- PoliticsYahoo News
New Yahoo News/YouGov poll shows that Democrats have so far failed to seal the deal on impeachment
As House Democrats draft articles of impeachment against President Trump and prepare for a floor vote before Christmas, a new Yahoo News/YouGov poll shows that a majority of registered voters buy their central argument for impeachment: that Trump put his own interests above the national interest when he pressured Ukraine to investigate his political rivals. Yet the poll also shows that Democrats have failed to translate that belief into broader support for impeachment, and that Americans remain too polarized and uncertain about key details to back Trump's removal from office in the kind of numbers that could create real momentum as the process heads toward a Senate trial.
- NewsYahoo News
Nikki Haley claims Dylann Roof 'hijacked' the 'heritage' of the Confederate flag in church massacre
Nikki Haley, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said that white supremacist Dylann Roof “hijacked” the Confederate flag by carrying out a mass killing of African-Americans in a Charleston, S.C., church in 2015. Haley was governor of South Carolina at the time. “Here is this guy who comes out with this manifesto, holding the Confederate flag, and had just hijacked everything that people thought of,” Haley said in an interview with host Glenn Beck published Friday on his website, the Blaze.
- NewsUSA TODAY
UPS driver identified in fatal Florida shootout; Video shows how gunfire unfolded
Florida UPS employee Frank Ordonez was killed in a shootout between police and robbery suspects after his truck was hijacked, his family told news media Friday. Ordonez's brother Roy confirmed to WFOR-TV in Miami and CNN that Ordonez was killed in the Thursday shootout in Miramar, just north of Miami. Roy Ordonez described his brother, a 27-year-old father, as "outgoing and happy," and told CNN that "what Frank really liked to do is spend time with his daughters."
PoliticsYahoo News VideoAOC blasts Trump policy, says her family used food stamps
Freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. slammed the Trump administration on Thursday over new changes to the food stamps program that will cause nearly 700,000 people to lose access to benefits.
WorldAFPIndian border officials on lookout for fugitive cosmic guru
Indian border officials and embassies have issued an alert for a fugitive guru accused of rape, the government said, days after the holy man announced the creation of his own "cosmic" country. Swami Nithyananda -- one of many self-styled Indian "godmen" with thousands of followers and a chequered past -- is wanted by police for alleged rape, sexual abuse, and abduction of children. Earlier this week, he announced online that he has created his own new country -- reportedly off Ecuador's coast -- complete with cabinet, golden passports, and even a department of homeland security.
- CelebrityBusiness Insider
Former Rep. Katie Hill says the wave of harassment she faced after alleged revenge porn leak left her contemplating suicide
She also admitted to having had a relationship with one of her campaign staffers, though she denied a separate allegation of having a relationship with her legislative director. "In the days leading up to my resignation, my life was just like everyone's worst nightmare," Hill wrote. Hill said she struggled with suicidal thoughts, but is now motivated to advocate for victims of cyber exploitation, also known as "revenge porn."
- WorldReuters
Thailand detains wife, children of Rakhine insurgent group leader
The Thai authorities have detained the wife and children of a top commander of Arakan Army, an insurgent group who are fighting for greater autonomy in neighboring Myanmar's Rakhine State, Thai officials told Reuters on Friday. Hnin Zar Phyu, 38, the wife of Major General Tun Myat Naing, 41, and their daughter Saw Pyae Shun, 11, and 11-month-old son, Myat Lin Zan, were arrested on Wednesday in Chiang Mai, a city in northern Thailand that has long been sanctuary for dissidents from Myanmar, and charged with illegal entry.
- WorldThe National Interest
Could Mexico's Version of the Marine Corps Crush the Cartels?
Compared to their counterparts in the United States, the United States Navy and Marine Corps, the Mexican Navy is small— around sixty-six thousand. The Mexican Naval Infantry, their Marine Corps, is even smaller— numbering only about eighteen thousand. In contrast to the United States Marine Corps and the United States Navy, the Mexican Navy's main missions have typically been coastal protection, which in the United States would fall to the U.S. Coast Guard.
- NewsThe Guardian
Why Texas’s fossil fuel support will ‘spell disaster’ for climate crisis
In the same month that Greta Thunberg addressed a UN summit and millions of people took part in a global climate strike, lawmakers in America's leading oil- and gas-producing state of Texas made a statement of their own. Texas's Critical Infrastructure Protection Act went into effect on 1 September, stiffening civil and criminal penalties specifically for protesters who interrupt operations or damage oil and gas pipelines and other energy facilities. The new Texas law is emblematic of the unyielding loyalty of conservative lawmakers to the fossil fuel industry in a state stacked with influential climate science deniers or sceptics such as the US senator and former Republican presidential hopeful Ted Cruz and which named a pipeline tycoon to its parks and wildlife conservation commission.
- NewsYahoo News
Judge blocks Trump's favorite construction company from building private border wall
A federal judge in McAllen, Texas, has temporarily blocked a plan for a construction firm favored by President Trump to build a privately-funded segment of border wall along the banks of the Rio Grande River. The same firm, Fisher Industries, recently won a $400 million federal contract to construct 31 miles of barrier along the border near Yuma, Ariz. President Trump has urged the Army Corps of Engineers to hire the North Dakota–based firm, whose head is a major Republican donor and a frequent guest on Fox News. U.S. District Judge Randy Crane issued the temporary restraining order against Fisher Sand and Gravel and its subsidiary, Fisher Industries, Thursday afternoon in response to an emergency request from the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Texas.
- EntertainmentPopular Mechanics
50 Great Gadget and Gear Gifts for the Holidays
Whether you're looking for new tech, tools, or outdoor gear, this guide has you covered. From Popular Mechanics
- PoliticsPolitico
Bloomberg says he shouldn't have called Booker 'well-spoken'
Mike Bloomberg on Friday expressed regret for calling fellow Democratic presidential candidate Cory Booker “well-spoken” earlier in the day, after the New Jersey senator said he was “taken aback” by the racially loaded remark from the former New York mayor. “I probably shouldn't have used the word,” Bloomberg told reporters at a campaign event in Georgia. Booker had charged that Bloomberg's descriptor, which generated significant criticism on social media, was representative of a failure by some of the party's leading White House hopefuls to energize black voters and communicate effectively on issues of race.
- NewsUSA TODAY
New Jersey journalist re-arrested in Nigeria after brief glimpse of freedom
The New Jersey resident imprisoned in his home country of Nigeria since August was re-arrested in a courtroom Friday by Nigerian state police, after briefly being freed from state custody Thursday. Omoyele Sowore, who lives in Haworth, had been scheduled to stand trial Friday on charges stemming from his Aug. 3 arrest while he was organizing a peaceful pro-democracy protest in the city of Lagos. "My 10-year old has on his Christmas list one of things he wants is for his dad to be home for Christmas," said Opeyemi Sowore, speaking at an impromptu news conference at the Newark office of Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J.
WorldAFPIraqis protest to defy 'slaughter' in Baghdad as drone hits cleric's home
Thousands attended angry protests in Baghdad and southern Iraq Saturday, grieving but defiant after 20 of them were killed in an attack the previous day that demonstrators described as "slaughter". The dramatic developments have threatened to derail the anti-government rallies rocking Iraq since October, the largest and deadliest grassroots movement in decades. Late Friday, at least 20 protesters were killed or sustained wounds that later proved fatal, while dozens more were injured, when unidentified gunmen attacked a large building where protesters had camped out for weeks, medics said.
- BusinessBusiness Insider
Tesla changed the release dates for the most and least expensive versions of the Cybertruck by a year
Tesla has changed the production timelines for the most and least expensive trims of its Cybertruck pickup truck. It said production for the three-motor, all-wheel-drive Cybertruck, which starts at $69,900, would begin in 2021, a year earlier than Tesla first announced. The single-motor, rear-wheel-drive Cybertruck, which starts at $39,900, will enter production in late 2022, a year later than its original timeline, Tesla said.
- WorldReuters
Official documents shed light on Tokyo's role in 'comfort women': Kyodo
The Imperial Japanese Army asked the government to provide one "comfort woman" for every 70 soldiers, Japan's Kyodo news agency said, citing wartime government documents it had reviewed, shedding a fresh light on Tokyo's involvement in the practice. "Comfort women" is a euphemism for the girls and women - many of them Korean - forced into prostitution at Japanese military brothels. The issue has plagued Japan's ties with South Korea for decades.
- BusinessThe National Interest
Russia's Su-57 Would Be A Game-Changer If It Wasn't So Expensive
Key point: A fancy photo shoot can't reverse an economic slump, nor can it magically conjure hundreds of new stealth fighters. 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.
- NewsAssociated Press
Mexicans fleeing violence form new encampment on border
An exodus of migrants fleeing drug cartel violence and corruption in Mexico has mired hundreds of immigrants in ramshackle tent camps across the border from El Paso and brought new chaos to a system of wait lists for asylum seekers to get into the U.S. Migrant tent camps have been growing in size at several border crossings in Ciudad Juarez, driven by a surge in asylum seekers from regions in southern Mexico gripped by cartel violence. One camp in Juarez is populated by about 250 Mexican asylum seekers, who are living in increasingly cold conditions as they wait for U.S. authorities to let them in to the country.
- PoliticsBloomberg
Biden Says He Would Consider Giving Ambassadorships to Donors
Joe Biden said Friday he would not rule out appointing donors as ambassadors, but wouldn't make decisions about those roles based on someone's financial contributions. Nobody in fact will be appointed by me based on anything they contributed,” he told a group of reporters aboard his “No Malarkey” bus in Decorah, Iowa. But, for example, you have some of the people who are out there that are prepared to in fact, that are fully qualified — head of everything from being the ambassador to NATO to be the ambassador to France or any other country — who may or may not have contributed, but that will not be any basis upon which I in fact would appoint anybody.
- NewsThe Independent
Guantanamo Bay detainee draws pictures of ‘enhanced interrogation’ torture tactics he suffered at secret US prison
Attorneys for a Saudi detainee at the notorious terrorist detention facility Guantanamo Bay have released harrowing drawings illustrated by their client that displayed brutal torture techniques he suffered through at the hands of US officials. The illustrations were first published as part of a report by Seton Hall University School of Law's Centre for Policy and Research, titled “How America Tortures”. The Independent also published eight of the illustrations with permission from Mark P Denbeaux, a co-counsel in the detainee's defence.
- NewsNational Review
Judge Allows Criminal Trial to Proceed against Pro-Life Investigators
A San Francisco judge ruled Friday that the criminal trial may move forward against the pro-life investigators who went undercover to record abortion industry executives talking about procuring fetal body parts. Judge Christopher Hite deemed the evidence sufficient to send to trial the case against David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt of the Center for Medical Progress, who are charged with nine felony counts, one count of conspiracy and eight counts of illegal taping. Daleiden, 30, and Merritt, 64, several years ago surreptitiously recorded executives from Planned Parenthood and other organizations haggling about compensation for the procurement of fetal parts for researchers who request them.
- NewsTime
The Story of Henry Lee Lucas, the Notorious Subject of Netflix’s The Confession Killer
Henry Lee Lucas was a notorious self-proclaimed serial killer who confessed to committing as many as 600 murders. But as detailed by the new Netflix documentary series The Confession Killer, most of these claims were lies. Through archival footage from news channels and police confessional videos, and interviews with law enforcement officials and the families of victims, directors Robert Kenner and Taki Oldham offer a compelling look at the fallout wrought by Lucas' false confessions—and the police officers who were more than willing to go along with them.
NewsAFPMilitary base shooter assailed US as 'nation of evil'
A Saudi military student reportedly condemned America as a "nation of evil" in an online manifesto prior to opening fire Friday at a US naval base, killing three people before being shot dead by police. The shooting, which took place in a classroom building at Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida, left eight others wounded, including two sheriff's deputies who responded to the attack. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said the shooter was from Saudi Arabia -- the same nationality as 15 of the 19 men involved in the 9/11 attacks, some of whom attended civilian flight school in Florida.
- NewsBusiness Insider
Top US Marine says young troops should not be blamed for using TikTok, responsibility is with senior leaders
Gen. David Berger, the US Marine Corps commandant, said concerns over a service members' use of Chinese-owned apps like TikTok should be directed against the military's leadership, rather than the individual troops. Foreign-owned apps like TikTok have prompted concern from lawmakers and the military in recent months. SIMI VALLEY, Calif. — Gen. David Berger, the US Marine Corps commandant, suggested the concerns surrounding a service members' use of questionable Chinese-owned apps like TikTok should be directed against the military's leadership, rather than the individual troops.
- NewsCBS News
Innovators have come up with a way to clear forests without setting fires
Letting forest fires burn, or even intentionally setting them, has often been considered good forest management. A massive tree-eating machine called the feller buncher is used to thin out trees on the Trinchera Blanca Ranch in Colorado, CBS News correspondent Barry Petersen reports. The goal is creating a sustainable forest.
