- 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.
- 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
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.
- 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.
- 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?
- PoliticsAssociated Press
US Vice President Pence to Pope Francis: You made me a hero
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence met with Pope Francis at the Vatican on Friday, discussing the anti-abortion march in Washington and telling the pontiff, "You made me a hero" back home by granting him a private audience. Pence was beaming after the meeting, which appeared to be particularly cordial. The hero description apparently referred to Pence's Catholic family upbringing.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
White House breaks silence on Jeff Bezos phone-hacking scandal, calls Saudi Arabia an 'important ally'
Mark Wilson/Getty Images The White House broke its silence Thursday on reports that Saudia Arabia was likely behind the hacking of Jeff Bezos' phone. The White House called Saudi Arabia an "important ally" and said it doesn't have any additional information on the hacking allegations but it's taking the situation "seriously." The spokesperson did not say whether the US plans to investigate the hacking, which the United Nations called for on Wednesday.
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.
- 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.
- PoliticsThe Independent
Donald Trump shares image of Barack Obama scaling Trump Tower
Donald Trump has tweeted a photoshopped image of Barack Obama scaling the walls of Trump Tower with suction cups and holding binoculars. The image, which was posted without a caption, appeared to be a reference to Mr Trump's claims that Mr Obama and the FBI illegally spied on him. Just found out that Obama had my 'wires tapped' in Trump Tower just before victory.
- 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.
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.
- 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.
- 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.
- U.S.The Guardian
Victims' bodies still at New Orleans Hard Rock Hotel months after collapse
Three months after the partial collapse of the Hard Rock hotel construction site on the tip of New Orleans's historic French Quarter, a macabre reminder of the tragedy that claimed three lives was visible to passersby this week. Among the collapsed building's twisted remains and rubble, the dangling legs of a wedged corpse were revealed to the public after a tarpaulin sheet covering the body was blown away by wind. The gruesome sight came as city officials are scrambling to dismantle the 18-storey, 350-room hotel, which remains an eyesore and still holds the trapped remains of two workers, Quinnyon Wimberly and José Ponce Arreola.
- 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.
