- 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
Police chief firing puts spotlight on cops who let him go
For officers, pulling over a fellow cop can be an awkward dilemma, one that's magnified when it's the head of one of the nation's largest police departments. It's a worst-nightmare situation for a police officer to encounter their superior or chief who has been drinking,” said Philip Stinson, a criminal justice professor at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. They're damned if they do, and they're damned if they don't in terms of how they respond or act.
- PoliticsBloomberg
Giuliani Is in Kyiv, and Ukrainian Officials Are Steering Clear
Rudy Giuliani, whose work in Ukraine is at the heart of U.S. impeachment proceedings, is back in the country -- and officials in Kyiv appear to be keeping their distance. People with knowledge of his trip say Giuliani flew into Kyiv from Budapest on Wednesday, the same day that U.S. hearings stemming from his shadow diplomacy in Ukraine kicked over to the House Judiciary Committee. Social media postings show him meeting with current and previous Ukrainian political figures as part of a cable news documentary series that's critical of the 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
- 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
Impeachment Witness Turley Claims Home, Professorship Threatened during Testimony
In an opinion article penned Thursday, George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley claimed that his home and office were flooded with “threatening messages and demands that I be fired from George Washington University” over opposing President Trump's impeachment in congressional testimony Wednesday. “I remained a tad naive in hoping that an academic discussion on the history and standards of it might offer a brief hiatus from hateful rhetoric on both sides,” Turley, who was called by Republicans as a witness in the House Judiciary Committee's Wednesday impeachment hearing, wrote in The Hill.
- NewsINSIDER
The fired Chicago police superintendent says he made a 'poor decision' on the night he was found asleep at a stop sign with his SUV running
Eddie Johnson was abruptly fired from his job as Chicago police superintendent on Monday morning. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said she fired him over "intolerable actions" and "ethical lapses" in connection to a night in October where he was found asleep at a stop sign in his running SUV. After Johnson's firing, Lightfoot said Johnson had intentionally misled her and the public about his conduct the night of the incident.
- 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 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.
- 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.
WorldAFPSix months of sacrifice: Hong Kong's protesters take stock
With Beijing taking a hard line, it has since broadened into a call to halt authoritarian China's attempts to erode freedoms in the city. Protesters broke into the forecourt of the city's legislative building, throwing objects including metal bars at police. Officers responded with rubber bullets, bean bag rounds and tear gas against their aggressors, but then turned their weapons on the huge, peaceful crowds outside the complex, igniting anger that has fuelled the protests for months.
- 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.
- 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.
- PoliticsBloomberg
William Barr Is Making It Harder to Protect the 2020 Election
Since February, when he became attorney general for the second time in his long career, Barr's most notable priority has been undermining his own department's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Now news reports suggest that Barr contests the conclusion of a report by the Justice Department inspector general that the investigation was justified. In 2017, he stated that a bogus controversy involving Hillary Clinton and a Canadian mining company called Uranium One was more worthy of investigation than the staggering array of contacts between Trump's presidential campaign and Russia, and the equally staggering number of lies told to explain away those contacts.
- 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?
- 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.
- NewsAssociated Press
Blind inmate executed in Tennessee for woman's 1991 killing
A blind prisoner convicted of killing his estranged girlfriend by setting her on fire in her car was put to death Thursday in Tennessee's electric chair, becoming only the second inmate without sight to be executed in the U.S. since the reinstatement of the nation's death penalty in 1976. Lee Hall, 53, was pronounced dead at 7:26 p.m. at a Nashville maximum-security prison, corrections officials said. Hall was already strapped into the electric chair when the curtains were raised for the witnesses — which included family, attorneys and reporters.
- NewsReuters
George Zimmerman, who fatally shot Trayvon Martin, sues Martin family in Florida
Former Florida volunteer community watchman George Zimmerman, whose 2012 killing of unarmed black teen Trayvon Martin drew attention across the United States, sued Martin's family and lawyers on Wednesday, saying they used a fake witness against him. Zimmerman is seeking at least $100 million in damages from Martin's parents, state prosecutors and two women, who are accused in a Polk County, Florida, lawsuit of helping provide false statements to investigators and during the trial, according to court papers. On Feb. 26, 2012, Zimmerman, who was then a neighborhood watch captain in a gated community in Sanford, Florida, fatally shot Martin after the teen's trip to a convenience store to buy snacks.
- WorldThe Telegraph
US forces kill jihadist leader in Syria with precision 'ninja' missile that chops up targets with blades
US forces are thought to have killed a senior jihadist leader in northern Syria using a rarely deployed “Ninja” missile which attacks targets with precision sword-like blades. The Hellfire missile, or AGM-114R9X, which has a set of six folding blades instead of a warhead for minimum collateral damage, is believed to have been used to take out a commander in the al-Qaeda offshoot Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS) in the province of Idlib. The leader, named locally by his nom-de-guerre Abu Ahmad al-Muhajir, was reported to have been killed on Tuesday night when the car he was travelling in was hit by missiles in the town of Atmeh near the Turkish border, 10 miles from the US raid that killed Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi last month.
