🇫🇷 **The Latest: France's Macron scraps fuel tax after protests**
*ABC News* - <https://archive.fo/r7Mub>

French President Emmanuel Macron has scrapped a fuel tax rise amid fears of new violence, after weeks of nationwide protests and the worst rioting in Paris in decades.

An official with the Elysee palace told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the president decided to get rid of the tax.

Philippe told lawmakers that "the tax is now abandoned" in the 2019 budget, and the government is "ready for dialogue." The budget can be adjusted or renegotiated through the course of the year.

Three weeks of protests have left four people dead and were a massive challenge to Macron.
----------------

🇺🇸🇸🇦 **Senate resolution says Saudi crown prince 'complicit' in Khashoggi murder**
*FOX News* - <https://archive.fo/Wt5ak>

A bipartisan group of six senators introduced a nonbinding resolution Wednesday stating that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was "complicit" in the October killing of activist Jamal Khashoggi at the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul.

The resolution says that the Senate believes the crown prince, known informally as "MbS," "was in control of the security forces at the time of Jamal Khashoggi's murder" and "based on evidence and analysis made available to this institution, has a high level of confidence" in his complicity in the Oct. 2 murder.

The resolution was introduced by Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.; Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.; Marco Rubio, R-Fla.; Ed Markey, D-Mass.; Todd Young, R-Ind.; and Chris Coons, D-Del. Graham has been a particularly harsh critic of the Trump administration's handling of the aftermath of Khashoggi's killing.

"I hope to have a definitive statement by the United States Senate that the crown prince of Saudi Arabia has been generally a wrecking ball in terms of behavior and that he was complicit in the murder of Mr. Khashoggi because I think that's the truth," Graham told reporters Wednesday evening. "And I think if the Senate can make that statement, it puts us on a new path to trying to have a relationship with Saudi Arabia that is beneficial and sustainable.

"The current construct is not sustainable," Graham added. "There is no way we're gonna continue to do business with Saudi Arabia as if this never happened."

The measure was introduced one day after CIA Director Gina Haspel briefed a group of key senators about the agency's findings in the Khashoggi matter. Graham, who attended the briefing, told reporters afterward that there was "zero chance" the crown prince wasn't involved in Khashoggi's death.
----------------

🇺🇸🇷🇺🇺🇦 **US makes preparations to sail warship into Black Sea amid Russia-Ukraine tensions**
*CNN* - <https://archive.fo/sHOHE>

The US has begun making the necessary preparations to sail a warship into the Black Sea, a move that comes amid heightened tensions in the region following Russia's seizure of Ukrainian ships and detention of Ukrainian sailors.

The US military has requested that the State Department notify Turkey of its possible plans to sail a warship into the Black Sea, three US officials tell CNN, a move they said is a response to Russia's actions against Ukraine in the Kerch Strait, which connects the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.

For its part, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced Wednesday that its troops in eastern Crimea, which Moscow seized from Ukraine in 2014, conducted a military drill with its Pantsir anti-aircraft missile systems.

The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs also claimed Wednesday that the Ukrainian government had undertaken "active preparations" for a military offensive in eastern Ukraine, using the recent declaration of martial law in select regions as a cover.

"Substantial offensive components are being transferred to the region, which are being dispersed along the entire contact line," spokesperson Maria Zakharova said Wednesday at a press briefing.

The US is required to notify Turkey about the passage through the straits under the Montreux Convention, a 1936 treaty that governs the passage of military vessels through the Bosporus and the Dardanelles, which connect the Mediterranean to the Black Sea.

Under the rules of the treaty, countries that do not have a coastline on the Black Sea are required to provide Turkey with at least 15 days' notice prior to transiting the straits.
----------------

🇨🇦🇺🇸🇨🇳 **Huawei's CFO arrested in Canada, faces extradition to United States**
*CNN* - <https://archive.fo/lqE1G>

The chief financial officer of Chinese tech giant Huawei has been arrested in Canada. She faces extradition to the United States.

Meng Wanzhou, also known as Sabrina Meng and Cathy Meng, was apprehended in Vancouver on December 1, according to Canadian Justice Department spokesman Ian McLeod. In addition to her role as CFO, Meng serves as deputy chairwoman of Huawei's board. She's the daughter of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei.

Meng "is sought for extradition by the United States, and a bail hearing has been set for Friday," McLeod said in a statement, which was first reported by The Globe and Mail.

McLeod said the Canadian Justice Department can't share details of the case. Meng was granted a publication ban after a judge agreed to bar both police and prosecutors from releasing information about the case.

A Huawei spokesperson said Meng was detained by Canadian authorities on behalf of the United States when she was transferring flights in Canada. Huawei said she faces unspecified charges in the Eastern District of New York. The Wall Street Journal reported in April that the US Justice Department was investigating whether Huawei violated US sanctions on Iran.

"The company has been provided very little information regarding the charges and is not aware of any wrongdoing by Ms. Meng," the spokesperson said. "The company believes the Canadian and US legal systems will ultimately reach a just conclusion. Huawei complies with all applicable laws and regulations where it operates, including applicable export control and sanction laws and regulations of the UN, US and EU."
----------------

🇺🇸 **Lawmakers Drafting Bill That Would Allow Social Media Checks Before Gun Purchase**
*WCBS 880* - <https://archive.fo/oup1R>

Two New York lawmakers are working to draft a bill that would propose a social media check before a gun purchase.

Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams and state Sen. Kevin Palmer’s proposal would allow authorities to review three years of social media history and one year of internet search history of any person seeking to purchase a firearm.

“A three-year review of a social media profile would give an easy profile of a person who is not suitable to hold and possess a fire arm,” Adams explains.

The two are hoping to identify any hate speech on social media profiles, which are often revealed only after someone is arrested in a mass shooting.

“If the police department is reviewing a gang assault, a robbery, some type of shooting, they go and do a social media profile investigation,” Adams said.

There are some logistical concerns as free speech and gun rights complaints are likely to come up. Though, Adams and Palmer say it is doable and needed.
----------------

🇺🇸 **U.S. Indicts 4 in First Panama Papers-Related Charges**
*Fortune* - <https://archive.is/R3d5E>

U.S. prosecutors unsealed Tuesday an indictment against four people affiliated with the Panama City law firm Mossack Fonseca, the first such American charges related to the 2016 Panama Papers leak.

The charges, filed in the Southern District of New York, include defrauding the United States, wire fraud, tax evasion, money laundering, and making false statements to investigators. An accountant, an investment advisor, and a former client of Mossack Fonseca’s are under arrest while a Mossack Fonseca partner, Ramses Owens, remains on the lam, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The American law enforcement action follows a Panama Papers-related raid on Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt, Germany last week. Prosecutors around the U.S. are building other cases, the New York Times reports. Mossack Fonseca shut down in March.

The indictment details tax evasion-related crimes dating to 2000 and implies that at least dozens more Americans were using Mossack Fonseca’s services.
One former client, now dead, helped authorities in their investigation by recording calls with Owens and introducing him to an undercover agent, the indictment reveals.
---------------

🇺🇸 **Inside Panama Papers: Multiple Clinton connections**
*McClatchy Washington Bureau* - <https://archive.is/Qv7kZ>

WASHINGTON
Hillary Clinton recently blasted the hidden financial dealings exposed in the Panama Papers, but she and her husband have multiple connections with people who have used the besieged law firm Mossack Fonseca to establish offshore entities.

Among them are Gabrielle Fialkoff, finance director for Hillary Clinton’s first campaign for the U.S. Senate; Frank Giustra, a Canadian mining magnate who has traveled the globe with Bill Clinton; a member of the Chagoury family, which pledged $1 billion in projects to the Clinton Global Initiative; and Chinese billionaire Ng Lap Seng, who was at the center of a Democratic fund-raising scandal when Bill Clinton was president. Also using the Panamanian law firm was the company founded by the late billionaire investor Marc Rich, an international fugitive when Bill Clinton pardoned him in the final hours of his presidency.

Hillary Clinton condemned what she called “outrageous tax havens and loopholes that super-rich people across the world are exploiting.”

“Now, some of this behavior is clearly against the law, and everyone who violates the law anywhere should be held accountable,” she said, speaking at the AFL-CIO convention recently. “But it’s also scandalous how much is actually legal.”

The Clintons themselves do not appear to be in Mossack Fonseca’s database, nor does it appear that their daughter, Chelsea, or her husband, Marc Mezvinsky, who co-founded a hedge fund, are listed. But Bill and Hillary Clinton’s connections to people who have used offshores is fuel for her Democratic rival, Bernie Sanders.
-----------------

🇺🇸 **US Jobless Claims Fell Last Week, Still No Signs of Tariff Strains**
*John Carney, Breitbart* - <http://archive.is/x1fXe>

The number of Americans filing applications for state unemployment benefits fell by 4,000 to a seasonally adjusted 231,000 in the week ended December 1, the Labor Department said Thursday. That

Initial jobless claims are a proxy for layoffs across the U.S. and so they’ve become closely watched for signs that tariffs could be costing jobs. Those signs have not shown up so far, with jobless claims continuing to come in a historically low levels.
---------------

🇬🇧 🇪🇺 **O2 Outage leaves many Brits and Euros unable to call anywhere**

BBC News: <http://archive.fo/pJ99L>

There is 'No End in sight' to the Europe wide outage of O2 Phone Coverage.

The mobile network said it was working "flat out" with Ericsson to fix the technical problems.

O2 has 25 million customers and also provides services for the Sky, Tesco, Giffgaff and Lycamobile networks, which have another seven million users.

"The network issue we are currently experiencing remains a top priority for us and we are working as quickly as possible to fix the issue," O2 said.

It's not just Europe, Japan's Y!Mobile network, owned by Softbank, was one also affected by the outages.

William Webb, a tech consultant and former Ofcom director, said it was unusual to take this long to resolve the problem: "It's probably some kind of a software update that one of the suppliers to the network has issued that for some reason proved incompatible or failed - and I guess now they're going to be looking at whether they can reverse that out again or fix that."

Think it's just Social Media lovers who are affected? Services such as Busses in London have been disrupted due to O2 Controlling timetables for Staff and Citizens.

Customers of O2 will be able to claim for any out-of-pocket expenses that resulted from being without their phone, according to consumer expert Helen Dewdney,
But there must be a genuine loss which can be proved with evidence. So, a taxi driver might be able to prove they lost out on fares owing to the shutdown, but other workers trying to claim a lost day of employment would struggle.

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

🇺🇸 **CNN’s New York Office Evacuated Over Bomb Threat**
*Breitbart* - <https://archive.fo/57m5Q>

CNN’s New York City office at Columbus Circle is under evacuation Thursday evening as the New York Police Department investigates a bomb threat near the area, according to CNN host Brian Stelter.

Photos shared on social media by Stelter and others show police investigating the threat near the Time Warner Center, where CNN’s New York head office is housed.

“Due to a police investigation at Columbus Circle, West 58th Street between 8th and 9th Avenue is closed to vehicle and pedestrian traffic. Please avoid this area. Update to follow,” NYPD Deputy Inspector Mark Iocco tweeted at 10:45 p.m. local time.

Host Don Lemon tweeted that staffers were evacuated from the premises during his live program.

TheWrap’s Jon Levine shared a clip of the moment Lemon’s program abruptly went to break due to the threat. When programming returned, a taped version of Anderson 360 began broadcasting.

Currently, it is unknown whether the bomb threat was directed at CNN or another target.

In October, CNN’s New York headquarters was evacuated after a package containing a crude pipe bomb, which was addressed to ex-Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) chief John Brennan, was found.
----------------

🇦🇺 **Australia passes bill to force tech firms to hand over encrypted data**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/EmYVP>

Australia’s parliament on Thursday passed a bill to force tech firms such as Alphabet Inc’s Google, Facebook and Apple to give police access to encrypted data, the most far-reaching such requirements imposed by a western country.

The bill, staunchly opposed by the tech giants which fear Australia could be an example as other nations explore similar rules, is set to become law before the end of the year.

“Let’s just make Australians safe over Christmas,” opposition Labor party leader Bill Shorten told reporters outside parliament in the capital of Canberra.

The bill, passed by the lower house of parliament earlier on Thursday, was to be debated in the upper Senate, where Labor said it intended to suggest new amendments, before going back to the lower house.

“We will pass the legislation, inadequate as it is, so we can give our security agencies some of the tools they say they need,” Shorten said.

The bill provides for fines of up to A$10 million ($7.3 million) for institutions and prison terms for individuals for failing to hand over data linked to suspected illegal activities.

When it becomes law, Australia will be one of the first nations to impose broad access requirements on technology firms, after many years of lobbying by intelligence and law enforcement agencies in many countries, particularly the so-called Five Eyes nations.

The Five Eyes intelligence network, comprised of the United States, Canada, Britain, Australia and New Zealand, have each warned that national security was at risk because authorities were unable to monitor the communications of suspects.

Australia’s government has said the laws are needed to counter militant attacks and organized crime and that security agencies would need to seek warrants to access personal data.
----------------

🇺🇸 **Congress approves short-term spending bill to avert government shutdown**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/At1jQ>

The U.S. Congress on Thursday approved a two-week stopgap spending bill to avert a government shutdown, setting up a potential showdown over President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall later this month.

Without action by Congress, funding for several federal agencies, including the Department of Agriculture, State Department and Department of Homeland Security, had been set to expire this week. The stopgap bill extends funding through Dec. 21.

Before the stopgap bill expires, the Republican-led Congress is expected to consider a $450 billion bill to fund the departments through the fiscal year that ends next Sept. 30.

Trump has demanded $5 billion this year as part of his plan to build a wall on the border with Mexico that Democrats argue would be ineffective at keeping out illegal immigrants and illicit drugs.

Instead, Democrats want to continue improving less costly fencing and employing high-tech instruments to detect illegal border crossings. They have agreed to include $1.6 billion for additional border security.

“Let me be clear: the $1.6 billion cannot be used to construct any part of President Trump’s 30-foot-tall concrete border wall. It can only be used for fencing, using technology currently deployed at the border, and only where the experts say fencing is appropriate and makes sense,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Thursday.

Trump has threatened to force a partial government shutdown if Congress does not give him the money he wants for the wall.
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🇬🇧🇪🇨 **Julian Assange rejects UK-Ecuador deal for him to leave the embassy**
*The Telegraph* - <https://archive.fo/mSu6S>

Julian Assange's lawyer has rejected an agreement announced by Ecuador's president to see him leave the Ecuadorean embassy in London, after six years inside.

Lenin Moreno, the president of Ecuador, has made no secret of his wish to be rid of the WikiLeaks founder, who sought asylum inside the embassy in June 2012 and has not left since.

On Thursday Mr Moreno announced that a deal had been reached between London and Quito to allow Mr Assange, 47, to be released.

"The way has been cleared for Mr Assange to take the decision to leave in near-liberty," said Mr Moreno.

He did not specify what "near liberty" meant.

Mr Moreno earlier this year announced that he was severing Mr Assange's telephone and internet links, and in October said he was banning him from making "political statement" that jeopardised Ecuador's relations with other countries. Mr Assange then sued for a breach of his human rights.

From December, he was also due to pay for his own costs of food, medical care and laundry, in yet another sign of the growing impatience of the Ecuadorean government.

Mr Moreno added that Britain had guaranteed that the Australian would not be extradited to any country where his life is in danger.

But Mr Assange's lawyer, Barry Pollack, told The Telegraph that the deal was not acceptable.

The legal team have long argued that they will not accept any agreement which risks his being extradited to the United States.
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🇫🇷 🏳 🧀 **Great Violence’ in Paris Anticipated as Police Staff Join Macron Protests**
*Breitbart* - <http://archive.is/JsyK1>

While police have been called on to help quell the expected violence in the French capital, many are showing signs of sympathy to the Yellow Vests and their demands.

The Police Union Vigi Ministère de l’Intérieur has not only expressed support for the Yellow Vest movement but has called on members to go on an indefinite strike starting on Saturday, and join the Yellow Vests.

He also noted that the protestors were “exemplified by the fact that practically all protesters belong to the indigenous, colonised, invaded, conquered people, the ‘natural’ French people.”
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🇬🇧 🇺🇸 **Prince Harry and Duchess Megan Recieve death threats from Nazi Group, two arrests.**

*The Sun*: <http://archive.fo/CTzyi>

The group, called Sonnenkrieg Division, posted a picture online Prince Harry with a gun pointed at his head.

An 18-year-old man, from Portsmouth, and a 17-year-old boy, from London, were both charged with five counts of encouraging terrorism.

The 18-year-old was also charged with three counts of disseminating terrorist publications, the two will appear in Magistrates court next Wednesday.

A 21-year-old man from Bath, who was also arrested as part of the operation, has been released on bail pending further enquiries.

The two teens are alleged to have links to neo-Nazi group, the Sonnenkrieg Division, which posted a picture of the Duke of Sussex set against a swastika, with a gun pointed at his head and the slogan: "See ya later, race traitor!"

The Sonnenkrieg Division is a 'spin off' of the US Atomwaffen, which we are all familiar with.

Counter Terrorism Policing North East said the arrests part of an ongoing investigation into extreme right-wing activity.

Update Articles will be posted when they come.
--------------

🇺🇸 🌮 🌯 **19 Year old honduran woman scales border wall to bive birth in U.S.**
*Fox News* - <http://archive.is/SHU6l>

A Honduran woman is believed to be the first member of the migrant caravan to have a child in the United States after scaling the border wall with her family and giving birth within 24 hours.

Maryury Elizabeth Serrano-Hernandez, 19, was more than seven months pregnant when she left Honduras, along with her husband Miguel Ortiz, 20, and their three-year-old son, travelling more than 2,000 miles.

At a makeshift camp, Serrano-Hernandez and her husband say they feared for their safety after being surrounded by Mexicans who weren’t happy they were there. Scared and outnumbered, they decided to cross the border illegally. To avoid the wait of being processed by inspectors at the main border in San Diego, many migrants decide to hop the border illegally.

After somehow climbing the border wall, Serrano-Hernandez and her family were met by three border patrol agents who demanded they return to Tijuana. The family refused and asked for asylum. They were taken to the Imperial Beach Station in San Diego County for processing.

U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agency told Fox News: “The woman, who was eight months pregnant, began complaining of abdominal pain (Nov. 27) and was immediately transported to a local hospital by Border Patrol agents.”

The move is likely to reignite the debate surrounding "anchor babies" and birthright citizenship. President Trump threatened in October to end birthright citizenship with an executive order, although others believe it would require a constitutional amendment.
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🇺🇸🇪🇺 **Despite heat at home, Trump approval ratings tower above embattled European leaders’**
*Fox News* - <https://archive.fo/H9STb>

President Trump routinely takes grief from the pundits for his underwater approval ratings – but compared with some of his embattled European counterparts, facing civil unrest in the streets and internal government tensions, the U.S. president is riding high.

While Trump’s approval ratings have hovered well below 50 percent ever since he took office, French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Theresa May are nowhere close to that right now.

Macron’s political troubles were dramatically exposed over the last two weeks, as rioters burned cars and looted stores in response to his push for gas taxes to fight climate change.

Amid the chaos, Macron's approval rating in France is just 23 percent, according to the latest poll from international polling company Ifop, as many on both the left and right see him as out-of-touch. That compares with a 47 percent approval rating for Trump in the most recent Fox News poll.

Meanwhile, the United Kingdom's May fares little better than Macron. The latest Ipsos Mori poll puts her approval rating at 29 percent, as she tries to sell Britons on a deal to split from the European Union that many view as poorly negotiated.

Not all major European leaders are struggling like Macron, but few are doing much better than Trump. Spain’s left-wing prime minister has a 44 percent approval rating, while Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel polls slightly better than Trump. The latest poll by major German pollster Infratest Dimap shows her with 50 percent approval.

Merkel’s rating is down from around 70 percent approval before the migrant crisis, in which Merkel made the decision to allow more than a million people from the Middle East and Africa into Germany. Trump has criticized Merkel for that decision.
----------------

🇮🇱 **In Gaza protests, Israeli troops aim for the legs**
*AP* - <https://archive.fo/BEsmt>

Israeli forces deployed along the volatile border with the Gaza Strip have fired live rounds at rock-throwing Palestinian protesters ever since demonstrations against Israel’s long-running blockade of Gaza began in March.

And for eight months, Israeli snipers have targeted one part of the body more than any other — the legs.

The Israeli army says it is responding to weekly assaults on its frontier by Palestinians armed with stones, grenades and firebombs. The military says it opens fire only as a last resort, and considers firing at the lower limbs an act of restraint.

Still, 175 Palestinians have been shot to death, according to an Associated Press count. And the number of wounded has reached colossal proportions.

Of the 10,511 protesters treated at hospitals and field clinics in Gaza so far, at least 6,392, or roughly 60 percent, have been struck in the lower limbs, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. At least 5,884 of those casualties were hit by live ammunition; others have been hit by rubber-coated metal bullets and tear gas canisters.
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🇿🇦 **‘Your time is up’ South Africa sets date for white farmer land grabs – March 2019**
*Daily Star* - <https://archive.fo/uUZYr>

A SOUTH Africa has set a date for when its much-criticised land expropriations can begin after a politician declared: “Your time is up, white people”.

The country’s National Assembly approved a proposal to change the constitution to make the so-called reforms legal in a vote of 183 to 77.

This paves the way for land to be taken from farmers without giving any kind of compensation.

And now lawmakers have agreed to set up a committee that will write and introduce a new bill for land expropriations.

A deadline of the end of March next year for the committee to present its first report to parliament has also been agreed.

According to local reports, Economic Freedom Fighters MP Hlengiwe Mkhaliphi argued land grabs must go ahead as she declared: “Your time is up, white people”.

This came as the IFP MP Mkhuleko Hlengwa said the plans undermine South Africa’s position as a democratic state.

According to the Daily Maverick, he said: “To achieve real and effective land reform is (possible) under the existing Constitution, not your (ANC) populist agenda. “You should be ashamed of yourself.”

However, the ruling ANC’s Chief Whip Jackson Mthembu dismissed the controversy, saying land reforms are “the right thing to do”.

It is believed that when South Africa’s Constitution is amended, it could be done by inserting into Section 25 the phrase: “Zero compensation may be regarded as just and equitable”.

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa has previously defended his radical plans, saying they are necessary for equality.
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🇺🇸 **Blaze Media, CRTV Sever Ties With Gavin McInnes, Proud Boys Founder**
*Newsweek* - <https://archive.fo/XOj2n>

Newly formed conservative news media network BlazeTV promptly fired Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes just days after Glenn Beck and Mark Levin merged their brands.

Perhaps too extreme for even the rabidly right-wing network, the Vice co-founder's recent separation from the Proud Boys clearly did not sway BlazeTV's bosses. BlazeTV's verified Twitter account addressed the matter in a terse Saturday tweet, "Blaze Media no longer has a relationship with Gavin McInnes, and per company policy, cannot comment on personnel matters."

If McInnes knew his days at the conservative outlet were numbered he did not indicate it to his fans, having just recorded an interview with far right activist Laura Loomer that aired Saturday. Last week, Loomer chained herself to Twitter's New York headquarters building in her latest attempt to make the social media giant un-ban her account.

Blaze Media has been branding its new platform, touting that it “brings together the biggest conservative voices from around the country to a single platform for the first time ever.” Former CRTV host Michelle Malkin was the new network's first departure, with the Twitchy founder announcing she was leaving on the same day the merger was announced.

Some right wing figures including conspiracy theorist Jacob Wohl stood by McInnes and urged their followers on social media to cancel their CRTV subscriptions. Several Twitter users promptly posted pictures showing them doing just that.
----------------

🇺🇸 **Moment of reckoning looms for ex-Trump lawyer Michael Cohen**
*AP* - <https://archive.fo/ua7TB>

The moment of reckoning has nearly arrived for Michael Cohen, who finds out Wednesday whether his decision to walk away from President Donald Trump after years of unwavering loyalty will spare him from a harsh prison sentence.

A federal judge in New York is set to decide whether Cohen gets leniency or years in prison for crimes including tax evasion, making illegal hush-money payments to protect Trump during the campaign and lying to Congress about the president’s past business dealings in Russia.

Few observers expect the hearing to go well for the 52-year-old attorney.

For weeks, his legal strategy appeared to revolve around persuading the court that he is a reformed man who abandoned longtime friendships and gave up his livelihood when he decided to break with the president and speak with federal investigators. That narrative collapsed last week. New York prosecutors urged a judge to sentence Cohen to a substantial prison term, saying he’d failed to fully cooperate and overstated his helpfulness. They’ve asked for only a slight reduction in the 4- to 5-year term he would face under federal sentencing guidelines.

A sentence of hard time would leave Cohen with little to show for his decision to plead guilty, though experts said Wednesday’s hearing might not be the last word on his punishment.

Cohen could have his sentence revisited if he strikes a deal with prosecutors in which he provides additional cooperation within a year of his sentence, said Michael J. Stern, a former federal prosecutor in Detroit and Los Angeles.

“Few things spark a defendant’s renewed interest in cooperating faster than trading in a pair of custom Italian trousers for an off-the-rack orange jump suit,” he said.

Annemarie McAvoy, a former federal prosecutor in Brooklyn, said prosecutors appear to be angry at Cohen for limiting his cooperation.
----------------

🇺🇸 **Facebook will know where you are going before you do, new plans reveal**
*The Telegraph* - <https://archive.fo/nKUyI>

Facebook is set to know where you are going before you do and send you targeted adverts for your destination, after filing a new technology patent in the US.

The patent, filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office, relies on users' previously logged location data from their phones as well as similar data on other people to forecast where and when they are likely to go next.

Facebook can blend behavioural patterns with those of friends and others to help it build up a picture of habits and guess your future movements, according to one of the patents which was made public last week.

The social media giant sought to play down the significance of the patent application."We often seek patents for technology we never implement, and patent applications - such as this one - should not be taken as an indication of future plans."

But experts say the technology is aimed at providing advertisers with valuable new information.

For instance, for a person who always heads for a certain train station after leaving work, Facebook's algorithm will be able to predict exactly when they will lose internet connectivity. It could then automatically pre-load content on their smartphone and allow them to use its services without interruption. This would permit access to far more features from Facebook when on the underground or on an airplane, for example.

On holiday or at a new location, the technology will also be able to predict a person's movements and determine when they could be offline by analysing the behaviour of people of the same age, gender, or local area.
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🇺🇸 **Beto O'Rourke narrowly tops wide-open MoveOn 2020 presidential straw poll; Biden runner up**
*NBC News* - <https://archive.fo/9wYMW>

An early straw poll of members of the progressive group MoveOn.org shows a wide-open competition for liberal voters in the forthcoming 2020 Democratic presidential contest, with Beto O'Rourke narrowly beating out Joe Biden.

The poll, obtained by NBC News, shows a plurality of respondents — 29 percent — either said they did not yet know whom they would support or wanted someone else not listed among the group's more than 30 potential candidate choices.

The most popular potential candidate was O’Rourke, D-Texas, who was selected by 15.6 percent of respondents, followed by Biden at 14.9 percent, and then Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt, with 13.1 percent.

It's another sign of O’Rourke's surprising popularity among national Democrats and a potentially troubling indication for Sanders, whom MoveOn endorsed in the 2016 Democratic primary. That year, 78 percent of MoveOn members voted to back Sanders over Hillary Clinton

The three men were followed by Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., who garnered 10 percent support, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., with 6.4 percent. Meanwhile, Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., Cory Booker, D-N.J., and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg were each selected by about 3 percent of members.
----------------

```Here are the top 10 finishers in the MoveOn straw poll:
Someone else/DK/other: 28.8 percent
Beto O’Rourke: 15.6 percent
Joe Biden: 14.9 percent
Bernie Sanders: 13.1 percent
Kamala Harris: 10 percent
Elizabeth Warren: 6.4 percent
Sherrod Brown: 2.9 percent
Amy Klobuchar: 2.8 percent
Michael Bloomberg: 2.7 percent
Cory Booker: 2.6 percent```
----------------

someone else?

LOL

🇩🇪🇮🇱 **Netanyahu urges Merkel to stop funding Berlin's Jewish Museum**
*YNet News* - <https://archive.fo/PPvbY>

The Israeli government sent an official letter to Chancellor Angela Merkel demanding Germany to halt its funding for the Jewish Museum in Berlin over an exhibition "that reflects the Palestinian-Muslim view on Jerusalem."

Copies of the seven-page letter, which was published by the left-wing Die Tageszeitung newspaper, was sent to Merkel's office and to Germany's Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development, rather than to the Israeli Embassy in Berlin, as accustomed in such cases.

In addition to the Jewish Museum, the letter details about a dozen NGOs that are involved in anti-Israeli propaganda or support the BDS movement—among them the Berlin International Film Festival, the Berlinale, which allegedly hosts BDS supporters; Women Wage Peace; Bread for the World; Action Medeor; the Catholic Relief Services; and the Israeli +972 magazine, which accuses Israel of having an apartheid regime and is endorsed by the Heinrich Böll Foundation.

A spokesperson for the German government confirmed that Israel and Germany had discussed these NGOs' state funding in the past.

The Jewish Museum said in a statement that "We believe open dialogue on controversial issues is crucial to allow (the museum's) visitors to form their own position on the matter and judge it for themselves."

The Heinrich Böll Foundation rejected the Israeli government's accusations as "absurd," adding that "Unfortunately, Israel is applying increasing pressure on NGOs in Israel and in Palestine. The +972 magazine reflects pluralism, and Israel's demand constitutes an attack on prominent Israeli journalists."
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🇺🇸 **San Francisco Creates World’s First Ever Transgender Cultural District**
*The Daily Beast* - <https://archive.fo/7gzH0>

Honey Mahogany walked down 6th Street in San Francisco, pointing to single room occupancy hotels, the dance and performance space Counterpulse, and gay bars, OMG and Aunt Charlie’s Lounge.

She passed by the Golden Gate Theatre where A Bronx Tale was playing and came to site of the former all-night diner, Gene’s Compton Cafeteria (now transitional housing), where in August 1966 a trans woman threw a cup of coffee at a police officer trying to arrest her, which turned into a riot with trans people fighting back against police harassment, flipping over tables and throwing cutlery.

This event, detailed in Susan Stryker and Victor Silverman’s documentary, Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton’s Cafeteria, happened three years before the famous uprising at the Stonewall Inn in New York’s Greenwich Village.

The area Mahogany was walking through makes up part of the first legally recognized transgender district in the world, Compton's Transgender Cultural District.

Mahogany, a performer and contestant on Season 5 of RuPaul’s Drag Race, is Compton's district manager. The district’s purpose is to stop the displacement of trans people from a place they have been welcomed in historically, and to teach people about trans history, she said.
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🇲🇽🇺🇸 **Migrants demand entry or $50,000 during march to US Consulate in Tijuana**
*ABC 10* - <https://archive.fo/ejxtz>

More members of the migrant caravan walked through the streets of Tijuana Tuesday morning, this time heading to the U.S. Consulate instead of the border.

10News learned the group reached their destination at around 11 a.m. after a nearly two-hour trek. The migrants, who had police escorts, made it clear their intentions were peaceful.

The group members held various banners as they marched, including one that read: “You got it wrong, Trump. We asked for jobs and you responded with weapons. That is not polite. If asking for work is troublesome, then I am totally confused. La Caravana.”

A source told 10News the migrants dropped off a petition asking the consulate to allow everyone in the caravan entry into the U.S. The migrants requested a response within 72 hours.

Additionally, the migrants said they want the U.S. government to provide $50,000 for their trips back to their respective home countries if they aren't allowed asylum in the United States.

After delivering the petition, the migrants returned to their shelters.

It is unknown what the migrants plan to do if they do not receive a response within 72 hours.
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🇻🇦🇦🇺 **Vatican No. 3 Cardinal George Pell Convicted on Charges He Sexually Abused Choir Boys**
*Daily Beast* - <https://archive.fo/ClLGV>

The Vatican’s third-most powerful official has been convicted in Australia on all charges he sexually abused two choir boys there in the late '90s, according to two sources with knowledge of the case.

A unanimous jury returned its verdict for Cardinal George Pell on Tuesday (Australian time) after more than three days of deliberations, the sources said, in a trial conducted under a gag order by the judge that prevented any details of the trial being made public.

Pell, the Vatican’s finance chief and the highest Vatican official to ever go on trial for sex abuse, left Rome in June 2017 to stand trial in Melbourne.

As that trial was about to get underway in June, a judge placed a suppression order on all press coverage in Australia, according to the order reviewed by The Daily Beast. Prosecutors applied for the order and it was granted to “prevent a real and substantial risk of prejudice to the proper administration of justice.” That order remains in place in Australia.

That trial, known as “the cathedral trial,” was declared a mistrial earlier this year after a hung jury, the sources say. A retrial began immediately and ended this week with the unanimous verdict.
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🇺🇸 **Michael Cohen Sentenced to 3 Years in Prison**
*Breitbart* - <https://archive.fo/ClLGV>

A federal judge in New York sentenced Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s longtime lawyer, to three years in prison Wednesday for crimes including tax evasion, making hush-money payments, and lying to Congress about past business dealings in Russia.

U.S. District Judge William Pauley III said he will allow Cohen to voluntarily surrender to prison on March 6 and ordered the former Trump lawyer to pay a $50,000 fine for making false statements to lawmakers. Cohen must also pay a forfeiture of $500,000 and $1.4 million in restitution. Prior to sentencing Cohen, Pauley told the courtroom that the former Trump lawyer pled guilty to a “veritable smorgasbord of fraudulent conduct.” Further, Pauley said that Cohen “appears to have lost his moral compass” and that he “should have known better” than to dodge taxes, lie to Congress and violate campaign finance laws.

Addressing the courtroom before his sentencing, Cohen took aim at the president for branding him as “weak” in a recent tweet, saying that his weakness was blind loyalty to his former boss. “Recently, the President tweeted a statement calling me weak, and it was correct, but for a much different reason than he was implying,” an emotional Cohen said. “It was because time and time again, I felt it was my duty to cover up his dirty deeds.”

The former Trump lawyer pleaded guilty to misleading Congress about his work on a proposal to build a Trump Tower in Moscow, making false statements about when discussions with Russia about a possible deal concluded. Cohen also pleaded guilty in August to breaking campaign finance laws by helping orchestrate payments to silence former Playboy model Karen McDougal and pornographic actress Stormy Daniels, who alleges to had sexual encounters with Trump before he was president.
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🇺🇸 **Tribune, Tronc And Beyond: A Slur, A Secret Payout And A Looming Sale**
*NPR* - <https://archive.fo/ySOWg>

Several months after taking control of the troubled Tribune Publishing Co. in 2016, Chicago investor Michael Ferro convened a session of corporate leaders from within his own news empire, including chief news executives from such storied papers as the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune and The Baltimore Sun.

The group of about 20 people trooped from Chicago's iconic Tribune Tower on Michigan Avenue to an upscale restaurant nearby. In a private room, participants dined on seafood and steak while Ferro, then the company's chairman, held forth on his plans.

His own net worth was newly in the nine figures. Associates and peers say Ferro held ambitions that were wide-ranging, even audacious, given the newspaper industry's stiff headwinds.

At the dinner, as at other moments, Ferro railed against those who he felt were impeding him — including perceived rivals and competitors. Among them: the Southern California billionaire and civic leader Eli Broad, whom Ferro called part of a **"Jewish cabal" that ran Los Angeles.**
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🇺🇸 **Authorities: Wave of hoax bomb threats made across US**
*AP* - <https://archive.fo/pTBtd>

A wave of bomb threats emailed Thursday to hundreds of schools, businesses and government buildings across the U.S. triggered searches, evacuations and fear — but there were no signs of explosives, and authorities said the scare appeared to be a crude extortion attempt.

Law enforcement agencies across the country dismissed the threats, saying they were meant to cause disruption and compel recipients into sending money and were not considered credible.

Some of the emails had the subject line: “Think Twice.” They were sent from a spoofed email address. The sender claimed to have had an associate plant a small bomb in the recipient’s building and that the only way to stop him from setting it off was by making an online payment of $20,000 in Bitcoin.

“We are currently monitoring multiple bomb threats that have been sent electronically to various locations throughout the city,” the New York City Police Department’s counterterrorism unit tweeted. “These threats are also being reported to other locations nationwide & are NOT considered credible at this time.”

Other law enforcement agencies also dismissed the threats, which were written in a choppy style reminiscent of the Nigerian prince email scam.

The Palm Beach County, Florida, sheriff’s office and the Boise, Idaho, police said they had no reason to believe that threats made to locations in those areas were credible. One of the emails wound up in a spam filter, Boise Police Chief William Bones said.

The FBI said it is assisting law enforcement agencies that are dealing with the threats.
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🇫🇷 **Strasbourg Christmas market attacker shot dead**
*BBC* - <https://archive.fo/AJTzB>

French police have shot dead the man said to have attacked Strasbourg's Christmas market on Tuesday, the interior minister has said.

Cherif Chekatt had been on the run since the attack.

Three people have died following the shooting at the popular attraction and several more were seriously injured.

Chekatt, 29, had a string of criminal convictions in France and Germany and had become a radical Islamist while in prison.

Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said three members of the National Police saw a suspicious individual on rue du Lazaret, in the Neudorf area of Strasbourg at 21:00 local time (20:00 GMT).

The officers stopped the man, who turned round and fired on the police. They fired back and "neutralised" the attacker, Mr Castaner said.

Hundreds of French police and security forces had been searching for Chekatt.

A large police operation had taken place in Neudorf earlier on Thursday, but ended apparently without results.
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🇫🇷 **Strasbourg manhunt: Counter terror police arrest fifth person over Christmas market shooting as gunman remains at large**
*Independent* - <https://archive.fo/ZuzEq>

The suspected gunman in the deadly attack at a Christmas market in Strasbourg remains at large as counter terror police detained a fifth person in connection with the shooting.

French authorities said the latest man arrested was a member of the “entourage” of main suspect Chérif Chekatt, who is thought to have opened fire at the market on Tuesday, killing three people and injuring at least 11 others.

Forces had cordoned off an area in the Neudorf neighbourhood of Strasbourg on Thursday, where a taxi driver is believed to have dropped Chekatt off immediately after he escaped the scene of the shooting.

A police official said units, including the elite Raid squad, were acting on “supposition only” that the 29-year-old suspect could be hiding nearby.

Four members of Chekatt’s family, including his mother, father and two of his six brothers, had already been detained by police for questioning in connection with the attack.

Hundreds of officers have been mobilised to find the 29-year-old since Tuesday evening, after the gunman opened fire at the famous market while it was packed with visitors and tourists.

Government officials said focus remains on locating the suspect “as soon as possible,” while forces were prepared to take him “dead or alive” in order to bring the manhunt to an end.

Police named Chekatt as the shooting suspect on Wednesday, revealing he was already being monitored as a terror risk by French security authorities.

Chekatt, a Strasbourg native, was described by police as a “delinquent” with close to 30 prior convictions, who had served prison sentences not just in France, but also in Germany and Switzerland.
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🇨🇦🇨🇳 **Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou granted bail, will live in Vancouver under electronic surveillance**
*Global News* - <https://archive.fo/3rruh>

Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou has been granted bail as she fights possible extradition to the U.S.

A British Columbia Supreme Court judge ordered that the Chinese telecom executive may be released under a number of conditions, including that she wear an ankle bracelet, surrender her passports, stay in Vancouver and its suburbs and confine herself to one of her two Vancouver homes from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m.

Meng was released on $10 million bail — $7 million in cash and $3 million in sureties.

Applause was heard in the courtroom’s public gallery after Justice William Ehrcke read his decision.

In his decision, Ehrcke reviewed the details of the case, including allegations the Chinese telecommunication giant used an unofficial subsidiary, Skycom, to conduct business in Iran in contravention of U.S. sanctions.

He said his main concern was whether the bail conditions outlined by Meng’s lawyers would sufficiently reduce the risk of her fleeing the country.

Ehrcke said the proposed conditions would reduce the risk of her not attending court to an “acceptable level.”
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🇺🇸 **Virgin arrives in space for the first time**
*Independent* - <https://archive.fo/vbRn7>

Virgin Galactic's space ship has arrived in space for the first time.

The journey is a major breakthrough in attempts to bring private space travel to the masses. And it marks the first time a US commercial human flight has reached space since 2011, when the space programme came to an end.

SpaceShipTwo, VSS Unity, took off in the early morning sunshine at the Mojave test centre in California. Soon after, it was released by its carrier plane around 43,000 feet and climbed up to altitudes of around 271,000 feet, touching the edge of space and marking a major achievement for the company.

As it arrived, the official Virgin Galactic Twitter account posted: "SpaceShipTwo, welcome to space."

Flown by two pilots, Mark Stucky and Nasa astronaut Frederick Sturckow, the aircraft's launch was watched by hundreds of the company's employees and family members on Thursday.
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🇺🇸 **Christie says he doesn’t want to be Trump’s chief of staff**
*Politico* - <https://archive.fo/oZyXg>

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said on Friday that he doesn't want to be Donald Trump's next chief of staff, leaving the president with a dwindling list of candidates and underscoring the chaos of the search for the top West Wing aide.

Christie, an early Trump supporter who led the White House transition effort before being ousted, made the announcement just a day after he met with the president to discuss possibly taking the role. Christie's firm statement also came shortly after reports emerged that he was the front-runner for the job, showing how quickly contenders' odds can rise and fall.

"It's an honor to have the President consider me as he looks to choose a new White House chief-of-staff," Christie wrote in a statement. "However, I've told the President that now is not the right time for me or my family to undertake this serious assignment. As a result, I have asked him to no longer keep me in any of his considerations of this post."

Christie has had a tumultuous relationship with Trump and his family — even though he and the president have been friends for over 15 years. Christie tangled with Trump on the campaign trail before dropping out of the 2016 presidential race, and he has long had tension with Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner for helping put Kushner's father in prison more than a decade ago when he was a U.S. attorney.
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🇺🇸 **Trump meets Christie as some advisers urge Kushner for chief of staff: sources**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/USRqM>

President Donald Trump on Thursday met with former New Jersey governor Chris Christie and considered him a top contender for the job of White House chief of staff, a position some advisers urged him to give to senior aide Jared Kushner, sources said.

A source familiar with Trump’s thinking said the president had a positive meeting with Christie, confirming a report by Axios.com, and considered him a top-tier candidate for the position.

Christie, a brash, tough-talking politician, was a contender for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016 but abandoned the attempt after a poor showing in the New Hampshire primary and subsequently endorsed Trump, becoming his adviser throughout the 2016 campaign.

Other sources said Trump was hearing appeals from some advisers to consider **Kushner**, a top White House aide who is married to Trump’s daughter Ivanka, for the chief of staff job.

But one source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said **Kushner was currently not inclined to pursue the position.**
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🇺🇸 **Mueller releases key documents on FBI interview with Michael Flynn**
*Fox News* - <https://archive.fo/gimo1>

Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team on Friday released key documents relating to the FBI’s questioning of former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

The documents – some of which are heavily redacted -- were released in response to U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan ordering prosecutors to hand over the government's files and "memoranda" related to the FBI’s questioning of Flynn by Friday afternoon.

he documents include then-FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe’s notes after talking with Flynn to arrange his interview with the FBI. It also includes a so-called "302" report documenting what Flynn told anti-Trump agent Peter Strzok and one other agent during their conversation at the White House. That July 2017 report, though, specifically came from an interview with Strzok in which the Flynn encounter was discussed -- and not the original Flynn interview.

The 302 report states that Strzok and the other agent “both had the impression at the time that Flynn was not lying or did not think he was lying.” It also states that several unnamed people back at FBI headquarters “later argued about the FBI’s decision to interview Flynn.”

The report described Flynn as “unguarded,” saying he “clearly saw the FBI agents as allies.” It also states Flynn discussed a number of “various subjects,” including things like hotels stayed in during the campaign, Trump’s “knack for interior design” and other issues un-related to their inquiry.

“Flynn was so talkative, and had so much time for them, that Strzok wondered if the national security adviser did not have more important things to do than have a such a relaxed, non-pertinent discussion with them,” it said.
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🇬🇧 **Chester Zoo on Fire: Firefighters were at the scene**
*BBC News*: <http://archive.fo/XpV2L>

The zoo tweeted the blaze was in its Monsoon Forest habitat.

One person was treated for the effects of smoke inhalation, but there were no reports of further injuries. **Fifteen** fire crews were involved.

Chester Firemen Station later tweeted that all Animals in the Habitat were accounted for.

David Clough, who lives across the road from the zoo, said: "We first saw signs of the fire shortly after 11.30 GMT."

He added "We were very worried for the people and animals that would have been in the building."

The zoo tweeted it had closed the whole site, adding: "Visitors have been evacuated and our response team is working alongside emergency services to bring the situation under control."

The zoo is to reopen in the week.
----------