- PoliticsYahoo News
3 things to watch for in Friday's Trump impeachment hearing
Yovanovitch, who was recalled from her post in May after Giuliani complained she was interfering with his demand for an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden, has testified that Giuliani's efforts were at odds with U.S. policy. Her testimony will likely corroborate what Bill Taylor, the top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine, described as the Trump administration's “irregular” channels of diplomacy with Kyiv. At the heart of the Democrats' case against Trump is the contention that he abused his power — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi referred to his actions as “bribery” — in seeking a foreign investigation of a domestic political rival and pressing his demand by withholding security assistance...
- PoliticsYahoo News
Sorry, Hillary: Democrats don't need a savior
Reminder: There are 84 days until the Iowa caucuses and 358 days until the 2020 election. With the Iowa caucuses fast approaching, Clinton is just the latest in the colorful cast of characters who seem to have surveyed the sprawling Democratic field, sensed something lacking and decided that “something” might be them. Never mind, for instance, that billionaire businessman and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg already closed the door on a run earlier this year, declaring in March that he was “clear-eyed about the difficulty of winning the Democratic nomination” and that “the best way for me to help our country is by rolling up my sleeves and continuing to get work done” as a political philanthropist.
- PoliticsNational Review
Young Turks Founder Cenk Uygur Files for Katie Hill’s Former Seat
Progressive talk show host Cenk Uygur has filed to enter the race for disgraced former congresswoman Katie Hill's congressional district, according to a Federal Election Commission database filing submitted on Wednesday. Uygur, host and creator of “The Young Turks,” a leftist online news outlet, tweeted “no comment” after news broke of the filing Wednesday night. A former MSNBC commentator, Uygur has drifted further left in recent years, but in college he espoused conservative views, supporting pro-life causes and defending Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
- WorldBusiness Insider
Pirates attacked an Italian ship off the coast of Mexico — the latest sign of a growing criminal industry
Gunmen boarded a ship in the Gulf of Mexico on Monday night, robbing the passengers and leaving two of them wounded. It's only the latest attack on oil infrastructure in the Gulf, as fuel theft becomes more common on land and at sea in Mexico. A pirate attack on an Italian ship in the Gulf of Mexico that left two sailors wounded isn't the first such incident, and with Mexico struggling to address rising insecurity, it's not likely to be the last.
- NewsUSA TODAY
South Carolina teen gets life in prison for deadly elementary school shooting
GREENVILLE, S.C. – On a day another deadly shooting took place at a school across the country, Jesse Osborne, the teenager responsible for a shooting at a South Carolina elementary school in 2016, was sentenced to life in prison. Judge Lawton McIntosh handed down the sentence in Anderson after tearful, heart-wrenching statements from family members of Jacob Hall, the 6-year-old first-grader who Osborne mortally wounded on a playground at Townville Elementary School. Osborne was 14 at the time and is 17 now.
- NewsTime
Mom of Missing Florida Girl, 5, Charged With Child Neglect After Massive Search Uncovers a Child's Remains
The mother of a 5-year-old girl whose disappearance in Jacksonville, Fla., last week sparked a massive search was arrested Tuesday and charged with child neglect and giving false information to investigators, authorities said. The development comes after investigators uncovered the remains of a child, whom authorities believe to be 5-year-old Taylor Rose Williams, in a wooded area in Alabama between the cities of Linden and Demopolis — about 450 miles northwest of Jacksonville. “While indications are that this may be Taylor Williams, the exact identification of the victim will be made pending some detailed forensic analysis of those remains,” Jacksonville Sheriff Michael Williams said at a press conference Tuesday.
- WorldReuters
Iran starts gasoline rationing, hikes prices - state TV
Iran introduced gasoline rationing and price hikes on Friday with an official saying that the revenue would be used for subsidies for 18 million needy families, state television reported. Iran, which has some of the world's cheapest fuel prices due to heavy subsidies and the fall of its currency, has been fighting rampant fuel smuggling to neighbouring countries. State TV said the price of a litre of regular gasoline was increased to 15,000 rials (12.7 U.S. cents) from 10,000 rials and the monthly ration for each private car was set at 60 litres per month.
WorldAFPHong Kong leader condemns London protester 'attack' on minister
Hong Kong's leader Carrie Lam on Friday condemned a "barbaric attack" on her justice minister, who fell while being surrounded by a crowd of jeering pro-democracy protesters in London. It was the most physical confrontation involving a member of Lam's cabinet since the protests, now in their sixth month, erupted in the international finance hub. Teresa Cheng, Hong Kong's deeply unpopular Secretary for Justice, was ambushed by around a dozen masked demonstrators as she prepared to attend a speaking event on Thursday night in London.
PoliticsYahoo News VideoKentucky's GOP governor embraces conspiracies as he refuses to concede
Only hours after he appeared to lose his reelection bid last week, Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin, a Republican, started making baseless claims about supposed irregularities and voter fraud.
- PoliticsYahoo News
'You embarrassed yourself': Kellyanne Conway blasts CNN's Wolf Blitzer for playing George Conway clip
Appearing live on CNN Thursday, Kellyanne Conway, special counselor to President Trump, was asked to respond to the assessment given by her husband, George, that testimony of career diplomats in the first public impeachment hearings was damning for her boss. George Conway, a conservative lawyer and outspoken Trump critic, appeared on MSNBC as a guest analyst during Thursday's hearings. While introducing a clip of George Conway, CNN's Wolf Blitzer told Kellyanne Conway he wanted to ask her a “sensitive” political question.
- WorldThe National Interest
Forget North Korea: This Is The Nuclear Hotspot No One is Talking About
Key Point: The rest of the world should work to calm nuclear tensions on the Indian subcontinent. While the United States is preoccupied by the threat of nuclear weapons in the hands of potential adversaries such as Russia, China or North Korea, the danger of nuclear conflict may actually be greatest between two of its allies, Pakistan and India. The two nations have engaged in four wars starting since their partition along religious lines in 1947.
- PoliticsNational Review
Sanders, AOC to Introduce Over $100 Billion Plan to Make Public Housing Environmentally Friendly
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) and Senator Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) plan to introduce legislation on Thursday that makes public housing more energy efficient, at a cost of over $100 billion. The plan, dubbed the Green New Deal for Public Housing Act, will call for renovation of public housing units to install community gardens and organic grocery stores along with on-site childcare services, according to the Washington Post. “Importantly, the working people who have been most impacted by decades of disinvestment in public housing will be empowered to lead this effort and share in the economic prosperity that it generates for our country,” Sanders said in a statement.
- NewsYahoo News
Immigration officer blows whistle on 'morally objectionable' Trump asylum policy
A new anonymous whistleblower has accused the Trump administration of requiring U.S. asylum officers to enforce an illegal and immoral policy “clearly designed to further this administration's racist agenda of keeping Hispanic and Latino populations from entering the United States. The policy in question is the so-called Migrant Protection Protocols, or MPP, the controversial program requiring that most asylum seekers who attempt to request protections in the United States via the southern border be returned to Mexico to await their immigration proceedings there rather than inside the U.S. Under the MPP, which was first announced at the end of last year, more than 50,000 migrants have been s...
- NewsThe Independent
American war veteran who spent several days in ICE detention receives $190k settlement
A US citizen and military veteran suffering from a mental health condition will reportedly receive $190,000 (£147,988) from a Michigan city after local officials transferred him to ICE detention following an arrest last year. Jilmar Ramos-Gomez, a decorated Marine veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, was arrested while experiencing an episode in which he lost all recollection, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Police found the veteran, who was born and raised in Michigan, on the helipad of a hospital after he started a small fire and pulled an alarm, according to reports.
- WorldBusiness Insider
An Air India flight was delayed nearly 12 hours after a stowaway rat was spotted in the cabin
An Air India flight flying from Hyderabad to Visakhapatnam was delayed for 12 hours after a rat was spotted in the cabin. Flight AI-952 was due to depart at 06:10 a.m. on Sunday but after the rat was spotted passengers were told to disembark the plane— which did not leave until later in the day at 5.30 p.m. according to the Times of India. A domestic flight in India was delayed for 12 hours after a rat was spotted in the cabin as the flight was about to take off.
- WorldBloomberg
Huawei Could Face Outright 5G Network Ban by Merkel's Own Party
The demand is part of a motion signed by 500 of her fellow Christian Democrats to be presented at the party conference next week, according to a copy obtained by Bloomberg News. Urged by hawks in Germany's intelligence service and the U.S. administration, the government recently agreed to ratchet up restrictions on Huawei that would block its components from the core network but allow them in less sensitive areas. CDU leader Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, like Merkel, opposes an outright ban of Huawei, and an approval of the motion by a majority of the 1,000 delegates would be seen as a vote against them.
- EntertainmentArchitectural Digest
A History of Modern American Architecture
A new book surveys the stunning work of Ezra Stoller, the most prominent photographer of 20th-century American architecture Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
WorldAFPVietnam jails music teacher for 'undermining' state
Vietnam sentenced a music teacher to 11 years in prison on Friday for Facebook posts that allegedly undermined the one-party state, which has been accused of tightening the noose on online dissent. Communist Vietnam has long jailed its critics but has come under fire recently for targeting users on Facebook, a popular forum for activists in the country where all independent media is banned. Nguyen Nang Tinh is the latest activist jailed for his Facebook comments, including posts about police brutality, land rights, and a Taiwanese steel firm that dumped toxic sludge into the ocean, killing masses of fish off the coast of Vietnam.
- NewsPolitico
In Republican lawmaker’s impeachment tweets, a hidden message?
The first letter of each of 23 of the Arizona Republican's tweets combine to spell out “EPSTEIN DIDNT KILL HIMSELF” — a reference many observers aren't willing to dismiss as a coincidence. The morbid acrostic, coincidental or not, reflects a repeated conspiracy theory-turned-meme over the death of the financier Jeffrey Epstein. Epstein was found dead in his jail cell in August, and a subsequent autopsy ruled his death a suicide.
- WorldAssociated Press
N. Korea calls Biden a ‘rabid dog’ for insulting its dignity
North Korea called former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden a “rabid dog” that “must be beaten to death with a stick” in its latest swipe against foreign and political leaders it sees as hostile to the North's leadership. The commentary by Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency said the U.S. presidential hopeful “reeled off a string of rubbish against the dignity” of the North's supreme leadership, an act it said deserves “merciless punishment. It referred to him only with his surname and as vice president under Barack Obama, and in some versions spelled his name as “Baiden.
- WorldReuters
Eastern Libya authorities stop plane from rival territory
BENGHAZI, Libya/TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Eastern Libyan authorities forced a civilian flight to land for security checks soon after it had taken off from a city controlled by their rivals in the Tripoli government on Thursday, authorities said. The 90-minute stoppage of the Libyan Airlines flight underlined the warring sides' competition for control of Libya's institutions and infrastructure - part of a rift that has frustrated U.N.-led peace efforts. The flight took off from the western city of Misrata and was ordered to land at Benina airport in the eastern city of Benghazi, an official at Benina told Reuters.
- PoliticsNational Review
Ethics Probe into Rashida Tlaib Extended after Watchdog Finds Evidence of Misuse of Campaign Funds
The House Ethics Committee released texts and emails on Thursday that show Representative Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.) repeatedly asking for campaign for funds to defray personal costs. The committee's announcement comes after the board of the Office of Congressional Ethics unanimously voted in August to refer Tlaib for a potential violation of federal law. While FEC regulations permit a campaign to pay a candidate, it must be for “work performed up through the date of the general election.” Checks, emails, and spreadsheets show that Tlaib was paid $17,500 after the November 6, 2018, election.
PoliticsYahoo News VideoThe U.S. Navy canceled a routine Black Sea operation after Trump complained that it was hostile to Russia
Christopher Anderson, an aide to Kurt Volker, former special envoy to Ukraine, testified that the White House canceled a Navy freedom-of-navigation operation in the Black Sea after President Trump complained to then-national security adviser John Bolton about a CNN report that framed the operation as a counter to Russia, Politico reported.
- NewsUSA TODAY
Judge calls USC dad a 'thief,' gives longest prison sentence so far in college admissions scandal
Toby MacFarlane, a former real estate and title insurance executive from California, was sentenced to six months in prison Wednesday for paying $450,000 to get his daughter and son admitted into the University of Southern California as fake athletic recruits. It marks the longest prison sentence so far handed down among 13 parents and one college coach in the nation's college admissions scandal. U.S. District Judge Nathaniel Gorton stressed that MacFarlane participated in the nationwide admissions scheme led by college consultant Rick Singer "not once, but twice," taking seats at USC away from two deserving students.
- NewsThe National Interest
The U.S. Marine Corps Is Making Big Changes (Thanks to Threats from Russia and China)
Currently the Marine Corps deploys infantry battalions to Okinawa, Japan on a rotational basis as part of the Unit Deployment Program. While in Japan, the battalions fall under 4th Marine Regiment, which has a permanent headquarters in Okinawa. The 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, while not part of the Unit Deployment Program, contributes another infantry battalion to Okinawa for several months per year.
