| As coronavirus spreads, Biden says Trump is 'the worst possible person' to keep America safe Posted: 28 Jan 2020 12:45 PM PST  As evidence, Biden cited Trump's response to the 2014 Ebola epidemic. Earlier, Trump tweeted that "it will all work out well." Trump's potential Democratic rivals, however, are not so sure. The second is about Trump's leadership.
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| Putin pardons Israeli woman jailed in Russia on drug charges Posted: 29 Jan 2020 09:14 AM PST  Russian President Vladimir Putin has pardoned an Israeli woman who had been jailed on drug charges, the Kremlin said Wednesday. A presidential decree ordering Naama Issachar's release on "humanitarian principles" was effective immediately, the Kremlin said. The 26-year-old backpacker was arrested in April at a Moscow airport, where she was transferring en route from India to Israel.
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| Dylann Roof appeals death sentence for massacre at South Carolina black church Posted: 29 Jan 2020 05:33 AM PST  "Roof's crime was tragic, but this Court can have no confidence in the jury's verdict," says his appeal, filed with the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday. A jury found Roof guilty of 33 federal charges, including hate crimes resulting in death, for the shocking mass shooting at the landmark Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston in June 2015. Roof dismissed his defense attorneys just before trial and represented himself during jury selection.
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| China demands an apology from a newspaper for a satirical cartoon of a Chinese flag with coronavirus particles Posted: 28 Jan 2020 12:31 PM PST  China is outraged with a Danish newspaper for publishing a satirical cartoon of a Chinese flag with coronavirus particles in place of its stars.
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| Pentagon identifies 2 Air Force airmen killed in Afghanistan Posted: 29 Jan 2020 02:40 PM PST  The Pentagon on Wednesday released the names of two Air Force officers killed in the crash of their Bombardier E-11A electronic surveillance plane in Afghanistan. Voss was assigned to Air Combat Command headquarters at Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Virginia. Phaneuf was assigned to the 37th Bomb Squadron at Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota.
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| This Picture Is North Korea, China, Iran and Russia's Worst Military Nightmare Posted: 28 Jan 2020 09:00 PM PST  Imagine 52 F-35s coming at you.
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| 11 Beautiful Examples of When Historic and Modern Architecture Come Together Posted: 29 Jan 2020 09:50 AM PST |
| Trump lawyer Sekulow says Bolton book manuscript 'inadmissable' – live Trump impeachment trial updates Posted: 28 Jan 2020 02:58 PM PST  Impeachment "is not a game of leaks and unsourced manuscripts. That is politics unfortunately," said Sekulow.
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| African nations take first measures to stop spread of Chinese virus Posted: 29 Jan 2020 10:58 AM PST  African states, including the continent's biggest economy Nigeria, on Wednesday said they had begun to introduce measures aimed at stopping the spread of the new coronavirus. No verified infection has been reported to date in sub-Saharan Africa, but elsewhere countries have stopped flights to China and airlifted their citizens out of the area where the virus emerged. People arriving from China or any country with a "major outbreak" of the disease are advised to stay at home for at least two weeks if they develop any symptoms, according to the advisory issued by Health Minister Osagie Ehanire.
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| Federal agency says it doesn't track foreign spending at Trump Hotel Posted: 28 Jan 2020 05:26 PM PST  The federal government doesn't know how much money foreign governments and entities have spent at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, a GSA official testified Tuesday.
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| Historians: Sobibor death camp photos may feature Demjanjuk Posted: 28 Jan 2020 07:35 AM PST  Historians have presented a collection of photos kept by the deputy commander of the Nazis' Sobibor death camp that they say appears to include images of John Demjanjuk, the retired Ohio auto worker who was tried in Germany for his alleged time as a Sobibor guard. The collection unveiled Tuesday at Berlin's Topography of Terror museum comprises 361 photos as well as written documents illustrating Johann Niemann's career. Niemann was the deputy commander of Sobibor from September 1942 until he was killed on Oct. 14, 1943, in an uprising by Jewish inmates.
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| Suspected associate of El Chapo's sons flees Mexico City prison Posted: 29 Jan 2020 02:31 PM PST ![Suspected associate of El Chapo's sons flees Mexico City prison]( "Suspected associate of El Chapo's sons flees Mexico City prison") Three prisoners wanted by the United States for their links to drug trafficking, including an alleged associate of the sons of Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, on Wednesday escaped from a Mexico City prison, authorities said. Mexico and the United States, its most important trade partner, have been looking for ways to address the escalating security situation as well as clamp down on illegal drug and arms trade. Mexican authorities said the prisoners escaped from a penitentiary in southern Mexico City on Wednesday morning, possibly with the help of prison staff.
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| The Trump administration failed to convince the UK to ditch Huawei and its other allies aren't listening either Posted: 29 Jan 2020 02:57 AM PST  The UK defied Trump to permit Huawei limited access to its 5G network.
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| Kobe Bryant death: Nearby door cams capture noise of fatal helicopter crash Posted: 29 Jan 2020 09:46 AM PST  Door cams from the neighbourhood adjacent to the site of the crash that killed NBA legend Kobe Bryant have captured audio of the helicopter's final seconds.Google Nest devices on the doors of homes in the Los Angeles suburb of Calabasas recorded the sound of the rotor blades of the twin-engine Sikorsky S-76B.
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| GOP Rep. Doug Collins launched a Senate bid and the Republican Party was not thrilled Posted: 29 Jan 2020 11:41 AM PST  Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga., announced his Senate bid Wednesday, and the National Republican Senatorial Committee was far from pleased.
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| Trump lawyers contradict one another as they conclude first phase of impeachment trial Posted: 28 Jan 2020 03:45 PM PST  The president's top White House lawyer has repeatedly told the Senate Trump did nothing wrong in withholding aid to Ukraine, even as other lawyers on his defense team directly contradicted that assertion over the last two days.
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| Parnas Lawyer: Giuliani Delivered Graham Letter Calling for Sanctions on Ukrainian Officials Posted: 29 Jan 2020 01:25 AM PST  In late 2018, Rudy Giuliani said he delivered an unusual missive to Sen. Lindsey Graham, according to the lawyer of one of his ex-associates: a letter calling for sanctions on a host of Ukrainian government officials, including one widely viewed in the West as a brave reformer and another who helmed the company where Hunter Biden was a board member.Joseph Bondy, the attorney for Lev Parnas, an indicted Florida businessman involved in the U.S.-Ukraine saga, told The Daily Beast that Giuliani showed his client the letter and told him he delivered it to Sen. Graham (the letter misspelled the South Carolina Republican's first name as "Lingsey"). Bondy said Giuliani also showed Parnas a second, similar letter addressed to Sigal Mandelker, who at the time was a top official at the Treasury Department. The letters, which The Daily Beast reviewed, claim that an eclectic mix of Ukrainian political figures and businesspeople were part of an alleged "organized crime syndicate." The letters claim that the individuals were "actively involved in the siphoning of funds appropriated by the American government for aid to Ukraine." And they claim that the alleged crime syndicate used those funds to buy black-market military parts from a Russian company under U.S. sanctions. All the while, they say, Ukraine's then-prosecutor general (Giuliani ally Yuriy Lutsenko) couldn't fight the crime because then President Petro Poroshenko wouldn't let him take the case to court."It concerns me, as should any fellow American, that a taxpayer's money is rudely been stolen in Ukraine [sic]," reads the letter to Mandelker.The letter-writer introduces himself in the letter addressed to Mandelker as a Ukraine-born U.S. citizen named Michael Guralnik who graduated from the Soviet Military Academy and was "a 10-year veteran of the Soviet Army." The letter to Graham, meanwhile, also bears Guralnik's name but contains no introduction. It arrived a month before Giuliani tried to help former Ukrainian top prosecutor Viktor Shokin travel to the U.S. and meet with Graham, Bondy said. A few weeks before the date of the Guralnik letter, Giuliani sent Graham a letter of his own asking his staff to help three unnamed Ukrainians get visas so they could come to the U.S. and share information about the Bidens. The State Department did not give Shokin a visa. The letters say that the "only way" to "stop this syndicate" is to sanction the individuals involved. Both letters list 12 people, along with phone numbers for some of them. Included on the list are Mykola Zlochevskiy, the head of the scandal-plagued Ukrainian company where Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden was a board member; Valeriya Gontareva, the head of the National Bank of Ukraine from mid-2014 to mid-2017; and Kateryna Rozhkova, who was her deputy. Graham and Giuliani did not respond to repeated requests for comment, and it was not immediately clear if lawmakers ever even considered the sanctions. A spokesperson for Graham did not respond to a request for comment. Mandelker did not comment on the record for this report. When contacted, Guralnik hung up the phone and texted, "Do not call any more."The inclusion of Gontareva and Rozhkova's names is notable. In 2016, Gontareva oversaw the Ukrainian government's decision to seize control of a bank that belonged to oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky. Ukrainian officials alleged that Kolomoisky and his allies had misappropriated billions from the bank. Kolomoisky has pushed to regain control of the bank, even as the FBI has investigated him for financial crimes. And in the wake of her decision, Gontareva has faced death threats and danger. Her home was vandalized, and someone left a coffin with her likeness inside it outside the Central Bank offices, as The Washington Post reported. Years after the nationalization of the bank, the danger persists. In August 2019, she was hit by a car in London and hospitalized. The next month, her home in Ukraine was burned down, per the Kyiv Post. Gontareva's fight to reform Ukraine's financial sector won her devoted allies in the West, who saw her as one of Kyiv's few genuine reformers. Kolomoisky, meanwhile, is an intimidating figure to many in Ukraine, and some have alleged he has ordered contract killings. He also funded a private militia that fought Russian-backed separatists in Eastern Ukraine. His connection to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has also long raised eyebrows; the TV show that boosted Zelensky's public profile aired on a TV channel that Kolomoisky owns, and one of Kolomoisky's former lawyers is now a senior aide to Zelensky (Giuliani and U.S. officials have raised concerns with Zelensky's team about that aide, Andriy Bohdan). Jordan Libowitz, a spokesperson for the government watchdog organization Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, told The Daily Beast that the Guralnik letters mean Giuliani should answer more questions about his Ukraine work."While we can't obviously speak to the veracity of these claims, it does seem to look more and more like Rudy Giuliani is incredibly deeply involved with some seriously shady business in Ukraine and we need more information, not only on his activities, but his activities and those of his associates on behalf of or benefiting Donald Trump," he said. "As bad as these things look on their face, they're so much worse if you consider the involvement of the president of the United States. There is so little we know, but enough to know that we need to know a lot more." Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Donald Trump is ‘just wrong’ about the economy, says Nobel Prize-winner Joseph Stiglitz Posted: 29 Jan 2020 12:20 PM PST  In a newly released interview, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz disagreed with Trump's contention that the economy has lifted up working-class Americans.
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| The Latest: Putin tells officials to prepare for new virus Posted: 29 Jan 2020 06:02 AM PST  Russian President Vladimir Putin has urged the country's government to be prepared to deal with a possible outbreak of a new virus from China. "It is a new phenomenon, and the question is how well we are prepared for this challenge," Putin said during a meeting with several Cabinet members. Russia shares a long border with China.
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| 'I'm in an apocalypse:' American student trapped in coronavirus-hit Chinese city Posted: 29 Jan 2020 11:05 AM PST  An eerie calm has descended on the normally bustling streets of the city of 11 million people, where Schneider has been studying geodesy - a branch of applied mathematics - at Wuhan University, about 10 miles (16 km) from where experts believe the new coronavirus originated in a market illegally trading in wildlife. Chinese officials cut most transport links to Wuhan on Jan. 23 in an effort to slow transmission of the virus, which has infected nearly 6,000 people in China - more cases than were recorded in the 2002-2003 SARS outbreak - and killed more than 130 people.
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| The coronavirus' crown-like spikes give the virus family its name — here's what it looks like Posted: 28 Jan 2020 03:00 PM PST  The coronavirus family includes SARS, the common cold, and the 2019-nCoV strain responsible for the current outbreak.
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| I thought Bernie's Iowa numbers seemed unrealistically high. Then I saw his rallies Posted: 28 Jan 2020 03:00 AM PST  Pundits keep warning about a Sanders 'ceiling' – but here in the midwest he looks strong and getting stronger Three political rallies in a small north-west Iowa town over the weekend convinced me that the polls showing Bernie Sanders leading among likely caucus-goers have it about right.Some 400 people packed into a ballroom in Storm Lake, Iowa, on Sunday to hear Michael Moore, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the disheveled senator from Vermont raise the roof for a political revolution.Polls going into the weekend showed Sanders with 25% of the likely crowd at the caucuses on 3 February. Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg and Elizabeth Warren trail closely, while Amy Klobuchar is building support late and Andrew Yang is getting some interest.Bernie had momentum on Sunday. People were hooting and hollering and clapping for Moore, the documentarian, when he said the rich will have a harder time getting to heaven than a camel through the eye of a needle. He cited Paul's letter to the Corinthians urging unity over factionalism. The revival meeting lapped it up.The night before, Buttigieg appeared at Buena Vista University to a crowd of 220 with half the enthusiasm of the Sanders affair. He spoke about healing wounds, too, but nobody was going wild. His biggest applause line came when he complained that "everybody needs a second job".After Sanders's rally in the afternoon, Yang made his first appearance in Storm Lake to a crowd of about 100. He had them laughing, and got them worrying about artificial intelligence eliminating 40,000 manufacturing jobs in Iowa. Truckers may be a thing of the past. It got everyone's attention. The New York businessman has his facts and figures – that Amazon wiped out 30% of our state's retail business, and that the erosion of local news is undermining democracy – down into a compelling narrative about how capital and technology conspire to leave huge swaths of America behind.Yang's solution, as articulated, is to give everyone $1,000 per month, and to take back democracy. He thinks he can "rewire the economy" to bring something back to those lost places in the swing states where jobs, people and prospects keep getting drained to the coasts."We are in the midst of the greatest economic transformation in our nation's history," Yang said to his largest applause.In fact, that may explain why Sanders is leading."We're going to win because working people are tired of being ignored, working two or three jobs," Sanders proclaimed to heads nodding and amens.The ballroom echoed in boos when Sanders detailed how 12 years ago "Congress bailed out crooks on Wall Street, and then Trump gave them a trillion dollars in tax breaks". And Amazon pays no tax. Boo!A man up front said his health insurance premiums are $1,400 per month.Sanders said that the average $60,000 household in Iowa would pay that much per year on healthcare taxes with Medicare for All. No premiums. No deductibles. They cheered harder.Healthcare is the top issue cited by likely caucus-goers in a state where you can choose Wellmark Blue Cross or Wellmark Blue Cross.Climate change is the number two issue."It is real, and it is underestimated in its speed and severity. Australia, a beautiful country, is on fire," Sanders thundered as the crowd roared back. "Crop production will decline. Climate refugees are around the world in the millions, leading to more war. And we have a president who denies it all."The Smith sisters, Paula and Lou, buried their mother with a Hillary Clinton sticker a few years ago. They fell into the Bernie bandwagon at that rally. Their brother Rob was waffling among Sanders, Buttigieg, Biden and Yang.Dan Berglund said he probably will be "a banker for Bernie" as he was four years ago, but he will walk into the caucus as a Yang supporter. If Yang is not viable with the necessary 15%, he will bail to Bernie.Tim Gallagher, who works for Buena Vista University, says he might vote for any one of them, and will decide on caucus day. "A lot can happen in a week," he said.Such as: Warren was endorsed by the largest newspaper in Iowa, the Des Moines Register, on Sunday. She danced a jig on hearing the news Saturday night in Muscatine in eastern Iowa, after taking selfies with hundreds. She has an elaborate, well-tuned organization apparatus in all parts of the state that she is banking will deliver for her.So does Sanders, obviously. The front rows on Sunday were impressive in their relative diversity: people of color. Young people, old people. Conservative-looking farmers who came out to listen to a democratic socialist.Sanders said his Berniecrats knocked on an Iowa door every two seconds on Saturday – over 100,000 homes."There's nobody in the state with a stronger grassroots volunteer movement," Sanders said. "Our agenda speaks to the questions and pain that people have in their lives […] I've talked to too many people in Iowa who are making 10 to 12 bucks an hour."He lit them up again.That's what this caucus cycle is about. Sanders has tapped into a vein of frustration that elected Trump, and is getting people of all stripes to give him a look. Pundits' warnings about a Sanders "ceiling" have begun to sound like the products of people who fear his potential strength. * Art Cullen is the editor of the Storm Lake Times in north-west Iowa, where he won the Pulitzer prize for editorial writing. He is a columnist for Guardian US and is author of the book Storm Lake: Change, Resilience, and Hope in America's Heartland, out this month in paperback
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| Biden-Tied Lobbyist Bought Island Property from Biden’s Brother, Gave Him Mortgage Loan Posted: 28 Jan 2020 06:28 AM PST  Financial records reviewed by Politico show that Joe Biden's brother James sold one of his three parcels of land in the U.S. Virgin Islands at a substantial profit to a well-connected lobbyist who then extended a mortgage to James on the remaining two parcels.In May 2005, James Biden purchased an acre of land on Water Island for $150,000. He then applied for and received an easement to divide the property into three plots, one of which he sold to lobbyist Scott Green — a decade-long Senate staffer for Joe Biden in the 1980s — for $150,000. James had initially purchased all three parcels for $150,000, meaning that he made his money back and was able to keep the majority of the one acre plot for himself.Green's lobbying firm, Lafayette Group — which features a photo of Green with Biden on its website and quotes Biden endorsing Green — earned two government contracts from the Federal Emergency Management Agency worth a total of $5.8 million on April 11, 2010.Three days later, Green extended a $133,300 mortgage to James Biden for his remaining Water Island property. Property records reviewed by Politico show that Green had "received full payment and full satisfaction" and released the mortgage in September 2013.Joe Biden and his family traveled to Water Island several times during his vice presidency, but did not stay on his brother's or Green's land, which remains undeveloped.Lafayette Group earned tens of millions of dollars in government contracts during the course of Biden's time as vice president. During his time in the Senate, Biden also advocated for a number of areas in which Green's lobbying intersected, including a broadband network for first responders and the non-profit Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) program.
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| Dershowitz Justifies Patting Pompeo on Back After Trump Praised His NPR Meltdown, Says He’s ‘Great’ Posted: 28 Jan 2020 06:30 PM PST  Famed attorney Alan Dershowitz on Tuesday night defended his congratulatory pat on Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's back after President Donald Trump praised Pompeo for berating an NPR reporter, saying he just wanted to "show support" for a "great" secretary of state.Dershowitz, the self-professed liberal lawyer who is now a member of Trump's impeachment defense team, was on hand Tuesday afternoon when the president unveiled his dead-on-arrival Middle East peace plan. Speaking with CNN anchor Anderson Cooper and legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin about his involvement in shaping the new policy, Dershowitz was confronted over the back pat."Why are you patting Mike Pompeo on the back?" Toobin asked after playing a clip of the moment."Because I like Mike Pompeo's views on the Middle East," the retired Harvard law professor responded. "I thoroughly disapprove of the way he has reportedly treated a reporter. I don't think reporters should be treated that way in any way and I don't think presidents should say that it's a good thing to treat a reporter that way. We're all tempted to do that but I like Mike Pompeo's views on the Middle East."Toobin, meanwhile, noted that Dershowitz gave Pompeo that back pat immediately after Trump applauded the secretary of state for profanely lashing out at NPR's Mary Louise Kelly."I think you're reading too much into that," Dershowitz insisted. "I have patted him on the back a dozen times when we talked about the Middle East. So that's what my pat was intended to encourage.""Just at that precise moment?" Toobin wondered aloud."If he's being attacked and he's being criticized, I want to show my support," Dershowitz continued. "He's a great secretary of state and has done great things for the peace process in the Middle East. If he can help to bring about peace in the Middle East I'll forgive him his rudeness to a reporter."Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Jamaica earthquake: Huge 7.7-magnitude tremor hits off island’s coast Posted: 28 Jan 2020 11:30 AM PST  Warnings of a "hazardous" tsunami were issued for parts of the Caribbean after a huge earthquake struck.The US Geological Survey said the 7.7-magnitude quake hit off the northwest coast of Jamaica, prompting the US Tsunami Warning Centre to issue an alert for Jamaica, Cuba and the Cayman Islands.
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| WHO lauds Chinese response to virus, says world 'at important juncture' Posted: 29 Jan 2020 08:47 AM PST  The World Health Organization (WHO) praised China on Wednesday for its efforts to tackle the coronavirus outbreak, but voiced "grave concern" about person-to-person spread in three other countries which led it to summon its Emergency Committee again. The panel of 16 independent experts will meet behind closed doors on Thursday for the third time in a week to consider whether the epidemic now constitutes a global emergency. There are 6,065 cases worldwide, all but some 70 in China, with 132 deaths in China, according to the latest WHO figures.
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| Mitt Romney violated Senate rules by drinking chocolate milk Posted: 29 Jan 2020 04:03 AM PST  Sen. Mitt Romney, a Utah Republican, was caught drinking chocolate milk out of a bottle on the Senate floor on Tuesday afternoon — a breach of the Senate impeachment trial rules.
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| Useless: North Korea Has Thousands of Old and Outdated Tanks Posted: 28 Jan 2020 07:00 AM PST  What a joke.
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| 'It's hysteria': Asian students at Arizona State University say they're being treated differently after a case of the Wuhan coronavirus was confirmed there Posted: 29 Jan 2020 03:21 PM PST  A case of the coronavirus was confirmed at Arizona State University on Sunday, and Asian students have felt backlash ever since.
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| Falwell and W.Va. governor pitch Virginia secession plea Posted: 28 Jan 2020 12:51 PM PST  In what they acknowledged is a long-shot bid, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice and Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. urged unhappy Virginia counties Tuesday to secede and join a neighboring state where Democrats aren't in charge. Both Justice, a Republican in a state where the GOP dominates the legislature, and Falwell, whose university is in Lynchburg, Virginia, said the invitation to join West Virginia sends a valid message. "If you're not truly happy where you are, we stand with open arms to take you from Virginia or anywhere where you may be," said Justice, who's running for reelection.
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| Canada's Chinese community faces racist abuse in wake of coronavirus Posted: 28 Jan 2020 10:51 AM PST  Country has seen just three confirmed cases of the virus but panic is already spreading, causing an uptick in racist incidentsWhen Toronto resident Terri Chu tweeted that she and other Chinese mothers feared the "inevitable wave of racism" that would accompany the spread of coronavirus around the world, she didn't realize how visceral the reactions would be."My Twitter has just exploded with vitriol since this morning," she said on Tuesday. "But it's just par for the course, growing up as a minority when you're not part of a dominant class."Canada has so far seen three confirmed cases of the virus, which originated in China, but members of the country's Chinese community have already become the target of racism.What is the virus causing illness in Wuhan?It is a member of the coronavirus family that has never been encountered before. Like other coronaviruses, it has come from animals, or possibly seafood. New and troubling viruses usually originate in animal hosts. Ebola and flu are examples.What other coronaviruses have there been?Severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) and Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome (Mers) are both caused by coronaviruses that came from animals.What are the symptoms of the Wuhan coronavirus?The virus causes pneumonia. Those who have fallen ill are reported to suffer coughs, fever and breathing difficulties. In severe cases there can be organ failure. As this is viral pneumonia, antibiotics are of no use. The antiviral drugs we have against flu will not work. If people are admitted to hospital, they may get support for their lungs and other organs as well as fluids. Recovery will depend on the strength of their immune system. Many of those who have died are known to have been already in poor health.Is the virus being transmitted from one person to another?Human to human transmission has been confirmed by China's national health commission. As of 27 January, the Chinese authorities had acknowledged more than 2,700 cases and 56 deaths. In the past week, the number of confirmed infections has more than tripled and cases have been found in 13 provinces, as well as the municipalities of Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing and Tianjin. The virus has also been confirmed outside China, in Hong Kong, Macau, Japan, Nepal, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, the US, and Vietnam. There have not been any confirmed cases in the UK at present, with the more than 70 people tested for the virus all proving negative. The actual number to have contracted the virus could be far higher as people with mild symptoms may not have been detected. Modelling by WHO experts at Imperial College London suggests there could be as many as 100,000 cases, with uncertainty putting the margins between 30,000 and 200,000.How worried are the experts?There were fears that the coronavirus might spread more widely during the week-long lunar new year holidays, which start on 24 January, when millions of Chinese travel home to celebrate, but the festivities have largely been cancelled and Wuhan and other Chinese cities are in lockdown.At what point should you go to the doctor if you have a cough, say?Unless you have recently travelled to China or been in contact with someone infected with the virus, then you should treat any cough or cold symptoms as normal. The NHS advises that there is generally no need to visit a doctor for a cough unless it is persistent or you are having other symptoms such as chest pain, difficulty breathing or you feel very unwell.Should we panic?No. The spread of the virus outside China is worrying but not an unexpected development. It increases the likelihood that the World Health Organization will declare the outbreak to be a public health emergency of international concern on Thursday evening. The key concerns are how transmissible this new coronavirus is between people and what proportion become severely ill and end up in hospital.Sarah Boseley Health editor and Hannah Devlin The country saw a similar wave of xenophobia during 2003 Sars outbreak, which also started in China.During that panic, many Chinese-run businesses in Canada took steep losses as fear overrode public health advice: Toronto lost an estimated C$1bn as residents and tourists avoided the city, especially areas with a high concentration of Chinese businesses.The irrational public worry that paralyzed much of the city seems to be returning, said Amy Go, the interim president of the Chinese Canadian National Council for Social Justice."I was hopeful it wasn't going to be like 2003. But it's is. It's happening now and it's just going to be amplified [by social media]."When a popular Toronto blog, reviewed a new Chinese restaurant on Instagram on Monday, the post quickly received a torrent of racist comments.And nearly 9,000 parents in the York school district – an area north of Toronto – signed a petition demanding students who had traveled to China in the last 17 days be prevented from attending school."This has to stop. Stop eating wild animals and then infecting everyone around you," wrote one petition signer. "Stop the spread and quarantine yourselves or go back."On Monday, the board – which represents 208 schools – condemned the petition amid fears students will be targeted based on their ethnicity."We are aware of an escalated level of concern and anxiety among families of Chinese heritage," wrote York board chair Juanita Nathan and education director Louise Sirisko. "Individuals who make assumptions, even with positive intentions of safety, about the risk of others, request or demand quarantine can be seen as demonstrating bias and racism."Chu said fears about the coronavirus were disproportionate."Air pollution and the proliferation of STDs are far greater public health risk to my kids than the coronavirus right now – it's being completely blown out of proportion," she said. The total death toll of Sars in Canada was 44, she said. "Last year in Toronto, 41 people got hit by cars."Racist responses have also been seen in other countries with Chinese diaspora communities. In Australia, Queensland MP Duncan Pegg warned residents of false health bulletins circulating online that stoked fear of communities with high proportions Asian residents.But Go also said that the reactions in Canada – which includes some of the most ethnically diverse cities in the world – expose a current of everyday racism which is always present."Two or three months from now, the coronavirus will likely be gone. But this is not just a public health issue. This is an issue of racism in Canada. "The best thing to come from this – the best impact – would be people collectively learning that we can do better."
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| Bloomberg says he didn't bother to keep Trump's cellphone number Posted: 28 Jan 2020 07:13 PM PST  Bloomberg told CBS News about advice he gave Trump after he was elected but before he took office.
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| Priests accused of sex abuse in religious order shut by Vatican Posted: 29 Jan 2020 10:41 AM PST  Nine members of a religious order that was abruptly shuttered by the Vatican are under investigation for sex assault, the dioscese confirmed Wednesday, after allegations emerged linking the group to the abuse of two young brothers. Prato Bishop Giovanni Nerbini, who reported allegations against priests and lay members of the now defunct Disciples of the Annunciation community to police, pledged the church's cooperation in the case. The siblings were boys at the time of the suspected abuse, but came forward to denounce it as adults.
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| She Says He Raped Her Over 40 Years Ago. Now He's a Suspected Serial Killer. Posted: 28 Jan 2020 01:56 AM PST  When Fran met Bruce Lindahl, he didn't seem like a monster. Today, more than 40 years later, she considers herself lucky to be alive.She was 15 and Lindahl was in his early twenties when he first invited Fran and her friends over to his apartment in Lisle, Illinois, she recalled to The Daily Beast. He would buy alcohol for the girls and host parties at his place with his live-in girlfriend.He initially seemed like a "wonderful person," according to Fran, whose last name is being withheld at her request. (The Daily Beast does not name survivors of sexual violence without their consent.) He took her ice skating or to the movies, and even earned the trust of Fran's mother, who allowed him to be the adult driver in the passenger seat when she only had her learner's permit. Perhaps most of all, he was charming, she said.Now, police say Lindahl—who has been dead since the 1980s—could easily prove to be a serial killer.Is a Serial-Killer Gang Murdering Young Men Across the U.S.?On Jan. 13, police detectives in Lisle, a Chicago suburb, announced that thanks to advanced DNA forensics they were able to tie Bruce Lindahl to the murder of Pamela Maurer of Woodridge, who was found strangled on the side of a road in 1976. Mauer, who was just 16 at the time, decided to walk to a nearby store to buy a Coke that night. Police found her body the next morning. Perhaps most disturbing about the latest developments in the case: The lead detective, Chris Loudon, suggested DNA evidence could eventually tie Lindahl to dozens of other victims of violent crimes ranging from rape to murder."If Bruce wouldn't have accidentally killed himself, the death toll would have likely been astronomical," Loudon told The Daily Beast, adding that he would "bet his entire paycheck" Lindahl was responsible for at least nine murders—and may be linked to 12. And with at least 25 tips coming in daily, Loudon said, he believed that number could grow. He and fellow officers have leaned on some of the same techniques that were at least partially responsible for the capture of the suspected Golden State Killer, Joseph James DeAngelo, in 2018. Through DNA databases from popular services like 23andMe, a composite sketch was created. It bore a striking resemblance to Lindahl.Lindahl often had run-ins with the law, and investigators had suspected him in a number of heinous crimes prior to his death in 1981. He was charged with kidnapping and raping a woman named Debra Colliander in 1980, but the case fell apart when the victim went missing two weeks before she was set to testify. Her body was discovered in 1982.By then, Lindahl was dead, having been found in an apartment in the nearby Chicago suburb of Naperville, draped over 18-year-old Charles Huber. Detectives concluded Lindahl accidentally severed his own femoral artery while stabbing the young man 28 times with a six-inch kitchen knife.But Fran knew Lindahl was capable of wanton brutality and violence before police did.When she was still a teenager, Lindahl invited her over for drinks early one morning, which had become a regular occurrence by then. When Fran arrived, she recalled, he had her favorite—a scotch on the rocks—ready for her. But after just a couple of sips, she said, she dropped the drink, lost control of her motor functions, and went limp.Lindahl proceeded to attack her, she said, stripping her of her clothes, taking photographs of her in various poses, and raping her. She recalled the assault continuing until she grew "very, very sick."She said she asked Lindahl to take her to a nearby hospital and that he refused, insisting she was OK. Instead, Fran remembered Lindahl going so far as to take some of her friends skiing that same day. She spent the day trying to sleep in the back of his car.Despite the assault, Fran added, she didn't feel comfortable completely distancing herself from Lindahl, and their relationship—abusive and violent though it was—would continue for a few more years. "When Bruce said jump, I said, 'How high?'" she said.At the time, and perhaps even today, Fran says, she felt responsible for what happened to her. Although she was just a teenager, she described some sexual encounters with Lindahl that were "consensual" in her mind.She didn't tell any of her friends or family. Not only did she worry about being believed, she felt that Lindahl would do "something terrible" to her.Fran recalled another night when Lindahl insisted she come over to his place. When she arrived, Lindahl's girlfriend was sleeping in the next room. He then forced Fran to perform oral sex on him and demanded she sneak out the window when he was finished, she recalled."I thought if I screamed, he would hurt me," she said. Fran still remembers the last time she saw Lindahl, too.She was 18 and had taken a job that required her to work the graveyard shift. That meant she almost never saw Lindahl anymore. She thought she had escaped him, or perhaps that he had moved on to other women.Until one morning, when she passed Lindahl's car on the way home from work. Lindahl must have been waiting for her; he followed her back to her house.She pleaded with Lindahl that she was tired from work and needed sleep, but he ignored her and followed her into the house, she said. When he grabbed the family Polaroid camera and followed her upstairs, she feared the worst.To this day, Fran isn't entirely sure how she convinced Lindahl to leave that morning. But she was able to coax him out of the house and escape unharmed.Learning of his death was the only way out of being haunted by him."I was thrilled," she said, recalling relief washing over her when she saw him on local news.Fran never allowed Lindahl to define her life. She started a family and worked hard; years would go by without her thinking about the man. But she never stopped worrying about Lindahl's girlfriend, she said.Years after Lindahl died, she thought she ran into her in a Chicago suburb. When Fran asked if she was who she thought she was, the woman denied it and turned white. She was living under a different name than Fran remembered, she said. "I always worried that maybe she didn't know Bruce was dead," she said. "That maybe she was living her life in hiding."Over the years, Fran has grappled with guilt and wondered if she should have spoken up sooner. But when she saw the news of his being tied to so many other grisly crimes, she realized how close she may have come to becoming one of Lindahl's alleged murder victims herself.She said she doesn't feel brave or courageous telling her story. But after reading pleas from detectives in media reports, she felt the need to come forward. "I always felt like everything was my fault. I guess I've always been that way," she said. She subsequently reached out to police and was interviewed by Detective Loudon. Still, Fran added, she couldn't help suspecting that keeping her head down saved her at a time when perpetrators of sexual violence were even less likely to be prosecuted than they are today."Somehow, I always knew to be afraid," she said. "I feel lucky I kept my mouth shut."Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| China virus turns Macau into gambling ghost town Posted: 29 Jan 2020 12:07 AM PST  The Chinese territory of Macau has become a near-ghost town during what is typically the busiest time of year in the world's biggest casino hub, after authorities announced a raft of measures to keep visitors away and contain the new coronavirus. The local government late on Tuesday said it would curb its individual visit scheme through which visitors gain entry from mainland China, days after it suspended inbound package tours. The steps come as deaths from the coronavirus reached 132 in China on Wednesday with 1,500 new cases.
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| Democrats’ Plan for 100% Clean Power Panned by Some Greens Posted: 28 Jan 2020 12:36 PM PST ![Democrats' Plan for 100% Clean Power Panned by Some Greens]( "Democrats' Plan for 100% Clean Power Panned by Some Greens") (Bloomberg) -- Sweeping climate legislation unveiled Tuesday by House Democrats is drawing fire from a surprising source: environmentalists.The criticism from some progressive green groups illustrates the challenges House Democrats face in appeasing both the left and moderate wings of their party as they aim to pass major climate legislation this year. It also underscores the clash between idealism and pragmatism on how to best reduce emissions.The proposed legislation, the first major Democratic climate bill in the House in more than 10 years, was released Tuesday by New Jersey Democratic Representative Frank Pallone and other leaders on the Energy and Commerce Committee. It sets a goal of achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and require utilities to obtain 100% of their electricity from clean sources.But the bill's failure to phase out fossil fuels is drawing the ire of progressive environmental groups, such as Friends of the Earth, which says it not only leaves open the door for coal but could end up incentivizing the use of natural gas through a clean-energy credit trading program."We need to take radical steps to de-carbonize our economy before 2030," said Lukas Ross, a senior policy analyst for the group. "Leaving intact the national build out of natural gas that was commissioned earlier in the millennium is unacceptable. We need to be getting rid of fossil fuels not allowing them to profit."House Democrats Unveil Climate Goal Short of Ocasio-Cortez'sThe Sierra Club also slammed the idea that coal and gas could be counted as clean energy."We are counting on Congressional Democrats to show bold climate leadership by making clear that dirty fossil fuels including gas are not clean or a part of our transition to 100% clean, renewable energy," Liz Perera, the Sierra Club's climate policy director said in a statement.And the Natural Resources Defense Council stopped short of endorsing the bill but said in a statement prior to the bill's release that it looked forward to "working with the committee members, to ensure that it rises to meet the growing dangers we face from climate change."New York Democratic Representative Paul Tonko, a senior member of the energy committee, called for setting "aside past disagreements" in order to work together to fight climate change."Americans are living, and dying, in the path of unprecedented flooding, raging wildfires, and battering storms driven by Earth's changing climate," Tonko said in a statement.The criticism comes as progressive members, such a Green New Deal author Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democratic New York representative, have called for achieving net-zero emissions by as soon as 2030, arguing that urgent action is needed to stave off a climate catastrophe.But backers of Pallone's effort say their target is more politically realistic as well as technologically achievable.Other highlights of the bill include stringent vehicle emissions requirements, stronger energy efficiency standards for buildings and appliances, the creation of a National Climate Bank to spur investment in clean energy technologies, and a "Buy Clean" program requiring federal purchases of construction materials meet greenhouse gas requirements.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has vowed to act this year on climate "with everyone at the table," an effort that is also being informed by the recommendations of a special climate committee being led by Florida Democratic Representative Kathy Castor by the end of March.To contact the reporter on this story: Ari Natter in Washington at anatter5@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Jon Morgan at jmorgan97@bloomberg.net, Elizabeth WassermanFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| QAnon conspiracy theorists are telling people to drink bleach as a cure against the deadly Wuhan coronavirus Posted: 29 Jan 2020 05:46 AM PST  Consuming the toxic bleach, also known as "Miracle Mineral Solution," causes severe nausea, vomiting, and can even be fatal.
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| Ex-children's doctor charged with abusing adoptive daughter Posted: 29 Jan 2020 12:58 PM PST ![Ex-children's doctor charged with abusing adoptive daughter]( "Ex-children's doctor charged with abusing adoptive daughter") A former emergency room doctor at Children's Hospital Wisconsin, charged with physically abusing a newborn he was adopting with his wife, denies he did anything wrong and wants the case dismissed next month. The case is receiving tremendous scrutiny by the medical community around the county, with physicians disagreeing on what exactly caused the injuries to the adoptive daughter of 39-year-old John M. Cox and his wife, Sadie Dobrozsi, a pediatric oncologist at Children's. They have hired more than a dozen experts to question the conclusions from Children's physicians, whose initial investigation led to Cox's charges eight moths ago. NBC News first reported Cox's story Monday.
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| Former U.S. diplomat thinks Trump's Middle East peace plan will 'deepen' Israel-Palestine conflict Posted: 28 Jan 2020 11:17 AM PST  President Trump unveiled his administration's Middle East peace plan alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday, just hours after Netanyahu was indicted on corruption charges.The two leaders touted the two-state plan as a "win-win" for Israel and Palestine. Trump promised $50 billion in international aid to build up the Palestinian state, which would house its capital in East Jerusalem, leaving Israel in control of a unified Jerusalem. The White House included a perplexing-looking map of the proposed solution, complete with a tunnel connecting Gaza and the West Bank.> Trump's map. A Palestinian state on 75% of the West Bank more or less; Palestinians get "land swap" in the Negev and remote neighborhoods of East Jeruaslem; Tunnels and roads connect the whole thing. 15 settlements remain as enclaves, and so does the Israeli military. pic.twitter.com/e4xcwyGmrC> > — Amir Tibon (@amirtibon) January 28, 2020Many of the early reactions to the proposal were critical — analysts like Nicholas Burns, a Harvard professor and former U.S. diplomat, anticipate a rejection from the Palestinians and even an escalation of tensions between the two sides since it does little to curb Israeli settlements in the West Bank in the long run.> President Trump's Middle East plan is clearly good for Israel but not for the U.S. It forfeits any presence of fairness and consigns the Palestinians to live as stateless people on their own land. It will deepen, rather than resolve, this seven-decade conflict. https://t.co/57ysjbV6ww> > — Nicholas Burns (@RNicholasBurns) January 28, 2020Neighboring Jordan warned against the "annexation of Palestinian lands" in response to the plan, as well. But it does have at least one potential fan. U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson reportedly said that after speaking with Trump earlier in the day, he thinks it could help pave the way forward.More stories from theweek.com It's 2020 and women are exhausted The 3 kinds of Republicans that Bolton's testimony would reveal The tragedy of Joe Biden
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| Fotis Dulos, who is accused of killing his wife, is in critical condition after an apparent suicide attempt Posted: 29 Jan 2020 05:55 AM PST  Farmington Police found Fotis Dulos unresponsive while conducting a welfare check Tuesday, after he failed to show up for a court date.
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| Modi says India could defeat Pakistan 'in 10 days' Posted: 29 Jan 2020 05:24 AM PST  India is capable of making Pakistan "bite the dust" in less than 10 days in any new war with its arch-rival, according to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The nuclear-armed neighbours have fought three wars, and last February came close to a fourth with tit-for-tat airstrikes sparked by an attack on Indian troops in Kashmir. Pakistan swiftly rejected the "belligerent rhetoric", calling Modi's comments "irresponsible and war-mongering".
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| Four co-workers in Germany contract coronavirus after Chinese colleague visits Posted: 27 Jan 2020 05:45 PM PST  Four people who work at the same company in southern Germany have been infected with the coronavirus, and one of them contracted it from a colleague visiting their workplace in China, officials said on Tuesday. The cases raise concerns about the spread of the flu-like virus that broke out in the central Chinese city of Wuhan at the end of last year and has killed 106 people and infected more than 2,800 people. In one of the first cases of person-to-person transmission outside China, a 33-year-old man apparently contracted the virus on Jan. 21 during a training session with a Chinese colleague, the ministry said.
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| Is It Time to Stop Using Avast Antivirus Software? Posted: 29 Jan 2020 09:40 AM PST  Though data collection is a fact of life these days, many consumers were surprised to discover that Avast—maker of antivirus software designed to protect computers from security threats—has been ...
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