🇮🇸 **Feel the Bern, Iceland becomes first country to legalise equal pay** https://archive.fo/QtF92 A new law making it illegal to pay men more than women has taken effect in Iceland.
The legislation, which came into force on Monday, the first day of 2018, makes Iceland the first country in the world to legalise equal pay between men and women.

🇺🇸 **FBI thought Hillary broke the law, drafted acquittal despite ongoing investigation – report**
<https://archive.is/5idBI>

The FBI believed Hillary Clinton and her aides broke the law by using an insecure server to email classified data, yet drafted an exonerating statement even before the probe was over, according to several Republican senators.

The unnamed Republicans on key congressional committees looking into the Clinton probe have uncovered passages in FBI documents stating that large amount of classified data that passed through Clinton’s private emails was proof of criminality, The Hill reported. By doing so, the lawmakers have confirmed and expanded on earlier reports in the US media.

“The sheer volume of information that was properly classified as Secret at the time it was discussed on email (that is, excluding the “up classified” emails) supports an inference that the participants were grossly negligent in their handling of that information,” said a draft FBI statement from May 2, 2016, according to a source who has seen it. The “grossly negligent” wording, supporting a criminal charge for mishandling classified information, was changed to the more palatable “extremely careless” in later versions of the statement, according to The Hill.
-----------------

🇺🇸 **Trump disavows Bannon, says former campaign strategist ‘lost his mind’**
<https://archive.is/hvqFG>

Steve Bannon ‘lost his mind’ when he got fired from the White House, President Donald Trump said, adding that the Breitbart executive does not represent his base and is “only in it for himself.” Bannon has “nothing to do with me or my Presidency,” Trump said in a statement on Wednesday afternoon, addressing claims by his former adviser in an upcoming book.

“Steve was rarely in a one-on-one meeting with me and only pretends to have had influence to fool few people with no access and no clue, whom he helped write phony books,” Trump’s statement said.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders condemned the book as "filled with false and misleading accounts from individuals who have no access or influence with the White House" and described it as "trashy tabloid fiction."

The president accused Bannon of being a source of leaks to the media while working as a White House adviser, and blasted his former strategist for the Republican debacle in Alabama last month.
-----------------

🇺🇸 **Manafort STRIKES BACK: Former Trump Campaign Manager Sues Justice Department Over Mueller Probe**
<https://archive.is/S3e4E>

In what is apparently a last-ditch effort to delay his trial, former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort has filed suit against the Justice Department, claiming that special counsel Robert Mueller lacks the authority to conduct a probe into whether Manafort and others conspired with Russian officials to undermine the 2016 Presidential election.

According to documents filed Wednesday in US District Court in Washington DC., Manafort claims that Mueller overstepped his bounds when he investigated, and subsequently indicted, Manafort for failing to submit a file to the US government naming himself an official lobbyist of a foreign government. Manafort's attorneys say that Mueller was supposed to focus his efforts on investigating whether the Russians had interfered in the US election, not whether Manafort had filed proper paperwork with a Federal body.

The suit also takes aim at deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein who authorized Mueller's probe to begin with, claiming that Rosenstein exceeded his authority "to appoint special counsel as well as specific restrictions on the scope of such appointments."

The DOJ called the lawsuit "frivolous" but the filings themselves are very intriguing. According to Manafort and his attorneys, Mueller filed "more than 100 subpoenas related to Manafort" during the summer of 2017, seeking information as far back as 2005, some of which related to a previous, concluded FBI investigation.
-----------------

<:jew:348458300947431426> **Roy Moore's Jewish lawyer voted for Doug Jones, raised money for his campaign**
<http://archive.is/20J9o>

The Jewish attorney who Roy Moore's wife touted employing in an attempt to fight off claims of anti-Semitism is actually a longtime friend and supporter of Senator-elect Doug Jones, who defeated Moore last month.

Richard Jaffe is an Alabama defense attorney hired by the Moores to defend their son, Caleb Moore, against drug charges in 2016.

Jaffe told the Washington Examiner he has been close personal friends with Doug Jones for more than 30 years and he both contributed to, and raised money for, his campaign.

"There could not be a more passionate supporter of Doug than me!" Jaffe said.

“Fake news will tell you that we don’t care for Jews. I tell you all this because I’ve seen it also I just want to set the record straight while they’re here,” Kayla Moore said at a campaign rally in Midland City, Ala., waving at the media. “One of our attorneys is a Jew!”
-----------------

🇮🇱 **Netanyahu announces ‘mission’ to expel remaining African migrants from Israel**
<https://archive.is/eZJy8>

Illegal African migrants found still living in Israel by April could face indefinite imprisonment if they don’t leave voluntarily. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to expel remaining “illegal infiltrators” from Africa.

“We have expelled about 20,000 and now the mission is to get the rest out,” Netanyahu said on Wednesday in public remarks at a cabinet meeting that approved the scheme. Some 60,000 Africans, mostly from Eritrea and Sudan, entered Israel before it erected a fence along its border with Egypt in 2013.

Since May 2015, Israel has offered migrants $3,500 and a free plane ticket to return home. However, starting in April, any of the estimated 38,000 illegal African migrants caught still living in the country could face incarceration. They will still have the option of leaving Israel voluntarily after March, but the government payout for doing so will be significantly smaller. Migrants can also choose to relocate to a “third country.”

Around 1,400 migrants are currently being held in two detention centers in Israel. Under new legislation enacted last month, Israel will close its Holot detention center. The migrants who live there will face a choice: to be jailed in the Saharonim Prison or deported to Rwanda. Israel and Rwanda recently signed an agreement whereby asylum seekers can be sent there, even without their consent, causing an outcry among human-rights groups.
-----------------

🇺🇸 **Dow Industrials Cross 25000 for First Time**
<https://archive.is/W0dRN>

The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped past 25000 for the first time Thursday, on pace to notch the fastest run to a fresh 1,000-point milestone in history.

The blue-chip index, which heavily weights industrial giants such as Boeing Co. and Caterpillar Inc., was recently up 138 points, or 0.6%, at 25061. If the Dow industrials close above 25000, the jump from 24000 would have taken 23 trading days, ahead of the 24-day spans that took the index to 11000 in 1999 and 21000 in March.

Faster economic growth around the globe and improving sentiment from consumers and businesses—both of which were elusive for many years since the financial crisis a decade ago—have helped power this rally in recent weeks. Economic data in the first days of the new year continued to suggest steady expansion in the U.S., China and Europe.
-----------------

🇺🇸 **White House Bans Staff From Using Personal Cell Phones At Work**
<https://archive.is/uVlak>

Under a new directive, issued by Chief of Staff John Kelly, that cites "security concerns" with non-government-issued cellular devices, staff have to ditch their smartphone, though the president, who uses his own phone to engage in social media smack-downs, appears to be exempt from the rule.

Staff aren't happy about the move; they say the government-issued phones are outdated and lack the capacity to text, which hinders communication between members of the president's senior team. The phones also can't be used to make personal calls, so a White House staffer on shift isn't able to communicate with friends or family who don't work in the White House.

But in light of recent events — and in light of the "Fire And Fury" book due to hit stores — the White House is more concerned than ever about leaks from within the administration, and, aides say, with everyone using at least two separate devices — one for work and one for home — the White House wireless network has become hopelessly overloaded.

Even guests of the White House must now surrender their personal devices before attending any official meetings to keep things in order.
-----------------

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

❄ **U.S. East Coast Blitzed by Fast-Moving, High-Impact Winter Storm**
<https://goo.gl/GuERTT>

As of late Wednesday, blizzard warnings covered parts of each coastline from North Carolina to Maine. Some uncertainty in the storm track remained on Wednesday night—complicated by the storm’s rapid development and unusual strength—but Grayson’s center should remain just far enough offshore to keep the worst impacts east of the I-95 corridor until the storm reaches southeast New England. There, Grayson may produce a strong enough blizzard to impress even the hardest-bitten Yankee.

Snow amounts won’t be off the charts, but the impact will be worsened by winds at gale force or stronger and frigid temperatures, especially in the 24 to 48 hours after Grayson has passed.

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

🇪🇺 **Tony Blair warns of populist uprisings & collapse of EU if Muslim immigration not addressed**
<https://archive.is/C2Ecd>

More countries could break away from the EU in a wave of populist revolts, says Tony Blair. The former UK PM has called on EU countries to “seize the moment” and to deal with underlying Muslim migration issues. Blair told German newspaper Die Welt that the same migration concerns that sparked Brexit aren’t issues faced solely by the UK, and other EU countries could face backlashes down the line.

“Let’s be clear: the anxieties of the British people that led to Brexit are not confined to Britain,” he said. “With strong leadership we would seize the moment of Brexit also to deal with those underlying issues which are not only the preoccupation of the British people but are the preoccupation right across Europe. Because otherwise, this populism will get fueled.”

Blair made a clear distinction between EU migration - a problem that he believes is only an issue in certain areas of the UK - and non-EU migration. He said tensions occur from non-EU migration “when people aren’t sure the people coming are sharing our values” - particularly from majority-Muslim countries.

Blair believes this is already an issue in Holland, Denmark and Sweden.
-----------------

🇰🇵 **North Korea Strikes North Korea In Missile Test Gone Horribly Wrong**
<https://archive.is/dxNAu>

According to a report in The Diplomat, an international news site based in Japan, North Korea’s test of a Hwasong-12/KN17 intermediate-range ballistic missile on April 28, 2017 went horribly wrong, launching from Pukchang Airfield and crash-landing just 40 miles away in Tokchon, causing extensive damage to “a complex of industrial or agricultural buildings.”

Authors Ankit Panda and Dave Schmerler wrote that a “U.S. government source with knowledge of North Korea’s weapons programs” said the missile’s engines failed after just one minute of powered flight. “Evidence of the incident,” they wrote, “can be independently corroborated in commercially available satellite imagery from April and May 2017.”

While the April 28 test was the third failed test of a Hwasong-12 that month, the report says that missile “was the fundamental building block” for the intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) that North Korea’s regime launched on July 4, July 28, and November 28.
-----------------

🇺🇸 **Companies Warned to Replace All Computer Hardware or Risk 'SPECTRE' Attack...**
<https://archive.is/dRA2e>

Two major flaws in computer chips could leave a huge number of computers and smartphones vulnerable to security concerns, researchers revealed Wednesday. And a U.S. government-backed body warned that the chips themselves need to be replaced to completely fix the problems.

The flaws could allow an attacker to read sensitive data stored in the memory, like passwords, or look at what tabs someone has open on their computer, researchers found. Daniel Gruss, a researcher from Graz University of Technology who helped identify the flaw, said it may be difficult to execute an attack, but billions of devices were impacted.

Called Meltdown and Spectre, the flaws exist in processors, a building block of computers that acts as the brain. Modern processors are designed to perform something called "speculative execution." That means they predict what tasks they will be asked to execute and rapidly access multiple areas of memory at the same time.

That data is supposed to be protected and isolated, but researchers discovered that in some cases, the information can be exposed while the processor queues it up. Researchers say almost every computing system -- desktops, laptops, smartphones, and cloud servers -- is affected by the Spectre bug. Meltdown appears to be specific to Intel (INTC) chips.
-----------------

🇵🇸 **ISIS declares war on Hamas over Jerusalem loss to Trump & Israel**
<https://archive.is/96vlD>

The Islamic State in Egypt has urged its supporters in a new execution video to wage war against Hamas over its failure to defend Jerusalem following Washington's recognition of the city as the Israeli capital.

The 22-minute video, allegedly released by an affiliate of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) in the Sinai Peninsula, and published by the Jihadist-monitoring SITE Intelligence Group, begins with footage of US President Donald Trump’s December 6 announcement on Jerusalem. The propaganda footage, initially released Wednesday, culminates in the execution of a former IS member pictured on his knees in an orange jumpsuit.

Hamas, the de facto governing authority of the Gaza Strip, has called for a new intifada or uprising against Israel in the wake of Trump's announcement. The agitation for a new uprising spurred mass revolts, in which Israeli security forces used live munition, rubber bullets, and tear gas to quell the massive unrest. On Thursday, Hamas spokesperson Salah Bardawil slammed the IS video as “a Zionist production in which Arab tools participate to distort the resistance."
-----------------

🇩🇰 **No mosques & 8 pm curfew: Denmark’s 2nd biggest party unveils anti-ghetto policy**
<https://archive.is/oo2qZ>

The right-wing populist Danish People’s Party (DPP) has unveiled a radical seven-point plan to tackle social problems in migrant-dominated areas, after the country’s PM said he planned “to physically bulldoze” ghettos.

The most contentious part of the initiative, which has dominated headlines this week, is a curfew on unsupervised under-18 children on the streets of so-called problem areas after 8pm. Martin Henriksen, the DPP immigration spokesman, says there is already legislation that allows local authorities to impose such restrictions, and that it won’t be applied to students or those with jobs, nor at all times. He said the DPP plan would ensure children study rather than rove in teen gangs.

Visible policing will also be intensified in the "ghettos," which boast some of the highest crime rates in the country. Among other suggestions is a moratorium on the construction of mosques with minarets, as they project a “divisive symbolism,” Henrikson, an MP, told Arab News. Instead, Muslims will be encouraged to pray in unmarked spaces, such as “warehouses and offices.”
-----------------

🇵🇸 **Greek Patriarch attacked by Palestinians amid protests against church selling off land**
<https://archive.is/Cpftu>

A convoy of the Greek Orthodox Patriarch has been attacked by Palestinians during his visit to the West Bank. The protesters accuse the Patriarch of treason for allegedly selling land to Jewish investors.

Hundreds of Palestinians protested the visit of the Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem to the West Bank Saturday. The Patriarch was in Bethlehem to attend an Orthodox Christmas mass at the Church of Nativity.

The demonstrators carried banners reading, “The Holy Land is not for sale or lease” while chanting “traitor, traitor,” as the Patriarchs convoy approached. The protest action was prompted by the controversial decision of the Greek Orthodox church – a major landowner in the Holy Land – to sell off some of its assets to private investors.
-----------------

🇬🇧 **Top UK retailers volunteer for govt plan to stop ‘scourge’ of acid attacks**
<https://archive.is/hVN8H>

Several of Britain’s largest retailers have signed up to a voluntary government initiative aimed at curbing the horrific rise in assaults with acids and other corrosive substances across the UK.

Retailers, including Wickes, B&Q, Screwfix, Wilko, the Co-op, Morrisons, Waitrose, Tesco and John Lewis, have signed up to the plan preventing under-18s from buying products that: contain sulphuric or hydrochloric acid, drain cleaners or brick and patio cleaners respectively, or products containing sodium hydroxide, such as paint strippers.

“Acid attacks have a devastating impact on their victims, leaving both emotional and physical scars,” Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Crime, Safeguarding and Vulnerability Victoria Atkins said in a statement. “I’m pleased that so many of the UK’s major retailers are joining our fight to combat this scourge and signalling they are committed to selling acids responsibly.”
-----------------

🇺🇸 **Bannon apologizes**
<https://archive.is/91IU8>

Battered by the backlash from Michael Wolff's book, Steve Bannon is trying to make amends with the Trump family, providing a statement to Axios that expresses "regret" to President Trump and praises his son, Donald Trump Jr.:

- "Donald Trump, Jr. is both a patriot and a good man. He has been relentless in his advocacy for his father and the agenda that has helped turn our country around."

- "My support is also unwavering for the president and his agenda — as I have shown daily in my national radio broadcasts, on the pages of Breitbart News and in speeches and appearances from Tokyo and Hong Kong to Arizona and Alabama."

- "I regret that my delay in responding to the inaccurate reporting regarding Don Jr has diverted attention from the president's historical accomplishments in the first year of his presidency."
-----------------

🇸🇪 **One dead after hand grenade explosion outside Stockholm subway station**
<https://archive.is/UGwO5>

A man has died in hospital after he was injured in an explosion near a Stockholm subway station on Sunday. The explosion occurred late on Sunday morning outside the Vårby Gård station, injuring a man in his sixties and a 45-year-old woman.

"There was something on the ground that the man picked up, and then it exploded," Sven-Erik Olsson of the Stockholm police told the TT news agency. The man died in hospital in the early afternoon, the police announced on their website.

Stockholm's police force have said the man was unlikely to have been purposely targeted by whoever left the explosive at the station. *They added that there was nothing to suggest terrorism.*
-----------------

🇺🇸 **Secrecy Around Northrop's Zuma Launched By SpaceX Is Highly Unusual**
<http://archive.is/m8w3K>
 
SpaceX kicked off the 2018 launch season with a successful mission Sunday, but its Zuma payload built by Northrop Grumman(NOC) remains unusually secretive.

 What little is known about the Zuma satellite is that Northrop made it for a government customer and was launched into low Earth orbit, where the International Space Station, reconnaissance, weather and communications satellites reside.

But it's specific orbit wasn't disclosed, and whether the Zuma has a military or civilian applications or which agency will operate it are also under tight wraps.

10-10
┅┅┅┅┅

🇺🇸 **Domestic Terror: 18-Year-Old Sentenced To 33 Years For Rape And Robbery Spree **
<http://archive.is/j3XkA>

When Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge Kathleen Sutula decried Reed's actions he agreed that he was a domestic terror. "You're a domestic terror who just wreaked havoc on these people, right?" Sutula asked him during his sentencing. Reed replied, "I agree your honor."

Because of previous firearms violations and crimes, Reed was tried as an adult and Sutula sentenced him to 33 years in prison for the crimes he committed as a juvenile.

Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O'Malley referred to Reed as the latest example of a serial offender whose criminal history stretches back into adolescence and outgrew the capabilities of the Juvenile court system.

O'Malley told local news Cleveland news, "The people of Cleveland are much safer now that Dale Reed is behind bars." Reed was using drugs ranging from weed, ecstasy, acid, molly and PCP since age 12 leading him to have multiple run-ins with law enforcement before he was even 18.

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

=====

__Honduras tsunami alert after 7.6-magnitude earthquake in Caribbean__
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/10/tsunami-alert-puerto-rico-76-magnitude-earthquake-caribbean
An earthquake of magnitude 7.6 that struck in the Caribbean sea on Tuesday was felt across northern Central America, briefly prompting a tsunami warning for disaster-hit Puerto Rico and the British and US Virgin Islands.

The US Tsunami Center later cancelled the alert but warned some parts of Honduras and Belize were still at risk from waves of up to a metre

n earthquake of magnitude 7.6 that struck in the Caribbean sea on Tuesday was felt across northern Central America, briefly prompting a tsunami warning for disaster-hit Puerto Rico and the British and US Virgin Islands.

The US Tsunami Center later cancelled the alert but warned some parts of Honduras and Belize were still at risk from waves of up to a metre.


A new challenge looms for British Virgin Islands: how to clean up hurricane mess
Read more
The quake – which hit at 10.52pm local time – rattled windows in the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa roughly 323 miles (519km) to the east and was felt at least as far north as the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, but no damage was immediately reported.

Rodrigo Anaya Rodriguez was in a hammock inside his house near popular tourist site Bacalar Lake on Mexico’s Caribbean coast in Quintana Roo when he felt three tremors. “It felt like a bulldozer was driving past,” he said. “It didn’t last long but was very violent.” He ran to his balcony and saw electricity posts and cables swaying.

=====

hope I recall how the formatting works pretty sure I hosed it

🇺🇸 **Huma Abedin and Anthony Weiner call off divorce**
<http://archive.is/an5cZ>

Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin and her jailed sext-a-holic hubby Anthony Weiner have withdrawn their pending divorce case, The Post has learned.

Abedin was scheduled to appear in Manhattan Supreme Court Wednesday afternoon for a compliance conference in their contested divorce. Instead one of her attorneys submitted paperwork signed by both parties agreeing to end the case, a court source told The Post.

The judge announced from the bench that the case was “discontinued.”

Abedin finally filed for the split last May just hours after Weiner pleaded guilty to sexting with a minor. She had stood by the much-mocked former congressman since 2011, when, a year into their marriage, he tearfully admitted Tweeting out an underwear selfie.

The disgraced pol is serving nearly two years of hard time in a Massachusetts federal lockup.

The court source said the filing means that either the estranged couple will stay married or negotiate their split privately. They have a 6-year-old son.
┅┅┅┅┅

🇺🇸 **Cancer deaths fall, thanks mostly to drop in smoking**
<http://archive.is/UrsH3>

Cancer deaths have fallen yet again, thanks mostly to huge declines in smoking, the American Cancer Society said Thursday.

More than 2.3 million people have not died of cancer since 1991 who otherwise would have if cancer rates had remained unchanged, the group said in its annual report on cancer.

Yet 4,700 Americans are diagnosed with cancer every day and cancer remains the No. 2 cause of death in the United States, right behind heart disease.

“Lung cancer death rates declined 45 percent from 1990 to 2015 among males and 19 percent from 2002 to 2015 among females due to reduced tobacco use because of increased awareness of the health hazards of smoking and the implementation of comprehensive tobacco control.”
-----------------

🇺🇸 **Immigration agents descend on 7-Eleven stores in 17 states**
<http://archive.is/YgxPZ>

Seven immigration agents filed into a 7-Eleven store before dawn Wednesday, waited for people to go through the checkout line and told arriving customers and a driver delivering beer to wait outside. A federal inspection was underway, they said.

Within 20 minutes, they verified that the cashier had a valid green card and served notice on the owner to produce hiring records in three days that deal with employees’ immigration status.

The well-rehearsed scene, executed with quiet efficiency in Los Angeles’ Koreatown, played out at about 100 7-Eleven stores in 17 states and the District of Columbia, a rolling operation that officials called the largest immigration action against an employer under Donald Trump’s presidency.

The employment audits and interviews with store workers could lead to criminal charges or fines. And they appeared to open a new front in Trump’s expansion of immigration enforcement, which has already brought a 40 percent increase in deportation arrests and pledges to spend billions of dollars on a border wall with Mexico.

A top official at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said the audits were “the first of many” and “a harbinger of what’s to come” for employers.
┅┅┅┅┅

🇮🇸 ***Jón Páll Eyjólfsson, the late theater director of Leikfélag Akureyrar, says his termination relates to an event that lasted for decades and not within the theater of Leikfélag Akureyrar.*** https://archive.fo/wn291#selection-855.0-887.244 He was forced to depart immediately from yesterday's work, as no longer trusts in his work. The denunciation relates to the # metoo revolution. He claims to have reported MAK's managing director when the revolution began.
The detainee started a conversation five years ago
Jón Páll sent a short statement shortly after noon as he said the case was about an event that took place for a decade and not within the theater.
"5 years ago, a conversation with the victim began her initiative and afterwards we have been in a relationship and agreed to harmony," writes Jón Páll. "When the Metoo revival started, I immediately informed MAK's manager and the position."

<:strawman:372034857099984897> **Facebook developing ‘Portal’ gadget which will let it put microphones and cameras in people’s homes**
<https://archive.is/xNKur>

The social network is planning to release its first ever piece of consumer hardware which will be called Portal and cost a whopping $499 (£368), a website called Cheddar has claimed. The device will feature a 15inch screen, a wide-angle camera with facial recognition and microphones to allow voice control.

It’s expected to use facial recognition to allow people to log into their accounts without having to type in passwords and will be dedicated to video chat. The gadget has been designed by a shadowy Facebook department called Building 8 that’s also working on mind-reading technology.

‘Facebook plans a formal product introduction in early May at its annual developer conference and hopes to ship the device in the second half of 2018.’
-----------------

At a San Francisco bar on January 5th, Pranay Singh 🇮🇳 details how the shadow-banning algorithms targeting right-leaning are engineered:

*“Yeah you look for Trump, or America, and you have like five thousand keywords to describe a redneck. Then you look and parse all the messages, all the pictures, and then you look for stuff that matches that stuff.”*

When asked if the majority of the algorithms are targeted against conservative or liberal users of Twitter, Singh said, *“I would say majority of it are for Republicans.”*
-----------------

<:trump:284711336934375425> **Trump criticized immigration from 'shithole' countries: report**
<http://archive.is/dKJIs>

President Trump reportedly referred to immigrants from Haiti and African countries as coming from “shithole countries” on Thursday.

Trump made the comment in an Oval Office meeting with lawmakers during a discussion of protections for immigrants from several countries, according to The Washington Post.

“Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?” Trump said, according to multiple people briefed on the meeting.

He reportedly suggested that the U.S. should bring in more immigrants from countries like Norway.

Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) were present at the meeting, and were surprised by the comments, according to the Post.

Trump has been quoted criticizing immigrants from these countries in the past. The New York Times reported in December that he once suggested that Haitian immigrants “all have AIDS,” and that Nigerian immigrants would never “go back to their huts” if granted entrance to the U.S.

The White House denied those allegations at the time.
-----------------

🇹🇭 **Yakuza boss arrested in Thailand after photos of his tattoos go viral** https://archive.fo/2m4N9#selection-1333.1-1333.70 ***Police capture 72-year-old Japanese fugitive who was recognised when images of his body art were circulated online*** A retired Japanese crime boss has been arrested in Thailand, ending more than 14 years on the run, after photos of his yakuza tattoos and a missing little finger went viral.
Shigeharu Shirai, 72, was apprehended while he was shopping on Wednesday in the central market town of Lopburi. Japanese authorities had sought his arrest over an alleged role in the shooting of a rival in 2003, after which he fled to Thailand, married a local woman and drifted into a seemingly peaceful retirement.
That was until a resident posted photos of the diminutive retiree playing a streetside checkers game with his intricate gang tattoos on full show and a missing little finger – yakuza members often slice off a fingertip to atone for an offence.

🇺🇸 **Trump Slashes Federal Bureaucracy, Deep State ‘Morale Has Never Been Lower’**
<https://archive.is/ResEU>

The Environmental Protection Agency is on track to slash 47% of its total staff by the end of President Trump’s first term, according to a report in the Washington Examiner. After just one year, EPA chief Scott Pruitt has reduced his staff to levels unseen since the Reagan administration. If just those federal employees set to retire by 2021 do indeed leave, Pruitt will have cut more than 7,000 bureaucrats.

With the exception of Homeland Security, Veterans Affairs, and Interior, all Cabinet departments by September had fewer permanent staff than the day Trump took office. In addition, Trump’s proposed spending cuts triggered a spending slowdown across agencies despite the absence of a 2017 budget from Congress.

Not all federal employees dislike the cuts. An annual survey of federal workers shows a slight uptick in job satisfaction. Stephanie Valentine, a program analyst at the Education Department, explained, “Oftentimes we run on autopilot and continue to fund programs that don’t produce the results that were intended. You can’t keep blindly spending because that’s what we’ve always done.” Valentine has reportedly never perused a Democrat Party platform.

Before his death in 2016, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia observed that unaccountable, overgrown executive agencies posed the greatest threat to American liberty. If President Trump can reduce bureaucracy to Reagan era levels within a year, Americans might hope to press on to Coolidge era numbers by his second term. For an administration that promises to make America great again, at least it’s a good start.
-----------------

🇺🇸 **President Donald Trump's medical exam 'went exceptionally well,' doctor says**
<https://archive.is/ogOFC>

President Donald Trump on Friday received his annual medical checkup, his first ever while serving as commander in chief. The doctor in charge of the exam said it "went exceptionally well," although he did not divulge any further details.

Trump's checkup, conducted by Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, did not include a psychiatric exam, despite recent questions being raised about his mental faculties. He walked out of the hospital Friday afternoon. Trump on Thursday had said he expected his exam would "go very well."

Trump's personal physician, Dr. Harold Bornstein, in December 2015 had issued a letter about the then-presidential candidate's health. "If elected, Mr. Trump, I can state unequivocally, will be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency," Bornstein wrote.

In September 2016, Bornstein issued another letter that said Trump was 6-foot-3-inches tall and weighed 236 pounds. Tests for cholesterol, blood pressure, blood sugar and other readings "are all well within the normal range," Bornstein wrote.
-----------------

🇺🇸 **90% Of Workers Likely To See More Money In Paycheck Next Month**
<https://archive.is/3VIrl>

The U.S. Treasury and the IRS on Thursday put out new guidance and withholding tables for employers that incorporate changes from the new tax law.

Under those new tables, the Treasury estimates that 90% of people who get a paycheck are likely to see more in take-home pay, as soon as February. Employers will have until Feb. 15 to incorporate the changes in their payroll systems.

The major changes affecting individuals include new tax brackets, (mostly) lower income tax rates, a near-doubling of the standard deduction and the elimination of both personal exemptions as well as many itemized deductions.

The new tables are designed not only to best approximate the change in workers’ tax liability under the new law, but to do so in a way that “delivers benefits as soon as possible to as many people as possible with as little disruption as possible,” a senior Treasury official told reporters.
-----------------

🇻🇪 **Food riots grip western Venezuela, mob reportedly slaughters cattle in field**
<https://archive.is/mCFMo>

Hungry mobs ransacked a food collection center, and a supermarket in Venezuela's western Andean state of Merida on Thursday and reportedly even slaughtered cattle grazing in a field as unrest over food shortages spread through the country.

An opposition lawmaker from Merida, Carlos Paparoni, said four people had died and 10 were injured in the chaos over the last two days, but he did not specify the circumstances.

Looters plundered a truck carrying corn, a food collection center, and a state-run supermarket, according to Paparoni, and a vet who witnessed the mayhem. A video on social media also showed around a dozen men running into a lush pasture, chasing a cow, and then apparently beating it to death.

"They're hunting. The people are hungry!" says the narrator of the video, who filmed the incident from his car. Lawmaker Paparoni said some 300 animals were believed to have been killed. Reuters could not verify the information.
-----------------

🇺🇸 **Records Show Psych Prof Who 'Diagnosed' Trump "Unfit" Lacks License**
<https://archive.is/WNLox>

Yale University psychology professor Bandy Lee has deleted her Twitter account amid mounting allegations that she is not licensed in her home state of Connecticut.

Accusations have been circulating on Twitter that the prominent Yale professor, known for her public diagnosis of President Donald Trump as having a “mental impairment” and who recently met with lawmakers on Capitol Hill to discuss the issue, isn’t actually a licensed psychiatrist.

In fact, Campus Reform discovered that according to the State of Connecticut, Lee’s “physician/surgeon” license expired in 2015, and her application for reinstatement has been “pending” ever since.
-----------------

🇨🇳 **California Is Shuttering The Last Nuclear Power Plant In The State**
<https://archive.is/3l6Zc>

California regulators voted unanimously Thursday to shutter the state’s last nuclear power plant by 2025.

The Diablo Canyon nuclear facility is scheduled for an incremental shutdown, phasing out Unit One in 2024 and Unit Two in 2025. The plant produces about 18,000 gigawatt-hours of electricity annually, enough to power 1.7 million homes and nearly 10 percent of California’s energy mix.

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) voted to close the nuclear plant as the federal licenses for each unit expire, and move the state toward 100 percent renewable energy.

“With this decision, we chart a new energy future by phasing out nuclear power here in California,” CPUC President Michael Picker said, according to The San Francisco Chronicle. “We’ve looked hard at all the arguments, and we agree the time has come.”
-----------------

⚠ **Missile threat alert for Hawaii a false alarm**
<https://archive.fo/EE8hv>

An emergency alert notification sent out on Saturday claiming a "ballistic missile threat inbound to Hawaii" was a false alarm, according to state leaders and emergency officials.

"BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL," the emergency alert read.

While the message caused concern on social media, the Hawaii Office of Emergency Management quickly responded on Twitter, saying, "NO missile threat to Hawaii."

Hawaii Gov. David Ige told CNN that human error caused the alert to go out. The warning went out to television and radio as well as cell phones, Ige added.

-----------------
Bonus
https://twitter.com/jamieleecurtis/status/952275076346388481