World News 360: 2019

Greyhound offers free bus tickets to runaways who want to go home CBS NewsView full coverage on Google News

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Protesters burn security post at U.S. Embassy in Iraq in new foreign policy test for Trump

Protesters angry about U.S. air strikes on Iraq hurled stones and torched a security post at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad on Tuesday, setting off a confrontation with guards and posing a new challenge for U.S. President Donald Trump.

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U.S. Taking Democracy for Granted, Chief Justice Roberts Says

(Bloomberg) -- The U.S. has “come to take democracy for granted,” Chief Justice John Roberts said, urging his fellow judges to keep educating the public about the workings of the federal government and the Constitution.Roberts, who is slated to oversee the Senate‘s impeachment trial of President Donald Trump in the coming weeks, used his year-end report Tuesday to laud the federal judiciary’s work on civic education, while issuing a thinly veiled warning about the fragility of American democracy in a fractious time.“We have come to take democracy for granted, and civic education has fallen by the wayside,” Roberts wrote. “In our age, when social media can instantly spread rumor and false information on a grand scale, the public’s need to understand our government, and the protections it provides, is ever more vital.”Roberts described a 1788 riot that incapacitated John Jay while he was working with Alexander Hamilton and James Madison on the Federalist Papers, a series of articles published to promote the ratification of the Constitution. Jay was hit in the head with a rock while trying to quell the riot, which was sparked by a rumor that medical students were dissecting the body of a recently deceased woman. Jay later became the first U.S. chief justice.“It is sadly ironic that John Jay’s efforts to educate his fellow citizens about the framers’ plan of government fell victim to a rock thrown by a rioter motivated by a rumor,” Roberts wrote.Roberts has become the nation’s leading champion of judicial independence since being appointed to the Supreme Court by President George W. Bush in 2005. In his new report, the chief justice called the judiciary “a source of national unity and stability” but added a cautionary note.“We should also remember that justice is not inevitable,” Roberts wrote in a passage directed at his judicial colleagues. “We should reflect on our duty to judge without fear or favor, deciding each matter with humility, integrity, and dispatch.”Roberts, 64, is in the middle of a challenging Supreme Court term that includes cases on LGBTQ discrimination, abortion and gun rights. In late March or early April the court will hear arguments on Trump’s effort to prevent his financial information from being turned over to Congress and a New York grand jury.Roberts released the report three days after his mother, Rosemary A. Roberts, died at age 90. Her obituary said she was surrounded by her family when she passed away.To contact the reporter on this story: Greg Stohr in Washington at gstohr@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Joe Sobczyk at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net, Laurie Asséo, Anna EdgertonFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

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A former Royal Caribbean worker reveals the one question you should always ask cruise ship employees

If you're ever on a cruise, you should ask the ship's employees where to go at ports, a former Royal Caribbean employee told Business Insider.

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AP Explains: Who are Iraq's Iran-backed militias?

Iran emerged as a major power broker in Iraq after the American invasion in 2003, supporting Shiite Islamist parties and militias that have dominated the country ever since. Worries are increasing that the militias could drag Iraq into the growing proxy war between the U.S. and Iran in the Middle East. The United States and its ally, Israel, are targeting pro-Iranian militias across Lebanon, Syria and Iraq with economic sanctions and airstrikes hitting their bases and other infrastructure.

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West Virginia's governor just fired an entire group of prison guard trainees after they posed with Nazi salutes in a class photo

The investigation said multiple cadets were uncomfortable or confused by the salutes, but that their peers and instructor encouraged them to use it.

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Juul employees are vaping at their desks even after the company threatened to dock bonuses for e-cigarette use, report says

In September, Juul said it would dock bonuses on second and third offenses and may terminate employees over a fourth offense.

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Russia Was Almost A France And British Enemy At The Onset Of World War II

Would Hitler have won?

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Boy sets lawn on fire with magnifying glass, mother says

"...It will now be a Christmas to remember! 2019- The Christmas the lawn lit on fire," the boy's mother wrote on Facebook.

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Iraq riots expose an America weaker and with fewer options

Mobbing of US embassy after US strikes on state-sanctioned militia show America’s plan of maximum pressure only added to chaosThe mobbing of a US embassy has historically served as an emblem of America in decline, so the scenes around the embattled mission in Baghdad are a fitting end to the decade.Tuesday’s events are not quite as decisive as the 1975 helicopter evacuation of the embassy in Saigon, or the seizure of the Tehran embassy four years later. Iraqi forces did turn up eventually to protect the Baghdad mission. It turned out the ambassador was on holiday anyway, so he did not have to endure the humiliation of a rooftop escape. But the demonstration of US weakness, after spending $2tn in Iraq, was plain for all to see.The rioters, organised by the Iranian proxy militia Kata’ib Hezbollah (KH), brushed past Iraqi checkpoints, and there were members of parliament from the government bloc among them. Security forces who have had no compunction about firing tear gas canisters into the skulls of anti-Iranian protesters on Tahrir Square, stood by and watched molotov cocktails thrown at the US embassy. In its public pronouncements, the Iraqis put more blame on Washington than Tehran.For Iran, the embassy riot was the latest move in a deliberate strategy, to raise the costs of the US presence in Iraq and drive a wedge between the Iraqi government and Washington.The competition between the US and Iran for influence in Iraq would have escalated anyway as the threat from Isis declined. But the US effort to destroy Iran economically through its campaign of maximum pressure has meant the Iranians have nothing to lose.“The Iranians have been very, very methodical over the past six months about their responses to the maximum pressure campaign. And unfortunately, it is not really met any counter-response,” said Barbara Leaf, former US ambassador to the United Arab Emirates. “The question is: while Iran has a very methodical approach to upping the ante, do they at some point trip across a red line that they don’t even know exists?”It was inevitable that the repeated attacks by KH on Iraqi bases hosting US troops would eventually lead to American casualties, as happened on Friday near Kirkuk, triggering US retaliatory airstrikes on KH camps in Iraq as well as Syria.Ariane Tabatabai, a political analyst at the Rand Corporation, said: “The US was sort of stuck between a rock and a hard place, because on the one hand, if it did not respond to this latest attack, considering that a US citizen was killed, it would have sent a pretty strong signal that the red line that it had laid out about US casualties didn’t mean anything.”By highlighting the Iraqi government’s impotence on its own territory, the retaliation diverted public dissatisfaction with the heavy-handed Iranian presence in Iraq, to the desire to be rid of the imperious Americans. The US comes out of this tit-for-tat round weaker and with fewer options.It is not clear whether the US has a plan for what happens now. The campaign of maximum pressure was supposed to force Iran to accept a worse deal than the 2015 multilateral nuclear agreement on which Donald Trump walked out in 2018. The oil and banking embargo on Iran have been highly effective in damaging the Iranian economy, but have failed to make Iran bow to US demands for Tehran to give up its military stake in Middle East conflicts and its enrichment of uranium.Instead, Iran has hit back against tanker traffic in the Persian Gulf, and Saudi oil facilities, while ratcheting up pressure on the US military presence in Iraq.US officials have talked in recent days about “restoring deterrence” against such moves with air strikes against KH targets, and have warned they are ready to escalate by taking the fight into Iranian territory.US deterrence however is undermined by having given Iran so little to lose, and by the vacillation of the president, who is entering an election year claiming he has extricated the country from costly foreign wars, while simultaneously wanting to appear tough in the standoff with Iran.“To those many millions of people in Iraq who want freedom and who don’t want to be dominated and controlled by Iran, this is your time!” Trump tweeted on Tuesday, but he sent the tweet while on his way to his golf course in Palm Beach.He was convinced that maximum pressure would bring Iran to the negotiating table as a supplicant, but instead it has added to the chaos.No one – almost certainly not even Trump – knows how he is going to respond.

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Mexico arrests seven suspects in Mormon family massacre

Mexican authorities have arrested seven suspects in connection with last month's massacre of nine Mormon women and children in the country's north, the attorney general's office said. A local police chief suspected of links to organized crime was among those taken into custody, according to local media. The victims -- six of them children -- had dual US-Mexican nationality and were shot dead on a rural road in a lawless region known for turf wars between drug cartels fighting over lucrative trafficking routes to the United States.

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In Leaked Memo, Andrew Yang Asks DNC for More Debate Polls

Andrew Yang is urging the Democratic National Committee to take an unorthodox step in its debate oversight process: commission more polling over the next several days. In a letter sent to DNC Chairman Tom Perez on Dec. 21, obtained by The Daily Beast, the Democratic contender calls for the DNC to commission four early-state polls before Jan. 10 as part of an effort to encourage more diversity on the debate stage in Iowa. “With the upcoming holidays and meager number of polls currently out in the field, a diverse set of candidates might be absent from the stage in Des Moines for reasons out of anyone’s control,” Yang wrote. “This is a troubling prospect for our party. Regardless of the DNC’s best intentions, voters would cry foul and could even make unfounded claims of bias and prejudice.”Yang, who qualified for the first six debates but has yet to reach the polling threshold for the seventh, was the only candidate of color on stage at the recent Los Angeles event. Andrew Yang Goes Mainstream in New Million-Dollar Ad CampaignSo far, the five candidates who have qualified for the CNN-hosted Jan. 14 event at Drake University—former Vice President Joe Biden, Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), and South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg—are all white.Yang has met the individual donor requirement and one qualifying poll, but has three left before he can clear the criteria, and believes commissioning more qualifying polls would be a “simple solution.” Yang, an entrepreneur who’s had flashes of momentum throughout the Democatic primary in some early states, contends the biggest barrier to allowing “a diverse set of candidates” to debate at the next event is the lack of recent qualifying polls that meet the committee’s specifications.It’s been over a month since a poll in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, or South Carolina has been taken, the letter contends, which would not take into account any potential polling bumps from candidates’ recent performances at the sixth debate earlier this month. “As you know, big shifts can happen within short periods in this race, as we’ve already witnessed multiple times,” Yang wrote.Democrats Must Not Have an All-White Debate—and the White Candidates Should Say SoMore polls, “would provide an accurate snapshot of the current state of the race and where voters’ hearts and minds are, thus getting ahead of an imminent problem,” he wrote. A DNC official pointed to 26 total qualifying polls for the December debate. For the January event, the qualifying window was one week longer, in part to account for holidays, the official said. “The DNC has been more than inclusive throughout this entire process with an expansive list of qualifying polls, including 26 polls for the December debate, more than half of which were state polls,” the official told The Daily Beast. “The DNC will not sponsor its own debate-qualifying polls of presidential candidates during a primary. This would break with the long standing practice of both parties using independent polling for debate qualification, and it would be an inappropriate use of DNC resources that should be directed at beating Donald Trump.”The correspondence is the first time Yang has written Perez. A senior campaign official said the team has not heard back from the chairman directly, but did receive an acknowledgement that it was received from DNC staff. “Andrew Yang has managed to create a broad coalition for the future of our country and we, as a party, need to keep bringing more people into the fold instead of trying to keep people out of the political process,” a senior Yang campaign official said, noting that the team now has nearly 400,000 donors and 1 million contributions, figures first shared with The Daily Beast. Yang’s campaign expects to raise at least $12.5 million in the fourth quarter, 25 percent more money than in the previous one, his campaign said. Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

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Bosnia indicts Serb army general over Srebrenica genocide

A Bosnian war crimes prosecutor on Tuesday indicted a Bosnian Serb former army general for taking part in the 1995 massacre of about 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica, an atrocity described as genocide by two international courts. Milomir Savcic, 60, is accused of commanding the Bosnian Serb Army headquarters 65 Protection Motorised Regiment, which included a military police battalion, to capture, kill and bury adult Muslim Bosniaks from the U.N.-protected eastern enclave of Srebrenica in July 1995. Bosnian Serb forces led by General Ratko Mladic attacked Srebrenica on July 11, 1995, separated men from women and children, and killed about 8,000 Muslims, who were then buried in mass graves.

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Monday, 30 December 2019

PHOTOS: Rare thunderstorm with hail moves through western Massachusetts - WWLP.com

PHOTOS: Rare thunderstorm with hail moves through western Massachusetts WWLP.com

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Ancient basilica under Rome's Termini train station features fully restored stucco artwork - CBS News

Ancient basilica under Rome's Termini train station features fully restored stucco artwork CBS News

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Somali Terror Group Al Shabab Remains Resilient Despite Setbacks - The New York Times

Somali Terror Group Al Shabab Remains Resilient Despite Setbacks The New York TimesView full coverage on Google News

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‘You don’t have to be a citizen.’ Pastor hosting Trump pledges safety for undocumented - Miami Herald

‘You don’t have to be a citizen.’ Pastor hosting Trump pledges safety for undocumented Miami HeraldView full coverage on Google News

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Support pours in for civil rights pioneer battling stage 4 pancreatic cancer l ABC News - ABC News

Support pours in for civil rights pioneer battling stage 4 pancreatic cancer l ABC News ABC NewsView full coverage on Google News

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British politics in 2019: The year Brexit was won - Fox News

British politics in 2019: The year Brexit was won Fox NewsView full coverage on Google News

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How cells learn to 'count' - Phys.org

How cells learn to 'count' Phys.org
How Cells Learn to ‘Count’ – Solving the Mysteries of Multicilliated Cells SciTechDaily
How cells learn to 'count' EurekAlert
View full coverage on Google News

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National living wage to rise by 6.2% in April

The government says it will boost pay by more than four times the rate of inflation.

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Record sightings of whales, dolphins and seals in UK, says Wildlife Trusts

More than 800 sightings of whales, dolphins and seals have been logged in British waters this year.

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‘Unprecedented Run-Up’ in Stocks Pauses With S&P 500 Overbought - Bloomberg

‘Unprecedented Run-Up’ in Stocks Pauses With S&P 500 Overbought BloombergView full coverage on Google News

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The average American starts saving for retirement at this age - USA TODAY

The average American starts saving for retirement at this age USA TODAYView full coverage on Google News

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NIO’s new SUV can’t save the company from its current problems - The Verge

NIO’s new SUV can’t save the company from its current problems The VergeView full coverage on Google News

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Here's who will be onstage for the January Democratic presidential debate in Iowa and how to watch it

CNN and the Des Moines Register will co-host the seventh Democratic presidential debate in Des Moines three weeks before the Iowa caucuses.

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Cyprus court finds British woman guilty of false rape claim

A court in Cyprus on Monday found a British woman guilty of falsely claiming she was gang-raped by a group of Israeli tourists in the holiday resort of Ayia Napa. "The statements you have given were false," the judge told the defendant in remarks translated by the court interpreter. The Israelis, aged 15 to 18, were released without charge the same month after the woman was arrested on suspicion of making a false statement.

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Ex-Nissan boss Ghosn, facing Japan trial, arrives in Beirut

Former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn, who is awaiting trial in Japan on charges of financial misconduct, has arrived in Beirut, a close friend said Monday. It was not clear how Ghosn, who is of Lebanese origins and holds French and Lebanese passports, left Japan where he was under surveillance and is expected to face trial in April 2020. Ricardo Karam, a television host and friend of Ghosn who interviewed him several times, told The Associated Press Ghosn arrived in Lebanon Monday morning..

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Hasan Minhaj’s 2020 Advice: Be Like Mitch McConnell

Before signing off for 2019, Hasan Minhaj has turned his eye towards 2020. The host of Netflix’s Patriot Act ended his final episode of the year by sharing some updates from stories he covered earlier in the year, including an interview during which he tried to get Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to accept Islam as his “one true faith.” Two weeks later, his brownface scandal erupted. “Little did I know he had actually converted decades ago,” Minhaj joked. The biggest problem of 2019, he went on to argue, is that “we’re exposed to all the news, all the time, which makes us feel like we have to care about everything all the time.” It’s called “compassion fatigue” and Minhaj compared it to feeling like you have “50 tabs open in our mental browsers and we’re about to crash.” “You know who really figured out 2019?” he asked, before adding, “You’re not going to like this.” He was talking about Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. “We’ve shat on Mitch McConnell all year. ‘He’s a goblin, he’s a skin tag with glasses, he looks like something from a wax museum dumpster.’ He doesn’t give a fuck.” To extend Minhaj’s analogy, McConnell “closed all tabs, except for the Republican Party and locking down the courts.” And he thinks those on the other side of the political divide should do the same.Hasan Minhaj Fires Back at Saudi Arabia for Censoring His Netflix Show ‘Patriot Act’“So here’s what I’m pitching,” he continued. “For 2020, give yourself a break. Just pick a couple things to not care about, for your sanity. I’m not saying shut down your browser. Just close a couple tabs.” For himself, Minhaj has decided to let other people worry about plastic straws, North Korea and brownface. “I know, that’s supposed to be my issue,” he said. “But I’ve got other tabs to focus on. So if someone comes up to me and is like, ‘Did you hear? Joe Biden dressed up as Apu for Halloween!’ I’d be like, ‘Yo, I bet the accent was funny.’” Minhaj acknowledged that it was “weird” to hear this advice from a host—much like his fellow Daily Show alum John Oliver—who “tells you to care about something new every week.” And he promised to keep doing so in 2020, something that was an open question before Patriot Act aired the 32nd episode of its initial 32-episode order this past week. “I’ll see you guys in 2020,” he concluded. “We’ve got a few more tabs to open.” For more, listen to the most recent episodes of The Last Laugh podcast. Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

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Iraq Resumes Oil Output at Field Halted by Protesters

(Bloomberg) -- Iraq resumed pumping at the Nasiriya oil field a day after protesters forced it to halt operations, the government said, as widespread unrest starts to take a toll on the country’s most important industry.Employees returned to work at the field in southern Iraq after authorities cleared away protesters who had cut roads to the area, Oil Ministry spokesman Asim Jihad said Monday in a statement. OPEC’s second-biggest producer maintained its overall output level during the halt by pumping more oil at its Basra fields to offset the loss of about 80,000 to 85,000 barrels a day from Nasiriya, Jihad said earlier.Nasiriya’s oil refinery, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) from the field, also restarted after shutting down on Sunday when about 700 protesters blocked worker access to the plant, according to a person familiar with the operations. The refinery in the southern province of Thiqar processes crude into gasoline, fuel oil and kerosene sold mostly in the province. All three of its units are back on line, the person said, asking not to be identified due to the matter’s sensitivity.Protesters -- most of them unemployed and some of them recent graduates -- have rallied repeatedly over the past two months near southern oil fields and refineries, though Nasiriya was the first field to be closed due to the disturbances. Iraq is the largest producer, after Saudi Arabia, in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. It pumps most its oil at deposits in the south, exporting cargoes by sea through the Persian Gulf.Iraq’s oil production is in line with limits set by OPEC and the group’s global allies, Jihad said. The so-called OPEC+ coalition has decided to reduce its collective output until the end of March in an effort to balance the market and prop up crude prices.Around 500 people have died and more than 22,000 others have been wounded in clashes between security forces and protesters since Oct. 1. Iraqis, mostly from the Shiite majority population, are protesting against government corruption, poor services, and wide-ranging Iranian political influence, calling for an overhaul of the ruling class.(Updates with refinery restarting in third paragraph)\--With assistance from Salma El Wardany.To contact the reporter on this story: Khalid Al-Ansary in Baghdad at kalansary@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Bruce Stanley at bstanley5@bloomberg.net, James HerronFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

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Greta Thunberg calls world leaders' attacks on her 'just funny'

Greta Thunberg says it's "just funny" when she's personally attacked by world leaders like President Trump.The 16-year-old Swedish climate change activist, who earlier this month was named Time's person of the year, spoke with Today on BBC Radio on Monday and was asked about recent attacks on her, such as when Trump lashed out at her in a tweet by claiming she has an anger management problem or when Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro called her a "brat.""Those attacks are just funny because they obviously don't mean anything," Thunberg said. "Well, I guess, of course, it means something. It means they are terrified of young people bringing change, which they don't want."Thunberg went on to say that these attacks are "proof that we are actually doing something and that they see us as some kind of threat."This comes after Trump went after Thunberg on Twitter in response to Time's decision to name her person of the year, writing she "must work on her anger management problem, then go to a good old-fashioned movie with a friend!"Asked in the BBC interview whether Trump is one of those people who sees her as a threat, Thunberg said "it's possible.""Not me, of course, me myself alone am not much of a threat," she added. "But it's that I'm a part of a big movement that they probably see as a threat."Thunberg also reiterated that a meeting with Trump at the United Nations earlier this year would not have been productive, saying that even if she did have an opportunity to speak with the president, she "wouldn't have wasted my time."More stories from theweek.com The best headlines of 2019 Giants, Browns fire head coaches on otherwise quiet 'Black Monday' The White House always knew Trump's order to freeze Ukraine aid could blow up, New York Times details

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Officials: Hanukkah attack suspect researched Hitler online

A man charged with federal hate crimes Monday in a bloody attack on a Hanukkah celebration had handwritten journals containing anti-Semitic references and had recently used his phone to look up information on Hitler and the location of synagogues, authorities said. Grafton Thomas, 37, was held without bail after appearing in federal court in White Plains on five counts of obstructing the free exercise of religious beliefs by attempting to kill with a dangerous weapon. Five people were stabbed and slashed in the Saturday attack north of New York City.

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Saudi Arabia Sentences Man to Death for Theater Stabbings: TV

(Bloomberg) -- A Saudi Arabian court sentenced a Yemeni man to death for stabbing three performers at a theater show in the capital last month in an attack ordered by al-Qaeda, state-run TV reported.Another defendant was jailed for 12 1/2 years, Al Ekhbariya channel reported, citing the criminal court. The attack, in which three people were injured, was ordered by al-Qaeda in neighboring Yemen, the broadcaster said. It didn’t specify where it got the information.The mid-November attack in Riyadh came as the conservative kingdom undergoes a drastic overhaul of its social norms spearheaded by its young crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman. Saudis have been granted freedoms that include the loosening of rules on women’s attire and travel as well as the mixing of genders in conjunction with a plan to wean the economy off oil.The court rulings were preliminary and both defendants can file appeals.\--With assistance from Sarah Algethami.To contact the reporter on this story: Reema Alothman in Riyadh at ralothman1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Donna Abu-Nasr at dabunasr@bloomberg.net, Michael Gunn, Bruce StanleyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

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Plane crash before LSU Peach Bowl: Carley McCord among 5 victims identified

A plane crashed Saturday in Lafayette, Louisiana, killing five people. One person on board survived. Passersby pulled person from flaming wreckage.

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Cyprus court: British teen guilty of fabricating rape claims

A Cyprus court on Monday found a 19 year-old British woman guilty of fabricating claims that she was gang raped by 12 Israelis in a hotel room at a tourist resort in the east Mediterranean island nation, saying her story lacked credibility. Famagusta District Court Judge Michalis Papathanasiou said the defendant didn't tell the truth and tried to deceive the court with “evasive” statements in her testimony. It was reported as a shocking gang rape until Cypriot authorities cast doubt on the woman's account.

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US hits pro-Iran group with deadly strikes in Iraq, Syria

The US has carried out air strikes against a pro-Iran militant group in Iraq, killing 19 fighters, two days after a rocket attack that killed an American civilian contractor. The Pentagon said on Sunday it targeted weapons caches or command and control facilities linked to Kata'ib Hezbollah (KH) in Western Iraq, as well as Eastern Syria, in response to a barrage of 30 or more rockets fired on Friday. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said "we will not stand for the Islamic Republic of Iran to take actions that put American men and women in jeopardy".

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Sunday, 29 December 2019

'Go to Pakistan', says India officer as leader praises crackdown - Al Jazeera English

'Go to Pakistan', says India officer as leader praises crackdown Al Jazeera EnglishView full coverage on Google News

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Graham: Giuliani should share info he has with intel community to ensure 'it's not Russian propaganda' | TheHill - The Hill

Graham: Giuliani should share info he has with intel community to ensure 'it's not Russian propaganda' | TheHill The Hill
Graham: Rudy Should Scrub Evidence for Russian Propaganda The Daily Beast
'Not Russian propaganda': Graham advises Giuliani to have intelligence community vet Biden research Washington Examiner
The rise and fall of Rudy Giuliani, explained Vox
What Rudy Giuliani’s version of reality looks like from Ukraine The Washington Post
View full coverage on Google News

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Retirement plans: fighting Australia's bushfires - Reuters

Retirement plans: fighting Australia's bushfires ReutersView full coverage on Google News

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New Image of 'Whale Galaxy' 80,000 Light-Years From Earth Shows Magnetic Ropes Surrounding It - Sputnik International

New Image of 'Whale Galaxy' 80,000 Light-Years From Earth Shows Magnetic Ropes Surrounding It Sputnik International

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China's $44 Trillion Market Is Opening Up. Here's What to Watch in 2020 - Bloomberg

China's $44 Trillion Market Is Opening Up. Here's What to Watch in 2020 Bloomberg

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Here Are Some of California’s New Laws That Take Effect Jan.1 - KTLA Los Angeles

Here Are Some of California’s New Laws That Take Effect Jan.1 KTLA Los AngelesView full coverage on Google News

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Walmart Sale Alert: New Deals Beat Black Friday Prices [Updated] - Forbes

Walmart Sale Alert: New Deals Beat Black Friday Prices [Updated] ForbesView full coverage on Google News

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Ten questions from the past 10 years

How well do you remember events in England from the past decade?

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Democrat Warren's U.S. presidential campaign issues fundraising plea

Elizabeth Warren's presidential campaign told supporters on Friday its fundraising haul stands at just over $17 million and made a plea for more donations with just days left in the fourth quarter. The figure was a sharp drop from the previous quarter and accompanied the progressive Democrats' slight slide in opinion polls in recent weeks in the Democratic contest to face Republican Donald Trump in the November 2020 election. In the third quarter of 2019, Warren's campaign reported raising $24.6 million, slightly behind the $25.3 million raised by U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, the only other 2020 Democratic candidate to swear off big-money fundraisers.

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Bolivia says Spain 'tried to extract' wanted aide from Mexico embassy

Bolivia on Saturday accused Spain of an abortive attempt to extract a wanted former government aide from Mexico's embassy in La Paz, prompting a sharp denial from Madrid. It was the latest twist in a murky incident Friday involving embassy personnel in the Bolivian capital that has sparked a bitter diplomatic spat. Several hours later, Bolivia's top diplomat accused Spanish embassy staff of trying to infiltrate the Mexican mission with a group of masked men in what it said was a violation of Bolivian sovereignty.

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A New York Times column exploring why 'Jews are smart' is prompting heavy criticism and canceled subscriptions

Columnist Bret Stephens relied on a study about IQ tests written in part by a professor who is associated with white supremacist groups.

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Taliban council agrees to cease-fire in Afghanistan

The Taliban's ruling council agreed Sunday to a temporary cease-fire in Afghanistan, providing a window in which a peace agreement with the United States can be signed, officials from the insurgent group said. A cease-fire had been demanded by Washington before any peace agreement could be signed. A peace deal would allow the U.S. to bring home its troops from Afghanistan and end its 18-year military engagement there, America's longest.

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Christianity Today's split with Trump highlights deeper issue in white evangelical America

After evangelical publication Christianity Today published a blistering editorial on what it called Donald Trump's "grossly immoral character", some church leaders and the U.S. president himself denounced the criticism as elitist and out-of-touch. The Dec. 19 editorial sparked a Christmas holiday debate over religion in U.S. politics, and posed new questions about the close alignment between white evangelical voters and Trump, who has given their beliefs strong political support. There has been a big drop-off in white evangelical church participation among adults under 40, and publications such as Christianity Today and religious leaders are struggling to engage "Gen Z," or those born after 1996.

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A survivor of the Kazakhstan plane crash that killed at least 12 said the aircraft was crushed 'like a tin can'

Aslan Nazaraliyev told Sky News that the Bek Air plane started "swaying" and "vibrating" seconds after taking off from Almaty.

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Trump retweets post naming alleged whistleblower

President Trump retweeted, then deleted, a post that included the alleged name of the anonymous whistleblower whose complaint ultimately led to Trump’s impeachment by the House.

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Turkey says it won't evacuate NW Syria observation posts

Turkey's defense chief said Sunday that his country's troops won't evacuate their 12 observation posts in rebel-held northwestern Syria. Turkey — a strong backer of some of the rebels fighting Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces — has a dozen observation posts in Idlib province, as part of an agreement reached last year with Russia, a main supporter of Assad.

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Biden would "honor" whatever Congress "legitimately" asks

Some Republicans and President Trump have floated subpoenaing Joe and Hunter Biden to appear before the Senate.

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Hawaii tour helicopter wreckage found on Kauai island

The wreckage of a tourist helicopter carrying seven people has been discovered in Hawaii a day after it was reported missing.Two children are thought to have been onboard the aircraft, which was reported overdue from a tour of the Na Pali Coast on Thursday evening.

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What Is the Hottest Place on Earth?

Death Valley brings the heat, but there are other hot spots on this sweltering planet.

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Elizabeth Warren's campaign is 30% behind in quarterly fundraising 4 days before deadline

The campaign said it was doing "something different" as it "probably won't" raise as much as last quarter by the December 31 FEC reporting deadline.

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Slippery salvation: Could seaweed as cow feed help climate?

Coastal Maine has a lot of seaweed , and a fair number of cows. The researchers — from a marine science lab, an agriculture center and universities in northern New England — are working on a plan to feed seaweed to cows to gauge whether that can help reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change. The concept of feeding seaweed to cows has gained traction in recent years because of some studies that have shown its potential to cut back on methane.

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At Least 79 Dead in Truck Bomb Attack in Somalia’s Capital

(Bloomberg) -- At least 79 people, many of them university students, died when a truck bomb exploded during rush hour at a busy intersection in Somalia’s capital of Mogadishu, according to the Associated Press and other news reports.An explosives-laden vehicle hit the taxation office near a junction in Mogadishu, Ahmed Abdi Hussein, a Somali police officer, told Bloomberg News by phone. Another police official said the target was Turkish engineers who were in a vehicle near the intersection, without elaborating on how he got the information.Two Turks were killed in the attack, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency reported, citing Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.At least 125 people were wounded and were being treated at nearby hospitals. The number of dead could exceed 100, Anadolu Agency said, quoting Ambassador Mehmet Yilmaz.The explosion took place at a checkpoint after police blocked the truck from entering the city, the Associated Press reported, citing the nation’s police chief.No one has claimed responsibility for the attack. The al-Qaeda-linked militant group al-Shabab last week said they carried out a car bombing that killed eight people in central Somalia and the group has been blamed for an October 2017 bombing that killed more than 500 people.Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed blamed al-Shabab for what he called a “heinous act of terror.”“This dark day has robbed our nation of dozens of innocent lives, the perpetrators of this heinous act of terror will never dim the spirits of the people of Somalia,” he said in a statement posted on Twitter. “Let’s join hands in countering this evil in our midst. Let’s move fast and help out the survivors.”The U.S. embassy in Somalia, speaking on behalf of Ambassador Donald Yamamoto, sent its “deepest condolences to the families and friends of the victims” in a Twitter message.The United Nations issued a statement on behalf of Secretary General Antonio Guterres that “strongly condemns” the attack and expressed condolences to the injured and families of the victims.“He stresses that the perpetrators of this horrendous crime must be brought to justice,” the UN said in the statement. “The Secretary-General reiterates the full commitment of the United Nations to support the people and Government of Somalia in their pursuit of peace and development.”The African nation is among the world’s poorest, and is struggling to rebuild after decades of civil war.(Updates death toll in first paragraph.)\--With assistance from Taylan Bilgic and Susan Decker.To contact the reporters on this story: Mohammed Omar Ahmed in Garowe at mahmed76@bloomberg.net;Mohamed Sheikh Nor in Mogadishu at msheikhnor@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Shamim Adam at sadam2@bloomberg.net, Ros Krasny, Matthew G. MillerFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

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Navy Seal Edward Gallagher described by his own unit as 'evil', 'toxic' and 'perfectly OK with killing anybody'

The navy SEAL whose demotion after being convicted of posing next to the corpse of a captured Islamic State prisoner was overturned by Donald Trump has been described as “toxic” and “evil” by members of his own unit. Explosive testimony obtained by the New York Times has reignited the controversy over Chief Petty Officer Eddie Gallagher, one of three US servicemen facing war crimes allegations who were pardoned by the American president. The Gallagher case polarised American public opinion with Fox News taking up his case as well as the US president. Mr Trump’s intervention angered the Pentagon with senior figures fearing it would undermine military discipline. The row culminated in the sacking of the US Navy Secretary, Richard Spencer. Gallagher, 40, had been accused of war crimes following the fatal stabbing of a captured ISIS fighter and the shooting of two civilians in Iraq in 2017. At a court-martial in July he was acquitted of six out of seven charges, including murder and attempted murder after a key witness changed his testimony. Corey Scott, who had been granted immunity, took responsibility for the wounded prisoner’s death, telling the hearing he blocked the man’s breathing tube as an act of mercy rather than allow him to be tortured by the Iraqi security forces. A military jury in San Diego did convict Gallagher of posing next to the prisoner’s body and demoted him one rank and stripped him of the prestigious Trident Insignia. Mr Trump described the soldier as one of America's 'great fighters' and invited him to Mar-a-Lago Credit: LEAH MILLER/REUTERS The punishment was overruled by Donald Trump who ordered that Gallagher’s insignia should be restored and that he should be allowed to retire with his rank intact. Earlier this month Mr Trump invited Gallagher and his wife to Mar-a-Lago and described him at a recent rally as one of America’s “great fighters”. However, the footage of evidence presented to the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS), obtained by the New York Times and broadcast on “The Weekly” paints a very different picture of Gallagher, who was the leader of Alpha Platoon, SEAL Team 7. Members of the team told investigators that they spent much of their time trying to protect civilians from Gallagher. Special Operator Craig Miller described Mr Gallagher as "freaking evil", while another member of the team said he was ”toxic” describing the incident as "the most disgraceful thing I've ever seen in my life." Corey Scott, whose testimony was pivotal in the court-martial, told investigators “You could tell he was perfectly OK with killing anybody that was moving.” In a statement, Gallagher voiced his “surprise and disgust” at the testimony which he described as “blatant lies”. He added: "I felt sorry for them that they thought it necessary to smear my name, but they never realised what the consequences of their lies would be. “As upset as I was, the videos also gave me confidence because I knew that their lies would never hold up under real questioning and the jury would see through it. “Their lies and NCIS's refusal to ask hard questions or corroborate their stories strengthened my resolve to go to trial and clear my name." Gallagher’s lawyer, Timothy Parlatore, told the New York Times the videos were full of inconsistencies and falsehoods which “a clear road map to the acquittal.”

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Saturday, 28 December 2019

Hawaii helicopter crash victims: Pilot, 2 passengers identified; 4 more believed dead

Two Wisconsin residents, including a 13-year-old girl, were among victims in the crash on Kauai in Hawaii. All seven people on board are believed dead

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Trump Isn’t a Nazi. He’s a Failure.

Nancy Pelosi’s fecklessness has ensured that Americans understand impeachment to be a purely political matter, and as a purely political matter impeachment is as dead as your leftover Christmas turkey.Only a few days after the impeachment vote, President Donald Trump hit his best job-approval rating ever in the Quinnipiac poll. Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell is ready to slap the process around like a housecat tormenting a sparrow. The magic bullet missed, and now Democrats have to make a more ordinary case against Trump.The problem is: They don’t know how.The case against Trump in 2016 was that he is unfit for the office. The case against Trump in 2020 is — or should be — that he is not very good at his job.In 2016, Trump promised Americans sustained 3-percent economic growth, but the economy has not met that standard. He promised a shrinking trade deficit, but the trade deficit has grown. He promised to build a wall along the southern border and to make Mexico pay for it, which he has not done. Which is to say, on the core issues of economic growth, trade, and immigration, President Trump is a failure by his own criteria.But the Democrats are poorly positioned to take Trump to the woodshed on these issues.Consider immigration. In 2016, Senator Bernie Sanders toured Iowa union halls with an immigration message that was not too different from Trump’s. He denounced “open borders” as a billionaires’ plot to flood the U.S. market with cheap labor. At the time, Democrats still talked about illegal immigration like it was . . . illegal.In 2020, ascendant Democratic primary candidate Pete Buttigieg has just published a plan that would reduce the deportation of illegal immigrants, including those guilty of certain categories of crimes, and Democrats as a whole have invested a great deal of political capital in opposing Trump’s efforts to control illegal immigration.Why? A majority of Americans say they personally worry about illegal immigration, and a large majority — 77 percent in the most recent Gallup poll — say they see illegal immigration as a “critical threat” or an “important threat.” Trump has thrived on the issue of illegal immigration, and, in response, Democrats have taken a position that is both bad policy and bad politics.On trade, Democrats have done the opposite: Rather than blindly opposing a basically good policy, they have adopted the worst of Trump’s ideas. Senator Elizabeth Warren apes Trump’s nationalist posturing, insisting that trade is a question of “loyalty to America” and charging that American businessmen “have no patriotism.” Her proposals would essentially prohibit trade deals with China and Mexico, among other countries. But two-thirds of Americans say Trump’s trade war is unlikely to improve their lives and a third say it will leave them worse off, according to a Hill/HarrisX survey. Warren is unlikely to outdo Trump on a nationalism agenda, but nonetheless she has maneuvered herself into a position that is both bad policy and bad politics.On the economy, Trump has seen modest success after tax cuts and deregulatory efforts. The Democrats oppose these for ideological reasons, but also because they have the stink of Trump on them.A more intelligent approach for Democrats (and for us lonely few anti-Trump conservatives) would be to concede that the president’s positions on issues such as illegal immigration and trade speak to concerns that are genuine and legitimate while pointing out that his actions have been in the main ineffective or genuinely destructive. But the Democrats are so committed to their exotic fairy tale — Trump is a monster, Trump is a Nazi, Trump is a white nationalist, etc. — that they have forgotten how to run an ordinary campaign against an ordinary failure.* * *National Review Institute (NRI) is the nonprofit 501(c)(3) journalistic think tank that supports the NR mission and 14 NRI fellows (including this author!), allowing them to do what they do best: Advance principled and practical conservate journlaism. NRI is currently in the midst of its End-of-Year Fund Appeal and seeks to raise over $200,000 to support the work of the NRI fellows. Please consider giving a generous end-of-year tax-deductible contribution to NRI. Your gift, along with all those from the NR Nation, will provide the essential fuel for our mission to defend those consequential principles for which National Review has fought since 1955, and for which, with your support, it will carry the fight far into the future. Thank you for your consideration.

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Woman charged with hate crime amid NYC anti-Semitic attacks

A woman accused of slapping three people in one of a series of apparently anti-Semitic attacks reported throughout New York during Hanukkah was charged Saturday with attempted assault as a hate crime, court records show. Tiffany Harris, 30, was released without bail after her arraignment on the attempted assault charge and misdemeanor and lower-level charges , according to the records.

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Al Sharpton Warns Democrats over Impeachment Focus: ‘Deal with Kitchen-Table Issues’

Reverend Al Sharpton cautioned Democrats on Friday over ignoring “kitchen-table issues” in the race to defeat Donald Trump, saying “right now we cannot say with any comfort that Donald Trump would not be reelected.”Appearing on MSNBC’s Morning Joe to discuss impeachment, Sharpton warned that a hyper-focused Democratic effort to impeach Trump could distract from a vision of “how we move forward.”“Where a lot of the Democrats have made a mistake is they’ve fed into a narrative that Trump is dictating, rather than saying ‘okay, let them do that — I’m back, involved in trying to make you and your life work,’” Sharpton said. “That’s the person that could beat Donald Trump.”Sharpton urged that Democrats needed to frame the discussion in order to have “Trump react to that, rather than we react to Trump,” arguing that the president feeds of the negative attention he receives.> Underlining the need for 2020 Dem contenders and the media to stop focusing on Trump, instead we need to focus on a better agenda for America. MorningJoe pic.twitter.com/9A5nYxs0Ix> > -- Reverend Al Sharpton (@TheRevAl) December 27, 2019He also pointed to the danger that an election driven by impeachment could devolve into “wonderland” and “nerd politics.”“The election is about me, my house, food on my table, my kid’s tuition.” Sharpton said. “If they can’t address that, they’re going to miss everybody.”“I think voters really that are struggling, which are a lot of the base, which is a lot of the base of the Democratic party, are really trying to deal with kitchen-table issues,” Sharpton continued. That’s what we’ve got to address, particularly while you have a president that’s bragging about the economy. Right now we cannot say with any comfort that Donald Trump would not be reelected. That should make us uncomfortable.”A Friday article from the Wall Street Journal showed wages for low-skilled workers are rising at the fastest rate in more than a decade amid a tight labor market, while in recent months unemployment hit its lowest rate since 1969 and record lows for minorities.

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Photos show scenes of devastation after a plane carrying 98 people crashed in Kazakhstan, killing at least 12

The Bek Air flight from Almaty to Nusultan plunged into a building in the village of Almerek just after take-off on Friday, amid foggy conditions.

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Vietnam ex-minister gets life sentence in bribery case

A court in Vietnam sentenced a former communications minister to life in prison Saturday for receiving millions of dollars in bribes, as the hardline administration presses its anti-graft drive against once-powerful figures in the communist state. Nguyen Bac Son was charged alongside his then-deputy Truong Minh Tuan with receiving $3.2 million in bribes to approve the 2015 purchase of a TV firm that would have lost state-run telecommunications firm Mobifone $300 million. The two-week trial in Hanoi for the men -- once members of the powerful communist party central committee -- ended Saturday, according to state-run media Tuoi Tre.

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