WorldAFPIsrael to withhold $138 mln from Palestinians over prisoner payments
Israel said its security cabinet on Sunday decided to withhold $138 million (122 million euros) in tax transfers to the Palestinian Authority over its payments to prisoners jailed for attacks on Israelis. A statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said the withheld cash would be equal to that paid by the PA last year to "terrorists imprisoned in Israel, to their families and to released prisoners". Israel alleges the payments encourage further violence.
BusinessAssociated PressGone in a New York minute: How the Amazon deal fell apart
Then Amazon made it official: It chose the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens to build a $2.5 billion campus that could house 25,000 workers, in addition to new offices planned for northern Virginia. Cuomo and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, Democrats who have been political adversaries for years, trumpeted the decision as a major coup after edging out more than 230 other proposals. But what they didn't expect was the protests, the hostile public hearings and the disparaging tweets that would come in the next three months, eventually leading to Amazon's dramatic Valentine's Day breakup with New York.
WorldReutersVenezuela denies EU lawmakers entry given 'conspiratorial motives'
Venezuela denied a group of European Parliament deputies entry into the country on Sunday, arguing they had "conspiratorial motives" for flying to Caracas in the throes of a political crisis. The European Parliament last month joined a slew of Western nations in recognizing Venezuelan opposition chief Juan Guaido as interim head of state after President Nicolas Maduro won a second term in an election last year that critics denounced as a sham. The four deputies from the center-right European People's Party (EPP) were traveling to Venezuela to meet with Guaido, one of them said in a video distributed via social media.
- BusinessTime
Here's What's Open and Closed on President's Day 2019
Remember that day in February that isn't Valentine's and isn't Groundhog Day? Many places throughout the country will observe this President's Day by closing their doors so people can enjoy a 3-day weekend honoring our the birthday of nation's first President, George Washington. Here's what's open and closed on President's Day 2019.
- WorldMeredith Videos
Marco Rubio Warns Venezuelan Soldiers to Let U.S. Aid Enter the Country
U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio visited a border staging point for U.S. aid to Venezuela on Sunday and warned soldiers loyal to socialist President Nicolas Maduro that it will be a “crime against humanity” if they block entry of aid.
WorldAFPIn Syria's Baghouz, dying palms and a wilting IS 'caliphate'
The wilted palms and pomegranate trees at the entrance to Baghouz were struggling to survive, much like diehard Islamic State group fighters in the Syrian village. Pinned down in a patch less than half a square kilometre, the jihadists faced intermittent air strikes by the US-led coalition backing the Syrian Democratic Forces. On a press tour Saturday organised by the US-backed forces, the street ahead was punched through by massive craters and sprinkled with charred lorries.
NewsReutersIllinois factory gunman killed five victims after being fired
The gunman who killed five co-workers and wounded five police officers at an Illinois factory was a violent felon who had just been fired, and the plant manager and a young intern were among his victims, authorities said on Saturday. Gary Martin, 45, armed himself with a handgun, which he owned illegally, before reporting for a meeting on Friday at the Henry Pratt Company where his employment was terminated, Aurora Police Chief Kristen Ziman told reporters. Martin had bought the gun he used, a .40 caliber Smith & Wesson handgun with a laser sight, in 2014 before authorities realized he had a prior felony conviction, Ziman said.
- WorldBloomberg
U.K. Lawmakers Recommend Harsher Penalties for Tech Firms
Damian Collins, the policy maker who spearheaded the inquiry, called for Parliament to create new laws to help a proposed regulator oversee the industry, with fines for companies to be calculated based on their revenue. “Companies like Facebook exercise massive market power which enables them to make money by bullying the smaller technology companies and developers who rely on this platform to reach their customers,” Collins said in a statement Monday.
- HealthUSA TODAY
How many push-ups can you do? Study finds men who can do 40 have lower risk of heart disease
Those who could do more than 40 push-ups during a timed test at a preliminary examination were 96 percent less likely to have developed a cardiovascular problem compared to those who could do no more than 10 push-ups, according to the report published Friday in the medical journal JAMA Network Open. Nearly half of U.S. adults deal with some form of cardiovascular disease as of 2016, according to the American Heart Association.The study's authors believe push-ups may be an easy way to test men's risk for heart disease.
WorldAFPPoland shuns Israel summit amid Holocaust row
Poland's prime minister on Monday cancelled Warsaw's participation in a summit in Jerusalem, accusing Israel's foreign minister of "racist" comments about the actions of Poles during the Holocaust, in a row that has stoked outrage and soured relations. Mateusz Morawiecki's decision to scotch Poland's involvement in the summit of central European nations follows days of angry exchanges that were originally sparked by quotes from Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu over the role of Poles during World War II. Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis said said the summit with Israel and the Visegrad Four -- the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia -- was cancelled but that there would be bilateral talks.
- BusinessThe Independent
Amazon pays zero federal taxes for second year in succession despite doubling profits, says new report
Amazon has paid zero federal taxes for the second year in succession, despite a doubling of its profits, according to a new report. Although the tech giant founded by Jeff Bezos saw its profits grow from $5.6bn (£4.3bn) in 2017 to $11.2bn (£8.7bn) in 2018, it will actually receive a tax rebate of $129m (£100m). “The company's newest corporate filing reveals that, far from paying the statutory 21 per cent income tax rate on its US income in 2018, Amazon reported a federal income tax rebate of $129m,” said the report by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), which describes itself as a “non-partisan, non-profit think tank”, based in Washington DC.
WorldAssociated PressUN envoy arrives in Yemen to discuss truce around port city
U.N. envoy Martin Griffiths arrived on Sunday in the capital, Sanaa, to discuss the "complex situation" in and around the key port city of Hodeida, Yemeni security officials said. The Houthi rebels said their leader, Abdul-Malek al-Houthi, met with Griffiths to discuss the implementation of peace deals from December talks with Yemen's internationally recognized government. In Sweden in December, the two sides agreed to confidence-building measures, including to a cease-fire in Hodeida and the exchange of thousands of prisoners.
- PoliticsBloomberg
Trump Wanted Russia in Memo Firing Comey, Former FBI Leader Says
President Donald Trump wanted the Russia investigation cited in the memo firing FBI Director James Comey, and believed Russia's president over his own intelligence agencies about North Korea's missile capability, former Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe said. McCabe said in a pre-recorded interview on CBS's “60 Minutes” broadcast on Sunday that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein didn't want to include a reference to the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election in the memo he wrote citing reasons why Comey should be fired, but that Trump insisted. Rosenstein “explained to the president that he did not need Russia in his memo.
- LifestyleThe Telegraph
Potato rösti
This potato rösti is the perfect way to use up that last bit of cheese in the fridge. SERVES Two INGREDIENTS 500g potatoes, ideally a nice waxy chip potato 1 small onion, finely sliced 1 garlic clove, crushed and chopped Pinch of dried chilli 50g butter 120g mixed grated cheese such as cheddar, gruyere or comté (a great opportunity to use up leftovers) Large pinch of fresh or dried sage METHOD Peel the potatoes and coarsely grate them into a bowl. Add the onion, garlic and chilli and season well.
WorldAssociated PressFamily: UK teen who joined Islamic State has baby in Syria
The family of a British teenager who ran away to join the Islamic State group and now wants to return to the U.K. said Sunday she has given birth to a baby boy. The family's lawyer said 19-year-old Shamima Begum and the baby are in good health. News about Begum and her desire to go back to Britain have ignited a debate in the U.K. about how to deal with citizens who joined IS and want to leave Syria now that the extremist group is on the verge of collapse.
WorldAFPBelgian Jewish museum trial interrupted as juror questioned
The trial of a Frenchman accused of shooting dead four people at the Jewish museum of Belgium was interrupted on Monday as police were summoned to question a juror. "We cannot start the closing arguments under these conditions," judge Laurence Massart said, after recusing the juror for having communicated with outside parties. "The sixth juror contacted police officials on Friday afternoon to say he met with parties not heard in this trial with whom he discussed the case file," she added.
ScienceMashableNASA posts image of ghostly blue objects, deep in the cosmos
NASA's long-lived Hubble Space Telescope captured vivid bright clumps moving through the cosmos at some 1,000 light years from Earth. Seen as the vivid blue, ephemeral clumps in the top center of the new image below, these are telltale signs of an energy-rich gas, or plasma, colliding with a huge collection of dust and gas in deep space. NASA doesn't identify the new star itself, called SVS 13, perhaps because it's obscured by thick clouds of cosmic matter.
BusinessReutersMerck, Pfizer drug combo extends kidney cancer survival: study
A combination of Merck & Co's immunotherapy Keytruda and Pfizer Inc's Inlyta helped patients with advanced kidney cancer live longer than those receiving and older Pfizer standalone therapy, according to data from a late-stage study presented on Saturday. Nearly 90 percent of patients who received the combination therapy were still alive after 12 months compared with about 78 percent of patients who were alive after a year when treated with the older drug Sutent, data showed. Merck on Monday released interim data from the trial, saying the combination reduced the risk of death by 47 percent compared with Sutent.
WorldAFPNetanyahu hands Israel foreign minister role to right-wing rival
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Sunday he was relinquishing the role of foreign minister and handing it to a right-wing rival from within his Likud party, Israel Katz. The move comes ahead of April 9 elections and follows court challenges arguing Netanyahu -- who is also health and defence minister -- has taken on too many governmental portfolios. A Likud spokesman said Netanyahu intended to appoint Katz as acting foreign minister without providing further details.
- BusinessTime
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Celebrated Amazon Pulling Out of New York––But the Governor Says It Cost the City 25,000 Jobs
The dispute between the two Democrats lays bare a divide over the plan to offer $2.8 billion in tax breaks for Amazon to establish a major presence in New York City. On one side, old hands like Cuomo; on the other, the newly insurgent, left-leaning wing represented by Ocasio-Cortez. Today was the day a group of dedicated, everyday New Yorkers and their neighbors defeated Amazon's corporate greed, its worker exploitation and the power of the richest man in the world,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Twitter.
TechnologyAssociated PressPotential privacy lapse found in Americans' 2010 census data
An internal team at the Census Bureau found that basic personal information collected from more than 100 million Americans during the 2010 head count could be reconstructed from obscured data, but with lots of mistakes, a top agency official disclosed Saturday. The Census Bureau is now scrapping its old data shielding technique for a state-of-the-art method that Abowd claimed is far better than Google's or Apple's. Some former agency chiefs fear the potential privacy problem will add to the worries that people will avoid answering or lie on the once-every-10-year survey because of the Trump administration's attempt to add a much-debated citizenship question.
WorldReutersIran says Pakistan to 'pay high price' over attack, warns Saudi
Iran warned neighboring Pakistan on Saturday it would "pay a heavy price" for allegedly harboring militants who killed 27 of its elite Revolutionary Guards in a suicide bombing near the border earlier this week, state television reported. Revolutionary Guards chief Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari also accused Tehran's regional rival Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates of supporting militant Sunni groups that attack Iranian forces, saying they could face "reprisal operations." Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the UAE deny backing such militants.
- PoliticsBloomberg
Email Address Given to Ocasio-Cortez Beau Sparks Heated Exchange
“While you were having a nice Valentine's Day, @AOC decided to put her boyfriend on staff -- drawing a salary on the taxpayer's dime. Nice to see her adapting to the swamp so quickly,” the conservative magazine's Luke Thompson said on his Twitter feed. Other conservative voices piled on, with Katrina Pierson, an adviser to President Donald Trump's re-election campaign, who suggested that “her jobs for everyone starts with her boyfriend.
- WorldUSA TODAY
American and British ISIS brides Hoda Muthana and Shamima Begum plead to go home
An American woman and a British teenager who fled to Syria to marry Islamic State group fighters are pleading to be allowed to return home. Hoda Muthana, 24, left Alabama four years ago for ISIS-held territory in Syria. She was recently found living with her 18-month-old son in the same refugee camp in northern Syria where Shamima Begum, 19, from London, gave birth to a baby boy over the weekend, according to British media reports and Begum's lawyer.
BusinessAFPHong Kong economy stalls amid trade dispute: finance chief
Hong Kong's economy stalled last year as the ongoing China-US trade dispute and retail woes dragged down local business, the city's financial chief said Sunday. "The impact of China-US trade frictions on Hong Kong's exports has clearly emerged at the end of last year," said finance secretary Paul Chan. Economic growth in the semi-autonomous Chinese city for the last quarter of 2018 was less than 1.5 percent -- the weakest since the first quarter of 2016 and a "significant slowdown" from the average growth rate of 3.7 percent in the first three quarters, Chan wrote on his official blog.
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