WorldAssociated PressIsrael hosts east European leaders after summit scrapped
In place of the summit, Netanyahu held back-to-back meetings with Slovak Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban before hosting all three for lunch at his official residence. Netanyahu has courted these emerging democracies to counter the criticism Israel faces internationally, including from western European allies, over its policies toward the Palestinians. In what Netanyahu called "a very important achievement," all three countries announced plans to open diplomatic offices in Jerusalem — a step seen by Israel as solidifying its claim to the contested city.
NewsUSA TODAYFlorida student faces misdemeanor charges after refusing to stand for Pledge of Allegiance
An 11-year-old student in Florida is facing charges after refusing to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance and creating a disturbance in the classroom, police said. The boy was arrested for causing a disruption and refusing repeated instructions from school staff and law enforcement, Polk County Public Schools spokesperson Kyle Kennedy said in a statement. He was not arrested for refusing to participate in the pledge – even though students have the right to do so by Florida law and district policy.
WorldAFPChina data leak exposes mass surveillance in Xinjiang
A Chinese technology firm has compiled a range of personal information on 2.6 million people in Xinjiang -- from their ethnicity to locations -- according to a data leak highlighting the wide extent of surveillance in the restive region. Xinjiang is home to most of China's Uighur ethnic minority lives and has been under heavy police surveillance in recent years after violent inter-ethnic tensions. Nearly one million Uighurs and other Turkic language-speaking minorities in Xinjiang are reportedly held in re-education camps, according to a UN panel of experts.
- BusinessCar and Driver
See Photos of the 2020 Mercedes-Benz SL Grand Edition
The current SL reminds us of Benzes bygone, so it's leaving the scene with exclusive colors and body trim. From Car and Driver
- WorldThe Independent
Trump says Venezuela's military will 'lose everything they have' if they continue to support Maduro
Donald Trump has issued his most blunt threat yet to Venezuela's military – stop supporting President Nicolas Maduro or risk “losing everything”. In a speech in which he claimed “the evils” of socialism were also being turned back in Cuba and Nicaragua and that the US would never be a socialist country – comments that were almost certainly made with the 2020 presidential election in mind – the president spoke directly to military officials who have so far overwhelmingly supported Mr Maduro. Venezuela is leaving socialism, the dictatorship, and there is no turning back,” he told a crowd of Venezuelan-Americans and immigrants in Florida.
WorldReutersHuawei founder says Huawei CFO arrest was politically motivated - BBC
Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei said on Monday that the arrest of his daughter, Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou, was politically motivated. "Firstly, I object to what the U.S. has done. This kind of politically motivated act is not acceptable," Ren told the BBC in an interview.
- BusinessUSA TODAY
Southwest Airlines under FAA investigation for aircraft weight, balance calculations
The investigation, disclosed for the first time Monday by the Wall Street Journal, began in February 2018, FAA spokesman Gregory Martin confirmed to USA TODAY. There have been no fines nor enforcement action from the investigation to date. "Since that time, the FAA has directed the development of a comprehensive solution to the methods and processes used by Southwest Airlines to determine this (weight and balance) performance data,'' he said in a statement.
- NewsYahoo News
Alabama editor who called for lynchings by Klan should quit, senators say
Officials in Alabama are calling for a small-town newspaper editor to resign because of an editorial calling for the Ku Klux Klan to terrorize Washington, D.C. Goodloe Sutton, the editor and publisher of the Democrat-Reporter in Linden, Ala., wrote the editorial titled “Klan needs to ride again” that ran in the paper last week. “Time for the Ku Klux Klan to night ride again,” read the Feb. 14 editorial.
- WorldThe Telegraph
How to see tonight's super Snow moon in the UK
Dust off those binoculars because space fans are in for a celestial treat tonight. February's Snow Moon will be the second super moon of 2019 to grace our skies, appearing bigger and brighter to the human eye than usual as it makes its closest approach to Earth in the lunar cycle. As one of 12 full moons to admire every year, February's moon was nicknamed the Snow Moon by early Native Americans to symbolise the country's heavy snowfall and challenging hunting conditions.
NewsAssociated PressPolice dismiss tip Smollett, 2 brothers together in elevator
Chicago police investigated but dismissed a tip that on the night "Empire" actor Jussie Smollett reported being attacked by two masked men he was in an elevator of his apartment building with two brothers later arrested and released from custody in the probe, a department spokesman said Tuesday. Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said a person who lives in the building or was visiting someone there reported seeing the three together the night in question last month. Guglielmi said the two brothers did meet with prosecutors and police Tuesday in a Chicago courthouse.
WorldAFPAfter IS, ammunition among the IV drips at Syria clinic
At a clinic in eastern Syria, the Islamic State group have fled leaving a floor strewn with medical supplies -- but also explosives and a foreign passport. US-backed fighters took the three-storey building in the village of Baghouz in recent days, and now use its roof to survey the frontline against the jihadists. After a months-long campaign, the last IS fighters are pinned down in their last scrap of territory just hundreds of metres down the road in the same village.
- WorldKGO – San Francisco
Speed record set for Boeing 787 thanks to powerful jet stream
FAST LANE IN THE SKY: A powerful jet stream helped a Boeing 787 Dreamliner break a speed record for that plane clocking in at 801 miles per hour.
- WorldBloomberg
Pakistan Vows Retaliation If India Launches Military Strikes
Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan said his nation would retaliate if attacked by India, following New Delhi's strongest accusations yet that its nuclear-armed neighbor was responsible for a major terrorist attack in Kashmir. Pakistan will not think of retaliation, Pakistan will retaliate,” Khan said in a televised speech on Tuesday. There will be no other option than retaliation.
- NewsThe Independent
US weather latest: Powerful coast-to-coast storm to blast Americans with snow, ice and torrential rain
A powerful storm is expected to hit up to 200 million Americans with snow, ice and torrential rain, over the coming week. About 60 per cent of the US will likely to be hit by wintry weather on Tuesday, according to AccuWeather, an American media company that provides commercial weather forecasting services worldwide. The storm began in California over the weekend before it moved north towards the Rocky Mountains on Monday as a foot of snow fell in Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico.
WorldReutersHuawei founder says will not share data with China - CBS News
Huawei Technologies Co Ltd's founder and chief executive pledged not to share any customer information with the Chinese government and said the company had never done so, in an interview with CBS News that aired on Tuesday. Asked if it had shared data with China's government, Huawei's Ren Zhengfei said in a translated interview with the television news outlet: "For the past 30 years, we have never done that. On Monday, Ren said in a separate interview with the BBC that the technology company would not undertake any spying activities and that it could shift its business investments to other countries amid an ongoing U.S. pressure campaign.
- BusinessUSA TODAY
United Airlines: Three new routes for fast-growing Denver hub
United Airlines will add three new domestic routes at its Denver hub. Daily flights to Greenville/Spartanburg, South Carolina, and Syracuse, New York, will begin June 6 and will operate year-round. All three of the new routes will go head-to-head against service offered by Denver-based budget rival Frontier Airlines.
- NewsYahoo News
The Mysterious RBG returns, alive, to Supreme Court bench, refuting conspiracy theories
Ruth Bader Ginsburg returned to the Supreme Court bench Tuesday to hear oral arguments for the first time since undergoing cancer surgery in December. According to Supreme Court reporters, Ginsburg smiled as she arrived with her fellow justices at court, taking her seat unassisted at 10 a.m. ET. Ginsburg's public appearance came four days after former White House adviser Sebastian Gorka questioned whether 85-year-old associate justice was still alive, advancing a conspiracy theory that has been circulating in fringe circles since news of her cancer surgery broke.
- WorldThe Telegraph
Donald Trump threatens Venezuela's military if aid is blocked from entering country
President Donald Trump has warned the Venezuelan military not to block tonnes of humanitarian aid due to arrive in the country on Saturday, threatening the soldiers with grave consequences for remaining loyal to President Nicolas Maduro. “Today I have a message for every official who is keeping Maduro in place,” he said, speaking at a university in Miami – the city with the highest population of Venezuelan exiles in the US. You can choose to accept President Guaido's offer of amnesty, and live your life in peace with your country.
- NewsAssociated Press
Trial over Delaware prison riot ends with no convictions
The trial for four inmates charged with murder in a 2017 Delaware prison riot ended Monday with no convictions. Jurors deliberated about five days before acquitting Abednego Baynes, 26, and Kevin Berry, 28, of all charges filed after the uprising at Vaughn Correctional Center near Smyrna in February 2017, The News Journal of Wilmington reported . Officer Steven Floyd died during the 18-hour standoff.
CelebrityAFPBenetton's new French flair colours debut in Milan
Benetton took to the catwalk in Milan for the first time Tuesday with its debut collection by French designer Jean-Charles de Castelbajac in a bid to revive the historic Italian brand. The show, which kicked off Milan fashion week, opened with a homage to Karl Lagerfeld, who died Tuesday aged 85. "Thank you, Karl," Castelbajac said.
- BusinessUSA TODAY
How Social Security could get benefits boosted to help most vulnerable like widows
Social Security faces a looming funding shortfall roughly 15 years down the road. Despite that dismal backdrop, several proposals continue to be circulated that would enhance benefits for the most vulnerable groups of beneficiaries. As discussed in a series of briefs by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, one proposal would provide enhanced benefits to the elderly at or around age 85, when financial vulnerability increases.
BusinessReutersGermany still in talks on Huawei 5G network role, minister says
Germany's government is still in talks on whether China's Huawei will be allowed to participate in building the country's high-speed internet infrastructure, German Economy Minister Peter Altmaier said on Tuesday. Huawei is facing intense scrutiny in the West over its relationship with the Chinese government and allegations of enabling state espionage, which it denies. The Wall Street Journal report said that the decision to give Huawei's involvement in Germany's 5G network the go-ahead was due to be discussed by leading members of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives later.
- NewsThe Independent
Aurora shooting victim sent one last heartbreaking text to wife before dying: 'I love you'
A victim of the shooting in Aurora, Illinois, shooting managed to send one last heartbreaking text message to his wife before becoming one of the latest victims to gun violence in the US. Just a day after Valentine's Day, Terra Pinkard says she received what would be the last text she ever received from her husband, Josh. “I love you, I've been shot at work,” the text read.
- LifestyleCar and Driver
10 Non-Hybrid Crossovers and SUVs That Get 30 MPG or More
These are the most fuel-efficient SUVs you can buy, as rated by the EPA in 2019. From Car and Driver
BusinessAFP Relax NewsGMC Acadia souped up with new engine, trim, and tech
GMC has unveiled the refreshed Acadia for the 2020 model year complete with a new trim, a fresh look, and the latest GMC infotainment system. GMC announced on Monday that the Acadia has gotten its midcycle refresh, and now, the lineup looks more like a group of Sierra pickups from the front than mid-size SUVs. In addition to its new exterior styling, the Acadia has a new powertrain option and an assortment of new technologies including an enhanced infotainment system and heads-up display.
