Judge dismisses House impeachment subpoena challenge from John Bolton deputy

Charles Kupperman, a deputy to John Bolton when he was President Trump's national security adviser, filed suit after the House subpoenaed him in October as part of its impeachment investigation, asking a federal court to decide if he should comply with the subpoena or follow the White House directive that he refuse to testify. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon dismissed the lawsuit on Monday, noting that the House had withdrawn its subpoena and said it won't reissue it, and the Justice Department said it wouldn't prosecute him for defying the subpoena in any case. House and Justice Department lawyers had asked Leon to dismiss the lawsuit."The House clearly has no intention of pursuing Kupperman, and his claims are thus moot," Leon wrote in his 14-page ruling. Kupperman's continued pursuit of a legal answer to his twin directives was widely seen as a proxy for Bolton, who shares a lawyer with his former deputy. Bolton said he would not testify without a subpoena, and the House did not issue one for him.Both Kupperman and Bolton have been described by people who did testify as key witnesses of Trump's pressure campaign against Ukraine and decision to withhold appropriated military aid. House Democrats flagged Kupperman's refusal to testify as more proof of Trump's obstruction of Congress and declined to get bogged down in a long legal fight.Senate Democrats have requested that Bolton testify under oath at Trump's Senate impeachment trial, though Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has all but ruled out witnesses at the trial. Bolton had used the lawsuit's existence as reason to avoid talking about Trump's Ukraine dealings, though he has hinted he has things to tell.More stories from theweek.com The Obama legacy is not what many liberals think Trump's scandals will haunt America for years The first decade in history

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Angola Court Freezes Assets Held by Africa’s Richest Woman: Reports

(Bloomberg) -- Sign up to our Next Africa newsletter and follow Bloomberg Africa on TwitterAn Angolan court placed a freeze on assets held by Isabel dos Santos, Africa’s richest woman, including stakes in wireless operator Unitel SA and lenders Banco BIC and Banco de Fomento Angola, Diario de Noticias and Lusa reported, citing a statement from the Angolan Attorney General’s office.The court order also applies to dos Santos’s husband, Sindika Dokolo, and Mario da Silva. The Attorney General sought the order, saying the three had engaged in transactions with state-owned companies that led to Angola’s government incurring losses of $1.14 billion, according to the reports.Isabel dos Santos said in an emailed statement on Tuesday that the judgement contains statements that are completely untrue, and that she’ll use all available instruments of Angolan and international law to fight the order.Dos Santos, the daughter of Jose Eduardo dos Santos who served as Angola’s president from 1979 to 2017, wrote earlier on Twitter a “message of tranquility and confidence to my teams,” without referring directly to the court action. “The road is long, the truth will prevail,” she said.In October, dos Santos said she did nothing wrong when she was chairwoman of state-owned oil company Sonangol and called a probe into the transfer of millions of dollars from the Luanda-based firm “political vengeance.”(Adds statement from dos Santos in third paragraph.)To contact the reporters on this story: Jim Silver in New York at jsilver@bloomberg.net;Joao Lima in Lisbon at jlima1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Chad Thomas at cthomas16@bloomberg.net, Mike Cohen, Alastair ReedFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

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

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

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Bosnia indicts Serb army general over Srebrenica genocide

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

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Russian court jails 2 terrorism suspects arrested on US tip

A St. Petersburg court on Monday ordered the detention of two Russian men who were arrested on a tip provided by the U.S. and are suspected of plotting unspecified terrorist attacks in the city during the New Year holidays. The Dzerzhinsky District Court ruled that the suspects identified as Nikita Semyonov and Georgy Chernyshev should remain in custody pending their trial. The FSB didn't elaborate on their alleged motives or targets, but Russia's state television reported that the suspects had recorded a video swearing their allegiance to the Islamic State group.

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Iraq riots expose an America weaker and with fewer options

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

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Andrew Yang has a simple idea for how the DNC can increase diversity at the next debate

Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang has a suggestion for the Democratic National Committee.There's been a lot of wariness as the field whittles down about the lack of diversity among the party's top presidential candidates. So far, the five candidates to have qualified for January's debate in Iowa — Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), former Vice President Joe Biden, and South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg — are all white. And Yang, who has yet to qualify for the January event, was the only minority candidate at the last debate in December.In a letter sent to DNC Chair Tom Perez obtained by The Daily Beast, Yang provided a pretty simple idea for how to increase diversity at the January debate. He just thinks the DNC should commission more qualifying polls.Of course, that would go a long way toward helping Yang, who has met the individual donor requirement, but is three qualifying polls short of reaching the threshold. Still, in the letter he tried to appeal to the party at large, saying that the an all-white debate stage was a "troubling prospect" for the DNC, and could even lead to "unfounded claims of bias and prejudice." More polls, he told Perez, "would provide an accurate snapshot of the current state of the race and where voters' hearts and minds are." Read more at The Daily Beast.More stories from theweek.com The Obama legacy is not what many liberals think Trump's scandals will haunt America for years The first decade in history

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Trump Retweet of Alleged Whistle-Blower’s Name Is Back on Twitter

(Bloomberg) -- A retweet by President Donald Trump, naming the alleged whistle-blower whose complaint triggered the investigation that resulted in his impeachment, was restored to Twitter late Saturday.The post, originally from the handle @Surfermom77, was retweeted by Trump to his 68 million followers about midnight Friday and by Saturday morning was no longer visible in the president’s Twitter feed. CNN first reported late Saturday that the temporary removal followed a Twitter glitch that affected certain accounts, not deliberate action to delete the tweet by Trump or someone with access to his account.“Due to an outage with one of our systems, tweets on account profiles were visible to some, but not others,” the social media site posted on its @TwitterSupport account.The tweet identifies an individual it says is the whistle-blower: the person who first raised alarm about the president’s conduct in his July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.New HandlesA mystery also emerged around the @Surfermom77 Twitter handle that Trump retweeted, which by Sunday night was wiped from the social media site. Trump’s Friday retweet was being directed to a new handle, @4Shereene4. By Monday, the user was going as @LovelyGigi33.@Surfermom77 had described herself as living in California and a “100% Trump supporter” -- as did the handles @4Shereene4 and @LovelyGigi33.The account, which posted pro-Trump and anti-Democratic material, was temporarily suspended by Twitter on Monday morning. The ban was swiftly lifted and a Twitter spokeswoman described it as having occurred “in error.”The account is “not currently in violation of the Twitter rules,” the spokeswoman said.Confirming the identity of the account holder is next to impossible, but the @Surfermom77 account has previously engaged in strange activity. Since its inception in 2013, the user’s profession changed from “historian-documentary writer” to “educator” to “image model,” according to older versions of the account captured by the nonprofit Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine. The name of the account holder also changed, from “Sophia” to “Evonne” and back to “Sophia.”Rotating account names is a technique used “to spread partisan content at high volume” while avoiding detection, according to Filippo Menczer, a professor of computer science and informatics at Indiana University, whose team is researching the tactic on social media. While the tweet outing the alleged identity of the whistle-blower was likely authored by a human, rather than a bot, the account itself could be “one of possibly many inauthentic accounts controlled by a single actor, to post anonymously -- hiding the identity of that actor,” Menczer said.Whistle-blower PostsSurfermom77 also appeared more than 1,000 times in Twitter’s own data set detailing accounts the company has removed and attributed to state-backed operations. The handle appeared in conversations -- including being retweeted -- with accounts that Twitter removed because they were deemed to be run by Russia, its Internet Research Agency, Iran or Venezuela.In late 2016 the account was linked to Gab, another social media platform popular among the extreme right wing.The White House didn’t respond to a request for comment on Trump’s Twitter activity.Trump has posted about the whistle-blower dozens of times in the past several months and also suggested in comments to reporters that he would like to unmask or face the individual.“Like every American, I deserve to meet my accuser,” Trump tweeted in September.On Thursday Trump also retweeted a link to a Dec. 3 article from the conservative Washington Examiner newspaper that carried the name of the alleged whistle-blower.Attorney Andrew Bakaj, who represents the whistle-blower, lamented in a tweet on Saturday that U.S. lawmakers, who in the past have championed the privacy rights of whistle-blowers, including Iowa Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, have shown “deafening” silence recently.“This is a defining moment where legacies will either be solidified or destroyed,” Bakaj said on Twitter.(Updates with details of Twitter activity starting in the fifth paragraph.)To contact the reporters on this story: Ros Krasny in Washington at rkrasny1@bloomberg.net;Kartikay Mehrotra in San Francisco at kmehrotra2@bloomberg.net;Alyza Sebenius in Washington at asebenius@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: James Ludden at jludden@bloomberg.net, Andrew Martin, Alex WayneFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

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Officials struggle to determine cause of fatal Louisiana plane crash

"The wreckage is in pretty tough shape. Between impact damage and fire damage, there's not a lot to work with," an aviation official said.

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The suspect in the stabbing attack at a rabbi's home pleaded not guilty to all charges. Here's what we know about him so far.

Grafton E. Thomas, 37, has pleaded not guilty to five counts of attempted murder and one count of burglary. Here's what we know about him so far.

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

(Bloomberg) -- The U.S. has “come to take democracy for granted,” Chief Justice John Roberts said, urging his fellow judges to keep educating the public about the workings of the federal government and the Constitution.Roberts, who is slated to oversee the Senate‘s impeachment trial of President Donald Trump in the coming weeks, used his year-end report Tuesday to laud the federal judiciary’s work on civic education, while issuing a thinly veiled warning about the fragility of American democracy in a fractious time.“We have come to take democracy for granted, and civic education has fallen by the wayside,” Roberts wrote. “In our age, when social media can instantly spread rumor and false information on a grand scale, the public’s need to understand our government, and the protections it provides, is ever more vital.”Roberts described a 1788 riot that incapacitated John Jay while he was working with Alexander Hamilton and James Madison on the Federalist Papers, a series of articles published to promote the ratification of the Constitution. Jay was hit in the head with a rock while trying to quell the riot, which was sparked by a rumor that medical students were dissecting the body of a recently deceased woman. Jay later became the first U.S. chief justice.“It is sadly ironic that John Jay’s efforts to educate his fellow citizens about the framers’ plan of government fell victim to a rock thrown by a rioter motivated by a rumor,” Roberts wrote.Roberts has become the nation’s leading champion of judicial independence since being appointed to the Supreme Court by President George W. Bush in 2005. In his new report, the chief justice called the judiciary “a source of national unity and stability” but added a cautionary note.“We should also remember that justice is not inevitable,” Roberts wrote in a passage directed at his judicial colleagues. “We should reflect on our duty to judge without fear or favor, deciding each matter with humility, integrity, and dispatch.”Roberts, 64, is in the middle of a challenging Supreme Court term that includes cases on LGBTQ discrimination, abortion and gun rights. In late March or early April the court will hear arguments on Trump’s effort to prevent his financial information from being turned over to Congress and a New York grand jury.Roberts released the report three days after his mother, Rosemary A. Roberts, died at age 90. Her obituary said she was surrounded by her family when she passed away.To contact the reporter on this story: Greg Stohr in Washington at gstohr@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Joe Sobczyk at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net, Laurie Asséo, Anna EdgertonFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

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What Are Those Mysterious Drones Doing in Colorado?

The swarm appears to be practicing a search for ... something.

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New York Jews scared, defiant as mayor decries anti-Semitism 'crisis'

At a Hasidic synagogue in Brooklyn, police, state troopers and civilian volunteers stand guard as Orthodox Jews mark the end of Hanukkah under heightened security following a spate of attacks. New York, home to the largest Jewish community outside of Israel, had long been a place where Jews felt safe.

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Abducted Sri Lanka journalist's wife: Military derails case

The wife of an abducted Sri Lankan journalist is accusing the military of trying to derail a court case in which nine soldiers have been charged with her husband's abduction and enforced disappearance nearly 10 years ago. Prageeth went missing in 2010 during the presidency of Mahinda Rajapaksa, the brother of current President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Prageeth, an analyst and cartoonist, wrote against alleged corruption, nepotism and Rajapaksa’s conduct during a military campaign against ethnic Tamil rebels in ending Sri Lanka's long civil war.

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Raging wildfires trap 4,000 at Australian town's waterfront

Wildfires burning across Australia's two most populous states Tuesday trapped residents of a seaside town in apocalyptic conditions and killed at least two people while more property along the country's east coast fell victim to a devastating fire season. About 4,000 residents in the southeastern town of Mallacoota in Victoria state fled toward the water Tuesday morning as winds pushed an emergency-level wildfire toward their homes.

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Democrats rip McConnell after he vowed 'total coordination' with Trump White House on impeachment trial

Over Sen. Mitch McConnell's "total coordination" with the Trump White House, Rep. Val Demings, said the Kentucky Republican "must recuse himself."

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Churchgoers kill gunman who shot two during Texas service

Worshippers in the US state of Texas shot dead a gunman who opened fire during a livestreamed Sunday service, ending an attack that killed two parishioners, authorities said. The latest US shooting at a house of worship took place in the suburban Fort Worth community of White Settlement on Sunday morning when the gunman entered West Freeway Church of Christ, officials said. "A couple of members of the church returned fire, striking the suspect who died at the scene," White Settlement Police Chief J.P. Bevering told reporters.

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Iraqi protesters breach U.S. Embassy complex in Baghdad amid anger over airstrikes

Anger over U.S. airstrikes Sunday against Iran-backed militia Kataib Hezbollah boiled over in Baghdad on Tuesday as militia supporters broke into the U.S. Embassy complex and set fire to a reception area, The Associated Press reports. Iraqi officials say the U.S. ambassador and other staff evacuated the embassy as militia supporters started gathering outside, but the security forces who remained fired tear gas at the dozens of protesters who breached a side gate. AP reporters at the scene also heard sounds of gunfire and saw U.S. troops on the embassy roof with guns pointed at the attackers.Leaders of several Iran-backed militias were in the crowd at the embassy shouting "Down, Down U.S.A." and "Death to America." Sunday's airstrikes killed 25 Kataib Hezbollah militants, a response, U.S. officials said, to an attack Friday that left one U.S. contractor dead. The attack on the U.S. Embassy followed funerals for the militants in a Baghdad neighborhood. Before breaking down the side gate, protesters smashed security cameras, torched three empty trailers used by security guards, and spray-painted "Closed in the name of the people" on the embassy gates.More stories from theweek.com The Obama legacy is not what many liberals think Trump's scandals will haunt America for years The first decade in history

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Hanukkah Attack Suspect’s Lawyer: Cuccinelli Immigration Comments Are ‘a Disgrace’

After a leader in the Trump administration came under fire for seemingly trying to turn the latest violent anti-Semitic attack in New York into an anti-immigrant parable, the target of his smear responded Tuesday, calling his comments “a disgrace.”Ken Cuccinelli, the acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, claimed in a Monday morning tweet that 38-year-old Grafton Thomas, a U.S. citizen who allegedly stabbed five people at a Hanukkah party over the weekend, was the “son of an illegal alien who got amnesty under the 1986 amnesty law for illegal immigrants.” “Apparently, American values did not take hold among this entire family, at least this one violent, and apparently bigoted, son,” Cuccinelli wrote.Thomas’ attorney, Michael Sussman, said Tuesday that Cuccinelli’s remarks “are a disgrace and akin to blaming the parents of a mentally ill child for conceiving him or her” and that “such comments have no place in a rational debate about national immigration policy, a debate which is long overdue and long delayed by those currently holding executive office in our nation.“My client’s parents migrated to the United States and were granted legal status in 1986,” said Sussman. “My client was born in the United States and is an American citizen. His immigration status appears totally unrelated to his mental illness and the circumstances which caused the events of last Saturday evening.” Cuccinelli has pushed for aggressive anti-immigrant policies since his time as a state lawmaker in Virginia. For the Trump White House, he has argued against birthright U.S. citizenship for children of undocumented parents and suggested the words on the Statue of Liberty were only aimed at European immigrants.After several people called out Cuccinelli’s tweet and its apparent condemnation of a Reagan-era bipartisan immigration law, the post was either deleted or otherwise removed from his Twitter page.Further on the right, white supremacists celebrated Thomas’ race on 4chan and Telegram, where they discussed pushing anti-Semitic conspiracy theories that they hoped would inspire violence against Jews by black Americans, whom they described with racist slurs.Thomas, who is black, allegedly burst into the home of Rabbi Chaim Rottenberg in the New York suburb of Monsey on Saturday night around 10 p.m., as dozens of guests were celebrating Hanukkah.He allegedly stabbed and wounded five people with a machete, and he was charged with five counts of attempted murder and one count of first-degree burglary. All of the victims survived, but one is said to remain in critical condition with a skull fracture.Federal prosecutors on Monday also filed federal hate crime charges against Thomas and said in court documents that he had expressed anti-Semitic sentiments in hand-written journals.The patrol officers who arrested Thomas discovered him “covered with blood,” The New York Times reported. Thomas pleaded not guilty to all charges on Sunday morning at his arraignment in Ramapo, New York.Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has called the attack a “blatant act of domestic terrorism that sought to inflict violence, incite hate and generate fear” and ordered the State Police hate-crimes task force to investigate.Hanukkah Stabbing Suspect Caught With Bloody Machete in His CarThomas’ family told CNN he had no history of anti-Semitism, violent behavior, or prior convictions. They said he is “not a member of any hate groups” and have reportedly asked Sussman to request a mental-health evaluation for Thomas, who has “a long history of mental illness and hospitalizations” and “was raised in a home which embraced and respected all religions and races.”United Methodist Church Pastor Wendy Paige said that she has known Thomas for 10 years and that he is “not a violent person.”“Grafton is not a terrorist, he is a man who has mental illness in America, and the systems that be have not served him well,” Paige told the New York Post. “I have been his pastor for a long time and I have seen him, he is not a violent person, he is a confused person.”“We apologize to the families for him,” said Paige. “We apologize because we know this was not him, this was an action out of mental illness, please understand… Please let’s work on our systems for mental illness.”After a deadly anti-Semitic shooting at a kosher market in Jersey City this month and an “alarming” surge in anti-Semitic violence in the New York area, police have said they stepped up patrols in at least three Brooklyn neighborhoods.—Staff writer Kelly Weill contributed to this report.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.

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Powerful winter storm lingers in Upper Midwest

A fierce winter storm that created blizzard conditions in parts of Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota shut down interstates, led to hundreds of vehicle crashes and brought a metropolitan area of more than 200,000 people to a standstill on Monday morning. Residents in the Fargo and Moorhead, Minnesota area who are used to snowstorms were told to stay home after a foot of heavy, wet snow made that fell on top of a sheet of ice made travel difficult and stoked early fears about spring flooding. The National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning in northeastern Minnesota, northern Wisconsin and Michigan's Upper Peninsula, where periods of heavy snow and gusty winds were expected to create difficult travel conditions.

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Warren Assails Lobbying Against Her Health Plan: Campaign Update

(Bloomberg) -- Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren assailed the clout in Washington of billionaires and large corporations that have lined up to fight her calls for a wealth tax and Medicare for All.“Many corporate executives and career politicians and billionaires on both sides of the aisle want to keep their influence and their wealth,” Warren, a U.S. senator from Massachusetts, said in a speech in Boston Tuesday. “And they are already deep in the fight to do so.”Warren said that industry interests were lining up to stifle many of the more ambitious initiatives of her campaign, including the swift creation of a government-run health-care system that would cover all Americans and eliminate private insurance -- a proposal also offered by her rival for the party’s nomination, Bernie Sanders.“Americans overwhelmingly believe that health care is a basic human right,” Warren said. “But the private health insurance industry is dumping millions of dollars in false TV ads to scare people away from any change.”Medicare for All remains popular with the Democratic base, yet some have worried that it could hurt Democrats in the general election against President Donald Trump. Union members and millions of other Americans who have health insurance are reluctant to give it up.Biden Holds Narrow Edge Over Trump in Florida Poll (6 a.m.)Joe Biden holds a narrow edge over Donald Trump in a head-to-head match-up in Florida, the only leading Democratic candidate currently presenting serious competition to the president in the crucial 2020 swing state, according to a poll released Tuesday.The former vice president is backed by 47% of Florida voters, while 45% say they support Trump, according to the poll by Mason-Dixon Polling & Strategy conducted Dec. 11-16. The result is well within the survey’s 4 percentage point margin of error, and 8% of registered voters remain undecided.By comparison, Trump leads Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren 51% to 42%, and has a five-point advantage over Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, 49% to 44%. Against South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Trump leads 48% to 45%. Trump won Florida’s 29 electoral 2016 by just more than 1 percentage point.A Mason-Dixon poll of Virginia registered voters showed Biden with a 49% to 45% lead over Trump. But as in Florida, Trump leads Warren, Sanders and Buttigieg in the state, which has been trending toward Democrats over the last several elections. -- Joe SobczykCOMING UP:Warren will deliver a New Year’s Eve address from Boston’s historic Old South Meeting House on fighting corruption.Five Democratic candidates -- Warren, Sanders, Biden, Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar have qualified for the next debate, on Jan. 14, in Iowa.Trump is scheduled to hold a campaign rally in Milwaukee on the same night as the debate.(Michael Bloomberg is also seeking the Democratic presidential nomination. Bloomberg is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.)\--With assistance from Joe Sobczyk.To contact the reporter on this story: Misyrlena Egkolfopoulou in Washington at megkolfopoul@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Kevin Whitelaw at kwhitelaw@bloomberg.net, Michael Shepard, Elizabeth WassermanFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

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A Plan for World War III: How the Warsaw Pact Planned to Defeat NATO

History had other ideas.

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Over 90,000 to Celebrate Jewish Talmud Milestone at MetLife Stadium New Year's Event

CBN News has learned a massive sold-out event is happening New Year's Day at East Rutherford, New Jersey's MetLife Stadium where the reading of the entire Jewish Talmud will be concluded after 7 and 1/3 years.

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Cyprus court finds British woman guilty of false rape claim

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

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Put away phones at mealtimes and talk to each other, says pope

Pope Francis on Sunday urged people to talk to each other at mealtimes instead of using their mobile phones, citing Jesus, Mary and Joseph as an example for families to follow. "I ask myself if you, in your family, know how to communicate or are you like those kids at mealtables where everyone is chatting on their mobile phone ... where there is silence like at a Mass but they don't communicate," the pope said. "We have to get back to communicating in our families," Francis said in his unscripted remarks.

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U.S. airstrikes in Iraq and Syria hit sites linked to Iran

The United States carried out airstrikes in Iraq and Syria on Sunday, targeting weapons and munitions depots used by Kataib Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed militia.Over the last two months, there have been 11 rocket attacks against bases used by the U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State. U.S. officials said Sunday's airstrikes were in response to an attack that took place in Kirkuk, Iraq, on Friday, which left one U.S. contractor dead and four U.S. troops injured.Kataib Hezbollah is connected to Iran's paramilitary Quds Forces, U.S. officials told The Wall Street Journal, and the Pentagon said the airstrikes are meant to serve as a warning to stop attacking the coalition's bases. A Kataib Hezbollah official said 25 members of the militia were killed in the airstrikes.More stories from theweek.com The best headlines of 2019 Giants, Browns fire head coaches on otherwise quiet 'Black Monday' Republicans are still trying to steal your health insurance

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GOP Senator: ‘There Are No Rules’ for Senate Impeachment Trial

Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) claimed on Sunday’s broadcast of State of the Union that there are no “substantive rules” when it comes to holding an impeachment trial and that the Constitution doesn’t provide much guidance to the Senate.CNN anchor Jake Tapper noted that Kennedy had previously said his objective in President Donald Trump’s impeachment is to be fair to both sides. He asked the lawmaker about Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) saying she was “disturbed” that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he would coordinate with the White House on impeachment.“Were you also bothered when Majority Leader McConnell said there would be no daylight between him and the White House?” Tapper asked.“I think Senator McConnell is entitled to his opinion and his approach. So is Senator Murkowski,” Kennedy stated, adding that if you look at specific case law on impeachment, “the rule is there is no substantive rules.”“It is not a criminal trial,” he continued. “The Senate is not really a jury. It is both jury and judge. The chief justice is not the judge, he’s the presiding officer. There are no standards of proof. There are no rules of evidence.”The guidelines provided by Article 1, Section 3 of the Constitution say that the Senate has the “sole Power to try all Impeachments,” the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court will preside over the trial, and a president will only be removed from office if two-thirds of the Senate convicts.Kennedy went on to say that every member of the Senate is entitled to approach impeachment any way they want until a majority of the chamber votes on passing new rules, reiterating that he wants it “to be fair to both sides.”“I thought that the House proceedings were unnecessarily unfair and when the American people walk away from the Senate trial, if we ever have one, I don’t want them saying: ‘Well, we were just run over by the same truck twice. It was unfair in the house and it was unfair in the Senate,’” the Louisiana senator said. “I want people to think that it was a level playing field.”Asked whether his idea of fairness would be for both House impeachment managers and the president’s team to call the witnesses they deem worthy, Kennedy said they first need to decide whether Senate will hear evidence during the trial.“But, look, there are no rules here,” he asserted. “For example, what is an impeachable offense? I think the precedent shows that not all impeachable offenses are crimes. But it also shows that not all crimes are impeachable offenses.”Kennedy, meanwhile, concluded by saying it would be proper for Trump to continue blocking key White House witnesses from testifying if called by Congress.“I fully expect the president to do two things,” he said. “Claim executive privilege, which is his right. And number two, demand his own list of witnesses.”Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

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DNC rejects Andrew Yang's request to commission polls to increase diversity at January debate

The DNC said that commissioning primary polls would break with its tradition of independent polling.

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Saudi Arabia Sentences Man to Death for Theater Stabbings: TV

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

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New WeWork cochiefs will reportedly receive an $8.3 million golden parachute each if they are fired or choose to leave

Co-CEOs Artie Minson and Sebastian Gunningham would cost WeWork almost $17 million if ousted, the Financial Times says, citing documents.

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Ukraine holds big prisoner swap with pro-Russian separatists

KIEV/MOSCOW (Reuters) - Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian separatists in the east completed a large-scale prisoner swap on Sunday after bussing scores of detainees in the five-year conflict to an exchange point in the breakaway Donbass region. The swap should help build confidence between the two sides, who are wrangling over how to implement a peace deal after the loss of more than 13,000 lives, but major disagreements remain and full normalization is far off. Ukraine said 76 pro-government detainees were handed over, while separatists said they took 120 of their prisoners during the swap at a checkpoint near the industrial town of Horlivka.

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China sentences 3 researchers involved in creating 1st gene-edited babies

A court in Shenzhen, China, sentenced a Chinese scientist and two researchers Monday for creating the world's first genetically edited babies last year, China's official Xinhua News Agency reported. The lead scientist, He Jiankui, was handed three years in prison and a fine of 3 million yuan ($430,000) on charges of falsifying ethical review documents, practicing medicine without a license, and other infractions. The two researchers who helped He got lesser sentences: Zhang Renli was handed two years in prison and a 1 million yuan fine, and Qin Jinzhou received 18 months in jail, but with a two-year reprieve, and a 500,000 yuan fine."The three accused did not have the proper certification to practice medicine, and in seeking fame and wealth, deliberately violated national regulations in scientific research and medical treatment," Xinhua reported, citing the court's ruling. "They've crossed the bottom line of ethics in scientific research and medical ethics." The news agency said He and his team edited the genes of three children born to two women.He shocked the medical and scientific world in November 2018 when he announced that he had used the CRISPR gene-editing technology to genetically modify the embryos of infant twin girls to disable a gene that allows the AIDS virus to enter a cell. He disappeared soon after making his announcement, apparently detained by Chinese authorities. It's not clear if the experiment worked on the two unidentified girls He discussed publicly, but the experiment was widely condemned by medical ethicists and researchers around the world.More stories from theweek.com The best headlines of 2019 Giants, Browns fire head coaches on otherwise quiet 'Black Monday' Republicans are still trying to steal your health insurance

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Iranian-backed militia threatens retaliation for US strikes on their forces in Iraq and Syria

An Iran-backed militia vowed on Monday to retaliate for US military strikes in Iraq and Syria which killed 25 of its fighters and wounded dozens. "Our battle with America and its mercenaries is now open to all possibilities," Kataib Hizbollah said in a statement. "We have no alternative today other than confrontation and there is nothing that will prevent us from responding to this crime."   Iraq described the attacks on Kataib Hizbollah as a “flagrant violation” of its sovereignty, and Iran said the airstrikes were “an obvious case of terrorism”. Moqtada al-Sadr, the notorious Iraqi Shia cleric, said on Monday that he was willing to work with Iran-backed militia groups - his political rivals - to end the United States military presence in Iraq through political and legal means. If that does not work, he will "take other actions" in cooperation with his rivals to kick out US troops. Sadr's militia fought US troops for years following Washington's invasion of Iraq in 2003. Iraqi Shiite cleric and leader Moqtada al-Sadr attends a meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister in Najaf on June 23, 2018 The US launched strikes against five targets in Iraq and Syria on Sunday, aiming to damage Kataib Hizbollah – a separate entity to the better-known Hizbollah, based in Lebanon. The US blames the group for the killing last week of an American contractor in a rocket attack on an Iraqi military base. The US attack - the largest targeting an Iraqi state-sanctioned militia since 2011 - represents a new escalation in the proxy war between the US and Iran playing out in the Middle East. Russia’s foreign ministry called the “exchange of strikes” between Kataib Hizbollah and US forces in Iraq “unacceptable,” and called for restraint from both sides. “We consider such actions unacceptable and counterproductive. We call upon all parties to refrain from further actions that could sharply destabilise the military-political situation in Iraq, Syria, and the neighboring countries,” a ministry statement said. Thousands of protesters blocked roads and bridges across southern Iraq on Dec 23, condemning Iranian influence and political leaders who missed another deadline to agree on a new prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, praised the “important” strikes, in a phone call to Mike Pompeo, the US secretary of state. Mr Netanyahu “congratulated him on the important US action against Iran and its proxies in the region,” according to a statement issued by the Israeli leader’s office. Mr Pompeo said the strikes send the message that the US will not tolerate actions by Iran that jeopardise American lives. “We have repeatedly – the president, the secretary of state - made clear that if we are attacked by the regime or its proxies we will respond,” said Brian Hook, Donald Trump’s special envoy to Iran.  He refused to comment on further possible actions. The US has maintained some 5,000 troops in Iraq at the invitation of the Iraqi government, to help assist in the fight against the Islamic State group. But on Monday Iraq’s prime minister, Adel Abdul Mahdi, said that invitation could now be rescinded. "The prime minister described the American attack on the Iraqi armed forces as an unacceptable vicious assault that will have dangerous consequences," his office said.

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Photos of a koala hospital in Australia show just how devastating recent bushfires have been for the iconic marsupial

Bushfires have decimated Australia's koalas. One hospital in New South Wales is doing all it can to save them.

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Swiss Embassy worker detained in Sri Lanka gets bail

A Sri Lankan Court on Monday granted bail to a Swiss Embassy employee who was detained pending charges that she made statements to create disaffection toward the government and fabricated evidence. Before her arrest, the employee, a Sri Lankan national, had reportedly said she was abducted, held for hours, sexually assaulted and threatened by captors who demanded that she disclose embassy-related information. Sri Lankan authorities have said they investigated her complaint but found no evidence to file charges against anyone.

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Duterte Renews Attacks on TV Network, Urges Owners to Sell

(Bloomberg) -- Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte continued his attacks on a local television network he’s accused in the past of bias, and urged owners of ABS-CBN Corp. to sell before its franchise expires in March.In a televised speech delivered in the local language at Davao City on Monday, Duterte suggested the media firm’s franchise renewal is uncertain. He had earlier threatened to block the network’s bid to extend the franchise for 25 years.“Your contract is expiring. I’m not sure what will happen if you renew,” he said. “If I were you, I would just sell.”Duterte has accused ABS-CBN as well as privately-owned Philippine Daily Inquirer of unfair reporting, allegations that the media companies have denied. The president’s criticisms of ABS-CBN pushed its share price to a decade low earlier this month. The stock ended 2019 with a 21% loss compared with the local benchmark index’s 4.7% gain for the year.Duterte also resumed his criticism of water utilities for alleged corruption, threatening to arrest and jail the owners of Manila Water Co. and Maynilad Water Services Inc. He reiterated a plan for a military takeover of the operations.Manila Water of Ayala Corp. and Maynilad owners Metro Pacific Investments Corp. and DMCI Holdings Inc. are among the worst-performing Philippine stocks this year, plunging since early December when Duterte started his censure.“For those of you asking where are the big fish in my fight against corruption, I’ll deliver them: Ayala and Pangilinan,” he said. “If they do something wrong, I’ll really jail them,” Duterte said, referring to the family of Jaime Augusto Zobel, which owns Manila Water and Manuel Pangilinan, who chairs Metro Pacific.The two tycoons didn’t immediately respond to requests for comments.Manila Water plunged 63% this year despite a rebound in the final week of trading ending Dec. 27. Metro Pacific was down 25%, while DMCI tumbled 48%.To contact the reporters on this story: Andreo Calonzo in Manila at acalonzo1@bloomberg.net;Clarissa Batino in Manila at cbatino@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Sam Nagarajan at samnagarajan@bloomberg.net, ;Cecilia Yap at cyap19@bloomberg.net, Clarissa BatinoFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

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Greece proposes World Court if maritime dialogue with Turkey fails

Greece's Prime Minister said in remarks published on Sunday that if Athens and Ankara cannot solve their dispute about maritime zones in the Mediterranean they should turn to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague to settle the disagreement. Turkey signed an accord with Libya's internationally recognized government last month that seeks to create an exclusive economic zone from Turkey's southern Mediterranean shore to Libya's northeast coast. Greece and Cyprus, which have long had maritime and territorial disputes with Turkey, say the accord is void and violates the international law of the sea.

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Trump National Security Aide Is Rebuffed in Impeachment Lawsuit

(Bloomberg) -- A federal judge is taking a pass -- for now -- on deciding whether President Donald Trump’s former deputy national security advisor must comply with a congressional subpoena to testify at the impeachment hearings.Charles Kupperman, who served under John Bolton, sued Trump and House Democrats in October seeking a ruling on whether the president’s order for him to ignore the subpoena was legal. The president claims to have absolute power to decide whether his advisers can testify.The House ultimately withdrew its subpoena, and the Justice Department said it wouldn’t go after Kupperman for flouting it, making the dispute moot, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon in Washington said Monday in dismissing the case.“Kupperman no longer faces the ‘irreconcilable commands’ of two coordinate branches of government,” Leon wrote in a 14-page decision.The Democrats never issued a subpoena to Bolton, who was forced out of his job in September, even though testimony in the impeachment inquiry suggested he was opposed to the president’s efforts to force Ukraine to investigate Trump’s political rival Joe Biden.Read More: Ex-Trump Adviser Bolton Asked to Testify in Impeachment InquiryLeon balked at the claim that even though the House had withdrawn the subpoena, Kupperman could still face criminal prosecution for ignoring it. The judge noted that the Justice Department had guaranteed it wouldn’t take legal action against Kupperman. He suggested he’d hear the case again “should the winds of political fortune shift” and the House reissues the subpoena.“If so, he will undoubtedly be right back before this court seeking a solution to a constitutional dilemma that has long-standing political consequences: balancing Congress’s well-established power to investigate with a president’s need to have a small group of national security advisors who have some form of immunity from compelled congressional testimony,” Leon wrote.Kupperman had said in his complaint that he faced “irreconcilable commands” -- a subpoena from House Democrats requiring him to cooperate and an order from the White House not to testify.The case is Kupperman v. House of Representatives, 19-cv-3224, U.S. District Court, District of Columbia (Washington).(Updates with details starting in fifth paragraph)To contact the reporter on this story: Erik Larson in New York at elarson4@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net, Peter Jeffrey, Anthony LinFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

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Hasan Minhaj’s 2020 Advice: Be Like Mitch McConnell

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

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Battle to save Australian wildlife as bushfires rage

A possum severely burnt by bushfires in Australia's Blue Mountains laps water from a bowl as her rescuer holds her gently in a towel, while at a nearby home a kangaroo with bandaged feet is rocked like a baby by another carer. As Australia battles wildfires that have razed more than 4 million hectares (9.9 million acres) across five states, volunteers are trying to save wild animals caught in the inferno. Australia's bushland is home to a range of indigenous fauna, including kangaroos, koalas, wallabies, possums, wombats and echidnas.

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Suspect Faces Federal Charges After 5 People Stabbed at New York Hanukkah Celebration. Here's What to Know

A man burst into a Hanukkah celebration at an Orthodox rabbi’s home in Monsey, New York on Saturday evening, stabbing five people.

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Juul employees vape at desks despite company threat to dock bonuses for e-cigarette use, report says

Juul banned vaping at its offices last year, but some employees continue to use e-cigarettes at their desks, in hallways and in meetings, according to the Wall Street Journal.

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Wisconsin election officials deadlock on culling voter rolls

The Wisconsin Elections Commission deadlocked Monday on whether to comply with a judge's order to remove anywhere from 144,000 to more than 200,000 names from the state's voter rolls before a higher court can weigh in — a move that could influence the outcome of next year's presidential election in the key swing state. The commission's three Republicans wanted to remove the voters in question from the rolls but were blocked by the panel's three Democrats, the Milwaukee Journal Sentine l reported. The affected voters are in heavily Democratic areas of Wisconsin, a battleground state in the 2020 presidential election.

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Greta Thunberg said it would be a waste of time for her to talk to Trump about climate change

President Donald Trump, who is withdrawing the US from the Paris climate accord, has a long record of expressing skepticism on climate science.

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A sports reporter who died in a Louisiana plane crash tried to contact her husband before the aircraft went down. He didn't see her text.

A sports journalist named Carley McCord was one of five people who died in a plane crash near Louisiana's Lafayette Regional Airport on Saturday.

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Nepalese worker dies in Malaysia meat machine accident

A Nepalese worker was killed Monday after he fell into a meat-mincing machine in Malaysia's Malacca state, an official confirmed. The Malacca fire department's Zulkhairani Ramli told AFP the 47-year-old man was working at a meat-processing factory near Masjid Tanah when the incident occurred. Malaysia hosts nearly two million registered foreign workers, who flock to the Southeast Asian nation in search of better work prospects and higher pay than in their native countries.

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Sydney New Year's fireworks to go ahead despite wildfires

Sydney's iconic New Year's Eve fireworks will go ahead despite the wildfire crisis to show the world Australia’s resiliency, the prime minister said, while authorities on Sunday braced for conditions to deteriorate with high temperatures. Prime Minister Scott Morrison also announced financial support for some volunteer firefighters in New South Wales, the state worst hit by wildfires ravaging the nation. “The world looks at Sydney every single year and they look at our vibrancy, they look at our passion, they look at our success,” he said.

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WH releases info on call with Putin after Russia does

Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a phone call on Sunday, thanked President Trump for passing on information that helped prevent "acts of terrorism" in Russia, the Kremlin said.

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US carries out 'defensive strikes' in Iraq and Syria against Kataib Hizbollah

The US military has carried out "defensive strikes" in Iraq and Syria against the Kataib Hezbollah militia group, the US Pentagon said on Sunday, two days after a US civilian contractor was killed in a rocket attack on an Iraqi military base. The Pentagon said it targeted three locations of the Iranian-backed Shia Muslim militia group in Iraq and two in Syria. The locations included weapons storage facilities and command and control locations the group had used to plan and execute attacks on coalition forces. The United States had accused the group of the 30-plus rocket attack on Friday that killed the US civilian contractor and injured four US service members and two members of the Iraqi Security Forces near the oil-rich city of Kirkuk. "In response to repeated Kataib Hizbollah attacks on Iraqi bases that host Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR) coalition forces, US forces have conducted precision defensive strikes ... that will degrade KH's ability to conduct future attacks against OIR coalition forces" chief Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said in the statement. In Iraq, several Iraqi militia fighters were killed on Sunday in an air strike on their headquarters near the western Qaim district on the border with Syria, military sources and militia commanders told Reuters. Earlier this month, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blamed Iranian-backed forces for a series of attacks on bases in Iraq and warned Iran that any attacks by Tehran or proxies that harmed Americans or allies would be "answered with a decisive US response." This is a breaking story, more to follow

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Vietnam ex-minister gets life sentence in bribery case

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

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Biden Says He Would Defy Impeachment Subpoena—Then Tries to ‘Clarify’

Joe Biden told a newspaper that he would not comply with a subpoena to testify in President Trump’s impeachment trial—then sought to clarify his remarks on Saturday.“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,” Biden told the Des Moines Register editorial board. “The issue is not what I did.”This is all about a diversion,” Biden added. “And we play his game all the time. He’s done it his whole career.”Biden’s statement of defiance to the Register drew sharp criticism from some quarters, including a former associate White House counsel under President Barack Obama.“Terrible answer @JoeBiden,” Ian Bassin tweeted. “Subpoenas aren’t optional. You know better. You should correct record and commit to complying with any lawful subpoena, reserving the right to contest it in court if you believe it to be unlawful. Let Trump tarnish the rule of law; you should defend it.”Dems Warn Against Calling Bidens to Testify: It ‘Would Be Literally Rolling a Grenade Down’ the SenateOn Saturday, Biden appeared to back off his original comments to some degree in a Twitter thread that suggested he might fight any subpoena in court.“I want to clarify something I said yesterday,” he wrote. “In my 40 years in public life, I have always complied with a lawful order and in my eight years as VP, my office — unlike Donald Trump and Mike Pence — cooperated with legitimate congressional oversight requests.”Stopping short of denying he would defy a subpoena, he went on to say that he was “just not going to pretend that there is any legal basis for Republican subpoenas for my testimony in the impeachment trial. That is the point I was making yesterday and I reiterate: this impeachment is about Trump’s conduct, not mine.”He then tried to shift focus back to the president. “The subpoenas should go to witnesses with testimony to offer to Trump’s shaking down the Ukraine government — they should go to the White House,” he wrote.Bassin then praised Biden for revising his comments:“This is what responsible leadership looks like. He said something imprecise that mattered and fixed it because, unlike Trump and his lawless crew, Biden cares about the Constitution and the rule of law. Will Trump’s team now comply w the law?”The issue of whether Biden has any role to play in impeachment proceedings in the Senate has become a focal point for many Republicans seeking to protect the president. They said Biden and his son Hunter should be forced to answer questions about their activities in Ukraine.The impeachment process kicked off after Trump spoke to Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky about investigating the Bidens and then held back military aid. Biden himself has repeatedly said he and Hunter did nothing wrong and that he did not speak to his son about official business involving Burisma, the Ukrainian natural gas company on whose board the younger Biden served. The House of Representatives voted along party lines on Dec. 18 to impeach Trump. The order is expected to be passed to the Senate for a trial in early 2020.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

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