President-elect Donald Trump’s skepticism of the Intelligence Community’s findings on Russian election interference has raised fears among experts that Trump will bypass intel analysts and demand that his personal team conduct its own analyses of raw data.
Tossing aside career analysts can create false conclusions, critics warn — like the George W. Bush administration’s incorrect assessment that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction (WMDs).
Intel experts worry Trump will go rogue
Massive road accident kills 25 people in Thailand
A minivan and a pick-up truck both packed with passengers have collided in eastern Thailand, killing 25 people.
Police said the minivan driver lost control after making a U-turn and ploughed into oncoming traffic in the eastern province of Chonburi on Monday. Both vehicles burst into flames.
"The victims were killed by fire or the impact," police Lieutenant-Colonel Wiroj Jamjamras at Ban Bueng provincial police station told AFP news agency, adding two toddlers were among the dead.
Bill Gates: world faces decade at risk from antibiotic-resistant bugs
People across the world, particularly those in developing countries, face a decade at risk from pandemics spread by antibiotic-resistant bugs, the billionaire Bill Gates has warned.
Gates, who made his fortune with the Microsoft Windows operating system before becoming a philanthropist, said the success of antibiotics had created complacency that was now being exposed by the rise of microbial resistance to the drugs.
“I cross my fingers all the time that some epidemic like a big flu doesn’t come along in the next 10 years,” Gates told a special edition of Radio 4’s Today programme guest-edited by Dame Sally Davies, the chief medical officer for England.
U.S. Punishes Russia for Election Hacking, Ejecting Operatives
The Obama administration struck back at Russia on Thursday for its efforts to influence the 2016 election, ejecting 35 Russian intelligence operatives from the United States and imposing sanctions on Russia’s two leading intelligence services, including four top officers of the military intelligence unit the White House believes ordered the attacks on the Democratic National Committee and other political organizations.
In a sweeping set of announcements, the United States was also expected to release evidence linking the cyberattacks to computer systems used by Russian intelligence. Taken together, the actions would amount to the strongest American response ever taken to a state-sponsored cyberattack aimed at the United States.
NY AG: Trump can't dissolve foundation during investigation
Donald Trump cannot move ahead with his plan to dismantle his charitable foundation because state prosecutors are probing whether the president-elect personally benefited from its spending, the New York attorney general's office said Tuesday.
"The Trump foundation is still under investigation by this office and cannot legally dissolve until that investigation is complete," said Amy Spitalnick, spokeswoman for state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.
7.7-magnitude earthquake in Chile, tsunami warning lifted
A 7.7-magnitude earthquake hit Chile Sunday. There were tsunami warnings, but they have been lifted.
The quake hit 150 miles southwest of Puerto Montt, at a depth of 9 miles, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.
Chile's national emergency office issued an alert and ordered an evacuation.
More...
More than half of Florida death row inmates may be resentenced
More than 200 inmates on Florida's death row may be entitled to new sentencing hearings after the state's Supreme Court issued two rulings that recodify how the death penalty is applied in convictions.
The Florida Supreme Court issued rulings Thursday that solidify death penalties for inmates sentenced before June 2002 while offering a chance for more than half the inmates on death row to potentially be resentenced to life in prison.
Trump Names Carl Icahn as Adviser on Regulatory Overhaul
Carl Icahn, the billionaire investor who has been laying siege to corporate boards for decades, will be named special adviser to Donald Trump on overhauling regulations, according to a person familiar with the matter.
For years, Icahn considered himself the ultimate outsider, painting his role as storming corporate castles run for country club executives by traversing moats and battling the highly-paid and established knights of those in power, like investment bankers from Goldman Sachs. His detractors attacked Icahn for being a corporate raider trying to sack corporations for quick profits. But with Trump winning the White House, Icahn now has the keys to the kingdom, or at least the ear of the president-elect.
A 148-year-old temperature record broken in Australia
Sydney has just broken a record that has stood since 1868 - the overnight temperature stayed above 27C.
In December 1868, Sydney registered a minimum temperature of 26.3C, a record that had stood ever since. On Tuesday night, the minimum was 27.1C. It also makes it the second hottest night on record for any month of the year, a Bureau Of Meteorology spokesperson said.
Sydney is experiencing high temperatures, at day and night, and in December, that is surprisingly uncommon.
Tuesday saw a maximum temperature of 39C and on Wednesday, it was 37.5.
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