Singapore News Channel, Singapore News Network

A new bulletin from the FBI has revealed that the Saudi government ‘almost certainly’ helped its citizens escape prosecution for serious crimes they were charged with in the US, and American officials looked the other way for years.

The secret effort was carried out to spare the Persian Gulf kingdom embarrassment, while US officials looked the other way for years, and will likely continue without their intervention, the FBI said in the bulletin released Friday.

The revelation comes after President Donald Trump signed into law a requirement backed by Representative Ron Wyden of Oregon that the FBI disclose what it knows about the Saudi government’s suspected role in helping its citizens avoid prosecution in the US.

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Virginia antifa group Seven Hills plans to join Second Amendment supporters outside the Virginia General Assembly as thousands descend on Richmond, Virginia, for the annual Virginia Citizens Defense League gun rally on Monday, Jan. 20.

“I think it’s been pretty important for us to focus on the fact that gun control in America has a legacy of racist enforcement,” said Seven Hills spokesman James, who withheld his name to protect himself from being identified. “Like taking guns away from black people because black people were perceived as a threat to property and the sanctity of the state.”

Pro-gun activists will travel from as far away as Texas next week to protest new legislation proposed by the Democratic majority in Virginia that will limit handgun purchases, institute red flag laws, and require mandatory background checks on private transfers of guns in the Commonwealth. Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam has prioritized gun control this session, and bloc voting by the Democrats almost assures the passage of such legislation.

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It is hard to imagine in a happy hour, White Claw-obsessed kind of world, but 100 years ago a ban on alcohol went into effect across the United States.

The 18th Amendment, which prohibited the ‘manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors,’ began on January 17, 1920 and ushered in the era known as Prohibition. The push to put an end to Americans drinking was a decades-long effort led by women like Carrie Nation, who wielded her hatchet to smash up saloons.

Prohibition gave rise to perilous, sometimes blind-inducing bathtub gin served at secret clubs called speakeasies and empowered organized crime, making the mafia unfathomably rich with gangsters like Al Capone earning, by some estimates, hundreds of millions of dollars a year in bootlegging and other illicit activities. Gang violence reached its pinnacle on Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre on February 14, 1929 when seven men were shockingly gunned down in Chicago.

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Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) had solid debate performances. It’s what’s kept her in the running for a few months, but infrastructure matters. Staffing matters. And having an agenda and a message matter. All three were missing from Harris’ 2020 campaign and it led to the end of her presidential ambitions. No one really knew where she stood. By the Fall, the wheels from this shoddy operation quickly fell off the hinges. In December, The New York Times wrote about an operation that quickly devolved into chaos with warring factions. On top of that, the publication reported that Harris’ people are already worried that Tom Steyer, who is still running for president, could primary the senator in 2022. And yes, that jab by Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI), another 2020 candidate, on her record as a prosecutor—and Harris’ inadequate response—is what many point to as the moment that marked her quick decline in the 2020 race (via NYT):

…[E]ven to some Harris allies, her decline is more predictable than surprising. In one instance after another, Ms. Harris and her closest advisers made flawed decisions about which states to focus on, issues to emphasize and opponents to target, all the while refusing to make difficult personnel choices to impose order on an unwieldy campaign, according to more than 50 current and former campaign staff members and allies, most of whom spoke on condition of anonymity to disclose private conversations and assessments involving the candidate.

Many of her own advisers are now pointing a finger directly at Ms. Harris. In interviews several of them criticized her for going on the offensive against rivals, only to retreat, and for not firmly choosing a side in the party’s ideological feud between liberals and moderates. She also created an organization with a campaign chairwoman, Maya Harris, who goes unchallenged in part because she is Ms. Harris’s sister, and a manager, Mr. Rodriguez, who could not be replaced without likely triggering the resignations of the candidate’s consulting team. Even at this late date, aides said it’s unclear who’s in charge of the campaign.

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Nearly a quarter of the world’s countries saw a dramatic surge in civil unrest last year, a trend that is likely to continue into 2020, a new study has warned.

Analysts predict that as many as 75 nations will see violence and demonstrations break-out this year, according to the report published today.

Hong Kong, Chile, Nigeria, Sudan, Haiti and Lebanon were among the 47 states that saw significant rise in protests in 2019.

But data published by socio-economic and political analysis firm Verisk Maplecroft, predicted that this year will see that number increase to 75 countries.
 
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Democrats and journalists were excited Thursday when the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a legal opinion that the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) had violated the Impoundment Control Act by withholding congressionally-appropriated aid to Ukraine last summer.

The non-binding opinion was disputed by the OMB, which released a memo last month arguing that the “programmatic” delay sought to fulfill, not oppose, congressional intent.

The GAO decision, which had been requested by Democrat Senator Chris van Hollen of Maryland, disagreed, concluding that the delay had been for “policy reasons,” not “programmatic delay.” Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) cited the decision in her morning press conference — though she had trouble pronouncing the word “impoundment” — and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) likewise trumpeted the GAO decision as a vindication of the House impeachment.

Though the GAO works for Congress, it is not the finder of fact in impeachment cases. Moreover, it is not even clear that the Impoundment Control Act is constitutional.

Nevertheless, if a mere GAO finding is sufficient to justify impeachment, then President Barack Obama ought to have been impeached at least seven times over for each of the following cases in which the GAO found that the Obama administration had violated federal law.

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The Army Times appointed as its top editor a 28-year-old feminist from Brooklyn who has repeatedly tweeted that she hates President Donald Trump and worked as a spokeswoman for a New York councilman who describes himself as a “moderate Democrat.”

After interning for several Democrats, graduating Hofstra University in 2014, and contemplating art school, Sarah Sicard wrote for a marijuana publication called the “Bluntness,” served as communications director for a New York city council member, and worked in corporate PR, according to her resume and online bios.

As of Jan. 10, she occupies the top editorial position of the Army Times, which has been published since 1940 and is one of the preeminent publications for military men and veterans.

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LSU quarterback Joe Burrow praised President Donald Trump after the team’s visit to the White House Friday, saying that the president showed everyone “so much love.”

Burrow’s comments were reported by Bloomberg reporter Jordan Fabian who tweeted the player’s remarks.

“Joe Burrow on Trump,” Fabian tweeted. “He showed so much love to everyone on our team. I don’t care if you’re a Republican, Democrat, don’t care about politics at all, that was an awesome experience for everybody.”

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[Geaux Tigers!]

Eleven U.S. service members were treated for concussion symptoms in the days after Iran’s Jan. 8 missile attack on an American military base in Iraq, Pentagon officials said late Thursday.

The statement from U.S. Central Command, which oversees operations in the Middle East, is a shift from the Trump administration’s previous contention that no Americans had been injured in the attack on Al Asad Air Base.

However, the Pentagon downplayed the notion Friday that information about possible injuries may have been intentionally hidden from public view, saying Defense Secretary Mark Esper, himself, only found out about the development Thursday afternoon because the symptoms experienced were not severe enough to trigger department protocols for alerting the secretary.

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