- PoliticsYahoo News
Senators blast Trump administration for coronavirus response
Top officials in the Trump administration struggled on Tuesday morning to justify their response to the growing threat of the coronavirus, which has sickened at least 80,423 people around the world and killed at least 2,712. Although there have been no recorded fatalities in the United States yet, skeptical members of the U.S. Senate made clear to administration officials that they did not have confidence in their response. At one point during their back-and-forth, which promptly went viral on social media, Kennedy insisted that Wolf tell him the number of coronavirus cases that the United States could expect.
- U.S.Associated Press
Louisiana governor: Judge should resign after racial slurs
Gov. John Bel Edwards called Wednesday on a Louisiana judge to step down after she admitted to using racial slurs in angry text messages. LeBlanc, who is white, now admits sending the text messages after previously denying she sent them.
- PoliticsThe Week
Bloomberg accidentally claims to have 'bought' the 2018 midterm results
The billionaire former mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg, has been slammed by his Democratic primary opponents for allegedly "buy[ing] his way into the debate[s]." On Tuesday night, he nearly admitted to buying a whole lot more than just that. The Freudian slip came as Bloomberg was bragging about spending $100 million in the 2018 midterm elections to back 21 of the 40 Democrats who were elected to the House. "All of the new Democrats that came in, put Nancy Pelosi in charge, and gave the Congress the ability to control this president, I bought — I got them," Bloomberg said, quickly correcting himself.
- WorldNBC News
U.S. soldier in South Korea tests positive as coronavirus pandemic fears grow
More than 78,000 confirmed cases in China, death toll reaches 2,715 • U.S. soldier stationed in South Korea tests positive for COVID-19 • Iran's Deputy Health Minister tests positive for virus • WHO: Coronavirus not a pandemic yet • White House seeks $2.5 billion for coronavirus • Italy hardest hit in Europe with 283 cases U.S. soldier in South Korea tests positive for COVID-19 A U.S. service member stationed in South Korea has tested positive for the coronavirus illness COVID-19, United States Forces Korea said in a statement. The 23-year-old soldier stationed at Camp Carroll, which is northwest of Daegu, is the first U.S. service member to test positive.
- U.S.Time
A Wrongfully Convicted Kansas Man Who Spent 23 Years in Prison Is Awarded $1.5 Million
A Kansas man who spent over two decades in prison for a double murder he didn't commit will be awarded $1.5 million for his wrongful conviction, according to the Kansas State Attorney General's office. Lamonte McIntyre was convicted and sentenced to two terms of life in prison for the murders of Donald Ewing and Doniel Quinn back in 1994. According to the Associated Press, documents made public during the 8-year fight to free McIntyre allege that the prosecutor in the case intimidated witnesses who told her that McIntyre did not look like the shooter after they saw him in person.
- PoliticsThe Independent
Trump news — live: President mocked and markets slide as CDC issues grave warning over potential coronavirus pandemic
A Donald Trump press conference in India descended into a bitter row with CNN reporter Jim Acosta on Tuesday after the president criticised the journalist's network and the latter replied: “I think our record on delivering the truth is a lot better than yours sometimes. Trump has meanwhile secured a lucrative arms deal with the fellow superpower's prime minister Narendra Modi, a venture he risked putting in jeopardy by refusing to eat any of the vegetarian delicacies – notably broccoli samosas - laid out for him at the Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad on Monday afternoon.
- WorldNational Review
Iran to Sentence Citizens Who “Spreads Rumors” about Coronavirus to Flogging, Three Years in Prison
An Iranian parliament spokesman on Wednesday announced that anyone found to be “spreading rumors” about the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak will be sentenced to one-to-three years in prison and flogging, Iran state news agency IRNA reported. Norouzi said the prison sentence and flogging is based on “on the Islamic penal code,” and 24 people have been arrested already on suspicion of “spreading rumors” about the illness. Iran has reported 139 cases of coronavirus infections throughout the country, with an epicenter in the city of Qom, a destination for Shi'ite Muslim religious pilgrims.
U.S.Yahoo News VideoSouth Carolina church shooter Dylann Roof staged death row hunger strike
White supremacist mass murderer Dylann Roof staged a hunger strike this month while on federal death row, alleging in letters to The Associated Press that he's been “targeted by staff,” “verbally harassed and abused without cause” and “treated disproportionately harsh.
- PoliticsThe Daily Beast
MSNBC Benches Contributor Who Smeared Bernie Sanders Staffers
Following MSNBC contributor Dr. Jason Johnson's inflammatory remarks about supporters and campaign staffers of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), the academic has been temporarily benched by the network, sources confirmed to The Daily Beast. In recent months, Johnson—a fixture of the network's Democratic primary analysis—has drawn considerable heat for his relentlessly anti-Sanders commentary on MSNBC, which has also come under fire from the left for its skeptical and largely negative coverage of the democratic-socialist senator. The MSNBC contributor then took aim at the women of color who work for Sanders.
- WorldBloomberg
Hosni Mubarak, Egypt’s Ousted ‘Pharaoh’ Leader, Dies at 91
Mubarak's passing was announced Tuesday by state media, with the presidency later describing him as a hero of the nation's 1973 war against Israel. Dubbed the “pharaoh” by his detractors, Mubarak had ruled for 30 years and was widely accepted to be preparing his younger son Gamal as successor when the Arab Spring surged into Cairo in January 2011. Mubarak attended his trial for the killing of more than 850 protesters by security forces in the final days of his regime in a hospital bed and faced other serious charges, but was only found guilty of fraud and avoided serving additional time in jail.
- U.S.Associated Press
US Supreme Court upholds death sentences of Arizona man
A sharply divided U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the death sentences for an Arizona inmate who was convicted of killing two people in home burglaries nearly 30 years ago and now wants a jury to consider abuse he suffered as a child. Justice Brett Kavanaugh, writing for the court's conservative justices, rejected the arguments of James Erin McKinney that he deserved a new sentencing hearing so a jury could decide whether he should face death or life in prison. McKinney also argued that courts have not fully considered the horrific physical abuse he suffered as a child.
- WorldThe National Interest
Boom: The Army Just Invented a Newer, Deadlier Artillery Round
Washington, D.C.) The Army Research Laboratory is now engineering new rocket, missile and artillery rounds able to destroy groups of mobile enemy fighters, incinerate armored vehicles and eliminate structures with a single munition -- at all much longer ranges than currently deployed weapons can fire. The ARL is currently immersed in cutting edge research, using 3D printing, to develop new metal alloys, weapons casings and design geometries to increase range and lethality for the Army's emerging Long Range Precision Fires program; “Additive manufacturing (3D printing) can take weight out of certain components, create complex geometries inside things and create complex fragmentation patterns,...
- U.S.NBC News
Grandfather of toddler who died in cruise ship fall to plead guilty
The grandfather of an 18-month-old girl who fell to her death from an open window on a Royal Caribbean cruise ship in San Juan, Puerto Rico, said he plans to plead guilty so his family can begin to move on. "I took a plea deal today to try to help end part of this nightmare for my family, if possible," Salvatore Anello said in a statement Tuesday, after a family attorney announced the grandfather's intention to change his plea. Anello, also known as Sam, initially pleaded not guilty to a negligent homicide charge from Puerto Rican authorities in October in the death of Chloe Wiegand in July.
- U.S.USA TODAY
CDC confirms first 'unknown' coronavirus case in California that could raise concerns about the threat of the virus
SAN FRANCISCO — Even as President Donald Trump sought to reassure the public that the risk of coronavirus in the U.S. remains low, ominous news emerged that could heighten the level of concern. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday confirmed an infection in California that would represent the first U.S. person to contract the virus despite not visiting a foreign country recently or coming in contact with an infected patient. This brings the number of coronavirus cases detected in the U.S. to 15, with 12 of them related to travel and the other two to direct contact with a patient.
- San Francisco declared a state of emergency — here's how the coronavirus is affecting the city, from a company's handshake ban to canceled conferencesBusiness Insider
- San Francisco's housing crisis is so dire that some residents may not be able to follow the CDC's guidelines in the case of a coronavirus outbreakBusiness Insider
- WorldReuters
China to Russia: End discriminatory coronavirus measures against Chinese
China's embassy in Russia has demanded authorities in Moscow end what it said are discriminatory anti-coronavirus measures against Chinese nationals, saying they are damaging relations and alarming Chinese residents of the Russian capital. The complaint, detailed in an embassy letter to the city's authorities and published by Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta late on Tuesday, deplored what it called "ubiquitous monitoring" of Chinese nationals, including on public transport in Moscow. Russia, which enjoys strong political and military ties with Beijing, does not currently have any confirmed cases of coronavirus, but has temporarily barred many categories of Chinese nationals from entering the country.
- WorldNational Review
Iran’s Incompetent Response to Coronavirus Threatens the Middle East and the World
The Iranian government has covered up an outbreak of coronavirus that now threatens the Middle East and has led to border closures and hospitalizations in five countries. Over the weekend of February 21, president Hassan Rouhani and other Iranian officials downplayed the growing crises as Iran's death toll from the virus climbed. The coronavirus has likely traveled from China to Iran's city of Qom along the same route that pilgrims and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps uses to travel, illustrating the regime's disregard for its own citizens and neighbors.
- PoliticsThe Week
The Trump administration is reportedly fighting over coronavirus spending
The coronavirus outbreak has sparked plenty of infighting and finger-pointing within the Trump administration, according to a new report. Politico on Tuesday reported that Trump officials including acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney and domestic policy chief Joe Grogan have "turned their fire" on Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar as he leads the administration's coronavirus response, feeling that he "poorly coordinated the strategy, failed to escalate the potential risks to Trump and pushed for a multibillion-dollar emergency-funding request that they initially viewed as extreme."
- PoliticsThe Guardian
Who won the Democratic debate? Our panelists' verdict
As for the candidates, for someone who doesn't support the use of filibuster, Elizabeth Warren sure did dominate the microphone on Tuesday night. Pete Buttigieg tried to make everything about him by talking over everyone, Michael Bloomberg was absolutely adorable trying to explain the history of hostilities in the Middle East, and Tom Steyer somehow felt emboldened to talk about economic justice despite building part of his wealth on private prisons and mines. Amy Klobuchar was also there.
- PoliticsThe Daily Beast
Donald Trump Takes Coronavirus So Seriously He Just Put Mike Pence in Charge
President Donald Trump has tapped Vice President Mike Pence to take over as leader of the administration's coronavirus task force. The announcement came after Trump and his administration spent days receiving harsh criticism from Capitol Hill for its mixed messages about the threat of coronavirus and what the government was doing to prepare. On Wednesday night, Trump's message was very clear: “Exactly right now,” he said, Pence will start leading the White House response to the coronavirus.
U.S.AFPUS Supreme Court dismisses Washington sniper's freedom bid
The US Supreme Court officially dismissed a challenge Wednesday by "DC Sniper" Lee Boyd Malvo to his sentence of life without parole after a law came into effect offering the possibility of freedom for juvenile offenders who have served 20 years. Malvo got four life sentences without parole for three sniper-style murders committed in the state of Virginia with John Muhammad in 2002, when Malvo was 17. Malvo agreed to end his resentencing bid on Monday because he will be eligible for parole in two years in any case under the Virginia law that came into force on the same day.
- WorldBusiness Insider
South Korea is testing 200,000 members of a doomsday church linked to more than 60% of its coronavirus cases
Reuters South Korea is testing all 200,000 members of a doomsday cult that has been badly hit by the coronavirus outbreak. Sixty percent of the country's 977 infections are members of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, based in Daegu, officials said. South Korea is the worst affected country outside China, and 10 people have died there so far.
- U.S.Associated Press
Mexico president ties shootout dead to drug consumption
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador suggested Wednesday without offering evidence that most of those who die in Mexico's cartel- and gang-fueled firefights are high on drugs or intoxicated, prompting criticism and questions about whether the claim was accurate. Speaking to journalists in his morning news conference, López Obrador said rising drug consumption rates must be reversed if the country is to guarantee peace and security after years of rising, record-setting homicide statistics. “Just so you have the number, 60% of those who lose their life each day, 60% of those killed in clashes, it is shown that they are under the influence of drugs or alcohol, but primarily drugs,” the president continued.
- HealthThe Independent
Coronavirus: New York doctors make diagnosis breakthrough
Examining coronavirus patients' CT scans could lead to a quicker diagnosis of those with suspected symptoms, doctors have discovered A team of researchers in Mount Sinai, New York - the first in the US to analyse CT scans of patients - have said they can identify specific patterns in the lungs as markers of the disease. The study revealed scan analysis could be a viable option for suspected patients and help determine which patients with inconclusive results should be kept in isolation. The doctors, who published their findings in Radiology, received the scans of 94 patients in China who had been admitted to four medical centers in four Chinese provinces between 18 January and 2 February.
- U.S.INSIDER
A Florida woman is being accused of zipping her boyfriend into a suitcase and leaving him to die
Twitter/@OrangeCoSheriff Sarah Boone, 42, was arrested on charges of second-degree murder on Tuesday in the death of her boyfriend, Jorge Torres Jr. The Winter Park, Florida woman called police Monday afternoon after finding her boyfriend dead in a zipped-up suitcase. She said that she had zipped him up in the suitcase during a game of hide-and-seek, and went to bed without realizing he was still in the luggage. But police later saw videos on her phone showing her taunting him for cheating on her as he struggled to get out of the suitcase.
- PoliticsNational Review
‘I’m Coming for You’: Biden Threatens Gun Makers at South Carolina Rally
Joe Biden warned gun manufacturers during a speech in South Carolina on Monday night that “I'm coming for you, and I'm taking you down. Biden has cast himself as a relative moderate in recent months on gun-control. His campaign's gun control plan, which was released in October, proposed reinstating an “assault-weapons ban” and universal background checks, but would not force the current owners of semiautomatic rifles to sell the guns to government, as a number of his opponents proposed.
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