Eastern Libya halts more than half the country's oil output

Eastern Libya ports controlled by commander Khalifa Haftar, who is trying to seize the capital Tripoli, are shutting down oil exports, slashing national crude output by more than half and ramping up tensions ahead of a summit in Germany to discuss the country's conflict.

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Guinea-Bissau Supreme Court calls for clarification of presidential vote result

The outcome of Guinea-Bissau's presidential election was thrown into doubt on Friday after the Supreme Court called for a clarification of the tally hours after the electoral commission released the final results.

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Can Anyone Save the G.O.P.?

By BY BRET STEPHENS from NYT Opinion https://ift.tt/360NSVr

What to Know About the Virginia Gun Rally

By BY SARAH MERVOSH from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/363WyKH

How Trump Is Spreading a Conspiracy Theory About Pelosi, Biden and Sanders

By BY ANNIE KARNI AND JEREMY W. PETERS from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2tkaXp1

Jane Raskin, Who Helped Trump in Mueller Inquiry, Joins President’s Defense Team

By BY MAGGIE HABERMAN from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2RvhfKb

The N.B.A. Embraces a ‘Trash’ Defense

By BY MARC STEIN from NYT Sports https://ift.tt/2NyzPjy

No, Mr. President, It Does Really Matter

By BY THE EDITORIAL BOARD from NYT Opinion https://ift.tt/2RpZaNK

How Much Warmer Was Your City in 2019?

By BY K.K. REBECCA LAI from NYT World https://ift.tt/38dDECw

Fox News Breaking News Alert

Fox News Breaking News Alert

Former U.S. Rep. Chris Collins sentenced to 26 months in federal prison after guilty plea in insider trading case

01/17/20 3:22 PM

Impeachment and a path to redemption for Trump

President Trump’s most effective path forward, not only to prevail in the impeachment proceedings but to end this ordeal and create a strong position from which to govern, is to follow the Clinton model rather than the Nixon path. 

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Texas carries out first US execution of 2020

Texas on Wednesday carried out the first execution of the year in the United States, putting to death by lethal injection a man convicted of killing his wife 15 years ago because she wanted a divorce. John Gardner, 64, was sentenced to death in 2006 for killing his fifth wife, who had left him after multiple incidents of physical violence and filed for divorce. Tammy Gardner died two days later.

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U.K. monarchy will look smaller in future with Prince Charles

Prince Charles, the future king, has long been seen as a potential modernizer who wants a more modest monarchy in line with other European royal households — and the streamlining process has already begun with the astounding developments of recent months.

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Sealed Epstein Docs Name ‘Persons of Means’ in Sex Abuse Case

A federal court in New York is preparing to release more sealed documents in a 2015 defamation suit filed by Virginia Giuffre, a victim of dead sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, against his alleged madam, British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell.But first, the court will conduct an individualized review of the pleadings that would give attorneys for Maxwell, Giuffre, and mysterious parties identified as John Does 1 and 2, the opportunity to weigh countervailing factors, such as privacy, that would limit public access.As part of the review process, other secret “non-parties” to the case who are named in the documents—including other alleged victims, and people accused of having sex with Giuffre—will need to be notified ahead of the unsealing and have the option to object. After those objections are filed, legal teams for Maxwell and Giuffre will have a chance to file their own oppositions.Epstein Used Database to Track ‘Numerous’ Underage Girls ‘Held Captive’ at His Virgins Islands Hideaway: SuitOn Thursday, U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska suggested reviewing the sealed motions in the now-settled case on a rolling basis, in groups of five.Maxwell’s lawyer, Laura Menninger, told the court that some of the non-parties are “persons of means or otherwise have counsel,” while “others live outside of the country or don’t have means” to enlist counsel to file their objections under seal. Menninger asked for “alternatives” to submit their objections via letter.Meanwhile, Sigrid McCawley, Giuffre’s attorney, expressed concerns over a document dump that would portray Giuffre in a bad light. She said the only pleadings Maxwell has agreed to unseal are those that “would be negative to my client.”McCawley said it would be unfair to release those documents—which wouldn’t need review because there’s no countervailing interests—without other sealed court papers that would perhaps paint a fuller picture of the case. But Judge Preska disagreed, saying there would be “no justification to withholding the documents” from the public.After the proceeding, Menninger ducked into an elevator, avoiding questions from a Daily Beast reporter who asked whether she’d seen or heard from Maxwell. Since Epstein’s arrest in July 2019, Maxwell has disappeared from the public eye.“Virginia is very pleased that this process is starting and that the court is taking seriously the release of these documents,” McCawley told reporters outside the federal courthouse. “It’s always been her position that there should be public access to these documents as we’ve seen as recently as yesterday in the U.S. Virgin Islands. They filed a complaint outlining this over-20-year history of [Epstein’s] sexual abuse of young females.”As The Daily Beast reported, the attorney general of the U.S. Virgin Islands filed a lawsuit on Wednesday that accuses Epstein and his inner circle of trafficking girls as young as 11 years old, as recently as 2018.“It’s been Virginia’s mission to expose that abuse, and we’re hopeful that through the court’s review process that will occur and these documents will get released,” McCawley said, adding that the Virgin Islands case highlights that Epstein’s sexual abuse of girls “was going on all over the world, for many, many years.”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.

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Parnas said he is speaking out because he is afraid of William Barr

Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas said he was giving media interviews about his role in President Trump’s attempts convince Ukrainian officials to announce an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden because he wanted to protect himself from Attorney General William Barr.

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Panel finds FAA followed procedures in approving Boeing Max

A government advisory committee has concluded that federal regulators followed established procedures when they certified the Boeing 737 Max and did not delegate too much safety analysis for the plane to Boeing. The committee was appointed by Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao in April, after crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia killed 346 people. The committee’s findings differ sharply from those of legislators who are investigating Boeing and the FAA.

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White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham tells Fox News she won't hold press briefings because reporters just 'want their moment on TV so they can peddle their books

Press secretary Stephanie Grisham's comments came shortly after her predecessor Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced she's releasing a memoir this fall.

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Susan Collins surpasses Mitch McConnell as the most unpopular senator in a new poll

The Maine Senator's net approval rating has dropped 10 points since the end of September, leaving her with a 52 percent disapproval rating

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Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow knew about Ukraine scheme, 'didn't want to be involved,' Lev Parnas says

President Trump's personal White House lawyer Jay Sekulow knew about Rudy Giuliani's efforts to get Ukraine to announce an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter, but "didn't agree with what Rudy was doing," Lev Parnas told MSNBC's Rachel Maddow.In an interview that aired Thursday night, Parnas, an associate of Giuliani, said Sekulow was "in the loop" but "didn't want to be involved in the Ukraine stuff." He said he heard Sekulow and Giuliani talk about the matter, and Sekulow "didn't agree with what Rudy was doing, but he knew what he was doing."Parnas and his business partner Igor Fruman were arrested in October and charged with campaign finance violations. John Dowd, Trump's former attorney, was briefly Parnas' lawyer, and Parnas told Maddow that during a visit to the jail, Dowd told him to "be a good boy." Maddow asked if Dowd was "telling you to sacrifice yourself to protect Trump," and Parnas responded, "Yes ... they tried to keep me quiet." Parnas said soon after, he fired Dowd.New evidence Parnas submitted to House impeachment investigators was released this week, including an email from Sekulow dated Oct. 2, 2019. It states, "The president consents to allowing your representation of Mr. Parnas and Mr. Furman [sic]." Trump has claimed multiple times that he does not know Parnas; Parnas has promised to release photos of the two together every time he makes a denial.More stories from theweek.com National Treasure 3 is reportedly in the works Mindhunter just got Netflixed Ukraine gives Trump the corruption investigation he asked for

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Philippines reimposes ban on workers deploying to Kuwait

The Philippines said Friday it was reimposing a ban on its citizens going to work in Kuwait after a Filipina was allegedly killed by her employer, echoing a 2018 row between the two countries. President Rodrigo Duterte approved the ban as his government accused the emirate of covering up the killing of a maid, one of about 240,000 Filipinos working in the Gulf state. Duterte's government briefly banned Filipinos deploying for work in Kuwait two years ago amid a diplomatic row that began with the discovery of the remains of a murdered Filipina maid in her employers' freezer.

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Michigan governor urges broader Facebook crackdown on hate speech, citing attacks on state's lawmakers

Michigan's Democratic governor has urged Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg to step up efforts to check hate speech on the social network and protect the security of elections, citing attacks on legislators from the state. "Of late, hundreds of vitriolic, sexist and violent posts on Facebook have called for violence against Muslims and Michigan legislators," Governor Gretchen Whitmer wrote to Zuckerberg in a letter she also shared on Twitter on Friday.

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Trevor Noah Roasts Trump and Rudy Giuliani for Hiring Terrible ‘Criminal’ Lev Parnas

After joking that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi held onto the impeachment articles against Trump “tighter than Mike Pence’s sphincter in a room with two women,” Trevor Noah previewed what could happen next now that she has finally delivered them to the Senate. “The big fight is now going to be about whether or not the trial will include new witnesses and new evidence,” the Daily Show host said. “Because you see just yesterday we learned new details about Trump and his shady dealing with Ukraine.” He was talking about the latest bombshell developments surrounding Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas who appears to have flipped on Trump, sharing new documents and text messages that further implicate the president, including a handwritten note on hotel stationery that lays out the whole thing. “Seriously?” Noah asked. “They wrote down the plot of their crime and then kept it? That is a literal paper trail. Why would you do that?” “Only Donald Trump would hire henchmen who are also into scrapbooking,” he added. “They’re like a bunch of criminal Martha Stewarts. Also known as Martha Stewarts.” Stephen Colbert Calls Out Bernie Sanders’ Sexist SupportersRead 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.

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Eastern Libyan protesters close Zueitina oil port

Eastern Libyan forces closed down major oil ports, a spokesman for an oil protection force allied to eastern-based commander Khalifa Haftar said on Friday, escalating tensions before an international Libya summit to discuss the country's conflict.

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