The Daily Moth 1-16-2020
Hello, welcome to The Daily Moth! It is Thursday, January 16. Ready for news?
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Trump adm. broke law by withholding aid for Ukraine, says GAO; Impeachment trial updates
The Government Accountability Office (GAO), a legislative branch agency that audits and investigates the finances of the federal government, said in a legal opinion that the Trump administration broke the law by withholding almost $400 million in military aid to Ukraine.
Fox News reported that the GAO said Congress had already appropriated $214 million to be allocated to the Department of Defense and that the withholding was illegal.
The GAO said the White House told them that the funds were withheld as to not conflict with President Trump’s foreign policy, but the GAO explained that the law does not permit funds to be withheld for policy reasons.
The other $200 million was appropriated by Congress to be allocated to the State Department, and the GAO is now looking if the withholding was proper.
The GAO said during their investigation there was a lack of cooperation from the Trump administration and that it interfered with their oversight role.
The White House said, “We disagree with G.A.O’s opinion… (we) ensure taxpayer dollars are properly spent consistent with the president’s priorities and with the law.”
This is big news because President Trump was impeached by the House for asking Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden’s son’s business dealings in Ukraine at the same time the $400 million was withheld.
The New York Times explained that the GAO’s report by itself does not result in any action, but will add to the impeachment trial.
Last night the House officially transmitted the articles of impeachment to the Senate.
The impeachment trial officially started today in the Senate when Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts asked all senators to take an oath to deliver impartial justice.
This will be an interesting challenge for senators to remain impartial, because Sen. McConnell (R-Ky) and Sen. Graham (R-S.C.) recently said they will not be impartial jurors. It also might be obvious that certain Democratic senators will have challenges in being impartial.
The Washington Post explained that there are no consequences if a senator breaks the oath to remain impartial, that there are no rules preventing them from offering their opinions on the evidence or other issues.
There is one more separate but related news story — Lev Parnas. He used to work with Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and was recently indicted with scheming to bring foreign money into U.S. elections.
Parnas gave new information and documents to House Democrats that showed he worked with Giuliani in Ukraine to find damaging information on Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, and also to pressure the Ukrainian government to investigate the Bidens. Parnas said President Trump knew what was going on and supported their activities. He claimed that Vice President Mike Pence cancelled a trip to the new Ukrainian president’s inauguration as a part of pressure campaign.
President Trump said the whole thing is a hoax and that he doesn’t know Parnas and have never met him before.
So, there are a lot of new things that are coming up just as the impeachment trial is beginning. We will see if this will cause some senators to call for witnesses to be called during the trial, which is something that Republicans don’t want.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/gao-says-trump-admin-broke-law-ukraine
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/16/us/politics/gao-trump-ukraine.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage
https://www.axios.com/john-roberts-swearing-in-senate-impeachment-trial-4a889d02-d38d-4147-b531-e74f72520fe0.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/01/16/about-that-oath-impartiality-senators-will-take/
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/lev-parnas-president-trump-knew-exactly-what-was-going-on-with-ukraine-938725/
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/1/16/21068446/lev-parnas-maddow-trump-barr
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Australia bushfire updates; Deaf fundraising efforts
The Guardian reported that parts of southeast Australia received plenty of rain which helped with bushfires, but that there are still over 80 fires that are still burning. Some of them were caused by lightning.
Australia’s ABC News reported that there are thousands of fish that are dead in the Macleay River in NSW, apparently from ash washing into the water from the rainfall. The ash causes oxygen levels in the water to drop.
The Weather Channel reported that smoke from the bushfires have circumnavigated around the world. NASA scientists tracked the smoke since the end of December as it rose more than 9 miles high, traveling eastward, and determined that it has returned to Australia this week.
An image of a glacier in New Zealand showed tan colors on the top of the snow, which was caused by dust from the bushfires.
Kyle Miers, the CEO of charity organization Deaf Australia -- which is a national organization similar to the NAD -- told “The Daily Moth” that they have started an online appeal where people can donate money for them to help deaf and hard of hearing families affected by the bushfires. Miers said the fund will provide them with “communications supports and communications equipments for them to remain in contact with the community.” The link is in the transcript. They’ve raised $2,700 so far.
Deaf artist Jennifer Tandoc from Austin, Texas created a “Pray for Australia” artwork and created prints to sell for a fundraiser for WIRES, Australia’s largest wildlife rescue organization. She announced she raised $2,000 from supporters all over the world.
Fundraising: https://www.givenow.com.au/deafbushfiresappeal
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jan/16/rain-brings-joy-to-farmers-in-nsw-and-victoria-and-dampens-some-bushfires-as-others-burn
https://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-16/nsw-bushfire-ash-leads-to-mass-fish-kill-in-macleay-river/11872372?pfmredir=sm&sf228250059=1
https://weather.com/news/weather/news/2020-01-15-australia-bushfire-smoke-circumnavigates-entire-earth
Tandoc: https://www.facebook.com/JT9Artist/
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Deaf British man receives MBE honors from Prince William
On Tuesday, Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, used British Sign Language as he gave a deaf man, Alex Duguid, his MBE honors.
Here is an Instagram video.
[Video]
Nice, now I know how to spell my name in BSL, as we have the same name. (Signs ALEX in BSL).
I didn’t expect to learn this from Prince William — thanks for the BSL mini-lesson.
Alex was honored for his contributions to British TV shows as a host and a BSL interpreter for television channel ITV.
Kensington Palace said he “is passionate about BSL and the need to promote and protect it.”
BSLZone said in a congratulatory message that Alex also worked in “Deaf television, BSL teaching and storytelling for many years.”
If you want to know more about who Alex is, you can watch a BSL Zone produced documentary about his life. The link is in the transcript.
MBE is short for “Member Of The Most Excellent Order Of The British Empire” and is one of the top honors in the country.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B7TaW8il-pi/
https://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/deaf-corrie-star-alex-duguid-21279134
https://www.bslzone.co.uk/latest/congratulations-alex-duguid-mbe/
BSLZone Documentary: https://www.bslzone.co.uk/watch/life-stories-alex-duguid/
https://inews.co.uk/news/uk/deaf-honour-prince-william-sign-language-1365103
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Christine Sun Kim to sign National Anthem at Super Bowl LIV
The National Association of the Deaf (NAD) announced today that deaf performer and artist Christine Sun Kim will perform the National Anthem and America the Beautiful during the pregame portion of Super Bowl LIV (54) in Miami Gardens.
The Daily Moth did a feature on Christine in the summer after she showcased a large wall art piece in London with the words, “IF SIGN LANGUAGE WAS CONSIDERED EQUAL, WE’D ALREADY BE FRIENDS.” Her work has been featured in major art exhibits around the world. Many of her topics are on sound art and on Deaf culture.
Christine was born in California and currently lives in Berlin. She graduated from RIT. Congratulations to her for the honor.
The performance will be on February 2. Kickoff is at 6:30 pm EST, so the pregame portion will probably start at about 6 pm. FOX will televise it. It is always an unknown how much of the sign language performance will be seen and whether there will be a dedicated PIP box or not.
The voice singer will be Demi Lovato.
https://www.nad.org/2020/01/16/christine-sun-kim-at-super-bowl-liv/
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=461930271256996
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That is all for today. See you tomorrow and stay with the light!