A Leak-Prone White House Finally Manages to Keep a Secret

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2 victims were killed and police fatally shot a man wearing a hoax explosive vest in a terrorist attack at London Bridge

London Metropolitan Police closed London Bridge and London Bridge Station is also closed. City of London police shot the man, who died at the scene.

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China's accuses UN rights chief of 'inapppropriate' inteference

China on Saturday accused UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet of "inappropriate" interference in the country's affairs after she called for investigations into alleged excessive use of force by police in Hong Kong. The article contains "inappropriate comments on the situation of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region ... (and) interferes in China's internal affairs," said the Chinese mission's statement.

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Chicago officer investigated for body-slamming man to ground

A Chicago police officer is being investigated for body-slamming a man who spat on his face, authorities said Friday. The officer approached the man for drinking alcohol at a bus stop, police said. “While a single video does not depict the entirety of the interactions between the police and the individual, this particular video is very disturbing,” Lightfoot said.

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Third occupant of Spain 'narco-sub' arrested: police

The third occupant of a submarine seized off the Spanish coast carrying three tonnes of cocaine worth 100 million euros ($110 million) was arrested on Friday, police said. Police intercepted the 20-metre (65-foot) submarine -- thought to be the first of its kind captured in Europe -- off the northwestern region of Galicia on Saturday. Two Ecuadorans were arrested as they tried to escape from the submarine, but the third occupant managed to flee from police.

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FOX NEWS: Whistleblower in New Orleans hotel collapse is deported to Honduras, lawyers say

Whistleblower in New Orleans hotel collapse is deported to Honduras, lawyers say



A Honduran construction worker who attempted to warn about unsafe conditions prior to last month's deadly partial collapse of the Hard Rock Hotel in New Orleans was deported by U.S. immigration authorities on Friday, his lawyers confirmed.

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FOX NEWS: Homemade booby trap in Maine kills man who rigged it to protect residence

Homemade booby trap in Maine kills man who rigged it to protect residence



A Maine man who rigged his home with booby traps to thwart intruders has been killed after tripping one of his own devices.

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FOX NEWS: Eric Shawn: The Jimmy Hoffa fascination…only grows

Eric Shawn: The Jimmy Hoffa fascination…only grows



Geoff Schumacher of the mob museum in Las Vegas on the continuing interest.

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London Attack by Convicted Terrorist Disrupts U.K. Campaign

(Bloomberg) -- The man suspected of stabbing two people to death near London Bridge had been released early from jail after a terrorism conviction, allowing an attack in the heart of the city that is disrupting the U.K.’s general election campaign two weeks before the vote.Officers shot and killed the 28-year-old attacker, who was wearing a fake suicide vest after members of the public wrestled him to the ground on London Bridge, on the edge of the city’s financial district. He was tackled by passersby moments after carrying out the attack at about 2 p.m. on Friday.Boris Johnson broke away from campaigning on Friday for the Dec. 12 election to rush back to Downing Street for a security briefing on the attack. Speaking afterward, he praised the civilians who tried to stop the suspected terrorist before police arrived, and declared that “Britain will not be cowed” by the incident.On Saturday, Johnson met with police at the site of the attack and used the opportunity to criticize the U.K.’s criminal justice system, which routinely allows for jail sentences, even for criminals committing violent crimes or acts of terrorism, to be reduced.“The practice of automatic early release, when you cut a sentence in half and let serious and violent offenders out, is not working,” he told the BBC after his meeting with police.Click Here for the Day’s Events as They HappenedThe suspect, identified by police as Usman Khan, was released from prison on parole in December 2018, the police said in a statement. Khan was one of nine people convicted in 2012 for offenses ranging from a plot to bomb the London Stock Exchange to planning a terrorist training camp. Khan originally received an indeterminate sentence, which was changed on appeal in 2013 to 16 years, the BBC reported.Johnson also praised the men who fought the attacker and pinned him to the ground on London Bridge until the police arrived. Khan began the attack while attending a conference on prisoner rehabilitation at a building called Fishmongers’ Hall next to the bridge.A Polish chef grabbed an ornamental narwhal tusk off a wall and used it to confront the attacker, while another chased Khan with a fire extinguisher, Sky News reported. A third man who aided the victims and tried to fend Khan off was a convicted murderer who was close to completing his sentence, the Telegraph reported, while another man stopped his car and helped the others force Khan to release the two knives he was carrying.“I want to pay tribute to the sheer bravery of the members of the public who went to deal with and put their own lives at risk,“ Johnson said.The first victim of the attack was identified as Jack Merritt, 25, a University of Cambridge graduate who was a coordinator of the conference that Khan attended, the BBC reported.With voters set to go to the polls on Dec. 12, the impact of such a potentially disruptive event is unclear. But the revelation that the attacker was a former convicted terrorist is likely to put pressure on the ruling Conservatives -- who traditionally view crime prevention as one of their stronger cards -- to explain why the person was allowed out of jail.Johnson also told the BBC that his government would review sentencing policies in the wake of the attack.Campaigning in the U.K.’s last election in 2017 was thrown off course by two terrorist attacks, including one in the same area of London just five days before the vote. In that incident, eight people were killed and 48 injured.In the aftermath of the 2017 attack, U.S. President Donald Trump triggered a diplomatic row when he criticized London Mayor Sadiq Khan over his response, and their spat has continued ever since. The U.S. president arrives in the U.K. next week for a NATO summit, which Johnson hopes will be a low-key visit.Trump spoke to Johnson on Saturday and expressed his condolences following the attack, White House spokesman Judd Deere said in a statement. On Friday, Johnson and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn spoke by phone and each suspended their election campaigns in the capital for the rest of the day. Johnson’s team said he would also cancel his events on Saturday so he can focus on the security response.But speaking to television reporters just before a meeting of the government’s ‘Cobra’ crisis committee on Friday evening, Johnson highlighted his election pledge to hire extra police officers.‘Hunted Down’“Anybody involved in this crime and these attacks will be hunted down and will be brought to justice,” he said. “This country will never be cowed or divided or intimidated by this sort of attack and our British values will prevail.”After the alarm was raised on Friday lunchtime, armed police cleared cafes and shops in the London Bridge area. Officers burst into restaurants in the popular Borough Market area on the other side of the river, urging diners to leave immediately. They shouted “Out, out, out,” to people at the Black and Blue bar, and ordered customers to walk away with their hands on their heads. Nearby, police shouted to pedestrians to “run.”The police asked people to avoid the area. Mayor Sadiq Khan said Saturday on BBC’s Radio 4 that while there will be “more high visibility police officers present in London” through the weekend “there’s no reason to believe there is an increased threat” from terrorism. The bridge will remain closed for some time, he said from the site on Saturday afternoon.(Updates with Trump-Johnson phone call from 15th paragraph.)\--With assistance from Tim Ross.To contact the reporters on this story: Jessica Shankleman in London at jshankleman@bloomberg.net;Greg Ritchie in London at gritchie10@bloomberg.net;Kitty Donaldson in London at kdonaldson1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Tim Ross at tross54@bloomberg.net, James Amott, Andrew DavisFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

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2 victims were killed and police fatally shot a man wearing a hoax explosive vest in a terrorist attack at London Bridge

London Metropolitan Police closed London Bridge and London Bridge Station is also closed. City of London police shot the man, who died at the scene.

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Zimbabwe facing 'man-made' starvation, UN expert warns

Zimbabwe is facing "man-made" starvation with 60 percent of the people failing to meet basic food needs, a UN special envoy said Thursday after touring the southern African country. Hilal Elver, Special Rapporteur on the right to food, ranked Zimbabwe among the four top countries facing severe food shortages outside nations in conflict zones. "The people of Zimbabwe are slowly getting to a point of suffering a man-made starvation," she told a news conference in Harare, adding that eight million people would be affected by the end of the year.

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2 victims are dead and a suspect was killed by police in a London terror incident. Here's how the attack unfolded.

Police said they were called to London Bridge just before 2 p.m. local time on Friday afternoon for reports of a stabbing.

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Wintry weather bedevils holiday weekend travelers around US

Wintry weather bedeviled Thanksgiving weekend travelers across the United States Saturday as a powerful and dangerous storm moved eastward, dumping heavy snow from parts of California to the northern Midwest and inundating other areas with rain. Authorities found the bodies of two young children, including a 5-year-old boy, and a third child was missing in central Arizona after a vehicle was swept away while attempting to cross a runoff-swollen creek. The National Weather Service said the storm was expected to drop 6 to 12 inches (15-30 centimeters) of snow from the northern Plains states into Minnesota, Wisconsin and Upper Michigan.

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Peru Opposition Leader Keiko Fujimori Walks Free from Lima Jail

(Bloomberg) -- Opposition leader Keiko Fujimori walked free from a Lima prison Friday night after Peru’s highest court annulled her 18-month preventive jail sentence for obstructing a money-laundering probe.Speaking to reporters outside the jail, Fujimori said the Constitutional Court had corrected a process that was arbitrary and “full of abuses,” and said she’ll keep cooperating with the investigation.“I’m going to take time to reconnect with my family, recuperate, and later on we’ll decide what I’ll do in the second stage of my life,” Fujimori said, according to video broadcast by the Canal N network.The 44-year-old daughter of former autocrat Alberto Fujimori was jailed 13 months ago on allegations she sought to use her party’s congressional majority and contacts in the judiciary to derail a money-laundering probe against her. Prosecutors allege she received $1 million in campaign donations from Brazilian builder Odebrecht SA, though haven’t formally charged her. She denies any wrongdoing.In the court’s Nov. 25 ruling, three justices said prosecutors didn’t provide sufficient evidence directly linking Fujimori to the payments from Odebrecht. A fourth said she no longer posed a threat to the investigation after Congress was dissolved in September.Prosecutors investigating Fujimori and other politicians accused the court of thwarting Peru’s fight against corruption by releasing Fujimori. “The decision is surprising, incongruous and anti-technical, and suspiciously, it has political overtones,” prosecutor Jose Domingo Perez said Friday. He’s asked the judiciary to contest the ruling, La Republica newspaper reported.The Constitutional Court annulled a preventive jail sentence against former president Ollanta Humala and his wife Nadine Heredia last year.Voters will elect a new Congress on Jan. 26 and analysts don’t expect any political party to win a majority.To contact the reporter on this story: John Quigley in Lima at jquigley8@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Juan Pablo Spinetto at jspinetto@bloomberg.net, Ros Krasny, Steve GeimannFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

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Tens of thousands rally in Europe, Asia before UN climate summit

Tens of thousands of protesters, primarily in Europe and Asia, hit the streets on Friday to make a fresh call for action against global warming, hoping to raise pressure on world leaders days before a UN climate summit. Carrying signs that read "One planet, one fight" and "The sea is rising, so must we", thousands flocked to Berlin's Brandenburg Gate for the latest "Fridays for Future" protest inspired by 16-year-old activist Greta Thunberg. In total, about 630,000 people demonstrated across more than 500 cities in Germany, the Fridays for Future movement said.

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Thanksgiving photo Bill O'Reilly posted to Twitter freaks people out

Bill O’Reilly’s promotional tweet for his interview with President Trump went viral on Thursday, but not in the way he likely would have wanted.

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Wikipedia article of the day for December 1, 2019

The Wikipedia article of the day for December 1, 2019 is Banksia marginata.
Banksia marginata, the silver banksia, is a species of tree or woody shrub found throughout much of southeastern Australia. It ranges from the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia to north of Armidale, New South Wales, and across Tasmania and the islands of Bass Strait. It grows in various habitats, including Eucalyptus forest, scrub, heathland and moorland. B. marginata varies widely in habit, ranging from a small shrub, 20 cm (7.9 in) high, to a large tree, 12 m (40 ft) tall. Its narrow leaves are linear. Its yellow flower spikes appear in late summer, eventually fading to brown and then grey and developing woody follicles bearing the winged seeds. Many species of bird, in particular honeyeaters, forage at the flower spikes, as do native and European honeybees. Although the silver banksia has been used for timber, it is most commonly seen as a garden plant, with dwarf forms being commercially propagated and sold.

The First Time Congress Tried to Impeach a President Was a Disaster

It didn't go as planned...

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Pelosi to attend climate summit amid withdrawal from climate deal

The U.S. began the formal withdrawal process from the Paris Climate Agreement earlier this month.

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Lebanese rally against Iraq's crackdown on protesters

Dozens of people in protest-swept Lebanon staged a candlelit vigil outside Iraq's embassy on Saturday to denounce the excessive use of force against demonstrators there. Participants at the Beirut observance raised pictures of Iraqi protesters who have been killed in an unprecedented anti-government movement. Some raised the Lebanese flag, while one woman wrapped the Iraqi tricolour around her shoulders.

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Ilhan Omar GOP challenger banned from Twitter after saying she should be "tried for treason and hanged”

Danielle Stella campaign account also tweeted a picture of a stick figure being hanged with a link to a blog post about her comments.

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‘Hero’ Who Ended Terror Rampage Was Convicted Killer

Simon Dawson/ReutersLONDON—A frenzied knife attack by a known terrorist who was let out of prison early on parole was halted by a posse of Londoners that included a convicted killer on day release.The first deadly terror attack in Britain for two years spilled out of a Cambridge University event on rehabilitating ex-cons. A university spokesman told The Daily Beast that the terrorist Usman Khan had been invited to the event, but could not confirm reports that he had addressed the symposium, which included former prisoners and prison staff.A more detailed account of the attack emerged Saturday as the Islamic State claimed that one of its attackers carried out the stabbing, the group’s Amaq news agency reported. The announcement didn’t provide any evidence for the claim.Khan, 28, was wearing a tracking device on his ankle and a hoax suicide belt around his waist when he walked up the grand staircase inside the historic Fishmongers’ Hall, pulled out two knives, and threatened to blow up the building.He was run out of the event by attendees grabbing makeshift weapons to confront the killer, who had already inflicted fatal injuries on two people and wounded several more. One man picked up a fire extinguisher, another pulled the unicorn-like tusk of a narwhal off the wall and gave chase.Khan fled onto London Bridge with the avenging conference guests in hot pursuit. The man with the antique whale cudgel was identified by The Times as a Polish chef called Luckasz, who suffered lacerations in the attack. “Being stabbed didn’t stop him giving him a beating,” a colleague who did not want to be named told the paper.Some of the others who turned on the killer reportedly were ex-cons attending the event.They sprayed him in the face with the fire extinguisher and managed to force him to the ground even though he was flailing at them with knives that were taped to his wrists. Several people held him down while police cars raced to the scene.A man named James Ford grabbed one of the terrorist’s knives and carried it to safety, staggering south across the bridge away from the melee and warning clueless pedestrians to back away from a potential explosion.As cell-phone footage spread across social media and onto global news networks, the man was labelled a hero. Some of those watching the video, however, were appalled by what they saw.Angela Cox, 65, received a phone call from police liaison officers telling her to switch on the TV. She thought the man who had disarmed the terrorist was still in prison.Ford had been convicted of the brutal murder of her niece in 2004. He approached the 21-year-old, who was said to have the mental age of a 15-year-old, in an area of woodland and slit her throat. The judge at the time said: “What you did was an act of wickedness. You clearly have an interest in the macabre and also an obsession with death including murder by throat cutting.”He was out of prison on day release on Friday, reportedly to attend the University of Cambridge Criminology department’s “Learning Together” event, although a spokesman was unable to confirm.> — “He murdered a disabled girl. He is not a hero.”“He murdered a disabled girl. He is not a hero,” said Cox. “They let him out without even telling us. It was a hell of a shock.”The authorities will also have to explain why Khan was allowed out of prison to murder at least two people—one man and one woman who have not yet been named. In 2012, he was convicted of plotting to carry out terror attacks in London and set up a terror training camp on land owned by his family in Pakistan.The judge said Khan, who was just 19 at the time, was one of the ringleaders of a small British terror network that followed the teachings of U.S.-born Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula propagandist Anwar al-Awlaki. The eight men, who had been tracked for months by MI5, were convicted on terror offenses including a plot to blow up the London Stock Exchange—they also had a target list that included the U.S. Embassy and the home address of Boris Johnson, who is now prime minister.Five of them were given conventional jail sentences, but the judge said Khan and two of his colleagues were so dangerous that they should be locked up indefinitely under Imprisonment for Public Protection legislation.“They were about the long term business of establishing and operating a terrorist military training facility in Pakistan, on land owned by the family of Usman Khan to which British recruits, whom they would recruit, would go to receive training,” the judge said. “Furthermore it was envisaged by them all that ultimately they, and the other recruits may return to the UK as trained and experienced terrorists available to perform terrorist attacks in this country.”His ruling that they should remain in custody until they were no longer deemed a threat was quashed by the court of appeal in 2013. Britain’s head of counterterror policing Neil Basu said late on Friday night that Khan was released last year. The Times reported that he had agreed to wear an electronic monitoring device and live under restrictions including a curfew at his home in Staffordshire in the West Midlands.He would likely have told the officials monitoring his movements that he was traveling down to London to take part in the rehabilitation event “celebrating five years of Learning Together.”Khan had just taken part in a workshop on storytelling and creative writing when he revealed his true motivation for taking part in the event on the banks of the River Thames.Professor Anthony Glees, the director of the Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies at the University of Buckingham, who contributed to the parliamentary Homeland Security Group, said it was clear that the authorities and the academics who wanted to help had failed to identify the true scale of the threat from this man.“That is a deep irony, the do-gooder culture in universities actually gave him the opportunity; how daft was that?” he said to The Daily Beast. “Once a jihadist always a jihadist.”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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Heavy snow in U.S. West and Midwest could disrupt post-Thanksgiving travel

Over a foot of snow is forecast in mountainous parts of Colorado, Utah and Arizona on Friday before the storm system slips toward the upper Midwest, the National Weather Service said. Freezing rain will likely turn to snowy blizzards in parts of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan beginning on Friday night, with more than 18 inches of snowfall possible in some mountainous areas, the service said. More than 4 million Americans were expected to fly and another 49 million expected to drive at least 50 miles or more this week for Thanksgiving, according to the American Automobile Association.

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'Ogre of the Ardennes' serial killer charged with murder of 'French Maddie'

One of France's most notorious serial killers has been charged with the abduction and murder of a nine-year-old girl who vanished without trace in 2003 in a case that has gripped the nation ever since. Michel Fourniret, jailed for life in May 2008 for the murder of seven girls and young women, has been charged over the disappearance of Estelle Mouzin from a village east of Paris after his wife came forward to contradict his alibi. Estelle Mouzin disappeared in Guermantes, 18 miles east of Paris, on January 9, 2003 while walking home from her school. Her body was never found. Reported sightings fuelled speculation she was kidnapped and taken abroad, sparking parallels with the Madeleine McCann, the British three-year-old who went missing in Portugal in 2007. Detectives first suspected Fourniret, 76, was behind the Mouzin murder in 2006 after they found a photo of her on his computer, and a white van resembling the one he drove had been spotted in the area when she disappeared. Convicted French serial killer Michel Fourniret last year confessed to the murder of British language assistant Joanna Parrish in 1990 in Burgundy Credit: ALAIN JULIEN/AFP The killer has always maintained he had nothing to do with her disappearance and that at the time he was at home at Sart-Custinne, southern Belgium, near the French border. Last week, however, his former wife, Monique Olivier, told investigators that the phone call Fourniret said he made from his home on the day the child disappeared was in fact made by her at his request. "That means that Michel Fourniret was not at Sart-Custinne the day of Estelle Mouzin's disappearance," said Olivier's lawyer, Richard Delgenes. "He was somewhere else.” Fourniret has form when it comes to changing his mind on who he has murdered. He long denied killing Joanna Marie Parrish, a British language student from Newnham on Severn, Gloucestershire, who was murdered in the Burgundy region of France while working at a local school as part of her degree course in 1990. His wife said he was behind her death but later retracted her testimony.  However, Fourniret finally owned up to her murder last year. His life sentence carries no possibility of parole.

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Gigantic storm to wreak havoc on post-Thanksgiving travel

A massive winter storm that has already prompted warnings from Arizona to Wisconsin will be lumbering east in coming days, almost certainly interfering with Thanksgiving return-travel plans for millions, The Washington Post reports. By the time it's finished, the storm, created by the same conditions that caused the "bomb cyclone" in California and Arizona earlier in the week, could pummel an area stretching from the Sierra Nevadas to New England -- where a nor'easter is predicted to begin on Sunday night. "This storm will... produce significant snow and blizzard conditions across the Northern Plains through Saturday before moving to the Great Lakes and Northeast Sunday and Monday," the National Weather Service said in a statement. USA Today reports that Accuweather is forecasting up to three feet of snow in South Dakota's Black Hills region, where "visibility could be so low at times it may be difficult to determine where the road surface actually is." So if you happen to be stuck at a relative's house this weekend: stay inside, avoid discussing politics, and try not to get too sick of that days-old cranberry sauce.More stories from theweek.com Democrats are running into Trump's economic buzzsaw 5 gut-bustingly funny cartoons about politics and Thanksgiving Knives Out does what so many of the best mysteries do: Carve up the rich

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The US fertility rate has dropped for the fourth year in a row, and it might forecast a 'demographic time bomb'

Russia, Japan, and Spain are all dealing with their growing elderly populations and declining birthrates. The US could be next.

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2 cruise passengers dead, 5 injured after Belize tour bus crash

Two Carnival Cruise Line passengers died in a bus crash while on an independent tour in Belize on Wednesday.

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The Nets Win One for Their Culture

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FOX NEWS: Jay-Z suing Australian children’s bookstore over use of his image and lyrics: report

Jay-Z suing Australian children’s bookstore over use of his image and lyrics: report



“You some type of lawyer or something? Somebody important or something?”

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FOX NEWS: Sia removes famous wig to buy groceries for holiday shoppers at Walmart: ‘The heart, beautiful soul you have’

Sia removes famous wig to buy groceries for holiday shoppers at Walmart: ‘The heart, beautiful soul you have’



Tis the season of giving.

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FOX NEWS: Best-selling author James Patterson reflects on his career, Epstein scandal, lack of compromise in Washington

Best-selling author James Patterson reflects on his career, Epstein scandal, lack of compromise in Washington



National Humanities Medal honoree James Patterson joins Bret Baier on 'Special Report.'

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FOX NEWS: Former ‘RHOC’ star Alexis Bellino slammed for calling out ‘maids’ in Instagram post: ‘Stop being lazy’

Former ‘RHOC’ star Alexis Bellino slammed for calling out ‘maids’ in Instagram post: ‘Stop being lazy’



“Real Housewives of Orange County” alum Alexis Bellino is being taken to task over an Instagram post admonishing her maids for their cleaning, or lack thereof.

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FOX NEWS: Fox News Flash top entertainment headlines for Nov. 29

Fox News Flash top entertainment headlines for Nov. 29



Fox News Flash top entertainment and celebrity headlines for Nov. 29 are here. Check out what's clicking today in entertainment.

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FOX NEWS: Elton John reveals he wore diaper, and used it, during Las Vegas show: ‘If they only knew’

Elton John reveals he wore diaper, and used it, during Las Vegas show: ‘If they only knew’



Elton John who revealed in an interview with BBC One, that he had actually urinated on himself while performing on stage.

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FOX NEWS: Chris Wood supports his wife, ‘Supergirl’ star Melissa Benoist after she reveals she’s a domestic violence survivor

Chris Wood supports his wife, ‘Supergirl’ star Melissa Benoist after she reveals she’s a domestic violence survivor



Melissa Benoist’s husband, Chris Wood, is publicly standing next to his wife after she opened up to her followers on Instagram that she is a survivor of domestic abuse.

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Wikipedia article of the day for November 30, 2019

The Wikipedia article of the day for November 30, 2019 is Jean-François-Marie de Surville.
Jean-François-Marie de Surville (1717–1770) was a merchant captain with the French East India Company who commanded a voyage of exploration to the Pacific in 1769 and 1770. Born in Brittany, France, Surville joined the company when he was 10 years old. For the next several years, he sailed on voyages in Indian and Chinese waters. In 1740, he joined the French Navy. He fought in the War of the Austrian Succession and the Seven Years' War, twice becoming a prisoner of war. In 1769, in command of Saint Jean-Baptiste, he sailed from India on an expedition to the Pacific looking for trading opportunities. He explored the seas around the Solomon Islands and anchored in December at Doubtless Bay, New Zealand (commemorative plaque pictured). Part of his route around New Zealand overlapped that of James Cook in Endeavour, who had preceded him by only a few days. Three months later, Surville drowned off the coast of Peru while seeking help for his scurvy-afflicted crew.

The Latest: 4 more anti-government Iraqi protesters killed

Iraqi officials say four protesters were killed amid ongoing violence in Baghdad and southern Iraq, hours after Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi announced his intention to resign. Security and hospital officials say one protester was killed and 18 wounded Friday by security forces who fired live rounds and tear gas to repel them on Baghdad’s historic Rasheed Street, near the strategic Ahrar Bridge. Officials say three protesters were shot dead by security forces in the southern city of Nasiriyah, bringing the total killed there to six on Friday.

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British teenager in gang rape case had no serious physical injuries, doctor tells Cyprus court

A British teenager who claimed she was gang-raped by Israeli tourists in the party resort of Ayia Napa bore no physical signs of a serious sexual assault, a doctor told a court in Cyprus on Friday. Giving evidence for the prosecution, Dr Sophocles Sophocleous said he found a few light bruises on the young woman’s thighs and some scratches on her legs but they were not, in his opinion, consistent with gang rape. The UK's Crown Prosecution Service describes as a "myth" the idea that a lack of physical injuries rules out a rape having taken place.  The teenager claimed in July that she had been gang-raped in a hotel room by the group of Israeli men, but two weeks later signed a police statement in which she retracted the claims. She is on trial in a court in the town of Paralimni, a few miles from Ayia Napa’s beaches and nightclubs, on a charge of public mischief for which she could be jailed for a year. She denies the charge. The alleged gang rape took place in party resort of Ayia Napa Credit: Getty Her lawyers insist that she was raped and that she only signed the statement because she was suffering from extreme trauma and was subjected to aggressive questioning by Cypriot police officers, without a lawyer or family member, for eight hours. Dr Sophocleous said he examined the young woman, who was then 18, after the alleged gang rape took place on July 17. “I did not see any signs of violence,” he told the court. Some of the bruises on her legs were consistent with bumping into a piece of furniture, he said. Together with a gynaecologist, he examined her vagina but found no lesions or other injuries. Lawyers for the teenager said they would summon a Cambridge-educated pathologist who will tell the court next week that the absence of bruises does not mean that the teenager was not pinned down and raped. Michael Polak, a British barrister who is part of her legal team, said: “No one is saying she was kicked or punched or anything like that. She was pinned down and that’s when the other youths got involved.” The teenager will be cross-examined for two hours by the prosecution at the next hearing in the trial, on Tuesday. Under Cypriot law she had the option of staying silent in the dock, giving a statement to the court or subjecting herself to what is likely to be vigorous cross-examination. She chose the latter, with her lawyers saying she has “nothing to hide.” “She will say exactly what happened to her on that night,” said Mr Polak. “A rape took place.”

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California snow-bound highway reopens but storm snarls Thanksgiving travel

Interstate 5 through the Grapevine area, a mountain pass, was shut down in both directions early on Thursday morning and the California Highway Patrol said on Twitter it was working to clear stuck vehicles as snow kept falling. The highway, a major artery connecting Southern California to the rest of the state, was reopened later in the day, although more snow and rain were still forecast. The winter storm was expected to bring heavy snow in the mountains and high winds across much of the Western United States before moving toward the Great Plains late on Friday, the National Weather Service said.

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India announces $400 million loan for Sri Lanka, in support of new president

India will lend Sri Lanka $400 million for infrastructure projects, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Friday after talks with the island nation's new President Gotabaya Rajapaksa aimed at improving bilateral ties. Sri Lanka, located off the southern tip of India, has become an arena of competing influence between New Delhi and China, which has built ports, power stations and highways as part of President Xi Jinping's signature "Belt and Road Initiative", designed to boost trade and transport links across Asia.

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Trump impeachment: White House 'can't find any record' of call which president insists exonerates him

The White House reportedly has no record of a phone call Donald Trump claims exonerates him over a scandal which is threatening to bring down his presidency.The US ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland testified to congress earlier this month that Mr Trump had made clear to him in the call that there was “no quid pro quo” with Ukraine.

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Row over Chinese 5G equipment further strains U.S.-German relations

U.S. Ambassador Richard Grenell called a German official's remarks this week "an insult to the thousands of American troops who helped ensure Germany's security."

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We Aid the Growth of Chinese Tyranny to Our Eternal Shame

We can’t say we didn’t know.Reports of the repression of Muslims living in northwestern China have been leaking out for years in drips and drabs. Satellite photos picked up the construction of massive prison facilities in the Xinjiang province. The BBC was even invited into one of the “thought transformation camps,” from which inmates are released a few hours a week, to see the program of patriotic re-education. Inmates were frank with the Beeb’s reporters that religious activity — including prayer — was banned inside the building.Now, in the last week, a more complete picture of Beijing’s repression campaign has emerged. Leaked memos have revealed some of the details of China’s modernized and tech-supported religious persecution of Muslims in Xinjiang. These are the first Venona cables of our generation. They make certain what sharp observers must have guessed: China uses cutting-edge technology to identify, classify, and detain Muslims for re-education in the old-school argot of totalitarian Communism. President Xi Jinping has instructed the party members and public officials involved in this repression to show “absolutely no mercy” and make ample use of the “organs of dictatorship” to accomplish their mission.The leaked memos include lines that will be cited as exculpatory in the future — they show Xi counseling against proposals to “eradicate” Islam entirely. But the larger picture painted by the documents is one of state apparatus mobilized in the service of repression, aiming to make up for lost time in which Uighurs and Kazaks were allowed to worship, practice, and believe as they pleased. “The weapons of the people’s democratic dictatorship must be wielded without any hesitation or wavering,” Xi is quoted as saying.Distressingly, Xi could occasionally sound like some of the West’s “New Atheists” when talking about his fellow citizens. “People who are captured by religious extremism — male or female, old or young — have their consciences destroyed,” he says. They “lose their humanity and murder without blinking an eye.”There really isn’t any mistaking the strategy here: The ethnic balance of southern Xinjiang is to be transformed through the state-aided resettlement of Han Chinese in the region. While there are token concessions to the idea of allowing Uighurs to retain their religion, the use of Turkic languages has been discouraged. China is attempting to deprive Uighurs of their ethnolinguistic identity, the very rudiments of their nationality. These efforts have unsurprisingly inspired intermittent riots and violence in recent years, which have in turn been used to justify the expansion of the re-education camps.The most chilling aspect of this repression is the use of information technology. An incredible, Orwellian surveillance system is used to monitor the movements of Xinjiang’s people. The cameras are placed prominently throughout cities such as Kashgar and surrounding towns to remind people that they are being watched. Algorithms are deployed to facilitate the classification and selection of Uighurs for the camps.It’s a tyranny that we have helped to enable. China’s prosperity and technological progress, generated in no small part by its ability to trade in such high volume with the United States, have empowered its government to do this. Our desire to keep trading with China obliges the president of the United States to remain silent about this barbarity.In short, the leaked documents make clear that the West desperately needs to recover its ability to privilege political and moral aims over the immediate exigencies of the market, which can tolerate even this kind of repression and in fact may operate more smoothly alongside it. The power of China’s tyranny grows in parallel with our fatalism about it, and our determination to be consoled by its economic upside. But enough is enough.

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2 victims were killed and police fatally shot a man wearing a hoax explosive vest in a terrorist attack at London Bridge

London Metropolitan Police closed London Bridge and London Bridge Station is also closed. City of London police shot the man, who died at the scene.

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Shmoo Cake, Persians and Spudnuts: Touring Canada’s Regional Cuisine

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North Korea test fires two missiles month before deadline for US to respond on talks

North Korea fired two "unidentified projectiles" on Thursday, Seoul said, as nuclear talks between Pyongyang and Washington remain deadlocked. The projectiles were fired eastwards from South Hamgyong province and came down in the Sea of Japan, also known as the East Sea, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said. They added that the launch, the latest in a series by Pyongyang, was carried out at 16:59 pm local time - or the early hours on the east coast of the United States, during Thanksgiving, one of the country's biggest annual holidays. It was also one day short of the two-year anniversary of the North's first test of its Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missile, which analysts say is capable of reaching the entire US mainland. Pyongyang is banned from firing ballistic missiles under UN Security Council resolutions, and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that Thursday's launch was the latest in a series of violations.  "North Korea's repeated launches of ballistic missiles are a serious defiance to not only our country but also the international community," he told reporters in Tokyo. Thursday's launch came after Pyongyang fired what it called a "super-large multiple rocket launcher" system last month, and the JCS said the latest devices were presumed to be of a similar type. They flew 380 kilometres (236 miles) and reached a maximum altitude of 97 kilometres, the JCS added. Nuclear negotiations between the US and the North have been at a standstill since the Hanoi summit between Donald Trump, the US president, and Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, broke up in February. Pyongyang has since demanded Washington change its approach by the end of the year. "North Korea is growing anxious as its deadline approaches," said Shin Beom-chul of the Asan Institute for Policy Studies. "That's why it's carrying out these provocations, which is the typical North Korean playbook to get more concessions from the US."

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AOC Raised More for Reelection Campaign Last Quarter Than All Other House Dems, Including Pelosi

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) raised more funds for her reelection campaign than all other Democrats in the House, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi, according to federal elections commission data.Ocasio-Cortez raked in $1.42 million between July 1 and September 30, outstripping Adam Schiff (D., Calif.), who raised $1.26 million over the same period, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.), who raised $1.26 million, the New York Post first reported. All three are up for reelection in 2020."This is very rare, unique," political consultant George Arzt told the Post. "I can’t recall anyone raising this much money during the first year in office."Contributions under $200 comprised most of the donations to Ocasio-Cortez, at $1.1 million in total contributions. Several Republican challengers are competing to oust the freshman congresswoman in her district, which comprises parts of Queens and the Bronx, but none of those challengers has so far matched her fundraising abilities.Arzt emphasized that Ocasio-Cortez "is a celebrity who gained attention from people across the country, and many on the left support her."While she outstripped Pelosi in fundraising over the summer, Pelosi has raised more funds than Ocasio-Cortez overall since January. The Nancy Pelosi Victory Fund, which helps other Democrats besides Pelosi, has raised over $11 million since the beginning of the year.The freshman New York congresswoman has already established herself as a fundraising powerhouse. In July, Politico reported that she hasn't been hurt by relying on small donations, instead channeling her star power in the progressive community to solicit contributions."There used to be a single path to fundraising success in DC — cultivating industry lobbyists," Jeff Hauser, the executive director of the Revolving Door Project, told Politico. "That path still exists, but it's not as lucrative as becoming a national icon for aggressively populist performance in office.

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Port Neches explosion: 60,000 evacuated from homes after Texas chemical plant blast

A series of explosions at a chemical plant forced some 60,000 people to be evacuated from the area surrounding Port Neches in Texas.The first blast occurred at 1am on Wednesday, injuring three workers who are now in hospital. TPC Group, which operates the plant, confirmed all other employees have been accounted for.

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Judge upholds charges that could put Weinstein away for life

A New York judge has rejected Harvey Weinstein’s bid to throw out the most serious charges in his sexual assault case, dealing a big blow to the disgraced movie mogul as he sought to limit the scope of his looming trial and any potential punishment. The ruling made public Wednesday clears the way for prosecutors to bolster their case with testimony from actress Anabella Sciorra who says Weinstein raped her in 1993 or 1994. In recent court filings, Weinstein’s lawyers objected to two of the five counts against him — both stemming from a charge called predatory sexual assault, which carries a maximum life sentence and requires prosecutors to show a pattern of misconduct.

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Iran supreme leader says 'very dangerous' plot foiled

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday said his sanctions-hit country had foiled a "very dangerous" plot after violent demonstrations triggered by a fuel price hike. New York-based Human Rights Watch, meanwhile, accused Tehran of "deliberately covering up" more than 100 deaths and thousands of arrests during the crackdown.

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'Sleepwalking toward climate catastrophe:' World must slash emissions immediately, UN report says

The world's nations must make steep cuts to greenhouse gas emissions immediately or risk missing the targets they’ve agreed on, a U.N. report says.

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Texas chemical fire rages for second day, thousands evacuated

The fiery blast inside a distillation column at the Port Neches, Texas, TPC Group facility on Wednesday injured three workers, blew locked doors off their hinges and spewed a plume of toxic chemicals for miles (kilometers). The plant manufactures petrochemicals used to make rubber and resins, and the volatile organic compounds in the explosion's smoke can lead to eye, nose and throat irritation, shortness of breath, headaches and nausea, the pollution regulator Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) said. The plant, 90 miles (145 km) east of Houston, has a long history of environmental violations and has been out of compliance with federal clean air laws for years, according to the Texas Tribune and state records; it was also declared a high priority violator by the Environmental Protection Agency.

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