| Denver officials won't hand over information sought by ICE Posted: 16 Jan 2020 07:07 PM PST  Denver officials on Thursday said they would not hand over information requested by U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement on four men wanted for deportation. ICE, the Homeland Security agency tasked with arresting and deporting people in the U.S. illegally, sent four administrative subpoenas earlier this week to law enforcement looking for information on three Mexican nationals and one Honduran who had been in custody in Denver. It was the first time subpoenas had been sent to a law enforcement agency — an escalation of the conflict between the Trump administration and so-called sanctuary cities.
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| Why Russia Doesn't Like (Or Have) Many Aircraft Carriers Posted: 18 Jan 2020 04:00 AM PST  Not enough money?
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| Off-duty Hong Kong police officer arrested for supporting protests Posted: 17 Jan 2020 10:41 AM PST  An off-duty Hong Kong police officer was arrested along with seven other people on Friday as they tried to put pro-democracy posters on a footbridge, police said. It's the first known case of a police officer being apprehended for supporting the massive demonstrations that have led to more than 6,500 arrests in the past seven months. The officer, 31, and the seven other people aged 14 to 61, were arrested at 3:00 am on Friday in Tuen Mun, a district in northwest Hong Kong.
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| Trump threatened 25% tariffs on European cars if Britain, Germany and France didn't put Iran on notice Posted: 17 Jan 2020 11:31 AM PST  The Trump administration warned European officials in three countries that if they didn't put Iran on notice about nuclear deal violations, the US government would slap a 25% tariff on all European cars.
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| Australian government to aid tourism industry as bushfires recede Posted: 18 Jan 2020 05:11 PM PST  The Australian government said on Sunday it will channel A$76 million ($52 million) to the tourism industry as recent heavy rains have dampened many of the monthslong bushfires, allowing the country to look to recovery. The number of fires burning across Australia's east and south coast has gone under 100 over the weekend for the first time in weeks, bringing relief from a disaster that has scorched an area roughly a third the size of Germany since September. "Our federal response to these devastating bushfires is comprehensive and unprecedented," Prime Minister Scott Morrison was cited in a statement announcing the aid.
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| Was the Taal Volcano eruption large enough to influence the climate? Posted: 17 Jan 2020 11:56 AM PST  The Taal volcano roared to life last weekend for the first time in more than 40 years, sending a massive plume of volcanic ash towering over the Philippines.This was the first time that Taal has erupted since 1977, an event that marked the end of an active period for the volcano that had begun in 1965. Taal did show signs of unrest periodically throughout the 1990s, but it did not erupt during that period, according to the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology.The eruption, which began on Jan. 12, 2020, has forced more than 125,000 people to evacuate the Philippine province of Batangas, where the volcano is located. A state of calamity has been declared for the zone surrounding the volcano, according to The Associated Press. People watch as Taal Volcano erupts Sunday Jan. 12, 2020, in Tagaytay, Cavite province, outside Manila, Philippines (AP Photo/Aaron Favila) During the height of the eruption, a large plume of searing hot volcanic ash blossomed approximately 50,000 feet, about 9.5 miles, into the atmosphere, with some materials making it into the stratosphere, according to observations from NASA. The eruption was accompanied by incredible displays of volcanic lightning, which made for breathtaking video footage, fountains of scalding lava and more than 400 earthquakes.The aftermath of the eruption had the country's president, Rodrigo Duterte, using no uncertain terms to describe the impact on the surrounding communities."It is now a no man's land," Duterte declared, according to Al Jazeera. "It's like heaven and earth fell on it."The fallout downwind of the eruption has blanketed areas dozens of miles away from the volcano itself, including Metro Manila, located about 101 km (63 miles) north of the eruption."Ash fallout to the ground can pose significant disruption and damage to buildings, transportation, water and wastewater, power supply, communications equipment, agriculture, and primary production leading to potentially substantial societal impacts and costs, even at thicknesses of only a few millimeters or inches," the USGS explains on its volcano hazards website. "Additionally, fine-grained ash, when ingested can cause health impacts to humans and animals. "The deteriorating air quality due to the ash has caused at least six people to be sent to a hospital in Tagaytay City in Cavite due to respiratory ailments, The Associated Press reported. One death has also been reported after a vehicle crashed on a slippery, ash-covered road.The abundance of ash in the atmosphere surrounding Taal snarled air traffic, causing more than 600 flights across the region to be canceled. If the fine volcanic ash enters the engines of an airplane, it can have disastrous results, endangering the lives of all those aboard the flight."Volcanoes do affect the weather, and some major ones affect the climate if you define climate as anything beyond a year or two," Dr. Joel Myers, Founder, President and Chairman of AccuWeather, said.In extremely powerful volcanic eruptions, the ash and aerosols released in the eruption can pass through the troposphere, the lowest layer of Earth's atmosphere, and penetrate into the stratosphere, the second layer of the atmosphere. If enough of the ash and other pollutants released in the eruption make it into the stratosphere, they can influence the climate around the globe. The boundary between the troposphere and stratosphere is about 6 miles (10 km) above the ground, a little higher than where commercial jets typically fly."The most significant climate impacts from volcanic injections into the stratosphere come from the conversion of sulfur dioxide to sulfuric acid, which condenses rapidly in the stratosphere to form fine sulfate aerosols," the USGS explained.These aerosols high in the atmosphere reflect light from the sun back into space, resulting in a cooling effect in Earth's lower atmosphere."There is no question that very large volcanic eruptions can inject significant amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere," scientists at the USGS say, but they also note that "the carbon dioxide released in contemporary volcanic eruptions has never caused detectable global warming of the atmosphere."Significant volcanic eruptions in the tropics can also have more of an influence on the global climate than those closer to the poles."Because of atmospheric circulation patterns, eruptions in the tropics can have an effect on the climate in both hemispheres while eruptions at mid or high latitudes only have an impact the hemisphere they are within," the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research explained. The time-series animation above shows the growth and spread of the volcanic plume from January 12-13, as observed by Japan's Himawari-8 satellite. (NOAA) The most powerful volcanic eruption in recorded history directly influenced temperatures around the globe for years and was responsible for what became known as the 'Year Without a Summer.'"One of the most dramatic examples" of this phenomenon over the last few 100 years was the eruption of Mount Tambora in 1815, Myers said. That eruption "caused a few years of cold weather, some of it extraordinary," he explained. "This includes 1816, the Year Without a Summer, when frost occurred in New England in every month of the year - affecting crops and on one July day when snow flurries were reported in Long Island Sound."AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Dan Kottlowski said that scientists are also unsure that the Tambora eruption was the sole factor behind the Year Without a Summer. Kottlowski, who is also AccuWeather's chief hurricane expert, said, "There are potentially other factors that couldn't be measured at the time or weren't understood at the time that could've been contributing factors to the unusual weather in the Northeast that year. "A more recent example of a volcano having a direct correlation with a decrease in the global temperature took place in the early 1990s following the cataclysmic eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines.The eruption of Mount Pinatubo was more powerful than that of Mount St. Helens, sending an enormous plume of volcanic ash and aerosols as high as 28 miles (40 km)."Nearly 20 million tons of sulfur dioxide were injected into the stratosphere in Pinatubo's 1991 eruptions, and dispersal of this gas cloud around the world caused global temperatures to drop temporarily (1991 through 1993) by about 1°F (0.5°C)," according to the USGS.Pinatubo's eruption was orders of magnitude larger than that of Taal's eruption earlier this year, so any impacts on the global climate through the balance of 2020 and into 2021 from the eruption are likely to be minimal or negligible.However, if the early January eruption of Taal is followed up by a series of larger eruptions that disperse large quantities of aerosols into the stratosphere, then the probability of the volcano influencing the global climate would increase.Taal has spewed smaller ash and steam explosions throughout the week, and as of Friday, it was still under alert for a hazardous eruption, The Associated Press reported. Officials have warned that "life-threatening" subsequent eruptions remain a real possibility.
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| Lara Trump is making fun of Joe Biden's stutter Posted: 17 Jan 2020 07:08 AM PST  Apparently Lara Trump didn't get the message about former Vice President Joe Biden's stutter.Trump, who's married to President Trump's son Eric, decided to take a low blow at Biden during a Women for Trump event in Iowa on Thursday night. "I feel kind of sad for Joe Biden," she said, because "I'm supposed to want him to fail at every turn, but every time he comes on stage or they turn to him I'm like 'Joe can you get it out? Let's get the words out Joe.'"> Lara Trump on the Dem field/debate "I feel kind of sad for Joe Biden...I'm supposed to want him to fail at every turn, but every time he comes on stage or they turn to him I'm like 'Joe can you get it out? Let's get the words out Joe.' ...The problem is that's their front runner" pic.twitter.com/oJgXRkIHbJ> > — Adam Brewster (@adam_brew) January 17, 2020Lara Trump probably should've heard by now that Biden worked to overcome the "debilitating stutter" he had as a child — a lesson former Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders learned when she mocked him for the same thing less than a month ago. Or perhaps she should've just followed first lady Melania Trump's "be best" advice and avoided sinking that low in the first place.More stories from theweek.com Trump is getting the band back together The Patriots only have one option French officials warn of violence from subgroups in protest movement
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| SUV on grounds of Beijing's Forbidden City sparks outrage Posted: 17 Jan 2020 11:43 PM PST  A Chinese woman sparked social media outrage in her country by posting photos of herself and a friend with a Mercedes-Benz on the grounds of Beijing's Forbidden City. The reaction prompted an apology from the management of China's 600-year-old former imperial palace. Vehicles have been banned since 2013 to protect the cultural dignity of the vast site and its hundreds of historic buildings, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.
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| Revealed: The Secrets Behind Russia's Crazy 100-Megaton Nuclear Torpedo Posted: 17 Jan 2020 09:00 PM PST  From fiction to reality.
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| 220 wounded as Lebanon protesters clash with police Posted: 18 Jan 2020 12:38 PM PST  Clashes between police and Lebanese protesters wounded more than 220 people on both sides Saturday in the highest such tally in three months of anti-establishment demonstrations. The sound of ambulance sirens rang out across Beirut as the Red Cross reported 80 wounded had been taken to hospital and 140 more were treated on site. The protest movement rocking Lebanon since October 17 revived this week as a deepening economic crisis increases pressure to form a new government.
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| TSA issues apology to Native American woman who had braids pulled by agent Posted: 18 Jan 2020 11:11 AM PST  Tara Houska 'humiliated' by TSA agent who 'snapped my braids like reins' during screening at Minneapolis-St Paul airportThe federal Transportation Security Administration has apologized to a Native American woman who said an agent at Minneapolis-St Paul international airport "pulled her braids" and said "giddy up!" when she took a flight from there this week."The agent said she needed to pat down my braids," tweeted Tara Houska, an indigenous rights advocate and attorney. "She pulled them behind my shoulders, laughed and said 'giddyup!' as she snapped my braids like reins. My hair is part of my spirit. I am a Native woman. I am angry, humiliated. Your 'fun' hurt."Houska, who is Ojibwe, added: "When I informed the middle-aged blonde woman who had casually used her authority to dehumanize and disrespect me, she said, 'Well it was just in fun, I'm sorry. Your hair is lovely.'"That is NOT an apology and it is NOT OK."According to the Washington Post, women of color have long experienced problems at TSA checkpoints, because natural, braided or twisted hair prompt "flags" on security devices, spurring "more invasive screenings".Bring Me The News, a Minnesota website, appeared to have been first to report Houska's experience.In a statement to the Guardian, the TSA said it had been "made aware of allegations made by a traveler about her screening experience at Minneapolis-St Paul International Airport [on] Monday morning."TSA officials investigated the incident and on Tuesday afternoon, TSA's federal security director for Minnesota, Cliff Van Leuven, spoke with the traveler. He apologized for actions and a comment that were insensitive and made by a TSA officer to the traveler during the screening experience."Van Leuven also wrote to airport staff."In the news last night and today," he said, "you've likely seen – or heard - of a TSA officer at MSP who was insensitive in screening the long braided hair of a Native American passenger Monday morning. Did it actually happen? Yes. Exactly as described? Yes."This morning, I reached out to the passenger via email. She called me back early this afternoon. I apologized for how she was treated during the screening of her braids – and we had a very pleasant conversation."She reiterated that she doesn't want the officer to get in trouble, but she is hoping we'll take the chance to continue to educate our staff about the many Native American Tribes/Bands in our state and region to better understand their culture."The airport apologized on Twitter.Houska could not immediately be reached for comment.
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| Lesotho Premier to Resign as Police Probe Wife’s Murder Posted: 17 Jan 2020 03:18 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Sign up to our Next Africa newsletter and follow Bloomberg Africa on TwitterLesotho's prime minister said he intends to step down, following increased calls for his resignation over the murder of his second wife, which police have linked to the woman he married a little over two months later.Thomas Thabane, 80, was inaugurated as prime minister of the tiny African mountain kingdom two days after his second wife was shot in June 2017. He previously held the post from 2012 to 2015, but fled to South Africa in 2014 after an alleged coup attempt."I have decided to retire from my position as the prime minister of Lesotho, and the time of my retirement will be officially announced when that time comes," Thabane said in the capital, Maseru, on Friday. His decision to resign had already been announced the previous day by Communications Minister Thesele Maseribane.Earlier this month, court documents showed that the country's police chief asked Thabane to clarify why his mobile phone number was linked to the crime scene, naming Thabane's current wife, Maesiah Thabane, as a suspect in the killing. Thabane had issued a notice to replace the police chief but withdrew it after the Lesotho High Court intervened.Maesiah has been on the run since the police issued an arrest warrant last week. Neither she nor her husband have commented on the murder case.The opposition on Wednesday said it would organize protests if Thabane doesn't resign within seven days, while a faction within his All Basotho Convention also urged him to step down.Lesotho, which is surrounded by South Africa, has one of the highest murder rates on the continent.(Updates with Thabane's statement in third paragraph)To contact the reporter on this story: Mathabiso Ralengau in Johannesburg at mralengau@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Paul Richardson at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net, Pauline Bax, Antony SguazzinFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| A startup company took billions of photos from Facebook and other websites to create a facial-recognition database, and hundreds of law-enforcement agencies are using it Posted: 18 Jan 2020 01:54 PM PST  Law enforcement is using a database of billions of photos scraped from social media sites, likely against policy, by an unknown startup company.
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| Discovery of unused disaster supplies angers Puerto Rico Posted: 18 Jan 2020 01:56 PM PST  People in a southern Puerto Rico city discovered a warehouse filled with water, cots and other unused emergency supplies, then set off a social media uproar Saturday when they broke in to retrieve goods as the area struggles to recover from a strong earthquake. With anger spreading in the U.S. territory after video of the event in Ponce appeared on Facebook, Gov. Wanda Vázquez quickly fired the director of the island's emergency management agency. The governor said she had ordered an investigation after learning the emergency supplies had been piled in the warehouse since Hurricane Maria battered Puerto Rico in September 2017.
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| U.K. monarchy will look smaller in future with Prince Charles Posted: 17 Jan 2020 06:29 AM PST  Prince Charles, the future king, has long been seen as a potential modernizer who wants a more modest monarchy in line with other European royal households — and the streamlining process has already begun with the astounding developments of recent months.
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| The Hole in the Impeachment Case Posted: 18 Jan 2020 03:30 AM PST  Thought experiment No. 1: Suppose Bob Mueller's probe actually proves that Donald Trump is under Vladimir Putin's thumb. Fill in the rest of the blanks with your favorite corruption fantasy: The Kremlin has video of the mogul-turned-president debauching himself in a Moscow hotel; the Kremlin has a bulging file of real-estate transfers through which Trump laundered racketeering proceeds for Putin's favored mobsters and oligarchs; or Trump is recorded cutting a deal to drop Obama-era sanctions against Putin's regime if Russian spies hack Democratic accounts.Thought experiment No. 2: Adam Schiff is not a demagogue. (Remember, this is fantasy.) At the very first televised hearing, when he alleged that President Trump told Ukrainian president Zelensky, "I want you to make up dirt on my political opponent . . . lots of it," Schiff was not defrauding the public. Instead, impeachment's Inspector Clouseau can actually prove that Trump was asking a foreign government to manufacture out of whole cloth evidence that Vice President Biden and his son were cashing in on the former's political influence (as opposed to asking that Ukraine look into an arrangement so objectively sleazy that the Obama administration itself agitated over what to do about it).What do these two scenarios have in common, besides being fictional? Answer: If either of them were real, we'd already be talking about President Pence's upcoming State of the Union address.This is the point that gets lost in all the endless chatter over impeachment strategy and procedure. Everything that is happening owes to the fact that we do not have an offense sufficiently grave for invocation of the Constitution's nuclear option. If we had one, the machinations and the posturing would be unnecessary — even ridiculous.Why are we talking about how Chairman Schiff, Speaker Pelosi, and House Democrats rushed through the impeachment inquiry without making a real effort to interview key witnesses?Why was the Democrats' impeachment gambit driven by the election calendar rather than the nature of the president's offense? Why were the timing of hearings and the unreasonable limits imposed on Republicans' ability to call witnesses dictated by the frantic rush to get done before Christmas recess -- to the point that Democrats cynically vacated a subpoena they'd served on a relevant administration witness, fearing a few weeks of court battles that they might lose?Why did Democrats grope from week to week in a struggle over what to call the misconduct they accused the president of committing – campaign finance, extortion, quid pro quo, bribery? How did they end up with an amorphous "abuse of power" case? How did they conclude that an administration that goes to court rather than instantly surrendering potentially privileged information commits obstruction?Why such tedious recriminations over adoption of Senate procedures that were approved by a 100–0 vote the last time there was an impeachment trial? Why all the kvetching over whether witnesses will be called when those procedures provide for the calling of witnesses in the likely event that 51 senators — after hearing nearly two weeks of presentation and argument from both sides -- want to hear from one or two of them?Why, with Election Day only ten months away, would Speaker Pelosi stoke an impeachment vote that could be perilous for many of her members, on the insistence that Trump was such a clear and present danger she could brook no delay, but then . . . sit on the impeachment articles for a month, accomplishing nothing in the interim except to undermine the presidential bids of several Senate Democrats, who will be trapped in Washington when they should be out campaigning with Iowa's caucuses just two weeks away?None of this would have happened if there had been a truly impeachable offense.Adam Schiff is a smart guy. He did not idly dream up a "make up dirt" parody. He framed it because he knows that's the kind of misconduct you would need to prove to warrant impeachment and removal of a president. In fact, Schiff could never prove that, but he figured parody is good enough for 2020 campaign purposes — and that's what this exercise is all about.If collusion with Russia had been fact rather than farce, Trump would never have made it to an impeachment trial. He'd have had to resign, Prior to November 8, 2016, Republicans were not the ones in need of convincing that Russia was a dangerous geopolitical threat. If it had been real collusion that brought Democrats around to that conclusion, the votes to impeach and remove would have been overwhelming.And the timing would have been irrelevant. If Americans had been seized by a truly impeachable offense, it would not matter whether Election Day was two years, two months, or two weeks away. The public and the political class would not tolerate an agent of the Kremlin in the Oval Office.If there were such egregious misconduct that the public was convinced of the need to remove Trump, such that two-thirds of the Senate would ignore partisan ties and do just that, there would be no partisan stunts. Democratic leaders would have worked cooperatively with their GOP counterparts, as was done in prior impeachments. They would have told the president: "Sure, you can have your lawyers here, and call whatever witnesses you want." There would be a bipartisan sense that the president had done profound wrong. There would be a sense of history, not contest. Congressional leaders would want to be remembered as statesmen, not apparatchiks.If there were a real impeachable offense, there would be no fretting about witnesses at the trial. Senate leaders would be contemplating that, after hearing the case extensively presented by both sides, there might well be enough votes to convict without witnesses. But if there were an appetite for witnesses, witnesses would be called . . . as they were in Watergate. And just as in Watergate, if the president withheld vital evidence of appalling lawlessness, the public would not be broadly indifferent to administration stonewalling.If there were an obviously impeachable offense, the garrisons of Fort Knox could not have stopped Nancy Pelosi from personally marching impeachment articles into the Senate the second the House had adopted them -- in what would have been an overwhelming bipartisan vote (of the kind that Pelosi, not long ago, said would be imperative for a legitimate impeachment effort).The Framers expected presidents to abuse their powers from time to time. And not just presidents. Our Constitution's theory of the human condition, and thus of governance, is that power is apt to corrupt anyone. It needs to be divided, and the peer components need to be incentivized to check each other. The operating assumption is that, otherwise, one component would accumulate too much power and inevitably fall prey to the tyrannical temptation. But as Madison observed, men are not angels. Separation of powers arms us against inevitable abuse, it does not prevent abuse from happening. Abuse is a given: Congress uses lawmaking power to encroach on the other branches' prerogatives; judges legislate from the bench, presidents leverage their awesome powers for political advantage. The expectation is not that government officials will never overreach; it is that when one branch does overreach, the others will bring it into line.That is the norm: corrective action or inaction, political pressure, naming and shaming, power of the purse, and so on. We expect to criticize, inveigh, even censure. We don't leap from abuse to expulsion. We don't expect routinely to expel members of Congress or impeach presidents and judges. That is reserved for historically extraordinary wrongs.On Ukraine, nothing of consequence came of President Trump's bull-in-a-china-shop excesses. Sure, they ought to be a 2020 campaign issue. Democrats, instead, would have us exaggerate them into historically extraordinary wrongs. For that, you need gamesmanship. If there were real impeachable misconduct, there would be no time or place for games.
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| Canada says black boxes from Iran crash should be sent to France Posted: 17 Jan 2020 09:10 AM PST  Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday urged Iran to send the black boxes from the passenger plane shot down by its forces to France for analysis and said the first remains of victims should soon arrive back in Canada. Trudeau told a news conference in Ottawa that France was one of the few countries with the ability to read the flight and cockpit data recorders from the jet, which he said were badly damaged. Iran says it shot down Ukrainian International Airlines flight 752 last week by accident, killing all 176 people aboard, 57 of whom were Canadian.
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| Liberia souring on George Weah at two-year mark Posted: 17 Jan 2020 06:25 PM PST  Dominic Kpadeh heaves a hammer over his head to crack a half-tonne rock in a northern suburb of Liberia's capital Monrovia, knowing his hard labour earns him far less than a year ago. Stories such as Kpadeh's are common in Liberia, where rampant inflation has left many people struggling and increasingly turning their anger on President George Weah. A former football icon whose goals for AC Milan and Paris St Germain dazzled fans, Weah came to power in January 2018, promising to invest in education and create jobs.
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| Nazi Leader Paraphrasing Costs Brazil Culture Secretary His Job Posted: 17 Jan 2020 08:18 AM PST ![Nazi Leader Paraphrasing Costs Brazil Culture Secretary His Job]( "Nazi Leader Paraphrasing Costs Brazil Culture Secretary His Job") (Bloomberg) -- Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro fired the country's culture secretary after he paraphrased notorious Nazi politician Joseph Goebbels in a video that stirred outrage in the nation.Roberto Alvim said that Brazilian art over the next decade will be "heroic" or "it will be nothing," similarly to remarks made by Goebbels decades ago, according to a video posted on social networks early on Friday. Within hours, the term "Goebbels" became one of the top trending topics on Twitter in Brazil, and lawmakers including Senate President Davi Alcolumbre, who is Jewish, called for Alvim's immediate removal.Music by Richard Wagner, who was Hitler's favorite composer, plays in the background of the video posted by the culture secretary. An official photo of Bolsonaro looms over him, while a cross and a Brazilian flag can also be seen.In a subsequent interview with a local radio station, Alvim denied that he was a Nazi and said he was unaware that he had copied part of a speech made by Goebbels. "It was an unfortunate rhetorical coincidence," he said. Alvim also said in a post on his Facebook page that "there is nothing wrong with the sentence."In a statement dismissing Alvim, Bolsonaro said that "unfortunate" remarks made it impossible for the secretary to remain in the job. "I reiterate our repudiation of totalitarian and genocidal ideologies," Bolsonaro said in the statement. "We also express our total and unrestricted support to the Jewish community."The remarks represent the latest source of public uproar under the administration of President Jair Bolsonaro, who rose to the nation's top job in part due to his non-conventional views. Bolsonaro has maintained a loyal support base, many of whom criticize the political left for being overly sensitive.Read More: Oscar-Nominated Netflix Film Is Slammed by Brazil's BolsonaroWhile lacking status as a ministry, Brazil's culture secretary oversees the nation's culture and entertainment and provides millions of reais in financing to projects in those areas. In the local radio interview later Friday, Alvim said that he had explained the misunderstanding to Bolsonaro, and that his explanation was accepted by the president.Hitler ConfidantGoebbels was a government minister and close confidant of Adolf Hitler. He was known for his virulent antisemitism and calls for extermination of Jewish people, as well as for his strong oratory skills.Alvim's remarks are unacceptable, according to a statement from Brazil's Israeli confederation, known as Conib. "A person with those thoughts should not command the culture of our country and should be removed from the post immediately," the statement said.In recent months, Bolsonaro has drawn international scrutiny by suggesting that NGOs were to blame for Amazon rainforest fires and making sarcastic comments about the wife of French President Emmanuel Macron. Before assuming the presidency, he downplayed Brazil's history of slavery and made offensive comments against groups including women.(Updats with firing of Brazil's top culture official)To contact the reporter on this story: Simone Iglesias in Brasília at spiglesias@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Walter Brandimarte at wbrandimarte@bloomberg.net, ;Juan Pablo Spinetto at jspinetto@bloomberg.net, Matthew MalinowskiFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Pakistani court hands down 55-year sentences to 86 Islamists Posted: 16 Jan 2020 11:27 PM PST  A Pakistani court has sentenced 86 members of a radical Islamist party to 55-year prison terms each for taking part in violent rallies in 2018 over the acquittal of a Christian woman in a blasphemy case, a party official said Friday. The verdicts, unusually harsh for Pakistan, were announced late Thursday night by the court in Rawalpindi, a garrison city near Islamabad. Pir Ejaz Ashrafi, a senior leader of the radical Tehreek-e-Labbaik party, said the sentences would be appealed.
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| Meghan and Harry will need taxpayer funded security 'for years to come' Posted: 18 Jan 2020 11:30 AM PST  The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will need to be protected at taxpayers' expense against the threat of terror attacks and kidnap for years to come, security experts have said. Police and former security chiefs fear the couple will continue to be at risk from organised terror groups, political fanatics and lone obsessives long after they separate from the Royal family. Talks are understood to be taking place at senior levels over the best way of providing protection for Meghan and Prince Harry as they divide their time between Britain and their new life in North America. But there are fears among some experts that palace and government officials may be underestimating both the potential threat and what is required to protect the couple against it. Dai Davies, who was Head of Royal Protection from 1994 to 1998 and former Chief Superintendent (Divisional Commander) Metropolitan Police Service, said: "We have to learn the lessons of history and act on them. Anyone in charge of security has to think the impossible and then think it again and I fear there is not enough of that going on by the experts currently in charge. "One thing you can be sure of is that terrorists and others who pose a threat are thinking about it all the time." Mr Davies said the three main threats come from jihadist terrorists targeting Prince Harry, who also served in Afghanistan; lone 'fixateds' and royal obsessives; and right wing extremists with an hatred of Meghan as a woman of colour marrying into the royal family. Minister and senior police officers are thought to be determined to avoid the mistakes made over Diana, Princess of Wales, who in 1993 turned down publicly funded police protection except when she was with her sons William and Harry or staying at Kensington Palace. That left her relying on private security at other times, leading to her being in the hands of the Ritz Hotel's head of security Herni Paul on the night she died when their car crashed in the Pont de l'Alma underpass as he tried to evade photographers following Diana. Her bodyguard, Trevor Rees-Jones was badly injured in the crash, on 31 August 1997. Ken Wharfe, who served as Diana's royal protection officer for six years, resigned from the position in 1993, has since said that if he and his team were working with the Princess in 1997, they may have been able to prevent her death. Mr Davies, who said there have been far more plots against the Royals than publicly acknowledged, added: "We don't want the situation where Harry and Meghan are being followed, without protection, by paparazzi or people with a fixation and we need to be sure that protection is of the highest level." But he added that the high cost of providing security may cause resentment among British taxpayers if the Sussexes begin to earn large sums of private income outside of any Royal duties they continue to carry out. "The question is whether the British public will wear the cost of security, even if it is miniscule in real terms, over a long period," said Mr Davies, who was in charge of protection for the Queen and the Royal family throughout the UK and worldwide. Lord West of Spithead, who was a security minister from 2007 to 2010, said that Harry and Meghan would be expected to make a contribution towards the cost of their security should they start earning a large amount of private income. But he said there was no question that high levels of police protection would have to be provided by the British government into the future. "We have got an obligation to provide security for one of the Queen's sons and his family and that's a long term obligation," he said. "It would be nice to work out an arrangement with the Canadians, but we can't not provide that protection ourselves, regardless. Mike Penning MP, who was police minister from 2014 to 2016 and went on to serve as justice and Armed Forces minister, said: "It doesn't matter who they are, if they are at risk we have a duty to protect them, it's as simple as that. That requirement should be based on any risk assessment made by our intelligence services and by the Canadians."
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| The United States' main allies are abandoning Trump as his threats to world leaders backfire Posted: 18 Jan 2020 06:31 AM PST  European leaders are talking openly about loosening Europe's alliance with the United States as President Donald Trump alienates long-standing allies.
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| The 1 Downside to Building Fake Islands China Didn't See Coming Posted: 16 Jan 2020 11:48 PM PST  Too much land to defend?
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| Remains of fallen US soldier returned to Fort Bragg Posted: 18 Jan 2020 04:08 PM PST  The remains of a paratrooper who was killed a week ago in Afghanistan have been returned to his family in the U.S. The family of Staff Sgt. Ian McLaughlin greeted his flag-draped casket at Pope Army Airfield at Fort Bragg on Saturday, The Fayetteville Observer reported. The 29-year-old from Newport News, Virginia, was killed Jan. 11 by an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan.
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| U.S. sanctions Iranian commander over Mahshahr killings Posted: 18 Jan 2020 11:59 AM PST  The U.S. State Department said on Saturday it had imposed sanctions on a general of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps who commanded units blamed for a massacre of protesters in November. The U.S. State Department has said previously it had received videos of the Revolutionary Guards opening fire without warning on protesters in Mahshahr county in southwest Iran.
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| Austria's 'ghetto' language classes stir segregation fears Posted: 17 Jan 2020 06:38 PM PST  Every morning Abulrahman leaves his normal primary school lessons in Vienna and joins about 20 other children for three hours to learn to read, write and speak German. Despite conservative Chancellor Sebastian Kurz's new coalition partners, the Greens, having expressed concerns about the controversial policy, it looks set to continue. Kurz has pledged to maintain his anti-immigration reforms -- with junior partner, the Greens, conceding -- including the special classes, which the government argues allow children with weak German skills to learn at their own pace without holding others back.
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| Abandoned by Allies, EU Censure Pushes Orban Toward EPP Exit Posted: 17 Jan 2020 01:13 AM PST ![Abandoned by Allies, EU Censure Pushes Orban Toward EPP Exit]( "Abandoned by Allies, EU Censure Pushes Orban Toward EPP Exit") (Bloomberg) -- Hungary's prime minister said he was on the verge of quitting the European Union's biggest political group after it backed a resolution demanding that the bloc intensify efforts to rein in his perceived democratic backsliding.In a joint resolution on Hungary and Poland, the European Parliament said Thursday that EU probes into the rule of law in both countries haven't resulted in improvements. EU lawmakers also called for additional mechanisms to reinforce the bloc's ability to discipline rogue member states.Pointedly for Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, whose ruling Fidesz party is in the EPP, a large majority of the umbrella group supported the resolution. The EPP is considering whether to expel Fidesz over the dismantlement of checks and balances in Hungary."We were within a centimeter of quitting the EPP," Orban told state radio in an interview on Friday. "When our allies betray us -- and the majority of the EPP betrayed us -- we have no place there."The EPP suspended Fidesz in March over the erosion of the rule-of-law. Orban reiterated that he may preemptively withdraw his party from the EPP, and if he does he will most likely create a new EU umbrella platform.Orban has already held talks about possible cooperation with Poland's nationalist ruling Law & Justice Party, which is a member of a smaller group in the European Parliament."Things can't go on like this, that's for sure," Orban said, adding that the only reason he didn't withdraw Fidesz from the EPP already was because Italian, French and Spanish members voted against the resolution. "That gives us some hope, though it's waning."(Updates with Orban comments in fourth and last paragraphs.)\--With assistance from Veronika Gulyas.To contact the reporter on this story: Zoltan Simon in Budapest at zsimon@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Balazs Penz at bpenz@bloomberg.net, Andrea Dudik, Michael WinfreyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Inside India's Large and Deadly Nuclear Weapons Program Posted: 17 Jan 2020 03:30 PM PST  All you want to know.
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| The most iconic tourist attraction in 26 countries around the world Posted: 18 Jan 2020 09:32 AM PST  There's something powerful about finally seeing a famous landmark or natural wonder in person instead of on a postcard (or on Instagram).
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| The UK is preparing to ignore Trump's threats and strike a deal with Huawei as Boris Johnson is told to 'call their bluff' Posted: 17 Jan 2020 01:16 AM PST  Boris Johnson's administration is distancing itself from Trump amid repeated threats from the president to the United States' closest ally.
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| Why Did The U.S. Navy Surface 3 Submarines At The Same Time In Asia? Posted: 18 Jan 2020 07:42 AM PST  A stern message to China.
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| Zimbabwe gripped by drama of vice president's nasty divorce Posted: 17 Jan 2020 04:15 AM PST  Black magic, drug addiction, attempted murder and a wrestling match over luxury cars and overseas properties. Zimbabwe is riveted by the explosive charges being made in the divorce of First Vice President Constantino Chiwenga and his wife Marry. A glimpse of the luxurious lives of Zimbabwe's ruling elite, as the rest of the country grapples with economic collapse, hyperinflation and hunger, is emerging in the divorce papers filed in court.
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| Ten charred bodies found in vehicle in violence-plagued Mexican state Posted: 18 Jan 2020 10:08 AM PST ![Ten charred bodies found in vehicle in violence-plagued Mexican state]( "Ten charred bodies found in vehicle in violence-plagued Mexican state") Mexican prosecutors are investigating the discovery of a burned-out vehicle containing the charred bodies of 10 people in the southwestern state of Guerrero, authorities said late on Friday. Police made the grisly discovery on a country road in the municipality of Chilapa de Alvarez after locals saw the vehicle on fire and alerted authorities, state security spokesman Roberto Alvarez said in a statement published on Facebook.
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| Democrats release new debate qualification thresholds Posted: 17 Jan 2020 02:55 AM PST  Instead of just meeting a polling and donor threshold as required for previous debates, candidates now have an alternate way to participate
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| Flybe Rescue May Include U.K. Subsidies for Some Routes Posted: 17 Jan 2020 08:44 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Want the lowdown on European markets? In your inbox before the open, every day. Sign up here.The U.K. government is considering subsidizing some routes operated by regional airline Flybe as part of the rescue deal struck with the owners of the country's biggest domestic carrier, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.Any decision to grant Flybe routes so-called public service obligation status would come on top of a deferral of air passenger duty payments and a proposed government loan, said the person, who asked not to be identified discussing details not disclosed in the initial blueprint.Only one Flybe service, from London Heathrow airport to Newquay in the far southwest of England, currently benefits from U.K. government aid through the PSO mechanism. Another, linking Cardiff with the island of Anglesey, is funded by the Welsh Assembly.Prime Minister Boris Johnson this week took the unusual step of coming to the aid of Flybe as it teetered on the brink of collapse. Johnson said he intervened because a loss of the airline would have left some of the most economically challenged parts of the country with diminished transport links, given the relative lack of suitable alternatives such as high-speed trains.The Department for Transport "will lead the review and consider a number of options for ensuring that we continue to have good regional connectivity, including existing policy levers such as PSOs," it said in a statement to Bloomberg. "It is important that all options are properly considered."A representative for Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd., part of the Connect Airways consortium that owns Flybe, declined to comment. A call to Flybe wasn't immediately returned.'Communications Fiasco'British Airways owner IAG SA said Flybe's rescue had become a "communications fiasco," in response to news on the likely addition of PSO routes. "The sooner the government comes clean, the better," it said in an email. IAG has filed a complaint about the tax deferral to the European Union."We stand ready to discuss with the U.K. the compatibility of proposed public measures with EU state aid rules," the European Commission said in a statement.Further details of the rescue emerged Thursday, with Stobart Group, another partner in the consortium, saying it injected 9 million pounds ($12 million). Based on their holdings, Virgin would have supplied a similar sum and private-equity firm Cyrus Capital provided 12 million pounds. That's on top of 110 million pounds committed after they bought Flybe in 2019.An evaluation of PSO designations will begin immediately, while a state loan to Flybe granted on commercial terms is likely to be finalized in coming weeks, said the person.The APD deferral, which the government says concerns a debt of less than 10 million pounds, will apply for 60 to 90 days, according to the person. A review of the tax regime for domestic routes could see the 13 pound charge levied once rather than on outbound and return flights, the person said. The outcome of deliberations will be revealed in Chancellor of the Exchequer Sajid Javid's March budget.Johnson has faced criticism for stepping in to save Flybe after Monarch Airlines, Flybmi and Thomas Cook Group Plc all failed in the past 2 1/2 years, with environmental campaigners saying the rescue was inconsistent with the government's commitment to slash carbon emissions.Ryanair Holdings Plc, which is based in Ireland but counts the U.K. as its biggest market, said Flybe's business model is unsustainable and that a company backed by Virgin founder Richard Branson and a private equity firm shouldn't qualify for government help. It also said the APD tax "holiday" should extend to competitors including Ryanair, BA and EasyJet Plc.Stobart shares rose as much as 2.9% in London. Virgin and Cyrus aren't listed. Ryanair and EasyJet pared gains.Cities Cut Off and Airports at Risk: What's at Stake at FlybeFlybe was delisted in March after its purchase by Connect Airways for 2.2 million pounds. The carrier, which employs 2,400 people, has struggled for years with the narrow margins on regional routes, where demand is lower, together with fluctuating fuel prices and uncertainty around Brexit.Under European Union transport law, governments or other authorities can offer subsidized PSO contracts in an auction for those routes deemed vital for the economic and social development of a region, and which would otherwise not be attractive to an airline.There were 176 such routes in the bloc as of Sept. 18 last year. The U.K. government currently funds three PSOs; Flybe's Newquay flights - which will switch to London Gatwick from Heathrow this summer -- and trips from the U.K. capital to Dundee in Scotland and Derry in Northern Ireland, both flown by smaller regional carrier Loganair.Loganair also operates most of the 18 PSOs in Scotland funded by the Edinburgh government and local authorities to provide links between outlying islands and to the mainland.(Updates with European Commission comment in eighth paragraph)\--With assistance from Thomas Penny, Siddharth Philip, Jeremy Diamond and Aoife White.To contact the reporters on this story: Christopher Jasper in London at cjasper@bloomberg.net;Guy Johnson in London at gjohnson87@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Kenneth Wong at kwong11@bloomberg.netFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| US dumps huge amounts of sand on Miami Beach to tackle climate change erosion Posted: 17 Jan 2020 01:14 PM PST  Dozens of trucks have started dumping hundreds of thousands of tons of sand on Miami Beach as part of US government measures to protect Florida's tourist destinations against the effects of climate change. "We have erosion hotspots," said Stephen Leatherman, an expert on beaches and the environment at Florida International University. Leatherman -- known locally as "Dr Beach" -- said that rising sea levels, triggered by climate change, are causing the accelerated erosion of the famous beach, as well as coastal storms and in particular hurricanes.
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| MS-13 inmates sent to restricted unit after prison stabbing Posted: 18 Jan 2020 01:59 PM PST ![MS-13 inmates sent to restricted unit after prison stabbing]( "MS-13 inmates sent to restricted unit after prison stabbing") The federal Bureau of Prisons is moving some MS-13 gang members in its custody into more restricted housing at certain high-security facilities across the U.S. after a gang stabbing in a Virginia prison, two people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press on Saturday. A brawl broke out Wednesday at the prison known as USP Lee between the MS-13 leader and a fellow inmate associated with the Mexican Mafia, and the gang member was stabbed, the people said. The Bureau of Prisons said in a statement that the inmate was injured but survived the attack.
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| Viking to set sail on the Great Lakes with cruises starting or ending in Milwaukee Posted: 17 Jan 2020 05:54 AM PST  The Viking cruises will all either start or end at the Port of Milwaukee in 2022. The port has scheduled 14 cruise ship stops for the 2020 season.
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| Antifa Group to March With Pro-Gun Protesters at Virginia Rally Posted: 17 Jan 2020 05:59 AM PST  An annual 2nd Amendment rally in Richmond, Va. scheduled for this Monday will see gun rights activists marching alonside an unusual ally: the local Antifa chapter.While Antifa groups are most famous for sometimes-violent protests against right-wing groups, the Richmond-based Antifa Seven Hills is joining 2nd Amendment supporters in support of gun rights."I think it's been pretty important for us to focus on the fact that gun control in America has a legacy of racist enforcement," Seven Hills spokesperson James told Vice, requesting that his last name be withheld from publication. "Like taking guns away from black people, because black people were perceived as a threat to property and the sanctity of the state."Several leftist gun rights groups have formed in response to the election of President Trump. This includes Redneck Revolt, which was established in 2016, and the Socialist Rifle Association, which was formed in 2018 and has chapters in all 50 states."I think what's particular about the South is that we have to be a bit more creative and sensitive to the people around us — instead of fulfilling some sort of meme of what antifa is," James said. "That's really what we're trying to work against right now, especially by talking to conservatives and showing we aren't just a black-clad group of rabble-rousers who are out for attention and have jobs funded by George Soros.""The presence of an armed left is not discussed, it's not understood," he added.The rally itself became the subject of controversy after Virginia Governor Ralph Northam declared a state of emergency citing "credible intelligence" of "groups with malicious plans" to appear at the rally. The FBI on Thursday arrested three suspected neo-Nazis who were planning to attend the rally. One of the men is a former Canadian army reservist, and all were linked to a group called The Base that aims to establish a state populated only by whites."No one wants another incident like the one we saw in Charlottesville," Northam told reporters. "We will not allow that mayhem and violence to happen here.
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| Israel's F-35i 'Adir' Stealth Fighter Is a Beast (And Now A Second Squadron Is Ready) Posted: 18 Jan 2020 01:50 AM PST  Iran, you might want to read this.
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| Woman pleads guilty to killing husband by putting eye drops in his water Posted: 17 Jan 2020 04:23 AM PST  A South Carolina woman pleaded guilty to fatally poisoning her husband by putting eye drops in his water for days. She was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
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