- PoliticsYahoo News
New Yahoo News/YouGov poll shows that Democrats have so far failed to seal the deal on impeachment
As House Democrats draft articles of impeachment against President Trump and prepare for a floor vote before Christmas, a new Yahoo News/YouGov poll shows that a majority of registered voters buy their central argument for impeachment: that Trump put his own interests above the national interest when he pressured Ukraine to investigate his political rivals. Yet the poll also shows that Democrats have failed to translate that belief into broader support for impeachment, and that Americans remain too polarized and uncertain about key details to back Trump's removal from office in the kind of numbers that could create real momentum as the process heads toward a Senate trial.
- NewsYahoo News
Nikki Haley claims Dylann Roof 'hijacked' the 'heritage' of the Confederate flag in church massacre
Nikki Haley, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said that white supremacist Dylann Roof “hijacked” the Confederate flag by carrying out a mass killing of African-Americans in a Charleston, S.C., church in 2015. Haley was governor of South Carolina at the time. “Here is this guy who comes out with this manifesto, holding the Confederate flag, and had just hijacked everything that people thought of,” Haley said in an interview with host Glenn Beck published Friday on his website, the Blaze.
WorldAFPIndian border officials on lookout for fugitive cosmic guru
Indian border officials and embassies have issued an alert for a fugitive guru accused of rape, the government said, days after the holy man announced the creation of his own "cosmic" country. Swami Nithyananda -- one of many self-styled Indian "godmen" with thousands of followers and a chequered past -- is wanted by police for alleged rape, sexual abuse, and abduction of children. Earlier this week, he announced online that he has created his own new country -- reportedly off Ecuador's coast -- complete with cabinet, golden passports, and even a department of homeland security.
- NewsAssociated Press
Pearl Harbor shooting unfolded in 23 seconds in packed area
The U.S. Navy sailor who fatally shot two people at Pearl Harbor before killing himself was unhappy with his commanders and had been undergoing counseling, a military official said Friday. Gabriel Romero, 22, also faced non-judicial punishment, which is a lower-level administrative process for minor misconduct, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters not made public. In a second attack at a Navy base this week, a shooter opened fire in a classroom building Friday at Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida — leaving four people dead, including the assailant, and multiple people wounded.
WorldYahoo News VideoIn warning to Netanyahu, House endorses 2-state solution
The House on Friday threw its weight behind a two-state solution between Israelis and Palestinians, in a warning to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he mulls annexing the West Bank.
- CelebrityBusiness Insider
Former Rep. Katie Hill says the wave of harassment she faced after alleged revenge porn leak left her contemplating suicide
She also admitted to having had a relationship with one of her campaign staffers, though she denied a separate allegation of having a relationship with her legislative director. "In the days leading up to my resignation, my life was just like everyone's worst nightmare," Hill wrote. Hill said she struggled with suicidal thoughts, but is now motivated to advocate for victims of cyber exploitation, also known as "revenge porn."
- BusinessCBS News
Immigration rights groups call on Buttigieg to return donations
Four immigration rights organizations have written to Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg to ask him to return any donations connected to the consulting firm McKinsey & Company, following a New York Times and Pro Publica report about how McKinsey helped Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) "accelerate the deportation process." Among the recommendations McKinsey offered were cuts to spending on food and medical care for migrants. The letter, cosigned by Center for Popular Democracy Action, Make the Road Action, Progressive Leadership of Alliance of Nevada Action and United We Dream Action, called on Buttigieg, who worked at the prestigious consulting firm for three years, to return the donations, which total $53,000.
- WorldThe National Interest
Could Mexico's Version of the Marine Corps Crush the Cartels?
Compared to their counterparts in the United States, the United States Navy and Marine Corps, the Mexican Navy is small— around sixty-six thousand. The Mexican Naval Infantry, their Marine Corps, is even smaller— numbering only about eighteen thousand. In contrast to the United States Marine Corps and the United States Navy, the Mexican Navy's main missions have typically been coastal protection, which in the United States would fall to the U.S. Coast Guard.
- PoliticsThe New York Times
Speaker Shifts View About Impeachment: No-Go to No Choice
Speaker Nancy Pelosi was planning to deliver back-to-back eulogies at funerals here and in South Carolina during a busy weekend of September travel when she saw an explosive headline in The Wall Street Journal: “Trump Repeatedly Pressed Ukraine to Investigate Biden's Son. For months, Pelosi had resisted calls for impeachment. It would be nearly another week before the release of a whistleblower's complaint detailing Trump's push for Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son — and days before nervous moderates told her they were ready to back an impeachment inquiry they had shunned all year.
- LifestylePopular Mechanics
50 Great Gadget and Gear Gifts for the Holidays
Whether you're looking for new tech, tools, or outdoor gear, this guide has you covered. From Popular Mechanics
- NewsYahoo News
Judge blocks Trump's favorite construction company from building private border wall
A federal judge in McAllen, Texas, has temporarily blocked a plan for a construction firm favored by President Trump to build a privately-funded segment of border wall along the banks of the Rio Grande River. The same firm, Fisher Industries, recently won a $400 million federal contract to construct 31 miles of barrier along the border near Yuma, Ariz. President Trump has urged the Army Corps of Engineers to hire the North Dakota–based firm, whose head is a major Republican donor and a frequent guest on Fox News. U.S. District Judge Randy Crane issued the temporary restraining order against Fisher Sand and Gravel and its subsidiary, Fisher Industries, Thursday afternoon in response to an emergency request from the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Texas.
- NewsUSA TODAY
'This is mercy, not justice': Las Vegas shooting victims to split $800M. But how much is pain worth?
Las Vegas shooting: 2 years after shooting, another victim dies, making it the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history even deadlier Lawyers working for plaintiffs say that two mediators were chosen instead of one because of the complexity of the various cases. While one hails from the town where the incident happened, it was felt that the other should be from California given that many of the plaintiffs and their attorneys were from that state. The judges declined a request for comment on how the valuation process works, citing an agreement made with attorneys for both MGM and the plaintiffs.
- PoliticsReuters
California congressman Duncan Hunter announces resignation after corruption plea
U.S. Representative Duncan Hunter will resign from Congress following his guilty plea to a federal charge of conspiring to misuse campaign funds, he said on Friday. Hunter's announcement that he would step down came days after the leading California lawmaker, a former U.S. Marine Corps combat veteran, entered his guilty plea in federal court in San Diego. "Shortly after the Holidays I will resign from Congress," Hunter, 42, said in a written statement released by his communications director.
- NewsThe Guardian
Why Texas’s fossil fuel support will ‘spell disaster’ for climate crisis
In the same month that Greta Thunberg addressed a UN summit and millions of people took part in a global climate strike, lawmakers in America's leading oil- and gas-producing state of Texas made a statement of their own. Texas's Critical Infrastructure Protection Act went into effect on 1 September, stiffening civil and criminal penalties specifically for protesters who interrupt operations or damage oil and gas pipelines and other energy facilities. The new Texas law is emblematic of the unyielding loyalty of conservative lawmakers to the fossil fuel industry in a state stacked with influential climate science deniers or sceptics such as the US senator and former Republican presidential hopeful Ted Cruz and which named a pipeline tycoon to its parks and wildlife conservation commission.
- BusinessBusiness Insider
Tesla changed the release dates for the most and least expensive versions of the Cybertruck by a year
Tesla has changed the production timelines for the most and least expensive trims of its Cybertruck pickup truck. It said production for the three-motor, all-wheel-drive Cybertruck, which starts at $69,900, would begin in 2021, a year earlier than Tesla first announced. The single-motor, rear-wheel-drive Cybertruck, which starts at $39,900, will enter production in late 2022, a year later than its original timeline, Tesla said.
- WorldThe Telegraph
Aung San Suu Kyi to fight genocide charges in the Hague
Once feted by the West as a human rights heroine, Myanmar's civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi will travel to the Hague this week to defend her regime over accusations of genocide against its Rohingya Muslim minority, in one of the most-high profile international legal cases in a generation. Myanmar rejects the allegations which stem from the military's savage ethnic cleansing campaign in Rakhine state in 2017 that forced 740,000 people to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh, where they now live in squalid refugee camps.
- WorldThe National Interest
Should America Fear the Chinese H-20 Stealth Bomber?
Key point: The United States is beginning to lose its footing in East Asia. In October 2018, Chinese media announced that the People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) would publicly unveil its new H-20 stealth bomber during a parade celebrating the air arm's seventieth anniversary in 2019. Prior news of the H-20's development had been teased using techniques pioneered by viral marketing campaigns for Hollywood movies.
WorldAFPIraqis protest to defy 'slaughter' in Baghdad as drone hits cleric's home
Thousands attended angry protests in Baghdad and southern Iraq Saturday, grieving but defiant after 20 of them were killed in an attack the previous day that demonstrators described as "slaughter". The dramatic developments have threatened to derail the anti-government rallies rocking Iraq since October, the largest and deadliest grassroots movement in decades. Late Friday, at least 20 protesters were killed or sustained wounds that later proved fatal, while dozens more were injured, when unidentified gunmen attacked a large building where protesters had camped out for weeks, medics said.
- WorldAssociated Press
Demonstrators besiege Pakistan newspaper 2nd time in a week
Dozens of protesters briefly besieged the office of a well-known independent newspaper in Islamabad, chanting slogans against the editor and staff and setting fire to copies of the paper before fleeing. Friday's protest was the second incident this week at the offices of the English-language Dawn newspaper. It comes a day after journalists and rights activists rallied in support of the paper and criticized an earlier anti-newspaper protest.
- PoliticsYahoo News
'He'd do it again': Former Obama official says Trump must be impeached
Former acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal, the author of the new bestseller “Impeach: The Case Against Donald Trump,” believes the GOP notion that Congress can responsibly let voters decide if President Trump's conduct is impeachable at the ballot box “makes no sense. This is the election that the president was trying to cheat in, the 2020 election,” Katyal said during an interview on the Yahoo News podcast “Skullduggery. Asked about the dangers of pursuing impeachment when there is no national consensus on whether it is the right course of action, Katyal said Democrats have no choice.
- NewsUSA TODAY
'I felt like I was going to die': A harrowing look into CIA torture from the eyes of a detainee
The drawings show the detainee crouched and handcuffed in a small box; naked and strapped to a table as water pours over his covered face; shackled as an interrogator slams his head into a wall. The graphic self-portraits, drawn in captivity by a Guantanamo Bay detainee, provide a new and harrowing account of the CIA's torture program during a dark chapter in the U.S. war on terror. They were published for the first time this week in a report called “How America Tortures,” by the Seton Hall University School of Law's Center for Policy and Research.
- WorldReuters
Samoa says almost 90% of people vaccinated against measles after deadly outbreak
Samoa said on Saturday nearly 90% of eligible people had been vaccinated against measles as it lifted a two-day curfew imposed amid an outbreak that has killed 65 in recent weeks. There were, however, 103 new cases of measles reported since Friday, Samoa's Health Ministry said it a statement. The measles virus has infected almost 4,500 people in the South Pacific nation of just 200,000 since late October.
- NewsUSA TODAY
New Jersey journalist re-arrested in Nigeria after brief glimpse of freedom
The New Jersey resident imprisoned in his home country of Nigeria since August was re-arrested in a courtroom Friday by Nigerian state police, after briefly being freed from state custody Thursday. Omoyele Sowore, who lives in Haworth, had been scheduled to stand trial Friday on charges stemming from his Aug. 3 arrest while he was organizing a peaceful pro-democracy protest in the city of Lagos. "My 10-year old has on his Christmas list one of things he wants is for his dad to be home for Christmas," said Opeyemi Sowore, speaking at an impromptu news conference at the Newark office of Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J.
- NewsBusiness Insider
The acting Navy secretary promises he'll fix the Ford aircraft carrier because he's tired of it being a 'whipping boy for why the Navy can't do anything right'
Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly said this week that fixing the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier is now a top priority, Military.com reported. Explaining at an event in DC that the president is very concerned about the Ford, which is over budget, behind schedule, and still experiencing problems with certain key technologies, Modly reportedly said that the Navy needs "to fix that ship and make sure that it works." He said that there is "nothing worse" than having this ship out there in its current condition, as it is able to be used as a "whipping boy for why the Navy can't do anything right."
- NewsNational Review
Judge Allows Criminal Trial to Proceed against Pro-Life Investigators
A San Francisco judge ruled Friday that the criminal trial may move forward against the pro-life investigators who went undercover to record abortion industry executives talking about procuring fetal body parts. Judge Christopher Hite deemed the evidence sufficient to send to trial the case against David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt of the Center for Medical Progress, who are charged with nine felony counts, one count of conspiracy and eight counts of illegal taping. Daleiden, 30, and Merritt, 64, several years ago surreptitiously recorded executives from Planned Parenthood and other organizations haggling about compensation for the procurement of fetal parts for researchers who request them.
