🇺🇸 **Record Numbers of Americans Want to Leave the U.S.**
*Gallup* - <https://archive.fo/qO6Zf>

While Donald Trump has spent much of his presidency focused on the number of people who want to get into the U.S., since he took office, record numbers of Americans have wanted to get out.

Though relatively average by global standards, the 16% of Americans overall who said in 2017 and again in 2018 that they would like to permanently move to another country -- if they could -- is higher than the average levels during either the George W. Bush (11%) or Barack Obama administration (10%).

While Gallup's World Poll does not ask people about their political leanings, most of the recent surge in Americans' desire to migrate has come among groups that typically lean Democratic and that have disapproved of Trump's job performance so far in his presidency: women, young Americans and people in lower-income groups.

During the first two years of the Trump administration, a record-high one in five U.S. women (20%) said they would like to move to another country permanently if they could. This is twice the average for women during the Obama (10%) or Bush years (11%) and almost twice the level among men (13%) under Trump. Before the Trump years, there was no difference between men's and women's desires to move.

The 30% of Americans younger than 30 who would like to move also represents a new high -- and it is also the group in which the gender gap is the largest. Forty percent of women younger than 30 said they would like to move, compared with 20% of men in this age group. These gender gaps narrow with age and eventually disappear after age 50.
----------------

🇺🇸 **Key Democrat Admits Trump Has Authority To Declare National Emergency To Build Wall**
*Zerohedge/ABC* - <https://archive.fo/UsQaE>

Democratic Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA), chair of the House Armed Services Committee, admitted that President Trump has the authority to declare a national emergency and have the military build a wall along the US-Mexico border.

ABC's "This Week" host George Stephanopoulos asked Smith "Does President Trump have the ability, have the authority to declare a national emergency and have the military build his wall?"

"Well, unfortunately, the short answer is yes," replied Smith. "There is a provision in the law that says the president can declare an emergency. It’s been done a number of times, but primarily it’s been done to build facilities in Afghanistan and Iraq. In this case, I think the president would be wide open to a court challenge saying, where is the emergency? You have to establish that in order to do this. Beyond that, this would be a terrible use of Department of Defense dollars."

"The president spends most of his time talking about how we’re not spending enough on national security, now he wants to take $20 billion out of defense budget to build a wall. Which by the way, is not going to improve our border security. The president seems unaware of this, but we have actually already built a wall across much of the border, and all border security experts that I talk to say, where a wall makes sense, it’s already been built. We should have a conversation about border security, but first, we should we open the government and pay our border patrol agents and the federal agents that are furloughed," Smith added.
----------------

🇺🇸 **Ruth Bader Ginsburg to Miss Arguments for First Time on Supreme Court**
*Breitbart* - <http://archive.vn/5fLLM>

Despite previous medical issues, Ginsburg, the oldest member of the Court, has never missed an argument. Ginsburg, appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1993, has dismissed calls to step down during President Barack Obama’s second term, citing a potentially smoother confirmation process with a Democrat-controlled Senate.

The liberal face of the Supreme Court, Ginsburg signaled her aspiration to remain on the bench through 2020 by hiring law clerks for at least two more terms. “I said I will do this job as long as I can do it full steam,” Ginsburg said in a December interview after the screening of On the Basis of Sex, a biopic about the justice’s life.
---------------

🇬🇧 : **New Powers given to Police to stop drone crime in the UK**
*BBC News*: <http://archive.fo/QoZFS>

Police will be given new powers to tackle the illegal use of drones, the government has announced.

This is following the worldwide disruption in Gatwick Airport, which shut down flights internationally throughout the world.

It is said that exclusion zones around airports are to be heightened and have a bigger surface area, which finer details have yet to be announced, and Drone users must register that of drones between 250 grams, and 20 Kilograms.

The Labour Party has said that this new legislation should have came years before the Gatwick accident happened, which has been agreed by all areas of Parliament.

The government said it would also expand technology to detect and repel drones from sites like airports and prisons, to prevent any repeat of events like those at Gatwick airport in December, meaning Police will now have better ability to take down drones, and issue fixed penalties, said to be at about £100 for minor offenses.

According to an Analysis by Theo Leggett, business correspondent for the BBC, 'This May be the wisest ways forward. But Critics are likely to ask why such tests are not already under way.'

It is said that Aircraft Incidents regarding drones have shot up in the last year, in a graph which is in the article linked.
------------

🇬🇧 **More nodding dogs green-light terrible UK.gov pr0n age verification plans**
*The Register* - <https://archive.fo/3VHIw>

A government-sponsored committee has rubberstamped the UK's online porn age verification plans despite poking holes in the China-style surveillance plan.

Under the plans, people will be forced to hand over credit card details or scans of government-issued ID papers in order to look at pictures and videos of nookie-related activities.

This establishes government control over people's online browsing habits. People pay by handing over their valuable personal data in order to access content that state regulators deem to be beyond the pale. Critics have said it will "protect" children from online porn in the same way that putting out their eyeballs would achieve; its wider societal effects are widely regarded as harmful.

An obscure government-sponsored body, the Regulatory Policy Committee, said in a document published yesterday (PDF) that the age verification plans' economic impact assessment is "fit for purpose" overall.

It did, however, go on to state that the Conservative government's plans do not "assess the costs to pornography providers resulting from the proposal" – in spite of requiring them to install and/or subscribe to age verification software, and noting that reconfiguring the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) to regulate online age verification software will cost around £4.45m.
----------------

🇨🇳🇸🇾🇮🇷 **Exclusive: New documents link Huawei to suspected front companies in Iran, Syria**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/sgPra>

The U.S. case against the chief financial officer of China’s Huawei Technologies, who was arrested in Canada last month, centers on the company’s suspected ties to two obscure companies. One is a telecom equipment seller that operated in Tehran; the other is that firm’s owner, a holding company registered in Mauritius.

U.S. authorities allege CFO Meng Wanzhou deceived international banks into clearing transactions with Iran by claiming the two companies were independent of Huawei, when in fact Huawei controlled them. Huawei has maintained the two are independent: equipment seller Skycom Tech Co Ltd and shell company Canicula Holdings Ltd.

But corporate filings and other documents found by Reuters in Iran and Syria show that Huawei, the world’s largest supplier of telecommunications network equipment, is more closely linked to both firms than previously known.

The documents reveal that a high-level Huawei executive appears to have been appointed Skycom’s Iran manager. They also show that at least three Chinese-named individuals had signing rights for both Huawei and Skycom bank accounts in Iran. Reuters also discovered that a Middle Eastern lawyer said Huawei conducted operations in Syria through Canicula.

The previously unreported ties between Huawei and the two companies could bear on the U.S. case against Meng, who is the daughter of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, by further undermining Huawei’s claims that Skycom was merely an arms-length business partner.
----------------

🇫🇷 **Yellow vests: France to crack down on unsanctioned protests**
*BBC* - <https://archive.fo/tcTKB>

French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe has announced plans to punish people who hold unsanctioned protests after seven weeks of anti-government unrest.

His government wants to draft new legislation that will ban troublemakers from protests and clamp down on the wearing of masks at demonstrations.

He said 80,000 members of the security forces would be deployed for the next expected wave of protests.

Protesters smashed down the gates to a government office this weekend.

In other chaotic scenes in Paris, demonstrators fought riot police, and cars and motorbikes were burnt.

Protests against fuel tax erupted on 17 November when people across France donned high-visibility vests, giving them their nickname the "yellow vests", and went out to disrupt traffic.

Similar actions have followed every weekend and while the number of demonstrators has dropped, cities across France continue to see rioting and disruption.

At least six people have died and at least 1,400 have been injured as a result of the unrest.

Speaking on French TV channel TF1, Prime Minister Philippe said the government would support a "new law punishing those who do not respect the requirement to declare [protests], those who take part in unauthorised demonstrations and those who arrive at demonstrations wearing face masks".
----------------

🇺🇸 **Paul Manafort Lied About Sharing Polling Data With Suspected Russian Intelligence Member, Mueller Alleges, According to Filing**
*Newsweek* - <https://archive.fo/UnyPc>

A little more than a month after Special Counsel Robert Mueller accused former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort of lying to investigators, court filings submitted by lawyers on Tuesday revealed that Manafort lied about his dealings with Konstantin Kilimnik, a man linked to Russian intelligence who the lobbyist allegedly nicknamed his Russian brain.

The documents reveal that Manafort lied about sharing polling data for the 2016 presidential election with Kilimnik, and about meeting with the Russian in Madrid, during the campaign. The two men also discussed a peace plan for Ukraine, according to the court documents.

The revelations came to light via a faulty redaction. Journalists quickly discovered that the redacted portions of the court documents could be read by simply copying the redacted text and pasting it elsewhere.

“After being shown documents, Mr. Manafort ‘conceded’ that he discussed or may have discussed a Ukraine peace plan with Mr. Kilimnik on more than one occasion)…(After being told that Mr. Kilimnik had traveled to Madrid on the same day that Mr. Manafort was in Madrid, Mr. Manafort “acknowledged” that he and Mr. Kilimnik met while they were both in Madrid)),” the redacted portion of the document reads.
----------------

🇺🇸 **Rosenstein, Overseer of the Mueller Probe, to leave Justice Department**
*NBC News*:<http://archive.fo/oxVYZ>

The No. 2 official is set to depart within the next month, officials said, with Trump's pick for AG expected to be confirmed soon.

Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein had wanted to serve Two Years within the Justice Role, commenting that this is on his accord, and the White House is not forcing him out.

Administration Officials have said that Rosenstein will be still serve in the role until a new DAG has been decided upon, with the President nominating William Barr, who has made 'a round of courtesy calls' to Senators before his confirmation hearing, which begins Jan. 15.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Wednesday on Fox News: "I know the deputy attorney general has always planned to roughly stay around two years. My guess is that he is making room for the new attorney general to build a team that he wants around him."

Rosenstein had been overseeing the Mueller's investigation into possible Trump campaign collusion with Russia and obstruction of justice because Sessions recused himself because of his role in the Trump campaign. And even with the arrival of acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker, who took over the probe, Rosenstein has continued to help supervise it.

With Barr being the favourite to be confirmed, he is to fully take over the Mueller Investigation, with several legal sources saying that the Investigation is close to it's final stages.

Rosenstein has been a man of contoversy for the White House, with his appointment of Mueller, he caused Trump to tweet "I am being investigated for firing the FBI Director by the man who told me to fire the FBI Director! Witch Hunt."
------------

🇺🇸 **Trump calls meeting with Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi a 'total waste of time' after he storms out**
*CNBC* - <https://archive.fo/C0ow2>

President Donald Trump on Wednesday stormed out of a meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer over an ongoing partial government shutdown, calling it "a total waste of time."

The breakdown in already fraught negotiations over border wall funding, which have kept nine federal agencies shut down for 19 days and counting, appeared to heighten the possibility that Trump might declare a national emergency.

"I asked what is going to happen in 30 days if I quickly open things up, are you going to approve Border Security which includes a Wall or Steel Barrier? Nancy said, NO," Trump explained in a tweet as Pelosi and Schumer described the walk-out to reporters.

"I said bye-bye, nothing else works!" Trump added.

Schumer, speaking to reporters on Capitol Hill, said, "again, we saw a temper tantrum." Trump's behavior was "unbecoming of a presidency," Schumer added.

Speaking shortly after Schumer, Vice President Mike Pence disputed the Democrat's characterization, stressing that the president handed out unspecified sweets to the negotiators.

"Well, the president walked into the room and passed out candy. It's true," Pence said. "I don't recall him ever raising his voice or slamming his hand."

Trump's reference to "30 days" relates to the House Democratic-passed legislation to fund eight departments through Sept. 30 and reopen the Department of Homeland Security through Feb. 8. Democrats say the extra time would allow hundreds of thousands of federal workers to get paid while lawmakers break an impasse over the proposed wall.
----------------

🇺🇸 **Starbucks is installing needle-disposal boxes in certain locations as workers speak out about discarded syringes, drug paraphernalia, and blood in bathrooms**
*Business Insider* - <https://archive.fo/aLc5c>

Starbucks is installing boxes for safe disposal of syringes in the bathrooms of certain locations, following workers' reports of discarded needles and sometimes concerning conditions.

The coffee giant is exploring possible remedies after employees expressed fears about being pricked by uncapped needles and experiencing related health risks. Starbucks is testing solutions including installing sharps-disposal boxes, utilizing heavier-duty trash bags to prevent needle pokes, and removing trash cans from certain bathrooms.

"These societal issues affect us all and can sometimes place our partners (employees) in scary situations, which is why we have protocols and resources in place to ensure our partners are out of harm's way," Starbucks representative Reggie Borges told Business Insider.

As of Wednesday, more than 3,700 people have signed a petition on Coworker.org calling for Starbucks to place needle-disposal boxes in high-risk bathrooms.

"My coworkers and I had all experienced needles left behind in the bathroom, store, and even in our drive-thru," said one person who signed the petition after working at a Starbucks location in Lynnwood, Washington, for three years. The three Starbucks employees who spoke with Business Insider for this article asked to either remain anonymous or only be referred to by their first name, in order to speak frankly.

"My primary fear when I worked there would be taking out the bathroom garbages," the former employee, who quit in 2018, told Business Insider. "I was terrified that if I went to take the bag out, I would get poked by a needle I didn't know was there."
----------------

🇺🇸 **Test of steel prototype for border wall showed it could be sawed through**
*NBC* - <https://archive.fo/Ry4uF>

President Donald Trump has repeatedly advocated for a steel slat design for his border wall, which he described as "absolutely critical to border security" in his Oval Office address to the nation Tuesday. But Department of Homeland Security testing of a steel slat prototype proved it could be cut through with a saw, according to a report by DHS.

A photo exclusively obtained by NBC News shows the results of the test after military and Border Patrol personnel were instructed to attempt to destroy the barriers with common tools.

The Trump administration directed the construction of eight steel and concrete prototype walls that were built in Otay Mesa, California, just across the border from Tijuana, Mexico. Trump inspected the prototypes in March 2018. He has now settled on a steel slat, or steel bollard, design for the proposed border barrier additions. Steel bollard fencing has been used under previous administrations.

However, testing by DHS in late 2017 showed all eight prototypes, including the steel slats, were vulnerable to breaching, according to an internal February 2018 U.S. Customs and Border Protection report.

Photos of the breaches were not included in a redacted version of the CBP report, which was first obtained in a Freedom of Information Act Request by San Diego public broadcaster KPBS.

The photo of testing results obtained by NBC News was taken at the testing location along the California-Mexico border, known as "Pogo Row."

Responding to the picture from the South Lawn of the White House on Thursday morning, Trump claimed "that’s a wall designed by previous administrations."

While it is true that previous administrations used this design, the prototype was built during his administration.

"It's very, very hard — the wall that we are doing is very, very hard to penetrate," Trump said.
----------------

🇺🇸 **AT&T says it’ll stop selling location data amid calls for federal investigation**
*Philly Inquirer* - <https://archive.fo/zNqdI>

AT&T said Thursday that it will stop selling its customers' location data to third-party service providers after a report this week said the information was winding up in the wrong hands.

The announcement follows sharp demands by federal lawmakers for an investigation into the alleged misuse of data, which came to light when Motherboard revealed a complex chain of unauthorized information sharing that ended with a bounty hunter successfully tracking down a reporter's device.

AT&T had already suspended its data-sharing agreements with a number of so-called "location aggregators" last year in light of a congressional probe finding that some of Verizon's location data was being misused by prison officials to spy on innocent Americans. AT&T also said at the time that it would be maintaining those of its agreements that provided clear consumer benefits, such as location sharing for roadside assistance services.

"In light of recent reports about the misuse of location services, we have decided to eliminate all location aggregation services - even those with clear consumer benefits," AT&T said in a statement. "We are immediately eliminating the remaining services and will be done in March."

In characteristic fashion, T-Mobile CEO John Legere tweeted Tuesday that his firm would be "completely ending location aggregator work" in March. Verizon said in a statement Thursday that it, too, was winding down its four remaining location-sharing agreements, which are all with roadside assistance services - after that, customers would have to give the company permission to share their data with roadside assistance firms. A Sprint spokeswoman didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
----------------

🇺🇸🇵🇹 **Cristiano Ronaldo's DNA sought by investigators in Las Vegas rape case, lawyer says**
*Fox News* - <https://archive.fo/LMQ4L>

A lawyer for soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo said Thursday that Las Vegas police are seeking his client's DNA as part of their investigation into a decade-old rape allegation against him.

A Nevada woman, Kathryn Mayorga, filed a civil lawsuit in September claiming that the Juventus midfielder raped her in his hotel penthouse in 2009 and that she had been paid $375,000 to keep the assault secret.

The Wall Street Journal, citing an unnamed law enforcement official, initially reported that a warrant was sent to Italy that would compel Ronaldo to submit a DNA sample to see if it matches DNA found on the accuser's dress. Las Vegas police confirmed in a statement to The Associated Press that "an official request" was sent to Italy. Department spokeswoman Laura Meltzer said the request involved a warrant.

"Mr. Ronaldo has always maintained, as he does today, that what occurred in Las Vegas in 2009 was consensual in nature," attorney Peter S. Christiansen said in a statement, "so it is not surprising that DNA would be present, nor that the police would make this very standard request as part of their investigation."

Mayorga reported the alleged attack to police in June 2009 and underwent a medical exam to collect DNA evidence. But the investigation ended a short time later because Las Vegas police say she only identified her attacker as a European soccer player -- not by name -- and did not say where the incident took place.

Ronaldo has not been served with the lawsuit, Christiansen said. The lawsuit and the criminal police investigation are on separate legal tracks. Authorities say that because Mayorga reported the alleged attack promptly, no law in Nevada prevents prosecutors from filing criminal sexual assault charges now if evidence of a crime is found.
----------------

🇺🇸🇹🇷 **'Ridiculous Delay' // Turkey Issues Ultimatum to Trump: Pull Out of Syria or We Strike**
*Haaretz* - <https://archive.fo/N88Hp>

A military operation against the Kurdish YPG militia, which Turkey has pledged to carry out in northern Syria, is not dependent on a U.S. pull-out from the region, Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Thursday.

“If the [pullout] is put off with ridiculous excuses like Turks are massacring Kurds, which do not reflect the reality, we will implement this decision,” Çavuşoğlu said, referring to Turkey's threat to launch an incursion into Kurdish controlled Syria.

In an interview with broadcaster NTV, Cavusoglu said it was not realistic to expect the United States to fully collect weapons it gave to its YPG ally, which Ankara views as a terrorist group.

The U.S. troop withdrawal from Syria will not be scuppered despite Turkish threats against Washington's Kurdish allies there, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday, promising to ensure that the Kurds would still be protected.

Washington has repeatedly said its Kurdish allies will remain safe despite the withdrawal. But Turkey, which considers the U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish YPG militia an enemy, has repeatedly vowed to crush the group and repudiated any suggestion of protecting it once U.S. troops leave.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan denounced visiting U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton on Tuesday for suggesting that protecting the Kurds would be a pre-condition of the U.S. withdrawal, a suggestion Erdogan called "a serious mistake".
----------------

🇺🇸 **The Rock Blasts Generation Snowflake**
*Business Insider* - <http://archive.is/z5Wrk>

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson said he thinks "generation snowflake" is too easily offended. He said that while there had been significant progress in the past 30 or 40 years for people to "be who they want," those who get offended at others "not agreeing with them" was "putting us backwards."

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson said he thinks "generation snowflake" looks for reasons to be offended and is offended too easily, "putting us backwards, I don't have to agree with what somebody thinks, who they vote for, what they voted for, what they think, but I will back their right to say or believe it. That's democracy," he said.

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

🇺🇸 **SpaceX to lay off 10 percent of workforce to become leaner**
*AP* - <https://archive.fo/XSUmT>

SpaceX will lay off 10 percent of its roughly 6,000 workers, announcing Friday that it needs to become leaner to accomplish ambitious projects such as creating a spaceship that can carry astronauts to Mars.

“This action is taken only due to the extraordinarily difficult challenges ahead and would not otherwise be necessary,” the company said in a statement.

The layoffs were announced to workers in an email from President Gwynne Shotwell, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The email said laid-off employees will be offered at least eight weeks’ pay and other benefits, along with help with finding new jobs, the Times said.

Elon Musk’s company is financially healthy and was recently valued at nearly $30 billion. It has a lucrative business sending government and commercial satellites into orbit, including a launch from California on Friday, and delivering supplies to the International Space Station.

But the company has several expensive projects in the works. Musk has estimated it will cost up to $10 billion to develop a spaceship that could send humans to Mars. This week he unveiled a steel-clad test flight prototype of the rocket, which he calls Starship.

Another $10 billion project called Starlink would create a constellation of satellites to provide affordable broadband internet service.

This year, the company plans to begin Starship test flights and to launch the first Starlink satellites.

“To continue delivering for our customers and to succeed in developing interplanetary spacecraft and a global space-based Internet, SpaceX must become a leaner company,” the company statement said. “Either of these developments, even when attempted separately, have bankrupted other organizations.”
----------------

🇺🇸 **New Florida governor suspends sheriff over school massacre**
*AP* - <https://archive.fo/zKRLs>

New Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel on Friday over his handling of February’s massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, saying he “repeatedly failed and has demonstrated a pattern of poor leadership.”

The Republican governor flew to Fort Lauderdale three days after taking office to remove the Democratic sheriff, appointing a former police sergeant to serve as acting sheriff. Gregory Tony, 40, worked for Coral Springs police for 12 years before leaving in 2016 to start a company specializing in active-shooter training. He is the first African-American to serve as Broward’s sheriff.

DeSantis said during a news conference outside the sheriff’s office headquarters that Israel failed to keep families and children safe before and during the Feb. 14 shooting that left 14 students and three staff members dead inside the three-story freshman building.

“The neglect of duty and incompetence that was connected to the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School has been well documented, and I have no interest in dancing on Scott Israel’s political grave,” DeSantis said. “Suffice it to say, the massacre might never have happened had Broward had better leadership in the sheriff’s department.”

During the shooting, then-Broward Deputy Scot Peterson, who was assigned to the school, drew his gun but took cover instead of charging inside. Seven other deputies who arrived within minutes also failed to enter, even as officers from neighboring Coral Springs went into the building.
----------------

🇺🇸 **Texas set to remove Confederate plaque from state Capitol**
*AP* - <https://archive.fo/zKRLs>

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott agreed Friday to remove a plaque in the state Capitol that rejects slavery as the underlying cause of the Civil War, bending after years of resistance by state Republican leaders in the face of Confederate monuments falling nationwide.

A unanimous vote by the State Preservation Board, which Abbott chairs, ordered the removal of the 60-year-old plaque that pledges to teach “the truths of history,” adding that “one of the most important of which is that the war between the states was not a rebellion, nor was its underlying cause to sustain slavery.”

The plaque is among nearly a dozen Confederate markers in and around the Texas Capitol. It’s the first slated to come down since the deadly 2017 white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, that led to the removal of a string of Confederate monuments nationwide .

But Abbott and state leaders resisted acting on similar calls in Texas, and the governor made no comment after Friday’s vote. Texas Republicans had been resolute after the Charlottesville rally that tearing down Confederate markers wouldn’t change history, but pressure intensified after a black lawmaker from Dallas began condemning the plaque that hangs near his Capitol office as historically indefensible.

Dallas state Rep. Eric Johnson appeared unsure after Friday’s vote whether efforts to remove other Confederate symbols at the Texas Capitol would become easier.
----------------

🇺🇸 **Utah teen attempting 'Bird Box' challenge crashes into another vehicle, could face charges**
*Fox News* - <http://archive.is/TWQz2>

A Utah teen maybe facing charges after police say she crashed into another vehicle when she covered her eyes while driving as a part of the “Bird Box” challenge.

Layton Police Department shared images of two badly damaged vehicles on Twitter explaining that the collision was the “predictable result” of the “Bird Box” challenge, in which people are called to do everyday tasks blindfolded.

Lt. Travis Lyman told Fox13 that the 17-year-old female driver of the pickup truck was driving on the Layton Parkway with a 16-year-old male passenger when she decided to take part in the challenge and blind herself while driving using a beanie.

The challenge was inspired by Netflix’s new thriller “Bird Box,” which takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where people need to wear blindfolds to block the outside world and prevent themselves from being possessed by demons that prey on their worst fears and lead them to commit suicide.

No one was injured in Monday’s crash but authorities didn’t discover the reason of the accident until Friday.

“Honestly I’m almost embarrassed to have to say ‘Don’t drive with your eyes covered’ but you know apparently we do have to say that,” Lyman told Fox 13. “The stakes are just so high and it’s just such a potentially dangerous thing as it is: to try and do it in that way is inexcusable. It really puts everybody at risk.”
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🇫🇷 **Yellow vests knock out 60% of all speed cameras in France**
*BBC* - <https://archive.fo/4G9bq>

Members of the "yellow vests" protest movement have vandalised almost 60% of France's entire speed camera network, the interior minister has said.

Christophe Castaner said the wilful damage was a threat to road safety and put lives in danger.

The protest movement began over fuel tax increases, and saw motorists block roads and motorway toll booths.

Some protesters feel speed cameras are solely a revenue-generating measure which takes money from the poor.

The BBC's Hugh Schofield, in Paris, said evidence of the vandalism is visible to anyone driving around France, with radar cameras covered in paint or black tape to stop them working.

But the extent of the damage - now believed to affect more than half of all 3,200 speed cameras in the country's network - was unknown until Mr Castaner's statement on Thursday.

He said the devices had been "neutralised, attacked, or destroyed" by members of the protest movement.
----------------

🇨🇳🇵🇱 **Huawei sacks employee arrested in Poland on spying charges**
*Yahoo/Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/sVMt7>

Chinese telecommunications equipment maker Huawei said on Saturday it had sacked an employee arrested in Poland on spying charges in a case that could intensify Western security concerns about the company.

Poland's internal affairs minister, Joachim Brudzinski, called for the European Union and NATO to work on a joint position over whether to exclude Huawei from their markets following the arrest of the Chinese employee and a former Polish security official on Friday.

The two men have heard the charges and could be held for three months.

Huawei, the world's biggest producer of telecommunications equipment, faces intense scrutiny in the West over its relationship with China's government and U.S.-led allegations that its devices could be used by Beijing for spying.

No evidence has been produced publicly and the firm has repeatedly denied the accusations, but several Western countries have restricted Huawei's access to their markets.

In August, U.S. President Donald Trump signed a bill that barred the U.S. government from using Huawei equipment and is considering an executive order that would also ban U.S. companies from doing so.

Brudzinski said Poland wanted to continue cooperating with China but that a discussion was needed on whether to exclude Huawei from some markets.

"There are concerns about Huawei within NATO as well. It would make most sense to have a joint stance, among EU member states and NATO members," he told private broadcaster RMF FM.
----------------

https://youtu.be/iDKhNA7Yjig

/OURMARCH/

🇺🇸 **Industry wary of alternatives tries to protect a word: meat**
*AP* - <https://archive.fo/4tEmJ>

More than four months after Missouri became the first U.S. state to regulate the term “meat” on product labels, Nebraska’s powerful farm groups are pushing for similar protection from veggie burgers, tofu dogs and other items that look and taste like real meat.

Nebraska lawmakers will consider a bill this year defining meat as “any edible portion of any livestock or poultry, carcass, or part thereof” and excluding “lab-grown or insect or plant-based food products.” It would make it a crime to advertise or sell something “as meat that is not derived from poultry or livestock.”

Similar measures aimed at meat alternatives are pending in Tennessee, Virginia and Wyoming. They come amid a debate over what to call products that are being developed using the emerging science of meat grown by culturing cells in a lab. Supporters of the science are embracing the term “clean meat” — language the conventional meat industry strongly opposes.

The issue strikes a particularly strong chord in Nebraska, one of the nation’s top states for livestock production, where cars roll down the interstate with “Beef State” license plates and the governor each year proclaims May as “Beef Month.”

Farm groups have found an unusual ally in state Sen. Carol Blood, a city-dwelling vegetarian from the Omaha suburb of Bellevue. Blood, who grew up on a farm, said she introduced the measure because agriculture is Nebraska’s largest industry and needs to be protected for the good of the whole state.

“I’m not bringing this bill to tell people what they can and can’t eat,” she said. “All I’m asking for is truth in advertising. It’s clear that meat comes from livestock, and livestock is our livelihood in Nebraska.”
----------------

https://youtu.be/iRzOS7SNKmY

4:00^😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂

🇬🇧 **Brexit: Theresa May's deal is voted down in historic Commons defeat**
*BBC* - <https://archive.fo/LzYwa>

Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit deal has been rejected by 230 votes - the largest defeat for a sitting government in history.

MPs voted by 432 votes to 202 to reject the deal, which sets out the terms of Britain's exit from the EU on 29 March.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has now tabled a vote of no confidence in the government, which could trigger a general election.

The confidence vote is expected to be held at about 1900 GMT on Wednesday.

The defeat is a huge blow for Mrs May - who has spent more than two years hammering out a deal with the EU.

The plan was aimed at bringing about an orderly departure from the EU on 29 March, and setting up a 21-month transition period to negotiate a free trade deal.

The UK is still on course to leave on 29 March but the defeat throws the manner of that departure - and the timing of it - into further doubt.

MPs who want either a further referendum, a softer version of the Brexit proposed by Mrs May, to stop Brexit altogether or to leave without a deal, will ramp up their efforts to get what they want, as a weakened PM offered to listen to their arguments.

The Brexit debate has cut across traditional party lines.

Some 118 Conservative MPs - from both the Leave and Remain wings of her party - voted with the opposition parties against Mrs May's deal.

And three Labour MPs supported the prime minister's deal: Ian Austin (Dudley North), Kevin Barron (Rother Valley) and John Mann (Bassetlaw).

In normal times, such a crushing defeat on a key piece of government legislation would be expected to be followed by a prime ministerial resignation.

But Mrs May signalled her intention to carry on in a statement immediately after the vote.

"The House has spoken and this government will listen," she told MPs.
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🇨🇳🇹🇼 **US report says rapidly modernizing Chinese military has set sights on Taiwan**
*CNN* - <https://archive.fo/EMPOQ>

Over the last few years China has made a series of ambitious military reforms and acquired new technology as it aims to improve its ability to fight regional conflicts over places like Taiwan, according to a new report from the US Defense Intelligence Agency.

"Beijing's longstanding interest to eventually compel Taiwan's reunification with the mainland and deter any attempt by Taiwan to declare independence has served as the primary driver for China's military modernization," said the agency's report, titled "China's Military Power."

The report, which was published Tuesday, added that "Beijing's anticipation that foreign forces would intervene in a Taiwan scenario led the (People's Liberation Army) to develop a range of systems to deter and deny foreign regional force projection."

The report estimates that Chinese spending on its armed forces "probably exceeded $200 billion" in 2018, "a threefold increase since 2002."

In a written introduction accompanying the report, the Defense Intelligence Agency's director, Lt. Gen. Robert Ashley, wrote that China has used a variety of means to acquire advanced technology to bolster its military capabilities despite some countries attempting to limit its access to that technology over international concerns about Beijing's human rights policies.

"China shifted funds and efforts to acquiring technology by any means available. Domestic laws forced foreign partners of Chinese-based joint ventures to release their technology in exchange for entry into China's lucrative market, and China has used other means to secure needed technology and expertise," Ashley said.
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🇭🇳 **New migrant caravan leaves Honduras for journey to US border**
*Fox News* - <https://archive.fo/UDq4X>

A new caravan of at least 500 migrants late Monday began its perilous journey from a rain-soaked bus station in Honduras to the United States border, members of the group told Fox News.

The caravan left the northern city of San Pedro Sula earlier than expected. There was chatter on social media that the group would leave at 5 a.m. on Tuesday. It is unclear why the group left earlier, but rainy weather could have played a role.

The scene was a familiar one: The group had a mix of people that included some mothers carrying their young children on their shoulders. It's unclear where the group will rest, but past migrants have used the Honduran city of Quimistan, which is 35 miles from the bus stop, as an early checkpoint.

As they walked, some migrants pleaded with local store owners to give them food or water for their journey, according to the Associated Press.

One woman, who refused to give her name because of safety concerns, told the AP that her 9-year-old daughter had already been raped so badly she suffered medical problems.

She said she would ask U.S. authorities for asylum or refugee status, "because it’s not possible to live in Honduras anymore."

President Trump last week mentioned the new caravan and said, "we're trying to break it up," according to The New York Times.

He said a "drone isn't going to stop it and a sensor isn’t going to stop it, but you know what’s going to stop it in its tracks? A nice, powerful wall."
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🇺🇸 **The Latest: House approves measure rebuking Iowa Rep. King**
*AP* - <https://archive.fo/6L6iZ>

The House has approved a Democratic measure disapproving of Republican Rep. Steve King’s comments about white supremacy.

The nine-term Iowa congressman was among those supporting the measure, which was approved, 424-1.

King says he agrees with South Carolina Democratic Rep. James Clyburn, the resolution’s sponsor, that white supremacy is an evil that cannot be ignored. King’s racist comments have been widely condemned by members of both parties in recent days.

King says the ideology of white supremacy “never shows up in my head” and that he does “not know how it could possibly come out of my mouth.”

Democratic Rep. Bobby Rush of Illinois opposed the measure, saying the House should take the more serious step of censuring King for his “repugnant and racist behavior.”

Last week, King said in an interview, “White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive?”
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🇺🇸 **Michael Cohen says he paid tech firm to rig online polls 'at the direction of' Trump**
*NBC* - <https://archive.fo/Xn427>

Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer and fixer, confirmed on Thursday that he paid a small tech firm to rig online polls before the 2016 presidential campaign got underway "at the direction of and the sole benefit of" Trump.

The Wall Street Journal was the first to report the payment and attempted poll manipulation. The Trump Organization declined to comment to the newspaper.

"As for the @WSJ article on poll rigging, what I did was at the direction of and for the sole benefit of @realDonaldTrump @POTUS. I truly regret my blind loyalty to a man who doesn’t deserve it," Cohen said in a tweet.

Cohen paid the money to John Gauger, who runs RedFinch Solutions LLC, in early 2015, to rig online polls in Trump’s favor before the presidential campaign.

The newspaper reported that Cohen gave Gauger a blue Walmart bag containing about $13,000 in cash. Gauger also said that Cohen randomly included a boxing glove Cohen claimed at the time had been worn by a Brazilian mixed-martial arts fighter.

However, in a statement to the Journal, Cohen said he did not pay Gauger in cash.

“All monies paid to Mr. Gauger were by check,” Cohen told the newspaper, without offering further details to the newspaper.

Gauger, who is also chief information officer at Liberty University in Virginia, where evangelical leader and Trump supporter Jerry Falwell Jr. is president, said he was supposed to be paid $50,000 for the project but never received the remaining money. Trump, however, reimbursed Cohen in early 2017 for $50,000 for the work, the Journal reported, citing a government document and a person familiar with the matter.
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🌎 **Largest collection of breached data ever seen is found**
*The Guardian* - <https://archive.fo/HvhyA>

The largest collection of breached data ever seen has been discovered, comprising of more than 770m email addresses and passwords posted to a popular hacking forum in mid-December.

The 87GB data dump was discovered by security researcher Troy Hunt, who runs the Have I Been Pwned breach-notification service. Hunt, who called the upload “Collection #1”, said it is probably “made up of many different individual data breaches from literally thousands of different sources”, rather than representing a single hack of a very large service.

Still, the work to piece together previous breaches has resulted in a huge collection. “In total, there are 1,160,253,228 unique combinations of email addresses and passwords,” Hunt writes, and “21,222,975 unique passwords”. While most of the email addresses have appeared in previous breaches discovered being shared amongst hackers, like the 360m MySpace accounts hacked in 2008 or the 164m LinkedIn accounts hacked in 2016, the researcher says “there’s somewhere in the order of 140m email addresses in this breach that HIBP has never seen before.” Those email addresses could come from one large unreported data breach, many smaller ones, or a combination of both.

Security experts say the discovery of Collection #1 underscores the need for consumers to use password managers, like 1Password or LastPass, to store a random, unique password for every service they use. “It is quite a feat not to have had an email address or other personal information breached over the last decade,” says Jake Moore, a cybersecurity expert at ESET UK.
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🇺🇸 **New job of US vice president's wife sparks LGBT+ furor**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/XzKe5>

The wife of the U.S. vice president has started a job teaching art to children, the White House announced, working at a private school with a policy of refusing LGBT+ students and teachers.

Karen Pence will be teaching twice-weekly art classes at Immanuel Christian School, an elementary school in Virginia, the White House said on Tuesday.

Her husband, Vice President Mike Pence, is a social and evangelical conservative who in 2015, as governor of Indiana, signed into law a religious freedom bill that would have allowed businesses to deny services to gays.

Controversy followed, and he was forced to revise the law.

The Immanuel Christian School where Karen Pence has started her job has written policies online saying it will not hire LGBT+ faculty as well as refuse admission to LGBT+ students or those with LGBT+ parents.

Students and parents' lifestyles may not include "participating in, supporting, or condoning sexual immorality, homosexual activity or bi-sexual activity," its policy states.

Teachers must not engage in such behaviors as "homosexual or lesbian sexual activity, polygamy, transgender identity, any other violation of the unique roles of male and female," its job application states.

The head of GLAAD, a New York-based LGBT+ rights group, called on Karen Pence to resign from the job, saying it was "disturbing" she would "put her stamp of approval on an institution that actively targets LGBTQ students."
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🇺🇸 **Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg cancels 2 upcoming events**
*CNN* - <https://archive.fo/IQc8u>

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg will not attend scheduled talks in the upcoming weeks in Los Angeles and New York, following her surgery in December, after she missed Supreme Court arguments earlier this month, the event hosts said.

The 85-year-old justice was supposed to attend an event on January 29 at Los Angeles' Skirball Cultural Center. A long-planned conversation between Ginsburg and the financier and philanthropist David Rubenstein was scheduled for February 6, and the 92nd Street Y said Wednesday that it was working to reschedule the event.

"Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg regrets that she is unable to attend the talk with David Rubenstein at 92Y on February 6," an email from the 92nd Street Y said. "She is curtailing travel and focusing on her work while recuperating from recent surgery."

Ginsburg missed two weeks of oral arguments due to her recovery from the surgery, and the absence of the iconic liberal justice has attracted significant attention as the court weighs critical issues key to Trump administration policies.

The court announced in December that Ginsburg had undergone surgery to remove cancerous nodules from her lung, which had been detected in tests following a fall she sustained in early November.

Although she has not attended oral arguments, Ginsburg has participated in cases before the court this year by reading briefs at home.

On Tuesday, she issued a concurring opinion in a case concerning arbitration. The justices are to meet behind closed doors on Friday for a regularly scheduled conference -- Ginsburg is likely to vote by proxy -- and they will take the bench again for arguments on February 19.
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🇺🇸 **Storied Jewish publication The Forward ending 121-year print run**
*New York Post* - <https://archive.fo/Mmg7R>

The Forward is stopping — its print editions.

The storied Jewish-American publication is suspending its print operations and plans to lay off about 40 percent of its editorial staff — including Editor-in-Chief Jane Eisner — while moving to digital-only.

A print publication for 121 years, The Forward will continue to produce an English-language and a Yiddish-language edition online.

“The Forward is taking the next step in making our brand more relevant to our readers and more connected to their lives,” said publisher and CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen.

“We are announcing that this spring The Forward will complete its evolution from what was once a print-focused publisher to become a digitally focused publication.”

The Forward is eyeing growth among its under-35 readers who prefer to read news online. Currently that segments amounts to a third of total readers.

“It’s a sad day for the publication,” said one laid-off staffer who requested anonymity. “Hopefully, they can turn it around.”

Aside from Eisner, laid-off staffers include Executive Editor Dan Friedman, Digital Director David Goldiner, Design Director Kurt Hoffman and marketing, Kathleen Chambard, vice president of marketing.

“The revenue is not really there,” said a source. “They’ve been losing money for years but lately the losses have been more than $5 million a year.”

The publication is owned by The Forward Association, a not-for-profit whose endowment swelled to more than $100 million when the association sold its former headquarters on the Lower East Side as well as the radio station WEVD.
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🇺🇸 **PHOTOS: Democrats Stuck on Bus After Donald Trump Cancels Foreign Trip**
*Breitbart* - <http://archive.is/dYlVb#1%>

Confused Democrat lawmakers were left sitting idle on a military bus near the Capitol after President Donald Trump postponed their seven-day foreign trip as the partial government shutdown continues.

In a letter to Pelosi on Thursday, President Trump wrote that due to the shutdown, a trip to Egypt, Brussels, and Afghanistan would be delayed, declaring, “In light of the 800,000 great American workers not receiving pay, I’m sure you would agree that postponing this public relations event is totally appropriate.” “I also feel that, during this period, it would be better if you were in Washington negotiating with me and joining the strong border security movement to end the shutdown,” the president continued. Pelosi is welcome to fly on a commercial aircraft to make the trip, he told the House speaker.
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🇺🇸 **U.S. special counsel disputes report Trump told lawyer to lie**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/XmWv6>

Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office on Friday disputed key elements of a media report that President Donald Trump directed his former lawyer to lie to Congress about a Moscow real estate deal, raising questions about a story that has dominated U.S. news coverage for the past 24 hours.

BuzzFeed News reported late on Thursday that Michael Cohen, Trump's former lawyer who is slated to go to prison for lying to Congress and other crimes, told investigators working for Mueller that Trump had instructed him to lie about efforts to build a skyscraper in Moscow while he was running for president.

"BuzzFeed's description of specific statements to the Special Counsel's Office, and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohen's Congressional testimony are not accurate," Peter Carr, a spokesman for Mueller, said in the special counsel's first comment on a media report since its probe started 20 months ago.

While Carr did not directly address whether there was evidence that Trump directed Cohen to lie to Congress, he disputed portions of the story about how BuzzFeed corroborated the explosive allegations against Trump.

Citing information from two federal law enforcement officials, BuzzFeed said Cohen told the special counsel that after the 2016 presidential election Trump instructed him to tell Congress that negotiations over the Moscow project had ended earlier than they had in order to obscure Trump's involvement.

Carr's statement also appeared to dispute BuzzFeed's assertion that the special counsel learned about Trump's directive from interviews with employees of the Trump Organization, emails, text messages and other documents.
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🇨🇳 **China confirms the birth of gene-edited babies and vows to punish scientist He Jiankui who 'violated rules to carry out the unethical study for personal fame'**
*Daily Mail* - <https://archive.fo/CcNqY>

A Chinese investigation says the scientist behind the birth of two babies whose genes had been edited in hopes of making them resistant to the AIDS virus acted on his own 'for personal fame and profit' and will be punished for violating regulations.

Confirming the births, the official Xinhua News Agency said Monday that investigators in the southern province of Guangdong determined Dr He Jiankui organised and handled funding for the experiment without outside assistance in violation of national guidelines. The university He worked for said he had been fired.

The scientist sparked global controversy in November when he announced in a YouTube video that he had successfully used a gene-editing technology known as CRISPR-Cas9 to alter the embryonic genes of twin girls born that month.

One of the mothers gave birth to twins nicknamed 'Lulu' and 'Nana', the investigators said. Another woman is still carrying a gene-edited fetus. The Xinhua report said all three would remain under observation.
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