Alyssa Milano’s 'facts are wrong': Andrew Yang refutes activist’s allegations of campaign staffer sexual misconduct

Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang denied allegations made by actress Alyssa Milano that an unnamed campaign staffer engaged in sexual misconduct, saying the matter had been looked at promptly. During a sit-down interview with Yahoo News, Yang said that he and his team conducted an internal investigation on the staffer allegedly involved in the misconduct and found no evidence of anything sexual in nature. The staffer was dismissed instead for “management problems,” according to Yang.

• 
  Andrew Yang has defied expectations. Can he turn that into a 2020 win?

  USA TODAY
• 
  Andrew Yang says he’s willing to accept a VP offer from Joe Biden

  Yahoo News Video

Why the Drug War Can’t Be Won—Cartel Corruption Goes All the Way to the Top

According to U.S. prosecutors, Luna's assistance allowed El Chapo's Sinaloa Cartel to conduct business “with impunity” in Mexico for more than a decade. The arrest of García Luna highlights just how significant of a challenge Mexican president Manuel López Obrador faces in rooting out corruption among government officials,” wrote Maureen Meyer, the Mexico director at the Washington Office on Latin America. The sole fact that cases like Luna's are being heard in the U.S. and not Mexico points to significant weaknesses in Mexico's criminal justice institutions, and how political influence has tainted investigations for far too long.

An exclusive fundraiser reveals Pete Buttigieg is being backed by some of Silicon Valley's wealthiest families

Paras Griffin/Getty Pete Buttigieg is having a fundraiser hosted for him by a group of extremely wealthy Silicon Valley families, according to a host list obtained by Recode. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings is listed as a co-host, as are family members of Sergey Brin, Eric Schmidt, and Sheryl Sandberg. Buttigieg has come under fire from rival Democratic candidate Elizabeth Warren for his ties to big tech.

Body of 6-year-old girl swept away in flood waters has been found after 2-week search

PHOENIX – The Gila County Sheriff's Office confirmed Friday night a body found earlier in the day is that of 6-year-old Willa Rawlings, who was swept away in the swollen Tonto Creek two weeks ago along with two other children. Willa had been missing for two weeks after a vehicle she was in was swept away in floodwaters. Two other children, Willa's brother, Colby Rawlings, and cousin Austin Rawlings, both 5, also were swept away but their bodies were later recovered.

Operation Plunder: How 1 Hellish Battle Slowed The Allies' Capture Of Nazi Germany

January 1945—with World War II in its sixth year—found the Allied armies going on the offensive after the Battle of the Bulge, but they were still west of the Rhine and six weeks behind schedule in their advance toward Germany. Although U.S. and French units of Lt. Gen. Jacob L. Devers' Sixth Army Group had reached the western bank around Strasbourg in late 1944, the river proved too difficult to cross. The key to eventual victory lay in the central and northern Rhineland, but three factors delayed an advance: the failure of Operation Market Garden, the British-American airborne invasion of Holland, the onset of an extremely wet autumn and harsh winter, and the unexpectedly rapid recovery of the German Army in the wake of recent Allied advances.

75 years on, Battle of the Bulge memories bond people

THIMISTER-CLERMONT, Belgium (AP) — As a schoolboy three quarters of a century ago, Marcel Schmetz would regularly see open trucks rumble past to a makeshift American cemetery — filled with bodies, some headless, some limbless, blood seeping from the vehicles onto the roads that the U.S. soldiers had given their lives to liberate. Sometimes, Schmetz said, there were over 200bodies a day, casualties of one of the bloodiest and most important battles in World War II: The Battle of the Bulge which started 75 years ago on Monday and effectively sealed the defeat of Nazi Germany. ”It gave me nightmares," Schmetz said.

Six dead in protests against Indian citizenship law

Angry protesters in northeast India vowed Sunday to keep demonstrating against a contentious citizenship law as the death toll from bloody clashes sparked by the bill rose to six. Tension remained high at the epicentre of the unrest in Assam state's biggest city, Guwahati, with troops patrolling the streets. The legislation, passed by parliament on Wednesday, allows New Delhi to grant citizenship to millions of illegal immigrants who entered India from three neighbouring countries on or before December 31, 2014 -- but not if they are Muslim.

• 
  India protests spread over 'anti-Muslim' law

  AFP
• 
  Dozens injured as activists clash with Delhi police in citizenship law protests

  Reuters

New York Times editorial board calls for Trump's impeachment

The New York Times has joined a growing list of newspapers and publications that are openly calling for the impeachment of President Trump.

• 
  Schumer sends letter to set framework for impeachment trial

  CBS News
• 
  Lawmakers strike some bipartisan deals despite impeachment

  CBS News Videos

Kamala Harris flames out: Black people didn't trust her, and they were wise not to

Even though Barack Obama surprisingly won Iowa in 2008, Harris struggled to gain support in the small, mostly white state whose African American population is a whopping 3.8%. All that may be true, but it misses the most important part of the story. It was one thing for Harris to receive little to no support from whites in Iowa, but how could the fact that blacks in South Carolina (and beyond) weren't excited about her either be explained?

Zambia Wants U.S. Ambassador Out for Defending Gay Couple

“We have complained officially to the American government, and we are waiting for their response because we don't want such people in our midst,” Lungu said Sunday in comments broadcast on state-owned ZNBC TV. U.S. Ambassador Daniel Foote said last month that he was “personally horrified” after the high court sentenced the two men and called on the government to reconsider laws that punish minority groups. The move was particularly disturbing as “government officials can steal millions of public dollars without prosecution,” Foote said.

Kentucky governor pardons killer whose family donated to his campaign days before leaving office

The outgoing Republican governor of Kentucky has sparked outrage after he pardoned a convicted killer whose family had hosted a fundraiser for the politician and given him money. Matt Bevin, who was defeated in his bid for re-election in November, has issued over 400 pardons in his final days in office. Among those were Patrick Baker, who had been sentenced to 19 years in jail in 2017 after he impersonated a police officer to force his way into a home, then shot a man inside.

• 
  Matt Bevin issued hundreds of pardons, commutations during his last days as governor

  USA TODAY
• 
  Former Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin defends controversial pardons, blames outrage on 'political opportunism'

  USA TODAY

Italian city evacuated as World War Two-era British bomb is defused

Italian authorities ordered the biggest peacetime evacuation in the country since World War Two on Sunday to defuse a massive unexploded British bomb that was partially damaged when discovered in the southern city of Brindisi. The historic evacuation displaced some 53,000 residents  —more than half — of the coastal city on the Adriatic,  due to the high risk that the 440-pound ordnance containing 40 kilograms of dynamite could explode. The bomb is believed to have been dropped on the city in a 1941 air raid, during the period of World War Two when Italy was still allied with Germany and Royal Air Force  bombers based in Malta were targeting Naples, Brindisi and Bari in order to disrupt Axis shipping lanes.

The 25 Best Survival Games

You have one mission: Stay alive. From Popular Mechanics

Is Congress Set to Open U.S. Banks to Drug Cartels?

Last month, the House of Representatives passed a bill known as the SAFE Banking Act, a seemingly innocuous bill offering the nascent, state-legal marijuana industry access to banks. Interestingly, many House Republicans who claim to oppose marijuana legalization voted in support of the bill. Whatever their excuse may be, some House Republicans were hoodwinked in supporting this policy, and drug traffickers and cartel bosses naturally rejoiced.

Shooting shows New Jersey's gun laws aren't stopping imports

Officials from states with strong gun restrictions have called for stricter firearm control in places with weaker laws to thwart traffickers, but the fatal attack on a Jewish market in New Jersey shows how fruitless those efforts can be. Three civilians and a police officer were gunned down Tuesday by two killers with anti-Semitic and anti-law enforcement beliefs, the state's attorney general said. The attackers carried five firearms and a pipe bomb in the U-Haul van they drove to the Jersey City Jewish market before opening fire, officials said.

• 
  FBI recovers van it says may be linked to Jersey City attack

  Associated Press
• 
  Pawn shop operator Ahmed A-Hady arrested as Jersey City shooting investigation expands

  USA TODAY

Decades on, Soviet bombs still killing people in Afghanistan

Gholam Mahaiuddin sighs softly as he thinks of his 14-year-old son, who was killed in the spring by a bomb dropped last century in the hills of Bamiyan province in central Afghanistan. "We knew the mountain was dangerous," said Mahaiuddin, who found his son's remains after he didn't come home one day. Forty years after the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan -- and three decades since the conflict ended -- the war's legacy continues to claim lives across the country.

China's factory, retail sectors shine as trade tensions thaw

Growth in China's industrial and retail sectors beat expectations in November, as government support propped up demand in the world's second-largest economy and amid easing trade hostilities with Washington. The set of upbeat figures released on Monday follow firm signs of progress in Sino-U.S. trade negotiations over the weekend after the world's two largest economies announced a "phase one" trade deal that would nearly double U.S. exports to China. However, growth in infrastructure and the property sector, both key growth drivers, remained lacklustre in November, underlining key challenges for Beijing in its efforts to stabilise economic performance next year.

FBI breaks up 2 illegal streaming sites – including iStreamItAll, with more subscribers than Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hulu

Two programmers in Las Vegas recently admitted to running two of the largest illegal television and movie streaming services in the country, according to federal officials. One of the platforms reportedly had more paying subscribers than Netflix, Hulu and other popular licensed streaming platforms. An FBI investigation led officials to Darryl Polo, 36, and Luis Villarino, 40, who have pleaded guilty to copyright infringement charges for operating iStreamItAll, a subscription-based streaming site, and Jetflix, a large illegal TV streaming service, federal officials said Friday.

A Man Sparked Outrage After Slapping a Reporter's Backside on Live TV. Now He's Charged With Sexual Battery

A male runner who slapped a female reporter's backside in the middle of her live broadcast was arrested Friday and charged with sexual battery, according to records from Georgia's Chatham County Sheriff's office. Thomas Callaway, who turned himself in, was later released on a $1,300 bond, according to the reporter's employer, WSAV. Alex Bozarjian was reporting live on the Enmarket Savannah Bridge Run in Savannah, Ga., on Dec. 7 when a runner in a blue shirt passed her and slapped her backside — prompting Bozarjian to pause and look shocked at the encounter.

• 
  Runner Who Slapped Reporter's Backside on Live TV Arrested for Sexual Battery

  People
• 
  Man accused of slapping reporter's bottom is charged

  CBS News

A California Starbucks reportedly denied police officers service, in the latest of several alleged anti-cop acts at the coffee chain this year

Geovien So/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images This is just the latest of several alleged police discrimination acts at Starbucks this year. In July, Tempe police officers tweeted that they were asked to leave an Arizona Starbucks location. In November, an Oklahoma Starbucks employee was fired after a police officer received his coffee order with the word "PIG" written on it.

Indigenous boy stabbed to death in Amazon amid wave of rainforest racism

An indigenous 15-year-old boy has been stabbed to death in an Amazonian reserve in Brazil, the latest in a string of murders which have heightened tensions in the region. Erisvan Soares Guajajara's body was found on Friday in the Amarante do Maranhão city, on the edge of an increasingly deforested indigenous reserve on the fringes of the Amazon rainforest. The killing is the fourth in the Guajajara tribe in recent weeks and has further fuelled recrimination and racism in the febrile atmosphere surrounding indigenous people and deforestation.

NATO Nightmare: A Russian Invasion of Iceland?

Key Point: If war broke out, seizing Iceland would have been one of the Soviet's first initiatives. Tom Clancy's 1986 novel Red Storm Rising depicts a conventional war between NATO and the Warsaw Pact. It's one of Clancy's best books and, interesting for a story about a Third World War, doesn't involve a nuclear apocalypse.

Jeremy Corbyn's humiliating defeat a 'canary in the coal mine' for Democrats warns Mike Bloomberg

Presidential hopeful Mike Bloomberg has described Jeremy Corbyn's crushing defeat as a “canary in the coal mine” for the Democrats as the party gears up for 2020 election. With the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary only a couple of months away, Democrat centrists have seized upon the UK election results as evidence of the danger the party faces if it drifts too far to the left. Leading left-winger Elizabeth Warren, who had been polling strongly, has come under attack for her blueprint which would eventually see America's private health insurance system replaced by a state-run Medicare system.