| As the Trump administration fills board seats, critics see an alarming attempt to remake government Posted: 15 Jan 2020 02:00 AM PST  For the Trump administration, appointing board members may be an effective and little-noticed means of weakening a federal apparatus it fundamentally distrusts. His board appointments, many of which may outlast his presidency, could serve an internal Republican resistance to a future Democratic administration.
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| The Navy cryptically says it has top-secret UFO briefings that would cause 'exceptionally grave damage' to US national security if published Posted: 15 Jan 2020 11:41 AM PST  The Navy previously confirmed it was treating objects that baffled pilots in Department of Defense videos as UFOs.
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| Sanders-Warren Clash on Women Elevates Acrimony in Iowa Debate Posted: 14 Jan 2020 09:54 PM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren tried unsuccessfully to calm the waters Tuesday after a spat involving elitism, sexism and insinuations of lying, in a wide-ranging debate where the top candidates each enjoyed strong moments without yielding a clear winner.The clash between the progressives looms over a tight race 20 days before the Iowa caucuses after a recent Des Moines Register/CNN survey showed Sanders, Warren, Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg bunched up in a five-point spread at the front of the field.It was hard to see how anyone on stage at Drake University in Des Moines dramatically bettered their position heading into the Feb. 3 Iowa caucuses. That's good news for Sanders, who led one key Iowa poll, and Biden, who topped a second survey. Warren and Buttigieg, struggling to gain altitude in Iowa, held their own with crisp performances while taking some hits from rivals.When moderators raised the Sanders-Warren dispute, the uncomfortable smiles from the two candidates captured the feelings of many progressives who want the two to work together to block a moderate like Biden from winning the nomination.But both held to their contradictory stories about what happened in a private 2018 meeting between them. Sanders insisted he "didn't say" a woman couldn't win the presidency in 2020. Warren said she "disagreed" when Sanders told her that, before trying to pivot away by saying, "Bernie is my friend, and I'm not here to fight with Bernie."Neither of the two wanted to prolong the topic, and yet it framed the early part of the debate and allowed each of the candidates — four men and two women — to lay out their cases to become the nominee. The spat dredged up old hostilities among mainstream Democratic figures who believe Sanders damaged Hillary Clinton in 2016 and potentially cost her the election.The tension between the two was evident afterward when Warren walked up to Sanders to talk, but declined to shake his hand when he offered it."Bernie should have let this go," former Clinton 2016 aide Jennifer Palmieri wrote on Twitter. She later added: "What we will likely remember most from this night is @ewarren and her well litigated exchange with @BernieSanders on electability. This is very tricky terrain for women candidates and she came out the winner."President Donald Trump sought to fuel the divisions as he held a rally in Milwaukee at the same time as the debate. "She said that Bernie said a woman can't win," he said. "I don't believe that Bernie said that. I really don't. It's not the kind of a thing he'd say."And Warren tried to seize the moment to make her case to lead a majority-female party."Look at the men on this stage — collectively they have lost 10 elections. The only people on this stage who have won every election they've run in are the women," she said, drawing heavy applause and referring to herself and Senator Amy Klobuchar. Tom Steyer completed the six-person debate stage.The spat caused Sanders supporters to light up Twitter this week with the anti-Warren hashtags RefundWarren and ITrustBernie. It was clear Tuesday those animosities would linger."Who does Warren think she will win over with this sexism attack on Sanders? I can promise you she has just rendered herself completely unacceptable to most Sanders supporters," progressive commentator Krystal Ball tweeted during the debate.Other Democrats had a different view."It's not just about what may or may not have been said in this conversation. Bernie came into this race with a bit of a legacy — the Bernie Bros were known to have been horrible to women online," Karen Finney, a former Clinton 2016 aide, said on CNN before the debate Tuesday, using a pejorative to describe Sanders' most fervent backers."The Bernie Bros, again — they're pretty obnoxious. And they're very sexist and misogynistic," she said, adding that there are "a lot of women feeling pretty raw from 2016."Charles Chamberlain, the chair of the liberal group Democracy for America, pleaded with the two to play nice."Especially given how close the race remains just 20 days ahead of the first contest, it's critical that progressives focus our fight for the Democratic nomination against candidates supported by the corporate wing, instead of fighting each other," he said in a statement issued in the middle of the debate.Klobuchar, who desperately needs Iowa to catapult into the top tier, had an unremarkable night as she offered herself as a pragmatic Midwesterner.Michael Bloomberg, who is skipping the early states and polling fifth nationally, didn't qualify for the debate under Democratic National Committee criteria because the billionaire is self-funding his campaign. He's the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.(Adds one paragraph after sixth paragraph about post-debate chat between Sanders and Warren)To contact the reporter on this story: Sahil Kapur in Washington at skapur39@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Larry LiebertFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Pakistan: 21 more bodies recovered in avalanche-hit Kashmir Posted: 15 Jan 2020 09:17 AM PST  Search teams aided by Pakistani troops pulled out 21 more bodies from homes destroyed by this week's avalanches in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, raising the overall death toll due to severe winter weather to 160 for Pakistan and Afghanistan, officials said Wednesday. Rescuers were racing against time to reach scores of people believed still to be trapped inside their homes, buried under avalanches triggered by heavy snowfall in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
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| Texts Appear to Show Former Ukraine Prosecutor Offering Info on Bidens in Exchange for Ouster of Then-Ambassador Yovanovitch Posted: 15 Jan 2020 05:41 AM PST  A trove of documents provided to House impeachment investigators by Lev Parnas, an associate of Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, appears to show former top Ukraine prosecutor Yuri Lutsenko offering Giuliani damaging information on Joe and Hunter Biden in exchange for the firing of then–U.S. ambassador Marie Yovanovitch.Lutsenko was critical of Yovanovitch due to her support for an anti-corruption institution based in Ukraine, as well as because the ambassador had been critical of Lutsenko and his office."It's just that if you don't make a decision about Madam — you are calling into question all my declarations. Including about B," Lutsenko wrote to Parnas in Russian in a Whatsapp message from March 22. "Madam" likely refers to Yovanovitch, while it is unclear if "B" designates Biden or Burisma, the Ukrainian company on whose board Hunter Biden sat from 2014 to early 2019.Lutsenko, who was in the midst of an investigation into Burisma, updated Parnas four days later, writing that he had found evidence of money transfers pertaining to "B.""And here you can't even remove one fool :(" Lutsenko told Parnas via text message."She's not a simple fool[,] trust me," Parnas wrote back. "But she's not getting away."The documents also reveal that Parnas's associate, Connecticut businessman and congressional candidate Robert Hyde, was in contact with some unidentified person who was surveilling Yovanovitch.During her testimony before Congress last year, Yovanovitch speculated that Giuliani and his associates were working to have her fired in order to install an ambassador who would be more amenable to their corrupt business dealings in Ukraine.The documents are likely to breath new life into the Democrat-led impeachment process against President Trump, just as the House plans to vote to transfer the impeachment articles to the Senate for trial.The contours of the trial are as yet unclear. Republicans in the Senate and the Trump administration have vacillated between calls to allow witnesses to testify at the trial and a desire to dismiss the charges without summoning witnesses at all.
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| Teacher asks students to ‘identify rapist’ on homework assignment, prompting investigation Posted: 15 Jan 2020 09:34 AM PST  Texas schools officials say they've taken "corrective action" after a ninth grade teacher included a question about a rape victim in a homework assignment receivedApproximately 90 students received an assignment that asked the following: "Suzy was assaulted in an alley and is a victim of rape. The police collected a sample of sperm that was left at the crime scene and now have three suspects in custody. Which of the suspects raped Suzy?"
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| As Iran missiles battered Iraq base, US lost eyes in sky Posted: 14 Jan 2020 05:52 PM PST  Ain al-Asad Air Base (Iraq) (AFP) - Moments after volleys of Iranian missiles began to batter Iraq's Ain al-Asad airbase, US soldiers at the desert facility lost contact with their ultra-powerful -- and expensive -- eyes in the sky. At the time the attack was launched at 1:35 am on January 8, the US army was flying seven unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) over Iraq to monitor bases where US-led coalition forces are deployed. "We thought it may lead to a ground assault, so we kept the aircraft up," said one of the pilots, 26-year-old Staff Sergeant Costin Herwig.
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| Thunderstorms sweep across Australia's bushfire-ravaged east coast Posted: 15 Jan 2020 04:45 PM PST  Thunderstorms and heavy rain swept across parts of Australia's east coast on Thursday, bringing hope that some of the fierce bushfires razing the country will be extinguished - or at least slowed. Officials warned, however, that short, intense thunderstorms could lead to flash flooding, while lightning brought the risk of new fires being ignited. "We're expecting unsettled weather for the next four or five days or so at least," Jake Phillips, a senior meteorologist at the Bureau of Meteorology told Australian Broadcasting Corp radio.
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| Tekashi 6ix9ine asked to serve the rest of his 2-year sentence in home confinement because his prison has a lot of Blood gang members Posted: 15 Jan 2020 07:38 AM PST  Lawyers for Tekashi 6ix9ine, whose real name is Daniel Hernandez, said putting the rapper in any facility would jeopardize his safety.
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| Why Andrew Yang thinks candidates of color have been shut out of the Democratic debates Posted: 14 Jan 2020 05:15 PM PST  Andrew Yang has a theory for why there are barely any candidates of color left in the Democratic primary race.After Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) dropped out earlier this week, Yang remains the only person of color in the Democratic race with a solid base of support. And as he tells Politico ahead of Tuesday night's Democratic debate, that dilemma stems from "inequities and financial realities" that affect people of color outside of politics, too.While Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) made the December debate stage, she dropped out of the 2020 race due to a lack of financial support beforehand, leaving Yang the only person of color in that debate. That left him feeling "a bit of extra pressure" to talk about race both in the debate and in his campaign in general, he told Politico. "Race has not been the central theme of my campaign from the beginning," Yang said, but added "it's more natural to talk about it when you're literally the only person of color on a national debate stage."Now, Yang has been barred from Tuesday's debate after he failed to make the Democratic National Committee's polling threshold, leaving six white candidates on the stage. This, Yang says, "reflects the realities of our society where being able to run for office and contribute to political campaigns requires a degree of disposable income. If you're black or Latino in the country, you are much less likely to have disposable income."DNC Chair Tom Perez defended the thresholds as a "remarkably inclusive and frankly low bar" which have resulted in "the most diverse field in American history."More stories from theweek.com John Bolton will reportedly reveal some of what he knows about Trump's Ukraine scandal in his upcoming book 'Okay Boomer' was just used in a Supreme Court argument for the 1st time The paradox of Trump's trillion-dollar deficit
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| Russia says US Indo-Pacific strategy is to contain China Posted: 14 Jan 2020 11:07 PM PST  Russia on Wednesday criticized the United States for introducing a new Indo-Pacific concept it said was aimed at containing China. Addressing a global conference in the Indian capital to discuss the most challenging issues facing the world community, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Asia-Pacific cooperation until now was centered on Southeast Asia. The Indo-Pacific concept being pushed by the United States, Japan and others was to reconfigure the existing structure, he said.
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| A newly revealed letter from Rudy Giuliani — Trump's own lawyer — destroys the president's last defense in Ukraine scandal Posted: 15 Jan 2020 06:51 AM PST  Giuliani's letter indicates he was acting as President Donald Trump's private attorney and representing his personal interests, not those of the US.
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| The Navy’s Smallest Warship Gets a Big Laser Weapon Posted: 14 Jan 2020 01:53 PM PST  The USS Little Rock is the fourth ship to get a laser gun.
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| Newborn dies from sepsis after being sent home from a hospital Posted: 15 Jan 2020 08:54 AM PST  A 5-week-old baby died from sepsis after being sent home twice from a U.K. hospital with what doctors thought was a common infection.
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| Philippines struggles to evacuate reluctant villagers near volcano Posted: 14 Jan 2020 05:23 AM PST  A cloud of ash and fountains of lava gushed for a third day from the crater of Taal, which lies in the middle of a lake about 70 km (45 miles) south of the center of the Philippines capital Manila. Everyone living within 14 km (9 miles) of the volcano has been ordered to leave: potentially as many as 300,000 people, though disaster agency spokesman Mark Timbal said he believed the actual number who had been there was much lower.
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| First Gaza rockets against Israel since Soleimani killing Posted: 15 Jan 2020 01:02 PM PST  The Israeli military said four rockets were fired Wednesday from Hamas-controlled Gaza, the first since Israel's ally the US killed top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani. It did not say where the other two rockets landed.
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| In separation of church and state, which institution is being protected? Posted: 14 Jan 2020 08:46 AM PST  Quebec has banned some public workers from displaying religious symbols on the job, prompting debate over what needs more protection, church or state.
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| Small plane crashes in Utah neighborhood, killing pilot Posted: 15 Jan 2020 03:29 PM PST ![Small plane crashes in Utah neighborhood, killing pilot]( "Small plane crashes in Utah neighborhood, killing pilot") A small plane crashed Wednesday in a Utah neighborhood, killing the pilot as the aircraft narrowly avoided hitting any townhomes, authorities said. An unidentified 64-year-old pilot died in the crash of the twin-engine Cessna, said Roy police Sgt. Matthew Gwynn. Debris from the plane crashed through the roof of a home that didn't have anybody inside at the time, he said according to The Salt Lake Tribune.
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| Trump Asks JPMorgan Leader to Say ‘Thank You, Mr. President’ Posted: 15 Jan 2020 03:10 PM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Terms of Trade is a daily newsletter that untangles a world embroiled in trade wars. Sign up here. A smiling President Donald Trump thanked some of the biggest U.S. companies for about 10 minutes on Wednesday at the White House, where he was celebrating his trade deal with China. When it came to JPMorgan Chase & Co., he asked for reciprocation."They just announced earnings and they were incredible," he said as he greeted Mary Erdoes, who heads asset and wealth management for the biggest U.S. bank. "They were very substantial. Will you say, 'Thank you, Mr. President,' at least, huh?" JPMorgan on Tuesday posted the most profitable year for any U.S. bank in history."I made a lot of bankers look very good. But you're doing a great job." He told her to "say hello" to the firm's billionaire chief executive officer, Jamie Dimon. "I think we're seeing him tomorrow."Trump has made a rollback of regulation and corporate taxes one of the hallmarks of his presidency. But his relationship with Dimon has fluctuated: In 2018, the JPMorgan CEO said he was smarter than Trump and could beat him in an election, but quickly backtracked.Erdoes wasn't the only major finance executive the president called out. Trump thanked billionaire Ken Griffin, who runs the hedge fund empire Citadel, but couldn't spot him: "Where the hell is he? He's trying to hide some of his money. Look, he doesn't want to stand up." Griffin wasn't in the room, his spokeswoman said.And Trump had a question for Moody's Corp. CEO Raymond McDaniel: "Are you giving us good ratings, Raymond, please?"After Erdoes, Trump offered unusual praise for Ford Motor Co.'s Joy Falotico, one of the few women executives other than Erdoes in attendance. He referred to the automaker's chief marketing officer as "so young" and "very impressive." Falotico, 52, is also president of the luxury-car division Lincoln.Other figures at the White House included Stephen P. Vaughn, a partner in international trade at law firm King & Spalding and a former senior trade official for the Trump administration. "I could use some good legal advice. You have some good lawyers?" Trump said. "Eh, to hell with it. I just have to suffer through it the way I have all my life."(Updates with Trump's comments about Ford executive in seventh paragraph)\--With assistance from Lananh Nguyen and Keith Naughton.To contact the reporter on this story: Max Abelson in New York at mabelson@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Michael J. Moore at mmoore55@bloomberg.net, David ScheerFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| China Figured Out The Secret To Closing The Gap With America's Military Posted: 14 Jan 2020 05:30 PM PST  More than just defense spending.
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| Iran makes arrests in plane shootdown, police crack down on protests Posted: 14 Jan 2020 01:09 AM PST  Iran said on Tuesday it had arrested people accused of a role in shooting down a Ukrainian airliner and had also detained 30 people involved in protests that have swept the nation for four days since the military belatedly admitted its error. Wednesday's downing of Ukraine International Airlines flight 752, which killed all 176 people aboard, has created a new crisis for the Islamic Republic's clerical rulers. President Hassan Rouhani promised a thorough investigation into the "unforgivable error" in an address on Tuesday.
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| How the world discovered the Nazi death camps Posted: 13 Jan 2020 06:09 PM PST  Images of what the Allies found when they liberated the first Nazi death camps towards the end of World War II brought the horror of the Holocaust to world attention. Many of the ghastly pictures were at first held back from the broader public, partly out of concern for those with missing relatives. The concentration and extermination camps were liberated one by one as the Allied armies advanced on Berlin in the final days of the 1939-1945 war.
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| A GOP lawmaker and Purple Heart recipient gave Congress the 2-minute silent treatment over Iran Posted: 14 Jan 2020 04:57 PM PST  Brian Mast, a bomb disposal expert who lost both his legs in Afghanistan, used the silence to focus on US soldiers killed by Iranian proxies.
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| U.S. Army chief of staff: Russia's hypersonic missiles are not 'game changing' Posted: 14 Jan 2020 04:22 PM PST  The U.S. Army's top officer said Tuesday during an appearance in Washington, D.C., that he isn't worried by Russia's growing arsenal of hypersonic missiles.
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| Fever chart: Earth had its hottest decade on record in 2010s Posted: 15 Jan 2020 08:00 AM PST  "If you think you've heard this story before, you haven't seen anything yet," Gavin Schmidt, director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said at the close of a decade plagued by raging wildfires, melting ice and extreme weather that researchers have repeatedly tied to human activity. Schmidt said Earth as a whole is probably the hottest it has been during the Holocene — the past 11,500 years or so — meaning this could be the warmest period since the dawn of civilization. The 2010s averaged 58.4 degrees Fahrenheit (14.7 degrees Celsius) worldwide, or 1.4 degrees (0.8 C) higher than the 20th century average and more than one-third of a degree (one-fifth of a degree C) warmer than the previous decade, which had been the hottest on record, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
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| U.K. Standoff Over Scottish Independence Rumbles On With Brexit Posted: 14 Jan 2020 04:45 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- As the U.K. prepares to put more than three years of uncertainty behind it when it leaves the European Union this month, a standoff over the country's constitutional future only looks more intractable.On Tuesday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson rejected Scottish leader Nicola Sturgeon's demand to hold another independence referendum in the wake of Brexit. Sturgeon responded by saying that his position was "not politically sustainable" and that her government in Edinburgh would continue to agitate for a vote.Scotland wants to remain in the EU and Sturgeon's Scottish National Party won 48 out of 59 districts in Scotland at last month's election, a result she said reinforced her mandate to give Scots the chance to choose their own path. In a letter Johnson refused to transfer the power to hold the vote, saying that Scotland already opted to stay in the U.K. in a 2014 referendum that all parties had agreed was a "once in a generation" event."The people of Scotland will get the right to decide our own future in an independence referendum," Sturgeon said. "The Westminster union cannot be sustained without consent. Democracy will prevail. The only question is how long it will take the Tories and the rest of the Westminster establishment to accept that inevitability."The tension between Scotland and England, which came together to form Great Britain in 1707, is set to rumble on as Johnson seeks a quick trade deal with the EU and Sturgeon heads toward a Scottish Parliamentary election next year determined to put the issue of full autonomy back to the people.The problem for Johnson is that the question over Scotland isn't going to go away anytime soon, though his emphatic election victory in December means he can afford to play the long game. For Sturgeon, the challenge is to maintain pressure on the U.K. government in London after ruling out anything other than a legal, internationally recognized referendum.To contact the reporter on this story: Rodney Jefferson in Edinburgh at r.jefferson@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Tim Ross at tross54@bloomberg.net, Stuart Biggs, Alex MoralesFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Lion at Chicago-area zoo dies after mysterious fall, less than 2 weeks after mate's death Posted: 14 Jan 2020 07:59 PM PST  Brookfield Zoo's lion Isis was put down Tuesday after suffering injuries from a fall in her enclosure. Her mate Zenda died less than two weeks ago.
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| To combat new missile threats, the US Navy prepares to move forward with destroyer upgrades Posted: 15 Jan 2020 11:56 AM PST  With an eye toward faster, more dangerous missile threats, the Navy is getting ready to move forward on a major upgrade for its destroyers.
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| Russian hackers targeted Ukrainian company at center of impeachment storm: cybersecurity firm Posted: 13 Jan 2020 09:35 PM PST  Russian military hackers tried to steal emails from the Ukrainian energy firm where Hunter Biden, the son of Democratic U.S. presidential contender Joe Biden, had a seat on the board, an American cybersecurity firm said on Monday. Energy company Burisma Holdings Ltd was at the center of attempts by President Donald Trump last July to pressure Ukrainian authorities into announcing an investigation into the Bidens for purported corruption, an effort that has led to the Republican being impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. Trump denies he did anything wrong by asking Ukrainian officials to investigate Hunter Biden's relationship with Burisma.
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| Russia Says It's S-500 Can Bring Down America's F-35, What's The Truth? Posted: 13 Jan 2020 10:45 PM PST  We look to Syria for hints.
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| 75 years ago, US troops began the main battle of the long, bloody fight to kick the Japanese out of the Philippines Posted: 15 Jan 2020 12:09 PM PST  US troops invaded Luzon, the largest island of the Philippines, on January 9, 1945, where fighting lasted until the Japanese surrender in August 1945.
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| Six tourists have been arrested over accusations that they damaged Peru's cultural heritage Posted: 14 Jan 2020 10:33 AM PST  Six tourists, including a Frenchwoman, have been arrested over accusations that they damaged Peru's cultural heritage by defecating in a sacred temple at the iconic Machu Picchu sanctuary. "The six tourists are being detained and investigated by the public ministry for the alleged crime against cultural heritage," Cuzco regional police chief Wilbert Leyva said on Monday, quoted by the local Andina news agency.
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| Video: 20 seconds of terror between missiles in Iran crash Posted: 14 Jan 2020 11:39 PM PST  Iran's top diplomat acknowledged Wednesday that Iranians "were lied to" for days after the Islamic Republic accidentally shot down a Ukrainian jetliner. The admission came as new surveillance footage purported to show two surface-to-air missiles 20 seconds apart shred the airplane and kill all 176 people aboard. The downing of the Ukraine International Airlines flight last week came amid heightened tensions between Iran and the U.S. over its unraveling nuclear deal.
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| First orca found washed up on coast of Britain in 20 years as scientists say it had plastic in its stomach Posted: 14 Jan 2020 07:32 AM PST  The first orca washed up on Britain's coast in 20 years had plastic in its stomach, scientists have said, as they work to determine the cause of death. The juvenile male killer whale, approximately 15ft long, became stranded in salt marsh in The Wash on the east coast of England. It is the first confirmed orca stranding that the Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme, of which ZSL is a partner, has investigated in England and Wales since 2001. The team found a large fragment of plastic in the first stomach, though it had not killed the orca as the stomach was not blocked. There was no evidence of recent feeding, as its stomachs were largely empty, and it is thought the animal died weeks ago. ZSL's Rob Deaville and Matt Perkins collected blubber, liver, muscle and kidney samples from the marine mammal, which was internally mostly intact. Teeth samples are also being investigated in order to determine the predator's age. A spokesperson from ZSL told The Telegraph that this is a rare event "because there are so few orcas; the population has crashed." He added: "There are two populations of killer whale, you get residents and migatory. The resident population in the UK is tiny now because the water is highly polluted. "There are pods up in Norway and it could have been passing through the North Sea, but we cannot confirm that." Orcas are a priority species for the scientists at ZSL because they are top predators and greatly threatened by pollution. While the species once boasted large pods across the oceans, now only the populations living in the least polluted areas possess a large number of individuals. Around the British Isles, the researchers estimate that the remaining population counts less than 10 killer whales due to pollution from PCBs, which are man-made chemicals used in electrical components in plastics. These are now banned in most countries and have been since the 1980s, but they take a long time to break dwon in the oceans. As they are at the top of the food chain, killer whales whose diet includes, among other items, seals and large fish such as tuna and sharks critically accumulate PCBs. Orcas are, however, thriving in the oceans around the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Norway, Alaska and the Antarctic, as there is less pollution.
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| Big Companies to Mexico’s President: Stop Changing Rules Posted: 15 Jan 2020 02:50 PM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Terms of Trade is a daily newsletter that untangles a world embroiled in trade wars. Sign up here. Representatives of two top business groups warned that it's getting increasingly harder for foreign companies to put their money in Mexico and said that messages from President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's government that hinder investment need to stop.In a rare critique of the current administration, Carlos Salazar, head of one of the largest Mexican business groups, CCE, said companies need a message of certainty from the Lopez Obrador administration to move away from conflicts.At the same event in Mexico City, Claudia Janez, the head of a group representing global businesses, spoke out even more forcefully against government interference in investment, saying it's the main cause of economic stagnation in Mexico.Mexico's gross domestic product remained flat last year in large part because of the "systemic change of rules to doing business and the constant political messages against the markets and companies," said Janez, president of the Executive Council of Global Companies (CEEG).The economy even dipped into a slight recession in the first half of 2019 after Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador scrapped a $13 billion airport project before becoming president in December, and then suspended private oil auctions once in power. His government staged a months-long dispute with several pipeline operators after it decided to change the terms of natural gas contracts signed with the previous administration."Companies make long-term investment decisions. Changing rules doesn't help growth," said Salazar, who has served as a liaison between the business community and the government.Mexico's AMLO Still Working to Win Over Private Sector SkepticsIn recent months, Lopez Obrador has been trying to win over private sector skeptics, but hasn't delivered what they want, which is mainly a return to business-friendly policies such as the oil auctions. Gross fixed investment, which includes spending in factories and machinery, has fallen for nine consecutive months through October, the longest losing streak since the 2009 recession.Janez, who is also president for Latin America at DuPont de Nemours Inc., stressed Mexico needs to be clear on why it deserves investment over other countries and that free trade deals will mean nothing if the country doesn't address its security issues.She said security has become the number one concern for many companies operating in the country and that some of them are now spending an extra 30% to 40% of their fixed costs to protect themselves. "Insecurity should not be the new normal," she said.Decisions to allocate money for Mexico became even harder in the second half of 2019, Janez said, an unusual situation considering that the country was expected to become a natural destination for investment amid the China-U.S. trade war. Members of her business group include Exxon Mobil Corp. and AT&T Inc.Salazar said he remains optimistic Mexico can reach growth goals in the future. He cited an infrastructure plan from November as a token of hope.Salazar is helping broker a second investment plan, this time for the energy sector, that could be announced this month or next.(Adds comments from Janez and Salazar starting in 10th paragraph.)To contact the reporters on this story: Cyntia Barrera Diaz in Mexico City at cbarrerad@bloomberg.net;Andrea Navarro in Mexico City at anavarro30@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Nacha Cattan at ncattan@bloomberg.net;Ney Hayashi at ncruz4@bloomberg.netFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Exclusive: U.N. sanctions experts warn - stay away from North Korea cryptocurrency conference Posted: 14 Jan 2020 10:07 PM PST  United Nations sanctions experts are warning people not to attend a cryptocurrency conference in North Korea in February, flagging it as a likely sanctions violation, according to a confidential report due to be submitted to the U.N. Security Council later this month. The warning comes after the independent U.N. experts told the council in August that North Korea generated an estimated $2 billion for its weapons of mass destruction programs using "widespread and increasingly sophisticated" cyberattacks to steal from banks and cryptocurrency exchanges. North Korea has been under U.N. sanctions since 2006 over its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
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| Scientists Just Discovered the Oldest Material Ever Found on Earth Posted: 14 Jan 2020 06:38 AM PST  The ancient dust grains are 7.5 billion years old (and smell like rotten peanut butter).
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| Top Democrat demands probe of 'profoundly alarming' threats against former U.S. Ambassador Yovanovitch Posted: 15 Jan 2020 11:32 AM PST  New evidence in the impeachment probe suggests ex-ambassador Marie Yovanovitch was under surveillance by associates of Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani.
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| We Now Know Why Russia Never Had an Aircraft Carrier Fleet Posted: 14 Jan 2020 02:10 AM PST  Not enough money or capacity.
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| AOC is sounding the alarm about the rise of facial recognition: 'This is some real-life "Black Mirror" stuff' Posted: 15 Jan 2020 02:11 PM PST  When facial recognition is implemented, the software makes it easy for corporations or governments to identify people and track their movements.
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| 'Women Don’t Give Up.' Why Female Protesters Are at the Forefront of India's Resistance Movement Posted: 15 Jan 2020 12:18 PM PST  Women are leading protests against Modi's government in India — and it's not the first time women have been at the forefront of political activism. Here's the history.
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| Iran disqualifies thousands from running for parliament Posted: 14 Jan 2020 01:32 AM PST ![Iran disqualifies thousands from running for parliament]( "Iran disqualifies thousands from running for parliament") Iran's constitutional watchdog has barred thousands of people from running in next month's parliamentary elections, including 90 current lawmakers, most of whom are accused of corruption. The Guardian Council, a body of senior clerics and legal experts, vets candidates for office as well as legislation, and rules out individuals if it believes their views or behavior are incompatible with the theocratic system. A spokesman for the Guardian Council was quoted by the hard-line Kayhan paper as saying most of the lawmakers were rejected for "financial problems," a reference to fraud and embezzlement.
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| Abby Huntsman Confronts Bloomberg Over ‘Sexist’ Comments Posted: 15 Jan 2020 09:21 AM PST  At the end of his first of three segments Wednesday morning on The View, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg wrapped up his answer on the controversial "stop-and-frisk" policy by saying, "In some things, I did it wrong and I apologized and then tried to do something else." "Well, we're going to give you more time to apologize," Whoopi Goldberg said before throwing the commercial. That's exactly what they did after the break, but this time, a defiant Bloomberg refused to take responsibility. "I also have friends that have worked at your company and have wonderful things to say, but you have been accused in the past of making lewd and sexist comments and fostering a frat-like culture at your company that was uncomfortable for some female employees," Abby Huntsman, who will leave a different kind of "toxic" work environment at the end of this week, said. "ABC has actually has spoken to several women who want to share their stories, but you won't release them from their NDAs." Huntsman then paraphrased Bloomberg's 2020 Democratic primary rival Elizabeth Warren, who said, "If his company has an enviable record, then let people in his company or former people from his company speak about that enviable record. What is it that Michael Bloomberg has to hide?" Elizabeth Warren Shuts Down Meghan McCain's Defense of Trump on Iran"We don't have anything to hide but we made legal agreements, which both sides wanted to keep certain things from coming out, they have a right to do that," Bloomberg answered. "Remember, just because you signed a nondisclosure doesn't mean you can't talk about other things. You just can't talk about what was in that agreement where perhaps you don't disparage the other party or you don't want to retell a story, whatever it is." "You don't take away anybody's rights to say what they want to say," he added, a bit disingenuously. As Huntsman tried to bring up "this MeToo era," Bloomberg continued to talk over her, "I think if you talk to most women in the company they would say equal pay, equal promotion, equal opportunity. it's a great place to work." "Did I ever tell a bawdy joke? Yeah, sure I did," Bloomberg said. "Do I regret it? Yes, it's embarrassing, but, you know, that's the way I grew up." Among the inappropriate comments that Bloomberg allegedly made include urging a pregnant woman to "kill it" and admitting that he'd like to "do" several female employees. Joy Behar attempted to laugh off the whole thing with Bloomberg, asking, "who hasn't" told a "bawdy" joke at work? "You said that, not me," he joked in response. But Huntsman pressed on, asking, "So you have no desire to lift the NDAs?""No, we have an agreement. You couldn't do it if you wanted to," Bloomberg said, "And incidentally, I think an awful lot of the women would not want to do that. There may be a few, but I don't think so." ABC News reported last week that it had "spoken with several women who expressed interest in telling their stories who were subject to confidentiality agreements, but said they feared the prospect of facing retribution from the company for speaking out." "And we don't have that many of them," he added. "We have 20,000 people. We've been in business since 1981, and in recruiting, you know, I think most people would say we're a great place to work, at least I hope so. I can tell you that's what I try to do." There was no apology. ABC Execs Try to Get Abby Huntsman to Cover for Toxic Culture at 'The View'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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