Democratic Rep. Van Drew to vote against Trump impeachment, says others could join him
- World/Latin America
- 2019-12-12 06:02:53Z
Chile confirmed Thursday that human remains and debris found by search ships are from a military plane reported missing with 38 people aboard, and that hopes of finding survivors had all but gone. "The condition of the plane wreckage that was found makes it practically impossible that there are survivors from this air accident," Air Force chief Arturo Merino told a news conference in the southern port of Punta Arenas.
Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo says body armor didn't fail Sgt. Christopher Brewster, who was killed while responding to a domestic violence call
The Pentagon on Thursday tested a conventionally configured ground-launched ballistic missile, a test that would have been prohibited under the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty. The United States formally withdrew from the landmark 1987 INF pact with Russia in August after determining that Moscow was violating the treaty, an accusation the Kremlin has denied. It was the second test by the Pentagon that would have not been allowed under the INF treaty.
A Scandinavian woman says she was forced by Cypriot police to withdraw a rape claim or face arrest, in a striking parallel to the case of a British teenager who was allegedly gang raped on the Mediterranean island. The Scandinavian woman said police officers questioned her aggressively for several hours after she was raped by two men outside a nightclub. The officers accused her of lying and said that if she did not withdraw the rape claim they would arrest her and send her to prison. Her account bears striking similarities to the alleged treatment of a British teenager who is on trial in Cyprus, accused of concocting a claim of gang rape by Israeli tourists in the resort town of Ayia...
Employees at a fish farm in Vancouver intervened when an eagle tried to eat a large octopus, resulting in a battleA bald eagle on Canada's west coast has learned that its eyes may be bigger than its stomach after it was nearly drowned by an octopus it tried to eat.After hearing shrieks coming from the water on the north-western tip of Vancouver Island, employees at a fish farm investigating the noises happened upon a bird and cephalopod locked in battle.The octopus, which had turned a deep crimson, had wound its tentacles tightly around the eagle, which was floating helplessly at the surface."At first we just watched and we didn't know if we should interfere because, you know, it's Mother...
An Alabama school board voted to discipline three teachers accused of sharing offensive text messages about students that were later leaked online. The Houston County School Board voted Wednesday night to approve 10-day, unpaid suspensions for three teachers from Ashford High School, news outlets reported. As many as six teachers were suspended with pay earlier after a student used social media to post leaked text messages that included a racial slur and comments about students' sex lives and intelligence.
House Democrats are worried that the caucus could lose six or more moderate votes on impeachment, according to multiple officials who spoke anonymously to the Washington Post.When the House voted to formalize impeachment on October 31, all but two Democrats - Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey and Collin C. Peterson of Michigan - voted with House leadership. Amidst concerns from moderates, who on Monday considered reviving a proposal to censure President Trump rather than impeach him, the fate of the impeachment vote is a bit less certain.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi could afford to lose 17 votes and still prevail with the vote, which will likely get the approval of former Republican Justin Amash....
Ukrainian police have detained five people, including a pediatric surgeon and a rock musician, over the killing of an investigative journalist in a car bomb in July 2016, law enforcement officials said on Thursday. Briefing journalists alongside President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the officials said the motive for killing 44-year-old Pavel Sheremet, a Belarusian, was to destabilize the country but declined to say who might have ordered the murder. The New York City-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) welcomed the detentions.
Myanmar's leader is appearing before the UN International Court of Justice this week to address an accusation of genocide against the Rohingya.
A daring tale.
They asked the bank's president to scrap an event with the former South Carolina governor and UN ambassador after she didn't denounce the flag's fans.
Saudi Arabia contracted three US lobby firms in November, its first move since it was abandoned by five firms over the Khashoggi affair in late 2018.
These antics may work as a short-term strategy. But they'll go down poorly with voters the Republican party really needs House Democrats announced this week that they would bring two articles of impeachment against Donald Trump, making him only the fourth president in US history to face such charges. Democratic leaders characterized the occasion as solemn, somber and sad. Republicans, on the other hand, dismissed the impeachment inquiry as a circus and a sham despite the fact that they are themselves the ones trying to reduce it to carnivalesque farce. Even a motion to take a 15-minute bathroom break during this week's judiciary committee hearings provoked hysterical Republican...
A federal case in Rhode Island, brought by parents and students, tests the ideals of equal opportunity and participatory democracy.
Pakistan on Thursday leveled "treason" charges against 250 lawyers who were part of a mob that stormed a hospital in the eastern city of Lahore the previous day, kicking and punching doctors and staff and trashing equipment and property, police said. Three patients at the hospital died when physicians and medical staff left them unattended for several hours, to flee and escape the mob, officials said. The mob of about 500 lawyers - apparently angered over alleged misbehavior by some of the hospital doctors toward one of their colleagues the month before - stormed the Punjab Institute of Cardiology on Wednesday, punching and beating doctors and other staff.
Spunky and important little boats.
Democratic Rep. Jeff Van Drew said that he will vote against articles of impeachment that outline the case for President Trump's removal from office.
And it might be unmanned.
(Bloomberg) -- Lawmakers peppered Federal Aviation Administration officials with questions about how the agency approved the now-grounded Boeing Co. 737 Max jet and kept it flying after the first of two deadly crashes despite doubts about its safety.An internal FAA risk assessment conducted after a Lion Air flight crashed off the coast of Indonesia in October 2018, predicted another 15 of the jets would crash over the next 45 years without a fix, according to documents released by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.FAA Administrator Steve Dickson, appearing for the first time before the committee, had refrained from criticizing the agency's actions before his swearing...
AL AHSA, Saudi Arabia -- Not long before a 21-year-old Saudi Royal Air Force trainee shot and killed three American sailors Friday at a naval base in Pensacola, Florida, he called his mother and his brother back home.The trainee, 2nd Lt. Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani, was wearing his uniform, they could see on the video call -- the uniform he had always wanted to wear as a child, when he dreamed of becoming a pilot.With his elder brother, Abdullah, he joked around on the call: "You're the eldest," Alshamrani teased, "but I'm going to get married first." Talking to his mother, he promised he would be home as soon as he finished his training. "Just a few more...
During Wednesday's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the Justice Department inspector general's report on possible FISA abuses in the Russia probe, top inspector Michael Horowitz pushed back against former FBI Director James Comey's suggestion that the findings vindicated bureau actions.While Horowitz's recently released report finds that there was no political bias by FBI leadership and that there was sufficient evidence to launch a counterintelligence probe of Donald Trump's 2016 campaign, it also chided the FBI for "fundamental errors" in its investigation of former Trump campaign official Carter Page.Noting that Comey figuratively spiked the football over Horowitz's report in a...
After weeks of blaming Democrats for delaying Trump's renegotiated trade deal with Canada and Mexico, McConnell said he would delay it further.
An armed person was arrested on Wednesday at the Naval Air Station in Corpus Christi, Texas, after causing the base to be put on lockdown just days after deadly shootings at U.S. Navy bases in Florida and Hawaii. On Friday, a Saudi Air Force lieutenant being trained at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida, shot and killed three people and wounded eight on the base in a suspected terrorist attack. The Corpus Christi base said on Wednesday there was no indication the incident there was related to the Florida shooting.
The 80s-era bomber may need to cut low-altitude flying due to old age.
Chicago's interim police superintendent is discontinuing a so-called merit promotion system that rank-and-file cops have long complained rewards officers for who they know and not what skills they have to do the job. In a letter to the 13,400-member department obtained by the Chicago Tribune, Interim Superintendent Charlie Beck said Tuesday he's heard that many officers have been "dissatisfied and discouraged" by the process that allows promotions to the ranks of detective, sergeant and lieutenant regardless of exam scores. Beck wrote that he made the decision after consulting with Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Fraternal Order of Police President Kevin Graham.
Corpus Christi officials issued a lockdown after an armed suspect was reported to be on the base Wednesday morning.
What do you think it'll look like?
(Bloomberg) -- India's Parliament approved a controversial bill that prevents illegal Muslim migrants from neighboring countries from receiving citizenship after hours of heated debate among lawmakers and protests in some parts of the country.The bill, which offers amnesty to non-Muslim illegal migrants from three neighboring countries, was approved in the upper house of Parliament on Wednesday after it secured more votes in favor of the legislation. The bill was passed in the lower house on Monday.Prime Minister Narendra Modi doesn't command a majority in the upper house, but managed to cobble together the numbers needed to pass the legislation.The bill amends existing citizenship norms...
The first article of impeachment says President Donald Trump should be not only impeached and removed from office but disqualified from running again.
The choice of 30% of visitors to our online survey
Former vice president Joe Biden has reportedly suggested that he would only serve one term if elected president but has stopped short of publicly pledging not to run again."If Biden is elected, he's going to be 82 years old in four years and he won't be running for reelection." a Biden campaign adviser told Politico, arguing that the former vice president could serve as a "good transition figure" to defeat Trump and usher in the "next generation of leaders.""He's going into this thinking, 'I want to find a running mate I can turn things over to after four years but if that's not possible or doesn't happen then I'll run for re-election.' But he's not going to publicly...
For nearly four years as Kentucky attorney general, Andy Beshear filed a series of lawsuits accusing then-Gov. Matt Bevin of abusing his executive powers. Now Beshear is being sued by the people he ousted from the state school board on his first day as governor. The new Democratic governor wielded his executive authority Tuesday to reorganize the Kentucky Board of Education with 11 new members, fulfilling a campaign promise he made to teachers.
(Bloomberg) -- One of Venezuela's most experienced opposition figures says National Assembly chief Juan Guaido needs to root out corruption in his inner circle.Humberto Calderon Berti, who was recently replaced by Guaido as his envoy to Colombia, said the opposition must enforce higher standards than the government of Nicolas Maduro does."We have been saying we are different and we have to show it," he said in a phone interview. "Honesty and ethics require permanent behavior."Calderon, 78, a former foreign minister and a past president of the state oil company, said he continues to back Guaido's leadership, but that he needs to "clean up his entourage and act like a president."Calderon,...
Germany contradicted Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, saying it was not aware Russia had requested the extradition of a Georgian man who was murdered in Berlin in August. In an escalation in already tense relations, Germany last week expelled two employees at the Russian embassy in Berlin, saying Moscow was not cooperating sufficiently in the investigation into the murder. Putin described the victim on Monday as a "cruel and blood-thirsty person" who had fought on the side of anti-Moscow separatists in Russia's mainly Muslim north Caucasus region, and said Moscow's requests for his extradition had not been heeded.
Danish media are reporting that the Chinese government threatened to cancel a trade deal with the tiny Faeroe Islands if the country does not agree to use internet networks supplied by Chinese tech company Huawei. Huawei is at the center of a global cybersecurity debate, with the U.S. pushing allies in Europe and elsewhere to avoid the company over fears it could allow the Chinese government to snoop on consumers. Huawei denies that.
The European Union's executive wants to mobilize 100 billion euros worth of investment to help the bloc's economies become more environmentally friendly, European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday. Von der Leyen will propose her hallmark "Green Deal" for the EU later on Wednesday to commit the bloc to achieving climate neutrality by 2050. "This is Europe's man on the moon moment," von der Leyen told journalists before making her climate pitch.
The FAA administrator will be questioned by Congress today over its certification of the change to the 787 Dreamliner as well as the 737 Max.
Pouroto Ngaropo, standing on an ancient settlement site overlooking the island of Whakaari, recites his ancestry back thousands of years, back to the volcano which erupted there on Monday. "Whakaari is my connection to the ocean, to the land, and to the environment around me ... we are one and she's our ancestor," said the 51-year old Māori spiritual leader whose genealogy is depicted in the tattoo art known as a 'tā moko' adorning his face. The volcano island off New Zealand's North Island holds deep spiritual significance for his iwi or tribe, Ngāti Awa, which also own the company that ran tours there before the eruption.
Two elephants were hit and killed by a passenger train on Wednesday in eastern India, officials said, with the animals' bodies decorated with flowers before being cremated at the spot. In the past five years, at least 26 elephants have been killed and scores more injured by trains on this stretch of track near the Nepal border, according to wildlife officials. The animals -- one of which was pregnant -- were hit at 4:30 am (2300 GMT) while crossing the railway line, said North Frontier Railway spokesman Subhanan Chanda.
Foreign experts recruited to add legitimacy to Hong Kong's police watchdog quit Wednesday, saying the agency lacks teeth. The expert panel's decision to stand aside is likely to increase pressure on the territory's government for an independent probe of police behavior during six months of pro-democracy protests.
Campesinos storm museum to call for removal of image featuring revolutionary hero posing in pink sombreroA new portrait of Emiliano Zapata has caused a firestorm of outrage for its portrayal of the Mexican revolutionary hero striking a seductive pose - clad only in a pink sombrero and high heels.Furious campesinos stormed one of the country's most renowned art museums on Thursday to demand the removal of the painting, part of a new exhibition titled Zapata after Zapata that seeks to present alternative views of the Mexican revolution. "This isn't freedom of expression, it is debauchery! It's degrading. They can't exhibit our history that way," fumed Antonio Medrano, a spokesman for the...
Turkey said on Wednesday it would retaliate against any U.S. sanctions over its purchase of Russian defense systems, adding that with Britain it had agreed to speed up a joint fighter jet program to meet Turkish defense needs. U.S. lawmakers will vote - and likely pass - a defense bill later on Wednesday that calls for sanctions against Turkey over Ankara's decision to procure the S-400 defenses. Turkey and the United States, NATO allies, have been at odds over the purchase.
In our exclusive interview, Ed Smart reveals how difficult it was to come out as gay to his family and friends
At least 250 journalists were imprisoned worldwide this year, according to the report, which the committee compiles annually. China's total rose by one since last year. "A crackdown in Xinjiang province - where a million members of Muslim ethnic groups have been sent to internment camps - has led to the arrests of dozens of journalists, including some apparently jailed for journalistic activity years earlier," the report said.
The attorney general told NBC News in an interview he believes there were "gross abuses" and "inexplicable behavior" on the part of the FBI in its investigation of ties between Russia and the Trump campaign.
A Texas inmate was executed by lethal injection Wednesday evening for killing a supervisor at a state prison shoe factory in Amarillo nearly 17 years ago. Travis Runnels, 46, was convicted of slashing the throat of 38-year-old Stanley Wiley on Jan. 29, 2003. Runnels was executed at the state penitentiary in Huntsville.
Suicide bombers struck the main U.S. military base in Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing two people and injuring scores in a major attack that could scupper plans to revive peace talks between the United States and the Taliban. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, which struck the Bagram air base north of Kabul. "First, a heavy-duty Mazda vehicle struck the wall of the American base," said Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman.