- PoliticsYahoo News
In fiery memo, Dem lawmaker urges Congress to include Trump’s 'racism' in articles of impeachment
The first member of Congress who called for President Trump to be impeached sent a memo Wednesday to House members urging them to incorporate concerns about Trump's “racism” into the ongoing impeachment inquiry. In the memo, Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, noted that, in July, the House passed a resolution condemning Trump for making “racist comments” about four Democratic congresswomen of color. “How will history judge this Congress that passed a resolution indicating President Trump made harmful, racist comments if it does not impeach him for his impeachable racist, anti-Semitic, Islamophobic, transphobic, xenophobic language instigating enmity and inciting violence within our society?” Green asked in his memo, which was obtained by Yahoo News.
- 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.
- 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.
PoliticsYahoo News VideoReps. Collins and Gohmert: 'Too late to submit a unanimous consent request?' 'Typical, just typical'
Sparks fly between House Judiciary chairman Rep. Jerry Nadler and Reps. Doug Collins and Louie Gohmert during closing statements on Day 1 of the committee's impeachment inquiry.
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.
NewsUSA TODAYWest Virginia corrections employees suspended after 'completely inappropriate' Nazi salute photo
A photo of West Virginia corrections officer trainees giving a straight-arm Nazi salute drew the governor's condemnation on Thursday. Gov. Jim Justice ordered the firing of all state employees involved in the incident, which is under investigation by the state's Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety. "This will not be tolerated on my watch – within the Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation – or within any agency of state government," Justice said in a statement.
- 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
- 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.
- WorldBusiness Insider
Iran is doubling down on the missile strategy that took out 5% of the world's oil supply
Iran is doubling down on the success of last summer's cruise missile attack on two Saudi oil facilities by positioning advanced weapons around the Middle East from Yemen to Lebanon, a NATO source told Business Insider. "The Iranians learned that they have a longer leash for conducting operations against the Saudis and UAE than they realized under the Trump administration," the official said. Iran has been widely blamed in the west for cruise missile and drone attacks on two Saudi Arabian oil facilities in September.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- NewsUSA TODAY
Blind inmate to be executed by electric chair, first since death penalty reinstated
On Thursday, Tennessee is set to carry out the second-ever execution of a blind prisoner in the United States since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. The state's highest court refused to push back the execution of Lee Hall, 53, who was convicted in the 1991 burning death of his estranged girlfriend Traci Crozier in Chattanooga. Attorneys asked the Tennessee Supreme Court to intervene ahead of his death in order to allow an ongoing legal appeal to finish in appellate courts.
WorldAFPTyphoon Kammuri death toll hits 13 in Philippines
The number of people killed by Typhoon Kammuri's pounding of the Philippines this week has hit 13, officials said Thursday, as authorities confirmed reports of storm-related deaths. Kammuri's fierce winds toppled trees and flattened flimsy homes across a swathe of the nation's north on Tuesday, and forced a rare 12-hour shutdown of Manila's international airport. Disaster officials did not offer details on how the other victims died, but local police reports indicated some may have drowned or been crushed by trees.
- WorldThe Telegraph
Conman sets up fake Russia border with Finland to trick migrants
Border guards in Russia's north west last week arrested a man who had set up a bogus border outpost with Finland and taken thousands of euros from migrants for what they thought was a journey through the woods to the European Union. The man, who was only identified as a citizen of one of the former Soviet Union republics, put up border posts in the forest outside St Petersburg and charged four men from South Asia more than 10,000 euros (£8,400) for his services for smuggling them into neighbouring Finland, Russia's Border Guard Service said on Wednesday. Russia's 1,340-kilometer border with Finland mostly runs across sparsely populated areas in the forest, offering a relatively easy way for migrants to get into the European Union.
- PoliticsNational Review
2020 Democrats Expose Extreme Abortion Policies in New Survey
The New York Times has released the results from a set of questions posed to each Democratic presidential candidate about his or her views on abortion. Thus far in the primary race, very few of the candidates have been pushed to account for their position on a variety of abortion policies, especially during the debates. The Times should be commended for this effort to get candidates on the record on specific policy questions.
- PoliticsThe Guardian
Impeachment hearing joke draws angry response from Melania Trump – and lays bare America's divide
The witness Pamela Karlan cracked a joke that delighted liberals and infuriated conservatives. Or rather, it delighted conservatives because it gave them a talking point to whip up outrage. The afternoon session of the House judiciary committee hearing on the constitutional framework for impeachment had just begun when the Democratic congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee posed the question: “What comparisons can we make between kings that the framers were afraid of and the president's conduct today?
- 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.
- NewsAssociated Press
Sailor kills 2 civilians, self at Pearl Harbor shipyard
An active duty U.S. sailor whose submarine was docked at Pearl Harbor opened fire on three civilian employees Wednesday, killing two and then taking his own life just days before dignitaries and veterans descend on the base for the 78th anniversary of the Japanese attack. The commander of Navy Region Hawaii, Rear Adm. Robert Chadwick, said he didn't know the motive behind the shooting at the Hawaii base's naval shipyard that left the third civilian Department of Defense employee hospitalized. It also wasn't known if the sailor and the three male civilians had any type of relationship, or what the motive was for the shooting, Chadwick said.
- WorldBusiness Insider
NATO is finally talking about China, and there are 3 big problems it has to address
Jeku Arce The alliance has been working for several years to improve its ability to reinforce and resupply across Europe, not only inland via roads, rivers, and railways but around the continent through ports that haven't seen much action since the Cold War. NATO started going to more European ports around 2015 in order "to reestablish capabilities" and "to demonstrate that we could come [into Europe] at a variety of different places," retired Army Gen. Ben Hodges, who led the US Army in Europe between 2014 and 2017, told Business Insider in 2018. "So as China continues to invest in things like ports and rail in Europe, that can complicate NATO mobility," Kendall-Taylor said Monday.
- 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.
- WorldAssociated Press
3 charged over Australia’s largest crystal meth seizure
Two customs agents and an information technology worker appeared in a court on Thursday charged with drug offenses over Australia's largest seizure of methamphetamine, which had been smuggled to Melbourne from Bangkok in stereo speakers. Police estimate the 1.6 metric tons (1.7 U.S. tons) of the drug also known as ice and crystal meth had a street value of AU$1.197 billion ($818 million). The 37 kilograms (82 pounds) of heroin also seized was the largest haul of that drug in Australia since 2017, police said.
U.S.Yahoo News VideoEmployee shot at a Virginia post office
Authorities say a postal worker has been shot at a northern Virginia post office by an agent for the Postal Service's Inspector General's office. News outlets report that it happened Wednesday morning at the parking lot of the Lovettsville post office in Loudoun County.
