| Wisconsin mother, two daughters found dead after Amber Alert issued; boyfriend arrested Posted: 16 Feb 2020 04:30 PM PST  A mother and two daughters were found dead after an Amber Alert was issued Saturday.
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| DNC announces debate qualification threshold for South Carolina Posted: 15 Feb 2020 02:19 PM PST  Candidates will need to win one delegate in the first three states or poll above 10 percent to make the South Carolina debate state.
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| USS Arizona crew member, Pearl Harbor survivor dies age 97 Posted: 16 Feb 2020 02:36 PM PST |
| Syrian government forces consolidate grip around Aleppo Posted: 16 Feb 2020 10:18 AM PST  Maaret al-Naasane (Syria) (AFP) - Syrian regime forces made new gains Sunday in their offensive against the last major rebel bastion in the northwest, seizing villages and towns around second city Aleppo, state media and a monitor said. Backed by Russian air strikes, government forces have kept up the assault on the Idlib region and areas of neighbouring Aleppo and Latakia provinces since December. On Sunday, after clashes and air strikes, regime forces "were in control of all the villages and small towns around Aleppo for the first time since 2012," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
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| Inside the Family's Manhattan Apartment Posted: 16 Feb 2020 05:00 AM PST |
| American woman from cruise ship tests positive again for coronavirus Posted: 16 Feb 2020 12:25 PM PST  An American passenger from a cruise ship that docked in Cambodia has tested positive for the new coronavirus a second time in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysiam officials said on Sunday, after the cruise line and Cambodian authorities sought further tests.
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| Mark Zuckerberg admits Facebook was ‘slow to understand’ election interference Posted: 15 Feb 2020 12:04 PM PST  Facebook is taking down more than a million fake accounts a day to counter a massive upsurge in malicious material in the web, Mark Zuckerberg told an international security forum, and disclosed that more than 50 information operations aimed at elections have been uncovered since the 2016 US presidential race.There are continuing investigations into claims that Donald Trump was the Muscovian candidate at the election and a Kremlin campaign, including a disinformation drive, helped put him in the White House.
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| 1,700 health workers infected, first fatality in Japan Posted: 14 Feb 2020 06:01 PM PST  As more 'wartime' measures are implemented, here is the latest.
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| France warns of bloody Brexit talks battle Posted: 15 Feb 2020 04:25 PM PST  France on Sunday warned Britain to expect a bitter, bloody battle in Brexit trade talks with the EU, saying the two sides would "rip each other apart". Negotiations for a deal on future EU-UK relations are not due to start until next month, but London and Brussels have already clashed over rules for British financial firms' access to the EU after Brexit. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves le Drian said it would be tough to achieve Britain's aim of agreeing a free trade deal by the end of the year, with the two sides far apart on a range of issues.
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| An invasion of propaganda: Experts warn that white supremacist messages are seeping into mainstream Posted: 16 Feb 2020 11:06 AM PST  White supremacy propaganda is on the rise, and experts say mainstreaming of that ideology contributes to acts of domestic terrorism.
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| 2 men killed in large avalanche in Colorado Posted: 16 Feb 2020 05:11 PM PST  Three mono-track riders triggered a large avalanche Saturday in which three people where buried, but only one victim managed to dig out of the slide.
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| Hong Kong protesters rally against planned virus quarantine centers Posted: 16 Feb 2020 02:13 AM PST  Hundreds of demonstrators rallied for a second day in Hong Kong on Sunday to protest against plans to turn some buildings into coronavirus quarantine centers, reviving anti-government protests in the Chinese-ruled city. The virus has opened a new front for protesters after months of demonstrations over the perceived erosion of freedoms had largely fizzled out over the past month, as people stayed at home amid fears of a community outbreak of the virus. About 100 people braved rain in the New Territories district of Fo Tan, where authorities plan to use a newly built residential development that was subsidized by the government as a quarantine center.
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| Costa Rican police find six tonnes of cocaine in biggest ever haul Posted: 16 Feb 2020 07:15 AM PST  Police in Costa Rica have found almost 6 tonnes of cocaine in a shipping container, leading to the country's biggest ever drug seizure.The drugs, which weighed 5,800kg, were discovered on Friday evening in Limón in a container of flowers due to be sent to Rotterdam, Holland, according to the Costan Rican national newspaper La Nación.
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| Man gets 1 year in case of dog left in cage with tide rising Posted: 15 Feb 2020 09:18 AM PST |
| 'Housing is not the end': Former homeless struggle to adapt Posted: 16 Feb 2020 02:00 AM PST  "There needs to be continued support," one woman said.
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| Clinton 'wants back in' as Bloomberg campaign VP pick Posted: 16 Feb 2020 12:11 PM PST  Michael Bloomberg's campaign attempted to stop rumors that he was considering failed presidential candidate and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for his running mate in the 2020 election.
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| China virus cases pass 70,000 as WHO mission begins Posted: 16 Feb 2020 04:09 PM PST  The number of people infected with the new coronavirus in China passed 70,000 on Monday as international experts began meetings with their Chinese counterparts on how to tackle an epidemic that has caused global concern. The death toll jumped to 1,765 in mainland China after 100 more people died in Hubei province, where the virus first emerged in December before spreading across the country and overseas. Worries about its spread remain high and the epidemic's reach was highlighted by the US announcing that more than three dozen Americans from a cruise ship quarantined off Japan were infected.
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| Joe Biden blasts Bernie Sanders over health care, gun control, and his supporters' online behavior Posted: 16 Feb 2020 07:30 AM PST  Former Vice President Joe Biden zeroed in this weekend on one of his top competitors, who many consider to have eclipsed him as the Democratic presidential frontrunner.In an interview set to air on NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday, Biden waded into a controversy surrounding Sanders supporters who have been accused of threatening members of Nevada's Culinary Workers Union for not backing Sanders' Medicare-for-All proposal. Biden said Sanders is necessarily directly responsible for such behavior, but he's not sure he's done enough to put a stop to it, either.> WATCH: Former VP @JoeBiden says it is not "sufficient enough" for Bernie Sanders to "disassociate" himself from supporters' "misogynistic" attacks on Culinary Union leaders. MTP> > Joe Biden: "I'd disown them. ... He may not be responsible for it but he has some accountability." pic.twitter.com/bABdpEtZLv> > — Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) February 16, 2020Biden also criticized Sanders' policy proposals, arguing that while the senator has talked about Medicare-for-All for 35 years, he has nothing to show for it. Biden said people, like those in the Culinary Workers Union, have "broken their necks" to procure their current insurance, and he's not sure why Sanders wants to force them to give it up. > WATCH: Former VP @JoeBiden says Bernie Sanders has "never gotten anything done." MTP IfItsSunday> > Biden: "He's been talking about health care, Medicare for all [and] universal health care for 35 years. Nothing's happened." pic.twitter.com/D0dy6lhKSC> > — Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) February 16, 2020And on Saturday evening, the former vice president put Sanders' 2005 vote to exempt gun manufacturers from liability in shootings on blast. He didn't name Sanders outright, but he called out "some of the people running for office" who voted for the exemption. Sanders, for what it's worth, has since changed his position on the matter. Read more at The Associated Press.More stories from theweek.com 5 scathingly funny cartoons about Trump's Justice Department takeover The sidelining of Elizabeth Warren Trump is getting medieval with the states
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| Coronavirus panic could be the endangered pangolin's new threat Posted: 14 Feb 2020 08:30 PM PST  Bill Zeigler, a top researcher at Chicago's Brookfield Zoo, shared his concerns.
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| Remember When Iran Took Out Saddam Hussein's Navy In One Day—With American-Made Jets? Posted: 15 Feb 2020 10:00 PM PST  One of the most intense air battles since World War II.
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| Rebuffed by UK, U.S. pitches 'big tent' for Huawei rivals in Europe Posted: 15 Feb 2020 06:05 AM PST  The United States is seeking to rally European support for competitors to Huawei Technologies following disappointment in Washington over Britain's decision to use 5G equipment made by the Chinese company. U.S. officials at a global security conference in Germany this week urged governments and business leaders to build an ecosystem of "industry champions" that can provide alternatives to Huawei, the world's biggest maker of mobile networking equipment. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told Reuters on Friday there was no credible evidence that Huawei was a threat to U.S. security.
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| Winter storm barreling toward the UK is possibly the strongest ever for North Atlantic Posted: 15 Feb 2020 12:51 PM PST  The storm likely to hit Ireland, the U.K., France and northern Germany with winds gusts up to 85 mph.
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| Israeli army: Hamas hackers tried to 'seduce' soldiers Posted: 16 Feb 2020 02:05 AM PST  The Israeli military on Sunday said it has thwarted an attempt by the Hamas militant group to hack soldiers' phones by posing as young, attractive women on social media, striking up friendships and persuading them into downloading malware. Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus told reporters that the phones of dozens of soldiers had been infected in recent months, although he said the army detected the scam early on and prevented any major secrets from reaching the Islamic militant group. Conricus said this was the third attempt by Hamas to target male soldiers through fake social media accounts, most recently in July 2018.
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| A Texas jury found him guilty of murder. A computer algorithm proved his innocence. Posted: 16 Feb 2020 02:56 AM PST  Lydell Grant was supposed to be in prison for murder. But an emerging form of DNA technology, which has also come under scrutiny, is helping to free him in an unprecedented case.
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| Germany wants another crack at a EU mission in the Strait of Hormuz Posted: 15 Feb 2020 10:25 AM PST  Berlin last summer rejected a request to join a U.S.-led naval protection mission for fear of getting tangled up in shooting war between the United States and Iran.
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| Why Xi's 'defensive' coronavirus speech could backfire Posted: 16 Feb 2020 04:30 AM PST  Chinese state media published an internal speech delivered by President Xi Jinping on Saturday in which he describes taking action on the coronavirus outbreak as early as Jan. 7.In the speech, which was given Feb. 3, Xi said he had "issued demands about the efforts to prevent and control" the virus during a meeting of the Communist Party's highest council, the Politburo Standing Committee, last month, and that he personally authorized the lockdown of the epicenter, Wuhan, beginning on Jan. 23. "I have at every moment monitored the spread of the epidemic and progress in efforts to curtail it," he said.Publishing the speech is viewed as an attempt to show Xi has been involved from the start since he's been criticized for remaining in the shadows. "The overall tone of the speech of appears to be defensive," Minxin Pei, a professor of government at Claremont McKenna College, told The New York Times. "He wants to change the narrative, which until this point has been very unfavorable to the top leadership."But some analysts think it could backfire and lead to even more criticism about how the government kept the public in the dark for too long. "It seems like he's trying to indicate that 'we weren't asleep at the wheel,'" Jude Blanchette, the Freeman Chair in China Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told the Times. "But it comes off like 'we knew this was a problem, but we weren't sounding the alarm.'" Read more at The New York Times.More stories from theweek.com 5 scathingly funny cartoons about Trump's Justice Department takeover The sidelining of Elizabeth Warren Trump is getting medieval with the states
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| Taking migraine seriously Posted: 15 Feb 2020 10:12 PM PST  About one in seven people lives with what's ranked as the second-most debilitating disease on the planet, but experts say research into its causes and treatments is dramatically underfunded.
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| Hitler's Submarines Almost Launched A Missile Attack On America Posted: 16 Feb 2020 04:00 AM PST  In March, the Allies intercepted a message from German Admiral Godt dispatching seven Type IX long-range submarines to "attack targets in American coastal zone" as part of an attack group awesomely codenamed Seewolf.
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| ‘Photographer’ Drugged New Mom, Planned to Steal Baby, Cops Say Posted: 15 Feb 2020 01:20 PM PST  It began with an offer on Facebook group for the mothers of newborns: An aspiring photographer wanted to take pictures of babies for free to build her portfolio.To the mother of a 5-week-old infant, it sounded like a great deal. But after three sessions with the photographer, her teenage daughter in tow, things allegedly took a terrifying turn.The new mom ate a cupcake offered by the pair and soon began to feel wobbly, numb and drowsy. She feared she had been drugged, told the visitors to leave, and called 911.Police in Washington state suspect she was correct—and they say she's lucky the Feb. 5 encounter in Spanaway didn't turn out much worse. Investigators said they have collected evidence that the 38-year-old "photographer," Juliette Parker, had a plan to steal a baby and raise it as her own.On Friday afternoon, detectives from the Pierce County Sheriff's Department arrested Parker, who has also gone by the names Juliette Noel and Juliette Gains, and her 16-year-old daughter. Parker was charged with attempted kidnapping and second-degree assault.A release from the sheriff's office said there were red flags that something strange was afoot during Parker's earlier visit to the home. "The suspect was observed taking cell phone selfies with the victim's baby and was seen wiping her fingerprints off items she touched inside the victim's home," they said.The sheriff's office said they have identified "additional victims" but provided no details.Parker's ex-husband, Daniel Gaines, who is locked in a custody battle with her, said that he finds it hard to believe his daughter was in on the alleged plot."I question what my daughter knew," he told The Daily Beast.Last year, Parker ran for mayor of Colorado Springs, Colorado, according to KOAA. At the time, she had only been a resident of the city for two years."I love Colorado Springs, and I want to live here the rest of my life," Parker said then, according to The Gazette. "I would like my kids to be able to live here and grow up here. I would like to have my grandkids be able to grow up here and live here and have their kids here."Parker, who ran on a platform of affordable housing and ending homelessness, lost by a landslide.The Gazette reported last year that Parker had been charged in federal court with trespassing in 2014; she explained that she wandered onto military property during a hike and picked up some old rifle bullets—one of which exploded at home, injuring her.Court records say she and a companion were scavenging for metal and took the shells home to melt them for scrap, the Tacoma News Tribune reported. While disassembling one, it blew up, blasting a 2-foot-wide hole in the floor and causing injuries to both.Additional reporting by Barbie Latza NadeauRead 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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| Two British Airways executives step down following the airline's first strike in decades Posted: 16 Feb 2020 11:56 AM PST  The departures also arrive as the airline's parent firm, International Consolidated Airlines Group, transitions to a new CEO.
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| California to apologize for internment of Japanese Americans Posted: 16 Feb 2020 11:28 AM PST  Les Ouchida was born an American just outside California's capital city, but his citizenship mattered little after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and the United States declared war. Based solely on their Japanese ancestry, the 5-year-old and his family were taken from their home in 1942 and imprisoned far away in Arkansas. On Thursday, California's Legislature is expected to approve a resolution offering an apology to Ouchida and other internment victims for the state's role in aiding the U.S. government's policy and condemning actions that helped fan anti-Japanese discrimination.
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| Man who left puppy to drown in cage sentenced to 1 year for animal cruelty Posted: 16 Feb 2020 07:57 AM PST  The 36-year-old New Jersey man left the puppy in a cage along the rising tide of Sandy Hook Bay after a fight with his ex-girlfriend.
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| Assistant principal accused of raping student avoids jail Posted: 15 Feb 2020 07:28 AM PST  An assistant principal charged with raping a 16-year-old student in Missouri has avoided jail time by accepting an Alford plea, which allows her to assert innocence while acknowledging the evidence proves her guilt beyond reasonable doubt.
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| Why Joe Biden needs ‘a political miracle’ to stay in the race to face Trump Posted: 15 Feb 2020 11:00 PM PST  Barack Obama's vice-president is floundering in the Democratic primary, losing key support as vital votes loomLarry Sabato is an analyst, author and director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. His students are currently embedded in various presidential campaigns. Two were working for Joe Biden in Iowa. Before caucus day, they texted Sabato to say they expected to lose badly.Sabato asked why. The answer: "No energy at all."And so it proved. Biden, who was Barack Obama's righthand man for eight years and long the Democrats' national frontrunner to take on Donald Trump, trailed in fourth. A week later, he fled New Hampshire before the votes were even counted, to escape the public humiliation of finishing fifth.Now, in the words of one commentator, Biden "needs a miracle" to stay in the race. A man whose candidacy a year ago seemed to be predicated on his appeal to the white working class is depending on African American voters to rescue him from the oft-quoted maxim that all political lives end in failure. What went wrong?"I've watched Joe Biden since he was first elected [to the Senate] in 1972," Sabato said. "He was full of energy and joking around and had a big personality but I don't think anyone has associated the word 'vision' with Joe Biden. Democrats are looking for a vision; Biden's vision is to go back to Obama's policies. I understand it, but it doesn't get you standing up and cheering."The 77-year-old's debate performances have failed to inspire and his rallies have drawn small crowds. His rally in Des Moines on the eve of the Iowa caucuses was in a more compact venue than Pete Buttigieg's across the city and, while delivering a heartfelt critique of Trump, offered fewer policy specifics and generated less electricity.Sabato added: "People are charged up and incensed about Trump. But if you're standing there talking and they go to sleep, it doesn't suggest you're the best one to beat Trump. People keep saying he's lost a step or two but this is the same Joe Biden I remember from the 1970s. He's a meanderer. Some speakers get you fired up but Joe's not that."> In Iowa I saw one of the most inferior ground games in politics. I have never seen anything so inept> > Moe VelaThere is a distinct whiff of déja vu. Biden's first run for president fell apart in 1987 when he quoted British politician Neil Kinnock but forgot to credit him, prompting charges of plagiarism. His second attempt went off the rails in 2007 when he described Obama as "the first mainstream African American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy". (His third-place finish in his home state, Delaware, remains his best performance in a primary.)The 2020 effort was meant to be different story with Biden, who served with distinction as Obama's vice-president, cast as the antidote to Trump and restorer of normalcy. But he was poleaxed by Senator Kamala Harris of California in the first Democratic debate in June, when she challenged his past views on desegregated school busing.He fared little better in a debate in September when, asked about what responsibility Americans have to repair the legacy of slavery, he gave a rambling answer that included "make sure you have the record player on at night, make sure that kids hear words, a kid coming from a very poor school, a very poor background, will hear 4 million words fewer spoken by the time we get there."Debates came and went. Trump's attacks on Biden's son, Hunter, over his business dealings in Ukraine generated media scrutiny, both fair and unfair, that in some minds may have planted seeds of doubt. In Iowa it was clear the Obama magic, which swept the caucuses in 2008, had not rubbed off on his running mate. The blame seemed to lie with both an underwhelming candidate and a poorly organised campaign.Moe Vela, who was director of administration and senior adviser to Biden at the White House, said: "In Iowa I saw one of the most inferior ground games in politics. I have never seen anything so inept. He's not being served properly by his campaign."Vela, now an LGBTQ and Latino activist and board director at TransparentBusiness, added: "He had been the front runner for so long that I think the campaign staff became complacent. You got a sense they were so busy talking about electability and pitting him against Trump they forgot they have to deal with these 15 people first. You could see this rude awakening in Iowa as the night was slipping away."In New Hampshire, where Biden called a student a "lying dog faced pony soldier", he fared even worse. A comeback win in Nevada looks unlikely, setting up a potential last stand in South Carolina, the first contest in a state with a significant African American population – a constituency where he has consistently polled strongly. (Biden has been at pains to point out that 99% of the African American population have not yet had a say.)But even this advantage appears to have been eroded by Senator Bernie Sanders and billionaire Tom Steyer. Then comes Super Tuesday, where another billionaire, Michael Bloomberg, has spent nearly $350m on ads focused on the 16 states and territories that vote, eating into Biden's support among moderates and African Americans. Several black members of Congress and city mayors have endorsed Bloomberg despite the discriminatory "stop-and-frisk" policy he supported as mayor of New York.Michael Steele, former chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC), said: "Biden has lost half the black support that he had. It's bled off and is now largely with Mike Bloomberg. Some of it has gone to Bernie Sanders, a little bit maybe to Elizabeth Warren, none of it to Pete Buttigieg. So he's sitting there holding 22, 23% of the black vote now. Mike Bloomberg is behind them at what, 21?"Clearly whatever the decision-making process was that led them to run the first leg of this race the way they have has cost him dearly. They have to make up a lot of ground in a very short period of time. When you swing into Super Tuesday, you've got to have bankroll." 'If you're saying you're a winner, you'd better win'Is there still time to turn it around? Yes, but it will be an uphill struggle. Since 1972, no candidate from either party has finished below second in both Iowa and New Hampshire and won the nomination.Bob Shrum, a Democratic strategist who was an adviser to the Al Gore and John Kerry presidential campaigns, said: "For him to recover from this would be a political miracle unlike anything we've seen in modern presidential politics. I don't think it's impossible but it's unlikely and would fly in the face of all our knowledge of political history."Biden's main pitch had been that in this moment of national emergency, he was the steady hand best placed to prevent Trump winning a second term. To centrists, he would be less of a gamble than progressives Sanders or Warren. But after the heavy losses in Iowa and New Hampshire, he is caught in his own electability trap.Shrum, a political science professor at the University of Southern California, said: "The centrepiece of the campaign was, 'I'm going to beat Trump like a drum'. The public said, 'If you're saying you're a winner, you'd better win'.""Al Gore had this line: elections are not a reward for past performance. I think they are always about the future, not just the past. In Democratic primaries, you've got to have a future offer to people, no matter how dissatisfied they are with the Republican incumbent. Joe Biden has a lot of policies on his website but that's not what comes over on the debate stage."> There's still to recover but if he's not willing to restructure his campaign, I don't think he can bounce back> > Coby OwensIn a small but telling measure of a campaign in a downward spiral, Biden's press team did not respond to multiple phone and email requests from the Guardian seeking comment. The Trump, Bloomberg and other campaigns are generally far more responsive.Shrum added: "I suspect they have many pressures and I have nothing but sympathy for the candidate and the people around him. It's hard to start at the top of the mountain and end up in the valley."Biden's struggles have dismayed supporters in his home state, where he remains immensely popular. Coby Owens, a local civil rights activist whose family has known Biden for years, and who is still trying to decide between Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, said: "There are a lot of people who are shocked and concerned about it and want to know what's going on."They have been hearing the message that he's the most electable so they thought he was going to cruise through the first two states, which are predominantly white. There's still a lot of room left for him to recover but if he's not willing to restructure his campaign, I don't think he can bounce back." 'Telltale signs'Biden has frequently referenced his partnership with Obama but America's first black president has remained notably silent.Obama reportedly discouraged Biden from running in 2016 because he believed Hillary Clinton had a better chance of winning. This time, rumour has it that he nudged Deval Patrick, the former governor of Massachusetts, to make a late bid because again he was dubious about Biden's viability (Patrick dropped out after a poor showing in New Hampshire).Steele, the ex-RNC chairman and former lieutenant-governor of Maryland, commented: "The telltale signs were there: the lack of interest that Barack had in the Biden campaign, the fact that the word on the street was that Deval Patrick was in the race was because Obama encouraged him to get in the race. Why would you do that with your vice-president already in the game?"While cautious about writing Biden off just yet, Steele added: "For me, just watching the Biden campaign, I get the sense that he's kind of walked through it. I think he's going through the paces of it. I'm not convinced at this stage that he really wants it any more. I don't think you take the front runner status that he's held for over a year, anchored by 50% of the black vote in a party where that is a very important and huge demographic edge, and just leave it on the table."I've never seen a candidate do that the way it's been done. Maybe there's a little bit of hubris and you assume that you've got the weight to throw around to win this thing. But then again, at the same time, I think at a certain point the gas is out of the tank and you just sleepwalk your way through it."
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| Nine homeless drug users shot dead in Afghan capital: police Posted: 16 Feb 2020 01:51 AM PST |
| Israel says Hamas used 'attractive' women in thwarted cyberattack Posted: 16 Feb 2020 03:46 AM PST  Israel's military said on Sunday it had thwarted an attempted malware attack by Hamas that sought to gain access to soldiers' mobile phones by using seductive pictures of young women. The phones of a few dozen soldiers were affected, but the military "does not assess that there has been a substantial breach of information", said Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus, an army spokesman. Conricus said this was the third attempted malware attack by Hamas in less than four years, but that the latest effort indicated the Islamist group, which controls the Gaza Strip, had improved their capacity to wage cyber-warfare.
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| The Real Coronavirus Problem: The Racism It Creates Is Real Posted: 15 Feb 2020 05:22 PM PST  And it must be confronted.
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| US embassy in Baghdad attacked with rockets Posted: 16 Feb 2020 10:29 AM PST  Rockets have dropped near the US embassy in Iraq and a military base hosting American troops, according to officials.There have been no causalities reported following the strikes, which fell amid heightened tensions in the Middle East.
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| The coronavirus could cripple China's economy for longer than Wall Street wants to believe Posted: 16 Feb 2020 05:28 AM PST  China's economy can't snap back from the coronavirus as fast as it did after SARS because it's growing more slowly and the banking system is a mess.
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| Police: 1 dead, 4 wounded in Connecticut club shooting Posted: 16 Feb 2020 01:31 AM PST  Gunfire erupted at a Connecticut nightclub early Sunday morning, killing a man and wounding four other people, police said. A 28-year-old man died in the shooting at the Majestic Lounge in Hartford's South End, police Lt. Paul Cicero said. Two other males and two females were wounded, with two of them in surgery Sunday morning and two in stable condition, he said.
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| Chinese president says he took early action against COVID-19 Posted: 15 Feb 2020 08:36 PM PST  The disclosure came after Chinese leadership was criticized for slow and muted reaction to the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
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| Another blast of cold air to infiltrate US this week Posted: 16 Feb 2020 09:44 AM PST  Cold air will dive down from Canada and greet much of the central and eastern United States by the end of the week.Following a swath of snow pushing through the northern tier early in the week, colder air will move in behind and move even farther south into parts of the south.While the temperatures expected during the middle of the week will not be as brutal as the last cold spell, it will still be a drastic change."Before the storm that moves through the eastern half of the country, places from Chicago to Philadelphia will experience temperatures that are on the order of 5-10 degrees Fahrenheit above normal for mid-February," said AccuWeather Meteorologist Max Gawryla.On Monday, a high of 40 is forecast in Chicago, while Philadelphia may top out at 52 on Tuesday.Once the colder air sweeps in, the springlike temperatures will be erased and replaced with conditions more similar to January."Cold will send temperatures tumbling on Tuesday night across the Midwest, with lows in the single digits," added Gawryla.Temperatures will be well below zero across parts of northern Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota by Wednesday night. By Thursday morning, temperatures will be as low as 10 to 20 degrees below zero across parts of Minnesota and Wisconsin.Without much wind to accompany the cold, AccuWeather RealFeel® temperatures will not be too far below the actual mercury reading. During the day, when the sun is shining, RealFeel® temperatures may actually be a little higher than the normal temperature.CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE ACCUWEATHER APPThe coldest air, and the lowest temperatures, will wait to reach the Northeast until Friday morning.During the morning on Friday, temperatures are expected in the single digits and teens across interior parts of the Northeast, from 14 degrees in Pittsburgh to 0 degrees in Syracuse, New York. All of these sub-freezing temperatures will help to retain the recent snowpack across the Upper Midwest, Great Lakes and northern New England.Although temperatures won't be subzero, the colder air will not halt in the northern tier of the country, but rather dive down into the Tennessee Valley."On Tuesday night, lows will remain quite mild, only falling into the mid-50s across much of the area. Just 24 hours later, low temperatures will easily drop by 20 degrees or more," said Gawryla.Nashville's typical high in the lower 50s will be replaced by a high in the mid-40s Thursday, and will dive down into the lower 20s Thursday night. Such temperatures are about 10 degrees below normal for mid-February.Similar drops in temperature are expected cities like Little Rock, Arkansas; Atlanta and Charlotte, North Carolina.Any wet spots or standing water on the ground following the rain from the early week storm may freeze up, causing slick spots on roads and sidewalks.The colder-than-normal air that moves in through Friday will only remain for a brief time.Warmth will build in the center of the country at the end of the week, helping to moderate the air in the East going into the weekend.Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.
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| Harvey Weinstein faces moment of truth as jury weighs case on Tuesday Posted: 15 Feb 2020 11:00 PM PST  The MeToo movement received barely a mention at the movie mogul's rape trial but is likely to bear heavily on deliberationsThe jury at Harvey Weinstein's rape trial in New York will begin deliberations on Tuesday, with the world's media and the expectations of the MeToo movement bearing heavily upon them.The five women and seven men who form the jury hold in their hands the fate of the disgraced movie mogul. If they find him guilty of two of the five counts against him, of "predatory sexual assault", he could be sentenced to life in prison.Since the trial began last month, the jurors have constantly been reminded of intense media interest in the case.Prosecutors and Weinstein's lawyers have frequently directed jurors' vision to the overflowing press benches in courtroom No 99 at the New York supreme court, and alluded to the sound of keyboards rattling as one way of highlighting the high-profile nature of the case.The process of reaching a verdict will not be easy or brief. The first trial of Bill Cosby, the comedian whose prosecution is often compared to that of Weinstein, ended in a mistrial when the jury failed to agree after six gruelling days of deliberations.Cosby was found guilty at a second trial and sentenced in 2018 to three to 10 years in prison.There are two main accusers in the Weinstein case.Miriam Haley was working as a production assistant in 2006 when she alleges Weinstein lured her to his SoHo apartment in New York and forced oral sex on her.A woman who the Guardian is not identifying, as she has not indicated that she wishes to be publicly named, alleges she was raped in a New York hotel in 2013.Weinstein, 67, has also been accused of sexual misconduct by more than 100 women. He denies all allegations of non-consensual sex.In the New York trial, four women who accuse the producer of rape and sexual assault – Sopranos actor Annabella Sciorra, Dawn Dunning, Tarale Wulff and Lauren Young – were called by the prosecution to give supporting evidence.In closing arguments, Weinstein's lead defence lawyer, Donna Rotunno, and lead prosecutor Joan Illuzzi-Orbon presented the jury with starkly contrasting summaries of the case.Though MeToo, the social reckoning galvanised by the accusations of sexual abuse levelled against the Pulp Fiction producer since 2017, has rarely been mentioned in court, it has clearly influenced the lawyers' diametrically opposing interpretations of the case in hand.Rotunno has portrayed the six women as money-grabbing, manipulative individuals who exploited Weinstein in order to advance their careers. According to that view, they were prepared to do anything – including consensual sex – in order to get on.On Friday, Illuzzi-Orbon gave a very different analysis. Weinstein, she said, treated women who he tricked into entering his lair like "ants he could step on without consequences". * In the US, Rainn offers support at 800-656-4673 or by chat at Rainn.org. In the UK, the rape crisis national freephone helpline is at 0808-802-9999. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800-737-7328) or1800respect.org.au. Other international helplines can be found at Ibiblio.org.
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| How Bloomberg's philanthropy may have secured his political influence Posted: 15 Feb 2020 10:11 AM PST  Billionaire and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is gaining some traction in the Democratic primary, despite his late entry. Part of the reason he's been able to do that, The New York Times reports after reviewing years of campaign and nonprofit tax filings, may be because he spent years building influence by donating hefty funds to certain causes.Per the Times, some — though not all — of Bloomberg's philanthropic endeavors appear to have secured the allegiance of powerful institutions, as well as leaders within the Democratic Party. The Times is clear that no one interviewed for the story described anything akin to threats or coercion, but Bloomberg's financial influence did speak for itself in some cases. "They aren't going to criticize him in his 2020 run because they don't want to jeopardize receiving financial support from him in the future," said Paul S. Ryan, vice president of policy and litigation at the good-government group Common Cause.In 2015, the Times reports, researchers at the Center for American Progress turned in a report on anti-Muslim bias in the U.S., which included about 4,000 words on New York City police surveillance of Muslim communities. Bloomberg, because he was the city's mayor, was mentioned a handful of times. But when the report was published, the chapter was gone. A spokeswoman for the policy group said the chapter was removed for editorial reasons, but Yasmine Taeb, the author of the report, said there was fear about how it would be perceived by Bloomberg. An email reviewed by the Times also shows at least one official wrote that there would be a "strong reaction from Bloomberg world if we release the report as written," and three people with direct knowledge of the situation reportedly confirmed Bloomberg was a factor in the decision. Read more at The New York Times.More stories from theweek.com 5 scathingly funny cartoons about Trump's Justice Department takeover The sidelining of Elizabeth Warren Trump is getting medieval with the states
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