Kansas explosion: 11 people injured in blast at aircraft plant in Wichita

Officials are responding to multiple reports of an explosion at the Beechcraft aircraft plant in Kansas.Fire crews and emergency units were deployed to the scene as traffic was blocked off near the site of the plant, according to The Wichita Eagle.

Winter storm threatens heavy snow, blizzards from Rockies to Upper Midwest, weather service warns travelers 'consider changing plans'

The storm created traffic snarls in California as it moved northeast after dumping snow in Arizona.

Spain pulled into diplomatic spat between Bolivia, Mexico

A tense diplomatic feud between Bolivia's conservative interim government and Mexico expanded to include Spain on Friday when a confrontation broke out as Spanish diplomats visited the Mexican ambassador's residence in La Paz, where members of the ousted leftist government have taken refuge. Bolivian Foreign Minister Karen Longaric complained that Spanish diplomats were accompanied by masked and armed men on a visit to the residence, calling that an abuse of Bolivia's sovereignty. The interim government already has been feuding with Mexico, which not only gave refuge to the nine, but also sheltered ousted leader Evo Morales when he resigned the presidency on Nov. 10 after losing the support of the military and police following days of turbulent protests over alleged fraud in his reelection bid.

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.

New York City Increases Police Presence in Jewish Neighborhoods After Possible Anti-Semitic Attacks. Here's What To Know

Some Jewish neighborhoods of New York City will see an increase in police presence after a string of recent anti-semitic attacks.

Man who made 27,000 crosses for shooting victims is retiring

An Illinois man who made more than 27,000 crosses to commemorate victims of mass shootings across the country is retiring. Greg Zanis came to realize, after 23 years, his Crosses for Losses ministry was beginning to take a personal and financial toll on him, according to The Beacon-News. “I had a breaking point in El Paso,” he said, referring to the mass shooting outside of a Walmart in El Paso, Texas.

McConnell’s Big Mistake Defending Trump? Listening to Him.

The first crack in Donald Trump’s red wall came on Christmas Eve when not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse, except for Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who said she was “disturbed” by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s promise of “total coordination” with Donald Trump in his impeachment trial in the Senate. “It’s wrong to pre-judge,” she said of McConnell working “hand-in-glove” with Trump.Straightforward and conscientious, so press-reluctant her name auto-corrects to “Murrow skis,” the daughter of a former governor breaking publicly with McConnell is like her donning a lampshade and popping open the Champagne on New Year’s Eve. When she opposed the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh, rather than dramatize her struggle—by contrast to Sen. Susan Collins, who went on about how hard it all was but finally voted as Trump told her to—Murkowski voted “present.” It didn’t change the outcome—Kavanaugh’s approval was in the bag—but by going against Trump and McConnell she stayed true to her conscience, something the rest of her caucus lost in 2016, bearing out Sen. Lindsey Graham’s warning to his party that, by nominating Trump, “We will get destroyed… and we will deserve it.”  Murkowski wouldn’t have gone so far as to be “disturbed” had McConnell not committed one of the few mistakes of his political life in no longer simply doing everything Trump tells him to do, but doing it the way Trump tells him to. McConnell, left to his own devices, wouldn’t have revealed that “Everything I do during this [trial] I’m coordinating with White House counsel. There will be no difference between the president’s position and our position.” When defending Trump, it must be done loudly and immediately. He keeps score. Trump is driven so mad by impeachment—he claimed not to have been impeached in one of the hundreds of unhinged tweets he’s issued since the two articles were passed in the House—that he not only needed to be assured of acquittal, he had to have it blasted out prematurely to buy him a night or two when Speaker Nancy Pelosi didn’t disturb his dreams. Even before Murkowski’s rebuke, McConnell had inched back from the ledge Trump lured him on to. He told Fox & Friends Monday morning that he hadn’t “ruled out” witnesses. He had, of course, calling it an untimely “fishing expedition.” The cagey, sphinx-like McConnell realized too late he shouldn’t listen to Trump, a creature of impulse and immediate gratification. It’s McConnell, not Trump, who’s stacked the federal courts with 175 judges, setting a new indoor record when he got confirmed his seventh  “unqualified” nominee: 37-year-old Kentuckian Justin Walker, who lacked any time in a courtroom or practicing law since graduating. The Obama administration and most other administrations have had none.   McConnell has a point that impeachment is a “political process” but not that “there’s not anything judicial about it.” We’re all political and partial: Some people swear by the Mets over the Yankees or Dunkin’ over Starbucks, but no one admits to favoring wrong over right. It’s why we have trials, and as anyone who’s watched Law & Order knows that means witnesses and exhibits, direct testimony and cross-examination, and an impartial judge. McConnell keeps citing Clinton’s impeachment as precedent for what he’s doing. The 100-to-0 vote in that trial kept open having witnesses—and three were called ultimately called—even though there was already a stack of deposition testimony from the Starr Report. McConnell argued that “every other impeachment has had witnesses,” and that Clinton’s should include at least three. There might be some holiday sympathy for McConnell. Imagine what Trump would have done had McConnell held the door open for testimony from Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who may be escaping to run for the Senate in Kansas—not to mention former National Security Council chief John Bolton, who saw a “drug deal” going down in the Situation Room. There’s still time before the Jan. 28 deadline to recruit a new primary opponent for McConnell’s 2020 re-election bid.Before going all in with Trump, McConnell should have talked to those who’ve left his White House, or read the shelf full of books recounting life inside the West Wing and how, no matter how bad we think it is, it’s worse. Former White House Counsel Don McGahn packed up his belongings rather than carry out Trump’s orders to end the Mueller inquiry. Former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis resigned rather than carry out Trump’s deadly Syria policy. John Kelly predicted impeachment should Trump have only “yes men” like Mulvaney and Pompeo around him. Rex Tillerson never took back calling Trump a “moron.” While  Bolton may be exaggerating his superpowers, without his containment of Trump and Trump’s penchant for photo-op summits, North Korea’s beautiful leader might be even closer to leveling Detroit. If Trump played his cards as well as the majority leader had until now, his casinos would not have gone bankrupt. He might not have made that perfect call and 90 minutes later ordered congressionally approved military aid to Ukraine halted. He wouldn’t have sent Mulvaney out to admit everything and advise everyone to get over bribing a foreign leader, or told Mulvaney  to take it back and then disappear. He wouldn’t have Pompeo lie that he wasn’t in on the “perfect” call only to have to deny his denial when the truth came out. If only McConnell hadn’t blurted out his plans, he could have done everything he said he would with impunity. Now, with Murkowski questioning McConnell throwing his lot in with Trump, he’s lost the first post-impeachment round to Nancy Pelosi. At worst, by holding on to the articles of impeachment, Pelosi chose a slow death over a quick one in the craven Senate. At best, she may get a fairer, if not a fair, trial, a witness or two that if she had waited—and waited—for court rulings to compel their testimony that would have been met with cries of outrage for daring to continue hearings in the midst of an election. Pelosi has also exposed that when McConnell swears an oath to be impartial at the opening of the trial, in the sight of his Baptist God and Chief Justice John Roberts, he’s either had an unbelievable change of heart, like Saul on the road to Damascus, or he’s perjuring himself. If we had a functioning Senate, McConnell would have to recuse himself. Alas, with Trump as de facto majority leader, that won’t happen.Senate Republicans didn’t ask for a spine for Christmas, but Murkowski showed what having one is like. “If it means that I am viewed as one who looks openly and critically at every issue in front of me, rather than acting as a rubber stamp for my party or my president, I am totally good with that,” she said.  And so are we. 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.

Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein Associate, under FBI Investigation

Reuters reports that the FBI has opened an investigation into several associates of late billionaire Jeffrey Epstein, including his longtime friend Ghislaine Maxwell, who is accused of being complicit in the financier's underage-sex trafficking ring.Maxwell, 58, is a former girlfriend of the wealthy financier who remained in his circle and is accused by multiple women of helping Epstein find underage girls to have sex with. The British socialite has not been criminally charged, and she has denied all allegations.One of Epstein's accusers, Virginia Giuffre, has alleged in a civil lawsuit that Maxwell lured her to the billionaire financier and forced her to have sex with Epstein as well as British Prince Andrew.The British royal family said any interview with Prince Andrew would be “a matter for the FBI.”Epstein, 66, was found dead by apparent suicide in his Manhattan jail cell in August, shortly after he was arrested and charged with sex trafficking underage girls as young as 14 from 2002 to 2005. His death sparked a Justice Department investigation and came a day after court documents were unsealed detailing the allegations against billionaire. Epstein had pleaded not guilty to the charges against him before his death.“Any co-conspirators should not rest easy,” Attorney General William Barr said in August of the ongoing investigation.Maxwell, the daughter of late British media heavyweight Robert Maxwell, has been spotted in various locations since Epstein's death, including a Los Angeles shopping mall.

Baltimore breaks city record for killings per capita in 2019

Baltimore broke its annual per capita homicide record after reaching 342 killings Friday. With just over 600,000 residents, the city hit a historically high homicide rate of about 57 per 100,000 people after recent relentless gunfire saw eight people shot — three fatally — in one day and nine others — one fatally — another day. The total is up from 309 in 2018 and matches the 342 killings tallied in 2017 and 2015, the year when the city's homicide rate suddenly spiked.

Australian PM announces compensation for volunteer firefighters

The Australian government announced on Sunday it would compensate volunteer firefighters in the state of New South Wales (NSW), as the country's intense bushfire season rages on.

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

Austria's Greens summon party meeting as coalition deal nears

Austria's Greens, who are in coalition talks with conservatives led by Sebastian Kurz, on Saturday summoned a meeting of their party's top decision-making body next week to sign off on a deal, indicating an agreement is close.

from Reuters: World News https://ift.tt/2Zz9ZRu

Rocket fire kills US contractor in Iraq, raises fears of escalation

A rocket attack in Iraq killed a US civilian contractor, raising fears on Saturday that violence could escalate in the protest-hit country already engulfed in its worst political crisis in decades. Washington recently promised "a decisive US response" to a growing number of unclaimed attacks on its interests in Iraq, which it blames on pro-Iran factions. US-Iran tensions have soared since Washington pulled out of a landmark nuclear agreement with Tehran last year and imposed crippling sanctions.

The Democratic candidates whose supporters are most pro-impeachment are not who you expect

There's some variation in support for impeachment among the Democratic presidential candidates' supporters, according to recent Insider polling.

Japan police find human remains in boat suspected from North Korea: Coast Guard

Japanese police found the remains of at least five people in a wooden boat suspected to be from North Korea on the coast of one of Japan's outlying islands on Saturday, a Coast Guard official said. Police made the discovery in the wooden boat's stem around 9:30 a.m. (0030 GMT) on Saturday on Sado island, which is off the coast of Japan's northwestern prefecture of Niigata, Coast Guard official Kei Chinen said.

Netanyahu’s Big Win Means His Party Is in Real Trouble

JERUSALEM—After weeks of bad news, Thursday was a very good night for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who faced the first serious challenge to his leadership of the Likud party since 2005.At the end of a tense, stormy primary day, in which Netanyahu’s side emitted text messages with invented commandments—“thou shalt not betray”—and supporters of his opponent, Gideon Saar, cried foul over electoral misbehavior, Netanyahu won, convincingly.The final result was 72.5 percent for Netanyahu, and 27.5 percent for Saar, a former minister who ran on a nationalist agenda a notch harsher than Netanyahu’s and argued for a return to civility and decency in politics.The only way to guarantee the continuation of the right-wing’s monopoly over the Israeli government was for new leadership to take over in the Likud, Saar said.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Will Be Indicted. But Will He Step Down?Netanyahu failed to win a majority of votes in two successive elections held this year, in April and in September, and has presided over the Israeli government as an interim prime minister, with limited powers, for a full year.A ruthless political operator, Netanyahu has never nurtured successors. Most of the men who have served him, including former Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman and former Education Minister Naftali Bennet found themselves out of the Likud when their popularity began to threaten Netanyahu.Saar is the only prominent Likud figure with the courage to state out loud what the Israeli public already knows: there is no path for Netanyahu to form a new government after the national elections on March 2, 2020.In fact, the exuberance at this victory among the party faithful could fade as early as Sunday, when Avichai Mandelblit, the Israeli attorney general, has been forced to produce his opinion on a legal conundrum never before seen here.In November, Mandelblit announced a raft of corruption charges against Netanyahu, including bribery, fraud, and breach of trust.In order to protect a legally elected head of government from frivolous legal challenges, an Israeli Basic Law—a constitutional act—allows an indicted prime minister to serve out his or her term in office even while facing trial.But another law legislated by the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, does not allow any indicted person to be appointed to high office.Neither of these laws has ever been tested. Israel’s Supreme Court, which is grappling with several petitions claiming Netanyahu cannot legally remain in office, has compelled Mandelblit to present his decision on Netanyahu’s ability to continue in office, a sort of forced amicae curiae, by Sunday.In the coming months, the court will rule on Netanyahu’s fitness for office as a candidate under criminal indictment.Blue and White—the Likud’s opposition in the general election, which bested Netanyahu’s party in September—is led by the centrist former army chief, Benny Gantz, who ran on clean government platform. Throughout the failed coalition talks, he said his party hoped to form a broad national unity government with the Likud— but would not serve with an indicted criminal.Saar, during the primary,  claimed that Gantz would win the March vote if the Likud was not able to renew its leadership, offering a new coalition government, and that Netanyahu’s stubborn hold on power would bring defeat.Knowing he faced serious charges, Netanyahu has been scrambling to evade judgement. The law allows him to remain in office, but not to evade trial. During the last year, Netanyahu has tried to pass a personal immunity law through the Knesset and, created an even greater public uproar, tried to pass a law that would override supreme court decisions.But having failed, but he will now run a scorched earth campaign aimed at a single target: a large enough parliamentary majority to pass an immunity law.Before the primary results were even announced, Netanyahu confidant Miki Zohar, a rambunctious Knesset member for the Likud, said, “Netanyahu got the answer about whether he should ask for immunity.”But Netanyanhu’s big night may result in very bad news for his party, the Likud, who will be running an indicted candidate who’s twice lost and wants only one thing: legal immunity, which the voters hate. Israelis are generally indulgent about Netanyahu’s various offences and peccadillos, but deeply oppose parliamentary immunity, and Gantz accuses him of seeking only an “immunity government,” not a real governing coalition, and of holding the nation hostage to his legal imbroglios. Netanyahu Is Using Trump's Tactics to Try to Survive His Corruption and Bribery ScandalIn May, when Netanyahu presented the initial bills, 62% of the Israel public opposed immunity for Netanyahu. Recent polls show that figure now above 70%, from voters across the political spectrum.Netanyahu has until January 1 to request immunity against the criminal charges, but would need a majority of members to support it—and, for now, he hasn’t got it. The primary victory is expected to emboldened him to demand parliamentary support from the entire right wing block.If Netanyahu does not succeed whipping a majority of Israel's 120 lawmakers to support immunity, he will be put on trial in Jerusalem immediately after the next government is formed.Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

Pete Buttigieg's Christmas tweet inadvertently sparked a war over whether Jesus was a poor refugee

Pete Buttigieg, mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and top-tier 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, tweeted a Christmas message: "Today I join millions around the world in celebrating the arrival of divinity on earth, who came into this world not in riches but in poverty, not as a citizen but as a refugee. No matter where or how we celebrate, merry Christmas." In 2019, those are apparently fighting words.Some conservative Christians protested that Joseph, the terrestrial father of Jesus of Nazareth, wasn't poor — though it's hard to see how a carpenter from an otherwise insignificant village in Galilee would be well-off — or faulted Buttigieg for not saying "Jesus" in his tweet. "But it was perhaps Buttigieg’s classification of Jesus as a refugee — a common line among the Christian left — that received almost immediate pushback from evangelicals," says The Washington Post's Eugene Scott.The Daily Wire's Matt Walsh tied the criticisms together in one tweet, and he got some pushback from Jack Jenkins, a religion reporter with a master's degree in divinity from Harvard.> Hi! Religion reporter here. > > Christians who argue Jesus was a refugee are typically referring to what happened AFTER Jesus was born, when Mary, Joseph, and the newborn child fled to Egypt. > > This exegesis is easily Google-able. Or you could just, you know, read it in the Bible. https://t.co/DBL1by2maW> > — Jack Jenkins (@jackmjenkins) December 26, 2019Walsh, who is Catholic, argued back that Jesus wasn't a refugee because Galilee and Egypt were both part of the Roman Empire. Fr. James Martin, a Jesuit priest who's nobody's idea of a theological conservative, explained in 2017 why Jesus and his family were clearly refugees, at least according to the Gospel of Matthew. And fellow Jesuit priest Jeremy Zipple noted that Pope Benedict XVI — nobody's idea of a liberal — disagrees with Walsh, as did Pope Pius XII.> What an absurd position to take. Here’s Pope Benedict XVI quoting Pope Pius XII on this question. https://t.co/V7WXrIPUJr https://t.co/7Ee8CziytK pic.twitter.com/XTUlm0lXda> > — Jeremy Zipple (@jzipple) December 26, 2019Jesus' citizenship status "has real implications for how Christians on both sides of the aisle conduct policy" and view President Trump's hardline, restrictive immigration and refugee policies, Scott reports. And Buttigieg dropped his Christmas tweet into a tender moment for evangelicals being internally challenged to square their faith with their fealty to an unrepentantly flawed president. Read The Week's Bonnie Kristian on how evangelicals might fix this moral dissonance.More stories from theweek.com The evangelical resistance? The best novels published in 2019 Trump retweets, deletes post containing alleged whistleblower's name

Australia fires: Minister says up to 30 per cent of koalas may have been lost in bushfire crisis

One of Australia’s most famous animals is now a threatened species, with the country’s bushfire crisis wiping out huge numbers of koalas. Sussan Ley, the environment minister said Friday that the Mid North Coast of New South Wales, home to a sizeable part of Australia’s koala population, may have lost 30 per cent of its koalas. In an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Ms Ley said 30 per cent of koala habitat had been destroyed in the region.  She added: “We will know more when the fires are calmed down and a proper assessment can be made”. Before the fire crisis began it was estimated that up to 28,000 koalas lived in the Mid North Coast. Eight people have died in New South Wales alone, and about 3.4million hectares and almost 1,000 homes have been lost to the long-running bushfire crisis. Queensland, South Australia, Victoria and Western Australia have also faced large, emergency-level fires this fire season. Australian wildfire status Early on Friday the NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS) issued a “very high fire danger rating” for many parts of the state. In a statement, the RFS said there were “almost 1,300 firefighters in the field. Over 70 bush and grass fires, 33 uncontained”. Late in the day, it warned that Saturday would see “widespread very high fire danger”. South Australia’s Country Fire Service (CFS) assistant chief officer Brenton Eden told The Advertiser that the state is extremely dry and the conditions and coming heatwave poses a serious threat. “We are seeing fire behaviour across SA, Victoria and NSW that we haven’t seen and experienced for a long time… These fires are now travelling immense distances and covering an enormous amount of the landscape before people are prepared either to defend their property or to get out,” he said. “Cudlee Creek has been the most classic example recently, together with Yorketown, of fires that have started from a very small ignition source… The CFS responded within minutes to them and had no capacity to bring them under control.” Mr Eden warned that the two fires that have burnt through a total of 42,300 hectares of land at Cudlee Creek in the Adelaide Hills, and in Duncan, on Kangaroo Island, would continue to burn for weeks. “It’s tinder dry and ready to burn and that’s what we’re seeing at the moment,” he said. As the crisis continues there is renewed pressure on Scott Morrison, the prime minister, to reform Australia’s firefighting services and infrastructure. Weeks after he rejected calls to transform Australia’s largely volunteer bush firefighting services into professional organisations, one of Mr Morrison’s own senior Ministers has called for change. As three large fires raged in his electorate of Gippsland, Victoria, Veterans' Affairs Minister and Nationals MP Darren Chester said this week that there is strong support among his constituents to pay volunteers when they worked for extended periods.  Veteran NSW fire fighter Brendan Hurley, writing for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, said: “I've been a firefighter for 20 years and these fires have delivered the worst conditions I've ever faced. We have been responding to bushfires since the end of September and it is fair to say that as we move further into the campaign fatigue is setting in.” And one week after the uproar over Mr Morrison's Hawaiian holiday, New South Wales Emergency Services Minister David Elliott is leaving the country for a trip to the UK and France. His office said the Minister would not cancel his trip, but in a statement Mr Elliott said he would return home, “if the bushfire situation should demand it”. Mr Morrison’s Liberal Party is also in power at a state level in New South Wales.

'The Issue Is Not What I Did.' Joe Biden Says He Would Not Comply With Subpoena to Testify in Trump Impeachment Trial

"The reason I wouldn’t is because it’s all designed to deal with Trump doing what he’s done his whole life: trying to take the focus off him," Joe Biden said.

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.

Philippines bans two U.S. senators, considers tighter entry restrictions for U.S. citizens

The Philippines has banned two U.S. lawmakers from visiting and will introduce tighter entry restrictions for U.S. citizens should Washington enforce sanctions over the detention of a top government critic, President Rodrigo Duterte's spokesman said on Friday.

Trump claims homelessness 'so easy' to handle in attack on Democrats

President says governors of New York and California should ‘politely’ ask him for help in latest broadsideDonald Trump has continued to use America’s homelessness crisis to attack his political opponents in California and New York, tweeting on Saturday that homelessness should be “easy” to handle and that the governors of the two liberal states should ask him for help.Workers and activists on the front lines of the crisis have repeatedly said that Trump’s “tough talk” on homelessness is concerning, and that some of his proposed policies will only make the situation worse.As the number of homeless people has increased sharply in cities across California, some local politicians have already tried to try to penalize people for being homeless, rather than addressing root causes of the crisis, including unaffordable rents and evictions pushing people on to the streets.Meanwhile, Trump has continued to fuel anxiety by repeatedly suggesting he might try to implement some kind of police crackdown in California to clear the streets of encampments.On Christmas Day, Trump attacked California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, for his “bad job” on “taking care of the homeless population in California”.“If he can’t fix the problem, the Federal Govt. will get involved!” the president said.On Thursday, Trump attacked Nancy Pelosi, the California Democrat who has lead the effort to impeach him, and told her to “clean up her filthy dirty District & help the homeless there”.On Saturday, Trump wrote that fixing the homeless crisis “would be so easy with competence!”The governors of California and New York “must do something”, Trump wrote, and if they “can’t handle the situation, which they should be able to do very easily, they must call and ‘politely’ ask for help.”In September, a report from Trump’s Council of Economic Advisers concluded that “policing may be an important tool to help move people off the street and into shelter or housing where they can get the services they need”.Trump told reporters that month he was concerned about homeless people living on “our best streets, our best entrances to buildings”, places “where people in those buildings pay tremendous taxes, where they went to those locations because of the prestige”.“We can’t let Los Angeles, San Francisco, and numerous other cities destroy themselves,” he said, citing his concern that “foreign tenants” who moved to the cities because of the “prestige” now wanted to leave because of the homeless people and tents on the streets.Violent attacks directly targeting homeless people have risen in California in the past year: in Los Angeles alone, there have been at least eight incidents in which people threw makeshift explosives or flammable liquids on homeless people or their tents, according to officials and the Los Angeles Times.Trump’s repeated tweets about homelessness have been labeled “vile and reprehensible” by activists.Diane Yentel, the president and chief executive of the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC), noted on Thursday that Trump had proposed drastically shrinking or eliminating federal programs that keep the lowest-income people affordably housed, an important prevention measure that keeps people from becoming homeless.“In California, over 37,000 of the lowest-income people are at risk of eviction from this Trump proposal alone,” Yentel said.She also noted that Trump’s Department of Housing and Urban Development had “proposed allowing homeless shelters to discriminate and refuse shelter to transgender and other LGBTQ people, subjecting them to high risk of violence”.Homelessness is continuing to rise across California: a year-end Guardian investigation found that homelessness had increased 16% in Los Angeles, 17% in San Francisco, 42% in San Jose, 47% in Oakland, and 52% in Sacramento county, home to the state’s capital. Many people were experiencing homelessness for the first time, and both families and seniors are increasingly struggling with homelessness.Trump’s focus on homelessness in California and elsewhere is not the first time he has suggested that he could “easily” solve complex social problems in cities where Democrats hold political power.During his presidential campaign, Trump claimed that an unnamed Chicago police official had told him that violence in Chicago could be stopped “in one week” if officers were allowed to be “very much tougher than they are right now”.Chicago typically has the highest total number of murders of any American city, though other smaller cities, including St Louis, have higher per capita murder rates.

"Double murder-suicide" likely in deaths of mom and 2 kids

A district attorney called the deaths of Erin Pascal and her children Allison, 4, and Andrew, 1, "unspeakable."

Russia and Ukraine drop mutual gas claims worth millions

The gas companies of Ukraine and Russia have agreed to drop all financial claims worth billions of pounds against each other in the latest rapprochement between the two nations bitterly divided by a separatist conflict. Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said in an interview broadcast on Russian state television on Friday that the two countries are withdrawing all of their lawsuits against each other after they agreed on a gas transit deal last week. Russian gas giant Gazprom, which relies on Ukraine as its single largest transit route to Europe, last week agreed to pay out $2.9 billion (£2.2 billion) to Ukraine stemming from a previous dispute over transit fees. The parties will now withdraw all financial claims that run up millions of pounds on both sides. Ukraine, for one, has managed to secure a freeze of Gazprom’s assets in several countries such as Great Britain, Switzerland and the Netherland. Those assets will now be released. Mr Novak on Friday hailed the deal as “mutually beneficial” and said that courts would otherwise have taken years to rule on those claims. A Gazprom petrol station in Moscow “It’s a good thing,” he said in the interview. “It was important for us to start our relations with a clean slate on January 1.” The two neighboring countries have been hostile to each other since 2014 when Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula and threw its weight behind separatists in eastern Ukraine. Moscow still claims the annexation of Crimea was legal and denies reports of sending troops and weapons to back the separatist rebels. Both countries have, however, been making small steps towards rapprochement since Ukraine elected its new president, former comedian Volodymyr Zelenskiy in April. Mr Zelenskiy and Russian President Vladimir Putin negotiated a major prisoner exchange earlier this year and agreed at a summit meeting earlier this month to release more prisoners by the end of the year.

Neal R. Peirce, Who Put Spotlight on Urban Innovation, Dies at 87

By BY KEITH SCHNEIDER from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2Zurbr7

American Contractor Killed in Rocket Attack in Iraq

By BY JULIAN E. BARNES from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2MxXwrC

Russia Deploys Hypersonic Weapon, Potentially Renewing Arms Race

By BY JULIAN E. BARNES AND DAVID E. SANGER from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2Zwuv5e

Arthur Singer Jr., Who Set the Stage for Public TV, Dies at 90

By BY SAM ROBERTS from NYT Arts https://ift.tt/2MBoP4B

The Patriarchy of Alcoholics Anonymous

By BY HOLLY WHITAKER from NYT Opinion https://ift.tt/365eyVM

‘There Is No Excuse.’ Methodist Pastor, Accused of Sexual Harassment, Steps Down.

By BY JACK HEALY from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/357W2et

Ruling in Paul Haggis Case Gives Lift to #MeToo Lawsuits

By BY NANCY COLEMAN from NYT Arts https://ift.tt/2Zx0l1n

Sue Lyon, Star of ‘Lolita,’ Is Dead at 73

By BY NEIL GENZLINGER from NYT Movies https://ift.tt/2Qp7tcj

N.Y.P.D. Steps Up Patrols After Reports of 8 Anti-Semitic Incidents

By BY ANDREA SALCEDO AND SEAN PICCOLI from NYT New York https://ift.tt/353dBfi

Mexican Police Chief Arrested in Massacre of Mormon Family

By BY ELISABETH MALKIN from NYT World https://ift.tt/2sq1QT7

Probation Officer Accused of Sexually Assaulting Parolees Is Arrested

By BY AIMEE ORTIZ from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2spqza0

Mexico says Spanish diplomats' cars blocked by Bolivia at La Paz embassy

Mexico's government said Bolivian police had impeded the departure of Spanish officials visiting the Mexican ambassador in La Paz on Friday, widening a spat over Bolivia's surveillance of its diplomatic facilities that has rumbled on for days.

from Reuters: World News https://ift.tt/2Qo6PvG

Sizzling temperatures hit Australia as wildfires persist

A code red was issued in South Australia on Friday as temperatures hit 42 degrees Celsius (108 Fahrenheit) in the state’s capital, while firefighters battling wildfires in New South Wales established containment lines in cooler conditions ahead of an expected heatwave this weekend. South Australia last week had 86 homes destroyed after wildfires flared in catastrophic conditions, as its capital Adelaide endured a heatwave peaking at a sizzling 46 C (115 F). The heatwave has prompted the South Australian government to declare a code red, which aims to ensure the homeless kept cool and hydrated.

Norwegian woman told to leave India after joining citizenship law protest

A Norwegian woman on holiday in India's southern state of Kerala has been told to leave the country after she joined a protest against Prime Minister Narendra Modi's new citizenship law, authorities said on Friday.

U.S. appeals court voids 'shockingly low' 17-year sentence in NY terrorism case

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said Fareed Mumuni's trial judge abused her discretion in imposing a term that was 80% below the 85 years recommended by federal guidelines, and even below the 18-year term for co-defendant Munther Omar Saleh, who was not accused of attempted murder. In a 2-1 decision, the court said U.S. District Judge Margo Brodie improperly second-guessed whether Mumuni, 25, intended to kill FBI Special Agent Kevin Coughlin in June 2015 by stabbing him repeatedly with an 8-inch kitchen knife in Mumuni's home.

Families of Soldiers Fallen or Wounded in Afghanistan Sue Contractors for Allegedly Paying Protection Money to Taliban

Families of 143 American troops and contractors killed or wounded in Afghanistan have sued U.S. and international contractors involved in Afghan reconstruction projects for allegedly paying protection money to the Taliban.The lawsuit, filed Friday in federal court, claims certain contracting companies often paid the Taliban through subcontractors, which allowed the the companies to save money on security personnel. The Taliban then used the money, according to the lawsuit, to fund attacks on other companies that didn't make payments to the insurgent group."The defendants are large corporations that had lucrative businesses in Afghanistan," said Joshua Branson, a lawyer for the case, in a statement to the Wall Street Journal. "Those protection payments, as alleged, redirected attacks away from the defendants’ own interests while financing a terrorist insurgency that killed and injured thousands of Americans, including our clients."It has been widely known for years that money from American defense contractors has found its way to local Afghan warlords in the wake of the U.S. invasion of the country. A 2010 congressional investigation found that funds from Pentagon-backed contractors were fueling a "protection racket" by bribing local officials and possibly Taliban members in exchange for safe passage of goods.No U.S. or international companies have been successfully prosecuted for aiding the Taliban. The current lawsuit is a civil suit, which will enable a conviction if prosecutors can convince a jury of a preponderance of evidence in their favor, as opposed to a criminal suit which requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt.The war in Afghanistan, now 18 years old, came under increased scrutiny after the Washington Post published a trove of documents it dubbed the "Afganistan Papers." The records are from a federal investigation into the war effort and contain reflections of U.S. officials and troops in which they express doubts about the success of the war and the clarity of the military's mission. The officials also indicated the U.S. repeatedly misrepresented progress in the war to the government and the American people.The U.S. has been attempting peace negotiations with the Taliban, but talks have proceeded slowly as insurgents have continued to attack American targets.

The lawyer who shaped Boeing's response to the 737 Max crisis announced his retirement just 3 days after CEO Dennis Muilenburg was fired

Boeing's handling of legal elements of the 737 Max crisis has been subject to sharp criticism, including from Congress.

2 passengers say they were sexually assaulted during their flights. They're suing the airline for allegedly ignoring their reports.

One woman alleged in the lawsuit that she immediately notified a flight attendant when she was assaulted, but she was not allowed to switch seats.