Elise Stefanik, newest star of Trumpworld, has turned impeachment into a fundraising boon

The Stefanik campaign's YouTube page — which features the campaign logo — also contains several videos from the impeachment inquiry. The clips have titles like “Adam Schiff Refuses to yield to Stefanik at Impeachment Hearing Day 2. A complaint regarding Stefanik's use of impeachment footage was filed by Susan Delehanty, a Stefanik constituent who lives in the Adirondack Mountains region of New York, and sent to Omar Ashmawy, chief counsel of the Office of Congressional Ethics, on Dec. 9.

A Chinese destroyer fired a weapons-grade laser at a US surveillance aircraft, US Navy says

Uncredited/AP A Chinese destroyer lased a US Navy P-8A surveillance aircraft with a weapons-grade laser in the Pacific last week, the US Navy said Thursday. A Pacific Fleet spokeswoman told Insider the weapon appeared to be part of the Chinese warship's close-in weapons system. "Weapons-grade lasers could potentially cause serious harm to aircrew and mariners, as well as ship and aircraft systems," a US Pacific Fleet statement read, calling the incident "unsafe and unprofessional."

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  The US Navy orders ships in the Pacific to stay at sea at least 14 days between port calls over coronavirus concerns

  Business Insider
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  US says Chinese ship fired laser at American aircraft

  Associated Press

Americans of all parties agree: Joe Biden is old, Michael Bloomberg is rich

Independents and Republicans were far more likely to describe him as "gay," as well as "inexperienced," and "centrist." Philanthropist Tom Steyer was more overwhelmingly described as "rich" by Democrats, while independents and Republicans opted for "inexperienced." While former Vice President Joe Biden scored some mentions of "good person" among Democrats, he mostly got "old."

Doctors Inside Iran Believe Coronavirus Is More Serious Than Reported, and Getting Worse

Right now in Iran we are facing a coronavirus epidemic,” said a senior medical doctor at the Masih Daneshvari hospital in Tehran, the country's top pulmonary public hospital and the main facility overseeing coronavirus patients. Public officials have not confirmed how the disease arrived in Iran, but it appears to be the locus for the regional outbreak. So far, Afghanistan, Georgia, Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, and Oman reported their first cases of coronavirus, all linked to passengers traveling from Iran.

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  US coronavirus outbreak: CDC reveals first possible case of community spread

  Fox Business
• Lebanon health ministry confirms third case of coronavirus, NNA reports

  Reuters

Seattle Is Socialism’s Laboratory, and It’s Not Pretty

While many commentators have dismissed the rhetoric around the Green New Deal, Housing for All, and End Cash Bail as pie-in-the-sky abstraction, in Seattle, the socialist coalition is quickly translating this agenda into a political reality. After the socialist Left's stunning victory over business-backed moderates in last year's municipal elections, Seattle has effectively become the nation's laboratory for socialist policies. Since the beginning of the year, the socialist faction on the Seattle City Council has proposed a range of policies on taxes, housing, homelessness, and criminal justice that put into practice the national democratic-socialist agenda.

What Would a Coronavirus Outbreak in the U.S. Mean for Schools?

Schools in the United States prepare for all manner of disasters and threats, whether hurricanes, mass shooters, tornadoes, influenza or head lice. Around the nation, school officials and parents were flummoxed by the sudden warning that if a coronavirus epidemic hit the United States, school buildings could be shut down for long periods of time, leaving children sequestered at home. In alerting that the coronavirus will almost certainly spread in the United States, Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said she had contacted her own local school superintendent this week and asked if the district was prepared.

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  Americans are being told to prepare for a coronavirus outbreak — but US health agencies lack funding, and disease testing lags behind

  Business Insider
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  Vice President Mike Pence will lead the US response to the COVID-19 outbreak

  TechCrunch

Bombardment intensifies in Tripoli despite truce

Bombardment of the Libyan capital Tripoli intensified on Friday, residents said, as the United Nations envoy called for a return to a ceasefire agreed last month and eastern forces said they shot down several drones. Residents said the shelling was among the heaviest since the ceasefire was agreed on Jan. 12, as artillery blasts echoed through the city center and black smoke billowed near Mitiga airport held by the government. The fighting, between the Libyan National Army (LNA) of eastern-based leader Khalifa Haftar and the internationally recognized Government of National Accord (GNA) based in Tripoli, came as the United Nations tried to hold peace talks in Geneva.

Deadly riots expose India's Hindu-Muslim divide

Fearing for their lives - In the wake of the violence, stories emerged of people beaten, stabbed or shot to death by mobs, but also of Hindu neighbours who offered refuge to their Muslim friends. Goat farmer Anwar Chotu, 58, was dragged out of his home in Shiv Vihar, shot dead and his body thrown into a fire by rioters, his brother Mohammad Chotu told AFP. Waiting outside the morgue to collect his body, Mohammad Chotu said he managed to stay alive after fleeing to his Hindu neighbour's home with his wife and five children.

• Amid Delhi's blood-letting, a Hindu bride weds in a Muslim neighbourhood

  Reuters
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  Indian police detain hundreds after Hindu-Muslim clashes in New Delhi

  Reuters

25 Glass Coffee Tables for Any and Every Living Room

Could we be any clearer? Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest

Dems joust with Pompeo at hearing, the 1st since impeachment

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo defended the Trump administration's response to the spreading coronavirus but also faced contentious questions from Democrats about the basis for an airstrike that killed Iran's most powerful general and whether the attack had put American security at risk. Democrats on the House Foreign Affairs Committee repeatedly expressed frustration that the panel was afforded only two hours to question Pompeo, who until Friday had gone months without testifying publicly on Capitol Hill. He balked last fall at complying with a subpoena tied to the House impeachment inquiry into the administration's interactions with Ukraine.

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  U.S. offered to help Iran with coronavirus response: Pompeo

  Reuters Videos
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  Pompeo warns Iran not to be 'spoiler' in Afghanistan

  AFP

Korean Air flight attendant with coronavirus reportedly serviced 400-seat aircraft that flew between South Korea and US twice —here's the list of the known routes she flew

The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has confirmed that a Korean Air flight attendant infected with the novel coronavirus serviced a flight to Israel that was previously linked to cases of the virus. The flight attendant is believed to have serviced additional flights after returning to South Korea, according to news reports. South Korean media is reporting that the flight attendant worked flights between Seoul and Los Angeles, a popular route for the airline.

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  I've taken 6 flights in a month throughout Asia as the coronavirus spreads — here's how the outbreak forced me to change how I travel

  Business Insider
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  EasyJet to cancel flights as coronavirus hits demand

  Reuters

'I guess I wasn't arrested': Joe Biden reverses on claim of an arrest in South Africa

Former Vice President Joe Biden acknowledged Friday he had not been arrested in apartheid South Africa when visiting Nelson Mandela in prison in the 1970s, despite previously saying so on the campaign trail. “I had the great honor of meeting him,” Biden said while campaigning in South Carolina, according to a New York Times story this month. Biden's deputy campaign manager, Kate Bedingfield, later told reporters the story had referred to the trip in the 1970s and that he "was separated from his party at the airport."

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  African American voters hold key to South Carolina's primary

  AFP
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  Obama Demands South Carolina Stations Stop Running Misleading Ad Where He Appears to Attack Biden

  The Wrap

California resident with no China links catches Coronavirus - showing disease has started spreading within US

A patient in California has been diagnosed with the Coronavirus despite no known links to any outbreaks overseas. The case may be proof that the fatal illness has begun spreading within communities in the US, the CDC warned. The news came as President Trump held a White House press conference outlining his adminstration's response to the epidemic but downplaying how widespread he expects it to become.

Iran Can’t Hide Its Coronavirus Explosion, But It’s Trying Hard—and Putting the World in Danger

Iran's deputy health minister was drenched in sweat at the press conference on Monday where he vehemently denied Tehran was covering up the extent of the coronavirus outbreak. The irony of Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi's case would be funny almost, were Iran's conspicuous bungling of the coronavirus threat not a menace to the whole region and, indeed, to the world. As The Daily Beast's partner publication, IranWire, revealed in an exclusive report Thursday, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has tried to address the epidemic by telling doctors to shut up about it, much as Chinese authorities in Wuhan did, disastrously, when the disease was just starting to spread last December.

Police rescue 24 babies, pregnant teens from Nigerian 'baby factory'

Nigerian police have rescued 24 babies and four expectant mothers from an illegal maternity home in the southern oil city of Port Harcourt, a spokesman said Thursday.

Trump 'could suck coronavirus out of 60,000 people' and he'd still be criticized – Huckabee

Donald Trump could “personally suck” the coronavirus “out of every one of the 60,000 people in the world, suck it out of their lungs, swim to the bottom of the ocean and spit it out, and he would be accused of pollution for messing up the ocean”, a top Republican has claimed. Former Republican Arkansas governor and ex-presidential candidate Mike Huckabee made the outlandish statement on Twitter on Thursday night and on Fox News' Fox & Friends show on Friday morning. Mike Huckabee says Trump "could personally sick the virus out of every one of the 60,000 people in the world, suck it out of their lungs, swim to the bottom of the ocean and spit it out, and he would be accused of pollution for messing up the ocean."

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  Mike Huckabee Says Trump Would Be Vilified Over Coronavirus Even If He Sucked It Out of People’s Lungs

  The Wrap
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  Mike Huckabee goes on bizarre rant about Trump 'sucking' coronavirus out of Americans' lungs

  The Independent

Police identify victims, shooter in Milwaukee brewery shooting rampage

Police in Milwaukee on Thursday identified the five brewery employees shot and killed by a co-worker who later took his own life in the latest spasm of gun violence plaguing U.S. workplaces and schools. The motive for the carnage was unclear a day after the shooting at the landmark Molson Coors Beverage Co complex shook Wisconsin's largest city. "Reasons for this are still under investigation," Milwaukee Police Chief Alfonso Morales said.

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  Molson Coors employee speaks out after gunman kills five at plant

  CBS News Videos
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  Molson Coors mass shooting victims, suspected gunman ID'd as Anthony Ferrill, Milwaukee police say

  WABC – NY

Mexico Has Two Coronavirus Cases, Health Officials Say

The first patient has a mild case and has been put in quarantine along with family members in the country's Institute of Epidemiological Diagnosis and Reference for further testing, deputy health minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell said at the National Palace. The man is a resident of Mexico City who took a trip to Italy in February. The case is Mexico's first, and the second known instance in Latin America after Brazil confirmed a case on Wednesday.

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  Coronavirus US: Quarantine across America is 'inevitable' top doctor warns as stocks take record plunge

  The Independent
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  Coronavirus: 28 confirmed cases currently in California, Solano County patient ID'd as woman

  KFSN – Fresno

'He fought us every single step of the way': How Bloomberg embraced stop-and-frisk as mayor

Bloomberg scorned the critics. "I think we disproportionately stop whites too much and minorities too little," Bloomberg told a radio interviewer early that summer, arguing that stop-and-frisk targeted the people who were committing most of the city's gun violence. When a federal judge ruled that the police department's use of stop-and-frisk violated minorities' rights and ordered oversight by a court-appointed monitor, Bloomberg — a lifelong Democrat who became a Republican to run for mayor and switched to independent while in office — vowed to keep stop-and-frisk going through his final days in office.

Barclays bankers acquitted over fraud charges in Qatar deal

Three former Barclays bankers were cleared Friday of fraud over a 4 billion-pound ($5.2 billion) investment deal with Qatar at the height of the global financial crisis in 2008. The three men — Roger Jenkins, Thomas Kalaris and Richard Boath — were acquitted after a five-month trial at London's Old Bailey. The case was brought by Britain's Serious Fraud Office, which had accused the three men of hiding the true nature of the fundraising plan with Qatar from authorities and other shareholders.

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  Ex-Barclays bankers cleared over 2008 Qatar fees in blow to UK fraud office

  Reuters
• Former Barclays executives cleared of fraud charges

  BBC News

Dear passwords: Forget you. Here's what is going to protect us instead

“We are moving into a world which we're calling passwordless, which is the ability for our applications, devices and computers to recognize us by something other than the old-fashioned password,” says Wolfgang Goerlich, advisory chief information security officer for Cisco-owned security firm Duo. Biometric information such as an iris scan or a fingerprint can be stolen, too, and you can't change those.

Virus enigma: Experts ask why Africa seems to have few cases

The coronavirus is spreading fast beyond its China birthplace but sub-Saharan Africa, one of the world's most vulnerable regions, has so far been almost spared -- and experts want to know why. Most of these have been in China, but cases are now rising fast in parts of Europe and the Middle East, while the first infection in Latin America was recorded on Wednesday, in Brazil. "This is the question that everyone is asking, especially as other regions such as South America or Eastern Europe now have cases," said Amadou Alpha Sall, head of the Pasteur Institute in Dakar, the Senegalese capital.

• Nigeria confirms first case of coronavirus - health ministry

  Reuters
• 
  Coronavirus detected in Nigeria as global stocks tank

  Yahoo News Video

Shocking: China and the CIA Both Helped Saudi Arabia Get Their Own Ballistic Missiles

Key point: Saudi Arabia wanted long-range missiles and it got them. You would be hard pressed to find two more determined foes of Iran other than Saudi Arabia and Israel. The latter country has long been perturbed by bellicose anti-Israeli rhetoric from Tehran, and has unleashed hundreds of air strikes and artillery bombardments targeting Iran's efforts to arm Hezbollah forces in Lebanon and Syria.

The 6 largest coronavirus outbreaks outside of China

On Wednesday, more new cases were reported outside of China than inside the country for the first time since global health officials began tracking the virus. The spike in cases outside of China has caused investigators and researchers to fear that the infection is on the verge of becoming a pandemic. At a Monday press conference, officials from the World Health Organization stopped short of calling the outbreak a pandemic — but they cautioned that it had the potential to become one, if the outbreaks outside of China continue to grow.