WorldReutersCuba denies military in Venezuela, charges U.S. readies intervention
Cuba denied on Tuesday it has security forces in Venezuela and charged the statements were part of an orchestrated campaign of lies paving the way for military intervention in the South American country. U.S. President Donald Trump and members of the administration have charged that Cuba's security forces and military control Venezuela's and that troops are also on the ground there. Our government categorically and energetically rejects this slander,” Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said at a Havana press conference, adding all of the some 20,000 Cubans in Venezuela were civilians, most health professionals.
NewsAssociated PressPolice: Shooter targeted 3 victims in gated LA community
One of three men who were shot to death at a home in a gated Los Angeles community likely allowed the shooter inside, authorities said Tuesday. The victims were targeted in the shooting Monday, Capt. Billy Hayes said at a press conference. The other victims are Benny Lopez, 46, of Anaheim, and Jesus Perez, 34, of Perris.
- PoliticsYahoo News
Sanders campaign says it raised nearly $6 million on 1st day
Sen. Bernie Sanders's campaign for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination raised nearly $6 million in its first 24 hours, per information provided by the campaign. The independent senator from Vermont launched his campaign early Tuesday morning with an email blast, earning $5.9 million in donations from just under 225,000 people with an average donation of $27, according to a Sanders campaign release. As a comparison, Sen. Kamala Harris of California raised $1.5 million from 38,000 donors in the first 24 hours of her campaign following a January launch, her team said.
WorldAFPChina data leak exposes mass surveillance in Xinjiang
A Chinese technology firm has compiled a range of personal information on 2.6 million people in Xinjiang -- from their ethnicity to locations -- according to a data leak highlighting the wide extent of surveillance in the restive region. Xinjiang is home to most of China's Uighur ethnic minority lives and has been under heavy police surveillance in recent years after violent inter-ethnic tensions. Nearly one million Uighurs and other Turkic language-speaking minorities in Xinjiang are reportedly held in re-education camps, according to a UN panel of experts.
- BusinessUSA TODAY
How Social Security could get benefits boosted to help most vulnerable like widows
Social Security faces a looming funding shortfall roughly 15 years down the road. Despite that dismal backdrop, several proposals continue to be circulated that would enhance benefits for the most vulnerable groups of beneficiaries. As discussed in a series of briefs by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, one proposal would provide enhanced benefits to the elderly at or around age 85, when financial vulnerability increases.
WorldReutersAbuse victims demand to see pope, say bishops should be sacked
Victims of sexual abuse by the Catholic clergy on Wednesday demanded to meet Pope Francis personally to press demands that bishops who covered up such offences be dismissed from the priesthood. The 10 victims met for nearly three hours with five Vatican officials a day before the start of an unprecedented conference on abuse within the Church, designed to guide senior bishops on how best to tackle a problem that has decimated its credibility. All the survivors of abuse expressed disappointment that the pope did not come to the meeting, even though he was not scheduled to be there.
- WorldThe Telegraph
Isil bride Shamima Begum suggests she is prepared to go to prison if Britain allows her back
The schoolgirl who ran away to join Isil has indicated that she is prepared to go to prison if she gets her wish to return to Britain. Shamima Begum said that she was still determined to come back from Syria despite knowing that UK authorities have the “option” to send her to jail. In an interview with the BBC yesterday, while cradling a newborn baby, the teenager was asked what she thought would happen on her return.
BusinessBloombergSouthwest Air Drops as U.S. Shutdown Forces Cut to Outlook
The political stalemate that ended last month will reduce first-quarter revenue by $60 million as the aftereffects linger, Southwest said in a regulatory filing Wednesday. “The company has continued to experience softness in passenger demand and bookings as a result of the government shutdown,” Southwest said. Southwest dropped 4.5 percent to $55.10 at 9:39 a.m. in New York after sliding as much as 6.1 percent for the biggest intraday decline in three months.
NewsAssociated PressAurora warehouse where 5 killed won't reopen until next week
The suburban Chicago manufacturing warehouse where five people were fatally shot won't reopen until next week, but its doors will be open to support workers, company officials said Monday. The Henry Pratt Co. facility in Aurora, Illinois, will be open any employees who want to spend time with colleagues and counselors will be available, spokeswoman Yolanda Kokayi said. A Henry Pratt employee who was about to lose his job opened fire at the warehouse Friday, killing five co-workers and wounding five police officers.
- PoliticsReuters
Former Trump adviser Stone ordered to appear in court over Instagram posts
Roger Stone, a former political adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump, was ordered on Tuesday to appear in court this week over Instagram posts that chastised and appeared to threaten the judge presiding over his criminal trial. U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson said Stone would need to show cause at a hearing on Thursday as to why the posts did not violate a gag order in the case or the conditions of his release. Stone, who is free on a $250,000 bond and is free to travel to certain U.S. cities without the court's permission, has pleaded not guilty to charges of making false statements to Congress, obstruction and witness tampering as part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
WorldAssociated PressTensions rising after Kashmir attack as gunbattle kills 9
Tensions escalated after a suicide attack in disputed Kashmir, with nine people killed Monday in a gunbattle that broke out as Indian soldiers searched for militants. Government forces surrounded a village in the southern Pulwama area on a tip that militants were hiding there, security officials said. As troops began conducting searches, they came under heavy gunfire, leading to a clash that killed four soldiers, three suspected militants, a police official and a civilian.
- NewsYahoo News
Alabama editor who called for lynchings by Klan should quit, senators say
Officials in Alabama are calling for a small-town newspaper editor to resign because of an editorial calling for the Ku Klux Klan to terrorize Washington, D.C. Goodloe Sutton, the editor and publisher of the Democrat-Reporter in Linden, Ala., wrote the editorial titled “Klan needs to ride again” that ran in the paper last week. “Time for the Ku Klux Klan to night ride again,” read the Feb. 14 editorial.
WorldAFPAfter IS, ammunition among the IV drips at Syria clinic
At a clinic in eastern Syria, the Islamic State group have fled leaving a floor strewn with medical supplies -- but also explosives and a foreign passport. US-backed fighters took the three-storey building in the village of Baghouz in recent days, and now use its roof to survey the frontline against the jihadists. After a months-long campaign, the last IS fighters are pinned down in their last scrap of territory just hundreds of metres down the road in the same village.
- U.S.ABC News Videos
Cold case solved 46 years after girl's murder
Police in Southern California have arrested a suspect in the decades-old murder of 11-year-old Linda Ann O'Keefe, sources told ABC News on Tuesday.
NewsUSA TODAYTrevor Noah talks Jussie Smollett: 'Either this guy is telling the truth or he deserves an Emmy'
Trevor Noah brought up recent developments into the investigation of January's attack on actor Jussie Smollett on his nightly program Monday. As of Sunday, Chicago police were pursuing "additional detective work" amid suspicion that the attack may have been faked. Two brothers told investigators they were paid by the "Empire" actor to stage the attack, according to a person familiar with the situation but not authorized to speak publicly.
WorldReutersHuawei founder says Huawei CFO arrest was politically motivated - BBC
Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei said on Monday that the arrest of his daughter, Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou, was politically motivated. "Firstly, I object to what the U.S. has done. This kind of politically motivated act is not acceptable," Ren told the BBC in an interview.
- LifestyleCar and Driver
10 Non-Hybrid Crossovers and SUVs That Get 30 MPG or More
These are the most fuel-efficient SUVs you can buy, as rated by the EPA in 2019. From Car and Driver
- BusinessThe Independent
Amazon announces plans to make half of shipments carbon neutral by 2030
Online retail giant Amazon has announced plans to make alf if its shipments carbon neutral by the year 2030. The company, which ships millions of packages a year to shoppers, said that it will achieve that goal by switching to renewable energy sources and by asking suppliers to reimagine their packaging. “It won't be easy to achieve this goal, but it's worth being focused and stubborn on this vision and we're committed to seeing it through,” Dave Clark, Amazon senior vice president of worldwide operations, said.
- PoliticsThe Guardian
Trump v California: president wants to get billions in rail funding back
Governor calls move to cancel $929m in federal grant funds 'political retribution' for national emergency lawsuit The US Department of Transportation has announced plans to cancel $929m in federal grant funds for California's high-speed rail project, in a move the state's governor called “political retribution” for its lawsuit against Donald Trump's declaration of a national emergency. The announcement came a day after California led a coalition of 16 states to sue the Trump administration over the president's decision to declare a national emergency to build a wall along the US-Mexico border.
WorldAssociated PressPoland awaiting Israel's apology for minister's comments
A Polish government official said Tuesday that Warsaw is still waiting for Israel's government to apologize for comments the acting foreign minister made about Poles and their role in the Holocaust. Deputy Foreign Minister Szymon Szynkowski vel Sek said the "shameful, scandalous and slanderous" comments by the Israeli minister, Israel Katz, require an "unequivocal and definite" reaction. Szynkowski vel Sek said it was up to Israel to choose the form the apology takes and how it is delivered.
- WorldNational Review
Farrakhan Praises Omar's Anti-Semitic Remarks: 'Shake Up That Corrupt House'
Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan on Sunday praised Representative Ilhan Omar's (D., Minn.) recent endorsement of an anti-Semitic trope and urged the freshman lawmaker not to bow to pressure from critics. “Ms. Omar from Somalia – she started talking about 'the Benjamins' and they are trying to make her apologize. You sure are using it to shake the government up, but you have nothing to apologize for,” Farrakhan said during his annual Saviour's Day address in Chicago, in comments first reported by the Washington Free Beacon.
WorldAFPBritain to strip IS teen of citizenship: lawyer
Britain will strip citizenship from a UK teenager who joined the Islamic State group in Syria but now wants to return home with her newborn baby, a lawyer for her family said Tuesday. The case points to a dilemma facing many European countries, divided over whether to allow jihadists and IS sympathisers home to face prosecution or barring them over security concerns as the so-called "caliphate" crumbles. A lawyer for her family, Tasnime Akunjee, said on Twitter that they were "very disappointed with the Home Office's intention to have an order made depriving Shamima of her citizenship," and that they were considering "all legal avenues".
NewsUSA TODAYFlorida student faces misdemeanor charges after refusing to stand for Pledge of Allegiance
An 11-year-old student in Florida is facing charges after refusing to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance and creating a disturbance in the classroom, police said. The boy was arrested for causing a disruption and refusing repeated instructions from school staff and law enforcement, Polk County Public Schools spokesperson Kyle Kennedy said in a statement. He was not arrested for refusing to participate in the pledge – even though students have the right to do so by Florida law and district policy.
WorldBloombergChina's Silicon Valley Blueprint Has Plenty of Holes
Late Monday, the official Xinhua News Agency released details of the State Council's Greater Bay Area plan – a project to knit together Hong Kong and Macau with nine mainland cities into a global innovation hub to rival California's Silicon Valley. The trouble is, there's little new on how authorities plan to make this grand vision into a reality. Announced by Premier Li Keqiang in March 2017, the Greater Bay Area forms part of China's push for supremacy in technology, while also binding the former European colonies more tightly into the country.
WorldReutersIndian journalist condemns Twitter for blocking account after abuse online
Dutt said some people had posted and circulated her phone number on Twitter, enabling the harassment, which she said included threats of rape and images of genitalia being sent to her phone. Dutt tweeted some of the threats and images on Monday, and she included phone numbers and names of the men who allegedly threatened her, after which her account was suspended. "I would like to place on record my absolute horror and disgust at Twitter's encouragement of sexual abuse and gender inequality," said Dutt, a former managing editor at news channel NDTV and a regular columnist with the Washington Post.
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