| During his trip to the kingdom last month, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reportedly provided Saudi Arabia with a detailed plan on how to make sure Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was protected from the fallout over writer Jamal Khashoggi’s murder—and possibly pin the killing on an innocent person. Middle East Eye reports Pompeo delivered the plan during a meeting with Saudi King Salman and and the crown prince last month in Riyadh. The U.S. State Department strongly denied the existence of the plan. The “roadmap” allegedly includes an option to pin the murder on an innocent member of the ruling family to avoid blame falling on those at the top. That fall guy has not been chosen, according to the report, and Saudi leaders are said to be reserving that plan in case the criticism of the crown prince intensifies. “We would not be surprised if that happens,” a source told the Middle East Eye. The U.S. State Department called the allegations “a complete misrepresentation of the secretary’s diplomatic mission to Saudi Arabia.” |
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| A federal judge temporarily barred the Trump administration late Monday from enforcing a policy to refuse asylum to immigrants who illegally cross the U.S.-Mexico border. Judge Jon S. Tigar of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California issued a temporary restraining order after the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights sued in response to President Trump’s ban on asylum-seekers. Tens of thousands of immigrants request asylum each year at official ports of entry, but Trump sought to end the practice altogether with a Nov. 9 proclamation stating that anyone who crossed the border illegally would be automatically ineligible for asylum. The proclamation was widely panned by critics who said it violates international law. |
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| Saudi arms sales provide a fraction of U.S. jobs and revenue that Donald Trump claimed they did, according to a new report. The report by the Center for International Policy, a Washington think tank, says Saudi arms sales account for fewer than 20,000 U.S. jobs a year—less than one-twentieth of the employment boost Trump has claimed. The president has estimated the rewards from sales to the Saudi regime at $110 billion and as many as 600,000 American jobs. The report argues that Saudi Arabia needs the U.S. far more than the other way around and that the Trump administration is in a strong position to punish the Saudi regime for the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. Trump has repeatedly cited the importance of Saudi arms sales to the U.S. economy as a reason not to cut the supply of weapons in response to the murder of The Washington Post columnist. The actual amount of U.S. arms sales to Riyadh since Trump took office is $14.5 billion, the report says. |
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| A Moroccan woman has been arrested after she allegedly killed her boyfriend, butchered his body, cooked it, and then served it up with rice to unsuspecting guests. The Associated Press reports prosecutors in the United Arab Emirates accuse the woman of serving her boyfriend’s remains to Pakistani workers as part of a traditional rice and meat dish known as machboos. The National newspaper in Abu Dhabi cites prosecutors saying the woman killed her boyfriend of seven years after he told her of his plans to marry someone else. The man is said to have died three months ago, but the apparent killing only came to light in recent days after his brother went looking for him and found a tooth inside the woman’s blender. Police say the woman will face trial after their investigation is complete. |
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| While the weather may not seem like the kind you want to go running in, everyone could always use new workout gear. Nike is starting early with their Black Friday deals and giving you an extra 20% off all of their sale styles with the code THANKS. There's everything from leggings to shoes to fleeces. It's a massive sale section with over 2200 items to choose from, so there's bound to be something for you or the fitness geek in your life. Stock up on socks or gift some new running sneakers because an extra 20% off is nothing to sneeze at. Scouted is internet shopping with a pulse. Follow us on Twitter and sign up for our newsletter for even more recommendations and exclusive content. Please note that if you buy something featured in one of our posts, The Daily Beast may collect a share of sales. Want more Black Friday deals? Check out our coverage below: |
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| Israel has reacted with fury after Airbnb announced that it would ban listings in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. The home-letting site announced its decision Monday, saying it had made the call because settlements were “at the core” of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The move, which affects 200 listings, has been praised by Palestinians and some human-rights groups. But Israel’s tourism minister said its government authorities would back legal challenges lodged by settlers against the U.S. firm, and the Yesha Council, which represents Israeli settlers, accused Airbnb of becoming “a political site” that had come to the decision as a “result of either anti-Semitism or capitulation to terrorism, or both.” The Simon Wiesenthal Center, a U.S.-based Jewish human-rights organization, urged Jewish communities to boycott Airbnb. Jewish settlements in the territory occupied by Israel since the 1967 Middle East war are considered illegal under international law. |
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| President Trump has reportedly privately told aides and White House officials that he is reluctant to visit troops in Iraq or Afghanistan because of the long flights and security risks. “He’s never been interested in going,” one unnamed official told The Washington Post on Monday. “He’s afraid of those situations. He’s afraid people want to kill him.” The president has only recently begun discussing tentative plans to visit troops amid increasing criticism of his attitude toward the military, the Post reports. He has been under pressure to visit U.S. troops for several months, and the issue took on new relevance after he angered veterans by skipping a visit to a World War I military cemetery in Paris this month and then opted not to go to Arlington National Cemetery on Veterans Day. More recently, he lashed out at the former head of U.S. Special Operations Command, retired Adm. William H. McRaven, who led the 2011 raid that killed Osama bin Laden. On Sunday, Trump claimed McRaven should have caught bin Laden “a lot sooner” and mocked him as a “Hillary Clinton fan.” |
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| The Trump administration is reportedly preparing to add Venezuela to a list of state sponsors of international terrorism that would place it alongside Iran, North Korea, Sudan, and Syria. Republican lawmakers, led by Sen. Marco Rubio, have pushed for the designation due to the country's alleged ties to Lebanese Hezbollah and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, according to The Washington Post. Adding Venezuela to the list would restrict U.S. economic assistance and impose financial ties on a country already tackling hyperinflation, mass migration, and food shortages. It would be a dramatic action to take against the socialist government of Nicolás Maduro—the four countries on the list have been found to “have repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism.” However, Reuters reports no final decision or timeline to add Venezuela to the list has been made. |
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| One person was killed and four others were injured late Monday in a shooting in downtown Denver in which a gunman opened fire on a crowd of mostly homeless people, authorities said. The incident occurred just after 4 p.m. in a crowded area near Coors Field. Police say the gunman, or gunmen, remains at large and they have not yet determined a motive for the attack. “It is too early to be able to say what the motive is here or what exactly happened,” Denver Police spokesman Doug Schepman told reporters. Hisam Derani, a resident who said he witnessed the shooting, told The Denver Post he’d seen the gunman get into a car after firing on a crowd of homeless and indigent people. Derani said someone in the crowd had fired back at the shooter as he fled. Police have not yet confirmed how many suspects were involved or provided a description. View this cheat in a browser to see this video. |
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| Hackers believed to be linked to Russian intelligence services impersonated State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert and her deputy to target hundreds of staffers in U.S. defense and law-enforcement agencies, Bloomberg News reports. Cybersecurity experts at FireEye said Monday that the phishing attempt was detected last week with emails made to resemble a secure communication from Nauert’s deputy, Susan Stevenson. The email contained a download purporting to be a drive belonging to Nauert, though it was actually malware, according to FireEye. “The threat actor crafted the phishing emails to masquerade as a U.S. Department of State Public Affairs official sharing an official document,” the company said in a statement. There’s no evidence the accounts of Nauert and Stevenson were compromised, but it’s not clear how many people clicked on the malware, which experts say was likely part of an attempt to gather intelligence. While FireEye could not definitively say who was behind the phishing campaign, they said it had many similarities to previous campaigns by a group linked to Russia’s intelligence services known as APT29 or Cozy Bear. |
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