Hillary Clinton Fires Back Against Donald Trump’s Personal Attacks

Hillary Clinton on Sunday fired back against Donald Trump’s repeated personal attacks, saying hit pieces that draw on her husband’s sex scandal “didn’t work before” and “won’t work again.”

The former secretary of state’s response comes after Trump released an Instagram video earlier this week comparing Bill Clinton to the embattled Bill Cosby, who is facing sexual assault allegations. Trump also called the former president “one of the great abusers of the world” and said he “has a terrible record of women’s abuse.”

“If he wants to engage in personal attacks from the past, that is his prerogative. You know, so be it,” Clinton told John Dickerson on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “He can say whatever he wants about me,” she added. “But I am not going to let him or any of the other Republicans rip away the progress that we have. It has been too hard fought for. And I am going to stand up and make it clear there is a huge difference between us.”

Clinton also said her husband’s scandal has been “fair game going back to the Republicans for some years.” “They can do it again if they want to. That can be their choice as to how to run in this campaign. Didn’t work before, won’t work again,” she said.

Trump’s video shows images of Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky, followed by a photographs of Hillary Clinton standing near Anthony Weiner and Bill Cosby, as audio of the presidential hopeful’s speech about women’s rights play in the background.

Death toll in Russian raids on Syria's Idlib nears 100

The death toll of Russian air strikes in Syria's Idlib province has nearly reached 100, as several dozen of those who were critically injured in the attacks on Saturday have died, a volunteer rescue group reports.

"After 32 hours of our rescue operation, and following the deaths of those who were critically injured, the total death toll of the strikes has risen to 96," the Syria Civil Defence said in a press release on Sunday.

The attacks in Idlib targeted a court and a prison operated by al-Nusra Front in the rebel-held town of Maarat al-Numaan, Anas Maarawi, a media activist in Idlib, told Al Jazeera.

The United Kingdom-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the death toll at 81.

In Douma, located in Damascus' suburbs, Russian air strikes killed at least eight people on Sunday, the Syrian Observatory reported, adding that the death toll was expected to rise.

Idlib province is mostly controlled by the Fatah Army coalition - which includes al-Nusra Front, Jund al-Aqsa, Jaish al-Sunna, Liwa al-Haqq, Ajnad al-Sham, and several other factions.

More than 250,000 people have been killed in the Syrian conflict, which began with popular protests in March 2011 and ultimately turned into a civil war following a brutal military crackdown.

Over 1,700 civilians killed

The main opposition bloc, the Syrian National Coalition, said in a report released on Saturday that it had documented the deaths of 1,730 civilians due to Russian air strikes since their launch in September 2015.

At least 135 children were among those killed, the coalition said, adding that over 29 hospitals were destroyed in the strikes, in addition to schools, homes and places of worship.

In a statement, the coalition called on the UN Security Council "to assume its responsibilities towards Russians' continued violation of international and humanitarian laws".

The statement also said that "Russia's claim of fighting terrorism is a pretext to justify its aggression on Syria, which was clear from day one when its air force committed massacres against civilians. 

"Nearly 94 percent of the 12,000 sorties the Russian air force has so far flown in Syria targeted civilians and the Free Syrian Army."

Russia's defence ministry denied in December 2015 that it targets civilians in its air strikes after an Amnesty International report accused it of doing so.

Russia says its target is the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group and other "terrorists", adding that the report was biased and contained ungrounded claims.

Speaking to journalists, ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said the report contained "trite cliches" and "fake information".

The Actor, the Kingpin, and Mexico’s Drug War as Entertainment

In the low budget action flick El Bazukaco 2 (Big Bazooka 2) the crazed-looking cartel killer pops his head out of the moving SUV on a Mexican road and fires a bazooka, blowing up an enemy gunman. The film was released in 2012 and became an instant hit for fans of the straight-to-DVD genre, known as narco peliculas. Meanwhile, on a real street in Mexico in 2014, a real crazed cartel killer stepped out of a house with a real bazooka. But before he could fire his load, an anti-cartel vigilante shot him dead, his limp finger resting on the trigger.

In Mexico’s drug war, reality and fiction have become intertwined as larger-than-life criminals run wild, while novels, soap operas, movies and even video games create a fantasy version of the conflict. This blur between a surreal drug war on the ground and a wealth of narco fiction reached world attention over the weekend when it emerged that actor Sean Penn drank tequila with drug trafficker Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman in a mountain hideout before Guzman was recaptured on Friday. Penn’s story on the encounter, along with a video interview, was released Saturday by Rolling Stone to a media eruption. Mexican officials said the meeting helped them track down Guzman, who had escaped prison in a mile long tunnel that itself seemed stranger than fiction in July.

Even before Penn got involved, it was sometimes tough to see where the fantasy ends and the reality begins, with dramatic firefights or prison escapes involving Mexican gangsters with nicknames such as “Shorty,” “The Lord of the Skies” or “The Executioner.” A novel entitled “La Reina del Sur,” or “Queen of the South,” featuring a fictional female drug boss was published before Mexican officials announced that they had arrested a real queen-pin called the “Queen of the Pacific” in 2007. It is hard to know which one inspired the other. In 2009, the cult TV series Breaking Bad showed an IED exploding inside a decapitated head resting on a giant turtle near Ciudad Juarez. The following year, gangsters in the real Juarez dumped a bleeding police officer on a street, before letting off an IED inside a nearby car.

It may have been Guzman who engineered the meeting with Penn, who has himself played real-life gangsters such as the L.A. mob boss Mickey Cohen in the 2013 film Gangster Squad. The drug lord was allegedly working on a new movie production of his own life, and his meeting with the Oscar-winning actor was brokered by Mexican actress Kate del Castillo, who played “La Reina del Sur” in a TV version of the novel, and has been reportedly coordinating with Guzman on the new film. After her drug trafficking role, she controversially wrote sympathetic messages about Guzman. “I believe more in El Chapo Guzman than in the governments that hide the truth from me,” she tweeted in Spanish in 2012. In response, Guzman sent her flowers, according to Penn’s piece, leading to a friendship between drug lord and soap star.

Mexico’s film industry has churned out narco peliculas since the 1980s, when the low-budget movies were on VHS rather than DVD. Today, movies are still often shot in less than two weeks, featuring real life desperadoes, strippers and guns in stories that flick between scantily-clad women and firefights in monster trucks. With names such as The Hummer, Narco War and Massive Extinction, they can inspire up to seven sequels. The down to earth style of the movies is extremely popular in the ramshackle Mexican villages and rough barrios that many traffickers hail from, as well as in migrant communities in the United States. Many of the films have been put onto Youtube, where they win millions of views.

German MPs to discuss New Year's Eve sexual attacks

The attacks prompted violent far-right protests on Saturday as some seized on reports that the assailants were of Arab and North African origin [Wolfgang Rattay/Reuters]

German MPs are set to discuss in parliament the consequences of the mass sexual attacks in Cologne on New Year's Eve, which have prompted debates on migration and security with reports that the assailants were of North African and Arab origin.

It is unclear whether Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has called for tougher deportation laws in response to the crimes, will deliver a statement from her coalition government.

On Monday, a regional parliamentary commission will question police and others about the events on New Year's Eve in Cologne.

Attacks on women in Cologne and other German cities on New Year's Eve have prompted more than 600 criminal complaints, with police suspicion resting on asylum seekers, putting pressure on Merkel and her open-door policy towards migrants and refugees.

In Cologne, police said that 516 criminal complaints had been filed by individuals or groups in relation to assaults on New Year's Eve, while police in Hamburg said 133 similar charges had been lodged with the north German city.

Sexual offences

In Cologne, where a 100-strong force of officers continued their investigations, around 40 percent of the complaints included sexual offences, including two rapes.

Police confirmed to Al Jazeera on Sunday that the number of reported assaults in Cologne are still rising.

"The rising numbers also have a geographic reason: Some women were in Cologne for New Year's Eve but don't actually live here," Dirk Weber, a Cologne police officer, told Al Jazeera.

Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic Union is scheduled to discuss the government's response with left-leaning coalition partner, the Social Democrats, on Monday.

The parliamentary secretaries of the parties will perhaps form a more detailed plan of the discussions at the start of the week, with internal party debates expected to take place on Tuesday.

According to the Financial Times, the chancellor has cancelled her regular trip to the Davos World Economic Forum In response to growing pressure.

Far right reaction

The attacks, which led to violent far-right protests on Saturday, threaten to erode confidence in Merkel, and could stoke support for the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party before three key state elections in March.

The Cologne attacks also heated up the debate on immigration in neighbouring Austria.

"What happened in Cologne is unbelievable and unacceptable," Johanna Mikl-Leitner, Austria's interior minister and member of the conservative People's Party that is junior coalition partner to the Social Democrats, told the newspaper Oesterreich.

There had been a handful of similar incidents in the border city of Salzburg.

"Such offenders should be deported," Mikl-Leitner said, backing a similar suggestion by Merkel.

Swiss media contained numerous stories about sexual assaults on women by foreigners, fuelling tensions in advance of a referendum next month that would result in the automatic deportation of foreigners convicted of some crimes.

German MPs to discuss New Year's Eve sexual attacks

The attacks prompted violent far-right protests on Saturday as some seized on reports that the assailants were of Arab and North African origin [Wolfgang Rattay/Reuters]

German MPs are set to discuss in parliament the consequences of the mass sexual attacks in Cologne on New Year's Eve, which have prompted debates on migration and security with reports that the assailants were of North African and Arab origin.

It is unclear whether Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has called for tougher deportation laws in response to the crimes, will deliver a statement from her coalition government.

On Monday, a regional parliamentary commission will question police and others about the events on New Year's Eve in Cologne.

Attacks on women in Cologne and other German cities on New Year's Eve have prompted more than 600 criminal complaints, with police suspicion resting on asylum seekers, putting pressure on Merkel and her open-door policy towards migrants and refugees.

In Cologne, police said that 516 criminal complaints had been filed by individuals or groups in relation to assaults on New Year's Eve, while police in Hamburg said 133 similar charges had been lodged with the north German city.

Sexual offences

In Cologne, where a 100-strong force of officers continued their investigations, around 40 percent of the complaints included sexual offences, including two rapes.

Police confirmed to Al Jazeera on Sunday that the number of reported assaults in Cologne are still rising.

"The rising numbers also have a geographic reason: Some women were in Cologne for New Year's Eve but don't actually live here," Dirk Weber, a Cologne police officer, told Al Jazeera.

Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic Union is scheduled to discuss the government's response with left-leaning coalition partner, the Social Democrats, on Monday.

The parliamentary secretaries of the parties will perhaps form a more detailed plan of the discussions at the start of the week, with internal party debates expected to take place on Tuesday.

According to the Financial Times, the chancellor has cancelled her regular trip to the Davos World Economic Forum In response to growing pressure.

Far right reaction

The attacks, which led to violent far-right protests on Saturday, threaten to erode confidence in Merkel, and could stoke support for the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party before three key state elections in March.

The Cologne attacks also heated up the debate on immigration in neighbouring Austria.

"What happened in Cologne is unbelievable and unacceptable," Johanna Mikl-Leitner, Austria's interior minister and member of the conservative People's Party that is junior coalition partner to the Social Democrats, told the newspaper Oesterreich.

There had been a handful of similar incidents in the border city of Salzburg.

"Such offenders should be deported," Mikl-Leitner said, backing a similar suggestion by Merkel.

Swiss media contained numerous stories about sexual assaults on women by foreigners, fuelling tensions in advance of a referendum next month that would result in the automatic deportation of foreigners convicted of some crimes.

List of winners of the 73rd annual Golden Globe Awards

List of winners of the 73rd annual Golden Globe Awards, announced Sunday in Beverly Hills, California:

--Picture, Drama: "The Revenant."

--Picture, Musical or Comedy: "The Martian."

--Actor, Drama: Leonardo DiCaprio, "The Revenant."

--Actress, Drama: Brie Larson, "Room."

--Director: Alejandro Inarritu, "The Revenant."

--Actor, Musical or Comedy: Matt Damon, "The Martian."

--Actress, Musical or Comedy: Jennifer Lawrence, "Joy."

--Supporting Actor: Sylvester Stallone, "Creed."

--Supporting Actress, Motion Picture: Kate Winslet, "Steve Jobs."

--Foreign Language: "Son of Saul."

--Animated Film: "Inside Out."

--Screenplay: Aaron Sorkin, "Steve Jobs."

--Original Score: Ennio Morricone, "The Hateful Eight."

--Original Song: "Writing's on the Wall" music and lyrics by Sam Smith, Jimmy Napes), "Spectre."

TELEVISION

--Series, Drama: "Mr. Robot."

--Actor, Drama: Jon Hamm, "Mad Men."

--Actress, Drama: Taraji P. Henson, "Empire."

--Series, Comedy: "Mozart in the Jungle."

--Actor, Musical or Comedy: Gael Garcia Bernal, "Mozart in the Jungle."

--Actress, Musical or Comedy: Rachel Bloom, "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend."

--Movie or Limited Series: "Wolf Hall."

--Actor, Limited Series or TV Movie: Oscar Isaac, "Show Me a Hero."

--Actress, Movie or Limited Series: Lady Gaga, "American Horror Story: Hotel."

--Supporting Actor, Series, Limited Series or TV Movie: Christian Slater, "Mr. Robot.

--Supporting Actress, Series, Limited Series or TV Movie: Maura Tierney, "The Affair."

Leonardo DiCaprio Receive a Standing Ovation for His Revenant Win at the Golden Globes

Leonardo DiCaprio received a standing ovation as he walked his way up to the stage to accept his third Golden Globe. The actor won for Best Actor, Drama for his role as a man who survives being mauled by a bear and buried alive in The Revenant. 

“This film was about survival, adaptation, the triumph of the human spirit, and more than anything it was about trust. And there’s no one who is more deserving of that trust than our director Alejandro Iñárritu,” he said. He also called out his co-star Tom Hardy, who he called “a beast and unbelievable talent” who “in real life would never bury me alive and leave me out in the cold to die like that.”

He ended his speech by saying he wanted to share his award “with all the first nations people represented in this film and all the indigenous communities around the world.”

“It is time that we recognize your history and protect your indigenous lands from corporate interests and people that are out there to exploit them,” he said. “It’s time we heard your voice and protected this planet for future generations.”