- PoliticsNBC News
Judge to proceed with Roger Stone's sentencing, will consider motion for new trial
The judge overseeing the trial of Roger Stone, the Republican campaign veteran and longtime Trump friend, said Tuesday that she will not delay the sentencing, scheduled for Thursday morning. In open court in Washington, D.C., U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson spoke by phone with prosecutors and Stone's attorneys about a recently filed defense motion for a new trial based on a claim that one of the jurors was biased. One of Stone's attorneys, Seth Ginsberg, said the motion "goes to the heart of the case" and urged Jackson to delay sentencing until a hearing can be scheduled on the motion.
- WorldAssociated Press
China’s 'War on Terror' uproots families, leaked data shows
But as a Chinese government mass detention campaign engulfed Memtimin Emer's native Xinjiang region three years ago, the elderly imam was swept up and locked away, along with all three of his sons living in China. Now, a newly revealed database exposes in extraordinary detail the main reasons for the detentions of Emer, his three sons, and hundreds of others in Karakax County: their religion and their family ties. The database obtained by The Associated Press profiles the internment of 311 individuals with relatives abroad and lists information on more than 2,000 of their relatives, neighbors and friends.
- WorldBloomberg
Turkey Follows Landmark Acquittal With Order to Detain Kavala
A Turkish prosecutor issued a warrant to detain businessman Osman Kavala only hours after an Istanbul court unexpectedly acquitted him in another case of plotting to overthrow the government during mass protests that rocked the country in 2013. Kavala, who was released earlier on Tuesday after nearly 840 days in prison, will be questioned as a part of an investigation into the 2016 coup attempt against Turkey's leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, according to state-run Anadolu Agency. The legal reversal caps a day that began with a surprise end to a trial that tested the limits of opposition to Erdogan.
- PoliticsTime
Michael Bloomberg Makes it to the Debate Stage. He May Regret It
And other candidates will not forget to mention how he has used his vast personal wealth to enter the primary race on Super Tuesday — after voters in four states will have already weighed in. Bloomberg's entry into a race he once said he would skip shifted the campaign's axis. He has already spent hundreds of millions of dollars introducing himself to the nation and launching his bid with a coast-to-coast play before 14 states weigh in on March 3's Super Tuesday.
- WorldThe National Interest
Russia Hate This: Why the Astute-Class Submarine Is the Pride of the Royal Navy
Key Point: London's Astute class submarines are powerful and very well-built. Since the commissioning of HMS Dreadnought in 1963, the Royal Navy has maintained a formidable force of nuclear attack submarines. The latest nuclear attack subs, the Astute class, have become a critical component of the future of the Royal Navy—but, given Russia's resurgence, are they enough?
- PoliticsNational Review
Hunter Biden Served on Board of Trade Group That Lobbied Obama Admin for Increased Ukraine Aid: Report
Hunter Biden, son of former vice president Joe Biden, was on the board of a trade group that lobbied the Obama administration for increased U.S. aid to Ukraine, according to a report Tuesday. From 2012 through 2018, the younger Biden served as a director for the Center for U.S. Global Leadership and was connected as well with its affiliate, the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, The Daily Caller reported. The two groups, which include about 400 larger corporations and non-government organizations, lobbied for increased spending abroad by the State Department's International Affairs Budget, including a special focus on Ukraine.
- LifestyleUSA TODAY
'Ice volcanoes' erupt on a Lake Michigan beach. Here's what they look like.
An ice volcano is a cone-shaped mound of ice formed over a lake by the eruption of water and slush through an ice shelf. "Ice volcanoes occur in locations in which waves hit accumulated ice on the shoreline with some force," said Cort Spholten, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service of Grand Rapids. "We were cold enough to form ice on the shore of Lake Michigan, and water had broken the surface of that ice," Spholten said.
- WorldReuters
India's use of facial recognition tech during protests causes stir
MUMBAI/NEW DELHI, India (Reuters) - When artist Rachita Taneja heads out to protest in New Delhi, she covers her face with a pollution mask, a hoodie or a scarf to reduce the risk of being identified by police facial recognition software. Police in the Indian capital and the northern state of Uttar Pradesh - both hotbeds of dissent - have used the technology during protests that have raged since mid-December against a new citizenship law that critics say marginalises Muslims. Activists are worried about insufficient regulation around the new technology, amid what they say is a crackdown on dissent under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose Hindu nationalist agenda has gathered pace since his re-election in May.
- WorldThe Daily Beast
U.S. Coronavirus Cases Nearly Double With No End in Sight
Confirmed cases of the new, deadly coronavirus in the United States almost doubled over the holiday weekend thanks to the messy evacuation of Americans from a cruise ship in Japan, while fresh numbers from China suggested the disease might be deadlier than first believed. The U.S. government evacuated 328 American passengers from Tokyo early Monday on two chartered cargo jets, leaving dozens others behind who preferred to stay on the Diamond Princess cruise ship—despite a strong disembarkation recommendation from the federal government. All travelers from Japan were screened before boarding the aircraft “to prevent symptomatic travelers from departing Japan,” according to the CDC.
- PoliticsBusiness Insider
Trump administration will waive 10 federal laws to speed up border wall construction in California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas
The Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday that it would waive 10 federal laws to increase the speed of construction of President Donald Trump's border wall in several states. The Department of Homeland Security said on Tuesday it would waive 10 federal laws to allow for speedier construction of portions of the border wall in California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, according to a report from the Associated Press. There would be 10 laws waived to allow for faster construction of the border wall, including laws that exist to require open competition, the justification of selections, and receiving all bonding from a contractor before work can commend, the AP report said.
- PoliticsNBC News
Warren: Sanders 'has a lot of questions to answer' about supporters' attacks
Bernie Sanders "has a lot of questions to answer" about how his supporters attacked members of a union online after they criticized his "Medicare for All" health care plan, Elizabeth Warren said Monday. "I've said before that we are all responsible for what our supporters do, and I think Bernie has a lot of questions to answer here," Warren, a Democratic senator from Massachusetts, said in an interview in which she offered rare criticism of her fellow progressive Sanders, an independent senator from Vermont. Members of Culinary Workers Union Local 226, which represents 60,000 workers in Nevada's gaming and hospitality industries, said this week that Sanders' supporters had "viciously attacked" its members after leadership warned about the risk to their negotiated health plans under a "Medicare for All" system.
- U.S.The Independent
Airbnb security guard sentenced to prison for murdering US woman in Costa Rica
A security guard for an apartment complex with Airbnb rental units has been sentenced to 16 years in prison for the 2018 murder of an American tourist. Carla Stefaniak, a Venezuelan-American who lived in Miami, was in San Jose, Costa Rica, celebrating her 36th birthday when she was brutally murdered. On Monday, Bismarck Espinoza Martinez, originally from Nicaragua, was found guilty of fatally stabbing Ms Stefaniak on the night of 28 November, 2018.
- U.S.Associated Press
Tennessee inmate moved to death watch; attorneys seek stay
Tennessee inmate Nicholas Sutton was placed on a death watch early Tuesday ahead of his scheduled execution later this week for the decades-old killing of a fellow inmate. Meanwhile, Sutton's attorneys made two last ditch appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court. Inmates on death watch are kept under 24-hour surveillance in a cell beside the execution chamber, the Tennessee Department of Correction said.
- WorldThe National Interest
Who Makes the Finest Weapons: America, China, or Russia?
Key point: Washington wants to sell more weapons to foreign countries. In order to win over customers, the United States is touting its superior (although more expensive) systems. The U.S. government has a message for those nations that would buy Russian and Chines weapons: buyer beware.
- BusinessBloomberg
Hong Kong Double-Dip, Australia Puzzle, Singapore Spend: Eco Day
Welcome to Wednesday, Asia. Here's the latest news and analysis from Bloomberg Economics to help get your day started: To contact the reporter on this story: Michael Heath in Sydney at mheath1@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Paul Jackson at pjackson53@bloomberg.net, Alexandra Veroude For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com Subscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source. ©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
PoliticsYahoo News VideoBloomberg campaign: There are only three viable presidential candidates
Only three candidates out of the more than half dozen vying for the White House have a viable path to the nomination, a senior official for the Mike Bloomberg campaign told reporters Tuesday.
- U.S.USA TODAY
Former mayoral candidate drugged woman with cupcake to steal newborn, officials say
A Washington woman and her 16-year-old daughter were arrested and accused of drugging a woman with a tainted cupcake in an attempt to kidnap her newborn child and raise it as her own. Juliette Parker, 38, allegedly used a number of aliases such as Juliette Noel and Juliette Gains, which may have been used to contact unsuspecting parents as a baby photographer. "She wanted (babies) five weeks and younger so she could raise it herself, take it out of state and pretend it was a newborn of her own,” Pierce County Sheriff's Department spokesman Ed Troyer told CBS News.
WorldAFPMexican arrested in US for Russian spying
A Mexican has been arrested in the US city of Miami for spying on "a US government source" on behalf of Russia, the Department of Justice alleged Tuesday. US intelligence officials have identified Russia as a central spying threat to the country, and Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation last year found that Moscow interfered in the 2016 presidential election -- a finding that President Donald Trump has repeatedly dismissed. According to court documents cited in a Department of Justice (DOJ) news release, a Russian government official recruited Fuentes last year and told him to rent a specific property in Miami-Dade County, not using his own name.
- PoliticsThe Guardian
Group of more than 1,000 judges calls emergency meeting amid Trump concerns
A national association of federal judges has called an emergency meeting to address growing concerns about the intervention of Donald Trump and justice department officials in politically sensitive cases, according to US media reports. Cynthia Rufe, a Philadelphia US district judge who heads the independent Federal Judges Association, which has more than 1,100 members, told USA Today the group “could not wait” until its spring conference to discuss the matter. The meeting comes after more than 2,000 former US justice department officials, including some of the top government lawyers in the country, called on the attorney general, William Barr, to resign in the wake of the Roger Stone scandal.
- U.S.NBC News
'Gun Girl' Kaitlin Bennett's appearance on Ohio University campus sparks protests
Conservative activist Kaitlin Bennett, also known as "Gun Girl," incited large-scale student protests Monday when she appeared on Ohio University's Athens campus to film a video. Bennett had arrived on campus to film a President's Day trivia video for the Liberty Hangout, which bills itself as a libertarian media outlet, according to both her and the site. Bennett has been a divisive figure since gaining notoriety in 2018 for posting controversial graduation photos of herself with an AR-10 rifle at Kent State University.
- U.S.Time
11 Children Among 26 People Shot During Single Weekend of Gun Violence in Chicago
At least 26 people have been shot — and four killed — over the holiday weekend in Chicago, including 11 children, in the second straight weekend of widespread gun violence to impact the city. No children were among the fatalities. According to the Chicago Police Department, 15 shooting incidents over the weekend have already been reported, and that number could rise ahead of official numbers being released tomorrow.
- WorldAssociated Press
Huge locust outbreak in East Africa reaches South Sudan
The worst locust outbreak that parts of East Africa have seen in 70 years has reached South Sudan, a country where roughly half the population already faces hunger after years of civil war, officials announced Tuesday. Around 2,000 locusts were spotted inside the country, Agriculture Minister Onyoti Adigo told reporters. The locusts have been seen in Eastern Equatoria state near the borders with Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda.
- BusinessBusiness Insider
The coronavirus is slamming the US travel industry, with experts predicting it will wipe out more than $10 billion in spending from Chinese visitors
While the vast majority of coronavirus cases have been found in China and Asia, the US travel industry is also steeling itself to be ravaged by the rogue virus. A new report from consulting firm Tourism Economics has put some estimated numbers to that ravaging, saying it expects the US to lose about 1.6 million visitors from mainland China as a result of the coronavirus, translating to a 28% drop for 2020. The report tallied expected losses from Chinese visitor spending at $10.3 billion — more than half of which are expected occur this year.
- BusinessThe National Interest
Coronavirus Means the Federal Reserve Must Cut Interest Rates
The Greenspan Fed was struggling to get inflation to its 2% target and inflation expectations were falling. The Federal Open Market Committee slashed the fed funds rate to 1.25% to stave off a further contraction in economic activity or inflation. The economic hit from the 2019 escalation of the U.S.-China trade war and the combination of the Iraq War and popping of the tech bubble are noteworthy in the similarity.
- WorldCBS News
Man arrested after allegedly tracking U.S. source for Russia
A Mexican man residing in Singapore was arrested in the U.S. on Tuesday, after he allegedly tracked a U.S. government source for Russia in order to obtain the source's license plate number. Hector Alejandro Cabrera Fuentes has been charged with acting in the U.S. on behalf of a foreign government without notifying the attorney general, and conspiracy to do the same. Court documents allege that a Russian government official recruited Fuentes in 2019 and tasked him with renting a specific property in Miami-Dade County, Florida, according to a press release from the Department of Justice.
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