New top story on Hacker News: “Wyze was committing espionage against American citizens in the United States”

“Wyze was committing espionage against American citizens in the United States”
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New top story on Hacker News: Deep learning algorithm outperforms 5 full-time breast imaging specialists

Deep learning algorithm outperforms 5 full-time breast imaging specialists
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New top story on Hacker News: Researchers observe brain-like behavior in nanoscale device

Researchers observe brain-like behavior in nanoscale device
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Bernie Sanders Condemns Rise of Anti-Semitism in Iowa Menorah Lighting

(Bloomberg) -- Bernie Sanders helped light a menorah at a “Chanukah on Ice” event at an Iowa ice skating rink Sunday night, and condemned a rise in anti-semitism in America and “all over the world.”It’s rare to see the U.S. senator from Vermont, who is a secular Jew, in a religious setting while running for the Democratic presidential nomination.The annual Hanukkah event, organized by Des Moines Rabbi Yossi Jacobson, came less than 24 hours after an intruder stabbed five people at a rabbi’s home in the New York City suburb of Monsey Saturday night.“What we’re seeing right now -- we’re seeing it in America, we’re seeing it all over the world -- is a rise in anti-semitism. We’re seeing a rise in hate crimes,” Sanders said.“We’re seeing somebody run into a kid here in Des Moines because that child was a Latino. We’re seeing people being stabbed yesterday in New York City because they were Jewish. We are seeing people being assaulted because they are Muslim,” he told an audience of about 90 gathered on a frigid Iowa winter night.“And as the rabbi indicated, if there was ever a time in American history where we say no to religious bigotry, this is the time,” he said.Sanders talked about his father immigrating at age 17 from Poland, “fleeing anti-semitism and fleeing violence and fleeing terrible, terrible poverty.”Sanders joked about not burning down the ice skating rink before lighting the menorah candles with a blowtorch provided by the event organizers. He joined in, reading the words, as the rabbi sang a blessing. An icy wind blew his borrowed kippah off his head at one point.As Jacobson and his wife, Chana, who run Maccabee’s Kosher Deli in Des Moines, handed out latkes and doughnuts, the rabbi noted that Sanders rarely talks about Judaism on the campaign trail.That has raised questions about whether he’s uncomfortable with his Jewish identity, Jacobson said.Jacobson said Sanders was reluctant at first to accept the invitation to light the menorah candles, but once he did, he embraced the evening with enthusiasm.Jacobson said he asked Sanders his Hebrew name. Binyamin, Sanders answered.The rabbi said he gave Sanders a blessing, “for his health.”To contact the reporter on this story: Jennifer Jacobs in Washington at jjacobs68@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Elizabeth Wasserman, Kasia KlimasinskaFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

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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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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' The White House always knew Trump's order to freeze Ukraine aid could blow up, New York Times details

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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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Pompeo to Meet With Ukraine’s Zelensky in Kyiv

By BY EDWARD WONG from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2QBrqwz

Judge Dismisses Lawsuit by Ex-Trump Aide Subpoenaed in Impeachment Inquiry

By BY CHARLIE SAVAGE from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2F9n62h

Schumer Demands Witnesses Be Called at Senate Impeachment Trial

By BY ERIC LIPTON AND MAGGIE HABERMAN from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2ZCv39z

Double the Federal Minimum Wage

By BY THE EDITORIAL BOARD from NYT Opinion https://ift.tt/2SIqNUv

After Death From Falling Debris, Violations Found at 220 Buildings

By BY AZI PAYBARAH from NYT New York https://ift.tt/36acVGp

Pompeo to Meet With Ukraine’s Zelensky in Kyiv

By BY EDWARD WONG from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2QBrqwz

Judge Dismisses Lawsuit by Ex-Trump Aide Subpoenaed in Impeachment Inquiry

By BY CHARLIE SAVAGE from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2F9n62h

Schumer Demands Witnesses Be Called at Senate Impeachment Trial

By BY ERIC LIPTON AND MAGGIE HABERMAN from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2ZCv39z

Double the Federal Minimum Wage

By BY THE EDITORIAL BOARD from NYT Opinion https://ift.tt/2SIqNUv

After Death From Falling Debris, Violations Found at 220 Buildings

By BY AZI PAYBARAH from NYT New York https://ift.tt/36acVGp

Joe Biden clarifies he'd testify in impeachment trial under lawful circumstances, but says GOP has no legal basis

Former Vice President Joe Biden made some waves Friday evening when he told The Des Moines Register he wouldn't comply with a congressional subpoena to testify in President Trump's upcoming Senate impeachment trial. But he eased the breaks on that Saturday morning.Biden, a leading Democratic presidential candidate, who is connected to the impeachment saga because of accusations from Trump's allies that he and his son Hunter were involved in corrupt activities in Ukraine, initially said he wouldn't comply because it would take attention away from Trump and possibly play a role in letting him off the hook. But on his Twitter account the next morning, the former vice president clarified that he would always comply with a lawful order — he just doesn't think the Republicans have any legal basis in this case, so as far as he's concerned it's a moot point.> But I am 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.> > — Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) December 28, 2019Biden said the subpoenas should be sent to the White House instead, calling those who can actually provide testimony about Trump's interactions with Kyiv to the stand.More stories from theweek.com The best health advice from 2019 The 2010s were an economic disaster The secret to perfect pancakes

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Ten questions from the past 10 years

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

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Hollywood Hills Tours May Be Restricted If New Regulations Are Imposed

Seeing the homes and stars in the Hollywood Hills may become more difficult for tourists if new rules are implemented by the Los Angeles City Council. The council’s Transportation Committee has been studying ways to regulate the commercial vehicles, which some contend clog roads that are deemed unsafe. Under proposed new rules created by the […]

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Bahrain expresses support for U.S. strikes on Kataib Hizbollah facilities in Iraq, Syria: statement

Bahrain expressed support for strikes conducted by the United States targeting Kataib Hezbollah facilities in Iraq and Syria, Bahrain's Foreign Ministry said on Sunday.

from Reuters: World News https://ift.tt/2F2ZQ67

New top story on Hacker News: Why I won't switch to Firefox as a web developer

Why I won't switch to Firefox as a web developer
3 by sniok | 0 comments on Hacker News.

New top story on Hacker News: A 3 weeks trip to Europe costed him 411$

A 3 weeks trip to Europe costed him 411$
5 by wajdiben | 4 comments on Hacker News.

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

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

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5 people were stabbed during a Hanukkah celebration at a rabbi's home in what New York's governor is calling an 'act of domestic terror'

The Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council for the Hudson Valley region said five patients — all Hasidic — had been taken to local hospitals.

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

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

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Turkey says it won't evacuate NW Syria observation posts

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

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Biden would "honor" whatever Congress "legitimately" asks

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

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Hawaii tour helicopter wreckage found on Kauai island

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

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What Is the Hottest Place on Earth?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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John Lewis, Congressman and Civil Rights Icon, Has Pancreatic Cancer

By BY EMILY COCHRANE from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2Q8dTO8

Bill Barr Thinks America Is Going to Hell

By BY KATHERINE STEWART AND CAROLINE FREDRICKSON from NYT Opinion https://ift.tt/2SBnazG

The Presidential Nominating Process Is Absurd

By BY DAVID LEONHARDT from NYT Opinion https://ift.tt/2MFgEEt

John Lewis, Congressman and Civil Rights Icon, Has Pancreatic Cancer

By BY EMILY COCHRANE from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2Q8dTO8

Bill Barr Thinks America Is Going to Hell

By BY KATHERINE STEWART AND CAROLINE FREDRICKSON from NYT Opinion https://ift.tt/2SBnazG

The Presidential Nominating Process Is Absurd

By BY DAVID LEONHARDT from NYT Opinion https://ift.tt/2MFgEEt

Blumenthal: Some GOP 'have very severe misgivings' about McConnell impeachment strategy

Richard Blumenthal stated he believes some Senate Republicans are concerned with McConnell working with the White House on Trump's impeachment trial.

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

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

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The Papers: Honours leak and 'troubling' police use of AI

The accidental publishing of more than 1,000 addresses of New Year Honour recipients is among the front page stories.

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Striking photojournalism from around the world in 2019

A selection of the best news photographs from around the world in 2019.

from BBC News - Home https://ift.tt/2Qp7lJI

Stay-at-home dads set up father-friendly playgroup

Dan Rainsford and Sam Chatterley set up a group so other stay-at-home fathers don't feel alone.

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‘Gardening gives me a lot of peace’

Joanna is an urban gardener trying to reconnect with nature in Singapore.

from BBC News - Home https://ift.tt/2tVLB0l

Little boxes of love help families with dementia

The boxes are given to families to support them while caring for someone with dementia.

from BBC News - Home https://ift.tt/2siaEKR

SAG Awards Red Carpet Bleacher Seats Up For Auction Through January 6

Fans who want to see their favorite stars walk the red carpet at the 26th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards next month can now bid on bleacher seats. The auction opened December 27 and runs through January 6 at 6 p.m. Winners will get a chance to take pictures and request autographs from celebrities entering […]

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New top story on Hacker News: FreeDB Is Shutting Down

FreeDB Is Shutting Down
18 by big_chungus | 9 comments on Hacker News.

New top story on Hacker News: YouTube’s Rabbit Hole of Radicalization [pdf]

YouTube’s Rabbit Hole of Radicalization [pdf]
7 by dfabulich | 2 comments on Hacker News.

U.S. Contractor Is Killed in Rocket Attack on an Iraqi Base

(Bloomberg) -- A rocket attack on an Iraqi military base killed an American contractor and wounded several U.S. and Iraqi military personnel, the Defense Department said on Friday evening.Iraqi security forces were “leading the response and investigation” following the Friday night assault on the base in Kirkuk, where coalition forces are based, the Pentagon said in a statement.The names of the contractor and the wounded Americans were not immediately released, and the statement did not provide any further details.Rocket assaults on or near Iraqi installations that host American troops and personnel have occurred since the fall, and Pentagon officials, including Defense Secretary Mark Esper, have expressed increasing concern about Iranian involvement.Those attacks occurred as widespread anti-government protests intensified, eventually leading to the resignation of Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi.Tensions have been rising across the region, with Iran violently putting down its own protests, and Turkey invading Kurdish territory in northern Syria after President Donald Trump announced a pullout of American forces there.Early this month, rockets were fired at two Iraqi air bases where American forces are stationed. Seven rockets struck the perimeter of the Al Asad base, and five projectiles landed inside Balad. At Al Asad, the Iraqi army later found a truck rigged to fire rockets with seven empty tubes and eight unfired projectiles.No one was hurt in those attacks, which were believed to be the work of militants with ties to Iran, according to a U.S. official.On Thursday, Iraqi President Barham Saleh offered to resign as weeks of deadly protests showed no sign of easing. Mahdi remains in office until a successor is found. Protesters rejected one nominee, and Saleh rejected the candidacy of a second.Some 500 people have died in clashes between security forces and protesters since Oct. 1, according to Iraq’s independent High Commission for Human Rights. Iraqis, mostly from the Shiite majority population, are protesting against corruption, poor services, and Iran’s sweeping influence in the country.\--With assistance from Khalid Al-Ansary and Tony Capaccio.To contact the reporter on this story: John Harney in Washington at jharney2@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Bill Faries at wfaries@bloomberg.net, Larry Liebert, John HarneyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

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Blumenthal: Some GOP 'have very severe misgivings' about McConnell impeachment strategy

Richard Blumenthal stated he believes some Senate Republicans are concerned with McConnell working with the White House on Trump's impeachment trial.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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McDonald's workers assist woman after she mouths 'help me' in drive-through

A woman was able to escape from a life-threatening situation on Christmas Eve thanks to the quick thinking of McDonald’s employees.

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