PoliticsYahoo NewsTrump's coronavirus response includes many things he criticized President Obama for
President Trump held a news conference on Wednesday evening where he discussed his administration's response to the ongoing coronavirus epidemic. Elements of the response outlined by Trump mirror things he specifically criticized President Barack Obama for during the ebola outbreak in 2014. Trump sent nearly 50 tweets and made multiple media appearances criticizing Obama's handling of the ebola outbreak in 2014.
- U.S.Associated Press
Mom of missing kids waives extradition; bail stays at $5M
Bail will remain at $5 million for a mother arrested in Hawaii over the disappearance of her two Idaho children, a judge ruled Wednesday. Lori Vallow wore an orange jumpsuit in court on the Hawaiian island of Kauai for a hearing on her request to reduce bail. After the judge denied the request, her defense attorney, Craig De Costa, said she is waiving an extradition hearing, which had been scheduled for March 2.
- PoliticsThe National Interest
13 Years in the Making: Joe Biden Is Heading to Fox News
This Sunday former Vice President and current Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden have scheduled an exclusive interview with Fox News host Chris Wallace. This will be Biden's first interview with Wallace since 2007. It comes one day after the make-or-break South Carolina primary, and two days before Super Tuesday which will see 15 simultaneous primaries take place across the nation.
PoliticsYahoo News VideoAOC says she feels unsafe because Trump’s 'wack job' tweet with her is fueling white supremacist threats
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has admitted she feels unsafe in Washington D.C. over her home in the Bronx, New York — which is fueled, in part, by the threats she's received after President Trump tweeted against her.
- WorldTime
Doctors Inside Iran Believe Coronavirus Is More Serious Than Reported, and Getting Worse
Right now in Iran we are facing a coronavirus epidemic,” said a senior medical doctor at the Masih Daneshvari hospital in Tehran, the country's top pulmonary public hospital and the main facility overseeing coronavirus patients. Public officials have not confirmed how the disease arrived in Iran, but it appears to be the locus for the regional outbreak. So far, Afghanistan, Georgia, Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, and Oman reported their first cases of coronavirus, all linked to passengers traveling from Iran.
- WorldNBC News
Map: Confirmed coronavirus cases, worldwide
Health officials worldwide are working to contain cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus that originated in China. This map will be updated when more information is available. As of Feb. 26, COVID-19 cases were confirmed in China and more than 35 other countries.
- WorldBusiness Insider
A Chinese destroyer fired a weapons-grade laser at a US surveillance aircraft, US Navy says
Uncredited/AP A Chinese destroyer lased a US Navy P-8A surveillance aircraft with a weapons-grade laser in the Pacific last week, the US Navy said Thursday. A Pacific Fleet spokeswoman told Insider the weapon appeared to be part of the Chinese warship's close-in weapons system. "Weapons-grade lasers could potentially cause serious harm to aircrew and mariners, as well as ship and aircraft systems," a US Pacific Fleet statement read, calling the incident "unsafe and unprofessional."
- WorldBloomberg
Philippines, U.S. Seek New Military Deal After Duterte Exit
Follow Bloomberg on LINE messenger for all the business news and analysis you need. The Philippines and the U.S. are considering a new military pact similar to the Visiting Forces Agreement which President Rodrigo Duterte ordered terminated. The U.S. Defense Department is “extremely concerned” with Duterte's decision, and diplomats from both countries are now “finding ways and means to see how we can come up with something similar” to the VFA, the Philippine Ambassador to the U.S. Jose Manuel Romualdez said in a forum in Manila.
- U.S.The Independent
Right-wing extremists killed 330 in the US in last decade, figures show
A new report shows that right-wing extremists were responsible for 330 murders in the United States in the past decade, or 76 percent of all domestic extremist-related murders in that time. The annual Murder and Extremism report published by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) shows that out of the 42 extremist-related murders in the US in 2019, 38 were committed by individuals subscribing to various far-right ideologies, including white supremacy. The deadliest, by far, was the August white supremacist shooting spree at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, which left 22 people dead and at least 24 more wounded.
- PoliticsYahoo News
Limbaugh and Trump fuel coronavirus conspiracy theories
Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh, who told his listeners that alarmism about the coronavirus was a plot to bring down President Trump, has attacked the CDC official who warned Americans that the virus will inevitably spread in the U.S. “Dr. Nancy Messonnier of the Centers for Disease Control — which today warned it could be bad, it might be bad, don't go to school and don't go to work, stay at home and teleconference — is the sister of the former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein,” Limbaugh said on Tuesday's program. Rosenstein, who resigned from the Justice Department last May, oversaw the investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller that President Trump sought to stop.
- 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.
- U.S.TODAY
Tennessee mom and grandmother of missing 15-month-old both arrested, in same jail
The search for a missing Tennessee toddler has shifted to the northwest corner of North Carolina as authorities grow increasingly frustrated in their desperate bid to find the little girl, officials said Wednesday. The mother and grandmother of 15-month-old Evelyn Mae Boswell have both been arrested — and put in the same jail — as deputies in two states continue looking for her, Tennessee's Sullivan County Sheriff Jeff Cassidy said. "They are actively looking in an area in Wilkes County North Carolina" for the girl, Sullivan told reporters.
- U.S.The Daily Beast
Tucker Carlson Turns to AOC Creepshot Guy for Coronavirus Expertise
Amid growing fears of a coronavirus outbreak and U.S. financial markets hitting a record drop on Thursday, Fox News host Tucker Carlson turned to a conservative columnist best known for taking creepy photos of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) as his expert on the crisis on Thursday night. It should perhaps come as no surprise that Carlson's guest, Washington Examiner columnist Eddie Scarry, used his primetime cable news appearance to talk about the “Commie cough” and to claim that Chinese people eating skunks are responsible for the rise of the virus. In kicking off his Fox News program, Carlson argued that it is liberals' “attitude” towards diversity that has “left us vulnerable to the coronavirus” before welcoming on Scarry to enlighten viewers on the health crisis horrors caused by political correctness.
- 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.
- U.S.Reuters
California monitoring 8,400 people for possible coronavirus
California is monitoring more than 8,400 people who arrived on commercial flights for coronavirus symptoms from "points of concern," but the state lacks test kits and has been held back by federal testing rules, Governor Gavin Newsom said on Thursday. California has only 200 test kits, but has appealed for testing protocols to be expanded to include Americans who may catch the virus as it spreads through U.S. communities, Newsom told a news briefing in Sacramento, the state capital. Newsom said the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has assured the state that testing protocols will be advanced and access to test kits will expand "exponentially" in the coming days.
- U.S.USA TODAY
Betsy DeVos orders probe after USA TODAY finds college evidently without faculty, students
The U.S. Department of Education has launched an investigation after a USA TODAY report showed an accredited college apparently had no faculty or students. The college investigated by USA TODAY, Reagan National University, was approved by the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges & Schools. It has a history of approving several for-profit universities that suddenly closed, such as ITT Tech and Corinthian Colleges in the mid-2010s.
- WorldBloomberg
Gambia Admits ‘Shortcomings’ After Lifting Ban on Media Outlets
Gambia's government reopened two shut-down radio stations and dropped charges against four journalists for their coverage of last month's violent protests against President Adama Barrow, saying that its response against the demonstrations wasn't “perfect. Protests on Jan. 26 saw the most severe crackdown on dissent since Barrow took office three years ago, with demonstrators calling on the 55-year-old to step down in line with an agreement he made with coalitions partners in 2016. Police arrested 137 activists and banned the 'Three Years is Enough' movement, which the government labeled as “subversive, violent and illegal.
- U.S.NBC News
Missing Mennonite woman, 27, found dead 250 miles from home
The body of a Mennonite woman who disappeared from her New Mexico home at the end of January was found last week in Arizona, more than 250 miles away, and authorities said Tuesday they believe she was kidnapped and murdered. Sasha Marie Krause, 27, was last seen leaving her Crouch Mesa home at 8 p.m. on Jan. 18, according to the San Juan County Sheriff's Office in New Mexico. Deputies responded to Lamp & Light Publishers, a Mennonite bookstore across the street from Farmington Mennonite Church, at 3 a.m. on Jan. 19, at which point Krause was reported missing.
- PoliticsThe National Interest
Critic Says Trump Is 'Ignorant' and 'Incoherent' On Coronavirus. Others Call It 'Trump' Virus.
Yesterday evening President Donald Trump addressed the public from the White House to explain what actions the government was taking in response to the coronavirus and offer assurances. “I have just received another briefing from a great group of talented people on the virus that is going around to various parts of the world,” Trump said, before a defense of his administration's timetable of actions including restricting flights from infected areas. The President said most of the Americans currently infected with coronavirus were improving, and that they were being well taken care of.
- BusinessThe Week
Bloomberg campaign reportedly trying to recruit Andrew Yang
Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg may be looking for a bump from the Yang Gang. The Bloomberg campaign has been seeking an endorsement from entrepreneur and former 2020 candidate Andrew Yang and even floated him as a potential running made, The Wall Street Journal reports. "Aides to the former New York City mayor reached out to discuss ways the two entrepreneurs-turned-politicians could work together as Mr. Bloomberg seeks the Democratic nomination," the Journal writes, although Yang reportedly "didn't commit to join forces."
- U.S.INSIDER
Harvey Weinstein's attorney says she's 'sickened' by the verdict and blames 'public pressure' for the jurors' decision
Harvey Weinstein's attorney told Insider she's "sickened" by the verdict against her client and denounced the public pressure she believed the jury faced. Weinstein was convicted of the 2006 sexual assault of Mimi Haleyi and the 2013 rape of Jessica Mann. Rotunno's team intends to appeal the conviction, and will likely bring up previous disputes in court over the trial's location, their efforts to remove one of the jurors, and a complicated verdict sheet that may have confused the jury.
- BusinessBusiness Insider
Sheryl Sandberg said she worries about TikTok because it got huge faster than Facebook did
Richard Bord/Getty Images for Cannes Lions Facebook COO Sheryl told NBC's Dylan Byers she worries about the threat posed to the company by TikTok. "They're huge, they're growing really quickly, they've gotten to bigger numbers faster than we ever did," she said. Sandberg also said people have reason to worry about their privacy on the app because TikTok is a Chinese company.
- WorldThe Telegraph
Pope cancels second day of engagements after falling ill
It did not reveal what the pontiff is suffering from, but he was coughing and blowing his nose during Ash Wednesday Mass this week. On Thursday, he cancelled a planned trip across the city to celebrate Mass with Rome priests. His illness comes amid an outbreak of coronavirus which has infected 650 people in Italy and caused disruption across the north of the country.
- U.S.The Independent
California resident with no China links catches Coronavirus - showing disease has started spreading within US
A patient in California has been diagnosed with the Coronavirus despite no known links to any outbreaks overseas. The case may be proof that the fatal illness has begun spreading within communities in the US, the CDC warned. The news came as President Trump held a White House press conference outlining his adminstration's response to the epidemic but downplaying how widespread he expects it to become.
- WorldReuters
China reports rise in new coronavirus cases, warns of risk of rebound
SHANGHAI/BEIJING (Reuters) - China reported 433 new cases of coronavirus infections on Feb. 26, the National Health Commission said on Thursday, up from 406 a day earlier, with a cluster of new cases in Beijing raising concerns about the management of employees returning to work. The total number of confirmed cases on mainland China has now reached 78,497, the Commission said, though the number of new deaths on Wednesday stood at 29, the lowest daily rate since Jan. 28. The outbreak has now killed a total of 2,744 people in China.
