- PoliticsYahoo News
McConnell releases impeachment trial rules, sparking new outcry from Democrats
WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell released the rules for a Senate impeachment trial on Monday evening, the night before Republicans in the chamber are set to approve them by what is expected to be a party-line vote. The most noteworthy detail: Republicans will leave the House impeachment managers only two days to make their opening arguments. In the 1999 impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton, House Republicans arguing the case against the Democratic president were given three days.
- WorldReuters
Taiwan calls on China to share 'correct' virus information
Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen called on China on Wednesday to share "correct" information about a new coronavirus and for the World Health Organisation (WHO) not to exclude Taiwan from collaboration on the outbreak for political reasons. Authorities have confirmed more than 400 cases of the virus in China, most of them in the central city of Wuhan where the virus first appeared at the end of 2019. The virus, which health officials have said can be passed from person to person, has spread to cities including Beijing and Shanghai, with cases have been confirmed in Thailand, South Korea, Japan, as well as Taiwan.
- WorldAssociated Press
Huawei CFO lawyers say her alleged crimes no crime in Canada
Lawyers for a senior executive of Chinese tech giant Huawei argued Tuesday that allowing her extradition to the United States would result in Canada bowing to foreign law. This week's hearings deal with the question of whether the U.S. charges against Meng Wanzhou are crimes in Canada as well. Her lawyers argue the case is really about U.S. sanctions against Iran, not a fraud case.
- PoliticsBloomberg
Trump Was Defending Record at Davos, Says Blackstone CEO Schwarzman
Blackstone Group Inc. chief executive officer Steve Schwarzman said Donald Trump was seeking to defend his economic record in Davos as the U.S. president faces the start of his impeachment trial. “Here's somebody who is having the impeachment process start with a trial today,” Schwarzman said in an interview with Bloomberg Television on Tuesday at the Swiss resort. The billionaire co-founder of New York-based private equity firm Blackstone has previously advised Trump and was present in the White House when he announced the first part of the China-U.S. trade deal.
- BusinessBusiness Insider
Honda is recalling 2.7 million older U.S. vehicles for potentially defective airbag inflators
Matt Cardy/Getty Images Honda on Tuesday said it will recall nearly 3 million U.S. vehicles from the 1996 through 2003 model years, which have potentially defective airbag inflators. The recall spans both Honda and Acura vehicles, and Honda said it is aware of inflator ruptures related to this recall in three instances: a 2012 crash in Texas, and two ruptures in junkyards in Japan. Honda plans to notify owners about the recall on March 9, according to its recall filings with the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
U.S.Yahoo News VideoFeds: White supremacists hoped rally would start civil war
A hidden camera captured members of a white supremacist group expressing hope that violence at a gun rights rally in Virginia this week could start a civil war, federal prosecutors said in a court filing Tuesday.
- LifestylePopular Mechanics
REI’s January Sale Offers 50% off Cold-Weather Outdoor Gear
Save big on Patagonia, The North Face, Columbia, and more of our favorite outdoor brands. From Popular Mechanics
- U.S.National Review
AOC Compares Baltimore Riots to Peaceful Richmond Gun-Rights Demonstration
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) on Monday contrasted the annual gun rights rally in Richmond, Va. with the riots after the death of Baltimore resident Freddie Gray and protests following the killing of Eric Garner by New York police. “When we go out and march for the dignity…of the lives of people like Freddie Gray and Eric Garner, the whole place is surrounded by police in riot gear without a gun in sight [among protesters],” Ocasio-Cortez said at a Monday event.
- WorldThe National Interest
Are North Korea's Vaunted Submarines Actually Any Good?
Each Romeo displaced 1,830 tons submerged, had a top speed of thirteen knots and was operated by a crew of fifty-four. The Romeo submarines were armed with eight standard-diameter 533-millimeter torpedo tubes, two facing aft. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was filmed touring and taking a short voyage on a Romeo-class submarine in 2014.
- PoliticsThe Daily Beast
Menendez and Graham Partner Up to Craft a New Iran Deal
Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) have teamed up to work on drafting potential contours for negotiations with Tehran over the country's nuclear programming and a roadmap for a new deal, according to Graham and two other congressional aides familiar with the matter. “I've been working with Senator Menendez on this for some time,” Graham told The Daily Beast in an interview last week. Graham told The Daily Beast in an interview in August that he was working with senior Trump administration officials on an alternative to the Obama-era Iran nuclear deal.
- BusinessINSIDER
The influencer who faked a broken ankle to get a free business-class upgrade says he'd do it again
YouTube/Jamie Zhu The influencer who claimed to have faked a broken ankle to bag himself a business-class upgrade on a long-haul flight said he would have no qualms about doing it again. Jamie Zhu was flying with Cathay Pacific and, after buying a moon boot at Sydney Airport, told the cabin crew that his ankle was broken and that the boot wouldn't fit in his economy seat — so he was apparently upgraded to business class. Zhu bought the boot before boarding the plane, but he told Insider he'd ordered it a week in advance to make sure it was in stock.
- PoliticsThe Week
Attorney: Due to a conflict of interest, William Barr must recuse himself from Lev Parnas' criminal case
An attorney for Lev Parnas, the indicted associate of Rudy Giuliani, sent a letter to Attorney General William Barr on Monday, requesting the he recuse himself from Parnas' criminal case. Parnas was arrested last October and charged with campaign finance violations. In the letter, which was also filed in New York federal court, attorney Joseph Bondy said Barr has a conflict of interest and asked that a special prosecutor from outside the Justice Department handle Parnas' case.
- PoliticsAssociated Press
Justice Dept. memos back defiance of impeachment subpoenas
The White House on Monday released Justice Department legal opinions meant to bolster its case for defying subpoenas from Congress in the impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump. One opinion, dated Sunday, says Trump administration officials were free to disregard subpoenas sent last fall before the House of Representatives had formally authorized an impeachment inquiry. That approval, the memo says, is necessary before congressional committees can begin their own investigations and issue subpoenas for documents and testimony.
- BusinessBloomberg
China Tries to Ease Concern U.S. Trade Deal Hurts Other Nations
Chinese Vice Premier Han Zheng told the World Economic Forum that the country's trade deal with the U.S. won't hurt rival exporting nations as complaints mount from governments that were left out of the agreement. In the most high-profile remarks on the country's economic policy since the accord was signed last week, Han said that its commitment to buy more from the U.S. is in line with its World Trade Organization obligations and won't squeeze out other imports. Han also pledged to lower barriers for foreign investors as he set out the case for China's engagement with the global economy.
- WorldBusiness Insider
Russia admits its deadly Zircon hypersonic missile is suffering from 'childhood diseases'
Associated Press Russia's deadly Zircon hypersonic missile is apparently suffering from unspecified "childhood diseases," the Russian Navy's top admiral revealed. Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy Admiral Nikolai Yevmenov told RIA Novosti that the weapon is likely still years away from entering service. In February of last year, Russian President Vladimir Putin boasted that the developmental missile can hit speeds up to Mach 9 and eliminate targets up to 620 miles away.
- WorldReuters
French workers turn to sabotage as transport strike flags
French energy workers protesting against President Emmanuel Macron's pension reform plans cut power to Paris' wholesale food market on Tuesday in the latest of a series of sabotage and wildcat actions as a weeks-long transport strike loses momentum. The deliberate sabotage of power supplies underlines the determination of left-wing unions after a wave of strikes and street protests since early December failed to force Macron to back down. The hard-left CGT union's energy branch said it was responsible for an early-morning power outage at Rungis, the world's largest wholesale fresh food market.
- WorldNational Review
‘Sorry for Lying to You for 13 Years’: Iranian State TV Host Turns on Regime after Ukrainian Jet Downing
A number of Iranian TV hosts and other public personalities have denounced the regime in the wake of Iran's missile strike on a Ukrainian passenger jet that killed 176 people after the military mistook the jet for an enemy target. Apologies for lying to you for 13 years,” state TV host of “Good Morning Iran” Gelareh Jabbari posted on Instagram last Monday. It was very hard for me to believe our people have been killed, forgive me for believing this late.
- U.S.USA TODAY
Pennsylvania mom 'failed to feed' 26-pound 16-year-old boy, police say
A Pennsylvania woman is facing charges after Franklin County Children and Youth Services notified police of an "extremely malnourished" 16-year-old boy. Elisabet Estrada, 41, is charged with felony counts of aggravated assault and child endangerment, according to court documents. Police in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, responded to a home to assist Children and Youth Services in the early hours of Oct. 24, according to documents just released by the municipal court.
- WorldThe Daily Beast
Saudi Crown Prince Appeared to Taunt Jeff Bezos Over Secret Affair Before Enquirer Exposé
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman sent Jeff Bezos a photograph of woman loosely resembling the one he was having an affair with months before the National Enquirer published a report exposing the liaison, according to a United Nations investigation. Two United Nations special rapporteurs released a statement Wednesday detailing forensic evidence linking MBS to the Bezos hack, which suggests the future king of Saudi Arabia may have been threatening the owner of The Washington Post and founder and CEO of Amazon. Saudi Arabia on Tuesday night denied allegations of a politically motivated hack when it emerged that the UN was expected to formally request a response to the extraordinary claim that malware was sent from MBS' personal WhatsApp account to Bezos.
- WorldThe National Interest
China Learned the True Lesson of Pearl Harbor—Can We?
Imperial Japan would have been far better off had it forgone the attack on Pearl Harbor and confined its operations to the Western Pacific. Had Tokyo exercised some forbearance, it may have avoided rousing the “sleeping giant” that Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto reputedly said he feared so much. And even if it did awaken the American giant, it would have avoided filling him with what Yamamoto called a “terrible resolve” to crush Japan.
- WorldINSIDER
The brazen (and careless) Russian assassination team behind the Salisbury poisonings has been spotted in Europe, again
PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE OF THE REPUBLIC OF BULGARIA New images have been published of the Russian GRU assassination team working in Europe. A video from a case in Bulgaria shows a man connected to the 2015 poisoning of an arms dealer. The suspects in the Bulgarian poisoning are believed to be part of the same Russian unit that conducted the poison attack on Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, England.
- PoliticsPolitico
Why No GOP Senator Will Stand Up to Trump
At the end for Richard Nixon, after all the mounting evidence in the Watergate scandal, after both special prosecutors, after all the White House indictments, after the guilty pleas, after the obstruction efforts fell apart, after all the court fights, after all the damaging revelations in outlets like the Washington Post, Time and the Los Angeles Times, after all the impeachment hearings, it all came down to Barry Goldwater. It's easy, nearly 50 years after Watergate, to forget that Nixon's ignominious departure from the White House was hardly a foregone conclusion. The Republican Party had stuck closely with Nixon even through the darkest days of the Watergate scandal; even as its lawmakers whispered behind closed doors about his guilt and even as public opinion polls showed Nixon dragging down their party, they had toughed it out—past the indictments of his top aides, past the courts batting back one attempt at obstruction after another, even after Nixon's attacks on and ultimate firing of the special prosecutor targeting him.
- BusinessBloomberg
Halkbank Hit With U.S. Demand for Millions in Contempt Fines
Prosecutors charged the bank in October with aiding a yearslong scheme to help Iran evade U.S. economic sanctions and access $20 billion in frozen oil revenue. The U.S. pursuit of Halkbank, which is owned by the Turkish government, has been a sore point in relations between the two countries. “Halkbank has consistently sought to avoid responsibility for its role in a massive sanctions-evasion and money-laundering scheme that gave the Government of Iran access to billions of dollars' worth of restricted oil proceeds,” the U.S. said in Tuesday's filing.
- U.S.Associated Press
Indonesia detains American journalist over visa regulations
An American journalist is facing up to five years in an Indonesian jail and a fine on charges of violating immigration regulations, a lawyer and officials said Wednesday. Philip Jacobson of California was detained Tuesday in Palangkaraya city on Borneo island. The government has promised to ease visa restrictions for international media since President Joko Widodo took office in 2014.
- WorldReuters
North Korea abandons nuclear freeze pledge, blames 'brutal' U.S. sanctions
North Korea said on Tuesday it was no longer bound by commitments to halt nuclear and missile testing, blaming the United States' failure to meet a year-end deadline for nuclear talks and "brutal and inhumane" U.S. sanctions. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un set an end-December deadline for denuclearization talks with the United States and White House national security adviser Robert O'Brien said at the time the United States had opened channels of communication. O'Brien said then he hoped Kim would follow through on denuclearization commitments he made at summits with U.S. President Donald Trump.
What to Read Next
PHOTOS: Ukraine International Airlines plane crashes in Iran killing all on board
Yahoo News Photo Staff