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Jan 23, 2020
(Bloomberg) -- Sign up for Next China, a weekly email on where the nation stands now and where it's going next.The case of a Chinese student jailed for tweets he sent while studying in America underscores that being overseas is no protection from Beijing's censors.Luo Daiqing, who attends the University of Minnesota in the U.S., was sentenced to six months in jail by a district court in November for "provocation" after he posted tweets that "defaced the image of the country's leaders" and had a "negative impact" on society. He was detained in his hometown of Wuhan between July 12 and Jan. 11.A Twitter account linked to Luo posted photos showing government slogans printed over a cartoon villain who looks similar to Chinese President Xi Jinping, according to Axios, which first reported the case Wednesday. The account, which was inaccessible on Thursday, also posted images of Winnie the Pooh, whose likeness is considered sensitive on Chinese social media due to unflattering comparisons to the Communist Party chief.The case is another sign that China is cracking down on government criticism, even outside its borders. While Twitter Inc.'s service is one of many foreign websites banned on the mainland, it's accessible using virtual private network software that mask a user's location and Chinese propaganda organizations maintain a robust presence on the platform.The court said Luo had "confessed" to using a false identity for a post that included altered pictures in a bid to attract attention. He later deleted them af
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Jan 23, 2020
Derek Tai was arrested outside Hong Kong's Legislative Council building last June, early in the city's anti-government protests, which have seen millions join demonstrations over the past seven months. Tai, a soft-spoken 21-year-old philosophy major, was one of the first protesters to be arrested. In past cases, defendants have been sentenced to eight months.
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Jan 23, 2020
At least one person was killed and seven others injured after a shooting in front of a McDonald's in downtown Seattle on Wednesday night.
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Jan 23, 2020
Residents of China's Wuhan scrambled to stock up on supplies on Thursday as authorities suspended transport links in and out of the city in a bid to stop the spread of a new coronavirus that has raised fears of a global pandemic. It has gone on to kill 17 people and infected nearly 600, most in China but cases have been detected as far away as the United States. Flights out of the city were also being suspended, it said.
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Jan 22, 2020
"Obviously, the alleged incident is absolutely antithetical to our fraternity's ideals and values," Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity spokesperson said.
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Jan 22, 2020
The shooting is the third in Seattle in two days
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Jan 22, 2020
There was no immediate word on a cause or the model of the plane that crashed at Corona Municipal Airport in California.
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Jan 22, 2020
Port-au-Prince (AFP) - Rose Boncoeur brought two emaciated little girls to live in her modest home in Haiti as part of a reform drive aimed at keeping children out of orphanages. The government of the Americas' poorest country is pushing to deinstitutionalize children so as to avoid the darkest sides of orphanage life -- trafficking of kids or even worse abuse. Boncoeur gets no financial help to feed or clothe her two charges, and is forced to ask people for used clothing for her foster children -- sisters, aged eight months and three years.
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Jan 22, 2020
Fox News host Greg Gutfeld on Wednesday argued that the real reason Democrats are impeaching President Donald Trump is that they are "boring people" and the president is "phenomenally interesting."During the 5 PM hour, Fox News decided to air their highly rated conservative panel show The Five instead of sticking with live coverage of the Senate impeachment trial like CNN and MSNBC did.Immediately, Gutfeld blasted the proceedings by saying impeachment had become "so trivial," flinging out an analogy about tattoos to make his case."If you saw somebody with a tattoo you stared at it," he exclaimed. "A war vet or a biker or possibly both but now they're on bass players, there on sorority sisters. Tattoos can be found on middle-age suburbanites at their Peloton class. That's what impeachment is."Co-host Jesse Watters, meanwhile, took to taunting House impeachment manager Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), claiming the House Intelligence Committee chairman "looks like a rotten dandelion" and is the "kind of guy that tucks his t-shirt into his mom jeans."Moments after Watters' juvenile insults aimed at one of the president's favorite targets, Gutfeld further played to Trump's ego by heaping praise upon the president while bashing Democrats."Finally, when you watch this, it's boring," he declared. "That's the real reason why they are impeaching him. These are all really boring people up against a phenomenally interesting person.""This is a bloated cat trying to hack out an orange furba
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Jan 22, 2020
It was one of the most high-stakes moments in a dramatic impeachment process. After weeks of debate and speculation, House Democrats were finally taking the…
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Jan 22, 2020
The ban in the Republican-dominated state, which took effect on Wednesday, exempts members of the clergy, lay pastors, and spiritual counselors not licensed by the state from the ban. Conversion therapy involves a variety of psychological and spiritual practices aimed at changing sexual orientation and gender identity in the belief that homosexuality and transgender identity are mental illnesses. The American Psychological Association has called the treatment harmful to young people.
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Jan 22, 2020
The Senate floor is a tight ship, with lawmakers blocked from bringing food, electronics, and just about every drink with them when they enter it. Yet one 60-year-old precedent provides a loophole to those strict rules — and a senator has finally used it to liven up President Trump's impeachment trial.Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) was the first senator spotted asking for and receiving a glass of milk during the trial, in accordance with a longstanding allowance of dairy in the Senate, CBS News' Grace Segers noted Wednesday. He then got a second glass of milk, CBS News' Julia Boccagno noted, and paired it with a piece of Hershey's chocolate from the Senate's candy desk — seemingly a violation of floor rules.Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C. ) also reportedly acquired a glass of milk, Segers noted later. And in a twist, Segers tweeted that she'd heard Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) actually had some milk the night before. More milk-related news: I've been informed that Ted Cruz drank milk at around midnight last night. Apparently, senators have to provide their own milk to the cloakroom, although they do keep it cold for senators. — Grace Segers (@Grace_Segers) January 22, 2020It's surprising that Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) hasn't engaged in the trend yet, seeing as he was the one who reminded us of the dairy procedure on Tuesday.More stories from theweek.com Giants quarterback Eli Manning retires after 16 seasons The White House is arguing the impeachment articles don't include allegations
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Jan 22, 2020
Under a proposed federal rule, airlines wouldn't be required to accept emotional support animals, and would exclude service animals other than dogs.
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Jan 22, 2020
Former Vice President Joe Biden seemingly doesn't want to hear about his apparent feud with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).After an Iowa campaign event on Wednesday, Biden walked off the stage in a pretty typical way: followed by reporters asking him questions. But one from CBS News' Ed O'Keefe about Sanders seemingly sent him over the edge.As Biden left the stage, O'Keefe asked why he was attacking Sanders after just accepting his apology a day earlier. "Why wasn't his apology enough, Mr. Vice President?" O'Keefe asked. Biden stopped, turned around, and peppered O'Keefe with a barrage of "why why why why why." "You're getting nervous, man! Calm down," Biden then said before briefly answering the question. WATCH: After a campaign event in Mason City, Iowa, @joebiden reacts to @edokeefe's question about his ongoing feud with @berniesanders: "Calm down, it's okay." https://t.co/a2hmMbnjnf pic.twitter.com/ymOMWRR2zP — CBS News (@CBSNews) January 22, 2020O'Keefe's question stems from one of Sanders' supporters accusing Biden of having a "corruption problem" in an op-ed, and another putting together a video purportedly showing Biden opposing social security. Sanders apologized for the op-ed but not for the video, as Biden pointed out to CBS News.More stories from theweek.com Giants quarterback Eli Manning retires after 16 seasons The White House is arguing the impeachment articles don't include allegations of a quid pro quo because the exact words don't appear Several senators
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Jan 22, 2020
Four people were killed Wednesday in the crash of a small airplane at a Southern California airfield, authorities said. The plane went down at Corona Municipal Airport, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) east of Los Angeles, police said. Four fatalities were confirmed, the Corona Fire Department said on Twitter.
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Jan 22, 2020
As House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) delivered his remarks during Wednesday's impeachment proceedings, several senators — on both sides — reportedly grew restless.Some lawmakers, like Sens. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) and Tim Scott (R-S.C.), were reportedly standing for the last hour of Schiff's presentation, while Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) were caught roaming around. A few folks were reportedly waiting impatiently by the door, and others like Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Jim Risch (R-Idaho), who was caught taking a quick snooze during Tuesday's portion of the trial, felt the need to get their blood pumping and left the room completely.It appears that Schiff could sense the atmosphere and subsequently gave everyone a 10-minute warning, but that reportedly just propelled people to bolt for the door even more quickly. All told, there were somewhere between 20 and 30 empty chairs by the end of the speech. Talk about restlessness: Senators were expecting a brief recess at 3:08. A half dozen Rs were literally waiting by the door. When Schiff declared he had 10 mins left, many bolted for the exits anyways. I counted 20 empty desks on R side, and 6 on Dem side. — Sarah Ferris (@sarahnferris) January 22, 2020Sure, it's not the best look for elected members of the upper chamber deliberating over something as historic as impeachment, but they've had a long couple of days. Sometimes you just need to stretch your legs.More stori
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Jan 22, 2020
A Tennessee inmate has chosen the electric chair for his scheduled execution next month, opting like four other inmates in little more than a year for electrocution over the state's preferred execution method of lethal injection. Nicholas Sutton, 58, is scheduled to be put to death Feb. 20 for the stabbing death of a fellow inmate decades ago while serving a life sentence for his grandmother's slaying. An affidavit signed on Tuesday said he waives the right to be executed by lethal injection and chooses electrocution.
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Jan 22, 2020
Wuhan, China, is on lockdown following the outbreak of a coronavirus in the city. The Chinese government decided Wednesday that it was necessary to quarantine the city, which is home to more than 11 million, by shutting down intra-city public transportation. Outbound flights and trains will also be canceled for the time being as efforts to learn more about the virus and how it spreads continue. The illness is believed to have started in Wuhan and has spread to several other countries, including a reported case in the United States. Overall, there have been more than 500 confirmed cases and 17 deaths.Despite the preventative measures being taken in Wuhan, the World Health Organization said Wednesday that it wasn't ready to declare the outbreak a global emergency. That could very well still happen -- and soon -- but at the moment things apparently aren't clear enough for the United Nations agency to issue that designation. Tim O'Donnell Here's why the World Health Organization delayed declaring the Chinese coronavirus outbreak a global health emergency pic.twitter.com/orzgpr7kRt -- QuickTake by Bloomberg (@QuickTake) January 22, 2020More stories from theweek.com Woman reunites with long-lost father after he's a suggested Facebook friend Several senators left the chamber in the middle of Adam Schiff's impeachment remarks The White House is arguing the impeachment articles don't include allegations of a quid pro quo because the
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Jan 22, 2020
Details about Hunter Biden could complicate life for Joe Biden — exactly what Trump was trying to do with his Ukraine scheme last summer.
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Jan 22, 2020
Chinese authorities are placing the city of Wuhan under quarantine in an attempt to slow the outbreak of a new coronavirus that originated in the city.The state-owned China Daily announced that trains and flights to Wuhan would be temporarily suspended. Local government authorities also announced that public transportation within the city would be curtailed by Thursday."There has already been human-to-human transmission and infection of medical workers," deputy director of the National Health Commission Li Bin said at a Wednesday news conference. "Evidence has shown that the disease has been transmitted through the respiratory tract and there is the possibility of viral mutation."The World Health Organization announced at a separate press conference on Wednesday that it had decided not to declare a world emergency regarding the outbreak, but agreed to continue monitoring the situation.Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province in central China, has already seen a number of cases of the virus. In total the virus has infected over 500 people and killed 17.On Tuesday the Center for Disease Control reported the first confirmed case of the virus in the United States. A man from Washington State contracted the virus while on a visit to Wuhan. Other cases have been reported in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand.The Wuhan virus is from the same family of coronaviruses as SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, which killed over 800 people worldwide in an outbreak toward the end of 2002.
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Jan 22, 2020
The World Health Organization (WHO) said it will decide on Thursday whether to declare a global emergency over the outbreak of a new flu-like virus spreading in and beyond China. If it does so it will be only the sixth international public health emergency to be declared in the last decade. Deaths from China's new coronavirus virus rose to 17 on Wednesday with more than 540 cases confirmed, increasing fears of contagion from an infection suspected to originate from illegally traded wildlife.
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Jan 22, 2020
WASHINGTON -- Armed with rifles and explosives, about a dozen al-Shabab fighters destroyed an American surveillance plane as it was taking off and ignited an hourslong gunfight this month on a sprawling military base in Kenya that houses U.S. troops. By the time al-Shabab was done, portions of the airfield were burning, and three Americans were dead.Surprised by the attack, U.S. commandos took around an hour to respond. Many of the local Kenyan forces, assigned to defend the base, hid in the grass, while other U.S. troops and support staff were corralled into tents, with little protection, to wait out the battle. It would require hours to evacuate one of the wounded to a military hospital in Djibouti, roughly 1,500 miles away.The brazen assault at Manda Bay, a sleepy seaside base near the Somali border, on Jan. 5, was largely overshadowed by the crisis with Iran after the killing of that country's most important general two days earlier and is only now drawing closer scrutiny from Congress and Pentagon officials.But the storming of an airfield used by the U.S. military so alarmed the Pentagon that it immediately sent about 100 troops from the 101st Airborne Division to establish security at the base. Army Green Berets from Germany were shuttled to Djibouti, the Pentagon's major hub in Africa, in case the entire base was in danger of being taken by al-Shabab, an East African terrorist group affiliated with al-Qaida."The assault represented a serious security lapse given how much of a target the base was
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Jan 22, 2020
A former Oklahoma zookeeper and one-time candidate for governor was sentenced Wednesday to 22 years in prison for his role in a murder-for-hire plot and violating federal wildlife laws. A federal judge in Oklahoma City sentenced 56-year-old Joseph Allen Maldonado-Passage — who is also known as "Joe Exotic" — for trying to arrange the killing of a Florida animal sanctuary founder who criticized his treatment of animals. The woman, Carole Baskin, wasn't harmed.
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Jan 22, 2020
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, on a visit to Jamaica on Wednesday, cautioned nations against taking "easy money" from China, warning it could be counterproductive, in a second attack in as many days against China's economic role in the region. On Tuesday, he drew the ire of Chinese officials when he said "flashy" Chinese economic promises often produces debt dependency and erode the sovereignty of borrower nations.
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Jan 22, 2020
Religious conservatives asked the Supreme Court Wednesday to overturn 38 state constitutional amendments and require taxpayers to fund religious schools.You read that right. The case, Espinoza v. Montana Dept. of Revenue isn't about whether a state may fund religious schools through a school choice, voucher, or similar program. It's about whether it must.And the conservatives might just win.At issue in the case, probably the most significant church-state case on the 2019-20 docket, is Montana's "no-aid" amendment to its state constitution, which was revised and passed in 1972. Like similar amendments in 37 other states, it prohibits "direct or indirect funding" for any "sectarian purpose."In 2015, the state legislature passed a law that gave a tax credit of up to $150 for donations to a school scholarship program. But in 2018, the Montana Supreme Court struck down the program, saying it violated the 1972 constitutional provision.[JM1] That's when a group of religious organizations upped the ante. They went to the Supreme Court, seeking not just to reinstate the program but to toss out the "no-aid" amendment entirely - and, as a consequence, invalidate 37 similar amendments across the country.That would open the floodgates to the funding of religious schools, especially since the plaintiffs argue that not funding them—previously the constitutional norm—is actually a form of discrimination.As in many of these cases, how Espinoza looks depends on how
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Jan 22, 2020
Democrats accused the president of boasting about obstructing Congress after a Davos press conference.
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Jan 22, 2020
Police say a man killed a woman at an Iowa home about an hour after officers went there to check on a domestic dispute but left without making an arrest or removing anyone from the tense scene. Mark Russell, of Fort Dodge, is accused of using a golf club to beat 45-year-old Angela McLeod to death. Russell, 28, is scheduled to appear in court Jan. 31 on a first-degree murder charge.
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Jan 22, 2020
The virus doesn't appear to be as deadly as SARS, though just like the flu, it can kill vulnerable people.
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Jan 22, 2020
President Trump probably should've kept quiet on this one.After the first day of impeachment arguments in the Senate, Trump told a press conference at the World Economic Forum that he's pretty sure he'll end up being acquitted. "Honestly, we have all the material. They don't have the material," Trump said of his impeachment defense team and of the House Democrats prosecuting him, making it clear there's some information he's holding back. The second article of impeachment was for obstruction of Congress: covering up witnesses and documents from the American people. This morning the President not only confessed to it, he bragged about it: "Honestly, we have all the material. They don't have the material." pic.twitter.com/DPAEFHIDjS -- Rep. Val Demings (@RepValDemings) January 22, 2020Beyond Rep. Val Demings' (D-Fla.) callout, her fellow impeachment manager Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) addressed Trump's comments in a press conference before the impeachment trial resumed Wednesday. "Well, indeed they do have the material -- hidden from the American people," Schiff said of Trump's team. "That is nothing to brag about." Rep. Adam Schiff: "The president...bragged that he thought things were going well because they had all the materials. Well, indeed they do have the material--hidden from the American people. That is nothing to brag about." https://t.co/C7AyPvvSTr pic.twitter.com/4cqeFOpHGu -- ABC News (@ABC) January 22, 2020More stories from theweek.com Prosecutor slams Weinste
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Jan 22, 2020
Sen. Bernie Sanders surged into first place in a new CNN poll, the first time a CNN poll did not find Joe Biden alone at the top since the race began.
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Jan 22, 2020
(Bloomberg) -- A man who fell ill in Mexico on Monday following a December trip to Wuhan, China, is under observation as a potential case of the coronavirus, the respiratory virus that has killed at least 17 people worldwide.The 57-year-old molecular biology professor works for the Instituto Politecnico Nacional university in the city of Reynosa, which borders with the U.S. The man returned to Mexico on Jan. 10 through a Mexico City airport and then flew to the state of Tamaulipas, Mexican authorities said.Tamaulipas State Health Minister Gloria Molina said in a radio interview that the man immediately reported his situation to authorities after feeling sick. He is now in his home under monitoring to prevent any potential spread.Molina said the man also had layovers at the border city of Tijuana when he left and returned to Mexico, according to journalist Joaquin Lopez Doriga's news site.Link: China Seeks to Contain Virus as Death Toll Jumps to 17Earlier on Wednesday, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said that a second possible case in Mexico had been ruled out."The coronavirus is being looked into. If we have more information we will release it later today," he said.Mexico City airport authorities said late Tuesday that they were expecting recommendations from international and local health authorities on how to deal with passengers showing potential symptoms.Separately, Colombian authorities are also evaluating whether a Chinese man with a respiratory illness, who traveled to Colombia from Turkey, has the same
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Jan 22, 2020
The mother of a California teenager who has been missing for more than 20 years says the FBI told her to "be ready" for imminent news about her disappearance.Hoping that police would finally be able to bring some closure to a seemingly endless investigation, Kristin Smart's mother Denise told the Stockton Record that the FBI warned that the family "might want to get away for a while" and obtain a spokesperson
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Jan 22, 2020
A teenager in Utah accused of fatally shooting four of his relatives and wounding a fifth will be charged as an adult as soon as Wednesday, a prosecutor said. Tooele County Attorney Scott Broadhead told KUTV-TV that prosecutors still don't know what the 16-year-old boy's motive was in shooting the three children and their parents Friday night in the small town of Grantsville west of Salt Lake City. Prosecutors planned to meet with Grantsville police on Wednesday, and charges would be filed sometime after that.
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Jan 22, 2020
(Bloomberg) -- U.S. Supreme Court justices signaled a sharp divide in a Montana case that could make it easier to funnel public money to religious schools and other faith-based organizations.With Chief Justice John Roberts in his customary center seat, the court heard arguments a mere eight hours after he finished presiding over the first day of President Donald Trump's Senate impeachment trial. The trial resumes Wednesday at 1 p.m.The Montana Supreme Court struck down a taxpayer-funded scholarship program that was used primarily to help send children to religious schools, ruling that it violated a state constitutional provision. The ruling is being challenged by three mothers seeking to use money from the program to send their children to a Christian school.Roberts is likely to cast the pivotal vote. His questions suggested he might back the parents and revive the scholarship program, though he directed queries at lawyers on both sides.The chief justice made no mention of his new second job, conducting the hour-long session much as he usually does. He interrupted Justice Sonia Sotomayor during an especially long question to give a lawyer a chance to answer. Roberts later drew a laugh when he recommended that another lawyer answer Justice Stephen Breyer's question despite Breyer's suggestion that the attorney could ignore it.Sotomayor and other liberal justices questioned whether the mothers had any grounds to complain given that the entire program has been thrown out. Justice Elena Kagan said they were "in the same boat" as the parents of children in non-religious private schools."There is no discrimination at this point going on, is there?" she asked.Anti-Catholic BiasThe 2015 scholarship progr
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Jan 22, 2020
The Trump administration is coming out Thursday with new visa restrictions aimed at restricting "birth tourism," in which women travel to the U.S. to give birth so their children can have a coveted U.S. passport. Visa applicants deemed by consular officers to be coming to the U.S. primarily to give birth will now be treated like other foreigners coming to the U.S. for medical treatment, according to State Department guidance sent Wednesday and viewed by The Associated Press. The State Department planned to publicize the rules Thursday, according to two officials with knowledge of the plans who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
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Jan 22, 2020
"Those addressing the Senate should remember where they are," Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts said, admonishing participants in President Trump's impeachment trial to keep it civil.
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Jan 22, 2020
Some social media users praised the tweet while others criticized it as tone-deaf.
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Jan 22, 2020
Fifty-three police officers have been hauled in for questioning over the disappearance of an environmental activist who ran a butterfly sanctuary in Mexico.Homero ?Gómez Gonzalez, 50, was reported missing last week amid fears he had been targeted by criminal gangs and illegal loggers in the central state of Michoacán.
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Jan 22, 2020
Over 1.5 million older Honda, Acura, and Isuzu vehicles have been recalled for dangerous Takata airbags that can cause serious or fatal injuries to vehicle occupants. Recalled vehicles include ce...
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Jan 22, 2020
(Bloomberg) -- Bernie Sanders is not the only Democratic presidential candidate feuding with Hillary Clinton right now.Representative Tulsi Gabbard has sued Clinton for more than $50 million for defamation over an interview in which Clinton said one of the Democratic candidates was "a Russian asset" and "the favorite of the Russians." Gabbard has said Clinton was referring to her.In a lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court Wednesday, Gabbard claims Clinton's statements in an Oct. 17 appearance on the "Campaign HQ With David Plouffe" podcast were false and malicious and that they were "accepted as true by millions of Americans, including large numbers of voters in battleground presidential primary states."In the interview, Clinton did not say which Democratic candidate she meant.Gabbard, who is currently ranked 10th out of 11 Democrats in the Real Clear Politics average of national polls, is seeking $50 million in actual damages plus punitive damages.This post is part of Campaign Update, our live coverage from the 2020 campaign trail.To contact the authors of this story: Ryan Beckwith in Washington at rbeckwith3@bloomberg.netBob Van Voris in New York at rvanvoris@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Max BerleyFor 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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Jan 22, 2020
A group of prominent conservative critics of President Trump released a new ad on Wednesday targeting Sen. Susan Collins, attacking her for voting to block witnesses from testifying in his Senate impeachment trial.
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Jan 22, 2020
A conservative group critical of President Trump released an ad that targets Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins for her votes during the impeachment trial.
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Jan 22, 2020
As well as in mainland China, cases of the coronavirus has been reported in Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, and Thailand.
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Jan 22, 2020
The comments came following Boeing's announcement that the 737 Max will likely not resume flying before mid-2020.
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Jan 22, 2020
A Business Insider photo from a security conference in Paris reveals the device NSO Group sells to its clients to carry out hacks.
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Jan 22, 2020
The billionaire running for the Democratic nomination responded to comments from the president calling him a "major loser."
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Jan 22, 2020
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - "Go outside," French President Emmanuel Macron demanded in English in a melee with Israeli security men on Wednesday, demanding they leave a Jerusalem basilica that he visited before a Holocaust memorial conference. The French tricolor has flown over the Church of St. Anne in Jerusalem's walled Old City since it was gifted by the Ottomans to French Emperor Napoleon III in 1856. France views it as a provocation when Israeli police enter the church's sandstone complex, in a part of Jerusalem captured and annexed by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.
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Jan 22, 2020
An Arkansas judge presiding over Hunter Biden's paternity case has ordered the son of former Vice President Joe Biden to appear before the court on January 29 to explain the state of his finances, after missing a deadline to hand over five years of records.Biden "continues to act as though he has no respect for this court, its orders, the legal process in this state, or the needs of his child for support," wrote Clinton Lancaster, the lawyer for Lunden Alexis Roberts, the mother of Biden's 16-month-old child. Judge Holly Meyer signed an "Order to Appear and Show Cause," which was filed in court on Tuesday.Lancaster explained that Biden had failed to reveal addresses, phone numbers, all sources of income, ownership stakes in companies, property deeds, and tax returns. The original "Motion for Contempt and for Order to Show Cause" was filed on December 23, with Lancaster arguing that Biden had already missed deadlines on December 12 and December 19.Biden's lawyer Brent Langdon has argued in response that "to the extent possible [Biden] has complied with the court's orders" and asked for the motion to be dismissed.Lancaster also told the Arkansas Democrat Gazette that the case had nothing to do with impeachment. Roberts has been seeking $11,000 from Biden to defray cost of her paternity case, after DNA results proved he had fathered her child."I don't believe we have any stake in the impeachment proceedings. We don't have any stake in it whatsoever. We need his income so we can d
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Jan 22, 2020
Thank god the Soviets never deployed it.
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Jan 22, 2020
Hundreds of Central American migrants stranded in Guatemala on Wednesday were weighing limited options as to how to make it into Mexico, guarded by troops with riot shields and immigration agents. The goal of the migrants is to either to live and work in Mexico or continue on toward the United States. To that end, some broke away from their stalled caravan and struck out on their own to cross in small groups at a distance from the Suchiate River border bridge, which forms a chokepoint on the migratory route north from Central America, hoping to avoid patrolling officers.
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Jan 22, 2020
They keep failing to kill their targets. And they leave lots of evidence behind them.
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Jan 22, 2020
The Australian Reptile Park attributes increased activity in funnel-web spiders to recent weather and expected warm air on the way.
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Jan 22, 2020
Nearly 3 million Honda and Acura vehicles are included in this new airbag-inflator recall, which spans the 1996 through 2003 model years.
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Jan 22, 2020
US officials described an ambitious 'funnel' system to make sure every passenger from Wuhan, China, to the US gets screened — no matter their route.
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Jan 22, 2020
DAVOS, Switzerland/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he did not consider the brain injuries suffered by 11 U.S. service members in Iran's recent attack on a base in Iraq to be serious, as the American military moved more troops out of the region for potential injuries. In a statement on Wednesday, U.S. Central Command said that more troops had been flown out of Iraq to Germany for medical evaluations following Iran's Jan. 8 missile attack on the base where U.S. forces were stationed after announcing the 11 injuries last week.
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Jan 22, 2020
Joe Biden sought on Wednesday to ease tensions with Democratic presidential rival Bernie Sanders after the two candidates exchanged several volleys over Social Security and other matters. Biden demurred on "Morning Joe" when asked whether Sanders had "lied" when he and his campaign aides asserted Biden sought to cut Social Security benefits over his decades in public office. Biden also noted that Sanders apologized to him after one of the Vermont senator's top supporters wrote that the former vice president has a "corruption" problem.
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Jan 22, 2020
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, a native of Brooklyn who's one of the House impeachment managers, quoted the legendary rapper in a speech on the Senate floor.
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Jan 22, 2020
Joshua Collins is ditching traditional ads to raise money and find volunteers through TikTok, which other politicians have been slow to adopt.
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Jan 22, 2020
A man who served nearly three decades in prison for a triple killing in Philadelphia in what prosecutors called a "perfect storm" of injustice was freed after a judge threw out his conviction. "Theophalis Wilson, you are free to go," Judge Tracy Brandeis-Roman said Tuesday as extended family and friends who packed the courtroom cried and hugged each other, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. "This is a great day," said Wilson, 48, who served 28 years in prison.
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Jan 22, 2020
Sunni Iraqi leaders who spearheaded a bloody insurgency against the 2003 US-led invasion are now the most nervous about a possible withdrawal of American troops, considered a counterweight to Iran. Tensions between Washington and Tehran have boiled over onto Iraqi soil this month, with the US killing top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad and Iran striking back at an Iraqi base hosting American soldiers. Furious at the US hit, Iraq's parliament held a vote on January 5 to oust all foreign troops, including some 5,200 American soldiers deployed alongside local forces.
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Jan 22, 2020
The U.S. Transportation Department on Wednesday proposed new rules aimed at preventing passengers from falsely claiming their pets are service animals aboard U.S. airline flights. In the biggest change, the department suggests no longer considering an emotional support animal to be a service animal. Federal law allows passengers with disabilities to travel with service animals.
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Jan 22, 2020
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman sent Jeff Bezos a photograph of a woman loosely resembling the one he was having an affair with months before the National Enquirer published a report exposing the liaison, according to a United Nations investigation.Two United Nations special rapporteurs released a statement Wednesday detailing forensic evidence linking MBS to the Bezos hack, which suggests the future king of Saudi Arabia may have been threatening the owner of The Washington Post and founder and CEO of Amazon.Saudi Arabia on Tuesday night denied allegations of a politically motivated hack when it emerged that the UN was expected to formally request a response to the extraordinary claim that malware was sent from MBS' personal WhatsApp account to Bezos.Saudi officials described as close to the crown prince told The Wall Street Journal they knew of a plan to hack Bezos' phone but had no knowledge of any attempts to blackmail him. According to them, Saud al-Qahtani, the Saudi spymaster who handled cybersecurity issues for the Saudi government, was involved in the hack as part of an effort to intimidate columnist Jamal Khashoggi. The alleged hack took place in May 2018, a few months after Khashoggi began writing columns critical of the Saudi regime for the Post. Four months later, Khashoggi was murdered and dismembered inside a Saudi consulate. The CIA concluded that MBS had personally ordered his assassination.Two UN special rapporteurs released a statement Wednesda
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Jan 22, 2020
Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to meet with the mother of an Israeli tourist who was jailed in Russia for carrying a few grams of hashish, the Kremlin said Wednesday. The Russian leader is set to meet with Naama Issachar's mother while he is visiting Israel on Thursday, Putin adviser Yuri Ushakov said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Theophilos III, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of the Holy Land, are also taking part in the meeting that will focus on "the humanitarian aspect" of the case, Ushakov told reporters Wednesday.
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Jan 22, 2020
Authorities in Germany say 85 kilograms (187 pounds) of World War II ammunition have been found on the site where Tesla plans to build its first European factory. Local newspaper Maerkische Oderzeitung quoted officials in Brandenburg on Wednesday as saying they estimate about 25 unexploded bombs could be found at the partially wooded site on the outskirts of Berlin, the German capital. Thousands of unexploded bombs dropped over Nazi Germany by American, British and Russian forces remain undiscovered even 75 years after the end of the war.
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Jan 22, 2020
The phone of Amazon founder and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos was hacked after receiving a file sent from an account used by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, United Nations experts said Wednesday. The two experts called for an "immediate investigation" by the United States into information that suggests that Bezos' phone was likely hacked after he received an MP4 video file sent from the Saudi prince's WhatsApp account in May 2018, after the two exchanged phone numbers at a dinner in California. The file was sent to Bezos' phone five months before Saudi critic and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi was killed by Saudi government agents inside the Saudi consulate in Turkey in October.
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Jan 22, 2020
The cellphone of Amazon founder and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos was hacked in what appeared to be an attempt by Saudi Arabia's crown prince to "influence, if not silence" the newspaper's reporting on the kingdom, two U.N. human rights experts said Wednesday. The U.N. experts called for an "immediate investigation" by the United States into a report commissioned by Bezos that showed the billionaire technology mogul's phone was likely hacked after he received an MP4 video file sent from Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's WhatsApp account after the two men exchanged phone numbers during a dinner in Los Angeles in 2018.
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Jan 22, 2020
Sanders and Warren want to sharply curb the economic power the superrich have amassed in recent decades and use their money to fund new programs.
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Jan 22, 2020
The White House has live-streamed a church service which saw the US vice-president speak and a bishop claim "the devil" causes homosexuality.After Mike Pence addressed the congregation in Tennessee, the preacher took to the pulpit to talk about same-sex relations in a sermon still available on the administration's Youtube channel.
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Jan 22, 2020
After more than 12 hours of debate that bled into early Wednesday morning, the Senate passed Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's proposed rules for the impeachment trial against President Trump.Senators voted 53-to-47 along party lines just before 2a.m. to pass McConnell's rules resolution, which delays a vote on whether witnesses will be called until after opening arguments are heard.Under McConnell's rules, the House impeachment managers are allotted 24 hours over three days to argue the Democrats' case that the president is guilty of abuse of power and obstruction of justice and should be removed from office. The White House legal team will be afforded the same amount of time to defend the president.After that, senators have 16 hours to submit questions to both sides before settling the question of whether to call witnesses or subpoena documents.The vote came after Republicans voted to reject several amendments from Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to subpoena more evidence and call witnesses to testify.The debate grew heated around midnight, when Democratic impeachment manager Jerry Nadler suggested that if Republicans rejected one of Schumer's amendments to subpoena former National Security Adviser John Bolton, they would be guilty of a "treacherous vote" and a "cover-up.""This is the United States Senate. You're not in charge here," White House counsel Pat Cipollone shot back. "It's about time we bring this power trip in for a landing."Supreme Court Chief Justice J
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Jan 22, 2020
Additional U.S. troops have been flown out of Iraq for closer evaluation of potential concussion injuries from the Iranian missile attack of Jan. 8, U.S. defense officials said Tuesday.
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Jan 22, 2020
(Bloomberg) -- President Vladimir Putin is to meet in Jerusalem with the mother of an Israeli woman imprisoned in Russia on drug-smuggling charges, the Kremlin said, amid reports Russian authorities are preparing to free her.Putin, who'll be a guest of honor Thursday at a ceremony marking the 75th anniversary of the Soviet Red Army's liberation of the Nazi Auschwitz death camp, spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by phone last week about 26-year-old Naama Issachar. Netanyahu said after the call that he was optimistic about securing her freedom.Issachar was sentenced to 7 1/2 years in a Russian prison in October for carrying a small amount of hashish on a transit flight via Moscow. Her mother, Yaffa, asked Putin in November to pardon her daughter in a letter handed to him by Theophilos III, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem. The plight of the U.S.-born Israeli army veteran, who was detained in April, has become a cause celebre in Israel, where she's widely regarded as a pawn in a political game.Putin will meet Yaffa Issachar together with Netanyahu and the patriarch, Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters in Moscow on Wednesday. While Ushakov wouldn't confirm that a release is planned, he said the president's right to pardon a convicted person is "an important prerogative."Property DisputeIn another sign of a possible resolution, Ushakov said Russia and Israel are making progress in settling a dispute over the ownership of Russian Orthodox Church property in Jerusalem. Israel's Haaretz newspaper said resolving the issue could form part of a quid pro quo with Putin for the release of Issachar.Putin will speak at the anniversary ceremony, though
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Jan 22, 2020
The new documents undermine a pillar of Trump's impeachment defense — his claim that he didn't withhold Ukraine aid to pressure Ukraine.
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Jan 22, 2020
The new documents undermine a pillar of Trump's impeachment defense — his claim that he didn't withhold Ukraine aid to pressure Ukraine.
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Jan 22, 2020
A Kosovo court jailed eight men on Wednesday for the attempted murder of a former politician and plotting to kill the Balkan country's president and prime minister in 2017. The eight received jail terms ranging from two to 12 years and were part of an organization known as People's Eye which President Hashim Thaci and the court have described as a terrorist organization. One of the eight, Murat Jashari, received a 10-year sentence for shooting at and wounding former politician and prominent lawyer Azem Vllasi on the doorstep of his house in March 2017.
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Jan 22, 2020
An American journalist is facing up to five years in an Indonesian jail and a fine on charges of violating immigration regulations, a lawyer and officials said Wednesday. Philip Jacobson of California was detained Tuesday in Palangkaraya city on Borneo island. The government has promised to ease visa restrictions for international media since President Joko Widodo took office in 2014.
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Jan 22, 2020
(Bloomberg) -- Want the lowdown on European markets? In your inbox before the open, every day. Sign up here.The European Union will advise member states to consider banning some suppliers from parts of their 5G networks, in a policy document that may give them more scope to restrict the activities of China's Huawei Technologies Co.The proposal is part of a so-called "toolbox" of measures seen by Bloomberg, to help national governments mitigate risks arising from 5G mobile technology. The recommendations will help coordinate the policies of member states to reduce the likelihood of espionage and sabotage.While the measures don't explicitly mention China, they will help EU governments decide whether to limit the access of Huawei and other Chinese vendors to 5G as phone companies accelerate investment in the technology.Member states will act following risk assessments that take into account criteria outlined in a previous report, such as the "democratic checks and balances" in the home country of the supplier, according to the proposals.The document is due to be unveiled by senior EU officials next Wednesday. The proposals also include bolstering the role of national authorities, audits of telecom operators and measures to ensure diversity of suppliers for any single telecommunications company.5G promises to fix data bottlenecks in busy areas and open up more sophisticated mobile applications such as augmented reality gaming and mapping. The technology will also be used to connect factories, transportation systems and crit
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Jan 22, 2020
A judge refused to overturn part of Utah's lewdness law Tuesday in a blow to a woman who's fighting criminal charges after her stepchildren saw her topless in her own home.
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Jan 22, 2020
In the wake of the U.S. killing of General Qasem Soleimani of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Iran is scrambling to figure out how to respond to President Trump. Throughout 2019, Iran ratcheted up threats and tensions, targeting oil tankers in the Gulf, Saudi Arabia, and U.S. troops in Iraq via proxies, testing Washington's response. The decision to kill Soleimani, who arrived at Baghdad International Airport without any apparent suspicion of his impending death, threw down a gauntlet to Tehran that left the Ayatollah and the IRGC grasping for response options. This is a lesson to be learned from the recent Iran tensions: The U.S. can strike back at Iran and its allies without a major war resulting, so long as Iran is surprised or confused by the U.S. response.Iran, in response, fired ballistic missiles at two U.S. bases in Iraq because it didn't know what else to do. Ballistic missiles enabled Iran to strike without risking its own casualties and to showcase a technology that it has and that the U.S. lacked defenses against in Iraq. But the strike was limited in scope, and Iran hoped that at worst the U.S. would respond with cruise missiles or some similar kind of missile strike. How do we know this? Iran didn't put its whole country on a war footing when it fired the missiles. It did down a civilian Ukrainian Airlines flight by mistake, showing that it expected some kind of aerial retaliation.Iran tries to project an image of itself as massively powerful and cunning, sending its constantly smiling foreign minister, Javad
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Jan 22, 2020
The Senate impeachment trial of Donald Trump began in acrimonious fashion on Tuesday, with the Republican-dominated chamber voting down 11 Democratic proposals for amendments to the rules, including the rejection of subpoenas for ex-national security adviser John Bolton and White House acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney to give testimony on the Ukraine scandal.Democratic impeachment managers Adam Schiff and Jerrold Nadler complained the marathon process was "ass-backwards" and accused Republicans of "voting for a cover-up", observing: "Only guilty people hide the evidence."
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Jan 22, 2020
Here's what they can do.
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Jan 22, 2020
The rhetoric between candidates has gotten heated as the Iowa caucuses approach. But there's no need for aggressionA weekend blizzard and a sub-zero deep freeze helped cool tempers that were reaching boiling point among Democrats. Chill, everyone. Whoever wins the nomination will beat Trump across the struggling midwest.The Sanders crowd suggested Warren was an elitist. Warren elbowed back with a gender argument. Sanders attacked Biden over social security; Biden countered that he was lying. The snake emojis are out. Old resentments over issues that can't even be recalled are fed.The result of it all? Nobody knows.JD Scholten, running for US congress in Iowa, was in Ames on Saturday when the temperature was -4F. Hundreds came out for the Story County Democrats' soup supper in the hometown of Iowa State University, a key territory. He asked how many were undecided. Half raised their hands.A poll one week shows Sanders on top in Iowa. A week later, another poll finds Biden leading, with Amy Klobuchar in the double digits.Warren, Sanders and Klobuchar are confined to the Senate with two weekends left to campaign ahead of the 3 February caucuses. In their absence, Pete Buttigieg is everywhere all at once, working like a beaver.Any one of them can beat Trump. The president knows it. That's why he sent his daughter-in-law Lara Trump to Iowa to make fun of Biden's stuttering, which endeared him even more to Iowans. Vice-President Mike Pence was dispatched to Iowa this week to shore up the evangelical vote for this phi
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Jan 22, 2020
The outcome of the Senate's impeachment trial of President Trump is not in doubt. The president is going to be acquitted, most likely by a party-line vote.There's not even a lot of suspense about how the trial will be conducted. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) can rail all he wants about the unfairness of the rules, as he did on Tuesday. Rep. Adam Schiff of (D-Calif.) can declare, as he also did (somewhat absurdly) on the opening day of the Senate trial, that procedural votes about whether to call witnesses and subpoena documents are more important than the eventual vote about whether, for the first time in American history, the Senate will convict and remove a president from office. But the outcome has been clear from the beginning.Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is running the show, he's a rabidly partisan Republican, and he's a master of using the upper chamber's arcane rules, procedures, and history to achieve the outcomes he wants. McConnell wanted decisions about witnesses and supporting documents to be tabled until after the lengthy opening statements that will take up much of the next week, and that's exactly what he's gotten. When the Senate returns to the subject, how likely is it that the outcome will be different? Barring some earthshaking revelation in the House managers' opening statement, not very.But then what exactly are we doing? Is the entire impeachment a Kabuki show where each side pantomimes outrage, gestures at existential threats to the republic
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Jan 22, 2020
If politics is just warfare by other means, both Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer have decided to drag out the heavy artillery in advance of the Senate impeachment trial of President Trump.The Senate majority leader's rules proposal passed, thanks to the simple majority required, which itself is part of a pitted landscape in the upper chamber after nearly 20 years of partisan one-upmanship. That proposal will govern a process that might be more about settling scores with the House and with the Senate Democratic minority than it has to do with Trump or his handling of Ukraine aid.One has to wonder just how much of this will have to do with the case against the president at all. It's just as questionable, after three years of impeachment demands from and to House Democrats, how much the push to impeach Trump has to do with a delay in aid to Ukraine. We have spent the last 20-plus years coming to an inevitable war between Republicans and Democrats in the Beltway, one that will determine whether the institutions matter more than party affiliation.To grasp this, one needs to walk backward to 1999. Earlier this month, McConnell refused to sit down with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi or disclose his rules proposal to her before she sent over the articles of Trump's impeachment, claiming the House Democratic majority was trying to unduly influence Senate operations. During the three-week standoff, McConnell repeatedly said that he would use the rules package from Bill Clinton's 1999 im
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Jan 22, 2020
Both sides need to 'remember where they are,' the Supreme Court head said.
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Jan 22, 2020
Iran said on Wednesday that Tehran and its regional rival Saudi Arabia should work together to overcome problems, the state news agency IRNA quoted Iranian president's chief of staff Mahmoud Vaezi as saying. "The relations between Iran and its neighbor Saudi Arabia should not become like the relationship between Tehran and the United States ... Tehran and Riyadh should work together to resolve their problems," Vaezi said.
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Jan 22, 2020
Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) have teamed up to work on drafting potential contours for negotiations with Tehran over the country's nuclear programming and a roadmap for a new deal, according to Graham and two other congressional aides familiar with the matter."I've been working with Senator Menendez on this for some time," Graham told The Daily Beast in an interview last week. "We need a new way forward. And I've been trying to think of alternatives."Graham told The Daily Beast in an interview in August that he was working with senior Trump administration officials on an alternative to the Obama-era Iran nuclear deal. Part of that effort included fielding ideas from outside actors, including foreign officials. Since then, Graham has met with Menendez—although only a few times—on how to kickstart a bipartisan congressional effort to reform the administration's Iran policy.According to sources individuals familiar with the Graham-Menendez partnership, the two senators have largely talked about constructing an actionable plan to present to other lawmakers and to the White House. But the two sides have yet to agree on exactly how to get the ball rolling, according to those sources. One individual said Menendez wanted to work with Graham because the South Carolina lawmaker had gained the president's ear on Iran over the last year.Although the duo has spoken about teaming up for some time, sources say the lawmakers are focused now more than ever on crafting a new deal following the killing of Iran's t
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Jan 22, 2020
Barry Goldwater had the power to tell Nixon it was all over. But don't expect a repeat this time.
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Jan 22, 2020
The food market where China's deadly virus surfaced was a smorgasbord of exotic wildlife ranging from wolf pups to species linked to previous pandemics such as civets, according to vendor information and a Chinese media report. The Huanan Seafood Market in the central city of Wuhan came under greater scrutiny on Wednesday as Chinese officials said that the virus which has so far killed nine people and infected hundreds may have originated in a wild animal sold at the food emporium. Past deadly epidemics have been blamed on wild animals -- Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) was linked to Chinese consumption of civet meat -- setting Chinese authorities up for potential embarrassment if lax supervision of wildlife trafficking is found at fault in the latest outbreak.
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Jan 22, 2020
The emergence of a deadly new virus in China has ignited fresh anger in neighbouring Taiwan about how the island has been squeezed out of international bodies, including the World Health Organization. Modern Taiwan has been a de facto sovereign nation for the last seven decades and has emerged as one of Asia's most progressive democracies. Taiwan has been denied access to the World Health Assembly (WHA) -- the WHO's main meeting -- since 2017 under pressure from Beijing which loathes the island's current president Tsai Ing-wen, who won a landslide second term earlier this month.
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Jan 22, 2020
Masked gunmen on Wednesday ambushed and killed the local commander of a paramilitary security force in southwestern Iran, an associate of Iran's top general recently killed in an American drone strike in Baghdad, the official IRNA news agency reported. The slain commander, Abdolhossein Mojaddami, headed the Basij forces, a paramilitary wing of the Revolutionary Guard used for internal security and other tasks, in the town of Darkhoein.
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Jan 22, 2020
Let's take a look.
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Jan 22, 2020
Wuhan, China, TIME was repeatedly threatened with arrest while observing scenes outside the market where the virus was first detected.
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Jan 22, 2020
(Bloomberg) -- Terms of Trade is a daily newsletter that untangles a world embroiled in trade wars. Sign up here. Malaysia is unlikely to suffer any loss in its palm oil business from China, despite Beijing pledging to boost soybean purchases from the U.S. amid the trade war, according to the Southeast Asian nation's trade chief."I don't think so," Malaysia's Minister of International Trade and Industry Darell Leiking said Wednesday in a Bloomberg Television interview with Haslinda Amin at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, when asked about the impact on its critical palm oil exports."China and Malaysia have had a long relationship," and Kuala Lumpur has offered diplomatic and economic help to Beijing amid "challenges" with the U.S., he said. "The Chinese have continued to be a good friend."The initial U.S.-China trade deal signed last week has a potential downside for Malaysia, as it's expected to depress palm oil prices. China has sought to reassure other trading partners that things will remain business as usual even as the government pledged, under that agreement with the U.S., to significantly increase purchases of American soybeans.Friction between the U.S. and China isn't the only trade spat impacting Malaysia, as it grapples with India's move to reduce imports of Malaysian palm oil. That means $1.4 billion of processed palm products may need to find new buyers, said Khor Yu Leng, an independent economist with Segi Enam Advisors.Leiking aimed to damp worries around the India-Malaysia spat, saying the two governments are engaged on the issue and that Malaysia hasn't been singled out by India, an "important partner" of theirs.Pockets of the Malaysian economy have ben
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Jan 22, 2020
After a marathon debate session that began on Tuesday afternoon and ended early Wednesday morning, the Senate approved the ground rules for President Trump's impeachment trial.The vote was 53 to 47, along party lines. Under Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's (R-Ky.) resolution, House impeachment managers and Trump's legal team will both have up to 24 hours over three days to argue their cases. Senators will have 16 hours to ask questions, and then they will revisit the matter of calling witnesses and subpoenating other evidence in the trial.Before the final vote, the Senate rejected along party lines several Democratic amendments proposed by Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), including subpoenaing former National Security Adviser John Bolton and Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney. The Senate is now adjourned until 1 p.m. ET.More stories from theweek.com Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow says he'd advise the president not to attend his impeachment trial Several senators left the chamber in the middle of Adam Schiff's impeachment remarks The White House is arguing the impeachment articles don't include allegations of a quid pro quo because the exact words don't appear
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Jan 22, 2020
India's top court on Wednesday began hearing dozens of petitions seeking the revocation of amendments to the citizenship law following nationwide protests and a security crackdown that led to more than 20 deaths. The Supreme Court would not grant a stay before hearing from the government, which has argued the law is a humanitarian gesture allowing citizenship for people fleeing religious persecution in Muslim-majority Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. Chief Justice Sharad Arvind Bobde, the head of a three-judge panel, told the courtroom he will make a decision in four weeks after the government has replied to all of the petitions.
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Jan 22, 2020
During debate Tuesday evening over the rules of President Trump's impeachment trial, Trump's personal lawyer Jay Sekulow had a confusing rant about the Democratic House impeachment managers and "lawyer lawsuits.""And by the way — lawyer lawsuits?" Sekulow asked. "Lawyer lawsuits? We're talking about the impeachment of a president of the United States, duly elected, and the members — the managers are complaining about lawyer lawsuits? The Constitution allows lawyer lawsuits. It's disrespecting the Constitution of the United States to even say that in this chamber — lawyer lawsuits." He was met with blank looks from the impeachment managers, and lead manager Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), in his rebuttal, said he had no idea what Sekulow was talking about.Schiff wasn't the only one confused, but Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and other observers suggested that Sekulow had just misheard House impeachment manager Val Demings (D-Fla.) discussing FOIA lawsuits a few minutes earlier. Trump's layers suggest that "this House should have sought these materials in court, or awaited further lawsuits under the Freedom of Information Act, a.k.a. FOIA lawsuits," she said. "Any such suggestion is meritless."Despite the simple elegance of this explanation, the White House said no, "lawyer lawsuits" are a thing and Sekulow meant what he said. Ueland came back to the press pen and said Sekulow did not mistakenly refer to a phrase from Rep. Val Demings, an im
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Jan 22, 2020
Hong Kong's government is on high alert to deal with a new flu-like coronavirus that has killed nine people in mainland China, the city's commerce secretary, Edward Yau, said on Wednesday. The outbreak has rattled financial markets as investors recall the huge impact of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which killed nearly 800 people globally during a 2002/03 outbreak that also started in China. Yau is part of a delegation on a mission to the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos to convince global business and political leaders that the Asian financial hub is back on track after more than seven months of protests, even as it faces a potentially more damaging crisis.
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Jan 22, 2020
A former Department of Veterans Affairs employee has been sentenced to six months in prison for leaking the medical records of Richard Ojeda as the former Army major was running for Congress in West Virginia. Jeffrey Miller of Huntington was sentenced Tuesday in federal court. Miller, 40, had pleaded guilty to accessing the medical records of six veterans when he was working for the VA's benefits administration.
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