Romney speculates Turkey called Trump's bluff: 'Are we so weak and inept?'

In an impassioned speech on the Senate floor Thursday, Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, blasted President Trump's decision to pull troops from defensive positions in Syria, and brought up the possibility that “Turkey may have called America's bluff” in an exchange between Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. “Are we so weak and inept diplomatically that Turkey forced the hand of the United States of America? Turkey?” Romney said.

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  Bluff City Law: Can I Help You?

  Internet Video Archive
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  NBC Passes on More ‘Bluff City Law': Jimmy Smits Drama Will End After Initial 10-Episode Run

  The Wrap

2020 Vision: Hillary Clinton thinks Russia will back Tulsi Gabbard to help Trump stay in power

Reminder: There are 108 days until the Iowa caucuses and 382 days until the 2020 presidential election. 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton said this week that Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, is likely being groomed by Moscow as a third-party candidate for the 2020 race. In an interview on the podcast of former Obama campaign manager David Plouffe, Clinton expressed her concerns about possible Russian interference in 2020.

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  Van Jones: Hillary Clinton Is Playing A 'Dangerous Game' With Tulsi Gabbard Remarks

  HuffPost
• Gabbard Responds to Hillary’s Russia Attacks, Challenges Her to Join Dem Primary

  National Review

Judges grapple with misconduct claims in Jodi Arias case

Appellate judges who will decide whether to reverse Jodi Arias' murder conviction in the gruesome 2008 killing of her former boyfriend grappled Thursday with who was responsible for whipping up publicity during the salacious trial and whether alleged misconduct by a prosecutor should cause the verdict to be tossed. A lawyer for Arias told the Arizona Court of Appeals that prosecutor Juan Martinez improperly questioned witnesses, ignored rulings on evidence, courted publicity and made an unfounded accusation that an expert on her defense team had an inappropriate relationship with Arias. Terry Crist, a lawyer for the Arizona attorney general's office, told the judges that he believes Martinez may have occasionally violated court rules, but none of his actions should lead to a reversal of the conviction.

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  Jodi Arias defense team seeks new trial alleging prosecution misconduct

  FOX News Videos
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  Court hears appeal of Jodi Arias murder conviction

  FOX News Videos

'Powderkeg' in Germany amid Turks-Kurds conflict

Syrian Kurd Mohamed Zidik, 76, still buys his bread and baklavas from Turkish neighbours in Berlin, but he knows better than to expound on his views about Ankara's offensive in his hometown. Since Turkish forces launched their assault on Kurds in northeastern Syria, tensions have risen in Germany where millions of Turks and Kurds live side by side. Shops have been trashed, knife attacks reported and insults traded, prompting Germany's integration commissioner Annette Widmann-Mauz to call for restraint.

Could France and Germany Jointly Build an EU Aircraft Carrier?

While discussing France and Germany's joint development with France of the FCAS sixth-generation stealth fighter in March 2019, the new head of Germany's governing CDU party Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer raised eyebrows with her suggestion of a chaser. As a next step, we could start the symbolic project of building an aircraft carrier to give shape to the role of the European Union as a global force for security and peace. German chancellor Angela Merkel endorsed the idea a few days later.

Clever-Approved Travel Gear That Looks Good and Works Even Better

Travel in style, no matter how you're getting there Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest

Protest Leaders Ignore Ban, Call for March: Hong Kong Update

Hong Kong protest organizers said they would lead demonstrators through Kowloon on Sunday in a march despite losing an appeal against a police ban on the procession. The Appeal Board on Public Meetings and Processions supported the police's refusal to approve the march because of the potential for violence, Radio Television Hong Kong reported. The rally was originally called to protest a government ban on masks and comes after Wednesday's attack on Civil Human Rights Front's organizer Jimmy Sham by hammer-wielding thugs in Mong Kok.

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  Murderer who triggered Hong Kong protests will go to Taiwan: pastor

  AFP
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  Are people still visiting Hong Kong?

  Associated Press Videos

Archaeologists discover hidden city in the jungle

For centuries, the ancient city of Mahendraparvata has been buried under a dense canopy in the Cambodian jungle. It was one of the first capitals of the Khmer Empire, which controlled large swaths of Southeast Asia from the 9th to 15th centuries. Over the last 150 years, archaeologists have uncovered artifacts that they suspected came from Mahendraparvata, but they didn't have enough evidence to support the link — until now.

Trump actions look 'clearly' impeachable, says leading conservative legal figure

Jack Goldsmith, a former top Justice Department lawyer in the George W. Bush administration, thinks that President Trump deserves to be impeached, but the conservative legal scholar is also critical of how the Democrats are going about the process. President Trump's actions in the Ukraine scandal appear to be “clearly” impeachable and are “probably the 300th thing Trump has done that's an impeachable offense,” Goldsmith told Yahoo News in an interview on the “Long Game” podcast. “In the general scheme of things, what Schiff did doesn't even compare to what the president did,” Goldsmith said.

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  Democrats keep up impeachment pressure on the Hill

  CBS News Videos
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  Trump Leans on a Changed GOP for Support

  The Wall Street Journal

Erdogan says Turkey to resume Syria offensive if truce deal falters

President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday Turkey would press on with its offensive into northeastern Syria and "crush the heads of terrorists" if a deal with Washington on the withdrawal of Kurdish fighters from the area was not fully implemented. Erdogan agreed on Thursday in talks with U.S. Vice President Mike Pence a five-day pause in the offensive to allow time for the Kurdish fighters to withdraw from a "safe zone" Turkey aims to establish in northeast Syria near the Turkish border. In the last 36 hours, there have been 14 "provocative attacks" from Syria, Turkey's defense ministry said, adding it was continuing to coordinate closely with Washington on implementation of the accord.

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  Trump news - live: Erdogan says Turkey will 'not forget president's disrespectful letter' as White House backtracks over Ukraine revelation

  The Independent
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  Erdogan Says He Won’t Forget Trump’s ‘Devil’ Letter

  Bloomberg

The Latest: Woman denies link to Alabama child abduction

A woman described as a person of interest in the abduction of a 3-year-old Alabama girl is denying any involvement. Attorneys for 29-year-old Derick Irisha Brown of Birmingham released a statement Friday saying she had no role in the kidnapping and hopes for the safe return of Kamille "Cupcake" McKinney. Brown and a man were arrested earlier this week after being described as persons of interest in the child's abduction from a birthday party last weekend.

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  Surveillance video linked to kidnapping of Alabama 3-year-old

  ABC News Videos
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  Police released video taken moments before missing Alabama girl was disappeared

  ABC News Videos

New ICE Program Exposes Hundreds of Fraudulent ‘Family Units’ Trying to Cross The Border

U.S. immigration authorities have discovered hundreds of instances at the border of “family unit fraud,” or unrelated individuals posing as families, over the last six months thanks to a new investigative initiative. Authorities exposed 238 fraudulent families presenting 329 false documents, according to the results of an investigation run by Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations unit in El Paso, Texas, the results of which were announced Thursday. More than 350 of those individuals are facing federal prosecution for crimes including human smuggling, making false statements, conspiracy, and illegal re-entry after removal.

Why Did 3 U.S. Navy Submarines Surface In The Pacific In 2010? China.

Nuclear powers rarely go to war with each other, but that doesn't mean they don't threaten to do so. Long-range heavy bombers are some of the best forces for crisis stability, Morgan wrote in a 2013 study for the U.S. Air Force. On the other hand, the U.S. Navy's submarine-launched cruise missiles are less effective — even counterproductive — for crisis stability … because they're invisible most of the time.

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  China's Nightmare: What Would Happen If America Wanted To Sell Nuclear Submarines?

  The National Interest
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  Russia's Amazing Mike-Class Submarine Broke World Records (And Paid The Ultimate Price)

  The National Interest

Ousted Communist leader Zhao Ziyang is buried: family

A former Chinese Communist Party leader ousted after he opposed the use of force to quell 1989 democracy protests was buried over a decade after he died, his family said, in a service ignored by state media. Zhao Ziyang, who is a revered figure among Chinese human rights defenders, is still a sensitive topic in the country, where commemorations of his death are held under tight surveillance or prevented altogether. There was no mention of his burial ceremony Friday on state media, and searching for his name on social media returned no results.

Next-Gen Dodge Challenger Coming in 2023? Don't Be So Sure, Says Dodge

Muscle Cars and Trucks noticed a 2023-mile odometer reading in press photos of the 2020 Dodge Challenger, which they and others thought could signal that the next generation's release is in 2023. Dodge is a frequent user of teasers to reveal upcoming cars, but a Dodge spokesperson told C/D this is not that. The automaker also reportedly has a track-focused ACR variant of the Challenger in the works.

Joe Biden digs at Elizabeth Warren after debate: Polls don't show 'anybody else as a frontrunner'

Former Vice President Joe Biden dodged some of the piling on from other 2020 candidates he has seen in previous Democratic debates, as Sen. Elizabeth Warren took on a lot of that heat on Tuesday. Biden thinks that's a good thing, but questioned Warren's standing as a frontrunner in comments to reporters in Ohio on Wednesday. "Well, it's kind of about time other people get questioned," he said.

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  Can Warren win the nomination without majority black support?

  Politico
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  What Matters This Week in the 2020 Race

  The Wall Street Journal

Moms Demand Action founder says advocacy group is not anti-gun

Moms Demand Action is a grassroots organization advocating for stronger gun control measures, founded as a Facebook group the day after the that took the lives of 26 people, 20 of whom were young children. But while its members advocate for an assault ban, Moms Demand Action founder Shannon Watts says that it's a "misnomer" to call the group anti-gun. "Often people think that because we're doing this work, we're anti-gun or we don't support the Second Amendment.

The Navy Wants to Push Out Problem SEALs. But Trump May Get in the Way.

Spiking drinks with cocaine, shooting Iraqi civilians, strangling a Green Beret: The Navy SEAL teams have been rocked by one high-profile scandal after another in recent months, and the leader of the elite commando force, Rear Adm. Collin P. Green, has vowed to clean house. Green has come down hard on misconduct, fired two key leaders and made an unusually public admission that the Navy's secretive warrior caste has an “ethics problem.” At the same time, though, he has steered wide of the SEAL at the center of one of the grimmest episodes, Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher, who was charged with shooting civilians, murdering a captive Islamic State fighter with a knife, and threatening to kill witnesses. Gallagher was acquitted of murder charges this summer, but evidence that he had engaged in a range of other misconduct, including theft and drug use, had come to light during the investigation.

Mayor Pete Buttigieg Drops Fundraiser Tied to Laquan McDonald Coverup

Mayor Pete Buttigieg's presidential campaign announced Friday that the co-host of a controversial campaign fundraiser was dropping out amid sharp public criticism over the role he played in delaying the release of a video of an infamous 2014 shooting death of a black teenage boy. The would-be co-host, Steve Patton, is a former Chicago city attorney who pushed to withhold video depicting the death of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald until after a contentious mayoral runoff election, more than a year after a judge had ordered the video to be released. “Transparency and justice for Laquan McDonald is more important than a campaign contribution,” Chris Meagher, the Buttigieg campaign's national press secretary, told The Daily Beast.

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  Castro blindsides Buttigieg over Chicago donation

  Politico
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  BLM Activist Scolds Buttigieg for Accepting Donations from Attorney Who Delayed Release of Laquan McDonald Tape

  National Review

Service canceled for Texas woman shot at home by officer

A service for a woman shot in her home by a Fort Worth police officer that had been scheduled for Saturday was canceled amid a family dispute over funeral arrangements. Atatiana Jefferson's funeral had been set to be held at Potter's House Church in Dallas. Church representative Mara Silverio said the service hasn't been rescheduled, but that no events would be held for her Saturday.

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  Athletes pay funeral of Atatiana Jefferson, who was killed at home by Texas officer

  Good Morning America
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  Officer Who Shot Atatiana Jefferson Wasn't Asked to Do Wellness Check Despite Neighbor's Request

  People

Mexico flies 300 Indian migrants to New Delhi in mass deportation

Mexico has deported more than 300 Indian nationals to New Delhi, the National Migration Institute said late on Wednesday, in what it described as an unprecedented transatlantic deportation.

Russia's Stealth Su-57 Is a Beast, But Can Russia Afford It?

Key point: The Su-57 is may not fundamentally change Russia's military strategy. The Russian defense ministry staged an impressive video shoot with four of its Su-57 stealth fighter prototypes. But the dramatic display doesn't make the Su-57 any more relevant.