| The gold-standard Iowa poll was canceled 1 day before the Caucus because Pete Buttigieg's name was thought to have been left off a poll call Posted: 02 Feb 2020 10:25 AM PST  With only a day to go before the Iowa Caucus, the most highly-regarded Iowa poll will not be released.
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| Trump administration declares coronavirus emergency, orders first quarantine in 50 years Posted: 01 Feb 2020 04:17 AM PST  U.S. citizens from parts of China will undergo entry health screenings and will be monitored during a 14-day self-quarantine, officials said.
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| Alleged leader of Iraqi al Qaeda group arrested in Arizona Posted: 31 Jan 2020 07:36 PM PST ![Alleged leader of Iraqi al Qaeda group arrested in Arizona]( "Alleged leader of Iraqi al Qaeda group arrested in Arizona") Ali Yousif Ahmed Al-Nouri, 42, is wanted in Iraq on charges of premeditated murder of the Iraqi police officers in 2006, according to a statement by the U.S. Attorney's Office District of Arizona. An Iraqi judge issued a warrant for Al-Nouri's arrest and the government there issued an extradition request to the U.S. Justice Department, the statement said.
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| Kerry unloads on NBC after report he was overheard talking about 2020 bid Posted: 02 Feb 2020 04:38 PM PST  "A complete and total misinterpretation," the former secretary of State fumes.
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| Coronavirus infection detected in Boston as Pentagon prepares 1,000 quarantine beds Posted: 01 Feb 2020 12:27 PM PST  A case of coronavirus has been detected in Boston, the first case in Massachusetts which brings the nationwide total of infected people up to eight.The state's department of public health said the man, in his 20s, recently returned from Wuhan, China - the epicentre of the virus.
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| Appeal of man who shot Army recruiters in Arkansas rejected Posted: 02 Feb 2020 01:34 PM PST ![Appeal of man who shot Army recruiters in Arkansas rejected]( "Appeal of man who shot Army recruiters in Arkansas rejected") The Arkansas Supreme Court has rejected the appeal of a man who fatally shot a U.S. Army soldier and wounded another outside a recruiting station in Little Rock. The ruling dated Thursday and first reported by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette said Abdulhakim Muhammad's appeal is without merit. Muhammad, 34, was sentenced to life without parole after pleading guilty to the 2009 fatal shooting of Pvt.
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| China's Chernobyl? Communism Is the Reason Coronavirus Is So Dangerous Posted: 01 Feb 2020 01:00 AM PST  China's communist system requires sycophancy, opaqueness, and an absence of information. Combatting coronavirus requires the opposite.
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| The real number of coronavirus cases is more than 75,000, according to a scientific model that says the outbreak will double in size every 6.4 days Posted: 31 Jan 2020 08:50 PM PST  A new scientific model says that on January 25 there were 75,815 infected people in Wuhan alone. At the time the official figure was 761.
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| What I learned watching Andrew Yang barnstorm rural Iowa Posted: 02 Feb 2020 02:13 PM PST  He's a changed candidate from even a month ago.
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| Yemen's Huthi rebels in possession of new arms: UN report Posted: 31 Jan 2020 07:42 PM PST  Yemen's Huthi rebels are in possession of new weapons similar to those produced in Iran, according to a UN report obtained by AFP on Friday, in potential violation of a UN arms embargo. The crisis in Yemen pits the Iranian-backed Huthi rebels against government forces supported by a Saudi-led military coalition. Some of the new weapons, which the rebels have possessed since 2019, "have technical characteristics similar to arms manufactured in the Islamic Republic of Iran," said the report, which was compiled by a panel of UN experts tasked with monitoring the embargo.
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| Joe Biden Could Be Impeached by GOP Over Ukraine if He Wins, Iowa Senator Says Posted: 02 Feb 2020 04:05 PM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Iowa Senator Joni Ernst warned Sunday that Republicans could immediately push to impeach Joe Biden over his work in Ukraine as vice president if he win the White House."I think this door of impeachable whatever has been opened," Ernst said in an interview with Bloomberg News. "Joe Biden should be very careful what he's asking for because, you know, we can have a situation where if it should ever be President Biden, that immediately, people, right the day after he would be elected would be saying, 'Well, we're going to impeach him.'"The grounds for impeachment, the first-term Republican said, would be "for being assigned to take on Ukrainian corruption yet turning a blind eye to Burisma because his son was on the board making over a million dollars a year."President Barack Obama sent Biden to Ukraine on his behalf to fight corruption, including leading the push from the U.S. and western European powers to remove prosecutor general Viktor Shokin from office. When Shokin was fired in 2016, no congressional Republicans expressed concern about the move. Eventually, though, Shokin began to argue that he was fired because he was investigating Burisma and Biden wanted to protect his son, Hunter, who was on the company's board. The claim has been debunked.Biden told a Sinclair news reporter in Iowa that her words reinforced his argument that Trump's interest in Ukraine was meant to damage his candidacy."Doesn't that make the case I'm making that from the very beginning that this was all about not wanting to run against me?" he said.Earlier this week, Ernst tied the Senate's impeachment trial of President Donald Trump to Biden's chances in Monday's Iowa Democratic caucus, suggesting that the trial could hurt his case with caucus goers. "I'm really interested to see how this discussion today informs and influences the Iowa caucus voters, those Democratic caucus goers. Will they be supporting Vice President Biden at this point? Not certain at that," she said.Biden has been sure to mention Ernst's comments during every stump speech he's made this week, drawing applause as he suggests that Ernst had "spilled the beans" about Republicans' real intention in raising the Burisma issue to damage Biden's candidacy. "You can ruin Donald Trump's night by caucusing with me and ruin Joni Ernst's night as well," he's told Iowa crowds this week.Biden communications director Kate Bedingfield responded to Ernst's latest comments by again encouraging Iowans to caucus for Biden. "Iowans have the chance tomorrow to say the words that Donald Trump and Joni Ernst fear most: I'm here to caucus for Joe Biden," she said.(Disclaimer: Michael Bloomberg is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination. He is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.)(Updates with Biden comment in fifth, sixth paragraphs)To contact the reporter on this story: Jennifer Epstein in Des Moines, Iowa at jepstein32@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Larry LiebertFor 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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| Second person linked to butterfly sanctuary found dead in Mexico Posted: 02 Feb 2020 08:57 AM PST  The body of a tour guide who worked at a famous butterfly reserve in Mexico has been discovered two days after a prominent monarch butterfly activist was found dead.Mexican authorities said they are investigating the possible murder of Raul Hernandez, whose body was found beaten and with a head injury possibly caused by a sharp object.
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| Mississippi inmate tries to hang self in cell, attorney says Posted: 01 Feb 2020 05:48 PM PST  An inmate tried to hang himself at a troubled Mississippi prison and was taken down by a state trooper, an attorney said in court papers filed Saturday. Casey L. Austin is one of the attorneys representing inmates in a federal lawsuit against Mississippi over conditions in the state's prisons. The lawsuit over prison conditions is funded by Team Roc, a philanthropic group connected to entertainment mogul Jay-Z's company, Roc Nation.
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| Trump's Worst Idea Ever Will Set the Middle East on Fire Posted: 02 Feb 2020 06:02 AM PST  What a disaster.
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| Thailand sees apparent success treating virus with drug cocktail Posted: 02 Feb 2020 08:14 AM PST  A Chinese woman infected with the new coronavirus showed a dramatic improvement after she was treated with a cocktail of anti-virals used to treat flu and HIV, Thailand's health ministry said Sunday. The 71-year-old patient tested negative for the virus 48 hours after Thai doctors administered the combination, doctor Kriengsak Attipornwanich said during the ministry's daily press briefing. The news comes as the new virus claimed its first life outside China -- a 44-year-old Chinese man who died in the Philippines -- while the death toll in China has soared above 300.
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| A US national security adviser says 'there is no reason for Americans to panic' about coronavirus as report claims second US plane heads to China to evacuate more Americans from Wuhan Posted: 02 Feb 2020 12:08 PM PST  A second plane is on the way to evacuate US citizens still in Wuhan in China as the death toll from coronavirus continues to rise.
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| Bolivia's Morales says he wants to go home, run for Senate Posted: 02 Feb 2020 01:45 PM PST  Exiled former Bolivian president Evo Morales said in an interview published Sunday that he wants to return home and run for senator in May elections. Morales fled the country in December after the army withdrew its support for him during violent protests over his disputed re-election to a fourth straight term. Morales, Bolivia's first indigenous president, was in power for almost 14 years.
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| Ukraine wants larger compensation for its citizens killed in plane shootdown in Iran Posted: 02 Feb 2020 11:19 AM PST ![Ukraine wants larger compensation for its citizens killed in plane shootdown in Iran]( "Ukraine wants larger compensation for its citizens killed in plane shootdown in Iran") Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday that Kiev was not satisfied with a size of compensation Iran had offered to families of Ukrainians killed in the downing of a plane near Tehran last month and would seek larger payments. The airliner was struck by a missile on Jan. 8 shortly after it left Tehran en route to Kiev. Iran admitted its forces had shot down the Ukraine International Airlines plane in error, after initially denying it had a role in the incident.
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| Klobuchar Vows to Fight On, Says No Deal With Biden’s Campaign Posted: 02 Feb 2020 09:26 AM PST ![Klobuchar Vows to Fight On, Says No Deal With Biden's Campaign]( "Klobuchar Vows to Fight On, Says No Deal With Biden's Campaign") (Bloomberg) -- Democrat Amy Klobuchar vowed to battle on for the 2020 Democratic nomination even as her support lags and said she hasn't made a deal to work in concert with Joe Biden's campaign in Iowa.The senator from Minnesota made her pitch on "Fox News Sunday," a day before the state's first-in-the-nation nominating contest. She said she's one of two presidential hopefuls from the middle of the U.S., and has been elected in the past by appealing to moderate Republicans and independents as well as Democrats."I'm going to New Hampshire no matter what," Klobuchar said, referring to the state that will hold the next nominating contest, on Feb. 11."I've got the endorsements of every major paper in New Hampshire, including the [Manchester] Union Leader, that have endorsed," she said. "And so of course I'm going there; we have a strong operation there."Klobuchar, 59, has been traversing Iowa all weekend. She and fellow Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are taking advantage of the break in Trump's impeachment trial to campaign in the state after being mostly absent for two weeks.The Iowa caucus results could make or break her campaign. She, Warren and former South Bend, Indiana, mayor Pete Buttigieg are banking on strong performances in the state to catapult them forward through the primary season.Former Vice President Biden and Sanders still far outpace their competitors in national polls.The RealClearPolitics average of Iowa polls shows Klobuchar ranked fifth with 8.8%, below the threshold that would let her pick up delegates. She's had support as high as 13% in some surveys.Klobuchar said she hadn't, as has been reported, come to an arrangement with Biden's campaign for her supporters in the caucuses to switch to Biden if she falls short of the 15% threshold required in each precinct."No deals," she said. "I am just focused on our own race here."To contact the reporter on this story: Ana Monteiro in Washington at amonteiro4@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Ros Krasny, Larry LiebertFor 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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| Women only report harassment ‘from ugly men’, Ecuador’s president says Posted: 02 Feb 2020 03:07 AM PST  Ecuador's President Lenin Moreno has been criticised for saying women only report harassment "when it comes from an ugly person".Mr Moreno made the comment at an economics conference in the city of Guayaquil on Friday, where he also said that men are "permanently subject to the danger of being accused of harassment".
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| Al-Qaida in Yemen claims deadly Florida naval base shooting Posted: 02 Feb 2020 12:31 PM PST  Al-Qaida's branch in Yemen claimed responsibility Sunday for last year's deadly shooting at the Naval Air Station Pensacola by an aviation student from Saudi Arabia. The shooter, 2nd Lt. Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani, was a member of the Saudi Air Force in training at the base. Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, released a video claiming the attack.
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| F-35s vs. Missiles: Could Israel and Iran Be Headed Towards a War? Posted: 02 Feb 2020 06:24 AM PST  And could Trump's 'peace plan' be making things worse?
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| Xenophobia 'Is A Pre-Existing Condition.' How Harmful Stereotypes and Racism are Spreading Around the Coronavirus Posted: 01 Feb 2020 01:06 PM PST  As the number of coronavirus cases continue to grow, so do concerns of racist vitriol and stereotyping against people of Asian descent.
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| China says Wuhan coronavirus victims who die should be quickly cremated without funerals as death toll rises Posted: 01 Feb 2020 07:55 PM PST  As the Wuhan virus continues to claim lives, Chinese authorities issued regulations banning funerals for victims and requiring immediate cremation.
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| Coronavirus won't turn you into a 'zombie', says Malaysia Posted: 02 Feb 2020 12:20 AM PST  The deadly coronavirus will not cause victims to act like zombies, Malaysia's government said on social media, as officials act to correct the spread of misinformation surrounding the outbreak. As medical authorities seek to contain the virus, some social media users in Malaysia made a connection between the disease and the walking dead. A number of posts in Malaysia on social media have wrongly claimed the number of deaths or infected people in the country.
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| U.S. universities set up front-line defenses to keep coronavirus at bay Posted: 02 Feb 2020 04:16 AM PST  The school, with one of the highest percentages of Chinese students among U.S. universities, has suspended academic programs in China for the spring semester and banned students from traveling to the country for academic-related matters. It has advised faculty and staff to follow federal travel advisories that, as of Friday, warned against going to China. "We want to take all of the precautions we can so, in the worst-case scenario, we keep our community healthy," said Robin Kaler, associate chancellor for public affairs at the University of Illinois, 135 miles (217 km) south of Chicago, where the first human-to-human transmission of the disease in the United States was confirmed last week.
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| CBS' final state poll has Biden, Sanders locked in tie ahead of Iowa caucuses Posted: 02 Feb 2020 08:20 AM PST  If you were disappointed in the cancellation of the CNN/Des Moines Register Iowa poll, have no fear.CBS News on Sunday came out with its final poll in the state ahead of the Iowa caucuses Monday, and the top two candidates are in a dead heat. Former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) both received 25 percent in the survey. Their shared lead is in line with predictions that Monday will produce a tightly contested result to open up primary voting.Former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg wasn't too far behind at 21 percent, while Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) finished fourth at 16 percent. It wasn't a great poll for Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), who only garnered 5 percent support, despite some other recent polls indicating she's got her fair share of backers in Iowa.> Iowa poll of 2020 Dems: CBS News> > Biden 25% > Sanders 25% > Buttigieg 21% > Warren 16% > Klobuchar 5%https://t.co/oifkdVncWc pic.twitter.com/rBauGuM3Uo> > — Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) February 2, 2020The CBS News poll was conducted between January 22-31 among 1,835 registered voters in Iowa. The margin of error is 3 percentage points.More stories from theweek.com Mitch McConnell's rare blunder John Bolton just vindicated Nancy Pelosi All the president's turncoats
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| South African Capital’s Mayor to Quit After Sex Tape Scandal Posted: 02 Feb 2020 03:55 AM PST ![South African Capital's Mayor to Quit After Sex Tape Scandal]( "South African Capital's Mayor to Quit After Sex Tape Scandal") (Bloomberg) -- The mayor of South Africa's Tshwane municipality, which includes the capital, Pretoria, said he will resign this month to end political wrangling over his continued presence in office.Stevens Mokgalapa has faced pressure to quit since a leaked audio tape indicated that he allegedly disparaged officials in a conversation with a mayoral council member and engaged in a sexual act with her in the municipality's offices. The two say the tape was tampered with.Mokgalapa is a member of the main opposition Democratic Alliance, which wrested control of Tshwane from the ruling African National Congress in 2016 with the aid of the Economic Freedom Fighters, the third-largest party.The DA placed Mokgalapa on leave in December as it investigated his conduct, while the EFF called for his removal. The ANC meanwhile threatened to place the city under the control of the administration of the central Gauteng province, but backed down after the DA said it would challenge the move in court."I wish to make clear that I have not broken any laws and am confident that I would emerge positively from any assessment of my conduct," Mokgalapa said in an emailed statement. "But in the end, I have concluded that it is best for the city if I stand down as mayor."The scandal has been yet another blow for the DA, which lost support in national elections last year, and has since seen its mayor of Johannesburg, Herman Mashaba, and its leader, Mmusi Maimane, quit the party.The DA's Gauteng leader John Moodley thanked Mokgalapa for his service and said the party would initiate the process of finding a replacement.(Updates with opposition comment in last paragraph.)To contact the reporter on this story: Mike Cohen in Cape Town at mcohen21@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Paul Richardson at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net, Helen Nyambura, James AmottFor 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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| Mitt Romney barred from conservative conference after impeachment vote Posted: 01 Feb 2020 09:52 AM PST  Mitt Romney has been barred from a major conservative conference after he voted to hear from additional witnesses in President Trump's impeachment trial.
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| Pompeo says US can supply Belarus with 100% of oil, gas Posted: 01 Feb 2020 12:52 AM PST  U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Saturday that the United States is willing and able to provide Belarus with 100% of its oil and gas, taking a slap at Russia which recently cut off supplies. Pompeo is the first secretary of state to visit Belarus in 26 years and arrived in Minsk amid new tensions between Minsk and Moscow over energy. In a meeting with authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko, Pompeo said he hoped to help provide an opportunity for Belarus to achieve the "sovereignty" and "independence" it seeks.
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| Cook County Jail detainee found with apparent head trauma in cell dies Posted: 01 Feb 2020 04:19 PM PST  Officials are trying to determine if the death of a Cook County Jail detainee was a homicide after he was found in his cell suffering from apparent head trauma.
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| Tests for suspected coronavirus patients in the US don't always work, the head of the CDC said Posted: 31 Jan 2020 05:57 PM PST  "We don't know the accuracy of this test. People who came in were negative, then all of a sudden they were positive," one official said.
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| Herbal remedies for the coronavirus spark debate in China Posted: 02 Feb 2020 12:39 AM PST  A claim by Chinese scientists that a liquid made with honeysuckle and flowering plants could help fight the deadly coronavirus has sparked frenzied buying of the traditional medicine, but doubts quickly emerged. The rush came after influential state media outlet Xinhua reported Friday that the esteemed Chinese Academy of Sciences had found the concoction "can inhibit" the virus. It quickly sold out both online and at brick-and-mortar stores, but responses to the remedy's supposed efficacy have ranged from enthusiasm to scepticism on Weibo, China's Twitter-like social media platform.
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| Saudi Arabia blocks Iran from Islamic grouping's meeting: Tehran Posted: 02 Feb 2020 09:31 AM PST ![Saudi Arabia blocks Iran from Islamic grouping's meeting: Tehran]( "Saudi Arabia blocks Iran from Islamic grouping's meeting: Tehran") Saudi Arabia has barred an Iranian delegation from an Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) meeting in Jeddah on Monday where U.S. President Donald Trump's Middle East peace plan will be discussed, the Iranian foreign ministry said. Saudi authorities have not issued visas for the Iranian participants, ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said. "The government of Saudi Arabia has prevented the participation of the Iranian delegation in the meeting to examine the 'deal of the century' plan at the headquarters of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation," Mousavi said, the Fars news agency reported.
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| White House seeks to calm U.S. fears over Wuhan coronavirus Posted: 02 Feb 2020 08:57 AM PST  "This is something that is a low risk," Robert O'Brien said in an interview.
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| Biden Advisers Say He’s ‘Anything But Doomed’ Ahead of Iowa Vote Posted: 02 Feb 2020 07:59 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Top advisers to Joe Biden sought to temper expectations for his performance in Monday's Iowa caucuses, projecting a close result and insisting that any outcome won't doom the former vice president's campaign."Joe Biden is anything but doomed," former Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut, a longtime Biden friend who has endorsed his former colleague, said Sunday at a Bloomberg News reporter roundtable in Des Moines.Biden's team has long played down the importance of Iowa to its strategy, arguing that contests later in February in Nevada and South Carolina, followed quickly by Super Tuesday on March 3, are critical to demonstrate that a candidate is capable of defeating President Donald Trump."We have been taking incoming since before Vice President Biden got into this race, since before April 25, people have been writing our campaign's obituary. Tuesday morning will be no different," Biden senior adviser Symone Sanders said at the roundtable.It's in the states after Iowa that Biden's advisers say he'll be able to show his true electoral strength because of their higher concentrations of non-white voters and because their Democratic primary electorates are more moderate than Iowa's.'Not the End'"I think it's important to know that we view Iowa as the beginning, not the end" of the nominating process, Sanders, the Biden adviser, said. "I think it will be a gross mistake on the part of reporters, voters or anyone else to view whatever happens on Monday – we think it's going to be close – but view whatever happens as the end and not give credence and space for New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina."Senator Bernie Sanders leads Biden by 3.6 percentage points in the Real Clear Politics average of Iowa caucus polls, but one key data point that typically helps set expectations in the final 48 hours before Iowans go to their caucuses is missing: The Des Moines Register/CNN poll's Saturday night release was canceled because of problems with its questioning, leaving journalists, analysts and voters grasping for data to anticipate Monday's results."I certainly will concede that the poll, the Register poll, could add or detract energy from a campaign," said Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, who has endorsed Biden. "It's important for the expectations-setting. But I sort of think Democrats don't just go to someone because they're ahead."A central tenet of Biden's Democratic primary argument is that he's the candidate perceived as most electable, a contention opponents have argued would be diminished by a poor showing in Iowa. But Miller insisted that a disappointing finish for Biden in his state doesn't change the overall picture for Biden."When we say he's electable in the general election, we're not saying he's going to win every state in the caucus and primary system. That only happens with an incumbent president running for re-election," Miller said. "I think that's a false standard that he should win every state."(Disclaimer: Michael Bloomberg is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination. He is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.)To contact the reporter on this story: Jennifer Epstein in Des Moines, Iowa at jepstein32@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Larry LiebertFor 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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| Klobuchar Faces Uproar Over Her Role in Black Teenager's Murder Conviction Posted: 01 Feb 2020 07:24 AM PST  Civil rights activists and black community leaders in Minneapolis have called on Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota to suspend her presidential campaign after a report raised questions about whether a black teenager was wrongly convicted of murder during her tenure as the Hennepin County attorney.Klobuchar's handling of the case involving the teenager, Myon Burrell, has come under renewed scrutiny after The Associated Press published an investigation this week detailing what it said were numerous flaws.The senator has repeatedly highlighted Burrell's conviction in the 2002 case, in which an 11-year-old girl was killed by a stray bullet, as evidence of her history of being tough on crime and seeking justice for African American communities shaken by gun violence. But the AP article quoted one of Burrell's co-defendants as saying that he was in fact the gunman responsible for the murder of the girl, Tyesha Edwards. Burrell, AP reported, has insisted that he is innocent and has rejected all plea deals.In a statement Tuesday, representatives from the Minneapolis NAACP, the Racial Justice Network, Black Lives Matter Twin Cities and other organizations jointly demanded that Klobuchar "immediately suspend her campaign for president, given her role in sending an innocent black teenager to prison for life."At a news conference the next day, Leslie Redmond, president of the Minneapolis chapter of the NAACP, said: "What I need people to understand is that this is not about partisanship and this is not about politics. This is about justice. This is about what's right and what's wrong.""Young people, young adults, were given life sentences to rot away in prison," she added. "This benefits no one. However, it does benefit politicians that have used the criminal justice system to enhance their political careers, and enough is enough.""Amy Klobuchar," Redmond said, "you have questions that need to be answered."The revelations, and the call for Klobuchar to suspend her campaign, came just days before the caucuses in Iowa -- a state where she has invested considerable resources and needs to get strong results.Throughout the Democratic primary, candidates like former Vice President Joe Biden and former Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City have faced scrutiny of their records on criminal justice and policies they supported that disproportionately harmed African American and Hispanic communities. And before she dropped out of the race, Sen. Kamala Harris of California also faced questions about her time as a prosecutor.On Friday, a spokeswoman for Klobuchar's campaign said: "Sen. Klobuchar has always believed in pursuing justice without fear or favor. That's why she has said that any new evidence in this case should immediately be reviewed by the court."In a statement, the Hennepin County attorney's office said it had "been fully cooperative with The Associated Press and Myon Burrell's defense attorneys," adding, "Neither The Associated Press or Myon Burrell's lawyers have shared any new evidence with us. If any new information is presented, it will carefully be reviewed by our office."The Minneapolis Police Department referred questions to the Hennepin County attorney's office without comment.In a telephone interview Friday night Daniel Guerrero, a lawyer for Burrell who has represented him since 2017, said that while he believed authorities could have more rigorously followed up on leads and alibis, he did not think, based on his review, that Klobuchar had done "anything specifically wrong.""I don't think she had much to do with the case," he said, noting that line prosecutors had handled it. "She stepped back and let them do what they were doing.""The one thing I would say about Sen. Klobuchar is that I wish she would stop citing the Edwards case as an example of her being an aggressive prosecutor," Guerrero added. "Though certainly tragic that an 11-year-old girl died, it's equally as bad that a 16-year-old boy was likely wrongfully convicted and sentenced to a life term in the face of an aggressive and often shortsighted prosecution."Guerrero said that his client had already appealed his conviction several times and that "at this point we would have to bring in evidence of actual innocence" to get the case back into court. "We're still investigating and hoping to get a wrongly convicted individual out," he said.Klobuchar ran the Hennepin County attorney's office from 1999 through 2006 and oversaw Burrell's first trial, conviction and sentencing in 2003. That conviction was eventually reversed by the Minnesota Supreme Court, which found that a key statement made by Burrell should not have been used in the trial; Klobuchar was succeeded by Mike Freeman, the current Hennepin County attorney, who oversaw a second trial for Burrell, in which he was also convicted and sentenced to life in prison, officials said. Burrell was 16 at the time of the shooting and is now 33.Though Klobuchar does not discuss her time as Hennepin County attorney as frequently as she cites her accomplishments as a federal lawmaker, she has often told the story of Tyesha Edwards at national televised debates, in interviews and when giving speeches on gun violence."Tyesha Edwards, a little girl that was doing her homework at her kitchen table," she told The Washington Post in October. "Sweet, sweet child just home doing her homework so that they could go to the mall later on or something, and gang members shot through her house and killed her at her kitchen table while she was doing her homework. We went after those guys. They went to jail."In its report, AP said the case against Burrell was overly reliant on jailhouse informants -- some of whom were offered sentence reductions, cash and other incentives for information -- as well as unreliable accounts from the man who was the target of the gunfire. The AP report also laid out a number of leads that it said were not seriously pursued by the authorities and missteps in the interrogation. It noted that no gun was recovered and no fingerprints or DNA evidence were made a part of the case.The AP article also said that Klobuchar denied Burrell's request to go to his mother's funeral after she died in a car crash during the investigation.Burrell told the AP he believed authorities knew that he was innocent all along."They just didn't feel like my life was worth living," he said.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| DHS: New screening to begin amid coronavirus concerns Posted: 02 Feb 2020 01:31 PM PST  As the U.S. steps up its response to the coronavirus outbreak, the Department of Homeland Security is warning airline passengers that their flights may wind up rerouted if officials discover mid-flight that someone onboard has been in China in the last 14 days. Under the new rules, U.S. citizens who have traveled in China within the last 14 days will be re-routed to one of eight designated airports, where they will undergo enhanced health screening procedures. The eight are: John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York; Chicago O'Hare International Airport; San Francisco International Airport; Seattle-Tacoma International Airport; Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Honolulu; Los Angeles International Airport in California; Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport; and Washington-Dulles International Airport in Virginia.
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| America is Making a Bad Bet on India Posted: 02 Feb 2020 02:06 PM PST  America is dangerously emboldening India's Hindu nationalist government as it nears the point of no return. Modi, whose term ends in 2024, could be succeeded by someone far more extreme.
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| Rounds of wintry weather target the Plains through midweek Posted: 02 Feb 2020 09:13 AM PST  Several storms will sweep across the center of the country over the coming days, bringing wintry weather from Iowa to Texas.After dumping inches of snow in across the Great Basin and the Rockies, a storm will move across the Plains late Monday and into Tuesday."As the storm moves eastward into Tuesday, it will lose much of its intensity," said AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Eric Leister. While low temperatures Monday night across the central Plains are forecast to be mainly in the teens, and then only in the 20s during the day Tuesday, high snowfall totals are not expected.Most locations from North Platte, Nebraska and Colby, Kansas, on east are likely to accumulate less than 3 inches."By the time that storm reaches Iowa and northern Missouri, there may be snow falling from the sky, but no more than a thin coating is expected," Leister added.The central Plains to the Great Lakes is not the only area that may experience snow for the first half of the week.The northern side of the same storm that will spark severe weather across the Gulf Coast, will also hold back across the center of the country just enough to interact with some cooler air moving into the Plains.The snow will begin in New Mexico and western parts of Texas on Tuesday night before spreading eastward through Wednesday."Several inches of snow is possible in a swath from northern Texas to southwestern Missouri," said AccuWeather Meteorologist Adam Sadvary.A few isolated spots could end up with half a dozen inches of snow before the storm exits the region on Wednesday. Temperatures will likely be marginally low enough on the southern fringe of the snow, which may allow sleet and freezing rain to mix in with any snowflakes."The wintry precipitation accumulating on roadways will likely bring complications for travelers along Interstates 20, 35, 40 and 44, especially during the morning commute," added Sadvary.The snow may also lead to school delays or closures on Wednesday.CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE ACCUWEATHER APPFollowing both of these storms, chilly air will become entrenched in the Plains. Low temperatures early Thursday morning will be in the teens from the North Dakota-Canada border down into Oklahoma and the northern Texas Panhandle. Elsewhere, lows will be in the 20s.Temperatures are expected to rebound into the 40s and 50s across central Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Kansas on Thursday, but hold in the 20s and 30s for Iowa and Missouri. In these areas, any snowpack will likely linger longer.The same storm bringing snow to the southern Plains is expected to continue moving east, and could impact the Eastern Seaboard late in the week.Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.
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| Health officials say they're testing the first possible Wuhan coronavirus case in New York City Posted: 01 Feb 2020 06:32 PM PST  If confirmed, the New York City patient would be the ninth coronavirus patient in the United States.
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| More foreigners leaving China as virus fears mount Posted: 02 Feb 2020 03:42 AM PST  Wearing a mask and plastic gloves to protect himself from infection, an Uzbek student is among a rush of foreigners trying to fly out of virus-hit China to wait things out overseas. At Beijing's international airport on Sunday, the 19-year-old Uzbek student told AFP he was heading home because his parents were worried about the virus, which has claimed over 300 lives and infected more than 14,000 across China. Calling the situation "dreadful", he expressed concern over the rising death toll and the restrictions other countries have imposed on travellers from China.
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| Paradise lost looms for German farmers as swine fever nears Posted: 02 Feb 2020 04:29 PM PST  The German state of Brandenburg has erected about 120 km (75 miles) of electric fencing to prevent wild boars infected with African swine fever (ASF) from straying across the border from Poland and infecting its pig herd. ASF, which has led to the deaths of a quarter of the world's pigs in China and roiled the global meat industry, is dangerously close to Germany, Europe's largest pork producer. A case of the viral disease was discovered in a wild boar in Poland just 12 km from the German border last month.
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| George Soros: Facebook, Zuckerberg in cahoots with Trump to win 2020 election Posted: 01 Feb 2020 09:51 AM PST  George Soros is accusing Facebook and its CEO Mark Zuckerberg of conspiring with Trump to help the president win reelection. Facebook denies it.
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| Arab League rejects Trump administration's Middle East peace plan Posted: 01 Feb 2020 08:38 AM PST  The foreign ministers of the 22 member states of the Arab League unanimously rejected the Trump administration's proposal to end the Israeli-Palestine conflict unveiled last week.The resolution said the plan "does not satisfy the minimum of the rights and aspirations of the Palestinian people." It's considered a win for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who threatened to cut security ties with Israel and the U.S. on Saturday, and the Palestinian Liberation Organization because it means the White House can't claim to have support from neighboring Arab countries.> Huge diplomatic victory for Abbas and the PLO. Even states that attended the Trump/Bibi ceremony (UAE, Oman, Bahrain) are now on record as rejecting. Anything less would've allowed the admin to claim some Arab support. That's no longer possible. https://t.co/v9b4ZOxi3E> > — Khaled Elgindy (@elgindy_) February 1, 2020To clarify, not every country condemned the plan. Some, like the United Arab Emirates, Oman, and Morocco have suggested it could be the basis for future talks and applauded Washington's efforts, but they don't think the current iteration is viable.The plan has been criticized in several circles, with many analysts arguing it does little to curb Israeli settlements in the West Bank — one of the main grievances held by Palestinians — and could increase tensions.More stories from theweek.com Mitch McConnell's rare blunder John Bolton just vindicated Nancy Pelosi All the president's turncoats
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