- PoliticsYahoo News
Stanford law professor lights up House impeachment hearing
Stanford law professor Pamela Karlan delivered powerful testimony Wednesday before the House Judiciary Committee, explaining in simple terms her view that President Trump's conduct warranted his impeachment. As she began her testimony, Karlan, who was called by Democrats to testify with Harvard law professor Noah Feldman and University of North Carolina law professor Michael Gerhardt, rebuked Republican ranking member Rep. Doug Collins, who asserted that those who had not reviewed the testimony of prior witnesses had no business testify about it.
- NewsAssociated Press
Tennessee governor not stopping planned execution Thursday
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee announced Wednesday that he won't stop the state from putting a blind inmate to death in the electric chair later this week, clearing the way for the execution unless a federal court intervenes. Lee Hall, a 53-year-old inmate who became blind from glaucoma during is decades in prison, is scheduled to be electrocuted Thursday for his conviction in the 1991 killing of his estranged girlfriend. Hall had his sight when he entered death row nearly three decades ago, but attorneys for the condemned prisoner say he's since become functionally blind due to improperly treated glaucoma.
WorldAFPWanted Indian guru resurfaces to announce new cosmic country
An Indian guru facing rape and sexual abuse charges made headlines Wednesday after he emerged from hiding and announced the birth of a new cosmic country with its own cabinet and golden passports. Swami Nithyananda, a controversial self-styled godman with thousands of followers in southern India's Karnataka and Tamil Nadu states, posted a video on his YouTube channel announcing the special project to his followers. 41-year-old Nithyananda announced that his country is called Kailaasa, and is the biggest Hindu nation without boundaries.
- NewsThe Telegraph
Pearl Harbour shooting: two people killed after US sailor attacks base in Hawaii
Two people have been killed and one injured after a gunman opened fire before taking his own life at Pearl Harbour military base in Hawaii. The Pearl Harbour Naval Shipyard was locked down on Wednesday afternoon after the shooting which is believed to have started at 2.30pm local time (10.30pm GMT). The shooting took place at Dry Dock 2, near the south entrance of a combined US Air Force and Navy base about 8 miles (13 km) from Honolulu.
- WorldChristian Science Monitor
After six months and a siege, Hong Kong’s front line takes stock
We have fantasies about building a new Hong Kong … where everyone has a deeply rooted faith in their rights and democracy” and so will defend them against government encroachment, he says. Never seemed to stop” Last month, the leaderless, nimble movement with the mantra “be water” made a costly, if inadvertent, misstep, Steve says. After calling for a general strike, protesters decided to block two main roads to give workers an excuse to stay home.
- NewsNational Review
Black South Bend Councilman-Elect Blasts Buttigieg’s Mayoral Record: ‘We Need Someone That’s Accountable’
South Bend, Ind., city councilman-elect Henry Davis Jr. said on Thursday that it “is not an excuse at this point” for mayor Pete Buttigieg to claim he was “slow to realize” desegregation in city schools had not been successful during an interview Thursday, in the latest African-American criticism leveled at the Democratic presidential candidate. Davis, who ran against Buttigieg for mayor in 2015, said in an interview with Hill.TV that Buttigieg's remark sounded contrived. “It sounded like that he wasn't from here,” Davis said of Buttigieg, who was born and raised in South Bend.
- PoliticsTime
Joe Biden Challenges Iowa Man to a Push-Up Contest During Heated Exchange
Former Vice President Joe Biden got into a tense exchange with a man during a campaign stop in Iowa Thursday that included the Democratic Presidential candidate challenging him to do push-ups alongside him. “Look, the reason I'm running is because I've been around a long time and I know more than most people know and I can get things done,” Biden responded. President Trump is currently facing a House impeachment inquiry over claims that he withheld aid to Ukraine while pressuring the country to investigate the Bidens.
- BusinessThe National Interest
The Reviews Are In: 31 Air Force Pilots Say Why They Love the F-35 Stealth Fighter
Air Force Gen. Herbert “Hawk” Carlisle, commander of Air Combat Command, this week declared the F-35A fighter jet ready for combat. 1. Even with developmental restrictions that limit the F-35A's responsiveness and ability to maneuver, every U.S. fighter pilot interviewed would pick the F-35A over his former jet in a majority of air-to-air (dogfight) engagement scenarios they could face. 2. A former F-15C instructor pilot said he consistently beat his former jet in mock dogfights.
- PoliticsUSA TODAY Opinion
NATO allies just want the United States to subsidize European defense
NATO was founded just after World War II as the Soviet Union's communist empire threatened the integrity of the free world. The USSR has long since perished, and Russia, though a nuclear-armed state with a powerful military and impressive cyberwarfare sophistication, does not present the global threat equivalent to that of the USSR. Russia is just Russia.
- PoliticsBusiness Insider
AG William Barr reportedly liked to haze Mueller when they worked together and would 'mercilessly make fun of him' in meetings
Attorney General William Barr liked to subject the former special counsel Robert Mueller to "intellectual hazing" when they worked together in the 1990s, according to a new profile in New York Magazine. "Bill was always making fun of people in his meetings, and Mueller was a particular target of his fun," a former colleague told the outlet. Barr took over President Donald Trump's Justice Department earlier this year and has been widely criticized for overruling Mueller and functioning as Trump's personal defense lawyer instead of the nation's chief law enforcement officer.
- NewsAssociated Press
Report: Officer recorded kissing Chicago chief reassigned
A female officer who was reportedly caught on video kissing then-Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson at a popular restaurant in October was transferred weeks later from his personal security detail to another role on the police force, a department spokesman said. Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi confirmed to WBEZ that the officer, who was appointed to Johnson's security detail in 2016, was reassigned in November to the technical services bureau. He said he didn't know if the two had a romantic relationship and couldn't say if the officer's reassignment was connected to one, but that the move was neither a promotion nor a demotion and was not done for disciplinary reasons.
- NewsUSA TODAY
Two of four teens who escaped juvenile detention center found outside Tennessee apartments
Police arrested two of the four teenagers who escaped from a Nashville Juvenile Justice Center over the weekend outside an apartment complex in Madison, Tennessee. Police Lt. Blaine Whited said Metro Nashville police obtained "very strong information" that led them to Madison's Robin Hood Condominiums. Gang unit detectives "saturated that area" at about 8 p.m. and spotted Decorrius Wright, 16, and Calvin Howse, 15, in the parking lot.
U.S.Yahoo News VideoBarr's prosecutor sees no evidence Russia probe was a CIA setup: Washington Post
The prosecutor Attorney General William Barr personally appointed to oversee the Justice Department's probe into the origins of the Russia investigation is reportedly unable to provide evidence to support the right-wing conspiracy theory that the investigation was a setup by U.S. intelligence officials.
- EntertainmentPopular Mechanics
The 25 Best Sci-Fi Movies on Netflix Right Now
Rouge robots, deep space planets, and a voice assistant love story. From Popular Mechanics
- BusinessThe Independent
Thai cave dive hero fights back tears as he tells court ‘life sentence with no parole’ inflicted by Elon Musk
A British diver who helped rescue a dozen boys trapped in a cave in Thailand fought back tears as he told a court Elon Musk's "pedo guy" slur amounted to “a life sentence with no parole”. Vernon Unsworth choked up on Wednesday as he testified against the Tesla CEO during a defamation trial in Los Angeles. The 63-year-old, from St Albans, told the hearing he had no choice but to sue the billionaire who used the slur on Twitter, or else it would seem the allegation were true.
- NewsINSIDER
The college admissions scandal ringleader tried to recruit 7 Stanford coaches to be part of the scheme but only one took the bait
Stanford President Marc Tessier-Lavigne said in a letter to the university community that the ringleader of the college admissions scandal, William "Rick" Singer, approached seven coaches at the school about trading bribes for students' recruitments to the school at athletes. Tessier-Lavigne said an external review of the case revealed that only the school's former sailing coach, John Vandemoer, accepted Singer's deal. Vandemoer accepted $610,000 in bribes from Singer to facilitate the admission of students as sailing recruits.
- BusinessThe National Interest
Double the Fighters: Why Japan Wants Domestic F-3s and the F-35
In February 2019, Japan turned heads with its decision to proceed with the development of an indigenous stealth fighter jet. This came in the wake of the decision to purchase more than one hundred American F-35 jets, and the supposed cancellation of the Japanese X-2 stealth fighter prototype in 2018. The Japanese Ministry of Defense announced the move to develop the new fighter, currently named Future Fighter or F-3 as part of their Mid-Term Defense Program (MTDP) that lays out modernization and procurement decisions for the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) for the next ten years.
- WorldThe Telegraph
Russian spies used French Alps as 'base camp' for hits on Britain and other countries
Fifteen Russian spies, including those accused of the Salisbury nerve agent attack, used the French Alps as a “base camp” to conduct covert operations around Europe over a five-year period, according to reports. The revelations came as Germany expelled two Russian diplomats after prosecutors said there was “sufficient factual evidence” linking Moscow to the killing of a former Chechen rebel commander in central Berlin. According to Le Monde, British, Swiss, French, and US intelligence have drawn up a list of 15 members of the 29155 unit of Russia's GRU military spy agency who all passed through France's Haute-Savoie mountains close to the Swiss and Italian borders.
- PoliticsBusiness Insider
Rep. Matt Gaetz suggested impeaching Obama during Wednesday's Trump impeachment-inquiry hearing
Rep. Matt Gaetz suggested impeaching President Barack Obama while speaking in a House Judiciary Committee hearing in the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump on Wednesday. After questioning the Democratic-invited legal expert Pamela Karlan on Democratic campaign donations, Gaetz referenced a 2013 incident in which the National Security Agency monitored calls of world leaders. The White House said at the time that Obama had no knowledge of the wiretapping.
- WorldAssociated Press
Activists apologize for use of Holocaust victims’ remains
An activist group has apologized to Jewish organizations outraged over their use of purported Holocaust victims' remains in an installation outside Germany's parliament building meant to draw attention to the perils of far-right extremism. The Center for Political Beauty, a Germany-based activist group known for provocative stunts, installed an urn outside the Reichtstag building on Monday, saying it contained victims' remains that it had unearthed from 23 locations near Nazi death and concentration camps in Germany, Poland and Ukraine. “We want to apologize especially to Jewish institutions, associations and individuals who see our work as disturbing or touching the peace of the dead according to Jewish religious law,” the group said on its website in a post late Wednesday.
- PoliticsNational Review
Rep. Duncan Hunter Shows no Signs of Resigning Despite Pleading Guilty to Campaign Finance Charges
Representative Duncan Hunter (R., Calif.) has not indicated that he will leave his seat in the House after he pleaded guilty on Wednesday to campaign finance violations. Hunter and his wife, who pleaded guilty to similar charges in June, were accused of using $250,000 in campaign funds to pay for family vacations to Hawaii, plane tickets for their pet rabbit, and other personal expenses.
- PoliticsUSA TODAY
Bernie Sanders isn't polling in first place. His early-state organizing may mean that doesn't matter.
Bourgeacq Pinzón's journey from curious to committed volunteer is one the Sanders campaign aims to emulate across Iowa. Sanders already has the firmest base in the field, according the latest Des Moines Register/CNN/Mediacom Iowa Poll, even as he continues to jostle in third place. Now, the Sanders campaign is working to turn that enthusiastic base into caucus victory.
- BusinessBloomberg
Warren Is Drafting U.S. Legislation to Reverse ‘Mega Mergers’
Warren's staff recently circulated a proposal for sweeping anti-monopoly legislation, which would deliver on a presidential campaign promise to check the power of Big Tech and other industries. According to a draft of the bill reviewed by Bloomberg, the proposal would expand antitrust law beyond the so-called consumer welfare standard, an approach that has driven antitrust policy since the 1970s. Warren's bill, tentatively titled the Anti-Monopoly and Competition Restoration Act, would also ban non-compete and no-poaching agreements for workers and protect the rights of gig economy workers, such as drivers for Uber Technologies Inc., to organize.
WorldAFPOpposition figure freed in Nigeria after court ruling
Nigerian opposition activist Omoyele Sowore and co-defendant Olawale Bakare were set free on Thursday after months in detention, for alleged treason. The pair were released hours after a judge gave the secret police 24 hours to release Sowore, who had been held since August by the Department of State Services (DSS) after urging protests under the online banner "#RevolutionNow". Sowore, 48, also ran unsuccessfully against President Muhammadu Buhari in the February polls.
- NewsReuters
Second evacuation order lifted in Texas city hit by explosion, chemical fire
Authorities on Thursday lifted a second evacuation order in a week for thousands of people in a Texas city as U.S. safety officials began examining what caused the latest in a series of chemical plant fires in the state. The about 14,000 residents of Port Neches 95 miles (153 km) east of Houston were told to flee late on Wednesday when air monitors detected high levels of cancer causing petrochemicals butane and butadiene following an explosion last week. Butadiene is the main product of the TPC Group's facility in the city struck by last week's blast and fire, which injured three workers and prompted an initial, two-day evacuation.
