- PoliticsUSA TODAY
Coast Guard officer, self-described white nationalist, planned terror attack to 'kill almost every last person,' feds say
A U.S. Coast Guard lieutenant and self-described white nationalist planned a domestic terrorist attack targeting politicians and journalists, federal prosecutors say in court papers. Christopher Paul Hasson was arrested last week on gun and drug charges, but intended "to murder innocent civilians on a scale rarely seen in this country," according to court documents filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court in Maryland. Hasson was scheduled to appear in court Thursday afternoon in Maryland.
- WorldThe Telegraph
Indigenous woman shot dead, a dozen injured, in border clashes with Venezuelan security forces
A high stakes bid by the Venezuelan opposition to transport aid into the country turned deadly on Friday as government forces opened fire on a group of indigenous volunteers, killing at least one woman and injuring 12. Members of the indigenous community in the southern town of Kumarakapay, bordering Brazil, on Friday night took the commander of the Venezuelan national guard prisoner in retaliation. Jose Miguel Montoya Rodriguez was being detained by members of the Pemon tribe, following the death of Zoraida Rodriguez in the clashes.
- NewsThe Independent
Girl banned from wearing MAGA hat claims school is violating her First Amendment rights
A California high school student who was banned from wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat on campus is challenging her school district for impinging on her First Amendment rights. Maddie Mueller, who attends Clovis North High School in Fresno, is a member of Valley Patriots. The conservative activist group asked its affiliates to wear the well-known hat bearing Donald Trump's campaign motto on Wednesday.
WorldAFPPakistan military warns India against 'misadventure'
Pakistan's military warned India on Friday against "misadventure", saying it was capable of responding to any threats as tensions simmer between the two nuclear-armed neighbours. "We hope you will not mess up with us," military spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor told a press briefing in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, the second such message Pakistan has sent to New Delhi in as many days. Tensions have risen in the days following a suicide attack in Kashmir that killed 41 Indian paramilitaries and was claimed by Islamist group Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), based in Pakistan.
PoliticsAssociated PressSen. Warren: US needs to address 'ugly history of racism'
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who said earlier this week that she supports reparations for black Americans who have been affected by slavery, told reporters Friday that the nation needs to confront its "ugly history of racism" and "talk about the right way to address it and make change." Warren addressed race in a speech Friday to New Hampshire Democrats, but didn't speak specifically about reparations.
WorldReutersAt Pope's abuse summit, Church seeks to fix 'systematic failures'
The Roman Catholic Church must repair the "systematic failures" that enabled sexual abuse to take root around the world, and bishops should start policing each other's behavior, leading cardinals said on Friday. Cardinals Blase Cupich of Chicago and Oswald Gracias of Mumbai spoke on the second day of a conference of some 200 senior Church officials convened by Pope Francis to confront what he has called the scourge of sexual abuse by the clergy. quot;This past year has taught us that the systematic failures in holding clerics of all rank responsible are due in large measure to flaws in the way we interact and communicate with each other," Cupich said.
- NewsYahoo News 360
Should 'ISIS brides' be allowed to return home?
Who: Two young women — Hoda Muthana from the United States and Shamima Begum from Britain — have ignited debate about youths who have left their countries to join the Islamic State but now want to come home. What: Muthana, 24, said in an interview with ABC News that she's ashamed of social media posts she made when she was part of ISIS and wants to return to the United States with her 18-month-old son. Muthana's lawyer says she was a “stupid, naive, young dumb woman” who became enamored of the Islamic State, and was “brainwashed” and compelled to marry ISIS fighters.
WorldAssociated PressBrazil moves Venezuela aid to border despite closure
Brazilian authorities on Friday began moving humanitarian aid to its northern border with Venezuela even though the international crossing has been closed. Brazil's air force sent a plane with food and medicine to Boa Vista, the main city in the northern state of Roraima. They planned to transport via trucks the goods, which included rice, powered milk and first aid kits, to Pacaraima, the city that borders Venezuela.
- WorldTime
Saudi Sisters Stranded for Months in Hong Kong After Fleeing the Kingdom, Rights Group Says
Two Saudi Arabian sisters have spent almost six months hiding in Hong Kong after authorities reportedly foiled an attempt to flee the conservative kingdom, a human rights group says. Using aliases to protect their identities, non-profit Justice Centre Hong Kong said in a statement that Reem, 20, and Rawan, 18, arrived in the city on Sept. 6, 2018, after escaping during a family holiday in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo. The pair had booked a connecting flight to Melbourne Australia, where they planned to seek asylum, but they were intercepted upon landing and told their flight had been cancelled.
- NewsUSA TODAY Opinion
When rich men like Robert Kraft get charged with soliciting prostitutes, we forget so fast
If ever there was a doubt that sex trafficking involves both the poor and disenfranchised (often times as victims) as well as the very wealthy, today's announcement should erase those doubts. The fact that Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots, was charged with two counts of soliciting prostitution will be out of people's memories at some point. Human trafficking is happening to both foreign born nationals and American born citizens on American soil.
PoliticsUSA TODAYRobert Mueller: Justice Department says special counsel won't finish report next week
WASHINGTON – The Justice Department sought Friday to dampen expectations for the completion of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, saying the report is not expected next week. Speculation was rampant about what the report might contain and what Attorney General William Barr would release publicly in the wake of a CNN report that Mueller could finish as early as next week. A senior Justice Department official said Friday that such reports are incorrect.
WorldAFPVietnam readying for Kim train arrival next week: sources
Vietnamese authorities are preparing for North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to arrive by train next week ahead of his summit with US president Donald Trump, several sources told AFP Friday. The leaders are slated to meet in Hanoi on February 27-28 to follow up on their first meeting last June in Singapore that ended with vaguely worded commitments on dismantling Pyongyang's nuclear programme. In the northeastern Chinese city of Dandong, which borders on North Korea, there were signs that Kim's train could be crossing over into China imminently en route to Vietnam.
- BusinessThe Independent
Airlines admit having cameras installed on back of passengers' seats
Three of the world's biggest airlines have admitted some of their planes have cameras installed on the backs of passenger seats. American Airlines, United Airlines and Singapore Airlines have new seat-back entertainment systems that include cameras. Companies that make the entertainment systems are fitting them with cameras to offer passengers options such as seat-to-seat video conferencing, according to an American Airlines spokesman.
PoliticsReutersAs 2020 candidates turn left, some Democrats worry about the center
Party activists have been energized as Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand, Kamala Harris and other candidates endorsed plans to provide Medicare coverage to every American, some form of tuition-free college, a national $15 minimum wage and the so-called “Green New Deal” advocated by U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Some Democrats fear the argument has potency. "The big progressive programs are popular in a caucus or primary electorate, but probably don't move the needle among voters who want to find someone who will change Washington by tilting the system to favor people in the middle — not the very rich or the very poor,” said Jeff Link, an Iowa Democrat who worked for former President Barack Obama's campaign.
- WorldNational Review
The Roman Farce
Pope Francis is conducting his extraordinary summit with cardinals on the problem of sexual abuse in the Church. The first was Pope Francis's recent laicization of the former cardinal archbishop of Washington, D.C., Theodore McCarrick, a man who was notorious for his sexual abuse of seminarians and other priests, while at the same time he was the public-relations face of the Church's response to sexual abuse and cover-up in the early 2000s. McCarrick was finally publicly exposed when an investigation into his abuse of a minor became public last year.
- WorldThe Guardian
Venezuela: at least four dead and hundreds injured in border standoff
At least four people have been killed and hundreds injured in a wave of violence that convulsed Venezuela's border regions on Saturday, as opposition activists tried to defy a government ban and bring food and medical supplies into the country. After the failed attempt to breach government blockades, opposition leader Juan Guaidó declared the fight would continue, and said “we must keep all our options open for the liberation of our homeland”. Florida senator Marco Rubio responded to Guaidó's comments, saying he had spoken to regional leaders and the actions of President Nicolás Maduro's regime on Saturday had “opened the door to various potential multilateral actions not on the table just 24 hours ago”.
U.S.FOX News VideosPolice say they have identified a potential suspect in the assault on a conservative activist on Berkeley campus
Reaction from founder and president of Turning Point USA Charlie Kirk.
- NewsThe Telegraph
Cargo jet with three on board crashes near Houston airport
A Boeing 767 cargo jetliner heading to Houston with three people aboard disintegrated after crashing Saturday into a bay east of the city, according to a Texas sheriff. Witnesses told emergency personnel that the twin-engine plane "went in nose first," leaving a debris field three-quarters of a mile long in Trinity Bay, Chambers County Sheriff Brian Hawthorne said. Witnesses said they heard the plane's engines surging and that the craft turned sharply before falling into a nosedive, Hawthorne said.
NewsAssociated PressSen. Feinstein debates children over climate change
U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein and a group of San Francisco Bay Area students squared off over climate change in a sometimes tense exchange captured on video and widely shared on social media. The 15-minute video of the impromptu Friday meeting captures the students and Feinstein debating the merits of the Green New Deal, an ambitious Democrat plan to shift the U.S. economy from fossil fuels to renewable sources such as wind and solar power. The students passionately urged the California Democrat to support the legislation.
- LifestyleCar and Driver
View Photos of the 2019 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 2.7T Four-Cylinder
It tows more than you'd expect but also drinks more fuel than you'd expect. From Car and Driver
WorldAFPDecision time, not extra time, EU Brexit negotiator says
Brexit talks now require a "decision" rather than going into "extra time", the EU's chief negotiator Michel Barnier said Friday as the clock runs down on March 29 when Britain is set to leave the block, with or without an exit deal. "We don't need extra time, what we need now is a decision and for everyone to take responsibility," Barnier told Europe 1 radio. He did not exclude granting Britain more negotiating time -- beyond March 29 -- for concluding an agreement on the Brexit divorce terms, but said it was now up to "the British to take their responsibilities and assume the consequences of decisions they took democratically," he said.
- PoliticsYahoo News
2020 Vision: Bernie Sanders launches, like a rocket
On Tuesday, the Sanders campaign said it raised nearly $6 million in its first 24 hours, or roughly four times as much as Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif. raised in the first 24 hours of her campaign's much-heralded launch. The same day, the Daily Beast reported that Sanders had hired Faiz Shakir, national political director of the American Civil Liberties Union, to serve as his campaign manager.
- U.S.KABC – Los Angeles
FAA confirms jet that crashed into Trinity Bay was Amazon Prime cargo plane
According to the FAA, the flight carries an Atlas flight number but was painted in Amazon colors.
PoliticsReutersU.S. Coast Guard officer accused of terror plot could face more charges
A U.S. Coast Guard lieutenant accused of amassing a cache of weapons and plotting to attack Democratic politicians and journalists was ordered held for two weeks on Thursday while federal prosecutors consider charging him with more crimes. Chris Hasson, 49, appeared in a burgundy jumpsuit but did not speak during a brief hearing in federal court in Greenbelt, Maryland. Hasson is described by federal prosecutors as a "domestic terrorist" and self-described white supremacist who had a list of potential targets including House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi and MSNBC television host Joe Scarborough.
