- PoliticsYahoo News
Trump complains his impeachment defense has a lousy time slot
If there is one thing Donald Trump fears, it's lousy ratings. Since being elected president, in fact, Trump has tweeted about “ratings” exactly 100 times, according to the Trump Twitter Archive, the most recent coming Friday, on the eve of his defense team's opening testimony in his impeachment trial. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell gave in to pressure from members of his own party to adjust the trial's timetable to give House Democrats three days to make their case for removing Trump from office, pushing the opening arguments by the president's lawyers to the weekend.
- WorldBusiness Insider
As the Wuhan virus spreads, doctors in the city say they face a 'flooding' of patients and not enough protective gear
A doctor in the Chinese city of Wuhan said thousands of patients were waiting for hours to see doctors amid the deadly coronavirus outbreak, though doctors have been advised not to come into work for fear of catching the virus. The unnamed Wuhan doctor spoke with the BBC and discussed what conditions were like for medical workers in the city under lockdown. Another unnamed doctor told the South China Morning Post that medical workers were catching the virus because they lacked information and protective gear.
- U.S.Reuters
Bodies of U.S. firefighters retrieved from Australian air crash site
The bodies of three U.S. firefighters who died in a plane crash earlier this week in Australia's remote bushland while battling a fierce wildfire have been recovered, the police said on Saturday as investigators started probe into the accident. A spokeswoman for Australia's New South Wales state police confirmed the recovery to Reuters in an e-mail. Coulson Aviation, the private Canadian firm that employed the trio, named them as U.S. military veterans Captain Ian H. McBeth, 44, of Great Falls, Montana, First Officer Paul Clyde Hudson, 42, of Buckeye, Arizona, and Flight Engineer Rick DeMorgan Jr., 43, of Navarre, Florida.
- WorldBloomberg
Bulgaria Takes Harder Line on Russia Before U.S. Energy Talks
Bulgaria said it may expel two Russian diplomats it accuses of espionage, demonstrating an unusually tough stance toward the Kremlin in the run-up to talks with the U.S. over energy and security. A European Union and NATO member, the Balkan country is trying to balance the priorities of its Western allies with religious, historical and cultural ties to neighboring Russia, which is also its main energy supplier. The pair -- a first secretary in the Russian embassy's consular department in Sofia and a diplomat in Russia's commercial representation office -- will “most likely” be declared persona non grata, Foreign Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva told reporters.
- WorldThe National Interest
Damaged By Drone Strike: Suleimani's Sainthood Is Now Being Questioned
In the wake of Washington's assassination of former Quds Force commander Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, Arab Shi'a desires and interests across the Middle East are under a microscope. Have they shifted their protest slogans from opposing Iran to denouncing the United States? Americans should not assume that wide-angle television images of Shi'a protests in Iran calling for the downfall of the Great Satan reflect Shi'a sentiment across Arab societies.
WorldAFPChinese Uighurs in Saudi face impossible choice
His eyes brimming with tears, a Uighur student in Saudi Arabia holds out his Chinese passport -- long past its expiry date and condemning him to an uncertain fate as the kingdom grows closer to Beijing. The Chinese mission in Saudi Arabia stopped renewing passports for the ethnic Muslim minority more than two years ago, in what campaigners call a pressure tactic exercised in many countries to force the Uighur diaspora to return home. Half a dozen Uighur families in Saudi Arabia who showed AFP their passports -- a few already expired and some approaching the date -- said they dread going back to China, where over a million Uighurs are believed to be held in internment camps.
- U.S.Time
New Trump Rule Requires U.S. Officials to Weigh Pregnant Visa Applicants' Medical Needs
The Trump administration issued a new rule on Thursday instructing United States consular officials to deny pregnant women visas unless they can prove “to the satisfaction of the consular officer” either that they are not traveling to the U.S. to give birth, or that they have a legitimate medical reason to give birth in the country. The administration says the new provision is an attempt to cut down on what's known as “birth tourism,” or when women come to the U.S. specifically to give birth so that their children gain American citizenship. But critics say the new rule may be deeply flawed.
- WorldUSA TODAY
Millions of locusts are swarming in Kenya. These striking photos show just how bad the outbreak is
It's the worst locust outbreak to hit Kenya in 70 years. Hundreds of millions of the small bugs are swarming in from neighboring Somalia and Ethiopia with unprecedented size and destructive potential, according to the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization. The Desert Locust, the most devastating of all locust species, is eating up crops in areas already susceptible to food and water shortages.
- U.S.The Independent
Female prisoner dies after guards ‘did not stop her being beaten with soap bars’
A female prisoner died after guards did not intervene while she was being beaten with a sock filled with bars of soap, it is claimed in a lawsuit set to be heard in the US. Nicole Rathmann was attacked by another inmate as she lay on her bunk at the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility. But prison wardens allegedly allowed the beating to happen without intervening.
- PoliticsYahoo News
Schiff lobbies Chief Justice Roberts to rule on questions of executive privilege
Rep. Adam Schiff, the lead House prosecutor, called on Chief Justice John Roberts to expedite rulings on any disputes between Congress and President Trump over witness testimony and documents, if the Senate votes to allow them. “We have a very capable justice sitting in that Senate chamber empowered by the Senate rules to decide issues of evidence and privilege,” Schiff, the Democratic congressman from California leading the case for impeachment, told reporters prior to the last day of opening arguments for the House impeachment managers. Republicans have said over the past day or so that one reason to vote against subpoenas for documents and witnesses in the trial is that it would drag out the process too long, because Trump would claim executive privilege and the matter would get bogged down in the courts.
- HealthBusiness Insider
Face masks aren't a very effective way to prevent the spread of coronavirus, experts say, despite spiking sales
AP Photo/Kin Cheung Of the many preventative measures you can take to protect yourself from the growing Wuhan coronavirus outbreak, wearing a face mask is one of the most visible. But health experts aren't convinced it'll help much. "There's little harm in it," Eric Toner, a scientist at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, said of donning a mask.
- BusinessPopular Mechanics
China Is Building a Hospital for Coronavirus Patients in Just Six Days. How?
Authorities in Wuhan, China have begun construction on a new temporary hospital in the region, designed to isolate and treat patients of the coronavirus. This isn't the first time China has pulled off such an enormous feat; During the SARS outbreak in 2003, Beijing built a similar medical facility in just under seven days. Wuhan, China is the epicenter of a new type of coronavirus that has infected more than 830 people and killed as many as 26 throughout China, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, Taiwan, and the United States.
- LifestylePopular Mechanics
Wax On, Wane Off: A Guide to All the Lunar Phases
Your guide to the moon—and its many phases. From Popular Mechanics
- BusinessBloomberg
Canada ‘Will Not Stop’ Until It Has Answers on Iran Crash
Justin Trudeau's second in command, speaking in an interview with Bloomberg TV in Davos, Switzerland, said Canada wants a “real, independent” analysis of the airplane's black box, along with transparency on what exactly happened. “I am confident we will get those answers because Canada is relentlessly focused on getting them and we will not stop until we get them,” Freeland said. Iran is under intense international pressure to provide full accountability over the circumstances that caused the crash of the Ukrainian International Airlines plane on Jan. 8.
- 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.Associated Press
Racist threats rattle students, faculty at university
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) — Three months after a set of anonymous, threatening, racist, antisemitic and homophobic emails sent a wave of fear through the sociology department at Wake Forest University, the department chairman says he's still waiting for university leaders to announce a meaningful response. Alarmed by what he deemed white supremacist terrorism, chairman Joseph Soares canceled sociology classes for a week. When they resumed, Wake Forest police officers were stationed outside classrooms and the building itself.
PoliticsYahoo News VideoTenn. governor announces plans for strictest anti-abortion laws in U.S.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has announced his intention to enact some of the strictest abortion laws in the U.S.
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.
- PoliticsYahoo News
The best of Adam Schiff from the impeachment trial
As House Democrats wrapped up their 24 hours of opening statements in the impeachment trial of President Trump on Friday, one thing members of both parties acknowledged — albeit somewhat grudgingly on the Republican side — was that Rep. Adam Schiff had done about as good a job as he could in arguing the Democrats' case. Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, was the lead impeachment manager for the Democrats, speaking on his feet for hours at a time with fluency, eloquence and command of the facts. “He's well-spoken,” Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-S.C., told reporters on Thursday.
- WorldBusiness Insider
Someone paid protesters to show up at the Huawei CFO's extradition hearing and pretend they support her
CBC/Twitter Two women say they were duped into protesting in favor of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou at an extradition hearing in Vancouver, Canada. They said they were offered between 100 and 150 Canadian dollars to show up and hold signs, along with around 20 others. Both said they didn't realize what they were being asked to do, and regret it.
- 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.
- WorldReuters
In southern Poland, archaeologists discover WW2 plane wreck
Archaeologists have discovered the wreck of a U.S.-made bomber flown by the Soviet Red Army in World War Two, along with the remains of four crewmen killed when it crashed in southern Poland, private broadcaster TVN reported. Only one man survived when the B-25 Mitchell was shot down by the German air force on Jan. 19, 1945 - a 23-year-old commander who parachuted out and was taken into German captivity. Marta Wrobel in the town of Bierun during the war and told TVN that the blast from the crash had been powerful enough to blow out windows and doors.
- PoliticsThe Guardian
Why are California's mayors lining up to endorse Mike Bloomberg?
Bloomberg announced on Thursday that London Breed, San Francisco's first black female mayor, would serve as his campaign's chair of African Americans. “Voters re-elected London Breed by a wide margin because she is taking on the biggest and toughest issues – and she puts progress over politics,” the former New York mayor said in a statement. Breed, who previously supported the California Senator Kamala Harris in the Democratic race for the presidential nomination, said on Facebook that she is backing Bloomberg because he “is the only candidate for president with a real plan for African Americans”, touting his Greenwood Initiative to increase black home ownership and the number of black-owned businesses.
- WorldThe National Interest
Why This 1 Missile Problem Is Creating Headaches for Iran's F-14A Tomcats
Key point: Tehran cherishes its American-made F-14 Tomcats, but those fighters are getting very old. Among the many problems facing Iran's F-14s are a lack of missiles. Iran's F-14A Tomcats are an anomaly in the region.
- 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.
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PHOTOS: Ukraine International Airlines plane crashes in Iran killing all on board
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