- PoliticsYahoo News
Parnas said he is speaking out because he is afraid of William Barr
Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas said he was giving media interviews about his role in President Trump's attempts to convince Ukrainian officials to announce an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden because he wanted to protect himself from Attorney General William Barr. Parnas made that claim in an interview with MSNBC host Rachel Maddow, the second part of which aired Thursday night. Trump, Parnas said, was made more powerful “when he got William Barr.
- U.S.Associated Press
Therapist charged with killing family faced fraud probe
A physical therapist charged with killing his wife, three children and dog in a home near Walt Disney World and leaving their bodies there for days was being investigated in Connecticut for health care fraud motivated by his need to pay off personal loans, according to court documents unsealed this week. Anthony Todt was being investigated for submitting fraudulent claims for physical therapy by the FBI and agents with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, according to an affidavit and criminal complaint unsealed Wednesday in federal court in Connecticut. According to agents, the allegations involved Todt and his Colchester, Connecticut-base clinics submitting claims to Medicaid and private insurers for physical therapy services that weren't given to patients.
- WorldINSIDER
An ISIS preacher captured in Iraq was apparently so overweight that police had to take him away in the back of a pickup truck
Twitter/AliBaroodi A well-known ISIS preacher was captured by Iraqi police, but he was apparently so overweight he had to be taken away in the back of a truck. Police said he incited extremist ideology and pledged allegiance to ISIS during their control of Mosul. Pictures posted to social media appear to show al-Nima being put in the back of a pickup truck by Iraqi forces.
- LifestylePopular Mechanics
10 Home Prep Tips Before Going on Vacation
Before jetsetting across the world, make sure your home is ready for your extended absence. From Popular Mechanics
- WorldReuters
Disease that killed millions of China's pigs poses global threat
Soon the dog's handler discovered and confiscated a ham sandwich in the purse of a passenger who had flown on a China Eastern Airlines flight from Shanghai. China has lost millions of pigs in outbreaks of the disease, pushing its pork prices to record highs, forcing purchases of costly imports and roiling global meat markets. Bettie is among an expanded team of specially trained beagles at U.S. airports, part of a larger effort to protect the nation's $23 billion pork industry from a disease that has decimated China's hog herd, the world's largest.
- PoliticsBusiness Insider
FBI agents visited the home of the Robert Hyde, the Giuliani associate who said he surveilled former ambassador Marie Yovanovitch
Hyde for Congress FBI agents were seen visiting both the home and business addresses of Robert Hyde, an associate of Rudy Giuliani now central to the impeachment of President Donald Trump. NBC News and CNN both report that the FBI visited Hyde's home in Weatogue, Connecticut and the location in Avon, CT where he runs both his landscaping business and congressional campaign. In a trove of WhatsApp messages between Hyde and Giuliani associate Lev Parnas, Hyde told Parnas that he was closely surveilling former US ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch.
- U.S.The Independent
Republican tells female reporter 30 schoolboys ‘could have a lot of fun’ with her
A Republican lawmaker is facing calls for a sexual harassment investigation after he told a young female reporter that a group of high school boys “could have a lot of fun” with her. Peter Lucido, a Michigan state senator, has been accused of making inappropriate comments to local reporter Allison Donahue during a tour of the state Capitol. Ms Donahue said the senator told her he would speak with her after addressing a group of about 30 boys who were visiting from De La Salle Collegiate, a nearby all-boys Catholic school.
- PoliticsYahoo News Video
McConnell says 'the House's hour is over'
During an address on the floor, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said, "The House's hour is over. The Senate's time is at hand."
- PoliticsNational Review
Jordan, Meadows Send Letter to FISA Court Questioning Kris Appointment
House Oversight Committee Republicans Jim Jordan and Mark Meadows issued nine demands to FISA Court presiding judge James Boasberg in a Thursday letter in response to the appointment of Obama Department of Justice lawyer David Kris to help oversee the FBI's reform of FISA applications. The letter, obtained by National Review, asked Boasberg to identify who else besides Kris was considered, whether Kris's past defense of the FISA application to surveil Trump-campaign adviser Carter Page was taken into account, and whether “the FISC bears any responsibility for the illegal surveillance of Carter Page,” among other concerns.
PoliticsAFPIran accuses EU of abandoning nuclear deal for fear of 'bully' Trump
Iran accused European governments Thursday of sacrificing a troubled 2015 nuclear deal to avoid trade reprisals from US President Donald Trump who has spent nearly two years trying to scupper it. Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Trump was again behaving like a "high school bully" and the decision by Britain, France and Germany to heed his pressure to lodge a complaint over Iranian compliance deprived them of any right to claim the moral high ground. The three governments "sold out remnants of #JCPOA (the nuclear deal) to avoid new Trump tariffs," Zarif charged.
- WorldAssociated Press
Bureaucracy to brutality: New evidence reveals IS hierarchy
The Washington-based Syria Justice and Accountability Center said Thursday that the evidence — documents produced by IS itself — could help identify individuals responsible for atrocities during the militants' four-year reign of terror and lead to criminal prosecutions. The 24-page report, called “Judge, Jury and Executioner,” is based on dozens of documents obtained by SJAC from inside Syria and collected by a local activist from abandoned IS offices in Raqqa province, where the militants also had their self-declared capital in a city that carries the same name.
- CelebrityUSA TODAY
Princess Cruises responds after 'Marriage Story' actress speaks out, sues alleging bedbugs
An actress who had a role in "Marriage Story" and her husband are suing Princess Cruises, alleging their room on the Emerald Princess ship was infested with bedbugs and left them with bites all over their bodies. Connie and Alvin Flores allege in a lawsuit, filed in November 2019, that their stateroom aboard the cruise they took a year earlier was "infested with hundreds of bedbugs." The pair cruised from Nov. 28, 2018, through Dec. 4, 2018, out of Los Angeles. Connie Flores played an "arguing woman" in "Marriage Story," and is now speaking publicly about the suit.
- U.S.The New York Times
Life in a Troubled Mississippi Prison, Captured on Smuggled Phones
They're treating us like animals,” that inmate said, before passing the phone on yet again. And so it went, from one prisoner to the next, in a phone call with a reporter that stretched on for roughly an hour. The inmates complained about unreliable electricity and water, injuries that had not healed, and the vermin that forced them to hang leftover food from the ceiling.
- U.S.The National Interest
Former U.S. Marine: Suleimani’s Killing Is the Apotheosis of American 'Strategy'
For all the righteous uproar it produced and the consequences still unfolding, in a way the killing of Iranian Major General Qassim Suleimani this month was business as usual. A longtime foe of America, Suleimani was killed by a Hellfire missile from a Reaper drone, like countless Al Qaeda terrorists, Taliban leaders, and other militants. Traveling to Iraq from Syria, Suleimani probably didn't even require the full exertions of America's vast intelligence and special operations manhunting machine.
- WorldReuters
'You have not seen anything yet,' climate activist Greta says ahead of Davos
Swedish activist Greta Thunberg marched with 10,000 protesters in the Swiss city of Lausanne on Friday and said "you have not seen anything yet" before some head to Davos next week to challenge the global financial elite to fight climate change. "So, we are now in a new year and we have entered a new decade and so far, during this decade, we have seen no sign whatsoever that real climate action is coming and that has to change,” Thunberg said in a speech in Lausanne. Hundreds will take trains over the weekend and then march to Klosters near Davos, the annual gathering of world political and business leaders that Thunberg is attending for the second year in a row and will take part in two panel events.
- PoliticsThe Daily Beast
Meghan McCain: McSally ‘Didn’t Earn’ the Senate Seat She Inherited From My Dad
The View's Meghan McCain took some shots at Sen. Martha McSally (R-AZ) on Friday after the lawmaker personally insulted a CNN reporter, pointing out that McSally didn't “earn” the Senate seat she was appointed to after McCain's father died. After CNN senior congressional correspondent Manu Raju attempted to ask McSally whether the Senate should consider new evidence in the impending impeachment trial, the Arizona senator snapped at Raju: “You're a liberal hack—I'm not talking to you.” McSally, meanwhile, quickly seized upon the instantly viral moment to fundraise for her tight election race before predictably appearing on Fox News to do a victory lap. Discussing the incident on Friday's broadcast of the ABC talk show, the View hosts noted that Raju's question was “very reasonable” and that the lawmaker also refused to answer it when asked by Fox News' Laura Ingraham during a chummy Thursday night interview.
- U.S.INSIDER
A 15-year-old orphan who lives with his grandparents is being kicked out of their senior living community because he's too young
Collin Clabaugh has been living with his grandparents, Randy and Melodie Passmore, in a 55-and-over gated community in Prescott, Arizona, since last year. Now the homeowner's association (HOA) from The Gardens at Willow Creek in Prescott, Arizona, says Collin can't live there, because residents must be older than 19. A homeowner's association is trying to expel an orphaned 15-year-old living with his grandparents, saying he's too young to live in the gated senior living community.
- BusinessThe Independent
Wealthy CEOs complain about feeling 'unsafe' because of homeless people in San Francisco
A major healthcare conference in San Francisco this week has sparked a debate about the California city's homeless crisis as wealthy executives and investors complain of feeling 'unsafe'. The city rakes in $51m (£39m) each year from the annual JPMorgan Healthcare Conference despite growing concerns about the city's homeless population among attendees of the healthcare industry's leading conference, according to Bloomberg News. The nearly 10,000 attendees have regularly criticised San Francisco's homeless crisis, Bloomberg reported, with one CEO describing it to the news outlet as “the Bill Clinton of cities”.
- PoliticsBusiness Insider
Trump tweets in all caps that he 'JUST GOT IMPEACHED FOR MAKING A PERFECT PHONE CALL!'
AP Photo/Evan Vucci As his Senate impeachment trial got underway on Thursday, President Donald Trump tweeted in all caps that he "GOT IMPEACHED FOR MAKING A PERFECT PHONE CALL." Trump was alluding to a July 25 phone call between him and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that is at the center of his impeachment. During the call, Trump urged Zelensky to launch investigations into his political rivals, including former Vice President Joe Biden.
WorldAFPMexico offers 4,000 jobs to new migrant caravan
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador offered 4,000 jobs Friday to migrants in a new caravan currently crossing Central America toward the United States. The caravan, which formed in Honduras this week and is making its way across Guatemala, currently has around 3,000 migrants, Lopez Obrador said. According to Guatemala's new President Alejandro Giammattei, Mexico has vowed to use "everything at its disposal" to stop them.
CelebrityUSA TODAYEvelyn Yang, Andrew Yang's wife, said she was sexually assaulted by her OB-GYN during pregnancy
Evelyn Yang, the wife of 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful Andrew Yang, is alleging that she was sexually assaulted during her first pregnancy by a doctor who has since lost his license. In an interview that aired on CNN on Thursday night, Yang said she was assaulted by her OB-GYN in 2012, claiming the doctor's abuse "started with inappropriate questions around how intimate I was with my husband, sexual activity, just very inappropriate probing questions that were unrelated to my health." Yang said the "examinations became longer, more frequent, and I learned that they were unnecessary most of the time."
- WorldAssociated Press
Town on edge in Colombia after 5 killed, 2 vehicles burned
A remote town was on edge Friday after at least five people were found shot to death, highlighting Colombia's struggle to bring peace to rural areas where drug crops are abundant and illegal armed groups are active. The killings happened overnight in an isolated part of the Jamundi municipality in southwestern Colombia and also left two vehicles incinerated, officials said. It was the third massacre in Jamundi in the past year.
- BusinessArchitectural Digest
The Best Compact Fitness Equipment Under $300
Set up a home gym in your tiny apartment without spending a fortune Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
- WorldThe National Interest
Secrets Stolen: What Will China Do With Data On Israel's Iron Dome Missile Defense?
Key point: America should be worried. A cybersecurity firm reports that Chinese hackers have stolen technical data for the Iron Dome rocket-defense system from Israeli computers. Maryland-based Cyber Engineering Services detected the cyber burglary, according to cybersecurity writer Brian Krebs.
- BusinessReuters
After India's Amazon snub, Modi's party slams Bezos-owned Washington Post
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling party on Friday slammed editorial policies of billionaire Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post, even as his e-commerce firm Amazon announced plans to create a million jobs in the country by 2025. Vijay Chauthaiwale, chief of the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) foreign affairs department, said there was "a lot of problem" with the newspaper's coverage of India, but gave no examples. The swipe at the Post came a day after a cabinet minister gave short shrift to Amazon's investment plans for India.
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