| As defense opens, Trump attorneys accuse Democrats of 'blind drive' to impeachment Posted: 25 Jan 2020 12:22 PM PST  Attorneys for President Trump opened their defense in his Senate impeachment trial Saturday morning by charging that the case presented by House Democrats was full of "bluster and innuendo," and that "devastating evidence" would lead to the inevitable conclusion that the two articles of impeachment now being considered have no merit.
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| Kobe Bryant was famous for using his Sikorsky S-76 private helicopter, a type that has a strong safety record Posted: 26 Jan 2020 02:06 PM PST  The S-76 was first developed in the 1970s and has developed a reputation for a strong safety record and reliability.
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| U.S. presidential hopefuls Sanders, Biden in tight race in early primary states Posted: 26 Jan 2020 06:55 AM PST  U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders and former Vice President Joe Biden appear locked in a tight race for the Democratic presidential nomination, as both campaigned in Iowa on Sunday with only days left until the first contest. New polling released on Sunday showed Sanders leading in New Hampshire and tied with Biden in Iowa, the first two states to weigh in the Democratic primary. A poll of Iowa voters by CBS found Sanders and Biden statistically tied, with 26% and 25% respectively.
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| Chinese Uighurs in Saudi face impossible choice Posted: 25 Jan 2020 06:18 PM PST  His eyes brimming with tears, a Uighur student in Saudi Arabia holds out his Chinese passport -- long past its expiry date and condemning him to an uncertain fate as the kingdom grows closer to Beijing. The Chinese mission in Saudi Arabia stopped renewing passports for the ethnic Muslim minority more than two years ago, in what campaigners call a pressure tactic exercised in many countries to force the Uighur diaspora to return home. Half a dozen Uighur families in Saudi Arabia who showed AFP their passports -- a few already expired and some approaching the date -- said they dread going back to China, where over a million Uighurs are believed to be held in internment camps.
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| Bloomberg Offers Few Details to Back Up Trillions in Spending Posted: 25 Jan 2020 03:00 AM PST ![Bloomberg Offers Few Details to Back Up Trillions in Spending]( "Bloomberg Offers Few Details to Back Up Trillions in Spending") (Bloomberg) -- Ask Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg how he'll pay for his plans to create jobs, provide health insurance and repair roads and bridges, and you get the same answer: Wait until you see my tax plan.Bloomberg has released almost 20 proposals since joining the race on Nov. 24: $1.2 trillion for infrastructure. $70 billion of federal spending in low-income neighborhoods to aid black homeownership. Another trillion and a half for health care. He hasn't detailed where the money for the ambitious proposals will come from.If Bloomberg comes out of Super Tuesday among the Democratic race's top tier, there will be increasing pressure on him to explain how he's going to pay for his policies, said Don Fowler, a former Democratic National Committee chairman who hasn't endorsed a 2020 candidate."There will be a great hue and cry for him to add substance to his proposals and do it very quickly," Fowler said.Bloomberg's campaign says that it plans to release further details about the tax proposal as soon as next week and that it will show how he plans to pay for his proposals.That would mean details come out before 14 U.S. states vote March 3 on Super Tuesday, the contests on which Bloomberg is staking his campaign. But until then, voters have only heard him say he supports "taxing wealthy people like me" to pay for a growing list of policy proposals.The approach is at odds with Bloomberg's pitch -- that his three terms as New York mayor and in building the company that bears his name show he's a practical problem solver, someone who takes a data-driven approach to running government efficiently.It's also at odds with his Democratic rivals who often explain revenue streams when they propose big programs. No one does that more thoroughly than Elizabeth Warren, whose plan to pay for her $20.5 trillion health care plan ran 19 pages.Not that their estimates have always had pinpoint accuracy. Warren's and Sanders's Medicare For All cost estimates differ by $10 trillion. And academics have found Warren's, Biden's and Sanders's revenue estimates from their tax plans overly rosy.The lack of details hasn't stopped the Bloomberg campaign from rolling out the proposals in his campaign's earliest days, sometimes at a clip of two or three a week. The media has started to notice, as one recent Associated Press article led off by noting the lack of details about paying for a promise to create millions of new jobs.Bloomberg's plans on health care, the economy, climate change and other issues where he specifies costs total more than $3 trillion over 10 years. Many more don't list a cost.Bloomberg is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.His campaign has said it's hard to determine cost estimates because plans are related, and the cost or savings in one proposal can affect another. But the campaign has consistently said that Bloomberg's tax plan will pay for the policies he is releasing.Bloomberg himself has said little about his tax plan other than he supports increasing taxes on the rich but not with a wealth tax. He opposes the wealth taxes proposed by Warren and Bernie Sanders, which would place a tax on the fortunes of millionaires and billionaires.In a Jan. 11 interview, Bloomberg said the corporate tax rate cut in the Republicans' 2017 tax overhaul was necessary for competitive reasons but was too deep, and he opposed the measure's cuts in income-tax rates."I've said I didn't need the cut, and that was the money that we needed for infrastructure," Bloomberg said. "You can expect me to try to rectify that in our proposals."As New York's mayor, Bloomberg increased property taxes by 18.5% in 2003 – the largest in the city's history -- to generate $837 million to plug budget deficits. His poll numbers suffered but he was re-elected in 2005.Other Democratic presidential candidates have released cost estimates and funding sources for their plans in varying levels of detail. Joe Biden has said he would pay for $3.2 trillion in proposals with new and higher taxes on the wealthy and corporations, including a minimum federal levy targeting companies that have reported paying no federal income taxes in recent years.Sanders has said his Medicare-for-All plan alone would cost more than $30 trillion over a decade but hasn't fully detailed how he'd pay for it except to say taxes would go up while out-of-pocket health costs would go down.Leonard Burman, a fellow at the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan policy research group in Washington, said he would expect Bloomberg "to put out a package where the revenues could cover the costs, but it's just really hard to tell what it would look like without knowing the exact price tag and the details." Burman co-founded the Tax Policy Center, which analyzes candidate tax plans.To contact the reporter on this story: Mark Niquette in Columbus at mniquette@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Craig GordonFor 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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| China stiffens its defences against epidemic as death toll hits 56 Posted: 26 Jan 2020 03:59 AM PST  China on Sunday expanded drastic travel restrictions to contain a viral epidemic that has killed 56 people and infected nearly 2,000, as the United States, France and Japan prepared to evacuate their citizens from a quarantined city at the outbreak's epicentre. China has locked down the hard-hit province of Hubei in the country's centre in an unprecedented operation affecting tens of millions of people to slow the spread of the respiratory illness. The previously unknown virus has caused global concern because of its similarity to the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) pathogen, which killed hundreds across mainland China and Hong Kong in 2002-2003.
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| Inmate found dead at Mississippi prison Posted: 26 Jan 2020 02:30 PM PST ![Inmate found dead at Mississippi prison]( "Inmate found dead at Mississippi prison") A Mississippi inmate was found dead in his one-man cell, the corrections department said Sunday, the latest fatality in the state's troubled prison system. Joshua Norman, 26, was found hanging in his cell at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman, according to a news release from the Mississippi Department of Corrections. Sunflower County Coroner Heather Burton said foul play is not suspected in the death.
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| Coronavirus: Five US cases confirmed as officials warn disease could spread to more people Posted: 26 Jan 2020 10:02 AM PST  Five people in the United States who recently travelled to China have been diagnosed with the deadly coronavirus.Officials from the Centres for Disease Control (CDC) said two new cases were reported on Sunday – one in Los Angeles County, California, and the other in Maricopa County, Arizona.
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| Democrats are having a field day after Trump's lawyers accidentally made the strongest case to call witnesses in his impeachment trial Posted: 26 Jan 2020 01:01 PM PST  Democrats are gloating after the president's lawyers complained that there isn't enough firsthand evidence to impeach him.
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| Pope backs Iraqi call for its sovereignty to be respected Posted: 25 Jan 2020 04:56 AM PST  Pope Francis met Iraq's president on Saturday and the two agreed that the country's sovereignty must be respected, following attacks on Iraqi territory this month by the United States and Iran. President Barham Salih held private talks for about 30 minutes with the pope and then met the Vatican's two top diplomats, Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin and Archbishop Paul Gallagher, its foreign minister. The talks "focused on the challenges the country currently faces and on the importance of promoting stability and the reconstruction process, encouraging the path of dialogue and the search for suitable solutions in favor of citizens and with respect for national sovereignty," a Vatican statement said.
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| To Combat the Soviets, the U.S. Almost Built Its Own "Skyfall" Nuclear Powered Missile Posted: 26 Jan 2020 12:00 AM PST  The mistake was narrowly avoided.
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| 3 dead in protest against Gambian head Barrow: hospital Posted: 26 Jan 2020 11:58 AM PST  Three people died Sunday as hundreds of people took to the streets demanding the resignation of Gambian President Adama Barrow who wants to extend his term. Police fired tear gas to disperse protesters who responded by throwing stones and setting tyres on fire, an AFP correspondent at the scene saw. "I can confirm that there have been three dead," said Kebba Manneh, director of the Serrekunda hospital where victims were taken.
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| Death Toll Rises in Turkey Quake as Erdogan Slams Social Media Posted: 26 Jan 2020 01:12 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- A magnitude 6.8 earthquake in Turkey's eastern Elazig province on Friday evening killed at least 31 people and injured hundreds. By Sunday, 45 people had been rescued from the rubble of collapsed buildings.A total of 76 buildings were destroyed and 645 heavily damaged, the Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency, or AFAD, said in a statement. As many as 20 of the 640 aftershocks since the first temblor had a magnitude greater than 4 on the Richter scale, according to the agency.Speaking on Sunday in Istanbul, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan targeted "provocative" social media posts about the earthquake. "Some messages are terrible, depraved," he said, according to the Anadolu Agency. "For example, some question what the government has done about earthquakes in the past two decades."The earthquake occurred at 8:55 p.m. local time on Friday at a depth of 6.75 kilometers (4.2 miles) on the East Anatolia Fault Line. Tremors were felt in many cities across the region.Prosecutors have launched an investigation into social media posts found to be "provocative," Anadolu reported. Two people in Gaziantep province have been detained.Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu, Environment & Urbanization Minister Murat Kurum and Health Minister Fahrettin Koca were in Elazig as of early Sunday to coordinate rescue efforts.Turkey is situated in a seismically active area and is among countries, including China and Iran, that can experience catastrophic earthquakes, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. In 1999, a 7.5-magnitude quake shook the western Marmara region killing thousands of people and damaging more than 300,000 buildings. The nation's economy contracted 3.4% that year.To contact the reporters on this story: Cagan Koc in Istanbul at ckoc2@bloomberg.net;Taylan Bilgic in Istanbul at tbilgic2@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Onur Ant at oant@bloomberg.net, Lars Paulsson, Michael GunnFor 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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| Military investigating video of Navy members shot through peephole Posted: 25 Jan 2020 11:46 AM PST  The Navy is reportedly investigating videos found on the website Pornhub that it believes show unsuspecting Navy service members through a peephole in a bathroom.
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| What's in a Moon Name?: A Guide to Lunar Labels Posted: 26 Jan 2020 09:00 AM PST |
| Postal worker dies a week after being shot while delivering mail in Mississippi Posted: 25 Jan 2020 03:59 PM PST  The local community rallied around Ingold by hosting prayer vigils, dressing in purple and placing purple bows along her mail route.
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| Bloomberg vows steadfast commitment to US aid for Israel Posted: 26 Jan 2020 02:32 PM PST  Michael Bloomberg on Sunday made his case for the presidency to fellow Jewish Americans, vowing not to revisit U.S. aid to Israel -- an approach that contrasts Bloomberg with several of his Democratic rivals, including his only fellow Jewish candidate in the race, Bernie Sanders. Bloomberg, at a speech announcing a coalition of Jewish American supporters in Florida, vowed he would "never impose conditions" on U.S. military aid to Israel if elected. Sanders and rivals Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg have all left open the option of leveraging that aid to dissuade the Israeli government from annexation and settlement expansions in the West Bank.
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| Hong Kong bars Hubei residents from entering city as coronavirus fears intensify Posted: 26 Jan 2020 05:00 AM PST  Hong Kong authorities on Sunday barred residents of China's Hubei province, the center of the coronavirus outbreak, from entering the city, in response to mounting pressure to enact preventative measures to contain the spreading epidemic. The ban includes those who have been in the province in the past 14 days but excludes Hong Kong citizens. Earlier a group of protesters set alight the lobby of a newly built residential building in Hong Kong that authorities planned to use as a quarantine facility for the coronavirus outbreak.
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| Photos show the horrors of Auschwitz, 75 years after its liberation Posted: 26 Jan 2020 06:15 AM PST  Over 1.1 million people were murdered at Auschwitz, including nearly a million Jews. On the day of liberation 75 years ago, only 7,000 were saved.
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| Jordanian charged with 'terror' over tourist stabbings Posted: 25 Jan 2020 04:48 PM PST  A Jordanian court on Sunday levelled "terrorism" charges against a man suspected of wounding eight people in a November knife attack at a popular tourist site. The suspect, Moustafa Abourouis, 22, faces up to 20 years in prison after the stabbing of three Mexicans, a Swiss woman, a Jordanian tour guide and a security officer at the Roman city of Jerash. At a hearing open to the press, prosecutors accused Abourouis of committing a "terrorist act" and "promoting the ideas of a terrorist group" -- a reference to the Islamic State (IS) group.
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| Why Did Iran Finally Tell the Truth About Accidentally Shooting Down Flight 752? Posted: 25 Jan 2020 07:00 PM PST  Tehran was under a lot of pressure.
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| Putin Decides Low-Growth Russia Could Use Some Help From Keynes Posted: 25 Jan 2020 10:00 PM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Explore what's moving the global economy in the new season of the Stephanomics podcast. Subscribe via Apple Podcast, Spotify or Pocket Cast.With time running out on his final term as president, Vladimir Putin evidently wants to end it with a boom.Putin has been a cautious steward of Russia's $1.7 trillion economy, partly to shield it against blowback from his more adventurous foreign policy. For the last five years, he's imposed some of the world's toughest budget austerity. Combined with high interest rates, that's made Russia a favorite of carry-trade investors –- but it's left living standards mired at 2012 levels and economic growth stuck below 2%.Now, the president is changing course –- and channeling an economist whose pro-growth ideas are mainstream almost everywhere else: John Maynard Keynes. Putin just appointed a new cabinet stacked with advocates for more government spending and investment, a Keynesian recipe. And he's told them to hurry up about it.In power for 20 years, Putin gets credit at home for steadying an economy that suffered a decade of chaos and debt default after the Soviet Union collapsed. But lately, stability has threatened to turn into stagnation.Until now, the government hasn't rushed to the rescue. It's pared borrowing to a minimum in the last five years, and has been stashing any spare cash from Russia's commodity exports into a massive rainy-day fund."Russia's first priority was to secure its borders to reduce its vulnerabilities," said Elina Ribakova, deputy chief economist at the Institute of International Finance in Washington. "At the time, it would've been wrong to lean on Keynesian theories. Now they're so comfortable on that front that it's time to start thinking about how to boost potential growth."'Feel the Change'Western sanctions and volatile oil prices have been a key reason for Putin's "fortress Russia" approach, which aimed to make the economy self-sufficient. But the turn to Keynesian stimulus shows that Russia isn't walled off from wider currents of economic thinking. There's been a similar shift in other countries.The U.S. has widened budget deficits even after a decade-long expansion, and the U.K. and Germany have begun to shift away from austerity. India and Turkey are trying to boost growth via fiscal policy.At the first meeting of Russia's new government, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said he wants to get the spending spree underway quickly. Russians should "feel the changes in their lives and surroundings in the near future," he said.Mishustin has appointed former Kremlin adviser Andrey Belousov, who's lobbied for more government borrowing and spending, as his deputy premier. Evgeny Yasin, a director at Russia's Higher School of Economics and one of the country's most prominent economists, calls Belousov a "Russian Keynesian.""Russian political changes at this moment have one goal: to boost economic growth," Billionaire Oleg Deripaska, founder of aluminum producer United Co Rusal Plc, told Bloomberg Television in Davos.There are limits to how far he can loosen the purse-strings. The government is sticking to a budget law that says revenue from oil above $42 a barrel (it currently trades around $61) must be saved, not spent.Still, extra spending this year could total 2.1 trillion rubles ($34 billion), or 1.3% of gross domestic product, according to calculations by ING Groep NV in Moscow. The government will likely tap its rainy-day fund and release about 500 billion rubles left over from last year's budget, which posted a surplus equal to 1.8% of GDP.Any Means NecessaryA key part of the fiscal push will be speeding up an existing plan to invest $400 billion in things like highways, housing and ports over four years. The so-called National Projects got mired in bureaucracy and made little progress in 2019.Other elements are new. Putin proposed last week to spend about $65 billion through 2024 on expanding benefits for families and the poor.Putin's growth program relies mainly on state spending because increased pressure on business and a still-uncertain sanctions outlook has stalled private-sector investment.Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina argues that Russia needs structural reform aimed at improving the business climate and increasing competition. Putin has long claimed to support such measures, but never made much progress on implementing them."This isn't a market economy," and Putin doesn't follow any particular economic principles, Yasin said. The president "uses any methods that seem necessary to him in order to maintain full control."His latest methods may not deliver much of a boost right away. Budget easing will probably add 20 or 30 basis points to economic growth rates in the short term, according to Bloomberg Economics.But as Keynes always argued, spending is better for growth than squirreling away money. Markets have generally welcomed the shift –- including even some of the bond investors who've reaped rewards from years of tight policy.Russian austerity was geared all along to "preparing for a future crisis," said Oleg Shibanov, a finance professor at Moscow's New Economic School."Russia is prepared now," he said. "I expect that there'll be more spending and more investment."\--With assistance from Anya Andrianova.To contact the reporters on this story: Natasha Doff in Moscow at ndoff@bloomberg.net;Evgenia Pismennaya in Moscow at epismennaya@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Gregory L. White at gwhite64@bloomberg.net, Ben HollandFor 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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| Scientists say this planet could unlock insights about Earth Posted: 24 Jan 2020 07:45 PM PST  Venus' heat-trapping atmosphere – 97% carbon dioxide – and 900-degree average surface temperature present both a challenge and an opportunity for learning about Earth's formation.
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| Fifth U.S. Case of Coronavirus Confirmed in Patient Who Traveled From Wuhan, China Posted: 26 Jan 2020 06:54 AM PST  Several new cases of the deadly coronavirus have been confirmed in the U.S., bringing the total infections to five as the situation in China, where the bug originated, grows increasingly dire.Health officials revealed Sunday morning that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed that a person in Orange, County California, who had traveled from Wuhan, China, has the virus. They are listed in "good condition." Within hours, authorities revealed two more cases: a student at Arizona State University who is "not severely ill" and a patient who reported he was not feeling well when he got off a plane at Los Angeles International Airport. "Everything worked as it should," Dr. Sharon Balter of the L.A. County Department of Public Health. "The patient presented for care, the patient was immediately transported to a hospital, the patient has remained in the hospital."Grim Scenes at Chinese Hospitals as Doctors Rush to Treat Deadly CoronavirusTwo previous U.S.-based cases—a woman in her 60s from Chicago and a man in his 30s from Washington state—have also been confirmed, but the CDC says the risk to Americans is low. "There is no evidence that person-to-person transmission has occurred in Orange County," the CDC said in a statement Sunday. "The current risk of local transmission remains low."All of the U.S. patients had traveled from Wuhan, the epicenter of the health crisis. That's important to note because it means there have been no confirmed person-to-person transmissions inside the U.S.In each case, health officials will now need to trace the patient's steps and identify anyone who had close contact with them so they can be monitored—and then isolated, as well, if they develop symptoms.The new virus—which originated in a market that traded live wild animals and likely passed in snake-to-human contact—has infected more than 2,000 people globally, according to Reuters.Health officials in Canada were tracking down passengers who flew with a man from Wuhan to Toronto via Guangzhou on a China Southern Airlines flight last Thursday after confirming his diagnosis—the first in Canada. China is struggling to contain its outbreak and warned Sunday that doctors there have determined the virus can be passed before the carrier shows symptoms. Ma Ziaowei, head of China's National Health Commission, announced Sunday that the new virus' incubation period is 10 to 14 days, and it is contagious during that time.That finding has not been publicly confirmed by U.S. or global health officials. If true, it would present a major complication for containment. For instance, in the U.S., those who had close contact with confirmed patients are not quarantined unless they have symptoms, under the belief that they are not contagious until then.China's Coronavirus Keeps Spreading but the WHO Still Won't Declare a Global EmergencyChinese authorities have locked down Wuhan and several other cities to stop the virus from galloping across the country, but the U.S. and other countries been given special dispensation to evacuate their citizens. A charter flight from Wuhan to San Francisco with diplomats and private citizens is scheduled for Tuesday, according to CNN. France and Russia have also made similar arrangements. Two new hospitals being built near Wuhan specifically to house those infected with the virus are expected to be completed in the coming week. The Chinese government has also dispatched hundreds of medical officials and military troops to help manage the crisis in the hardest hit areas of the country.As The Daily Beast reported, doctors and nurses are so overwhelmed by the explosion of patients, they are wearing diapers so they don't have to take bathroom breaks. With supplies running low, they are fashioning anti-infection goggles out of spare materials.In a sign of the virus' strength, the the death toll in China has climbed from 41 to 56 in just 24 hours. But no deaths have been yet reported in any of the 40 other countries where the virus has been confirmed. Still, Chinese communities across the world have taken precautions ahead of the Lunar New Year celebrations this weekend, including the cancellation of the annual parade in Paris on Sunday. Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo said Sunday that she had no choice but to cancel the celebrations. "I have met with the Chinese community in Paris. They are very emotional and concerned, and they have decided to cancel the parade that was scheduled for this afternoon at Place de la Republique," Hidalgo said Sunday. "They are really not in a mood to party now." 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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| Investigation underway to determine cause of California helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant, 8 others Posted: 26 Jan 2020 05:14 PM PST  Multiple federal agencies are trying to determine why a helicopter carrying Kobe Bryant and eight others slammed into a hillside near Malibu.
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| Report: Bolton says Trump tied Ukraine funds to Biden probe Posted: 26 Jan 2020 04:42 PM PST  President Donald Trump told his national security adviser he wanted to maintain a freeze on military assistance to Ukraine until it launched political investigations into his Democratic rivals, according to a report in The New York Times on Sunday. The newspaper said John Bolton's description of his exchange with Trump appears in drafts of his forthcoming book. The revelation challenges the defense offered up by Trump and his attorneys in his Senate impeachment trial and raises the stakes as the chamber decided this week whether to seek sworn testimony from Bolton and other witnesses.
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| Philippines lowers volcano danger level Posted: 25 Jan 2020 05:48 PM PST  Philippine authorities also narrowed the exclusion zone around the Taal volcano, which sits in the middle of a lake about 70 km (45 miles) from Manila, to seven kms from 14 kms (4-8 miles).
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| Seven months detained: seven-year-old is longest-held child migrant in US Posted: 26 Jan 2020 01:00 AM PST  Maddie Hernandez and her father, Emerson, fled crime in Guatemala. After months, her parents says she has changedEmerson Hernandez and his daughter Maddie have withstood hunger and thirst.They've been dumped in a threatening border city in Mexico, a foreign country with nowhere to shelter. And, for seven months, they've been locked up at what critics call a "baby jail".The father and daughter have weathered all of this just for a chance at asylum in the United States after they fled a home in Guatemala that's now overrun with crime."I don't want my daughter to grow up in that environment of delinquency. I really am afraid that something could happen to her," Emerson told the Guardian.Maddie has been detained the longest of any child currently held in family immigration detention across the country, her attorneys say. On 17 January, she turned seven years old at Berks county residential center, a controversial detention facility in Pennsylvania where she has spent roughly 8% of her life.Despite her lawyers exhausting the legal avenues that could get her out, the government won't release her and Emerson together.A spokesperson for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), the agency detaining them, said, "ICE's custodial determinations for Mr. Hernandez and Maddie have been based on the merits and factors of their individual cases and are in conformity with the law and current agency priorities, guidelines and legal mandates."Emerson said Maddie has always been strong, but being confined for such a long time has changed her. She's gone from an easy, smiley little girl to someone who has become violent and throws explosive temper tantrums, according to her parents and an attorney."Her change was sudden," Emerson said. "And she says to me, 'When are we going to leave this place?'"The truth is no one knows. The Flores settlement, a landmark 1997 federal agreement that regulates child and family detention, made it the longstanding rule that kids and families should be released within 20 days. But there have been huge exceptions: Bridget Cambria, a lawyer representing Maddie, said the longest she was aware of a child being held through family detention was 707 days.Emerson and Maddie are desperate to see the rest of their family, Maddie's mother, Madelin, and her newborn baby, who still hasn't met his dad. Madelin traveled to the US with a visa and lives in New Jersey, but Maddie's visa application was denied. She and Emerson made a more perilous journey north last spring, when they went a full day without stopping."That day was hard for me," Emerson remembered. "To see that my daughter said to me, 'Papi, I'm thirsty, Papi, I want to eat,' and I had nothing to give her."Madelin said she came to the US because she thought her family would be reunited soon after. But Maddie and Emerson were swept into the Trump administration's increasingly hardline immigration policies, and Madelin hasn't seen them since.Last April, Emerson and Maddie finally made it to the US only to be turned back to Tijuana, Mexico, through the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), a Trump-era program that returns people across the border while they await US immigration court hearings.Suddenly, they were homeless in one of the world's most dangerous cities.Emerson called Madelin to say there was no space for them at the local shelter. "I remember that he started to cry, and I did, too, because we didn't know what to do," she said.A US Customs and Border Protection spokesperson said around 57,000 people had been subject to MPP, and in October, Reuters found that 16,000 migrants under 18 had been sent to Mexico.At least 816 violent attacks against migrants under MPP have been reported, including 201 cases of children who were kidnapped or almost kidnapped, according to the not-for-profit Human Rights First.On days when Emerson and Maddie found housing with good Samaritans, she rarely went outside because the city was so dangerous."Tijuana is not a very pretty place, it's not a safe place," Emerson said.After two months in Mexico, they got their opportunity to go in front of a US immigration judge in June. Emerson made the mistake of following advice he said an immigration official gave him. He told the judge that he had come to the US to give his daughter a better life, a line that completely discredited his case.There are immigration laws that protect asylum seekers. There aren't immigration laws that protect devoted parents.The judge gave him two options: he could return to Mexico and, against all odds, continue to fight for the right to come to the US. Or – after all Emerson and Maddie had endured –they could return to Guatemala.Faced with an impossible choice, Emerson opted for the latter because at least if something happened to him at home, his family could look after his daughter and wife. But when he and Maddie boarded a plane, it didn't land in Guatemala. Instead, they took a long trip deep into the country's interior, to Berks county residential center in Leesport, Pennsylvania.The family immigration detention facility garnered national notoriety a few years ago after an employee admitted to sexually assaulting a 19-year-old woman who was being held there. Critics have advocated for its closure, and reports of poor medical care and racism from employees have hamstrung the facility's reputation.But it continues to operate, as it has since 2001.After Emerson and Maddie arrived at Berks, they met Cambria, the attorney who has helped to revive their asylum bid. When the government flew them to San Diego in July and tried to return them to Mexico again, Cambria quickly filed a federal lawsuit to bring them back to Berks, where they've remained ever since.That lawsuit could eventually set a major precedent as to whether children can legally be placed under MPP. A ruling in Maddie's favor would mean other kids like her could sue the government, arguing they shouldn't be sent to Mexico. (Ice's spokesperson said the agency did not comment on pending litigation.)But Maddie didn't come to the US to challenge immigration policy. She's a kid who celebrated a Christmas and a birthday in detention, without her mom and little brother."This little girl is not doing well psychologically, we'll put it that way," said Cambria. "She's saying things that are scary. She's very sad."Ice has offered for Maddie to leave Berks, but without Emerson. This family separation is legally dubious, and Cambria said it was unprecedented in her experience representing immigrant families.Amy Maldonado, another of Maddie's lawyers, said Ice could release both Maddie and Emerson at any time, and has done so for families in similar situations.Cambria said she doesn't know why Ice is treating Emerson and Maddie differently from any other family at Berks. But the detention center is only for parents with children. If Maddie leaves and Emerson doesn't, he'll be sent away to another facility for adults or returned to Mexico.Maddie is so young that she thinks of everything she's gone through as a vacation, and she keeps telling her parents she's ready for the vacation to be over."When I speak to her, she sometimes cries and says, 'Mami, I want to leave already,'" Madelin said."'I want to leave already.'"
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| India police decommission historic British-era rifles Posted: 26 Jan 2020 02:59 AM PST  Police in northern India on Sunday bid goodbye to the historic British-era bolt-action rifles after using them for one last salute during the annual Republic Day parade. The Lee-Enfield .303 rifle was the main firearm of British colonial military forces and, despite being designated "obsolete" around 25 years ago, it has been the main weapon used by police in Uttar Pradesh state over seven decades. "They have been in use since independence (from the British in 1947) and now they'll be replaced by INSAS (Indian Small Arms System) and SLRs (Self-Loading Rifles)," said police superintendent Amit Verma.
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| Pompeo lashes out at journalist; NPR defends reporter Posted: 25 Jan 2020 11:14 AM PST  Secretary of State Mike Pompeo lashed out Saturday at an NPR reporter who accused him of shouting expletives at her after she asked him in an interview about Ukraine. In a personal attack, Pompeo said the journalist had "lied" to him and called her conduct "shameful."
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| Andrew Yang Will be Back on Democratic Debate Stage in February Posted: 26 Jan 2020 09:06 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Businessman and outsider Democratic candidate for president, Andrew Yang, has earned a spot in the upcoming eighth democratic debate in New Hampshire. In order to make the stage for the debate on Feb. 7, candidates have to receive at least 5% in four Democratic National Committee--approved polls or 7% in two early-state polls. Candidates also have to receive at least 225,000 individual contributions. Yang had already met the donor threshold. He earned 7% in a national poll from a Washington Post and ABC News poll and 5% in a Fox News poll, both released Sunday. He had received 5% in a December NPR/PBS/Marist national poll and 5% in an early January Quinnipiac University national poll. Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar, Bernie Sanders, Tom Steyer and Elizabeth Warren have already qualified. Candidates who come out of the Iowa caucus with at least one pledged delegate to the Democratic convention also automatically qualify for the debate. The entrepreneur did not qualify for the last debate in Des Moines. He's currently on a 17-day bus tour of Iowa ahead of the Feb. 3 caucus in that state. (Disclaimer: Michael Bloomberg is also seeking the Democratic presidential nomination. He is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.)This post is part of Campaign Update, our live coverage from the 2020 campaign trail.To contact the author of this story: Emma Kinery in Washington at ekinery@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Ros Krasny at rkrasny1@bloomberg.net, Magan SherzaiFor 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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| NASA is hiring someone to help figure out how to get Mars rocks back to Earth — and the position pays at least $182,000 Posted: 25 Jan 2020 05:31 AM PST  The Mars Sample Return mission aims to get pristine rocks from the red planet back to Earth, perhaps by the end of the decade.
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| 'Doorbell Ditch' Prank Led to Crash That Killed 3 Teens, Officials Say Posted: 25 Jan 2020 07:02 AM PST  A man who the authorities contend deliberately crashed his car into another one on a Southern California road last Sunday, killing three of the six teenagers inside, did so because the group had played a so-called doorbell ditch prank on him, prosecutors said this week.The man, Anurag Chandra, 42, faces several murder charges for his role in the Temescal Canyon Road crash, which the Riverside County District Attorney's Office said Thursday occurred after the boys played a doorbell ditch prank on him.In a doorbell ditch, also commonly known as a ding-dong-ditch, a person rings a doorbell and tries to run away before anyone opens the door.After one of the boys had been dared, all six teenagers drove to a nearby home on Mojeska Summit Road in Corona, about 50 miles southeast of Los Angeles, the district attorney's office said, citing the California Highway Patrol's investigation. The boy rang the doorbell and returned to the 2002 Prius that they were riding in, and the group took off.But Chandra, who lives at the home, chased after them in his 2019 Infiniti Q50, prosecutors said. His car rammed into the back of the Prius, "causing it to veer off the road and into a tree," prosecutors said.Daniel Hawkins, Jacob Ivascu and Drake Ruiz, all 16-year-old passengers, were killed in the crash, prosecutors said. The 18-year-old driver and two other boys, ages 13 and 14, were injured but survived."The circumstances in this case are unusual," John Hall, a spokesman with the Riverside County District Attorney's Office, said in an email Friday. "Based on the evidence in this case, the response and actions taken by the defendant are egregious and extremely disproportionate to a teen ringing a doorbell and running away."Chandra was scheduled to be arraigned Thursday, but "it was continued at the request of the defense," Hall said. A new arraignment has been scheduled for Feb. 21, he said.Chandra "is being held on no bail because this is a potential death penalty case," Hall said. "That is because we have alleged a special circumstance allegation of multiple murders, making him eligible for the death penalty."District Attorney Mike Hestrin of Riverside County will decide whether to seek the death penalty at a later date, he said.Phone calls and messages to numbers listed for Chandra were not immediately returned Friday night. Calls and messages on Friday to the public defender's office, which represented him in court Thursday, were not immediately returned.Speaking to NBC4 in Los Angeles, a bandaged and still-healing Sergio Campusano, the driver of the Prius, said in an interview this week that he had blacked out after the driver of the Infiniti "rammed his car into my back" and his head whipped into his window.Describing the prank, which Campusano said the group came up with during a sleepover, one of the boys was dared to "either jump into a pool at night or go ding-dong-ditch a house."After the boys drove away from the house where the doorbell was rung, the group saw a man from the home following them, and Campusano said the other car got "really, really close.""I was like, 'What is this guy doing?'" Campusano, who tried to drive away from the Infiniti, told the TV station. "Then I felt like a nudge forward, like he hit me from the back.""When he rammed us from the side, I thought, I was like, if anything happens, I love these guys," said Campusano, who described the close-knit group of friends as "all a part of me."The group had been celebrating Jacob's birthday over the weekend, the TV station reported.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| Iranian FM: Tehran still willing to negotiate with US Posted: 25 Jan 2020 04:26 AM PST ![Iranian FM: Tehran still willing to negotiate with US]( "Iranian FM: Tehran still willing to negotiate with US") Iran is not ruling out negotiations with the United States even after an American drone strike that killed a top Iranian general, the country's foreign minister said in an interview released Saturday. Mohammed Javad Zarif told Germany's Der Spiegel magazine that he would "never rule out the possibility that people will change their approach and recognize the realities," in an interview conducted Friday in Tehran. There has been growing tension between Washington and Tehran since in 2018, when President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the nuclear deal with Iran.
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| In Peru, 'they teach you to be ashamed,' indigenous trans candidate says Posted: 25 Jan 2020 11:04 PM PST  The first indigenous transgender candidate to run for parliament in Peru says it's time to end the culture of machismo in the South American country. "I suffered, in my own flesh, the consequences of inequality, discrimination, violence and corruption," Gahela Cari, 27, said in an interview with AFP before Sunday's nationwide parliamentary ballot. "I'm an animal-rights advocate, an ecologist and a student leader," Cari told AFP.
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| Chief Justice Roberts appears uncertain ahead of Senate break Posted: 24 Jan 2020 06:49 PM PST  Chief Justice John Roberts appeared briefly uncertain ahead of the Senate dinner break on Friday evening.
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| Hong Kong Protest Against Quarantine Facilities Turns Violent Posted: 26 Jan 2020 05:47 AM PST ![Hong Kong Protest Against Quarantine Facilities Turns Violent]( "Hong Kong Protest Against Quarantine Facilities Turns Violent") (Bloomberg) -- A protest against a Hong Kong government plan to use a new and unoccupied public housing estate as a possible coronavirus quarantine facility turned violent as demonstrators set fires and destroyed some property.A group of masked protesters initially barricaded a road in the Fanling district to object to a proposal to use a nearby estate as an emergency medical facility. Some said the building was too close to their homes, while others complained that approved applicants risked losing their flats in the estate should it be implemented.Demonstrators blocked roads, built barricades with trash and paralyzed traffic in Fanling, police said. Later, they damaged traffic lights and set fire to the lobby of buildings by throwing petrol bombs, it said. Riot police were seen walking around the estate asking people to show their identities and inspecting their bags.Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam on Saturday upgraded the government's response against the coronavirus to the highest level and said the outbreak could extend the city's recession into 2020. Hong Kong has six confirmed infections as of Sunday.Disease Scare Gives Hong Kong Leader Lam a Diversion From UnrestHong Kong has been on high alert regarding communicable diseases since the 2003 outbreak of SARS, which originated in China's Guangdong province in 2002 and ripped through the financial hub the following year. The virus infected about 2,000 people and killed nearly 300 in Hong Kong, crippling tourism and real estate industries and dealing a major blow to the economy.The government said it readied at least three quarantine facilities and is preparing a fourth for the new coronaviris. It will halt plans to use the Fai Ming Estate in Fanling as a possible site, it said."The government acknowledges and understands that there is concern among some residents in the North District of the requisition of Fai Ming Estate," it said in a statement late Sunday. "Representatives of relevant government departments will attend North District Council meeting this Wednesday to explain and discuss on the issue. Meanwhile, the government will cease the related preparation work in Fai Ming Estate."On Saturday, police fired tear gas to disperse a crowd of protesters who gathered in the crowded shopping hub of Mong Kok at the site of a 2016 protest that marked a violent turn by the city's pro-democracy movement. A rally initially planned for Sunday to mark the so-called Fishball Revolution was canceled.More than seven months of pro-democracy protests have battered the former British colony's economy, undermined its reputation for political stability and increased geopolitical tensions between the U.S. and China. Beijing has governed Hong Kong since 1997 under a "one country, two systems" framework that preserves its freedom of expression, independent courts and capitalist financial system.The demonstrations since June were ignited by a proposed law to allow extraditions to jurisdictions including mainland China. After a couple of months of demonstrations, the government withdrew the bill but the protesters' demands had broadened to include greater democracy and an independent inquiry into police conduct during the unrest.To contact the reporters on this story: Julia Fioretti in Hong Kong at jfioretti4@bloomberg.net;Fion Li in Hong Kong at fli59@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Shamim Adam at sadam2@bloomberg.net, Andrew DavisFor 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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| ‘House did not do their homework,’ GOP senator says on impeachment Posted: 26 Jan 2020 09:51 AM PST  James Lankford said the House didn't do what it needed to do.
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| Russia Is Determined to Buy Stealth Fighters, Bombers, Drones and Even a New Aircraft Carrier Posted: 26 Jan 2020 11:35 AM PST  The Russian armed forces have committed to a wide range of expensive acquisitions programs, in particular new ships and planes. The likely cost strains credulity.
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| Louise Linton briefly posted and deleted a message of support for Greta Thunberg, whom her husband Steve Mnuchin dissed at Davos Posted: 25 Jan 2020 02:36 PM PST  At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Mnuchin dismissed Thunberg as not knowledgable to weigh in on climate issues. His wife took Thunberg's side.
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| Buttigieg warns Sanders could alienate GOP and independent voters Posted: 25 Jan 2020 11:43 PM PST  Buttigieg also discussed Trump's comments on injured military service members in Iraq and countering the rise of Mike Bloomberg.
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| Public anger grows over coronavirus in Thailand, with eight cases of the illness Posted: 26 Jan 2020 04:38 AM PST  The health minister in Thailand, the country with the most confirmed cases outside China of the new coronavirus, called an emergency meeting on Sunday with the transport and tourism ministries amid rising public discontent over the government's handling of the illness. "We can control the situation and are confident in our ability to handle the crisis," Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul told reporters. The number of cases of the disease in Thailand rose on Sunday to eight.
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