- WorldThe Telegraph
British 'spy' accused of receiving USB stick with 'state secrets,' lawyer says
Paul Whelan, 48, believed the USB stick had photographs and other information about a church he had visited, lawyer Vladimir Zherebenkov said. FSB security agents swooped in and seized him before he could see what was on the flash drive, he added. Russian media previously claimed he was grabbed at the Metropole Hotel near the Kremlin while receiving a USB stick with a list of employees of a state agency.
- NewsHuffPost Opinion
To The Teachers And Parents Of Covington Catholic High School
For many in this country, MAGA hats amount to an explicit message of racial intolerance and bigotry, and the chaperones should have known the boys' appearance had the potential to inflame and frighten others, particularly on this day of marches. Combine that with the common belief of teen boys in their absolute right of freedom of speech and expression, their ignorance of how they appear to others, and the emboldening effect of a large group, and the whole thing was entirely foreseeable. For the rest of us, we have to put aside our righteous indignation.
NewsAFPStriking teachers in LA reach tentative settlement with district
Los Angeles public school teachers reached a tentative settlement with school officials Tuesday in order to end a weeklong strike that has affected some 500,000 students. The settlement -- reached after 21 hours of marathon talks that ended early Tuesday -- was set to be voted on by the roughly 30,000 members of the teachers union later in the day and classes are due to resume on Wednesday. "The strike nobody wanted is now behind us," Los Angeles United School District superintendent Austin Beutner said at a joint press conference with Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and Alex Caputo-Pearl, the president of United Teachers Los Angeles.
- PoliticsThe National Review
Supreme Court Temporarily Reinstates Transgender Military Ban
The Supreme Court on Tuesday temporarily reinstated the Trump administration's partial ban on transgender individuals' serving in the military. While declining to consider the legality of the policy, the Court granted the administration's request to halt district-court injunctions against the policy's enforcement until the Ninth Circuit could rule on it. Federal trial judges in California, Washington, D.C., and Washington state have ruled against the ban after plaintiffs argued that it violates the the Constitution's First Amendment and equal-protection and due-process clauses.
- WorldAssociated Press
Romania president: plan to invalidate graft cases not legal
Romania's president said on Tuesday that a government decree that could invalidate hundreds of corruption cases involving senior officials is "crassly unconstitutional," a development that also prompted concern from the European Union. President Klaus Iohannis blasted the measure put forward this week by the justice minister, saying the ruling Social Democrats "don't care about Romania; they care about their own politicians with legal problems." Premier Viorica Dancila is considering the measure, which could lead to the suspension of trials and verdicts and lead to resentencing in the cases of some convictions.
- NewsUSA TODAY
Norwegian Cruise Line denies claim crew member used passenger's cabin for sex
Norwegian Cruise Line is denying a British couple's allegation that they found a crew member having sex in their cabin during a recent voyage. In a statement sent to USA TODAY, the Miami-based line suggested a thorough investigation of the allegation had proved it untrue. The thorough investigation undertaken, including full review of security footage of the corridor where the stateroom was located, does not corroborate the allegation," the line said in the statement.
- BusinessCar and Driver
Every Photo of the Heavy Duty 2020 GMC Sierra
As always, the GMC will come with extra chrome and an in-your-face grille. From Car and Driver
WorldReutersA century on, Basra's British-era shipyard going strong
Thousands of ships, including former dictator Saddam Hussein's yacht, have passed through the Iraqi shipyard's three docks, where a giant steam engine hauls them out of the water and up the century-old wooden tracks. Mohammed Adnan, who has been operating the huge steam engine for six years now, says it is not easy. "They say they [the British] brought in the wood from Burma... we tried to drill a 1.5 inch nail into it once, we couldn't," said Jassim Hussain Sabour, the shipyard's longest-serving worker.
- NewsThe Independent
Government shutdown 'causing FBI to lose informants' at centre of terrorism investigations
A lack of funding due to the partial shutdown of the US government is hindering FBI investigations into drug and terrorism offences, the FBI Agents Association (FBIAA) has said. The bureau has lost several informants who have infiltrated groups under investigation, an anonymous FBI agent was quoted as saying in a report on the impact of the shutdown. Agents who had been working on an investigation into the MS-13 criminal gang said they were only able to communicate with Spanish-speaking informants through a conference call with a translator.
WorldAFPMexico probes negligence in pipeline blast that killed 91
Mexico has opened an investigation into what caused a deadly pipeline explosion, including possible negligence by authorities, the attorney general said Monday, as the death toll rose to 91 people. It is still unclear exactly how events unfolded leading up to the Friday blast, which occurred as hundreds of people rushed to collect fuel in buckets and jerrycans from a geyser of gasoline that was spouting from an illegal pipeline tap near the town of Tlahuelilpan, in the central state of Hidalgo. The death toll from the blast and ensuing fire has now risen to 91 people, after two more victims died in hospital, Governor Omar Fayad told Mexican radio network Formula.
- NewsUSA TODAY
The March for Life is a different kind of field trip for schools like Covington Catholic
The itinerary for most school field trips to Washington, D.C., is usually as busy as it is predictable: See some monuments on the National Mall, check out the Smithsonian museums and don't miss the bus to the next stop. Catholic schools, where students are taught abortion is an intrinsic evil, have been organizing excursions to the anti-abortion marches for years. This has never been just another field trip for the students or their parent chaperones, and abortion has never been just another issue in America's culture wars.
- PoliticsArchitectural Digest
What Would a "Green New Deal" Look Like for Architecture?
Newly elected Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez got tongues wagging this month when she championed a plan for a Green New Deal, and drafted a proposal to kickstart the committee that would create it. Ocasio-Cortez's plan, which emphasizes decarbonization, job creation, and social and economic justice, is politically audacious—it aims for 100 percent renewable energy within 12 years—but in line with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)'s most recent warning that the world has about a decade to get climate change under control if we are to thwart its worst effects. Under a Green New Deal, that way of building would be considered outdated and obsolete.
PoliticsFOX News VideosPalmer: Presidential hopeful Kamala Harris could face attacks from the left for her law and order experience
At least six Democrats have announced their candidacy for the 2020 presidential race; insight from Anna Palmer, Politico Playbook co-author.
- PoliticsBloomberg
Supreme Court Allows Redacted Appeal in Possible Mueller Case
The U.S. Supreme Court let an unidentified foreign-owned company file a redacted appeal in a case believed to be tied to the criminal investigation being conducted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. The 38-page document released Tuesday contends the company isn't legally required to provide information to a grand jury, or pay the $50,000 per day fine imposed by a federal trial judge for noncompliance. The company is owned by an unidentified foreign country.
- CelebrityThe National Review
Meet the Women Who Protested the Women's March
Women from various political and ideological backgrounds challenged the 2019 Women's March by marching in protest and organizing alternative rallies near the Washington, D.C. event on Saturday. The third annual Women's March took place in Freedom Plaza, a more confined space than in years past, suggesting that organizers anticipated smaller crowds after facing allegations of anti-Semitism and defending Nation of Islam's anti-Semitic leader Louis Farrakhan. Following the development of those controversies, conservative group Independent Women's Forum (IWF) organized a rally across the street in the name of “all women” at the same time as the Women's March.
- WorldReuters
A time-limited Brexit backstop would be useless: EU's Barnier
A temporary safeguard to avoid erecting a physical border between Ireland and Northern Ireland after Brexit would serve no purpose, the EU's chief negotiator Michel Barnier said on Wednesday. In an interview to newspapers Le Monde, Rzeczpospolita and Luxemburger Wort, Barnier said the current backstop proposal over the border was the only option on the table. quot;The question of limiting the backstop in time has already been discussed twice by European leaders.
WorldAssociated PressIsrael increasingly goes public with its strikes in Syria
Israel on Monday claimed responsibility for a series of airstrikes on Iranian military targets in Syria, drifting further away from its longstanding policy of playing down or covering up its military activities in the war-torn country. For years, Israel has remained largely silent about its attacks against Iran and its Shiite proxies operating in neighboring Syria. This policy appears to be aimed at sending a message to key players in Syria, including President Bashar Assad and Russia, that Iran's continued presence there risks triggering even tougher and potentially destabilizing Israeli action.
- NewsThe Independent
Florida police run over couple lying in the road to watch lunar eclipse
A police officer in Florida ran over two people lying on a dark road to watch the lunar eclipse, leaving them requring hospital treatment. The West Palm Beach Police Department has confirmed the officer ran over the two people, who were taken to hospital and treated for non-life-threatening injuries after the incident on Sunday night. Police said that the individuals, who have not been identified, were hit around 11.30pm, just at the height of the eclipse.
NewsAFP'Welcome' refugees in Kansas celebrate their American birthdays
And most were there to celebrate the same thing: a January 1 birth date. p Far from a strange coincidence, the date is usually assigned to immigrants who arrive in the United States without birth certificates, as refugees often do. p Some refugees may have never even celebrated a birthday back in their native countries and do not know when they were born.
- NewsTime
Kentucky Catholic Student Says He Wishes 'We Could Have Walked Away' From Confrontation With Native American Veteran
Four days after Nick Sandmann sparked national controversy for an apparent confrontation with Native American veteran Nathan Phillips in Washington, D.C., the Kentucky high schooler has given his first interview. On Tuesday, NBC released a clip of Sandmann's talk with the Today show's Savannah Guthrie. In the snippet, Guthrie asked Sandmann whether he owed anyone an apology or saw fault in himself “in any way” for the encounter.
- NewsUSA TODAY
Can you trust weather forecasts during a government shutdown?
Last week, private forecasting company AccuWeather issued an apology to employees of the National Weather Service for a story that had been posted on the company's website earlier that day. The first posting of the story seemed to suggest weather data could not be trusted during the government shutdown. An editor's note at the top of the revised story said that despite the shutdown, government weather data continues to flow seamlessly to private weather forecasting companies such as AccuWeather.
BusinessReutersGoogle spends big on U.S. lobbying amid antitrust, bias battles
Alphabet Inc's Google disclosed on Tuesday that it spent a company-record $21.2 million on lobbying the United States government in 2018, topping its previous high of $18.22 million in 2012, as the search engine operator fights wide-ranging scrutiny into its practices. Google said in a quarterly disclosure to Congress that it spent $4.9 million on lobbying activities during the fourth quarter, slightly above $4.4 million in the same period a year ago. The 2018 total also surpassed $18.04 million spent on lobbying in 2017, according to tracking of the filings by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.
PoliticsAssociated PressHouse Democrats bringing new scrutiny to education secretary
Wielding control of the House and a new set of investigative powers, Democrats are preparing to bring Education Secretary Betsy DeVos under the sharpest scrutiny she has seen since taking office. DeVos has emerged as a common target for Democrats as they take charge of the House and its committees, which carry the authority to issue subpoenas and call hearings. At least four panels are expected to challenge DeVos on her most polarizing policies, among them her overhaul of campus sexual assault rules and her rollback of for-profit college regulations.
StyleAFP Relax NewsMr Porter and Off-White unveil their latest collaboration
p Mr Porter has presented the fruit of its latest collaboration with streetwear label Off-White: a 44-piece capsule which reinterprets traditional sportswear. Christened "Modern Office," the collection is exclusively available from Mr Porter (www.mrporter.com). p Announced on January 16 of this year, the collaboration between the high-end men's fashion platform, Mr Porter, and the label founded by Virgil Abloh has taken shape in the form of a series of looks unveiled on the Mr Porter website, which now features no fewer than 44 pieces from the new capsule entitled "Modern Office.
WorldReutersOpposition leader pushes for parliament vote on new Brexit referendum
British opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn moved a step closer to paving the way for another referendum on European Union membership by trying to use parliament to grab control of Brexit from Prime Minister Theresa May. With the clock ticking down to March 29, the date set in law for Brexit, the United Kingdom is in the deepest political crisis in half a century as it grapples with how, or even whether, to exit the European project it joined in 1973. Since May's divorce deal with the EU was rejected by 432-202 lawmakers last week, the biggest defeat in modern British history, lawmakers have been trying to plot a course out of the crisis, yet no option has the majority support o...
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Alyssa Milano Calls Red MAGA Hats 'The New White Hood' and Sarah Palin Responds
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