One of 2017’s defining geopolitical slugfests was between heavyweight personalities President Donald Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.
It was an international standoff that descended into personal name-calling, with Trump labeling Kim “little rocket man” and the U.S. president being described as an “old lunatic” and a “dotard” in return.
If the past year were one round in a boxing match, most analysts say there’s only one winner.
“No question, Kim Jong Un won 2017,” according to Jeffrey Lewis at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey.
In January, Trump used his Twitter pulpit to vow he would never let North Korea develop a nuclear weapon capable of hitting the United States.
The Thomas fire burning in Southern California is on the verge of becoming the largest blaze on state record, accomplishing a shocking feat for this time of year.
The relentless wildfire burning in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties has burned a total of 272,000 acres and remains 60 percent contained as of Wednesday, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, also known as Cal Fire, said in a release.
While the fire’s growth has slowed since igniting on Dec. 4, it’s on track to claim the title of the state’s largest fire on record from the 2003 Cedar Fire, which burned more than 280,000 acres in San Diego County. The data is based on records dating back to 1932.
While good weather conditions in recent days have allowed firefighters to make progress in fighting the blaze, wind gusts of up to 70 mph are expected to pick up tonight or tomorrow and could challenge firefighters working on the Thomas fire, Cal Fire spokesman Daniel Berlant said in a Wednesday update.
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Gene Blevins / Reuters
Firefighters attack the Thomas fire’s north flank with backfires near Ojai, Dec. 9, 2017.
Cardinal Bernard F. Law, the Boston archbishop who became one of the most influential Catholic leaders in the United States before resigning in 2002 amid revelations that he and other prelates had known for years of rampant child molestation by parish priests, a scandal that has been called the church’s darkest crisis of the modern era, has died at 86.
The Vatican announced in a statement that Cardinal Law died “after a long illness,” without offering further details. He had been recently hospitalized in Rome.
For more than half a century, Cardinal Law dedicated himself to the church, an institution that became his home after his itinerant upbringing as the son of a commercial and military aviator. As he rose from parish priest to Boston archbishop — the steward of one of the most Catholic American cities — he promoted traditional Catholic doctrine and envisioned the church as a guarantor of social justice in the 20th century.
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Cardinal Bernard Law, a key figure in the church abuse scandal, passed away at the age of 86 on Dec. 20. He resigned as Boston’s archbishop in 2002.(Reuters)
The train that careened off a bridge outside Tacoma, Washington, killing three people was traveling at 80 mph on a 30-mph stretch of track, federal investigators confirmed late Monday.
During a late-night briefing with reporters, NTSB board member Bella Dinh-Zarr added that Train 501 of Amtrak’s Cascades service from Seattle headed south to Portland, Oregon, was carrying 80 passengers, three crew and two service personnel.
She said it was “too early to tell” why the train was travelling at 80 mph.
“We were glad that we were able to get the data from the event data recorder from the rear locomotive,” she said at the briefing. “The front locomotive as you can imagine is a bit more difficult to access.”
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Amtrak train 501 derailed near Mounts Road in Pierce County, Washington.
ESPN President and Disney Media Networks Co-Chairman John Skipper resigned Monday, citing a struggle with addiction.
“Today I have resigned from my duties as President of ESPN,” Skipper said in a statement.
“I have struggled for many years with a substance addiction,” he added. “I have decided that the most important thing I can do right now is to take care of my problem.
“I come to this public disclosure with embarrassment, trepidation and a feeling of having let others I care about down.
“To my colleagues at ESPN, it has been a privilege. I take great pride in your accomplishments and have complete confidence in your collective ability to continue ESPN’s success.”
In the weeks after he became the Republican nominee on July 19, 2016, Donald Trump was warned that foreign adversaries, including Russia, would probably try to spy on and infiltrate his campaign, according to multiple government officials familiar with the matter.
The warning came in the form of a high-level counterintelligence briefing by senior FBI officials, the officials said. A similar briefing was given to Hillary Clinton, they added. They said the briefings, which are commonly provided to presidential nominees, were designed to educate the candidates and their top aides about potential threats from foreign spies.
The candidates were urged to alert the FBI about any suspicious overtures to their campaigns, the officials said.
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