| Pakistan's intelligence service may end up the real winner in the Afghan peace deal, at least for now Posted: 06 Mar 2020 06:45 AM PST  On the surface, one winner in the peace deal the U.S. signed with the Taliban is Pakistan, which has been a longtime supporter of the Islamist group. But the deal also poses long-term risks for Pakistan.
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| South Korea has tested 140,000 people for the coronavirus. That could explain why its death rate is just 0.6% — far lower than in China or the US. Posted: 05 Mar 2020 07:10 PM PST  Experts have suggested that coronavirus death rates could decrease as more mild cases are confirmed.
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| White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow claims coronavirus is 'contained,' says Americans should 'stay at work' Posted: 06 Mar 2020 08:53 AM PST  President Trump's economic adviser Larry Kudlow is continuing to claim the COVID-19 coronavirus is "contained" as the number of cases in the United States passes 230 across 21 states.Kudlow in an interview with CNBC on Friday said he will "argue" the new virus has been "contained" in the U.S., repeating the assertion he made last week as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was warning that the new virus could soon severely disrupt everyday life."We don't actually know what the magnitude of the virus is going to be, although frankly, so far, it looks relatively contained," Kudlow told CNBC on Friday. "...The vast majority of Americans are not at risk of this virus."Kudlow also said "America should stay at work," arguing that the private sector is "going to solve this disease" and again reiterating, "I will still argue to you that this is contained. It can't be airtight, but ... in a relative sense, relative to our population, relative to ordinary flus ... I think it is relatively contained."CNBC host David Faber challenged Kudlow on his claims throughout the interview, at one point telling him that the coronavirus is "much more serious than the flu, as you know." Faber also told Kudlow that "it's very hard to say whether it really is in any way contained or whether we are not all at risk," to which Kudlow responded, "Well, I'm not sure where you're going on that." > Kudlow: Buy on the dip, on COVID-19 "this is contained", "relatively contained." pic.twitter.com/iF4Nheem4i> > -- Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) March 6, 2020More stories from theweek.com It's 2020 and women are exhausted A case of coronavirus has been confirmed in Vatican City Brian Williams blindly furthers false claim Mike Bloomberg could've given every American $1 million
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| School removes Bible verse after complaint Posted: 04 Mar 2020 09:19 PM PST  The verse on the wall of the locker room read: "But the Lord is with me like a Mighty Warrior. Jeremiah 20:11."
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| New York state coronavirus cases double to 22; Senate overwhelmingly passes $8.3 billion spending bill Posted: 05 Mar 2020 01:44 PM PST  The number of people who have the novel coronavirus in New York state doubled to 22 on Thursday, following an increase in testing, as Tennessee became the 14th state to report a case of the fast-spreading illness.
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| Alabama executes man as accomplice in 2004 police murders Posted: 05 Mar 2020 08:51 PM PST  Nathaniel Woods was put to death amid a storm of appeals and protests from supporters who noted that Woods did not actually kill the officers.
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| The Genius Logic Behind Iran's Attack On Saudi Arabia's Oil Facilities Posted: 06 Mar 2020 05:17 AM PST  Avoid war by attacking?
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| Dubai’s Ruler, Sheikh Mohammed, Abducted and Imprisoned Daughters, Says London Court Posted: 05 Mar 2020 10:34 AM PST  LONDON—Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, the ruler of Dubai, ordered his henchmen to abduct two of his daughters and force them into captivity after they tried to flee from his controlling grasp, according to a British court.One of the women was subjected to inhumane treatment amounting to torture in the view of a British High Court judge, whose findings about the 70-year-old leader were unsealed in London on Thursday. Sir Andrew McFarlane, the most senior family judge in England, published his findings as part of a case that was brought to protect two of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum's younger children, who currently live in the U.K. Their mother is the daughter of Jordan's late King Hussein. The Dubai ruler failed in a bid at the Supreme Court to have the judgment kept secret. Inside the Secret World of Arab PlayboysThe judge found that Sheikha Latifa was imprisoned after trying to escape Dubai in 2002 and 2018. In her most recent bid for freedom, she made it as far as the coast of India before special forces snatched her and her Finnish friend Tiina Jauhiainen.In a carefully orchestrated plot, the pair had fled to the coast of the United Arab Emirates in disguise, boarded a dingy, ridden jet skis and then made it to a rendezvous with a yacht that took them out of the UAE's territorial waters."The last time [I saw Latifa], she was kicking and screaming and she was dragged off the boat. Her pleas for asylum were ignored," Jauhiainen told Reuters.The British judge found in favor of Jauhiainen's account of the abduction.McFarlane said that Latifa was held in captivity "on the instructions of her father" for more than three years after her first escape attempt. He said her claims of serious physical abuse, amounting to torture, were credible. At the time of her apprehension, she said she would only be released if "I'm dead, or I'm in a very, very, very bad situation.""She was pleading for the soldiers to kill her rather than face the prospect of going back to her family in Dubai," the judge said. "I conclude, on the balance of probability, that Latifa's account of her motives for wishing to leave Dubai represents the truth. She was plainly desperate to extricate herself from her family and prepared to undertake a dangerous mission in order to do so."The Missing Princess of Dubai: Foiled Escape or Complete Fraud?The judge said Sheikha Shamsa had also fled from her overbearing father when they were staying on a property in South-East England in 2000. Agents of Sheikh Mohammed allegedly captured her outside Cambridge, injected her with a sedative, and took her back to Dubai, where the judge said she "has been deprived of her liberty for much if not all of the past two decades."Cambridgeshire police tried to travel to Dubai to investigate the abduction at the time, but they were denied permission to enter the rich Arab emirate. Charles Geekie, a lawyer for the sheikh's former wife, said the British government had intervened in the case.The judge, who said the sheikh "continues to maintain a regime whereby both these two young women are deprived of their liberty," also found that the ruler of Dubai conducted a "campaign of fear and intimidation" against his sixth wife, Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein.Princess Haya, half sister of Jordan's King Abdullah, fled her husband at the start of 2019. She said she had been subjected to a "campaign of fear and intimidation" ever since and applied for a British court to protect their children from the kind of abuse to which Sheikh Mohammed had subjected his older children.Geekie told the court that anonymous notes had been left in Princess Haya's bedroom. One of them said, "We will take your son—your daughter is ours—your life is over."On another occasion, a UAE helicopter pilot landed in the princess' garden and told her he was there to take one passenger to Awir, which is the site of a prison in the desert.Her former husband also condemned her in a poem posted on Instagram entitled, "You Lived and You Died." The judge concluded that he agreed with Geekie's claim that these recent threats fit into a pattern of behavior that stretched back to the first abduction of one of the sheikh's children in 2000. "[There are] a number of common themes, at the core of which is the use of the state and its apparatus to threaten, intimidate, mistreat and oppress with a total disregard for the rule of law."The case began after Princess Haya asked for her children with Sheikh Mohammed—Jalila, 12, and Zayed, 8—to become wards of the court and protected from being taken back to Dubai. Princess Haya alleged that her husband had arranged for Jalila, who was 11 at the time, to be married to Mohammed bin Salman, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. The judge said he had not seen enough evidence to prove that that arrangement had been made.The princess said she had been "terrified" of her ex-husband, who divorced her without her knowledge in February last year on the 20th anniversary of the death of her father, King Hussein of Jordan.The judge said it was "clear the date will have been chosen... to maximize insult and upset to her."After the findings were made public, Sheikh Mohammed, who had refused to attend the hearings, said, "This case concerns highly personal and private matters relating to our children… As a head of government, I was not able to participate in the court's fact-finding process. This has resulted in the release of a 'fact-finding' judgment which inevitably only tells one side of the story."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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| Michigan lawmaker disciplined after sexual harassment probe Posted: 05 Mar 2020 11:12 AM PST  A Michigan lawmaker was stripped of a committee chairmanship and ordered to undergo training Thursday after the state Senate concluded allegations of sexual harassment lodged by several women, including a legislator, were credible. Republican Sen. Peter Lucido of Macomb County's Shelby Township lost his position leading the Senate Advice and Consent Committee. The Senate had opened an investigation in January after a young reporter, Allison Donahue of Michigan Advance, complained that Lucido made a sexist comment to her before a group of high school boys.
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| Joe Biden storms to double digit lead over Bernie Sanders in new poll Posted: 06 Mar 2020 01:14 AM PST  As the last two Democrats left standing head for their next clutch of primaries, there are signs Joe Biden is pulling well ahead of Bernie Sanders.With just days to go until several big states cast their vote, a new Reuters-Ipsos poll shows Mr Biden opening up a national lead of 10 points over Mr Sanders, besting him among both Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents.
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| San Francisco's first 2 coronavirus cases were just confirmed — authorities say the disease is likely being transmitted in the city Posted: 05 Mar 2020 11:42 AM PST  "We do not know at this point how they were exposed to the virus, which suggests it is spreading in the community," the city's health director said.
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| With cries of 'it's fake', Wuhan citizens voice discontent Posted: 06 Mar 2020 06:57 AM PST  While some expressions of anger against local-level officials during the epidemic have been permitted on China's heavily censored social media, the video was a rare glimpse of unscripted anger involving a top central government official. The clip, shot by an unknown individual, went viral on Chinese social media, and was even allowed by censors to trend on the top 10 searches on Friday morning on Weibo, China's equivalent to Twitter. Wuhan city officials have sent people door-to-door to investigate immediately, the article said.
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| What The Satanic Temple is and why it's opening a debate about religion Posted: 05 Mar 2020 04:46 AM PST  A group called The Satanic Temple went to court in their lawsuit against the city of Scottsdale, Arizona, for religious discrimination in January 2020.The city's attorneys argued that they could not possibly be guilty of religious discrimination because The Satanic Temple is not a religion. This argument prompted the judge in the case, Justice David Campbell, to ask, "What is religion?"I am a professor of religious studies, and part of my job is getting students to think critically about the definition of religion. After studying The Satanic Temple for my book, "Speak of the Devil," I find the most interesting thing about this group is the way it disrupts commonly held ideas about what religion is. History of the groupThe Satanic Temple was created in 2013 by two friends using the pseudonyms Malcolm Jarry and Lucien Greaves. Many members of The Satanic Temple use pseudonyms because of threats and hate mail that they receive.Members of The Satanic Temple do not believe in God or the devil. Its beliefs are articulated in "the seven tenets." These tenets emphasize reason and science as well as values such as compassion and justice. The first tenet states, "One should strive to act with compassion and empathy toward all creatures in accordance with reason." Other tenets address bodily autonomy, the freedom to offend and taking responsibility for one's mistakes.It was a series of political actions invoking religious freedom that brought the group into the public eye. They demanded the same privileges for Satanists that many Christians take for granted, such as erecting religious monuments on government property and using government meetings to present sectarian prayers.Today there are 24 official chapters of the group throughout North America and Europe, ranging in membership from a dozen to over 100 people. Chapters can be found in coastal cities but also in the South and the Midwest. Texas is home to four chapters, more than any other state. There are also thousands of supporters with individual memberships or in unofficial chapters with names like "Friends of The Satanic Temple, Arkansas." Political actionsOne of the group's political goals is to advocate for the value of the separation of church and state. Their strategy is to remind the public that if Christians can use government resources to assert their cultural dominance, then Satanists are free to do the same.After Oklahoma installed a monument of the Ten Commandments at its State Capitol in 2012, the group demanded that their statue of a satanic deity, Baphomet, a winged-goat-like creature, be installed next to it. The group received US$30,000 in donations from people around the country to build the statue.The Oklahoma Supreme Court ordered the Ten Commandments monument removed. However, thousands of people extended their support to The Satanic Temple, leading to the creation of the group's first few chapters. Prayer invocationsThe trouble in Scottsdale, Arizona, began in 2014 when the Supreme Court ruled in Greece v. Galloway that city councils and other government bodies may begin meetings with "invocations" that involve sectarian prayers. What this meant was that the government could invite a pastor to say, "We pray in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ," as long as they did not discriminate against religious groups who wanted to give the invocation.The Satanic Temple took the Supreme Court at their word. In 2016 they asked Scottsdale to open a city council meeting with the following prayer:> "Let us stand now, unbowed and unfettered by arcane doctrines born of fearful minds in darkened times. Let us embrace the Luciferian impulse to eat of the Tree of Knowledge and dissipate our blissful and comforting delusions of old.> > "Let us demand that individuals be judged for their concrete actions, not their fealty to arbitrary social norms and illusory categorizations. Let us reason our solutions with agnosticism in all things, holding fast only to that which is demonstrably true.> > "Let us stand firm against any and all arbitrary authority that threatens the personal sovereignty of One or All. That which will not bend must break, and that which can be destroyed by truth should never be spared its demise. It is Done. Hail Satan." Backlash against the SatanistsInitially Scottsdale officials agreed. Satanist Michelle Shortt, a member of the Arizona chapter, was scheduled to speak before a council meeting that April.But then the Christian backlash began. In court, attorneys discussed how one church sent over 15,000 emails demanding the Satanists be uninvited, crashing the city's email system. Scottsdale officials cancelled Shortt's invocation and declared a new policy that all invocation speakers must have "a substantial connection to the Scottsdale community."When the Satanists sued, Judge Campbell ruled there was insufficient evidence to prove Scottsdale officials acted out of religious prejudice. What is religion?However, an important outcome of the case was that Campbell rejected Scottsdale's claim that The Satanic Temple is not a "real religion" or seeks only to mock actual religions.The debate over what constitutes religion is an old one. In 1961, the Supreme Court acknowledged in Torcaso v. Watkins that there are many religions like Buddhism, Confucianism and even expressions of Judaism that are just not interested in God. Torcaso v. Watkins did not define religion; it merely ruled that religion is not synonymous with theism.Scholars of religion have suggested that religion is not reducible to theism or indeed any one element. They have noted that the word religion is used differently in different contexts.For example, religion scholar Catherine Albanese, in her 1981 book "America: Religions and Religion," presented religions as systems consisting of "four 'c's." These include creed, or a set of beliefs; code, or rules; cultus, meaning rituals; and community. In other words, religion is much more than the sum of its parts.Religion can also be redefined to serve certain political interests. For example, in 2012 the state of Florida could not legally execute paranoid schizophrenic and convicted murderer John Errol Ferguson because the Florida Supreme Court ruled that the mentally ill must understand they will die when they are executed. Ferguson stated he could not die because he was an immortal "prince of God." The state circumvented this law by ruling that Ferguson's delusions were a religious conviction and proceeded with the execution.The word religion lends itself to such creative legal uses precisely because it has no set definition. As religion scholar Russell McCutcheon says, religion's "utility is linked to its inability to be defined." The Satanic Temple is significant because it renders this sort of verbal slipperiness less tenable. If this group can no longer be dismissed as a "hoax," people might be forced to think a bit more about what religion is.[You're too busy to read everything. We get it. That's why we've got a weekly newsletter. Sign up for good Sunday reading. ]This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.Read more: * The changing nature of America's irreligious explained * Giving thanks, but to whom? Fewer Americans embrace organized religionJoseph P. Laycock does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
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| Trump likes that coronavirus has Americans staying home and 'spending their money in the United States' Posted: 05 Mar 2020 07:58 PM PST  President Trump is sure that people think the government is doing "a very good job" handling the coronavirus outbreak, and while no one knows how it started, "it's gonna all work out."Trump was asked about the coronavirus during a Fox News Town Hall Thursday evening in Scranton, Pennsylvania. There have been 12 coronavirus deaths in the United States, and Trump said it's important for people to "be calm" and also think about not shaking hands with others. "If there was ever a time you could convince people not to shake hands, this could be it," he declared.Because Americans are worried about being exposed to the coronavirus in hot spots like China and Italy, they are "now staying in the United States, spending their money in the United States, and I like that," Trump said. "You know, I've been after that for a long time. I've been saying, 'Let's stay in the U.S., spend your money here.' It's sort of enforced doing that."More stories from theweek.com It's 2020 and women are exhausted A case of coronavirus has been confirmed in Vatican City Brian Williams blindly furthers false claim Mike Bloomberg could've given every American $1 million
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| China Honors Whistle-Blowing Doctor Whose Death Fueled Anger Posted: 04 Mar 2020 11:45 PM PST |
| 4 days after U.S. signs a deal with the Taliban, the fight is on Posted: 04 Mar 2020 06:58 PM PST  U.S. aircraft retaliates against Taliban militants, who have resumed attacks against America's Afghan allies as the pitfalls of the peace agreement become apparent.
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| Asian-Americans Terrified of Coronavirus Backlash Stock Up on Guns Posted: 06 Mar 2020 08:18 AM PST  This story was published in partnership with The Trace, a nonprofit newsroom covering guns in America.As the number of confirmed 2019 novel coronavirus cases continues to multiply, many Americans are emptying store shelves of hand sanitizer, bleach, and canned goods. But there's an acute fear among Asian Americans that the virus' origins in China will spark a violent xenophobic backlash. Along the West Coast, where the worst outbreaks of coronavirus in the U.S. have occurred, those fears seem to be spurring a surge in gun sales. "People are panicking because they don't feel secure," said David Liu, who is Chinese American and owns Arcadia Firearm and Safety, which is just east of Los Angeles. "They worry about a riot or maybe that people will start to target the Chinese."Liu said his store had seen a fivefold increase in sales over the past two weeks. He's sold out of Glock handguns, and some customers have requested to buy his entire inventory of ammunition branded for home defense. "They think it's Costco," he said. Coronavirus Is Scary Enough for Some People to Risk DeportationAccording to Liu, the surge customers are overwhelmingly of Chinese descent. They worry, he explained, that in the event of mass panic, they might face violence because of their ethnicity, and be easy victims because of their historically low rates of gun ownership. Surveys of gun ownership don't usually track Asian Americans separately, but instead include them in an "other" category that is typically very small. As The Los Angeles Times has reported, since the first novel coronavirus outbreaks in the United States, Asian Americans have experienced intensifying venom, including bullying, racist comments, and harassment. On February 24, a man of East Asian descent was assaulted in central London. One of the assailants reportedly said, "I don't want your coronavirus in my country.""The main thing I'm hearing is that they don't wanna get jumped because of their race," said Cole Gaughran, the internet sales manager at Wade's Eastside Guns in Bellevue, Washington. Gaughran said his store has seen a sixfold increase in sales in the same two weeks. His new customers, most of them first-time gun owners, were almost entirely of Asian descent, he said. Bellevue is just a 15 minute drive from Kirkland, where at least 11 people have died from the virus. There's no way to get an accurate accounting for how many people buy guns on a weekly basis, or in real time. However, in Washington, local police departments do process background checks for most first-time gun buyers. In Bellevue, police say they've registered the spike in demand. Meeghan Black, the police department's public information officer, said that since August of last year, the department has processed a steady average of around 158 checks per month. But in the first four days of March, they handled more than a hundred. "The officer who processes these checks said he's been processing the last ten years, and has never seen anything like this in his life," she added.A stack of firearm transfers slated for processing from this past weekend's sales. Black said the department normally sees about six of these every weekend.In nearby Lynnwood, Washington, the local police department saw no such increase in firearm sales. But at least one local gun shop did. Tiffany Teasdale, the co-owner of Lynnwood Gun & Ammunition, said she, too, has seen a sixfold increase in sales over the past two weeks, predominantly from Chinese-American customers. "We've had a line of customers before opening Thursday through Sunday, and customers in the store until 10 to 15 minutes after closing." she said. "We used to sell from 10 to 15 firearms in a weekend. [We sold] 60 firearms just [last] Saturday."Teasdale said that nearby stores had seen increases as well, and her distributors had run out of 9mm ammunition. "It's been happening for the last four or five days," Teasdale said." A lot of our distributors nationally are saying that all of their warehouses are empty. None of them know why."So far, police departments and civil rights groups in cities experiencing increased gun sales had received no reports of violent attacks against Asians. The Bellevue Police Department said they hadn't received a single complaint since the first U.S. case of coronavirus made headlines.Robin Engle, a spokesperson for OneAmerica — a Seattle-based nonprofit focused on immigrant rights — said that while the organization was aware of people avoiding Asian restaurants, it had not heard about any hate crimes in the Seattle area. When told about the reports from gun-store owners, she said, "It is alarming that people are afraid that that can happen to the point that they're going out and buying guns."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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| Former Fox White House reporter Wendell Goler dies Posted: 05 Mar 2020 10:09 AM PST  Wendell Goler, a longtime White House correspondent for Fox News Channel who reported on government since the presidency of Ronald Reagan, has died at age 70. Goler was a Fox News original, joining the network at its inception in 1996 and working his way up to senior White House foreign affairs correspondent.
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| New Hampshire Coronavirus Patient Breaks Quarantine to Attend Dartmouth Event Posted: 04 Mar 2020 11:02 AM PST  A N.H. hospital employee diagnosed with coronavirus broke quarantine to attend a Dartmouth Business School event on Feb. 28.
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| Biden’s big turnaround upends campaign narrative Posted: 05 Mar 2020 06:20 AM PST |
| A Texas man who filmed himself licking a tub of ice cream in a Walmart then putting it back in the freezer has been jailed for 30 days Posted: 06 Mar 2020 02:42 AM PST  He was also given a $1,000 fine and 100 hours of community service and was ordered to pay $1,565 to the ice-cream company.
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| A senior Chinese official was heckled while visiting Wuhan, showing how much the coronavirus has weakened the Communist Party's grip on power Posted: 06 Mar 2020 03:03 AM PST  Residents under lockdown in Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus, shouted at Sun Chunlan: "Fake, fake, everything is fake."
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| 'Selective outrage': Republican leader accuses Schumer of 'inciting violence' over abortion speech despite Trump's Supreme Court attacks Posted: 05 Mar 2020 08:59 AM PST  Mitch McConnell has condemned Democratic rival Chuck Schumer, who said Republicans and Supreme Court justices who support overturning landmark abortion rights would "pay the price".Speaking on the Senate floor on Thursday, the Senate Majority Leader said "there is nothing to call this except a threat, and there's absolutely no question to whom it is directed", suggesting that if Senator Schumer had shouted his remarks to another American outside their workplace, "they would hear them as threatening or inciting violence."
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| Sen. Ted Cruz Hatches Plan to Curtail the International Criminal Court’s Power Posted: 05 Mar 2020 01:24 PM PST  Sen. Ted Cruz is aiming to dramatically curtail the power of the International Criminal Court, The Daily Beast has learned. The Texas Republican is working to garner support for a resolution that would call on the UN Security Council to bar the ICC from bringing charges against people from states who aren't parties to the treaty that governs it—which would include Russia, China, the U.S., and Israel.The resolution would also condemn the court for investigating American soldiers and Israeli officials, per a Republican aide familiar with Cruz's outreach. Cruz has indicated that he expects bipartisan support for the effort, the aide said. One human rights expert said Moscow and Beijing would also likely welcome the effort. Trump administration officials—notably Secretary of State Mike Pompeo—have also lambasted the court. Cruz laid out his strategy in a closed-door meeting with American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) activists on Capitol Hill earlier this week, the aide said. In the meeting, Cruz said he expected Russia and China to support the proposed UN Security Council resolution because they also worry the court could target their citizens. Cruz also told the group that he expected British and French diplomats to be open to the effort out of concerns about the court's legitimacy. "The United States will not sit idly by while unaccountable political operatives convene kangaroo courts in foreign countries to prosecute and persecute American soldiers and the soldiers of our allies," the senator said in a statement provided to The Daily Beast. "I will work with my colleagues and the Trump administration on measures aimed at countering this decision, including and especially through a United Nations Security Council resolution that would prohibit the ICC from prosecuting the nationals of non-member states."The effort comes after the court greenlit a move by its top prosecutor to investigate war crimes in Afghanistan—including crimes potentially committed by American perpetrators.A treaty called the Rome Statute, agreed to in 1998, established the court to hear cases against people charged with genocide, war crimes, and other crimes against humanity. More than 100 countries are party to the treaty; the U.S., Israel, Russia, and China are not.In December 2019, the court's top prosecutor announced she would investigate potential war crimes committed by Israel in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Cruz pointed to the investigation in remarks at the AIPAC conference in Washington last week, calling the court "one of the most profound threats to Israel." Bolton Threatens International Criminal Court With Sanctions if It Keeps Probing Alleged U.S. War CrimesDaniel Balson, Amnesty International's advocacy director for Europe and Central Asia, told The Daily Beast that authoritarian governments will likely cheer the move. "The hostility to the ICC evinced by the Trump Administration and its allies may be welcomed by governments in Moscow and Beijing but it is a minority view around the world," Balson said. "Most UN member states have taken the considered decision to join the court. In seeking to leverage the UN Security Council against the ICC, Sen. Cruz believes he's asserting American sovereignty. In reality, he's expressing contempt for both international law and the sovereignty of others."And Laurel Miller, Asia Director for the International Crisis Group and formerly the State Department's Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, told The Daily Beast that Cruz's plan sounded infeasible. "That doesn't sound very plausible to me," she said. "If the U.S. could have achieved something like that, it would have done so much sooner.""The U.S. has been opposed to the idea of the ICC being able to assert jurisdiction over Americans for many years, and during the Bush administration there was a big effort spearheaded by John Bolton in the State Department to get countries to promise not to hand over Americans," she added. "If there was some other kind of legal maneuver like this available, I strongly suspect it would have been exploited before now."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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| Woman uses drone to look for son's body in Mexico's killing fields Posted: 05 Mar 2020 01:39 PM PST  Leticia Hidalgo smears her face with sunscreen and walks steadily across the weedy wasteland she has come to know as one of Mexico's killing fields. Mexico has been overwhelmed by an escalation of narco violence that has left more than 60,000 people missing since 2006. Hidalgo's son Roy is one of them, and she believes he could well be here, somewhere beneath the scrubland at her feet, in what she calls a likely "place of extermination."
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| Britain’s Best 100 Buildings of the Past Century Posted: 06 Mar 2020 10:12 AM PST |
| Are more coronavirus travel restrictions coming? Experts say they only delay the inevitable Posted: 06 Mar 2020 09:45 AM PST  Are Americans likely to see domestic travel restricted because of coronavirus? Not likely, medical and emergency planning experts say.
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| Klobuchar calls for independent review of black man's case Posted: 05 Mar 2020 03:04 PM PST  Sen. Amy Klobuchar asked a top Minnesota prosecutor to initiate an independent investigation into the case of Myon Burrell, a black man who as a teenager was sentenced to life in prison after the stray-bullet killing of an 11-year-old black girl. The NAACP and other racial justice groups praised the decision Thursday, saying it was the first step to finding real justice. "As you are aware," Klobuchar wrote to the county attorney, "significant concerns about the evidence and police investigation have been raised by a press investigation, by members of the Hennepin County community, and by Myon's family."
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| The White House says it will fail to meet its goal of providing enough coronavirus test kits for 1 million people by the end of the week Posted: 06 Mar 2020 02:59 AM PST  Vice President Mike Pence moved the self-imposed deadline back one week as officials struggle with the scarcity of testing equipment.
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| Singapore sends Turkish Airlines flight home empty after coronavirus case Posted: 04 Mar 2020 11:17 PM PST  SINGAPORE/ISTANBUL (Reuters) - A Turkish Airlines aircraft was flown back to Istanbul with no passengers on board on Thursday on orders from Singapore authorities after a passenger who had arrived on the same plane on Tuesday tested positive for coronavirus. The infected passenger was a French national traveling from London to Singapore, Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said, and the plane's crew would be held in quarantine for 14 days as a precaution. A Turkish aviation official told Reuters earlier that there were 143 passengers, three pilots and 10 crew members aboard the flight to Singapore.
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| Vatican City, home to Pope Francis, reports first case of coronavirus Posted: 06 Mar 2020 05:00 AM PST  Vatican City, the city state that is home to Pope Francis, on Friday declared its first case of the coronavirus.
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| Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Reveals to Seth Meyers What She’ll Do If Biden Beats Bernie Posted: 05 Mar 2020 10:59 PM PST  When Seth Meyers sat down with Rep. Alexandria-Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) on Thursday night, he expressed the big fear for Democratic voters now that the presidential contest is down to just two candidates. "Everyone's worried if one wins, will the supporters of the other sort of agree to support the Democratic nominee," the Late Night host said. "Is it safe to assume that you will support Joe Biden if he is the nominee?" Ocasio-Cortez, who has been one of Bernie Sanders' most vital surrogates on the campaign trail, did not hedge or hesitate in her answer. "Yeah, you know, I've said throughout this entire process that what is so important is that we ultimately unite behind who that Democratic nominee is," she said. "And I think it's a two-way street. I've been concerned by some folks that say if Bernie's the nominee, they won't support him—and the other way around.""Right now, November, you know, this is more important than all of us," she continued. "And we really need to make sure that we defeat Donald Trump at the polls—assuming, and knowing, how insane it's going to get between now and then." Earlier in the interview, Ocasio-Cortez addressed Sanders' underwhelming performance on Super Tuesday, especially among the type of younger voters that she has helped energize. Hillary Clinton Gets Tipsy and Throws Shade at Bernie and Trump on 'Watch What Happens Live'Trevor Noah Isn't Buying the Biden Surge: 'This Is Not Good'After noting the increase in youth turnout that helped Sanders in states like Iowa and New Hampshire, she acknowledged that they need to do better. "It is going to be now and in November, I believe, turnout of young people that will have a huge determination in our future as a country," she said. "And this is an enormous responsibility. And we've got to really, really turn up or else—you get what you fight for. And you get what you vote for. And I think it's so incredibly important that we fight for a future that will work for us." For more, listen and subscribe to The Last Laugh podcast. 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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| FISA court bars FBI agents involved in surveilling Carter Page Posted: 05 Mar 2020 10:15 AM PST  The chief judge on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has barred Justice Department and FBI officials under review for wiretapping former Trump-campaign adviser Carter Page from appearing before the court.
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| Border Patrol waited to call EMS for U.S. man who later died Posted: 04 Mar 2020 11:13 PM PST  The agency told Congress that agents called an ambulance "immediately," but call logs reviewed by CBS News show a lengthy delay.
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| The U.S. Military Is Dead Wrong: Hypersonic Weapons Can Be Defeated Posted: 06 Mar 2020 02:08 AM PST  Hypersonic weapons steadily are getting better and more numerous and, in the future, could pose a serious threat to U.S. forces. But it's not impossible to defend against them.
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| The Best Mowers for Big Lawns Posted: 05 Mar 2020 10:34 AM PST |
| Nasa executive who is former police officer charged with second-degree murder Posted: 05 Mar 2020 11:14 AM PST  A NASA executive and former police officer has been charged with second-degree murder.Michael Hetle of Springfield, Virginia was arrested at the scene of the shooting of his neighbour Javon Prather after officers were called to the scene at about 4.50pm on Tuesday.
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| China is recording so few new coronavirus infections that South Korea looks like the new center of the epidemic Posted: 05 Mar 2020 01:55 AM PST  The coronavirus is spreading in several new hot-spot countries — notably South Korea and Iran — but slowing considerably in China.
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| 'It has a 9/11-like feel': Southwest CEO says bookings down precipitously from coronavirus concerns Posted: 05 Mar 2020 12:54 PM PST  Southwest says its first quarter revenue will be $200-$300 million lower than expected due to a sharp decline in bookings and cancellations.
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| Iran's Khamenei asks India to stop attacks on Muslims after deadly riots Posted: 05 Mar 2020 06:44 AM PST  Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged India on Thursday to "confront extremist Hindus" and "stop the massacre of Muslims", adding to the international fallout over deadly Hindu-Muslim violence in New Delhi. At least 44 people were killed and hundreds injured in the worst communal riots in the Indian capital in decades, triggered by clashes between supporters of a new citizenship law and those against it. "The hearts of Muslims all over the world are grieving over the massacre of Muslims in India," Khamenei said in a tweet in English, just days after New Delhi rebuked Iran's foreign minister for commenting on the same issue.
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| Judge sharply rebukes Barr's handling of Mueller report Posted: 05 Mar 2020 03:52 PM PST  A federal judge on Thursday sharply rebuked Attorney General William Barr's handling of the special counsel's Russia report, saying Barr had made "misleading public statements" to spin the investigation's findings in favor of President Donald Trump and had shown a "lack of candor." U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton delivered the criticism in a 23-page order in which he directed the Justice Department to provide him with an unredacted version of the report so that he could decide if any additional information from the document could be publicly disclosed. The scolding was unusually blunt, with Walton saying Barr had appeared to make a "calculated attempt" to influence public opinion about the report in ways favorable to Trump.
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| Brian Williams blindly furthers false claim Mike Bloomberg could've given every American $1 million Posted: 06 Mar 2020 08:15 AM PST  Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is rich, but he's not that rich.The false inflation of Bloomberg's wealth started when a journalist incorrectly tweeted that he could've used his $500 million in 2020 ad spending and "given each American $1 million and still have money left over." Then, without anyone breaking out a calculator, the tweet ended up on MSNBC's 11th Hour with Brian Williams, with both the host and The New York Times' Mara Gay going along with it."Somebody tweeted recently ... with the money he spent he could've given every American a million dollars," Gay said of Bloomberg on the show. "When I saw this on social media tonight, it kind of all became clear," Williams said before reading the false tweet out loud. "Don't tell us if you're ahead of us on the math here," Williams continued. Someone should've. "It's true, it's disturbing," Gay continued. It is very much not the former.> "Mike Bloomberg spent enough on his campaign to give every American $1 million." @BWilliams on @11thHour @MSNBC pic.twitter.com/iBsWvqEIHf> > — Bad Econ Takes (@BadEconTakes) March 6, 2020Let's get one thing clear: Bloomberg's spending on his failed presidential run could've been used to give every American about $1.50. He'd have to have $330 trillion to give every American the money that tweet promised. More stories from theweek.com It's 2020 and women are exhausted A case of coronavirus has been confirmed in Vatican City Southwest Airlines CEO warns drop-off in domestic travel over coronavirus has '9/11-like feel'
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| Doomed: The Tragic Tale of How the Navy Lost This One Submarine Forever Posted: 05 Mar 2020 01:00 PM PST  How it things go so wrong?
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| Duterte’s Finance Chief Seeks Tougher Laws on Illicit Cash Posted: 06 Mar 2020 03:24 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- The Philippines must relax one of the world's strictest bank secrecy laws so the government can crack down on suspected cash smuggling being linked to online casinos, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez said.Congress should pass long-standing bills that would lift deposit secrecy in cases of fraud and to expand the powers of the Anti-Money Laundering Council, Dominguez told a press briefing in Manila on Friday. "If people in the legislature want more teeth to look at this, please give us more teeth. You want us to do a job, give us the tools," he said.The Senate has been investigating reports of cash smuggling and money laundering linked to the flourishing online gaming sector that targets gamblers in the mainland and employs hundreds of thousands of Chinese workers.The money-laundering watchdog flagged as "suspicious" about 14 billion pesos ($276 million) worth of transactions involving Philippine offshore gaming operators or POGOs from 2017 to October 2019, Executive Director Mel Georgie Racela said at a Senate hearing on Thursday.Bulk of the transactions involved amounts that far exceeded the business or financial capacity of parties involved, Racela said. Some funds may also be linked to drug trafficking, fraud and e-commerce law violations, he said.This follows a separate incident identified by the Bureau of Customs where two syndicates brought about $368 million into the country last year by couriers traveling two to three times a week and paid between 12,000 pesos and 50,000 pesos per flight. Authorities were unable to trace where the funds went after they were deposited in banks, Dominguez said.Those courier transactions, except about $500,000, were reported in accordance with a law requiring travelers to declare if they are carrying more than $10,000 or its equivalent, Dominguez said. "Those that did not declare, we seized the money," he said.The Finance Department was still conducting its own investigation and didn't want to tip off syndicates, Dominguez said, explaining why it only disclosed the cash smuggling after a senator called for a probe."If this happened and the Bank Secrecy law was lifted, we would have no excuse as to why we didn't know about it," he said. (Recasts and updates with finance secretary's comments)\--With assistance from Andreo Calonzo and Ditas Lopez.To contact the reporters on this story: Claire Jiao in Manila at cjiao5@bloomberg.net;Siegfrid Alegado in Manila at aalegado1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Cecilia Yap at cyap19@bloomberg.net, Clarissa BatinoFor 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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| FBI looking for anyone who saw missing Idaho kids in Yellowstone Posted: 06 Mar 2020 04:42 AM PST  The last known image of 17-year old Tylee Ryan was taken on a family trip to Yellowstone on September 8.
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| Before-and-after satellite images show how the coronavirus has emptied global landmarks, from Mecca's Grand Mosque to Tiananmen Square Posted: 06 Mar 2020 04:42 AM PST  The coronavirus epidemic has prompted many people to avoid busy places and halt their travel plans, especially in places like China, Iran, and Italy.
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