Russia raises concerns over new U.S. ballistic missile test: RIA

Russia said on Friday it was alarmed after the United States tested a ground-launched ballistic missile that would have been banned under the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty, the RIA news agency reported. The United States carried out the test on Thursday. Washington formally withdrew from the 1987 INF pact with Russia in August after determining that Moscow was violating the treaty, an accusation the Kremlin has denied.

Supreme Court to decide Native American land dispute in Oklahoma

Ten states, from Maine to Texas to Montana, have warned that the boundaries of Native American lands have jurisdictional consequences there as well.

Wisconsin students find recording devices in Minnesota hotel

A Wisconsin school district has put a staff member on leave after some high school students from found recording devices in their hotel rooms during a field trip to Minneapolis. The response was a cautionary measure that is standard during a police investigation, Madison School District spokesman Timothy LeMonds told the Wisconsin State Journal for a story published Friday. Minneapolis police spokesman John Elder declined Friday to confirm a report by the police chief in the Madison suburb of Cottage Grove that the recording devices were hidden cameras.

Elizabeth Warren Takes on Democratic Rivals on Fundraising in Speech

(Bloomberg) -- Elizabeth Warren took an unusually aggressive stance against her moderate rivals for the Democratic nomination in a speech billed as an economic address on Thursday.“We know that one Democratic candidate walked into a room of wealthy donors this year to promise that ‘nothing would fundamentally change’ if he’s president,” Warren said, referring to Joe Biden.“We know that another calls the people who raise a quarter-million dollars for him his ‘National Investors Circle’ and he offers them regular phone calls and special access. When a candidate brags about how beholden he feels to a group of wealthy investors, our democracy is in serious trouble,” Warren said, referring to Pete Buttigieg.For months, the Massachusetts senator refrained from directly criticizing her rivals in the race for the Democratic nomination. But Warren has seen her poll numbers slip both nationally and in the first two primary states. With the Iowa caucuses only a couple of months away, she’s taking on her rivals.In her speech, Warren vowed to root out corruption in Washington and Wall Street and protect workers and unions but reiterated that she believes in markets with fair rules. That’s why millionaires and billionaires see her as a threat, she said.“They believe that I’m the biggest threat to a corrupt system that has enriched them at everyone else’s expense. And they’re right.”While Warren didn’t mention the other candidates by name, she referenced comments that Biden made to affluent donors at a campaign fundraiser in June, telling them that he wanted their support and -- perhaps unlike some other Democratic presidential candidates -- wouldn’t target their wealth.“Truth of the matter is, you all know, you all know in your gut what has to be done,” Biden said. “We can disagree in the margins. But the truth of the matter is, it’s all within our wheelhouse and nobody has to be punished. No one’s standard of living would change. Nothing would fundamentally change,” he said.Biden, however, has proposed tax changes including treating capital gains as income, capping deductions for the wealthy and raising the top individual tax rate.Warren also took aim at Buttigieg, criticizing him for “blocking reporters from entering those fancy, closed-door” fundraisers. Under pressure from Warren, Buttigieg agreed on Monday to open his fundraisers.Biden and Buttigieg and their surrogates raise money from Wall Street and Silicon Valley donors at posh fundraisers. Warren has eschewed such events in favor of small, mostly online donations, although she accepts $2,800 donations from individuals, the maximum a person can contribute.In a veiled reference to Buttigieg and Biden, Warren accused “some candidates” of betting on a “naive hope that if Democrats adopt Republican critiques of progressive policies or make vague calls for unity that somehow the wealthy and well-connected will stand down.”Buttigieg senior adviser Lis Smith responded Thursday afternoon by accusing Warren of pushing “the politics and divisiveness that is tearing this country apart,” while maintaining that Buttigieg “will heal our divides and rally Americans around big ideas” as president.Biden fired back at Warren at a fundraiser in Palo Alto, California, though without mentioning her name, referring to her only as “one of my opponents.” “If we can’t unify the country you all ought to go home now, because nothing’s going to happen except by executive order. And last time I knew it, a president is not allowed to say, ‘This is how I’m changing the tax structure, this is how I’m changing the environment,’” he said. “You need to actually get a consensus in the constitutional process. And we can unify the country.”Warren also went after billionaire Michael Bloomberg, who entered the race for the Democratic nomination in late November, while she reiterated the necessity for a 2% wealth tax on fortunes over $50 million.“It’s no secret that I’m not a fan of Michael Bloomberg trying to buy the Democratic presidential nomination,” Warren said. “A wealth tax on millionaires and billionaires isn’t about being punitive or denigrating success. It’s about laying the foundation for future successes.”Bloomberg is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.(Updates with Biden campaign response in new 14th, 15th paragraphs.)\--With assistance from Sahil Kapur.To contact the reporter on this story: Misyrlena Egkolfopoulou in Washington at megkolfopoul@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Sara FordenFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

'Absolutely heartbroken': Teen brothers from Chicago area among New Zealand volcano victims

New Zealand medical staff were continuing to work around the clock treating severely burned survivors of the eruption as the death toll climbs to 16.

Kamala Harris flames out: Black people didn't trust her, and they were wise not to

Younger blacks and black progressives took a deeper, dispassionate dive into Kamala Harris’ real-world record. They didn’t like what they found

Pirates release three oil tanker crew kidnapped off Togo

A fourth hostage, a Filipino, died from illness during captivity, European Products Carriers Ltd added.

Kellyanne Conway says Trump is fond of former Epstein lawyer Alan Derschowitz amid rumours he may join impeachment team

Donald Trump's adviser Kellyanne Conway says the president is "very fond" of Alan Dershowitz amid rumours that the former lawyer for sex offender Jeffery Epstein may join the president's legal team as his impeachment heads to Congress and a trial in the Senate.Ms Conway told reporters at the White House that the president has spoken with Mr Dershowitz "on any number of occasions over time." She said the president will announce his legal time at another time.

US Pacific commander says China seeks to intimidate region

China's activities in territory it claims in the South China Sea are meant to intimidate other nations in the region, the commander of the U.S. Navy's Pacific Fleet said Friday. Adm. John Aquilino said China's actions, including constructing islands in the disputed waters, are intended to project its military capacity. China's vast territorial claims, far beyond its shores, have been challenged by other claimants, including Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia.

Britain’s Political Map Changes Color in Ways Few Could Imagine

(Bloomberg) -- Sign up to our Brexit Bulletin, follow us @Brexit and subscribe to our podcast.Towns in northern England share a history of mining, faded industry and neglect. For generations they also had another thing in common: staunch support for the Labour Party.From Workington on the west coast to Bishop Auckland and Blyth on the east, the dominoes fell as the results from the U.K. election rolled in through the small hours of Friday morning. The U.K.’s tortured efforts to leave the European Union redefined political tribes as Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservatives took seats his party has never held before.Johnson declared the victory as “historic.” That will be even more apparent in places where most voters have never known a Conservative lawmaker.Workington, where mines and steelworks shut years ago, last voted Conservative in 1976. Back then Britain was in the grip of an economic crisis. It turned back to the red of Labour three years later. On Thursday it voted Conservative by a margin of 10 percentage points.Bishop Auckland, in the mining area south of Newcastle, had never turned Tory blue in more than a century. Elsewhere, Bassetlaw in Nottinghamshire elected a Conservative for the first time since the 1930s, as did swathes of the Midlands and Yorkshire. Labour’s so-called “Red Wall” had fallen.Many of these former mining and steel towns endured mass unemployment under the Conservative governments of the 1980s. They then voted for Brexit in the 2016 referendum amid a wave of anger at austerity, frustration over immigration and dismay at joblessness and lack of opportunity. Today, they are embracing the Tories in their determination to finally quit the EU. Backing for Brexit also comes with a rejection of the socialist promises of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who now says he will step down.In Scotland, Labour’s vote had already collapsed in the wake of the independence referendum in 2014. This time around the pro-independence Scottish National Party took the vast majority of districts again, even in some of the post-industrial regions that Labour had won back in 2017.In that election, the Conservatives planted a giant poster on a dilapidated building near the seafront in Redcar, a town in England’s northeast haunted by steelworks that finally collapsed a few years ago. The Tories had never won in Redcar, and failed in 2017 as well. But as people demanded their voice be heard over Brexit, the voters of Redcar did in 2019 as so many did across the north of England: They abandoned Labour -- and embraced Boris Johnson.To contact the reporter on this story: Rodney Jefferson in Edinburgh at r.jefferson@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Heather Harris at hharris5@bloomberg.net, Adam Blenford, Alan CrawfordFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

Body of 21-year-old vet recovered from volcano island as family fight for survival in hospital

Krystal Browitt, an Australian veterinary student from Melbourne who had just turned 21, was sightseeing with her sister and father on the island of Whakaari when toxic ash clouds spewed rocks and dust high into the air. Her mother stayed on the cruise ship, safe from the hot blanket of fumes and stones that rained down on the group of tourists hoping to see inside the crater of one of the country's most active volcanoes.  The body of Ms Browitt was finally recovered from the island in a daring mission by elite military bomb squads on Friday. She was formally identified as among the 15 to have died so far on Saturday morning. The closure is likely to be little comfort for her mother Marie who was on Saturday keeping a bedside vigil for her surviving daughter, Stephanie, 23, and husband Paul fighting for their lives among the critically injured in hospital.  Fourteen people remain hospitalised in New Zealand, 10 of whom are in critical condition with horrific burns. Thirteen others have been transported to Australia for treatment. One person succumbed to their injuries on Saturday morning, officials said. Police divers prepare to search the waters near White Island off the coast of Whakatane Credit: NZ Police Some patients have burns to up to 95 per cent of their bodies. Surgeons ordered 1.2 million sq cm of donor skin from the US earlier in the week in a desperate attempt to keep victims alive. It is understood that two British women are among the injured in hospital. The nature of the gas meant that survivors were found with third-degree burns to their skin but their clothing largely intact, and many suffered burnt lungs from inhaling the superheated gas, made up of sulphur dioxide and hydrogen chloride. Dr Watson said the gases would have reacted with the eyes, skin and mucous membranes, causing agony to the victims. Two people are missing, assumed dead, on the island itself. A team of nine from the Police National Dive Squad resumed their search at 7am on Saturday for a body seen in the water. Deputy Commissioner Tims said the water around the island is contaminated, requiring the divers to take extra precautions to ensure their safety, including using specialist protective equipment. "Divers have reported seeing a number of dead fish and eels washed ashore and floating in the water," he said. "Each time they surface, the divers are decontaminated using fresh water."

EF1 tornado flips over camper, leaves a path of damage, downed power lines

Thunderstorms erupted in parts of the southeastern United States, which spawned an EF-1 tornado Saturday morning in Flagler County, Florida.Numerous trees are down and several structures have been damaged, according to WOGX. There are also reports that a tree has gone through a home."A tornado touched down on the south side of Flagler Beach this morning at approximately 5:45 a.m. There have been no reported injuries and a camper was overturned in Gamble Rogers State Park. SRA1A is open and there was no damage to the Pier or any Dune Walkover," The Flagler Beach Police Department said in a Facebook post. The tornado overturned a camper in Flagler County, Florida. Image via The Flagler Beach Police Department Officials said in a press release that 'significant damage' was found from south of Bunnell to the Gamble Rogers area of Flagler Beach."A cold front pushing south and east across northern Florida early this morning helped initiate a squall line during the pre-dawn hours, and one of these thunderstorms was able to take advantage of strong winds in the upper atmosphere to produce a tornado," AccuWeather Meteorologist Randy Adkins said.> We found EF1 damage consistent with 110 mph winds from the tornado this morning in Flagler County. Read more in our Public Information Statement below. https://t.co/nXgmFSfJK2> > -- NWS Jacksonville (@NWSJacksonville) December 14, 2019The Flagler Beach Police Department posted photos of tornado damage on social media, including one that appeared to show a camper overturned. A camper was blown on its side during the tornado. Image via The Flagler Beach Police Department Tornado damage of a road sign that was knocked over in the tornado. Image via The Flagler Beach Police Department

US-led forces had to bomb a clinic being built to care for local Afghans to stop a Taliban assault

This battle highlights the difficult trade-offs the US and its partner forces face even after 18 years of war in Afghanistan.

Indigenous boy stabbed to death in Amazon amid wave of rainforest racism

An indigenous 15-year-old boy has been stabbed to death in an Amazonian reserve in Brazil, the latest in a string of murders which have heightened tensions in the region.Erisvan Soares Guajajara’s body was found on Friday in the Amarante do Maranhão city, on the edge of an increasingly deforested indigenous reserve on the fringes of the Amazon rainforest.

Weinstein’s lawyers insist he isn’t using Zimmer frame for sympathy in court after he is seen shopping without it

Harvey Weinstein’s lawyers have insisted he is not using a Zimmer frame to win public sympathy, after he was photographed walking without one.The disgraced film producer was filmed hunched over a four-legged walking frame as he slowly pushed himself into a courthouse in New York for a bail hearing on Wednesday.

The CEO of a Silicon Valley startup was quietly fired after allegedly spending over $75,000 at strip clubs and charging it to a company credit card

Turvo named a new CEO in November named Scott Lang. The company was last valued at $435 million, according to Pitchbook.

Supporters of Iran-backed Iraqi group protest US sanctions

Hundreds of demonstrators supporting a powerful Iran-backed militia group in Iraq poured into a central Baghdad plaza Saturday, some burning American flags to protest recent U.S. sanctions against key leaders. The protest came as Washington pointed fingers at Iranian proxy groups for a recent spate of rocket attacks against its military bases in Iraq. The protesters burned American and Israeli flags, as well as cardboard cutouts of U.S. President Donald Trump in Firdous Square, a central plaza that is close to where anti-government demonstrators have been camped out since Oct. 1.

Cholera kills over 27,000 pigs in Indonesia

More than 27,000 pigs have died in a hog-cholera epidemic that has struck Indonesia, with thousands more at risk, an animal welfare official said. Thousands of pigs have died in more than a dozen regencies across North Sumatra over the past three months, and the pace of deaths is increasing, authorities said.

Challenge to immigration law is tossed on eve of enactment

A law that will allow New Yorkers to get driver’s licenses without having to prove they are in the country legally weathered a second court challenge Friday, days before its enactment. A federal district judge ruled against Rensselaer County Clerk Frank Merola, saying he lacked the legal capacity to bring the lawsuit. Merola, a Republican, had argued that the state law conflicts with federal immigration law.

A Mobster's Murder, and the Jockeying to Move Up the Hierarchy

NEW YORK -- On a quiet night in March, a mob leader was executed in New York City for the first time since 1985. The body of Francesco Cali, a reputed boss of the Gambino crime family, lay crumpled outside his Staten Island home, pierced by at least six bullets.Hours later, two soldiers in the Gambino family talked on the phone. One of them, Vincent Fiore, said he had just read a "short article" about the "news," according to prosecutors.No tears were shed for their fallen leader. The murder was "a good thing," Fiore, 57, said on the call. The vacuum at the top meant that Andrew Campos, described by authorities as the Gambino captain who ran Fiore's crew, was poised to gain more power.Cali's death was just the beginning of surprises to come for the Gambino family.Last week, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn charged Fiore and 11 others in a sprawling racketeering scheme linked to the Gambinos, once the country's preeminent organized crime dynasty. The charges stemmed from a yearslong investigation involving wiretapped calls, physical surveillance and even listening devices installed inside an office where mob associates worked.As part of the case, the government released a court filing that offered an extremely rare glimpse at the reactions inside a Mafia family to the murder of their boss -- a curious mix of mourning and jockeying for power. The case showed that life in the mob can be just as petty as life in a corporate cubicle."Mob guys are the biggest gossips in the world," said James J. Hunt, the former head of the Drug Enforcement Administration's office in New York. "You think they're tough guys, but they're all looking out for themselves. The only way they get promoted is by a guy dying or going to jail."While Fiore initially plotted how Cali's death would help him and his faction, he adopted a different tone when calling his own ex-wife a few days later, prosecutors said. He warmly referred to Cali as "Frankie" and seemed to mourn the boss as a man who "was loved." He speculated about the killer's motive, saying he had watched the surveillance tape from Cali's home that captured the murder.Vincent Fiore appeared ambitious, court documents showed, eager to reveal his connections to other gangs and organized crime families. About two weeks after Cali's death, Fiore bragged in another wiretapped conversation about how he could take revenge on students who had hit his son at school, a government filing said.Fiore talked first about sending his daughter to beat the students up.But he also had other options, he said on the call. His ex-wife's father was a Latin King, her nephews were Bloods, and her cousin was a member of the Ching-a-Lings, the South Bronx motorcycle gang.Vincent Fiore and the other defendants have each pleaded not guilty to the charges. A lawyer for Fiore did not respond to a request for comment.Despite decades of declining influence in New York City, the Gambino family, led by the notoriously flashy John J. Gotti in the 1980s, is still raking in millions of dollars, according to the government. Prosecutors said they had evidence that the family had maintained its long-standing coziness with the construction industry, infiltrating high-end Manhattan properties.The indictments accused Gambino associates of bribing a real estate executive to skim hundreds of thousands of dollars from New York City construction projects, including the XI, a luxury building with two twisting towers being built along the High Line park in West Chelsea.At the height of their power in the 1980s and early 1990s, the Gambinos and other organized crime families had a stranglehold on New York City construction, through their control of construction unions and the concrete business.Some of the defendants charged last week operated a carpentry company called CWC Contracting Corp., which prosecutors said paid kickbacks to real estate developers in exchange for contracts.Despite the scramble after Cali's death in March, the Gambino crime family continued to thrive through fraud, bribery and extortion, investigators said.The wiretaps quoted in court papers hinted at the crime family's capacity for violence. One of the defendants was recorded in April claiming that he had a fight in a diner and "stabbed the kid, I don't know, 1,000 times with a fork." Inside another defendant's home and vehicle, agents found brass knuckles and a large knife that appeared to have blood on it.Among the notable names in last week's takedown were two longtime Gambino members, Andrew Campos and Richard Martino, who were once considered by Gotti to be rising stars in the Mafia, according to former officials."John was enamored by these guys," said Philip Scala, a retired FBI agent who supervised the squad investigating the Gambino family. "He couldn't believe what they were doing. These kids were making millions of dollars as entrepreneurs."In particular, Martino has long been viewed by mob investigators as somewhat of a white-collar crime genius, former officials said. Prosecutors have previously accused him of orchestrating the largest consumer fraud of the 1990s, which netted close to $1 billion. One part of that scheme involved a fake pornography website that lured users with the promise of a free tour and then charged their credit cards without their knowledge.Campos, 50, and Martino, 60, each pleaded guilty in 2005 to their role in the fraud and served time in federal prison.But as soon as they were released, the government said, they returned to the family business.Martino is now accused of hiding his wealth from the government to avoid paying the full $9.1 million forfeiture from his earlier case.After Martino's release from prison in 2014, he still controlled companies that conducted millions of dollars in transactions, using intermediaries to obscure his involvement, the government alleged. This included investments in pizzerias on Long Island and in Westchester County, according to a person familiar with the matter.Martino's lawyer, Maurice Sercarz, said his client fully paid the required forfeiture before reporting to prison. He added, "The suggestion that Mr. Martino concealed his ownership of businesses and bank accounts to avoid this obligation ignores or misrepresents his financial circumstances."Campos, meanwhile, climbed the ranks to become a captain inside the Gambino family, according to prosecutors.Henry E. Mazurek, a lawyer for Campos, said the government's photos and surveillance footage of his client were not evidence of a crime. "The government presents a trumped-up case that substitutes old lore for actual evidence," Mazurek said.After searching Campos' home in Scarsdale, New York, a wealthy suburb north of New York City, investigators found traces of a storied mob legacy. In his closet there were photos taken during his visits with Martino to see Frank Locascio, Gotti's former consigliere, or counselor, in prison.Locascio is serving a life sentence. He was convicted in 1992 alongside Gotti by the same U.S. attorney's office that brought last week's indictment. Gotti, who died in prison in 2002, was found guilty of, among other things, ordering the killing of Paul Castellano in 1985, the last time a Gambino boss was gunned down in the street.On March 14, the day after Cali's death, Campos drove into Manhattan around 5:50 p.m. to discuss the circumstances of the murder with Gambino family members, seemingly unaware that law enforcement was tracking his every move.He parked near a pizzeria on the Upper East Side, according to a person familiar with the matter. As the night progressed, he met with Gambino family captains on the Upper East Side and near a church in Brooklyn. They stood in the street, chatting openly, but law enforcement officials could not hear the conversations.Several days later, Campos and Fiore drove to Staten Island for a secret meeting. A group of about eight high-level Gambino lieutenants gathered to discuss Cali's murder, a court filing said. In a wiretapped call the next day, Fiore complained that he had stayed out past midnight.Fiore said on the call that a woman had been at Cali's home the night of his death, pointing to her as a possible connection. Court papers do not reveal the woman's identity.Nobody within the mob family seemed to suspect the person who was charged: a 25-year-old who appeared to have no clear motive.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company

Why Trump's Senate GOP allies are pushing accusations of Ukraine election meddling

Republicans are warming to a Ukraine election meddling narrative as they mount a defense for Trump against the fast-moving impeachment proceedings.

Richard G. Hatcher, Ex-Mayor of Gary, Ind., and Champion of Urban and Black Issues, Dies at 86

By BY JOSEPH P. FRIED from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/38yCqmB

Argentina's new government hikes export taxes on disgruntled farmers

Argentina's new government has hiked export levies on soy, wheat and corn, according to an official decree on Saturday, hitting farmers in the grains exporting nation to raise revenue needed to avoid default on a mountain of looming sovereign debt.

from Reuters: World News https://ift.tt/2YMQXXc

Israel hails Johnson win as defeat for anti-Semitism

Israel Friday hailed the election defeat of Britain's Labour Party as a "milestone in the fight against hatred" after its leadership was accused of inaction against anti-Semitism in its ranks. "The spectre of anti-Semitism loomed large over this campaign, and the British public overwhelmingly voted against it," Katz said. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu added his plaudits.

The Breach Widens as Congress Nears a Partisan Impeachment

By BY MICHAEL D. SHEAR from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2Pi7XS0

Matt Bevin, Ousted in Kentucky, Sets Off Furor With ‘Extreme Pardons’

By BY SARAH MERVOSH from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2PlP8NG

Despite Her ‘Be Best’ Campaign, Melania Trump Stays Mum as Husband Mocks Greta Thunberg

By BY KATIE ROGERS from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/38yfaVT

For Gaetz to raise Hunter Biden's substance abuse is 'the pot calling the kettle black,' Johnson says

The House Judiciary Committee debate over articles of impeachment against President Trump took an ugly turn Thursday when Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., brought up Hunter Biden’s past drug use.

Kentucky governor pardons convicted killer whose brother hosted campaign fundraiser for him

Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin pardoned hundreds of people, including some convicted of homicide, on his final days in office.

Mitch McConnell laughs about stopping Obama hiring judges, allowing Trump to fill courts with conservatives

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell boasted about blocking former president Barack Obama's judicial appointments, a two-year effort that allowed Donald Trump and a Republican-controlled congress to stack courts with conservative judges and create a conservative majority on the nation's high court.Fox host Sean Hannity told the Kentucky senator that he was shocked that the Obama administration "left so many vacancies and didn't try to fill those positions".

Giuliani Ally Parnas Got $1 Million From Russia, U.S. Says

(Bloomberg) -- Rudy Giuliani’s associate Lev Parnas got $1 million from an account in Russia in September, a month before he was charged with conspiring to funnel foreign money into U.S. political campaigns, according to U.S. prosecutors who asked a judge to jail him for understating his income and assets.“The majority of that money appears to have been used on personal expenses and to purchase a home,” prosecutors said in a court filing Wednesday. Parnas failed to disclose the payment to the government, prosecutors said.The payment raises provocative new questions about the nature of the work Parnas and his associate Igor Fruman were doing and who they were doing it for. Much about what they did remains unclear.The pair was charged, in part, with working on behalf of one or more Ukrainian government officials to seek the removal of then-U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch. They have pleaded not guilty to all charges.Bloomberg and other news organizations have also reported that Parnas was added to the legal team of Dmitry Firtash, a Ukrainian oligarch fighting extradition to the U.S.Giuliani and his lawyer didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.There was little detail or explanation about the source or purpose of the payment to Parnas in the court filing. Prosecutors said the money was sent to an account in the name of Parnas’s wife, Svetlana Parnas. It appeared “to be an attempt to ensure that any assets were held in Svetlana’s, rather than Lev’s, name,” prosecutors claimed.The payment came the same month that Parnas and Fruman received the first of two requests for documents from Congressional committees investigating the Trump administration’s actions in Ukraine. The pair initially refused to comply with the requests, and were arrested days later on a jet bridge at Dulles International Airport near Washington D.C., as they sought to board a plane with one-way tickets to Vienna. Parnas’s lawyer has subsequently said his client is willing to comply with the congressional investigation.Parnas, a U.S. citizen who was born in Ukraine, could face at least five years in prison on the counts with which he has already been charged, but prosecutors have said he remains under investigation and will likely face more charges.Parnas and Fruman are also accused of using an unnamed Russian national as the source of funds for political donations to curry favor with state and federal officials for support in starting a retail marijuana business. The government didn’t say whether the same Russian was the source of the $1 million payment in September.Prosecutors asked the judge to revoke Parnas’s bail, saying he also lied about his income. While he presented varying pictures of his financial condition to authorities on three different occasions, prosecutors say he never disclosed the $1 million payment, or a $200,000 escrow deposit he had made on a $4.5 million Boca Raton property -- and that he really received $200,000 for his work on Firtash’s legal team, not the $50,000 he claimed.“Parnas poses an extreme risk of flight, and that risk of flight is only compounded by his continued and troubling misrepresentations,” prosecutors said.The government was responding to Parnas’s request for less strict bail conditions. He asked to be allowed some time each day outside his apartment while he is under home detention.Parnas’s lawyer, Joseph Bondy, declined to comment and said he would respond to the prosecutors with his own filing.(Adds details throughout.)To contact the reporter on this story: Christian Berthelsen in New York at cberthelsen1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net, Joe Schneider, Peter BlumbergFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

Former FBI agent: Justice Department investigation finds Trump's FBI conspiracy is false

We need to put things in perspective. President Trump spread some baseless rumors. But now it's up to the FBI to undertake some major reforms.

Jamal Khashoggi: US spy chief given deadline to name Saudi writer's killers

* Trump ally Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman accused * Congress gives intelligence chief 30 days to assign responsibilityUS intelligence agencies will be given a month to make a formal declaration on whether the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, was responsible for the murder of the Saudi dissident and Washington Post columnist, Jamal Khashoggi.The annual military spending bill, known as the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), was passed by a large majority in the House of Representatives on Wednesday and is expected to be approved by the Senate next week before being signed into law by Donald Trump.In negotiations before the NDAA’s passage, sections stipulating that Khashoggi’s murderers be subject to punitive measures were stripped from the bill, on the insistence of the White House – as were clauses that would have cut US support for the Saudi war in Yemen.According to the New York Times, the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, took a leading role in negotiations on behalf of the White House, and was insistent that the punitive clauses on Saudi Arabia should be removed.But the final version of the bill retained language requiring the director of national intelligence (DNI) to present a formal determination within 30 days on who was responsible for the murder and dismemberment of Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October last year.In April, the US barred entry to 16 Saudis for their role in the murder plot, including one of the crown prince’s closest aides, Saud al-Qahtani. This week, the state department added the former Saudi consul general in Istanbul, Mohammed al-Otaibi.In a closed-door briefing in December 2018, the CIA director, Gina Haspel, told senators that the agency was convinced the murder had been ordered by the crown prince (colloquially known by his initials MBS).“We know that the intelligence community has assessed with high confidence that MBS bears at least some responsibility for Khashoggi’s murder and the cover-up that has followed,” Tom Malinowski, the Democratic congressman from New Jersey who drafted the Saudi human rights accountability legislation, told the Guardian. “So if they answer the question, honestly, MBS will be on the list.”The congressional demand for a formal declaration, will be a test of the independence of the office of the DNI, since the ousting of Dan Coats from the post in the summer. His former deputy, Joseph Maguire, has been acting in the position since August.“I wouldn’t be surprised if the White House put some pressure on the director of national intelligence to come to a different conclusion,” Malinowski said. “So we’ll be watching this with great interest. We do have the advantage of knowing in advance what the intelligence community thinks because they’ve already told us in a classified setting. So it will be quite striking if they tell us something that is different in response to this.”Bruce Riedel, a former senior CIA officer and Saudi expert, said that Haspel is likely to have given the agency’s assessment of Prince Mohammed’s role in the Khashoggi murder in verbal form to the Senate, leaving the intelligence community enough wiggle room to hand over a list of the names of suspects the US has already named, excluding the crown prince.“I’m doubtful [the CIA assessment] was conveyed in a written product. More likely it was in answer to questions,” Riedel said. He added that obscuring the crown prince’s involvement “is going to be a tight line to run, but no doubt this administration will run it”.He said that the White House would have found it more “problematic” to convince Coats to issue a determination to Trump’s liking.“The acting DNI is a fine person, but he’s not going to fall on his sword, nor is the director of central intelligence,” Riedel said.

Elizabeth Warren Takes on Democratic Rivals on Fundraising in Speech

(Bloomberg) -- Elizabeth Warren took an unusually aggressive stance against her moderate rivals for the Democratic nomination in a speech billed as an economic address on Thursday.“We know that one Democratic candidate walked into a room of wealthy donors this year to promise that ‘nothing would fundamentally change’ if he’s president,” Warren said, referring to Joe Biden.“We know that another calls the people who raise a quarter-million dollars for him his ‘National Investors Circle’ and he offers them regular phone calls and special access. When a candidate brags about how beholden he feels to a group of wealthy investors, our democracy is in serious trouble,” Warren said, referring to Pete Buttigieg.For months, the Massachusetts senator refrained from directly criticizing her rivals in the race for the Democratic nomination. But Warren has seen her poll numbers slip both nationally and in the first two primary states. With the Iowa caucuses only a couple of months away, she’s taking on her rivals.In her speech, Warren vowed to root out corruption in Washington and Wall Street and protect workers and unions but reiterated that she believes in markets with fair rules. That’s why millionaires and billionaires see her as a threat, she said.“They believe that I’m the biggest threat to a corrupt system that has enriched them at everyone else’s expense. And they’re right.”While Warren didn’t mention the other candidates by name, she referenced comments that Biden made to affluent donors at a campaign fundraiser in June, telling them that he wanted their support and -- perhaps unlike some other Democratic presidential candidates -- wouldn’t target their wealth.“Truth of the matter is, you all know, you all know in your gut what has to be done,” Biden said. “We can disagree in the margins. But the truth of the matter is, it’s all within our wheelhouse and nobody has to be punished. No one’s standard of living would change. Nothing would fundamentally change,” he said.Biden, however, has proposed tax changes including treating capital gains as income, capping deductions for the wealthy and raising the top individual tax rate.Warren also took aim at Buttigieg, criticizing him for “blocking reporters from entering those fancy, closed-door” fundraisers. Under pressure from Warren, Buttigieg agreed on Monday to open his fundraisers.Biden and Buttigieg and their surrogates raise money from Wall Street and Silicon Valley donors at posh fundraisers. Warren has eschewed such events in favor of small, mostly online donations, although she accepts $2,800 donations from individuals, the maximum a person can contribute.In a veiled reference to Buttigieg and Biden, Warren accused “some candidates” of betting on a “naive hope that if Democrats adopt Republican critiques of progressive policies or make vague calls for unity that somehow the wealthy and well-connected will stand down.”Buttigieg senior adviser Lis Smith responded Thursday afternoon by accusing Warren of pushing “the politics and divisiveness that is tearing this country apart,” while maintaining that Buttigieg “will heal our divides and rally Americans around big ideas” as president.Biden fired back at Warren at a fundraiser in Palo Alto, California, though without mentioning her name, referring to her only as “one of my opponents.” “If we can’t unify the country you all ought to go home now, because nothing’s going to happen except by executive order. And last time I knew it, a president is not allowed to say, ‘This is how I’m changing the tax structure, this is how I’m changing the environment,’” he said. “You need to actually get a consensus in the constitutional process. And we can unify the country.”Warren also went after billionaire Michael Bloomberg, who entered the race for the Democratic nomination in late November, while she reiterated the necessity for a 2% wealth tax on fortunes over $50 million.“It’s no secret that I’m not a fan of Michael Bloomberg trying to buy the Democratic presidential nomination,” Warren said. “A wealth tax on millionaires and billionaires isn’t about being punitive or denigrating success. It’s about laying the foundation for future successes.”Bloomberg is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.(Updates with Biden campaign response in new 14th, 15th paragraphs.)\--With assistance from Sahil Kapur.To contact the reporter on this story: Misyrlena Egkolfopoulou in Washington at megkolfopoul@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Sara FordenFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

Rashida Tlaib deletes tweet falsely blaming Jersey City shooting on 'white supremacy'

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) deleted a tweet Thursday morning in which she falsely credited Tuesday's deadly shooting at a kosher deli in Jersey City, New Jersey to "white supremacy" when in fact, the suspected shooters were reportedly Black Hebrew Israelites.Tlaib deleted the post just minutes after it went up, but not before close observers were able to nab a screenshot. It didn't take long for the tweet to spread among influential political commentators, especially conservatives, like Dinesh D'Souza, who retweeted a post calling out the congresswoman's blunder.The shooting in the Jewish community in Jersey City left six people dead, including a police officer. Investigators say one of the suspects posted anti-Semitic and anti-police sentiment online, noted The Associated Press. Two of the civilian victims, Mindy Ferencz and Moshe Deutsch, were reportedly members of the Orthodox Jewish community in the neighborhood. Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop announced on Wednesday that the massacre was a "hate crime" against Jews. Fulop stated there is reason to believe that the deli was a premeditated target, though investigators have not confirmed details about the suspects' motives.Tlaib has yet to comment in response to the called-out deleted tweet.More stories from theweek.com Trump's pathological obsession with being laughed at The most important day of the impeachment inquiry Jerry Falwell Jr.'s false gospel of memes

As California thins forests to limit fire risk, some resist

Buzzing chainsaws are interrupted by the frequent crash of breaking branches as crews fell towering trees and clear tangled brush in the densely forested Santa Cruz Mountains south of San Francisco. With California’s increasingly warm, dry and overgrown landscape, wildfire has become a perpetual danger. State lawmakers committed more than $200 million annually to fire prevention efforts and Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to spend even more, motivated by infernos such as one last year that killed 85 people in Paradise, California, some who died in their cars while trying to flee.

An influencer and model said she isn't doing a gender reveal because 'that may not be who my child decides to be'

Iskra Lawrence is among influencers making money for documenting their pregnancies, but she's not cashing in on her baby's sex.

Taiwan Probes Security Lapse Allowing Chinese to Enter Illegally

(Bloomberg) -- Taiwanese authorities believe thousands of mainland Chinese, including government officials, may have illegally entered Taiwan over the past two years, highlighting a security risk to the island ahead of a national election.More than 5,000 Chinese citizens are suspected of entering Taiwan illegally between 2017 and 2019, Taipei District Prosecutors Office spokeswoman Chen Yu-ping said by phone. Many of the arrivals are believed to have been government officials, according to the Taipei-based Central News Agency.Taiwanese prosecutors are now investigating 20 travel agencies and 10 civic associations for assisting Chinese nationals to travel to Taiwan under false pretenses, CNA reported Wednesday.The travel agencies were suspected of passing the personal details of prospective mainland visitors along to local associations, who in turn issue invitations allowing visitors to secure travel permits from Taiwan’s immigration authorities.The investigation into the possible national security lapse comes a month before Taiwanese voters head to the polls to elect their president. President Tsai Ing-wen, who has received a boost in the polls amid anti-China protests in Hong Kong, is up against Han Kuo-yu, of the more Beijing-friendly Kuomintang, in January’s vote.Since Tsai came to power in 2016, Beijing has ratcheted up the diplomatic and military pressure on Taiwan in an attempt to force her to accept its negotiating framework that both sides are part of “one China.” Tsai, whose Democratic Progressive Party supports independence, has refused to do so.To contact the reporters on this story: Samson Ellis in Taipei at sellis29@bloomberg.net;Adela Lin in Taipei at alin95@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Scott at bscott66@bloomberg.net, Iain MarlowFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

Despite Her ‘Be Best’ Campaign, Melania Trump Stays Mum as Husband Mocks Greta Thunberg

By BY KATIE ROGERS from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/36vLeaW

William McFeely, Pulitzer-Winning Historian, Dies as 89

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Labour’s Crushing Loss in Britain Adds to ‘Too Far Left?’ Debate in U.S.

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On Your Tables: Ginger Beef, Caesars and Butter Tarts

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Boris Johnson and the Coming Trump Victory in 2020

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How Labour’s Working-Class Vote Crumbled and Its Nemesis Won the North

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Supreme Court to Rule on Whether Much of Oklahoma Is an Indian Reservation

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Irish Whiskey, Olive Oil and Waffles Could Face Tariffs Up to 100 Percent

By BY JIM TANKERSLEY from NYT Business https://ift.tt/2YIK5Ky

German execs slam planned US sanctions on Russian pipeline

The German-Russian Chamber of Commerce called for retaliatory sanctions on Thursday after US lawmakers gave initial approval to a bill that would punish contractors working on a Russian pipeline to Germany. "Europe should respond to sanctions that damage Europe with counter-sanctions," Matthias Schepp, head of the German-Russian Chamber of Commerce, said in a statement.