Beijing’s action poses global threat, Trudeau minister warns; tensions escalate further in feud over Huawei executive

Home to both Microsoft and Amazon, the area is a potent symbol of the housing crisis that has followed the explosive growth of tech hubs. The investment represents the most ambitious effort by a tech company to directly address the inequality in communities transformed by the tech boom.

By Karen Weise @ NYTimes.com, Jan. 16

[.....] Microsoft’s money represents the most ambitious effort by a tech company to directly address the inequality that has spread in areas where the industry is concentrated, particularly on the West Coast. It will fund construction for homes affordable not only to the company’s own non-tech workers, but also for teachers, firefighters and other middle- and low-income residents.

Microsoft’s move comes less than a year after Amazon successfully pushed to block a new tax in Seattle that would have made large businesses pay a per-employee tax to fund homeless services and the construction of affordable housing. The company said the tax created a disincentive to create jobs. Microsoft, which is based in nearby Redmond, Wash., and has few employees who work in the city, did not take a position on the tax [....]

9 months in Bangkok...

By Alan Feuer @ NYTimes.com, Jan. 15

The former president of Mexico, Enrique Peña Nieto, took a $100 million bribe from Joaquín Guzmán Loera, the infamous crime lord known as El Chapo, according to a witness at Mr. Guzman’s trial. The stunning testimony was delivered Tuesday in a New York courtroom by Alex Cifuentes Villa, a Colombian drug lord who worked closely with Mr. Guzmán from 2007 to 2013 [....]

“Mr. Guzmán may offer more details soon. Shortly after the jury was excused around 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, Mr. Lichtman submitted his client’s name to the prosecution as a potential witness for the defense, confirming that the drug trafficker might testify in his own trial [....]

According to Mr. Cifuentes, Mr. Peña Nieto first reached out to Mr. Guzmán about the time he was elected president in late 2012, asking the drug lord for $250 million in exchange for calling off a nationwide manhunt for him. But Mr. Guzmán made a counteroffer, Mr. Cifuentes added, saying he would give Mr. Peña Nieto only $100 million [....]

@ CNN.com, 2 hrs. ago

Violent radical Islamist terrorism so not over, this one was like allout war, with bombs (both car and suicide) followed by gunmen.

.....] Attack started with car bombs

The attack began at a bank inside the compound Tuesday afternoon. An explosion ripped through three vehicles in the parking lot, followed by a suicide blast in the foyer of the Dusit Hotel, Boinnet said [....]

Terror group claims responsibility

A source helping with security at the hotel called the death toll "conservative," and said it's expected to rise. The fatalities included a US citizen, the State Department said, but did not provide details.

Somali Islamist militant group, Al-Shabaab, claimed responsibility for the attack, according to the SITE Intelligence Group. It's the most high-profile terror attack in the East African country in years, and happened three years to the day after Al-Shabaab militants targeted a Kenyan military base in neighboring Somalia, killing dozens of soldiers.

And in 2013, Al-Shabaab militants targeted the luxury shopping center of Westgate, killing 67 people in a siege that lasted several days [....] 

By Ed Pilkington & Martin Pengelly @ TheGuardian.com, Jan. 15

Exclusive: ex-New Jersey governor, who had prosecuted Kushner’s father, was sacked as head of Trump’s transition team

Op-ed writer Grant Woods was Arizona's attorney general from 1991 to 1999 and served as the late Sen. John McCain's chief of staff when McCain was a House member in the 1980s.