- WorldYahoo News
Exclusive: The inside story of how the U.S. gave up a chance to kill Soleimani in 2007
One afternoon in Baghdad in the final months of 2007, a few members of a U.S. special operations task force were monitoring the feed from a Predator drone over the Iraqi capital, scanning for signs of trouble, when they spotted a large crowd gathering in the neighborhood of Sadr City. From their large, air-conditioned tent near Baghdad International Airport, the operators sprang into action. Sadr City was the dense, teeming home to 3 million mostly poor Shiites.
- PoliticsYahoo News
Impeachment trial fallout: Trump could get his wish — to hurt Biden
But the fallout could complicate life for Trump's leading Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, in the days and weeks ahead — which is exactly what Trump was trying to do when he first launched his Ukraine scheme last summer. As the all-important Iowa caucuses approach, the former vice president appears, at first glance, to be in better shape than his main rivals for the Democratic nomination. Though a new CNN poll shows Bernie Sanders narrowly pulling ahead of Biden for the first time, every other poll released so far this year shows Biden maintaining his longtime national lead by anywhere from 5 to 11 percentage points.
- WorldAssociated Press
Firefighting plane crashes in Australia, killing 3 Americans
Three American firefighting airplane crew members were killed Thursday when the C-130 Hercules aerial water tanker they were in crashed while battling wildfires in southeastern Australia, officials said. New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian confirmed the deaths in the state's Snowy Monaro region, which came as Australia grapples with an unprecedented fire season that has left a large swath of destruction. Canada-based Coulson Aviation said in a statement that one of its Lockheed large air tankers was lost after it left Richmond in New South Wales with retardant for a firebombing mission.
- U.S.Business Insider
The American Airlines flight attendant union is calling on US airlines to step up precautions for the deadly Wuhan coronavirus
VIVEK PRAKASH/AFP via Getty Images) The head of American Airlines' flight attendants union released on Thursday urged US airlines to buckle down and take "immediate emergency measures" to protect flight crews from the deadly coronavirus outbreak. "The health of our crew members and passengers is a top priority for us and we refuse to compromise their health or safety in any way," Lori Bassani, the president of the Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA), said in a statement. "I am urging American Airlines and all airlines to do everything humanly possible to contain the outbreak and minimize any chance of exposure."
- WorldReuters
Macron berates Israeli security men in tussle at Jerusalem church
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - "Go outside," French President Emmanuel Macron demanded in English in a melee with Israeli security men on Wednesday, demanding they leave a Jerusalem basilica that he visited before a Holocaust memorial conference. The French tricolor has flown over the Church of St. Anne in Jerusalem's walled Old City since it was gifted by the Ottomans to French Emperor Napoleon III in 1856. France views it as a provocation when Israeli police enter the church's sandstone complex, in a part of Jerusalem captured and annexed by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.
- U.S.USA TODAY
Family attorneys say cruise line's story of toddler's death is 'physically impossible'
Attorneys representing the family of an Indiana toddler who fell to her death from a Royal Caribbean cruise ship in July say their recent inspection of the scene proves the cruise line is lying to the court. Earlier this month, Royal Caribbean filed a motion to dismiss the civil case holding them responsible, claiming that Chloe Wiegand's death was solely caused by the "reckless and irresponsible" actions of her grandfather, Salvatore "Sam" Anello. The cruise line maintains that Anello was aware that the window Chloe fell from was open.
- WorldBloomberg
Putin to Meet Jailed Israeli’s Mother Amid Reports of Release
President Vladimir Putin is to meet in Jerusalem with the mother of an Israeli woman imprisoned in Russia on drug-smuggling charges, the Kremlin said, amid reports Russian authorities are preparing to free her. Putin, who'll be a guest of honor Thursday at a ceremony marking the 75th anniversary of the Soviet Red Army's liberation of the Nazi Auschwitz death camp, spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by phone last week about 26-year-old Naama Issachar. Netanyahu said after the call that he was optimistic about securing her freedom.
U.S.Yahoo News VideoJudge upholds mom charged for being topless at home
A judge refused to overturn part of Utah's lewdness law Tuesday in a blow to a woman who's fighting criminal charges after her stepchildren saw her topless in her own home.
- WorldThe Week
Virologist who helped identify SARS on coronavirus outbreak: 'This time I'm scared'
Experts are seeing shocking similarities between the coronavirus that has now spread beyond China and the SARS outbreak of 2003. Like the infectious pneumonia that has killed at least 17 people, SARS was caused by a coronavirus that originated in China. People were out at markets without masks, "preparing to ring in the New Year in peace and had no sense about the epidemic," Guan Yi of the University of Hong Kong's State Key Laboratory of Emerging Infectious Diseases told Caixin.
- WorldINSIDER
The brazen (and careless) Russian assassination team behind the Salisbury poisonings has been spotted in Europe, again
PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE OF THE REPUBLIC OF BULGARIA New images have been published of the Russian GRU assassination team working in Europe. A video from a case in Bulgaria shows a man connected to the 2015 poisoning of an arms dealer. The suspects in the Bulgarian poisoning are believed to be part of the same Russian unit that conducted the poison attack on Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, England.
- PoliticsYahoo News
Yahoo News/YouGov poll shows two-thirds of voters want the Senate to call new impeachment witnesses
Nearly two-thirds of registered voters (63 percent) agree with Democrats that the Senate should call new witnesses to testify during President Trump's impeachment trial, according to a new Yahoo News/YouGov poll. Only 26 percent of voters disagree. Conducted on Jan. 21 and 22 as the Senate trial was getting underway, the poll suggests that broad majorities of Americans side with Democrats in the pitched partisan battle over whether new witnesses should be allowed to testify or whether they should be blocked, as Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has maintained.
- LifestylePopular Mechanics
REI’s January Sale Offers 50% off Cold-Weather Outdoor Gear
Save big on Patagonia, The North Face, Columbia, and more of our favorite outdoor brands. From Popular Mechanics
- WorldBusiness Insider
A University of Minnesota student was arrested in China and sentenced to 6 months in prison for tweeting cartoons making fun of President Xi Jingping
Luo Daiqing, 20, was arrested in Wuhan, China, in July after posting tweets critical of the government while he was studying in the US, according to court documents Axios obtained. The University of Minnesota student was sentenced to six months in prison in November. A University of Minnesota student was arrested in China and sentenced to six months in prison for posting tweets critical of the government, Axios reported Wednesday.
- WorldReuters
Ukraine in talks with Russia about release of detained Ukrainians
Ukraine started talks with Russia on a new swap of Ukrainians detained in Russia and in eastern Ukraine, which is under separatist control, Ukraine's presidential office said on Thursday. "We have already started a conversation with the Russian Federation about the exchange of Ukrainians - all, including the Crimean Tatars, other Ukrainians who are in the territory of Russia," the office of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy quoted him as saying. In December, Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine completed a large-scale prisoner swap.
- WorldAssociated Press
Saudi crown prince's WhatsApp linked to Bezos phone hack
The cellphone of Amazon founder and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos was hacked in what appeared to be an attempt by Saudi Arabia's crown prince to "influence, if not silence" the newspaper's reporting on the kingdom, two U.N. human rights experts said Wednesday. The U.N. experts called for an “immediate investigation” by the United States into a report commissioned by Bezos that showed the billionaire technology mogul's phone was likely hacked after he received an MP4 video file sent from Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's WhatsApp account after the two men exchanged phone numbers during a dinner in Los Angeles in 2018.
- WorldBloomberg
Greek Prime Minister Says Turkey-Libya Deal Is Unacceptable and Illegal
Turkey's maritime border agreement with Libya is unacceptable and illegal, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said, amid growing tension in the eastern Mediterranean. Turkey has been difficult to deal with,” Mitsotakis said in an interview with Bloomberg in Davos Thursday. There's a constant state of provocation, which leads Turkey nowhere.
- U.S.National Review
White Nationalists Arrested ahead of Richmond Rally Planned to Kill Gun-Rights Demonstrators to Spark Civil War
Three alleged members of a white supremacist group were plotting to murder demonstrators at Monday's gun rights rally at the Virginia Capitol before they were arrested by the FBI last week, according to court documents. The men were caught discussing their plans on a hidden camera set up in their Delaware apartment by FBI agents. “We can't let Virginia go to waste, we just can't,” said Patrik J. Mathews, one member of the hate group “the Base” that promotes violence against African-Americans and Jews.
PoliticsUSA TODAYSen. Susan Collins wrote note to Chief Justice Roberts prior to his admonishing of Senators
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said she was "stunned" by remarks given by House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler at the start of the trial, where he accused senators of being complicit in a cover-up if they shot down measures to hear from additional witnesses. Collins, a key moderate who Democrats are hoping to convince that more witnesses should be heard from during the trial, said the remarks caused her to write a note to Chief Justice John Roberts, asking whether the Senate's rules had been violated. "I was stunned by Congressman Nadler's approach, and it reminded me that if we were in a normal debate in the Senate, that the rule will be invoked to strike the words of the Senator, for impugning another Senator in this case," she explained in an interview with Politico, remarks that were confirmed by her office.
- WorldThe National Interest
See This Nuke? Meet the Most Destructive Nuclear Bomb Ever Made By Man
Maj. Andrei Durnovtsev, a Soviet air force pilot and commander of a Tu-95 Bear bomber, holds a dubious honor in the history of the Cold War. Durnovtsev flew the aircraft that dropped the most powerful nuclear bomb ever. It had an explosive force of 50 megatons, or more than 3,000 times more powerful than the Hiroshima weapon.
- U.S.CBS News
4 killed in plane crash at Southern California airport
Four people were killed when a small plane crashed at the Corona Municipal Airport in California, authorities said Wednesday. The plane then crashed through a fence and hit a barrier to the east of the airport. "He [the pilot] didn't pull back and he was too fast on the runways," pilot Dorothy Voll, who witnessed the crash, told CBS LA.
- PoliticsThe Week
Senators reportedly laugh as Democrats play clip of former Trump official calling out Rudy Giuliani
Democrats are continuing to make their impeachment argument by citing President Trump's allies and officials, this time getting in a dig at Rudy Giuliani in the process. Sylvia Garcia (D-Texas), one of the impeachment managers who spoke Thursday in Democrats' second day of opening arguments in the Senate's trial, took apart the conspiracy theory pushed by Trump that it was Ukraine, not Russia, that interfered in the 2016 election by hacking the Democratic National Committee.
- WorldBusiness Insider
The outbreaks of both the Wuhan coronavirus and SARS started in Chinese wet markets. Photos show what the markets look like.
A coronavirus that originated in Wuhan, China, has killed 25 people and infected more than 830. The Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan is thought to be the starting point for the virus outbreak. At wet markets, meat is sold alongside live animals like dogs, hares, and civets.
- WorldReuters
U.S. imposes fresh Iran-related sanctions on two people, six companies
The United States on Thursday said it blacklisted two companies based in Hong Kong, one in Shanghai and one in Dubai for helping Iran's state-owned National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) export millions of dollars of goods in violation of U.S. sanctions. The U.S. Treasury Department said it imposed sanctions on the Hong Kong-based Triliance Petrochemical Co. Ltd and Sage Energy HK Limited, China-based Peakview Industry Co Ltd and United Arab Emirates-based Beneathco DMCC.
PoliticsYahoo News VideoPresidential candidate Tom Steyer: ‘I’m for reparations’
On Yahoo News' “Hot Mic with Brittany Shepherd,” Democratic presidential candidate Tom Steyer spoke about race and reparations, saying that if he were elected to office, “I would start a commission on race on day one.
- WorldBloomberg
U.S., China Must Adjust for Stable World, Singapore Leader Says
Both the U.S. and China must make adjustments if they are going to reach a lasting phase-two trade deal that benefits the rest of the world, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said. Speaking in an interview with Bloomberg's Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait, Lee said “both sides have to make quite basic adjustments.” The U.S., he said, must decide whether to create rules that allow “the best man” to win or only let America come out on top.
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