Video: It's looking more like a wet Christmas than a white one

The storm system will bring heavy rain and strong winds, but also very warm temperatures.

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  • Pelosi says House to vote on bigger stimulus payments after GOP blocks increase

    Her announcement came moments after House Republicans blocked an effort to increase the payments to $2,000 per person.

  • Russia’s New Territory

    In November, Russia gained a slice of somebody else’s country. It did this not through unidentified troops moving across a border, nor through hybrid warfare. Instead, it negotiated its capture in full view of, and without a single question asked by, the United States or the rest of the world.Fighting between Azerbaijan and Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh preceded the annexation. The mountainous region is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but since a 1994 ceasefire between the two nations has been controlled by ethnic Armenians. The conflict flared up again in September. Two months later came a peace deal, with Russia the winner: It mediated a ceasefire that placed the Kremlin’s ostensibly peacekeeping boots on the ground. America watched idly as this happened.As Armenia’s traditional protector, Russia held the only leverage to convince Armenia to sign this ceasefire. By signing, Yerevan gave up claims to the territories it had occupied within Azerbaijan since 1994 and gained nothing — bar a ceasefire rather than a forced surrender. In return for securing for its ally a marginally smaller humiliation, Moscow gained a present and a presence.In reality — unless America is prepared to engage fully in the peace process — Nagorno-Karabakh is now Russia’s indefinitely. The Kremlin ostensibly controls the territory for five years, with an automatic rollover for an additional five should none of the three parties to the ceasefire object six months before the end of the mandate.Russia certainly won’t. It is now gatekeeper to a region central to Europe’s energy diversification (reducing the role of Russian imports). If the region is strategically important to NATO, that makes it strategically important to the Kremlin.Armenia, for mistrust of Azerbaijan, will want the peacekeepers to stay. The short but brutal conflict has proven conclusively that Armenia cannot win militarily, and that therefore ethnic Armenians must accept either governance by Azerbaijan or the protectorate of Russia. Weak and broken, Yerevan finds it less of a humiliation to accept Russian tutelage in Nagorno-Karabakh, if only to deny an archenemy a complete victory. But this is a longer-term disaster for the Armenians. It means they are effectively trapped in a Russian embrace. They cannot turn west and cannot turn east — either diplomatically or for investment — because the Russians are now in charge.Though traditionally thought of by Moscow as “on the other side,” Azerbaijan — owing to lukewarm support from the United States and EU in recent years — has been steadily deepening diplomatic and economic relations with Russia, in part from necessity and a lack of serious alternatives. Yet now, with Russian military boots on Azerbaijani territory for the first time since the fall of the Soviet Union, Moscow’s leverage has also become economic leverage: By militarily guaranteeing a transport corridor across Armenia — closed before the ceasefire — to Azerbaijan’s exclave of Nakhichevan, Russia now controls Azerbaijan’s long-sought-after, direct land route from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean and Europe.The West certainly could have seen this coming. This is how it always begins: A toehold soon morphs into a footprint. Crimea, Eastern Ukraine, South Ossetia, Abkhazia — the list of examples goes on. Russian presence becomes Russian control: the only logic of Putin’s neo-czarist ambitions.Indeed, now, only a matter of weeks after troop deployment, the Kremlin is maneuvering: Lines on maps have started to bend and flex. On the Russian Ministry of Defense website, a page shows a map outlining the area where Russian peacekeepers, by the terms of the agreement, are to be stationed and will have jurisdiction within which to operate. On December 13, miraculously, the land they control had expanded. This was changed back to the original on the next day, after Azerbaijani diplomatic pressure. But this activity demonstrates that Kremlin cartographers are getting creative — and very early in this intervention.Rumors now swell of Russian “passportization” in Nagorno-Karabakh. Manufacturing new demographic realities on the ground by granting citizenship has been used to maintain influence in the internal affairs in other post-Soviet nations. Once Russians occupy the area, the Russian state is obliged to step in.It is a classic of the Kremlin repertoire. It preceded the invasion of Crimea. It happened in two regions in Georgia, South Ossetia and Abkhazia, again before wars broke out, with Russia coming out as the chief beneficiary. Most recently, passportization has been aggressively deployed in eastern Ukraine, through a helpfully streamlined process. The Kremlin forecasts that there will be over one million Russian citizens bearing newly minted documents by the end of the year. In all of these situations, Russia’s grip is secure.Passportization would mean that a negotiated settlement on the final status of Nagorno-Karabakh — what was supposed to be some form of autonomy within Azerbaijan, as in Soviet days — will never materialize. It will instead turn into a Russian-passport protectorate, giving Russia the pretext — or in Moscow’s lexicon, the legal right — to jump into the region were any imagined threat to its “citizens” to emerge.Considering the U.S.-led assistance now poured into Ukraine in the wake of Russian destabilization, it is surprising that more precautionary measures are not being taken in the South Caucasus.Yet time remains for America to step in: The ceasefire shall give way to negotiations for a final peace deal, with much left to decide. The U.S. must fully and comprehensively oppose passportization. American companies should invest in infrastructure and energy projects in the region so as to limit Russia’s room for maneuver. And U.S.-led joint investment initiatives between Armenia and Azerbaijan would help to cut the dependence of both on Russia.It’s time for America to step up diplomatic and economic efforts and reinsert itself in this process. Otherwise, Russia’s empire will continue to expand unchecked.

  • Court orders release of man charged in Daniel Pearl killing

    A provincial court in Pakistan on Thursday ordered the release of a British-born Pakistani man charged in the 2002 murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl. The Sindh High Court’s release order overturns government detention orders that Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, the key suspect in Pearl’s slaying, should remain in custody. Sheikh was acquitted earlier this year of murdering Pearl, but has been held while Pearl's family appeals the acquittal.

  • Dog crushed to death by owner during confrontation with mugger

    A dog was crushed to death by its owner after she was knocked over during a confrontation with a mugger in an “unprovoked and unacceptable” attack. Norfolk Terrier, Rufus was crushed while the woman tried to pull the thief off her husband. The man, 56 and his 36 year old wife were walking their two dogs in Westminster, central London, when they were approached by a man pushing a bike along the footpath. The man, who wore a face covering and gloves, stopped the pair before pulling the watch off the man's arm, causing scratches to his forearm. The pair began to struggle and it was at this point that the wife tried to pull the mugger away during the attack at 4.15pm in Spanish Place on August 4.

  • Trump’s old tweet suggesting Clinton should accept defeat ‘with dignity’ returns to haunt him

    ‘There’s always a tweet’ is now a common refrain on social media whenever any of the president’s posts from the past turns up to contradict his comments in the present

  • 'Parting is such sweet sorrow': EU and UK clinch narrow Brexit accord

    LONDON/BRUSSELS (Reuters) -Britain clinched a narrow Brexit trade deal with the European Union on Thursday, just seven days before it exits one of the world's biggest trading blocs in its most significant global shift since the loss of empire. The deal, agreed more than four years after Britain voted by a slim margin to leave the bloc, offers a way out of a chaotic finale to a divorce that has shaken the 70-year project to forge European unity from the ruins of World War Two. It will preserve Britain's zero-tariff and zero-quota access to the bloc's single market of 450 million consumers, but will not prevent economic pain and disruption for the United Kingdom or for EU member states.

  • Woman sues after Chicago police drag her from car by hair

    A woman who says she was yanked by her hair from a car by Chicago police during a shopping mall encounter has filed a federal lawsuit against the city. Mia Wright, 25, and four family members claim their civil rights were violated and asserts the May confrontation left her blind in one eye from flying glass caused by police breaking the windows of the car to get to its passengers. “During this attack, Mia Wright could not breathe and was in paralyzing fear as her face and neck were smashed against the concrete ground,” says the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago.

  • Iowa care home accused of performing 'bizarre and dangerous experiments' on disabled residents

    A care home in Iowa for people with intellectual disabilities subjected residents to "bizarre experiments" and used them as "human guinea pigs," according to a US justice department investigation. The inquiry into the Glenwood Resource Center began last year following reports of an increased number of deaths. Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband said: "Individuals with disabilities are not human guinea pigs, and like all persons, they should never be subject to bizarre and deviant pseudo-medical 'experiments' that injure them. "Human experimentation is the hallmark of sick totalitarian states and has no place in the United States of America.” The justice department concluded that experiments were conducted on residents without their consent. One experiment involved reportedly overhydrating residents and caused physical harm. It said others involved psychological research on impulsivity. Investigators found there had also been apparent plans by the former superintendent of the facility to conduct sexual arousal experiments using a computer containing images of nude and clothed children. The justice department said it did not find evidence the images were ever shown to residents. The former superintendent was fired last year about a month after the investigation began. Investigators also concluded that Glenwood's alleged use of restraints violated residents' rights. The justice department report identified broad failings, including by the Iowa department of human services. It said: "Iowa has been deliberately indifferent to those breakdowns and the risks they pose. "Glenwood frequently leaves residents at serious risk of harm or death by ignoring changes in condition outright, or by adopting a clinically unjustified 'wait and see' approach.” The investigation concluded there was reasonable cause to believe the conditions at Glenwood violated the Fourteenth Amendment of the US Constitution. It said that a teenage resident had been restrained 293 times over the course of less than two years. Kim Reynolds, the Iowa governor, said: "What happened at the Glenwood Resource Center was unconscionable and unacceptable."

  • Aides fear what Trump will do next as his behavior proves to be erratic after the election

    With four weeks left in President Trump’s term, he is at perhaps his most unleashed — and, as events of the past few days have demonstrated, at the most unpredictable point in his presidency.

  • The Blackwater guards Trump pardoned were jailed for a massacre of civilians, including 2 kids

    The 15 people President Trump pardoned Tuesday evening include the first two congressmen who endorsed him for president — former Reps. Chris Collins (R-N.Y.) and Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), both convicted of financial crimes — two people jailed in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation, and four private guards working for Blackwater who were serving long sentences for an unprovoked and unnecessary 2007 massacre of civilians in Baghdad's Nisour Square that left 17 Iraqis dead, including two boys, ages 8 and 11.Blackwater, since sold and renamed Academi, is a private military contractor outfit headed at the time by Erik Prince, brother to Trump's education secretary, Betsy DeVos. The Nisour Square massacre marked a low point in U.S.-Iraqi relations after the 2003 U.S. invasion, and federal prosecutors spent years bringing the four Blackwater guards — Nicholas Slatten, Paul Slough, Evan Liberty, and Dustin Heard — to justice.After a federal judge in 2009 dismissed the first murder and manslaughter convictions of the Blackwater contractors, ruling the evidence was tainted, then-Vice President Joe Biden said at a press conference in Baghdad that the men had not been acquitted and the U.S. would appeal the decision. "In subsequent years, as the case continued, the contractors became known in conservative media as the 'Biden Four,'" The Washington Post reports. Slatten was eventually sentenced to life in prison for first-degree murder, while the other three were convicted of manslaughter and given sentences of 12 to 15 years."Campaigns urging that the four receive presidential pardons began in earnest last year, most arguing that the men were veterans still in engaged in quasi military duties," the Post reports, noting that Trump has already pardoned two Army officers convicted or awaiting trial on murder charges for shooting Afghan civilians. In a 2009 column at Fox News, Duncan Hunter — still in Congress — called "the Biden Four" brave "political pawns" who were "sent to prison for doing their jobs."More stories from theweek.com 7 cartoons about America's COVID Christmas What would actually happen if Trump tried the 'martial law' idea? Our pandemic half-lives

  • Disgraced New York politician found limping by Ohio roadside 23 years after fleeing justice

    The former politician disappeared when he was sentenced for selling pistols without a permit

  • Should You Be Living in a Hotel?

    7 extended-stay accommodations that transform work-from-home into work-from-anywhereOriginally Appeared on Architectural Digest

  • China to suspend UK flights indefinitely -foreign ministry

    BEIJING (Reuters) -China will suspend direct flights to and from Britain indefinitely over fears of a new strain of the coronavirus, Wang Wenbin, a foreign ministry spokesman said on Thursday. "After much consideration, China has decided to take reference from other countries and suspend flights to and from UK," Wang told reporters at a daily briefing. "China will closely monitor relevant developments and dynamically adjust control measures depending on the situation," Wang said.

  • Christmas in Florida: Chilly forecast, falling iguanas

    With unexpectedly cold weather in the forecast and pandemic-related curfews in some places, Florida is about to have a Christmas unlike any other in recent memory, and it may involve falling iguanas. The National Weather Service earlier this week warned that South Florida could experience the coldest Christmas Day in 21 years. Morning lows on Saturday could drop into the low 30s and 40s degrees Fahrenheit, the weather service said.

  • Saddam's deadly legacy: 40 years after war with Iran, border area is still littered with landmines

    At first glance, the Mawat district of north-east Iraq is a rustic idyll, a belt of rolling hills lined with olive and fruit groves. But on closer inspection - as many visitors have learned the hard way - it is full of hidden dangers. What looks like a Middle Eastern Tuscany was once on the frontline of Iraq's eight-year war with Iran, where Saddam Hussein's army planted vast quantities of land mines. Lurking in its gulleys and orchards are countless Russian and Italian anti-personnel devices - all still lethal. Today, despite nearly 30 years of mine clearance work, more than half remain - a glaring reminder of the scale of the so-called "legacy mine" threat in former warzones. "We get a lot of requests from mayors and villagers around here to clear the area," says Jabar Fatih Mahmoud, 49, an Iraqi employee of the Mines Advisory Group, the British charity, as he showed The Telegraph around a minefield listed on his clearance map as 'Kalka Shenka 2C'. "But this region is also popular with picnickers, and not everyone knows the mines are here." The minefields in Mawat and the surrounding governorate of Sulaymaniyah are a grim example of how such weapons are used not just for military purposes, but to actively punish civilian populations.

  • Biden outlines plan for next round of COVID relief

    The president-elect warned Americans that "darkest days in the battle against COVID-19 are ahead of us."

  • Trump's longtime Deutsche Bank private banker and her close colleague abruptly resign

    Rosemary Vrablic, a managing director and senior banker in Deutsche Bank's wealth management division, has resigned, effective Dec. 31, Vrablic and Deutsche Bank said Tuesday. Vrablic became President Trump's private banker at the German lender in 2011, at a time when Trump was having difficulties borrowing money due to his history of defaulting on loans. Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, already a client of Vrablic's, introduced her to Trump."The reasons for Ms. Vrablic's abrupt resignation were not clear," The New York Times reports. But Deutsche Bank in August opened an internal investigation into a real estate deal in which Vrablic and a longtime colleague at the bank, Dominic Scalzi, invested in an apartment building partly owned by Kushner. Scalzi is also resigning at the end of the year.The status of the internal review is unclear, the Times reports. But the relationship between Trump and Deutsche Bank is the subject of congressional, civil, and criminal investigations, including a criminal inquiry by the Manhattan district attorney. Vrablic is not among the handful of Deutsche Bank employees questioned by New York investigators yet, but her lawyer told CNN that "Ms. Vrablic is committed to cooperating with the authorities if asked."Deutsche Bank has been exploring how it can end its heavily scrutinized relationship with Trump, Reuters reports. But for Trump, his "key contacts at his biggest financial backer are leaving at a perilous time for the departing president," the Times reports. "He owes Deutsche Bank about $330 million, and the loans come due in 2023 and 2024. Mr. Trump provided a personal guarantee to get the loans, meaning that if he fails to pay them back, the bank can pursue his personal assets."More stories from theweek.com 7 cartoons about America's COVID Christmas What would actually happen if Trump tried the 'martial law' idea? Our pandemic half-lives

  • Alleged kidnapper and killer of nine-year-old girl charged 32 years after she disappeared

    The district attorney says the police never stopped looking for Michaela Garecht who was kidnapped in 1988

  • Ireland welcomes Brexit deal, calling it 'a good compromise'

    The Irish government welcomed the Brexit deal and said it was “a good compromise” that protected the Good Friday Agreement although the business sector warned that trade with the UK would suffer. Michael Martin, the Taoiseach, said that while he respects the UK’s decision to leave the EU, he “deeply regrets” the outcome. “The UK was an important member of the European Union, and Ireland and the UK frequently worked closely together on many EU issues. However, as we now approach the end of the transition period, I wish the UK well in this new chapter in its history.” “The UK will always be a close friend and partner. Our people, our histories and our economies are deeply entwined. As we move into the next phase of our relationship, we will work together to ensure that it remains deep and strong.” Leo Varadkar, the deputy Prime Minister, said it was “a sad but momentous day.” He added the Northern Ireland Protocol was a vindication of the Irish government’s approach to negotiations as it ensured that there was no hard border on the island. In a series of tweets Mr Varadkar congratulated Ireland’s diplomatic service and EU negotiators.

  • U.S. cyber agency says SolarWinds hackers are 'impacting' state, local governments

    The U.S. cybersecurity agency said on Wednesday that a sprawling cyber espionage campaign made public earlier this month is affecting state and local governments, although it released few additional details. The hacking campaign, which used U.S. tech company SolarWinds as a springboard to penetrate federal government networks, was "impacting enterprise networks across federal, state, and local governments, as well as critical infrastructure entities and other private sector organizations," the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said in a statement posted to its website. The CISA said last week that U.S. government agencies, critical infrastructure entities, and private groups were among those affected, but did not specifically mention state or local bodies.