FOX 13 News 4 PM | Friday, January 29

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  • Cyclicals still have room to run higher: advisor

    The S&P 500 surged on Monday and was headed for its biggest one-day gain since June as bond markets calmed after a month-long selloff, while developments on COVID-19 vaccines and fiscal stimulus bolstered expectations of a swift economic recovery.

  • China says Taiwan pineapple ban not about politics as war of words escalates

    China on Monday denied accusations by Taiwan that a ban on pineapples from the island was about politics, saying it was purely a matter of biosecurity, in an escalating war of words that has added to existing tensions. China announced the ban last week, citing "harmful creatures" it said could come with the fruit, threatening China's own agriculture. Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory, says there is nothing wrong with its pineapples and that Beijing is using the fruit as another way to coerce the island.

  • Around-the-world cruises costing up to $500,000 are selling out 2 years in advance as eager travelers prepare for restrictions to lift

    Monthlong trips with Oceania Cruises and Seabourn for 2023 have already sold out. The CDC temporarily banned cruises last year.

  • MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell has mic muted at CPAC for spouting vaccine and election conspiracies

    Lindell equates getting coronavirus vaccine to receiving ‘mark of the beast’ pledging allegiance to the devil

  • An earnest 'WandaVision' line about grief has turned into a joking meme online

    After a tweet admiring a line about grief and love from episode eight of WandaVision went viral, people began making ironic memes about it.

  • Prince Harry: Split from royal life 'unbelievably tough'

    Prince Harry says the process of separating from royal life has been very difficult for him and his wife, Meghan. In an interview with Oprah Winfrey, Harry invoked the memory of his late mother, Princess Diana, who had to find her way alone after she and Prince Charles divorced. Diana was shown in a photo holding toddler Harry as he made the comments.

  • Penal Colony No. 2 'breaks people': Inside the prison where Alexei Navalny has been sent

    The penal colony where Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has been sent to serve his two-year sentence is "one of the worst" in Russia, former inmates and prisoners rights groups have said. Mr Navalny was reported to have arrived at penal colony No. 2 in the town of Pokrov, three hours outside Moscow, on Sunday. Transfers of inmates within Russia's penitentiary system can take days or weeks and relatives often only discover the whereabouts of a prisoner after he or she has arrived at a prison. Mr Navalny’s arrival has not yet been confirmed by his legal team and he could be moved again. Former inmates of colony No 2 told the Telegraph that if Mr Navalny stays at the prison he will be subjected to a combination of intense isolation and gruelling psychological and physical pressure designed to mentally destroy him. “It’s one of the worst colonies in Russia. Former inmates are afraid to speak out about the conditions because they risk repercussions after they leave the prison,” said Ruslan Vakhapov, a human rights activist who specialises in defending prisoners for local NGO Jailed Russia. “Navalny will probably be isolated from the outside world and other prisoners will be prevented from talking to him,” Mr Vakhapov said. Prisoners face abuse by prison guards if they violate a strict schedule, he said, while the colony administration encourages prisoners to control and monitor other inmates. “There are no rights for prisoners in Russia,” Mr Vakhapov said. “Navalny faces immense pressure that can psychologically weaken him, but I think the administration will be afraid of using physical force on him. It could damage their reputation completely,'' he added.

  • China said to speed up move to more survivable nuclear force

    China appears to be moving faster toward a capability to launch its newer nuclear missiles from underground silos, possibly to improve its ability to respond promptly to a nuclear attack, according to an American expert who analyzed satellite images of recent construction at a missile training area. Hans Kristensen, a longtime watcher of U.S., Russian and Chinese nuclear forces, said the imagery suggests that China is seeking to counter what it may view as a growing threat from the United States. The U.S. in recent years has pointed to China's nuclear modernization as a key justification for investing hundreds of billions of dollars in the coming two decades to build an all-new U.S. nuclear arsenal.

  • Goya Foods CEO said Trump is 'the still actual president' and doubled down on false election claims at CPAC

    Goya Foods CEO Robert Unanue said Trump was "the real, the legitimate, and the still actual president of the United States."

  • WHO: 'Premature,' 'unrealistic' COVID-19 will end soon

    A senior World Health Organization official said Monday it was “premature” and “unrealistic” to think the pandemic might be stopped by the end of the year, but that the recent arrival of effective vaccines could at least help dramatically reduce hospitalizations and death. The world’s singular focus right now should be to keep transmission of COVID-19 as low as possible, said Dr. Michael Ryan, director of WHO's emergencies program. “If we’re smart, we can finish with the hospitalizations and the deaths and the tragedy associated with this pandemic” by the end of the year, he said at media briefing.

  • Trump proposes new voting limits, rails against "monster" voting rights bill

    Former U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday laid out a variety of election proposals, such as limiting absentee voting and days when Americans can vote, in his first public speech after his stinging Nov. 3 election loss. Democrats' nationwide push to register new voters, including Black voters and young people, and Trump's refusal to urge his Republican supporters to vote by absentee ballot are believed to have been factors in his 7 million vote loss to Joe Biden. At a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Florida, Trump said Election Day should be only one day, not a number of days leading up to the actual voting day.

  • Myanmar coup: Aung San Suu Kyi appears in court to face fresh charges

    Ms Suu Kyi's appearance comes a day after the deadliest day of protests, when 18 people were killed.

  • U.S. downplays possibility of sharing COVID-19 vaccines with Mexico

    The Biden administration on Monday downplayed the prospect of sharing coronavirus vaccines with Mexico, saying it is focused first on getting its own population protected against a pandemic that has killed more than 500,000 Americans. The remarks by White House press secretary Jen Psaki came before a video conference between Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and U.S. President Joe Biden, in which the Mexican leader was expected to ask the United States to consider sharing some of its COVID-19 vaccine supply.

  • The Next COVID-19 Nightmare for People of Color Is Proving They Got the Shot

    Octavio Jones/GettyAs we near the one-year anniversary of stay-at-home orders in the United States, COVID-19 vaccine distribution has begun, albeit in rather messy fashion. In the U.S. to date, over 49 million people have received at least one dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, and over 24 million have received their second dose as well, according to the CDC. Despite promises of smooth and widespread vaccine distribution from the Trump administration in the fall of last year, the vast majority of vaccinations have only been administered under the direction of President Biden’s COVID-19 Task Force. And stories of people skipping the line, political favoritism, and wealthy individuals gaming the system continue to taint the process nationwide.Soon, though, with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine on the way, anyone who wants to get a vaccine will (in theory) be able to get one—if their job and other circumstances permit. This, in turn, has led technocrats to recommend the use of vaccine passport apps to enable safe re-opening of public spaces by this summer. This isn’t the first time app-based solutions have been recommended during the COVID-19 pandemic. Contact-tracing apps first hit the digital marketplace by the summer of last year, yet have struggled to find their feet in part due to issues regarding privacy and surveillance—issues that vaccine passport apps share as well.Anti-Vaxxers Melt Down Over Vaccinated People Giving BloodHowever, concerns regarding privacy rights are not a luxury that all can afford, including the socioeconomically disadvantaged, racial and ethnic minorities, immigrants and refugees, and the formerly incarcerated—all of whom have historically been over-surveilled by the government. No matter the slew of assurances from tech giants, vaccine app adoption will continue to encounter hesitancy among marginalized communities where individuals have routinely been forced to renounce their right to privacy, often in order to qualify for government assistance or in the name of public safety. Ignoring this “poverty of privacy rights” means ignoring a sizable subset of the population who are less willing to give up what privacy they have left, less trusting of institutional authorities, and less likely to be afforded equitable healthcare to receive the vaccine in the first place.Equity in vaccine distribution is a major hurdle to achieving herd immunity—a hurdle even for those who are already eligible. Low-income communities, communities of color, and immigrants are thus far among the least likely to have received the vaccine, and yet have been more likely not only to get sick with COVID-19 but to die from it, too. Adequate access to health care remains a barrier, and the ability to schedule and show up for a vaccination appointment remains contingent on internet access, flexibility from employers, and reliable transportation.Additionally, vaccine hesitancy that exists in subsets of these communities is due both to a long history of systemic discrimination and abuse by medical institutions—such as the U.S. Public Health Service Syphilis Study at Tuskegee and forced sterilization of Black, Latina, and Indigeneous women across the country—and to ongoing disparities in quality of care for minority groups in health-care settings today. Misinformation campaigns by anti-vaxxers have also specifically targeted these communities, exacerbating the situation further.In response to such hesitancy, one might argue that uptake may improve if individuals are unable to participate in indoor activities, such as going to the grocery store or movie theater, without a vaccine passport app in hand. And such an argument wouldn’t be without precedent. For instance, SB-277 in California outlawed personal exemptions from vaccination requirements for entry into both private and public schools following the 2015 Disneyland measles outbreak. And under immigration laws, the Department of Homeland Security mandates that those entering the U.S. for the first time or current foreign nationals applying for residency must be vaccinated based on recommendations from the Department of Health and Human Services. Required immunization “cards” for commercial travel have also existed for quite some time, and the evolution to developing an “e-vaccination certificate” system for travel post-pandemic is unsurprising. Though vaccinated individuals currently receive a CDC-issued paper COVID-19 vaccine record, plans are already underway in the private sector to attempt a nationwide app for immunization status.Black Doctors Try to Get Through to Vaccine ResistersHowever, while the public may support some form of vaccination verification to enable safer participation in indoor activities, a recent survey by Brookings pointed to concern that apps have a higher potential for violations of privacy and civil liberties than paper cards, particularly since U.S. law does little to protect against discrimination based on proof of immunity. Additionally, not only would these apps face challenges in terms of varying enforcement mechanisms, e.g. entering a school versus a grocery store, but aforementioned hesitancy—with respect to both vaccination and app adoption—remains a major obstacle to overcome. Countering vaccine misinformation and distrust of public health authorities, as well as ensuring privacy protections, will be an ongoing battle. Furthermore, even those who want to use a vaccine passport app may not be able to because of limited access to smartphones.Ultimately, relying solely on vaccine passport apps to reopen society will translate primarily into privileged communities being afforded a return to normalcy. Such apps can be of use in very limited circumstances, like commercial air travel, but these efforts are essentially trivial to the more pressing consideration of vaccinating the general public equitably. The focus must remain on addressing the underlying concerns of marginalized communities by improving government engagement with community leaders to promote vaccine accessibility and uptake and providing alternatives to signing up for vaccine appointments for those without smartphone or Internet access (like landline phone and mail-in scheduling).Concentrating on vaccine passport apps as a silver bullet for getting back to normal is a mistake so long as an equitable vaccine rollout remains out of reach, and marginalized communities continue to be left behind.Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

  • Trump at CPAC Shows Why He Doesn’t Need a New Party

    Elijah Nouvelage/GettyHe was a one-term “loser.” He helped lose his party the White House, the Senate, and the House. He left office with a domestic body count in the hundreds of thousands, and an economy in the toilet.Just last month, he instigated a deadly riot on Capitol Hill that endangered the lives of senior members of his own party, as he sat back and smirked from the comfort and safety of the West Wing. And his administration ended in such a historically disastrous state of his own making that fellow leaders in the Republican Party were directly blaming him for the deaths and anti-democratic mob violence, and some of his former senior advisers were openly accusing him of attempting to stage a coup or pleading with him to disappear to Florida “and stay” there.But that was a whole month ago. On Sunday, former President Donald Trump re-emerged at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), held this year in his new home base of Florida, where he was greeted as the beloved, unequivocal leader in the GOP. Whatever blood there was on the 45th U.S. president’s hands, the Republican Party and conservative movement had already done their best to rinse it all away. And they were more than happy to try.“Actually you know, [the Democrats] just lost the White House,” Trump said—obviously incorrectly—on stage early Sunday evening. “Who knows? I might decide to beat them for a third time,” he added, dangling a potential 2024 presidential run.Much of the former president’s CPAC speech was a lazy, predictable retread of grievance and his perennial whining. “They’re the biggest fakers there are,” he alleged, bashing his enemies in the press. “Never let [Democrats and the Biden administration] take the credit” for the coronavirus vaccines, Trump said, regurgitating his concerns dating back to November that a President Joe Biden would get credit for ending the COVID-19 crisis in the United States. He again took his shots at foes like Dr. Anthony Fauci and Biden, yet again accusing the latter of having mental difficulties.Trump harangued trans women for competing in sports as women. He kept peppering his speech with lies that he triumphed in the 2020 election. He used those lies to call on Republicans to enact more and more restrictions on legitimate voting, and did so to rapturous applause from the audience. He repeatedly trashed the U.S. Supreme Court—which has a sizable conservative majority of his presidency’s creation—for lacking the “courage” to obliterate democracy at his behest last year. He baselessly alleged that the Democratic Party was trying to bring on “communism.” He bleated over and over about “cancel culture” and Big Tech. He rattled off a list of Republican lawmakers (Liz Cheney, Mitt Romney, Adam Kinzinger, and so on…) whom he found insufficiently subservient to him and his ego.And he had the nerve to claim that “Trumpism” means “no riots in the streets.”In the days of the conference prior to Trump’s address, the content and mood of the annual gathering reflected the sentiment pervading the national GOP, its base of voters, Republican honchos in Washington, D.C., state parties, and the influential hubs of conservative media: that this twice impeached president, as well as Trumpism, are the dominant present and future of American conservatism. And for this, they’re enthusiastically frontloading many of Trump’s policy and messaging priorities.For instance, much of this year’s CPAC was devoted to pushing Trump’s lie that he actually won the 2020 presidential contest against Biden, an election Trump clearly lost. That lie fueled Trump and Republicans’ months-long legal crusade during the presidential transition period to groundlessly throw out countless votes in key states, in a failed effort to overturn the will and decision of the electorate. Top Trump allies publicly flirted with the concept of martial law, and other authoritarian power-grabbing ideas that thankfully went nowhere, despite Trump’s sustained attempts. This broad push culminated in the bloody Jan. 6 riot.And yet various major players in the Republican Party still refuse to admit publicly that Biden won, and Trump himself has privately said he’d prefer the candidates and primary challengers he supports in the future to publicly back the Big Lie—both rhetorically and in the writing of laws and crackdowns on voting—to his satisfaction.And as Trump charts the path of his post-presidency, he’s keen on snuffing out dissent to the devotion to his cult of personality that is now the most integral element of his party. In recent weeks, the former president, tucked away at his Palm Beach club of Mar-a-Lago, has repeatedly complained about several prominent Republicans who had crossed him (even mildly) over the Jan. 6 riot, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Nikki Haley, Trump’s one-time ambassador to the United Nations. Trump has told multiple confidants that if Haley runs for the presidency in 2024, he wants to ensure she is crushed and humiliated in the GOP primary, according to three people familiar with the matter.This despite Haley’s attempts earlier this month to execute some damage control and to reconnect with Trump. Even others who have more aggressively sought to crawl back to Trump following the riot haven’t been spared the ex-president’s suspicions or trash talk. A month ago, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) visited Trump in Florida, on a mission to preserve party unity, as they gear up for the 2022 midterm elections. Prior to that he’d already jumped on the phone with Donald Trump Jr., solidifying his deference to the Trump brand and family, ahead of the former president’s second Senate impeachment trial.Still, in recent days Trump has privately told some of those close to him that he’s not sure if he can trust McCarthy in the long run, two of the sources said. One of the things that Trump has griped about during his post-presidency is McCarthy’s public acknowledgement that Biden indeed won the election, following weeks of McCarthy cheering on or excusing Trump’s months-long endeavor to cling to power.But at CPAC on Sunday night, the ex-president and current leader of the Republican Party had the courtesy to, for now at least, take one tactic for keeping the GOP in line off the table. “I am not starting a new party,” Trump said on stage, affirming his continued support for the party that once made him leader of the free world.And why should he? The party and movement keep showing him, again and again, since Biden’s inauguration that the GOP remains a willing and wholly owned subsidiary of the Trump brand name.And soon after he left the stage, Trump’s political operation was back to doing what it does best: milking his supporters for big money, often by deceptive means. “Pres. Trump: Did you miss me? I just finished my CPAC speech! My team’s handing me the 1ST donor list in 1 HR. Can I count on you? Donate,” the Trump team texted supporters on Sunday evening.During the 2020 campaign, the Trump campaign would often ask supporters to donate, alleging that doing so could give small-dollar donors a chance at getting their names in front of an appreciative Trump. Several sources familiar with the practice say that this was so often done with absolutely zero intention of bothering Trump with any lists of his faceless fans’ names.Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

  • Archaeologists uncover ancient carriage near Pompeii

    This Roman carriage was unearthed outside Pompeiithe city buried in a volcanic eruption in 79 ADArchaeologists found it near the stables of a villa"... a unique find, without any precedent in Italy." - Italy's Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism

  • The most expensive outfits royals have worn, from $75,000 gowns to $4,000 coats

    With unfettered access to luxury brands and designer looks, royals often wear outfits with hefty price tags.

  • Minneapolis approved funding to hire social media influencers to spread information about ex cop Derek Chauvin's trial

    Minneapolis is hiring social media influencers to spread information about the trial of the cop, Derek Chauvin, who knelt on George Floyd's neck.

  • Senate panel advances Garland's nomination as U.S. attorney general

    Merrick Garland, President Joe Biden's pick for attorney general, moved a step closer on Monday to securing Senate confirmation as the top U.S. law enforcement official, with the Judiciary Committee throwing its weight behind his nomination. The federal appellate judge won bipartisan support in a 15-7 tally in the Senate Judiciary Committee to advance his nomination to the Senate floor for a vote that Democrats hope will be held this week. Among the four Republicans voting in favor of Garland were two former chairmen of the committee, Chuck Grassley and Lindsey Graham.

  • Several cruise trips have already been cancelled this year. See when major cruise lines plan on operating again.

    Most cruises in the US won't be sailing until May at the soonest and cruise lines are consistently pushing back sail dates.