- PoliticsYahoo News
Mueller witness bragged about access to Clintons secured with illegal campaign cash, says Justice Department
An emissary for two wealthy Arab princes boasted to unnamed officials of a Middle Eastern government about his direct access to Hillary and Bill Clinton while funneling more than $3.5 million in illegal campaign contributions to the former secretary of state's 2016 presidential campaign and Democratic fundraising committees, according to a federal indictment announced by the Justice Department this week. Wonderful meeting with Big Lady. Can't wait to tell you all about it,” George Nader allegedly wrote to an official of one of the foreign governments he advises in the Middle East after attending a political fundraiser with Hillary Clinton on April 16, 2016.
- NewsReuters
Indiana judge grants stay of execution for federal inmate
A convicted murderer set to become the first federal inmate to be executed in 16 years was granted a stay of execution on Thursday by a judge in Indiana. Daniel Lewis Lee, a white supremacist convicted in Arkansas of murdering a family of three, was granted the stay by U.S. District Judge James Patrick Hanlon. Lee's execution had been set for Monday, but a separate ruling by a judge in Washington last month put his execution and that of three other federal inmates on hold.
- PoliticsUSA TODAY
Rep. Duncan Hunter: 'Shortly after the holidays I will resign from Congress'
WASHINGTON – California Rep. Duncan Hunter announced he would be resigning from Congress "shortly after the holidays" after pleading guilty in federal court earlier this week to misusing campaign funds. Hunter and his wife were indicted on 60 counts of campaign finance violations by federal prosecutors in August 2018. Prosecutors alleged he and Margaret Hunter skirted federal campaign finance laws from 2009 to 2016 by using more than $250,000 in campaign funds to pay for personal vacations, bills, and in Duncan Hunter's case, affairs with three lobbyists, a congressional aide, and one of his staffers.
PoliticsAFPBloomberg says his reporters must 'live with' limits on coverage
Democratic presidential hopeful Michael Bloomberg on Friday defended the policy implemented by his news agency to steer clear of investigating him, saying doing so would not be credible. Bloomberg told CBS News he "hired somebody outside" to run the Bloomberg News organization and establish policies for ethics. When asked about complaints from Bloomberg journalists that the policy to avoid investigating him or other Democratic candidates, he replied, that they "have to live with some things" about the job.
- WorldBusiness Insider
Reddit has said that Russia likely posted leaked UK trade documents as part of a vast covert influence campaign
Reddit has said that leaked documents on US-UK trade deal discussions were likely posted on the site as part of a Russian influence campaign. The documents were cited by Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the UK's opposition Labour party, as evidence that his opponent in the UK general election, Prime Minister Boris Johnson, was poised to sell out the NHS in trade negotiations with the US. Researchers earlier in the week said that the accounts that posted the documents on Reddit indicated links to a vast Russian influence campaign uncovered on Facebook dubbed Secondary Infektion.
- WorldAssociated Press
Elon Musk cleared of defamation in 'pedo guy' tweet trial
Vernon Unsworth, who participated in the rescue of 12 boys and their soccer coach trapped for weeks in a Thailand cave last year, had sought $190 million in damages for the shame and humiliation caused by the man his lawyer called a “billionaire bully." It took less than an hour for an eight-person jury in Los Angeles federal court to reject Unsworth's claim after a four-day trial. Musk said the verdict restored his faith in humanity as he quickly left the court with his security detail.
- NewsNational Review
Virginia Commission Calls for Repeal of ‘Explicitly Racist’ and ‘Segregationist’ Laws
A Virginia state commission released a report Thursday calling for the official repeal of “deeply troubling” state laws still on the books that contain “explicitly racist language and segregationist policies. The Commission to Examine Racial Inequity in Virginia Law published a lengthy report saying that the outdated laws should not “remain enshrined in law” despite no longer being in effect. The commission believes that such vestiges of Virginia's segregationist past should no longer have official status,” the report states.
- NewsThe Guardian
Two school shootings a day apart: Wisconsin reckons with impact of armed guards
Shootings a day apart at two high schools in Wisconsin have shaken the state and sparked a renewed debate over how to combat violence in American schools. An Oshkosh police department resource officer shot a 16-year-old student Tuesday after the boy stabbed him in the officer's office at Oshkosh West high school. A day earlier, a resource officer at Waukesha South high school helped clear students out of a classroom after a 17-year-old student pointed a pellet gun at another student's head.
- BusinessThe National Interest
Bombs Away! The Powerful B-52 Bomber Is Getting Even More Deadly
Key point: The Pentagon may end up flying the B-52 for 100 years. Sixty-seven years after the U.S. Air Force received its last B-52 from Boeing, the flying branch finally has firmed up plans to fit the heavy bomber with new engines. Air Force magazine in its January 2019 issue took a deep dive into the re-engining effort.
- LifestylePopular Mechanics
13 Mythical Creatures, Ranked
Did your favorite make the list? From Popular Mechanics
- PoliticsYahoo News
Republican who 'wanted to destroy' Bill Clinton during 1998 impeachment has regrets
A former Republican congressman who led the charge to impeach Bill Clinton in 1998 said he paid a visit to the former Democratic president a few years ago to ask forgiveness for his role in the affair. “I hated Bill Clinton, wanted to destroy him, asked to be on Judiciary Committee so that I could impeach him,” said Bob Inglis, R-S.C., in an interview on “The Long Game,” a Yahoo News podcast. Inglis visited Clinton a few years ago at the former president's office in Harlem, he said, in what he described as a “very interesting” meeting.
- WorldReuters
Why many Indians cheered police for killing gang rape accused
Many Indians took to social media on Friday to applaud the police killings of four men accused in the gang rape and murder of a 27-year-old veterinarian in the southern city of Hyderabad. Police said the men tried to snatch the weapons of accompanying policemen when they were taken to the scene of the crime to reconstruct events. All four of the accused were killed and two policemen were injured.
- NewsTime
Trump Administration Authorizes 'Cyanide Bombs' to Kill Predators Again, Months After Backlash
The Trump Administration will reauthorize the use of so-called “cyanide bombs” to poison coyotes, foxes and feral dogs that could threaten private livestock. The decision comes four months after halting their authorization amid public backlash. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced Thursday it would include new safety requirements to protect humans and pets, such as additional signs and increased distances the distance the “cyanide bombs” must be from homes and roads.
BusinessYahoo News VideoBloomberg says ending 'nationwide madness' of gun violence drives his presidential bid
Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg said on Thursday he wants to become president to end "the nationwide madness" of U.S. gun violence, calling it evil and saying he would allow its victims to file lawsuits against gun manufacturers.
- 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.
- 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.
- PoliticsUSA TODAY Opinion
Why care about the Trump impeachment? Your right to vote in free elections is at stake.
Of particular interest to me in last week's House impeachment hearing was a moment when the chief counsel for the Republicans read aloud a quote about the dangers of a purely partisan, policy-based impeachment of a sitting president. After weeks of House impeachment hearings that resume Monday, Republican defenders of President Donald Trump have contented themselves with pointless, time-wasting calls for roll call votes; baseless complaints about the process, which was the most protective of a sitting president in the nation's history; and deliberate distortions of what others had written or said. A president who uses the powers unique to his office to solicit what by any plausible definition is a bribe, commits one of the cardinal sins the Constitution identifies as requiring that president's removal from office upon conviction by the Senate.
- WorldAssociated Press
Germany's Merkel voices 'shame' during 1st Auschwitz visit
German Chancellor Angela Merkel voiced a feeling of deep shame” during her first-ever visit on Friday to the hallowed grounds of the former Nazi German death camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau, where Adolf Hitler's regime murdered more than a million people. Merkel noted that her visit comes amid rising anti-Semitism and historical revisionism and vowed that Germany would not tolerate anti-Semitism. She said Germany remains committed to remembering the crimes that it committed against Jews, Poles, Roma and Sinti, homosexuals and others.
- WorldThe National Interest
Should America Fear the Chinese H-20 Stealth Bomber?
Key point: The United States is beginning to lose its footing in East Asia. In October 2018, Chinese media announced that the People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) would publicly unveil its new H-20 stealth bomber during a parade celebrating the air arm's seventieth anniversary in 2019. Prior news of the H-20's development had been teased using techniques pioneered by viral marketing campaigns for Hollywood movies.
- WorldBloomberg
Brexit Bulletin: Sneak Peek
One of the key characters in Brexit's next season is already cast. With just a week to go until the U.K. votes in a crucial general election, Bloomberg reporters have taken a close look at two of the very biggest — in all senses of the word. As Tim Ross reports today, one of the key concerns for Prime Minister Boris Johnson's handlers and strategists is keeping their man on the straight and narrow during the electoral run-in.
WorldAFPIndian police investigated over killings of rape suspects
A top Indian rights group on Saturday launched an investigation into the police shooting of four rape-murder suspects after accusations they were gunned down in cold blood to assuage public anger. But in a country where violence against women is rife and an overburdened criminal justice system means attackers often escape punishment, many Indians also celebrated the suspects' deaths. The launch of the investigation by the National Human Rights Commission comes as India also reeled from the death of another woman on Friday, set on fire on her way to a sexual assault court hearing in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.
- 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.
- 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.
- PoliticsBusiness Insider
POWER RANKING: Here's who has the best chance of becoming the 2020 Democratic presidential nominee
Despite being one of the first to enter the race, Gabbard is still polling at 1% in Morning Consult and is considered a less viable opponent to President Donald Trump in the general election than most other candidates. But we gave Gabbard another boost on November 1, moving her up two spots from 12th to 10th place following her very public and nasty feud with 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, who Gabbrard called "the embodiment of corruption" and the "personification of the rot that has sickened the Democratic Party." The bump in media attention clearly worked in Gabbard's favor when it comes to polling.
- WorldCBS News
Dozens of hungry polar bears causing problems for a Russian village
Experts note that hungry bears are attracted by the smell of food waste and garbage. "Gatherings of polar bears are becoming more frequent, and we have to adapt and find ways to avoid conflicts between people and animals," said Mikhail Stishov, Arctic biodiversity projects coordinator for WWF-Russia. Anatoly Kochnev, a scientist at the Institute of Biological Problems of the North, told Russia's Tass news agency that the residents in Ryrkaypiy were very concerned about the increasing number of visits by polar bears.
