| Taliban council agrees to cease-fire in Afghanistan Posted: 29 Dec 2019 01:50 AM PST  The Taliban's ruling council agreed Sunday to a temporary cease-fire in Afghanistan, providing a window in which a peace agreement with the United States can be signed, officials from the insurgent group said. A cease-fire had been demanded by Washington before any peace agreement could be signed. A peace deal would allow the U.S. to bring home its troops from Afghanistan and end its 18-year military engagement there, America's longest.
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| Machete Attacker Stabs 5 at NY Rabbi’s Hanukkah Celebration Posted: 28 Dec 2019 07:48 PM PST  A masked, machete-wielding man barged into a Hanukkah celebration and stabbed five people at a rabbi's home in Monsey, New York, on Saturday evening, intensifying fears anti-Semitic violence after a spate of incidents last week. The assailant escaped but the NYPD quickly picked up a suspect. Law-enforcement sources identified him as Grafton Thomas, 37, who has several previous arrests on his record, including one for punching a police horse. He was turned over to the state police, and will face five counts of attempted murder.The terrifying ambush—which took place in Rockland County, a northern suburb that has the highest per capita Jewish population in the U.S.—drew swift condemnation from public officials from Israel to Washington. Gov. Andrew Cuomo called it an "act of domestic terrorism."According to Ramapo Police Chief Brad Weidel, a man covering his face with a scarf knocked on the door at Rabbi Rottenburg's shul during the seventh night of Hanukkah just as the rabbi was lighting the candle. The assailant rushed past the man who answered the door, who said he pulled out a machete and began stabbing people, according to several witnesses.He is said to have gone after terrified victims as they ran away and tried to access the adjacent synagogue before fleeing the scene after some of the guests hit him with chairs and a small table.Ramapo Town Police said the suspect was in custody. He reportedly escaped the scene but was arrested in Harlem after being tracked down through the license plate number of his vehicle.Of the five victims rushed to local hospitals, two of them were in critical condition as of late Saturday, according to the Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council for the Hudson Valley region. The organization said one of the victims had been stabbed six times. Governor Andrew Cuomo called the stabbings a "cowardly act" and directed the State Police Hate Crimes Task Force to investigate the incident."Let me be clear: anti-Semitism and bigotry of any kind are repugnant to our values of inclusion and diversity and we have absolutely zero tolerance for such acts of hate," Cuomo said in a statement. "In New York we will always stand up and say with one voice to anyone who wishes to divide and spread fear: you do not represent New York and your actions will not go unpunished."President Trump addressed the "horrific" bloodshed on Sunday afternoon, in a tweet: "We must all come together to fight, confront, and eradicate the evil scourge of anti-Semitism. Melania and I wish the victims a quick and full recovery."Yossi Gestetner, a co-founder of the OJPAC for the Hudson Valley region, told The New York Times there were "many dozens of people" celebrating in the home at the time of the attack. "It was a Hanukkah celebration," he was quoted saying. Videos said to have been taken by witnesses showed paramedics rushing to treat the victims in a chaotic scene. The office of New York Attorney General Letitia James released a statement saying she was left "deeply disturbed" by the incident."There is zero tolerance for acts of hate of any kind and we will continue to monitor this horrific situation," James said. "I stand with the Jewish community tonight and every night."New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio called the attack "horrific." "So many Jewish families in our city have close ties to Monsey. We cannot overstate the fear people are feeling right now," he wrote on Twitter. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also expressed solidarity with the victims during the opening remarks at his weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday. "Israel condemns in every sense the latest anti-Semitic incidents and the brutal attack in the middle of Hanukkah at the rabbi's house in Monsey, New York," he said. "We will work together in every way with the local authorities in order to help eliminate this phenomena. We offer our help to all countries."The attack comes after at least seven other anti-Semitic incidents were reported in New York City this week, prompting the New York City Police Department to increase the number of officers in predominantly Jewish areas. The stabbings also come less than a month after four people were killed in a "targeted" shooting at a Jersey City kosher supermarket that investigators believe was fueled by a "hatred of the Jewish people." Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| In China's Crackdown on Muslims, Children Have Not Been Spared Posted: 29 Dec 2019 08:37 AM PST  HOTAN, China -- The first-grader was a good student and beloved by her classmates, but she was inconsolable, and it was no mystery to her teacher why."The most heartbreaking thing is that the girl is often slumped over on the table alone and crying," he wrote on his blog. "When I asked around, I learned that it was because she missed her mother."The mother, he noted, had been sent to a detention camp for Muslim ethnic minorities. The girl's father had passed away, he added. But instead of letting other relatives raise her, authorities put her in a state-run boarding school -- one of hundreds of such facilities that have opened in China's far western Xinjiang region.As many as 1 million ethnic Uighurs, Kazakhs and others have been sent to internment camps and prisons in Xinjiang over the past three years, an indiscriminate clampdown aimed at weakening the population's devotion to Islam. Even as these mass detentions have provoked global outrage, though, the Chinese government is pressing ahead with a parallel effort targeting the region's children.Nearly a half-million children have been separated from their families and placed in boarding schools so far, according to a planning document published on a government website, and the ruling Communist Party has set a goal of operating one to two such schools in each of Xinjiang's 800-plus townships by the end of next year.The party has presented the schools as a way to fight poverty, arguing that they make it easier for children to attend classes if their parents live or work in remote areas or are unable to care for them. And it is true that many rural families are eager to send their children to these schools, especially when they are older.But the schools are also designed to assimilate and indoctrinate children at an early age, away from the influence of their families, according to the planning document, published in 2017. Students are often forced to enroll because authorities have detained their parents and other relatives, ordered them to take jobs far from home or judged them unfit guardians.The schools are off-limits to outsiders and tightly guarded, and it is difficult to interview residents in Xinjiang without putting them at risk of arrest. But a troubling picture of these institutions emerges from interviews with Uighur parents living in exile and a review of documents published online, including procurement records, government notices, state media reports and the blogs of teachers in the schools.State media and official documents describe education as a key component of President Xi Jinping's campaign to wipe out extremist violence in Xinjiang, a ruthless and far-reaching effort that also includes mass internment camps and sweeping surveillance measures. The idea is to use the boarding schools as incubators of a new generation of Uighurs who are secular and more loyal to both the party and the nation."The long-term strategy is to conquer, to captivate, to win over the young generation from the beginning," said Adrian Zenz, a researcher at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation in Washington who has studied Chinese policies that break up Uighur families.To carry out the assimilation campaign, authorities in Xinjiang have recruited tens of thousands of teachers from across China, often Han Chinese, the nation's dominant ethnic group. At the same time, prominent Uighur educators have been imprisoned, and teachers have been warned they will be sent to the camps if they resist.Thrust into a regimented environment and immersed in an unfamiliar culture, children in the boarding schools are only allowed visits with family once every week or two -- a restriction intended to "break the impact of the religious atmosphere on children at home," in the words of the 2017 policy document.The campaign echoes past policies in Canada, the United States and Australia that took indigenous children from their families and placed them in residential schools to forcibly assimilate them."The big difference in China is the scale and how systematic it is," said Darren Byler, an anthropologist at the University of Colorado who studies Uighur culture and society.Public discussion in China of the trauma inflicted on Uighur children by separating them from their families is rare. References on social media are usually quickly censored. Instead, the state-controlled news media focuses on the party's goals in the region, where predominantly Muslim minorities make up more than half the population of 25 million.Visiting a kindergarten near the frontier city of Kashgar this month, Chen Quanguo, the party's top official in Xinjiang, urged teachers to ensure children learn to "love the party, love the motherland and love the people."Science vs. ScriptureAbdurahman Tohti left Xinjiang and immigrated to Turkey in 2013, leaving behind cotton farming to sell used cars in Istanbul. But when his wife and two young children returned to China for a visit a few years ago, they disappeared.He heard that his wife was sent to prison, like many Uighurs who have traveled abroad and returned to China. His parents were detained too. The fate of his children, though, was a mystery.Then in January, he spotted his 4-year-old son in a video on Chinese social media that had apparently been recorded by a teacher. The boy seemed to be at a state-run boarding school and was speaking Chinese, a language his family did not use.Tohti, 30, said he was excited to see the child and relieved he was safe -- but also gripped by desperation."What I fear the most," he said, "is that the Chinese government is teaching him to hate his parents and Uighur culture."Beijing has sought for decades to suppress Uighur resistance to Chinese rule in Xinjiang, in part by using schools in the region to indoctrinate Uighur children. Until recently, though, the government had allowed most classes to be taught in the Uighur language, partly because of a shortage of Chinese-speaking teachers.Then, after a surge of anti-government and anti-Chinese violence, including ethnic riots in 2009 in Urumqi, the regional capital, and deadly attacks by Uighur militants in 2014, Xi ordered the party to take a harder line in Xinjiang, according to internal documents leaked to The New York Times earlier this year.In December 2016, the party announced that the work of the region's education bureau was entering a new phase. Schools were to become an extension of the security drive in Xinjiang, with a new emphasis on the Chinese language, patriotism and loyalty to the party.In the 2017 policy document, posted on the education ministry's website, officials from Xinjiang outlined their new priorities and ranked expansion of the boarding schools at the top.Without specifying Islam by name, the document characterized religion as a pernicious influence on children and said having students live at school would "reduce the shock of going back and forth between learning science in the classroom and listening to scripture at home."By early 2017, the document said, nearly 40% of all middle-school and elementary-school age children in Xinjiang -- or about 497,800 students -- were boarding in schools. At the time, the government was ramping up efforts to open boarding schools and add dorms to schools, and more recent reports suggest the push is continuing.Chinese is also replacing Uighur as the main language of instruction in Xinjiang. Most elementary and middle school students are now taught in Chinese, up from just 38% three years ago. And thousands of new rural preschools have been built to expose minority children to Chinese at an earlier age, state media reported.The government argues that teaching Chinese is critical to improving the economic prospects of minority children, and many Uighurs agree. But Uighur activists said the overall campaign amounts to an effort to erase what remains of their culture.Several Uighurs living abroad said the government had put their children in boarding schools without their consent.Mahmutjan Niyaz, 33, a Uighur businessman who moved to Istanbul in 2016, said his 5-year-old daughter was sent to one after his brother and sister-in-law, the girl's guardians, were confined in an internment camp.Other relatives could have cared for her, but authorities refused to let them. Now, Niyaz said, the school has changed the girl."Before, my daughter was playful and outgoing," he said. "But after she went to the school, she looked very sad in the photos."'Kindness Students'In a dusty village near the ancient Silk Road city of Hotan in southern Xinjiang, nestled among fields of barren walnut trees and simple concrete homes, the elementary school stood out.It was surrounded by a tall brick wall with two layers of barbed wire on top. Cameras were mounted on every corner. And at the entrance, a guard wearing a black helmet and a protective vest stood beside a metal detector.It wasn't always like this. Last year, officials converted the school in Kasipi village into a full-time boarding school.Kang Jide, a Chinese language teacher at the school, described the frenzied process on his public blog on the Chinese social media platform WeChat: In just a few days, all the day students were transferred. Classrooms were rearranged. Bunk beds were set up. Then, 270 new children arrived, leaving the school with 430 boarders, each in the sixth grade or below.Officials called them "kindness students," referring to the party's generosity in making special arrangements for their education.The government said children in Xinjiang's boarding schools are taught better hygiene and etiquette as well as Chinese and science skills that will help them succeed in modern China."My heart suddenly melted after seeing the splendid heartfelt smiles on the faces of these left-behind children," said a retired official visiting a boarding elementary school in Lop County near Hotan, according to a state media report. He added that the party had given them "an environment to be carefree, study happily, and grow healthy and strong."But Kang wrote that being separated from their families took a toll on the children. Some never received visits from relatives, or remained on campus during the holidays, even after most teachers left. And his pupils often begged to use his phone to call their parents."Sometimes, when they hear the voice on the other end of the call, the children will start crying, and they hide in the corner because they don't want me to see," he wrote."It's not just the children," he added. "The parents on the other end also miss their children, of course, so much so that it breaks their hearts and they're trembling."The internment camps, which the government describes as job training centers, have cast a shadow even on students who are not boarders. Before the conversion of the school, Kang posted a photo of a letter that an 8-year-old girl had written to her father, who had been sent to a camp."Daddy, where are you?" the girl wrote in an uneven scrawl. "Daddy, why don't you come back?""I'm sorry, Daddy," she continued. "You must study hard too."Nevertheless, Kang was generally supportive of the schools. On his blog, he described teaching Uighur students as an opportunity to "water the flowers of the motherland.""Kindness students" receive more attention and resources than day students. Boarding schools are required to offer psychological counseling, for example, and in Kasipi, children were given a set of supplies that included textbooks, clothes and a red Young Pioneer scarf.Learning Chinese was the priority, Kang wrote, though students were also immersed in traditional Chinese culture, including classical poetry, and taught songs praising the party.On a recent visit to the school, children in red and blue uniforms could be seen playing in a yard beside buildings marked "cafeteria" and "student dormitory." At the entrance, school officials refused to answer questions.Tighter security has become the norm at schools in Xinjiang. In Hotan alone, more than $1 million has been allocated in the past three years to buy surveillance and security equipment for schools, including helmets, shields and spiked batons, according to procurement records. At the entrance to one elementary school, a facial recognition system had been installed.Kang recently wrote on his blog that he had moved on to a new job teaching in northern Xinjiang. Reached by telephone there, he declined to be interviewed. But before hanging up, he said his students in Kasipi had made rapid progress in learning Chinese."Every day I feel very fulfilled," he said.'Engineers of the Human Soul'To carry out its campaign, the party needed not only new schools but also an army of teachers, an overhaul of the curriculum -- and political discipline. Teachers suspected of dissent were punished, and textbooks were rewritten to weed out material deemed subversive."Teachers are the engineers of the human soul," the education bureau of Urumqi recently wrote in an open letter, deploying a phrase first used by Stalin to describe writers and other cultural workers.The party launched an intensive effort to recruit teachers for Xinjiang from across China. Last year, nearly 90,000 were brought in, chosen partly for their political reliability, officials said at a news conference this year. The influx amounted to about one-fifth of Xinjiang's teachers last year, according to government data.The new recruits, often ethnic Han, and the teachers they joined, mostly Uighurs, were both warned to toe the line. Those who opposed the Chinese-language policy or resisted the new curriculum were labeled "two-faced" and punished.The deputy secretary-general of the oasis town of Turpan, writing earlier this year, described such teachers as "scum of the Chinese people" and accused them of being "bewitched by extremist religious ideology."Teachers were urged to express their loyalty, and the public was urged to keep an eye on them. A sign outside a kindergarten in Hotan invited parents to report teachers who made "irresponsible remarks" or participated in unauthorized religious worship.Officials in Xinjiang also spent two years inspecting and revising hundreds of textbooks and other teaching material, according to the 2017 policy document.Some who helped the party write and edit the old textbooks ended up in prison, including Yalqun Rozi, a prominent scholar and literary critic who helped compile a set of textbooks on Uighur literature that was used for more than a decade.Rozi was charged with attempted subversion and sentenced to 15 years in prison last year, according to his son, Kamalturk Yalqun. Several other members of the committee that compiled the textbooks were arrested too, he said."Instead of welcoming the cultural diversity of Uighurs, China labeled it a malignant tumor," said Yalqun, who lives in Philadelphia.There is evidence that some Uighur children have been sent to boarding schools far from their homes.Kalbinur Tursun, 36, entrusted five of her children to relatives when she left Xinjiang to give birth in Istanbul but has been unable to contact them for several years.Last year, she saw her daughter Ayshe Tursun, then 6, in a video circulating on Chinese social media. It had been posted by a user who appeared to be a teacher at a school in Hotan -- more than 300 miles away from their home in Kashgar."My children are so young; they just need their mother and father," Tursun said, expressing concern about how authorities were raising them. "I fear they will think that I'm the enemy -- that they won't accept me and will hate me."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
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| Iran blasts France for 'interference' over jailed academic Posted: 29 Dec 2019 01:41 AM PST  Tehran accused Paris on Sunday of "interference" in the case of an Iranian-French academic held in the Islamic republic, saying she is considered an Iranian national and faces security charges. France said Friday it summoned Iran's ambassador to protest the imprisonment of Fariba Adelkhah and another academic, Roland Marchal of France, saying their detention was "intolerable".
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| How Did Britain Plan To Stop A Surprise Russian Invasion? Nuke Their Path Posted: 28 Dec 2019 04:00 PM PST  A crazy plan.
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| U.S. Denies Seeking 20% Troop Funding Boost From South Korea Posted: 27 Dec 2019 07:01 PM PST ![U.S. Denies Seeking 20% Troop Funding Boost From South Korea]( "U.S. Denies Seeking 20% Troop Funding Boost From South Korea") (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. denied a report that it's demanding South Korea pay as much as 20% more to host American troops, as funding talks between the two nations continue.The 10%-20% figure referred to in Korean media is "ungrounded speculation," a Trump administration official said by email. U.S. negotiators will seek a "fair and equitable" outcome at the next round of talks in early January, the official said.Last month, U.S. negotiators walked out of a meeting on troop funding in Seoul after South Korea balked at a $5 billion price tag for hosting U.S. troops -- a fivefold increase. Citing a diplomatic source it didn't identify, South Korea's Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported earlier this week that the White House had dropped that demand after receiving assurances Seoul would purchase more American weapons. The increase may now be about 10%-20% above the current level of nearly $1 billion, the newspaper said.The deal, known as the Special Measures Agreement, technically expires at the end of this year. But both sides are likely to agree to some sort of temporary extension as they negotiate, allowing for the continued operations of about 28,500 U.S. military personnel on the peninsula.The talks with South Korea could affect other countries that host U.S. troops, as the Trump administration is seeking funding increases from other American allies.To contact the reporter on this story: Kanga Kong in Seoul at kkong50@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Shamim Adam at sadam2@bloomberg.net, Edward Johnson, Tom RedmondFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Residents, vacationers urged to leave Australian region as fire conditions worsen Posted: 28 Dec 2019 03:20 PM PST  Residents and vacationers in part of the Australian state of Victoria were urged to leave on Sunday ahead of what is expected to be a day of extreme fire danger. State Emergency Management Commissioner Andrew Crisp told both residents and tens of thousands of vacationers in the East Gippsland region to leave no later than Monday morning. "What we are saying now, based on the conditions that will be confronting us tomorrow across the state, but in particular in East Gippsland, is that if you're holidaying in that part of the state, it's time that you left," Crisp said at a media conference on Sunday.
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| US carries out first strikes in a decade against Iran-backed Kataib Hizbollah in Iraq and Syria Posted: 29 Dec 2019 05:04 PM PST  The United States has launched its first airstrikes in nearly a decade against the Iran-backed militia forces in Iraq and Syria. The Pentagon said it hit five bases used by the Iraqi Hizbollah militant group following a rocket attack in Iraq that killed a US civilian contractor. Three of the bases were in Iraq, and two in Syria, where the militia has been trying to bolster the regime of President Assad. "US forces have conducted precision defensive strikes against five KH facilities in Iraq and Syria that will degrade KH's ability to conduct future attacks against OIR coalition forces," the Pentagon said. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the strikes send the message that the US will not tolerate actions by Iran that jeopardise American lives. The strike is the first direct confrontation between US and Iranian-backed forces in Iraq since 2011, when President Obama withdrew some of his forces. "I would note also that we will take additional actions as necessary to ensure that we act in our own self-defence and we deter further bad behavior from militia groups or from Iran," said Defence Secretary Mark Esper, who was accompanied by Mr Pompeo and Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. A combination of images depicts what the U.S. military says are bases of the Kataib Hezbollah militia group that were struck by U.S. forces, in the city of Al-Qa'im Credit: Reuters The delivered the brief statement to reporters in a ballroom at Trump's Mar-a-Lago club, where the president is on a more than two-week winter break. According to the Al Arabiya news network, the US evacuated dozens of staff from its embassy in Baghdad on Sunday night amid concerns of retaliation. The targets of the US bombs included weapons storage facilities and command locations used to plan and execute attacks, the statement added. On Friday, terrorists fired a barrage of 30 rockets at an Iraqi military base in Kirkuk, an oil-rich region north of Baghdad. A US civilian contractor died in the strike. Iraq's Joint Operations Command said in a statement that three U.S. airstrikes on Sunday evening Iraq time hit the headquarters of the Hezbollah Brigades at the Iraq-Syria border, killing four fighters. Iraq's Hezbollah Brigades, a separate force from the Lebanese group Hezbollah, operate under the umbrella of the state-sanctioned militias known collectively as the Popular Mobilization Forces. Many of them are supported by Iran. The Popular Mobilization Forces said Sunday that the U.S. strikes killed at least 19 of Kataeb Hezbollah's members. Kataeb Hezbollah is led by Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, one of Iraq's most powerful men. He once battled US troops and is now the deputy head of the Popular Mobilization Forces. Washington had recently promised "a decisive US response" to a growing number of unclaimed attacks on its interests in Iraq, which it blames on pro-Iran factions. US-Iran tension levels have soared since Washington pulled out of a landmark nuclear agreement with Tehran last year and imposed crippling sanctions.
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| 5 stabbed at Hanukkah celebration in latest attack on Jews Posted: 29 Dec 2019 03:29 AM PST  A knife-wielding man stormed into a rabbi's home and stabbed five people as they celebrated Hanukkah in an Orthodox Jewish community north of New York City, an ambush the governor said Sunday was an act of domestic terrorism fueled by intolerance and a "cancer" of growing hatred in America. Police tracked a fleeing suspect to Manhattan and made an arrest within two hours of the attack Saturday night in Monsey. Grafton E. Thomas had blood all over his clothing, smelled of bleach but said "almost nothing" when officers stopped him, officials said.
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| "I was taken": 7-year-old torn from dad at U.S. border Posted: 28 Dec 2019 11:28 PM PST  CBS News documentary "The Faces of Family Separation" follows the harrowing journey of four migrant families fleeing violence in Central America, only to be split apart after arriving in the U.S.
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| Islamic State group says it beheaded Christian prisoners in Nigeria Posted: 28 Dec 2019 10:55 AM PST  The Islamic State group released a video purporting to show its militants beheading 10 Christian men in Nigeria, saying it was part of a campaign to avenge the deaths of its former leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and its spokesman.
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| Elizabeth Warren's campaign is 30% behind in quarterly fundraising 4 days before deadline Posted: 28 Dec 2019 01:57 PM PST  The campaign said it was doing "something different" as it "probably won't" raise as much as last quarter by the December 31 FEC reporting deadline.
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| Trump Retweets Name of Alleged Whistleblower Posted: 28 Dec 2019 06:38 PM PST  For the first time since the Ukraine scandal erupted, President Trump has retweeted the name of the alleged whistleblower and directly displayed it to his 68 million followers. The late-night retweet just before midnight on Friday went largely unnoticed at first, but was still displayed in the president's Twitter feed as of Saturday evening, by which point it had been retweeted more than 13,000 times. The retweet was of a tweet from a user called "Surfermom77," an account purportedly belonging to a woman named Sophia in California that seems unusually active in churning out pro-Trump posts and memes. The tweet shared by Trump attacked House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff and, without any evidence, identified the whistleblower as a man whose name has been circulated by conservative media and far-right figures in recent weeks. The Daily Beast is declining to publish the name and has not independently verified the identity of the whistleblower.Trump's retweet comes just two days after he retweeted a post from an account associated with his re-election campaign that linked to an article including the unsubstantiated name of the whistleblower.As The Daily Beast previously reported, Trump had talked about the name of the alleged whistleblower with friends, media figures, and senior administration officials in recent months, and asked if they thought it was appropriate for him to publicly announce or tweet the name. But administration officials and those within his inner circle—including his own daughter, Ivanka Trump—cautioned him against posting the name of the alleged whistleblower. Ivanka Trump Tells Her Dad: Don't Tweet the Whistleblower's Name!Lawyers representing the whistleblower previously told The Wall Street Journal their client had received multiple death threats, even as the president and his allies continued to vilify the whistleblower. Schiff said last month that part of the reason Democrats did not call the whistleblower to testify as part of the impeachment inquiry was because the president had called the person a "spy" and hinted that his actions were deserving of the "death penalty.""The president said the whistleblower and others should be treated as a traitor and a spy and we ought to use the penalty and that's the death penalty," Schiff said on Meet the Press at the time.After the whistleblower's complaint went public in late September, The New York Times reported that Trump told a small audience at a private event that whoever gave the whistleblower "information" that was used against him was "close to a spy." "You know what we used to do in the old days when we were smart with spies and treason, right? We used to handle it a little differently than we do now."Trump Pushes Out Tweet Naming Alleged WhistleblowerRead more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Putin You've Got A Problem: The Russian Navy Posted: 29 Dec 2019 12:00 PM PST  Russia received twenty-three new ships this year. That's where the good news ends.
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| Saudi Arabia Sentences Man to Death for Theater Stabbings: TV Posted: 29 Dec 2019 04:00 AM PST ![Saudi Arabia Sentences Man to Death for Theater Stabbings: TV]( "Saudi Arabia Sentences Man to Death for Theater Stabbings: TV") (Bloomberg) -- A Saudi Arabian court sentenced a Yemeni man to death for stabbing three performers at a theater show in the capital last month in an attack ordered by al-Qaeda, state-run TV reported.Another defendant was jailed for 12 1/2 years, Al Ekhbariya channel reported, citing the criminal court. The attack, in which three people were injured, was ordered by al-Qaeda in neighboring Yemen, the broadcaster said. It didn't specify where it got the information.The mid-November attack in Riyadh came as the conservative kingdom undergoes a drastic overhaul of its social norms spearheaded by its young crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman. Saudis have been granted freedoms that include the loosening of rules on women's attire and travel as well as the mixing of genders in conjunction with a plan to wean the economy off oil.The court rulings were preliminary and both defendants can file appeals.\--With assistance from Sarah Algethami.To contact the reporter on this story: Reema Alothman in Riyadh at ralothman1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Donna Abu-Nasr at dabunasr@bloomberg.net, Michael Gunn, Bruce StanleyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Turkey evacuates wounded after deadly Mogadishu blast Posted: 29 Dec 2019 01:48 AM PST  A Turkish military cargo plane landed in the Somali capital on Sunday to evacuate people badly wounded in a devastating truck bombing that killed at least 90 people including two Turkish nationals. The plane also brought emergency medical staff and supplies, the Turkish embassy said in a tweet, adding these had been taken to a Turkish-run hospital in Mogadishu. Somali Information Minister Mohamed Abdi Hayir Mareye told state media that 10 Somalis who were badly wounded in Saturday's blast would be evacuated to Turkey.
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| Woman charged with hate crime amid NYC anti-Semitic attacks Posted: 28 Dec 2019 11:35 AM PST  A woman accused of slapping three people in one of a series of apparently anti-Semitic attacks reported throughout New York during Hanukkah was charged Saturday with attempted assault as a hate crime, court records show. Tiffany Harris, 30, was released without bail after her arraignment on the attempted assault charge and misdemeanor and lower-level charges , according to the records.
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| Aladdin proposes to Jasmine during curtain call Posted: 28 Dec 2019 03:10 AM PST  A shining, shimmering, splendid ring was placed on Jasmine's finger.
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| 2020 will likely be a groundbreaking year in space. Here's a calendar of the biggest rocket launches, meteor showers, eclipses, and more. Posted: 28 Dec 2019 05:47 AM PST  If all goes well next year, SpaceX and Boeing will launch their first astronauts for NASA, and Mars will gain three new rovers.
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| WH releases info on call with Putin after Russia does Posted: 29 Dec 2019 11:22 AM PST  Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a phone call on Sunday, thanked President Trump for passing on information that helped prevent "acts of terrorism" in Russia, the Kremlin said.
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| Nazi Germany Could Have Won World War II, Until It Invaded Russia Posted: 29 Dec 2019 06:00 AM PST  Then it was all over.
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| Iraq Shuts Southern Oil Field on Concern Over Protesters’ Safety Posted: 28 Dec 2019 05:14 AM PST ![Iraq Shuts Southern Oil Field on Concern Over Protesters' Safety]( "Iraq Shuts Southern Oil Field on Concern Over Protesters' Safety") (Bloomberg) -- Iraq, OPEC's second-biggest producer, halted output from a southern oil field as protesters walked close to installations, according to person with knowledge of the situation who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter.Other southern fields will make up the amount from the shutdown, which won't affect the country's output. The halt is temporary until the Nasiriya field, which produces 80,000 to 85,000 barrels a day, is clear of protesters.The closure was a precautionary measure for the safety of the field as well as the nearby protesters, the person said.Protesters have rallied more than once over the past two months near the southern oil fields in Basra and other cities and near refineries, but output hasn't previously been shut down.Around 500 people have died and more than 22,000 others wounded in clashes between security forces and protesters since Oct. 1. Iraqis, mostly from the Shiite majority population, are protesting against government corruption, poor services, and wide-ranging Iranian political influence, calling for an overhaul of the ruling class.To contact the reporter on this story: Khalid Al-Ansary in Baghdad at kalansary@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Andrew Davis at abdavis@bloomberg.net, Sara Marley, James AmottFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Municipal police chief arrested over Mexican Mormon massacre Posted: 28 Dec 2019 06:22 AM PST  Mexican authorities have arrested a municipal police chief for his suspected links to the killing of three women and six children of U.S.-Mexican origin in northern Mexico last month, local media and an official said on Friday. Suspected drug cartel hitmen shot dead the nine women and children from families of Mormon origin in Sonora state on Nov. 4, sparking outrage in Mexico and the United States. Several Mexican media outlets reported that law enforcement agents arrested Fidel Alejandro Villegas, police chief of the municipality of Janos, which lies in the neighboring state of Chihuahua, on suspicion of involvement in the crime.
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| Taiwan president: Island's democracy under threat from China Posted: 29 Dec 2019 02:33 AM PST  Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen said Sunday that the self-governing island's democracy remains under direct threat from rival China, underscoring her calls for closer ties with the U.S. and other allies. Tsai was speaking at a televised debate against Han Kuo-yu of the main opposition Nationalist Party and veteran politician James Soong of the People's First Party. Tsai said she would preserve Taiwan's freedoms and way of life, but would make no changes to the constitution or the island's official name, the Republic of China, which moved its seat of government to Taipei, the island's capital, following the Communist Party's seizure of power on mainland China in 1949.
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| Russia claims to have deployed Avangard hypersonic missiles that 'cannot be intercepted' Posted: 27 Dec 2019 07:26 PM PST  Russia says it has deployed its first hypersonic missiles which President Putin claims are capable of transporting nuclear warheads at 27 times the speed of sound. The location of the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle has not been confirmed but has been widely reported to be the Urals, a mountain range in western Russia. Sergei Shoigu, Russia's defence minister confirmed that the missiles entered service at 10am Moscow time on Friday, describing their deployment as a "landmark event". Vladimir Putin said that the missiles put Russia ahead of the rest of the world. "Not a single country possesses hypersonic weapons, let alone continental-range hypersonic weapons," he said, arguing that the West was "playing catch-up with us". "The Avangard is invulnerable to intercept by any existing and prospective missile defence means of the potential adversary." Vladimir Putin said that the West is now "playing catch-up" Credit: REUTERS Moscow said the Avangard is launched on top of an intercontinental ballistic missile but it can make sharp manoeuvres on the way to its target, making it more difficult to intercept. The Russian government had announced the missiles last year and in March 2018 Mr Putin likened the missile to a "meteorite" and a "fireball" in a state address. The Avangard, which Mr Putin said could penetrate current and future missile defence systems, can carry a nuclear weapon of up to two megatons. The Pentagon responded to the deployment by saying it would "not characterise the Russian claims" about the Avangard's capabilities. The United States has its own hypersonic missile programme, as does China, which in 2014 said it had carried out a test flight. The US has been developing hypersonic weapons in recent years. In August, Mark Esper, the defence secretary, said the Pentagon was some years from deploying its own missiles.
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| Winter weather: Storm to hit nation's middle from north to south, delaying flights Posted: 28 Dec 2019 08:59 AM PST ![Winter weather: Storm to hit nation's middle from north to south, delaying flights]( "Winter weather: Storm to hit nation's middle from north to south, delaying flights") Weather forecasters warn of flight delays across the Midwest, with some white-out conditions. Road travelers should pack a flashlight and food.
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| 2019 saw most mass killings on record, US database reveals Posted: 28 Dec 2019 09:00 AM PST  Thirty-three of 41 incidents involved firearms, research shows, even as overall number of homicides fellThis year saw the highest number of mass killings on record, database records show, with 41 incidents claiming 211 lives in 2019 even as the overall US homicide rated dropped.According to the database complied by the Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University, 33 of the incidents, defined as when four or more people are killed excluding the perpetrator, involved firearms.The 41 mass killings were the most in a single year since the database began tracking such events back in 2006. Other research going back to the 1970s shows no other year with as many mass killings. The second-most was 38 in 2006.Following deadly rampages in Virginia Beach, Virginia, in May; in the Texas cities of Odessa and El Paso, and Dayton, Ohio, in August; and in Jersey City, New Jersey, this month, the brutal yearly tally comes as the debate over gun-control and efforts to reduce access to 4m assault weapons in circulation appear stalled.On Saturday, the 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden renewed his calls for curbs on the military-style weapons, telling supporters in a funding email: "The American people may be running out of tears, but we cannot run out of strength and resolve to get something done."But Biden remains an exception to the leading Democratic candidates in refusing to support some form of federal gun licensing.With some variations in detail, all, including Biden, have called for imposing stricter background checks and a federal ban on assault-style weapons. But only the former New York mayor Mike Bloomberg has made gun control central to his policy platform, calling for a national gun licensing system, stricter background checks, as well as federal laws allowing courts to confiscate firearms from people considered dangerous.Those efforts come after a troubled year for the country's most vociferous and powerful gun advocate, the National Rifle Association. Beset by executive infighting, the lobbying group faces a New York state investigation into claims that thousands of dollars were diverted to its board members.In terms of the number of fatalities, the 211 people killed in this year is still eclipsed by the 224 victims in 2017, when the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history took place at a concert in Las Vegas.California, with some of the strictest gun laws in the country, registered eight mass killings, the most in the country. Nearly half of US states experienced a mass killing.According to the database, most mass killings fail to make national news unless they spill into public spaces. The majority involve people who knew each other, family disputes, drug or gang violence or people with beefs that directed their anger at co-workers or relatives.According to the database, the first mass killing of the year occurred 19 days into the new year when a 42-year-old man took an ax and stabbed to death his mother, stepfather, girlfriend and 9-month-old daughter in Clackamas county, Oregon. The attack ended when police shot and killed the assailant.In many cases, what triggered the perpetrator remains a mystery, the database shows. The incident in Oregon was one of 18 mass killings where family members were killed, and one of six that didn't involve a gun. Other weapons included knives, axes and arson. Nine mass shootings occurred in public spaces; others were in homes, workplaces or bars."What makes this even more exceptional is that mass killings are going up at a time when general homicides, overall homicides, are going down," James Densley, a criminologist and professor at Metropolitan State University in Minnesota, told the Associated Press. "This seems to be the age of mass shootings," Densley said, expressing worry over a "contagion effect" spreading mass killings."What fuels contagion is fear," explained James Alan Fox, a criminologist at Northeastern. "These are still rare events. Clearly the risk is low but the fear is high."The Associated Press contributed reporting
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| New WeWork co-chiefs would reportedly each receive an $8.3-million golden parachute if they were fired or choose to leave Posted: 29 Dec 2019 01:45 PM PST  Co-chief executives Artie Minson and Sebastian Gunningham would cost WeWork almost $17 million if ousted, documents reportedly show.
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| Secrets Revealed: America Almost Stockpiled Nuclear Weapons In Iceland Posted: 29 Dec 2019 12:02 AM PST  Why didn't it happen?
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| The 'lathi': India's colonial vintage anti-protest weapon Posted: 28 Dec 2019 06:35 PM PST  As Indian protests against a new citizenship law have intensified, so has police use of "lathis", sturdy sticks used to whack, thwack and quell dissent since British colonial times -- to sometimes deadly effect. At least 27 people have died in the past two weeks of protests, mostly from bullets, but hundreds more have been injured in clashes between demonstrators and riot police wielding the bamboo canes. "From being used as means to regulate crowds, lathi has turned into a lethal weapon," said V. Suresh, the secretary general of the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), a non-profit rights group.
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| French Unions Keep Pressure on Macron With New Round of Protests Posted: 28 Dec 2019 03:28 AM PST ![French Unions Keep Pressure on Macron With New Round of Protests]( "French Unions Keep Pressure on Macron With New Round of Protests") (Bloomberg) -- Labor unions have called for marches and protests across France on Saturday as they seek to maintain momentum in their month-long opposition to President Emmanuel Macron's reform of the pension system.Protesters planned to gather at the Gare du Nord station in Paris to start one of the marches, while the CGT union's railroad branch said they will block a train station in the ski resort of Chambery. In Nantes, unions said the strike in public transportation would be open-ended.Protesters plan to take action including blocking fuel depots and refineries or cutting power locally. Almost half of France's high-speed trains will be canceled as will several routes to the U.K., Belgium, Switzerland and Germany.The strikes and demonstrations have entered a 24th day, longer than the 1995 opposition to the government's pension and health care reform. The record is the 28-day protest at the national railway SNCF in December 1986, according to RTL radio.Unions oppose a pension-system overhaul that aims to merge 42 separate regimes into a single universal points-based system. It also offers incentives to raise the age for full retirement benefits to 64 from 62.A nationwide day of demonstrations is planned for Jan. 9 and other forms of opposition are being sought to expand the movement.The unions pledged to keep the strike going through the New Year celebrations just like they did on Christmas. The action has created havoc in public transportation, hitting commuters in Paris and its suburbs the hardest. Traffic in the capital city has been chaotic, complicating access to airports during the holiday season.For Macron, there remains a risk that the labor unions succeed in rallying the "Yellow Vests," the grass-roots movement that turned violent a year ago and required about 17 billion euros ($19 billion) in public spending to calm. The government has already pledged to sweeten pension reform for the police, army and firefighters and has indicated willingness to negotiate with other sectors.The latest standoff threatens the French leader's ability to continue his work of "modernization," the cornerstone of the 42-year-old former investment banker's presidential platform.To contact the reporter on this story: Helene Fouquet in Paris at hfouquet1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Ben Sills at bsills@bloomberg.net, Andrew Reierson, James AmottFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Chinese man charged with taking photos of US Navy base Posted: 29 Dec 2019 03:24 PM PST  A Chinese man has been arrested by US authorities while he photographed an American Navy base in the Florida Keys.
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| NTSB: Poor condition of wreckage will slow plane crash probe Posted: 29 Dec 2019 01:01 PM PST  The lack of a distress call and flight data recorder coupled with mangled and charred wreckage will make finding the cause of a fiery airplane crash in Louisiana extremely challenging, federal officials said Sunday. National Transportation Safety Board Vice Chairman Bruce Landsberg said at a press conference that it could take 12 to 18 months to figure out why the two-engine Piper Cheyenne fell from the sky about a minute after taking off from the Lafayette Regional Airport on Saturday.
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| Ukraine rivals exchange 200 prisoners in controversial swap Posted: 29 Dec 2019 02:10 PM PST  Ukraine and Russia-backed separatists in the country's war-torn east exchanged 200 prisoners on Sunday, swapping detained fighters for civilians and servicemen held captive in some cases for years in two breakaway regions. "It's wonderful, I'm so happy," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told journalists after greeting former prisoners at Boryspil airport near Kiev. Among those swapped were Stanislav Aseyev and Oleg Galazyuk, two journalists who contributed to the Ukrainian service of the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
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| Two men shot dead in eastern Saudi city were driving car bomb, SPA says Posted: 29 Dec 2019 05:11 AM PST ![Two men shot dead in eastern Saudi city were driving car bomb, SPA says]( "Two men shot dead in eastern Saudi city were driving car bomb, SPA says") Two Saudi men shot dead last week in the eastern city of Dammam were driving a car loaded with explosives and were planning an "imminent terrorist operation", the SPA state news agency said on Sunday, citing security forces. The two were found with explosive paste in the car, SPA said.
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| The decade in review: Asia, and the challenge of the strongmen Posted: 29 Dec 2019 12:41 AM PST  In the Far East, the story of this decade is the story of two men who define not just Asia, but a growing threat to the United States
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| Winter storm: Snow, ice, heavy rains threaten chaos as holiday travel season wraps up Posted: 29 Dec 2019 01:32 PM PST ![Winter storm: Snow, ice, heavy rains threaten chaos as holiday travel season wraps up]( "Winter storm: Snow, ice, heavy rains threaten chaos as holiday travel season wraps up") Travel challenges threaten as parts of the Midwest and East brace for more than a foot of snow, ice and whiteout conditions.
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| Rather Than Retiring, The Air Force's B-2 Bomber Is Being Upgraded (For Nuclear War) Posted: 29 Dec 2019 04:00 AM PST  The B61-12 adds substantial new levels of precision targeting and consolidates several different kinds of attack options into a single weapon.
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| We Iowans will continue to be kind, even as coastal elites' snootiness grates Posted: 29 Dec 2019 03:00 AM PST  Laugh with us about the famed butter cow if you must, but don't put us — and our hometowns — down.
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| Russia’s Richest Man Gains $8.5 Billion Leading Wealth Rebound Posted: 29 Dec 2019 04:00 PM PST  (Bloomberg) -- It has been a very good year for Russia's richest, despite the threat of heightened sanctions against the country.The 23 titans on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index added $52.9 billion to their fortunes in 2019, the most in four years, and a rebound after a decline the prior year. Metal magnate Vladimir Potanin, 58, led the group with an $8.5 billion gain.Currencies, stocks and bonds rallied in 2019 as the Federal Reserve led global central banks in lowering rates to support flagging growth.But Russia's equity market, despite sanctions, has performed best globally on a total-return basis in dollar terms, while its currency is the second-best worldwide.Potanin, Russia's richest person, derives most of his net worth from MMC Norilsk Nickel PJSC, the world's largest producer of refined nickel.Vagit Alekperov added $6.2 billion since the start of the year. The 69-year-old is the chairman of Lukoil PJSC, Russia's largest independent oil producer. He has a $22.3 billion fortune.He's followed by energy moguls Leonid Mikhelson and Gennady Timchenko, who hold Novatek PJSC, Russia's biggest liquefied natural gas producer.The gains have come despite the threat of increased U.S. sanctions. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved a long-discussed bill this month on Russia for meddling in the 2016 election. South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham has called the legislation the "sanctions bill from hell." It's unclear if the measure will proceed to a full vote in the Senate.\--With assistance from Jack Witzig.To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Sazonov in Moscow at asazonov@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Pierre Paulden at ppaulden@bloomberg.netFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Vietnam ex-minister gets life sentence in bribery case Posted: 27 Dec 2019 11:03 PM PST  A court in Vietnam sentenced a former communications minister to life in prison Saturday for receiving millions of dollars in bribes, as the hardline administration presses its anti-graft drive against once-powerful figures in the communist state. Nguyen Bac Son was charged alongside his then-deputy Truong Minh Tuan with receiving $3.2 million in bribes to approve the 2015 purchase of a TV firm that would have lost state-run telecommunications firm Mobifone $300 million. The two-week trial in Hanoi for the men -- once members of the powerful communist party central committee -- ended Saturday, according to state-run media Tuoi Tre.
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| Slippery salvation: Could seaweed as cow feed help climate? Posted: 29 Dec 2019 07:28 AM PST  Coastal Maine has a lot of seaweed , and a fair number of cows. The researchers — from a marine science lab, an agriculture center and universities in northern New England — are working on a plan to feed seaweed to cows to gauge whether that can help reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change. The concept of feeding seaweed to cows has gained traction in recent years because of some studies that have shown its potential to cut back on methane.
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| Netanyahu Won Over His Party. Can He Win Over Israel? Posted: 28 Dec 2019 07:01 AM PST  JERUSALEM -- After failing to form a government twice in two tries, then being hit with a bribery charge, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's long rule over Israel appeared set to expire.But in his first real test since his indictment last month in three corruption cases, Netanyahu crushed a lone rival Thursday for the leadership of his conservative Likud party and, like a political phoenix, rose to fight another day."I received a renewed and huge mandate from the Likud yesterday," he said in a victory speech Friday, hours after the final tally was in. "The future is in our hands."With his landslide victory in the Likud party primary election, Netanyahu, Israel's longest-serving prime minister and a famed political survivor, has reasserted his grip over the party despite his legal troubles, fired up his base and reinvigorated his campaign ahead of the next general election in early March.The election will be the third in a year, an unprecedented situation as a deeply polarized Israel struggles to form a government after inconclusive elections in April and September.The questions many Israelis were asking Friday were whether die-hard Netanyahu fans who came out to vote for him on a wet, blustery day reflect wider support on the Israeli right, whether Netanyahu can maintain his fresh momentum for another two months, and whether anything could jolt a hung electorate out of its political logjam."The primary injected enthusiasm and got the Likud machine working," said Gayil Talshir, a political scientist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. "But can that buzz be maintained over months? I'm not sure."Netanyahu trounced his party rival, Gideon Saar, winning 72.5% of the vote. Still, just under half the 116,000 eligible dues-paying Likud members cast ballots, meaning that about 41,000 Netanyahu adherents -- a tiny fraction of the total Israeli electorate of about 6.4 million voters -- may have locked the country into another round of political paralysis.The previous two elections ended in a draw between Netanyahu's right-wing-religious coalition and the center-left bloc led by Benny Gantz, a centrist former army chief, with neither able to form a majority coalition. Recent polls before the Likud primary showed Netanyahu's support softening after his indictment but not enough to change the unforgiving math that has paralyzed the Israeli government for the past year.Moderate conservatives concerned about upholding the rule of law may find it difficult to vote for Netanyahu, Talshir said, noting that in more educated, well-heeled districts like north Tel Aviv, Saar made a strong showing.The one likely outcome of Netanyahu's new lease on political life is that the March 2 election will again be ugly and divisive, analysts said. It will pit the "Only Bibi" camp of supporters, who lovingly call Netanyahu by his nickname, attack the law enforcement authorities and try to delegitimize any opposition, against the other Israel that cannot accept the idea of a prime minister facing prosecution for serious crimes.Gantz, the leader of the centrist Blue and White party, made it clear Friday that he will once again run as the "not Bibi" candidate."It appears that the defendant Netanyahu, who is leading the state of Israel down a path of corruption, will continue to lead Likud," Gantz said in response to the primary results. "These elections demand that we place a mirror in front of the 'Netanyahu party' and make the choice for unity, dignity and internal reconciliation," he added.But with the same protagonists running again on the same issues, and with recent polls showing a similar deadlock, there is little expectation of a fundamental shake-up by the March election."The people who don't like Netanyahu still won't like him," said Israel Bachar, a strategist for the Blue and White campaign, dismissing any notion that the primary result could have a wider impact. "It won't change the polling data."What the primary did do is remove any doubt about Netanyahu's hold over his party and his ministers, Bachar said, "and that's a good change for him." While Netanyahu focuses on his legal issues, he added, Gantz will focus on values.Netanyahu is accused of trading official favors worth hundreds of millions of dollars to Israeli media moguls for illicit gifts of cigars, Champagne and jewelry, as well as positive news coverage. He has denied any wrongdoing, casting himself as the victim of a witch hunt by a left-wing elite that he says dominates the news media and has pressed the law enforcement authorities to pursue criminal investigations against him.For his loyalists, the primary triumph clears a possible path ahead for Netanyahu. Miki Zohar, Likud's chief whip in Parliament, said on television that the result is basically telling Netanyahu that his Likud voters want him to request parliamentary immunity from prosecution.Netanyahu has a few days left before the deadline for submitting such a request, though it would likely only be voted on if and when a new government is formed after the election. Approval would depend on Netanyahu's being able to muster a majority of 61 in the 120-seat Parliament.That will mean getting out every last Likud and right-wing voter.In Jerusalem's bustling Mahane Yehuda market, an old Likud bastion, some of the vendors reverently display fading portraits of Likud's founder, Menachem Begin, a stickler for the rule of law, in their shops.One of them, Avraham Levy, 69, who voted for Netanyahu in the primary, said it was "not easy to find someone like him in our generation" as he sold fruit Friday.He dismissed the charges against Netanyahu, saying, "It's not bribery in my eyes so long as he didn't take money." Crediting the prime minister with the country's strong economy and security, he said, "You don't exchange a horse for a donkey. We have a good horse.""Of course I'm a Likudnik," exclaimed Shmuel Rosemarine, 30, who was working at his family's dried fruit and nuts store. "Is there anything else? I'm for Bibi, and only Bibi. Nobody can replace him."Yossi Verter, a political columnist for the newspaper Haaretz, cautioned that the love poured on Netanyahu by his party faithful may have no bearing on the March election. He cited the 1999 Likud primary, which Netanyahu won by an even greater margin before going on to a stinging defeat in the general election."The only relevant conclusion today," Verter wrote Friday, "is that what happens in Likud stays in Likud."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
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| Trump retweets post naming alleged whistleblower Posted: 29 Dec 2019 06:38 AM PST  President Trump retweeted, then deleted, a post that included the alleged name of the anonymous whistleblower whose complaint ultimately led to Trump's impeachment by the House.
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