- PoliticsYahoo News
Donald Trump is suddenly scared of Mike Bloomberg — as he should be
The president is projecting his own personality onto Bloomberg because he doesn't want the former New York City mayor, who is roughly 17 times as rich Trump, to “spend money helping whoever the Democrat nominee is” — and hurting Trump's own reelection chances. In other words, Trump is afraid. His fear is justified.
- U.S.INSIDER
Ex-Maryland police officer has been charged with raping and attempting to transmit HIV to a woman he pulled over
ArtOlympic/ Shutterstock Former Fairmont Heights police officer Martique Vanderpool is accused of raping a woman following a traffic stop in September. A Prince George County grand jury indicted Vanderpool Tuesday on a slew of charges, including that he knowingly exposed the woman to HIV. Vanderpool resigned from duty after his arrest.
BusinessAFPGreta Thunberg says climate demands 'completely ignored' at Davos
Teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg on Friday said calls to the corporate elite meeting in Davos to immediately disinvest in fossil fuels had been ignored. Of course these demands have been completely ignored. Thunberg was a highlight of the 50th edition of the conference, drawing massive attention including barbs by US Secretary Steven Mnuchin who on Thursday told the teen to go "study economics".
- U.S.The Independent
US military investigating after finding Pornhub video of Navy service members shot through peephole
The Navy is reportedly investigating videos found on the website Pornhub that they believe show unsuspecting service members through a peephole in a bathroom. The videos were discovered earlier this month by an agent from the Naval Criminal Investigative Series, according to a report by NBC News. Several reportedly show sailors and Marines in uniform, with visible name patches.
- WorldBusiness Insider
Trump administration accused by the UK of a 'denial of justice' after refusing to extradite a diplomat's wife accused of killing a British teenager
The US has denied the UK's request for the extradition of the US diplomat's wife who is accused of causing the death of a British teenager near a US military base in England last summer. Harry Dunn was killed after being struck by a car which was allegedly being driven by Anne Sacoolas on the wrong side of the road. A spokesman for the Dunn family accused the Trump administration of taking a "wrecking ball" to the alliance between the UK and US.
- WorldTime
China Puts 13 Cities on Lockdown as Coronavirus Death Toll Climbs
China broadened its lockdown to include at least 13 cities Friday as it strives to contain a deadly virus outbreak the World Health Organization has termed a domestic health emergency. The respiratory virus has claimed 26 lives and infected at least 830 people in China since it was first detected at a seafood market in Wuhan last month, according to figures provided by the National Health Commission Friday morning. While cases of the new coronavirus have been detected around the world, from Thailand and South Korea to the United States, WHO said the situation does not yet constitute a global health emergency.
- SciencePopular Mechanics
New Moon Photos! Get Your New Moon Photos Here!
Piping hot and fresh from China's Chang'e 4 mission. From Popular Mechanics
- WorldThe National Interest
Want To Start A War With America? Go Try To Sink An Aircraft Carrier
Although supercarriers have participated in nearly every military conflict since the commissioning of USS Forrestal in 1955, no carrier has come under determined attack from a capable opponent. In part, this is because supercarriers are very difficult to attack, but the symbolic grandeur of the massive ships also plays a role; no one wants to know what the United States might do if one of its carriers came under attack. What would happen if a foe attacked a United States Navy (USN) aircraft carrier during a conflict?
- WorldThe Week
Virologist who helped identify SARS on coronavirus outbreak: 'This time I'm scared'
Experts are seeing shocking similarities between the coronavirus that has now spread beyond China and the SARS outbreak of 2003. Like the infectious pneumonia that has killed at least 17 people, SARS was caused by a coronavirus that originated in China. People were out at markets without masks, "preparing to ring in the New Year in peace and had no sense about the epidemic," Guan Yi of the University of Hong Kong's State Key Laboratory of Emerging Infectious Diseases told Caixin.
WorldYahoo News VideoPhilippine President Duterte threatens to end military deal with U.S.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte warned the United States on Thursday he would repeal an agreement on deployment of troops and equipment for exercises if Washington did not reinstate the visa of a political ally.
- PoliticsYahoo News
Democrats pounce as Trump says he would consider cuts to Social Security and Medicare
While much of the nation was focused on Donald Trump's impeachment trial in the Senate, the president gave an interview in Davos, Switzerland, that undercut one of his key pledges from his 2016 campaign, declaring his intention to “take a look” at cutting benefits to entitlement programs, such as Social Security and Medicare. Asked by CNBC host Joe Kernen whether he would ever consider cutting entitlements, Trump, who had run on a promise to protect Social Security and Medicare, didn't rule it out. At some point they will be.
- U.S.National Review
Parishioner Who Stopped Texas Church Shooter Criticizes Bloomberg on Gun-Control Efforts
The armed parishioner who took down a shooter at a Texas church in December criticized former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg's gun control efforts on Wednesday. “Mr. Bloomberg, had we operated by his standards or his wishes, the carnage would have been significantly greater because the individual still, after the shooting, still had seven live rounds in his gun and three more in his pocket,” Jack Wilson said in an interview on Fox News. Wilson, a member of West Freeway Church of Christ in White Settlement, Texas, fired a single round at an armed intruder on December 29, killing the assailant.
- U.S.The Guardian
'The new evidence raises deeply troubling questions': did Arkansas kill an innocent man?
The deceased inmate's sister Patricia Young lodged a lawsuit on Thursday with the circuit court of Pulaski county, Arkansas, petitioning city authorities and the local police department in Jacksonville to release crime scene materials to her family. An 81-page filing in the lawsuit provides damning new evidence that key aspects of the prosecution case against Lee were deeply flawed. The complaint includes expert opinion from a number of world-leading specialists who find glaring errors in the way forensic science and other evidence was interpreted.
PoliticsUSA TODAYSen. Susan Collins wrote note to Chief Justice Roberts prior to his admonishing of Senators
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said she was "stunned" by remarks given by House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler at the start of the trial, where he accused senators of being complicit in a cover-up if they shot down measures to hear from additional witnesses. Collins, a key moderate who Democrats are hoping to convince that more witnesses should be heard from during the trial, said the remarks caused her to write a note to Chief Justice John Roberts, asking whether the Senate's rules had been violated. "I was stunned by Congressman Nadler's approach, and it reminded me that if we were in a normal debate in the Senate, that the rule will be invoked to strike the words of the Senator, for impugning another Senator in this case," she explained in an interview with Politico, remarks that were confirmed by her office.
- WorldBusiness Insider
The outbreaks of both the Wuhan coronavirus and SARS started in Chinese wet markets. Photos show what the markets look like.
The Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan closed on January 1 after it was found to be the most likely starting point for the outbreak of this coronavirus, also called 2019-nCov. NOEL CELIS/AFP via Getty Images A 61-year-old man was the first person to die from the virus. According to Bloomberg, he was a regular shopper at the Huanan wet market, which sold more than seafood.
- WorldReuters
Anti-Jewish graffiti sparks anger in Italy ahead of Holocaust day
Anti-Semitic graffiti was found scrawled on the door of the son of a Holocaust survivor in the northwestern Italian town of Mondovi on Friday, triggering outrage from politicians and rights groups. The words "Juden Hier" (Jews Here) were written above a Star of David on the door, recalling the signs put on buildings in Nazi Germany to mark the homes and businesses of local Jews. The house in Mondovi used to belong to Lidia Rolfi, who joined the resistance against Nazi invaders in World War Two but was swiftly captured and deported to the Ravensbrueck concentration camp in Germany in 1944.
- WorldThe National Interest
China is Expanding into the Indian Ocean—Here Are Five Things the Indian Navy Can Do About It
For decades, the Indian Navy has been the dominant regional power in the Indian Ocean, and has even boasted a carrier aviation capability that was nearly unique in Asia. But as outlined in a report by the Center for New American Security (CNAS), the growth of Chinese military power in the last two decades has dramatically eclipsed India's own attempts to modernize and expand its forces—particularly in the maritime domain. This is problematic due to New Delhi's tense relations with Beijing since a 1962 border war.
- U.S.The Independent
Ghislaine Maxwell: Hackers 'breached' computer belonging to Jeffrey Epstein associate, attorney says
Lawyers for the woman accused of procuring underage girls to have sex with Jeffrey Epstein told a judge that hackers “breached” her computer after a court failed to redact her email address in filings it released last year. Ghislaine Maxwell's lawyer Ty Gee said in a December letter to Judge Loretta A Preska that, “despite the Second Circuit's best efforts, it made serious mistakes” when redacting thousands of pages of records associated with a defamation lawsuit filed by one of Epstein's accusers, Virginia Giuffre. Ms Giuffre's 2015 lawsuit argued that Ms Maxwell publicly called her a liar for claiming that the British socialite approached her at the age of 15 and encouraged her to sleep with the convicted sex offender.
- WorldAssociated Press
Belarus' leader blasts Russia for pushing merger of 2 states
The president of Belarus on Friday accused Moscow of pressuring his country to merge with Russia and vowed not to let it happen. Talking to workers of a paper plant in eastern Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko lambasted Russia, the country's main provider of cheap oil and gas, for halting oil supplies in order "to dissolve Belarus ... in the brotherly Russia.
- PoliticsThe Week
Schiff warns Trump 'will stop at nothing to retain his power'
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) warned Friday that President Trump abused the power of his presidency and will do so again unless removed from office. During the final day of Democrats' opening arguments in the Senate's impeachment trial, Schiff argued in favor of Trump's removal from office, after the House of Representatives passed two articles of impeachment charging him with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. "Based on the abuse of power for which he was impeached, and his ongoing efforts to solicit foreign interference both directly and through Mr. Giuliani, there can be little doubt that President Trump will continue to invite foreign interference in our elections again and again," Schiff said, saying Trump solicited election interference both from Russia in 2016 and then Ukraine in 2020.
WorldAFPProtest violence won't work, leading Hong Kong activist says
Escalating protest violence is not the way to bring about change, Hong Kong democracy activist Jason Ng has said, urging demonstrators to embrace non-violent means in the struggle to throw off a feared tightening of Beijing's control. With the movement in a less frenetic and ferocious stage after seven months of unrest, Ng, who is also a lawyer, said people in Hong Kong were taking time to process what had happened and reflect on the way forward. Speaking to AFP in an interview in Barcelona, Ng said he hoped the protests would return to the non-violent ethos that had characterised the Umbrella Revolution, the mass pro-democracy demonstrations of 2014.
- WorldPopular Mechanics
Wax On, Wane Off: A Guide to All the Lunar Phases
Your guide to the moon—and its many phases. From Popular Mechanics
- PoliticsNational Review
FISA Court Confirms Two Carter Page Surveillance Applications ‘Not Valid’
A FISA Court order declassified Thursday confirmed that the government had found two of the four FISA applications authorized for the FBI to surveil 2016 Trump-campaign adviser Carter Page to be “not valid,” and will further investigate the validity of the other two. Based on the ordering of the applications, it appears the review found the second and third renewal applications used against Page to be invalid, while the original application and the first renewal remain under investigation. The court also said it was still waiting on the Bureau after it “agreed 'to sequester all collection the FBI acquired pursuant to the Court's authorizations'” against Page, but so far has not provided an update.
- WorldBusiness Insider
Photos show how China is grappling with the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak as 12 cities are quarantined and hospitals run out of space
Getty Images When it became known that the virus could spread from human to human contact, China imposed screening precautions in Wuhan and began checking people for the virus at transportation hubs. Stringer/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images Medics wearing Level D Hazmat suits were seen scanning passengers arriving from Wuhan on January 22. Emily Wang/AP As the death toll climbed to nine, the Chinese government urged people to avoid traveling to Wuhan and stay away from public spaces — a warning that came just as millions of people were planning to migrate for the Lunar New Year.
- WorldINSIDER
Australia's Kangaroo Island is looking for volunteers to feed animals injured in bushfires
PETER PARKS/AFP via Getty Images The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) Australia is looking for volunteers to feed local wildlife injured by the bushfires on Kangaroo Island. Nearly half of the island, located in the country's south, was burned in bushfires earlier this month, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Up to 30,000 out of an estimated 60,000 koalas are believed to have been killed.
