| Polls show Biden's campaign could be hitting the wall Posted: 06 Feb 2020 12:42 PM PST  The state of Biden's campaign is far shakier than his longtime lead in the national polls would suggest. In fact, it may already be on its last legs.
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| Treasury Department sent information on Hunter Biden to expanding GOP Senate inquiry Posted: 06 Feb 2020 08:18 AM PST  The Treasury Department has complied with Republican senators' requests for highly sensitive records about Hunter Biden and his associates and has turned over "'evidence' of questionable origin" to them, according to a Democrat on a committee conducting the investigation.
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| Orange County Has Released More Than 2,000 Criminal Illegal Immigrants in Recent Years Due to California’s Sanctuary Law Posted: 06 Feb 2020 06:43 AM PST  Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes released data this week showing how California's SB54 sanctuary law allowed for over 2,000 illegal immigrants with outstanding ICE detainers to be released from custody over the last two years, with 411 of those later rearrested for additional charges.Barnes's data drew praise from acting ICE Director Matthew Albence, who released a statement Wednesday saying that "this is exactly what ICE has said time and again.""These policies do nothing but ensure that criminals are released back into the community, where many re-offend, instead of being turned over to ICE," Albence said. "These are preventable crimes, and more importantly, preventable victims. As the data released by Sheriff Barnes clearly demonstrates, all communities are safer when local law enforcement works with ICE."California's SB 54 restricts law enforcement from notifying, transferring, and communicating with ICE regarding certain offenders. The Trump administration has petitioned the Supreme Court to strike down the statuteBarnes's data shows that in 2019, 1,015 illegal immigrants were released from Orange County Jail with outstanding ICE detainers, with 238 of those — over 23 percent — later rearrested on additional charges. In 2018, a total of 1,106 inmates were released without notification given to ICE, and 173 of those ended up being rearrested by local law enforcement.Barnes said the data proved that "SB 54 has made our community less safe" and that "the two-year social science experiment with sanctuary laws must end." He also slammed the policy as leaving police unable "to protect our immigrant community.""The law has resulted in new crimes because my deputies were unable to communicate with their federal partners about individuals who committed serious offenses and present a threat to our community if released," he said.
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| Warren apologizes to 6 women of color who left Nevada office Posted: 06 Feb 2020 05:56 PM PST  Elizabeth Warren is apologizing to six women of color who left her presidential campaign office in Nevada before the state's caucuses because they felt marginalized and because their concerns weren't addressed by supervisors. Politico reported that six women have left Warren's campaign office since November. Nevada holds its Democratic caucuses on Feb. 22.
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| 30 Side Table Designs That Do All the Things Posted: 06 Feb 2020 10:41 AM PST |
| Canada urges Iran to send downed plane's black boxes to France Posted: 05 Feb 2020 10:25 AM PST  Canada pressed Iran on Wednesday to send the black boxes from a crashed airliner immediately to France where the data can be analyzed, the Canadian foreign ministry said in a statement. Iran's civil aviation authority said on Tuesday it would keep working with other countries investigating its downing of a Ukrainian passenger plane last month. Tehran has not released the black boxes.
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| Drug lord Escobar's hit man dies of cancer in Colombia Posted: 06 Feb 2020 11:37 AM PST  Pablo Escobar's most notorious hit man, known by the nickname "Popeye," died on Thursday at 57 after a life of crime he celebrated on YouTube, Colombia's prison authorities said.
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| Mike Bloomberg Is Paying ‘Influencers’ to Make Him Seem Cool Posted: 07 Feb 2020 02:00 AM PST  One day after the Iowa caucuses were effectively botched by the disastrous rollout of a new vote-counting app, billionaire Mike Bloomberg announced that he intended to capitalize on chaos from the Hawkeye State by doubling the advertising budget of his presidential campaign.But in addition to a flood of traditional advertising on television, radio, and online outlets targeting Super Tuesday voters, the campaign's advertising budget includes a strategy familiar to every other startup with a ton of cash and a questionable business model: paying influencers to make it seem cool.The Bloomberg campaign has quietly begun a campaign on Tribe, a "branded content marketplace" that connects social-media influencers with the brands that want to advertise to their followers, to pitch influencers on creating content highlighting why they love the former New York City mayor—for a price.For a fixed $150 fee, the Bloomberg campaign is pitching micro-influencers—someone who has from 1,000 to 100,000 followers, in industry parlance—to create original content "that tells us why Mike Bloomberg is the electable candidate who can rise above the fray, work across the aisle so ALL Americans feel heard & respected.""Are you sick of the chaos & infighting overshadowing the issues that matter most to us? Please express your thoughts verbally or for still image posts please overlay text about why you support Mike," the campaign copy tells would-be Bloomberg stans under the heading "Content We'd Love From You," asking influencers to "Show+Tell why Mike is the candidate who can change our country for the better, state why YOU think he's a great candidate."Tribe, which works with nearly 70,000 aspiring influencers, offers brands—and, in this case, presidential campaigns—the ability to solicit custom-made content from aspiring influencers, who create custom social within the brand's parameters for submission. If the brand accepts the content, the influencer is paid in exchange for the ability of the brand to license the content and place it on their own social channels—or, if the campaign prefers, the influencers post the sponcon to their own feeds, targeting followers that the brand might not otherwise reach.The campaign post, reviewed by The Daily Beast, encourages submissions to be well lit, mention why the influencer thinks "we need a change in Government," and for the creator to "be honest, passionate and be yourself!"Influencers are asked not to use profanity, nudity, or "overtly negative content," as well as be U.S. residents to participate."Mike Bloomberg is a middle class kid who worked his way through college," the posting states under an "About Us" section, describing Bloomberg as "a self-made businessman, proven supporter of progressive values & can get things done." The post also highlights his work on gun violence, creating a clean-energy economy, and "flipping 21 of 24 down-ballot House races he supported in 2018."The Bloomberg campaign declined to comment on the Tribe post, and an email to Tribe about whether it had worked with other political campaigns was not immediately returned.The Bloomberg content campaign appears geared toward collecting content that can later be shared by the campaign, essentially creating a stock-image library of well-crafted, "organic"-seeming still images and videos custom-made for the campaign. The relatively low $150 cost per post also makes the investment comparatively cheap—some influencers can command fees in the five or even six figures for a brand campaign, and that's not even including celebrity accounts, who can earn enough money per post to make even billionaire Bloomberg blush.The approach is novel. No other high-polling candidates reached by The Daily Beast said that their campaigns have ever paid influencers to create content for the campaign, or for influencers to post such content on their own channels in exchange for money.But the notion that one of the richest people on the planet is paying micro-influencers in exchange for authentic-seeming endorsements from Instagrammers risks giving off what might be described as a Monty Burns-entering-a-film-festival vibe.Bloomberg's posting also sidesteps some of the more un-millennial aspects of his three-term mayoralty, from his years-long endorsement of the New York Police Department's "stop-and-frisk" policy that disproportionately targeted black and Latino men to his unsuccessful war on large soft drinks.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Hillary Clinton: 'Follow Mitt Romney's lead' and vote Trump out of office Posted: 06 Feb 2020 08:16 AM PST  The 2016 Democratic nominee says she wasn't surprised that the Senate voted to acquit President Trump in his impeachment trial — but was nonetheless disappointed more Republicans didn't vote to remove him from office.
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| Man Who Killed Son for Insurance Money Is Convicted of Doing the Same to Wife Posted: 05 Feb 2020 12:30 PM PST  A man who killed his son in 2008 to collect $700,000 from his life insurance policy was convicted this week of killing his wife nearly 30 years ago for the same reason.Karl Holger Karlsen, 59, pleaded guilty in 2013 to murdering his son, Levi Karlsen, in Seneca Falls, New York, and was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison. That conviction raised suspicions with detectives in California, where the investigation into his wife's death had been continuing, according to court documents.Karlsen's wife, Christina Karlsen, 30, died on New Year's Day in 1991, when she was trapped by a fire in a boarded-up bathroom of the family's home in Calaveras County, Karlsen's lawyer, Richard Esquivel, said.Days after his wife's death, Karlsen collected $215,000 from his wife's insurance policy, and he and his children moved to Seneca Falls, where he is from, Esquivel said.On Monday, a jury convicted Karlsen of murdering his wife by committing arson -- purposefully boarding up the bathroom and lighting a fire in a hallway to kill her.He could face a maximum life sentence without the possibility of parole during his sentencing hearing March 17. He plans to appeal the conviction, Esquivel said.The victim's mother, Arlene Meltzer, 78, was in the courtroom when the verdict was read by the jury."I just knew that he had something to do with it," she said Tuesday. "It is something a mother always carries in their heart."With the money from his wife's life insurance policy, Karlsen moved back to New York, bought a house and paid several bills, Esquivel said.According to court documents, Karlsen's son, Levi Karlsen, bought a $700,000 life insurance policy in 2008. Soon after that, Levi Karlsen, 23, signed paperwork that named his father the sole beneficiary of his policy in the event of his death, records show; his father was present at the time of signing.Hours after signing the paperwork, Levi Karlsen's body was found by his father's second wife, Cindy Karlsen, under a truck that had fallen on him in his father's garage, records show.Initially, authorities deemed the death an accident. But in 2011, when Cindy Karlsen realized that her husband had invested money from his son's policy into a $1.2 million life insurance policy for her, she alerted authorities, according to court documents.She cooperated with authorities, and while she was wearing a wire, her husband admitted that he had deliberately caused the truck to fall on his son, according to court documents. In 2012, Karlsen was charged with murdering his son, and he pleaded guilty the following year."We suspected that he was guilty of Levi's death as well," Meltzer said. "I expected that he was involved in it in some way."Karlsen appealed his conviction in that case and lost, but he planned to appeal again, Esquivel said.Meltzer, meanwhile, is done waiting."For 30 years we stood and waited. Right now I am just taking quiet time to help me get strong," Meltzer said as her voice quivered. "I just kept my prayers going because I knew that he was involved, but I just had to stand by and believe that God was going to take care of it."It has finally come to an end," she said.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| Officials: TSA agent tricked traveler into baring herself Posted: 07 Feb 2020 07:54 AM PST  A federal Transportation Security Administration agent tricked a traveler into twice showing him her breasts as she went through security at one of the world's busiest airports, California's attorney said. Attorney General Xavier Becerra said Johnathon Lomeli, 22, was working at Los Angeles International Airport in June when he used fraud or deceit to falsely imprison the woman. Lomeli was arrested early Thursday at his home.
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| A tech side effect: Many residents of China say wearing face masks to avoid the coronavirus has made it impossible to unlock their phones with Face ID Posted: 06 Feb 2020 08:18 AM PST  Some residents are venting their frustrations on social media.
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| Scottish Finance Secretary Quits Hours Before Budget Speech Posted: 06 Feb 2020 03:11 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Scottish Finance Secretary Derek Mackay resigned just hours before delivering his budget speech after a newspaper report emerged claiming he sent inappropriate messages to a 16-year-old boy on social media.The resignation was accepted by Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, a spokesman for the government said by phone from Edinburgh on Thursday. The 2020-21 budget speech will now be delivered by Public Finance Minister Kate Forbes.The Scottish Sun earlier reported that the 42-year-old Mackay had contacted the boy "out of the blue" and sent him hundreds of messages via the Instagram and Facebook social media platforms."I take full responsibility for my actions," Mackay said in emailed statement. "I have behaved foolishly and I am truly sorry."Sturgeon, who is leading her Scottish National Party's drive for a second vote on Scotland splitting away from the rest of the United Kingdom, welcomed Mackay's contribution to government but said "his behaviour has failed to meet the standards required."Forbes is scheduled to present Scotland's budget from about 3 p.m. in Edinburgh.(Updates with comment, detail from fourth paragraph)To contact the reporter on this story: Alastair Reed in Edinburgh at areed12@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Rodney Jefferson at r.jefferson@bloomberg.net, Tiago Ramos AlfaroFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Hong Kong shoppers snap up rice and noodles as coronavirus fears mount Posted: 06 Feb 2020 11:23 PM PST  Panicky Hong Kong residents scooped noodles, rice, meat and toilet rolls into supermarket trolleys on Friday despite government assurances of ample supplies during an outbreak of a new coronavirus that has killed 637 people in mainland China. Chinese-ruled Hong Kong has reported 25 cases of the fast-spreading virus and one of only two deaths outside mainland China. The government has condemned "malicious rumors" about shortages which have led to panic buying "and even chaos", while supermarkets have put limits on the amount of products, including antiseptics, that people can buy.
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| Israeli strikes kill 23 Syrian, foreign fighters in Syria Posted: 06 Feb 2020 07:40 AM PST  Israeli air strikes killed 23 Syrian and foreign fighters in Syria Thursday, a monitor said, the latest in a spate of raids Israel has said targeted an Iranian presence on its doorstep. Israel has pledged to prevent its main enemy from entrenching itself militarily in Syria, where it is backing President Bashar al-Assad's government alongside Russia and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. The pre-dawn raids killed three Iranians and seven Tehran-backed foreign fighters near Kisweh south of the capital, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
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| Trump bans New Yorkers from enrolling in 'trusted traveller' programmes in retaliation over sanctuary cities law Posted: 06 Feb 2020 11:19 AM PST  The Trump administration has immediately barred New York residents from enrolling in "trusted traveller programmes" (TTP), in retaliation for a new state law which blocks federal immigration officials from accessing motor vehicle records.The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) confirmed the move on Thursday, the morning after acting homeland security secretary Chad Wolf first announced the measure on Fox News.
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| Massachusetts man tries to save neighbor from dog attack, accidentally kills him with crossbow Posted: 06 Feb 2020 08:21 PM PST  A Massachusetts man trying to be a good Samaritan accidentally killed his neighbor with a crossbow, according to officials.
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| Chemical weapons watchdog report criticizes leaks Posted: 06 Feb 2020 09:54 AM PST ![Chemical weapons watchdog report criticizes leaks]( "Chemical weapons watchdog report criticizes leaks") An independent investigation into leaks that raised questions over the global chemical weapons watchdog's conclusion that chlorine was used in a notorious 2018 attack in Syria has criticized two former officials responsible for releasing classified information, the organization's chief said Thursday. Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons Director-General Fernando Arias told members that he stands by the conclusions of a Fact-Finding Mission issued on March 1 last year that found "reasonable grounds" that a toxic chemical was used in Douma on April 7, 2018.
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| Doctor Punished for Warning Friends of Coronavirus Dies after Becoming Infected Posted: 06 Feb 2020 09:34 AM PST  Update 4:00 p.m.: Dr. Li Wenliang, one of eight doctors punished by Chinese authorities for warning people of the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, died on Thursday after battling the illness.State media had erroneously reported Li's death earlier in the day, while the doctor was in fact in critical condition."An all-out effort to save him was unsuccessful," the Wuhan Central Hospital wrote on its account on Weibo, a popular Chinese social media app. "We deeply grieve the loss."***Update 2:30 p.m.: Dr. Li Wenliang is in critical condition according to Wuhan Central Hospital. Earlier reports that Li had died were found to be incorrect.The World Health Organization, which initially marked Li's death on Twitter, retracted its statement."At today's [coronavirus] media briefing Dr. Mike Ryan was asked about reports that Dr Li Wenliang had passed away, and he expressed condolences. WHO has no information on the status of Dr Li," the W.H.O. posted on Twitter.***Dr. Li Wenliang — an ophthalmologist at Wuhan Central Hospital, who was punished by city authorities for warning medical school friends about the coronavirus outbreak — has died after being infected with the virus."We are deeply saddened by the passing of Dr Li Wenliang. We all need to celebrate work that he did on [the coronavirus]," the World Health Organization posted on its Twitter account.On December 30 Li sent a warning to friends via Chinese text-messaging app Weibo that doctors in Wuhan had treated seven patients with a SARS-like illness after they had visited a seafood market in the city. While he asked that his messages remain confidential, hours later he saw that several of the messages had gone viral on Chinese social media.Li was one of eight doctors who was punsihed by Wuhan authorities for attempting to warn others about the coronavirus. On January 3, Wuhan police reprimanded Li for "spreading rumors online" and "severely disrupting social order."The doctor later told CNN he could do nothing about the punishment because he feared he would be separated from his family. Li contracted the coronavirus in early January after treating an infected patient at the hospital.The Global Times, the Chinese Communist Party's English-language newspaper, initially tweeted confirmation that Li had died. However, the tweet was later deleted.The novel coronavirus has infected over 28,000 people, the vast majority in China, and killed over 560. In response, the Trump administration has banned foreign citizens who recently visited China from entering the U.S. and imposed mandatory quarantine measures on U.S. citizens and their families returning from the region.
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| Irish PM Varadkar Set to Lose Power, Betting Odds Signal Posted: 06 Feb 2020 07:29 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar is poised to lose Saturday's election, betting odds indicate, with the party that oversaw the nation's international bailout set to return to power.Micheal Martin, who leads the biggest opposition party, Fianna Fail, has a 94% chance of heading the government, Paddy Power odds signal. Varadkar has a 9% shot of returning to power after the ballot, according to the odds.Polls indicate Martin will need coalition partners to govern. While Martin has ruled out bringing Sinn Fein into government, that's the most likely outcome, odds indicate, with Paddy Power placing a 25% chance on that possibility. Another alternative could see Varadkar propping up a minority administration led by Martin.Fianna Fail is set to win 59 seats, and Fine Gael 34, the bookmaker said. Sinn Fein may get 30 seats, the Greens 9 and the Labour Party 6. Independents are on track for 17 seats.Analysts and traders study bookmakers' odds to help predict the outcome of market-moving events, though their reliability was dealt a blow in the 2016 referendum on the U.K.'s membership of the European Union.Read more: How Sinn Fein Ignited Irish Election (But Won't Win): QuickTake(Adds seat predictions in fourth paragraph)To contact the reporter on this story: Dara Doyle in Dublin at ddoyle1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Chad Thomas at cthomas16@bloomberg.netFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| House Democrats unveil act to create nationwide EV charging network Posted: 06 Feb 2020 11:17 AM PST  Democratic Reps. Andy Levin and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are releasing legislation dubbed the EV Freedom Act to create a network of high-speed charging stations within five years along the public roads of the national highway system.
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| Bloomberg campaign appears to have plagiarized parts of 8 campaign policies Posted: 06 Feb 2020 09:06 PM PST  The Intercept found that several of Michael Bloomberg's 2020 pledges matched other sources word-for-word.
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| Buttigieg narrowly wins Iowa caucuses: state party results Posted: 06 Feb 2020 09:59 AM PST  WASHINGTON/MANCHESTER, N.H. (Reuters) - Pete Buttigieg narrowly won Iowa's Democratic presidential caucuses, the state party said on Thursday, after a long delay in releasing the results of the first contest in the race to pick a challenger to Republican President Donald Trump. Buttigieg, the moderate 38-year-old former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, edged out progressive U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders by 26.2% to 26.1% of state-delegate equivalents - the data traditionally used to determine the winner - with 100% of precincts counted, the Iowa Democratic Party said. U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren finished third with 18%, while former Vice President Joe Biden limped to a disappointing fourth with 15.8%.
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| Meet the JH-XX: China's Newest and Fastest Stealth Bomber? Posted: 06 Feb 2020 09:12 AM PST  Is it real?
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| Democrats, Knocked Back by Trump's Acquittal, Ponder Their Next Steps Posted: 07 Feb 2020 05:20 AM PST  WASHINGTON -- House Democrats, back on their heels after President Donald Trump's acquittal of impeachment charges, wrestled Thursday with a question that could determine their party's fate in November: Now what?As Trump took an ostentatious victory lap at the White House, Democrats were grappling with how to balance their policy agenda and their determination to continue aggressive investigations of a president they view as a threat to the country.With just five months left in the legislative year and nine before the elections, Democrats concede they have to make some tough decisions."It's something we need to talk about," said Rep. John Yarmuth, D-Ky., the chairman of the House Budget Committee. He said that the issue came up during the weekly closed-door meeting of committee leaders.Democrats believe they won back the House majority in 2018 with a laser focus on health care and the economy. But they are also revolted by an unrepentant president and reluctant to abandon investigations into his conduct that might yield evidence of wrongdoing. With Trump emboldened by his acquittal, some say investigating him is more important than ever.Speaker Nancy Pelosi seemed ready to make a pivot Thursday, less than 24 hours after the Senate verdict that he was not guilty ended a five-month impeachment drama that consumed the Capitol.At her weekly news conference, Pelosi spent the bulk of her opening remarks talking about Trump's State of the Union address -- "appalling," she said -- and pushing back on his claims that he is responsible for the nation's economic turnaround.But she also vowed not to let up on oversight of his policies and personal conduct."We will continue to do our oversight to protect and defend the Constitution," Pelosi said.Putting that into practice may prove fraught. Democratic leaders must decide in the coming days whether to carry on with the investigation into Trump's effort to pressure Ukraine to investigate his political rivals, which led the House to impeach the president on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.The biggest question at the moment is whether to issue a subpoena for John Bolton, the former national security adviser, after senators refused to consider new testimony in the impeachment trial. Doing so could yield damaging new information, but it also risks making Democrats look like sore losers.On Wednesday, Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York, the Judiciary Committee chairman and an impeachment manager, said that the House should subpoena Bolton, who has written a tell-all book that contains a direct account of Trump's decision to leverage nearly $400 million in military aid for Ukraine in exchange for the investigations.But Democrats also recognize that Bolton may be less receptive to speaking to the House now that Trump has been acquitted. On Thursday, neither Pelosi nor Rep. Adam B. Schiff of California, the House Intelligence Committee chairman and the leader of the impeachment prosecution team, would say what they intend to do."We really haven't made any decisions yet," Schiff said.Some of the Democrats' long-running investigations into Trump are continuing quietly, and others are proceeding in the federal courts, where the House is party to a handful of consequential legal fights over access to Trump's tax returns, other financial information and witness testimony and documents related to Robert Mueller's Russia investigation.Several of the fights could go to the Supreme Court and perhaps be decided before November's elections. If Democrats were to win access, say, to Trump's federal tax returns, or a court forced Don McGahn, the former White House counsel, to testify about Trump's attempts to thwart the Russia investigation, it could produce a new round of high-profile hearings about whether the president had broken the law -- an inquiry that would surely reverberate in the presidential campaign.Lower-profile work by the House Oversight and Reform, Judiciary and Foreign Affairs committees has scrutinized the Trump administration's border policies, the decision to include a citizenship question on the 2020 census, politicization of the State Department and the responses to devastating hurricanes in the Caribbean.But the question is one of emphasis, and how Democrats answer it could shape voters' views of them heading into the next election. Rep. Donna Shalala, D-Fla., who served as health secretary to President Bill Clinton, repeated a single phrase when asked what Democrats should do next."Health care, health care, health care," said Shalala, who is working on legislation to lower the cost of prescription drugs and to end surprise medical billing.As is the case with most intraparty Democratic debates, moderates and progressives fall into different camps. Moderates want to talk to voters about "kitchen table" issues. Progressives want to send the message that the House will continue to act as a check on a president clearly emboldened by his acquittal."People in Wisconsin, people in Michigan, people in Ohio, people in Pennsylvania, people in North Carolina, they're going to vote for their member of Congress or a president based on what that party is focused on," said Rep. Tim Ryan, a centrist Democrat from Ohio. "They are focused on their own economic situation. They will punish a party that is not focused on those issues."But progressives like Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Jamie Raskin of Maryland said that Democrats should redouble their efforts to rein in Trump."We must make sure that this administration does not continue to break the law," Omar said.Raskin framed it this way: "We have the exact same oversight duties and powers as we did before. He also has not won himself the right to commit high crimes and misdemeanors against the Constitution and the people."Even so, there were signs Thursday that the House's marquee inquiries will shift into a lower gear. Norman L. Eisen and Barry H. Berke, who served as special counsels to the Judiciary Committee for its long-running abuse of power investigation and then formed part of its core impeachment team, are both expected to depart in the coming weeks.The internal discussion over next steps comes as the relationship between Trump and Pelosi has hit a new low, raising questions about whether it is even possible for them to work together on legislative matters. Both the president and the speaker have said that they want legislation to lower the cost of prescription drugs and to fix the nation's crumbling infrastructure.But if the events of Thursday were any guide, they can barely stand to be in the same room with one another. At a White House celebration of his acquittal, Trump boasted about having taken a shot at Pelosi during the National Prayer Breakfast earlier that day."I had Nancy Pelosi sitting four seats away, and I said things that a lot of people wouldn't have said," Trump said. "But I meant every one of them."At the Capitol, Pelosi shot back, saying Trump looked "a little sedated" at the State of the Union. "That was not a State of the Union," she said. "That was his state of his mind."As Democrats contemplated the road ahead, Republicans were giddy, portraying the House's failed impeachment case as a misguided overreach.Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the majority leader, called impeachment "a colossal political mistake." Americans, he said, "are more likely to focus at this point and for the rest of the year on, what kind of shape is the country in? How are you feeling about things? Are you better off now than you were four years ago?"This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| Box Kites, Rockets, and Satellites: Our 150-Year Endeavor To Forecast the Weather Posted: 07 Feb 2020 08:28 AM PST |
| Wichita woman convicted of beheading ex-boyfriend's mother Posted: 06 Feb 2020 02:25 PM PST  Prosecutors said Rachael Hilyard cut off the head of 63-year-old Micki Davis using two steak knives on April 9, 2017. Davis had gone to Hilyard's home with her 9-year-old grandson to collect her son's belongings, at Hilyard's insistence. Hilyard's lawyer acknowledged his client killed Davis but said it was not premeditated, which is required for a first-degree murder conviction, The Wichita Eagle reported.
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| Father of Murder Victim Meredith Kercher Has Died in Mysterious Circumstances Posted: 07 Feb 2020 03:36 AM PST  John Kercher, the father of Meredith Kercher, the British college student whose brutal murder in Perugia, Italy, in 2007 made worldwide headlines, has died under mysterious circumstances. The journalist of more than 40 years and the author of 24 children's books was stoic in his grief as his 21-year-old daughter's murder trial became one of the most sensational media frenzies in modern history. American Amanda Knox, Italian Raffaele Sollecito, and Ivorian Rudy Guede were all originally convicted of her murder. Knox and Sollecito were later released on appeal and Guede is expected to be released this year. Meredith Kercher's Father on 'Our Daughter's Murder'Kercher, who wrote a book about his daughter's murder called Meredith in 2013, said the acquittal of Knox and Sollecito was devastating. "Hundreds of miles away from the center of the events, I sat stunned and open-mouthed," he wrote. "To hear that they had been acquitted and exonerated of any blame in Meredith's death was staggering." The 77-year-old, who suffered a stroke in 2009 that kept him from attending much of his daughter's murder trial, was found with devastating injuries, including a broken arm and leg, outside his home in Croydon, England, on Jan. 13. The Sun newspaper reports that he had no recollection of what happened to him when he was found just yards from his home around 7:30 p.m. on a misty evening. He died in a hospital from his injuries last weekend after reportedly slipping into a coma. Police are asking for leads and information to determine exactly who is responsible for Kercher's injuries, which led to his death. While they are initially working on the theory of a hit-and-run vehicular accident, they have not ruled out that he could have been intentionally hit or even beaten up. Met Police Det. Sgt. Steve Andrews told local reporters the incident is under investigation. "Despite thorough inquiries made so far, including speaking to witnesses and examining potential CCTV opportunities, we have not as yet been able to establish how he came to sustain his injuries, which included a broken arm and broken leg," he said. "We are keeping an open mind as to the circumstances of his death, including whether he may have been involved in a collision."Over the years, Kercher told The Daily Beast that he was not satisfied with the outcome of the final trial and felt personal pain over Knox's rise to stardom over the high-profile trials, which lasted for nearly a decade. Knox, who recently posted a photo on Instagram in her old prison garb for reasons not yet clear, has not publicly commented on the death of her former roommate's father. She had previously expressed interest in meeting them, but they refused any such encounter. The Seattle native has maintained a high profile as an advocate for wrongfully convicted people. She returned to Italy for the first time last summer to speak at an event sponsored by the Innocence Project. The Kercher family released a statement confirming the death: "We loved him dearly and he is going to be very sorely missed."Editor's note: Barbie Latza Nadeau is the author of Angel Face: Sex, Murder and the Inside Story of Amanda Knox, which was adapted for film in 2014.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Citizen Journalist Covering Virus Outbreak From Wuhan Goes Missing Posted: 07 Feb 2020 02:53 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Sign up for Next China, a weekly email on where the nation stands now and where it's going next.Over the past couple of weeks, Chinese citizen journalists Chen Qiushi and Fang Bin have served as the world's eyes and ears inside the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, the city of Wuhan. Broadcasting via their mobile phones, they've offered a glimpse of how dire things have been. Many of those videos have been posted to Twitter and reposted on YouTube.Now one of them is missing.Chen has been out of reach for more than 20 hours. Fang, who was silent much of Friday until a video posted in the evening, was previously detained briefly by authorities for his video of corpses in a hospital. When he filmed the dramatic moment people in hazmat suits broke down his apartment door to take him into quarantine, it sparked hundreds of comments urging the authorities to release him.It's no accident that their posts grew viral on American platforms. China's internet watchdog has stepped up its policing efforts, announcing on Wednesday it would conduct "targeted supervision" on the largest social media platforms including Weibo, Tencent's WeChat and ByteDance's Douyin. The regulator has already frozen a raft of social media accounts, then stepped up online scrubbing to quiet a wave of confused outrage over the death of the doctor that first raised red flags about the disease.In this environment, U.S.-based Twitter has emerged as the destination for locals seeking information about the spread of the virus. It's officially banned in the country, but many people hop the Great Firewall and access the platform via virtual private networks.Read more: Chinese Doctor Who Warned of Virus Dies, Stoking Outrage Online"There's a lot more activity happening on Twitter compared with Weibo and WeChat," said Maya Wang, senior China researcher at Human Rights Watch. There has been a Chinese community on Jack Dorsey's short-message platform since before President Xi Jinping rose to power, she added, but the recent crackdown has weakened that social circle.Chen, the most visible among scores of residents documenting the human disaster around them, has for many followers become the go-to source for real facts about the epidemic. Wuhan locals have filmed some of the most chilling videos during the outbreak, including images of untreated corpses, discontent among quarantined patients in hospitals and police knocking on doors to enforce censorship. Bloomberg News has not independently verified the authenticity of those videos.Twitter was becoming the last line of defense for people to gather information and record the trauma that thousands of families were experiencing."After lifting the lid briefly to give the press and social media some freedom," said Wang about China's ruling Communist Party, the regime "is now reinstating its control over social media, fearing it could lead to a wider-spread panic."Starting this week, scores of WeChat users complained that they were locked out of their personal accounts after people in their chat groups discussed issues around the virus outbreak. That's meant losing access to all of their stored social contacts as well as the money in their WeChat wallets. Many others have gone into self-policing mode, reminding friends in their chat groups not to exchange information about the coronavirus.Read more: Latest News on the Coronavirus OutbreakChen has been out of contact for a prolonged period of time. His friends posted a message on his Twitter account saying he has been unreachable since 7 p.m. local time on Thursday. In a texted interview, Bloomberg News's last question to Chen was whether he was concerned about his safety as he's among the few people reporting the situation on the front lines.His response has yet to come back.(Updates with Fang posting a video late Friday from the third paragraph)To contact the reporter on this story: Lulu Yilun Chen in Hong Kong at ychen447@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Peter Elstrom at pelstrom@bloomberg.net, Vlad Savov, Edwin ChanFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Officials warn of drug called "gray death" Posted: 06 Feb 2020 06:11 PM PST  "You don't want to touch this," police said. "If at all possible you don't even want to put it on your hands."
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| Chinese officials are only letting people leave their homes every 2 days and have forbidden weddings and funerals Posted: 06 Feb 2020 02:19 PM PST  In four cities that are home to more than 30 million people, each household is given a so-called passport. It permits one person to leave every two days.
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| U.S. and China clash at WHO over Taiwan participation Posted: 06 Feb 2020 01:56 AM PST ![U.S. and China clash at WHO over Taiwan participation]( "U.S. and China clash at WHO over Taiwan participation") The United States urged the World Health Organization (WHO) on Thursday to "engage directly with Taiwan public health authorities" in the fight against coronavirus. Taiwan is not a WHO member because of China's objections. Beijing says the island is a wayward Chinese province and not a country and is adequately represented in the organisation by China.
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| China's Fake South China Sea Islands Could Become More Trouble Than They're Worth Posted: 07 Feb 2020 02:00 AM PST  China built them and now must defend them.
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| US warns Venezuela of consequences if Guaido harmed Posted: 06 Feb 2020 02:08 PM PST  The United States on Thursday warned Venezuela's leftist regime of consequences if opposition leader Juan Guaido is not allowed to return safely from a visit to Washington. "We hope that the regime makes the calculation, particularly after this trip, that the support for Guaido is strong and that the counter-reaction to any move against him would make it a mistake for the regime," said Elliott Abrams, the US pointman on Venezuela. Guaido, who is considered interim president by the United States and most other Western and Latin American nations, paid a surprise visit as a guest Tuesday at President Donald Trump's State of the Union address to Congress.
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| Could Bloomberg Win the Democratic Nomination? Posted: 07 Feb 2020 09:08 AM PST  Could Mike Bloomberg capture the Democratic Party's presidential nomination? I've ridiculed the possibility in the past, and with good reason: Bloomberg has taken stances that are anathema to progressives, and I'm not talking about his cheerleading for capitalism or the way he personifies Wall Street lucre like a walking Monopoly Man. He also waited far too late to enter the race and blithely skipped the early states.Nate Silver's forecasting model at FiveThirtyEight gives Bloomberg a less than 1 percent shot at the nomination. But betting markets disagree: As the degree of Joe Biden's failure in Iowa became apparent, Bloomberg's prospects surged. At PredictIt.org, for instance, Bernie Sanders is the heavy favorite, selling at 43 cents for a potential payoff of a dollar. Bloomberg runs a strong second, at 23 cents. Biden is in fourth place, at a pathetic 14 cents. Bettors appear to be envisioning Ramesh Ponnuru's scenario: Should Biden collapse and leave a clear path to victory for Sanders, those Democrats who do not daydream about November suicide will be looking for a moderate to back. Bloomberg would appear to be a more plausible contender for that role than Pete Buttigieg, with his student-council earnestness and thin résumé. What's more, the former New York City mayor would be self-funding.There are three big reasons Bloomberg could stage a last-minute rally and make a serious bid for the nomination.One: In the Ponnuru scenario, the Democrats could use every trick in the book, or indeed rewrite the book, to stop Sanders. Step forward, superdelegates! Hail, change in debate rules! The downside risk of this is a replay of the 1968 Chicago convention chaos, this time in Milwaukee. But it's not like even the Bolshiest of Bernie Bros are going to stay home on November 3 if their choice is between a capitalist Democrat and Donald Trump, and the party knows this.Two: Given Biden's continual struggles and Elizabeth Warren's rapid fade, the race could narrow to a Sanders–Bloomberg contest quickly if Buttigieg's momentum were to stall. Some of Warren's fans among technocrats and the highly educated will even defect to Bloomberg, on the grounds that he's the sort of managerial-class mandarin they feel an affinity with. (Warren's anti-capitalist rhetoric is, I think, seen as merely performative by a significant percentage of her devotees.)Three: Money. It's preposterous how rich Bloomberg is. Because of the way his wealth is generated, via subscriptions to his eponymous financial-services terminals, it comes in faster than he can spend it. He could spend $5 billion on this race and emerge from it richer than he was when he entered. Last year, Forbes put his net worth at $55.5 billion; this year he's at $61.7 billion. For comparison, saturation advertising for a blockbuster movie that everyone wants to see runs a studio about $50 million. No one knows what a Bloombergian level of advertising spending on a single idea might look like because it's never been done before. And that's not counting all of the other ways money can be useful in a political campaign. As other candidates drop out of the race, Bloomberg will be able to buy up organizers and pollsters and canvassers and everybody else who wants a job in politics. He'll be able to put them up at the Four Seasons, rent them Cadillac Escalades, and feed them so much lobster thermidor it'll make Lego Batman envious. He'll be able to buy up activists and agitators too. Last week he evidently bought a ticket to the Super Bowl for the Houston-area woman, an anti-gun activist, who also starred in the $11 million gun-control commercial he ran during the game. Bloomberg has so far steered clear of using his fortune to tear down fellow Democrats, but the most effective political ads are attacks. If it comes down to him vs. Sanders, a declared enemy of capitalism, will he continue to avoid going negative? And how well would Sanders hold up against $100 million in attack ads?Even setting those factors aside, there's an argument to be made that Sanders is so extreme that there must be a low ceiling on his potential support even within the Democratic Party. For all the outsize influence of the Extremely Online progressive base, there are a lot of Democrats further to the right: After the 2018 midterms, in which the party retook control of the House, conservatives and moderates accounted for 52 percent of its members.On the other hand, Bernie Bros (and maybe even Joe Biden) may take some comfort from knowing that they can pull out the Democratic Party's favorite weapon at any time and beat Bloomberg over the head with it. As mayor of New York City, Bloomberg loudly defended a police stop-and-frisk policy that disproportionately affected black New Yorkers, who in many cases argued that they were being profiled and harassed. Bloomberg was not only insensitive to criticism, he suggested those who opposed his policy were idiots. "Incidentally, I think, we disproportionately stop whites too much and minorities too little," Bloomberg said in 2013. "It's exactly the reverse of what they're saying. I don't know where they went to school, but they certainly didn't take a math course, or a logic course." Bloomberg continued to defend the policy as recently as last year, even though crime continued to recede after the stop-and-frisk policy was all but eliminated. A single powerful ad in which a black New Yorker recalls the humiliation of being stopped and frisked for no good reason could be worth more than a billion dollars' worth of Bloomberg's spending.
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| Man 'filmed himself beating his girlfriend to death' and then called an Uber to take her to hospital Posted: 07 Feb 2020 07:38 AM PST  A man allegedly filmed himself beating his girlfriend then ordered an Uber to take her to hospital, where she died.According to a cell phone video obtained through police warrants, Nicholas Forman, 23, from Collegeville, Pennsylvania, could be seen beating his girlfriend Sabrina Harooni, 22, on his lawn, The Philadelphia Inquirer reports.
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| Russia says Israel nearly shot down passenger plane in Syria Posted: 07 Feb 2020 08:04 AM PST  Russia's Defense Ministry said Friday that Israeli air forces nearly shot down a passenger jetliner in Syria during a missile strike on the suburbs of Damascus a day earlier. The allegation comes as tensions run high in Syria, where fighting has escalated in the northern province of Idlib. Syrian government forces, backed by the Russian military, have clashed with Turkish troops that support the opposition there after failing to observe a cease-fire.
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| Trump’s Press Secretary Whines About Media Lunch Leaks—in New Leaked Email Posted: 06 Feb 2020 07:53 AM PST  The Trump White House is apparently still reeling because the president didn't get anything to eat at the soup-and-sole lunch he hosted for television personalities before Tuesday's State of the Union address."[T]he president of the United States welcomed you to the White House and spent almost two hours answering so many questions that he didn't eat his own lunch," White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham complained about President Donald Trump's personal sacrifice in a confidential email to the attendees—an email that was shared with The Daily Beast on Thursday morning. "He graciously gave you a couple of items on the record and then spoke frankly, honestly, and most importantly in good faith that it was off the record."Grisham, who doesn't follow the practice of delivering White House press briefings, thus obliterating a decades-long tradition by administrations of both parties, continued: "Our only agenda was to give you an idea of what the president was going to say to the country in his third State of the Union address. It was so disappointing that not even an hour passed before we were inundated with inquiries, as someone or perhaps a few in the group chose to leak out most of what was said. What's worse, some of the details were things the president specifically asked you not to share."It seems Grisham and her boss, who banned CNN from the meal, were especially angered by The Daily Beast's report about the lunch—published hours before Trump's speech to Congress—that contained many such details, such as the president's criticisms of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and his vow to block publication of former National Security Adviser John Bolton's tell-all book."To me, it is the height of hypocrisy that a press who bemoans the perceived lack of ethical behavior in this administration, so brazenly violates its own ethical standards," Grisham went on, clearly warming to her subject. "The media cries for more access but cannot adhere to a simple agreed upon standard of off-the-record, which allowed your colleagues who were not in attendance to break the news for you." Delivering a helpful lecture on journalistic ethics, Grisham added: "Call me naïve, but it is my belief that old-fashioned accountability should be applied to a press corps that has sadly failed to hold itself to its very own standards. Accountability is, after all, one of the five core principles of journalism. 'We hold the powerful accountable' is a mantra that many in the press righteously shout from every news desk in this county. I ask—who holds all of you accountable?"And so on and so forth, for several paragraphs more."In closing," Grisham wrote, "I must say that for once I wouldn't mind if this email leaked, but somehow I doubt anyone will want to admit to this complete lapse in integrity."Oh ye of little faith.Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| EU Tells Balkan Aspirants to Keep Trying Despite Revised Rules Posted: 06 Feb 2020 08:50 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- The European Union urged Balkan countries that are trying to win membership to stay on track even as the bloc reconfigures the conditions they must meet before joining.The visit by EU Enlargement Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi comes days after EU government envoys in Brussels presented an overhaul of expansion rules that adds a focus on the rule of law and functioning democratic institutions. The new requirements were drawn up to appease French President Emmanuel Macron, who torpedoed starting talks with Albania and North Macedonia last year.Varhelyi pledged support to bring the applicants' economies up to speed and make them more resilient before possible accession."My goal is that by the end of my mandate, in the next four and a half years, at least one country from the Western Balkans should be ready to join," he told reporters after meeting President Aleksandar Vucic in Belgrade.The Serbian leader welcomed the new enlargement plan, saying it may bring more predictability to the process. Vucic also urged the European Commission to include the biggest former Yugoslav republic in the Schengen area, to open up borders and foster the free flow of goods and services in the western Balkans.Macron's veto, and insistence that the EU change the way it brings in new members before any are allowed to join, has roiled politics in the six Balkan countries seeking to join the world's biggest trading bloc.A tentative time-frame to let them in around 2025, offered in 2018 by former European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker, appears now less realistic.The countries themselves have work to do too. Serbia and Kosovo must resolve the dispute stemming from their 1998-99 war to be considered for membership."For the entire region, the relationship between Serbia and Kosovo is a key issue, Varhelyi said, urging wartime foes to "come to a long-term peaceful solution."The EU's motivation is also clear, as it struggles to continue coaxing countries to embrace democratic and economic reforms in a volatile region where the U.S., Russia and China are also vying for influence."We would like to be more credible here," Varhelyi said. "Geopolitics starts in our neighborhood, starts in the heart of Europe, in the Balkans."To contact the reporters on this story: Misha Savic in Belgrade at msavic2@bloomberg.net;Gordana Filipovic in Belgrade at gfilipovic@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Irina Vilcu at isavu@bloomberg.net, Michael Winfrey, Peter LacaFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Chinese tech giant Baidu has made a maps app that shows the location of coronavirus patients Posted: 07 Feb 2020 02:54 AM PST  The app shows the location of both confirmed and suspected coronavirus patients, as well as travel disruption caused by the oubreak.
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| Australia celebrates as heavy rains dampen huge bushfires Posted: 06 Feb 2020 02:06 PM PST |
| Saudi Arabia bars citizens, residents from travel to China Posted: 05 Feb 2020 11:58 PM PST  Saudi Arabia on Thursday barred its citizens and residents of the kingdom from traveling to China amid the new virus outbreak. The kingdom's General Directorate of Passports said the measure was in response to the new virus believed to have stemmed from central China. It warned that any residents of the kingdom who violate this order will not be allowed to return to Saudi Arabia.
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| Fox News warns Fox News about spreading pro-Trump 'disinformation' on Ukraine Posted: 07 Feb 2020 02:58 AM PST  An internal report from the Fox News research department warns that several prominent Fox News guests, aided sometimes by omissions from Sean Hannity, have spread "disinformation" about Ukraine. The briefing, written by senior political affairs specialist Bryan S. Murphy and titled "Ukraine, Disinformation, and the Trump Administration," was first disclosed in a series of tweets from former Fox News freelancer Marcus DiPaola, then obtained in full by The Daily Beast. Murphy compiles reports for the Fox News "Brain Room," a research arm of the network's news division.The report specifically points to "disinformation" on Ukraine from President Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani, Fox News contributor and Hill columnist John Solomon, and married legal team Joe DiGenova and Victoria Toensing.DiGenova and Toensing are part of Trump's legal circle and also represent Ukrainian oligarch Dmytro Firtash, a fact not disclosed last fall when they were "spreading disinformation" on Fox News and "parroting ... beneficial narratives while employed by Firtash," Murphy wrote. Giuliani had a "high susceptibility to disinformation" from Firtash and former Ukrainian prosecutor general Yuriy Lutsenko, he added, and Solomon, an opinion columnist typically referred to as an "investigative reporter" by Hannity, "played an indispensable role in the collection and domestic publication of elements of this disinformation campaign." Trump cites Solomon's work, now under review by The Hill, while defending himself in the Ukraine scandal.Mitch Kweit, senior vice president of the Brain Room, told The Daily Beast that "the 200 page document has thousands of data points, and the vast majority have no relation to Fox News — instead it's now being taken out of context and politicized to damage the network." Read more at The Daily Beast.More stories from theweek.com Elizabeth Warren's last chance Mar-a-Lago charged Secret Service agents $650 a night for rooms while they were guarding Trump The real State of the Union
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| Bernie Sanders declares 'decisive victory' in Iowa caucuses, rips results reporting 'screw-up' Posted: 07 Feb 2020 08:15 AM PST  "We are holding a press conference that should have occurred three nights ago in Des Moines, but for the inability of the Iowa Democratic Party to count votes in a timely fashion," Sanders said.
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| A California surgeon and his girlfriend were accused of drugging and raping up to 1,000 women. A new DA says the evidence against them was 'manufactured.' Posted: 06 Feb 2020 07:14 AM PST  The county's new district attorney said his predecessor made up the evidence for political gain.
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