| Trump tells Dems to nominate 'Mini Mike Bloomberg ASAP.' Should they take his advice? Posted: 05 Feb 2020 03:11 PM PST  Bloomberg made a bet that no consensus candidate would emerge by Super Tuesday and that Democrats would eventually turn to him (and his $60-billion fortune) to fill the void. Is it paying off?
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| Storage unit found, eldest son speaks out: What we know about the missing Idaho kids Posted: 06 Feb 2020 11:10 AM PST  Details continue to trickle out in the case of the two missing Idaho children as mother Lori Vallow missed court deadline a week ago.
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| Orange County Has Released More Than 2,000 Criminal Illegal Immigrants in Recent Years Due to California’s Sanctuary Law Posted: 06 Feb 2020 06:43 AM PST  Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes released data this week showing how California's SB54 sanctuary law allowed for over 2,000 illegal immigrants with outstanding ICE detainers to be released from custody over the last two years, with 411 of those later rearrested for additional charges.Barnes's data drew praise from acting ICE Director Matthew Albence, who released a statement Wednesday saying that "this is exactly what ICE has said time and again.""These policies do nothing but ensure that criminals are released back into the community, where many re-offend, instead of being turned over to ICE," Albence said. "These are preventable crimes, and more importantly, preventable victims. As the data released by Sheriff Barnes clearly demonstrates, all communities are safer when local law enforcement works with ICE."California's SB 54 restricts law enforcement from notifying, transferring, and communicating with ICE regarding certain offenders. The Trump administration has petitioned the Supreme Court to strike down the statuteBarnes's data shows that in 2019, 1,015 illegal immigrants were released from Orange County Jail with outstanding ICE detainers, with 238 of those — over 23 percent — later rearrested on additional charges. In 2018, a total of 1,106 inmates were released without notification given to ICE, and 173 of those ended up being rearrested by local law enforcement.Barnes said the data proved that "SB 54 has made our community less safe" and that "the two-year social science experiment with sanctuary laws must end." He also slammed the policy as leaving police unable "to protect our immigrant community.""The law has resulted in new crimes because my deputies were unable to communicate with their federal partners about individuals who committed serious offenses and present a threat to our community if released," he said.
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| Top U.S. officials to spotlight Chinese spy operations, pursuit of American secrets Posted: 06 Feb 2020 03:00 AM PST ![Top U.S. officials to spotlight Chinese spy operations, pursuit of American secrets]( "Top U.S. officials to spotlight Chinese spy operations, pursuit of American secrets") An aggressive campaign by American authorities to root out Chinese espionage operations in the United States has snared a growing group of Chinese government officials, business people, and academics pursuing American secrets. In 2019 alone, public records show U.S. authorities arrested and expelled two Chinese diplomats who allegedly drove onto a military base in Virginia. On Thursday, U.S. Attorney General William Barr, FBI director Christopher Wray and U.S. counterintelligence chief William Evanina will address a Washington conference on U.S. efforts to counter Chinese "economic malfeasance" involving espionage and the theft of U.S. technological and scientific secrets.
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| An anti-Putin blogger was murdered in a French hotel, and the killing has the hallmarks of the Russian hit squad causing chaos in Europe Posted: 06 Feb 2020 05:28 AM PST  Imran Aliev, a 44-year-old Chechen blogger who opposed both Vladimir Putin and Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov, was murdered in Lille last week.
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| 30 Side Table Designs That Do All the Things Posted: 06 Feb 2020 10:41 AM PST |
| Ill Cali cartel drug kingpin seeks early prison release Posted: 06 Feb 2020 08:10 AM PST ![Ill Cali cartel drug kingpin seeks early prison release]( "Ill Cali cartel drug kingpin seeks early prison release") One of the world's major cocaine kingpins, a co-founder of Colombia's Cali Cartel that smuggled some $2 billion in drugs to the U.S., is seeking compassionate early release from a federal prison because of ill health. Gilberto Rodriguez-Orejuela, 81, is asking a Miami federal judge to let him return to his family in Colombia because he suffers from prostate and colon cancer. Rodriguez-Orejuela has served about half of his 30-year prison sentence under a 2006 plea deal.
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| U.S. cities and states with confirmed coronavirus cases Posted: 06 Feb 2020 02:01 AM PST  Six states are currently treating people infected with coronavirus.
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| Israeli strikes kill 23 Syrian, foreign fighters in Syria Posted: 06 Feb 2020 07:40 AM PST  Israeli air strikes killed 23 Syrian and foreign fighters in Syria Thursday, a monitor said, the latest in a spate of raids Israel has said targeted an Iranian presence on its doorstep. Israel has pledged to prevent its main enemy from entrenching itself militarily in Syria, where it is backing President Bashar al-Assad's government alongside Russia and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. The pre-dawn raids killed three Iranians and seven Tehran-backed foreign fighters near Kisweh south of the capital, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
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| Giuliani: If the U.S. doesn't investigate Joe Biden, it would be 'one of the great corrupt events in American history' Posted: 04 Feb 2020 06:14 PM PST  Rudy Giuliani expects President Trump to be acquitted by the Republican-controlled Senate on Wednesday, and thinks he should celebrate by investigating a political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden."I would have no problem with him doing it," Giuliani, Trump's personal lawyer, told NPR. "In fact, I'd have a problem with him not doing it. I think he would be saying that Joe Biden can get away with selling out the United States, making us a fool in the Ukraine." Giuliani continues to believe in a debunked conspiracy theory that Biden wanted a Ukrainian prosecutor ousted because he planned on investigating the gas company Burisma; Biden's son Hunter was once on its board."I believe that it would be one of the great corrupt events in American history if this case is not investigated at the highest levels of two governments," Giuliani said, referring to the United States and Ukraine.Trump's impeachment was triggered by his July 25 call with Ukrainian President Alexander Zelensky, during which he asked Zelensky to launch an investigation into Biden. The House impeachment managers say Trump froze military aid to Ukraine as a way of pressuring Zelensky into announcing investigations. Several Republican senators have said Trump acted inappropriately, including Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), who told NBC's Chuck Todd what Trump did was "wrong" and "improper, crossing the line."Giuliani pushed back, saying they "don't understand the facts. Lamar is wrong, and Lamar is a good friend of mine, and he's a fine man except he doesn't know all the facts."More stories from theweek.com Trump just won the Iowa Democratic caucuses Should financial markets be freaked out by coronavirus? America is doing so much better than you think
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| AG Barr Requires FBI to Obtain His Approval Before Investigating 2020 Candidates Posted: 06 Feb 2020 05:26 AM PST  Attorney General William Barr has issued a memo requiring the FBI to obtain approval from Barr himself before conducting any investigation into any 2020 presidential election candidate."In certain cases, the existence of a federal criminal or counterintelligence investigation, if it becomes known to the public, may have unintended effects on our elections," Barr wrote in the memo, which was obtained by the New York Times. The attorney general went on to emphasize that "we also must be sensitive to safeguarding the department's reputation for fairness, neutrality and nonpartisanship."The memo establishes certain requirements for the FBI and other agencies under the purview of the Justice Department to meet before opening a "politically sensitive" criminal or counterintelligence investigation against candidates or donors. Barr must personally give approval for investigations into presidential and vice presidential candidates, as well as their respective senior staffs.The move follows Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz's report on the FBI's obtainment of a FISA warrant against former Trump-campaign adviser Carter Page as part of the agency's investigation into suspected collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian agents. The report detailed various errors and material omissions in the FBI's initial application for a FISA warrant and subsequent renewals."We identified multiple instances in which factual assertions relied upon in the first FISA application were inaccurate, incomplete, or unsupported by appropriate documentation, based upon information the FBI had in its possession at the time the application was filed," the report read.The FBI in 2016 carried out investigations pertaining to both presidential candidates. While the Trump campaign was investigated for possible connections to Russia, a claim that the Mueller Report subsequently found to be based on insufficient evidence, the bureau in October 2016 also reopened its investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server for classified messages.
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| Come to Rio, get robbed: Brazil tourism body shares awkward Instagram post Posted: 05 Feb 2020 12:54 PM PST  When marketing Rio de Janeiro, Brazil's national tourism agency typically focuses on the city's world-class beaches, samba-filled music scene and caipirinha-fueled parties. Violent crime is rarely listed among the attractions. "I just spent 3 days in Rio with my family, and in those 3 days my family and I were robbed and my 9-year-old sister witnessed a violent robbery," Instagram user "withlai" wrote in an Instagram Stories post.
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| Outrage after Limbaugh given Medal of Freedom Posted: 06 Feb 2020 04:50 AM PST  President Trump has been roundly condemned by critics for giving the controversial conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh one of the highest civilian awards in the country in the middle of his State of the Union address.
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| Wichita woman convicted of beheading ex-boyfriend's mother Posted: 06 Feb 2020 02:25 PM PST  Prosecutors said Rachael Hilyard cut off the head of 63-year-old Micki Davis using two steak knives on April 9, 2017. Davis had gone to Hilyard's home with her 9-year-old grandson to collect her son's belongings, at Hilyard's insistence. Hilyard's lawyer acknowledged his client killed Davis but said it was not premeditated, which is required for a first-degree murder conviction, The Wichita Eagle reported.
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| China's Secrecy Over the Wuhan Coronavirus Is One Big Mistake Posted: 06 Feb 2020 01:00 AM PST  Misinformation is a dangerous thing.
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| Post-impeachment, how far will unleashed Trump go? Posted: 05 Feb 2020 03:52 PM PST  Donald Trump was acquitted of high crimes in his impeachment trial Wednesday -- but could the unpredictable president now decide he's above the law? The question hangs over a nervous, divided Washington. For Trump, those votes are vindication of his insistence that he did nothing wrong in trying to get Ukraine to dig up dirt on Democratic election rival Joe Biden.
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| Scientists have discovered an unusual 'monster' galaxy from the early universe Posted: 06 Feb 2020 10:57 AM PST  Scientists have discovered an unusual "monster" galaxy that existed about 12 billion years ago. But why it suddenly stopped forming stars is unknown.
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| Gabbard Campaign to Protest CNN Townhall over New Hampshire Snub Posted: 06 Feb 2020 09:12 AM PST  Representative Tulsi Gabbard (D., Hawaii) is scheduling a protest outside the New Hampshire venue where CNN is hosting town halls ahead of the state's primary next week, after Gabbard was excluded from the two-night lineup — despite out-polling townhall guests Andrew Yang, Tom Steyer, and Deval Patrick in New Hampshire."This attempt to silence Tulsi is bigger than one person — it's our right as voters to hear from ALL the candidates, and to have our voices represented. No institution should be allowed to get away with censoring democracy: That's why we're standing up to CNN on Wednesday, February 5th, demanding that our voices be heard," the Gabbard campaign told Fox News.Gabbard told the network last week that she had reached out about being excluded, but had not received a response."We have reached out, I think, more than once, and we received no explanation. I don't even think we've gotten a response to date about why they're excluding the first female combat veteran ever to run for president, the only woman of color in the race," she said.Gabbard currently sits sixth in New Hampshire polling at 4.7 percent, while Yang polls at 3.7 percent, and Tom Steyer at 3.1 percent, according to a RealClearPolitics polling average.Patrick, who does not even register in the average, hit 0.4 percent in the most recent Boston Globe/Suffolk University New Hampshire poll.Gabbard has voiced public criticism over CNN's treatment of her campaign, and slammed the news network during the October debate after a CNN analyst called her a Russian asset."The New York Times and CNN have also smeared veterans like myself for calling to an end to this regime-change war," Gabbard told the crowd in Ohio. " . . . This morning a CNN commentator said on national television that I'm an asset of Russia. Completely despicable."
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| Siberian street cats limp to new life with prosthetic paws Posted: 06 Feb 2020 09:12 AM PST  Ryzhik, a scruffy red tabby cat, was found on the streets of the Siberian city of Tomsk in the blistering cold, his four paws completely frozen. Two years later Ryzhik leads a normal life at Gorshkov's clinic, hobbling around on four prosthetic limbs. Ryzhik is one of the first cats in the world to have four titanium paws that were implanted into their bones using the technique, according to Gorshkov.
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| U.S. citizen dies in border patrol custody Posted: 05 Feb 2020 11:03 AM PST  A U.S. citizen has died in government custody, Customs and Border Patrol announced Wednesday.Border patrol agents arrested the 32-year-old man Tuesday afternoon "after he was identified as a suspect in an alien smuggling incident," BuzzFeed News reports via a CBP statement. "At around 6:00 p.m., during processing at the Brackettville Station, the man began exhibiting signs of distress," the statement continued. "EMT-certified agents" began tending to the man, and an ambulance took him to a local hospital around 6:40 p.m. "He was pronounced deceased by medical personnel at 9:37 p.m. CST," per the statement.The agents who arrested the man were assigned to a Brackettville, Texas, station, which is near the Del Rio, Texas, port of entry.More stories from theweek.com How Trump's New York trusted traveler ban will punish the most conservative parts of the state How history will view Trump's impeachment Fox News' Brian Kilmeade is really mad that Romney would 'bring religion' into his impeachment decision
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| Joe Biden moves town-hall audience to tears as he opens up about how he dealt with his stutter Posted: 05 Feb 2020 10:17 PM PST  The former vice president and 2020 hopeful emphasized the importance of empathy and asked people to "to reach out a little more for people."
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| Man Who Killed Son for Insurance Money Is Convicted of Doing the Same to Wife Posted: 05 Feb 2020 12:30 PM PST  A man who killed his son in 2008 to collect $700,000 from his life insurance policy was convicted this week of killing his wife nearly 30 years ago for the same reason.Karl Holger Karlsen, 59, pleaded guilty in 2013 to murdering his son, Levi Karlsen, in Seneca Falls, New York, and was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison. That conviction raised suspicions with detectives in California, where the investigation into his wife's death had been continuing, according to court documents.Karlsen's wife, Christina Karlsen, 30, died on New Year's Day in 1991, when she was trapped by a fire in a boarded-up bathroom of the family's home in Calaveras County, Karlsen's lawyer, Richard Esquivel, said.Days after his wife's death, Karlsen collected $215,000 from his wife's insurance policy, and he and his children moved to Seneca Falls, where he is from, Esquivel said.On Monday, a jury convicted Karlsen of murdering his wife by committing arson -- purposefully boarding up the bathroom and lighting a fire in a hallway to kill her.He could face a maximum life sentence without the possibility of parole during his sentencing hearing March 17. He plans to appeal the conviction, Esquivel said.The victim's mother, Arlene Meltzer, 78, was in the courtroom when the verdict was read by the jury."I just knew that he had something to do with it," she said Tuesday. "It is something a mother always carries in their heart."With the money from his wife's life insurance policy, Karlsen moved back to New York, bought a house and paid several bills, Esquivel said.According to court documents, Karlsen's son, Levi Karlsen, bought a $700,000 life insurance policy in 2008. Soon after that, Levi Karlsen, 23, signed paperwork that named his father the sole beneficiary of his policy in the event of his death, records show; his father was present at the time of signing.Hours after signing the paperwork, Levi Karlsen's body was found by his father's second wife, Cindy Karlsen, under a truck that had fallen on him in his father's garage, records show.Initially, authorities deemed the death an accident. But in 2011, when Cindy Karlsen realized that her husband had invested money from his son's policy into a $1.2 million life insurance policy for her, she alerted authorities, according to court documents.She cooperated with authorities, and while she was wearing a wire, her husband admitted that he had deliberately caused the truck to fall on his son, according to court documents. In 2012, Karlsen was charged with murdering his son, and he pleaded guilty the following year."We suspected that he was guilty of Levi's death as well," Meltzer said. "I expected that he was involved in it in some way."Karlsen appealed his conviction in that case and lost, but he planned to appeal again, Esquivel said.Meltzer, meanwhile, is done waiting."For 30 years we stood and waited. Right now I am just taking quiet time to help me get strong," Meltzer said as her voice quivered. "I just kept my prayers going because I knew that he was involved, but I just had to stand by and believe that God was going to take care of it."It has finally come to an end," she said.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| Meet the JH-XX: China's Newest and Fastest Stealth Bomber? Posted: 06 Feb 2020 09:12 AM PST  Is it real?
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| President upsets Mexicans with plan to end long weekends Posted: 05 Feb 2020 11:01 AM PST  Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has floated a strikingly unpopular proposal to end the practice of creating long weekends by moving national holidays around. López Obrador is a student of Mexican history, and he was irked because few people appeared to remember that Wednesday is the anniversary of the Feb. 5, 1917 adoption of the country's Constitution. López Obrador said it is a bad practice because it leads people to forget what they were celebrating, even though he acknowledged the three-day weekends were popular.
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| 'I don't want to listen to lies about the Second Amendment': Father of Parkland shooting victim detained for State of the Union protest speaks out Posted: 05 Feb 2020 08:15 AM PST  The father of a student killed in the Parkland shooting is speaking out after being removed from the State of the Union address last night for shouting at President Donald Trump over "lies about the Second Amendment."Fred Guttenberg's 14-year-old daughter Jamie was killed in February 2018 during the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Since her death, Mr Guttenberg has been an outspoken advocate for gun safety.
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| She pulled her vote when she found out Pete Buttigieg is gay. He says`I'm running to be her president too.' Posted: 06 Feb 2020 11:10 AM PST  Presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg responds to the Iowa woman who was captured on video withdrawing her support after learning he's gay.
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| U.S. appeals court will not reconsider net neutrality repeal ruling Posted: 06 Feb 2020 03:39 PM PST  The Federal Communications Commission in December 2017 reversed Obama-era rules prohibiting internet service providers (ISPs) from blocking or throttling traffic, or offering paid fast lanes, a blow to large tech companies and consumer groups that had championed net neutrality. In orders issued Thursday, the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia declined without comment to rehear the decision as did the three-judge panel that issued the ruling in October. The decision is a win for FCC Chairman Ajit Pai who proposed and has championed the repeal.
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| California lawmaker introduces bill making voting mandatory Posted: 05 Feb 2020 10:37 PM PST  If a California lawmaker has his way, registered voters in the state will be required to participate in every election.On Tuesday, Assemblyman Marc Levine (D) introduced Assembly Bill 2070, making voting mandatory. "Democracy is not a spectator sport — it requires the active participation of all its citizens," Levine said in a statement. "California is a national leader on expanding voting rights to its citizens. Those rights come with a responsibility by registered voters to cast their ballot and make sure that their voice is heard by their government."Under the measure, which isn't expected to be considered until the spring, the secretary of state would determine the penalty for not voting. This is an unprecedented bill, and should it go into law, it would likely be challenged in court, the Los Angeles Times says. California's latest statewide report on elections found that there are more than 20.3 million registered voters in the state, with nearly two million more eligible to vote, but not registered. In recent years, voters have been coming out to the polls in higher numbers, with 64.5 percent of California's registered voters participating in the November 2018 election. This year, the state's primary was moved up to March 3, in order to encourage even more people to vote.More stories from theweek.com The real State of the Union The White House is asking Republicans to bash Mitt Romney. Liz Cheney is defending him. How history will view Trump's impeachment
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| The Kremlin is checking the temperatures of Putin's media visitors amid coronavirus fears Posted: 06 Feb 2020 10:09 AM PST  "These are just precautionary measures," a Kremlin spokesman told Russian media after the press pool had their temperatures checked.
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| Authorities: Man shot in face during immigration operation Posted: 06 Feb 2020 08:20 AM PST |
| Why the World Should Really Fear North Korea's Tunnels Posted: 06 Feb 2020 03:30 AM PST  Tunnels, yes, you read that right.
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| Tourism Industry Pleads Mexico’s AMLO: Please Don’t Cancel Long Weekends Posted: 06 Feb 2020 02:20 PM PST  (Bloomberg) -- If it ain't broke, don't fix it. That's what Mexico's tourism industry is telling President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador after he proposed canceling long weekends.AMLO, as the president is known, wants holidays to be celebrated on the actual day that they happened to boost their historical significance. For many years now, Mexico has moved holidays that fall in the middle of the week to either Monday or Friday so people can enjoy a long weekend.Getting rid of these would hurt the economy and the tourism industry, said the head of tourism chamber Concanaco Servytur, Jose Manuel Lopez, in a statement. Long weekends are when people are able to travel to nearby, domestic spots, he said, and it's when transportation services, restaurants and hotels register significant increases in cash flows."We're doing a lot of things that are helping tourism grow," Lopez Obrador said in his morning press conference on Thursday. "We're cleaning beaches, we're building the Maya Train and working to increase road security. So this won't impact tourism. On the contrary, we'll be affected if we forget our past."Concanaco's Lopez said long weekends also allow workers to relieve some stress and come back to work recharged. Mexico only has seven official holidays per year, one of the fewest in the world.The Finance Ministry is going to review the president's initiative to analyze its possible impact on the industry, Deputy Finance Minister Gabriel Yorio told media on Thursday. "We'd have to see how it would be implemented, but we'll analyze it."(Updates with comments by Deputy Finance Minister in sixth paragraph.)To contact the reporters on this story: Andrea Navarro in Mexico City at anavarro30@bloomberg.net;Lorena Rios in Mexico City at lriost@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Case at bcase4@bloomberg.net, Nacha CattanFor 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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| Rick Scott Announces Constitutional Amendment Raising Impeachment Voting Threshold in the House Posted: 06 Feb 2020 08:29 AM PST  Senator Rick Scott (R., Fla.) on Thursday announced he would introduce a constitutional amendment to raise the House voting threshold to approve articles of impeachment to three-fifths of the chamber, instead of a simple majority."An act as divisive as impeachment must have bipartisan backing and overwhelming support," Scott said in a statement. "It should be harder — much harder — for either political party to take the process our Founders created as a last resort against a tyrannical leader and use it instead as a tool for the tyranny of the political majority."Scott's proposal comes a day after President Trump was acquitted on two articles of impeachment in a Senate trial. The House vote to approve the articles fell almost completely along party lines, with one Democrat voting against, while Mitt Romney (R., Utah) was the only senator to break ranks with his party and vote to convict the president."The Democrats used the impeachment process as a tool to hurt President Trump, regardless of the outcome of the Senate trial," Scott commented. "It's a dangerous precedent and the process has to change."Trump has repeatedly referred to the impeachment process as a "witch hunt" and "hoax." The president is scheduled to discuss the impeachment acquittal in public remarks Thursday afternoon."I think he's also going to talk about just how horribly he was treated and, you know, that maybe people should pay for that," White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham told Fox News in advance of the remarks.
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| Xi says China has achieved 'positive' virus control results Posted: 06 Feb 2020 06:01 AM PST  China has achieved "positive" results in its prevention and control efforts in fighting the new coronavirus, President Xi Jinping told Saudi Arabia's King Salman by telephone, China's official Xinhua news agency reported. The two discussed "efforts to combat and control the novel coronavirus epidemic", the report said. China has declared a "people's war" on the virus and the whole nation is working as one to combat it, Xi said.
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| Trump’s Press Secretary Whines About Media Lunch Leaks—in New Leaked Email Posted: 06 Feb 2020 07:53 AM PST  The Trump White House is apparently still reeling because the president didn't get anything to eat at the soup-and-sole lunch he hosted for television personalities before Tuesday's State of the Union address."[T]he president of the United States welcomed you to the White House and spent almost two hours answering so many questions that he didn't eat his own lunch," White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham complained about President Donald Trump's personal sacrifice in a confidential email to the attendees—an email that was shared with The Daily Beast on Thursday morning. "He graciously gave you a couple of items on the record and then spoke frankly, honestly, and most importantly in good faith that it was off the record."Grisham, who doesn't follow the practice of delivering White House press briefings, thus obliterating a decades-long tradition by administrations of both parties, continued: "Our only agenda was to give you an idea of what the president was going to say to the country in his third State of the Union address. It was so disappointing that not even an hour passed before we were inundated with inquiries, as someone or perhaps a few in the group chose to leak out most of what was said. What's worse, some of the details were things the president specifically asked you not to share."It seems Grisham and her boss, who banned CNN from the meal, were especially angered by The Daily Beast's report about the lunch—published hours before Trump's speech to Congress—that contained many such details, such as the president's criticisms of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and his vow to block publication of former National Security Adviser John Bolton's tell-all book."To me, it is the height of hypocrisy that a press who bemoans the perceived lack of ethical behavior in this administration, so brazenly violates its own ethical standards," Grisham went on, clearly warming to her subject. "The media cries for more access but cannot adhere to a simple agreed upon standard of off-the-record, which allowed your colleagues who were not in attendance to break the news for you." Delivering a helpful lecture on journalistic ethics, Grisham added: "Call me naïve, but it is my belief that old-fashioned accountability should be applied to a press corps that has sadly failed to hold itself to its very own standards. Accountability is, after all, one of the five core principles of journalism. 'We hold the powerful accountable' is a mantra that many in the press righteously shout from every news desk in this county. I ask—who holds all of you accountable?"And so on and so forth, for several paragraphs more."In closing," Grisham wrote, "I must say that for once I wouldn't mind if this email leaked, but somehow I doubt anyone will want to admit to this complete lapse in integrity."Oh ye of little faith.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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| When it comes to climate hypocrisy, Canada's leaders have reached a new low Posted: 05 Feb 2020 02:30 AM PST  A territory that has 0.5% of the Earth's population plans to use up nearly a third of the planet's remaining carbon budget Americans elected Donald Trump, who insisted climate change was a hoax – so it's no surprise that since taking office he's been all-in for the fossil fuel industry. There's no sense despairing; the energy is better spent fighting to remove him from office.Canada, on the other hand, elected a government that believes the climate crisis is real and dangerous – and with good reason, since the nation's Arctic territories give it a front-row seat to the fastest warming on Earth. Yet the country's leaders seem likely in the next few weeks to approve a vast new tar sands mine which will pour carbon into the atmosphere through the 2060s. They know – yet they can't bring themselves to act on the knowledge. Now that is cause for despair.The Teck mine would be the biggest tar sands mine yet: 113 square miles of petroleum mining, located just 16 miles from the border of Wood Buffalo national park. A federal panel approved the mine despite conceding that it would likely be harmful to the environment and to the land culture of Indigenous people. These giant tar sands mines (easily visible on Google Earth) are already among the biggest scars humans have ever carved on the planet's surface. But Canadian authorities ruled that the mine was nonetheless in the "public interest".Here's how Justin Trudeau, recently re-elected as Canada's prime minister, put it in a speech to cheering Texas oilmen a couple of years ago: "No country would find 173 billion barrels of oil in the ground and leave them there." That is to say, Canada, which is 0.5% of the planet's population, plans to use up nearly a third of the planet's remaining carbon budget. Ottawa hides all this behind a series of pledges about "net-zero emissions by 2050" and so on, but they are empty promises. In the here-and-now they can't rein themselves in. There's oil in the ground and it must come out.This is painfully hard to watch because it comes as the planet has supposedly reached a turning point. A series of remarkable young people (including Canadians such as Autumn Peltier) have captured the imagination of people around the world; scientists have issued ever sterner warnings; and the images of climate destruction show up in every newspaper. Canadians can see the Australian blazes on television; they should bring back memories of the devastating forest fires that forced the evacuation of Fort McMurray, in the heart of the tar sands complex, less than four years ago.The only rational response would be to immediately stop the expansion of new fossil fuel projects. It's true that we can't get off oil and gas immediately; for the moment, oil wells continue to pump. But the Teck Frontier proposal is predicated on the idea that we'll still need vast quantities of oil in 2066, when Greta Thunberg is about to hit retirement age. If an alcoholic assured you he was taking his condition very seriously, but also laying in a 40-year store of bourbon, you'd be entitled to doubt his sincerity, or at least to note his confusion. Oil has addled the Canadian ability to do basic math: more does not equal less, and 2066 is not any time soon. An emergency means you act now.In fairness, Canada has company here. For every territory making a sincere effort to kick fossil fuels (California, Scotland) there are other capitals just as paralyzed as Ottawa. Australia's fires creep ever closer to the seat of government in Canberra, yet the prime minister, Scott Morrison, can't seem to imagine any future for his nation other than mining more coal. Australia and Canada are both rich nations, their people highly educated, but they seem unable to control the zombie momentum of fossil fuels.There's obviously something hideous about watching the Trumps and the Putins of the world gleefully shred our future. But it's disturbing in a different way to watch leaders pretend to care – a kind of gaslighting that can reduce you to numb nihilism. Trudeau, for all his charms, doesn't get to have it both ways: if you can't bring yourself to stop a brand-new tar sands mine then you're not a climate leader. * Bill McKibben is an author and Schumann distinguished scholar in environmental studies at Middlebury College, Vermont. His most recent book is Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out?
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| Chinese officials are only letting people leave their homes every 2 days and have forbidden weddings and funerals Posted: 06 Feb 2020 02:19 PM PST  In four cities that are home to more than 30 million people, each household is given a so-called passport. It permits one person to leave every two days.
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| A California surgeon and his girlfriend were accused of drugging and raping up to 1,000 women. A new DA says the evidence against them was 'manufactured.' Posted: 06 Feb 2020 07:14 AM PST  The county's new district attorney said his predecessor made up the evidence for political gain.
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| Virginia lawmakers to debate assault weapon ban Posted: 06 Feb 2020 02:06 PM PST  Democratic lawmakers in Virginia are set to try to advance legislation to ban assault weapons despite pushback from members of their own party. A state House committee is scheduled to take up legislation backed by Gov. Ralph Northam on Friday that would ban the sale of certain semi-automatic firearms, including popular AR-15 style rifles. Heated debates over guns have dominated this year's legislative session, as Virginia has become ground zero in the nation's raging debate over gun control and mass shootings.
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| Russia Is Building Radar To Detect Hypersonic Weapons (And Is Testing Them Too) Posted: 06 Feb 2020 10:57 AM PST  Moscow is looking to make money by selling this technology.
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| US warns Venezuela of consequences if Guaido harmed Posted: 06 Feb 2020 02:08 PM PST  The United States on Thursday warned Venezuela's leftist regime of consequences if opposition leader Juan Guaido is not allowed to return safely from a visit to Washington. "We hope that the regime makes the calculation, particularly after this trip, that the support for Guaido is strong and that the counter-reaction to any move against him would make it a mistake for the regime," said Elliott Abrams, the US pointman on Venezuela. Guaido, who is considered interim president by the United States and most other Western and Latin American nations, paid a surprise visit as a guest Tuesday at President Donald Trump's State of the Union address to Congress.
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| Cruise ship that visited Hong Kong searches for a port after Philippines, Japan deny entry Posted: 06 Feb 2020 01:13 PM PST  Holland America confirmed that MS Westerdam is being denied entry to Japan despite there being no known cases of coronavirus aboard.
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| Polls show Biden’s campaign could be doomed Posted: 06 Feb 2020 01:39 PM PST  New polls reveal the state of Joe Biden's campaign is far shakier than his longtime lead in the national polls would suggest. In fact, it may have already entered the terminal stage.
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| Canada to impose speed limits on trains carrying dangerous goods after crash Posted: 06 Feb 2020 07:57 AM PST  OTTAWA/WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) - Canada said on Thursday it would impose temporary speed limits on trains hauling dangerous goods after a Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd crude oil train derailed and caught fire. Federal Transport Minister Marc Garneau said that effective at midnight on Friday (0500 GMT Saturday), trains hauling more than 20 cars of dangerous goods would be limited to 25 miles per hour (40 kph) across the country for the next 30 days. The reductions represent a halving from the normal speed limits.
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