- PoliticsYahoo News
Pompeo savaged by Democrats on Capitol Hill over coronavirus, Iran
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo faced intense criticism Friday from Democrats on Capitol Hill, who questioned him on the Trump administration's response to the growing coronavirus threat, as well as the persistent threat from foes like Iran. “I don't think you're telling us the truth,” said Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, speaking specifically of last month's killing of top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, which the administration has struggled to justify. Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Fla., made a similar point about the administration's coronavirus response, wondering how Americans could trust a president who has a long history of saying things that are demonstrably untrue.
- PoliticsYahoo News
New Yahoo News/YouGov poll: Who is strongest against Trump? Must-win states and swing voters show Biden holds edge over Sanders
A new Yahoo News/YouGov poll suggests that Sanders could be a riskier nominee than his supporters are willing to admit. In a national trial heat with Trump, Sanders led 48 percent to 42 percent among registered voters. Yet when the playing field was narrowed to the 10 states that were closest in the 2016 presidential election and that will likely decide 2020 — Michigan, New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Florida, Minnesota, Nevada, Maine, North Carolina and Arizona — Sanders's lead over Trump was slashed in half (48 percent to 45 percent).
WorldAFPVatican opens archives on history's most controversial pope
The Vatican unseals the archives of history's most contentious popes on Monday, potentially shedding light on why Pius XII stayed silent during the extermination of six million Jews in the Holocaust. Award-winning German religious historian Hubert Wolf will be in Rome on Monday, armed with six assistants and two years of funding to start exploring documents from the "private secretariat" of the late pope. Wolf, a specialist on the relationship of Pius XII with the Nazis, is anxious to discover the notes of the his 70 ambassadors -- the pontiff's eyes and ears during his time as head of the Catholic Church between 1939 and his death in 1958.
- U.S.The Daily Beast
Embattled Chris Matthews Left Out of MSNBC’s S.C. Primary Coverage
A day after he was accused of sexual harassment by a journalist, MSNBC decided to keep host Chris Matthews off its airwaves during coverage of the South Carolina primary results. Matthews is normally a fixture of election night coverage, which made his absence on Saturday all the more notable. A week ago, Matthews likened Sen Bernie Sanders' (I-VT) victory in the Nevada caucuses to France falling to the Nazis in World War II. He apologized to Sanders—who is Jewish and whose family lost members in the Holocaust—but quickly shoved his foot in his mouth again.
- ScienceNBC News
Spooky 'blood snow' invades Antarctic island
It's summer in Antarctica, which means record-high temperatures, jarring glacial melt and — in a very metal symbol of our changing climate — a bit of blood-red snow spattered across the Antarctic Peninsula. Over the past several weeks, the ice around Ukraine's Vernadsky Research Base (located on Galindez Island, off the coast of Antarctica's northernmost peninsula) has been coated in what researchers are calling "raspberry snow." A Facebook post by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine shows the scene in full detail: streaks of red and pink slashing across the edges of glaciers and puddling on the frosty plains.
- U.S.USA TODAY
More than 30,000 pounds of yogurt spilled on New York highway after accident
A tractor trailer carrying more than 30,000 pounds of yogurt in western New York jackknifed on a highway Thursday afternoon, causing the packs of yogurt to spill onto the roadway. The incident occurred as the truck was heading westbound on I-86 in the town of Ellery, Chautauqua County, near the Pennsylvania border. A second tractor-trailer struck the disabled first truck and then hit the guiderail, State Police said.
- WorldThe National Interest
Why the Navy's New Lrasm Missile Would Be a Real Ship-Killer
On October 11, 1967, the Israeli destroyer Eilat was sunk by three P15 cruise missiles fired by two dinky sixty-one-ton patrol boats of the Egyptian Navy firing from nearly twenty miles away. The realization dawned on navies across the world that long-range “over-the-horizon” missiles had replaced the gun, torpedo and aerial bomb as the preeminent antiship weapon in naval warfare. A decade later, the U.S. Navy debuted the AGM-84 Harpoon missile, a subsonic sea-skimming weapon with a 488-pound warhead that came in variants that could fire from a ship, a submarine or an airplane.
- WorldAssociated Press
Serbia passes law in response to missing babies scandal
Serbian lawmakers on Saturday approved a long-awaited law that aims to shed light on the fate of hundreds of children whose parents fear might have been stolen from birth clinics throughout the Balkan country. Two lawmakers abstained. The high number of absent lawmakers was unrelated to the bill, but an ongoing boycott of parliament sessions by opposition parties and other reasons.
- U.S.The Guardian
UC Santa Cruz fires 54 graduate students participating in months-long strike
The University of California, Santa Cruz, issued termination letters on Friday to 54 graduate students who have been waging a months-long strike for a cost-of-living-adjustment amid soaring rents. The firings came as graduate students at the University of California, Davis, and University of California, Santa Barbara, began their own cost-of-living strikes in solidarity. One of their demands is that all UC Santa Cruz graduate workers who participated in strike activities be restored to full employment status.
- LifestyleArchitectural Digest
25 Glass Coffee Tables for Any and Every Living Room
Could we be any clearer? Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
- PoliticsYahoo News
Donald Trump Jr. accuses Democrats of hoping coronavirus 'kills millions of people'
Amid growing fears of a coronavirus outbreak in the United States, Donald Trump Jr. accused Democrats on Friday of hoping that the disease kills millions of Americans to thwart his father's chances of reelection. “Anything that they can use to try to hurt Trump, they will,” Trump Jr. said on “Fox & Friends.” Congressional Democrats and some Republicans have criticized the Trump administration — which slashed spending for epidemic preparedness in its first budget — for lack of preparedness for the coronavirus outbreak, but there are no reports of Democrats rooting for people to die from it.
- PoliticsThe Week
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."
- WorldYahoo News Video
According to the U.S. Navy, Chinese ship fired laser at American aircraft
A Chinese Navy ship fired a laser at a U.S. surveillance aircraft flying over the Philippine Sea west of Guam, the Navy said Thursday, acknowledging the incident more than a week after it happened.
- WorldNBC News
Why is Iran's reported mortality rate for coronavirus higher than in other countries?
Iran has the highest reported number of deaths from the coronavirus outside China, raising questions about how the government is handling the public health crisis and whether the often secretive regime has been fully transparent about the extent of the outbreak. Iran's health ministry spokesman said on Friday that 34 Iranians have died out of a total of 388 positive cases. Iran has now suspended parliament indefinitely due to the outbreak.
- U.S.The Independent
Man whose son was found encased in cement sentenced to 72 years in prison
A Colorado man whose seven-year-old son was repeatedly abused before being found encased in concrete in a Denver storage unit has been sentenced to 72 years in prison for the death. Leland Pankey received the sentence on Friday, with one count of child abuse landing him 48 years in prison and 24 years for tampering with the body. The man's wife, Elisha Pankey, is awaiting sentencing in April after pleading guilty to similar charges, according to the Denver Post.
WorldAFP'Are we in Greece?': Migrants seize their chance in Europe quest
Some attempt to cut through a barbed wire fence while others hunt for wood and rocks to throw at police. The thousands of migrants at the Kastanies border town between Turkey and Greece are desperate to reach Europe and furious with Greeks who "won't open the gates". Hundreds of Greek soldiers and armed police have fired tear gas in an attempt to hold back what they fear could become a flood of people trying to cross the border.
- WorldThe National Interest
Russia Now Has 'Cruise-Missile Killer' Missiles
On February 26, Russian's VKS took their first delivery of the new S-350 “Vityaz” surface-to-air missile (SAM) system. The S-350 has received increasingly intense media coverage through 2019 as it came closer to entering service. The majority of this has focused on the S-350s anti-cruise missile capability.
- BusinessBusiness Insider
Amazon tells all 798,000 employees to halt travel, in US and internationally, over coronavirus fears
Elaine Thompson/AP Amazon has instructed its 798,000 employees to avoid "non-essential travel" domestically and internationally because of concerns about the coronavirus outbreak, a spokesperson confirmed to Business Insider. Earlier, The New York Times reported that Amazon had told its worldwide operations team not to arrange any meetings requiring travel until at least April, the report said. Amazon had already restricted employee travel to China and has been frantically trying to address prospective inventory shortages.
- WorldAssociated Press
As India counts dead, brutality of Hindu-Muslim riot emerges
As the Mustafabad neighborhood of India's capital was ravaged by communal riots for three days this week, the Al-Hind Hospital turned from a community clinic into a trauma ward. Doctors like M.A. Anwar were for the first time dealing with injuries such as gunshot wounds, crushed skulls and torn genitals. I wanted to cry and scream,” he recalled.
- U.S.Yahoo News
New coronavirus cases in Northern California raise alarm
A second case of coronavirus spread by community transmission was reported in Northern California on Friday, and a student at the University of California, Davis, was being tested for infection with the virus. A 65-year-old resident of Santa Clara County, which encompasses most of Silicon Valley, was diagnosed with the virus. The patient has not traveled recently to countries experiencing outbreaks, meaning the infection was contracted locally, implying that the virus is spreading domestically.
- PoliticsReuters
Trump allies hope to ride anti-socialist rhetoric to election win
Conservative activists are enthusiastically taking up Republican President Donald Trump's re-election rallying cry that his Democratic adversaries are pursuing a radical socialist ideology that will ruin the United States. Conservative students, right-wing media personalities and pro-Trump fundraisers and fans have gathered just outside Washington this week for the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) that appears to have crystallized Republican messaging for the election. Its theme was "America vs. Socialism," taking aim at the candidates competing for the Democratic Party's nomination to challenge Trump in the Nov. 3 election, especially Senator Bernie Sanders, the current front-runner and a self-described democratic socialist.
- U.S.Bloomberg
Trump Team Testing ‘Off-the-Shelf’ Drugs to Cure Coronavirus
A national lab in Tennessee recently made “an important discovery” involving existing drugs, Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette said at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland. “The scientists at our Oak Ridge National Laboratory were able to look at the protein strains and determine -- perhaps, it's still early -- that we can find some off-the-shelf drugs that can help us not only cure the disease but stop the spread of the infection,” Brouillette said. Brouillette was responding to a question about what his agency is doing to help combat the virus, which has caused markets to plunge and killed nearly 3,000 people across the globe.
- PoliticsNBC News
After chemical attack and kidnapping, migrant mom tries again to enter U.S.
A Guatemalan mom who says she sustained severe chemical burns and was sexually assaulted in front of her young daughter during a kidnapping in Mexico is asking the U.S. government to let her into the country while her asylum case plays out. The woman is currently under the Trump administration's remain in Mexico program, and her attorney says sending her there was an “incredibly egregious” example of the types of cases the U.S. said would be exempt from the policy. Elizabeth, who went to Juarez, Mexico, in the summer to claim asylum with her 11-year-old daughter after fleeing gender-based violence in Guatemala, said she was tortured and sexually assaulted after arriving there and held for around 18 days in July and August.
- WorldThe Independent
US and Taliban sign peace deal in bid to end 18-year war in Afghanistan
The US and Nato will withdraw all troops from Afghanistan within 14 months under an new peace agreement reached with the Taliban, officials have announced. America would initially reduce its forces in Afghanistan to 8,600 within 135 days of the US-Taliban agreement, which was being signed in the Qatari capital of Doha. The US and Afghan governments said in a joint statement: “The coalition will complete the withdrawal of their remaining forces from Afghanistan within 14 months following the announcement of this joint declaration and the US-Taliban agreement ... subject to the Taliban's fulfilment of its commitments under the US-Taliban agreement.”
WorldAFPNo going back: Bali's Chinese tourists fear virus-hit homeland
Hundreds of Chinese tourists on vacation in Bali are scrambling to avoid going home, fearing both infection from the deadly new coronavirus and Beijing's handling of the epidemic. Concerns over the rapidly-spreading outbreak prompted Indonesia to shut down all flights to and from China this month, hammering the bottom lines of restaurants, hotels, travel agents and interpreters on the popular resort island. But with more than 2,800 dead from the COVID-19 illness on the Chinese mainland, and entire cities under lockdown, immigration officials in Bali say nearly a thousand Chinese nationals have applied for emergency visa extensions.
“There may be some really big pardons coming soon and this may, if you will, soften the public for what’s coming.”
“It was the latest extraordinary example of untamed executive power that suggests the President is feeling invincible now.”
“More than anything else, the pardons aim to discredit the idea of federal anti-corruption prosecution itself.”
“The fact that Blagojevich was a Democrat makes it all the better...Trump wants to convince you that everyone is dirty.”
“The pardons were entirely personal in origin, and so the granting of them was exclusively an exercise of Trump’s own power.”
