January, 2020

The Colorado-based nonprofit trains truck drivers and various other members of the transportation industry to recognize human trafficking and alert authorities to potential victims. TAT says that since it was created in 2009, it has trained about 845,000 people in the transportation industry, over 700,000 of whom are truck drivers. That's out of the total 3.5 million truck drivers who are employed in the U.S... And while TAT is helping to save lives, it's also sparking systematic change, according to Paris. Since the organization was created, 12 states have either changed rules or passed legislation to include anti-trafficking training in commercial driver's license school curricula.

And in 2014-18, the five largest arms exporters were the United States, Russia, France, Germany and China—in that order.

After White House lawyers' brief rebuttal (less than 3 hours) managed to tear apart Rep. Schiff and the House Managers' 20-plus-hour 'odyssey' in the Senate impeachment trial, is anyone surprised that - right at the last minute - a 'bombshell' is leaked to the media that promises - as always - "this time we got him."

Bolton also wrote that several top cabinet officials had knowledge of Trump’s demands, including Secretary of State Michael Pompeo and Attorney General William Barr, as well as acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, according to NYT...

None of the attacks has been claimed but Washington has repeatedly blamed Iran-backed military factions in Iraq... Three out of five rockets fired on Sunday directly hit the US embassy in Iraq's capital, a security source has said - including one that slammed into a cafe at dinner time. The diplomatic mission, which lies in Baghdad's high-security Green Zone, has been regularly hit by rockets in recent months. Sunday's attack took place earlier in the day than usual and it was the first time a direct hit was reported. Iraq's security forces had earlier reported no casualties. 

Former London cop Paul Page told the Sunday Mirror that even before the Epstein scandal blew up from his child-sex conviction, Maxwell’s visits to the palace were kept hush-hush... Page — who was Andrew’s royal protection officer from 1998 to 2004 — told the UK paper that the British media heiress soon became a regular visitor.

A very good question! https://t.co/8z6uQLKz8M

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 26, 2020

Canadian officials said Sunday that they are tracking down airline passengers and others who were in close contact with the first person in the country detected with an emerging virus that originated in China. Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer, said the man, who is in his 50’s, had mild symptoms when he flew from Wuhan to Guangzhou, China, and then on to Toronto. He was admitted to hospital a day after arriving on a China Southern Airlines flight on Thursday. Officials said Saturday that the man was in stable condition in isolation.

... the much needed quarantine and lockdown were far too late, because as Wuhan's mayor Zhou Xianwang revealed on Sunday during a press conference, about 5 million residents had already left Wuhan before the lockdown because of the deadly coronavirus epidemic and the Spring Festival holiday. As the SCMP reports, many of Wuhan's residents had already left the city for the holiday, while others rushed out after the lockdown was announced on Wednesday night. As a result, only 9 million people were remaining in the city after the lockdown, with roughly a third of it, including countless cases of coronavirus, having already spread across China.

The left has governed Emilia-Romagna since World War Two and Salvini has campaigned relentlessly in the region, seeking a shock victory that he hoped would bring down the fragile national government, which includes PD...

The 41-year-old former Los Angeles Lakers basketball star's death was confirmed by TMZ. The outlet reported that Bryant was traveling with four other people in his private helicopter when it crashed, killing everyone on board. The cause of the crash is under investigation. Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna and seven others were killed in the helicopter crash at around 10am Sunday...

This is what MSNBC thinks of Kobe and black people in general:

Maryland recently joined more than a dozen states in suing to block the U.S. Department of Agriculture from moving forward with the cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program... The Trump administration’s rule, finalized last month, would make it harder for states to waive some requirements for able-bodied adults without dependents... The new rule imposes stricter criteria states must meet to issue waivers. Under the plan, states can issue waivers only if a local area has an unemployment rate of 6% or higher.

The case, a traveler from Wuhan, China, has been in contact with the HCA and was provided guidance in order to reduce exposure to the public while awaiting laboratory confirmation from the CDC. The individual has now been transported to a local hospital and is in isolation in good condition.

...the government said the bureau chose to “sequester all collection the FBI acquired pursuant to the Court’s authorizations” to grant a warrant and three extensions for the electronic surveillance of Page... further stated that the "sequester" would remain in place until the completion of a further review of the DOJ inspector general report on the Page FISA warrants and the "outcome of related investigations and any litigation."

"The government has not described what steps are involved in such sequestration or when it will be completed," Boasberg wrote. "It has, however, undertaken to 'provide an update to the court when the FBI completes the sequestration.'"