:: **Mystery as partially-preserved corpse resembling a DINOSAUR is found with flesh still on its bones in India**
<http://archive.is/1K1hJ>

Scientists have been left mystified after the body of a creature resembling a dinosaur was discovered with flesh still on its bones.

The partially-preserved corpse was discovered by an electrician cleaning out a sub-station that had been left untouched for 35 years in Jaspur, a small city in Uttarakhand, India.

It resembles a small dinosaur, but since flightless dinosaurs have been extinct for 65 million years, scientists have struggled to identify it.

The creature has now been sent for analysis, including carbon dating, which will reveal its age.

10-10
┅┅┅┅┅

<:shiiiiit:348458410217308170> **Philadelphia City Council approves bill to remove bulletproof glass from storefronts**
<http://archive.is/AXr0v>

The Philadelphia City Council voted Thursday to remove bulletproof glass from the windows of some local businesses, despite a backlash from shop owners who cited safety concerns.

The council voted 14-3 to approve legislation that could eventually force business owners to remove the protective glass outside their storefronts that some lawmakers believe operate as drug fronts and facilitate loitering and public urination, Fox 29 reported.

The bill, which was passed by the city’s Public Health and Human Services Committee on Dec. 4, enables Philadelphia's Department of Licenses and Inspections to regulate the bullet-resistant barricades that stand between customers and cash registers in many neighborhood corner stores.
┅┅┅┅┅

🇺🇸 **Al Franken continues working while departure date unclear**
<http://archive.is/P8UOC>

Even though he announced he would resign within "the coming weeks" amid accusations he groped women, Sen. Al Franken is still reporting for duty to Capitol Hill with no departure date set.

Gov. Mark Dayton, a Minnesota Democrat, said Wednesday that Minnesota Lt. Gov. Tina Smith was appointed to a one-year term in the Senate, which will conclude in January 2019. Smith, thought to be a leading contender to replace Franken, accepted the appointment.

But since his resignation last Thursday, the Minnesota senator has cast five Senate votes, attended at least one committee hearing as of Thursday and gave a floor speech on net neutrality Wednesday afternoon.

And while his replacement has been set, the senator's office has said he does not yet have a departure date -- and is still finalizing his plans.

His office told CNN his resignation date was still being "finalized" on Wednesday. And when pressed by CNN four times about his resignation on Thursday, Franken declined to answer questions on why he hadn't set his date.
┅┅┅┅┅

🇺🇸 **FBI Release Emails On 'Secret' Loretta Lynch-Bill Clinton Meeting Before FBI's Hillary Decision**
<https://archive.is/H9dnJ>

Friday afternoon, the FBI released a 29-page document containing Justice Department emails regarding the infamous meeting on the tarmac in Phoenix between then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Bill Clinton just days before FBI Director James Comey gave his much-criticized announcement that he would not press for charges against Secretary of State Hillary Clinton over her "extreme carelessness" in handling classified material.

The emails, spanning from July 1-3, 2016, contain correspondence among various DOJ officials to the leaking of the impromptu 30-minute meeting between Lynch and Clinton that the AG insists was merely a personal chat about their grandchildren and recent travels, but what many continue to suspect had something to do with the ongoing investigation of then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Comey's press conference in which he announced that he would not request Lynch to pursue charges was on July 5.

The emails appear to contain no bombshells, but do show that members of the department were outraged over the "secret" meeting getting leaked to the press and considering ramping up measures to prevent future leaks. Some of the correspondence, including about how to handle the fallout from the leaked meeting, are redacted.
┅┅┅┅┅

🇸🇪 **Swedish Brothers Rape Children Over 1,000 Times, Receive Miniscule Prison Sentences**
<https://archive.is/cG7Mc>

Two brothers in northern Sweden in their mid-thirties have been convicted of sexually abusing five children between the ages of three and 14 over 1,000 times — and the harshest sentence they got was 14 years in prison. The victims were apparently children who had been bullied in school or whose lives at home were difficult; the brothers plied them with drugs, alcohol and money, as testimony was given in Ångermanland District Court.

The **older brother was convicted of more than 580 cases of aggravated child rape and at least 500 cases of aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor**, The Local reported. The **younger brother was found guilty of at least 500 child rapes and more than 50 cases of aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor**.

On Friday, the **older brother was sentenced to 14 years in jail; the younger brother, 12 years**. The lighter sentence for the younger brother was based in part on the fact that he was younger than 21 when he committed the crimes. The brothers were ordered to pay $350,000 to the victims.
┅┅┅┅┅

🇺🇸 **California Health Officials Release Guidelines To Avoid Cellphone Radiation**
<http://archive.is/oEkE0>

SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX) — California healthofficials have a new message for cellphone users.

For the first time ever, the California Department of Public Health has released guidelines about harmful cellphone radiation and how you can avoid it.

Dr. Karen Smith with the California Department Of Public Health said, “We recognize that there are a lot of people in the general public that have some concerns about their cellphones and whether using a cellphone is safe.”

Smith said, “When you sleep, you keep the cellphone at least arm’s length away from your body. And also, not carrying your cellphone in your pocket, having it either in your purse or not carrying it with you.”

10-10
┅┅┅┅┅

🇦🇹 **Far-right Freedom Party enters Austrian govt as anti-migrant sentiment creeps across Europe**
<https://archive.is/PR0G0>

After celebrating a resounding success in the recent parliamentary elections, the anti-immigrant Freedom Party of Austria (FPO) has joined a coalition government with Sebastian Kurz’s conservative Austrian People’s Party (OVP).

The agreement between the People’s Party and the Freedom Party, which is returning to government after more than a decade's absence, was struck on Friday, the two parties’ leaders, Sebastian Kurz and Heinz-Christian Strache, announced in a joint news conference.

Strache, who once advocated a law similar to the ban on Nazi practices to be introduced against “political Islam,” spoke about “mutual appreciation” with Kurz, adding that they share “the responsibility for our homeland Austria and for the people in this country.”
┅┅┅┅┅

🇪🇺 **Crypto-crackdown: EU agrees on new rules to curb bitcoin anonymity**
<https://archive.is/c7h0C>

The EU is targeting bitcoin anonymity, saying the measure is needed to tackle tax evasion and other crimes. Anonymity of the cryptocurrency holders is a built-in feature that the EU hopes to undermine.

The new rules concerning cryptocurrency passed on Friday by the European Parliament and the European Council are part of a larger package, which also target prepaid cards and trust funds. The agreement is meant to be enshrined in legislation within 18 months by EU members.

Once they become law, the rules will require cryptocurrency exchange platforms and wallet providers to identify their clients. Identifying individuals and entities holding bitcoin and other digital currencies will presumably help to prevent tax evasion, money laundering and financing of terrorism.
┅┅┅┅┅

🇺🇸 **$21 trillion of unauthorized spending by US govt discovered by economics professor**
<https://archive.is/jnf4M>

The US government may have misspent $21 trillion, a professor at Michigan State University has found. Papers supporting the study briefly went missing just as an audit was announced.

Two departments of the US federal government may have spent as much as $21 trillion on things they can’t account for between 1998 and 2015. At least that’s what Mark Skidmore, a Professor of Economics at MSU specializing in public finance, and his team have found.

They came up with the figure after digging the websites of departments of Defense (DoD) and Housing and Urban Development (HUD) as well as repots of the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) over summer.

The research was triggered by Skidmore hearing Catherine Austin Fitts, a former Assistant Secretary in the HUD in the first Bush administration, saying the Inspector General found $6.5 trillion worth of military spending that the DoD couldn’t account for. She was referring to a July 2016 report by the OIG, but Skidmore thought she must be mistaking billion for trillion. Based on his previous experience with public finances, he thought the figure was too big even for an organization as large as the US military.
┅┅┅┅┅

🇺🇸 **Trump to remove ‘climate change’ as a national security threat**
<https://archive.is/kMtae>

The Trump administration will reverse course from previous Obama administration policy, eliminating climate change from a list of national security threats. The National Security Strategy to be released on Monday will emphasize the importance of balancing energy security with economic development and environmental protection, according to a source who has seen the document and shared excerpts of a late draft.

“Climate policies will continue to shape the global energy system,” a draft of the National Security Strategy slated to be released on Monday said. “U.S. leadership is indispensable to countering an anti-growth, energy agenda that is detrimental to U.S. economic and energy security interests. Given future global energy demand, much of the developing world will require fossil fuels, as well as other forms of energy, to power their economies and lift their people out of poverty.”
┅┅┅┅┅

🇺🇸 **Residents flee as flames approach wealthy California enclave**
http://archive.is/4ALuq

MONTECITO, Calif. (AP) — Residents piled into cars and fled on Saturday, turning downtown Santa Barbara into "a ghost town" as surging winds drove one of the biggest fires in California's history toward the city and the nearby wealthy enclave of Montecito.

The mandatory evacuations around Montecito and neighboring Summerland came as winds that had eased a day earlier roared back at around 30 mph (48 kph), with gusts to about 60 mph (97 kph). Firefighters sprayed water onto hot spots sparked by wind-blown embers. Firefighters also drove to the historic San Ysidro Ranch in yellow fire trucks as heavy smoke rose from the coastal hills, blotting out the blue skies.

A portion of Santa Barbara was under mandatory evacuation. At the city's zoo, workers began putting some animals into crates and kennels, to ready them for possible evacuation.

Jones
------------------------

🇺🇸 **Trump transition lawyer: Mueller improperly obtained documents in Russia probe**
http://archive.is/Amhf1

Exclusive— A lawyer for the Trump presidential transition team is accusing Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office of inappropriately obtaining transition documents as part of its Russia probe, including confidential attorney-client communications, privileged communications and thousands of emails without their knowledge.

In a letter obtained by Fox News and sent to House and Senate committees on Saturday, the transition team’s attorney alleges “unlawful conduct” by the career staff at the General Services Administration (GSA) in handing over transition documents to the special counsel’s office.

Kory Langhofer, the counsel to Trump for America (TFA), argues the GSA “did not own or control the records in question” and the release of documents could be a violation of the Fourth Amendment – which protects against unreasonable searches and seizures.

Jones
------------------------------

🇺🇸 **LEFTISTS TRIGGERED AFTER TAYLOR SWIFT SAYS ‘COULDN’T HAVE ASKED FOR BETTER YEAR’**
http://archive.is/tK7yH

Pop star Taylor Swift apparently struck a nerve with leftists and Internet trolls this week after she said she “couldn’t have asked for a better year” in 2017 and thanked her fans in a birthday Instagram post.

“I love you guys so much,” Swift captioned a photo taken at a recent London concert. “I couldn’t have asked for a better year, all thanks to you. Thanks for all the birthday wishes. Can’t wait to see what 28 will be like. See you on tour.”

That simple message was apparently too much for some Twitter users — and at least a few media outlets — who questioned how Swift could have a “great year” with all the tragedy occurring in the world, including the election of President Donald Trump.

Jones
---------------------------

🇺🇸 **FACEBOOK ADMITS SOCIAL MEDIA HARMFUL TO MENTAL HEALTH**
http://archive.is/94189

Citing internal and academic research, Facebook admitted its users will feel worse about themselves after spending only 10 minutes absorbing content on the site.

In a company blog post on Friday, Facebook cited studies from the University of Michigan and UC San Diego that revealed how social media negatively impacts the mental health of users.

According to Facebook:

In general, when people spend a lot of time passively consuming information — reading but not interacting with people — they report feeling worse afterward. 

In one experiment, University of Michigan students randomly assigned to read Facebook for 10 minutes were in a worse mood at the end of the day than students assigned to post or talk to friends on Facebook. 

Jones
---------------------------

🇺🇸 **REPORT: LEGALIZING ‘DREAMERS’ WOULD COST TAXPAYERS $26 BILLION**
http://archive.is/7ofY3

Legalizing 2 million illegal immigrant “Dreamers” would cost the government $25.9 billion over the next decade, as those now-legal people would claim more tax, education and other benefits they haven’t been able to get before, the Congressional Budget Office said Friday.

The CBO also said newly legalized Dreamers would sponsor 80,000 more immigrants to enter the country as part of “chain migration.”

Immigrant-rights activists have argued that legalizing Dreamers would be a financial boon to the country, but the CBO and the Joint Committee on Taxation suggested otherwise, saying that while they would pay somewhat higher taxes in to the government, they would take far more out of it.

The findings could be a blow to activists who have demanded the bill be included in any year-end spending deal.

Jones
------------------------------

🇺🇸 **ALT-LEFT PLANS NATIONWIDE ‘RAPID RESPONSE’ IF MUELLER FIRED FROM RUSSIA PROBE**
http://archive.is/kloZm

The Alt-Left group MoveOn.org is planning to roll out massive nationwide ‘rapid response,’ rallies, that “will begin hours after news breaks of a Mueller firing,” according to anew event post on the group’s official website.

According to the post, “Donald Trump is publicly considering firing special counsel Robert Mueller” which the group feels is just an effort to conceal illicit activities with the Russians, despite the fact that both Hillary Clinton and former FBI Director Robert Muller were actually involved in the embezzlement of U.S. Uranium, as reported by Intellihub in the bombshell piece titled “Hillary Clinton requested FBI Dir. Mueller deliver highly enriched uranium to the Russians in 2009 in secret ‘plane-side tarmac meeting.’

Now the snowflakes at MoveOn.org are saying that it would be a “constitutional crisis” if Trump were to fire Mueller and vow to hold emergency “Nobody Is Above the Law” rallies in all 50 states.

The Alt-Left group’s plan is as follows:

– If Mueller is fired BEFORE 2 P.M. local time —> events will begin @ 5 P.M. local time.

– If Mueller is fired AFTER 2 P.M. local time —> events will begin @ noon local time the following day.

Jones
---------------------------

🇺🇸 **Spike in Illegal Immigration Coincides with Talk of DACA Amnesty by GOP Establishment, DHS Secretary**
http://archive.is/Nfceq

A steady increase in illegal immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border under President Trump’s administration has coincided with continued talks among lawmakers to give amnesty to illegal aliens.

The number of border-crossings in November 2017, Breitbart Texas reported, has risen to a staggering 39,006 illegal aliens. This puts last month’s border-crossings under Trump in-line with former President Obama’s administration when it comes to illegal immigration at the southern border.

Since April 2017, border-crossings have risen under Trump a whopping 147 percent.

Meanwhile, the increase in illegal aliens attempting to enter the U.S. through the southern border has coincided with constant discussion from the Republican establishment, Democrats, the open borders lobby, and corporate interests about giving amnesty to nearly 800,000 illegal aliens under the Obama-created Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

Jones
--------------------------

🇺🇸 **Following Harassment Allegations, Democratic Rep. Ruben Kihuen Announces He Will Not Seek Re-Election In 2018**
<https://archive.is/xYBrX>

On Saturday, Rep. Ruben Kihuen (D-NV) announced that he will not seek re-election in 2018 following allegations of sexual harassment from two women.

On December 1, Buzzfeed published an article in which a former female staffer for Kihuen alleged that during the 2016 campaign, the congressman "propositioned her for dates and sex despite her repeated rejections," and "touched her thighs without consent."

On December 13, another woman came forward alleging that Kihuen sexually harassed her when he was a state senator. According to The Nevada Independent, the woman, who has chosen to remain anonymous, claims that Kihuen "touched her thighs or buttocks on three separate occasions without her consent" and sent "hundreds of suggestive text messages," which she showed to the outlet.

On December 15, the House Ethics Committee opened up a formal investigation into Kihuen, reports Politico.

Kihuen, who denies the allegations, released the following statement about the ethics probe: "As I’ve said previously, I intend to fully cooperate, and I welcome an opportunity to clear my name." He added: "Due process and the presumption of innocence are bedrock legal principles which have guided our nation for centuries, and they should not be lost to unsubstantiated hearsay and innuendo."
┅┅┅┅┅

🇺🇸 **Trump lawyer says ‘Russiagate’ probe head Mueller illegally obtained 10,000s emails**
<https://archive.is/9O8Vh>

In a letter sent to the House and the Senate and seen by Fox News, Kory Langhofer, lawyer for Trump’s transition team, claimed that Mueller obtained “tens of thousands of emails,” including confidential communications between a client and a lawyer, due to “unlawful conduct” by the staffers at the General Services Administration (GSA), which hosted the Trump team’s email servers during the transition.

Accusing the GSA of “unauthorized disclosures” for giving Mueller access to private information it “did not own or control,” Langhofer went to blame the agency for infringing on the right of the US citizens to be secure against unreasonable searches and seizures, as guaranteed by the 4th Amendment.

The special counsel’s office has reportedly made “extensive use” of the texts seized from Trump’s transition team that include “materials that are susceptible to privilege claims,” Langhofer wrote, adding that apart from internal emails, the GSA also handed over laptops, cell phones and an iPad at its own liberty.

Trump’s team discovered what it believes a breach of privacy on December 12 and December 13, the lawyer said, noting that some of the compromised materials were leaked to the media by “unknown persons.”
┅┅┅┅┅

🇺🇸 **In political gamble, GOP gives permanent tax cuts to corporations, but not people**
http://archive.is/sSn0H

The essential gamble of Republican plans to overhaul the tax code is now becoming clear: Big businesses get a large, permanent tax cut, while American families receive only temporary tax relief that expires as soon as 2023 in the House bill and 2026 in the Senate bill.

In the House bill, the tax increase would mostly hit moderate and middle-income families because a credit designed to help them expires after five years. But in the Senate plan, released late Tuesday, virtually all Americans would face higher tax rates because the individual income rate cuts go away entirely in 2026. The tax cuts for corporations do not expire.

Public opinion polls already show that many Americans believe the tax bills aredesigned to help the rich, not the middle class. In a Quinnipiac poll released Wednesday, just 16 percent think the plan will reduce their personal taxes, and 61 percent think the wealthy will benefit the most, similar results to many other recent polls about taxes. On top of that, Democrats are trying to hammer the GOP for what they say are disproportionate benefits for businesses and the wealthy.

Every tax bill requires difficult trade-offs. The centerpiece of President Trump and congressional Republicans' tax plan is lowering the corporate rate from 35 percent to 20 percent, which they say will lead to faster growth and, as a result, more jobs. But that has to be paid for or it would add trillions of dollars to the U.S. debt, a burden on future generations that economists say would slow growth down the road.

....fuck

Jones
------------------------------------

🇿🇼 **Zimbabwe should extradite Ethiopian dictator Mengistu**
<http://archive.is/p15pp>

Zimbabwe has said it will not force former Ethiopian dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam to return home despite the fall of his ally Robert Mugabe.

However, the Zimbabwean opposition has revisited the issue of the asylum given to Mengistu, whose brutal reign left thousands of Ethiopians dead.

The push by the opposition should reawaken Africa to re-examine itself and its sincerity when it comes to why dictators who left behind a trail of suffering in their countries should be protected and allowed to lead a comfortable life in exile.

10-10
┅┅┅┅┅

🇺🇸 **Trump confirms he won’t fire Mueller despite allegations of unlawful email seizure & bias**
<https://archive.is/RDl9J>

US President Donald Trump confirmed on Sunday that he has no plans to sack FBI Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is leading the “Russia collusion” probe, recently marred by conflicts of interest and improper conduct claims. Trump echoed various Republican officials who said over the weekend that he was not considering Mueller’s dismissal. "No, I'm not," Trump said upon returning from a trip to Camp David.

With new accusations brought against the investigators by Trump’s transition team lawyer on Saturday, a number of high-profile White House officials came forward to tell the media that the president was not entertaining the option.

In a letter to Congress on Saturday, the lawyer, Kory Langhofer, alleged that Mueller’s office had violated the US constitution by “unlawfully” obtaining troves of emails from a government agency that hosted the transition team's servers. The emails reportedly included confidential lawyer to client communication.
┅┅┅┅┅

🇷🇺 **Trump to Putin: US was glad to save many lives in Russia by helping foil major terrorist attack**
<https://archive.is/waFM9>

“President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia called President Donald J. Trump today to thank him for the advanced warning the United States intelligence agencies provided to Russia concerning a major terror plot in Saint Petersburg, Russia,” read the statement from the White House. “Based on the information the United States provided, Russian authorities were able to capture the terrorists just prior to an attack that could have killed large numbers of people. No Russian lives were lost and the terrorist attackers were caught and are now incarcerated.”

The statement also noted that the Russian president even extended his gratitude to CIA chief Mike Pompeo, which Trump promptly passed on to the agency. The two leaders agreed that this operation against terrorism “serves as an example of the positive things that can occur when our countries work together.”

In a series of overnight raids on Wednesday and Thursday, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) arrested members of a terrorist cell linked to Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) in the Russian city of St. Petersburg, seizing a large amount of explosives, weapons and ammunition and dismantling a bomb-making workshop. The extremists were planning a series of attacks on public places, including a suicide bombing and an explosion in the Kazan Cathedral in the center of the city.
┅┅┅┅┅

🇬🇧 **British embassy employee found dead in Beirut 'after being raped and murdered'**
<https://archive.is/R86RE>

A UK woman working for the British Embassy in Beirut has been found dead. Rebecca Dykes' body was found on Saturday close to the Metn expressway, in the Lebanese capital. Sources have confirmed to the Mirror that Lebanese authorities have now launched a criminal investigation into the circumstances of Ms Dykes' death.

It's claimed that Ms Dykes had been at a bar with friends and colleagues in the Gemmayzeh area of central Beirut. She reportedly left just after midnight, according to The Telegraph. It is reported by Al Jadeed TV that Ms Dykes, who was in her 30s, had been raped and murdered some time after leaving her friends. The BBC added that senior police sources revealed that she had been strangled.

Her body was found several miles away from the bar. Ms Dykes' body has been transferred to the Dahr al-Bashak Hospital for a post-mortem, it has been reported. Friends say she had been due to fly home for Christmas with her family on Saturday.
┅┅┅┅┅

🇷🇺 **Russian oligarchs sue Trump dossier producer for becoming ‘collateral damage’ in smear campaign**
<https://archive.is/PnMRC>

Fusion GPS, the producer of the infamous Trump dossier, is fending off in court three of Russia’s richest oligarchs by painting them as corrupt bankers in bed with President Vladimir Putin.

The three primary investors in Moscow’s Alfa Bank — Mikhail Fridman, Petr Aven and German Khan — filed a libel lawsuit against Fusion in October. Fusion’s dossier, written by former British spy Christopher Steele, says two of them engineered cash bribes to Mr. Putin. The dossier also implies that the bank colluded with Mr. Putin to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election by hacking Democratic Party computers.

The lawsuit describes the three billionaires as international businessmen who became “collateral damage” in Fusion’s war to destroy the Donald Trump campaign.

“This is a defamation case brought by three international businessmen who were defamed in widely disseminated political research reports commissioned by political opponents of candidate Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election cycle,” says a Dec. 12 filing in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
┅┅┅┅┅

🇸🇪 ***Sweden Forced to Raise Retirement Age To Pay For Mass Immigration Policy*** https://archive.fo/Lxf4C#selection-199.0-199.72 The increasing costs of population growth in Sweden, driven almost entirely mass migration, have forced the government to seriously consider raising the national retirement age to pay for the additional costs.
Swedish Socialist party Finance Minister Magdalena Andersson announced that the retirement age would likely be raised in the near future in order to offset increased welfare costs.

🇺🇸 **Glowing Auras and ‘Black Money’: The Pentagon’s Mysterious U.F.O. Program**
http://archive.is/Y0rQ3

WASHINGTON — In the $600 billion annual Defense Department budgets, the $22 million spent on the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program was almost impossible to find.

Which was how the Pentagon wanted it.

For years, the program investigated reports of unidentified flying objects, according to Defense Department officials, interviews with program participants and records obtained by The New York Times. It was run by a military intelligence official, Luis Elizondo, on the fifth floor of the Pentagon’s C Ring, deep within the building’s maze.

The Defense Department has never before acknowledged the existence of the program, which it says it shut down in 2012. But its backers say that, while the Pentagon ended funding for the effort at that time, the program remains in existence. For the past five years, they say, officials with the program have continued to investigate episodes brought to them by service members, while also carrying out their other Defense Department duties.

Jones
-----------------------------

🇨🇳 **AP Exclusive: Digital police state shackles Chinese minority**
http://archive.is/oHop4

KORLA, China (AP) — Nobody knows what happened to the Uighur student after he returned to China from Egypt and was taken away by police.

Not his village neighbors in China’s far west, who haven’t seen him in months. Not his former classmates, who fear Chinese authorities beat him to death.

Not his mother, who lives in a two-story house at the far end of a country road, alone behind walls bleached by the desert sun. She opened the door one afternoon for an unexpected visit by Associated Press reporters, who showed her a picture of a handsome young man posing in a park, one arm in the wind.

“Yes, that’s him,” she said as tears began streaming down her face. “This is the first time I’ve heard anything of him in seven months. What happened?”

“Is he dead or alive?”

The student’s friends think he joined the thousands — possibly tens of thousands — of people, rights groups and academics estimate, who have been spirited without trial into secretive detention camps for alleged political crimes that range from having extremist thoughts to merely traveling or studying abroad. The mass disappearances, beginning the past year, are part of a sweeping effort by Chinese authorities to use detentions and data-driven surveillance to impose a digital police state in the region of Xinjiang and over its Uighurs, a 10-million strong, Turkic-speaking Muslim minority that China says has been influenced by Islamic extremism.

Jones
-----------------------------

🇺🇸 **22-Year-Old Virginia Woman Mauled to Death by Her Dogs While Taking Them for a Walk: Sheriff**
http://archive.is/KgpPv

A young woman who didn’t return home from a walk with her two dogs was found mauled to death in a wooded area of Virginia Thursday night, authorities said.

The father of 22-year-old Bethany Lynn Stephens called 911 shortly before 8:20 p.m., then went looking for his daughter off Manakin Road in Goochland, about 18 miles outside Richmond, where his daughter often walked her dogs, KTLA sister station WTVR in Richmond reported.

By then, she had been missing for two days, according to television station WWBT, also in Richmond.

Jones
-------------------------------

🇺🇸 **Uptick in HIV among injecting drug users raises fears of a resurgent epidemic**
http://archive.is/dc9Sl

The opioid epidemic is threatening to trigger a resurgence of HIV in Massachusetts, potentially undoing decades of work that had made the state a national leader in stopping the spread of the virus.

A sharp uptick in new HIV cases among injecting drug users, who often share needles, has raised worries among health officials. They fear Massachusetts could experience an outbreak like the 2015 calamity in rural Scott County, Indiana, where one person introduced the virus into a network of drug users, and within four months more than 180 had become infected.

“It would be a little early to say we have an epidemic on our hands, but we’re primed for it,” said Dr. Jenifer L. Jaeger, interim medical director of the Boston Public Health Commission.

Jones
--------------------------

🇺🇸 **HILLARY: GOP AGENDA FANNING FLAMES OF ‘WHITE SUPREMACY, MISOGYNY & HOMOPHOBIA’**
http://archive.is/TDMNk

Friday on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton said the Republican agenda was fanning the flames of “white supremacy and misogyny and homophobia.”

When asked if Trump will last four years, Clinton said, “I can’t predict it, but I believe that it really does come down both to the investigation that’s going on and to whether Republicans will decide that they have to put our country before their party. And I hope that enough of them will decide to do that.”

She continued, “It’s disturbing, and it’s obviously upsetting to me because I see things happening around the world that are bad for our country that are dangerous that really pose a threat.

Jones
-------------------------------

🇺🇸 **Amtrak train derailment: At least 3 killed in Washington state crash**
http://archive.is/8pMsJ

DUPONT, Wash. -- An Amtrak train derailed on an overpass in Washington state Monday morning, with some of the 14 train cars careening onto vehicles on a highway below. The crash left at least three people dead and roughly 100 injured, officials said, and authorities are still combing through the wreckage to find victims.

Authorities said the derailed train cars struck five motor vehicles and two semi-trucks on the highway.  At this time, all southbound lanes of traffic remain closed on Interstate 5. 

"Today's tragic incident in Pierce County is a serious and ongoing emergency," Washington Gov. Jay Inslee wrote in a statement. "Trudi and I are holding in our hearts everyone on board, and are praying for the many injured. They are our top priority, and I know first responders are doing everything to ensure everyone has the care they need."   

Jones
---------------------

🇺🇸 **Trump says grisly Amtrak crash shows why we need massive infrastructure spending – before authorities determine cause of fatal derailment**
http://archive.is/JU4Pf

Donald Trump said Monday that a deadly train derailment in the state of Washington has proved the need for a nationwide push to repair crumbling infrastructure – before officials commented on the cause of the crash.

'The train accident that just occured [sic] in DuPont, WA shows more than ever why our soon to be submitted infrastructure plan must be approved quickly,' the president tweeted as rescuers sifted through debris. 

'Seven trillion dollars spent in the Middle East while our roads bridges, tunnels, railways (and more) crumble! Not for long!'

The train jumped a brand-new section of track, laid as a high-speed bypass to an older, more curving section. 

Jones
----------------------

🇺🇸 **What is Boeing's secret plane? Firm teases mysterious design believed to be an electric 'hairdryer' craft it boasts will 'change future air power'**
http://archive.is/KykaS

Boeing's defence arm is set to unveil a mysterious new plane - and says it will 'change future air power'

The aerospace giant's defence arm teased the new craft, covered in a black cloth.

It is believed to be a radical new craft using electric 'hairdryer' to allow it to land and take off vertically. 

The craft, seen hidden under a cloth, is believed to be a radical new craft using electric 'hairdryer' to allow it to land and take off vertically.

Boeing will unveil their mystery aircraft on December 19th.

Speculation has so far said it could anything from a new spaceplane to an electric fighter jet. 

Earlier this year Boeing bought Aurora Flight Sciences Corp, which is developing the autonomous, electric-powered and long-flight-duration aircraft for its commercial and military businesses. 

Last year, Aurora won a contract for more than $89 million for the vertical take off and landing X-plane, beating Boeing in the process.

Jones
---------------------------

🇺🇸 **FLASHBACK: ANTIFA ADMITS TRAIN TRACK SABOTAGE NEAR TACOMA TO ‘STOP FRACKING’Antifa behind Tacoma train wreck?**
http://archive.is/uMXQp

Editor’s Note: This since-deleted article from It’s Going Down, an Antifa affiliate, reveals how leftist activists planned on derailing freight trains near Tacoma, Washington, by pouring concrete on tracks.

Furthermore, according to the Gateway Pundit:

“Police have raided an Antifa encampment in Olympia, Washington, following a train being sabotaged by anti-fracking activists — but the anarchists claiming credit for the act have vowed to continue until ‘every officer is down.’”

Over the past several weeks, dozens of Antifa activists have camped next to the train tracks to stop fracking supplies from leaving the Port of Olympia.

Nearly 30 masked activists confronted Union Pacific Railroad officers last Wednesday when they attempted to clear the camps from the railroad right-of-way.

Jones
---------------------------------

🇷🇺 **Kaspersky Lab sues Trump administration over software ban**
<https://archive.is/8bEHX>

Russian cybersecurity giant Kaspersky Lab is suing the Trump administration over its decision to ban the use of the company’s products by federal agencies. Washington thus deprived Kaspersky Lab of due process, the company argued.

In September the US government's Department of Homeland Security (DHS) banned federal agencies from using Kaspersky Lab antivirus products, citing national security concerns grounded in the fact that the company is Moscow-based. The company’s founder and chief executive Eugene Kaspersky denounced the move as “baseless paranoia at best.”

The lawsuit claims the government largely relied on uncorroborated media reports as evidence in a review of Kaspersky software. The company asks the court to overturn the ban and officially acknowledge that the Russian company’s products do not pose any security threat to US government computers, Reuters reported.
┅┅┅┅┅

🇬🇧 **UK’s brand new £3.1bn aircraft carrier has sprung a leak**
<https://archive.is/dDOlJ>

Britain’s future flagship, the aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth, has sprung a leak. The ship, which will eventually be loaded with a fleet of F-35 fighter jets, is reportedly taking on 200 liters of seawater every hour.
As a result, the carrier may need to be taken back into dry dock. It currently resides in Portsmouth.

The leak is thought to be caused by a faulty seal, which insiders blame on Aircraft Carrier Alliance (ACA), the partnership that built the vessel. The ‘significant’ fault on the £3.1 billion ($4.1 billion) carrier was discovered during sea trials when an issue with a propeller shaft was spotted. Queen Elizabeth herself commissioned the warship earlier this month, in a huge ceremony in Portsmouth, also attended by Prime Minister Theresa May.

The ACA, which will foot the bill for the repairs, played down the damage. A spokesman told the Sun: “It does not prevent her from sailing again and her sea trials program will not be affected. It is normal practice for a volume of work and defect resolution to continue following vessel acceptance.”
┅┅┅┅┅

🇺🇸 **House Passes Final Tax Bill (227-203); Senate Votes Next on Republican Plan**
<https://archive.is/lIcjF>

The House on Tuesday approved the most sweeping tax overhaul in decades, voting along party lines to enact deep and permanent tax cuts for corporations and temporary cuts for individuals. The vote puts Republicans one Senate vote and one presidential signature away from their first significant legislative achievement.

The Senate is expected to approve the $1.5 trillion tax bill on Tuesday night or Wednesday, clearing the way for President Trump to sign it into law by Christmas.

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, speaking on the House floor, called the vote “a turning point” saying “this is our chance, this is our moment.”

Passage of the bill came over the strenuous objections of Democrats in both the House and the Senate, who have accused Republicans of giving a gift to corporations and the wealthy and driving up the federal debt in the process.
┅┅┅┅┅

🇸🇦 **Saudi 'intercepts Yemen rebel missile over Riyadh'**
<https://archive.is/Bkl0Y>

Saudi Arabia has intercepted a rocket fired by rebel Houthi fighters in Yemen, who declared a “new chapter” in its confrontation with the kingdom. The Volcano 2-H ballistic missiles was aimed at the al-Yamma royal palace in Riyadh, but was stopped by Saudi’s air defences.

Reporters heard a blast and saw a plume of smoke rising above the Saudi capital near the palace, where King Salman chairs weekly government meetings and hosts foreign dignitaries. It was the second time in as many months that a rebel projectile had reached as far inside the kingdom as Riyadh, and while audacious, neither caused any real damage.

In a televised address, rebel leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi said the range of missiles in the Houthi arsenal was being extended. "Our long hand will reach other places, God willing," he said.
┅┅┅┅┅

🇸🇪 **Migrants Charged with "Ruthless" Gang Rape of Woman Walk Free**
<https://archive.is/6UVp8>

Five migrant men in Sweden charged with what one lawyer described as the worst gang rape she had ever worked on have all walked free. The incident, which happened in the Fittja area of Stockholm last summer, involved up to 20 men but only five were identified and charged.

According to the 30-year-old victim, the migrants “discussed who would get to use me first” before pulling her up to the second floor of a stairwell. “Many stood waiting for their turn,” she added. The migrants allegedly smashed the woman’s head against the staircase, knocking her unconscious, as well as threatening her with a knife. The entire incident was caught on surveillance cameras. **After the brutal ordeal, the woman tried to flag down numerous locals for help but was ignored each time.**

The five men were all acquitted by the Södertörn District Court earlier today on the basis that the woman had sex with them voluntarily. Despite the court acknowledging that the victim had sustained injuries, because “the origin of or reason for them could not be established,” they were not admissible as evidence of violent rape.

Despite reports that the men had filmed the incident on their cellphones and were seen laughing throughout, the court dismissed this because “videos of the incident were not found.” Presumably, the notion that the perpetrators simply deleted the videos was not considered.
┅┅┅┅┅

🇺🇸 **Trump secures major victory as Senate Republicans pass $1.5 trillion tax cut bill, paving the way for a final House vote today after earlier hiccup**
<https://archive.is/toeZV>

The Senate passed the GOP’s $1.5 trillion tax cut early Wednesday morning, leaving just one technical hurdle and President Trump’s signature as the final steps before the president’s top legislative priority becomes reality.

There was little last-minute drama in the Senate, where the final tally was 51-48, hardly different from the original version that cleared the Senate earlier this month. Not a single Democrat voted for it, just as no House Democrat voted for a version Tuesday.

Moments after the bill was passed, Trump was quick to hail its passing and said if approved by the House Wednesday morning, there will be a news conference at 1pm. 'The United States Senate just passed the biggest in history Tax Cut and Reform Bill,' he tweeted just after 1am. 'Terrible Individual Mandate (ObamaCare)Repealed. Goes to the House tomorrow morning for final vote.'

A wave of protesters provided one of the biggest bursts of emotion. A group of people yelled out ‘Kill the bill, don't kill us!’ as the final vote was being taken.
┅┅┅┅┅