Meet the lawyer at the center of the Trump universe

When President Trump last month issued his latest intervention by tweet in a war crimes case involving a Navy SEAL, it capped what had already been an extraordinary exercise of executive powers in military justice. This wasn't the first time Trump moved to protect Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher, who was accused of murdering an Iraqi teenager allegedly affiliated with ISIS, and ultimately found guilty of a lesser charge that involved posing with the boy's corpse. Trump previously required the military to move Gallagher to less restrictive confinement, rescinded awards given to the prosecutors for their work on the case, and restored Gallagher's rank after the military court reduced it.

Pensacola gunman legally purchased Glock 45 used in shooting, FBI says. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis blames 'federal loophole'

The handgun used by a Saudi aviation trainee to kill three people and wound eight others at Naval Air Station Pensacola was purchased lawfully in Florida, according to the FBI. At a Sunday news conference, Rachel Rojas, special agent in charge of the Jacksonville Field Office, identified the weapon used in the attack as a 9mm Glock 45 pistol and said the shooter "did purchase it legally and lawfully" through a process that was open to "not just him, but any foreign national." Also, Rojas confirmed the gunman purchased the firearm in Florida, but declined to give specific details about when and where.

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  FBI thinks Saudi shooter acted alone, Florida governor decries 'deep-seated' hatred

  Reuters
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  Trump keeps friendly tone with Saudis even as attack by Saudi national investigated as terror

  ABC News

Saudi Arabia Tightens Purse Strings But Aramco Cash Beckons

With output curbs negotiated by OPEC still a drag on the world's biggest crude exporter, Saudi Arabia is expecting its sixth consecutive deficit to widen next year. Finance Minister Mohammed Al-Jadaan said in an interview that Saudi Arabia would tap both the international and local bond markets in 2020 to help finance a budget shortfall that is expected to reach 6.4% of gross domestic product from 4.7% this year. How Aramco's record initial public offering will affect the biggest Arab economy in 2020 remains among the biggest questions hanging over its annual budget.

• Saudi Arabia Announces 2020 Budget: Delivering Efficiently and Powering Private Sector Growth

  PR Newswire
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  Saudi projects higher 2020 budget deficit, cuts spending

  AFP

Whistleblower goes public after leaked documents reveal China's crackdown on Uighur Muslims

A Uighur woman living in the Netherlands has gone public about helping to leak secret Chinese government documents regarding human rights abuses in China's Xinjiang province because of fears for her safety. Asiye Abdulaheb told Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant that she was involved in last month's leak of papers to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which highlighted the Chinese government's crackdown on Muslims in Xinjiang. The reveal, which followed an earlier document leak to the New York Times, showed how the Chinese government has indoctrinated and punished over a million Muslims, mainly members of the Uighur ethnic minority, in internment camps.

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  Chinese official blasts U.S. for Xinjiang bills

  Reuters Videos
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  China claims all Uighur Muslims have happily 'graduated' from its oppressive prison camp system, despite widespread reports that at least 1 million are detained

  Business Insider

Russia and Ukraine leaders meet in Paris push to end their conflict

Russian leader Vladimir Putin on Monday met his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, for the first time ever at a Paris summit aimed at agreeing on measures to help end five years of conflict in the east of Ukraine.

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  Russia and Ukraine leaders, in first talks, agree to exchange prisoners

  Reuters
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  Pressure from Macron and Merkel on Russia is crucial to ending the war in eastern Ukraine

  The Independent

It’s Not Because She’s a Woman

Warren now sits at just 14.8 percent in the RCP average, in third place behind Bernie Sanders, with about half the support Biden has. The former vice president has lost a step or two (or several) since his time as Obama's right-hand man, but it's looking less and less likely that Warren will be the Democrat to supplant him as the party's favorite heading into 2020's early primaries. For media observers who have been pulling for Warren from the start of her campaign, there can be only one plausible explanation for her fall from grace: sexism.

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  Warren set to woo Nevada union amid healthcare policy concerns

  Reuters
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  Breaking News: Elizabeth Warren Made Money

  Vogue

Remember When Russian Diesel Submarines Chased Down A British Nuclear Sub?

Key Point: We'll probably never know what happened. 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.

Katie Hill: It's Not Over After All

On Nov. 6, 2018, I was elected to Congress; at 31, I was one of the youngest women ever elected to the House of Representatives. One year later, I was sitting on a train to New York to meet with my lawyers about suing The Daily Mail for cyber exploitation — and I was no longer a member of Congress. It was the first time I had spoken publicly since my relationship with a campaign staffer was exposed, since naked photos of me — taken without my knowledge and distributed without my consent — had been posted online, since wild accusations from my estranged husband about a supposed affair with a congressional staffer (which I have repeatedly denied), since I had resigned my hard-fought seat in Congress.

Barr warned Trump for months that Rudy Giuliani was becoming a liability, but the president ignored him because he loves Giuliani's fiery media appearances

AP Photo/Seth Wenig Attorney General William Barr has reportedly warned President Donald Trump that his attorney, Rudy Giuliani, is becoming a liability, sources told The Washington Post. Giuliani's role in seeking announcements from Ukraine about two criminal investigations that Democrats allege would have benefitted the president politically is one of the chief focuses of the House impeachment probe. Giuliani has denied any claims of wrongdoing in either his work in his efforts to secure the Ukraine investigations, claiming he was simply acting in defense of his client, Trump.

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  Matt Gaetz Still Thinks It’s ‘Weird’ That Rudy Giuliani Was Back In Ukraine

  HuffPost
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  Barr 'warns Trump that Giuliani has become a liability'

  The Independent

The 25 Best Tower Defense Games

Build those structures. Keep them from harm. Collect that loot.

Boston's trauma to be dissected as marathon bomber appeals death sentence

This city's deepest wound - the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings that killed three and injured hundreds more - will be re-examined Thursday when lawyers for bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev seek to have his death sentence lifted because the jury pool was too traumatized to render a fair verdict. The then-19-year old Tsarnaev and his 26-year-old brother Tamerlan sparked five days of panic in Boston that began April 15, 2013, when they detonated a pair of homemade pressure cooker bombs at the race's packed finish line. The pair eluded capture for days, punctuated by a gunbattle with police in Watertown that killed Tamerlan and led to a daylong lockdown of Boston and most of its suburbs while heavily armed officers and troops conducted a house-to-house search for Dzhokhar.

Cherry blossoms prompt full-blown scandal for Japan's PM

It might be the most Japanese of political scandals: a furore over Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's guest list at a party to mark the annual cherry blossom season. As scandals go, it has plenty of juicy elements -- alleged mafia guests, disappearing evidence, even gaffes by Abe, who appeared to lay blame for shredded documents on a disabled worker. It's the latest headache for Japan's longest-serving premier, who has already weathered two cronyism scandals in recent years and has faced an almost daily drubbing by opposition lawmakers since the scandal emerged in early November.

Isil 'matchmaker' who lured British teen bride to Syria is deported to France

Turkey has deported to France the “Islamic State matchmaker” who lured a British teen bride to Syria as part of a drive to send foreign fighters back to their countries of origin. Tooba Gondal, 25, is among 11 French nationals that Turkey repatriated early on Monday, according to France's Centre for Analysis of Terrorism, CAT, citing official sources. A French judicial source confirmed that four women and their seven children had arrived in France.

• UPDATE 1-Turkey says it has deported 11 French terrorist suspects

  Reuters
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  Turkey deports 11 French relatives of 'terrorist' suspects

  AFP

'An outright lie': Ohio lawmaker shown to be linked to group pushing rightwing Christian bills

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.

The Russian Navy Has Some Problems

The Russia fleet in 2019 will take delivery of 23 new surface vessels, two new submarines and three new aircraft, Russian president Vladimir Putin announced. As such, 2019 continues the Russian fleet's long-term trend toward fewer and smaller ships. “We have paid and will pay the closest attention to the technical re-equipment of the armed forces, including, of course, the modernization of the Russian navy,” Putin said at a Dec. 3, 2019 meeting of top military and industry officials.

Why is the Pensacola shooting being investigated as a terror attack? Here's what we know now

Authorities on Monday continued to investigate a shooting at a Florida naval base that left three people dead and eight wounded as a possible act of terrorism. A Saudi pilot training at Pensacola's Naval Aviation Schools Command was fatally shot by a sheriff's deputy during the rampage Friday. Second Lt. Mohammed Alshamrani, 21, of the Royal Saudi Air Force was the sole shooter, armed with a legally purchased 9mm Glock handgun and several extra magazines, and no arrests have been made in the case, FBI special agent in charge Rachel Rojas said Sunday.

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  Saudi Air Force Lieutenant kills 3 at Pensacola Naval Air Station

  FOX News Videos
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  FBI says it presumes Pensacola base shooting was act of terrorism

  KGO – San Francisco

One of the world's largest basic-income trials, a 2-year program in Finland, was a major flop. But experts say the test was flawed.

In 2017, Finland became the first European country to test a government-backed unconditional basic income, which gave people a regular stipend with no strings attached. Two years after Finland launched a basic-income trial in which nearly 2,000 unemployed residents were given a regular monthly stipend, many of the recipients remained jobless. The people reported that they were happier and healthier overall than other unemployed residents, but the experiment was widely declared a failure.

John Durham’s Investigators ‘Do Not Agree’ with DOJ IG’s Findings on Origin of Russia Probe

U.S. Attorney John Durham issued a rare statement in the wake of the release of DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz's Monday report, stating that his office does “not agree with” the report's conclusions regarding the origins of the FBI's 2016 Russia probe. “I have the utmost respect for the mission of the Office of Inspector General and the comprehensive work that went into the report prepared by Mr. Horowitz and his staff,” Durham's statement reads. “Our investigation has included developing information from other persons and entities, both in the U.S. and outside of the U.S.  Based on the evidence collected to date, and while our investigation is ongoing, last month we advised the Inspector General that we do not agree with some of the report's conclusions as to predication and how the FBI case was opened,” Durham's statement concludes.

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  Russia investigation report finds no evidence of political bias

  Yahoo News Video
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  James Comey Says the ‘Truth Is Finally Out’ About Trump and Russia With Release of DOJ Report

  The Wrap

U.S. Supreme Court rejects Arizona opioid case against Purdue, Sackler family

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.

'I Got Tired of Hunting Black and Hispanic People'

At a police station tucked into an end-of-the-line subway terminal in South Brooklyn, the new commander instructed officers to think of white and Asian people as “soft targets” and urged them to instead go after blacks and Latinos for minor offenses like jumping the turnstile, a half-dozen officers said in sworn statements. The commander, Constantin Tsachas, was in charge of more than 100 officers who patrolled a swath of the subway system in Brooklyn, his first major command. Since then, he has been promoted to the second-in-command of policing the subway system throughout Brooklyn.

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  Crash in Brooklyn leaves 1 woman dead, 1 seriously injured

  WABC – NY
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  Police: 2 tourists violently attacked, tasered at subway stop in New York City

  WPVI – Philadelphia

Pearl Harbor veteran interred on sunken ship

With speeches and salutes, veterans and officials on Saturday commemorated the 78th anniversary of the 1941 sneak attack by Japan on Pearl Harbor, which brought a previously reluctant United States into World War II. A ceremony in Hawaii honoring survivors was attended by US Interior Secretary David Bernhardt and Washington's ambassador to South Korea Harry Harris. It was held within sight of the sunken USS Arizona, which was bombed in the opening moments of the attack that killed more than 2,400 Americans.

American soldiers banned from Italian main street after vicious brawl

Around 2,000 US Army soldiers have been banned from one of the main streets in the Italian city of Vicenza after a  brawl between soldiers and locals. The temporary ban, which affects members of the 173rd Airborne Brigade stationed in the city, involves the quaint via  Contra' Pescherie Vecchie, where two young Vicenza men say they were surrounded and beaten by several soldiers after a verbal exchange just outside a popular watering hole for off duty combat paratroopers. City authorities are studying CCTV images to identify the culprits of the latest violent episode, which prompted Mayor Francesco Rucco to request special restrictive measures from the base commander.