- PoliticsYahoo News
In Trump impeachment trial, Nadler presses case by quoting Lindsey Graham — from 1999
Rep. Jerry Nadler pressed the House's impeachment case against President Trump in the Senate Thursday using the words of one of Trump's most ardent defenders — who is also a juror in the ongoing trial — to make the case that a president need not have committed a crime in order to be removed from office. Nadler showed a video clip of Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., to argue that the Founding Fathers had not defined the phrase “high crimes and misdemeanors” — the basis specified in the U.S. Constitution for impeaching a president — leaving the question up to Congress. The video showed Graham speaking in 1999, when he was a member of the House, serving as an impeachment manager during the trial of then-President Bill Clinton.
- 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.
- WorldReuters
U.S. to evacuate its citizens from Wuhan, China - WSJ
The plane, with around 230 people, will carry diplomats from the U.S. consulate as well as U.S. citizens and their families, the Journal reported, citing a person familiar with the operation. Washington was given approval for the operation from China's Foreign Ministry and other government agencies following negotiations in recent days, the newspaper said. A spokesperson for the U.S. Embassy in Beijing said that on Thursday, the State Department had ordered the departure of family members and all U.S. government employees at its Wuhan consulate, but declined to comment on the report that other U.S. citizens would be evacuated from the city.
- 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 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.
- BusinessCBS News
Thunberg fires back at Mnunchin after college degree jab
U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnunchin said Thursday that teen climate change activist Greta Thunberg should get a college degree before she speaks out about fossil fuel divestment. It didn't take long for Thunberg — the 2019 Time magazine Person of the Year — to fire back on social media. During a press briefing at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Mnuchin questioned Thunberg's credentials after a reporter asked him about her recent remarks.
- 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?
- U.S.Business Insider
These gun enthusiasts at the Virginia rally carried more firepower than many US troops
Thousands of heavily armed men and women braved the 30-degree temperatures in Richmond, Virginia, on Monday to proudly show off their firearms and its accompanying accessories. Some enthusiasts near the Virginia capitol carried a .50 caliber rifle capable of firing armor-piercing rounds or an underbarrel grenade launcher.
- 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
- PoliticsPolitico
Pro-Trump groups have a new impeachment enemy: Republicans
For Donald Trump's impeachment trial, conservative groups decided that ad buys attacking Democrats weren't enough — they wanted Republicans to hear from the president's supporters in person. “I just feel it's wasted so much of our time,” said Lisa Woods, 55, a Trump supporter and mother of five who came over 400 miles from Medina, Ohio, this week via the conservative group FreedomWorks. Woods, who was bused in with roughly 60 other activists, came to pressure the few moderate Republican and Democratic senators who can ensure the trial ends swiftly by rejecting proposals to allow testimony.
- 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.
- U.S.Reuters
Coronavirus worries have surgical masks flying off shelves in New York's Chinatown
Teresa Zhan, a pharmacist in Manhattan's Chinatown, had not seen protective face masks sell out in her 10 years as an employee until this week, when China's coronavirus arrived in the United States just days before Lunar New Year celebrations. More than a dozen pharmacies in the tiny district had run out of face masks or only had a few left on Friday. Pharmacists said hundreds of locals had rushed to buy masks for protection from the newly discovered coronavirus that has killed 26 people in China and infected at least 800 others, including a case in Chicago and another near Seattle.
WorldAFP Relax NewsChina seals off more cities as virus toll climbs
China sealed off millions more people near the epicentre of a virus outbreak on Friday, shutting down public transport in an eighth city in an unprecedented quarantine effort as the death toll climbed to 26. While the World Heath Organization held off on declaring a global emergency despite confirmed cases in half a dozen other countries, China expanded a lockdown now covering some 26 million people and cancelled some Lunar New Year celebrations to prevent the disease spreading further. The virus that emerged in the central city of Wuhan has now infected 830 people, the national health commission said.
- WorldINSIDER
2 elephants escaped a circus in Russia and rolled around in the snow before being recaptured
Reuters/YVES HERMAN Two circus elephants in Russia made a run for it on Thursday. The circus troupe was in the process of loading the animals into a truck when they walked away. The female elephant, Karla, rolled around in the snow in the city of Yekaterinburg.
- U.S.USA TODAY
Family attorneys say cruise line's story of toddler's death is 'physically impossible'
Attorneys representing the family of an Indiana toddler who fell to her death from a Royal Caribbean cruise ship in July say their recent inspection of the scene proves the cruise line is lying to the court. Earlier this month, Royal Caribbean filed a motion to dismiss the civil case holding them responsible, claiming that Chloe Wiegand's death was solely caused by the "reckless and irresponsible" actions of her grandfather, Salvatore "Sam" Anello. The cruise line maintains that Anello was aware that the window Chloe fell from was open.
- 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.
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.
- 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.
- 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.
WorldAFPMexico seeks US extradition of drug lord's son for reporter murder
Mexico is seeking the extradition from the United States of the son of a Sinaloa cartel drug lord over the 2017 murder of acclaimed journalist Javier Valdez, the attorney general's office said Thursday. Damaso Lopez Serrano, the son of former top "El Chapo" lieutenant Damaso Lopez Nunez "El Licenciado", is accused of being the mastermind behind the killing of Valdez. An arrest warrant for Lopez Serrano was approved Thursday afternoon after prosecutors interviewed members of the Sinaloa cartel who testified against him, the attorney general's office said in a statement.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- LifestyleArchitectural Digest
This Is What Skiing in Africa Looks Like
From the sand dunes of Namibia to South Africa's world-class Tiffindell resort, this is what makes skiing in Africa like no place on the planet Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
- 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.
What to Read Next
PHOTOS: Ukraine International Airlines plane crashes in Iran killing all on board
Yahoo News Photo Staff