Trump says U.S. would hit 52 Iranian sites if American targets attacked

President Donald Trump said on Saturday the United States has targeted 52 Iranian sites that it would strike if Iran attacks Americans or U.S. assets in response to a U.S. drone strike that killed Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani in Iraq.

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Many killed in attack on military camp in Libya’s capital: minister

At least 28 people were killed in an attack on a military academy in the Libyan capital late on Saturday, the health minister of the Tripoli-based government said.

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Saudi Arabia condemns Turkish escalation in Libya: statement

Saudi Arabia condemns "the recent Turkish escalation in Libya" and the Turkish parliament's approval of a troop deployment to Libya, and considers it a violation of U.N. Security Council decisions, the foreign ministry said in a statement on the state news agency SPA.

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As Tensions With Iran Escalated, Trump Opted for Most Extreme Measure

By BY HELENE COOPER, ERIC SCHMITT, MAGGIE HABERMAN AND RUKMINI CALLIMACHI from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2trbipB

Iran faces dilemma in avenging general's death: To strike back without starting a war

Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, vowed to exact “severe revenge” for the Thursday night U.S. airstrike that killed the country’s most famous general, but the Iranian regime will have to walk a fine line to respond strongly without provoking a war with the United States, former intelligence officials familiar with the region said Friday. Qassem Soleimani headed the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’ Quds Force, which combines intelligence gathering, covert action and special operations. Also killed in the airstrike, which hit two vehicles, was Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the leader of the Iraqi Shiite militia group Kataib Hezbollah, along with several other Quds Force and militia members.

Fire victims heckle Australian prime minister as country burns: 'You're an idiot'

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison was confronted Thursday by angry residents of the town of Cobargo as bush fires made worse by climate change continued to ravage the country.

With hours' notice, US fast-response force flies to Mideast

Hundreds of U.S. soldiers deployed Saturday from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, to Kuwait to serve as reinforcements in the Middle East amid rising tensions following the U.S. killing of a top Iranian general. Lt. Col. Mike Burns, a spokesman for the 82nd Airborne Division, told The Associated Press 3,500 members of the division’s quick-deployment brigade, known officially as its Immediate Response Force, will have deployed within a few days. A loading ramp at Fort Bragg was filled Saturday morning with combat gear and restless soldiers.

Democrats battle White House over executive power and congressional oversight

Two hearings in a Washington court brought the battle between the House and the White House into stark relief.

Slain Hubby Claimed Doomsday Mom Threatened to Kill Him

Lori Vallow, the mother of two Idaho children who have vanished, allegedly threatened to kill her estranged husband five months before he was murdered, according to divorce documents.Charles Vallow said in the papers that Lori was obsessed with doomsday and near-death scenarios and told him in January that she was a “translated being who cannot taste death sent by god to lead the 144,000 into the Millennium.”By July, Charles Vallow was dead—allegedly shot by Lori’s brother, Alex Cox, who himself died of unknown causes on Dec. 12. A few months later, Lori married Chad Daybell, a doomsday writer whose own wife had died weeks earlier.The newlyweds left Idaho, police said, after investigators began inquiring about the whereabouts of Lori’s minor children, 17-year-old Tylee Ryan and adopted 7-year-old Joshua “J.J.” Vallow.Doomsday Writer’s Friend Says He Prophesied Wife’s Mysterious DeathThe children have not been seen since October and Rexburg, Idaho, police said last week they are believed to be in serious danger. Daybell and Vallow are not cooperating with police and the FBI.According to local news outlets that obtained the divorce papers, Charles Vallow filed a divorce petition last February seeking sole custody of J.J. and painting a disturbing portrait of Lori, referred to as “mother” in the documents.“Mother believes that she is receiving spiritual revelations and visions to help her gather and prepare those chosen to live in the New Jerusalem after the Great War as prophesied in the Book of Revelations,” the petition read.Lori allegedly told Charles that if he got in the way “of her mission she would murder him” and that she “had an angel there to help her dispose of the body.”Charles' sister, Kay Woodcock, says she talked to her brother throughout this time and described him as “fearful.”“He was sleeping with one eye open,” Woodcock told NBC affiliate 12 News. “People I've spoken with said she would just be doing something and say, ‘Well, Charles just has to go.’”Idaho Cops Blast Doomsday Parents of Missing KidsCharles obtained an order of protection and unsuccessfully tried to get authorities to put a 72-hour mental health hold on Lori—who had allegedly cleaned $35,000 out of their bank account.Charles’ older son helped him move from Chandler, Arizona, to Texas. In July, he went back to Arizona to pick up J.J. and things turned ugly. Cox allegedly shot him dead in what police deemed a case of self-defense.The older son told Fox 10 that his dad would never have gotten violent.“I knew my dad was the most passive person. He hated arguing with people. He’d never been in a fight, he was not an aggressive person in any way. I don’t believe it at all,” he told the TV station.The deaths of both Cox and Charles Vallow are under investigation—along with the death of Chad Daybell’s first wife, Tammy.After she was found dead at their Idaho home in July, he declined an autopsy and the cause of death was listed as natural. Then he married Lori, whom he apparently met through a doomsday site called Preparing a People.Cops in Missing Siblings Case Search Doomsday Writer’s HomeAfter J.J. and Tylee were reported missing by extended family, authorities exhumed Tammy’s body. The results of the autopsy have not yet been made public, but police said Friday that they had developed probable cause to search the Daybell home for evidence related to her death and the disappearance of the kids.“I’m terrified for JJ. I’m terrified for Tylee,” Charles’ older son told Fox 10. “I’m terrified for everyone surrounding them and their safety. I’m terrified for my family’s safety.”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.

Security camera shows Ghosn leaving Tokyo home alone before his escape - NHK

A surveillance camera captured former Nissan Motor Co chairman Carlos Ghosn leaving his Tokyo residence alone shortly before his surprise escape from Japan, public broadcaster NHK said on Friday, citing investigative sources. The security footage was taken by a camera installed at his house in central Tokyo around noon on Sunday, and the camera did not show him returning home, NHK said. Ghosn has become an international fugitive after he revealed on Tuesday he had fled to Lebanon to escape what he called a "rigged" justice system in Japan, where he faces charges relating to alleged financial crimes.

An Iranian military commander says there are '35 vital American positions in the region' which they can strike in response to top general's assassination

The potential targets include US ships stationed near Iran, as well as cities in Israel, one of America's closest allies.

Is Kim Jong-un Feeling Insecure?

Why did Kim allow the party plenary report to replace his traditional New Year’s Address? As with many things in North Korea, we do not know, forcing us to speculate. At least one possibility is that Kim Jong-un fears that his pattern of failures in 2019 has significantly undermined his position as the god of North Korea.

Global powers warn that the world has become a more dangerous place after U.S. attacks

Global powers warned Friday that the world has become a more dangerous place and urged restraint after the U.S. assassinated Iran’s top general, although Britain and Germany also suggested that Iran shared blame for provoking the targeted killing that dramatically ratcheted up tensions in the Mideast.

Who Was Qassem Soleimani? A Master of Iran’s Intrigue and Force

In July 2018, after President Donald Trump warned Iran's president not to threaten the United States, a rejoinder came not from the Iranian leader but from a military figure perhaps even more powerful."It is beneath the dignity of our president to respond to you," Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani declared in a speech in western Iran. "I, as a soldier, respond to you."On Friday, Soleimani was reported killed in an airstrike in Baghdad.The general, a once-shadowy figure who enjoyed celebrity-like status among the hard-line conservatives in Iran, was a figure of intense interest to people inside and outside the country.It is not just that he was in charge of Iranian intelligence gathering and covert military operations, and regarded as one of its most cunning and autonomous military figures. He was also believed to be very close to the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei -- and seen as a potential future leader of Iran.That Soleimani was in Iraq when he was killed at age 62, at Baghdad International Airport, was not surprising.He was in charge of the Quds Force of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, a special forces unit that undertakes Iranian missions in other countries. He had been named to lead it in the late 1990s.In that role, Soleimani was believed to be the chief strategist behind Iran's military ventures and influence in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere in the region and beyond. He was considered the most effective military intelligence official in the region.A senior Iraqi intelligence official once told U.S. officials in Baghdad that Soleimani had described himself as the "sole authority for Iranian actions in Iraq."In his speech denouncing Trump, he was even less discreet -- and openly mocking."We are near you, where you can't even imagine," he said. "We are ready. We are the man of this arena."Well before the speech, U.S. officials had learned to see Soleimani as a formidable adversary.After the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq that toppled Saddam Hussein, the United States accused Soleimani of plotting attacks on U.S. soldiers.The general worked to expand Iran's influence in Iraq, tying down the U.S. military. The Iranian government was determined to retain its influence in the region and felt threatened by the expanding U.S. military presence on its western and eastern flanks.And in 2011, the Treasury Department placed him on a sanctions blacklist, accusing him of complicity in what U.S. officials called a plot to kill the Saudi ambassador to Washington.But at times, the adversary looked more like ally, however tenuous the relationship. U.S. officials cooperated with the Iranian general in Iraq to reverse gains made by the Islamic State -- a mutual enemy.At the height of the Iraq War, as the Quds Force under Soleimani armed and trained Shiite militias in Iraq, the general was stoking violence and then mediating the conflict so he could make himself indispensable and keep the Iraqis off balance, former U.S. officials have said.According to a June 2008 cable written by Ryan Crocker, then the U.S. ambassador to Baghdad, Soleimani played a role in brokering a cease-fire that enabled the battered Shiite militias in the Sadr City neighborhood of Baghdad, which Iran was supporting, to withdraw.In 2015, Soleimani was in the northern Iraqi city of Tikrit, commanding Iraqi Shiite militias that were trying to recapture it from ISIS fighters. U.S. warplanes belatedly joined that campaign.Soleimani also caught the imagination of ordinary Iranians. He came to prominence during Iran's bloody eight-year war with Iraq. As a Revolutionary Guards' commander, he gained a reputation for leading reconnaissance missions behind Iraqi lines."For Qassem Soleimani, the Iran-Iraq war never really ended," Crocker once said in an interview. "No human being could have come through such a World War I-style conflict and not have been forever affected. His strategic goal was an outright victory over Iraq, and if that was not possible, to create and influence a weak Iraq."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company

Trump tells evangelicals that God is 'on our side'

Launching a political coalition called “Evangelicals for Trump” at a Florida megachurch on Friday, President Trump declared his belief that God supports his agenda.

A security expert reveals the possible thinking behind Carlos Ghosn's wild escape from Japan, which involved 2 planes and a mad dash between Turkey and Lebanon

Carlos Ghosn, the former head of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance, fled Japan while awaiting trial on charges of financial misconduct.

Peru prosecutors seek 12-year term for Kenji Fujimori

Peruvian prosecutors are seeking a 12-year prison term for former lawmaker Kenji Fujimori on charges of attempting to buy votes in a plot to keep ex-president Pedro Pablo Kuczynski from being impeached. Prosecutor Bersabeth Revilla accused the son of jailed ex-president Alberto Fujimori of bribery and influence-peddling. Also charged are former lawmakers Guillermo Bocangel and Bienvenido Ramirez.

What's behind the recent rash of anti-Semitic attacks?

There were more than 1,300 anti-Semitic incidents in 2019, according to the Anti-Defamation League, including a stabbing at a rabbi's home Saturday. Rabbi Angela Warnick Buchdahl and professor Ibram Kendi joined "CBS This Morning" to discuss the rash of hate.

Iran’s Ayatollah Vows Revenge for Soleimani Killing: ‘His Blood Was Shed by the Most Barbaric of Men’

Iranian Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei announced three days of nation-wide mourning following the death of top military leader Qassim Soleimani on Thursday, calling him a “eminent example of a person trained in Islam,” and threatening retribution for the U.S. attack.“The loss of our dear General is bitter. The continuing fight & ultimate victory will be more bitter for the murderers & criminals,” Khamenei wrote on Twitter.Soleimani, responsible for the deaths of hundreds of U.S. troops over the last two decades, ran the Iranian special Quds Force, which the U.S. designated a terror group in 2007. He was killed alongside Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis by an airstrike at Baghdad airport after President Trump warned Iran and its allies over the multi-day siege of the U.S. embassy in Baghdad.> ….Iran will be held fully responsible for lives lost, or damage incurred, at any of our facilities. They will pay a very BIG PRICE! This is not a Warning, it is a Threat. Happy New Year!> > -- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 31, 2019In a statement confirming Soleimani’s death, the Pentagon said the Iranian “approved” the attacks on the embassy by Iranian-backed militias, which had scrawled “Soleimani is my leader” on the embassy walls during the attack. The U.S. also said the strike was “aimed at deterring future Iranian attack plans,” with Democrats and other skeptics voicing concerns that the attack could lead to war.The Ayatollah seemed to confirm an Iranian response, tweeting “a SevereRevenge awaits the criminals who have stained their hands with his & the other martyrs’ blood last night.”> His efforts & path won’t be stopped by his martyrdom, by God’s Power, rather a SevereRevenge awaits the criminals who have stained their hands with his & the other martyrs’ blood last night. Martyr Soleimani is an Intl figure of Resistance & all such people will seek revenge. /3> > -- Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) January 3, 2020Iraq’s Prime Minister Adil Abdul Mahdi also reacted to the attack, saying Friday that it was “a dangerous escalation that will light the fuse of a destructive war in Iraq, the region, and the world.”Mahdi, whose government has support from both the U.S. and Iran, called Soleimani and al-Muhandis as “huge symbols of the victory against terrorists.” With support from Soleimani and Iran, al-Muhandis had previously led the Popular Mobilization Forces, an umbrella network of militias, in assisting Iraqi security forces retake Iraq from ISIS.

Fox’s Stuart Varney: Why Would You Impeach a President Who Just Killed a Terrorist?

The morning after President Donald Trump ordered an American airstrike that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, Fox Business Network host Stuart Varney had one question on his mind: “Where does this leave impeachment?”With the markets roiling over the specter of war with Iran, Varney wondered aloud on Friday morning whether the assassination of one of Iran’s top leaders would provide a “temporary interruption” to the bull market or if this is “something that will go on for some time to come.”“What happens to the price of gasoline in America, as the price of oil goes up?” Varney added. “On the world market? Will we now halt the decline in gas prices and start to see them rise?”The conservative Fox Business anchor then shifted to the political ramifications of the president’s actions, asking how Democrats will react to this over the coming weeks and months.After saying Democrats had a “difficult political row to hoe” by urging caution and warning that killing Soleimani could be reckless, Varney suggested that the impeachment of Trump may need to be scrapped due to impending war.“And where does it leave impeachment?” Varney asked. “Are we now going to try to impeach and remove from office the commander-in-chief who’s just taken out one of the world’s leading terrorists? That’s quite a question, I suggest.”The pro-Trump host wasn’t the only Fox personality to express this view on Friday morning. During an appearance on Fox News’ America’s Newsroom, Fox News contributor and Trump super PAC chairman Ed Rollins said Democrats are “foolish if they are going to continue on this impeachment process.”“This is an unsafe world and this shows great strength,” Rollins concluded.During the broadcast of his three-hour morning program Varney and Co., Varney continued to obsess over the issue, asking multiple guests whether impeachment should be shelved. “Are we really going to put the president of the United States on trial and risk the commander in chief being removed from office?” Varney asked Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) at one point. “Where does all this leave impeachment?”Kennedy, meanwhile, said that impeachment had “moved from folly to farce” under House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Senate “should ignore her and go back to work and deal with the crisis in Iran and other more pressing domestic issues.”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.

Kyrie Irving Says He May Need Shoulder Surgery

By BY SOPAN DEB from NYT Sports https://ift.tt/36qzaIu

Fox News Breaking News Alert

Fox News Breaking News Alert

Trump says US has targeted '52 Iranian sites' if Iran retaliates after Soleimani killing

01/04/20 3:57 PM

White House gives lawmakers formal notice of Iraq strike amid complaints from Democrats

The White House sent to Congress on Saturday formal notification of Friday's U.S. drone strike that killed a top Iranian general, congressional aides said, amid complaints from Democrats that President Donald Trump did not notify lawmakers or seek advance approval for the attack.

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White House Withholds 20 Emails Between Two Trump Aides on Ukraine Aid

By BY CHARLIE SAVAGE AND ERIC LIPTON from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/36oNVvc

Trump Pulls Back Efforts to Enforce Housing Desegregation

By BY LOLA FADULU from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/36oMZHc

Homeland Security Sees ‘No Specific, Credible Threat’ From Iran, but Warns of Cyberattacks

By BY ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2ZNAkLD

A Shocked Iraq Reconsiders Its Relationship With the U.S.

By BY FALIH HASSAN, TIM ARANGO AND ALISSA J. RUBIN from NYT World https://ift.tt/2SOXJLa

Police: Psychic said girl was possessed, scammed mom of $70K

Tracy Milanovich, 37, of Somerset, is charged with obtaining property by trick, along with larceny and witness intimidation, Somerset police said in a statement Thursday. Police started investigating Dec. 17 when the alleged victim reported that she was tricked by Milanovich into handing over large sums of cash along with household items, including towels and bedding, to battle the demon. The allegations date to Nov. 15, when the woman first went to Milanovich’s business, Tracy’s Psychic Palm Reader, for a tarot card reading, police said in their report.

More Than Mines: Iran Is Ready To Harass And Destroy The U.S. Navy

Iran has been preparing for this.

Carlos Ghosn may have escaped arrest in double bass case

The former Nissan chairman was being held on financial misconduct charges when he fled Japan and ended up in his native Lebanon.

Father and 9-year-old daughter mistaken for deer fatally shot while hunting

Colleton County Coroner Richard Harvey confirmed Kim Drawdy, 30, and daughter Lauren, 9, were killed on New Year's Day in Walterboro.

Trump impeachment: Unredacted emails reveal order to withhold Ukraine aid came directly from president, report says

The decision to withhold military aid to Ukraine came directly from Donald Trump, despite warnings that doing so could be illegal, according to unredacted documents quoting a senior White House official.Redacted portions of internal Trump administration emails reportedly show how officials' efforts to carry out presidential orders to withhold $391 million in assistance to Ukraine continued despite warnings from Defence Department staff that such a hold violated US law.

Delta flight attendants say their chemically treated Lands' End uniforms are giving them migraines, hair loss, and boils — and now they're suing the retailer

In a court case filed on December 31, employees of Delta Air Lines allege their Lands' End uniforms are making them sick.

'Affluenza teen' jailed in Texas for probation violation

A Texas man who used "affluenza" as a defense at his trial for killing four people while driving drunk was arrested Thursday after authorities say he violated the terms of his probation. Ethan Couch, 22, was booked into a jail in Fort Worth after he tested positive for THC, the psychoactive compound in marijuana, court records show. “We cannot make any further statement until we have the opportunity to conduct an investigation to determine if, in fact, Ethan ingested THC and, if so, if it was a voluntary act on his part," Brown and Wynn said in a statement.

U.S. Strike Kills Iran’s Most Important Military Commander

In a drastic escalation of the U.S.’ generation-long wars in the Middle East, a U.S. strike on Thursday in Baghdad killed Qassem Soleimani, the leader of Iran’s powerful Quds Force and an architect of American agony in Iraq. The Pentagon confirmed late Thursday that it killed Soleimani “at the direction of the president” and claimed in a statement that “General Soleimani was actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region.” It continued: “This strike was aimed at deterring future Iranian attack plans. The United States will continue to take all necessary action to protect our people and our interests wherever they are around the world.”President Trump tweeted about the situation on Friday morning: “Iran never won a war, but never lost a negotiation!”Reports from Iraq said Soleimani was killed in a strike that occurred near Baghdad International Airport. The airport, which houses U.S. and allied Iraqi forces, had also come under rocket fire from unknown militants on Thursday. Killing Soleimani, a senior official of a nation with which the U.S. is not officially at war, is highly likely to prompt reprisal attacks against Americans in Iraq and perhaps elsewhere. In addition to the 5,000 troops in Iraq, there are nearly 10,000 more deployed across the Middle East, including in Saudi Arabia, which is fighting a U.S.-backed proxy war with Iran in Yemen. The strike on Soleimani came days after supporters of an Iran-backed Iraqi militia, Kataib Hezbollah, besieged the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, itself a reprisal for U.S. strikes on the militia in Iraq and Syria. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said before the Thursday strike that he anticipated additional attacks by Iranian-backed militias. “And they will likely regret it,” he told reporters. “And we are prepared to exercise self-defense, and we are prepared to deter further bad behavior from these groups, all of which are sponsored and directed and resourced by Iran.”Soleimani has been a top U.S. adversary for 15 years, when the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq became a battlefield for Iranian proxy conflict against an Iran that saw itself encircled by the U.S. on both its western and eastern borders. The U.S. blamed Iran both for a wave of powerful bombs that killed and maimed U.S. servicemembers and for frustrating U.S. plans to turn Iraq into a U.S.-aligned Mideast outpost. Famously, Soleimani in 2008 texted David Petraeus, then the U.S. military commander in Iraq, to brag that he controlled Iran’s policy in Iraq and was outfoxing the Americans. But the U.S. had long feared that taking direct military action against Iran would result in an entirely new, devastating war. The Obama administration, seeking to avert escalation, signed a deal with Iran to forestall its development of a nuclear weapon. In Iraq, U.S. and Iranian forces reached an uneasy, unacknowledged alignment of interests when both fought against the so-called Islamic State terror group.The Trump administration, however, has taken a bellicose posture toward Iran, despite pledging to end U.S.-Mideast entanglements. It canceled the nuclear deal with Iran and, in April, designated the Quds Force a terrorist group. “I’m more convinced than ever that we have basically lost Iraq,” said one former senior Obama administration official. “I cannot think of any factions that would declare their support for us. That’s new and a part of bad trend.”The strike in Iraq on Thursday comes after the Trump administration’s years-long “maximum pressure” campaign—a policy to decimate Iran’s economy with sanctions so severe that it forced the country back in line with the nuclear deal. While those sanctions have hit Tehran’s most important financial sectors with force, Iran’s leaders have resisted adhering to America’s demands. The Iranian presence in Iraq had become the focus of major protests in recent months, which may have emboldened the Trump administration. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has made that point repeatedly. But the escalating U.S. and also Israeli confrontation with Iran-backed militias may serve to focus Iraqi public outrage on the United States. The U.S. actions are flagrant violations of Iraqi sovereignty, and put in danger the lives of American troops in Iraq who have been there at the invitation of the Iraqi government since 2014 to help in the war against ISIS.Tensions between the U.S. and Iranian proxies operating in Iraq were boiling hot even before Soleimani was killed on Thursday. Following protests at the U.S. embassy last week, fighters with Kataib Hezbollah and other Iranian-backed groups vowed to continue to encircle American outposts in the country.“The main problem is we have got enough from America. We don’t want them to be here. They are the source of all the problems—terrorists, internal fights. We don’t want to argue anything with anyone. The only solution is Americans should leave Iraq,” Saad Ali, a 27-year-old fighter from Kataib Hezbollah, said Wednesday. “They killed our brothers who fought ISIS, we won’t let our brothers’ blood be wasted that easy. We won’t leave till the Americans leave our country. We will kick them out from our country.”Hassam Abbas, a 31-year-old member of Asaib Ahl al-Haq, a Shiite militia in Iraq, said the American troops in Iraq “make a disaster” wherever they go. “We don’t want them here. They should get out of Iraq as soon as possible, otherwise we have forces and we will fight them all over Iraq,” he said on Wednesday. “We will surround all their bases with protests in the next few days.”The Iranian-American author and commentator Hooman Majd expected violent retaliation, as he said Soleimani is perceived within Iran as a nationalist figure who has fought in Iran’s wars since the 1980s. “It’s an incredibly dangerous escalation, not thought through, and certainly the chances of retaliation in places where Iran has the ability to retaliate, such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, the Persian Gulf states, would lead one to believe American government officials or soldiers are potentially in danger,” Majd said. If the president’s supporters share such concerns, they’re keeping them quiet, for now. Even before the Trump administration officially confirmed the death of Soleimani, various officials from the president’s re-election campaign were doing victory laps on social media.“Alexa, play ‘Another One Bites the Dust,’” tweeted Trump 2020 rapid-response staffer Abigail Marone. The post was retweeted by Team Trump’s principal deputy comms director Erin Perrine. “THIS is what strong foreign policy looks like.”—with additional reporting by Christopher Dickey and Asawin SuebsaengRead 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.

What's behind the recent rash of anti-Semitic attacks?

There were more than 1,300 anti-Semitic incidents in 2019, according to the Anti-Defamation League, including a stabbing at a rabbi's home Saturday. Rabbi Angela Warnick Buchdahl and professor Ibram Kendi joined "CBS This Morning" to discuss the rash of hate.

Trump gave 'clear direction' to hold Ukraine aid, says White House official in uncovered documents

Unredacted documents obtained by Just Security appear to show the Pentagon was concerned by President Trump's decision to withhold military aid to Ukraine.Defense Department officials worried the move, at the center of Trump's impeachment, would violate requirements that money be spent as allocated by Congress. Trump is accused of leveraging the aid to pressure Ukraine into investigating Democrats for his political benefit. Michael Duffey, associate director of national security programs at the Office of Management and Budget, told Pentagon officials there was "clear direction from POTUS to continue to hold" the aid when asked in August, though no rationale was explained. Later, when the hold was lifted and Duffey was asked why, he said it was "not exactly clear but president made the decision to go."Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said the revelations that Trump was apparently directly involved in withholding the aid "further expose the serious concerns raised by Trump administration officials about the propriety and legality of the president's decision to cut off aid to Ukraine to benefit himself." Schumer called for further testimony in a Senate impeachment trial, The Washington Post reports.House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), meanwhile, called the documents "incriminating" and said they "corroborate" testimony from the House impeachment inquiry.> New lengthy statement from @RepAdamSchiff on @just_security reporting on emails from Pentagon to OMB warning Ukraine funding hold might be illegal: "...the House subpoenaed these very documents. From their deeply incriminating character, we can now see why they were concealed" pic.twitter.com/iUJfiOuFLv> > -- Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) January 2, 2020More stories from theweek.com 4 reasons to beware Trump's decision to kill Soleimani United Methodist Church leader calls historic plan to split over same-sex marriage 'a welcome relief' Will Bernie voters vote for Biden when he wins?

Migrants sent back to Mexico stuck and scared

Bundled against the cold, dozens of asylum seekers pushed back into Mexico by the United States tried Friday to get their bearings, still unsure of how they would travel some 350 miles to their court dates, subsist for months in this unfamiliar border city or return to their distant homelands. On Thursday, the U.S. government expanded its so-called “Remain in Mexico” program to the border between this city and its sister Nogales, Arizona. A group of about 30 mostly Central American migrants were returned that day and another approximately 45 were sent Friday.

Hundreds arrested in Hong Kong in New Year's Day protests: police

Hong Kong police arrested about 400 people in New Year's Day protests after what started as a peaceful pro-democracy march of tens of thousands spiraled into chaotic scenes with police firing tear gas to disperse the crowds. The arrests take the total to about 7,000 since protests in the city escalated in June over a now-withdrawn bill that would have allowed extradition to mainland China, and will highlight the apparent absence of any progress towards ending the unrest. The tension on Wednesday rose after some arrests were made in the Wan Chai bar district near a branch of global banking group HSBC <0005.HK>, which has been the target of protester anger in recent weeks.