General news

• Virginia Ratifies the Equal Rights Amendment, and Conservatives Fight Like It’s 1979

  15-01-2020 23:54 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Time to bring back bell-bottom jeans and Disco Inferno: the Equal Rights Amendment, which passed Congress in 1972 and became a feminist cause celébre in the 1970s and 1980s, has just been ratified by 38 states, making it part of the Constitution.Maybe.On Wednesday, the Commonwealth of Virginia ratified the ERA as both houses of the state legislature approved the amendment by comfortable margins. Democratic Governor Ralph Northam also backs the measure. The ERA states, simply, that “
  
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• Trade Deal Signed, Fed Lifting Assets, Putin 2024 Play: Eco Day

  15-01-2020 23:50 via news.yahoo.com
  
  (Bloomberg) -- Welcome to Thursday, Asia. Here’s the latest news and analysis from Bloomberg Economics to help get your day started:The U.S. and China signed the first phase of a broader trade pact amid persistent questions over whether President Donald Trump’s efforts to rewrite the economic relationship with Beijing will ever go further. Here are five key points from the dealThe Fed’s low interest rates, the perception that there is a high bar to future rate increases and exp
  
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• Big Companies to Mexico’s President: Stop Changing Rules

  15-01-2020 23:50 via news.yahoo.com
  
  (Bloomberg) -- Terms of Trade is a daily newsletter that untangles a world embroiled in trade wars. Sign up here. Representatives of two top business groups warned that it’s getting increasingly harder for foreign companies to put their money in Mexico and said that messages from President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s government that hinder investment need to stop.In a rare critique of the current administration, Carlos Salazar, head of one of the largest Mexican business group
  
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• California targets companies with highly paid execs

  15-01-2020 23:45 via news.yahoo.com
  
  California is considering raising taxes on some of the country's largest companies, but the size of the tax increase would depend on how much its highest-paid executive makes compared to its employees.The bill by Democratic state Sen. Nancy Skinner passed out of its first committee hearing on Wednesday, keeping it alive a head of a Jan. 31 deadline to pass the Senate.The proposal would only apply to companies that post at least $10 million of taxable income from business conducted in California.
  
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• Republicans break with Robert Hyde, latest player in Ukraine drama

  15-01-2020 23:41 via politico.com
  
  House leaders say they don’t support the Connecticut candidate, who’s wrapped up with an indicted associate of Rudy Giuliani.
  
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• Postpone the Impeachment Trial Until the House Finishes Investigating

  15-01-2020 23:34 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Two things happened simultaneously on Wednesday: (a) The House of Representatives transmitted to the Senate two articles of impeachment approved on straight partisan lines a month ago, and (b) the House’s impeachment inquiry — yes, it’s still very much alive — highlighted new, relevant evidence it has turned up about the activities in Ukraine of President Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, and Giuliani’s associates.The Democrats’ strategy is coming
  
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• Man returns home after volcano eruption and makes a surprising find

  15-01-2020 23:31 via cnn.com
  
  Survivors in the Philippines are returning to their homes to see what is left after days of continuous eruptions from Taal volcano.
  
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• Bernie Sanders said he was talking about 'the weather' with Elizabeth Warren in viral moment at end of Iowa debate

  15-01-2020 23:28 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Sanders told a reporter on Wednesday that he and Warren were discussing "the weather" during a viral moment the night before.
  
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• Jeffrey Epstein abused girls as young as 11 on secluded private island, lawsuit says

  15-01-2020 23:27 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein trafficked girls in the Caribbean as young as 11 years old up until 2018, according to a new lawsuit.The lawsuit filed by US Virgin Islands attorney general Denise George claims that Epstein had brought girls as young as 11 and 12 to his secluded estate there, and kept a computerised database that tracked the availability of women and girls. The lawsuit could ultimately reduce the amount of money available to victims who have come forward as a part of claim
  
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• AOC is sounding the alarm about the rise of facial recognition: 'This is some real-life "Black Mirror" stuff'

  15-01-2020 23:11 via news.yahoo.com
  
  When facial recognition is implemented, the software makes it easy for corporations or governments to identify people and track their movements.
  
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• Democrats release more Parnas evidence, including voicemails with Trump associates

  15-01-2020 23:02 via politico.com
  
  The previously undisclosed documents underscore the evolving nature of the investigation.
  
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• Egypt, Ethiopia, Sudan to finalize Blue Nile dam agreement this month

  15-01-2020 22:45 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Ministers from Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan agreed on Wednesday to reconvene in Washington later this month to finalize an agreement on a giant hydropower dam on the Blue Nile that sparked a diplomatic crisis between Cairo and Addis Ababa.The ministers met in Washington this week and agreed to fill the $4 billion Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) in stages during the wet season, taking into account the impact on downstream reservoirs, the U.S. Treasury Department, which hosted the meeting, sai
  
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• Brazil Looks to India as Trade Ties with Argentina Deteriorate

  15-01-2020 22:42 via news.yahoo.com
  
  (Bloomberg) -- Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is set to visit India next week, aiming to boost trade with a rapidly growing market as ties with neighboring Argentina deteriorate.With the Asian nation expanding around 7% a year over the past decade, Brazil sees a huge potential for its exports of food and commodities, according to Marcos Troyjo, the special secretary of foreign trade and international relations at the Economy Ministry.“International experience shows us that people eat m
  
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• FAA: Delta pilots didn't seek permission before dumping fuel that rained on school kids

  15-01-2020 22:37 via news.yahoo.com
  
  The Delta pilots who bombarded elementary school playgrounds with jet fuel probably did what needed to be done to land safely, an expert says.
  
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• Witnessing a surreal 30 minutes in Washington

  15-01-2020 22:36 via cnn.com
  
  It was perhaps the most awaited economic moment of his presidency: the signing of a partial trade deal with China.
  
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• US counterterrorism officials warn police to be on alert for ambush attacks

  15-01-2020 22:33 via cnn.com
  
  Federal counterterrorism officials are warning police departments across the country to maintain a heightened state of awareness for the potential for ambush-style attacks against officers.
  
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• John Bolton will reportedly reveal some of what he knows about Trump's Ukraine scandal in his upcoming book

  15-01-2020 22:31 via news.yahoo.com
  
  If you really want to know what former National Security Adviser John Bolton though of President Trump's actions regarding Ukraine, you may not have to rely on the Senate to call him as a witness in the president's upcoming impeachment trial. That's because Bolton is going to reveal some of what he saw in his upcoming book, people familiar with the matter told The New York Times. The book, which is almost finished, is reportedly going to detail Bolton's time in the White House, events related to
  
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• Northam declares state of emergency ahead of gun rally

  15-01-2020 22:26 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam announced Wednesday that he was declaring a state of emergency over threats of “armed militia groups storming our Capitol” ahead of a gun-rights rally next week.Northam's emergency order will ban weapons of all kinds, including firearms, from the Capitol grounds starting Friday and continuing through Tuesday.
  
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• Keep your weapons at home: Virginia governor plans to ban guns from gun rights rally

  15-01-2020 22:21 via news.yahoo.com
  
  In Virginia, armed people plan to head to the state Capitol on Monday to lobby and rally for their Second Amendment rights.
  
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• Watch Trump go off script during trade deal signing

  15-01-2020 22:19 via cnn.com
  
  President Donald Trump called impeachment a "hoax" during a signing ceremony of a trade agreement with China as the House prepares to vote on sending the articles of impeachment to the Senate.
  
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• Trump goes off script during ceremony

  15-01-2020 22:19 via cnn.com
  
  President Donald Trump called impeachment a "hoax" during a signing ceremony of a trade agreement with China as the House prepares to vote on sending the articles of impeachment to the Senate.
  
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• Canada seeking official status in Iran plane downing probe

  15-01-2020 22:15 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Canada's transport minister said Wednesday his country is demanding official status in Iran's investigation of the crash of a Ukraine International Airlines jet in Tehran last week.Iran admits its air-defense forces shot the plane down, having not identified it as a commercial airliner.All 176 people aboard were killed, including 138 people who were headed for Canada and 57 Canadians.
  
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• Iran crown prince predicts regime will collapse within months

  15-01-2020 22:07 via news.yahoo.com
  
  The heir of Iran's deposed monarchy predicted Wednesday that the clerical regime will collapse within months and urged Western powers not to negotiate with it.Reza Pahlavi said that major protests which erupted in November and again this month, after the accidental downing of a Ukrainian passenger jet, reminded him of the uprising that ousted his father in early 1979.The 59-year-old heir to the Peacock Throne, who has not been to Iran since he was a teenager, cited as evidence what he called an
  
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• Christian school expelled student over a 'gay' rainbow cake, family says

  15-01-2020 22:06 via news.yahoo.com
  
  The mom of a Whitefield Academy student in Louisville said school officials believed the rainbow-related photo suggested her daughter was gay.
  
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• Taiwan Hopes Nimbler Weapons Can Stave Off an Invasion by China

  15-01-2020 22:00 via news.yahoo.com
  
  (Bloomberg) -- Sign up for Next China, a weekly email on where the nation stands now and where it's going next.In her first term, President Tsai Ing-Wen secured more than $10 billion in high-profile U.S. weapons to defend Taiwan against China. Over the next four years, it may be more important to acquire less glamorous, but nimbler weapons to prevent Beijing from considering an invasion.Tsai, whose Democratic Progressive Party views Taiwan as an independent nation, spent her first four years in
  
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• A young female reporter exposed a Michigan state senator who told her a group of high school boys could 'have a lot of fun' with her after she asked him a tough question

  15-01-2020 22:00 via news.yahoo.com
  
  The reporter, Alison Donahue, wrote that she hoped "men in power" would "think twice" before making crude comments to women in professional settings.
  
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• 'Kill shot that took them out': Video reportedly shows 2nd Iranian missile hitting passenger jet

  15-01-2020 21:58 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Surveillance video circulating on social media appears to show two Iranian missiles slamming into a Ukrainian jet that crashed, killing 176.
  
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• Police: Husband nearly ran over wife 2 years before killing

  15-01-2020 21:56 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Two years before mother-of-five Jennifer Dulos went missing last May in what police believe was a murder, her estranged husband tried to run her over outside her new Connecticut home around the time she had filed for divorce, the children's nanny told police. The allegations were revealed in nearly 500 pages of search warrants that were released Wednesday after being unsealed by a state judge presiding over the criminal cases of Fotis Dulos, who last week was charged with murder in the disappear
  
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• Anderson Cooper Hammers CNN Guest over Warren-Sanders Split

  15-01-2020 21:56 via news.yahoo.com
  
  It's caused quite a stir...
  
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• The US Navy’s top officer says he’ll trade growing the fleet for readiness

  15-01-2020 21:55 via news.yahoo.com
  
  If slowing the fleet's growth means a more ready fleet, that's a trade the CNO is willing to make.
  
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• Trump administration abruptly cancels classified Iran-related briefings

  15-01-2020 21:54 via cnn.com
  
  The State Department abruptly canceled two classified congressional briefings related to the ongoing Iran crisis that were scheduled for Wednesday and provided little or no explanation for doing so, Senate and House aides confirm to CNN.
  
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• Trump obsessively hunts 'celebrity' terrorist targets and ignores other threats to the US, former CIA officer says

  15-01-2020 21:53 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Several big name terrorist targets have been eliminated during Trump's presidency. A former CIA officer says its because he wants 'celebrity' kills.
  
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• Orphaned teen told he can't live in senior living community

  15-01-2020 21:48 via news.yahoo.com
  
  An Arizona couple says their senior living community won't allow their orphaned grandson to keep staying with them because of age limits.The boy's mother died in 2018 at a California hospital and his father took his own life two weeks later, said his grandmother, Melodie Passmore.Not long after, 15-year-old Collin Clabaugh moved in with his grandparents in Prescott, about 100 miles (161 kilometers) north of Phoenix.
  
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• AP Exclusive: Justice changing how inmate risk is assessed

  15-01-2020 21:46 via news.yahoo.com
  
  The Justice Department is changing the system it uses to assess whether an inmate is likely to commit crimes after being released from prison, aiming to ensure the process is fairer and more effective.The federal Bureau of Prisons has already assessed nearly all the 175,269 inmates in federal custody to identify programs they may need to help reduce the risk of recidivism.
  
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• Jeffrey Epstein 'kept a database of victims and trafficked girls to his Caribbean island as recently as 2018'

  15-01-2020 21:45 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Jeffrey Epstein allegedly sexually abused and trafficked young girls on his private Caribbean island as recently as 2018, according to a new lawsuit filed by the attorney general of the US Virgin Islands. Epstein’s lawyers have insisted that, after his plea deal in Florida in 2008, Epstein was a changed man who led a law-abiding life. However, the new case filed on Wednesday – the first to be filed in the US Virgin Islands – alleges that the abuse continued unabated a
  
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• Michael Avenatti Tossed in Jail for ‘Foreseeable Future’

  15-01-2020 21:42 via news.yahoo.com
  
  LOS ANGELES—United States District Court Judge James V. Selna ordered today that Stormy Daniels’ ex-attorney Michael Avenatti remain in federal custody for possible violation of his conditions of pretrial release and be transported “forthwith” to New York, where he will stand trial next week.The judge found there was probable cause Avenatti had committed crimes in violation of the terms of his bond and ordered the embattled celebrity attorney detained without bond. Avenat
  
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• Microsoft's newest internet browser is fast and finally does the things that makes Google's Chrome so popular — here's how to get it

  15-01-2020 21:41 via news.yahoo.com
  
  It's basically Google Chrome dressed in Microsoft clothing, and it could actually make you think twice about immediately downloading Chrome.
  
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• Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, entire Cabinet resign

  15-01-2020 21:35 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Dmitry Medvedev made the announcement after Vladimir Putin unveiled a series of changes Medvedev said would alter the country's balance of power.
  
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• Immigration agency subpoenas sanctuary city law enforcement

  15-01-2020 21:29 via news.yahoo.com
  
  U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has subpoenaed Denver law enforcement for information on four foreign nationals wanted for deportation and may consider expanding the unusual practice to other locations if necessary.ICE, the Homeland Security agency responsible for arresting and deporting people in the U.S. illegally, could take the subpoena to a federal judge, who can order them to hand over information and find them in contempt if they don't comply, officials said.
  
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• Record number of guns seized at US airports last year

  15-01-2020 21:26 via cnn.com
  
  More guns were seized at airports across the United States last year than ever before in the Transportation Security Administration's 18-year history, the agency reported Wednesday.
  
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• US-China trade deal won't ease tensions

  15-01-2020 21:25 via cnn.com
  
  The United States has signed a partial trade agreement with China. But that doesn't mean simmering conflicts and uncertainty over trade won't drag down the global economy this year.
  
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• Specifics are elusive, substantial tariffs are still in place, and Trump may open a new front in what could become a global trade war

  15-01-2020 21:25 via cnn.com
  
  The United States has signed a partial trade agreement with China. But that doesn't mean simmering conflicts and uncertainty over trade won't drag down the global economy this year.
  
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• Man who challenged deportation to Iraq wins, can stay in US

  15-01-2020 21:25 via news.yahoo.com
  
  A Detroit-area man who was locked up for months and became the lead plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit challenging U.S. deportations to Iraq has won his immigration case and is on a path to citizenship, lawyers said Wednesday.An immigration judge found that Usama “Sam” Hamama of Oakland County had rehabilitated himself since an assault conviction decades ago, a crime that was erased with a pardon by Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder in one of his last acts in 2018.The deportation case was d
  
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• Connecticut GOP chair asked congressional candidate linked to possible Yovanovitch surveillance to drop out of race

  15-01-2020 21:25 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Is the future of Robert Hyde's Connecticut congressional campaign in jeopardy? The state's GOP Chair J.R. Romano certainly hopes so.Hyde, who's running as a Republican, was implicated Tuesday by new evidence that Lev Parnas, an associate of President Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, handed over to the House Intelligence Committee. Parnas is known for aiding Giuliani in his quest to pressure Ukraine into investigating Trump's domestic rivals, and was subpoenaed by Congress as part of the im
  
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• Peru to deport tourists over Machu Picchu damage

  15-01-2020 21:23 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Five tourists arrested for damaging Peru's iconic Machu Picchu site will be deported to Bolivia later on Wednesday, police said.A sixth was released from custody and ordered to remain in Machu Picchu pending trial after paying bail of $910.The six tourists -- four men and two women -- were arrested for damaging Peru's "cultural heritage" after being found in a restricted area of the Temple of the Sun on Sunday.
  
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• Michigan state senator apologizes for comments to female reporter

  15-01-2020 21:23 via news.yahoo.com
  
  A Michigan lawmaker apologized Wednesday a day after telling a young female reporter that a group of high school boys could “have a lot of fun” with her.
  
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• 'What's this a tour of?': Trump barely understood the significance of an iconic Pearl Harbor memorial during a private tour, new book says

  15-01-2020 21:21 via news.yahoo.com
  
  "He was at times dangerously uninformed," a former senior White House official reportedly said of President Donald Trump.
  
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• 'Leader for life'? Putin sends a message to the world

  15-01-2020 21:20 via cnn.com
  
  • Entire Russian govt. resigns as Putin proposes reforms that could extend grip on power
  
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• 'Women Don’t Give Up.' Why Female Protesters Are at the Forefront of India's Resistance Movement

  15-01-2020 21:18 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Women are leading protests against Modi's government in India — and it's not the first time women have been at the forefront of political activism. Here's the history.
  
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• 75 years ago, US troops began the main battle of the long, bloody fight to kick the Japanese out of the Philippines

  15-01-2020 21:09 via news.yahoo.com
  
  US troops invaded Luzon, the largest island of the Philippines, on January 9, 1945, where fighting lasted until the Japanese surrender in August 1945.
  
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