| As coronavirus spreads, Biden says Trump is 'the worst possible person' to keep America safe Posted: 28 Jan 2020 12:45 PM PST  As evidence, Biden cited Trump's response to the 2014 Ebola epidemic. Earlier, Trump tweeted that "it will all work out well." Trump's potential Democratic rivals, however, are not so sure. The second is about Trump's leadership.
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| Putin pardons Israeli woman jailed in Russia on drug charges Posted: 29 Jan 2020 09:14 AM PST  Russian President Vladimir Putin has pardoned an Israeli woman who had been jailed on drug charges, the Kremlin said Wednesday. A presidential decree ordering Naama Issachar's release on "humanitarian principles" was effective immediately, the Kremlin said. The 26-year-old backpacker was arrested in April at a Moscow airport, where she was transferring en route from India to Israel.
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| A robot named Little Peanut is delivering food to people in quarantine amid the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak Posted: 28 Jan 2020 09:05 PM PST  "Hello everyone. Cute Little Peanut is serving food to you now," the robot said, according to a translation. "Enjoy your meal."
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| Dylann Roof appeals death sentence for massacre at South Carolina black church Posted: 29 Jan 2020 05:33 AM PST  "Roof's crime was tragic, but this Court can have no confidence in the jury's verdict," says his appeal, filed with the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday. A jury found Roof guilty of 33 federal charges, including hate crimes resulting in death, for the shocking mass shooting at the landmark Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston in June 2015. Roof dismissed his defense attorneys just before trial and represented himself during jury selection.
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| Doorbell Cam Captures Chilling Audio of Kobe Bryant’s Crash Posted: 29 Jan 2020 04:17 AM PST  Chilling audio of Kobe Bryant's helicopter coming down in California was captured by a doorbell cam. Local resident Ronna Leavitt has provided the 43-second clip to investigators in which the Sikorsky S-76B chopper can be heard flying above her housing complex in Calabasas before it crashes with a thud into the surrounding hillside and the recording falls silent. Leavitt told ABC7 that the helicopter had flown above her housing complex and performed a U-turn before it crashed into the hillside, killing Bryant and eight others, including his daughter Gianna.Meanwhile, crash investigators have said that the chopper did not have a terrain awareness and warning system that could have provided critical information to the pilot about the mountainous area.The Federal Aviation Administration recommends the equipment on new choppers, and The Wall Street Journal quoted industry estimates of retrofitting the system at between $25,000 and $40,000. The helicopter was also not equipped with a flight data recorder or a cockpit voice recorder, according to reports.Federal investigators said the helicopter lost communications with air-traffic controllers when it climbed to 2,300 feet as the pilot attempted to avoid a cloud layer. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) officials said the helicopter then began a descending left turn and crashed into the hills of Calabasas at roughly 1,085 feet above sea level. The chopper was descending at more than 2,000 feet a minute in the moments before impact."Preliminary information is that the helicopter was in one piece when it impacted the terrain," a spokesperson told the Journal. "This is a pretty steep descent at high speed."Bill English, an investigator-in-charge with the NTSB, said, "It's important to realize that there's not one hill. It's a ravine with undulating terrain, so the small outcropping that had the main impact in it, the main impact was about 20 to 30 feet from the top of that small hill. But there are actually other higher hills surrounding it."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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| Pentagon identifies 2 Air Force airmen killed in Afghanistan Posted: 29 Jan 2020 02:40 PM PST  The Pentagon on Wednesday released the names of two Air Force officers killed in the crash of their Bombardier E-11A electronic surveillance plane in Afghanistan. Voss was assigned to Air Combat Command headquarters at Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Virginia. Phaneuf was assigned to the 37th Bomb Squadron at Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota.
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| Russia Would Bet On America In A U.S.-China Naval War Posted: 29 Jan 2020 08:44 AM PST  China lacks power projection and reconnaissance capabilities.
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| African nations take first measures to stop spread of Chinese virus Posted: 29 Jan 2020 10:58 AM PST  African states, including the continent's biggest economy Nigeria, on Wednesday said they had begun to introduce measures aimed at stopping the spread of the new coronavirus. No verified infection has been reported to date in sub-Saharan Africa, but elsewhere countries have stopped flights to China and airlifted their citizens out of the area where the virus emerged. People arriving from China or any country with a "major outbreak" of the disease are advised to stay at home for at least two weeks if they develop any symptoms, according to the advisory issued by Health Minister Osagie Ehanire.
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| 11 Beautiful Examples of When Historic and Modern Architecture Come Together Posted: 29 Jan 2020 09:50 AM PST |
| GOP Rep. Doug Collins launched a Senate bid and the Republican Party was not thrilled Posted: 29 Jan 2020 11:41 AM PST  Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga., announced his Senate bid Wednesday, and the National Republican Senatorial Committee was far from pleased.
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| Trump lawyers contradict one another as they conclude first phase of impeachment trial Posted: 28 Jan 2020 03:45 PM PST  The president's top White House lawyer has repeatedly told the Senate Trump did nothing wrong in withholding aid to Ukraine, even as other lawyers on his defense team directly contradicted that assertion over the last two days.
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| Donald Trump is ‘just wrong’ about the economy, says Nobel Prize-winner Joseph Stiglitz Posted: 29 Jan 2020 12:20 PM PST  In a newly released interview, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz disagreed with Trump's contention that the economy has lifted up working-class Americans.
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| The Trump administration failed to convince the UK to ditch Huawei and its other allies aren't listening either Posted: 29 Jan 2020 02:57 AM PST  The UK defied Trump to permit Huawei limited access to its 5G network.
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| Historians: Sobibor death camp photos may feature Demjanjuk Posted: 28 Jan 2020 07:35 AM PST  Historians have presented a collection of photos kept by the deputy commander of the Nazis' Sobibor death camp that they say appears to include images of John Demjanjuk, the retired Ohio auto worker who was tried in Germany for his alleged time as a Sobibor guard. The collection unveiled Tuesday at Berlin's Topography of Terror museum comprises 361 photos as well as written documents illustrating Johann Niemann's career. Niemann was the deputy commander of Sobibor from September 1942 until he was killed on Oct. 14, 1943, in an uprising by Jewish inmates.
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| Fotis Dulos, who is accused of killing his wife, is in critical condition after an apparent suicide attempt Posted: 29 Jan 2020 05:55 AM PST  Farmington Police found Fotis Dulos unresponsive while conducting a welfare check Tuesday, after he failed to show up for a court date.
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| Four co-workers in Germany contract coronavirus after Chinese colleague visits Posted: 27 Jan 2020 05:45 PM PST  Four people who work at the same company in southern Germany have been infected with the coronavirus, and one of them contracted it from a colleague visiting their workplace in China, officials said on Tuesday. The cases raise concerns about the spread of the flu-like virus that broke out in the central Chinese city of Wuhan at the end of last year and has killed 106 people and infected more than 2,800 people. In one of the first cases of person-to-person transmission outside China, a 33-year-old man apparently contracted the virus on Jan. 21 during a training session with a Chinese colleague, the ministry said.
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| This Picture Is North Korea, China, Iran and Russia's Worst Military Nightmare Posted: 28 Jan 2020 09:00 PM PST  Imagine 52 F-35s coming at you.
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| Parnas Lawyer: Giuliani Delivered Graham Letter Calling for Sanctions on Ukrainian Officials Posted: 29 Jan 2020 01:25 AM PST  In late 2018, Rudy Giuliani said he delivered an unusual missive to Sen. Lindsey Graham, according to the lawyer of one of his ex-associates: a letter calling for sanctions on a host of Ukrainian government officials, including one widely viewed in the West as a brave reformer and another who helmed the company where Hunter Biden was a board member.Joseph Bondy, the attorney for Lev Parnas, an indicted Florida businessman involved in the U.S.-Ukraine saga, told The Daily Beast that Giuliani showed his client the letter and told him he delivered it to Sen. Graham (the letter misspelled the South Carolina Republican's first name as "Lingsey"). Bondy said Giuliani also showed Parnas a second, similar letter addressed to Sigal Mandelker, who at the time was a top official at the Treasury Department. The letters, which The Daily Beast reviewed, claim that an eclectic mix of Ukrainian political figures and businesspeople were part of an alleged "organized crime syndicate." The letters claim that the individuals were "actively involved in the siphoning of funds appropriated by the American government for aid to Ukraine." And they claim that the alleged crime syndicate used those funds to buy black-market military parts from a Russian company under U.S. sanctions. All the while, they say, Ukraine's then-prosecutor general (Giuliani ally Yuriy Lutsenko) couldn't fight the crime because then President Petro Poroshenko wouldn't let him take the case to court."It concerns me, as should any fellow American, that a taxpayer's money is rudely been stolen in Ukraine [sic]," reads the letter to Mandelker.The letter-writer introduces himself in the letter addressed to Mandelker as a Ukraine-born U.S. citizen named Michael Guralnik who graduated from the Soviet Military Academy and was "a 10-year veteran of the Soviet Army." The letter to Graham, meanwhile, also bears Guralnik's name but contains no introduction. It arrived a month before Giuliani tried to help former Ukrainian top prosecutor Viktor Shokin travel to the U.S. and meet with Graham, Bondy said. A few weeks before the date of the Guralnik letter, Giuliani sent Graham a letter of his own asking his staff to help three unnamed Ukrainians get visas so they could come to the U.S. and share information about the Bidens. The State Department did not give Shokin a visa. The letters say that the "only way" to "stop this syndicate" is to sanction the individuals involved. Both letters list 12 people, along with phone numbers for some of them. Included on the list are Mykola Zlochevskiy, the head of the scandal-plagued Ukrainian company where Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden was a board member; Valeriya Gontareva, the head of the National Bank of Ukraine from mid-2014 to mid-2017; and Kateryna Rozhkova, who was her deputy. Graham and Giuliani did not respond to repeated requests for comment, and it was not immediately clear if lawmakers ever even considered the sanctions. A spokesperson for Graham did not respond to a request for comment. Mandelker did not comment on the record for this report. When contacted, Guralnik hung up the phone and texted, "Do not call any more."The inclusion of Gontareva and Rozhkova's names is notable. In 2016, Gontareva oversaw the Ukrainian government's decision to seize control of a bank that belonged to oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky. Ukrainian officials alleged that Kolomoisky and his allies had misappropriated billions from the bank. Kolomoisky has pushed to regain control of the bank, even as the FBI has investigated him for financial crimes. And in the wake of her decision, Gontareva has faced death threats and danger. Her home was vandalized, and someone left a coffin with her likeness inside it outside the Central Bank offices, as The Washington Post reported. Years after the nationalization of the bank, the danger persists. In August 2019, she was hit by a car in London and hospitalized. The next month, her home in Ukraine was burned down, per the Kyiv Post. Gontareva's fight to reform Ukraine's financial sector won her devoted allies in the West, who saw her as one of Kyiv's few genuine reformers. Kolomoisky, meanwhile, is an intimidating figure to many in Ukraine, and some have alleged he has ordered contract killings. He also funded a private militia that fought Russian-backed separatists in Eastern Ukraine. His connection to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has also long raised eyebrows; the TV show that boosted Zelensky's public profile aired on a TV channel that Kolomoisky owns, and one of Kolomoisky's former lawyers is now a senior aide to Zelensky (Giuliani and U.S. officials have raised concerns with Zelensky's team about that aide, Andriy Bohdan). Jordan Libowitz, a spokesperson for the government watchdog organization Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, told The Daily Beast that the Guralnik letters mean Giuliani should answer more questions about his Ukraine work."While we can't obviously speak to the veracity of these claims, it does seem to look more and more like Rudy Giuliani is incredibly deeply involved with some seriously shady business in Ukraine and we need more information, not only on his activities, but his activities and those of his associates on behalf of or benefiting Donald Trump," he said. "As bad as these things look on their face, they're so much worse if you consider the involvement of the president of the United States. There is so little we know, but enough to know that we need to know a lot more." 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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| I thought Bernie's Iowa numbers seemed unrealistically high. Then I saw his rallies Posted: 28 Jan 2020 03:00 AM PST  Pundits keep warning about a Sanders 'ceiling' – but here in the midwest he looks strong and getting stronger Three political rallies in a small north-west Iowa town over the weekend convinced me that the polls showing Bernie Sanders leading among likely caucus-goers have it about right.Some 400 people packed into a ballroom in Storm Lake, Iowa, on Sunday to hear Michael Moore, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the disheveled senator from Vermont raise the roof for a political revolution.Polls going into the weekend showed Sanders with 25% of the likely crowd at the caucuses on 3 February. Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg and Elizabeth Warren trail closely, while Amy Klobuchar is building support late and Andrew Yang is getting some interest.Bernie had momentum on Sunday. People were hooting and hollering and clapping for Moore, the documentarian, when he said the rich will have a harder time getting to heaven than a camel through the eye of a needle. He cited Paul's letter to the Corinthians urging unity over factionalism. The revival meeting lapped it up.The night before, Buttigieg appeared at Buena Vista University to a crowd of 220 with half the enthusiasm of the Sanders affair. He spoke about healing wounds, too, but nobody was going wild. His biggest applause line came when he complained that "everybody needs a second job".After Sanders's rally in the afternoon, Yang made his first appearance in Storm Lake to a crowd of about 100. He had them laughing, and got them worrying about artificial intelligence eliminating 40,000 manufacturing jobs in Iowa. Truckers may be a thing of the past. It got everyone's attention. The New York businessman has his facts and figures – that Amazon wiped out 30% of our state's retail business, and that the erosion of local news is undermining democracy – down into a compelling narrative about how capital and technology conspire to leave huge swaths of America behind.Yang's solution, as articulated, is to give everyone $1,000 per month, and to take back democracy. He thinks he can "rewire the economy" to bring something back to those lost places in the swing states where jobs, people and prospects keep getting drained to the coasts."We are in the midst of the greatest economic transformation in our nation's history," Yang said to his largest applause.In fact, that may explain why Sanders is leading."We're going to win because working people are tired of being ignored, working two or three jobs," Sanders proclaimed to heads nodding and amens.The ballroom echoed in boos when Sanders detailed how 12 years ago "Congress bailed out crooks on Wall Street, and then Trump gave them a trillion dollars in tax breaks". And Amazon pays no tax. Boo!A man up front said his health insurance premiums are $1,400 per month.Sanders said that the average $60,000 household in Iowa would pay that much per year on healthcare taxes with Medicare for All. No premiums. No deductibles. They cheered harder.Healthcare is the top issue cited by likely caucus-goers in a state where you can choose Wellmark Blue Cross or Wellmark Blue Cross.Climate change is the number two issue."It is real, and it is underestimated in its speed and severity. Australia, a beautiful country, is on fire," Sanders thundered as the crowd roared back. "Crop production will decline. Climate refugees are around the world in the millions, leading to more war. And we have a president who denies it all."The Smith sisters, Paula and Lou, buried their mother with a Hillary Clinton sticker a few years ago. They fell into the Bernie bandwagon at that rally. Their brother Rob was waffling among Sanders, Buttigieg, Biden and Yang.Dan Berglund said he probably will be "a banker for Bernie" as he was four years ago, but he will walk into the caucus as a Yang supporter. If Yang is not viable with the necessary 15%, he will bail to Bernie.Tim Gallagher, who works for Buena Vista University, says he might vote for any one of them, and will decide on caucus day. "A lot can happen in a week," he said.Such as: Warren was endorsed by the largest newspaper in Iowa, the Des Moines Register, on Sunday. She danced a jig on hearing the news Saturday night in Muscatine in eastern Iowa, after taking selfies with hundreds. She has an elaborate, well-tuned organization apparatus in all parts of the state that she is banking will deliver for her.So does Sanders, obviously. The front rows on Sunday were impressive in their relative diversity: people of color. Young people, old people. Conservative-looking farmers who came out to listen to a democratic socialist.Sanders said his Berniecrats knocked on an Iowa door every two seconds on Saturday – over 100,000 homes."There's nobody in the state with a stronger grassroots volunteer movement," Sanders said. "Our agenda speaks to the questions and pain that people have in their lives […] I've talked to too many people in Iowa who are making 10 to 12 bucks an hour."He lit them up again.That's what this caucus cycle is about. Sanders has tapped into a vein of frustration that elected Trump, and is getting people of all stripes to give him a look. Pundits' warnings about a Sanders "ceiling" have begun to sound like the products of people who fear his potential strength. * Art Cullen is the editor of the Storm Lake Times in north-west Iowa, where he won the Pulitzer prize for editorial writing. He is a columnist for Guardian US and is author of the book Storm Lake: Change, Resilience, and Hope in America's Heartland, out this month in paperback
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| Bolton, who may hold impeachment bombshell, has a history of settling scores Posted: 28 Jan 2020 09:00 AM PST  John Bolton has many times before been at the center of a maelstrom that is in good part of his own making. And each time, he has somehow emerged eager for more.
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| Chinese villages are cutting themselves off from the world with makeshift brick walls to try to stop outsiders from giving them the Wuhan virus Posted: 28 Jan 2020 02:18 AM PST  The Wuhan coronavirus has killed 106 people, infected 4,500, and spread to more than a dozen countries, China's health commission said Tuesday.
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| Ex-children's doctor charged with abusing adoptive daughter Posted: 29 Jan 2020 12:58 PM PST ![Ex-children's doctor charged with abusing adoptive daughter]( "Ex-children's doctor charged with abusing adoptive daughter") A former emergency room doctor at Children's Hospital Wisconsin, charged with physically abusing a newborn he was adopting with his wife, denies he did anything wrong and wants the case dismissed next month. The case is receiving tremendous scrutiny by the medical community around the county, with physicians disagreeing on what exactly caused the injuries to the adoptive daughter of 39-year-old John M. Cox and his wife, Sadie Dobrozsi, a pediatric oncologist at Children's. They have hired more than a dozen experts to question the conclusions from Children's physicians, whose initial investigation led to Cox's charges eight moths ago. NBC News first reported Cox's story Monday.
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| Suspected associate of El Chapo's sons flees Mexico City prison Posted: 29 Jan 2020 02:31 PM PST ![Suspected associate of El Chapo's sons flees Mexico City prison]( "Suspected associate of El Chapo's sons flees Mexico City prison") Three prisoners wanted by the United States for their links to drug trafficking, including an alleged associate of the sons of Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, on Wednesday escaped from a Mexico City prison, authorities said. Mexico and the United States, its most important trade partner, have been looking for ways to address the escalating security situation as well as clamp down on illegal drug and arms trade. Mexican authorities said the prisoners escaped from a penitentiary in southern Mexico City on Wednesday morning, possibly with the help of prison staff.
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| Biden-Tied Lobbyist Bought Island Property from Biden’s Brother, Gave Him Mortgage Loan Posted: 28 Jan 2020 06:28 AM PST  Financial records reviewed by Politico show that Joe Biden's brother James sold one of his three parcels of land in the U.S. Virgin Islands at a substantial profit to a well-connected lobbyist who then extended a mortgage to James on the remaining two parcels.In May 2005, James Biden purchased an acre of land on Water Island for $150,000. He then applied for and received an easement to divide the property into three plots, one of which he sold to lobbyist Scott Green — a decade-long Senate staffer for Joe Biden in the 1980s — for $150,000. James had initially purchased all three parcels for $150,000, meaning that he made his money back and was able to keep the majority of the one acre plot for himself.Green's lobbying firm, Lafayette Group — which features a photo of Green with Biden on its website and quotes Biden endorsing Green — earned two government contracts from the Federal Emergency Management Agency worth a total of $5.8 million on April 11, 2010.Three days later, Green extended a $133,300 mortgage to James Biden for his remaining Water Island property. Property records reviewed by Politico show that Green had "received full payment and full satisfaction" and released the mortgage in September 2013.Joe Biden and his family traveled to Water Island several times during his vice presidency, but did not stay on his brother's or Green's land, which remains undeveloped.Lafayette Group earned tens of millions of dollars in government contracts during the course of Biden's time as vice president. During his time in the Senate, Biden also advocated for a number of areas in which Green's lobbying intersected, including a broadband network for first responders and the non-profit Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) program.
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| Mitt Romney violated Senate rules by drinking chocolate milk Posted: 29 Jan 2020 04:03 AM PST  Sen. Mitt Romney, a Utah Republican, was caught drinking chocolate milk out of a bottle on the Senate floor on Tuesday afternoon — a breach of the Senate impeachment trial rules.
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| Coronavirus outbreak could peak in ten days： Chinese expert Posted: 28 Jan 2020 05:38 AM PST  A viral outbreak that has killed 106 people in China could reach its peak in around 10 days, a top Chinese government expert said Tuesday. The novel coronavirus that has infected thousands of people across China has genetic similarities to SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), a pathogen that left some 650 people dead on the mainland and Hong Kong in 2002-2003. The new virus first emerged in early December in the central city of Wuhan and the number of cases has soared in recent days, doubling to more than 4,500 in the past 24 hours.
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| Sen. Tim Kaine says he confronted Trump attorney Robert Ray about 'offensive' 1619 project remarks Posted: 28 Jan 2020 09:12 AM PST  Kaine said it was an "ad hominem attack on people trying to get at the roots of the effects of slavery" and "did not bear at all on the impeachment."
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| China demands an apology from a newspaper for a satirical cartoon of a Chinese flag with coronavirus particles Posted: 28 Jan 2020 12:31 PM PST  China is outraged with a Danish newspaper for publishing a satirical cartoon of a Chinese flag with coronavirus particles in place of its stars.
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| Falwell and W.Va. governor pitch Virginia secession plea Posted: 28 Jan 2020 12:51 PM PST  In what they acknowledged is a long-shot bid, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice and Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. urged unhappy Virginia counties Tuesday to secede and join a neighboring state where Democrats aren't in charge. Both Justice, a Republican in a state where the GOP dominates the legislature, and Falwell, whose university is in Lynchburg, Virginia, said the invitation to join West Virginia sends a valid message. "If you're not truly happy where you are, we stand with open arms to take you from Virginia or anywhere where you may be," said Justice, who's running for reelection.
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| Sinkholes appear in Cayman Islands after massive 7.7-magnitude earthquake Posted: 28 Jan 2020 01:54 PM PST  Viral footage appears to show sinkholes swallowing large chunks of roads following a string of earthquakes off the coasts of Jamaica and Cuba.A major 7.7 magnitude quake prompted tsunami warnings and building evacuations as far as Miami, several hundred miles from the quake's centre.
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| WHO lauds Chinese response to virus, says world 'at important juncture' Posted: 29 Jan 2020 08:47 AM PST  The World Health Organization (WHO) praised China on Wednesday for its efforts to tackle the coronavirus outbreak, but voiced "grave concern" about person-to-person spread in three other countries which led it to summon its Emergency Committee again. The panel of 16 independent experts will meet behind closed doors on Thursday for the third time in a week to consider whether the epidemic now constitutes a global emergency. There are 6,065 cases worldwide, all but some 70 in China, with 132 deaths in China, according to the latest WHO figures.
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| Maryland cop charged with murder in shooting of handcuffed man Posted: 28 Jan 2020 07:04 PM PST  Corporal Michael Owen Jr. is also being charged with manslaughter and associated weapons charges in the death of William Green.
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| US forces recover two bodies from jet crash site in Afghanistan Posted: 28 Jan 2020 01:23 PM PST  US forces on Tuesday recovered two bodies near the wreckage of a military jet that crashed in a Taliban-controlled area of eastern Afghanistan, after Afghan forces trying to reach the scene clashed with insurgents. "The remains were found near the crash site, treated with dignity and respect by the local Afghan community, in accordance with their culture," the statement said. Ghazni police chief Khaled Wardak said US helicopters landed at the site in the late afternoon and were reinforced by Afghan security forces on the ground during the operation.
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| Dershowitz: Trump’s Conduct in Leaked Bolton Book Manuscript ‘Does Not Constitute an Impeachable Offense’ Posted: 28 Jan 2020 06:21 AM PST  Alan Dershowitz, a member of President Trump's legal team, told the Senate during arguments Monday that even if President Trump explicitly orchestrated a quid pro quo by dangling Ukrainian military aid, as alleged in a leaked excerpt of John Bolton's book, that would still not constitute an impeachable offense.The New York Times reported Sunday that in his upcoming book, former national security adviser John Bolton says President Trump told him personally in August that the provision of military aid to Ukraine was contingent on the opening of an investigation into Joe Biden."Even if a president, any president, were to demand a quid pro quo as a condition to sending aid to a foreign country, obviously a highly disputed manner in this case, that would not by itself constitute an abuse of power," Dershowitz said."Quid pro quo alone is not a basis for abuse of power," the former Harvard law professor continued. "It's part of the way that foreign policy has been operated by presidents since the beginning of time. The claim that foreign policy decisions can be deemed abuses of power based on subjective opinions about mixed or sole motives, that the president was interested only in helping himself, demonstrates the dangers of employing the vague subjective and malleable phrase of abuse of power as a constitutional criteria for the removal of a president. Based on this reasoning, the new information the Times said appears in Bolton's book "would not constitute an impeachable offense," Dershowitz said.
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| 'It's hysteria': Asian students at Arizona State University say they're being treated differently after a case of the Wuhan coronavirus was confirmed there Posted: 29 Jan 2020 03:21 PM PST  A case of the coronavirus was confirmed at Arizona State University on Sunday, and Asian students have felt backlash ever since.
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| Palestinian refugees insulted by Trump's 'shameful' deal Posted: 29 Jan 2020 08:05 AM PST  BEIRUT (AP) — "Insulting." "Shameful." "A disgrace." Those were some of the words used by Palestinian refugees in Lebanon on Wednesday to describe a White House plan for ending the Israel-Palestinian conflict. At refugee camps across the country, Palestinians staged strikes, protests and sit-ins a day after U.S. President Donald trump revealed the long-awaited details of the plan, denouncing it as ridiculously lop-sided and saying it gives them no rights. The words reflected the deep bitterness felt by Palestinians at the plan unveiled by Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Tuesday.
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| She Says He Raped Her Over 40 Years Ago. Now He's a Suspected Serial Killer. Posted: 28 Jan 2020 01:56 AM PST  When Fran met Bruce Lindahl, he didn't seem like a monster. Today, more than 40 years later, she considers herself lucky to be alive.She was 15 and Lindahl was in his early twenties when he first invited Fran and her friends over to his apartment in Lisle, Illinois, she recalled to The Daily Beast. He would buy alcohol for the girls and host parties at his place with his live-in girlfriend.He initially seemed like a "wonderful person," according to Fran, whose last name is being withheld at her request. (The Daily Beast does not name survivors of sexual violence without their consent.) He took her ice skating or to the movies, and even earned the trust of Fran's mother, who allowed him to be the adult driver in the passenger seat when she only had her learner's permit. Perhaps most of all, he was charming, she said.Now, police say Lindahl—who has been dead since the 1980s—could easily prove to be a serial killer.Is a Serial-Killer Gang Murdering Young Men Across the U.S.?On Jan. 13, police detectives in Lisle, a Chicago suburb, announced that thanks to advanced DNA forensics they were able to tie Bruce Lindahl to the murder of Pamela Maurer of Woodridge, who was found strangled on the side of a road in 1976. Mauer, who was just 16 at the time, decided to walk to a nearby store to buy a Coke that night. Police found her body the next morning. Perhaps most disturbing about the latest developments in the case: The lead detective, Chris Loudon, suggested DNA evidence could eventually tie Lindahl to dozens of other victims of violent crimes ranging from rape to murder."If Bruce wouldn't have accidentally killed himself, the death toll would have likely been astronomical," Loudon told The Daily Beast, adding that he would "bet his entire paycheck" Lindahl was responsible for at least nine murders—and may be linked to 12. And with at least 25 tips coming in daily, Loudon said, he believed that number could grow. He and fellow officers have leaned on some of the same techniques that were at least partially responsible for the capture of the suspected Golden State Killer, Joseph James DeAngelo, in 2018. Through DNA databases from popular services like 23andMe, a composite sketch was created. It bore a striking resemblance to Lindahl.Lindahl often had run-ins with the law, and investigators had suspected him in a number of heinous crimes prior to his death in 1981. He was charged with kidnapping and raping a woman named Debra Colliander in 1980, but the case fell apart when the victim went missing two weeks before she was set to testify. Her body was discovered in 1982.By then, Lindahl was dead, having been found in an apartment in the nearby Chicago suburb of Naperville, draped over 18-year-old Charles Huber. Detectives concluded Lindahl accidentally severed his own femoral artery while stabbing the young man 28 times with a six-inch kitchen knife.But Fran knew Lindahl was capable of wanton brutality and violence before police did.When she was still a teenager, Lindahl invited her over for drinks early one morning, which had become a regular occurrence by then. When Fran arrived, she recalled, he had her favorite—a scotch on the rocks—ready for her. But after just a couple of sips, she said, she dropped the drink, lost control of her motor functions, and went limp.Lindahl proceeded to attack her, she said, stripping her of her clothes, taking photographs of her in various poses, and raping her. She recalled the assault continuing until she grew "very, very sick."She said she asked Lindahl to take her to a nearby hospital and that he refused, insisting she was OK. Instead, Fran remembered Lindahl going so far as to take some of her friends skiing that same day. She spent the day trying to sleep in the back of his car.Despite the assault, Fran added, she didn't feel comfortable completely distancing herself from Lindahl, and their relationship—abusive and violent though it was—would continue for a few more years. "When Bruce said jump, I said, 'How high?'" she said.At the time, and perhaps even today, Fran says, she felt responsible for what happened to her. Although she was just a teenager, she described some sexual encounters with Lindahl that were "consensual" in her mind.She didn't tell any of her friends or family. Not only did she worry about being believed, she felt that Lindahl would do "something terrible" to her.Fran recalled another night when Lindahl insisted she come over to his place. When she arrived, Lindahl's girlfriend was sleeping in the next room. He then forced Fran to perform oral sex on him and demanded she sneak out the window when he was finished, she recalled."I thought if I screamed, he would hurt me," she said. Fran still remembers the last time she saw Lindahl, too.She was 18 and had taken a job that required her to work the graveyard shift. That meant she almost never saw Lindahl anymore. She thought she had escaped him, or perhaps that he had moved on to other women.Until one morning, when she passed Lindahl's car on the way home from work. Lindahl must have been waiting for her; he followed her back to her house.She pleaded with Lindahl that she was tired from work and needed sleep, but he ignored her and followed her into the house, she said. When he grabbed the family Polaroid camera and followed her upstairs, she feared the worst.To this day, Fran isn't entirely sure how she convinced Lindahl to leave that morning. But she was able to coax him out of the house and escape unharmed.Learning of his death was the only way out of being haunted by him."I was thrilled," she said, recalling relief washing over her when she saw him on local news.Fran never allowed Lindahl to define her life. She started a family and worked hard; years would go by without her thinking about the man. But she never stopped worrying about Lindahl's girlfriend, she said.Years after Lindahl died, she thought she ran into her in a Chicago suburb. When Fran asked if she was who she thought she was, the woman denied it and turned white. She was living under a different name than Fran remembered, she said. "I always worried that maybe she didn't know Bruce was dead," she said. "That maybe she was living her life in hiding."Over the years, Fran has grappled with guilt and wondered if she should have spoken up sooner. But when she saw the news of his being tied to so many other grisly crimes, she realized how close she may have come to becoming one of Lindahl's alleged murder victims herself.She said she doesn't feel brave or courageous telling her story. But after reading pleas from detectives in media reports, she felt the need to come forward. "I always felt like everything was my fault. I guess I've always been that way," she said. She subsequently reached out to police and was interviewed by Detective Loudon. Still, Fran added, she couldn't help suspecting that keeping her head down saved her at a time when perpetrators of sexual violence were even less likely to be prosecuted than they are today."Somehow, I always knew to be afraid," she said. "I feel lucky I kept my mouth shut."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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| China virus turns Macau into gambling ghost town Posted: 29 Jan 2020 12:07 AM PST  The Chinese territory of Macau has become a near-ghost town during what is typically the busiest time of year in the world's biggest casino hub, after authorities announced a raft of measures to keep visitors away and contain the new coronavirus. The local government late on Tuesday said it would curb its individual visit scheme through which visitors gain entry from mainland China, days after it suspended inbound package tours. The steps come as deaths from the coronavirus reached 132 in China on Wednesday with 1,500 new cases.
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| Attack of the Feral Horses: Will They Finish What Australia's Wildfires Started? Posted: 28 Jan 2020 11:57 PM PST  Out of control.
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| 'Getting a little squirrely': Americans stuck in Wuhan are bored, hungry for coronavirus info Posted: 29 Jan 2020 02:44 PM PST  Amid the coronavirus outbreak, hundreds of Americans were unable to secure a seat on a flight out of Wuhan or chose to stay behind with family.
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| Pakistani arrested over UK killing wants to be tried at home Posted: 29 Jan 2020 04:50 AM PST  A Pakistani man arrested earlier this month in Islamabad over the 2005 killing of a British woman police officer does not want to be extradited to Britain and is asking that he be tried in his home country, his lawyer said Wednesday. The 71-year-old suspect, Piran Ditta Khan, appeared before a court in Islamabad for a second hearing over Britain's extradition request.
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| Modi says India could defeat Pakistan 'in 10 days' Posted: 29 Jan 2020 05:24 AM PST  India is capable of making Pakistan "bite the dust" in less than 10 days in any new war with its arch-rival, according to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The nuclear-armed neighbours have fought three wars, and last February came close to a fourth with tit-for-tat airstrikes sparked by an attack on Indian troops in Kashmir. Pakistan swiftly rejected the "belligerent rhetoric", calling Modi's comments "irresponsible and war-mongering".
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| House Democrat says John Bolton told him in September to 'look into' Marie Yovanovitch's ouster Posted: 29 Jan 2020 10:15 AM PST  Shortly before the Senate's impeachment trial resumes, another John Bolton revelation has arrived. Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, revealed in a statement Wednesday that he spoke with Bolton, President Trump's former national security adviser, after his White House firing in September. In this conversation that occurred at Engel's request just one day before the impeachment inquiry was announced, Bolton evidently urged the committee to look into the ouster of Marie Yovanovitch, former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. "On that call, Ambassador Bolton suggested to me — unprompted — that the committee look into the recall of Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch," Engel said. "He strongly implied that something improper had occurred around her removal as our top diplomat in Kyiv." > BREAKING: Rep. ENGEL reveals that BOLTON called him in September and told him to look into the Marie Yovanovitch ouster.> > The committees had already started an investigation into Ukraine matters, but Bolton appears to have supported their effort. >>> pic.twitter.com/a54uwGKkaL> > — Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) January 29, 2020Yovanovitch was removed as ambassador to Ukraine in May 2019, and she testified in the impeachment inquiry her ouster was a result of a smear campaign backed by Trump's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani.This latest Bolton revelation comes after The New York Times reported on Sunday that the former national security writes in his upcoming book that Trump tied aid to Ukraine to investigations into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son. Democrats want Bolton to be called to testify as part of the impeachment trial, and in his statement, Engel says he told his colleagues about this conversation and it "was one of the reasons we wished to hear from Ambassador Bolton, under oath, in a formal setting." More stories from theweek.com It's 2020 and women are exhausted Did John Bolton actually do Trump a favor? The 3 kinds of Republicans that Bolton's testimony would reveal
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| QAnon conspiracy theorists are telling people to drink bleach as a cure against the deadly Wuhan coronavirus Posted: 29 Jan 2020 05:46 AM PST  Consuming the toxic bleach, also known as "Miracle Mineral Solution," causes severe nausea, vomiting, and can even be fatal.
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| A YouTuber whose ex-boyfriend faked her death said she never wanted to be a part of the hoax Posted: 29 Jan 2020 04:20 AM PST  While ImJayStation is claiming Alexia Marano is trying to ruin his life with lies, Marano tells a story of him being controlling and abusive.
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