President Trump on Tuesday lashed out at Christopher Wray after the FBI director — whom he handpicked after firing James Comey — agreed with the conclusions of the Justice Department inspector general report that the FBI's Russia probe was justified and not politically biased. I don't know what report current Director of the FBI Christopher Wray was reading, but it sure wasn't the one given to me,” Trump tweeted. With that kind of attitude, he will never be able to fix the FBI, which is badly broken despite having some of the greatest men & women working there!
Russian diesel subs chased a British nuclear sub off the Syrian coast, according to British media. The incident reportedly involved one or two Russian Kilo-class diesel-powered submarines, which have been dubbed the "Black Hole" by Western navies because they are remarkably quiet. The British sub did not fire its Tomahawks during last week's strike by American, British and French forces against Syrian chemical weapons sites, leading to speculation that the British boat was driven off by the Russian subs.
Mass rapes, the burning alive of Muslim Rohingya families in their homes and the killing with knives of dozens of children were described by Gambia's legal team as it set out its genocide case against Myanmar at the U.N.'s highest court on Tuesday. Myanmar's leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace laureate, looked on impassively as the alleged atrocities were detailed on the first of three days of hearings at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. The case was instituted by Gambia against Buddhist-majority Myanmar in November.
Thick reindeer fur boots and a fur hat covering most of his face shielded Niila Inga from freezing winds as he raced his snowmobile up to a mountain top overlooking his reindeer in the Swedish arctic. His community herds about 8,000 reindeer year-round, moving them between traditional grazing grounds in the high mountains bordering Norway in the summer and the forests farther east in the winter, just as his forebears in the Sami indigenous community have for generations. But Inga is troubled: His reindeer are hungry, and he can do little about it.
Caspar Haarloev from "Into the Ice" documentary via Reuters The Greenland ice sheet is melting seven times faster than it was in 1992 — an increase that's even greater than scientists expected. According to a new study, Greenland has lost more than 4.2 trillion tons of ice in the last quarter-century, which raised global sea levels 0.4 inches. The melt rate is expected to increase, especially during years like this one, since a heatwave in July caused Greenland's ice sheet to lose 55 billion tons in just five days.
A Russian court on Tuesday sentenced 11 people to terms including life in prison after finding them guilty of a deadly bomb attack on the Saint Petersburg metro in 2017. Abror Azimov, a 29-year-old from Kyrgyzstan, was sentenced by a military court in Russia's second biggest city to life in prison for organising and participating in a terrorist group. The bomb blast in April 2017 killed 15 people in the Saint Petersburg metro and wounded dozens more.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected a free speech challenge brought by a trade group against a regulation issued by the California city of Berkeley that requires cellphone retailers to tell customers of certain radiation risks.
An Ohio legislator who said he had “no knowledge” of a rightwing Christian bill mill called Project Blitz is, in fact, the co-chair of the state branch of an organization behind the campaign. The Ohio state representative Timothy Ginter sponsored a bill called the Student Religious Liberties Act. The Guardian revealed the bill was nearly identical to one promoted by Project Blitz, a state legislative project guided by three Christian right organizations, including the Congressional Prayer Caucus (CPC), WallBuilders and the ProFamily Legislators Conference.
Former Trump campaign official Rick Gates asked a judge to spare him from prison, put him on probation and order him to do community service for his crimes of conspiracy and lying to federal investigators. In a court filing Monday, Gates said he has accepted responsibility “in every way possible. He's scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington on Dec. 17.
Ted Cruz was laughed at by a TV crew during a live interview after he endorsed Donald Trump's baseless conspiracy theory about Ukraine. The Texas senator, who challenged Mr Trump to be the Republican nominee in 2016, was mocked for saying he believed there was “considerable evidence” that Ukraine meddled in the most recent presidential election. The US intelligence community has concluded that Russia, not Ukraine, interfered in the 2016 election and senior officials have said it is a “fictional narrative” to suggest Ukraine was involved.
Key point: In an actual war, both Washington and Beijing would employ their conventional missile arsenals to sink each other's ships. The Chinese military lobbed anti-ship ballistic missiles into the South China Sea in tests in early July 2019. The missile trials underscored Beijing's increasing militarization of resource-rich waters on which several countries have conflicting claims.
Iran warned its citizens, particularly scientists, on Tuesday not to visit America, saying Iranians there were subjected to arbitrary and lengthy detention in inhuman conditions. "Iranian citizens, particularly elites and scientists, are requested to seriously avoid traveling to America, even to take part in scientific conferences and even having an invitation," a travel advisory on the foreign ministry website said. It cited, "America's cruel and one-sided laws toward Iranians, especially Iranian elites, and arbitrary and lengthy detention in completely inhuman conditions" as reasons for the travel advisory.
Republican Rep. Ted Yoho of Florida announced Tuesday that he will not seek another term, saying he never meant to spend more than eight years in Congress. Yoho, who aligned himself with the Tea Party faction of the Republican Party and has been a fierce supporter of President Donald Trump, joins at least 27 House Republicans in announcing their departures from the U.S. House. Of those, 23 aren't seeking reelection, while three have resigned and already left Congress.
More cities are punishing homeless people for sleeping in public, a new report shows, amid an increase in Americans living on the streets. Arresting or ticketing people who have nowhere else to go doesn't help them find permanent housing, according to the National Law Center for Homelessness and Poverty report. Instead, policies criminalizing homelessness can make it more difficult to afford and qualify for housing.
At least five people have died and more than 20 are still unaccounted for after the White Island/Whakaari volcano off the coast of New Zealand erupted without warning Monday as tourists hiked around the rim and walked inside the crater. Authorities say an estimated 30 to 38 of those on the island when the volcano erupted were on an adventure excursion from a Royal Caribbean cruise ship that was docked on North Island about 30 miles away. In a statement just after midnight local time, police officials said they feared the worst for those still on the island.
Genaro Garcia Luna, who was Mexico's public-security secretary between 2006 and 2012, was arrested in Texas on Monday. Garcia Luna, the architect of Mexico's campaign against organized crime in the late 2000s, is the latest Mexican official accused of corruption and involvement in drug trafficking. A former high-ranking Mexican security official who led the country's crackdown on organized crime in the mid-2000s was arrested in the US on Monday and been charged with conspiracy to import and distribute drugs and making false statements.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday turned away a novel case by Arizona seeking to recover billions of dollars that the state has said that members of the Sackler family - owners of Purdue Pharma LP - funneled out of the OxyContin maker before the company filed for bankruptcy in September. The justices declined to take the rare step of allowing Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich to pursue a case directly with the Supreme Court on the role the drugmaker played in the U.S. opioid epidemic that has killed tens of thousands of Americans annually in recent years. The lawsuit accused eight Sackler family members of funneling $4 billion out of Purdue from 2008 to 2016 despite being aware that the company faced massive potential liabilities over its marketing of opioid medications.
For when only a war film will do. From Popular Mechanics
Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler, Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff, Foreign Affairs Chairman Eliot Engel, Financial Services Chairwoman Maxine Waters, Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal and Oversight Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney took part, along with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. A lawyer for former White House aide Charles Kupperman urged a federal judge to decide whether he must honor a House Intelligence Committee subpoena demanding his testimony or obey Trump's order that he refuse to comply -- even though the subpoena has been withdrawn. Attorneys for the president and the House told U.S. District Judge Richard Leon in Washington the matter is moot and that the case filed Oct. 25 by Kupperman, a former deputy national security adviser, should be thrown out.
North Korea on Monday accused President Trump of “bluffing” and called him “an old man bereft of patience” as Pyongyang ramps up pressure on Washington over stalled nuclear talks.
Key point: The LAV-25 has served in many conflicts and proven its usefulness. The LAV-25, the U.S. Marine Corps' main armored reconnaissance vehicle, has its origins in an effort to develop a new, highly mobile strike force for the Middle East. Fast, lightly armored and armed with a Bushmaster chain gun, the LAV acts as the marines' cavalry, scouting ahead of other friendly forces and seeking out the enemy.
Delivering on a campaign promise to teachers who helped elect him, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear used his first day in office Tuesday to overhaul the state school board. In his inaugural address outside the state Capitol, the new Democratic governor proclaimed his support for public education and expanding health care coverage. He also pledged to protect public employees' pensions, emphasizing the “kitchen table" issues that helped him oust Republican Gov. Matt Bevin.
The latest tempest: With Sen. Kamala Harris of California out of the race, the Democratic National Committee's Dec. 19 presidential debate might include only white candidates! Fact is, Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro came close to qualifying and remain active candidates. Let's be clear: Harris wasn't booted off the debate stage in some hostile act of racial discrimination, or because of a flaw in the DNC's system.
Michael Bloomberg is continuing to staff up his presidential campaign with employees from his news organization. A Bloomberg News spokesperson confirmed to The Daily Beast that former Bloomberg News editor Zara Kessler has taken a leave of absence and joined the ex-NYC mayor's campaign. A number of editorial staffers have left the outlet to join their boss' campaign: Bloomberg Opinion senior executive editor David Shipley and executive editor Tim O'Brien both also took a leave of absence to enlist for 2020; and Bloomberg Opinion editor Mark Whitehouse also updated his Twitter bio to say he works on the campaign, as did former Bloomberg Opinion social-media editor Jessica Karl.
TikTok head Alex Zhu was reportedly planning to travel to Washington, D.C., this week to meet with several US senators who had been critical of the app. TikTok is facing mounting pressure from both the public and lawmakers over concerns that the app censors content deemed offensive to the Chinese government, accesses users' data without their consent, and poses a threat to US national security. TikTok has canceled a series of meetings on Capitol Hill this week that would have put the app's chief in front of US lawmakers who have voiced concerns over the viral video app's ties to China, as well as its censorship and privacy practices.