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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'Impeachment is about Trump’s conduct, not mine': Biden expands on subpoena remarks

"The subpoenas should go to witnesses with testimony to offer to Trump’s shaking down the Ukraine government," former Vice President Joe Biden said.

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Photos show scenes of devastation after a plane carrying 98 people crashed in Kazakhstan, killing at least 12

The Bek Air flight from Almaty to Nusultan plunged into a building in the village of Almerek just after take-off on Friday, amid foggy conditions.

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Mexico reveals webs of corruption in contracts, trafficking

Mexico's top financial investigator on Friday reported on the webs of corruption and money laundering that thieves, traffickers and political figures have used to hide their wealth. Santiago Nieto, the head of Mexico's Financial Intelligence Unit, said a federal judge took bribes to rule in favor of the violent Jalisco cartel, and then used a lawyer's office to buy vehicles and send as much as $2 million to the United States. Another gang stole fuel from government pipelines and set up trucking companies to use the diesel and launder profits from sales of fuel to third parties.

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

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

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

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

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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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Sizzling temperatures hit Australia as wildfires persist

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

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Russia Has Reclassified The Tu-22 As A Heavy Bomber (And They Are Heavily Armed)

What does this mean for the New START treaty?

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Norwegian woman told to leave India after joining citizenship law protest

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

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

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

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

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

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