted off inside a musical instrument case from his home, which was under 24-hour surveillance.
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| Mom tearfully recounts moments before star player's suicide Posted: 02 Jan 2020 08:32 PM PST  "I could feel the pain in his soul and it was breaking my heart," she said in a video
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| The Quadrantids brings bright fireball meteors to the sky this weekend. Here's how to catch the first meteor shower of the decade. Posted: 03 Jan 2020 10:07 AM PST  Every year, our planet passes through cosmic detritus left over from an asteroid called EH1. For people on Earth, that means an epic meteor shower.
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| U.S. sees no domestic threat but New York braces for Iranian retaliation Posted: 03 Jan 2020 11:27 AM PST  New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said the security threat to his frequently targeted city changed significantly overnight considering the resources of a modern, major nation such as Iran compared to those of non-state organizations like al Qaeda or ISIS. "New Yorkers deserve to know that we have entered into a different reality," he said.
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| Iraq PM attends mourning for commanders killed in US strike Posted: 04 Jan 2020 01:10 AM PST  Iraq's prime minister attended a mourning procession in Baghdad on Saturday for Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani and Iraqi paramilitary chief Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, killed in a US strike the previous day. Adel Abdel Mahdi joined Muhandis associate Hadi al-Ameri, Shiite cleric Ammar al-Hakim, former premier Nuri al-Maliki and other pro-Iran figures in a large crowd. The crowds then accompanied them south to a point near the Green Zone, home to government offices and foreign embassies, including America's.
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| Terry Gilliam: 'I'm tired, as a white male, of being blamed for everything' Posted: 04 Jan 2020 09:42 AM PST  Former Monty Python star Terry Gilliam responded to the #MeToo movement, labelling it "a witch hunt," saying he is "tired, as a white male, of being blamed for everything that is wrong with the world."
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| QAnon Believer Teamed Up With Conspiracy Theorists to Plot Kidnapping, Police Say Posted: 04 Jan 2020 01:59 AM PST  Colorado mother Cynthia Abcug became an unlikely star on the fringe right last year thanks to a battle with her state's child-welfare department over custody of her son, which became a cause célèbre among believers of the bizarre pro-Trump QAnon conspiracy theory. But a recently unsealed arrest warrant alleges that Abcug had bigger plans, working with other armed QAnon believers to plan a kidnapping.Montana police arrested Abcug in Kalispell, Montana, on Dec. 30, on a felony conspiracy to commit kidnapping arrest warrant issued in Colorado. Abcug had allegedly teamed up with other QAnon believers to carry out the kidnapping, according to witness statements to police. The alleged target of the purported kidnapping is redacted in court documents, but the individual is described as once having been in Abcug's "care." The 50-year-old's son was taken from her by Colorado child-welfare officials in the spring of 2019. Police in Parker, Colorado, first became aware of Abcug's alleged plan in late September, when her daughter told authorities that she had been discussing a kidnapping "raid" with other QAnon believers. Abcug's daughter told police she was concerned that someone could be hurt in the raid.Trump Throws Fresh Fuel on Dangerous QAnon Conspiracy TheoryAccording to a heavily redacted police affidavit, Abcug's daughter told police that her mom was a committed QAnon believer who had been discussing how "people from the Q-Anon group planned to kidnap" the unnamed person. Abcug had obtained a gun of her own, according to her daughter, and talked about a person or group of people "dying" in a "raid" conducted by QAnon believers.Police found QAnon paraphernalia at Abcug's home, including blue awareness bracelets promoting a QAnon website and the name of a prominent QAnon Twitter poster. Abcug allegedly stressed "her belief that people would be injured during the raid," saying that they were "evil Satan worshipers" and "pedophiles," according to the affidavit. Abcug's daughter said her mom typically only left the house to meet with fellow QAnon supporters. "[Abcug's daughter] explained that Abcug got involved with Q-Anon, and that Abcug has repeatedly talked about a raid (to her and others), wherein people from the Q-Anon group planned to kidnap [name redacted]," the arrest warrant affidavit reads. "She expressed concern that people were going to be injured, and that it was going to occur 'soon.'" QAnon, an elaborate conspiracy theory that posits that Donald Trump is at war with Satanic pedophile-cannibals in the Democratic Party, began in late 2017 with anonymous message board posts made by a person or a group of people known only as "Q." Since then, it's won adherents among Trump supporters, including some GOP congressional candidates. The president and his re-election campaign have repeatedly flirted with QAnon promoters, even though the FBI considers QAnon to be a potential domestic terror threat.While QAnon promoters often claim their movement is non-violent, the conspiracy theory has been linked to two murders, including the slaying of a Gambino mafia family boss. Other QAnon believers have been charged with crimes, including a church vandalism and an attempt to shut down a bridge with an improvised armored truck.Accused Pizzagate Arsonist Pleads Guilty to Setting Fire at D.C. PizzeriaAbcug's feud with state officials over custody of her son turned her into a star among QAnon believers and other fringe activists after she broadcast her allegations about supposed abuses committed by the state's child-welfare system on right-wing websites like InfoWars, Big League Politics, and PJ Media.Abcug didn't respond to a request for comment, and The Daily Beast was not able to confirm the details of Abcug's custody case. A segment of QAnon believers have become convinced, in an outgrowth of the Pizzagate conspiracy theory, that child-protective services double as a kind of hunting ground for the mythical pedophiles they're convinced run the anti-Trump "deep state." "The Child Protective Services was a front line for funneling in the trafficking," Abcug said in a June appearance on a QAnon-affiliated YouTube channel. "I had not been open to that yet." The custody case brought Abcug into contact with more QAnon believers, including a man identified in the police affidavit as "Ryan," an "armed guard" who was staying with her. Abcug reportedly described her associate as a "sniper." Abcug stopped responding to police during their investigation last September and eventually left Colorado, only resurfacing in Montana in late December. Abcug was arrested after a tip from the FBI, according to a local news report.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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| President Trump Should Worry About Iran's Military Posted: 03 Jan 2020 03:29 AM PST  Killing General Soleimani pushes the United States toward the verge of major conflict with Iran. But in escalation toward war, and in any war itself, Tehran may already hold the upper hand.
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| Google suspends Xiaomi integration with its home products after a user reported seeing footage from random people's homes, including a sleeping baby Posted: 03 Jan 2020 03:50 AM PST  Xiaomi said the issue was caused by a software update.
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| Tens of thousands march in southern India to protest citizenship law Posted: 04 Jan 2020 05:24 AM PST  HYDERABAD/NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Over one hundred thousand protesters, many carrying the Indian tricolour flag, took part in a peaceful march in the southern city of Hyderabad on Saturday, chanting slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi's new citizenship law. The protest, dubbed the 'Million March', was organized by an umbrella group of Muslim and civil society organizations. More than 40 percent of Hyderabad's estimated population of nearly 7 million are Muslims.
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| At least 228 police officers died by suicide in 2019, Blue H.E.L.P. says. That's more than were killed in the line of duty Posted: 03 Jan 2020 09:11 AM PST  More police officers died by suicide in 2019 than were killed in the line of duty, advocacy group Blue H.E.L.P. reports.
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| Africa’s Richest Woman Says Asset Freeze Dooms Her Companies Posted: 03 Jan 2020 08:25 AM PST ![Africa's Richest Woman Says Asset Freeze Dooms Her Companies]( "Africa's Richest Woman Says Asset Freeze Dooms Her Companies") (Bloomberg) -- Sign up to our Next Africa newsletter and follow Bloomberg Africa on TwitterIsabel dos Santos, Africa's richest woman and the daughter of former Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, said her businesses in Angola are set to fail after a court froze her assets and bank accounts in the oil-producing country."Freezing my accounts prevents me from being able to manage and recapitalize my companies," Dos Santos, who has been living outside Angola since 2018, said in an emailed statement. "As such, they have all but been sentenced to death."The 46-year-old London-educated engineer amassed a fortune during her father's almost four-decade rule and has an estimated net worth of about $2 billion, Bloomberg data shows. In Angola, her business empire includes stakes in Angola's biggest mobile telecommunications company Unitel, two of the country's biggest private lenders, Banco de Fomento Angola and Banco BIC, a supermarket chain, a beer factory and a cable company.Outside Angola, Dos Santos holds indirect stakes in several companies, including Portuguese oil company Galp Energia SGPS SA and cable company NOS SGPS SA.State LossesEarlier this week, an Angolan court placed a freezing order on the Angolan assets of Dos Santos, her husband Sindika Dokolo, and one of her executives, Mario da Silva. The nation's Attorney General accuses the three of engaging in transactions with state-owned companies that led to the government incurring losses of $1.14 billion.The move marks another step in President Joao Lourenco's bid to battle graft and dismantle the influence of his predecessor's family over key industries.Since Lourenco took power in 2017, Jose Filomeno, Isabel's brother, has been fired as the head of Angola's sovereign wealth fund and accused of illegally transferring $500 million from Angola's central bank to the U.K. Their sister, Welwitschia dos Santos, recently lost her seat as a member of parliament after leaving Angola.Isabel dos Santos, whose wealth and influence earned her the nickname "The Princess," has accused Lourenco of carrying out a witch hunt against her family and insists that her wealth has been the product of hard work and determination. She said she created more than a dozen companies in Angola that collectively employed more than 10,000 people, whose jobs were now at risk."I was given no opportunity to respond to the charges which, so far as we are even able to understand them, appear to be wholly bogus," she said. "We are concerned that the so-called charges may be based on fabricated documents."Even so, the clamp-down against Dos Santos has been welcomed by some in Angola, where poverty is rife despite the nation's oil and diamond riches and resentment has been stoked by the concentration of power and wealth in the hands of a politically connected elite. The southern African nation is ranked one of the world's most corrupt nations by Transparency International."The idea that they are being the target of a witch hunt is hard to accept when many of them have been living the good life and never seemed to be worried when others were being prosecuted," said Paulo Carvalho, a sociology professor at Agostinho Neto University in Luanda, the Angolan capital. "The freezing order is aimed at preventing the transfer or sale of some of these assets and won't interfere with the day-to-day business of these companies."Dos Santos said she would fight the injustice that had been perpetrated against her and warned the court ruling would send the wrong message to international investors."If this judgment is allowed to stand it shows that the justice system is flawed and the government is prepared to abuse it for their own ends," she said. "This is a smokescreen to mask the flawed economic policy which the current government have introduced."Allegations made by the Angolan Attorney General include that:The state, through its diamond-marketing company Sodiam and oil company Sonangol, transferred large sums of foreign currency to foreign companies -- of which the ultimate beneficiaries were the individuals facing the court order -- without securing the expected returns.Sonangol paid 75.1 million euros ($83.8 billion) to buy a stake in Galp Energia indirectly held by Dos Santos and her husband. Shortly before Dos Santos was fired as Sonangol's chairwoman in 2017, she tried to repay the consideration received for the stake in Angolan kwanzas but Sonangol's new board returned the money and asked that payment be made in euros. It was never received.Dos Santos and her husband entered a 50-50 joint venture with state-owned diamond company Sodiam to invest in Geneva-based jewelry maker De Grisogono. Sodiam ended up paying most of the initial 120 million-euro loan that was taken to fund the investment.Former President Dos Santos ordered Sodiam to sell diamonds to companies related to the individuals notified in the court order at below market prices. They then sold the gems abroad and generated hefty profits.The three individuals sought to hide assets bought with state funds by transferring them to other entities. Almost all of their assets were alleged to be held outside of Angola.Portuguese police blocked a 10-million-euro bank transfer from a Portuguese bank to Russia that Dos Santos tried to carry out through her business partner Leopoldino Fragoso do Nascimento.Dos Santos tried to sell her 25% stake in Unitel to a foreign investor.(Updates with allegations against Dos Santos in bullet points after last paragraph.)To contact the reporter on this story: Henrique Almeida in Lisbon at halmeida5@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Joao Lima at jlima1@bloomberg.net, ;Paul Richardson at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net, Mike CohenFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Uganda's Museveni begins jungle march to highlight liberation struggle Posted: 04 Jan 2020 10:45 AM PST  Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni on Saturday began a six-day march through the jungle to re-trace the route through which his guerrilla forces seized power three decades ago, which critics dismissed as a bid to rally support ahead of 2021 elections. Museveni is one of Africa's longest-ruling leaders, having seized power in 1986 after taking part in rebellions to end the brutal rule of Idi Amin and Milton Obote, and is expected to seek a sixth term in office in the next elections.
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| Ilhan Omar Implies Trump Ordered Soleimani Killing as ‘Distraction’ from Impeachment Posted: 03 Jan 2020 08:23 AM PST  Representative Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.) implied on Thursday that President Trump may have ordered the killing of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani to distract the public from impeachment proceedings."So what if Trump wants war, knows this leads to war and needs the distraction?" Omar wrote on Twitter. "Real question is, will those with congressional authority step in and stop him? I know I will."Analysts from several news outlets echoed the assumption. CNN analyst Karen Finney wrote that "today's air strike feels like attempt to create a distraction from impeachment and build support for Trump," while MSNBC contributor Joyce Alene said it was "highly possible then timing of tonight's attack was meant as a distraction."President Trump ordered an airstrike on a convoy near Baghdad International Airport carrying Soleimani on Thursday evening. As head of the Quds Force, a U.S.-designated terror group, Soleimani led intelligence and counterespionage efforts for the IRGC. Also killed in the strike was Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, an Iraqi militia leader who led a days-long siege against the U.S. embassy in Baghdad.The U.S. State Department issued a warning to American citizens to leave Iraq in the wake of the attack."Due to heightened tensions in Iraq and the region, we urge U.S. citizens to depart Iraq immediately," the agency wrote on Twitter. "Due to Iranian-backed militia attacks at the U.S. Embassy compound, all consular operations are suspended. U.S. citizens should not approach the Embassy."Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on CNN on Friday that Trump had ordered the strike due to an "intelligence-based assessment" warning of an "imminent attack" by Iranian forces in the region.
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| Man Captured on Doorbell Camera Footage Confessing to Murder Posted: 03 Jan 2020 05:22 AM PST  A man was captured on home security camera footage confessing to the murder of his sister Friday, shortly after she was stabbed to death in a Texas home, authorities said.The woman, Jennifer Chioma Ebichi, 32, had been stabbed at least a dozen times when authorities found her on the kitchen floor at the home in Pflugerville, according to documents provided by the Travis County District Clerk's Office. Her younger brother, Michael Egwuagu, 25, was arrested on a murder charge.An arrest affidavit said one witness saw Egwuagu "exit the residence smiling and with a bloody kitchen knife in his hand stating, 'I killed Jennifer.' Michael's clothing was covered in blood."It added that footage from a doorbell camera at the home corroborated the witness testimony.The episode is one of several recent examples of doorbell cameras -- increasingly affordable and popular security tools that can be connected to home Wi-Fi systems -- yielding footage that becomes useful to local authorities."Every time there is more surveillance and more captured of the lived experience, that will be helpful for police investigators," said Andrew Guthrie Ferguson, a law professor and author of "The Rise of Big Data Policing: Surveillance, Race, and the Future of Law Enforcement.""The consequences are an erosion of privacy and security at our homes and in our private moments," he added. "The trade-off is one that is hard, but also one I'm not sure citizens have fully understood when they decided to buy a little extra security for their home."One of the best-known doorbell camera brands is Ring, which makes a doorbell that doubles as a security camera and was acquired by Amazon in 2018. According to data shared publicly by the company, it now has partnerships with more than 700 local police and sheriff's departments, including the Travis County Sheriff's Office.Authorities can access footage via Ring's Neighbors app, which people can use to share videos and monitor criminal activity in their neighborhood. When the police seek videos from a certain location, Ring asks users in the area if they are willing to share their footage.Users can refuse, but the police can still obtain footage using other legal avenues, such as obtaining a warrant."Ring will not disclose user videos to police unless the user expressly consents or if disclosure is required by law, such as to comply with a warrant," the company said in a statement Thursday. "Ring objects to overbroad or otherwise inappropriate legal demands as a matter of course."It was unclear whether a Ring camera was involved in the Pflugerville case; other popular home security camera brands include Wyze and Nest. The sheriff's department declined to say which brand of camera had filmed Egwuagu on Friday.The murder charge captured additional attention because Egwuagu had been known as a star football player at the University of Texas, San Antonio. He was a safety who tried out for National Football League scouts in 2017 and 2018.After Egwuagu left the residence in Pflugerville, an Austin suburb, around 5 p.m. Friday, witnesses said he knelt down in the street as though he were praying, then removed his clothing and placed it in a trash can, the arrest affidavit said. The arrest affidavit also said that Ebichi's two children were present at the time of her death.An autopsy showed that Ebichi had been in her first trimester of pregnancy when she died. Dr. J. Keith Pinckard, chief medical examiner in Travis County, estimated that she had sustained one dozen to two dozen stab wounds, according to the arrest affidavit.Egwuagu is being held on a $500,000 bond. A statement from the office of Krista A. Chacona, a lawyer representing Egwuagu, said: "We do not have any comment at this time except to say that this is a very painful and difficult time for the family. We would ask that people please respect their privacy and allow them time to grieve."In recent weeks, home security cameras have raised concerns about data leaks and hacking. Executives at Wyze, the company behind a budget-friendly home security camera, said this week that the information of 2.4 million of their customers had been exposed to the public because of an employee error.And last month, there were reports of at least four individual cases of camera security systems being hacked; in one case involving a Ring security camera, a man was able to speak to an 8-year-old girl whose bedroom was being filmed. He used a racist slur and said he was Santa Claus.On Wednesday, a violent episode that had been captured on home surveillance footage was posted on YouTube by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. The footage shows a woman who appears to be trying to escape from a man. He can be seen running after her, kicking her down some stairs and dragging her toward a white car. The police posted the video to seek help from the public in identifying the man and the woman."Police are going to see new opportunities, and they're going to seize those opportunities because more information is obviously better for them," Ferguson said. "But it all comes at a cost to a certain sense of personal privacy, and also the collective privacy of your neighborhood and your community and who's surveilling whom in particular neighborhoods."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| Victim, 2 suspects identified in deadly Oakland Starbucks laptop theft Posted: 03 Jan 2020 01:44 PM PST  The man who was killed while trying to retrieve a laptop after it was stolen at an Oakland Starbucks has been identified as 34-year-old Shuo Zeng. Two suspects arrested in the case have been identified as 22-year-old Byron Reed and 21-year-old Javon Eugene Lee.
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| Coalition scales back Iraq operations for security reasons: US Posted: 04 Jan 2020 02:03 AM PST  US-led forces helping Iraqi troops fight jihadists have scaled back operations, a US defence official told AFP Saturday, a day after an American strike killed top Iranian and Iraqi commanders. "Our first priority is protecting coalition personnel," the official said, saying the US-led force had "limited" their training and other anti-jihadist operations. The official said the change came after a series of rocket attacks by pro-Iran factions on US troops in recent months.
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| 'We're not going to cower': Small Jewish communities prepare for increasing anti-Semitic attacks Posted: 04 Jan 2020 05:31 AM PST  With anti-Semitic attacks on the rise, Jewish leaders grapple with how to create welcoming environments while keeping their congregation safe.
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| Apple will need to reckon with Russia in 2020, thanks to a new law forcing pre-installation of Kremlin-approved apps Posted: 03 Jan 2020 03:43 AM PST  Apple has until July 2020 to fight a Russian law that would force it to pre-install Kremlin-approved apps on iPhones.
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| Argentine Fighter Wins $1 Million in NYC, Won’t Bring Prize Money Home Posted: 03 Jan 2020 12:44 PM PST ![Argentine Fighter Wins $1 Million in NYC, Won't Bring Prize Money Home]( "Argentine Fighter Wins $1 Million in NYC, Won't Bring Prize Money Home") (Bloomberg) -- Emiliano "He-Man" Sordi, an Argentine martial arts fighter, won a $1 million purse in New York City. If he has his way, that's just where the money will stay."I'm not going to be so stupid as to take even one dollar back to Argentina," Sordi wrote Thursday on Twitter after battering Jordan Johnson into submission to win the Professional Fighters League's light heavyweight title at Madison Square Garden.Read More: Hottest Job in Argentina Is Helping the 1% Hide Their Cash Abroad Many Argentines stash their savings outside the country, upwards of $300 billion according to government figures, because they've lost heavily during past crises in the troubled South American nation. In the late 1980s there was hyperinflation, and in the early 2000s the government turned dollar savings into pesos at an unfavorable exchange rate. More recently, there have been sudden currency devaluations.Sordi, 28, said in a television interview that the uncertainty -- and the prospect of taxes as high as 50% -- made him want to keep his prize in the U.S. Efforts to reach him Friday were unsuccessful.The fighter, who is 6-foot-2, about 205 pounds and sports the requisite complement of tattoos, has a record of 22 wins and eight losses. Growing up in Rio Cuarto, his father was a lathe operator and money was short -- when he began training he had to borrow gloves. Now, he splits his time between Argentina and San Diego, California.Mariano Sardans, founder of wealth management firm FDI in Buenos Aires, said in an interview that Sordi may be obliged to bring the dollars home and face an unfavorable exchange rate and taxes. President Alberto Fernandez has tightened currency controls to stem capital flight and increased export taxes to boost fiscal revenues."They talk about socialism but with other people's money," Sordi said on television. "It's really easy that way."\--With assistance from Jorgelina do Rosario.To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan Gilbert in Buenos Aires at jgilbert63@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Juan Pablo Spinetto at jspinetto@bloomberg.net, Stephen Merelman, Robert JamesonFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Why Obama, Bush, and Bibi All Passed on Killing Soleimani Posted: 03 Jan 2020 01:59 PM PST  Until the Trump administration blew him away in Baghdad in the pre-dawn dark of Friday morning, Qassem Soleimani had made the very fact of his survival part of his considerable mystique. The powerful Iranian general commanded forces that had become the scourge of Iran's adversaries abroad, especially the United States and Israel. Yet he came and went to the war fronts of the Middle East unscathed.In fact, conscious decisions were taken under the George W. Bush administration, even when Soleimani was in the crosshairs, not to pull the trigger. Gen. Stanley McChrystal wrote last year, he had a shot in 2007 but let Soleimani go: "The decision not to act is often the hardest one to make—and it isn't always right."Ali Khedery, a former U.S. adviser in Iraq, told The Daily Beast that not striking Soleimani when they had the chance was an "enormous frustration to me and many of my colleagues.""I remember during the [2007 Iraq troop] surge sitting with Ambassador Ryan Crocker and [Gen.] David Petraeus and saying, 'Wouldn't it be a shame if Soleimani ran into one of his own EFPs," Khedery added, using the acronym for Explosively-Formed Projectiles, the Iranian-made bombs that killed dozens and dozens of American troops in Iraq. "But obviously, this was a decision that had to be taken by the president personally because of its implications."Under the Barack Obama administration, the assassination of the most famous general in the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps appears not to have been considered seriously.There was never any manhunt, according to Derek Chollet, assistant secretary of defense from 2012 to 2015. "To my knowledge there was never a decision of 'We've gotta go find this guy and get him.'" Nobody could begin to be sure what would come next if Soleimani were killed, and no scenario looked good. And in those days the priority was stopping Iran from developing a nuclear weapon without having to go to war. The murder of Soleimani could have scuttled the negotiations.The calculus was a fairly simple one, says Chollet: "Do the potential risks of taking an action like this outweigh the gain of taking him off the battlefield?" The answer was yes.U.S. Braces for Iran's 'Counterpunch' After Slaying of SoleimaniAccording to Patricia Ravalgi, who served as a civilian analyst at U.S. Central Command from 2008 to 2019, concerns at the operational level went beyond declined opportunities to terminate Soleimani. There was often the worry among military planners and Washington policymakers that with Iranian-backed militias and American troops operating in close proximity in Iraq, especially during the campaigns against the so-called Islamic State, Soleimani would be in the wrong place at the wrong time, get killed by accident, "and all hell would break loose.""There was even wishful thinking that Soleimani would stay out of Iraq more, to keep such an accident from occurring," says Ravalgi.But why didn't the Israelis target Soleimani?According to Soleimani, in an interview given just three months ago, they did. Speaking to Iranian television last year, the head of the élite Quds Force of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed that Israeli aircraft targeted him and Lebanese Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in 2006, while Soleimani commanded forces in Beirut during the Second Lebanon War."Israeli spy planes were constantly flying overhead," he said as he began his war story. Hezbollah, an Iranian backed militia, had its situation room in the heart of Dahiyeh, a Beirut neighborhood, and the Israelis were "watching every movement," Soleimani said. Then late one night, he and Imad Mughniyeh, Hezbollah's most notorious terrorist operative, decided to remove Nasrallah to safety in a separate building. Shortly after their arrival, two Israeli bombardments struck nearby, he said. "We felt that these two bombings were about to be followed by a third one… so we decided to get out of that building. We didn't have a car, and there was complete silence, just the Israeli régime planes overflying Dahiyeh," he recalled. Soleimani said he hid under a tree with Nasrallah from what appeared to be heat-seeking drones while Mughniyeh went in search of a car. Afraid the car was also being tracked, they eventually switched cars in an underground garage, supposedly confounding the Israelis.Mughniyeh's luck did not last long. He was blown up in Damascus in 2008 in an operation later attributed jointly to the CIA and Israel's Mossad. An Israeli military officer with knowledge of Israel's Iran preparedness told The Daily Beast that when the Americans took out Soleimani this week, "It wasn't a surprise, not really."The officer, who spoke without attribution because he was not authorized to speak with the media, said there had been previous Israeli and American efforts to eliminate Soleimani, though it wasn't clear to what extent the plans had advanced.The Obama administration "asked us not to proceed," he said. "It was clear the implications could be much greater than a localized war, the repercussions could affect the whole world."This time around, "We're not involved in the American operation," said the Israeli officer. "But the Iranians always put us together, the big Satan and the little Satan. You see people on the streets screaming death to America and death to Israel. Could we potentially get hit? Of course. We are secondary, seen as a proxy for the United States."Iran's Qasem Soleimani is the Mastermind Preparing Proxy Armies for War With AmericaIn Trump's remarks from his Mar-a-Lago resort on Friday, he claimed, "We took action last night to stop a war. We did not take action to start a war." But as his predecessors understood well, the decision to assassinate Soleimani has opened the door into the unknown and the unknowable."We need de-escalation," one anxious Iraqi official told The Daily Beast, "and this is the mother of all escalations." —with additional reporting by Spencer AckermanRead 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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