PoliticsReutersMueller seeks tough sentence for ex-Trump campaign chairman Manafort
Prosecutors for Special Counsel Robert Mueller urged a federal judge in Virginia on Friday to impose a strict prison sentence for President Donald Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort, after a jury last year convicted him on eight counts of bank and tax fraud. In their sentencing memo filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, prosecutors said Manafort, who is 69, deserves between 19.6 and 24.4 years in prison and a fine of between $50,000 and $24 million.
WorldAFPNorth Koreans pay tribute to Kim's father in freezing cold
The Day of the Shining Star dawned bitterly cold in Pyongyang. Kim, the son of the isolated North's founder Kim Il Sung and the father and predecessor of current leader Kim Jong Un, was born on February 16. According to Pyongyang's orthodoxy, he came into the world in 1942, in a snow-covered hut at a secret camp on the slopes of Mount Paektu, the spiritual birthplace of the Korean people, where his father was fighting occupying Japanese forces.
- PoliticsYahoo News
A national emergency has been declared. Now what?
On Friday morning, President Trump declared a national emergency in order to secure funding for a border wall, triggering what will likely be a long legal battle before anything is built. Trump's statement outlined a scenario that would likely end at the Supreme Court, where he expects to prevail. “I didn't need to do this,” said Trump who compromised on the border deal Thursday, effectively averting another government shutdown.
- PoliticsNational Review
Sarah Huckabee Sanders Interviewed by Special Counsel's Team
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders sat for an interview with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigators, she revealed Friday. “The president urged me, like he has everyone in the administration, to fully cooperate with the special counsel. While the details of the interview are not public, one area investigators are interested in is how Trump crafted his public statements on the investigation, a matter Sanders would have knowledge of.
WorldAFPIS teen's wish to return stirs UK debate over jihadi brides
A pregnant London schoolgirl's wish to return home after joining the Islamic State group in Syria splintered Britain on Friday as reports emerged of more UK women fleeing the war zone. Shamima Begum's fate has prompted soul searching in Britain since she and two friends created international headlines by running away to join the terror network in 2015. Home Secretary Sajid Javid told The Times newspaper that people like Begum "were full of hate for our country".
WorldUSA TODAYVatican defrocks ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick after finding him guilty of sexual crimes
Former U.S. Cardinal Theodore McCarrick has been defrocked by Pope Francis after Vatican officials found him guilty of sexual crimes against minors and adults, the Vatican said Saturday. McCarrick was a powerful fundraiser in the church. He is the highest-ranking clergy to be laicized by the clerical state. The action strips McCarrick, 88, of priestly rights and bars him from celebrating Mass. In July 2018, Pope Francis accepted McCarrick's resignation amid the sex abuse scandal. McCarrick was a retired cardinal at the time and faced allegations of sexually abusing a minor nearly five decades ago when he was a priest in New York.
PoliticsAssociated PressBack in the Bronx, Ocasio-Cortez says to keep up the fight
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez returned to her home district in the New York City borough of the Bronx on Saturday to encourage her supporters to keep up the kind of activism that resulted in Amazon rescinding its plan to build a campus in the city. The freshman Democratic lawmaker did not mention Amazon by name but said, "It's not just about any job, it's about dignified jobs in New York City. Ocasio-Cortez's district encompassing parts of the Bronx and Queens adjoins the Long Island City neighborhood where Amazon planned to build its campus, and she was one of the early politicians to voice opposition to the tech giant's plans.
- WorldThe Telegraph
Let us raise our daughter's baby, say family of Bethnal Green Jihadi bride Shamima Begum
The family of Bethnal Green teenager Shamima Begum have urged the British government to give them custody of her unborn child while she faces the prospect of imprisonment for supporting Islamic State. The pregnant 19-year-old has said she fears her baby, due to be born anytime now, will be taken from her if she manages to return to Britain after leaving the country in 2015 to join the terror group in Syria. Now her family have said that if she were to face a custodial sentence for her support of a terrorist organisation they will step in to raise the child, rather than the taxpayer having to pick up the cost.
- BusinessCar and Driver
It Looks Like the Land Rover Discovery SVX Is Dead
Land Rover showed a V-8–powered Discovery SVX concept in 2017, but U.K. media are reporting it's not going to reach production. The SVX name may still be used later, the sources report. UPDATE 2/15/19: Land Rover confirmed that the Discovery SVX concept will not reach production, at least not with the planned V-8 powertrain.
- NewsThe Independent
Aurora shooting: Man who shot five dead 'was about to lose job', say police as victims identified
A gunman who walked into his workplace and shot five people dead had just found out he was about to be sacked, police say. Gary Martin, 45, also injured five police officers and a sixth employee after he opened fire at Henry Pratt Company in Aurora, Illinois, on Friday. It later emerged that Martin was not legally allowed to own a gun because of a previous conviction for aggravated assault in Mississippi.
WorldReutersAfter Auschwitz visit, Pence accuses Iran of Nazi-like anti-Semitism
After visiting the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland, Pence said the Nazi death camp had made him more determined to confront Tehran, saying it was "breathing out murderous threats, with the same vile anti-Semitic hatred that animated the Nazis in Europe." Iran's ancient Jewish community has slumped to an estimated 10,000 to 20,000 from 85,000 at the time of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, but is believed to be the biggest in the Middle East outside Israel. Pence, who said he was deeply moved by his Auschwitz visit, cited Iran's stated desire to destroy Israel as justification for singling out the country, rather than focusing on anti-Semitism across the Middle East. Iranian Brigadier General Hossein Salami, deputy head of the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said in January Iran's strategy was to wipe "the Zionist regime" (Israel) off the political map, Iran's state TV reported.
NewsAssociated PressNOT REAL NEWS: A look at what didn't happen this week
CLAIM: U.S. Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez took a $10 million payout from Netflix THE FACTS: Netflix did not pay Ocasio-Cortez $10 million for a documentary about her run for Congress, despite posts circulating widely online. The posts followed the streaming giant's reported $10 million purchase earlier this month of worldwide rights to "Knock Down the House," a documentary featuring Ocasio-Cortez and three other candidates who ran against incumbents in the 2018 midterm elections. Rachel Lear, director of the documentary, told The Associated Press in an email that "none of our film subjects received or will receive any payment for participating in this project."
- WorldBloomberg
Venezuela's Exit From U.S. Sanctions? Show Maduro the Door
The Treasury Department said Friday it would “consider lifting sanctions” on those who take concrete steps to “restore democratic order” in the country, as it imposed fresh penalties on five of Maduro's close associates, including Venezuelan Oil Minister and PDVSA Chairman Manuel Quevedo. The move is the latest in a series of steps the U.S. has taken to chip away at Maduro's inner circle. Offering a pathway back out of crippling sanctions and back into the U.S. financial markets marks a new and potentially effective strategy, according to Michael Dobson, a lawyer at Morrison Foerster in Washington who previously worked in Treasury's sanctions unit.
- U.S.KTXL - Sacramento
`Going Away Party` for School Shutting Down Because of Student`s Death Causes Controversy
Some parents are outraged a California school for kids with special needs is holding a "going away party" after one of its own students died after being restrained by staff.
- BusinessCar and Driver
The 20 Most Powerful Crossovers and SUVs You Can Buy in 2019
Is 400 horsepower not enough for your people- and cargo-hauler in 2019? How does 500, 600, or 700 horsepower sound? From Car and Driver
- NewsUSA TODAY
During a school lockdown, 7-year-old writes note on her arm in case she dies
WILMINGTON, Del. — A note that a Delaware student scrawled on her arm during a school lockdown is going viral online. Shelley Harrison Reed, the mother of the 7-year-old student, posted the haunting image on Facebook after her daughter came home following a lockdown at the Wilmington-area Odyssey Charter School on Feb. 7. Reed said it was the first school lockdown her daughter and 10-year-old son have ever experienced. She wrote they appeared to be fine once they got home.
WorldAFPIndia mourns dead soldiers amid calls for revenge
Thousands of mourners across India attended funerals on Saturday for some of the 41 soldiers killed in a suicide bombing in Indian-administered Kashmir as a round-the-clock curfew remained in force in part of the restive region. The paramilitary troops were killed on Thursday as explosives packed in a van ripped through a convoy transporting 2,500 soldiers in the disputed Himalayan region, the deadliest attack in a 30-year-old armed conflict. TV stations showed coffins wrapped in Indian flags being carried by thousands of people across their hometowns, after the bodies were flown to New Delhi late Friday for a ceremony attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
- WorldThe Independent
Top US cardinal expelled from Catholic priesthood over allegations he abused teenager and solicited sex during confession
A disgraced former US cardinal has been expelled from the Roman Catholic priesthood over allegations he abused a teenage boy and solicited sex during confession. The Vatican announced the defrocking of Theodore McCarrick on Saturday days before the Pope is to lead an extraordinary gathering of bishops from around the world over the sex abuse crisis engulfing the church. McCarrick, a once-powerful prelate and former Archbishop of Washington, is the highest profile church figure to be dismissed from the priesthood in modern times.
- ScienceTime
How to Watch the Super Snow Moon, the Biggest Supermoon of 2019
Good news for sky watchers and selenophiles, the next full moon is set to be the biggest and brightest of the year, according to NASA. While the upcoming “super snow moon” won't be the extravagant astronomical spectacle that January's “super blood wolf moon eclipse” was, it will be larger and brighter, and definitely command attention in the sky. Here's what to know about the upcoming “super snow moon” — and what the best time is to see it.
WorldReutersGermany's SPD climbs in polls after welfare rethink
Support for Germany's Social Democrats (SPD) has hit its highest level in almost six months, a poll showed on Sunday, a week after the center-left party outlined new welfare plans aimed at winning back working class voters. Ahead of European elections in May and four regional votes this year, the Emnid poll for the Bild am Sonntag newspaper put support for the SPD, which shares power with German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives, on 19 percent, up 2 points from a week ago. That was the highest level since the start of September and put them in second place for the first time since October, above the environmentalist Greens who dropped 2 points to 15 percent.
PoliticsAssociated PressCourt filing: Manafort faces more than 19 years in prison
Paul Manafort, the one-time chairman of Donald Trump's presidential campaign, could spend more than 19 years in prison on tax and bank fraud charges, prosecutors said Friday. Court documents filed by special counsel Robert Mueller's office reveal that Manafort faces possibly the lengthiest prison term in the Russia investigation. The 69-year-old Manafort is also at serious risk of spending the rest of his life in prison if a federal judge imposes a sentence within federal guidelines.
BusinessBloombergBofA Says a 'Real' Trade Deal Could Vault S&P 500 to Record High
The firm's model on corporate earnings and equity valuations suggests that the market has priced in “a partial deal,” one where only some of the issues get resolved in favor of corporate America, according to strategists led by Savita Subramanian. In a best-case scenario, the S&P 500 could climb 5 percent to 10 percent when a “real deal” is struck. Companies from 3M Co. to Stanley Black & Decker Inc. have slashed their guidance this year, citing either trade tensions or weakening demand in China.
- PoliticsAssociated Press Videos
Trump on emergency: 'I didn't need to do this'
In a comment that could be used to challenge his national emergency declaration on building border wall, President Donald Trump told reporters, "I didn't need to do this, but I'd rather do it much faster." Feb.
- BusinessCar and Driver
Honda Ridgeline Recalled for Carwash Sensitivity
More than 106,000 2017–2019 Honda Ridgeline pickups will be recalled for potential fire risk. Acids in carwash soap could cause the fuel pump feed port to crack and leak, the recall notice says. Car and Driver's long-term Ridgeline is one of the affected vehicles.
- NewsUSA TODAY
More rain, snow expected in storm-battered California, following days of mudslides and floods
Although the worst of the storm had moved well inland Friday, forecasters said some leftover showers and snow was still likely to fall across the state on Friday and Saturday. The higher elevations of the Sierra could see an additional 3 to 6 feet of snow over the next few days, on top of the 3 feet that fell Thursday, the National Weather Service said. So much snow has fallen in the area that cities are running out of places to put the snow, according to Kevin Cooper of Lake Tahoe TV In Southern California, officials said rain-drenched hillsides could still loosen and collapse, bringing down mud, boulders and debris.
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