- PoliticsYahoo News
Dem lawmaker says it's his 'mission' to have Trump removed from office
WASHINGTON — Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, heard about President Trump's latest angry tweet about him on Tuesday morning, as he was headed to a hearing of the House Financial Services Committee. “Like Al Green, she [Nancy Pelosi] wants to change our voting system,” Trump wrote in a tweet that accused Democrats of seeking to impeach him because they believe he will be reelected in 2020. “We absolutely don't want to change the voting system,” Green said of the president's claim.
- PoliticsThe Week
Mike Pence's office says discussion with Gordon Sondland about quid pro quo 'never happened'
In what is becoming common practice for the Trump administration, Vice President Mike Pence's office responded critically Wednesday to an impeachment witness' public sworn testimony while a hearing was ongoing. Pence's Chief of Staff Marc Short released a statement denying U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland's claim that he brought up concerns he had that U.S. military aid to Ukraine was "tied to investigations" directly with Pence in September. Short said that the "alleged discussion recalled by Ambassador never happened" and that Sondland was "never alone with" Pence while the two were on a trip to Warsaw, Poland, in September, when Sondland testified the conversation took place.
- NewsCBS News
Nearly ¾ of transgender people slain since 2017 killed with guns
Nearly three-fourths of transgender and gender non-conforming Americans slain in the last three years were killed with a firearm, according to data published this month by the gun violence prevention advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety. The data sheds grim new light on the role of guns in what's been called an epidemic of violence against transgender Americans, as advocates honor the victims with nationwide vigils Wednesday during the Transgender Day of Remembrance. The data is available for the first time publicly via EveryStat for Gun Safety, the group's database detailing gun deaths in America.
- NewsReuters
Seller of bullets to Las Vegas gunman pleads guilty to ammo licensing offense
An ammunition dealer who acknowledged selling hundreds of incendiary tracer rounds to the gunman who killed nearly 60 people at a Las Vegas music festival two years ago pleaded guilty on Tuesday to manufacturing bullets without a license. Douglas Haig, 57, of Mesa, Arizona, became the first and only person arrested and charged in connection with the Oct. 1, 2017, massacre, which ended when the gunman, Stephen Paddock, killed himself. Haig told reporters following his arrest last year that none of the surplus military ammunition he sold to Paddock in September 2017 was ever fired during the killing spree, which ranks as the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.
- WorldAssociated Press
The Latest: Israeli PM Netanyahu rejects indictment
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected his indictment on an array of corruption charges, saying the country is witnessing an “attempted coup” against him. Netanyahu was unable to form a government following unprecedented back-to-back elections this year, in part because of his legal woes, and a third vote could be held within months. Israel's attorney general says the indictment of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was a “heavy-hearted decision” based solely on professional considerations.
- PoliticsUSA TODAY
Biden, in Democratic debate, says you have to 'keep punching' to address domestic violence
Vice President Joe Biden was asked Wednesday night how he would address sexual violence. “So we have to just change the culture, period,” Biden said. Biden was one of 10 Democratic candidates to take the stage in Atlanta to debate a range of topics that included, health care, violence, impeachment and defeating President Trump.
- BusinessBloomberg
Delisting Chinese Firms From U.S. Is a ‘Terrible Idea,’ Hank Paulson Says
Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson said calls to oust Chinese companies from American stock indexes was contrary to the foundations of capitalism, as he warned against the dangers of decoupling the world's two largest economies. Paulson, who's now chairman of the Paulson Institute, told Bloomberg's New Economy Forum in Beijing that moves to reduce ties between the U.S. and China would weaken American leadership and New York's leading role in finance. “When the next crisis comes -- and a crisis will come, because financial crises are inevitable -- we will regret it if we lack mechanisms for the world's first and second-largest economies to coordinate,” Paulson told the forum on Thursday, according to a prepared version of his remarks.
- WorldThe Telegraph
Russia 'ruined' Ukrainian naval vessels before handing them back, says Ukrainian navy
Three Ukrainian navy boats seized by Russia a year ago were vandalised before being handed back to Ukraine, the country's navy said. The fast gunboats Nikopol and Berdyansk and the tugboat Tany Kapu were welcomed by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy and onlookers waving national flags arrived in Ochakiv, a Ukrainian naval port on the Black Sea on Wednesday evening. But Ukraine's navy said the vessels had been stripped bare and left so badly damaged that they had to be towed home by tug.
BusinessYahoo News VideoAmerican Airlines admits a midair accident that knocked out 2 flight crew was not caused by spilled soap
American Airlines admitted Tuesday the powerful fumes that knocked two flight attendants unconscious and forced a flight to make an emergency landing were not caused by spilled soap, as the airline had previously claimed.
- PoliticsYahoo News
GOP claim that Trump cares about corruption takes a hit at impeachment hearing
In his questioning of David Hale, undersecretary of state for political affairs, Ratcliffe reprised a now familiar defense of the president, that putting a hold on military aid to Ukraine was done out of concern about corruption in the country. The reasons for the hold in summer 2019, during Ukraine's ongoing war with Russia, were not communicated either publicly or within the diplomatic and national security bureaucracy. Citing other recent instances in which congressionally approved U.S. foreign aid had been withheld without explanation, Ratcliffe asked Hale, “So, having no explanation for why aid is being withheld is not uncommon?
WorldAFPUS aircraft carrier transits Strait of Hormuz
The US aircraft carrier strike group Abraham Lincoln sailed through the key Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday to show Washington's "commitment" to freedom of navigation, the Pentagon said, amid tensions with Tehran. The group's move through the strategic waterway separating Iran and the United Arab Emirates towards the Gulf was scheduled, and unfolded without incident, the US Navy said in a statement. It was the first time a US aircraft carrier group went through the strait since Iran downed a US drone in June in the same area.
- NewsCBS News
Teen accused of using remote-controlled car to smuggle meth
A 16-year-old U.S. citizen was arrested Sunday after he attempted to use a remote-controlled car to smuggle methamphetamine across the U.S.-Mexico border. Agents with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) stationed in San Diego saw a person with duffel bags walking along the secondary border wall. Other agents responded to the scene and found the suspect hiding in thick brush near the border.A 16-year-old U.S. citizen was arrested after attempting to use a remote-controlled car to smuggle methamphetamine across the U.S.-Mexico border.
- NewsThe Daily Beast
Two Former Houston Police Officers Arrested by Feds for Deadly Drug Raid
Two former Houston police officers were indicted by a federal grand jury on Wednesday in connection with a January drug raid that left two people dead and five officers injured. Gerald Goines, 55, and his partner, 46-year-old Steven Bryant, were both taken into custody by the FBI on several charges stemming from a civil-rights investigation into the Jan. 28 narcotics raid at a Harding Street home. Goines is accused of falsifying information to secure a state search warrant, while his partner allegedly covered for him by submitting a false police report in the wake of the deadly raid.
- WorldThe National Interest
Why Did Russia Launch 8 Submarines All at Once?
The eight submarines, including six nuclear-powered ships, sailed from their bases in northern Russia into the cold waters of the Barents and Norwegian Seas. At the same time, an additional two boats -- the nuclear-powered Sierra-class attack submarines Pskov and Nizhny Novgorod -- sailed into roughly the same waters for tests and training. The 10 vessels represent around 20 percent of the Russian submarine force.
- NewsUSA TODAY
'Don't let them in': Arrests made as hundreds protest Ann Coulter speech at UC Berkeley
A speech by conservative commentator Ann Coulter at University of California, Berkeley drew hundreds of protesters Wednesday night. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, police in riot gear guarded the building's entrances and barricades were erected in anticipation of the protests. Coulter was invited to speak by the Berkeley College Republicans for a speech about immigration called “Adios, America,” the Chronicle reported.
- NewsReuters
Mexicans sue Walmart over Texas shooting that left victims on both sides of border
Ten Mexican citizens have sued Walmart over the shooting at a store in the U.S. border town of El Paso, Texas, that killed eight Mexicans and left eight more injured, saying that Walmart did not do enough to protect its customers, Mexico said on Wednesday. The suspected gunman told police he was targeting "Mexicans" in the August shooting, which killed 22 people in total. Mexico's Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the lawsuit, which was filed in Texas state court in El Paso County, aimed to hold the retailer accountable "for not taking reasonable and necessary measures to protect its customers."
- WorldAssociated Press
Climate activist’s remarks downplaying Holocaust spark anger
A prominent British climate change activist sparked anger Wednesday after appearing to downplay the Holocaust in an interview with a German newspaper. Roger Hallam, who co-founded the activist group Extinction Rebellion, told the German newspaper Die Zeit that the Nazis' murder of 6 million Jews was merely one of many genocides. In extracts from the interview released by Die Zeit on Wednesday, Hallam was quoted describing the Holocaust as “just another (expletive) in human history.
- LifestyleArchitectural Digest
20 of the Most Beautiful Bridges in the World
Designed by world-renowned architects such as Zaha Hadid and Santiago Calatrava, these bridges are travel destinations in their own right Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
- PoliticsYahoo News
Sondland testimony reveals no smoking gun, but no vindication of Trump in impeachment hearing
The morning began badly for President Trump, as his ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland, delivered an opening statement to the House Intelligence Committee that raised and answered the question of whether there was a quid pro quo in the administration's demands for the Ukrainian government to announce an investigation that would benefit the president politically. The answer is yes,” Sondland declared. But even if that damning opening statement set the tone on cable news and social media, much of the rest of Sondland's testimony was ambiguous with respect to the points Democrats have been hammering relentlessly in the investigation.
WorldAFPIran's Guards praise 'timely' action against protesters
Iran's Revolutionary Guards on Thursday praised the armed forces for taking "timely" action against "rioters" and said calm had returned after days of unrest sparked by a hike in petrol prices. Motorists blocked highways in Tehran before the unrest spread to cities and towns across the country, with petrol pumps torched, police stations attacked and shops looted. "Incidents, big and small, caused by the rise in petrol price took place in (a little) less than 100 cities across Iran," said a statement on the Guards' official website Sepahnews.com.
- NewsThe Independent
Woman wounded in Las Vegas mass shooting dies after two years of treatment
A woman who spent two years in a nursing facility recovering from spinal injuries she suffered in the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history has died. Kimberly Gervais could become the 59th fatality in the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting, depending upon the coroner's verdict. Police officers raided Paddock's high rise room in the Mandalay Bay Hotel on the Vegas strip minutes after the gunfire stopped, where they found he had killed himself.
- NewsThe Daily Beast
Expelled LSU Student Sentenced to Five Years in Fraternity Hazing Death
The former Louisiana State University student who was found guilty of negligent homicide for the hazing death of 18-year-old Phi Delta Theta pledge Max Gruver was sentenced to five years in prison on Wednesday. Jurors reportedly took just one hour to convict Matthew Naquin in July. The judge ordered Naquin to write a letter of apology to the Gruver family, and for every year he is on probation he must go to three separate high schools and give a one-hour talk about hazing, according to WVLA-TV.
- TechnologyThe National Interest
This Could Be the Royal Navy’s Next Destroyer
The Royal Navy may already have identified a possible replacement for its Type 45 destroyers. A version of the new Type 26 frigate, which should enter service with the U.K. fleet in the mid-2020s, ultimately could replace the air-defense-optimized Type 45s beginning in the 2030s. The prospect of developing an air-defense variant of the Type 26 offers some hope to the United Kingdom's beleaguered naval shipbuilders that they might be able to build a large number of ships of different classes without a long break in production.
- WorldBloomberg
Singapore ‘Repatriates’ Hongkonger Who Held Political Meeting
Restaurant owner Alex Yeung, along with a 55-year-old former Hong Kong resident, were issued a “stern warning” over what was said to be a gathering of about 10 people sharing their views of the escalating protests, which is an offense under the Public Order Act. Yeung, who has a Youtube channel of largely pro-Beijing content was further instructed he would not be allowed to enter Singapore again without permission from the authorities. “Singapore has always been clear that foreigners should not advocate their political causes in Singapore, through public assemblies, and other prohibited means,” the Singapore Police Force told Channel News Asia late on Wednesday.
- WorldReuters
Russia opens investigation into space center fraud after Putin rebuke
Russian investigators said on Thursday they had opened two criminal cases into the management of a company involved in building the Vostochny Cosmodrome, a space center in the country's Far East. The announcement came less than two weeks after President Vladimir Putin complained to government officials about corruption at the facility and called for further investigations. Construction of the Vostochny Cosmodrome began in January 2011, part of a plan for Russia to reduce its dependency on the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, which Russia leases from the former Soviet Republic for space operations.
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