🇺🇸 **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.”
----------------

🇫🇷 **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.
----------------

🇨🇳🇹🇼 **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.
----------------

🇭🇳 **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?”
----------------

🇺🇸 **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.
----------------

🌎 **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."
----------------

🇺🇸 **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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🇫🇷 **France hits Google with 50 million euro data consent fine**
*Yahoo/AFP* - <https://archive.fo/fHr3H>

France's data watchdog on Monday announced a fine of 50 million euros ($57 million) for US search giant Google, using the EU's strict General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) for the first time.

Google was handed the record fine from the CNIL regulator for failing to provide transparent and easily accessible information on its data consent policies, a statement said.

The CNIL said Google made it too difficult for users to understand and manage preferences on how their personal information is used, in particular with regards to targeted advertising.

"People expect high standards of transparency and control from us. We're deeply committed to meeting those expectations and the consent requirements of the GDPR," a Google spokesperson said in a statement.

"We're studying the decision to determine our next steps."

The ruling follows complaints lodged by two advocacy groups last May, shortly after the landmark GDPR directive came into effect.
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🇷🇺 **Russia opens civil cases against Facebook, Twitter: report**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/a9w6D>

Russia’s communication watchdog said on Monday it was opening administrative proceedings against Twitter and Facebook for failing to explain how they plan to comply with local data laws, the Interfax news agency reported.

Roskomnadzor, the watchdog, was quoted as saying that Twitter and Facebook had not explained how and when they would comply with legislation that requires all servers used to store Russians’ personal data to be located in Russia.

The agency’s head, Alexander Zharov, was quoted as saying the companies have a month to provide information or else action would be taken against them.

Russia has introduced tougher internet laws in the last five years, requiring search engines to delete some search results, messaging services to share encryption keys with security services and social networks to store Russian users’ personal data on servers within the country.

At the moment, the only tools Russia has to enforce its data rules are fines that typically only come to a few thousand dollars or blocking the offending online services, which is an option fraught with technical difficulties.

However, sources in November told Reuters that Moscow plans to impose stiffer fines on technology firms that fail to comply with Russian laws.
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🇺🇸 **Notre Dame to cover up murals depicting Christopher Columbus in the New World because they portray stereotypes of Native Americans and hide 'the darker side of this story'**
*Daily Mail* - <https://archive.fo/j4vRN>

The University of Notre Dame will cover 19th century murals on campus that depict Christopher Columbus in America due to their stereotypical portrayal of Native Americans.

Notre Dame President Rev John Jenkins announced the news on Sunday, saying the murals' depiction of Columbus as a 'beneficent explorer and friend of the native peoples hides from view the darker side of this story'.

The decision comes more than 20 years after Native American students first fought for the removal of the murals, which were painted in the entrance of Notre Dame's Main Building by Italian artist Luigi Gregori from 1882-1884.

'They reflect the attitudes of the time and were intended as a didactic presentation, responding to the cultural challenges for the school's largely immigrant, Catholic presentation,' Jenkins said in an open letter to the campus community.
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🇮🇱🇸🇾🇮🇷 **Israel, in rare move, announces attacks on Iranian targets in Syria, delivers warning**
*Fox News* - <https://archive.fo/DhCWg>

Israel confirmed early Monday that its military attacked Iranian targets in Syria, in a rare statement on such an operation.

“We have started striking Iranian Quds targets in Syrian territory,” the military statement said. “We warn the Syrian Armed Forces against attempting to harm Israeli forces or territory.”

Until now Israel largely has refrained from public admissions of its covert military operations in neighboring Syria to avoid large-scale involvement in the eight-year civil war.

The military’s statement was issued hours after Israeli missile defenses intercepted an incoming missile over the Golan Heights in the wake of rare daylight air raid near the Damascus International Airport.

The Israeli military initially had declined to comment on the airstrike, though it said a rocket fired at the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights was intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome defense system.

Israeli warplanes have used Lebanon’s airspace recently to strike deep inside Syria, including attacking a warehouse near Damascus International Airport earlier this month, according to Syrian state media.

The Syrian military said Israel carried out intensive airstrikes with successive waves of guided missiles shortly after 1 a.m., but added that Syrian air defenses destroyed most of the missiles before they reached their targets.
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🇬🇧 **Royal Navy nuclear submarine's near miss with ferry**
*BBC* - <http://archive.is/brfhf>

A nuclear-powered Royal Navy submarine had a near collision with a ferry in the Irish Sea. The MoD would not confirm which of its 10 submarines was involved. All of its submarines are nuclear-powered but only four carry Trident nuclear missiles. An investigation has been launched into incident, which occurred on 6 November last year.

The ferry was the Stena Superfast VII, which operates between Northern Ireland and Scotland. The vessel, with a capacity for 1,300 passengers and 660 cars, sails between Belfast and Cairnryan.

A spokesman for the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) said: "We have carried out a preliminary assessment of the evidence in this case and the Chief Inspector of Marine Accidents has decided to open a safety investigation. The investigation is being conducted with the full co-operation of the Royal Navy. A report will be published when our investigation has concluded."

A Royal Navy spokesman said: "We can confirm the sighting of a Royal Navy submarine between Belfast and Stranraer on 6 November 2018. We are co-operating with the MAIB's investigation." A spokesman for Stena said: "Stena Line can confirm that on Tuesday 6 November 2018, Stena Superfast VII and a submerged submarine came into close proximity during a scheduled crossing between Cairnryan and Belfast.

"At no stage were the vessel, passengers or crew in any danger. The incident is now under investigation by the Marine Accident Investigation Branch and we will of course co-operate fully in this."
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🇻🇪🇺🇸 **Venezuela: Trump recognises opposition leader as president**
*The Guardian* - <https://archive.fo/5LMZx>

Venezuela’s opposition leader Juan Guaidó has declared himself the interim president, in a dramatic escalation of efforts to force out Nicolás Maduro, who has overseen the country’s slide into authoritarianism and economic ruin.

Guaidó was quickly recognised by the US, Canada, Brazil, Colombia and other US allies in the Americas. Donald Trump warned that “all options are on the table” if Maduro responded with force against the opposition, but US officials made clear that the White House was focused on economic measures and would look at ways to transfer Venezuelan assets and oil revenues to Guaidó and the opposition-run national assembly.

Maduro responded with defiance, cutting off relations with the US and ordering all US diplomats to leave the country within 72 hours.

“We are defending the right to the very existence of our Bolivarian republic,” Maduro told supporters at a rally outside the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas. He urged them to resist “at all costs” what he called a coup attempt being orchestrated by “the coup-mongering, interventionist gringo empire” and the “fascist right”.

“They intend to govern Venezuela from Washington,” Maduro shouted from the palace’s people’s balcony. “Do you want a puppet government controlled by Washington?”

A few hours earlier, thousands of protesters clogged the streets of the capital, Caracas, as Guaidó, the head of the national assembly, raised his right hand and said: “I swear to assume all the powers of the presidency to secure an end to the usurpation”.

The 35-year-old lawmaker, said his surprise move was the only way to rescue Venezuela from “dictatorship” and restore constitutional order.
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🇺🇸 **Gawker 2.0 Implodes as Its Only Reporters Quit**
*The Daily Beast* - <https://archive.fo/VZnEk>

Gawker 2.0 is blowing up on the launchpad just two weeks after the site’s first group of new staffers came aboard.

On Wednesday morning, the site’s only two full-time writers—former Vanity Fair writer Maya Kosoff and former Cosmopolitan writer Anna Breslaw—announced in a statement to The Daily Beast that they have left over concerns about Carson Griffith, the recently hired editorial director.

“We’re disappointed it ended this way, but we can’t continue to work under someone who is antithetical to our sensibility and journalistic ethics, or for an employer [CEO Bryan Goldberg] who refuses to listen to the women who work for him when it’s inconvenient,” Kosoff and Breslaw said.

The two reporters said they decided to leave the new Gawker after Bustle Digital Group—which bought the shuttered Gawker.com domain and its archives in a mid-2018 fire sale—refused to oust Griffith over offensive workplace comments about everything from poor people to black writers to her friend’s penis size.

Kosoff and Breslaw said they met with human resources to complain of several instances in which they felt personally uncomfortable working with Griffith.

In particular, Kosoff—a former colleague and personal friend of this reporter—described to human resources an incident in which Griffith forwarded an unsolicited chain email showing the editorial director’s friends boasting they knew the penis size of a prominent businessman.
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🇺🇸 **Pelosi says she won’t allow State of the Union during shutdown; Trump will ‘do something in the alternative'**
*Fox News* - <https://archive.fo/HAX1g>

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi dug in Wednesday on her call to delay the State of the Union address even after President Trump vowed to proceed with the speech next week, sending a curt letter making clear she will not allow the event to take place during the government shutdown.

Reacting to Pelosi’s letter, Trump told reporters at the White House "we'll do something in the alternative," suggesting a speech of some kind will still happen next week.

Hours earlier, Trump had told Pelosi he was still planning to deliver the address from the House floor. Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy also introduced a resolution to allow the State of the Union to go forward as planned on Jan. 29.

But Pelosi makes the final call, and fired back in a letter to Trump saying she would not consider what's known as a "concurrent resolution," which is needed to allow the use of the chamber for the State of the Union.

“I am writing to inform you that the House of Representatives will not consider a concurrent resolution authorizing the president’s State of the Union address in the House Chamber until government has opened,” Pelosi wrote in the letter to Trump.

Pelosi added in her letter that she looks forward to welcoming Trump to the House “on a mutually agreeable date for this address when government has been opened.”

In recent days though, the White House has been readying a Plan B in case Pelosi moved to block the speech in the House chamber. White House officials told Fox News they essentially were preparing for two tracks for next week's speech. The preferred track is an address, as per custom, at the Capitol. The second track is a backup plan for a speech outside of Washington, D.C.
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🇺🇸 **Michael Cohen Indefinitely Postpones Testimony to Congress**
*The New York Times* - <https://archive.fo/PlpQl>

Michael D. Cohen, the former personal lawyer and fixer for President Trump, has indefinitely postponed his congressional testimony, his lawyer said in a statement on Wednesday.

Mr. Cohen was scheduled to appear before the House Oversight Committee on Feb. 7 at the invitation of Representative Elijah Cummings, Democrat of Maryland and the chairman of the committee, but backed out because of ongoing threats against his family, his lawyer Lanny Davis said in a statement. He cited Mr. Trump’s verbal attacks on Mr. Cohen and some of his relatives.

“By advice of counsel, Mr. Cohen’s appearance will be postponed to a later date,” Mr. Davis said in the statement. “Mr. Cohen wishes to thank Chairman Cummings for allowing him to appear before the House Oversight Committee and looks forward to testifying at the appropriate time.” He added, “This is a time where Mr. Cohen had to put his family and their safety first.”
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