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.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2MyfFpx

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.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2MzABw5

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.

from BBC News - Home https://ift.tt/2QnW7VS

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.

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

‘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 […]

from Deadline https://ift.tt/352uh6Y

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.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/37d01HS

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.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2MyfFpx

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.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2ta1MHe

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

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/3574H0I