| By Derek Caney
President Vladimir Putin ruled out an expulsion of anyone in retaliation to President Barack Obama's orders to throw out 35 suspected Russian spies. Hours earlier Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov floated the proposal that 35 U.S. diplomats would be expelled. Meanwhile, President-elect Donald Trump thinks the hacking is no big deal. Quote of the day: “It's time for our country to move on to bigger and better things. Nevertheless, in the interest of our country and its great people, I will meet with leaders of the intelligence community next week in order to be updated on the facts of this situation." – Donald Trump
Canada's answer to Trump is a pediatric surgeon and former cabinet minister who, like the U.S. president-elect, is railing against immigration and political elites. Her name is Kellie Leitch and she leads the pack to head the opposition Conservative Party against Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
When Samsung Electronics dropped $18 million to sponsor an "equestrian princess," they landed at the center of the corruption scandal engulfing South Korea's presidency.
Don Quixote's nightmare 
Small windmills are placed in the shape of Chinese characters meaning fortune and luck in a tourism spot in Beijing, Dec. 29, 2016.REUTERS/Stringer
Around the country - Trump supporters are planning a "Deploraball" on Inauguration Eve to appropriate and mock the "basket of deplorables," the term Hillary Clinton used to refer to the more extreme bigots among the president-elect's supporters. The problem is that organizers are finding that the event is bringing out, well, the more extreme bigots in the Republican Party.
Digits of the day: 1.53 million The U.S. prison population fell the most in almost four decades to 1.53 million inmates in 2015, resulting in the lowest rate of incarceration in a generation, the Department of Justice said. The drop is the result of changes in federal and state corrections policies that include drug treatment programs and the sentencing of fewer nonviolent drug offenders to federal prisons. - New York City is beefing up security measures to protect revelers at this year's New Year's Eve celebrations in Times Square, after two deadly truck attacks in France and Germany earlier this year. If only they offered public bathrooms.
Around the world - Yes, he boasts of personally killing criminals. Yes, he curses out world leaders. Yes, he brags of throwing people from helicopters. But Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte presides over one of the world's fastest growing economies, and has put cabinet colleagues to work on drafting reforms and legislation to tackle the economy's most stubborn structural problems.
- A ceasefire in Syria, brokered by Russia and Turkey, appeared to hold early this morning after a shaky start overnight. Monitors and a rebel official reported clashes almost immediately after the truce took force along the provincial boundary between Idlib and Hama, and isolated incidents of gunfire further south. Hours later, calm prevailed in areas included in the deal, they said.
- Britain scolded Secretary of State John Kerry for describing the Israeli government as the "most right-wing in Israeli history," a move that aligns Prime Minister Theresa May more closely with Trump. A spokesman for May said the British government believed that while the construction of settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories was illegal, it was clear that the settlements were far from the only problem in this conflict.
Around Wall Street - Oil prices are heading for their biggest annual percentage jump since 2009. World stocks also up nearly 6 percent over the year despite concerns over China's slowing growth and weakening currency.
- Snap may be the highest profile tech IPO planned for 2017. But more than a dozen expected stock offerings of relatively obscure business software – little-known names such as Apttus, Tintri and Okta – could be just as important in thawing a long-frozen IPO market.
- Amazon has another idea in mind for a cloud investment.
Today's reason to live The Triffids - New Years Greetings |
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