| PHOTOS: Iraqi Shiites break into U.S. Embassy in Baghdad Posted: 31 Dec 2019 05:24 AM PST  Dozens of Iraqi Shiite militiamen and their supporters broke into the U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad on Tuesday, smashing a main door and setting fire to a reception area, prompting tear gas and sounds of gunfire, angered over deadly U.S. airstrikes targeting the Iran-backed militia. An Associated Press reporter at the scene saw flames rising from inside the compound and at least three U.S. soldiers on the roof of the main embassy building. It followed deadly U.S. airstrikes on Sunday that killed 25 fighters of the Iran-backed militia in Iraq, the Kataeb Hezbollah.
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| Holocaust education planned after WV jail guard Nazi salute Posted: 31 Dec 2019 08:09 AM PST  West Virginia plans to begin training its corrections department staff about the Holocaust after a photograph of correction officer cadets giving Nazi salutes led to dozens of firings and widespread outrage, officials said Tuesday.
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| Carlos Ghosn, awaiting trial in Japan, somehow fled to Lebanon Posted: 30 Dec 2019 09:54 PM PST  Carlos Ghosn, the former chairman of Nissan, announced Tuesday that he is now in Lebanon, despite being ordered by Japanese courts not to leave the country while awaiting trial on financial misconduct charges. Ghosn insisted in his statement that he has "not fled justice — I have escaped injustice and political persecution." He was arrested in Japan in November 2018 then detained and rearrested for months before a court ordered him released on $9 million bail in April. Ghosn, 65, was told to hand over his passport and placed under close surveillance.Japanese media quoted anonymous prosecutors expressing puzzlement as to how Ghosn managed to leave Japan. Ghosn holds Lebanese, French, and Brazilian citizenship, and Lebanon and Japan do not have an extradition treaty. Japan's minister of state for foreign affairs met with the Lebanese president and foreign minister in Beirut earlier this month, The Washington Post reports.Ghosn was expected to go on trial in April on criminal charges of financial misconduct and underreporting his income, charges he denies. In his statement, Ghosn said he "will no longer be held hostage by a rigged Japanese justice system where guilt is presumed, discrimination is rampant, and basic human rights are denied, in flagrant disregard of Japan's legal obligations under international law and treaties it is bound to uphold." Fellow Nissan-Renault board member Greg Kelly, a U.S. citizen, was also arrested, but none of the Japanese board members were detained.More stories from theweek.com The Obama legacy is not what many liberals think Sorry, the 2010s aren't over yet 1st trailer for A Quiet Place 2 plunges Emily Blunt into the apocalypse
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| 16 inmates killed in bloody two and a half hour prison riot after guns snuck into facility Posted: 01 Jan 2020 09:05 AM PST  At least 16 inmates were killed in a central Mexico prison and five others wounded after a bloody two-and-a-half hour riot.Four guns – believed to have been smuggled in during prison visits on Tuesday, where found at the scene of the violent melee at the Cienguillas state prison in the north-central Zacatecas region.
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| Bosnia indicts Serb army general over Srebrenica genocide Posted: 31 Dec 2019 07:14 AM PST  A Bosnian war crimes prosecutor on Tuesday indicted a Bosnian Serb former army general for taking part in the 1995 massacre of about 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica, an atrocity described as genocide by two international courts. Milomir Savcic, 60, is accused of commanding the Bosnian Serb Army headquarters 65 Protection Motorised Regiment, which included a military police battalion, to capture, kill and bury adult Muslim Bosniaks from the U.N.-protected eastern enclave of Srebrenica in July 1995. Bosnian Serb forces led by General Ratko Mladic attacked Srebrenica on July 11, 1995, separated men from women and children, and killed about 8,000 Muslims, who were then buried in mass graves.
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| Russia’s Hypersonic ICBM Is Operational. So What? Posted: 01 Jan 2020 12:00 AM PST  Moscow might not even need them. Here's why.
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| In California: Blackouts, celeb scandals, crooked cops and wildfires Posted: 01 Jan 2020 03:32 PM PST  We closed out a year and ended a decade. ICYMI, here's a look back at last year's biggest stories from the Golden State
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| Is the U.S. Embassy Baghdad Attack a Sign of Things to Come? Posted: 31 Dec 2019 03:03 PM PST  Iranian-backed militia swarmed the U.S. embassy in Baghdad on Tuesday chanting "Death to America," sparking widespread concern among officials in Iraq and Washington about further targeting of American outposts in the days to come. The protest escalated Tuesday afternoon in Iraq as individuals holding the flags of Kataib Hezbollah, which launched rocket attacks that killed an American contractor on Friday only to be hit by U.S. airstrikes on Sunday, scrawled graffiti on the walls of the compound and used long concrete poles to try and break through the doors and windows. Is U.S. Embassy Attack in Baghdad Part of an Iran Trap?Others climbed on top of one of the American buildings, hoisting the Kataib Hezbollah flags to the roof. The crowds eventually dispersed, but U.S. officials said they would send additional troops to the area to protect embassy staffers. The State Department said there were no plans to evacuate the compound.The embassy protest took place after the U.S. launched a strike on Kataib Hezbollah in Iraq and Syria on Sunday, killing 24 people and wounding 50, according to a press statement from Kataib Hezbollah. Two days before that, the U.S. said the group launched rockets at a base near Kirkuk, Iraq, killing one American contractor. "We responded defensively to the Iranian proxy attack that killed an American citizen and wounded American and Iraqi soldiers," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Tuesday. "Now, Iranian backed groups are threatening our embassy in Baghdad."The rocket strike in Kirkuk represented the culmination of tensions between the U.S.-led anti-ISIS coalition and Iranian-backed militias in Iraq that have been mounting as the Trump administration's "maximum pressure" campaign against Iran intensified and the U.S.-Iran relationship veered towards aggressive confrontation.After a series of attacks on Japanese, European, and Saudi oil tankers in the Gulf attributed to Iran in May, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo ordered the evacuation of non-essential personnel from the U.S. embassy in Iraq and its consulate in Basra, citing intelligence showing an increased risk to U.S. officials from Iranian-backed proxies in Iraq. The move, according to the Pentagon's Lead Inspector General of Operation Inherent Resolve, established to fight the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, has affected all operations of Mission Iraq, limiting the mission's ability to help Iraq become "a more resilient, independent, democratic country, and to support counter-ISIS efforts."The U.S. military footprint in Iraq also has shrunk due to growing tensions with Iran and the militias it supports. For more than a year Iraqi politicians have called on the United States to withdraw all of its troops from the country, saying their continued presence would make an already volatile situation all the more perilous.Over the summer, a series of unexplained explosions at Iranian-backed militias' ammunition storage facilities led to allegations that Israel had targeted Iranian ballistic missiles stored at the facilities. U.S. officials denied any involvement in the explosions, but Iraqi officials facing an onslaught of conspiracy theories and Iranian-backed militia outrage, restricted the the anti-ISIS coalition's use of Iraqi airspace—a move that "hurt the Coalition's ability to counter the ISIS threat in Iraq," according to the most recent Pentagon report.The swarm attacking the U.S. embassy on Tuesday alarmed Democratic lawmakers on Capitol Hill, concerned that the Trump administration's maximum pressure policy had sparked an irreversible escalation with Tehran that could kickstart, at a minimum, a stand-off with Iranian-backed militias in Iraq. "Trump's reckless decisions to walk away from the Iran [nuclear] Deal and now to launch airstrikes in Iraq without Iraqi government consent have brought us closer to war and endangered U.S. troops and diplomats," Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), a Democratic presidential candidate, said on Twitter. "We should end the forever wars, not start new ones."Republicans took to social media to denounce the media's use of the term "protesters" to describe the mass of people who encircled the U.S. embassy Tuesday, saying those who participated were directly linked to the Iranian-backed militias. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) said the protesters were members of the Hezbollah militia operating in Iraq. "There's zero question," Rubio declared on Twitter. Photos surfaced on social media Tuesday showing leaders of Kataib Hezbollah at least mingling with the protesters at the American embassy.Both the Senate and House foreign affairs committees called for briefings on the situation from top State Department officials. Meanwhile, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), a member of the Senate Armed Forces Committee, announced Tuesday on Twitter that he had met President Donald Trump in Florida to discuss the situation in Iraq, saying the president was "determined to protect American personnel" and that he expected "Iraqi partners to step up to the plate." "No more Benghazis," said Graham.Not everyone believes that the flareup over Iranian-backed militias will mark the beginning of the end for the U.S. military presence in Iraq. "We both still realize we need each other and I don't think this will serve as a break. It is a low point; I don't think it's a breaking point," one former senior military officer told The Daily Beast."Iraq is in between two nation states, both of whom they need help from, both of whom they want good relationships with, and both of whom are at each other's throats. Not to be too sympathetic to the Iraqi government, but they are in a very precarious position politically and they don't have the depth or breadth of experience to work their way through it," he said.While it's unclear yet whether Iraq will apply further restrictions on the U.S.-led anti-ISIS coalition in the wake of the U.S. strikes, experts say the impact of either a withdrawal or expulsion of U.S. forces would be clear."The effectiveness of the CT [counter terrorism] effort would be rapidly degraded by a U.S. pullout, and ISIS would likely begin to rebuild some higher-end attack capabilities, particularly car bomb and suicide bomber networks," Alex Mello, a security consultant, told The Daily Beast.The impact would likely be felt hardest among Iraq's Counterterrorism Service (CTS) and other elite special operations units which U.S. special operators have spent years training and have fought alongside when the ISIS caliphate still stood. But Mello says conventional troops among Iraqi Security Forces would also feel the effect of a U.S. drawdown. "They've become accustomed to operating with U.S. support, particularly relying on airborne intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance coverage during clearance operations. If U.S. combat air support was also withdrawn, ISIS would be able again to mass openly in large groups and potentially threaten to overrun Iraqi forward operating bases and larger combat outposts."Maximum Pressure on Iran Is Working. That's Why It's Lashing Out. Let's Keep It Up.Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet 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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| Financial tug-of-war emerges over fire victims' settlement Posted: 31 Dec 2019 11:00 PM PST  A financial tug-of-war is emerging over the $13.5 billion that the nation's largest utility has agreed to pay to victims of recent California wildfires, as government agencies jockey for more than half the money to cover the costs of their response to the catastrophes. Pacific Gas & Electric declared bankruptcy nearly a year ago as it faced about $36 billion in claims from people who lost family members, homes and businesses in devastating wildfires in 2017 and 2018. PG&E settled with the insurers for $11 billion.
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| Thousands flee to beaches amid devastating Australian wildfires Posted: 31 Dec 2019 05:00 AM PST  Thousands of Australians were forced to flee to beaches on Tuesday as wildfires continued to blaze in New South Wales and Victoria.About 4,000 people sought refuge on nearby beaches in the town of Mallacoota in Victoria, with thousands along the New South Wales coast needing to evacuate their homes, CNN reports. Fires have been raging in Australia for the past several months, and 70 new fires reportedly started in Victoria on Monday, while more than 60 fires haven't yet been contained in New South Wales."It was like we were in hell," a vacationer in New South Wales told CNN. "We were all covered in ash.""It should have been daylight but it was black like midnight and we could hear the fire roaring," a local business owner in Mallacoota told BBC News. "We were all terrified for our lives."After the death of a father and son in Cobargo, at least 11 people have died amid Australia's devastating fire season, during which more than 900 homes have been destroyed in New South Wales, The New York Times reports. Victoria Emergency Services Commissioner Andrew Crisp said there have been "significant" property losses, The Associated Press reports.Australian military aircraft and vessels will assist in the emergency services, BBC News reports, and the United States and Canada have also been asked to help in the effort. CNN reports that weather conditions are expected to improve in the next 24 hours before worsening by the end of the week, again "bringing dangerous fire conditions."More stories from theweek.com The Obama legacy is not what many liberals think Sorry, the 2010s aren't over yet 1st trailer for A Quiet Place 2 plunges Emily Blunt into the apocalypse
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| Joe Biden Confronts a Demagogue and a Dilemma Posted: 31 Dec 2019 02:30 AM PST ![Joe Biden Confronts a Demagogue and a Dilemma]( "Joe Biden Confronts a Demagogue and a Dilemma") (Bloomberg Opinion) -- The New York Times headline, dated December 27, was clear: "Joe Biden Says He'd Defy Subpoena to Testify in Trump's Senate Trial." The New York Times headline, above an Associated Press story, dated the next day, December 28, was fuzzier: "Biden Leaves it Unclear if He Would Honor Senate Subpoena." One day later, December 29, the New York Times headline reached a possibly final — but who can say? — conclusion after the meandering journey of the preceding days: "Joe Biden Says He Would Comply With a Senate Subpoena, Reversing Course."The road to the White House may be winding, but that's a lot of swerving. President Donald Trump has made it abundantly clear that he intends to keep smearing Biden, falsely alleging that the Democrat abused his power as vice president to insulate Biden's son and his son's Ukrainian employer from a criminal investigation. (That Trump still lacks a shred of evidence for this charge, months after deploying wide swaths of the executive branch to advance it, is strong indication that no evidence exists or ever will.) In addition to pressuring Ukraine to investigate Biden, with the intent of spritzing his smear with a vapor of legitimacy, Trump has publicly requested that China investigate Biden as well. To beat these scurrilous attacks, the former vice president needs more than consistent headlines; he needs a steady strategy. So here's the question for armchair political strategists: Which one of the three distinct positions announced in the headlines above offers Biden the best chance of defanging Trump? Answer: None of the above. Yes, it's a trick question. But more than that, it's a democratic crisis. Biden bungled his response both to the smear and to the question of whether he would testify about it under oath. (Democrats must contest Republicans while also buttressing the Trump-battered rule of law; a legitimate Senate subpoena must be obeyed.) Trouble is, there is rarely a good way to respond to such smears, because the advantage almost invariably rests with the liar.Whoever wins the Democratic nomination in 2020 will face some version of Trump's attacks — like "crooked" Hillary and "corrupt" Biden — and will confront a similar quandary about responding. Ignore the smear and it spreads unchallenged. Engage and you generate hot embers to be fanned by an eager news media, which can generally be counted on to ignore even the most blatant bad faith by one of the disputants.The asymmetry between a Democratic Party largely seeking to preserve democratic norms and government accountability and a GOP increasingly devoted to accumulating and exercising white Christian conservative power free of traditional legal or ethical constraint has been apparent for years. Books have been published. Academic papers have been written. Essays have detailed the danger. Yet bothsidesism, the unwillingness of mainstream arbiters to differentiate fact from fantasy or good faith argument from deliberate deception, persists.The failure is more pronounced, and more perilous, when it comes to Trump, whose mental plumbing has leaked bad faith over a lifetime of personal corruption. Almost seven decades after Senator Joseph McCarthy slashed through the tapestry of American political culture, varying the number of communist spies he claimed to have found in the State Department in accord with the trajectory of the sun or the severity of his hangover, here we are — once again flummoxed by a demagogue so contemptuous of truth that he can't be bothered to keep his lies straight.Biden, and whomever Trump attacks next, cannot count on the news media to hold Trump accountable. And the proliferation of right-wing propaganda ensures that every emerging fact-based consensus will be targeted for destruction. McCarthy, who lacked a White House balcony from which to rally the nation's dark side, had fewer political resources at hand than Trump has now yet still managed to be a "galvanizer of mobs," as Richard Rovere called him.Democratic candidates will have to get used to defending themselves with a sufficiently strong counterpunch that it puts Trump on the defensive. David Doak, a former Democratic strategist (and my one-time partner) Tweeted that Biden should agree to testify under oath before the Senate impeachment trial — provided Trump does likewise.Trump, who instinctively kicks "for the groin" as McCarthy once did (Rovere again), lacks the courage or character to survive a bout of sworn public testimony. He'll never agree to it. But in an asymmetrical political environment, in which non-demagogues pay a truth tax, Doak's suggestion is the kind of defensive/offensive combo that a Democrat will have to level against Trump. It entails risk. But it beats three days of rhetorical wandering, seeking a safe passage that doesn't exist against a man who will say anything, and frequently does.To contact the author of this story: Francis Wilkinson at fwilkinson1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Sarah Green Carmichael at sgreencarmic@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Francis Wilkinson writes editorials on politics and U.S. domestic policy for Bloomberg Opinion. He was executive editor of the Week. He was previously a writer for Rolling Stone, a communications consultant and a political media strategist.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Mystery over identity of decades-old headless torso found in cave partially solved – but not how he got there Posted: 01 Jan 2020 10:54 AM PST  The mystery over the identity of a headless torso that was hidden inside a cave for decades has finally been solved – partly.Investigators say the body belongs to Joseph Henry Loveless, an outlaw who murdered his wife with an axe and was not seen after he escaped from jail in 1916.
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| Infowars founder who claimed Sandy Hook shooting was a hoax ordered to pay $100,000 Posted: 31 Dec 2019 12:38 PM PST ![Infowars founder who claimed Sandy Hook shooting was a hoax ordered to pay $100,000]( "Infowars founder who claimed Sandy Hook shooting was a hoax ordered to pay $100,000") Jones, founder of the Infowars radio show and webcast, has claimed the mainstream media and gun-control proponents conspired to fabricate the tragedy in which 20 school children and six school staff were shot dead at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, on Dec. 14, 2012. In response, several parents of the slain 6- and 7-year-old children sued Jones and Infowars for defamation and emotional distress in Texas, where Infowars is based, and in Connecticut. In Texas, Travis County District Court Judge Scott Jenkins on Dec. 20 ordered Jones and Infowars to pay more than $100,000 in a case brought by Neil Heslin, whose 6-year-old son, Jesse Lewis, was killed at the school.
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| GOP Sen. Collins is open to calling impeachment witnesses Posted: 31 Dec 2019 01:07 PM PST  Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine says she's open to calling witnesses as part of the Senate impeachment trial of President Trump, but she says it is "premature" to decide who should be called until senators see the evidence that is presented.
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| Israel Now Has a Second Squadron of Deadly F-35I Stealth Fighters Posted: 01 Jan 2020 10:13 AM PST  The first public photograph has appeared depicting an F-35 stealth fighter in the livery of Israel's second squadron of the radar-evading jets.
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| Japan Airlines Is Giving Away 50,000 Free Flights to Tourists. Here's How to Get One Posted: 30 Dec 2019 11:21 PM PST  Tourists flying to Japan with Japan Airlines this summer can win free tickets to a surprise destination in the country
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| 4,000+ People Trapped on Pristine Australia Beach as Wildfires Close In Posted: 31 Dec 2019 03:20 AM PST  More than 4,000 people, including residents, hundreds of tourists, and children, are trapped on beaches near the town of Mallacoota on Australia's east coast, surrounded as raging wildfires fueled by strong winds are barreling toward them. Officials are telling them they may need to jump into the sea to save themselves. David Jeffrey, a local business owner, told BBC News that he and other residents sheltering on an adjacent beach nearby were preparing to jump into the sea before sudden winds pushed the flames in the other direction. "There's a rock wall that they've built to keep back the sea, and that was where we were going to jump into the water if the radiant heat had hit," he told BBC by Skype. "It looks a lot like Armageddon. It's terrifying." The Australian government announced that it is readying naval ships and military helicopters to carry out evacuations after all roads leading to the area are now blocked by raging blazes. More than 200 fires are now burning across the the states of New South Wales and Victoria.The apocalyptic images cut a stark contrast as fireworks lit up over Sydney Harbour as New Year's celebrations rang out, despite widespread protests over fears of the pyrotechnics starting more fires amid the country's heat and wildfire emergency.A father and son are reported to have died and four other people are missing after several people tried to escape through the fires, despite government warnings to shelter in place until they can be rescued, according to government officials. The Australian government has called for assistance from the U.S. and Canada, which are preparing to send fire crews to help fight the blazes that have burned some 10 million acres and killed more than a dozen people over the last several weeks. The fires have been fueled by extreme temperatures and strong winds coupled with a three-year drought. Several people are trapped on beaches around Batemans Bay, which is a popular New Year's Eve destination for those who travel to Australia to enjoy the summer in the Southern Hemisphere.Many of those trapped have posted eerie photos on social media of the blood-red skies and night-like conditions in the afternoon as smoke from the raging fires blocks the sun.One woman posted a terrifying photo of her young son wearing a mask and a life jacket on a boat as they tried to escape Mallacoota.Firefighters have also been trapped in the fires, with one unit posting a video as they tried to reach safety as the fire surrounded their truck. Australian authorities say they have no prediction for when the fires will be contained. 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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| Judge: 'Filthy' zoo must give up animals; Zoo appeals Posted: 31 Dec 2019 12:35 PM PST ![Judge: 'Filthy' zoo must give up animals; Zoo appeals]( "Judge: 'Filthy' zoo must give up animals; Zoo appeals") A western Maryland zoo where five endangered animals died was ordered by a judge to send its remaining big cats to a sanctuary. Tri-State Zoological Park in Cumberland has seen two tigers, a lion and a lemur die within a three-year span. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sued the zoo in 2017 after conducting undercover inspections.
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| Iraq warns US ties at stake after deadly strikes Posted: 30 Dec 2019 09:54 PM PST  Iraq's government warned Monday that its relations with the United States were at risk after deadly American air strikes against a pro-Iran group sparked anger on the streets, with protesters torching US flags. Baghdad said it would summon the US ambassador while Washington responded by accusing Iraqi authorities of having failed to "protect" US interests. The attacks came as Iraq is caught up in mounting tensions between its allies Tehran and Washington while it also grapples with huge street protests against corruption and Iran's growing political influence in the country.
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| Jury awards $4 million to Disney Cruise worker Posted: 31 Dec 2019 01:07 PM PST  A Florida jury has decided that a Disney Cruise Line worker deserves $4 million from the company based on her claim that she got inadequate medical care from ship doctors after she was hit by a car during a port of call.
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| An Officer Admitted Making a Racist Threat. He Still Has a Job. Posted: 31 Dec 2019 11:54 AM PST  Michael J. Reynolds, a New York City police officer, landed in Nashville, Tennessee, on a Sunday morning in July 2018, court records show. He and six other men, two of whom he later identified as New York City officers, were on what was supposed to be a three-night bachelor-party junket.About 18 hours later, Reynolds, who is white, kicked in a black woman's door in a drunken rage, threatening her and her sons with a racist slur and obscenities."I'll break every bone in your neck," he said in a rant that included two expletives. He then fled to his nearby Airbnb rental just before police arrived.This month, he was sentenced to 15 days in jail and three years' probation after pleading no contest to four misdemeanors as a result of the episode, court records show.As of Monday, though, he remained an officer, stirring a growing backlash against the New York Police Department. More than 10,000 people signed an online petition demanding his dismissal and supporting the woman whose home he invaded, Conese Halliburton."Michael Reynolds is a violent and dangerous racist who has no business carrying either a badge or a gun," her lawyer, Daniel Horwitz, said via email. "Ms. Halliburton wants the NYPD to fire him immediately so that he can't hurt anyone else."The Police Department said last week that Reynolds was on "modified duty" and that the disciplinary process was awaiting the Nashville case's conclusion. Asked about the matter again Monday, a top department official said the process "was moving forward and questioning will take place imminently."Reynolds, 26, apologized in court for the episode and claimed that he had no memory of it because he had been drinking heavily."I'm sorry," he testified. "I made a mistake. I consumed too much alcohol."Edward Yarbrough, Reynolds' lawyer, said that because of the jail time, "We think his job is in jeopardy." Yarbrough had sought a sentence that could have allowed his client to keep his job and have his record expunged in several years.The case of Reynolds is again focusing scrutiny on the pace of the Police Department's disciplinary process. In a prominent example of how it can drag on, five years passed before Officer Daniel Pantaleo, whose use of a prohibited chokehold contributed to the 2014 death in police custody of Eric Garner, was fired and stripped of his pension benefits in August.The police commissioner has the ultimate say over firings, but police unions typically fight such moves. Officers who are ousted sometimes sue to try to get back their jobs and benefits, as Pantaleo is doing.Reynolds' crimes did not occur in the line of duty, nor did he cause physical injuries. But Halliburton testified that he had done significant psychological damage."My kids want to move," she said at the sentencing Dec. 6. "They don't want to be in that house anymore. We don't have peace. To know that you've been living somewhere all your life, and you don't have that anymore, and where would you go, it's not fair."In court, Halliburton, the prosecutor, the judge and Reynolds' own lawyer all used the same term -- terrorize -- to describe what Reynolds had done to Halliburton's family that night.The episode, some of which, including audio of Reynolds' ranting, was captured by a neighbor's security cameras, began shortly after 2:30 a.m. on July 9, 2018.At the time, Halliburton testified, she was lying in bed talking with her youngest son in her house in Nashville's 12 South section."I could hear, like, someone, like, yelling," she said.Looking out a window, her son saw a man who turned out to be Reynolds in the yard. Halliburton called 911. While she was on the phone, she said, she heard "like a boom, boom, boom.""It sounds like he's trying to come in my house," she recalled telling the 911 operator.Moments later, she said, Reynolds was inside. Her two dogs ran to protect her, barking and biting at his shorts. He tried to fight them off."He just kept coming down the hallway," she said.Halliburton said that her two eldest sons, who were 17 and 20 at the time, tried to stop him from coming any farther into the house. He did not budge."He was in the house for, like, seven, eight minutes," Halliburton testified.It was during this time that security cameras captured Reynolds screaming a racist slur at Halliburton and her family and threatening them with violence.He left, she said, after appearing to comprehend that the police were coming.When officers arrived, she described the intruder to them and suggested they talk to the men staying at the Airbnb two doors away.Before storming into Halliburton's house, Reynolds testified, he and his friends had been drinking in Nashville's Lower Broadway area. He said he did not know how much alcohol he had consumed.The only thing he remembered, he testified, was identifying himself as a police officer when speaking to a Nashville officer who answered Halliburton's call. He said he learned about what he had done from his friends later.Halliburton and two neighbors confronted Reynolds and his friends later that day in the street.Halliburton and the neighbors testified that the men, including Reynolds and a man he identified as a fellow New York City officer, apologized.Reynolds said he had gone into the home by mistake, thinking that it was their rental.But Halliburton and the neighbors also testified that the officers were laughing at the same time, saying that they had "immunity" because they were law enforcement officers.Nashville detectives later tracked down Reynolds, and Halliburton and her sons identified him from a photo array.After being charged with aggravated burglary and assault, he pleaded no contest in September to aggravated criminal trespassing and three counts of assault. He is to report to jail Jan. 15 if he does not appeal his sentence before then.In arguing that Reynolds, a five-year Police Department veteran previously assigned to the 33rd Precinct in Upper Manhattan, deserved jail time, Brian Ewald, the prosecutor, said Reynolds and his friends had tried to "bully their way through this or out of this.""Keep quiet, don't tell anybody a thing and we'll get out of this," Ewald said in describing the men's attitude. "You know, we went, we cut up in another city, what happens in Nashville stays in Nashville, let's get out of town early and live our lives."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
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| Nine Killed as Jakarta Hit by Worst Flooding Since 2013 Posted: 01 Jan 2020 04:28 AM PST ![Nine Killed as Jakarta Hit by Worst Flooding Since 2013]( "Nine Killed as Jakarta Hit by Worst Flooding Since 2013") (Bloomberg) -- Nine people have died as heavy monsoon rains lashed the Indonesian capital and nearby cities since New Year's Eve, triggering the worst flooding in almost seven years.The rains submerged homes and cars and shut one of Jakarta's airports. More than 700 areas in greater Jakarta region suffered from power outages, according to state-run electricity company PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara. Commuter trains suspended some operations, said PT Kereta Commuter Indonesia.The Jakarta provincial government is prioritizing the safety of residents and instructed schools and some offices to be prepared in providing shelter as the country's weather agency expects rainfall to continue in the next three days. The death toll was provided by the country's disaster mitigation agency.The Halim Perdanakusuma airport had to shut as the runway was flooded and authorities diverted several flights to Soekarno-Hatta. Many roads in Jakarta were also not passable.President Joko Widodo had instructed government agencies to prioritize rescue and to immediately normalize the operation of strategic public facilities, such as the Halim Perdanakusuma airport, he said on Twitter.In January 2013, more than 30 million residents of the city were affected by flooding that killed dozens of people and inundated areas including the central business district.Indonesia's weather agency, known as BMKG, urged people to store important documents in a safe place and to prepare for power supply backup.(Updates with latest death toll in first paragraph.)\--With assistance from Tassia Sipahutar, Yoga Rusmana, Fathiya Dahrul, Harry Suhartono and Rieka Rahadiana.To contact the reporters on this story: Arys Aditya in Jakarta at aaditya5@bloomberg.net;Eko Listiyorini in Jakarta at elistiyorini@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Thomas Kutty Abraham at tabraham4@bloomberg.net, Colum Murphy, Clarissa BatinoFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Trump says he has been denied due process. But the Constitution does not afford him that. Posted: 01 Jan 2020 10:03 AM PST  Like Bill Clinton and Andrew Johnson before him, President Trump does not have the same constitutional protection afforded to criminal defendants.
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| Can Iran Hope To Stop U.S. Stealth Drones? Posted: 01 Jan 2020 03:30 AM PST  America is increasing its presence in the Middle East.
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| Two Alaska snowboarders die in British Columbia avalanche Posted: 31 Dec 2019 03:36 PM PST ![Two Alaska snowboarders die in British Columbia avalanche]( "Two Alaska snowboarders die in British Columbia avalanche") Two Alaska men on a snowboarding trip to British Columbia died when they were caught in an avalanche, according to provincial officials. The two men and a third friend who survived the avalanche were from nearby Haines, Alaska, and were in their early 20s, Anchorage television station KTVA reported. The avalanche occurred Monday in Tatshenshini-Alsek Park, according to BC Coroner Service spokesman Andy Watson.
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| North Korean leader calls for ‘military countermeasures’ Posted: 30 Dec 2019 08:18 PM PST  Kim spoke for seven hours during the ruling Workers' Party meeting.
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| Algeria's richest man walks free on time served Posted: 31 Dec 2019 11:44 PM PST  Algeria's richest man Issad Rebrab walked free on time served early Wednesday after a court sentenced him to six months for tax, banking and customs offences. Prosecutors had sought a one-year prison sentence for the 74-year-old head of Algeria's biggest privately owned conglomerate Cevital, who was one of several tycoons arrested in April as part of a sweeping corruption investigation. The probe followed the resignation of president Abdelaziz Bouteflika after weeks of mass protests against his 20-year rule.
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| Medical Student Arrested, Held Without Bail After Alleged Attempt to Smuggle Cancer Research to China Posted: 31 Dec 2019 07:27 AM PST  Research specimens were found in a sock in Zaosong Zheng's suitcase, bound for China
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| Japan Eyes New Tech Law to Fend Off Chinese Influence, Yomiuri Says Posted: 31 Dec 2019 11:17 PM PST ![Japan Eyes New Tech Law to Fend Off Chinese Influence, Yomiuri Says]( "Japan Eyes New Tech Law to Fend Off Chinese Influence, Yomiuri Says") (Bloomberg) -- Japan is planning a law to provide incentives for companies to use domestic parts in high-tech equipment to increase local competitiveness and fend off Chinese influence in security-related infrastructure, the Yomiuri newspaper reported, without citing how it obtained the information.The Japanese government plans to introduce the bill in the ordinary Diet session and have it in effect by this summer, according to the Wednesday report. The government sees the incentives initially being used with the introduction of 5G telecommunication equipment and drones, the Yomiuri said.Private companies can apply for tax subsidizes or government aid when installing high-tech equipment and will be judged on factors including safety, supply stability and international compatibility, the Yomiuri reported.China has said restrictions on Chinese technology could damage bilateral ties, and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will have to tread carefully as he looks to host President Xi Jinping for a state visit planned for the spring of this year. If Xi makes the trip, it would crown Abe's drive to restore a relationship between the two largest economies in Asia that was in a deep freeze when he took office in 2012.Japan's sole military ally, the U.S., has been pushing for countries to ban equipment from China's Huawei Technologies Co. Japan has said it will exclude equipment with security risks without making an official decision on Huawei.To contact the reporter on this story: Lisa Du in Tokyo at ldu31@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Rachel Chang at wchang98@bloomberg.net, Jon Herskovitz, Karen LeighFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Secretary of State Pompeo postpones Ukraine trip to focus on Iraq Posted: 01 Jan 2020 10:34 AM PST  U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday postponed a trip to Ukraine so he could focus on the situation in Iraq after demonstrators attacked the U.S. embassy. Pompeo postponed his trip to Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Cyprus "due to the need for the Secretary to be in Washington, D.C., to continue monitoring the ongoing situation in Iraq and ensure the safety and security of Americans in the Middle East," State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said in a statement. On Tuesday evening Pompeo had told Fox News the Ukraine trip was still on.
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| 'I am one of the undecided': With a month to go, many likely Iowa caucusgoers still unsure Posted: 01 Jan 2020 01:58 PM PST  With a month to go before the Feb. 3 caucuses, some Iowans are just starting to explore their choices. Others like several; can't make up their minds.
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| Several thousand protest church bill in Montenegro Posted: 01 Jan 2020 12:25 PM PST  Several thousand people on Wednesday held protests in Montenegro against a religious property bill that is opposed by the Serbian Orthodox Church and Russia. Led by Serbian Orthodox Church priests, pro-Serb Montenegrins have been holding protest marches since last week. Peaceful religious protests were held Wednesday in the capital Podgorica and several other towns.
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| Immigration in 2019: Trump restricts asylum and overhauls legal immigration Posted: 31 Dec 2019 03:43 AM PST  2019 was arguably the Trump administration's most successful one in its quest to severely restrict asylum and overhaul the legal immigration system.
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| Erdogan, Istanbul rival lock horns over 'crazy canal' Posted: 31 Dec 2019 08:21 PM PST  President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's dream project of building a canal in Istanbul to rival those at Suez and Panama has turned into a political showdown with the city's new mayor. Ekrem Imamoglu, who won a shock victory for the opposition in 2019 to become mayor of Turkey's largest city, says the 75 billion lira ($12.6 billion) canal is wasteful, environmentally destructive and could even increase the earthquake risk. "Canal Istanbul is a criminal project," he tweeted in December as he launched an "Either Canal or Istanbul" campaign and withdrew from a construction protocol signed by the previous mayor.
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| SKorean prosecutors indict Moon's key ally over corruption Posted: 31 Dec 2019 01:02 AM PST ![SKorean prosecutors indict Moon's key ally over corruption]( "SKorean prosecutors indict Moon's key ally over corruption") South Korean prosecutors on Tuesday indicted a key ally of President Moon Jae-in on a dozen charges including bribery as they concluded a monthslong probe into a political scandal that rocked Seoul's liberal government and sparked huge protests. In a rare public response to an ongoing criminal case, Moon's office released a statement accusing prosecutors of pushing an excessive probe into former Justice Minister Cho Kuk and questioned whether it was politically motivated. The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office said Cho was charged for receiving 6 million won ($5,190) in bribes, in the form of scholarships his daughter received from a medical school in Busan from 2017 to 2018, when he served as Moon's senior secretary of civil affairs.
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| GOP Senator: President Trump 'Not a Role Model For Young People' Posted: 31 Dec 2019 09:27 AM PST  In an interview with Face The Nation, Republican Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma said Trump isn't a good role model for young people
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| Israel Is Using Lasers to Shoot Down Flaming Kites (and Explosive Condoms) Posted: 31 Dec 2019 04:55 AM PST  Kites, balloons and even inflated condoms, launched across the Gaza border into southern Israel by Hamas and other Palestinian groups, have become a major problem for the Israeli military. A solution has arrived.
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| Uber, Postmates sue to block California gig worker law, claiming it's unconstitutional Posted: 30 Dec 2019 06:13 PM PST  In a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles federal court on Monday, the companies and two app-based drivers said the law, which would make it harder for gig economy companies to qualify their workers as independent contractors rather than employees, was irrational, vague and incoherent. The office of California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said in a statement on Monday it was reviewing the complaint. The law was signed by California Governor Gavin Newsom in September and has garnered national attention, largely owing to the size of California's workforce and the state's leadership role in establishing policies that are frequently adopted by other states.
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| Millions of working class Americans to get more money as 50 states and cities raise minimum wage Posted: 01 Jan 2020 12:11 PM PST  Millions of working class Americans are to receive more money after a record number of states and cities increased their minimum wages.Rises to the minimum wage went into effect on January 1 in 20 states and 26 cities and counties, most of them in California.
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| Hong Kong riot police use tear gas to answer firebombs to ring in New Year Posted: 31 Dec 2019 10:41 AM PST  Hong Kong protesters rang in the New Year with a wave of fresh mass demonstrations, as they tried to show they could maintain pressure on the Beijing-backed government into 2020.
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| Mexico president says "El Chapo" had same power as president Posted: 01 Jan 2020 09:27 AM PST  Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador closed out 2019 with a parting shot at his predecessors, saying imprisoned drug kingpin Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán Loera had had the same power as the country's president. In a video message from the southern city of Palenque on Wednesday, López Obrador recounted his administration's successes in its first year and highlighted its challenges — foremost surging violence. It appeared to be a reference to the indictment and arrest last month of Mexico's former public safety secretary Genaro García Luna.
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