| Grandparents, uncle charged in beating death, torture of Montana boy Posted: 18 Feb 2020 12:48 PM PST  During the investigation into the boy's death, police seized cellphones belonging to the suspects that showed the family torturing him, the affidavit says.
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| REVEALED: China's Secret Reasons for Imprisoning Uyghurs Posted: 18 Feb 2020 07:39 AM PST  Yet another leak from inside the communist state.
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| Cuba burning tires to power factory as US oil sanctions bite Posted: 17 Feb 2020 12:10 PM PST  The Cuban government has ordered a cement factory to burn old tires to power its operations and save on oil, amid a worsening fuel shortage brought on by US sanctions on the Communist island. On orders of President Miguel Diaz-Canel, the firm Cementos Cienfuegos, located in the center of the country, will receive an increasing supply of used tires to burn, the official daily Granma said Monday. Cuba has been suffering oil shortages since last September, when the administration of President Donald Trump imposed sanctions on ships carrying petroleum to the island from its main fuel supplier Venezuela.
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| Huge locust outbreak in East Africa reaches South Sudan Posted: 18 Feb 2020 08:39 AM PST  The worst locust outbreak that parts of East Africa have seen in 70 years has reached South Sudan, a country where roughly half the population already faces hunger after years of civil war, officials announced Tuesday. Around 2,000 locusts were spotted inside the country, Agriculture Minister Onyoti Adigo told reporters. The locusts have been seen in Eastern Equatoria state near the borders with Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda.
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| U.S. imposes new rules on state-owned Chinese media over propaganda concerns Posted: 18 Feb 2020 11:34 AM PST  The Trump administration said on Tuesday said it will begin treating five major Chinese state-run media entities with U.S. operations the same as foreign embassies, requiring them to register their employees and U.S. properties with the State Department. Two senior state department officials said the decision was made because China has been tightening state control over its media and President Xi Jinping has made more aggressive use of them to spread pro-Beijing propaganda. "The control over both the content and editorial control have only strengthened over the course of Xi Jinping's term in power," said one official.
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| Bernie Sanders surges ahead of rivals in new national poll Posted: 18 Feb 2020 08:47 AM PST  Bernie Sanders has surged to 31 per cent support nationally in a new poll – his highest rating of the primary season so far.
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| Group of more than 1,000 judges calls emergency meeting amid Trump concerns Posted: 18 Feb 2020 07:50 AM PST  Judges will meet to address alarm over the president intervening in politically sensitive casesA national association of federal judges has called an emergency meeting to address growing concerns about the intervention of Donald Trump and justice department officials in politically sensitive cases, according to US media reports.Cynthia Rufe, a Philadelphia US district judge who heads the independent Federal Judges Association, which has more than 1,100 members, told USA Today the group "could not wait" until its spring conference to discuss the matter."There are plenty of issues that we are concerned about," Rufe told USA Today. "We'll talk all of this through."The meeting comes after more than 2,000 former US justice department officials, including some of the top government lawyers in the country, called on the attorney general, William Barr, to resign in the wake of the Roger Stone scandal.Alumni of the Department of Justice posted to Medium on Sunday a group letter that tore into Barr for "doing the president's personal bidding" in imposing on prosecutors the recommendation of a reduced sentence for Stone, a longtime friend of Trump who was convicted of lying to and obstructing Congress and threatening a witness in the Russia investigation.Barr, the officials said, had damaged the reputation of the department for "integrity and the rule of law".The spiralling constitutional crisis began last week when Barr imposed his new sentencing memo, slashing a seven- to nine-year proposed prison term suggested by career prosecutors. In the fallout, the four prosecutors who had handled the case resigned in disgust.US district Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who is presiding over the Stone's case, has ordered both sides to participate in a conference call on Tuesday to discuss the status of the case. Following the call, it was confirmed that Stone's sentencing would go ahead on Thursday.Rufe voiced her strong support for Jackson, according to USA Today."I am not concerned with how a particular judge will rule," Rufe said. "We are supportive of any federal judge who does what is required."It was not clear whether the FJA would issue a statement after the emergency meeting. The Guardian contacted the FJA for comment.
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| The cruise industry has been rocked by the coronavirus. Here's you how can find out if your ship has been impacted. Posted: 18 Feb 2020 11:53 AM PST  Cruise companies like Carnival Corp. and Royal Caribbean Cruises have been affected by the Wuhan coronavirus.
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| Missing Milwaukee woman, two daughters found dead in garage Posted: 17 Feb 2020 09:04 AM PST  Amarah Banks, 26, Zaniya Ivery, 5, and Camaria Banks, 4, were discovered after the arrest of Banks' boyfriend, Arzel J. Ivery, in Memphis, Tennessee, authorities said.
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| The Turkish Trap: How Erdogan Made New Enemies and Enraged the Arab Community Posted: 18 Feb 2020 11:48 AM PST  As Recep Erdogan sends Turkish troops and Syrian rebel fighters into Libya, it has become clear that the Syrian forces Turkey-backed were never meant to fight for Assad but instead do Turkey's bidding.
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| Hunter Biden Served on Board of Trade Group That Lobbied Obama Admin for Increased Ukraine Aid: Report Posted: 18 Feb 2020 08:28 AM PST  Hunter Biden, son of former vice president Joe Biden, was on the board of a trade group that lobbied the Obama administration for increased U.S. aid to Ukraine, according to a report Tuesday.From 2012 through 2018, the younger Biden served as a director for the Center for U.S. Global Leadership and was connected as well with its affiliate, the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, The Daily Caller reported. The two groups, which include about 400 larger corporations and non-government organizations, lobbied for increased spending abroad by the State Department's International Affairs Budget, including a special focus on Ukraine.At the time, Joe Biden was also advocating for increased U.S. spending in Ukraine.Hunter Biden's small private equity firm, Rosemont Seneca, featured other well-connected politicos as well, including his partner Devon Archer, who was a former adviser on Obama Secretary of State John Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign, and another partner, Kerry's son-in-law Christopher Heinz."Hunter Biden works for [Archer]. So we've got the top level politicos with us. All of my guys, is as top tier as it gets," a businessman named Bevan Cooney wrote in text messages released in connection with an unrelated criminal case against Archer. "You don't get more politically connected and make people more comfortable than that."In 2013, the groups held an event honoring Joe Biden for his work supporting increased spending abroad, an event Hunter Biden was also introduced as having a "very special relationship with our honoree."Biden's separate lucrative position on the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings while his father was vice president and in charge of addressing corruption in Ukraine has also drawn scrutiny and featured prominently in the impeachment proceedings against President Trump. That position earned Biden at least $50,000 a month for his advice on "transparency, corporate governance and responsibility, international expansion and other priorities."During a July 25 phone call with Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump asked Zelensky to help his administration investigate allegations that Joe Biden used his position as vice president to help the Ukrainian gas company avoid a corruption probe soon after Hunter Biden was appointed to its board of directors. That phone call led to an Intelligence Community whistleblower complaint that ultimately sparked a formal impeachment inquiry into Trump's actions.Biden has said that in the spring of 2016, during his tenure as vice president, he called on Ukraine to fire the top prosecutor investigating the energy company paying his son. Biden suggested he would withhold $1 billion in U.S. aid to Ukraine if the country did not fire the prosecutor, who was accused by the State Department and U.S. allies in Europe of being soft on corruption.
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| Virginia lawmakers reject assault weapons ban Posted: 17 Feb 2020 08:51 AM PST  Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam's push to ban the sale of assault weapons failed on Monday after some of his fellow Democrats balked at the proposal.
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| US border clampdown forces Venezuelan teen into Mexico alone Posted: 18 Feb 2020 08:39 AM PST  A Venezuelan teenager has been forced back to Mexico by U.S. government authorities who denied her claims that she was fleeing political repression and violence, even after they accepted the same claims from her father. The teenager, who is being identified by only her first name, Branyerly, is living alone in Matamoros, Mexico, across from Brownsville.According to her attorney,U.S. border agentson Monday and Tuesday denied her requestsnot to be sent back under the Trump administration's so-called "Remain in Mexico" program for migrants. Branyerly and her father could not request asylum under another Trump policy, a ban on most asylum claims at the southern border for people who came through a "third country." But in January, an immigration judge allowed her father, Branly, into the U.S. by granting what's called withholding of removal, which requires meeting a higher legal standard.
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| 'Tiger widows' shunned as bad luck in rural Bangladesh Posted: 17 Feb 2020 11:31 PM PST  Abandoned by her sons, shunned by her neighbours and branded a witch. Women like her are ostracised in many rural villages in Bangladesh, where they are viewed as the cause of their partner's misfortune. "My sons have told me that I am an unlucky witch," she told AFP in her flimsy plank home, in the honey-hunters' village of Gabura at the edge of the Sundarbans -- a 10,000-square-kilometre (3,860-square-mile) mangrove forest that straddles Bangladesh and India.
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| 'It’s reunion porn': Military wives say Trump’s SOTU stunt disrespected families of servicemen Posted: 18 Feb 2020 10:44 AM PST  The State of the Union served as President Donald Trump's moment to grandstand his administration's achievements to Congress while also introducing guests he brought in from across the US.Among them that evening was army spouse Amy Williams and her two children. Mr Trump introduced them to the room towards the end of his speech by commending her for carrying on while her husband, Sergeant Townsend Williams, was deployed in Afghanistan over the past seven months.
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| 14 Americans who got the coronavirus from the quarantined cruise ship in Japan were flown home in an 'isolation box' at the back of the plane Posted: 17 Feb 2020 03:12 AM PST  Thousands were quarantined on the Diamond Princess for more than a week over coronavirus fears. Americans coming home will be quarantined again.
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| New Mexico woman who was pregnant with third child still missing three years later Posted: 17 Feb 2020 11:20 AM PST  Elizabeth Brooks Hernandez, 29, was last seen by her boyfriend, Miguel Martinez, who told police he dropped her off at a welfare office in Albuquerque, New Mexico on November 16, 2017. Police suspect foul play, but no arrests have been made. The Albuquerque Police Department is investigating.
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| The Democratic National Committee Is Changing the Rules for Michael Bloomberg Posted: 18 Feb 2020 08:39 AM PST  Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has become the last candidate to qualify for tomorrow's Democratic presidential hosted by NBC and MSNBC. He should thank the DNC.
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| George H.W. Bush deputy attorney general says ex-colleague Barr is creating a 'banana republic' Posted: 18 Feb 2020 04:00 AM PST  More than 2,000 former Justice Department officials, current federal prosecutors, and federal judges are urgently concerned about Attorney General William Barr's evident politicization of the Justice Department. Even "Trump voters" should be afraid of "Bill Barr's America," a "banana republic where all are subject to the whims of a dictatorial president and his henchmen," Donald Ayer, a former colleague of Barr's and deputy attorney general under President George H.W. Bush, wrote in The Atlantic on Monday. He elaborated on CNN Monday evening.Barr was Ayer's successor as deputy attorney general before starting his first go as attorney general a year later, in 1991. In the 40 years the two men have known each other, Ayer told CNN, Barr has "always had a very strong view that the executive ought to have a great deal of power. I've never known quite how far it would go, and there was never any reason to test it, because when he was attorney general under George H.W. Bush, George H.W. Bush had no interest in being an autocrat. So now we're faced with a situation where Bill Barr has won the job of attorney general under a president who apparently does want to be an autocrat."In The Atlantic, Ayer writes that "it is not too strong to say that Bill Barr is un-American," and he elaborated on CNN. "The reason that I say that he's un-American is because I think it's fair to say, and I think most people would agree with me, that the central tenet of our legal system and our justice system is that no person is above the law," he wrote. "Bill Barr's vision is quite different. Bill Barr's vision is that there is one man, one person who needs to be above the law, and that is the president. ... He said that before he became attorney general but he's now carried it out in many steps."Ayer elaborated on the ways he thinks Barr is harming America in his Atlantic article, concluding that to prevent this "banana republic," America needs "a public uprising demanding that Bill Barr resign immediately, or failing that, be impeached." Read more at The Atlantic.More stories from theweek.com Mike Bloomberg is not the lesser of two evils The first poll of Susan Collins' 2020 senate race shows her tied with Democratic challenger The Democratic Party is weak. Mike Bloomberg could break it.
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| Missing more than a year, an abandoned 'ghost ship' washed ashore on the other side of the Atlantic Posted: 18 Feb 2020 09:50 AM PST  The MV Alta washed ashore in Ireland's County Cork amid Storm Dennis, but the vessel took a more than a year journey from off Bermuda to get there.
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| Tennessee inmate moved to death watch; attorneys seek stay Posted: 18 Feb 2020 09:09 AM PST  Tennessee inmate Nicholas Sutton was placed on a death watch early Tuesday ahead of his scheduled execution later this week for the decades-old killing of a fellow inmate. Meanwhile, Sutton's attorneys made two last ditch appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court. Inmates on death watch are kept under 24-hour surveillance in a cell beside the execution chamber, the Tennessee Department of Correction said.
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| Kidnappers prey with ‘total impunity’ on migrants waiting for hearings in Mexico Posted: 18 Feb 2020 07:37 AM PST  Report finds 80% of migrants waiting have been abducted by the mafia and 45% have suffered violence or violationA score or so migrants crouch in the dark corridor of the safe house where they have been waiting for a month. Today, their turn has come to go back on the road again – not across the US border, however, but deeper into Mexico, to save their skins.Outside, a minivan pulls up, driven by Baptist pastor Lorenzo Ortiz to take the migrants to relative safety, and away from kidnap, extortion and violation.This is Nuevo Laredo, in the north-west corner of Tamaulipas state, opposite Laredo, Texas, the world's busiest commercial trans-border hub. The people waiting to board the van have already crossed into the USA, but have been sent back under the Trump administration's so-called Migrant Protection Protocols - known as "Remain in Mexico" – whereby would be asylum seekers must await their appointed hearing south of the border.MPP was rolled out in January last year, since when an estimated 57,000 people now wait south of the border for their asylum hearing date. Tens of thousands more are waiting just for the initial application for asylum.These are the faces behind statistics in a shocking report by Doctors Without Borders (MSF), which found 80% of migrants waiting in Nuevo Laredo under MPP to have been abducted by the mafia, and 45% to have suffered violence or violation. The door of the safe house opens and blinding sunlight beckons those awaiting, as does Pastor Ortiz, who arrives across the border from Laredo each morning to take a vanload to the larger city of Monterrey, Nuevo León.There can be no tarrying, explains another local pastor, Diego Robles, from the First Baptist church. "If they walk to the corner of the block," he says, "they're likely to be kidnapped."Robles knows the risk he runs. Last August, criminals approached Aarón Méndez, a Seventh Day Adventist managing another shelter nearby, demanding he hand over Cubans in his care, whose relatives in the USA might pay high ransoms for their release.He refused – and has not been seen since, joining the 50,000 disappeared in Mexico's undeclared war since 2006. The safe house – its gate kept closed with padlock and chain – is crammed with some 180 people, mostly indoors, some in a back yard enclosed by breeze blocks.Their stories are terrifying and consistent.Moy Eduardo fled his home in El Salvador after members of the MS-13 gang abducted and killed his brother after the family failed to pay sufficient extortion money. He eventually arrived at Nuevo Laredo bus station, only to be forced into a car and taken to a farm some distance from town. There, he was pistol-whipped, while the kidnappers called his cousin in Atlanta and demanded an $8,000 ransom."They said if I didn't pay, they'd hand me over to 'other people in our organisation'," he recalled. Four days later, his desperate relative wired money, and Moy Eduardo was released.He told the story to US authorities when applying for asylum, "but they didn't believe me and sent me back". Moy Eduardo has a court date in April, but is desperate to leave Nuevo Laredo. "I cannot stay here – they said if they saw me again, they'd kill me"."It's become big business," says Pastor Robles "It's a way for the drug cartels to diversify. It is worse in Tamaulipas than other border states, and worse in Nuevo Laredo than anywhere else in Tamaulipas. There's no formula to the abductions and disappearances – they are kidnapped, beaten, women violated; most return, but not all".Nuevo Laredo was for years controlled by the hyper-violent Zetas group, and is now territory of its offshoot, the North-east cartel. But their one-time associate, now rival, the Gulf cartel is knocking at the gates, backed by the Jalisco cartel, eager for access to the city's vast commercial transit routes into the USA. .While the Zetas/North-east cartel control migrant movement within Nuevo Laredo, the Gulf and Jalisco cartels often bring migrants to the city. And each group sees migrants and asylum seekers as a source of easy money."They go after the ones who've been brought here by a rival cartel. They have to pay twice," says Pastor Ortiz "And the Cubans – because they know the Cubans have richer relatives."Inside the safe house, Yaqueline and her daughter Lisbeth, described how she was given a code by their coyote after fleeing gang violence in San Pedro Sula, Honduras.She was told that in Nuevo Laredo, the word "rana" – frog – would ensure safe passage. But when three thugs approached them outside the government migrant registration offices, they were told the word meant they were property of the enemy; mother and child were bundled into an SUV.Relatives north of the border were again contacted. After five days, they were still unable to find the ransom money, and Yaqueline and Lisbeth were released to find their own way to Pastor Robles' church. Asked if she had been maltreated, Yaqueline lowers her eyes, gestures towards the child, and crossed herself. "The gangs were bad in Honduras, but it is even more dangerous here."All these people have US "Notice to Appear" papers for dates months away, when they will re-cross the bridge into Laredo, Texas, and enter a tent court beside the Rio Grande, for a cursory video-link hearing to a judge hundreds of miles away in San Antonio. Less than 1% are granted asylum.Those summoned to court begin gathering on the Mexican side of the bridge before 4am. A group from Cuba and Venezuela assembles first, manifestly nervous.There are 67 on the docket to appear at the tent court, but by 6am, only 29 are shuffled through into the canvas corridor, to plead their case, and await judgment on a screen from 150 miles away. The rest are presumed to have given up and returned home. Reporters have never been admitted into the Laredo tent court."The authorities make no attempt to intervene, says Pastor Ortiz, "the mafia is right there in the open, and there's nothing done to stop them. It's total impunity for the cartels."Local and national governments play down the abduction emergency. Edwin Aceves, the chief investigator for the Office of Disappeared Persons in Nuevo Laredo, said he had received "no reports of kidnapping and extortion of migrants. These are just rumours."Meanwhile, Mark Morgan, acting commissioner for US Customs and Border Protection, told a round-table of reporters last year he was unaware of reports of kidnapping, while Mexico's foreign minister, Marcelo Ebrard, has said kidnaps were "not a massive number"; his department had information on 20 cases nationally.Mexico's leftwing government cooperates enthusiastically with President Trump's MPP. In contrast to the pastors' buses helping migrants wait in relative safety, government buses chartered depart daily from Nuevo Laredo's state migration centres to take migrants back to the border with Guatemala. Even one of those was hijacked last autumn, surrounded by gunmen aboard pickup trucks, and migrants taken. But here at the safe house, the minivan is ready to take people on a round-trip, to relative safety away from Nuevo Laredo, and then back again to cross the border when their date arrives. The group shuffles out of the front door on to the sidewalk and scrambles onboard. Pastor Robles says a prayer for the road through the front passenger window – and off they go, in the opposite direction to that of their plans, but away from the clutches of the mafia.
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| China-led $280 million Kyrgyzstan project abandoned after protests Posted: 18 Feb 2020 03:56 AM PST |
| The coronavirus is slamming the US travel industry, with experts predicting it will wipe out more than $10 billion in spending from Chinese visitors Posted: 18 Feb 2020 01:51 PM PST  Chinese travelers represented 7% of all visitors to the US in 2019 and 16% of visitor spending. The economic impact is forecast to be worse than SARS.
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| Boy Scouts of America files for bankruptcy Posted: 17 Feb 2020 10:04 PM PST  The venerable non-profit is following the lead of the scandal-wracked Roman Catholic Church.
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| Mexican women protest after seven-year-old's murder Posted: 18 Feb 2020 07:58 AM PST  Dozens of women protested outside the presidential residence in Mexico City on Tuesday following the murder of a seven-year-old girl -- a crime that sparked an uproar in the violence-wracked country. Dressed in black and many with their faces covered, the protesters demanded an end to impunity and violence against women. "Femicide is a state crime," protesters shouted as they demanded that left-wing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador take responsiblity to end violence against women.
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| There’s Zero Chance Bloomberg Would Pick Hillary Posted: 16 Feb 2020 06:24 PM PST  There's no better evidence that Mike Bloomberg's chances of getting the Democratic nomination are on the rise than the fact that the opportunistic Hillary Clinton is already trying to grab a piece of the action.The Drudge Report startled the political world on Saturday by noting that "sources close to Bloomberg campaign" are "considering Hillary as running mate, after their polling found the Bloomberg-Clinton combination would be a formidable force."I have no doubt that Hillary wants back in, and her minions are pushing such rumors. I have no doubt that some of Bloomberg's hundreds of staffers used to work on Hillary's campaign and are pushing the idea internally. I also have no doubt that Mike Bloomberg is smart enough to never go for such a crazy and risky idea.First, Mike Bloomberg needs "woke" progressives behind him and enthused enough to actually voted if he is to win a general election campaign. The last thing he should do is infuriate Bernie Sanders voters by sharing his ticket with the woman they blame for "rigging" the 2016 primaries against him. Recall that 12 percent of Sanders's primary supporters voted for President Trump in the 2016 general election. That is according to the Cooperative Congressional Election Study — a massive election survey of around 50,000 people.Second, the Democratic ticket would be on the old side with a Bloomberg-Clinton ticket. The former New York mayor will be 78 years old at the time of the election this year, and he looks it. Hillary will be 73 years old, and she has a record of not being candid with her health issues. Should something happen to both of them, the next person in line for the presidency, should she remain House speaker, would be 80-year-old Nancy Pelosi.While they would be running against a 74-year-old incumbent president, few would question that Trump projects a vigorous persona. The Democratic Party needs an injection of youth and vitality, not a ticket with two people who barely brush the Baby Boom generation.Third, Hillary Clinton's last job in government was an ethical disaster. Her email scandal, which clearly involved a coverup of just how much she compromised classified information, would have led to her indictment absent an extraordinary amount of political pull in her favor.Then there is the Clinton Foundation. There is extensive evidence that special-interest donors to the foundation sought favors from a responsive State Department. We know from Peter Schweitzer's book Clinton Cash that the State Department helped move along an infamous deal that granted the Russians control of more than 20 percent of the uranium production here in the United States. The company involved in acquiring the American uranium was a very large donor to — you guessed it — the Clinton Foundation.President Obama had actually taken steps to ensure that none of this would happen. Hillary Clinton pledged that she would "avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest" in her work as secretary."How did she do? The Associated Press reported that more than half of the nongovernmental figures who met with Secretary Clinton were Clinton Foundation donors. Huma Abedin, Clinton's closest aide, agreed to help a Clinton Foundation aide get a diplomatic passport. Several key donations went unreported. Many of the emails stored on a private server that could have revealed more errant behavior were permanently destroyed using a program called "bleach bit."In December 2008, the Clinton Foundation and the office of President-elect Obama signed an agreement. In it, the Foundation promised to disclose all of its donors and that foreign governments would not be allowed to contribute to it; Bill Clinton also agreed that he would not personally solicit funds for the Foundation.Many ethics experts scoff at the suggestion that Hillary followed either the letter or spirit of that agreement. Even the New York Times editorial board concluded in 2016 that "the emails and previous reporting suggest Mr. Trump has reason to say that while Mrs. Clinton was secretary, it was hard to tell where the foundation ended and the State Department began."Forget jokes that Mike Bloomberg, if president, would need a food taster if Hillary were his vice president. But could a President Bloomberg be confident that Hillary wouldn't be scarf-deep in scandal and intrigue every day she was his vice president? Could he rely on her word that she would avoid conflicts of interest and other ethical wrongs?Let's not forget that Clinton's shifty record led to a general perception that she was dishonest. A New York Times poll in August 2016, found that 67 percent of registered voters had doubts about her trustworthiness. "It wasn't just emails and the Clinton Foundation," Michael Barone, co-author of the Almanac of American Politics, told me. "When she was First Lady, there was Health-Care Gate, FBI File-Gate, Travel Gate, and Billing Records Gate."Mike Bloomberg has been pressing the notion that scandals have plagued Donald Trump's administration. Why would he want to surrender his claim to the moral high ground by making Hillary his running mate and exposing himself to accurate counterattacks over that by Trump?Michael Bloomberg built his business career and reputation as New York's mayor by sizing up situations dispassionately and coldly. There is no way he is going to look at the prospect of Hillary Clinton joining his ticket as anything other than "risky business."
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| Coronavirus Means the Federal Reserve Must Cut Interest Rates Posted: 18 Feb 2020 10:37 AM PST  History, and SARS, give us a guide of what could happen. A
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| Chinese authorities arrest a prominent rights activist who called on President Xi Jinping to step down Posted: 18 Feb 2020 06:52 AM PST  Chinese authorities have arrested a prominent rights activist and legal scholar who had called on President Xi Jinping to step down over his handling of crises including the coronavirus outbreak, two fellow activists said on Monday.
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| Skydiving instructor, former Army Ranger dies after skydiving accident in Florida Posted: 18 Feb 2020 09:08 AM PST |
| US tells remaining cruise passengers: Stay out for 2 weeks Posted: 18 Feb 2020 03:23 PM PST  The U.S. government made good on its warning to Americans who chose to remain on board a quarantined cruise ship in Japan, telling them they cannot return home for at least two weeks after they come ashore. U.S. officials notified the passengers Tuesday of the travel restriction, citing their possible exposure to the new virus while on board the Diamond Princess. Over the weekend, more than 300 American passengers, including some who tested positive for coronavirus, left Japan on charter flights.
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| Britain's row with Greece over treasures spills into Brexit tensions Posted: 18 Feb 2020 10:25 AM PST  A long-running dispute between Britain and Greece over ancient treasures has spilled into tensions over Brexit after a demand for the return of stolen cultural artefacts was added to the draft of a European Union negotiating mandate. The British Museum in London has refused to return the Parthenon Marbles, 2,500-year-old sculptures that British diplomat Lord Elgin removed from Athens in the early 19th century when Greece was under Ottoman Turkish rule.
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| Man accused of randomly slashing French tourist's throat in New York Posted: 18 Feb 2020 07:48 AM PST  A French photographer visiting New York over Valentine's Day weekend to surprise his girlfriend has survived a random attack that left him with a slashed throat.As reported by the New York Post, 27-year-old Gabriel Bascou was visiting his girlfriend in Harlem, where she is working as an au pair, when a man cut his face and neck with a knife, then fled as the photographer's blood spilled on the sidewalk and his stunned girlfriend kneeled beside him.
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| See This Submarine? It Could Likely End the Human Race (Or Close To It) Posted: 18 Feb 2020 04:22 PM PST  You'd never see them coming.
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| Turkey reveals new plan to buy drones, helicopters and air defense systems Posted: 18 Feb 2020 10:41 AM PST  Turkey's defense procurement agency has unveiled an ambitious procurement plan for 2020, even as its economy seeks to recover from a recession and the government spends money fighting wars in multiple theaters, including Iraq and Syria.
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| Federal judges' association calls emergency meeting after DOJ intervenes in case of Trump ally Roger Stone Posted: 18 Feb 2020 09:57 AM PST  An association of federal judges has called an emergency meeting after Attorney General William Barr intervened in the case of Trump ally Roger Stone.
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| John Oliver explains the pros and cons of Medicare-for-all, goes with the pros Posted: 18 Feb 2020 01:15 AM PST  John Oliver kicked off his new season of Last Week Tonight on Sunday by looking at "an issue that has dominated the Democratic primary -- and I'm not talking about why Tom Steyer doesn't look richer" (though he did address that). Mostly, he tackled Medicare-for-all, comparing the "government-funded, single-payer program" proposed by Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) with the current U.S. system championed by conservatives and, with various degrees of modifications, other Democratic candidates.Conservatives are right, Oliver conceded, that "America does have one of the best health care systems in the world for rich, famous people. Unfortunately, too many people are born in this country with a terrible pre-existing condition called Not Being Beyonce." For so many Americans, "our system is badly broken," he said, not just the 27.5 million with no insurance but also the nearly 44 million underinsured and at risk for bankruptcy from medical expenses.The current system is a patchwork of private insurance, government programs, and crowdsourcing gambles, Oliver said. "Any solution that might put an end to that is worth at least considering, surely, and to be honest, I personally think there is a lot to be said for Medicare-for-all. So tonight, let's take a look at it: Not the politics of whether it can pass, but what it actually is." He focused on the three main objections: Cost, wait time, and choice."I get that big change is scary -- it is human nature to prefer the devil you know over an uncertain alternative -- but the devil you know is still a devil," Oliver said. And for all the U.S. fearmongering about Britain's National health System, "I will be honest with you, I've never had a bad experience and I don't know anyone who has, but since moving to America, I don't think I have met anyone who doesn't have at least one insurance industry horror story." There is a lot of NSFW language -- so much so, it makes sense when Oliver calls the U.S. system "the Kama Sutra of health care." Watch below. More stories from theweek.com Mike Bloomberg is not the lesser of two evils The first poll of Susan Collins' 2020 senate race shows her tied with Democratic challenger The Democratic Party is weak. Mike Bloomberg could break it.
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| Pompeii restoration unearths 'surprise' treasures Posted: 18 Feb 2020 12:39 PM PST  Vivid frescoes and never-before-seen inscriptions were among the treasures unearthed in a massive years-long restoration of the world-famous archeological site Pompeii that came to a close Tuesday. The painstaking project saw an army of workers reinforce walls, repair collapsing structures and excavate untouched areas of the sprawling site, Italy's second most visited tourist destination after Rome's Colosseum. New discoveries were made too, in areas of the ruins not yet explored by modern-day archaeologists at the site -- frequently pillaged for jewels and artefacts over the centuries.
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| Hat's off: Court reverses trooper firing over lost headgear Posted: 18 Feb 2020 10:12 AM PST  A North Carolina state trooper shouldn't have been fired for losing his hat and lying about it, an appeals court ruled Tuesday in a case that's spanned a decade and multiple trips through the courts. The case of the lost hat began in 2009 when former Trooper Thomas Wetherington mislaid his signature round-brimmed hat during a traffic stop. The matter has gone all the way to the state Supreme Court once before, generating more than 1,000 pages of legal briefs, rulings and evidence.
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| Trump says black poverty has been 'reversed'... government data says otherwise Posted: 17 Feb 2020 11:44 AM PST  On its face, President Trump's remark to Fox News personality Sean Hannity about the African-American poverty rate was just another bold pronouncement. But, as often is the case, a review of his government's own data suggest it was something of a whopper — even by his standards.
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| Murdered Mexico City girl buried amid grief, outrage Posted: 18 Feb 2020 12:02 PM PST  A 7-year-old Mexico City girl whose brutal murder has generated national outrage was buried Tuesday as capital officials pledged to tighten rules for children leaving government schools on their own. Fatima, who was seen on video leaving her school on Feb. 11 with an unidentified woman and found days later dead and wrapped in a plastic bag, was laid to rest in front of grieving relatives and neighbors on Mexico City's south side. In Mexico City, even grade-school students often simply walk out of school after classes to meet parents waiting on the sidewalks, but there have been few controls to ensure someone is there to meet them.
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| Bloomberg moves into second behind Sanders among Democrats, Biden third: Reuters/Ipsos poll Posted: 18 Feb 2020 02:44 PM PST  Michael Bloomberg, a late entry into the Democratic presidential race, has moved into second place ahead of onetime front-runner Joe Biden, according to a Reuters/Ipsos national poll released on Tuesday that showed Bernie Sanders widening his lead over the field. The opinion poll taken from Friday to Monday showed 25% of registered Democrats and independents said they would vote for Sanders, 78, a liberal firebrand who won last week's New Hampshire primary. Bloomberg, 78, a billionaire media mogul and former New York mayor, was backed by 17% of respondents, versus 13% for Biden, 77, a former vice president, who long led in national polls among Democrats vying to challenge Republican President Donald Trump in the Nov. 3 election.
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