U.S.The Daily BeastKenosha Shooter Kyle Rittenhouse’s MAGA-Loving Defense Team Implodes
While Kyle Rittenhouse awaits trial for killing two people at a Kenosha, Wisconsin, Black Lives Matter protest this summer, his lawyers are in prosecutors' crosshairs. From the start of the high-profile case, Rittenhouse's lawyers have attracted nearly as much attention as he has. Now, the 17-year-old's main lawyer, John Pierce, is off the case, after prosecutors argued that fundraisers for Rittenhouse could act as a “slush fund” for the embattled attorney.
U.S.ReutersFire crews battle to tame Southern California wildfire after thousands flee
Firefighters battled to tame a wildfire on hillsides southeast of Los Angeles late on Thursday, some 24 hours after it broke out in a wooded canyon, apparently triggered by a faulty domestic generator. Two of some 500 firefighters deployed to control it had been hospitalized with injuries, the Orange County Fire Authority said on Twitter. The Bond Fire, named for the street in Silverado Canyon where it started, ignited late on Wednesday evening and was quickly whipped up by dry Santa Ana winds.
- U.S.Associated Press
Army Corps withdraws plan to charge for reservoir water
The Army Corps of Engineers reversed course on an Obama-era proposal to charge for water drawn from reservoirs the Corps manages, North Dakota's attorney general said Friday. Attorneys general from a dozen Western and Plains states sent a letter last year to the Trump administration asking that the proposal be withdrawn. Republican North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem headed the effort, which was backed by attorneys general from Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.
PoliticsThe WeekSidney Powell's new lawsuit puzzlingly alleges voter fraud benefited Trump
Disavowed Trump lawyer Sidney Powell is back with another confusing allegation of voter fraud that makes even less sense than usual. Powell has spent the past few weeks claiming, with no proof, that fraud in the 2020 election stole votes from President Trump and gave Biden the win. In a filing as part of her voter fraud lawsuit in Georgia, Powell writes that "machine-controlled algorithms deliberately run by Dominion Voting Systems ... took more than 2.5 percent of the votes from Mr. Biden and flipped them to Mr. Trump, for a more than 5 percent fraudulent vote increase for Mr. Biden."
WorldReutersPhilippines police threaten social distancing violators with caning
Philippine police on Friday threatened to cane people who violate social distancing protocols as the Southeast Asian nation fights the spread of the coronavirus during the festive season. The Philippines celebrates one of the world's longest Christmas seasons, starting as early as September, and crowds have started to flock to sprawling malls and shopping centres despite the pandemic. Police general Cesar Binag, commander of the coronavirus task force, told a news conference that police and soldiers would patrol in public areas in the capital Manila, the hotspot of COVID-19 cases, carrying 1 meter rattan sticks to measure distancing.
- PoliticsYahoo News Video
Georgia GOP Lt. Gov. is ‘embarrassed’ by misinformation surrounding election integrity in his state
As a pair of critical Senate runoff races approach on Jan. 5, Georgia Republican leaders find themselves in a conundrum, trying to balance indulging President Trump's baseless claims of voter fraud with supporting state GOP election officials. Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, a Republican, is frustrated with the misinformation about the election process in his state. I'm actually embarrassed at the amount of misinformation that continues to show up on Twitter feeds and Facebook posts and blogs that takes literally 10 seconds to debunk,” Duncan told Yahoo News.
WorldThe TelegraphBrexit: How trade deal talks went from optimism to the brink
Michel Barnier is accustomed to being universally praised on his regular tours of the EU's capitals to preach the gospel against Brexit. On Tuesday, he was in the unfamiliar position of coming under friendly fire for the first time in three years as the EU's chief negotiator. It was an uncomfortable moment for Mr Barnier, who was headquartered at the Hotel Conrad in Westminster and is enmeshed in intensive Brexit negotiations with his UK counterpart David Frost.
PoliticsThe WeekPelosi says she supports a smaller coronavirus stimulus now because Biden won the election
After six months spent pushing for a more-than $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus package, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is fine with something smaller. It's smaller than the $1.5 trillion deal the House's bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus drew up in September, and yet this time around, President-elect Joe Biden's win and forthcoming coronavirus vaccines have Pelosi ready to accept it. Pelosi went on to explain that she had held out for a bigger bill with longer-lasting provisions before she knew who would be the next president — essentially, she thought she wouldn't get a second chance at a stimulus package if President Trump was re-elected.
PoliticsThe Independent‘Few lawsuits breathe more lies than this one’: Judge eviscerates Sidney Powell election lawsuit
Sidney Powell, the attorney who was distanced from the US president's legal team because she pushed election-related conspiracies, was said to have submitted a lawsuit that “breathed more lies” than most cases seen in court, after she challenged Michigan's election results. Issuing a response to Ms Powell's lawsuit on Thursday, judges for the City of Detroit said the lawsuit contained “warped logic”, and dismissed claims that vote machines had been tampered with, among other conspiracy theories. “Few lawsuits breathe more lies than this one,” said the 45-page court document, which was shared online.
PoliticsReutersPompeo says violence levels in Afghanistan 'unacceptably high'
Violence in Afghanistan is "unacceptably high" as delayed peace negotiations get underway, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Friday, adding that Washington has asked the warring parties to "stand back and indeed stand down." Pompeo's comments, made in a virtual address to the IISS Manama Dialogue, an annual security conference, came two days after Kabul-backed and Taliban negotiators reached a deal in Doha to proceed with talks on a political settlement to decades of strife. Pompeo noted that he met with the negotiating teams during a Nov. 21 visit to Doha and he said he told both sides that the strife must be reduced.
WorldAssociated PressFarmers' protests snarl traffic, lead to clashes in Peru
Farmers demanding better pay have blocked a major highway in Peru for days, prompting truckers and motorists caught in nearly 10 miles (15 kilometers) of backed up traffic to pelt them with rocks on Thursday. Truckers complained that cargos were about to spoil and motorists complained of lack of food and water. But police declined to intervene at the blockade about 300 kilometers (180 miles) by road south of the Peruvian capital.
WorldThe TelegraphTop Hong Kong politician announces he is living in exile in Denmark and pledges to move to UK
Former Hong Kong politician Ted Hui has announced he has chosen to go into exile as Beijing intensifies its crackdown on high-profile figures of the former British colony's pro-democracy movement. Mr Hui, 38, initially fled to Denmark this week where he was joined by his family, but he said he would make his way to the UK to continue his pro-democratic activities. He joins Nathan Law, a prominent Hong Kong human rights activist now based in London, and a growing diaspora of dissidents who are continuing to advocate for more international pressure on China to allow greater rights and freedoms in the Asian financial hub.
PoliticsThe IndependentTrump raised over $200 million after Election Day. Just $8.8 million has gone towards challenging the vote.
President Donald Trump has raised $207.5 million since Election Day while seeking to overturn the results, according to a new report, while actually spending just a small fraction of that on efforts to challenge the vote count in key states. The president broke somewhat of an unusual record in the days since his electoral defeat, failing to concede to President-elect Joe Biden despite his own Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security discrediting his allegations of widespread voter fraud. The recount was the campaign's most costly expense at $3 million, while other funds went to Mr Trump's legal advisers like Jenna Ellis, who has reportedly taken in $30,000 since Election Day.
WorldReutersJerusalem church suffers damage in arson near Garden of Gethsemane
Israeli police on Friday arrested a man for trying to set fire to an east Jerusalem church by the Garden of Gethsemane, the site revered by Christians as the place where Jesus prayed before he was crucified. The 49-year-old Israeli suspect poured flammable liquid inside the Church of All Nations, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. The man then set it alight, a separate police statement said, before the church guard detained him.
ScienceBBCChina's Chang'e-5 mission leaves Moon's surface
China has executed the next stage of its Chang'e-5 Moon mission, blasting into orbit samples gathered on the lunar surface. Right on cue, at 15:10 GMT, an ascent vehicle lit its engine to head up to a service module that will shepherd home the rock and dust materials. It's more than 40 years since lunar samples were last brought back to Earth.
BusinessThe WeekU.S. economy adds 245,000 jobs in November, a 'red flag that momentum is waning'
The last jobs report to be released this year has arrived, and it's a major disappointment. The Labor Department on Friday said the U.S. economy added 245,000 jobs in November, which was down from the 440,000 jobs economists were expecting, CNBC reports. It was also "by far the lowest monthly total since the economy started its halting recovery," NBC News reports.
PoliticsAssociated PressJudge: Trump administration must take new DACA applications
The Trump administration must accept new applications for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that protects some young immigrants from deportation, a federal judge ruled Friday, in vacating a memo from the acting Homeland Security secretary that had suspended it. U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis said the government had to post a public notice within three days — including on its website and the websites of all other relevant government agencies — that new DACA applications were being accepted. The ruling follows one from November where Garaufis said Acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf was unlawfully in his position.
WorldReutersCat-and-mouse game with Turkey must stop, Michel says
A game of "cat-and-mouse" between the European Union and Turkey needs to come to an end, European Council President Charles Michel said on Friday, in reference to a dispute over natural gas resources in the eastern Mediterranean. "The game of cat and mouse must end," Michel told a news conference, as Turkey again withdrew an exploration vessel from disputed waters ahead of an EU summit on Dec. 10 that is set to discuss possible sanctions on Turkey. "In October, we defined a positive agenda, we reached out our hand," said Michel, who chairs EU summits.
LifestyleThe IndependentWho Is Kamala Harris’ husband: Meet Douglas Emhoff, the lawyer who will be America’s first Second Gentleman
Vice-president elect Kamala Harris is already making history — becoming the first woman of colour to be elected to the role. "Mr Emhoff is working with the Biden-Harris transition team to develop the portfolio he will focus on to support the work of the administration," a spokesperson for the transition team said, confirming that he was leaving his law firm. Mr Emhoff heaped public praise on his wife as the Biden/Harris campaign celebrated election victory on 7 November, after an agonising days-long wait for key swing states to be declared.
WorldLA TimesHer #MeToo trial's making history in China and sparking rare solidarity
Zhou Xiaoxuan, 27, more widely known by her nickname Xianzi, became a pioneer of China's #MeToo movement in 2018, when she accused Zhu Jun of groping and kissing her in a dressing room in 2014. Despite police warnings, pressure on her family, online censorship and harassment, Zhou has persisted — one of the few to make it into court on claims of sexual misconduct, which China did not recognize as grounds for legal recourse until last year. A young woman pulled out her lipstick to write #MeToo on another woman's mask.
PoliticsAssociated PressJudge calls Trump request in Wisconsin lawsuit 'bizarre'
A judge hearing President Donald Trump's federal lawsuit seeking to overturn Democrat Joe Biden's win in Wisconsin said Friday that the president's request to “remand” the case to the GOP-controlled Legislature to pick new electors was “bizarre.” The federal case is one of two Trump has in Wisconsin making similar arguments. Hearings on both lawsuits were scheduled for Thursday, with the judges noting the importance of resolving the legal battles before the Electoral College meets on Dec. 14.
WorldReuters'No presents': Mexicans urged to embrace abstemious Christmas to stop pandemic
Mexicans should cancel celebrations and even avoid exchanging Christmas presents to beat the coronavirus, the president said on Friday, pitching a frugal festive season to one of the world's largest capital cities as infections scaled new heights. "Let's leave Christmas presents for another time," President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said, urging people to scale down or forego traditional family gatherings over Christmas and New Year. Lopez Obrador said people should stay at home unless they had something "truly important to do" as he announced hospitals would increase patient capacity, equipment and staff.
PoliticsThe IndependentGiuliani’s witness at voter fraud hearing just got off probation for computer crime, reports say
One of the Trump campaign's key witnesses at a hearing about alleged voter fraud before the Michigan legislature just got off probation for an unspecified digital crime, the Daily Mail reports. Mellissa Carone, a former contractor for Dominion Voting Systems, went before the Michigan House Oversight Committee on Wednesday and claimed in bizarre, oftentimes belligerent testimony that instantly went viral, that she witnessed a host of election misconduct at a Detroit counting center.
WorldThe TelegraphChina creating 'biologically enhanced soldiers', claims US intelligence chief
China is conducting "human testing" to create "biologically enhanced soldiers," the head of US intelligence has claimed as he warned that Beijing poses the biggest threat to America's national security. In an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, John Ratcliffe, the director of national intelligence, warned that the US must be prepared for an "open-ended" confrontation with China which he likened to the Cold War. Mr Ratcliffe, who oversees America's intelligence agencies, said he believed China's intention was to "dominate" the planet in every sense: economically, militarily and technologically.
BusinessAssociated PressAfter being fined by US, Hyundai recalls more vehicles
A week after being fined by regulators for delaying safety recalls, Hyundai is recalling about 130,000 vehicles in the U.S. because the engines could fail. The recall will address a manufacturing issue that could cause the connecting rod bearings to wear out and the engines to fail, Hyundai said. Documents posted Friday on NHTSA's website say that owners could hear abnormal knocking sounds from the engine and see warning lights before any failure or fire.
“This metastasizing debt crisis has had tremendous social costs. An entire generation has been set back.”
“It is not the government’s job to step in and rescue those who took on more debt than their future incomes would support.”
“Many student-borrowers need relief, but well-off borrowers who are thriving — thanks to their college degrees — do not.”
“It will stimulate the lagging economy. And though not everyone will directly benefit, the country as a whole will improve.”
“Canceling student debt would cost billions of dollars each year and would exacerbate, not lessen, economic inequalities.”