Noticias Do Dia

The U.S. joined Saudi Arabia, Russia and Kuwait in blocking the incorporation of a key scientific study into global climate talks in Poland. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, in a landmark report released in October, warned of the dire effects of a global average temperature rise of 1.5 Celsius, and outlined ways to avoid it.

On Saturday, the four major oil and gas producing nations acted together to block endorsement of the study, which was commissioned at the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris. 

Read More: Al Gore: Trump administration tried to “bury” climate change report by releasing it on Black Friday

“I think it was a key moment,” Alden Meyer of the Union of Concerned Scientists, told The Associated Press. “The fact that a group of four countries were trying to diminish the value and importance of a scientific report they themselves, with all other countries, requested three years ago in Paris is pretty remarkable.”

The chart below by Statista shows how global carbon dioxide emission levels have risen since 1990.

This chart shows how global carbon dioxide emission levels have risen since 1990. COP24 is attempting to build on the Paris climate deal and develop more climate-conscious policies to limit damaging emissions. Statista

The report was widely hailed by world leaders as a key step in efforts to tackle climate change. But negotiations at the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Katowice, Poland, hit an obstacle on Friday when the U.S., Russia, Saudia Arabia and Kuwait objected to the conference “welcoming” the study.

Instead, they had wanted the conference to “note” the study, as they didn’t endorse its findings. 

“The United States was willing to note the report and express appreciation to the scientists who developed it, but not to welcome it, as that would denote endorsement of the report,” the U.S. State Department said in a statement. “As we have made clear in the IPCC and other bodies, the United States has not endorsed the findings of the report.”

Delegates criticized the countries for blocking the report’s endorsement.

“It’s not about one word or another. It is us being in a position to welcome a report we commissioned in the first place,” said Ruenna Haynes, a diplomat from St. Kitts and Nevis.

“If there is anything ludicrous about the discussion it’s that we can’t welcome the report,” she said to applause, reported the BBC.

In a tweet on Sunday, U.S. Senator Kamala Harris of California emphasized the need for the U.S. to take action to tackle climate change. 

“America can—and must—meet the challenge of climate change head-on. It’s up to us to do what is necessary to secure a safe, healthy future for generations to come,” she tweeted. 

The move casts doubt on whether delegates will be able to reach a consensus on measures to tackle climate change by Friday, when the conference concludes.

“It’s really an embarrassment for the world’s leading scientific superpower to be in this position of having to disbelieve a report that was written by the world’s scientific community, including a large number of pre-eminent U.S. scientists,” Meyer said.

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Source Article from https://www.newsweek.com/us-refuses-welcome-landmark-climate-change-report-alongside-russia-and-saudi-1251633

On Tuesday, Britain’s Parliament will vote on Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal, a long, legally-binding agreement on terms to withdraw from the European Union, and a vaguer set of political pledges for the country’s future relationship with the bloc.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/12/10/world/europe/may-brexit-vote-deal-fail.html

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The European Court of Justice said Monday that the U.K. can cancel Brexit without asking for permission from other European Union (EU) member states.

Sterling jumped to day’s high, up about 0.12 percent to $1.2758 on the back of the news.

The decision followed the guidance given last week by a non-binding opinion to the court from a top European law officer.

The case was brought by a group of Scottish lawmakers who sought a legal ruling on if the U.K.’s request under Article 50 to leave the EU could be unilaterally revoked before the Brexit deadline of March 29, 2019.

Article 50 allows a country to trigger the process that takes them out of Europe’s political and economic union. U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May invoked the exit clause in March 2017.

What the court heard

The European court took evidence from the group of lawmakers who said they wanted clarity to help decisions made by the U.K. Parliament. The British government told judges that they opposed the unilateral right, arguing that the case is a politically-motivated bid to frustrate Brexit.

The court also heard from lawyers representing the European Commission and Council of the European Union — which is the executive arm of the EU and the institution that represents member states’ governments. They argued that revoking Article 50 should involve unanimous agreement from the other 27 nations.

The EU is worried that allowing a country to trigger Article 50 and then reverse the decision with no additional input could become a tool for those unsatisfied with the policies of Brussels. For the U.K. government and pro-Brexit politicians, there are concerns it could pave the way for a second referendum, giving the public an option of remaining in the EU.

Will it make any difference?

Not according to the U.K. government. May’s team have stuck fast to the message that her deal is the only reasonable outcome of Brexit and that Britain will definitely leave the European Union on March 29 next year

In a statement, the Department for Exiting the EU further played down the case’s importance: “The government has made submissions to the CJEU. In any event, the government will not be revoking Article 50.”

On Tuesday, Theresa May will put her Brexit proposal to the test in the U.K. Parliament. Should her motion fail to satisfy lawmakers, the possibility of pressing pause or cancelling Brexit may increase.

The House of Commons would still need to vote to stop Article 50 but those against Brexit can highlight that, beyond Westminster, there is now no legal impediment to stopping the divorce.

Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/10/ecj-confirms-that-uk-can-stop-brexit.html

Trump said over the weekend that John Kelly would be leaving the chief of staff position by the end of the year. However, his reported top pick to replace Kelly ― Nick Ayers, Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff ― said he’s leaving the administration by the end of the year as well. 

Source Article from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-chief-of-staff-twitter-suggestions_us_5c0e0a08e4b035a7bf5ca15a

Former Wisconsin Gov. Scott McCallum (R) is calling for Gov. Scott Walker (R) to reject some of the measures the state legislature passed to limit incoming Democratic officials’ authority. 

“It appears completely political, (like) a power grab,” McCallum told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Saturday, before adding that Walker has the chance to avoid the “appearance of sour grapes.”

McCallum, who served as governor from 2001-2003, noted that Walker should be “open and transparent and reach out in a very public fashion” to discuss the lame-duck legislation with incoming Gov. Tony Evers (D). 

Evers defeated Walker in the Wisconsin gubernatorial race in November.

The Republican-led Wisconsin state Senate passed measures last week that would curb power from Evers and state Attorney General-elect Josh Kaul (D). They also passed a measure to reduce the duration of early voting in the state.

McCallum told the newspaper that Walker should veto some of the proposals passed by the Legislature. He said that both parties have played political games in the past, but that “we seem to be going down a very slippery slope of personal power over public policy.”

“It’s the wrong time to do it,” McCallum said of the Republicans’ move to alter policies after Democrats were elected into the governor and attorney general positions. “It’s not done for the right reason. It is not transparent. It is not a good way to create public policy.”

“There are going to be differences over executive control and legislative control, but you don’t play it out in the dark of night,” he added. “You don’t make the changes after an election without hearings, without having the public involved, without having a vetting process.  You can understand why there is frustration by the public with the system.”

Evers said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that he is considering all of his options for an effort to push back against state Republicans’ initiatives. He noted that he’s spoken with Walker over the phone to urge him to veto legislation. 

But he said the outgoing governor was “noncommittal.” 

“I’m not particularly encouraged at this point in time, but it’s around Scott Walker’s legacy,” Evers said. “He has the opportunity to change this and actually validate the will of the people.” 

Source Article from https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/420493-ex-wisconsin-gop-governor-accuses-state-republicans-of-power-grab-calls


Protesters gather in front the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Washington after the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. | Mark Wilson/Getty Images

Lobbying

Saudi Arabia’s typically formidable lobbying operation has gone quiet as the Senate prepares to vote on the resolution.

When the Senate voted in March on a resolution to withdraw American military support for Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman personally visited Capitol Hill to urge senators to oppose it.

Now the resolution has returned, but the crown prince has not. Saudi Arabia’s typically formidable lobbying operation has gone quiet as the Senate prepares to vote on the resolution again, a sign of the kingdom’s diminished influence in Washington after the killing of the journalist and Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi two months ago.

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The Saudi embassy has emailed Senate offices touting what it says are humanitarian efforts in Yemen, but lobbyists for the kingdom have largely disengaged since Khashoggi was killed in October at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. The Saudi ambassador to the U.S., Prince Khalid bin Salman, only returned to Washington last week after nearly two months away.

And the offices of three Republican senators who joined with Democrats late last month to advance the resolution, which calls for yanking U.S. backing for Saudi efforts in Yemen, said they hadn’t heard from any lobbyists for the Saudis ahead of a final vote on the bill.

“There’s not the same kind of environment for the Saudi government to be welcomed on the Hill,” said Kate Gould, a lobbyist for the Friends Committee on National Legislation, a Quaker nonprofit that’s been advocating for the resolution.

The Central Intelligence Agency’s conclusion that Mohammed bin Salman likely ordered Khashoggi’s death, along with growing international outrage over the humanitarian crisis in Yemen, have curtailed Saudi Arabia’s influence in Washington. Five of the small army of lobbying firms that worked for the kingdom quit after the death of Khashoggi, who lived in Virginia and wrote for The Washington Post.

One Trump administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, suggested the Saudis had been slow to appreciate how much their position in Washington had eroded. “I don’t think they quite understand how strong the feelings are here in this town, how significant [Khashoggi’s killing] is for the reputation and credibility of Saudi Arabia,” the official said.

But one person familiar with the Saudi lobbying efforts, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to talk to reporters, said the Saudis “are self-aware” and realized that “direct advocacy on Yemen is made more difficult” by the anger over Khashoggi’s killing.

The Trump administration, meanwhile, is working to defeat the Yemen resolution, which is widely seen as a way to rebuke Saudi Arabia. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis met with senators the day of a vote on the resolution last month to talk up the importance of the American alliance with Saudi Arabia. Pompeo cautioned that pulling back in the region would strengthen Iran — which is backing the Houthi rebels the Saudis are fighting — as well as the Islamic State and al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

While senators voted to advance the resolution anyway, “it’s still more effective for Secretary Mattis and Mike Pompeo to be lobbying on it” than anything the Saudi government could be doing, the person familiar with the Saudi lobbying efforts said.

The Saudi embassy has made some limited efforts to burnish the kingdom’s image among senators by emailing Senate staffers. One email sent last week, which was obtained by POLITICO, touted the “King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center’s on going [sic] efforts to reduce risks associated with landmines that have been indiscriminately planted in Yemen by the Iran-backed Houthi militia.”

But lobbyists for the Saudis don’t appear to be making more substantial efforts to help derail the resolution.

Every Democratic senator voted to advance the resolution last month, along with 14 Republicans. But the offices of three of those Republicans— Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, Jeff Flake of Arizona and Rob Portman of Ohio — told POLITICO they hadn’t heard from any lobbyists representing the Saudis.

“The only voice that’s really been supporting the Saudis at this point has been the administration,” a staffer for another senator said.

The absence of a major push to kill the resolution stands in stark contrast to previous Saudi lobbying efforts. When Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) first introduced the Yemen resolution in February, Saudi Arabia’s lobbyists leaped to respond.

Lobbyists at Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, which represents the Saudi government, called, emailed and met with staffers for more than a dozen senators to discuss the resolution, according to a disclosure filing, and they also reached out to aides to Rep. Ed Royce (R-Calif.), the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Weeks later, a Brownstein Hyatt lobbyist emailed a dozen members of Congress to invite them to dinner with the crown prince.

Saudi Arabia had previously flexed its muscle in Washington by spending millions of dollars to mount an all-out push in 2016 to kill legislation that allowed families of victims of the Sept. 11 attacks to sue the kingdom. (The bill ultimately passed overwhelmingly over President Barack Obama’s veto.)

Lobbyists for Saudi Arabia also mobilized last year during a diplomatic standoff between Qatar and the Saudis and their allies. Qatar scrambled to hire Washington lobbying firms to counter those retained by Saudi Arabia at the time.

Five lobbying and public relations firms the Saudis had on retainer dropped the kingdom as a client in the wake of Khashoggi’s death, although several prominent firms continue to work for Saudi Arabia, including Hogan Lovells and Brownstein Hyatt.

Still, the Qatari government appears confident enough that it’s seized the upper hand in the ongoing diplomatic dispute that one person familiar with Qatar’s lobbying efforts said the country’s lobbyists weren’t pressing senators to support the anti-Saudi resolution.

“The boulder’s just rolling down the hill,” the person said. “No one needs to help push it.”

Nahal Toosi contributed reporting.

Source Article from https://www.politico.com/story/2018/12/10/saudi-arabia-senate-vote-yemen-1052216

December 10 at 9:50 AM

President Trump asserted Monday that payments to buy the silence of two women about alleged affairs were not illegal campaign contributions, as federal prosecutors contend, but instead a “simple private transaction.”

In morning tweets, Trump sought to counter assertions in a court filing Friday that he had directed his former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, to try to silence the women in a bid to influence the 2016 presidential election.

Cohen has pleaded guilty to the alleged crime, saying he acted at Trump’s direction.

In his tweets, Trump suggested that the payments were being scrutinized only because investigators have not been able to find evidence of collusion between his 2016 campaign and Russia.

He also blamed Democrats for the scrutiny — a day after some high-profile members of the party appeared on Sunday talk shows and suggested Trump faces serious legal jeopardy.

“So now the Dems go to a simple private transaction, wrongly call it a campaign contribution, which it was not,” Trump wrote.

He further asserted that even if the payments could be considered campaign contributions, he should be facing a civil case rather than a criminal case. And he said, Cohen should be held responsible, not him.

“Lawyer’s liability if he made a mistake, not me,” Trump wrote. “Cohen just trying to get his sentence reduced. WITCH HUNT!”

In the tweets, Trump also twice misspelled “smoking gun” as “smocking gun” as he quoted a commentator on Fox News talking about the Russia probe by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III.

Trump’s tweets were criticized Monday by several lawyers, both for their substance and for his public airing of a defense that could complicate matters if charges are ever brought against him.

Among those weighing in was George Conway, the husband of White House counselor Kellyanne Conway and a frequent critic of the president on Twitter and in op-eds. He seized on Trump’s assertion that Democrats were behind the scrutiny of the payments.

“No, the criminal campaign-finance violations were found by professional line prosecutors in a Republican-controlled United States Department of Justice,” Conway wrote. “It looks like a pretty good case. Kudos to them.”

At issue are the payments to two women who alleged sexual relationships with Trump before he ran for president.

In August 2016, Playboy model Karen McDougal reached an agreement with American Media Inc., publishers of the National Enquirer, that ensured she would not share her story about a lengthy relationship with Trump. In October of that year, adult film actress Stormy Daniels received $130,000 to similarly stay quiet about a liaison that she said had occurred a decade before.

Both of those agreements were facilitated by Cohen, as he admitted in court in August when he pleaded guilty to two campaign-finance charges, among others.

Prosecutors argue that because Cohen was an agent of the Trump campaign, the payments to McDougal and Daniels were campaign contributions in excess of federal limits and not unrelated expenditures.

“With respect to both payments, Cohen acted with the intent to influence the 2016 presidential election,” Friday’s filing from prosecutors in New York says. “Cohen coordinated his actions with one or more members of the campaign, including through meetings and phone calls, about the fact, nature, and timing of the payments. In particular, and as Cohen himself has now admitted, with respect to both payments, he acted in coordination with and at the direction of Individual-1.”

Elsewhere, filings from prosecutors make clear that Individual-1 refers to Trump.

During television appearances on Sunday, some high-profile Democrats suggested that Trump faces serious legal jeopardy.

Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.), the incoming chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that “there’s a very real prospect” that Trump may be indicted the day he leaves office and that he “may be the first president in quite some time to face the real prospect of jail time.”

Meanwhile, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y), who will lead the Judiciary Committee starting next month, said that if the payments were found to violate campaign finance laws, it would be an impeachable offense. Nadler appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Trump has denied the allegations of affairs by McDougal and Daniels. In May, his lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, said the payment to Daniels was made “to resolve a personal and false allegation in order to protect the president’s family,” adding: “It would have been done in any event, whether he was a candidate or not.”

In trying to make the case that the payments to McDougal and Daniels should be a civil matter, rather than a criminal case, Trump pointed Monday to a civil fine paid by President Barack Obama’s campaign in 2013.

In April 2012, the Federal Election Commission released an audit of Obama’s 2008 campaign that found that his committee did not disclose the identities of 1,312 donors responsible for nearly $2 million in contributions in the final weeks of the campaign.

Under federal election law, campaigns must file special notices to the FEC of last-minute contributions of $1,000 or more that are received in the final weeks before Election Day.

Eight months after the audit, Obama’s campaign agreed to pay a $375,000 fine, which was one of the largest penalties in the agency’s history.

Philip Bump and Michelle Ye Hee Lee contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-payments-to-silence-women-were-a-simple-private-transaction-not-illegal-campaign-contributions/2018/12/10/e1b198c2-fc6b-11e8-862a-b6a6f3ce8199_story.html

SEATTLE — A fire that destroyed a church in Lacey, Wash. has been ruled an arson.

KING-TV reports the fire Friday morning burned a Jehovah’s Witness Kingdom Hall.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives announced the conclusion Saturday. The federal agency is investigating the fire with the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office.

The fire is the sixth act of violence since March on a Kingdom Hall in the county.

In May, someone shot about 35 rifle rounds at the Yelm Kingdom Hall, causing more than $10,000 in damage.

Four fires were set at three Kingdom Halls, including the one at Yelm.

The Lacey fire began around 3:30 a.m.

Fire officials had worked with church officials to improve security.

Minister Dan Woollett says the loss won’t stop members from practicing their religion.

The Associated Press

Source Article from https://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/2018/12/fire-at-jehovahs-witness-kingdom-hall-in-washington-ruled-an-arson.html

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Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/10/politics/trump-next-chief-of-staff/index.html

Former FBI Director James Comey has said that Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of New York and now President Donald Trump’s attorney, may have been leaking sensitive information from inside the bureau’s New York office during the closing days of the 2016 presidential election.

Comey told Congress during a closed-door deposition on Friday that he ordered agents to investigate possible leaks based on Giuliani’s public statements, which appeared to draw on inside knowledge of the FBI’s investigation into alleged misuse of classified information by then-candidate Hillary Clinton, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Read More: Fox News analyst rebukes Trump lawyer Giuliani over Russia probe: Mueller isn’t on ‘fishing expedition’

“I was concerned that there appeared to be in the media a number of stories that might have been based on communications reporters or non-reporters like Rudy Giuliani were having with people in the New York field office,” Comey said, according to a transcript of his Friday appearance in front of the House Judiciary and Oversight committees.

Mr. Giuliani was making statements that appeared to be based on his knowledge of workings inside the FBI New York,” he added. “And then my recollection is there were other stories that were in the same ballpark that gave me a general concern that we may have a leak problem—unauthorized disclosure problem out of New York, and so I asked that it be investigated.”

As the city’s former mayor and with many years of experience as the top federal prosecutor in New York, Giuliani built a network of law-enforcement contacts within the city, the Journal suggested. This would have put him in a prime position to receive information about open investigations at the local FBI office.

Comey said he was fired before the leak probe was complete and that its current status is unknown.

The FBI’s investigation into Clinton’s alleged use of a private email server to handle classified information while secretary of state closed in July 2016 without recommending charges. But the case was reopened just days before the election in November that year after New York agents uncovered new evidence.

Giuliani made several television appearances in the days before the case was reopened, suggesting new developments were imminent.

Giuliani—who did not immediately respond to Newsweek’s request for comment—has long-denied receiving or leaking information from the FBI’s New York office. He claims that any insider knowledge was gleaned from rumours, retired FBI agents and media reports.

Soon after the FBI made its announcement, Giuliani told Fox and Friends, “This has been boiling up in the FBI. I did nothing to get it out. I had no role in it.” According to USA Today, he added, “Did I hear about it? Darn right I heard about it. I can’t even repeat the language I heard from the former FBI agents.”

Rudy Giuliani, former New York City mayor and current lawyer for President Donald Trump, speaks to members of the media on the South Lawn of the White House on May 30, 2018 in Washington, D.C. Alex Wong/Getty Images

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Source Article from https://www.newsweek.com/rudy-giuliani-leaker-trump-lawyer-fingered-james-comey-1251501

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The Connecticut Supreme Court ruled that personal belongings of 2012 Newton, Conn. shooter Adam Lanza be made public.
USA TODAY

The Sandy Hook Elementary School shooter was not only obsessed with mass murder and socially isolated, but he expressed a “scorn for humanity.’’

Those are some of the revelations from the release of more than 1,000 pages of documents seized in the investigation after Adam Lanza massacred 20 children and six educators on Dec. 14, 2012, in Newtown, Connecticut.

Lanza also killed his mother in her sleep before going on his shooting rampage and eventually took his own life.

The documents, unveiled after the Hartford Courant prevailed at the state’s Supreme Court after a five-year legal battle, paint a more detailed picture of Lanza’s disdain for the world and his disturbed state of mind.

They include hundreds of pages of his writings and a spreadsheet with the specifics of 400 incidents of mass violence going back to 1786.

The criminal investigation ended a year after the massacre without determining a motive. Thousands of pages of documents were released at the time, but in a lawsuit brought by the Courant, the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled in October that personal belongings of the gunman that had been withheld, including journals, also had to be made public because they were not exempt from open record laws.

The newspaper quotes Lanza as writing, as part of an exchange with a fellow gamer, “I incessantly have nothing other than scorn for humanity. I have been desperate to feel anything positive for someone for my entire life.”

The writings also disclose Lanza’s interest in pedophilia, which he regarded as a form of love, his contempt for overweight people and a long list of grievances that included the feel of a metal door handle, bright lights and his hair touching his older brother’s towel.

Records show Lanza became marginalized starting at an early age, when his developmental speech delays led to frustration over his peers not understanding him. He was later diagnosed with sensory disorder, autism spectrum disorder, anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder. He also had a phobia about germs.

More: Officer killed in Thousand Oaks shooting struck by friendly fire

More: 311 days, 307 mass shootings in the U.S.

After his parents separated when Lanza was 9, his mother, Nancy, became increasingly protective of him. Starting in the 10th grade, she kept Lanza at home, where he was surrounded by an arsenal of firearms and spent long hours playing violent video games.

Lanza, who was 20 at the time of the attack, had an aversion to being touched, and he likened visits to the doctor to molestation.

“Honestly, doctors touching my penis when I was a child was worse than it would be if I consented to an adult in a loving relationship with them,” he wrote. “I don’t see how I and every child was not raped by doctors: We did not consent to it. We only did it because our parents made us.’’

Mostly, the newly unveiled documents confirm the notion that Lanza was a deeply troubled young man whose detachment from most human contact only increased the rancor that boiled inside him.

“Most of my social contact was through those players,” he wrote to the other gamer. “All of them are typical detestable human beings, and it bred an aura of innumerable negative emotions for me. You were a respite from that.”

Contributing: The Associated Press

Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2018/12/09/sandy-hook-shooter-adam-lanza-had-scorn-humanity/2259413002/

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Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/09/politics/ayers-white-house-chief-of-staff/index.html

Two large British banks are among those ensnared in the controversy over Huawei Technologies Co., which escalated over the weekend after the Chinese government warned Canada it would face “severe consequences” if it didn’t release the Chinese telecommunications giant’s finance chief.

Canada this month arrested Meng Wanzhou at the behest of U.S. authorities, who are seeking her extradition over allegations she misled banks about Huawei’s business dealings with Iran to skirt international sanctions against that country. Ms….

Source Article from https://www.wsj.com/articles/two-british-banks-ensnared-in-huawei-dispute-1544398086

Mr. Trump lashed out at Mr. Cohen on Twitter in recent days, saying, “He lied for this outcome and should, in my opinion, serve a full and complete sentence.”

One of the campaign finance charges Mr. Cohen pleaded guilty to centered on Mr. Cohen’s paying $130,000 to the adult film actress Stormy Daniels, who said she had an affair with Mr. Trump. The payment amounted to an excessive contribution to Mr. Trump’s campaign, prosecutors said, arguing that her silence helped his election chances and that campaign finance law prohibits individuals from donating more than $2,700 to a presidential candidate in the general election.

Mr. Cohen also pleaded guilty to “causing” an illegal corporate donation to Mr. Trump when he urged American Media Inc., which publishes The National Enquirer, to buy the rights to a former Playboy model’s story of an affair with Mr. Trump. The deal effectively silenced the model, Karen McDougal, for the remainder of the campaign.

Mr. Cohen has also told the Southern District that Mr. Weisselberg, who is one of Mr. Trump’s longtime loyalists, was involved in discussions about how to pay Ms. Daniels, according to a person briefed on the matter. Mr. Cohen linked him to the deal with American Media as well.

During the campaign, Mr. Cohen recorded a conversation he had with Mr. Trump about buying the rights to negative information American Media had collected on Mr. Trump. Mr. Cohen told Mr. Trump, who did not know he was being recorded, that “I’ve spoken to Allen Weisselberg about how to set the whole thing up.” The deal was signed by American Media and Mr. Cohen, according to court papers. But a person familiar with the arrangement said that Mr. Trump balked at reimbursing America Media, as had been agreed to, and the media company was never reimbursed in relation to Ms. McDougal.

But after the campaign, Mr. Weisselberg handled reimbursing Mr. Cohen for the payment to Ms. Daniels, according to people briefed on the matter. In early 2017, Mr. Cohen sought to recoup the $130,000 he paid out of his own pocket to Ms. Daniels as well as $50,000 he spent on a technology company in connection with the campaign, prosecutors have said.

Not only did the Trump Organization repay those expenses, but it agreed to pay taxes Mr. Cohen might have incurred on the reimbursements. This decision to “gross up” Mr. Cohen went against the Trump Organization’s typical reimbursement practices, people briefed on the matter said.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/09/us/trump-organization-federal-prosecutors.html

A winter storm dropped more than an inch of snow on the William & Mary campus Sunday. (WYDaily/Courtesy Erin Zagursky)

More than 21,000 customers in the Historic Triangle were without power Sunday evening after a winter storm dropped at least an inch of snow in the area.

As of 8:25 p.m. Sunday, there were more than 17,000 customers without power in James City County, 1,908 in Williamsburg and 2,390 in York County, according to the Dominion Energy outage map.

A winter weather advisory is in effect until 4 a.m. Monday in the Williamsburg area.

Dominion customers can report and check outages by calling 866-366-4357.

There’s a chance of rain, snow and sleet before 10 a.m. Monday, according to the National Weather Service.

The forecast high Monday is 40 degrees (mostly cloudy), with overnight lows around 25 degrees.

The National Weather Service said a “prolonged period of snow” began late Saturday and would last until Monday in the region, with the heaviest snow expected in northwest North Carolina and southern Virginia. Some areas of North Carolina and Virginia saw more than a foot of snow by Sunday afternoon.

More than 300,000 power outages were reported across the region with the majority of those — about 240,000 — in North Carolina, according to poweroutage.us. Parts of Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia also saw outages.

Gov. Ralph Northam declared a state of emergency Saturday.

“Virginians should take all necessary precautions to ensure they are prepared for winter weather storm impacts,” Northam said.

Virginia State Police said Interstate 81 in far southwest Virginia was particularly dangerous, with snow coming down faster Sunday afternoon than crews could clear it. Police said several tractor-trailers slid off the highway.

Officials warned residents to prepare emergency kits and stay off roads in impacted areas. Several schools districts in North Carolina and Virginia announced they’ll be closed Monday.

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper also declared a state of emergency as the storm approached.

Cooper strongly urged residents to stay off the roads Sunday, asking drivers not to put lives of first responders needlessly at risk. Cooper said emergency crews, including the National Guard, worked overnight to clear traffic accidents on major roadways. One tractor trailer ran off a road and into a river, Cooper said.

“Stay put if you can,” Cooper said. “Wrap a few presents, decorate the tree, watch some football.”

A winter storm dropped more than an inch of snow on the William & Mary campus Sunday. (WYDaily/Courtesy Erin Zagursky)

Charlotte Douglas International Airport, the sixth busiest airport in the country, said American Airlines reduced its operations, with more than 1,000 flights canceled on Sunday.

American Airlines also issued a travel alert for nine airports throughout the Carolinas, Tennessee, and Virginia, meaning passengers may be able to change travel plans without a fee.

Travelers were advised to check their flight status before heading to the airport. Cancellations were reported on flights from as far as the Midwest.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Source Article from https://wydaily.com/local-news/2018/12/09/nearly-18000-without-power-in-the-historic-triangle/

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said it would be a serious mistake for President Trump to pardon his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort.

In court documents filed Friday evening, special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of possible Russian interference in the 2016 election accused Paul Manafort of lying to them about his contact with senior officials from the Trump administration while under indictment. Trump still speaks highly of Manafort, and has told the New York Post that he wouldn’t take pardoning Manafort “off the table.”

ABC News reporter Martha Raddatz asked Rubio on “This Week” Sunday morning whether he thinks pardoning Manafort would constitute obstruction of justice.

“I think it would be a terrible mistake if he did that. I do. I believe it’d be a terrible mistake,” Rubio replied. “You know, pardons should be used judiciously. They’re used for cases with extraordinary circumstances. And I just haven’t heard that the White House was thinking about doing it. I know he hasn’t ruled it out but I haven’t heard anyone say, We’re thinking about doing it.”

Paul Manafort, former campaign manager for Donald Trump, walks out of the U.S. Courthouse after a bond hearing in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Monday, Nov. 6, 2017. Manafort, 68, an international political consultant, was accused along with his right-hand man, Rick Gates, of lying to U.S. authorities about their work in Ukraine, laundering millions of dollars, and hiding offshore accounts. Both pleaded not guilty on Oct. 30. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Paul Manafort, former campaign manager for Donald Trump, right, arrives to the U.S. Courthouse for a bond hearing in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Monday, Nov. 6, 2017. Manafort, 68, an international political consultant, was accused along with his right-hand man, Rick Gates, of lying to U.S. authorities about their work in Ukraine, laundering millions of dollars, and hiding offshore accounts. Both pleaded not guilty on Oct. 30. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Paul Manafort, former campaign manager for Donald Trump, right, exits the U.S. Courthouse in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Monday, Oct. 30, 2017. The federal investigation into whether President Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia took a major turn Monday as authorities charged three people a former campaign chief, his business associate and an ex-policy adviser — with crimes including money laundering, lying to the FBI and conspiracy. Photographer: Zach Gibson/Bloomberg via Getty Images




Rubio suggested that if he were part of Trump’s inner circle, he would advise strongly against pardoning Manafort and will be a critical voice in Congress if it comes to pass. He said a presidential pardon in this situation would undercut the very reason for their existence and could result in contentious wrangling over that presidential power granted by the Constitution.

“I don’t believe that any pardon should be used with relation to these particular cases. Frankly, not only does it not pass the smell test, I think it undermines the reason why we have presidential pardons in the first place,” Rubio said. “And I think, in fact, if something like that were to happen, it could trigger a debate about whether the pardon powers should be amended, given these circumstances.”

Manafort is a longtime Republican political consultant who advised presidential campaigns for Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush and Bob Dole. Manafort pleaded guilty in September to several charges, including making false statements about his work in Ukraine, financial fraud and obstructing justice. As part of his plea deal, he agreed to cooperate with Mueller’s probe into possible collusion, but the allegation that he’s been lying prompted even more speculation that he’s angling for a pardon from Trump.

Source Article from https://www.aol.com/article/news/2018/12/09/marco-rubio-pardoning-paul-manafort-would-be-a-mistake/23613389/

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) on Sunday said that President TrumpDonald John TrumpJoaquín Castro: Trump would be ‘in court right now’ if he weren’t the president or ‘privileged’ Trump flubs speech location at criminal justice conference Comey reveals new details on Russia probe during House testimony MORE might “face the real prospect of jail time” after prosecutors indicated last week that he directed illegal payments during his 2016 presidential campaign.

“There’s a very real prospect that on the day Donald Trump leaves office, the Justice Department may indict him. That he may be the first president in quite some time to face the real prospect of jail time,” he said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

Schiff’s comments come after federal prosecutors said in a legal filing Friday that referred to Trump as “Individual-1” that Trump during the 2016 campaign directed his former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, to make illegal payments to two women claiming they had affairs with Trump. It was the first time prosecutors made those accusations against Trump.

Schiff, who is likely to be the next chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, added that the next president may have to determine whether to pardon Trump.

“We have been discussing the issue of pardons the president may offer to people or dangle in front of people,” Schiff said. “The bigger pardon question may come down the road, as the next president has to determine whether to pardon Donald Trump.”

“I think the prosecutors in New York make a powerful case against that idea,” he added. “All the arguments they make against Michael Cohen … that argument was equally made with respect to Individual-1, the president of the United States.”

Source Article from https://thehill.com/homenews/sunday-talk-shows/420450-schiff-trump-may-face-real-prospect-of-jail-time

About the photographs, Mr. Comey said he wasn’t aware that any existed. “I have never hugged or kissed the man,” he said. “Again, I’m an admirer but not that kind of admirer.”

Representative Jerrold Nadler, Democrat of New York, asked, “Are you best friends with Robert Mueller?”

“I am not,” Mr. Comey replied. “I admire the heck out of the man, but I don’t know his phone number, I’ve never been to his house, I don’t know his children’s names. I think I had a meal once alone with him in a restaurant. I like him.”

Mr. Nadler thanked Mr. Comey and said he would not ask “whether you’ve ever hugged and kissed him.”

“A relief to my wife,” Mr. Comey replied.

At one point, questioning turned to text exchanges between the F.B.I. agent Peter Strzok, who had overseen an investigation into Mr. Trump’s campaign, and Lisa Page, an F.B.I. lawyer.

Representative Trey Gowdy, Republican of South Carolina, said that one text from March 2016 read, “Hillary should win 100 million to zero.”

“In the course of human history, has anyone won an election 100 million to zero, to your knowledge?” Mr. Gowdy asked.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/09/us/james-comey-testimony-transcript.html

CLOSE

Canadian authorities said Wednesday that they have arrested the chief financial officer of China’s Huawei Technologies for possible extradition to the United States.
Time

The Chinese foreign ministry on Sunday summoned U.S. Ambassador to China Terry Branstad to protest the detention of a senior tech executive by the Canadian authorities “at the unreasonable behest of the United States.”

Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng demanded the release of Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of Huawei Technologies, who is accused by U.S. officials of attempting to circumvent U.S. sanctions on Iran.

Meng, 46, was bound for Mexico when she was detained while changing planes in Vancouver, Canada, more than a week ago. Huawei is China’s largest manufacturer of telecommunications equipment. Meng is also the daughter of the company’s founder.

A Canadian bail hearing for Meng that began last week will continue Monday. Prosecutor John Gibb-Carsley wants her held without bail, saying she faces fraud charges in the U.S. that could result in a prison sentence of 30 years.

Authorities say Huawei did business with Iran through a shell company in Hong Kong. Gibb-Carsley said Meng has been aware of the charges and avoided the U.S. for months – despite allowing her son to attend school in Boston.

“What the United States has done severely violates Chinese citizen’s legitimate rights and interests, and is vile in nature,” Le said in a statement through the state-run Xinhua news agency. “China will respond further according to the U.S. side’s actions.”

More: Chinese state media brand U.S. ‘despicable rogue’ over exec arrest

More: ‘Entire world is worried’ after rancorous Asia-Pacific trade summit

On Saturday, Canadian Ambassador John McCallum was similarly summoned and chastised. The legal imbroglio has led to some unease among Canadian businesses and political leaders. But Roland Paris, a former foreign policy advisor to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, took to Twitter to warn that threats from China would be fruitless.

“Perhaps because the Chinese state controls its judicial system, Beijing sometimes has difficulty understanding or believing that courts can be independent in a rule-of-law country,” Paris tweeted. “There’s no point in pressuring the Canadian government. Judges will decide.”

Paris also had a suggestion for Chinese business leaders: “If you’re a high-profile Chinese tech executive targeted by the US in an escalating hegemonic struggle between the US and China, please do not change planes in Canada. Thank you.”

China Daily, an English-language newspaper seen as the government mouthpiece, claimed Meng’s arrest proved “the U.S. is trying to do whatever it can to contain Huawei’s expansion in the world.” The publication was dismissive of what it called a “Cold War mentality” toward China.

The issue surfaces in the midst of a U.S.-China trade war that saw President Donald Trump slap tariffs on $250 billion in Chinese goods. The administration also has warned that duties on another $267 billion in goods could be coming, which would subject to tariff virtually all Chinese-made products shipped into the U.S.

China retaliated by levying tariffs on $110 billion worth of a wide variety of U.S. products, including farm equipment, soybeans, electric cars, orange juice, whiskey, salmon and cigars.

The trade clash had appeared to be cooling, with the U.S. and China agreeing to suspend additional tariffs for 90 days. Last week, China’s government said it would promptly carry out a tariff cease-fire with Washington and expressed confidence that a trade agreement can be reached within the three-month timeline.

Trump’s response on Twitter was also encouraging: “I agree!”

Contributing: Kim Hjelmgaard; Associated Press

Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2018/12/09/meng-arrest-angry-china-summons-us-ambassador-over-case-tech-exec/2257457002/

South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham told Fox News on Sunday that Saudi Arabia’s military “can’t fight out of a paper bag” when confronted with Mideast challenges including Iran, and insisted that the U.S. has the necessary leverage to punish the Saudi leadership for its apparent role in the murder of dissident writer Jamal Khashoggi.

“Let me put it this way — I want to be very blunt with you,” Graham told host Maria Bartiromo on “Sunday Morning Futures.” “If it weren’t for the United States they’d be speaking Farsi in about a week in Saudi Arabia.”

Graham’s remarks deepened his unusual divide with the White House on the issue. In an equivocal statement last month that highlighted the complexities of U.S. interests in the Middle East and Saudi Arabia’s role in advancing American interests there, President Trump indicated it was not clear in his mind whether Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered Khashoggi’s death.

However, Graham echoed his colleagues in saying that classified intelligence briefings provided to members of Congress strongly suggested a different conclusion.

“Their military can’t fight out of a paper bag.”

— Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.

“It’s the most brilliant briefing I’ve ever received in my time in Congress,” Graham said. “You had two analysts that walk us through the crown prince’s focus on Mr. Khashoggi for about two years. This operation was very sophisticated.

“The person in charge of executing the operation is MBS’s right-hand man,” Graham continued, using the three-letter acronym to refer to bin Salman. “There is no doubt by any senator who received this briefing that MBS was complicit in the murder of Mr. Khashoggi.”

Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union,” backed up Graham on Sunday, telling host Jake Tapper: “We don’t need direct evidence that he ordered the code red on this thing.”

Khashoggi, a dissident who opposed Saudi Arabia’s military intervention against Iranian-backed forces in Yemen, disappeared after he entered the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey in early October.

The CIA reportedly has concluded he was murdered inside, and Turkish officials have said more than a dozen people linked to bin Salman and Saudi intelligence entered and departed the country shortly before and after Khashoggi’s death.

“The bottom line is that there is no way that 17 people close to him got a charter plane, flew to a third country, went into a consulate, killed and chopped up a man and flew back, and he didn’t know about it, much less order it,” Rubio told Tapper.

Jamal Khashoggi, seen here in 2011, vanished this past October. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo, File)

The U.S. has imposed a slew of sanctions against the individuals who U.S. intelligence has determined were involved in Khashoggi’s apparent murder. But the White House has voiced fears that taking more aggressive action against Saudi Arabia might unnecessarily compromise U.S. strategic interests, as well as arms deals worth more than $100 billion.

“They give us 9 percent of our oil imports. We need them a lot less than they need us,” Graham countered. “I don’t buy this idea you’ve got to hook up to a murderous regime, a thug like MBS, to protect America from Iran. Quite the opposite. I think by hooking up with him we hurt our ability to govern the region.”

The influential South Carolina senator, who has built an unlikely friendship and close political alliance with Trump after bitterly opposing him during the 2016 presidential race, said the stakes are larger than Khashoggi alone.

“It’s not just this dissident he’s going after,” Graham said. “He’s going after others, people have been captured in other countries and brought back to Saudi Arabia because they’ve been critics in these countries. He put the Lebanese prime minister under house arrest in the most bizarre episode I’ve seen in 20 years and it goes on and on and on.”

Graham, who called bin Salman a “wrecking ball” and “crazy,” said the prince’s primary objectives have been to sever U.S. ties to Saudi Arabia.

“Well, we’re going to label him complicit. We’re going to have a vote in the Senate saying that MBS was complicit in the murder of Mr. Khashoggi,” Graham said. “I’m never gonna support any more arms sales to Saudi Arabia.”

Fox Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/graham-saudi-arabia-would-be-speaking-farsi-in-about-a-week-without-us

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Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/09/politics/marco-rubio-paul-manafort-pardon/index.html