🇺🇸 **GOP tax bill clears Congress, heads to Trump**
<https://archive.is/kfvLF>

Republicans in Congress have delivered an epic overhaul of U.S. tax laws to President Donald Trump, bringing generous tax cuts for corporations and the wealthiest Americans, and billions to be added to the national debt.

The $1.5 trillion package, billed as a huge boon for the middle class and a spark to economic growth, provides smaller tax cuts for middle- and low-income families.

The GOP-dominated House voted — a second time — along party lines on Wednesday to approve the complex legislation, following a narrow vote after midnight in the Senate.

The measure slashes the corporate income tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent. The tax cuts for business are permanent, but reductions for individuals and families expire after a decade. The standard deduction used by around two-thirds of Americans will nearly double to $24,000 for married couples.
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🇬🇧 **Acid attack epidemic makes parts of London ‘no go’ areas, Labour MP warns**
<https://archive.is/luD1k>

An ever-growing epidemic of acid attacks is turning parts of London into ‘no go’ zones, a Labour MP has claimed. It adds to earlier claims that London has become the ‘acid attack capital of the world.’

The House of Commons heard on Wednesday that the spate of acid attacks in London had made large swathes of the capital “no go” areas for moped delivery drivers. The comments were made by Labour MP Stephen Tims during a debate on the acid crimes hitting the country.

Tims said “significant action” is needed to tackle the issue as the UK has become the country with “the highest rate of attacks per capita” in the world. “I’ve had a number of discussions with representatives of moped delivery drivers and they say there are now parts of London where their drivers are not willing to go because of the danger of attack,” he said.
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🇺🇸 **American Companies Rain Down Cash On Employees In Response To Trump Tax Cuts**
<https://archive.is/oK6Q2>

After Republicans passed sweeping tax reform Wednesday, some of the largest employers in America began dropping cash bombs on their employees. The businesses also pledged to invest hundreds of millions of dollars into the American economy. The GOP tax bill cuts the corporate tax rate nearly in half.

Here is a round up, *so far*, of companies that are celebrating the tax cuts by enriching their employees:

AT&T announced they would “invest an additional $1 billion in the United States in 2018 and pay a special $1,000 bonus to more than 200,000 AT&T U.S. employees.” Comcast will be giving hundreds of thousands of employees $1,000 bonuses and investing $50 billion into jobs and infrastructure.

Boeing will be dumping dollars into investment in their workforce and charitable giving. Wells Fargo will be raising their minimum wage to $15 an hour and donating $400 million to charity and philanthropy. Over 13,000 employees of Fifth Third Bancorp will get a $1,000 bonus. They also announced that they are raising their minimum wage to $15 fan hour.
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🇺🇸 **Jeff Sessions Orders New Look Into Uranium One Criminal Investigation**
<https://archive.is/5EH66>

Attorney General Jeff Sessions has ordered prosecutors at the Department of Justice to begin interviewing FBI agents about evidence they uncovered in a criminal investigation into a highly-controversial uranium deal that involves Bill and Hillary Clinton.

Multiple law enforcement officials confirmed Sessions’ orders to prosecutors, NBC News reported exclusively in the early morning hours on Thursday. At the heart of the issue is the 2010 Uranium One deal which Hillary Clinton signed off on while she was Secretary of State at the U.S. State Department.

An October report revealed that the FBI started gathering evidence in 2009 of Russian officials engaged in bribery, kickbacks, extortion, and money laundering that were involved in the Uranium One deal. Current special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating alleged and unproven claims of "collusion" between the Trump campaign and Russian officials, was the acting FBI director at the time of the investigation into the Russian officials who were engaged “in a bribery scheme aimed at growing their atomic energy business inside the United States.”
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🇨🇺 **Raul Castro to stay in office until April as Cuba extends term**
<http://archive.is/kPk8o>

HAVANA (BLOOMBERG) – A Castro will be Cuba’s president for at least a little longer.

Raul Castro, who replaced his brother Fidel as Cuba’s president in 2008, will remain in the post two months longer than originally scheduled, after the National Assembly voted on Thursday (Dec 21) to extend the current legislative term until April 19.

Castro had previously announced he would step down Feb 24.

Jose Luis Toledo Santander, the assembly’s chairman of constitutional and legal affairs, said the widespread destruction caused by Hurricane Irma in September made it impossible to complete the transition to a new president and ministers in February.

10-10
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🇺🇸 **Papa John's founder out as CEO weeks after NFL comments**
<http://archive.is/SeEfm>

Papa John's says its founder John Schnatter will step down as CEO next month, about two months after he publicly criticized the NFL leadership over national anthem protests by football players.

The company said Thursday that Schnatter remains chairman but be replaced as chief executive by Chief Operating Officer Steve Ritchie on Jan. 1.

Schnatter had blamed slowing sales growth on the outcry surrounding NFL players kneeling during the national anthem. Papa John's International Inc. is an NFL sponsor and advertiser.

10-10
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🇺🇸 **Trump signs tax cut bill into law**
<https://archive.is/75Lug>

Donald Trump signed his tax cut bill on Friday morning in the Oval Office with little fanfare in his final order of business before the start of his Christmas holiday away from the White House.

The president also signed a last-minute resolution to keep the government's lights on through January 19, averting a partial shutdown.

Trump highlighted a provision that sets aside $4.6 billion for missile defense before he affixed his signature to the bill, saying in a tweet that the funds were 'much needed.' He also tweeted that the tax reform legislation was the 'biggest ever' cut, repeating a claim that's repeatedly been disproven.

He's making his way now to Palm Beach, Florida, where his family has been awaiting his arrival for days at Mar-a-Lago, the private resort he has turned into his Winter White House.
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**Video**

https://twitter.com/PressSec/status/944243091212554240?s=17

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🇺🇸 **J20 protest trial latest: Anti-Trump activists found not guilty and avoid lengthy prison sentences**
https://archive.fo/HDBKM

Six defendants facing decades in prison for protesting Donald Trump’s inauguration have been found not guilty, in a trial that raised serious questions about First Amendment rights in the age of Trump.

A jury in Washington, DC, cleared the defendants of all seven charges against them, which included rioting and multiple counts of property destruction. The defendants were the first of nearly 200 people due to stand trial for their involvement in the 20 January protests.

Jude Ortiz, a member of the Defend J20 team that mobilised to support the defendants, called the decision “a victory for political organising”.

In the late morning of 20 January, DC Police surrounded and arrested more than 200 of the participants in a tactic known as kettling. Authorities claim some of the participants had broken windows, thrown chairs, and even assaulted a limousine driver, according to an indictment.

In their opening arguments, however, the prosecution conceded they had no evidence that any of the first six defendants engaged in any of the property destruction themselves. Instead, the state urged jurors to convict based on the defendant’s participation in the march itself.

Multiple people in the courtroom burst into tears when Mr Wood, Ms Lawson, and their four co-defendants were cleared. Several of the 186 other defendants who have yet to stand trial were also in the courtroom that day. While their futures are less certain, observers said many of them celebrated along with the six who were cleared.

“It’s been rare in 2017 to have tears of joy,” Mr Ortiz said. ”So to hear every ‘not guilty’, one after the other....People were just sobbing out of joy and surprise.”
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🇺🇸 **Charlottesville renames street after woman who was killed in white nationalist rally**
<http://archive.is/6ZN7W>

Charlottesville, Va., has renamed a street in honor of the woman who was killed during the white nationalist rally in August.

The street where 32-year-old Heather Heyer was killed when a man drove a car into a crowd of counterprotesters at a “Unite the Right” rally was designated as "Heather Heyer Way.”

Charlottesville Mayor Mike Signer spoke at the dedication for the street on Wednesday and read a proclamation announcing the honorary street name, according to C-Ville Weekly.

“The terror attack that resulted in Ms. Heyer’s death and serious injuries to dozens more shocked our community and touched the heart and soul of not only Charlottesville, but the entire country,” Signer said, reading the proclamation. “This honorary designation pays tribute to Ms. Heyer’s dedication to justice, fairness, equal rights for all and positive social change.”

“I’m proud of how she died,” Bro said at the event. “What other legacy could a mother ever want for her child?”

Bro said in an interview earlier this month that she has had to hide the location of her daughter’s grave, citing white supremacists who she says have threatened her and her family.

Bro has also said that she has blocked President Trump’s attempts to call her, saying that she was hurt by his comments after the rally that “both sides” are to blame for the violence.
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🇺🇸 **9th Circuit rules against Trump's third attempt at travel ban**
http://archive.is/3ON8s

A panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday ruled against the third iteration of President Trump's travel ban, saying it goes against federal law.

"We conclude that the President’s issuance of the Proclamation once again exceeds the scope of his delegated authority," the court said in its ruling.

The most recent iteration of the ban bars people from eight countries – six of which are predominantly Muslim – from coming to the U.S.

The San Francisco-based appeals court, however, said the Trump administration could continue to bar individuals from countries in the Middle East and North Africa from entering the U.S. if they do not have a "bonafide" relationship with someone in the U.S.

The court said the ruling would be put on hold pending any review by the Supreme Court.
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🇺🇸 ***Perfect day for a TERROR attack' Ex-US marine arrested over 'Christmas Day plot*** https://archive.fo/OIv6m#selection-415.0-415.81 THE FBI has arrested a former marine over alleged plans to launch a terror attack on Christmas Day, it has been revealed. Federal agents arrested Everitt Aaron Jameson, a 26-year-old Islam convert, in San Francisco, California.
It is claimed Mr Jameson said “Christmas was the perfect day” for a terror attack in San Francisco and "did not need an escape plan because he was ready to die”.
Officials said the suspect was talking to an undercover FBI agent and added that the tow truck driver was arrested earlier this week.
FBI documents allege he posted and liked pro-ISIS and pro-terrorism content on Facebook - which is what alerted him to authorities.
A source flagged the content to the FBI and Mr Jameson spoke to the source and an agent - who he thought were both high-ranking members of a terror group - between October and this week. -Always a fucking Ginger Soy Boy . . .

🇸🇾 **ISIS has over 10,000 fighters in Afghanistan, more arriving from Syria & Iraq – Moscow**
<https://archive.is/y7Mki>

The terrorist group Islamic State has over 10,000 loyal fighters in Afghanistan, and Moscow believes the US may be underestimating their threat, Russia’s special envoy says.

Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) was pushed out of their home base in Syria and Iraq this year by separate military operations of a US-led coalition, and the Syrian Army backed by Russia. Many of the IS fighters who fled those countries ended up in Afghanistan, where the terrorist group has as many as 10,000 troops at the moment, Zamir Kabulov, the head of the Middle East department in the Russian Foreign Ministry, said.

“Russia was among the first nations to ring alarm about the expansion of IS into Afghanistan,” he told RIA Novosti. “Lately IS has boosted its presence in the country. Our estimate is that their force there is stronger than 10,000 troops and is continuing to grow. That includes new fighters with combat experience received in Syria and Iraq.”

IS forces are strongest in the north of Afghanistan on the border with Tajikistan and Turkmenistan – a point of concern for Russia, which has close historic ties with both nations, Kabulov added.
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🇺🇸 **Ohio Governor John Kasich Signs Down Syndrome Abortion Ban Into Law**
<https://archive.is/igWSt>

On Friday, Ohio Governor John Kasich signed into law a bill that prohibits doctors from performing abortions on infants prenatally diagnosed with Down syndrome.

The bill, referred to as the "Down Syndrome Non-Discrimination Act," made its final passage through the state legislature on December 13, moving on to the governor’s desk to be officially signed. Additionally, according to the Associated Press, the law "requires the state medical board to revoke the physician's license if convicted."

Ohio joins North Dakota and Indiana by signing such legislation into law. However, as the Associated Press notes, a federal judge has blocked Indiana’s version of the law. Unsurprisingly, pro-abortion activists are challenging the constitutionality of Ohio’s legislation, as well as claiming that it’s simply a ploy to restrict all abortion.
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🇺🇸 **Las Vegas shooting: FBI official says info on motive may take until next October to release**
<https://archive.is/YKX2x>

Want to finally know why Stephen Paddock gunned down 58 people in Las Vegas in early October? Be prepared to wait a while – possibly until next October – the chief of the FBI’s Las Vegas office revealed this week during an interview in which he said the agency probably wouldn't brief the public until their report is released sometime before the tragedy’s first anniversary.

Rouse told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that the FBI has interviewed around 400 people worldwide in connection to Paddock and has brought in the same number of specialists to help document evidence. He said the Route 91 Harvest music festival site took investigators 14 days to comb over, while Paddock’s room and hotel hallway at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino took 13. Important items found at both sites have been sent to the FBI's central lab in Virginia.

“We’re going to have, I think, the best digital schematic of what happened and where it happened and how it happened that you can come up with,” Rouse said. He added that FBI investigators have 22,000 hours of surveillance and cellphone footage and 250,000 photos to look over, amounting to about 40 terabytes of data.

“We didn’t leave anything uncovered,” Rouse told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “And again, the casinos, with their support, let us track down a lot of information of who may have had contact with that person. And it was very helpful to us.”
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🇷🇺 **Target of dubious Trump dossier discovers who dished the document to BuzzFeed**
<https://archive.is/thfE1>

Attorneys for a Russian entrepreneur say they have discovered the source who provided BuzzFeed with the infamous Trump dossier whose unverified charges were embraced by the FBI.

They are not disclosing the identity for now.

BuzzFeed took the momentous step on Jan. 10, 2017 of posting the entire 35 pages, including salacious charges about President Trump and “golden showers” in a Moscow hotel. The posting propelled a document seen only by Washington insiders into worldwide public exposure

Aleksej Gubarev, chief of XBT holdings and its Webzilla web hosting firm, is suing BuzzFeed for libel in U.S. District Court in Florida. The dossier, orchestrated by Democrats and the firm Fusion GPS and written by former British spy Christopher Steele, accused Mr. Gubarev of hacking Democratic Party computers under pressure from Russian intelligence.
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🇦🇫 **Russian foreign ministry: Moscow ready to cooperate with U.S. on Afghanistan - RIA**
<http://archive.is/Ik8BX>

Moscow stands ready to cooperate with the United States on Afghanistan, Russia’s Foreign Ministry official said in an interview with RIA state news agency published on Saturday.

Russia maintains contacts with U.S. acting Assistant Secretary of State Alice Wells, said Zamir Kabulov, special representative to the Russian president on Afghanistan and the head of Asian region department at the Foreign Ministry.
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🇺🇸 **At Vice, Cutting-Edge Media and Allegations of Old-School Sexual Harassment**

<http://archive.is/k7Z27>


One woman said she was riding a Ferris wheel at Coney Island after a company event when a co-worker suddenly took her hand and put it on his crotch. Another said she felt pressured into a sexual relationship with an executive and was fired after she rejected him.

A third said that a co-worker grabbed her face and tried to kiss her, and she used her umbrella to fend him off.

These women did not work among older men at a hidebound company. They worked at Vice, an insurgent force in news and entertainment known for edgy content that aims for millennial audiences on HBO and its own TV network.

10-10
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🇺🇸 **Storm clouds gathering over Korean peninsula, Mattis tells US troops**

<http://archive.is/LV9sL>


WASHINGTON - Storm clouds are gathering over the Korean Peninsula, Defence Secretary James Mattis has told soldiers and airmen of the elite 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

"My fine young soldiers, the only way our diplomats can speak with authority and be believed is if you're ready to go," Mr Mattis told several dozen soldiers and airmen during a two-day tour of US bases, the military journal Stars And Stripes reported on Friday (Dec 22).

During his visit to another US base, the Guantanamo Bay Naval Station, he told the troops "you all have to be ready to go" if diplomacy fails.

10-10
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<:trump:284711336934375425> **White House denies Trump made controversial comments on Haiti and AIDS**
<http://archive.is/DNg8x>

The White House says two controversial quotes about immigrants attributed to President Trump were never uttered by the nation's chief executive.

In a report released by the New York Times today, two unnamed officials said Trump suggested during a June meeting that all immigrants from Haiti have AIDS.

The Times also quoted Trump as saying that immigrants from Nigeria would never "go back to their huts."

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders called report "sad," and said it is filled with lies from anonymous sources.

The New York Times said one of the sources was at the meeting, while the other was briefed about the conversation.
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🇻🇦 **Pope pleads for migrants at Christmas mass**
<http://archive.is/baSf3>

Pope Francis in his Christmas eve mass Sunday urged the world's 1.3 billion Catholics not to ignore the plight of migrants who are "driven from their land" because of leaders willing to shed "innocent blood".

"So many other footsteps are hidden in the footsteps of Joseph and Mary," the Argentine pontiff, himself the grandson of Italian migrants, told worshippers in Saint Peter's Basilica

"We see the tracks of millions of persons who do not choose to go away but, driven from their land, leave behind their dear ones."

Many engulfed in the ongoing migration crisis were forced to flee from leaders "who, to impose their power and increase their wealth, see no problem in shedding innocent blood", said the 81-year-old, who will give his traditional "Urbi et Orbi" Christmas address on Monday.
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<:perfect:348458410783539211> **Guatemala says it is moving embassy in Israel to Jerusalem**
<http://archive.is/0meFt>

Guatemala’s president announced on Christmas Eve that the Central American country will move its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, becoming the first nation to follow the lead of U.S. President Donald Trump in ordering the change.

Guatemala was one of nine nations that voted with the United States and Israel on Thursday when the U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly adopted a non-binding resolution denouncing Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

Trump didn’t set any timetable for moving the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and neither did Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales.

In a post on his official Facebook account Sunday, Morales said that after talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he decided to instruct Guatemala’s foreign ministry to move the embassy.

Guatemala and Israel have long had close ties, especially in security matters and Israeli arms sales to Guatemala.

No other country has their embassy for Israel in Jerusalem, though the Czech Republic has said it is considering such a move.
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<:trump:284711336934375425> **Nikki Haley negotiates $285M cut in ‘bloated’ UN budget**
<http://archive.is/c3d7w>

UN Ambassador Nikki Haley announced Sunday that the United States negotiated a $285 million cut in the United Nations’ “bloated” budget for next year.

**“The inefficiency and overspending of the United Nations are well known,”** Haley said in a statement from the US Mission. “We will no longer let the generosity of the American people be taken advantage of or remain unchecked.”

Haley added that the “historic reduction” in spending is a step in the right direction and that the US would make many other moves toward a more efficient and accountable UN.

“In addition to these significant cost savings, we reduced the UN’s bloated management and support functions, bolstered support for key US priorities throughout the world and instilled more discipline and accountability throughout the UN system,” the statement said.

The new deal for the 2018-2019 fiscal year is $285 million less than the world body’s staggering $5.4 billion budget for fiscal year 2016-2017.

The ambassador went on to say that she hopes to help make even more reductions in the UN’s budget in the years to come.
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🇺🇸 **Amazon, Microsoft staff busted buying sex workers trapped in trafficking industry**
<https://archive.is/JN0EJ>

Scooped-up electronic communications between pimps and tech-sector employees at reputable Seattle-based companies such as Microsoft and Amazon is another hit for the tech industry, already reeling from sexism charges.

A cache of tech-sector emails sent to brothels and pimps, obtained by Newsweek via a public records request to the King County Prosecutor’s Office, reveal that “67 emails were sent from Microsoft employee email accounts, 63 from Amazon accounts and dozens more from companies like Boeing, T-Mobile, Oracle and local Seattle tech firms.”

Authorities have been collecting email messages from sex-traffickers’ computers over the last few years. In 2015, a sting operation against prostitution rings ensnared high-level Amazon and Microsoft directors. Those caught up in the sting operation to buy trafficked Asian women were discovered because pimps frequently request that clients prove they are not police by forwarding employee identification.
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🇫🇷 **French magazine causes uproar after putting Israel next to N. Korea as ‘not a real country’**
<https://archive.is/pB8Nr>

French magazine Youpi had to withdraw its January issue for making the “mistake” of putting Israel next to North Korea as examples of not “real countries.” The magazine, which is aimed at children aged from five to eight, includes trivia card games. On one of the cards, Israel is put on a par with North Korea, both of which are apparently not “real countries.”

“197: We call these 197 countries states, like France, Germany or Algeria. There are others, too, but not all the world’s countries agree that all of them are real countries (for example the State of Israel or North Korea),” reads the card, which has sparked a fierce backlash.

“Shocked by this lie taught to children. Such rhetoric can only encourage anti-Zionism, inseparable from anti-Semitism,” Aliza Bin Noun, the ambassador of Israel to France, said on Twitter, while tagging French President Emmanuel Macron. Francis Kalifat, the president of CRIF (the Federation of Jewish Communities and Organizations of France) condemned the cards, calling them a “factual lie and a flagrant one at that.”

Following the backlash, the magazine was removed from kiosk sales in France and Belgium.
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🇸🇾 **Putin: Syria has been liberated - time for refugees to return**
<https://archive.is/NI5hF>

Russian President Vladimir Putin says that Syria has been liberated from terrorists and that Syrian refugees now should return to help restore the country.

“The situation in this country [Syria] is gradually changing. The Syrian armed forces, supported by the Russian military, have liberated from terrorists almost the whole territory of the country, including historic Christian regions,” Putin said on Monday at a meeting with the heads of Orthodox Christian congregations, RT reports.

Russia’s president reiterated the importance of a working group created by the Russian Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches. The workgroup’s goal is to list the destroyed temples in Syria in preparation for their reconstruction. The return of the Christian population, as well as of the refugees of other faiths, might play the crucial role in restoration of peaceful life in the war-torn country, Putin stressed.

But Syrian migrants who have received both money and housing in the West, are not likely just going to pack up and leave the honeypot, and so far no country has suggested forced returns either. It's like our leaders have a hard time getting these news.
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🇺🇸 **Embattled FBI admits it can’t verify dossier claims of Russia, Trump campaign collusion**
<https://archive.is/TnYuN>

The FBI is declining to repudiate the Russia dossier on which it partially relied to start an investigation into the Trump campaign, but it concedes the document’s major core charges of election collusion remain unsubstantiated.

Sources familiar with House and Senate investigations say this is the FBI’s dossier talking point 17 months after agents were first briefed in July 2016 as Donald Trump battled Hillary Clinton for the White House. The most recent FBI witness was Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, who spent nearly eight hours last week in a closed session before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

“This is really problematic for the FBI and DOJ right now,” said the source familiar with the congressional investigations. “They realize stonewalling is not going to work anymore, but they haven’t decided on a new strategy to manage the deluge of information spilling out about top officials’ conflicts of interest, their use of the Steele dossier and their own connections to Fusion GPS.”
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🇺🇸 **Minnesota police remove ‘disgusting’ memorial to woman shot by Somali cop**
<https://archive.is/lhkHp>

Police in Minneapolis have removed a candlelit memorial for Justine Ruszczyk Damond, an Australian woman who was fatally shot by a Minneapolis officer, after discovering the shrine was placed by ethno-nationalists. On Friday, members of Identity Evropa took credit for placing 12 candles, several roses, and a sign that read “United We Stand” outside the Minneapolis Police Department's 5th Fifth Precinct to honor Damond.

The group said they erected the shrine at the precinct because it was where Minneapolis Police Officer Mohamed Noor, who allegedly shot Damond, was assigned. "One family will be having an incomplete Christmas this year," the group posted on Twitter.

Identity Evropa, which promotes “European identity among people of European heritage,” is listed as a white nationalist group by the Southern Poverty Law Center and is labeled as a white supremacist group by the Anti-Defamation League.
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🇮🇱 **Israel will name a new train station near Jerusalem's Western Wall after TRUMP for his 'historic and brave decision' to recognize it as the capital**
<https://archive.is/9RAvY>

Israel's transportation minister is pushing ahead with a plan to extend Jerusalem's soon-to-open high speed rail line to the Western Wall, where he wants to name a future station after President Donald Trump.

'The Western Wall is the holiest place for the Jewish people, and I decided to name the train station that leads to it after president Trump – following his historic and brave decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Israel,' Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz told the Jerusalem Post.

Despite the likely opposition to the project, Ovadia said he expects the plans to be approved in the coming year, barring major complications. The Tel Aviv-Jerusalem high-speed line is expected to open next spring. 'There's no reason why this train won't be built,' he said. 'We already know how to deal with no less difficult opposition.'

Katz has previously proposed other ambitious infrastructure projects, including an artificial island off the coast of the Gaza Strip that would serve as an air and seaport for the Palestinian territory, and a railway connecting Israel with Saudi Arabia.
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<:trump:284711336934375425> **TWO HANDS????**

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🇺🇸 **Senate probe expanded to anyone ‘of Russian descent or nationality’ – email**
<https://archive.is/xiV23>

The US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence probe into allegations of collusion between President Donald Trump and Russia includes anyone believed to be “of Russian descent or nationality,” according to a new report.

April Doss, the senior counsel to the Democrats on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) defined the scope of the investigation as anyone a subject “knows or has reason to believe [is] of Russian nationality or descent,” according to The Young Turks (TYT).

The definition of the investigation’s scope comes in response to a request for clarification by conservative blogger Charles C. Johnson. In July, Johnson received a letter from Senator Richard Burr (R-North Carolina) and Warner requesting a “closed interview” and that he hand over materials “relevant” to the investigation including “all documents, emails, text messages, direct messages, calendar appointments, memoranda, notes or other documents related to any communications with Russian persons.”
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🇨🇳 **Social network profile to become official ID in China**
<https://archive.is/U8YpF>

China’s largest social media network, WeChat, is set to become an official electronic personal identification system in the country, with a WeChat ID pilot program launched in Guangzhou’s Nansha District.

On Monday, the authorities in the southern province of Guangzhou announced that its citizens will soon be able to identify themselves through WeChat (‘Weixin’ in China), Xinhua reported. The virtual ID card will be as valid as a paper identification issued by the Chinese state, it added.

It will provide access to online and offline government services, hotel registration, delivery services, ticketing and other services that require authentication. The move is aimed at preventing online identity theft, thanks to facial recognition technology used to verify applicants before providing them with online IDs.

Over 30,000 people have applied for WeChat ID cards in the 24 hours following the launch of the trial. According to Xinhua, the program will swiftly cover the whole of Guangzhou, before being expanded to other regions of the country starting from January 2018.
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🇺🇸 **Trump Sends Fewer Mexicans Home Despite Deportation Talk**
<https://archive.is/T4zFH>

President Donald Trump sent 26 percent fewer Mexicans back home this year through November than Barack Obama did in the same period in 2016, despite vows to crack down on illegal immigration, Mexican government data show.

About 152,000 Mexican nationals were repatriated from the U.S. between January and November, according to data from Mexico’s Interior Ministry that were first reported by Milenio newspaper. That compares with just under 205,000 in the first 11 months of 2016.

An ICE report of data through early October showed that removals of Mexican nationals were down, but administrative arrests of all immigrants were up 30 percent in fiscal year 2017. It concludes that the decrease in removal numbers overall compared to fiscal year 2016 was primarily due to about 17 percent fewer migrants apprehended at the border.
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🇺🇸 **Professors claim farmers’ markets cultivate racism: ‘Habits of white people are normalized’**
<https://archive.is/Tssa6>

Two professors from San Diego State University claim in a new book that farmers’ markets in urban areas are weed-like “white spaces” responsible for oppression. Pascale Joassart-Marcelli and Fernando J Bosco are part of an anthology released this month titled “Just Green Enough.” The work, published by Routledge, claims there is a correlation between the “whiteness of farmers’ markets” and gentrification.

“Farmers’ markets are often white spaces where the food consumption habits of white people are normalized,” the SDSU professors write, the education watchdog Campus Reform reported Wednesday. The geology professors claim that 44 percent of San Diego’s farmers’ markets cater to “households from higher socio-economic backgrounds,” which raises property values and “[displaces] low-income residents and people of color.”

“The most insidious part of this gentrification process is that alternative food initiatives work against the community activists and residents who first mobilized to fight environmental injustices and provide these amenities but have significantly less political and economic clout than developers and real estate professionals,” the academics write.
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<:shiiiiit:348458410217308170> **At least 12 dead in New York City apartment fire**
<http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/12/28/at-least-12-dead-in-new-york-city-apartment-fire.html> (Updating)

At least 12 people were killed and others injured after a massive fire broke out in a New York City apartment building, Mayor Bill de Blasio said at a press conference Thursday night.

"Tonight here in the Bronx, families have been torn apart," de Blasio told reporters. The mayor called the event the "worst fire tragedy we have seen in this city."

More than 160 firefighters were on the scene of the four-alarm fire, located at a five-story walk-up apartment house in the Bronx, just a block from the borough's famed zoo.

Officials said that one baby died in the fire, which FDNY Commissioner Daniel Niger called "historic in its magnitude." Four people are critically injured and others are also seriously injured. The victims range from 1 to 50 years old.

The building had no elevator, The Associated Press reported, citing city records. Fire escapes were visible on the facade of the building.

The fire started on the first floor of the building before it spread, officials said. The fire department responded to emergency calls within three minutes.

The commissioner added it's too early to determine what sparked the fire.
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🇺🇸 **Oregon Court Upholds $135K Fine Against Christian Bakers Who Refused To Make Gay Wedding Cake**
<https://archive.is/qoymq>

On Thursday, while the nation awaited the outcome in the Masterpiece Cakeshop case, which is to be decided by the Supreme Court, the Oregon Court of Appeals on Thursday upheld a $135,000 fine against two Christian bakers who would not create a wedding cake for a same-sex couple.

In January 2013, Aaron and Melissa Klein, owners of Sweet Cakes by Melissa bakery, refused to create a wedding cake for Rachel and Laurel Bowman-Cryer. The Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries subsequently decided that the Kleins violated a 2007 state law that prohibited a place of public accommodation from denying “full and equal” service to a person on account of their sexual orientation. The Kleins were forced to pay the Bowman-Cryers for emotional distress.

The Kleins appealed the decision in March 2017, but on Thursday the Oregon Court of Appeals upheld the fine against the Kleins, writing, “The final order does not impermissibly burden the Kleins’ right to the free exercise of their religion because it simply requires their compliance with a neutral law of general applicability, and the Kleins have made no showing that the state targeted them for enforcement because of their religious beliefs.”
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<:perfect:348458410783539211> ***President Golfs 87 times *** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKkeTDZyYFw

🇺🇸 **Argument Over a Call of Duty Wager Match Leads to a Deadly Swatting Incident After False Address Posted**
<http://archive.is/TtjHK>

An argument between two competitive Call of Duty players has lead to a man being killed by police in Kansas after authorities were incorrectly informed he was holding someone hostage.

It is being reported across the competitive CoD community that a $2 wager match on the evening of Thursday December 28th descended into two team mates arguing with each other after losing the match, and threatening each other to be swatted.

The two CoD players reportedly got into an argument over a small money loss on UMG’s wager platform online (view match) and threatened to swat each other, with one of the players sending the other incorrect details of an address nearby to a known swatter, who was reportedly responsible for the CWL Dallas bomb hoax evacuations.

A local news website in Kansas has reported that the Wichita police were responding to a homicide and hostage situation, and when a 28 year old man answered the door, the officer in attendance discharged his weapon. The man was taken to hospital but later pronounced dead.
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