Typhoons, wildfires, missiles: Teen flies solo round world

As teenage pilot Zara Rutherford flew ever onward in a record-challenging global odyssey, she met little as strange or scary as when she tried to squeeze in between North Korean airspace and a massive cloud threatening to cut off passage for her ultralight plane. “Well, they test missiles once in a while without warning,” Rutherford said. “Straight away they said: 'Whatever you do, do not go into North Korean airspace!'” Fortunately the clouds cooperated enough and she didn't have to continue the crash course in applied geopolitics.

Conservative pundit Ann Coulter says Trump 'is done'

Conservative pundit Ann Coulter is predicting the end of Donald Trump's hegemony in the GOP, saying the former president "is done." "Trump is done," Coulter, a onetime Trump booster turned critic, wrote in an email to The New York Times. Coulter's comments came in an article published in the Times on Sunday about the mounting tensions between Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) amid speculation of a potential showdown for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

Two Simple Lifestyle Changes Helped This Trainer Pack on Muscle and Lose Weight

You would be forgiven for assuming that former Men's Health UK cover model and fitness polymath Joe Wicks would be in shoot-ready shape 24/7, 365. On the flipside, placing more of an emphasis on progressive overload, Wicks has also utilized one of the most recognized methods in strength training and weightlifting, capitalizing on an increase in training frequency, volume and intensity over time.

Pakistan says trial of Chinese traditional medicine for COVID-19 successful

Pakistani health authorities on Monday announced the completion of a successful clinical trial of Chinese traditional herbal medicine for treating COVID-19, as the South Asian nation enters a fifth wave of the pandemic driven by the Omicron variant. The Chinese medicine, Jinhua Qinggan Granules (JHQG) manufactured by Juxiechang (Beijing) pharmaceutical Co Ltd, is already being used in treatment of COVID-19 patients in China. "Since it was tried on patients with different variants of COVID-19, we expect it to be effective on Omicron as on other variants," Professor Iqbal Chaudhry, director of the International Center for Chemical and Biological Science (ICCBS) where trials were conducted, told reporters.

Witness to Times Square subway killing says the woman pushed onto the tracks never saw the person who did it

A witness told The New York Times that Go had her back to the suspect and never saw him coming. The woman shoved to her death onto a subway platform in Times Square never saw the person who did it, a witness told The New York Times. Michelle Alyssa Go, 40, was pushed from a Times Square - 42nd Street platform in front of a southbound Q train on Saturday.

• 
  ‘Because I’m God’: Man who shoved Asian woman to her death on NYC subway has decades-long rap sheet

  NextShark
• 
  Suspect and victim in deadly Times Square subway attack identified

  The Independent

Disney World Ends a Big Perk: That May Be Good for Disney Stock

Walt Disney learned a powerful lesson over the past few years when it comes to its U.S. theme parks. The company can keep making the proposition worse for customers by raising prices and taking away perks and people will still come; Families want vacations at Disney World and when you're already shelling out thousands of dollars for tickets and hotel accommodations, what's a little more money. That's why you hardly heard a complaint when the company turned its FastPass+ -- something that visitors to its Florida Parks got for free -- into Genie, a paid system offering roughly the same thing.

Double dealing: Legal, illicit blur in California pot market

But it's been virtually impossible for the grower to turn a profit in a struggling legal industry where wholesale prices for cannabis buds have plunged as much as 70% from a year ago, taxes approach 50% in some areas and customers find far better deals in the thriving underground marketplace. So the company has two identities — one legal, the other illicit. We basically subsidize our white market with our black market,” said the cultivator, who agreed to speak with The Associated Press only on condition of anonymity to avoid possible prosecution.

The world's 10 richest men have made so much money during the pandemic that a one-time 99% tax on their gains could pay for all COVID-19 vaccine production and more: Oxfam

The 10 richest men have more than doubled their wealth in the COVID-19 pandemic, Oxfam calculated. Oxfam issued a new report on inequality in which it advocated more taxation for the rich. "Billionaires have had a terrific pandemic," Oxfam's executive director, Gabriela Bucher, said.

• 
  Musk and Bezos among world's 10 richest men who doubled their wealth in pandemic

  Yahoo Finance UK
• 
  The world’s richest 10 men doubled their fortunes to $1.5 trillion during the pandemic, says Oxfam

  MarketWatch

Trump’s Arizona Speech Proves His Shock Comic Act Has Jumped the Shark

There was a time when Donald Trump made news with his rallies—when he said things that utterly shocked us. Who could forget the firestorm he started, for example, when he went after Colin Kaepernick and other NFL players who knelt during the national anthem in 2017, or earlier that year when he called Barack Obama “the founder of ISIS”? Trump's performance in Arizona on Saturday night—his first rally in months and his much-hyped chance to respond to the one-year anniversary of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot—was neither shocking nor terribly newsworthy.

Germany says Russia will pay price if it moves on Ukraine

KYIV (Reuters) -Germany's foreign minister said on Monday she hoped tensions with Russia over Ukraine could be solved by diplomacy, but she warned that Moscow would suffer if it does attack its neighbour. Minister Annalena Baerbock was speaking in Kyiv on a tour that next takes her to Moscow after talks between Russia and Western states on the Kremlin's deployment of tens of thousands of troops along Ukraine's border ended with no breakthrough last week. The United States https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/us-concerned-russia-prepping-ukraine-invasion-if-diplomacy-fails-official-2022-01-14 said last week it feared Russia was preparing a pretext to invade Ukraine, which Moscow denies.

• 
  Russia denies looking for pretext to invade Ukraine

  Yahoo News Video
• 
  Ukraine bonds sink into distress, Russia drops as tensions mount

  Reuters

Up to three-quarters of the $800 billion PPP flowed to business owners instead of workers, study finds

The benefits of the landmark small-business relief program designed at the height of the pandemic mostly went to business owners rather than workers, a study from leading economists finds. The study from authors including famed Massachusetts Institute of Technology economics professor David Autor, as well as several Federal Reserve economists, examined the $800 billion Paycheck Protection Program. It was circulated by the National Bureau of Economic Research, and tapped into data from payrolls processor ADP.

Body of the British woman who went missing in the Tonga tsunami has been found, brother says

Angela Glover went missing after a tsunami hit Tonga on Saturday. Her brother told British media on Monday that her husband had found her body. An underwater volcano erupted near Tonga on Saturday, triggering a tsunami.

• 
  Tonga volcano eruption triggers evacuation warnings

  Reuters Videos
• 
  Significant tsunami damage feared in Tonga, communications still cut

  Reuters

Analysis-Saudi-Polish deal dents Russian oil dominance in Baltic

Saudi Arabia's planned purchase of Polish refining assets is set to put OPEC's top producer in charge of two thirds of Poland's oil supply, eroding previously dominant supplier Russia's leverage as it grapples with regional tension. Poland has a long history of seeking to reduce its dependence on Russian energy imports through deals with alternative suppliers and its determination has grown as relations have worsened. The mood between Poland and Russia had already darkened over oil supplies early in 2021 when Poland had to cut its oil purchases from Russia because of a price row between Russia's Rosneft and Poland's PKN Orlen.

Black Women in Georgia to Receive $850 a Month in Guaranteed Income to Fight Racial Wealth Gap

So it's no surprise that Black women face a wealth gap in cities across the country. However, the Georgia Resilience and Opportunity Fund will focus strictly on helping Black women rise. The fund will provide 650 Black women across Georgia payments of $850 per month, over the next two years, making it one of the biggest guaranteed income initiatives in the country.

Free Covid Tests Roll Out This Week. Here’s How to Get One.

Here is how the Biden administration plans to roll out the program. Johns Hopkins University reported more than 527,000 new cases. The seven-day daily average is over 807,000, according to The Wall Street Journal's analysis of Johns Hopkins data.

Tokyo region governors to seek further measures to counter COVID-19 surge

The governors of Tokyo and surrounding prefectures agreed on Monday to request further measures from the central government, including shorter opening hours for bars and restaurants, to help counter rising COVID-19 infections. The highly infectious Omicron variant is driving a resurgence in coronavirus cases, which are hovering near record levels, after new infections exceeded 25,000 nationwide in the past two days. Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike told an online meeting of governors that the occupancy rate of hospital beds for COVID-19 patients was estimated to have reached 20% on Monday, a key threshold for requesting additional steps.

Americans reinvented MLK after his assassination. Let’s remember what he really stood for

Each year, we publish this 2018 editorial from the Charlotte Observer. Its message is as relevant as ever: Martin Luther King Jr. was not a well-liked man. He was one of the most polarizing figures in the United States during his final few years of life.

• 
  On MLK Day, Biden says Americans must commit to King's work

  Associated Press
• 
  Is today MLK Day? How Martin Luther King Day began

  The Independent

Out of this world: 555.55-carat black diamond lands in Dubai

Auction house Sotheby's Dubai has unveiled a diamond that's literally from out of this world. Sotheby's calls the 555.55-carat black diamond — believed to have come from outer space — “The Enigma. The rare gem was shown off on Monday to journalists as part of a tour in Dubai and Los Angeles before it is due to be auctioned off in February in London.

Trump claims he couldn't have lost the 2020 presidential election because his Arizona rally boasted thousands of attendees and had 'cars that stretch out for 25 miles'

Former President Donald Trump on Saturday continued efforts to raise doubt over his election loss. During an Arizona rally, Trump pointed to the crowd size and heavy traffic to justify his opinion. It remains unclear whether Trump plans to run again for president in 2024.

COVID patient moves to Texas hospital after wife sued to keep him on ventilator in MN

Scott Quiner had been fighting COVID-19 on a ventilator for months in Minnesota, but after a life-or-death legal fight with his hospital, his family is moving him to Texas for treatment, outlets report. Quiner, a 55-year-old man from Buffalo, MN, was diagnosed with COVID-19 in October, the Star Tribune reported. By Nov. 6, he was transferred to Mercy Hospital and put on a ventilator — and it's kept him breathing since.

China won't 'bully' neighbours over S. China Sea, foreign minister says

China will not use its strength to "bully" its smaller neighbours including the Philippines, its foreign minister said on Monday, as he highlighted the importance of settling disputes in the South China Sea peacefully. "Stressing only one side's claims and imposing one's own will on the other is not a proper way for neighbours to treat each other and it goes against the oriental philosophy of how people should get along with each other," Wang Yi, the Chinese government's top diplomat, told a virtual forum organised by China's embassy in Manila and a local advocacy group. His remarks come less than two months after the Philippines condemned China's blocking of a military resupply ship in the South China Sea, which prompted a warning from treaty ally the United States that an attack on Philippine vessels would invoke its mutual defence commitments.

Cop Seen On Video Grabbing Fellow Officer By Her Throat

A cop in Sunrise, Florida, is under investigation after video showed him grabbing his fellow officer by her throat after she tried to deescalate a situation. Body camera video obtained by NBC News shows the moment Sgt. Christopher Pullease grabbed a female officer by her throat and pushed her up against a cop car. Pullease, a 46-year-old who has been with the department for 21 years, was standing over the suspect with pepper spray in his hand and engaged in a “verbal altercation,” Sunrise Police Chief Anthony Rosa said in a statement Friday.

Birju Maharaj, legend of India's kathak dance form, dies

Birju Maharaj, a legend of classical Indian dance and among the country's most well-known performing artists, died Monday. Maharaj was suffering from a kidney ailment and was undergoing dialysis and likely died of a cardiac arrest, his granddaughter Ragini Maharaj told the Press Trust of India news agency. Known as Maharaj-ji by his many fans, he was considered an icon of the kathak form of Indian classical dance and was a recipient of the Padma Vibhushan, India's second highest civilian award.