 08 January 20 A Special Funding Appeal From Mark Twain
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08 January 20
Trump Listening to Rudy on Iran. That Always Works Out Well.
Lachlan Markay and Asawin Suebsaeng, The Daily Beast
Excerpt: "As President Trump grappled with how to respond to Iran throughout the last year, one of the people he turned to for advice was his personal attorney and unofficial envoy, Rudy Giuliani."
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Lachlan Markay and Asawin Suebsaeng, The Daily Beast
Excerpt: "As President Trump grappled with how to respond to Iran throughout the last year, one of the people he turned to for advice was his personal attorney and unofficial envoy, Rudy Giuliani."
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This aerial photo shows Ain al-Assad air base in the western Anbar desert, Iraq, in December 2019. (photo: Nasser Nasser/AP)
Iran Launches Missile Attacks on Military Bases Housing US Troops in Iraq
Vanessa Romo, NPR
Romo writes: "Iran has launched more than a dozen ballistic missiles against U.S. military and coalition forces, targeting at least two military bases in Iraq, the U.S. Defense Department announced late Tuesday."
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Vanessa Romo, NPR
Romo writes: "Iran has launched more than a dozen ballistic missiles against U.S. military and coalition forces, targeting at least two military bases in Iraq, the U.S. Defense Department announced late Tuesday."
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Pelosi and McConnell. (photo: unknown)
McConnell Says He's Ready to Begin Trump Impeachment Trial With No Deal on Witnesses
Seung Min Kim, Mike DeBonis and Rachael Bade, The Washington Post
Excerpt: "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday that he is prepared to begin President Trump's impeachment trial with no agreement with Democrats on witnesses, even as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi signaled she is not ready to transmit the impeachment articles until she knows more about how Republicans would conduct the Senate proceedings."
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Seung Min Kim, Mike DeBonis and Rachael Bade, The Washington Post
Excerpt: "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday that he is prepared to begin President Trump's impeachment trial with no agreement with Democrats on witnesses, even as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi signaled she is not ready to transmit the impeachment articles until she knows more about how Republicans would conduct the Senate proceedings."
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A team from Iran's Red Crescent searched the debris for victims. (photo: AFP)
Iran Plane Crash: Ukraine International Airline Jet Crashes Killing 176
BBC News
"Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752 to Kyiv went down after taking off from Imam Khomeini airport in Tehran at 06:12 local time. The majority of passengers were from Iran and Canada."
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BBC News
"Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752 to Kyiv went down after taking off from Imam Khomeini airport in Tehran at 06:12 local time. The majority of passengers were from Iran and Canada."
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Duncan Hunter.
Convicted Rep Duncan Hunter Submits His Resignation From Congress
Charles T. Clark, Los Angeles Times
Clark writes: "He notified House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Gov. Gavin Newsom in a letter Tuesday that he will resign Jan. 13, nearly six weeks after his guilty plea."
Charles T. Clark, Los Angeles Times
Clark writes: "He notified House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Gov. Gavin Newsom in a letter Tuesday that he will resign Jan. 13, nearly six weeks after his guilty plea."
EXCERPT:
When questions first arose about Hunter’s irregular campaign spending practices in April of 2016, a spokesman for Hunter dismissed the issues as a mix-up, saying Hunter’s son accidentally took the wrong credit card from Hunter’s wallet to purchase a video game online. The spokesman also said that other non-campaign expenditures were a result of fraud by someone other than Hunter.
Hunter continued to deny intentional wrongdoing as questioning about campaign expenditures intensified. He said his campaign would conduct an audit but nothing would be repaid until then.
In August of 2018 federal prosecutors levied a sweeping indictment against Hunter and his wife, alleging they used more than $250,000 in political contributions to pay personal expenses, including private-school tuition for their children, international vacations, fast food, home repairs and even $600 in airfare for the family pet rabbit, Eggburt. Hunter said the indictment against him and his wife was a “witch hunt” and that federal prosecutors were out to get him because of his early support of Trump.
Prosecutors also accused the congressman of using campaign funds to pay for a series of extramarital affairs with five women, including three lobbyists and two congressional staffers. Among other things, he used political contributions to pay for cocktails, resort stays, Uber rides and lavish meals, according to prosecutors.
Even when he ultimately pleaded guilty in December, Hunter did not fully own up to the wrongdoing.
“I failed to monitor and account for my campaign spending. I made mistakes, and that’s what today was all about,” Hunter told reporters outside the courthouse after his guilty plea. Then he refused to answer reporters’ questions, instead directing them to a TV interview the day before with a friendly TV station that allowed Hunter’s staff to write the questions for the “interview.”
Prosecutors said Hunter’s behavior amounted to more than simple mistakes.
“This is not a case about mismanagement or accounting errors or mistakes,” said Assistant U.S. Atty. Emily Allen, adding: “While this crime may not involve allegations of cash bribes, make no mistake, it is corruption all the same.”
Hunter also drew national attention — and scorn — during the 2018 election cycle for spreading what were widely criticized as racist and Islamophobic ads and mailers accusing his opponent, Ammar Campa-Najjar, of being a terrorist.
Campa-Najjar said Tuesday that Hunter should have resigned weeks ago.
“What’s done is done, now it’s time for the constituents of CA-50 to pick up the pieces and move forward together,” he said in a statement. “As the leading candidate and a constituent of the district, I am committed to restoring real representation to the forgotten people of our district and giving this seat back to its rightful owner — the people of CA-50.”
The top Republican challengers for the 50th District also weighed in.
Gabriel Matzneff, a French writer, has long boasted of his sexual encounters with underage partners. (photo: Andersen Ulf/AP)
A Victim's Account Fuels a Reckoning Over Abuse of Children in France
Norimitsu Onishi, The New York Times
Onishi writes: "It has also shone a particularly harsh light on a period during which some of France's leading literary figures and newspapers - names as big as Foucault, Sartre, Libération and Le Monde - aggressively promoted the practice as a form of human liberation, or at least defended it."
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Norimitsu Onishi, The New York Times
Onishi writes: "It has also shone a particularly harsh light on a period during which some of France's leading literary figures and newspapers - names as big as Foucault, Sartre, Libération and Le Monde - aggressively promoted the practice as a form of human liberation, or at least defended it."
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'In early September, hospital staff loaded packages onto two 50-foot, double-hulled sailing canoes, called vaka motus.' (photo: Steve Holloway/Grist)
To Safeguard Their Future, Pacific Islanders Look to the Past
Maria Gallucci, Grist
Gallucci writes: "With waters rising around them, Pacific Islanders are marrying Space Age technology with ancestral wisdom."
Maria Gallucci, Grist
Gallucci writes: "With waters rising around them, Pacific Islanders are marrying Space Age technology with ancestral wisdom."
EXCERPT:
he state of Yap is scattered across the Pacific Ocean, its coral atolls and volcanic islands spanning some 600 miles. Home to 11,000 people, Yap, part of the Federated States of Micronesia, hovers just north of the equator, roughly 1,000 miles east of the Philippines.
Last summer, the state’s health authorities found themselves in a bind. Dengue fever, a painful mosquito-borne disease, was spreading on the main island, and clinics on outer islands urgently needed preventative medical supplies. But Yap’s main means of transportation, a diesel-burning cargo ship, wasn’t working.
Fortunately, there was a backup plan. In early September, hospital staff loaded packages onto two 50-foot, double-hulled sailing canoes, called vaka motus. Ten sailors then zipped between Yap’s islands, hoisting sails and using wooden paddles, ducking into aquamarine lagoons when storms raged. Small engines burning coconut oil gave an extra boost, while solar panels replenished batteries to charge communications equipment. Within two weeks, they’d dropped medical supplies to more than a dozen far-flung islands.
“It was the perfect way to do it,” said Peia Patai, a vaka captain who led the operation. Although the dengue outbreak still persists in Yap and other Pacific Islands, health officials said the vakas helped close an urgent transportation gap.
Patai oversees a fleet of vakas for Okeanos, a nonprofit that builds canoes and trains people to sail them. The foundation operates six vaka motus between Yap and Pohnpei, also in the Federated States of Micronesia, plus Palau, Marshall Islands, and Vanuatu. Okeanos has also built eight larger vaka moanas, operated by independent voyaging societies, which can sail the open ocean.
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