Pompeo appeared to coordinate with Giuliani on Ukraine, new documents show

WASHINGTON — “Pls have Mr. G bring the documents,” reads the March 27, 2019, email from a State Department official to someone who worked for “Mr. G.,” better known as former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a central figure in the Ukraine pressure campaign that culminated in the impeachment of President Trump. “S is happy to meet with him tomorrow for 10 minutes,” went an email, apparently between State Department officials, the next day (both sender and recipient are redacted, though the title “Office Manager to the Secretary of State” is visible in the sender's signature). “S” was Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who is suspected by Democrats to have had a more central role in that Ukrainian campaign than has yet been publicly acknowledged.

10,000 mourn victims of racist shooting rampage in Germany

Around 10,000 protesters marched through the central German town of Hanau on Sunday to mourn the nine people who were killed by an immigrant-hating gunman four days ago. These days and hours are the blackest and darkest our town has ever experienced during peace times,” Hanau mayor Claus Kaminsky told the somber crowds, according to the German news agency dpa. But, he said, those who want to pull apart society won't succeed, “because we are more and we will prevent that.

California woman, boyfriend accused of killing 3 roommates over rent argument

Police have arrested a 20-year-old woman and her boyfriend, both of whom are accused of killing her roommates over a possible rent dispute in a Southern California home. The couple, Jordan Guzman and her boyfriend Anthony McCloud, 18, were  arrested Thursday after police alerted authorities in Las Vegas to a missing car belonging to one of the victims, 18-year-old Trinity Clyde. The three victims – Clyde, Wendy Lopez-Araiza, 46, and her daughter, Genesis Lopez-Araiza, 21 – were found dead Wednesday in their home in Hemet, about 76 miles southeast of Los Angeles.

Trump Admin. Considers Booting Chinese Reporters in Response to ‘Egregious’ Expulsion of WSJ Journalists: Report

The Trump administration is considering whether to expel Chinese journalists in response to China's own expulsion of three Wall Street Journal reporters, Bloomberg News reported on Monday. A meeting will be held at the White House on Monday to discuss the administration's options. The meeting will be led by deputy national security adviser Matt Pottinger, who himself was a Journal reporter based in Beijing.

Iran is closing schools, scrambling for hospital places, and spraying disinfectant in the subway as coronavirus deaths and cases spike

reported. These figures have been questioned, however, with one lawmaker from the city of Qom telling the semi-official ILNA news agency that at least 50 people had died in that city alone, The Guardian, AFP and AP reported. ILNA's editor also told AFP: "The rest of the media have not published this figure, but we prefer not to censor what concerns the coronavirus because people's lives are in danger."

South Korea becomes biggest coronavirus centre outside China

South Korea reported 161 more coronavirus cases Monday, taking the nationwide total to 763 and making it the world's largest total outside China. The country has seen a rapid surge in the number of coronavirus cases -- adding more than 700 cases in less than a week -- since a cluster of infections emerged from a religious sect in the southern city of Daegu. Most of the country's cases are connected to the Shincheonji Church of Jesus in Daegu, including 129 of Monday's confirmations, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement.

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  Xi says China facing 'big test' with virus, global impact spreads

  AFP
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  Coronavirus: South Korea placed on ‘red alert’ as sixth person dies and number of cases soars

  The Independent

Vanessa Bryant delivers moving tribute to Kobe and Gianna at memorial service

Vanessa Bryant remembered her daughter Gianna's "infectious" laugh and husband Kobe Bryant as "the MVP of girl dads" in a touching and at times funny speech at Monday's memorial in their honor at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. The memorial marked Bryant's first public comments outside of Instagram since the death of Kobe, 41, and Gianna, 13, in a helicopter crash last month. Bryant remembered the always upbeat attitude of her second-oldest daughter, who was affectionately known as Gigi.

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  'She was so full of life': Vanessa Bryant laments not being able to watch her daughter grow up at the memorial for Gianna and Kobe

  Business Insider
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  The G.O.A.T.s: Kobe Bryant

  Yahoo Sports Videos

14 products dermatologists recommend for soothing redness and rosacea

To help you tackle red, irritated skin, we consulted top dermatologists for their favorite products. "This cleanser is very gentle on reactive or sensitive skin, which most patients with rosacea have. It also contains feverfew, an ingredient known to decrease redness and help with irritation," said Noelani González, MD, director of cosmetic dermatology at Mount Sinai West in New York City.

A California man drove his Jeep off the roof of a six-level parking garage and crashed into a McDonald's, police say

Police in California are investigating after a man drove his Jeep off the roof of a six-level parking garage and into a McDonald's across the street. Police responded just after midnight Sunday and found a newer-model Jeep against a building, the Santa Monica Police Department said in a press release. The Santa Monica Fire Department reported it received information that the Jeep had been driven off the top of a parking garage.

‘I have never seen him eat a vegetable’: With steak off the menu, officials scramble to feed fussy eater Trump in India

Donald Trump has embarked on his first presidential visit to India, the world's largest democracy – and home to the world's largest population of vegetarians. Since Mr Trump is a noted beef-eater, in particular a lover of steak and burgers, gastronomically speaking, the visit will prove one of his most challenging. Mr Trump was once challenged to go vegan for a month by the campaign group Million Dollar Vegan, which said it would donate $1m to a veterans' charity if the president swore off animal products just temporarily.

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  Trump praises Pakistan while announcing $3 billion India arms deal

  NBC News
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  'Namaste Trump!': What’s Behind the Trump-Modi Bromance

  WSJ

Pacific NW winds shut interstate, fell tree that crushes man

High winds wreaked havoc on the Pacific Northwest on Sunday, closing a stretch of an interstate freeway in Oregon and toppling a large tree that crushed a man sleeping in an apartment complex in Washington state. The man was critically injured in Renton, Washington, after a tree fell on a six-unit apartment building during a morning of high winds and heavy rain. Elsewhere, Interstate 84 was closed in both directions between Pendleton and La Grande in northeast Oregon, about 200 miles (320 kilometers) east of Portland, because of a downer power line.

'D.C. Sniper' Malvo can seek parole after change in Virginia law

Lee Boyd Malvo, who was 17 when he took part in the deadly 2002 "D.C. Sniper" shooting spree in the Washington area, will get a chance to seek parole in Virginia following a change in state law enacted on Monday, preempting a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on the matter. The change, signed by Democratic Governor Ralph Northam, allows people like Malvo, now 35, who were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for offenses committed before age 18 to ask for release after 20 years. Malvo, who is incarcerated in a supermax state prison in Virginia's Wise County, and an older accomplice, John Allen Muhammad, were convicted in the shootings in which 10 people were killed.

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  New Virginia sentencing law ends high court's DC sniper case

  Associated Press
• Virginia law makes 'D.C. sniper' Lee Boyd Malvo eligible for parole, ends Supreme Court case

  USA TODAY

Crackdown on immigrants using public benefits takes effect

With new rules taking effect on Monday that disqualify more people from green cards if they use government benefits, droves of immigrants, including citizens and legal residents, have dropped social services they or their children may be entitled to out of fear they will be kicked out of the United States.

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  Trump rule restricting immigration based on wealth takes effect

  CBS News
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  New U.S. rule targeting poor immigrants sows fear, confusion, advocates say

  Reuters

Iran Prepares to Suffer the Wrath of the Coronavirus

The spread of coronavirus has rapidly come to the Middle East after almost two months of being mostly contained in China, where it has killed more than two thousand people. Iran's leadership has responded by either ignoring the crisis or denying that it exists, even as all of Iran's neighboring countries have closed the borders that they share with Iran and began to institute checks on Iranians traveling abroad. The reaction of Middle Eastern states reveals a lack of coordination in responding to the emerging crises and also creates questions about what kind of impact a virus can have on a region that has deep divisions and smoldering conflicts.

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  Coronavirus Outbreak: Death toll in Iran is now at 50, news agency says

  KTRK – Houston
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  Coronavirus Cases Soar to Alarming Numbers in Italy, South Korea and Iran with Hundreds Infected

  People

Nine of the World’s Most Beautiful Outdoor Saunas

From Seattle to Oslo, these outdoor saunas take relaxation and high-design to the next level Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest

China said it would relax its lockdown of Wuhan's 11 million residents, only to immediately reintroduce it

Wuhan announced on Monday that some people who are deemed healthy will be allowed to leave the city, whose transport links have been severed since January 23. China's decision to lock down Wuhan and nearby cities is the largest quarantine in human history, with the World Health Organization calling it an unprecedented step that's it's not sure will work. The Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the deadly coronavirus outbreak, relaxed the unprecedented quarantine restrictions on its 11 million citizens on Monday, only to almost immediately reverse that decision and reimpose the lockdown of the city.

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  WHO experts visit Chinese virus epicentre

  AFP Relax News
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  The Coronavirus Is Starting to Go Global

  Bloomberg

NASA space telescope spots a double star system with an alter ego

A volatile double star system appears to change its behavior rapidly and unpredictably like a cosmic story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The pair consists of a neutron star — an extremely dense remnant of a supernova explosion — and a smaller, sunlike star. Using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the National Science Foundation's Karl F. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA), astronomers found that this binary star system switches between two alter egos every few years.

'It's my guilty pleasure': Sen. Chuck Schumer confirms spending $8,600 on Junior's cheesecake

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer admitted Sunday that he has dropped almost $9,000 on his favorite cheesecake over the years. Holding a platter of the rich dessert aloft at a news conference, Schumer responded to a New York Post report that said Federal Election Commission filings reveal he spent $8,600 on cheesecake from Junior's, a restaurant that boasts it has the best cheesecake in New York, over the course of a decade. "Guilty as charged," the New York Democrat confessed.

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  Yes, Chuck Schumer has spent more than $8,600 on cheesecake. He's 'guilty as charged.'

  INSIDER
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  Schumer is 'guilty' of spending thousands on cheesecake

  Reuters Videos

Senate FISA Abuse Investigation to Focus on Mystery Source Who Contradicted Steele Dossier

Senator Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) on Sunday told Fox News the Senate's investigation into FBI abuse of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act will focus on interviews the agency conducted with a Russian source who contradicted much of the information in the Steele dossier. The first thing I want to do is call the people who heard from Russian sub-source that this dossier is a bunch of bar talk and hearsay,” Graham said on Fox's Sunday Morning Futures. I want to find out when did [former FBI director James] Comey and [former FBI deputy director Andrew] McCabe understand it was not reliable and start from there.

Bloomberg pays $2,500 a month to grassroots campaigners

Democratic presidential hopeful Mike Bloomberg's efforts to take social media by storm by paying people to post about him may not be working out, according to the L.A. Times.

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  It looks like people with no real interest in Bloomberg are signing up to be grassroots campaigners because he pays $2,500 a month

  Business Insider
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  Twitter suspends 70 pro-Michael Bloomberg accounts citing its 'platform manipulation' rule

  USA TODAY

Auschwitz Museum upset at scene in Amazon series 'Hunters'

The museum of the Nazi German Auschwitz death camp is objecting to a scene in a new Amazon TV series that shows a murderous game of human chess being played there, insisting that no such thing took place at the camp. The museumand memorial that guard the Auschwitz-Birkenau site in southern Poland, its historic facts and the memory of the victims tweeted about the scene in Amazon's series “Hunters.” It said inventing fake scenes is “dangerous foolishness and caricature," encourages Holocaust deniers and is disrespectful of the camp's some 1.1 million victims, including women and children. The series' creator, David Weil stressed in a statement it was not a documentary but a narrative with largely fictional characters.

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  Auschwitz museum criticises scene in Hunters TV series

  PA Media: World News
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  Amazon in Holocaust row about 'Hunters' series, anti-Semitic books

  Reuters

UN calls for 'two state' solution to be respected in Middle East

The UN Security Council made a rare show of unity Monday when it called on all parties to maintain their support for a two state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict. "Council Members reiterated their support for a negotiated two state solution ... where two democratic states, Israel and Palestine, live side by side in peace within secure and recognized borders," said a statement released by Belgium, which holds the rotating presidency, and supported by all 14 other members, including the United States. "All parties should refrain from undermining the viability of the two states solution in order to maintain the prospects for a just, comprehensive and lasting peace," the statement added, an allusion to Israel's recent threat to build thousands more homes in East Jerusalem, in an area claimed by the Palestinians.

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  Pope appears to reject Trump's Middle East peace plan

  Reuters Videos
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  Pope cautions against 'unfair' Middle East peace plans

  Associated Press

Americans Show Fresh Signs of Panic as Coronavirus Cases Jump Again

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Monday that the number of 2019 novel Coronavirus cases in the United States rose from 34 on Friday to 53 as more passengers from the Diamond Princess cruise ship tested positive for the sickness. The virus quickly spread among 695 passengers aboard the Carnival cruise ship docked in Yokohama, Japan, and has since killed at least two and forced many of the rest into quarantine and isolation. The U.S. State Department eventually repatriated those who wished to come home, though local officials across America have shown signs of resistance to housing the potentially infected in state or federal facilities.

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  World is on the brink of a coronavirus pandemic, warn virologists, as four more cases emerge in Britain

  The Telegraph
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  Two groups of US Diamond Princess passengers, two disparate experiences: 'I feel ill-used by my country'

  USA TODAY

Indian women protest new citizenship laws, joining a global 'fourth wave' feminist movement

Women are among the strongest opponents of two new laws in India that threaten the citizenship rights of vulnerable groups like Muslims, poor women, oppressed castes and LGBTQ people. The Citizenship Amendment Act, passed in December 2019, fast-tracks Indian citizenship for undocumented refugees from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan – but only those who are non-Muslim. Another law - the National Register of Citizens – will require all residents in India to furnish extensive legal documentation to prove their citizenship as soon as 2021.

An official leading South Korea's battle against COVID-19 says he's a member of a doomsday cult where a virus 'super-spreader' event occurred

Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images A senior health official in South Korea who is responsible for leading efforts against the coronavirus outbreak admitted to being a member of a doomsday church "cult" after contracting the virus. The delay forced authorities to quarantine another 50 health officials at a time when medical resources are already stretched thin. A police officer and an elementary school teacher also revealed that they believe in the Shincheonji Church of Jesus after being diagnosed with coronavirus.