- PoliticsYahoo News
In fiery memo, Dem lawmaker urges Congress to include Trump’s 'racism' in articles of impeachment
The first member of Congress who called for President Trump to be impeached sent a memo Wednesday to House members urging them to incorporate concerns about Trump's “racism” into the ongoing impeachment inquiry. In the memo, Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, noted that, in July, the House passed a resolution condemning Trump for making “racist comments” about four Democratic congresswomen of color. “How will history judge this Congress that passed a resolution indicating President Trump made harmful, racist comments if it does not impeach him for his impeachable racist, anti-Semitic, Islamophobic, transphobic, xenophobic language instigating enmity and inciting violence within our society?” Green asked in his memo, which was obtained by Yahoo News.
- NewsAssociated Press
Tennessee governor not stopping planned execution Thursday
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee announced Wednesday that he won't stop the state from putting a blind inmate to death in the electric chair later this week, clearing the way for the execution unless a federal court intervenes. Lee Hall, a 53-year-old inmate who became blind from glaucoma during is decades in prison, is scheduled to be electrocuted Thursday for his conviction in the 1991 killing of his estranged girlfriend. Hall had his sight when he entered death row nearly three decades ago, but attorneys for the condemned prisoner say he's since become functionally blind due to improperly treated glaucoma.
WorldAFPSix months of sacrifice: Hong Kong's protesters take stock
With Beijing taking a hard line, it has since broadened into a call to halt authoritarian China's attempts to erode freedoms in the city. Protesters broke into the forecourt of the city's legislative building, throwing objects including metal bars at police. Officers responded with rubber bullets, bean bag rounds and tear gas against their aggressors, but then turned their weapons on the huge, peaceful crowds outside the complex, igniting anger that has fuelled the protests for months.
- PoliticsTime
Joe Biden Challenges Iowa Man to a Push-Up Contest During Heated Exchange
Former Vice President Joe Biden got into a tense exchange with a man during a campaign stop in Iowa Thursday that included the Democratic Presidential candidate challenging him to do push-ups alongside him. “Look, the reason I'm running is because I've been around a long time and I know more than most people know and I can get things done,” Biden responded. President Trump is currently facing a House impeachment inquiry over claims that he withheld aid to Ukraine while pressuring the country to investigate the Bidens.
- WorldThe Telegraph
'Jews are France', says Emmanuel Macron after 107 Jewish graves desecrated in anti-Semitic attack
President Emmanuel Macron has pledged to fight anti-Semitism saying “Jews are and make France” after 107 graves were desecrated at a Jewish cemetery in the northeast of the country. The daubing of swastikas and other anti-Semitic graffiti on the graves at the cemetery in Westhoffen around 15 miles west of Strasbourg in the Alsace region was the latest racist attack to shock the country. "Jews are and make France," President Emmanuel Macron wrote on Twitter on Tuesday.
- WorldBusiness Insider
Iran is doubling down on the missile strategy that took out 5% of the world's oil supply
Iran is doubling down on the success of last summer's cruise missile attack on two Saudi oil facilities by positioning advanced weapons around the Middle East from Yemen to Lebanon, a NATO source told Business Insider. "The Iranians learned that they have a longer leash for conducting operations against the Saudis and UAE than they realized under the Trump administration," the official said. Iran has been widely blamed in the west for cruise missile and drone attacks on two Saudi Arabian oil facilities in September.
- BusinessThe National Interest
The Reviews Are In: 31 Air Force Pilots Say Why They Love the F-35 Stealth Fighter
Air Force Gen. Herbert “Hawk” Carlisle, commander of Air Combat Command, this week declared the F-35A fighter jet ready for combat. 1. Even with developmental restrictions that limit the F-35A's responsiveness and ability to maneuver, every U.S. fighter pilot interviewed would pick the F-35A over his former jet in a majority of air-to-air (dogfight) engagement scenarios they could face. 2. A former F-15C instructor pilot said he consistently beat his former jet in mock dogfights.
- NewsAssociated Press
Police chief firing puts spotlight on cops who let him go
For officers, pulling over a fellow cop can be an awkward dilemma, one that's magnified when it's the head of one of the nation's largest police departments. It's a worst-nightmare situation for a police officer to encounter their superior or chief who has been drinking,” said Philip Stinson, a criminal justice professor at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. They're damned if they do, and they're damned if they don't in terms of how they respond or act.
- 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.
- PoliticsYahoo News
Stanford law professor lights up House impeachment hearing
Stanford law professor Pamela Karlan delivered powerful testimony Wednesday before the House Judiciary Committee, explaining in simple terms her view that President Trump's conduct warranted his impeachment. As she began her testimony, Karlan, who was called by Democrats to testify with Harvard law professor Noah Feldman and University of North Carolina law professor Michael Gerhardt, rebuked Republican ranking member Rep. Doug Collins, who asserted that those who had not reviewed the testimony of prior witnesses had no business testify about it.
- NewsINSIDER
The college admissions scandal ringleader tried to recruit 7 Stanford coaches to be part of the scheme but only one took the bait
Stanford President Marc Tessier-Lavigne said in a letter to the university community that the ringleader of the college admissions scandal, William "Rick" Singer, approached seven coaches at the school about trading bribes for students' recruitments to the school at athletes. Tessier-Lavigne said an external review of the case revealed that only the school's former sailing coach, John Vandemoer, accepted Singer's deal. Vandemoer accepted $610,000 in bribes from Singer to facilitate the admission of students as sailing recruits.
- WorldChristian Science Monitor
After six months and a siege, Hong Kong’s front line takes stock
We have fantasies about building a new Hong Kong … where everyone has a deeply rooted faith in their rights and democracy” and so will defend them against government encroachment, he says. Never seemed to stop” Last month, the leaderless, nimble movement with the mantra “be water” made a costly, if inadvertent, misstep, Steve says. After calling for a general strike, protesters decided to block two main roads to give workers an excuse to stay home.
U.S.Yahoo News VideoEmployee shot at a Virginia post office
Authorities say a postal worker has been shot at a northern Virginia post office by an agent for the Postal Service's Inspector General's office. News outlets report that it happened Wednesday morning at the parking lot of the Lovettsville post office in Loudoun County.
WorldAFPWanted Indian guru resurfaces to announce new cosmic country
An Indian guru facing rape and sexual abuse charges made headlines Wednesday after he emerged from hiding and announced the birth of a new cosmic country with its own cabinet and golden passports. Swami Nithyananda, a controversial self-styled godman with thousands of followers in southern India's Karnataka and Tamil Nadu states, posted a video on his YouTube channel announcing the special project to his followers. 41-year-old Nithyananda announced that his country is called Kailaasa, and is the biggest Hindu nation without boundaries.
- EntertainmentPopular Mechanics
The 25 Best Sci-Fi Movies on Netflix Right Now
Rouge robots, deep space planets, and a voice assistant love story. From Popular Mechanics
- 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.
- WorldAssociated Press
Activists apologize for use of Holocaust victims’ remains
An activist group has apologized to Jewish organizations outraged over their use of purported Holocaust victims' remains in an installation outside Germany's parliament building meant to draw attention to the perils of far-right extremism. The Center for Political Beauty, a Germany-based activist group known for provocative stunts, installed an urn outside the Reichtstag building on Monday, saying it contained victims' remains that it had unearthed from 23 locations near Nazi death and concentration camps in Germany, Poland and Ukraine. “We want to apologize especially to Jewish institutions, associations and individuals who see our work as disturbing or touching the peace of the dead according to Jewish religious law,” the group said on its website in a post late Wednesday.
- BusinessThe National Interest
Double the Fighters: Why Japan Wants Domestic F-3s and the F-35
In February 2019, Japan turned heads with its decision to proceed with the development of an indigenous stealth fighter jet. This came in the wake of the decision to purchase more than one hundred American F-35 jets, and the supposed cancellation of the Japanese X-2 stealth fighter prototype in 2018. The Japanese Ministry of Defense announced the move to develop the new fighter, currently named Future Fighter or F-3 as part of their Mid-Term Defense Program (MTDP) that lays out modernization and procurement decisions for the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) for the next ten years.
- PoliticsBusiness Insider
Here's how Trump could be impeached, removed from office, and still win re-election in 2020
On Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced the House is moving forward with drafting articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump, but he could still be re-elected in 2020 even if Congress removes him from office. If a simple majority of the House votes to impeach Trump on one or more articles of impeachment, they go to the US Senate, which holds a trial. Two-thirds of the Senate would have to vote to convict Trump to remove him from office.
- PoliticsNational Review
2020 Democrats Expose Extreme Abortion Policies in New Survey
The New York Times has released the results from a set of questions posed to each Democratic presidential candidate about his or her views on abortion. Thus far in the primary race, very few of the candidates have been pushed to account for their position on a variety of abortion policies, especially during the debates. The Times should be commended for this effort to get candidates on the record on specific policy questions.
- BusinessBloomberg
Warren Is Drafting U.S. Legislation to Reverse ‘Mega Mergers’
Warren's staff recently circulated a proposal for sweeping anti-monopoly legislation, which would deliver on a presidential campaign promise to check the power of Big Tech and other industries. According to a draft of the bill reviewed by Bloomberg, the proposal would expand antitrust law beyond the so-called consumer welfare standard, an approach that has driven antitrust policy since the 1970s. Warren's bill, tentatively titled the Anti-Monopoly and Competition Restoration Act, would also ban non-compete and no-poaching agreements for workers and protect the rights of gig economy workers, such as drivers for Uber Technologies Inc., to organize.
WorldYahoo News VideoPakistan pulls back on prosecuting Chinese sex traffickers
Pakistan has declined to pursue a sprawling case against Chinese sex traffickers due to fears it would harm economic ties with Beijing, the AP reported on Wednesday. Pakistan has been seeking closer ties with China for years as Beijing continue to make major investments in the country's infrastructure.
- NewsUSA TODAY
Two of four teens who escaped juvenile detention center found outside Tennessee apartments
Police arrested two of the four teenagers who escaped from a Nashville Juvenile Justice Center over the weekend outside an apartment complex in Madison, Tennessee. Police Lt. Blaine Whited said Metro Nashville police obtained "very strong information" that led them to Madison's Robin Hood Condominiums. Gang unit detectives "saturated that area" at about 8 p.m. and spotted Decorrius Wright, 16, and Calvin Howse, 15, in the parking lot.
WorldAFPOpposition figure freed in Nigeria after court ruling
Nigerian opposition activist Omoyele Sowore and co-defendant Olawale Bakare were set free on Thursday after months in detention, for alleged treason. The pair were released hours after a judge gave the secret police 24 hours to release Sowore, who had been held since August by the Department of State Services (DSS) after urging protests under the online banner "#RevolutionNow". Sowore, 48, also ran unsuccessfully against President Muhammadu Buhari in the February polls.
- NewsThe Telegraph
Pearl Harbour shooting: two people killed after US sailor attacks base in Hawaii
Two people have been killed and one injured after a gunman opened fire before taking his own life at Pearl Harbour military base in Hawaii. The Pearl Harbour Naval Shipyard was locked down on Wednesday afternoon after the shooting which is believed to have started at 2.30pm local time (10.30pm GMT). The shooting took place at Dry Dock 2, near the south entrance of a combined US Air Force and Navy base about 8 miles (13 km) from Honolulu.
