Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez defends decision not to pay House Democratic campaign 'dues'

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez responded to criticism over her decision not to fund the campaign arm of the House Democratic majority.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2scRhCK

Experts say 'panic' and 'poor training' could have resulted in Iran accidentally shooting down Ukrainian Flight 752

The aircraft was flying near the sensitive Malard missile site — but mysteries remain around how it could have been mistaken for a hostile plane.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2uCOdki

‘I left parts of my body in Iraq’: Duckworth responds to Collins' claim Democrats 'in love with terrorists'

"I left parts of my body in Iraq fighting terrorists," Sen. Tammy Duckworth said on CNN. "I don't need to justify myself to anyone."

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/37Q9HZ2

U.K. Says Iran Detained Ambassador as Protests Hit Tehran

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/35KHXUq

Boy kills teacher, self in Mexico school shooting

Torreón (Mexico) (AFP) - An 11-year-old boy shot and killed his teacher Friday at a school in northern Mexico and wounded six other people before killing himself, authorities said. As shocked Mexicans searched for explanations for the school shooting -- a rare event for the country -- officials said they were investigating a possible link to the Columbine High School massacre in the US in 1999. Panicked parents rushed to the private elementary school, the Colegio Cervantes, in Torreon as officials evacuated the trim brick building and police and soldiers put it on lockdown.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/37VYk1X

The Latest: Trump expresses support for 'brave' Iranians

President Donald Trump has called on the Iranian regime to allow human rights groups to monitor protests in the Islamic Republic in the aftermath of the regime acknowledging that it mistakenly shot down a Ukrainian airliner earlier this week. Via Twitter, Trump expressed his support of the “brave, long-suffering people” of Iran on Saturday after hundreds gathered at universities in Tehran to protest the government’s belated acknowledgement of errantly shooting down the plane, killing all 176 passengers aboard. The protesters demanded officials involved in the missile attack be removed from their positions and tried.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2TcI8Fj

Modi is resurrecting the most horrifying episode of his career to crush dissent

When Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised to bring his Gujarat Model to the rest of the country, everyone thought he meant the pro-growth reforms that had allegedly done wonders for the economy of his home state. But the events of last week suggest that the real Gujarat Model that Modi had in mind was something else entirely: Government looking the other way as private militants violently attack disfavored groups. It's a model that infamously resulted in the slaughter of more than 1,000 men, women, and children, mostly Muslims, over the course of a few days in 2002 when Modi was its chief minister.And now Modi has done a mini re-enactment at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), a prestigious college in the heart of New Delhi whose opposition has long irritated him. This is no doubt a warning shot to the growing youth resistance against his "papers, please" citizenship law.Here's what happened at JNU:Sunday evening, 40 to 50 hoodlums, mostly men but also a few women, faces partially wrapped in scarfs, armed with clubs, iron rods, and sledgehammers, stormed the campus. Eyewitness accounts and video footage suggest that several of these people were members of the ABVP (Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad), a student union associated with Modi's party. They approached a group of students protesting a sudden, massive fee hike and began thrashing them. They bloodied the student president, Aishe Ghosh, and many others.Then, chanting that the students were traitors who deserve to be shot for opposing the administration, the attackers barged into dorm rooms and went on a rampage, taking care to spare rooms that sported ABVP posters. Muslim students were of course fair game. And so was a blind Hindu student, a Sanskrit scholar and a student of Hinduism no less, whose wall sported a picture of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, India's reformist founding father. (Ambedkar has fallen from grace in pro-Modi circles because he was a vigorous opponent of the caste system and other regressive Hindu practices and his thought is fueling the constitutional case against Modi's Hindu nationalism.)JNU's vice-chancellor, who is appointed by the central government, failed to mobilize campus security to stop the mayhem. Meanwhile, the Delhi police, which is under the command of the Modi government rather than local authorities, ignored the frantic calls of students for over an hour. There was a veritable battalion of cops standing right outside the campus gates, but not a single one of them went in to stop the attack. As if this is not shocking enough, the cops even stood by as ambulances were vandalized right in front of them.Modi hasn't said a word condemning the violence at JNU. No assailant has yet been charged or arrested. The police claim they're zeroing in on some suspects, but judging by how they have handled cow vigilantes lynching Muslims suspected of consuming beef, the culprits will face no more than a slap on the wrist.Incredibly, at the exact same time that the JNU students were getting bashed, the cops were preparing a rap sheet against some of them, including Ghosh, for allegedly vandalizing university computer servers the day before to stop students from registering. Ghosh denies that allegation. Meanwhile, a video that ABVP circulated — and no less than the vice chancellor retweeted — showing that the Sunday violence was triggered by a prior episode when a "lefty student" punched an ABVP member turned out to be the opposite: an ABVP supporter appears to be attacking a "lefty student."All of this — law enforcement standing by as private militants allied with the ruling party go on a violent spree, criminalizing the victims, spreading disinformation to confuse the public — was precisely Modi's modus operandi in Gujarat. But the ominous parallels with that grisly episode don't stop there.The Gujarat carnage was preceded by a long vilification campaign against Muslims, a strategy he is replicating in miniature against the university. Modi has long castigated JNU students and faculty as communists and traitors who want to break up the country — never mind that last year’s Nobel Prize recipient in economics along with two of Modi’s own cabinet ministers hail from the university. His Home Minister and right-hand man, Amit Shah, known for his brass knuckles politics, has repeatedly said the university's "tukde tukde gang" — meaning the gang that wants to dismember India piece by piece — needs to be "taught a lesson." Modi popularized this moniker a few years ago when some of JNU's firebrand student leaders harshly protested the abrupt hanging of a Muslim man who had allegedly attacked the Indian parliament.Such statements signaled to Modi and Shah's most extreme supporters that they wanted the university targeted, without having to bother with actually giving orders to law enforcement authorities.Not that the duo is shy about doing so when necessary.A few weeks ago, cops appeared to vandalize Jamia Millia University, a Muslim university in New Delhi. But Modi's comrade, Yogi Adityanath, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, went even further. His police showed up at Aligarh Muslim University and roughed up students protesting Modi's faith-cleansing policies that'll strip an untold number of Indian Muslims of citizenship. Over 60 students were injured, three critically. Several students have just disappeared. A Muslim female journalist who was covering a protest in nearby Lucknow was arrested and allegedly assaulted by police.But such tactics are backfiring spectacularly. The anti-government protests, especially on college campuses, are spreading like wildfire. Students at many elite colleges have gone on strike and are holding candle light vigils to protest the events at JNU and AMU along with Modi's nefarious citizenship law.A normal politician would back off in the face of such public opposition and extend an olive branch, especially given how quickly Modi's carefully cultivated squeaky-clean image is getting trashed in India and abroad. But Modi and Shah are doubling down.Previously, they had dubbed secularists defending religious freedom as "Muslim appeasers." Now, even moderate free-market conservatives or middle-of-the-road liberals expressing concern over the direction of the country are being branded as the radical left, Madhvan Narayanan, a veteran Indian journalist, told The Week.Why is Modi doing this? What's his end game?Many fear he is deliberately baiting protesters and fomenting widespread unrest to build an excuse to cancel elections in Delhi next month and put the city under the president's rule. His party is expected to lose handily just as it has done in other state elections in recent months, thanks to the growing dismay over his assaults on citizenship. There is even speculation that he is preparing to suspend India's constitution and declare an emergency, just as Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi notoriously did in 1975.That may or may not be the case. But one open question about Modi always has been whether he was pushing an extreme Hindu nationalist agenda to gain power or vice versa: pursuing power to push his agenda. His growing enemies list — and the private and state violence he will apparently deploy against those on it — suggests that the former might be the case.This means no one outside of Modi's band of merry brothers is safe in India anymore. All of India is Gujarat now. Dissent is out. Violence is in.As one poster at a protest noted: "First AMU. Then JNU. Next You."Want more essential commentary and analysis like this delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for The Week's "Today's best articles" newsletter here.More stories from theweek.com 5 royally funny cartoons about Harry and Meghan's exit Trump is setting up a massive nuclear crisis with Iran The ground game takes center stage in Ravens-Titans clash

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2uCHMxE

White House spokesman criticized after claiming Obama killed Muammar al-Gaddafi

Twitter users were quick to criticize Hogan Gidley, a White House spokesman, after he claimed that Obama killed Muammar al-Gaddafi.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2R4maSq

Ocasio-Cortez Refuses to Pay DCCC Dues, Frustrating House Dems

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has exasperated her fellow House Democrats by announcing that she will not pay dues to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which works to elect Democrats to the House.“For me personally, I’m not paying D-trip dues” for a “myriad of reasons” the freshman progressive congresswoman from New York said, using a nickname for the DCCC.According to records, she has so far not paid her $250,000 in dues despite leveraging her massive social media following to raise millions for her own reelection, Fox News reported.Ocasio-Cortez said her gripe with the party's official House campaign organization relates to the DCCC's practice of not supporting newer progressive candidates in order to insulate incumbent Democrats.“One, I don’t agree with the policy around blacklisting groups that help progressive candidates,” she said. “I think we need to evolve as a party and make room for that.”“I want to help frontline members by putting that money straight into their pocket,” Ocasio-Cortez explained.The progressive 30-year-old has made good on that promise, pulling in more than $300,000 last year for candidates of her choosing, including $18,000 for Marie Newman, who seeks to oust longtime Illinois congressman Dan Lipinski, a rare pro-life Democrat.“To have people try to purify the caucus because they don't agree with them – 100 percent, I certainly don't agree with that,” said Texas Representative Henry Cuellar, one of the Democrats Ocasio-Cortez is trying to replace with a more progressive candidate, in this case Jessica Cisneros, for whom she raised $35,000.“Hopefully, we will start to get away from this circular firing squad," Cuellar said.Ocasio-Cortez complained earlier this week that the Congressional Progressive Caucus’s standard for lawmakers is too low, saying, “They let anybody who the cat dragged in call themselves a progressive.”DCCC Chairwoman Cheri Bustos highlighted the party campaign arm's strong fundraising numbers even without Ocasio-Cortez's contribution.“That's always up to individual members so I guess I don't think about it one way or another,” Bustos said of Ocasio-Cortez's decision to withhold dues. “We’re raising record amounts of money from our members.”

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2QEvsFw

After Trump claimed Iran was plotting to blow up the US embassy in Iraq, Mike Pompeo says the administration didn't know 'precisely when' or 'where' the attack would happen

Mike Pompeo conceded that the administration didn't know "precisely where" and "when" an allegedly "imminent" Iranian attack would occur.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/306G4jN

Warrant issued for ex-leader of congress in El Salvador

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/37U4zTR

Ex-Trump lawyer Cohen says his assistance justifies early prison exit

Michael Cohen, Donald Trump's former personal lawyer and fixer who is now seeking early release from prison, on Friday rejected the claim that his lies undermined his ability to help investigators on matters related to the U.S. president. Cohen was responding to a Dec. 19 letter opposing an early release, where Acting U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss in Manhattan said he was not a "credible witness," citing statements in which she said Cohen and his surrogates minimized his acceptance of responsibility for conduct to which he had pleaded guilty. Cohen, 53, wants U.S. District Judge William Pauley to shorten his three-year prison term to a year and a day, or move him to home confinement, reflecting his "extensive" cooperation with investigators concerning his former boss.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2QIyqJl

How India’s Aircraft Carrier Vikrant Went to War Against Pakistan

And made history.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2tU9PrL

Iran Says Missile Strike on Iraqi Bases Housing U.S. Troops Was Not Intended to Kill Americans

Iran said Thursday that the missile strike on Iraqi military bases housing U.S. troops was not intended to killed Americans.“We did not intend to kill,” said Brig. Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the head of the Revolutionary Guard’s Aerospace Force. “We intended to hit the enemy’s military machinery.”The Iranian commander nevertheless claimed that “tens of people were killed or wounded,” conflicting the Trump administration's statement that the missile strike caused no casualties.Tehran on Tuesday launched more than a dozen ballistic missiles aimed at two Iraqi bases in Ain al-Asad and Irbil in Kurdistan. The act of aggression was a response to the assassination of top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force, who was killed Friday in a U.S. airstrike in Baghdad.The U.S. airstrike was launched in retaliation for the attacks by Iran-backed militiamen on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad last week, which Soleimani signed off on.Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations Majid Takht Ravanchi echoed the Iranian commander's insistence that Iran was “not looking after killing Americans within this operation” but added that he is “not a military man” and “cannot tell you exactly what was going on.”“But what I can tell you is that the target was chosen in order to show that we are capable of hitting the target where the plan to kill Soleimani was organized,” the ambassador said. “As I said, we are not interested in — we are not looking after killing Americans within this operation.”Vice President Mike Pence contradicted the Iranian ambassador on Thursday, saying the missiles “were intended to kill Americans” and that the U.S. had intelligence “to support that that was the intention of the Iranians.”Iran’s supreme leader warned Wednesday that the missile attack was “not enough” retaliation against America.“They were slapped last night, but such military actions are not enough,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2R3pk91

UK's Queen Elizabeth calls Prince Harry for crisis meeting

Queen Elizabeth has summoned her grandson Prince Harry for a crisis meeting to discuss future arrangements for him and his wife Meghan following the couple's shock announcement that they want to step back from royal duties.

from Reuters: World News https://ift.tt/2Tg7gLi

Three dead in Louisiana as severe storms sweep southern US

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2FER8Lm

Sean Hannity issues phone number threat to Republicans

Fox News host Sean Hannity on Friday threatened to give out phone numbers as he warned Republican senators against allowing witnesses to be called during President Trump’s Senate impeachment trial.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/37Yxo1G

‘I left parts of my body in Iraq’: Duckworth responds to Collins' claim Democrats 'in love with terrorists'

"I left parts of my body in Iraq fighting terrorists," Sen. Tammy Duckworth said on CNN. "I don't need to justify myself to anyone."

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/37Q9HZ2

IS claims Pakistan mosque bombing as death toll rises to 15

Pakistani officials raised the death toll from a mosque bombing in the country's southwest to 15 people on Saturday, as the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack. It killed a senior police officer and 13 others. Quetta police chief Abdur Razzaq Cheema said another victim of the mosque bombing died of serious wounds in the city hospital raising the death toll to 15.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2ToCKPN

Aerospace Chief Says He Wishes He Was Dead After Iran Admits Shooting Down Ukraine Jet

Iranian authorities have said they accidentally shot down a Ukrainian jet with 176 people aboard—and the country’s aerospace chief said he wishes he was dead.Tehran’s first acknowledgement of responsibility came early Saturday, just over a day after Western leaders said they had evidence to suggest Iran has downed Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752. All aboard the Kyiv-bound plane were killed when it plummeted from the sky earlier this week in what Iranian authorities initially blamed on a “mechanical failure.” Later on Saturday, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps chief aerospace commander, Amir-Ali Hajizadeh, told reporters that he accepted all blame.“I wish I was dead and such an incident hadn’t happened,” he said at a press briefing. “We in IRGC accept all the responsibility and are ready to implement any decision made by the establishment.”During that press conference, the commander said he had actually requested that all commercial flights in Iran be grounded until tensions with the U.S. abated, but that those within the Armed Forces who had the power to do just that chose not to.At a separate press briefing in Kyev, Ukraine, the airline’s CEO Yevgenii Dyhkne said his pilot had been in touch with the Tehran airport control tower just moments before the plane went down. “We have been reassured that [the aircraft] had the dialogue with the airport, with the dispatcher tower, until the last moment of the catastrophe,” he said. “There were negotiations about the route, they had permission to turn, so all of this is now connected to the investigation and I’m sure it will be available in documents in time.” Ukraine Plane Crash: Roulette in the SkyThe tragedy occurred at a time when Iran and the U.S. appeared to be on the brink of war, just hours after Iran fired missiles at bases in Iraq housing U.S. forces in retaliation for the U.S. air strike that killed Quds commander Qassem Soleimani. In a statement released early Saturday, the general staff of Iran’s armed forces said the flight was shot down after it was mistaken for a “hostile target” when it went towards a “sensitive military center” of the Revolutionary Guard. The military was at its “highest level of readiness” due to tensions with the U.S., the statement said. “In such a condition, because of human error and in a unintentional way, the flight was hit,” the military said, adding that those responsible will face prosecution.Iranian President Hassan Rouhani called the plane’s downing “unforgivable” and a “disastrous mistake,” saying the country “deeply regrets” it. “My thoughts and prayers go to all the mourning families. I offer my sincerest condolences,” he tweeted after the military’s announcement.Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said the announcement of the accidental downing marked a “sad day” but he went on to blame the Trump administration for the catastrophe. “Human error at time of crisis caused by US adventurism led to disaster,” he wrote on Twitter. “Our profound regrets, apologies and condolences to our people, to the families of all victims, and to other affected nations,” he said. Eighty-two of those killed were Iranian, while 57 were Canadian and 11 were Ukrainian. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau responded to Iran's admission with a statement focusing largely on the victims: “Our focus remains closure, accountability, transparency, and justice for the families and loved ones of the victims,” he said. He went on to say Canada “expects full cooperation from Iranian authorities” in completing a “thorough investigation” into the tragedy. Iranian historian Arash Azizi questioned how a country that could carry out such precision strikes on U.S. military bases that avoided loss of life could make such a disastrous mistake. “What is notable to me, however, is that Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, the praetorian guard of the Islamic Republic, was savvy enough to ensure that not a single American soldier was killed or injured when it rained its missiles on American military bases hosting thousands of soldiers in Iraq three days ago. But apparently it could not extend the same precautions to the lives of ordinary Iranians and foreign guests of our country,” he wrote in Iran Wire. “The PS752 disaster shows the gross negligence of a rotten regime that does not deserve to last. A poet may say: The only reason it survives is that it has forgotten to die.”Read more at The Daily Beast.Get 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.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2NgJnQ1

U.S. rebuffs Britain's extradition request for diplomat's wife after fatal crash

WASHINGTON/LONDON (Reuters) - The United States on Friday rejected a formal request from Britain for the extradition of a U.S. diplomat's wife who left the country last year after a road collision that killed 19-year-old Briton Harry Dunn. British prosecutors are seeking the extradition of Anne Sacoolas over the crash last August in which Dunn was killed while riding his motorbike. "Following the Crown Prosecution Service's charging decision, the Home Office has sent an extradition request to the United States for Anne Sacoolas on charges of causing death by dangerous driving," a UK Home Office spokesman said in a statement on Friday.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/30be8ve

Google Ventures founder Bill Maris blasts outgoing chief legal officer David Drummond

Google Ventures founder Bill Maris said he left because he could no longer work with Alphabet chief legal officer David Drummond.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2uG0XXo

Trump Mocks Democrats for Criticism of Soleimani Strike Notice

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2Td1n1x