Sugar Land

Bloomberg pledges $70 billion to bolster black America in new plan

Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced his presidential campaign's plan for bolstering economic opportunity for black Americans.

Republican senator on Trump soliciting foreign interference: 'Things happen'

Republican Senator Richard Shelby defended an argument from President Trump’s legal team that soliciting foreign interference in an election is not an impeachable offense, saying, “things happen.”

Five die in Russian hotel after boiling water floods basement

Five people, including one child, were killed in the Russian city of Perm on Monday when a hot water pipe exploded in the night and flooded a basement hotel room with boiling water. At least three other people were taken to hospital with burns after the incident in the Mini Hotel Caramel, which is located in the basement of a residential building, the region's investigative committee said. A doctor treating the victims, Andrei Babikov, said a 33-year-old woman had burns covering 35% of her body.

Body of woman who was missing for almost 6 years found in car submerged in NJ river

Vanessa Smallwood of Maple Shade, N.J., was 46 at the time of her disappearance. She was identified in a statement from New Jersey State Police.

Illegal crossings plunge as US extends policy across border

Adolfo Cardenas smiles faintly at the memory of traveling with his 14-year-old son from Honduras to the U.S.-Mexico border in only nine days, riding buses and paying a smuggler $6,000 to ensure passage through highway checkpoints. Father and son walked about 10 minutes in Arizona's stifling June heat before surrendering to border agents. Instead of being released with paperwork to appear in immigration court in Dallas, where Cardenas hopes to live with a cousin, they were bused more than an hour to wait in the Mexican border city of Mexicali.

Trump's Russia adviser 'escorted from White House' amid investigation

President Trump's latest Russia expert has reportedly been escorted from the White House amid claims of a security-related investigation.

Ex-Carnival and Norwegian Cruise Line workers reveal the things they couldn't live without on board

Workers for cruise lines like Carnival and Norwegian might be away from home for over six months, so they need to be thoughtful about what they pack.

Climate crisis could justify asylum claims: UN committee

Governments that send refugees back to countries severely affected by climate change could be in breach of their human rights obligations, a UN committee said on Monday. The independent experts on the Human Rights Committee issued a non-binding but closely watched ruling in a case brought by Ioane Teitiota from the Pacific island nation of Kiribati. Several Pacific island nations including Kiribati are seen as among the most vulnerable in the world to climate change as they are just a few metres above sea level.

China's Navy Warships Are Now Armed With Land-Attack Missiles

China says its newest destroyer is capable of launching land-attack missiles.

Trump impeachment: Schumer ready to 'force votes for witnesses'

Senate minority leader said he aims to compel the chamber as early as Tuesday to hold vote on witnesses and extra evidenceSenate Democrats were ramping up pressure for witnesses to be called in the impeachment trial of Donald Trump before the historic process gets fully under way on Capitol Hill on Tuesday – even as the president plans to be away at the elite economic and political forum in Davos, Switzerland, during opening arguments.Trump already has no plans to appear at his own Senate trial and will be represented by a legal team that includes some controversial figures. But the symbolism of his being out of the country at a very see-and-be-seen annual event that draws global leaders while he stands accused back home of abusing the power of his office and obstructing Congress during its investigation into his conduct with Ukraine is telling.He is due to give a keynote speech at the forum as the drama unfolds in Washington.The Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, said that he aims to compel the chamber as early as Tuesday to hold a vote on whether witnesses and extra evidence can be brought before the impeachment trial, and he turned up the pressure on moderate Republicans to side with the minority to achieve that.In a press conference in New York on Sunday evening, Schumer said he stands ready to “force votes for witnesses and documents” at the trial if the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell – who has yet to set out the exact details of how he proposes that the trial will proceed – does not call for such a vote.“We have the right to do it, we are going to do it and we are going to do it at the beginning on Tuesday if leader McConnell doesn’t call for these witnesses in his proposal,” Schumer said.Trump has been keen for the Senate to dismiss the charges against him without even going through the motions of a trial. McConnell intends to proceed with a trial but there has been no agreement to call any outside witnesses, such as the former national security adviser John Bolton or the acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, who could shed even more light on the president’s dealing with the Ukrainians and the pivotal role of Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani.The case hinges on a 25 July phone call between Trump and the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in which Trump asked his counterpart to do him a “favor” and investigate both a conspiracy theory concerning election interference and ties between the former vice-president Joe Biden and his son Hunter and the eastern European country.Article 1 of the United States constitution gives the House of Representatives the sole power to initiate impeachment and the Senate the sole power to try impeachments of the president. A president can be impeached if they are judged to have committed "treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors" – although the US Constitution does not specify what “high crimes and misdemeanors” are. The formal process starts with the House of Representatives passing articles of impeachment, the equivalent of congressional charges. According to arcane Senate rules, after the House notifies the Senate that impeachment managers have been selected, the secretary of the Senate, Julie Adams, tells the House that the Senate is ready to receive the articles. Then impeachment managers appear before the Senate to “exhibit” the articles, and the Senate confirms it will consider the case.The presiding officer of the Senate notifies the supreme court chief justice, John Roberts, of the impending trial. Roberts arrives in the Senate to administer an oath to members.The presiding officer will then administer this oath to senators: “I solemnly swear that in all things appertaining to the trial of the impeachment of Donald Trump, now pending, I will do impartial justice according to the constitution and laws, so help me God.”The Senate must vote on a resolution laying out ground rules for the trial including who the key players will be, how long they will get to present their cases and other matters. After the Senate is “organized”, the rules decree, “a writ of summons shall issue to the person impeached, reciting said articles, and notifying him to appear before the Senate upon a day and at a place to be fixed by the Senate”. A president has never appeared at his own impeachment trial. Trump will be represented by the White House counsel, Pat Cipollone, and his personal lawyer Jay Sekulow, among others.After the oath, the trial proper will begin. Senators may not speak during the proceedings but may submit written questions. The question of witnesses and other matters would be decided on the fly by majority vote. A time limit for the proceedings will be established in the initial Senate vote.The senators will then deliberate on the case. In the past this has happened behind closed doors and out of public view.The senators vote separately on the two articles of impeachment – the first charging Trump with abuse of power, the second charging him with obstruction of Congress. A two-thirds majority of present senators – 67 ayes if everyone votes – on either article would be enough to convict Trump and remove him from office. But that would require about 20 Republicans defections and is unlikely. The more likely outcome is a Trump acquittal, at which point the process is concluded.Two presidents have previously been impeached, Bill Clinton in 1998, and Andrew Johnson in 1868, though neither was removed from office as a result. Richard Nixon resigned in 1974 before there was a formal vote to impeach him.Tom McCarthy in New YorkTrump’s team is entitled to file a detailed legal brief in the case before midday on Monday. An initial brief on Saturday argued fiercely against the impeachment charges.“This is a brazen and unlawful attempt to overturn the results of the 2016 election and interfere with the 2020 election, now just months away,” Trump’s lawyers said, also claiming the charges against the president were invalid as they did not concern a crime.Schumer indicated he was determined to press for witnesses and documents that have been blocked to be brought forward either before or after opening arguments.“We’re allowed to amend it, and ask for them. I am allowed to amend it – and then if they say well let’s wait and hear the arguments we’ll want a vote after they hear the arguments as well and we will do everything we can to force votes again,” he said.On Saturday, the House’s selected team of impeachment managers, who prosecute the case against Trump at trial, outlined their case in a 111-page legal brief.In a joint statement, the seven managers, led by the Democratic intelligence committee chair, Adam Schiff, said their case was “simple, the facts are indisputable, and the evidence is overwhelming: President Trump abused the power of his office to solicit foreign interference in our elections for his own personal political gain, thereby jeopardising our national security, the integrity of our elections, and our democracy.“And when the president got caught, he tried to cover it up by obstructing the House’s investigation into his misconduct.”On Sunday, the Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, once a harsh critic and now a staunch Trump ally, said the latest hope from the president is that he wants the trial and his expected acquittal at the hands of the Republican Senate majority to be out of the way by the annual presidential showcase event, the State of the Union address to Congress and the American people.“His mood is, to go to the state of the union [on 4 February] with this behind him and talk about what he wants to do for the rest of 2020 and what he wants to do for the next four years,” Graham told Fox News Sunday.

Bodies of Ukrainian victims of Iran plane crash returned home

The bodies of the 11 Ukrainian citizens who died when a passenger plane was accidentally shot down by Iran this month were brought back to Ukraine on Sunday in a solemn ceremony at Kiev airport. All 176 on board the Ukraine International Airlines flight from Tehran to Kiev were killed when the Boeing 737-800 was shot down on Jan. 8, at a time when Iran was on high alert for a U.S. attack. Nine of the Ukrainian citizens were crew members.

Leopard runs into house before being captured in south India

A leopard that ran into a house and sparked a frantic search and a frenzy of attention in southern India on Monday has been caught and tranquilized. The big cat emerged from the Kamdanam forest and ran into a house in Shadnagar town in Telangana state, said Dr. Mohammad Abdul Hakeem, a wildlife official. Deadly conflict between humans and animals has increased in recent years in India largely due to shrinking forest habitats and urban expansion.

Deadly NJ police chases kill innocent victims, catch few crooks

Many police pursuits across the nation end tragically and disproportionately affect black people. Chases often start with a traffic violation.

The US Air Force recently acquired a new $64 million Gulfstream private jet for VIP government officials — see inside

The US president isn't the only government official that flies in a VIP plane operated by the US Air Force.

Israel to welcome the world for Auschwitz anniversary

World leaders are to travel to Israel this week to mark 75 years since the Red Army liberated Auschwitz, the extermination camp where the Nazis killed over a million Jews. It is set to be one of the most important events ever organised by the Jewish state, with more than 40 leaders planning to land in Tel Aviv before attending Thursday's sombre commemoration at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial centre in Jerusalem. Thousands of police officers and other security forces will deploy from Tuesday, ahead of the arrival of dignitaries including Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Emmanuel Macron and US Vice President Mike Pence.

Could Taiwan Stop an Invasion By China?

Expert: “Over the next four years, it may be more important to acquire less glamorous but nimbler weapons to prevent Beijing from considering an invasion.”

Sanders Campaign Touts Op-Ed on Biden’s ‘Corruption Problem’ ahead of Impeachment Trial

The Bernie Sanders campaign circulated an op-ed on Monday highlighting “the transactional, grossly corrupt culture” of former vice president Joe Biden’s record, just one day before the Senate begins its impeachment trial over President Trump’s alleged attempts to force Ukraine to investigate Biden.A “Bern Notice” email sent by the campaign highlights a Guardian op-ed written by Fordham Law professor and Sanders supporter Zephyr Teachout, which warns that “Biden has a big corruption problem and it makes him a weak candidate.”> The day before the Senate impeachment trial against Trump begins, the Bernie Sanders campaign circulates this op-ed attack on Joe Biden pic.twitter.com/ReEsU2Lkrn> > -- Mark Murray (@mmurraypolitics) January 20, 2020“It looks like ‘Middle Class’ Joe has perfected the art of taking big contributions, then representing his corporate donors at the cost of middle- and working-class Americans,” Teachout argues. “Converting campaign contributions into legislative favors and policy positions isn’t being ‘moderate’. It is the kind of transactional politics Americans have come to loathe.”Republicans could call the Bidens as witnesses in the impeachment trial slated to begin Tuesday, with Biden’s campaign releasing a memo Monday to warn media outlets of “spreading a malicious and conclusively debunked conspiracy theory” on any alleged conflict of interest in Ukraine.The Biden campaign said that any reporting suggesting that “Biden engaged in wrongdoing when he executed official United States policy to remove a corrupt prosecutor from office” amounts to “spreading a malicious and conclusively debunked conspiracy theory.”Sanders has yet to publicly accuse Biden of corruption, while President Trump and allies have repeatedly touted the claim, citing the former vice president’s diplomatic dealings in Ukraine while his son served on the board of a Ukrainian gas company.“I think the Bidens are as corrupt as the day is long,” Senator Rand Paul (R., Ky.) said last week. “No young man who is the son of a politician gets $50,000 a month who has no experience, working for a Ukrainian oligarch. You know, for goodness sakes — it smells to high heaven. It smells like corruption.”

The 11 most expensive cities to live in around the world in 2020

The 16th Annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey reveals cities bordering the Pacific Ocean are the most expensive.

China repeats call on Canada to release Huawei CFO Meng

China repeated its call on Monday for Canada to release detained Huawei Technologies [HWT.UL] Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou as soon as possible, ahead of the executive's first extradition hearing later in the day. "The resolve of the Chinese government to protect Chinese citizens' proper legal rights is firm and unwavering," foreign ministry spokesman, Geng Shuang, told reporters during a daily briefing. Meng, daughter of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, was arrested at Vancouver International Airport on Dec. 1, 2018, at the request of the United States, where she is charged with bank fraud and accused of misleading the bank HSBC about Huawei Technologies' business in Iran.

Hail, floods, dust hit Australia amid raging wildfires

Dust storms, hail and flash floods have battered beleaguered Australian cities in recent days, extreme weather that has diminished the threat from scores of wildfires that continue to blaze across the country’s southeast. A hail storm in the national capital Canberra on Monday damaged public buildings, businesses, homes and cars, cut power to some suburbs, brought down trees, caused flash flooding and injured two people, emergency services officials said.

Mothers who occupied vacant Oakland house will be allowed to buy it

Intervention of California governor helps Moms 4 Housing group score victory in fight against state’s homeless crisisThe homeless mothers who took over a vacant house in Oakland, California and occupied it for almost two months will be allowed to purchase the property – a major victory in a movement working to keep such homes out of the possession of speculators.The group Moms 4 Housing entered the house on Magnolia Street on 18 November with the intent to stay. The house had sat vacant for more than two years before it was purchased in July at a foreclosure auction for $501,078 by Wedgewood Properties, a real estate investment company with a history of buying up foreclosed-upon houses cheaply, evicting the tenants, renovating the homes and then putting them back on the market at much higher prices.Housing advocates say companies such as Wedgewood fueled the housing crisis that now grips the state, which needs anywhere between 1.8m and 3.5m new housing units by 2025. More than 15,500 units remain vacant in Oakland alone, according to the latest US census bureau data, while 4,071 people are homeless. House-flipping has led to rapid gentrification, which then in turn led to the widespread displacement of black residents.In Oakland, 78% of the homeless population reported that their last place of residence before becoming homeless was within county limits. Seventy percent were black.Moms 4 Housing chose the Magnolia Street house in part to try to force Wedgewood to negotiate the sale of the home back to the community.“This is what happens when we organize, when people come together to build the beloved community,” Dominique Walker, one of the mothers who lived in the house with her two children, said in a statement, on the day that America marked Martin Luther King Day. “Today we honor Dr King’s radical legacy by taking Oakland back from banks and corporations.”With the housing and homelessness crisis worsening each day, the mothers received widespread support for their cause, from local lawmakers to California governor Gavin Newsom, who praised the activists.Moms 4 Housing had brought the issue to court, but a judge ruled in favor of Wedgewood. Sheriff deputies arrived in the early hours of 15 January to evict them, arresting two of the mothers and two of their supporters.Wedgewood has maintained that the mothers had committed a criminal act in breaking into the house, and the house legally belonged to the company.“Wedgewood has always been and continues to be open to thoughtful and purposeful discussions,” spokesman Sam Singer said in a statement.“After regaining possession of Magnolia Street, we engaged in discussions with governor Gavin Newsom, mayor Libby Schaaf and councilman Larry Reid. These led to progress that everyone should agree is a step in the right direction in helping to address Oakland’s homelessness and housing crisis.”

Photos surface showing convicted Nazi guard Demjanjuk at Sobibor

New photos have emerged which for the first time show convicted Nazi guard John Demjanjuk at the Sobibor death camp, a Berlin archive confirmed Monday, although he always denied ever being there. Ukrainian-American Demjanjuk was convicted of being an accessory to the murder of nearly 30,000 Jews at Sobibor by a German court in 2011. According to the Berlin-based Topography of Terror archive, photos of Demjanjuk are among a newly discovered collection of more than 350 snaps which give "detailed insight" into the camp in German-occupied Poland.

Russia Is Worried About Britain's Astute-Class Submarines

The class seems to have overcome its technical and financial problems, although the lingering impact of those issues could affect not only future classes of SSNs, but also the UK’s commitment to building a new class of SSBNs.

'I stayed alive to tell' - Auschwitz's dwindling survivors recount horrors of Nazi death camp

A strip of skin tattooed with the Auschwitz death camp number 99288 sits in a silver frame on a shelf in Avraham Harshalom's living room. As the 75th anniversary of the camp's liberation on Jan 27, 1945, nears, Harshalom, 95, is very clear about why he kept it. Harshalom is one of some 200,000 Holocaust survivors living in Israel today.

Cult slayed pregnant woman and five of her children in Panama

A religious sect whose members believed to be “anointed by God” forced a pregnant woman and five of her children to walk through fire as part of a cult ritual, according to local residents.

Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown 'fine' with Hunter Biden testifying in Trump impeachment trial

Several Republicans who oppose new witnesses say House Democrats rushed the impeachment process.

Panama begins exhumation of victims from 1989 US invasion

Forensic workers took preliminary steps Monday for digging up the remains of some victims of the 1989 U.S. invasion of Panama, an effort that has lifted the hopes of Panamanians who had relatives die or disappear and have lived with unanswered questions about their fate for 30 years. Authorities gave the approval for exhumation of the 19 bodies buried in a Panama City cemetery after a truth commission set up three years ago documented about 20 disappearances from the U.S. military action to topple strongman Manuel Noriega. Prosecutor Maribel Caballero told reporters the remains will be compared to a database of DNA from relatives in 14 cases.

Just as Australia's deadly fires begin to subside, it's being hit with more apocalyptic weather. Videos show enormous dust storms and golf-ball-sized hail battering cars and buildings

Rainfall helped to relieve some parts of the country affected by the bushfires, but caused damage in other ways

China is fighting to stop the spread of a mysterious, deadly virus as millions prepare to travel for Chinese New Year

The 2019-nCoV respiratory virus has caused at least three deaths since it broke out in Wuhan, China, but not much is known about it.

UK's Johnson, France's Macron reiterate commitment to Iran nuclear deal

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and French President Emmanuel Macron reiterated their commitment on Sunday to the Iran nuclear deal and agreed a long-term framework was needed, Downing Street said on Sunday. "On Iran, the leaders reiterated their commitment to the JCPoA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) and also acknowledged the need to define a long-term framework to prevent Iran acquiring a nuclear weapon," a Downing Street spokeswoman said in a statement after the two met on the sidelines of a Libya summit in Berlin.

Palestinian family pledge appeal over Jerusalem eviction ruling

A Palestinian family pledged on Monday to appeal an Israeli court order to evict them from their home in a mainly-Palestinian east Jerusalem neighbourhood in a case lodged by a settler organisation. The Israeli anti-settlement NGO Peace Now said a Jerusalem magistrates court ruled Sunday in favour of evicting the Rajabi family from their home in the Silwan neighbourhood following a lawsuit filed by members of the pro-settlement Ateret Cohanim organisation. The three-storey building houses 17 Palestinians, the family said.

The Rift Between Turkey and America Has Paved the Way for Russia's Rebound

Once bitter rivals, Russia and Turkey have seen their relationship rebound over the past few years.

3 killed, 100-plus hurt in collapse during Ethiopia ceremony

At least three people were killed and more than 100 others injured when a wooden stand erected for the colorful Epiphany celebration collapsed in Ethiopia on Monday, an official and hospital source said. The security chief for the city of Gondar, Tesfa Mekonnen, did not specify the number of deaths in comments to regional broadcaster Amhara Mass Media Agency. A hospital source in Ethiopia's city of Gondar confirmed that at least three people died.

Crosby woman dies from flu after trip to Israel, family says

The 21-year-old, who loved to travel, always seemed healthy, according to the family.

Trump likens himself to Martin Luther King Jr while boasting about low black unemployment

Donald Trump appeared to compare the anniversary of his swearing-in ceremony with Martin Luther King Jr's birthday as the president boasted claims of low unemployment among black Americans.On Twitter, the president wrote: "It was exactly three years ago today, January 20, 2017, that I was sworn into office. So appropriate that today is also MLK jr DAY. African-American Unemployment is the LOWEST in the history of our Country, by far. Also, best Poverty, Youth, and Employment numbers, ever. Great!"

Puerto Rico protesters demand governor's resignation

Hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside the seaside governor’s mansion and Capitol building on Monday to demand the U.S. territory’s leader resignation and to protest the recent discovery of apparently forgotten disaster supplies amid continuing earthquakes. The scene reminded many of the beginning of protests that escalated over the summer and led to the resignation of former Gov. Ricardo Rosselló, with demonstrators once again vowing to remain in the streets until Vázquez also steps down. Joining the fight soon is Puerto Rican star Ricky Martin, who announced on Instagram that he was en route to the island.

Scientists say Australia's rare duck-billed platypuses are being pushed to 'the brink of extinction' — and deadly bushfires are making it worse

A new report says population numbers of the animal have more than halved since Europeans first arrived in Australia.

A photo of petrified wood in Arizona went viral and it only took 225 million years

A photo of a piece of petrified wood has been shared across the Internet, but no one knows who took it or why it's such a rock star.

Iran says Zarif not attending Davos as its organizers 'changed its agenda'

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif will not attend the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos this week because its organizers had "abruptly changed its agenda", its foreign ministry spokesman said on Monday. Reuters last week reported that Zarif was no longer on the list of nearly 3,000 people due at the event, which is being held under the banner "Stakeholders for a Sustainable and Cohesive World".

Document trove shows how 'Africa's richest woman' stole fortune: ICIJ

An award-winning investigative team published a trove of files Sunday allegedly showing how the daughter of Angola's former president -- dubbed Africa's richest woman -- syphoned hundreds of millions of dollars of public money into offshore accounts. The New York-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) worked with newspapers such as Munich's Suddeutsche Zeitung to reveal the "Panama Papers" tax haven scandal in 2016. Its latest series called "Luanda Leaks" zeros in on Isabel dos Santos, the former Angola president's daughter.

Taiwan Is Not Worth A War With China (For 1 Key U.S. Ally, That Is)

Especially for Australia.

‘A Defining Moment.’ An Indian State’s Decision to Challenge the Country's Controversial Citizenship Law Signals a Growing Divide

Kerala's lawsuit argues that the Citizenship Amendment Act is "discriminatory" and runs counter to the Indian constitution's secular principles.

Huawei partnered with TomTom for a new map app for its phones after being cut off from Google Maps

Huawei has been taking more and more steps to get ready for its Google-less future ever since it got blacklisted by the Trump administration.

How Trump Twisted Iran Intel to Manufacture the ‘Four Embassies’ Threat

When President Donald Trump publicly claimed earlier this month that he had seen intel showing Iran’s now-deceased top military leader Qassem Soleimani was plotting attacks on “four [American] embassies,” senior officials in Trump’s national-security apparatus shook their heads. They weren’t sure exactly why the president leaned on that particular talking point, and scrambled in the following days to formulate answers to a barrage of questions from the media on exactly what the president had meant. Other officials wondered aloud whether the president had misrepresented the intelligence. “There were definitely questions [at the time, internally] about whether he had just made it up on the spot,” recalled one White House official.It turns out Trump—technically—didn’t get his eyebrow-raising claim out of nowhere, The Daily Beast has learned. According to three sources familiar with the matter, the president had simply seized on a small part of what he’d heard in private briefings, exaggerated that aspect of the intelligence, then began sharing the inflated intel to the American public during his post-Soleimani victory lap. In doing so, President Trump generated yet more confusion and discord among the national-security brass that had already struggled to sell the American people on its case for the strike that just brought Iran and the United States to the precipice of all-out warfare. For weeks the Trump administration had struggled to get on message in talking about why the U.S. decided to strike Soleimani and what it would do in the future to manage any diplomacy with Tehran. Trump’s embassy claim didn’t help, officials said.The White House did not comment on the record for this story.Shortly before he began announcing to the media and rally-goers that the Iranian general was planning assaults on multiple U.S. embassies, the president received briefings at the White House from both national-security officials and communications staffers. The purpose of some of these meetings were to prepare Trump on how best to talk to the press regarding his administration’s justifications for killing Soleimani. The president received a briefing shortly before he entered the Roosevelt Room Jan. 9 and said Iran was “looking to blow up our embassy.” According to two people familiar with this briefing, Trump was told that following the killing of Soleimani, Iran could retaliate against American assets in the region. The president was again told this in a subsequent briefing that day, one of these sources added. However, embassies were a part of a long list of American outposts and bases potentially under threat from Iran but sources familiar with those internal briefings do not remember the number four ever being specified, and they certainly do not recall any imminent danger to those embassies.When administration officials briefed Trump, they mentioned possible targets for Iranian retribution; they were not discussing intel on what anyone in the regime was actively plotting against U.S. interests, the sources noted.However, the moment he heard the word “embassies,” Trump immediately chimed in, interrupting the meeting to grill his briefers on that issue, according to one U.S. official. From there, he began to treat this possible threat as a near-certain danger. Trump received another intelligence briefing shortly before his interview with Fox’s Laura Ingraham Jan. 10 where he repeated the claim that Iran probably would have attacked four embassies. When the president started publicly trotting out his claims of “four embassies,” national-security aides were dumbfounded. The Washington Post reported earlier this month that Trump’s “four embassies” talking point clashed with intelligence assessments from Trump’s own officials. CNN also reported that security officials at the State Department weren’t even notified of an imminent danger to any specific set of four American embassies.Secretary of Defense Mark Esper himself admitted during an interview on the CBS Sunday show Face the Nation that while “the president said that he believed that it probably could have been attacks against additional embassies,” Esper personally “didn’t see [a specific piece of evidence] with regard to four embassies.”Esper added, “What I’m saying is I shared the president’s view that probably, my expectation is they were going to go after our embassies.”At that point, the U.S. embassy in Baghdad had of course already been stormed by an Iranian-supported militia, but that was prior to Soleimani’s death.Senior Trump administration officials have canceled several of their past scheduled briefings with Congress on specific threats to U.S. embassies pre-Soleimani strike. Briefers were also supposed to delve into more detail about what exactly U.S. intelligence said prior to the strike. The administration has held two briefings so far with both the House and the Senate, but sessions left lawmakers frustrated and overwhelmingly uninformed. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo rescheduled his briefing on the embassy threats with the House Foreign Affairs committee for next week.‘OK, Now What?’: Inside Team Trump’s Scramble to Sell the Soleimani Hit to AmericaBut people close to Trump say his embassy fixation lies in his obsession with avoiding the kind of catastrophes that befell his predecessors Barack Obama and George W. Bush. President Trump, who has long bashed Obama for the 2012 Benghazi attack and Bush for the Hurricane Katrina response, is particularly concerned with opening himself up to accusations of having suffered “Trump’s Benghazi” or “Trump’s Katrina,” according to two sources who’ve spoken to the president about this. “Multiple times I’ve heard him talk about how you don’t want a Katrina moment,” said a former senior White House official. “You can’t do anything about what weather is going to do, but you can certainly manage the response and the optics of what you’re doing in addition to the substance of what you’re doing.”With Trump’s shambolic, even scandalous, handling of the response and relief efforts to the hurricanes that hit Puerto Rico, this president seems to have already had his “Katrina.” He is, however, determined not to experience a direct parallel to Benghazi. Indeed, on New Year’s Eve, the president took to Twitter to enthusiastically brand the embassy attack that occurred on his watch “The Anti-Benghazi!” Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

Prosecutors seek prison terms for accused in gold coin heist

German prosecutors are seeking lengthy prison terms for four men accused of staging the brazen theft of a 100-kilogram (221-pound) Canadian gold coin that disappeared from a Berlin museum almost three years ago. The dpa news agency reported Monday that prosecutors have asked Berlin's region court to sentence two of the men to seven years in prison and the two others to six and five years each. Prosecutors claim the men, aged 21 to 25, stole the “Big Maple Leaf” coin worth about 3.75 million euros ($4.33 million) from Berlin's Bode Museum in March 2017.

A Blow to the Head Makes an Instant Hero in India

NEW DELHI -- Under a highway bridge in New Delhi, where a large protest had shut down several lanes of traffic, a coterie of veteran dissidents took turns speaking: men with shaggy beards, singers strumming guitars, social activists so impassioned that spit flew from their wet lips.But a jolt of electricity passed through the crowd when a slight woman -- younger, smaller and more vulnerable looking than anyone else -- stepped up to the mic.She carried no notes. She wore a bandage on her forehead. Her arm was in a cast."Many people ask me whether I'm scared," she began. "And I tell them: How can I be scared?"People nodded their heads, seeming to follow her words carefully.She wasn't frightened of Amit Shah, the home minister, she said, or Narendra Modi, the domineering prime minister who has sent India down a Hindu nationalist path."Even if you beat us, we won't step back," she thundered. "Long live the revolution!"The crowd roared.The biggest and most energized protests India has witnessed in a generation are sweeping the country, and one young woman has been thrust to the fore: Aishe Ghosh.Earlier this month, while leading a peaceful demonstration on her university campus, Ghosh was attacked by Hindu nationalist goons. After they cracked her in the head with an iron bar and thrashed her body, images of her blood-smeared face were instantly beamed nationwide.But it was the photograph made two days later that etched her into the Indian psyche: It showed Ghosh, 25, staring straight into the camera, her head wrapped in a doughnut of white medical tape, her hair wild and her eyes radiating a resolve that seemed indestructible."Every protest has a face," said Vidit Panchal, a young doctor who traveled across India this week to meet her.Ghosh is that face.The product of politically active parents from West Bengal, Ghosh was a talented painting student before entering university to study politics. Last fall she was elected president of the student body at one of India's liveliest and most prestigious schools, Jawaharlal Nehru University, a bastion of anti-Modi dissent.Even in the weeks before she was attacked by the gang of Modi's supporters, Ghosh was marching in protests, coordinating strikes and recruiting followers -- in essence, galvanizing the resistance. Now, she is being invited everywhere to speak.To be a student leader in India, it's a thrilling time."Professors have been writing mails to us saying that you should be going to the protests, because protests teach you more than I can teach you in the four walls of the classroom," Ghosh said, clearly excited by all this. "We have politicized so many people. It gives me so much pride."Ever since modern India was envisioned, a fundamental question has been how Hindu-oriented should it be, given that the population, about 80% Hindu, has long hosted a dizzying array of different cultures, including a Muslim minority that today, at 200 million people, would on its own be one of the largest Muslim nations in the world. Modi has taken a clear position, pushing a slate of divisive Hindu nationalist policies that play quite well with a large segment of society but have deeply worried minorities and progressives."A Germany in the making," Ghosh calls it.Since Modi's reelection in May, his government has plowed ahead with a contentious citizenship review in northeastern India widely seen as a test run for a nationwide attempt to identify and marginalize Muslim families. In August he summarily deleted the statehood of Kashmir, which had been India's only Muslim-majority state.These moves raised some eyebrows, especially in rival Pakistan, which also claims Kashmir.But the issue that sent millions of Indians over the edge was Modi's new citizenship law, which creates a special path to Indian citizenship for migrants from all major South Asian religions bar one: Islam.Modi has insisted that the law is intended to protect persecuted migrants from neighboring countries, but many Indians see it as blatantly anti-Muslim and discriminatory. As soon at it passed in December, universities across the country exploded in protest.Jawaharlal Nehru University, in central New Delhi, where Ghosh is working on a master's degree on climate change, has been one of India's most reliable incubators of dissent. It's a big leafy campus, known for its liberal arts programs, and on a recent day professors and students mingled in a sun-dappled courtyard between hulking brick buildings painted with images of Mandela, Gandhi and Guevara.These days, Ghosh has trouble making it across campus because she is stopped so often."Are you OK?" one young woman asked."You have amazing energy and stamina," said another."Please don't get beaten up again!" a friend laughed.It was a chilly day under a thick gray sky, and Ghosh, in bare sleeves with an anaconda-size scarf cinched around her neck and a permanent smile on her face, was hard to miss.She seems to have natural political skills. She lets people finish before she starts talking; she speaks well in public; and she constantly absorbs digs, like body shaming."Some people are like: You don't look like a president, because you are so thin," she said. "So I ask them: How much do I need to weigh to look like a president?"For a long time, Hindu extremists have hated this school, and Jan. 5, the shock troops arrived.That evening, Ghosh was speaking at a protest against a fee increase at her university.Witnesses said the attackers were a mix of students and outsiders from pro-Modi groups that targeted liberal leaders at the university and those who had been vocal about their opposition to Modi's Hindu nationalist policies. A Hindu extremist group later admitted to participating in the melee, saying it had armed followers in self-defense.The attackers carried iron bars, pipes and sledgehammers, and they knocked Ghosh to the ground and kept hitting her and hitting her."I thought I was going to die," she said.There's a grim, new joke in India: There may be freedom of speech, but there's no freedom after speech.After speaking out about her beating, Ghosh became the victim of a vicious disinformation campaign. Hindu extremists spread fake pictures of her, showing her cast on the other arm and saying she was lying. They even said that she had smashed her own head with an iron bar.Police officials then accused her and other leftist students of instigating the violence, which she denies."I don't care if they name me in 70 cases," she said. "I'm not quitting."Ghosh grew up in Durgapur, near Kolkata, a hotbed for India's communists. Her father works as an operations manager at a thermal plant and has joined many labor strikes. Her mother is a housewife.She has one younger sister, and during teatime, the Ghosh family sat in their two bedroom apartment and dissected politics.An old college friend, Yashvi Pandit, laughed about when she first met Ghosh, seven years ago. "She would be going on and on about this joint secretary appointment or that," she recalled, "and we were all like: Why do you care?""And now look: She's gotten a blue tick!"(Ghosh recently received a coveted blue check, or tick, on Twitter next to her name, signifying that she is a person of interest who has been verified as genuine.)Ghosh has not seen her parents since she was attacked, even though they wanted to visit. She has barely spent time with her boyfriend (another student activist) either. She is in the middle of a moment -- and she seems well aware of it."With all that's going on," she said as she hurried off to another protest, "I'm busy."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company