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The top Democrat on the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee, responding to escalating Republican attacks on special counsel Robert Mueller, said  Wednesday that if President Donald Trump fired Mueller, the action would have “the potential to provoke a constitutional crisis.”

WATCH: Virginia’s Warner on Potential Constitutional Crisis

Speaking on the Senate floor, Virginia Senator Mark Warner denounced attacks on Mueller’s impartiality and said the special counsel’s investigation of ties between Trump’s presidential campaign and Russia must be “able to go on unimpeded.”

Russia denies that it meddled in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, and Trump has denied any collusion.

While Trump’s political allies have increased their criticism of Mueller, the president said Sunday that he was not considering firing him.

Republican lawmakers have seized on anti-Trump texts by a Federal Bureau of Investigation agent who was involved in the Russia investigation as evidence of bias in Mueller’s team.

Mueller removed the agent from his team after the texts came to light.

Republicans on several House of Representatives committees also have announced their own probes into long-standing political grievances, including the FBI’s handling of Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server when she was secretary of state.

“Over the last several weeks, a growing chorus of irresponsible voices have called for President Trump to shut down special counsel Mueller’s investigation,” said Warner, who is vice chairman of the Republican-controlled Senate Intelligence Committee.

“Firing Mr. Mueller or any other of the top brass involved in this investigation would not only call into question this administration’s commitment to the truth, but also to our most basic concept of rule of law,” Warner said. “It also has the potential to provoke a constitutional crisis.”

“In the United States of America, no one, no one is above the law, not even the president,” the senator said.

WATCH: Warner on Consequences of Mueller Removal

“Congress must make clear to the president that firing the special counsel or interfering with his investigation by issuing pardons of essential witnesses is unacceptable and would have immediate and significant consequences.”
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A sweeping overhaul of the U.S. federal tax code is on its way to becoming law. When it does it will be President Donald Trump’s first major legislative victory. VOA’s Congressional reporter Katherine Gypson has more from Capitol Hill on the deeply divided partisan vote that will have a far-reaching impact on the U.S. and world economies.
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Mexico has sent one of the top alleged traffickers for the powerful Sinaloa drug cartel to the U.S. to face charges.

Victor Manuel Felix appeared before a federal judge in San Diego on Tuesday, a day after he arrived in California.

Felix was arrested in October in Mexico City.

He is accused of coordinating shipments of tons of cocaine and laundering millions of dollars for the cartel.

An indictment says the case involves an undercover U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent who infiltrated the cartel that moved tons of drugs to the U.S. and hundreds of millions of dollars in bulk currency.

Some of the money was deposited into a San Diego bank account held secretly by the DEA.

The U.S. had requested Felix’ extradition.
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It began with a news story, and then a tweet, and suddenly it seemed like everything had changed overnight. 2017 will forever be known as the Year of the Reckoning.

Or, more precisely, the year of the beginning of the reckoning. Because at year’s end, the phenomenon of powerful men being knocked off their perches by allegations of sexual misconduct — in Hollywood, on morning television, in chic restaurant kitchens, in the U.S. Senate — showed no signs of slowing. Each morning, we awoke to ask: “Who’s next?”

To that question, we should also add, “What next?” Because as the year drew to a close, many were also wondering just how deep and lasting the change would prove, going forward. Was this, indeed, the cultural earthquake many have called it? Or was there a chance it might all eventually slip away?

“We can’t be sure,” says Gloria Steinem. “But what I CAN be sure of is that this is the first time I’ve seen women being believed.” And that, says the feminist author, “is profoundly different.”

Whatever forces had been stirring under the surface, it all burst into the open with an October scoop in the New York Times, a story alleging shocking misconduct by Harvey Weinstein. The powerful producer’s misbehavior had long been the subject of whispers, but it was actress Ashley Judd who finally gave a well-known name to the allegations — a crucial launching point for what followed. Her account of a hotel-room encounter in which Weinstein asked her to give him a massage or watch him shower sounded familiar to many others, who were inspired in the ensuing days to come forward with their own allegations against Weinstein, from harassment to assault to rape. To date, some 80 women have come forward; Weinstein still denies all nonconsensual sex.

Then came the tweet heard round the world.

“If all the women who have been sexually harassed or assaulted wrote ‘Me too’ as a status,” actress/activist Alyssa Milano tweeted on Oct. 15, “we might give people a sense of the magnitude of the problem.” Then she went to bed. 

“I couldn’t have been in bed more than eight hours, because I’m a mom,” Milano says now. When she awoke, tens of thousands had taken up the #MeToo hashtag (a phrase introduced 10 years ago by social activist Tarana Burke). Less than 10 days later, Milano tweeted that more than 1.7 million people in 85 countries had used the hashtag.

“The thing that was so surprising was the sheer magnitude and the quickness of how it happened,” Milano says. But she feels conditions had been ripe for a good year.

It began, she says, with the election of President Donald Trump, who had bragged openly about groping women. On top of that came some aggressive investigative reporting — she cites Ronan Farrow in The New Yorker — and the domino effect of women emboldening each other to come forward. Public fascination with anything Hollywood didn’t hurt either. “For this to have taken off the way it did, it had to be a perfect storm and we had to be ready,” she says.

Even before #MeToo happened, and just a few days after the Weinstein story broke, Anita Hill was sure something significant was happening. “I think we need something to push the needle and I think this has done it,” says Hill, a symbol of the fight against sexual harassment ever since her 1991 Senate testimony against then-Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas. Still, she notes, it was a lot easier for Hollywood stars like Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie to speak out than it was for ordinary women experiencing harassment from their bosses.

But Hill, who for years has been living a quiet academic life at Brandeis University, stressed that the next step has to be more than just conversation: “We now have to start putting into place measures at schools and workplaces and the military … about how people should be treated, and we have to enforce them.” Hill has just been named to a new commission on sexual harassment in the entertainment industry.

As the weeks went on, the accusers multiplied, and so did the accused, from Hollywood (Kevin Spacey, Louis C.K., Brett Ratner, Dustin Hoffman) to the news business (top morning hosts Charlie Rose and Matt Lauer) to the music world (Russell Simmons) to politics (Sen. Al Franken, Alabama candidate Roy Moore) to the food world (Mario Batali).

The accused lost jobs, TV shows, book deals, a Senate seat — with dizzying speed (Spacey was even erased from a completed movie). Some simply apologized, while others fought back — like Simmons, with his hashtag #NotMe. Some apologies were more effective than others. Spacey drew flak for deciding to come out as gay as he apologized for unwanted sexual advances; Batali was scorned for appending to his email-blast apology a recipe for Pizza Dough Cinnamon Rolls.

A few voices called for differentiating between levels of sexual misconduct. It didn’t always go over well. When Matt Damon said “I just think we have to start delineating between what these behaviors are,” Milano replied on Twitter that there are various stages of cancer, “but it’s still cancer.”

Not to be forgotten were the accusers who decided not to come forward with their names, many out of fear of retaliation. Attorney Gloria Allred, who held news conferences with some Weinstein accusers, said there were many more she’d spoken to who have not yet gone public.

And what about the alleged abusers we’ve never heard of, because they’re not famous? “There have been stunning accounts of farm workers harassed in the field, factory workers on lines, restaurant workers,” says law professor Catharine MacKinnon, who decades ago pioneered the legal claim that sexual harassment is a form of sex discrimination. “They don’t have the high-profile man … but I’m telling you, to the women he does it to, he’s plenty big.” 

Still, says MacKinnon, of the University of Michigan and Harvard law schools, “any time any victim is believed, it’s a miracle.” And that’s why the events of late 2017 have been unprecedented. “It’s amazing to me that people are being believed and listened to and responded to, and their accounts being acted on,” she says. “That’s never happened before in the history of the world.”

And to those who might still doubt there is tangible change, MacKinnon points out the remarkable sight of “white upper-class men deserting white upper-class men, in droves. We’ve never seen that before, ever. They feel they can no longer afford to be associated with this. THIS is cultural change. THIS is real social change.”
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Russia said Tuesday it sees U.S. President Donald Trump’s new national security strategy as “imperial” and showing a lack of willingness to accept a multi-polar world.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia disagrees with the view that it is a security threat for the United States, but welcomed the Trump administration’s stated willingness to work together on mutual interests.

Trump unveiled his strategy Monday, warning the country’s greatness is being challenged by rival powers and promising the United States would use “every instrument” at its disposal to ignite what he portrayed as an American awakening.

The document says the United States “will seek areas of cooperation with competitors from a position of strength, foremost by ensuring our military power is second to none and fully integrated with our allies and all of our instruments of power.”

During a speech in Washington, Trump pointed to Russia and China as his chief concerns, saying both countries “seek to challenge American values, influence and wealth.”

But he promised the United States, under his leadership, would not back down.

“Whether we like it or not, we are engaged in a new era of competition,” Trump said, cautioning, “American success is not a foregone conclusion.”

“We are declaring that American is in the game and that America is going to win,” he said.

China’s Foreign Ministry responded Tuesday, saying the United States should abandon its “Cold War mentality” and stop deliberately distorting China’s intentions.

Trump said the new national security strategy, which he described as a return to the wisdom of the country’s founding fathers, would be a roadmap to greatness.

In recent days, senior officials had promoted the new strategy, 11 months in the making, as a “clear and actionable playbook” designed to take on growing threats by focusing on safeguarding U.S. vital interests.

“The global balance of power has shifted in unfavorable manners to American interests,” a senior administration official said. “This new strategy presents a plan of how America can regain momentum to reverse many of these trends.”

Trump on Monday repeatedly criticized past U.S. leaders.

“They lost sight of America’s destiny, and they lost their belief in American greatness,” he said. “They surrendered our sovereignty to foreign bureaucrats in far away and distant capitals.”

Confronting Rivals

In particular, Trump blamed previous U.S. administrations for failing to confront North Korea and its nuclear ambitions “when it was much easier to handle.”

And Trump renewed criticism of former President Barack Obama for what he described as a “disastrous” nuclear deal with Iran.

“Pushing back rather than simply engaging adversaries is important. I do think that was a weakness in the past,” said David Adesnik, director of research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

In his address Monday, the president insisted his administration’s efforts are already paying dividends from the Middle East and South Asia to North Korea and at home.

And while he described America’s rivals as both tough and tenacious, he said they could also become allies under the right conditions.

“We will attempt to build great partnerships with those [Russia and China] and other countries, but in a manner that always protects our national interests,” Trump said.

The president pointed to Sunday’s phone call from Russian President Vladimir Putin, thanking the United States for sharing intelligence to thwart a terror plot, as a sign of success.

“That’s a great thing and the way it’s supposed to work,” Trump said.

Other senior officials echoed the sentiment that under the principles of the new national security strategy, Washington’s relationship with Moscow had improved.

“We’re certainly better off right now than we were several months ago,” one official said. “But we still see a lot of areas where our interests just don’t align or directly conflict.”

National Security Strategy

And top officials, like U.S. National Security Advisor Gen. H.R. McMaster, continue to voice concern about what they describe as Russia’s “sophisticated campaigns of subversion and disinformation.”

The Trump national security strategy unveiled Monday aims to confront such threats by focusing on four vital national interests: protecting the homeland, promoting American prosperity, preserving peace through strength, and advancing American influence.

It proposes stronger controls along U.S. borders, increased restrictions on immigration, enhanced military spending, an improved national infrastructure designed to be resilient in the face of expected cyberattacks and stronger emphasis on fair trade and the protection of intellectual property.

WATCH: New security plan

Officials and analysts say elements of the new national security strategy, which some in the administration describe as “competitive engagement,” have been increasingly evident in Washington’s approach on the international stage.

“I think we already have clear signs of this especially on the Russian front,” said Nile Gardiner with the Washington D.C.-based think tank The Heritage Foundation.

“You’ve seen a significant increase in U.S. troop numbers in Eastern Europe especially the Baltic states. In Poland, for example, you now see the administration actively considering the idea of sending defensive weapons to Ukraine,” Gardiner said.

U.S. emphasis

U.S. officials also seek to push back against the notion that President Trump’s campaign rallying cry of “America first,” should be interpreted as “America alone.”

“Our strategy emphasizes strengthening alliances,” the president said Monday. “It recognizes that our strength is magnified by allies who share principles — and our principles — and shoulder their fair share of responsibility for our common security.”

Yet some see this as an area in which the Trump administration could struggle, especially given the way the new strategy prioritizes and emphasizes U.S. economic interests, which Trump said would begin with “building up our wealth and power at home.”

“Focusing on protection of American economic interests in a global marketplace painted with rivals, rather than partners, will discourage the use of multilateral trade agreements in a global economy marked by partnership,” said Nicholas Glavin, formerly a researcher at the U.S. Naval War College’s Center on Irregular Warfare and Armed Groups.

Glavin, who is currently studying at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, says that could actually weaken U.S. attempts to compete against key rivals on the word stage.

“Where Washington won’t lead, others will, most notably Beijing,” he said. “In the long term, this hurts the U.S. much more than multilateralism in the global economy would.”

Some former officials also fear that the administration, due in large part to the president’s rhetoric, is prone to self-sabotage, especially when it comes to one of its key goals – that of preserving the world order established at the end of World War II.

“By its actions, it has actually undermined U.S. leadership of the liberal international order,” said former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Michael Carpenter. “All of that has been downplayed in favor of a more realpolitik understanding that nations will pursue their own interests.”

And there are some who doubt China, seen as a key rival, will respond well.

“Trump’s words are always illogical,” said Shi Yinhong, the director of the U.S. Center at China People’s University in Beijing. “China doesn’t care much about what he says but what he does.”

“His flattering China visit is pleasing to Beijing, but what concerns Beijing the most is the U.S. doesn’t touch Taiwan,” Shi said.

Democratic values

There have also been concerns from former officials about what some see as a willingness to give up on the promotion of democratic values, a key component of U.S. leadership in previous administrations.

The president rejected such notions in his speech.

“America will lead again,” Trump said. “We do not seek to impose our way of life on anyone but will champion the [democratic] values without apology.”

Another area where the new national security strategy departs dramatically from the previous administration’s strategy is climate change.

Obama’s 2015 strategy also called on the U.S. to confront “the urgent crisis of climate change.”

The Trump national security strategy does not.

“Climate change is not identified as national security threat,” said a senior administration official. “The importance of the environment and environmental stewardship are discussed.”
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Japan will purchase a U.S.-built, land-based missile defense system in response to what it considers the rapidly growing threat from North Korea.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s cabinet approved a plan Tuesday to buy two Aegis Ashore missile interceptor systems at a cost of nearly $2 billion. The new Aegis Ashore system, which duplicates the sea-based version deployed on Japanese warships, likely will not be fully operational until 2023.

Japanese defense officials also considered purchasing the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system, another U.S.-built anti-missile system, but chose the Aegis Ashore due to its cost-effectiveness.

A statement issued by the cabinet shortly after approving the plan said it was urgent for Japan to upgrade its ballistic missile defense capabilities in light of the “imminent” threat posed by Pyongyang’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs. North Korea test fired a new intercontinental ballistic missile late last month that could potentially reach the eastern United States.

Tokyo is also planning to purchase U.S.-built long-range cruise missiles, a decision that would prove controversial since Japan’s post-World War Two pacifist constitution renounces war.
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The Kremlin has lambasted U.S. President Donald Trump’s new national security strategy as “imperial” but lauded the U.S. for willing to cooperate with Russia in areas of common interest.

The strategy, published on Monday, is harsher on Russia than Trump has been in public comments. It accuses Russia of using “subversive measures” to weaken America’s credibility and European governments.

Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, told reporters on Tuesday that the mentions of Russia struck Moscow as “imperial” and showed “an aversion to a multi-polar world.”

Peskov, however, said Moscow was encouraged by calls to cooperate with Russia in areas that could be beneficial for the U.S.

Putin and Trump talked on the phone twice last week.
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The governor of the U.S. island territory of Puerto Rico on Monday ordered a recount of the death toll from the ravages of Hurricane Maria nearly three months ago, signaling that it could be significantly higher than the original figure of 64.

Governor Ricardo Rossello called for the reassessment after reports in recent days by The New York Times and Puerto Rico’s Center for Investigative Journalism independently concluded that the storm caused more than 1,000 deaths when its intense rain and 248-kilometer-per-hour winds devastated the Caribbean island on September 20.

Rossello had previously resisted calls for a death recount, but said in a statement, “This is about more than numbers, these are lives: real people, leaving behind loved ones and families.

“We always expected that the number of hurricane-related deaths would increase as we received more factual information–not hearsay–and this review will ensure we are correctly counting everybody,” he said. “We also want the most accurate count and understanding of how people lost their lives to fully account for the impact of these storms, and to identify ways in which we can prevent fatalities in advance of future disasters.”

The new toll could account for deaths from “natural causes” that occurred after the storm, but were likely linked to the storm’s destruction of the island’s power grid and other utilities, significantly impacting rescue and health care efforts in the days and weeks after the storm.

Restoration of power for the 3.4 million people who live in Puerto Rico has been painstakingly slow, with more than a third of the island still without electricity.   
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Twitter Inc said on Monday it would begin putting a warning in front of pictures that show Nazi swastikas and other items it determines are hateful imagery, as well as ban their use in any profile photos on the social media network.

The step is one of several that Twitter said it would take to crack down on white nationalists and other violent or hateful groups, which have become unwelcome on a service that once took an absolutist view of free speech.

It said it would also remove tweets that it determined celebrate violence or glorify people who commit violence.

Twitter, a San Francisco company founded in 2006, had called itself “the free speech wing of the free speech party” and tried to stay out of battles among users. But that has changed as persistent harassers have driven some women and minorities off Twitter, limiting their ability to express themselves.

A rise in white nationalism in the United States has also changed tech industry standards. In August, social media networks began removing white nationalists after hundreds gathered in Charlottesville, Virginia, and one of them was charged with murdering a 32-year-old woman by running her down in a car.

In October, Twitter vowed to toughen rules on online sexual harassment, bullying and other forms of misconduct.

It said it would also remove tweets that it determined celebrate violence or glorify people who commit violence.

Twitter, a San Francisco company founded in 2006, had called itself “the free speech wing of the free speech party” and tried to stay out of battles among users. But that has changed as persistent harassers have driven some women and minorities off Twitter, limiting their ability to express themselves.

A rise in white nationalism in the United States has also changed tech industry standards. In August, social media networks began removing white nationalists after hundreds gathered in Charlottesville, Virginia, and one of them was charged with murdering a 32-year-old woman by running her down in a car.

In October, Twitter vowed to toughen rules on online sexual harassment, bullying and other forms of misconduct.

 
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Parceling out holiday shopping in small amounts and completing it in a realistic schedule helps people maintain the self-control needed to avoid being swept away in impulse purchases that can wreck budgets, a study to be published in January said.

The study from Texas A&M University researchers looked at how well people complied with maintaining self-control for tasks such as making purchases and found that people should pace themselves if they want to accomplish larger goals.

“Try to conserve your energy. Don’t try to make it too hard on yourself because it is going to backfire,” said Marco Palma, director of the Human Behavior Laboratory at Texas A&M and co-author of the study called “Self-control: Knowledge or perishable resource?” It will be published in the Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization.

Palma recommended making a list and dividing it into sub-goals of small purchases. Shopping online and shopping early in the day can help conserve energy, which can also help people exercise self-control.

“Committing to a shopping list will help you stay on budget,” he said in an interview this week.

The worst shopping scenario in terms of self-control is waiting until the last minute to make the bulk of holiday purchases, he said.

The study used biometric data including eye tracking and brain scanning to measure how well people complied with easy and difficult tasks that required self-control.

It found that an initial moderate self-control act enhances subsequent self-control ability by increasing confidence and motivation, but exerting too much self-control drains subsequent self-control ability.

But humans are humans and even when they are nice, they can be a little bit naughty. A person who completes a holiday shopping list as planned may splurge with a little reward for themselves, Palma said.
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