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Showing posts from January 18, 2020

Iran's supreme leader slams 'clown' Trump, says Iran's missile strikes showed 'the hand of God'

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Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, led Friday prayers at a mosque in Tehran on Friday for the first time since 2012, trying to rally support among intertwined crises facing his government. On the foreign front, punishing U.S. sanctions have harmed Iran's economy and the Trump administration's killing of Iran's top general brought the U.S. and Tehran to the brink of war. Domestically, Iranians already angry over a hike in fuel prices took to the streets this week to demand justice and accountability for the Revolutionary Guard's downing of a Ukrainian jetliner, killing 176 people, most of them Iranian.In nationally broadcast comments from inside the Mosalla mosque, Khamenei, 80, said the missiles fired on the Ukrainian jet were a "bitter accident" and defended the Revolutionary Guard, which reports directly to him. "Our enemies were as happy about the plane crash as we were sad," he said. "Happy that they had found something to qu...

'You have not seen anything yet,' climate activist Greta says ahead of Davos

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Swedish activist Greta Thunberg marched with 10,000 protesters in the Swiss city of Lausanne on Friday and said "you have not seen anything yet" before some head to Davos next week to challenge the global financial elite to fight climate change. "So, we are now in a new year and we have entered a new decade and so far, during this decade, we have seen no sign whatsoever that real climate action is coming and that has to change,” Thunberg said in a speech in Lausanne. Hundreds will take trains over the weekend and then march to Klosters near Davos, the annual gathering of world political and business leaders that Thunberg is attending for the second year in a row and will take part in two panel events. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/362txiw via Latest News

Painting found in Italian museum wall is stolen Klimt

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A painting found stashed inside a wall at an Italian museum has been confirmed as the stolen "Portrait of a Lady" by Austria's Gustav Klimt, prosecutors said on Friday, two decades after the artwork went missing. The century-old painting was discovered concealed in an external wall by gardeners at the Ricci Oddi Gallery of Modern Art in Piacenza, northeast Italy, last month. "It is with no small emotion that I can tell you the work is authentic," prosecutor Ornella Chicca told reporters. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/38jwqxa via Latest News

Democrats release new debate qualification thresholds

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Instead of just meeting a polling and donor threshold as required for previous debates, candidates now have an alternate way to participate from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/38mJbXs via Latest News

Delta plane slides off taxiway amid winter storm; airlines issue travel advisories into weekend

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Airlines are issuing travel waivers on account of a winter storm headed for much of the northern U.S. this weekend. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2R2Quhd via Latest News

Teens filmed 'fist bumping' after stabbing man to death

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Two teenagers were filmed bumping fists shortly after they had stabbed an 18-year-old man to death in an unprovoked attack in London. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2NCJiGy via Latest News

Parnas communicated with Nunes aide about Ukraine, documents show

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Lev Parnas, the indicted associate of Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani who worked as his envoy in Ukraine, communicated with a top aide to Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) about an effort to find damaging information on former Vice President Joe Biden, documents released Friday night by House Democrats revealed.The evidence shows Derek Harvey, a former White House official and top aide to Nunes, communicated extensively with Parnas and sought to speak with Ukrainian prosecutors who were giving Giuliani information about Biden, reports The Washington Post. The documents corroborate Parnas' own claims about Nunes' office's involvement in the scheme.Parnas has said President Trump and his associates were working to push Ukraine into announcing an investigation into Biden. The messages, the Post writes, "indicate Nunes' office was aware of the operation at the heart of impeachment proceedings against the president — and sought to use the information Parnas was gathering." Nu...

U.S. sanctions Iranian commander over Mahshahr killings

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The U.S. State Department said on Saturday it had imposed sanctions on a general of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps who commanded units blamed for a massacre of protesters in November. The U.S. State Department has said previously it had received videos of the Revolutionary Guards opening fire without warning on protesters in Mahshahr county in southwest Iran. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/38ixmSk via Latest News

Liberia souring on George Weah at two-year mark

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Dominic Kpadeh heaves a hammer over his head to crack a half-tonne rock in a northern suburb of Liberia's capital Monrovia, knowing his hard labour earns him far less than a year ago. Stories such as Kpadeh's are common in Liberia, where rampant inflation has left many people struggling and increasingly turning their anger on President George Weah. A former football icon whose goals for AC Milan and Paris St Germain dazzled fans, Weah came to power in January 2018, promising to invest in education and create jobs. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/3avyjbY via Latest News

Facebook axes pages that supported Robert Hyde, figure in impeachment probe - CNET

Facebook said it didn't get the info it sought from the page owners after it found the pages were "misleading people by concealing who controls them." from CNET https://ift.tt/30xts5e via Mobiles

20 “Tough” Ford Cars And Trucks…That Are Actually Junk - TheThings

20 “Tough” Ford Cars And Trucks…That Are Actually Junk    TheThings from Technology - Latest - Google News https://ift.tt/2FZsu8C via Technology

Bugatti Veyron With Rear Panel Delete Stands Out On Public Roads - Motor1

Bugatti Veyron With Rear Panel Delete Stands Out On Public Roads    Motor1 from Technology - Latest - Google News https://ift.tt/2TIOZqa via Technology

Business News Update BBC

The self-styled 'Tariff Man' uses tariffs for negotiation but how successful has he been? from BBC News - Business https://ift.tt/377b6uB via Online Shopping

Khamenei: Iran gave U.S. 'slap on face', calls missile strikes 'day of God'

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Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a Friday sermon that Iran's missile strikes on U.S. targets in Iraq this month delivered a "slap on the face" to the United States, showing the Islamic Republic had divine support. During a spike in tension, Iran launched missiles at U.S. targets on Jan. 8 in response to a U.S. drone strike on Jan. 3 that killed Qassem Soleimeni, a powerful Iranian general who was close to Khamenei. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2FUiTQq via Latest News

Docs Show Parnas Helping Nunes Aide Set Up Interviews With Ex-Ukrainian Officials

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New documents turned over to the House Judiciary Committee on Friday night include messages between Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas and Derek Harvey, an aide to Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA). The Daily Beast was first to report that Parnas helped arrange meetings and calls in Europe for Harvey in 2018 to help the lawmaker's investigative work, and it appears the practice continued into 2019.The exchanges between Parnas and Harvey, which span several months in early 2019, show the two arranging several meetings and phone calls to discuss two claims that have been central to Trumpworld’s dirt-digging mission in Ukraine and the president’s subsequent impeachment: supposed corruption by former Vice President Joe Biden and a plot against Trump by Ukrainian officials during the 2016 election. “We need to set a time for Skype w your four people,” Harvey wrote in an April 2019 message to Parnas, apparently referring to former Ukrainian officials claiming to have information on Biden. “It look...

Trump threatened 25% tariffs on European cars if Britain, Germany and France didn't put Iran on notice

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The Trump administration warned European officials in three countries that if they didn't put Iran on notice about nuclear deal violations, the US government would slap a 25% tariff on all European cars. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/37936sL via Latest News

TSA issues apology to Native American woman who had braids pulled by agent

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Tara Houska ‘humiliated’ by TSA agent who ‘snapped my braids like reins’ during screening at Minneapolis-St Paul airportThe federal Transportation Security Administration has apologized to a Native American woman who said an agent at Minneapolis-St Paul international airport “pulled her braids” and said “giddy up!” when she took a flight from there this week.“The agent said she needed to pat down my braids,” tweeted Tara Houska, an indigenous rights advocate and attorney. “She pulled them behind my shoulders, laughed and said ‘giddyup!’ as she snapped my braids like reins. My hair is part of my spirit. I am a Native woman. I am angry, humiliated. Your ‘fun’ hurt.”Houska, who is Ojibwe, added: “When I informed the middle-aged blonde woman who had casually used her authority to dehumanize and disrespect me, she said, ‘Well it was just in fun, I’m sorry. Your hair is lovely.’“That is NOT an apology and it is NOT OK.”According to the Washington Post, women of color have long experienced pr...

Trump Trial to Open With Questions Unanswered on Ukraine ‘Favor’

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(Bloomberg) -- “Read the transcript!”That’s the rallying cry of President Donald Trump and supporters who say he did nothing wrong in the Ukraine impeachment saga.Democrats countered that the White House readout of Trump’s call with Ukraine’s president offers strong evidence of his guilt. The key line they point to is this: “I would like you to do us a favor,” Trump tells President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.With Trump set for trial starting Tuesday in the Senate after his impeachment in the House, that 16-minute call is Exhibit A for both the president and his opponents.Weeks of House testimony underscored that many of Trump’s aides and envoys were disturbed by the call and broader administration efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate Democrat Joe Biden, including by withholding almost $400 million in assistance the ally desperately wanted to counter Russian aggression. Fiona Hill, the top National Security Council adviser on Russia at the time, said her boss, John Bolton, called the eff...

Iran leader's speech fails to quell plane anger

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Some Iranians reacted angrily Friday to a speech by the country's supreme leader, which they said sought to downplay days of protests after a tension-filled month in the Islamic republic. "He didn't even try to calm the people and totally ignored the protesters," said one activist in Iran. Protests erupted after the Iranian government admitted to having accidentally shot down a Ukrainian jet on January 8, killing all 176 people on board. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/30ybnnz via Latest News

Watch live: SpaceX is about to blow up a rocket in a crucial test to show NASA that its spaceship ready to launch astronauts

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Elon Musk's SpaceX is going to make one of its own rocket boosters explode to prove that its Crew Dragon spaceship is ready to send people to space. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2ubMJNL via Latest News

Rain douses some Australian bush fires but flash floods now threaten wildlife

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Heavy rains in fire-ravaged eastern Australia have brought welcome relief for firefighters and farmers, but sparked flash floods that have led to fresh scrambles to save native animals.  As the rain hit on Thursday the New South Wales State Emergency Services department warned that the sudden heavy downpours in some areas would bring flash flooding, falling trees and landslides where the fires have wiped out vegetation.  On Friday, the warnings were realised when flash floods hit the Australia Reptile Park on the NSW east coast, and the state's koalas - having lost thousands of their number and huge swathes of their habitat - needed to be rescued again as floods thundered down fire-blasted hills empty of vegetation.  Park director Tim Faulkner told local media that the sudden floods on Friday morning were “incredible”.  “Just last week we were having daily meetings to discuss the imminent threat of bushfires,” he said. “Today, we've had the whole team out there, dren...

Fewer Americans are binge-drinking, but those who do are drinking more per session

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New CDC data shows binge-drinking is declining, but American adults who do drink heavily are consuming 12% more alcohol per session. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/3799C2H via Latest News

Republicans Melt Down as Evidence of Trump’s Guilt Piles Up

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If you doubt Republicans are facing immense pressure these days, consider Sen. Martha McSally’s behavior. Asked by respected, mild-mannered CNN reporter Manu Raju if she would consider new evidence during the impeachment trial of Donald J. Trump, the vulnerable senator from Arizona snapped back: “You’re a liberal hack—I’m not talking to you. You’re a liberal hack.”Regardless of whether new post-House impeachment revelations are introduced in the Senate trial, the drip-drip-drip has created a lose-lose proposition for Republicans who face tough electoral crosswinds in 2020. They can defend the indefensible, or they can risk invoking the wrath of their president. (Clearly, McSally has decided her best bet is to avoid the latter.)But as evidence mounts, McSally also risks alienating Arizonans who elected a maverick named John McCain and aren’t looking to send a Trump toady to Washington. Kellyanne Conway Melts Down Under Grilling by Fox NewsAs the Senate heads toward the formal impeac...