Dangerous ice storm spreads from Pennsylvania to Rhode Island during Sunday after Thanksgiving

A dangerous ice storm is in the making across part of the northeastern United States and will occur during a busy travel period for the tail end of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.Millions of students, families and individuals are on the road Sunday.A shallow layer of cold air and cold ground will create conditions that will allow a building up of ice, mainly in the form of freezing rain in some locations. The ice is part of a complex, double-barreled system that will bring a foot of snow to parts of the Northeast through Monday.In some locations the ice storm may begin as snow and sleet. While either of the two can allow for some traction by foot or vehicle, several hours of freezing rain will lead to a dangerous and, in some cases, damaging glaze of ice. Freezing rain began Saturday night across portions of northeastern West Virginia and western Maryland, western and central Pennsylvania, western New York state, and part of southern Ontario.At daybreak Sunday, up to 0.10 of an inch of ice had accrued on exposed surfaces in Somerset, Pennsylvania. Meanwhile, in State College and Upper Strasburg, Pennsylvania, ice had begun to coat elevated surfaces.Icy roads contributed to several accidents in the Corning, New York, Sunday morning.Multiple crashes occurred on Interstate 84 in Pike County, Pennsylvania, due to icy conditions Sunday midday. Nearly an inch of sleet fell on Woolrich, Pennsylvania during Sunday morning. Meanwhile, Brookland, Pennsylvania, received 1.5 inches of sleet into Sunday afternoon.The glaze from freezing rain could range up to 0.25 of an inch and last 8-12 hours."The glaze could get thick enough to bring down trees and power lines, which can block roads and knock out power," according to AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Rob Miller.Garret County, Maryland, emergency managers reported that 0.25 of an inch of ice had accumulated to trees as of noon, EST.The ice buildup may be a problem much of the day in parts of central and northeastern Pennsylvania and central New York state.Other pockets where up to 0.25 of an inch of freezing rain can fall include east-central Pennsylvania, northern New Jersey, southeastern New York state, central and northern Connecticut, and interior Rhode Island.The ice storm will shift out of Pennsylvania and central New York state to part of interior southern New England during Sunday night. Cities that are forecast to experience a buildup of ice with the risk of sporadic power outages include State College, Altoona, Williamsport, Harrisburg, Reading, Hazleton, Scranton and Allentown, Pennsylvania; Cumberland, Maryland; Buffalo, Jamestown, Wellsville, Elmira, Corning and Spring Valley, New York; Hackettstown and Paterson, New Jersey; Hartford, Connecticut; and Providence, Rhode Island.Icy conditions are likely to follow a few hours of snow in northern New Jersey, southeastern New York state, and southern New England, on Sunday and may persist into Sunday evening.Freezing rain is typically the most dangerous winter condition for motorists and pedestrians, of which both are typically ill-prepared. Road surfaces that appear wet may be a sheet of ice that offers no traction.Motorists should be especially cautious on bridges and overpasses and in areas that do not receive direct sunlight. These elevated surfaces can be icy when other parts of the road are not.The best advice is to avoid traveling through areas where freezing rain is falling or expected to develop. When possible, adjust travel plans.Conditions may not improve much along the interstates 80, 81, 90 and 95 corridors of the Northeast until Tuesday as the second part of the storm is forecast to produce enough snow to shovel and plow in many areas and some plows may struggle to keep up at the height of the storm. Download the free AccuWeather app to check the forecast in your area, as well as points along your travel route. Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.

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Mexico president marks 1 year in office with party, protests

Thousands of Mexicans packed into the capital’s central square Sunday to celebrate President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s first year in office, while thousands more marched down the city’s main avenue to protest violence and other ills in the country. The mood in the Zocalo was festive, with an orchestra from the president’s home state of Tabasco playing tropical music inspired by Cuban sounds while scantily clad women danced next to them. Revelers donned masks bearing López Obrador’s likeness in what supporters have dubbed AMLOFest, a play on the president’s initials.

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House Democrats won’t wait on possibly insider testimony, Florida Dem says

“The American people are not going to, I think, tolerate any games,” Rep. Val Demings said.

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A Maine man was shot and killed at his home on Thanksgiving. Police blame a homemade booby trap

A 65-year-old Maine man died after triggering one of his homemade security devices designed to fire a handgun at would-be intruders, police say.

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Bystanders Subdued the Alleged London Bridge Attacker. One of Them Was Reportedly a Polish Immigrant Armed Only With a Narwhal Tusk

He grabbed a Narwhal tusk off the wall of Fishmongers’ Hall and ran at the alleged terrorist

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Newsweek fires journalist who reported Trump was golfing for Thanksgiving before he secretly travelled to Afghanistan

A Newsweek reporter who wrote that Donald Trump would spend Thanksgiving ‘tweeting, golfing, and more’ - hours before he touched down in a surprise visit to US troops in Afghanistan - has been fired.The visit was kept highly secret for the president’s safety, and his public schedule said he would be at his Mar-a-Lago hotel in Florida on the holiday, where he would make calls to selected military members.

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Parliament approves Iraqi prime minister's resignation

Iraq's parliament voted on Sunday to accept the resignation of Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi, following weeks of violent anti-government protests that have rocked the country. Abdul Mahdi's decision to quit on Friday came after a call by Iraq's top Shi'ite Muslim cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani for parliament to consider withdrawing its support for Abdul Mahdi's government to stem the violence. "The Iraqi parliament will ask the president of state to nominate a new prime minister," a statement from parliament's media office said.

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Starbucks worker loses job after police chief said officer was served cups labeled 'PIG'

A social media post claimed a worker served an on-duty Kiefer, Oklahoma officer cups labeled "PIG" instead of the officer's name

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Boris Johnson dismissed criticism of him calling Islamophobia a 'natural reaction' by saying people want to 'drag out bits and pieces of what I have said'

The BBC's Andrew Marr grilled Johnson about his 2005 Islam comments, and asked about Conservatives kept in the party despite their statements.

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Undermined by Murder Inquiry, Malta Leader Says He Will Resign in January

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'Nobody should have died': fear and anger in Minneapolis after public housing fire

A blaze that killed five in a 25-storey building with few sprinklers has prompted comparisons to London’s Grenfell fireThe Minneapolis city councilman Abdi Warsame addresses the media outside the building. Photograph: Aaron Lavinsky/APWarsame Omar lives on the 15th floor of Minneapolis’s Cedar High apartments, exactly one floor above where a fire started early on Wednesday morning. He woke to find his room full of thick black smoke. The elderly Somali man ran outside to the stairwell, where he vomited. He remembers a black substance coming out of his mouth and nose.Omar managed to escape alive, but others in the 25-floor public housing complex located in the heart of Minneapolis’s Somali community did not. The fire killed five people, injured at least four more and has sparked an argument in the city about its dilapidated public housing.In a debate with echoes of Britain’s Grenfell Tower fire, which killed 72 in 2017, the conversation has centered on whether the city has failed to make safe the housing it provides to its poor and vulnerable, essentially putting their lives at risk as it seeks to save money and maintain a system long underfunded by the federal government.Omar was taken to an emergency room where, he said, doctors removed black smoke from his lungs. Now, many of his belongings and clothing in his home are covered in soot, and he’s worried about how what happened could affect his health.“I’m not trying to complain but I need help. I need help,” he told the Guardian with the help of a volunteer translator, clutching a report from this ER visit in his hand as he spoke.Investigators have not determined what caused the fire, which happened during the year’s first major snow storm, though the Minneapolis fire chief, John Fruetel, said he believed it was an accident.Public attention has begun to center around what Fruetel has acknowledged could have contributed to the rapid spread of the flames: the high rise did not have sprinkler systems above the two lowest floors.City officials have said that because of the age of the building, which was constructed in 1969, it was not required by city code to have a sprinkler system – but that, some say, is exactly the problem.“Nobody should have died. A small fire should not have resulted in the death of five people. Because if you’re having such dense housing, there should be a sprinkler system in an apartment building. Even though that may not be required by code, that should be required because Minneapolis public housing authority has a responsibility to provide safe and secure housing to all of its residents,” said Kaaha Kaahiye, a resident of public housing and organizer with Defend Glendale, an advocacy group long critical of the public housing authority (MPHA).Warsame Omar survived the Cedar High fire. Photograph: Courtesy Jared GoyetteAs first reported by Minneapolis Public Radio, the MPHA had identified the need to retrofit its older high rises with sprinkler system in its annual plan, approved in September, which also noted limiting funding and a need for “major reinvestment”.MPHA did not ask for additional funds from the city for sprinkler systems in its last budget request, according to the office of the Minneapolis mayor, Jacob Frey.“The federal government is the primary funder of public housing, but funds have been short for decades. With respect to local funding authority, the city of Minneapolis can only approve requests submitted by MPHA,” said the mayor’s spokesperson, Mychal Vlatkovich.Like many cities across the country, Minneapolis is experiencing an affordable housing crisis, with high demand for urban housing driving a surge in the development of new luxury condos.The Hennepin county commissioner, Angela Conley, whose district includes the Cedar Riverside neighborhood, where the apartments are located, pointed to what she sees as a problematic discrepancy: new buildings with high rents are required to have sprinkler systems, while older high rises, historically home to immigrants and lower-income populations, have no such requirement.“So does that tell us that the lives of seniors and vulnerable people and disabled people and people who are lower income in high-rises, are their lives more expendable than people who can afford to live in more expensive, newer condos? Absolutely not. But that’s the message that we get when we know that certain buildings take priority over others,” Conley said.Shanta Russ, 22, kisses her daughter, Siya Freeman, four, after being allowed back up to her father’s 15th floor apartment. Photograph: Aaron Lavinsky/APOn Friday, organizers with Defend Glendale met with residents and collected stories. They plan to push MPHA and the mayor to do more to help residents whose apartments were damaged, and to improve fire safety standards at other buildings.“Black and black Muslims and low-income and disabled people are invisible in a city that says that [it is] anti-Trump and therefore progressive,” says the group’s founder, Ladan Yusuf. “It’s important to know that this could happen anywhere else. And it’s already happened. It happened in Grenfell in England. It’s happening here because politicians and political officials have to be held accountable. It’s important to know that we are one community and that we have to come together to make sure that this doesn’t happen again.”

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North Korea blasts Japanese PM as 'idiot,' warns of ballistic missile launch toward Japan

Pyongyang warns that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe 'may see what a real ballistic missile is in the not distant future.'

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Tear Gas Fired as Protesters Return to Streets: Hong Kong Update

(Bloomberg) -- Police fired tear gas as thousands of black-clad protesters marched in Hong Kong’s tourist district Tsim Sha Tsui on Sunday, as tensions re-emerged after the euphoria of pro-democracy victories at district elections last weekend.Protesters also marched to the U.S. consulate in a rally to express gratitude after President Donald Trump signed legislation last week expressing support for the demonstrators. Late Saturday, a group of protesters blocked roads and set fire to a subway station entrance.Here’s the latest (all times local):MTR to add train captains (5:30 a.m.)The city’s subway operator says some sections of its network will need more train captains to ensure there aren’t objects hindering the operation of trains. Some traffic lights were damaged that may affect its Light Rail services.Police in riot gear line streets (2 a.m.)Police in riot gear were still seen lining some streets even as the crowd dispersed.Police disperse crowds in Whampoa (11 p.m.)Police also fired tear gas in nearby Whampoa, where bricks were hurled at them. A passer-by was attacked, roads were blocked and stores were vandalized in the area.Tear gas fired in Tsim Sha Tsui (5:45 p.m.)Police fired tear gas and used pepper spray as thousands of protesters marched in Hong Kong’s busy tourist district of Tsim Sha Tsui. The police said in a statement that tear gas was fired in response to protesters throwing bricks at officers.March to U.S. consulate (Sunday, 1:30 p.m.)Thousands of protesters carrying U.S. flags and banners marched peacefully to the consulate. In a separate rally Sunday, demonstrators headed to Polytechnic University and the Cross-Harbour Tunnel.China accuses UN Human Rights Head of meddling (late Saturday)China said it “strongly” opposed an op-ed by United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, accusing her of meddling in the country’s affairs and emboldening Hong Kong protesters to commit violence.Bachelet urged the Hong Kong government to conduct a “proper independent and impartial judge-led investigation” into reports of excessive use of force by police, according to an opinion piece in the South China Morning Post on Saturday. She also urged Carrie Lam’s government to “prioritize a long-overdue process” of meaningful and inclusive dialogue with the people of Hong Kong.China said Bachelet and her office should “stop making irresponsible comments, and refrain from interfering by any means in the internal affairs” of Hong Kong.“The Central Government will continue to firmly support the Chief Executive in governing the Hong Kong SAR in accordance with law, support the Hong Kong police in strictly enforcing law, and support the Hong Kong judicial organs in bringing violent criminals to justice according to law,” China’s UN mission in Geneva said in the statement.Tensions rise again (11 p.m.)About 200 protesters blocked roads, closed an exit at the Prince Edward MTR station and set fire to an entrance of Mong Kok MTR station late Saturday, the South China Morning Post reported. Police fired at least one round of tear gas, it said.Foreign nationals arrested in China (6 p.m.)China arrested two overseas nationals for their alleged involvement in the Hong Kong protest movement, state newspaper Southern Daily reported, citing information from the national security agency. Taiwan citizen Lee Meng-chu and Lee Henley Hu Xiang of Belize were arrested by the national security authorities in the southern Guangdong province, the local paper said.The Taiwanese was suspected of spying and leaking Chinese state secrets, while the other person was accused of funding criminal activities that endanger national security, the paper said. Prosecutors have approved the arrests in both cases and are going through legal procedures, it said.Protesters return (Saturday, 2 p.m.)Hundreds of secondary-school students and elderly people rallied in a park in the city center in support of Hong Kong’s ongoing protests and against police use of tear gas. A number of people addressed the crowd before a band played on a makeshift stage in front of background poster that said: The elderly and the young hold hands and we walk together with you.1,377 arrested in relation to PolyU (4:54 p.m.)Hong Kong police have arrested 1,377 people who left the then-besieged PolyU campus or were in the vicinity, the force’s Chief Superintendent Kwok Ka-chuen said at a daily briefing. More than 300 people under age 18 had their information taken down when they left the campus, he said, adding that he was “pleased” the episode at the school was coming to an end and that he hoped it could be a “turning point” for the city’s unrest, as it was resolved peacefullyPolice have now made 5,890 protest-related arrests since rallies began on June 9, he said.Hong Kong insurance sales to China slip (3:32 p.m.)Insurance sales in the financial hub to mainland customers declined in the third quarter as the protests halted visits to the city. Their purchases of insurance and related investment policies declined 18% to HK$9.7 billion ($1.2 billion) from a year earlier, according to figures from Hong Kong’s Insurance Authority. That year-on-year drop was the biggest since the start of last year, weighing on insurance giants such as Prudential Plc and AIA Group Ltd.Hong Kong is a hot market to buy insurance for mainland customers since it offers a wider array of investment products and access to foreign currencies. Since rules stipulate that customers need to finalize contracts in person, sales have been pummeled as many prospective Chinese customers have avoided the former British colony.PolyU siege ends (Friday 12:51 p.m.)Police said they lifted their blockade on PolyU after officers cleared the campus. Chow Yat-ming, the city’s assistant police commissioner, said he believed PolyU could be handed back to university management after dangerous items that remained on campus were removed.Firemen and a police safety team did a final sweep of the campus in the morning after searching every level of each building to handle hazardous items and collect evidence the day before. The police said they seized items including 3,989 petrol bombs, 1,339 explosive items and 601 bottles of corrosive liquids.\--With assistance from Zheping Huang and Aaron Mc Nicholas.To contact the reporters on this story: Karen Leigh in Hong Kong at kleigh4@bloomberg.net;Natalie Lung in Hong Kong at flung6@bloomberg.net;Manuel Baigorri in Hong Kong at mbaigorri@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Shamim Adam at sadam2@bloomberg.net, Tony CzuczkaFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

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Ravens Outlast 49ers With a Strong Finishing Kick

By BY BEN SHPIGEL from NYT Sports https://ift.tt/35YcQW5

H.I.V. Is Coming to Rural America

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China Has Lost Taiwan, and It Knows It

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Netanyahu's Iran Strategy Is a Total Failure

Seen today, Netanyahu’s decade-long reign has left Israel more isolated than ever before in its struggle against an Iranian regime that perceives the Jewish state as its main regional enemy.

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John Bolton could be Democrats' star witness against Trump

Democrats have long loathed former national security adviser John Bolton, but he could become their most dangerous witness against President Trump in Congress' impeachment inquiry.

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10 wounded in shooting near New Orleans’ French Quarter

Ten people were shot and wounded early Sunday near the French Quarter in New Orleans, a popular spot for tourists. Two of the 10 people shot on Canal Street near the French Quarter were in critical condition in local hospitals, Police Superintendent Shaun Ferguson said. “What happened in our city overnight was a cowardly and senseless act that we cannot and will not tolerate,” Ferguson said in a statement.

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Brother of convicted terrorist faces deportation despite US citizenship

Brother of man who detonated a pipe bomb in a New York subway and four relatives are fighting efforts to strip their residency status ‘You can play everything by the book and they’ll still get you,’ said Sherin Ullah. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty ImagesA New Yorker who gained US citizenship as a child is suddenly facing deportation, along with several green card-holding members of his family, after apparent targeting by the Trump administration in what the family believes is a clear case of anti-Muslim bias.None of the individuals have a criminal record, and say the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) only raised questions about the validity of their immigration status after another relative was arrested following a terrorist incident in the city. The government’s actions have alarmed advocates and led to them accusing officials of meting out unfair “collective punishment”.Ahsan Ullah, 32, an electrician from Brooklyn, was placed in immigration detention in Kearny, New Jersey, on 22 October. He spent about four weeks separated from his American wife and three children before being released on bond last Tuesday pending the outcome of his case.Four of his relatives, who all hold green cards, are also fighting government efforts to strip them of their US residency status. Since Trump came into office, the number of such denaturalization and citizenship revocation cases filed by DHS has surged.Sherin and Ahsan Ullah. Photograph: Courtesy family“Citizenship is permanently conditional for many people who were not born here,” said Fahd Ahmed, executive director of the advocacy group Desis Rising Up and Moving (Drum), which has been providing support to the Ullah family.“At a time when we are seeing a white nationalist current in government and society that wants to depopulate communities of color from this country, these cases are an indication of how their tactics and attacks are evolving.”Ahsan was born in Bangladesh and adopted by his uncle at a young age, the family said.After the uncle won a US visa through the diversity lottery program, Ahsan was granted a green card. He migrated to the US at eight years old and became a citizen several years later.Meanwhile, his uncle successfully petitioned to bring his sister, Ahsan’s biological mother and four siblings to the country as permanent residents in 2011.The family assumed their future in the US was secure. They focused on going to school, building careers and starting families. Ahsan became an electrician, got married and had three children.But everything changed in December 2017, when one of Ahsan’s brothers, Akayed, was arrested for detonating a homemade pipe bomb in a crowded New York City subway station. He was the only person injured, in what was seen as a botched attack.Family members both in the US and Bangladesh were questioned and none was found to have assisted the 27-year-old or to be supportive of terrorist organizations. Akayed was convicted of several terrorism offenses in 2018 and will be sentenced in February.Sherin, Ahsan’s wife, 30, said that the day Akayed was arrested the rest of the family was utterly shocked to learn what he had done.“For at least three, four months we were in disbelief,” she said. “We didn’t think [Akayed] was capable of this.”From the moment of Akayed’s arrest, other family members say that despite being cleared by law enforcement, they began to see consequences.Ahsan recounted receiving a letter from the bank notifying him that his personal and business banking accounts would be closed, and that the FBI put his business license on hold.Wary clients cancelled their contracts, he said. His mother and siblings would see New York police department squad cars parked regularly near their building and other places they frequented, including their mosque, which they had never remembered seeing before.Then, in April 2019, Ahsan received a letter out of the blue from US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), part of the DHS, stating that the agency planned to cancel his US citizenship on the grounds it was not lawfully obtained.In a panic, his mother and siblings applied for citizenship but soon received news that not only had their application d been denied but that the DHS intended to revoke their green cards. On 6 November, Ullah’s mother and one of his sisters were detained for two days.“After all this time, we [had] mentally and physically bonded with this country, and love this country so much,” said Ayfa, Ahsan’s 22-year-old sister, the day she was released from detention. “How can you disown a person just like that?”The family is now trying to fight the agency’s orders.In paperwork issued to the family, which was reviewed by the Guardian, the DHS claims that Ahsan, his mother and siblings have no legal or biological relationship to the uncle whose original success in the green card lottery facilitated the others’ settling in the US. Lawyers for the family said they are gathering the paperwork to prove their relationships.The family and their advocates said the treatment amounts to collective punishment. “This is retribution for sharing the same DNA” as someone accused of terrorism, Ahsan said in a phone call from the Hudson county correctional facility in New Jersey, just before his release from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) detention.“I’ve been here [in the US] since I was a kid – my school is here, my college is here, my family is here, my business is here, my friends are here, my career is here,” he said . “This is where my everything is.”DHS declined to comment on the family’s case.fundraiserWhat’s happening to the Ullah family is not an isolated case. A report by the Open Society Justice Initiative in September found that the Trump administration has filed three times more civil denaturalization cases, about 30 a year – stripping Americans of their citizenship – than the average annual number pursued under the eight preceding presidents.Nearly half of all persons targeted for denaturalization in 2017 and 2018 came from “special interest” countries, a label used to identify nations with presumed links to terrorism, including Bangladesh, the report said, which amounted to a policy of “collective suspicion”.Manar Waheed, senior legislative and advocacy counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union, said the data indicates that “the same communities that this administration has targeted over and over again” are being singled out.Ahsan said that while he was in detention, he missed the moment when his seven-month-old son said “Baba” for the first time.“I’m just surprised by all this,” Ahsan said, speaking from the detention facility before he was released on bond. “I pay my taxes, I’ve never done anything wrong, I try to be a model citizen, and I’m here [in detention].”The administration has threatened to deport the family members unless they can prove their relationships are what they have long claimed and had not been challenged by the authorities before.The family is hoping they can reverse the Trump administration action by submitting challenges to the USCIS appeals office, contesting their deportation orders in immigration court and, if necessary, filing civil motions in federal court.But they are dismayed by the turn of events, and very nervous.Sherin said: “You can play everything by the book and they’ll still get you.”

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This Time Trump Will Be Just One of the Wild Cards at NATO

(Bloomberg) -- What was conceived as a celebration for one of the world’s most important military alliances risks becoming a show of disunity -- and this time it’s not because of anything Donald Trump has said or done.Meeting in London this week, leaders of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization have two other presidents to worry about: France’s Emmanuel Macron, who in recent weeks has openly questioned the collective defense clause at NATO’s heart, and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has troubled alliance members with his decisions to send troops into Syria and buy a Russian anti-missile system.To make matters worse, Macron and Erdogan are now trading insults in public.In fact, so much has changed since then-Prime Minister Theresa May offered to host the two-day commemoration of NATO’s 70th anniversary that her successor, Boris Johnson could be forgiven for wishing she hadn’t.“I will tell you again at NATO, first check your own brain death,” Erdogan said, addressing Macron in a speech from Istanbul on Friday. He was referring to an interview the French leader gave last month in which he not only criticized Turkey, but described the alliance as brain dead.With three significant member states bringing conflicting agendas to the table at a gathering that takes place in the closing stretch of a charged U.K. election campaign, the event risks fanning concern about NATO’s future, rather than celebrating what alliance officials and leaders routinely call the most successful military grouping in history.Officials from the U..S. and Britain were at pains last week to highlight NATO’s successes, including a renewed sense of purpose since Russia’s 2014 aggression in Ukraine. Defense spending is on the rise and NATO is expanding into counter-terrorism, cyber security, and now even space.And NATO does continue to attract. North Macedonia, set to join next year, will bring the number of leaders at the table this week to 30, up from 15 when the Berlin Wall fell in 1989.Such accomplishments however are being drowned out by the increasingly public dispute over what NATO should focus on, and what it should stand for. In an apparent attempt to contain the debate, Germany has proposed forming an expert group to report on the future political shape of the alliance.Macron drove Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel to make an uncharacteristically spirited defense of the alliance last week. “Even more than during the Cold War, maintaining NATO is today in our own best interest,” she told lawmakers in Berlin. “Europe cannot currently defend itself alone.”Read more: Erdogan May Seek EU Money Even as He Trades Insults With MacronA senior U.S. official said on Friday that Trump would prioritize enlisting NATO to push back against China’s growing influence. The official said Trump would also press allies to increase defense spending and to exclude Chinese companies from the construction of 5G mobile networks, something many have been unwilling to do.Instead of containing China, Macron wants NATO to prioritize the fight against terrorism. Thirteen French soldiers died in Mali last week and a lone terrorist on Friday killed two people in London. A French official said Macron also plans to press for greater “operational” burden-sharing as a way of complementing Trump’s push for Europe to share more of the alliance’s financial burden.Erdogan, meanwhile, is demanding acceptance of Turkish goals in northern Syria, including classifying as a terrorist threat the Kurdish militias that have fought Islamic State alongside other NATO allies. He also rubbed salt into another open wound in Turkey’s ties with Western allies, by unpacking and testing the NATO non-compatible S-400 air defense system he recently bought from Russia.Read more: NATO Foresees More Europe Defense Outlays as It Braces for TrumpAnd that’s all before Trump makes his first tweet of the event.“It will be a great tribute to how much all the NATO allies value the institution if we manage to get through this leaders meeting without President Trump, President Macron or President Erdogan doing something damaging to the alliance,” said Kori Schake, a former National Security Council official in the George W. Bush administration who is now deputy director of the International Institute for Strategic Studies.The shortened time frame for meeting –- formal sessions will take only about four hours -- may limit the potential for damage. Long term NATO watchers also caution against exaggerating the dangers of intra-alliance tensions, which aren’t new to an organization that includes countries with differing geographies and security priorities.Macron’s questioning of the collective defense commitment at NATO’s heart is certainly dangerous, but in many ways he is simply reverting to France’s traditionally semi-detached status. President Charles De Gaulle pulled out of the organization’s military command structure in 1966, and France rejoined only in 2009.Read more: Macron Says NATO Should Shift Its Focus Away From Russia“It’s not a fashionable view, I know,” said Sir Adam Thomson, the U.K.’s envoy to NATO from 2014-2016, but NATO “has been pursuing a new vision since the end of the Cold War and, to some extent, it’s already got a lot of the material.”He cited three new roles since the Cold War: Crisis management in places like Afghanistan, keeping a lid on potential disputes between members in eastern Europe, and building partnerships with dozens of non-member countries.“It is quite distinctive that this alliance, which in the eyes of some is so wicked, finds so many partners to work with it.”As the site of NATO’s first headquarters, London was a natural choice for this week’s anniversary. It was also supposed to make a statement on the global stature of a new post-Brexit Britain.Read more: Johnson Plans Major Review of U.K.’s Defense, Foreign PolicyBrexit, however, has since been delayed. Johnson also called a snap election that will happen just eight days after the leaders fly home. The presence of Trump, a toxic figure among British voters, is a potential political liability for the prime minister.Were Johnson to lose to Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, that would give NATO yet another individual to worry about at its next summit, due in 2021.Over his career the socialist firebrand has called NATO “a danger to world peace and a danger to world security,” among other things. He has more recently fallen into line with party policy, which is for the U.K. to stay in the alliance, but he would likely prove another awkward partner.The last time Britain hosted NATO leaders, in 2014, he told an anti-NATO rally that the end of the Cold War “should have been the time for NATO to shut up shop, give up, go home and go away.”\--With assistance from Onur Ant, Geraldine Amiel and Justin Sink.To contact the reporters on this story: Marc Champion in London at mchampion7@bloomberg.net;Jonathan Stearns in Brussels at jstearns2@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Rosalind Mathieson at rmathieson3@bloomberg.net, Flavia Krause-JacksonFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

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Mass protest breaks out in Chinese province near Hong Kong

Chinese police clashed with protesters in a southern province near Hong Kong over the weekend, in a rare case of public dissent that saw hundreds demonstrate against the building of a crematorium.

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A Maine man was shot and killed at his home on Thanksgiving. Police blame a homemade booby trap

A 65-year-old Maine man died after triggering one of his homemade security devices designed to fire a handgun at would-be intruders, police say.

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