🇺🇸 **Pompeo: 'Ludicrous' to suggest Trump canceled Putin meeting over Cohen news**
*(((CNN)))* - <http://archive.li/Qaeeg>

Buenos Aires (CNN) — US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo asserted that Russian aggression against Ukraine in the Kerch Strait near Crimea was the sole reason for President Donald Trump's cancellation of his G20 meeting with Russia President Vladimir Putin, calling suggestions that it was influenced by developments in the special counsel's probe "ludicrous."

In an exclusive interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer on the sidelines of the global summit, Pompeo said Trump scrapped the anticipated meeting "because the Russians behaved in a way that is deeply inconsistent with international law."
"The President wanted to send a clear, unambiguous message that we find that type of behavior unacceptable, so we canceled the meeting," Pompeo said.

In a maritime clash last weekend, Russian boats seized three Ukrainian ships near Crimea and detained 24 sailors. A court in Russian-controlled Crimea ordered that 12 of those soldiers be detained for two months. Russia's escalation has been met with international condemnation.

Trump's decision to cancel the meeting with Putin came days after the initial clash and was tweeted from aboard Air Force One on Thursday en route to Argentina.

"Based on the fact that the ships and sailors have not been returned to Ukraine from Russia, I have decided it would be best for all parties concerned to cancel my previously scheduled meeting (...) in Argentina with President Vladimir Putin. I look forward to a meaningful Summit again as soon as this situation is resolved!" Trump tweeted en route to the summit.
-----------------------------

🇲🇽 **Tijuana mayor says arrest caravan organizer, vows to stop funding migrants**
*Fox News* - <https://archive.fo/UrLIu>

After declaring the migrant caravan a “humanitarian crisis” this week, Mayor Juan Manuel Gastélum told Fox News that he can no longer continue to fund the municipal effort to shelter them without federal assistance.

“I’m not going to break public services to solve this problem,” the Tijuana mayor said.

Even worse, he could be forced to raise taxes on Tijuana’s 1.7 million residents who have already suffered from Sunday’s clashes.

“In those six hours that the border was closed, we lost approximately 129 million pesos,” he said. “That's not fair. How do you think people from Tijuana feel towards those people who are making problems?”

Meanwhile, conditions for the migrants in the tent city encampment worsened overnight with heavy winds and rain – flooding overcrowded spaces, leaving wet clothes, sleeping bags and litter strewn about an unsanitary and inhumane existence.

Efforts were underway to move some of them to a new location because of reports that more migrants were making their way to Tijuana.

Mayor Gastélum blames the organizers for whom he cannot identify. He said they should be held accountable. He said the leaders of the caravan should face criminal charges.

“Those are the real criminals because they're dealing with the lives of people,” he says.
----------------

🇫🇷 **'This is the start of a revolution': Paris rioters steal police assault rifle, torch dozens of cars and vow to 'stay in the streets until Christmas' as fuel protests continue into the night and spread across France - and even to Holland**
*Daily Mail* - <https://archive.fo/42Q0J>

The centre of Paris was on lockdown tonight after masked protesters stole an assault rifle from police, clashed with riot squads and set fire to cars and Christmas trees on the Champs-Elysees in furious demonstrations against the French government.

Protesters said today's actions were 'the start of a revolution' that would eclipse the mass strikes and occupation of universities and factories in1968 when the country was on the cusp of civil war.

Fires and clouds of tear gas covered the French capital from early morning until late in the evening, in some of the worst violence ever seen in the French capital as more than 5,000 demonstrators brought chaos to Paris for the second week running.

As so-called Yellow Vest fuel price demonstrators marched along the opulent Avenue Foch near the Arc de Triomphe, home to embassies and luxury residences, they were joined by criminal groups included looters.

French President Emmanuel Macron has promised the protesters will be 'held responsible for their acts'.

Macron said today's demonstrations which have left dozens injured and hundreds arrested 'have nothing to do with the peaceful expression of a legitimate anger.' He said 'no cause justifies attacks on police or pillaging stores and burning buildings'.

Macron said he is holding an emergency government meeting Sunday on the protests. He spoke from the G20 summit being held in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

French police confirmed there had been at least 224 arrests today during the protests for a series of offences, ranging from violent disorder to theft. There were 110 serious injuries, including more than 20 police officers.
----------------

🇺🇸🇲🇽🇨🇦 **Trump Set to Terminate Nafta, Creating Deadline for Lawmakers**
*The Wall Street Journal* - <https://archive.fo/mKkJq>

President Trump said Saturday he will soon terminate the North American Free Trade Agreement to pave the way for congressional consideration of the reworked agreement known as the USMCA.

Termination would start a six-month withdrawal period and give lawmakers a deadline to choose between the new deal or nothing, the president told reporters aboard Air Force One. His comments came while flying back from Argentina after the Group of 20 summit and a Saturday dinner with Chinese President Xi Jinpingover trade issues.

While here, Mr. Trump participated in a ceremonial signing of the new deal, called the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, with outgoing Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. At the time, Mr. Trump suggested it wouldn’t face hurdles on Capitol Hill, where ratification is needed.

“That’ll be terminated so Congress will have a choice of the USMCA or pre-Nafta, which worked very well,” Mr. Trump said.
----------------

🇸🇦🇺🇸 **CIA Intercepts Underpin Assessment Saudi Crown Prince Targeted Khashoggi**
*The Wall Street Journal* - <https://archive.fo/ImRle>

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman sent at least 11 messages to his closest adviser, who oversaw the team that killed journalist Jamal Khashoggi, in the hours before and after the journalist’s death in October, according to a highly classified CIA assessment.

The Saudi leader also in August 2017 had told associates that if his efforts to persuade Mr. Khashoggi to return to Saudi Arabia weren’t successful, “we could possibly lure him outside Saudi Arabia and make arrangements,” according to the assessment, a communication that it states “seems to foreshadow the Saudi operation launched against Khashoggi.”

Mr. Khashoggi, a critic of the kingdom’s leadership who lived in Virginia and wrote columns for the Washington Post, was killed by Saudi operatives on Oct. 2 shortly after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, where he sought papers needed to marry his Turkish fiancée.

Excerpts of the Central Intelligence Agency’s assessment, which cites electronic intercepts and other clandestine information, were reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

The CIA last month concluded that Prince Mohammed had likely ordered Mr. Khashoggi’s killing, and President Trump and leaders in Congress were briefed on intelligence gathered by the spy agency. Mr. Trump afterward questioned the CIA’s conclusion about the prince, saying “maybe he did; and maybe he didn’t.”

The previously unreported excerpts reviewed by the Journal state that the CIA has “medium-to-high confidence” that Prince Mohammed “personally targeted” Khashoggi and “probably ordered his death.” It added: “To be clear, we lack direct reporting of the Crown Prince issuing a kill order.”
----------------

🇲🇽 **Tijuana shuts down migrant caravan shelter**
*The Washington Times* - <https://archive.fo/wjW1D>

The city government of Tijuana announced Saturday that it has closed down a migrant shelter at a sports complex close to the U.S. border that once held about 6,000 Central Americans who hope to get into the U.S.

Officials said all the migrants were being moved to a former concert venue much farther from the border. The city said in a statement the sports complex shelter was closed because of “bad sanitary conditions.”

Experts had expressed concerns about unsanitary conditions that had developed at the partly flooded sports complex, where the migrants had been packed into a space adequate for half their numbers. Mud, lice infestations and respiratory infections were rampant.

The remaining migrants were taken by bus to the new shelter about 10 miles from the border crossing at Otay Mesa and 14 miles from San Ysidro, near where people line up to file applications for asylum in the United States.

Tijuana officials had said earlier that nobody would be forced to move to the new facility, a large building and concrete patio known as El Barretal that was used for concerts and other events until about six years ago. But they also warned they would stop offering food and medical services at the Benito Juarez sports complex.

The new shelter is being run by federal authorities.

Also Saturday, in one of his first acts in office, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador signed an agreement with his counterparts from three Central American countries to establish a development plan to stem the flow of migrants seeking asylum in the U.S.

The Foreign Ministry said the plan, which includes a fund to generate jobs in the region, aims to attack the structural causes of migration from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.
----------------

🇮🇷 **Iran navy launches stealth warship in the Gulf**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/ntU7U>

Iran’s navy on Saturday launched a domestically made destroyer, which state media said has radar-evading stealth properties, as tensions rise with arch-enemy, the United States.

In a ceremony carried live on state television, the Sahand destroyer — which can sustain voyages lasting five months without resupply — joined Iran’s regular navy at a base in Bandar Abbas on the Gulf.

The Sahand has a flight deck for helicopters, torpedo launchers, anti-aircraft and anti-ship guns, surface-to-surface and surface-to-air missiles and electronic warfare capabilities, state television reported.

U.S. President Donald Trump pulled out of an international agreement on Iran’s nuclear program in May and reimposed sanctions on Tehran. He said the deal was flawed because it did not include curbs on Iran’s development of ballistic missiles or its support for proxies in Syria, Yemen, Lebanon and Iraq.

The United States has said its goal is to reduce Iran’s oil exports to zero. Senior Iranian officials have said that if Iran is not allowed to export then no other countries will be allowed to export oil through the Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Gulf.

“This vessel is the result of daring and creative design relying on the local technical knowledge of the Iranian Navy... and has been built with stealth capabilities,” Rear-Admiral Alireza Sheikhi, head of the navy shipyards that built the destroyer, told the state news agency IRNA.

Iran launched its first locally made destroyer in 2010 as part of a program to revamp its navy equipment which dates from before the 1979 Islamic revolution and is mostly U.S.-made.

Iran has developed a large domestic arms industry in the face of international sanctions and embargoes that have barred it from importing many weapons.
----------------

🇮🇱 **Israeli PM Netanyahu should be charged with bribery - police**
*BBC* - <https://archive.fo/SHUIu>

Israeli police have recommended indicting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara for alleged fraud and bribery.

They are suspected of awarding regulatory favours to the Bezeq telecom firm in return for positive media coverage of the couple.

Mr Netanyahu rejected the allegations in what is known as Case 4000.

The Israeli attorney-general will now have to decide whether to bring charges in the case.

In February, police recommended indicting Mr Netanyahu in two other corruption investigations.

On Sunday, the Israeli police and the Israel Securities Authorities said there was sufficient evidence for bribery, fraud and breach-of-trust charges to be brought against Mr Netanyahu and his wife.

They are suspected of interfering in regulatory decisions that favoured Bezeq and its majority shareholder Shaul Elovitch.

In return, the couple are alleged to have been given more positive coverage on Walla! news website, owned by Bezeq.

The police also said there was sufficient evidence to indict Mr Elovitch for giving bribes.

Responding to the latest allegations, Mr Netanyahu tweeted: "These recommendations were determined and leaked even before the investigations began.

"I'm sure that in this case the relevant authorities, after examining the issue, will reach the same conclusion: that there was nothing because there is nothing."

Mr Elovitch has so far made no public comments on the issue.
----------------

🇺🇸 🇦🇫 **Key Afghanistan Taliban commander killed in U.S. air strike**
*BBC* - <http://archive.is/g8mAf>

One of the Taliban's most senior commanders has been killed in a US airstrike in Afghanistan. Mullah Abdul Manan Akhund was the Taliban's "governor" and military chief for the southern Helmand province.

He was killed in the Nawzad district of Helmand on Saturday night, provincial officials said. Helmand is where British troops were based for eight years before ground troops were withdrawn in 2014. Large parts of the province are now back under Taliban control.

The Taliban said his death was a "major loss" but it would not deter them in their efforts to take back control of Afghanistan. Afghan interior ministry spokesman Najib Danish told the AFP news agency his death was a major blow to the Taliban and would "lower the moral" of its fighters in southern Afghanistan.

BBC research earlier this year showed Taliban insurgents control more territory in the country than at any time since 2014. It is estimated that about 15 million people - half the population - are living in areas that are either controlled by the Taliban or where its fighters are openly present and regularly mount attacks.

However, there have been intense efforts to persuade the Taliban to begin peace talks to end the fighting. It sent delegates to a meeting in Russia last month to discuss the issue, but has refused to hold direct talks with the Afghan government.
----------------

🇮🇹 **Italy walks out on UN migration meeting saying national borders are no business of the UN**
*Express* - <https://archive.fo/i7arR>

Italian prime minister Giuseppe Conte said decisions over migration were a matter for national governments.

He said: “Italy reserves the right to adhere to this document or not only after the parliament has decided.”

In a statement on behalf of the Italian government he said: "The migration pact is a document that deals with issues and questions our citizens are concerned by.

"For this reason, we think it advisable to task parliament with a debate and the final choice once talks have concluded.”

Mr Conte’s announcement came minutes after anti-immigration interior minister Matteo Salvini had spoken against going to the UN meeting.

Mr Salvini said: “The Italian government won’t go to Marrakech, it won’t sign anything, parliament will.”

The intervention of the right-wing Lega leader sparked the outrage of PD, Italy’s main opposition party, which accused Mr Salvini of walking away from a decision that had been already taken.

Mr Conte had previously spoken in favour of the UN pact and seemed keen to follow through his predecessor Paolo Gentiloni’s promise to sign it.
----------------

🇺🇸🇸🇦 **After CIA briefing, Republicans say 'no question' Saudi crown prince ordered Khashoggi murder**
*ABC News* - <https://archive.is/rjqlb>

Following a briefing by CIA director Gina Haspel Tuesday on the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, leading Republican senators told reporters that there was "zero question" that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the brutal murder.

Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Sen. Bob Corker, a Tennessee Republican, said "I have zero question in my mind that the Crown Prince MBS ordered the killing, monitored the killing, knew exactly what was happening. Planned it in advance. If he was in front of a jury he would be convicted in 30 minutes. Guilty," Corker said.

Corker called the Trump administration's claim that there is no direct evidence of the crown prince's involvement "unacceptable."

South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said, "There's not a smoking gun, there's a smoking saw."

"You have to be willfully blind not to come to the conclusion that this was orchestrated and organized by people under the command of MBS and that he was intricately involved in the demise of Mr. Khashoggi," he said.

He went on: "If the Saudi government is going to be in the hands of this man, I find it very difficult to be able to do business because I think he's crazy, I think he's dangerous, and he has put the relationship at risk."

Graham concluded that he can no longer support arms sales to the kingdom.

Given those comments, it appeared Haspel's briefing would not help the administration win back support for its military aid to the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen.

The fact that the briefing was limited to a small group angered several senators, including Republican allies of President Trump.
----------------

🇺🇸 **Jeffrey Epstein, registered sex offender, settles civil lawsuit and avoids testimony from alleged victims**
*FOX News* - <https://archive.fo/nsx0k>

The numerous young women who say they were sexually abused by wealthy, Clinton-linked financier Jeffrey Epstein no longer appear set to testify after a last-minute settlement was reached in a closely-watched civil lawsuit against the registered sex offender.

The deal was announced Tuesday -- just before jury selection was to begin -- and, for now, it likely means none of the women will be able to speak in court about the alleged abuse they endured at Epstein's hands, according to the Associated Press.

The 65-year-old Epstein, who has counted presidents and kings among his friends, allegedly operated a sex ring at his mansion in Palm Beach, Florida, a residence in New York City, and his private island estate. The latter locale contained Epstein's 72-acre Virgin Islands home -- and the strip of land was dubbed by some as “Orgy Island.”

Court documents obtained by Fox News in 2016 showed former President Bill Clinton took at least 26 trips flying aboard Epstein's private jet -- known as the "Lolita Express" -- and apparently ditched his Secret Service detail on some of the excursions. Authorities who seized trash outside Epstein's home at the time found an invoice for the purchase of the book “SlaveCraft: Roadmaps for Erotic Servitude -- Principles, Skills and Tools," as well as the instructional “Training with Miss Abernathy: A Workbook for Erotic Slaves and Their Owners."

Epstein, dogged by countless allegations of sex with underage girls, pleaded guilty in 2008 to state sex charges, served a year in jail and registered as a sex offender. But in a secret deal with federal prosecutors led by now-Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta, Epstein avoided a possible life term.

The lawsuit that had been set to go forward Tuesday was a tangled affair.
----------------

🇺🇸 **Thomson Reuters to cut 3,200 jobs in next two years**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/wNGZU>

Thomson Reuters Corp (TRI.TO) said on Tuesday that it will cut its workforce by 12 percent in the next two years, axing 3,200 jobs, as part of a plan to streamline the business and reduce costs.

The news and information provider, which completed the sale of a 55-percent stake in its Financial & Risk (F&R) unit to private equity firm Blackstone Group LP (BX.N), announced the cuts during an investor day in Toronto, in which it outlined its future strategy and growth plans.

The company, which is focusing on its legal and tax businesses following the Blackstone deal, declined to say where the job cuts were being made. However, Co-Chief Operating Officer Neil Masterson told investors that staff had already been informed about 90 percent of the planned cuts.

Shares in Thomson Reuters rose as much as 3.7 percent on Tuesday, hitting an all-time high.

“They laid out some good plans for the next couple of years,” said Edward Jones analyst Brittany Weissman. “I think there is still a long road ahead, but it was positive. They explained in more detail the pathway to more organic growth.”

The company aims to grow annual sales by 3.5 percent to 4.5 percent by 2020, excluding the impact of any acquisitions. Chief Executive Officer Jim Smith said it plans to cross-sell more products to existing customers and to attract new customers. The company will also cut the number of products it sells, he said.

“We’re going to simplify the company in every way that we can, working on sales effectiveness and on ways to make it easier both for our customers to do business with us and for our frontline troops to navigate inside the organization,” he said.

As part of the streamlining, the company said it planned to reduce the number of offices around the world by 30 percent to 133 locations by 2020.
----------------

🇷🇺 **Nato accuses Russia of breaking nuclear missile treaty**
*BBC* - <https://archive.fo/jGiIS>

Western military alliance Nato has formally accused Russia of breaching the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, which banned land-based nuclear missiles in Europe.

Following a meeting, Nato foreign ministers issued a statement supporting US accusations of Russian violations.

The US has threatened to withdraw from the treaty because of Russian actions.

Russia denied being in breach of the INF deal, saying it "strictly abides" by its conditions.

The deal banned ground-launched medium-range missiles with a range of 500-5,500km (310-3,400 miles).

"Allies have concluded that Russia has developed and fielded a missile system, the 9M729, which violates the INF Treaty and poses significant risks to Euro-Atlantic security," the Nato foreign ministers' statement reads.

"We strongly support the finding of the United States that Russia is in material breach of its obligations under the INF Treaty.

"We call on Russia to return urgently to full and verifiable compliance. It is now up to Russia to preserve the INF Treaty."

The new medium-range missile that the US - and now Nato - accuse Russian of deploying would enable Russia to launch a nuclear strike at Nato countries at very short notice.

Analysts say Russia sees such weapons as a cheaper alternative to conventional forces.

**Speaking after the Nato statement was issued, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Russia had 60 days to return to compliance with the treaty, after which time the US would suspend its own compliance.**
----------------

🇺🇸 **EXCLUSIVE: The Weekly Standard Expected To Shutter In Coming Weeks**
*The Daily Caller* - <https://archive.fo/AdH0D>

The Weekly Standard is not expected to survive going into 2019 and is preparing to shut down permanently, according to a current staff member and former member of the magazine’s parent company who spoke to The Daily Caller News Foundation.

Rumors had been circulating throughout the media class Tuesday about the fate of The Weekly Standard in the wake of the magazine’s dwindling readership and circulation, despite a rebranding effort as the preeminent right-leaning periodical for conservatives opposed to President Donald Trump.

“I don’t expect it to exist after December 14, 2018,” one editor at the magazine told TheDCNF. “There is no budget for it AT ALL.”

The Weekly Standard was founded in 1995 by Bill Kristol and Fred Barnes. Originally owned by NewsCorp, the magazine was eventually sold in 2009 to billionaire Philip Anschutz. Individuals close to the magazine told TheDCNF that Anschutz was growing frustrated with the direction of the magazine.

A former employee of The Washington Examiner, which is a member of the same parent company as The Weekly Standard, told TheDCNF the office had been hearing murmurings Monday about the magazine’s fate. That employee told TheDCNF there had been talk that some of The Weekly Standard would be folded into The Washington Examiner.

“They’re either closing or they’re folding into a page of the Washington Examiner,” said the former Examiner employee.

Yet a current editor at The Weekly Standard disputed that possibility.

“I don’t think ‘folded’ is the right word. It sounds more like get rid of us entirely,” the editor said.

A spokesperson for Anschutz did not comment.
----------------

🇬🇧 **Nigel Farage QUITS Ukip in protest over new leader Gerard Batten's appointment of Tommy Robinson as adviser on 'Muslim rape gangs'**
*The Daily Mail* - <https://archive.fo/ZdQx0>

Nigel Farage has quit Ukip after 25 years in protest over new leader Gerard Batten's 'obsession with Muslims' and his appointment of Tommy Robinson as an adviser on 'Muslim rape gangs'.

'And so, with a heavy heart, and after all my years of devotion to the party, I am leaving Ukip today,' he wrote in The Telegraph. 'There is a huge space for a Brexit party in British politics, but it won't be filled by Ukip.'

Speaking later on LBC, Mr Farage accused Mr Batten of 'turning a blind eye to extremism' and attempting to turn the party from an 'electoral' force into a 'party of street activism'.

Mr Batten has described Islam as a 'death cult' and called for possible policies including Muslim-only prisons.

Ukip's national executive committee (NEC) met at the weekend to consider his future as leader, but it voted against a motion of no confidence in Mr Batten.

Mr Batten has previously defended his decision to give English Defence League (EDL) co-founder Mr Robinson a role advising him on rape gangs and prison reform, describing him as 'courageous'.

But Mr Farage said Ukip had been successful in the past because it had a policy of 'excluding extremists'. The ex-leader has previously the appointment of Mr Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, would turn Ukip into the BNP.

He wrote in The Telegraph today: 'Under my leadership of Ukip, the party banned former members of the BNP and EDL from joining. Many accusations of racism and extremism were thrown at us, but I strongly maintain they were untrue.

'Under Gerard Batten's leadership, however, the party's direction has changed fundamentally.'
----------------

🇺🇸 ** South Texas border patrol agents arrest 1,900 at southern border over weekend**
*InfoWars* - <http://archive.is/ofKyt>

Border Patrol agents arrested a staggering 1,900 illegal immigrants in South Texas over the weekend. The extremely high number of arrests took place in the Rio Grande Valley, the busiest US sector for illegal crossings. Gang members, child predators among illegals arrested in border crackdown.

Among the illegals arrested throughout the valley, most of whom were from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, at least one was confirmed to be an MS-13 gang member.

A Customs and Border Protection agent who spoke to local news blamed the spike on human smugglers. “The smugglers don’t care for the individuals they’re crossing, all they care about is the money. They see these as a commodity, not as people,” CBP Agent Marcelino Medina told ValleyCentral.com.

RGV Sector Chief Manuel Padilla, Jr. confirmed that on Saturday alone agents foiled 27 human smuggling attempts, in addition to busting shipments of 2,500 pounds of marijuana.

The journey took a deadly turn for some immigrants, whose bodies and skeletal remains have been located on the banks of the Rio Grande River. This weekend, Border Patrol Agents discovered two skeletal remains and recovered one body in the Rio Grande. This monday, agents found the body of a migrant in a canal in Mission.

For the ones who successfully made the journey, it’s possible they’ll be released into the US and never heard from again.

News of the arrests in Texas comes a week after members of the migrant caravan engaged in violent clashes with Border Patrol agents in San Diego.
----------------

🇺🇸 **U.S. Republican campaign emails hacked months before election**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/GW6U1>

Email accounts for a campaign group supporting Republicans candidates running for the U.S. House of Representatives were hacked before this year’s congressional elections, according to a person familiar with the investigation.

Hackers used National Republican Congressional Committee credentials to access a “small number” of email accounts at the organization, which is also known as the NRCC, said the person, who was not authorized to discuss details of the attack.

NRCC spokesman Ian Prior confirmed the group was the victim of a cyberattack by an unknown party, but disputed that stolen passwords were used.

“Upon learning of the intrusion, the NRCC immediately launched an internal investigation and notified the FBI, which is now investigating the matter,” Prior said.

The NRCC changed the passwords at its web-based email provider and took steps to prevent similar attacks, said the person, who did not name the email provider.

The hackers used techniques that make them difficult to identify and officials have yet to determine whether they were aligned with a foreign government, said a second person familiar with the case.
----------------

🇫🇷 **The Latest: France's Macron scraps fuel tax after protests**
*ABC News* - <https://archive.fo/r7Mub>

French President Emmanuel Macron has scrapped a fuel tax rise amid fears of new violence, after weeks of nationwide protests and the worst rioting in Paris in decades.

An official with the Elysee palace told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the president decided to get rid of the tax.

Philippe told lawmakers that "the tax is now abandoned" in the 2019 budget, and the government is "ready for dialogue." The budget can be adjusted or renegotiated through the course of the year.

Three weeks of protests have left four people dead and were a massive challenge to Macron.
----------------

🇺🇸🇸🇦 **Senate resolution says Saudi crown prince 'complicit' in Khashoggi murder**
*FOX News* - <https://archive.fo/Wt5ak>

A bipartisan group of six senators introduced a nonbinding resolution Wednesday stating that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was "complicit" in the October killing of activist Jamal Khashoggi at the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul.

The resolution says that the Senate believes the crown prince, known informally as "MbS," "was in control of the security forces at the time of Jamal Khashoggi's murder" and "based on evidence and analysis made available to this institution, has a high level of confidence" in his complicity in the Oct. 2 murder.

The resolution was introduced by Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.; Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.; Marco Rubio, R-Fla.; Ed Markey, D-Mass.; Todd Young, R-Ind.; and Chris Coons, D-Del. Graham has been a particularly harsh critic of the Trump administration's handling of the aftermath of Khashoggi's killing.

"I hope to have a definitive statement by the United States Senate that the crown prince of Saudi Arabia has been generally a wrecking ball in terms of behavior and that he was complicit in the murder of Mr. Khashoggi because I think that's the truth," Graham told reporters Wednesday evening. "And I think if the Senate can make that statement, it puts us on a new path to trying to have a relationship with Saudi Arabia that is beneficial and sustainable.

"The current construct is not sustainable," Graham added. "There is no way we're gonna continue to do business with Saudi Arabia as if this never happened."

The measure was introduced one day after CIA Director Gina Haspel briefed a group of key senators about the agency's findings in the Khashoggi matter. Graham, who attended the briefing, told reporters afterward that there was "zero chance" the crown prince wasn't involved in Khashoggi's death.
----------------

🇺🇸🇷🇺🇺🇦 **US makes preparations to sail warship into Black Sea amid Russia-Ukraine tensions**
*CNN* - <https://archive.fo/sHOHE>

The US has begun making the necessary preparations to sail a warship into the Black Sea, a move that comes amid heightened tensions in the region following Russia's seizure of Ukrainian ships and detention of Ukrainian sailors.

The US military has requested that the State Department notify Turkey of its possible plans to sail a warship into the Black Sea, three US officials tell CNN, a move they said is a response to Russia's actions against Ukraine in the Kerch Strait, which connects the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.

For its part, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced Wednesday that its troops in eastern Crimea, which Moscow seized from Ukraine in 2014, conducted a military drill with its Pantsir anti-aircraft missile systems.

The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs also claimed Wednesday that the Ukrainian government had undertaken "active preparations" for a military offensive in eastern Ukraine, using the recent declaration of martial law in select regions as a cover.

"Substantial offensive components are being transferred to the region, which are being dispersed along the entire contact line," spokesperson Maria Zakharova said Wednesday at a press briefing.

The US is required to notify Turkey about the passage through the straits under the Montreux Convention, a 1936 treaty that governs the passage of military vessels through the Bosporus and the Dardanelles, which connect the Mediterranean to the Black Sea.

Under the rules of the treaty, countries that do not have a coastline on the Black Sea are required to provide Turkey with at least 15 days' notice prior to transiting the straits.
----------------

🇨🇦🇺🇸🇨🇳 **Huawei's CFO arrested in Canada, faces extradition to United States**
*CNN* - <https://archive.fo/lqE1G>

The chief financial officer of Chinese tech giant Huawei has been arrested in Canada. She faces extradition to the United States.

Meng Wanzhou, also known as Sabrina Meng and Cathy Meng, was apprehended in Vancouver on December 1, according to Canadian Justice Department spokesman Ian McLeod. In addition to her role as CFO, Meng serves as deputy chairwoman of Huawei's board. She's the daughter of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei.

Meng "is sought for extradition by the United States, and a bail hearing has been set for Friday," McLeod said in a statement, which was first reported by The Globe and Mail.

McLeod said the Canadian Justice Department can't share details of the case. Meng was granted a publication ban after a judge agreed to bar both police and prosecutors from releasing information about the case.

A Huawei spokesperson said Meng was detained by Canadian authorities on behalf of the United States when she was transferring flights in Canada. Huawei said she faces unspecified charges in the Eastern District of New York. The Wall Street Journal reported in April that the US Justice Department was investigating whether Huawei violated US sanctions on Iran.

"The company has been provided very little information regarding the charges and is not aware of any wrongdoing by Ms. Meng," the spokesperson said. "The company believes the Canadian and US legal systems will ultimately reach a just conclusion. Huawei complies with all applicable laws and regulations where it operates, including applicable export control and sanction laws and regulations of the UN, US and EU."
----------------

🇺🇸 **Lawmakers Drafting Bill That Would Allow Social Media Checks Before Gun Purchase**
*WCBS 880* - <https://archive.fo/oup1R>

Two New York lawmakers are working to draft a bill that would propose a social media check before a gun purchase.

Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams and state Sen. Kevin Palmer’s proposal would allow authorities to review three years of social media history and one year of internet search history of any person seeking to purchase a firearm.

“A three-year review of a social media profile would give an easy profile of a person who is not suitable to hold and possess a fire arm,” Adams explains.

The two are hoping to identify any hate speech on social media profiles, which are often revealed only after someone is arrested in a mass shooting.

“If the police department is reviewing a gang assault, a robbery, some type of shooting, they go and do a social media profile investigation,” Adams said.

There are some logistical concerns as free speech and gun rights complaints are likely to come up. Though, Adams and Palmer say it is doable and needed.
----------------

🇺🇸 **U.S. Indicts 4 in First Panama Papers-Related Charges**
*Fortune* - <https://archive.is/R3d5E>

U.S. prosecutors unsealed Tuesday an indictment against four people affiliated with the Panama City law firm Mossack Fonseca, the first such American charges related to the 2016 Panama Papers leak.

The charges, filed in the Southern District of New York, include defrauding the United States, wire fraud, tax evasion, money laundering, and making false statements to investigators. An accountant, an investment advisor, and a former client of Mossack Fonseca’s are under arrest while a Mossack Fonseca partner, Ramses Owens, remains on the lam, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The American law enforcement action follows a Panama Papers-related raid on Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt, Germany last week. Prosecutors around the U.S. are building other cases, the New York Times reports. Mossack Fonseca shut down in March.

The indictment details tax evasion-related crimes dating to 2000 and implies that at least dozens more Americans were using Mossack Fonseca’s services.
One former client, now dead, helped authorities in their investigation by recording calls with Owens and introducing him to an undercover agent, the indictment reveals.
---------------

🇺🇸 **Inside Panama Papers: Multiple Clinton connections**
*McClatchy Washington Bureau* - <https://archive.is/Qv7kZ>

WASHINGTON
Hillary Clinton recently blasted the hidden financial dealings exposed in the Panama Papers, but she and her husband have multiple connections with people who have used the besieged law firm Mossack Fonseca to establish offshore entities.

Among them are Gabrielle Fialkoff, finance director for Hillary Clinton’s first campaign for the U.S. Senate; Frank Giustra, a Canadian mining magnate who has traveled the globe with Bill Clinton; a member of the Chagoury family, which pledged $1 billion in projects to the Clinton Global Initiative; and Chinese billionaire Ng Lap Seng, who was at the center of a Democratic fund-raising scandal when Bill Clinton was president. Also using the Panamanian law firm was the company founded by the late billionaire investor Marc Rich, an international fugitive when Bill Clinton pardoned him in the final hours of his presidency.

Hillary Clinton condemned what she called “outrageous tax havens and loopholes that super-rich people across the world are exploiting.”

“Now, some of this behavior is clearly against the law, and everyone who violates the law anywhere should be held accountable,” she said, speaking at the AFL-CIO convention recently. “But it’s also scandalous how much is actually legal.”

The Clintons themselves do not appear to be in Mossack Fonseca’s database, nor does it appear that their daughter, Chelsea, or her husband, Marc Mezvinsky, who co-founded a hedge fund, are listed. But Bill and Hillary Clinton’s connections to people who have used offshores is fuel for her Democratic rival, Bernie Sanders.
-----------------

🇺🇸 **US Jobless Claims Fell Last Week, Still No Signs of Tariff Strains**
*John Carney, Breitbart* - <http://archive.is/x1fXe>

The number of Americans filing applications for state unemployment benefits fell by 4,000 to a seasonally adjusted 231,000 in the week ended December 1, the Labor Department said Thursday. That

Initial jobless claims are a proxy for layoffs across the U.S. and so they’ve become closely watched for signs that tariffs could be costing jobs. Those signs have not shown up so far, with jobless claims continuing to come in a historically low levels.
---------------

🇬🇧 🇪🇺 **O2 Outage leaves many Brits and Euros unable to call anywhere**

BBC News: <http://archive.fo/pJ99L>

There is 'No End in sight' to the Europe wide outage of O2 Phone Coverage.

The mobile network said it was working "flat out" with Ericsson to fix the technical problems.

O2 has 25 million customers and also provides services for the Sky, Tesco, Giffgaff and Lycamobile networks, which have another seven million users.

"The network issue we are currently experiencing remains a top priority for us and we are working as quickly as possible to fix the issue," O2 said.

It's not just Europe, Japan's Y!Mobile network, owned by Softbank, was one also affected by the outages.

William Webb, a tech consultant and former Ofcom director, said it was unusual to take this long to resolve the problem: "It's probably some kind of a software update that one of the suppliers to the network has issued that for some reason proved incompatible or failed - and I guess now they're going to be looking at whether they can reverse that out again or fix that."

Think it's just Social Media lovers who are affected? Services such as Busses in London have been disrupted due to O2 Controlling timetables for Staff and Citizens.

Customers of O2 will be able to claim for any out-of-pocket expenses that resulted from being without their phone, according to consumer expert Helen Dewdney,
But there must be a genuine loss which can be proved with evidence. So, a taxi driver might be able to prove they lost out on fares owing to the shutdown, but other workers trying to claim a lost day of employment would struggle.

---------------

🇺🇸 **CNN’s New York Office Evacuated Over Bomb Threat**
*Breitbart* - <https://archive.fo/57m5Q>

CNN’s New York City office at Columbus Circle is under evacuation Thursday evening as the New York Police Department investigates a bomb threat near the area, according to CNN host Brian Stelter.

Photos shared on social media by Stelter and others show police investigating the threat near the Time Warner Center, where CNN’s New York head office is housed.

“Due to a police investigation at Columbus Circle, West 58th Street between 8th and 9th Avenue is closed to vehicle and pedestrian traffic. Please avoid this area. Update to follow,” NYPD Deputy Inspector Mark Iocco tweeted at 10:45 p.m. local time.

Host Don Lemon tweeted that staffers were evacuated from the premises during his live program.

TheWrap’s Jon Levine shared a clip of the moment Lemon’s program abruptly went to break due to the threat. When programming returned, a taped version of Anderson 360 began broadcasting.

Currently, it is unknown whether the bomb threat was directed at CNN or another target.

In October, CNN’s New York headquarters was evacuated after a package containing a crude pipe bomb, which was addressed to ex-Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) chief John Brennan, was found.
----------------

🇦🇺 **Australia passes bill to force tech firms to hand over encrypted data**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/EmYVP>

Australia’s parliament on Thursday passed a bill to force tech firms such as Alphabet Inc’s Google, Facebook and Apple to give police access to encrypted data, the most far-reaching such requirements imposed by a western country.

The bill, staunchly opposed by the tech giants which fear Australia could be an example as other nations explore similar rules, is set to become law before the end of the year.

“Let’s just make Australians safe over Christmas,” opposition Labor party leader Bill Shorten told reporters outside parliament in the capital of Canberra.

The bill, passed by the lower house of parliament earlier on Thursday, was to be debated in the upper Senate, where Labor said it intended to suggest new amendments, before going back to the lower house.

“We will pass the legislation, inadequate as it is, so we can give our security agencies some of the tools they say they need,” Shorten said.

The bill provides for fines of up to A$10 million ($7.3 million) for institutions and prison terms for individuals for failing to hand over data linked to suspected illegal activities.

When it becomes law, Australia will be one of the first nations to impose broad access requirements on technology firms, after many years of lobbying by intelligence and law enforcement agencies in many countries, particularly the so-called Five Eyes nations.

The Five Eyes intelligence network, comprised of the United States, Canada, Britain, Australia and New Zealand, have each warned that national security was at risk because authorities were unable to monitor the communications of suspects.

Australia’s government has said the laws are needed to counter militant attacks and organized crime and that security agencies would need to seek warrants to access personal data.
----------------

🇺🇸 **Congress approves short-term spending bill to avert government shutdown**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/At1jQ>

The U.S. Congress on Thursday approved a two-week stopgap spending bill to avert a government shutdown, setting up a potential showdown over President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall later this month.

Without action by Congress, funding for several federal agencies, including the Department of Agriculture, State Department and Department of Homeland Security, had been set to expire this week. The stopgap bill extends funding through Dec. 21.

Before the stopgap bill expires, the Republican-led Congress is expected to consider a $450 billion bill to fund the departments through the fiscal year that ends next Sept. 30.

Trump has demanded $5 billion this year as part of his plan to build a wall on the border with Mexico that Democrats argue would be ineffective at keeping out illegal immigrants and illicit drugs.

Instead, Democrats want to continue improving less costly fencing and employing high-tech instruments to detect illegal border crossings. They have agreed to include $1.6 billion for additional border security.

“Let me be clear: the $1.6 billion cannot be used to construct any part of President Trump’s 30-foot-tall concrete border wall. It can only be used for fencing, using technology currently deployed at the border, and only where the experts say fencing is appropriate and makes sense,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Thursday.

Trump has threatened to force a partial government shutdown if Congress does not give him the money he wants for the wall.
----------------

🇬🇧🇪🇨 **Julian Assange rejects UK-Ecuador deal for him to leave the embassy**
*The Telegraph* - <https://archive.fo/mSu6S>

Julian Assange's lawyer has rejected an agreement announced by Ecuador's president to see him leave the Ecuadorean embassy in London, after six years inside.

Lenin Moreno, the president of Ecuador, has made no secret of his wish to be rid of the WikiLeaks founder, who sought asylum inside the embassy in June 2012 and has not left since.

On Thursday Mr Moreno announced that a deal had been reached between London and Quito to allow Mr Assange, 47, to be released.

"The way has been cleared for Mr Assange to take the decision to leave in near-liberty," said Mr Moreno.

He did not specify what "near liberty" meant.

Mr Moreno earlier this year announced that he was severing Mr Assange's telephone and internet links, and in October said he was banning him from making "political statement" that jeopardised Ecuador's relations with other countries. Mr Assange then sued for a breach of his human rights.

From December, he was also due to pay for his own costs of food, medical care and laundry, in yet another sign of the growing impatience of the Ecuadorean government.

Mr Moreno added that Britain had guaranteed that the Australian would not be extradited to any country where his life is in danger.

But Mr Assange's lawyer, Barry Pollack, told The Telegraph that the deal was not acceptable.

The legal team have long argued that they will not accept any agreement which risks his being extradited to the United States.
----------------

🇫🇷 🏳 🧀 **Great Violence’ in Paris Anticipated as Police Staff Join Macron Protests**
*Breitbart* - <http://archive.is/JsyK1>

While police have been called on to help quell the expected violence in the French capital, many are showing signs of sympathy to the Yellow Vests and their demands.

The Police Union Vigi Ministère de l’Intérieur has not only expressed support for the Yellow Vest movement but has called on members to go on an indefinite strike starting on Saturday, and join the Yellow Vests.

He also noted that the protestors were “exemplified by the fact that practically all protesters belong to the indigenous, colonised, invaded, conquered people, the ‘natural’ French people.”
---------------

🇬🇧 🇺🇸 **Prince Harry and Duchess Megan Recieve death threats from Nazi Group, two arrests.**

*The Sun*: <http://archive.fo/CTzyi>

The group, called Sonnenkrieg Division, posted a picture online Prince Harry with a gun pointed at his head.

An 18-year-old man, from Portsmouth, and a 17-year-old boy, from London, were both charged with five counts of encouraging terrorism.

The 18-year-old was also charged with three counts of disseminating terrorist publications, the two will appear in Magistrates court next Wednesday.

A 21-year-old man from Bath, who was also arrested as part of the operation, has been released on bail pending further enquiries.

The two teens are alleged to have links to neo-Nazi group, the Sonnenkrieg Division, which posted a picture of the Duke of Sussex set against a swastika, with a gun pointed at his head and the slogan: "See ya later, race traitor!"

The Sonnenkrieg Division is a 'spin off' of the US Atomwaffen, which we are all familiar with.

Counter Terrorism Policing North East said the arrests part of an ongoing investigation into extreme right-wing activity.

Update Articles will be posted when they come.
--------------

🇺🇸 🌮 🌯 **19 Year old honduran woman scales border wall to bive birth in U.S.**
*Fox News* - <http://archive.is/SHU6l>

A Honduran woman is believed to be the first member of the migrant caravan to have a child in the United States after scaling the border wall with her family and giving birth within 24 hours.

Maryury Elizabeth Serrano-Hernandez, 19, was more than seven months pregnant when she left Honduras, along with her husband Miguel Ortiz, 20, and their three-year-old son, travelling more than 2,000 miles.

At a makeshift camp, Serrano-Hernandez and her husband say they feared for their safety after being surrounded by Mexicans who weren’t happy they were there. Scared and outnumbered, they decided to cross the border illegally. To avoid the wait of being processed by inspectors at the main border in San Diego, many migrants decide to hop the border illegally.

After somehow climbing the border wall, Serrano-Hernandez and her family were met by three border patrol agents who demanded they return to Tijuana. The family refused and asked for asylum. They were taken to the Imperial Beach Station in San Diego County for processing.

U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agency told Fox News: “The woman, who was eight months pregnant, began complaining of abdominal pain (Nov. 27) and was immediately transported to a local hospital by Border Patrol agents.”

The move is likely to reignite the debate surrounding "anchor babies" and birthright citizenship. President Trump threatened in October to end birthright citizenship with an executive order, although others believe it would require a constitutional amendment.
----------------

🇺🇸🇪🇺 **Despite heat at home, Trump approval ratings tower above embattled European leaders’**
*Fox News* - <https://archive.fo/H9STb>

President Trump routinely takes grief from the pundits for his underwater approval ratings – but compared with some of his embattled European counterparts, facing civil unrest in the streets and internal government tensions, the U.S. president is riding high.

While Trump’s approval ratings have hovered well below 50 percent ever since he took office, French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Theresa May are nowhere close to that right now.

Macron’s political troubles were dramatically exposed over the last two weeks, as rioters burned cars and looted stores in response to his push for gas taxes to fight climate change.

Amid the chaos, Macron's approval rating in France is just 23 percent, according to the latest poll from international polling company Ifop, as many on both the left and right see him as out-of-touch. That compares with a 47 percent approval rating for Trump in the most recent Fox News poll.

Meanwhile, the United Kingdom's May fares little better than Macron. The latest Ipsos Mori poll puts her approval rating at 29 percent, as she tries to sell Britons on a deal to split from the European Union that many view as poorly negotiated.

Not all major European leaders are struggling like Macron, but few are doing much better than Trump. Spain’s left-wing prime minister has a 44 percent approval rating, while Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel polls slightly better than Trump. The latest poll by major German pollster Infratest Dimap shows her with 50 percent approval.

Merkel’s rating is down from around 70 percent approval before the migrant crisis, in which Merkel made the decision to allow more than a million people from the Middle East and Africa into Germany. Trump has criticized Merkel for that decision.
----------------

🇮🇱 **In Gaza protests, Israeli troops aim for the legs**
*AP* - <https://archive.fo/BEsmt>

Israeli forces deployed along the volatile border with the Gaza Strip have fired live rounds at rock-throwing Palestinian protesters ever since demonstrations against Israel’s long-running blockade of Gaza began in March.

And for eight months, Israeli snipers have targeted one part of the body more than any other — the legs.

The Israeli army says it is responding to weekly assaults on its frontier by Palestinians armed with stones, grenades and firebombs. The military says it opens fire only as a last resort, and considers firing at the lower limbs an act of restraint.

Still, 175 Palestinians have been shot to death, according to an Associated Press count. And the number of wounded has reached colossal proportions.

Of the 10,511 protesters treated at hospitals and field clinics in Gaza so far, at least 6,392, or roughly 60 percent, have been struck in the lower limbs, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. At least 5,884 of those casualties were hit by live ammunition; others have been hit by rubber-coated metal bullets and tear gas canisters.
----------------

🇿🇦 **‘Your time is up’ South Africa sets date for white farmer land grabs – March 2019**
*Daily Star* - <https://archive.fo/uUZYr>

A SOUTH Africa has set a date for when its much-criticised land expropriations can begin after a politician declared: “Your time is up, white people”.

The country’s National Assembly approved a proposal to change the constitution to make the so-called reforms legal in a vote of 183 to 77.

This paves the way for land to be taken from farmers without giving any kind of compensation.

And now lawmakers have agreed to set up a committee that will write and introduce a new bill for land expropriations.

A deadline of the end of March next year for the committee to present its first report to parliament has also been agreed.

According to local reports, Economic Freedom Fighters MP Hlengiwe Mkhaliphi argued land grabs must go ahead as she declared: “Your time is up, white people”.

This came as the IFP MP Mkhuleko Hlengwa said the plans undermine South Africa’s position as a democratic state.

According to the Daily Maverick, he said: “To achieve real and effective land reform is (possible) under the existing Constitution, not your (ANC) populist agenda. “You should be ashamed of yourself.”

However, the ruling ANC’s Chief Whip Jackson Mthembu dismissed the controversy, saying land reforms are “the right thing to do”.

It is believed that when South Africa’s Constitution is amended, it could be done by inserting into Section 25 the phrase: “Zero compensation may be regarded as just and equitable”.

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa has previously defended his radical plans, saying they are necessary for equality.
----------------

🇺🇸 **Blaze Media, CRTV Sever Ties With Gavin McInnes, Proud Boys Founder**
*Newsweek* - <https://archive.fo/XOj2n>

Newly formed conservative news media network BlazeTV promptly fired Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes just days after Glenn Beck and Mark Levin merged their brands.

Perhaps too extreme for even the rabidly right-wing network, the Vice co-founder's recent separation from the Proud Boys clearly did not sway BlazeTV's bosses. BlazeTV's verified Twitter account addressed the matter in a terse Saturday tweet, "Blaze Media no longer has a relationship with Gavin McInnes, and per company policy, cannot comment on personnel matters."

If McInnes knew his days at the conservative outlet were numbered he did not indicate it to his fans, having just recorded an interview with far right activist Laura Loomer that aired Saturday. Last week, Loomer chained herself to Twitter's New York headquarters building in her latest attempt to make the social media giant un-ban her account.

Blaze Media has been branding its new platform, touting that it “brings together the biggest conservative voices from around the country to a single platform for the first time ever.” Former CRTV host Michelle Malkin was the new network's first departure, with the Twitchy founder announcing she was leaving on the same day the merger was announced.

Some right wing figures including conspiracy theorist Jacob Wohl stood by McInnes and urged their followers on social media to cancel their CRTV subscriptions. Several Twitter users promptly posted pictures showing them doing just that.
----------------

🇺🇸 **Moment of reckoning looms for ex-Trump lawyer Michael Cohen**
*AP* - <https://archive.fo/ua7TB>

The moment of reckoning has nearly arrived for Michael Cohen, who finds out Wednesday whether his decision to walk away from President Donald Trump after years of unwavering loyalty will spare him from a harsh prison sentence.

A federal judge in New York is set to decide whether Cohen gets leniency or years in prison for crimes including tax evasion, making illegal hush-money payments to protect Trump during the campaign and lying to Congress about the president’s past business dealings in Russia.

Few observers expect the hearing to go well for the 52-year-old attorney.

For weeks, his legal strategy appeared to revolve around persuading the court that he is a reformed man who abandoned longtime friendships and gave up his livelihood when he decided to break with the president and speak with federal investigators. That narrative collapsed last week. New York prosecutors urged a judge to sentence Cohen to a substantial prison term, saying he’d failed to fully cooperate and overstated his helpfulness. They’ve asked for only a slight reduction in the 4- to 5-year term he would face under federal sentencing guidelines.

A sentence of hard time would leave Cohen with little to show for his decision to plead guilty, though experts said Wednesday’s hearing might not be the last word on his punishment.

Cohen could have his sentence revisited if he strikes a deal with prosecutors in which he provides additional cooperation within a year of his sentence, said Michael J. Stern, a former federal prosecutor in Detroit and Los Angeles.

“Few things spark a defendant’s renewed interest in cooperating faster than trading in a pair of custom Italian trousers for an off-the-rack orange jump suit,” he said.

Annemarie McAvoy, a former federal prosecutor in Brooklyn, said prosecutors appear to be angry at Cohen for limiting his cooperation.
----------------

🇺🇸 **Facebook will know where you are going before you do, new plans reveal**
*The Telegraph* - <https://archive.fo/nKUyI>

Facebook is set to know where you are going before you do and send you targeted adverts for your destination, after filing a new technology patent in the US.

The patent, filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office, relies on users' previously logged location data from their phones as well as similar data on other people to forecast where and when they are likely to go next.

Facebook can blend behavioural patterns with those of friends and others to help it build up a picture of habits and guess your future movements, according to one of the patents which was made public last week.

The social media giant sought to play down the significance of the patent application."We often seek patents for technology we never implement, and patent applications - such as this one - should not be taken as an indication of future plans."

But experts say the technology is aimed at providing advertisers with valuable new information.

For instance, for a person who always heads for a certain train station after leaving work, Facebook's algorithm will be able to predict exactly when they will lose internet connectivity. It could then automatically pre-load content on their smartphone and allow them to use its services without interruption. This would permit access to far more features from Facebook when on the underground or on an airplane, for example.

On holiday or at a new location, the technology will also be able to predict a person's movements and determine when they could be offline by analysing the behaviour of people of the same age, gender, or local area.
----------------

🇺🇸 **Beto O'Rourke narrowly tops wide-open MoveOn 2020 presidential straw poll; Biden runner up**
*NBC News* - <https://archive.fo/9wYMW>

An early straw poll of members of the progressive group MoveOn.org shows a wide-open competition for liberal voters in the forthcoming 2020 Democratic presidential contest, with Beto O'Rourke narrowly beating out Joe Biden.

The poll, obtained by NBC News, shows a plurality of respondents — 29 percent — either said they did not yet know whom they would support or wanted someone else not listed among the group's more than 30 potential candidate choices.

The most popular potential candidate was O’Rourke, D-Texas, who was selected by 15.6 percent of respondents, followed by Biden at 14.9 percent, and then Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt, with 13.1 percent.

It's another sign of O’Rourke's surprising popularity among national Democrats and a potentially troubling indication for Sanders, whom MoveOn endorsed in the 2016 Democratic primary. That year, 78 percent of MoveOn members voted to back Sanders over Hillary Clinton

The three men were followed by Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., who garnered 10 percent support, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., with 6.4 percent. Meanwhile, Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., Cory Booker, D-N.J., and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg were each selected by about 3 percent of members.
----------------

```Here are the top 10 finishers in the MoveOn straw poll:
Someone else/DK/other: 28.8 percent
Beto O’Rourke: 15.6 percent
Joe Biden: 14.9 percent
Bernie Sanders: 13.1 percent
Kamala Harris: 10 percent
Elizabeth Warren: 6.4 percent
Sherrod Brown: 2.9 percent
Amy Klobuchar: 2.8 percent
Michael Bloomberg: 2.7 percent
Cory Booker: 2.6 percent```
----------------

someone else?

LOL

🇩🇪🇮🇱 **Netanyahu urges Merkel to stop funding Berlin's Jewish Museum**
*YNet News* - <https://archive.fo/PPvbY>

The Israeli government sent an official letter to Chancellor Angela Merkel demanding Germany to halt its funding for the Jewish Museum in Berlin over an exhibition "that reflects the Palestinian-Muslim view on Jerusalem."

Copies of the seven-page letter, which was published by the left-wing Die Tageszeitung newspaper, was sent to Merkel's office and to Germany's Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development, rather than to the Israeli Embassy in Berlin, as accustomed in such cases.

In addition to the Jewish Museum, the letter details about a dozen NGOs that are involved in anti-Israeli propaganda or support the BDS movement—among them the Berlin International Film Festival, the Berlinale, which allegedly hosts BDS supporters; Women Wage Peace; Bread for the World; Action Medeor; the Catholic Relief Services; and the Israeli +972 magazine, which accuses Israel of having an apartheid regime and is endorsed by the Heinrich Böll Foundation.

A spokesperson for the German government confirmed that Israel and Germany had discussed these NGOs' state funding in the past.

The Jewish Museum said in a statement that "We believe open dialogue on controversial issues is crucial to allow (the museum's) visitors to form their own position on the matter and judge it for themselves."

The Heinrich Böll Foundation rejected the Israeli government's accusations as "absurd," adding that "Unfortunately, Israel is applying increasing pressure on NGOs in Israel and in Palestine. The +972 magazine reflects pluralism, and Israel's demand constitutes an attack on prominent Israeli journalists."
----------------

🇺🇸 **San Francisco Creates World’s First Ever Transgender Cultural District**
*The Daily Beast* - <https://archive.fo/7gzH0>

Honey Mahogany walked down 6th Street in San Francisco, pointing to single room occupancy hotels, the dance and performance space Counterpulse, and gay bars, OMG and Aunt Charlie’s Lounge.

She passed by the Golden Gate Theatre where A Bronx Tale was playing and came to site of the former all-night diner, Gene’s Compton Cafeteria (now transitional housing), where in August 1966 a trans woman threw a cup of coffee at a police officer trying to arrest her, which turned into a riot with trans people fighting back against police harassment, flipping over tables and throwing cutlery.

This event, detailed in Susan Stryker and Victor Silverman’s documentary, Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton’s Cafeteria, happened three years before the famous uprising at the Stonewall Inn in New York’s Greenwich Village.

The area Mahogany was walking through makes up part of the first legally recognized transgender district in the world, Compton's Transgender Cultural District.

Mahogany, a performer and contestant on Season 5 of RuPaul’s Drag Race, is Compton's district manager. The district’s purpose is to stop the displacement of trans people from a place they have been welcomed in historically, and to teach people about trans history, she said.
----------------

🇲🇽🇺🇸 **Migrants demand entry or $50,000 during march to US Consulate in Tijuana**
*ABC 10* - <https://archive.fo/ejxtz>

More members of the migrant caravan walked through the streets of Tijuana Tuesday morning, this time heading to the U.S. Consulate instead of the border.

10News learned the group reached their destination at around 11 a.m. after a nearly two-hour trek. The migrants, who had police escorts, made it clear their intentions were peaceful.

The group members held various banners as they marched, including one that read: “You got it wrong, Trump. We asked for jobs and you responded with weapons. That is not polite. If asking for work is troublesome, then I am totally confused. La Caravana.”

A source told 10News the migrants dropped off a petition asking the consulate to allow everyone in the caravan entry into the U.S. The migrants requested a response within 72 hours.

Additionally, the migrants said they want the U.S. government to provide $50,000 for their trips back to their respective home countries if they aren't allowed asylum in the United States.

After delivering the petition, the migrants returned to their shelters.

It is unknown what the migrants plan to do if they do not receive a response within 72 hours.
----------------

🇻🇦🇦🇺 **Vatican No. 3 Cardinal George Pell Convicted on Charges He Sexually Abused Choir Boys**
*Daily Beast* - <https://archive.fo/ClLGV>

The Vatican’s third-most powerful official has been convicted in Australia on all charges he sexually abused two choir boys there in the late '90s, according to two sources with knowledge of the case.

A unanimous jury returned its verdict for Cardinal George Pell on Tuesday (Australian time) after more than three days of deliberations, the sources said, in a trial conducted under a gag order by the judge that prevented any details of the trial being made public.

Pell, the Vatican’s finance chief and the highest Vatican official to ever go on trial for sex abuse, left Rome in June 2017 to stand trial in Melbourne.

As that trial was about to get underway in June, a judge placed a suppression order on all press coverage in Australia, according to the order reviewed by The Daily Beast. Prosecutors applied for the order and it was granted to “prevent a real and substantial risk of prejudice to the proper administration of justice.” That order remains in place in Australia.

That trial, known as “the cathedral trial,” was declared a mistrial earlier this year after a hung jury, the sources say. A retrial began immediately and ended this week with the unanimous verdict.
----------------

🇺🇸 **Michael Cohen Sentenced to 3 Years in Prison**
*Breitbart* - <https://archive.fo/ClLGV>

A federal judge in New York sentenced Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s longtime lawyer, to three years in prison Wednesday for crimes including tax evasion, making hush-money payments, and lying to Congress about past business dealings in Russia.

U.S. District Judge William Pauley III said he will allow Cohen to voluntarily surrender to prison on March 6 and ordered the former Trump lawyer to pay a $50,000 fine for making false statements to lawmakers. Cohen must also pay a forfeiture of $500,000 and $1.4 million in restitution. Prior to sentencing Cohen, Pauley told the courtroom that the former Trump lawyer pled guilty to a “veritable smorgasbord of fraudulent conduct.” Further, Pauley said that Cohen “appears to have lost his moral compass” and that he “should have known better” than to dodge taxes, lie to Congress and violate campaign finance laws.

Addressing the courtroom before his sentencing, Cohen took aim at the president for branding him as “weak” in a recent tweet, saying that his weakness was blind loyalty to his former boss. “Recently, the President tweeted a statement calling me weak, and it was correct, but for a much different reason than he was implying,” an emotional Cohen said. “It was because time and time again, I felt it was my duty to cover up his dirty deeds.”

The former Trump lawyer pleaded guilty to misleading Congress about his work on a proposal to build a Trump Tower in Moscow, making false statements about when discussions with Russia about a possible deal concluded. Cohen also pleaded guilty in August to breaking campaign finance laws by helping orchestrate payments to silence former Playboy model Karen McDougal and pornographic actress Stormy Daniels, who alleges to had sexual encounters with Trump before he was president.
----------------

🇺🇸 **Tribune, Tronc And Beyond: A Slur, A Secret Payout And A Looming Sale**
*NPR* - <https://archive.fo/ySOWg>

Several months after taking control of the troubled Tribune Publishing Co. in 2016, Chicago investor Michael Ferro convened a session of corporate leaders from within his own news empire, including chief news executives from such storied papers as the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune and The Baltimore Sun.

The group of about 20 people trooped from Chicago's iconic Tribune Tower on Michigan Avenue to an upscale restaurant nearby. In a private room, participants dined on seafood and steak while Ferro, then the company's chairman, held forth on his plans.

His own net worth was newly in the nine figures. Associates and peers say Ferro held ambitions that were wide-ranging, even audacious, given the newspaper industry's stiff headwinds.

At the dinner, as at other moments, Ferro railed against those who he felt were impeding him — including perceived rivals and competitors. Among them: the Southern California billionaire and civic leader Eli Broad, whom Ferro called part of a **"Jewish cabal" that ran Los Angeles.**
----------------

🇺🇸 **Authorities: Wave of hoax bomb threats made across US**
*AP* - <https://archive.fo/pTBtd>

A wave of bomb threats emailed Thursday to hundreds of schools, businesses and government buildings across the U.S. triggered searches, evacuations and fear — but there were no signs of explosives, and authorities said the scare appeared to be a crude extortion attempt.

Law enforcement agencies across the country dismissed the threats, saying they were meant to cause disruption and compel recipients into sending money and were not considered credible.

Some of the emails had the subject line: “Think Twice.” They were sent from a spoofed email address. The sender claimed to have had an associate plant a small bomb in the recipient’s building and that the only way to stop him from setting it off was by making an online payment of $20,000 in Bitcoin.

“We are currently monitoring multiple bomb threats that have been sent electronically to various locations throughout the city,” the New York City Police Department’s counterterrorism unit tweeted. “These threats are also being reported to other locations nationwide & are NOT considered credible at this time.”

Other law enforcement agencies also dismissed the threats, which were written in a choppy style reminiscent of the Nigerian prince email scam.

The Palm Beach County, Florida, sheriff’s office and the Boise, Idaho, police said they had no reason to believe that threats made to locations in those areas were credible. One of the emails wound up in a spam filter, Boise Police Chief William Bones said.

The FBI said it is assisting law enforcement agencies that are dealing with the threats.
----------------

🇫🇷 **Strasbourg Christmas market attacker shot dead**
*BBC* - <https://archive.fo/AJTzB>

French police have shot dead the man said to have attacked Strasbourg's Christmas market on Tuesday, the interior minister has said.

Cherif Chekatt had been on the run since the attack.

Three people have died following the shooting at the popular attraction and several more were seriously injured.

Chekatt, 29, had a string of criminal convictions in France and Germany and had become a radical Islamist while in prison.

Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said three members of the National Police saw a suspicious individual on rue du Lazaret, in the Neudorf area of Strasbourg at 21:00 local time (20:00 GMT).

The officers stopped the man, who turned round and fired on the police. They fired back and "neutralised" the attacker, Mr Castaner said.

Hundreds of French police and security forces had been searching for Chekatt.

A large police operation had taken place in Neudorf earlier on Thursday, but ended apparently without results.
----------------

🇫🇷 **Strasbourg manhunt: Counter terror police arrest fifth person over Christmas market shooting as gunman remains at large**
*Independent* - <https://archive.fo/ZuzEq>

The suspected gunman in the deadly attack at a Christmas market in Strasbourg remains at large as counter terror police detained a fifth person in connection with the shooting.

French authorities said the latest man arrested was a member of the “entourage” of main suspect Chérif Chekatt, who is thought to have opened fire at the market on Tuesday, killing three people and injuring at least 11 others.

Forces had cordoned off an area in the Neudorf neighbourhood of Strasbourg on Thursday, where a taxi driver is believed to have dropped Chekatt off immediately after he escaped the scene of the shooting.

A police official said units, including the elite Raid squad, were acting on “supposition only” that the 29-year-old suspect could be hiding nearby.

Four members of Chekatt’s family, including his mother, father and two of his six brothers, had already been detained by police for questioning in connection with the attack.

Hundreds of officers have been mobilised to find the 29-year-old since Tuesday evening, after the gunman opened fire at the famous market while it was packed with visitors and tourists.

Government officials said focus remains on locating the suspect “as soon as possible,” while forces were prepared to take him “dead or alive” in order to bring the manhunt to an end.

Police named Chekatt as the shooting suspect on Wednesday, revealing he was already being monitored as a terror risk by French security authorities.

Chekatt, a Strasbourg native, was described by police as a “delinquent” with close to 30 prior convictions, who had served prison sentences not just in France, but also in Germany and Switzerland.
----------------

🇨🇦🇨🇳 **Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou granted bail, will live in Vancouver under electronic surveillance**
*Global News* - <https://archive.fo/3rruh>

Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou has been granted bail as she fights possible extradition to the U.S.

A British Columbia Supreme Court judge ordered that the Chinese telecom executive may be released under a number of conditions, including that she wear an ankle bracelet, surrender her passports, stay in Vancouver and its suburbs and confine herself to one of her two Vancouver homes from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m.

Meng was released on $10 million bail — $7 million in cash and $3 million in sureties.

Applause was heard in the courtroom’s public gallery after Justice William Ehrcke read his decision.

In his decision, Ehrcke reviewed the details of the case, including allegations the Chinese telecommunication giant used an unofficial subsidiary, Skycom, to conduct business in Iran in contravention of U.S. sanctions.

He said his main concern was whether the bail conditions outlined by Meng’s lawyers would sufficiently reduce the risk of her fleeing the country.

Ehrcke said the proposed conditions would reduce the risk of her not attending court to an “acceptable level.”
----------------

🇺🇸 **Virgin arrives in space for the first time**
*Independent* - <https://archive.fo/vbRn7>

Virgin Galactic's space ship has arrived in space for the first time.

The journey is a major breakthrough in attempts to bring private space travel to the masses. And it marks the first time a US commercial human flight has reached space since 2011, when the space programme came to an end.

SpaceShipTwo, VSS Unity, took off in the early morning sunshine at the Mojave test centre in California. Soon after, it was released by its carrier plane around 43,000 feet and climbed up to altitudes of around 271,000 feet, touching the edge of space and marking a major achievement for the company.

As it arrived, the official Virgin Galactic Twitter account posted: "SpaceShipTwo, welcome to space."

Flown by two pilots, Mark Stucky and Nasa astronaut Frederick Sturckow, the aircraft's launch was watched by hundreds of the company's employees and family members on Thursday.
----------------

🇺🇸 **Christie says he doesn’t want to be Trump’s chief of staff**
*Politico* - <https://archive.fo/oZyXg>

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said on Friday that he doesn't want to be Donald Trump's next chief of staff, leaving the president with a dwindling list of candidates and underscoring the chaos of the search for the top West Wing aide.

Christie, an early Trump supporter who led the White House transition effort before being ousted, made the announcement just a day after he met with the president to discuss possibly taking the role. Christie's firm statement also came shortly after reports emerged that he was the front-runner for the job, showing how quickly contenders' odds can rise and fall.

"It's an honor to have the President consider me as he looks to choose a new White House chief-of-staff," Christie wrote in a statement. "However, I've told the President that now is not the right time for me or my family to undertake this serious assignment. As a result, I have asked him to no longer keep me in any of his considerations of this post."

Christie has had a tumultuous relationship with Trump and his family — even though he and the president have been friends for over 15 years. Christie tangled with Trump on the campaign trail before dropping out of the 2016 presidential race, and he has long had tension with Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner for helping put Kushner's father in prison more than a decade ago when he was a U.S. attorney.
----------------

🇺🇸 **Trump meets Christie as some advisers urge Kushner for chief of staff: sources**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/USRqM>

President Donald Trump on Thursday met with former New Jersey governor Chris Christie and considered him a top contender for the job of White House chief of staff, a position some advisers urged him to give to senior aide Jared Kushner, sources said.

A source familiar with Trump’s thinking said the president had a positive meeting with Christie, confirming a report by Axios.com, and considered him a top-tier candidate for the position.

Christie, a brash, tough-talking politician, was a contender for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016 but abandoned the attempt after a poor showing in the New Hampshire primary and subsequently endorsed Trump, becoming his adviser throughout the 2016 campaign.

Other sources said Trump was hearing appeals from some advisers to consider **Kushner**, a top White House aide who is married to Trump’s daughter Ivanka, for the chief of staff job.

But one source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said **Kushner was currently not inclined to pursue the position.**
----------------

🇺🇸 **Mueller releases key documents on FBI interview with Michael Flynn**
*Fox News* - <https://archive.fo/gimo1>

Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team on Friday released key documents relating to the FBI’s questioning of former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

The documents – some of which are heavily redacted -- were released in response to U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan ordering prosecutors to hand over the government's files and "memoranda" related to the FBI’s questioning of Flynn by Friday afternoon.

he documents include then-FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe’s notes after talking with Flynn to arrange his interview with the FBI. It also includes a so-called "302" report documenting what Flynn told anti-Trump agent Peter Strzok and one other agent during their conversation at the White House. That July 2017 report, though, specifically came from an interview with Strzok in which the Flynn encounter was discussed -- and not the original Flynn interview.

The 302 report states that Strzok and the other agent “both had the impression at the time that Flynn was not lying or did not think he was lying.” It also states that several unnamed people back at FBI headquarters “later argued about the FBI’s decision to interview Flynn.”

The report described Flynn as “unguarded,” saying he “clearly saw the FBI agents as allies.” It also states Flynn discussed a number of “various subjects,” including things like hotels stayed in during the campaign, Trump’s “knack for interior design” and other issues un-related to their inquiry.

“Flynn was so talkative, and had so much time for them, that Strzok wondered if the national security adviser did not have more important things to do than have a such a relaxed, non-pertinent discussion with them,” it said.
----------------

🇬🇧 **Chester Zoo on Fire: Firefighters were at the scene**
*BBC News*: <http://archive.fo/XpV2L>

The zoo tweeted the blaze was in its Monsoon Forest habitat.

One person was treated for the effects of smoke inhalation, but there were no reports of further injuries. **Fifteen** fire crews were involved.

Chester Firemen Station later tweeted that all Animals in the Habitat were accounted for.

David Clough, who lives across the road from the zoo, said: "We first saw signs of the fire shortly after 11.30 GMT."

He added "We were very worried for the people and animals that would have been in the building."

The zoo tweeted it had closed the whole site, adding: "Visitors have been evacuated and our response team is working alongside emergency services to bring the situation under control."

The zoo is to reopen in the week.
----------

🇺🇸 **Obamacare ruled unconstitutional by Texas judge**
*Fox News* - <https://archive.fo/L0KfV>

The Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, was struck down by a Texas judge on Friday, a move that could suddenly disrupt the health insurance status of millions of Americans. The decision comes amid a six-week open enrollment period for the program.

Texas, along with 19 states, had argued to U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor that they had been hurt by a jump in the amount of people utilizing state-backed insurance. When Congress cut the tax penalty from the program in 2017, the states claimed, it essentially undercut the Supreme Court’s reasoning for finding former President Barack Obama’s signature legislation constitutional in 2012.

“The remainder of the ACA is non-severable from the individual mandate, meaning that the Act must be invalidated in whole,” O’Connor wrote, according to Bloomberg.

"As I predicted all along, Obamacare has been struck down as an UNCONSTITUTIONAL disaster," President Trump tweeted following the ruling. "Now Congress must pass a STRONG law that provides GREAT healthcare and protects pre-existing conditions. Mitch and Nancy, get it done!" In a second tweet, the president declared the ruling to be "great news for America!"

“Obamacare has been struck down by a highly respected judge," White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement.

"The ruling seems to be based on faulty legal reasoning and hopefully it will be overturned," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., tweeted. "Americans who care about working families must do all they can to prevent this district court ruling from becoming law."
----------------

🇺🇸 **Border agents seize $1.7 million in meth, in second largest drug bust this week**
*Fox News* - <http://archive.is/CLuRT>

Officials seized nearly $1.3 million worth of meth at the U.S.-Mexico Border in Texas on Thursday, marking the second time this week that agents thwarted a significant narcotics smuggling attempt.

Agents with Customs and Border Protection and the Office of Field Operations were alerted to a 2018 Chevrolet Silverado attempting to enter the U.S. through the Juarez-Lincoln International Bridge. A canine search of the vehicle revealed that the 27-year-old female driver and her 28-year-old passenger were attempting to smuggle in 94 pounds of alleged methamphetamine, an estimated street value of $1,322,848.

Thursday’s bust comes just days after agents at the Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge cargo facility seized a trailer with an estimated $7 million worth of narcotics.

“Our frontline CBP continues to maintain their vigilance and utilize their inspections skills and experience as pre-Christmas traffic starts to increase,” Flore also said.

The two women from Thursday’s incident were arrested and turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement-Homeland Security Investigations unit.
----------------

🇺🇸 **New £50 bank note 'must recognise ethnic minorities'**
*BBC News* - <http://archive.is/KyRKV>

The Bank of England last month asked the public to nominate a British scientist to feature on the note. Campaigners say the chosen figure should recognise "the contribution of ethnic minorities" to British culture.

More than 200 people, including Lord Victor Adebowale and Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, signed a letter calling for a historic figure from a black and ethnic minority background (BAME) to feature on the new £50 note.

The letterpoints out that "no-one from an ethnic minority has yet featured on a banknote" despite BAME communities representing "14% of the British population".

"Changing this would send a message that the contribution of ethnic minorities to Britain's history, culture and economy is recognised and valued," it reads.

The Bank of England released a list of more than 800 eligible nominees, including black Crimean War *nurse* Mary Seacole along with computing pioneers Alan Turing and Ada Lovelace, telephone inventor Alexander Graham Bell and Stephen Hawking.

To be eligible, the individual must be real, deceased and have *contributed to any field of science* in the UK.

The final full list is yet to be released; nominations closed on Friday.
----------------

🇺🇸 🇲🇽 **Over 100 illegals caught in South Texas smuggling attempt**
*InfoWars* - <http://archive.is/a9yLG>

Border Patrol agents in South Texas reportedly captured over 100 illegal aliens being trafficked in a single human smuggling event. The 113 illegals came from Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Kosovo

Video released by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents in the Rio Grande Valley sector shows a throng of illegals being corralled by agents during a nighttime bust.

“#BorderPatrol encounters over one hundred family units and unacommpanied children near McAllen, Texas in the #RGV Rio Grande Valley,” a caption for the video reads.

“Upon arrival, agents requested additional support for a group totaling over 100 subjects. Agents took custody of 113 illegal aliens, mainly comprised of family units and unaccompanied children from the countries of Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Kosovo,” CBP reported. “Border Patrol is processing the subjects accordingly.”

In another bust earlier this week, agents near Roma, Texas, captured two MS-13 gang members and two previously deported illegals who had committed child sex crimes.

Agents in South Texas arrested over 1,900 illegals in a single weekend. Over the past few weeks, President Trump has stepped up pressure on Dems to approve funding for a wall on the southern border, which he says Mexico will pay for via the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA.
----------------

🇺🇸 **Mick Mulvaney to replace John Kelly as 'acting' chief of staff, Trump says**
*Fox News* - <https://archive.fo/uGBY0>

President Trump on Friday named White House budget director Mick Mulvaney as his new acting chief of staff, saying the former South Carolina Republican congressman will replace John Kelly as his top aide.

“I am pleased to announce that Mick Mulvaney, Director of the Office of Management & Budget, will be named Acting White House Chief of Staff, replacing General John Kelly, who has served our Country with distinction,” Trump tweeted. “Mick has done an outstanding job while in the Administration. I look forward to working with him in this new capacity as we continue to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

The president said Kelly, who recently announced plans to leave the White House, will stay through 2018.

“John will be staying until the end of the year,” Trump tweeted. “He is a GREAT PATRIOT and I want to personally thank him for his service!”

The president did not say why Mulvaney will serve in an “acting” capacity.

Mulvaney, who served in Congress before joining the Trump administration, also served as acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau while simultaneously running the White House budget office.

In a tweet, Mulvaney said, "This is a tremendous honor. I look forward to working with the President and the entire team. It’s going to be a great 2019!"

A senior administration official cited Mulvaney's experience as a "former member of Congress" and said Trump picked him because he and the president “get along.”

"He knows Congress. He knows Capitol Hill," the official said of Mulvaney.
----------------

🇺🇸 **‘Andi Mack’ actor Stoney Westmoreland fired after arrest in Salt Lake City**
*Salt Lake City Tribune* - <http://archive.fo/FZih3>

Disney Channel actor Stoney Westmoreland has been fired after he was arrested in Salt Lake City for allegedly **attempting to have a sexual relationship with an online acquaintance he believed was 13 years old.**

In a statement Saturday, Disney announced that the 48-year-old Westmoreland had been dropped from the sitcom “Andi Mack,” on which he plays the grandfather of the teen title character. The show films in Utah.

Salt Lake police detective Greg Wilking told The Associated Press that Westmoreland was on his way to what he believed would be a sexual encounter when he was arrested Friday and charged with enticing a minor and sending inappropriate materials, including nude images. A message left with Westmoreland's agent, Mitchell Stubbs, was not immediately returned.

Westmoreland’s other acting credits include “Scandal” and “Breaking Bad.”
----------------

🇻🇪🇷🇺 **German Media Suggests Venezuela Might Become Russia's 'New Cuba in US Backyard'**
*Sputnik* - <https://archive.fo/444Mz>

The arrival of Russian Tu-160 strategic bombers to Venezuela has spurred negative reactions from some US officials, although the planes didn't carry nuclear armaments and had already visited the country in the past.

German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine has alleged that the disturbance in US government circles, which was incited by the visit of Russian Tu-160s to Venezuela, is caused by the fact that while the US grip on the region weakens, especially on Venezuela itself, Russia is continuing to cement its positions in the Latin American country. The newspaper even suggested that Venezuela might become a "new Cuba in the US backyard" for Russia.

Frankfurter Allgemeine pointed out that in recent years Russia has heavily invested in the Venezuelan energy sector, saving it from stagnation due to ageing equipment and lack of new drilling sites. Moscow is also among the few states still giving Caracas new credits, restructuring and writing off old loans as the country struggles to cope with its huge debt. During the last visit by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to Moscow, Russia promised $6 billion in investments in the near future.

Another point of cooperation between the two states is the military sphere. The newspaper stressed that after the US stopped supplying Caracas with weapons and Israel halted shipments of spare parts for F-16s, Moscow stepped in to fill the void. Russia and Venezuela have signed multi-billion contracts on military equipment, and in the near future, the country will start producing Kalashnikov rifles on its territory.
----------------

🇧🇪 **Anti-Migrant Protests Going Violent in Belgium**
*Sky News*: <http://archive.fo/JMh8R>

Flemish nationalist groups oppose the UN compact on migration, a non-binding deal that aims to manage migrant flows.

The nationalists groups were prominent among the thousands of people who marched in the European capital, in protest at a UN migration pact that was signed earlier this month

Those protesting were met with equal force, with Tear Gas and Pressured Water Cannons being deployed in Brussles.

The compact, which was signed in Marrakesh last week, has been criticised by conservative and far-right voices who say it threatens national sovereignty.

Prime Minister Charles Michel was left leading a minority government after the Flemish nationalist party N-VA quit in protest at the signing of the deal.

Protesters have now called for Michel to resign from his post as PM, as he has 'ignored the will of the people'.

Police, who later said protesters became violent when they were asked to disperse, were filmed hitting people with batons.
--------------

<https://techcrunch.com/2018/12/16/3d-printed-heads-unlock-cops-hackers/> 🇺🇸
3D-printed heads let hackers – and cops – unlock your phone





3D-printed heads let hackers – and cops Unlock your phone

There’s a lot you can make with a 3D printer: from prosthetics, corneas, and firearms — even an Olympic-standard luge.

You can even 3D print a life-size replica of a human head — and not just for Hollywood. Forbes reporter Thomas Brewster commissioned a 3D printed model of his own head to test the face unlocking systems on a range of phones — four Android models and an iPhone X.

Bad news if you’re an Android user: only the iPhone X defended against the attack.

Gone, it seems, are the days of the trusty passcode, which many still find cumbersome, fiddly, and inconvenient — especially when you unlock your phone dozens of times a day. Phone makers are taking to the more convenient unlock methods. Even if Google’s latest Pixel 3 shunned facial recognition, many Android models — including popular Samsung devices — are relying more on your facial biometrics. In its latest models, Apple effectively killed its fingerprint-reading Touch ID in favor of its newer Face ID.

🇺🇸 **Trump again blasts Fed for "even considering" rate hike**
*AP* - <http://archive.is/WOo4r>

“It is incredible that with a very strong dollar and virtually no inflation, the outside world blowing up around us, Paris is burning and China way down, the Fed is even considering yet another interest rate hike. Take the Victory!” Trump wrote in a tweet.

President Donald Trump early on Monday again criticized the Federal Reserve for its current series of interest-rate increases, days before the U.S. central bank is expected to push up interest rates again.
---------------

🇬🇧 **Muslim Man 'Brutally Killed' Ex Partner and Estranged Mother.**
*BBC News*: <http://archive.fo/IzIJj>

A man was jailed for life after admitting the "brutal" murders of his ex-partner and her mother.

The Man is said to be Janbaz Tarin, 21, who had an Islamic Ceremony to get Married to Raneem Oudeh. However the arrangement was then ended when Tarins secret Family in the middle east was found out.

Khaola Saleem, 49, and Raneem Oudeh, 22, were fatally stabbed outside Mrs Saleem's home in Solihull on 27 August.

Tarin "spent the day hunting" down Ms Oudeh and her mother who were on the phone to police when he attacked.

He went on the run after killing them and was arrested three days later.

Tarin, of Evelyn Road, Sparkhill, Birmingham, admitted murdering Ms Oudeh - a mother to a toddler - and her mother, at Birmingham Crown Court.

He was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 32 years.

In a victim impact statement, Mrs Saleem's sister Nour Norris said: "The list of broken hearts goes on and on. That night this killer played god and he destroyed an entire family.

"Let us send a message that those who abuse and murder women will face justice."

Mrs Justice Carr told Tarin in Court that, "When Mrs Saleem stepped in, no doubt in an attempt to protect her daughter, you stabbed her, whilst holding on to Raneem by one of her ankles and dragging her along."

These details are obviously brutal, and the signs of a Cold Blooded Killer with vengance in mind.

That night Tarin followed Mrs Saleem and her daughter to a shisha lounge before hunting them down elsewhere, police said.

He then threatened to 'Kill you and your family' in the Lounge.

------------------

🇺🇸 **How YouTube Built a Radicalization Machine for the Far-Right**
*The Daily Beast* - <https://archive.fo/9l99v>
**SURELY OPINION PIECE**

For David Sherratt, like so many teenagers, far-right radicalization began with video game tutorials on YouTube. He was 15 years old and loosely liberal, mostly interested in “Call of Duty” clips. Then YouTube’s recommendations led him elsewhere.

“As I kept watching, I started seeing things like the online atheist community,” Sherratt said, “which then became a gateway to the atheism community’s civil war over feminism.” Due to a large subculture of YouTube atheists who opposed feminism, “I think I fell down that rabbit hole a lot quicker,” he said.


During that four-year trip down the rabbit hole, the teenager made headlines for his involvement in the men’s rights movement, a fringe ideology which believes men are oppressed by women, and which he no longer supports. He made videos with a prominent YouTuber now beloved by the far right.

He attended a screening of a documentary on the “men’s rights” movement, and hung out with other YouTubers afterward, where he met a young man who seemed “a bit off,” Sherratt said. Still, he didn’t think much of it, and ended up posing for a group picture with the man and other YouTubers. Some of Sherratt’s friends even struck up a rapport with the man online afterward, which prompted Sherratt to check out his YouTube channel.

What he found soured his outlook on the documentary screening. The young man’s channel was full of Holocaust denial content.

“I’d met a neo-Nazi and didn’t even know it,” Sherratt said

The encounter was part of his disenchantment with the far-right political world which he’d slowly entered over the end of his childhood.

“I think one of the real things that made it so difficult to get out and realize how radicalized I’d become in certain areas was the fact that in a lot of ways, far-right people make themselves sound less far-right; more moderate or more left-wing,” Sherratt said.

Sherratt wasn’t alone. YouTube has become a quiet powerhouse of political radicalization in recent years, powered by an algorithm that a former employee says suggests increasingly fringe content. And far-right YouTubers have learned to exploit that algorithm and land their videos high in the recommendations on less extreme videos. The Daily Beast spoke to three men whose YouTube habits pushed them down a far-right path and who have since logged out of hate.
----------------

🇺🇸 **Christopher Steele: I Was Hired to Help Hillary Clinton Challenge the 2016 Election Results**
*Breitbart* - <https://archive.is/43K8D>

Christopher Steele, the former British spy who prepared the Russia “dossier” that has led to more than two years of investigations into President Donald Trump’s campaign, has told a London court that he was hired to provide a basis to challenge the legitimacy of the 2016 presidential election in the event that Trump won.

In an answer to interrogatories, Mr. Steele wrote: “Fusion’s immediate client was law firm Perkins Coie. It engaged Fusion to obtain information necessary for Perkins Coie LLP to provide legal advice on the potential impact of Russian involvement on the legal validity of the outcome of the 2016 US Presidential election.

“Based on that advice, parties such as the Democratic National Committee and HFACC Inc. (also known as ‘Hillary for America’) could consider steps they would be legally entitled to take to challenge the validity of the outcome of that election.”
--------------

🇺🇸 ⌨ **Fortnite Creator Epic Games Sued over abuse of the 'Carlton' within their game**
*CNN*: <http://archive.fo/wtgNx>

Actor Alfonso Ribeiro is suing to stop two video game developers from selling a dance popularized by his "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" character.

In two lawsuits filed Monday, Ribeiro said the companies have "unfairly profited" from using his likeness and from exploiting his "protected creative expression." The suits name Fortnite developer Epic Games Inc., and Take-Two Interactive Software Inc., creator of the NBA 2K series, and several of its subsidiaries.

Epic Games declined to give CNN a comment on the suit, and Take-Two Interactive did not respond to the request.

The Lawsuits, which are being tried in California, wish for Development companies to cease selling games which use Riberios dance/likeness.

Ribeiro, best known as Carlton Banks from the 1990s "Fresh Prince" sitcom, says in the court filings that he is "inextricably linked" to the dance -- a joyous, arm-swinging boogie often performed to Tom Jones' "It's Not Unusual."

"Twenty-seven years later, The Dance remains distinctive, immediately recognizable, and inextricably linked to Ribeiro's identity, celebrity, and likeness," the lawsuits say.

According to Legal Documents, Epic Games have fabricated endorsements by Riberio or his Team, and wishes for Epic's Profits from the dance to cease.

The games are among the most popular video games in the world. Epic recently announced that 78.3 million users logged in to play Fortnite in August. The NBA 2K series is critically acclaimed as one of the best sports games on the market.
------------

🇺🇸 **Judge Sullivan To Flynn: 'You Sold Your Country Out'**
*Sky News*: <http://archive.fo/BOH6M>

A judge has told Donald Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn that "you sold your country out" as he delayed his sentencing for lying to the FBI.

Flynn pleaded guilty in December 2017 to lying to investigators about his conversations with Sergei Kislyak, the-then Russian ambassador in Washington.

The White House has released a statement after the first hearings that the FBI 'Broke Protocol when they Ambushed Flynn'; The Statement did however add that there is cause for concern with the ex Adviser Lying to the FBI.

Attorneys for the former national security adviser had requested a postponement in the sentencing to allow him to continue co-operating with the Russia probe.

But District Judge Emmet Sullivan said Flynn's actions bordered on treason and threatened the decorated former Marine general with a stiff prison sentence.

Mr Sullivan said Flynn committed a "very serious offence" by lying to the FBI on the premises of the White House.

The Judge continued: "You were an unregistered agent of a foreign country while serving as the national security adviser to the president." He then added "Arguably, this undermines everything this flag over here stands for." And then finally added "Arguably, you sold your country out."

The POTUS did post a tweet wishing good luck to the ex General, which was signed off with a trademark of the President: "There was No Collusion!"

Judge Sullivan has now redacted the comment of calling him a unregistered agent of Russia, saying he was mistaken in saying so.

Before the hearing the federal judge made sure Flynn had entered his guilty plea knowingly and voluntarily, and ensuring he understood that lying to the FBI carries on it's own Five Years in prision.

Prosecutors said Flynn had already provided most of the cooperation that he could to the Russia probe, but it was possible he might be able to help investigators further.

In a seperate case, business partner to Flynn Bijan Rafiekian was charged with Lobbying for Turkey.
------------

🇺🇸 **In reversal, White House shifts border wall funding demands, wants to avoid shutdown**
*CNN* - <https://archive.fo/fWnuz>

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders suggested Tuesday that the White House has found an alternative way to get its requested $5 billion in funding for a US-Mexico border wall, marking a reversal from President Donald Trump's previous position.

While Democratic leaders immediately rejected the proposal, the comments represented the White House's most significant steps in recent weeks toward trying to avert a partial government shutdown ahead of a Friday deadline. With Democratic opposition, however, members of Congress on both sides appeared to be instead considering a short-term extension of funding to move the deadline beyond the year-end holiday season into Congress' new term, which begins January 3.

Earlier Tuesday, Sanders indicated that the White House could support a compromise bill to avoid such a shutdown.

"We have other ways that we can get to that $5 billion (for a border wall)," Sanders said Tuesday morning during an interview with Fox News.
----------------

🇺🇸🇲🇽 **U.S., Mexico pledge billions to reduce migration from Central America**
*The Washington Post* - <https://archive.fo/ko3vZ>

The United States and Mexico announced Tuesday a bilateral assistance program to curb migration from Central America, signaling an early vote of confidence from the Trump administration in the foreign policy of new Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

The United States announced a total contribution of $10.6 billion, most of which will be allocated from existing aid programs. Around $4.5 billion of that sum comes from new loans, loan guarantees and other private-sector support that could become available through the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC). The announcement appeared to be largely a symbolic gesture of cooperation between the two governments.

After two tumultuous years in the bilateral relationship and several tense weeks during the arrival of several migrant caravans, the Mexican government said it considered the U.S. collaboration a positive sign.

“The announcement reflects the importance that both countries grant to our bilateral relationship,” said Marcelo Ebrard, Mexico’s foreign minister.

The State Department said in a statement that the program would “jointly address the shared challenges of migration, narcotics trafficking, and the activities of trans-national criminal organizations.”

The Mexican government said it would contribute $25 billion to development in southern Mexico over five years, which López Obrador has suggested could serve as a source of employment to Central Americans who are granted work visas.

López Obrador “has to take advantage of this opportunity, this honeymoon with Trump and Mexico,” said Rafael Fernández de Castro, a former senior Mexican foreign affairs official and now director of the Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies at the University of California at San Diego.
----------------

🇺🇸 **Senate passes criminal justice reform bill, sends to House**
*Fox News* - <https://archive.fo/RhxxE>

The Senate on Tuesday night overwhelmingly approved a bipartisan criminal justice bill backed by President Trump after defeating three amendments pushed by conservative Republicans.

Lawmakers approved final passage 87-12. The measure now goes to the House, where it is expected to be approved quickly. Its passage would mark a significant victory for Trump and his son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, who worked the halls of Congress for months in an effort to forge a compromise.

President Trump congratulated the Senate soon after the measure's passage, tweeting: "America is the greatest Country in the world and my job is to fight for ALL citizens, even those who have made mistakes ... This will keep our communities safer, and provide hope and a second chance, to those who earn it." Trump added that he would sign the bill into law.

The legislation would give federal judges more discretion when sentencing some drug offenders and boosts prisoner rehabilitation efforts. It also would reduce life sentences for some drug offenders with three convictions, or "three strikes," to 25 years. Another provision would allow about 2,600 federal prisoners sentenced for crack cocaine offenses before August 2010 the opportunity to petition for a reduced penalty.

The changes were aimed at addressing concerns that the nation's war on drugs has exploded the prison population without helping people prepare for their return to society.
----------------

🇺🇸 **Contract worker sues school district after losing job for refusing to sign pro-Israel pledge**
*The Hill* - <https://archive.fo/HoQDe>

A speech pathologist who served as a contract employee in Texas is suing the school district she once worked for, arguing that a state law forcing her to sign a pro-Israel pledge violates her First amendment rights.

Bahia Amawi had provided pathology services and speech therapy for children under 5 since 2009 at Pflugerville Independent School District, according to The Dallas Morning News.

The newspaper noted that a contract renewal for her in August included a clause demanding that she agree to not boycott Israel. Amawi, an American citizen of Palestinian descent who was born in Austria, declined to sign it.

Amawi said the clause violated her First and 14th Amendment rights in a lawsuit filed against both the district and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton by the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

The Morning News noted that Amawi stopped working with the district after officials explained to her that they couldn't work with anyone who didn't accept the clause.

In 2017, Texas passed a law that forbid government agencies, including public schools, from contracting with anybody who didn't agree to the pledge not to boycott Israel, The Morning News reported.

Boycotting is described as "refusing to deal with, terminating business activities with, or otherwise taking any action that is intended to penalize, inflict harm on, or limit commercial relations specifically with Israel, or with a person or entity doing business in Israel or in an Israeli-controlled territory," according to the law.

The newspaper noted that 26 states have enacted similar legislation.

The Washington Post noted that Amawi's lawsuit is seeking an injunction that cuts the "No boycott of Israel" clause from school contracts. It also asks for the clause to be cut from other state contracts.
----------------

🇲🇽 **Officials say two Honduran migrant youths killed in Mexico**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/EOOxu>

The bodies of two slain Honduran migrant youths were found in the Mexican border city of Tijuana at the weekend, officials said on Tuesday, in a sign of the dangers facing Central Americans in Mexico as they seek to enter the United States.

The prosecutors’ office in Tijuana said in a statement it was investigating the deaths of the two youths, who showed signs of having been stabbed and strangled. The victims were believed to be about 16 or 17 years old, the office said.

The victims, who were staying at a shelter for migrant youths in Tijuana, were headed to another shelter when they were intercepted by people who apparently intended to rob them, it said. A third boy survived.

The incident did not appear to be related to organized crime, said Jorge Alvarez Mendoza, a prosecutor in Tijuana.

Thousands of Central American migrants have reached Tijuana in recent months hoping to gain entry to the United States. Many have been waiting in Mexico while they seek asylum under a system known as “metering,” which limits how many can apply each day.

It could not be determined immediately if the victims planned to apply for asylum.

Mexico and the United States have been discussing the possibility of returning Central American migrants to Mexico from the United States while their asylum claims are processed.

The proposal has been widely criticized by rights groups who say keeping asylum seekers in Mexico’s border towns puts them in danger. No new advances have emerged since it was reported in the media.

Alden Rivera, the Honduran ambassador to Mexico, said the teens were from Honduras and that the attack on them took place on Saturday afternoon.
----------------

🇺🇸🇮🇱 **ACLU Suing Texas Over Israel Boycott Law**
*The Daily Caller* - <https://archive.fo/Fnszx>

The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas filed a lawsuit Tuesday challenging a 2017 Texas state law that requires government contractors to sign a pledge promising they won’t engage in any type of boycott against Israel or territories controlled by Israel.

GOP Gov. Greg Abbott signed House Bill 89 into law in May 2017, also known as the Anti-BDS (Boycott, Divestments and Sanctions) law, which bars state agencies from contracting with companies that boycott Israeli products.

“Anti-Israel policies are anti-Texas policies, and we will not tolerate such actions against an important ally,” Abbott said at the time of the law’s passing, becoming one of more than a dozen states that have also passed laws to limit working with BDS companies.

The ACLU’s lawsuit is filed on behalf of four individuals and alleges the law “violates the First Amendment’s protection against government intrusion into political speech,” according to an ACLU press release. Those include John Pleucker, a freelance writer; George Hale, a reporter; Obinna Dennar, a Ph.D. candidate; and Zachary Abdelhaid, a student at Texas State University.

“Whatever you may think about boycotts of Israel, the bottom line is that political boycotts are a legitimate form of nonviolent protest,” Edgar Saldivar, a senior staff attorney for the ACLU of Texas, said in the release.

“The state cannot use the contracting process as an ideological litmus test or to tell people what kind of causes they may or may not support,” Saldivar added.
----------------

🇺🇸 **Activists who Abused, Cursed and Spit on Florida AG Pam Bondi – Belong to Group that Received $500K From Soros Org**
*The Gateway Pundit* - <http://archive.is/IHA2y>

The left-wing activist group that accosted Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi at a movie theater in June received half a million dollars in 2017 from an organization funded by left-wing billionaire George Soros, documents obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation reveal.

Organize Florida, the group that hounded Bondi from a Florida movie theater, received $500,000 last year from the Open Society Policy Center (OSPC), according to OSPC’s most recent tax forms.

OSPC is the advocacy arm of Soros’s Open Society Foundations, which the billionaire uses to advance his left-wing worldview around the globe.
---------------

🇺🇸 **Financial Times Names George Soros ‘Person of the Year’**
Breitbart - <http://archive.is/1KsQi>

The Financial Times has named 88-year-old left-wing billionaire George Soros as its “person of the year” for 2018, calling him a “standard bearer of liberal democracy and open society” and praising “the values he represents.”

The paper noted Soros’s work for liberal democracy, but ignored critics who claim that groups he sponsors are actually eroding liberal democracy today by promoting left-wing extremism and undermining national sovereignty.

The paper adds that Soros has been the target of antisemitic conspiracy theories, and that he detests Trump.
Last month, the online Jewish magazine Tablet published a more sober, and accurate, look at Soros’s political involvement — written by James Kirchick, who is vehemently opposed to Trump but also critical of Soros.
---------------

🗺 **Uber loses the latest legal bid to improve drivers rights.**
*BBC News*: <http://archive.fo/jeal4>

Uber has lost an appeal against a ruling that its drivers should be treated as workers rather than self-employed.

In 2016 a tribunal ruled drivers James Farrar and Yaseen Aslam were Uber staff and entitled to holiday pay, paid rest breaks and the minimum wage, a ruling upheld by UK Courts of Appeal.

However Uber won't take the ruling lying down, and has said that it will be attempting to appeal within the Supreme Court.

Mr Farrar, who is chairman of the United Private Hire Drivers branch of the IWGB union, said: "I am delighted today's ruling brings us closer to the ending Uber's abuse of precarious workers made possible by tactics of contract trickery, psychological manipulation and old-fashioned bullying." He later added a statement about his shock that Uber still won't treat staff as workers.

"This is nothing more than a cynical ploy to delay inevitable changes to its business model while it pursues a record breaking $120bn stock market flotation," Mr Farrar said, the GMB Union then realeased it's statement, saying that Uber should simply taking the verdict, after losing in courts thrice. "This is the perfect early Christmas present for GMB's Uber members, but this case is about the wider 'gig economy' too," said the GMB's general secretary Tim Roache.

The latest decision from the courts was not unanimous though, with one judge out of the three presiding ruling in favour of Uber, meaning that the end of the legal battle isn't over, and it's going up into the Supreme Court.
------------

🇺🇸 **Fed Reserve Degenerates Raise Rates Again, Threaten More Increases**
CNBC: <https://archive.is/brTAf>

The Fed raised interest rates by a quarter point, as expected, and lowered its median rate forecast to two hikes from three next year. But the central bank also retained language in its statement that the market saw as more aggressive than expected, in terms of future rate hikes.

"I think the market reaction to all of this is the Fed is going to overdo it," said James Paulsen, chief market strategist at Leuthold Group. "How else can you look at this than it just smells, at a minimum, like a really big slowdown in the economy coming, maybe even something worse."
"Powell said he sees no problem with balance sheet runoff. That's the one that hurts," said Paulsen. "That's another potential path of dovishness that he didn't take."
---------------

🇩🇪 **Der Spiegel says star reporter made up material**
*AP* - <https://archive.fo/BS0Ga>

An award-winning journalist who worked for Der Spiegel, one of Germany's leading news outlets, has left the weekly magazine after evidence emerged that he committed journalistic fraud "on a grand scale" over a number of years, the publication said Wednesday.

Spiegel published a lengthy report on its website after conducting an initial internal probe of the work of Claas Relotius, a 33-year-old staff writer known for vivid investigative stories. The magazine said Relotius resigned Monday after admitting some of his articles included made-up material from interviews that never happened.

The Hamburg-based magazine said Relotius contributed almost to 60 articles published in print or online since 2011, first as a freelance writer before being hired full-time last year. The reporter previously worked for other German and Swiss publications and won numerous awards, including CNN Journalist of the Year in 2014.

Spiegel said Relotius acknowledged fabricating parts of at least 14 stories. Relotius didn't immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

The case, which is still being investigated, "marks a low point in the 70-year history of Der Spiegel," the magazine said.

It said concerns about Relotius' work first were raised in November by a fellow reporter who worked with him on a story about a border militia in Arizona and discovered that supposed interviews had never taken place.

Further fabrications by Relotius included a phone interview with the parents of American football player Colin Kaepernick, who protested police brutality by kneeling during the pre-game singing of the national anthem, Spiegel said. Another was reporting that a sign on the edge of a Minnesota town read "Mexicans Keep Out," Spiegel said.
----------------

🇨🇺 **Cuba Blames Trump for Bread, Egg, Meat, and Rice Shortages Before New Year**
*Breitbart* - <https://archive.fo/tHFM8>

Cuba’s second-in-command, President Miguel Díaz-Canel, issued remarks Sunday blaming “the impact of the embargo, which has strengthened under the Trump administration,” for nationwide shortages of bread, eggs, and other basic goods as Cubans prepare to celebrate the new year and the 60th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution.

The official newspaper of the Communist Party of Cuba, Granma, quoted Miguel Díaz-Canel speaking at the debut of the nation’s 2019 economic plan, which the publication branded “objective and realist.”

“The people expect an economic response that impacts their day-to-day lives, that is why the majority of our time must be directed towards this battle,” Díaz-Canel is quoted as stating, adding that Cubans must “overcome little bits of every problem every day.”

The Cuban president, who is subordinate to Communist Party leader and Commander-in-Chief Raúl Castro, acknowledged that Cuba failed to achieve the objectives of the 2018 economic plan but blamed the “complex economic situation we face.” Among the challenges he reportedly listed were “structural problems and insufficiencies … but we cannot underestimate the impact of the embargo.”

Granma claims that, under U.S. President Donald Trump, “financial persecution” of the Cuban regime has increased. The White House has pivoted away from policies under his predecessor Barack Obama that greatly enriched military-owned Cuban corporate entities, money that Havana funneled into the persecution of pro-democracy dissidents.
----------------

🇺🇸 **The Latest: House approves wall funding as shutdown nears**
*AP* - <https://archive.fo/KRtXI>

The Republican-led House has approved funding for President Donald Trump’s border wall in legislation that pushes the government closer to a partial government shutdown.

The House voted 217-185, largely along party lines. The bill now goes to the Senate, where it has almost no chance of passing.

Senators already passed their bill to avert a shutdown by extending funds to Feb. 8. It did not include the wall funding.

Without resolution, government funding for various departments expires at midnight Friday.

Trump had given mixed signals on how hard he would push for $5 billion in border wall funds. But he dug in Thursday, telling House Republican leaders he wouldn’t sign the Senate bill that didn’t have the money.
----------------

🇺🇸 **James Comey Admits He Didn’t Tell Trump that Democrats Financed Dossier**
*Breitbart* - <http://archive.is/NyICX>

In testimony, James Comey admitted that when he infamously briefed then President-elect Donald Trump about the controversial dossier, Comey did not inform the incoming president about who financed the document.

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) asked: “In this meeting, did you tell the President who had financed the dossier?”

“No,” was Comey’s simple reply.

Jordan was referring to Comey’s early January 2017 official briefing to Trump about the dossier. That briefing was subsequently leaked to the news media, with CNN on January 10, 2017 breaking the story that the contents of the dossier were presented during classified briefings one week earlier to Trump and then-President Barack Obama.
---------------

🇬🇧 **Police Search Homes after Gatwick Shutdown Arrests**
*Sky News*: <http://archive.fo/IkbO0>

As flight schedules return to normal after days of chaos, some critics say the government has been too busy with Brexit to act.

Two people - a 47-year-old man and a 54-year-old woman from the town of Crawley - were arrested late on Friday and are being questioned over "criminal use of drones" at the airport, which caused distruption for over two days internationally.

The closure of the airport disrupted around 1,000 flights and ruined the travel plans of more than 140,000 people.

The city in which the arrests were made, Crawley, is five miles away from the Airport, the second busiest in the UK.

A Gatwick spokesman said: "Broadly, things are going in the right direction. By the end of the weekend, things should be back to normal."

Political Commentators are saying that the Government is simply too busy dealing with Brexit to deal with this disruption which halted and diverted planes around the world.
------------

🇺🇸 **Trump Discusses Firing Fed's Powell After Latest Rate Hike, Sources Say**
*Bloomberg* - <https://archive.fo/uWFJx>

President Donald Trump has discussed firing Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell as his frustration with the central bank chief intensified following this week’s interest-rate hike and months of stock-market losses, according to four people familiar with the matter.

Advisers close to Trump aren’t convinced he would move against Powell and are hoping that the president’s latest bout of anger will dissipate over the holidays, the people said on condition of anonymity. Some of Trump’s advisers have warned him that firing Powell would be a disastrous move.

Yet the president has talked privately about firing Powell many times in the past few days, said two of the people.

Any attempt by Trump to push out Powell would have potentially devastating ripple effects across financial markets, undermining investors’ confidence in the central bank’s ability to shepherd the economy without political interference. It would come as markets have plummeted in recent weeks, with the major stock indexes already down sharply for the year.

White House spokespeople declined to comment, as did Fed spokeswoman Michelle Smith.

Trump’s public and private complaints about members of his administration have often been a first step toward their departures -- including former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, his first Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and outgoing chief of staff John Kelly.

It’s unclear how much legal authority the president has to fire Powell. The Federal Reserve Act says governors may be “removed for cause by the President.” Since the chairman is also a governor, that presumably extends to him or her, but the rules around firing the leader are legally ambiguous, as Peter Conti-Brown of the University of Pennsylvania notes in his book on Fed independence.
----------------

🇺🇸 **Brett McGurk, top U.S. envoy in ISIS fight, resigns**
*CBS News* - <https://archive.fo/DKNs3>

Brett McGurk, special presidential envoy for the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, had been planning to exit his post in February 2019. But sources tell CBS News that he informed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that he will accelerate his departure due to a strong disagreement with President Trump's snap decision to withdraw 2,000 U.S. troops from Syria, effectively abandoning U.S. allies in the region.

McGurk submitted his resignation on Friday, just one day after Defense Secretary James Mattis quit his post citing fundamental disagreements with the commander-in-chief -- including one over the importance of honoring U.S. alliances.

The special envoy was publicly left in the lurch by the president's sudden declaration on Wednesday that he was pulling U.S. forces out of Syria, against the advice of his top national security advisers and without consulting U.S. allies.

As leader of the counter ISIS mission, McGurk had been in the region to meet with coalition partners including Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani last week when Mr. Trump made his sudden decision to pull U.S. support. According to Barzani's office, he had raised concern about the fate of Kurds in Syria including the Kurdish-led group of fighters known as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). They have been the ground troops in the fight against ISIS and receive help from U.S. advisers, weapons and air strikes.

It is now unclear what will happen to those fighters after the U.S. troops withdraw, and whether the U.S. will continue to carry out air strikes in support of them.
----------------

🇮🇩 **Tsunami in Indonesia kills at least 222 without warning**
*CNN* - <https://archive.fo/BQcXm>

At least 222 people were killed, with hundreds more injured and missing, including members of a pop band, after a tsunami hit the coastline of west Java and Sumatra, Indonesia on Saturday.

There was no warning before the waves struck the Pandeglang district, said Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, head of public relations at Indonesia's National Disaster Mitigation Agency.

The tsunami appears to have been triggered by a combination of underwater landslides caused by the eruption of the Krakatoa volcano in the Sunda Strait that lies between the islands of Java and Sumatra.

Eyewitnesses described fleeing for their lives as beachfront hotels and homes were swept away by a towering wall of water on Saturday evening.

The waves caused a stage to collapse in the Tanjung Lesung beach resort while holidaymakers and locals were watching the Indonesian pop band Seventeen.

One member of the band has been confirmed dead as well as the manager, according to the Jakarta Post. The newspaper said all the other band members were still missing.

Even though Indonesia was the worst country affected by the devastating Boxing Day 2004 tsunami that killed hundred of thousands of people, it still lacks the proper equipment to alert that a tsunami threat is coming.

"We need multi-hazard early warning system," Nugroho said. "And we need lots of it."
----------------

🇸🇾🇹🇷 **Turkey bolsters military on Syrian border as U.S. readies pull out: media**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/9NrgQ>

Turkey is sending reinforcements to its border with Syria, Demiroren News Agency (DHA) reported on Sunday, adding that some 100 vehicles including mounted pickup trucks and weaponry had made their way to the area.

The heightened military activity comes days after President Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey would postpone a planned military operation on Kurdish YPG militia east of the Euphrates river in northern Syria following the United States’ decision to withdraw from Syria.

DHA said the Turkish convoy, headed toward the southern border province of Kilis from another border province, Hatay, included tanks, howitzers, machine guns and buses carrying commandos.

Part of the military equipment and personnel are to be positioned in posts along the border while some had crossed into Syria via the district of Elbeyli, DHA said.

Elbeyli is situated 45 kilometers (27.96 miles) northwest of the northern Syrian town of Manbij, which has been a major flashpoint between Ankara and Washington.

In June, the NATO allies reached an agreement that would see the YPG ousted from Manbij but Turkey has complained the roadmap has been delayed.

Footage from broadcaster TRT World showed parts of the convoy entering Syria via the Turkish border town of Karkamis in the southeastern province of Gaziantep, 35 kilometers north of Manbij.

The convoys are crossing into area controlled by the Free Syrian Army (FSA), a Turkish ally, and are heading to the frontlines of Manbij, TRT World said.

Reuters could not independently verify the reason for the reinforcements and Turkish officials were not immediately available for comment.
----------------

🇯🇵 **Japanesse Emperor Leaves final birthday address**
*BBC News*: <http://archive.fo/LR8eL>

More than 80,000 people have paid their respects to Japan's Emperor Akihito as he gave his final birthday address before his abdication in April.

The emperor, 85, said he took "deep comfort" that his reign had passed without Japan again engaging in war, and then thanked his wife and the Japanesse people for years of support and service to him and the country.

Akihito is the first living monarch to relinquish the Chrysanthemum throne in nearly 200 years, and he is to pass the throne to his Eldest Son, Crown Prince Naruhito in April of next year, which may mean the end of the Heisei Era, or Achiving Peace Era in Japan.

During his brief address, Emperor Akihito also offered condolences and sympathy to Japanese who had lost family members or suffered damage - a reference to the earthquakes, severe storms and heatwaves that have hit the country over the past year, he also expressed regret in Japan's envolvement within war in China, and the Korean War.

In October the head priest at Japan's controversial Yasukuni Shrine - which honours Japan's 2.5 million war dead but also enshrines convicted criminals of World War Two - agreed to resign after criticising Emperor Akihito, saying he was trying to destroy the shrine by not visiting it, with some of the countries top politicians, including the Prime Minister, siding with the Priest.

In the final part of his address, he said he hoped Japan would be able to welcome immigrants to the country under new legislation to let in more foreign, blue-collar workers to ease a labour shortage owing to an ageing population.
------------

🇷🇺🇺🇦 **Putin says Russia ready to respect Azov Sea accord with Ukraine**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/2v1gu>

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that he was willing to respect a Russian-Ukrainian accord governing the joint use of the Azov Sea and that Moscow wanted to normalize the situation around the waters.

Moscow last month seized three Ukrainian navy vessels and their crews off Crimea, accusing them of illegally entering Russian waters.
----------------

🇦🇫 **Attack on government building in Afghan capital leaves 43 dead: official**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/bqgv8>

Afghan authorities on Tuesday collected 43 bodies from a government compound in the capital Kabul that was targeted by a suicide bomber and extremists armed with assault rifles on Monday, officials said.

The attack began when the suicide bomber blew up his explosives-laden car in front of a government building that houses a public welfare department in an eastern neighborhood of Kabul.

Some of the attackers rampaged through the building of the Ministry for Martyrs and Disabled Persons taking workers hostage, and others fought a prolonged gun battle with local security forces.

Health ministry spokesman Wahid Majroh said so far 43 bodies and 10 injured had been transported by ambulances from the attack site. One policeman was killed and three militants were gunned down during seven hours of fighting inside the government compound.

Afghan forces evacuated over 350 civilians from the building before calling off the operation on Monday night. No militant group has claimed responsibility for the complex attack that was identical to previous attacks by Taliban insurgents on government offices, foreign buildings, and military bases.

Abdullah Abdullah, the government’s chief executive, blamed the Taliban for the attack.
----------------

🇹🇷 **Turkey determined to push east of Euphrates "as soon as possible"**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/jT2pj>

Turkey is determined to cross to the east of the Euphrates river in northern Syria as soon as possible, Ankara’s foreign minister was quoted as saying on Tuesday, signaling renewed intent to launch a military campaign delayed by the U.S. withdrawal.

Turkey said this month it would launch a new military operation to sweep the YPG Kurdish militia from northern Syria, but put that on hold after the United States said it would pull its troops out.

Ankara regards the YPG as terrorists and has been infuriated by U.S. support for the group in the fight against Islamic State.
----------------

🇱🇾 **Several dead in suicide attack on Libyan foreign ministry**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/S3NIx>

Three suicide bombers attacked Libya’s foreign ministry in Tripoli on Tuesday, killing at least two other people as well as themselves, authorities said.

The three attackers began their assault with a car bomb, damaging vehicles and buildings, and then opened fire on the ministry, a security source said. Two managed to get inside and blow themselves up. The other was killed by ministry guards.

Heavy smoke rose from the building, which was surrounded by security forces, as people were rushed to hospital. The health ministry said that apart from the attackers, three people had been killed and at least 21 injured.

Interior Minister Fathi Ali Bashagha said however that apart from the attackers only two people were killed, adding that investigations were continuing into the identity of the assailants.

“Security chaos in Libya offers propitious conditions for IS (Islamic State) and other terrorist groups,” Bashagha said at a joint news conference in Tripoli with Foreign Minister Mohamed Taher Siala.
----------------